8/27/06

Recent work:

• 8/23/06 - Mowed lawn
• 8/25/06 - Put up 4 additional signs (at causeway, at junction, across lake)
• 8/26/06 - Cut up 3 downed trees + removed from trail

Yesterday we found an excellent polypore edible mushroom, "chicken of the woods" Lactiporus sulphureus. It was growing on an old stump (probably conifer) on east side of driveway not far after bent when heading out.

On 8/24/06 at between 9:30 + 10:00 am, I ran into crazy dog walker (see 7/31 entry) while running on the north loop, north side. This time I was prepared with my cell phone in hand. Shockingly, he had his dog on a leash. I said "good morning" as I approached, and just after passing said, "Thanks for having your dog on a leash, we appreciate it."

We'll see if he continues to comply, but this was certainly heartening.

The roadside ditch I dug out is working well with recent rain. However, the upper 1/2 of the driveway has no ditch, and the road continues to wash out.

Gutter was put on back of the cabin around 8/16 or so. It seems to work well, although apparently UM charged SNRE an arm + a leg for it!

Lots of evidence of mice in the house (droppings on counter + top of fridge) - scurrying sounds at night. We have set some traps.

The chimney needs major cleaning!

8/9/06

• CHAINSAW JUST BACK FROM SERVICE & SHARPENING
• it was working fine, but previous caretaker indicated that it was about time.
• BOUGHT GAS FOR MOWER (gas is 3.19/gal at present)

We've been mowing every 2 weeks now instead of every week due to gas prices and desire to pollute less, etc.
Went birding the other morning here w/CM and saw a wide variety of species: kingfisher, northern flicker, hairy woodpecker, possibly grebes, peewees, flocks of redwing blackbirds. Many others that I can't recall. The causeway on the west side of the lake overlooking the neighbor's pond seems to be the best place to bird.

We also listed to tapes and realized that our owl is an Eastern Screech Owl. Quite an eerie sound, human/mammal-like, combined with a horse whinny sound. It usually comes from the trees on the west side of the lawn.

Picked more boletes at the end of last week. We also found a large patch of coral fungus that we haven't identified yet. We found some huge boletes that at first sight appeared to be king boletes. However, close up they were fuzzy and light purple colored, with a rather fishy and putrid smell. Amazing + beautiful nonetheless.

7/31/06 Monday

Tired this morning. It's just before 7 AM, and already I can feel the humid air close in around me. We had quite the storm yesterday afternoon - they even had "severe thunderstorm" warnings in the morning. We should have guessed it given the fact that we'd just finished clearing the downed trees the day prior. No more trees are down on this side of the lake - the other side remains to be seen.

The past several days have been extremely humid and in the '90s. Not sure when relief will be coming.

Found lots of mushrooms in Blocks 3 and 4 yestarday. One kind in particular really liked the oaks.

Also yesterday, I had my first unpleasant encounter with a talk walker. HT + I met this man while we were cutting wood during the first couple weeks. He mentioned then that he didn't like runners. When I ran by the first time I told him that dogs needed to be on a leash. He said his was well behaved, and I nicely explained that they still needed to be on a leash. He said he didn't care if he was breaking a rule. The next time I passed him I apologized and said it was my job. "What's your job?" To enforce the leash law, I told him. He said that my job was to "get out of here" - I don't know if he realized that I was the caretaker, and I should have introduced myself as such. He then said he hated all runners and that included me. I told him that he'd been warned and that the next time I would have to call the UM Police. He then started swearing at me.

He seemed to be on his way out, so I jsut called to report him rather than to have them come out.

The H20 in the lake is the highest we've sen it. The sandbar by the boats is entirely submerged. The "seasonal" creek was running yesterday.

7/30/06

• Spent 1 hour digging out the drainage trench along the road on 7/27.
• Yesterday, HT and I spent 2 hours cutting up and removing downed trees from the yard and the trail.

The standing dead three that was down proved tough to cut - we could see burn marks from the chainsaw on the ends.

The humidity + heat has been incredibly high of late. We're in for a few more days of it at least. HT slept downstairs in the cabin last night. We've continued to keep the dehumidifier on 27-7 and all of the windows shut. This does make a huge difference inside. Our clothes actually dry inside, whereas on the screened porch, they've remained wet. There was a nice breeze yesterday, but none today so far. It could be quite the scorcher.

7/25/06

Well there are three things to report since L.'s update.

1. The ants are back and in full invasion mode. Big black carpenter ants. There seem to be concentrations around the NE and SE corners. We have ant trap/baits in all corners. That had done the trick but they must be wearing off a bit. About 1 in 3 ants is dead so it's not completely worn off. We've been vacuuming them up and using citrus cleaner (L. read online that ants don't like that stuff…) I think we're going to try some drops that we saw @ Downtown Home and Garden. Will get back to you on that.
2. The sink seems to be fixed. We had tried to snake, then plunger, then use a CO2 cartridge (made by CLR) None worked. We then put in some "microbial clog eater" stuff. It seems a little sketchy esp. since it was 3x the cost of drano (we don't want to use that stuff since no one seems to know where the water drains). Anyway we left that and didn't use the sink for 24 hrs. It was still clogged yesterday but then we CO2 cartridged and plugered again and all's cleared up!! Much better now.
   
3. When we pulled in the drive yesterday @ 8PM a top to a huge cherry tree had blown off and was still attached about 40' up. We called emergency U of M services since it was blocking the driveway (no research or emergency access). The # is XXX-XXXX. They seemed a little confused but within an hour there was a crew out which sawed the small stuff then attached the tree top to their truck and drug it down. They chopped up the big pieces and threw them to the side. The whole thing took them 30 minutes, pretty impressive! This morning there was another Grounds crew that let themselves through the gate and shipped up all the small pieces (completely unnecessary given that we're in a forest). Just hope they don't charge SNRE for it.

Anyway, all's well at Saginaw; the fish are jumping, the woodchuck (fatt) is chowing away, the barn's clan, and the boletes are out.

7/24/06

Spent 1/2 hr. clearing trails on Saturday - we still need to chainsaw some trees.

It's again a beautiful clear morning on the lake - mist sweeping over the top, especially at the eastern end of the lake. Two large groups of Canada Geese just flew overhead - one group began well out of formation - I'd never seen anything quite like it before.

There's a woodpecker pounding away overhead - I should have brought my binoculars. A frog beside me is croaking and clicking. Martins are swooping along the lake's surface for breakfast.

I find it strange that we never see deer prints around the lake. Perhaps the lingering scent of dogs keeps them away… although the suburbs that they often frequent are full of dogs.

Four ducks just flew overhead - then crossed the lake 3 times more. Perhaps my presence made landing unsuitable. I would guess they are mallards, but tough to tell with the sun's reflection.

There's a tall white bird at the west end of the lake in the shallows. I only just noticed him now that the sun is upon him - before he appeared as a log in the shadows. Now that I have my binoculars I can see that there are two birds. One seems to be a heron and the other a kingfisher.

We collected a great many mushrooms yesterday! Two types of boletes - red/orangish, and then a couple of gilled mushrooms. One of the boletes stained blue, the other didn't. We found them south of the cabin, off the trail that runs across perpendicular to the road/driveway. Walking west along that trail towards the driveway, they are mostly along the wood margins/woods south of that trail.

Sometimes I wonder if the squirrels throw nuts + pine cones at each other - it certainly sounds like it sometimes!

7/22/06

Someone has spray-painted blue lines, arrows, and numbered circles along the paths at Saginaw. Happened between Thurs. pm + Friday 1 pm. Our gess is that someone is giving instructions for a running trail?