3/30/07

Spent 3 hours each:

•  cleaning cabin gutters + raking cabin area 
•  picking up 3 bags of bottles and 3 bags of garbage from the property all along Liberty Rd.
  

March 25, 2007

This is the first weekend that the lake has been thawed. Up until Weds. or so of this past week the surface was frozen. Temps in the 50s and 60s this first week of spring.

Several ducks have flown in for a landing, seen me, and kept going...

Winter was cold, but the heater was effective. The causeway flooded through in the melting runoff earlier this week. I suppose it will need to be fixed at some point.

Things are still quite brown and muddy. During the main meltoff and when it was particularly ice during the winter, we parked our car in the office park on Liberty.

Canada Geese have been in the area since Feb, and now we have many ducks coming through, mostly mallards. Since this past Thursday night, we've had the pleasure of hearing spring peepers and wood frogs on the wetland. We can even hear it upstairs in the cabin. Dr. K. B. has been out collecting and counting each day since then. He found 200 on Thurs and 1000 yesterday. It's amazing to me that they overwinter, frozen in the top couple inches of the ground. He's been at it here at Saginaw for 25 years, and says that this is the largest that the vernal pond has been since 1992!

Here at the lake's edge this morning, I don't see to much life. There's a tiny waterbug gliding. Small raccoon prints mark the sandy bar at the edge. I do not see any sign of "herps". Apparently Saginaw doesn't have salamanders.

Dr. B. said that usually two wood ducks make a home on the vernal pond, but he hasn't seen them this year. I've only seen mallards. We are puzzled as to why herons and other animals don't pick off the bounty of frogs in the wetland! Th herons come to the lake instead.

2/11/07 - Lake Ice >8"

We just skied 11 laps around the perimeter of Third Sister; we guessed it's about .5 mile per lap. The EEB limnology class came (2/5) out last Monday to take some water samples. At that point, the ice was 6" thick, where the week prior it was 3". So with the temperatures as they have been, highs in the 20s and laws in the single digits and teens, it is quickly thickening.

The cabin stays fairly warm, but certainly we wear sweaters and slippers. We've closed the shutters on the East and west windows, and also the northeast porch window. This seems to help.

We've been keeping one car in the barn; so far it hasn't been a big problem to get up the driveway. But come melt time, it will be a muddy mess, no doubt.

We saw a huge great horned owl the other morning perched in a tree along the driveway.

I also had the lovely experience the other night of awakening to a squirrel pawing at my hair! It was reaching up the edge of the bed and it took me awhile to realize what was going on.

To cold for chainsaw in barn - brought it in cabin so we can start it.

1/27/07

It's been a cold week until yesterday, when it hit 37°. The lake has some open spots on the ice now. Chainsawed large trees on causeway: 1 hr.

GAS DELIVERED: ~JAN 24

1/20/07

Spent 2hrs clearing trails

1/17/07

Saw 2 deer across the "creek" SE of the cabin while running around dusk ~5 pm. Also heard the Great Horned Owl.

1/15/07

Already 2007! Last week H. saw 2 coyotes crossing the road/driveway west of the cabin. It was just about at daybreak, when they are supposed to be active. We also cut up a downed tree over the driveway one morning last week - we had to in order to get out.

This a.m. we awoke to an iced forest - the trees are weighed down and brittle. We spent about ½ hour removing downed branches from the main driveway, but there are many others on side paths that we haven't gotten to yet.

We decided to park a car in the office park overnight in case some trees came down tonight. We also finally put H.'s car in the barn... that should make it easier to get at least 1 car out.

We went for a hike on Saturday in Stinchfield Woods - talk about a huge property! We were lucky enough to see a pileated woodpecker just after we started hiking. We heard his cry first, and kept looking until we spotted the source. We also encountered a man who had set up a tarp, started a fire, and seemed to have moved in on the outskirts of the woods.