Pawprints in the Dirt

Mr. Johnson and I took a walk over to the pond in the woods this evening in hopes of seeing some deer like the doe and fawn he saw last night (when I wasn't along......he always sees the good stuff when he's by himself). We saw only one small buck--a little forkhorn with antlers still in velvet.

The pond is right next to Neighbor Jack's woods--remember back in May when I did the 2-part post about my morning walk in the woods and Neighbor Jack said to keep an eye open for a wolf? Well, check out these pawprints I found tonight.....

They were so huge and to the best of my knowledge, there's no dog this large roaming loose in our neighborhood. However, after I came home and checked with my "Mammals of Minnesota" field guide, here's what it said about coyotes and wolves: "hind paws fall near or directly onto fore prints when walking, often obliterating the forepaw tracks." So much for exciting evidence of a wild animal in the neighborhood, but it still leaves me wondering where that big dog might have come from.....

Garden Update

The sunny and warm weather we've been having lately has been good for the growing things in my gardens. Although I had been watering them regularly, the inch of rain we've had since Thursday will certainly enable me to roll the hose back up again for a few days. That's the main disadvantage with a raised bed garden--things seem to dry out much quicker than if this was a garden I had actually tilled and planted right in the ground.

Here's a look at the newest garden. Things are growing, but not as quickly and they certainly don't look as hardy as the tomatoes, peppers and squash in my neighbor's garden across the street. Once I've harvested from this garden in the fall, I'm going to have to do a soil test and plan on adding some amendments to make this soil more "veggie friendly" for next summer's growing seaon.
There are 2 squash plants to the left, a couple of zucchini plants right down in front and the others are tomatoes (in the cages). The pepper plants are still only about 6" tall and I don't think there will be any usable broccoli from those plants this year. (BTW, it was bunnies that was eating those broccoli leaves--Mr. Johnson spotted a half-grown bunny in this garden last week--those little buggers were pushing their way in at the bottom of the fence!)

Here's a close-up of a couple tomatoes.
My other garden is looking much better -- I even managed to get some weeds pulled before taking this picture.
I've got all the wire trellises up and the peas, beans, and cucumbers are beginning their vertical climbs.
Right now, we're eating lettuce every day and we even had a few fresh peas for supper one night last week.
Here's a look at the garbage can potatoes. They are also doing well, but I haven't grubbed around in the dirt to check and see if any potatoes have begun forming yet.

I'm pretty happy with the progress of my gardens this year. Other than the bunnies eating the broccoli, there don't seem to be any other problems with pests. I see birds (mainly chipping sparrows) in the garden quite often, so I think they're taking care of a lot of the insect pests. The weather has been pretty good and now it looks as though we'll be getting some regular rain showers again, so my main focus will be back to weed removal.

Today I also want to send a special greeting out to one of my faithful blog readers--my mom's friend & neighbor Elaine, who started her radiation treatments for breast cancer last week. I hope all goes well with your treatments Elaine, and I'll keep you in my prayers!

Thursday Thunderstorm

As predicted earlier today, we had a bit of severe weather move into the area this afternoon. As we were leaving work at 2 PM, the tornado sirens had been activated in Rochester--although all of the storms were still north of us (sometimes our local authorities are a bit over-zealous in their use of the sirens!)

By the time we got home, there were some pretty ominous looking clouds beginning to move in,

so I plugged some new batteries into the camera and headed out to the backyard -- hoping to catch some rotation in these clouds.

The wind was starting to pick up and the temperature had gotten a lot cooler.
I used to be a real thunderstorm ninny--down to the basement at the first sign of dark clouds, but as I've gotten older (wiser? or just more careless?) I kind of enjoy watching a good thunderstorm develop. Fortunately, this storm seemed to lose some of its intensity as it moved into southeastern Minnesota.

It got dark enough that my outside lights on the photosensor came on. All of the cars on the highway now had their headlights on also. (Isn't it amazing that all the birds continue to keep on singing? Do they somehow know that this wasn't going to be that bad of a storm?)

Here comes the rain.....

Time to watch the winds and heavy rain from inside the house!

And then the hail came......but fortunately, it was small and only lasted a couple minutes.

(you can hear it "plinking" on the roof of that metal fly-thru feeder on the deck)

By 3:15, the storm had moved on and we saw blue sky to the west.

The temperature had dropped dramatically (it was about 83 when we left work at 2:00).

And we picked up some much needed rain.

So we made it through this storm, but the weatherman is predicting the possibility of more severe weather tomorrow afternoon and evening when the approaching cold front moves in to meet our predicted 90+ degree afternoon temps. Hmmmm, maybe I'll get a chance to see those rotating clouds yet..........

Knitting for a Cause

A couple weeks ago, Martie over at Taos Sunflower (her blog is still MIA in cyberspace) shared this note she had received from Carol Anderson (creator of the Cottage Creations knitting pattern booklets that many of you knitters are familiar with). Carol lives in Iowa, which has been devastated by flooding this spring, and has come up with another way for knitters (and crocheters too) to help our people who have lost just about everything. Please read Carol's note below for more information

Tonight on the news we learned that 69 of Iowa’s 99 counties have been declared “disaster” counties. The tornado that hit Parkersburg (Iowa) is less than 50 miles south of us.

While our county is not one of the devastated ones, we too had problems at our house. Deer Creek flows through our property and six miles downstream it flows into the Cedar River, which of course empties into the Mississippi. On Sunday, June 8th, we woke up to well over a foot of water in our basement, Deer Creek swollen to within 100 yards of our house. All is under control, though today, two weeks later, the creek is still high and our sump pump continues to work. Our basement is just that, a basement and I’m glad we’ve not entertained the idea of finishing it—and of course my yarn is stored upstairs! In the big scheme of things our problems don’t even register.

Eleven years ago, Cottage Creations collected hundreds of items for the Red River flood that inundated Grand Forks, ND. Working with the Salvation Army, Paul and I and our friends, the Morrow’s, delivered hand-knit items there. The event was heart-wrenching—people were so appreciative. I’m sure many recipients were comforted simply by knowing someone else cared. I’d like to repeat the drive, this time distributing hand-knits to communities along the Cedar River (35,000 displaced in Cedar Rapids alone) and nearby tornado-ravaged Parkersburg. I will work though proper channels.

After talking with Red Cross or Salvation Army people I’m sending out a plea to my fellow knitters for the following items: mittens, caps, scarves, afghans, prayer shawls, baby blankets, dishcloths, socks, infants, children’s and adult sweaters. If you’d like to participate—one or two articles is quite sufficient, mail or UPS any items to me before November 1st. I will enlist the help of my local knitters group to sort and re-box items and because my husband and I are Lions members I know that I can enlist the help of that group too. We’ll store and sort in my hubby’s workshop! If you include your e-mail address or phone number I will acknowledge receipt of packages, but I won’t be sending letters again at $.42—I’m sure you understand.

Please attach a card to items with the following information:
1) Name of item
2) Size, if applicable
3) Fiber content (most items should be machine washable and dryable)
4) If desired: your name and address and any word of encouragement.

Send to: Post office address: Cottage Creations, At the Farm on Deer Creek, Carpenter, Iowa 50462

OR

UPS or Fed Ex address: Carol Anderson, 4562 Zinnia Ave., St. Ansgar, IA 50472

Questions? 641.324.1280 or cotcreat at rconnect dot com or address above. Thanks….Carol Anderson


So, knitters and crocheters are you with me? I've got only 1 more hat to knit (for my pledge of 10 hats) for Kristy who's planning to deliver 300 hand-knitted hats to Ukrainian orphanages this fall. I think I can keep on knitting hats, but as Carol says in her note above, there are all sorts of things we could whip up between now and November 1st. And I also think that even though we can't physically go to Iowa and help clean up from this disaster, creating something handmade for people affected by this disaster will still let them know we care enough to help in our own special way.

You Meet the Nicest People on a Motorcycle

Years ago, we used to hear this advertising slogan: "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" but I think that should be revised to say, "You meet the nicest people on a motorcycle" and here's the story......

This morning, while it was still cool outside, we were going to head down to the deer hunting woods again and get a ladder constructed for the tree stand we built a couple weeks ago. Because Mr. Johnson also had to make a stop at the bank, we decided to grab a breakfast sandwich at a nearby convenience store (KwikTrip). When we pulled into the store around 9 AM, there were a bunch of motorcycles refueling.....nice bikes too, big Harley and Honda cruisers and touring bikes, and the people outside refueling were wearing matching black and orange vests and jackets. So I asked one of the guys if they were headed to a rally and he told me that they were just headed from Minneapolis down to Waterloo, Iowa to visit some friends.

I checked on Mapquest and it's about 200 miles from Minneapolis to Waterloo, so Rochester is a good halfway point for a pit stop. And if they got to Rochester by 9, that means they had a really early start from Minneapolis too.

Since I was lucky enough to have my camera along in the car (and to Mr. Johnson's embarassment), I asked if they would mind posing for a photo, and since I was taking their picture, would they mind if I posted it on my blog? Of course not, was the response, but only if I would also e-mail the photo to Hank (that's him, right in the center with the orange t-shirt & black helmet). So we exchanged cards and here are the members of the "Just Us Motorcycle Club."

Ride safe my friends, and have a wonderful weekend!

I googled "Just Us Motorcycle Club" and found only a link to the club in Southern California, but I wonder if the Minneapolis club is one of the affiliates?

Anyway, it was a chance encounter--if we would have been 10 minutes earlier or later--we would have missed meeting this fine group altogether. And I guess to get back to where I originally started with this story, I just want to say again that behind all the black leather, chrome and loud pipes, bikers (at least all of the ones I've met) really are nice people. So don't be afraid to wave to us, talk to us and most importantly, watch out for us.

California Birds

Brother Phil in California recently sent me an e-mail with more bird pictures and I want to share them with you. He had another doctor appointment a couple weeks ago up at Travis AFB and this time he had his new camera along to take more pictures of the clinic's resident burrowing owl--and her BABIES!

He told me that he saw 3 little ones near the nesting hole, but he wasn't happy with how the photos turned out because they weren't very clear. I told him to send them anyway and I would see what I could do with my Photoshop software and here are the results. I put arrows on this photo so you could identify all 3 babies.

I didn't see the third one 'til he called me this afternoon and told me where to look for it (you can just see it's left eye and eyebrows showing above the grass). It's been really hot and dry there and you can see how well these little owls blend in with their habitat.

Here's one more picture from another angle. Aren't they cute?

I hope this owl is still nesting in the same area when I plan to visit Brother Phil and his family in California next year.

Phil also took these photos of a large flock of Whimbrels near Travis AFB.

Notice the haziness in this photo? This place is very close to the wildfires that areas of Northern California are currently trying to control.

We're kind of torn between Whimbrel and Long-Billed Curlew on these birds, but based on the size of the birds compared with the crows in the picture, we've decided Whimbrel is probably what they are. Phil said that looking at these birds, the beak didn't appear long enough to be the curlew and he was sorry the pictures didn't turn out better. I told him thanks anyway for sharing the pictures with me, so I could post them in my blog. It's really fun for me to have siblings who are also interested in birds and will call me up or send me e-mails and pictures with their cool bird sightings and stories.

Sunday Afternoon Walk Around the Backyard

I mowed the lawn Sunday afternoon and that gave me a opportunity to have a good look at some of the things going on in the backyard. While Mr. Johnson was cleaning up the mower, I grabbed my camera so I could show you some of the neat things around the backyard.

In case you didn't already know, my backyard is a little larger than average--5 acres to be exact. It's also a National Wildlife Federation Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat (that's a story for another post--hopefully I can get it organized this summer sometime). Because I am the groundskeeper and in an effort to become more bird and wildlife friendly (and also to cut down on mowing cost and time), last year I decided to stop mowing 1 acre of yard. Since I couldn't afford to put the entire area into wildflowers, I just let it grow with the grass and whatever other plants come up. Here's how it looked yesterday blowing in breeze.I should get one of those big buffalo silhouettes to put out here in the grass--wouldn't that look neat?

This area is on a fairly steep hill and V-shaped, so I only mow 3 paths--2 on each edge and 1 down the middle. Here's the middle path (and you can just see a bit of the outside path at the top right of this picture).

On one side of my yard is the highway right-of-way--which is too steep for the highway department to mow (good stuff growing in the road ditch too and lot of nesting places for birds) and on the other side is my junkyard neighbor who never mows his lawn, so there are actually several acres of habitat here (if we count the neighbor's yard). It took Mr. Johnson a long time to get used to this unmowed area, but I think he likes it a little better this year when he saves on not having to buy so much gas for the lawn mower.

The wild roses are blooming down at the bottom of the hill. I wish you could smell them. I love their beautiful pink color too.

I snuck up on a 13-lined ground squirrel (we call them streaked gophers). We have bunches of these little critters in our yard. Sometimes I'll see them running into their holes with a huge mouthful of dried grass. I wonder if they store it to eat later or use it to line their dens? They like to clean up under the bird feeders too.

One thing I've not seen an abundance of this year while mowing is honeybees. I did spot one on some yellow sweet clover that's blooming out here. My neighbor Scott keeps some beehives and one of these days I'll have to go over and find out if his bees survived the winter.

Look at these cute little flowers on my winterberry holly. By fall all of these flowers will have turned into beautiful, bright red berries.
The mulberry trees are covered with fruit and some of it's starting to ripen. There are quite a few Cedar Waxwings hanging around the yard this year and I often see them perched in a mulberry tree. I hope this abundance of fruit will encourage them to nest somewhere on my property this summer.

Some of the common milkweed is starting to bloom also. I've seen a few monarch butterflies flitting through the yard, so I'll have to start looking under milkweed leaves for monarch eggs and get the monarch ranch started up soon.....over the July 4th holiday weekend might be a good time for that project.

A wren built this nest in one of my bluebird houses. It's wedged in there so tightly I can't even budge it. How long do you suppose it took those wrens to stuff this birdhouse completely full of sticks?

My garden is doing well, but I was surpised to see that one of my broccoli plants has been chomped down to the stalk (good broccoli on the left and broccoli stalk on the right). I'm thinking Mrs. White-Tail Doe is the culprit. The 2-foot high fence is more than adequate for keeping bunnies out, but just the right height for a long-nosed deer to reach her head right down inside the fence and munch all the leaves and broccoli florets off. I've since put some fencing in a dome over these plants and I think I'll also try the "Irish Spring/human hair deterrent" placed in little mesh bags on the fence also. I know one gardener who swears this works wonders to keep deer out of her garden.

Thanks for coming along on my backyard tour. Hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. I had a little video of a disapproving wren that I tried to download with this post, but Blogger wasn't cooperating. I literally left the computer on all night and at 3:15 this morning, it still showed "Processing Video," so I just deleted the video, saved this draft and shut everything down. Has anyone else had problems downloading videos to Blogger lately?

LOL Birdie

Rainy Saturday

It rained for most of today and we picked up just about an inch of much needed moisture. It will be good to roll up the garden hose and put the sprinkler away for a few days. Since my overtime was not approved for the weekend, I got to stay home all by myself while Mr. Johnson enjoyed a fun day at work. I spent most of my day knitting and watching birds (with a few loads of laundry thrown in so Mr. Johnson didn't think I totally wasted my time today).

The rain wasn't continuous, so there was plenty of bird activity all day long. I do have some bad news to report though.....when I went out to check on the baby bluebirds last night the nest box was empty! The nest itself was undisturbed, but there were no babies in it. Raccoon? Snake? I'll never know and this has never happened before in my yard. I'm so sad and I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird are too. The only good thing about this is that Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have stuck around the yard and are looking at another nest box in the front yard. And I'm thrilled that they are hanging around and even coming up to the deck to pick some mealworms out of the feeder I have there.
Did you know that the male bluebird will feed the female? I was happy to be able to capture this image, and even though the male is a little blurry, look how wide that female has her beak open to accept the mealworm from him.
Other birds share mealworms from this feeder, including Baltimore Orioles, Chickadees, and Downy Woodpeckers.
The Bluejays have finally started coming back. They've been gone for several weeks -- busy with nesting and raising a family, I guess. Since they're coming around again, I've started putting some peanuts in the shell back out on the deck. And it's not just the bluejays who are enjoying these peanuts......I have a couple of chipmunks stopping by too.

I know a lot of people hate chipmunks, but I just have so much fun watching them up on the deck and so do Penny and Sophie from behind the patio door.

This little one has lost about half of its tail, so it's easy to distinguish from the other 'munk also coming for peanuts.
For whatever reason, this little 'munk decided to spend some time in the flowerpot with my snapdragons. I've got some compost mixed in with the soil in these pots, so I don't know if he's eating something from the compost or burying a peanut.
Pretty cute, don't you think? (I probably won't think so when I get home from work some day and the snapdragons are all dug out of the pot.....)
I cleaned out and refilled all my hummingbird nectar feeders this afternoon and it didn't take the hummingbirds long to come back for more refreshment. I was surprised to see a second female fly up to this feeder with one female already there feeding.
A few tense moments ensued and I waited for one to chase the other one away.....
.....but amazingly enough, they were both able to sit and eat without fighting.
I hung this feeder under a weather dome, so I think they were both just happy to be able to drink some nectar and stay out of the rain.

More Deer & A Bulldog for Mary

Got some more pictures of a long-nosed doe eating corn in the backyard again early this morning.
Last winter and into the spring we would sometimes see as many as 6 deer near the feeders at night. I suppose some of them are busy with little ones right now, or they have moved on to other habitats, so we only have one for now.

I thought this deer looked an awful lot like pictures of another deer we had gotten a couple years ago. I found the file and compared them for Mr. Johnson, but he told me it probably wasn't the same deer--maybe one of her offspring.

2008

2006

But they sure look alot alike, don't you think??

This was my favorite shot from last night......the last picture right before she left the yard. Obviously there was something over across the road that had gotten all of her attention (those ears don't miss much)!

Do you ever have people say to you, "I thought of you today when I saw ________ (fill in the blank)." Well I thought of Mary (because of her grand-dog) today when I saw this giant bulldog on our way home from work.

Near our house is the Mack truck dealership. They were hosting their annual open house and this gigantic "Mack" bulldog was right out in front by the highway.

Since Mr. Johnson takes his daily walk past here, Sophie and I decided to accompany him for the photo opportunity.

Nice Doggie!!

StealthCam

Mr. Johnson purchased a new "toy" for me last Saturday.

Of course, it's really his toy, but I'm the "geek" who gets to figure out how to use it and make this camera take the right kind of pictures once we put it out in the woods for deer scouting (near the new treestand!)

Once I got the programming figured out, the camera went out on one of our trees in the backyard by the ground feeding tray where we know the deer are nighttime visitors.

Our other trail camera is motion activated, but this camera has a Passive Infrared Detector. That means the camera will take a picture when any large, warm object moves within its range. It didn't take any pictures of the birds that sat at this feeder, but Sophie is a large enough object that the camera took a few pictures of her.

Even though I know bunnies also sit in this tray feeder and eat corn, there were no pictures of bunnies, so they must not be large enough either to trigger the infrared sensor.

I decided to test it myself once it got dark to make sure I had the flash setting correctly programmed. (I got lots of pictures the previous night, but didn't have the flash turned on so couldn't see anything.)

This is why I hate having my picture taken......the body view I see in the mirror is way different from what the camera sees! UGH!! Looks like I've got some work to do!

But finally, here are just some of the pictures we were hoping to see on this camera.

I'm really happy with the pictures this camera takes. They seem much brighter and clearer than our older trail camera (this camera gives you 4 choices on the resolution of your pictures and even has a video feature). It's nice that the time/date stamp shows under the picture and not down in the corner of the photo like our other camera. I'm amazed at the advances in technology of these camera over just a few years. This camera also has the viewing screen built right in (like our digital cameras) so you can instantly see what images you've captured without having to go home and download to the computer. I think this camera is going to work well for us and I'm looking forward to what kind of images of deer and other wild creatures we'll be able see once this camera is out in our deer hunting area.