Tree Stands

We caught sight of a pheasant in the area, but seeing as how it appears to be a loner, we are thinking to wait until we get more nesting in the area. I got it on digital film, but the images are too blurry. We fixed up a couple of the tree stands and did some hunting to no avail. We saw lots of sign of deer and even kicked up a small herd or 3-5 in the woods.

Fall Colors

Fall is one of the most spectacular times up in the Northwoods. The colors are extraordinary and the air has that clean crispness to it that makes you think of warm apple pie, hot cocoa or cider and something roasting on the fire. Mm mm-mm! Dad and I are beginning to get our supplies ready for the fall hunt. We are going deer hunting this year, for perhaps the first time in 30 years! But we are looking forward to it. I bought myself a nice 12-gauge, 5-round pump combo shotgun. It comes with both a slug barrel for large game and a longer bead barrel for birding or other small game. Dad got himself a new 30-30 rifle for hunting deer. He will use his old 16-gauge for small game.

Family Reunion 2007

Well, we did it! We had our first reunion of sorts up at the camp. Mostly it was a way of celebrating birthdays and family and just a darn good reason to get together. Uncle Al, Aunt Ruth and Rosie came out from Pennsylvania and Rob and Vikki came up from Michigan. Tom and Susie and his kids also stopped by and Deb and her kids William(and his girlfriend) and Janelle were there as well. My own kids, Amanda and Josh also made it up along with John a good friend of Josh's. Of course Dad and Ma (it was her 70th birthday, my 47th) were there and Mom brought Sheila up to join us.

On the evening before the big Saturday get-together, Uncle Al, Dad and Rob went up early to get the camp area prepared. Uncle Al and Rob wanted to throw in their own effort to helping with the camp, so due almost solely to their efforts, they virtually doubled the cleared area around the camp. A new picnic are was established. All of the logs were shortened and re-stacked in a neat stack. The grass was all mown and the fire pit relaid so it was more stable. The fire pit area was cleaned up and space for up to 8 cars was made! It was fantastic work and I am very grateful.

The party day itself was a huge success with food and music and stories and conversation all around! And the best part of it all was that no-one got hurt(which is often a common occurrence at family get-togethers)!

Green Green!

Here it is! Another beautiful green, green June day in the North woods. How wonderfully lush it is here. And how peaceful. This really is an idyllic place. We have decided however, to have some of the timber taken off the property as most of the birch is quite mature and we are getting far too many broken trunks. So rather than risk our newly built cabin, before it is even finished, we are going to have the birch and some of the poplar logged off the property. Have no fear, however. Birch grows like weeds out here and the woods will be full again before very long. And we are keeping all of the Pine, Oak, Basswood and much of the Maple. We will also be trying to plant some fruit trees here both for our own uses, and to attract more wildlife.

Loft Ladder

We finally found a good, sturdy loft ladder to put up in the cabin. We chose a loft ladder because it really gave us the best of all worlds. We could tuck it away when not in use to maximize cabin space in the daylight hours and then pull it down for easy access to the loft for the night. And, best of all, it doesn't take up so much room that we can't keep it down overnight.

Ahhh! Spring!

The snow is out and the creek is running! We hiked back to the meadow and found the pond full and running. It's nice to hear the bullfrogs at night again. I took some photos of some of our more prominent pines and we burned up some logs on he fire pit. We also got the loft window in this weekend. This composite shows some of these things and just what it looks like in the dark.

Woody

This weekend was a particularly clear and sunny Late Winter-early Spring weekend and the hairy woodpeckers were playing all over the place. We named this one "Woody", of course.

Three Years

January 5th marked the 3 year anniversary of ownership of Woodpecker Hollow. Unfortunately, I was sick for the third time this year. Twice, bad enough to bring on my Bronchitis. Plus, Dad was still recovering from his Fall and Winter-long illnesses first due to Shingles, then to Anemia brought-on by stress, diet and the medication he was taking for the shingles. Now, here it is February 10th, and finally we are both in decent enough condition to go up and see what we can do at camp.

Mom has moved into her new home in Blaine and has purchased some pre-made shelving kits for her library and craft room. Inside the kits the panels are padded with polystyrene (Styrofoam) blocks and sheets to protect the shelves. I got the idea and called Dad to see if we could use this to block off some of the holes in the cabin, at least until we can afford to get some real insulation. So we headed up north to pack in some Styrofoam and see if we can't get the cabin to heat up a bit.

When we set out, it was -18 degrees. By the time we returned home, it was 10 degrees above making the day swing a full 28 degrees in temperature. We had to buy some more Kerosene for the heater, but we still had troubles getting it started. So, we took it apart to see what was up and found that while it had been setting in the shed last winter, mice had managed to get in and build a nest up under it, hindering airflow and causing the unit to smoke very badly. Once we cleaned it out and put it back together, it worked just fine.

We built a fire out in the pit and did a little rifle shooting at which we both did fairly well. Dad tried the tractor, but it was plainly too cold for it to start. We managed to get the cabin to warm up inside so we decided to call it a day and head back. We found a nice quaint little hamburger shop in downtown Pine City that was fairly reasonably priced. Other than the cold, we had great weather and it was just great to get back out of doors again!