TREE BOARD CHRISTMAS PARTY AND A WOLVERINE SIGHTING

TREE BOARD CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE ODE'S...

WOLVERINE (Google photo)

DITTO

...IT WAS A GOOD TIME!

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  19 degrees F at the ferry dock, 13 on the back porch.  Wind E, mostly moderate with some stronger gusts.  The sky has a low overcast and it has snowed lightly off and on.  The humidity is 74%, the barometer 30.13" of mercury and falling.  It is significantly warmer today than yesterday but will cool down again tomorrow and continue getting colder, with more of the same clouds and snow.  We did see the sun yesterday, which was a very welcome releif from overcast skies.
   We hosted our annual tree board Christmas party yesterday evening and everyone had a very nice time.  Joan worked hard getting food prepared and the house ready; I helped, but the credit is hers.
   The conversation eventually trended to observations of wildlife, what it was in the past and what it is now; the general consensus was that years ago bears and coyotes were seldom seen, and are common now and lots of fun to watch.
  Jim and Sarah, who own a small acreage immediately north of the city limits, are regularly seeing a wolf pack; they seem to stay pretty close to the lake shore but make themselves visible on the edges of the woods and ravines.  Of great interest was their recent  possible sighting of a wolverine in their yard, just outside the back door (behind which they stayed until whatever it was it left).  Wolverines are creatures of the far north and not supposed to be here, but they are sighted by reliable observers from time to time. The Wisconsin DNR reports three possible wolvering sightings in northern Wisconsin in 2014, but considers the species long exptirpated from the state, as does neighboring Michigan.  It is fun to speculate, though.  Now, about Bigfoot...
   I have read that in the old days in the UP of Michigan, which is close by, when a wolverine was sighted the school was closed until it was dispatched.