8/07/08 A LITTLE RAIN, AND LOTS OF PINE CONES

Thursday, 7:30 AM. 58 degrees, wind NW, moderate with heavier gusts. The channel is crawling. The skies are nearly clear, and the barometer predicts mostly sunny skies. A strong high is coming in. We had a quick storm yesterday afternoon that resulted in one-tenth of an inch of rain.
I have seldom seen the white pine, Pinus strobus, bear seed cones so heavily. Both male and female cones occur on the same tree, the former, producing pollen, grow on the lower branches, the female on the upper, where the can most efficiently catch the wind blown pollen. The seed cones take two years to ripen, the cones then opening to disperse the small triangular seeds, which are an important wildlife food (these “pine nuts” are also good people food if anyone has the patience to collect them). The tall, beautiful, long-lived white pine is a major timber species here along the big lake.
In nature, they become dominant after a fire or blow down, and can persist over huge areas for hundreds of years if undisturbed.

8/06/08 WHAT EVERY KID NEEDS: THEIR OWN ZIP LINE

Wednesday, 7:30 AM. 60 degrees, wind NW, light with stronger gusts. The channel is wrinkled, the sky blue and mostly cloudless, but the barometer predicts rain.
I found several raspberry patches, one with some stunted ripe berries, the other with lots of green berries. The bottom line is that our soils are so sandy that we need an inch of rain every week for good wild fruit production. Trees fare O.K.
We stopped at the Larsen’s sugar bush camp to see how Andy and Judy survived a whole lot of company last week. They did well, and their daughter Libby and son-in-law Scott and grandsons Luke (toddler) and Tyler (grown-up ten year old) were still there. Tyler, pictured here, demonstrated his skill on the zip line erected by his grandfather and uncle Eric. It starts out in a tree about 12’ up and goes down a bit of an incline about 100 yards. It looks scary but is a nice ride. Ode grandkids Nickolas and Katy in Denver, you have to check this out on your next visit!
We have been very lazy the last few days and house and yard work are badly backed up!

8/05/08 THE GUILTY AND THE INNOCENT

Tuesday, 7:15 AM. 61 degrees, wind NW, light. The channel is glassy in the lee of the bluffs, and wrinkled further out. The barometer predicts sunny skies which are currently cloudless and blue.
For the past week I have been sneezing and my eyes have been irritated so I knew that ragweed pollen was in the air, as few other things bother me. Ragweed causes more hay fever symptoms than almost any other irritant. The polleng rains are minute and are airborne, the plants are everywhere in disturbed places, and are difficult if not impossible to eradicate.
The species most folks will encounter is Ambrosia artemiisifolia. It is a short plant most often occurring along disturbed roadsides and similar places. It will bloom even when mowed very short. There are other species as well, including the giant ragweed, A. trifida, which can reach 15 or 20 feet in height in farm fields and ditches.(think of the pollen it produces)
The goldenrods are totally innocent plants (Solidago canadensis shown here) often wrongfully blamed for hay fever symptoms. They are insect pollinated and the pollen does not blow about. The species of the genus Solidago are showy native plants, some grown in gardens. The species are difficult to identify and often interbreed, but all are innocuous and definitely not guilty as charged.

8/04/08 DUELING WOODPECKERS, STINKY BEARS

Monday, 8:00 AM. 62 degrees, wind W, calm. The channel is mostly glassy. The barometer predicts clear skies, which are currently partly cloudy, with high, thin dark clouds. It is almost foggy on the east and south horizons. It looks like an unsettled day.
Everyone is picking berries, at the farms, or in their yards. It is a bumper berry year.
Two hairy woodpeckers (couldn’t see them clearly but probably males) were beating their respective tattoos on a metal shield at the top of the wooden light pole on the corner of Tenth and Wilson. I don’t think it was a territorial challenge, it just looked like they were having a friendly jam session, ‘a la the ”dueling banjos” of the movie Deliverance.
Later: Took Lucky and went looking for wild raspberries this afternoon, and am sorry to say the crop doesn't look good. Only saw a few ripe berries and not an awful lot of green ones, and it looks as though it will take some rain and another week or two to have any berries to pick in my usual haunts on and near Echo Valley Road, which is nothing more than a dirt logging road through Bayfield County Forest land. We did come across a young bear, about my size but obviously in much better shape, but it was not a close encounter as we were already back in the truck, and the camera was not within reach. But, fighting our way through the underbrush to reach my secret raspberry patch I do think I actually smelled a bear, an experience which I have not had before. A little stinky, a lot wild, very distinctive and much too close for comfort. Or maybe I just stepped in bear poop. Who knows? Also saw a doe with two pretty spotted fawns.

8/03/08 LORE AND SCIENCE

Sunday, 8:00 AM. 60 degrees, wind ENE, calm. The channel is calm with some ripples. The barometer is down, predicting partly cloudy skies, which they are at present. It is a very quiet morning, even the birds are silent.
Millfoil, also called yarrow, genus Achillea, is an interesting group of plants important to the garden and to herbal medicine. The yellow millfoil pictured here is A. fillipendula, a stalwart garden perennial. A. millifolia is white, or occasionally rosy, and a common roadside weed and native plant throughout the northern hemisphere. The genus is named after the Greek conqueror Achilles, who reputedly used the plant A. millifolia to staunch the bleeding of battle wounds, and military plant and woundwort are Euorpean common names. The leaves of the A. fillipendula have a strong camphor-like odor that is quite unmistakable, and will separate the Achillia from the somewhat look-alike Tanacetum. The species name millefolia refers to the finely divided leaves, and another common name is “million leaves.” I have not, fortunately, had the need to use this herb to stop copius bleeding, but will try it the next time I get a nosebleed or cut myself.
Later: being an honest and hopefully scientific observer of the natural world, I must report that our indicator tree did not predict the rain currently falling, but, to be fair, neither did my barometer. Chalk one up for the weatherman, who predicted showers this afternoon.

8/02/08 BOYZ WILL BE BOYZ

Saturday, 8:00 AM. 57 degrees, wind W, calm. The channel is mostly glassy with a few swaths of breeze-dimpled water. The barometer predicts sunny skies, which are currently blue and cloudless.
This is now the tourist season in Bayfield, dependent upon cool weather here and hot weather elsewhere. Our economy exists basically on 90 days of potential tourism, and we have a good year if we get them and a bad year if we don’t. There are lots of mundane guy things to be done around here…water the garden, take care of the car and truck, try to fix the boat motor, etc.
The humming birds have been very active again and very curious, one just now helicoptering a foot away and looking me right in the eye. They are chasing each other about in mock battles, teenage boys probably, practicing their adult roles of dive-bombing each other off the feeders.
The mourning doves are exhibiting a lot of nesting behavior, chasing each other about, and fluttering in and out of the pine trees with sticks and things. I would think it late in the season to raise another brood, and the first barely out of the nest. Someone should tell the guys they have already done their annual duty for the survival of the species.
If I get a chance I will go raspberry picking in the boonies this afternoon or tomorrow. I will bell the dog, carry a bell myself and a big walking staff and assume any bears will leave ahead of us. It is also time to start thinking about doing a little target practice out on the Town of Russell shooting range, as hunting season will be here before we know it (and its a lot more fun than working).

8/01/08 A WEED IS A WEED IS... NOT A WEED

Friday, 8:00 AM. 61 degrees, wind WNW, light to moderate. The waters of the channel are again prettily patterned with varying degrees of wind and wave action. The sky is blue and mostly cloudless, and that is what the barometer predicts.
Soapwort, or bouncing Bet, Saponaria officinalis, in the Caryophylaceae or pink family, is a common perennial field weed of European origin. It is as pretty as many garden perennials. It may have arrived on our shores mixed with seed grains, or may have been brought by settlers as a useful plant. It exudes a mucilaginous substance which when mixed with water forms a soapy lather, from which it gets its common name, and it was so used by early settlers.
Many, if not most “weeds” are associated with food crops, the one not likely to be available to us without the inconvenience of the other. And, many “weeds” once had their own food, medicinal or other utilitarian uses. So, most of the plants we now call “weeds” were formerly nurtured by us as being useful, and yet we actually blame these “weeds” for our own current ungratefulness or ignorance. Sounds typically human, doesn’t it?