9/30/10 LOTS GOING ON

NICE MORNING
HYDRANGEA 'P.G.'
INKY CAP MUSHROOMS

Thursday, 7:45 AM. 48 degrees, wind W, moderate. The sky is blue, the barometer up. Nice day. Yesterday exemplified the changeability of our weather. A cloudless, red-sky early morning and a falling barometer produced a rain squall by noon, and sunny again by 2:00 PM.
The little forest of inky cap mushrooms is on the lake shore south of Washburn.
The P.G. Hydrangea blooms are beautiful in their fall coloration.
Friends Tom and Barb arrive this evening to spend Applefest with us. Tomorrow the gals will shop, and us guys will spend some time at the shooting range and maybe a little fishing. There is also the Pie Contest at the pavilion, and complementary pie and coffee for us old folks. There's lots going on.

9/29/10 SCARECROWS AND CARNIVAL

BAYFIELD DAWN
CARNIVAL SETTING UP
THE LITTLEST SCARECROWS
TIN MAN IN FOUNTAIN GARDEN PARK
CHAMBER'S VISITOR GREETER
BAYFIELD'S "GREEN QUEEN"

Wednesday, 7:30 AM. 48 degrees, wind SW, light but picking up. The sky is cloudless but the barometer is down and we may have a shower by evening.
Preparations for Applefest are evident everywhere now, “no parking” signs are up along roads and the carnival is setting up across from the Egg Toss. Scarecrows abound and I need to get hay bales for the truck to build the Bayfield in Bloom float for Sunday’s parade.

9/28/10 RIGHT OUT OF A FAIRYTALE

RED OAK TURNING COPPER
WHERE'S MY SHOTGUN?
MOUNTAIN ASH
RED OAK TURNING CERISE
CRABAPPLE
FLY AGARIC MUSHROOM
Tuesday, 7:30 AM. 51 degrees, wind W, light to moderate. The sky is overcast and it has rained a bit. But the barometer is up and predicts partly cloudy weather.
The fall beauty continues to intensify, each species and every individual in the plant world adding its variation to the amazing diversity of nature’s tapestry. This poisonous fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscari), right out of some Grimm’s fairytale, does its part.

9/27/10 FALL COLORS CONTINE TO INTENSIFY

BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE A WORM?
RED MAPLE AND GREEN ASH
SUGAR MAPLE (ACER SACCHARUM)
PAPER BIRCH (BETUAL PAPYRIFERA)
VIRGINIA CREEPER, AKA WOODBINE (PARTHENOCISSUS QUINQUEFOLIA)
WOODS EDGE COLORS

Monday, 8:00 AM. 48 degrees, wind NW, light. The sky is mostly cloudless but the barometer predicts rain. It is a beautiful morning.
Fall colors continue to intensify, and should be at their peak within a week. All the color combinations and permutations are very interesting. There were fishermen at the beach this morning and they were quite excited as they told me about the big one that got away.

9/26/10 TASTES LIKE...BEAR!

FROST ON THE ROOFS THIS MORNING
NORTHERN EDGE RESTAURANT
A TWO-PLATE DINNER
THE CROWD


Sunday, 8:00 AM. 38 degrees, several degrees warmer than earlier. The wind is W, calm. The sky is clear and the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies. The houseplants will have to come in soon. There is frost on roofs and grass.
The bear hunters’ dinner last night at the Northern Edge Restaurant was excellent in every way and free to all, courtesy of the hunters and the restaurant. The bear meat was roasted and served sliced and “au jus,” and was delicious. It doesn’t taste like beef, venison or anything else…it tastes like...bear! The side dishes were too numerous to mention but squash and wild rice were the mainstays, all home made, as were the deserts. The attendees were mainly townies and folks from the Rez, with a few wary tourists thrown into the mix that came to the restaurant for dinner and were invited to the feast.
This is the kind of event that makes small town living fun. Andy and Judy joined us for drinks and food, and our post-dinner condition can best be described as comatose.

9/25/10 DECORATING

THE NOR'EASTER IS OVER
QUAKING ASPEN (POPULUS TREMULOIDES) ARE TURNING
RED MAPLES (ACER RUBRUM) ARE TURNING
WHITE ASH (PURPLE LEAVES) AND GREEN ASH (YELLOW LEAVES)

JACK FROST'S DECORATING CREW (DOES A BEER AWAIT?)

Saturday, 8:00 AM. 44 degrees, wind WNW, light. The sky is mostly overcast and there is .25” of raIn in the gage, but the barometer predicts sunshine. The Nor’easter is over!
The fall cavalcade of color continues in the mild, wet weather. Whole hillsides and valleys are now decorated in fall finery.
Lamp posts have been decorated with corn stalks. Jack frost and his volunteers are all decorating for next week's Applefest.

GREEN ASH (FRAXINUS PENNSYLVANICA)
PAGODA DOGWOOD (CORNUS ALTERNIFOLIA)

MOUNTAIN MAPLE (ACER SPICATUM)
STAGHORN SUMAC (RHUS TYPHINA)
Friday, 8:00 AM. 53 degrees, wind SW, light. The sky is overcast but trying to clear, and there is fog over the channel as the sun tries to peek through. The gage contains 2.5” of rain. The barometer still predicts rain; is this just a lull in a three-day Nor’easter?
Fall color is coming on quickly now. It is brought on mainly by shortening day length, which triggers the growth of an “abscission layer” of corky cells at the base of the leaf petiole. Denied water and nutrients, leaf chlorophyll dies, and other colors become predominant. Weather and other factors also affect the process, so it is never exactly predictable or similar. Each species has its own color palette, so with a little practice trees and other plants can be identified even at a distance by their fall color.
This and following blogs will be devoted more-or-less to fall color as the season progresses.

9/23/10 TURKEYS, BEARS AND TAKING CREDIT

FINNSVILLE, THE BEAR CAMP
PICKUPS, CAMPERS AND DOG KENNELS
MORE OF THE SAME

Thursday, 8:00 AM. Wind NE, with strong gusts. The sky is mostly overcast and the barometer predicts rain. The old-timers say a noreaster will last three days.
Yesterday evening we saw four turkeys on old Hwy K (they flew before I could get the camera up). This means that turkeys have repopulated Wisconsin from the first time I saw them in the wild near Cedarburg forty and more years ago. In the same period of time sandhill cranes have gone from rare to common, wolves from extirpated in Wisconsin to numerous, and the compass plant from rare to common in its prairie habitat. Aldo Leopold would, I think, be pleased and amazed. We don’t give ourselves enough credit for the progress we have made.
We stopped to take these photos of the bear hunters’ camp on Hwy 13 and a young guy with a beer in hand walked over and when Joan told him we were taking pictures for my blog he invited u s in for beer and dinner. We reluctantly refused as our own dinner was n the oven, but he reminded us of the bear hunters’ dinner at the Northern Edge restaurant on Saturday, free and open to the public. We will go, and report on the quality of the cuisine on Sunday.

9/22/10 IT WAS TIME TO GO

A DANGEROUS OLD GIANT
CLIMBING GEAR
TAKING IT DOWN PIECE BY PIECE
FINALLY ONLY THE TRUNK REMAINS
MAKING THE FINAL CUT
IT WAS A WIDOW-MAKER!
ALL THAT'S LEFT IS FIREWOOD

Wednesday, 7:45 AM. 49 degrees, wind WNW, light to moderate with stronger gusts. The sky is clear except for some high, thin white clouds. The barometer predicts fair weather.
Yesterday morning we cut down one of the oldest and largest street trees in Bayfield. The trunk of the old sugar maple was badly split and it had been in decline for years and had finally become a dangerous liability. A number of people watched the process, and most understood its necessity. We now have the opportunity to plant several new and different trees in its place, increasing the diversity and vigor of our urban forest.
Tree climbing is dangerous and very athletic work, and it takes years of schooling and on the job training to become a certified arborist. It is a young man’s game.
Why not use a bucket truck? They are very useful in certain situations but cannot maneuver in tight places, in wooded areas or on uneven ground. It still takes an arborist to make the difficult cuts and negotiate large limbs to the ground, so in many ways climbing is actually the more efficient method. This tree came down safely and completely in about two hours and could hardly have been done more efficiently.
I tried to count the stump’s growth rings to determine the age of the tree but they were so close together and the saw marks so rough that it was impossible.
I would guess it to have been over a century old. But it was time to go.

9/21/10 JINXED?

HAY BALE BLIND
ARTIFICIAL GEESE EATING ARTIFICIAL CORN
BILL NAILS ONE
BILL IN THE MARSH BLIND
TEAL ON THE POND
BILL'S WETLAND

Tuesday, 7:30 AM. 58 degrees, wind SSW, calm but picking up. The sky is overcast, it has been raining lightly but the barometer is up, predicting partly cloudy skies.
The goose hunting trip was very enjoyable, although not very successful. We saw no geese on the way down and few wile hunting, as the migration has evidently not really started. Fall color was just becoming obvious on Friday, but much more evident on Monday. Color was mostly north of Wausau, in the middle of the state, and not much near Lake Superior. Saturday morning we hunted out of Bill’s cornfield hay-bale blind, and he was fortunate to get one bird. Sunday we saw few birds and got no shooting. Monday we went to his marsh, saw a number of far-off birds and each missed one. Bill has a small tracked vehicle called an Argo, and without it we would never have gotten to the blind. As it was, there were spots we stepped that nearly sucked us under. The marsh was alive with teal and other ducks (duck season was not open yet) and sandhill cranes, marsh wrens, hawks, herons and fall warblers. It was truly a joy to be out there.
Bill (and wife Allene) are ardent conservationists, and he has served on numerous state and local boards, taught many classes, and most important of all has created prairies and wetlands on his own properties, at his own expense. Bill has been a lifelong farmer, hunter, conservation minded developer and selfless teacher and mentor. Unfortunately bureaucrats, lawyers and elitist “environmentalists,” often with their own agendas, have made it nearly impossible for the private citizen to do their own good works. Let the farmers farm, the hunters hunt, and citizen conservationists live the good life on their own land!
Well, at least there is plenty of room for a deer in the freezer (did I just jinx myself again?).