9/22/11 ALL RIGHT ON SCHEDULE

BIGLEAF ASTER

MOUNTAIN MAPLE

AMERICAN CHESTNUT

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  48 degrees, wind NE, calm.  The sky is overcast, and it is drizzling lightly but the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies.  We have gotten about a half inch of rain in the last twenty-four hours.
    I spied the first flowering of the bigleaf aster, Aster macrophylla, in the woods on 9th St. this morning.  Soon the woods will be full of the flowers, the large basal leaves covering the forest floor.
    The bright orange leaves of the mountain maple, Acer spicatum, literally glow like a lantern now in the same woods.  This is a native maple shrub or small tree that is interesting in every season, and should be grown and used much more than it is.
    The spiny fruits of the American chestnut, Castanea dentata, on 9th and Mannpenny are growing larger each day, all right on schedule.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

9/21/11 HOW DID WE EVER GET ALONG WITHOUT IT?

BLUE LOBELIA (LOBELIA SIPHYLITICA)

SNEEZEWEED (HELENIUM AUTUMNALE)

Wednesday, 7:30 AM.  51 degrees, wind WSW, calm at ground level but some low clouds scudding along.  The sky is completely overcast and it is raining enough that we got wet on our morning walk and the barometer predicts rain.  It will be a rainy day.
    We came across several interesting prairie plants while goose hunting.  The blue flowered plant is the blue lobelia, Lobelia siphylitica, in the bellflower (Campanulaceae) family. It was growing with Indian grass and big bluestem grass.  The individual flowers are rather small but the flower spike is quite long.  It is a native plant of wet sands and prairies.  Native American medicine used the plant for colds, rheumatism and siphylis.  It has similar uses in homeopathic medicine, and has been known for its medicinal qualities since the early Seventeenth Century in Europe.  It is strongly poisonous in large doses.
    The yellow flower is sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale, in the sunflower (Compositae) family.  It is a very attractive fall flower, native to wet and wet-mesic prairies and meadows throughout much of the US.
    The little Ashipun River where we goose hunted is drying up, as are 240 acres of associated wetland, thanks to the Wisconsin DNR, which refuses to give permission to the townsip to fix the Eighteenth Century millpond dam at the nearby village of Monteray  It appears the bureaucracy does not like dams and millponds, even if they are part of local history, and regardless of the economic and  ecological consequences of removal.  An entire small community has developed around the millpond over a century and a half, and its heritage and current viability  are threatened by removal of the dam as well.
    Farmers cannot so much as level out a depression in a cornfield that collects water in the spring, since that makes it a “wetland,” and yet in this instance a large wetland is being destroyed without much consideration at all. It seems to me the government’s advice on wetlands and rivers and dams is all rather capricious.  How did we ever get along without it?

9/20/11 AN AVIAN TREASURE TROVE

CEDAR WAXWING EATING MOUNTAIN ASH BERRIES

Tuesday, 7:00 AM.  48 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is overcast with high, thin gray clouds.  The barometer predicts rain but the humidity is only 39% so it will be quite a while until it does.
    The mountain ash tree on the south side of the house is so loaded with its clusters of orange-red berries that its branches are in serious danger of breaking.  I am not overly worried however, as the birds are rapidly devouring the rather mealy, soft, bland tasting fruit, and at the present rate the branches will soon be devoid of both birds and berries.
    Robins were the first to discover the avian treasure trove, and now flocks of cedar wax wings and even fall warblers have invaded, so many birds enveloped in the foliage that the whole tree shakes from their fluttering and jumping from branch to branch.
    There are several species of native mountain ash, and the European mountain ash is planted and escaped, so it is sometimes difficult to tell which is which.  For landscaping purposes I try to use the showy mountain ash, Sorbus dedcora, which is native to North America.  It has a sturdier frame and dark red berries and is somewhat more decorative than the others.  Mountain ash (in the apple family) are not true ash trees, which are in the olive family.  Both have pinnate (feather-like) compound leaves, and thus the confusion.

9/19/11 WE SO OFTEN FAIL TO COUNT OUR BLESSINGS

DAWN ON OPENING DAY

TURKEYS EVERYWHERE

DECOYS

BILL AND ZODIAC

ART AND ZODY

Monday, 8:30 AM.  55 degrees, wind SSW, calm.  The sky is cloudless and the humidity 45%. We got almost a half inch of rain while we were gone, and the barometer predicts more; perhaps tonight.  We did not see too many signs of fall color on our trip except for sumac turning, and a few red maples.
    The goose hunting trip was a success on all counts.  Good visit with old friends Bill and Allene and their children and grandchildren, and three successful morning hunts; three geese on opening day and one each of the two following days.  We had a few more opportunities that were missed (Bill seldom does, I often do).  The mornings were cloudy and damp but with little actual rain.  We would have lost two  of the geese as cripples except for Bill’s dog Zodiac, a Chesapeake bitch with a great nose.  The geese we shot were all migratory geese, weighing between 6.5 and 9 pounds.  The local geese, much larger and called “giants,” were evidently not flying.  The migratory geese, not yet educated, decoyed nicely. 
    We saw many flocks of turkeys, particularly on Hwy. 70 between Fifefield and Minocqua, a forty mile stretch where we saw probably a hundred birds picking gravel along the roadside.  We also saw eagles and deer, and there were hundreds of sandhill cranes constantly moving about while we goose hunted. They are protected but still very wary and I couldn’t get a decent photo of them.
    We sometimes forget that our conservation efforts have paid off in many, many major ways over the years and are too quick to be critical of everything.  A half century ago we would have been overjoyed to shoot a couple of geese, and we would never have seen a turkey or a sandhill crane or an eagle, let alone a wolf.  In fifty years turkeys have established nesting populations throughout the state, and bald eagles have become almost common.  Back then geese were the accepted symbols of wildness (remember the old song, “Wild Goose, Brother Goose?).  Now we shoo them from the golf courses with dogs. We so often fail to count our blessings.

9/15/11 WOODSMOKE, GOOSE MUSIC AND OLD FRIENDS

HEADIN' SOUTH

Thursday, 7:00 AM.  37.5 degrees, wind WSW, moderate.  The sky is clear except for a bank of high cumulus clouds in the east.  The barometer is down a bit and the humidity is still low.
    We again received a smattering of raindrops from a threatening sky yesterday around 6:00 PM, but not enough to do any good.  I do hope northern Minnesota got something out of the system to help combat the forest fires, which have been out of control for a month and have burned 60,00 acres. So, that was indeed woodsmoke from the forest fires that I smelled last night!
    There won’t be a blog for a few days as we are heading to Oconomowoc (about seven hours south)  to do some goose hunting at the Peebles farm.  Bill and Alleen are friends of half a century and more, and we look forward to seeing them.  Shooting a few geese is just an excuse to visit…our old friends are far more important to us now than the hunt!  Northern geese have been flying for the past several days, passing overhead in large flocks, heading south, taking advantage of the northerly winds, and now anxious to move to a warmer clime. It is good to hear goose music once again.

9/14/11 A HEAVY KNOCK ON THE DOOR AT 4:00 AM

LEMON TREE, VERY PRETTY

AND, THE LEMON FLOWER IS SWEET

BUT THE FRUIT IS...IMPOSSIBLE TO EAT

Wednesday, 8;00 AM.  46 degrees, wind WSW, light to moderate.  The sky is blue with a few fluffy white clouds scooting along.  The barometer is high and the humidity low.  We had a few drops of rain from a threatening sky yesterday evening, but nothing more.  They are battling some fires in the northern Minnesota forests now, and I smelled a faint odor of wood smoke when I stepped out on the porch for a bit last night, but perhaps in the chill a neighbor had started up a wood stove.
    Have you heard the one about the lemon tree and the Gibson guitar?  I am sorry to say it is not really a joke.  The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel relates the story of a Waukesha, WI, woman who bought a mail order lemon tree three years ago.  Recently she began receiving inquiries from the Dept. of Agriculture as to its disposition, as the mail order nursery had failed to inspect it for diseases.  She thought it rather silly since it is an indoor plant in Wisconsin and there is no citrus industry here.  The feds were relentless, threatening fines and worse if she didn’t bring it to an agency office.  The end game is that a federal agent drove all the way up from Illinois to confiscate the plant, leaving with it in a hazardous waste container bag.  Overkill, perhaps?
    The Gibson Guitar story you have probably heard by now, as it involved heavily armed federal agents descending upon the staid old company and confiscating guitars because they had fret boards made of an Indian wood (not an endangered species) that is supposed to be exported from India only in finished form, according to Indian law.  This action threatens to put forty guitar workers who make the frets out of work.  Worse, if I were the Gibson owner, I would be looking into making my guitars in India, and moving another old American firm off shore because of our obstreperous government. Why was Gibson targeted?  Perhaps because the owner is a Republican contributor? This is not overkill or silliness.  This action by  the government borders on insanity.  Heads must roll on this one.
    Now I have a question: if I were to sing “Lemon tree, very pretty,” on my Gibson guitar to my potted Meyer lemon, would I soon hear a heavy knock on the door at 4:00 AM?

9/13/11 RASPBERRY RIVER BRIDGE ALMOST COMPLETED

A BEAUTIFULLY SOFT, FEMININE  DAWN

CONSTRUCTION ON THE RASPBERRY RIVER

NEW CULVERT GOING IN

ROADBED RAISED, BUT STILL STEEP

WAITING FOR THE GUARDRAILS TO BE INSTALLED

Tuesday, 7:30 AM.  58.5 degrees, wind WSW, light with moderate gusts.  The humidity is only 35% and the barometer is up, so no rain is in my forecast. The dawn was particularly soft and beautiful this morning, very feminine.

    The radio was abuzz with severe thunderstorm warnings yesterday around six PM, but all we got was a large drop or two.  We need rain badly but not in the form of a violent storm.
    I am happy to see that the bridge (actually huge culvert) over the Raspberry River on Old Hwy. K is open after many weeks of reconstruction.  A new culvert was installed and a massive amount of additional fill brought in to make the ravine less deep at that location but the road remains very  steep.  Environmentally, the rock rip rap along the stream bed looks sufficient and the water will pool more above and below the culvert, slowing runoff (this is a large and often rather volatile water shed leading into Lake Superior).  The project is not yet completed although the road is open.  The biggest potential problem I see is that raising the roadbed perhaps thirty feet at the bottom of the ravine creates a deadly drop off, particularly in winter when the road can be treacherous.  A good system of guardrails is in order, and I hope to see them installed soon.  We are avoiding using this stretch of road in the dark until then.
    The bridge is still out on nearby Compton Road, but all the routes secondary to Hwy. 13 west of Red Cliff should be open soon.