Here I Am

Good morning!  Looks like it's gonna be a beautiful day in northeastern Minnesota, and we NEED it!  Yesterday was the first sunny day following last week's 8-10" and the temps had stayed cool, so I haven't lost much of the snow yet.  Ugh.  I'm anxious to take the plow off the truck 'cause I have lots of springtime jobs slated for the pickup, but I don't want to take the plow off 'til I can get up the trapper cabin road to the plow's summertime storage space (okay, and the dead birch tree I bash when I have troubles getting it on).  Which reminds me:  I need to cut down the bulk of that tree.  Last fall, as I was bashing away at it, I did have some concern that the top half was going to break off and fall on the truck!

Springtime's phenology:  last week brought the first robins and northern flickers, and now they're thick along the winter driveway's ditches.  Yesterday morning I had nuthatches, chickadees, redpolls, blue jays, purple finches, and juncos at the bird feeder . . . and then a CROW!  I've never seen a crow at my bird feeder, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

Then, this morning was the first that I lay in bed and heard the long trill of a springtime songbird.  I LOVE that:  listening to the birds sing on the spring and summertime mornings!

I know I was quiet over "my weekend".  On Monday, My Girl and I had a really lovely but LONG day in the big city of Duluth.  Got lots of To Dos and appointments taken care of.  I picked her up in town at 8:00 (which means I left here at - ugh - 7:00 AM), and we weren't home until between 9:30 and 10:00 PM (to town - still an hour to go for me), if memory serves.  We were go, go, going that whole time aside from a yummy dinner at Olive Garden (I'm a slave for their salad!) with her high school BFF who now attends St. Scholastica.  I felt very . . . maternal . . . looking at the two of them giggle and act like "old times" across the booth from me.  How did it happen that I'm no longer the poor college student being taken out for a meal and, instead, am the "mature" one of the group?  'Course, I WAS the only one who got to down a Cosmopolitan after a hard day, so I guess I shouldn't complain!  ;)


Come Tuesday, I didn't realize that I was uber exhausted (I can usually feel it), although (in preparation for a lie-in) I did tell the 4 inside cats and dogs that anyone who woke me up Tuesday morning was gonna get their head chopped off.  They took my threat seriously, and I woke up at noon!  Get THIS, tho:  I fell back asleep on the couch after dinner at 6:00 PM, woke up at 9:00 to a cafuffle in the chicken yard (nothing more than the geese attacking the rooster, fortunately), went to bed at 10:00 PM . . . and didn't wake up until NOON again on Wednesday!!!  So, I was awake for a total of 7 hours on Tuesday and then slept for 14 hours straight!  Good Golly, Miss Molly!


As I was standing at the kitchen sink on Wednesday, washing dishes, a fat, furry creature suddenly appeared at the base of the sunflower seed can outside.  It's been SO long since I've seen one of these critters that I was a little shocked at first, my heart thumping!

Silly me . . . it was just a woodchuck / whistle pig / groundhog / marmot.

Hmmm, how do I get into this thing?

I like this picture because s/he's about ready to go tumbling off (although you can't really tell)!  See how the left fore-paw is just a blur?  He was scrambling for his nails to catch before he lost his grip (didn't work)!

His/her sniffer must not've been workin' right 'cause I'd just filled up the bird feeder right behind him/her!

Annnnd, then I was spied through the kitchen window and s/he was off.  Looks kinda like a badger from the front, doesn't s/he?

 I've been fortunate enough to see moose almost each trip in and out these past couple of days, too!  I took the new header picture yesterday morning, and then I caught a glimpse of the same (?) moose last night on the way home.  I got a couple of decent pictures yesterday, and I'll post those plus another video the next chance I get.

Happy Earth Day!  Love your mother!