An Uncommon Visitor

Recently my family and I went hiking at a local state park while I was off from work for Christmas. We had heard buzz from a number of bird watcher friends that they had been seeing Saw-whet owls near the bird blind and feeding station. My wife has a special fondness for these tiny owls because she did her ground breaking senior theises on their nest success rates on an aspen plantation in Oregon.

So on a gray, late-December day we bundled up the squeakers (aged 2 years, and 4 years) and made the trek down the road to the state park. We parked the van near the trailhead that leads to the bird blind and made our way as quietly as one can with a 2 and 4 year old along.

We sat for a couple of minutes in the bird blind and enjoyed the sights of the common winter feeder birds, White-breasted nuthatches, Black-capped chikadees, Dark-eyed juncos, Red-bellied woodpeckers, American goldfinches, Downy woodpeckers, Mourning doves, Hairy woodpeckers, and Northern cardinals.

We then began to thread our way through a miriad of trails that criss-cross the flood plain forest that is the state park. We were searching for clumps of Eastern red cedars (Juniperus virginiana) where the Saw-whets like to roost during the day. We had checked all the prime spots closest to the main trail but my wife, ever the birding adventurer, wanted to follow a deer trail deeper into a stand o cedars that we both agreed looked promising.

While she tore off in search of the eluzive owl the girls and I stuck with the main trail and more-or-less walked along and the girls shouted to each other and practiced their Barred owl calls (which need A LOT of work). In spite of the girl's best efforts I did see some game. Namely a very nice looking white-tail buck. We continued on our merry way until I felt my wife would have had ample time to check the cedar grove I tried to talk the girls into heading back. No luck. We had been that way already. Then wanted, neigh NEEDED adventure! So we opted to bushwack it through the timbers and find our way back to mommy and eternal glory! Which we did, and I am very glad. Because if we had not, we never would have stumbled upon our owl.

We made our way into the backside of the cedar stand when I heard my wife give the family "locator whistle" so we veared in the direction of the Bobwhite call and there we found Mommy who stated she had not found an owl. The girls were getting a tad bit cold so we decided to head back to the van, but with heads held high. For even though our goal had been thwarted by the elusive boreal visitor we had spent time in the woods as a family, and there is no loftier goal than that.

The oldest and I took off down a deer trail as Mommy helped the youngest with a mitten emergancy. Just before we were about to emerge from the cedars onto the main trail my oldest stopped randomly (she dominates at doing things randomly, ask anyone that knows her) and started to shake a small tree back and forth vigourously. That was when I caught a flas of yellow out of the corner of my eye. I looked to the yellow flash, and there, 4 feet from me was a very surprised little owl. Had it kept it's eyes closed, we never would have seen it.

I called the oldest back to me and had her sit just off the trail to prevent her from doing anything excessivley random that migh scare off the owl and called my wife up. She was elated, and took the picture you see at the top of the blog from about 6 feet away.

Needless to say we were some happy hikers on the van ride home, and we were all very excited to see what other adventures awaited us during Christmas vacation...

30 Miles There & Back: A Boundary Waters Adventure

A glass-calm bay in the Boundary Waters

We moved away from Ely, MN eight years ago when we transferred to the University of Idaho (U of I) after graduation from Vermilion Community College (VCC)and we had not returned since. But not for a lack of desire.  Finally after all these long years it worked out that I had enough vacation days, money set aside, and children old enough to leave with their grandparents for a week that we were able to return.


So on August 20th, 2011 after I worked my job's booth at an area farmers market I raced off to my parents where my lovely wife (and the best paddling partner I have ever had the pleasure of sharing 16 feet of Royalex with) was dropping off our two lovely daughters.  Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised that my wife had actually come to a complete stop before unloading the kids.  We parted from the children with some sadness and reservations which my wife exhibited in the somewhat strange reaction of doing a combination of cartwheels mixed with wild sprinting and shouts that might otherwise be construed as joy.


And thus began our 8-hour drive from Iowa to Ely, MN.  The drive up foreshadowed much of how the entire trip (and following weeks) would go: almost non-existent arguing, lots of laughing and conversation.  We arrived in Ely a touch later than we hoped and found the Fall Lake Campground to be completely filled up and, as luck would have it, so were ALL the hotels in Ely.  We ended up staying in a little cabin at the Silver Rapids Lodge for the night; the only place available within an hours drive.

Silver Rapids Lodge Cabin

The cabin was nice but the bed was a touch short for my 6'4" frame, but it was nice to have a shower in the morning.  We had time before we had to check out so we ate a breakfast of bacon and eggs on the porch then went down to the lake (Garden Lake) to drink coffee and watch for loons.  Didn't see any.

Vermilion Community College

Once we had finished our coffee we packed the van back up and drove into Ely where we were going to visit old haunts, pick up souveniers, and basically kill time until 1:00 PM when the campsites at Fall Lake would start to open back up again.


It was amazing how many people that we ran into that we knew and remebered us after eight long years.


In the above photo you can see me standing outside of VCC where I obtained my A.S. in Wilderness Management.

View from Fall Lake Campsite

After lunch we drove back out to Fall Lake and found a BEAUTIFUL campsite with good access to the water for forays in the canoe, we also saw and heard our first Common loon of the trip.  No matter how many times I see and hear them it never gets old.


While we camped at the Fall Lake Campground we had several friends that we went to school with at VCC, and later on , the U of I, stop by for a visit.  We cooked up venison steaks on the fire and I made bannock in a reflector oven, but I'll save that for a future blog post.

Paddling across Newton Lake

The following morning we loaded our car camping gear back in our van and our wilderness gear into the canoe and took off paddling on our glorious 4-day trip into the Boundary Waters.


We paddled across Fall Lake to our first portage of 90 rods ( a rod is 16.5', or roughly the length of a canoe) and double portaged our gear into Newton Lake.

Lunch spot below Pipestone Falls, Pipestone Bay, Basswood Lake

After the relatively short paddle down the length of Newton Lake we arrived at the Newton-Pipestone Portage of 80 rods where we double portaged agin then had a nice lunch on the rocks where we could listen to the Pipestone Falls behind us.

Normally the Newton-Pipestone Portage is as busy as an interstate, but this day it was very quiet, which I liked.




Once we had finished our hasty lunch below the falls we started our long paddle up Pipestone Bay of Basswood Lake, then into Jackfish Bay where we turned to the east, passed through the narrows and into Basswood Lake proper.  




Here we debated whether we should continue paddling up the west shore of Basswood nearer to the Basswood River (and busier campsites) or opt to camp at the first nice site we came to.  We opted for the latter.

Campsite #55 Basswood Lake

We chose a campsite that connected what would have been a large island to the mainland except for a narrow stip of land no more than 30 yards wide.  It had two beautiful sandy beach landings on either side of the isthmus and I thought it would have a good breeze to keep the bugs down. Did I ever hit the nail on the head, but more on that will come later.

Campsite #55 Basswood Lake

My lovely wife started water to boil to purify it, and got supper on the fire while I started on the tent.  Once she had everything going she came over to lend me a hand.  As I got things more under control she turned to check on supper when she said in an amazingly calm voice "Oh look honey, there's a Black bear" and she was right.  


The not too terribly large bear (I guessed it to be around 200 lbs) was bee-lining for our food pack so I bee-lined it for the bear.  I ran straight at the bear, my heart pounding in my ears and I was mildly disconcerted that the bear wasn't leaving yet.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I arrived at the food pack and the bear didn't leave but I thought I could take it.  I mean Davy Crockett killed one when he was only three.  How hard can it be really?  But here I jest.  The bear ran like it's ass was on fire once I was in 6' of it an thankfully didn't make off with a morsel of food.


Needless to say I felt like a real badass during supper having defended my wife in the wilderness from a wild animal that eats mostly berries and insect larve(I'm hoping someone over at The Art of Manliness will read this and want an article).

Campsite #55 Basswood Lake

I'd like to say the rest of our stay at Site #55 was uneventful but it wasn't.  Remember how I mentioned I picked the site due to the good breeze it would get to keep the bugs away?  Well it did a bang up job.  Point of fact there were NO bugs our first night, or the entire next day as the breezes picked up to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 60...


Luckily our tent withstood the wind and no trees fell on us or our gear.  Late the second day in camp the winds died to nothing and the following morning we began the next leg of our trip which I am going to save for another post.  Until then here is a route map of the trip we took. Stay tuned...!

Upper Basswood Falls, Basswood River

Deer Camp 2010

THis is a video of the deer I took this year during Iowa's early muzzleloader season in October. The shot was made at about 25 yards with a .50 caliber flintlock Blue Ridge rifle firing a round ball pushed by 90 grains of Fffg black powder. The shot was a complete pass through, from one end of the buck to the other. Until this deer I had only gotten one other buck, and that was 20 years ago. The spot I was standing when I took this buck was less than 20 yards from where I took the first one. This spot is one of the best producing spots on the family farm. So much so that has earned the moniker "The Pooching Rock" because standing here almost makes it too easy.

Iowa 2009 Muzzleloader Hunt

Here is a video the first of my two deer from this years early muzzle loader season. About a 30 yard shot with a .50 caliber flintlock. I shot another doe in the exact same spot a week after this one. More Deer Camp 2009 pictures to come soon...

Deer Camp 2008

Here are a couple of picture from deer camp. The first shows most of this years hunters. My Grandpa is seated in front, he is still hunting at age 97! I hope I can hunt for that long. The other is a pic of one of the deer I got. She was a pretty good sized doe, she had close to three inches of fat on her back!

My Dad is pointing to where I hit her, which was exactly where I aimed. We were pretty impressed because it was a 130 yard shot (he measured it three times!).

I used a .50 caliber flintlock rifle with a patched round ball and 90 of FFFG black powder.

I got another deer (a button buck) a couple of days before at about 35 yards. We processed both of the deer ourselves. I would have to say that my favorite part of deer hunting is the butchering process. There is something exceedingly satisfying about providing food for your family literally from field, to table and doing all yourself (with a little help from your Mom and Dad of course!). Thanks Mom and Dad!

I didn’t use my smoothrifle as much as I would have liked because it was shooting 18” low ad 50 yards after we got it back from the gunsmith. I just didn’t have the time to try to sight it in so I used my old Cabela’s Blue Ridge Rifle.

Besides the great deer hunting with my family (there were four generations at deer camp) I got to do some of the best wildlife watching I’ve done in my life while waiting for the deer to come by. I saw…
1 Woodcock two different times (My Dad saw three)
1 Brown creeper
2 Red fox
2 Coyotes
5 Pileated woodpeckers
15 Gold-crown kinglets
and 1 Sharp shinned hawk that flew within 6” of my right elbow.

Why can’t deer season be 365 days long?

Been a while

I haven't posted in while so I have a backlog of things to talk about.

A few weeks back my family and i spent most of our time hunting morel mushrooms. We found about two pounds worth in ther 2-3 weeks that we went looking. We had our best luck in an are the had been burned off last fall. We at most of the with a shrimp scampi, and pesto pasta.












Besides these tasty fungi we aslo found some great spring prairie wildflowers like:

Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum)

and Prairie Violet (Viola pedatifida)

My daughter and I stumbled upon a good sized Fox snake (Elaphe vulpina) on a ridge near our home. Fox snakes have a nasty habit of vibrating their tails in dry leaves etc. when alarmed. This one did and almost met the wrath of my walking staff. I deal with a snake of the same species a lot in my work and I was able to quickly figure out that it wasn't a rattle snake. (I would never go out of my way to kill a snake, but I thought I was going to step on a rattler while carrying my little girl).







My wife found a Sharp-shinned hawk while of hiking a few days later. It was sitting on a branch near cut-bank that some Northern rough-winged swallows use for nesting.





















A few nights later my wife went into the kitchen and discovered a Little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) flying around the kitchen. It eventually got tired and landed behind our wall clock, so she opened the window and removed the screen and I held the clock outside and off it flew.










This past weekend I taught a mini Bushcraft course at the Loess Hills Praire Seminar. I had a great time, and good attendance. I had a real ego boost when a woman told me I should write a book on the subject, and another asked me if I would come present at a big wetlands festival in north central Iowa.

On Saturday I will be teaching a class on wild edibles for a local community college. I hopefully will remeber my camera and post on the things we find.

Sorry I have been so slow in posting!

Spring Outings

My wife, little girl, and I went for a picnic and walk at a nearby city park on Monday. After a very cool and windy picnic we walked the trails at the north end of the lake and on our way back to the car we spotted a Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) near the waters edge.

While we were out I took a few ‘experimental” pictures using the cameras macro feature, and later using my binoculars as a telephoto lens.

The first photo is of one of our first spring wildflowers called Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). I love the unique shape of these flowers that lend them quite well to their name.

This next photo is of the Gooseberry (Ribes missouriense). Later on in the summer the berries of this plant will form and turn from a “watermelon” green to a deep burgandy to purple. The darker they become the sweeter they are. The best ones appear almost black.

The third plant photo I took is of Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica). The leaves of this plant are edible this time of year, but as the plant matures they develop tiny hairs that cause a burning sensation when the come in contact with your skin. The nettles grow in a dense stand usually in distubed areas. You can see some of the dried stalks from last years plants. I collected some of these stalks and took them home. Later on I am going to make some cordage out of the thin skin that is found on the dried stalks.

Near where we spotted the Prothonotary Warbler we spotted some Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) sunning them selves on a log. They we about 4o yards away, which is far out of range for our camera’s puny lens. To get this picture I focused on the turtles with my Nikon Monarch 8x42 binoculars then I lined the eyepiece up with the lens of the camera. A poor man’s telephoto lens!

Yesterday while I was leading a hike with some local 1st graders we spotted a Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata) below on the trail near the nature center I work at. Last night when my little girl couldn't sleep my wife and I hiked her up on the ridge to the west of my house. We sat there watching the sun set, the Eastern Towhees (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) forage, and the male Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) display, a Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) swooped just over our heads.

A great couple of days in my opinion.

Backyard Visitor

We have been having a visitor to our discarded table scraps fairly frequently this winter and spring. The Virginia opossum(Didelphis virginiana) is unlike any other North American mammal. For starters it is a marsupial; meaning that the female carries the young in a pouch on her stomach. Other unique features of the opossum are, it has more teeth than any other land mammal in North America, it has a prehensile tail, the females have two vaginas, and the males have a bifurcated penis. Amazing little creatures.

Opossums are typically nocturnal; however we see them around our place during the day fairly regularly. My theory is that with limited diurnal predators (I never see or hear any signs of coyotes here) the Opossums come out during the day to avoid our many nocturnal avian predators. If anyone else has any other theories I would love to hear them.

I would like to thank my wife and daughter for taking the picture. They informed me that she is named Ms. Kinky Tail (she has a kink in her tail).

Wax Stove Field Test

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, time gets away from me sometimes.

It is a BEAUTIFUL spring day here in the Loess Hills. Clear blue skys, and temps in the low 60's. I decided to go out and check the trails for any downed timber today. It was a perfect day for a hike. When I stopped for lunch I boiled up some tea using my DIY wax stove, and it worked really well. I boiled half a quart of water in about 8 minutes. I think if I had a windscreen of some sort that I would have shaved a couple of minutes off the boil time.

While I waiting for my water to boil I called three turkeys in using a stir stick (from a cup of coffee). I also spotted a breeding pair of Coopers hawks making their way north. On my way back to my office I spotted a small flock of Fox sparrows. All in all it was about as close to a perfect day at work as one could hope for.