Glamping

Recently I burned about eight gallons of diesel brushing-out 3.5 miles of trails, a six acre wildlife opening and the ancestral campsite.  Campsite, you ask?  Yup; in the early years it was there we camped.  Eventually we purchased a park model trailer home, The Villa, adjacent to Potawotomi State Park and commuted back and forth from there to here and back.  Yup; we lived in a trailer park too.  And then eventually built a house (second home) and finally moved here permanently.

Over the years the Missus and I have been acquainted (and married) we've done a great deal of camping.  We've camped across the breadth of Canada, south to the Gulf of Mexico, all of the southwestern US, most of Wisconsin and we even took a Jeep trip off-road across the rocky mountains.

With two homes, a tree farm to maintain and the creep of maturity and eventually retirement the camping itch doesn't need much of a scratch.  Nevertheless, from time to time and on special occasions  we'll still pitch a tent, and cook over a fire or a camp stove.  We've saved all the camping gear and have our own private campsite down by Silver Creek.

I can bake a campfire dutch oven pizza, the best pudgie pie on the planet and have special kind of s'mores recipe in case you're interested. 

Anyway, the ancestral campsite has been cleaned-up.  A rough-cut with the Rhino bush hog...

Followed by a trim with a weed whacker...   

The original picnic table from more than three decades ago has been returned to its proper place.  I even added a Leopold bench for good measure.

We don't have electrical or water hook-ups.  But we have clear dark skies at night, no bothersome  drunken neighbors keeping you up until 2 AM and all the free firewood you need to roast a wienie and keep your tootsies toasty.  We even have a shitter.  You have to bring your own roll; butt the view is spectacular.  Pun intended.

Think of it as the first iteration of glamping.

Raising a toast to fun times out-of-doors and around the campfire.

Blooms Butterflies and Bees

Meet Vernonia noveboracensis - commonly known as Ironweed.  It caught my eye while out bushwhacking trails and wildlife openings the other day.  It seemed a bit too early for New England Asters so I thought I better check it out.  

It is indeed a striking purple color and hard to miss.  It is a perennial native east of the Mississippi ranging from Massachusetts to Florida.  It belongs to the Asteraceae (sunflower) family and this specimen was north of four feet tall.  We didn't plant it but we're tickled to welcome it as butterflies and bees love it. 

The butterfly in your image is a 

Great Spangled Fritillary - Speyeria cybele.  It is a large, orange-brown butterflies with distinctive black markings on their upper wings. The undersides of their hind wings feature numerous large, silvery-white spots, giving them their "spangled" name.

They're commonly found in open woodlands, meadows, fields, and along roadsides across much of North America, including Wisconsin.  Adults feed primarily on nectar from various wildflowers, including milkweeds, thistles, and ironweed.  Their caterpillars feed on violet leaves - commonly found growing throughout the farm but primarily in the floodplain of Silver Creek.

Messenger Of The Gods

Iris is the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow – who also happens to be the messenger of the gods. This name can also be given in reference to the word (which derives from the same Greek/modern Latin source) for the colored part of the eye and the flower.

The wild-growing iris - like those found in the low areas and on the banks of Silver Creek - should begin their seasonal blooms later this month and into the next.  More on that to follow.

For now there are Jill's domestic cultivars that are adding some spectacular color around the house and serving the pollinators. Pictures are from this morning.

 

 

Jill's father raised iris and at least one of these goes back many, many years to one of his.

Others are from friends.

These iris are doing pretty well; actually thriving at a latitude half-way between the equator and the north pole.

 

Tough plant the iris is.....

Water Bug

Cannot keep our Golden Retriever out of the water....

 

Fetch

Who needs expensive toys from the store when the natural world is full of sticks.

Can't keep her out of the water...

 

Acquatics Center

From one of our daily walks on this trip the dog took a dip in all three major water bodies located on the front forty.

The rain garden pond out back adjacent to the patio and forno.  The big pond now full to the brim and home to our resident cranes and various migratory ducks.

And Silver Creek - which is flowing full bore, is deep enough for a swim and presents a challenging current.

Can't keep her out of the water.....

Spring Tease

45F on our walk today.

In just two weeks we've gone from snow to taking a dip in the creek.

False spring?

The Big Pecker

For a awhile there has been a persistent hammering coming from the treeline along Silver Creek.  Mind you there is an abundance of dead and dying ash along the creek banks and in the swampy slough to the west. 

I already had a pretty good idea of who might be the maestro of the anvil chorus emanating from the woods - but I hadn't had an opportunity to confirm the identity.

So the dog and I went to investigate on one of our walks.

Check this out.

A big old ash tree with any number of cavities under construction.   

 
At the base of the tree was a sizable trash midden of wood chips.  

And while I didn't catch it on the job; these holes belong to none other than Wisconsin's largest pecker.  The pileated woodpecker.  

 

Female Pileated - Nestwatch Image

The name derives from the the Latin pileatus - "wearing a cap".

This bird is about the size of a crow and announces its territory by drumming on hollow trees, chimneys and utility poles.

It's favorite food is carpenter ants and it will carve oval holes up to several feet long in tree trunks. It feeds it's young regurgitated insects.  Yum!

 

Anyway, since this on one of our regular routes we'll be monitoring progress to determine if these are nesting cavities or if the birds are simply disassembling the trees for purposes of feeding.  

 

One of the consequences of Emerald Ash Borer is an abundance of dead and dying ash on the landscape.  I have never been witness to so many numbers and varieties of woodpeckers in my life.  Lordy.

 

Wild Flower Walk

From our walk the other day there was this.

Meet Anemone Canadensis – the Canada Anemone.  Sometimes called Meadow Anemone or Thimbleweed this is a native perennial found in wet meadows and prairies.  A member of the buttercup family we found a rather large expanse of it blooming along Silver Creek while out for a walk.  Colonies such as this are explained by its propagation by means of underground rhizomes.  It is differentiated from the Wood Anemone by the yellow center of the flower and wedge-shaped lobes of the leaves.   

Native nurseries sell root cuttings of this plant to gardeners looking for a sturdy, perennial groundcover.  Sales include the admonition that under the proper conditions this very adaptable plant can become quite aggressive – crowding-out other species.  What is found here wasn’t purchased or planted – it is naturally occurring.  And it sure is a welcome source of food for the pollinators.

Messenger of the Gods

Meet Iris Versicolor - commonly known as Blue Flag Iris or Northern Iris, Harlequin Blue Flag, Larger Blue Flag, Poison Flag, plus other variations of these names.  Habitats include wet prairies, along rivers, wet woodlands, swamps, edges of ponds and streams and other low-lying areas along rail lines and roadsides.  It likes wet feet - and it grows naturally along the banks of Silver Creek and in low woodland habitat.  A beautiful and delicate wildflower it propagates by means of an underground rhizome.  Native cultures used the root for medicinal purposes.

In Greek mythology Iris is a personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods - thus explaining the wide range of colors of this member of the iris family.

 

Follow the Raindrop

This project is the brainstorm of web developer Sam Lerner.

What Lerner did was a compilation of watershed data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) into mapping software that allows you to trace the travel of a single raindrop anywhere in the US.

Lerner’s tool makes use of animation created with the Mapbox map and 3D elevation data to follow your raindrop navigate a watershed.

Rainfall here finds its way into the Ahnapee watershed by means of Silver Creek and eventually lands in Lake Michigan.

Give it a try yourself. Just click on the River Runner link here.

 

What Makes This Critter Guard His Musk?

If you are a Wizard of Oz fan and recall the soliloquy of the Cowardly Lion you already know the answer to the title of this blog post – Courage!  

On Friday Blonde Dog and I were out for a walk and we figured we’d take advantage of the frozen conditions around the pond to check on one of our resident aquatic residents.  

Meet Ondatra zibethicus – The Muskrat – aptly named as a consequence of its long naked tail and musky odor (quite noticeable in the male during the breeding season).   

The muskrat is ideally-suited to living in a watery environment and sports a waterproof fur coat, webbed feet and a tail that can be used like a rudder.  This chunky rodent can stay submerged for up to fifteen minutes before having to surface for air.  

Since the spring of 2012 muskrats have called our large pond out back between the house and Silver Creek home.  They built and enlarged their original home and constructed a second one several years ago.  By the close of 2020 the second lodge had disappeared into the depths of the pond.  

Not all muskrats build lodges – with some choosing to dig a burrow in a stream bank or lake shore.  Our rats are builders (as near as I can tell) and this is their lodge constructed of mud and cut vegetation.  The outer roof extends more than 30 inches above the surface of the ice.  

Muskrat lodges have one to two underwater entrances and may have a second chamber for different occupants.   They’re fastidious about their den and will not use it as a bathroom.  

The muskrat does not hibernate and is active year-round.  Living up to ten years in age breeding begins in April and ends with the return of fall weather.  Around half a dozen young are born two to three times a year and the little ones can swim at two weeks of age.      

 

Unlike the beaver - who occupies only one lodge per lake or stream - the muskrat may build multiple abodes.  

However, overcrowding will cause the critter to disperse and to find a new home.   

 

Inspection

The main crossing over Silver Creek is supported by a couple of ancient steel culverts that some farmer placed in the present location sometime forever ago.  

Who knows how long ago.  

A couple of decades ago I had a conversation with the Door County Soil and Water guy about what the rules might be if I ever had to replace them.

At the time of this conversation I was presented with a couple of choices - replace the culverts with a single larger culvert designed to handle a 100 year flood event.  Which is a big damn culvert.  Large enough to almost stand upright within.  

Or, replace the culverts with a concrete apron over which the water would flow and a vehicle could cross.  Both would allow for improved hydrology (water flow).  

That said, he observed that the steel culverts are 'grandfathered' and counseled to leave them alone for two reasons.  

1.  Any changes would give someone either upstream or downstream to blame me for a persistently pre-existing wet or dry condition as a consequence of any changes made.  In other words a convenient excuse for a lazy nuisance lawsuit. 

2.  The creek is classified as a navigable stream and any crossing would have to be permitted by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  Which is an exceedingly complicated process.

We took a peek the other today to inspect the culverts for any obstructions.  

The bottoms are corroded and gone yet the remaining hulls appear to be structurally sound with no evidence of imminent collapse.

We're not screwing with them..... 

Earth Moving

By the time you are reading this I fully expect it to be raining.  As a consequence  yesterday was a busy day of deadlines.  Namely, to complete brushing-out 3.5+ miles of trails and pushing the biggest deadfalls and obstacles out of the way.  I can follow-up with a pruner later to remove the smaller hazards to navigation.

With rain in the forecast I wanted to begin some of the trail remediation work before it got too squishy.

That included excavating and installing a water diversion pipe under a section of north-south trail just after the turn.  

Hopefully, no further washouts and rutting.  Time will tell.

I also moved additional fill into a couple of serious low spots approaching Silver Creek.

Between back-filling the pipe install and filling the low spots I must've moved several tons of pit-run. 

Edit to add a trail camera photo

It's a small matter to remove and pitch the larger rocks and the smaller ones will become compressed into the roadbed by driving over it with the tractor and Mule.

More work ahead of me but this is a good start.  I felt like a kid again pushing dirt and rocks around.

On the list is measuring, cutting and installing treated plywood seating and seat backs for three of the metal tripod deer stands. 

 

Mr. Fix It

I seem to be dogged by plow damage.  It doesn't simply extend to my wintertime jousting with the county plow and my mail box but recently it extended to the picnic table.

In 1998 I purchased a tubular-steel-framed picnic table assembly from Menards.  That and five six foot lengths of 2X9 treated lumber.  I pre-assembled the table top at home and shoved it along with the rest of the framing, benches and hardware into the back of my Toyota 4Runnner and Jill and I drove it to the farm.  Upon arrival we assembled it and left it at our ancestral campsite along Silver Creek.

This was home - a stone fire ring and a picnic table.  Add a solar shower, tent, tarp, cooler, camp stove, gas lantern along with an outdoor privy and this was how we lived at the farm for a number of years.  It was certainly rustic but it did the job.

In any event, I never did entertain any expectations that the picnic table would last much longer than a handful of years.  Sure, the treated lumber was durable but the inexpensive Menards frame kit would likely rust away in reasonably short order.  

Not so.  That picnic table is still with us and lives outdoors year-round.  And it gets plenty of use for just about everything imaginable but eating.  It's a handy workspace for out door use.

Nevertheless, a couple of winters ago we mistakenly left it north of the driveway within range of the guy who plows our snow.  And before we could move it to safe harbor the first heavy snow of the season arrived and so did the snow plow guy.  Getting-up a head of steam and about a ton of wet snow he never actually struck the picnic table with his blade  but the mountain of wet snow did and it bent the frame leaving one bench and part of the table top cattywumpus and uneven.

While the table remained serviceable it didn't look good.  It was annoyingly cattywumpus. For awhile I thought about getting a new frame kit from a big box building supply store but never actually acted on the notion.  After a couple of years the appearance got under my skin just enough that I decided to do something about it.

Gathering various odd-sized blocks of wood along with a one-and-a-half-ton bottle jack from the machine shed in the short time of a couple of hot sweaty hours I had everything realigned.  It's not perfect - but a 22 year-old picnic table that lives outdoors is never perfect. 

 
I did notice that the tubular steel frame and brackets are a bit corroded and my forcing everything back into alignment (without disassembly) likely shortened the remaining useful life of the frame.  Nevertheless, the treated wood is solid and if the frame fails I'll fetch another one from Menards and assemble another table using wood salvaged from the old table. 

That aught to get me somewhere close to ninety years of age - and close to fifty years for the table. 
 

Long Legged Fisherman

The monsoons a week and a half ago dumped a ton of rain causing Silver Creek to top its banks and flood what is normally terrestrial. 

 

Trail camera number 2 fortunately was mounted just high enough to not be submerged.

 

Good thing as it captured some nice photos

 

Including these on June 23rd of a Great Blue Heron feeding on bait fish in the shallows of the flood plain.....

 

 

Early Blooming Wildflowers

On our walk yesterday we were lucky to find a newborn fawn.  That is a bonus in our natural world.   

This pretty ground cover also caught my eye - growing all over the place just north of the main crossing of Silver Creek.  It is Canada Anemone - Anemone Canadensis - which also happens to be a member of the buttercup family and colloquially known as the Canada Windflower or Meadow Anemone.       

This wildflower is found throughout the world with more than a couple dozen varieties in North America.  It propagates by means of an underground rhizome and prefers wet meadows and prairies.  

It’s a showy flower.   

And there's a lot of it!

Afternoon Update

The monsoons have finally abated and the sun emerged in all of its spring glory today.  It was terrific to get out after been cooped-up indoors for a couple of days.

Starting in the early hours of Sunday and extending thru most of Monday we received almost  five inches of rain.  The result is that things are soggy around these parts and mud season has returned with a vengeance.

Silver Creek is at flood stage too.....

 

More Signs of Spring

From our walk today we found evidence of this in the understory of the forest...

Pinus Strobus

Picea Glauca

White pine and white spruce.

After planting 40,000+ trees two and a half decades ago - we've noted lots of natural regeneration in the past half-dozen years.

The ash are doomed and spring arrives with more reasons to be hopeful.
 
Incidentally, it happens to be mud season here at The Platz.  The girls got a pre-rinse in the creek on the return leg home. 

 

Ice Out

Ice out on Silver Creek and everything is flooded.

As the winter snow pack melts and the frost begins to let out of the ground the water has to go somewhere.

And the creeks, streams, tributaries, ponds and other water features on the landscape are little-able to process the flush of meltwater.

It appears that there is a second volunteer creek running parallel to the south bank of the 'real' Silver Creek.  

If I could successfully navigate a crossing I'd be willing to bet that there is an additional tributary running parallel to the north bank.

This too will pass and I suppose sometime this year the creek will dry-up for a spell.  Until then the volume of water moving across the landscape is impressive!