Welcome back! As promised, the Tall Pines Camp blog is officially up and running in May, 2010. Thanks for your patience.
I need to begin with a brief-but-necessary comment. I alluded to a problem with the blog in our fall newsletter. It seems that Big Brother took some of my fun and creatively-licensed blog entries a bit too seriously last year. The blog was used against us to lend support to some other, more serious allegations that are still pending. Suffice it to say that I will have to keep entries a bit more to the point. I still plan to be entertaining…just not as colorful. I will have to be looking over my shoulder at all times.
OK. Now let’s get on with some weather news. We arrived Thurs., 4/22. Temps have been in the low 60’s during the day and conditions have been sunny and beautiful. Ice was out long before our arrival; no snow anywhere. How totally different from last year! The Lake is a bit low–though not as low as in some years past. It rained most of yesterday and promises more this evening through Monday. No worries for our early birds.
Spring cleaning officially began today. The Bear’s Den is the first to get done. Steve has all the docks down to the main station and just needs to separate them and get the smaller set hooked up. He’s begun getting boats cleaned up and in the water.
Unbelievably beautiful conditions compared to last year.
I saw my first pine martin yesterday–right on the steps of our cabin! I’m sure you know who spotted it first…ole’ Eagle Eye herself, Stinky La Rue!
My Girl Shasta--sharp as ever!
Steve was quick to follow her lead, then he pointed it out to me. I’ve never seen one before and had begun to think it was a mythical creature. It left our deck and scampered up a tree. We think it was stealing grackle/starling eggs from our duck house (we have the most confused bunch of birds up here). Steve went out and got a photo:
I’ll never forget one day last season. Bob Hartter, a good friend of the Camp, said he was at his kitchen window and noticed movement. He said he looked into the tree outside their window and a monkey was looking at him! I guessed at the time it was a pine martin but couldn’t be sure as I’d never seen one. Indeed, this thing kind of looks like a monkey. It was smaller than I’d imagined; Stinky could take it I think.
We had a little beaver activity right in front of the house a couple of nights ago. Steve spotted it:
You can really see his tail here.
Back in Iowa we had a cool critter experience right outside our kitchen window in broad daylight:
He was so beautiful...and so close!
I plan to catch you up on some late fall activities…including big eagle action and a visit to moose camp! I also have a few boring photos of how we spent our fall/winter vacation. Look for another entry soon…maybe tomorrow??? Again, welcome back!
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