Having the sun out and temperatures above 20, it feels like a heat wave even if it is below freezing yet and you feel like kicking up your heels like these goats. They won’t be able to find green grass to chew on this time of year though. And the birdhouse probably is setting empty as the summer residents haven’t returned.
Playful Goats
On the side of the Wisconsin’s Rustic Road #4, there is a cave into the limestone cliff which had been converted into a garage in 1938. Time has deposited soil in front of the opening and the rusty hinge marks are all that is left from the doors, but I imagine it could tell some stories. I wonder if an old Model A was ever parked in it or if a house once stood nearby but maybe it was just one very large root cellar or cheese cooler. In time, the front might be completely covered over but for now maybe a bear takes a nap in the cave.
A Hillside Structure
“Farming wasn’t going too well for three families…we could hold up a mirror and watch ourselves starve to death.” A statement from Florence Hokenson on why her husband and his two brothers started fishing for a living in the late 1920’s when at first the fishing only supplemented their diet but after several unsuccessful years of dairy farming they purchased pond nets and eventually pursued fishing full-time which they did for more than thirty years on Lake Superior.
The Herring Shed was a busy place during herring season where the wives, children, and hired hands awaited the arrival of the Hokenson brothers boat called the Twilite, loaded with fish in gill nets. The fish were untangled from the net, rinsed in the wooden tank, gutted and beheaded, rinsed again in the other tank, drip-dried on the rack, salted, and stacked in a barrel.
The Herring Shed
From the look on this kitten’s face, I don’t think he is overly happy about setting his paws on the cold snow and I hate to tell him that he will have to for a few more months.
Frosty Kitten
In some churches, such as the Anglican, Lutheran and Catholic churches, today is the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. The pictures often show them standing in water during the baptism but it would be an extremely short service and a definitely a chilly one if it occurred in January in Wisconsin. And a baptism by immersion would definitely take your breath away, assuming you find a river with open water.
A Chilly January Stream
It is finally above zero this morning, still not above freezing, but at least the wind isn’t howling causing the extreme wind chills so I imagine there will be people out skiing today. I still rather take a walk in the woods when the trees aren’t bare as they seem so lifeless during the winter dominant phase. Autumn signifies the bare stage of winter is approaching but I love the last hurrah the colored leaves give before making their way to the ground.
A Walk on an Autumn Road
The sun was out today but by the time I finished the chores outside, I had enough of the cold wind chills that a walk through the woods did not appeal to me, especially since there wouldn’t be any wildflowers to stumble upon in the fields or woods. Other than a few stray oak leaves with a slight hint of orange, there is not a lot of color in the snowy landscape so I just have to count down the days until the first spring wildflower appears but I will have a longer wait before the late summer flowers, like the wild bergamot to brighten the road ditches.
Purple Color in the Road Ditches
It seems like when the temperature finally gets above zero, then it snows like this morning. And the wind is blowing the snow sideways as well as making it hard for the birds to land on the feeders except for the feeder which the gray squirrel as commandeered (who is now a white squirrel with all the snow gathering on his back since he has been squatting for a while as I gave up chasing him off after the fourteen time).
But since it still below freezing, the bears should at least be hibernating yet so maybe the birds will be able to use this feeder since the squirrel hasn’t climbed the pole yet. This feeder disappeared last spring when the bear broke the pole and ran off with the feeder. It took a while before I found it behind a brush pile in the woods and the bear must have eaten a lot of seeds that day since he left some big brown piles on my lawn!
Snowy Bird Cafe
Now that the Twelve Days of Christmas is over, I am ready for spring! The moon was out bright last night and would have been a perfect night to go walking except for one tiny fact that the wind chill was in the warning range and frost bite could occur in less than ten minutes. And I figured with my luck, I would trip on a limb under the snow and would freeze to death taking a walk through the woods. But then it isn’t much better walking in the cold sunshine as the temperatures haven’t improved much. There are some critters tracks in the snow but I won’t be adding my tracks today through the woods.
Update : Just after the sun set this evening, three deer came walking up through the trees in this area. They were bouncing and running around so I they don’t mind the cold as much as I do.
Cold Sunshine Walk
“On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Twelve Drummers Drumming.” Twelve drummers banging on drums inside my house would be too much of a racket, as even one would be too noisy. It wouldn’t be a sound which would attract me to my true love, even though a tom turkey will drum in the spring to attract hens. He will drum a two note “pffffft, duuuuuuuummmmmm” forced deep from his chest either softly or loudly depending on the location of the hens. On another very chilly morning, the gobbler won’t be drumming for girls for springtime romance but could be calling the hens to see if they knitted a sweater for him. A present of twelve turkey drummers does have an advantage over a gift of twelve musicians since you could shoot the turkey and have a drumstick!
Twelve Turkeys Drumming
