This is Why...

..our cats don't go outside to play very often, and never unattended.

For the last month or so, we've been watching a Bunny Rabbit that lives under the deck in the front of the house. Every day, we throw a little corn and bird food out onto the sidewalk. We can sit in the living room and watch as the Squirrels and the Rabbit munch away.

This morning, Nancy threw out some food like any other day. A while later, I looked out and saw a lone Squirrel nibbling on some corn. I also saw something that just didn't look right. A pair of long legs sicking out from behind a hump of snow. Not Squirrel legs... Rabbit legs. I showed it to Nancy and she thought it looked odd too. We put on our boots and went out to take a look. I'll spare you the gory Rabbit pics, but something got it.

We noticed some interesting imprints in the snow.

I laid a 4' ruler next to the clearest set of prints. The bird must have had a 6' wingspan! There's some pretty clear feather markings of the left wing and the inner half of the right one. The Rabbit must have put up a struggle, because there's at least 3 sets of wing and body imprints in the snow. It would have had to have been a huge Owl or a Bald Eagle??

Here's one of the Bald Eagles. It's in a tree less than 1/4 mile from our house. They're a common sight around here. We've heard Owls in the woods at night, but we've never seen one.

Once More into the Cold!

It's currently a very pleasant 7°F (-14°C) outside. The wind is blowing pretty good so I don't feel like going out to blow the few inches of new snow out of the driveway. The TV news is all excited about the returning cold. It's going to get colder tonight and not warm up much for a few days. Monday looks like the cold day, with a high of -10°F(-23C) and a low of -22°F (-30C). As long as the wind is calm it will just be COLD but not unbearable! Here's what the latest from weather.com says...

The Squirrels are busy feeding in the back yard. This poor guy is dusted with the falling snow.

Even the Downy Woodpeckers are busy...

Today, Nancy made some home made potato and cheese soup for lunch. There's enough left over for a couple of lunches...

There's a fire in the fireplace and the living room is toasty. It's going to be a good night to snuggle on the couch under a blanket and watch some TV. We can wait out this round of cold weather...

A Lazy Sunny Day...

Three of our four cats took advantage of the bright sunshine coming through a south facing window and spent the better part of the morning napping...

Screamer with the "dad, you woke us up" look on his face.

We had a light dusting of snow the other day. I wasn't going to shovel or blow the driveway, but the plow went by last night so I took the snow blower out to clean up the end of it. Just as I was finishing up, a large Caterpillar grader with a wing plow came down the road. I backed up and watched as he came closer. He was pushing back the drift that had accumulated on the roadside. I watched as he slowed down and pushed a HUGE pile of snow onto the end of my driveway. All I could do was stand there with a hurt look on my face. He stopped and made hand gestures that I interpreted as "there's another plow coming behind me to clean it up". I gave him the thumbs up and he continued on his way. It wasn't many minutes later that a medium sized rubber tired loader came down the road. It had a large adjustable snow blade on the front. He swung around and pushed the snow several feet off the drive way and up to the tree line. He really cleared up the grader's mess. Thanks Town of Cable road crew!

The long shot up the driveway...

The sun was out in full force today. It didn't do much for the temps, but any bright day is a good day! Maybe Martha will get some of this sunshine soon!

Some Winter Sunshine...

This winter seems to be dragging along pretty slowly but it's really about half way through. It can be very easy to overlook the beauty of snow and only see the bleakness of winter. So, to show that there is some brightness in the winter world of the frozen north, here are a few shots of today's winter sunshine...

I tried to capture the glittery diamond look the most recent snow has...

Some of the sunsets have been pretty phenomenal. I'll try and remember to shoot a few of them too...

Mousy Mousy Mousy...

Is what I say to the cats to wind them up!

I was out in the garage today covering the hole in the side of my truck from last week's accident. It goes into the body shop in two weeks and I want to keep as much salty crap out of the door as possible.

The cats were keeping me company in the garage, but their attention was focused on the wood pile. They never moved and never made a sound... When I was done, I checked out what they were so interested in. I moved a couple of logs and found a mouse nest! I noticed that the mice used what appeared to be cotton for their nest.

Two years ago, I made a bunch of home made **Tick Tubes. They're basically a piece of PVC pipe with a few, dry, Permethrin treated, cotton balls in them. I placed a dozen or so of the home made "tick tubes" around the yard. They're under wood piles, by the rock piles, under the grill, at the edges of the wood line, all over the yard... The theory is, that the mice will scrounge the balls as nesting material. As they come in contact with the treated balls, the Permethrin kills the small ticks that infest the mice. Because the nymphs are killed they won't live and move on to their next host.... deer.

Do the tubes work? Well, in the summer of the first year we were here, I could walk out to the mail box and back, and I'd find a tick on my pants probably 50% of the time. This last year, I never found a tick on me. I'll credit that to a combination of things. The "tick tubes", and having a set of clothes just for yard work. The clothes had been sprayed with Sawyer Premium Insect Repellent (Permethrin) and allowed to dry before wearing. The treatment lasts 6 weeks.

I refill the "tick tubes" a few times a year, and I'm surprised to see how many of them are empty! I have a milk crate in the garage where I keep the extra pieces of PVC pipe and the extra treated cotton balls. Today, I found out that the mesh bag of balls was empty... Some 4 legged creatures raided it!

My extra tubes and what should be a few dozen cotton balls....

The bag of untreated cotton balls... High on a shelf where the mice can't get them, or at least haven't discovered them... yet.

The 2.5% Permethrin for treating the cotton balls, and the 0.5% Permethrin, Sawyer brand spray for clothing and gear.

Because, where there's...

You'll likely find these lovely little guys, deer ticks! Ready to infect people with Lyme Disease...

Not my photo, thanks Google image search.

According to the CDC map, I live in the heart of Lyme Disease country...

** Home made Tick Tubes are easy and cheap to make. A 10' chunk of 1.5" I.D. PVC pipe cut into 6" or 4" pieces with a hack saw makes 20 or 30 tubes. A bag of cotton balls, not polyester, and a small bottle of 2.5% Permethrin. I placed a hand full of balls in a zip top bag and poured in a 50/50 mix of Permethrin and water, squish it around to distribute it and soak all the balls. I put them in a mesh bag and hung them out to dry. Take 4 or 5 or the dried balls place them in the PVC and deploy them around the yard in out of the way places.
This spring, when I refill the tubes, I'm going to tape off one end with some duct tape to help keep the balls in the tubes and protect them from wind and rain. A quick coat of bright paint might make the easier to find later too.

Safety tip: wear nitrile gloves when dealing with the wet items and a mask and gloves when spraying clothing.

Just to Catch Up....

It was a bit chilly in the north woods of Wisconsin this morning... -27.5F (-33C) Air temp, not factoring in wind chill...

On Saturday, while on our way to the dump, we got to meet one of our neighbors. It was an accidental meeting...

He was backing out of his driveway as we were passing by. Everyone is OK, and the insurance companies have been notified. The right side doors of my Chevy Silverado are in pretty good shape compared to the back corner of his Chevy HHR!

My riding buddy, John, and his wife, Wendie, have been up in Eagle River, Alaska for the last few months. They're working on settling a family member's estate. They sent us 2 really nice and unexpected Christmas presents. The bald eagle print is quite large and beautifully framed. It looks great in our dining room. Nancy and I will get the bear framed and it will go in our living room. Thanks John and Wendie!

The City of Hayward had it's usual Christmas time light show again this year. The store fronts on Main street were decorated with thousands of LED lights.

Nancy and I continued a holiday time tradition. We took a big bag of cat food, some $$, and some treats over to the Northwoods Humane Society in Hayward. We spent a few hours visiting with the cats and handing out treats. Nancy and I both found special friends. Butters, an older male orange tabby fell in love with Nancy and hugged her neck.

While Midnight, another older male, all black cat, wouldn't leave my lap. I sat down and he circled me a couple of times and climbed on.

We almost came home with two more cats that day. I'm sure we'll be stopping back with treats again soon!

Meanwhile, our yard continues to attract lots of wildlife...

We love winter in the northwoods...