Gary had been talking for some time about having an outing with me, but he was sick, then had to go to Illinois.Today he felt better, the day was sunny and we were off.
First was a drive to Appleton to do some errands. Most important was a stop at Appleton Camping to get some parts for the camper. Lance, in the parts department, showed Gary a top for the camper's sink. It was slightly damaged so we got it for $2. We almost never use that sink since we camp in the national forests with no water to fill the tank and no dumping station to empty the sewage, so putting this top on it gives us more cupboard space.
We headed north to see what was going on at the Shiocton marsh at Van Patten Road. The marsh is still busy with the traffic of migrating birds. We saw pie billed grebes, American widgeons, Canada geese, ring necked ducks, coots, norther shovelers, greater scaup and mallards. There were dozens of sandhill cranes who don't know that there will soon be a crane hunting season, poor things.
Next we went to the McDonald Road in the Navarino Nature Wildlife Area. There are huge ponds here and we found more geese, mallards, ring necked ducks, grebes and mallards. Anemones were blooming in the woods.
The next stop was the Shawano dam. Up to three days ago, the DNR was pulling sturgeon out of the water to tag them. To their surprise, they hauled out a 240 lb. female who they thought was 125 years old. She would have been even heavier, but she had already laid her eggs, which they estimated would have been about thirty pounds of caviar.
But today, the sturgeon run is over and all volunteers have gone home. Only the red horse suckers were there, still trying to gobble up as many sturgeon eggs as they could find.
We were originally scheduled to guard sturgeon on April 15, two days from now and instead we guarded on March 25. What a strange spring.
As we traveled today, we passed farmhouses with placards that read either "Recall Walker" or "We Stand with Walker". We have always said that the best time to look for a new house is during an election cycle, because you get a pretty good idea what your neighbors would be like. I'm pretty sure a rabid Walker supporter would not welcome me as a neighbor.
*****
Wade Peterson's story,"The Magic Ball" is now at our shared blog, Black Coffee Fiction, http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
First was a drive to Appleton to do some errands. Most important was a stop at Appleton Camping to get some parts for the camper. Lance, in the parts department, showed Gary a top for the camper's sink. It was slightly damaged so we got it for $2. We almost never use that sink since we camp in the national forests with no water to fill the tank and no dumping station to empty the sewage, so putting this top on it gives us more cupboard space.
We headed north to see what was going on at the Shiocton marsh at Van Patten Road. The marsh is still busy with the traffic of migrating birds. We saw pie billed grebes, American widgeons, Canada geese, ring necked ducks, coots, norther shovelers, greater scaup and mallards. There were dozens of sandhill cranes who don't know that there will soon be a crane hunting season, poor things.
Next we went to the McDonald Road in the Navarino Nature Wildlife Area. There are huge ponds here and we found more geese, mallards, ring necked ducks, grebes and mallards. Anemones were blooming in the woods.
The next stop was the Shawano dam. Up to three days ago, the DNR was pulling sturgeon out of the water to tag them. To their surprise, they hauled out a 240 lb. female who they thought was 125 years old. She would have been even heavier, but she had already laid her eggs, which they estimated would have been about thirty pounds of caviar.
But today, the sturgeon run is over and all volunteers have gone home. Only the red horse suckers were there, still trying to gobble up as many sturgeon eggs as they could find.
We were originally scheduled to guard sturgeon on April 15, two days from now and instead we guarded on March 25. What a strange spring.
As we traveled today, we passed farmhouses with placards that read either "Recall Walker" or "We Stand with Walker". We have always said that the best time to look for a new house is during an election cycle, because you get a pretty good idea what your neighbors would be like. I'm pretty sure a rabid Walker supporter would not welcome me as a neighbor.
*****
Wade Peterson's story,"The Magic Ball" is now at our shared blog, Black Coffee Fiction, http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
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