Winter Tracks at DP

This week we opened up our trails for skiing. Casey started up the groomer and made some tracks. It was great! Blackduck was the first school to use them. I'll get some pictures of the skiers soon. This week I was just making sure I was doing it right. :)

Today I got myself out there to try a couple different trails. It was fun and I was glad I brought my camera so I could share some animal signs with you. I would have taken pictures of some live animals but I scared them away. I saw 2 deer and 2 grouse! So cool!

Mouse:

Mice leave tacks in two ways. The will leave their foot prints like in this photo. What is distinct is that they have a straight line that goes between the prints which is from their tails. Can you find it? Its the one on the right. Its easier to see closer to see at the top.

Mice will also bury tunnels under the snow like this one. The tunnel sometime caves in but then leave this cool maze like this.

Deer:

I took this one for Dad. You can see fresh rubbing from the deer's antlers at the base of this tree. It's sad that the deer had to use such a young tree. I'm guessing though that it must be from a young deer judging by the size of the tree and how high up the rubbing is.

Snow is just so pretty!

Squirrel:

These are classic squirrel tracks that can be found all over at DP! They are like hand prints. So cute!

Squirrels have also been digging up the stored acorns that they worked so had at in the fall. Squirrels can hide 25 nuts in one half hour and will should be able to come back and find about 80% of them. They are so smart!

More tracks to come as I find them. :) Hope you were able to get out and enjoy the snow today! Miss you all!

Duluth Weekend 11/12-11/13

My friend Caitlin grew up in Duluth and was heading home for her birthday. Kalle and I thought it would be fun to see the city and celebrate with her. It was definitely a fun time had by all!

On the way we saw this eagle perched in a tree. It was amazing so we stopped to take a picture but obviously we scared it away and didn't get the eagle but still got this beautiful view!

First thing we did was grab some dinner at the Northwoods SmokeHaus. It is famous for their smoked salmon and sausage. It was so good we ended up going back two more times that weekend. :)

Then we went to Fitgers to refill our growlers. This is a famous brewery where you can buy beer in gallon glass bottles and get them refilled. It was sweet!
That evening we went to grab a beer and see some Improv. It was pretty good and fun to meet some of Caitlin's friends.

In the morning we hung out at her parents house for breakfast and then went to down town to show Kalle the bridge. It was a little windy. :)
Then we went to Gooseberry Falls for a beautiful hike. It was a little cold and wet but that wasn't going to stop us. No sir! It was actually really nice because we were the only ones there.

This is Caitlin and Kalle posing by the falls and this is just the beginning of a series of many more funny shots of us having a good time on the trails.
Another one...
A senior photo moment.
Kalle listening to the heart of the tree. She's a tree hugger. :)
Here's a nice one of Caitlin and me.
This is us again in front of the falls. Can you see us on the bridge? Look for the red and green coats.
Isn't it pretty?
It was fun to show Kalle how beautiful Minnesota can be in all types of weather. :)
Kalle didn't believe us that Minnesota has beaches like they do in California so we had to show her. Okay they aren't the SAME but you can surf the waves. This is of Park Point of Lake Superior.
It was so funny think back to the last time I saw waves like this. It was last year and I was definitely dressed much differently. :)

It was a fun weekend with the girls and thanks Caitlin for showing us around!

'Tiz the season for blaze!

We are just finishing our first week of blaze. Because hunters are allowed in Deep Portage but not within a certain radius of the building we still take precautions with our classes. We deck them out in blaze orange! :) Enjoy the cute kids!

This is Kalle (can you find her in the blaze hat?) with her field group.

All of the kids wear these blaze "pennies" for every class. They put up with them pretty well, but don't find them fashionable. I just tell them that blaze is the new pink and that it matches their eyes. :)

This is Mason and Kyle from my group. They were here Mon.- Wed. and I miss them already.

This is a group up at the Tower. The blaze just makes them glow don't you think? :)

Here's the view of DP in Nov. Its amazing how much you can see with the leaves gone. I can see lake side homes that I didn't know were there!

We say goodbye to our 4th Chaska group tomorrow. There is 6 total. In Chaska they have 3 middle schools that spread themselves between 3 weeks, each coming up for 3 days. They are a big group with lots of enthusiasm to keep us on our toes and laughing while we work and play in the woods. :) One more week until Thanksgiving break! It's going to be great! Miss you all! Thanks for reading!

Fabianna's Deer

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I should warn you, if you have a weak stomach or just at lunch or are an advocate for PETA you should not look at this posting.

As some of you know, I have been getting educated on hunting while I'm living up here. Last weekend was Rifle Opener. While I didn't go hunting myself (like I would get anything anyways) but my friend Fabianna did and she got a young buck on Sunday. I'm beginning to think that she is the "Woods Whisperer" because she always sees such amazing things when she's out there. Saturday she saw tons of deer, a porcupine, and a male grouse in full mating display for some chicks. Gees!

Fabi is a great hunter. I asked her how many rounds you typically go through when you are out there. She said, "one." You shoot only when you know you have the shot, when you know you are going to hit a vital organ to kill the deer instantly. Fabi teaching fire safety and hunting camps in the summer and definitely practices what she preaches.

These are the two hunters. Fabi is the one in the red hat.

Charlotte and I pulled off the hide just like they showed us in the video. We are going to donate it to Hides for Habitat which sells the pelt for money and the money goes towards conserving and protecting deer habitat.

After we did all of the butchering this is what was left. We pretty much used it all. After this we tossed it in the woods to be food for the smaller animals.
This is the cutting and packaging team. It was great that we all helped with it. I liked learning all the meat parts and now I have a much better appreciation for the butchers that prepare my meat. :)

After all of our work and clean up Fabi made us an excellent venison dinner. We ate the back straps. (see I learned something!) It was so good! Yum! It was also cool that it was meat that had never touched the fridge. :)

Extreme weather, hello Minnesota! 10-26

A couple weeks ago we had some crazy weather here at DP. We went from sunny, to wet, to wind, to snow.... like I said, hello Minnesota! :)

This is DP rainy. The kids were troopers for our classes.

This a day after the day once the kids have come in. Time to dry out. :) I think it looks so cute!

The wind was so severe that we actually take some precautionary measures for our classes. The wind was making the trees sway so much that we wanted to watch were we took the kids in the woods. I wish this could have been a video so you could really see these huge trees swaying.

The very next morning we had snow! It didn't last long but isn't it so pretty? :) It's just a preview of what is too come.

Casey's Birthday 10- 15

For Casey's 30th birthday we pulled out all the stops. We took him fishing on a pontoon we rented. Casey is a pretty modest guy and especially on his birthday he didn't really make a fuse. But you only turn 30 once so we had to celebrate. :)

Here's Dale, the director, driving the pontoon.

Emily and Caitlin were enjoying the ride.

Charlotte and I found something really funny apparently. I can't remember what it was but we had a hey day together laughing at pretty much everything.
The pontoon wouldn't start so we had to call for help. Does this sound familiar family? I felt bad taking a picture of our situation but I just found it so commical because it happens to our family all the time. :) I still love John and Chris (dad's boat and motor).

We had to wait a while and Caitlin had to pee. She was cold and crabby.

I couldn't help taking another picture of her pouty face. :)

We had a great time together in spite of our odds. It was cold, we didn't catch a thing, and th boat broke. Happy Birthday Casey!

Overnight Camping on Little Boy Lake 10/10

I'm now finally getting more resent postings! Yeah! I'm done catching up!

This past weekend a few girls and I went for an overnight camping trip. It was so fun! The weather was just so nice and it was really great to take full advantage of it!
Here's what we did in one sentence. I'll let the pictures tell the rest. :)
We went out of Big Deep Lake, canoed down Little Boy River, fished in Blind Lake, and camped in Little Boy Lake.

I was in a canoe with Kalle. We had to go over 4 beaver dams through out the river. It was was quite the comedic show. :) Kalle got a good taste of Minnesota canoeing. She was a great sport!
This is the other canoe team, Emily and Caitlin. They did great too but I think they stole pointers from us. :) hehe You can see two of the beaver dams in this picture. Those beavers are quite the builders!
This was our first fish and practically first cast in Blind lake! It was a great fishing day!
Emily caught probably the biggest fish I've ever sign caught. It was huge!
Emily was quite proud of her large mouth bass! :)
Here's another Emily catch!
This picture is great! Emily and Caitlin caught one at the same time but you can tell who's was bigger. :) Emily's such a fisherwoman!
Finally Caitlin redeemed herself. :) Good job!
Here's my fish! This was my first caught with my new lure from Kathy and Daryl. Thanks guys! It worked great! I caught to 2 keepers and 2 to throw back. It was so fun!

Here's our set up. It was great! It's a small DP site.
Here is our dinner, the keepers. Even though the bass was huge, when they get to a certain size they just aren't good to eat. We filleted them and fried them. They were tasty, but note to self for next time, bring an egg. :)

I took this picture to show how close we were to the water. It was sweet! Also we used my tent! Yeah!
Our site was SO pretty! In the middle of the night were heard awesome barred owls calling right outside our tent. They were so loud but is was SO awesome! They sound like "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all?" :)
It was a chilly morning but not as chilly as it should have been for October. The sunrise was beautiful!
This is a great shot of the lake with the mist over the water.
After breakfast we packed up and started heading back. We were one less canoe so I duffed in the middle and took pictures. :) The reflection in the water is so perfect in this one.
Here is our trusty stern Caitlin. Nice job! I think she's saying, "The sun is too bright but I know I should smile."

This is the bow paddler, Emily.
And this is my favorite picture of the weekend! It speaks for itself! I hope everyone is enjoying this weather! We are so lucky! They say that this time last year we had 2 inches of snow!