Another dreary day

The weather is the pits, cool almost cold (the woodstove is on), showers, fog, drizzle, damp,wet,moist,rain, and you can almost wring the moisture out of your clothes. Have I made myself clear enough.

Last night I was over at Ruth and Lauch's for supper, they have a new rotisserie made by Popeil, does 2 chickens at a time. As usual Ruth outdone herself again, the chickens were done just right, crispy on the outside and moist inside, the new cooker did well. Thanks again Ruth and Lauch.

For lunch today I was at Cathie and Doug's, talk about getting around town for eats, thanks to Doug and Cathie it was delicious. I had better take it easy on supper tonight as I am still full. In the afternoon I set Cathie up with her own blog, I'm sure she will be posting soon.

The picture taking today was of the weather, but I am finding some shots from the past to bring to you today. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit drier.

Some pics of the Rusty Lake Mine, the trip down to Mile Lake where there is a pile of sleeping giants (White Pine) that were cut years ago but never taken to the mill. And a small waterfall from the spring runoff

Checking out Lett Lake

Worked on some equipment this morning and after lunch thought I would get out before the rain started. Just past the road to Auld Reekie it started to sprinkle. Turned onto the trail to Lett Lake. The next good day I'm bringing in the canoe to go to Gorman Lake, a short portage from Lett, there is a nesting area of high priority here and I want to find out what it is. Could be an eagle nest or a heronry, will soon find out.

While a Lett Lake landing there were lots of fiddleheads, very large probably ostrich ferns will know better when they come out. Around the ferns lots of clintonia and nodding trillium, still not in bloom.

Am looking forward to getting the canoe in the water and checking out some of the small lakes for some good pics.

As the grass groweth so groweth the broken grass cutting equipment

Beautful day today, probably the best of the spring, you can hear grass growing and the blackfly's buzzing. To some it is quite agravating to pull out equipment that has been idle all winter and to find it not working correctly, this is a busy time for the repair people. A small amount of effort last fall would probably have saved 75% of the aggravation, but I can dream you know.


Needless to say there are a lack of pictures today as in none. I am posting some extra I had from the beaverpond yesterday and some of the cut east of Northern Pines Camp where they have cut quite a few White Pine. Unfortunately where they have skidded them out they have barked up the sides and roots of quite a few of the standing White Pine, surely this can't be good for the trees. After only a few days of cutting there was an awful lot of wood cut, limbed and stacked ready for hauling. With the mechanization they have now it doesn't take to long.

Revisiting the snowshoe trail

Great day today sunny but a bit windy. Figured I go out and check out the snowshoe trail. Good thing I marked it well with flaging tape, even then I took a couple of wrong turns. Got up to the big beaver dam, I guess the runoff was huge this year as the dam bust. It not only bust but if floated a 25 foot piece right off it. Underneath was flat rock so there was nothing anchoring it. This dam is almost 10 feet high, you can see it in the behind the dam.

On the next beaver pond I couldn't resist taking a pic as the beaver sees it. This is another large pond with a big dam, the beaver house on this pond has been deserted but they must still be here as the dam is in great shape.

In the outflow marsh marigolds just coming out. Also saw some blueberry flowers on the deeper sandy areas, none in bloom on the rocky areas, rock must be to cold. In a cool dark damp spot I found a neat leafy liverwort had to use the flash on this one.

White roofs all over town.

When first looking out this AM in the wee hours of light it seemed a little brighter than usual, when my eyes finally adjusted to the morning light there were white roofs all over town. A sprinking on the green grass as well. After catching my breath I dove back to bed for another hour.

The rest of the day was cool, showers and snow flurries a good day for catching up on some more mundane functions. Chainsaw chains to sharpen and chains to make, and repairs to a saw. By mid morn the phone rang, Gert across the lake offering lunch without hesitation I would be there for one of her "small" brunches. Great stuff as usual. Thanks again, Gert, and Paul.

Took a few pics of Banker's Bay, (known by the number of banks that were on the shores in Gowganda's silver rush). There is also a picture of the old Lions club building which is slowly making its way into a relic for the lack of upkeep, what a shame on it's keepers. Also managed some photos of daffodils in Marg's garden. Everything is so late coming up this year, fortunately it just may help the blueberries as they are not even near blooming yet. Hopefully they will not be frosted off like last season.

Rain forecast all day, off to town

Here's what it looked like most of the day, it let up on the way home around 2:00PM and is now getting worse with the chance of freezing rain and snow. What happened to global warming. I am posting a couple more pics of the minnow pond with the violets that were growing on the rock. Hopefully tomorrow will be better weather.

Out to check minnow trap

This afternoon I went to check my minnow trap, on a small pond west of town. It's a bit of a walk but mostly a great spot for pictures. You walk along a high ridge of rock looking down at the marsh and ahead is the pond. There is a newer beaver dam that has raised the water up a couple more inches than years previous. 2 newer houses are in the marsh. Last time in there was a bittern making his water pumping sound up near the pond end.

Only about a dozen or so Dace minnows, the water is still to cold for them.

The leatherleaf is in bloom along with some small violets scattered along the sunny edges of the rock. Moss and lichens coat the rock making it quite slippery. The wintergreen are all ready to bloom too. 2 days ago I slipped and did quite a fall on the way in.

Waterlillies are starting to come to the surface and will soon cover all the shallow water.
Now 5:00pm and looks as though it will rain before dark.

Trip to repair the dock

Left this morning to help repair the dock, the water was too high so we repaired what we could and will be back when the levels go down. On the way home past Lauch's garden the tulips were in full bloom with the bright sun, had to take some pics

Will take some time to figure this out

I will be taking my time sorting out what to do here so be patient