The 2007 Blog is still available at http://www.sticksite.com/blog/indexOLD.html but will soon be removed.

WELCOME from me, Ken Laninga

Some have told me that they enjoy this blog. So far, these people have told me that they read it: David L, Dr. Ken B, Don P, Ken N, Ruben M, Jim P, Anton L, Yuki Y, Rollie L, Roger R, Alan, Peggy S, and.......?

This is the third year I'm doing this blog; shall I continue?

2008 visits to the cabin

Trip #11:

Monday, July 14: Some rain on the way up; pullng the Argo. Kept my speed to 35 - 40 KM / hour on the gravel and so made it without taking out another rear window on the van. I went north and got a few sample sticks (and two fungi) and they peeled OK. I had forgotten my "tool belt" with bear spray etc on it. Had a bit more rain; the tall grass was very loaded with water so I got soaked, leather work boots and all. Sure Is nice to be out here though; away from the frustrations of the city, like trying to run this laptop with Linux Ubuntu 8.04, “Hardy Heron.” I had it running but no way could I get it online and finally deleted the whole works, admitting reluctantly that Linux is for guys way geekier than I am. I want to RUN and USE a computer, not spend all my time fixing the OS. On the way up I took pictures of a place where a farmer makes silage using white plastic to wrap bales. Last year's plastic is piled up and I wonder if that is going to be burned; if so, that would be very bad for the air quality. Think of thousands of farmers doing that.

Tues: Drove to a friend's land and found the spot I had marked with ribbons last time. This time I had my GPS and took a reading. Wet grass again and I got soaked again to well up above the knees. But I wore rubber boots with "boot skirts" this time. It was very hot this afternoon and I skinned sticks in front of the cabin. No skeeter problems until later in the evening.

Wednesday: I drove the van north a way and hiked into a cutline. Very quickly I found several nice sticks; I came out of that with 14. Lots of nice white clouds again today, but no rain. My barley is heading out; without rain, there will be no seed. Here it is:

Later, enough rain fell so that on one square meter, there would have been enough to provide a drink for one mosquito if it wasn't very thirsty. The sticks are NOT skinning well this time so this will be the final sticking trip for 2008. No idea how many i got but it looks good.

Thursday: Some of the strawberries have strange shapes this year; I wonder why. Could it be because I'm using Moose Nuggets as fertilizer? I doubt it. Visited John and Diana on the way home and they wondered it it could be due to herbicides used on the field; I did take soil from that field. Scary. Makes you wonder what kind of garbage we are eating. Maybe it takes something like strawberries to show up what is in our wheat, oats, barley, canola and every other crop from farms. Here they are:

On the way home, on the highway I saw a strange thing. A duck was flying out of a field, toward the highway. There was a high powerline and I watched as the duck (and you know how fast they fly!) ran into the top wire. I was sure I'd be eating duck tonight but the duck did a 360, vertically, recovered and flew on, over the highway as if nothing happened. Lucky ducky! On the way home I took some pictures of fields with hay bales on them. Earlier I took some pictures when the sky looked particularly nice; maybe I can marry the pictures together. Later; I did, with Paintshop; here they are; before and after:

Trip #10:

Monday, June 23: Mosquitos very bad.

Tues: Went Sticking and came back with 67 pieces of Diamond willow. Found in the bush there a bed very recently vacated by a large critter, and also the skeletal remains of a moose. Got a twig in my left eye. Hurts.

Wednesday: Got a load with the van. The Argo is not in 100% shape yet so won't use it. Very windy which made it scary; you could be on a bear before you'd know it was there.

Thurs: Two deer on the lawn, male and female. The buck's antlers were little more than 1-inch stubs. Mosquitos very bad in the cabin overnite. Going to buy a net to hang over the bed.

Friday: Mowed the yard and Marie did another jigsaw puzzle. A very hot, dry day. NO mosquito problem in the cabin, not even overnight, and we burned no coils either.

Sat: Went sticking again and got a good load. On the way back we saw a doe with 3 very tiny fawns. No camera. We were back well before noon. In the evening, the shower bag was too cool (we had not put it into the insulated, glass-covered box) so we heated water on the stove, bringing the cabin temperature up to 85F. Then the water was too hot so we added cool water. It was still too warm so we let the bag sit outside awhile. What you won't do for a shower on a super-hot day!

Sun: Another hot, dry day. Crops are suffering greatly. We drove to the road sign north and went into the bush. It was VERY wet in there. We found only 4 sticks and a couple of fungi. At night I set four yard-lights in the tent hoping a Glover's Silk Moth might just be there in the morning. None was.

Monday: Hot and dry again. 28C. Went sticking again. Most places were not productive but one area seemed OK so I hung up ribbons to mark the place. We got 45 pieces.

Tues: Hot: 27C. Skinned the rest of the sticks. Drove north up the road and got a few and a couple of fungus. As we were leaving, there was a Ruffed Grouse on the driveway. I stopped the van, got out and slowly walked toward him. He seemed to talk to me so I talked back asking him to go into the bush and let us by. He did just that but was in no hurry. I was no more than 2 meters from him.

Wednesday: Set all the mouse traps; need dead mice as bait for the fly traps. I use all my empty plastic bottles (which don't have cash deposits on them, and turn them into fly traps as shown on my "Cottage Ideas" page at http://www.sticksite.com/cottage/ I loaded the Argo and we went back to the city.

Trip #9:

Friday, June 6: A wet day. We arrived about 3 PM and the rain stopped long enough for us to unload the van. On this visit home to GrPr, I had acted on the Royal Bank's ad for a "FREE Asus Eee laptop computer." We had tea at John's place. Too much rain today to go out Stick-ing. At suppertime we could see one doe Whitetail deer in my field. Later there was one Muledeer doe in my park. John had just found a beautiful Indian artifact; the bottom half of a spear-point.

Saturday: We went north, got a few sticks and a big load of fungus. Saw a bluejay nest with babies, only 3 feet off the ground. Unlike robins, the parent birds were out of sight; never did see them. Riding in the Argo, it felt like riding in a hailstorm; there are so many bugs now. Very many dragonflies. Hordes of skeeters too. We changed the Argo left-front tire which had been flat for some time. That made it run much straighter. We set up the screen tent for skinning sticks. Then it was suppertime. The mosquitos in the cabin were quite bad until I put out a mosquito coil.

Sunday: Marie taught me that if any sticks get mould on them from being too close together when freshly skinned, you can clean the mould off with pure Javex bleach. Checked my treasure maps and decided to go east. Half way there, I got a different idea and turned into a cutline. I got a big load of sticks very quickly. This was a super-good place. There must have been 70 in the Argo. Many were dry ones; virtually no Scout Sticks and very few Rails. No fungus at all this time. John and Diana came by. John asked me what crop Gilled had seeded and I told him "Barley." I then suggested to him that big game would not be likely to feed on that this fall and he agreed but added "there are two in the field right now" as he looked over my left shoulder from where he sat in his usual rocking chair. I looked and sure enough, there were two bull elk in my east quarter. They lay down there and then gradually grazed their way along the south side (fence) of my field to my granaries.

Monday: A Muledeer buck came by and went through my park. Then a Muledeer doe just east of the cabin. While I was skinning sticks in the tent, Gilles drove in; as we chatted, Gilles still sitting in his pickup, we noted a coyote 75 yards away. I skinned sticks until I was too tired.

Tuesday: Three Muledeer in the field this morning; a buck and two does. After lunch we went north with the Argo and got a smalll load with one large burl on a Diamond willow.

Wednesday: skinned sticks, mowed yard/grass/weeds. Beno came by and told of seeing a bear at their hunting blind, and of Ed's standoff with a grizzly south of GrPr. Good thing he had his shotgun ready.

Thursday: After lunch we went north a long way. It was one mudhole after another and finally my luck ran out; the Argo go high-centered and I was very, very stuck. The winch could not pull me out and then the Argo would not start. I could not get out of the mud so we walked back to the cabin, about 1 1/2 miles. About 8:30 Beno arrived; he and I rushed out to the Argo and he pulled me out in seconds. By 9 PM we were back at the cabin. Before he pulled me out. I had just paid Red Line $670. to fix that problem. Hmmmmmmm.

Friday, Got a big load of sticks using the van. We were back by noon. Saw one bull elk on the way back. I skinned sticks.

Saturday: This morning there were, 60 yards from the cabin, a Whitetail buck and a Muledeer buck & doe. The Whitetail was a beautiful, sleek brown. The Mulies were mottled and not nice-looking. I skinned sticks all day. Deer visible most of the day; one Whitetail doe was within 50 yards even while we talked to it. Just now, 80 yards south of the cabin was a buck Muledeer again. Later in the day there were two coyotes in the park; they did not seem to be a pair though and appeared to be unfriendly toward each other.

Sunday: Rain off and on all day. I skinned sticks and Marie did another jigsaw puzzle.

Monday: Overnite a sound woke us up; we decided it must have been a coyote pup calling for his/her family. It went on for a very long time; sounded like some strange bird; a weird call.

Tuesday: Had a real cloudburst. Some hail. A real cloudburst. A mile south, the south end of the field, on the slope, was white for hours after, from hail. I guess we got the moisture that the crops needed very badly. I had to skin the last 3 sticks in the cabin.

Wed: We had .9 inch of rain last evening. The hail on the field south lasted until after dark. Very high relative humpty-diddly this morning. Still need to take down the tent and get rid of the bark pile in it so we have to wait a few hours before we can get away. We've been here 12 days.

Sunday, May 25: I arrived close to noon, pulling the Argo on the little trailer and bringing back up the propane fridge. At the cabin I took a run into the bush and hauled back some sticks. The skeeters are bad now so I am skinned the sticks inside.

Monday: First thing there was a muledeer doe on the lawn; she left via my driveway but an hour later she was back. Skinned the rest of the sticks and then went by Argo north. My "treasure maps" showed some sticks there and I got a good load.

Skinned some out in front of the cabin until the mosquitos got too bad and I did more indoors. Virtually all sticks are finally skinning well now.

Tuesday: Chilly. Only about 3C. I skinned sticks and tied in bundles the long thin strips of bark; they are sitting all over, drying. They make good kindling when dry. Then I went north by Argo. On the way up I met Mike and his Dad (Dale) coming back from their bear bait station; they had 2 bears in the ATV. I got a small load of sticks and was back at noon.

Wedesday: The Acer laptop died. SO, I made hand-written notes. Yikes! That doggone Acer again. Skinned sticks, went north, got stuck (thank goodness for the winch on my Argo!) and got a load; saw one bear on the way back. It is VERY wet in the bush. You cannot go anywhere without rubber boots. I was back at 12:30.

Thursday, May 29: Mike's camera showed 6 different bears on his baits. Went north of my east end and got back at 12:15. Supper was the second half of a $5 pizza from Superstore. The Skeeters are BAD! Did not find a single Diamond Willow Fungus (Migrane mushroom) today.

Friday: Skinned the remaining sticks and then mowed the grass/dandelions for two hours, my first time this year. Got a few sticks, had a shower.

Went north, saw one rabbit; first in a very long time. Found the largest fungus (Halororous Odorus) I'd ever seen; 5 3/4 inches wide, 3 inches high. John saw a wolf yesterday.

Sunday, May 31: Rain overnight but not much. Maybe we'll have a crop?? At this point I don't even know what Gilles has seeded on my 130 acres. I find that the mosquitos are very hard to swat when they are ON you but extremely easy to crush when they are on the screen in the south-facing kitchen window.

They sit there and don't move. Gilles told me he has seeded Barley. Got a load of sticks and a few fungi. Got stuck again too; high-centered. Skinned sticks outside until the skeeters chased me in.

Monday, June 1: Beautiful morning, about +5C. Burning a few bundles of bark warmed up the cabin inside. Tried skinning sticks in front of cabin again but the skeeters are too bad. Used spray and did anyway. It was HOT; about 28C in the shade. Snoozed, took pictures at the chalet. I decided to go to town and stop at Olsons to get the trailer wheel bearings checked. On the way there I blew out the rear window on the van AGAIN. In less than a year I have now taken out 3 windows on the van. Standard Auto Glass replaced them very promptly each time and even gave me a VERY nice discount on this third one.

Tuesday, May 13: We arrived at the cabin around suppertime. It has been an interesting week. On Saturday morning I went to the hospital for my regular blood test; the guy there asked me if I had fasted. I told him, "no, I used to but now I'm getting older and am slowing down." We had some super and were barely done when Gilles arrived for a visit. Sometimes when I see Gilles I am reminded of the time he visited his brother Stewart. Stewart's house was always "FULL" of houseflies; they were EVERYWHERE. One day Gilles was at the door, talking with Stewart who was sitting in the kitchen. Stewart told Gilles to "CLOSE THE DOOR!" and Gilles replied, "WHY? Are you afraid the flies might get out?"

Wednesday: I removed some bark from 3 willows in the bush but they were not peeling well yet. Lots of buffalo in the field next door. The chalet is coming along very nicely; it is barely 200 yards from my cabin.

Thursday: We took the Argo to the two bridges on Crazy trail. Fortunately, neither one required that new trees be cut. It was only a matter of putting back in place all the logs which the spring runoff had moved.

Friday: Marie and I took the Argo up the A2 trail. About 300 yards in, it would not start. We walked in later with wrenches to tighten the clamps on the battery ("Plan A") and the Power Pack to boost it ("Plan B") but it would not go. We went to Olsons ("Plan C") but there was nobody home so we left a note. This means that tonight the Argo will sit out in the bush at the mercy of bears.

Saturday: First thing in the morning there was a coyote 60 yards from the window, busy mousing.

There are ants all over; big red ones and very big black ones. We keep putting out poison for them.

This morning I walked in to the Argo with the Powerpull and using it and a long heavy rope, I turned the Argo to face the way we drove in. All day I hoped somebody would come and help me get it out. No such luck. Then the wind, though light, was from the east or Southeast. Not too bad for knocking down that large, dead pine tree at the end of my driveway. The Husqvarna saw was in the Argo so I got the old John Deere chainsaw ready to go. It would not start. I used ether and finally got it running. Then the saw chain was dull so I sharpened it. Then I found that when cleaning it, I had put the chain on backwards. Not my day and to top it all off, my High Blood Pressure medicine has just been upped to 240mg per day so I am blacking out more often than ever. Then I started on the tree again. Made a nice notch to encourage it to fall toward the west, to the road, NOT into the trees to the east of it. The tree leans east but I figured the wind would help me. Not so. When I was cutting the other side, the east side, it started to tip...... EAST. Before I had time to withdraw the saw, it got pinched and there was NO way to get it out. I told Marie some day we would have a good laugh at all my bad luck so went and got the camera. Back at the tree, I found the batteries were dead. Does this ever end?? I got the little hand saw and with a tiny bit of sawing, the tree fell. EAST. INTO the trees. Fortunately, it did not go down very much. I then was able to cut chunks off it, and the branches as well. Twelve blocks later we took a break and then I took the old golf bag undercarriage, two wheels on a nice handle, went in to the Argo and brought out the Husky chainsaw. Then we walked to the beaver works and found that the hole we made was plugged. I got the water running again.

Sunday: There was a Whitetail doe in the park at 6 AM. First off I tackled the Pine Tree again. I got about 30 chunks of firewood, un-split. Mike Larson (south40outfitters.com) came over and we had a long visit. He has the use of Gerry Richard's ATV and we tried to drive it to the Argo but the ATV was too wide to go on my cutline. Then John came over with 3 perch from his dugout. Beno was close behind on his quad and we pulled out the Argo with no problem. All of us messed with it and decided it was not charging and a fuse was burned out.

Monday: Hooked the trailer onto the van and loaded the Argo. Mike came over with Gerry's Polaris ATV.

Trip #6:

Saturday, May 3: The gravel road was dry. No trees showed the slightest hint of green yet. At the cabin we were surprised to find the yard almost clear of snow and we drove to the door. The yard was very wet though. John arrived a bit later; he told us of a moose encounter which he had gone through. Last fall I had lost my saw in the bush but had put up ribbons. We walked in there in 6 inches of water and I walked straight to the lost saw. On our walk up the road I was amazed at the chorus of frogs. This is my first spring season with hearing aids and I had not hear that sound in 40 or 50 years. I am amazed. I had no idea this was such a noisy world. This week I was quite thrilled to receive in the mail, a book "Diamond willow" from the author Helen Frost in Fort Wayne, Indiana. http://www.helenfrost.net. in the flyleaf I read this: "Twelve-year-old Willow would rather blend in than stick out. But she still wants to be seen for who she is. She wants her parents to notice that she is growing up. She wants her best friend to like her better than she likes a certain boy. She wants, more than anything, to mush the dogs out to her grandparents' house, by herself, with Roxy in the lead. But sometimes when it's just you, one mistake can have frightening consequences..... and when Willow stumbles, it takes a surprising group of friends to help her make things right again." THANKS, Helen!

Sunday: I set up the rain barrels and promptly drenched myself with rusty water. The road is washed out again a hundred yards beyond my driveway so I set a couple of small trees in the holes with ribbons.

Whoever put in the culverts last year clearly did not intend for the road to be fixed permanently. We knew this would happen. In the afternoon I hiked looking to get a picture of a bear. Lots of water everywhere; no bears. Also, I found what I like to call "a bear's summer cottage." This was a small area where a bear has very obviously spent a lot of time. Poop all around it. It was not fresh; all the poop was oats and berries from last year. This would be a good spot to look for a bear late summer. I got a few sticks and one more Diamond Willow fungus. Later bear-hunting guide Shawn Pinkett and a friend came by to say Hello. He is not happy with the way logging and oil patch work is taking over the area where his camp is. I'm reading a very exciting book; the kind of book that is hard to put down. Seems to me everybody should read it. It is:

We drove to the east end and looked at the ditch. There was a buffalo cow with new born calf outside the fence there.

Monday: In the morning I took a long walk in my east quarter, to look for bear tracks and deer sheds. At one point I found a coyote standing 35 yards away, looking at me. Unusually unafraid of me. I found two more Diamond Willow fungi (on the same willow) and a couple of nice Scout Sticks. And I found the remains of a deer's leg, freshly chewed and the skull of a young buffalo.

Also found a matched pair of heavy 5x5 Whitetail antlers. A bit chewed but quite nice.

Tuesday, May 6: time to go back to GrPr.

Trip #5:

Friday, April 11: This trip I put the camcorder on the dashboard to record a video of the whole trip with it plugged into the inverter. No problem; it recorded until I turned it off at my driveway, almost 2 hours later. There is still about 18 inches of snow around the cabin so no game on the field. We did see deer on the way up and twice I had to brake for them. There is a new herd of buffalo next door. Looks like there are many hundreds of them. The temperature most of the way up here was around +8C.

Saturday: Another beautiful day. The yard is getting wetter by the minute. By 9 AM it was about +8C already. Nothing really to do today so we relaxed all day.

Sunday: another warm day; snow is melting FAST. More water on the yard every minute. We got to talking about maybe making a stone BBQ out on the lawn. We collected some pebbles to, possibly, make a little model first. This could be an interesting projects so we'll have to Google for ideas.

Nothing worth taking pictures of, this trip. No doubt that will soon change.

Trip #4:

Monday, March 31: Marie and I left shortly after 9 AM; got some groceries and went north. The road was mostly like summer driving conditions. I put my camcorder (30 Gb hd) on the dash to record the drive but before Rycroft the battery died. Next time I must try it using the inverter and cable. Beno had, on Friday, come back from his 4-month "walkabout" all over Europe. I had brought up a golf bag on wheels to haul sticks; I got it on Freecyle where, incidentally, recently, somebody was giving away some Love Birds. I emailed them asking, "Do they taste anything like chicken?" but they did not answer me. The chalet across the road is "up" now. Huge.

Tuesday, April 1. NO fooling! Beautiful day, just a bit above freezing again. I cut the tops and bottoms off all the 2-litre milk cartons I had here for the PUT-PUT BOATS I've been obsessed with recently. All the details on that at http://www.sticksite.com/putputboats/ and at http://www.sticksite.com/putputboats/metal_boat.html. I walked over to the chalet. Hal or Al was the foreman, from 100-Mile House. He guided us through the whole structure. It is 5500 square feet on the main floor. There are a lot of buffalo in the next field. All I've seen on my field so far this trip is a coyote. Snow is about as deep as it was last trip; 27 inches or so.

Wednesday: back to GP. @_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@

Trip #3:

Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008: We arrived shortly after noon and stopped at John's for a cuppa. I showed off my hearing aids (my first ones ever) and explained to him how much embarrassment they had caused me; all these years I had thought that my farts were totally silent......! At the cabin the trail was almost completely drifted in so we spent an hour shoveling snow before we could bring our stuff from the van to the cabin.

While Marie got some supper going, I shoveled to the bird-feeder and to the outhouse. The temperature was around +6C outside. No wildlife to be seen. There are a lot of buffalo across the fence again. It was nice to have Marie change the dressing on the wound of my cancer operation; it is awkward to do it myself. The operation was on the 13th; details at my page at http://www.sticksite.com/cancer/.

Monday: Today I have to load up some Rails for a customer. There was a tremendous load of snow/ice on the roof so I opened the trap-door to the attic. Later in the evening huge chunks, weighing many tons were crashing down, trembling the whole cabin. The snow around the cabin seems to average about 27 inches deep.

Wednesday: Another beautiful day. We took a walk of about 2 1/2 miles north on the road; a snowmobile track made it possible to walk there. We did jump one moose but did not get a look at it. Later, Gilles came by for a visit. He left me 6 "shed" antlers which had been dropped on his yard. At the moment, 8 PM, we are watching a total eclipse of the moon. I'm having problems figuring out how to set the camera though. This was my main reason for wanting to be up here at this time.

I loaded up 40 Diamond Willow Sticks which have ROT in them. Many of them would have made "SUPER STICK" grade but for the rot. I'll auction them in April. Details at http://www.sticksite.com/rot/.

Thursday: Back to the city after a cuppa tea with John. I had showed off to him my new $1,800. (each) hearing aids. He did not know that I had a very old, cheap, non-working aid in my pocket. As I came in the door, I took out my "real" aid on one side, and stuck in the "bad" one. While we chatted, I grumbled about my hearing aid always needing adjustments. I got up, walked to the firewood box and took two pieces of firewood back to the kitchen table. I laid one piece on the table, pulled out the "bad" hearing aid and laid it on the firewood and slammed it with the other piece of firewood, hard enough to crush it. John nearly yelled at me, thinking I'd crushed an $1,800. hearing aid.

Trip #2:

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. It had snowed a little yesterday so to give the roads a chance to improve a bit, we left about noon. The road was mostly fine but snow covered in places. The temp at the cabin was -8C; we saw no wildlife until we got to the cabin. I loaded up the remaining scout sticks and shoveled the paths, then brought in some firewood. I filled the bird feeder and put Canola into the birdbath for the White Winged Crossbills. Soon they arrived and this time, for the first time, I was able to get some pictures of a female. Across the road nothing is happening but there is a big hole dug for the chalet foundation. I had just completed an order for 25 Scout Sticks and am working on one for 100 sticks; having run out, I had to come and get more. The bird pictures are for my birds page which lives at http://www.sticksite.com/birds/

Wednesday: -13C this morning. The snow is 18" deep so it is a good time not to venture too far from the cabin. I loaded up 15 "Regular" Diamond Willow sticks WITH bark still on for a special order. The usual deer and moose around this morning. I tried to take pictures of a moose kicking up snow to get at the canola underneath.

Thursday: time to go back to the city. The temp is way up to 0C this morning. Marie went to the outhouse and when she came back, two moose resting 150 yards from the cabin were startled and jumped up. We had not gone 1/4 mile when we had a flock of 50 (?) Sharptail Grouse land near the road.

Trip #1:

Tues. Jan. 1, 2008: We got to the cabin around noon; the temp on the trip up ranged from -13C to -20C. I shoveled out the path from the van, parked at the end of the driveway, to the cabin. Took 2 - 3 hours to get the cabin warm enough for human existence. I took 52 Scout Sticks and 7 Rails from the JOG (John's Old Granary) and put them into the van. There has been a good demand for my Scout Sticks and I wish I had been able to harvest more of them last summer. I had a few empty bottles from salad dressing etc so made 2 more fly traps. You can see more of those on my Cottage page at http://www.sticksite.com/cottage/. They work so well that I'll use all empty, plastic bottles for that purpose. Today is the day that my annual "Super Stick Auction" started. This means that the 24 best sticks from my 2006 stick harvest went onto my website at http://www.sticksite.com/best/. I got up at 6:10 AM to upload that new page and will now wait for offers until the end of the month. The cordless, battery-less fan is a big help. No game visible at all. There is 18 inches of snow on the lawn.

Wednesday: This morning there were some animals back in the field; 5 deer at this end, 3 moose a bit further east, then 3 does and 2 large bucks, and another moose at the far end. The snowplow came up the road as I was taking some pictures at the end of the driveway. We chatted awhile.

I found one of the "Brownish" wasp nests and brought it in:

Clearly, some different kind of "wasp" made these brown ones. I wonder what bug did it.

Thursday: A cool day so we stayed in all day. There were about 15 deer and moose visible from the window this morning. Temp was around -15C in the morning. John came by in the afternoon.

Friday: time to go back to town.