My Parents Visit Part Two

Patrick has a chickdee on his head. 

Patrick trying to hide from the camera while cross country skiing.

Donna complaining about me taking photos of her cross country skiing.

February - Snowy Goodness

 First of all critter cam awesomeness. This camera was set up right along our Baptism ski trails (further out from campus by our forest ecology sites), check out the grooves for skiing. Also check out that gigantic wolf walking right in between the grooves. We've been seeing tracks (this is where Christina and I saw them) as well as big piles of scat (poo) and We're all excited we got the culprit on camera.

 It's a boreal owl irruption year! Okay so this is really exciting. People are flying from around the country to see these owls. An irruption year means that for some reason resources (food) is low farther north and these guys are coming farther south this year. For some it's on a cycle, so for boreal owls it's about every 4 years, for others it's not as regular. Other owls that come further south include great gray owls and snowy owls, I've yet to see them but I will be looking. This guy was sitting on a maple tree right by the office. How cute is he??

 This is our ski chalet for our Raven Lake ski trails. This past weekend some members were here and Robyn and I volunteered to help set up a candlelight ski for them.

 Basically we just lit all the candles (fake candles so flipped the switches) and it was absolutely magical. So magical my camera could not catch the amazingness, but imagine your way being lit by the next bag down the trail and you're feet just following the grooves. So great.

 Haven't given you pics of these two recently. Elcie laid an egg yesterday. She's past her egg laying prime so it actually broke and it was the first she's laid in months.
Thistle was being....Thistle...passed out in his crate.

Below are just some pretty snow scenes...

 And here are some shots from my winter survival class yesterday. I had eighth graders so they actually built some decent shelters and worked hard for their fires. The goal is to boil snow for hot cocoa and they succeeded.

Random Tidbits

Hey there. So I don't have any new pictures to share but I can try to fill you in on some happenings here. 

It's been really busy with three work weekends in a row. I got really lucky last weekend because my group cancelled so I got time to relax and get some work done. We've started our UMD classes again and are taking two at once. We'll be alternating Fridays between a class on environmental issues and another on teaching science for the rest of the semester. Weekend groups are usually older kids (high school or college or adults) that come for a more laid back experience. 

We are still covered in snow up here with lots of snowshoeing and cross country skiing. This afternoon I taught skiing and at least an inch fell during our class. It was an awe inspiring moment to be on Raven Lake, looking at the cliffs of Marshall Mountain and watching thick flakes fall. One of those days where I can't believe how lucky I am, truly. I think we had around 17 inches of snowpack this morning and are suppose to get another 3-5 tonight. 

Boot hockey (broomball to Iowa State)(hockey with no skates and a ball instead of a puck) is a huge thing around here. I have been opting out because they normally play on weekends when I want to be lazy and enjoy the quiet of the room. But a couple of weeks ago there was a tournament in the next town. I played, I tried my best (tried to kick some forestry guys butts), got a huge bruise on  my knee, lost, and really enjoyed the pizza and beer. 

We're experiencing crazy warming up here - temperature today got up to 18! The thing is I have acclimated to the crazy zero and below temperatures. I didn't think it would happen, but it did. I'm not going to lie, my fingers and toes still get cold sometimes, but it's something that I don't even realize about anymore. It's hard to remember it's new for the kids....but every kid comes with new hand warmers and feet warmers for each class. Whatever person invented those is for sure making a fortune just from Wolf Ridge visitors. 

I don't think I can think of anything else for right now. Just keeping busy with teaching, prepping for classes, and my UMD homework. 

I'm very excited to get my visitors in a couple weeks! Mom and Dad for a valentine's day weekend and Morgan for a best friends weekend after :)

I'll do my best to get some new pictures of my winter wonderland.