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. 

Brrrrrr

It was-50 degrees today with the windchill and I taught frozen lake study. An interesting experience where thankfully nobody, including me, got frostbite.

The end.

Ely, MN

Mary Beth and I took a short get away to Ely, MN. It's about an hour and a half further inland from me on highway 1. It is a popular town because it's on the edge of Boundary Waters and pretty touristy. We did a little shopping, got massages, and made tacos in our hotel room. It was fantastic. 

We also took a little snowshoeing trip in the Boundary Waters. We were on a lake the whole time, trekking across it to find some Native American pictographs on a cliff face....we never actually saw them. Mostly because we forgot the map and thought we'd gone far enough and that they were covered in snow. But we had a great time anyways. We were the only ones there and the silence and snow falling was magical. 

We also came across a fresh wolf kill from the previous night which was creepy. There were two halves of a deer and we could still see the spots where the wolves had taken parts to eat a little away from the main pieces. Needless to say, I started checking over my shoulders for wolves that might be stalking us...

Lax Lake Highway

So here we are, driving on a road, that is on a lake. 

And now sitting on top of a car that is on the lake.  

Drinking some MN root beer, on top of a car, on top of a lake.  

Minnesotans are crazy. My comfort level with being on frozen lakes has not really increased at all.....maybe after a few months of teaching on one it'll get better. 

Winter Training Plus a Beautiful Sloan Guest

I'm back at WR and it is a whole other world covered in snow. We had three days of winter training starting on the second and I got a few pictures to share. 

We started off with Superior Snowshoe class. This was my first experience with snowshoeing and I really liked it. It's kind of an awkward walking motion, but great because we were off trail almost the whole time. This picture is when we were crossing frozen Raven Lake.

And other snowshoeing picture as we tromp through the woods.

Going across frozen Wolf Lake, Marshall Mountain to the right.

Speaking of snowshoes...here are tracks of an adorable snowshoe hare. They turn all white in the winter (brown in the summer) and have giant back feet to have better flotation over deep snow.

 View of Wolf Lake

And one of the views of Superior we hiked to.

On Thursday we did frozen lake study where we measured ice depth, lowered sonar and cameras into the holes, did a little ice fishing, and cut some chunks of ice out of the lake.....but I forgot to bring my camera with me. 

But on Friday I was joined by this adorable creature. She tagged along for our Ojibwe snowshoeing class training. I think she had fun despite the look on her face :)

 The view of Raven Lake, and behind Lake Superior from our Ojibwe site.

Friday afternoon we did some manual labor like move a voyageur canoe...which was actually really fun. It is a new one we had to slide down to Wolf Lake.

Ice fishing houses on Wolf Lake.....all the tracks from sliding the canoe across the lake.

Chunks of ice we had cut from the lake the previous day.
I'm not going to lie, I think this is crazy and will be terrified to do it with kids. There is a saw you use to cut the ice, then tongs to pull it out of the water...I am sure me or one of my kids is going to fall in on accident.

They were also working on building a quinzee, which is a mixture of a snow cave and igloo. You pile a ton of snow, pack it down, then dig out the middle. They are building a giant one so we could bring a whole class of kids in at the same time. But Christina and I ran away to....

...Chickadee landing! She told me she doesn't like birds because she has had negative experiences so I had to give her a good one. And what's better then having birds land all over you Beauty and the Beast style with an adorable red squirrel as well munching out of your hand?

I also took her cross country skiing for the first time! We have two sets of ski trails that are kept groomed for classes.

 And of course we fit in some rock climbing....basically I wanted to wear her out and make her really sore. And I think I succeeded. Truthfully winter training has been really exhausting and our dorm has had many stretching parties and we groan every time we stand from all the snowshoeing and skiing.

 Beach of Lake Superior with all the snow...really cool.

So thankful I got to see this girl and share some of my crazy life with her! I am also really glad she didn't freeze to death!

The group at a Lake Superior overlook.