After experiencing a record breaking 91-degrees a week ago last Saturday, we have settled in at near normal temps. This is the time of year when you can, literally, watch the grass turn green, flowers bloom and trees start to get their leaves. I love watching the birds, except for blackbirds, the rabbits and squirrels that frequent my yard.
When thinking about wildlife, you don’t have to be up north or at a park to see nature. It is all around, and if you enjoy the beauty of a sunset/rise, we have so many places to observe it right here in our area. I love to take a drive in the country. One of my favorite drives is to go out South Shore Drive along Albert Lea Lake. You can see turkeys, deer and many of our feathered friends.
I don’t know how many times I have spotted deer or turkeys while driving on the Town Hall Road. I always get a good feeling whenever I spot a critter in the wild. Although I have only seen them on my trail cameras up north, there are coyotes and wolves in the woods surrounding the lake that our cabin sits on. On my last trip to the cabin I was awakened in the morning by the sound of either coyotes or wolves that were yelping continually, which told me that they must have cornered some animal, most likely a deer. Although it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture in one’s mind, it is the cycle of life in the wild.
I know that I have spoken about my grandkids many times, but today I would like to talk a little bit about Trevor, my oldest. Trevor always seems to make the transition from one season to another look easy. When the open water season comes to an end. I am pretty much in withdrawal mode for at least a few days. Trevor can transition from fishing to waterfowl hunting without missing a beat. After that season, he switches to “hard water” fishing until spring when the early goose (snow goose) season comes along. After that he hits open water for fishing.
Trevor has bought an Iowa out-of-state license for the last two or three years. There is no closed season on walleyes in Iowa, so he has found a few good lakes to fish. He managed to take a couple of hours off to fill out his turkey permit. Shortly after that he sent me a picture of three walleyes that he caught in Iowa that same weekend. He told me that it took longer to drive to the lake than it did to get his limit. Whenever he has good fishing he makes sure that Grandma and Grandpa get a meal of fish.
It makes me proud to see all of my grandkids get involved in outdoors activities. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how my granddaughter, Emma, likes to fish. When I attached the picture of her holding, what I thought was a sunnie I accidently grabbed the wrong one. In my defense (pretty weak one), I can’t see the picture that I attach, so I have to go by how I label the picture. There were two pictures that were labeled Emma and were next to each other and in my haste I grabbed the wrong one. When it came out in the Star Eagle it showed her holding a carp with a sunnie cutline. As soon as I noticed it, the name “Bob Hanson” popped into my mind. Bob is a fellow columnist at the paper and I knew he would make mention of it in one of his columns. He was actually pretty easy on me, but he did, kinda-sorta, make reference to the fact that I didn’t know my fish. It’s not the first oops that I’ve had and it definitely won’t be the last. I am sure that Bob thought that I had lost it, but once it goes to print I own it. Keep your columns coming Bob, I enjoy them.
Until next time: I have faith that the weather will straighten out soon and let us enjoy some outdoors time without having to wear the winter duds.
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