Beautiful Sunrise....

At least it's a dry cold!

We have gotten more light, fluffy snow, lots of snow. It is difficult to walk the trails, so we had to spend some time on the ATVs packing the trails.

Here's one of the trails, see how deep the tracks are:

 

and we'll share some photos of the boys. Here's Spirit in a silly mood:

and both boys relaxing on their leather couch, synchronized napping:

 

 

Pictures from one of our trail cameras

Fresh Snow December 2nd/3rd

Tree Trimming

This tree was hit by lightening 3-4 years ago before we bought the house, and was threatening damage to the deck and/or house if it fell that way, so we had B & J Tree Service, Jeff Klawitter come and top it for us last Tuesday the 3rd.

Ken has filled our food cache with venison...he got a small buck and a doe on opening day.

On another note: we had a tree that was struck by lightning a few years ago; it was too close to the house and we were concerned that a big wind could topple it onto the house. Since the deck needs to be replaced, we wouldn't have minded if it took off the deck, but it was likely to damage the house also. So we finally found someone to take it down (we thought it was too dangerous for Ken and Phil to do this themselves).
Here are before and after pictures of the downing of the tree:

you can see the big hole this left in the treeline. This is the entrance to the west trail. Now, let the wind blow.

Snow in the Oaks

Woke to a winter wonderland this morning.....Just in time for deer season tomorrow.

Rock Bottom

Ken hauled these rocks up from Northern Columbia County to be used the build a retaining wall along the west side of the garage.

The existing eave drains will be combined into one and go through the retaining wall and across the walkway.

Logging Operations

These are spruce logs from a downed tree northeast of the house.  The tree has been down for at least 3 years, but we are going to see if we can get any usable lumber from them.  Ken dropped them off at the Amish for sawing yesterday (11/15/13).

Rosalie & The Boys out for a walk

Visit by a Pileated Woodpecker

Today we were visited by a Pileated Woodpecker.  We find it interesting the Downy, Harry and Pileated all look the same, but are different sizes.

The turkey's demise

We have had a few wildlife adventures over the past months. We have been trying to find the deer traffic on a trail cam, but haven't seen the bucks reported by neighbors. We put out the apple trimmings, but didn't really see any signs that deer had visited those.
One day, the turkeys were sighted using the south trail. Ken tried to sneak up on them, but they moved through too quickly and disappeared.
Today, however, there was a flock grazing on the acorns along the southern trail. Ken grabbed his camo coat and shotgun and was out the door. He snuck up the east trail, and through the woods. He crawled his way through the woods to a big tree, and when he felt one turkey was aware of him, he rushed a shot before the alarm could be given. He harvested a turkey! Good meal on Sunday.
There were more turkeys coming across the field to the south that Ken didn't see; when I told him about those, he thought the first flock was hens and poults, and maybe the incoming flock was the toms. Oh well. I hope the turkeys return to graze again. It is fun to see them.

Yesterday, Ken dug holes and placed gate posts for the entries into the pond-side flower beds where we built a stick fence. We had to go cut more locust trees down, to get some thick, taller posts.
Here is the stick fence before the gate posts were placed:

The boys played outside all afternoon while we worked on the fence, and we had a fire going in our fire ring. It was a fun day.

 

and here is our resident black squirrel...it is entertaining to watch him around the yard. He has several gray squirrel friends to play with also. So far, they haven't climbed up the shepherd's hooks to get at the bird feed. They are too busy burying acorns.

What kept us busy all summer and into the fall...

Since we moved in, we had to

• put gutters on the house, breezeway and garage,
• repair the roof for a leak into the attic,
• replace several windows and a patio door,
• repair the plumbing pipes and boiler, 
• re-open trails, removing downed trees and clearing small shrubbery/berry bushes,
• re-organize flower beds,
• cut locust trees to build a stick fence and clematis trellis,
• cut and stack firewood,
• added lime rock on low spots in the driveway.

Just one stack of firewood.

Middle Trail...this trail was existing, but needed to be cleared. This is just one of about a half mile of trail that Ken has cleared. We walk the trails every day.

The boys love to explore on the trails. Here they are at the intersection of our Central and South Trails, checking out one of the brush piles.

The boys checking for critters in a brush pile on the South or East trail. They keep busy pestering the critters for hours at several of the brush piles.

We still have many projects to do this winter or next year.

Here are some photos of our cabin as we found it:

This is the view past the garage to our front door, leading into the open living/kitchen area.

View from the woods looking at the west side of the cabin.

Looking from the front entrance driveway across the front yard to the street.

Past the pool and flower beds to the central trail into the woods.

Our pond and surrounding flower beds.
These photos were as of the time we moved in.

Our Log (sided) Cabin in the Woods - work and adventures

We bought a log-sided cabin near Coloma, WI in the spring of 2013, moving in mid-June. It is a smaller cabin, but has just enough room for the four of us. And we have 5 wooded acres with trails. The boys especially love to go for walks on the trails.
We are within 35 miles of Portage and Plover/Stevens Point, and the Farm. If we have to go to Madison, it takes 1 hour, 20 minutes to get downtown-Campus.

There are lots of projects going on, some deferred maintenance on the cabin, cutting downed trees in the woods, getting the flower beds rearranged and doing other landscaping, taking care of the artificial pond in the back yard.

We will enjoy having all our stuff in one place again, and to be able to access it whenever we need it, instead of having it in storage and moving into/out of rental property.