Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar

Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar

For additional information visit here and here.

Cora. Soccer, Camping, Caterpillar and Grampa Dan

Cora with Grampa Dan

Soccer training with Grampa Dan.

Campground wildlife.

Wow...wow!

Camping near Two Harbors MN.

Luna Moth

For additional information look here. This moth shows significant wing damage and is probably near the end of it's 7 day life span. With any luck and the right weather conditions it should have laid it's eggs already under leaves.

Things I've seen this week. Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and others) & Asclepias (milkweed).

Honeybee hive with lots of early fall activity. To learn more about the bees and wasps look here.

Warm fall day with little wind and lots of sun. The comings and goings of worker bees.

This was probably a bald-faced hornets nest. To learn more about bald-faced hornets look here. Although is could also be a Yellowjackets nest. To learn more look here.

Milkweed and Monarch Butterflies.  To learn more look here.

Milkweed seed dispersal. To learn more about seed dispersal look here.

Unusually large apiary for this region.

This apiary is larger than usual for this area.

Apiary complete with electric fence to keep out bears.

Lurking... and waiting for lunch.

Daddy Long-Legs spider.  For additional information see here.

Herbster ("tornado alley") camping 2010.

We felt slightly out of place. The small guy on the block. The little brother.

This was the great part of the two days we spent in Herbster on the beach.
Sunny and quiet. 

 

Additional proof the summer is not over.

 

The next morning. The campground was emptying and the rain was falling.

The weather forecast called for occasional showers. We held out until 5:00 p.m.
  We waited for a break in the showers. Packed and headed home.

Leaving for this trip.  Hoping for one more trip before the snow flies. Donna and I decided we have been camping at Herbster for thirty years. On one of the first trips we gave the campground it's nickname 'tornado alley'. It probably should have been called water spout alley. But tornado alley sounded better.

TORNADO ALLEY... how it gots it's name.

On one trip in the mid 1980's. We had setup camp with two popup tent campers. We faced the campers door to door about 10 feet apart. In one camper were the two older boys and their grandmother.  In the other camper mom, dad and kids.

At some point in the late afternoon early evening the weather started to turn cloudy and windy. The skies darkened and the winds built. Across the lake we could see an approaching wall of rain with an occasional lighting flash. 

The storm was coming out of the northwest across Lake Superior. It is approximately 30 miles across Lake Superior to the Minnesota shore.

As the storm approached the winds had the canvas on the campers shaking and the roof swaying side to side.  Everyone had moved inside by now.  Inside our respective campers.  As we watch the approaching storm (not our first in the campers) we notice what appeared to be water spout building....... this was a definite first.

At that moment we realized we were committed there was no where to go. The winds continued to build and the rains intensified while we watched through the windows.

At a point grandma decided it was time for her to move to the other camper with us. As she crossed between the two campers I met her in the middle and asked where the boys were. She said they were sleeping and didn't want to get up. Sleeping! Who could sleep through this? Howling winds driving rains and what sure looked like a water spout...tornado coming across the lake toward us. I jumped in the camper grab the two boys and pushed them out the door toward the our camper. 

Once inside we all huddled together while the storm passed through. At the high point it tore off the canopy on one camper and blew tree branched and other debris through the campsite. 

It was gone as quickly as it had come. No one was hurt and the damage to equipment was minor and repairable. We all got out of the camper and surveyed the damage to the campground.

To this day we don't know if the "eye" of the storm passed through the campground. But on that day as we sat there recovering from the experience my mom said "well this is the last time I'm coming to this tornado alley to camp". 

So Hebster campground on that day became tornado alley to our family. 

My mom didn't stick to her promise to never return to tornado alley. We would often take her there on her summer visits. Sometime just a ride and a picnic. On a few occasions an overnight camp over.  

Now that she has passed she is still with us on our trips to "tornado alley". 

It always brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye when I remember her saying "well this is the last time I'm coming to this tornado alley to camp".

This is not "our" water spout but it sure looks like what I remember crossing toward us that day. 

Fruit crops are coming in. Some good and some not so good.

A fair grape crop if the raccoons had left them alone.

Swenson Red grapes

Grape jams and tomato sauce.

Apples aren't quite ready yet. One or two cold nights should sweeten them up. 

 We have dried (dehydrated) the dropped fruit and have several large jars of crispy apple treats.

The plums didn't fair well this year. The crop was small and some fruit was infected with "Brown Rot".

The apples are almost ready. One or two cold nights should do it.

This is what we have from the cherry crop. Cherry Cordial. Thanks to the expert advise, guidance and recipe from our friends Ed and Terry. A great sweet w..a..r..ming after dinner sipping treat.

This generally wasn't a great growing year this year. Everyone seems to have had smaller or no crops at all. Our vegetable garden was horrible. Tomatoes either didn't set fruit or the fruit that set didn't ripen. The squash performed as usual. One or two edible fruits. Most set then wither on the vine.   Green beans were slow but might be the highlight of the year. We are still getting small helpings every few days from the pole beans.

One very notable observation IMO.  I saw very few if any honeybees foraging. Even with sunflowers and other aromatic flowers the bees weren't here. Although neither were the yellowjackets. Their numbers were also small. Of course weather might explain both of these observations. 

We had an early warm start. We had early flowering but just at their peak we had a cold rainy (sleet) few days. The interrupted flowering cycle might explain the low crops on the fruit trees. 

The most discouraging event of the growing season was the infection of our Mount Royal plum tree. Although it did result in me making a new friend at the UW Madison Plant Pathology lab.  Thanks Brian H.

Brown Rot

Pollinators doing their job.

Remembering Gramma and Grampa Lockhart.

My maternal grandparents Hattie and Joe had a Trumpet Vine on their garage.

I use to pluck the flowers and taste the nectar at the bottom. I never wondered how safe that was. It was a kid thing to do. Sure glad I didn't taste any of these visitors.

Sure must be something still sweet about these flower. Other than just the memories.

Hitch hiker.

This spider has been living and traveling behind my drivers side mirror for several weeks now.


As I travel down the highway it will sometimes be caught "out" and will just hang on until I stop. It will then retreat behind the mirror.


I have been watching this spider for several weeks. Since seeing "my" spider I have notice several other cars with similar webs on their mirrors.

This weeks smorgasbord of photos.

Thank you Becky for the beautiful piece of artwork. This shot from nature made me think of your artwork. The shape, colors and texture. Thanks again.


This guy and thousands of other like it were an all to common sight in northern Wisconsin this summer. An infestation with crop damage.


Not a very attractive moth but still a great photo op.



This is one of the small "crops" of apples we picked yesterday. This branch has produced 10-15 apples each year since it was grafted to our crab apple tree. We had to harvest it earlier than we would have like to but one of our four legged furry friends kept sampling the goods. A bite here and a bite there then drop it to the ground. It took us several days to catch on to what was happening. I didn't know squirrels like apples. They (the apples not the squirrels) sure made a great pie. I'll bet it will taste even better tomorrow.

Do squirrels taste like chicken? Fair warning my furry friends! Meat eaters live in this house.


This has been ID as a Buckeye Tree. Nice call JM. For additional info click here. This photo was taken in Port Wing Wisconsin in a yard.


Thanks to WG (see posts) This plant has been ID as common comfrey (Symphytum officinale). For more info click here. This photo was taken in an open field surround by goldenrod and blackberry canes.

We do love to fish.

My dad would have loved to have had an opportunity to fish with "number 6". I sure do.




Male Calico Pennant dragonfly (see below) on our second most favorite lake. Sawdust Bayfield County WI.

Update: Via Ryan Brady the ID on the dragonfly is a male Calico Pennant.
I think rather than referring to Ryan as "the bird guy" I'm going to refer to him as "the winged guy". It seems if it has wings he knows about it. Thanks Ryan!

Not all visitors to the feeder hum. Some buzz.