Fall seems to be closing in. Woke up to much cooler temperatures. 43℉. Evidence of a hard frost. Time to put up food.

Well the good news is we did get an Apple crop. The bad news is the apples were not the best of quality. There was a fair amount of insect / disease / cold weather damage. These five apple were better than most.

Picked and ready to process.

Last batch waiting to be processed later this week.

This is our food dehydrator. It does a great job dehydrating fruits and vegetables.  Notice that it has 10 stackable trays.

Here is one of the stackable trays with apple slices dehydrating.

Apple chips nearly ready for storage.

This will be the next crop we will pick and process. Maybe later this week or the beginning of next week.

This is what a nice bunch of grapes looks like. Although they all tend to start out this way many  unfortunately don't end up looking like this.  Between the birds, squirrels, and raccoons we loose a lot of the best fruit to the wildlife.  

Some get away with it.

SOME DO NOT and GET A TRIP TO THE COUNTRY

This guy is waiting for transportation. Heading out to "the summer home" to spend time with the first two that took the trip earlier in the week. Three trapped this year 4 trapped last year.

This how I found him early in the morning. Just lounging around waiting for someone to show up. Although they might look cute and friendly they are NOT.

This guy just charged me as I approached. Snarling, growling and baring his teeth. NOT friendly NOT friendly at all.

Rising waters. Nature's engineers. It ain't Hoover but it works.

 Nature's dam.

 Beaver den.

 Dammed up waters. The den and dam are to the left in this photo.

 Hard to believe.

 Even harder to believe.

This tree across the trail it the top of the trunk in the picture above.

Capture and convicted. Sentenced to transfer to National Forest. Moved down the food chain.

GUILTY!

Found guilty of stealing the 2010 grape crop. Sentenced to death. Commuted to life in the National Forest.

Why does a bear cross the road?

Answer: I still don't know I was to busy getting the picture to see what the bear was doing.

Look close it is there near the center of the road. These photos were taken through the windshield.

A photoshop version of the shot up above.

A 200x photoshop version of the top photo.

Four fawns. One Mom?

The question is.. are these four fawns siblings, cousins, adopted or unrelated.

Although this is clearly not one of the better photos I've taken and posted it does have four fawns with one adult.

They were all grazing together at the back end of a field.

There was one other adult in the field but it was a least half a field away and didn't seem to have any association with the four fawns.

What do you think? Anyone know how common it would be for four fawns in one litter?

This yearling bear doesn't read street signs. Sandhills in the woods?

I guess I need to spend more time surveying the tree lines along the fields.

Another day another bear.......or two.

The bears go to town. A visit to 9th and 9th West.

Wildlife galore!

Otter with a bluegill for lunch. This photo was taken on Marengo Lake by Carol Seago. The pancakes and fresh home made maple syrup was great. Thanks Carol and Brian.



Redtail Hawk leaving it's perch.


Bald Eagle in the Prentice WI area along Hwy 8.


Bald Eagle in the Prentice WI area along Hwy 8.



American Kestrel along Sanborn Ave south of Ashland.


Northern Harrier hunting the fields south of Ashland on Sanborn Ave.

Coyotes.

These Coyotes were photographed at the back edge of an 80 acre field with a 400 mm lens. This field has been one of the best place I know for seeing and photographing wildlife. I've seen and photographed eagles, coyotes, bear, hawks, turkeys, sandhill cranes, harriers and deer to name a few. In fact I've decide to add a new label to use with these photos...hwy118

Light snow day. Visited friend.

To work and back.

Spotted these turkeys on the way to work yesterday morning.






On the way home I spotted this guy.


This guy was trying to cross Sanborn Ave east to west north of Hwy.118 He /she was very patient.

After 10 minutes or so of sitting and waiting it decided to run south along the ditch. Popping up here and there. Eventually it disappeared..... I waited and waited from a distance expecting it to popup and cross the road.

After 10 minutes or so I decided to slowly drive closer to the spot where I had last seen it. I knew it hadn't turned east because there was open field.

Where had it gone? Ok! I know you're there. Just one more photo. Several slow passes along the ditch from the opposite side of the road and no luck. Ok you have to be laying in the grass and waiting.

One more final pass along the ditch on the east side of the road. Where are you? You have to be kidding! A culvert a 4 foot wide culvert passing under the road east to west.

No bear just the culvert.

NO I didn't get out and look but I'll bet this bear has found a safe way across Sanborn Ave.

Update: Well curiosity got the better of me so I drove back to the culvert to see if it pass straight through and was large enough for a bear to pass. Sure enough it went straight through. I'm sure it was the bears escape route.