A Short Synopsis of our Spring Break Vacation

As I have mentioned before, people's vacations aren't of much interest to others.  Besides, this blog is about my life in Princeton, Wisconsin and not 1500 miles away.  So as not to bore anyone, I will just post a brief photo travelogue of our Spring break vacation.  We left for Florida in late February while there was still some snow on the ground.

 
Although it was a fairly mild winter by our standards, it was still nice to get a break.  We had two full travel days and arrived in Gainesville Florida on the third day.

My husband's only brother lives there, and we don't see them very often.  It was a great two day visit with a lot of laughs and good food.  They know how much I like wildlife, so they planned a trip to a hiking area.  I was told we would probably see some four legged wildlife, but probably not any deer.  I was a bit suspicious and then I saw this sign as we entered the trail.

I didn't see any wild horses or bison, but I got an adrenaline rush when I saw the alligators basking in the sun.  I took a lot of pictures.  Fortunately they seemed content and didn't mind.  It's a good thing because my husband and his brother would have run faster than me and my sister in law was smart enough to stay the furthest away.  I could have been a hearty meal.

The next day we left Gainesville for our destination.  We rented a place on Anna Maria Island Florida with my sister and her husband.  We had never stayed in this area before and found it beautiful.  The sand was white, the water was aqua, the weather was warm and sunny most of the time and the island contained many interesting sights.

We took several day trips over the two week period.  One was to the Kennedy Space Center.  It was interesting to see a history of the U.S. space program.

We traveled to another beach near Sarasota, Florida.  This beach was called Siesta Key Beach.  Although the Anna Maria beach sand was white, Siesta Beach had the whitest and finest sand ever.  It is 99% quartz and was cool to the touch.

On the way back, we saw an unexpected surprise in Sarasota.  It was a gigantic sculpture of the Surrender Kiss.   Everyone remembers this famous kiss but we were so surprised to see this in a 25 foot high sculpture.

Some days we just explored the island.  There was a free trolley, so we could move from place to place without having to drive or park.  We visited the main city pier where we had lunch.  I had gulf shrimp which were delicious.

We listened to music and watched the pelicans.  They were pretty tame and quite the nuisance to the people fishing on the pier.  They would wait for the people fishing to turn their backs to the stringer of fish, and the pelicans would try to steal them.  I thought they were beautiful.

We walked the beach every morning.  Everyday we would see a new bird or find a different type of shell.

Almost every night we would walk down to the ocean to see the sunset.  The days were warm and sunny and the nights were cool.  It made for beautiful sunsets.

It was an awesome relaxing vacation.  Now we are back home.  The snow is gone and hopefully Spring is on its way.  It will be a wonderful memory, but I am happy to live in our quiet little town in Wisconsin. Even though the weather today is gloomy and rainy, I was greeted by ducks swimming on the pond, Sandhill cranes and best of all our bluebirds have returned for the summer.  

A lonely wood duck on a dreary day.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes walking around in the rain.

He's a little wet and soggy, but he is patiently waiting for his mate to arrive.

Winter Tubing At Nordic Mountain

It's February 20, 2016, and we are having a February thaw going on here in Wisconsin.  Today the temperature was near 50 degrees.  The snow is melting and there are puddles everywhere.  I was a bit surprised when my daughters told me they were taking the kids Snow Tubing.  I asked them how they could tube when the snow was melting so fast.  They said that the ski hill makes snow, and they have a deep base.  It was a perfect day to tube.  We decided to take a drive to watch them for a while.  It must have been a perfect day because the place was full.  They were at capacity, and there was a waiting line.

Entrance sign to the ski hill.

As we drove in, we saw the tubing, snow board and sking hills were all busy.

Get your tickets here.

View from the road.

We pulled into a very muddy parking area, and one of our daughters met us.  The kids had already taken a couple trips down the hill.  We were able to walk over and watch the process.  There were a lot of families but several adults were there playing without any children.  There was a lot of fun to go around.

My husband, daughter Heather and myself

Sam

Ewan

Dylan

Sarah and Jack

Before getting in line for the tow rope, read the rules.  If you die, it isn't their fault.

Waiting in line for the tow rope.

After a short time waiting in line,  it was their turn.  The tubing hill employee attaches the rope, and they pull you up the hill.  It looks like fun to get pulled slowly  up the hill.

 
Once they were at the top of the hill, they had to wait until the people below were out of the way. 

Then back up the hill again to wait in line.

This trip everyone goes down the hill holding on to each other.

Once at the bottom of the hill,

they all pile out of the tubes for another run.

It was a fun day.  I would think everyone is very tired from all the walking and fresh February air.  It does my heart good to see our daughters and our grandsons having a day to remember.  Our only granddaughter Melissa was busy today.  She had dress rehearsal for their upcoming high school play.  I'm sure she didn't mind.   What she was doing was just as much fun for her.

Feeding the Deer Properly or Not At All

When I am wrong, then I say I am wrong.  In my defense, a person can't know everything about everything.  I had a rude awakening this morning.  I saw a video piece from a zoo in Wisconsin.  They were talking about how important it is for white tailed deer to be fed properly during the winter.  As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I love seeing the deer.  I feed them a small amount of corn everyday.  Many of the counties in Wisconsin don't allow feeding at all, but our county does.  I always felt fortunate that was the case.  Little did I know, I was literally killing the deer with kindness.  The video said to check out more information from the Wisconsin DNR webpage.  So that is what I did.  http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/documents/winterdeerfeeding.pdf  To my horror it said that the worse thing you can give deer is hay and corn.  It went on to mention the reason why.  It said that corn is what most wildlife lovers offer deer, and even if it’s labeled “deer corn",  feeding corn to deer is about the worst thing you can do.  Unless you’re trying to kill the deer.  The deer build up a hearty fat layer during the spring and summer.  Then in the fall, when there isn't as much food available, they start using up their fat reserves.   By late fall, deer instinctively reduce their food intake and continue to do so through most of the winter.  They mostly eat bark and leaves to get by.  Deer digestion is a finely tuned physiological process.  They have just the right combination of microorganisms, enzymes, and pH to enable the deer to digest a normal winter diet of woody vegetation. When offered a sudden supply of corn, a deer’s digestive system doesn’t have time to adjust to a high carbohydrate diet. The result can be acute acidosis sometimes followed by death.  At the time of death they can appear normal and well fed.  It’s just that they cannot digest the corn.  Corn and hay alters the environment in the rumen.  It turns it acidic and destroys the microbes needed for normal digestion.

I recently heard from a facebook friend that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was found in her county in Northern Wisconsin.  When this happens they ban all feeding of the deer and even the birds because the deer eat birdseed from the feeders if nothing else is available.   Apparently feeding the deer attracts large amounts of deer together and therefore it can spread diseases more rapidly.  Our deer are pretty territorial and the same few deer live in our woods.  We don't get very many new deer venturing into the space.  I see many more deer grazing in corn fields along the highway.  I guess they can't read the guidelines, and they don't know that they are breaking the rules.

Late February and March are the most dangerous time for deer unrelated to traffic causes.  Their fat reserves are almost gone, and it is the time when most deer die.   The guidelines suggest that if you do decide to feed deer then you should use a special high protein mixture made for deer or horse, goat or rabbit pellets.  You can also feed them oats.  So guess what I'm doing today.  I am going to buy some different food for the deer.  It would break my heart to have them come for their evening snack, look up at the window and then have nothing from me.  I don't think I give them enough to depend on me for food or spoil their digestion, but I don't want to do them any harm.

Go Go Beach

As much as I like babies, I really love that my grandchildren are growing into really good young people.  They each have their own personalities and interests.  I have written about all five of them many times and will continue to do so.  This blog is meant to document our life and the life of our family.

Last night we attended another school play.  This time it was Dylan's turn.  I wrote about his part two years ago as Oliver in 7th grade.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/03/oliver-twist.html

In 8th grade he sang a solo of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from Pirates of Penzance.  The play consisted of a number of mini plays in an original story written by their director.  I was amazed that he could sing that fast and remember all those words.  He did not inherit that ability from me.

Now he is a Freshman in high school.  In high school you have to pay your dues, and he was cast in a smaller role.  There were only a dozen speaking parts and a dozen chorus members.  Most of the cast were upper classmen, so we were proud that Dylan was the only freshman boy in the play.

The play was called Go Go Beach.  I really enjoyed it because it took place on a beach in Southern California in 1966.  It was a comedy about fun loving beach kids with all their teenage struggles.  The struggles for teens were very different back then but equally difficult.  Parents from the "greatest generation" were raising kids who were questioning things.  It addressed Viet Nam, the hippie culture and civil disobedience.  One of the girls sang a song called "Don't Look the Other Way" with the lyrics "The world's a swirl of colors/It's not just black and white/And it's very hard to understand/What is wrong or who is right."  They are kind of appropriate lyrics no matter what decade we are living in. 

Dylan is second from the left next to the geeky character named Einstein.

I am sad to say we won't be able to attend another play my granddaughter Melissa will be in soon.  They are in rehearsal now.  I sure hope someone else takes pictures.  She is also a freshman in high school,  and fortunately I did get to see her in My Fair Lady about three months ago.   http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/11/high-school-musical-my-fair-lady.html

I am looking forward to seeing all of them as they pursue their interests.  In fact, we are off to a basketball game soon. 

Mama Deer Has A Foster Child

We have seen kindness shown in the animal world before.  We have seen mice and elephants as friends.  We have seen an orangutan taking care of tiger cubs, a mother cat nursing a puppy and a dog taking care of a young squirrel.  This isn't quite that dramatic, but it was fun to see.

A few days ago I noticed a young deer in our yard.  He was all alone and couldn't put weight on his front foot.  He also had a sore on his other leg.  He walked on his tippy toe, but managed to run with less of a problem. He ate a little corn and went off into the woods.

You can see the bulge just above the hoof on his left leg. 

A short time later I saw a coyote sniffing the deer trail.  He was twenty feet from our dining room window.

I got the camera and he looked right up at me.

Then took off on the same path as the deer.

 
I was worried about the little deer because he couldn't run as fast as he normally could.  A short time later a neighbor posted that she saw some deer scared by a coyote.  I can only assume it was the same one I saw.  The past few days we have not been home at feeding time.  Like clockwork the deer come in for a corn snack between 4:00 and 5:00pm.  It is usually the same mama and her twins.

The family of three.

They have certainly grown up during the last nine months.

They were newborn fawns last June, 2015

I was more than tickled when I looked out the window tonight.  We put the corn out and at 4:07pm the first two deer came across the frozen marsh and past our window.

The mother deer usually gives the twins some lead time but stands in the thicket for a while waiting.  I think she wants to give them some independence.  Soon she makes her way to join them.  Today, coming behind her was our injured deer.  The coyote hadn't gotten to her.  She was putting more weight on the foot but it is still very swollen.

Soon they were all eating happily together.  Mama deer is usually very protective and chases off all intruders while they are eating.  Today she let the injured deer eat with them at the corn table.

The injured deer is in front with the dark ears.  You can see the sore on her back right leg.

They ate the corn very quickly.  It doesn't take long for four deer to eat a couple small scoops of corn, but if everyone in the neighborhood does the same, these deer are very well fed.

"Please  Sir, Could I have Some more"

This one was still hungry and came right up to the window.  I told him he had to wait until tomorrow, so he walked away.  Stay warm little family.  I will see you tomorrow.

NEW INFORMATION:
http://www.thecabincountess.com/2016/02/feeding-deer-properly-or-not-at-all.html

Let's Make a Marshmallow Shooter

My daughter and her husband are required by the state to take classes to maintain their professional licenses.  It is called CE or continuing education.  It is very important for them to stay up to date on the latest information to keep patients safe.  Each class is different.  Some require many days of education and others require a day or two during the weekend.  Last weekend our daughter had to go to Milwaukee for a class so we watched her two sons Jack and Sam.  The boys usually ask to do a project with papa.  I have written about previous projects, but the workshop is cold and hard to work in during the winter.  They came up with an indoor project.  They made Marshmallow Shooters.

Before picking up the boys, we stopped and bought some supplies for the project.  We needed some 1/2 inch PVC plastic tubing and T's, elbows and caps to fit the tubing.

Given the measurements, the tubing had to be marked to the right lengths to prepare for cutting it.

Next step is cutting the lengths with the special cutting tool.

 After cutting, the shooter is ready to be assembled.

And there it is, a Marshmallow Shooter.  

Now, will it work.  A mini marshmallow is placed in the long tube,
and then you blow as hard as you can.

The soft marshmallows didn't fly too far, and they bounce off anything they hit and aren't harmful. 

Jack was wearing as little as possible.  We are freezing with socks and sweaters on, and Jack is running around shirtless and barefooted.  I guess the key to keeping warm in Wisconsin's winter weather is to keep moving, which he does.

The entertainment only lasted a short time and then it was back to electronics.  At least we made an attempt to do something fun.  However, the older kid in my house (AKA husband) is enjoying it.  He found out the marshmallows go further if you let them dry out a bit.  So now he scares the squirrels off the bird feeders and if he misses, which is most of the time,  it provides them with a special marshmallow treat. 

This Marshmallow Shooter is almost as much fun as his Potato Shooter. 

It doesn't take much to entertain some people.