This and That Weekend

St. Croix National Scenic Riverway - Spangler's Landing Area
I finally stopped along the river today to take a few photos. It was pretty day, but no canoes or boats in sight.

Gus, Lois, Wanda, Wally (Dad)
Gus took us all for a Rhino ride on Monday to see some work the foresters are doing near his cabin.
A bulldozer is being used to raze the land and according to some county employees who were mowing in the area, this is to prepare for the planting of trees from an aircraft. I sent an email to the county forester this evening asking for more information on this program and am wondering if they will plant this fall or in the spring. It would pretty interesting to be there when the trees are planted.
Information from the Polk County Forester:
The site that you speak of was planted and replanted starting in about 2003. The survival of our plantings have been poor for several years now due to droughty conditions and deer brouse. To get trees growing on this site we are now resorting to scarifing the site (exposing mineral soil) to create a favorable seed bed for jack pine seed. Jack pine seed is unlikely to germinate if it is not in contact with mineral soil. I know it looks extreme but we are committed to regenerating pine on these sites. This spring as the snow is melting we will be aerial seeding jack pine seed on the site, if we get good moisture next summer the seeds will germinate. If you have more questions feel free to ask. Please greet Wally and Ev for me. Sincerely Paul Pedersen

Dozed area. We think the seeds will be dropped from an aircraft into these flat furrows.

Okay, we had some good entertainment during happy hour on Sunday night. I happened on a blog via my blackberry, that was written by 2 Danish young people who had vacationed from coast to coast in the USA last summer. It was all written in Danish and Dad was able to translate most of it for Ev and I. We had lots of laughs over my version of the Danish and also how these Danish kids had written about the 'wild west' and all the Americana that they saw on their trip. Dad hasn't used his Danish for many years, but he gave it a good workout reading this blog.

Sandhill Crane

I stopped at Glenn's Lake Cottage on the way home to drop off a couple of items and spied these two Cranes in a field on County Rd KK. Wish I could have gotten closer. They were in no hurry to leave, but were a little too far away for a great pix.