May 2006

May 31st, 2006
   Another Memorial day has come and gone so now the summer season has officially started.  We had nice weather for all of the folks up here in the north woods this year.
  I hope that everyone took a few moments to remember all of people who have given their lives so that we can live in the greatest country in the world. It may not be perfect, but look at what other places have to offer.  Many thanks to all of our troops who are still serving in the military in all of the different countries through out the world.  Remember, we are behind you and appreciate what you are doing.
   Ripogenus Lake is full once again.  They just opened one of the crest gates last night to bring the water level down a bit.  This should bring the fish up the river in good shape, but after talking with a few folks who have fished it, I guess that the fishing has been pretty good anyway.  This will just make it a little better!
  Speaking of fishing, I had one party in who caught 72 trout out of the pond a couple of weeks ago.  They were here for 6 nights and just fished the pond.  It was during the last rainy stretch and they still fished and caught plenty of fish.  They did eat a few, but the majority of them were put back in the pond.  I have seen some very nice fish caught out of the  pond this year.  It just seems to be getting better and better.  Many of the fish caught are now native fish rather than stocked fish.
  They stock the fish in the fall so they have a few months to become wild before the fishermen are able to start catching them. I guess that in many places they stock them during the regular fishing season and they do not taste as good as when they have had a chance to eat natural food rather than the hatchery food.
   The geese had 3 chicks hatch, but I have not seen them since last weekend.  I guess that they did not care for the extra activity down at the campsites.  I cannot say that I am disappointed, I was not real happy about them living there anyway as I did not need the extra work of cleaning up after them!
  The moose and deer are showing up in large numbers again this spring. The winter was an easy one so there should be plenty of deer for the fall.  I have not been out and about much as I have been working here at the camps, but I have had reports of people seeing quite a few bears as well.  They come out to eat the new vegetation along the roadsides and people are getting a look at them, although sometimes it is just a glimpse before they bolt to the woods.
   The mother Robin has a fit every time that I walk across the yard.  She built her nest up in the top of the information board that we have in the yard.  I guess it is a good place to raise a family of little ones, but she does have to learn not to get so excited when someone gets close to the nest.  Jed has been keeping any eye on the little ones and enjoys having them right close by.  I have to laugh at some of her antics when she is upset.  You can tell she is not pleased and would just as soon have  everyone stay 50 feet away!  They will build a nest in the darnedest places though.
   It is now time for me to go out and start cleaning to get ready for the next arriving guests.
GT


May 17th 2006
   It sure did rain here last night.  We had thunder showers go through in the middle of the night and it just poured.  It was the first "good" one of the year and it was quite the light show and noise maker.  I will have to go check our guests that are camped in the tent sites to see how they made out last night.  I am sure that they will have stories to tell, as any time that I was out in a thunder storm I always had something to talk about the next day.  It is amazing just how much water can develop in one of those things, let alone the hail that sometimes will be created when they come through.  All of this from cold air an warm air meeting and with enough moisture and the right conditions, another of mother natures wonders.
   Yesterday I looked out at the bird feeder and there was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Evening Grosbeak, Purple finch, Goldfinch, Blue Jay, and a Chipmunk.  This is not counting the other birds that were not right under the feeder, like the Chickadee, Junco, Nuthatch, Grackles and Robin that were right around.  We also have a Red bellied Woodpecker hanging around here, which is way north from where they are usually seen. 
   The fish are coming good from the pond according to the guests who have been out doing a bit of fishing.  I have some reports of some very nice fish being caught.
   While the lower part of Maine has been flooded, we have been having very nice weather up here.  We have had a little rain but nothing like what has been falling in other parts of the state.  While we were having those nice sunny days with the temperatures in the 70's, they were getting many inches of rain.  I see that it has caused many problems for them down there and it will take them a while to get everything back up and running again. 
  Meanwhile we will take our occasional thunderstorm and showery day and enjoy some good fishing, and wish them the best of luck.
   I had one of our guests tell me an interesting story yesterday as well.  He said they while he was out fishing, he watched a Raven being attacked by the goose.  I figure that the Raven was trying to steal the eggs and the goose put the run to him.  He said that it kept following the Raven and trying to knock it from the sky, even to the point of tipping the Raven over.   I was not aware that geese would do this, but the parenting instinct is very strong in the animal world.
   I see that the folks in the campsites must have made it through the night ok as I just noticed them trolling past the dock, trying for some more fish!  That is the way that things should be, take life in stride and do a few fun things along the way.
GT

May 12th 2006
  Another great day here at the pond.  It was raining off and on, and sometimes the sun even came out for brief periods of time.  It seemed warm enough so it was not too bad.
   I have to tell you about our trip to town yesterday.  We needed a few groceries so Jed and I headed out to make the trip down.  We picked up what we needed and started back to camp.  Along the way I noticed something black up in a tree.  You know how it goes, you see something, but it does not register for a few seconds.  I told Jed that it was a bear up in the tree, so I stopped and backed up to check it out.  Sure enough there was a young bear that would weigh between 50 and 80 pounds up in the top of an Ash tree.  It was just sitting there looking at us, just as unconcerned as could be.  It finally started to continue with the reason it was up there, to eat the new leaves that was growing on the upper limbs of the tree. 
   Now the top of this tree was kind of small and the bear looked kind of big to be playing around in it.  I kept watching and waiting for it to fall out of the tree with some of it's antics, but I guess that it must have much better balance than I do.  It would reach out with those paws and grab a branch and haul them in to it's mouth.  You could see it's tongue come reaching out to pluck the tender, new greenery from the limbs. 
   It would sometimes reach up with it's mouth and haul a branch down that was a little bigger than some of the others.  Once it got them bent it would reach out with the paws and bend them in some and re-grasp them with it's mouth.  After several times the bear could then get at the leaves on the very end of the branch.  It was quite methodical in this process and seemed to not be in much of a hurry.
   Sometimes Jed would laugh at the way that the bear would just sit back and relax on one of the limbs where it was working.  Once the thing was even almost completely upside down!
   This is the first time that I have watched a bear eat the new leaves in a tree top.  I would never have guessed that they would eat these and never gave it much thought as to what they would eat in the spring.  I know that they will eat grass, carrion and whatever else they can find for nourishment, but never gave leaves a thought.
   So there you have another episode of entertainment from the North Woods, and it does not take much to entertain Jed and I up here!  But then again, I guess that we could have been watching that square box with moving pictures in it and missed something that Jed will never forget for the rest of his life. (me either for that matter)  No, I did not have the camera with me so I do not have the pictures that I would like to have taken to put on the web site.
GT

May 10th 2006

   The fish are still biting here at the pond, at least that is what some of our guests tell me!  I am trying to get all of the things done that spring brings and have not had a lot of time to go out and try my luck at it.  Jed keeps asking when we can go out.  I tell him that he knows how to run a boat and fish pole and to go for it.  I suspect that one of these days he will do just that and come in with another big fish!
   It has been fairly warm when it is not raining, and we have not had great amounts of rain so far.  In fact it is raining a bit tonight and it still feels warm outside.  It is one of those nights that one wishes he was in a tent listening to the rain fall on the roof.  It is not pouring, just a gentle rain that intensifies at times.  Then again, I am sure that the roof on the camp will not be leaking and there is something to be said about that!  I have spent nights in a tent when the thing leaked and I woke up wet.  Not much fun, but then it was a long time ago and I have gotten over it.
   If I have done everything right, you should be able to click on the picture of the goose and see a short video clip of the last time I went over to check on them.  One of our guests said that the gander followed them all around the pond the other day.  They figured that it was right over their bait and that was why they did not get any bites when it was there.  They said that any big, loon looking bird swimming around would probably make the fish just a bit skitterish!    Mothers Day is coming right up, so be sure to do something special for your mom or wife!  (It is this Sunday guys)
This video clip is about 37MB.
                                  
I still wonder how my garden will fare this year with these birds living here on the pond.  Perhaps they will move after the young hatch out. 
GT


May 4th 2006
   Well, it has been a busy time here the past few days.  Trying to get the camps ready for arriving guests and still managing to get out fishing with Jed.  The weather has been pretty good for this time of year.  We have not had many rainy days, and it has been pretty nice as far as temperature goes, not real warm, but nice enough.
   Lets see where to start.  Jed and I got some of the boat motors ready and he has been going out fishing a bit.  It is hard to find the time between school work and cabin work.  Then when you throw in the fact that we have to stop and cook a meal every now and then it takes up a good portion of the day.
   We did manage to go find a few smelts to eat and that is always fun.  We like to go out and listen to the night sounds and just sit and be next to each other.  He will wander around looking for smelts and just have fun being a 10 year old boy.
  It would appear the we have new residents here at the pond.  I believe that I had mentioned seeing a couple of geese flying around and swimming about in the pond.  Well It would seem that they decided that Frost Pond was a great place to take up housekeeping.  Jed and I found them the other day and the goose was sitting upon a nest with 4 eggs in it.  I am not sure that I'm all that excited about having them as neighbors, but we will try to get along.  (If they try to eat my garden, we will have to discuss it further) (perhaps Jed's dog will come in handy after all)  We walked up as close as we dared and that sure excited the gander.  He was not at all impressed with these two legged creatures checking out his mate and her eggs.  He would hiss and head towards us to try to get us to leave, which I might add that he was successful at doing.  Of course I had to go back to take pictures, so we had to do the greeting thing all over again. It is surprising that after several trips to their space that they will allow me to get so close, although it seems that I have read that they will recognize individual humans.  They have figured out that I mean them no harm and will tolerate me.  Below is what happens if I pass the imaginary line that they have drawn.
           
Now I have to tell you, when these birds are a hissing and bobbing their necks, it kind of gets ones attention! 
   The next thing on the exciting list is a fishing trip that Jed and I made yesterday.  It was a last minute trip that was not even planned, just a boy asking his dad to take him fishing, again.  I try so hard to not say "no", if there is anyway possible.  Kids are only young once, so how can we expect them to grow up to be good people if we do not take time for them when they are young?  Anyway, Jed and I headed out fishing for the evening and it turned out to be one of those evenings that as a father, I will never forget.  Jed managed to catch the largest fish that I have ever seen come out of the pond.  I could go on for a thousand words describing the evening, but as they say, a picture is worth those thousand words, so here is that picture from one very proud dad.

         

By the time we got to take this picture he said that his hand was tired from holding the fish!  It weighed 8lbs 6oz. on my electronic scales and was 26 3/4" inches long!  His comment.  "Dad, I always catch a bigger fish than you do"!
   The there was today's thing.  Jed and the boys from next door, next door being almost 3 miles away, decided that it was a good day to go swimming!  Now remember, the ice has only been out of the pond for about 2 weeks and we have not had any real hot weather!  I guess that they must be tough, because they swam for about 2 hours or more!  They were in and playing like it was July, not just a quick dip in and then right out.  I never remember my parents letting me go swimming this early, it was always after Memorial Day before they would even consider it.  Jed has actually been in swimming 3 days after the ice went out, but it was just one of those short trips in and out.  I thought he might have learned better, but I guess not.  Oh to be 10 years old and living at Frost Pond!

Notice that there are not any leaves on the trees up here yet!                




I am sure that the water must have been cold, but the boys sure did not mind.



So who knows what next week, or tomorrow will bring around here!
GT