Dinner in Appleton

Yesterday, Travis picked me up and we drove to Appleton to meet up with his sister, Katie, and her boyfriend, Pete, and Travis' best friend's mom, Marla, for dinner. Marla is basically Katie and Travis' second mother; they all have a long, goofy history together.

Marla has recently relocated to Peru, but had to come back this past month due to the passing of her mother. Travis and I had helped sort through some of her parents' house (they were sort of hoarders) and Marla gave Travis her old car as she had inherited her mother's basically brand new one. She leaves on Tuesday, and this was sort of a farewell dinner.

We went to an Indian restaurant called Sai Ram in Appleton, where Katie and Pete live. It was very good food, and I think all of us went home weighing 10 pounds more than when we had come in. After we ate, we had a bit of a photo op (I had brought my camera, figuring Marla would like some pictures of her with Travis and Katie to have with her in Peru,) and the ensuing 15 minutes were full of laughter and tears.

County Fair

Just got home from the Marquette County Fair volunteer orientation dinner!

I will be the clerk for a whole mess of categories grouped into one, having to do with people and social development (similar to what I study in school). You can see the list of all the categories here, I will be working with #17, 29, 32 and 33 I think. Basically, I will check-in every entry, and then record the place/ribbon they receive. Should be an interesting time, and I will be able to meet all kinds of people!

Wildlife

Today, while out on a short bike ride, I suddenly saw a BLACK squirrel! I slowed down as I approached the tree he was climbing and took out my phone to take a picture. As soon as I got off my bike and started looking up the tree, he had vanished. I didn't hear the smallest rustle nor see the faintest hint of a black squirrel tail. I spent a good two or three minutes looking around for him, but gave up. So, unfortunately you do not get to see the awesome black squirrel I saw today (although you can see what he sort of looked liked here, but he was a bit fatter, more like this one.)

This reminded me that I had not uploaded the pictures of the giant snapping (maybe?) turtle I rescued! Here he is:

He may not have actually needed rescuing, but I did him the honor anyways. I was driving off after volunteering with the historical society, when I saw this guy crossing the road! You can see by comparison to the cigarette butt, he was not small cookie, and he was just strolling along in the middle of the oncoming lane. I pulled over, fearing his untimely demise by someone texting whilst driving (tsk tsk!) Unfortunately, another person had seen him as well, and he stopped in the middle of the lane, waiting for the turtle to "cross". What a dummy, as soon as the car was there he stopped walking entirely because the car was all loud and giant. Seeing that the other driver was just going to wait around all day, I scurried across traffic and picked him up by his very rear shell area so as not to get snapped. I ran him across to the sidewalk, and he had to sit through a short photo op (which he was clearly unhappy about...) I wish I had gotten a photo of his tail, however, it was huge and I got a Jurassic Park feel just by looking at it!

Aside from this turtle incident, there have been many turtles wandering around the campground and I have had to move several tiny (as in the size of a quarter) ones off of the mini golf course and into the safety of the trees (only after they had suffered the wrath of my leaf blower, however...) A boy came to show me a turtle he found the other day as well, but unfortunately it was a dead baby painted turtle, it's shell still soft from recently hatching.

Moving away from reptiles, we have a bit of a frog problem at the campground swimming pool. Yesterday morning Kathie (one of the owners) scooped out 10 little green frogs from the pool, and I later removed another 7 (6 still breathing) from the pool skimmers. It was the same story this morning too, I guess they like the warm water at night. They say the chlorine will kill them, and unless they get to the steps they can't get out, so we can safely say that we save lives every day :)

At any rate, all kinds of fun critters up here! Hopefully Kansas will offer more of the same.

Long time no see!

It has been a busy couple weeks, and sadly I haven't posted for awhile! A lot has happened that I need to write about, and as I have time available I will.

Travis and I have been planning and getting ready for our move down to Kansas, and Dad and I took a road trip down there Monday-Thursday this week. We found a place and sent in our applications, and I will write more about that once I know for sure whether we will be living there.

In other news, I made it into the local paper! The Marquette County Tribune, a weekly paper, featured the bell raising I mentioned in one of my other posts about the historical society. My name and a picture of us raising the bell pole is now posted on the bulletin board at Kilby Lake Campground (my workplace) for all to see. I guess there isn't enough going on in the area if they needed to post a big picture of us raising a pole...

As for upcoming events, I have been asked to volunteer with the county fair, and will be a "clerk" who records fair contest entries. There is a dinner and orientation next Monday and I will be working there July 6th and 10th. Should be fun, and I will take some photos since this post is clearly lacking in that area.

Finally! A Deer!

I FINALLY captured a photo of a deer today!

I was driving down one of the campground paths on the golf cart, absorbed in the Harry Potter 7 audio book, when suddenly a big mama deer ran out in front of me! I slowed and stopped, and saw her fawn still on the other side of the road! Since I was in the golf cart, he wasn't afraid of any noise and I was able to use my phone's camera. Here are the shots I took!

Hopefully, I will get some better ones as summer progresses.

New Rat Cage!

I can check off one of my summer goals off the list! Yesterday, Dad and I put together the new Ratland!

My original plan was to find some sort of base (plastic or metal) and then design a frame around it. We started at Home Depot in the Wisconsin Dells, and discussed using a big cement mixing pan (plastic) with some rubber coated chicken wire. I wasn't entirely sure of this idea, so we kept looking.

We drove to Baraboo because I needed more pet bedding (and there are no stores near Dad's that carry the right kind) and we found a neat store called Pet Supply. It is run by an older couple, and they had all kinds of interesting critters! The usual hamsters and fish, but also GIANT pythons and tarantulas! They also happened to have a used ferret/chinchilla cage for sale, $75, that would work for that rats. After some deliberation, we decided to keep looking in order to keep costs down.

We went to Farm and Fleet, and stumbled upon a gold mine of pet cage ideas! First, we looked at the pre-made rabbit cages, which are sold separate from plastic bases of various sizes. Then we started coming up with all kinds of cage wall alternatives, including using grill grates or cooling racks. Both of those ideas were a bit pricey, and we kept our eyes open for similar looking products. Eventually, we went to Menards and discovered exactly what we were going to do.

At Menards, we found some Rubbermaid metal shelving units, 4 and 8 feet in length. We decided that we could use two of the 4 foot ones ($15 each) that we would cut in half, and a 24''x24'' plastic base that we saw at Farm and Fleet, all held together by wire cage clips meant for building rabbit hutches. The total cost of this was about $45-$50. The following pictures are the completed project!

Weekend Recap

A lot has happened since I last wrote, and I didn't take many photos so I'll just give a quick recap here.

Wednesday, after MCHS, I drove out to Oxford to the Eyes of Hope animal shelter, where I will be volunteering weekly this summer. I met Kris, one of the owners, and all of the dogs who are currently at the shelter. I walked a good number of them, and was about to take out the cutest little gray miniature poodle when it started to rain and he told us he wasn't interested in walking in that. Kris showed me how to feed the dogs, and gave me a list of times I can come and walk/play with the dogs every week. Hopefully I will be going again this Friday.

On Thursday, my new friend Phil invited me to come with him to his students' end of the year party. We refereed a flag football game, danced around and had a generally good time with some 7th and 8th graders. There were all kinds of yummy treats (cupcakes, brownies, etc.) and some kids were part of a cool whip eating contest that ended with the first to blow a bubble from the gum buried in the cream!

I worked on Friday, then saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie at the local theater. It is small, 192-seater that was reopened several years ago. They show one movie a night for about a week (every night at 7 pm!) before switching to a new one. On Friday, On Stranger Tides arrived and the theater was really busy. The ticket was only $5, and I got a medium popcorn and medium soda for $3.50, so my entire night out cost as much as buying a ticket at one of the big multi-plexes. The movie was good! I own all the other Pirates films, and if you liked them you will certainly like this one.

After I got home, Auree surprised me with another mouse. He has captured many of them so far this summer, and I was able to save this one from being killed. I didn't know Auree was such a good mouser! Dad says Auree brought him another "treat" this weekend when I was out of town. This is a photo of the mouse from Friday; he had the cutest big brown eyes.

Travis' Grad Party was on Saturday, so I left work and 1 o'clock and Dad and I drove (separately) out to Sturgeon Bay. Dad was able to meet lots of Travis' family, and despite the misty cold weather, we had a pretty good time. Us young folk spent the evening and night around the fire as it got colder out, and Travis' little brother Avery entertained us all by giving us "Indian names". I was known as White Eagle and Travis was Tiger Fang (and we figured together we made White Fang). Unluckily, I had to work on Sunday morning and therefore had to leave Sturgeon Bay at 8 am since it is a 3ish hour drive from home. Travis woke up late (he didn't get to bed until a few hours after I did, maybe 3:30) and then had to hurry to Madison where he is living for the remainder of the summer.

MCHS Bell

Today at the Marquette County Historical Society there were more preparations being made for the Strawberry Ice Cream Sociable, which is coming up this weekend! Joanie (one of the main ladies) had the idea that we should put up a bell and when people make a donation, they get to ring the bell! So much of today was spent figuring out how to attach the bell in a place it can be easily reached.

The bell was donated by Joanie's family, and she and I worked on getting the bell ready for display (cleaning, painting, etc.) The men set to work,

designing how the bell would attach to an old phone line post, and how that would attach to the small school house building.

The ringleader in this group was the Historical Society president, Greg, who ended up on the roof and was aided by his son (Shannon?) for most of the heavy lifting. Personally, I went up and down the ladder, delivering things like screwdrivers and screws but spent most of the afternoon observing.

I also spent some time taking artsy photos around the property, so the following are for your viewing enjoyment.

Horseback Riding

On Monday night, I spontaneously drove out to Algoma to visit Travis and company. We stayed at his mom's new house, which is out in the country just outside of Sturgeon Bay. His mom (Kim) and her roommate (Terri) just bought two horses! One of them (Tuff) is about 11 and was bought because he needed a new home, and the other one (Maddy) was rescued and has yet to be broken. Travis, Avery (Trav's little brother) and I all got to ride Tuff on Tuesday evening! The following are pictures from our adventure.

Terri's son Wade is in charge of the horses for the most part, and he taught me how to get on and how to steer. He can be seen in several of the photos, guiding us around the yard and making sure we didn't lose control.

It took a little bit of persuading, but we finally got Travis to ride as well. He had been busy grilling (using that as an excuse) and once he was done I requested that he get on with me. Neither of these shots are very clear, but you get the general idea.

After this quick photo-op, I got off (my thighs were killing me! You get a HUGE leg workout trying to stay on a horse bareback!) and Travis had his turn walking around the yard. I was taking pictures, when suddenly Tuff turned and Travis fell off. This one is of him laughing after he pulled himself back on (I had stopped taking photos because I was worried he was going to fall off, but I should have kept going! Kodak Moment.) At any rate, riding the other day was a good learning experience, and now when we visit Kim and Terri, we will know how to ride! I guess there is a trail just down the road from the house where we will one day be able to ride both (or more, if they get them) horses. Hopefully we get a bit more practice in before then...

Page Creek Marsh

Today I decided to take my bike out for

the first time this summer, and luckily there is a nearby nature preserve which I figured would be a nice short warm up ride. As it turns out, I was wrong. When I looked up Page Creek on Google, it looked like it was just a little ways down Dad's street, and I was sure I had passed the little bridge before. The round trip was just over 7 miles, and I had been thinking it would be more like 3. At any rate, I biked the 3.64 miles to a little entrance (something you drive by and don't notice). You can see my reflection, bicycle helmet and all, in the glass.

Due to it's hidden location, I got the feeling that this place isn't visited too often. It turns out that it is used as a hunting ground, but there are supposed to be all kinds of birds in the marsh during summer. I had prepared much better for this trip, by actually wearing walking shoes and long pants, but I couldn't find the bug spray. The actual path was less than inviting: clearly overgrown and no sign of recent visitors. I went along anyway, hoping to spot a deer or a neat looking bird. There were spider webs galore, but luckily you could still clearly see where the path was supposed to be, so I didn't get lost. About 5 minutes into my hike, I was brushing the thousandth spider web from my arm when A DEER! suddenly sprinted off into the woods. I had been too preoccupied with the spiders to notice, and missed seeing anything but the back of him.

As I walked deeper into the woods (where was this marsh, anyway?) the bugs started encroaching more steadily, and I had had it when a full blown spider web was blocking the path (not just a wispy strand, like most of them, but a whole thing with a spider having a snack in the center.) Upon noticing him, I also noticed 300 mosquitoes that were trying to attack my jeans, so I turned around and headed back without seeing the actual marsh. Another day, when I have bug spray on, I will attempt it again!

The creek itself, however, is visible from the road and I biked down to the tiny bridge to take some photos and look for interesting wildlife. There were several birds making a ruckus, but I didn't see any. The creek was pretty neat, and I saw a fish grab a bug on top of the water.

On my way back home, I stopped at a huge open field (which I think is actually a part of the nature preserve) that was FULL of these awesome, aromatic purple flowers. I was sweaty and tired, so I didn't stay for long, but I did manage to get a few shots. As I was biking away, I saw several monarchs fly towards the field. I will have to stop again and walk through to see more butterflies.

John Muir (take One)

After Dad left for dancing tonight, I decided to take a quick trip out to the John Muir Memorial County Park, about 20 min out further in the country from Dad's house. I planned as far ahead as to bring some bug spray, but didn't bring tennis shoes (I was wearing flip flops and a dress since it was 90 degrees out!) so I wasn't able to hike the whole trail. The park is located on a small lake that John Muir apparently spent his youth living on, and you can see more about it here.

When I got there and parked the place was deserted, and I started along a trail that headed down towards the lake. I hadn't looked at the trail map beforehand so I didn't know the best place to begin, and this seemed good.

As a followed the neatly cared-for trail around, I noticed that all it seemed to do was wind back around to the parking lot. I thought to myself, "This can't be it! Muir was supposed to be the father of national parks, and all he got is this stupid short trail?" But then I saw a sign a ways down and realized I was wrong. I hadn't even gotten on the actual trail yet, this was just a nice "warm up" area where the elderly might take a short stroll. The real trail is much more like a hiking trail, and my sandaled feet weren't prepared after being pampered with the neatly trimmed grass.

I followed this trail along, over a small bridge, and around the lake and a smaller pond. It then led into a more wooded area, and as I was headed there a lady came walking from the other direction with a small group of dogs. It was startling since I didn't think anyone else was out there but me. She pulled her dogs into a small nook and I smiled at her. The dogs were all staring at me, and as I passed, she said, "we are working on our manners..." and suddenly all three dogs went wild and tried to attack me. Their cords were held tight so they didn't manage to get near me at all, but clearly they were not used to being around other people.

Once I got into the thicker trees, the smells and sounds were overwhelming. There were all kinds of animals chirping and squeaking and rustling out of sight, and the various wild plants held a floral aroma. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, until I started to encounter more flies and other bugs the deeper I got into the woods. I was really hoping to see some wildlife (besides squirrels and robins...maybe a deer?) and luckily a tiny red squirrel scampered in front of me and up a tree with a nut. I managed to get a few slightly blurry photos of him, but for some reason there was a mosquito intent on landing on my one open eye while I tried to photograph the squirrel.

I decided to turn back and come another day when I was better dressed for the occasion. Disappointed I didn't see a deer (I had seen THREE on my drive over!) I quickly made my way out of the trees and back into the meadow. As I pondered how to capture deer photos, I came upon the turn to the small bridge I had crossed earlier. My flip flops were flippity flopping, and suddenly A DEER! scurried away through the brush! He was too quick for me to see clearly and the brush was thick there, but it was definitely a deer! I have decided that I need to wear quieter shoes, because I could have creeped up on him otherwise and stolen a photo.

Anyways, my plan is to go back sometime when Travis is visiting, and hopefully I will have a photo of a deer to show by then!

Swimming!

The other day when it was really hot out, I had planned on going down and putting my toes in the water off of Dad's dock, but it turned out the water was too low and if I had wanted to get in the water I would be trapped and unable to get back out. Today, dad solved that dilemma! He quickly went to work on building me a ladder for climbing in and out of the lake! Dad spent the afternoon taking photos of birds (and of me) while I floated on my raft. The following are pictures from today:

Here is Dad working on the ladder in his workshop.

Here he is putting it in the lake!

Here is the ladder in the water!

Before I got my sunglasses...

After I got my sunglasses!

Rescuing a dragonfly from a fish-bellied fate.

Madison (avec Jessie)

On Tuesday, I drove down to Madison to visit my best friend Jessie! I picked her up from her work, the Concourse Hotel downtown, and we went and got sandwiches at Milio's, the one I worked at in 2007 on Regent Street. It was a beautiful day, sunny and 70s, so we decided to eat outside. We drove over to Vilas Park and ate our sandwiches by the water. The wind was blowing pretty hard and our sandwiches nearly flew off the table! But we spent a good 20 minutes catching up and chowing down until deciding to go walk around the zoo. This photo was taken when we were eating lunch:

The zoo is under a bit of construction, and many of the habitats have cha

nged since I was there last. We saw my favorite exhibits though, the big cats and the penguins! There is a new lion cub at the zoo and he was cute to watch. He kept trying to play with his parents (who were uninterested) and he was practicing his pouncing (like Simba does with Mufasa in The Lion King). Lots of people were standing by watching him when we arrived and were still standing there as we walked off.

Afterward, we drove around and reminisced about our past lives in Madison, remembering stories as we drove past familiar places. A friend of ours is getting married this summer and they just bought a house, so Jessie and I drove by there so I could see it. Turns out it is not too far from our old house (which is up the street from her parents' house) and it looks very nice from the outside. She hasn't moved in yet since they are not getting married for a few months, but I think she has been planning and buying things for the move.

We then met up with Jessie's boyfriend and put our toes in the water at the swimming pool by his apartment. I ended up driving back relatively early, but it was a good thing because I didn't see (or hit!) any deer!

MCHS

I just got back from my first visit with the Marquette County Historical Society (MCHS)! I worked mostly with Joanie, an older lady who led the group today. Also there was her husband (I've already forgotten his name!), MCHS president Greg and his wife Mary, and a few others who trickled in and out the few hours I was there. The people who I met today were all at least in their 70s.

The historical society consists of a historic house, built in 1902, along with a big storage facility they use as a museum and a recently moved schoolhouse that is under repair (John Muir's family attended there). Inside the house, they have period furniture and a variety of artifacts from Marquette county from the past hundred years or so. Right now much of the house is being reorganized, they recently emptied out the attic of things that had been stored for the winter. This summer I will be helping reorganize much of the clothing, re-bo

xing it and taking inventory along with clean and organize the rest of the house and exhibits.

First thing we did today was some office work, the ladies worked through the mail and membership dues while I made some copies.

I helped move a fainting sofa up the tight staircase into one of the bedrooms, and then we worked on getting the museum area ready.

Coming up on the 11th of June, they are having the annual Strawberry Ice Cream Sociable, which I will be missing. We were pulling out exhibit items and finding out what was still needed for the Sociable. Next week we will doing some more of the same, and hopefully I will get to do some inventory!