The predicted four inches was downgraded to two, then petered out into possible light flurries for this evening. There's still a light dusting of snow on the ground and solid hopes for a white Christmas in the Twin Cities.

Our hundredth post arrived amidst a dusting of snow, high winds, and temps hovering in the teens. Snow is supposed to be moving in sometime tonight, with an alleged four inches by Wednesday afternoon.

Heard the cackle of a Pileated Woodpecker this morning, and saw a small flock of Blue Jays picking their way through the cherry trees along the road.

Wildlife Spotted this Week:

• Black-capped Chickadee
• Blue Jay
• Eastern Chipmunk
• Goldfinch
• Green Frog (Hibernating)
• Grey Squirrel
• Northern Cardinal
• Nuthatch
• Pileated Woodpecker
  
  A few shots from our Thanksgiving trip up to Nisswa, MN.

MN-95, NE of North Branch.


Lake Edna, Nov 23rd.

More snow and around 29 degrees F. Seems to be coming in waves and sticking to the ground a little more persistently this time (just a dusting so far), but I doubt it will be sticking around past noon tommorow.

Damp streets and fog persisting from morning into the evening. Drove home through banks so thick I could barely see 20 feet in front of the car, riding the brakes all the way afraid a deer (or bicyclist) would dart across 61. Temps must have held in the upper 30's/lower 40's even overnight; not a chunk of ice left on the pond.

More light snow!

Vacuumed the leaves off the lawn and managed to get the majority of the fish out of the outdoor pond and into a basin indoors. Also managed to net up one hibernating Green Frog. Going to attempt to keep him indoors, hopefully keep the temperature of his water at or below 50 to keep him in hibernation.

Now that the vegetation's gone from the edge of the pond, I can see it really needs work. Oh well, that's something to worry about next year.

Grand Marais Recap: Day 2 (Oct 9, 2007)

Sun peaked out over Superior in the morning. The air was still cold, but the wind was calmer than the night before. Saw the fall colors over the hills surrounding Grand Marais and a flock of ring-billed gulls picking their way along the shore.



Cloudier when we got to the Anderson's, but bright enough to do a quick photo shoot down by the beach.



Devil's Kettle was like a waterfall on crack this year. There areas we used to climb around by the top of the falls were under five feet of white water.

Snow! The only accumulation to speak of is a dusting on the decks and rooftops, but visibility was bad on 35W this AM, slowing rush hour traffic down to around 40MPH until we hit White Bear Lake, when everything seemed to clear. Temps in the upper 30's.

Have taken the statuary and the fish put in a temporary indoor pond. Have been scooping the pond for frogs, but have not found anything as of yet.

First snowfall of the year! Light flurries today with a strong wind; temps in the upper 30's through most of the day.

September Rainfall Totals: 8"
October Rainfall totals: 7.5"

Please note that I'm working with an extremely primitive rain gauge and am not even going to attempt to graph rain for particular days in October as we missed approximately one week while off on vacation.