St Croix River Road Ramblings

Welcome to River Road Ramblings.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

April 7-8 at the Bird Feeder

The bird feeding season is just about over.  We try to give it up when the birds have other food and the bears tear everything down.  
Our trailcam caught what happens beside the birds at a feeder in our farm yard.  The soundtrack is from a tape I copied from Jennie Nelson of Sterling many years ago.  She and her siblings and mother were "musical."  I don't like to use copyrighted music or my videos on youtube are limited in distribution. 
It starts with a bird feeder tipped over





Then a bird feeder destroyed

Video link
24 Hours at the Bird Feeder

Trumpeter swans are waiting for nesting season to begin on Wolf Creek along Hwy 87

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

2018 Maple Syrup Season -- Slow start

The 2018 spring in NW Wisconsin has been cold and snowy.  We tapped in mid March and over 3-4 weeks have had very little sap run yet.  
April 4th, we finally cooked the sap we had collected since the beginning of season --and got about 7 gallons of syrup from batch #1.  It tastes good, is light color, but was a long time in coming. 
This week is too cold to run sap again, but next week looks better.  
  The woods has from 1 - 2 feet of snow, much of it new.  
To look at some photos of the last week and today (April 4, 2018) follow this link.  If you see bare ground--it is last week, as this week is all snow covered again.  
Maple Woods April 2018