Some photos from the tour.
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| The pumpkin garden by the cabin needs to dry out another day to plant. |
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| Black Cherries are blooming |
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| Looks greener than in April when we were syruping and some snow was still on the ground. |
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| Wild grapes are getting ready to bloom |
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| The lake is about normal height as the beavers have been loosing the battle with the town crew to plug the culvert. |
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| The sand fields along the River Road look bare from a distance, but through the stubble rows of sturdy soy beans are popping up. |
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| Farmers drill the seed right into the stubble from last year's crop to prevent erosion and save on tractor work. Seems to have sprouted pretty good. The deer have already found these tender shoots and are enjoying them immensely. |
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| A field of winter rye or winter wheat on the sand at the corner of Evergreen and River Road |
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| Wolf Creek comes oozing down the marshes to the north and crosses Evergreen Avenue here, the water on its way to New Orleans for a good time. |
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| A goose pond on 260th 1/2 mile south of Evergreen Av |
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| 86K sits patiently waiting for cygnets |
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| The Sterling Turtle Preservation Society has placed a raft in the pond near the swan for a turtle rest stop. Some folks think it is just a submerged ice fishing shack, but it is a genuine turtle raft with onramp! |
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| My brothers and I worked on these fields many times when we were young. The upper is the old Raymond Noyes farm on 260th and the lower the Bert Brenizer farm on 260th. Mostly we hauled hay bales for Raymond who rented his Uncle Bert's hay field and paid something like 10 cents a bale. He was careful to have an accurate count to pay off Bert, but made bales that were almost 2x as long as the regular square bale. We had to load these monsters day after day in 90's temperatures all for 85 cents an hour. By the end of summer, we could pick up any city kid and toss them from the old gym floor to the balcony (St Croix Falls HS) without even grunting. |
