Garden Update

7 tomato plants, 5 tomatoes (about the size of ping pong balls). Three flowers on the Black Raspberry bushes. The Milkweeds are in flower. Everything in the rock garden is in bloom. The day lilies in front of the house look great - I am going to plant more of them next spring. I like they way they look against the juniper bushes and the house.
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4th of July

BBQ at the boat house with good friends, good food and good fun. Great fireworks, fishing and fabulous weather combined with the almost full moon made for a super weekend.

Wow, here it is almost mid-June. My great cantaloupe experiment failed. I somehow thought that I was a big success having two cantaloupe seeds germinate from the dozen I planted indoors. Within a few days of planting them outdoors, one was dead - the other one gave up the ghost last week -- so much for thoughts of cantaloupe for the neighbors. Four tomato plants still hanging on. Planted the three free trees I got on Arbor Day - flowering crab apples.

There was the banding on 6/2 of three falcon chicks here at Mayo. This little guy seems to have a "get outta my face attitude" - or more likely, I didn't have the camera setting right.
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Little Bill

Little Bill came down to the boat house with Frank and Janet - they were just going to stay the day of 5/23, but ended up staying overnight. We ate at Hillside Fish House in Marshland, WI then built a camp fire when we got back. Little Bill made friends with Sherman, an Island dog - and they chased each other for hours - we were exhausted just watching them. After all that exercise, Little Bill was more than happy to sack out on the porch. He was such a good boy. Here he is with both me and Janet - in separate pictures as we had to take pictures of each other.
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Boat House - Memorial Day Weekend - Janet's Birthday

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Memorial Day weekend and Janet's birthday weekend at the As usual, Frank no sooner dropped his line in the water than he had a bite. I took a half dozen pictures of the catfish before he released it. This is the best one.

No Valmont Owlets to Watch

Snowflake or Dan paid an April Fools visit to the nest - but no sign of Snowflake nesting + no eggs = no owlets for Dot to watch this year at Valmont. I am sad. I think I liked watching the view from the nest box too.
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INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF OWLS

From the International Festival of Owls March 6-8, 2009 in Houston, MN- here's me holding Tigger, a Tawny Owl.

The two eggs were removed on 2/22. They were not damaged. I'm praying that in about two weeks there will be new eggs for me to pray for.
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Valmont nest failure - shades of 2007 - Snowflake stopped incubating the two eggs on Sunday 2/15. She and Dan sat in the nest box all day yesterday (2/18). It was almost like a wake. Dave M. said the eggs would be removed when the owls were out of the box so as not to scare them off.

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