Pigeon Lake Experience

For one of my biology classes we went on a field trip to Pigeon Lake this weekend. It was a lot of fun! Friday afternoon I went on a "Forest to Bog" excursion. There were some awesome instructors along and I learned a lot about birds, trees, plants, and bogs. We got to hear a grouse "call" (the sound actually comes from the beating of its wings). If you have never heard this, it is amazing! It starts out sounding like a really low thunder but it has a particular cadence. The sound waves are so low that you can hear it from a mile away. If it's close, you can actually feel the vibrations in your chest cavity. The male grouse is doing all this work to attract a female! That evening I also went frogging. We waded around in boggy water with flashlights and learned how to identify the different frogs and the sounds they make. At times, it was almost deafening! All in all, a very fun field trip, despite the rain and cold.



Day two: no shower, rains, etc but LOVING every minute!

Happy Birthday Fucie!

Confuscious is nine today. Wow. How time flies....

Our yard is like a box of chocolates.....

you never know what you're going to find!

I don't know what kind of naughty kids lived here before we moved in over a year ago, but they have made life interesting!

When we first moved in, we found all sorts of interesting things inside the house- pieces of G.I. Joes in the various heat vents/ducts, barbie heads (yes, just the heads), cigarettes stuffed everywhere(ewwh!), plastic beads,... I could go on and on. Since we moved in (during a snowstorm) in December, we had no idea what lay in store for us in the yard.

I really wish I had of taken pictures last summer. I would bet that we found an entire 100 piece Mega Block collection stuffed into the flower beds and lawn. Skott managed to find almost the entire collection of the cast of "Cars" movie buried, and I mean buried, in the grass. And don't even get me started on what was underneath the two porches.

It became a fun little joke. Whenever one of us would find another buried treasure, we would creatively place it somewhere that the other was sure to find it. A competition was born on who could find the most Mega Blocks (I think Skott is ahead but he had an advantage since I was gone all summer).

My nephews came over one day last fall and really scoured the lawn and fire pit area for junk. We thought we had seen the last of the Mega Blocks and cars....

until the snow started melting this spring.

I mean really, where are they coming from?

This is what we have found so far, and that's without mowing the lawn or raking all the leaves.

Mario head anyone?

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out that I got the Plant Community Ecology summer internship that I have been crossing my fingers for(and if my toes weren't so sausage-y I would have crossed them too!). I am SO EXCITED!
I will be working at Cedar Creek Reserve, which is north of Minneapolis/St Paul (about 2.15 hours from here). I will be living at the reserve during the week and coming home most weekends. I am looking forward to having some quality summer time with my husband and family, as last summer I was gone the ENTIRE time... and even though my experience in Oregon was truly life-altering, I felt I missed out on a lot here at home.
This internship is opening up many doors for me including a possible student research assistant position for one of my favorite professors at the University.
A good news day!
Here is a link to the reserve:
http://www.cedarcreek.umn.edu/