It Suits Me Just Fine....

Between working more hours and bad (non existent) internet service, I'm WAY behind on both reading other blogs and posting one of my own.  

We've been seeing a lot of wildlife...

Like this Mama Moose and her young calf standing knee-deep (Mom) or belly-deep (calf) in the Bucky Beaver pond.  Mama's still shedding her winter coat, but baby is a lovely chestnut-brown.  

We see bears...  both by themselves or sows with cubs...  every day.  My goal is to get a good photo of a black bear standing up on its hind legs to see what I'm doing.  And... by the way...  as much as I like my Leica camera, I finally ordered from Amazon a Canon to replace my 11 year old EOS Rebel that gave up the ghost a year or so ago.  I have several lens and am looking forward to that camera's arrival next week.

Do you know what this is?

You can tell it's pretty big...  look at that backhoe behind it for size comparison.

It may be hard to see, but those are iron rods, spaced a few inches apart all across the top.  The rest of the apparatus is hollow.

I knew you'd get it...

Remember when you played in a sandpile and your mom gave you her old flour sifter to play with?  Well, this metal box is used to sift gravel.

The smaller rocks fall through the spaces...

And...

the larger rocks slide off and make a pile of big rocks in front of the box.  

What use is this, you might ask?

Well, there's a lot of trail patching that needs done.  The smaller rocks allow more versatility in filling up a hole.  I know they'll be a use for those big rocks somewhere...  nothing goes to waste...  but sifting to attain a more uniform size is what it's all about now.

And...  where does that fill go?

This was one of the bigger "mud holes" on the Lima trail...  I don't know how many (Gator) loads have already been dumped and spread, but it's going to take a lot more before we're done.

I've taken some time to go birding but some really "good" ones come to our feeders...

While I'd prefer getting shots of wildlife in their own habitat, I'll take what I can get.  And this Rose-breasted Grosbeak appeared today.  Such a gorgeous throat...  

Today was my first time this season with a tour group...

We had a school-bus load of pre-kindergarten kids (35 or so) in the morning...  and then the afternoon classes (also around 35) in the afternoon.  There are 2 classes per session and they had plenty of parents along as helpers.  In fact, each group of 16 or so had at least 10 parents as well as their teacher.  They were very well organized.  In fact, we, at the Visitor Center had to do nothing except unlock the door, see that the bathrooms were stocked, be sure the fridge could hold their snacks and water and be on hand for any questions.  This teacher comes every year and she is a delight to work with.  

I think one kid had a melt-down in the morning session, but Miss Tina got that under control real fast.  How sweet that is!

So...  Bill's busy on various projects...  the other volunteer couple have arrived and will be put to work soon...  and I fell right back into my routine...  which is being everything from a plumber's helper to running errands to mowing to ....  whatever.  It suits me just fine!

That's All For Today!