First Day of Summer.... Longest Day of the Year

Day begins early up here in Northeast Maine...

One of my game cameras...  catching me heading towards it to change out the memory card....

Note...  the time is 5:37 am...  today....  first day of summer.  Early, right?  But then...  look over on the left...  temperature...  41 degrees F.  What the heck?  You might remember that I spent the first day of winter in Costa Rica...  temperature was around 95 degrees.  You might also see that shorts and sandals have been replaced with jeans, boots and a winter jacket.  

It's been raining here...  Wednesday was a total washout for me as far as work went.  I had plans for trail maintenance in the morning...  then starting a paint job in the afternoon.  Haven't gotten to either of those jobs yet.

Yesterday, Bill & I drove out the back way of the refuge to Williard School Road...  Bill took the weed eater and tidied up the various Aroostook NWR signs and kiosks denoting the various entrances to the refuge.  Then on to Ouillette Additon (probably spelled wrong, but pronounced "Will-ette"...  we're in a French Canadian area... lots of French names here).  That kiosk is one Bill designed and built a few years ago.  It's still in good shape; holding up well.  And, of course...  that's Bill knocking down some of the fast growing weeds.

On the drive over we had to stop for some pedestrians crossing the road...

No photos of the road-crossing...  but here's Mom, Dad and the 8 goslings.....

While they aren't tiny fluffs of feathers, they are grown enough that they might make it to adult-hood.

Lots of critters have babies...

This cow (Mama Moose) and her calf were in one of the ponds yesterday.  Kind of caught baby in an awkward position, but that's pretty mucky stuff they're walking in.

That same pond has been the hang-out for this bull...

If you or I were caught doing this, our Mom's would have had our hides!

He had just pulled his head out of the water and water runs off everywhere!

It was raining when I took this photo, so maybe I could have gotten a better picture...  but...  heck, I'll take what I get.

Today, I caught a bull...  probably the same one...  just past the beaver dam....

No rain today...  well, maybe a few sprinkles now and then...  but for the first day of summer, it hasn't been too bad.  Right now, at 7:45 pm it's 61 degrees....   no sun, of course, but no rain.

I would have included a photo of myself this evening...  I look like a teenager with zits...  but those aren't zits.  I have dozens of mosquito and black fly bites on my face,head and neck .  I've scratched them until they bled...  then scratched off scabs because they still itch.  I wake up in the night hearing the bzzzzzz of the damned things...  I pull the sheet over my head hoping to avert more bites.  But when I get up in the morning I have a dozen or more new itchy bites on various body parts.  When we enter or leave our motorhome we hurry...  we never leave the door open for any longer than we have to.  We spray some bug repellent...  but, having lived here several times in the past we know what we're in for.  We also know that in a week or so these critters will be gone.  Nevermind that the moose flies or something else will be out to get us then.  

What more can I say?  First day of Summer!  We'll see when summer actually arrives here and I'll be sure to note that day in my blog...  and when I write "that day", I'm serious....  one day might be all it is.  And, you know what?  We don't care....  we love it here!

That's All For Today!