We continue to hear the barred owl almost every day. It’s quite vocal! I spotted it a few evenings ago, perched on a phone line. It was bigger than I expected. We’re hoping to catch a glimpse with a bit more light.
Piper and I saw a muskrat crossing the trail while running this morning.
I don’t remember if we included snakes on the previous list, but garter snakes are quite common. Saw a rather large one right outside the back door a few days ago.
Every fall, my school hires Youth Frontiers to conduct a day-long activity for our eighth graders called the Courage Retreat. I was skeptical about it the first time we ran it in 2010, but they won me over because they were able to win the students over.
This morning, while discussing the retreat with some new faculty members, one of my colleagues discovered a video on the Youth Frontiers site that features our school. These were our eighth graders three years ago, so they are in eleventh grade now. It was a great class.
The video is obviously an advertisement, but it warms my heart nevertheless. I thought some of you might enjoy catching a glimpse of one of the many things we do at SPA. Sharp eyes can even spot me in the background in a few shots.
In case the YouTube link above ever goes defunct, I made a personal copy of the video that should work in perpetuity below. (My guess is that YouTube’s streaming protocols are far more efficient, though, so I would watch the above copy as long as it is working.)
I found this screenshot while cleaning up my computer today. It’s from a Roy virtual get-together on March 14, 2021. Some of us were having fun with virtual backgrounds.
It’s odd to think that in the five+ months since this shot was taken, two of the three Roy-boy families have moved into new homes.
Griffin is joining me at SPA (St. Paul Academy) for seventh grade. We will be driving to school together each day in our electric car. Although I don’t teach him, I will see him around school regularly. We are both quite excited.
I received an envelope yesterday at my new address with a tasteful botanical design. Upon opening it I found a similarly attractive brochure for a “conservation memorial forest” where I can book a spot to spread my ashes beneath a tree to be visited in perpetuity by my loved ones.
It’s the first time I’ve received an advertisement for what to do when I kick the bucket.
We spent the final week of July at Camp Du Nord family camp. This was our third trip, and we all agreed that it was our favorite one. The weather was fantastic, despite the wildfire smoke, and the kids were at good ages to maximize their fun. Oliver had no separation anxieties when he joined his age-group for morning activities, often scampering off to get there early before Sarah and I were ready.
Some highlights of the trip included:
The only bummer about the trip was the smoke in the air from the Canadian wildfires. It was pretty intense, often making the sun and moon appear orange or red.
We also had some insane red squirrels who would drop pine cones on our cabin every morning at around 6:00. They sounded like gunshots as they ricocheted off the steel roof!
I know that I should be posting more about our trip to Du Nord, but I wanted to provide an update about some of the wildlife that we’ve seen and/or heard at our new home.
I recently posted about the wild turkeys that Piper an I encountered on a nearby trail. It turns out that the turkeys are pretty ubiquitous. It’s a rare day where we don’t see or hear some of them in the yard or on the trails. We frequently see a family of nine strutting through the yard. Here’s a list of other wildlife that we’ve encountered recently:
We’ve also spotted lots of scat in the woods, much of which we don’t recognize yet. We’re learning quickly, though, and intend to continue developing our understanding of the local fauna.
On our final night at Camp Du Nord, Griffin and I played a tremendous game of Yahtzee, with five yahtzees between the two of us!
Piper and I went on a lovely walk along the trails across the street from our house. Highlights included wildflowers and some wild turkeys.
In the following video clip, you can see two poults fly up into a tree just as we come around the bend. Then a third one struggles to get aloft and follows the first two.
It was a lovely Sunday with a mix of productive and leisure activities. Griffin had a good friend over. I spent time exploring Menards and figuring out how to setup our wired and wireless network. Sarah and the kids went on a walk. We met some friendly neighbors. Lots of small things were checked off our to do lists (e.g., new cord for garage light, locate water valve for fridge, replace flickering lights, program garage door remotes, etc.).
