| The Calends of October | It's already October and this resorting season has flown by.......it was the fastest one ever. Why is that, I'm wondering. Could it have been because of the late arrival of Spring weather, which didn't actually occur until the second week of June? Could it have been because of my increasing age? Could it have been because my heart wasn't in it quite as much as it has been in years past? Or could it have been none of the above? Who knows?!?!? |
| October 2nd |
A toast to October: O suns and skies and clouds of June, And flowers of June together, Ye cannot rival for one hour October's bright blue weather. -- Helen Hunt Jackson (circa 1850) What a magnificent day!!! To see the "bright blue October weather" that Helen was referring to, click HERE. |
| October 3rd | Last December Sarge and I heard what we assumed was a bobcat, over near his house at the south end of the lake. It was eerie! As mentioned in the Chronicles twice that month, we tried to get a picture of it on the trail-cam, but we were unsuccessful. However, yesterday Sarge actually saw the bobcat cross Nitke Road near his place, so at least we now know that what we heard last December was in fact, a bobcat. |
| October 4th | If you look back at the Chronicles entry for June 28th of this year, you will be reminded that a Snapping Turtle layed her eggs in the north parking area on that day. (To see the picture of the area, click HERE.) It's unlikely that the eggs hatched and the little turtles left the nest without being seen, so they're probably still in there. BUT, the only record I have for "time in the nest" for snappers is from 2006 when some were layed on June 4th and hatched on August 20th. If it were to take the same amount of time for this batch, they would have hatched on September 14th. I wonder what happens if they spend the winter in the ground like the Painted Turtles do. I wonder if I should dig into it and see if they're still there? Any comments? (PS: See the entry for October 8th, below.) |
| October 5th | Jim, Tim, and Mike arrived last night for their annual Grouse Hunt (year number 18) and just like last year the weather is cold, windy, and rainy, with a chance of snow tonight. |
| October 6th | It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly.......a lawyer appeared on the horizon. (To be continued.......) |
| October 7th |
The nighttime low temp is occasionally getting down into the high 30s (as it did last night) but no real frost yet and we're nearly a month overdue. Last year we had a hard frost on September 18th. The Juncos have arrived in droves and they're right about on schedule. The place is crawling with them. |
| October 8th | Here's the deal on the Snapping Turtle eggs (see the october 4th entry, above): I dug into the nest and found the eggs; there are a lot of them in there. A few of them seemed to be broken and/or empty but a lot of them were round and firm, (click HERE). I took six of them out and buried them in a coffee can full of dirt to see what happens to them in the future, and put the rest back. But I also picked one out, cleaned it off, and cut it open. It contained a fairly mature baby turtle in some kind of an "egg sac" and a lot of other "eggy" stuff including blood. I'm warning you ahead of time that it's not too pleasant, but if you want to see it, click HERE. I'll let you know what happens to the six eggs I put in the dirt in the coffee can. |
| October 9th | Here are two species of Woodpeckers in the same picture. One is a Red-bellied Woodpecker and the other is a Downy Woodpecker. Nice picture Gwen, thanks for sending it to me. Click HERE. |
| October_10th | The word for the day is: cruciverbalist.......cruciverbalist. |
| October 11th | I took this picture yesterday but it definitely wasn't on Little Bass. Click HERE. |
| Columbus Day | Congratulations to Teri (my dear youngest daughter) and Steff, who were married this afternoon at Half Moon Bay on the shore of the Pacific Ocean (about 30 miles south of San Francisco). Pictures will be added sometime this evening so check back here later. |
| October 13th | The wedding pictures (see above) have been slow in coming; all I have so far are before and after pictures of the bride and groom (Teri and Steff), a picture of the bride and groom with my grandkids, and a picture of Teri with her sisters. I'll add some pictures of the ceremony when I get them, hopefully very soon. Click HERE. |
| October 14th | We're nearly halfway through October and still no hard frost. This is getting difficult to believe. Sigh....... |
| October 15th thru 17th | I was in San Pancho from the 9th to the 17th.......and besides that, I had nothing to say. Sorry. But I'm back now, and I still have nothing to say. |
| October 18th | Cabins 4, 5, and 6 are filled with Carlsons this evening, tomorrow Deb, Sandie, and Guy will arrive to fill cabin 1, and then on Sunday Paul and Sharon will arrive to fill cabin 2. |
| October 19th | (See the October 8th entry concerning the snapping turtle eggs.) Some critter dug into the nest last night and either ate or broke open a lot (if not all) of the eggs. Darn! It must be because I didn't tamp it down very well when I covered it up two weeks ago. I think there may be a few eggs left in there so I'm going to cover it up lightly again, then put the trail cam on it tonight and see if the culprit returns. Click HERE. The red cirles show some of the destroyed eggs. |
| October 20th | This isn't surprising, but the critter that dug into the turtle nest was our ol' buddy Br'er Fox. He certainly could be the same one we saw last June on the path between the duplex and my neighbor's house, but if so, he appears to have put on a little weight over the summer. Click HERE. Click HERE to see the picture from last Spring. |
| October 21st | This isn't much, but LBLR is definitely not ready for it.......good thing that it'll be short-lived. Click HERE. |
| October 22nd | GO VIKINGS!!!!!! (And take the Twins with you.) |
| October 23rd | I saw a huge flock of Snow Buntings this morning.......yet another sign that winter is approaching. |
| October 24th | Do you remember that a few days ago I had the trail-cam set up to find out what type of critter was digging into the turtle nest? Besides the fox, look what else I found on it the next morning. Apparently some customers simply cannot resist a camera, even if it's a trail-cam. Click HERE. |
| October 25th | One more snapping turtle entry, okay? (See above, October 4th, 8th, 19th, and 20th.) One of the eggs that were put in a coffee can full of dirt has hatched and dug his way out of the nest. His name is Sheldon and he moves around a little but he's not too active. So now what? Put him in the lake? Click HERE. |
| October 26th | Rumor has it that they're building a Dollar General store in Cohasset where Stan's Grocery used to be. |
| October 27th | Why is a tree in the summertime so much more delightful than, say, a babbling brook.......or anything else that babbles, for that matter? That was a rhetorical question, by the way, so there is no need to respond to it. But always remember and do not ever forget, that "Only God can make a tree" as per Joyce Killmer, who was a man even though he had a girl's name, and even though he was a fool, but a "fool" who could still "make a poem", as he, himself, said in 1913. |
| October 28th | This is unofficial of course, but I believe that we got our first real hard freeze last night; the temp was in the teens for quite awhile. Amazing! And the Loons are still here. |
| October 29th | Oh my goodness!!! My Dear Grandson Josh is 21 years old today. Hey Josh, if you get up here over Thankgiving, I'll buy you a beer. |
| October 30th |
In honor of tomorrow evening, here are two of my favorite pieces of Classical Halloween "type" music. They're both MP3s and they're both rather long (one is about 11 minutes and the other is about 7 minutes) so they may take a few seconds to load. Click on them to listen: A Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky (1867) Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns (1874) Oh wait, here's a third one. For some reason I have always lumped this into the "evil dance" category along with the other two, but it wasn't ever meant to be that. It's much shorter (about 3 1/2 minutes): Anitra's Dance by Edvard Grieg (1875) |
| All Hallows' Eve | This picture, which was taken at LBLR by Sandie Cody a couple of weeks ago, seems to go well with tonight's ghoulish festivities, so even though it was "Today's Picture" awhile back, here it is again. Thanks Sandie. Click HERE. |
