Saturday, April 16, 2011

Crane counting today at Crex Meadows

Good afternoon- Hope you are enjoying a warm cup of tea on such a windy, cold day. It is April right??
Well today we did make it to the crane counting at 5:30 am at Crex Meadows. It was hard as the car decide to quite running yesterday in Rice Lake when Mikhaila and I went down for the hospice appreciation dinner! Our lovely friend Linda came all the way ( over an hour ) to pick us up and bring us home! We had a wonderful time at the dinner, the food was fantastic as always!
So we got home at 11:30 pm and then I was bummed because we told the folks at Crex Meadows that we would count cranes as well as  clean-up the grounds today. So while I was sad, trying to figure something out... my daughter goes up to the neighbors and asks if he will take us at 4:45 over to Crex Meadows and surprisingly he said yes!! So we went to bed, set the alarm and got up and put lots of layers on as we would be sitting in a car with the windows open, we also had snow on the ground and it was still falling.  We walked up to the neighbors and well he was asleep and NOT happy to take us. However we did get there and we met up with Alan and went Crane counting! It was very cool, we saw some fly over us, we saw and heard mated pairs, we saw some swans. Overall it was wonderful to be outside listening to all the ducks, geese and song birds talking, especially so early when I am usually sleeping.  When we came back we had refreshments and then we went out and picked garbage. Being I did not have a car to drive out to the original area that we were assigned  Mikhaila and I cleaned the grounds right around the main building and up and down the main road. We found alot of little stuff- tons of cigarette butts and soda bottles, things like that. We got about  4 small garbage bags and a ice cream bucket so we felt alittle better about getting some garbage at least. We had a delicious lunch at Crex, the folks made some tasty soup, salads and sandwiches as well as other things. We chatted with some folks that were up from Hudson. We also talked about things all of us had seen and heard out there. Alan found us a ride home with a gentlemen and his wife who I was told knows a great deal about mushrooms, they also take pictures of  birds and actually when he dropped us off he said he took alot of pictures over in our area. This does not surprise me as we are in direct flight paths for all the birds when they migrate. We always have swans, cranes, geese in the cornfields when they migrate in the fall. There are so many that you can't hear anything but them talking! If you do not now about Crex Meadows please use the link under my favorites and go check  their website out. They always have events to learn something about nature, or you can just hike or drive the roads that go through all the acres of land. It is well worth the trip!
So we had a great day. Things worked out. We met some great folks and Mikhaila got another 6 hours of community service for the month of April, she is up to 12 hours this month alone. Her school is trying to get the kids to volunteer  1 to 1 1/2 hours each for the month of April.
April is the month that has Earth Day events scattered throughout it. However in our family we do not just celebrate Earth Day we try to do something to help the environment as much as we can as often as we can. What are you going to do for yourself as well as your community today? Plant a tree, clean the ditch, clean a park, ride your bike instead of driving. Think about the ways you can do something and try to get a young person involved as well! Please share with us what you did and how it made you and the people around you feel!
Until next time, stay warm as the wind out there is cold! Be a blessing to someone!

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