It was a grousy morning … clear skies, only 25F and a heavy frost. Molly and I had travelled over to our small cabin in the first lake of the Hudson Bay Watershed yesterday afternoon. I needed to drain and water system before the season’s cold froze everything up. This meant a refreshing dip into the lake (we pump lake water), followed by crawling under the cabin to disconnect pipes to drain the system at its low points. When we arrived at the cabin yesterday evening, the temperature was in the mid 40’s … inside and out. Obviously it was necessary to fire up the wood stove (our source of heat) quickly!

However I was allowed to play in the morning before doing my chores. For me this meant a trip deep into the Pine Island State Forest near the Canadian border. Per normal once I drove west on the local roads from Big Falls, nary a car would I see for hours. It was fun to walk within a few feet of some Spruce Grouse. These birds are notoriously dumb, and if you are lucky enough to bird somewhere that the grouse don’t get hunted much, getting close is not too difficult.

Upon getting back to Northstar Lake, a Ruffed Grouse decided it wanted equal time. This bird was enjoying some sun on my driveway. It is also a bit more touchy when it comes to humans. My forest road gets hunted, and this grouse seems to have learned to spend time on my driveway (not out on the forest road). I have seen this particular bird often.

Finally, here is an image I took at sunrise this morning in the Boreal Bog. Heavy frost was evident, and standing water had iced over.

In closing, we are going out to dinner this evening  at a local bar near Marcell tonight. They have water to do dishes *rather than me lugging it up from the lake), and we may use their bathrooms before reverting to our outhouse later tonight!