Of Books and Boys and Other Stuff » cabin lore

Black Bears in the News (and in Aisle 5)

W.H. Beck — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:39 +0000

The very first animal I wrote about in the Follow That Food Chain series was a black bear. She and her cubs were in the proposal that ended up selling and becoming our habitat series. So I have a special fondness for them. And living in northern Wisconsin, you see black bears. Sometimes in the woods, maybe in your yard, but…in the grocery store?

That’s right, last week a black bear wandered into the Marketplace in Hayward–a place we’ve shopped many a time while at the cabin. He lingered in the liquor section. Here’s the clip.

Of course, the joke around here is that this was the Hamm’s beer bear. Does anyone remember this guy? Or was this just a local commercial?

And now I’ve got that song stuck in my head…

Guess Who?

W.H. Beck — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:05:18 +0000

Do you know what these are?

Colonel Mustard came across them on the shore of our lake right in front of our cabin. He thought they might be bones. They’re not. There were about 50 or so, scattered and curled around a shallow hole scooped out of the shore.

That’s right; turtle eggs! At first, we were afraid something (a raccoon?; hopefully not our dogs) had dug up the nest in the night and feasted on them. The shells were pretty scattered around on shore. But later, we were poking around the water’s edge near the nest and we found this guy.

So at least one survived. (Don’t worry, after a short stay in our critter keeper, we sent him back out into the world.)

So what have you found on a walk lately that stumped you at first?

Keeping Our Critters

W.H. Beck — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:04:51 +0000

My mom’s a genius. (Most moms are—it just takes a while for us to realize it). Look what she made my kids for the lake.

Mr. E and the Critter Keeper

We’re calling it a “critter keeper.”

Some background: our cabin is very much a “cabin” and not a “cottage”. In other words, there’s no carpet, cutesy northwoods décor, or even a TV or a phone. It’s much more akin to camping than what most people call their “cabins.”

At the cabin, Mr. E and Colonel Mustard love sloshing around the weedy, muddy shore in their tall boots, exploring, fishing, and catching things. For the last few years, we had an old aquarium that we’d fill with water. They kept their critters there—snakes, toads, frogs, salamanders, fish, water bugs, you name it, for the weekend. But it was a pain to fill the tank, and we’d always worry about adding fresh water to it, feeding whatever was in it, or if it was in the sun and the captives were getting too warm. Not to mention that it had a big crack in it and we were waiting for the day it’d break.

But no more! Nana came through with the critter keeper, which she ingeniously designed out of some window screen, garden stakes, and a chain. She sewed a loop around the bottom, threaded the chain through, sewed the screen in a circle, and added sleeves for the stakes. There’s no bottom. All you do is unroll it and stake it where you want it—land or water. The weight of the chain pulls the screen down to the bottom. Of course, it’s not perfectly escape-proof, but since we always release our animals anyway, we’re okay with the occasional fugitive. Now we’re got a pen for our finds that stays cool, keeps fresh water available, and even give the critters access to a snack or two—all in their natural environment. And when we’re done, we pull up the stakes and roll it up for the next weekend.

Thanks, Nana!

Aunt Ruby, Nana, Colonel Mustard and the Critter Keeper

Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Rolly Polly Fish Heads

W.H. Beck — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:34:58 +0000

Colonel Mustard and I went for a canoe paddle around our bay. We landed on a sandbar to hike around. Aside from crunchy, empty snail shells, gobs of goose poop, and murky puddles full of jelly globs of eggs and squirming wrigglers, we came across lots and lots of…fish bits.

What do you think picked these fish apart? We searched around for clues. We think we’ve solved the puzzle. What’s your guess?