A busy couple of days

Yesterday morning, I once again got ready to lead the “Refuge Excursion Tour”.  In the past, no one has shown up to take the tour on the days I’ve been assigned.  However, I was happily surprised to find three people show up for the excursion yesterday!  I was back in my element of imparting information about the history and purpose of Tamarac NWR.  I had a grand time telling them about how this refuge came about, and the work of the CCC Camp that was located here as the refuge was established back in 1938.

We also visited the Chippewa (Ojibwa) burial ground and spirit houses that are located on the refuge.  The holes in the burial structures are where the spirits of the deceased left the area on their four day journey.  The first day was spent traveling the prairies, then on to the plains.  The third day they spent traveling over the mountains, and on the fourth day, they entered their happy hunting grounds.  I assume that since the spirits of the dead have long ago left, the Chippewa do not maintain these burial sites.

When the white man came to inhabit the area, logging of white and red pines was king.  The harvested logs were floated down the Otter Tail River, and evidence of the Roller Dam Site is near the burial ground.  I then took them on a back road trail in hopes of spotting a wolf, but we didn’t have any luck there.

In the afternoon, I went back to Gary Lee’s Collisions Repair shop, and finally got my driver’s side door handle fixed on the toad.  What a relief it has been not to have to crawl over the seats to open the door.

The Tamarac annual Volunteer Picnic was happening for dinner yesterday.  This is a celebration of the work all of the volunteers do for the refuge.  RV resident and local volunteers are honored for their contributions to making this a welcoming refuge.  With 400 volunteer hours here, I took in quite a haul of thank you items.

Among them is this book written by Kenn Kaufman.  He is well known in birding circles for publishing his field guides to North American Birds.  I’m thinking this will be an interesting read.

But I think my favorite award is going to be this  small Leatherman Tool on a US Fish and Wildlife Service keychain.  It’s very reminiscent of a small Swiss Army Knife I once had.  Lots of little pull-out tools in the handles, and it folds up into a compact little rectangle.

This morning, it was time to do a couple of loads of laundry and hang them out.  A trip to town for groceries was also in order.  Have you ever come home from the grocery store with something in your bags that you didn’t purchase, and was possibly from the person ahead of you in line at the checkout?

Well, this was my little bonus today upon emptying my bags.  Can’t you just imagine me with red and black painted nails?  I can’t even remember the last time I used nail polish, and it certainly wasn’t black and red!  And Minnesota Twins decals?  Spare me, please…  What the heck was I going to do with this?  Then I remembered that my son Andy’s wife, Kelly, is a died in the wool Twins fan.  Aha!  I’ll be heading down to Rochester for my every other year physical at the Mayo Clinic next week, so I think I’ll surprise her with this little gift. 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy