Great day in the Arboretum. Ian had a scout activity this AM, earning his last few badges for his Eagle Scout. Being an Eagle Scout may seem like an anachronism these days, but it’s a lot like work, and for young men I think it’s a good thing to have long-term goals.
Anyway, Stephanie and I took off for the Arb. Lovely day, light snow falling, and not too much snow. There was a wind crust just under the surface that was sometimes annoying, but we still had a great shoe. The beeches are one of my favorite trees, since they’re pretty primitive – same ancestors as oaks, but simpler. They keep their leaves all winter, which makes them stand out in a fairly monochromatic world. So I end up taking lots of pictures of them.
We saw tracks — turkey, deer, coyote (maybe fox, hard to say), mouse, rabbit, voles…it was all there, sometimes all in the same place at the same time. It’s also a good time to see the mounds. The mound building tribes were more active in this area of the country than anywhere else in the world. There are thousands of Indian Mounds in Southern Wisconsin, and those are the ones we know about; I’m sure thousands were cleared and plowed under by unsuspecting Norwegian farmers a century ago.
I’m working on another pair of snowshoes. That virtually guarantees there will be no more snow. C’est la niege.