The calm before the storm

Tonight is the calm, but unfortunately I see the horizon and it looks like it could be trouble in the future. This semester I am teaching a 5-week accelerated hybrid class (AHY). We will meet once a week for three hours and the rest of the course is online. Officially classes start next week but the AHY class is already in week 0 and reading chapters for the first day of class. I still need to finish the syllabus for the other classes this week, but I am feeling fairly confident. I am working with local businesses to have my Spring 2010 Bus 101 students visit a company to talk about HR and be involved with a employee satisfaction survey.

Christine is reading a book tonight, so I finished the last edits of November pictures from the Sakaguchi visit. If I was not a procrastinator by nature I would argue that I delay picture editing for at least a couple of months in order to look back and reflect. It was an awesome visit by my sister and her family. Steve & Bill are awesome family and Abi is definitely a cutie!

East meets West: Junco Style

Every winter the bird feeders around the US are regularly visited by Juncos. One species of Junco is the Dark-eyed Junco. Subspecies of the Dark-eyed Junco include, but are not limited to, the "slate-colored" and "Oregon" or "east" and "west" Junco. The slate-colored subspecies is most often gray, with some small variations and allowances for brown and pink coloration. The Oregon subspecies on the other hand is very vibrant and has extensive brown/pink on the flanks on the back with a black or gray hood that strongly contrast the side flanks, belly, and back . (If you open the above link there are pictures of both subspecies on the bottom.)

When east meets west and the help of a little Barry White, we get what may be a cross of the two subspecies, or a "Cassiar Junco"(Junco hyemalis cismontanus). That is the consensus to the identification and clarification of subspecies seen in these pictures by inquiry on the Wisconsin Bird Network. It is awesome having individuals with the same interest to bounce ideas off of, and in most cases these individuals are more experience birders with allot of knowledge. A great thanks to everyone on WisBirdN.

While I find this topic fascinating, I have to wonder which of our family or friends even sees anything other than a bird.

Grandma, Grandpa, Three Shirts, & a Furlough

I hope everyone had a safe holiday season and a happy new year. It has been a while since we posted. Christine stayed in MN with the girls for an extended visit. Another week remains before Spring semester but I've had too many meetings, deadlines, and new preps to get done comfortably in a short amount of time.

So, this post is mostly about Michaela and how she helped me take a break.

Michaela has been missing family since returning to Marshfield on Sunday. She woke up Wednesday crying and wanting to visit Elizabeth. We had a short talk about how wonderful it is to visit family, but that it is a long drive and that we cannot drive back and forth every day even though it would be great if we could. Michaela liked the idea of sending Elizabeth a card so Christine assisted and we got one in the mail.

Thursday Michaela woke up crying for Grandma and Grandpa. She was not very specific to which one or what she wanted to do, nor did I ever find out, as that topic quickly changed when she threw-up on me while walking up the stairs. Michaela started crying, not because she threw-up, but because she made a mess on my sweater and her pajamas. A quick wash and 20 minutes of snuggling and I thought she was in the clear. She was watching TV on the couch when it came up a second time.....cottage cheese from the night before.....but not like you imagined! It was very solid and looked like it may have hurt coming out. Anyways, that mostly came out on the second sweater for the day leading me to grab a third shirt and requiring Michaela to get her hair washed. She cried harder getting her hair washed than anyone other time that morning. By the end of this ordeal it was already lunch time and I decided to stay home and take a furlough day. I am mandated to take one before next semester started anyways..so a day at home was what the doctor ordered.

It was a welcomed break and awesome to spend time with all three of my girls. I am not sure how Christine can keep her sanity with them all day, Michaela doesn't like being outside in the cold but also goes stir crazy inside...even when sick. We are definitely missing the open gyms and children's museum in Madison this winter. By the end of the day Michaela modeled Christine's wedding ring as a toe ring, decided that they should ride her new horse, and Danielle and Michaela played hard before they stripped off their clothes and ran to take a bath.

Christmas Card Shoot

Thank you everyone for the Christmas cards, they are great to open. We hope everyone has a safe and fun filled holiday season. On the day we took our Christmas picture we meet a man out for a walk. He was very nice and agreed to take a few pictures for us. He absolutely loved the girls, having grown children of his own but no grandchildren, and was a joy to talk to.

We had fun taking pictures of each other and the girls before Michaela's nemesis arrived, a puppy off the leash, and gave her a big wet sloppy kiss. The day was done, after quite a few tears Michaela only wanted to go home. It was an absolutely stunning, warm, and awesome October day to be outside.

Reindeer, Doorknobs, & Finals

If you guessed, "What are the weekend activities of a new home-owning professor with young children at Christmas time" you should be on Jeopardy.

Main street Marshfield, a non-profit group, is working at drawing people back to newly renovated central avenue. Last night we went for a horse drawn buggy ride. It was quite possibly the coldest night in the past 10 months. Today, in much warmer weather, we visited three reindeer. The girls loved both sets of animals.

The last six doorknobs are installed downstairs. No more concern of Michaela or Danielle locking us out of a room. Menards had a $4 rebate on $6 closet doorknobs, so it was time to change them all to matching silver.

Marshfield had 8-10 inches of snow Tuesday night / Wednesday morning. A stiff wind made plenty of drifts and bad driving conditions Wednesday. I went in to campus to work a bit, not surprisingly it was very quiet.

I am not sure when I will get caught up, so for the time being this is the only other picture I have looked at/edited out of 24 days of photos. Since Tuesday night.

Canceled Classes: Time to edit pictures

I was grading homework tonight when I received the email that campus is closed today (at the time tomorrow) due to forecasted blizzard conditions in southern and central Wisconsin. Like so many other times in my life when I should be thankful for a break and take the opportunity to catch up, I instead decided to procrastinate school work and edit pictures instead.

I uploaded over 100 edits, mostly from June and September. While I realize that spending much time on pictures three months old has little value except personal satisfaction, I do enjoy looking over them and recalling past memories. Michaela was and remains today very proud of her wedding dress.

IS there any wonder why I call Danielle Monster sometimes!

Mead Wildlife Area - Volunteer Day 2

I canceled two class Friday of last week and took one of them, my environmental economics class, to Mead Wildlife Area again to volunteer. I absolutely loved the day outside at the Mead, having found a new favorite location to bird and get outside.

While I admit that I partially enjoyed the day getting out of the normal classroom and being outside, the joy I experienced was not superficial as a result of a day off. Three students out of five and myself joined two wildlife technicians out in the field with shears cutting buckthorn and applying herbicide on the stumps. We worked hard at identifying the buckthorn, which was a challenge since the leaves and berries recently fell off. When in doubt we cut it down, better safe than sorry.

I hope that this service learning project will make an impact on the students. With any luck this experience will instill the value of volunteering, environmental stewardship, and land ethics. I will finish the class project next semester with a survey, but this setback should have little if no effect on the pedagogical goal of the project.

After volunteering in the morning and lunch a student and myself jumped at the chance of a tour of a handful of managed flowages on the property. I could not contain myself and asked which ones would be best for Bitterns and Rails. We had no luck at finding a Rough-legged Hawk, but they should be around soon with migration.

Growing up with many outdoor experiences and memories I now realize how little I actually know about nature, being previously content with the peace of mind experience of being outside. Having spent two days with four different wildlife technicians, the DNR educational facilitator and DNR Mead WA supervisor I am reminded of our different knowledge specialities and my true lack of knowledge when it comes to nature. It is truly refreshing to have a conversation with someone where the enthusiasm and love of the subject mater is evident in almost every sentence. Thanks Bill!

With the recent involvement I was invited to join the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Mead, a volunteer organization that strives to raise funds for capital improvements at the Mead WA. I am eagerly looking forward to this volunteer opportunity, but cautious towards a large time commitment!