Maple Syruping

On Saturday, Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve had a Maple Syrup and Spring Celebration, despite the fact that the temperature was in the 20s at about 10 AM when we arrived.  As we checked in, we were organized into groups of about 30 for the program (we were sent to the green group).  Matt, Assistant Park Director and our tour guide, met us and led us to the first station along a 3/4 mile walk through the woods near the nature center.  The first stop included the legend of how maple syrup making began- to make a long and engaging story short, a guy left his hatchet stuck in a tree and the sweet "tree water" came pouring out into a randomly placed bucket below.  Matt told us about equipment used to "tap" maple trees (and really any tree that you would like to tap) and the important conditions necessary for sap to run- warm enough days around 40 degrees and cold nights below 32 degrees.  This freezing and thawing along with the movement of sugars to get the trees ready to produce leaves in the spring causes the syruping season, which may only last for a few weeks depending on conditions.  The "tree water" or sap (or "deer Kool-Aid" as Matt suggested) collected from a tapped tree is about 98% water and only 2% sugar.

Next, Matt illustrated how trees move water and sugars through the trunk with the kids in the group- noting the important jobs of the heartwood (strength), sapwood (movement of water and sugars), and bark (protection).  He also demonstrated how to tap a tree (he used an aspen as an example) and allowed the kids to help drill the hole for the spile (the spigot to allow the sap to drip in a collection bucket or bag).  The rule of thumb is one spile per 10 inches of diameter of the tree (e.g., a 20 inch diameter tree could tolerate 2 spiles).

Next we checked out the Doug Hartman Sugar Shack to see the processing of the tree water- basically a big metal vat over a fire all day to cook off the water and increase the sugar content of the remaining almost-syrup.  Once the almost-syrup gets close, most folks move it indoors to a stovetop to keep a very close eye on it as it boils down further.

Doug Hartman Sugar Shack at Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve

 

After the walk, Matt took us back to the nature center where we heard about the final processing and bottling or canning.  Doug, a volunteer, told us that the final product is 66% sugar and 34% water, definitely much different than the tree water.  If you remove too much water from the syrup as it cooks, it will become maple sugar.  The best part was sampling some vanilla ice cream with Barkhausen-made maple syrup!  Delicious!

Forgot to take a "before" picture of the maple syrup drizzled over ice cream- too delicious!

The sugar maple is the state tree of Wisconsin, and maple syruping is very popular for homeowners and landowners, especially Up North.  We buy local maple syrup right from our grocery store, and many hardware stores sell all of the materials you would need to tap trees and collect sap in their own yard.  Barkhausen has about 100 trees tapped on the preserve, the sap from which they use to make syrup for their educational programs.  As you would imagine, it takes a lot of sap to make only a little bit of syrup!

To see an ABC News segment of the Barkhausen Syrup Celebration featuring Matt and Doug, click here.

Last Day of Winter and a Lakeshore Tour

Mom and Dad came to visit to celebrate my birthday last week, and Scott was able to take a day and a half off during the week (since he worked the previous weekend) to visit with us too.  My parents had visited in the Green Bay area last September "on their way" out to the Grand Canyon, and we did a trip up to Door County for their first visit.  This time, we introduced Mom and Dad to Culver's for lunch (Wisconsin fast food including fried cheese curds, by request, and homemade custard!) and showed them around town a little bit- a walk on the Mountain-Bay State Trail, the Fox River in downtown Green Bay, Grassy Island Lights at the Green Bay Yacht Club, Cabela's, and the wolves at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.

  Enjoying the Mountain-Bay State Trail

The main attraction was a Lakeshore Tour along Rt. 42 northward from Manitowoc to Algoma, to check out some towns Scott and I had visited previously during separate trips out to the lakeshore.  We started at the USS Cobia (a WWII submarine) outside of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.  The day was actually pretty chilly and quite windy on the water- so the one real walking excursion we took out to the Kewaunee Light (about a 15 min walk each way) was a little too frigid.  It was definitely a lighthouse-themed day since we saw 4 lighthouses: Manitowoc, Rawley Point (in Point Beach State Forest), Kewaunee, and Algoma, and stopped for lunch in between at the Water's Edge Restaurant inside the Lighthouse Inn in Two Rivers, right on Lake Michigan.  Scott and I had eaten at the Gull's Nest Lounge there following a camping trip out that way last fall, and it was just as delicious this time.  Our last stop of the day was the von Stiehl Winery and Ahnapee Brewery (next door to each other) in Algoma for some wine and beer tasting, and a few bottles to go, of course.  Oh, no wait...our last stop of the day was Culver's for an ice cream!

Manitowoc Light

 Rawley's Point Lighthouse, Point Beach State Forest

 Kewaunee Light

 Algoma Light (looking nice and bright following the paint job last summer)

Teddy had a coupon for a free first day of daycare at The Animal House (the pet center where he is taking his training class), so he had a great behavior assessment report and a fun day playing with the other dogs at daycare while we were gone.  Aside from needing a bath when he got home, he looked (and slept) like he had a great time!

We had a great visit (and I had a great birthday lighthouse tour, on a Thursday!) even though the temperatures were closer to seasonal rather than the gorgeous weather the week before in the 50s and near 60s.  Here's hoping spring is on its way!  

A night at the Meyer Theatre

The Meyer Theatre is a historical gem located in the heart of downtown Green Bay on Washington Street, right along the Fox River.  Opened as one of several theaters in the region in 1930, the Meyer survived hard times, and more recently underwent lengthy restoration efforts to return it's original grandeur.  We were intrigued to find out that the Meyer has hosted big names such as Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and even Liberace.

When I found out country artist Clint Black had a show scheduled in March at the Meyer several months ago, I really wanted to go.  The decision to buy tickets was touch and go for awhile due to a work commitment Scott had over this weekend (sometimes he needs to work a booth at trade shows or other events on the weekends), but he finally agreed to go to the Friday night show even though he had to spend the rest of the weekend down in Milwaukee.  What a good sport!

The theater itself was ornately decorated and felt small and intimate.  We actually had seats in the balcony, but could not see the lower seating level from where we were sitting, so it felt like sitting in the 8th row.  I was surprised that the crowd was pretty young overall- maybe twenties to thirties by my estimate.  Clint Black was most popular in the 90s, so much of the crowd must have been listening to him when they were kids (like me).  The music was fantastic- Clint put on a great show telling jokes in between songs and even mixing in some Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.  He played harmonica along with guitar on several of his songs, which was really cool.  The Meyer reminded me of the typical old-timey downtown theater in my previous haunts (The State Theatre in State College, and The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg).  I really prefer theater venues over the arena-style concerts because parking, getting in and getting out were all a breeze; the only complaint from me about the night was the obnoxious perfume the woman next to me was wearing.  Hope to visit the Meyer again sometime!

  

Clint Black and his band- the two guitarists and drummer have been playing with him since he started.

 

Without zoom you can see the stage facade and the awesome "sky" ceiling in the theater.

We have been enjoying weather in the 50s for almost a week, and yesterday we hit 60 degrees!  I have a feeling this abrupt warm up is short-lived though- the forecast suggests we will be back down to the upper thirties later next week, just in time for spring.  A little taste of May weather never hurt anyone.

NEW Zoo

When we arrived in the area, we immediately saw ads for the NEW Zoo & Adventure Park, naturally thinking that this zoo was a "new" attraction.  With time to discover the vernacular, we quickly learned that the acronym NEW is often used to describe this region of NorthEastern Wisconsin.  Hence, the NEW Zoo.

We thought we would check it out before the weather gets really nice and the crowds come out in force.  Sunday was sunny enough for sunglasses and reached the mid-40s, so it felt fantastic.  The main attraction was the opportunity to feed the giraffes (inside in the winter, but there is an outdoor platform for summer).  We started at the giraffe house and bought some crackers (the off-season specialty when browse is not available) to feed the giraffes.  It was pretty neat- I would have liked to feed them outside where the barrier is a little less intrusive since they have you up on a high platform at giraffe level, but it was nice to have the giraffes to ourselves and not have to wait in line.  Plus, it was definitely cool to stand right next to them and see how tall they really are.  The male (on the left in the first photo below) is about 2,500 lbs. and the female is about 1,500 lbs.  I had a sandpapery giraffe tongue on me!

The bar is in the way of their faces, but they both perked up and were ready for some tasty crackers!

 Up on the stepstool sharing some crackers.  Their tongues are really long and felt like sandpaper.

I thought more of the animals would be moving around since it was a fairly nice day after a cold winter, but a lot were not out and about for us to see.  Scott was really hoping to see the moose since he has not seen one before.  The moose was not completely in view, but we did see him (sort of) laying down below the floorboards of the boardwalk.  Despite the giraffe feeding experience, the zoo mostly focuses on North American wildlife, especially wildlife of the northern landscape such as lynx, bobcat, badger, moose, elk, and black bear.  No timber wolves like at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, but they did have some red wolves that were pretty active.  And of course the kitties (lions and snow leopards) were out laying in the sun.

One of the red wolves

The otters got excited when the zoo gator cart came by- thought it was feeding time.

Prairie dog coming out of his burrow to check out the sunny day

Burrowing owl

Ancient sand dunes and winter wildlife

Last Sunday, we took a ride up to Door County to attend a winter dune hike/snowshoe program at Whitefish Dunes State Park on the Lake Michigan shoreline.  As 1:30 approached, we were the only visitors that showed up for the hike, so we had a private tour from the awesome naturalist, Carolyn.  She led us off-trail through the ancient sand dunes, some over 4,000 years old (according to dating), an area normally not open to hiking without snow due to the sensitivity of the landscape.  We all had so much fun that the one hour tour turned into two!

It's really amazing to see the landscape in an area with ancient dunes.  The base soil is still extremely sandy (mostly quartzite we learned) even though above ground the leaf litter and trees look like your typical mixed forest. The undulating "hills" that you see make you think you are in a mountainous area, but right on the other side is Lake Michigan.  Carolyn told us about the dune formation and the "legs," or the linear structures projecting from the dunes depicting which way the wind was blowing when the dunes formed.  Awesome!

 You can see a "leg" heading off to the left of this dune, which means the wind was blowing in that direction when the dune was formed.

 Soil under this uprooted tree is all very soft sand from the previous glaciation.  Carolyn said that if all the sand from the Great Lakes disappeared, we would have to wait for the next glacier to make sand again.

We saw lots of wildlife and wildlife sign- fresh tracks in the snow (deer, coyote/fox, mouse, mole, shrew, porcupine), pileated woodpeckers calling and feeding up close, as well as 3 porcupines (2 up in trees, and one in the den).  The park actually has a real problem with porcupines- we saw 3 and sign of at least 3 more in a relatively small area.  Whitefish Dunes has a pretty serious outbreak of beech bark disease, which infects beech trees and ultimately causes them to die and break in half.  As a result, they had to remove beech trees within 75 feet of any trails and parking areas for safety reasons.  As a result, the park has plenty of deadwood for woodpeckers (and good den sites for porcupines!), but the forest is changing, especially as the deer browse on most of the new forest growth coming in after the beech.

Looks like a fox or coyote was here!

Good place for a nest?

Porky gave us quite the show- chewing away and not caring about us at all.

Carolyn showed us the site of an ancient village as well- hunter gatherers that inhabited the lakes region thousands of years ago.  They selected this sheltered space within the dunes that protected them from the wind and the elements during winter.  They even carved a walkway through one of the dunes from hundreds of years of walking the same path.  When we stood in the village site, you could hear the wind going right over us, outside the protection of the dune fortress.

 Site of the ancient hunter/gatherer village protected from the elements with dune "walls" all around (above) and the walkway they created from walking through the same spot in the dunes for hundreds of years (below middle).

After the hike, we checked out the ice shelves along the shoreline.  Not as much as I thought would be there, but the water current is pretty strong in that inlet (I remember reading about a decent rip current in the summer), so that probably prevents total freeze.  Earlier in the season, they actually had some ice volcanoes where waves would crash underneath and send a spray of water through the cone, which would then freeze on contact (so cool!).  We saw some cones left behind, but no active volcanoes.

   March 2015

 September 2014

Cave Point County Park is a small Door County park located right next to the state park, so we wanted to check it out.  There are some neat cliffs covered in ice, and several underwater caves that cause a thunder-like crash when the waves roll into them.  Windy and icy, but well worth the stop!  By that point, we were cold enough to head back to Green Bay.

 Cave Point County Park, Door County

Very different from my usual March 1 Woodcock Walk, but still lots of fun despite the cold!