Opinion

I see none of you has found the button for turning off the wind machine. I’m still searching too.

Bigmouth Buffalo Fish: “I am not a Carp...” Checking out the surging, cascading fishway at Marsh Lake I couldn’t help but notice the extended schools of huge carp, their fins slicing the surface of the water, their snouts poking upstream. Only thing was, they weren’t carp! They were Bigmouth Buffalo, a very similar looking but entirely different species from carp.

Spring is Sprung. Or has it? They say it’s Spring.

My son, who is currently stationed overseas, seems to have acclimated so much to his environment, he has a hard time with remembering what time of day it is in the United States. And so phone calls happen very early in the morning. Most often moments after I actually wake up. The early morning calls are the worst. While I’m an early riser, I’m not a functioning morning person. I need to recover from sleep with at least a good 15 minutes on the sofa with the dog and some coffee before anyone engages me in conversation. Alas, he calls and starts the conversation with “So how is your day?” Only to be met with “Dude, I literally just woke up. I haven’t had any day yet.” Every time, and yet it’s routine now.

Pre-Garden Efforts & Anxiety A friend asked me if I’d been out gardening yet. I assured him that, “Yes, dressed in waders and wearing a snorkel”, I had ventured forth onto my plot.

An Exchange with the Easter Bunny Early one morning, Rob and the Easter Bunny met in a sunny, dew-pearled meadow. The rabbit had a basket of Easter eggs at his side.

As we’ve been working our way through the transition to new systems, and a new layout, we’ve definitely had some learning by experience moments. We’ve been working out all of the kinks, and brainstorming for the future with the capabilities we now have.

Migration on the Move For the past month or so hundreds of thousands of birds have been streaming up from Central and South America, heading north along major flyway routes across the United States. Minnesota sits along the eastern edge of the Central Flyway and the western sweep of the Mississippi Flyway, becoming both the fly-over zone and summer residences for a large portion of those birds: waterfowl from the east, songbirds/ upland birds from the west, with a mixes from both sides.

Man vs Golf You know how sometimes you go to visit your parents but you don’t want to stay with them because, you know, they’re your parents? So you decide to stay nearby, but not that nearby because, well, they’re your parents? But it’s also spring break for the kiddos so you dish out a little more scratch than usual and stay not just at a hotel but a resort with a full-on water park, with lots of pools and water slides galore? And you know how the first few days are good, clean family fun, swimming during the days, seeing the folks in the evening but then you learn that the resort offers something else and that something else is… golf? And you know how halfway through your stay, the PGA walks in like they own the joint? I hate it when that happens. One minute, parking is first come first serve, the next it’s: Are you with the Open? Oh, you’re not with the Open.