Uncle Eric's house

When I first came to this area of Kittson County, MN some thirty five years ago I tried to buy some land where I could build a house.  For a brief moment in time I tried to buy the nine acres of land that Uncle Eric's house sat on, but it was not for sale. I was not related to Eric but the house was always referred to by others as Uncle Eric's.

 The house sat forlornly on the edge of the riverbank woods at least a half mile from the nearest road. It had been built in the early 1900's so it was over fifty years old during my first visit. Erick was a farm laborer and worked mainly at farms in the area and at the same time tended his few acres. For a couple of the early years it seems he had his deaf sister living with him and they communicated by sign language.

 

The house was vacant when I first saw it and remained that way ever since.  Uncle Eric and his sister died at least fifty years ago and the little house has faced time and weather alone and in silence ever since. With the farm field on one side and the river behind it, access to the site was difficult but it could be seen briefly through the trees from the high side of the river a half mile away.

During the period of time I have lived in the county I have watched many a house and barn demolished by so called progress. Many other died a slow death from a broken back caused by snow loads in winter.  Others were burned and the remains buried.  Recently I realized that Uncle Eric's place was not going to last much longer so I grabbed my camera and the snowshoes and headed out.

This river photo was taken near the road closest to the house which lies in the distant tree line on the farthest side of the field.  The house sits in the trees to the left of the opening you can see in the woods on the sky line. The river swings wide to the left in a half circle and passes behind the house.

 

The snow was deep so the first challenge was to get down the steep river bank in the foreground and onto the frozen river. We had experienced a number of very cold nights before there was much snow on the ice so I was confident that the ice was thick and safe.

The second challenge after crossing the river was to get up the steep river bank on the far side. Once I was up the deep snow on the bank I passed through the old gate opening and started my trek to the distant house. My snowshoe track can just barely be seen to the left of the fallen tree seen in the photo. The nearest residence is at least a half mile away as the crow flies.

 

 

 

The close-up photo of the house shows it was a story and a half with a lean-to on the right hand side. The front door is missing along with the steps. Only one pane of glass remains unbroken. Notice it had a solid brick chimney.  The old weather grey siding shows very little of what remains from the original coat of white paint.

 

 

The photo from the rear of the house indicates it was a small home and the winter snow loads over the course of many years has broken its back. The final collapse is only a winter or two away. (The following winter it gave up the fight and was crushed flat by snow.

 

The last pane of glass is doing its best to hold the snow back, but its too late. Even the trees around the house have died.

 

The trip back across the field and river bank was uneventful but the struggle up the river bank was a trial. Later I realized the effort was worthwhile when I learned the little old house was down.

Mystery tracks in the snow.

On a recent snowshoe outing in our woods in Northwestern Minnesota I came across a track in the fresh fallen snow.  As I stood there looking at it I was unable to think of what kind of animal would make such a track.

The track was continuous and had a half round shape as if it had been made by a fat snake. I rarely see a track that I cannot identify because there is a limited amount of wildlife in my woods, especial in the winter.

With my curiosity aroused I started to follow the track and then noticed a couple more of the same type. After a short walk I came to what I realized was the beginning of the tracks and took another photo. ( See next photo below)

This spot was very helpful because it indicated that some type of bird had landed in the snow. The

   Photo shows that the bird approached from the left and marks of it two feet can be seen to the left     of the hole in the snow, showing where it landed. This hole was deeper than the rest of the tracks. A bird when landing sets its wings and makes a downward beat to slow the decent. The long marks in the snow to the left of the landing hole shows where the edge of the left wing touched the snow. Five distinct marks show where the wing tip feathers made a light mark.

The imprint and track showed me it was a large bird and had to be a Ruff Grouse as at least six presently reside in these woods. In normal winter conditions a Ruff Grouse walks on the surface of the snow with ease, and rarely sinks in more than an inch.  This bird was sinking in at least six inches and was having to push forward with its chest to make any forward movement in the soft snow and this resulted in the unusual tracks.

The third photo shows the landing site of another grouse that came from the direction at the top of the photo.  Again the marks of the feet can be seen at the tope of the photo while the wing tip feather marks are seen on the left side of the photo.  As the birds wade off, they sink so low in the snow that the bottom parts of the folded wings leave drag marks in the snow.

Once I felt satisfied that the tracks were left by Ruff Grouse I tried to understand why these birds were sinking so deep on the snow.  As I  thought back to the beginning of our recent weather I believed I had the answer

A few days ago we received two or three inches of light fluffy snow the slowly fell during the night and early morning. This was followed later in the day by strong winds that ranged from thirty to forty five miles an hour and created a ground blizzard across our region.

The winds stripped the loose snow off the fields until it was airborne and blown in vast clouds across the landscape.  Where ever the winds blew across wooded areas the winds were slowed and the snow settled in the woods. As the storm drew to a close the winds died down and these vast clouds of snow settled gently in the protected woods.

The ground blizzard resulted in the top five or six inches of newly deposited snow to be so light and fluffy it would not support the grouse and they sank chest deep and had to struggle to move about.
The fact that the grouse experienced a mild fall and were rather fat and heavy contributed to their problem.

The mystery of the strange tracks in the snow was solved.

New Beginnings

I last posted to this blog March 15th 2011 and that makes it almost four years ago.  I find the length of that gap hard to believe.  There were many reasons, but mainly I seemed to just get too busy and let everyday life run me.  Since today is the first day of a brand new year I thought that it was a good excuse to restart my blog and my reflections on life past, present and future.

Another excuse is the fact that I purchased a new camera and have a great urge to get out and photograph the county around me and test the new features it provides. I bought a Kodak PixPro AZ521 with a 52X lens.

 Last, but not least, I have to consider that I could  be running out of time.In six months, give or take a day, I will reach my eightieth birthday. I hardly need more incentive to contribute something worthwhile to my blog.

To test the camera I headed for the north branch of the Two river a few miles away. The snow was only a few inches deep so it was not difficult to get about. It was a bright sunny day and right away I found I had a problem. The new camera does not have the usual view finder.  This camera is fitted with the new three inch LCD screen.  The bright sunlight made it very difficult for me to compose my pictures.  Keep in mind that I have owned a camera since I was fourteen years old and they all had a view finder. I have no choice but to adapt and learn how to use the new screen. I did a little research when I got home and discovered that I could increase the light intensity on the screen and bumped it up to the highest setting.  I will see if that makes a difference on my next outing.

The following photo shows the Two River a few miles northeast of Lancaster.  I have canoed it a couple of times in the past.  The land the river flows through is very flat farmland but the river has cut a decent channel through the terrain with the result it is very scenic from the seat of a canoe.

One of the main features of the camera that attracted me was the zoom lens.  To test it out I found the remains of an old log barn and took a couple of shots that show the log construction and the grain in the wood.  The photos were taken from some distance away and not with the close-up feature.  






I believe this barn was built very close to a hundred years ago and the roof has already been ripped off.  The balance of the building will soon be destroyed. you will notice that the corner construction of the walls was not built in the typical log fashion where the logs were cut and stacked to overlap the lower row and stick out six to ten inches.  In this example the ends of the logs were cut off even with the face of the wall.

The photo of the gray wood from the old window makes me think of the great number of rain storms and snow storms it has experienced.  How many times did the old farmer look out through this window to check the weather before beating his way through the snow drift to the safety of his home.

As I left the old abandoned farm site a Ring-necked Pheasant flew across the yard in front of me. As I fumbled with my camera settings a second one left the shelter of the woods a few seconds later.  They are the first ones I have seen locally in at least ten years when they were more plentiful. Our milder winters will increase the odds of their survival.  As I drove away I was disappointed that I missed the chance to test the camera on a flying peasant.

Note that at one time the cracks and holes in the wall were filled with mud or cement and little of it remains.