Now, For the Rest of the Story

Sorry I had to end the post, but there was a knock on our door. "Would you like to make another trip, leaving in about an hour?"

This Bald Eagle had been executed on a power line and brought over to Horicon by this game warden. It needed to be taken to Madison for a necropsy.

The bird was double bagged and tagged, and off we went.

Such a sad thing to lose one of our magnificent birds...but it happens.

We got it delivered...so back to the post.

This is the Senate Chamber.

The murals are depicting "The Marriage of the Atlantic and the Pacific" by the opening of the Panama Canal.

There are four beautiful skylights, this one is the prettiest in my opinion.

This is the Assembly Chamber.

The Wisconsin mural illustrates the past, present and future of the state.

We spent some time in this room, North Hearing Room, looking at fossils in the marble.

The walls are Yellow Verona and reminded me of ink blots!!!

We found a lot of trilobites, and I will challenge you to find the star fish on the stairs as you are entering the room!!!

I will end with some of my favorite shots.

The badger is sitting at the top of the door.

The "Badger State" got its nickname from their lead mining towns. The miners lived in shelters dug into hillsides and so they were called badgers after the burrowing animals. The badger is the state animal.

  

We certainly enjoyed our time at this State Capitol.

There is so much meaning in every detail.

You must be very observant.

I almost forgot...the views from the 6th floor observation deck.

The fountain in the photo to your right was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright with one of the two lakes in the background.

The Capitol Building is built on an isthmus between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona.

Madison, State Capitol

The State Capitol is right in the middle with roads going out like a wagon wheel, much like the building itself. You will see what I mean later in another photo.

Well, we finally found a place to park. We did not fit into the parking garage. We found a place, paid $4.50 and could only stay 4 hours...the max.

With road construction going on, and roads taking us in and out, we found it a little confusing, much like the inside of the building itself!!!

There are 4 wings with 8 entrances and hallways leading you here and there. You can only go halfway on one side then take stairs or elevators to get to the other side!!!

"Wisconsin" statue stands on top at 15' five inches and represents the state motto "forward."

She wears a crown with a badger on it, their state animal, and a globe with an eagle perched on the globe.

The rotunda interior dome mural is 200' overhead with four glass murals surrounding it.

It depicts "Resources of Wisconsin" with all the products being displayed.

This is just one of the four mosaics surrounding the dome. Liberty, guarding the ballot box!

Can you imagine laying all those pieces of glass?

This is the Supreme Court with a chair for each of the 7 justices.

The eight columns under the mural is made of Benou marble from France.

We spent a lot of time in this room. Here is a close up of the marble from France, very colorful.

Snooping around in every crack and cranny, I noticed this under the table in the room. The furniture is hand carved mahogany. Notice the back of the chairs as well.

The mural above is George Washington signing the United States Constitution.

Come back tomorrow for the continuation...

 

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

Our LE Officer, John, invited us to ride along with him...he had some work to do there, and we could visit.

We stopped for Subway sandwiches for lunch and that was the first thing we did when we arrived.

One of the endangered species on the refuge is the Karner Melissa Blue Butterfly.

They swing from the rafters inside the visitor center.

The fellow with his back to the camera is Doug, refuge manager, who offered us a tour of the refuge where we saw many of the butterflies. The host plant is the lupine and they are blooming profusely.

We had a great tour...the refuge is 44,000 acres big. This manager knows the flora as well as the fauna.

One of my favorite woodpeckers flew in as we were having lunch. The red headed is pictured on their brochure, so we thought it only fitting that he showed himself as the first bird we saw right away.

On the way up, John checked on some of the WPA's and pointed them out to us. The Leopold Waterfowl Production Area consists of 57 areas in 17 counties totaling 13,000 acres.

Horicon is a complex of four refuges, Fox River with 1054 acres, Green Bay with 1620 acres, Gravel Island with 27 acres, and Horicon with 33000 acres.

We certainly had a great day and got to see a lot of beautiful countryside. On the way up, John also stopped at a place where we could pick asparagus...which I love!!!

Until next time...

 

Second Work Week

We can't seem to transfer pictures from our Galaxy S6 to our windows 10 computer now that Wallace did an update?????

These pictures will be taken from the phone onto our Fuji camera in the meantime...

Our summer will be spent in Wisconsin near the little town of Mayville at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge.

This is our second full week of work.

On Fridays, we clean bathrooms on the auto tour (3 miles). I said I would never clean bathrooms, but it really is not that hard to do.

The little circle at the top is the "Ternpike Auto Tour."  The rest is a map of the whole marsh, with the upper portion managed by us and the lower portion is run by the state. The Rock River runs through the refuge.

There is also a 34 mile bike path that runs on the west side of the refuge...just a portion of the path. It actually starts in Fond du Lac and ends south of here.

We have been spending time in the shop, cleaning, sweeping and organizing.

By the looks of the sawdust accumulation, it looks like it has been awhile since that was emptied.

The shop vac took care of that!!!

I got it all swept out so we could work on the floating platform that will attach to a deck.

We built the base, then Mike, our supervisor, put on a few of the floats to give us a pattern.

The rest of the floats you can see in front of the airboat to the right.

We got them all attached and Mike hauled it outside so we could turn it over.

He checked our work and was delighted, not a single screw was missing. In the past when it was turned, some of the floats fell off!!!

Mike was on the left in the backhoe and that is me in the skid loader.

We gotter done!!! It did not fall apart and no damage. He was very good with directions on how to do it. He was one happy dude. He caught it on the other side and lowered it down and centered it. Next I drove it in the shop with the loader...much like a barge. Next week, we will be putting on the top boards.

Mike had this old sink cabinet he wanted us to make a rolling tool cabinet out of it. We removed the sink and backsplash and applied some casters at the bottom.

It is impossible for Wallace to get into tight spots...this is where I come into the picture.

We removed the backsplash by cutting the laminate and knocking it off.




These projects are a work in progress. The finished work will come at a later date.

Until next time...

First Week

Our first work week is over with our first assignment being a trip to Madison (State Capitol) to take water samples from the refuge.

The next day, we were given a tour of the refuge by the volunteer coordinator, Frank.

Then a trip to Green Bay, to the Wildlife Sanctuary, by way of Fond du Lac where we picked up these adorable young screech owls for rehabilitation. The parents were found dead and they are too young to be on their own. We toured their facility while there.

This being an all day trip, we stopped for lunch at Culver's. We had been advised to try their fried cheese curds...did not like them!!!

On Fridays, we travel the auto tour route, cleaning bathrooms and emptying trash. This is the busiest one being that it is right off highway 49. This is done by another volunteer on Mondays.

We were told to take our binocular and take some time to enjoy.

This Whooping Crane is hanging out on the auto tour route and in this field off 49.

Our supervisor is Mike, the maintenance man, who we took a liking to right away.

Friday, our last day of the week, we swept and organized (not all of it) one of the buildings, there are four of these nice big buildings right by where we are set up.

Then we have all these plants to keep watered until they get planted.
The visitor center is beautiful, but high maintenance with all the plantings.

I had  to make up 3 hours, so I offered to help one of the friends members, Liz, weed the "circle." This is another area of plantings about a mile from the v.c.

My body is still trying to recover.

There are great plans for us while we are here. Although we work in maintenance, we will be used in other areas. Stay tuned.

Until next time...

  

Horicon National Wildlife Refuge

Our trip to Horicon NWR went well. We stopped at the visitor center, met some of the staff, then Steve, Project Leader, led us to our spot where we set up in the rain!!!

We are located on a ledge, looking down on part of a vast wetland.

The header picture was taken out our back window of the first nice sunset.

We don't officially start until Wednesday, but Erin, Park Ranger, asked if we would like to take some water samples to Madison...so off we went. 

We had no problem finding the place...straight down 151.

We got a peek at the Capitol Building. We will be touring that soon.

The first nice day since setting up, we were ready to see the area.

A 3 mile auto tour was in store. Notice the name: Ternpike.

There was a drawdown in an area where we stopped to see how many shorebirds we could spot. We were really enjoying it when a red tailed hawk scared everything off. We got a total of 12 birds.

Horicon NWR supports the largest nesting populations of redhead ducks east of the Mississippi. It is not just wetland habitat, but upland habitats, like prairie and woods, making a diverse habitat.

I opened my bedroom window to enjoy the cool weather and heard an explosion from an army of frogs...they serenaded us to sleep.

Yesterday, I heard the geese making a commotion, got my bins to see a coyote harassing the geese with all their goslings. He went away empty handed.

We will be sharing more about this area as we see and learn more about it.

We have a good feeling about this place and the people we have met.

The visitor center is VERY nice.

Click on the picture at the right in order to read it better.



Until next time...       

The Day The Earthquake Hit

During our two week stay at a COE in Carlyle, Illinois where we had full hook ups, it was in our first week there of R (rest) and R (relaxation) before moving North to another refuge...Horicon NWR, when we got a phone call of our sons father-in-laws passing. We needed to fly "home." About two hours later, we got a call about Darrell Peterson, our supervisor at Attwater had been crushed to death at work. Wallace took it like a man...however, my world came to an end for a while!!! We will miss them both so much.

Until next time...