Warm, sunny days.  A small forest fire burns northwest of Ely.  Lake Trout have been caught in shallow as thirty feet of water around Five Mile Rock.  A few of the maple trees have begun to turn red.  Aster is blooming.

The fall bird migration along the North Shore has begun.  Each year hundreds of thousands of southbound birds are funneled along the prominant ridges of the Sawtooth Mountains to follow the shore of Lake Superior on their way to warmer winter grounds.  As the birds fly south they encounter the huge expanse of Lake Superior.  Instead of flying over it's hostile waters where there is no emergency landing or food the aviary wisely elect to fly along the shore.  As a result, the woods within a mile or so of the lake explode as a microcasm of a boosted food chain.  Fierce competition erupts around the ussually mundane pecking order of a roadkill feast!

Every day an unfamiliar bird call pierces the woods.   Huge Golden Eagle and Osprey to tiny warblers and sparrows pepper the sky.  Sometimes flocks of hundreds fly over at a time.  More often than not, however, a single kestral or Sharp-shinned hawk swoops through the meadows in search of one of our local rodents to sustain their journey.

This time of the year life on the homestead is filled with harvesting the garden, processing firewood, and preparing for the winter.  Onions and garlic are drying on the racks.  Carrots and parsnip remain in the ground.  Apples continue to ripen on the trees.  Bucked firewood is piled and awaiting the splitter.  

Weather Pending