Puppy power fuels aerobics

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

We’ve discovered a new form of aerobic exercise that may leave even the spinners and the kick-boxers winded.

All it requires are a snow-covered trail, a pair of snowshoes and a 1-year-old yellow Lab.

We had one of the latter come into our lives a couple of months ago. Houdini is a shelter dog – a stray no one claimed. And he is a runner.

There is nothing in the world Houdini loves more than flat out running. Calling his name, commanding him to come, waving cocktail wieners in the air – none of it distracts him from running.

Should he manage to slip his collar – and he has – his first instinct is to head for the horizon. Unlike every other dog we’ve owned, we can’t walk him off-leash on the trails up on our little sand hill. He requires a harness and a leash, every time.

That’s become problematic in this winter so bent on toppling the snowfall record. When the snow got deep enough, we needed snowshoes to break trail. That meant walking on snowshoes while tethered to a ball of puppy energy.

Little owl is welcome barn guest

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

Put up a barn in the middle of an oak woods and you never know what might drop in.

We’ve had snakes and rabbits, swallows and phoebes, and one lone grouse on a stormy night.

Most recently, one of Wisconsin’s littlest owls paid a visit up on the sand hill we call home.

Apostle Islands trips clear the clutter

BAYFIELD, Wis. – “Doesn’t sound like a vacation to me.”

That’s the response I get frequently when I describe my summer kayak trips to the Apostle Islands.

Pack everything you need for six days of camping into a sea kayak and paddle off to an island. Enjoy the scenery, and then pack up and shove off for another island.

It has been a nearly annual trip for 15 years for me and paddling buddies Frank Church of Appleton and John Behnke of Green Bay. Admittedly, the paddling distances have gotten shorter through the years, and the paddling speed slower.

Where do they go?

By David Horst  sandhill7@gmail.com

I mourn the loss of habitat every time I see a subdivision sprout where a farm field used to be or a woods come down for a big box store.

That said, I also am amazed at what wildlife can do with the scraps of habitat we’ve left them.

Folk singer Greg Brown wrote a song that asks: “Where do the wild geese go when they go away?” Putting aside that there are so many geese now that they never really go away, the lyric expresses my wonder about where all of this wildlife is when I’m not watching them.