knoppers

last night I seen two very large bats flying around, it was dusk at best, so it was plenty light still. I have seen many bats here, but nothing even close to the size of these two, if I would guess about 3 times bigger than the normal bats I see winging around. I did see the normal size bats out a little later. these two were very aggressive, dive bombing very close to me. anyone know what these species are? first time I have every seen them.

someone near to me caught one, and had it on shore for 2 hours, let it go and it swam away. I have heard that this fish can breath out of the water, they sometimes will surface to take a gulp of air.

the aitkin DNR fisheries told me that its spawning colors, just a lot brighter than normal. and yes it did give a great fight. the only way to land these things is a net, as the fish is round, and almost impossible to grasp.

caught this on my lake this weekend.

I wish I could have gotten pictures, but a bird I could not identify, looked it up and had American Redstart on my deck today, there were about 3 or 4 of them. very awsom.

seen a few herons also, I did have a white egret on my pond today, first time I have seen one on this lake ( pond ) in 27 years I have been here. and one strange vulture, it was flying low over the water like a eagle would do.

congrats to the bulldogs, national champs again!

had 4 pelicans fly over today. something new to me, during Thursdays blizzard, there was a loon singing on my pond that opened up earlier this week.

I thought with al the fresh snow, that the rivers would be high and muddy, I will wait.

I saw a purple finch this weekend, haven't seen one for awhile. this was at the cabin in palisade.

well I stopped on the way up north today at the dealer to have the reflash recall done. take the cover off, unstrap the sled, unload and ride into the shop, less than five minutes later, drive it back out, load back up, put straps back on and cover. I think if there is a next time, I will ask if they can do it on the trailer. but at least its done. no ridable snow since it was all ice and no snowdust for cooling, so hopefully it works OK to start next year. I was still thinking of making some laps on the lake, but it looked like 12 inches of pure slush.

if you use the trailer much, just screw on some plastic glides, it also makes loading and unloading a snap. here is a picture of my glides on the utility trailer.

most times reverse will not get you unstuck, mostly because your in the deep stuff. but backing off the trailer, or into the garage is when I use mine. I don't have your problem, but I just got a letter in the mail today from Textron, a recall on my ECM, they said it needs to be reprogrammed, and do not use it. from what I read on artic cat forums, they shoot flames out the exhaust that can cause the belly pan to catch fire. then I read that some people were having problems after the reprogramming. I will wait a couple weeks, then bring it in to be done, its worked fine for me, 2nd year and 800 miles.

plan was to go to the cabin today and ride, then weather changed my plans. 3 hours this morning to shovel off my moms roof before the next storm, another 1 hour to prep my house for shovel later in the day, and a drive to the cabin to shovel that off. I did not bring my sled, thinking I needed to head back home after the cabin roof and deck. after checking the weather this morning saying 8-12 inches wet heavy snow starting sat morning. just checked the weather, now its starting later, afternoon, and less, only 6-10, I could have brought the sled and rode after all. my arms feel to sore to ride anyway. its pretty sad when a snowmobilier has had enough with the snow already.

no I did not stop, it was getting late in the day, so I kept on riding.