straw houses

The weather here on the Platte is like the stock market of late. Yesterday was a balmy 50 degrees, today it reached a high of around 8. Tomorrow is predicted to be 35. We spent last evening in Lincoln, the capital (which neither of us realized until we saw the state house!) at a lecture by Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods”. A sadly true book about this generations’ disconnect with the outdoors. It was a sellout crowd and he was able to instill a little optimism about the future in some. I reserve my right to be a pessimist. Today Sandra and I worked outdoors under a sky full of thousands of Snow and Canada geese, angrily honking their opinions on the sub-freezing weather. So far, there is only a smattering of cranes. It’s easy to separate their saxaphone-like call from that of the geese. We were putting the final touches on a straw bale viewing blind on the river’s edge for people to view the cranes when they do arrive. The bales are good insulation, but the tours are before dawn and sunset and require sitting quietly in the unheated dark for hours so as not to disturb the birds. This is what we will be leading and, believe it or not, loving starting next week. By the way the weather in Homer today was 20 degrees warmer than here!