Earth Outdoor Living Diaries

  This tree is down stream from the Conowingo Dam. There was a big flood that came and took out all the dirt from under the tree roots. There were men trying to find treasure under the roots. The Conowingo Dam is a electrical water plant. The water runs in and generates power. It is known for its big nesting sites for the bald eagles.

 This is the closest my family and I have been to baby ducks in awhile. They were about 3 feet from us and the mother was swimming around happily and did not really care that we were so close to them. There was about 6 of them and a girl came over and was feeding them crushed crackers. Some of the others were playing round with each other and they went up onto the land and sat down with their mother.

 This sate park is located in Potter County Pennsylvania. Potter County borders the New York and Pennsylvania state lines. You can swim, boat and fish on the lake and the streams that come off of it. There are trails that go around the mountains that you can hike on or take the four wheeler out for a ride.

 This is the tiny frog that lives in our back pond. We can mostly find him sitting on the lily pad. We get a frog in both ponds almost every year. Then one year we took a frog from the back pond and put it in the front pond. The next day it was in the back pond again.

It is 90 degrees and very humid in Berks County Pennsylvania. The weather channel says they want it hot and humid for a couple of days again. Just three days ago people were wearing sweatshirts and others jackets because it got down in to the lower 70's and now it is going back up to the 90's and very humid. We have gotten a lot of thunderstorms but they do not give  off a big amount of rain. Many of the farmers corn is drying up and not getting anything out of it.

  This baby deer was hiding in the woods. We did not see the mother anywhere around. My mom got out of the car and was about 60 feet from the fawn.

 We have a family of cardinals that fly around all the time. My family likes watching the birds and how they act. There is also a hawk that comes around every fall.

 The beautiful Pennsylvania sky at sun down. They are mostly the best between spring and fall. Colors anywhere between purple to orange to blue and reds. Sometimes they predict the temperature the next day. Bright reds and oranges mean very hot day. Darker colors like purple and blues are cooler days.

 This is the cabin that we stay at when we go camping in northern Pennsylvania. It belongs to a friend of my family. In the back is a deck and down below in the grass is a feeder that we put food out to see bear or other animals. I love it in the winter because we can light the fire and roast marshmallows.

 This swan in swimming in the lake that is part of the state parks of Pennsylvania called Middle Creek Wildlife Center. Every January into February the swans and snow geese stay here before going back up north.

    This is our second pond that is in our back yard. We often get either big frogs or very tiny frogs every year. We also put fish in both ponds then take them out in the winter because of the ponds freezing over.

We made it back from our vacation okay. Sadly, we did not see any bear but we did see a mother turkey and her babies, deer, raccoons, and a skunk that was very close to spraying me. Now we have come back to 90 degree and very humid weather. My nephew Tyler--he is two years old--kept trying to call the bear out of the woods. It is about a three and a half hour drive each way.

My house is being taken over by rabbits. We have about 10 rabbits running around and every year they have babies. This weather is great. I can sit and not start sweating like crazy. We are packing for our camping trip--I can't wait! Hopefully we can get some black bear into the back yard of the cabin we are staying at. We have had them come into the camp site before, and I have been about 15 feet away from the bear.

Today I was ambushed by the flying baby birds. It is only two weeks since they hatched and they already are flying. It has been a very hot week. Most days are in the upper 90's to lower 100's and very humid. We've been also having very bad thunderstorms, some where it never stops lightning--it is like a light show. My family and I have never seen anything like it. This weekend we might go camping in the Northern part of Pennsylvania.

Two weeks ago my mother found a Robin's nest built on the outside of our back porch. At first the mother would not stay in the nest and we thought that maybe she had abandoned it. The next day we looked at the nest to see four bright blue eggs. Just yesterday two of them hatched and the third hatched today. Unfortunately, the fourth egg was taken and eaten by another animal. We have seen both the mother and the father taking turns getting food and feeding the babies. They are so cute because they try to get warmth from each other even when it is almost 100 degrees and very humid. We have had some really bad thunder and lightning storms. Earlier last weekend we worked on our front pond because it was starting to leak. We have rabbits around my house all the time and they are always in my moms flower garden.