Staying busy at the refuge.

The last few days have been very busy ones.  John has been mowing various spots throughout the refuge as well as working on Sundays in the Visitor Center.  I was assigned to help with some of the environmental education outings held in the refuge recently.  The first group of students were a small Native American group from a nearby school.

These students are getting ready to participate in a game called "Oh Deer" which teaches them about wildlife, their habitat and survival of the species.  The students enjoyed the game very much. 

 Rick (far left) lining the students up. 

Monday and Tuesday of this week we had two more groups come to the refuge to participate in educational programs.  Wednesday was by far the largest group......more than 120 students.    I was assigned to help with the GPS segment. In the GPS exercise the students were paired up and given a hand held GPS programmed with information on the migration of certain birds.  Each student picked a bird and followed the GPS to find the migratory path of their bird.   Very interesting to watch.

Tuesday afternoon I joined fellow volunteer Judy to checkout the trails within the refuge for fallen trees.  We found several small trees that we were able to move off the trails and finally came upon one that we could not move. I am so glad I brought my camera along.  You never know what you will see in the refuge.   Thank you Judy for inviting me along.  I had a fun afternoon.

  On our first stop we saw this little raccoon.  He scampered off into the bushes when he saw us. 

We came across a few Columbine.....

 and a few Yellow Lady Slippers.  

Later that afternoon John and I drove to Detroit Lakes to pick up our prescriptions.  On the way back I took a few more pictures. 

I think this is my favorite picture of the day. 

Wednesday, John was on mowing detail again.  I worked at the Visitor Center in the morning and then accompanied our volunteer coordinator Janice during the afternoon for a cleaning assignment. 

This little guy stopped by the Visitor Center and stayed most of the morning.  

Today is one of our days off.  We woke up to thunder and rain.  Fred was not happy about that.  Don't know what we will do today but I am sure we will think of something. 

Laugh everyday.  Happy trails.  Stay safe.