Sturgeon Spawning

A few weeks ago (April 29th, to be exact), Luke and I packed up Grace and went out to the Shiocton/Shawano area in order to see a once-a-year spectacle. The sturgeon were spawning! For about a week in early spring, you can see these massive fish up close and personal as they lay and fertilize their eggs on the Wolf River. It's one of the few places in the world that allows you to do so.

Many Wisconsinites have never even seen this before, Luke included. Since I used to work in Shawano often, I'd had many chances to see it before. Nevertheless, it was great to watch.

Luke was in charge of the camera that night and got lots of splashing fish pictures. He was very enthusiastic in his photo-snapping (mostly because this was his first experience getting up close to these awesome fish), so I'll just share the best pictures from the night.

At first, there wasn't too much to see. Just a few ripples...

 

 

Then some fins appeared.

 

Pretty soon they were all around us!

 

 We even got some up close views.

 

These fish were massive! Some were more than 6 feet long.

After viewing the sturgeon, we went and looked at the local marsh as well.

Grace and Luke enjoyed their first sturgeon spawning.

^"All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air,

and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"

Psalms 8:7-9

Jen

My Mother's Day Flowers- Shade Annuals

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of flowers. Luke has always known that the easiest way to my heart is through a big bunch of blooms, and so holidays requiring a gift are a no-brainer for him.

While I love cut flowers, I prefer to get plants, because then I can enjoy them longer. The challenge comes in with our balcony; we have a north-facing balcony that only gets a little bit of sun in the morning. A lot of flowers are only part shade or mostly sun, so we are limited in what we can grow.

The other part of the challenge is that I can be a little picky about flowers. I am bored by the "traditional" shade plants (like impatiens or hostas), and we can't grow the plants that have that huge WOW factor due to our limited space and sun.

Luke found me some awesome plants, though. They don't look like much yet, but they're going to grow into impressive flowers as the summer goes on.

1. Begonia

I know what you're thinking- begonias are a common, traditional plant.

 They are my one exception to my "no boring plants" rule.

A begonia was the first plant I ever grew myself, and so it has a special place in my heart.

2. Torenia (AKA- Wishbone Flower)

This flower blooms from early summer all the way until frost,

which means we'll get to enjoy it for months.



3. Nierembergia

 

This plant will eventually get small purple flowers on it.

I'm excited to see what it becomes!

 

So there you have it! My Mother's Day gift. As usual, Luke did a great job. :)

 

 

I'm so grateful to have this first Mother's Day with Grace as well. She turned 6 months old yesterday. This year is flying by! This time last year, she was just a little bean in my tummy.

 

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward."

Psalm 127:3

 

Hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day!

Jen



Friday Night Fishing: The Search for Smelt

Whew! The weather has finally warmed up in Wisconsin, and Luke and I have gotten outdoors as much as possible in order to take full advantage of it. I'm behind on my blogging; I have so many adventures to tell about! I'll start with a couple weeks ago, when Luke and I did the first night fishing we've done in a long time.

Luke and I have many relatives that grew up in Wisconsin, and we've heard from many different "old-timers" about the legendary smelt runs. According to the tales, you could just head out on May 1st (yes- that date specifically) and throw a dip net in the water. Within a few minutes, you would pull it in and be up to your elbows in the small, wriggling fish.

Photo courtesy of Minnesota Sea Grant

 

For those of you unfamiliar with this fish, you can read more about them here. If you're from Wisconsin or the U.P., you've no doubt gone to at least one smelt fry in your life. Well, those are what we were hoping to catch.

 

We weren't able to make it on May 1st, but instead went out on Friday, April 26th (this was the closest to that day that we had free). We drove on up to County Park 2 in Oconto County, tossed out the net, and hoped for the best.

 

Luke getting ready to toss it in.

 

 

And we caught...

 

 

A shiner! Not a smelt.

 

We actually didn't end up netting any smelt. We caught plenty of shiners and perch, though, and had a nice time with that. It appears that, at least for us, those stories will continue to remain legends. Who knows, though, maybe the smelt will make a comeback just like perch have in the past 5-10 years.

 

We ended up switching to fishing poles, since we thought we might catch a larger fish that way. We decided to fish for smelt again later when it was darker.

 



 

We loved the excuse to use our lantern. 

Grace was nice and snug in her stroller. She enjoyed watching the action, though she wasn't quite ready to hold a pole on her own.

 

Luke showing Grace the first catch of the year- a tiny perch (yes- we threw it back).

After it got too dark to see our poles, we went for a hike along the rocks leading to the bay. Grace was snug in her carrier, and she promptly fell asleep.

 

Although, in this picture she was still wide awake. :)

 

 

On our walk we found a few friends. We saw a muskrat paddling around, and I was able to snap a few shots of this photogenic leopard frog. You can tell this is a leopard frog (and not a pickerel frog) by the fact that the blotches do not form parallel rows; they are more randomly scattered on the back. 

 

 

 

We went back and tried the nets again, but the smelt outsmarted us (or maybe were just sticking to their calendars). We'll have to give it another go on May 1st, 2014.

 

We finally left around 9:45 when a thunderstorm rolled in across the bay.  It was amazing to watch the lightning slowly get closer to us over the course of a half hour. It just felt great to be outside!

 

 

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:" ~Matthew 13:47

 



 

Praising God for shiners, smelt, perch, muskrats, and leopard frogs,

 

Jen