I don’t know too much about geese. I know that we have Canadian geese in our area year round, but are they the same geese - do we have geese who no longer migrate? When we lived in Idaho, we had robins most of the year around, but we could tell that they were different robins. Our summer robins spent their winters down south. Our winter robins thought that Boise was down south. They headed to Canada for the summer. Perhaps the geese in the hills are like that. At any rate, there haven’t been too many geese at the lake for a few weeks, but today there was a whole flock right by the parking lot where I launch my boat. Geese leave behind quite a bit of excrement and so you have to be careful walking where they have been. And they pretty much go everywhere - out on the dock, across the parking lot, in all of the grass, and down by the water. I don’t mind sharing the lake with other critters. I know that I don’t have an exclusive right to the lake, and it certainly is big enough for others to share, but I wish the geese would leave a little path where I didn’t have to step carefully and then clean off my boat dolly when I get the boat stowed.

It wasn’t problem yesterday, because I decided that it would be the last day for rowing this year. I’ll switch to paddling and mostly will paddle smaller boats that don’t need a dolly for the rest of the season. When it gets cold - and we’ve had some cold mornings - the kayak is warmer than a row boat anyway. Our son was born in March and our daughter in September. I’ve decided that their birthdays define rowing season in the hills. March is a little early, but once the weather warms up, I can row to the middle of September most years. In the winter I have a rowing machine in my basement to keep in shape and I keep paddling whenever there is open water.

I was lazy about my rowing yesterday. I didn’t head to the lake for sunrise. I got up and did some chores and other things and sat with my breakfast over the newspaper. It was nearly 9 by the time I got to the lake. The last of the mist was just rising off of the water and the sun was shining directly on most of the lake. The wind hadn’t come up, yet, though, so the lake was glassy calm. A couple of fishermen were out with their boats, but the lake has plenty of room for a few fisherman and a guy in a row boat trying to get some exercise and stopping frequently to take pictures.

I ended up wishing that I had a polarizing filter for the camera I take in the boat, but it is an inexpensive digital point and shoot and I don’t think that they even make polarizing filters for such cameras. Most of the time it doesn’t make a difference, but it was bright. I was wearing my sunglasses and before long I had shed my paddling top and my sweatshirt. Layers are definitely the way to go in the hills. We go from cold to warm in a short amount of time. After all we had snow last week and are supposed to see 80 degrees by the end of this week.

It was much like a summer day rowing across the lake. I could notice that the grass is starting to go dormant and that the colors are beginning to take on a fall hue after last week’s snowfall. There is still plenty of green in the hills - more that I can remember from previous years - but you can tell that the change in temperature is coming. It was below freezing at the lake overnight and even though the lake stores heat rather well and still is a long ways from skim ice even in the shallow places, there is a sense that colder weather is on the way.

I haven’t had much contact with the beaver this year. I’m sure that the lone beaver who spent last summer in the lake has migrated back up into the inlet where the water is shallower and much more suitable for lodges and dams. Perhaps he even found a mate this year. I’ll take a small canoe up there sometime before freeze up to have a quick look around.

Some of the birds seem to be getting ready for their migration. They are looking plump and well-fed after a relatively easy summer with lots of forage. They probably think that I’m looking pretty plump as well with a bit too much eating and a bit too little exercise this summer.

In the north country, carrying a little extra weight into the winter is a good idea, but I don’t exactly live the lifestyle of those who have to endure the worst that weather can throw at them. I’ve got it pretty easy with reliable heat in my home and my place of work, a good heater in my car for the commute, and little reason other than recreation to spend much time out of doors at all during the winter months.

So, I’m trying to get exercise when I am able and a day off made things just right for rowing yesterday. I think that I can notice that I don’t have quite as much reserve for the back-to-back long days without too many days off. I do fine with the busy days that we had this past weekend, but when I get a day off, I find that it is harder to motivate myself to the big adventures than was the case a few years ago. Still, I did get a few chores done yesterday despite having spend much of the morning diddling around and then going to the lake to row.

The row boat is stored for the winter and I’ve got a small canoe on the roof of the car just in case there is an opportunity to paddle this week. It is a busy time and the sun comes up a lot later these days. So I will just have to see.

I didn’t see the geese get into the water yesterday. Perhaps they were having a lazy day as well.

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