hi folks. ballast is a new literary journal edited by two poets doing good work. they’ve kindly accepted two of my poems for issue #2—one a lune made in the california redwoods (hence the redwood sorrel pictures), the other a long section of my long natural-family-personal history poem (probably the work i’m proudest of in the last few years).
they also gave me the pleasure of recording audio for the poems. you can see and read them here, and do give a look around the rest of the issue while you’re there!
kratzsch preserve is a 72-acre wood and wetland lot of former farmland rehabilitated by the ozaukee and washington county land trust. they’re doing good work here people. prairie, marsh, hardwood forest, frontage on the milwaukee river, glacial topography; little bit of everything.
this was a great hike, up and down, good steady wind on the prairie but some shelter in the woods and down by the river. snow drifts gave us a workout. sat with the robins and redwing blackbirds by the river for a spell. four lunes and views for you.
scuppernong springs is a natural area in the south unit of the kettle moraine state forest, a rehabilitated wetland area (mostly marsh) along scuppernong creek-then-river. it was once the site of marl pits and works, a hotel, a trout hatchery, and cranberry bogs, but the wdnr and others have been doing lots of work.
a lovely site to walk thru, the boundary between land and water pretty shaky at times. kids loved it; playing in the stream in the 40s and cloudy with the waterproof boots. my 6yo fell in finally as a soft spring rain began to fall as well; he was fine. 🙂
‘scuppernong’ is reportedly from a ho-chunk word that means ‘sweet-smelling place.’
brady’s rocks is a dolostone outcropping of the niagra escarpment in waukesha cty’s southern unit kettle moraine state forest. the ice age trail cuts right thru this delightful small maze where an irish immigrant (the eponymous brady) once quarried stone in the mid-19th century. some rare plants and massive oaks.
it had been too long since we’d been out, and the kids called it for this site, as our last visit here had been heavily mosquito-infested a few summers ago. (to the point that we all literally ran thru the site and back out.) much nicer now in the march chill!
first id of walking fern, slender rockcress, and white avens!
high cliff escarpment state natural area is inside high cliff state park in calumet cty, wisconsin on the eastern shore of lake winnebago. here is a fantastic length of exposure of the niagra escarpment, the dolostone rock formation that arcs from southeastern wisconsin to niagra falls.
a hardwood forest atop the escarpment contains a number of effigy mounds, mostly water panthers and a set of twin buffaloes. the combination of the gloaming, shagbark hickories, mounds, and limestone was exquisite. three lunes here to celebrate.
three generations of riyeffs up and down the cliffs. last sna in calumet cty!
the christmas vacation almost over, i made a brash decision to head up to calumet county for two sna’s, converging on lake winnebago with three generations of family.
stockbridge ledge woods was the first stop, a mature forest atop the niagra escarpment, according to the wdnr website. lots of sugar maple, beech, and oak. though it’s january, it was in the upper 30s so felt like a thaw. some snow still clinging, but lots of places bare too. lots of moss and lichen, but also some liverwort coming up (or hanging on?), and some grasses still green. woodpeckers briefly the only sounds aside from upright primates.
the niagra escarpment, made of ordovician-silurian dolomite, is the edge of an ancient sea with exposures from new york thru southeastern wisconsin. the exposures in this part of wisconsin are known collectively as “the ledge.”
point beach ridges is, according to the wdnr website, a series of 11 swales and ridges parallel to the current lake michigan shoreline in manitowoc cty. the ridges and swales are former beaches of the last eight millennia that used to border glacial lake nipissing. open blowing sand near the lake to juniper/bearberry dunes to swampy swales to fully forested ridges give this site a tremendously varying quality. super fun to hike, and we had a gorgeous late-autumn day for it.
last visit to walk all of manitowoc cty’s snas.
first id’s of bearberry, bunchberry, birch polypore, and dune goldenrod! first non-bog id of sphagnum moss. (thanks to twitter folks for help with recent ids)
nipissing swamp is, according to the wdnr website, the largest remnant hardwood swamp in northeastern wisconsin. fascinatingly, the swamp is in a wetland basin that was formerly a lagoon of glacial lake nipissing (which name refers to an indigenous nation in canada). the beach can still be seen in remnant dunes and barrens.
it was gun deer hunting season last weekend, and our blaze orange was in the other vehicle, so we didn’t go in deep. but even getting off the road a bit was a delight. across the first swampy swale and onto the first ridge, balancing on downed logs across the mud. the club moss was out in droves and soaking up the late-autumn sun. gorgeous swamp weather with birch and cedar swaying above.
teaching seamus heaney’s bog body poems today, so we took a quick pit stop at lima bog sna on the way back to milwaukee from our ancestral home in rock cty yesterday.
got right into the tamarack stand, but not enough time to get to the open lake at its bogheart. next time!
a shallow seepage lake according to the dnr’s website, grassy lake is situated low with wetlands around it. a road cuts thru the area and allows access without a boat, water on either side. many aquatic and wetland plants make the area home, as well as many water-associated birds—we saw an abandoned bald eagle’s nest across the road first thing.
this was a short stint, letting the kids take turns with the rubber boots to poke around in the wetland area by the lake proper. fun stop with a picnic before pressing on to lodi for the corn maze.
Jacob Riyeff 