The weather was Prima. Thousands of happy people came to Retzer Nature Center to celebrate the apple harvest with a Royal Gala... or a Honey Crisp, Cortland or Molly's Delicious.

We started the day by slicing hundreds of apple pies and crisps, and had people asking for it before we were done at 9:00 a.m.. After that it was a steady stream of customers, which soon stretched out the door and down the hall. I felt the prices were very fair for what they got, and happily took their money until I was relieved as cashier around 1:00. 

I bought a slice to experience the sweet taste of accomplishment, and it was good. It was nice to see everyone enjoying the pies that so many people worked hard to produce.(They were baked right there at Retzer.) Apple Jam also entertained the folk with folk tunes while they ate their caramel apples and pie slices.

The scarecrows this year were great!

Wagon rides only a buck.

I bought a selection of the largest apples I could find among the 50 or so varieties. All the apples could be purchased for 50 cents each, or by the peck or half-peck, except Honey Crisp were a dollar, and they sold out first. The largest apple I could find was the 20 Ounce Pippin, a good baking apple.

I have to compare yesterday's crane count to fishing. Sometimes you don't see any, but the day is never wasted. Plus, a bad day of crane counting is still better than a good day at work.

The weather wasn't too cold for the start of Earth Week and the 5:30 a.m. start of the Annual Midwest Crane Count, though a few raindrops fell. My son accompanied me and we saw lots of deer, some turkeys and even a bluebird. We hiked around in the woods and saw the sunrise together. Even though we didn't see any cranes, hanging out in nature is not something we do enough of and the day wasn't wasted. Today, the same son would have gone canoeing with me down the Fox if I hadn't totalled the canoe earlier and if the Wauk. Parks canoe trip hadn't been cancelled due to the danger of high water.

Because I used to work weekends, and because of the coordinator's ACT tests last year, yesterday was the first time we were able to get together with others for breakfast after the count at the Machine Shed. Sara and her family were there as were several other counters, including first time Waukesha counter Kathy, who used to count in Central Wisconsin. It was interesting to hear how long the others have been doing the count, where they count, how many they saw, and why they are doing it. Sara, our coordinator, has parlayed her experience and devotion into a $5000.00 scholarship to Northland College in Ashland and will continue to lead our count from there as she increases her knowledge of the natural world.

There's a nice front page article in today's Sunday Journal Sentinel on the quest to reintroduce a second migratory population of whooping cranes in North America. Whooping cranes are the rarest cranes in the world and what we're doing in our count somehow helps in their reintroduction. Wherever sandhill cranes live, so whooping cranes can. By noting shifts in sandhill populations due to food, development or whatever, we are also helping tell the International Crane Foundation how successful their efforts at reintroduction could be. We're not just counting sandhill cranes any more. Sure, we're watching for a rare whooper, but we're also watching for leg bands, radio collars, and certain behavior... Are cranes exhibiting mating behavior or are they all males?  Are they guarding their territory or are they passing through? It all means something to someone. Getting out in nature on an early morning means a lot to me. 

I couldn't imagine better weather than we had here for the last day of summer Saturday. Golden delicious! The delicious weather brought out thousands of people to Retzer Nature Center's 21st Annual Apple Harvest Festival. I was real glad to see the people too, even though it made for more work for me in the food tent, because some things are just too good to not share.

I must've poured a hundred cups of cider, constantly moving to restock all beverages, and never got stung by a yellow jacket, (wish some of the young kids in attendance could say the same.) Besides a game of tag with the yellow jackets, the children's craft area, scarecrow display and musicians were very popular. The wagon ride had a long line as did the apple pie area.

I guess one could judge the success of the fest by how much was left at the end. I really don't know what all was left at the end because I wasn't there and didn't ask, but in my brief survey of the situation I noticed the apple pie slices were gone, the cider sold out and the 62 varieties of apples down to about 12. And I was thinking about purchasing 4 gallons of cider!

I would've loved to help clean up after the festival ended at 5:00, but I put in my three hours and hot air balloons were calling. Since this is my first year regularly hot air crewing, I'm not sure how long the season lasts, or if there even is a season. I was just happy to have the opportunity to help on the last day of summer.

Crewing went just as great as Apple Fest. A total of four balloons launched together in Monches and floated an hour toward north east to touch down in Hubertus. An ultralight fly-in was going on in the area and they seemed to have the time of their lives flitting around the four huge colorful balloons. The hilly wooded area around Holy Hill, where we were chasing, is starting to get really pretty with the new color in the trees. It was a joy to be there and it was nice to be needed. It was nice to be needed there. My family understands.

It turns out the couple who went up in our balloon were celebrating their 23rd wedding anniversary that very day. A huge surprise. Scheduling around the weather and availability usually means flights don't necessarily go up when you'd like. Sometimes a year or two can go by if there's many weather cancellations. So we see a lot of first-time fliers but not a lot of birthdays or anniversaries unless by chance. This one was their anniversary. I don't know how they planned it that way.

It's a great time of the year: more daylight and less cold, grass greening and spring flowers trying to bloom. Yesterday we saw or heard finches, robins, crows, sparrows, bluejays, cranes, ducks, geese, swallows, red-winged blackbirds, turkeys and, because Nick and I canoed North Lake, a loon, heron and gulls. And those are just the few that we can identify - there were many others.

When I'm freezing in winter I think about this time of year. Next Sunday is Earth Day or, to be politically correct, "Environmental Awareness Day," and we'll be joining many other canoeists and kayakers for a Waukesha County Park System-sponsored paddle down the Fox River if the weather cooperates. A week from next Saturday, the 28th, Earth Week is celebrated in an extravaganza at Retzer Nature Center. A major ingredient to the festivities at Retzer in the coming weeks is most everything is free. The hikes, concert, planetarium, smores around the campfire. All free.

Even more than Earth Day, I look forward to the weekend before or, more specifically, yesterday. For the last seven or so years I've taken part in the Annual Midwest Crane Count, which was yesterday, the 14th. Hundreds of counters in several midwest states are at specific sites from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. on the same day. There's seventeen sites in Waukesha County and I've had the same one every year, which is OK with me because I think mine is best. I also think everyone probably thinks their site is the best one too.

I first got involved with cranes in 1999. I spent a week trying to identify some unusual sounding birds I'd seen flying over the house. I called the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, stopped at the library and talked to several people. As soon as I determined the birds I'd witnessed were cranes there was a Sunday Journal article on hunting them. Now, I know there's a lot of meat on a crane, but I thought it ridiculous to hunt a bird so rare that I didn't even know what they were and many people I talked with didn't know for sure either. In the article, the justification for hunting these magnificent animals is that they eat seed corn. Of course the article was side-by-side with another article picturing a huge pile of corn on the ground because the farmers were producing more than they could store in grain silos or buildings.

We've been lucky with the weather for the count. It's always chilly but every time it's rained it's always stopped by sunrise. This was the first year snow was still on the ground.

One doesn't have to be good at math to be a crane counter. The most we ever counted at my site was three or four. Sometimes I'd only hear them and one year not even that. (This year we saw one and heard another.) Being out in nature is never a total loss, even if we don't see or hear cranes there are lots of other critters to entertain us. Yesterday we saw seven deer as we left our car and saw many additional. Turkeys are also fun to watch and listen to.

One memorable year? Up to last year I was getting up at 1:30 a.m. to deliver Saturday Journal Sentinels, head immediately to my site to count, then to deliver the Early Edition Sunday Journal Sentinels. (Getting up to count was always easy for me because I was already up. Staying up was harder.) Several years ago on the route I stopped to break up a fight between a man and woman at 3:00 a.m. in front of a huge apartment complex and ended up getting a chain to the head. I escaped before he could do more damage but returned when I heard sirens. I gave a statement, had my head photographed and learned what I should have done instead. All I could think about was "I hope I'm not late for the crane count". So it wasn't a good day. Get hit in the head, irritate guys with guns - I had scared away turkeys while walking my site which, unbeknownst to me at the time, open season was on - and deliver early Sunday papers with blood caked in my hair because there was no time to shower before.

Because of the route, this was the first year we could join the others for conversation and breakfast at the Machine Shed after the count. Of course, this was the first year they didn't get together because our coorditators were taking the ACT tests. We went anyway.

One or both boys started going with me three years ago and they seem to enjoy it at least as much as I do. They are proud to usually be the first ones to spot any birds and I'm proud that I can take them out in nature and not have them hate it. It's definitely one of the better things we do as father and sons.

for more information on Earthweek events visit www.waukeshac