It’s Picnic Season

Posted byGary FultzPosted inabundant life, accomplishment, adventure, Adventure story, animals in winter, Build a fire, Build Faith, cold, dreamer, eternal, Faith, frost, Gary Fultz, Gary Fultz Blog, God in Nature, initiator, Nature, nature pictures, outdoor adventure, Outdoor Adventures, Outdoor Cooking, outdoor scenery, Peace, perspective, Photography, quality of life, relationship with God, Ruffled grouse, snow, snow conditions, story telling.Tags:, , , , , , , ,

Spring is not officially recognized in our family until we can have an picnic. I guess it was up to me to find the fire pit, check and make sure fires wouldn’t spread and burn down the forest and make the picnic table presentable.

My pictures prove it. Spring has come to northern Minnesota!! My wife declined, evidently she didn’t want her picture taken. Some birds and animals wandered about so they got in the pictures. I also threw in a couple good morning shots as it was a good looking morning. Click to enlarge and use the slide show arrows.

Every day is so unique. The beautiful frost quickly and quietly let go when the sun hit. I couldn’t let the day go by without getting the snow shoes out to have a picnic. It’s hard to imagine a back yard picnic in Minnesota without mosquitoes...I think I glimpsed a bit of heaven today.

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9

Gary

Published by Gary Fultz

Outdoors Man, Hunter, Fisherman, Guide, Writer / Author, Photographer, Public Speaker, Musician, Song Writer, Story Teller, Follower Of Jesus. Love God and family and total strangers

100 thoughts on “It’s Picnic Season”

    1. Thanks Suzette. I filled a cardboard box with hard wood scraps from the woodworking shop and put it in the snow over the firepit…lit the box on fire and it took off. plenty of heat from oak maple and birch trimmings. Loved it. No mosquitoes!

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  2. Not gonna lie–I could go for a snow dog right about now. 😀 Glad to see springtime has “officially” arrived in your neck o’ the woods. It’s been snowing here all spring so far (all three days of it) but it’s nothing like it is in your area. Stay warm and enjoy your picnic! 🙂

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    1. It was a good break and nice smoked sizzling all beef hot dogs. Worth all the snow tromping so I could make it from the camera and back into place for a few shots as well as build a fire and sit at the buried picnic table.

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    1. Thanks Bruce. I’m sure you remember all your meals in the snow and cold. It was warm actually, just below freezing with the sun out. Windy, so I stuck the plate in the snow or it would blow away.

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    1. Well Pete, we have 30 inches of snow. The weather pattern has to change and our 10 day forecast say it will not reach 40 yet. The last day it was 40ish was November 9. Nancy and Cheryl would just watch us through the window shaking their heads.

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    1. Thanks Nancy. I had this idea for some time now, but I waited till the sun was out and not snowing. I was not a boy scout but grew up walking the woods and skiing the woods in winter. I was quite young when I skied into the dep snow in the woods on my wide military surplus cross country skis and built a fire at -20 in a snowbank after reading “To Build a fire” by Jack London.

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    1. All good Marty. I know you have had tons of snow your way. Alaskan snowshoes are the only way to go in this deep of fluffy snow. Mid thigh deep without them. A good weight loss plan if one can make it back to the house. Even the snowshoes were quite a work out.

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  9. “I think I glimpsed a bit of heaven today” . . . You did Gary😇 Love the pics!

    You and I are truly blessed brother to live in special corners of creation where angels go on sabbatical 😊

    Be blessed my friend.

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    1. I could picture you doing this Fred. maybe build a quinzhee and cook inside (small fire with a smoke hole?). Yes, we get the angels, maybe entertain them unknowingly as well. Hmm, that would explain why we are still here?

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      1. If not here someday Gary, perhaps there will be a special ‘camp out’ above together for us with Him around a fire someday . . . we’ll have all eternity to plan it brother 😊

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    1. Ah, Mom thinks she needs a fur coat to be out in the snow bank. She is not sure about wearing snowshoes. She knew that I fell over on snowshoes the other day and had quite a time getting upright in thigh deep puffy snow. Everything goes under the snow to the ground except the snowshoes and the feet that are in them. Someone would have made money on funniest home videos at my expense.

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    2. I cannot “like” with my phone. My computer will usually do it. Sometimes I have to sign in again and again for “likes” and “comments” I figured it was my outdated stuff. I have to read many blogs (including yours) with my phone and hit “like’ with the computer before trying to go to the post off my email. Sigh…

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  15. I did a double take when you wrote that spring had arrived in Northern Minnesota. You made me check my calendar, Gary! You, sir, are a eternal optimist. I love the shots of your snowshoe picnic. Is it ever too cold for a fire?

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    1. “Is it ever too cold for a fire?” Now that statement gives us hope for the fire of God to well up in our soul no matter how cold the culture is around us or one’s heart is.
      My dad made a joke one time about himself as a parent modeling to their kids…”I was going to tell Gary to be an optimist but I didn’t think it would work”

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    1. As it should be Alicia. I should have done it with the grand kids visiting. Not sure we had enough hot dogs but it would have been a great way to expend their excess energy.
      I admit, the photo’s were fun and a challenge with a narrow window of time on most of them.
      We won’t talk about the one’s I missed….sigh

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  20. Thanks for the smile. It’s almost worth freezing to not get bitten by mosquitoes. On second thought, it is worth it! For some reason, the slide show never works for me. (I use a Chromebook.) But your pictures are beautiful. These photos make the cold look so pretty. And I love your line, “Every day is so unique.”

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    1. Thanks Betty. It is worth it. No black flies, deer flies or horse flies. Just birds and squirrels.
      I know my phone doesn’t get the little arrows on the edge of the picture to hit, I have to scroll.
      I wonder about all the ways people view posts sometimes. If the pictures enlarge to take up the whole screen they should have a way to advance manually.

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    1. Thanks Ann. My oldest daughter down south would have thought of the ants and flies as well. Our ants are quite small here and not as numerous or pesky. We also do not have poisonous snakes and fewer spiders here. I’ll take the mosquitoes over those any day.

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    1. Thanks Craig. I thought of showing the church people but they would probably want to come with their snowshoes, make it a potluck. it was fun.
      By the way you are still in my prayers. I have a prayer notebook that revolves through the week from Manette. You are in there twice each week.

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  23. I got a good laugh here because I’m in Pennsylvania, and while it’s cool and rainy some days, a glimpse of Spring is slowly emerging with warm days and sunny skies. When I read your Spring title and clicked to read more, I was anticipating budding flowers/trees or sunrises–not snow. LOL. Great pics anyway. Enjoy!

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    1. I’m glad I did it Ellie. I have read so many spring blogs with new flower pictures, new life themes and so on. I had not read one on “first picnic” so away I went on an adventure. Fun times.

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  24. No one need worry about the potato salad spoiling at your picnic, Gary. I did have to wonder if there was a bear or two with rumbly post hibernation tummies just waiting for an invitation. The frost on your hanger is exquisite. Only the Master Artist could craft such delicate beauty.

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    1. Wow, didn’t think of the potato salad, If I waited too long it would be crunchy. No need to worry about bear (I think), but I did see a racoon the other day on our deck.
      I did enjoy the frost crystals, they are stunning. Wow factor of God’s artistry

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  25. Gary, I got some good laughs from your pics and story. I’m not so silly after all, I took my three youngest grandchildren to a winter kite festival on a frozen lake in February, and afterward, we found a picnic table and had a winter picnic rather than my original plan to eat in the car. Our picnic table had no snow to push off. We scarfed down our fried chicken and sides real fast as our booties were getting cold on the metal benches. I’ll be happy to repeat the kite festival, but for me, the winter picnic is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope it created an unforgettable memory.

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    1. Of yes Manette. It is a great memory. I plan on making a similar experience with the grandkids. They seem to be game for anything, especially food and adventure. No matter how it comes or what it takes to get it, they are IN.

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    1. We can eat anywhere Jim. There are necessary precautions of course. Good warm cloths and snowshoes help. I have an idea of what the precautions are to dining at the table in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23)

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    1. I have threatened to build an octagon screened in picnic area in the back yard with a firepit and chimney in the middle going out the roof peak. No mosquitoes (except some strays) in the summer either. It would work for all seasons as winter would have sheets of plexiglass over the screens for a bit of warmth from the fire and sun. Just for picnics of all kinds. Maybe not practical but sure fun.

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    1. I’m quite sure there are picnics in the snow here and there on those mountain ranges Eva. I have been to several ski lodges that had quite a BBQ set up at the bottom of some nice ski hills. A great way to eat on the go.

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    1. It was fun Donna. I guess we are going to get a bunch more snow next week. It has been below zero for a couple mornings so no melting for awhile…the second longest cold spell under 40 degrees in recorded history so far close to 140 days in a row.

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  35. Yes, it could be snow, which is prettier but colder. We could use some rain to help it melt but then some would get flooded. We are a hard to please bunch of earthlings sometimes.

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    1. I try not to take myself too seriously GW, and also try to keep people on the fringes coming back. I think of a blog as if I’m taking people on a hayride to a camp fire in the middle of no-where and having a serious talk in the middle. So the strategy is to collect as many people as possible, have a lot of fun on the way and talk about life and the things of God and eternity when there is a good way to explain things. There is room for all on this hayride. Everyone gets hungry and thirsty sometime. Me: “I want to see you all in eternity…I’ll be there”. The blog following this one is “reasonable” judging by comments so far.

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  39. Pingback: Noble Humor: A Spear to the Heart of Darkness – His eye is on the sparrow

    1. Ya, and then we had 12″ more snow and then spring weather (melting) hit hard for a week so I have a picnic table with no snow. Our 30″ of snow has gone to patches and drifts in the yard. Lots in the woods yet. Thus one must be creative and enjoy what you have.

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