Some bucket-list items involve distant destinations or once-in-a-lifetime adventures. Mine were much simpler: see a baby loon and photograph one.

You’d think that would have happened long ago. I grew up exploring Wisconsin’s lakes and have spent the past 15 years at a Northwoods cabin where loons return each spring. Yet year after year, I heard their haunting calls without ever seeing a chick.

Transfer the beauty of favorite flowers onto paper or fabric to create works of art, greeting cards and gifts for family and friends. Pounding flowers is a fun and easy way gardeners of all ages can preserve the beauty of garden flowers.

Most days, Lesley Nemetz is busy making sure there are no stray records at Shawano City Hall, while Matt Hendricks makes sure everyone is having fun at the city parks and the newly reopened Shawano Recreation Center.

Mary Kluck, a 2024 graduate of Northcentral Technical College, recently became a published author, but her book, “Welcome to My Farm,” started long before it was ever printed on a page.

It began with the life she lived growing up on her family’s sixth-generation dairy farm, where every day meant caring for cows and learning firsthand that every glass of milk and block of cheese represent countless hours of hard work.

One day a while back, my husband was hauling gravel to fill in ruts on a path in our woods. We use this path to reach our sap lines, and the deluge of rain that came down a while ago did a number on it. He was in the woods with the tractor, trailer and skidder making all kinds of racket.

A notice on one of his trail cameras popped in. Stopping to glance at his phone, he wondered what it had taken a picture of. It made his jaw drop.

If you’ve been observing this year’s crop of fawns following Mama around the pastures and field edges lately, you’re probably excited to see two or even three young ones in tow.

It’s a good news/bad news story as it means plenty of opportunities for hunters this fall but potential disaster for motorists; and it’s a reflection that we still haven’t done a great job controlling herd growth to match carrying capacity.