Welcome to Winding Pathways
Winding Pathways encourages you to create a wonderous yard, whether that yard is an expansive acreage, a suburban lot or a condominium balcony. Go outside and play!
Join our email list
Sign up for FREE Winding Pathways emails (approximately weekly).
Foiling Chipmunks
Our dining room table overlooks a tiny pond circled with large stones. Many wild animals come to drink or bathe. One of our favorites is the sleek Eastern Chipmunk. Often, chipmunks fill their cheeks with seeds that fall from our bird feeders and carry them off to a...
A Tale of Free Trees
This is a tale of free trees. Our friend, Marilynn Keller, learned how to plant the best tree species in her yard at no cost and with little work. She simply didn't mow a tiny area of lawn where she wanted a tree to grow. As if by magic, a White Oak, Sugar Maple, and...
Life Cycle
Nature is not all sunshine and roses, cute baby animals and gentle breezes. Sometimes nature is rough, sometimes vicious, sometimes other creatures simply clean up carcasses of fallen animals. This spring the Heartland has had its share of hail, winds and heat. The...
Lawn Discoveries!
We never spray our lawn at Winding Pathways. Occasionally, that yields an exciting discovery like what happened in early May. We wanted to plant a tree, preferably an oak, on the south side of our garage. But, we got busy and never found time to buy or plant one. One...
Ten Week Old Chicks!
Chicks are amazing! How quickly they learn and adapt. Their personalities amuse us at Winding Pathways and their problem solving is the best! Enjoy the videos of the Hoover's Hatchery chicks at about ten weeks.
May in Northeast Iowa
May is about the most exciting month to travel and camp out in Iowa. We took in the Driftless area of Iowa and Wisconsin where we learned more about mounds at Effigy Mounds National Monument, ate at funky Café McGregor, took in Starks and Cabelas in Prairie du Chien,...
Spring Inspirations by Readers
We invited readers of Winding Pathways blogs to submit a photo and short description of a favorite spring scene. The response spanned from the Pacific Northwest to Canada and from the Desert Southwest to New England. Enjoy readers' reflections on our emerging spring....
Sterno – Great for Emergencies
At Winding Pathways we wrote periodically about preparedness. Usually, it's related to the potential for seasonal weather-related events. Almost every day someone somewhere suffers damage from a tornado, hurricane, ice storm, blizzard or some other natural disaster....
Magical Mayapples
Early each spring we look forward to the appearance of hundreds of Mayapples in our small woods. They appear like magic, usually after a few warm April days. Only a couple of days after their first shoots poke through the ground our woods are carpeted with...
Call for Photo and Write-ups
First submission in! Hey all, on Facebook Winding Pathways invited folks to submit a favorite spring photo - tree, scene, flower, animal - with a short write-up of why you like that picture. And, Kansas readers Emily and Zach Hemmerling have already replied! Way to...
Best Birding in the Yard
At Winding Pathways, we venture into our yard nearly every day, even if it's raining, windy, or frigid out. Of all the times, early May is our favorite to linger outdoors. Why? It's the best birding. Very late April and the first couple of weeks of May boast normally...
It’s Night Crawling Time!
There's lots going on out on the lawn every dreary drizzly spring evening. Don't miss the annual night crawler mating season. Night crawlers are a species of earthworms. Crawling is a fun family activity that only takes a few minutes and yields great fish bait. Night...
Canada Geese Life Rhytym
Rich made a New Year's resolution to walk around Cedar Lake at least 100 times in 2017 after making over 90 lake circuits last year. The 60-acre lake is near downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and features a 1.7 mile long paved trail following its shore. Every day...
Pileated Woodpecker on Suet
The pileated woodpecker checked out the suet and finally flew to the ground then up to the feeder to hammer out chucks of suet. Then, off to the tree where a female played hide and seek with it. [playlist type="video"...
Save Baby Chicks From Certain Death
We weren't worried when a 37-degree north wind took to blowing on Saturday, March 25th. Our chicks were safe inside the barn brooder. Then, our electric power went out. Normally that wouldn't be a problem. Our wood stove keeps the house warm without electricity...
Turkey Time!
Well, the turkey characters are at it, again! Up they come each morning even before sun up, looking quite fit and hale, and gobbling for breakfast. At Winding Pathways we get a kick out of the web pages and sporting flyers that detail all the equipment one needs to...