Never Grab A Groundhog

Did you know that New Jersey is running out of groundhogs?  Ever since Milltown Mel passed-away, this New Jersey town has faced a groundhog crisis.  Now the governor has vetoed an effort to import out-of-state replacement rodents.  Not so in neighboring Pennsylvania.   

Groundhog Day is a big event every year on this day over in Gobbler's Knob.   

Someone provokes a hibernating woodchuck named Punxsutawney Phil to come out of his hole and predict the arrival of spring.

Even I can do that.  Provoked by the alarm clock I crawled out of a perfectly warm bed this morning at 5:30 AM, poured myself a steaming cuppa joe and browsed news feeds on my laptop. It was snowing.  I therefore concluded more winter before the arrival of spring.

The man in the picture above is a fool.  You should never grab a groundhog - especially if you are going to wave it around in the air over your head.

From the Algonquian wuchak.  Also known as the whistle pig – Marmota monax belongs to the vast squirrel family. They are big rodents.

They are also sinister-looking with their small ears, beady black eyes and very sharp teeth to go with all of their claws.  I wouldn’t grab a groundhog any sooner than I'd make a grab for a beaver or a porcupine. They are capable of biting through a human hand.  They are all much too dangerous.

Trust me.  I know this.

I have had to deal with multiple critters infestations under my barn. This includes everything from bunnies, to raccoons to kittens.  One year I had a groundhog.  And that bugger was burrowing furiously.

Groundhogs are well-adapted miners.  They have short but powerful legs and very sharp claws.  They are capable of excavating hundreds of pounds of dirt.   And this fella was chucking enough dirt that it wouldn’t be long before he seriously undermined the structural integrity of the barn foundation.

Shooting a woodchuck is against the law in Wisconsin. Yep. They’re protected – just like badgers and wolves.  Not wanting to draw the attention of the local game warden and pleading a landowner exception I opted for the old reliable method.

Mothballs.

I poured a box of mothballs down the woodchuck’s hole.  Oh sure, your barn will smell like grandma for awhile but critters cannot stand mothballs.  And it worked almost immediately for me.

I was puttering in the machine shed when old Phil (smelling strangely of naphthalene) waddled his way into the shed and gave me the hairy eyeball.  He was not happy.  Actually, he was angry to the point of provocation because he reared-up on his hind legs and gave me a nasty bark.

Taking a machete from the peg board I waved it menacingly and told him to get the heck out of my shed.

He scurried away retreating behind a sheet of plywood leaning against the wall.

I grabbed a garden rake and thrust it in his face.

He snorted and whistled and parried back with his claws. 

Claw for claw - back and forth we went. Parry and thrust. I was gaining the upper hand and Phil was losing ground.

Finally forced from the shed he scurried a safe distance from the crazy guy with the rake, turned and gave me a dirty look and waddled-off in the direction of a neighboring farm.

Nasty attitude the groundhog has.

Dangerous too.

 *This post was first published on the JSOnline WauwatosaNOW Gas Pains blog on February 2, 2010.

Winner, Winner...

...Salmon Dinner!

Cold weather and the over abundance of noise that passes for news nowadays has lately opened my world to a welcome retreat to the kitchen.

After group and the running of Friday errands I fed my sourdough starter children and made a third batch for a possible experimental bake over the weekend.

There was a dozen of my signature blueberry muffins to bake followed by our weekly imported salmon; pan-seared with rice pilaf and sautéed spinach.  Remind me to extol sometime about the virtues of browned butter sauté. 

A word about the muffins.

Growing-up, blueberries were a rare seasonal item and rarer still in our household. Likely a consequence of scarcity-induced pricing. 

In case you missed it, blueberries nowadays are available year-round as a result of advances in Peruvian agriculture. And these blueberries grown at altitude in the Andes are mutant things of fruity deliciousness..

Anyway, raising a toast to global supply chains and 2-3 extra minutes of daylight delivered with every sunrise. 

 

February Night Sky

Native Americans have long grown familiar with this moon.  Members of the Cherokee nation refer to this month’s full moon as the Bone Moon.  This was a consequence of depleted food stores and the necessity of cracking-open bones to access the marrow for survival food. 

NASA image

Those of the Kalapuya nation referred to this as the Out of Food Moon.   For others it was the Little Famine Moon or the Hunger Moon.  For the Cherokee the association with hunger and starvation also included a brush with death.  And the people use this as an opportunity to communicate with dead ancestors during the Bone Moon.   

Indeed, these ancient native tribes named this moon after the way trees cracked in the cold, or how people had to huddle around a fire for warmth.  My own people – the ancient Celts – remember this as the Moon of Ice as it is associated with the coldest month of the year.   
On a more upbeat note it is the Hopi tribe of the southwest who call this the Moon of Purification and renewal. 

This close association with the renewal that is marked by the arrival of spring is much more appealing to me than bones and death.  We have modern refrigeration, canning, grocers, central heat, wood stoves, Merlot and streaming television.  Starvation is rare and the entertainment possibilities are endless. Nevertheless, turning our eyes to the heavens hasn't changed in millennia.   

February's full Moon - called the Full Snow Moon - reaches peak fullness at 4:09 PM CST on Sunday, February 1.  For the best view of this Moon be sure to watch for it rising in the east at sunset.  Near midnight the moon will be high in the sky and cast shadows in the snow-covered landscape.  If you are an early riser be sure to look for it low above the western horizon before sunrise on February 2.  The moon will also appear full the evenings of Saturday and Monday - before and after.  Last, but not least, the moon will be closely associated with the brightest star in Leo  - Regulus.  You may have to use your hand to block out any moon glow to spot Regulus.

 

 

Happy viewing.   And fingers crossed for cold, clear winter sky gazing.....

Comical

If it wasn't such a serious subject the appearance of a comic book superhero before a city council would be comical.

Extra credit to Batman for drawing attention to a gravely serious subject.

Rare Walk In The Woods

From a day it wasn't single digit or below zero temps.

Dang, it's been colder than (fill in the blank)..... 

 

Friday Music

Composed by lead vocalist Ray Davies the Kinks released this song on their 1972 album - Everybody's in Show Biz.  My high school years.

Aside from mentioning Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame the song includes a Who's Who of film stars.

The Kinks have been featured here several previous Fridays.  This is one of my favorites.  And you'd likely agree Davies is a damn-fine guitarist.

Celluloid Heroes...

Datapoint

I didn't see this coming; consequently, it caught me by surprise.  

Here we are, barely one month into the new year, and the Conference Board's long-running consumer confidence index fell 9.7 points from 94.2 in December.  This was a sharp drop with all five components of the index deteriorating making it one of the largest monthly drops in four years and placing American's confidence in the economy at the lowest it has been in a dozen years.  

click on image for a closer look

Popular sentiment about the economy is both a curious and fickle phenomenon.  Over the last couple of years consumer confidence did not necessarily reflect the underlying strength of the US economy.  This drop is an assessment of survey respondents' current state of economic affairs and their expectations for the future.  Notably, the index is now below the level it sank during the pandemic when unemployment was approaching 15%.

Asked about jobs the share of consumers who shared that jobs are plentiful fell to 23.9% from 27.5% in December.  Similarly, 13.9% expected more jobs to be available in the next six months compared with 17.4% in December. 

Economists suggest that these data point are the latest evidence of American's perceptions of a weaker labor market than the actual numbers may imply.  It this a wariness of potential impacts from artificial intelligence?

Again, economists over at the Conference Board suggest that respondent's answers to the survey continues to trend pessimistic with elevated concerns over food and grocery prices, health insurance, utilities, future business conditions, income prospects and trade war impacts.

Despite robust GDP growth and an overall low unemployment rate U.S. consumers are pessimistic about the general economic outlook.

Go figure.