Quote Of The Day

“If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas.”

 

                                                          - Donald Trump

New Resident In The Neighborhood

From time-to-time I have written about the common fox squirrels that inhabit  our woods.  Surprise, surprise, someone new has moved into the neighborhood; another squirrel that heretofore has not been personally observed by me or made a cameo appearance on one of the trail cameras.

Meet Tamiasciurus hudsonicus - the American Red Squirrel.

Last week my pal, Braumeister, reported that a red squirrel jumped on him while he was bow hunting.  In case you might be wondering why any self-respecting squirrel would jump on a person you should know that he was camouflaged in a ghille suit.  Consequently, the squirrel likely took him for another ordinary bush or large piece of foliage.  But I digress.

The bottom line is I didn't believe him.  My interrogation went something like this:

Tom:  Did the squirrel have a white belly?  

Brau:  Yes.

Tom:  Did it have white circles around the eyes?  

Brau:  Yes.

Tom:  Was it smaller than a gray squirrel?  

Brau:  Yes.

Tom:  Ruddy red pelt?  

Brau:  Yes.

Tom:  I've never seen one and I live here.  Must've been a fox squirrel.

Then the next day he took this picture.

Man, was I wrong.  That is most definitely a red squirrel.  A first around here.  And I'll be plucked!

Considerably smaller than gray or fox squirrels are easily identified by all the items I ticked-off in my interrogation (above).  Native throughout the United States and Canada they thrive in mixed hardwood and coniferous forests.  

Famously known as omnivorous hoarders their diet includes pine cones, pine nuts, seeds, berries, bird eggs and small insects.  They're quite territorial and will defend their feeding ground with sharp rattling chatter and scolding calls.

Unlike some mammals red squirrels do not over-winter in hibernation.  Instead they assemble large caches of pine cones underground or at the base of trees.  These middens sustain them over the winter. 

Breeding occurs February to March and while several males my chase a single female; the female is receptive to mating only once on a single day.  Gestation is 33-35 days yielding 2-5 offspring once during the months of March to May.  The young are weaned on on their own after 7-8 weeks.

On Saturday we fetched the memory cards from the trail camera trapline.  On the video cam where Brau was hunting there were two 15 second silent video shorts of a red squirrel.  No still photos yet; but this is a start.  Like I said; I'll be plucked.

 

Fun Fact:  This critter is a master mycologist.  They eat wild mushrooms including the Amanita.  Toxic to humans, red squirrels dine on this fungus with no ill-effects.  They hang their shrooms high in a tree to sun-dry before storing them in their midden for winter fare.

Another Door County Connection

When the bankrupt Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers one week before Opening Day 1970, one pitcher on the roster was coming home to Wisconsin. Gene Brabender had led the Pilots with 13 wins in 1969, and when the move was announced, he told the Associated Press that playing in Milwaukee would be closer to home in Sturgeon Bay, and that his wife and family would like that.

Brabender was the first native-born Wisconsinite ever to play for the Brewers. Born in Madison and raised in Black Earth, he was Wisconsin through and through.

His teammates called him "Lurch" — 6-foot-6, 225 pounds. His Seattle teammates, per Jim Bouton's classic book Ball Four, heard the big guy could bend the metal spikes that anchor the bases in his bare hands and agreed: "We better call him 'Sir.'"

He was the clubhouse jokester who once nailed Bouton's shoes to the floor, and he liked to scare teammates half to death by firing darts from a homemade blowgun into the wall just above their heads.

He later auditioned for (but did not get) the TV sitcom version of Ball Four, based on the book about the Pilots. 

Before Milwaukee, he'd been part of the Orioles' 1966 World Series championship team, and the best game of his career was a four-hit, 12-strikeout shutout of Cleveland in 1967. 

As a member of the Brewers first roster, Brabender went 6-15 with a 6.02 earned-run average in 29 games (21 starts).  The Brewers traded him to the California Angels organization in January 1971 for outfielder Bill Voss.  Shoulder problems hampered his comeback and he never returned to the major leagues.

 
Steve Barber, his old teammate, summed him up best: "a hard-throwing right-handed country boy." He died in a Madison hospital in 1996 at age 55 after collapsing form a brain aneurysm.

The Door County thread never really left the franchise, either. The Brewers' 2026 City Connect uniforms feature an Accent Cream the team says represents "the beaches of Door County." And this year's signature ballpark cocktail,The Bobber, is made with Door County cherry syrup. Lurch would be proud. 

 

 

Brewers Baseball

After watching the first game of the World Series last evening I'm not sure I'm capable of surviving many more closing like that one.

It's game-on for the second game of the series and we're ready.

The brewers lights went out on the porch last evening just before the first pitch was thrown.

And even the bear is getting his game-on. 

 

October Night Skies

In our part of the northern hemisphere the full moon appearance following the Harvest Moon is  generally known as the Hunter’s Moon.  Its appearance is typically in October - although it can also reveal itself in early November.  Last year it appeared on October 6. 

Before European settlement Native Americans knew it as that time of year when people would hunt deer and other animals to lay-up stores of food for the winter. The Anishinaabe people knew it as the Falling Leaves Moon while the fall bird migration led the Cree to refer to it as the Migrating Moon  With the arrival of lower temperatures it has also been called the Ice Moon or Freezing Moon.  

The October full moon will be at its largest overnight on October 25.  Nevertheless, If you are blessed with cold,clear viewing conditions it should appear full both tonight and tomorrow evening.

From October 2022 - Full Hunter Moon on the left, Jupiter right of center. 

The Bee

If your a fan of satirical publications s such as the Onion or the Merrill Daily Harold you'll like the Babylon Bee.  Like the other two satirical publications most of my consumption of their material is on Face Book.  It lightens the load.  Om rare occasion I've reposted a piece from the Beer.

Inasmuch as the Brewers are in the World Series run I can't resist.

Go Brewers! 

 

Friday Music

As an all time fan favorite I was witness to a live performance of this group in July 1978 at Milwaukee's Summerfest.  To this day I have a couple of cassette mix tapes in the Case Logic of my old Silverado pickup truck to play on the stereo. 

The Toy Factory Project is a Southern rock supergroup formed by the original Marshall Tucker Band drummer and Grammy Award winner Paul T. Riddle to honor the music and memory of the late great founder and guitarist Toy Caldwell. 

Project members and collaborators include a rotating or touring ensemble showcasing renowned musicians such as Oteil Burbridge, Marcus King, Josh Shilling, Charlie Starr and Billy Contreras.   

Naturally, they've resurrected the best of the best of Toy Caldwell.

Can't You See...