Spring is Sprung

clik image to enlarge

Last Saturday the girls and I were out for a romp in what was likely the last of the snow.

The birds have been returning.  Cranes, geese, ducks, red wing blackbirds, meadowlarks, robins, finches, juncos, chipping sparrows and this weekend the blue birds - and more.

Last evening was delightful.  The spring peepers started with their courtship chorus...

Wishful Thinking

Between 1999 and 2011 the US lost somewhere around 2 million jobs to trade competition with China—about 10 percent of all manufacturing job losses during that time.

What The Great and Terrible Oz does not tell his followers is that those jobs are gone for good.  

Done-for they are.

They have moved on from China to even lower-wage countries like Vietnam and Indonesia.

The Terrible Oz is a fraud.

Science Lesson of the Day

click on image to enlarge

The estrous cycle of a whitetail deer lasts approximately twenty-eight days with the animal going into heat for a 24 hour period.  If the doe is not mated - a second estrus cycle occurs.  The entire mating season - called the rut - begins in October and lasts through December sometimes into January.  The rut for whitetails in the southern parts of the United States doesn't begin until January or even February.  Following a gestation period of approximately 200 days the first fawns will be dropped in the spring.  Depending upon conditions does will give birth to 1 to 3 fawns at a time.

This is a very pregnant doe.  She's huge!  Maybe twins on the way...

Infrastructure Improvement

Yoo hoo.  Deer Camp people.

The bunkhouse above the garage now sports an additional bed.  

Queen sized too!

 

Statistical Observation

82% of educated women have an unfavorable opinion of the narcissist (the highest since polling began). 

Read em and weep.

Freak Show at the Platz

click image to examine it more closely

Yup - a rabbit with three years. 

One picture of several captured on a trail camera last week.

Someone from Sturgeon Bay submitted a photo of a rabbit with four ears that was published in the March 19^th edition of the Door County Advocate.  It would appear that the peninsula is home to a mutant form of cotton tail rabbit that is well-endowed in the ear department.

Are all of the ears functional?  If so, is a rabbit with multiple ears endowed with extrasensory hearing powers?  With the prolific breeding that is found in rabbits are there more of them?  Inquiring minds want to know.

A rabbit with multiple ears has also been found in California and you can see a video of it here- http://www.maniacworld.com/four-eared-rabbit.html

Extra-ears are inherited as a simple recessive trait and is also found in cats.  There is some evidence that the four ears mutation might result in a shortened life expectancy.  In any event the rabbit in the picture above is very much alive and I'm thrilled to be witness to such an oddity.

You can learn more about it here.

Quote of the Day

If Republican voters were rational actors - thinking strategically for the general - then Kasich would be the nominee.

- FiveThirtyEight Blog

Winning by Losing

Judging from the Sunday morning Talking Heads it would seem that the media cannot get enough of The Great and Terrible Oz.  Flipping through the stations The Loathsome One had rather monopolized television media.

I'm not so sure I know what to make of it but I do know what others have had to say about this curiously dangerous phenomena - including Bruce Bartlett.
 
An American historian, Bartlett served as a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and as a Treasury official under George H. W. Bush.  He had this to say:

The GOP is "just a coalition of cranks, and racists and bigots and religious kooks" that will lose big with The Great and Terrible Oz.  Seriously, after Sarah Palin they’ve so dumbed down the Party that The Great and Terrible Oz is actually a viable candidate.

As a longtime critic of the current brand of conservatism that has taken hold of the GOP he sees The Terrible Oz as the best shot of finally ending the Tea Party takeover of the Republican Party by an ensuring historic electoral defeat this November.

Sure, I know that someone reading this might take exception to this point of view.  But Bartlett goes on to explain his hypothesis as follows.

The GOP needs to lose this election - and lose BIG - something like what hit the party with Goldwater. Only then - Bartlett suggests - will the Republican Party regroup and start to reorganize itself in a rational and positive fashion investing real energy into creative, constructive action in lieu of obstructionism.

The Congressional GOP members of the house and senate have incessantly grumbled about Obama for wrong policies or not getting enough done while they, meanwhile, have enjoyed short work weeks, employed obstruction and demonizing rhetoric along with advancing virtually no important policy initiatives.

So here we are.  There’s a good possibility that the GOP will fail to win the White House again, lose the Senate and fracture the Party.  All of the foregoing can be accomplished with either The Great and Terrible Oz or Senator Carpet Bomb as the nominee for president.

Saving the party by losing an election. Is Bartlett on to something?  I think it's premature to make such a prediction at this point.  Nevertheless it is a novel theory.  Stay tuned…

Poetry in Motion

Following yesterday's rains the snow is all gone, there is standing water everywhere and mud season is in full swing.  Following a walk or run a daily bath for the Labs is the new normal.

The snow base on Saturday morning was still consistent - and this three shot burst of photos from one of the trail cameras captured perfectly the shear joy of a Lab bounding through the snow.  Likely the very last of the snow. 

Poetry in motion...

click on images to enlarge

A Very Good Brain

“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."

The Great and Terrible Oz said that if elected, he might halt purchases of oil from Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies unless they commit ground troops to the fight against the Islamic State or “substantially reimburse” the United States for combating the militant group, which threatens their stability.

Someone should tell the Terrible Oz that oil is a fungible commodity - any oil of the stipulated quantity and quality will usually do.

Wait.  We don't import oil anymore anyway.

Hens

click to enlarge

Cannot hunt hen turkey in the spring but hens attract gobblers when Mr. Longbreard has romance on the brain.
 
Nothing like turkeys showing-up regular-like on the trail camera to get the spring turkey hunting juices flowing.

Soon cannot come soon enough.

Moving is Not for Amateurs

Completed Phase Four of the move today.  Closed on the city house, signed a lease for a luxury city apartment and beat it out of Dodge for a week of rest and relaxation (perhaps some day job work too) here at The Platz.

Some observations:

1.  Selling a home and planning a move takes a great deal of planning.
2.  It can be stressful.
3.  A good Realtor is invaluable.
4.  A good Realtor is worth their salt.
5.  Hire movers.
6.  Next time hire the movers to pack your stuff too.
7.  Downsizing is a good thing.
8.  The Frau and I are in need of additional downsizing - too much stuff.  All in good time.
9.  Looking forward to an apartment in the city.  Life style decision you know
10.  Moving is not for the faint of heart - or for amateurs... 

Trail Camera Photography

click on the whitetail to enlarge

Nicely composed photo of a buck from earlier this month.

I think the 'no visible flash' infrared photo mode in gray scale along with the last of the snow make for a great result from an inexpensive robotic trail camera.

Exodus

Phase Three of the move out of the city house.

Phase One included moving furniture and household goods to The Platz for reuse or donation.

Phase Two was The Panic - namely the monumental push to get everything packed and ready for Phase Three.

The movers arrived at 8 AM today and by 9:30 AM had everything on the truck and ready for temporary storage.

Here are some tips.  You know how when you travel on a European vacation you should always take your old underwear with you?  You don't you say?  The Reason is because you wear it once and throw it away on a daily basis.  You don't have to do laundry, you have extra room in your luggage for a souvenir and you can leave your dirty underwear in France.

When you plan a move save out all of your chipped plates, bowls and cups.  Eat-off of the damaged crockery after you've packed-up all of your good stuff.  Throw it in the trash on your way out the door.

You can also make good use of the porch furniture you're giving to the new owners and boxes for getting by.

Exodus.
 

click on image to enlarge

Pistolero

Never leave home without it.

The Great and Terrible Oz Speaks

“I think it’s absolutely horrible,” The Great and Terrible Oz said. 

“Look at Brussels, Brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime, and now it’s a disaster.” 

The Terrible Oz added the Belgian capital “is an armed camp” and added that “Paris is no longer the beautiful City of Lights.”

Residents of those two cities might object.