Notable Quotable

I hope he also mentions Tuesday how under Obama NASA lost a planet but now under him it has already found seven.

                                                          - Comment found on the web

 

How Many?

Taken from one of the two new camera locations is this photo of early morning deer.

click on image to count the deer

Look carefully.

How many can you identify?

Season Teasing

The recent warm snap sure had many of us thinking that spring had sprung.  When most of the 2017 garden was delivered in a box last week I was really getting my hopes up.

Yet I know that February is a long way from spring planting.  Sigh.

Last weekend's snow storm made that clear as new-fallen snow.

click on images to enlarge

New Camera Location

There is a long-used and predictable game trail that cuts east-west accross the property just about 75 yards north of the creek.  I located a trail camera there a couple of weeks ago to see what was happening.

What's happening are beautiful sunsets.

click on image to enlarge

Placement is everything (and planned)...

Selfie

Moved trail cameras around a couple of weekends ago and happened across this selfie.

Stay tuned for anything interesting captured on the SD cards in the new locations.

Sunset

Up to eight inches if snow on the ground and the ponds are frozen-over,  Nevertheless, the resident Sandhills were spotted flying into their traditional courting ground.  And Ma Nature set the sky afire in celebration of their return...

 click on image to enlarge

Ice Trees

Following the snow storm a day ago we got some freezing rain overnight.  Which left a glaze of ice on the trees endowing them with a glistening crystalline effect on the late afternoon sun...

 click on images to enlarge

Frozen

The mini-blizzard that blew thru here in the last 24 hours left (depending upon the location) 1 to 8 inches of the white stuff on the ground.  Yesterday afternoon I strapped-on my snowshoes and the girls and I ventured out for a walk to see what was up.

The first observation is that aside for some bunny tracks in the snow around a rock pile there was no sign of the local wildlife moving about.  Nada.  Everyone was hunkered-down.  (It wasn't until twilight yesterday that we observed four whitetails cruising thru down at the big pond).

The second observation is that the trail cameras were frozen, snow-covered, glazed-over  and were in need of cleaning.  Welcome back to winter.

I'll post some photos in the next several days of critters captured on the two cams that were relocated.

Dogs, Waiting and More Good Things Continued

Glorious day to sleep-in.  19 degrees and sunny with another covering of the white stuff overnight.

Putting the coffee on upon arising I savored a cuppa and fed the Labs.  Then I put them out on their leads to do their morning business.  Remember it is around 20 degrees or thereabouts with a stiff breeze.  Not particularly conducive to lingering outside even if you are a Labrador retriever.

Wondering what was taking the dogs so long to complete their routine I gazed out the front door to spy both dogs where they are forbidden.  They had jumped The Frau's wire fence bordering the flower bed and were alternately digging and chomping upon something with conspicuous gusto.

Baby bunnies.

Corralling the hounds I shepherded them back into the house after their illicit repast.

I have some advice for the whitetail rabbit world - free advice too.  You construct your nest adjacent to the porch at your own peril.

As for the dining upon baby bunnies - this too shall pass...

 

Good Things Come to Dogs That Wait

My girls are being very patient because they know the pouch-like pocket of my field coat is full of stale, unsalted peanuts.

Good things come to dogs that wait...

Snow Day

Woke up before sunrise to the sound of thunder snow.  Oh Boy.  A snow day.

Kept the wood stove continuously stoked. Check.

Productive remote work for the day job.  Check.

Made a batch of the signature blueberry muffins.  Check.

As the sun set, pan-fried a mess of black crappie fillets. Check. 

Putzy business but there was also a batch of potato pancakes. Check.

All in all it was a good day to be snowed-in....

Friday Music

Eurythmics - a British music duo consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart popularized new wave and dance-rock music.   

Love Is a Stranger was released as their fifth single in late 1982.  Initially unsuccessful it was re-released in 1983 eventually reaching the UK Top Ten. 

The Eurythmics have sold an estimated 75 million records worldwide. 

Annie Lennox Rocks...

Why America is Already Great Again

Lest you harbor any last vestige of doubt about our great country's greatness I want to point out something I was reminded of while knocking about a Monoprix in Paris a couple of weeks ago.  Something that is recognized throughout the entire world as irrefutable evidence of America's greatness.

Yup.  Commercially manufactured, enriched, fortified, pre-sliced and wrapped white bread.


America's post World War II manufacturing renaissance with humming factories, baby boom, highway-building, race for the moon and vast economic expansion was accompanied by this ubiquitous household foodstuff that even today persists as a key indicator of an American family's prosperity and American culinary and economic dominance throughout the world. 

I was raised on a steady diet of Wonder Bread.  No whole grain, fancy, hipster, designer loaves for me.  Good old, soft sliced white bread that got a tad gooey after the baloney, American cheese and mayo start to soak-in after sitting for hours in a lunch pail on the shelf at school.  It's no wonder (pun intended) that am a successful and prosperous example of building strong bodies twelve ways.

So, don't let that orange man behind the curtain fool you.  He's a hustler, swindler and a con-man (from Queens).  If he points a tiny finger at you and exhorts his minions about making America great again you just tell him that he's full of hot air.   America is already great again.  

America is already so great that this cultural food icon is copied and sold the world-over. I shit you not.

Yes, even in France.  The land of fresh-baked daily baguettes that are crunchy, chewy divinely delicious along with buttery, heavenly, flaky croissants, hard rolls and brioches.  

There is this: 
  

click on image to enlarge

Commercially manufactured, enriched, fortified, shelf-stable, preservative-infused, pre-sliced and wrapped white bread.  It proudly shouts- American Sandwich on the label too.

Even the French have surrendered - culturally and otherwise - to American greatness and dominance.

I rest my case.

You can learn more about The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread here.  

Be sure to visit Harrys here.

Bedroom Surprise

Not exactly in the bedroom - but immediately outside the bedroom window.

click on the dead bird for a closer view

A very dead ring neck pheasant.  

No sign of trauma and otherwise healthy and frozen stiff.  Found it near the exhaust pipe for the hi-efficiency furnace.  Did it perish of natural causes?  Asphyxiation from the furnace fumes?  Was it seeking shelter from the cold?

It's a mystery.

Ice Sinking

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly - Ice Sinking.  Although it is worthy of mention that this incident occurred during the Ice Drinking season.

The recent warm snap even gave my pal Sid pause and he had the presence of mind to fetch his ice drinking shanty and haul it to safe harbor on terra firma.  Not so much this dude.  He waited too long and plunged his fancy Cadillac Escalade through the thinning ice directly off-shore from Waterfront Mary's on Sturgeon Bay.

It took only a minute and a half to deep-six the expensive truck and the shanty to the bottom of the bay.

The driver escaped without physical injury.  Although I sure hope for the sake of his injured ego that this is a covered claim...

Urology

Recently I found myself turned-around over at the medical center.  I was not lost.  My delicate sniffer helped me to find my way out.  

When the atmosphere begins to become infused with the scent of pee it is beyond a doubt that you are close to the department of urology.  From there you follow the fresh air to the exit...

High Alert

click to enlarge

While hardly alarmed this whitetail is on alert status and demonstrating a wariness about the trail camera.

Smart deer.

New Math?

Are these deep intellects cooking the books, pulling a fast one or simply incapable of counting?

This past weekend the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering changing the way it calculates U.S. trade deficits - a shift that would make the country’s trade gap appear larger than it had in past years, according to people involved in the discussions.   

The plan that the Trump administration has concocted is to exclude from the calculations goods imported into the United States and subsequently exported to a third country like Canada or Mexico.  

Ahem.  A mainstream economist would tell you that this would artificially inflate trade deficit numbers because it would count these goods as imports when they come into the country but not count the same goods when they go back out as re-exports.  

I consider myself a pretty smart guy for sometimes being a smart ass.  And counting is simple – even if you have to use two hands.   

So, if an automobile is imported to the U.S., and (presuming it remains unchanged) it is then exported to a third country.  Are there not only two (count them - two) choices?  First, count it is an import AND an export.  Or second, as something merely in transit - not counting it as either an import or export.  Counting the import and not the export makes as much sense as counting the export, but not the import.  

Sure, I get the political motivation to inflate the trade deficit.  Anyone taking odds on whether Trump's base catches the math noodling?