Flood

The resident and resilient Moultrie trail cameras handle plenty of weather extremes with nary an interruption.  With a hat-tip to Timex - they take a licking and keep on ticking.  Yesterday I published a couple of photos of the deep February snows.  That afternoon I was finally able to access one remaining camera that had defied reach. Initially as a consequence of the frigid temps, secondarily the deep snows and finally almost two weeks of flood conditions.  The ice jams have finally melted the floods have receded and Silver Creek is now flowing at full force but within the confines of its banks.

As it turns-out this camera was buried by the January snows.  Here's a nice sequence of shots marking the rapid snow accumulation on January 28 and how - over the course of four hours - the camera succumbed to the rising snow pack.

click on images for a closer look

After the snows receded the camera went back to work taking pictures thru February and into March.  Alas, it could not survive the rising waters of a flood.

This is what I found yesterday - full of rusty water...

Between January 19 and March 15 this Moultrie Model A-25 snapped 882 photos until the rising waters did it in.  Its last gasp came on the evening of March 15th when after taking about a dozen pictures that looked like this it finally died.




Because the SD card survived - the legacy of this cam are the terrific pictures it captured in its last three months of life.  I intend to post selected favorites as time allows. 

In the interim I'm going to let the device dry out in the garage to see if it can be revived.  Yet I'm not holding my breath for a miraculous recovery.  The lesson of this parable is never spend more than about $100 on a trail camera...

Look Who's Back

It is fifty-percent ice-out on the big pond and ducks have been departing and returning mornings and evenings.  Same for these Big Birds....

Our resident sandhill cranes have returned.

Raising a toast to observing the ritual mating dance.

Avalanche

One of the factors used to calculate the winter severity index is snow depth.  And until recently it has been DEEP.  How deep you ask?  Deep enough to bury a trail camera for days at a time.  Just like an avalanche victim one of my trail cameras was temporarily out of commission until the snow receded just enough to allow it to come up for air, peek over the top and snap some photos.  That has never happened before.

It made for some interesting composition and is evidence of the resilience of the trusty Moultrie trail camera.

Snow up to the lens....

And how deep the going was for adult deer cruising thru....

click on images for a closer look



The snows have now receded sufficiently to get around with the ATV in most locations and flooding is occurring as the melt picks-up the pace.  Once the frost is out of the ground mud season will be upon us with all it's glorious muddiness.

The girls can't wait...

Sunset

A couple of bracketed shots of tonight's sunset.

BTW - following the vernal equinox Old Sol is trending north (from true west) on going to bed.....

click on images for a closer look

 

Friday Music

When Buffalo Springfield split up – band members Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Rusty Young decided to start their own group oriented toward American country rock. 

Poco was the start of this genre and others followed including Pure Prairie League, Firefall, Loggins and Messina, JD Souther, Stephen Stills, Dan Fogleburg, the Eagles, Marshall Tucker Band, Little Feat, Linda Ronstadt, America, Little River Band, Don Henley, the Flying Burrito Brother and many more.  

Richie Furay performing one of my all time Poco favorites at the 2018 Durango Songwriters Expo last year…

Ancient Peninsula History

This would be the Niagara Escarpment - a very tenacious formation of dolomite limestone that extends all the way from Buffalo, New York through the Fox Valley.  This dolostone composition of the Door Peninsula explains why the peninsula exists in the first place.  Multiple glaciations were unsuccessful in scouring it from the face of the earth. 

About 10,000 years ago when the last ice age visited Wisconsin my part of the world was buried beneath an ice sheet more than a mile thick. The earth's crust is still rebounding from the weight of all of that ice. 

Photo - Wisconsin DNR

Looking at this map you can see how the escarpment transects the peninsula. Visualize the Lake Michigan lobe of the glacier extending south just to the right of the line and the Green Bay lobe of the glacier extending south immediately to the left of the line.  This saucer-shaped geological feature formed from the basin of an ancient inland sea during the Ordovician and Silurian eras some 445 to 420 million years ago.  

Over a period of eons layers of limestone, sandstone and shale were laid down.  The western edge of the escarpment in Wisconsin curves in a semi-circular ridge northeast from Horicon Marsh, toward the eastern edge of Lake Winnebago and the western shore of Door County.  It arcs around Lake Huron, then south through Ontario and ends at Niagara Falls, spanning a total of 650 miles. Some of its edge is underwater or covered by glacial deposits, but much is exposed as cliff outcroppings as high as 200 feet in places.  Geologically-speaking these are old rocks. 

They also happen to be home to some exceedingly-old trees.  Because growing on these cliffs are some of the slowest-growing trees on the planet.  Door County is home to an ancient, old-growth forest.  

Photo - Wisconsin DNR




Last fall, some guys used an incremental borer to extract cores from four of the white cedar trees growing along the edge of the Niagara Escarpment at The Clearing in Ellison Bay. Carefully counting tree rings using a hand lens they discovered that the oldest tree had 397 growth rings.  These slow-growing trees can be more than 300 years of age and have a trunk diameter the size of a 50-cent coin.  The world's oldest red cedar is located on the bluff north of Greenleaf in Brown County.  It is approximately 1,290 years-old and happens to be the only known tree more than 1,000 years of age in Wisconsin.   A 507-year-old white cedar is located on Sven's Bluff at Peninsula State Park and another ancient specimen that is 616 years of age can be found at Fish Creek south of the park. 

It is noteworthy that the peninsula happens to be home to this old stuff.  It sort of makes our short human lifetime here on this earth seem all the more inconsequential and small.   

 

Stop Counting

Click on image for a closer look

 

This is a hurried shot with a smart phone as the whitetails began to bolt when I slowed the car to lower the window.  We stopped counting at eighteen when we spied this deer herd in the field directly south of the house.

Incidentally, at the same time we counted five deer in the picked-over bean field to the east and a quarter mile down the road to the west were an additional nine deer in my neighbor's hayfield.

This is nuts....

Look Who Showed-up on the Trail Camera

Not having previously spotted one of these my initial reaction was - whoa!  This has got to be the mother of all weasels. Thumbing thru a field guide of Wisconsin mammals I had a tentative ID in relatively short order yet was unsure.  These weasels are not at all common around these parts.  I figured I better seek a second professional opinion to be sure of the identification of this rare critter.  Both a UW and DNR biologist concurred on the identification.  This was an exciting first for me and I got to check another species off of my life list. 

click on image for a closer look

 

Meet Martes pennanti - the Fisher.  One of the larger members of the weasel family - this mammal was once widely distributed across Wisconsin.  Characterized by a soft and supple pelt this highly-valued furbearer was oft referred-to as the American Sable.  Unregulated trapping and deforestation eventually led to the extirpation of this species with remnant populations retreating to the northern-most reaches of our state and Minnesota.  Nevertheless, the species persists as a consequence of reintroduction efforts and making a come-back would appear to also make Door County part of its range. 

Pregnant females will den-up for a period of time while males are always on the prowl with a typical boy requiring up to 150 square miles of territory.  Equipped with retractable claws (just like a cat) this is one of the few predators that will prey-upon a porcupine with little or no ill-effect.  It will also dine on small mammals such as mice, voles, squirrels, rabbits as well as nuts, berries, eggs and fruit.

This is the mating season of the fisher and females give birth to three to four kits in the spring.  By the end of summer the young will leave the den and mom's care and disperse to establish their own territories.

Incidentally, the fisher is a strong swimmer but it does not fish.  Mink are better fishermen than the fisher.  That-aside, I'd still like to raise a toast to weasels.   They are survivors after-all....

Tree Planting for Timber and Wildlife - Part 1

click on the sign for a better read

The sign above is located on the east side of County Highway DK (formerly State Highway 57) north of the town of Brussels.  About the same time we reforested our former farm land a similarly-sized piece of sensitive farmland was also reforested.  

Water quality has long been a challenge on the Door Peninsula as a consequence of the karst rock formation that dominates the topography here.  I suspect that this planting in particular was a means to address a water runoff issue.  But I digress.  What I'd like to talk about is reforestation as a process and the patient succession that follows.

First steps include the following:

Site preparation in the year prior to planting.  In our case this included discing the soil to bust-up any compaction.  Not once - but twice.  This was followed by application of a pre-emergent herbicide.  When the trees are planted the following spring/summer the emergence of competing weed and grasses following tree planting would be discouraged.

Soil maps from the county Soil and Water Department were critical to the selection of native Wisconsin species and where they should be planted.  Optimum growth is the desired result.  Moreover, selection of trees to plant is analogous to building a stock portfolio.  Diversification is important.  Ash was a component in our hardwood selection as it is a common and fast-growing species suited to our soil types.  At the time emerald ash borer wasn't on anybody's radar screen.  Decades later our well-intentioned ash has a death sentence.  

Our stocking rate (trees planted) was 800 trees per acre - give or take.  That's a large number of trees and you have to account for mortality due to animals (mice, deer and rabbits) and weather conditions (namely drought) in the early establishment of the planting.  If survivability is better than normal several thinnings will follow in the decades to come.

Trees are machine-planted in rows.  Sure, some urbanites find this practice not aesthetically pleasing to the eye but there is a reason for this. Row planting facilitates the establishment of the little trees.  Most plantings are of one and two year-old bare root stock.  Of critical importance in the early years (and until the trees grow beyond the height of the weeds and grass) is vegetation management.  Row planting allows for herbicide management of invasive shrubs and mowing the grasses without harming the seedlings.  Without managing the competing grasses and invasives - mortality of the little seedlings would be much higher and could result in a failure of most if not all of the planting.

Nevertheless, aesthetics also happens to be a concern of a large number of us tree farmers.  If you've ever been in a red pine plantation it looks like a utility pole forest with nothing growing in the thick layer of needles in the under story.  There's not much there for the critters and the only appeal is the future sale of tall, straight utility poles.  I get that.  The answer to the aesthetics issue is to plant a mix of conifers and hardwoods.  For instance - a mixture of various hardwood species per row alternated with a row of a single conifer species.  The bushier conifers help 'train' the hardwoods to grown straight stems in their formative years.

Planting on the diagonal (relative to roads and boundaries) and in sweeping curves also helps.  Later thinnings will remove a significant number of the conifers and selective thinning of the hardwoods will be performed to favor dominant and other favored trees. By the time you have a mature forest and natural regeneration is occurring most evidence of the rows will have disappeared. Here is a handy graphic:

click on image for a better look

This requires no small amount of patience as growing trees takes decades.  In a world of instant information and instant gratification it can be a tall order to wrap your mind around this concept.  Think of it like this - if it crosses your mind to plant a tree go ahead and act on it.  Every year you wait to think about it is one year of growth that is gone.  That's called opportunity cost.  I'm reminded that the oak trees we planted more than twenty years ago are likely going to be enjoyed by someone who hasn't even been born.  

Next week I'll publish more about the process of thinning.

Affordable Housing

Yesterday Jill and I and the girls ventured-forth to clean-out bird boxes.  You know them - the boxes we've built and distributed for purposes of providing nesting habitat for cavity nesting birds such as bluebirds, tree swallows, house wrens and more. 

Seasonally we clean out the prior year nests and evict any over-wintering mice.  Next weekend we'll complete the process and treat the box interiors with a mild spray of bleach solution to avoid transmission of disease and parasites.

This is also a terrific opportunity to inventory nest boxes in need of repair. 

Box construction has evolved over the decades and steadily improved in terms of design and materials.  Taking a cue from Henry Ford all box generations have been standardized and as a consequence repairs are simplified.  

Here's one from 2005....

And the latest design from 2014...

The oldest box serviced was dated 1997.

In all we cleared out 50 boxes and have a handful left to get after following the melting of deeper snows and flood waters receding along the creek. 

Bring-on the migrating song birds!

Toasting the Arrival of Spring

click on the Canadian lager for a closer look

 

First Porch Beer of 2019. 

Cleaned out fifty nest boxes today. 

Raising a toast to spring.

And - in case you're interested in knowing - we're getting a new porch deck this year.  Stay-tuned....

The Butcher of Bosnia

Radovan Karadzic was a former Bosnian Serb politician and convicted war criminal who served as the President of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War.  Trained as a psychiatrist at Columbia University he co-founded the Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Following his indictment for war crimes in 1996 he remained on the run for more than a dozen years before he was eventually arrested and indicted in 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia.  In 2016, he was convicted of war crimes and genocide for the Srebrenica massacre in which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered by Bosnian-Serb forces in July 1995.

Just this past week a United Nations court increased his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.  Mr. Karadzic - 70 at the time of the original verdict - was unlikely to live long enough to serve out the original sentence of 40 years in prison.  Nevertheless – this symbolic move - reaffirmed having been found guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.   

You’re probably thinking:  Geez, Swamp, why is any of this horrific old news  of any consequence today? 


It would be as a consequence of this. 

Correspondence I had with the Butcher of Bosnia dating from 1992.     

click on the images for a closer look

 

This was for crimes committed before those he was ultimately convicted-of.   How many of you can say you corresponded with a genuine war criminal.  

Hope you like the accommodations in hell you worthless scum.    

You can learn more about this here…..

Observing the Lenten Traditions

Traditional Friday Lenten repast here at Gasthaus Zur Gas Pains.

 

click on images for a closer look at this deliciousness

 

Pan fried yellow lake perch, tater tots, creamy slaw and buttered bakery rye bread.

 

 

During dinner two does stood sentry while we observed five fawns frolicking (yes, frolicking - as in leaping and chasing) in the tall grass wildlife opening to the north. 

 

E Gads! It’s crazy with deer around here. 

 

Raising a toast to LaFonds Fish Market in Kewaunee for the lake perch.....

Friday Music

Likely best remembered as the Rolling Stones’ first hit single this song was released in 1964. Composed by Buddy Holly it was originally recorded by him and The Crickets in 1957. It is characterized by the distinctive Bo Diddley beat. 

The Crickets' recording never charted – nevertheless in 2004 it was enrolled in position 107 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 

Covering this tune is part of an all-star lineup (Doyle Bramall, Jimmy Vaughan, Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Bonnie Riatt, Gary Clark, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Sheryl Crowe, Lloyd Maines, David Grissom and Brittany Howard ) celebrating four decades of Austin City Limits. 

Crank-up the volume on your office workstation for Not Fade Away…..

War on American Farmers Will Continue Until The Morale Improves

Farmers across the US are caught between the 25 percent tariffs that the Republican Administration has imposed on imported raw materials such as steel and aluminum and the retaliatory tariffs that China and other countries have imposed on major American agricultural exports – namely soybeans and corn.  For our farmers and ranchers this has resulted in a perfect double-edged sword of increased costs for machinery, farm equipment, spare parts and plunging commodity prices.  Negotiators for the Administration and China have been trying to reach a new trade deal – however talks are unlikely to be concluded until after planting time at the very earliest.       

In the meantime President Trump said Wednesday (yesterday) that his administration was discussing leaving in place tariffs on Chinese goods for a ‘substantial period of time.’   Speaking to reporters as he left Washington for Ohio, Mr. Trump said he was not considering removing tariffs on China and that the U.S. was taking in ‘billions and billions’ from tariffs.  'For a period of time, that will stay,' he said.       

You’re probably thinking:  Do people really believe that the Chinese are paying these tariffs?  To which I would suggest:  Yup!  There is an exceedingly high probability that Trump supporters believe each and every untruth.  Don't take my word for it - Google PT Barnum.  Nonetheless, what matters is that we know the truth.  US consumers pay the taxes imposed by the Republicans.  As evidence of this great truth large agricultural equipment manufacturers such as John Deere and Caterpillar raised their prices immediately after the Republican tariffs were announced so that they could adjust for the higher price of steel and aluminum imports.  Oh, it’s not just big ticket items either – in Montana the cost of a horse-trailer is now 20 percent higher as a consequence of the tariffs Republican tax increase.         

Suppose you are not a farmer and instead are a member of the investor class; take heed to note this kind of stuff.  Last month Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded John Deere’s stock citing 'a real risk to farm equipment demand' if the trade war continues. 

I digress.       

Farmers in the United States are continuing to be clobbered by this Republican administration with a record number having to file bankruptcy thanks to spiraling costs and falling revenues from Trump’s trade wars.  These farmers also happen to be mainstays of Trump Country.  And if he continues to squeeze them financially you have to wonder how this will contribute to reelection in 2020.        

I wish to advance a wild-ass piece of wishful thinking.  Faced with a growing list of petty grievances – and citing ‘family business demands’ - perhaps maybe Trump will announce he’s not running for reelection.  Being president is hard work after all.     

Always hopeful….

Turn Your Gaze to the Heavens Today

If you are a fan of what occurs in the heavens today is an important and busy day. 

For starters today marks the vernal or spring equinox.  On this day both of earth’s hemispheres receive equal amounts of night and day.  For those of us in the northern hemisphere our days will continue to get longer and our hopes for spring continue to grow stronger.  

You may wish to take note of the location of today’s sunrise (true east) and sunset (true west) as these compass points mark the celestial equator and cardinal directions.  Spring officially begins at 4:58 PM CST. 

There is a bonus supermoon tonight – the third and final supermoon of 2019.  The last time the full moon coincided with the March equinox was 19 years ago, in 2000 – the next time we will witness this event will be 11 years from now in 2030.

NASA

 

Some Native American tribes in our hemisphere referred to March’s full moon as the Crow Moon – after the cawing of the crows and the end of winter.  Other tribes referred to it as the Worm Moon and the return of robins to feast on the emerging worms.  Still other tribes observing the melting and freezing of the snow called this the Crust Moon.  Some people know this as a Full Sap Moon as it marks the tapping of maple trees.  European settlers called this the Lenten Moon.   You can call it whatever you want just know that this moon will attain its peak fullness at 8:43 PM CST.

Raising a toast to spring! 

Tweet of the Absurd

Today President Trump lashed out at the husband of senior adviser Kellyanne Conway calling her husband - vocal critic George Conway - a 'total loser.'  (Only yesterday Conway urged voters to think about Trump's mental condition ahead of the 2020 election.)  

The president’s denigration of Mr. Conway followed a ginormous tweetstorm this past weekend in which he issued 50 tweets—averaging more than one per hour—on an outsized range of subjects, including attacking the ghost of John McCain, General Motors, Low IQ Joe Biden, Saturday Night Live, Paul Ryan, Fox News’ suspension of Jeanine Pirro and much, much more.  

I reviewed a number of the president’s tweets over the weekend and have concluded that this is now beyond mere entertainment and microwave popcorn.  I am beginning to actually feel sorry for him.  He sounds isolated and friendless.  All he has are his grievances.  He cannot muster the courage to grasp anything else happening in the world. 

Fifty people are murdered in New Zealand and he posts this:  'I offer my warmest sympathy and best wishes to the people of New Zealand.'  Best wishes?  What sort of self-absorbed individual says that after such a horrible tragedy?  There are massive floods in our nation’s heartland and Venezuelans dying of starvation and all the leader of the free world can talk about are his own petty grievances.  He lives in a small sad world battling the worst of his inner demons.   Poor man.  

By any clear-eyed measure Donald Trump is not functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment.  This man has no impulse control, no filter and cannot rise above any challenge or criticism, no matter how meaningless and insignificant.  Healthy adults do not act in this fashion and George Conway likely feels as sorry for him as I do.

It is really all so pathetic.  Please pass the popcorn...

Masked Bandit

Raccoons do not hibernate during the winter months - although they do sleep a lot and put on an extra layer of fat for the duration. 

What is interesting is the same (or another) raccoon shows-up periodically at this location.  And because this is a nocturnal critter the photo opportunity is always after dark.

After the snows got really, really deep the masked bandit hasn't shown.  However, when the snows abate look who comes around.

I haven't any idea how far they range on their nightly ramblings but I wonder if this one has a den close by.

The Big Thaw

Some of you readers may have heard that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has declared a state of emergency as a consequence of widespread flooding across the state. 

click on images for a closer look

 

Same here.  Silver Creek has become Silver Lake.

I strapped-on the snowshoes Saturday and the girls and I hiked down to the creek to check on what I suspected was the situation.  Namely that the creek had topped its banks and flooded the surrounding terrain.  There was no safe passage to cross and there was no way I was going to allow the dogs to venture into the freezing, ice-jammed and swiftly-flowing waters.  Yikes!

Stopping to check a couple of trail cameras on the walk home it was noteworthy that there was water actually flowing beneath the icy-crust in the trail.

Looks like the thaw has arrived.  And I heard the call of the redwing blackbirds for the first time this year.....

A Wee Bit O'Blarney

Did St. Patrick really chase the snakes out of Ireland?  Or is that story just a bunch of blarney? 

According to the tale way back in the fifth century the legendary priest raised his staff and banished the reptiles into the seas surrounding the Emerald Isle.  Save for those in captivity it is true that Ireland has no snakes.  But this current condition has less to do with religious tradition and more to do with geologic history and events dating many millennia ago.  Following the retreat of the last glaciers some 15,000 years ago Ireland was devoid of snakes.  Surrounded by icy waters to this very day snakes cannot swim or find their way there and as a consequence Ireland remains snake-free.  

That’s too bad because if my recreational DNA test is to be believed I am becoming more Irish with every passing year.  And I have a particular fondness for snakes. The bigger the better. 

Like this dandy five foot long Western Fox Snake.  I also like a good saint when I see one and St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish.  

Patrick was born of aristocratic blood in Britain probably around the year 390.  The legend says that he was not particularly religious.  At age 16 he was kidnapped into slavery was forced into life as a sheepherder in Ireland.  It is held that it was during this time that he found God and became a believer.  

As the story goes he began hearing voices and the voices instructed him to flee.  Which he did.  Patrick eventually found his way back to Britain and his family.  Alas, the voices returned commanding him to return to Ireland.  He was ordained a priest, went back to Ireland and spent the balance of a rather difficult life converting the pagan Celts to Christianity.  He died on March 17, 461 and was promptly forgotten.   

Nevertheless, over many years faithful conviction and belief in the story of Patrick grew.  And he grew ever larger after his death than he did in real life.  Hundreds of years after the fact he was honored as Ireland’s patron saint.  

So on March 17th we gather to pay homage to this saint who - ostensibly - banished the snakes from Ireland.  It is said that on this one day of the year everyone is Irish. 

Since I have real Irish blood coursing through my veins I intend to raise a glass of Guinness and toast my ancestors and Saint Patrick.  I will ignore the part about the sketchy British and Western European connection.  

Speaking of Guinness - according to the Guinness people somewhere around 5.5 million pints of Guinness stout are consumed world-wide each and every day.  On St. Patrick’s Day this will grow to 13 million pints. 

Drink responsibly people. 

Sláinte!


 

Shoeing

Running the trail camera trap line are some photos opps from the recent deep snows. 

No surprise, the Labs were really mixing-it-up. 

In deep snow it is always mayhem - ass ends and ass holes........

 

Yote

Another terrific photo of the top predator around these parts.

Raising a toast to Snapshot Wisconsin and the ever-patient DNR Bushnell trail camera.....