Debate Fallout

While his supporters give Donald Trump’s behavior last evening high marks I know enough about the art and science of debate to know a food fight when I see one.  That was no debate.  Coach Seraphim who led my high school debate team to tournament wins would have given Chris Wallace  a dressing down for allowing that garbage to occur.  What a shit show. 

I find it hard to believe that it changed any hearts and minds from the ever-shrinking and tiny pool of undecided voters and converted them to Trump supporters.

Between you and me – for anybody left on the fence they were likely turned-off by the prospect of four more years of this nonsense.  It is tiresome.

Donald Trump is simply an unlikable individual. 

And that matters.

Adjustments

Funny how habits formed over so many years are difficult to shake.  

One e-collar.

One dog.

One less companion to accompany this hooman on his walk.

Shit happens.
 
Nevertheless, Ma Nature shines her goodness across the autumn landscape and the sun is peeking thru the clouds that brought overnight rain 

The New England asters and sneeze weed have exploded in their fall glory.

And the bumble bees are still hard at work.

  Making adjustments.

Inky

Schwarzer Tinte Hund ‘Inky’, age 14, passed-away peacefully this week in the arms of her humans.

Preceded in death by her parents, Ratatouille and Remote Control and feline family members Bubba and Figaro, she is survived by her people Jill and Tom and her niece – Queenie – the blonde ’back-up’ dog. 

Born June 13, 2006 Inky came to live with her people at six weeks of age and mastered the art of flushing and retrieving. She was a quick study and grew into a reliable partner in the pursuit of upland game birds. 

Inky traveled extensively; including pheasant hunting trips ranging from Wisconsin to South Dakota and from Canada to the Gulf Coast on family vacations. 

Outside of work Inky enjoyed life at the farm and engaged in countless hours of hunting frogs, swimming in the ponds, eating baby bunnies, rolling in disgusting stuff she would find in the woods and porch-sitting with her family. From time-to-time she and Queenie would team-up to filch green beans from the garden. She embraced life, was a friend to everyone she met, a canine good citizen and modeled the stoicism of a Labrador retriever. She was the perfect dog. 

Inky will be sorely missed yet fondly remembered as Tom’s Girlfriend. 

A celebration of her life will be held at a future date. Per her wishes adult beverages will be served. 

Hunt ‘em up!

Flat Earth

^{Did you know that there are still people who continue to  believe the earth is flat?  Yup. They even hold an annual conference of Flat Earth believers.  And they have a dating app for use by their adherents.  As many as one of every six Americans are unconvinced the earth is a sphere and cling to the ancient cosmology that the earth is flat like a disc and and encircled by water at the edge.}   

^{The idea that the earth is a sphere took hold in early Christian church theology - which mistakenly clung to the belief that the earth was also the center of the universe.  So it took some time to straighten that out.  If you believe in science the flat earth conspiracy is especially cringe-worthy.  Nevertheless, not much surprises me nowadays.}  

^{This post is not intended to provoke controversy or a theological debate - rather to indulge my appreciation of astronomy and take a stroll down memory lane to revisit a a favorite program I enjoyed watching on a weekly basis.}  

^{Forty years ago - with the first episode of "Cosmos" - Carl Sagan easily proved the Earth was a sphere using a piece of cardboard, some sticks, and the work of an ancient Libyan-Greek scholar, Eratosthenes.} 

^{Considering the distance between the two cities and the lengths of the shadows they produced, Eratosthenes was able to determine that the Earth had a seven-degree curve. He used that calculation to speculate the Earth was 25,000 miles in circumference.}

^{These days we know that the earth is 24,860 miles in circumference. Eratosthenes was off by 140 miles.} 

^{Not bad for a scientist living 2000 years ago.}

Rare Daylight Appearance

Meet Procyon lotor – the Northern Raccoon. 

The word raccoon comes from the Native American word arakum meaning - he who scratches with his hand. 

While a raccoon‘s paw has five fingers they do not have an opposable thumb.  As a consequence, raccoons lack the dexterity of primates.  Nevertheless, they will use their hands to pick-up and carry objects, hunt and fish. They are intrepid climbers and can swim as well.  

A nocturnal animal they can grow up to twenty pounds and a couple of feet in length. While the animal in the photo looks cuddly and huggable you should never make a grab for a raccoon as they’re not going to reciprocate your advances and will likely bite and scratch.  They are also known to be rabid or infected with roundworm, leptospirosis and salmonella. 
 
Raccoons do not hibernate during the cold winter months – however they do sleep a great deal and put on an extra layer of fat for the duration. Should this be a female of the species - mama will whelp a litter of three to six offspring per year – usually in May.  Born with their eyes closed a newborn is called a kit.  A group of raccoons is called a nursery or a gaze and they’ll leave the den at seven to eight weeks of age.

This trail camera photo was actually taken today at 9:18 AM.  A rare daytime appearance for this animal.

Rare Invasive Species

This brought a smile to my lips.

Meet Impotus Americanus - is one of the heaviest leaders in the animal kingdom.  Field marks include an orange, ruddy color not found in nature.

Conservative, Republican and Independent voters that are committed to eradicating this invasive species come November.

Consider joining and supporting the growing movement...

 

Pun

The Embarrassment of the Truth

A day does not pass without President Trump claiming – without any evidence whatsoever – that November’s election is ‘rigged’ because of rampant mail-in ballot fraud.  What else is new?  That's just part of Donald Trump's shtick - and we've been forced to listen to it for more than five years.       
 Nevertheless, it has gained some traction on various social media platforms as a source of fakery, agitprop and disinformation. 

Let's be absolutely clear - I am not saying that voter fraud DOES NOT exist.  It does. On a national scale it occurs in remarkably small amounts.    

There is this, lifted verbatim, from a Face Book page: 

Talked to a fellow I used to work with. He lives in Madison. Tells me his neighbor is trying to figure out how to handle 7- thats 7 absentee ballots mailed to her for her husband. Who died 3 years ago. All signed and ready to be mailed back.

What could possibly go wrong with other than in person voting? I'll let you figure that out.     

Ummm.  Let’s call it what it is.  A fairy tale. Basically a lie.

In Wisconsin mail-in ballots simply do not magically materialize out of nowhere. The meme about dead people makes it even more fanciful.

I hate to repeat myself but once-again let’s review how voting by mail works here in Wisconsin.

1.  If I wish to vote by mail I first have to be registered to vote 

2.  I have to provide acceptable photo identification 

3.  I have to initiate the request in writing 

4.  I have to do this for each election (it is not automatic)  

5.  The ballot is mailed to me 

6.  After completing my ballot I seal it in a post-paid return envelope  

7.  I sign the envelope (under penalty of perjury)  

8.  I have my signature witnessed by another adult 

9.  After mailing it I can track the return of my ballot online 

10.  Upon receipt by my Town Clerk the ballot is logged-in and further tracked  

11.  The signature must match the one on file with my voter registration 

12.  The address must match that on file with the registration* 

13.  One ballot per voter         

*Noteworthy is that addresses for voter registration are updated via Wisconsin DMV for both drivers licenses and state-issued IDs.  If you move you have to notify the DMV of your new address.  As a result - if you are a registered voter - your registration is also updated with your new address and your former registration at the old address if purged from the voter rolls.  You are unable to vote twice using a new and former address.  

This entire process is a product of Republican voting reform measures enacted into law under Governor Scott Walker's administration.  It is a solid system with little, if-any, opportunity for fraud. 

So please tell me where the forgery, fraud, foreign interference, ballot-stuffing, tampering, counterfeiting and ‘rigging’ of the election occurs? 

How does a guy dead more than three years pull this off?  The short answer is that this is fiction.  As proof, why would someone intent-upon committing voter fraud bother with mailing forged and signed ballots to a surviving spouse?  Not very creative.  And it won't work.    
 It is a small matter to conjure-up a fabrication and post it on Face Book or Twitter. The amount of wasted bandwidth amounts to nothing.  Call it what it is - a fanciful prevarication. A lie. And individuals who pull this stuff out of their ass are liars. 

Consider this tall tale might conceivably have happened.  Then by extension, a failure to report it to law enforcement or carry it through would be complicity to commit voter fraud. Crowing about it on social media would be really stupid. With a high probability of being caught and to your embarrassment and possible loss of employment you would join the small list of convicted Wisconsinites found on the link above.       

That you know to be the truth.

Here's a handy guide to fighting lies, fake news and other social media fabrications.  

Homage to the BLT

Fall is in the air here in northeast Wisconsin. 

Yet there continues to be a steady stream of tomatoes and lettuce from the garden.

And locally-sourced smoked bacon from Marchant's.

An homage to the BLT.......

Successful Harvest

The 2019 sowing of Kakai seed pumpkins produced only pedestrian pumpkin seeds - cursed by a tough outer hull.  As it turns-out I was not alone.  That seed stock was compromised by cross pollination resulting in reverberations of disappointment within the pumpkin seed gardening community at the loss of an entire year’s crop.

This spring, marauding birds ate my seeds before they even had an opportunity to germinate.

A second sowing (caged with chicken wire) resulted in the germination of two seeds.

Those two vines grew to a mutant thing eventually occupying 20% of the garden.

Harvest was today.

Behold the Kakai pumpkin gourd - all fourteen of them.

With shaking hand I opened the smallest with a handy machete.

Green, hulless seeds. Pure kernel!

S’all good, man.

Friday Music

This song was written by Ed and Patsy Bruce in 1975. It rose to number 15 on the Hot Country Singles charts in 1976. It is an absolute classic.  

This is a most excellent cover by the late, great, Waylon Jennings. 

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.......

 

Aged Cherries = Great Pie

Yesterday I uncovered a stash of tart, Door County cherries in one of the bunker chest freezers. 

Also a package of two store-bought pie crusts from the garage freezer. 

After taking a small chunk out of a finger working on a deer stand this afternoon I retreated to lick my wounds and bake pie. 

Pretty good chow considering the cherries were dated July 2007.

The Pantry Warrior strikes again!

Mixed Signals

In further news today the number of initial jobless claims for the week ending September 19 was 870,000 (840,000 expected). 

Continuing claims for the week ending September 12 totaled 12.580 million (12.275 million expected). 

Growth has slowed sharply over the past three months with layoffs picking-up and the labor market stalling in response to rising infection rates and federal support for the unemployed ending.  

When Larry Kudlow tells you this is a V-shaped recovery he is simply blowing sunshine up your patoot. The Trump recession has a long slog ahead of it before a return to normalcy.

Then there is this:  

New single-family home sales increased 4.8% in August to an annual 1.011 million (890,000 expected).  Sales are up 43.2% from a year ago.

What gives?

A likely explanation is pent-up demand from buyers that were sidelined earlier in the year as a consequence of lockdowns and the economic uncertainty attributed to the pandemic.  A contributing factor is near-zero interest rates.  Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages are at a record low of 2.9%.  Fifteen year fixed-rate mortgages are presently at 2.4%.  

This home purchase blip should slow as excess inventory shrinks.

Autumn Colors

True to my retirement promise of paying closer attention to what is around me in the natural world there were some small, colorful, delights today.

From our walk this morning there was this...

A couple of variations of New England aster

The diminutive small white aster

And a scarlet oak seedling 

Climate Change

I want to preface this post with the admonition that the column linked here is an Opinion Piece.  

I also want you to know that 10,000 years ago - where I live on the Door Peninsula - was covered by an ice sheet a mile thick!  Yup, that is a pile of glaciation.  So much so that the earth's crust continues to rebound from the weight of all of that ice.  The truth of the matter is that things have gotten warmer ever since.  

The climate has changed.  

And yes - beginning with the industrial revolution - I'm sure the hand of man has contributed to this change.  But I digress.

In this column the issue of climate threats uses data from Four Twenty Seven, a company that assesses climate risk for financial markets.  As a recovering financial guy I can appreciate the careful study of risks as they relate to financial markets. The index measures future risks based on climate models and historical data.  And the authors assigned the highest risk for each county to build a map and combined it with separate data from Four Twenty Seven on wildfire and other climate risks. 

As it turns out life here on the peninsula is actually low risk from the point of view of climate change.

Extreme rainfall risk - Medium

Water stress, Heat stress and Wildfire risk - Low

Hurricane and Sea level rise risk - None

It's rather safe to live here.  And while sea level rise is a non-issue, lake level rise is huge issue for business and people on the coastline.

And for the record - over the last number of decades we've been hanging around here I've taken notice of two anecdotal changes:

No snow for the November gun deer opener in fifteen years.  The November gun season has become milder.  And the last three years have been witness to above-average precipitation. 

You can use the link in the first paragraph to assess these same risks for any county in the United States.

Sunset

This happened just a few moments ago....

 

King of the Prairie

 

Five months have passed since we conducted a controlled burn out back and the prairie planting continues to amaze as different plant species come into their seasonal glory. 

Big bluestem also called ‘Turkey Foot’ is one of the Four Horsemen of North America’s tallgrass prairie (the other three are little bluestem, Indian grass and switch grass)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some call it The King of the Prairie - a quintessential prairie grass.  No wonder - it towers over seven feet in height in some places. 

From our walk today it is rather breathtaking in the cool of autumn. 

Of course the New England aster and stiff goldenrod are rather showy too. Among the last remaining nectar sources for hungry pollinators.

 

 

Death to the Invader

Yesterday was another bad day for phragmites, reed canary grass and woody invasives out back in the prairie planting.

Following our controlled burn in early May of this year we invited a field team from Robert E. Lee and Associates back to perform follow-up treatment.

We've done this before and counting the burn this is the third visit here for 2020.

Death to the invader! 

You can learn more about NES Ecological Services here.

Equinox Sacrifice

 

 

 

 

Pagan beliefs that go back many millennia may have required some sort of offering to celebrate certain astronomical events. I can only speculate as I am not THAT old. 

Today we sacrificed an Equatorial Martini (rocks) to ring-in the Autumn Equinox. 

Only stuffed olives were harmed.....

Le Champignon

Puffballs can be as small as marbles to as large as a watermelon. And they generally appear during the late summer and fall.   

From our walk the other day we spotted a scattering of individual puffballs the size of golf balls including this cluster on one of the trails. The surfaces can be smooth or corrugated like these. Sometimes that have spikes Unlike other mushrooms these do not have a stem. 

I’ve traveled in France a number of times and a lesser known and one of the most important functions of the French pharmacist is that of mushroom identification.  French pharmacists are trained in mycology.  All French pharmacists are required to study mushroom taxonomy as part of their training and provide the service of examining any wild-foraged fungi you collect. It is a valuable cultural and public service to encourage collection of free-range fungi and avoid poisoning. 

I am told that these puffballs are edible but because I am not an experienced forager of wild edibles and certainly not a trained mycologist.  As a consequence of this situation I am disinclined to bring these home, slice them up and saute in butter for a breakfast omelet. 

For the record - all mushrooms are fungi - yet not all fungi are mushrooms.

All Things Being Equal

This month denotes an astronomical event - the equinox - when days and nights will be approximately equal in length. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the tipping point where the sun will rise later and nightfall arrives sooner. As things have grown cooler around these parts you don’t have to remind me that autumn is in the air. 

The equinox will arrive on September 22. 

Even though the equinox happens at the same moment worldwide the precise time for you depends-upon your time zone. Translation: this equinox comes early in the morning on September 22 at 8:31 AM CDT. Meanwhile - south of the equator - spring is about to begin. 

The full moon closest to the autumn equinox is called the Harvest Moon. This year the October 1st full moon – closest to our autumn equinox – is our Harvest Moon. The name comes from this moon’s ability to shine light when it is needed the most – to bring in the harvest.

It has been interesting to observe the transit of the setting sun as it has moved from its furthest advance to the north to now set in the west.  The sun only rises due east and due west on two days of the year - The spring and fall equinoxes.  

Atmospheric Haze

The day dawned sunny and clear enough - yet after 11 AM the skies began to darken.  Not seeing any precipitation on my radar app I asked Jill what was up.

She shared on her own device the news that the smokey haze from the wildfires on the west coast had found its way back.  Air quality conditions had deteriorated once again.

Another slightly hazy smokey sunset later on.  Nowhere near as striking as five days ago - but hazy nonetheless.

Book mark this link if you want to follow conditions where you live..... 

Roots

The oral traditions of those that came before me always maintained that my roots were one-half Irish and one-half German.  

Mom's laborious genealogy research supported the tracing of our immigrant ancestors back to both Ireland and Germany – at which point the trail went cold.  Mom’s work predated the internet so much of it was conducted in-person while researching dusty birth, baptismal and death records in small Midwest communities including a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah to delve into accounts maintained by the Church of Latter Day Saints – the Mormons. 

Through it all the ethnic pie remained 50/50. 

Since mom departed this earthly realm DNA technology has turned old-school genealogy on its head.  Sure, those dusty old birth, baptismal and death records remain incredibly important – nonetheless the arrival of online, searchable databases along with easy and affordable DNA technology has stirred the pot and added ease of detail and historical color that had previously been missing.  

Four years ago I took the plunge and had my DNA analyzed for purposes of learning more about my origins.  A number of my acquaintances and family have since done the same.  Admittedly, the results of this testing include plenty of disclaimers and caveats about the imprecise nature of what you will learn yet it certainly opened the door to additional – shall we say – assumptions.  For quite some time the premise of the 50/50 conclusion continued to hold sway - yet become sketchier as DNA science and region began to supplant borders.

Behold my 2016 ethnicity map: 

By 2018 it had been updated to this:

And almost a year ago I received this update just before we left to visit Ireland.  

That oral tradition in my family that supported the ½ Irish and ½ German?   Ten months ago there was very little remaining that was specific to Germany.  The German component was shrinking.

 
This is complicated on a number of levels but what is clear is that roughly half of my DNA reflects the history of Western European migration patterns and invasions.  If you go back far enough it was the Celts who dominated much of what is now Europe and the British Isles.  Tribal and warlike the Celts had no written language and as a consequence there are no complete records.  

What we do know is that the Romans displaced them and the Celts retreated to Britain and Ireland.  Following that the barbarians displaced the Romans.  Armies ebbed and flowed and conquering Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans left their mark upon this part of the world both politically, culturally and ethnically as well.  The DNA persists.
 

Modern studies suggest that these earlier populations weren’t necessarily wiped-out but adapted and absorbed new arrivals.  Invaders and migrators left their seed in their wake and as a consequence the story has become both clearer - and more complex.  Trace DNA is quite persistent which makes my roots both diverse and more than a wee bit ambiguous. 
 

The other day this arrived.

Anything that refers to German or Germany – Gone! 

Stay-tuned.......

Porch Bier

Brewed with Midwestern and European Malts, the world's most expensive hops, fresh yeast from Germany, and clear Wisconsin water. 

This seasonal favorite is back.

Staghorn Octoberfest - Wisconsin's Real Red

6.25% ABV

 

Vielen Dank!

Interesting Factoids

The other day I took the opportunity to get caught-up with my reading of back issues of National Geographic.  The April edition featured a split- image report with both and optimistic and pessimistic report of the future of planet earth.  If you can get your hands on that issue it's a thought-provoking read.  I learned some things too.

The state of Texas produces one-fourth of all of the wind-powered electricity in the United States – the most of any state. If Texas were a country it would rank fifth globally in renewable power generation. Texas is also a leader of the profit-driven commercialization of renewable power. 

Texas farmers can lease a footprint on their land for either a set rental per turbine or for a small percentage of gross annual revenue from power generation. This provides an additional revenue stream to agribusiness with little or no impact on traditional grazing or farming practices. Royalty payments for a lease can range upwards of $5,000 a year for each turbine. 

Jobs development is impressive too with more than 24,000 new jobs created in the renewable energy sector - without pirating jobs from the fossil fuel industry.

Wind power is so cheap that ExxonMobil has contracted to purchase most of a single farm’s 338-megawatt output in order to power more fracking for oil and gas.

Who knew?

The Garden Chronicles

The last cukes of 2020.

I had a couple  of additional ones picked last week that I converted to cucumber salad this afternoon.

On your mandolin thinly-slice your garden cukes along with some homegrown green pepper and onion.  

Place in a bowl.

Mix one cup each of vinegar and sugar with 1/8 cup of salt.  Add a dash of dill weed.  Stir.

Mix with the sliced garden veggies and put in the fridge for serving later.

I'm gonna miss this stuff.

Overnight low was 32F.....