Tracking

From our walk the other morning there were these fresh tracks in the fresh snow...

Weasel

Deer Mouse

And Wile E. Coyote

Silage

File this under strange but true. 

Last year Jill dumped all of our grass clippings in piles between the road ditch and our southernmost east/west trail. 

All spring, summer and fall those piles of grass festered in the sun and rotted.  

 

Or shall we say “fermented”.

With the arrival of winter they’ve been covered with snow. 

Until now. 

The resident deer herd has been pawing the snow-off and dining on the clippings. 

Seems I’ve discovered how to make silage……

 

Energy Independent?

A funny thing happened on the way to the FB page in the last couple of days. There has been a marked increase in chatter about how Donald Trump made us energy independent and how Joe Biden erased it. Once again I am reminded that FB is a fertile petri dish for lazy partisan economic thought. And Zuckerberg doesn’t much care about which side of partisan divide you dwell. It’s all click bait. *Disclaimer: I own FB stock. Please, PUHLEASE, click to your heart’s content.

 

I spent almost four decades making arcane economic concepts easy for lay-people to grasp and understand. I was good at it, built a successful investment advisory business, made a lot of friends and retired. I am told I even saved a marriage. My business partners continue the line of succession today along with the fourth generation of many of the very first clients. But I digress. The point of this post is that if I had clouded my professional judgment and advice with partisan rancor I would have been out of business in fairly short order. So I am going to put my advisor hat back on for a spell as this is the stuff retired financial silverbacks love to expound-upon. It’s free too as I’m no longer licensed to bill you for it. You can stop here or choose to keep reading. You pick. I recommend you share this with your own trusted financial advisor for a second opinion. Indulge me the access to your valuable bandwidth.

 

The truth of the matter is that in the natural order of the oil business we import oil from other countries each and every day. Unlike rare art works or collectibles oil is a fungible global commodity. It is universally interchangeable and trades freely between willing buyers and willing sellers. If we import a million barrels of oil and export a million barrels of oil our net dependence or independence remains unchanged. Nobody will give a tinker’s damn.

 

It is a fact that in 2019 the net imports for crude oil flipped from positive to negative. By that measure alone (excluding natural gas, coal and renewables), we became “energy independent” insofar as oil consumption is measured. Donald Trump was president when this happened for the first time in October 2019.

 

This trend towards independence began under George Bush II, continued under Barack Obama, Donald Trump and now Joe Biden. The policies of the former and current presidents bear no direct responsibility for this trend.

 

Hydraulic fracking is responsible for this. Yup, fracking.

 

It is instructive to know that it was under Obama that legislation was passed into law allowing producers to sell crude oil for export. Heretofore, only refined products like gasoline or diesel and kerosene could be exported. Opening-up the markets for domestic producers of crude oil was a pretty big deal as it allowed access to global consumers for front line drillers and not just refiners. This both extended and expanded the fracking boom.

 

It is no great secret that Biden has embraced policy that could negatively impact domestic oil supplies in the future. However, the surge in pricing that we were witness-to last year was largely a consequence of a COVID-induced drop in production (supply) that began in the spring of 2020 long before Trump left office. The 2020 drop in production was initially five percent. In the eyes of most people 5% might not seem like much but it happens to be more than three million barrels per day (BPD). Consumption (demand) during the pandemic recession declined by 3% and as a consequence our energy independence began to shrink.

 

So, the short answer is that we maintained a margin of energy independence (albeit smaller) going into 2021. Demand fully recovered last year while production continued to lag with the following result: Smaller Supply + Increased Demand = Higher Prices.

 

By the close of 2021 production reached 11.7 million BPD. While this was still a million BPD below 2019 levels it was a million BPD higher than levels at the close of 2020. This was evidence of a recovery.

 

As further evidence of a turnabout the number of rotary oil rigs began to recover. At the close of 2019 there were approximately 700 operational domestic rigs. In 2020, that number had fallen somewhere below 200. Oil field services giant Baker Hughes recently reported that the rig count has rebounded to close to 500. As a leading indicator of the strength of the domestic oil business a recovering rig count is exceedingly encouraging.

 

So where does that leave us?

 

At the beginning of the year I blogged about this and my expectation was that as the supply/demand gap closed between production and consumption our independence would recover and consumer prices would moderate.

 

The good news is that according to the US Energy Information Administration  and data just in within the past week; we continue to remain net negative (independent) with regard to imported oil. 

 

 

Does this mean we do not import oil? 

 

Nope. As I pointed out in the third paragraph (above) the nature of the oil business is that you always import oil. The important end-result is net negative. And for the record most of our imported crude comes from our friendly neighbors to the north. Our neighbors also export refreshing Canadian lager to US markets but that is an altogether different discussion.

 

The net negative situation is a good thing as this “independence” most importantly protects us from supply shocks. Furthermore, we retain profits here and they do not go to vain and unholy middle eastern despot kingdoms. Instead they contribute to our own GDP and US prosperity. When energy prices go up it is domestic producers of crude oil, their workers and oil patch states like Texas, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Alaska that are winners. This is a good thing.

 

Yet let’s be clear; energy independence as described here does not magically translate to low prices. Anybody that tells you otherwise is peddling economic pornography or hocus-pocus. Go back to paragraph three (above) and be reminded that oil is a globally-traded commodity and is freely-priced. Like all global commodities it is subject to price shocks as a consequence of geopolitical events.

 

No president of any party has the ability to dial-up or dial-down commodity prices any more than they have the power to fix the price of a share of Apple stock. Don’t take my word for it though; Hugo Chavez tried that years ago and look where it got Venezuela. A vast failed socialist state.

 

If energy prices spike as a result of war and the disruption of European energy supplies it will likely not have outsize influence on our longer term overall growth. Nevertheless, you and I will not be happy with the price at the pump. And Old Joe Biden will be blamed for this.

 

Because that’s the way politics works, not the way market economics works.

 

PS – If anyone wants to blame any of this on shutting down Keystone XL – fight me.

 

Famous Last Words

The Ukraine border guards who died defending an island in the Black Sea from an air and sea bombardment told an officer onboard a Russian navy warship to 'go fuck yourself' when asked to surrender.

Friday Music

This Canadian bluegrass and folk group has been around for a couple of decades in several iterations.  

The Wailin' Jennys and Calling All Angels....

Avian Visitor

Meet Haliaeetus leucocephalus - the Bald Eagle.

The mottled plumage reveals this as a juvenile bird who will eventually develop the distinctive white head with a solid black-to-brown body at about 4-5 years of age. 

This is a large bird of prey and as an adult will have a wingspan of up to seven feet.  As a general rule they mate for life but will switch to a new partner if not successful at reproducing.  Their nests are ginormous platforms that are used again and again over a period of years and both the male and female incubate and tend to up to two fledglings a year.  

This bird dines on fish, ducks and road-kill.  The bald eagle can fly at 30 miles per hour and dive at up to 100 miles per hour.  Females are larger than males and they live up to 30 years in the wild.

This species was almost driven to extinction as a consequence of poisoning by DDT.  Following the ban of this insecticide in North America the bald eagle has made a remarkable recovery and we're seeing more an more of them on the peninsula with every year that goes by.

In 20 years this is only the third time I've captured an image of a bald eagle on a trail camera.  A spectacular winter sighting.

Yowza!  

Snowbirds

From an 11 F morning yesterday there was this.

In a light dusting of snow on the porch I found these fresh tracks.  And no, they are not left by a dinosaur.

These belong to one of Wisconsin's most common winter residents.  Yes, they come here for the winter weather.  

Junco hyemalis - the Dark-eyed Junco.  You're unlikely to confuse this species with another bird as this member of the sparrow family sports a slate-colored head and back, white belly and pink beak.  Quite distinctive.

These little birds migrate from Canada to winter here in the south.  We tend to observe larger numbers of males as I am told that females do not travel as far south as the boys do.   

They'll readily come to a feeder and it is not unusual to see a flock of them scratching-about on the ground.

They're commonly called Snowbirds.

Tough little bird the Junco is.....

 

 

Tuesday

Today is Twos-Day

 

2/22/22 on a Tuesday! 

 

The Return of the Deli Rye

As cold as it's been lately one of the flip sides of the situation is more time in the kitchen.

I haven't made this in many moons but in the interest of keeping out of a 'bread rut' I made this over the weekend.

I amped it-up with a generous sprinkling of pretzel salt to give it a decidedly German flair.

Homemade deli rye....

What to do With Ukraine?

So it's looking more and more like Rootn' Tootn' Putin is going to go to war with Ukraine.

Everything is playing out just as it is scripted in the Soviet era KGB playbook.  The Olympic Games are closed and China is appreciative of the polite delay.  Besides, if Putin doesn't commence hostilities at some level he loses his tactical advantage of bluffing in the future.  Notably, the US and our NATO allies cannot militarily intervene directly.  Ukraine is not a NATO member and as far as the we're concerned serves no strategic purpose.

Consider this.

Having gotten rid of the last recent vestige of Stalinist puppet leadership most Ukrainians are reveling in their resurrected nationalist fervor.  And who can blame them?  Ukrainians, by and large, know their future is brighter with a political and economic alignment with the west.

There is no future with their neighbor to the east.  Russia is a failed state governed by a dictatorship kleptocracy with a mobster mentality. Their population and life expectancy is in decline.  Their economy is driven by natural resource extraction – not technology or innovation.  The ruble is barely a third world currency. 

Ukraine is a huge country – about the size of Germany, Austria and Switzerland combined. It takes 17 hours to drive from one border to the other. Ukraine is home to 41.5 million people.  How do you occupy and pacify something as large and populous with 190,000 troops? 

The United States and our NATO partners should generously arm and equip Ukraine with the means to bleed the Soviet Bear.  After-all, Ukraine is not flat desert landscape.  It is European.  And is historically suited to an insurgency and a proxy war. 

MANPAD Stinger missiles would drop Russian helicopters from the sky by the score. 

Javelin anti-tank missiles are state of the art "shoot and scoot” weapons. You point it, acquire and lock it on to the target and it does the rest with a soft launch after which you casually saunter to another location for a cup of coffee. 

The threat of Javelins make Russian tank commanders shit their pants as this weapon system in the hands of an insurgent force can singularly turn their armor into smoking, molten, Instant Pots.

Even a casual study of Ukrainian resistance fighters during and after WWII is telling. Ukraine fought the Nazis, followed by the Polish Communist and the Soviet Communist armies.  By the time 1949 rolled-around the mortality rate for Soviet troops fighting Ukrainian insurgents was significantly higher than the mortality rate for Soviet troops during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.  

Let's all agree that Ukrainians are adept at killing bad guys.

I wouldn’t expect that the Ukrainian people would do any less than we would do ourselves if faced with in invader seeking to occupy our country by means of force.

Stay-tuned......

Uncle Dick's Tomato Juice

Just about every family has an eccentric or even a crazy uncle.  You know – the kind of uncle that is a couple cards short of a full deck.  The uncle you dread appearing at your Fourth of July cookout with his wild conspiracy theories and fringe politics.  The sort of embarrassing uncle you wish would just stay away.  Then there is the favorite uncle.  Most families have a favorite uncle or two.  These are the elder statesmen, the role models, the guy that you identify-with and look up-to.  

Uncle Dick's family and mine grew-up at opposite ends of the block.  We were close.  It was almost like having additional siblings that lived in a house of their own.  Richard was my pop's little brother and my favorite uncle.  He's been gone more than forty years now and I still think about him from time to time.  Especially when making homemade tomato juice. 

One of my fondest childhood memories is of my favorite Uncle Dick making tomato juice.  That's an odd memory for sure isn't it?  Growing-up in the 1960s I think most every family had a Foley Food Mill for grinding-up all sorts of stuff like apples and tomatoes.  A few years ago I discarded the ancestral food mill that had been languishing in the basement.  It was dented and rusty and the paint was flaking from the wooden handles – likely lead-based paint too.  I have a newer, stainless model of the Foley mill that I purchased at Fleet Farm.  The home canning aficionado's all-purpose resource - Fleet Farm has everything you need.  But I digress. 

About the juice.  

There is no written record of Uncle Dick's tomato juice recipe but since I’ve been making the stuff for as long as I can remember.  It’s a simple and fail-safe process that you can do from memory. 

I fetched a bunch of jars of canned tomatoes from a couple of years of Covid gardening.  The tomatoes had already been peeled and cooked when they were previously canned.  Simply pop the lid, dump them into the mill and go about grinding them into juice.  The mill can easily handle up to a couple of quarts at a time.  It's old-school as far as juicing goes but it works just fine. 

Do you have any idea how lip-smacking yummy canned homegrown tomatoes are when you open a jar?  WOW!  It sends you right back to August and September.  

As you process your tomatoes thru the mill all you have to do is periodically remove the residual pulp and seeds for the composter.   

Grinding away I filled my largest stainless stock pot.  

 

The canned tomatoes already had salt but I added some additional sea salt along with a generous dash of white pepper and onion powder to taste.   Gently raise the heat until just shy of a boil and fill sterilized quart jars with the hot juice leaving 3/4 inch of headspace.  Top with lids and bands. 

Process in the canner for another thirty minutes, remove and set aside to cool.  When the lids pop they're good to go.  You have a shelf-stable pasteurized juice product.  No need to refrigerate unless you wish to chill before serving or you have an opened and unfinished jar. 

Fifteen quarts of bottled sunshine.  

Thanks for the inspiration Uncle Dick - you're the best! 

* A word about the jars and lids.  Sterilize your jars by immersing them in boiling water or running them through the dishwasher on the 'sanitize' cycle.  Lids are easy - in the microwave heat a Pyrex measuring cup of water to a boil. Drop your lids in the hot water.  Fish them out with a sterile tongs.

 

Friday Music

Composed by Jeff Lynne This tune was track twelve on Electric Light Orchestra's 1981 album Time and was the first song released as a single. 

The song rose to number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the US Billboard Top Tracks in September 1981.

At the time this official video was produced it was the most expensive ever made.

Hold On Tight - ELO.....

Keeping Time

There is history behind the antique mantle clock above the fireplace.  It's a family heirloom.  A wedding gift from the marriage of my grandpa and grandma on my dad's side of the family.  I haven't a record of who gave it as a gift or if it was a gift my grandparents gave to each other.  What I know is that when my widowed grandpa moved-in with aunt Mildred to live out his days it came into my dad's possession.  And it wasn't working.  It hadn't worked for years and nobody had enjoyed it's steady ticking, a single chime on the half hour and bong to announce the hours.

As a youngster (a preteen at the time) and a tinkerer I examined the clock's works from the access door on the back and realized that the gears were fouled by oil and whatever clings to oil over the course of decades.  So, with Q-Tips dipped in Hoppes No. 9 gun bore solvent I cleaned and removed the oil and grime from all the moving parts and following a winding of both springs the clock came to life.

It never kept perfect time and required a periodic resetting of the hands yet it worked.  It spent decades on the fireplace mantle of my folk's house.  

When my widowed father moved to a retirement home the clock came into my possession and famously kept imperfect time on my fireplace mantle.  Then, about three years ago it fell silent - its ticker no longer tocked.  It remained on the mantle as a decorative fixture and I figured I'd take it to a clock place to see what needed to be done to bring it back to life.

In any event, the other day I took it from the mantle and hustled it to the work bench where I gave the clock works a good spritz of Casey Bore Solvent from the can.  I wound it up, set the time  and nothing happened.

Sigh.      

I returned it to the mantle and made a mental note to Google search antique clock repairs in northeast Wisconsin.

Several hours later I heard a familiar tick-tock and lo and behold it was back to keeping imperfect time and announcing the half-hour intervals with its chime and dinging-out the hours with its familiar dong. It has been running reliably ever since.  Gotta love me that gun bore solvent.

In any event I did some Googling based-upon the tag affixed to the inside of the rear access door...

And found this advertisement in a German language Gazette from the very early part of the century.  

The device is going into its 106th year of intermittent operation.  A non-digital, mechanical timepiece that doesn't require a battery.

 

Death of Ideas

Nope.  This is not Marxist, totalitarianism, wokeness, defunding the police, vaccine mandates, socialism, masking, lying about stealing elections, or all of the other scary shit some people are gorging-upon in their echo chamber.

Killing good ideas can harm your future....

February Moon

Native Americans have long grown familiar with this moon.  Members of the Cherokee nation refer to this month’s full moon as the Bone Moon.  This was a consequence of depleted food stores and the necessity of cracking-open bones to access the marrow for survival food.  

Those of the Kalapuya nation referred to this as the Out of Food Moon.   For others it was the Little Famine Moon or the Hunger Moon.  For the Cherokee the association with hunger and starvation also included a brush with death.  And the people use this as an opportunity to communicate with dead ancestors during the Bone Moon.   

Indeed, these ancient native tribes named this moon after the way trees cracked in the cold, or how people had to huddle around a fire for warmth.  My own people – the ancient Celts – remember this as the Moon of Ice as it is associated with the coldest month of the year.  On a more upbeat note it is the Hopi tribe of the southwest who call this the Moon of Purification and Renewal. 

Photo - NASA.gov

 

This close association with the renewal that is marked by the arrival of spring is much more appealing to me than bones and death.   We have modern refrigeration, canning, grocers, central heat, wood stoves, Merlot and Netflix.   Starvation is rare.  And when I arise in the morning to take the dog out after breakfast I’m beginning to witness the return of the migratory songbirds. 

If you’ve scored a clear night tonight you will not want to miss this.  As February is the snowiest month of the year this is also known as a Snow Moon. 

Raising a toast to clear winter nights, a rising full moon and the coming return of spring.

Cheers!

Dinner For Your Sweetie

Valentines Day dinner. 

By request. 

Not much else speaks the language of love better than when you make all-day slow cooker venison barbacoa for your sweetie. 

Frijoles, rice, lettuce, sour cream and shredded four cheese blend.

 

Raising a toast to domestic tranquility......

 

Happy Valentines Day

In the Roman Catholic tradition of the Christian Faith St. Valentine is the Patron Saint of betrothed couples, happy marriages, love, lovers, bee keepers, fainting, epilepsy, plague, travelers, and young people.  His feast day is today.   

As a consequence of so little being known about the man the Church removed St. Valentine from the General Roman Calendar in 1969.  Nevertheless, he remains recognized as a saint.  

One of many stories is that Valentine was imprisoned for committing the most heinous of crimes - marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians being persecuted by Emperor Claudius of Rome.  Angered to the point of rage Claudius commanded Valentine to renounce his faith or be beaten with clubs and beheaded.  Refusing the emperor - Valentine was martyred outside the Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269.  

In case you’re wondering if Valentine was a real person - archaeological excavations have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him.  In 496 Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration honoring his martyrdom.   

Today his relics can be found throughout the world – including his skull at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome.  

 

Happy Valentines Day.

Game Day

Ole and Sven die in a snowmobiling accident, drunker than skunks, And go to Hell. The Devil observes that they are really enjoying themselves. He says to them 'Doesn't the heat and smoke bother you?' Ole replies, 'Vell, ya know, ve're from nordern Minnesooota, da land of snow an ice, an ve're yust happy fer a chance ta varm up a little bit, ya know.'

The devil decides that these two aren't miserable enough and turns up the heat even more. When he returns to the room of the two from Minnesota , the devil finds them in light jackets and hats, grilling Walleye and drinking beer. The devil is astonished and exclaims, 'Everyone down here is in misery, and you two seem to be enjoying yourselves?' Sven replies, 'Vell, ya know, ve don't git too much varm veather up dere at da Falls, so ve've yust got ta haff a fish fry vhen da veather's dis nice.'

The devil is absolutely furious. He can hardly see straight. Finally he comes up with the answer. The two guys love the heat because they have been cold all their lives. The devil decides to turn all the heat off in Hell. 

 

The next morning, the temperature is 60 below zero, icicles are hanging everywhere, and people are shivering so bad that they are unable to wail, moan or gnash their teeth. The devil smiles and heads for the room with Ole and Sven. He gets there and finds them back in their parkas, bomber hats, and mittens. They are jumping up and down, cheering, yelling and screaming like mad men.

The devil is dumbfounded, 'I don't understand, when I turn up the heat you're happy. Now its freezing cold and you're still happy. What is wrong with you two?'

They both look at the devil in surprise and say, 'Vell, don't ya know, if hell iss froze over, dat must mean da Vikings von da Super Bowl.'

 

Bedtime

Weather and calendar-permitting I take a daily walk accompanied by my faithful Lab.  And while we're out and about we make every attempt to pay attention to evidence of the wild things from nature with whom we share our home.  For instance the evidence of the resident whitetails around here.  I find their scat everywhere. Their rubs and scrapes during the mating season.  Shed antlers this time of year.  And don't eat the yellow snow.  Lastly, I find their beds all the time when scouting in the brush - a carefully matted-down depression in the taller grasses or a hollowed-bowl melted into the snow.  I have blogged about this before.

Whitetail deer like to sleep in locations where they feel secure. Typically, where they have the wind at their back to smell danger and can see potential danger in front of them – a place that offers good cover.  A deer is quite vulnerable while they sleep if it were not for the sensitive sniffer and always swiveling ears.  Deer know what is happening around them at all times and if they smell or hear something out of place with the normal rhythms of their surroundings they will bolt and skedaddle.  In the wintertime deer prefer to bed amongst the thermal cover provided by dense stands of pines.  

Deer also prefer to bed near water and food sources.  Sometimes they sleep solo.  Sometimes they bed-down in groups.  Because they are creatures of habit if they find an optimal location it is not unusual for several return visits. 

Sleep is usually five to ten minutes in length - or as evidenced here can be longer.  Some trail camera surveillance supports the notion of up to twenty minutes of sleep.  The whitetail sleep cycle is not at all unlike that of the whitetail deer hunter – dozing-off for a few minutes and snapping to attention. 

Consider this too; bedded deer might not be dozing at all.  They might just be hanging out for a siesta to chewing their cud.

The video cam recently recorded a series of short, silent, 15 second video vignettes of a whitetail doe who laid down, made herself comfortable, hung out for 60+ minutes and eventual got up to move along.  Without boring you with countless 15 second video records of a deer chewing her cud - here are the opening and closing segments....  

 

Friday Music

Composed by Lou Reed in 1970 this song was subsequently released by the Velvet Underground in 1973.  Anecdotally, a really memorable year for this blogger.

Most of you readers will remember the amped-up, hard rock, version with an extended introduction which was written by Steve Hunter and recorded live in 1973.  It was subsequently released on Reed's Rock 'n' Roll Animal album in 1974.

Enjoy this kinder, gentler, acoustic version.  

Sweet Jane.....

Staying Cozy

 

 

Unless the mercury dips into serious negative territory the wood burner is generally up to the task of maintaining a cozy 70 degrees Fahrenheit on the first floor living quarters here at The Platz.

After replenishing the wood rack on the porch we're nearing the halfway point on wood consumption for the heating season. 

Morning Star Gazing

Planet Venus has arrived on the scene just in time for Valentines Day.  And it may be useful to you to know that our planetary neighbor appears brightest during its crescent phase.  Which happens to be now.  

You'll have to be an early riser yet Venus will be visible all month long in the eastern sky just before sunrise.  Look in the direction of the sunrise for Venus to twinkle low on the horizon.  A pair of binoculars would be useful and the view should look like this...

Take advantage of the opportunity now as Venus will not appear this luminous until July of 2023. 

Local Critters

From a recent round of the trail camera trap line are these infrared (IR) photos of...

Mr. Buck

Mrs. Doe

Wiley Coyote

Plan Ahead For Your Sweetie

February 14 is Valentine's Day, and this post will undoubtedly serve as a final reminder to many to procure a gift for that special someone.

Valentine's Day is more than a romantic holiday; it is big business.  According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) it is estimated that Valentine's Day 2022 will witness $23.9 billion spent on gifts for spouses, partners, friends, pets and more. This is up from $21.8 billion spent in 2021 and the second-highest year on record.  2020 holds the all-time record with $27.4 billion spent.  And it isn't just e-commerce retailers who expect to rack up sales.  $8.1 billion will be spent on jewelry, approximately $2 billion will be spent on flowers with an additional $2 billion spent on candy.  

Valentine's Day was not always as expensive as it is today. In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. This custom gave rise to the saying to wear your heart on your sleeve, meaning it is easy for other people to know how you feel.

If you don't want to break the bank or sew patches on your sleeves, you can just wish someone a Happy Valentine's Day with a phone call.  After all, Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an "Improvement in Telegraphy," on Valentine's Day in 1876.

It's That Time of Year Again

This showed-up on one of the trail cameras.

A boy deer with half of his headgear missing.

Which means it's time to let loose the hound and do some shed hunting.

Shed antlers that is.

Did you know that there is an entire vast organization dedicated to shed hunting?

Yup.  You can check them out at NASHC.

Nature is a Harsh Mother

From our walk the other day there was this...

 

The remains of a dead fawn that Blonde Dog found.

You're probably thinking - How do I know it is a fawn?  The size was the give-away.  It was a very small deer.  And if I had the presence of mind I should have included the dog in the pic for scale.

Anyway I figured it was the earlier extended cold snap in January that did it in.  My neighbors concluded that cold wouldn't be a factor until later in the winter when fat reserves are depleted.  They suspect a wounded deer from a hunter or a car collision.

We'll never know for sure as all the other critters that live around here have been dining on it and there's not much left but skin and bones.