Curious About Changes On The Island

When I left Isle Royale in August there were two wolves on the island.  One wolf was the father and the other wolf was the daughter. Two wolves coexisted with 1500 moose. Since then 6 to 8 more wolves have been released on Isle Royal. I wonder how that is going. Are the original two wolves still alive or were they killed by the new wolves? Maybe they don't even know the other wolves are even there.  This is a big island. But you would think wolves howling at night could be heard from a long distance.  How many moose have been taken down since August? How will this change to the predator/prey relationship change the island?  I am curious how things are gong over there on Isle Royale. The camping season is closed now so I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Obviously Desperate Predator

I got home late on Saturday night so I did not check on my chickens when I got home.  When I went to look at them on Sunday morning I saw my chicken coop and run were damaged. Some animal was on top of the run. The top pieces on the top of the run are attached by hinges and the hinges were not attached anymore. However the top of the run was still mostly in place. The weight of the animal tore the screws out of the wood. When I went to check for eggs I opened the egg door and saw one of the shingles lying on the ground.  The roof of the egg door had teeth marks all over the corner of it. I was lucky no chickens were taken by this obviously desperate predator.  I didn't hear a thing from my bedroom but now that it is cold out my windows are closed so I don't hear as much.  I was about to go get my drill and some new screws to reattach the hinges when snow started falling on me. Reattaching the hinges is a chore that can wait for a warmer day.  I took two old rags and set them out by the coop and soaked them in wolf pee.  I put my motion detector light on at my back door.  So far these measures are working. This poor chicken coop and run cannot take too much  more damage though.

Pretending to Dance

I just happened to pick up Diane Chamberlain's book, Pretending To Dance at the library.  I wasn't sure I would like it but it turned out I did like it.  The main character is Molly.  Molly's father was a psychotherapist who started a new therapy for children called pretend therapy. He would ask a shy kid to pretend to be outgoing.  He would ask an angry kid to pretend to be content.  He would ask an anxious kid to pretend to be relaxed. His patients improved and at a faster rate than those of the other therapists in his office.  He is a good father to Molly in most ways.  An incident happens when Molly is 14 years old and she does not cope well.  In fact it isn't until she is 38 years old that she is able to process what happened and let the past go.  Sometimes the story got overly sentimental but overall this was a very good book.

Savage Beauty

Two eagles observing us.

Two trumpeter swans ignore us with their head in the water while the cygnet (in front of the stump between the two parents) watches us.

A good friend of mine and I decided to meet Saturday afternoon and take a drive through the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge on the wilderness drive.  As we drove the 9 mile course we saw eagles, hawks, blue jays, trumpeter swans, sparrows, and my first of the year dark eyed juncos.  I also saw a leopard frog jumping across the road. I jumped out of the car to catch it but I was too slow.  I only wanted to catch it and take a photo. Some of the grass was taller than my head. The oak savanna had a savage beauty despite the cloudy skies and the cold wind. The wind actually helped add to the beauty because it gave movement and texture to the landscape.

Deer and Gun Powder

As I left work today a coworker advised me to enjoy the fall colors on the way home. With the sun shining on the pretty leaves, I did enjoy the fall colors on the way home.  As I drove over the railroad tracks in Anoka I saw a herd of almost 30 deer browsing comfortably on the lawn between the little shacks of gunpowder on the property of Federal ammunition. How ironic, I thought, that the targets of many of the bullets manufactured on this site live their lives here completely free of being hunted. On the other side of the Federal property I saw a flock of Canadian geese and a turkey too!

Tom's River

I finally finished the book Tom's River by Dan Fagin. This is a non-fiction story about corporate greed.  Humans can be so greedy sometimes; so short-sighted; and so desperate to get ahead that they trample over other people. The author starts out talking about chimney sweeps in London coming down with testicular cancer. Years ago the chimney sweeps actually had to climb inside the chimneys to get the soot out. Young, thin boys were hired for this job and to get into the chimneys they removed their clothes. The soot from inside the chimney pipe caused the testicular cancer. From there the story went on to talk about dyes for clothing.  Once upon a time people used natural substances for dying fabric. Fabrics dyed with natural substances were less toxic but they could never get the rich purple color that people craved.  Eventually they found a chemical way to manufacture that purple dye. The Ciba Geigy Corporation in Tom's River, New Jersey, manufactured that purple dye.  They bought a large parcel of land so the public couldn't see that they were poisoning the land, the water, and the air all around the plant.  Plant employees got sick. Toxins from the plant seeped through the sandy soil and entered the water table under the town. Kids who drank water from the wells in the area got sick.  Pregnant women from Tom's River delivered babies who soon developed leukemia or melanoma or brain cancer.  The corporation knew about these problems but instead of addressing them, they made as much purple dye as they could before they were shut down. They tried to hide the damage by building a pipeline out into the ocean and dumping the waste there.  They tried to hide the damage to the air by only burning the waste after dark so people could not see the smoke and there weren't as many people outside to smell the smells.  In the end there was a monetary settlement but no price can replace a child. There are some heroic women and men in the story who fought hard to hold the industry accountable. I was reminded of the current struggle to mine copper near the boundary waters of Minnesota.  Times are hard.  People struggle to make a living. Working in a copper mine could feed your family and desperate people can overlook the environmental damage if their family is fed. I hope we can learn from what happened at Tom's River, New Jersey and not make the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Get it Right!

This morning when I got to work a friend of mine said, "Good morning Sue." I said good morning back.  Another friend of mine heard that.  She said to me, "Hi Steve."  The thing was she was looking at Steve when she said it but she meant to call me Sue.  That mistake got a laugh and the word got out.  Throughout the day five more people called me Steve. Actually it got to be a little annoying. Through out my life I have been called other names on purpose by mistake.  Names I have been called include Weiner, Teresa, Laura, Joan, Janet, Mom, Jenny, Priscilla, Judy, and Jean.  But Steve? Seriously?  Is it because I wore pinstripe pants today?  After lunch another man called me Stacey which severely tried my patience.  Come on, people, get it right!