Talk At Ya Later

I'm going camping in the BWCA for a few days.  This seemed like a good way to celebrate Independence Day-appreciating the beauty of nature.  We'll catch up next week.

Picture Perfect

Jodi Picoult wrote Picture Perfect, a novel she wrote in 1995. I didn't really like it as much as I have liked her other books.  This is one of her earlier books and maybe that is why.  The characters didn't seem as developed and sometimes I thought the plot was moving too slowly. This book is about domestic abuse.  The main characters are two broken people, Cassie (an anthropoligist) and Alex (a movie star).  The author throws in some interesting stories about the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.  I think this book is a fine book. It's just not as great a book as I would expect from Picoult.

Spring 2011

Here is a series of pictures taken of my apple tree from the deck almost every day from March 21 until the first day of summer.

Listening Skills

Besides fun and adventure, one thing I've really picked up from participating in the owl and frog/toad surveys is improving my listening skills.  I pay more attention to the sounds of nature. I want to know what I am hearing when I am outside. I always knew the sound of a pheasant.  Pheasant used to scare the bejeebers out of the childhood me when I walked the field behind our house. And in my family, the first one to say "pheasant" when they hear a pheasant call wins.  They win nothing except being the first to say pheasant which is a surprising huge deal.  We're strangely competitive when it comes to identifying the sound of a pheasant. I knew the call of a robin and a blue jay and a crow and a chickadee and the Woody Woodpecker sound of a pileated woodpecker. But the others I have had to learn. I spent a year figuring out one bird that turnd out to be a squirrel.  Just a few weeks ago I learned the "tock tock" was also not a bird but a chipmunk.  Besides chipmunk, other new birds sounds I have learned in 2011 are the house wren, the red bellied woodpecker, white breasted nuthatch, common yellow throat and the bluebird. If I can continue to learn five new sounds a year, I will be happy with my improvement in listening skills. 

Herping - Or Frog And Toad Survey #3

American Toad

Saturday was the final frog and toad survey for the year.  By now some of the late season frogs and toad should be singing their mating songs.  We met some friends from St. Cloud in Milaca for dinner before the route.  They wanted to join the frog and toad survey.  They told us that listening for frogs was called herping.  Herping.  That doesn't sound too good; a cross between herpes and burping.  The sky was clear and the temperature was betwen 60 and 65 - about 20 degrees cooler than when we did the same route last month.  We heard gray tree frogs calling at the first several stops.  I was getting worried that this would be a one species night.  Eventually we heard some American toads and one of my favorites, the green frog (who sounds like a loose banjo string). A big bird flew over our van at one point and landed in a dead tree off to the side of the road.  It looked like an owl more than a hawk although all we could see was the outline.  So I got out of the car and made barred owl sounds at it.  I called 3 times.  The bird looked at me but did not respond.  I got back into the car and we looked again with binoculars.  It's hard to see at night with binoculars but I could see the ear tufts of a great horned owl. We admired the owl and moved on. We went past the Royal Flush kennels (our heroes who pulled us out of the frost boil).  At each stop we get out of the car and listen for frogs. We have ten stops.  When we first get out of the car, the mosquitoes are not so bad. There are maybe a few flying around.  After a minute or two the mosquitoes come at us in squadrons.  There must be a silent horn sounding the call, "Fresh meat here!"  They land on your fingers and their wings brush your lips.  If you inhale suddenly,  mosquitoes get sucked in down your throat.  By the time our five minutes are up, we can't hear anything above the very irritating whine of mosquitoes in your ears. At the 4th stop, I heard a veery (a thrush with a strange, flute like sound).  At the fifth stop I heard several veerys calling.  We paused at the spot on the road where we were stuck in a frost boil in May.  The scar was still evident on the road. We heard snipe winnowing at 7 of the 10 stops.  They sound kinda creepy after a while and my mind starts to think about swamp monsters again.  At one of the later stops the four of us were standing separately on the road around the van listening for frogs.  We had stood there almost the entire five minutes when suddenly something moved in the woods ahead of us.  About 10 feet into the brush, some animal got up and went crashing away making a huge racket.  I suppose the animal couldn't take having four people stand there so close anymore but it scared the living daylights out of me. All four of us silently moved together next to the van.  Safety in crowds I guess. The lightening bugs started to come out. At the final stop there were so many lightening bugs the woods looked like a Christmas scene with tiny white bulbs.  My friend said only the male lightening bugs produce light and they do it to attract a mate.  That is the same reason the frogs call and the snipe winnow.  The swamps and woods are a very sexy place.  Our heads were tilted up to the sky to admire the lightening bugs and that is when we saw a falling star.  We finished our route and headed back to civilization on tar roads. As we laughed and talked, I thought I saw a light pulsing in the sky. Was I getting a migraine?  Would a seizure come on?  Was this the end of the world?  After a few minutes, I had to ask, "Does anyone else see a pulsing light in the sky?"  One passenger said, "Yes."  THANK YOU!  The other two passengers didn't see it.  The pulsing light was getting brighter and brighter.  If a car approached us, the light disappeared temporarily only to return once the car had passed.  The road went around a bend and the light moved to the left of the car.  Thank goodness because this meant the light was coming from a location.  We're only guessing but we suspect there was a light show at the Hinkley casino.  This concludes the official and documented herping for the 2011 season. 

Chickens Can Purr

I was working in the garden today.  I hilled the potatoes again. The rain has helped them because they're already flowering.  I hoed the tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, peppers, carrots, sunflowers and pumpkins.  I left the milkweed plants stay - I don't mind those weeds because they attract Monarch butterflies.  I thinned the carrots and tied up the tomato plants to the stakes.  As I worked, the chickens came into the garden through the compost heap.  Where I had already scratched the soil with the hoe, they scratched deeper and ate the bugs they found.  I saw Meredith eat a 5  inch long angleworm.  I'd prefer to keep the angleworms in the soil but I hoped the chickens would eat the potato bugs (when they came) so I let them stay in the garden.  Pamela got tired of scratching and eating bugs.  She dug a deeper hole between the tomatoes and laid down in it.  She stretched out her wings and laid on her side and wiggled herself down deeper into the earth.  Then she purred.  She purred like a cat.  At the end of each purr segment her tail feathers would tighten up and grow taller. She leaned to the other side to get the sandy soil deep into her feathers and purred some more. Aww, so cute.  She sounded so content.

Dear Deer

I was headed out the door at 6:50 when a bird caught my eye.  I went to the picture window to see a catbird eating grape jelly.  First the female catbird ate and then the male catbird took her place.  In the back of the yard I noticed two white tail deer.  One stood facing me and one stood with it's back to me.  The deer facing me was a buck.  I could see the antlers just starting to form a fork.  The buck was licking the doe's neck.  And the doe was licking the buck's neck.  They vigorously licked each other's neck, face, and ears.  Did it taste salty?  Was this pure affection?  I watched for at least three minutes and they never stopped licking each other.  They looked so sweet.  But some people got to make a living and don't have the time to watch deer necking all dang morning.

Babies

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure and honor of having dinner with an old acquaintance.  She brought her 4 month old baby along and we met at an Olive Garden.  Our personalities totally clicked and we talked non-stop for three solid hours.  Like many 4 month old babies, this one got fussy.  She wanted to nurse.  She wanted to be held.  She wanted to be changed.  She was tired, fussy, and cranky.  She wanted her pacifier.  She didn't want her pacifier.  Gosh, I love babies.  Even cranky babies are a pleasure for me to hold and try to soothe.   And I got to hold her and straighten her little sun dress and pat her tiny back to make her burp.  I got to feel her tiny weight in my arms.  The baby looked into my eyes and stared at me as if she understood everything I was saying.  What will make her laugh when she is ten years old?  What will she be doing at age 35?  What does her future hold?  Her Mom was an excellent mother.  She soothed the baby with confidence and kindness. And as I watched te mother hold her baby on her knee as she jiggled her leg up and down, I remembered holding the mother on my knee when she was the age her daughter is now.  I remember she threw up on my pants after eating half a jar of beets.  Babies are messy, smelly, loud and they can ruin your clothes but the pleasure I get when I hold a baby can make my toes curl.

Rice Creek

Last night I was invited to go kayaking after work.  We're trying to get ready to participate in the Mississippi River Challenge, a 2 day paddle from Coon Rapids to Cottage Grove.  We set the kayaks in the waters of Rice Creek north of County Road I - just east of Highway 35W.  I'm not sure if that area is Arden Hills or Shoreview.  We were north of the ammunition plant.  The water was fairly swift.  Tall grasses covered the banks on both sides.  Earlier higher water had cut some of the banks down to the bare earth.  The creek was quite curvy and the water flow gets disrupted.  Some of the curves were sharp "S" shaped curves and we had to be careful or the water would pin us against a bank.  We went underneath County Road I and the top of my head almost touched the roof of the bridge.  Some trees had fallen into the water and we had to navigate around those.  I've had experience in kayaks before but those were sea kayaks which have a rudder.  I steered this little kayak with the paddle only and it was surprisingly easy to do.  Heavy rains were predicted for Monday but actually the weather was perfect for being on the water. We had a comfortable breeze and the air was pleasantly warm.  We saw red winged blackbirds, catbirds, goldfinches, orioles, grackles, mallards, robins and one osprey.  We paddled through a portion of the ammo plant.  Towards the end we could see some very old and deserted ammunition buildings. Rice Creek flows under 35W.  The creek is split into three sections as it flows under the highway and there is concrete below us.  The distance is so long it feels like you are going into a tunnel. Of course, as in all tunnels, I start making noises to get the echo effect.  First a Tarzan yell and then ululations.  You can't take me anywhere without getting embarrassed. As you come out of the tunnel, the cement underneath us ends and the water levels drops down a foot or more all at once. The water is turbulent as it drops and the current goes all wicky wacky.  It felt like a mini-rapid and being so low in the kayak made it even more fun.  It's strange because you eyes see only grassy banks and water but your ears are filled with the sound of rush hour traffic.  Next we went under Highway 10 near the Mermaid Supper Club.  Again we had a long tunnel and turbulence.  You had to prepare for these bridges way ahead of time because you do not want to be caught in the current sideways against a cement wall.  So we would look ahead, choose which way to go and try to get to that spot turned straight ahead.  Once in these tunnels the space is too narrow to paddle.  You can correct your course a little bit by using your paddle as a rudder.  We just had to be sure we went in as straight as we could.  We went under at least a dozen bridges.  Besides the deserted ammunition buildings, we didn't see any other houses or building for the first 90 minutes of the trip. It was only when we got close to Long Lake in New Brighton that we saw a house.  Two men were standing in the creek fishing for northern pike. They claimed to catch one every fifth cast.  On Long Lake we encountered other watercraft - jet ski's, pontoons, and a speed boat.  The kayak handles the waves really well.  We paddled across the lake to the landing next to the sound barrier on Highway 694.  Our trip took almost two hours.  I had so much fun I wasn't ready for it to be over yet.

New Species of Bird

My fellow bird class students and I got together at one student's home for a pot luck and to talk about birds.  Our hosts live right on Coon Creek and they had orioles, catbirds, red winged blackbirds, house wrens and red bellied woodpeckers at their feeders.  We made tentative plans to get together in the fall and go birding at Crex Meadows in Wisconsin.  We talked about the birds we had seen recently.  One older fellow said he had been looking for a midnight bed thresher.  I was sitting right beside him and did a double take and looked at him to see if he was serious.  Poker face, he did not show he was kidding.  He had to be kidding. 

PS  I've been working on something special for my blog readers all spring. I may not have it ready for the first day of summer but it should be ready soon.  Prepare to be impressed.



Testimony

Anita Shreve wrote Testimony.  The book is about an incident of sexual assault at a private school in Vermont.  The school has some day students and some boarders.  Three male students (17, 18 and 19 years old) have consensual sex with a 14 year old female freshman student in a dorm room.  The assault is posted on YouTube.  How the incident is handled by the school administrators, the parents, the police, the town, the other students and the media all influence each other.  Lives are forever changed.  I think Anita does a good job delving into the teenage mind and the reactions of parents when their kids get into trouble.  She jumps back and forth in time and gradually we learn why the characters acted as they did.  Fascinating book.

Second Sighting Not Nearly As Much Fun

This morning I was awakened by the sound of frantic chickens.  There was a ruckus in the hen house.  The chickens are on the east side of the house now and I can see them out of my bedroom window.  I got up and looked out to see the gray fox running back and forth along the length of the run, scaring Meredith and Pamela half to death.  I opened the window and yelled, "Hey, you!  Gray Fox!"  I'm not sure why I include the species.  When I yelled at the red fox last year I yelled "Fox!"  not "Red Fox."  The gray fox looked at me.  I looked at it and said, "Beat it!"  He left the area but not the yard.  He went down the mowed path toward the side hill.  I yelled, "I can still see you!"  He moved into the long grass east of my garden.  I could see the grasses move as he traveled. I watched until he was out of sight.  I looked at my alarm clock.  Six o'clock - the exact moment that I have to get up for work five days a week.  Grrrr, that darn gray fox.  Why doesn't he go after the numerous cottontail rabbits instead of the chicken?

I Like The Way You Walk. I Like The Way You Talk.

Although I haven't said this in 35 or so years, last night I went out to a bar on Payne Avenue.  A sibling, a cousin, and myself met at the Minnesota Music Cafe to see another cousin play in the original 4 On The Floor.  I like bars so much more now that they're not smoky. This place wasn't crowded.  Oh, gosh, my cousin has talent as lead guitar/singer.  The other guitarist and the keyboardist and the drummer were also very talented and put their all into the music.  The first song they did was Creedence Clearwater Revival - Susie Q.  My sibling said it was for me. I thought no, it couldn't be, but wouldn't it be nice if it was?  After the set was finished my cousin said they played that song for me.  OMG!!!  How cool is that?  I'm so honored.  And I've been humming the song all day. They played Blood Sweat and Tears, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seeger (Down on Main Street), Eagles (Hotel California), Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison), Neil Sedaka (Sweet Caroline), Wilson Pickett (Mustang Sally) and even (get this) my #1 all time favorite, Rod Stewart.  I knew every song they played.  I had a wonderful evening.  I really got to get out to hear live music more often.

PS I drove down Payne Avenue past Louie's Bar, my old hangout.  It's still there. : )

Gray Fox

Until a few years ago, I didn't even know we had two species of fox in Minnesota.  I had never seen a gray fox until last Thursday.  I was refilling my oriole feeder on the deck. My chickens were free ranging below the deck.  I glanced over toward my compost pile and saw a gray fox sniffing the compost.  The back of the fox was gray and the tip of it's tail was black.  I said, "Hey!  Are you a gray fox?  Beat it."  The fox looked up at me and quietly and slowly walked down the path that leads to the road.  Why it didn't bother the chickens I don't know.  Although I worry about my chickens, I was elated to see a gray fox.  My gray fox sighting was as exciting as seeing a new species of bird in the yard.  Gray fox is the only member of the dog family that can climb tree.  They prefer woodlands to prairie habitat and range in size from 8 to 14 pounds.

Flowery Photos

This peony bush is only a couple years old but is loaded with pretty, sour-smelling blossoms.

Humpty Dumpty looks cute behind the yellow iris.

Hot Pink Flowers are being crowded out by the day lilies.

Grandpa Stenger's irises.

I don't know what I'm doing right to this African violet but it's blooming beautifully after two years of leaves only.

A Widow For One Year

My book club chose A Widow For One Year by John Irving.  I LOVED it.  I'm a big Irving fan.  People offered opinions as we went around the room.  Our leader, who reads every book every time said she couldn't finish it because she was disgusted.  Wow!  Others said the sex was degenerate and perverted.  I don't disagree but I still loved the book.  But it seemed, as the discussion progressed, that I was the only one who really liked it.  Critics loved it.  The New York Times thought it was great.  So I am not alone in my opinion.  All agreed that some parts were hilarious.  I think you just can't take the book too seriously. Irving is a comic writer.  All his books are funny and all have some kind of perverted sex.  It's his character development, his comedy, and his landscape descriptions that make him great.  On the way home tonight I stopped at the library and got another Irving book plus a Jodi Picoult book on CD to read.  Can't wait for both of them.  If books are like food, I felt like I was bringing home a big box of Belgian chocolates and a case of Florida oranges.

All of Nature

If you want to read a good blog about nature, go to www.allofnature.blogspot.com  Siah St. Clair, naturalist at the Springbrook Nature Center, has incredible pictures and fascinating comments.  This week he posted photos of morning dew on spider webs, wild flowers and even damselflies.  You will be amazed!

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Gaining Confidence

Riding home from work tonight, I debated which way to go.  I wanted to stop and swim after work at the club on Hanson and Highway 10.  So far, in three years of riding a motorcycle to work, I have not taken Highway 10.  I don't like to go that fast.  The speed limit where I usually take it is 65.  In my car I can travel at 69 mph and I'm usually the slowest one on the road.  Most of the time the traffic is slow during rush hour and we seldom get that fast.  That is what I thought would happen tonight when I finally got the confidence to try it.  I entered the highway at Foley Boulevard and intended to get off at the very next exit, Hanson Boulevard.  It wasn't the merging that scared me nor the other cars.  What has stopped me before was the speed.  This was rush hour and there shouldn't be much speed.  What I forgot is that school is out of session and traffic during rush hour was not nearly as bad.  As I got on Highway 10, everybody was going 70+ miles per hour.  I got in the right lane and could stay there as that lane eventually exits onto Hanson.  I got up to speed very quickly.  Sometimes you can see bugs flying before they hit you in the face shield.  The bugs come up really fast on the highway.  Ten climbs up to go over Coon Creek and a railroad track.  I got the bike up to (can you believe it!) 69 mph.  Please don't tell the parents.  I traveled down the big hill confidently and zoomed up the exit ramp up to Hanson. Mission accomplished successfully.  After my swim, I had the option of taking Highway 10 home or taking the back roads.  I took the back roads.  I am gaining confidence but I don't want to overdo it.

E B Row

Yesterday the leader of our bird walk suggested that when talking with children about birds, use E B Row.  The letters of E B Row will help kids identify birds: E for eye, B for beak or bill (same thing), R for rump (always good for a chuckle with kids), O for outer tail feathers, and W for wings.  These letters will help adults identify birds too.  I often will remember the color of the back or belly and forget all these other details.

Today we saw an out-of-shape woodchuck crossing the yard.  The woodchuck stayed on the path I had mowed earlier this morning.  It would run for five feet, stop, stand up and look around, catch it's breath, run for five feet, stop, catch it's breath, etc.  I like woodchucks. They look like minature bears to me.

National Get Outside Day

House Wren

I spent the day outside today.  My chapter of Master Naturalists had a bird hike in North St. Paul at the Southwood Nature Preserve.  We saw 29 species: goldfinch, great blue heron, red-winged blackbirds, oriole, robin, great egret, mourning dove, crow, cowbird, song sparrow, common yellow-throat, chickadee, blue jay, mallard, catbird, red eyed vireo, phoebe, house wren, cardinal, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, great crested flycatcher, tree swallow, broad wing hawk, chipping sparrow, Canada geese, wood duck, bluebird, and red bellied woodpecker.  It was fun to see the place where three members of our group spend a lot of time and energy.  One woman monitors the bluebird houses there. She took us to one house and held the three baby bluebirds in her hands for us to see.  There was an unhatched egg in there too which was a real pretty blue color.  In the next bluebird house, she intended to show us the coral eggs of a house wren.  When she opened it up, one of the eggs had hatched.  She had looked at the nest yesterday and none were hatched so this was a bird who was very new to the world. We looked at the helpless, featherless creature in her hand and said, "Welcome to the world."  It's photo was taken by two cell phones. Poor thing - it probably felt like it was probed by aliens.  After lunch we went to the St. Paul brick yards to look for fossils.  We were shown around by people who have been there many times before and who know some of the history.  We saw an old kiln.  These brickyards made almost all the bricks used in buildings in St. Paul and Minneapolis up until WWII.  We saw some caves that were gated so no one would get injured and sue the city.  We saw another cave that they said goes on for 100 yards and comes out at another location.  I was tempted to go through it but it was a low cave and I would have had to crawl through it.  I just wasn't dressed to crawl through a sandy cave.  Plus I would want a headlamp.  I found a rock with a fossil right away which wasn't good because I had to carry that dang rock around for the next two hours.  I ended up taking 3 small rocks home.  My companions had so many rocks that multiple trips to the car were required. One of my friends put her rocks in the pockets of her sweater.  With each fossil found, her sweater grew lower and lower.  I told her once the pockets got below her knees I was cutting her off.  I'd rather look for birds than fossils but Lilydale is such a pretty area that I still had a good time.

I Bought A New Broom

The old one was a little worn.

Am I Round-Up Ready?

Morningstar Farms says, "We recognize that some Morningstar Farms® consumers may prefer foods that do not contain biotech ingredients, so we offer Morningstar Farms® Breakfast Patties Made with Organic Soy. At this time, all of our other products contain biotech ingredients. The ingredients we use have been approved by the appropriate regulatory authorities, and all of our products comply with food labeling requirements in markets where they are sold throughout the world."  By biotech, they mean genetically modified soybeans; modified to be sterile (so the farmer always has to buy more seed every year) and resistant to Round-Up (a weed killer).  And I eat a lot of Morningstar Farm products instead of meat.  Does that mean I am Round-Up ready?  If it meant I could avoid getting poison ivy this year, it might be worth it.  Seriously though, I am considering changing my diet to exclude all genetically modified foods.

PS I saw a hairy woodpecker pecking away at the suet this evening.  This is the first time I've seen a hairy woodpecker in my yard. I suspect it was there two days ago but I couldn't get a close enough look at it to be sure.  Tonight I was putting more grape jelly in the oriole feeder when the hairy woodpecker landed just a few feet away.  it was definitely a hairy, not a downy woodpecker.  The hairy woodpecker's beak is at least as long as it's whole head. Downy's have a shorter beak.

Water For Elephants

I watched "Water for Elephants" at the Heights Theater after work tonight with some friends.  What a difference a setting makes!  I suggest you see the movie at this theater because the atmosphere and art deco design totally match the movie.  Hal Holbrook does an excellent job and Reese Witherspoon was also very good.  Several parts were too violent for me and I watched with my fingers over my eyes.  Two thumbs up for Water For Elephants.

Loosing It

What am I loosing?  My mind?  Possibly.  The rat race?  Probably.  The keys to my motorcycle two days in a row?  Definitely.  The first time was yesterday afternoon at the health club.  I left them in the ignition while I swam for an hour.  I came out, dressed, and couldn't find the keys.  I didn't remember taking them out of the ignition.  I looked at the bike and they weren't there. I looked through all my pockets three times and my entire backpack and they weren't there.  I asked at the desk and someone had left them there.  Angry at myself and a little relieved, I went back to my bike.  Tucked on the handlebars was a note saying my keys were at the front desk and I should be glad he found them and brought them there.  It was signed "Mike."  I guess Mike assumes other people would have stolen the bike and maybe he was right.  So today I made an effort to keep track of the keys.  And I did until 4 o'clock or so.  I came out of a meeting at the Anoka Government Center.  The temperature is about 100 degrees and going outside makes me feel like I have a fever.  The keys are not in any of my pockets AGAIN!  I check all my pockets three times.  I check my entire backpack.  I check at the front desk on first floor and on fifth floor. I check the conference room where I attended the meeting.  Nothing.  I have nowhere else to check.  I call a friend who will come to my rescue.  I look at my bike parked across Third Avenue.  My helmet is hanging off the rear tail light.  Could the keys be inside the helmet with my gloves and sun glasses?  I look and there the keys sit.  Am I happy to see them?  A little but again I am mostly angry at myself for being so careless.  I call off the rescue. This heat must be frying some connections in my brain.  I have to figure out a better way to keep track of these keys as soon as possible.  

Freedom Bell

I was given a freedom bell for my motorcycle by a friend of mine.  The bell is plain and pewter and I suspended it from the frame with some wire.  My bell came in a red velvet bag and this little story: 

Have you ever wished you could get rid of those nasty road "surprises" that turn your ride in the wind to a trip where everything goes wrong?  As we all know, life has many mysteries that have no apparent solutions. One of these is Evil Road Spirits.  These are the little gremlins that live on  your bike.  They love to ride.  They're also responsible for most of your bike's problems.  Sometimes your turn signals refuse to work, or the battery goes dead, the clutch needs adjustment, or any of several hundred things go wrong.  These problems are caused by Evil Road Spirits.  Road Spirits can't live in the presence of a bell. They get trapped in the hollow of the bell.  Among other things, their hearing is supersensitive.  The constant ringing of the bell and the confined space drives them insane  they lose their grip and eventually fall to the roadway. (have you ever wondered how potholes are formed?)  The bell has served its purpose.  If you have picked up a bell of your own, the magic will work.  But if your bell was given to  you, the power has been doubled and you know that somewhere you have a special friend helping to look after you.  So, if you have a friend that doesn't have a bell, why not be the person to give them one?  It's a nice feeling for the recipient to know you personally cared.  The bell, plus a good preventative maintenance program by the bike's owner will eliminate the Evil Road Spirits.

I put a nasty gouge into the brand new parking lot at work with my kickstand today.  I went out after lunch to put a smashed pop can under the kickstand and spread out the load but when I came out at 4 o'clock, the pop can has submerged into the tar.  I had to kick it out with my boot. Now there is a pop can sized gouge and another gouge left by the front tire.  I hope it smooths out overnight.

A Fight In The Front Yard

Things have been peaceful in my yard lately. I've had house finches, gold finches, blue jays, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, mourning doves, cowbirds, orioles, hummingbirds, and blue jays at the feeders.  I set Migwe, my canary, outside in his cage yesterday for the first time this year.  He enjoys sitting on the deck and hanging out with the gold finches.  But tonight when I went to take the garbage and recycling cans out to the street, three male bluebirds were having a fight.  I stood and watched for about ten minutes.  I wheeled my cans out to the street and when I came back they were still going at it. I'm not talking about a slight disagreement, these three were chasing each other recklessly.  Sometimes they would beat each other with their wings while in the air so that they both fell to the ground where they continued to duke it out in the long grass.  As they fought on the ground I walked closer. They didn't even pay attention to me as I stood just a few feet away.  One bluebird had the other one pinned on his back with his beak on the pinned bird's neck.  From the look of them, I think two of the bluebirds were juveniles and one was an adult.  All were male.  The adult wasn't any more or less aggressive than the younger ones.  All three kept fighting.  They would flutter at each other aggressively.  One would fly a short distance and land on a branch or a tree trunk or even the rope to my swing. The other two would come diving after it. Two of them fought in the air above the garage and they both fell to the roof of the garage.  They fought on the roof for a few minutes before flying away.  "Why can't we all just get along?" I asked. All this commotion had to be taking a toll on bird feathers and bird muscles.  Somebody was going to get hurt.  As I stood between the two oak trees, the birds chased each other so carelessly they almost struck me.  What could be the benefit of putting out all this energy?  The strongest one gets the bluebird house for the second clutch of the year?

Try Again-Frog and Toad Survey Number Two

I'm back and I didn't have to call 911 last night so all is good.  We started our second frog and toad survey (volunteering for the Department of Natural Resources) about 9:15 Friday night.  The 80 degree temperatures felt great.  A light breeze blew the clouds out of the sky revealing a tiny sliver of moon that soon disappeared. Offspring #2 came along to help us keep track of the 5 minute listening sessions.  She knocked on the window when the five minutes were up.  We heard gray tree frogs (photo), American toads, and a few spring peepers.  Last year at this time we heard green frogs.  I like the sound of green frogs (they sound like a loose banjo string being plucked).  I was a little disappointed that we didn't hear any this year.  We might have come by a little too late in the green frog mating season.  We heard snipe winnowing at several stops.  At one of the last stops we heard a barred owl calling.  The owl called four times and seemed to be making a wide curve around us.  After the fourth call I answered in my best barred owl voice.  When a barred owl calls it sounds like "No soup for you.  No soup for you all."  After I made my owl imitation the owl responded with a single hoot.  I definitely heard a note of disapproval in that single hoot.  Still, the owl talked back to me.  It was better than being ignored.  We came upon a couple vulnerable animals in the road.  At a house where we once saw a dog doing it's business (now known as dog poop house) we stopped because I thought I saw a huge rock in the road.  The rock turned out to be a Holland lop rabbit and it just sat in the middle of the road we as turned the car to go around it.  This rabbit was the exact same tan color as the gravel.  Later I saw a painted turtle stopped in the middle of the road and I drove around that too.  I was a little nervous about the road.  After getting trapped in a frost boil last time and with all the recent rain, I wanted to avoid any trouble.  Earlier that day I called the Kannebec County Highway Department and asked about the condition on Teal Road.  I was put on hold for a minute and then told that all restrictions were now off and as far as they knew the road was fine.  I emailed our rescuer from the frost boil incident but never heard back from him.  We made our way cautiously.  I told myself to turn around if the road got dangerously soft and not to forge ahead like last time.  We saw vestiges of former frost boils and the scars of deep ruts but the road was solid.  We paused where we got stuck last time.  We found the exact spot where we spent a half hour on the telephone in the dark.  I felt really good to get past that spot and to move forward. We wrapped up the survey before 11 p.m. and got home before 1 a.m.  I'm looking forward to the third and final frog survey of the season which will be around the 4th of July.

A Story My Grandma Would Recite To Me

The Old Woman and Her Pig

An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. "What," said she, "shall I do with this little sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig."

As she was coming home, she came to a stile. But the piggy wouldn't go over the stile.

 She went a little further, and she met a dog. So she said to him, "Dog! Dog! Bite pig. Piggy won't go over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the dog wouldn't.

She went a little further, and she met a stick. So she said, "Stick! Stick! Beat dog! Dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the stick wouldn't.

 She went a little further, and she met a fire. So she said, "Fire! Fire! Burn stick. Stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the fire wouldn't.

She went a little further, and she met some water. So she said, "Water! Water! Quench fire. Fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the water wouldn't.

 She went a little further, and she met an ox. So she said, "Ox! Ox! Drink water. Water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the ox wouldn't. She went a little further and she met a butcher. So she said, "Butcher! Butcher! Kill ox. Ox won't drink water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the butcher wouldn't.

 She went a little further, and she met a rope. So she said, "Rope! Rope! Hang butcher. Butcher won't kill ox; ox won't drink water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the rope wouldn't.

 She went a little further, and she met a rat. So she said, "Rat! Rat! Gnaw rope. Rope won't hang butcher, butcher won't kill ox; ox won't drink water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight." But the rat wouldn't.

 She went a little further, and she met a cat. So she said, "Cat! Cat! Kill rat. Rat won't gnaw rope; rope won't hang butcher; butcher won't kill ox; ox won't drink water; water won't quench fire; fire won't burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig; piggy won't get over the stile; and I shan't get home tonight."

 But the cat said to her, "If you will go to yonder cow, and fetch me a saucer of milk, I will kill the rat." So away went the old woman to the cow.

But the cow said to her, "If you will go to yonder haystack, and fetch me a handful of hay, I'll give you the milk." So away went the old woman to the hay-stack; and she brought the hay to the cow.

As soon as the cow had eaten the hay, she gave the old woman the milk; and away she went with it in a saucer to the cat.

As soon as the cat had lapped up the milk, the cat began to kill the rat; the rat began to gnaw the rope; the rope began to hang the butcher; the butcher began to kill the ox; the ox began to drink the water; the water began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn the stick; the stick began to beat the dog; the dog began to bite the pig; the little pig in a fright jumped over the stile; and so the old woman got home that night.

When I was young, Grandma would recite this story over and over again.  I would listen so carefully to make sure she got it right.  Amazingly, I never heard her make a mistake.  And I ended up with a life long interest in stiles.

Reflection on Mile Stones

In my 20's the mile stones were being old enough to drink, graduating from college, marriage, and children.  In my 50's the mile stones are annual mammograms, colonoscopy, AARP membership, menopause and retirement planning.  Ugh!  My unsolicited advice?  Life for today.  Eat dessert first.  Spend your money and have some fun before it's too late.