Saturday-The Ass end of August

The raven died.  The good folks at avianhaven.org did their best.  The remaining ravens have been rather morose:  I left a few balls of "goose bread" on the rock when I locked Pluto up for the night-it was gone this morning.  One was out back calling when I tried to communicate I was leaving an offerring-or was it a local feral feline that consumed the bread during the last 24 hours?

The fish kill is the hands of MDEP.  DEP seemed certain that concrete leachate was the suspect.  However, a water test spiked high for copper, so DEP said the container was wrong and the sample wasn't properly prepped, and went back 5 days after the incident and took two more samples which came back normal for parameters.

I caught a FYEO draft report which revealed the copper discrepancy, and after doing some digging found a plausible expalnation for the spike in copper-which catfish are particularly susceptible to-and sent the info along to the orignal leaker of the draft report, who bounced it back to dEPwho got their panties in a wad.

I finally threw my virutal hands up in disgust and said as long as there is NOT a repeat fish kill and someone is held accountible, fine.

Ancient guy who walks everyday got MY panties in a wad when he left a paper with an FYI article op ed justifying POTUS's sending the troops into Portland Oregon.

I want to reply that I would like to know how many Americans have protestred since the current prez was elected, point out that he incites division and villifies fellow Amercians, and that I do not support fascism.  But how do you do that to a 90 somthing Korean war veteran whose wife of 60 something years is in a nursing home and they , when he can visit, have to socially distance outside and both wear masks>

Me, the reclusive life is starting to lose it's appeal along with the length of sunlight.  I am going back back back to what used to inspire me, what my passions were, where do I find happiness in this turmoil?

Rave(n)ing

A week gone another day gone.  This morning I found an incapacitated raven out back.  It couldn't fly, but wasn't trailing a wing.  It was weight bearing on both feet and could hop and flap quite a distance before flopping over. 

I spent some minutes trying to get it with my t shirt.  I gave up and went back for a towel and cat carrier and leather gloves because that beak looked sharp.  The compassionate route was no good, I could not convince that bird I meant no harm and was trying to help.  The bird was grounded and what little life remained depended on avoiding capture by anything, and ravens are smart birds.

It ducked when I tossed the towel.

Lucky for me I have plenty of rooster chasing history (tip, don't try that at home).and goose herding experience.  Back and forth in the clearing we went-if it made it to the undergrowth things would be much more difficult. 

FInally the compassionate route officially failed, and I decided to give chase until I caught it, which winded me but ended up with the bird in the crate and shortly on a trip to a wildlife rehab specializing in birds.

I quickly informed them of the recent fish kill-I hd been expecting further fall out and a week later here was a raven in distress in my back yard.  I informed IFW and DEP.  I just found an email in reply from DEP basically saying that ravens eat crap and it was nothing to do with the fish kill.  Turns out the fish kill was probably the result of an upstream concrete pour in an attempt to dam me out. 

Oh, you would think the DEP might take something like this quite seriously.  But the poor fellow didn't know concrete was bad, and the fish will come back (IFW) and the raven died from anything but the idiots job with the concrete.

He'llget away with it.  My only consolation is that my intervention most likely stopped a complete damming of the watercourse, and a smaller fish kill than if they had poured all the concrete they intended.  ANd when the road washes out from flooding I can say, "I told you so" everytime I drive 20 miles out of my way to get anywhere and am paying for the repair on my tax bill.

IN the meantime, I am persona non gratis with the upstream owners, how DARE I intervene in their little plot?  SLamming doors, honking horns, overloud voices-hmmm the only positive I can see is that I told you so down the road.  But they will probably pretend ignorance and blame it on climate change- even though that's a democratic hoax.

Men here's the key to longevity

Stay active...and learn to tell a joke.

Here's the key to telling a great joke-the TIMING.  Johnny Carson was really the master of that.  He could read his audience, bring them along, let them hang there until the precixe minute, and then "ham!" punchline.

I have an over 90 year old neighbor who is a good shit.  He has passion.  If there is a controversial subject he has an opinion on it (and that is any subject you can come up with ) he won't hestiate to tell you.  Once he gets you all wound up, he will leave you with a little joke and a laugh.  And I mean leave you, he walks 2 miles on the road every morning like a religion.

Sometimes he repeats the joke he told you last time-but you still laugh because you just have to, because wth he is in his 90's go him!.

After so many months in isolation, it was actually refreshing to meet with two, new-to-me persons.  Unfortuneately, one was from Maine DEP and the other from Maine DIFW, responding to my complaint of a fish kill, which is another story.

DIFW arrived first, a twenty something handome young man who I might call a hunk and my daughter might call a redneck.

We both stood twenty feet apart clutching our masks and subconsciously agreeing to comunicate in such a fshion, while wating for the arrival of DEP, which occurred in a few minutes (he had overshot it)

A silver haired gentleman got out of his truck en maske, apologizing by proclaiming that he was old, and MDIFW and I promtply secured on our masks and mutual conversation ensued with a 15 foot radius along the road.

Soon enough I "left them to it" and when they were done their investigation IFW called me and I dutifully trotted down my labeled ziploc bags of deceased bullhead cafish and invasive introduced bluegill to be returned to Pathology, since most of the ones in the stream were not-so-fresh as the ones I had in my fridge in their giant ziploc bags.

The collection the day before was another adventure, bushwhacking through waist-high marsh grass interspersed with poison ivy, stinging nettle in bloom; flushing a duck and another good sized brown bird whcih called all afternoon after I retreated,;clutching water bottle, ziploc bags, a two foot pair of tongs, while wearing sneakers no socks and jean shorts.  The icing on the cake was trying to juggle the cell phone and having call backs from MDIFW repeatedly drop while I am gesturing at the heavens shouting, "can you hear me now?"

So, the fellas went upstream and downstream and I reatreated to the "lawn".  At one point I heard "bullhead" which is apparently the officail MDIFW name for what local call "hornpout" and me southern girl calls "catfish".

Bullhead belly up comprised the majority of the fish kill, and MDIFW and I had shared comment about that- each having our own stories of how bullhead are very tenacious to living.

So, we are gathered afterwards on the road, en maske, and once again DIFW and I are discussing the quantity of bullhead.  "Old man" from DEP interjects, "there weren't any bullhead, what are you talking about?"

MDIFW and I exchange completely shocked and puzzled looks over our face coverings.  We are clearly wondering WTH is the matter with DEP guy?

At exactly the right moment he says, "all I saw were "hornpout"

MDIFW and I busted a gut.  DEP was clearly on a roll.

He continued,

"You know, Fisheries has their own booklet for fish identification, but we are going to start another of our own...'

and rattles off a few native names for various species which continues to get laugh after laugh.

Then he says, " and then there is *in thick Maine dialect*...'the Brown Nosed trout."

Post Climax

Maybe it begins with the aftermath of the Full Moon in Aquarius-which fell in the beginning of the week. Endings and Beginnings, Beginnings and Endings.

The height of summer here in central midcoast Maine was swept clean by a sideswipe of the Hurricane- Tropical Storm- Tropical Depression- whose only amusing attriubute was listening to a never ending parade of anchors and weather persons attempting to pronounce the unpronouncible.

I struggled myself, even though as far back as when it was threatening Florida I repeated the name three times in a row correctly, coached by the WIlow on the other couch.

SHe, being a true millenial, was stout in the defense and with cultural pride in the fact that a hurricane finally had a name with some culture-and anyone's inability to pronounce same would surely be an indication of some sort of cultural ignorance and possibly even be a determination of potential racism. *shudders*

I think a lot of us stumbled on the fact that an "I" suddenly becomes an "E"-"Eeh-sah-Eee-saas. It just goes against the grain-it's like that gut reaction when someone spells "candy", "candi". 

Technically, if that rule held true, then the recently passed weather event could have been spelled,""Ysaysas"

That actually makes even more senses than the logical spelling ; "Esa-esas".

****

We did lose power late the evening it struck.  We had minimal rain and some gusty winds.  I suppose the winds were even more impressive due to the fully leafed nature of the tall trees (the leaves the caterpillars have left) and the windows being wide open due to the ambient temperatures.

The cat in the Eastern bedroom window got a bit damp.

The same instant that I shut the light in the bathroom, pitch black descended.  Usually there is quite a bit of light reduction when the bathroom light is closed, but this was utter.
"Did we just lose power?"

"Yup"

***

I dutifully called the CMP outage reporting line, a number long ago memorized by heart from repeated calling over the years.

"Due to the heavy wet snow, we are experiencing numberous outages>"

Ok, it's 70 out and the first week of August.  Way to go CMP.

I called the next morning to see if there was an update-years ago they used to give a list of towns affected-and the auto asked me, "is your power out right now?"  Ummm, yeah, I reported it last night ( I thought to myself as I dutifully pushed "1")

We did get it back late afternoon the following day.  (A note to urbanites who think 45 minutes is a long time to be down-here we regularly go for days and less than 24 hours is somewhat of a surprise)

I think the biggest inconvenience for myself was the inability to watch the morning news and see how everyone else made out.  We got off very lightly and were extremely lucky the track veered well to our west.

***

Today the air feels like late August-to anyone who grew up in a warmer climate, August in Maine  traditionally feeels cold and damp. The wind is coming out of the Northeast, and with the several mile long pond and Canada to my northeast, the air iis full of Arctic air moisture.

The hummingbirds have proliferated.  I have counted as many as six at the feeder, and they make repeated visitis to the geraniums which line the steps on the front deck.  I am sitting hthere as I type this, and just made a slew of typos (more than usual) BECASE ONE WAS ABOUT TWO FEET AWAY SLIGHTLY BELOW EYE LEVEL.  tHEY SOUND LIKE A LARGE BUMBLE BEE AS THEIR WINGS WHIR.  oops cap lock and too lazy to retype it. :P

I really should close and mix fresh hummingbird food.  I think they are starting to harass me and the feeder looks empty. I just counted six hummingbirds in the perennial border and under the fir by the feeder.

***

Gut wrenching Empathy going out to those who are suffering in the Beirut disaster