The Other Night

The ground is starting to freeze up.  Lots of activity at the black oil feeders.  I put a platform feeder out on the lawn witih a mix of cracked corn and black oil that the blue jays flocked to all afternoon.  

I had to chuckle later when I saw the gander, Pluto, helping himself stretched on his ti toes.

At some point I acknowledge thehunger of the grey squirrel population and start putting out corn to take some pressure off the feeders and give the birds a chance.  The blue jays and morning doves like the corn, too.  

I saw several wild turkeys just in the treeline at dusk as I was locking up the chickens.  They were most likely heading to roost in the tall hemlocks out of sight to the right in the above photo.  But, with all the mayhem in the front yard with bird activity, I won't be too suprised to see turkey at the platform in a few days.

Kind of wondering if my deer visitor will knock it over in the night, but since the house was surrounded from all angles by gunshots opening day, I am assuming all the neighbors "got their deer"-and considering the increased doe permits for this WMD-I am wondering if my visitor avoided slaughter.  

There are still a few more days of hunting season- as I said, hopefully adjacent landowners have got their quotas and any deer remaining in the area can start to relax.
 

Indian Summer

 

This is Obi. He is about 12 years old.

We have been having a stretch of Indian summer, although the local weathermen are astounded that we could have temps like these in November, September  was unseasonably cold and we deserved a break.

We had a saturating fog yesterday morning, but as it burned off the air was full of the smell of freshly fallen leaves and other smells of the woods-Pleasant ones.  Yup, we deserved some some pleasures after the chaos and commotion of 2020.

 

A lifting

The Bangor Daily News announced Biden's win late Friday, much to the chagrin of many of its right wing commenters.

By dawn yesterday my black cloud had started to dissipate-I spent the day, a glorious Indian Summer, warm, sunny day, on the roof with a bucket of black goop tediously trying to locate the multitude of cracks in the roof surface.

I found myself wishing I had a hose and nozzle like the Maine DOT when they seal road cracks- it would have been much faster and neater.

Instead it was a one inch putty knife, and if you can imagine trying to paint a room with a one inch brush you might see what I was experiencing.  Except change the paint to black goop.

Just like painting, I am a mess at roof sealing.  No matter how careful I am, I will touch it, step in it, kneel in it, and sit in it.  If I wear gloves the fingers end up getting stuck together.

I mitigate the clean up by pre treating my hands with a good-for- anything salve that I made of of beeswax and olive oil.  Then I use a rag and leftover fry grease to remove it from my hands.  I used to use olive oil for the latter, but then I realized it was a good use for oil that was going to be tossed-(or put into an oil lamp I have always wanted to try, which is why used oil is hanging around in the first place)

I think it was a good analogy for the day.  Start at the top, apply tar, and remove the residue.

 

Count Every Vote

 

This was nightfall the day after the election.

 

Since late Tuesday I have been channeling anger, irritation, and frustration.  I took a huge nap today-a day that turned out to be unseasonably warm and finally sunny, and I slept through most of it.

 

I find that happens certain times of year, and often it coincides with solar activity.  We were due to get brushed by a CME but I don't believe it was today.

 

Sunrise yesterday, the dawn after the election, was blood red. I can recall the old adage, "red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."

 

Yes, it's been rough sailing here in the US for the last 48 hours, his highness just spoke of idiotical nonsense -we ARE in the middle of a pandemic, you HAVE warned all your devout followers of the pitfall of mail in ballots and set the stage for questioning the integrity of same, then cry and moan about why , when mail in ballots are finally begun to be counted, the tide turns.

 

The US vs THEM mentality.  *shudders* then dear old Biden comes on pledging to serve ALL Americans-whether they voted for him or not.  Even a devout Liberal is tempted to cry, "no it's US vs THEM remember!!??" 

 

Look at the pic-black and white, good vs Evil.  That this country can be so violently divided almost perfecly 50-50 is staggering,  It feels truly like the end of times when good will face Evil.

 

Climate change is upon us.  Even with the pandemic lockdown the CO2 has risen 2 ppm over this time last year.  It is unsustainable.  On one hand you have those that don't believe Climate Change is real.  On the other hand, there are those who believe it is real but want to dicker with the deniers and meet them 90% of the way.  Not going to work folks. 

Are you for saving the planet, as many species, as many humans, as you can?  Just like Noah on the ark(if you believe in the tale)-every thing is precious.

 

Wouldn't it be interesting if wealth was based on how many cubic inches of biodiversity you could sustain? Or how many cubic inches of CO2 sequestering you possessed?

 

 

 

 

The Empath

Isolation is tough on an Empath, or sensitive.  Consistent exposure to crowded situations and social interactions help dull the senses which are picking up on non verbal clues.

 

I had the news on today, with the gibber gabber in the background, and thought about human speech in comparison to animals.  Animals communicate primarily by non -verbal cues  And isolation has caused me to be extremely sensitive to non verbal cues.

 

I literally had a chicadee go out of it's way to get my attention, and after making sure that it had my attention, went very deliberately to the empty feeder and picked rapidly as if to say-"look no food here!"

 

The stressful buildup to the election has had me stetched thin.  It's in the non verbal cues, the prevalence of Trump signs and flags, the sight of unmasked magas, out of state license plates from hotspots, jet afterburners headed for Bangor hitting it right over the house-(gotta love those rallies)

 

But finally today I had a sudden lifting of spirit.  was this voter relief, personal relief, a positive sign?

 

I don't know, but I had a one in five lifetime moments this afternoon of uncontrolled laughter listening to the local news describing the arsonist the state police are on the lookout for-he was caught on video surveillence wearing a hoody and carrying a gas can.  But they didn't say how the victim-a porta potty-made out.