Priorities: You shall know a tree by its fruit

A key point that is getting almost ZERO air-time is the fact that the Democratic King-makers and donors and Media-shills all knew how degraded Biden's cognitive skills were. They have known since before 2017 and Obama's "Don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to F___ things up."

The fact that our allies and enemies also knew that our POTUS has the intellectual capacity of a third-grader with high blood-serum levels of Pb did not bother the Party elites.

They only became "bothered" after their own, personal access to power was threatened. It became a Big-Deal because the media could not hide Biden's dementia any longer and the election was not a sure-thing.

To beat a dead horse: The decision-makers within the Democratic Party are less bothered by WWIII than by losing their place on the gravy-train.

Walking update

June 29: 8 miles

July 2: 10 miles

July 3: 5 miles

July 4: 7 miles

July 5: 10 miles

Total of 40 out of 65 miles desired.

Michigan Swallowtails

Larval foods: Birch, aspen, Prunus serotina, Malus

 

 

Larval foods: Many, including Cow Parsnip and Northern Prickly Ash

Larval foods: Many including Prunus serotina, Ash, Cottonwood, Wafer Ash

Larval foods: Spicebush, Sassafrass, Redbay, Camphor tree

Larval foods: Citrus, Prickly Ash, Wafer Ash, rue

Zebra Swallowtail. Larval foods: Pawpaw tree leaves.

Locally, Northern Prickly Ash is common but not dominant in any particular location. Leaves smell like lemons.

Wafer Ash is uncommon locally but easy to see and grows well from seeds. Leaves seem to be immune to mildews and molds.

Spicebush is occasionally found in rich, bottom-lands that is forested. 

Sassafrass is common in dry, sandy soils and seems to be a prime target of Japanese beetles.

Pawpaw thickets are often associated with locations of former Native American villages. They thrive in bottom-lands.

Swallowtails are enormous butterflies. Some of them have 7-1/2" wingspans. Many of their larval food sources are resistant to browsing by Whitetail deer, perhaps due to the toxins that make the caterpillars unpalatable to most predators.

Fake News Friday: Mid-Western Governor says State Employees refuse to cheat for Biden

 

File photograph

Mid-Western, swing-state Governor, Gretchen Schicklgruber is reported to have sent the Biden Administration an email detailing that his performance has been so abysmal that State employees (who have a paid holiday so they can "volunteer" to work the election) refuse to cheat enough to ensure a Biden victory.

"The only way we can ensure a Democratic victory" she was reported as having written "is to offer State workers DOUBLE-TIME pay for their holiday or to nominate a woman governor from a mid-Western, swing-state as the POTUS candidate."

Just my opinion (B-stick related): Part II

The first Just-my-opinion B-stick post got more response than I expected. It is a topic many readers are passionate about.

"Well, Joe, if the Ruger 10/22 is one of your top-three "only one gun" choices, what are your other top-three picks?

The safest route would be for me to be vague and say "Any Mossberg or Remington pump-shotgun in 12 or 20 gauge", but "safe" does not make for an entertaining blog or for educational comments.

Before I reveal my choice, I want to discuss the criteria for making this kind of choice.

The firearm must be widely available. What good is a choice if it is sold only to Law Enforcement Agencies or cannot be found on the shelves of most retailers?

It must use readily available ammunition and that ammo must be inexpensive.

It must have the potential to be a functional tool in the hands of anybody larger than the size of an average 12-year-old. That eliminates most uber-magnums.

The manual-of-arms must be easily taught and friendly for shooters who are left-eye dominant. 

The action must be proven and indifferent to lint and modest amounts of "dirt".

It must be a "General Purpose" firearm. That is, it must be able to execute a wide-range of tasks tolerably well rather than be perfect for one task but woefully unsuitable for nearly all others. An example of that kind of specialty firearm would be a 15 pound varmint rifle with a 26" barrel used solely to shoot prairie dogs. Not the kind of tool you would put in the back of your quad when you were going camping behind the pond or catfishing/bonfire beside the river.

Shotguns in general...

Shotguns in general are the default choice for the gardener who protects his garden against rabbits, woodchucks, raccoons, possum, squirrels and crows. It also has the "Oomph!" to protect it against larger varmints although legal entanglements are likely to result.

And then there is the defense of the hen-house where fox, coyotes, feral cats and dogs might be targets.

In much of the Eastern US, shotguns (and blackpowder) used to be the only firearms legal for harvesting Whitetail Deer. A bit of historical reference: "Trade-guns" used in the fur trade were typically smooth-bore, .57" flint-locks. The Native-Americans cheerfully used them to slay moose, elk and bison. A 0.57" round-ball weighs 280 grains while the round-ball for a .20 gauge weighs about 385 grains...a very substantial difference in favor of the "puny" 20 gauge.

It is overkill for chipmunks and rodents and smaller birds but it will definitely kill them.

Shotguns have a long history for home-defense. The only potential downside is limited ammo capacity.

In a shit-hits-the-fan scenario you are going to be ground-sluicing a lot more game than wing-shooting so I give that capability far less consideration than most people do. In my opinion, the entire wing-shooting ethic came about because ground-sluicing is TOO effective and is hard on game populations.

And the winner is...

The Mossberg 590 in "Fudd" rather than "Tact-i-cool" furniture.

Personally, I would pick the #50699 version in 20 gauge with the 8 + 1 ammo capacity, ghost-ring sights and synthetic stock. I would also pick up a case of Federal or Remington ammo loaded with #7.5 shot, the largest size shot commonly sold by-the-case.

12 gauge is also fine but skip the .410 offerings due to ammo availability issues and being less versatile out in the field.

The Remington 870 is not a bad choice. You can buy magazine extensions to increase ammo capacity but then it is not an off-the-shelf gun. The Remington 870 is also hampered by the safety which is not ambidextrous.

The Maverick 88 is an economy version of the Mossberg pump shotgun but it does not have the ambidextrous safety or the ability to upgrade magazine capacity. Frankly, the extra capacity is frosting on the cake. I rarely stuff more than two shells into my boom-stick when going forth to defend hearth, home and garden.

If you have some other shotgun, don't have a hissy-fit. It is probably a fine weapon. These kinds of blog posts are to give the gunny-guys something to squabble about and to supply a frame-of-reference for people who never thought about purchasing a firearm.

---Standard disclaimer: I receive no compensation or other considerations for any recommendations I make on this blog---

Collapse: High-Grading

"High-Grading" is the act of harvesting the very highest value trees in a forest. Over multiple generations, the forest shifts toward less valuable species and within each species, toward forms that are deformed, knotty and prone to rot.

From one generation to the next, there is very little change in the amount of rain or sunlight that falls upon the ground but the value of the timber harvested (and the benefit to society) first drops slowly...and then quickly.

Entire species become extinct from the tract.  The loss of ecological niches impoverish the flow of energy through ecosystem. Often, erosion increases. Morphology changes from timber-types to weedy, high-seed-production forms.

Easter Island

Jared Diamond discusses Easter Island in one of the chapters in his book Collapse.

"High-grading" is a recurring theme in that chapter. The degradation of the forests was so gradual that the changes spanned several (human) generations and normalcy bias made it easy for people to be in denial.

High-grading also occurred in the oceans. Even with the easing of harvesting pressure in modern times, beds of shellfish closest to the island still contain very high levels of dwarf and "runty" individuals as the most robust specimens were harvested for food leaving behind the less thrifty individuals.

Lessons for modern people?

It is easy for us to dismiss this as not applying to us. After all, we have tools for measuring tree canopies (LIDAR) and standing biomass. We can measure CO2 emitted from soil. We have statistics for monitoring the health of shellfish.

The pathological interplay between producers, harvesters and consumers caused the catastrophic "high-grading" that led (in part) to the collapse of Easter Island's society.

But if Knowledge and Information are the currency of modern life, rather than Cowrie shells, are we really monitoring what is important?

Are there pathological interactions within the education system, the nominal arbiters of all things knowledge? From the standpoint of society, what benefit is there in keeping highly disruptive students in high school?  What benefit is there is sending students with an IQ of 90 to the University to get degrees in Psychology or Liberal Arts? How is it even POSSIBLE for somebody with an IQ of 90 to attain a Bachelor's degree unless the quality of the material has been substantially diminished over time, just like the height of the trees on Easter Island and the complexity of the species mix?

And if people with IQs of 90 can attain Bachelor degrees, then why not people with IQs of 85...and 80....and 75?

A short walk on Independence Day

 

Image from Google

The walk from the Brickyard Cemetery to 5-Point Highway and back is one of the more pleasant walks locally. It is convenient to park at the cemetery. The residents don't mind and nobody messes with your vehicle.

It is a 2.7 mile round-trip and is delight for bird-lovers and plant nerds.

I paid my respects to my friend Mr Pepper. He served in the Air Force in the early 1960s as an aircraft mechanic.

Mr Pepper showed up in a few posts on this blog. He liked round numbers and wanted to make it to 88-years-old but did not make it.

He fell from a ladder (a windy day) and struck his head on a cinder-block. The story was that one end of the sheet metal on his roof had come loose and was slapping and he was going up to nail it back down.

A field of Monarda (locally called Wild Bergamot) with St John's Wort in the background and a few Common Milkweed sprinkled in.

Perennial Sweet Peas and common Daylilies.

Image reposted for convenience

The east side of the walk is mostly swamp-and-marsh land is not developed. Dead snags provide loafing perches for raptors.

Virtual Walk

Still kicking

As you might have guessed, I am attempting to walk 65 miles (my age) in a reasonably short amount of time.

Today was a short day at five miles. I had people to transport, cargo to deliver, lawn to mow, weeds to spray.

Some of the weeds fought back. I was using loppers to cut Autumn Olive and then spraying the fresh stumps with herbicide. Some of the thorns took exception to my advances. As the pundits sometimes say "The situation was fluid."

I was so frazzled I forgot to pack my fishing rod so Shotgun got all of the action down at the lake.

I really don't know how people who have jobs blog.