Some Days Nothing Much Happens

It snowed.  Not as much as predicted, but already at morning coffee time everything local had been cancelled due to alarmist reports.  Or heck, maybe the schools all wanted to trim a day off of the minimal learning days that lead up to a major holiday. 

So robotics practice off, and an evening social occasion also cancelled.

Didn't even have enough snow to make a proper job clearing it.  Those eager beaver neighbors got their snow blower out first and did the out front sidewalk.

So, boring day.

Ah well, for logistic reasons our "Christmas" will be over the weekend, so there's that.

That's not today, but from a previous snowfall.  It's more fun when the grandkids are around.

The Stockyard - a rare Business Review

Sometimes you just have to say nice things.

Vojtik's Stockyard is an unusual business enterprise.  Two locations a short distance apart, one is a meat packing business the other a classic Wisconsin bar and grill.  I've enjoyed the work of both.

When we were laboring in the heat of July, building that off grid house, The Stockyard (restaurant) was our go to place.  Food.  A cold beer.  Several glasses of ice water.  We left considerably restored.  That by the way is the base meaning of the word restaurant, and they did a darn good job.

They also have their earlier building just up the road a stretch.  This used to be the restaurant in front, meat packing out back.  Now its all meat, all the time.

And they do wild game processing.  Deer mostly, but I'm sure if you pulled up with a defunct bear or some such they'd rise to the occasion.

As I've mentioned the business side of this is delightful.  When I asked how to get the ball rolling when I had a deer I was told: "First, go to the bar".  Deal.  Paperwork done in five minutes then then up the road to drop off the deer.  I admit, this year's bag was of a rather small critter - which I consider a testament to my skill as an archer! - but the guys who pulled it off the truck were cheerful and enthusiastic.  "Nice deer!"

The process - inadvertent pun - on the other end is also simple.  They call you up.  You go to - you guessed it - the bar.  And they have a refrigerated trailer with everyone's processed steaks, sticks and sausage ready in a marked tub.  

Time did not permit a celebratory beverage at either end of the procedure but you sure could do that.

I have the deer in my freezer now.  I had cleared plenty of space.  More than I needed as it turns out.  And the first venison stick has been sampled.  Mmmm, good stuff.

So, on the off chance you are looking for cheerful, efficient game processing in rural Western Wisconsin, head to the Stockyard.  Or if you are laboring outdoors in 90 degree heat, also highly recommended.

Cheers

All Robots are Buddhists

I've mentioned before that I think all robots are Buddhists.  They are clearly reincarnated time and time again as their parts are recycled into other robots.  In years past we've even had the occasional "Robot Funeral" prior to a machine being dismantled.  The words of institution being:  "Bolts to bolts, widgets to widgets...."  When the world went insane due to Covid we were a bit less enthused about this, as death seemed a poor subject for humor.  And to be more practically sensitive we often have kids on the team who have parents, grandparents etc facing health challenges.

I think this was our last Robot Funeral back in 2021

But the principle remains.  A robot is born, lives its (?) life, then its components are scattered, not like ashes over a body of water, but to the recycling bin, the electronics cart, the far reaches of the various storage spaces....

Sometimes things come back in unexpected ways.  This year there are new rules for the protective bumpers that competition robots must have.  We are being encouraged to experiment with different materials.  This was rather good fun, and we put together a series of videos for other teams to consider.  Worth a minute or two of amusing time spent, and some things you'll see have "histories". 

After figuring out how much squishing various foam types could take and still recover, we got even meaner....

I especially like the unscripted moment where the obsolete "pool noodle" sample went flying off into oblivion.  A suitable exit for this no longer to be used foam.  But a couple of things made "comebacks" in these videos.  In the first one there is a curiously shaped piece of light grey foam lying on the table waiting to be crushed.  We actually found a stash of this when we cleaned out one of the storage closets.  It dates back to when I ran "Machines Behaving Badly", the madcap 3 pound combat robot class where the entire rule set was "No flame throwers, no hand grenades and no live animals".  This foam was stuff I got at Axman Surplus many years ago.  It was used quite a bit for little robot wheels.  It also turns out to be the ideal material for big robot bumpers!

Ah, the good times......  Several of the occupants of Robot Cemetery used the grey foam, and we also had a chunk we made into a tombstone with the traditional Rest in Pieces caption.

And the Hammer of Persuasion seen in the second video?  That is the most ancient robot artifact of all.  Long, long ago, when my second son was 3 years old, he wanted a sledgehammer for his birthday.  Of course we got him one, scaled down to the size he could wield.  He used it for projects of both constructive and destructive nature, and it was gifted to the FIRST team when it was formed in the fall of 2015.  Hey, this was the kid who got me into Robot World!  In our first year we used it not only to hammer recalcitrant parts into alignment, but to actually stress test our initial robot.  We had never built a FIRST robot before and wanted to make sure it was strong enough!

Eventually the team outgrew its initial home, and the H.of.P. was used to knock apart our storage shelves and such.  It then became a ceremonial object which is presented to our student build lead at the start of his or her tenure.  It is only for the persuasion of mechanical objects, and has been used less as a test of mechanical integrity.  We have enthusiastic robot drivers for that now...

I often start to write something silly and find that the Real World is stranger than I imagined it to be.  So....what do actual Buddhists do for Robot Funerals?  Well, as it happens, in Japan they really do have ceremonies for decommissioned Companion Robots.  Who knew?

Hank drags his heels.

My dog Hank regards my wife and I as pretty poor excuses for dogs.  Still, we are the Alphas in this pack and he has to get along with us.  But he seems to think we need a remedial level of education.

Walks are very important to the Dog Unit.  Why can't the bipeds see this?  So he tries to train us.  Everything that is associated with a walk he tries to reproduce.  He'll nudge us towards the front door.  He is very aware of when I set down my coffee cup.  He knows I put on socks and shoes by the front door.  So he brings socks and deposits them there.  Mine, my wife's, clean, dirty.  Surely several pairs will up the odds.  When that does not work he'll try anything that smells like us.  He'll tip over the bathroom trash can and bring down disgusting (to us) used Kleenex.  Recently in an example of going above and beyond, he somehow got a bar of soap out of the shower and hauled it downstairs.  That's dedication....

So he's clever, but his dog brain has its limitations.  When a walk is in the offing he gets very excited and his on board decision tree goes haywire.  Or maybe reverts to how he usually things about trees, as something to lift a leg on, or something to bark furiously at on the chance that there is, was, or someday might be a squirrel in the upper branches.

And when it comes to the final step in the pre-walk algorithm, he glitches.  I want him to pick up the harness/leash combo from the floor and give it to me.  He knows how to do it.  He usually does it and gets the immediate desired result.  But sometimes......

An idle threat of course.  I have no use for a species that considers it their right to defecate in my home and expect me to clean up after them.  Eventually he relented.  But does he look a bit exasperated at the blockheadedness of the Alpha male?

Here he is at the end of a long day.  Asleep with a pair of stolen socks.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - New Richmond Wisconsin

It was the last day of November when I passed through a surprisingly busy town in Western Wisconsin.  It seemed like the sort of place where "Tree Shaped Tombstones" would be found.  So I took a detour to the cemetery where a couple of deer stared at me fearlessly.  Hey, last day of hunting season and besides they were safe in the city limits.

I was not disappointed.

Buy hey, wait a minute.  What's that?

Modern "Trees" are quite rare.  And this one has its own granite bench.  There's gotta be a story here.  This first photo worried me....

This one just confused me.  There seem to be a lot of Alvarezs showing up here....

The explanation is HERE.  This is the memorial for Leona Grace Johnson, who died in 2022 at the age of 100.  Noah and Jonah are just a couple of her many great grandchildren.  So rather than this being a memorial to some tragic death of children it is a monument to a life that seems to have been very well lived indeed.  Cheers Leona.

Back Underground

It has been a while since I took the short drive over to work at "Sand Land", the astonishingly eccentric project some friends of mine have been at for a decade or so.  Not everyone understands Sand Land.  I mean...buy a ravine and bring in volunteers to excavate an underground tunnel system?  With stair cases, a spiral slide, a tavern, and...well I'm not sure what else is in there at the moment because I just came to work, not to take the latest tour.

So, its underground we go...

Hard hat, head lamp, respirator, coveralls.  More kit than most "pit ponies" had.  

It's always important to pay attention to signs..

My job was to load, haul and dump wagons of already excavated sand.  Yes, sand.  Its what you get, and get a lot of, when you excavate sandstone.

Here's a short video clip I took while running the wagon back in.  I don't go so fast when dragging it out.

Always nice to see the light of day at the end of  a day of hauling.  I'm told I set the one person record for loads hauled.  This sounds like flattery but is in keeping with what I usually do at Vindolanda or when working on the Homesteading project.  Digging is mostly just good mechanics and determination.

There is a lot of other eccentric stuff at Sand Land.  Just to the left of the tunnel exit is their rifle range.  This got me into a discussion about deer hunting there.  The property and sight lines at this spot are a bit cramped, but they have more "stuff" on top of the hill.

I could totally see setting up for bow hunting on top of the surplus McDonald's Play Land.  I would have to be careful not to put a hole in the geodesic dome salvaged from a Cold War radar station.....

Exercise and Eccentricity.  I need more of  both.

FIRST Robotics 2025 starts now.

Really good teams are built in the off season.  So for the FIRST time in team history we have continued meeting through the summer on a small scale but focused basis.  We've run the fall pre-season differently too, with the high school team working on a few specific projects while putting major effort into our "farm club", Robot School.

But with that concluded, and with the last of the Thanksgiving left overs consumed, 5826 has started "regular" meetings twice a week in December.  We think we know the roster, although there will always be some add-ons and drop offs as the lives of young people can be complicated.  It should be a strong team this year.

Lots going on.  In no particular order....

In the background, Jeffery the middle school project bot is being taken apart.  In the foreground, various foam samples.  New rules this year allow different options.  And as robots have started taking and dispensing harder hits, they'd better be good.

Our secret weapon?  Foam from a cut up "Cheesehead" hat.  Hey, they saved a plane crash victim from serious injury once!

Some bits left over for stylin'

Software doing software things.  Some of them may have gone beyond the coach's comprehension levels.  I am both pleased and moderately concerned by this....

One month to kickoff.  Until then its practice, test, ponder.....

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Also Cylons!

 Driving down an unfamiliar rural Wisconsin road just as the light was changing from "great for photography" to "watch out for deer".  I have a keenly tuned sense of where small rural cemeteries should be, and when I spot one its time to pull off for a quick peek.  Any "Tree Shaped Tombstones"?

Yep.  A rather nice "Tree and Book" specimen.  Its unusual in that it has a really big book, so honking large it needs a special little cross piece to hold it up.  

I suppose unusual thing number two is the long interval between the husband and wife being reunited at the foot of this tree.  1892 to 1932.  Forty years.

Oddness is not uniformly distributed in the world.  And this location had more than its share.  Check out the name of the cemetery!

I remember Cylons from the cheesy Battlestar Galactica show.  Malevolent tin cans....

Of course the name comes from elsewhere.  Cylon Township was presumably named for Cylon of Athens.  We used to live in a far more literate country.

And the weirdness keeps coming.  There is of course a nice little church adjacent to the cemetery.  Well kept up, there was smoke coming from the chimney so it is not abandoned.

But hey, what's that sign......

Rather nice lighting for the last picture of the day.  The area out back of the church is some kind of dog obstacle course.  Not sure if the hounds have taken over the building too, but as I saw no sign indicating a two legged congregation was still using it one must assume so....  If you have a naughty pup in the general vicinity of New Richmond Wisconsin you might want to check 'em out.

A. I. gets all chatty....

I've been tapping the keyboard here for many years.  Mostly of course just me sending thoughts out into the cluttered void that is the internet.  But I do get the occasional message back.  I have a link where people can send an email.  Usually of course it's just spam, but every few weeks somebody with similar interests drops a line.  Sometimes it is to say one of their relatives was involved in some local history topic I cover.  Back when I started deer hunting there was a vigorous discussion on what I should purchase for a rifle.  That sort of thing.

Mostly you can separate the wheat from the chaff with a quick look before either approving for publication or deep sixing it off into the spam folder.  But lately I've started to see far sneakier things.  Below is an example.  In part it is stealthy because the second line is "below the fold".  It sure seems like somebody with a similar interest in medicine, travel and ancient Egypt.....

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"It's interesting how the Waiting Room experience has evolved over time. From my days in the clinic, I remember the efforts to keep things neutral and avoid the clutter of biased pharmaceutical ads. The idea was to provide a calm and distraction-free environment, but even in places as historic as the Egyptian temple of Kom Ombo, where patients awaited healing, there are traces of this waiting culture. It's a reminder of how medical spaces, whether ancient or modern, share a common purpose: to offer healing, albeit with different approaches."

"########## offers a great opportunity, while those looking to optimize space can consider a ############ to make the most of their area."

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I of course have defaced and disabled the link, which was for some sort of office storage cabinets.  Or really, for Osiris only knows what.....

Clearly this and similar offerings are generated by an AI program that can analyze text, connect the dots regards context, and cook up a response that is clear, concise and well reasoned.  I have to study a few more specimens, but I suspect it is even copying some of my writing quirks.  It is synthesizing the perspective of a slightly nostalgic retired physician who was never fond of pharmaceutical company propaganda.  

If that is what AI can do today, what can it do in a few years?  I already know some smart people - OK, they are engineers - who advocate using this technology for business and other formal communications.

I disapprove.  

I've worked pretty hard to become adept at short form communication.  I find it carries over from written to spoken formats, as it is all just a matter of organizing ideas.  I'd like to think that I have a few distinctive touches....to compensate for my haphazard punctuation.  I'm not about to let some damned machine take over for me.

In Star Trek Captain Kirk went up against Artificial Intelligences pretty often.  Usually with a good talkin' to, supplemented with a phaser blast when necessary, they were defeated.

Deer....

 The youngest hunter in the family gets his second deer!

Those not in the hunting community might wonder how this is possible.  Well, without explaining the byzantine rules in detail, you can basically always get a permit to take a buck, as seen above.  There is an over supply of these harem collecting guys, especially during gun season when The Party is Over regards next year's fawns.  I guess it makes sense from a "don't have babies during the short rations season", but there's only about two weeks where bucks and does have much interest in each other.  As mentioned in my bow hunting reports, this is the brief spell of time where they act with the decorum and sense of college students on spring break.

Also, the DNR keeps a close eye on deer numbers, and issues greater or lesser numbers of "antlerless" permits - does and this year's punk teens - with an eye to reducing winter starvation, car-deer interactions and crop loss.  The deer seen above was taken on an "Ag-Tag", but honestly the DNR wants new hunters badly and youth hunters get a whole bunch of extra opportunities.

Writing on Thanksgiving morning there are still a few days of gun season left.  Oh, and you can still hunt with a bow until the end of the year.  And, there is a short second chance gun season for any unfilled anterless tags.  But if you are keeping score at home here's the tally since we started a family hunt in 2020.

2020 3 Hunters 3 deer

2021 5 Hunters, 3 deer

2022 4 Hunters 5 deer (see above regards multiple opportunities)

2023 4 Hunters 1 deer.  This was a bad year after a punishing winter

2024 (so far) 6 Hunters, 3 deer.

We have gained hunters over the years despite one early regular having a new baby and staying close to home the last two seasons.  This year we have all three of our boys hunting, plus a grandson and one of the daughter in laws.

Our overall "success rate" is 15/22 or 68%.  This compares favorably to the state wide 50% rate.  To be fair some hunters, both in our group and in the larger community, are more serious than others.  Last year our dtr in law had a perfect shot at a doe with two cute fawns.  The deer knew she was a sitting duck, so she just looked up and made cute/guilt inducing eyes....so of course she and her brood were allowed to pass in safety.

I'll update the numbers if necessary when final reports from our "satellite locations" drift in.   

But there will be venison in at least most of our freezers for the long winter ahead.

There's something you don't see every day.....

My deer hunting trips to my son's Homestead had me sitting in a tree stand for a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening.  So what to do in between?  Well, the occasional side trip is called for.  And on occasion you just run across odd things.  Such as:

As the old saying went: "Now there's something you don't see every day..."  Especially when you get closer and find out that it is on the National Registry of Historic Places!

This is the Silverdome Ballroom.   If you are curious about its history and construction HERE is a brief summary.  If you want a whole bunch more, here's the info from the National Registery.

If you are just casually interested....it was built during the Great Depression by a family that had earlier built a sort of "supper club" on the site that was actually a speakeasy.  It is btw still there and is called, logically, The Speakeasy Saloon.  The name Silverdome comes from the unusual use of aluminum elements to support the dome.  The Keller brothers who did the construction paid a $1000 royalty to the German patent holders for this process.  This is remarkable because A) that was a lot of money during the Depression and B) one suspects the German engineers got good at this stuff by building zeppelins.

Over the years the Silverdome has done pretty well.  It is in fact a going concern.  There are some odd businesses next door to it that also caught my eye....

This seems to have been a carpentry shop of some sort, the sign indicating a Mill Works.  But it is now a CBD joint and a barber shop!  I guess the slightly illegal business doings that started with the speakeasy (seen in the distance in this picture) are ongoing.  As I have not much hair and even less interest in quasi legal marijuana I did not stop in.

The Silverdome has seen quite a few known acts over its long years.  Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash, The Bellamy Brothers, Buffalo Springfield and Cheap Trick.  Also, and nearer to my heart, Whoopee John.  Or if you want to be formal, Whoopee John Wilfahrt.

Whoopee John was from New Ulm Minnesota, so it should not surprise any of you that his musical genre was Polka.  He toured extensively and was still a moderately well known name when I was a young lad.  

When I was a bit older, but arguably no wiser, I'd occasionally turn up to help dispatch a keg of beer at our friend Markie's house.  One of his housemates was a young man whose name I either never knew or can't recall.  Everyone just called him Wilfahrt.  Over a red plastic cup of some sort of affordable to the impoverished brew he told me he was a descendent of Whoopee and that the band's tour bus had on the back:

WHOOPEE JOHN WILFAHRT

           AND HIS BAND WILL PLAY 

 

Opening Weekend 2024

Slow start to opening weekend of deer hunting.  The family takes a while to collect itself from various locations, and there is a general shortage of tags for our immediate around the cabin area.  Two hunters out at first light.  Some deer seen, none brought home.

Having gotten a deer earlier I stayed behind.  When it got light enough I did take Hank out for a walk.  As he is a small brown creature who likes to carry big branches around he had to be decked out for the occasion.

I heard exactly one gunshot in our 45 minute walk.  He might have heard a few more distant ones because he was pulling like crazy to get back to the safety of the cabin by the end of the walk.  He fears the Great Thunder Dogs.....

We started the Family Deer Camp four years ago.  In the first year it was just three of us gathering in a dreary Covid limited time.  One of our party in fact shot a deer but was too fatigued by a recent bout to drag it out unassisted.  But we went 3-3 with enough time and effort, all within walking distance of home base.

Fast forward.  No longer just guys eating junk food, the gathering is now our defacto Thanksgiving with all the kids, their wives, their dogs.  We eat better.  But the area around the cabin yielded zero deer.  In fact I was the only one who even tried to hunt in walking distance.  A tough winter two years ago clobbered the herd, so "antlerless" tags were cut way back.  But that does not seem to have deterred others, and areas we had all to ourselves until recently now have multiple hunters working them.  Hey, public land, so its fine.  But less productive and not conducive to doing the occasional drive to move deer along.

The two deer bagged thus far were:  my grandson getting one on a friend's property an hour south of here during Youth Hunt weekend, and my bow hunting success far to the south.  No deer hanging in the garage.

When I went out for a few hours on Saturday evening I encountered pleasant weather but saw nothing larger than a squirrel.*

Oh well.  Lots of good family time which is tastier than venison.  And as the weekend concludes various branches of the tribe head out to other places, in some of which there are still deer and permits.......

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* peculiar highlight of the weekend:  Somehow a flying squirrel made it inside and drowned in a toilet.  Zombie Toilet Squirrel.  Nobody had that on their bingo card.  Now Family Lore....

Shifting Gears

I've been doing this since 2011.  Almost 2500 posts.  Sometimes they are abundant.  When I'm off on fun travels they almost write themselves.  Other times the ready to go inventory is minimal.  

Off the cuff writing is like riding a bike (something I actually seldom do).  There is a sort of "muscle memory" to each activity.  I'm very glad I was the only guy in typing class back in High School.  I can sit at the keyboard - which is much handier than the old IBM Selectric - stare into the middle distance and think.  The fingers just produce a sort of live stream.

Writing is also like riding a bike in that it is hard to stop.  If you don't keep up a certain momentum you'll wobble and tip over.  Is it reasonable to post three times a week, with more on special occasions?  Of course not.  But I think if I reduced frequency it would be the first wobble, the first sign that Detritus of Empire would become, well, detritus.  Blogging was just past its peak of popularity when I started.  Most who were active then ran out of things to say.  

Well that would be a major change, and I think its not time for that yet.  But the seasons do come and go.  

Looking back on the most frequent topics over the years, I see some that will keep rolling, others not so much.

Archaeology at 390 posts leads the way.  I figure to have a few more digs in me.  Americana is second at 309.  Lots to think about there. FIRST Robotics (210) will keep going too, although I'm in more of an emeritus role.  That should actually give me time to better chronical the mad journey.  Generations (198) is a big topic but I'm mindful of the privacy of family members, so I've never done more than the surface of that great story.  

But some categories are just in eclipse.  Sure I did 138 posts on the arcane subject Forgotten Brewery Caves, but there are few opportunities to expand on that one without considerable travel.  And even then, I won't visit or publicize sites that might lead to an arrest report or worse.

Well it is change of seasons time.  Robot School is done, the main FIRST build and competition season is still a ways off.  Deer hunting is less of an event this year, the shortage of local tags has the more serious members of the tribe looking elsewhere and scoring earlier.  Other fun stuff is over the horizon, but in the cold months ahead I will be thinking of warm, green England.

And perhaps there will be some new adventures.  No idea what just yet.  See you along the way.

 

View from the past

 Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.  The early days.

Early photos of my town are not abundant.  Above is what I think is the earliest one that shows anything of real interest.  It is in the archives of the State Historical Society and is thought to be circa 1870.  This is a time period I've written a fair bit about, so I thought it might be interesting to try and identify places that I've "visited".  

Of course we need to first establish the actual perspective.  I don't feel like waiting for snow, but at least in November 2024 the leaves are mostly gone. 

Okay, its not perfect.  I'm off to the right and about 30 feet lower in elevation than the original perspective.  Hey, they tore out a big chunk of hill to make the street I'm standing in, and if I went off to the left I'd have to explain to the property owners why I'm standing on their deck!  For a more recent perspective the 1874 "Birds Eye" view of Chippewa Falls makes a good reference, although many things changed from circa 1870 to four years later.  I'll mark the spot from where the picture would have been taken....

This is on the "East Hill" looking straight down Spring Street.  And how do I know this?  Well, there are three places where streets cross Duncan Creek.  River Street, Spring Street and Central Street in order.  It can't be River Street as the photo would then be centered on the river front.  And we know that there was a bridge on Central Street going back to 1858.  But Spring Street?  Why that bridge was only constructed in 1872!  

The above info helps date the vintage photo.  It is known that Chippewa Falls had a major fire in 1869, as a result of which most subsequent downtown construction was in brick or stone.  So let's say it is 1870 or 1871.  What else can we glimpse in the photo?

Well, less than I'd like.  The Schmidmeyer brewery was at the far end of Spring Street but that's out of sight.  Guess telephoto lenses had not been invented.  And the mysterious Union Brewery should be at the indicated arrow if this was say, 1871 or so.  Is there a roof peeking out behind those trees?

I wish I could point out some of the other places I've written about in my local history rambles.  But some are obscured by the larger buildings - most of those are hotels - others are frustratingly off the the left or right by, in some cases, only a few hundred yards.

The Virtues and Vices of Dogs

You don't gain the status of Man's Best Friend without having a lot going for you as a species.  Dogs have almost all the best human virtues - loyalty, kindness, bravery, a sense of humor - with few of our vices.  Just about the only thing they have against them is a total lack of moderation.  When they see something to eat they wolf it down.  If there is something smelly on the ground, they'll roll around in it as long as you'll let them.

This deficiency does encourage in them a minor degree of deceit.  But you can't actually call them Scamsters because they are so ludicrously bad at it!

Hank is always looking for food.  Sometimes my wife and I are in and out of the house at about "Chow-O-Clock" and he will always try to persuade the person just coming in the house that he needs a bowl full.  So I have a note that I leave on the table.  It says: I fed the Dog.  But it has also started to acquire a bit of "marginalia", little captions and cartoons appearing on the fringes.  Nice try, Hank.

Recently at a grand kid bed time we came up with some additional ones.  Hank seemed to be listening intently.  My personal favorite:

"Yes he fed me, but it was just broccoli, that does not count and I barfed it up in the corner. "

Up in the Air. Also, straight down.

Tree stands going up.  The younger hunter on the right has already gotten the family "on the board" with a nice deer during the special youth hunt weekend.  He may be the best shot in the crew, as one might expect from a kid who can make a soccer ball, baseball or hockey puck go where ever he directs it.

That stand is for the gun season that starts 8 days from now.  After my misadventures with getting deer tags I had to switch tactics this year.  I've been down on The Homestead with a crossbow.  It is a different sort of hunting.  It takes time and patience.  You see deer that you can't reach, given the roughly 40 yard range of my bow.  Well, 30 given my skill level.  And....when a deer unexpectedly steps out from behind a bush and walks directly UNDER your tree stand, well, that's an impossible shot, leaning over the railing and twisting up and over.  I think the grand kids will have some new works of taunting art for the fridge over that one.

Eventually a deer did turn up in the right spot, and I will have venison for the year ahead.

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Morbid Puns in Neilsville Wisconsin?

I had some time to kill the other day.  Hey, this happens when you hunt from sunrise to 10 am, then again from 3 to sunset.  So I drove over to Neilsville, Wisconsin.  There were a few things I wanted to look into.  A couple of former brewery sites, and, while I was in town, a big cemetery.  Seems like the place you'd find a bit crop of Tree Shaped Tombstones.

But actually, no.  The few specimens represented were of one of the boring subtypes, basically just a log with a name on it.  But wait a minute.  That name.  Manes.*

You'd have to be a fan of both tombstones and Roman stuff to make this connection.

Roman tombstones often have the notation DM.  It is short hand for Dis Manibis.  Or in translation "To the Manes".  

The Manes were the spirits of the dead.  Or more correctly, one sort of spirits.  Lares were the good spirits.  They were assumed to already be on your side.  Lemures ** were the evil spirits.  You did not invoke them.  Manes were the the sort of generic spirits of the dead and definitely worth trying to appease.  So, a dedication to the Manes was customary.

Did this 19th century citizen of Neilsville know this fact?  Did he recognize the irony?  I'm thinking yes.  People paid much more attention to the classics in the pre-Tik Tok age.

But perhaps this was a coincidence, a one off. Surely there could not be another tombstone six rows over with a bit of  pun in the inscription?

Or maybe there could be.  Stone representing Wood.

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*As a surname Manes probably has nothing to do with Latin at all.  If English or Scottish, it is probably a variant of Mains.

** Lemurs got their generic name - and from Linneaus himself no less - because they are nocturnal, creepy looking and make weird noises in the dark.  I think they've earned their association with evil spirits of the dead....

Hearth and Home - Fall 2024

 

For those who have been following the "Homesteaders" project.  Warmth and light.  Of course you can finish building your house, but you never finish building your home.