Boo!

I'm not big into Halloween.  It feels as if a childhood celebration of sucrose has been coopted by adults.  But hey, to each their own.  Here's a picture of a creepy spiderweb I snapped on a damp morning while walking across a bridge.

Signs of the Times - Early Morning Edition

I'm pretty good about taking morning walks.  Its a good way to start out the day.  Well, several cups of coffee is actually the best way to start out a day.  Occasionally these two imperatives come into conflict.  Nothing a bit of route planning can't handle.

I always enjoy accidentally significant signage.  

Odd things on the Trails

You put out the trail cams looking for where the deer are, and you find all sorts of other weird stuff....

Some sort of bird.  As it is getting ready to hammer on the trail cam it should be some kind of woodpecker, but the curved beak is peculiar.  Tentative ID:  Hairy Woodpecker with considerable distortion of perspective on the beak.

These people appear to be out walking their pack of wolves.

I thought this was a smallish deer, but I'm told it is actually a bobcat's butt.

Possibly evidence of Aliens. 

And it just get weirder.

Enigma - Deep Cover

Our little band of middle school cryptographers/puzzle solvers has switched over to puzzle creation mode.  The students made up a list of staff they wanted to challenge, and I added a few more.  I mean, it just makes sense to have the School Resource Officer there to be a real detective, and one of the School Councilors there in case the grown ups need consoling!  I'm particularly looking forward to having the middle school building principal taking part and have moderate hopes that the District Superintendent will make an appearance.

So, Operational Security measures are in place and I can't show you exactly what the kids are concocting.  But I can say that when I asked if they should go easy on the staff the immediate response was "Nah".

We will of course be taking the parts of the Enigma class that worked the best and/or were the most fun.  One thing we'll be discussing is how many extra hints/bits of help would be appropriate.  I guess in a teaching situation, even with the roles delightfully reversed, if they ask you have to help them.  They rather liked the idea that the Staff would have to ask their permission for limited use of the internet to solve this.

Going from student to teacher is not an easy transition.  They are children after all.  Smart children.

Brilliant Fall Photo 2021

(There are just some time/space coordinates that make perfect images.  Water, leaves, angle of the light.  This is one.  And with a rambling story to boot).

Some years back we tried to get people around our up north lake interested in a project to improve fish habitat.  The "fish sticks" program involved dropping trees into the lake to form better shallow water habitat.  With an appreciable stretch of public land on one side of the lake this could be done to good effect, with individual property owners also setting down structure if they were so inclined.  It seemed a non controversial idea, everyone likes to catch fish, no?

No.

When we raised the idea at a lake association meeting there was little support.  Some people like to water ski and thought the tree sections, though anchored to the shore, might break loose and be a hazard.  But most people just did not want anything to change.  For them The Lake is a constant, one endless warm summer afternoon.  Let's keep it things just as they are.  Always.

Well one does not want to be a bad neighbor, so the project was dropped.  I was thinking of it one bright fall morning when out for a walk.  And on my return, saw this:

A massive oak tree had fallen in full fall glory.  Turns out the trunk had been damaged years ago and that time, insects and changing water levels had weakened it further.  Splash!  Fifty feet of fish habitat.

Strange Fish Detective

As I go here and there in the world I have occasion to hang out with DNR folks including Game Wardens.  I've fished, socialized, tippled with them.  They are good folks who have a hard job and take it seriously.  And I'd like to help.  So when I encounter the scene of a Fish Crime I try to investigate to the best of my Member of the Public capacity.

The Crime Scene, a quiet river bank.

There are not that many fish that get this big in Wisconsin, here's a perspective view:

My fish ID abilities have been flawed in the past, but this sure appears to be a Lake Sturgeon.  It looks to have been filleted on the spot.  Animals will nibble up all the tasty meat, but are rarely this tidy:

Lets see how many ways this is illegal.

1. the sturgeon season runs until 30 September.  This photo was taken 10 October, so this may or may not have been caught in the legal time slot.

2. You are allowed to only catch and keep one of these a year, it has to be a minimum of 60 inches, and you have to buy a special sturgeon tag.  Said tag has to be attached to the carcass if you leave it behind.  Nope, not seeing it.  And doing a rough estimate from the picture with my foot, I don't think this is 60 inches long.  Gracious me, that's five feet although the shark like tail does stretch them a bit.

Who would revel in the capture of such a magnificent fish, then illegally fillet it up for dinner?  I don't think referring to such a person as a Rat Fink would be excessive.  Speaking of which....

I was not exactly looking for clues when I stepped up from the river bank and onto the street.  But when I kicked at an object there I was surprised at its heft.  Hmmm....that felt like lead, and it was just about the right size for the big bottom sinkers you use fishing for sturgeon and the like.  But what an odd bit of tackle:

Rat Fink was, oh heck I guess still is, an ugly cartoon character associated with cars of the Hot Rod variety.  He was somewhat popular when I was a lad back in the1960's.  I was surprised to find him still appearing in merch.

But not a lead fishing sinker, a hood ornament.  Yep, that's him.  Guilty perhaps of bad taste but not fish poaching.

A prophetic bit of political history

Things drift in and our of our awareness and possession all the time.  Lots end up in the recycling.  A few end up in a junk drawer but in nine cases out of ten that is just delaying things.  Only a tiny fraction have any potential to be significant in the future.  To believe otherwise is the Path to Hoarderville.

Odd exceptions do exist.  Otherwise they'd not be exceptional.  Consider a playing card, presumably once part of a deck that came from an Atlantic City casino that was owned by a colorful boor....