Scars Always Tell A Story

Dan Tyminski :: Hey Brother

And Expensive Too!

Cartoon by Ellis Rosen >> https://ellisrosen.com/

When You Need a Short Answer

“Breeding bobcats?”

That’s the question a fellow panelist asked me at a conference where I was speaking.  

It was a hot day, and I’d taken off my jacket and rolled up my sleeves.

My reply:  “Anyone that tells you they’re gentle lovers is a liar.”

It was an easier response than explaining multiflora rose and terrier work.

The Economics of Stimulus Packages

It is a slow day in Twin Town, Iowa, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

 

A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

 

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

 

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.

 

The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

 

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

 

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.

 

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves. No one produced anything. No one earned anything...

 

However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a Stimulus package works.

Preparing for Hive Expansion

I’ve got 6 bee hives going at the moment, four of which seem to be roaring, and two brand-new splits with new queens which I *think* are doing OK.  They will soon be moved back to my house from a nearby farm.

Three of the hives are in wooden Nuc (5-frame nuclear hive) boxes, one of which has a second brood box riser on it that, on very quick inspection, seems to be filling up quickly.  I will probably transition that hive to a 10-frame brood box on Saturday. Everything is ready for that, but in the interim, I am painting a few 10-frame boxes, landing stands, bottom boards, and inner covers in expectation (hope springs eternal!) that the two splits will be successful.

Bees take more equipment than you think, and it’s lucky I have a big shed very close to the hives to store hive bodies, top and bottom pieces for the same, bee management equipment, and the like.

I will paint the hives yellow, with stenciled leaves and red flowers, as before.  The bees don’t care much, and hives collect dirt and bee detritus, so it’s always a bit shabby in actual operation if you get close enough, but clouds of bees at hive entrances keeps visitors back far enough that things look “good enough for government work,”which is the low standard I aspire to when it comes to bee keeping.

I am always learning, and with bees the more memorable lessons seem to come with stings or complete hive collapse or loss to swarming.  In 10 more years, I think I might pass muster as a beginner.

Are You Ready to Think?

Nick Fox has written a book about hunting ethics, a topic too rarely discussed or written about.

A couple of points….

Nick Fox is an OBE, a PhD professional zoologist, a livestock farmer, a falconer, and an author of numerous books. He wrote the successful submission to UNESCO that resulted in Falconry being inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind. He has been Master of the Northumberland Crow Falcons for over 32 years.

In short, he most assuredly knows more than I do… or you do.

This is not to say you or I have to agree with him on every point.  

It is to say that, where you and I may disagree, it is very likely that, if we are not wrong, we should certainly **entertain** that possibility!

Where to start?

A good place to start is to read Marc Bekoff’s interview of Mr. Fox. It stands alone and is not a waste of your time (promise). >> 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202503/hunting-ethics-facing-up-to-the-many-muddled-moral-mindsets

Second, order the book. I ordered my copy from Coch-y-Bonddu books in Wales, but you can also order it from Countryside Books >> https://countrysidebooks.co.uk/pages/hunting-ethics? or International Wildlife Consultants at >> 

https://www.falcons.co.uk/product/hunting-ethics-a-personal-journey/

The interview is excellent, and even before reading the longer book, Nick Fox has fallen into that rarest of folders:  writers and thinkers who challenge, who avoid easy answers, and whose opinion — if I disagree with it — is assumed to be right (and mine wrong).

More to be posted later, but suffice it to say Mr. Fox has found a fan.

What Endures vs What Renews

Mountains last, but dams do not, 

and a river is new every day.

Wildlife in the Yard

I checked on the Peregrine Falcon nest about 20 minutes up the road. Nothing to be seen there today, but the nest is in fine shape, and recent “hawk chalk” tells me the parents are mating and nearby, as do a few photos from fellow birders. The real activity at this nest will be in May. 

Coming back from walking the dogs down the hill from the house, feeding the deer, and checking in on the bees, I thought I heard a baby animal sound. Was it coming from one of the nest boxes?  Nope; it was coming from a mother squirrel in a nearby tree cavity.  

I snapped a quick photo with my camera phone, and then a mid-sized raptor flew in.  I was only 50 feet from my real camera, which was in the car, so I quickly got it out. As I looked through the viewfinder to try to reacquire the target, the hawk swooped down to nail what I suspect was a mouse on the forest floor. This may be one of the Red-shouldered hawks nesting down the driveway on my neighbor’s side. 

Lots of stuff moving about if you look for it.

Yesterday, down the street, I passed a massed and running herd of 35-40 deer running parallel to the road.  Not sure what spooked them, but there are coyote about, and they’re going to be hunting hard to provide for their mates and pups.  

Passing the same field this afternoon, there were about 20 deer scattered down the field, all calm and grazing.

Peregrine and Paper Wasp Nests

Both on the same cliff face near the Potomac River. Eggs will be in the nest soon, as the Peregrine Falcons are mating, and the “hawk chalk” above and below the nest is fresh.

Stuttering Hieroglyphs

A house sparrow nestled in a  building stone featuring deeply carved Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Darwin’s Nightmare

Subtle

Splitting a Hive to Make Two More Hives

In order to avoid swarming, I split a big four-box bee hive to create two additional 5-frame “nuclear” hives or nucs.  I moved the two new nucs to a corner of a farm about 5 miles away, and will introduce a queen to each of them early tomorrow morning.

Each queen is in a small cage with 4 or 5 attendant bees that groom and feed her. The exit to the cage is blocked by a sugar plug, and the screen allows her scent to permeate the hive making it hers. Once the two new hives realize they now have a Queen, they will eat at the sugar plug from their side in order to free her, feed her, and groom her.

I’m told the nucs can move back to the house in a week or 10 days — by then everyone should be bonded to each other.  

Will it work?  I have no idea. Bees are expensive, malevolent, and prone to both suicide and disease. Every teaspoon of honey is a miracle of perseverance, I assure you.

What Came Apart, And What Did Not

   

These two lived through the near dissolution of the British Empire as India gained independence and Palestine became independent Israel. 

What followed was rapid decolonization as Singapore, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Botswana, Malawi, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Gambia, Yemen, Jordan, Seychelles, Malaysia, Kenya, Hong Kong, Burma, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Brunei, the Gold Coast (now Ghana), the Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Newfoundland (now part of Canada), British Honduras (now Belize), British Guiana (now Guyana), Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, the New Hebrides, the Maldives, the Gilbert Islands, Mauritius, Tonga, Kiribati, Samoa, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Cyprus, Malta, Jamaica, Southwest Africa (now Namibia), Ireland, Lesotho, St Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Uganda, Oman, the Maldives, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and New Zealand all declared or were granted independence.

In addition, Pakistan and Bangladesh were created out of the breakup of India.

Winning the War and Losing the Election

The photo is of Prime Minister Winston Churchill on June 27, 1945, making a speech in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England during the 1945 General election campaign.

Churchill’s Conservative Party would lose the election in a landslide victory for Labour, and Clement Attlee would replace Churchill as the UK’s Prime Minister.

Attlee did not have an easy job, as the UK after the war was essentially bankrupt with food, housing, and resource shortages.

Attlee spearheaded the nationalization of public utilities and major industries and shepherded public insurance and social programs into existence, including the passing of the National Insurance Act of 1946, the National Assistance Act of 1948, and the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.

It was under Attlee that Britain shed itself of many of its colonies, including India (which also created Pakistan and Bangladesh), Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Transjordan (now Jordan), and the British mandates of Palestine (now Israel).

California’s War on Nutria

"For years now, California has been waging war on nutria, a highly destructive 20-pound rodent native to South America that poses a serious threat to fragile wetlands and endangered species. And now, wildlife officials say it’s possible that someone intentionally reintroduced them."

See >> https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-nutria-reintroduced-22198180.php?

Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti :: Live Like Horses

I can't control this flesh and blood

That's wrapped around my bones

It moves beneath me, like a river

Into the great unknown

I stepped onto the moving stairs

Before I could tie my shoes

Pried a harp out the fingers of a renegade

Who lived and died the blues

Someday, we'll live like horses

Free rein from your old, iron fences

There's more ways than one to regain your senses

Break out the stalls, and we'll live like horses

B, S & T :: You’ve Made Me So Very Happy

Happy Confederate Surrender Day!

Happy Confederate Surrender Day to all who celebrate.  The White Flag of surrender is the true confederate flag.

The Battle of Appomattox Court House was fought on this morning 160 years ago.  It was the final engagement of the Civil War before the secessionist traitor Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia  surrendered to the Union Army under Ulysses S. Grant.

The American Civil War killed an estimated 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians, making it one of the bloodiest wars in world history. It's estimated that ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40 died in the war.

To this day people will tell you the war was not about slavery, but that is a lie. Yes, the war was also fought to preserve the union, but let us not forget that the union was being pulled apart because a vast group of people wanted to preserve the institutionalized violence and subjugation that was the slavery system.  

The secessionist states were clear why they were leaving the union; it was about slavery and only about slavery. Secessionist traitors were not just suiting up to create a new country; they were suiting up to enslave people and preserve a system of  violent subjugation targeting men, women, children, and families.

Countries Do Not Have Rights. People Do.

NO, Israel does NOT have a right to exist.

People have a right to exist, including Muslims and Jews, Christians and Atheists, Zoroastrians and Hindus, Buddhists and Animists.

Do not confuse the honorable 4,000-year old religion of Judaism, which is foundational to the creation of law, with the dishonorable 140-year old political cult of Zionism which is centered on illegal land theft.

Judaism and Zionism are not only not the same, they are fundamentally at odds with each other.

Zionism’s land grab is theft under Jewish law as Maimonides makes clear in the 246th prohibition in the Mishneh Torah, noting in the Laws of Theft that one who moves a neighbor's landmark to steal land commits a twofold prohibition: they violate the general prohibition against theft or robbery, and specifically transgress the commandment, "You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark" (Deuteronomy 19:14).  

The Ernest Hemingway Medical File

Ernest Hemingway lived through anthrax, malaria, pneumonia, dysentery, skin cancer, hepatitis, anemia, diabetes, high blood pressure, two plane crashes, a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, a ruptured liver, a crushed vertebra, and a fractured skull. 

In the end, however, his memory was wiped clean by electro-shock therapy at the Mayo Clinic, where he was sent for depression. 

Rather than relieve the depression, the electro-shock seemed to deepen it by removing most of his memories.  

Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun blast in July of 1961.  He was only 61.

Color Me Skeptical

The article is interesting, but color me skeptical.

Extrapolating from a set of 300 rural dam sites is a bit like looking through a keyhole to describe both the house and the garden.

That said, population estimates are *always* wrong.

A short story…

Back in 1986, I was the organizer of a session on census adjustment at the annual conference of the American Association of Science. The topic of the panel had to do with census reapportionment for congressional seats. If the courts decided to exclude illegal immigrants from the count, how could that be done? How did we count permanent resident green card holders? Did we count them at all? And what about the millions of young black men who, for whatever reason, were always missing in census counts? Was a deep sample survey actually more accurate than a nose-by-nose count?

All good questions, but before we got too far into the thicket, I wanted to prick a few balloons.

I began the panel by noting that in 1980 the U.S. Census Bureau had counted exactly 226,545,805 people, but that the margin of error that the Census Bureau freely admitted to was 2.5 percent. 

In short, I observed, the one thing we had some confidence in was ... wait for it ...  wait for it .... that only the first digit of that big official number was probably right. All of the other digits in the apparently precise official count were subject to change based on the Census Bureau’s freely admitted margin of error.

I tell this story to stress that folks who do not work with numbers, day in and day out, tend to fall in love with false specificity.  

We don't have an exact count on a lot of things.  The good news even if we do not have a precise count, we have direction and velocity data, and some ballpark numbers which, in turns out, are good enough for most policy purposes. 

"Counting the uncountable" is a problem we struggle with in the illegal immigration arena, the illegal drug market arena, the nonpayment of taxes arena, and the fraud arena -- all areas I spent several decades working on in Washington, D.C.

I bring this up, because we have the same problem when it comes to counting dogs, and yet it does not matter as much as some would think, because we can gauge direction and velocity.

If numbers are going up or down, that's one thing, and if they are going fast or slow, that's another.

When it comes to population, direction and velocity is generally a more important metric than absolute numbers.

Some Coyotes Will Be Out in the Day

This is the time of year you may see a coyote out in the day. No need to worry; it’s just a hard-working male trying to provide food for a litter of pups and his mate.

Where You Stand Depends On Where You Sit

Who Would Jesus Bomb :: Rainbow Girls

A Lovely Family

Daughter Sarah, Son-in-Law Stephen, big brother Milo, and Wee Man Leo.

The Globe We Need to See

The true size of Africa and the true scale of water in this world. Approximately 71 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water.

What Are We Gonna Do?

THEY NEVER TELL THE FULL STORY

This Will Be An American Cemetery

These are the mountains of Iran. 

If Tolkien was drawing a map of a fortress built as a country, he would draw Iran.

Iran is not Afghanistan, which Russia could not defeat in 9 years, and which the US could not defeat in 20 years.

Iran is not North Vietnam, which the US could not defeat in 20 years.

Iran is not Iraq, which the US could not defeat in 8 years 

Iran has the people and technology to fight back, has vast financial reserves, has globally essential resources, an extremely well-educated population, and is fighting on their land, which has cultivated a sophisticated culture and civilization for 4,000 years.

Iran will be a cemetery for American soldiers that set foot in that country.  

None of those soldiers will be named Trump or Vance or Hegseth or Netanyahu.  

None of those soldiers will be Israeli.  

None of those soldiers will be the sons or daughters of Lindsey Graham.

Trump is already saying this war in Iran will be so expensive, we can no longer afford Medicare, Medicaid, or child care for Americans.

But Israel?  They have universal heath care paid for with US taxpayer dollars.

Will Trump ask Israel for $200 billion to pay for this war?  

Will Trump demand Israel put boots on the ground in Iran?

No and never.

This entire war is simply a distraction from the Epstein files, which is centered on an well-funded and long-term Israeli honey-pot operation that lured rich and powerful men (including Donald Trump) with the promise of easy sex with underage girls and boys.

Trump and scores of Big Names were video taped raping children. 

The entire Trump presidency is now centered on protecting pedophiles, selling pardons, and pocketing billion dollar bribes from foreign governments.

Americans are now being killed, and American treasure being wasted, to try to change this well-documented story board.

Is this what anyone in America voted for?

Fascism Changes Everything

This is the opening line to George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-four.

Trump Dismantles the US Forest Service

From Care2 on Facebook: 

The Trump administration ordered the dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service with an eye-crossing, sleep-inducing press release written in the densest bureaucratese you've ever had the misfortune to read.  In brief: 

The U.S. Forest Service’s 121-year history isn’t ending with a budget cut or reorganization—it’s being dismantled.

Headquarters is moving from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, a hub of anti–public lands advocacy. All ten regional offices are being closed, along with the career experts who provided independent oversight.

More than 50 research facilities across 31 states will be eliminated, wiping out decades of long-term science that cannot be replaced. In their place: 15 political “state directors,” embedded with the same state officials and industry groups that have long pushed for more logging and fewer protections.

That puts 193 million acres—an area larger than Texas and the nation’s largest public land system—under political control with little warning.

Created by Theodore Roosevelt and built by Gifford Pinchot to ensure professional, science-based stewardship, the agency is now being reshaped under Chief Tom Schultz, a former logging executive.

Long-term studies, datasets, and partnerships will collapse. Scientists won’t relocate en masse, and their expertise will be lost.

Once the science is gone, so is the safeguard against damage.  We can't save the planet until we save ourselves from this destructive administration.  We'd best get busy.

Bald Eagle Chicks

I think there may be two chicks.  One chick is normal for Bald Eagles, and two is pretty common. If three eggs hatch, one of the chicks is eventually forked out of the nest, as there’s no room for more than two. The chicks actually end up very slightly larger than their parents at the time of leaving the nest, as Mother Nature compensates for weak wing muscles in youth by giving the first feathers a slightly longer length.

Astronaut David Hadfield :: Space Oddity

Still Looking for Evidence of the Non-Existent

WE HAVE MORE VIDEO EVIDENCE of the existence of these three creatures than we do that red fox prey on lambs.  

Ever.  

Anywhere.  

Don’t believe it?  I will PAY YOU for video evidence.  

Here are the rules >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2025/08/easy-money.html?

The Oldest Living Land Animal Passes Away

Jonathan, the world's oldest living land animal, died today at an estimated age of 193.

Jonathan was a Seychelles giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa), a subspecies of the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea), but he spent most of his life on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena, where he was brought when he was about 50.

Jonathan (left) is pictured with another giant tortoise in 1886, when they were aged 53–54.

The Four Bee Hives Are Roaring

It's 80 degrees out and the first trees are in bloom (lots of callery pear), so it's GO TIME at the hives. It was perfect timing to get the three nuclear hives installed yesterday.

Three Bee Nucs Installed

Thirty thousand bothered bees were rehomed this morning.  

I also power washed some old bee equipment in preparation for hive growth.

The Death of a Castle Rat

Thanks to Margaret N-J for forwarding this.