The Lost Battalion of WWI

The photo was taken October 2, 1918 of Americans bogged down in the Argonne Forest.

From Wikipedia: 

“The Lost Battalion is the name given to the nine companies of the US 77th Division, roughly 554 men, isolated by German forces during World War I after an American attack in the Argonne Forest in October 1918. Roughly 197 were killed in action and approximately 150 were missing or taken prisoner before the 194 remaining men were rescued.”

Over 4.7 million Americans served in World War I. 

The US suffered 116,516 military deaths during World War I.

Combat deaths totaled 53,402, and deaths from disease (mostly the “Spanish” Flu) and other non-combat causes totaled 63,114.  

Between 204,000 and 234,000 military personnel were wounded in action.  

Killed and wounded combined total approximately 320,000.

After the Computers Drop 2,000 A-Bombs

I’m So Far Left, I’m an Eisenhower Republican

I’M SO FAR LEFT, I’M AN EISENHOWER REPUBLICAN

I’m an Eisenhower Republican, which means I support killing Nazis, funding national construction projects like the repair of interstate bridges and roads, and I think the New Deal was a great deal.

Eisenhower was also a lover of terriers his whole life, with two Scotties as Allied Commander during WWII, and a Jack Russell as a boy. Ike is the tall young man at the back.  The dog is “Flip”.

Happy Birtday Graham Greene

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.” — Graham Greene

Cespitose Mushrooms

A cespitose cluster of Jack O’Lantern mushrooms. The term refers to mushrooms or cushion plants that grow in a dense, cluster from a common, fused base.

Kayaking With the Wee Wolves

Our protocol on the Potomac is that we paddle the kayak down river, and then peddle the bicycle upstream on the tow path in order to retrieve the car. It works well.  

Misto rides in the stern behind my seat, so not too many pictures of him on the water.

This roller, shown here, is essential for me to get the 50 pound kayak up on top of a tall SUV solo, and with control and no drama. The rubber cups are levered to create powerful suction on the glass to hold the roller in place. It works very well. With the kayak sideways, I lift the stern as close to vertical as possible, then bend down and grab the bow holder and push the kayak across the two foam cushions on the rack’s cross ties, leaning it against one of two uprights on the rack. The kayak rack holds two kayaks, each on their side.

The bicycle is secured with three cable locks, an electronic motion alarm, and a rain cover. No one can see what make the bike is or how it’s locked without tripping an attention-drawing motion alarm. Motion alarms are low-cost and useful for all kinds if things, including dog training.

An Air-pruning Propagation Bed

I made an air-pruning bed to start up some tree seedlings and cuttings. 

An air-pruning bed is an elevated, mesh-bottom propagation frame which naturally prunes roots and stops the creation of tap root due to air exposure at the bottom.

The whole things was made from scrap stuff I had in the shed. I used two layers of mesh — half inch welded backed by heavier rabbit wire. This propagation frame will be set on four log rounds to keep it 10-12 inches in the air, and the bottom covered with a thin layer of Fall leaves, topped by good soil. 

I’ve got several small Redbuds started (pulled up from the yard), and will collect a passel of hardwood cuttings from dogwoods in the next few weeks — Korean Dogwoods, if I can find them, and Red Twig Dogwood

Native Ground Cover

Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) is commonly known as ground ivy, and is sprawling perennial weed belonging to the mint family.

Dance Interlude

The Problem Is the Genocide

If you do not understand the difference between the fascist political cult of Zionism and the accent foundational religion of Judaism, you are part of the problem.

The View From the Tool Shed

It’s getting colder, and so I moved a folding camp chair into the shed, where I can tuck in out of wind, rain, and snow while watching the dogs noodle around in the yard. This is shot from the chair while on the phone. Happily, I get phone and internet service both in and outside of the house. The dog’s fenced yard, with access to the inside basement, is under the three brick arches.

From Naked Cannibal to American Grifter

Another great American Horatio Alger-type story.

From the description at ABE Books (Advanced Book Exchange):

No Date, Circa 1960?; 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" Booklet; 36 Pages including Covers; 

“Ate Raw White Men. Whipped Mountain Lion. Swam River with Alligators. Ate Raw Snakes and Chickens. Walked Power Line to USA"; 

Oddbooks: Brother Yhugm's tale is an exciting one. Escaping from a life of primitive savagery, he came to the USA and found Jesus. 

Who could fail to be moved by such an astonishing and true story? That his name is spelled one way on the cover and a different way inside (Yungm) has surely no bearing on the credibility of the content. It's a funny foreign name and easy to get wrong. A mistake anyone could make, even a man of God. No one should doubt what he says, even when it seems a little bizarre: "Clothing is not used in the, place from where I come. We only use hides from animals; tigers, lions, etc. We also get our food from those animals. One eats the raw meat from these animals-not cooked. Eating raw meat is what makes my people very strong. Sometimes the people get very fat. Many cannot run because they are very fat. But they are very strong. They can conquer an animal with their bare hands, be it a lion or a tiger. But it is not all of them that can do this. The majority of them have the ability to run faster than a horse. The older ones are the ones who can do this." 

Just because no one else has reported the existence of tigers in the jungles of South America is no reason to pooh-pooh what he (via the estimable Reverend Grant) tells us. (Key Words: Christianity Clerics Eating The Religious Bent) ** 

"I Was a Cannibal" by Brother Yhugm (also spelled Yungm) is a fascinating and somewhat bizarre tale. The book recounts Brother Yhugm's escape from a life of primitive savagery to finding Jesus in the USA. The story includes extraordinary claims, such as encounters with tigers in the jungles of South America and plants that devour people. 

RARE TITLE; >> Cover creasing & scuffing; surface scratching to covers; minor staining to front cover; Size: 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall

Another Small Stack of Oak

  

Four stacks of wood for my neighbor now.

It’s Public Lands Day

IF YOU ARE AMERICAN, this land is your land. You own it. Never forget it. Always protect it. Public lands are a public good. 

AND YES, THIS IS ALSO National Hunting and Fishing Day! ❤️

Cleaning Out the Shed

  

Cleaning out the shed before sectioning the tree I dropped yesterday. The Wee Wolves supervised.

Got an Extra $850,000?

Stopped in at the local Frederick County, Maryland Fair. 

This little number is a Case IH Axial-Flow 8260 combine with a base list price starting around $827,000 to $855,000.

This machine has a 317 gallon fuel tank, so at $6.45 a gallon for diesel, that’s just over $2,000 a tank.

This County has over 1,300 farms working across approximately 189,000 acres of farmland. Roughly 98% of operations are family-run, and the average farm size is 136 acres. Crops account for 54% of sales, while livestock, poultry, and related products make up 46%. Top Commodities are grain (mostly soybeans and corn), milk/dairy, and cattle.  The County ranks #1 in Maryland for milk production, hay production in tons, and corn for silage in tons. Farm land sells for 10,000 to 20,000 an acre depending on location, access, soil, water, grade, and amount of land in sale.

I pass horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, soy, corn, sorghum and two tractor dealerships on my 10-minute drive to my downtown coffee shop.  I also pass Lowes, Wegman’s, Giant, Five Guys, the bank, an auto supply store, fast food, several fancy pizza places, a brewery, and a beautiful kayak launch along the Monocacy River. 

All of this is 50 minutes to Washington, DC, and 50 minutes to Baltimore.  My own property is on a rocky knoll above a floodplain which should protect very local farms and wildlife, and insulate me from the local spreading scourge of tract houses.

The Unbelieved Dusan Popov

James Bond was named after the author of Birds of the West Indies, first published in 1936 — a book that happened to be on Ian Fleming's desk back in 1953 when he began to write Casino Royale while staying at Golden Eye, his villa in Jamaica.

The character of Bond was modeled after the playboy-gambler-spy Dusan Popov whom Fleming had seen gamble in Portugal, placing a massive bet in order to get a rival to withdraw from the baccarat table — the very set-up used as a plot device in Casino Royale.

Dusan Popov, it should be noted, was a triple agent -- a Serbian who posed as a double agent for Germany and, while working for Germany, did work for MI6 during the war.

Popov was part of the Twenty Committee, so named because the Roman number for twenty is XX, or a "double cross".

Popov traveled widely and was sent to the US by the German Abwehr military intelligence network. One of his assignments was to answer detailed questions about US defences at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Popov notified the FBI that Pearl Harbor was in jeapardy on August 12, 1941, but FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover did not trust Popov, finding him too flamboyant and, as a triple agent, a likely liar.

When Trump Finds This Massive Debt….

Over at the University of Virginia Law School, professor Mitu Galati writes:

“Donald Trump, a president who has proven himself to be highly transactional and keen on reducing debt, may find a potentially trillion-dollar foreign IOU too tempting to overlook – even if it's over 100 years old. Britain borrowed roughly $4 billion from the U.S. during World War One. Afterwards, London resisted repayment, asking for the debt to be forgiven. Why? Because it was a so-called virtuous debt, incurred to fight an enemy common to both nations, and, Britain argued, it had paid in blood – lots of it.

“After some push and pull, the U.S. largely went along, not insisting on repayment, opens new tab. The U.S. Treasury does not even include these debts in its official list of foreign debts outstanding.

“However, the debt has never been officially cancelled. And given the power of compound interest, the liability would now be enormous. If one calculates interest at even the original concessionary rate of 3%, the amount owed in today’s terms would be in the trillions.”

And the lesson here is … Never let a lawyer settle a bill.

The actual amount due would be about $80 billion. 

A Wet Week Ahead, But the Ferns Are Happy

A Shower Thought

Upping My Safety Game

I’ve dropped and sectioned quite a few big dead trees, but a conversation with my small engine repair guy (he fixed some issues on my yard tractor) convinced me that chainsaw chaps were a good investment. 

The proximity of four very dead 90-foot oaks to my hives and shed, and the necessity that they come down in an orderly manner, got me investing in an arborist throw line, rope, and bags for the same.

Chainsawing is easy when it all goes right. The trick is making sure it never goes wrong. 🤞