Wee Wolves in the Watershed

Deer Season

Deer season in Maryland means I need to throw a bright orange hat in the truck.

Wee Man Inspects the Pumpkin Crop

Willow and Darwin in the Watershed

Your Opinion Versus Your Experience

Every time someone comments on modern e-collars, and I ask what make and model of e-collar that person owns (and please post a picture), that commentator disappears.

Every. Time.

Imagine writing about tree work, and someone sails into the comments demonizing chainsaws (so dangerous, so loud!) and asking why we need them when Americans once used only axes and handsaws.  

Would it be unreasonable to ask whether that person owned a chainsaw, ever used a chainsaw, and could they post a picture of their make and model?  Could they post a picture of the 80-foot oak tree they felled and sectioned for firewood using only an ax?

Imagine writing about cooking, and someone sails into the comments demonizing microwaves (radiation!) and asking why we need them when our grandparents cooked without them. Would it be unreasonable to ask whether they had ever used a microwave, and could they post a picture of the make and model of microwave, and something that they heated up (and for how long)?

Imagine writing about travel, and someone sails into the comments demonizing cars and airplanes (too fast, too polluting, too dangerous!) and asking why we need them when the whole world once traveled only by horse and train. Would it be unreasonable to ask whether they had ever been in a car or airplane, and could they post a picture of the make and model and tell us where they started from, and where they were going?

To be clear, I am not asking anyone to use any tool to do anything.

That said, if my tree guy shows up with five people only wielding axes, I might enquire if he owns a chainsaw.  If he says he is opposed to them, I might enquire whether he intended to charge me by the hour.

Similarly, if a dog trainer shows up to train a dog and owns no leashes, but quotes Bob Dylan (“dogs run free, so why can’t we?”), I might have a few questions.  

A dog trainer that does not own a full set of tools is like a house painter without a sprayer, or a boat builder without a chisel and mallet. 

Even if the painter rarely uses a sprayer, and the boatbuilder goes months without touching mallet and chisel, the failure to even own the basic tools tells me quite a lot.

The Last Rose of the Season?

Diaper Don the Grifting Con

Also Chinese watches for $100,000, $3 Chinese Bibles for $60+, gold tennis shoes made in China, crypto-currency worth zero, NFT’s worth nothing…

Gold in the Woods

Candles and Thread

The Control of Cattle

“So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” -- George Orwell, 1984

There’s Nothing “Neo” About Nazis

Which is Berlin, 1939 and which is Pierre, South Dakota, 2024?

Good News, Bad News

Good News: US per capita carbon emissions are now down to World War I levels. 

Bad News: The population of the US is more than three times larger than it was in 1919, which means CO2 emissions are actually three times higher.

See >> An Inconvenient Truth

My Father in Vietnam, 1972

My father in 1971, I think, while touring Vietnam as an overseas public affairs officer. I was 12 and listening to CSNY and Cat Stevens.

Numbing Numbers and Evil

The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. 

When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out "stop!" When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. 

When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer. ― Bertolt Brecht, Selected Poems

The Best Thing Is to Learn

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” ―- T.H. White, The Once and Future King

Tesla Is the Next Theranos.

Forest Words

Schroëdinger’s Egg Farm

Farming is famous for taking a lot of capital, requiring a huge amount of work, knowledge and skill, and paying very slim dividends.

And so it is with some skepticism that one should approach any claim of a small holder making much money in the farming game.

Take eggs.

The picture at top was taken this morning at Trader Joe’s in Ashburn, Virginia.

This is the retail price of a dozen “cage free large white eggs”.

I took the picture and then decided to look at production economics.

What’s the price of that paper egg carton alone?  

40 cents each from Uline at $80 for 200 cartons.

A single high-laying hen will produce 300 eggs a year, to fill 25 cartons costing $10.

What about feed?  

Chicken feed and grit will cost about 19 cents per day, based on a quarter pound of feed per bird per day.

So the 365 days of feed needed to produce 300 eggs will be $70.

Assume chick cost is zero.  

Assume zero chicken mortality.

Assume zero egg breakage.

Assume no capital costs, no insurance costs, no transportation costs, no licensing costs, no veterinary costs, no water bills, no maintenance.

Those 25 dozen eggs will cost $80 a year in feed and cartons alone, but will retail for just $70.

Impossible.

So how is it done?

Two ways.  

One way is to charge $8 a dozen for bespoke eggs advertised as “GMO, hormone-free, organic, pasture-raised, ‘girls on grass’”.

These are the eggs you sell to aroma-therapy enthusiasts who buy “smart water”.

This is the business plan of one of my farms — or at least it’s the business plan of the Potomac Village “natural food” store where their eggs are sold.

The other method is to scale up, so you’re not buying 400 egg cartons at a time, but 500,000, and you’re not buying feed in 50-pound bags, but in 50-ton railroad cars.  

With this kind of economy of scale, there’s no hunting for dirty eggs in the grass — instead, nearly pristine eggs roll down gentle slopes to conveyor belts that whisk them away to be cleaned, sized, individually labeled, and packed in cartoons quickly moved to coolers and transport trucks.

That’s how almost all of the 50 billion eggs (yes, 50 billion!) that are sold, bought, and/or used in ready-made foods in the US are created.

Is there a third way?

There is.  

These are the eggs produced by industrial scale mechanized egg production facilities, but which are relabeled and repackaged as “GMO, hormone-free, organic, pasture-raised” eggs.  

The big money is fraud; selling $2 a dozen eggs for $6 a dozen.

Is that done?  

Sure.  Some.

And why not?

Who will know?

You think that a restaurant that advertises that it’s using “locally-sourced cage-free, pastured eggs” is telling you the truth?

Probably not.  

Fraudulent restaurant claims for food sources is legion.  See >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-bold-lies-made-about-local-foods.html?

How about those store-bought eggs that are advertised as being laid from “girls on grass”.  

Are they?

Maybe not.  

Egg fraud is a real thing and there’s big bucks in it, same as there is in olive oil fraud, coffee fraud, fish fraud, cheese fraud, and wine fraud.

See >> https://www.reuters.com/article/legal/pete-gerrys-settles-class-action-over-free-range-egg-claims-idUSL1N2DA32F/

See >> https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/manufacturing/free-range-egg-farms-fined-300000-for-misleading-free-range-claims/news-story/34eadaafc6ee8fa874b5c8c812bef0fb

See >> https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/11/free-range-eggs-fraud

See >> https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/revealed-west-auckland-farmers-three-million-free-range-egg-fraud-ends-with-home-detention/CQVAT5NPN37ED7SDAGXP72XDSY/

Rationalization

You can go a lifetime without sex.

A month without money .

Three weeks without food.

36 hours without water.

But no one can go 12 hours without a rationalization.

Corn Dogs

We’re right between things here in Maryland.  

Most corn is off, but not all.  Soy beans are getting harvested or turning yellow, but there’s still some green fields.  A few places that harvested corn early are starting to see winter wheat just break ground.

Young male Red Fox are starting to go “walkabout,” looking for their own territories and mates.

The lives of our local Red Fox can be thought of as following a corn year:

▪️March: The cubs are born after a 53-day pregnancy. Their coats are dark gray -- almost black. The vixen generally stays to ground except to defecate. Food for the vixen is brought by the dog fox, who is sometimes aided by adolescent females from last year's litter.

▪️April: The cubs will start to toddle out of the earth, but they will not go very far afield. The dark coats of the pups are now beginning to turn a faint reddish-brown. The adult fox will begin to bring mice, voles, and moles to the den for the cubs to play with. 

▪️May: The cubs are beginning to look like adults, and they are beginning to show some independence. This is a period of rapid learning through aggressive play. The pups spend a lot of time toying with mice and other small carcasses brought to them by adults. 

▪️June: The temperature is now too hot for the fox to stay underground. Pups and adult fox abandon flea-infested breeding earths and rest above ground in thickets. The pups do not stray far from their parents, but begin to catch bugs and mice on their own. The corn fields are planted and grow rapidly. Young rabbits and groundhogs, as well as ground-nesting birds, represent a bonanza food-source

▪️July: Young adolescent cubs lie above ground and hunt with their parents. The young fox are gaining weight rapidly. Insect, bird and rodent populations rise. The young fox begin to hunt on their own. As the corn reaches four feet, adult and adolescent fox move into the center of the fields where they can rest in the cool shade during the day. Berries, mice, rats, frogs, snakes, young rabbits, baby groundhogs, and corn provide ready food. 

▪️August: The cubs are now catching food on their own, and they are sleeping apart from the adults. Adolescent fox remain in their parent's territories. Fox are rarely seen during the day, and generally leave the shade of the corn fields only in the evening. Mice and rat populations are the main food source, along with grasshoppers, fruit, corn, and scavenged roadkill. 

▪️September: Adults and sub-adults look very similar. Sub-adults may spar, and siblings may be spotted near each other, but they are now totally independent from their parents. The first corn fields are cut, but fox remain above ground as it is too hot. 

▪️October: Male foxes strike out on their own.Young males may travel considerable distances to secure their own territories. The corn has now been cut off the fields, and the fox are jungling up in the thickets again. It is still warm, and very few fox are denning. Evenings are cool, however, and winter coats start to come in. Food is plentiful as end-of-season berries and crops mature. 

▪️November: Young adults take over the territories of dead or weak parents. Several young females may reside in a dominant male's territory, but typically only one female will mate. The last corn is off the fields, and the last hay is cut. 

▪️December: Foxes defend their territories as the mating season approaches. Hormones rise, and females excavate and clean out old groundhog dens. New excavations in fields and hedgerows are a likely sign of fox, as most groundhogs are already prepared for winter. Fox dens will begin to smell slightly skunky. Pairs of fox will often be bolted out of the earth at this time. Many farms plow under their corn stalks. 

▪️January: The mating season is in full-swing, with male and female fox on the prowl. Dens will have a slightly "skunky" smell due to hormones in the urine of the vixen. Fox will pair up and remain paired for the next five months. This is one of the best months for terrier work, especially during inclement weather. 

▪️February: Dog foxes and vixens begin to settle down. The vixens will chose a breeding earth in which to whelp. February is a prime month for terrier work, as the dens are settled but the pups are not yet in residence. Fox are most likely to be home after a night of ice, snow or freezing rain, or when the wind is blowing.

The Continuing Crisis

A woman from Poulsbo, Washington, who began feeding local raccoons 35 years ago, called the police on Thursday, Oct. 3, after about 100 raccoons didn't let her enter her home.

Matter Slips Away, But the Energy Abides

“Death is not the ending of anything. I believe all of us are only energy that becomes matter. When the matter goes away, the energy still exists. You can't destroy it. It never dies. It manifests itself somewhere else.” — Willie Nelson

One Thousand Years vs 20 Minutes

Lessons From 2016

IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL TRUMP IS DEAD OR IN PRISON.  

This was the headline on this day in 2016.

Then James Comey broke every rule to tell a lie.

Never forget or forgive Comey. But LEARN from it.

Run through the tape and then insist Trump and his enablers are charged, tried, convicted, and punished.

It’s Fake News!

The Election Is Now

The election is not in November — it’s right now. Millions have voted already. You can too. 

Plan your vote. Register and vote early. Make sure your parents, children, and friends vote too.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Fumaroles In Yellowstone

The chance of dying in a pyroclastic event is low, but never zero.

Two Young Moose in Grand Teton National Park