Category: Uncategorized

Dust, Willows and Sunsets

Fire Orange Sunset By David Jacobi

The dust control company finally came and sprayed the gravel road in front of our house. When the road is not treated with spray the wind will blow an incredible amount of dust across our acreage, making our place look like a civil war battlefield whenever a vehicle drives by. When treated it is much more enjoyable to work outside, and if the nights are cool we can open up the house.

Broken record alert: rabbits are again all over the place. As are the robins.

We have had two white willow trees fall over so far this spring, and the crowns of over half of them are dying. We don’t know if it is disease, insects or drought, but it is a major concern as we have over 50 of them on the acreage. I have already spoken with our local extension office about it, and they recommended talking with the DNR, which is my next move.

The garden is planted and herbs and flowers (mostly) potted. This spring there have been just a few butterflies, bees and wasps flying about, however there are thousands of biting flies, and tiny flea type bugs that insist on exploring your ears, eyes, nose and hair. Sometimes I can put up with those but the flies will send me inside everytime they attack, as many times they will draw blood with their bites.

As with other parts of the country we have been occasionally experiencing the drifting smoke from the fires out west. The only good thing about that are the spectacular orange sunsets the smoke helps create.

The Long Rain and Moon

During a recent rainstorm that included a spectacular lighting show both south and north of us (somewhat rare) I had a niggling thought. Had I read something as a kid about it raining for centuries during early Earth? Or could it have even been longer? The next day I looked through my home library and found a book titled “Rocks All Around Us.” It had a copyright of 1959 and was obviously written for young people. It reads:

“Long ago the ball of rock on which we live was very hot. It was so hot that all the rock was melted. And for millions of years it stayed that way.

Then, little by little, the outside of the ball cooled off. A thin crust formed. It was stiff and solid. In some places it was wrinkled. Those wrinkles were the first mountains.

There were cracks in the crust. Steam and air shot out of the cracks. The steam made thick clouds that hung all around the earth. The clouds wouldn’t let the sun through even for a minute.

Then it began to rain. Never has there been such a rainstorm since. It rained and it rained, day and night, without letup. It rained for years. It rained for centuries. For the earth was still sizzling hot. As soon as the rain touched the earth, the water turned to steam. The steam would go up in clouds and come right down again as rain.

By and by the outside of our rock ball really cooled off. It got so cool that the rain stopped turning into steam. Between rains the sun came out. The rain water ran off the rocks. It flowed into the low places of the earth’s rock crust. Those low places became seas and lakes.

The lowest place of all was what we now call the Pacific Ocean. For there was an old, very deep scar here. It had formed before the rock crust had got quite stiff. A great mass of soft rock had flown off from this spot and shot up into space. It had become the moon.”

Much writing for young people has been enchanting to me through the years and I love how the very simple wording of the passage above flows so simply and beautifully.

As for the possible facts (also known as theories), several of my internet searches have brought up a handful of these rainy epochs during earth’s history. And there are several CGI videos online showing the earth being smashed into and peeling off the debris that would become the moon. Did the earth shed what would become our moon, and did it rain for possibly millions of years? Good things to ponder while enjoying a flashing thunderstorm or a glowing full moon.

A Formidable Circle


Alexis de Tocqueville

“I know of no country where, in general, there reigns less independence of mind and true freedom of discussion than in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Volume 2, Chapter 7, of Democracy in America. “In America, the majority draws a formidable circle around thought. Within these limits, the writer is free; but woe to him if he dares to go beyond them. It isn’t that he has to fear an auto-da-fé, but he is exposed to all types of distasteful things and to everyday persecutions.”

Spring, Branches and Mowing

Round of Robins

The trees and bushes are sprouting and leafing, the grass is that very light but vivid green and the wind is blowing almost nonstop. We are still trying to clean up the acreage of all the winter-fall branches and sticks before the first mow of the season, which needs to happen soon. Because of the constant wind, some areas we have picked up five times now this spring. Dandelions are popping up all over the acreage, the Robins are either mating or already nesting and now there are baby bunnies hiding in the Iris beds or under the outbuildings. We hired a guy that works where our son does to cut down the seven dead ash trees that grew along the border of an old corn crib in the back of our yard. He works full time and does this on the side. Should be out to begin in a couple of weeks. Emerald Ash Borer has killed most all the ash trees in our area. We see the dead trees all around our county, big ones with branches hanging low, drooping and dropping, no buds or leaves, the bark sloughing off in big sheets. Today I took the freshly charged battery and some gas down to the shed where the lawnmower has rested for the cold months and it fired up first try! We had a very still day (hardly any wind) which is rare around here, and were able to burn a lot more sticks and branches. Our son came out and mowed for us while we tended the fire. A busy but good spring day.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

I recently finished an excellent book by Stephen E. Ambrose titled: Crazy Horse and Custer, The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors.

The opening paragraph of the Introduction to the book reads thus:

“This is the story of two men who died as they lived – violently. They were both war lovers, men of aggression with a deeply rooted instinct to charge the enemy, rout him, kill him. Men of supreme courage, they were natural-born leaders in a combat crisis, the type to whom others instinctively looked for guidance and inspiration. They were always the first to charge the enemy, and the last to retreat.”

This book was a fantastic read for me, following both men through their youth and early adult years until the battle that ended them both, one on the battlefield and the other later killed while in custody.

There is, of course, no photographic documentation of the Battle of Little Bighorn while it was occurring. My family visited the battlefield several years ago. It was a running battle. The tombstones are laid out along the way, marking where the dead fell. Around a small hill are the last ones.

However, this painting (above) is so full of energy and action and battle that you might guess the artist was a witness. You can hear the gunfire, Indian screams and yelps, Calvary horns, horses galloping. The painting shows ponies riding full speed, Indians killing and going for the kill and Calvary holding out and shooting back to the very last man. Titled “The Custer Fight” it was painted in 1903 by the extremely talented Charles Marion Russell.

The Best That I Have

The following quote is from a magazine article about the actor William Hurt. Younger folks will remember him from some Marvel movies late in his career playing the role of General Ross. I would encourage them, and anyone else, to travel back to 1980 and watch the movie “Altered States.” Then make your way through the rest of his movies from the 80’s and 90’s and continue as far as you are still interested. He reminds me of Dennis Hopper and Philip Seymour Hoffman in that you might not like everything they were in, but you would watch it just the same because if they were good, they were usually outstanding. Hurt died in 2022.

Make no mistake, Hurt was dedicated to his craft. “I never explain my movies — it just ruins the emotion,” he told the Post. “I love saying that line. There is a point to explaining what I do, but at some point you just have to do it. The work is the best that I have to offer. That’s what I want to be eloquent at.”