Dogs and Dead Things

Corn Chaff By David Jacobi

A few days ago Shelly was walking the dogs along our gravel road (we never use leashes out here in the county; the dogs respond well to vocal commands when a vehicle is approaching) when they came upon a gruesome sight: someone had dressed out some animals and dumped the bloody remains in the ditch. While it’s disrespectful to those of us who live on the road, and I imagine illegal, dead things don’t last long out here. Rodents, turkey vultures and coyotes (including insects during the warmer months) make short work of most anything lying around outside. Recently I woke up to a note Shelly had left on the kitchen table. It said there might be a dead possum outside. The dogs and I went out to investigate and sure enough there was a possum just off the back porch on our sidewalk, and it was not playing dead. While Marley ran over to investigate, Steve was slinking away in the opposite direction. Marley had not seen it before, while Steve thought he was in trouble. That told me which one had killed it earlier that morning when Shelly had first let them outside. A bag of watermelon rinds sitting on the deck might have been what tempted the poor possum to come so close to the house. A strong rain storm blew through recently on a Sunday night and left the usual mess of branches and limbs from our white willow trees. During the couple of days spent picking them up the corn fields surrounding us were harvested, so we were able to start burning again. We still have brush piles leftover from last winter, so we are looking forward to having as many fall fires as we can before the hard cold sets in.

Obscure America: Smokey Stover

Smokey Stover Comic Book

What does an obscure comic character that was retired in 1972 have to do with the name of a famous rock band that has won 12 Grammy awards? Smokey Stover was a wacky cartoon character who inhabited a bizarre world invented in 1935 by cartoonist Bill Holman. Smokey was a fire fighter and the comic strip followed his screwball adventures while also featuring puns, sight gags and made up phrases. Smokey was a popular strip during World War Two and some American fliers took to painting his image on airplanes and using his catchphrases as slang. While Smokey was a fire fighter he called himself a “foo fighter.” The phrase became slang among the war crews for unidentified flying objects. Fast forward to 1994 when Dave Grohl was looking for a band name. Nirvana had disbanded after the death of Kurt Cobain and Dave had some songs he had written and recorded so he picked the obscure name “Foo Fighters” to release them under. Grohl has said he would have picked a better name if he’d had any idea how long the band would last. That may be true but to be fair maybe Smokey Stover should be listed under the original Foo Fighter lineup.

Garden Update: The End Is Near

Dried hot peppers from our garden

It is October and we have already experienced our first frost. Some of the the tomato plants look like they might want to hang on for awhile longer, while the others have had enough of the cooler temperatures. We have been picking the tomatoes off of the slowly dying plants every few days and pulling up the plants that are done for. The zucchinis are blooming a few hopeful big yellow flowers, while most of their large leaves have shriveled and are melting away. Last spring Shelly accidentally bought a habanero plant with the green pepper plants and I have harvested it twice. I decided to try out a small food dehydrator that was a gift from several years ago and I now have a small glass jar full of dried peppers for some wintertime chili and maybe some hot sauce. We also put up several quarts of shredded zucchini for winter stews and soups. All in all it was a below average production year for the garden because of the drought and concurrent heat wave over the summer. But like all gardeners we are looking forward to a fresh start next spring.

Why

Why By David Jacobi

I am old enough to know

About love and loss

Death and life

Growing older

I remember those gone

And try to understand

My people still here

Bless them

What is left for me

In my twilight

Answer my question

Why

2020 By David Jacobi

A Vacation In The Middle Of It All

Wisconsin Red Pines By David Jacobi

The acreage has been through some weather variables over the last several weeks. Hot, unyielding sun and no rain persisted until the lawn went dormant and the crops around us dried to a golden yellow. During that time nature sent us a “derecho” also known as a land hurricane, with some parts of Iowa experiencing over 100 mph winds. We did not feel the brunt of the storm but were left picking up branches scattered over the place, while other areas suffered significant damage to trees and buildings. Over 400,000 people were without power, some for weeks, and 6 million acres of crops were damaged. Once the storm was over the drought continued. Then, despite riots and protests, a derecho, a drought and a pandemic we decided to go on vacation. Shelly had been missing Lake Superior so we packed up the car and drove through Minnesota and over to Wisconsin for a several day stay with our 12 year old Lab Marley. This was our third stay at the same cabin so it was both a getaway and familiar. Marley seemed to love it, and eventually got used to coming over to the side of the car so I could pick her up and place her in the back seat of the vehicle. However, in her defense, she could still jump out of the car, just not in! She had no hesitation swimming into Lake Superior to fetch the stick, and had lots of admirers on the beach for being such a good old lady. Shelly and I enjoyed the time away but were both glad to get back to our little acreage…just in time for a cold front to come through and rain on us for a week. At least the drought is over!

Website Review: The Onion

The Onion

If you enjoy satire The Onion should be one of your first stops on the internet. One of the more hilarious examples of their humor occurred when they announced Kim Jong Un the sexiest man alive and the Chinese People’s Daily website ran the article. As might be expected, part of the about page reads: “The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events. Rising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history.” If you have never checked it out or it has been a while, give it a visit.

Garden 2020

Our sidewalk tomato plant

We planted our garden in the spring with the usual high hopes most gardeners have starting the growing season. Tomatoes, green peppers (and one habanero, bought by mistake that I insisted we keep) zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and asparagus. Because of shortages caused by the pandemic Shelly had to go to several greenhouses to find the plants we wanted. Many more people than usual decided to grow vegetable gardens this year. Once we got everything in the ground and mulched against weeds we were set. Until birds, rabbits or mice (maybe all three) dug up the green bean seeds and the asparagus withered and died. We will try to establish the asparagus bed again next year and as for the green beans Shelly had the idea of cutting a plant cage in half and covering it with chicken wire, then laying it over the seeds to keep out pests until the plants are established. The rest of the garden progressed well through the spring and into the summer until we entered the drought that continues as I write this in early September. It has been so hot and dry the grass crunches when we walk across the acreage. Some of our trees began dropping leaves last month and the corn and bean crops surrounding us are gold and yellow, ready for harvest. We did the best we could with our garden but unending weeks of hot dry weather took its toll. At this point only the tomato plants are still producing, but I am holding out hope for the green peppers. We are also keeping our eye on the the little volunteer plant that popped out of a crack in our sidewalk, now full of yellow flowers and little green tomatoes.