Category: Events

An ill wind blew

Back in August we had to do a week long 1400 mile road trip and when we got home on Saturday we were greeted with this view.

The big tree next to the bridge lost a bunch of big branches.

Two big trees next to the back creek fell over.

The big oak tree in the back lost a limb and the tree I had my trail cam mounted on fell over. But the worst casualty was the big beech along the back fence line, it broke right at the big knot hole.

It seems that on Tuesday of that week there was a late afternoon thunderstorm and apparently it generated some really strong localized sheer winds. Our back woods seemed to be the center of the whole thing and it covered about a quarter mile square area. Our neighbor next door lost a couple trees by his pool and some limbs and the house across the road and back towards town lost a bunch of branches from the trees lining their driveway.

Mary and I spent a couple days cutting up most of the stuff in the front but we had to have the tree guys come in to do the rest. I’ll tell you one thing those mafia guys got it right when they decided to use tree chippers to get rid of bodies. Those things are amazing at how fast they can eat a tree.

When they were done we kept the leftovers to make chairs or something out of.

When my high school friend Jack was here last spring he emailed a poem back about this tree, because of the fact it had grown around the barb wire many years ago. When I sent him an email about the tree falling over I included a poem of my own. I’ll reprint it here since I’m sure it will be required reading in all Jr. High English classes very soon.

To a Beech

Twas, because all poems should start with twas, the afternoon of Tuesday

The ominous cumulonimbus signaling an ill wind could blow.

There was a stillness roaring through the woods

A sense of calm that had the inhabitants on edge

A sense of foreboding that couldn’t be absorbed by the tranquility

When in a instant it hit, the roaring gust, the upending blast.

“Holy smoke” the parson yelled

well not really

There was no smoke and there was no parson. This poem just needed dramatic dialog

The trees and branches, with no one around fell to the ground maybe making a sound.

The two at the creek sitting on the bedrock just blew over after standing for decades

And the mighty beech having absorbed the wires decades ago that tried to fence it in,

Dun fall over.

After standing for maybe a hundred or more years now is just a collection of wood laying on the ground

One can only hope that before it fell that there was some kind of tree copulation that might produce

The son of a beech

 

Walt Whitman holds nothing to me.

 

Third annual barn swallow nest de-nestification

It’s that time of year again. Every year during the week before Memorial Day the barn swallows show up and build a nest at the pop of the front porch. They then start growing birds and around the fourth of July they are grown and leave the nest. (not a metaphor abut a real event). That means it is time to clean up the mess which I have turned into a highly technical organized event. I will share the details here, for free.

 

A tree fell over in the woods and I wasn’t around so I didn’t hear it

I looked out the window this morning and I noticed a small change to the treescape of the back woods.

It seems that sometime over night the dead tree in the woods just up and fell over. We had storms and lightning but I think it just got tired. Looks like nit was pretty much eaten up at ground level which is where it failed (hooray no stump).

Since the trunk is more than 2x the length of my chain saw I won’t be doing the woodchucking of this, I’ll have to get a professional woodchucker to clean it up. I also may have him take down the other big dead tree back there as long as he will be here.

First time experience as a Tennessee’er

It snowed today and it was the first time there has been an accumulation that actually stuck to the ground. Long about 3 this afternoon I went out to get the mail and to collect the empty garbage bin.

As you can see it’s not like this was some massive polar vortexian blizzard. It was at most and inch of snow. I had heard that the schools were closed but what amazed me was that I had no mail and the garbage was still in the can. Apparently nothing was working today because of the massive snow accumulation. I had no idea and I had not even panicked and rushed out yesterday to buy milk and toilet paper.

One of natures oldest mysteries has been solved

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the existential question “Does the bear shit in the woods”. Well, a little known corollary has been solved. The “Does the deer crap in the creek?” has been solved and the answer is yes.

Through a series of investigative photography pictures documented proof is here.

Here the deer is pre crap pose that is reminiscent of that great series from a few years back ” is the dog still pooping”

Here with the crapping in the creek completed she answers the unasked question “does the deer pee in the creek?”

While she continues to pee the rest of the clan starts to show up, luckily for them upstream.

Biological activities completed she looks around to see if any of her group noticed, and to her shock they did.

She hangs her head in embarrassment.

No not really. They just moved on like nothing happened thus proving that Yes deer do crap in the creek.

THE NEW AND IMPROVED GENERATION HAS ARRIVED

 

About 6pm Phoenix time the new generation got underway when a , currently unnamed, boy weighing 7 lbs 9 oz was born to Trevor and Mackenzie. An age 5 to 10 minute picture that in 16 or 17 years he will probably hate follows.

just delivered

All are doing well. More to follow as news arrives.

MORE NEWS:

Now has a name: Greyson Nash Moore and an official newborn picture.

Greyson Nash Moore 11/14/2017

 

It’s here again, the days are long the years are short.

Another year has blown by and suddenly it’s Nov 3 again. Over the last 3 years I’ve had to fight off the attempts of Congressman Fred “just call me Fred” Upton and others to keep me from achieving senior status. I’ve used the term Junior Citizen officially. I’ve signed up for the old folks programs and got my hair cut every day for huge savings. Just look at the last 3 years of Nov 3 posts to see all that activity. But now I find that turning 68 doesn’t  mean anything as far as milestones go. Even my current congressman, Congressman Scott “just call me the biggest hypocrite in Congress” Desjarlais couldn’t get enthused enough to propose some GOP based law to prevent me from proceeding onward in seniorism this year.

The 50 year  look back for this year doesn’t hold much excitement either. 50 years ago I was a freshman at Purdue and just about 50 years ago Mackey Arena was opened with a game between the Rick Mount led Boilermakers and the Lou Alcinder, John Wooden coached UCLA Bruins. 50 years ago in Nov. 1967 The Moody Blues release “Days of Future Past”.

The Chambers Brothers album with “Time has come today” was released.

And one of the albums that I think makes many greatest list Creams “Disraeli Gears” was released. Yes I do own these although I can’t find the Chambers Brothers. For those that don’t remember or don’t know here it the full album so listen to it Junior Citizen. You don’t get music like this anymore. (yes, it’s a play list)

 

For some reason I always liked this one.

Of course it was the last half of the 60’s so the Beatles had to release something, which they did, “Magical Mystery Tour” . Although Not much stands out on this album as classic Beatles there is “Strawberry Fields Forever”

And finally Country Joe and the Fish released the album that provided this Woodstock moment.

So other than the music of the period represented by those from Nov 1967 there was a lot going on but man just wait for next November. 1968 was a major fricking year in the course of human history.

38 Years in the making, because you can’t rush fine art.

About 38 years ago I started what I’m sure will become the defining art project of the 20th and 21st centuries. While working at the Sheller Globe Plant in Niles MI. I started this project. The material used was intended to be the rear LH inner door panel support for the 1980 Lincoln Town Car. The injection molding machine that this part was being produced need purged so that is what I did and art history was made. At the time I knew I had produced the art of the century and I also knew that the art public wasn’t ready for such a piece so it has been aging for the last 38 years. Early on I was going to finish it and take it to one of the big art places in New York and sell it for like a million dollars but I thought I best wait. Well now it’s finished and since it was started at about the same time Reagan did the trickle down economics stuff and started what has been a 40 year deregulation craze that has allowed the very rich to reap most of the economic gains so now I figure I should be able to get more like 10 million (although I wold take 9.5 million). But then again I’ve considered just donating to some museum and taking a big tax write off. When we were at the Louvre they had one wall that was kind of empty, it only had one painting on it, some dinky little portrait thing of Mona somebody. I think it would look nice there.

Anyway here is the finished piece that will be taking the art world by storm over the coming decades.

As you can see, even in just a photograph, the powerful art things coming off this work. They just jerk your eyeballs from one end to the other. Also you can tell it’s great art because it has a brass plate saying important stuff.

Now that it is done I’ll hang it here at the Estate d’Yusmith until I find the permanent home.

The Eclipse of the Estate d’Yusmith

Augest 21 2017 came and so did the eclipse. It was not delayed and arrived on schedule at the Estate d’ Yusmith at 1:28 CDT. Since neither Mary nor I have been on site for a full eclipse before we both will say it is something that you should do at least once if not more. Where we were totality lasted only about 1 min. 10 sec but add to that the 1 or 2 minutes before and after where the earth appears only in pre and post totality conditions makes for 3 to 4 minutes that can only be experienced, if you are lucky, once in a lifetime or maybe twice. (Short of traveling all over the world)

The video below does not reflect the greatness of the eclipse, you had to be here but you will get the general idea.

So now that you know how great this is the next one that could be watched comes on April 8 2024 and as you can see on the map below it passes over Portland Indiana at about 3:10 io the afternoon. And while Indiana in early April can be rather iffy for a clear sky we do know people there and its not a difficult drive.