3/31/11 FROM BUCKET TO BOTTLE

A DROP A SECOND...

...A GALLON A DAY

...X SIXTY BUCKETS...

...B0IL AND BUBBLE, WELL WORTH THE TROUBLE

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  30 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is mostly blue but hazy, and the barometer again predicts precipitation. Friend Bill in Oconomowoc reports the wood ducks are nesting already, pretty early there.  The Carlson’s on 9th St. have crocus blooming, noticed them yesterday.
    The sap did indeed flow yesterday, I collected over fifty gallons and Andy at least another ten.  That’s almost seventy gallons on hand, and he started boiling late yesterday and will continue today.  That should yield almost two gallons of syrup.
    We had our second Bayfield in Bloom committee meeting yesterday, and I am happy to report it is the most enthusiastic B in B group we have ever had.  New ideas and enthusiasm flowed like the maple sap.  Wish I could put that in a bottle for year round use as needed.

3/30/11 IF...

AFTERNOON IN THE SUGAR BUSH

COLLECTING SAP

 MARCH (AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  23 degrees, wind S, calm.  The sky is clear with some haze.  The barometer predicts precipitation.
    The sap did run by midday, yesterday.  I collected about fifteen gallons of sap, and added to what should be collected this afternoon that will be enough for Andy to start boiling it down.  Almost every hanging bucket had an inch or two of ice floating in it, evidence of the weather still being quite cold. 
    Collecting sap can be pretty hard work, especially when the snow gets soft and one sinks up to the knees in many places while lugging a full five gallon bucket.  All in all I am pleased to be able to still do it, and my knees don’t hurt today at all, as is sometimes the case.
    We flushed two grouse wile walking down to the sugar shack.  They literally exploded from under my feet.  If it had been grouse season, and if I had gotten the twenty gage up, and if I had gotten the safety off, and if I had shot over each rising bird instead of under, we might have had grouse for dinner.

3/29/11: THE SAP WILL RUN TODAY

HARD DAWN...

...SOFT AROUND THE EDGES

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  17 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly clear and the barometer predicts the same.  The temperature should rise with the sun, and the maple sap flow.  There was not enough of a run yesterday to bother collecting but today should be productive.
    I suppose you will get tired of the Robert Ruark quotes, but I have to pass this one on; “A man ain’t lost if he don’t care where he is.”  That might explain our foreign policy.

3/28/11 GETTING READY FOR SUGARING, AND BEING NOBLE REQUIRES SERFS

DRILLING THE TAP HOLE

INSERTING THE SPILE

ALL SET TO COLLECT SAP

YELLOW BIRCH

FLAKY BARK OF THE IRONWOOD

Monday, 8:00 AM.  18 degrees, up from 13 degrees an hour ago. Wind SW, calm.  The sky is mostly clear and the sun bright, but the barometer predicts precipitation.
    The trees are all tapped in the sugar bush, about sixty sugar maples and at least one basswood that keeps getting tapped year after year because it had a tap hole evident from the prior year. A rather common human failing, I would guess. Trees to tap should be over 8” in diameter at breast height, and not be obviously unhealthy or damaged.  The tap hole can be anywhere convenient on the tree from perhaps 2’ to 4’ up the trunk, some say it should be on the south side of the tree but most say it doesn’t matter.  Many people now use a cordless power drill but an old-fashioned brace and bit works fine as well and doesn’t need to be constantly recharged. The drill should be the diameter of the spile, 7/16, and should go in at a slight angle upward, and the tap hole should be about 1.5” deep.  Wood shavings should be cleaned from the hole.  The spile (now usually aluminum but in prior times lead or even wood) is driven gently into the tap hole with a hammer until it is firmly in place.  The bucket is hung and the sap will flow when temperature and sun conditions are right.  When flowing fast it doesn’t take long for a bucket to fill, but usually it takes a good part of the day, and then sap is collected, and taken to the fire or stove to be boiled down into syrup. 
    The photos include a much better example of yellow birch, and the trunk of a common under story tree of the maple woods, ironwood, also called hop hornbeam, Ostrya virginiana.  A 6” diameter ironwood is a big tree, and since they grow very slowly most are very much smaller.  It has elm-like leaves and bark that is black-brown and very scaly or flaky. It is a nice little native tree, very shade tolerant and with a yellow fall leaf coloration.
    I guess I have mentioned that I have become, belatedly, a fan of Robert Ruark, an outdoor and adventure writer of the 50’s and 60’s.  Another of his homilies has stuck in my head; “Don’t be noble, it is ruining the country.” That was his reaction to the exhortations of Eleanor Roosevelt for young people to be so, during the Great Depression. For some reason it struck a note with me, and after some ruminating  I think I can explain his sentiments in my own words; in order for some to be the nobles,  others must be the serfs.

3/27/11 WEATHER, MAPLE SUGARING AND WHITE PINES

YESTERDAY'S WHITEOUT

WHITE PINE DIEING FROM BLISTER RUST

SAP OOZING FROM BLISTER RUST CANKERS

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  16 degrees, wind west, calm.  The sky is mostly blue and the barometer predicts the same. Sounds like distant cannon fire boomed up the bluffs  as the ferry broke ice again this morning.
     Yesterday we had a whiteout, an almost-blizzard west and north of town, and not much got done at the sugar bush.  Andy and Paul tapped a few trees, and I will join then later this morning to help tap the rest.  We all had dinner at the Larsen  camp last night, ground elk over rice (courtesy of Paul as hunter, Joanne as cook).  Anyway, it has to warm up considerably for the sap to flow but all should be ready  when it does.
    There is a big old white pine on 9th and Rittenhouse Ave. that is dying from white pine blister rust and will have to come down at some point.  WPBR is a fungus disease that is a major pest of white pine, Pinus strobus, and some other five-needled pines. White pine grows around the Great Lakes and southern Canada and at higher elevations in the southern Apalachians.  WPBR is an alternate host fungus, living in one life cycle stage on white pine, and in another on currants and gooseberries.  Since the disease needs both hosts to reproduce, elimination of currants and gooseberries (Ribes species) in the vicinity of white pines can control spread of the disease, although once a tree is infected there is no cure. When the disease infects white pine, it cases cankers that spread to girdle branches and finally the trunk, eventually causing death.  This is a potentially very serious disease of forest stands of white pine, but is not as much of a threat to isolated ornamental trees. The white substance on the trunk is sap that has flowed from the canker wounds and accumulated on the trunk.

3/26/11 FERRIES, YELLOW BIRCH AND PEA SOUP

FREIGHT TRAIN FERRY

YELLOW BIRCH BARK

Saturday, 9:00 AM.  19.5 degrees, wind SW, calm.  The sky is overcast and dime-sized snowflakes are drifting lazily down, but the barometer predicts sunny weather.
    The ferry sounded like a freight train this morning, the roaring sound of it breaking through the ice echoing up the Bayfield bluffs.
    Yellow birch, Betula lutea, is a medium sized tree of the mixed coniferous-hardwood forests of the Great Lakes and southern Canada, the northeast U.S. and at altitudes in the Appalachians into the South.  It is shade tolerant and prefers a cool, moist environment.  It is a beautiful tree, with exfoliating bark very much like paper birch, except that it has a distinctly yellow coloration.  In the right environment it can be a very good shade and ornamental tree, and is excellent for naturalizing.  Its timber is very valuable for veneer wood.
    The maple sugar crew (Andy, Judy, Paul and Joanne) came to dinner last night and sugar maple tapping will probably begin today. I will go out in a bit.  Joan made a terrific pea soup from smoked hammocks, and served with fresh baked bread it was a real treat.

3/25/11 RISING SAP AND A TOUGH MORNING WORKOUT

NASTY CRACKS ON YOUNG MAPLE TREE TRUNK

OLDER SUGAR MAPLE BARK

MORNING WORKOUT

Friday, 9:00 AM.  24 degrees, wind SW, calm.  The sky is mostly clear and the barometer predicts the same.  It is a chilly but nice day, and the sap may run latter as it warms into the mid-thirties, but not yet this morning.  The maple sugar crew will arrive today, having been delayed by the blizzard.  It will take a few day s to get organized and get the trees tapped, so sap collection can’t start 'till then, and then it depends on the weather; below freezing at night, and warm and sunny during the day.
    The bark of young maples often develops nasty looking cracks, as the sap migrates up the tree and then  freezes and expands at nght.  These cracks are often on the south side of the tree, but can occur anywhere.  Normally these cracks heal over naturally, and they should not be wrapped or painted.  Eventually, as the tree grows and the bark develops, the healed cracks become a part of the bark pattern.
    Maple trees are thin-barked when young, but so are red oaks and many other species, which are not as prone to cracking because their sap does not rise so early in the spring.  Thin bark is easily damaged, whether by frost cracks, rapid growth, or the winter sun reflecting off the sno, and also by rodents. For these reasons newly planted trees young trees should normally  be protected by tree wrap, particularly if, as is usually the case, they have been grown in nursery rows where the trunks have been shaded and are not  used to the sun.  Tree wrap (whether paper, plastic or other material) should be removed after the first year and the bark allowed to toughen up during the second growing season after planting.
    The ferry is now running, laboriously plowing through fresh ice in the “track” every morning.  It is a tough morning workout.

3/24/11 SHAGGY BARK AND BUDGETS

SHAGBARK HICKORY

CAPITOL NORTH MEETING ROOM

A FEW PROTESTERS STILL AMONG THE VISIORS

CAPITOL DOME

WISCONSIN STATE CAPITOL

Thursday, 7:40 AM.  16 degrees, wind WSW, calm at present.  The sky is partly overcast and a few large snow flakes are drifting lazily down.  The barometer predicts sunny skies.  We arrived home last night about 10:00 PM to no snow in the driveway.  We drove through a belt of bad weather with slippery roads from south of Stevens Point to Minocqua, and arrived home at 10PM to a driveway completely free of snow, which missed Bayfield entirely.
    The tree trunk pictured is shagbark hickory, Carya ovata, picture taken in Madison. It’s shaggy, exfoliating bark is unmistakable in any season. It is a nut tree of dry hillsides and prairie openings, and is not common north of the mid central states.  It is a picturesque, long-lived tree.
    The Urban Forestry Council meeting was held in the North Meeting Room of the capitol, a very beautiful venue.  There is a lot of legislative activity going on now, and a lot of public hearings so we were fortunate to be able to use the facility.  There are still some protesters in the building but they are quite subdued.  Security is very tight with only two entrances being used, and it is  like getting on an airplane, with metal detectors and pat downs by State Patrol officers.  Well, that’s the society we live in now, I guess.  There was a lot of graffiti on walls and so on that has been scrubbed clean and is no longer evident, but the scrubbed areas now stand out. I did not see a lot of other damage, which has evidently been pretty well repaired.
    The DNR Forestry Division budget did not take too big a hit, and top administrators who met with us were pretty positive about it.  This is my analysis of the budget cuts so far: The $60M operating budget took a $10M reduction, but this is pretty well offset by some increases in program money and revenues, and the savings from employee contributions to the cost of their own retirement and health insurance, and there will be no drastic program cuts although there will of course be some changes in direction or emphasis. Retirements will be up this budget cycle, with senior positions being replaced with less expensive personell. Of 470 plus full time employees in the Forestry division, there are only three position eliminations, and those will be absorbed by attrition. Frankly, if this will be the general effect of the new administration’s budget on the rest of state operating departments and programs, I fail to see what all the fuss has been about. Except, of course, union dues.
    I think we are done with traveling to meetings for a while, and now its on to the more serious matter of maple sugarin’.

Thursday, 7:40 AM.  16 degrees, wind WSW, calm at present.  The sky is partly overcast and a few large snow flakes are drifting lazily down.  The barometer predicts sunny skies.  We drove through a belt of bad weather with slippery roads from south of Stevens Point to Minocqua, and arrived home at 10PM to a driveway completely free of snow, which missed Bayfield entirely.
    The tree trunk pictured is shagbark hickory, Carya ovata, photo taken in Madison. It’s shaggy, exfoliating bark is unmistakable in any season. It is a nut tree of dry hillsides and prairie openings, and is not common north of the mid-central states.  It is a picturesque, long-lived tree.
    The Urban Forestry Council meeting was held in the North Meeting Room of the capitol, a very beautiful room.  There is a lot of legislative activity going on now, and a lot of public hearings so we were fortunate to be able to use the facility.  There are still some protesters in the building but they are rather subdued.  Security is very tight with only two entrances being used, and it is  like getting on at airplane, with metal detectors and pat downs by State Patrol officers.  Well, that’s the society we live in now, I guess.  There was a lot of graffiti on walls and so on that has been scrubbed clean and is no longer evident, but the scrubbed areas now stand out. I did not see a lot of other damage, which has evidently been pretty quickly repaired.
    The DNR Forestry Division budget did not take too big a hit, and top administrators who met with us were pretty positive about it.  This is my analysis of the Forestry budget cuts so far: The $60M operating budget took a $10M hit, but this is pretty well offset by some increases in program money and revenues, and the savings from employee contributions to the cost of their own retirement and health insurance. There evidently will be no drastic program cuts although there will of course be some changes in direction or emphasis. Retirements will be up this budget cycle, with senior positions being replaced with less expensive replacements. Of 470 plus full time employees in the Forestry Division, there are only three position eliminations, and those will be absorbed by attrition. Frankly, if this will be the general effect of the new administration’s budget on the rest of state operating departments and programs, I fail to see what all the fuss has been about.  Except, of course, the continued collection of union dues to pay the protesters and politicians.
    I think we are done with traveling to meetings for a while, and now it's on to the more serious matter of maple sugarin’.

3/22/11 IT AIN'T SPRING YET!

A 'NOREASTER THREATENS

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  29 degrees, wind variable, but mainly out of the north and east, strong with stronger gusts.  If we have a low that gets stuck out over the lake we will have a ‘Noreaster.  The sky is overcast and the barometer predicts precipitation.
    I have an Urban Forestry Council meeting at the capitol in Madison tomorrow, and may have a snowy drive south today. I have appointments with our local state assembly representative, and with our state senator, to promote the urban forestry agenda. The predictions are for heavy snow by afternoon and evening in the Northland, so I may have some serious shoveling to do upon returning, but hopefully we will avoid the worst of the blizzard both ways.  One thing is certain: it ain’t spring yet!
 

3/21/11 MORE ON TREE BARK, AND WHAT'S WITH JAPANESE RELIEF?

CORKY BARK OF BUR OAK

RED PINE BARK

BARK OF VERY OLD WHITE SPRUCE

Monday, 8:00 AM.  37 degrees, wind WSW, calm at present.  It rained a bit last night,  the sky is overcast, AND the barometer predicting more of the same, perhaps a blizzard.  The weather is rather dismal, but the snow cover is fast disappearing if we don't get dumped on again.
    The bur oak, Quercus macrocarpus, is native to Midwestern oak openings but has a wider range, from east to west across the middle of the continent. It has a very corky bark, heavy enough on mature trunks that it is quite resistant to prairie wildfires, thus the species predominates in oak openings on the eastern edge of the tallgrass prairies and along stream banks further west.  The ridged cork of young trunk and branch bark is unmistakable.  It is hardy further north and makes a good street tree.
    The bark of the red pine, Pinus resinosa, has an orange cast, and arranges itself into flat platelets on the trunks of maturing trees.
    The white spruce, Picea glauca, has a handsome, flaky brown-black bark in old age.
    On the international scene, I am confused by the lack of information on how to donate to the Japanese relief effort.  There has been no apparent national leadership, no adds on TV by relief organizations. One is inclined to think that Japan does not want such help, or perhaps they are embarrassed to ask.  The news media is very fickle, and are even now moving on to more current crises.  We would do our share to help, but there seems to be little information or interest. Or am I missing something obvious?

3/20/11 AN ICY MORNING, AND MORE TREE BARK

YAK TACK TIME

BARK OF OLD SUGAR MAPLE

BARK OF MATURE WHITE PINE

QUAKING ASPEN BARK CAN BE QUITE SIMILAR TO PAPER BIRCH

NEW RED CLIFF CASINO WILL BE HARD TO GET USED TO

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  32 degrees, wind NW, calm. The sky is overcast and everything is covered with about .5” of ice and slush, so it was back to the  Yak Tracks this morning. We could  use some sunshine but  I think we are out of luck.
    Without anything else particular on the agenda it is back to bark basics.  All trees have their own bark characteristics, the result of genetic differences in bark growth.  The differences between genera and species can be subtle or pronounced.  Sugar maple trees have a distinctive bark, very smooth in youth, it becomes fissured and almost exfoliating in old age.  White pine bark also is smooth in youth, but roughens  and separates into platelets with time.
    Aspen bark can  be confused with paper birch at some stages of growth, but it does not peel like birch. Our other poplars, such as big tooth aspen and balsam poplar, have similar bark but with a distinctly greenish cast.
    The new Red Cliff casino is really taking shape now.  It has a very large footprint on the soreline, which I am afraid is going to be difficult to get used to.

3/19/11 OF BIRDS, BARK AND THE COURTS

BLACK WILLOW BARK

ORANGE BARK OF THE SCOTCH PINE

BEAUTIFUL JAPANESE CHERRY BARK

Saturday, 8:15 AM.  24  degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is mostly cloudless and the sun will quickly warm the day.  This is the weather, below freezing at night and warm and sunny during the day, that makes the maple sap run.  There is still plenty of snow in the woods, and unless it melts considerably by next weekend we will be wearing snowshoes in the Larsen sugar bush.
    Many of the birds are becoming more territorial and are looking for nesting sights. A pileated  woodpecker raised one heck of a ruckus in the woods yesterday, drumming loudly on a hollow trunk and emitting fierce cries that carried a half mile or more. The morning doves are acting very domestic.
    Continuing on the subject of distinctive tree bark, the huge old black willows have a deeply furrowed black bark that is hard to miss, and the orange bark of the Scotch pine is a sure identifying characteristic, even from a goodly distance.  Many cherries have very decorative bark, such as this Japanese cherry with its smooth, copper colored, exfoliating bark.  Cherries also have small, horizontal slits in the bark called lenticels, another distinguishing characteristic.
    On the Wisconsin political front, the battle between liberals and conservatives has moved from the legislature to the courts, where the former may win a significant battle, as our judges, many educated at the University of Wisconsin, tend to be liberals and progressives.  It will be a long drawn out fight I am afraid, and in the meantime the state will sink further into insolvency.  

3/18/11 THE BIG GUY COMES TO BAYFIELD, AND FISH FRY TONIGHT

THE BIG GUY

PLENTY OF MUSCLE

THE PATH OF THE ICE BREAKER

Friday, 9:00 AM.  30 degrees, wind WNW, moderate with stronger gusts.  The sky is overcast and it is a day that could use a management plan.
    We had a visit yesterday from the big Duluth based Coast Guard ice breaker, which hasn’t been here for several years and I have not seen before.  It broke a path from Bayfield to LaPointe on Madeline Island, and I understand the ferry will begin scheduled service on Sunday.  Normally the largest ferry breaks the ice, a laborious process that is a “piece of cake” for the big ice breaker.  The path is clearly visible, like a knife scar across the ice.  There is still some bootleg vehicle traffic on the ice road, but pretty soon someone will go in and then it will stop.
    I guess the fish have at last been biting, as two different neighbors brought fish to the door   yesterday, all filleted and pin-boned, ready for the pan.  Brown trout, whitefish and I think one big herring, all will be very good.  Tonight is fish fry at the Ode’s.

3/17/11 A GOOD TRIP, BUT NO GREEN BEER

ON THE MILWAUKEE RIVER

ANDY AND JUDY AT THE NATURE CENTER

RIVEREDGE SUGAR SHACK

JOAN'S MOTHER'S CHILDHOOD HOME ON THE MILWAUKEE RIVER

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  42 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is overcast but trying to clear.   Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all our Irish friends, here and gone; l but no green beer for me, I’ll settle for corned beef and cabbage tonight!
    Our trip to southeastern Wisconsin was a very enjoyable mix of visiting and business, and although it started on a somber note with a memorial service in Milwaukee, as those things always go, it was a fine opportunity to visit with relatives we had not seen in a long time.  It ended with a very worthwhile meeting yesterday morning in Wausau concerning the state’s response to the Emerald Ash Borer, and I am satisfied that even though it took two years, the Department of Natural Resources at last has a viable management response plan to the evolving crisis.
     In between we spent quality time with friends Tom and Barb in Racine, and stopped for lunch with Andy and Judy in Cedarburg.  They will be starting maple sugaring in a week or so at their sugar bush out on Hwy. K, and we are looking forward to that.  While with them we visited Riveredge Nature Center in Newburg, where Andy was Director for most of his environmental career.  Their maple sugaring process was in full swing, a very modern operation and a mainstay of the organization’s activities. We also ferreted out the house where Joan’s mother grew up on the Milwaukee River near Newburg and the Catholic school she attended.
     The weather is warming all across the state, and we saw lots of eagles on Hwy 51 from Hayward all the way to Minaqua  both ways, saw a few deer on the same stretch, as well as several flocks of turkeys.  We saw a lone Sandhill crane north of Milwaukee, and also a turkey vulture, both of which I would think to be early arrivals.  It looks like it will be an early spring.

3/13/11 GETS A LITTLE RIDICULOUS...

EVIDENTLY THE REST OF US JUST SLEEP ALL DAY

WELCOME COMMITTEE

LONELY

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  I hate daylight saving time! 26 degrees, wind W, very light.  The sky is overcast and there is a half inch of new snow over some ice on the roads.  We are traveling to Milwaukee and Racine today and then to a forestry meeting in Wausau Wednesday, so there will be no further posts until Thursday.
    Yesterday evening Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was guest of honor at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner held by the local chapter of the Republican Party, at the Steak Pit in Washburn.  Joan and I drove down about 5:30 PM to see how the protest (of course there had to be a protest, what would the Northland do, actually welcome the governor of the state?)  I assume the governor flew into Ashland’s JFK International Airport (yes, you read that right), rather than drive the three hundred plus miles from Madison.  We thought about going to the airport to see him land, but decided against even more of a wild goose chase.  We tried to get near the steak pit but police had all the roads blocked and you had to have a ticket to the dinner to get to the restaurant. I hope the governor enjoyed Washburn hospitality, but that seems a rather remote possibility. The Steak Pit does have excellent food, though.
    There was already a huge crowd and more arriving by the minute in the vicinity of the restaurant. The now familiar AFSME union logo with the raised fist was readily visible among the homemade signs. Makes everyone feel welcome, doesn’t it, a clenched fist ready to poke someone in the nose. I wished for a moment that I had a “Don’t Tread On Me” rattlesnake flag to tie on the aerial of the truck, in self defense. Made me think of President Obama’s famous comment during the election campaign, “If they bring a knife, we’ll bring a gun.” 
    How’s this for a comeback…”If you bring a fist, I’ll bring a rattlesnake…” Gets a little ridiculous, doesn’t it? 

3/12/11 WHEN ATLAS SHRUGS

OVERCAST, FOGGY AND WET

SHRUB WILLOW TWIGS COLORING UP,  READY FOR SPRING

Saturday, 8:45 AM.  33 degrees, wind NW, light.  There is a fine, wet snow falling, adding to the inch or so of slush already on the ground. The sky is overcast, and fog obscures Madeline Island.  It looks as though this may settle in for a few days. Shrub willow branches are coloring up yellow and red, ready for spring.
     The movie that Hollywood does not want you to see, and the book it does not want you to read, is “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand.  A lot of folks have heard of the 1957 novel, but I wager not as many have actually read it, as it is 1,000 pages long, a virtual Russian novel with many characters and a complex plot, akin to Brothers Karamazov or Crime and Punishment, and well it might be, since the author was an immigrant from Stalin’s Russia.
    I don’t intend to write a book review here, but will give you the basic premise of the book, which is a futuristic view of what will happen to America if it continues on its present path.  In that respect it is like “1984” or “Animal Farm.” What is truly chilling, and why it is so reviled by the socialists and unionists, is that America today is about two-thirds of the way towards the awful climax of the novel. 
    In essence it depicts what happens to a culture and a nation when society stifles the creativity and enterprise of the individual and replaces it with the ennui of the collective, where anyone who is more talented, smarter, or more ambitious than their peers is decried and oppressed.  Where those who work hard and strive are forced to support society’s drones (of which there are as many perched on the highest rungs of society as on the lowest).  Where political correctness and political cant suppress and punish freedom of expression. Where unions, big government and big business conspire to control the country and the world. Where all are equal, not in opportunity, but in misery.  Where totalitarianism in the guise of charity enslaves all.
    And what does happen when Atlas shrugs is that those who are carrying the world will eventually let it slip from their weary shoulders, and it will tumble into the abyss.
    If the movie  (actually movies…it will be a three part series) is true to the book, Michael Moore will try to prevent you from seeing it, and that in itself is a powerful incentive to buy a ticket. But please, read the book, and especially if you are a Wisconsinite, as a significant part of the story involves the Badger State.