8/30/11 ANOTHER JOB WELL DONE

WALL AND PLANTINGS LOOKING NORTH

WALL AND PLANTINGS LOOKING SOUTH

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  Wind WSW, calm.  The sky is lightly overcast and the barometer predicts rain, but I think not this morning.
    The job we transported the trees from the nursery for has turned out very nicely; a 40’ fieldstone rock wall, topped by a row of American dark green arborvitae (Thuja occidentaalis nigra) which will be a tall, informal hedge, flanked by a white pine (Pinus strobus) on the south and a white spruce (Picea glauca) on the north.  It is at the back of the property we are landscaping, and will provide a somewhat formal backdrop for the house, and hide some undesirable views and a hard to maintain steep embankment.  It is of course in its infancy but it shows a lot of landscape design promise.  We will put a few finishing touches on the wall and mulch the plantings and we will be done with this part of the project today.  I really enjoy landscape design and planting, it is creative, useful, and makes a good retirement business (and not everyone is as good at it as I am…whoa, my mother would scold me for boasting). 
    I went to the memorial service yesterday evening for Anne Rumsey, killed last week in a bicycle accident.  It was sad but also inspiring and uplifting.  The whole town is in morning for a promising life cut so short, so suddenly.
    My trail camera took 116 photos of myself, lucky, a raccoon, and a host of photos of the front of the house, triggered by who knows what; but no bear, not even a tail or an ear. I think the bear has some experience with trail cameras as well as traps.

8/29/11 HIBISCUS, SMARTWEED AND AN INTERESTING MOTH

Monday, 7:00 AM.  61 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is cloudless with some haze in the east.  The barometer predicts rain but not likely until at least this evening.  Another beautiful day.
    The Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus Syriacus, is an old-time-garden favorite shrub.  It has  typical Hibiscus flowers which look very much like  hollyhocks.  Plants with this type of flower are all in the Mallow family ( Malvaceae).  The plant is a straggly shrub without much character, but the flowers are quite nice, and it has its place in historic landscapes and old fashioned gardens.

ROSE-OF-SHARON FLOWER

SMARTWEED

WHAT'S MY NAME?

     The genus Polygonum is a large group of plants both native and introduced, in the knotweed family (Polgonaceae). The general common name of these plants is smartweed. The stems have noticeable swollen joints at the leaf nodes, and the long spikes of flowers are usually pink.  They are found in ditches, damp places and the shores of lakes, reservoirs and rivers.  I will not try to identify them to the species level.  They are weedy but rather attractive plants in flower.  I remember sweeping vistas of the pink flowers of smartweed blooming on the mud flats of the big reservoirs of Nebraska during long summer droughts.
    The interesting white moth with black markings and a black “false face” was found resting on a screen door in Ashland a few days ago.  It looks like it should be associated with paper birch trees since it would be virtually invisible if it were on a birch tree trunk.  I do not know what it is, and neither does naturalist friend Andy.  Can any blog readers out there enlighten us?

8/28/11 BLACKBERRIES ARE EASY PICKINGS FOR MAN AND BEAR

LOTS OF BERRIES, LOTS OF THORNS

A COMPETING BEAR LEFT A CALLING CARD

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  60.5 degrees, wind W, light.  The sky is again cloudless, and the barometer predicts partly  cloudy skies.  The string of nice days continues.
    Yesterday afternoon we went to the Larsen camp to pick blackberries.  The bushes are remnants of what was once one of the largest berry farms in Wisconsin, the Bloom farm, and I assume they are a commercial variety rather than wild plants.  In any case, they are bearing so heavily this year it is hard to pick them all; as a handful ripen to perfection on a cane, five times as many are red and still developing.  I picked a gallon in about a half hour, the price being only a little blood drawn by the wicked torns. The bears left their calling cards but were not around during the day.  Judy said their dog barked most of the night because the bears were in the blackberry patch.  Several  years ago I discovered a huge raspberry patch out in the woods and decided to go picking.  Plowing through tall grass and into the berry patch I could actually smell the bears, and as the hackles rose on the back of my neck I turned around and walked back out, berry can empty.
 There is nothing better than a fully ripe, juicy blackberry.  We had blackberries and ice cream for desert last night, with a drizzle of maple syrup on top.  Delicious!
    Blackberries, like blueberries, freeze easily for keeping.  Spread them out on a tray and put in the freezer.  After a bit, stir them to be sure they do not stick together.  When fully frozen put them in a container and back into the freezer for future use.

8/27/11 LEADERESHIP: ANOTHER RARE AND ENDANGERED SPECIES

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL MORNING

OSPREY NEST

Saturday,7:15 AM.  61.5 degrees, wind W, light.  The sky is cloudless with some haze in the east, and the barometer predicts partly cloudy conditions.  It will be another very nice day.
    The trip to Northland  Nursery in Rhinelander was uneventful and everything went well.  We saw two flocks of wild turkeys, one in the Merrill area on Hwy 51, and one northwest of Rhinelander on Hwy 47, where we also saw an Osprey nest on top of a high tension electrical transmission pole.  Friday morning it was cool and rainy, perfect for transporting the potted nursery stock, and we got back early afternoon and I delivered and unloaded plants to two job sites.  The easy part done, we will do the planting next week.
    It was a spring and summer of especially damaging high winds in northwestern Wisconsin, resulting in large numbers of downed trees in national, state, county, and private forests, and according to officials an amount of wood is on the ground equivalent to a an entire years’ harvest of marketable timber.  And  yet the whole region is so heavily forested that unless one made it a specific point to cruise the back roads to assess the damage one probably would be unaware of its magnitude.
    This wood must be removed and utilized or it will pose potentially  great fire and forest health problems.  It already is causing transportation and access difficulty on county and forest roads.
    Although there has been much partisan criticism of Republican Governor Scott Walker for some of his political programs and actions, he recently did exactly what a state governor must do in an emergency such as this; he personally called representatives of all the governmental agencies and private parties together for a tour of the region, and led a brainstorming session on how to handle the downed  wood in a cooperative way without roiling the markets by flooding them with a vast amount of product. He is searching Chinese and other foreign markets to sell the wood that cannot be absorbed in the North American market.
    Too many governmental leaders, particularly those in CEO positions, do not even think of acting as leaders as their office requires, or have not had the executive experience to even realize what to do.   As leaders, problem solvers and decision makers they are woefully inadequate. 
    Too many high office holders, elected and appointed, think they are primarily public relations people or partisan cheerleaders, and that their function is re-ellecion, not situational leadership.  Regardless of political party, we should recognize and reward actual leadership in government, as it has become yet another  “rare and endangered species.”
       

8/25/11 IT SURE AIN'T 1933, PAL

THE PERFECT LAWN...

...HAS MANY COSTS

Thursday, 7:30 AM.  64.5  degrees, wind WSW, very light.  Not a cloud in the sky and the barometer predicts sun.  We have had, except for a few rain squalls, exceptionally fine weather for weeks.
    When I see the perfect bluegrass lawn, uniform, dark blue-green, perfectly weedless, I cringe, because I know it is contributing to a whole host of environmental problems: fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide drift and runoff, and the establishment of a monoculture vulnerable to pests and diseases and dependent upon high use of water and other resources.
    Now, I am a proponent of healthy lawns wherever they are needed as a useful element in the landscape.  But most lawn maintenance is overkill.  The best way to keep a lawn healthy is to mow at the proper height, water deeply only when necessary, fertilize perhaps once a year and never try to eliminate all the dandelions and other weeds.  Spot spray for weeds when it is practical, and try to encourage some clover in the lawn which will provide nitrogen and needed plant diversity.  It is easy and inexpensive to maintain a good quality lawn.  It is difficult, very expensive and environmentally damaging to maintain the “perfect” lawn.  And, I am not convinced, despite all he hype to the contrary, that the economy is all that bad, when so many, many homeowners pay big bucks to have a lawn service spray their lawns every few weeks.  It sure ain’t 1933, pal.
    NO BLOG FOR A DAY OR TWO, WE ARE TRAVELING TO PICK UP NURSERY STOCK.

8/24/11 DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH

DON'T HOLD OUR BREATH

Wednesday, 9:00 AM.  64 degrees, wind WSW, moderate with very strong gusts.  The sky is absolutely cloudless but the barometer predicts rain, which we received 1/4” of yesterday afternoon in a short, violent squall. 
    Well folks, the bear trap was removed yesterday morning, and the bear returned last night.  I have come to several conclusions regarding this little episode: 1) bears smart; 2) this bear has probably been trapped before and is not likely to be trapped again; 3) the whole bear damage and nuisance program is probably ineffective and a waste of time and money if it operates like this; 4) the situation is not likely to change soon.
    The last comment is based on what I could find out with a couple of hour's web search and reading on how the program was established and how it works (Black Brear Nuisance and Damage Management in Wisconsin). The current protocal is 44 pages long (that’s one document, there is probably more informations out there if one spent more time looking). It covers almost innumerable topics and concerns about bears, including the attitude of the public at large concerning a bear in my (or your) garbage can, cultural attitudes towards bears, bears in mythology etc.Trapping a bear should not have the complexity of a mission to Mars.  There are four federal agencies and two state agencies directly directly responsible for this program; the document I read contains 33 acronyms of agencies and other entities consulted or involved; and, most important of all, the bear in our yard is managed by the federal government in Washington, DC through the federal Wildlife Service of the Department of Agriculture.  Why the federal government and its lawyers should give one hoot about a bear in someone’s garbage can in Wisconsin or any other state is far beyond my limited comprehension.
     My friends, the possibility of any efficiency or efficacy of programs with such complicated chains of command and overlapping responsibilities is nil, and our governments at every level are rife with them. 
    The heroes of the coming political cycles will be those administrators and politicians who examine agencies, departments and programs and act to change their direction and nature so that  they actually accomplish stated goals at reasonable cost.  Don't holding your breath.

8/23/11 CHERRISH EVERY MOMENT

WILD CUCUMBER VINE IN FLOWER

EVERLASTING PLANT

Tuesday, 7:00 AM.  64 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is overcast in the east but mostly clear in the west.  The barometer predicts rain and the humidity is up so it is possible to get a shower late in the day.  We need a good rain.
    The pearly everlasting and the everlasting, the small genus Anaphalis and the much larger gensus Gnaphalium (both in the snflower family), are are too difficult for me to try to key out right now, and anyway I think the one pictured is a species of Gnaphalium.  In any case they are interesting and quite different flowers in the late summer and fall landscape, looking like very tall pussytoes (Antennaria).  Dried, they are “everlasting.”
    Wild cucumber vine, Echinocystis lobata, in the cucumber family, is rambling all over this yard in Washburn.  On woods edges it is a graceful, interesting vine and fruit, but I wouldn’t want it to eat my house.
    Tragedy has struck the little community of Bayfield.  You may recall that on Saturday I wrote about a bicyclist found “breathing but unresponsive” on one of the orchard country roads, and how professional and concerned the local and regional EMT response was.  We found out later the bicyclist was Anne Runsey, who with her husband owns the second hand bookstore, What Goes Round, on south Second Street.  She set out after leaving the store Friday afternoon for a bike ride, was coming down a steep hill on Myers Olsen road, crashed, and although she was wearing a helmet, received fatal head injuries.  She leaves a husband and two school age daughters, a business that  was just getting established and an unfinished house. 
    Although I did not know her as long enough as I should have liked, we had a common bond in that we both formerly worked at the elite New York Botanical Garden.  How unlikely is that; two “refugees from the Bronx” at long last residents of the little Northern Wisconsin city of Bayfield?
    Life is fragile, and can be snuffed out in an instant.  As local writer and friend Howard Paap said to me as we talked about the tragedy, we should “Cherish every moment, and be kind to each other.”

8/22/11 EARLY FALL WILDFLOWERS

AZURE ASTER

TURTLE HEAD

WILD CARROT

WOODLAND PHLOX

Monday,8:00 Am.  59 degrees, wind W, calm.  It is overcast but the barometer predicts sunshine and the humidity is low.
    The first fall Aster I have seen, Aster azurius, in the sunflower family  (now called the Aster family, take your pick) is in flower along Bloom Road, as is turtle head, Chelone glabra, in the figwort family. Tall woodland Phlox, mostly pink or blue, are blooming in gardens.  Phlox are mostly North American species in the Jacob’s ladder family, but do not  reach this far north in their natural range as far as I know, but all are cultivated and hybridized and intruduced in gardens.  Wild carrot, or Queen Anne’s lace, Daucus carrota, in the parsley family, has been blooming along road sides for several weeks.  Of European origin, it has been a field weed ever since white settlement.  It had many herbal uses in the past, and still is used as a gout remedy.  As with all members of the parsley family, it should be approached or used with caution unless one is familiar with it.  Another English common name is birds nests, which the unfolding inflorescences resemble.
    I don’t think the bear is goining to come around as long as the trap is here; he’s probably been in one before.

8/21/11 SUNDAY MORNING AT THE BEACH, AND SALUTING OUR EMTS

EARLY RISERS

DAY SAILOR MOORED AT THE MOUTH OF THE SIOUX

MEADOW SWEET

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  60 degrees, wind WNW, calm. The barometer is down, predicting rain, but the sky is cloudless and  the humidity is low so it will be a another nice day, with perhaps an evening shower.  Lucky and I went to the beach early this morning.  He has a hard time but still seems to enjoy it.  The native meadow sweet, Spirea tomentosa, is in bloom.
    Yesterday evening Sherman, the ferry boat captain from across the street, dropped over for a few minutes.  He is a volunteer fireman, he had his emergency radio with him, and was tracking an incident involving a bicyclist found “breathing but unresponsive” on one of the orchard country roads, and who was now being transported by our volunteer Emergency Medical Technicians to hospital.  As we listened, I recognized the voice of neighbor Eric from up the street, requesting the Ashland ambulance to meet them in Washburn to transfer the patient to Memorial Medical center (the Ashland EMTs are trained to do certain medical procedures that the Bayfield EMTs have not yet qualified for).  As that was going on, the word came down from the Bayfield County dispatcher that a helicopter was being sent from Duluth sixty miles away to fly the patient to the hospital there for special treatment.  As we listened for a few more minutes the word came that the helicopter would fly directly to Washburn, only twelve miles away rather than to Ashland, 21 miles away from Bayfield.  All the while there was a constant exchange of information between at least a half dozen different entities, and decisions were made readily for the quicker transport and treatment of the patient.
    I was very impressed with the concern and professional response of my neighbors and the interacting agencies.  We live in relative isolation in the Northland, and small communities can seem remote and rather primitive. But in reality we are pretty well taken care of, and it is reassuring to know that one is literally surrounded by friends and neighbors who exhibit an amazing degree of competency in emergencies.
    The bear hasn't been around since the trap was put out.

8/20/11 IF THE BEAR IS SMARTER THAN THE MAN

MONTAIN ASH BERRIES

APPLES GETTING LARGER

CHESTNUTS SWELLING

COMING UP EMPTY

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  60 degees, wind W, calm.  The sky is clear and the barometer is way up. It feels like early fall.
    Signs of fall are everywhere now, mountain ash fruit ripening, apples obvious on the trees, spiney American chestnut fruit obvious among the big long leaves.
    It’s a lot harder to catch a bear than one might think.  Especially if the bear is smarter than the hummans.

8/19/11 BAIT, TRAPS AND DUST

BAIT

TRAP SPRUNG,NO BEAR

Friday, 8:00 AM.  67 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  We had a brief but pretty powerful thunderstorm at around five this morning that left a trace of rain.  The sky has been mostly overcast since but is quickly clearing now from west to east.  The barometer still predicts rain, which we could use.
    Last night the path from the bear’s lair to the trap was baited with syrup, a trail fully 80 feet long, ending in Oreo cookies inside the trap.  If Mr. B actually laps it all up he may have had his sugar fix before he gets to the end of the trail.  This morning the trap door was shut but the trap empty.  The trap door can be triggered from inside or outside (at the opposite end) the barrel and I wonder if we are dealing with a sophisticated bruin.
    Texas Gov. Perry’s attitude towards the theory of evolution was certainly baited by a New Hampshire mother and her young son (as her foil) yesterday, when the mother told the boy to ask the Governor how old the earth was.  He took the bait, but  like our bear didn’t get caught in the trap, when he answered that the boy’s mother was actually asking him about evolution versus creationism.  Perry’s answer was  quite good, as he said that evolution was a popular theory but that it had some gaps in it.  Any honest evolutionist will readily agree with that statement.  Personally, I see no conflict whatsoever between general evolutionary theory and a creationism that is based on a belief in a creative, all powerful God.  Personally, I view evolution as a tool of creation used by a basic creative force, which in general humans call God, a creativity that is beyond time and human understanding.
    My view is not all that different from that of many scientists whom I have known and respected who were  traditionally religious persons as well as outstanding scientists. 
    Who among us is wise enough or knowledgeable enough to know with certainty what  the moving finger of God is writing upon the history of the universe, earth and man? 
    Those who mock  or attempt to  manipulate the faith or cosmological views of others are are destined to be themselves mocked and manipulated by their own incomplete knowledge and faith.
    Once upon a past or future time there was a scientist who believed he had created life in a test tube, and confronted God, saying, “I am now your equal, since I have created life from the dust of the earth.”  To which God replied, “Next time, go get your own dust.”

8/18/11 CRANBERRIES AND RACOONS

NOBODY IN HERE BUT US RACOONS

HIGH BUSH CRANBERRIES

Thursday, 7:30 AM.  66 degrees, wind W, light to moderate.The sky is mostly clear, but the barometer predicts rain; though certainly not this lovely morning.
    The high bush cranberries, Viburnum trilobum, are ripening now in yards, roadsides and woods edges.  The berries are a valuable winter wildlife food and at least formerly were much used for jams and jellies. Not a cranberry at all, the plant is in the honeysuckle family.
    About 11:00 PM last night we heard a loud clang, the unmistakable sound of the bear trap door slamming shut.  I grabbed my camera and ran out to the trap.  Neighbor Sam was already our there with his flashlight.  No bear, just a very young and scarred raccoon.  The trap door was raised and the youngster chased out, more bait put down and the trap set again, but there was no more action last night.
   On politics:  I see the Administration is investigating the S&P, after the credit rating downgrade.  It's shameful, thuggish,  Chicago style politics.  "If they bring a knife, we'll bring a gun." Sort of puts "Give me liberty or give me death" into perspective.  I think it's time for a few more downgrades.

8/17/11 PEARS AND BEARS

RIPENING PEARS

WHAT IS IT ILLEGAL FOR THE BEAR TO DO?

BEAR TRAP ON TRAILER

BUSINESS END OF THE BEAR TRAP

Wednesday, 8:00 AM. 66  degrees, wind WSW, light.  The sky is clear, we got an eigth of an inch of rain last night, and the barometer predicts more rain, but I doubt before evening. It is a gorgeous day. Pears are beginning to ripen on neighbors’ trees, another sign of an aging summer.
    The DNR bear catch contractor arrived yesterday morning and left a barrel trap in the Coast Guard neighbor’s front yard, right next to our front yard.  It is by their garage and right in the usual path the bear takes through our yard and past our bedroom patio door.  It is baited with all sorts of cookies, chocolate cake, etc. all the sweet stuff bears love.  It is basically an eight foot length of culvert on skids, with a trap door on one end and bars on the other. I hope it doesn’t catch neighborhood dogs or skunks etc.  It will be left for about a week, and hopefully Mr. B will end up in it and be transported far enough that he won’t come back.  Monday night a terrific confrontation was reported between bear and dogs twenty feet from our bedroom window that we somehow slept through.  All was quiet last night. This morning the trap is still empty.
    I have a trail camera set up to photograph the bear as he enters the trap.  I am not good with digital technical stuff but I think I have it set up O.K.  We will see. In any case I can probably take a photo of the bear in the trap with my camera if he is caught.  All kind of fun as long as the bear cooperates. 
    The illogic inherent in the situation relates to the fact that if a human intruder threatens one’s family and property one can legally use deadly force, but if it is a dangerous animal one cannot, and one may well end up in jail and with a stiff fine if one does.  It begs the question of whose rights the government is protecting here; those of the taxpaying citizen, or the wild animal?  Unfortnately our modern society with its esxtreme environmental agenda will take the taxpayer’s money and use it to promote the welfare of animals over the welfare of humans.  Is the bear’s life more valuable than that of a child?  This is the corner we have been backed into by environmental extremists with hidden, anti-human agendas.

8/16/11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

READ THE SIGNS

Tuesday,8:00 AM.  70.5 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is partly cloudy and a bit hazy.  The humidity is up some and the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies.
    As most of my blog readers may know, the Northland is heavily populated with folks of Scandinavian heritage, and Sven and Oly  jokes are very much part of the culture.  I thought with all the recent news about roads and culverts and bridges  the following, which I just heard, would be appropriate to repeat.
    Sven is the pastor at the Swedish Covenant Church, and Oly the pastor at the Norwegian Lutheran Church, directly across the road.  One Saturday morning they are out on the road, putting up a huge sign, which reads, “Sinner, you are going down the road to destruction.  Turn yourself arount now, before it iss too late!” 
    Just then a car speeds past, an occupant rolls down the window and yells, “You Scandihoovian religious nuts know what you can do with your sign!”
    As the car careens down the road there is the screech of tires and a big crash.
    Oly says, “Ja, Sven, dat iss da tird von dis morning!”
    To which Sven replies, “Ja, you betcha, Oly! But you tink maybe da sign auta yust say, “Bridge Out?”

8/15/11 PRICKLY LETTUCE, AND THE TEDDY BEARS' PICNIC

PRICKLY LETTUCE FLOWER

...SEED HEAD

...LEAF

TEDDY BEAR PICNIC

Monday, 9:00 AM.  70 degrees, wind WSW, light.  The sky is clear but a bit hazy. The humidity  is up and the barometer is down, predicting rain, perhaps by evening.
    Garden lettuce, Lactuca sativa, has a very close relative that is a common roadside weed in Europe and America, Lactuca serriola, prickly lettuce.  Both are in the sunflower family.  There are a number of species and look-alike genera so it can be very confusing, but I am pretty sure of this identification.  Priclky lettuce can be eaten like garden lettuce when the leaves are young.  It  has had a number of uses in European herbalism because the milky sap has a sedative effect similar to opium (although said to be non-addictive) among other qualities, as does garden lettuce to a much lesser extent.  Prickly lettuce should probably be used with caution, if at all. 
    The local bear(s) are becoming a bit too prevalant and bold, as evidenced by the remains of the “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” across the street.  The bears'  “den” is just through the hole in the solid wall of vegetation, and the watermelon only half eaten attests to the animal’s scavaging ability.  Our next door coast guard neighbors have called the DNR to trap the bruin and I heartily agree.  Small children and an aggressive bear do not belong on the same block.  The DNR was not very positive abot trapping the bear, citing other priorities, a typical bureaucratic response.
    I personally think the time ahas come for a very liberal bear season or seasons until the over populatrion is reduced.  At present it takes about five years of successive applications to obtain a license.

8/14/11 BRIDGE OUT, CHICORY, AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT

BRIDGE OUT ON OLD HWY K

...REPLACING THE HUGE CULVERT

CHICORY

...BLUE CHICORY FLOWER

Sunday, 7:00 AM.  60 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sdy is rather overcast and there is some fog, but things are clearing up and the barometer predicts sunny weather, and another beautiful Bayfield day.
    This seems to be the summer to replace culverts and bridges.  Old Hwy K in the Town of Russell parallels State Hwy  13 to its north for about eight miles, and the DNR camp site and boat launch at Little Sand Bay can be reached from east or west Hwy 13 via Old Hwy K, so it is a rather important secondary road.  It crosses the Sand River at about the four mile point.  The crossing is over a very large culvert rather than a bridge, and this culvert is being replaced.  It is quite a project, located at the bottom of rather a steep ravine.  The river itself isn’t much except during spring snow melt, when it can be a torrent.  The watershed both above and below the culvert is important for timber resources and water retention and lake water quality.  There are thousands of acres of watershed both above and below the road crossing.  Except maybe for spring migrations I don’t think the Sand River is an important fishery.  A cursory look at the construction work leads me to believe that the job is going well and is environmentally  sound.  I am not aware of the reasons for replacing the culvert, but I would expect it is normal age wear and tear.
    Chicory, Chicoria intybus, in the sunflower family, is a European and Middle eastern plant of ancient use as a food (salad and pot herb) and fodder plant, and the fleshy roots as a beverage and to blend with coffee (this is its primary use in this country, particularly in the South).  Chicory is a tough, deep rooted perennial, growing two to three feet tall.  Although quite straggly in appearance, it is very pretty as a roadside weed, the blue flowers an unusual color in the summer landscape.  It has had numerous herbal uses in the past and is still used as a diuretic and gout remedy.
    Political comment: The riots n England have made me think about the perils of gun control legislation.  All private hand guns were confiscated in England in 1999, with the intent of making the country more “safe.” Now, a dozen years later, with anarchic mobs burning, looting and killing, and the civil authorities hard pressed to control them, the average citizen is defenseless.  I am not a gun nut, in fact do not own a hand gun, but I am coming to the conclusion that everyone should possess the means to defend their life and property.  The Second Amendment guarantees all the others..

8/13/11 RED CLIFF CASINO OPENS, AND A ROSE IS A ROSE IS...

NEW CASINO AT RED CLIFF

MORE THAN GAMING

NORMAL ROSE FLOWER

ROSE FLOWER GALL

HOTEL, GAME ROOM AND CONVENTION CENTER

Saturday, 7:30 AM.  65 degrees, wind WSW, light to moderate.  The sky is mostly cloudless and the barometer predicts partly cloudy.  The weather has been superb for days and it looks like it will be a nice weekend.
    The new casino at red Cliff opened yesterday to considerable fanfare.  We are not gamblers so we have no personal interest except to see the tribe do well, and hopefully it will be good for the local economy in the long run.  It is a large structure and a bit generic but all in all pretty attractive and the siting is beautiful.
    The shrub rose in the front corner of the yard has a flower that has been rather fantastically deformed, most likely by a gall forming insect, small wasp or mite whose larvae live and feed in plant tissue causing a cellular mutation in the plant that produces the galls.  I have not seen one like this before.
    Texas Governor Rick Perry is scheduled to throw his ten gallon hat in the political ring today.  That should spice up the race for the Republican nomination like a Tex Mex salsa.

8/12/11 CRIME SOLVED; SHOULD THE CULPRIT GO TO JAIL?

WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS TREE?

PERFECTLY HEALTHY NEIGHBORING TREE

WAS IT LAWN HERBICIDE?

YELLOW SHAFTED FLICKER DAMAGE

...IN A DOUBLE ROW, GIRDLING THE TREE

Friday, 6:30 AM.   66 degrees, wind WSW, calm.  The sky is mostly overcast and the barometer is down, predicting partly cloudy skies.
    The sudden withering of all the leaves on a city tree, located just off the northwest corner of Rittenhouse Ave. and Broad street, has left me mystified and groping for answers.
    My first assumtion was that it was herbicide drift from nearby lawns, but checking with neighboring property owners I pretty well ruled that out.  Actually it looked more like fire blight than anything else, but the little leaf linden (Tilia cordata) is not be susceptible to that disease.  To make the mystery even deeper, another  perfectly healthy linden is just thirty feet to the north of the affected tree.
    Next I had the utility company check for a gas leak in the area, which would cause that type of damage, but they assured me there were no leaks.
    I thought perhaps hot diesel exhaust from an idling tour bus or delivery truck might be the culprit, but it is not a spot where a large vehicle would ordinarily park and idle.
    Finally I took a second or third, much closer look at the tree trunk, and here is what I believed happened to the tree: I found woodpecker holes, all in a row, bored all around the trunk, at several evenly spaced levels.  I have seen a lot of yellow shafted flicker damage but never saw a flicker or sapsucker  actually kill a healthy tree, but this looks like pretty severe girdling of the cambium just beneath the bark (which is rather thin) and we had a spate of unusually hot weather about two weeks ago, and I believe the tree was inordinately stressed because of the girdling holes in the trunk.  Unless I see further evidence of some other factor, I am calling the case closed.  I will not, however, take the tree down now, but give it a chance to repair some damage next spring.
    Woodpeckers of all kinds can do a lot of damage to trees and even buildings if their depredation becomes a habit to them. Mostly they are looking for grubs under the tree bark, but flickers and sapsuckers actually drink the tree sap from the holes they drill. One can put hardware cloth or burlap around a tree that is being damaged, but the birds should not be molested, as all woodpeckers, including flickers and sapsuckers, are protected by state and federal law, and one could face a stiff fine for harming one, which seems a little draconian to me.  After all, if a bird insists on damaging an equally environmentally and economically important tree and it is protected by law, I protest that it should also be illegal for the bird to kill the tree. Perhaps it could be sent to jail. Won’t happen I guess.