One Year Later

Last time we met with friends Bob and Cathy was in March, 2020, at Yerkes Observatory. We were new to the idea of masks and social distancing. Today, a long walk to view sculpture in a park and then on the way home a stop for a Guinness at McNally’s(on the patio).

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For dessert after lunch we had homemade Dutch baby.

Wildlife Sanctuary…

…right here in the back yard. When we sit out on the back patio of an evening we share the space with sparrows, juncos, downy woodpeckers, chickadees and cardinals. Not to mention squirrels, our resident chipmunk, and the occasional rabbit, at a distance.

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Earlier today, a gaggle of white pelicans on the Rock River.

A wonderful bird is a pelican.
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak.
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.

—Ogden Nash

Turn The Compost…

…and hang on to your hat.

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A mostly enjoyable semi-hemi-bi-annual chore, always interesting. The most amazing thing is the contrast between the vast input and the very different and very small output three years later.

In the wind department—another vast blast, but this time from the direction just opposite of yesterday’s gale, and, being from the south, bringing the warmest temperature in many months.

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats...

…otherwise known as CRISPR. An ancient way for bacteria to fend off and immunize themselves against viruses—and now the basis of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system that has given us the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

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All of which is the basis of the new book I’m reading, The Code Breaker, by Walter Isaacson. A bit of a mix of People Magazine and Scientific American. The pure science is fascinating. The competition to commercialize and the patent wars, not so much. The bio-ethics or gene editing and designer babies stuff mind bending.

I think the last few chapters could be the best part—where RNA meets Covid 19. We’ll soon find out.

Chicken Express

Last night’s blog included a photo of the baby chick tub at the local True Value, where I went to grab a bag of potting soil for my 30 shagbark hickory seeds. Little did I expect that anyone would find the photo to be of interest.

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However, Abby, the chicken expert, noticed it, and immediately asked me to go buy some. Apparently covid has disrupted the baby chicken supply, and chicks are hard to come by. Her standing order has been pushed back into late April.
So at 8 a.m. this morning I was at the hardware store shopping for birds. I bought four of them. I think I bought two buff orpingtons, one ameraucana, and one silver-laced polish—though the last one was supposed to be a silver wyandotte, or something like that.
Next step was to keep them alive and deliver them to the chicken farm in Cedarburg.

Note: the birds were alive and chirping when delivered.

Puddles…

…and a powerful March wind.

Whitewater Lake

Whitewater Lake

True Value Hardware. I didn’t buy any.

True Value Hardware. I didn’t buy any.

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And 30 shagbark hickory seeds planted in peat pots. The nuts were locally gathered, chilled in the garage over winter, and passed the ‘float test.’ (They all sank.) I am therefore, optimistic we will have seedlings to spare of these great native trees.

Big Bertha…

…as the giant white pine is affectionately known. And then, 3 big red pines proving that some trees enjoy close company.

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Sal and Glenn off this morning after world famous waffles, and with vivid memory of last night’s Sequence match in which one gender failed miserably.