Why it's called Bird's Foot Trefoil

 Since I was going to the County Seat to get groceries, I stopped off at the County Clerks office to pick up the second set of tally sheets that Chief Inspector Andy and I had noticed were missing when we did the Public Test of the Voting Machine on Saturday.  I was greeted by one of the Clerk's new aides.  I explained I was from the Town of Atlanta and we didn't get a second copy of the tally sheets in the paperwork sent out by the Clerk's office.  Would she give me a second copy?   I'd paused to make sure that question had registered w/ her.  She bustled off before I could say more.  She went to talk w/ the other new aide and I overheard, "We can copy them when they bring them in."   Fortunately she didn't come back to me w/ that suggestion but instead went on in to talk w/ the County Clerk herself.  County Clerk Connie came out to say hi and that she was printing out a second copy of the Republican and Democrat tally sheets for me.   Figured Connie would understand my next request: "Could I  have tally sheets also for the Green, Constitutional, and Libertarian parties?"   They are also on the ballot though they have no one running for office so any vote would have to be a write-in.  Connie looked at her aides.  They told her, as far as tally sheets, they had only included one copy for the Republican and Democrat parties in each town's packet.  Connie printed out an additional six copies of blank tally sheets for me to use when reporting each of the other parties and told the aides they would have to get in their cars and hand-deliver the extra tally sheets to each town.   I quickly asked for some 'I Voted' stickers and retreated from the office.   From the parking lot I texted our Town Clerk to let her know she might get something from Connie about tally sheets but that our town had all we needed.  Thinking about it, I was surprised no one had brought this up to the County Clerk before me.  By Wednesday, most everyone would have conducted a Public Test and should have noticed.  Sure, not a lot of people around here vote the Green, Libertarian, or Constitutional ticket but those parties are on the ballot.  We are required to submit an official form stating the number of votes they received - even if it's zero.   The Town Clerk texted me later and asked if I was the reason the County Clerk had just sent out a blanket e-mail to all clerks about the delivery of extra tally sheets.  "Yep" I texted back.  She responded w/ an emoji.  I'm horrible at interpreting those things but I believe a yellow face w/ a big grin and tears at the edge of both eyes is a good thing.

Sunset

 

The president has banned my vacuum.  Well, technically I just can't upgrade my Roomba since it might be a national security risk.  One reason given is a automated vacuum could map out the footprint of my home and transmit it back to China.  If someone in China wants to know how to find my bathroom, all they need do is ask.  Should I find the Roomba up on my desk going through my papers that might give me pause but right now it's only going to find a Lands End catalog and the yearly renewal notice for my P.O. Box.  The government also expressed concern that the robots could be ordered to cause harm to people.   Good thing I have a dog.  Whip would defend me vigorously if a Roomba stalked me while I slept.  I've seen what she does to small vermin and it isn't pretty.  She is a solid sleeper though.  I might have to wake her up first.

Drove to Churchville with Brother Phil.  On the way back home we went through the hills and there isn't usually any traffic.   I said, "Pretty sure I can make it through the hills w/o hitting the gas or the brake."   Phil seemed skeptical but I explained the cruise control is all I need to speed up or slow down.  All was going well - even through a series of curves - when I remembered the stop sign where County Road O meets County Road F.  I amended my statement, "I have to use the brakes at the stop sign but the turn later onto O I'm pretty sure I can slow enough to make."   Phil's response was a mumbled "Just get me home safe."  Not sure if he was talking to me or to God.  By the end of our trip, I'd used the brakes three times - once for the stop sign, once when I noticed a bunch of turkey crossing the road, and once to slow quickly so Phil could see where a new B&B was built.

Brent and Phil and the blanket chest

 

One of the reasons I bought Jormungandr was to use it in getting rid of garbage dumps on the property.  What wouldn't burn was dumped in a pile in the woods.  I know of five on the property and thought I could use the ATV to pick up the refuse there and dispose of it properly.  When Phil heard about it he said Brent and he should do it this year.  I limited them to one pile this year - a bunch of orange plastic baling twine in the middle of the old forest.  They went out this afternoon, found it themselves (well, it is orange), and filled the back of Jormungandr.  Tomorrow is garbage pickup day so after tossing the usual bag of house refuse, Phil filled the rest of the bin w/ old twine.  He dumped the rest of the orange twine near the end the driveway where I would constantly be reminded to fill up the rest of the garbage bin w/ twine week after week until it's gone. (At least that's my plan.)

Phil and Brent also looked over the old blanket chest that came over w/ the Hanke family (Grandma Pearl's side).  It's had a crack in the cover at least since my mother's time, there is a crack near the bottom, and it's color is best described as 'blotchy'. After watching The Repair Shop on TV I wondered if I should be doing something to keep the chest intact for another 150 years or so.  Brent and Phil determined the crack along the top was caused by the glue drying and falling out.  They fished out the glue, cut a sliver of a board and glued that in the crack.  Underneath they added a board to give the whole top more stability.  They thought the crack at the bottom was the same sort of thing but not a major deal.  As for the blotchy exterior they thought it told the story of the trunk showing where the handles, shipping strap, and lock had been at one time.  They suggested it not be refinished.  They did replace the castors which were not original and, surprisingly, of different sizes.

Picture by Evelyn Kuehnlenz.

Sandhill Cranes

August is my time to start looking for Christmas cards.  National Wildlife Federation was my 'go-to' place for cards but last year, even though they had a website for their cards, they didn't have any cards on it.   This year they admitted that they no longer make cards because "of changes in consumer behavior".   What does that mean?  I asked Google if sending Christmas cards was no longer a 'thing'.  It replied that it was declining in popularity due to cost, time, and the more convenient use of social media.    I'm OK w/ being old-fashioned about this.  While I do send out a handful of e-cards to people when I don't know their current address, I enjoy sending physical cards.  I enjoy thinking of some short snippet I can write in each that I hope will elicit a smile from the recipient.   I enjoy keeping in touch w/ far-flung relatives and friends at least once a year.  Really enjoy receiving cards too.

August is also the month I order my next year's calendars.  I have a Lang-sized calendar holder in the dining-room but I'm not limited to that size since brother Brent made inserts for it.   Slightly smaller calendars, as this year's, fit equally well.    I do have a 'type' of calendar I prefer - folksy, nature-based, no inspirational sayings.  I am making a list of calendars for this year that fit that profile - flowers, trees, naïf drawings - but sometimes I go 'rogue'.  Kilty Pleasures is in my mix of possible calendar candidates.  It features a lot of bare chested muscled men wearing kilts.  That might be thought-provoking.

Rick, Paul, Molly, and Peter (Brent is there somewhere)

Voting machine Public Test this morning.  No one came as usual so Andy and I voted as many times as necessary to feel comfortable that the count was correct and the machine would catch errors.  We also went through the paperwork delivered from the County Clerks Office checking that we had every document that might need to be filled out.  Only one set of tally sheets.  We've always had two - filled out after polls close by different poll workers, one copy going back to the County Clerk and one staying w/ our Town Clerk.  We could copy them but I'll bop over to the County Clerk's office next week and get them to make us an extra set.  Have to ask for "I Voted" stickers anyway.  

Cousins Rick, Dawn, and Paul were at my house by the time I got back from the test.   Cousins Molly and Peter arrived a little later.  They drove in from the Big City to see everyone and shoot clay pigeon w/ their shotguns.  After shooting we all had root beer floats.  It's the only time I can make use of the big glass mugs Honeywell gave out to team members whenever we installed new software at a branch.   Being on the Database team, I was involved in every installation.   At 7 p.m. I warned everyone that I would be watching Svengoolie and tonight's selection was Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter.  Many started to watch it w/ me but soon migrated to the deck in an effort to feed the hummers by hand or split off to talk about something else of interest.  Can't imagine why a bad B-horror flick from the '70's couldn't keep their attention. (Ha)

Funny thing - my house looked cleaner after they left than before they arrived.

My Summer Reading Program t-shirt

Joining the existing T- Rex, Velociraptor, Troodon, Lambeosaurus,  Plesiosaur, Ankylosaurus, and Stegosaurus on my shirt is a Brachiosaur.   Good thing the Summer Reading Program has come to a close 'cause the t-shirt was beginning to get heavy.  Around 70 kids and parents attended for free hotdogs (one boy reportedly ate 7) and root beer floats (Volunteer Tom came in later and was shaking his hand hoping to get feeling back into it after all of that scooping).  After the picnic in the parking lot, the kids came in for the awarding of the grand prizes to those who read the most. Everyone who turned in a form listing the books they read in the last two months got some sort of prize.  I managed in two months to read 9 books which I thought was a lot.  Some mothers in my18+ age category read over 70.  (They could count books they read to their children.)  My prize was a $10 gift certificate at Starbucks so I was pretty happy.  85 people turned in book lists but around 100 participated is some part of the program this year.   Everyone I talked to felt it was a success and we will do it again next year.  If we follow the suggestion from the library consortium the theme next year will be 'Mystery'.  Maybe I should pick up a deerstalker cap, a fedora, or a rumpled rain coat?  Big magnifying glass?  Fake knife coming out of my chest?  (Probably too much for the little kids.)

I turned into my driveway late this afternoon and hit my brakes.  Three sandhill cranes were strolling across the end of the drive.  They didn't bother to fly, just squawked at me.  Two kept on going into the field and one turned back toward my row of planted Yggdrasils.  Nice to know this pair were successful in raising a colt.

Mike Chaussee

 I've been screening my phone calls lately.  I made the mistake of answering a call from an unknown number.  It was a firm that wanted to buy my 'unused' land.  I told them I didn't want to sell and to take my name off any lists they had.  The person assured me he would and, of course, the number of calls escalated to three times a day.  So I didn't answer when a call came in this afternoon.  Fortunately, the caller then texted.  It was Mike and Sandy Chaussee who were going to be driving past on their way home and wondered if they could stop in for a quick hello.   I texted back I'd love to have them come but I was under time constraints because of library duty tonight.  Mike and I had worked as programmers for years at Honeywell.  As he put it, "Over a cup of coffee every morning we solved all of Honeywell and the world's problems."  Was glad to see that they hadn't changed.  Mike reads the blog so he wondered about the places I mention.  We all piled into Jormungandr and took off along the trails.  First past Gorgeous Gorge, then cross field to Bifrost and the trails leading to Neighbor Blake's land and then Neighbor Pheil's land, back up through the old forest and across the meadow to home.  We only had about a half hour before I had to get going to help out at the Summer Reading Program's big finale.    Left w/ a promise that they would stop over again.

Picture by Sandy Chaussee.  (Sorry Sandy, I edited me out of your pic.)

Yggdrasil VI

 Picked up Neighbor Anita and we drove to Winter Greenhouse.  Unlike when we went in May, we were the only customers this early in the morning.  We'd both earned 'bonus bucks' from the purchases we had made in the spring which can only be used in the month of July.  Anita wasn't looking for anything but was certain she would find something.  I was on a mission to purchase this year's Yggdrasil (i.e. Christmas tree).  I walked over to the outside tree area while she went into the greenhouses.   The last two years the greenhouse had few trees that would meet my Yggdrasil requirements.  This year, there were plenty.   The first grouping I came to were firs w/ soft deep green needles.  Not exactly the classical Christmas tree pyramid shape but I'm not fussy.  I am fussy though on the Zone.  Because of climate warming, my area has been upped to Zone 4.   I think the weather still vacillates between the two zones.   Yggdrasil will not only be my Christmas Tree but will then be planted  outside as part of a wind break.  I passed by the pretty firs - not Zone 3.   There were other nice sized and shaped trees of various species but I stopped at my usual White Spruce grouping.  Multiple specimens looked good. Next to them were Blue Spruce.  Beautifult but I'd just listened to a garden talk show where the arborist was counting off the number of diseases and bugs Blue Spruce specifically were susceptible.  A burly young man carried out my White Spruce choice and laid it down in the car's cargo area.  I took the ticket to the counter where Anita was just finishing up her purchases.  Her chosen perennials were not only on sale but partially paid for w/ her bonus bucks.  My bonus bucks took a chunk of change off the price of my tree also.   No crowds, big selection, low sale price.   Life is good!

Meadowsweet

Town Planning Commission meeting tonight.  First on the agenda was to OK two building permits.  One permit showed the proposed shed would be three feet within town road setback limits.  The Planning Commission chairman called up the property owner and said we were considering his request and if he agreed to set back the shed by three more feet from the road we would recommend the board approve.  Otherwise it wouldn't go forward.  The owner, unsurprisingly, readily agreed to the change and we recommended it to the Town Board w/ that proviso.  After finishing w/ both permits we went on to discuss the Town Board's request for a Noise Ordinance.  I'd had problems researching that one.  There were plenty of noise ordinances from other places in the state but I didn't think they really applied to a rural area where we live.  When it gets close to hunting season I can hear rifles being shot over and over all during the day: hunters sighting in their rifles.  During a snowy winter's night I can hear the whine of packs of snowmobiles traveling along the trail to the west of me.  A farmer has a contraption that sounds like a cannon.  It is set to go off randomly during the spring to scare geese away from newly planted fields.  These sounds may annoy me a little but I accept them as part of rural living and I don't think anyone here would want them penalized.   The reason for the request was specifically to limit the hum data centers emit.  The group suggested specific limits and we will write it up as a component of a larger ordinance governing data centers.   The next item on the agenda was a request for an automatic moratorium on any new large commercial businesses.  After looking through state laws, I didn't think such an ordinance is legal.  The group suggested looking again so will try using different verbiage.   The last item was the definition of a 'structure'.  That one was easy.  I looked up our zoning ordinance and it lists a number of definitions including what the Town considers a 'structure'.  Turned out to be exactly was the Town Board was looking for.   Tonight I think we actually earned our $25/meeting fee.

Agrimony

Excerpts from the Sheriff's Report:

1:45 a.m. - Female caller requesting police respond to her location as she spiritually sees a man with a gun.  She doesn't know his location but wants the police to respond to hers.

4:16 a.m. - Message from male stating he has nothing to live for.  His wife is abusive.  He is done.  He's heading for the water tower.  Deputies checked water tower.  Later he was located sitting in front of his residence. DHHS contacted.

9:45 a.m. - Call from female concerned that her husband who sleeps in the camper usually leaves for work by now.  Asked Dispatch deputy to call and check him out.  Deputy made contact.  He said he's just trying to catch up on sleep.  12:44 p.m. - Caller who has been sleeping in camper on his property after an incident with his wife had questions regarding access to his residence.  He was told he has the right to the residence.  Caller is having a hard time with the heat and wants to go into the house that has air conditioning but doesn't want to be in contact with his wife who may make false allegations against him.  He decided to stay outside.

11:21 a.m. - Call from local bank reporting that while they were on the phone with a female, she mentioned that the husband was going to shoot himself.  Deputy spoke with male at residence.  He denied any suicidal comments or access to guns.  Male and female are married and working to remove each other from joint accounts.

2:14 p.m. - Call from employee at care facility reporting a patient whose foot was wrapped and wasn't changed in five days.  She was told not to cut it off.  She did anyway and it was leaking brown fluid and had maggots.  Her superior told her to clean and rewrap it and not send her to the hospital.  Will be turned over to an investigator.

2:37 p.m. - Traffic stop resulted in foot chase of shirtless male.  Foot chase ended inside library where male was tazed and fell five feet off of a book shelf.  Male was taken to hospital, medically cleared, and taken into custody on a warrant.

3:35 p.m. - Report of a person who is making random comments about law enforcement not doing their job.  Stating he works for CIA and DNR.  Individual tried to break into the fire department.  He keeps talking about the well and the water and he's been poking holes into an old sewer pipe.  He had his phone forwarded to County dispatch.  5:26 p.m. the next day - Request for extra patrols around Fire Department.  Person has attempted to get in rehab trailer and also inside fire station.  He left two notes wanting to join fire department, and another  claiming to be a 'United States Deputy'.  Deputy in contact with person.  He appears to have mental health issues.  He was told to stay away from fire department.  Deputy to reach out to DHHS adult services.

10:13 p.m. - disorderly conduct at beer garden.  Male was asked leave Mardi Gras celebration after he caused a disturbance.  He stated he was not going to leave.  He was arrested and brought to county jail.

10:31 p.m. - Caller reporting a female walking.  Caller is concerned because it's getting dark out.  Deputy in contact with female who was released from county jail.  She didn't have a ride or a phone.  She has a friend in a town 30 miles away so she was walking there.  Deputy gave her a ride to the county line.

Brent in the kitchen

 

After church this morning I drove over to Ace Hardware to pick up chainsaw oil and weed trimmer wire.  I found the wire pretty easily but was dazzled by the number of specialized oils.  As I've said, my local Ace is a wonderful place to shop 'cause stand too long in a spot and someone will stop to offer help.  Two men in Ace vests came over and I asked where I could find chainsaw chain and bar oil.   They pointed at the bottom shelf  to my left.  Lots of multi-colored and varied containers there.  I asked if they could actually touch the one I needed.  One of the men smiled and picked up a bottle for me.  Sure enough, it had written in bold letters across the front "Chain and Bar Oil".  Felt foolish but they assured me it happens often.  When I got home, Brother Brent was in the midst of making a triple berry pie.  I sat on one of the counter chairs and watched.  He followed the recipe on his phone to the letter.  Digging into the sugar bag, he extracted a cup of sugar.  It was heaping over the top but the recipe didn't say anything about leveling it off.  He asked Sister-in-Law Evelyn how much a 'smidgen' of salt would be.  The recipe said to mix cornstarch into some of the berry juice.  He measured the cornstarch into a bowl.  Then dropped it all w/ a plop into the berry juice creating a snowstorm of particles which slowly drifted down to rest on the countertop.  Actually, I'm thinking that incident at Ace Hardware wasn't so embarrassing  after all.

It is a delicious pie!

New growth on a Red Maple

 

On the Morning Constitutional I've been listening for the Morning Chorus.  That's when the sun comes up and the birds sing to greet it (or more probably to reestablish their territories).  I notice in the spring as the choir slowly builds w/ robins, finches, sparrows, thrashers, bob-o-links, etc.  After that it's just a background sound I expect.  Each year though I find I'm surprised when I realize it's gone.  Thought this year I'd try and pinpoint when there is no longer a burst of song at the beginning of the day.  As of today, it's still there.  Maybe not as robust as it was mid-spring but all of choir sections - the basses, tenors, altos, and sopranos - ae still here.

Bopped down to the Town Hall this morning and met up w/ Chief Inspector Andy.  I wanted to set up the vote tabulator before the Public Test next week.  Since we weren't working w/ actual ballots or voting cartridges, no need to announce it to the public though, of course, I let the Town Clerk know.  She has ultimate responsible for all elections held in the Town and should be kept aware of what's going on.  Pulled the tabulator and ballot bin out of the back room.  It hadn't been plugged in since April.  I plugged it in and Andy and I got out the test cartridges and test access info so we could bring up the machine.  'Test' ballots, cartridges, and access info were sent along w/ the machines when we bought them and the people on the ballot are Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, etc.  The test capability is to allow us to train people on the machine.  Came in handy today since we wanted to set the date and time.  Interestingly, the date was still correct and the time was off by only two minutes.  Good to know.  If the town hall does ever lose power during an election, the tabulator will have plenty of backup power to get us through the day.  When I got home I called two people on the Town Board approved list of poll workers.  One said they could work the morning shift and one the afternoon.  Also checked in w/ another who will function as a backup should a poll worker have to bow out at the last minute.  All of it didn't take long but plans fail when we fail to plan.  Ooh ... just felt a Honeywell vibe go through me.

Siblings

I sent a picture of the siblings to my cousin Norma.  She's actually a cousin of my father but relationships get too convoluted w/ the second/third/once-removed stuff so I revert to a simple 'cousin' for those people related in some way.  She responded that we all had that 'Mayer look'.  Had to laugh.  I've got pics of each of us taken when we were in grade school and thought the same thing.  

Brothers Brent and Russell worked in the afternoon on a project to cut down limbs of trees that were overhanging Russell's chicken coop.  Brent was happy.  He could use the chainsaw all afternoon plus he cut down the pear trees that have been taking over the Stockade.    Will add some of the larger pieces of plum tree to my firewood stacked in the garage.  As I remember apple, pear, and cherry wood emits a sweet fragrance when burned.

Photo by Rebecca Webb.

Blue Vervain

Seventh week of the Summer Reading Program.  I missed the sixth week so had two patches to iron on.  Added a Stegosaurus and an Ankylosaurus to the existing T- Rex, Velociraptor, Troodon, Lambeosaurus, and Plesiosaur already on my shirt.  The two new ones went on each sleeve.  I thought it was fitting to put 'ARM'ored dinosaurs there.  (Yes, I know.  No one is going to notice my little joke.)  One more week of the Summer Reading Program to go.  My plan is to add the last patch on the back of my shirt near the neckline - should it be an Oviraptor or a Brachiosaurus?  Decisions, decisions.

The library wasn't overly busy tonight.  The Summer Reading Program activity for this week was finding 'dinosaur eggs' at the park.  I believe the eggs are similar to the plastic eggs kids hunt for at Easter except these have little dinosaur toys inside.   Some parents came in to the library forgetting about tonight's change of venue.   The kids spun the wheel, picked up more books, and took off for the park.  A lady who was answering a Facebook Marketplace ad was from out-of-town and early for her meeting.   She was just looking for a place to wait.  She checked out the books on sale and talked w/ the librarian until it was time for her meeting. Other people came to use a computer, play a game, do some research.  The reasons for visiting a library can be quite varied.