The First Loon

There’s a loon calling,
calling from down the bay.
He sounds so hauntingly lonely
As if he’s lost his way.

I don’t hear any answer
To his plaintive cry
His wail is now a tolling
so sad, now low, now high

The sky is growing darker
A darkening dusk is near
And still he calls more loudly
All in vain I fear.

A cold north wind is blowing
A chill is in the air
The ice edge is now black as coal
The sun’s warm rays are rare.

I sorrow for this traveler
I hope his mate’s close by
I pray she hears his plaintive calls
Before he tries to fly.

Out in the broadening bay mouth
I hear a distant voice
Perhaps I am mistaken
The wind is shrill and moist.

Again I hear the caller
His pace has quickened some
I think He’s hearing voices
Looking where it’s from

And yes, I hear it once more
That long and sultry moan
On the icy wind a blowing
Above the cold ice groan


And though the light is failing
And cold eyes start to tear
I think I see a tiny speak
Above the bay appear.

I think our bay bound fellow
Has spied the bird as well
For now his cries increasing
Have grown into a yell

On she comes through fearful gale
Wing sounds rhythmically beating
Her dark eyes searching murky shorelines
Through the dusk now fleeting

Light now gone hides back bay waters
On set wings she’s gliding
To land among the Lilly pads
His urgent cries now subsiding

Though the wind still roils the water
the back bay waves receding
the Loon pair glides in softer calmness
the last mauve day glow fleeting

I don’t hear their silent speaking
Night brings quiet to the shore edge gloom
They’ve tucked into some quiet pocket
To float among the lily blooms

Perhaps tomorrow will bring fair skies
And just a breeze will blow
But for this nights hours passing
Their tired strength will grow.

The morrows light will come quickly
For distant waters they’ll take flight
But for now, they float quietly dreaming
Loon dreams through the night

Local Ornthologist Forcasts Return of Wisconsin's Migratory Birds

A noted North Woods birder has published his yearly forecast for the return of several of the North Woods more prestigious feathered inhabitants this spring. Mr. Porter, an expert in bird movements in the upper Mississippi Flyway has devoted his entire life in the study of both large and small bird species, and says that he is looking forward to the return of our feathered friends, “as quickly as they can get here”. Porter claims a vast knowledge of the habits of birds in the Lakeland area, but qualifies his claim of expertise by saying that “we can all learn more." “Pursuing birds of any shape or form has captivated me all of my life, he says, and I doubt that there is any more satisfying avocation than building up as large a resume as a birder as possible.”

Porter’s list includes the forecasted arrival dates of our more common bird species, such as the Evening Grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina), the American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis), and the Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus). What sets Porter apart however are his projections for the more obscure species such as the Indigo Bunting (Passerina amoena), the Eastern Wood Pewee (Contopus virens) , and any number of Warblers which populate our woodlands in summer.

Porter does have his detractors however. Some of the more local experts say that his method of data collection is crude and outdated. Porter claims that his methods “are similar to those of James J. Audubon himself, and at times small sacrifices must be made if we are to make progress.”

Mr Porter was recently asked if he ever tires of the pursuit of birds. "I've always had a healthy apetite for birding, and I doubt that it will ever change."

NEXT WEEK: MR. PORTERS FAVORITE NORTH WOODS AVIAN RECIPES

Idle Chatter

Here it is friends, my latest first attempt at “woodsy wisdom” concerning political thought. If I offend you please get over it. It’s not aimed specifically at you, it’s aimed at those people in Wisconsin’s congressional delegation that should have learned the difference between right and wrong as a child, when it didn’t cost the rest of us “real money”.

A week ago, New York Senator Charles Schumer made a speech on the floor of the Senate where he spoke on the subject of the government stimulus package. Let me say right up front that this peaceful protestation of our government’s largesse is not against the idea of a stimulus plan. If you look elsewhere in this blog you will find my own plan to jump start this economy. (If you do find it please let me know as I haven’t been able to locate it since I posted it). No, this outcry of outrage is aimed at the integrity of our states Congressmen and Congresswomen and Senators.

Senator Schumer exclaimed (I paraphrase here) “For all of you in the “chattering class” who rail against the little “porky” earmarks in this bill, I’ve got news for you. The American people don’t care!

I can best illustrate my disgust for his opinion by an analogy from my deep and dark past.
When I was 12 years of age my parents bought me a bicycle for my birthday. I had asked specifically for a Schwinn 10 speed road bike like the one that Karl Hop’s folks had gotten him for Christmas. When my birthday rolled around (January 26th if your near a home depot), I came down to breakfast hoping to see a shiny new Schwinn parked next to my place at the dining room table. There it was. A shiny new bike, with the same drop down handlebars, the same greasy new chain, the same impressive and complicated gears on the back axel, and the same chrome plated air pump attached to the frame. The same as Karl’s bike. It even had the same tiny and hard leather seat that has lead to the same elevated prostate problems in men all over the world. There was only one difference, and it was all that mattered to me. It was not a Schwinn at all, but an English Dunnelt bike, probably just as good as a Schwinn, but no Schwinn just the same. Let’s face it, when your 12 it’s hard to be happy when you’re sad, but like all good American boys I stiffened my upper lip and went forward even though my heart wasn’t in it.

When I was 12 all of the kids in my neighborhood boarded the municipal bus at Beaver Park each Saturday morning and went to down town Cedar Rapids to the Paramount Theater to watch kid’s movies. It’s a tribute to Cedar Rapids, and the times that 6 or 8 pre-teen kids could take a bus 29 blocks to down town and go to the movies without a chaperone or parent, but that’s another story. After the movies got out, we would walk up Third Avenue to 9th street to reboard the bus to ride back to Beaver Park. When we would walk past the corner of 8th street and 3rd avenue on our homeward journey, we would pass the Hill Brothers Cedar Rapids Cyclery Shop, the Schwinn dealer in town (Dunnelt bikes were sold by Sears).

Somewhere in May of that year I suffered a flat tire. This was a major event in my life (I remember it like it was yesterday) because while all of my friends would raft up and ride their bikes to school, I had to walk. They would stay with me for the first 100 feet or so, but than they would lose patience with me and ride ahead. Like all good 12 year old boys in mental agony, I learned early on to hone my whining skills to get what I wanted. So it was that after just a few short days my mother gave in and committed to purchase for me a new tire. For some reason however she couldn’t get to Sears to get me the tire until the following week (I think her Nash Rambler was in the shop). I just couldn’t wait until the following week, so I raised the level of whining until she gave in. She called Hills Brothers Cedar Rapids Cyclery to see if they had a tire that would fit my bike, and low and behold, they did. So the stage was set for me to learn an important life lesson. She told the folks at Hills Brothers that she would have me stop by on my way home from the movies on Saturday and purchase the tire, and that they could send her a bill for the tire. My dad was a fairly prominent businessman in town, and the Hills Brothers were only too happy to extend my mother credit for a bicycle tire. So it was that I gained my first lesson about credit – It’s Free!

When my friends and I stopped at the Hills Brothers Cedar Rapids Cyclery Shop on 8th street on that next Saturday morning, My eyes were opened to a whole new world of purchasing possibilities. That shop was stuffed full of every aftermarket Schwinn bicycle part ever produced, tailor made for a 12 year old to purchase with his mothers credit.
For the next several Saturdays we would stop at that alter of retailing on the way home from the movies and I would purchase a shiny Schwinn do-dad for my not so shiny Dunnelt. This was really fun, right up to the day that an envelope from the Hills Brothers Cedar Rapids Cyclery Shop came in the mail. As I recall, it was a beautiful morning in Cedar Rapids. The birds were chirping, the children were playing, and the Cedar River flowed quietly to the sea. Than in an instant our lives were changed! My mother opened the bill and what had been a $1.25 cent bike tire had become a Schwinn bike one part at a time. Oh, the anguish, Oh, the disappointment, Oh, the humanity. Life for me would never be the same!

When my dad got home from work I hid in the coal room in the basement. The truth is however that while one can run, and one can hide, one can’t escape the truth. I stared death in the face that day, and only by the grace of God did I escape with my life. I recall only a few of the phrases that were shouted at me. “NO TRUST! YOU LIED TO ME! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ANYMORE! The worst one was “NO INTEGRITY”! Now I was getting the message he was sending, but no 12 year old kid in Cedar Rapids, Iowa had any idea what “integrity” was. This leads me to the point of this little muse. Our country's congress has not learned the lesson about what is INTEGRITY!

When our federal government spends our money, the act of deciding what things they fund is supposed to go through the appropriation process. That’s where the congress collectively decides on what the priorities are for spending a finite number of dollars that are taken in through taxes. In recent years however our legislators have begun to add line items to spending bills after they have already gone through the appropriation process! What this means is that after the congress has agreed to spend for examples sake say $100.00, when the money is actually paid out, it totals $125.00s. This has happened because Congressman or Senators have added what is known as “pork” to the bill after the fact, in the form of “Earmarks”. These are usually the pet projects of legislators that would have been excluded (in some cases had been excluded) in the appropriation bill to begin with.
Some of these projects are laudable, some have merit, most should be in specific states budgets. All of them should go through the appropriations process so that they can be evaluated against the nation’s priorities, and the limited tax monies available.

In my opinion (It’s my blog. I can say what I want!) earmarks demonstrate a total breakdown in the INTEGRITY of our Congress! It’s not a Democrat or Republican thing, as both parties share equally in the dishonest practice of adding earmarks. It’s the fact that individuals in our congress don’t want to have live within the countries means.

It’s just like me when I was twelve. I wanted a Schwinn, and one way or another I was going to have one! When my parents made the hard choice to buy me a Dunnelt bicycle to hold costs in line I wanted more and I went around the priority and in essence spent the money anyway. The truth is I stole the money by charging all those parts without my parent’s knowledge. The truth is that our congressional earmarkers steal money from us by charging all those pet projects. Senator Schumer, those “porky” little projects you think we don’t care about are just like those unauthorized bike part purchases I made when I was 12, and couldn’t afford them on my own.

You might say ”they're ok because they go to the people”. THAT’S BALONEY! We didn’t send you to Washington to steal the people blind! You might say “we don’t need to worry about it because it’s just a small amount compared to the total budget.” Considering that as a country we are so far upside down that not one of us will ever see any progress in making up ANY of the national debt in our lifetime, that’s a heck of a statement. Here’s what I say, and I’m not chattering Senator Schumer, I’M SCRERAMING AT YOU!

YOU LIED TO ME! I CAN”T TRUST YOU! I’LL NEVER BELIEVE YOU AGAIN!
And perhaps the most damning thing I can say…..

YOU HAVE NO INTEGRITY!!!

(Thanks Dad for caring enough to say those things to me 45 years ago.)

Senator Schumer, didn't your dad ever teach you about honesty, truth and trust? I'm thinking that somebody needs a spanking!


UPDATE!..... This week two Wisconsin Legislators announced that they are not going to attach any earmarks to any bills coming out of congress. They are Democrat Senator Russel Feingold and Republican Representative Paul Ryan. Senator Feingold also announced that he would not vote for the proposed Omnibus spending bill due to the gross misuse of taxpayers money. Now this is bi-partizen agreement that we all should be embrace.

Welcome to Ned's North Woods Narrative, which has its origins set in the deep forests and sparkling lakes of Northern Wisconsin. This new and unimportant bit of journalism has been inspired by a blog that my son John and daughter in-law Courtney publish about life with their new son (and our first grandchild) Miles, in Boulder Colorado. Courtney writes the articles and John & Miles pose for the pictures.



February and March in the North Country inspire a kind of rural wit and wonder that in most other times of the year would be counted as just a bunch of boring gibberish. When you live amongst the trees in these two months however, it's amazing how your thoughts seem to become "inspirational" and "profound". You see the world much more clearly when you're about to nod off into a much deserved nap in an over stuffed Barka-lounger. My Sunday afternoons thought life becomes allot more prolific after the super bowl has been played, and so at the urging of all my literary fans out their (whose names escape me at this particular moment) I have decided to jump into publishing.



The only agenda which this blog will convey is that if one has a strong opinion on any particular subject, just wait a a day or two and it will pass. If you read it more than once, you will find that this blog will include articles on a wide range of subject matter, from the writers views on politics and religion, to reviews of books read and movies rented (income restraints keep me out of the theaters in mid winter here). There no doubt will be quite a few pictures if I can figure out how to add them into the blog format, but no need to worry, they will all be clean! I'll will do all I can to keep dirty words from landing here, and I promise not to resort to name calling or character assassination. If I break these promises you can post a reply (I think you can post a reply?).



So, there you have it! An invitation to visit an original and highly informative new blog which promises to hold your interest. One caution however, my wife says I never keep my promises.



I hope to see you return again and again to this site. If you do, please send a cash donation each time you visit! ( just kidding).



Ned