Attribution: Photo by Omar Ramadan on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis were invited by Bonnie and Ed to visit with one of their granddaughters–Laila, who had expressed an interest in writing. Ever willing to talk about himself, the keeper told his story of how Ed Gein, the Plainfield grave-robbing …
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Category:Nature
Kickass and Surviving the Tornado
Attribution: Quincy Gordon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kickass and Carl’s Hawk
Attribution: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, naps as the keeper remembers the occasion of his Chinese friend Carl Lee and the red-tailed hawk with the broken wing. The keeper happened upon the injured hawk on a morning pheasant hunt and wrapped it in his jacket for transportation …
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Kickass and Flying Through the Night
Attribution: Photo by Chris Briggs on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that while the keeper and Phyllis and their flightless crowd slept through last night, 25.2 million birds were in flight up in the night sky on their way to summer family- rearing haunts as far away as the arctic tundra. That is a …
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Kickass and Marsh Hawk Eggs
Attribution: Photo by Ben Lande on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting on this Easter morning that maybe one of the reasons he has lived so long is to give him time to make amends, or at least apologize for some of the thoughtless things he did as a farm boy …
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Kickass and Birds and Frogs
Attribution: Photo by Elisa Stone on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports a major shift in the keeper’s area of interest this spring from “birding” to “frogging” based on DNR information suggesting that he is less likely to be comfortable in the company of millions of migrating warblers and more at ease consorting with emerging …
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Oh, Christmas Tree
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Each year, in the family holiday tradition, my wife and I venture out to buy our Christmas tree. We’re lucky enough to live across the street from a big tree lot so we don’t have very far to go—we can walk right over. It’s very convenient. It’s also …
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Kickass and Deer-Yard Night
Attribution: Photo by Nathan Karsgaard on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the inevitability of the keeper using the first bitter cold winter day to regale Phyllis with the account of his spending the night in a Bad River deer yard when the temperature dropped to 30 below and he could not buckle his snowshoes …
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Kickass and Leftovers
Attribution: Photo by Gurth Bramall on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be joining the keeper and Phyllis in their efforts at improving relationships with some of the other pack species by viewing the consumption of leftovers as “returning to the kill” in the mode of lions, wolves or hyenas. While there is different terminology …
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Light in the Sky
By Geoff Carter Photos by Geoff Carter My wife and I went up to our cabin in the Wisconsin Northwoods about a week ago to enjoy the fall colors and to relax a little bit. The leaves were a little past their peak, but it was still beautiful. Golden ash, scarlet maple, and yellow birch …
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Time of the Season
The Pen in Hand Blog
Illustration by Michael DiMilo
Kickass and Demonstration for Hope
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in wondering if there are parallels in NATURE to the current trend of humans gathering to hold signs along the streets in an expression of opposition to a vicious predator perched on the mountain top while devouring beloved Alpha …
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