Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally posted in December, 2019) 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. …
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Category:Nature
Kickass and the Call of the Sandhill Crane
Attribution: Andrew C, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis will be unavailable for social and business contacts as they closet themselves in their Audubon unsanctioned work to perfect the “unison cough” as in the mode of the sandhill cranes unison call. While the …
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Kickass and Lovesick Elk
Attribution: Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in drawing useful lessons from the love-sick Wisconsin elk that left its comfortable Black River Forest home, stopped briefly in McFarland and then crossed over into Illinois only to be struck and …
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Kickass and Hummingbirds
Attribution: Paul Harrison, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the information that it was apparently not enough to up the alcoholic content of the nectar in the balcony hummingbird feeder to the degree that some hummingbirds might opt to winter in Wisconsin. It might have helped keep …
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Kickass and Gerrymandered Geese
Attribution: Jocelyn Anderson, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s observation that during the close-to-a-century that he has been alive his relationship with the Canada geese has gone from farm-boy fascination with the high-flying V formations that signaled distant other-worlds of romantic wildness and mystery, to …
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Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Towering White Pines—monarchs of the North. Beautiful cold and crystal-clear lakes. Deep, dark, peaceful woods. Silent, gold-tinged, magenta clouds scattered across the skies at sunset. Wisps of fog rising from the water at dawn. Red-eyed loons rising from the cool depths. These are the Northwoods of Wisconsin, better …
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Kickass and Tree Dancing
Attribution: Leonhard Lenz, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, may see trees in a different light than the keeper and Phyllis, but on a recent day it was a universal requirement to appreciate and marvel at the big plants as they did what seemed to be a last summer dance …
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Kickass and the Birds
John James Audobon (1785-1851), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes on word from the keeper and Phyllis as they spent day-three of their sand country lake runaway in the greatest of company: the birds. First it was the pair of sandhills at the bird feeder just outside the …
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Kickass and the Creek Bottom
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, in his efforts to get the most out of the visit he and Phyllis are making to the central sand country thought it would be nice to show Phyllis a natural spring that was a favorite feature of property where …
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Kickass and Running Away
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis are off-leash and have run away to spend a few days on the shore of a very small—no motors, lake in the central sand country. Running away is a life-long option from the time Mom’s discipline seemed extreme …
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Kickass Snubbed by Crows
Attribution: Sheila Sund from Salem, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has been trying to assist the keeper in his relationship with crows, but the brutal truth may be that the crows are smarter than the keeper and choose not to waste their time with him. After …
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Kickass and Political Bear Hounds
Attribution: Michelle Buntin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, uses his superior scenting abilities to assist the keeper in sniffing out the fact that there exists a painful parallel in the outrageous bear hound training now occurring in Wisconsin’s north woods and the absurd gerrymandered political scene prevailing statewide …
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