Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is aware, along with the keeper, that one of life’s important lessons is the ability to handle rejection; but when it is consistently handed out by a fungus, changes need to be made: hence this May, the keeper announces that …
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Category:Nature
Kickass and Naked Gardening Day
Tainted Fruit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, constantly making excuses for the keeper’s inclination to screw things up, is stepping in to try to explain how he—the keeper, managed to confuse Mother’s Day—the first Sunday in May, with Naked Gardening Day—the first Saturday in May. …
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Old Guard
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter My family is lucky enough to own lakefront property in Northern Wisconsin. We’ve been going there for over fifty years, ever since my brothers and I were children. My mother would pile us into our red VW bug on the first day of summer vacation, drive for five hours, …
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Kickass and Bird Migration
Antonio, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in his fascination with the fact that, according to ornithologists, 340 million birds will migrate across the skies of the US tonight. The incredible timeless night migration of birds is now being negatively affected by human …
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Kickass and Attenborough
David AttenboroughDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au, CC BY 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s assessment that watching the PBS “Climate Change” program hosted by David Attenborough produced the sensation of being aboard a doomed airliner. The program’s take-away for the keeper was …
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Kickass and the Trees
Maud Newton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting the trees, huddled now in late April on the hills in skeletal nudity, but beginning to offer tender buds to buy the leafy/lace green gowns to take them dancing extravagantly through the long …
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Kickass and A Walk in the Woods
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from reading The Overstory, where Richard Powers relates trees to humans, walked in the woods with son Larry to assess the kill of ash trees by the invasive emerald ash borer. The walk included pauses at many of the …
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Kickass and Talking Trees
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has been working with the keeper in the burgeoning field of other life forms—like trees and other plants, having here-to-fore unknown abilities to communicate with each other, and with humans: if you are of a certain mindset and you take a walk in the woods—the …
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In Nebraska
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I recently had occasion to take a long cross-country road trip, spanning the Midwest, Colorado, and New Mexico. It’s a grueling ride, taking over twenty hours, but the pain is worth it. Driving through the plains and rolling hills and sometimes bleak plains offers the opportunity to get …
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Kickass and Bird Photos
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has pretty much given up on assisting the keeper with his “bird” issues, including, of course, his place in the unstated sandhill crane photo competition that is ongoing as the big birds return to the state in droves. Prior to the most recent snow …
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Kickass and the Dead Beaver
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper in making something of his—the keeper’s memory of the March afternoon when most of the student body of the country school trudged across the deep melting snow of Becker’s woods to see the bloated body of the beaver that had been trapped …
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Kickass and Driftless Tour
Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Dülmen, Hausdülmen, Sonnenaufgang — 2015 — 4952” / CC BY-SA 4.0 By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stayed home and rested as the keeper and Phyllis had an afternoon windshield lunch with the eagles and the crows in the snow-frosted Driftless hills of southwest Wisconsin. Aged venison was on the menu for the birds as they …
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