Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper and Phyllis in presenting the start of Sept. 1, 2024 as viewed over Wisconsin’s Capitol. It shows promise of being yet another great day. Aren’t they all! Photo by Bill Stokes See more at… The Bill Stokes Author Page
Category:Wisconsin
Kickass and the Crane Hunt
Attribution: Kyletracysrs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, says the keeper notes yet another push for a Wisconsin hunting season on sandhill cranes. As reported by Henry Redman in the “Wisconsin Examiner” the crane hunt is being touted as relief for farmers who claim losses of $900,000 from cranes …
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Kickass and UW Health
Attribution: Av9, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from exposure to the sprawling UW health care system as he retrieves Phyllis from her hip replacement surgery, concludes that the modern hospital may be both the ultimate point of civilization’s advance and the most complex …
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Kickass Visits the Prairie
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper and Phyllis that this is the time of prairie glory with such expansive growth of spectacular blossoming plants as to defy description. On a recent tour of family property west of Madison, Vista West neighbors Joyce and Jerry hosted the keeper …
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Kickass Tours Westfield
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as Phyllis was lunching with granddaughter Alexis in Westfield, the keeper did a patrol of nostalgia around the area that for 40 plus years starting in 1961 was where he most wanted to be. The A-frame cabin he and friends built along …
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Kickass and Chinook Camping
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in lamenting the undeniable verity that their camping days are in the past, but the memories prevail including those that involved the keeper’s wonderful little Chinook RV with its unique military-type appearance, diesel engine and “Lets go” character. One …
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Yearly Cycle
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Every year during the last week of July, the Milwaukee Riverwest neighborhood, an eclectic enclave of artists, musicians, families, and working folks, hosts the Riverwest 24, a twenty-four-hour bicycle race that runs along the neighborhood streets. According to the Riverwest 24 website, the event came about because of efforts by …
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Kickass and Phyllis’s Garden
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along word that the keeper is declaring war on the rabbit that is invading Phyllis’s raised garden and eating the tomatoes that the keeper had plans for. The keeper remembers asking his aged father on one of dad’s later birthdays what he had …
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Kickass Visits Jerry and Mary Davis
Attribution: Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that in the tradition of “country copy” reporting whereby visits and personal events are duly noted and commented on, “The keeper and Phyllis were drop-in guests at the magnificent prairie and natural gardens of Jerry and Mary Davis near Barneveld where a …
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Kickass and Threshing Memories
Attribution: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be napping through the keeper’s obligatory annual threshing time reminiscence. Show the keeper a former farm kid whose memory goes back that far and he will show you someone who romanticizes the time when neighbors assembled around …
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Kickass and Weed Edibles
Attribution: Monica Arellano-Ongpin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s inclination to concoct “adventure omelets” for his breakfast—using whatever he finds in the fridge, caught up with him yesterday when, along with some leftover kale he found what he took to be a couple chunks of …
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Kickass and the Windshield Survey
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis spent part of the 4thof July doing one of their windshield surveys to assure themselves that, despite a political state of chaos, there is a comforting dominant normalcy prevailing in the natural world and it is interesting to …
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