View from the Loft

I'm cranky (part one)

I'm cranky for a lot of reasons.

Let's start with number one: since the winter solstice, we have had two weeks without heat. We had a day and a half in between the weeks. An ice storm knocked out our power completely starting on December 22nd, so we could not have the traditional Christmas Day family gathering here. Our daughter was a gracious hostess and her husband a gracious host for dinner that day, so it's not as if we didn't have Christmas. It was just unexpected, and at least one of the grandkids was quite disappointed about not coming to Nana and Pop's house. 

We live in a rural area, so we rely on a well for our water, a well that uses a pump powered by electricity. Thus we had no running water for about a week. Not fun. We tried to keep it in perspective, though, thinking about people with no roof over their heads.  And we do have a generator, so we kept our freezers and refrigerators running throughout. We lit up the Christmas tree in the evenings. We have a propane space heater that puts out a lot of heat, so we didn't freeze, and for a couple of nights the bedroom gas fireplace worked. Then it quit, and we slept on the sofa and loveseat in the living room after that.

We'd been hoping to have an extended family get-together here on the 29th, but due to the power outage, we had to cancel. That was after cancelling once before because we were both sick.

A day and a half after power was restored, we got up to a cold house: the furnace had broken down. That was a week ago today. Having electricity is good, though. We bought a couple of small electric space heaters and use one in the bathroom so we can take showers without freezing to death. We had bought a queen-size inflatable bed last summer (which we had completely forgotten about during the ice storm) , thinking we might have overnight guests who would need it, so we put that up in the living room. Our kitchen and living area are contiguous and the propane heater, plus one electric heater, do a good job of keeping the temperature in the 60s. Of course we are spending a lot on propane, but what are you gonna do? 

And now we've had about 15 inches of new snow, complete with wind and some pretty hefty drifts, and plummeting temperatures. Still waiting for the new motor that will at least temporarily repair our furnace. But we may very well have to get a new furnace this year. Neither of us wanted to try having a replacement installed in the winter.

We had hoped to have our son and his significant other over on Sunday, but with the snow and the distance they have to travel, we cancelled out of fears about the road conditions.

So nobody has seen our tree or the Dickens village or the cedar roping except us and the furnace repairman. It's a lovely tree, too, twelve and a half feet tall and, if I do say so myself, beautifully decorated--not designer decorated, but eclectically decorated. The grandkids did not get to snag the candy canes off the branches or find the ornaments they particularly like. Disappointing.

Of course we are quite privileged, regardless of inconveniences, compared to so many who have been living in terrible circumstances, often due to economic policies that are hurting untold numbers of people. We try to keep that in mind.

But being human, we still piss and moan.

 

 

 

 

Christmas cards

Surfing among the skeptical/humanist/nontheist blogs recently, I came across a post asking what fellow atheists like or dislike in holiday cards.

In this question lie buried myriad other questions, such as,

• Why do atheists send holiday cards? If they don't believe in Jesus/God, then why celebrate the holiday at all?
• Do atheists even have a right (in ethical terms) to object to certain kinds of cards? It's not their holiday, after all. Who are they to object to a manger scene?
• Since atheists are in the minority, shouldn't they just shut up and go with the flow?

And so on.

I've addressed the topic of Christmas before. Yes, I'm a nonbeliever, and yes, I still love Christmas. I've never felt that I had to abandon the traditions I love, especially as so many of those traditions have their roots in pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. I'm not pagan, either--I don't have religious beliefs of any kind--but I can appreciate all of the symbols and archetypes that abound. Myth and story will never lose their enchantment for me.

I like sending and receiving Christmas cards. I choose secular cards, and particularly favor cards that feature the word "peace." UNICEF offers some good choices, and the money goes to children in need, so I often buy holiday cards from that organization.

I don't like getting religious cards, but for the most part, I also don't attribute our getting Jesus-y cards to specific intent on the part of the sender. It does, however, irk me to some extent that most Christians seem to feel that all share their beliefs. That's not exactly astonishing, given the cultural mainstream, but sometimes it rankles nonetheless. I'm sure, too, that Christians feel that if there's any time where religious figures and symbols are called for, it's at Christmas. I understand that. I don't take offense at people's Christmas cards, even when my gut reaction is "yuck." I'm pretty much just gratified that they thought of James and me, and signaled that with a card.

My spouse used to get birthday cards from his mom once in a while in which she would write something about how she hoped he'd find Jesus. Those used to bother me and, I think (he's not much to comment on such things), James. Do believers really think that we nonbelievers haven't thought these things through? That we're just uninformed? Or steeped in "sin"?

Anyway, holiday cards just aren't something to get your shorts in a knot about. I think we all just want to reach out at this time of year and let people know they're still important to us, that we think of them even when we don't stay in touch as we should, that they are not absent from our thoughts, hearts, and lives. 

So for this atheist (or am I an agnostic?), Christmas cards will remain a feature of the holidays. Is it too early to say Merry Christmas? 

 

Rainbow!

And what a rainbow! It was huge, it was incredibly bright, and it was a double, even (though faint) at the top of the arch. I don't think we've ever seen a rainbow quite so brilliant.

Note the second rainbow left of the "main" one. I've been told that the double is a reflection of the actual rainbow, and sure enough, you can see that the order of the color bands is reversed in the reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

Last week's snow

This is very tardy, since we didn't get our photos downloaded in a timely fashion. But these are a few photos of last week's snow, which amounted to close to a foot. It was difficult to measure because of drifting.

Those are rabbit tracks in the snow on our front porch. Notice how the drift curls at the top, reminiscent of a wave.

 

Still snowing. The drift blocked the exit from the porch.

 

James shoveled a path through the snow on the front porch before he could even think about the sidewalk and driveway. 
 

 

Was that a Big Cat I heard?

Recently I was recounting for the umpteenth time how, on a warm night that necessitated an open bedroom window, I heard a scream that made my hair stand on end. It sounded human--like somebody being murdered, and that's no exaggeration--but two or three more screams showed whatever it was to be moving away. I didn't know what it was, but my heart was pounding, and it was hard to get back to sleep. (I first wrote about it here--scroll down.)

Hannah was part of the conversation--well, okay, it was more like a monologue on my part, so she was part of the audience--and after she got home from a visit to our place, she sent me some links to news articles that made me think I may actually have heard a large cat, possibly a cougar (also known as puma, mountain lion, catamount, and panther).

 There's a lot of controversy about cougars in Michigan, with the Department of Natural Resources taking the stand that any cougars in the state are likely escaped pets, while many Michiganders swear they've seen the big cats--too many sightings to be merely escaped pets. Some people accuse the DNR of refusing to look for the cats because, as an endangered species in the state, resources would have to be devoted to this animal. The DNR maintains that it has not seen a corpse nor evidence of any breeding cougars; some residents have stated that they have indeed seen kittens.

One thing is certain: DNA analysis of scat and of hair and blood have proven the existence of some cougars in the state. But, as I said, the DNR believes that the only cougars in the state are illegally owned pets that have made their getaway.

But there are plenty of reported sightings. Last February,

That was made plain Thursday at a Senate Agriculture and Bioeconomy Committee hearing called by chairman Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Muskegon.

He wants to know why the Department of Natural Resources won't acknowledge that there seems to be a breeding population of cougars, and why the agency won't live up to its mandate under the state Endangered Species Act to study and try to protect them.

* * * * *

After hearing from witnesses who ranged from scientists to veterinarians to regular folks, Van Woerkom said every member of his committee is convinced that these people didn't see dogs or house cats but saw real cougars that in some cases had to be breeding.

"When reliable people tell you they saw a cougar with kittens, that's pretty good evidence," Van Woerkom said. "I've been bringing this up with the DNR for three or four years and they just kind of blow it off, saying we have no physical evidence. But that's not true. We have physical evidence, and it looks like (cougars) stretch from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.

A few cougars, however, do not constitute a breeding population, and the DNR claims that no scientific evidence exists for that. 

Both Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition and Save the Cougar.org list purported sightings, sightings of kittens, news items concerning cougars, and stories by those who say they have seen cougars.

I'm willing to believe that there is a breeding population of cougars, particularly a possibility in the Upper Peninsula, but some of the sightings/stories are probably bogus, too, knowing how easy it is for people to see what they want to see. (Also, when you read that what's been reported as a cougar sometimes turns out to be a coyote, it tends to make you agnostic on the issue.)

Could I have heard a cougar that night? This is similar to what I heard, although the animal was much, much closer than it sounds in the video:

 

On the other hand, I didn't know that foxes screamed, and we have our share of those, too:

 

I'm looking for a better quality audio clip for the cougar scream, which I'll post if and when I come across one. Meanwhile, I do think it's possible that I heard a cougar that night. Nothing else I've come across on the Internet seems like as good a match.

 

Autumn color

No, not the trees--the flowers here on the homestead.

We planted some hardy mums this year. We'd been talking about it, and then when my sister Jana gave us a potted mum, we knew the time had come.

 

 

 

And then there are the nasturtiums, which have bloomed beautifully all summer and so far this fall.

 

Kittens!

We've had kittens for a couple of months now, and I've been derelict in not putting up photos. Here are some from when we first got them. Ariel and Artemis:

 

Here's Artemis solo:

 

Ariel:

 

 

They often sleep on top of each other or all tangled up:

 

They've grown a lot since then and will soon be cats, as is the way of kittens. Tomorrow they go to the vet to be spayed and declawed, poor babies. I hope they recover quickly and with no infections or other complications.

Barred owl

Last week we were driving around, looking at the beautiful effects of an ice fog, when James spotted a barred owl on a pole. It's the first one I can remember seeing. (Do follow the link and click on the sound--there's a reason it's also called a hoot owl!)

The case of the curious deer

The other morning we watched as a deer stalked "our" cranes--the ones that return to nest here each year. As you can see, this year's two colts both survived. Anyway, the deer followed these cranes around for a bit, walking up a dirt mound where one had settled, then following it down off the mound as it rejoined the group.

The deer just seemed to be curious about these large birds. Or maybe he/she just wanted to say hi.(Click on photo for a larger picture.)

It's that time again: the GBBC

All winter long we enjoy watching the birds that come to our feeder, from the black-capped chickadees to the redbellied woodpeckers. And now it's time for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which is this weekend, February 13-16. It's easy to participate and requires only a little of your time--as little as 15 minutes. Of course, you can birdwatch for longer than that, and you can count birds on more than one day and in more than one place. Get all the details here. You can download a tally sheet to keep track of the species, but then you simply enter your data on-line. And here's a nifty poster that you can print out or e-mail to fellow birders.

Why should you participate? Because each checklist contributes valuable information about such things as distribution of species and migratory patterns:

In 2008, GBBC participants documented the huge southward movement of northern finches from Canada, as well as the expanding ranges of the Eurasian Collared Dove and the Redbellied Woodpecker. Northern Bobwhite and Eastern Meadowlark  numbers continue to decline. Some species showed up in GBBC reports for the very first time.

Indeed, the Audubon Society just released a report showing that climate change is affecting bird populations. (Sorry, I couldn't get the link to open for me; the name of the report is Birds and Climate Change: Ecological Disruption in Motion.) The AP did a story on it here.

When it comes to global warming, the canary in the coal mine isn't a canary at all. It's a purple finch.

As the temperature across the U.S. has gotten warmer, the purple finch has been spending its winters more than 400 miles farther north than it used to.

And it's not alone.

An Audubon Society study to be released Tuesday found that more than half of 305 birds species in North America, a hodgepodge that includes robins, gulls, chickadees and owls, are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago.

The purple finch was the biggest northward mover. Its wintering grounds are now more along the latitude of Milwaukee, Wis., instead of Springfield, Mo.

Bird ranges can expand and shift for many reasons, among them urban sprawl, deforestation and the supplemental diet provided by backyard feeders. But researchers say the only explanation for why so many birds over such a broad area are wintering in more northern locales is global warming.

You can be part of documenting these changes, and it's easy and fun--and a great activity for kids. The GBBC site can even help you learn to identify species. Browse the site to see what it offers (including some great photos by last year's participants), but do plan to spend just fifteen minutes of your time this weekend helping scientists and conservationists understand the changes bird populations are experiencing--and what that might say about environmental and climate change as well.