"...this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate.  So many people wanted to believe me!

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile."    Howard W Campbell Jr in Kurt Vonnegut's   Mother Night

Based on the amount of money Linda and I spent on gasoline this year so far, we have conservatively contributed about 7 tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from that source alone.  (26# CO2 per gallon of gasoline burned)  Doing our bit to warm the planet.

We had a good visit with Tracey and Donald on Thanksgiving.   Donald has lived his whole life in the Clinton County north country of NY, and I learned a couple new terms.   The tree I know as 'ironwood' in our area, American Hophornbeam, (Ostrya virginiana), he knows as 'hardack'.   He was touting its value as a very hard firewood, well capable of holding the woodstove fire overnight.   And if  you weren't careful in the way you burned it, it could burn too hot and 'twist' the stove.  That was the second new term, by which he meant it could warp the iron.  May have to add both to my vocabulary.

Moving muck at Montezuma has progressed to where we are working at the water's edge.   The softer soil requires the use of wooden platforms to support the enormous weight.  

Evening Grosbeaks are kinda unusual around here,   but quite a beautiful bird.  Seen here in Wayne County Saturday.

Cecropia moth cocoon found while sitting in my tree stand.  Didn't know what it was until I looked online.

The cocoon has a small hole in it which didn't bode well for the moth pupa.










I had to cut it open and there was a small, hairy beetle.   It had apparently had a number of meals before leaving four beetle pupa in the cocoon.   Nice plan for the beetle.