A Night at the Opera

At "Heart of a Soldier" - a new opera based on the life and death of Rick Rescorla.

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Natural Selection and Adirondack Oak Vinyl Siding at Shag Lake

The story of the "peppered moth" near industrial cities in England is the iconic example of natural selection found in every textbook on evolution:

Dark moths on light colored bark are easy targets for hungry birds but are hidden on pollution darkened trees.

In pre-industrial England, the dark moths were rare as they were easily picked off by birds from light colored trees. In post-industrial England, the light colored moths became rare as they were easily picked off against dark soot colored trees. Evolution in action.


Pictured here are some of the local fauna happily blending into the vast new expanse of Adirondack Oak siding we have introduced to Shag Lake. I could not help but wonder whether we may have shifted the local natural selection balance on the lake.

Leftover Night

Heading back in the morning, so time to clean out the refrigerator tonight.

Yesterday's trout, drizzled with sesame oil and planked on the grill, twice baked campfire potato (well - really once baked then microwaved), grilled sweet onion, smoked herring, Three Pear wine.

"Cast and Blast" completed ...

... after years of trying.

First Harlan bagged a grouse, getting the "Blast" - the hard part done.

Finally. Then off to the stream...

... a few hours later ...

... the "cast" was also complete.


We caught six or seven small ones, and I caught this one keeper.


Between the one grouse and one trout, not enough food for either one of us, so we stopped in Tino's in Negaunee for pizza and cudighi.

Tree hunting - day two

Gryff is ready.

Harlan is ready.

I am ready.

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Sunday Sunrise

Sunrise found our work crew heading out of town.

Their job done, the undocumented immigrant workers made an early morning run to to get safely south of the border under cover of darkness.

HDW contemplates the serenity of the sunrise after their departure.

Work is done. Time for fun with guns.

Tree hunting season opened this week. We'll see if we can bag some poplar.

After a pleasant walk in the woods with the usual result, also had time to for a few casts.

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The Trench...

A thing of beauty and wonder

... was not as difficult an undertaking as my earlier posts may have indicated. Brian and Aldo knocked it out in two hours flat.

Harlan provides a final QA Inspection

As always, expert management and coaching is the key to any successful endeavor.

Work crew has arrived...

The first shift has arrived. Brian on site with friend Aldo.

Workers crew quarters have been prepared.

The crew decided to immediately check out the work site and project scope. The wanted to get started on work right away, but I insisted they rest and wait until tomorrow.

You'v got to admire that kind of gumption.

It's a bit nippy here this morning.

I suggest the work crew bring some long johns.

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Moonrise on Big Shag Lake

I am sure this picture does not capture it, but we had a spectacular moonrise on the bay tonight.

Have I got a dirty job for you....

Water line running into water tank. Note the nice trench.

I am recruiting nephews and nieces (because Uncle Mike is not a sexist pig and firmly believe in the complete equality of the sexes) for a dirty but necessary and really fun job at camp. But before reviewing the pictures, I suggest first cranking up the volume on this:

Water line from tank to new foundation wall (note nice trench)

Water line emerges from other side of new foundation wall

Water line emerges into crawlspace of old section not in a nice trench.

Water line arcs across crawlspace next to pier kind of the opposite of being safely in a trench

Water line dives back underground on other side of crawlspace, under the foundation and back into a nice trench.

Brian, Roy, Eric, Katie, Kristy, Leah, and Jonah - Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to dig us a nice trench for the water line so it does not freeze in the winter. Really.