The Snake

It was a sunny, relatively warm spring day, with a lawn verdant and lush from April and May showers, I was moseying up our back hill to take a look at the vegetable garden. As I made my way up the hill, I was startled by a snake that was sunning itself on part of the rose bed limestone rock wall. It was a large garter snake.

That large snake sat in the sun along the top edge of the limestone wall, as if a serpentine belt, but its large head and certain body sections giving away its true nature. Given its position on the wall and its serpentine nature, and the fact that part of its long back end (tail?) was still in the wall I estimated it to be over three feet in length. A common garter snake grows to about 34", which, if I am not a few inches off in my estimate, makes this snake rather uncommon. I chose to not try and pick it up to measure. I thought it would be too quick for me. 

Snake, as I first saw it

I was correct in its quickness, as another day as I saw it, it quickly moved away from me. The snake does like to startle people.

About a week after I saw the snake, the wife and I were in different parts of the backyard, she near the south edge of the stone wall, and me at the north edge of the pond. As I was meandering along the area between two flower beds I heard a loud screech from the wife, and I asked her what was wrong. That warm day, she was in bare feet in the yard, and was walking up the hill and came across the snake sitting in the dense grass, and had almost stepped on the snake. I can only imagine what would have occurred if she had stepped on the snake and its head coiled back to stare and hiss at her with its long red tongue catching her ankle or leg. That likely would have been worse than the time I was cleaning up some stuff in a small storage building and a mouse jumped out and ran across my hand and up my arm. With a foot on its sinewy body, the snake may well have felt threatened and bit the wife. I have to think a bite would have produced a greater reaction from Land Girl. 

I suspect that both Land Girl and I belong to the half of the population that, according to audiology.org, feel "anxious" about snakes. I am surprised it is not a greater percentage. Snakes primarily use their long tongue to sense their environment, but they can hear. Although they can hear, it a limited range. That range, however, is said to include the ability to hear a human scream.

Snake, shortly after the wife almost 
stepped on it

The question is, when my wife screamed, did the snake hear her and feel insulted? The snake was hissing after I made my way over to see the situation, or was its hiss and continually sticking its tongue out a way for it to measure current threat level, or stand guard as a way for us to keep our distance?

Of course, just because a snake hears a scream, does it interpret a scream as a reaction to a threat, injury or danger? That audiology report certainly seems to think they understand English, rather than the Harry Potter parsel tongue, as it concludes by saying: "Even if you don’t like them, please don’t insult them, at least not near them."

Snake hissing with tongue out

We have also seen the snake in the butterfly bed, which is the upper part of the rose bed. This means, that when it comes to work in this flower bed, particularly weed it, I have to watch out for the snake sneaking among the dense plants. I suspect the snake lives somewhere in that wall we built over thirty-three years ago. 

The moral of the story is one can be anxious about snakes, but apparently be careful what you say and screech near them. You may just set up a bigger defensive guard. As for me, as I mosey around the yard, particularly near the rose and butterfly bed, I keep my eyes on the ground for the snake.

Tick Magnet

As of last week, I have taken on the title tick magnet. A mild winter, I suspect, has only added to the number of ticks now parading around yards, woods and generally in the landscape. This post explains my dilemma of now being a tick magnet.

It was late Monday afternoon last week when I sat down after having been outside checking on the garden and a few of our flower beds. I felt something on my neck and pulled it off, and my first thought was it was some detritus, a flower bud off the flower crab tree, but as I looked at it I noticed it was a tick. I then proceeded to do what I usually do, and that is stab the tick between my finger nails, but the thing was quick and hard to grab after placing him on a finger tip awaiting the stabbing. It took me a few times to get a proper hold on the tick. 

If that was not enough, I usually do not have much difficulty stabbing it with my finger nail, but this time I did. It took a couple attempts to break the hard outer layer. I showed it to the spouse, and said, I had a tick on me, and she commented that it is best if I not crush the tick, so as to better ascertain what type it was. I guess she wants me to show her a live tick, but the thing was so fast, and quick, I could see it dropping onto her. What happened if it got into her thick red hair? I don't think it would ever be found before it embedded itself in her scalp.

After review, but not instant replay, the call was confirmed on the field that it indeed was a tick. The tick had a further trip as it became part of the average of 40 million gallons per day of sewage treated at the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage Treatment Plant. It was a regular wood tick, not the smaller, more dangerous deer ticks that harbor Lyme disease.

Tuesday, was a dreary day, and I worked on our camper in a shed, and saw the grandchild. Wednesday, was a nice day, so I was outside. I was on the deck nearing the end of Bruce Catton's highly regarded work This Hallowed Ground, which I bought at the Friends of the Library book sale in March. Copy righted in 1955, its subtitle "The Story of the Union Side of the Civil War" unmasks the long-term affair of the Lost Cause narrative (myth) in the nation, which started in 1866. That myth was long engaged academics and others, for generations. Anyway, I digress, but as I was reading the book, I look at my left hand and what do I see, but a tick. Another wood tick, which was easier to stab between two finger nails, than the first. That tick, became part of the detritus with the flower bed at the edge of the deck. 

That second tick must have just dropped out of the Locust tree. Years ago, when the kids were at scout camp, the wife and I camped at Buckhorn State Park, and as I was sitting reading and a tick dropped on me. Rather unnerving. A benefit of having a head with thinning hair is that a tick is likely easier to locate if it were to drop on the top of the head. 

The moral of the story is don't become a tick magnet, and, borrowing from "Hill Street Blues", "Be careful out there."

Critter Trials

Spring and summer bring vegetable and flower gardening. My spouse and I both enjoy gardening, but with gardening, come pests and critters. This weekend, saw our first critter trials with potted plants, but I have had trials with the vegetable garden. This is a story of our critter trials.

May 6 Critter crater in raised bed

The critter trials began this spring in the vegetable garden. In fact, the main vegetable garden looked like a war zone, particularly in the area that had late harvest vegetables in which I did not get a chance to plant a rye cover crop, but even the rye cover crop area was not immune from the critter craters. Chipmunks hibernate, and the garden looked cratered most of the winter and early spring, I have to think it is chipmunks digging in the soil to bury or find their treasured nuts. When turning over the soil I found a number of peanut shells, some with, some with out peanuts. A neighbor at the end of the street feeds peanuts to the large black birds, grackles or crow like birds that are very big. They then come to our yard to sit and do whatever, scaring away the nice song birds. Hence, it is not a surprise to find peanuts. 

The war zone look continued after I planted part of my raised bed in early March. I placed a cold frame over much of what I planted, but in the nicer weather I take off the glass covers. Well, it did not take long for the critters to dig up seeds and plants, making the newly planted raised bed the appearance of eastern Ukraine. I use old storm windows, and took the one screen available and covered up part during the day, while covering the other half with glass to keep the critters out. When I planted most of the rest of the raised bed, in April, the same thing started happening.. I had an old wood screen door, which I cut the screen out of and placed over the newly planted area. It is amazing what one can do with the junk one keeps.

May 6, screen garden cover

Keeping the critters out of the planted pots involves more ingenuity than getting a rocket off the ground. This past Saturday we planted some of our flower pots, using a combination of some purchased and some plants started from seed. The plants I start from seed are not as large or hardy as the greenhouse plants. It was in a few hours that the critter, likely chipmunk(s), had dug up some plants in at least three different pots. They were nice enough to set the plant off to the side, but some had very little soil on the roots. We decided to use both red pepper flakes and the wife found that garlic also can be a deterrent. She brought up several cloves of garlic and cut them up and put them in the pots. Once again we were outsmarted as they got to a couple plants. 

With flower pots it is not like you wish to put a cover over them, as it destroys what you wish to view. Covers, can also hamper growth, and if a net type material the plant may well grow into the netting. I have added some blood meal to the container to see if that will help. There are times, experience shows, when there is little or no disturbance and then boom, there is disturbance.

Near 4" deep critter crater in planter
Just beyond red flower
May 7, 2024

Sometimes it can be a never ending battle with the critters, but yet we persevere. I wish they would find their way to the neighbor who feeds the large black birds the peanuts and feast and plant in her pots and garden all the peanuts to their hearts content. 

Henrietta

Over the 30 years of living in our home we have had two mallards come by. Most every year they stick around our backyard for a time, generally swimming in our small decorative pond, eating by the bird feeder, or just lounging. We named them Henry and Henrietta. Several years ago they had a nest in the flower bed by the mailbox, then a racoon got the eggs. This year was different. We saw Henrietta on occasion, but not Henry. This is the story of poor Henrietta.

Henrietta had made a nice nest behind a shrub we planted a few years ago. Over a couple days my wife noticed that she had laid four eggs. The thing is, we never saw Henry with her, or even in the yard this year. We are not sure what happened to him. My wife kept track of Henrietta, viewing her nest a few to several times a day. She was concerned about Henrietta not being regularly present on the nest to incubate the four eggs she had once noticed. The nest was made primarily of leaves we use as mulch in the flower bed in which this shrub is located. At one time she covered the nest with leaves and some of her down. Then a curious thing occurred, She stopped coming to the nest. Three for four days, and still no Henrietta, when checking the nest.

We now wondered what became not only of Henry but Henrietta. One day, our neighbor mentioned seeing a fox in the yard one evening. It was some time after that the Henrietta was a regular no-show. A few days later another neighbor mentioned seeing the remains of what she indicated mallard eggs. A day or so later, after not having seen Henrietta on her nest for a good number of days, my wife gently pulled back the covering and noticed that all but one egg was gone. What ever it was covered its tracks by covering the one remaining egg.

This is not the first time a mallard nest in our yard has been destroyed, one time a nest by the mail box was destroyed. We think it was a racoon that time, as we had evidence of them being around, as we had evidence of the fox.

Mallards lay eggs every couple days this time of year, so perhaps this was a decoy nest. I don't know because I do not know much about mallards. I just hope that Henry and Henrietta were able to produce a few offspring.

Tit for Tat for Tit

Last week, Friday morning we took in the world news that Israel had sent a bomb into Iran. There does not seem to be any significant damage or death, although it was in a region with a nuclear power plant. Some analysts say that Iran has downplayed the attack to avoid a wider conflict. In this line of thinking one analyst believes Iran will go back underground using its proxy groups of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthi rebels (I call them the 3-H) to continue the on-going Mid-East conflict. So far, this has been a tit for tat, for tit situation.

Israel's bombing of that Friday morning (Apr 19), was a tit in response to a tat and for Iran's attack on Israel, in which it is said 90% of the Iran's 300 hundred drones were intercepted by Israeli, US, Jordanian and some European nations systems in the region. Iran claimed this was a tat, for the tit for they say Israel (Israel has not confirmed this) struck a Iranian embassy in Syria which killed some Iranian generals on Apr 1. This means, as of that Friday morning, April 19 there have been the original strike (a tit), the Iranian response (a tat), and now another tit by Israel to Iran. 

It seems that child's play is alive and well in the world of geo-politics. On Friday morning, Reuters reports that Iran has signaled no retaliation. It was, however, just the prior day that the Iranian Foreign Minister told CNN “In case the Israeli regime embarks on adventurism again and takes action against the interests of Iran, the next response from us will be immediate and at a maximum level,” Maybe the Israeli strike, while in Iran, did not damage or have a negative effect on their interests. Iran may well respond in due course, but perhaps more from a proxy, one or more of their 3-H groups. The problem with all of this is that regardless of how much care is taken war is intractable and something can easily go wrong and blow up (pun intended). 

CNN, after I started writing this, reported: "The tit-for-tat strikes have brought a decades long shadow war between Israel and Iran out in the open and sent fear coursing through the Middle East." Reuters reported on 23 April that Hezbollah had sent its deepest attack the prior day into Israel since the start of the conflict. Hezbollah claimed it was in response to an attack on one of its persons by Israel.

This proxy war has been going for over 40 years. Hezbollah was formed and funded by Iran starting in 1982, Hamas followed in 1987, and the Houthis were formed in the 1990's, although Iranian funding was thought for the Houthis is reported to have started in 2007. A 40 year proxy war has had disastrous consequences for not just Israel, but also for the United States. I am well aware of the negative consequences of this proxy war. Let me use the one example that affected our family. 

Operation Southern Watch was started in August 1992 to assure Iraqi compliance with a United Nations resolution (#688). As part of that US air force representatives took up housing in Khobar Towers, in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Hezbollah and a Saudi Shia terrorist group Hejaz, (why do so many Muslim terrorist groups have their name begin with the letter H?) undertook placement of a large truck bomb just outside part of the Khobar Towers complex on 25 Jun 1996. The bomb killed 19 US air force personnel and injured hundreds more. 

My wife's brother, Captain Steven Goff, MD was among the injured, and although he had a serious injury himself, for which they wanted him to be evacuated to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for treatment, he chose to stay and treat hundreds of US personnel. For a long time, we did not know his status, although my dad reported seeing him on a news telecast. He was later hospitalized in Saudi Arabia for his chest wound. He carried shards of glass from that bombing in his body until the day of his death. You can read about his role here. 

Khobar Towers
Photo from Capt Steve Goff, MD.
Family archives

Writing in 2021 for the Brookings Institute, Bruce Riedel, who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Near East, under Clinton Administration defense secretary William Perry, was in Jerusalem at the time and was travelling with secretary of state Warren Christophers, stated that: 

The plot was hatched two years earlier at the Sayyihdah Zaynab Mosque in Damascus, Syria, by three parties: Iranian intelligence, Lebanese Hezbollah, and a collection of Saudi Shia terrorist groups under various names including Hezbollah in the Hejaz....We learned later that the Saudis had considerable information on the bombers that they were not sharing. The Saudis knew of the existence of a Iranian-backed Saudi Shia terrorist organization which had been smuggling explosives into the Dhahran area. Lebanese Hezbollah was the key to the bombing. It provided the bomb maker who put the explosives together in the truck. He has never been identified.

Riedel traveled with Warren Christopher to the Dharan Air Base to meet with US personnel. I am not sure if he met my brother-in-law, although I doubt it since he had probably taken to the Saudi Hospital by the time the Christopher continent arrived. 

The Middle East has been explosive for a long time, with Iranian proxy groups doing the bidding for over forty years. No end seems to be in sight, which is unfortunate for the residents of the region, and the world. The tit for tat for tit, does not end, it continues and continues. 

Sources:

"Remembering the Khobar Towers bombing" Bruce Riedel June 21, 2021 at: 
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/remembering-the-khobar-towers-bombing/ 

The Great Banana Debacle

My wife likes to purchase bananas in bulk when they are on sale at the grocery store. A few weeks ago she purchased several bunches. I am not sure what happened to them all, but at the end there was one bunch left and let me say that last bunch was looking pretty ripe. The normally yellow skin had turned to a rather ugly color that is not on the color chart and they contained many large black spots. Everyone who is anyone, except the wife, knows that large dark spots on a banana usually transfer to the inside of the banana in a disgusting big black spot rivaled only by the black fungus on a maple leaf. This black spot reaches deep into the fruit. Here is the story of the great banana debacle of 2024.

I do not recall how many bananas I ate out of those bunches, but slight dark spots on them did not produce the usually expected dark colored inside. Too often I find a banana with a small dark, or near dark, spot and find that it is transferred inside to a large black spot. A few of the bananas in those bunches had one or two areas of inside discoloration but not enough to have me cut it out. I was even beginning to wonder if my luck in selecting bananas had changed. Heck, I was even beginning to believe my spouse's theory that dark spots on the outside do not mean dark, rotten spots on the inside. The wife has the theory, or belief, that a dark spot on the outside does not mean discoloration on the fruit of the banana. I have had too many cases where that is simply not the case. 

So, it came to pass that there were a few bananas in one bunch remaining, all with significant dark dis-coloration and signs of putrefaction that I thought I better start eating them before they go to waste. I pulled one off, and noticed that there was a wax paper wrapping around where they all joined at the stem. I had never noticed that type of thing before. When inquiring of the wife, she said that it must have come that way from the store. I had to remove the wrap to pull the banana from the remaining two or so of its bunch.

As I was about to peel the skin, I once again took notice of the large dark putrefying spot on the ugly colored banana and wondered if it would even be edible. If it was a limb, it would be amputated based simply on its appearance. I hasten to think how much ethylene gas this banana was producing. I should have had a device to measure the air quality of the ethylene chemical in the kitchen. In retrospect, I think it was my banana gassed brain that had me take the next step, leading to the great banana debacle of the year.

It was evening, and the wife was sitting on the sofa either reading or working on a cross stich project. I hobbled over near her and held up the banana with that large gangrenous spot facing her and simply said something to the effect of let's see what it looks like in the inside. I had a high level of confidence that the gangrenous spot would have transferred and ruined the fruit of the banana.

I then start to peel back the outer layer fully expecting to see a large dark spot that would infect deep into the flesh of the banana. Instead, I got a banana that mainly looked scrumptious to eat. In trying to prove my banana theory I ended up proving the wife's theory, that is if one banana can prove a theory. There was no gangrenous blemish on the fruit of the banana. A couple weeks later (on 4/13), I had a banana (from a different bulk purchase) which proved my theory correct (photo below), showing one sample size is not a definitive explanation. 

A Banana from this past weekend (4/13), which proves my 
theory on the blemish transferring through

It should have dawned on me that the cover at the top probably assists with keeping banana's fresh. Further, I should have also felt it to see how soft it really was. Biting into it, I realized it was not as soft as I would have imagined given the significant discoloration on the outside. I am not sure what the moral of the story is, other than I was overly confident. My hubris, or that ethylene-gassed brain, led to the great banana debacle of 2024.  In the end, with my later discovery, my theory of what occurs is still in play. This could make for a great science project.

  

The Death March

One of the most famous incidents for brutality of WWII started on this date, April 9, in 1942 in the Philippines: The Bataan Death March. The March, on the Bataan peninsula, was enforced by the Japanese army against the 75,000 US (about 12,000) and Filipino (about 63,000) prisoners of war. The US soldiers were surrendered by US General Edward King. 

Bataan Death March, red is by foot,
black is by rail

The death march followed a three month battle on the peninsula which the US and Filipino soldiers were able to hold off the Japanese even though ill supplied. For example, after Pearl Harbor, the US forces were placed on half rations. The Roosevelt Administration's Europe first policy greatly affected supplies and manpower for the Pacific theater of operations in the early stages of WWII. The men were near starvation at the start of the death march, and things only got worse from there. The Roosevelt Administration, by Christmas 1941, regarded the soldiers on Bataan as a lost cause. Secretary of War Simpson remarked just after Christmas, "There are times when men have to die." (Sides, p 43)

The march, which went from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando, was about 69 miles long, and ended at a rail head. By closed cargo cars, they were shipped further north by rail. They ended up walking the final several miles again by foot to Camp O'Donnell, later referred to as Camp Cabanatuan. Imprisonment occurred at a former Filipino army camp designed for 10,000, but would now hold about six times that number of war prisoners. It is thought that of the total group who marched, about 54,000 actually reached the camp, although actual numbers are not known. There are varied accounts of the number of men in the march, the number in the camp and the number that died. About 27,500, mostly Flipino soldiers, died during the march or in the encampment. A US soldiers ring was was prized by a Japanese solider. The ring could not be removed due to swelling in the fingers, so the Japanese soldier cut off the hand at the wrist with his machete. The camp was liberated on 30 Jan 1945, in a daring well-known raid, behind enemy lines.

Photo of Bataan Death March

The conditions and brutality that were part of the march is difficult to comprehend. The men were marched in hot, humid conditions and in pouring rain. They were provided no medical care. Once in camp, the care from the Japanese was basically non-existent with US medical staff providing the care they were capable of, but with no supplies. If they column of prisoners came across a stream, or really any water source, they were not permitted to take a drink. Some stragglers were bayoneted by the Japanese guards, others left to die, some were helped by already emaciated US soldiers who had three more months of little to eat. 

The camp conditions were ripe for disease, with little water, no sanitation, meaning malaria, dysentery weakened many of the men. Sleeping on the floor in bamboo huts without covers made for a bad situation, particularly for those that were ill. The main food was rice and a vegetable soup, although an occasional piece of water buffalo was provided in the soup. Deficient in many vitamins and protein, illness such as beri-beri, and pelagra became common. The Japanese refused offers of assistance from the Philippine Red Cross.

Bataan Death March

The evacuation after the raid was slow and arduous, with water buffalo pulled carts for the lame, and the slow pace of the men able to walk. The were also difficult battles with a Japanese enemy who would not go down without a fight regardless of how many men they lost doing the same thing over and over against US weapons, often wielded by Filipino soldiers.

Many of the US survivors were on a transport ship from the Philippines to San Francisco. A journey normally of 7000 miles, the transport, covered over 12000 miles, to avoid shipping lanes, and Japanese subs. The Japanese were gravely insulted by the raid, and vowed that their submarines would hunt down and sink the transport ship as it made its way starting in mid-February. 

Photo of some camp residents

The Filipino and US soldiers endured a hell on earth in that prisoner of war camp. It lead one man, whose unnamed diary was found outside the camp to write: "We are all ghosts now. But once we were men." (Sides, unnumbered page). The greatest indignity perhaps was the way they were considered collateral damage by the Roosevelt Administration, as the administration moved men and material to Europe, leaving the men to fight with dwindling supplies, see them surrender, and then go through the hellish conditions of the march and the POW camp. It was truly a death march. 

Sources: 2001 Sides, Hampton, Ghost Soldiers, Random House, NY NY

                History.com

                National World War II Museum website

                National Museum of the US Air Force website