No common sense and no education equals Occupier

The Occupier Movement across the US is a disappointing glimpse into the lack of education of America's youth.  If you support communism, socialism, or Marxism in any way, you demonstrate a lack of intelligence or critical thinking capability.  Fortunately, the Occupier Movement appears to be relatively small, so maybe the damage to America's college students is minor as well.

Problem solving, critical thinking, and basic civics seems to have been removed from high school and college level education.  Watch the video and notice that the youth in question only offers poorly thought out political catch phrases in answer to hard facts and common sense from an ex-Russian citizen.  The Russian understands civics and history way better than a US college student.  Sad.

The GOP Leadership

This sums up the last year or two pretty well for me.  I am still waiting for an actual leader with actual principles and actual intelligence to step up to the plate in Washington DC.  In the meantime, we'll continue to suffer at the likes of Obama and Boehner who appear to have neither intelligence nor principles.

Lost Mt Rainier Showshoer Burned Money for Warmth

Great story!  The will to survive is more important than anything you can take into the outdoors.  However, this is a good lesson to be prepared for unexpected circumstances when straying off the beaten path.

Published January 17, 2012 | Associated Press

A snowshoer who was lost in a blizzard for two days on Washington state's Mount Rainier said he stayed alive by digging out a snow tunnel and burning his paper money for warmth.

Yong Chun Kim, 66, of Tacoma, told KOMO-TV of Seattle that he had fire starters with him and first burned some leaves. Then he started burning personal items: his socks and then $1 and $5 bills from his wallet.

Kim also said he marched in place to keep warm and took cover in a tree well --the hole in the snow under a tree. He fought off sleep but dreamed of his wife and a nice hot sauna.

"I found a big tree and got inside" the well, he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I'm worried. It's cold, so I want to move around."

He initially made a shelter near a big rock and tried to stay warm. He tried to keep walking, but at times "the snow was so deep, I couldn't breathe."

He made a fire, drank hot water and ate rice.

The first night was bad, said Kim's stepson, Malcolm An. "He could have died. He was walking around, struggling to find a place, literally not knowing where to go.

"He burned everything he had," An said. "He burned his toothpaste, Band-Aids, extra socks. He burned whatever he could."

Kim was leading 16 members of a hiking and climbing club from Tacoma on Saturday when he slid down a slope and became separated. He thought he would meet up with the group farther down the trail but became disoriented and went the wrong way.

(read the rest of the article here: FoxNews Story)

Captain Jack

Captain Jack was found in the woods as a pup, hung up in some brush and probably would have become coyote food if I hadn't carried him a couple of miles out of the woods with me.  We nursed him back to health and planned to find a home for him, but we ended up keeping him.  Now he's a 90 pound baby who will climb up in your lap if you aren't paying attention.  He obviously has some German Shepherd in him and he has some smarts.

Captain Jack, like his owner, is not a tarheel fan.

Wildlife in the Woods

Recently, while working in the woods, I heard a strange noise coming from the direction of an old stump.  It sounded like scratching and digging and was coming from inside this six foot stump.

I am always curious and started to walk over and investigate, but I started wondering if there was a skunk digging around in there.  I had to clean up my dogs after one of their skunk encounters and I will never forget the odor.  It stayed on them for several weeks, even after the tomato juice and peroxide shampoo.  So I used the camera to light up the crack in the stump with the flash and see if I could tell more about what was inside.  This is what the camera revealed:

Hmmm... definitely not a skunk.  Having a pretty good idea about what might be in the stump, I decided to go for the video.  Of course, I was a little apprehensive about placing my hand over my head and into a stump where an animal with razor sharp claws and beak had easy access, but I took a chance anyway and captured this:

It took me two tries to capture a video of this barred owl trying to hide from me.  He never came out, even after I sat still and quiet behind his temporary refuge for 10 minutes.  Eventually, I had to move on.  The owl had endured the only creature likely to discover its hiding spot and won.