THE SHOT .50

The Shot .50
A rebutal by the dubuque co. kid

The blustery afternoon in Jackson county wasn’t the first time the paths of young Becker from Buchanan and Donovan of Dubuque crossed. T’was in the year of 84 or possibly 85 when they found themselves directly across from each other in the kitchen of a house on Olive street in Cedar Falls.

 

Jordan Baker, F Scott Fitzgerald’s character in the Great Gatsby said, “big parties are the most intimate.” By Jordan’s standard, the shindig on Olive was intimate indeed. As happens when young women and men are gathered in the presence of adult libations, every room in the house was full of small conversations.
As one conversation involving the young man who would latter be known as the Bernard Bullet ended for the need of refreshment, he scanned his surroundings and zeroed in on the lad from Buchanan County standing fifteen feet away deep in conversation with a girl from his astronomy class. As Becker explained how the constellation Ursa Major was place in the heavens after Zeus first laid eyes on a young nymph named Callisto, Donovan glance to the counter on his left and noticed a bright pink Frito Bandito eraser. 


After a quick calculation of distance and the breeze being generated by the young romantic story, he tossed the Bandito in a high arch and watched it land with a prefect splash in the intended target, Becker’s near full glass of Budweiser.

With a jolt, Becker’s head came up. Not looking happy, he first looked left, and then rotated right until coming upon the glace of Donovan from across the room. Smiles were exchanged, and like the blustery afternoon in Jackson County, not a word was spoken, there was no need.

MAXINE COBERT

Took a little road trip Sunday with beau and susie to shullsburg wi. to pick out our new pup.  Maxine Cobert is an Ausie.  Mom is a pure Australian Shepherd and Papa is a mix, German Shepherd, Black Lab and Collie.  She has a blue merle coloring so with her hybrid status she shouldn't be susceptible to some of the ausie disorders like blindness or becoming deaf.

Driving through the back roads of  southern wisconsin makes me look forward to summer time road trips.  New Diggins  was hoppin with bikers

Sunday afternoon.  Both the General store and the bar across the street were packed.  Once i have some work done on the bus to make it road worthy i'll have to hit the digs and council hill.

Ended our soccer season last night with a hard fought battle against the  Mt. Vernon mustangs.
 We came back to take the lead but only for a few minutes.  We got several shots on goal but couldn't find the back of the net.  We've got a good bunch of boys returning next year.  oh well, more time to work with the dog now that soccer is over

Odds and Ends

 I've covered many miles of timber over the last few weeks.  I found my first morals on good friday but they were few and far between.

This morning susie and i found about 3 to 4 lbs.

 Last sunday   Mothers day  was a beautiful day for a bike ride along the maquoketa river just 10 min. south of our house.  Marty and I packed a picnic lunch for susie and joani... bbq ribs, asparagus and moral mushroom salad and strawberries and mangoes with grand marnier.

we saw lots of wild life along the trail.  snakes, many different birds such as warblers, indigo buntings, ducks and hawks and this bandito hiding out in the hills.

 Steve and i hit rolli world for trout fishing and steve got this large mouth in the swimming pond.  i got skunked in the fishing department but i did manage to find a few morals that day.

a couple of sand hill cranes on the drive out to the cabin.

my friend jack.  it's been a busy few weeks and the summer looks like more of the same.

The Shake Out Method

Saturday's project was to install a package of bees at home.  It goes much quicker and easier each time. Tuesday my student Josh and I  installed a package in just a matter of minutes, outside my classroom while the rest of the class watched form inside the greenhouse.

 Shake Out Method:

Step 1.  Remove a frame or two  from the center of the hive

Step 2.   Remove the card board top cover from the shipping package with your hive tool or knife (the cardboard cover is there to hold in the can of sugar syrup, not to keep the Bees in place, Bees will not come out when the card board cover is removed)

Step 3.  Pick the package up and sharply knock it on the ground to knock the Bees off the sides and top

Step 4.  Using a knife or other tool, pry up and remove the can of Sugar Syrup from the Package

Step 5.  Remove the caged Queen from the package (the Queen cage is shipped with either a strip of aluminum or wire attached to it so that it can be attached to a frame within the hive. DO NOT remove the wire or strip)

 Step 6.  Remove the Cork from the end of the Queen Cage and using a bit of marshmallow  to block her in.  The candy which will aid the workers both inside the Queen cage and outside eat through the candy to release the Queen.

Step 7.  Using duct tape securely attach the Queen Cage to the frame which was previously removed with the mesh screen facing outwards between frames.  Place an empty super on top to contain the bees once you shake them over the Queen

 Step 8.   Wet the bees down again with another application of sugar water.  Turn the package over with the opening directly over the top of the hive. Shake the Bees out of the Shipping Package directly into the frames.

 

Odd Duck

On my drive out Big Mill Valley I saw a unusual looking white duck on the mill pond my first thought was that it was one of the swans that have been living in the area, but on closer inspection I realized that it was an albino hen mallard.

There aren't species distinguished solely by being albino as a condition of differentiation, but there is inherited albinism in species. It's a rare recessive set of alleles. In examples like albino lab rats or rabbits, it has been selectively breed for and controlled. In the wild, albinism is very rare, like 1:XX thousand.
 Most forms of albinism are the result of the biological inheritance of genetically recessive alleles (genes) passed from both parents of an individual, though some rare forms are inherited from only one parent. There are other genetic mutations which are proven to be associated with albinism.

After the  ornithology it was on to itchyology.
I caught several small brown trout in a matter of a half hour or so exploring along the stream

But, what really made Good Friday a good day was my venture into mycology.  I found three small morals early this morning out in the timber by that tree.  You know the one.  Not much but enough to win the bet.... I'll share.

THE SHOT

There are several shots know as “the shot”. Michael Jordans game winner in the 1988-89 deciding game in Cleveland. Jordan dribbled toward the key and rose up for a jumper from inside the circle. Craig Ehlo, one of Cleveland's top defenders, leaped out to block the shot, but Jordan seemed to hang in the air until Ehlo was out of his way. Then he would release the shot that would be the game winner.

On 19 April 1775, on Lexington Square (Lexington is between Boston and Concord), the British Major John Pitcairn and his six light Infantry companies faced about seventy colonial militiamen. The details of the ensuing skirmish, and critically who fired the first shot, are disputed. What is clear is that this was "the shot heard 'round the world".

By the rude bridge that arched the flood their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattle farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

But there's one more.

It is known, in Jackson County and especially in Bellevue, as "The Shot." It was been replayed in my mind hundreds of times, to the agony of Becker and the ecstasy of Donovan supporters. It was only one rifle shot, yet it played an integral role in the fortunes of not one but two families. Becker was thought to be one of the Buchanan  Counties best young marks men in the late 1970s, with his skills honed at the state BB gun shoot in Bellevue, Using only a simple peep site.

I don't know when the first aperture sight was used, but the 1873 Trapdoor Springfield rifle was, I believe, the first military rifle to offer it as an option. In 1884, the Buffington sight was added to the Springfield.

In his way stood the Benard Bullet  a young hot shot named Donovan that was just beginning to mesh into the world of marksmenship.  While pinging cans and poppin squirrels in the hill east of the village near Washington Mills.

“The Shot” was taken on a blustery April afternoon with the wind howling at near 25 knots and as he would so many times in his career, Donovan had the rifle aimed with the whole shooting match on the line. Starting from the right side and adjusting for the cross wind Donovan aimed slightly toward the top of 12 gauge shot gun shell and softly he began to squeeze the trigger.  With that the shell fell dead in its tracks, Donovan pumped his fists in jubilation, completing a video highlight for the ages.  (no video available at this time)

April Showers

 

 Friday's soccer match was canceled because of typical April weather in Iowa.  Rain, sleet and cold.  So, I had some time to cruise  home by way of the top of the World (Roliworld). 

Behind the wheel of this  very rare circa 1880 Horse Drawn Road Grader. This grader  was used to build and maintain the fast growing Jackson County roads. Operated by two men with a team of horses. 

We may think we are the dominant ones on this planet but left to her own devises, nature will always break through our barriers of bricks and mortar and iron to reclaim her land. I have always loved the atmosphere of wild and overgrown places.

After the tour down the hill past chappy land i did stop to fish in the April shower,  no fish again.