How do you demonstrate your love of country?

A FB friend recently posted a message regarding the consequences of burning the flag. I have to say I find it very disturbing that someone would want to burn the very symbol of our freedom. Growing up, in our home, the flag flew often and there were pretty strict "guidelines" - never out in the rain, never touched the ground, never left hanging at night etc - treated with great respect. (my dad was career Navy).

Flag hanging from the top of a fire truck ladder - at a poker run/fund raiser for wounded marines.

Anyway, when I read that posting, two things came to mind.  First, it made me think about an evening spent at the Georgetown fair a couple of weeks ago. I was there for a concert - the Vogues were playing (a group from the 60's/70's for you youngsters). The lead singer commented that after 9/11, as they toured the country, they saw flags flying everywhere. He says they hardly see any now when they're traveling ...yet when he drove into Georgetown, they were hanging from every street light down the main street. He asked if they were leftover from the July 4 celebration and the crowd indicated that was not the case.  He went on to give the audience somewhat of a "pep talk" about demonstrating your love of country by hanging a flag, supporting the men and women in the military etc.  He was preaching to the choir....this crowd "got it" and responded enthusiastically.

I have a couple of neighbors who not only display a flag, they have installed full-sized flag poles in their front yards and from that, they hang the American flag...occassionally adding an Illini flag (usually associated with a sporting event).  I do notice, however, that they seldom take the flags down..they hang in rain, snow and at night.  I have mixed feelings about that - all going back to the "flag rules" taught to us by my dad.  A few other neighbors hang them, but not too many.  Is it because we're a culturally diverse neighborhood or is it because people just don't care?

My second thought as I read the FB message was about demonstrating "love of country" beyond the easy/symbolic gestures (like a bumper sticker that says "I love America") - and that is making sure we maintain this country's majestic beauty for generations to come, by not trashing it!

Cigarette butts disposed of in a parking lot?

 I took this picture in a parking lot.  In my experience, its not uncommon for a smoker to think its perfectly acceptable to throw their butt,  or the whole darn ash tray as in this case, on the ground.  And this from a guy who has a bumper sticker that reads "I love America".  So I ask him...how can you claim to love America, but have zero concern about trashing it?   He didn't take kindly to my gentle confrontation...someday I will be found dead in a parking lot.  I'm only sorry I didn't get his picture before he walked away.

In fairness to smokers, I could have taken many other parking lot "trash pictures" as there were fast food bags, some empty soda cans and various other trash, no doubt thrown out of a car because someone didn't want to trash their car!  You see the same kind of trash in ditches along highways. 

So, I examine my "trash habits" and have to admit I have room for improvement - but I'm motivated to do a better job (thanks to people like cousin Heather and her husband, Aaron, cousin Patty and Susie, a friend from Florida, who set a good example).   Step 1 was to start composting (after visiting Patty who is also a gardener).  Easy to do and pretty interesting to watch large amounts of compostable stuff get reduced to a few inches of rich black "plant food".  Step 2, recycling - I just need to switch trash haulers as the one I use doesn't accept much (cans and milk jugs) so I end up accumulating other items in my garage and taking them to the recycling center.

Its hard to break old habits.  For example, I do believe that plastic bags used in grocery stores are a problem in that they will never ever be anything other than a plastic bag....forever. So, I'm trying to do my part to avoid using them (how can anyone argue the logic of that?). To that end, a year or so ago,  I purchased some of the large cloth grocery bags.  But I have to admit that purchasing them (cheap at 99cents/bag) is just the first step...then you have to remember to take them with you when you go to shop.  I now try to keep empty ones in the car so they are there when I need them (and ok I have to confess that even when they are sitting on the seat next to me, I sometimes forget them and have to run back to the car).  I like them, I feel good about using them...and a big plus is they hold twice as much as the plastic bags. 

At the risk of alienating those of you who are big Glenn Beck fans (although you probably haven't read this far into the blog if you are, as being environmentally conscious has somehow today become attached to being politically liberal...which is fascinating but that's a whole other subject)...can I just say that I was rather stunned to hear hear him and some guests recently "dis" the whole concept of using cloth bags when shopping.  They made fun of the concept, saying it wasn't "manly" to use them....and that they would continue to use plastic bags because they think its perfectly ok - in fact they said they would "double bag and use as much plastic as possible". (google the video...."Beck and crew mock reusable grocery bags). 

So I'm thinking, how can this guy, who claims to be so in love with America and its freedoms, not care anything about the actual America...the land, the air ...no concern about maintaining its majestic beauty?  I'm not talking global warming here...I'm talking about the simple idea that plastic in a landfill will be plastic forever...so if we can avoid that, why is that a bad thing? 

Is it not demonstrating true "love of country" when you care enough about it that you are conscientious about keeping it "clean"?  So I say, let's fly our flags, support our troops, plant a tree and recycle, all in the spirit of "I love America".

Do cows have an internal GPS?

I live near the University of Illinois and a drive into town often takes me past some of the University's farmland.  This evening, enroute to join some friends for dinner, I drove past one of the pastures and noticed a herd of cows, maybe 40, all lined up, side by side, facing the same direction (east).  They were grazing.  I had to take a picture as it is an odd sight.

.
I've always assumed that cows (and sometimes horses) do this to take advantage of each others' swishing tails - to deal with flies.  However, I can't recall if this is something they do in the winter, when there aren't any flies, so when I got back home I decided to do a little search to see if there was anything on the internet about cows being lined up in a row.

I was surprised to find a large number of references on this topic, most citing a study conducted by some researchers who used images from Google Earth satellite.  The study, based on observing 8,510 cows in 308 different locations, concluded that cows will typically face north. 

One theory was the north/south orientation results in the sun shining more directly on the cows' sides, perhaps warming up their gut.  Not so for my cows. They were all facing east - so my theory is they were trying to avoid having the sun shining on their heads. Does this make them cooler? Or have they read in a magazine that increased sun exposure causes wrinkles?

Or maybe the eastern orientation is religiously based....I believe early in the history of the Catholic church, altars faced east.  In Florence, Italy, there is a baptistry building across from the huge Cathedral.  The baptistry entrance is on the west side and when you've been baptized, you exit through a door that faces east.  I believe other religions have preference for an eastern orientation. 

Here's what else I learned about cows:
-cows that are named (and "sweet talked") produce up to 5% more milk/day.  Ok, so here's a little trivia -
do you have any idea how much milk a good milk cow can produce in a day? If my recall is accurate, its in excess of 20 gallons/day.  So 5% is a healthy amount of extra milk.  (wonder if anyone has ever studied something similar with humans)
-most cows don't sweat - their big wet noses act as a cooling system
-a cow's stomach has 4 chambers  (rumen, reticulim, omasum, abdomasum).  The University has several cows with glass "port holes" inserted into their sides.  When they have the Veterinary Medicine open house in the spring, you can see these cows close up - in fact they open up the port holes so you can see right into the stomach.  The open house is usually in April and worth taking the kids.

Why am I writing about cows?  Well, the sight of those cows all lined up in a row was a Kodak moment for me.  But aside from that, I love animals so I'm always interested in learning more about them.  Which is why I have a road trip to a large dairy farm in Indiana on my summer "to do" list.  Taking Evan and Garrett.  They have thousands of dairly cows, 80+ babies born everyday (with a glass enclosed arena so you can watch the deliveries) and a bar coding system for each cow that tracks their exercise, their food intake and their milk production.   They recycle all the  manure to power the farm.  Fair Oaks Farm.  There are several YouTube videos about this place.

If you are interested in more details from the study, here are a few exerpts from some of the postings I found when I "Googled" the topic:

From a site called SuperEco, comes this statement written by Karen Murphy, 3/18/09:   "Cows don't make handy wristwatches, but they're decent navigators. Lack a GPS? No problem! Cows are great multitaskers: they give milk, add to the compost pile, and naturally orient north-south. You may be interested in how we know this. You can thank your friend Google for this news. That's right, Google (and we don't mean "let us Google that for you"), the people who showed you the carbon and are busy underwater mapping oceans, are now equally busy tracking the standing habits of standing cows". Google Earth.
This article goes on to say that standing under power lines may disorient the cows...so I wonder if that is what was causing the cows in my picture to face east.

From Discovery News (related to Discovery Channel), written by Emily Sohn Feb 2009:  "Dairy cows face a lot of pressure. Every day, month after month, a lactating cow is expected to let down her milk under the expectant eyes of a farmer whose bottom line depends on how much it he can squeeze out. Now, new research suggests a gentle way to get more milk out of anxious mama-cow: Stroke her, ask about her day, and call her Elsa, Rose, or Lady Moo. Cows with names produce up to five percent more milk, according to a study published in January in the journal Anthrozoos". 

From Live Science written by Jeremy Hsu, August 28, 2008: " Wind and time of day did not offer better explanations for why 8,510 cattle in 308 locations around the world would mostly face north-south. Shadows suggested that many of the images were taken on cloudless, sunny days, so Begall's group also factored in direct ground observations of cattle herds."  This was also referencing Google Earth findings.

From Discover Blog written by Ed Yong, March 16, 2009:  "Now, the same team (he's referencing the researchers who used Google Earth Satellite - same study all the other sites referenced) - have found that high-voltage power lines, which emit strong magnetic fields of their own, disrupt the orientation of cattle and deer. Near these lines, their neat alignment goes astray and they position themselves at random. This disturbance becomes less and less pronounced as the animals stray further away from the power lines."  If I lived anywhere near power lines, this might make me nervous.

Ed continues with   "The benefits that cows and deer gain by detecting magnetic fields are just as unclear as the means through which they do it. There are many possibilities. Synchronising the direction of the herd could make it easier to graze efficiently or escape predators effectively. It could help them to navigate as they move to fresh pastures (although deer also align magnetically while they're resting). The most intriguing reason of all, which the group put forward in their last paper, is that magnetic alignment could make some bodily processes function more effectively."

I find it interesting that there are people spending time studying this peculiar activity when we have diseases to cure and many other problems that need to be analyzed and solved.  If they do find the real reason cows typically face north (except for those at the U of I), what will they do with that information?

8 hours of riding...all for a burger...and some yard art and a windfarm

Sunday, August 1.  Headed north, destination Starved Rock.  Actually the destination was a little Irish pub(Duffy's Tavern) in Utica, IL. that has a great reputation for burgers.

Normally I'd share the route we rode but honestly I have no clue as many of the roads had nothing more than a directional/numerical reference (something like N1800 or W2220).  That, plus an unexpected detour due to road construction, meant I spent almost the entire day not having a clue where I was.  I pondered that as I rode my Harley through the heart of the nation's "bread-basket" (for you city folk, that means this is where we grow what you eat...ok so not really "we", more like "they").  I like to keep that frame of reference, otherwise its just corn field, bean field, corn field, bean field.... 

I often complain about that aspect of riding in central Illinois, but there actually are some very scenic spots.  If you look really close at the barn in the picture below, you'll see there is a large flag painted on the side.  (for you city folk, this is a soy bean field).  Picturesque, yes?

Back to the not knowing where I was - it made for an interesting day.  Kind of like that team-building game you play where you're blindfolded and you have to trust your teammate to lead you around.   I had my Blackberrry but didn't even have the urge to get it out and check my location.  It was very relaxing, actually.

So, we meander through the country and I'm surprised to see thousands (yes thousands) of butterflies.  They must be sound sensitive because it was the lead motorcycle passing that seemed to stir them up - up in the air, that is and often flying directly at those of us on the rest of the motorcycles.  I felt like I was being dive-bombed.  There were some Monarchs, but most were small - maybe quarter-sized - yellow butterflies.  I tried to figure out what was attracting them to the area.  I'm still not sure if it was the corn fields or if it was the clover that was growing in many of the ditches.  Whatever the attraction, it was a very cool sight.  My only regret is I didn't have a camera in hand to capture them filling the air.

I did get a few photos during one of our "where the heck are we" stops (one of the guys had a good map that showed all of the numbered roads).  Those little yellow butterflies were everywhere.  I liked this particular group...it looked like they were on a hike, all lined up on the side of the road headed the same direction as us.  Maybe they had their little "thumbs" out and wanted to hitch a ride.

Side note - one of the guys gets off his bike and starts shaking one of his pantlegs.  "I feel like a bug flew up my pants" he says.  He was so right...out flies a bumble bee.  Makes me wonder if I should start wearing velco straps around my boots to keep critters from flying up my pantlegs. 

We're riding through Essex, a small town west and slightly north of Kankakee/Bourbonnais, when we see a yard filled with "critters".  I don't know how else to describe the sight.  We pulled into the drive and walked around to check out the yard art.  I'm posting a few of my favorites.

I figure this indian would be appropriate in my garden as I'm a serious Illini fan.  Doesn't quite look like "THE CHIEF" but cool nonetheless, don't you think?

There were lots of farm animals...horses, cows etc.

There were also some exotic zoo type's including an elephant that sprayed water out of its trunk.  My favorite was the buffalo.  Maybe because that was my high school mascot.  Too bad he was too big to fit on the back of my Harley.

I'm not sure what Jack uses to make his yard art....maybe scrap metal?  The buffalo seemed to be made of some type of metal shavings or maybe dismantled steel wool pads??  Whatever the case, Jack Barker is the artist and his address and phone number are in the photo below.

On to Utica for lunch.  Utica is a small town, but obviously popular with the biking crowd as evidenced by the main street as well as by the hour we had to wait to get our order.  No complaints, though - it was air-conditioned and we had baskets of popcorn to eat and lots of ice tea while we waited.

We drove through Starved Rock state park but didn't stop (not sure what that was about???).  The ride home was another backroads adventure, again having no clue where I was until we hit Pontiac, IL.  Dan was leading us at this point and he seemed to know the backroads very well.  He drove us by the state prison...very creepy actually with all the barbed wire and the signs on the street that warned you not to pick up hitchhikers.  Dan has relatives that work there.  He says they get serious criminals and other prisons ship their "out of control" prisoners here.  They are in lock-down all but one hour/day.  I don't think I'd like to live across the street from this place...but lots of people do as it sits right next to a residential area.

Our last "Kodak moment" stop was about 20 miles east of Bloomington.  To put this in context, last week, during a drive to Evansville, IN, I saw 3 - 18wheelers, each one hauling one of the blades that are used to build a windmill.  I was surprised how big the blades are...in fact, at first I didn't even realize what they were.  So when I saw a large number of windmills in the distance, I asked the rest of the group if they'd mind a slight detour.  

Dan did better than get us sort of close..he got us right up to one.  I had no idea that the tower was large enough for a doorway although I guess it makes sense that technicians would need to occassionally climb to the top to fix things.

I also learned that the blades are 130 ft long and they can be adjusted, remotely, to change the angle of the blade...either to pick up more wind, or to pick up less.  I have read that the blades spin at a rapid speed (in California, there are reports that some birds are being killed in large numbers at windfarms due to this). I found references (Google) that explained the California windfarm (20 yrs old) uses old technology, including the types of blades used and the speed - which was reported at 179 mph.  The newer windfarms use updated blades and they spin at a slow rate of speed...so no dead birds.  I had also heard the windmills were noisy but as we stood there, near many windmills, we didn't hear anything.  Last piece of windfarm trivia...the farmers who provide the land for the windmills are paid a "per acre" annual fee....$3000 to $5000.  This farmer has a crop of soybeans planted around the windmills so it doesn't appear they have to give up much in the way of crops.

It was a great day of riding and socializing with some old and some new friends.  I close by posting a few more photos from the day (more yard art and windmills).

OK, you gotta love the fact that we saw "Don Quixote" and then the windmills.