Indiana Turns to Mushers

Okay, just so you know, the Iditarod has been moved to Indiana, which has the snow and the ridiculous temps, and is much more accessible than Alaska, except for the totally demented who choose to live there. Which is everybody except the Inuit and other tribes, imprisoned in the most recent glacial period of the Pleistocene, the Wisconsin("ian", quite obviously unnecessary) and have been living (really, that's the term) above the Arctic Circle for 10,000 to 12,000 years. That's 8 - 10K BC, and 2 - 4K before the universe was created, according to some.

The Inuit would come on south and give it a go, except they know US History, and what happened to other original residents, and know if they leave for even a day their lands will be appropriated by developers and turned into game "preserves" (if anyone knows why this word is used in this context, please advise) so wealthy teeny weenies can shoot polar bear and caribou from the comfort of a private helicopter.

Susan Butcher and her ilk will no doubt compete in our 20's temps in shorts and tank tops, but it will be uber-cool to see them trekking through Carmel as their dogs run themselves to death.

Great sport.

I went to Pearson's Mill SRA yesterday for a somewhat truncated walk. The loop to the boat ramp hadn't been plowed or otherwise traversed, and I wasn't up to pushing snow. About 80% was open, and it was a pleasant walk. I had my coat open much of the way, and off the rest.

That kind of pleasant.

I saw one of my "friends", a red tail that I've seen since mid-December. He (guess) is a bit of a recluse, and I always see him flying away.

A couple of miles south of the reservoir, there's what started out as a creek that someone attempted to dam and cultivate.

An interesting study is to cruise the county roads after heavy spring rains. Relief features you have never noticed are now creeks, large and small, surface reflections of the water table.

In northern Indiana, from about 40 miles south of Indianapolis, that water table was built in the Wisconsin(ian) glacial period.

You know, before the universe was created.

No amount of applied modern agricultural technology can affect the subsurface contours of the water table.

By the by, that demarcation 40 miles south of Indy can be seen from any tall building there. It's a terminal moraine, the extent of the grinding, gouging leveling of ice 2 miles thick. South of that feature is karst topography, limestone, water soluble. All caves in Indiana are south of that moraine.

My little low spot failed to grow crops years ago, and there are several trees approaching maturity around its perimeter. I have no clue how deep it is, but it held water through the summer and fall, and my attention was first drawn by great blue herons, so there must be significant aquatic life.

As the soybeans and corn across the road matured, there were deer in the evening, exercise for my Abbe.

Now the pair of red tails from my town area are wintering there, and I saw one to the west end in a tree yesterday.

Another "friend".

I'm sure these were the hawks I watched all autumn around the Converse cemetery. I won't guess if this is the superpredator I twice saw on the roadsigns at Oak Hill Schools. There was a red tail a couple miles east much of the summer, and that territory fit better in my ordered mind.

Which means less than nothing to any self-respecting hawk.

FYI, the public domain red tail photo above makes a spectacular background on a bigscreen monitor. If my image doesn't work, let me know and I'll provide the public domain link.