Recent Reading: Solnit, Pogue Harrison, Adams

 Rebecca Solnit: Orwell's Roses

Not really a biography, but an exploration of certain aspects of Orwell's

Link: Research on Calorie Restriction in Humans

 We've known for decades that calorie restriction prolongs the life of lab rodents. There's also correlation between a low-calorie (but nutritious) diet and longer life in some human populations, Okinawans being the most frequently mentioned example. This recent summary of NIH-sponsored work starts to hint at what the mechanism might be:

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2022/03/08/biology-of-aging-study-shows-why-curbing-calories-counts/

Friday Links: an Onion Video Series, Axolotl Husbandry, a Woodworking Blog of Note

 Amusement:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C7941B0228E0240

Axolotl information:

http://www.axolotl.org/

Jack Plane's sister blog, Orson Cart, is building a vardo (house on wheels):

https://orsoncartatlarge.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/a-vardo-part-one/

Friday Links: About Tabs, Citizen Science in ATL, MEI Packs, Wood-Fired Ovens

 First, a tab about tabs and tabbing:

https://dirt.substack.com/p/dirt-the-season-of-tabs?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzI5NzkwLCJwb3N0X2lkIjozOTUwMzAxOSwiXyI6ImxhdlFlIiwiaWF0IjoxNjI3OTA5ODYyLCJleHAiOjE2Mjc5MTM0NjIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzIxODciLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.64QlW_nl-AdQCVALWma1__jJDvrWBuQCExTjM9yjI00

(Some of our clutter is there because it's stuff that reminds us of who we want to be.)

An opportunity to do citizen science here in Atlanta:

https://urbanheatatl.org/

MEI makes the Voyageur, my favorite carry-on with backpack straps. I have ordered these as gifts several times and gotten excellent feedback each time:

https://www.meipacks.com/collections/carry-ons/products/deluxe-voyageur-new?variant=29110618751056

An old-school website on old-school woodfired ovens:

https://www.traditionaloven.com/

Friday Links Come Early: July 2021

 Friday links are early this week. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off, so I'm turning off my desktop today.

https://www.musserforests.com/prod.asp?p=SMR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ge6f3bDmWM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yielLYZ5lo

 

https://www.timberlinesharpener.com/?doing_wp_cron=1626872506.8145170211791992187500

Rib Lake Sounds

The link below is to a folder on my Google Drive called "Rib Lake Sounds."

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iKH5Vi3ExCCtMrtgmKeunqWvG3_Mal0j

The files in the folder are all .wav files. If you can't play them on the folder, you'll have to download them. Maybe I need to use Soundcloud or a similar audio file hosting service.

For a long time I've wanted to make my own recordings of nature sounds in places I love. This past winter, I bought a digital recorder for working on videos for Highland Woodworking. I usually use this recorder with an external microphone, for voiceovers. But it also has a pair of built-in mics that do pretty well, so I decided to give it a try, even though when I looked at various sites devoted to recording nature sounds, I was led to believe the result would be of low quality.

During a May trip to my place in Wisconsin, I set up the recorder on a tripod, started it recording, and walked away for an hour or so. I had to experiment a bit with the recording level, and once I came home I snipped off the bits where you can hear me walk away at the beginning, and then walk back up to the recorder at the end. You might hear a car in the distance. You might hear an airplane, or a dog. To be honest, they bother me far less than I expected.

Track Notes

"Marsh Morning of May 4th" is a typo, it was recorded May 14th. I left the recorder near the edge of a pond full of cattails, mostly hoping for blackbird song. I got that and more. This track is the only one in which wind noise is an issue - - even though the mic was covered with a wind sock. So picture a sunny, breezy morning overlooking a pond.

"May 15 Dawn" is my favorite so far. How many species of birds can you count? How many can you identify? I'll start you off with ovenbirds and veerys. Perhaps you'll need good earphones, or speakers with good bass to catch it, but there's a ruffed grouse drumming most of the way through. There is also the sound of occasional drops of water falling off the trees and onto my deck; the night before it had rained. I rolled out of bed at 5 am and set up the recorder on the deck to make this one, so imagine the light slowly rising as you listen.

"Frogs at Pond" is was taken just after sunset on May 14th. Sorry for the volume! They were quite loud. In fact, they hurt my ears. As I set up to record, when I put on the headphones and listened through the microphones, I was able to reduce the levels so they weren't painful. Wood frogs, spring peepers, chorus frogs - - - and is that the elusive mink frog?

"Afternoon Breeze in Pines" is the recording I wanted to make when I first thought of this project. There is a high spot on my land where most of the trees are red pines about 50 years old. I love to sling a hammock between two of them and listen to the wind in the pine needles. Probably the first sound in nature that made an impression on me, certainly before Kindergarten. I think I captured it, though you can also hear running water down below; spring runoff was near its peak when I visited.

A general note on "why": Anyone who knows me well won't be surprised to hear I spend lots of time daydreaming about being in the woods of northern Wisconsin. This has motivated a lot of photography and a few videos over the years. But at work, and in the car, I can't be gazing lovingly at photos. On the other hand, I can have the sounds of home in the background. And, obviously, sound recordings tap into a whole other emotional dimension.

ps) there are several "unreleased" tracks in the vault, including one recording made where two small streams meet. That one is of very high quality, but when it plays I have to pee every 7 minutes. The world isn't ready for it.

Homemade Timber Inventory Tools

This is a good collection of simple, homemade tools for do-it-yourself timber inventory.

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/EM038E/EM038E.pdf

I found it in the process of seeking a way to estimate basal area at 10 selected points on my land, partly for my ongoing project of keeping specific data on what's going on in my woods, and partly for a before & after study of what happens when we log the land, hopefully this year.

REVISION (2019/01/08)
Here are stocking tables and some more timber inventory information from the Wisconsin DNR. Very good stuff. I'll be printing this out and incorporating it into my personal file of data I've collected on my land. 
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/G3362.PDF

REVISION (2019/01/09)
More on the theory behind the tools: 
https://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/ss/SS0023.pdf