Recent Reading: Tokarczuk's Flights

 I have recently been reading Olga Tokarczuk's Flights with a good deal of pleasure. Much of what I love about the work of

Friday Links: Some Raw Climate Data, a New Art Gallery, BWCA Trip Planning

 Weather averages for Tomahawk, Wisconsin, 1980 - 2010.

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/orders/cdo/2691475.pdf

 

The art gallery  of my retired colleague Tom Zarilli:

https://gallery378.com/about/

A good site with resources for planning BWCA (and other) canoe trips:

https://www.paddleplanner.com/default.aspx

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/

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.

What I did on Margaret's (Sort of) Spring Break

Last week Margaret attended the CCCC in Portland, Oregon. This is a big convention under the auspices of the National Council of Teachers of English. I took three vacation days to accompany her; while she conferred, I did some sightseeing on my own and visited Gary Rogowski at his Northwest Woodworking Studio. We also visited with my old friends Chris Murray and Shannon Riley.

Here are some pictures.