“Wolfy reens?” Shame On Chevron. Grand Tetons. Puddle Jumper. Cargo Trailer Water Tank.

The Wolverine Way By Doug H. Chadwick

"Despite a ferocious reputation, the wolverine is far more complex than the legends that surround it. And even in a place as vast and wild as Glacier National Park, http://www.glacier.national-park.com/,  its future is uncertain.  


Fine snow streaked the air, riding sideways on a gale, in early March 2006. Biologist Rick Yates led the way, breaking trail on skis through the powder. Great cliffs striped with avalanche tracks rose on all sides. Somewhere higher up among the clouds stretched the ice fields that gave this valley—Many Glacier—its name. We crossed two frozen lakes and finally passed into an old-growth spruce forest that took the edge off the storm. Beneath the branches, half-buried in snow, stood a large box made of logs six to eight inches thick. It looked a little like a scaled-down cabin. But it was a trap, and there was a wolverine inside.

The animal had entered during the night. We knew from its radio frequency that this was M1: M for male, Number 1 because he had been the first wolverine caught and radio-tagged during a groundbreaking study of the species under way here in Glacier National Park, Montana. Sometimes the researchers called him Piegan instead, after a 9,220-foot mountain at the head of the valley. To me, he was Big Daddy, constantly patrolling a huge territory that straddled the Continental Divide near the heart of the park. His domain overlapped those of several females, and he had bred with at least three of them over the years while successfully keeping rivals at bay.

If wolverines have a strategy, it’s this: Go hard, and high, and steep, and never back down, not even from the biggest grizzly, and least of all from a mountain. Climb everything: trees, cliffs, avalanche chutes, summits. Eat everybody: alive, dead, long-dead, moose, mouse, fox, frog, its still-warm heart or frozen bones.

” When you explain that you’re tracking wolverines, you get a variety of expressions: surprise, relief, enthusiasm, curiosity. Comprehension would be somewhere toward the bottom of the list.
“Wolverines! Cool. What are they?”
“About this high? I think we saw some eating those purple flowers in the meadows.”
“They’re sort of like little wolves, right?”
“Omigod. I heard they’re really ferocious. What should we do if one comes close? If you run, does that just make them more likely to attack?”
“Wolfy reens?”
To be fair, the name wolverine not only sounds wolfish but springs from the same Old German word: wolver. "
More at: http://www.npca.org/magazine/2011/winter/the-wolverine-way.html
Including a 50 minute video from PBS: "Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom":    http://video.pbs.org/video/1642358743

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Chevron doesn't want to pay for their Oil Spill:


Earlier this week, a court in Ecuador fined the Chevron Corporation $8 billion for their part in contaminating the Amazon rainforest, an environmental catastrophe that has cost the lives of thousands of humans, plants, and animals. It is a huge first step towards holding the company accountable for their unconscionable actions in Ecuador, but the fight is far from over.
Chevron plans to appeal the ruling, dragging an 18-year-old lawsuit on further, as well as denying their responsibility for their pollution.
If you have yet to add your name to our online petition to Urge Chevron to Clean Up its Oil Spill in the Amazon, please do so now. Increase your impact and share this action with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Recommend button on the petition page. Every signature will help bring this oil giant to justice: Act now!
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"There has been a lot of recent news to share about national parks. With that, we couldn't wait to share this piece of good news…

Thanks to you, the dramatic landscapes and unspoiled beauty of Grand Teton National Park are now better protected!
You may recall that last fall the State of Wyoming threatened to sell school trust lands located within the boundaries of Grand Teton National Park. This would have opened the door for private developers. The loss of this acreage to subdivision would have dramatically altered the park, and threatened not only the scenic beauty and pristine nature of this area, but also harmed native wildlife.

But earlier this week this land came a step closer toward preservation. Thanks to the Wyoming State Legislature, a land purchase agreement between Wyoming and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) can now move forward. This vote paves the way for the DOI to purchase the land and transfer ownership from the state to the federal government, ultimately preserving these lands that are an integral part of Grand Teton.

Letters to Wyoming's congressional delegation and to the Administration from park activists like you made a difference! With your help, NPCA has been an effective advocate for a positive resolution to this issue and now we can take pride in knowing that the integrity of Grand Teton is preserved as a national treasure for the American people."
From: http://my.npca.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=3221.0&pw_id=1621
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Today:

We didn't have much time to work, as we had to drive down to Roni's to work on something there.
Also we had to drive the van to the corner store to fill up the big gas can for the little burgundy "Puddle Jumper".  It is not street legal, as I don't drive it out on the road.

It is my 'gas-powered golf cart' for running around this big subdivision! It is kept insured, and can have tags and inspection to be street legal at a moments notice. It has always passed inspection, when needed, for 23 years now!  Even the velour upholstery is almost like new after 200,000 miles.  It is a Mercury Tracer wagon, but it was made by Mitsubishi. One of the few Tracers with a 1.6 motor.  NADA now classifies it as a Classic Car, and it has appreciated over the years.   It has never let me down, but I do keep it maintained.  It is still just my "pet" car, in more ways than one, as it is easy for the dogs to jump in and out of it, not like my higher up Aerostar. 




First, we fixed a water leak in the garage.  This is the main cut-off for all the outside faucets, including the sink on the screened-in porch.  It is an easy way for me to shut then all off when the weather is going below freezing.













Then we attached the drain to the water tank through the outside wall of the cargo trailer.

Jay and I were in T-shirts and jeans, and almost wishing we were in tank tops and shorts.  The sun is shining and it is a gorgeous, "cats-on-porch and windows open" day.