Sunday, July 16, 2017

Oh Emma Gee!





Herbert W. McBride was a Captain in the Indiana National Guard when WWI broke out. He volunteered to a Canadian rifle company because he wanted to see action. He was commissioned, but broken to private soldier after a number of alcohol-fueled escapades. He shipped to England and then the Continent with the Twenty-first Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, where he quickly regained his rank and the command of a machine gun unit. Later in the war he was a sniper. He wrote a pair of books about his wartime experiences; one about sniping and one about machine guns. The first is $0.99 and the second is free on kindle. Just sayin'.

In the forward to the second book McBride explains the birth of the modern military phonetic alphabet, (B-Beer, P-Pip, T-Tock, etc.) which led to machine gun sections being called the Emma Gees.

Now all of this has been a bit of background to explain why, when I walked outside into the dawn this morning, I exclaimed, "Oh Emma Gee!"

Followed immediately by, "Oh, $#!+!"

The first was because it was such a gloriously beautiful morning. The temperature was 54 degrees, which was delightful, the air was still and filled with the smell of high summer, and the sun, which had painted the dawn with an infinite palate of warm colors, began to peek above eastern horizon, sending bright streamers of white-orange light shooting across the landscape.

Exactly the kind of morning that makes me say, "Oh my god, what a gorgeous morning."

The second was because of the flatness of the left front tire of my pickup. I couldn't get myself too worked up about the flat tire though, because the morning was just too beautiful.

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With air in the tire I headed out to check cattle. I drove into the pasture via the southwest gate on county road 24. The sunflowers I posted images of yesterday are gone, munched down by cattle!  The Scotch thistle flowers I showcased are also gone, having been viciously eradicated by yours truly.

The fenceline where the sunflowers stood also shows off the difference between grassland that's been grazed  since spring greenup and grassland that's not yet been grazed.


A bit further along I came across a group of shrikes dining on grasshoppers and crickets.
Not sure if they're Loggerhead or Northern Shrikes.



Br'er Rabbit hoping he doesn't look like a cricket.

Whoa! Wait a minute, dude, that ain't no cricket!








Could be a Lark Bunting or a sparrow. Maybe a Horned Lark? Or something else?

Shrikes are interesting birds. They are predatory songbirds, and they do have a lovely song. They've got a reputation for being vicious murderers in some circles (the professional and semi-professional victim classes), because they impale their prey on sharp, pokey things like cactus spines, tree thorns, and barbed wire. It seems likely that shrikes evolved this behavior to stockpile food in locations that are hard for potential scavengers to access. I think it's very interesting behavior, and it makes me wonder at the shrike's level of intelligence. Did they learn to store food because they are smart, or was it just an evolutionary accident? Of course, not being an SJW, I'm blind to the fact that it's just the behavior of the corporate patriarchy, man!

Maybe the SJW classes (professional and semi-professional) hate the shrike because it it lent its name to Kurt Tank's FW-190, often called, like its namesake, the Butcher Bird. Rather unlikely that even a single SJW has read enough history to be aware of the existence of thWürger though.
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Cows and calves were enjoying the morning.




Bulls were comparing notes.


I headed back to the home place to work on some fencing. I had to wait a bit while combines hogged the road. It is wheat harvest, after all.


And then it was back to work on a lovely summer day.










14 comments:

  1. You and I exist in related mental universes, Shaun. Check out tomorrow's post which I just finished. I swear you must be an Adjunct to the NSA!

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    1. Hey, I was just wondering what your post would be about tomorrow! I wonder if Trump Jr did that with a maga mind trick? Looking forward to your post!

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  2. I noticed that you left the door of your truck open; have you disconnected the alarm which sounds, or do you take the keys out each time?

    I hope that some time I can go out and enjoy the view and ambiance of your part of our world. Preferably not when it's snowing/sleeting and at or below zero degrees.

    Thanks for the post.

    Paul L. Quandt

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    1. I pulled the cb so it won't ding and the dome light won't come on.

      Snow/sleet/below zero is one of the pretty times! :)

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    2. "Snow/sleet/below zero is one of the pretty times! :)"

      Yeabut I like to view it through glass with a nice fireplace fire going in the room.

      Paul L. Quandt

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  3. I find it interesting that Eric Brown thought that the FW-190 A would play the role of victim in a duel with a F6F-5, but if the Wurger was a Dora,the Hellcat should find somewhere else to be.

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    1. In a straight up 1v1 from a completely neutral start... But ACM/DAC never works like that.

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    2. AFW-190 that got a new owner. USN test at Pax river. Repainted in tricolor, with USN markings. I want to see
      a color copy! http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/fw190/images/808192a8.jpg

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  4. They don't have header wagons in Nebraska?

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    1. They do, but just to shift a few miles it makes little sense. Particularly on a Sunday when the already low traffic density is nearly nonexistent.

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  5. Nice.

    Were those members of the World Famous Sh!t Hot Orange Tailed Shrikes? (94 is a favorite squadron of mine.)

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    1. The Mighty Shrikes are always there when I see a Loggerhead or Northern. I guarantee that bunch are World Famous in their AO!

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  6. I see that there are a few trees in the distance. Do you plant any of them? Or is the ground non-conducive for their growth?
    Or is it something like, a tree uses x number of gallons of water and the cows don't eat the trees and the grass uses less and the cows eat grass?

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    1. With a very few exceptions trees you see in this part of the world have been planted by man. The ones in the video are Rocky Mountain Juniper for the most part. They were planted in the 80's when I was safely off in the navy. Once established trees do quite well so long as they are the right species. They provide shade and wind protection and a lot of wildlife habitat.

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