Maggie's Farm

Voting In Iraq

It's the news story of the day, if not of the year. We use Iraq the Model to follow the inside story in Iraq, as do many others.

Update: here. Thanks Instap.

Sunrise on the marsh

The duck-hunter's view of the world.

Stock Tip

Many are giving the same advice: Buy Walmart. It will not be this cheap in five years. Went into my first Walmart last week, in Winnipeg, of all places. Jammed with people. Shelves full of cheap but useful crap from China. Tons of cheerful employees. Not my cup of tea, but the concept obviously works. Yes, I am adding to my ownership of Walmart, based on the lengths of the check-out lines. Gas and oil will peak and settle - not to worry. Markets do work, in time.

How many times?

How many times have I done our readers a great favor and saved them tons of hard-earned money by letting them know about Sierra Trading Post, a wonderful deep-discount source for high-quality outdoor, outdoor sports, and hunting gear, plus clothing, winter underwear, gloves, boots, and shoes, and everything else? When the bug for gear and for stuff hits you, this is where to go for a healthy release which will not break the budget. Heck, what is more American than shopping for good cheap stuff when that mean old spiritual emptiness comes to call? Go ahead, give in to the impulse, and keep the economy running strong. (This is not an advt., and I am not an investor.)

E. H. Gombrich

The great Austrian art historian-theoretician who died in 2001 also wrote, in six weeks, a  Little History of the World for children which has just been translated into English. I have read The Story of Art and Meditations on a Hobby Horse, but never knew he wrote a history. No surprise though - he knew everything.

Reminiscences of Gombrich and thoughts about the new book, here.   His books on art here.

What works in practice rarely works in theory.

Bird Dog

How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?

One of those eternally fascinating questions. Heberle reviews "Will in the World", which, by coincidence,  happens to be on my bedside mountain of things I am reading right now:

"A young man from a small provincial town—a man without independent wealth, without powerful family connections, and without a university education—moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time…. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?"

Read entire extremely interesting review, and you will want to read the book.

Robo-Duck

Duck hunters love robo-ducks, and even the most traditional are becoming converts. Robo-ducks draw ducks to your decoy spread, presumably by imitating the appearance of a landing duck. Are they sporting? That's a fair question. Do they work? Definitely. Lucky Duck is said to be the best. They also make a wind-powered version.

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

From Hamlet (II, ii, 115-117)

The Snow Goose, seemingly endangered in the 1970s, has now become a threat to itself, due to a population boom which threatens its arctic breeding habitat and might be caused by the abundant food which farmers leave on their fields after harvest, along the Mississippi and Central flyways.

In recent years, I have seen their flocks block out the sun in Canada. It's referred to as a "tornado" when they descend upon your decoys in a field in enormous numbers. There are no large numbers in the Northeast, but they do gather in the Chesapeake and I have seen them flying over ski slopes in Vermont in the winter, and loafing on potato fields on Long Island.

This goose comes in a "blue" form, and various mixed-color versions, including the "eagle-head' - blue with white head. The blue version was once called a Blue Goose, but is now known to be just a color variant. The Canadian and US govts are doing all they can to encourage hunting Snow Geese, including a spring season and permitting electronic calls.

They are fun to hunt, if they chose your field, and if you hit them they "go down like a prom dress," as the expression has it: easy to kill, compared to other geese. The deeply frustrating situation is when they chose a field adjacent to yours, and you end up standing there like a dope in your dorky camo hat with earflaps and an unused pile of ammo while hundreds or thousands of them land out of range.

Daily limits of Snows are high in most areas. They are not exactly delicious like a Canada Goose, but there are ways to make them an enjoyable meal, and the rule is that if you kill it, you eat it. More about Snow Goose at CLO here.

The Baltimore Sun ran this photo of
the first airlift of dogs from New Orleans, on a flight chartered by T. Boone Pickens.

Thanksgiving Planning

A tradition in the south - the Turducken. Aren't you bored with turkey? And they will do a shrimp and crawfish stuffing for you.

Wetlands Litigation

From Yahoo News:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it would decide the reach of the federal government's power to regulate wetlands, an issue pitting environmentalists against property-rights advocates.

The justices agreed to decide a pair of Michigan cases, involving a shopping-center developer and a condominium builder, that will test whether the government's use of the 1972 Clean Water Act represented a permissible exercise of Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce.

The high court will consider whether federal regulators have gone too far by restricting development of wetlands that are not adjacent to navigable waters such as rivers or lakes. Read entire piece.

I hate cases like this in which strong ideas which I hold dear find themselves at war. Property rights? All for them - the foundation of economic freedom. Protection of the land? All for it. Trust states and localities to do the latter? Forget it. But is that right and principled? Maybe not. Are local, state and the federal govt corrupted by money? Yes - but it's not campaign contributions - it's tax money that corrupts them. They get to spend your hard-earned $ to buy re-election. Which is why a town govt will usually prefer a Walmart to a marsh.

Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.

Albert Einstein

Katrina's effects on LA wetlands

An informal report from SW Louisiana, by Ducks Unlimited biologists:

Clay and I spent all day Tuesday in the Pecan Island area getting footage to show effects of the storm (Rita) related to the people in this devastating event and what they are trying to deal with.

Pictures and video can only show part of the devastation that we saw...homes washed away, dead animals and fish, decaying vegetation, mud, etc., etc. Miles and miles....

On Tuesday, most of our time was spent in Vermillion Parish. Hwy 82 runs along a Chenier ridge and through some great duck country. The water along Hwy 82, north and south is still high. Much of the vegetation is dead or dying. Effects of high water for this extended period will have significant effect on this marsh (hundreds of square miles). I am sure some areas will benefit and some will suffer and some areas will recover faster than others. Very difficult to tell at this time on specific areas. Water quality in much of this area is bad to worse. Not sure what effect water quality will have on recovery...if any??? 

On Wednesday, Clay and I spent the day near Gueydan. Clay took video of about 30 Mottled ducks at the NRCS WRP prairie restoration site.

Just west of Gueydan, we found several thousand Bluewinged Teal and a few Pintail in a fallow/idle field. Every duck we saw in two days was in flooded idle fields. Lots of water in the rice country...lots of unharvested second crop...Ag. dept. predict 95% of the ratoon crop was lost. Clay got some video of teal, mottled ducks, shorebirds, etc.

Read the rest on continuation page below:

Cold Weather

The human body was not made for cold and wet. Winter fishing and duck hunting are dangerous hobbies. A scary piece on the subject of Off-Season Boating.

Now for a tip on gloves: A fellow hunter was using Maine lobsterman insulated PVC gloves for his decoy work, and they seem like a good idea for any cold wet work. They sell them at New England Marine. Also here. The neoprene uninsulated gloves sold in outfitter catalogues are useless and extremely cold. I am throwing mine away.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, there is. 

Chuck Reid

Al Quaida moving into Gaza. Powerline

Why to support Miers. Mirengoff. Rick Moran on the risks of the Miers appointment.

Why a Federal appointment is more than a hassle: WSJ

Wallace and Gromit history is on fire. Guardian

FEMA contracting was a mess. Who picks up the bodies? WaPo

Europe bans Turkish birds. Guardian

Xenophon's Anabasis, and the March of the Ten Thousand

VDH has a nice piece on Xenophon's report of the adventures and misadventures of the Greek mercenaries who were hired by Cyrus in 401 BC to remove his brother, Artaxerxes, from power in Persia.

Also, because of our appreciation of VDH, a free ad for his new book on the Peloponnesian War, which shortly preceded the Persian adventure of the tough, battle-hardened Greek hoplites.

Cooking  a Wild Duck

Or any duck, even from the supermarket... here are the two basic approaches for the breast or for the entire bird:

1. Cut off the breasts carefully, retaining all of the meat and keeping the skin on. Marinate in wine and various herbs for a few hours. Or in milk.

2. Then take the carcass, boil in water with plenty of good wine and/or port and herbs, onions, carrots, celery and garlic, a little sugar, etc. for a few hours, until thick. Simmer the heck out of it for a good sauce. Then strain it and cook until thick on the stove.

3. Saute the breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, in olive oil and butter on high heat very briefly, a couple of minutes to rare, both sides. DO NOT OVERCOOK.

4. Take the reduction from #2 above, and pour over breasts sliced on the bias.

OR:

1. Take the entire bird, season with salt and pepper and put in oven on a rack, put a sliced onion and a sliced apple inside, and cover with a couple of strips of bacon. Wild birds are short on fat, but store-bought duck is full of fat. Bake at 550 for 25 minutes - rare. Duck needs to be rare for the full wild, livery flavor to be fully appreciated.

2. Slice the breast, cut off the legs and serve them too, and pour a thickened reduction of wine/port/herbs (see above) over the slices. (Hopefully you have a spare duck carcass to put into that reduction).

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You can garnish both of the above with orange slices, but do not cook an orange near a good duck. Too strong. Serve either approach with wild rice and sauteed root veggies - carrots, parsnips, celery root, etc. A few sauteed figs are nice, or sauteed pears. Whatever you do, save or use the reduction from the duck carcass - it is a base for a fine sauce for anything, like chicken. It can be frozen if you don't use it all.

The diving ducks (red-heads, canvasbacks, blue-bills, etc.) are, in my opinion, the most delicious with their liver/anchovy flavor, but some prefer the mallards and other puddle-ducks with their milder flavor. Chacun a son gout. But try to appreciate the wild ones - they concentrate the call of the wild in their flesh. Yes, you can serve with cranberry sauce - anything with feathers is enhanced by cranberries.

We are proud to say that we are among the rare and blessed few who have encountered the mythical duck hunter's cutie-pie while hunting last week in Manitoba - the famed and mysterious Maid of the Marsh, who, like a mermaid, or a unicorn, or a white whale, or Bigfoot, materializes like a vision out of the mist and rain and sleet, to present her magnificent self to distract and bother fortunate and intrepid fellows who are on a heroic quest - in this case, the quest for a limit of diver ducks on Manitoba big water.

Yes, we were very lucky to get a photo of this charming creature as scientific proof of her existence, as she gave us her memorable trademark open-mouthed, invitingly seductive glance before she disappeared or dissolved into the fog and the bullrushes and the alcohol  - a momentary vision who came to us in black and white. An illusion? A ghost? The fantasy of a lonely hunter far from home? Well, the photo tells it all.

If you wonder about the make and model of the shotgun, your priorities are way off. No - we are not a porn site. Sorry to disappoint. This is science. We think the gun is a Win 42, a .410 and definitely no duck gun in anyone's hands, but a fine gun for shooting pigeons and starlings around the barn. And that is not cellulite - that is abundant health.