Sunday, November 22, 2009

Pioneers

Walt Whitman has a way with words. Thanks to Art of Manliness and Levi's for reminding me.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Random Number Generator

Hey, I made you a random number generator. Hope you like it. I use it all the time. Les

posted by Les at 11:33 PM   0 Comments

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A Dozen Electrocuted Animals

Strange territory up here in Montana. This article should stay alive, so I'm copying from Eureka's Tobacco Valley News. I almost wish there were photos.

Crews find 12 dead animals on Pinkham Mountain power line
By Krista Tincher
Of the Tobacco Valley News
Lincoln Electric Co-op repair crews stumbled upon a grisly scene last week.
The carcasses of four whitetail deer, four black bear, two wolves, a coyote, and a turkey vulture lay strewn about a snow-skiffed remote power line on Pinkham Mountain, in various stages of decay.
It must have been months ago, speculated Tim Engleson of Lincoln Electric, that a dead lodgepole pine had toppled onto the power line, which services communications equipment on the mountain.
But the pine dropped the line to within a foot of the ground, and the line remained hot.
The power company had no way of knowing about it.
So it may have started with a deer, stumbling over the line.
The deer's carcass then attracted predators, which in turn were zapped by the live wire, attracting further predators.
And it was only when the weather turned wet enough last week for the electricity to find a path to the ground, said Engleson, that Lincoln Electric became aware of the outage.
With no residences on that line, even a dimming or flickering of lights couldn't be reported, Engleson said.
"It was kind of a freaky deal," he acknowledged. He has never heard of such an occurrence, he said. "We've had cases with a single critter," he said, but never 13.
"It was something I hadn't seen before," said game warden Jim Roberts, who also responded to the power line scene. "Like a regular little killing field."
The black bears consisted of one yearling, two females, and a male, he said. You could still see the singe marks on one bear's back, he said.
The male wolf and a younger wolf were likely members of the Lydia pack, he noted.
"It's just kind of one of those things. Strange things happen," said Roberts.
The event serves as a reminder, said Engleson, for people to stay away from downed power lines. You never know when they might still be hot.
"It's probably a good thing we found it before hunting season," added Engleson. "It was an unfortunate deal."


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