Why?

"Although he is a very poor fielder, he is a very poor hitter."

Ring Lardner, Sr.
(03/03/1885 – 09/25/1933)
US writer

They don't make sports writers like this any more.

Speaking of Things Starting...

Today is the day of the Ceremonial Start of the Last Great Race on Earth, aka The Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The first musher, Ray Redington, Jr., wearing bib #2, will be heading out of Anchorage in just a few hours heading to the Campbell Airstrip 11 miles away. He will be followed by 65 other stalwarts with the last being Ryan Redington, wearing bib #66.

Yeah, Ray and Ryan are brothers. Granddad, Joe Redington, is credited with starting this race 40 years ago and with keeping it going during the difficult early years. (Joe also completed the Iditarod 19 times finishing his last at the age of 80!) Their dad, Raymie, was a participant in the first race in 1973 and has completed 13 Iditarod races. He's not in this year's race, however.

As might be expected, the preponderance of racers come from Alaska but there are a number from the lower 48 and Canada. There are even entrants from New Zealand (rookie Curt Perano) and Norway (rookie Silvia Furtwängler and veteran Sigrid Ekran).

Tomorrow's restart will be in Willow this year. Along with some rerouting of the race the total distance will be 975 miles. Here's a list of this year's checkpoints and the distances involved. You can expect the first musher and his/her team to pull into Nome between 9 and 11 days after they leave Willow. The final musher and his/her team can get to Nome anywhere from 14 to 18 days after they leave Willow.

Good thing I've not much planned for the next two weeks or so.

It Has Begun!

This is the time of year when a young man’s fancy (and many a young girl’s) turns to the smell of new leather rubbed well with neatsfoot oil; the odor of ash rubbed hard with an old bone to compact the wood grain; the fragrance of a freshly mowed baseball field; the pop of a pitched ball into a catcher’s mitt; and the crack of the same ball against that ash bat recently boned to give it hardness as it is sent sailing over the fence.

This is the time of year when hope springs eternal. Baseball season has begun.

Last night, the Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland A’s 8-5 in the first Cactus League game of the year. Today there will be four more Cactus League games and five Grapefruit League contests—including the first for those damn Yankees and cursed Braves. The Mets do not play their first game until Monday when they face the Washington Nationals. From then until October it will be baseball, baseball, baseball.

Oh, there will be some March Madness on the NCAA front (teams TBA soon), a long and extended NBA playoff (I’m pretty sure New Orleans (9-27), Washington (7-28 and Charlotte (4-30) are out of the playoff picture but as for everyone else…), and a similar NHL playoff (is anyone truly out of it?) leading to a championship or three--and, perhaps some crazy fans setting fire to a city or two—at the beginning/first half of the MBL season. Hopefully they will be done by the All-Star break. And there will be college and pro football to serve as distractions for those fans teams are 20 games out on September 1st. But it will be another summer of baseball. Lots of baseball. And that is good.

Rare (for this year) Visitors

Recently we have been inundated with American Goldfinches. Most of the winter we have had only a smattering of these birds while having copious amounts of Dark-eyed Juncos. Both species would show up at the feeders immediately prior to and after any snowfall.

But this morning I spotted two birds I hadn't seen much of this season: a Pine Siskin and a Common Redpoll. The former drew my attention when I realized its back was brown and not the olive green of the goldies, the whitish wing bar did not stand out nearly as well against the brown not black wings of the goldies and the breast was heavily streaked unlike the smooth grey of the goldies. I didn't notice any of the yellow on the wings the Siskin is supposed to have, but then again, the goldies aren't exactly golden yet either. (When they begin to turn the color of daffodils we'll know spring is in the air!)

The Redpoll showed up while I was watching a mass of goldfinches hitting the feeder hoping to spot the Siskin again. Like the Siskin, it had the stripped breast and brown back and wings, but this little guy had a jaunty little red beret shoved low over his forehead and a reddish blush to his chin/breast.

Both the Siskin and Redpoll are birds of the far north that range south only to feed during the winter. I had thought that, despite reports from others in Pennsylvania--west and south of here, that they had passed us by in this year of a mild winter. Certainly two birds do not come close to the huge flocks we've had over the last two years, but it's better than not seeing them at all.

Neither bird stayed around--or still--long enough for me to get the camera out and snap their photo before they flitted off into the tree. *sigh* Maybe I'll get lucky and spot them again--now that the camera is at the ready.

While I'm taking about birds.... Yesterday we had some really strong winds that reached 40 mph coming out of the northwest. Perhaps that's what carried the Siskin and Redpoll our way. Standing on the deck early in the day I happened to catch a group of approximately 30 Wild Turkeys with their heads down and the wind at their backs hustling up the hill through the woods. In all likelihood they had been spooked from the field below us by either human, feline or canine activity. Whatever it was that got them moving, they were not going to slow down. They were trotting right along.

Snowy Morning At the Aerie

I was going to write about how we have enjoyed some Camelot Snow over the last week or so. (That's an inch or so of snow that arrives over night but melts away during the day.) The weather folks forecast a 2-4 inch fall overnight that would be followed by some pretty heavy rain which would wash it all away. Didn't happen. Those prognosticators proved they were NOT Merlin. We got the snow but no following rain.

Some 4+ inches of heavy, wet snow lay on the ground--which had been completely bare thanks to bright sunshine and 45+ degree temperatures on Thursday. Terry tackled the deck while I started with the shovel on the driveway. I soon gave that up and started up the tractor. (I deemed the snow too wet and heavy for the snow thrower to be of much use.) It took some time and I scrapped a good bit of the gravel and dirt that comprises the driveway, but the job did get done.

Terry headed out to the Bradford library for one of her stitching meetings and I went for t he mail. Our road hadn't been touched by a plow yet and the going was a bit rough but it was down hill. The paved roads and the dirt portion serviced by the school buses (two hour delay) had been plowed and were quite passable. Coming back up the hill I needed to switch over to 4-wheel high and had only a few moments when the Tundra slipped in the heavy snow. Of course, I was followed by the snow plow that cleared the road and spread some cinders in its wake.

The temp is now 35-36 degrees and there's a bit of a drizzle falling so what's left on the road and driveway may well be gone before things freeze up tonight.

The birds are pleased that the feeders are filled. I'm happy that the driveway and road are cleared and Terry should have little difficulty getting home this afternoon with the pizza she'll pick up in Troy. I even saw three deer pass through the back part of the yard when the snow plow created enough racket to stir them from their beds. Even the cats are happy--they just got fed.

Time for another cup of coffee.

GBBC 2012

Sent in my count for the yesterday. I spent the entire morning on the deck and looking out the windows to come up with my list. It's not terribly large but this has not been a winter for either manyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif species or many individual birds.

Just 14 species on my list.

Red-tailed Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 15
Downy Woodpecker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 7
American Crow 1
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 9
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Brown Creeper 1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 35
Northern Cardinal 1
American Goldfinch 18

I didn't actually "see" the Raven or the Crow, but they were calling from somewhere nearby. The voices of the two are pretty distinct.

I first heard the Pileated Woodpecker calling from across the street where there's a tree that has obviously gotten its attention. Then it flew through the yard heading for another excavated tree up on the hill that I saw the other day.

The Red-tailed Hawk flew out of one of the white pines on the hill above the Aerie and circled once before disappearing over the ridge.

I spotted the nearly invisible Brown Creeper working its way up a locust trunk on the other side of the yard. Once it got to the second level of branches it swooped down to another tree deeper into the woods and I lost sight of it.

The rest were visitors to the several feeders I've got on the deck and in the side yard. They are here nearly every single morning--right after I scare the fattening squirrels away.

The rest

The 2012 Yukon Quest is Fini

The Mushing Loon posted this on the Yukon Quest 2012 forum on the Iditirod site this morning at 8:03 AM.

Yukon Quest Update #25
The Red Lantern is in!

The 2012 Yukon Quest officially ended Sunday night at 8:05 local time when Michael Telpin crossed the finish line in Whitehorse. The Russian musher finished with all 9 of his native Chukchi dog...s, winning the Challenge of the North Award as the musher “who most exemplifies the Spirit of the Yukon Quest.”
The race ended 15 days, 8 hours, 5 minutes, 22 seconds after it started.

Rookie Marcelle Fressineau finished only 45 minutes before, making it a closer finish than it appeared it was going to be.

Complete Final Standings got to The Loon's Mushing Report: Yukon Quest

Congratulations to Michael Telpin and his team of dogs upon competing their first Yukon Quest. Congratulations also to the 18 men and women and their teams who finished ahead of Telpin. Four other teams scratched during the race and one never got off the line at Fairbanks because the musher was too ill. Congratulations, too, to the many, many volunteers working to make this race happen.

The Iditarod--The Last Great Race On Earth--kicks off in just over 12 days!

Today's the Day!

Pitchers and Catchers, baby!

It's on!



This year I'm going to find a way to go to a couple of games. Minor or major league won't matter as long as I can get out to the ball park and watch the action while sipping a beer (or two) and eating some peanuts, popcorn, Crackerjacks and hot dogs.



Spring is when every major league hopeful aims to impress and make the roster. Every year some young phenom shows up and heads north with the team. This causes the casual fan to ask the most important question: