A Series of Unfortunate Events

Shortly after Jody returned from her Cousin Scott’s funeral, we were surprised with an early morning phone call from my mother. She informed us that my dad had a heart attack and, while he was in stable condition, he needed to have a triple bypass. The surgery would be on a Monday and my sister was already scheduled to have Gastric Bypass surgery on Tuesday. Both surgeries require a stay in the hospital and they were at different hospitals. So needless to say, I needed to get back to Detroit. When I arrived in Detroit I was told that my Uncle Jim (my dad’s brother) was hospitalized. Jody and I had visited my Uncle Jim when we were in Detroit last October. The doctors thought he had a bad respiratory infection. Turns out they misdiagnosed him and he actually had lung and liver cancer. The good news is that my dad and sister both did relatively well with their surgeries. My dad was released two days early from the hospital and both my dad and my sister arrived back at home within ½ hour of each other. The bad news is that my Uncle Jim passed away on Feb. 14^th. I guess the upshot to my dad’s heart attack was that I was able to visit him one last time. He was released from the hospital and had home hospice at my aunt’s house. When he died he was surrounded by both of my aunts (who were singing to him), my other uncle, my grandfather and my dad was talking to him on the phone. My Uncle Jim was one of the friendliest persons I’ve ever known. He will be missed. So next time you have a drink, raise your glass to James Emil DeMeyere. Oh, and my dad finally quit smoking.

Jody’s family also experienced another loss. Jody’s Great Uncle, Stanley had a heart attack. He developed pneumonia in the hospital following the heart attack and was unable to fight it. He had made a good run and lived to be 92 years old. I credit his longevity to all the great polish food he grew up on. So when you raise that glass to my Uncle Jim don’t forget about Stanley Pawelak. Or maybe eating a pierogi would be more fitting. I’ll leave that up to you.

Learning to Make Fire

For our wedding in September 2003 Kari put together a bow drill set for us as a present. The kit included everything we would need to create fire from natural products. We have not practiced with it too much so we were excited when she decided to spend a night down at the forest with us and give us another lesson.

The kit consisted of four parts. The motherboard is where the coal is created. The spindle is what you turn to create the coal. The bow is what you use to move the spindle. The top rock is what you use to apply pressure to the spindle. The coal is produced through friction as the wooden spindle whirls against the motherboard, dropping hot powder into the notch. The coal is then dropped onto the tinder and blown into a flame. While the process seems easy enough in theory it is very difficult to master without lots of practice. Kari was able to practice everyday when she lived in Utah. She was a counselor at Second Nature, a wilderness program for at risk teens. Kids sent there spend 8-10 weeks out in the woods without ever stepping foot indoors. Each night they would have to “bust” a fire if they wanted to eat a hot meal. Kari got to the point that she could bust a fire in 3-5 strokes with the bow. dave and I, having not practiced, were not able to get a coal even after lots of time spent working the pieces.

The Motherboard and Spindle

Close Up of the Action (Kari is helping dave apply pressure to the top rock and spindle. The wrist joint seems to be the first breakdown point in the process. This process of helping is called tandem.)
It was key to rest your left elbow against your left knee to ensure you could keep enough pressure on the spindle. Don’t let the winter hat on my head fool you. It was hard work and we worked up a sweat.
We were unsuccessful this time but we intend to keep practicing.

Mardi Gras Texas Style

After living outside New Orleans for three years it is hard to let a Mardi Gras go by without celebrating it properly. Thank goodness we got a couple of days off because we were able to go down to Port Arthur, Texas and take part in their celebration. Although the celebration in Texas wasn’t as big as it is in New Orleans, we still had fun. Robert Earl Keen headlined the festival. This was my first time seeing him live and I was not disappointed. (Although I was disappointed at my camera for not taking any good night time photos of him.) I bought a CD after the show and got him to sign it.

Kari, Ryan, dave and I Still Early in Our Drinking (We stayed the night down there in the City Hall parking lot so we wouldn't have to worry about driving home.)

Bands in Mardi Gras Parade

All the beads the floats were passing out were made in China. We couldn’t resist this shot. Pay close attention to the panties Kari got from a passing float. They stayed on dave’s head for the duration of the parade.

Kari, Ryan and dave Celebrating Properly

Even Otis got in on the fun!!!

Here Turkey, Turkey!!

The turkeys have finally shown themselves to dave and I and we have been busy trying to capture them. We have been working on two different projects which both involve capturing wild turkeys and putting radio transmitters on them.

The first project is for our friend Ryan.

Ryan and a Captured Turkey

He is trying to find a way to get accurate population counts on the birds in East Texas. Currently the only way to get a population estimate is through established gobble count routes. Only the male turkeys gobble. Hence they are called gobblers! These routes were randomly established in parts of the forest. Ryan hopes to get a more accurate count by tracking the turkey movements, identify the preferred habitats they use and using this information to establish routes in turkey preferred areas. (We may be oversimplifying his project but we think this is correct.)

The second project is for another grad student we met down here. Jason is originally from Vermont near Kari’s hometown.

Jason and Turkey

Jason’s project is looking at the female turkeys. He is looking at the nesting habitat utilized by hens (female turkeys). Without radio tracking the birds it would be very difficult to find their nest locations and find out if they nested successfully.

Turkey trapping entails a few steps. They are described below.

We already mentioned in the previous blog that we were baiting sites that looked promising. Turkeys scratch a lot when foraging so it is pretty easy to tell if they have been in the area. You can use the scat to tell male from female birds. Female scat will have twisted. Jake (young males) scat will be longer and may start to curve into a J. Gobbler (large males) will be J shaped. (We’re excited about knowing so much about turkey poop. We thought you would like to know too!!) This year they were able to get motion activated cameras to put at the sites. We used the information from these cameras to see when the birds were coming and what sex they were to better our chances of capturing the birds.

The net is placed directly behind the bait pile and is covered with camouflage to ensure the birds don’t see it and get suspicious.

Preparing Capture Site

The net is connected to three rockets. The rockets are placed in a launch so they will shoot the net over the bird’s heads. Charges are placed in the rockets and a wire is strung to the blind where we wait for the turkeys. Once the turkeys are in position near the bait the wires are connected to a battery and the rockets fire up and over the turkey’s heads.

Rocket and Launch

Then the real furry begins. You have to jump out of the blind and get to the birds before they struggle out of the net or get too tangled in it. It seems to help if you can place blankets over them as soon as possible. Once they can’t see they settle down.

Turkeys Under the Net (Anywhere you see a blanket, there is a turkey under it.)

Each bird is carefully pulled out of the net and put into a box until we can process it. Each bird is given a metal leg band with an identification number on it.

Putting on Leg Band (We call it their BLING.)

A small amount of blood is taken from each bird. Although neither of these studies is looking at genetics, the blood can be used for a later genetics study.

Taking Turkey Blood

We take a few basic measurements on the turkeys. We look at their beards (status symbol?) and their spurs (male turkey fighting apparatus). We have socks over their heads to calm them down. No they are not used socks!

Measuring Male Turkey Beard

The last part of processing the birds is the most important for these two studies. It entails putting a transmitter on the birds. They are small enough to fit on the bird’s back and attach by going around each wing. They are placed in such a way to allow the bird complete movement of its wings. The cord used to attach them is stretchy to allow for this movement.

Putting on Transmitter

When we release the turkeys we look to make sure they are flying properly.

Up Close Turkey Head

The birds are then monitored by radio telemetry. At least once a week dave and I have been driving around the forest listening for the birds. When we get a signal from them we get out of the van and, using the hand held antenna, we triangulate their location by compass bearing.

Radio Telemetry