“You are entering Marmot Country.”
You might be better off stopping in bat country. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, yellow-bellied marmots live in the higher elevations and spend May through July fattening up for winter. Which means stealing from park visitors and destroying vehicles as they look for salt and anything edible to fill their bellies. Andrew Reinhart was napping when a marmot licked his ear, he told the Wall Street Journal, “You don’t expect to get licked when you go to sleep in the woods.”
Marmot shenanigans are funny but marmots provide more than being cute and naughty. The are the center of focus for the Marmot Project, the second longest running study of tagged animals, started in 1962. It allows us to see how climate change has impacted wild animals over a long period of time. So of course Trump cut its funding. Those running the project came up with a couple of unique ideas. Fat Marmot Week and OnlyMarms. They have collected more than $120,000 in donations which will help keep the project alive till hopefully changes in government returns some of their funding.
Silly commercial time! March Of The Penguins (free Vimeo link) was titled March Of The Emperor in France so CANAL+ decided to have some fun with another use of the word.
This week I sat down with Stu and Kathy Greenberg in their Cleveland Heights home to discuss their 10 years of effort to remove invasive plants so native plants can thrive in Forest Hill Park. It was a fascinating and inspirational interview. I first met them riding my scooter through the park, I volunteered to help pull weeds but it was too hard on my knees and back. Stu and Kathy have 20 years on me and I could not keep up! So instead I offered to share their story.
They have dedicated their time, energy, and money to this project, starting with no big plan beyond planting some trees. They were concerned about climate change and wanted to do something. Forest Hill Park is massive and divided between 2 cities, Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland. They described how an invasive plant can block out beneficial plants. There was a small yellow flower that seemed to be taking over everything, it was pretty but neither animals nor insects wanted anything to do with it, and the plants that could provide what pollinators want couldn’t find their footing.
Unfortunately the money is just not available to properly care for this historic and ecologically important community space. So volunteers like Stu & Kathy do what they can.
Weather permitting Stu and Kathy are out there every day, spring, summer, and fall. Removing invasives, planting and protecting native plants and trees and doing what they can to help restore balance to this beautiful oasis. Be like Stu and Kathy, just do something, little things can be big. The couple, in their eighties, hope to encourage young people to seek out opportunities to make a difference. If you would like to help, they work with Friends Of Heights Parks which accepts donations and volunteers. (Please let them know Stu & Kathy sent you!)
Plumes (Loris Assadian) is a man who sings and plays guitar for all kinds of critters. He explained to Mia Funk his connection with his audience: “You do have to be careful with wild animals because their reactions to us can be unexpected, and they can be scared of us, but I feel all part of this world and we’re all the same. I didn’t always used to think that way, because I was always wary of playing to big cats. I thought it would be a kind of joke, like they’re just going to kind of want to eat me and that’s all they’re going to want to think about. But then I tried just to see without even taking a video the first time with lions, and they started lining up in front of me and falling asleep. There were almost twenty lions, so that was pretty special. So, why not try again? It turns out big cats are one of the most receptive species so far.”
He also uses his fame to help support animals. The connections are amazing to watch.
Nice Times from Wonkers!
From BillEGoat: “I have a young colleague who I adore. He’s 24, smart as a whip, well-read, and interested in what seems like everything. But he wants to go to law school. Aside from me joking for about 6 months — DON’T DO IT! — it got real and he took the LSATs 10 days ago. I’ve finally started talking to him about some real-life stuff that I’ve done. And wracking my brain about things that can help with law school. Along with various things to know and be prepared for and more than a few helpful hints to stay ahead of the game.
“He sat down and thanked me profusely for all of the time we’ve spent, and for the guidance with some things he’d never heard of, and so forth.
“It was so wonderfully sweet, I can’t even.”
From Cat: “ We live on a 16th of an acre in a suburb with about half the lot taken with a ranch house and garage. Last year I read the book Bringing Nature Home [Wonkette affiliate link!] as a text for a Naturalist course run by my state through the ag university.
“This year I worked with a lovely company called New Leaf Natives to put in a clover lawn (not native but very pollinator friendly), and native plantings in the front bed and the whole back yard. We now have 26 native species growing on our property. The bees are active all day long, it’s lovely. We have monarchs and cabbage butterflies visiting. We have a planting of milkweed, half of which is being eaten by an invasive insect called Oleander Aphids. The other half is blooming like crazy with no aphids, so we’re leaving that to seed for next year.
We have a small rain garden taking the overflow from our back gutter, planning another for the runoff from the garage. We have two rain barrels on the garage already, using that for watering.
“I love it so much and when I hear the buzzing bugs and the singing birds and see the flowers it gives me joy.
“I can’t change the climate back but can try to provide something more than barrenness in my yard at least. The joy is for this reason even more so than the beauty of it.”
This week’s Movieboss recommendation is Josh Johnson, Friends You Want… and Friends You Really Don’t.
This is silly fun, a Canada goose kicking a very ugly eagle’s ass. I think this might be AI.
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Please send Nice Times suggestions, personal nice times and original art to ziggywiggynicetimes@gmail.com.
Tomorrow we will be watching Norma Rae for the Wonkette Labor Day Matinee at 3pm ET. Available for free on Vimeo and OKRU.
I apologise fr the lack of Cakes post today. There was a bit of drama when Cakes Jr spilt a cup of water over the stove top, which messed with the stove ignition and shorted out the electricity for everything on the ground floor of our house. As a result, I had to throw out the bread dough which had just gone to the end of its 8 hour proving time. I then had to wait 12 hours for the ignition to dry out and stop shorting out the house.
I'll be making bread dough attempt #2 on Monday or Tuesday, and will have your Cakes post ready for next Sunday.
Cakes Jr will be forbidden from approaching the stove with any form of liquid until after I have successfully completed this recipe.
I had an amazing encounter with angels last week. Both guardian angels, and angels here on earth.
I was in Colorado visiting my sister. Her husband and I took his Jeep up into the high mountains to travel over a 12,000-foot pass. Beautiful scenery, amazing views, glorious weather, and overall, a wonderful day.
Coming down the mountain, we rounded a hairpin turn and came face to face with several ATVs. There were a few moments of confusion, as to who was going to move/backup/go around/whatever.
My brother-in-law (I think) got a bit frustrated and shifted into reverse. He backed up to get out of their way, but over did it. We ended up backing right off the road and the Jeep tilted both backwards and WAY OVER to the right.
Surprisingly, we just sort of hung there for a few seconds. The people driving the ATVs got out and ran over to the edge of the road and looked down at us. At first, they yelled that they were going to try to winch us back up, but after seeing the dangerous angle, they yelled for us to get out.
The Jeep was REALLY LEANING to the right and when I opened the passenger door it almost ripped off its hinges from the weight pulling downward. Somehow the Jeep still managed to just hang there.
The only explanation we could think of was simply guardian angels holding the Jeep in place, so we had time to get out.
I jumped down and stumbled around on the loose rock and steep terrain. I had a moment of total panic, thinking there was a two-ton Jeep HANGING a few feet above my head, but the ATVs angles reached down and dragged me up onto the road and safety.
My brother-in-law needed help opening the door on the uphill side, and they all pitched in to help him get the door open and get out onto the road.
They had me sit down on the road and got me a bottle of cold water. They were incredibly kind and comforted me after the crazy event.
Then it happened. I guess the guardian angels holding up the Jeep got tired and it started to slide, then suddenly started tipping over to the right. It suddenly began rolling. Over and over down the mountain. It left a trail of broken glass, car parts, and our stuff littered down the mountain. Coming to rest far below in a bunch of brush and trees.
I can only imagine what THAT would have felt like, tumbling down the mountain inside that mess!
So the Jeep is completely smashed to pieces, but we simply walked away without a scratch.
AMAZING!!!