The Pond is Dry and other Conundrums

                                                      Photography by Yulia Gapeenko

 

Remember this: Migratory birds fly for miles. They remember and learn what to avoid. So do I.

Lately, life has been a distraction from my conservation efforts due to other people's health conditions. Today, I sat down and tried to review what the mind should be preoccupied with. 

Basically for me, being nosy and writing.

A duck hunter who previously rented land to peruse stopped me in the local store and informed me that he rented but didn't go on the property because the pond was dry. Its not even migratory fowl season and people are looking for perfection. I thought about this. How would he know if he didn't go on the property? I went on the property and took photos months ago. During the one day snow storm, I trucked back into the woods and took photos of the frozen pond and the water in the duck pond that was frozen as well. The reason for this is to make sure there was a hole in the ice on the sump pond so the gases would not build up in the water and form dire consequences. The ice thawed out in that week so it wasn't a long freeze. 

The concept for most endeavors that I do when it comes to habitat construction and maintenance is to let it take its natural course. I guess people expect me to fill nature's duck bathtub up for them? 

Maybe I should toss in some decoys?

I began to have thoughts on water economy and scarcity. It has been on my mind since I heard about the projected AI data center in my county reported by local news. Ergo, its shroud in secrecy so I expect there to be something else going on in those six buildings. 

Now I got a disillusioned duck hunter, a dry pond, a drought of some sorts, and a data center looming in the distant future. 

Here I was thinking of buying some duck eggs and hatching them. Let no good intention go to pot. 

Its not bad enough I have to see the influx of deer into my county because the county over is so overrun with humans, buildings and their activities that the deer are now trying to hide across county lines. It looks like an alien invasion at night. I feel sorry for the deer because all the hunters do is drive around day and night trying to figure out how they can capitalize on watching a herd of ruminants get jammed up in a small area of farm and woodland. The pressure on them is incredible. Yet on rolls the wheels of progress, right over us all. 

Its a struggle. I am waiting on people to complain we need a killing because the deer are pooping in their yard. I have actually heard this non-sense from a person that was trying to request a permit to snipe them off her property. Wasted meat, what a shame.

Those deer's only crime was existence and having to have a bowel movement. Can you imagine what her thoughts were on human beings. 

It is more of a pain in the posterior when you are trying to manage a location that is a breeding ground for those little 20 lb sukies the hunters with their kids indiscriminating go out an shoot because everyone needs to have an experience. They won't even allow them to have a moments piece with their progeny. Its like the feeling people must have had back in the day when they were smoking bison and stacking them high. I sound so bitter. Guess I am?

                                                 Photography by Hamim Fadillah

I am not even gonna get into the other raging disappointment in my life when it comes to agencies that fall short of grace, character, and valor to be a bunch of punk barney's running around in the woods. All they are about is the bottom line.  

The plan is to go assess the situation and figure out if I can improve it but unless the tears of God fall from the sky, I don't expect a surplus of water to fill a hole in the ground to fulfill another person's expectations.

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Holy Punctuation!

Remember this: At the changing of the Guard of the Great Blogger, sometimes you have to watch out for the data running off the rails. 

If you have read my previous posts, you will see it has been littered with poor punctuation, etc. Due to Blogger changing with its updates to the programming and algorithm, there are times the format goes out of correction and turns into a diabolical nightmare for anyone with pet peeves on correct grammar. Even the font has to be sassy. 

So apologies for that. 

Grammar and punctuation ghosts start popping up left and right. Since the Dark Ages of Me on this platform, there are gap years when I fell into Corporate slavery, hunting melancholy, and my life path ran across many states. Those were the Dark Ages along with malicious mystery bad actors that searched for me high and low and branded me a Criminal since the Third Grade! 

As eyes are reading, I am going back to those and correcting them. 

Thank you in advance.

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2026  All Rights Reserved

Halloween Creative Prompt Hunt

Image Credit: Andres Ramos

Remember this: Games are fun. Let them begin. 

Dear Reader de Noches,

As promised, here are some creative spooky prompts to get you going. Finished products should be posted to social media so we can see. 

Expires 10-31-2025 at 12:00 am. 

1. You have just found out Aunt Vera has passed. Aunt Vera is into the Occult. She is on her way quietly housed in a urn made in the shape of a spirit box. Unbeknownst to the family-the spirit box is real. Tell or show us everything that has happened the week after her remains arrive at your door up to Halloween. Remember she didn't like you, or does she? You can do a video journal everyday. Incorporate an eerie original tune. Make Aunt Vera proud!

2. You are a homicidal maniac that is having second thoughts over your obsession for a book character called OingaBoinga. Make a video directed at Booktok rallying the Booktok troops to do a supporting video expounding on why OingaBoinga is the best thing since birria tacos. FYI-OingaBoinga's favorite color is Sunset Orange.

3. Aunt Vera's husband, Uncle Jerry, has a phobia of Haints and the color blue. He is suspicious Aunt Vera is coming back to haunt him due to her newfound knowledge in the Spirit World. What could it be? FYI-Uncle Jerry is prone to semi-sleep paralysis.

4. The artist job is to be interpretive. In your best creative dramatic way, retell the story of how Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones meet. Of course, feel free to elaborate on the Headless Horseman's allergies to all things pumpkin spice and fire hazards. 

5. Working from a script, you as the noob actor is asked to screen test a moment from Rearview Window. Do your best alternative ending Jimmy Stewart scene. Be horrifying. 

6. Dressed and in character as Alfred Hitchcock, video diary facial expressions and dialogue in spooky lighting, a moment of terrible realization that something is amiss. Be original. 

7. Write a three minute historical mystery that is filled with suspense, in prose, that alludes to something brewing to make us feel uneasy about the present. Read it to a spooky tune and upload to Tiktok. 

8. Have an Edwardian lunch while Rome is burning in the background with a quartet of violins playing Akasha's song. 

9. Work from your super power as a journalist. Dress as Miss Crabbits and tell us, while spying out the window on Hollow's Eve, why its important to be nosy and ask questions. She lives on Magnifying Street. 

10. Construct a Birkin bag knockoff but make it Halloween. Use cheap constructs. Make sure your logo is front and center. 

11. Bake a cake in sculpture form. Use vintage Halloween as inspiration.

12. Construct a stop motion video or vinyl record cover called, Life of a VooDoo doll. 

13. In your best childlike art draw a picture of what scares you in dreams.

14. You are a gypsy tarot reader. Your customer changes into a werewolf. Use TooTurntTony as Inspiration. 

15. Using Hieronymus Bosch as inspiration. Construct a foam board triptych of vintage Halloween images that tell a story.

Happy Candy Hunting 

Image Credit: Emran Hossain

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved.

What does it mean?

Remember this: Your knee jerk reaction tells me something about what your mental tendencies gravitate toward. 

Sometimes I have sleepless nights. I get on the social medias and visit what the general collective manic unconscious is doing and saying. The current crazy is Taylor Swift and a necklace she has put out as an offering. I could do some political think piece about war torn countries but that is a blot that will never subside. What can you do but talk, walk, rally, and have the police menace you for exercising your Constitutional Rights. 

This is going to be a short one. I am not telling you what to do. I am giving suggestions.

First off, if you are not sitting in the room with the people making the choices for jewelry construction for commercial production, maybe it is not a good idea that you start tacking your subjective surmises to its appearance in the world.  

Second, don't let your personal dislikes, that add a negative connotation, lead you down the wanton road of disdain and contempt for a person because you think they are and have had a better deal than you in the Olympic Games of life. 

Third, get better acquainted with the use of signs and symbols. Carl Jung wrote a whole book on that topic. It might be a good idea that you sit down with some actual literature or take a literature class that shows you how to appreciate the written word in whatever form it should take. Do not make yourself look stupid in public. It is easy to do. 

Fourth, don't blow a dog whistle or listen for one when the content and context of that whistle is leading you down an erroneous path. That path is going to make you look shallow, uninformed and well; it illustrates your lack of critical thinking skills and the nuances of a low tier Mastermind at best. 

Fifth, when in doubt, do not act. That keeps you from making yourself look dumb in front of your peers, or strangers, whatever your vibe is for the night. 

Sixth, always remember you do not have every vantage point to speak from. Speaking from a vantage point while holding up a greasy monocle over your one good eye is ridiculous. 

I am sure I can go on but moving along. 

Looks like a perfectly good not overworked necklace. Zeus and Thor would be proud. The necklace is as follows: 

How did the general population come to the conclusion this was Nazi work? Did you not investigate who the maker was? Where did the ideas come from? Why does it have to have meaning? Did anyone check to see if it was metal or plastic? Was it appropriated from a stone wall somewhere? 

I buy stuff all the time that has no meaning except that I like it and it is pretty. If it resonantes with something in your spirit, you are going to get it even if it is a whim, or trend buy. An alien may dig it off of a piece of rock in outer space one dark space night because Earth blew up and there it is.  I can only imagine what that alien is going to be thinking.

To add my two cents of unsolicited advice and observation, this is what I offer up to you as fat to chew in your journey to discover the meaning of Taylor Swift's Voynich necklace. Certainly, in time this mystery will be cleared up but just so it puts you in a sense of emotional crisis of your own choosing, I hope you get closure. 

What does this have to do with hunting? Nothing. Sometimes you find yourself chasing after something that makes no sense. 

At this point, she is pulling a Jack Sparrow. 

Here is what I put forth as gasoline. 

Taylor Swift is a lyricist that uses the spoken word, Easter eggs, signs symbols, and visual aids to keep her audience challenged and engaged. It appears the visual of lightning bolts and something that looks like a star can be confusing, but I believe it is a maritime compass used for navigation.

When you juxtaposition a lightning bolt and a navigational compass together you combine the symbols of chaotic, destructive, and divine power with the human search for guidance, order, and purpose. This creates tension between explosive inspiration and deliberate guided action. 

The Lightning Bolt

The lightning bolt could be interpreted as a sudden, powerful and divine intervention that can bring about destruction, creation, or joining of things not likely to happen. The lightning bolt can be a quick jolting creative force. If you think of the saying, "a bolt from the blue", could be interpreted as a life-changing event, moment of profound clarity, or making way for the new and removing the old. 

The Compass

Sometimes on a navigation compass the magnetic needle will be shaped like a thunderbolt.  That little piece will point True North or tell you in what direction you are heading. 

When you put the two together, the compass represents a reliable wayfinding tool. It symbolizes staying on the right path, finding one's way, and to a specific destination. As a inner moral compass, it's used as a metaphor for reminding you to trust your instincts and stay true to your values, even amid confusion.

Sailors would get tattoos for protection and good luck to encourage adventure and exploration for safe travels. 

When you combine the lightning bolt and the compass you get the following:

• Divine guidance vs human will
• Intuition and purpose
• Adapting to chaos

Pairing the two creates a powerful tension between fate and free will. The lightning bolt is destiny imposed by a higher power, while the compass represents the individual's freedom and intention to choose their direction. 

Together they represent finding one's path as the lightning bolt is a eureka moment and the compass is the tool used to pursue the sudden insight deliberately. It symbolizes both radical vision and the discipline action needed to achieve it. 

In regard to adapting to chaos, the lightning bolt represents unpredictable chaos of life, and the compass symbolizes being grounded and oriented despite the external turmoil. It is a symbol of resilience of using one's inner wisdom to navigate the storms of existence. 

Yet, beware. Magnetism from a lightning strike can cause your compass to go awry. It has the ability to change the properties of the alloy effectively changing the metallurgy of the component. 

If you look at Taylor Swift's life and her roadies, her life appears to be exciting and grandiose, but she is inside of a machine that rolls based on execution of time and precision, so she doesn't have much time for else when she is in its throws. You could imagine her feelings of being on the Hamster Wheel of Entertainment. It would be like an addict stuck in their addiction living out the same day, day in and day out. That would eventually crush your soul because you would assimilate to be like the machine that your habitat and ecosystem have trapped you in. That is a closed system, a fish tank. One thing gets out of balance the whole tank dies. The only thing you have to look for is collapse and demise. 

Most people don't think about how their life is lived in a plethora of ecosystems, open and closed. 

When you look at the timeline of her life struggles while the obnoxious voices in the back say she is entitled. No. She has suffered. She tells you in songs of her treatment and people buy her pain, joy, melancholy, etc. No one ever stops the problems of what she is in and affected by. Its entertainment.

When you see people online attack her for a necklace and use Nazi crap, you can see why our country is like it is. You can see why human beings are so messed up. It's like watching lemmings with gas and matches running off a cliff into a pile of dry wood while screaming, "Death to the invaders." The mindset of destruction will never make sense to me. Right now, there seem to be a lot of people trying as hard as they can to bring her down. That is a lot of effort for one person. She must be awesome to instill that much fear and hate. and equal parts love and loyalty.

You have to think now that she has met a partner that will set her on a journey where it will change courses and the unexpected will be on every horizon. She will not be able to do the same Hamster wheel she has been stuck in. Life is a changing for her. She might be a little off right now because she got hit by lightning. Her compass is pointing in many directions but only the one that is her heart's desire, as Jack Sparrow says will fix her True North and carry her in the direction that will make all the difference and sense in the world, for fair or foul.

Would you look at that?

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved

 

The Deer Were Strange

Image by Adam Zubek-Nizol

Remember this: Never underestimate one's ability to level up in their deviltry. If you do not know what it is, do not diagnose it. 

Given the recent events in the political arena with the current administration, I think its time for Spooky Tales of Horror. Turn down the lights, get a cup of cocoa and light a candle. Lean in. 

In my previous blog about Chronic Wasting Disease, I put forth the idea of birds being a possible vector in how the deer became strange. I am neglecting EHD, rabies, brain abscesses, etc.

As I was falling down rabbits holes, I fell into the biological weapons hole. Yeah, more angst. 

Lets start in the 30s and the 40s when countries were running around being bad little kids trying to figure out how to get their lick backs.

But first, lets keep this in mind. I wondered if there was another time where the deer acted strange. I couldn't really find anything except the Kaibab deer crisis in the 1900s. It was said that Teddy Roosevelt wanted to eliminate the natural predators and so he did. Yet, on the Kaibab Plateau region of Arizona a consequence of this was the usual deer population explosion which was thought to lead to mass starvation yet something was causing the deer to act abnormal in search for food. What did this mean act abnormal in search of food?

I have yet to find any documentation on this time in history.

Let us carry on....

Chronic wasting disease is noted to incubate over 2-5 years before symptoms appear. Once symptoms manifest, the disease can progress rapidly  with death in a few months. I am just using this one because it was the indicator in the 1967 incident. That could be a hallmark for possible biological weaponry.

 

A rather novel credo: Expose, Infect, Deflect, Deny

Lets look at the short list of times countries thought it was a good idea to put a booger on the person they dislike. This tended to be brucellosis, anthrax, bubonic plague, glanders, rinderpest, smallpox, tularemia, etc.

Let us start "The List":

1900 Germ theory in bacteriology

1925 Geneva Protocol-prohibited the first use of chemical and BW against enemy nationals in the international armed conflicts

1932 first BW research facility established at Army medical school in Tokyo. The next year there was brutal human testing near Manchuria. Just go research Ishii Shiro. He was trying to be a one man Hydra. 

1934 Italy, Rome. They were doing something with BW but it never took traction.

1937 Canada was using this projectile called a British Mark 1, which was a 4 lb bomblet (I like this word. Rolls off the tongue). It was filled with tularemia and brucellosis. They used Anthrax as well.

Somewhere in here Hungarians were exploring their version of a charcuterie biological weapon in the form of glass bombs but it didn't achieve aerosols and was problematic.

1940 Japanese Army Air Force bombed Ningbo with ceramic bombs full of bubonic carrying fleas

1942 Operation Vegetarian aka Britain Cattle Cakes. Britain used anthrax laced linseed cakes laced with spores to attack German soldiers.

1942 1700 Japanese troops died from a rebound attack that killed their own forces

1945 Japan planned a plague attack on San Diego, Ca during operation Cherry Blossums at Night. It was never executed due to Japan's surrender.

1948-1992 there is a place called Vozrozhdenie Island aka Rebirth island that was once in the Aral Sea. The sea began to shrink. This place was infamous for being a Secret Soviet Union Biological Weapons testing facility. Pathogens such as anthrax, smallpox, and others were tested and weaponized in the open air. The island is now a contaminated area with abundant wildlife. It has abandoned labs and toxic burial sites. 

2019-2020 Covid. I still think its strange that Biden appeared to me to know there was something bad coming. How is it that the common cold per Merck's manual becomes this thing that kills a lot of people in high population areas. It is said that it came from the Wuhan animal slaughter markets, or escaped a lab. 

I read one article by Jin Hong Yoo, "On the Controversies Surrounding the Lab-Leak Theory of Covid 19,in the Journal of Korean Medical Science, that states, "The third hypothesis is that the virus was deliberately engineered by the Chinese government or military as a biological weapon. This theory, however lacks scientific credibility for multiple reasons. Most notably, if the virus were indeed developed as a bioweapon, there should have been a pre-developed vaccine or antidote to protect the developer's own population, which is a fundamental principle in biological warfare. In reality, China suffered massive losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is implausible to assume that any government would orchestrate such a self-destructive act."

I wondered if this is like 1940s Asian biological warfare where the government would take the loss in the population because they got to many people anyway. It keeps them from looking guilty and accountable. It is called abnegation. Governments have been known in the past to turn on its own constituents.

We can see that biological warfare makes its birth in hospitals, laboratories, inside many creaturas, schools, etc.

 

The reason for someone to produce such a thing is diabolical but when you are fighting a war, its justified in some way. 

Long games are played all the time in history on political stages and in secret. What if someone either on purpose, or not, made a situation where the deer acting strange is just a long game to destroy the wild herd and take away the one thing hunters quest after. Its like a tiered system. Take out the most loved to kill the weapons. Kill the commercial feeder animals to attack the food supply. Destroy the farmer so he can no longer plant the grain. Once you stop the food supply, you have rendered people helpless to a degree. Remove the natural places where there is nothing left of the soul of a country.

We saw it in a Movie, "Leave the World Behind", where the deer are a sign of impending natural disaster. There was the cargo ship shoring itself on the beach. I am not saying this is true, but its odd. I am saying a lot of things are odd. 

Its like dominos; quiet dominos that you can't see falling because it is a slow process like decay and decline. You don't know its manmade because everyone is telling you that its the natural process. Yet something in your soul says revolt.

It could be Nature throwing out an event that isn't influenced by man but what if it were a possibility? And who is the guilty culprit(s)? 

What I am saying is, when an organism comes down with a disease be it viral, bacterial, or other, busy little hands can take it to a lab and try to repackage it as Marvin the Martian's little ray gun and aim it at all of us under the sun. This is why I think it is a bad idea to colonize space. People don't have any sense down here. Its not going to change up there. It will be all about Death Star 47 and no planet will be safe. Think about it.

With technology being created and its ability to read an animals genome, gene-editing, people on secret boats in international waters, scientists in their lab trying to discovery every mystique and kill it from asshole to appetite, why do we think human hands can't collect the new mutation and edit, add, or delete a new horror and throw it back into the human fishing pond?

The Audacity!

How is that for a conspiracy theory?

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved.

Citation and useful links:

https://theanimalecho.woah.org/en/biosecurity-for-sustainable-development/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12040609/