Speculating in the Futures Market

While driving to work Thursday morning it occurred to me that the county might be putting on their seasonal load restrictions for secondary roads soon, so I placed a call with my renewable fuels broker and he delivered  eleven cords of energy futures Saturday morning.  The load restrictions will be going on noon Monday, so exercising my futures option turned out to be a wise decision.

That same day we met with our stock brokers, John and Wendy to accept delivery of three shares of live stock with a futures option of a fourth.  We had lost a third of our ovine portfolio two weeks earlier in a bear (i.e. wolf) market, and wanted to replenish it.

The transaction consisted of a bred ewe, Lolly, that is expected to throw twins, possibly triplets, in April. I paid with a futures check, redeemable on my next payday.

Lolly pulls better than most sled dogs.

Gunnar welcomed the new flock addition with enthusiasm.

And, charming gentleman that he is, pursued her...

Round ...

and round...

and round and round and round.  Wendy had cautioned us that Lolly was a little frowzy looking because she had missed her normal fall shearing,  but she was a "10" in Gunnar's eyes.

Super Sunday

Marja chopped up apples that we had picked from our own trees last summer and made pies from them.  We stored the apples in our basement which is quite cold.  The skins were a bit wrinkled, but the flesh was firm and delicious.  No pesticides on these apps.  No service fees, and free downloads with every slice.

Forty degrees and sunshine brought bees from their hives.  These are euphemistically termed "cleansing flights", as the bees leave their hives in order to relieve themselves. On a very warm afternoon the air will be filled with bees and the snow all around the hives will be yellow.  It's always amazing to see bees flying in winter, and I was encouraged to see activity in all three hives.  Hopefully, they will all make it to spring.

It was a beautiful afternoon to go snowshoeing through the swamp to the old beaver ponds, that are now just open meadows - until a family of beavers returns to rebuild the dam. 

Snowshoes and swamps go together hand in glove.  What in summer is a soggy slog through tangled undergrowth and tall grass becomes an easy stroll during the winter.  Not to mention the fact that there are no bugs during the winter.

Woolen bibs, otherwise known as the Minnesota tuxedo, are the most comfortable pants you can wear in the woods.  Wool is real.  Millions of sheep can't be wrong.

One of the old beaver dams along the creek.

Warm sunshine, hot coffee, a comfortable seat and a good book.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Green branches in sunshine, something you might take for granted if you live in a place where the sun shines year round. You probably can't  appreciate how much a sunny day means to those of us who experience sunlight starvation up here in the northern boondocks, so just take my word for it that we develop a real thirst for color during the cloudy gray times.

A Sad Interlude

Friday afternoon  Marja called me and told me to come home right away.  Sigrid was outside the fence and the dogs were after her.  When I pulled into the yard, Marja was waiting on the path with a sad message, “Sigrid is dead.”

 My emotions were shock, grief and anger.  When I saw Kalevi feeding on the dead sheep I lashed out with adrenalin-charged rage.  Hearing Kalevi yelp, our other male dog, Savu, ran over and was immediately attacked by Kalevi.  When I began dragging Kalevi away by his hind legs, Savu kept attacking him.  I hollered and kicked and tried to break it up, but  it seemed like nothing I did had any effect on either one.  They simply wanted to kill each other.

Finally, after the dogs had bloodied themselves up and I had run out of anger, everyone began cooling down.

The day before Gunnar had butted this door and bent the flange somewhat which I had to bend back with a crowbar.  I was planning on putting a wooden crossbar to secure the door, but I didn’t think he would actually bend the dead bolt like he did.  I suspect once he opened the door he may have seen the dogs and stayed back.  The shed and the fence are within the dogs’ radio fence shock zone, so they keep their distance.  Unfortunately, Sigrid, our smaller ewe, decided that this was the day to explore outside the fence.

Marja got to the scene right before the dogs attacked.  She had gotten ahold of Kalevi’s collar, but he broke free.  All three dogs of our huskies attacked the sheep at once and there was nothing that Marja could do.  I feel badly that she had to see it, for it was due to my carelessness.  I should have secured that door better

Most of the blood you see is Kalevi's own.  Savu chewed up his face fairly well as I was dragging him away.  White dogs always look awful after a dogfight.  I know, because I've had six white huskies over the years.

I could have cheerfully shot all of my dogs at the moment I first saw this.  Anger is a powerful emotion, but we need to master it.   Blind rage can do terrible things, our ability to reason is severely hindered. My dogs were just obeying their basic predatory instincts.  I really cared for this sheep.  I was hoping that she would have a lamb in April, but my pets killed her.  Does that make them evil?  No, but it reminds us that animals are animals and we cannot expect them to behave contrary to their nature.  From what I have read, sheep are fascinated by open gates.  Dogs are fascinated by running sheep.  I need to keep my gates closed.

There is a deeper lesson to be drawn however.  We are all imperfect fallible human beings.  We do stupid things, we make dumb mistakes just like sheep.  We cannot undo the past, but we need to forgive ourselves, as we have been forgiven through Christ,  and go on.  We have a perverse habit of beating ourselves with our failures and reliving our mistakes with thoughts such as "If only I had done this, or hadn't done that.  Then this wouldn't have happened."  Has it ever occurred to you that it is just possible that God is greater than your mistakes?  Learn from it, put it behind you, and get on with your life. 

Snow Birds

Pine Grosbeaks are perhaps my favorite winter birds.  We don't see them during the summer, but they usually appear at our feeders sometime in January. 

Like many songbirds, the male is much more colorful than the female.  He needs to be attractive to  to win a mate.  She, on the other hand, needs to blend in to her surroundings when she is sitting on her nest.

Grosbeaks belong to the finch family and feed primarily on seeds and buds, which they crack with their large powerful bills.  Finches typically travel in flocks.  I suspect they may signal to the others when a food source is found.  I don't know that for a fact, but keeping a flock together likely ensures greater safety against predators for each individual.  Also, a flock is likely to find better food sources when there is cooperation.  There is a temptation to view animals through our own moral lenses and view a cooperative flock as an example of altruism, but we must also admit the possibility (perhaps likelihood) that the root cause of cooperation is "selfishness."  The mantra of modern biology - "survival of the fittest" can in fact invent no other motivation.  Within that system love is merely a pleasurable feeling that has evolved to confer enhanced fitness to pass on one's genes.  That system is a cold, silent place.

They are a colorful delight to see in the middle of winter.  Also their calls are  soft and musical.   

Lake Effect Snow

The Copper Country is a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Superior.  When  cold dry air from Canada passes over the big lake it absorbs moisture like a sponge.  When that air rises over the Keweenaw Peninsula it cools and releases that moisture in the form of snow.  Sometimes the flakes are large as in this picture, sometimes fine - almost like a fog.

David and Deanna off for a slog through the deep powder.

The clouds which drop lake effect snow proceed in bands, so that one minute you can have near whiteout conditions, and then sunshine a few minutes later.

Of course, if you're wearing a good sheepskin coat, the weather really doesn't matter.

After the storm.  Actually, this picture was taken a few days earlier, after a true storm caused by a low pressure system.  Our lake effect snows are often very localized.  The sun may be shining twenty miles south while here it is snowing heavily.  

Life in the trenches isn't that bad as long as you have enough sweet hay.

Feeding the Flock

Sheep prefer to eat their hay from the the ground, so I try to spread it around so that they don't fight over it. 

Gunnar likes it when I scratch behind his ears and sometimes wags his tail like a dog.  However, soon after this picture was taken, the rascal tried to but me as I was walking away.  I happened to turn around just as he was rushing me and he immediately veered off.  As long as he knows I'm looking at him, he's a very good boy.

We still have plenty of hay in the hayshed and I make sure the sheep have plenty when the weather gets cold.  There's an old Finnish proverb "Heikki heinia jakaa"  (which literally means "Heikki splits the hay" ) meaning that around Heikki's name day, the 19th of January on the Finnish calendar, your hay and winter stores will be about half gone.  It is really the midpoint of winter.  In our case I doubt that I've even used a third of the hay yet, and it's a good feeling to know that we have plenty on hand.

Sonja and Sigrid enjoying their hay while the shepherd looks on.  I've made it part of my everyday routine to go out and feed the sheep when I come home from work.  It's a relaxing thing to do and I take great pleasure in it. Sheep are really nice animals to be around, even if one would like to butt you.

After all, boys will be boys.

Ice Fishing

A well- sharpened ice auger makes drilling holes in thick ice nearly effortless.

Yeah, right.  Let's just say that it's less work than swinging an ax.  Our pond has many smallmouth bass and I wanted to see if they could be caught in the winter.  The snowfall causes the ice to sink and water to flow onto it from the edges and from various cracks I suppose, so the top layer of the ice is covered with slush.

I drilled six or seven holes with the ice auger at various places in the pond.  The water is less than four feet deep in most places and you think it would be easy to find the fish.

But after jigging with worms and waxworms for the better part of two hours without a single bite, I had to admit defeat.  The next day I asked several more knowledgeable ice fisherman and they said that smallmouth bass are very inactive during the winter.  I guess that's how they survive in such shallow, oxygen depleted water.  Next summer I think I will plant some bluegills in the pond.

January

The Christ Mass 2011

Christmas Eve. Amanda, Jonathan, Samuel, Mikael & Jenifer practicing a number which they sang in church that night.

Marja picking spinach from our greenhouse. December spinach is sweet. Sugar is a leaf's natural antifreeze.


Following Finnish custom we have a big dinner on Christmas eve. We begin the dinner by reading the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke.


Grandpa, Gwen, Daniel and David. Gwen and Daniel plan to marry in June. Welcome to the clan, Gwen!


Lots of delicious food, need I say more?


Samanda checking out the presents under the tree.


Mik modeling the latest in Virginia fashion - a sauna suit. It dropped everyone's blood pressure I'm sure, as we could hardly stop laughing when he put it on.


The girls modelling their new post-sauna headwraps and towels.


What would Christmas be without joulpullaa? This along with stacks of cookies, cheese, puddings, chocolate, etc. provided us with plenty of fuel for outdooor activities.


Pond hockey was great. The low snowfall enabled us to skate on the pond during the entire week after Christmas.


Yours truly bought himself a new pair of skates and was on the winning side more often than not. On a short rink, the treachery of age can offset the athleticism of youth.




Deanna ready to go for a ski. We all skied on several occasions, but I neglected to take a camera to the trails.


Samamanda preparing to go skijoring with Savu and Heini. Amanda likes animals and really was taken with Heini, our girl dog.


Breakfast. We generally stayed up late and got up late, just like you should do when you're on vacation.

The girls playing scrabble with a retinue of onlookers and advisors.