Grouse Hollow Journal for March 2, 2017 by Greg Koelker
It is Sunday morning. The sun is brilliant on the new snow. There are rivulets trickling from every rooftop where the sun shines its heat. Last week’s warm weather proved a joke on the many waterfowl on the Mississippi I fear. On our way home from La Crosse this morning we could see large flocks of canvasbacks, mallards, and some flights of smaller ducks. There were also many ice fisherman. Well, bald eagles actually along the open water in the decaying gray blue ice north of and in Stoddard Bay, looking for a breakfast of fish.
Yesterday I shoveled snow and ran “the beast” up and down the driveway. Ellen is doing well, but she is still on restriction so the patio and sidewalk and driveway aren’t cleaned up as well as if she’d shoveled them. While moving snow is not something I take pride in, I did get some fresh air and much needed exercise. Anyway, the afternoon proved perfect for a walk and Ellen and Scout took it up along one of our fields and back on one of our trails. El said there was plenty of coyote and rabbit sign in the new snow, but no deer tracks. I pulled one of my trail cameras and found lots of pictures of coons, coyotes, fox, rabbits, squirrel, chocolate labradors, my wife, me and on last Thursday night, three deer, a doe and a pair of fawns - one for sure a nubbin buck, that ventured into the meadow to browse for an hour or two before it started to snow. I was a bit dismayed to see that my three apple trees were budding. I hope they were only kidding and can survive the next few weeks of colder weather.
Saturday proved perfect for a rabbit hunt. Timber Todd Slaght and three of his beagles hunted and howled their way up the coulee. I sat in the sun and just enjoyed the baying. Todd only hunts with a .22 and said he had missed a couple rabbits on the run with it. I spent some time sighting in my Russian made pellet rifle. The front sight was broken, so I drilled out the top and screwed in a shortened sight pin from an archery sight. It works. I can hit a milk jug from 30 paces anyway. So if any milk jugs cause problems around here, they’d better watch out.
Speaking of watching, last week I helped with the primary election in Bergen Township. As a newbie, I listened and watched and learned a lot. First off, the folks that man your voting stations work long hours on election days. We started at 6:30 AM and got done at 8:30 PM. I learned how to operate the voting machines and what procedures are to be followed with the paperwork. When the polls opened we opened and counted absentee ballots. When a voter comes in we direct them to the folks manning the tables with names and numbers. The voter is asked to state their entire name and provide a legal picture ID - even if the person voting is the spouse of the poll worker. They are checked twice. There is a separate process to register new voters too, but no one registered this day. Anyway, after being duly recorded, the voter must sign his or her name in the voter registry and then they are sent to the voting machine. The voting machines are not connected to the internet or phone lines, so there is no way to electrically interfere with the result. Each voter must review their vote on the screen and on the paper print out before pressing the “cast your vote” button or going back to review their vote. At the end of the night, clerks and poll workers must do another tally on paper that must tally the same with two counters and the voting machines. We signed our names on numerous forms. Bergen Town Clerk Tina Dahl runs a tight ship. There is a process to follow and really no way to tamper with the vote, a theme I heard repeated numerous times. I agree. I don’t see how anyone can claim any illegal voting with all the rules and safeguards in place.
Anyway, during the long, pretty slow day, I got to know my coworkers better and visited with many friends who came to vote. We talked of our families and interests and fishing. One poll worker and I discussed our interest in old cars. An old friend on the team and I talked about her kids that were my former students. We talked cooking and the weather and so on to pass the time. Clerk Dahl talked about the training and meetings that go into elections and the expense too. She mentioned the extreme expense of recall elections and recounts for example. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out we get paid for our poll work! The day progressed from cool to sunny and warm and we were able to open the town hall garage doors and let the sun in. We could hear some sandhill cranes gronking over in the marsh and I saw a flight of snow geese I think circling in as well. I could see Gregg Teff trimming his many grapevines in the sunshine up the hill from the town hall. Like any sort of regular activity like this there were stories to share. Angry voters, a flood that caused toilet trouble, bad weather issues, super busy elections and super slow ones. I was told that what goes on at the polls stays at the polls, so no details here except that I got to hear and tell several Ole and Lena jokes. One of my favorite parts of the day was the food. We had grilled chicken in a crock pot, there were cookies, sausage and cheese and crackers, pineapple upside down cake, chips and dip and I happily grazed my way through the hours like a family holiday. Then to top it off, Tina got us South Lanes Pizza for supper!
Until next time, get out - we helped celebrate Elaine Wrobel’s birthday Sunday afternoon. She and her family are longtime friends. El and I went for a drive then with the the Badgers at Michigan St. on the radio. We took a turn to Esofea and drove on mostly back roads that were new to us. Looked like some great deer country out there. When I stopped at the Westby Cenex, the young lady explained that we had not really seen all of Esofea as we turned left and could have turned right. She said there used to be Esofea Gardens, a nine-hole golf course, and a bar. She said the bar is all that is left. Have to try to find it again sometime. We stopped in Chaseburg and went for a stroll on the Chaseburg Nature Trail along Coon Creek. We could smell wood smoke on the air. The trail is a pleasant place for a nature walk for sure. The Badgers failed to take advantage of Purdue and Maryland losing, dropping their second in a row by ten points. Enjoy.
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