I can no longer deny the concept of miracles as October has definitely had a number of them. From managing to pull off the haunted trail against all injury odds, the weather holding off long enough for almost all of our trail guests on the second night and the stunning fact that with all the happenings this month, we still managed to continue our self-enforced quota of 6 posts per month (with this post). A big help from Brad on that last one who has actually been on assignment himself practically this entire month. The date of the annual haunt is definitely the pinnacle of the year, but the national day of spook is just a small step behind for the year’s excitement. In honor of team orange and black, thought I would show you a few of the sights and sounds from our big event starting with this year’s recap video my partner in haunt Paul has once again created to memorialize the effort and provide an incentive for those that were unable to make it this year.
This is the direct link if the embedded video doesn’t work on your browser – link here.
Hit the jump to see a few more images taken before and during the haunted trail event.
In a previous post I noted I was knee deep in digital bits trying to get everything transitioned to both the new computer platform and probably more tedious, resetting all the backups/trackers/counters etc. for 2024. The latter feels like I am back at work crunching numbers and traversing through spreadsheet cells. Didn’t really enjoy it back in the grind and certainly have better things to do now that I am not getting paid for it. However, it “has” to be done (wink). It is a nice way for our Intrigued staff to quickly see all the great things we did all year and I know they like to reference it in their end-of-year performance reviews. Truth is, I forgot to publish the 2022 Blog Summary last year. The end of the year was a mess and didn’t want to put my still whining elbow through the countless hours poring over the tracking documents. We just gave the staff all “exceeded” and then picked up the end of the year extravaganza bar tab. Win win I say! (especially for the legal department who are apparently a bunch of lushes). Decided to go ahead and get the 2023 summary done while dealing with PC downloads and file transfer wait times… and yes, my elbow still hurts.
2023 was an in interesting year for sure. Brad and his staff (Jan and Allyson) were old hats by then and regularly cranking out new adventures from their travel filled year. My Intrigued photo queue went ANOTHER year behind thanks to numerous trips to the likes of Texas, Las Vegas, Alabama and Florida. You have to give me some credit though as I was able to get a lot of the new tins out in record time (and now I have 21 new lifer birds from our recent trip to Arizona to add to the backlog – I am sure there are worse problems to have hehehe). We hit our self-imposed quota of at least 6 posts a month and reached all new levels for reader engagement (kudos to our great readers for sharing in our adventures). Still amazed by many of our fellow bloggers that are far more prolific. The birding front was wonderful as well. Hit the 400 lifer plateau and The Average Year (link here) was a huge success. In 2022, both Ron and I came up short on our 300 species goal. 2023 a completely different story. Both cresting over that mark setting even higher goals for this year. Brad also came in strong and will undoubtedly be moving into the Small/Medium Year bracket for this year.
On the flip side of that good news, the race season took a serious hit thanks to the “Root of All Evil” adding the first DNS (Did Not Start) to my racing career. Even though I religiously continued all the therapy exercises while on our trip, it is still not recovered and likely heading back to therapy next week for one last ditch effort before having words with the surgeon. Unfortunately, there were some truly sad times within the extended Intrigued family as Brad and his family lost a beloved family member. 2022 brought a lot of sadness to Linda and I and having our friends go through similar difficulties less than a year later was heartbreaking.
2024 is still young, but shaping up to be a great year. Now in our 17th year of blogging on our Intrigued platforms (The Mothership and its younger sister site Wildlife Intrigued). Several ’24 trips are all lined up (both Linda and I as well as Brad and Jan) – looking forward to bringing you the stories and pictures from our experiences. Hopefully we can continue to grow our presence and always looking forward to the reason we put the work in – to engage our wonderful readers, hearing your feedback, getting your take on our tins and truly learning together.
A few quick shout outs. A big thanks to Linda who has to put up with me (I really am a handful). She is my secret weapon – trip planner, financial wizard, nourishment provider, injury soother, bail provider (just in case hehehe) and truly a bird whisperer. Ron continues to push me on the birding front, dragging me out into the field, helping with those difficult IDs, keeping me posted with opportunities showing up on the birding forums and willing to throw himself in harm’s way to protect me (well, that is what he says…but I’ve seen him run screaming halfway across a field after seeing a Tick). Brad and his team have been a big help in keeping this blog from being work – also does a good job of catching my grammar/syntax errors. In my defense I was forged in the shape of and speak the language of a “coder”. To our staff – you continue to be the best and to all our friends out there spanning the globe, buckle in, 2024 should be a fun ride.
Well, it is time to look back on ’23 and bring you the performance stats. If you are curious about the details, hit the jump to see the 2023 Life Intrigued blogs stats and accomplishments (Mothership and the Wild side).
Thanks again to all my readers that keep us committed month after month. Cheers Everyone! (that is a dry toast of course as the year end extravaganza ran us out ha).
The day we look forward to every year has finally arrived and we are giddy with excitement. Some kids grow up looking forward to the more traditional December holiday, we here at Intrigued celebrate the orange and black. The heavy lifting is already done for this season as we hold our haunted trail around the beginning of the month to avoid conflicts with the rest of the parties/events that are scattered across this month. As a result, we get to sit back, relaxing around the flaming pumpkins while watching the ghosts and goblins dance about the place. We wish you similar happiness in whatever manner you choose to celebrate the dark hours.
To help get you in the mood, our “partner in haunt” Paul has already put together our promo video from our recent Haunted Trail. It is impossible to bring you the expansiveness of the trail, but Paul does an excellent job of giving you a feel for the frights and fun to be had in the spooky woods.
Well, it has been one hell of a month leading up to our favorite holiday. Our annual haunted trail, the 100K attempt, the prediction race at a local cemetery a few nights ago and the rather sad news covered in the last post. Through all the ups and downs we finally made it and can now relax and enjoy a day devoted to all things that go bump in the night….and day…
My haunted trail reaper had a growth spurt this year – decided to add over 3 feet to increase the scare factor. Although not shown, the son of Nyx has an animated lantern and thanks to a flea market find earlier in the year, now has a real scythe. Then there is the flaming pumpkin tradition. Nothing sets the mood for horror night better than 3 feet of flames spewing out the top of an evil Jack-o-Lantern.
Some like to look at clouds and let their imagination flow…me, I prefer flames. The shot above is one of my favorites from this year’s haunted trail – like a Rorschach test for the inner demon, everyone sees something different. I personally see the face of the devil hiding behind an upside down cross. Might be therapy in my future..although this was a bit ominous.
One of the tombstones that immediately caught my attention in the Sturtevant Haunted Farm cemetery (has my initials). It just occurred to me I have yet to introduce you to one of the creepiest haunts in all of Illinois. If you are not faint of heart, hit the jump for a quick look at some of the scenes awaiting you at that location.
Have a Happy Halloween everyone – let your spook flag fly high!
As promised, hit the jump to see some shots from this year’s visit to Sturtevant Haunted Farm in Walnut, IL
Hello everyone! Thought I would take a break from your regularly scheduled programming and bring you a bit of self-indulgence. Actually, since I have very little to do with any of the honors, I should really classify it as some family bragging. Take a look at what our little dude brought home from our recent trip to Michigan.
That is one proud puppy! As mentioned in some previous posts, we had the opportunity to head up north and compete in the UKC Premier Nationals. Raven and his mother were in the top 50 UKC Agility Level 2 (AG2) Toy Division (4″) dogs in the nation. This got them invited to their annual Premier where they go head to head in the agility ring.
Hit the jump to see a few more shots of our little ball of fur.
Unfortunately, I am late on this particular post. It isn’t so much a case of procrastination as I had written the first version prior to Monday. During the course of several activities over the weekend (including birding with Ron), I mulled on the approach I had taken and the words written regarding the topic. Thoughts went back and forth until the time came to publish and I decided to scrap it. I still hold firmly the opinions originally expressed, but decided Memorial Day was a time to honor those that have fought for our freedoms and principles at home and abroad rather than sully it with accounts of worthless politicians and seditious mainstream media.
Instead, I wanted to focus on the brave men and women who volunteered or were called to duty like my Father to defend our nation’s founding principles. To all who have or are serving we owe a level of gratitude that can never be repaid. I would contend that all have been permanently altered to some degree by their experiences. My father would not discuss what he went through during his time in the Army deployed during the Korean War. Piecing together tidbits gathered over my lifetime – a photograph here, a rare comment there or an emotion that momentarily forced its way through his stoic facade weave a tale no one would wish upon their child.
Well, it was the year 2020 but if anyone had perfect vision for what the world would be put through, they should immediately make their way to Vegas and find an open Roulette table – should not be hard to find an empty seat these days. It is the small achievements along the way that get us through the bad times. One such example is the completion of the 13th year of blogging here at Intrigued – at least for the mothership, this wildlife side is a little younger as this offshoot was created a number of years later. Adding to that is a self-pat on the back for once again hitting the 6 post a month self-imposed minimum. It was touch and go there a couple of times during the year, but we fought through it. Definitely had a huge gaping hole in the running posts this year. With the exception of the one virtual race recollected a couple of posts ago, the year was a complete bust. This made hitting my yearly goal of logging at least 1,100 miles a lonely journey. Toeing the line on race day is a huge motivation for me – with every race last year canceled due to that ass Covid, keeping on track and hauling myself out to the trails every other day tested the mental toughness. Fought through two injuries to the back and a ridiculous last month of miles to get that check again this year (1,200+ actually).
2020 also brought with it some big changes related to our careers. Linda officially retired February 1, 2020 giving her some badly needed stress relief after her large operation the year before. Thanks to the pandemic, she really didn’t get to enjoy her first year of freedom as much as she deserved. By November I had convinced myself to hang up the corporate life as well and went on permanent vacation until the official retirement on February 1st of this year. Definitely looking forward to all the extra cycles available to spend on blog material – in between the extra training runs of course ha!
One of my goals last year (come to think of it … every year) has been to increase awareness of the Intrigued blogs. Over the last year I’ve been able to keep in touch with many of my long time readers and had the privilege of gaining additional followers that apparently enjoy my musings. For the existing fans as well as the new followers, I am truly thankful and honored you are willing to spend the one thing that is the most valuable in our lives – ‘time’. A unique possession that is perpetually consumed yet never replaceable. I am also thankful for the other members of the blogsphere that educate me on a daily basis, give me hours of enjoyment and continue to expand my thinking/perspectives along with pushing me to get better at my craft.
A few quick shout outs. One to my brother Ron who is a big part of the behind the scenes operations as birding companion, ID confirmer and all around fact checker – not to mention invaluable help with all the Halloween projects that go on around here year round. To CJ (link here) and B. in the UK (link here) who keep me informed on what is going on across the pond and then there’s my personal editor Brad M. who keeps the pages mostly free of the egregious syntax errors – sorry for all the errors that make it through – In my defense, I graduated from the University of Illinois’ Engineering College which makes bits and bytes my first language (then married someone with a similar background so we could communicate hehehe).
Keeping with tradition, it’s time to look back at the year’s output and self-evaluate. One noticeable improvement is the number of followers. Few things bring a smile to my day more than a comment or like on one of my posts. If you are curious about the details, hit the jump to see the individual stats and accomplishments.
Thanks again to all my readers and here’s to the new year of fun and adventures that will assuredly find their way onto these pages.
Hit the jump for the details on the 2020 Life Intrigued blogs summary.
Welcome to 2021 everyone!! Sorry for the long delay on the posting thingy, but we are currently doing a little bit of exploring to start the new year off right. Now a mere one month off from my official retirement date – need to live each day to its fullest. Being out and about has limited my ability to get to the keyboard for my own blog and, unfortunately, waaaay behind on getting caught up with the output from all my blogger friends.
With the replenishment of the calendar, decided to start the year out with something completely different. Honestly, this has been in the hopper for some time now. Part of the confusion was deciding which blog to put it on. Typically it would go on the mothership as it isn’t technically wild”life”, however you can’t deny there is a creature element to it. Let’s just overlook the fact they happen to be in a perpetual stationary position.
Hit the jump to learn more about these evil deflecting creatures.
I’ve been staring at a book by Kenn Kaufman that has been laying on my desk for several months now. Having read it in a couple of marathon sessions it was simply waiting for me to get around to posting a recollection of it. There it sat, begging night after night for some time to meet the world. Problem is, these recollection posts take a significant amount of time to a) to capture what I thought about it, b) review various pages to remind myself of compelling takeaways, c) do some research to personalize the takeaways and then d) get it all down in black in white. Thanks to the first official day of the Wisconsin dog show, the procrastination has come to an end. Today’s post is about a body of work on a famous birder. Kenn published his book, Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder, back in 1997 (2006 for my paperback copy) covering his endeavor to complete a Big Year back in 1973. Tops of my list of birding related reading is Neil Hayward’s Lost Among the Birds (link here). That book is an incredible read focused on the emotional healing that birding can bring. Kingbird is now solidly anchored in the number 2 position. Like Hayward’s, I found myself unable to put the book down. I’d pick it up for a quick nitecap and next thing I know I’m looking at very small numbers on the clock. If I remember correctly, Ron had the exact same opinion when I originally bought him this book – he liked it so much he ended up having a copy sent to me. After I turned the last page I said to myself “I’m not a birder!”. Kenn sets an entirely different standard, embarking on his Big Year when he was 16 years old. His mode of transportation – standing on the side of the road with his thumb out. 69,000 miles later he had tallied up 666 birds – three short of Floyd Murdoch, but they didn’t count his + 5 from the Baja’s which would have put him over. The stunner in all of this… the amount of money that he spent in this mission. $50K?, $100K?, hell $200K doesn’t sound out of reason based on all the criss-crossing you have to do across North America to even have a chance of getting the needed level of checks. In truth, Kenn spent a staggering $1K – that is travel and living expenses for the entire year – with nearly half of that in two flights in Alaska. Getting by on less than a dollar a day. That my friends is an individual that can stand in front of anyone past and present and claim they are a birder. One that is willing to eat dry cat food for sustenance and endured several run ins with police who didn’t appreciate his mode of transportation and/or his road weary look and even fended off a knife wielding mugger trying to get his cat food. A different time for sure. These days, traveling by thumb to see birds has a good chance of you ending up being circled by Vultures. I did find myself asking what kind of parents he had that was okay with him dropping out of high school and heading off on a solo adventure to every coastline and everywhere in between. He did thank them at the end of the book stating how grateful he was for them having the faith to let him follow his dream.
Kenn is a tall oak in the birding field and a regular contributor in our primary birding magazines. Birder’s World refers to Kenn as “the person who knows more about bird identification than almost anyone on the planet”. He didn’t get there by burying his nose in books – instead, he put himself out there and gained his knowledge the old fashioned way – experiencing it. Do you enjoy birding, maybe even thinking about a big year yourself ?- grab a copy of this book – guarantee you will have problems putting it down, eagerly turning page after page to learn how Kenn was able to get another check on the list.
If you can’t wait to get your own copy, hit the jump to see a few of my takeaways.
At some point in the previous year I must have forgotten how much time these blog summaries take. Not so much the high level commentary, but gathering up all the year end statistics rivals the daunting 50K. Oh, did I mention I checked the 50K off my life list -yeah, I did that ha! Truthfully, 2019 turned out to be one of those years I’ll probably try hard to put past me. Something tells me it will keep flashing into conscious for some time. The running addiction sent me to the doctor earlier in the year thanks to a marksman hornet/bee that nailed by spine and then I lost a battle with the Heat Miser that landed me in the ER with a set of shiny new staples. Watching Linda go through her surgery and recovery still takes the top spot on my stressful experiences – a distinction that doesn’t come lightly based on some of life’s challenges that fill the rest of that list. Then there’s still trying to keep my emotions in check whenever a random event triggers a cherished memory with my father. Fortunately for me, blogging is the best therapy for the money. It has been a fantastic grounding that allows me to document my thoughts, events, opinions, adventures, accomplishments and progression on the things that intrigue me in this thing called life – the fact that the completion of 2019 represents the 12th consecutive year of producing the flagship LifeIntrigued and its offshoot WildlifeIntrigued is testament to the joy it brings me. Through this effort, I’ve been able to meet new friends across the world, share experiences, explore differing perspectives and learn about their cultures and hobbies from their own blogging efforts – ex: CJ has introduced me to the world of canoeing/kayaking, adventures in the Netherlands and St Louis zombies (https://thecedarjournal.com/blog/ ) – B has been ramping up my Butterfly/Dragonfly/Birding knowledge from the UK while taking me to places like the Berlin Wall that seemed so far away from my stomping grounds in the broke state of Illinois (https://blhphotoblog.wordpress.com/blog/). A big thanks to all you birding bloggers out there that challenge me every day to get better at my photography craft and special gratitude to all those that take the time to read my musings, comment and show your appreciation through likes. Shout out to Brad M. who catches all my typos so I at least appear halfway credible.
Even with some of the downsides in ’19 there were still some very bright spots that I can’t overlook. Seeing Linda on the upside of her recovery brings a big smile to me every time I see her. Can’t wait to witness her tear up the dog agility competitions now that she can keep up with Raven. On the personal front, getting the 50K trail checked off was big for me. Failure doesn’t sit well with me and being able to recover and redeem myself in a little more than 3 months took some pushing (especially with all the chaotic things happening during that time). Add to that the 17 (at least) new checks on the NA bird list (link here) which kept me in striking reach of Ron (yes, he who owes me bigly ha!). Was able to meet up with Ron for some local birding adventures (and one not so local) – always fun times to be had in the field and going through the tins trying to ID the day’s haul. Goal this year is for me to get him posting more on his own blog (link here). He was the catalyst for me to start this whole blog endeavor 12 years ago. Although the surgery limited us on our usual travel, Linda and I were able to catch a few short trips allowing for some good birding opportunities that have filled up the blog hopper for likely years to come (Lake Tahoe, Henderson NV, St. Louis) as well as quick excursions to local hotspots. I promise to try and get those tins posted at a fresher rate this year. If nothing else, having just celebrated another birthday it is starting to limit how far back I can easily recall.
Keeping with tradition, it’s time to look back at the year’s output and self-evaluate. Did I hit my self-imposed monthly quota, did my photography show progress and what posts intrigued my readers ..or more important which topics missed the mark. So with that, I bring you the 2019 year end summary. If you are curious, hit the jump below to see the individual stats and accomplishments. Thanks again for all your help throughout the year and for spending precious time on my little project. Can’t wait to see what intriguing things 2020 throws at us. Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get you crispy pictures in the tin to share.
Thank You!
And now, the annual stats for the year’s worth of blogging.
Wildlife Intrigued 