Hunting Report from the Bolt Hole

There's a saying out there something to the effect of, "Be careful what you wish for."

Yesterday morning there was a tiny amount of snow on the ground at daybreak when I went to sit in the woods. There was more on the hemlock and fir trees than there was on the ground, to be more precise. I chose a spot where there was an open vista for several hundred yards and parked on my stool for four hours. Nothing moved except for one small flock of chickadees and nuthatches that were curious about my presence and a couple of ravens that beat the air overhead. (They are very noisy fliers.)

Later in the day, the lake effect snows moved into position and hit us with a couple of inches. I went out again and found another spot but my view was hampered by all the snow clinging to the branches of all the trees. The temperature was just below the freezing mark and that means wet, clinging snow. If it had been cooler, the snow might have sifted down through the branches to the ground. Again, I saw nothing.

The band of snow settled in just to our north. One town just a few miles north of here, Speculator, reported 20 inches overnight. We got about three.

When I went out this morning I thought I had a perfect spot looking out over a lovely valley until I realized I was looking at the tops of the small beech trees, each of which held lots of snow on their branches. I searched for another area where I could actually see the ground. Such spots were few and far between. I located one and parked myself down for a couple of hours but nothing was moving. I walked up the jeep trail and saw just one set of tracks made sometime during the early morning hours. The snow band shifted southward about then and dumped (an appropriate term considering how quickly the snow accumulated) another 2-3 inches of white stuff on the ground. Thoroughly covered in white flakes, I headed back to the cabin to warm up and dry out.

By 1 PM the snow had stopped and the TV weatherman was declaring the current bout of snow over. There would be some lingering snow showers, he said, but the heavy stuff was through until this weekend.

I wanted some snow to be able to track. Instead, I got snow that has blocked my distance vision and has left an untouched and unmarked expanse of white on the ground; an untouched tablet upon which is written, "We aren't here, sucker!"

Oh, well, tomorrow is another day, as Annie would say. But tomorrow is also my last full day at the Bolt Hole for this season. I'll be packing up and heading back to the Aerie on Wednesday and it looks more and more like the cooler will be empty.

Week 13 Polls and Opponents

The new polls are out and there’s very little (as in virtually none) movement in the top 16. After that, due to the Maryland upset of North Carolina and Boston College’s take down of Florida State, there are several adjustments.

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 13. The numbers on parentheses after the teams’ names are their rankings after Week 12. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position.)

1/1/2 Alabama (1/1/2) The Crimson Tide will be IDLE this week.

2/2/1 Texas Tech (2/2/1) The Red Raiders will pack their perfect record and travel to Norman to play #5 Oklahoma.

3/3/3 Florida (3/3/3) The Gators will host The Citadel. No comment.

4/4/4 Texas (4/5/4) The Longhorns will be IDLE. I’m sure they will sit back to watch the Texas Tech/Oklahoma game.

5/5/5 Oklahoma (5/4/5) The Sooners will host the undefeated Texas Tech. The Over/under line must be astronomic.

6/6/6 Southern California (6/6/6) The Trojans will be IDLE this week.

7/8/7 Penn State (7/8/7) The Nittany Lions can clinch the Big Ten title with a win in Happy Valley over the #17 Michigan State Spartans.

8/7/8 Utah (8/7/8) The Utes put their undefeated season on the line as they host #16 Brigham Young.

9/9/9 Boise State (9/9/9) The Broncos will travel to Nevada this week.

10/10/11 Ohio State (10/10/11) The Buckeyes host the hapless Michigan Wolverines.

11/12/10 Oklahoma State (11/13/10) The Cowboys are IDLE this week.

12/11/12 Missouri (12/11/12) The Tigers are IDLE this week.

13/13/13 Georgia (13/12/13) The Bulldogs are another team that’s IDLE in week 13.

14/16/15 Ball State (14/16/15) The Cardinals will put their undefeated season on the line Wednesday night at Central Michigan.

15/17/16 TCU (15/18/16) The Horned Frogs host Air Force.

16/14/14 Brigham Young (16/14/14) The Cougars will attempt to derail the #8 Utes at Utah.

17/15/17 Michigan State (18/15/18) The Spartans will be at #7 Penn State.

18/18/22 LSU (19/20/19) The Tigers will host Mississippi.

19/20/18 Cincinnati (22/22/22) The Bearcats will host #20 Pittsburgh.

20/19/19 Pittsburgh (21/21/21) The Panthers travel to Cincinnati.

21/21/21 Oregon State (23/25/23) The Ducks travel to Arizona.

22/23/20 Maryland (NR/NR/NR) The Terps reenter the Top 25 and will look to firm up their standing as they host Florida State.

23/NR/NR Miami (Fla) (NR/NR/NR) The Hurricanes have been absent from the Top 25 for a long time. They play Thursday night at Georgia Tech. Mmm, Thursday night. Could be bad news for Miami.

24/22/23 Oregon (NR/NR/NR) The Beavers have reentered the Top 25 and are IDLE this week.

25/NR/25 North Carolina (17/17/17) The Tar Heels are at home where they square off against intra-state rival North Carolina State.

NR/24/24 Northwestern (NR/NR/NR) They’re baaaack. (Well, mostly back.)The Wildcats have been up and down all year. Their up this week. They’ll be hosting Illinois.

NR/25/NR Boston College (NR/NR/NR) By virtue of their victory over Florida State, the Eagles have gotten some coach’s love this week. They will be playing at Wake Forest on Saturday.

College Football Week 12 Results

Nothing earth shattering in the results this week. We have to go all the way down to #17 North Carolina vs. Maryland to find an upset. (Maryland edged the Tar Heels 17-15.) For a time it looked like Troy, of all teams, would beat the snot out of the Tigers of LSU but 30 (!) fourth quarter points by the Tigers but an end to that as LSU pulled it out of the fire 40-31.

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 12. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position.)
1/1/2 Alabama The Crimson Tide beat Mississippi State 32-7 to remain undefeated and now 11-0.

2/2/1 Texas Tech The Red Raiders were IDLE this week. They will take their 10-0 record to Norman, OK on November 22 to face Oklahoma in a contest that has everyone buzzing with talk of the BCS implications—not to mention the Big 12.

3/3/3 Florida The Gators jumped all over #24 South Carolina 56-6.

4/5/4 Texas The Longhorns easily handled Kansas by a score of 35-7.

5/4/5 Oklahoma The Sooners were IDLE this week. They too will be trying to figure out how to stop the #2 Texas Tech Red Raiders on November 22.

6/6/6 Southern California The Trojans topped Stanford 45-23.

7/8/7 Penn State The Nittany Lions beat Indiana 34-7 and can clinch the Big 10 title with one more victory over Michigan State next weekend.

8/7/8 Utah The Utes remain undefeated with a 63-14 rout of San Diego State. Utah is now 11-0.

9/9/9 Boise State The Broncos spotted the Vandals of Idaho 7 points and then beat up on them 45-10 to keep their undefeated season alive at 10-0.

10/10/11 Ohio State The Buckeyes defeated Illinois 30-20.

11/13/10 Oklahoma State The Cowboys beat Colorado 30-17.

12/11/12 Missouri The Tigers beat Iowa State 52-21.

13/12/13 Georgia The Bulldogs eked out a 17-13 win over Auburn.

14/16/15 Ball State The Cardinals had little trouble protecting their perfect season with a 31-16 victory over Miami (OH) on Tuesday night. Ball State is now 10-0.

15/18/16 TCU The Horned Frogs were IDLE this week.

16/14/14 Brigham Young The Cougars grounded Air Force 38-24.

17/17/17 North Carolina The Tar Heels were edged 17-15 by the Maryland Terps.

18/15/18 Michigan State The Spartans were IDLE.

19/20/19 LSU The Tigers hosted Troy this week. I was going to make a comment about a powder puff game but Troy turned into the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man from Ghost Busters. Troy held a 31-10 lead going into the fourth quarter and it looked like the Tigers of LSU were nothing but a bunch of pussy cats. LSU came roaring back in that fourth quarter, however, as they shut down Troy and scored 30 points of their own to win 40-31.

20/19/20 Florida State The Seminoles lost to Boston College 27-17 after a turbulent week that saw five receivers suspended from the squad.

21/21/21 Pittsburgh The Panthers were IDLE this week.

22/22/22 Cincinnati The Bearcats beat the Louisville Cardinals 28-20 on Friday night.

23/25/23 Oregon State The Beavers beat the Golden Bears of California 34-21.

24/23/25 South Carolina The Gamecocks’ time in the Top 25 was short lived as they were demolished 56-6 by the #3 Florida Gators in the Swamp.

25/24/24 Tulsa The Golden Hurricane blew into Houston and learned that the Cougars have seen Hurricanes before and know how to deal with them. Tulsa scored 30 points but that wasn’t even half of what the Cougars put on the board. The final score was 70-30…and only 7 points were scored in the fourth quarter (by the Cougars). The 70 points is the most scored by any team this week. Bye-bye Tulsa.

Bolt Hole Weather

It was raining when I woke up this morning and it continued to rain off and on all day. The "off" part was never terribly long. Every time I would start to think about donning my hunting clothes and taking the .270 for a walk, I'd go to the john and then look out of the window to see it was raining again. And the "on" part of the day was sometimes so "on" that I couldn't hear the announcers of the football games for the pounding the metal roof was taking. (I really believe they skimped on the insulation up there.)

The wind blew out of the south all day and, as a result, the temperatures remained warm. The afternoon high was around 61 degrees on Mark's outdoor thermometer. (It's mounted on his outhouse though so it may get a little warming effect--if you know what I mean.) The weather.com site said it reached 58 degrees where ever their station is located. Not to worry, however, the front is moving through as I type and tomorrow's high is forecast for the mid 30s. If the wind is out of the northwest that could mean we'll be a few degrees cooler than that here and we may have some snow showers.

Weigh in Time

It's Saturday morning so that means it's time to deal with Mr. Digital Scale.

I stepped on the scale this morning and was a bit surprised to see that it recorded a loss of three or four pounds. It's the Bolt Hole scale so the accuracy is questionable. That brings me back down to 213 or 214. (Right now I don't care if it's lying like a politician seeking office, I like what it said...today.)

I'll give credit to the daily slow walks in the woods. I may not cover much ground on those walks, they average around a mile and a quarter, but the careful lifting and placement of every footfall and the slow transfer of my weight from one position to the next while constantly straining my ears and eyes outward, the deliberate choice of my path to avoid obvious as well as hidden obstacles, the climbing over and skirting around dead falls, all bring a toll on the muscles of the legs and back. And let's not forget that I'm lugging a rifle in the crook of my arm and a pack on my back while I'm doing this. It's almost like doing some form of martial art exercise in which you pit one group of muscles against another.

And getting out of the cabin in the morning calls for a very light breakfast and lunch. Typically a bowl of instant oatmeal that can be prepared while I have my cup of coffee with a glass of orange juice in the morning and a sandwich of turkey and cheese on rye with an apple and a couple of bite-sized Snickers bars similar to those given out as Halloween treats. Dinner is usually simple too. Baked potato and a small eye round steak or boneless, skinless chicken breast. When I have the time I might do up some spaghetti with marinara sauce out of a jar. Then, of course, there's a serving of ice cream as an evening snack. It's not Terry's cooking.

Hunting Report from the Bolt Holesame old, same old

My rifle and I went for another walk today. It's been a nice quiet partner. hasn't said much since I fired a few practice rounds a few weeks ago. But it could sure do with a little weight loss. My left arm and hand get numb from lugging that .270 around in the crook of my arm. I'd sling it over my shoulder but that would be inviting a herd of bucks to come running by.

Actually, I went out and walked only a short distance onto a flat area where I could see pretty well and put out some scent bombs (Doe in Rut; Tink's #69). Then I sat and waited. And waited some more. But nothing was answering the call. So after several hours of sitting on the ground during which I ate my picnic lunch, watched a few birds (nuthatches, blue jay, raven, chickadee, hairy and downy woodpeckers), one chipmunk and one shrew as they raced along a few logs, and day dreamed, I packed it in and headed back to the cabin.

Once there, I checked the weather. It got up to 60 degrees today despite a pretty heavy cloud cover. The winds blew out of the south and are carrying more rain this way. (Yesterday we had a real gully washer that encouraged me to stay indoors and read. Now I'm out of library books so tomorrow it will be rummaging through the boxes that are still here and crossword puzzles until it's time for college football.) And if it rains tomorrow morning, I'm sleeping in. But once the front passes through, it won't be so hot or rainy any more. No sirree! It will be cold and snowy instead. Come Monday, the high temperatures will be in the low 30s upper 20s and the Lake Effect snow making machine will be all cranked up and ready for duty. Bands of snow will be stretching out from Lake Ontario to points south and east but exactly where and how far is the 64 million dollar question. The Utica TV weatherman says it will be here to stay, too. So it looks like winter is coming to the North Lands. The only thing that can turn off the snow machine is if the lake freezes over and that hasn't happened in a long time.

I ran down to the store fro some supplies a few days ago and saw that gas prices had dropped to $2.57 a gallon so I filled the Tundra's tank. I should have waited. I had to go back down today to get some items I forgot and saw gas was down to $2.37. That's about 50 cents less than gas was in PA a year ago when I bought the Tundra and would be the cheapest gas the truck has ever been fed...if I needed it.

Hunting Report from the Bolt Hole

Yesterday morning's snow was a bust. Instead of the 1-2 inches predicted we got about a quarter of an inch. Unlike the day before when the snow was wet and clung to the tree branches, this time it was a cold dry snow that managed to fall all the way to the ground and, while insufficient for tracking, it at least provided a white background against which the brown deer could be seen. And I did see a couple.

The first I spotted was crossing the jeep trail about a hundred yards ahead of me as I walked quietly up the road. I just caught a glimpse of the south end of a north bound deer but it was enough to put me on alert. I crept up to where I though it had crossed and was barely able to make out the tracks in the snow as they headed north into the woods. Of course, I followed. A few hundred yards later there was a snort off to my left and over the crest of a slight rise. I froze and peered in that direction for several minutes before I could just make out the head of a deer staring (and still snorting and blowing) at me through the veil of the small branches of a blow down just 30 yards away. I lifted the rifle and looked through the scope to see that it was a doe. She kept looking at me and I said a silent prayer that, perhaps I was wrong and that this deer did have horns after all, but that prayer failed to produce results. No horns were visible while she looked right at me and none were visible the several times she glanced off to the north. Finally, I got curious as to what she might have been looking at so snuck a peak to the north too. I was just in time to see another deer disappear into the hemlocks about a hundred yards away. And that was the end of my deer watching for the day.

Except for the one that went bounding through the Bolt Hole's yard just minutes after legal shooting time. Again it was just a glimpse of a white flag on a leaping deer through a tangle of branches. Absolutely no idea if it had horns or not.

I spent five hours in the woods on Tuesday and by the time I returned to the cabin all the snow had melted.

This morning we had no snow and the frost made the leaves as crunchy as corn flakes. I started out up the jeep trail anyway with the idea of turning south to see where yesterday's deer had come from. I haven't spent a lot of time in the state lands on that side of the road and ran into a couple of small, marshy vlys. They afford excellent viewing but damn poor footing. Miss a grass hummock and your in over the top of your boots. I did--once. I wandered around these marshes trying to cross so I could circle back to the cabin. besides the water hazards, I had to navigate around many, many blow downs. I had one deer snort at me from the hemlocks ringing the vlys and later had one go bounding away to the south as I slipped on a slick tree branch hidden beneath the leaves. Again, no idea if either had horns.

I think I spent the late afternoon hours on the edge of the woods in the backyard today. Who knows..the last two years I've managed to kill small bucks within a two hundred yards of the cabin. And every one was late in the afternoon.

Tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to have freezing rain and rain (70% chance tomorrow). If the temperature drops a bit further than anticipated (and the Bolt Hole is 500-800 feet higher than the area I believe the weather station is located) we could have some real snow.

Bolt Hole Hunting Report

Not much to report today. The lake effect snow stayed just to the north of us and brought only about a quarter of an inch of white stuff that collected in the fields and on the tree branches. Even that disappeared by 9 AM as the temperature got slightly above the freezing mark.

I did go out for a short walk and followed some fresh track across the old pasture but lost it as it entered the woods. I saw neither hide nor tail of what made the prints.

There's a weather.com report that we might get a couple of inches in the area tonight and the temperature has fallen into the upper 20s as the wind has shifted to the northwest. (It was out of the west for much of the day and that kept the band of snow off Lake Ontario to the north.)

We lost electric power for about 15 minutes this morning right after the last of the snow flurries stopped and before the wind picked up. The timing was such that it had me scratching my head trying to figure out why. There certainly didn't seem to be any reason in the immediate area. It's possible that winds to our west might have already kicked in or that this was a maintenance outage.

Week 12 Polls and Opponents

Week 12 starts early with a Tuesday night game between Ball State and Miami of Ohio so it's time to look at the polls and this week's opponents again.

With Penn State’s loss to Iowa, there is a new pecking order at the top of the charts. And with Texas Tech’s dominating victory, there’s even a bit of a question as to who is Number One. As usual there is some shake up at the bottom of the Top 25 rankings as well. West Virginia (20/23/24) disappears—for this week—as do California (21/22/22), Georgia Tech (22/20/20), Maryland (23/21/21), and Northwestern (NR/25/NR) while Cincinnati and South Carolina (re)appear.

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 12. The numbers on parentheses after the teams’ names are their rankings after Week 11. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position.)
1/1/2 Alabama (1/1/1) The Crimson Tide head to Mississippi State.

2/2/1 Texas Tech (2/3/2) The Red Raiders are IDLE this week. They will be preparing to travel to Norman, OK on November 22 to face Oklahoma.

3/3/3 Florida (4/5/4) The Gators will be hosting the #24 South Carolina.

4/5/4 Texas (5/7/5) The Longhorns go north to Kansas.

5/4/5 Oklahoma (6/4/6) The Sooners are IDLE this week. They too will be trying to figure out how to stop the #2 Texas Tech Red Raiders on November 22.

6/6/6 Southern California (7/6/7) The Trojans host Stanford.

7/8/7 Penn State(3/2/3) The Nittany Lions travel to Indiana.

8/7/8 Utah The Utes (10/9/9) are on the road to face San Diego State.

9/9/9 Boise State (9/10/10) The Broncos travel upstate to face the Vandals of Idaho in Moscow, ID.

10/10/11 Ohio State(12/12/12) The Buckeyes travel to Illinois.

11/13/10 Oklahoma State (8/8/8) The Cowboys are at Colorado this week.

12/11/12 Missouri (13/13/14) The Tigers travel to Ames, IA to face Iowa State.

13/12/13 Georgia (14/14/13) The Bulldogs go to Auburn this week.

14/16/15 Ball State (16/18/17) The Cardinals take their perfect record to Miami (OH) on Tuesday night.

15/18/16 TCU (11/11/11) The Horned Frogs are IDLE this week.

16/14/14 Brigham Young (17/16/15) The Cougars go to Colorado Springs to face Air Force.

17/17/17 North Carolina (19/19/18) The Tar Heels play at the home of the Maryland Terps.

18/15/18 Michigan State (18/17/19) The Spartans are IDLE.

19/20/19 LSU (15/15/16) The Tigers host Troy this week.

20/19/20 Florida State (24/24/23) The Seminoles host Boston College.

21/21/21 Pittsburgh (25/NR/NR) The Panthers are IDLE this week.

22/22/22 Cincinnati (NR/NR/NR) The Bearcats got to Louisville to play the Cardinals.

23/25/23 Oregon State (NR/NR/NR) The Beavers travel south to face the Golden Bears of California.

24/23/25 South Carolina (NR/NR/NR) travel south to face the #3 Florida Gators in the Swamp.

25/24/24 Tulsa (NR/NR/25) The Golden Hurricane goes to Houston.

Then There Were Four Five

Heading into Week 12 action, only four five unbeaten teams remain in the college football FBS ranks.

Alabama at 10-0 tops the list. Texas Tech, also 10-0, is right on their heels. Boise State is 9-0. Ball State is also 9-0. [I forgot Utah!]

Only Texas Tech is safe this week in that they are not playing. Ball State plays Tuesday night against Miami of Ohio. Alabama faces Mississippi State and Boise State will play Idaho on Saturday. And Utah goes against San Diego State out on the coast. None of the three four should lose, but that’s why they play the game.

Hunting Report from the Bolt Hole

I spent several hours out in the woods this morning. Jumped one deer before I had walked more than 25 yards from the cabin but never saw anything but the tail. Spotted another deer about 150 yards behind the cabin that was feeding in the woods but could not make out any horns before it spooked and went off into the woods. The remaining three hours were uneventful. Still, two deer are two more than I've seen all week.

With yesterdays rains, it was quiet walking but there weren't even any red squirrels chattering at me.

The Sun came out for 15 minutes at 2 PM but the clouds have returned and some flurries are forecast for this evening into the morning hours.

Week 11 Results

Just as there was one big upset at the top last week, there was one near the top this week as Penn State can’t seem to escape its Iowa City jinx.

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 11. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position.)

1/1/1 Alabama The Crimson Tide struggled at Baton Rouge against #15 LSU. A missed field goal by the Tide as time ran out lead to overtime with the teams tied at 21. LSU’s Lee was intercepted in the end zone and Alabama scored a TD on their shot. Alabama won 27-21.

2/3/2 Texas Tech The Red Raiders lost a fumble on their first possession against the #8 Oklahoma State Cowboys. They then went out and scored touchdowns on their next seven. And their defense held OK. St. to “just” 20 points. The final? 56-20. Pin point accuracy by—and time that could be measured with a calendar for--Graham Harrell was the key.

3/2/3 Penn State was back in action in Iowa City against Iowa and the game ended just as 5 out of their previous 6 visits. The Iowa Hawkeyes got a field goal with just six seconds left on the clock to win 24-23.

4/5/4 Florida The Gators went to Vanderbilt. Tim Tebow and the Gators are back in the Heisman and National Title hunt after a 42-14 drubbing of the Commodores.

5/7/5 Texas The Longhorns trounced Baylor 45-21.

6/4/6 Oklahoma The Sooners were on the road against Texas A&M and came away with a 66-28 victory over the Aggies. Both Oklahoma and #2 Texas Tech will be idle in week 12 but in two weeks they will square off in Norman, OK.

7/6/7 Southern California The Trojans hosted the #21 California Golden Bears and came away with a 17-3 victory.

8/8/8 Oklahoma State The Cowboys faced the #2 Texas Tech Red Raiders. At one point it looked like a neck-and-neck horse race. But for just one moment. Raiders 56, Cowboys 20.

9/10/10 Boise State The Broncos played Utah State on the blue carpet. Boise State came away with a 49-14 win.

10/9/9 Utah The Utes square off against #11 TCU on Thursday night (11/6). Utah escaped the Thursday Nite Jinx with a 13-10 victory. It required an 80-yard drive that ended with a TD with just 48 seconds left in the game to do it.

11/11/11 TCU The Horned Frogs played at #10 Utah Thursday night (11/6). They lost 13-10 in a close contest.

12/12/12 Ohio State The Buckeyes were on the road where they beat up on Northwestern 45-14.

13/13/14 Missouri The Tigers put a licking on Kansas State 41-24.

14/14/13 Georgia The Bulldogs headed over to Kentucky. Georgia came away with a 42-38 victory in a shootout.

15/15/16 LSU The Tigers hosted the #1 Alabama Crimson Tide. They forced the #1 team into overtime before losing 27-21.

16/18/17 Ball State The Cardinals kept their perfect season alive as they hosted Northern Illinois on Wednesday night (11/5) with a 45-14 win.

17/16/15 Brigham Young The Cougars mauled San Diego State 41-12.

18/17/19 Michigan State The Spartans beat the Boilermakers of Purdue 21-7.

19/19/18 North Carolina The Tar Heels beat the #22 Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech 28-7.

20/23/24 West Virginia The Mountaineers hosted the Bearcats of Cincinnati who jumped out in front and held on for a 26-232 upset.

21/22/22 California The Golden Bears lost to the #7 Trojans of USC 17-3.

22/20/20 Georgia Tech The Yellow Jackets lost to the #19 Tar Heels of North Carolina 28-7.

23/21/21 Maryland The Terps faced the Hokies of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Thursday night (11/6). They lost 23-13.

24/24/23 Florida State The Seminoles played with the Tigers of Clemson. They returned to Florida with a 41-7 win.

25/NR/NR Pittsburgh The Panthers hosted the Cardinals of Louisville. Pitt won 41-7.

NR/25/NR Northwestern The Wildcats got tamed 45-10 by the visiting #12 Ohio State Buckeyes.

NR/NR/25 Tulsa was IDLE

Another Hunting Report from the Bolt Hole

Nothing.

That's what I saw on my walk through the woods Friday morning. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Damp and overcast as it was, the ground was pretty quiet for a walk of just over three hours. Unfortunately, the temperature was still well above the norm and the deer, in their winter coats, were laying tight somewhere where I couldn't see them. Even if I walked past one, it could have easily gotten up and moved silently through the woods once I had passed.

A cold front moved through today and there was rain most of the day. While I have rain gear and could have gone out, the fact that I haven't even kicked a deer up over the last three days or even seen any sign that they might have entered the rut proved discouraging. Perhaps the change that's come today and the waxing gibbous moon will provide the incentive for them to get their sex drive into high gear.

Maybe Sunday morning.

The weather.com folks are saying there's a chance of some snow showers Monday. They aren't calling for any real accumulation but sometimes that means nothing at the Bolt Hole. We're often 5 to 10 degrees cooler and get a couple of inches while the Mohawk Valley gets next to nothing. Could be the stimulus the deer need. The cooler temps and snow would certainly make my walking in the woods more comfortable.

Weigh in Saturday (8)

Well, being back in the Bolt Hole means super slow dial-up connections and a questionable scale. This morning's reading was either 217 or 218 which means no loss at all from the beginning of this challenge.

Morning walks in the woods continue but they have had no affect upon the weight.

They're Baaack.

A little over a year ago, I wrote this piece about the annual Cluster Fly invasion experienced at the Bolt Hole. Well, they're back in full force. The 10 inches of snow just over a week ago and the warm temperatures this week have brought them out in the hundreds.

These flies, whose larval form are parasites on earthworms, abound here. The large lawn and former pasture/apple orchard that we are trying to return to apple trees has a fairly thick coating of topsoil that the earthworms enjoy and that means lots and lots of Cluster Flies. The cabin is anything but air tight and that means they get inside when the frosts hit hard. They can squeeze through the smallest crack and crevice so they have no problem with the gaping holes around some of the old doors or with getting through the windows. The screens on the windows and sliding doors are for wasps and mosquitoes in the summer. They are no help whatsoever against the Cluster Flies.

Once inside they cluster in the corners and in the barn board siding that serves as paneling and wait. They wait for the first warm day so they can return to the outside but most of them are too stupid to find the cracks to get out so instead they gather on the windows while the sun shines and crawl all over them. Occasionally they go into fits of frenzy and rattle and buzz against the glass. When it gets to raucous, I pull out the vacuum cleaner and suck them up. One spring I hung the bag on a tree and cut a hole in it. It was fast food for the birds and the phoebes and chickadees feasted for a day or two before a heavy rain and wind blew the bag down.

The flies don't eat anything so they aren't a concern as far as leaving food out, but they do seem to like to get into anything wet so I check my coffee cup frequently. At night they also like to gather around the lights. They will rattle against the lamp shade for as long as the light is on and if you're sitting next to a lamp to read you're going to get buzzed.

During the winter, I know when the temperature from the wood stoves has reached the optimal level for that's when the flies come out to play. During the day they come out even if there is no fire because of the large windows facing south that collect the sun's warmth. Even if I'm not here, they must come out to rage against their captivity against that glass. I can tell because their little bodies lie upon the floor...or at least their wings do. While I'm away the deer mice and even shrews that get into the cabin have a ready source of protein in the form of fly carcasses.

At least this year there don't seem to be many lady bugs with them. They've taken up residence in the barn. In the fall there were hundreds climbing over the brown painted T-11 siding. I find groups of them among the lumber and old doors leaning against the wall of the barn or in amongst the firewood stacked there. It may not be as warm as the cabin, but at least the lady bugs will have an easier time than the Cluster Flies getting back to the fields come spring.

Still Another Hunting Report from the Bolt Hole

I set the alarm for 5:45 this morning and when it went off, I turned it off and rolled over for "just a minute" that turned into an hour. Then I got my sorry butt out of bed and dressed for another walk in the wods with my rifle.

Yesterday I made the mistake of donning long johns thinking I would need them to keep warm. Not today. I shed my outer jacket and put it in my back pack after an hour and switched to a lighter hat too. Even so, I was still quite warm as I slow walked for four hours. The day wasn't sunlit my any means yet the temperature still reached into the upper 50s and ow 60s by noon. Leaves that were damp and silent at the outset were crinkly and noisy at the end. The four hour walk covered just over a mile and a quarter.

There were plenty of deer scat and tracks in the beech woods I wandered but I saw neither hide nor hair of the animals that left them behind. Nor did I come across any sign to indicate the deer may have enter the rut--no scrapes or tree rubs to mark territory.

Returning to the cabin, I went to work on repairing the sliding screen door. It's an easy job when there are no kitties to climb all over the work and catch their claws in the screen. It took me less than an hour to pull the old, ripped screen out and put the new one in. I've done it before on window screens and I guess practice makes perfect. Having the right tools helps too. At one point I needed a small Philips head screw driver and found that was one of the tools not in my tool box. Luckily the screw driver on my Swiss Army Knife fit perfectly and I was able to use that. The one on my Leatherman probably would have done the job also.

I'll be heading out again tomorrow to try and cover a different section of the state land. If it's too noisy to walk, it could be a very short day. It's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow but there's a slight chance of some morning showers.

Of Men and Mooseand chores

Soooo, I'm driving up the road to the Bolt Hole when two emergency vehicles, one with an ATV trailer, pass me going the other way. This is a dead end road and I'm at the end of the power line soooo...

When I got here, Mark came right over to tell me the local news/gossip. The news: another elderly hunter bites the dust. That makes three in three years plus another just a few miles away. The EMTs who had to repack their equipment and were soaked to the bone were just leaving when Mark had arrived about half an hour ahead of me and he got the word from them. They had gotten a call from the guy's hunting partner about 10 AM and were just leaving at around 3:30 PM. It took them over two hours of cutting trail and negotiating a swamp just to get to the guy. It was about a mile up the old jeep trail/snowmobile trail that passes through the state lands, but another mile from the trail. Two years ago when there was a search for a lost hunter who was found dead, he was near an older well cleared trail. Not this guy. From what they told Mark, it was an apparent heart attack.

The State Trooper who answered the call, the ambulance that carried the body away and the doctor who had to make the pronouncement had all left earlier. The Trooper was looking for Mark, who has a real good sense of the woods here about. Mark was sorta glad that he wasn't called out to do a search. (The guys buddy lead the emergency folks to the body.) The EMTs told Mark that that wasn't why the trooper was looking for him. Actually, the trooper wanted to show Mark a photo of something that they found while making the recovery...a moose! Apparently there are several making use of the vlys around here. ("Vly" is another term for old beaver ponds turned to mostly swamps. Lots of grass, alders and such that the moose just love.)

BTW, I went out this morning for a short walk with my rifle and did a little recon of the woods behind me. Most of the snow that fell early last week has melted. We had around 10" on the ground last Wednesday. Mark says there was very little wind, however, so a lot stayed on the trees making any walking in the woods a very wet activity. He was out with a hunter friend from the area looking for a bear den and says visibility was also a problem with all the snow on the branches. They followed fresh bear tracks for 3 or 4 hours and saw where the big Doofus was making snow angels. They finally caught sight of him as the sun was setting and they turned up to the jeep trail to return to camp.

Oh, while I saw some sign of deer--droppings, tracks, etc.--I didn't see any deer. It was growing warm as the sun came over the hill but the clouds kept it in the 50s instead of the 60s the weather man says will be here tomorrow.

Getting back to the cabin at 9 AM, I stripped my hunting clothes and went to work on some chores. I cleaned up one of the sheds and moved the lawnmower into it. (It has a raised floor while the garage does not. Melting snow and rainwater have a habit of flooding the garage and then everything gets frozen. Plus the garage roof leaks.) Then I had to run down to Lowes for a new screen door for the porch. The old one had rotted away due to snow and water piling up on the bottom. That cost me just $20, which surprised me in a good way. After another walk in the woods tomorrow morning, I'll tackle the sliding screen door for the living room. The one the bird flew into and ripped to shreds. I've got the materials and it's a matter of puling the old spline out and replacing the nylon screen. I think the sun may have weakened the old screen before the bird hit it but if I put aluminum in there the mesh is much, much harder to look through. I have two window screens that need replacement too because of sun/critter/ice and snow damage but they will get aluminum.

On the road again...

In a little over half an hour, I'll be heading first to the polls to cast my ballot and then to the Bolt Hole to do two more weeks of deer searching.

I'll be back to dial-up (haaack--spit!) just in time to try to comprehend what happens today.

Already there are reports of shenanigans at some Philly polling locations. Seems the Republican poll watchers are being kicked out.

And in Virginia, the military absentee ballots just happened to be mailed out a wee bit late.

*sigh* could be along night.

Footballitis, I have it.

I spent yesterday afternoon watching the Giants and Jets take down the Cowboys and Bills. Then I watched the first half of the Colts vs Patriots. (The Colts literally kicked the Patriots to the curb as Adam Vinitari made a 52-yard field Goal in the fourth to push the struggling Colts into the lead and eventual win at 18-15.)

The Giants looked great and made me wonder how the hell they lost to Cleveland a couple of weeks back. Eli Manning sure looked in control. That group of wanna-bes they sent up from Dallas sure looked pitiful though. Now, if Washington loses tonight the Giants will have a 2 game lead at the half way point in the season.

Favre threw his obligatory interception and it went for a Bills' TD. That's the third time this season he has thrown a TD pass to the wrong team. The Jets' defense got that one back, however. And the offense did enough to seal the deal and earn the win. At 5-3, the AFC East is a logjam of Jets, Bills and Patriots. And Miami breathing down everyone's neck at 4-4.

I was writing up my posts on the college game, ranks and results while watching the pros. I have to say that the college game sure seems more exciting.

Was there a better finish than the Notre Dame vs Pittsburgh game? Four (4!) overtimes in which there were 7 field goals made.

Or Wake Forest over Duke 33-30 in OT. Or Navy over Temple 33-27 in OT. Or Miami over Virginia 24-17 in OT.

Maybe the Northwestern TD with 12 seconds to go to win by seven, 24-17. Or the Michigan State field goal--also made with 12 seconds to play--to win by one, 25-24. Or Georgia Tech beating Florida State and Missouri edging Baylor by identical 31-28 scores.

Then, of course, there was the Texas/Texas Tech finish. Texas takes the lead (33-32) for the first time with less than two minutes to go and Tech comes right back to score a TD with one tick on the clock to win 39-33.

Sure there were a lot of blowouts, but even they can be exciting. I mean, did you watch the Appalachian State/Wofford game Friday night? Sure, the final was 70-24 but...WOW! Did Appalachian State look good.

Other games of note:

North Texas' coach had the entire team tested for drugs during the week and 15 players failed the test. I thought that might go a long way to explaining their 0-8 record at the time. Well, the went out an beat Western Kentucky 51-40.

In the Big East the patsy Syracuse Orange rose up to defeat the Louisville Cardinals 28-21. Seems there might be some juice left in the Orange.

Other News:

Penn State is suffering from a game of leap frog. Alabama won so you would expect them to remain atop the polls and the BCS. And Texas lost so they went down, as expected. Penn State? They didn't play. But Texas Tech shot passed them into the #2 slot in the polls. (The AP Writer's, CBSSportsline, and BCS had it Texas Tech #2 and Penn State #3. The Harris Poll and the Coaches Poll had it reversed.) Looks like the Nittany Lions will have to run the table and hope either the Tide or the Red Raiders--or both--lose to ensure a slot in the Championship Game.

The Real threat to Polar Bears

more animals

Obama on energy/coal

So, how do you like your current energy bill?


Obama: I’ll make energy prices “skyrocket”


Or energy in general? Do you like living with reliable electricity? (Most of which comes from the use of coal in power plants.)

Coal Industry's fate

"...if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."



You can bet this means either there will be no new coal fired plants or the electricity they produce will be priced to pass those taxes along to you, the consumer. They always are.

Think about this stance before you go to vote on Tuesday.



Remember, this is the same man who said he thinks America is great but wants you to help him change it. Not keep it great, but "change it."

Pre Week 11 Polls and Opponents.

One HUGE upset at the top of the list and several minor upsets at the bottom mean there’s lots of shuffling going on again. The (former) #1 Texas Longhorns got beat by the (former) #6 Red Raiders of Texas Tech leading to a mad scramble to see who should play in the BCS title game. Further down, loses lead to removal from the list and new faces appearing. Or old ones reappearing.

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 10. The numbers on parentheses after the teams’ names are their rankings after Week 9. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position.)

1/1/1 Alabama (2/2/2) The Crimson Tide will be at #15 LSU.

2/3/2 Texas Tech (6/5/5) The Red Raiders will be hosting the #8 Oklahoma State Cowboys.

3/2/3 Penn State (3/3/3) Is back in action at Iowa.

4/5/4 Florida (5/7/6) The Gators will be at Vanderbilt.

5/7/5 Texas (1/1/1) The Longhorns host Baylor.

6/4/6 Oklahoma (4/4/4) The Sooners are on the road against Texas A&M.

7/6/7 Southern California (7/6/7) The Trojans will be hosting the #21 California Golden Bears.

8/8/8 Oklahoma State (9/10/11) The Cowboys play at #2 Texas Tech.

9/10/10 Boise State (11/11/11) The Broncos will host Utah State.

10/9/9 Utah (10/9/9) The Utes will square off against #11 TCU on Thursday night (11/6).

11/11/11 TCU (12/12/12) The Horned Frogs will be at #10 Utah Thursday night (11/6).

12/12/12 Ohio State (13/13/13) The Buckeyes are back in action at Northwestern.

13/13/14 Missouri (14/14/14) The Tigers will be hosting Kansas State.

14/14/13 Georgia (8/8/8)The Bulldogs head to Kentucky.

15/15/16 LSU (15/15/16) The Tigers will host the #1 Alabama Crimson Tide.

16/18/17 Ball State (18/19/17) The Cardinals get back into the action as they host Northern Illinois on Wednesday night (11/5).

17/16/15 Brigham Young (17/17/15) The Cougars host San Diego State.

18/17/19 Michigan State (22/21/22) The Spartans are at home to face the Boilermakers of Purdue.

19/19/18 North Carolina (21/22/20) The Tar Heels are hosting the #22 Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech.

20/23/24 West Virginia (NR/NR/NR) The Mountaineers host the Bearcats of Cincinnati.

21/22/22 California (NR/NR/NR) The Golden Bears are at the home of the #7 Trojans of USC

22/20/20 Georgia Tech (NR/NR/NR) The yellow Jackets head to the home of the #19 Tar Heels of North Carolina.

23/21/21 Maryland (25/25/24) The Terps head up into the hills of Virginia to face the Hokies of Virginia Tech on Thursday night (11/6).

24/24/23 Florida State (16/16/19) The Seminoles travel north to face the Tigers of Clemson.

25/NR/NR Pittsburgh (NR/NR/NR) The Panthers host the Cardinals of Louisville.

NR/25/NR Northwestern (NR/NR/NR) The Wildcats will be home to the #12 Ohio State Buckeyes.

NR/NR/25 Tulsa (19/18/18) IDLE

Week 10 Results

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 10. The numbers on parentheses after the teams’ names are their rankings after Week 9. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position)


1/1/1 Texas The8-0 Longhorns fought back and took a one point lead with less than two minutes to play against #6 Texas Tech, who were also 8-0 entering this contest. It didn’t hold up as the Red Raiders marched down the field and scored a TD with one second left in the game. The upset drops Texas to 8-1 and elevates Texas Tech to 9-0.

2/2/2 Alabama The Crimson Tide had a leisurely workout against the Arkansas State Red Wolves as they came away with a 35-0 victory and improved their record to 9-0. Will they now move up to #1?

3/3/3 Penn State The 9-0 Nittany Lions have the week off.

4/4/4 Oklahoma The Sooners jumped out to a very quick 28-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game (35-0 in the first quarter) and never looked back as they routed the Nebraska Cornhuskers 62-28 .

5/7/6 Florida The Gators traveled up to Georgia to face the #8 Bulldogs and came away with a very convincing 49-10 victory.

6/5/5 Texas Tech The Red Raiders took an early lead over the #1 Longhorns and held on…until there was less than 2 minutes in the game when they fell behind 33-32. But then they came back to score a TD of their own with just one second on the clock to win 39-33. Texas Tech is now 9-0 while Texas is 8-1.

7/6/7 Southern California The Trojans showed no mercy as they hosted the hapless Washington Huskies. The final was 56-0. (The only other winless team in the nation going into this weekend, North Texas, beat Western Kentucky 51-40. The Washington Huskies now stand alone as the only major team without a win.)

8/8/8 Georgia The Bulldogs ran into a very hungry #5 Florida Gator team. The Gators came away with a 49-10 victory.

9/10/11 Oklahoma State The Cowboys romped over Iowa State 59-17.

10/9/9 Utah The Utes just squeaked by at New Mexico, 13-10. Utah improves to 9-0 record.

11/11/10 Boise State The Broncos are now 8-0 after beating New Mexico State 49-0 on the road.

12/12/12 TCU The Horned Frogs squared off against the Rebels of UNLV in Vegas and came away wih a jackpot, 44-14 win.

13/13/13 Ohio State The Buckeyes had the week off.

14/14/14 Missouri The Tigers escaped with a 31-28 victory over the Baylor Bears.

15/15/16 LSU The Tigers hosted the Green Wave of Tulane. LSU came away with a 35-10 win.

16/16/19 Florida State The Seminoles went up the road to face Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets got the help of a last minute fumble into the end zone to come away with a 31-28 victory.

17/17/15 Brigham Young The Cougars of BYU were trailing Colorado State by four points with 1:36 on the clock and were 76 yards from the end zone. It turned out to be more time than they needed as they scored a TD with 22 seconds left and came away with a 45-42 win.

18/19/17 Ball State The Cardinals (8-0) had the week off. They play Wednesday November 5th against Northern Illinois.

19/18/18 Tulsa The Golden Hurricane traveled to Arkansas where the Razorbacks ended Tulsa’s undefeated season, 30-23.

20/20/21 Minnesota The Gophers dropped a 24-17 decision to the Northwestern Wildcats who were able to score a TD with 12 seconds on the clock.

21/22/20 North Carolina The Tar Heels had the week off to contemplate their good fortune. I mean, they’re only third in the Coastal Division of the ACC for crying out loud! And neither first nor second appear on this list. AND they may very well move up on the Top 25.

22/21/22 Michigan State The Spartans were beneficiaries of some poor clock management and unwisely called time outs called by the Wisconsin Badgers as they were able to kick a 44-yard field goal with just 12 seconds left.

23/24/23 Oregon The Ducks tenure in the Top 25 will be short lived after they headed south to face—and lose to—the Golden Bears of California. Cal won 26-16.

24/23/25 South Florida The Bulls got mauled by the Cincinnati Bearcats on Thursday night (naturally) 24-10.

25/25/24 Maryland The 6-2 Terps had the weekend off as they prepare to play on Thursday November 6th at Blacksburg against the VT Hokies.

Ghosts and Goblins, oh my!

Living where we are in a very, very rural area (more cattle and cows than people within a mile radius) we had absolutely no--as in zero, zilch, nada--trick or treaters knock on our door.

Then again even in Morristown, NJ we saw a serious reduction in door-to-door visits as the kids in the neighborhood got older and went off to college. We were just far enough away form the town center to make the walk a little out of the kids' range. Oh, we would get the occasional commuting kids with parents who would drive over from the apartment complex near by, but there weren't many of those.

When my kids were growing up there were like skaty-eight kids (okay, maybe there were "just" 25-30 of them) of the same age bracket on the little block and we held our own little party complete with dunking for apples and even a haunted house constructed by a couple of older kids. And a parade of the kids (from 1 year-old to 10). They would circle the block once (sort of as a warning and to display their strength in numbers) and then start ringing the door bells. One parent would walk with their kid(s) while the other (or an older teen) would man the house and pay Dane geld to protect against invasion. The little ones were all done by darkness and would be trying to talk mom and/or dad into letting them eat candy for dinner when the teens would start doing their thing. There would be some fairly regular action until 10 PM when we would turn out the lights to signify that we weren't taking part any more. We might get 50 to 75 kids at the door in a night depending upon the weather and temperature.

Even when the number of visitors at the Morristown home dwindled, I could still get my fill of costumed preteens and teens at school. The high school and middle school in which I worked each had parades and awards for best costumes. Over the years, the rules became more strict as to what was verbotten (weapons, revealing clothing, etc.) but the kids still showed some imagination and came up with cleaver ideas. In the high school, participation among the students might run to 50% while in the middle school it was closer to 75-80%. There were a few parents who complained on religious grounds and the lack of seriousness, but they were usually taken with a grain of salt or encouraged to keep their kids home if it really bothered them. However, in the last few years of my tenure, the complaints were growing louder and more demanding from some quarters (thing eastern European/western Asia with names like Mohammed, Ali, Hussein, and such) and the administration, rather than pointing to and giving lessons in US Traditions 101, were starting to yield.

I miss seeing all the little ones in their costumes. But if I were to hang around the mall or visit the local party held at the fire hall or VFW people might get the wrong idea.

*sigh*

What a world.

Weigh in Saturday (7...I think)

Damn! Back up to 217 this morning on the Weight Watchers' scale at the Aerie. I checked when I came home last Sunday and the correction factor I was using for the scale up north seemed relatively good. I must, therefore, blame Terry's cooking. (And a light activity schedule.)

Shoot, this has been like Groundhog Day.

But at least I'm not resorting to hospital stays and having parts removed in order to lose weight. Then again, I don't have three kids hauling in half a ton of Halloween candy as temptation either.

Mac Virus Discovered

Happy Halloween!


(From Theo's.)

#24 South Florida 10, Cincinnati 24

I'm telling you, you've got to be crazy to play on Thursday night if you are a ranked team.

Banged-up QB Pike throws two TDs as Cincy downs No. 24 USF

"CINCINNATI -- Not bad for a guy with a broken arm."

Yeah, but it wasn't his throwing arm.

It Takes a Worried Man...

More and more I've been reading about how the Obama camp is "worried." They spend upwards of $600 million, have the MSM in their hip pockets, have polls galore saying it's in the bag...and they are worried? I wonder what their internal polling is telling them, eh?


Well, maybe they have something to be worried about.
Confession of an Obama Blogger - by Sarah P from HillBuzz

What you were never intended to know... from RedState
(The RedState link might be a little slow or just overwhelmed. It worked fine earlier but as news spreads.... The gist is an insiders look at the Obama strategy and fears.)

Here's a little Kingston Trio to remind them all that they won't be worried long. November 5th is just a few days away and then they can sit back and try to figure out where in hell they went wrong.

Some birding today

I went over to Hammond Lake and the Ive's Run Recreation area this morning to do a little birding. I was curious as to whether or not there would be rafts of waterfowl on the lake as they make their south-bound migration. I was disapointed in that respect. The Corps of Engineers drew the lake down back in August, possibly to combat some invasive species that have found their way into the waters, and they have yet to begin raising the lake levels. Perhaps they are hoping the cold winter temperatures will play havoc upon the eurasion millfoil and what ever else the lake holds. In any case, the water levels are way, way down and the exposed shallows are now expanses of grass and mud. There were a few dozen Canada Geese who like that sort of thing, a handful of Killdeer, one lonely Common Merganser and a flock of Ring-billed Gulls.

The prize, as far as I was concerned, was the presence of eight (8) Bald Eagles. There were six immature Eagles and two adults perched on the exposed tree trunks and stumps along the edge of the channels. They were a good three to four hundred yards from the nearest approach for observation so my digiscoping equipment was stretched to the max. I used the digital zoom on the Nikon camera too which makes focusing even more difficult. Shooting over such a distance is not a means for obtaining great results.

Having made all my excuses (except for the one about the possibility of needing to clean all the lenses), I present the two best photos I came up with.



Two adult Bald Eagles.



One of the six immature Bald Eagles that were along a short stretch of one of the channels running through the flats of Hammond Lake.

And here is the complete list of birds I saw in the little more than two hours I was there:

Location: Ive's Run-Crooked Creek
Observation date: 10/31/08
Notes: Clear, cold morning with temperatures starting at 34 degrees and rising to near 50.

Six immature Bald Eagles and two adults were perched on exposed logs and tree trunks in the very low waters of Hammond Lake.
Number of species: 20

Canada Goose X
Common Merganser (North American) X
Ring-necked Pheasant X
Bald Eagle X
Red-tailed Hawk X
Killdeer X
Ring-billed Gull X
Mourning Dove X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
European Starling X
Field Sparrow X
Savannah Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) X
Northern Cardinal X
American Goldfinch X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Quin Hillyer: "McCain's Best Argument"

Now here's a guy with a way with words who explains exactly why McCain should be the next President of the US. I heartily agree with everything he has written in this piece.

Quin Hillyer at The American Spectator:

McCain's Best Argument


A few excerpts:

...
This bears repeating: No candidate for president since Barry Goldwater has been as committed to spending discipline across the board as John McCain is. His entire record for 25 years gives evidence of that reality. Reagan came close to the Goldwater/McCain level of commitment, but McCain has kept up that fight, a lonely fight, for a quarter century.
...
McCain also has the right instincts on the key issue of the judiciary. It may not be at the top of his list of importance, but he does, unambiguously, favor the appointment of judges who carefully construe the actual text of the Constitution and laws and are willing to be bound by those texts no matter what their own policy preferences.
...
Also, John McCain is an individualist. He believes in private action. He believes that individuals can live their lives responsibly without government acting as nanny and overseer and ultimate decision-maker on virtually every aspect of daily life. McCain trusts people with their own hard-earned money. McCain has never voted for a tax hike.
...
Finally, there can be no doubt, none whatsoever, that John McCain will brook no corruption in his administration. Woe be to the appointee who would risk sullying McCain's vaunted honor by crooked deals and self-serving actions. It is likely that no administration in history will be so concerned with maintaining high ethical standards as a McCain administration would. And it will be blessed relief to have an administration where not even a hint of scandal will be even whispered by honest observers.

Go on over and read the whole thing.

Such a tolerant group...

From The New York Observer:

"Erica Jong Tells Italians Obama Loss 'Will Spark the Second American Civil War. Blood Will Run in the Streets'"

Before they start, they might want to remember which side is clinging to its guns.

(Full article http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/erica-jong-tells-italians-obama-loss-will-spark-second-american-civil-war-blood-will-r.)

Notice that no one says, "If McCain loses there will be blood in the streets."
Assholes.

Global Warming ain’t what it used to be

If this keeps up, London might just have a Dickens of a Christmas.

"Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday - the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922."


(Speaking of GW... Did you see where Al Gore was in Harvard last week to speak about Global Warming and...coldest temperatures for that day on record..all 125 years of record. No, really.)

Phillies win rain/wind/snow delayed WS

Okay, as a Mets fan I really do not like the Phillies...or the Braves...or the Cubs...or, well, just about any other National League team. And I really, really HATE the Yankees.

But, when the World Serious rolls around, I will cheer on the National League team every time. See the NL plays baseball the way it is supposed to be played. Nine guys to a side not ten. Managerial decisions mean something. Strategy on the base paths, pinch hitting, pitcher changes...all important to the game and they certainly mean that you need the better TEAM to win consistently.

That said, and as a fan of the National League, I would like to say congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies for their victory in the 2008 World Series.

Now, if we could only get MLB to rethink this bull shit of playing into the end of October when there are snow storms in the air. How about playing some more double headers during the regular season if you insist on keeping 162 games? Or, at least go back to playing the World Series during the day when the sun is shining and the temperatures just might get above 50 effing degrees.

McCain vs Obama

As a public service for those who may need a cheat sheet for Tuesday's election, I present the following:



(Found over at Theo's.)

Repair Report

I was right but it's going to cost me $450. The clothes washer's pump was the culprit and we need to get a new one.

The repairman showed up this afternoon, listened to my experiment and conclusion and then said something to the effect that he thought I had hit the nail on the head. He then went about the task of cleaning out the trap. This is a simple enough job but it's something that is not even mentioned in the owner's manual but which, even I could see, needs periodic cleaning. He removed the lower front panel (three hex-head screws) and then proceeded to open the screw-out trap in the lower front. As he unscrewed it, water poured out as did lots of cat fur and lint (easily and wad the size of a small orange but smelling a lot worse), a couple of 2" long brads (picture hanging), a pile of coins (57 cents worth), and a half dozen miscellaneous metal parts that are interesting but which whose function we can not ascertain.

All this crap obviously blocked up the plumbing and caused the poor pump to die trying to get water to flow around it. When the tub filled with water and then had to be drained, the pump could not pull/push the water through. Once the obstruction was cleared, we cleaned out the pump in the hopes that it would be able to do its duty. Unfortunately, the several times the machine was left plugged in and full of water, the pump must have burned itself out trying to accomplish the impossible.

Al, the repairman, ordered a new pump ($262) to be delivered here and rescheduled us for next Wednesday so he can install it. (Although, after watching him carefully, I could probably do that job.)

Let us hope that that will be the end of the problem.

At least my "wealth" is being redistributed the way it's supposed to be done and not through some effing government agency.

More on "Redistribution"

Another important article from the Wall Street Journal:

Obama's 95% Illusion
It depends on what the meaning of 'tax cut' is.

The gist of the piece is that under the Obama plan, as much as 44% of the population would pay no taxes and most of those would receive checks from the government (meaning taxpayers).

Then there is the question of what is a "tax cut."

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit."

...

[Most of these] would be "refundable," which is Washington-speak for the fact that you can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability. In other words, they are an income transfer -- a federal check -- from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this "welfare," or in George McGovern's 1972 campaign a "Demogrant." Mr. Obama's genius is to call it a tax cut.

And most of those handouts are phased out as you earn more or are not given to everyone. (No kids? Oops, no child support tax credit for you. No one going to college in your household? Then I guess you won't get that tuition tax credit. You say you don't have a mortgage? Sorry you don't get that credit either.)

There's another catch: Because Mr. Obama's tax credits are phased out as incomes rise, they impose a huge "marginal" tax rate increase on low-income workers. The marginal tax rate refers to the rate on the next dollar of income earned. As the nearby chart illustrates, the marginal rate for millions of low- and middle-income workers would spike as they earn more income.

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of "making work pay," but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you're a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year.

Go read the entire article for the facts of this most dangerous attempt to buy votes. And that is all these tax credits and redistributions are a cold, calculated means to place more and more individuals on the public teat and, therefore, under the politicians' thumbs.

I find the scariest part of the entire article the figure that says 44% of the population will not pay any taxes. To me that means they have no stake in what the government spends it's money on--except as it is funneled back to them. And yet they get to vote. Vote for their self interest and not the nations. In fact, the nation can go to hell as far as many of them are concerned so long as they continue to get their hand out from the federal redistribution center called the IRS.

Then there's the McCain ad:

First Snow of the Season

Today, as I mentioned, we had our first real snowfall of the season here at the Aerie. That's not to say we had snow in huge quantities or even very far down into the valley. But we did have an inch or two fall here at the cabin.

As I've said before, the Aerie is at an elevation of 2100 feet on the northwest side of a long ridge that runs from the east-northeast to the west-southwest. We have a grand view of the valley that is home to US Route 6 to our north and can almost see into New York State--or at least into the gap carved by the Tioga River and along which US Route 15 passes as it heads toward Corning, NY.



As you can see in the photo above, the snow did not accumulate in the valley at all. When I went down to get the mail at the post office (almost straight ahead in the center of the photo) I found the snow actually stopped on the northern most edge of our property--just about 100 feet down the hill. Terry made the same discovery when she came back from Wellsboro at noon. The snow did npt begin until you reached approximately 2000 feet in elevation.

The snow fell until around 2 PM and by then it was mostly blowing sideways as the winds whipped in from the north. If you look at that second photo above, that view is to the north-northwest. You will notice the abundance of wide open space with absolutely nothing to slow the wind down. I was watching the hanging baskets on the deck rock back and forth in the very high gusts. Occasionally it appeared as though the baskets were held for a split second at a 45 degree angle from the perpendicular. The baskets are not empty. They still contain the potting soil for the petunias that grew in them this spring and summer. They aren't super heavy, as they haven't been watered in weeks (the plants got sun burned and died) and the soil is dry as a bone. Still, the strength of the wind, to blow them to a 45 degree angle...impressive.

And cold. The high temperature today was 37 degrees at 12:30 AM. It hovered around 32 degrees all day but it felt much, much colder with the wet snow and very strong winds. Just before we sat down to dinner the temperature had slid down to 30 degrees and I decided it was time to build the first fire of the season in the fireplace.



I even got it lit without having too much smoke drift into the living area. (The secret was to pull the ash shelf and light a half dozen sheets of newspaper to warm the chimney before trying to light the wood fire.) The fire has warmed the box and the circulating fan has kicked in to blow warm air into the living room. I'm surprised one of the cats hasn't staked out the sofa in front of the fireplace...yet.

The snow showers are supposed to continue for the next day or so. I'll have to move some more firewood in from the stack next to the garage tomorrow and put it in the garage where it can dry out a bit more. There's some cherry and oak and maple as well as paper birch out there, some of which was cut two plus years ago. Hopefully it's still in burnable condition.

Breakdown

Well, our clothes washer has decided to stop.

A couple of weeks ago it pulled the same crap but after letting it sit over night, it went back to working normally. But yesterday, nope. Terry managed to do two loads of my laundry from my two plus weeks at the Bolt Hole (this after doing several loads of her own on Saturday from being in Atlanta and South Carolina) and then the machine just stopped in mid cycle. It would fill with water, slosh the clothes around to wash them and then…stop.

The wash load (two sets of sheets) wasn’t overly large for the machine’s capacity but it was definitely wet now and sitting in soapy water. The electronic controls were blinking “Pause” so I would push the button and the machine would go through the initial steps of locking, unlocking and relocking the door, sloshing around what was in the tub and then…stop. Over and over again we played this game.

Eventually, I opened the door during one of the moments it was “Paused” and hauled the wet laundry out into a bucket. (Terry then took them and the rest of the laundry down to Mansfield to wash in the Laundromat.) I then bailed the water out of the tub, cursing the machine all the while.

Once empty I thought I would try an experiment. I set the controls to do a “rinse and spin” cycle and pushed the run button. The machine went through the initial steps of locking, unlocking and then relocking the door. It filled with water and sloshed the water about as if to remove any soap from any clothes that might be in there. And then it stopped.

It went into pause mode and unlocked the door. I opened the door and bailed the water out. Closed the door and pushed the button to resume and …IT DID! It went into the spin cycle as it tried to squeeze moisture out of the non-existent clothes. It then stopped and refilled with water for the second rinse. Sloshed the water about for a few minutes and then…stopped working again! Eventually, I got to open the door and bail the water out.

From the above action, I conclude that there is something wrong with the pump. Either the pump has failed or there is a loose electrical wire that prevents it from turning on. As a result, when water needs to be pumped out of the washer, it doesn’t get pumped out and the sensors in the machine prevent it from going on to the next step.

I’ll find out if my conclusions are correct tomorrow. That is when the repair person is supposed to show up. Terry called Sears Repair early Monday morning and spoke to someone with an Indian accent who took all our info and promised someone would be here on Wednesday between 9 AM and 5 PM.

They will have one shot. If no one shows up, then there is an ad in the Yellow Book for a local who claims to repair all models. (Ours is a GE front loader that’s just 2 years old. Out of warranty and out of luck.)

Damn this is scary!

Obama's 'Redistribution' Constitution
The courts are poised for a takeover by the judicial left
By STEVEN G. CALABRESI
In the Opinion page of the Wall Street Journal

Consider the most important lower federal court in the country: the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In his two terms as president, Ronald Reagan appointed eight judges, an average of one a year, to this court. They included Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia, Kenneth Starr, Larry Silberman, Stephen Williams, James Buckley, Douglas Ginsburg and David Sentelle. In his two terms, George W. Bush was able to name only four: John Roberts, Janice Rogers Brown, Thomas Griffith and Brett Kavanaugh.

Although two seats on this court are vacant, Bush nominee Peter Keisler has been denied even a committee vote for two years. If Barack Obama wins the presidency, he will almost certainly fill those two vacant seats, the seats of two older Clinton appointees who will retire, and most likely the seats of four older Reagan and George H.W. Bush appointees who may retire as well.

The net result is that the legal left will once again have a majority on the nation's most important regulatory court of appeals.

The balance will shift as well on almost all of the 12 other federal appeals courts.
Nine of the 13 will probably swing to the left if Mr. Obama is elected (not counting the Ninth Circuit, which the left solidly controls today). Circuit majorities are likely at stake in this presidential election for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal. That includes the federal appeals courts for New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and virtually every other major center of finance in the country.

On the Supreme Court, six of the current nine justices will be 70 years old or older on January 20, 2009. There is a widespread expectation that the next president could make four appointments in just his first term, with maybe two more in a second term. Here too we are poised for heavy change.

These numbers ought to raise serious concern because of Mr. Obama's extreme left-wing views about the role of judges. He believes -- and he is quite open about this -- that judges ought to decide cases in light of the empathy they ought to feel for the little guy in any lawsuit.

Do you like the idea of having the courts being controlled by the left? Especially when the House, Senate and even the White House may also be leaning that way? Where’s the checks and balances then?

Mr. Calabresi speaks of possible future:

If Mr. Obama wins we could possibly see any or all of the following: a
federal constitutional right to welfare; a federal constitutional mandate of affirmative action wherever there are racial disparities, without regard to proof of discriminatory intent; a right for government-financed abortions through the third trimester of pregnancy; the abolition of capital punishment and the mass freeing of criminal defendants; ruinous shareholder suits against corporate officers and directors; and approval of huge punitive damage awards, like those imposed against tobacco companies, against many legitimate businesses such as those selling fattening food.

Sounds impossible until you remember, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter.

Many of Roosevelt’s early plans met with resistance from the Supreme Court. That’s why he tried to increase its size so he could stack the votes in his favor.

The big government growth under Johnson spawned many government programs that just won’t go away, destroyed the fabric of the poor family in much of the country, and which have created an sink hole from which many poor either cannot escape or do not want to escape.

Jimmy Carter? His intrusive actions in the world of business (price controls, etc.) created double digit inflation that saw the workers lose value of their income while they were ostensively getting raises in their paycheck.

Me? Superior Scribbler? You're kidding, right?

MorningGlory has seen fit to bestow upon me a blogging award. Why? I don’t know! But looking at the rules, especially the one that says it has to be passed on to someone who hasn’t received it yet, perhaps she just ran out of more worthy recipients for I know, deep down in my sole that I am not worthy.

(Then again, it could be because she is a former NJ resident, like me, and likes to see how things are going when I write about Rutgers.)

She did have me blushing a bit when she wrote: "Next, let me point you in the general direction of Compass Points, “The adventures of a retired couple as they travel the USA–or just build live in a new log home, the Aerie, in the north-central PA.” If you want the latest news on college football, bird watching, or want to pick up some home canning tips, this is the place to go."

Of course, as with every Bloggy Award, there are A Few Rules. They are, forthwith:
• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post , which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Now I'll have to put on my thinking cap to come up with five bloggers I believe would be most worthy.....mmm, let me see....


Well, for log home love there is Shelley of Building A Log Cabin who has just moved into her Michigan home but loved the process and the company sooo much that she has become a sales rep for Hiawatha Log Homes. She's got lots of pictures of the inside and out of her cabin on the lake. She and her husband are celebrating an anniversary today: their third. (Young whippersnappers!) Shelley's also got a second blog dedicated just to Birding In Michigan. (Personally, I think she's a little loony over loons.)

Then every day I check in to see what Richard of At The Water is up to and find he has usually posted several marvelous pictures of birds from his little patch in Minnesota. He also convinced me to stoke the economy some by purchasing a new digital camera which I'm still learning to use. He's full of photography hints, birding knowledge and more.

Continuing to the west (and north) I like to check in on Rev. Paul Way Up North in Anchorage. I find he provides insight on what folks up there actually think of their Governor. (Besides, I feel slightly warmer after reading some of his weather reports.)


Now, let's head south a bit to warm up.

Moving down the west coast some into California we come across a very weird character named jihadgene or the Great Reader who, on occasion, channels Kim Jong Il but who always has some interesting stories to tell.

There's GuyK and Sweetthing down near Tampa, FL whom I find CHARMING, JUST CHARMING. Now his rants may not be everyone's cup of tea (or Jump Start) but I find myself nodding along as he steps up on that stump to let us know what he thinks. And his gardening and fishing skills make me jealous.

Well, that's my five and I strongly urge you to go over and check them out. I hope they won't mind being on my short list.

Family News

The two in the photo above are my son, Rick and his fiancee, Sandy. They were last seen here after the wedding of Rick's cousin Laura out in California in June.



A couple of months ago they let us know that they were engaged. (They are currently living out in Eugene, OR where Rick is an arborist with a tree company and Sandy is in her third year of law school.) This week they set a date and sent out announcements. Sunday, May 17, 2009 is the date. (Although that's not what they had on the announcement! Rick put the 13th, a Wednesday, on the card in error.) The wedding will be a small one held in the Eugene area. It is their desire to keep it simple and the guest list will be mostly immediate family.

Sandy's sister is also in the Eugene area but her folks live in Chicago, while we are here in PA and Grandma and Rick's sister are in NJ.

If you get into the story of where they met (Armonk, NY) while Rick was going to school at the University of Idaho in Moscow and then how they got back together after several years (and a deployment to Iraq with the Marines out of Spokane, WA) all the way across the country.... It's pretty interesting.

Sandy will be completing her studies this spring and then taking the bar exam in the fall. She wishes to become a child advocate.

Rick will continue to work as a certified arborist and is looking to obtain full certification as a forester the future.

It's snowing.

It's snowing to beat the band at the Aerie. We woke up to an inch on the grass and deck (not so much on the stone driveway where it has been melting) and it has been really coming down for the last hour or so. The weather.com site shows a snow line of approximately 2000 feet and the Aerie is at 2100 feet. Terry has to go over to Wellsboro this morning so it will be interesting to see if there is any thing on the roads.

Meanwhile, the Bolt Hole is getting socked. The same weather.com folks show a snow line there of 2000 feet with mixed precip between 1000 and 2000 feet. The Bolt Hole is at 1600 feet and the maps show mostly snow. A little further north into the Tug Hill Plateau across to the High Peaks and they are talking up to 16 inches of snow. There's also mention of wind gust out of the northwest at 50+ miles per hour.

I've mixed feelings about this. I would have liked to have been hunting as this first-of-the-season snow occurred. Immediately after there would be some good opportunities to still hunt as the tracks are visible and fresh and the deer's brown bodies stand out against the white. Also, being the first of the season, the deer act like third graders; they get silly. The older deer forgot that it can snow and what that means. The younger ones are just confused.

On the other hand, I would probably have to get the snowblower out if we had more than six inches. Even if it would all melt in a couple of days.

Pre Week 10 College Football Report

Time to take a look at the team rankings going into Week 10 of the College Football season. And, while we're at it, let's look at who is playing whom this weekend, too.

There was little movement in the upper reaches of the Top 25 teams this week. Numbers 1-6 were essentially unchanged while USC won but lost ground slipping from #6 to #7. Number 8 Texas Tech moved up to #6. Georgia climbed one rung from #9 to #8. Oklahoma State slipped down two from #7 to #9. And then things get interesting.

(Poll numbers are those of the teams entering Week 10. The numbers on parentheses after the teams’ names are their rankings after Week 9. Rankings are from the AP Writers’ Poll/the Coaches Poll/CBSSports.com in that order. NR= Not Ranked You will note that when I refer to a team by its rank, I use the Writers’ Poll position. I mean, they are journalists and totally unbiased in their assessment. Right!)


1/1/1 Texas (1/1/1) The 8-0 Longhorns face yet another undefeated team in the form of #6 Texas Tech who are also 8-0. This time it’s on the road. As with the immortals in The Highlander, so it goes with undefeated in the Big 12: There can be only one! (Or fewer.) And this weekend will decide who has the opportunity to be that one.

2/2/2 Alabama (2/2/2) Arkansas State comes in to face the Crimson Tide. Arkansas State Red Wolves…mmmm. The Red Wolf is an extinct animal (possibly never even existed). I see this as an omen of sorts.

3/3/3 Penn State (3/3/3) The 9-0 Nittany Lions have the week off.

4/4/4 Oklahoma (4/5/4) The Nebraska Cornhuskers are coming to town. The Sooners will be waiting.

5/7/6 Florida (5/7/7) The Gators are going up to Georgia to face the #8 Bulldogs.

6/5/5 Texas Tech (8/6/6) The Red Raiders will lay in wait for the #1 Longhorns.

7/6/7 Southern California (6/4/5) The Trojans will host the winless Washington Huskies. (The only other winless team in the nation is North Texas. And the (not so) Mean Green play the 2-6 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The Washington Huskies could stand alone come Sunday.)

8/8/8 Georgia (9/9/9) The Bulldogs are hoping to have a Gator sandwich as they host #5 Florida.

9/10/11 Oklahoma State (7/8/8) The Cowboys try to regroup at home against Iowa State.

10/9/9 Utah (12/12/12) Da Utes will be playing at New Mexico where the Lobos will hope to shred their 8-0 record.

11/11/10 Boise State (13/13/13) The 7-0 Broncos are on the road to New Mexico State.

12/12/12 TCU (15/15/15) The Horned Frogs square off against the Rebels of UNLV in Vegas.

13/13/13 Ohio State (10/10/10) The Buckeyes will be licking their wounds this week. (And probably wondering why the Big 10 has no playoff game.) They have a BYE this week.

14/14/14 Missouri (16/16/18) The Tigers will be at the home of the Baylor Bears.

15/15/16 LSU (11/11/11) The Tigers will host their instate rivals, the Green Wave of Tulane.

16/16/19 Florida State (24/23/NR) The Seminoles are going up the road to face Georgia Tech.

17/17/15 Brigham Young (18/17/17) The Cougars of BYU will be on the road to face off against Colorado State.

18/19/17 Ball State (20/22/19) The Cardinals are 8-0 and are enjoying another week off—sort of. They play Wednesday November 5th against Northern Illinois.

19/18/18 Tulsa (22/19/20) The Golden Hurricane (8-0) travels to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks.

20/20/21 Minnesota (25/25/24) The 7-1 Gophers host the 6-2 Northwestern Wildcats.

21/22/20 North Carolina (NR/NR/NR) The Tar Heels have the week off to contemplate their good fortune. I mean, they’re only third in the Coastal Division of the ACC for crying out loud! And neither first nor second appear on this list.

22/21/22 Michigan State (NR/NR/NR) The Spartans are at home against the wilting Wisconsin Badgers.

23/24/23 Oregon (NR/NR/NR) The Ducks are headed south to face the Golden Bears of California.

24/23/25 South Florida (14/14/14) The battered Bulls will hope to regain their mojo on the road at Cincinnati.

25/25/24 Maryland (NR/NR/NR) The 6-2 Terps have the weekend off as they prepare to play on Thursday November 6th at Blacksburg against the VT Hokies.

Gone from last week’s Top 25: #17 Pittsburgh (L to Rutgers), #19 Kansas (Capital L to Texas Tech, 63-21), #21 Georgia Tech (L to Virginia), #23 Boston College (L to North Carolina), and Northwestern (NR/24/25) (L to Indiana).