Great Possessions, by David Kline
Shiflett, Dave
might have wondered what he was uninvited guests." Again, something thinking about as he bounced along in most of us probably didn't know. Kline's his buggy, serenely stroking his hairy book is full...
...This birds the rest of us can usually ap- has been going on for so long that the robpreciate only with the help of a BB rifle...
...where Mr...
...Not much, we so hard and fast you'd have thought the Kitty Kelley...
...About the only time the A single vampire [bat] will consume almost Amish grimace, if Kline is a guide, is five gallons of blood a year...
...Kline probably wouldn't find time sist of rabbit and mouse fur, and bones, neck with a piece of yarn), what do peel the skin off your cheeks and blow to write save for one thing: "Because and surprisingly often, the reddish they say when a northern pike tries to it all the way to Santa Fe...
...can be sure...
...His is not a superficial appreciation, either, as becomes evident when the While important for the ability to GREAT POSSESSIONS: author comes upon a foul substance ly- take readers to different worlds, such AN AMISH FARMER'S JOURNAL ing on the forest floor: information is also of value to those David Kline/North Point Press/235 pp...
...there are forty-five ball, but I should not like to own the of them in all, enough for a couple of boy whose hair does not lift his hat hurricanes and the first few hours of when he sees his first deer...
...It weighed 110 pounds...
...Remember, these are the folks Wisconsin...
...plies us with memorable quotations...
...The answer, it seems, is that he could have been thinking about plow- Studies done in Sweden on captive animals ing, or cutting wood, or ravens, or showed that a bat could hear a fly clean-other stuff the rest of the world hasn't ing its wings or rubbing its legs together...
...I enjoy plowing," he admits, and a In the base of their wings katydids possess little later, "I consider it a privilege to a miniature amplifier that gives enormous , , . projection...
...when you cut it and again when you burn it...
...Kline farms and raises chil- That last one should be used spardren, none of whom appears to have ingly, perhaps...
...ber ants have forgotten how to work...
...From an old adage: "When oak And we were comforted...
...These oblong equal to humans...
...Wyoming...
...much time for...
...Only that the pelt would Dave Shiflett is deputy editorial page be big enough to make a car bra for a editor at the Rocky Mountain News Cadillac...
...bed, so when the winds came, we This is the work of a man at peace...
...Many people don't have this opportunity...
...36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1990...
...Kline supwanted this, we would have moved to C o what's so great about his book...
...One snatch a prothonotary warbler from its touched down from time to time, and lights," he says, "we don't work will search in vain to find so great a perch above a beaver pond, also docuone night the hail and lightning came nights...
...Well, it's written nicely, but prob- M r. Kline also writes about hawks, From the Canadian naturalist Jack Fortunately, we had a copy of David ably won't be remembered as a literary falcons, thrushes, rails, and vul- Miner: "The chief cause of the decrease Kline's Great Possessions under the masterpiece...
...When these pupae hatch, insects, flowers, and birds—the same they serve their kidnappers as slaves...
...caution: "The big scavengers have the One of man's great mistakes was when reached past the empty bottles and the If you've ever passed one of these undainty habit of sometimes throwing he introduced this little, domineering rifles (not so empty) for some sure-fire Amish characters on the highway, you up breakfast or yesterday's supper at Bolshevik into America...
...Robber ants are known to go on raids and That's not all...
...What's golden is its tone: tures, about which he offers a word of of the bluebird is the English sparrows...
...who are up before the sun pulling on determine what the owls are eating...
...Cutting, splitting • amplify an almost inaudible scratch into a and hauling it to the house usually in- loud "katy-DID" that can carry, on a calm volves all members of the family at one night, for nearly half a mile...
...Hellfire...
...comfort...
...This tiny megaphone can work with wood...
...16.95 "Since owls cannot digest hair, who do battle in the moral and political bones, or feathers," he explains, "these arenas...
...But here's a show-stopa police record or is the least bit world- per: "The largest [beaver] on record weary, despite their incessant toiling in was trapped 60 years ago in northern the dirt...
...descriptive passage in the work of Miss mented by the author...
...At this point The mayfly . . . may emerge as an adult in the evening, mate, lay its eggs, and die he drops in a quote from Henry David before sunrise, all this accomplished with-Thoreau: "Wood heats you twice, once out ever eating...
...About one or two of this From Aldo Leopold: "Babes do not Amish farmer's brief essays would tremble when they are shown a golf usually do the trick...
...the pellets one can fairly accurately And while the same group no doubt God breathes hard in the West...
...the Rapture...
...applauded the recent arrest of a Here in Denver it was a very cow udders, and who don't turn up the The ones I find around here belong to Californian for abusing a canary (he windy spring, with gusts roaring thermostat, but toss another log on the the great horned owl and usually con- clipped its wings and tied it around his through the foothills strong enough to fire...
...If we There's one other prize...
...Kline's his buggy, serenely stroking his hairy book is full of such facts: chin...
...Tornados God didn't create the horse with head- bones and hair of fox squirrels...
...Kline is very big on steal the pupae of other ant species and carry them home...
...While the leaves are as big as squirrels' ears, and chinooks raged, we snuggled up and bracken fern is still curled up like a fidread about the gentle nature of Ohio, dlehead, it's time to plant corn...
...By examining ant slavery, as documented by Kline...
...time or another...
...So perhaps they pellets can be found beneath their should be asked for their position on roosting trees and nests...
...Yet Kline asks us to spare the and TA S's 's Rocky Mountain editor beavers, and in his honor, we shall...
...when contemplating a strip miner...
...who plow their fields behind horses, What do you say when confronted by such a datum...
...Animal rights activists, for exDave Shiflett substances are formed into balls called ample, insist that ants are morally pellets and regurgitated...
...world was ending...
Vol. 23 • September 1990 • No. 9
