Brute’s Bleat

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By Harold Brutlag

I was almost taken in by the picture of an owl in the Christmas decorations that came across the news channels last week. I never did see a follow up story on the owl which blended in with the tree and the other decorations so I’m assuming it was a prank. It’s hard to believe a live owl would stay perched into the evergreen while the tree was harvested and brought into a house! We used to have a barn owl in the hay mow while I was just a kid, but we never could get close to it.

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I had a surprise last week when I spotted a pheasant rooster and a couple of hen feeding west of Clearwater in a field next to a swamp. Those were the first pheasants  I’ve seen all year, but that may be I wasn’t looking early enough in the morning. With the extended fall we are having pheasants and other wildlife should be fattening up for winter. Reports are the bear haven’t all begun their winter solstice hibernation which this year happens on Dec. 23. That has nothing to do with the winter hibernation.

The winter solstice is the longest night and shortest day of the year in terms of daylight. Approaching the winter solstice, daylight becomes shorter. As the winter solstice passes, daylight becomes longer, or as one fellow remarked the days get longer and the cold gets stronger!

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I was one of the thousands or maybe millions of football fans who watched the Vikings make a complete mockery of professional football Sunday afternoon. Sure they won with a field goal, 3-0 over the Raiders, but it had to be the most boring game I’ve ever watched. The most exciting moment was when undrafted rookie, Davante Adams, picked off Raiders rookie Aidan O’Connell’s pass with a diving catch at the Las Vegas 34-yard line with less than a minute to play.

Josh Dobbs was replaced in the fourth quarter with Nick Mullens who just might be the starting QB in Saturday’s game with the Bengals starting at noon.

It’s a good thing the game was played in Las Vegas where the fans could amuse themselves in that city’s other activities. That’s where the Super Bowl will be played. I don’t think the Vikings are much more than a mediocre team; and mediocre teams don’t win a spot in the Super Bowl. But I hope I’m wrong! It might have been different if Kirk Cousins hadn’t been injured this year.

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