McHenry County Blog

Caterpillar employees in the Black Hills will surely take their kids to see Wall Drug Store. When we visited last year, I found the cinder and tax street of the mid-1950's was now asphault. Funny what one remembers of junior high years. We ate across the street and heard some of the stories about the store after the second generation took over.

When a engineering design center gets opened in South Dakota and not expanded in Illinois, this tells you how unfriendly the Democrats and their union bosses have made Illinois for a company with worldwide headquarters here.

And they shouldn't miss the Mammoth archeological dig at the south edge of the Black Hills in Hot Springs.

Of course if you didn’t see this covered by Dem-biased reporters and editors in Illinois, then you weren’t alone.

Across the road from the Mammoth Site is Wooly's Mammoth Family Fun. Great place to eat, especially in off-times. We a former train engineer who was home schooling her kids on heer husband's family ranch. We learned about the fears that ranchers have about ID chipping each steer will lead to carbon taxes.

You can find the whole press release here.

While we talked for over an hour with the rancher's wife, my son shot gophers ("inferior meerkats") in a virtual shooting range, which was FREE!. He was second highest scorer. The rancher's wife approached us when she saw Steve having fun on the shooting range. She asked if we were the family who had paid her husband to shoot gophers on their land.

Explaining how some commercial office space could be rented by now and hiring underway is the excerpt below. If CAT wanted to build their own facility, there would be construction jobs in place of an office space rental.

“The Black Hills Engineering Design Center will initially occupy 3,100 square feet of office space within the Black Hills Business Development Center in Rapid City and, when staffed at full capacity, will employ up to 100 people. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter of 2010; hiring is planned to begin at that time and ramp up over a five-year period.”

Governor Pat Quinn and “Boss” Mike Madigan couldn’t care about these kind of jobs. They are lawyers and willing accomplices to the union bosses who run Dem politics in Illinois.

Surely the new South Dakota CAT employees will take their kids to see the buffalo in Custer State Park. This cow was leading her calves across Route 89, just a short drive from Rapid City. Buffalo burgers are common and I find them better tasting than hamburgers.

It’s their failure and one Dems’ Melissa Bean and Bill Foster can share for not putting in the effort to attract these thinking-type jobs to this area. All are so much more interested in keeping their own jobs than getting jobs for their constituents.

The cavern with the most publicity is Jewel Cave. It's a real workout. It claims to be the second longest cave in the world--150 miles of passages. The public one has 723 stair steps.

Local Dem Jack Franks couldn’t care about putting in the effort to land these jobs for Woodstock, where a Super Walmart now occupies the site of the former Morton research center.  (Think about the difference is salary levels.)

There are 723 stairs in Jewel Cave. Fortunately, more of them are down than up. At 49 degrees, the cave rangers suggest wearing a jacket. I took their advice and wish I had not. I carried it most of the way.

You also may read about 600 new jobs at a new CAT plant in North Little Rock, AR.

That’s in addition to the new 500-person plant in Victoria, Texas.

Having union acolytes running the State’s Executive and Legislature branches, plus the U.S. Congress, is costing plenty of new jobs by companies already here in Illinois.

Have a happy Labor Day Weekend.

"I'm done for."

“OK. You got me,” mumbles Keely Cat after his fight with the rabid bat that somehow got inside the Skinner home.

Or is it “Cattitude,” as this sticker on the trunk of a Libertarian’s car parked near the Crystal Lake Daily Queen.

I took some photos of a totally relaxed Keely Cat and labeled them “catitude.”

Here’s one:

Keely Cat is relaxing on my wife's favorite reading chair.

"Ready for take-ff. Now, if only a rabid bat will fly below me."

It looks as if Keely Cat is doing the split here, but he’s not.

He’s practicing flying.

He’s ready for those rabid bats the McHenry County Department of Health keep talking about.

“If squirrels can fly, why not cats?”

“I don’t need a Republican Party Cat Tax for protection.”

“Is summer over yet?”

"Nothing's on TV."

“I’m bored.”

"I am not being unpatriotic. Anyway, I was born in Wisconsin, not the United States."

One of Keely Cat’s Big People took offense at his lying on a star studded blanket.

“It was where I sleep.

“You know I sleep there.

“If you didn’t want me to sleep on it, you shouldn’t have put it on the chair seat.

“Now, leave me alone.

“Go to a TEA Party or something.

“It’s nap time.”

No seat belt for Keely Cat. "Show me the law!"

“What do you mean I need a seat belt?

“Don’t you know cats land on their feet?

“And, anyway, we have nine lives.”

Keely can't wait to chase bats in our home. In the background are photos of my parents and daughter Alexandra.

They’re back.

The rabid bats, I mean.

I first got interested with rabid bats when the McHenry County Health Department used them as an excuse to try to impose what I came to call the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax.

The pitch was that all cats had to be immunized against rabies in order to protect them.

Oh, yes.

Each cat had to be licensed so the county health department could make sure they had had their rabies shot.

As our Keely Cat knows, some cats are not allowed to go outside, even though that mean man in the smelling office has stuck a needle in him.

Anyway, Keely Cat would welcome the opportunity to chase a fellow mammal. Being limited to the occasional insect hardly satisfies his hunting instinct.

And, he still wonders why the county board ordinance exempted cats that live in barns. Wouldn’t they be the most likely to run into bats?

The county’s press release follows:

McHenry County Department of Health (MCDH) confirms its 2nd and 3rd rabid bat – both in Woodstock – with one resident undergoing rabies preventative treatment. It is strongly recommended that residents not release a bat but contain it in a room, under a bucket or blanket and keep people away from it.

In order to test bats for rabies, it is important they be in good condition – either alive or recently deceased. Specimens that are in good condition and test negative for rabies eliminates the need for rabies treatment.

McHenry County Animal Control should be contacted immediately. – call (815-459-6222).

The State Health Department has reported 16 rabid bats state-wide. Lake, Kane, Cook and Will County are among those reporting rabid bats in 2010 in addition to central and southern counties.

The best way to avoid rabies is to avoid exposure.

Keely is ready for any bat that menaces the Skinner household.

Rabies is a deadly disease caused by a virus that attacks the central nervous system and can only be confirmed in a laboratory.

Residents are encouraged to take a “hands off” approach to wild animals to reduce their risk of exposure. Parents also need to educate their children of the dangers.

Keeping pets up to date with vaccinations will not only keep them from getting rabies but also provide a barrier of protection for you if your animal is bitten by a rabid animal. Most bats leave in the fall or winter to hibernate so these are the best times to “bat-proof” your home.

A bat that is active by day, found in a place where bats are not usually seen (such as in your home, in a swimming pool or on the lawn) or is unable to fly, is more likely than others to be rabid. A rabies fact sheet is available at the Illinois Dept of Public Health.

Questions about exposure should be directed to MCDH’s Communicable Disease Program at 815-334-4500.

The Badmitten may look like he’s in hunting mode above, but a guy can always be vigilant, right?

It's not as if a guy can be alert all the time. It's been four years and I've never seen a bat.

McHenry County Blog has obtained the statements that Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore and Grafton Township Administrator Pam Fender made to the Huntley Police Department after Village Trustee Fender called the police Tuesday morning about twenty minutes after the incident described below.  (Click to enlarge.)

Meanwhile, Keely Cat is taking the Northwest Herald approach to the adding of about $50,000 worth of administrative cost to the delivery of Grafton Township services.

Keely ignoring what's going on in Grafton Township.

Keely Cat has been “bagged.”

“Who says I even want a Halloween costume?” he asks. “And nobody but you has those tasty fish-flavored treats anyway.”