Have you ever stopped to consider if someone was to offer to sell you a little extra cash, especially during the Christmas season. How much would you pay for One Thousand Dollars?

Throughout this past fall, a specie of bird that was thought to be extinct has once again been spotted by a large number of people. This could be a discovery almost as important as the Arctic Polar Pig or the Arctic White Gecko that was recently highlighted on the blog site of the Plumma.

This is the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, thought to be extinct for the past several years. However, I believe that I have solved the mystery pertaining to the evolution of this beautiful bird. I believe that it was originally a native of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A review of historic Alaska artifacts revealed several ivory carving and tools that resemble the bill of this particular specie. It is my conclusion that the bill of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker was used as an awl in the sewing of animal skins to make kiyaks, parkas and mukluks. Due to the hardness of the ivory, it was most likely also utilize to inscribe scrimsaw carvings. However,the question remains why did this specie of birds leave the arctic wilderness? At times, we look beyond the simple solution in an attempt to discover the reality. The simple reason that these birds migrated from the Arctic was that all the trees died, a Woodpecker needs wood to peck and not that many trees are available in the refuge area since the concept of global warming. It is my concept, that the birds migrated inland into the region's of Alaska that is heavily timbered. The likelihood for their habitat was the Kenai Peninsula and upper part of the Alaska Peninsula. In the 1990's the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has handed a banquet when the Spruce Bark Beetle infestation swept through the timber at both of these locations. Although, the birds thrived for several years due to the infestation and abundant food source, over the past three years we have seen this infestation decline rapidly. Recognizing that their population had increased and their food source was depleting, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker once again started migrating out of the area in search of a new environment. Their migration route took them into Montana, Idaho, and Colorado as each state went through the same infestation that was experienced in Alaska, except in this case it was the Pine Bark Beetle. It was by coincidence, that large flocks of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker got caught up in the weather pattern of hurricane Katrina. Due to the prevailing winds, large numbers of these birds ended up in Louisiana only to find lush forests of good timber with a lot of bugs. The recent sightings of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has been in that state and number in the hundreds.
Now some may not take visions seriously, however, as the reigning Grand PooPah, head of the Eagle Clan it is my responsibility to name the new clans as they enter the fraternal order of family clans. This past spring, with a lot of soul searching I experienced a vision, consequently my grandson and his family was granted the name of the Woodpecker Clan, in honor of this traditional Alaskan bird, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I am sorry, but I am forbidden to describe the vision that appeared to me from the beyond but it involved a bottle of rum.

Now that you have had time to contemplate the original question, how much would you pay for $1,000.00 Dollars? I am sure, most of us would make an attempt to purchase it as cheap as we could, that is only common sense. In fact, I am sure there are those among us that would try to get it by offering free coupons for all kinds of products. The fact remains, anything less than $1,000 would be a good buy. However, would any of us offer more than $1,000.00 for the item? Evidently, there are those out there foolish enough to do this. The fact is that one person paid $2.3 Million dollars for $1,000. Why would anyone be so silly. The item was a $1,000 Bill printed in 1890 and it is one of two known to exist.

My youngest daughter has a check for a $1,000 almost that old for a thousand dollars, I bet she would sell it a lot cheaper than 2.3 million!