Wednesday, March 31, 2010
YouTube - Squirrel robbing birdfeeder to the benefit of birds below
A few from my front door of the squirrel robbing my feeder while the birds below take full advantage of it. It was my first attempt from Picasa of uploading a video to You Tube. YouTube - Squirrel robbing birdfeeder to the benefit of birds below
Phew, It Works! Science Begins at the LHC | Wired Science | Wired.com
One thing we lack sometimes is raw basic research on fundamentals that may not have an immediate application but might open doors to others. NASA I have always thought expanded many products on earth we take for granted now. One is the computer I am typing this on right now. Phew, It Works! Science Begins at the LHC | Wired Science | Wired.com
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Job stress can make you fat - Diet and nutrition- msnbc.com
It is interesting that anything that increases certain hormones from stress pack the pound on in the middle.Job stress can make you fat - Diet and nutrition- msnbc.com
Monday, March 29, 2010
What’s It Like to Fly the Space Shuttle? We Find Out | Wired Science | Wired.com
It is sometimes amazing that the shuttle flies with what is really at 286 processor computer and my calculator has more ram. Still it has not been hit with a blue screen of death. I once played a game on my Apple II c that was a shuttle flying game and it was actually a lot of fun. Many apple games with a 143K floppy limit were fun to play. What’s It Like to Fly the Space Shuttle? We Find Out | Wired Science | Wired.com
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The misguided war on fat may be making us sicker. - By Melinda Wenner Moyer - Slate Magazine
The importance of knowing if your LDL cholesterol is a fluffy or tiny particle is only going to get more important in the next two years as lab tests will sharpen their focus on what may be a better predictor of heart problems. The misguided war on fat may be making us sicker. - By Melinda Wenner Moyer - Slate Magazine
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Glema Mahr Center for the Arts Home Page
We just spent a wonderful night listening to talented folks perform and touring a water color exhibit to match. Glema Mahr Center for the Arts Home Page
Space Photos of Earth Shot from Balloon, Used Camera and Duct Tape - ABC News
I am for anything that might get kids in love with the fun of science. Space Photos of Earth Shot from Balloon, Used Camera and Duct Tape - ABC News
The Magnificently Captured Beautiful Places On Earth (Earth Hour Special) @ SmashingApps
Earth Hour is this spring, but it is not a bad thing to have every day just a little moment of appreciating nature and the pretty things in life. Counting our blessings just a moment can even help effect your health. Getting out in sunshine and listening to birds as flowers grow can help your mood and your day. I am about to leave for a horse riding lesson and it always helps me. The Magnificently Captured Beautiful Places On Earth (Earth Hour Special) @ SmashingApps
Friday, March 26, 2010
Hacker busts IE8 on Windows 7 in 2 minutes
Cybercrime still is a growing problem. One thing to do is to always have a patched computer up to date, keep your virus program on auto update and defrag monthly, and avoid attachments from the unknown. There are attacks now just from trolls looking for a comment to latch and sadly there is a probe now out in the wild that is in the advertisements of major high traffic pages like a Google search page, that can be contaminated. That one is going to be a growing problem since there is little the user can do, but depend upon the virus program and firewalls to protect you. It is very similar to home security concepts. You have locked doors and a burglary alarm with a plan if someone breaks in, but if someone is deaf to the alarm, does not care if the police come, and does not mind breaking in letting you know they are doing it like a battering ram approach, they can get in most places. It is just most criminals fear being caught, the dog, or you being awake and ready for them. Hacker busts IE8 on Windows 7 in 2 minutes
Thursday, March 25, 2010
HowStuffWorks "What Is Tai Chi?"
There are many health benefits associated with Tai Chi including breathing and balance. It appears to massage inner organs with spiral motions and aids in flexibility and retention of range of motion as one ages. This article covers a lot of territory in a short time. HowStuffWorks "What Is Tai Chi?"
BBC News - China faces 'diabetes epidemic', research suggests
It is interesting that diabetes seems to follow the western diet and exercise patterns in all cultures as if we are designed to work more actively and our bodies are designed to store fat for famine times. It kind of makes one wonder if past history has lead to a tendency to store fat since no one can tell me living in the Middle Ages with broad axes at the gate was less stressful.BBC News - China faces 'diabetes epidemic', research suggests
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Robert Culp, Who Starred in `I Spy,' Dead at 79 - ABC News
This news was another sign I am getting old since I remember I Spy from my child hood very much. Robert Culp, Who Starred in `I Spy,' Dead at 79 - ABC News
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Ready.gov - Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed.
The federal FEMA training link for how to get a kit, get an emergency plan for a family, and stay informed as to breaking news such as having a solar powered, crank powered style emergency band radio. During the ice storm with no power for 14 days, my life for news became listening to WFMW in Madisonville Kentucky as to progress, and reading on my Razor cell phone the internet news of the storm crisis. Just keeping in touch and knowing what was going on helped immensely. Ready.gov - Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed.
Federal Emergency Management Agency
In a month famous for storm activity, this link has many useful links for things like flooding, disaster recovery, emergency personnel, and how to be ready in an emergency. Federal Emergency Management Agency
StormReady Local Advisory Boards
How to be storm ready in March and April's busy weather pattern time with emergency links. StormReady Local Advisory Boards
SKYWARN spotter training
Link for classes in Elite Weather Spotting in the Madisonville Kentucky area. SKYWARN spotter training
American Red Cross
I met Garnett Pennington a main stay of Madisonville Kentucky's Red Cross coming into the Fitness Formula today. It reminded me of how important in times of need the Red Cross is for folks and what they do locally for the community. American Red Cross
Kentucky: Division of Emergency Management - Home
This is the link to the storm awareness month data for Kentucky along with good planning links to ways to prepare for emergency from nature or circumstance. Kentucky: Division of Emergency Management - Home
The 30-Year-Old Space Shuttle Flies On 1 MB of RAM, But A... | Motherboard
One thing neat about living in Madisonville Kentucky is that you can go to NASA sites and get tours. I took my Mom to Huntsville Alabama, Slidell to see the solid fuel rocket test, LBL site in Houston, and Cape Canaveral on various vacations and loved every minute of it. Mom was always shocked that freeze dried ice cream in a pouch was not cold. The 30-Year-Old Space Shuttle Flies On 1 MB of RAM, But A... | Motherboard
Monday, March 22, 2010
APOD: 2010 March 22 - The Nearby Milky Way in Cold Dust
Nature has a way of being beautiful without expecting dust to be artistically interesting. I have to admit I have been on a train derailment in Nortonville and looking up at 2 am saw the Leonid meteor through the ammonia cloud and thought it was so neat I regretted not having my camera capable of taking that kind of photo. I have the laundry going, the towels put up, the dishwasher going, and have been reading the www. Digg.com news as I eat my oatmeal with blueberries as usual this morning. It is a lot of pressure when your doctor is thin. Tomorrow I take a class at Fitness Formula designed to lower blood sugar levels with exercise and I hope to have an evening Tai Chi lesson at Madisonville Community College. I have been reading a Sherlock Holmes novel where Holmes works with a young Teddy Roosevelt who was one of my favorite presidents growing up. This is set just before he became police commissioner of New York City and helped clean up the police force before becoming Sec. of the Navy. It is an interesting concept. I have an entire bookcase dedicated to just Sherlock Holmes books and DVD's and still find some interesting from left field like a series I read last week where the hero of the book was Wiggins of the Baker Street Irregulars and the author managed to capture the hard life of the impoverished in Victorian England. It was very interesting to see the contrast between the mystery solving and the life style of an era with such hardship and sanitation issues. Child labor was common and almost needed since there was little safety net for orphans. I missed a meeting last month about reading books and hope to do better this month with my schedule. Horse labors sometimes are driven by the weather. I also hope to make the Ky Retirement meeting this week where I do learn a lot of interesting things and get to meet a lot of folks I used to work with in my day. We are still trying to find a home for the two rescued kittens who are becoming cats faster and faster that are in the garage still. I had hoped to reclaim the garage but out of 4 callers, they all backed out or fell by the wayside. It is amazing to me how folks will commit to being here to pick one up at a certain time and place and then never show up, call, or answer their phone. It is a strange world sometimes. APOD: 2010 March 22 - The Nearby Milky Way in Cold Dust
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Kentucky Waterways Alliance > Home
Madisonville has many creeks in its watershed and this organization does a lot of good work on the Ohio River area for folks in Kentucky. In Madisonville depending upon which street you are standing, rainwater will either flow to Flat Creek, Elk Creek, Clear Creek, Greasy Creek and eventually either end up in Tradewater River or Pond River on its way to Green River. Non point source water pollution is where there is not an end of the pipe sample point. It may be easy to sample by taking one at a culvert under a roadway, but its fed by rain running off a site and typically if regulated a disturbed site. As point source controls get better, non point source especially for sediment releases to streams will be an impact on watersheds. Kentucky Waterways Alliance > Home
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
YouTube - Qigong: Eight Piece Brocades Chi Kung
This is on a DVD I own as well, but reflects well on how this older exercise that underlies some Tai Chi moves is used for health issues. There is a fun one called the animal frolics that helps if you don't mind being young at heart.YouTube
- Qigong: Eight Piece Brocades Chi Kung
- Qigong: Eight Piece Brocades Chi Kung
Monday, March 15, 2010
15 Noteworthy Websites That Changed the Internet | Web 2.0
Actually when I stopped and thought about this link's premise, I think they are right about many choices. I also like www.refdesk.com very much because it puts so many things in one place. There are a world of library and museum tours you can do and I like watching the cat cam at the zoo in Evansville every now and then. As a bookworm, I try to read a book a night still before I can go to sleep, and I breakfast looking at www.digg.com and reading the news. I still like holding the Madisonville Messenger in my hand and I still like holding a book. I do listen to mp3 books and books on tape as I travel or get on a treadmill, but by and large, I like books and the Internet at its best is a big library for good or bad. My best way of getting away from stress was the ability to bury myself in a book. Now I get relaxed with Day of Defeat, Team Fortress 2, or Portal and I like games that are mentally involving the best. Sometimes though I just like Bejeweled and turn my brain off a while like I do in Tai Chi and just try and be in the moment. 15 Noteworthy Websites That Changed the Internet | Web 2.0
Sunday, March 14, 2010
YouTube - Sun Zhi Jun - BaGuaZhang
There are some versions that are associated with Tai Chi in the culture including things like qigong or chi kung depending upon the way you write the Chinese character and some forms that are Bagua and many of the experts despite being very elderly are amazingly flexible. In many ways it is like horse riding where you ride from a core but by throwing your intention ahead of your movement even while on a horse the body follows the intention or imagination or visualization in your head and you are ready to make the next jump as soon as you come of the last one. You look and think about going to the next jump centered and the horse reads your unconscious body language which is its own language with other horses and you drive towards the jump centered and easier than catching up suddenly and being off balance. Tai Chi has internal organ benefits and is good for balance, breathing, and a kinetic feeling of your own movement. It is much like a professional athlete walking the Rolex course before getting on a horse to think about the approach, timing, when to charge, when to leap, when to land and turn. Bagua is big on spiral energy bio-mechanics. Tai chi uses spiral movement and circles frequently to deflect attacks, and use an attackers energy or intention against them. Its one of the reasons why its called an internal style. YouTube
- Sun Zhi Jun - BaGuaZhang
- Sun Zhi Jun - BaGuaZhang
Saturday, March 13, 2010
YouTube - Beautiful Sunset Tai Chi Kung Fu Fan (56 Moves)
Madisonville Tai Chi class has a system that is a pheasant style designed to help health and stress control. It also shows there is a world of different styles out there. One is a fan system that uses the forms. Many are like an art form in movement and can be very relaxing. Today I got to meet a fellow that raises blue heeler dogs and mules. Mules are very interesting in body language and seem to have a different style than horses in some ways. Since I have a soft spot for Leroy the donkey who brays his name when I walk up to the hay room, I have a soft spot for mules. My grandfather farmed using two 17 hands high matched mules called Mike and Sam. Of all things the fellow turned out to be the one that bought my grandfather's house when he died in 1969. It is a really small world.YouTube
- Beautiful Sunset Tai Chi Kung Fu Fan (56 Moves)
- Beautiful Sunset Tai Chi Kung Fu Fan (56 Moves)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Tai Chi Master Bruce Frantzis
I have read two of Bruce Frantizis's books and found them well written. It is also a benefit on chi kung or qigong exercises to benefit breathing and flexibility. Tai Chi Master Bruce Frantzis
Thursday, March 11, 2010
YouTube - Tai Chi 24-form
Tai Chi form on the competition style by someone who can do it full of grace. Today I feel kind of older since I have heard Merlin Olson has died of cancer and I always liked his acting on Little House and Father Murphy. He was a gentle giant in acting and a fearsome foursome on the football field. But then yesterday I heard Chuck Norris was 70 years old and has had hip replacement surgery like some of the 1960's and 1970's kicking stars of Karate and external art have endured in older days. It is really remarkable how many 80 and 90 year old Tai Chi masters are so fluid at that advanced age. Its one of the reasons I suspect it may benefit an older person to do an internal art form like Tai Chi. I think of it as a moving art form with creative expression and attention to detail. It is hard recently to lose Gene Barry my childhood Bat Masterson and much better version of War of the Worlds movie fame only to find out the Oscars left him out of the memorial just like Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur. I have thought Oscar was tainted since ET lost because of what I only could think was sheer jealousy of Spielberg's talent. I can never understand how you could avoid ET, The Wizard of Oz, or Hitchcock for so many chances to give an honor simply because the rather closed community had their own likes and dislikes that may not reflect the movie going public fan sitting in a dark theater eating popcorn and enjoying the air conditioning in the summer. ET and the Wizard endure. Some films honored seem to be for preferences of a much smaller area. Its like reading a review by someone of a movie you really had a good time at and wondering what film did they attend and was it really just a reason to show how sarcastic the review can be. I guess that is one reason I like the quality of writing by some reviewers like Ebert even when I might not agree with his take on some movies. I think if you really love movies like he does but you have to sit through hours of bad movies, you may become desperate to see something different and more of an art film simply because the viewing habits of a critic forced to sit through so many bad movies may be different than the view of someone after a really hard day going to the movies to simply get away from things for a while and having a good time. I can tell you of all the movies I paid to see in a theater, I saw Star Wars the most times and not once in my home town theater oddly enough. YouTube
- Tai Chi 24-form
- Tai Chi 24-form
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
pathways in the green valley
This is a very good source on the web of Tai Chi and qigong.pathways in the green valley
YouTube - Taiji: Sun Style Tai Chi
Madisonville Tai Chi class is a different style than in this video, but Sun style is interesting in that it may be easier for a older person to use since it is easier on joints with a higher stance. The style I am taught is a more pheasant village style that has its own attractions and elements. My MCC class last night was outside the Brown Badgett Sr. center facing the setting sun and was very relaxing. I like its study for what it does internally inside me and it really helps when you are standing in line for a long time to have the benefit of Tai Chi breathing to be doing something while you wait. I think you will find the setting in this video relaxing. YouTube
- Taiji: Sun Style Tai Chi
- Taiji: Sun Style Tai Chi
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
chiflow Nei Jia Kungfu Taiji, Xingyquan, Baguazhang Qigong and Liangong
Madisonville Community College's Tai Chi class tonight is ending this session at the Badgett Center Front door with some efforts to learn some chi kung or qigong exercise postures with it. Bagua Chi Kung DVD I have been looking at today from Plum Productions about how the system is done in that style. There are 5 family styles in Tai Chi and numerous variations on chi kung. Most can be breathing, imagination visualization with movement, and an attempt to improve internal organ massage with external posture movements. Tai Chi is often called meditation in movement can get health benefits in a Methodist church as easily as in a Tao garden setting. It has a different feel in a nature setting in my mind with birds singing and the wind in your face than in a building, but then I like birds and nature and relax while hiking. My biggest effort is to stop being analytical during a movement or too self critical and kind of be only in the moment while relaxing. In Tai Chi the slower you go and the farther behind the finish line you are the better you may be doing it. This is just one link found looking at Bagua methods of chi kung. There are many and you could have many styles in different schools in the very same town. The key is to let it flow without trying too hard to push things and one concept is you never push past 70% of posture, stance, practice, effort, time, or weight. You always try to have something left in reserve, a wrist not locked, a spiral motion, a circle, or at least an open flow of circulation. I will be looking at taking the next session when it is offered at MCC since I really enjoy doing it in a group setting and I learn by fine tuning after all these months still very much getting more by instructors or thinking about a move while helping a fellow student than I would be statically doing it only with a DVD for example. There is a benefit to having an instructor watching from that outside perspective that helps you improve and avoid slipping into a bad habit. Since I am still rehabilitating my torn left knee meniscus to try and avoid surgery, I have to watch myself to not give in to it. In Tai Chi one thing is always to remember to avoid hurting yourself by adapting to your limitations. That is one reason it is taught in senior citizen groups and even to wheelchair patients. One of my most relaxing is called Stork spreads its wings and Wave Hands like Clouds, but oddly enough when I am in the zone and doing Apparent Close Up and feel it from the back leg out the palm of the hand just right, that is when I know I am doing it correctly. chiflow Nei Jia Kungfu Taiji, Xingyquan, Baguazhang Qigong and Liangong
Monday, March 8, 2010
Kentucky Rural Water Association
Madisonville Kentucky has many groups that work to make things better for the area. One is Ky Rural Water Association that has many benefits for operators and lots of neat water facts typically. It is one of the things I read regularly like www.diggs.com and I think you will find some fun there too. Kentucky Rural Water Association
One of my best things today is it is still like spring before the rains that are coming and a good day to make the Fitness Formula in Madisonville Kentucky. I am hoping I can get some time in before the storms. Last night after almost 48 hours deer mouse free we ended up getting two more and both were near the furnace so I can't help but wonder if that piping is the route. We have to keep moving the humane traps around in case they get too used to traps and start trying to go around.
Live long and prosper
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Surface of the Red Planet: images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite - Telegraph
Surface of the Red Planet: images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite - Telegraph
I have always been a fan of NASA and Google Earth Mars mapping. Some of these photos are just great. I have been cleaning the house today getting ready for some construction work to block deer mice, looked at tunnels outside the foundation today, and got the house ready for next week's push. Yesterday was a good day at Trinity Stables where I managed to learn how to take a horse trained for the race track who wants to break into a trot and push his nose over to my toe to stop him from trying to take the easy way out against instructions and running away. Today I managed to wash Dash, Starbright, and Belle standing over by Leroy the donkey as they were ridden by Hazel's grand kids. They were so sweet with pony rides. It is good to have grand parents with horses. Dash and Starbright were very good. I am good at massaging horse necks so I worked on relaxing Belle as she screamed at Starbright being close to Dash. Belle is in heat. Naturally with all those horses in saddle and being ridden three fire trucks and a EMT truck went by sirens blazing. We never did see smoke but more than one fire truck went east of us. Diana can read a horse language with her eye and I very much still learning, but it is interesting to see all the interactions. Today while doing dishes, laundry, the utility room floor, and getting the den ready for plugging holes no matter how tiny. I did find a tunnel about one inch in diameter below the PVC pipe that holds the conduit for the carriage light outside. One tool for deer mice is to use cloves so we swept some in the carpet near potential holes since we really still don't know where they are. The good thing is we have not seen one in 48 hours now. But the fact there was even one means there is a hole that has to be filled in for the future. Next I get the heat pump serviced for preventative maintenance, and walking the property perimeter I found limbs had hit the fence line to my east so that has to be worked on again. Diana still does not want to make a bonfire of limbs from the ice storm which are getting too brittle for sawing for use now so we have habitat for wildlife and less area for my hiking. I think the woods are full of debris and that may be one reason fire season is not going to be fun this year. My forestry friends are going to be busy this year I think and they deserve better.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Dressage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dressage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I am back from my horse riding lesson at Trinity Stables in Robards Kentucky. I drive from Madisonville Kentucky to take lessons from Michelle Adams an expert in dressage. The article explains better than I could what dressage is all about. I was on Theo today a former race horse trained to race too slow to do it well enough and converted to schooling horse. Theo is a sweet natured fellow with a desire to trot when you need to walk and who has moments where watching the butterfly is important. Today I was taught about how to stop a horse not listening to do the walk by turning the outside hand outwards so the head turns towards the fence and putting his nose on my toe. Then back to the other side. Eventually when he learns that not listening means he works even harder neck muscles out of condition due to the winter lay off period, he learns listening is less work. Kids are a lot like that I think. Theo's lesson was good for me too since I missed not being in the saddle during the bad weather and while Diana was taking her lesson I warmed up with 4 rounds of Tai Chi in the horse paddock waiting area near Mr. P and Larry the white stallion who watched me with great interest waving hands like clouds, doing reverse monkey, and wave hands like stork. I once learned if I did an apparent close up move towards the horses at Hazels they would rear and move away from the fence as if I pushed them. I had to learn to face away from them to keep things calmer after that insight. It is finally a pretty day, we watched cats luv cheeseburger video's, and digested eating lunch at the Robards Diner where they serve good food near the water tank in Robards. Madisonville Tai Chi can be a blessing in horse riding since if you sink your breath deep to the abdomen, relax your shoulders and lower back and put your weight back in your seat bones the horse will tend to go slower without having to move your hands so much. One lesson today was keeping hands still, your pinky finger on the neck touching, and doing work with seat bones and center of gravity and feet less. A sensitive horse can take subtle clues. A horse looking at a butterfly might need more input like put your nose on my toe one at a time until you listen and stop trying to trot when we are walking. It is kind of interesting to me that an 1100 pound horse can think a bunny will eat it and want to run or stare at a butterfly on the first warm day kind of drifting mentally. Of course I kind of feel like drifting on a warm sunny day where the cats want to show their belly to the sky too. Peyton
Friday, March 5, 2010
Uck99.jpg (864�897)
Uck99.jpg (864�897)
Sometimes life is just like this photo called Enjoy the Ride from Diggs.com which I read every morning with my coffee and oatmeal with blueberries. I have a thin doctor. Tai Chi in Madisonville Kentucky I am still doing at Madisonville Community College to get more healthy. It is good for my torn medial meniscus in my left knee and stress control. I am probably opposite many folks in that I loved my job, and was very stressed out having to leave for retirement. Oddly enough retiring let me become an elder care giver when Mom needed me most so that worked out for her. She was worth it very much. In the meantime, Tai Chi has benefits in learning how to breath from the abdomen which helps me control pulse rate when working harder on the treadmill on a tilt angle at Fitness Formula. Of course it helps me to be listening to Nero Wolfe with Sidney Greenstreet from the 1940's radio program on MP3 or Nigel Bruce and Basis Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes radio series. I read a book every night before going to sleep and I am reading Stout Fellows about Nero Wolfe and Rex Stout and enjoying it a great deal. I got it from Amazon.com where one of my hobbies is writing reviews.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Online game seeks to empower Africa - CNN.com
Online game seeks to empower Africa - CNN.com
I always find it interesting when a game is used to make the world a better place, kind of like when I am a medic in a game mode. I sometimes like a game like Bejeweled just to turn my mind off and relax, while sometimes I like having a puzzle like Portal. I read about this first in a description at the TED conference where this inventor was one of the speakers. You might want to google the TED conferences and see what innovative folks are talking about for the future. Today was a busy day for me since I worked out at Fitness Formula, got to visit with my old karate teacher Mr. Lantrip there, and got Mom's and my taxes over to HR Block where I always depend upon them to check my figures and electronically file for me each year. I did get a new Lexmark black cartridge since I ran out working my Excel spreadsheet, and had another discussion with a deputy over the recent arrest of some folks to see if some of my items ended up in their recovery pile. I at least thanks to buying from amazon.com so much had on line receipts and color photos of items stolen I was able to give my insurance and deputy after my robbery of the home. We have good folks in the county so I am hoping we can get lucky. My porch infrared camera motion activated system from Bushnell had now found my neighbor's dog uncollared on my front porch which means the poor thing is vulnerable to highway traffic, and of all things all night there are meetings of raccoons and opossums and sometimes waves of cats coming by to check things out. I had no conception the place was this busy at night while sleeping until that camera recorded sometimes 200 motions detected in twenty four hours. We did release the 10 am deer mouse caught in my den. That makes 34 captures and releases and one caught by all three back porch cats and played with in 9 days with 15 in one sleepless night. Its getting fewer and farther between now at least. Deer mice are at least better than Mus musculus, but while I like nature I like to be in a sleeping bag without moving company! Live long and prosper.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
2009 Honey Crop - Worst Honey Crop on Record - thedailygreen.com
2009 Honey Crop - Worst Honey Crop on Record - thedailygreen.com
It is often forgotten that the little things in this world matter more than we give them credit. Bees and insects used by plants for pollination vary including many tree species require insects for pollination. Oddly enough the older the tree type the more apt it is to be things like flies for the pollinator compared to bees needing flowers. This year I hope to plant carpets of wildflowers in stall clean out compost to see if that can add color and make bees happier. I have cherry, gala, golden delicious, bald cypress, persimmon, hickory, tulip poplar, red cedar, plum, lilac, and mock orange shrubs on our place now added to the white oak, cherry bark oak, sycamore, and sassafras. I have also planted winter berry shrubs that made it through the ice storm being barely missed by falling branches. Today since midnight is the first day in 9 that we did not catch a deer mouse in a humane trap to relocate outside again. We have caught 25 despite our front porch motion activated IR camera showing opossums, raccoons, cats, and one dog visiting our front porch in total darkness that we did not even know were in the area. Oddly enough we also have 3 cats rescued in the garage we are trying to find homes for, three on the back porch we rescued exposed to a litter of feline leukemia so we can't adopt them out yet they are very fat and sassy months later, Calico rescued from Elk Creek, Little Bit moved from Frankfort, and Tiggerr my first owned cat who owns the house in her mind and thinks I am not adequate staff for all her needs and desires. Tiggerr has been putting her paw under the door and pulling on it so hard it rattles the door to get someone to play with her at 3 am or to at least cuddle long enough to get over her 12 year old cat dreams so she can sleep during the day. One night she kept us up so long we ended up with little sleep. Every time I went in the bathroom I woke her up to see if I could get her to sleep the next night. It actually worked. Tiggerr's biggest concern for me is if I am taking a shower she tries to talk me out of getting wet. In her mind, I am sure I am her staff appointed by someone to take care of her and I need to do it better ala Garfield and is there more lasagna! Live long and prosper.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
