March 11th

It's Sunday 3/11, but its never too early to say Happy St Paddy's Day.
I'm reading the paper.
Its just me and Leia.
I'm sitting in the kitchen with the natural light coming in the kitchen window and she's lying at my feet.
Its overcast and looks like rain any moment.
I love the rain......
I digress.
(feels like I'm trying to write Haiku, LOL!)

I was just thinking....
On March 10th in 1876 Alexander Bell's assistant, Thomas Watson, heard his "Master's Voice".
It was such a breakthrough.
Bell was in the next room and said "Mr. Watson come here, I want to see you".
The.
Next.
Room.
What?
Seriously?
I remember reading this for some long forgotten history class and thinking,
"Did he really hear him on the phone or through the walls?"
Had he been talking to my Mom, she would have heard him loud and clear
WITHOUT any device!
She knew details from my one sided conversations that I found nothing short of clairvoyant.
It's serendipitous that Mr. Watson was male.
It would have made for a whole different historical record had it been Mr. Bells' Mom!
And.....
Since I'm on the "phone" subject,
I'm glad the initial greeting upon answering the phone is "Hello".
I coulda been Ahoy!
Just sayin'.

                                              Some of the plants are coming back just fine

The buds are Amaryllis,

can't wait till they open!

This is my little "mailbox"garden.

Chrysanthemum, creeping sedum and dusty miller.

 

New developments with the backyard mini farm.

The hens have had some unwanted company.

This isn't an actual mugshot of the hawk that's been hanging around,

but it certainly looks like him!

He sits on our wooden fence and harasses

the hens.

All he does is stare, unblinkingly at them.

He hasn't done anything overt, yet.

Last week he managed to catch a squirrel.

I saw him up in the tree with his unfortunate "lunch".

He's about the same size as the hens, so I don't think

he poses them an actual threat,

But....

You never know.

 

And

this guy

(again, not an actual mugshot)

He watches silently from the neighbors roof.

I've seen him eyeballing the girls in the evenings.

They are hyper aware when there is any predator around.

They stay under things or go back into the coop.

This guy is actually smaller than the hens,

so

I hope he poses no real threat as well.

The thing is,

both the hawk and the owl are beautiful

birds of prey!

I have never seen either one of these animals that close.

Just hope they don't get closer.

 

The girls don't mind sharing the larder with the friendly neighborhood

fauna as long as they aren't on the menu.

The Mallard couple are still around,

periodically.

I think they are only here for the food and fresh water.

I can't find a nest,

and the girls would never allow the female duck in their coop!

 

 

Today there are a couple of parades for St Patrick's Day.

Any excuse for a parade, right?

So...

 

 

February 28th

The last day of the month.
Don't know about you, but in my little world, it seemed to fly by.
February is the shortest month, but it really seemed much shorter to me.
I guess its because I'm older.
Over the hill,
A senior citizen,
A fossil.

I looked up some memorable things about today in history
or pop culture,
but none were really Blog worthy.

Here's a couple so you can judge for yourself.........
1) today was the final MASH episode in 1983
2) it's National Sleep In Public Day - who in hell came up with that?
3) it's also Snack Food Month.
Hmmm.
I guess I can get behind the snack food thing.
I do happen to have several "snacks" on hand.
I tell myself that they are for the kids, but, I have been known to indulge.
OK!
Maybe overindulge is a better word.

In searching out the snack angle for this post,
I came across this tidbit.
(has nothing to do with snacks, it was in the recipe area)

as usual, I'm informative ;)

 

On to the chickens.

In a side note,

the mallard couple is still hanging around.

The female hasn't yet chosen a spot for her family.

In the past, they used a quiet spot in the front yard,

but last year, 

the mother left the nest, and never returned.

Sadly,

We had to destroy her clutch of eggs because they rotted.

I wonder if this female is one of her previous babies and the site is imprinted.

The male is very protective.

He'll allow her to eat the chicken feed while he stands guard.

Funny,

I haven't seen him eat anything at all.

They still fly into the backyard, but I'm not sure it'll sit well with the hens if the female

lays her eggs back there.

 

I'm watching out the back window.

There's a whole head of cabbage hanging in the coop.

The girls are pecking at it.

They absolutely love cabbage, kale and broccoli.

As well as, blueberries, strawberries and bugs.

 

In closing,

I was watching TV a couple of days ago.

There really isn't much to choose from.

As Newton Minnow said 50years ago in a speech to the FCC

"TV is a vast wasteland".

and it still is.

As I was scrolling through the crap,

I came upon these gems.

You can't make this hilarity up!

Thought I'd share........

There was a couple of movies on an obscure channel,

One was called, "Attack of the Killer Donuts".

It was billed as a horror movie.

The description of it said,

"A chemical accident turned ordinary donuts into bloodthirsty killers.

Now it is up to a group of friends to save their town from the fried fiends!"

And this Oscar worthy entry...

"Rabid"

This also was billed as a horror movie.

Its description says,

"Surgery leaves a Montréal motorcyclist with a bloodsucking

appendage in her armpit!"

After laughing at the absurdity of bloodthirsty donuts and armpits,

I started to wonder.......

How did they pitch these ideas to a producer?

What "real" actor would sign on to this?

(and this will be on their 'permanent records')

How did it EVER get greenlighted?

How is either of these things a problem?

Just have a Hazmat team destroy the donuts

and

incarcerate the MD quack who implanted something in her armpit!

(Oh, and offer the unfortunate victim some plastic surgery to rectify it)

Problems solved in a few seconds.

No need for a feature length movie.

Lastly....

No.

I did not watch them.

Yes.

I was tempted.

After all.

Who can refuse carcinogenic fried fiends and appendages in hairy armpits?

 

February 23rd

Today is International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day.
I sincerely do appreciate them,
(as does my dog).
As a matter of fact,
I just gave her one.
She seemed quite appreciative. :)

And.......
On this day in history, in 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was first produced
using Johannes invention.
And......
In 1954, kids in Pittsburg elementary schools were the first to receive
Dr Jonas Salk's new Polio Vaccine.
And.......
Today is George Frideric Handel's (of Handel's Messiah fame and others..) birthday.
He was born in 1685.
And.......
Remember the Alamo! Today in 1836, a 13 day siege began to gain independence from
Mexico.
And I'll bet you thought February was a boring month.

Isn't it wonderful to have information like that at the tap of a finger?
When I was a kid,
I had to use our badly out of date Funk and Wagnall's that my
Mom picked up new editions weekly at the local Winn Dixie.
We've become used to things appearing as if by magic, on screens sometimes so small
even my bifocals can't see the print.

Sometimes I miss "the good old days".
Take lunchboxes for instance.......
Now they are soft sided.
Sandwiches smash, containers open.....
I loved my old one.

Now this thing was indestructible.

A kid could even stand on it!

In a pinch, it could become a ninja weapon.....

Just saying....

Not that I'd condone that sorta thing.

Sandwiches still could get smashed, but it was awesome!

 

And speaking of Polio Vaccines,

in the 1960's these sugar cubes were

the way most kids were inoculated.

Maybe that's where Timothy Leary got the idea..........

Again,

just sayin'

 

 

I miss some of the old things.

Even with an electric computerized cash register, kids at Wendy's counters

still can't make change.

I learned on one like this at my Uncle's corner grocery

 

 

It was a work of art.

This picture is almost like it.

When you pushed down the large keys,

a beautifully printed number popped up.

You had to make change yourself.

Amazing,

imagine that, relying on the old brain

Instead of a calculator.

 

Speaking of calculators.

At a job I had,

I used one like this daily.

I got very adept, very fast, on this machine.

I loved it!

But,

We had to keep the tape.

It was our "backup".

 

I was out and about the other day when I saw a Tesla.

Yes.

A Tesla!

A lot like the one they put into space........

Its a beautiful car.

I just wonder if there's a learning curve if an oldster buys one.

Would we have to attend a Tesla Owners class?

Would there be a test?

If we fail, do we need to refund the car?

Just gimme a simple car.

My first was a VW Beetle

Pacific Blue.

Loved that car.

Sadly, I was in an accident with it and it was totaled.

Looked a lot like this cutie.

No rack though.

I changed tires, a battery and even helped

to install a new muffler.

Easy car to drive.

Easy to repair.

A regular "people's car".

Nudge....

Get it?

I understand the reason that we need to get away from fossil fuels,

and I currently drive an SUV,

But my "Bug" was still my favorite,

even with no air conditioning!

 

(Segue)

Spring is bursting out!

I'm seeing that beautiful pale green color everywhere.

There are 2 seasons I love,

Spring and Fall

because of the colors.

creeping sedum and dusty miller

creeping sedum and pansies

pink dianthus

 

Some of the plants are coming back.

Small green buds are sprouting on the trees and in the garden.

I saw 3 bumblebees yesterday.

I just hope the hens don't catch them.

As I've said,

they eat anything.

 

We also saw a Mallard couple scoping out prospective nest sites.

I hope they choose our yard again.

Baby ducks are just too cute!

 

Its just the squirrels,

they are cute,

but

They are disliked by the menagerie,

and fed by the CEO.

The hens were clucking up a storm earlier.

Its raining, so I didn't think much of it.

They didn't calm down, so I finally went out to check.

Henny and a squirrel were fussing at each other.

Henny's feathers were all fluffed up

and she was squawking to the top of her little chicken lungs.

The squirrel had both arms in the air for some reason.

They were squared off like a couple of MMA fighters about to

take each other down.

Then the sisters got in formation behind Henny.

It looked like OK Corral.

Standoff!

No clucking.

No noise,

Just fluffed up feathers and a stark still squirrel,

You could almost see the squirrel make a wise decision.

He looked in both directions,

decided forward into the breach was unwise.

and made a hasty retreat.

The hens did more clucking.

I'm sure they were bragging to each other about how they were gonna

kick squirrel butt.

Then they spread out to forage.

After all,

A hen's gotta eat!

 

'

 

 

 

February 11th

Ever notice how some things look alike?
I'm not talking about an exact doppelganger, just similar.
Like when you look at something and it reminds you of something completely different.
I have couple of examples......
I submit these for your approval

This is one of those Cube looking cars.

Not the best design in automotive history.

And

I think it looks

like this.......

Yes, an orthopedic shoe!

Not a stylish shoe either.

 

How about these other examples?

 

A New Lexus.

Stylish car, right?

But....

Doesn't it make you think of this?

The Predator's "grill" is the same,

The designers must be Sci Fi

Fans.

 

 

And

the fact that humans are hardwired to see "faces"

in inanimate objects.

Well,

now that you know this,

my chest of drawers was winking at me just the other day.

(or maybe I'm psychotic)

 

February is kind of a slow month for this blog.

Nothing growing,

Everything is brown or dead.

 

Mardi Gras is almost upon us,

And Valentines Day,

As is Easter

And April Fools Day.

Can't wait till spring.

 

Chicken facts:

 

 

1)Chickens go into a trancelike state when they asleep at night.

2)Chickens can recognize up to 100 faces. - that means they surely know us!

3)In ancient Rome, there was a saying "you were raised by a hen". It was a compliment.

4)Chickens have been known to live for up to 10 years.

5)More chickens are raised for food (approx. 8 billion) than any other animal and are killed at 2 months of age.

6)Chickens are highly intelligent and can learn quicker than dogs.

 

 

Chicken funnies.....

 

Have a sunny side up day!

;)

 

 

 

January 31st

I couldn't remember the exact date of today so I consulted my trusty phone.
In my head I'm saying "30 days hath September, April, June........"
After my retirement,
I just don't keep up with the actual date anymore -
unless I have an appointment to keep or something like that.

Just last night there was the rare Blue/Blood/Super moon.
In a matter of days, on February 13th, it will be Mardi Gras.
Then Ash Wednesday is on St Valentines Day,
And Easter on April Fools Day.
Weird.
Is there a connection to the recent odd weather and all of the calendar oddities and the apocalypse?
Is there maybe some kind of esoteric, metaphysical connection?
Will Giorgio Tsoukalos be championing an alien abduction, or
will we see an actual landing in Sedona at the Vortex???
Have the conspiracy theorists said anything on these phenomena yet?
Just hang in there,
Someone, somewhere, will "connect these dots" and either make a splash on TV
or form a cult about it.
Some evangelical preacher will use it to bring in his fold.
SciFi TV will make a "special" about it.
The historians will delve into past references and similarities.
The occultist will use it as an "I told you so", moment.
People these days believe themselves to be so enlightened,
they have the most information at their fingertips than ever before in history
but they choose to not see simple logic.
So funny!
Personally,
I think its rather neat!
The moon trifecta, the calendar days and the weather. Isn't it great to be alive?

At least I can look forward to this.....

 

 

As I've said before, most all of our plants have passed on to plant heaven.

Its gonna mean all new planting in the spring.

Yay!

I'm looking forward to perusing the local nurseries to see what will be available.

 

 

This is the remains of amaryllis.

I think the bulbs are dead along with the leaves.

 

However,

some of the plants refuse to lay down and give up the ghost.

The Poplar is budding!

And,

the Louisiana Irises are trying to pop their heads out of the dead grass.

They grow by rhizomes.

The rhizomes creep out of the planting beds, so essentially, the Louisiana Iris is a weed.

A hardy weed.

 

 

After a break of a couple weeks,

the girls have resumed laying.

This is Nugget.

She is soooo curious.

I was looking for life in the plant population in the backyard, and

she almost tripped me trying to keep an eye on what I was doing

This is Lucy.

She was being kind of vocal, but kept quiet while I talked to her.

I picked her up for a quick cuddle, then she flapped her wings to be let down.

I've been watching them to make sure their tender parts,

like, edges of their wings, comb, wattle and feet,

didn't get frost bitten.

They made it through this winter quite well.

 

Chicken FYI:

Darwin was wrong about the origin of the chicken.

He maintained that chickens derived from only one type of red jungle fowl, but

DNA has shown it was several species of jungle fowl.

The yellow legs and feet came from yet a different fowl and early man bred this trait into them.

No one knows why the thing about the yellow legs was a big deal to early man.

Maybe the yellow legged ones layed better, or were hardier than the others.

Me,

I think its kinda cute.

Can't imagine a chicken with brown legs or pink ones.

Oh,

The girls are eyeballing me at the kitchen window.

 

I think I'll go out and play with them for a bit.

:)

 (to clarify, Lucy and Ethel have dark or dusky legs and they lay a darker brown egg, so not all domestic chickens have yellow legs)

 

January 17th

Cold!

 

It's been at or below freezing for many days now. We've lost most of our vegetable plants and quite a bit of the ornamental plants as well.

Not much use in trying to save them because the constant freeze/thaw cycle would have destroyed them anyway.

I prefer to look on the bright side....

Come spring, it'll be fun to plant a whole new garden.

 

Speaking of weather.....

Its been kinda weird.

On Tuesday, on the way to bring the kids to school, we saw an unusual cloud formation.

I took this shot from my car window.

The yellowish gray area was an extremely fast moving cloud or mist that completely covered the sky by the time the traffic light, where we were sitting, changed.

I've never seen anything like that.

 

Reminded me of the cloud scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Or

Stephen King's "The Mist"!

I was waiting for some alien spaceships to materialize out of it!

It was that weird.

Then it became gusty.

The wind was picking up all the dead leaves and spreading them everywhere in little swirly eddy's.

 

It was on December 8th last year,

that we last had a snow/sleet weather thing happen to this Deep South state.

 

We are south Louisiana.

We can handle hurricanes,

Oil spills,

Tornados,

Floods,

Saints losses,

But.....

We just don't do snow.

Everything shuts down.

Schools,

Roads,

Businesses.

We just turn out the lights and put the "closed" sign on the door.

 

The hens were "Nestled all snug in their beds",

because they had a heat lamp in the coop.

Around seven am, they were still clucking softly to get out.

I guess they aren't adverse to eating flash frozen bugs.

Their little raptor feet made funny footprints in the snow.

So,

now its 10am and the bit of snow we had is rapidly melting.

I can hear it dripping off the roof.

 

Today is a great day for some French Fry Soup.

French Fry Soup you ask?

Why yes!

Classic recycled food.

LOL!

 

Recipe:

Save all the extra take out french fries or hashbrowns that would have been thrown away anyway and freeze them. That's your base for the soup. Hence the name.

Turn your crockpot on high and add a bit of olive oil, some finely chopped onions and a dash of garlic in the bottom.

When the crockpot is hot, put in a bunch of peeled Russet or Yukon gold potatoes, with your leftover French fries. (Those types of potatoes lend themselves well to becoming soup.)

Add 2 cans of evaporated milk and enough regular milk to cover them, with a dollop of butter.

Cook on high till the potatoes are soft.

About 4hrs.

Then use an immersion blender and blend the crap outta the potatoes!

The mixture will be wonderfully creamy. (might need to add a bit more milk at this point, if not you have excellent mashed potatoes)

 No need to season because of the already seasoned French fries.

I serve in an bowl with bacon bits, Ritz crackers (because its Nabisco) and shredded cheese.

Easy.

Yum.

 

 

 

January 7th 2018

I'm awake again in the middle of the night.
Can't sleep.
I keep tossing and turning, but no amount of repositioning gets me to fall back asleep. My brain just won't turn off long enough to lull me back to dreaming. This happens quite a bit. Its easier now that I don't have to get up for work, but it is sill frustrating.
Then there is the blocked sinuses and the asthma. 
Oy! Don't get me started!
But these are not new things. (and nobody wants to hear about illnesses)
Heavy sigh......
It just gets old.

Yesterday, I was thinking about my obsession with getting aggravated when people misuse or misspell words. Then I realized it would be a perfect thing to blog about......

 

 

 

Here is Peeve 1 

There, their and they're!!!!!

It's simple.

They all mean something different.

Place. Possession. Contraction.

We learned this in grade school.

 

 

Peeve 2

 

use commas,

Because,

run on sentences, or different ideas in that sentence

Do,

Not,

Make,

Sense!

 

 

Example:

I like cooking my family and my pets.

 

Huh?

Use commas.

Don't be a psycho.

 

 

Peeve 3

These are a few that tend to grate on me....

conversate and supposably - nope, not words

Don't make up words!

Pronouncing the "L" in salmon

Adding a plural when the word is already plural - pantses

To, too and two - they mean direction, also and a number, not. the. same. thing.

I get it that everybody make mistakes,

but,

it doesn't calm my nerves.

 

A few more pet peeves, while I'm on the subject.

Merging in traffic.

If the sign says "lane closed",

It doesn't mean to speed up to the front of the line and ease into the line of cars that

FOLLOW
THE

RULES!

Jeez!

And the last one......?

I do not understand the aversion to this simple task in my house.

 

 

Now we go from peeves to chickens.........

All the girls have been laying.

That's amazing.

In the last few days we've been getting 7 eggs a day.

That means....

Omelets for breakfast,

Deviled eggs for lunch,

Potato salad for dinner,

And

Hard boiled for the fun of it.

Thanks girls!

 

And I close with this

It's why we rejoice at a new day

 

I took this Friday morning.

I was sitting in the den reading,

(yeah, couldn't sleep)

when, around 5:30am

 I noticed a red light coming in the kitchen bay window.

It lit up the whole area.

I first thought that maybe it was a fire

or

thermonuclear war.

Kidding ;)

So, I grabbed a coat and went outside to see this spectacle.

Sadly, it was gone in minutes,

But,

I at least got the money shot!