Well…..’ The Snoskred’ has done it again!!! I just love this format. Snoskred i have no clue as to how you did this but i thank you for this amazing job.
AKM…. this open thread today is exactly what i needed. the song by Leonard Cohen is beautiful i love it and will play it again and again.
Happy Tuesday everyone. Give a thought today to people who need a little boost. Sometimes that is all it takes. We can all think of someone who could use a little positive energy. Just do it… also, too.
Ripley i am sending uplifting thoughts to you and to all my loved ones. it is that kind of day. the Open thread song is a gentle kind of uplifting. click on it baby and join me in wiping away tears. sometime tears help to wash away the things that blind us.
Thank you so much, snoskred in providing that innovation, It will make everything much easier particularly when returning to find a link or reread a wise and witty (the only kind mudpups seem to make) comment.
Just when you think a good thing cannot get much better, it does!
Where On Earth Did They Get This Idea?
Chris Matthews was very confused about all this socialism talk today:
KBYR talk radio host Eddie Burke admits he is a conservative and a “Palinista.”
But on Wednesday Burke resorted to name calling when he found out Alaska Women Reject Palin planned to host a Saturday rally.
“They’re a bunch of socialist maggots, that’s what I’m going to call them — socialist maggots, that’s what they are, a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots,” said Burke.
There is no money. None. Thanks to Blago and his soon to be seriously incarcerated self and staff, I hope, we are so near bankruptcy it isn’t funny.
Hardly any state funding for education (except for Chicago *sigh*), meaning that districts are having to let teachers go, cut programs like crazy, and increase class size by 10 or more.
Lots of state-funded programs for pre-schools will be gone.
State isn’t paying the Medicaid bills for seven or eight months at least.
AKM… I thank you for that Moment of Zen… an early morning medication…. errr… meditation!
That was a Freudian misspelling if there ever was one!
I bow to your choice… Namaste… a good day to all!
Now on to the daily stuff: I add my thanks for Snoskred’s addition of numbers.
Have a question: Have you seen President Obama’s handling of hecklers at the fundraiser in LA???
He is amazing in his poise and professionalism. If only we could clone him!
We’ve completed everything in the to do list except one item, which was to allow nesting to be closed – it wasn’t possible for us to do that, and even if we had been able to do it I think people would not have used it much.
I have had a look at several recent posts and comment threads and I can see now that you’ve had some time to get used to it, the nesting is working well for everyone. I think the numbers will still have issues like they always have – you might post a comment and note the number it arrives at and then return to find it isn’t at that number anymore – usually that is because there are comments in moderation or spam which get put in as the original number once they are approved. So my advice to anyone using the numbers would be to make sure and note the name as well as the number in case it moves. It will usually only be a few numbers either way as the moderation/spam bin generally does not trap too many people these days.
If you have any further issues or requests
- please use the contact form here to send them to me -
as they may get lost in the comments area. Once I have received them, if it is something we can do I will add it to the todo list, if it can’t be done I will email you back and let you know.
I will be looking at comment preview or edit comment type plugins over the next couple of days and if I find one that works well with everything else we are running, we’ll give that a try. I’ll add that in to the todo list now.
As a daily reader and a seldom contributor, I wanted to start my day by thanking you for your hard work to make this forum even better. Top-notch writing, excellent layout, ease of use — you got it all goin’ on! Great job, Snoskred. Thank you. I love the Leonard Cohen moment….ring the bells!
The Tea Party includes gun nuts, tax protesters, Sarah Palin, insurance lobbyists, constitutionalists who have not read the Constitution, Medicare receivers who oppose government health care, birthers,racists and politicians pretending to be outsiders. Not a coherent intellectual or political force. (washingtonpost.com)
submitted 48 minutes ago by druidmerlyn http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041903937.html?referrer=reddit
Great article by a smart man. This part really says everything about the confusion of so many people these days, especially those in the TP:
“Americans strongly believe that “more government control over the economy” is a bad idea. But by a much bigger margin, they believe that “stricter regulation of financial companies” is a good idea. This is the needle that Congress — with an all-time-low approval rating of 25 percent — is now trying to thread. ”
How do you fight against, or work with, that kind of contradiction?
Snoskred: You have done an amazing job!
I love the Brian header, but I do have a query and/or request:
Can you possibly incorporate the all the pictures of the original Brian and his antics into that series?
Could AKM’s photos possibly accompany the explanation for the reason of the Brian mascot/avatar?
It would be a treat for kids/grandkids as well as for all of us who live outside the Great White North and have not lost our childlike sense of wonder!
i love the original stories and pics of Brian. i saved the one of him when he was young and came to show AKM his first rack. he had just dug his face in the snow and we saw young moose with a snowy nose, a big smile on his face and love in his heart for the human female on the other side of the glass….that’s the photo that won me to Mudflats and made Brian the moose our mascot.
Snos and other techie wonders behind the scenes – thankyouthankyouthankyou for all of the work you’ve put in.. I think a gift basket of some sort is in order!
Even though the numbers may shift sometimes, I think having them will be very helpful. Thanks again! ( and i love that the posters name is easier to see now. )
I’m feeling a little sad and a little guilty this morning.
Some of you may have read my post yesterday about the nest a pair of house finches were building behind the light on my porch. It was a beautiful and colorful piece of construction, with brown twigs, green leaves from some nearby weed and fuzzy white leaves from my dusty miller.
Unfortunately, when I went to open the storm door this morning to get the paper, I realized just how close it was to the doorframe. One of the longer twigs actually stretched past the door and, as it opened, disrupted part of the nest. I wasn’t able to close the door without removing the twig. I realized that the nest was SO close to the door, there would be a good chance of mama or fledging babies accidentally flying into the door or even into the house in a panic. It also occurred to me that having that much flammable material surrounding a light fixture was probably not a great idea (not to mention a tad too warm for the babies)!
I climbed up on a ladder and took a photo of the nest interior (not enough clearance for my head to fit) to make sure there were no eggs yet. Then I removed the remining material from the nest and left it under a nearby hanging planter (hint, hint, little birdies!).
I know it was the right decision for a lot of reasons and I’m glad that there were no eggs, but I still feel guilty for undoing all their hard work on the prettiest nest I’ve ever seen.
you did the right thing . the only thing you could do. they will be fine. they will just rebuild somewhere else and they will probably use the same materials.
Great work, Snoskred – your changes to the comment section make it more easily readable than ever.
———————–
I’m taking a break from my latest outside project – cleaning up some extra pavers that were dumped in two piles about three years ago and ignored since. Well, ignored by me, anyway. Those masters of the desert – pack rats – have not ignored them, and have built nests under the piles. The most amazing thing about desert rats is how they protect their nests by gathering bits of the nastiest cactus they can find and covering the entire area around their nests with them. And in this area, there is an abundance of the nastiest cactus in the desert – cholla, aka, jumping cactus. As the lady in this video demonstrates, not only are the spines extremely sharp (they will penetrate at the slightest touch) but they are also barbed to resist being dislodged. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PBIVA1Ls-w&NR=1
As you watch this, bear in mind that she has already cut away a lot of spines or she would not be able to get a hold of it to pull as their spines radiate in all directions. The solution to removing them is a simple one – carry a fork. It’s a pretty common sight to see my dog coming on three feet and then hold the other one up to me – fork ready. We keep several forks stashed at strategic points around the property.
The Sonoran desert is probably not what you imagine when you think of desert. Besides an abundance of cacti, including Saguaros in this area (Saguaro Nat’l Park is 100 yds away), we have many varieties of thorny shrubs (wait-a-minute bushes) and trees – Palo Verde, Ironwood, Acacia, and Mesquite. Pruning anything inevitably becomes a bloody affair. Mornings are downright noisy – every high perch is a soap box for either a dove or a quail, or one of the smaller birds. My cardinals have returned again this year, as has the thrasher who learned last year where to find dog food. Whenever the door is open, he flies right in and grabs some. Now his mate is learning, too. http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Sonoran%20Desert.htm
Back to work – we’re headed for 90° today (but maybe some rain later in the week!).
I was completely amazed when I was visiting in Nevada. I had always thought the desert was a dry, dusty, dead place. Was I ever wrong. It just TEEMS with life. I found it very compelling and the colors and the sunsets.
The boyfriend & I visited Saguaro National Park and the Sonoran Desert Museum about 2 years ago. The whole area is awe-inspiring. Wish I had some nopal for lunch right now! (Waving at the desert mudpup.) Enjoy the birdsong!
I like it, too, and I get to “farm” my own. The new growth is best, and it’s still a bit too small. Another month and they’ll be just right. If you ever get to harvest it yourself, singe with a weed dragon (propane weed burner) before you remove them from the plant – those little pain-in-the-azz spines will be gone and peeling it becomes an easy task. I also harvest prickly pear and saguaro fruits (tuna), but around here you have to be quick to beat the doves to the saguaro fruits.
Oh, how I love the deserts of America. We fly in to Las Vegas at least once a year so that we can rent a cheap car and head out to the desert so that I can take pictures. I am at peace there. It is truly a holy place for me. I love the way the desert plants look spaced by a gardener. There is order and ritual there, because they know how much room they need. So different from here.
There is a Paws on the Ground Update over on the forum: “In Memory of Kawlijah”. Take your Kleenex and please leave some thoughts for Rogues Kennel. Thanks.
Thank you for another beautifully written forum post in honor of your friends, Colleen & Joseph. I’m providing the link for some who may not wander over there much:
I left my comment on the Rogues Kennel blog, too. I was so sad, but when I read the wonderful mudpuppy comments to your post I feel much better. This is an awesome group, so full of wisdom…this was a good idea to write a forum post. I don’t know why, but when others share the grief, we heal faster. We get through what needs to be done, and we know others are there to shoulder part of the burden of the twists and turns our lives take without our knowledge or control.
You have a writing talent, and the dogs of Alaska and everywhere are well served by your insights and stories. If I had only one friend in the universe, it would be OK as long as that friend loved dogs as much as me!
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that
will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in
recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is
in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on
Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth
in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
75-power magnification.
Mars will look as large as the moon to the naked eye.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the
beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m.
and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the?end of August when the two planets are
closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That’s pretty
convenient to see something that no human being has
seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
the beginning of August to see Mars grow
progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren.
This has been circulating around the web — but it happened in August six years ago. It was an incredible sight, but don’t bother looking for it in 2010. Sorry.
Actually no, I won’t be making them smaller. They looked hilarious at a smaller size and because of the way the code works that is the only place they can go without destroying the comment area entirely. As it is, I would like them to be next to the gravatar and we might try and get them to do that, but they will stay at the larger size.
What browser are you using? I’m not seeing any overlap in firefox – can you also give me a specific comment that you are seeing it on please?
Thank you for this moment of sanity. While that lovely voice was lulling me into a peaceful state of mind, I almost forgot about the teabaggers and the screechy Wasillian. I actually focused for a while on how good life can be. Think I’ll watch it again.
Please sign the petition…it’s a great effort…who wouldn’t want our school kids & grandkids to eat well? It doesn’t cost any more than it does now, it’s just using our money more wisely and training those school kitchens to cook fresh vs heating up frozen junk food. Thanks in advance. http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition
Ya know what’s bad? Gryphen’s website. Can’t get on it anymore. Is it buggy or something? Too bad. He has excellent, newsworthy content. Ever since he got all fancy with the browsers who can get on there anymore…hardly anybody only the in crowd I guess. That’s not where I hang…with the in crowd. No sirree. I’m with the luddites. Have a happy day cleaning up the parks.
On a lighter note, the first irises are blooming!! I had my first meditative experience (well, the first one I was aware of) with an iris. We had had a small above-ground wading pool that blew away in a hurricane. It left a perfect circle of grasslessness in the backyard, and I helped Mom plant it, mostly in bulbs (calla lilies, hyacinth, etc.).
One day the next spring (or was it already summer?), I went out to water & weed, and realized that one of the irises was ready to bloom, and would do so by the end of the day. After I finished my chores, I went back to the circle garden, and sat beside it. I slowed myself consciously, keeping my eyes on the iris. I sat there all day and watched it open into all its purple glory. It took all day, but was well worth it. It was only decades later, after I became a meditator, that I realized what had happened while I sat on the grass.
Thanks, Snoskred, for your stellar work addressing our blog concerns so admirably. Thanks, AKM, for posting the Leonard Cohen song. I’d never heard the whole song before, only the part of it that’s on the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers.
Stunning is an understatement! Thanks for that great link, I shared with friends & family. My MIL might be stranded in Russia, so these pics really help put it all in perspective. Not to mention the beauty of Mother Nature at her finest.
I am fed up with Repubs. My gov lives in a $9900 rental paid for by the taxpayer each month.(The gov mansion burned.) People are talking about him running for Pres. Palin endorsed him. Please look at this video. I hope it gets passed far and wide—just another Repub hypocrite. He doesn’t want Texas to have health ins.
Zyxomma I have been using you videos and passing them around as stories develop about mining.
Funny the Bush’s don’t have Jeb running in Texas!!!!!He could use his brothers residence as his own.If nothing else it might get the current Governor out.
Get over on KTUU.com right now and vote. Channel 2 in Anchorage.
Those of us who believe the governor did wrong in suing the Federal Government over Health Care reform today are one third down in their tally so far.
Strange vote, that is the vote should be so heavy in favor of Parnell, as the very heavy posting going on at ADNs right now, over 300 posts in just a few hours are pretty much against or very strongly against Parnell and his Attorney General’s actions today.
Somehow the Jerry Prevo crowd has been able to manipulate the Channel 2 voting. For right now that is.Get over there and vote.
Megaera, you just said what I’ve often thought but couldn’t verbalize. Thank you and I sooo agree with you! I’ve loved Leonard Cohen since I was in college and would write really bad poetry by candlelight, with Cohen in the background and incense burning. I think he had something to do with making me who I am today.
Hey guys we’re doing a little fixing – working on the to do list. So if you see anything odd please be patient with us.
Numbers! How very fabulous! Thanks, Snoskred.
Nesting numbers, even! *applause*
And . . . nesting nesting numbers?
Is there no limit to this madness?
Well…..’ The Snoskred’ has done it again!!! I just love this format. Snoskred i have no clue as to how you did this but i thank you for this amazing job.
AKM…. this open thread today is exactly what i needed. the song by Leonard Cohen is beautiful i love it and will play it again and again.
oh links work and numbers !!
You are a bust beaver
ok, this comment scares me.
Happy Tuesday everyone. Give a thought today to people who need a little boost. Sometimes that is all it takes. We can all think of someone who could use a little positive energy. Just do it… also, too.
Ripley i am sending uplifting thoughts to you and to all my loved ones. it is that kind of day. the Open thread song is a gentle kind of uplifting. click on it baby and join me in wiping away tears. sometime tears help to wash away the things that blind us.
busy beaver lol
Well I WONDERED about that bust beaver, but I was too shy to ask. LOL
Yeah… I was about to look it up on the Urban Dictionary…;-)
i was kind of wondering but i didn’t want to ask. LOL
that’s why it scared me! LOL
{{{{{AKM}}}}}
“There IS a crack in everything…”
let all our little lights shine ….
L’Chaim.
L’Shalom.
It’s ALWAYS a good time for Leonard Cohen. Our poet!
Namaste
It sure is!
i got to educate myself on Mr. Cohen. always something new to learn on the Flats. going to download this song from i tunes
Nesting numbered comments – brilliant!
Thank you so much, snoskred in providing that innovation, It will make everything much easier particularly when returning to find a link or reread a wise and witty (the only kind mudpups seem to make) comment.
Just when you think a good thing cannot get much better, it does!
Digby is a blogger from Santa Monica, CA.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
Where On Earth Did They Get This Idea?
Chris Matthews was very confused about all this socialism talk today:
KBYR talk radio host Eddie Burke admits he is a conservative and a “Palinista.”
But on Wednesday Burke resorted to name calling when he found out Alaska Women Reject Palin planned to host a Saturday rally.
“They’re a bunch of socialist maggots, that’s what I’m going to call them — socialist maggots, that’s what they are, a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots,” said Burke.
Is that man even sane? I want a psych evaluation!
Thank you for the numbers! It makes a terrific reference. (((Snoskred))) is a geek genius!
Sparking a tradition: Exclusive interview with two founders of the national 4/20 smoke-out
http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-2289-spark...
Thanks for posting that Austin!
You are very welcome !!
http://i.imgur.com/Pq72o.jpg
loved the article. they need to stop this nonsense about marijuana. it is a herb and would be beneficial to millions of sufferers.
yipee………..numbers!
Thanks!
Good morning! Illinois politics are heating up, and the pollen is thick. I am reading and sneezing my way through reams of material.
Have a good day, and thanks for the numbers!
jimzmum….please tell us more about whats up in Illinois. i would be very interested.
There is no money. None. Thanks to Blago and his soon to be seriously incarcerated self and staff, I hope, we are so near bankruptcy it isn’t funny.
Hardly any state funding for education (except for Chicago *sigh*), meaning that districts are having to let teachers go, cut programs like crazy, and increase class size by 10 or more.
Lots of state-funded programs for pre-schools will be gone.
State isn’t paying the Medicaid bills for seven or eight months at least.
State parks are closing.
And, on and on and on.
AKM… I thank you for that Moment of Zen… an early morning medication…. errr… meditation!
That was a Freudian misspelling if there ever was one!
I bow to your choice… Namaste… a good day to all!
Now on to the daily stuff: I add my thanks for Snoskred’s addition of numbers.
Have a question: Have you seen President Obama’s handling of hecklers at the fundraiser in LA???
He is amazing in his poise and professionalism. If only we could clone him!
Hi all,
We’ve completed everything in the to do list except one item, which was to allow nesting to be closed – it wasn’t possible for us to do that, and even if we had been able to do it I think people would not have used it much.
I have had a look at several recent posts and comment threads and I can see now that you’ve had some time to get used to it, the nesting is working well for everyone. I think the numbers will still have issues like they always have – you might post a comment and note the number it arrives at and then return to find it isn’t at that number anymore – usually that is because there are comments in moderation or spam which get put in as the original number once they are approved. So my advice to anyone using the numbers would be to make sure and note the name as well as the number in case it moves. It will usually only be a few numbers either way as the moderation/spam bin generally does not trap too many people these days.
If you have any further issues or requests
- please use the contact form here to send them to me -
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php?action=contact
as they may get lost in the comments area. Once I have received them, if it is something we can do I will add it to the todo list, if it can’t be done I will email you back and let you know.
I will be looking at comment preview or edit comment type plugins over the next couple of days and if I find one that works well with everything else we are running, we’ll give that a try. I’ll add that in to the todo list now.
Cheers!
Snoskred
As a daily reader and a seldom contributor, I wanted to start my day by thanking you for your hard work to make this forum even better. Top-notch writing, excellent layout, ease of use — you got it all goin’ on! Great job, Snoskred. Thank you. I love the Leonard Cohen moment….ring the bells!
Snos, You Rock!
The Tea Party includes gun nuts, tax protesters, Sarah Palin, insurance lobbyists, constitutionalists who have not read the Constitution, Medicare receivers who oppose government health care, birthers,racists and politicians pretending to be outsiders. Not a coherent intellectual or political force. (washingtonpost.com)
submitted 48 minutes ago by druidmerlyn
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041903937.html?referrer=reddit
Great article by a smart man. This part really says everything about the confusion of so many people these days, especially those in the TP:
“Americans strongly believe that “more government control over the economy” is a bad idea. But by a much bigger margin, they believe that “stricter regulation of financial companies” is a good idea. This is the needle that Congress — with an all-time-low approval rating of 25 percent — is now trying to thread. ”
How do you fight against, or work with, that kind of contradiction?
Hot Dang!!!!! that’s good find.
Snoskred: You have done an amazing job!
I love the Brian header, but I do have a query and/or request:
Can you possibly incorporate the all the pictures of the original Brian and his antics into that series?
Could AKM’s photos possibly accompany the explanation for the reason of the Brian mascot/avatar?
It would be a treat for kids/grandkids as well as for all of us who live outside the Great White North and have not lost our childlike sense of wonder!
i love the original stories and pics of Brian. i saved the one of him when he was young and came to show AKM his first rack. he had just dug his face in the snow and we saw young moose with a snowy nose, a big smile on his face and love in his heart for the human female on the other side of the glass….that’s the photo that won me to Mudflats and made Brian the moose our mascot.
Snos and other techie wonders behind the scenes – thankyouthankyouthankyou for all of the work you’ve put in.. I think a gift basket of some sort is in order!
Even though the numbers may shift sometimes, I think having them will be very helpful. Thanks again! ( and i love that the posters name is easier to see now. )
Happy Tuesday !
Thank you for the music. Started my day just right. Sincerely.
I heart our IT Dept =)
Another great video from New Left Media http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyFeFhUTmI
He covers a Tax Day Tea Party gathering. yikes! One woman is quite angry about Obama’s plan to ban fishing in America.
Who knew ?!
just want to see my name in big letters…we have to get our kicks somewhere
LOVE the new numbers…will make meandering around a post so much easier. THANKS Snoskred!!!
(and the whole Mudflats team!)
To the whole team and everyone else who contributes. Great and many thank yous.
Supreme Court Overturns Animal Cruelty Video Ban
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/supreme-court-overturns-a_n_544307.html
I’m feeling a little sad and a little guilty this morning.
Some of you may have read my post yesterday about the nest a pair of house finches were building behind the light on my porch. It was a beautiful and colorful piece of construction, with brown twigs, green leaves from some nearby weed and fuzzy white leaves from my dusty miller.
Unfortunately, when I went to open the storm door this morning to get the paper, I realized just how close it was to the doorframe. One of the longer twigs actually stretched past the door and, as it opened, disrupted part of the nest. I wasn’t able to close the door without removing the twig. I realized that the nest was SO close to the door, there would be a good chance of mama or fledging babies accidentally flying into the door or even into the house in a panic. It also occurred to me that having that much flammable material surrounding a light fixture was probably not a great idea (not to mention a tad too warm for the babies)!
I climbed up on a ladder and took a photo of the nest interior (not enough clearance for my head to fit) to make sure there were no eggs yet. Then I removed the remining material from the nest and left it under a nearby hanging planter (hint, hint, little birdies!).
I know it was the right decision for a lot of reasons and I’m glad that there were no eggs, but I still feel guilty for undoing all their hard work on the prettiest nest I’ve ever seen.
Sigh…
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((LEENIE17))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
you did the right thing . the only thing you could do. they will be fine. they will just rebuild somewhere else and they will probably use the same materials.
Thanks Bubs, I needed that!
Apparently, Wolf Blitzer not the biggest moron on CNN.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laptaCg0BHA&feature=player_embedded
Yup.
Friggin’ dumb-ass.
Good grief. I guess we have to admit that SP does NOT actually have a corner on the market when it comes to empty-headed babbling.
Great work, Snoskred – your changes to the comment section make it more easily readable than ever.
———————–
I’m taking a break from my latest outside project – cleaning up some extra pavers that were dumped in two piles about three years ago and ignored since. Well, ignored by me, anyway. Those masters of the desert – pack rats – have not ignored them, and have built nests under the piles. The most amazing thing about desert rats is how they protect their nests by gathering bits of the nastiest cactus they can find and covering the entire area around their nests with them. And in this area, there is an abundance of the nastiest cactus in the desert – cholla, aka, jumping cactus. As the lady in this video demonstrates, not only are the spines extremely sharp (they will penetrate at the slightest touch) but they are also barbed to resist being dislodged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PBIVA1Ls-w&NR=1
As you watch this, bear in mind that she has already cut away a lot of spines or she would not be able to get a hold of it to pull as their spines radiate in all directions. The solution to removing them is a simple one – carry a fork. It’s a pretty common sight to see my dog coming on three feet and then hold the other one up to me – fork ready. We keep several forks stashed at strategic points around the property.
The Sonoran desert is probably not what you imagine when you think of desert. Besides an abundance of cacti, including Saguaros in this area (Saguaro Nat’l Park is 100 yds away), we have many varieties of thorny shrubs (wait-a-minute bushes) and trees – Palo Verde, Ironwood, Acacia, and Mesquite. Pruning anything inevitably becomes a bloody affair. Mornings are downright noisy – every high perch is a soap box for either a dove or a quail, or one of the smaller birds. My cardinals have returned again this year, as has the thrasher who learned last year where to find dog food. Whenever the door is open, he flies right in and grabs some. Now his mate is learning, too.
http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Sonoran%20Desert.htm
Back to work – we’re headed for 90° today (but maybe some rain later in the week!).
I was completely amazed when I was visiting in Nevada. I had always thought the desert was a dry, dusty, dead place. Was I ever wrong. It just TEEMS with life. I found it very compelling and the colors and the sunsets.
The boyfriend & I visited Saguaro National Park and the Sonoran Desert Museum about 2 years ago. The whole area is awe-inspiring. Wish I had some nopal for lunch right now! (Waving at the desert mudpup.) Enjoy the birdsong!
I like it, too, and I get to “farm” my own. The new growth is best, and it’s still a bit too small. Another month and they’ll be just right. If you ever get to harvest it yourself, singe with a weed dragon (propane weed burner) before you remove them from the plant – those little pain-in-the-azz spines will be gone and peeling it becomes an easy task. I also harvest prickly pear and saguaro fruits (tuna), but around here you have to be quick to beat the doves to the saguaro fruits.
OMG!!!! DESERT MUDPUP… i had no idea!! what a paradise you live in. truly lovely pics. thank you for the link. i can’t believe those flowers!
Oh, how I love the deserts of America. We fly in to Las Vegas at least once a year so that we can rent a cheap car and head out to the desert so that I can take pictures. I am at peace there. It is truly a holy place for me. I love the way the desert plants look spaced by a gardener. There is order and ritual there, because they know how much room they need. So different from here.
There is a Paws on the Ground Update over on the forum: “In Memory of Kawlijah”. Take your Kleenex and please leave some thoughts for Rogues Kennel. Thanks.
Thank you for another beautifully written forum post in honor of your friends, Colleen & Joseph. I’m providing the link for some who may not wander over there much:
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,9869.0.html
I left my comment on the Rogues Kennel blog, too. I was so sad, but when I read the wonderful mudpuppy comments to your post I feel much better. This is an awesome group, so full of wisdom…this was a good idea to write a forum post. I don’t know why, but when others share the grief, we heal faster. We get through what needs to be done, and we know others are there to shoulder part of the burden of the twists and turns our lives take without our knowledge or control.
You have a writing talent, and the dogs of Alaska and everywhere are well served by your insights and stories. If I had only one friend in the universe, it would be OK as long as that friend loved dogs as much as me!
Amen dear Martha.
Here are some stunning human performance pictures to inspire also , too.
http://www.smashinghub.com/impressive-performance-photography.htm
Gorgeous photos.
For the astronomy wonks out there:
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that
will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in
recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is
in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on
Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be
certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth
in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when
Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and
will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in
the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9
and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest
75-power magnification.
Mars will look as large as the moon to the naked eye.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the
beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m.
and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the?end of August when the two planets are
closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its
highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That’s pretty
convenient to see something that no human being has
seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at
the beginning of August to see Mars grow
progressively brighter and brighter throughout the
month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN
This has been circulating around the web — but it happened in August six years ago. It was an incredible sight, but don’t bother looking for it in 2010. Sorry.
Oh man….I missed it.
Numbers are good.
Can you make them smaller? They take up a lot of space when big.
Date/Time overlaps the quilty thing on one line posts???
Thanks for all your efforts.
Actually no, I won’t be making them smaller. They looked hilarious at a smaller size and because of the way the code works that is the only place they can go without destroying the comment area entirely. As it is, I would like them to be next to the gravatar and we might try and get them to do that, but they will stay at the larger size.
What browser are you using? I’m not seeing any overlap in firefox – can you also give me a specific comment that you are seeing it on please?
Thanks
Snoskred
Thank you for this moment of sanity. While that lovely voice was lulling me into a peaceful state of mind, I almost forgot about the teabaggers and the screechy Wasillian. I actually focused for a while on how good life can be. Think I’ll watch it again.
Please sign the petition…it’s a great effort…who wouldn’t want our school kids & grandkids to eat well? It doesn’t cost any more than it does now, it’s just using our money more wisely and training those school kitchens to cook fresh vs heating up frozen junk food. Thanks in advance.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition
Thanks, AKM, for introducing me to this Leonard Cohen song. I don’t have words for how deeply it touched me.
Ya know what’s bad? Gryphen’s website. Can’t get on it anymore. Is it buggy or something? Too bad. He has excellent, newsworthy content. Ever since he got all fancy with the browsers who can get on there anymore…hardly anybody only the in crowd I guess. That’s not where I hang…with the in crowd. No sirree. I’m with the luddites. Have a happy day cleaning up the parks.
http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/blog/2010-april/momentum-builds-against-mountaintop-removal-mining has even more info on mountaintop removal for those of you still unfamiliar with this unforgivable, dastardly process!
On a lighter note, the first irises are blooming!! I had my first meditative experience (well, the first one I was aware of) with an iris. We had had a small above-ground wading pool that blew away in a hurricane. It left a perfect circle of grasslessness in the backyard, and I helped Mom plant it, mostly in bulbs (calla lilies, hyacinth, etc.).
One day the next spring (or was it already summer?), I went out to water & weed, and realized that one of the irises was ready to bloom, and would do so by the end of the day. After I finished my chores, I went back to the circle garden, and sat beside it. I slowed myself consciously, keeping my eyes on the iris. I sat there all day and watched it open into all its purple glory. It took all day, but was well worth it. It was only decades later, after I became a meditator, that I realized what had happened while I sat on the grass.
Thanks, Snoskred, for your stellar work addressing our blog concerns so admirably. Thanks, AKM, for posting the Leonard Cohen song. I’d never heard the whole song before, only the part of it that’s on the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers.
Stunning photos of the volcano in Iceland.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html
Stunning is an understatement! Thanks for that great link, I shared with friends & family. My MIL might be stranded in Russia, so these pics really help put it all in perspective. Not to mention the beauty of Mother Nature at her finest.
I am fed up with Repubs. My gov lives in a $9900 rental paid for by the taxpayer each month.(The gov mansion burned.) People are talking about him running for Pres. Palin endorsed him. Please look at this video. I hope it gets passed far and wide—just another Repub hypocrite. He doesn’t want Texas to have health ins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hub-GUE0kCc
Zyxomma I have been using you videos and passing them around as stories develop about mining.
Funny the Bush’s don’t have Jeb running in Texas!!!!!He could use his brothers residence as his own.If nothing else it might get the current Governor out.
Get over on KTUU.com right now and vote. Channel 2 in Anchorage.
Those of us who believe the governor did wrong in suing the Federal Government over Health Care reform today are one third down in their tally so far.
Strange vote, that is the vote should be so heavy in favor of Parnell, as the very heavy posting going on at ADNs right now, over 300 posts in just a few hours are pretty much against or very strongly against Parnell and his Attorney General’s actions today.
Somehow the Jerry Prevo crowd has been able to manipulate the Channel 2 voting. For right now that is.Get over there and vote.
St. Elias,
I just voted. It’s running 57% yes / 43% no . . .
Sometimes I think Leonard Cohen is God. But then God tells me he can’t sing that well. He gave his gift to Leonard Cohen.
Megaera, you just said what I’ve often thought but couldn’t verbalize. Thank you and I sooo agree with you! I’ve loved Leonard Cohen since I was in college and would write really bad poetry by candlelight, with Cohen in the background and incense burning. I think he had something to do with making me who I am today.