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Friday, January 2, 2015

Birdshot

Titmouse 2015.







































66 comments:

pansypoo said...

sigh. i miss my feeder + bushes. but hey, we had a hummingbird in the yard this year.

farmer said...

what happened to them?

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pansypoo said...

the elm + the pussy willow TREE were cut down by anti tree home owner. sigh, my baby pussy willows did not survive, but one has sprouted from the root + is thriving. the elm stump does not wanna die either.

mouse issues. but i say FEED OUTSIDE, so they do not come INSIDE. seems logically to me. but we have a bird bath.

farmer said...

could set up a pole with a squirrel baffle and put a feeder on it. or hang a feeder from the house near a window.

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pjk said...

RE: mouse issues; at the old haunted farmhouse, it seemed like they came in for purposes of shelter and then scouted for food.

The upside of a cold snap such as this one was that if you set enough traps and got 'em all, you were mouse-free (probably inside & outside) until Spring.

As to the Cowboys/Lions game, I think whoever picked up that flag threw the game, purposely or not.

Nice group hug with Christie, too. Perhaps he was just role-playing the defensive coverage.

Even if you get caught, it don't mean ya did anything wrong, I tell ya!

farmer said...

if you set enough traps and got 'em all, you were mouse-free (probably inside & outside) until Spring.

yup, thats my experience too. round em up in the fall when they begin moving inside and that seems to do the trick for the most part. if ya don't like killing them the TomCat (brand name) live catch trap works pretty good. as long as you rendition them to some remote location far enough away that they don't come back. and patch up any holes where they might be coming inside. especially in the basement along the top of the foundation.

Nice group hug with Christie, too

Christie is Jerry Jones' new mojo-bro. I guess we know who will be picking up the tab on all the corndogs and butter sculptures Chris Christie eats on the campaign trail in Iowa.

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pansypoo said...

no cat? basil is still keeping ready if any mouse dares to invade.

we have other things to hang a feeder but somebody thinks it will lead to mice again.

farmer said...

no cat. i guess the feeder (seed on the ground) could lead to more mice. but they may not come inside because of it. i can see the mice under mine at night when i turn on the outside light. they all bolt as soon as the light comes on. but, aside from that initial invasion in the fall, they seem to stay out.

or just hang up a suet feeder.

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pansypoo said...

that's what i say. they will go for the food OUTSIDE cause its OUTSIDE. easy food the best. THEY DON'T get 'cold' like us naked mammals.
shit. had some mini young mice at a bird hanging thing i put on the window ;ledge on the coldest night + their feet did not freeze off. so unfair. we have devolved!

farmer said...

their feet did not freeze

they have hollow bones.

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pjk said...

Hollow bones = non-frozen extremities like hollow souls = "come on in for the Big Win" Congress.

Devolution, indeed.

Um, we have cats aplenty, but they ain't a sure thing for mouse protection, especially if they have another food source.

That's why I've always taken to the select few that view mouse killing as pure sport/trophy presentation to the resident property tax payers.

"I thought I'd do what I can, in my own small sadistic way. Meowsa".

Turned on one of the 1500 watt power-suckin' space heaters the other day, and the furnace must have felt like its job was being threatened, because since then we've had to kick it down a few degrees (from the 10 over the thermostat was set at) to keep from breaking out in a sweat .

Seems like in these parts, they're making up for cheap gas by raising food prices. How's about in your neck of the woods, farmer?

I mean like a 50% increase on certain meat products that a person might actually might either want or need to buy, in perhaps a 2 year span.

Percentage wise- not like we got the cash to buy 2 yrs meat unless'n we-all wins the lotto.

Standard hamburger about $4/#.

Steaks? I think the Sopranos had a phrase for that, and it ain't "Bada Bing!".

WalMart usually has boneless skinless chicken breast in the big pack for $1.99/#, but woe to your (my) dumb ass if you wait long enough in the day and get stuck with $4.99 "healthy" shit because they don't re-stock the shelves.

I'm thinking smash & grab robberies aren't going to be limited to jewelry stores anymore. It's gonna morph somewhere in between that, and guys who jack semi loads of cigarettes, or liquor, or fill in the blank.

Yo man, I just happened across some nice bone-in hams that I might be persuaded to part with; you interested?

As Sam Elliot would say, "Hell, Yes!". And because I don't want to get shot, I wouldn't use his "yer a Fine Lookin' Woman" line, even as a joke, in that situation.

Call me crazy, but I'm all about gettin' a ham that fell off a truck vs. being shot. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And the last expression of my personal philosophy should in no way be construed to be an endorsement for a Scott Walker Presidential bid, although it might sound like the best argument y'all have heard yet.

farmer said...

How's about in your neck of the woods, farmer?

Similar PJK. The food price increase happened during last summer. Seems to have leveled off some - even rolled back a little. Burger around 3.50-3.99 on sale which is down a little from last summer when it was over $4 and $5 in most cases. Can still find skinless chicken breasts for $1.99 (or less) on sale. Pork has come back down a little too. Can still find hams on sale for pretty good price. I got a couple over Thanksgiving. I cut em up in sections and put em in the freezer. Steak still way to high. I used to buy flank steak for 4.99-6.99 but now thats up at 9.99 (for a shitty fuckin flank steak). So I switche dto brisket which i can still find for 5.99-6.99. Lobster was cheaper than sliced american cheese last summer. Cod, Haddock, Talapia etc.. all in the 4.99-6.99 range. Salmon went way up to. Butter is up around 3.99 lb. What the fuck, for butter. Gas here is in the 2.50 per range but still coming down. I think some of the high prices, especially with meat and bread, were due to previous drought conditions in the midwest and high grain prices etc.. so maybe prices will come down a little more as they adjust for that... i dunno. Cold cuts/deli meats really went up and i sure ain't paying 9.99 per lb for sliced deli turkey. I can slice up a goddamned chicken myself. Riccota cheese on sale has come down a lot so I've been eating a lot of lasagne lateley.

I think the price hikes are a kind of shock doctrine thing. They kick ya in the balls with a steep price rise and once ya catch your breath they roll em back a little to make you feel better until they kick ya in the balls again.

The grocery stores around here award gas points based on grocery purchases and those points can build up pretty quick. So last time i filled up the tank on the truck gas was at 2.76 and I used up my points and paid about 1.80 for gas. Can't remember the last time I filled up the truck for under $40. Or under $2 per gallon.

...guys who jack semi loads of cigarettes, or liquor, or fill in the blank.

That kind of thing has always been a career option in north New Jersey.

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pansypoo said...

same per ice, smaller contents.

basil is declawed, but he played the mouse to death. he IS ever vigilant. he wants more toys.

farmer said...

same per ice

? - you mean ice cream?

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pansypoo said...

fucking new spellcheck. same price, smaller contents.

farmer said...

smaller contents

I noticed Breyers ice cream did that a while back.

Price of eggs went way up too. Partly due to the new cage laws for chicken farms, especially in California. Beginning this year farms have to keep their birds in cages big enough for theme to move around. So less birds per cage. And keep em heated in cold weather too. So the farms figured the cost of upgrading to comply with the new laws into the price of eggs and chicken... need a lot of eggs to make a lot of ice cream... and one thing leads to another.

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pansypoo said...

time too add a hen house.

pansypoo said...

how much snow does everybody have?

farmer said...

about 2 feet on the picnic table.

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pansypoo said...

ours has deflated. maybe 8 in. cold tho.

farmer said...

about the same (deflated) on the ground here as well... and cold. 10 below last night. most of the heavy snow storms went the the southeast and up the coast so we just get 3,4,5 inches per go-round.

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pansypoo said...

may get a dusting. so its the ugly days of feb. i suppose we can look forward to another fucked up summer due to the great lakes freeze. but hey.. its AC outside.

pjk said...

Getting set for another temperature drop later this week. I've had enough.

Let mud season begin! I'm as unhappy as a redneck in a Winter jacket at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

But wait- let's call up Scotty! If he can rid the world of religious fundamentalist terror groups (the tan ones), then perhaps he can handle the weather as well!

Chickens are pretty easy to deal with, pansy, as long as you could keep a few where you are.

Bag-o-feed and a water dispenser at Farm&Fleet, heat lamp from the hardware store, a little bedding.

Tractor Supply may have Chick Days coming up soon. Beats the mail order grab bag method (that netted us our asshole Leghorn rooster).

Sure you don't need an attack rooster, anyone? If anything that looks like a calf muscle ever tries to sneak onto your property, he'll be all over it!

pansypoo said...

as much as i'd love chickens in the back yard. i bet i would not get them. cats enough. i knew dec & jan were too mild.

farmer said...

Looks like spring might pop its head up out of its hidey-hole by this time next week. Only one or two more nights below zero... and then its Flood Warning time.

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pansypoo said...

what fun. better than the coming drought tho.

farmer said...

Spongebob 400 coming in May!

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pansypoo said...

who?

farmer said...

who?

Spongebob Squarepants. Now has his own official NASCAR race.

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pansypoo said...

i couldn't take spongebob + i hate nascar.

farmer said...

Does this mean that you don't have a Duck Dynasty duck-commander camo shower curtain in you bathroom?

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pansypoo said...

oh god. for TOO long my aunt thought those goddamn DUCK PEOPLE WERE FUNNY!!!! NO! i am not gonna listen to the white trash kardashians and WHO IN THE HELL ARE THESE TALENTLESS KARDASHIANS???

we have gone past bread & circuses to something far stupider. HUMANS ARE DEVOLVING. and it started w//REAGAN!

pansypoo said...

i bet the greeks said that about romans.

pjk said...

But that started way before Caligula.

Mud season definitely in full bloom here. The giant sucking sound Ross Perot talked about is pretty evident as you try to pull your foot back up in a few spots.

I think we're up to 12 goat babies on the ground at the moment. Been a buck-heavy start this year.

Got my eye on a beater ('94 Dodge) truck for goat transport and other varied uses; belongs to the former neighbor when we lived as Genessee hillbillies. Not too pretty anymore, but full size 4WD V8 with a bedliner for around $1500 or so.

As we owe the feds $$ in 4 weeks time, I put in the call to my maternal unit. Not sounding promising for the short-term loan, even though we've managed to stay current with to local monopoly utility this year.

I prefer a straightforward "NO" to lingering around waiting for someone else to figure out it's a better deal than anything you might find at Honest Billy Bob's auto sales lot.

Our timing sucks, historically speaking, especially in financial matters. I guess this falls in the "want" column. Time for a plan B that doesn't involve 18% interest and full coverage for the term of the loan.

Happy St. Paddy's, SBLers.

pansypoo said...

what you need is agoat that sreams weird for youtube glory.

if i can film basil eating some beans.....

pansypoo said...

i seem to have missed a few inch long carrots last year & they are looking ok now. maybe they will get bigger this year.

farmer said...

i got some tomatoes, peppers and beans in before june 1. that's the earliest i've got the garden going around here that i remember. no carrorts, but did plant some onions. too much other stuff to do this year so i had to scale the garden way back. had to remove the front porch on the house as well as replace another wall in a little out building - so that kinda ate up a lot of energy. Still have to rebuild a wall on the back screened porch and somehow cut more firewood for next winter as well. Which is why i haven't posted anything in a while. Too many projects in the air at once.

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pansypoo said...

i found more of last years planting when i took out spreading lilac & box elder or crap trees. MUST KILL LILAC. 1 more 2 yr carrot & 1 scallion clump. not sure if the big onion is 2 or 3 yrs old. but seems about to blossom so i can pick it, THO, i have about albs of visalia to use. pole beans are finally sprouting. will see on the nays rooting taters will do anything. if anything, its fertilizer. rhubarb used & rebounding after a big gathering. hope the farmer's market has garden peans this year. 2 years NO GARDEN PEAS. i HATE global warming!!!!

pansypoo said...

i do not think i have any family member to celebrate today. jeez we are functional.

farmer said...

is today celebrate family members day... or something?

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pansypoo said...

the gay thing. so far i do not think we have any gays. tho. now i can say we have an african-american! adopted ethiopian girl! tho, there will NOT be any confer flags in madison/moscow, WI.

farmer said...

oh, i got ya. we don't have any either as far as i know. not that there is anything wrong with that.

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pansypoo said...

my onion is beginning to blossom as are my 2 yr carrots. will try + save seeds + will eat the carrot. found carrot seeds & they are coming. maybe leave some in as an experiment.

pansypoo said...

i picked the onion. WTF! it was under 2inches. BAH! all they is is just flowers now.

farmer said...

gotta cut the flower off then let the onion bulb grow till end of summer or into fall. It could have been Huuuuge! A Trumpion.

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pansypoo said...

ahhh. when do i cut the flower off? i got a bunch of them about to bud. carrot needs to be picked one of these days. see if i can thin out the new ones. POLE BEAN BUDS! not happy w/ new clothesline tho.

farmer said...

Cut the flower off as soon as it appears. It takes energy that will otherwise go to making the bulb (onion) bigger. when the onion leaves or stalk turn brown or flop over its about time to pick the onion. you can let it go a little longer (to harden off) but you don't want to wait too long or the onion may try to throw up a new shoot. that's why you get green inside of old store bought onions sometimes. they're trying to grow new leaves or stalks. same thing for garlic.

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pansypoo said...

uh oh. i got some snipping to do.

farmer said...

Plus, onions shouldn't be planted too deep. you can tell when its getting big when you can see the top of it just above the surface of the soil. could leave some flowers on if you wanted to collect the seed for next year.

pansypoo said...

well, i was just planting the sprouted dry onions from last year. like the taters. a WTF. see what comes. i think i will contain myself to using old onions & if something happens w/ the vidalias.
the 2 year carrots disappeared into the weeds. no biggie.pole beans covered in buds.its sweet corn season now.

the farmer said...

sweet corn already? wow, that's early. won't get any good local sweet corn around here till the end of august through sept. my pole beans suck this year. so do the tomatoes. I'm tired of getting beat up by tomato diseases. I think there is some kind of virus in the soil.

And I dunno what happened to the beans... they may have been planted too early and got swamped by all the rain - or something. they definetly aren't doing well and I never have problems with them. peppers and zooks doing good as usual. switched a lot of space to perennial flowers too. things the deer won't eat. figure I can dig em up next year and transplant em.

I think I'm just gonna take up golf.

pansypoo said...

really? we get sweet corn around mid july here usually. not much. august more. cheaper. only have to worry about the lion, but its on the north side. i need to figure out how to save zinnia seeds. the sunflower seeds itself. got at least 3 audrey the thirds. biggest already has sunflower #2. the red one survived being weeded + out of the dirt 2 days. NOT my doing. now, will we get any rain this time?

farmer said...

we get sweet corn around mid july here usually

here too but is usually comes up from southern PA or NJ. I've never had much luck saving Zinnia (or marigold) seed. It ca work but I usually get a low germination rate. sow a hundred marigold seeds and get one or two to come up. Plus, most of that seed is hybrid so if you get anything it may not look like what you thought it would look like. Seed from hybrids will revert back to a parent and often aren't very vigorous. Sunflowers work better. I like the red "Mexican sunflowers" but the deer and the woodchucks will eat them when they get about 2-3 feet tall. Shasta Daisy and Rudbeckia is easy to get going and will grow in crappy soil. If ya get any Shasta Daisy seed keep it in the fridge because it seems to germinate better when it cool and will keep for years. Also too, petunia seed will keep well and come up the next year... although the colors may be somewhat different (the hybrid thing again).

pansypoo said...

oh. marigold seeds are so easy. just pluck the dead flowers i used to break them up for the seeds, but then just keeping the flowers in the fridge easier. of course i was saving the prettiest ones, but they do not come back as neat.

not big on daises. we got plenty of fever few, + the birds LOVE the catnip.

pansypoo said...

pole beans are coming quick now.

pansypoo said...

so, what does the farmer's almanac say this fall/winter shall be?

the farmer said...

what does the farmer's almanac say this fall/winter shall be?

currently warmer and drier for NE and your area. becuzz of strong El Nino and all that... if that holds up.

pansypoo said...

well, that sounds better than excessively wet. tho, dryer may be bad.warmer WOULD be nice.

farmer said...

its all pretty generalized. the forecasts I've seen say 1-2 degree cooler for Oct... 1-2 degree warmer for Nov... normal to drier for precip. etc. so who knows... only takes a couple of big snow storms or nor'easters to make all of that seem irrelevant.

I guess the el nino is supposed to subside by late winter into spring so all of it may change anyway.

farmer said...

New blog for the Nature trail photos etc.

http://shadylagoon.blogspot.com/

new coyote pics!

pansypoo said...

OOH OOH.

pansypoo said...

i got BIGGER carrots this year! and i planted the OLD seeds way late. + i did not thin them out much. still puny. add sand?

pansypoo said...

i picked more little carrots. i think the rest can stay til next year and who knows, the onions & scallions might do something. not sure about the dormant taters.

pansypoo said...

SNOW!

pansypoo said...

any snow?
we got the east wind, no lake effect. rats.

pansypoo said...

NOW, spring has sprung.