Visit to the 'pack

Yesterday John stopped by for a visit, and we drove to my mom's house to see the rest of the family. This was the first time we've seen him since he moved to Nevada at the end of November. It was a nice visit!

I forgot to take photos of the family, but I did get a few pics of mom's herd of deer in the backyard. This is a daily sight. I believe the most I've seen at one time in her backyard has been 27!

 

Computer upgrade...

Hmm, I wonder if they have a version for my laptop?

New camera

I finally received a new digital camera from e-bay, and it was worth the wait. I got a good deal on a Canon Digital Elph SD10 4.0 megapixel unit. As you can see below, this takes some pretty nice photographs! I think the Sony Mavica I was using before wasn't even 1 megapixel.

Thus far I am very pleased with the camera. It's very small and easy to use. Hopefully I'll be able to post some better photographs here in the future...

Tasha really is a beautiful puppy (click on her photo for a bigger view).

Encounters with nature

Birdman usually sends me some interesting e-mails. Here are a few photos depicting things you don't see every day.

The first photo was described as such: "A man from Anchorage, Alaska, named Bill took this picture in his front yard! He noticed the moose eating his bushes as he looked out his front window, then got his camera to take a picture. Fluffy, an indoor cat, had also been watching it, and when Bill opened the front door, Fluffy darted out to see the moose. The moose quickly came over to the cat, and Bill thought he was going to trample Fluffy, but instead they touched noses! And Bill got the picture! What a wonderful world this would be if people could meet in this way!"

 

Mountain lion visits hunting camp in NY

These pics were recently forwarded to me via e-mail. They were taken of a mountain lion or cougar that visited a hunting camp in Hornell, New York the weekend of Jan. 24th. The owner of the hunting camp "...noticed something had been cleaning out all the food on the deck and in the storage shed. That sunday a rep from the DEC confirmed it was a Cougar. He said there is at least 10 cougars living between Hornell, Corning NY to Wellsboro PA. Each animal can roam a 100sq mile area and usually stay clear of human activity, but in the winter easy food will attract them. He noted this is VERY rare to have one at your door and stay there for 3 photos. This animal may be a problem one , he said. He also estimated the animal is over 100lbs. "

"Also the local radio and tv news didn't seem to care much about this story or the photos. I guess they don't want to cause a scare in that area. Watch your back if you have a camp or cottage in that area. "

 

 

I would not want to see this on my back porch! 

Gas prices might increase 24 cents

Gasoline prices could rocket 24 cents a gallon the next few days, as stations across the USA scramble to keep up with big jumps in the prices of oil and wholesale gas, a veteran energy-price analyst forecast Thursday.

"It's going to be brutal, horrendous," says Peter Beutel, president of energy-price tracker Cameron Hanover. He has followed energy markets for nearly three decades.

Thursday, light, sweet crude oil for April delivery traded as high as $55.20 a barrel in New York before closing at $53.57.

A 24-cent jump in the price of gas would bump unleaded regular to a nationwide average of about $2.16 a gallon, blowing through last May's record of about $2.06. It could go higher as increased warm-weather driving in another two months pushes up demand, and therefore prices, forecasters say.

Adjusted for inflation, gas would have to hit about $2.95 for a record.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-03-03-gas-usat_x.htm

Boo! Hiss! As the price of oil continues to climb, I will be scouting out the gas stations with the cheaper prices. You may want to bookmark the following website: http://www.gasbuddy.com/ This is the home page for a series of websites where volunteers track the prices at various stations in their area. You would be surprised just how much variability there is sometimes in gas prices, even within a single city.

 

The Meatrix

I recently bought some meat on sale at a supermarket chain. 20% off, who could turn that down? Usually Brad and I buy from the local meat market in town. Compared to the meat market's products, well, the grocery store stuff never measured up, but it seems to have been getting worse as time goes on. It just doesn't taste right somehow. And it doesn't always look that good either. A cow's a cow, right? What could be different? Maybe you'd better watch The Meatrix...

http://www.themeatrix.com/

It's a Good Thing

Martha's finally out of jail. Maybe she'll be kind enough to dispense advice regarding my garden?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4317187.stm

Steve Fossett was successful in his bid to fly around the world non-stop. Record-setters and adventurers of this type are usually a thing of a past era. It's nice to see that there are some people still trying to push the envelope a little further...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4316599.stm

Intel is developing even faster Wi-Fi standards, so maybe we'll have ultra-speed wireless web browsing soon...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4317511.stm

Out of the tsnumai disaster, one of the silver linings in the dark cloud is that archaeologists continue to find new sites revealed by the drastic changes in the environment. The latest is an ancient port city revealed in the sea bed in India...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4302115.stm

And a report from the UK has found that buying food locally is often "greener" (better overall for the environment) than paying top-dollar for organic. Guess it's a good reason to start shopping at the local farmer's market here in town...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4312591.stm

And now, This Modern World (click for a bigger version)! For more Tom Tomorrow cartoons, visit http://www.thismodernworld.com/

Election 2008

The buzz continues... A lot of people are predicting a race with Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice as the prime contenders. Wouldn't THAT be an interesting match? Wow.

http://www.newsmax.com/adv/jan05/
http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/ehthom2e_20050302.htm
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/11013047.htm
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/285506p-244522c.html
http://villagevoice.com/news/0509,lombardi1,61604,6.html
http://villagevoice.com/news/0509,mondo1,61605,6.html

In like a lion...

and hopefully out like a lamb. Of course I'm talking about the month of March. Mother Nature dumped a nice snowstorm on us on Monday night and Tuesday morning. It took me 4 or 5 passes with the snow shovel to dig out the driveway. I find it easier to tackle shoveling every few hours during a storm like this rather than waiting until there is 10-14" to shovel at once. We do have a snow blower, but it's buried right now in the yard barn in a rather inaccessible spot. Hopefully next winter we'll have it located somewhere that it can be used easily. I suppose I did need the exercise, though...

Even though there is still a good amount of snow on the ground, I've begun preparations for the springtime. I'm going to give the garden another crack this year. Hopefully it will fare better than last year's experiment in gardening (Brad had thrown a groundhog carcass into the potatoes, and followed that by felling a large tree onto the rest of the garden). I have two "mini greenhouses" inside where I've begun planting seeds for brandywine tomatoes, big max pumpkins, scarlet nantes carrots, various peppers, and Kentucky king garden beans. I will also likely try growing potatoes again, though I need to pick another spot (otherwise potato bugs may be an issue). On order are two dwarf apple trees as well. We have one dwarf apple tree towards the back of the property which reverted to something of a crabapple tree after its pollinating buddy was downed by the neighborhood black bear. I'm crossing my fingers that the new apple trees will take. The bear will likely be kept busy further up on the mountain with my plantings of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries which were started last spring.

Will any of this grow? I'm not exactly known for having a green thumb, but I'm giving it a shot!

Clinton: Hillary would be an 'excellent president'

TOKYO - Former President Clinton said Sunday that his wife, Hillary, would be an excellent choice as the first female leader of the world’s most powerful nation.

In an interview with Japan’s TV Asahi, Clinton said he did not know whether his wife, the senator of New York state, has any plans to one day run for the presidency.

“I don’t know if she’ll run or not,” he told the network, but added, “She would make an excellent president, and I would always try to help her.”

Separately on Sunday, Sen. Joseph Biden said Senator Clinton would be incredibly difficult to beat if she decides to run for president.

Clinton has said she plans to run for re-election as New York senator in 2006. Speculation has periodically surfaced, however, that the 57-year-old former first lady may have her sights set for the presidency in 2008.

Results from a U.S. poll released last week showed that six in 10 American voters believe the United States is ready for a female president.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7041441/

That's funny, I was just talking about Hillary. Hmm, another Clinton for President. What do you think? Could she really get elected?