animals in your life

[MarcusA]

Goats are fun to watch.

Donkeys are bad asses that are not to be trifled with. According to the accounts that I have read, they can kill a bobcat or other critters that threaten them.

My ass talks.

I am arty-farty.

[MarcusA]

Baby elephants are cute as. I love how they go stumbling and charging about.

[billy rubin]

our dobkey doesnt like coyotes or dogs

once he put a huge bruise in my sternum because i drank too much and tried to ride him.

hes happy to be ridden but only by people lighter than me

people say goats run away but when ours were running loose they just hung around the kitchen door

[MarcusA]

In Australia, we have a big problem with feral animals. As for cane toads, thanks science.

[billy rubin]

yesterday got back from work late. checked the feeder cans on the bees a few days ago, and id mixed the syrup too thick and it had precipitated solids over the holes punched in the caps. so i cleared the holes, poured out a bit of syrup and refilled with water to lower the concentration of solids. it woirked, and all the cans were liquid and the bees were taking it in.

so i pulled the middle frames to look att he queen cages. all the candy was cleared, and the queens were loose. i looked more closely at one and the queen was busy layng as i watched, holding the frame in my hand.

carniolans are dark-coloured bees from germany. the germans have a strange ly high regard for racial purity, and are constantly trying t breed bees to historically pure "types," of which the carniolans are one. these racial types are associated with certain behaviours. in th ecarniolans its late but very rapid build-up, advntageous for western and northern europe. th emore traditional italian variaties are good for warmer mediterranean climates and have been th ebees most common in america until recently. supposedly the carnilans will do better in ohio than italian bees.

but im very skeptical. first, all that people are doing with carniolan strains is breeding for bees that are dark colored. we dont have any genuine german lineages that i am aware of. second, all the carniolan queens are mated with italian and carniolan drones. no way to keep them separate, unless you have isolated mating grounds that nobody has. so th egenes are all mixed up.

but what the hell. the alternative strains from my queen supplier were all the recessive cordovan mutants. these are beautiful light colored honey bees, producing big colnies early, but vulnerable to early spring bad weather which kept them in the hives going hungry. also they had a serious chalkbrood vulnerability when i ran them back twenty years ago. so i decided to give the other genetics a try.

right now theyre huddled up in the boxes because its raining.



ive had beehives starve to death because they couldnt fly in th erain. there's lots of flowers available now, dandelion and crabpple and late pears and cherries soo. no real ground flora yet, but thats coming,. but they have to fly to gather anything and its still frosty in the early morning and rainy about every other day.

[billy rubin]

theyre  all out.

[billy rubin]

the first litter is out of the nest

as of today

three more on the kitchen  porch

[MarcusA]

the first litter is out of the nest

as of today

three more on the kitchen  porch

How such adorable things can turn out so cruel is beyond me.

[billy rubin]

they can be pretty ruthless, i freely admit.

but we used to have a serious mouse problem around here, and the rat snakes i caught and turned loose around the house couldnt keep up. the cats mostly keep them down.

but they also do in the weasels, chipmunks, meadow mice, peromyscus, and baby thrushes and other passerines. we're constantly rescuing fledglings. baby falcons last year. theyre not back yet. normnally they nest in the eves above th ekitchen porch

[MarcusA]

Cats are a threat in Australia to native fauna and very much despised by some people.

[billy rubin]

i would like to have fewer but i am not alone in my household

[MarcusA]

Human beings are animals that live against nature. It is good to get in touch with nature, it does the heart good.

[Bluenose]

Gemma is always happy to see me when I visit Mum and Dad...

[MarcusA]

Gemma is always happy to see me when I visit Mum and Dad...

You even have a book about a cat.

[Icarus]

Mum and dad have a book about a cat and numerous other books.   

I confess that I surreptitiously scan the library contents of new acquaintances.

There are two cases. One is that the person has interests that are in evidence by the book titles. One can then make a hasty judgement about whether to pursue a new friendship. There are often items of mutual interest, the better to start conversations.

The other kind of library has books that have never been cracked  The books have impressive, or ostentatious titles. That's show biz. The third category has books that are of little interest to the owner. The owner feels that they must be displayed because his sister in law gave him the book as a present. He dares not hurt the feelings of the lame brained SIL.

You can get some clues about the mentality of your neighborhood by putting up one of the "Little Library" boxes.   Taking note of the disappearance of one category of book or another is a clue.