8/21- The rain has stopped for a while and the temps have been quite mild for late August. But, we had an early Spring. The tomatoes are coming in despite the portions being taken by our wild neighbors. Buddy has been on another bunny killing spree-2 mornings ago, I was taking recycling out to the garage when I saw Bud on the walk in the West Garden. I peered over his shoulder and saw he had dragged the corpse of a mature rabbit on the cement. Sigh. Bury. The following morning, I went into my office to fire up the Mac and found a gutted young bun under my desk. What a great way to start the day! His Lordship was curled up, innocently, in his closet basket. Sigh, Bury. I closed off my office last night. No dead critter this morning.
We've had a couple of nights in the upper 40's. In fact one morning, the heat which had been set at 67° kicked on. I came across this old meme:
Ayup.
A lazy afternoon:
A "volunteer" sunflower in the East Garden probably planted by a squirrel.
One of our "bent tail" crew looking for peanuts.
When I was driving through campus, I spotted a rarity:
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| Corey Seeman |
The individual's tail that I saw had the final 3" matching his body color. White-tailed squirrels are uncommon but locally they can become common. They are not albino squirrels. The color variation can come from a recessive trait that will occasionally appear in the genetic line.
Bud was chillin'-his Mum wasn't giving him the attention he thought he deserved while doing deck yoga so he went for the chair.
And she ran back to the apartments. We first saw the Stampy with a near identical one the evening before. They are not the ones we had in early Summer.
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I think I know who one of the culprits are who have been taking chunks out of both green and ripe tomatoes: tomato hornworms. I was doing more pruning and discovered another. I looked online to see examples of the damage they do and it was spot on with what I was finding.
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8/25: My sister-in-law Martha's marigolds, who sent seeds from her plants in Tucson are in bloom:
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Seen while working in the yard: a rare sighting-a snake. Not sure which species as I only saw the final 3" as it slithered into the lily-of-the-valley. No striping so I reckon it was not a garter snake.
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Cool markings on this fish: Clown Trigger Fish
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Humans in Space!
Confirmed: the Boeing Starliner crew are stranded on the ISS until next year. Merry Xmas!
Upcoming SpaceX launch-from Wiki:
After training for 2 years and scheduled to launch on 8/27-Polaris Dawn, a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of billionaire Jared Isaacman and is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. During the mission, the Crew Dragon capsule is expected to propel Isaacman and his crew of three to highly elliptical orbit that will take them up to 870 mi away from Earth, the furthest anyone has been since NASA's Apollo program, so that they pass through parts of the Van Allen radiation belt to study the health effects of space radiation and spaceflight on the human body. Later in the mission, Isaacman and Sarah Gillis are expected to attempt the first commercial spacewalk. It is noteworthy that no one in the crew has ever spacewalked. Their suits have never been tested in space. When they go for a walk, the capsule will have to be completely depressurized before opening the hatch.
Gee, what could go wrong?
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Some geographic clarification: Scandinavia refers to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The term Nordic countries add Iceland and Finland to the group.
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The only US state that was a stand-alone entity: Vermont was an independent state, The Vermont Republic from 1777-1791.
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Politics:
A clever short from the Lincoln Project sums up what 2025 has planned for us
*offer not valid in a functioning republic, LOL
The Orange Cockroach is scheduled to speak on 8/29 at a manufacturing plant in Potterville. The topic, according to his campaign, "how he will Make America Affordable Again and make sure that more of our money
stays in our pocketbooks. He’ll stop the war on energy and protect
Michigan’s auto industry, preserving the jobs that are the backbone of
the Great Lakes State". It is unclear if this will be open to the public as his last MI appearance was not.
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Fun Vids:
Strange unidentified object hurtling through our solar system:
It's a plane, a bird...no, it's a brown dwarf. Maybe.
The latest Strandbeest from the Netherlands:
Funny memes:
Insane marketing for people whose lives are ruined every morning because their toilet paper doesn't tear evenly:
Largest wood grouse, the Capercallie, performs his ritual mating dance called a Lek. Hey ladies!
