It's Maple Syrup Time

It’s the beginning of March and that means the Maple Syrup season is in full swing. Just this week we have begun to have the perfect weather for sap flow here at the Aerie. The days have inched above freezing (although we are due for at least one more day of below 32 degrees later this week) and the nights have been dropping well below freezing. It is this fluctuation that causes sap to move up the trunks to feed the swelling buds and down to keep from freezing and bursting the smaller branches and twigs.

We once (and only once) attempted to make maple syrup while we lived in New Jersey. There were several large red maple trees on our property and, while not the best source of sap (too watery by some counts), the red maple can be tapped for its sap. After the kids and I spent an afternoon watching a demonstration of the process over at the Great Swamp’s Nature Center, I purchased a few metal buckets and spiles and proceeded to tap my rather small (only six trees) sugar bush.

In a matter of days we had several gallons of sap stored in plastic gallon milk jugs. It was then time for the boiling down. Sap has to be concentrated to become syrup. Straight from the tree it has a faint sweet taste but is almost pure water. It is estimated it takes close to forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of 7% sugar syrup. I didn’t own an evaporator so I figured the 20 quart stock pot would serve and the gas stove in the kitchen would do nicely, thank you.

We poured three gallons of sap into the stock pot and turned the burner on under the pot and proceeded to boil. And boil. And boil. And boil.

A word of advice: Don’t do this.

After several hours of boiling, all the windows in the house were steamed. The wallpaper was peeling. There was a residue of all the cooking oils of years gone past mixing with the condensing water running down the walls. And we had about a glass of homemade maple syrup that was barely tan. But it did taste like syrup not sap.
Took the four of us one meal to use that syrup on our pancakes. Took me three days to scrub down the walls of the kitchen and glue the wallpaper back into place.

The buckets make nice planters if you drill a few holes in the bottom.
All About Maple Syrup

More Bird Watchin’

This time in an article from the Opinion Journal of the Wall Street Journal of all places.

Where Are the Bluebirds?

(Seen first on Lucianne.com)

Consensus? Hardly.

Here’s a report from National Geographic News of a Russian scientist, Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, who, using the warming of Mars coinciding with that of Earth, points out that it’s the Sun causing the current increase in Earth's temperatures and not the “massive amounts of CO2” being pumped out by humans. (The author of the piece uses that phrase but makes no mention of the even larger amounts of natural CO2 emissions.)

The last two paragraphs might give a clue as to why there is such a push to do something NOW!

Abdussamatov remains contrarian, however, suggesting that the sun holds something quite different in store.

"The solar irradiance began to drop in the 1990s, and a minimum will be reached by approximately 2040," Abdussamatov said. "It will cause a steep cooling of the climate on Earth in 15 to 20 years."

If Abudssamatov is correct, 15 years from now the wack jobs could claim their actions in reducing greenhouse gases led to the declining temperatures. Think how that could play in boosting egos that are already over inflated.

Should we do nothing extraordinary beyond our current actions to conserve our natural resources, and the temperatures fall anyway, then the curtain will have been drawn back and the Wizard exposed for what he his--a charlatan.

(As seen in the Drudge Report)

UPDATE:

Under Irony

This headline also appears on the Drudge Report:

Minnesota Public Radio forum on global warming cancelled -- due to blizzard...

Ya gotta love it!

I Know It’s Early, But…

Poll: NJ voters prefer Giuliani

Holy Cow!

Actually, upon reflection, when more than half the state’s radio and TV coverage is out of NYC, and given Giuliani’s activities in the city’s recovery before and after 9/11, this shouldn’t be that big a surprise. Prior to 9/11 his cleanup of crime in the city made him pretty damn popular. After 9/11, he became revered.

With all the primaries yet to be run and 18 months until the election, I don't know if he will be the GOP standard bearer or if I would even want him to be. But it is interesting nonetheless.

(Found on Lucianne.com )

Cure For The Shopping Day Blues

Mr. Fenton has a problem with his wife. She likes to shop and he doesn’t. But he has found a way to cope.

And Chad at Pirates! Man your Women! has posted his methods .

Some examples:

Things Mr. Bill Fenton has done while his spouse was shopping in Walmart:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people’s carts when they weren’t looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the restrooms.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, ‘Code 3′ in housewares….. and watched what happened.

There are more, so go over there and read them.

(I'm gonna hafta remember some of these for the next trip to Wally World...or the mall.)

Working On My Own: Basment Work

I’m taking my time with the basement. Kinda feeling my way through the immediate portions like wiring the outlets and erecting partition walls. I’ve got the wainscoting up along the east and west walls and have run the wire to the outlets I’ve put there. It’s nice having the insulating foam walls to work with. Every 8 inches there's a plastic “stud” in the foam to which I can attach my furring strips and, later, my sheetrock.

Three horizontal furring strips were screwed to the plastic “studs” and electrical wire was run between the middle and top strip to attach the boxes which were carved out of the foam. Where the wire will run behind sheetrock, I used metal conduit to protect the wire from stray screws or picture hanging nails in the future. I attached the wainscoting, which is made of three foot long eight inch wide pieces of tongue and groove left over from the log cabin kit where it was used for the ceiling, to the furring strips using 1 1/4 brads and my pneumatic nailer.


Here’s a portion of the west wall showing the wainscoting and a little bit of the conduit.

Here’s the east wall with another piece of conduit going from the wainscoting to the ceiling...about 5 1/2 feet.

Next I’ll be moving on to erecting the partioning wall that will separate my workshop from the family room area.

The Marauding Hordes

One of the more prolific flocks of birds attacking my feeders are the goldfinches.

Since the begining of February I have had between 50 and 75 of these guys (and gals) at the sunflower and thistle seeds every morning. They are the sole posessors of the thistle feeder, however. They have to share the sunflowers with everybody else.

Counseling

A friend of mine sent this along via e-mail. I tought I would share it with you.

COUNSELING

A husband and wife came for counseling after 15 years of marriage. When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a passionate, painful tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the 15 years they had been married. She went on and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of un-met needs she had endured over the course of their marriage.

Finally, after allowing this to go on for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and, after asking the wife to stand, embraced and kissed her passionately. The woman shut up and quietly sat down as though in a daze.

The therapist turned to the husband and said, "This is what your wife needs at least three times a week. Can you do this?"

The husband thought for a moment and replied,.. "Well, I can drop her
off here on Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Fridays, I fish."

Not Everyone's Life Is Dull

God, I live a dull life!

Not like Rulon Gardner.

Thank you God!

(from Drew Curtis’ FARK.com)

My Week In Review

It’s been a relatively quiet week at the Aerie. Terry and I cleaned out the larger storage unit and have only a few things left in the small one. Those will have to wait until I get some more work done in the basement as there’s little enough room to move about down there with furniture in the way as it is.

Monday and Tuesday I did some work in the basement. Wiring the outlets along the family room walls, installing the second half of the tongue-and-groove wainscoting, running the wires to the breaker box, purchasing the 2 x 4s for the stud walls that still have to be built, etc.

We went over to Wellsboro on Wednesday for diner and then attended the local Audubon Society meeting. They had a speaker discussing the proposed wilderness areas over in the Alleghany national Forest to the west of here. An interesting idea since there are so few acres of wilderness in the east. The major stumbling block appears to be the mineral rights which are still held by private companies and the presence of oil and natural gas in the area. With the price of those commodities rising, it’s unlikely that the rights will be given up cheaply or that the roadless areas in the proposals will remain roadless in the face of exploration. In any event, I made some contacts and expressed my interest in some field trips to learn the area’s birding hot spots, so to speak. Altogether an enjoyable evening.

Thursday was my big day as I finally went up to the Bolt Hole to clear away some of the snow from the Big Storm. Things didn’t go quite as I planned , however:

The Drive Up:

I took a quick trip up to the Adirondack Cabin (The Bolt Hole) on Thursday. I was hoping to beat the forecast snow that was due to a clipper moving along the PA-NY border so I started out at 0430 hours to travel the 240 miles. By the time I got to the Binghamton area I was sure I would beat the weather to the cabin as the forecasters had changed the start of the snow from 0600 to 1000 and I did, arriving at The Bolt Hole at 0830.

I have to admit there was a sh*tload of snow on the ground up there in the northlands. Not as much as over Oswego way but a bunch of it none the less. After nearly a week of sunny days, the four feet that my buddy Mark had reported had fallen was packed down to just about 30 inches. I had come up to gather up some things we left behind in December and to use the snow blower (Craftsman 9-hp with a 28 inch width) to clear my drive to the house and to the garage as well as Mark’s drive.

The Job:

Picture two sides of a rectangle with the corner positioned at my gate. One side goes to the garage, a distance of about 40 yards. The other, longer side goes to the house about 60 yards down that way. Mark’s drive (or at least the part to the collapsed culvert where I would have to stop) is another 50-60 yards or so.

I parked at the gate and trudged to the garage to get to the snow blower. Mark had already cleared the snow off the roof of the garage and it was piled nearly six feet deep between the garage and the barn. Luckily it was only four feet in front of the garage door. I kicked some snow away from the door handle and unlocked and opened the garage to see that beautiful red machine sitting there. Facing the wrong way.

I wrestled the behemoth around so it faced outward, filled the gas tank and plugged the electric start in. Pushed the button and she fired right up. I went to work hoping to get finished before the new snow started to fall—up to 6 inches was the prediction and it was due at any moment.

By 0900 I was slinging snow everywhere. Back and forth I went blowing white powder (it was still powder under a very thin crust) to the side. A few spots had drifted in such a way that the snow was actually above the 24 inch high scoop that feeds the machine and in some spots, like where Mark and I had walked across to the garage or where the street plow had made its deposits, there was a layer of packed snow at the bottom that wanted to lift the machine upward. I guided the machine as slowly as I could keeping it in first or second gear so it would have time to spew the snow to the side before being asked to take another bite. It was a long and noisy job. I went through three tanks of gasoline to get it finished and spent nearly four hours getting it done. Just as I was finishing, more snow started to fall from above. *sigh*

Putting the blower back in the garage, this time facing out, I checked to see what I wanted to load in the truck to take back to PA. I planned on sleeping overnight and shoveling snow off some of the cabin’s roofs before loading up and leaving Friday morning. I backed the truck up to the cabin door and went inside to see what was in there that had to go south.

The Disappointment:

That’s when I discovered the freezer door was ajar and that some mice had discovered the joys of frozen butter and venison meat. Fortuitously, the weather had been so cold that the food in there was still frozen. I put it all into plastic bags which I then placed in five-gallon buckets and covered with snow. I proceeded to put a large pot of snow on the stove so I could heat some water to clean all the mouse turds out of the freezer. But the gas would not light. The propane tanks on the north side of the house were buried in snow and I could only assume the regulator on the tank had sprung a leak in the cold. It happens when the gas is not used during very cold weather. Condensation in the regulator freezes and expands to create a leak. I’ve had it occur on the tanks for the travel trailer. Since it happens outside there is little danger but is a major PITA.

The Return:

The lack of a stove for cooking was the last straw. I could heat the place, as I usually do, with the wood burning stoves (3 of them) and I could cook in the toaster oven and/or microwave (never said it was a primitive cabin), but I had had it up to here. I packed what I could find in the house into the truck, pulled over to the garage and did the same there. Then it was adios. I drove out the gate and headed back to the Aerie in the falling snow. It was 1500 hours when I left the Bolt Hole and I made it back to PA by 1930. The weather wasn’t much of a factor until I got onto Route 6 in Bradford County. There, on some of the higher elevations, the snow had accumulated about an inch or two but then been packed to ice.

The Summary:

I drove almost 240 miles up, walked behind/wrestled a snow blower for four hours, spent an hour packing up the truck, and drove 240 miles back between 0430 and 1930. (I also spoke to the local lumberman about this and that and the other thing for nearly an hour. He complained about lumber prices, the vagaries of the weather (too warm in Dec., too snowy in the beginning of Feb., and, if the forecasts were to be believed, it would thaw too soon for him to get the logs out of the woods), the break downs of equipment he suffered when he could have been harvesting logs, and the skyrocketing price/value of land in the area. We had a good long talk. During which I nodded my head a lot.) I got a good bit of work done that needed to be done. There was still work I wanted to do but I was too ticked off to stay overnight.

Friday morning, Terry drove off to New Jersey for a hen party/stitching class with her lady friends. She was originally going to come back to the Aerie on Sunday night and then drive back to Newark Airport on Wednesday, but the forecast called for icy, snow covered roads and I insisted she stay at her mother’s and not make the drive 250 miles back over the Poconos or up Route 15 where the roads could be quite treacherous. She agreed to that and packed her bags for her trip to Chicago later this week.

So, for now, it’s just me, three cats, a couple of squirrels, and a few hundred birds here at the Aerie waiting for the weather to turn on us—again.

Bird Watchin' 5

As another winter storm approaches (several inches of snow and possibly some freezing rain/ice are predicted--oh joy)the birds have stepped up their activity at the feeders.

The blue jays, a mere gang of 4, have taken over the feeder on the rail of the covered porch. they'll come in and down every sunflower seed on the tray unless some movement on the other side of the glass door causes them to take off. Luckily, they seem to be morning birds and head off to parts unknown sometime after 10 AM. Their presence does seem to intimidate the smaller birds as the finches and juncos will take to the trees as soon as the jays show up. But once the jays commit to a feeder--well, the flock of smaller feeders moves into the others.

There must be between 50 and 75 goldfinches outside at this moment. The deck is swarming in birds and there are a dozen or more at the hanging feeder by the telephone pole. I've noticed an increase in the amount of yellow beginning to show on some individuals and hope this is a harbinger of spring.

Joining the goldfinches, the purple finches are starting to display more color, too. There aren't nearly as many of them at the feeders, only two or three dozen, but their larger size, purple heads and shoulders, and subtly shaded brown streak through the eye make them look quite dapper.

And speaking of dapper, the juncoes with their slate gray heads and backs, brilliantly white underbelly, and long tails with the white feathers on each edge appear to be dressed for a formal occasion.

The black-capped chickadees, the first to find the feeders, are still the most comfortable with my presence outside. While everyone else heads for the trees when I step out onto the deck, the chickadees will be the first to come back. They will feed at the tray as I'm filling the stick feeder a foot or to away. They flit in, look around, grab a seed, and flit out. I spilled some seed while filling the hangig feeder the other day and as I reached up to rehang the feeder, a chickadee landed at my feed to pick up a seed I had dropped.

Fewer in number are the two types of nuthatches. The white-breasted is the shyer of the two. The red-breasted is more like the chickadee in its brazenness.

The hairy and downey woodpeckers continue to hammer the suet feeders. I've seen as many as three of the downeys in the trees waiting their turn as a hairy feeds.

The tufted titmice are also feeding in small numbers at the hanging feeder by the telephone pole as are a very few cardinals.

I haven't seen the pilliated woodpecker this week, but its distinctive call and heavy hammering can be heard on occasion.

New this week:
The mourning doves have finally discovered the gravel and seed spillage under the deck. There are a dozen or so of these birds present every morning but they leave as soon as I'm up and about. Two or three gray squirrels have also ventured to the spilled seed and have even come up on to the deck, much to the consternation of the cats who would just love to go outside and engage these tree rats. I've spotted a red squirrel under the feeder by the telephone pole also. In the late afternoon/early evening the call of the barred owl can be heard. The distinctive "who cooks, who cooks for you all" call sometimes irritates the dog down the road to start barking.

With all the activity, I've been going through about two pounds of sunflower seeds a day, not to mention three to five pounds of thistle seed and one suet block a week. and

First they came for my Samoas. Next it was Thin Mints….

Girl Scouts cut trans fats from cookies

The Girl Scouts have marked their 90th year in the cookie business by getting most of the artificial fat out of all varieties of their iconic treats, which had been under attack by a few health-focused consumer groups.
The change reflects a movement by the scouts in recent years to add an element of health consciousness to their annual bake sale.

This year, about half of all Girl Scout troops are also offering a sugar-free cookie called the Little Brownie. A cookie with reduced saturated fat, the Cartwheel, was also introduced last year

I will go on the record right now: Just keep your hands off my Toll House Chocolate Chips. Those you will have to pry from my cold, dead hands!

Darwinism At Work

To paraphrase a quote from one of my favorite movies, Tremors, “Picked the wrong gol-darned tour group, didn‘t you!” Elderly Tourist Kills Mugger With Bare Hands

No word in the article as to which service the 70 year old gentleman retired from, but if he was in long enough to be considered “retired” by the AP, and if the group did, in fact book the tour together it’s likely that several others in the party were “retired” military…well, the three idiots who attempted to rob them were lucky. Just saying, it could have been three DOA instead of one.

(Also reminds me of the scene in Presidio where the “elderly Colonel played by Sean Connery is being harassed by the big good ‘ole boy and has to take care of business, “But I’m only going to use this one thumb…”)

Update: This version of the story , from Reuters, says the gent is a retired Marine. (There are no ex-Marines—except Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Murtha. But that’s another story.) It also mentions the robber (Which robber? “The dead one.”) pulled a .38 and that was what ticked off the tourists.

I love this final line: “After the attack, they put Segura's body on their bus and found a police officer in Limon to report the incident.” Heh. “Excuse me officer. We seem to have injured this POS when he tried to pull a gun on us.” I mean, the dude’s probably better off dead. Your street creds have got to suffer when a bunch of 70 year-olds take your gun away from you and shove it where the sun don’t shine. How are his two buddies gonna live it down.

Bird Watchin' 4

A couple of new species showed up over the weekend. The Red-breasted Nuthatch has joined as a regular visitor. I’ve see two or three pretty regularly throughout the day. They are handsome little devils that dart in to grab a seed and then head for the pines. Occasionally they and their cousins, the white-breasted nuthatch, will feed at the suet feeder, but I’ve not noticed the R-B N to walk head first down the trees or telephone poles the way the white does.
We have also had some single-visit visitors. One Chipping Sparrow showed up and shouldered his way onto a tray feeder amidst the Gold Finches and Juncos for a snack on Saturday before disappearing again. Yesterday we had a Purple Finch appear at the feeder for a sunflower seed or two but he hasn’t been back either.

Update: We did get a pair of Cardinals in the yard today. They even came under the deck and ate a couple of seeds that had been dropped, scattered or blown there. They didn't stay long however and flew off into the pines after a minute or two.

And the Purple Finch we had yesterday may have been a scout. Two or three came to the feeders this afternoon for a short snack. Maybe we'll have more of these colorful little birds showing up during the week.

Spring Must be acomin'

After weeks of waking up to single digit temperatures at the Aerie, it was 32 degrees this morning at 7 AM. I literally can not remember the last time it was that warm that early in the day. The forecast on the local radio station is calling for temps to reach the 40s today. The 40s!!

The sunny weather has caused some compaction of the two feet plus of snow we had here. Let's just see what happens with the warm weather.

Beer Cannon

A magnificent weekend project guaranteed to raise testosterone levels and wake up the neighborhood: a beer cannon! And the videos are cool.

At Innocent Bystanders via LauraW. over at Ace of Spades

Wahoooooo!

Sometimes the computer gods do smile down upon me. (Other times they seem to drop trow and...well, you get the idea.)

You remember I told you my PowerBook G4 crapped out on me the other day? Well I tried everything I could to get it to reboot and/or reinstall the MAC OS X and failed at every turn. As I usually do when I have a computer problem, I went whining to my daugther, who works at the Apple Store at the Mall in Short Hills. She talked me through some of the very same steps I had all ready done and then, "Jeez, dad. You're screwed!" or something like that. She had lost a hard drive on her PowerBook when it was just 2 years old. Mine was nearly 5 and starting to show its age.

I resigned myself to the loss of the HD and asked if there was any way I could retrieve my files. That was when she directed me to the section in the manual about linking two MACs using a bit of FireWire magic.

So, upon the advise of my lovely and talented daughter, Terry and I went shopping today for a piece of FireWire that had 6-to-6 pin connectivity. Our travels took us to the Best Buy in Horseheads. It was there we found the cable we needed and this nifty little Toshiba Satellite I am working on at the moment. (Never hurts to have a spare!)

Getting home we hooked up the two MACs as per the instructions and started my PowerBook up as I pressed the T key. Within moments I discovered that Terry's little iBook could see my HD just fine, thank you. I downloaded all my files to Terry's machine and will now see if I can erase the HD and have the restore disc rewrite the MAC OS X software on to it. If I succeed, I have a working PowerBook. If I don't, the PowerBook will have to go into the shop for a new HD. But at least I still have the Toshiba to work on!

Hungry Birds in the Snow

The snow didn’t slow the birds down today. We entertained the largest flock of goldfinches, juncos and chickadees yet. At any given moment there might be two dozen of each feeding on the thistle and sunflower seeds. I even added another tray feeder to accommodate the crowds.

Four or five different individuals of the two smaller ladder-backed woodpeckers came to feed on the suet and the pileated woodpecker came back to see what the fuss was about.

He was in the trees behind the feeders in the morning and then came back to the sumac while I was using the snowblower. His red cockaded head is as scarlet as anything you’ll ever see. The huge black and white body (they are the size of a crow) make this one stupendous bird.

Anyway, we went through a couple pounds of seed today easily.

We Got Snow

Well, we’ve had our first major snowfall here at the Aerie in north-central PA home. The very fine snow started falling about 2 PM on Tuesday and by 3 PM this afternoon when I girt my loins to do battle about 14-16 inches lay upon the ground. I fired up the 5.5 hp Tecumseh engine on the Craftsman snowblower and went to work on the area in front of the garage and on down the driveway. The area in front of the garage is about 40 feet by 60 feet and the driveway is about 100 feet long. The snow continued to fall and even intensified as I worked. The wind intensified too. No matter which way I pointed the thrower’s chute the snow seemed to come back in my face.

I slogged on through the job and after nearly two hours I was able to park the blower in the garage again. By then the wind was really howling and the area I had first cleared now had a couple new inches of snow. (I think it was snow. Could have been man made from the wind redirecting my blown snow.) I had a couple of frozen fingers, a numb nose and a few icicles in my mustache and beard. Having taken quite a bit of the wind blown snow upon my head and shoulders, my red and black checked Woolrich coat was completely white as was my dark blue watch cap. I looked like an abominable snowman when I entered the house.

Snow Storm and Birding

I hear there's a snowstorm coming our way. Actually it's already started to snow here in north-central PA. The local forecast for the Aerie is for upwards of 2 feet of snow this evening through tomorrow night.

If the bird activity this morning was any indication, we may well get all they are predicting and more. Dozens and dozens of juncos, chickadees, goldfinches, nuthatches, titmice, and downy woodpeckers swarmed to the feeders in a frenzy reminiscent of NJ suburbanites flocking to the grocery for milk and bread before a 2 inch snowfall. I mean to tell you there was some hectic action going on here.

A couple of blue jays tried to join in but the little guys almost ran them over in mid air as they zipped back and forth between the trees and feeders. One huge pileated woodpecker came in to the seed heads still perched at the end of the sumac along the edge of the driveway and worked on them for 15 minutes. I guess his perch was far enough out of the flight path so he was not in danger.

Any way, twilight has arrived and the birds have gone to seek shelter as the snow falls in earnest now.

The winds are supposed to kick up to 25-35 miles per hour tomorrow. It's going to get interesting.

Sh*t Happens

After four plus years of loyal service, the hard drive on my MAC PowerBook G4 suddenly crapped out on me this morning. Instead of a nice crisp bell-tone and all sorts of happy startup sounds I get a grinding reminiscent of a '54 Ford pick-up in need of a transmission job and hauling two shovelfuls of nearly round 2" diameter gravel in an unlined metal bed.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad a sound, but there was less than a smooth spin-up of the old hard drive as it attempted to get going. And then there was--nothing. Just a grey-blue screen with the Apple logo. Forever.

I've tried doing all I can to get it booted up. It does so from the Install/Restore disc that came with it but even from there it fails to install the Mac OSX because of some fatal flaw on the hard drive.

Looks like it will be back to the shop to see if the whiz kids at the Apple store can help. Since I never did get around to backing up any of my files, I'm screwed if they can't retrieve them for me. if I can get a hard drive for less than $300 to replace the defective one in the PowerBook I will be happy.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking at a Toshiba Satellite for a temporary replacement. Wal-Mart carries them at a very reasonable price. I see they have a nice A105-S4397 for just under $900. Only bad thing about it is it comes with Vista all ready installed. I'd much rather take my chances with an XP machine.

Oh, well. Now if the up to 2 FEET of snow we are predicted to get today and tomorrow would only get out of the way....

Global Warming and a Reminder to the CO2 Church Crowd of How Science Works

There’s dissension among the ranks? Say it ain’t so!

Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit.com fame, links to an interesting article the TimesOnline of the UK had this Sunday of how science is supposed to work and some ignored studies about the role the sun plays in altering the Earth’s climate.

It’s the sun, dummies. Okay, the article doesn’t come right out and say that—but it should. Lots of evidence as to the affect solar radiation has in fluctuating global temperatures past and present.

Disdain for the sun goes with a failure by the self-appointed greenhouse experts to keep up with inconvenient discoveries about how the solar variations control the climate.

With so many adherents/disciples to the CO2 cause, it’s little wonder that these alternative studies get so little play. But as Nigel Calder says in the opening paragraphs

The small print [of the IPCC report] explains “very likely” as meaning that the experts who made the judgment felt 90% sure about it. Older readers may recall a press conference at Harwell in 1958 when Sir John Cockcroft, Britain’s top nuclear physicist, said he was 90% certain that his lads had achieved controlled nuclear fusion. It turned out that he was wrong. More positively, a 10% uncertainty in any theory is a wide open breach for any latterday Galileo or Einstein to storm through with a better idea. That is how science really works.

Twenty years ago, climate research became politicised in favour of one particular hypothesis, which redefined the subject as the study of the effect of greenhouse gases. As a result, the rebellious spirits essential for innovative and trustworthy science are greeted with impediments to their research careers. And while the media usually find mavericks at least entertaining, in this case they often imagine that anyone who doubts the hypothesis of man-made global warming must be in the pay of the oil companies. As a result, some key discoveries in climate research go almost unreported.

Go one over and read the whole thing here.

Also see the Cosmic Ray story in the Telegraph.Co.UK to which Instapundit links.

Bird Watchin' 3

We’ve had some new visitors to the feeders yesterday and today.

First, a flock of wintering American Goldfinches found the thistle feeder and mobbed the deck yesterday afternoon. They were so numerous I felt the need to put out another feeder in the form of a tray. Mixing thistle seed and sunflower seed met the needs of both the goldfinches and the chickadees.

Trust me when I say the goldfinches are not as colorful in winter as they are in summer. The winter plumage is more of an olive green mixed with the black and white wing.


The second new visitor was another of the ladder-backed woodpeckers: the Hairy Woodpecker. I spotted it this morning on the suet feeder. He only stayed a short time before heading back into the forest.

A group of four or five Blue Jaysarrived about the same time the Hairy decided to leave (coincidence?) and while not actually going to the feeders did alight on the ground to pick up some of the peanut hearts no one else seems to want. Although they have the reputation of a school-yard bully at the feeders, their bright blue is a welcome sight against the winter gray and white and green that predominates the hillside.

Aside from the soaring of two Re-tailed Hawk the drumming and call of a Pileated Woodpecker (I’ve seen him during the summer and once further down the hill but not around the house since September), and several American Crows in the pines, there is not much else to report from the Aerie.

At least there is enough activity on the deck feeders to get the attention of Shadow and her brother, Chester, who have become avid bird watchers.

Professional Bird Watchers

Lady Knights In the Mix, Again

The Lady Knights are doing much better than their male counterparts but still not what one has come to expect. They are currently ranked 22/23 in the nation, are second in the Big East and have a very respectable 15-7, 8-3 record. They have five games remaining before the Big East tournament gets under way and, barring a major collapse, should enter as the number 2 seed.

Away games remain with Syracuse (2/14), Villanova (2/17), and Notre Dame (2/24). They face Providence (2/20) and Connecticut (2/26) at the RAC. That last game against Connecticut, currently leading the big East with a 22-2, 11-0 record could be interesting. UConn is currently #4/5 in the nation and defeated RU 60-50 last Tuesday at home.

This may not be the year they challenge for the national title, but the Lady Knights still have a big role to play in determining who does compete.

Rutgers' Men's Basketball

I’ve not been writing much about the Rutgers’ men’s Basketball team this season. (In fact, I don’t believe I’ve posted anything about them.) With Quincy Douby moving on to the NBA (how’s that working out?) this has become something of a rebuilding year for new coach Fred Hill. The team is currently lumbering along with a lackluster 10-15 record, 3-9 in the Big East.

Only four games—all Big East contests—remain before the conference tournament begins on March 7th and it’s difficult to see how they will even make it to the Garden. Mired in next to last place (only Cincinnati is worse) and with games against St. John’s (away), Connecticut (at the RAC), Villanova (away), and Notre Dame (at the RAC), the Scarlet Knights would have to take at least three out of four to have a chance.

None of their upcoming opponents is having a great year. UConn is a so-so 15-9 overall and just 4-6 in the Big East; St. John’s is 14-11, 5-7; Villanova is 17-7, 5-5; and ND is 18-6, 6-5. So it is possible but highly unlikely that RU can pull itself together for a final stretch run.

Let’s just say it now: “Wait ‘til next year!”

More Birding from the Aerie

We’ve had two new visitors to the feeders in the last few days: a Downy Woodpecker and a White-Breasted Nuthatch. The Downy is a male with his little bright red patch on the back of his head.

Both are common birds and associate with flocks of chickadees during the winter. As the number of chickadees has grown—there must be 15-20 individuals coming to the feeders now—I’ve been more or less expecting these other birds to show up. I’ve been hearing their distinctive calls in the woods and, in the case of the Downy, seeing them flit among the trees, but they have finally discovered the suet feeder and they have been in to get their share.

So far, the Blue Jays have stayed in the woods. They’ve not come to the feeders to chase the smaller birds away. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have a tray feeder out just ones with tiny little perches. It’s interesting to hear them call to one another and even imitate the call of the Red-tailed Hawk. When I’m out hunting and they start calling, I usually sit up a little straighter and sharpen my focus when they start raising a fuss in the woods. Sometimes it means some critter is moving that I can’t see. The Blue Jays have warned me of deer, fox, raccoon, hawks and owls. But, unfortunately, what they have alerted me to most of the time was…me! Their eagle sharp eyes spotted something unusual and they were determined to let the world know.

I’ve not seen any other birds in the trees around the yard on a regular basis although there have been American Crows and Red-tailed Hawks overhead.

The Red-tail has been a common sight around the Aerie since we started construction. They (usually there’s more than one and I[‘ve spotted as many as five at once last August) use the updrafts along the ridgeline to glide and soar. Sometimes they are hunting the small pocket of a field in the woods just a hundred yards from the house, or the power-line right of way, sometimes they are hunting the much larger fields of my neighbors, and sometimes it seems they are just soaring for the fun of it.

The other day I watched a pair dance in the northern wind. They used the currents to simply hang in place and then slipped to one side or the other. Spreading their wings, they would rise vertically with hardly a movement to the horizontal. Then, by folding their wings to their sides, they would dart down below the tree line and rise again to repeat the performance. It could be they were hunting, having fun or practicing their species mating rituals. Whatever they were doing it was as entertaining as any aerial show.

We spotted numerous other species while construction was in progress but most have migrated out of the area for the winter. Only the Wild Turkey has been spotted walking through the woods and gobbling from the other side of the bowl that is formed by the curving ridge just to the south of the Aerie. But even they have quieted down since the cold weather swept in last week.

I’m looking forward to the spring migration so I can get serious about taking a weekly/monthly count of the species in the area.

"The Doomsday Vault"

Charlottesvillain, over at TigerHawk, has a post up called: The Doomsday Vault. It’s about the efforts of a group called The Global Crop Diversity Trust to build a repository for “three million batches of seeds from all known varieties of the planet's crops.” The premise sounds fascinating and the facility looks like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Cool. Go read the post then follow the link there to the original article.

The question of the viability of the seed after 20 or 30 years of storage. As I commented there, the DNA content of the seed itself (some 400 baggies of500 seeds of each variety) will allow scientists in the future to resurrect these plants ala Jurassic Park dinosaurs. (Hopefully without the attendant mayhem produced in the film. So beware the snapdragons!)

He (Charlottesvillain) also provides links to other groups doing similar work, namely Native Seeds/SEARCH and Seed Savers Exchange. These two can be used by current gardeners who wish to see old varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers kept thriving.

This was the best post I saw today as it contained nothing about politics, or global warming, or Anna Nicole Smith. Thank you Charlottesvillain!

Bird Watchin'

I set some bird feeders out the beginning of January knowing that it was late in the season to get the birds to visit. Usually you want to set up your feeding stations near the end of fall when pickings are starting to get slim, but I had no choice. The house wasn’t finished yet and I had my priorities set upon that task before worrying about any feathered guests.

The first two feeders were on the deck some 10 to 15 feet above ground level and maybe 30 or 40 feet from the nearest trees. I filled one with sunflower seed and peanut hearts and the other with niger thistle. Neither got any attention from the few birds I did see flitting about in the pines 40 feet away and below the level of the deck. So I went out and bought another feeder.

This one was filled with the sunflower/peanut mix and a suet feeder were placed on an old telephone pole to the southwest of the house and located adjacent to the powerline right of way and some trees. Within a few days the local flock of chickadees found it and have been regular visitors ever since. They also located the feeders on the deck, much to the amusement of the cats, especially Chester, who sit with rapt attention watching the birds come and go. Only once did Chester smack into the window trying to attack.

Nearly all the birds coming to the feeders have been Black-capped Chickadee Only a once or twice were they joined by a Tufted Titmouse or a few Slate-colored Juncos.(Also known as “snow birds” or officially as Dark-eyed Junco.)

I've had some crows fly by and some blue jays inspect from a distance, but they haven't made any stops at the feeders. That's a little surprising because the peanut hearts do not seem to be favored by the chickadees and they just spill them onto the ground/snow. I see some tracks of mice who are happy about that situation.

UPDATE: The link to the Junco was bad. I DO know the difference between it and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. :-P Thanks to Appilachian Gun Trash for pointing the error out.

re: Cardinals. I've seen a few just down the road about a quarter mile but I think I put my feeders out a little late for them to put me on their schedule. I'm also about 200-300 feet higher in elevation (I'm at 2100 ft.) and that may make a difference. No shrubs or berry bushes nearby either.

Never Mess With A Woman When She's Getting Her Hair Done

Have-a-go heroine fights masked raider

Four foot nine inches, 25-year old Vicky Lowell halts a robbery by a six foot man brandishing what turned out to be a fake gun and chases him 300 yards to his get away car. The police then use the plate information she obtained to arrest the perp.

It’s a cool story but, as it happened in England, and she beat him with her stiletto-heeled shoe, I’m surprised she was given a medal and not arrested.

This being England I'm surprised she was able to determine what a fake gun looks like. After all, aren't pistols banned there?

Of course, the Telegraph article ends with a litany as to why this may NOT be done by others.

What the law says: Have-a-go heroes have no special rights to take the law into their own hands. People who act as policemen or intervene in fights run the risk of prosecution unless the law gives them specific rights or powers.

England has certainly lost some of its spine since WWII.

Vista™, Anyone?

An interesting post on how people are writing up Vista™
Seems they’re saying parts are almost as god as Mac.

This is what's fascinating to me, though: tech journalists aren't just falling for the flash, like they might have done in the past. They're not saying Flip 3D is better than Exposé. They're saying it's almost as good. Similarly, they're not saying Gadgets are better than Dashboard—they're saying they're similar, and that they kinda prefer how Dashboard (and Yahoo/Google Widgets) work. Because they're not just relying on the Mac's screenshots before making their judgment (like I am, heh). They're basing it on first-hand knowledge... because they've all used the competition now. And in many cases prefer it.

Read it all at the Peeve Farm:
You can't learn instinct

Love the first comment:

1. Mike Silverman - 13:00 Sat 2/3/2007 ( email | web ) As part of my job, I've been using Vista for months now, and it really is "the best Windows ever."

Which is kind of like exclaiming, after a smooth, relatively trouble-free experience at the dentist: "Best root canal ever!"

PS: It's an operating system, no? Why are there seven (7) different versions of an operating system? That would be like saying ther is MAC OSXa, MAC OSXb, MAC OSXc, etc. WTF is that!?

Flash: The Sun Is Hot!

Jeez, ya think this might have anything to do with “Global Warming”?

Hotter-burning sun warming the planet

Paragraph one:

The sun is burning hotter than usual, offering a possible explanation for global warming that needs to be weighed when proceeding with expensive efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, Swiss and German scientists say.

They better be careful, someone on the Weather Channel may want to strip them of their credentials.

Go read the whole thing.

Via the aptly named Cold Fury

Bill Gates is an Idiot

From the Joe Biden School of Business we have this beauty:
Bill gates Dares Hackers
(from Little Green Footballs

Gates = Idiot
(A rich idiot, but still an idiot.)

Speaking of Vista™ vs. Mac OSX™:
Cancel or Allow

Polar Bears on Parade

Polar bears have been in the news and in the blogsphere a great deal lately.
LauraW has posted a piece over at Ace of Spades HQ about some of the faulty numbers being used to proclaim global warming: F%#@in' Polar Bears Again
***********

Ann Althouse chimed in several days ago about the use of polar bears to play upon emotions in: The polar-bears-on-the-melting-ice-cap photo.

(As a bonus she details the origins of the Teddy Bear.)
***********

Did Al Gore stop in Iceland on his way back from Davos?

Read about the polar bear problem being faced by Icelanders over at in this article from The Telegraph (UK): Iceland fears bears that go with the floe

Thick pack ice, the like of which has not been seen for decades, stretched into the western fjords as temperatures plummeted and a bitter wind blew in from -Greenland.

(I really liked this photo posted by a commenter to the Iceland story—so is stole it:

Global Warming??

"Consensus", I do not think it means what you think it means.

We awoke to negative temperatures or the third consecutive day. (Location: Tioga Co. in north-central PA. Elevation: 2100 feet.) Sunday was –1 degree F, Monday it was –5 degrees and today it was –2 degrees. All temperatures were recorded at approximately 7 AM EST. And this was just days after PU Phil (I believe I’ll use that name for its ease of spelling and to indicate my feelings as to the immediate accuracy of his predictions) said spring would come early and just days after the UN released its own report via the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which screamed about Global Warming.

From the Rockies to the Atlantic, the northern third of the US (and adjacent Canada) has been frozen (and by that I mean below zero degrees F, not below 32 degrees F which would be kinda warm and welcome!) for a week. That’s why when I saw this: "Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide" over posted by Ace at PoliPundit I had to click on the link to read:

Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?

By Timothy Ball

Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist. And I am not the only one trying to make people open up their eyes and see the truth. But few listen, despite the fact that I was the first Canadian Ph.D. in Climatology and I have an extensive background in climatology, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition. Few listen, even though I have a Ph.D, (Doctor of Science) from the University of London, England and was a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. For some reason (actually for many), the World is not listening. Here is why.

You can read the entirety of Dr. Ball’s article Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts? by clicking here.

Having a BS and MS in Environmental Science, I’ve always been skeptical of the “consensus” proclaimers. That is NOT how science works. Some have compared those espousing global warming to Chicken Little. I don’t. Chicken Little believed he was doing the right thing.

Many of the enviro-wackos beating the global warming drum are more akin to the Boy Who Cried Wolf. He just wanted attention. They just want $$$. He just wanted to create chaos in the community so he could laugh as the elders got taken in by his act. They just want to create chaos in the world so they can have their 15 minutes of fame.

Of course, like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, once the world catches on, they will be totally discredited and anything they say in the future will be suspect or discarded. The problem with that scenario is that the mainstream media has supported the claim of “consensus” among the scientific community when none truly exists. When the skeptical public starts doubting everything the scientific community proposes…. Well, the wolf may well be howling at the door the next time.

Must See Video

The video GUYK has a link to here is frightening and enlightening. But, as he says in his post, I fear he may be preaching to the choir.

BTW: I’m adding GUYK’s blog Charming, Just Charmingto my list to the right. I find many of his post amusing and some extremely thought provoking. (Although the language can get a tad salty at times. ;-) Go over and read some of the humorous posts like this one: The Purina Diet Story. (Just put the coffee down first.)

UPDATE: Blogger is giving me a problem with the sidebar update. I've been trying to add the link there but it won't take without bumping Confederate Yankee off the list for some reason. I'll keep trying. *sigh*

UPDATE 2: Finally, after many attempts, I have succeeded in getting Charming, Just Charming on the Blogroll to the right without bumping CY off. I do have two entries for Confederate Yankee in my HTML...but hey, it works!

Phil Says: Winter will end early

We watched the live, internet broadcast of the whoop-de-doo that occurred on Gobblers’ Knob in Punxsutawney this morning. The traditional prognostication made by Punxsutawney Phil ended with his NOT seeing his shadow (something that would have been a miracle with the heavily overcast skies in western PA this AM) and, therefore, calling for an early end to winter.

As was noted however, this does not mean winter will end today or even next week, just that it will end early. It’s a good thing they included that caveat in their forecast, for this afternoon it began snowing again. Visibility is down to approximately half a mile and it doesn’t look to be letting up anytime soon.


At least it has warmed up a bit yesterday and today. Yesterday it got into the 30s and quite a bit of the snow on the ground melted. Today it is in the high 20s. Last week it was seldom above 20 but enough sunlight appeared to melt some snow on the roof and produce icicles.


I love icicles, as long as there are no gutters for them to weigh down and bend or break.


Now, when will this winter end. I've had enough.

We Pause for Something Very...well, Different in Log Homes.

Now this gives a whole new meaning to “Log Home!”

(From the Blog of Logs to which I was directed by Jim of Parkway Rest Stop. Go take a peek at each of them.)

Snowy Sunday

It started snowing this morning soon after Terry took her little Aveo down the mountain to church.


The cats and I took things easy while she was gone.

Shadow and Chester stretched out on the top of the couch while Julie took the middle cushion for herself.

The snow came down quite heavily at times and there were two or three inches on the ground when I got “THE CALL”.

Two or three inches of fresh powder snow on a fairly steep hill can lead to only one thing.

Terry had managed to get her front-wheel drive Aveo to the edge of the property (about 300 feet from the driveway) but could get no further.

Well, I wasn’t about to take the truck down the hill to tow/pull/push her anywhere—so I walked down and got behind the wheel.

Not being able to get up the hill myself, I managed to get it turned around after backing up a quarter mile and went down the hill until I found a relatively flat area. Turning around again, I put the Aveo in second gear (yeah, it’s a manual transmission but I would have done the same with an automatic) and, keeping my foot on the gas so as to provide just enough go juice to get up the hill but not so much as to cause the tires to spin, I managed to get to and just past the driveway. Then I backed the little yellow Aveo into the yard and parked it.

When we got inside, the cats hadn’t moved much at all.

Shadow still lay on the back of the couch.


Chester sat up when we entered. (Probably hoping for some food.)


And Julie had curled up with a good book.

Curious Cat

As I’ve mentioned before, we have three cats at the Aerie. Julie, the eldest, is my daughter’s from college days. Shadow and Chester are mine via Adam and Braun. They were adopted this summer and are just over 9 months old.

Each of the three has a unique personality. Julie, as befits the eldest role, is more laid back and peaceful. She occasionally sets upon the other two when they try to draw her into their rampages about the house but will, more often, ignore the youngsters and find a hidey-hole away from the ruckus.

Shadow will often demand attention; shoving her head against your hand until you start to scratch her and pet her.

Chester…well, he is Chester. He wants attention too and will squeeze his way into Terry’s lap even if Shadow or Julie are all ready ensconced. He just shoulders in there and, with a little push and a little shove, ends up right where he wants to be.

All three are vocal pussy cats but the two youngsters are LOUD, very LOUD—especially at breakfast time. We need set no alarms in this house! Little paws reach under the bedroom door, name tags jangle on the floor, and loud meows sound through the house when they think it is time for us to get up and open a can of cat food.

When Terry and I are doing something—anything—Julie will usually go off and take a nap. But Chester and his sister, Shadow, have to watch our every move. Pull out the vacuum cleaner and Julie hightails it to parts unknown. Shadow sits on the couch and watches. Chester gets right up close and personal with the head of the vacuum to make sure we don’t miss a bit of dirt. He does the same thing with my shop vac too. He even sat on a piece of woodworking I was doing as I used the brad nailer and it wasn’t until the compressor kicked on that he took off running. THAT was too loud for him.

Chester is particularly curious about water. Use the shower and he will jump right in when you step out. Brush your teeth and he’ll sit on the edge of the sink and play patty-cake with the water stream. Stand in front of the toilet to go #1 and you better not piss in his ear—cause it will be hanging over the bowl.

This morning Terry did the laundry and we tried counting noses. Julie? Check. Shadow? Check. Chester?…Chester? Not to be found. Then I looked in the laundry room.

Yep, Chester was atop the washer watching the water splash into the sink. Last time he was in the sink when the rinse cycle dumped sudsy water in there. Sigh. At least he learned something.

Dang! It’s cold out this morning.

Some strong winds out of the north swept frigid Canadian/Polar air into the region last night and the morning temperatures plunged into the single digits. As the clock approaches 10 AM it is still just 7 degrees F outside and, although the winds have subsided considerably, the wind chill brings that down to –7 degrees F.

A couple of things I’ve noticed in our new home.

1) The radiant floor heating is slow to respond to severe cold. You can’t just punch up the thermostat and expect it to immediately raise the house’s temperature. (And once it does reach the higher temp, you better be happy with it ‘cause it’s gonna be a while to cool off if you set it too high.)

2) The doors to the garage and the front entrance need better weather stripping. The cold air seems to be pouring in around the ThermaTru front door. Whether that’s because it got sprung in transit, needs adjusting at the latch (which seems loose) or needs a thicker weather stripping along the opening edge, something will have to be done. But it’s just too cold to keep the door open for any length of time right now so it will have to be done later.

3) Even with a humidifier going full time, it is difficult to keep the relative humidity inside the house at around 50% as recommended to prevent unwanted checking and shrinking of log walls. The radiant floor heat (dry) and the supplemental fireplace hat (drier) contribute to that of course.

Being on the northwest side of the hill, the sun has yet to shine upon the house although it is creeping closer. Once it gets here, things may warm up a bit inside as well as out. Hey, at least it doesn't look like there will be any snow flurries today.

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. The temperature at the Adirondack cabin has risen to 0 degrees F since a low of –2 degrees F at 7 AM. There is no wind chill up there, however.

Winter Has Finally Arrived

Winter has finally arrived and the lake effect machine has reached as far south as the Northern Tier of Tioga County. Luckily, the house is snug and it’s quite warm inside.



We still need to finish the outside of the chimney, stain the logs a little darker, erect some retaining walls and add some gutters to the eaves. But all that will have to wait until spring arrives. Probably in May, no matter what Punxsutawney Phil has to say about it.

Meanwhile, this baby will get a workout the next few days as the nighttime temperatures dip into the single digits and, perhaps, below.

Global Warming? (Part deux)

It’s currently 12 degrees outside at 9 AM at The Aerie. That’s up from 9 degrees three hours ago. Luckily there is no wind to speak of so the wind chill is non-existent. Up north, at the Adirondack Bolt Hole, the morning temperature is currently –6 degrees. Three hours ago it was –3 with a wind chill that brought it to –15 or so. I guess winter has finally arrived in this neck of the woods.

We had a dusting of snow—only about an inch or so—earlier this week from what was called lake effect bands sweeping down from lakes Erie and Ontario. The Bolt Hole got a bit more as the band from Ontario remained in place a little longer. This was after the ice storm passed through.

The Herkimer County town of Old Forge reports up to 8 inches of new snow from the latest system, which should make the snowmobilers happy. As late as last week most of the trails were in poor condition due to the lack of snow and open puddles of water. THAT changed in a hurry.

At least the days are beginning to grow noticeably longer. It remains light until after 5:30 now. The trees and plants that were starting to bud earlier this month have grown dormant again. Hopefully they will not be damaged.

Idol is coming! Idol is coming!

One of the shows I was forced to watch introduced to this summer while living with Don and Deb was American Idol. It’s not that I cringed at the talent, most of that was pretty good and got better each week. No, I found Simon to be unbearable. If it were my TV, I would have surely thrown something at the b@st@rd some time during the season—if not more than once.

Perhaps that’s why I find this little ditty penned by LittleOrangeFox at Outlaw Republican so amusing as the 2007 season opener approaches.

(to the tune of The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Simon
by LittleOrangeFox

Hello Seacrest, my old friend,
I've come to watch with you again,
The television quietly broadcasting,
Woke us while we were still weeping,
And our mourning you would soon put to an end
But with him.
Within the sound of Simon.

….There’s much more so go on over to read the rest.

Television

One of the problems with our new home is the lack of TV reception. We're tucked into the north side of the hill so any satellite dish would find it difficult to pick up a signal. There is no cable this far out on the rural line. And the telephone company that was supposed to have TV service via CAT-5 cable, just like it has high speed Internet, has yet to receive the routers necessary to make that happen.

As a result of this delay in service, we sit and listen to the radio or surf the Internet. We've missed all the hoopla of the NCAA football bowls and New Year's Day parades but little else. Until last night.

Last night was, of course, the two hour premiere of Day 6 on 24 and marked the return of Jack Bauer from his long, slow ride to China. We were scheduled to have dinner and watch the show at Don and Debs but a combination of Don's getting a cold/flu and some serious icing conditions on the roads caused a cancellation. (They taped the show for us anyway.) If Don is feeling better and if the weather improves, we will go over tonight to see hours 3 and 4.

Later this week American Idol makes it's debut. Hopefully the routers won't be here yet.

Now THAT’S a Knife

I‘ve carried a Swiss Army knife in my pocket for years and find it useful in so many ways. The few times I either forget to pick it up when getting dressed or must leave it home (damn airport security!) I feel naked. Once, when I accidentally left my knife on my dresser, I had to run to the sporting goods store to purchase a replacement because…well, I just had to have one in my pocket.

My current pocket knife is the fisherman’s model has two blades, two screwdrivers/can/bottle openers, a Phillip’s head screwdriver, an awl, scissors, a hook disgorger, and tweezers and toothpick. Amazingly, I haven’t lost either of the last two in the four or five years I have owned this particular knife. In the past, they may have disappeared in the first month.

I love my Swiss Army knife. They manufacture a multitude of models for every taste but this one…well, it’s the ultimate knife! I give you: The Giant


H/t Appalachian Gun Trash

Food For Thought

From The Anchoress:

10 Things to Ponder About for 2007

10. Life is sexually transmitted.
9. Good health is merely the slowest rate at which one can die
8. Men have two emotions: Horny and Hungry. If he’s not chasing you, make him a sandwich. (Is that true?)
7. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.
6. Some people are like a slinky - not really good for much, but you can’t help but smile when you shove them down the stairs.
5. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital dying of nothing.
4. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
3. Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars,and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?
2. In the 60’s, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
1. We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow-disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America, but we haven’t a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located.

Log Home Update: Part 57:Time to sit before the fire

After several weeks of above average temperatures, the wind shifted so it came out of the northwest and it started spitting snow and became pretty cold. That’s why this is such a big deal:


We lit the first fire in the living room this afternoon. The zero clearance fireplace burns so efficiently there is almost no smoke coming out the chimney. And the blower system kicks plenty of heat into the room. Plus the wide glass door lets you watch all the pretty, pretty flames!

Unfortunately, Don was unable to hook up the basement wood burner. Although the T-junction and the insulated pipe are made by the same company, they don’t fit together. One’s 6-inches is not the other’s 6-inches. After a few calls, he was able to get a company that would get us a T that would fit overnight. Hopefully, we will be able to light a fire in that stove tomorrow night.

Moon Set

Moon Set


Moon Set 2

These morning photos were taken two days after the full moon. It was just after 8 AM when I took this picture of the waning gibbous moon on January 4. Moon Set 2 gives you an idea of the view from the front window of our new home.

I’m sorry I didn’t grab my camera two days earlier when the moon set behind the ridge in the distance and turned bright salmon. Moments later the sunlight spread across the landscape moving toward the house as the sun climbed above the hills behind me.

Log Home Update: Part 56: Finishing for the winter (?)

Have I mentioned that we are building a log home? I know, posts on this topic have been scarce lately but that doesn’t mean that things haven’t been progressing. Everyone did take some time off between Christmas and New Year’s, but they’ve been here working like gangbusters since January 2.

Don, Adam and Dan did show up one day right after Christmas to weather proof the chimney. The exterior stone work will wait until spring arrives and the night time temperatures are more conducive to the mortar curing.

Adam went through the list of items (a very short list) that the building inspector wanted done. Most had to do with electrical outlets being GFI protected. Some we knew had to be done and a few we thought were okay. In any event it took him just half a day to knock those out.

Then there were the two big items on the list. The garage had to have dry wall installed and the basement stairs needed a railing. Adam and I tackled both those jobs. I helped install the sheetrock and then Adam did the spackle work and applied a coat of paint. The same got done to the exterior of the bathroom in the basement and the wall to the utility room. Only it was Don and I installing the dry wall (a.k.a. sheetrock) there while Adam was doing the spackling and painting in the garage.

Adam and I laid out and cut the materials for the hand rail going down into the basement. With the exception of one 2 x 4 we used left over materials from the exterior deck rail and the interior loft/stair rail. Troy came over on Saturday to do some work and helped mount the spindles and rail in place. Now that it is in, it makes the stairs themselves look, well, shabby.

Basement stairs.

While we were doing all that, Kyle and Dan worked on finishing the installation of the insulation (say that five times fast!) in the basement ceiling. This insulation will more or less force the heat from the radiant floor system upwards into the first floor. Secondarily, it will provide some sound barrier between the two floors.

Basement ceiling insulation.

Don, when not working to install drywall in the basement or 2 x 4 walls down there, went to work on the stone facing for the living room fireplace. He is using a cultured stone product from Owens-Corning that looks so real you have a difficult time picking out the few real stones that are interspaced. The “fake” stuff is made from lightweight concrete and is done in such a way that in the four boxes we opened for use on the fireplace there wasn’t a duplicate in the batch. The colors are varied, as are the shapes. It should be obvious that the smaller filler stones are (mostly) real, but even a few of the larger ones have been picked up around either his yard or mine and used because they have a nice color or shape and are the right thickness. The actual hearthstones will be real stone from around the yard placed in a bed of mortar.

Stone work on fireplace.

One day day's work to go.

An Owens-Corning product.

There’s still some trim to be done in the garage, the drywall over the fireplace and the basement wood stove to attach, but the work for the year is almost completed. The building inspector has given his OK and we should have a C of O in a day or two. Meanwhile Terry and I have been squatting here, with Don’s permission, since around the 21st of December. The bank inspector will be here on Tuesday and we should be switching over from a construction loan to a standard mortgage right about on schedule. There will be some work left for the spring, such as the stone on the chimney and the walk out basement front, a few retaining walls, staining the exterior of the logs, and installing gutters and down spouts. Money for those items will be put into an escrow account and will be released when the work is done in the spring.

Basement wood stove.

Cincinnati Holds Off Western Michigan, 27-24Big East 5-0 in Bowl Games

Cincinnati Bearcats became the first college team to win a bowl game played outside the US (the 1937 Bacardi Bowl played in Havana, Cuba ended in a 7-7 tie) by defeating the Western Michigan Broncos 27-24.

The teams were appearing in the first ever International Bowl played in Toronto, Canada.

The Bearcats pulled out to an early 24-0 lead in the first half only to see the Broncos rally to tie the game in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati’s Kevin Lovell converted on a 33 Yd field goal with 6:13 left in the game to provide the winning margin.

The win gave the Big East a perfect 5-0 record in bowl games this season.

(Game Story and stats here.)

Louisville downs Deacons 24-13Big East now 4-for-4 in Bowls

After a sloppy and slow start, the #5 Louisville Cardinals managed to pull it together and drum the Demon Deacons of #15 Wake Forest 24-13 in the Orange Bowl.

Junior Quarterback Brian Brohm was 24-for-34 for 311 yards and was chosen the game's most valuable player.

(Game Story and stats here.)


PS: Is there another conference that has been perfect in the bowls this year? One that has as many as four or five teams playing. (The Big East has five teams engaged in bowl play. South Florida won, Rutgers won, West Virginia won and Louisville won. Only Cincinnatti remains to play in the International Bowl against Western Michigan.)

Big East now 3 for 3 in Bowl games with 2 to go

The West Virginia Mountaineers’ leading rusher all season, Steve Slaton, carried the ball only three times for eleven yards and their defense gave up 333 yards in the air to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Gator Bowl today. Taylor Bennett was 20-for-30 for those 333 yards and threw for three touchdowns. Sophomore Bennett made only his second career start replacing academically ineligible, senior Reggie Ball.

Despite all that, West Virginia came away with a 38-35 victory. The win was the result of overcoming an 18 point deficit with a 21 point, come from behind, burst in the third quarter that was aided by a muffed kickoff by the Yellow Jackets Tony Clark. That error after the second WVU TD of the period, along with an unsportsmanlike penalty, gave the Mountaineers a first and ten on the Georgia Tech 20. Two plays later, Patrick White rushed 15 yards for a WVU touchdown. Pat McAfee’s extra point made it 38-35 and that’s the way it ended.

(Game Story and stats hereand here.)

The victory gives the Big East three wins in three attempts before Tuesday tonight’s Orange Bowl in which Louisville faces Wake Forest.

"This Doesn't Define Me"

Go on over and read Esquire’s featured story by/about Sgt Bryan Anderson.

He’s a triple amputee from the Iraq conflict who will tire you out. And his attitude is the best!

You have two options once this happens: Roll over and die or move on. I chose to move on. I'm still me. I'm just 75 percent off. Get a great deal on Bryan Andersons this week. You know who actually told me that the first time? My mom. We were in Vegas, talking about T-shirts we should make, and she said 75 percent off. She said, You should get a shirt showing off your personality.

This doesn't define me. It may be how I look on the outside, but it's not who I am. I guess you could remember me easily as being a triple amputee, but it's not who I am, has nothing to do with who I am. I've always been the same person.

What’s he done since losing both legs and his left arm to an IED?

I've been wakeboarding, water-skiing, jet-skiing, tubing, rock climbing, snow skiing, playing catch with my brother. I try to do the same things. I'm not going to let it stop me. We did a 110-mile bike ride from Gettysburg to Washington, D. C. Sixty miles the first day, fifty miles the second day. Hand cycle, three wheels. I ended up ripping the glove, breaking the hand, breaking the whole socket. I might do it a little differently, but I'm still going to do it. I didn't actually get up water-skiing. I was up for a second then my arm ripped off and I fell.

I went up to Alaska for the National Wheelchair Games. I participated in two events, Ping-Pong and archery, and I won gold medals in both.

How does he feel about his loss?

Everything that has happened to me since I've been hurt has happened to me because I've been hurt. I got to go to the Pentagon. There's this quarter-mile-long hallway that is just filled with people, and I mean filled with people. There's a little space to go through and everyone is clapping and crying and coming up and hugging you. Okay, that's great. But what about all the people who did the same exact thing that I did that didn't get hurt? They should get the same recognition we do. We all did the same thing. Some people just got the shit end of the stick, that's all. It's all luck….

From every decision you make, you learn something, whether it was the right decision or the wrong decision. I believe everything happens to you for a reason, and it's going to happen to you regardless. So whether I was in Iraq fighting or I was walking across the street and got hit by a bus, it was going to happen to me regardless.

I don't regret anything.

Go read the entire very inspirational story of Sgt Bryan Anderson.

Hat tip to Cassandra at: Villainous Company (from whom I stole the title of this post)

#16 Scarlet Knights Tame KSU Wildcats 37-10 in Texas Bowl

Rutgers used its two strongest weapons, Sophomore running back Ray Rice and a very stingy defense, to whip the Wildcats of Kansas State in the first ever Texas Bowl in Houston last night. The final score was 37-10 but it could have been much, much worse.

Only Yamon Figurs’ 76 yard return of a Joe Radigan 36 yard punt with 9:37 remaining in the first half provided much of a spark of hope for the KState fans. The return made the score Rutgers 14, Kansas State 10 but that would be all she wrote for Kansas. (KState would have only 77 yards net offense in the first half; just one yard more than Figurs’ punt return.)

Ray Rice rushed for 170 yards and a TD on 24 carries leading 16th ranked Rutgers to a 37-10 victory over Kansas State. Sophomore Ray Rice earned MVP honors at the Texas Bowl.

Rice gained eight more yards than the Rutgers defense permitted the KS Wildcats in the entire game as the Scarlet Knights’ seventh ranked defense held the Wildcats’ offense to just 162 net yards. The RU offense gained 479 yards, averaging 7.4 yards per play. It was the fifth time this season Rice surpassed 150 yards in a game and his 25th touchdown in 25 career games at RU. With 2,914 yards to his credit, Rice is now just 200 yards shy of Terrell Willis’ mark as the Scarlet Knights’ all-time career rushing leader.

Freshman Tim Brown scored two first quarter touchdowns on receptions of 14 and 49 yards. It was Browns first career start. He came into the game with just three receptions and one touchdown. He finished the Texas bowl with four receptions, two touchdowns and 101 yards.

Senior linebacker Quintero Frierson returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage of the second half.

Junior kicker Jeremy Ito converted on 3 of 5 field goal attempts and all four PATs. Ito’s 13 points pushed him passed Senior fullback Brian Leonard on the all-time scoring list> Ito now has 280 points to Leonard’s career total of 272.

Leonard caught a pass in the first quarter giving him a reception in each of his 47 career games. He is Rutgers’ all-time reception leader with 207 catches.

Senior tight end Clark Harris had seven catches for 122 yards and, with 2,015 reception yards, moved to fifth place for reception yards in the RU record books.

Sophomore quarterback Mike Teel completed the 2006 season going 45-69 for 692 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in his last three games. He registered a pass efficiency rating of 173.37 while averaging 230.7 yards per game and completing 65.2 percent of his passes.

(Game Story and stats here.)

Rutgers, allegedly the third best team in the Big East, has provided the second victory for the conference in bowl games this season. Southern Florida downed East Carolina, 24-7, in the PapaJohns.com Bowl.

Still to come:
Jan. 1: Gator Bowl: #13 West Virginia vs Georgia Tech
Jan. 2: Orange Bowl: #6 Louisville vs #14 Wake Forest
Jan. 6: The International Bowl: Cincinnati vs Western Michigan

Log Home Update: Part 55bHome for the Holidays.

Troy joined us for a couple of days to install the railings for the steps outside and to help Adam with the wrought iron railings inside.


The stair rails look great.



As do the rails around the loft.


Julie found the steps “cat friendly”.

While Chester nestled between the bed pillows.


A table and chairs at which to sit to dine. And even a carpet beneath to protect the floor.


The bear says we’re ready to entertain, but he’s a bit optimistic.

Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Log Home Update: Part 55aHome for the Holidays

Almost two weeks since I last posted? Goodness, where has the time gone!

Don, Adam, Kyle and Dan put in many long hours over the past week with the intention of getting us into the log home (officially) by Christmas.

I’ve lots of pictures. I’ll post some here and the rest in the next post.

We had a scheduled inspection from the local code inspector on Thursday and missed on a couple of things. (1) There were three outlets/circuits that needed to be GFI protected and weren’t. (All basement outlets need this protection and the island in the kitchen does too no matter how far from a source of water it is.) (2) The garage needs to have the sheetrock up to cover the insulation because the paper backing contains flammable tar. (3) The basement stairs need a railing. We were aware of the basement rail need and the garage so were not surprised by the results.

We postponed a visit from the bank (it’s nearly time to switch from a construction loan to a conventional mortgage) so as to give Don and crew a little more time to complete some of the projects that need doing.

On Monday morning, Terry left the Adirondacks with Shadow and I left PA with Chester traveling back to NJ to see the veterinarian. Both kitties had operations to ensure they could not become parents. Both returned to the PA home on Thursday and seem just fine.

Terry and I closed up the Adirondack cabin Monday afternoon/Tuesday morning and headed with full pick-up and Aveo to PA. There are still some things in the Bolt Hole’s garage that need to come south but they can wait.

Terry also made a trip to NJ on Wednesday for a stitchers’ hen party and to pick our son up at Newark. She stayed overnight and picked up the cats on Thursday.

Chimney Work:

As Don put more and more of the framing up, I thought he was going to drill for oil.


Don and Dan install some of the plywood sheathing as night falls.


The rest of the sheathing went up with the help of spotlights. And, no, we do NOT need to mount aviation warning lights on the top.

Inside fireplace:

Insulated and double walled chimney pipes head through the roof. The 2 x 4 framing will hold insulation and durarock (lower) or sheetrock (above the mantle). The faux stone will be cemented to the durarock.


Even though it’s just cardboard, you can get an idea of the finished fireplace.