Give us this day our daily Birds, Part 2

Downy Woodpeckers, both male and female, are frequent visitors to both the suet feeder and the sunflower seed feeders. When they take seeds--or even a chunk of suet--they often head off to the trees where they will wedge their food into a crack using it like a vise. They'll then hammer away at it until it's gone or they can reach the kernel inside. Once in a while I'll catch a downy or a White-breasted Nuthatch using a crack in the deck posts in the same way.

Downy Woodpecker (female) hammers at the frozen suet.

A male Downy has his eye on the stick feeder hanging on the deck.
But there is a female already there. Gentleman that he is, he'll wait.

The only feeders the Dark-eyed Junco uses are the tray feeders. They are primarily ground feeder. On the ground, they scratch at the soil to find insect or seeds. Those that come to the deck are as likely to work the deck's surface like a clean-up crew. When they are on the tray they can be little bullies as they fiercely defend their food source from other small birds.

Dark-eyed Junco on the deck feeding tray.

American Goldfinches come in bunches. This year's numbers aren't as large as last year--yet. That's probably due to the lack of thistle. I've still got to purchase a bag of thistle and put out the thistle feeder. Once I do, I expect the current visitors to contact their nearest hundred relatives and we'll soon be inundated. One nice thing about Goldfinches is they serve as a calendar. When the males start to molt into their summer suits, usually in March, you know that warm weather will soon be returning even if there's still snow on the ground.

American Goldfinches occupy the stick feeder on the deck.

Look in the dictionary next to "ubiquitous" and you'll see a picture of the Chickadee. They also appear next to "friendly" and "curious." They buzz around the feeders like honey bees, darting in and out as they pick up a seed and bring it out to the woods. I've had Chickadees come to a feeder as I was filling it. I've not had one land on me yet, but others I know have had them perch on the shoulders and hats--even plucking at their mustaches--as they beg for seeds. Oh, they also appear next to the word "glutton." Often they stash their seed in the cracks and crevasses of tree bark, saving their booty for a rainy day.

Black-capped Chickadee grabs a seed from the stick feeder.

My Christmas Bird Count

It was a chilly 23 degrees as I started my Christmas Bird Count at the overlook of the Tioga-Hammond Lakes just outside of Tioga, PA. After a brief stop there, I moved to Ive's Run on the west end of Hammond Lake and then to the Rail Road Grade Trail from the inlet of Crooked Creek to Hammond Lake to the trails western terminus.

While I didn't find many species at any one location, I did end up with a total of 20 for the morning. And for a few of those species, I saw a large number of individuals.

The results:

Mallard 32
Bald Eagle 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1 [Upon further review, I believe this was a Red-tailed Hawk and not a Broad-winged Hawk. My bad!]
Red-tailed Hawk 2 3 [Corrected to reflect the above comment.]
Downy Woodpecker 1
Ring-billed Gull 90
Blue Jay 11
American Crow 12
Black-capped Chickadee 32
Tufted Titmouse 5
Eastern Bluebird 4
American Robin 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
European Starling 7
Cedar Waxwing 100
American Tree Sparrow 25
White-throated Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 126
Northern Cardinal 10


Ten or twelve of us met to hand in our lists and discuss our findings. I think I saw more birds than most thanks to the gulls, waxwings and juncos.

Aerie Report, December 18, 2009

After attending her EGA luncheon today, Terry headed off to New Jersey to beat the snow storm that is hitting the east coast. If she had stayed to participate in the Christmas Bird Count tomorrow, she would have been arriving several hours after the snow is supposed to arrive. The prognosticators are saying the snow will accumulate to a depth of 6 to 10 inches in the area of NYC through Sunday afternoon.

Here at the Aerie, we're in the 1 to 3 inch zone.

******

As I mentioned, the Christmas Bird Count takes place tomorrow. I'll be taking the cameras and the Tundra over to Hammond Lake (Ive's Run) and along the Railroad Grade Trail that runs along Crooked Creek. Members of the Tiadaghton Audubon Society will gather at a member's house at 2 PM to tally up and submit our findings over a hot bowl of chili and more. With sunrise at around 7:30 AM, I figure to be out around 7 AM for breakfast and coffee at Mickey D's before hitting the lake shore.

******

Not much else happening around here.

I did light another fire today since the afternoon temperature never got above 24 degrees. The snow storm would normally bring in some warmer air from the south and off the ocean but that won't happen tomorrow. Apparently the storm center will be staying a bit further out to sea or the cold air that is entrenched over us just won't get out of the way. In either case, the forecast is for it to get up to around 25 again tomorrow afternoon before the snow arrives and the night time temps drop to around 15 degrees. (The average high is 36 for this date. The average low is 20.)

Give us this day our daily Birds

Just because Dudley asked so nicely...

These are just a few of the birds that show up daily here at the Aerie.

Blue Jay

Blue Jays are, of course, quite common anywhere there is free food to plunder and smaller birds to intimidate. If no smaller birds dare come to the feeders, they will argue amongst themselves. They are also one of the few winter birds with lots of color.

Mourning Dove

The mourning doves seem to travel in flocks of ten or more. Seldom is there a solitary bird in the yard. They are large enough to give the jays a bit of what-for on the deck. The doves will also take advantage of the sparse amount of gravel exposed int he driveway when I move the truck or, on rare occasions, when the sun shines and opens a patch for them to peck at. They use the gravel by storing it in their crop. When they swallow a sunflower seed shell and all, the gravel in the crop grinds it into a paste they can digest. What's left they deposit all over my deck. The dirty birds!

Red-bellied Woodpecker

We've only got one red-bellied woodpecker in the area as far as we can tell. We call her Winnie and she's a moocher, too. Rather than go look for insects in the many snags (dead trees) in the area, she'll show up at the feeder and eat, and eat, and eat. Sometimes she'll take a seed and head for the trees but usually she encamps and eats her fill before leaving. Like the doves, she's large enough to challenge the jays. She usually wins, too.

So there's three birds I photographed about two weeks ago on the front deck.

The Yoopers!

You that must travel on the eastern seaboard this weekend, take care.

Best laid plans...yada, yada.

Remember what I said about making God laugh, about the best laid plans, about thinking more than a day in advance with the winter season here on the eastern coast? (Well, maybe I didn't say anything about that last one...but I should have!)

The overnight low here at the Aerie was 8 degrees. That's positively balmy compared to the minus 12 degree low up near the Bolt Hole. At 8:30 AM the temps have risen to 11 degrees and minus 11 at each location.

Terry had intended to stick around here for the Christmas Bird Count on Saturday before driving into NJ. That was when then. Then--yesterday--was when the forecasters seemed to have the storm coming up from the Texas Gulf Coast shooting out to sea somewhere around Virginia. Now is a different story.

Apparently the storm wants to visit D.C. and Atlantic City. The result is it will hug the coast more and won't veer to sea until it has hit the Jersey shore. Fifty mile an hour gusts are possible along the coast. Six to ten inches of snow are possible for NYC and its immediate environs. Linden, NJ is close enough to both to get a walloping.

Terry will be leaving this afternoon for NJ. There, she can help Jessica shovel the driveway and walk. The Aerie will be amply defended by the three cats and I as we sit/lie in front of the fire. We should get anywhere from a dusting to an inch or two of fresh snow.

Aerie Report, December 17, 2009

No Global Warming here, although it did not get down to the single digits overnight like Terry told me it would. (I think she may have gotten a quick peek at the Wind Chill temperatures and thought they were the actual ones. She's done that before.) No, instead it dropped to 16 degrees as the day broke, climbed to all of 24 degrees as the sun got over the mountain and has dropped again to just 14 degrees at 7:30 PM. The good news is that the wind stopped blowing at sundown. It had been quite brisk all day and made things feel anywhere fro 5 to 10 degrees colder than they actually were. With a sparse cloud cover, the temperatures could get into the single digits tonight. At least that what weather.com and AccuHunch say.

I'm glad I'm not up at the Bolt Hole. It was just below zero before daybreak this morning, climbed way up to 14 degrees this afternoon and has fallen back to minus 2 at 8:30 PM. It will get much, much colder tonight, too.

The cold forced my hand. I built another fire in the fireplace to supplement our propane heat. I'm not worried about running out of gas. On the contrary, we got a fresh delivery Tuesday morning. I'm not sure what the charge will be as the driver didn't leave the bill at the door as he usually does. I do know that it was close to half a tank so it will add up to a sizable chink of change. Then again, our last delivery was back in the middle of October so the money is in the budget from November and December and that should more than cover the cost.

The fire serves at least three purposes: 1) aesthetics--There's nothing like sitting in the living room seeing the flicker of flame dancing across a log or the warm glow of red hot coals in the firebox. 2) warmth--With an air circulating, double walled firebox, the fireplace sucks air from the basement, blows it through the space between the double walls and pushes the warmed air out into the room. The cats especially love that as they curl up on the rug or couch directly in front of the warm air stream. 3) CO2 emissions--Now, I know that CO2 is not a major part of our atmosphere (only something in the realm of 0.039 % of our atmosphere is CO2) and that studies have shown that it increases AFTER the temperature rises not before. Still, it is considered to be a dreaded greenhouse gas. (Maybe because greenhouse growers pump the stuff inside to feed their plants?) And if there is a slight chance it will raise the temperature and prevent the next Ice Age, I'm all for it. Also, there's that whole rebel thing now that the EPA has designated it harmful to human existence. And at my age, lighting a fire's about as rebellious as I can get.

******

Not much else going on around here, I'm afraid. The birds and squirrels continue to hit the feeders hard with these low temperatures and thin snow cover. Terry's still got one more PA Christmas Party with one of the EGA groups (tomorrow, I think). The Christmas Bird Count is scheduled for Saturday and Terry and I will be going over to Ive's Run and Crooked Creek again this year. I haven't been over there since just before Thanksgiving so it will be interesting to see what birds might be on Hammond and Tioga Lakes as well as along the Railroad Grade Road that runs along Crooked Creek. It's supposed to be a bit warmer on Saturday, too, up near 30 degrees, so it should be a good day to do some bird watching/counting.

I finished the wooden quilt square today. That makes three I've completed. One's all I'm keeping though. The other two are going out as Christmas presents. Time to start cleaning up the shop and clearing space around the scrollsaw for the next project(s).

Well, that's about all for now. Time to throw another log on the fire, have a beer and then hit the hay. See ya tomorrow.

Interesting....

Maybe this could be filed under the heading of silver lining on a dark cloud:
Swine Flu Means Killer Winter Influenza May Not Come

Seasonal flu, which annually kills 30,000 Americans 65 and over, may not appear in the U.S. for the first time in more than 40 years, crowded out by the swine flu pandemic and mass vaccination campaigns.

When H1N1 struck in the Southern Hemisphere it completely blocked the seasonal flu. Their flu season ended in September with none of the usual seasonal flu numbers showing up at all.

Here in the US:

Seasonal strains are almost nonexistent in reports from countries where swine flu, or H1N1, has taken hold. In the U.S. and Europe, 99 percent of influenza cases tested last week were H1N1

Which brings the hope that the seasonal flu season, which runs from December through February will be a very quiet one.

But there is this caveat:

Swine flu infection rates decreased in each of the last six weeks, the Atlanta-based CDC reported. That has spurred a debate among health officials on whether the H1N1 pandemic is grinding to a halt, and whether that strain will be replaced by a surge of seasonal cases as the Northern Hemisphere enters winter.

H1N1 infected 50 million people in the U.S. and killed an estimated 10,000 through Nov. 14 from the start of the pandemic in April, the CDC reported last week. About 90 percent of swine flu deaths were among people younger than 65.

With seasonal flu, the effects are reversed, with more than 90 percent of annual deaths among those ages 65 or older, according to the CDC.

So, if you are so inclined and/or have daily contact with lots of people, it might still be a good idea to go get your flu shots if you haven't done so already.

Aerie Report, December 16, 2009

I woke up this morning at 3 AM suffering some sinus congestion that was making breathing difficult. I tossed and turned for half an hour before Shadow heard me and started howling. Fifteen minutes later I was up and getting dressed. Being vertical as opposed to horizontal helped clear my breathing passages and a fresh cup (or two) of coffee helped clear the fog in my brain.

I'll probably pay for that early rising tomorrow but it hasn't hit me yet.

******

The thermometer registered just 19 degrees this morning at 7 AM beneath cloudy skies that produced 1 1/2 inches of snow overnight. We got a few "decorative" snow showers during the morning butt then the sun came out and warmed us up to 24 degrees at 2 PM. The sun is gone now, however, and we are back to 17 degrees at 8:30 PM and heading to an overnight low in the single digits. Oh, and the wind has been blowing all day out of the northwest. Thanks a lot Canada!

Five days before winter officially arrives and it usually doesn't get real cold until several weeks after that. Oh joy!

******

I stepped out on the deck this afternoon just in time to see a sharp-shinned hawk make a pass at the small birds around the feeder. It missed and settled on a branch across the yard to gather its thoughts before it made another try. It missed again and went up the hill following the powerline right of way. The breast was barely streaked making me think this might have been a young bird. If it had been successful, I'm sure it would have hung around for the winter. At least it would have had to work a little for its meals. Not like the freeloading squirrels and seed-eating birds.

The bird that gets me is the red-bellied woodpecker. Every single day Winnie (yeah, we named her) comes to the tray feeders and fends off the blue jays and morning doves as she wolfs down one sunflower seed after another. She never goes to the suet feeder like the hairy and downy woodpeckers, but settles for the protein and oil rich sunflower kernels.

One lucky dog!

It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a dog?

Of all the incredulous tales that turn up in the Quad-Cities, none that I know of can match this … A dog falling from the night skies.
...
Sadie, a petite-sized Pomeranian, landed next to a Davenport street last weekend after surviving a flight of about two miles, clutched in the talons of a great horned owl.

As the owl flies, Sadie’s flight covered between 24 to 30 city blocks. She was scruffed up, but suffered nothing worse than bruises and a broken tail.
….
“I had stopped for the sign at East 29th and College when this dog came flying out of the sky right in front of my Jeep — right out of the sky,” says Jamie Padden, Davenport. “It dropped out of nowhere.”

The owl followed, ready to snatch back its lost snack.

Padden was horror-struck to see the little dog scrambling to get away.

“I opened my car door and ran screaming at that owl,” she says. “It was after the dog.

“That owl was so big I swear that its wings spread halfway across the street. That sounds overdramatic, but it’s true.”

Sadie has been returned to her home and is recovering from her near lunch experience.

Great Horned Owls are HUGE! Two feet tall from the perch to top of the head, they regularly snatch up rabbits and skunks in the wild. A cat or small dog in suburbia would pose no problem.

Ah CopenhagenNothing much happening here. Move along.

Climate talks deadlocked as clashes erupt outside

The 10-day-old climate talks ran into disputes and paralysis as they entered a critical stage Wednesday, just two days before President Barack Obama and more than 100 other national leaders hope to sign a historic agreement to fight global warming.

Poorer nations stalled the talks in resistance to what they saw as efforts by the rich to impose decisions falling short of strong commitments to reduce greenhouse gases and to help those countries hurt by climate change. Conference observers said, however, that negotiators still had time to reach agreements.

It's all about the money. The poorer nations want to milk the "richer" nations for all they can get. They won't necessarily use it to do anything "green" but they will make sure the ruling classes in each of their countries get a good chunk of change from each concession made by the more wealthy countries.

The eco-mob in the streets doing all the protesting and enjoying the occasional whiff of tear gas mixed with freezing temperatures and snow will get nothing but frostbite and memories.

Frankly, if I were in charge of crowd control, I would have pulled out a few fire trucks with large capacity tanks. I wouldn't need to use the high pressure hoses, just a gentle spray. Getting wet at 32 degrees F can do a lot to discourage a mob.

******

Then there's this harbinger of failure at home and abroad:

Sen. Kerry wavers on backing for cap-and-trade bill in Copenhagen

“I can’t tell you the method or the means, amount, by which we might price carbon. I can’t tell you that. We have not resolved that issue yet,” Kerry said at a press conference after his speech at the international climate summit.

He expressed confidence that the Senate will follow the House in approving a major climate and energy bill, but linked the Senate’s success to international negotiators reaching a deal this week in Copenhagen.

“Success in Copenhagen is really critical to success next year in the United States Senate, in the Congress,” he said.
(emphasis added)

Perhaps the Flip-Flop Champeen of the World is starting to see the writing on the wall. Going into this conference, it was the actions of the EPA that would produce action at Copenhagen. Suddenly, the rolls have been reversed. Action in Copenhagen will create a climate (no pun intended) wherein the Congress will act. From the above, it doesn't sound like that Cozy Copenhagen Cooperation will be forthcoming.

They came thisclose to pulling it off, and would have done so if not for the dilligent work of a few and the luck of having all those CRU files leaked.

Strange bedfellows

Maybe Obama's campaign promise to bring us all together is starting to bear fruit.

Union pulls back on supporting bill

The SEIU executive board will hold what Lodes described as an "emergency" meeting Wednesday night to decide how to move forward. "Right now, they don't have the information they need to make this decision," said Lodes, who added that the SEIU informed the other organizations on Tuesday they would not be joining the press conference.

The board meeting likely will not produce a final determination by the union about whether to support advancing the Senate healthcare bill, which not only lacks a public option and the Medicare buy-in but also would levy an excise tax on so-called Cadillac health insurance plans that some union members have, Lodes said.

(Emphasis added.)


Howard Dean: Health Care Bill 'Bigger Bailout for the Insurance Industry Than AIG'

Dean sent shockwaves when he said Tuesday in an interview with Vermont Public Radio that the removal of the Medicare buy-in means Democrats should just kill the health care bill and start over.

"This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate," Dean said.

(Emphasis added. Say! Wasn't "Kill the bill!" one of the frequent chants at the tea parties? Maybe Dean was listening.)



NBC poll: Public sours on health reform

As the Senate sprints to pass a health-care bill by Christmas, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that those believing President Obama's health-reform plan is a good idea has sunk to its lowest level.

Just 32 percent say it's a good idea, versus 47 percent who say it's a bad idea.

In addition, for the first time in the survey, a plurality prefers the status quo to reform. By a 44-41 percent margin, respondents say it would be better to keep the current system than to pass Obama's health plan.

Okay, some are stranger than others. (See Howard Dean for a definition of strange.) Still, this is one weird coalition that's forming against unread, unknown Obamacare.

UPDATE: Olbermann joins call to kill bill Olbermann? Dude this health care bill is toast! Strange bedfellows, indeed.

Cause and Effect?

NBC: Senate rejects low-cost drug imports
Plan would have allowed Americans to buy prescriptions from abroad

The vote on the amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan , D-N.D., was 51-48 in favor, but 60 votes were needed to prevail under a special rule. Obama had supported the measure as a senator, but his administration echoed safety concerns raised by the pharmaceutical industry — which is supporting the Democrats' health care bill.
…
Both the pharmaceutical industry and the Obama administration were lobbying against the proposal, saying it would not protect people from potentially dangerous or ineffective drugs. Dorgan's plan would have cost drug makers billions of dollars and had bipartisan support.

No breakdown of the vote is offered in the story. You would think that would be an important part of the story.

Drugmakers will pay more for health bill
Senators: Billions from pharmaceutical industry to close drug coverage gap

Democratic senators said Wednesday they've been told the pharmaceutical industry will contribute billions of dollars more than it has previously promised for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, with the money being used to close a gap in Medicare drug coverage.

Curious. No?

Poor Al...

...he sees it all slipping away. The power. The fame. The glory. The money.But mostly the money.

The snow must have prevented some of the delegates from taking global warming seriously.

Gore calls for July summit to finish climate treaty...in Mexico City where even the Goracle might have a tough time making it cold and snowy in July.

"I do not believe that we can wait until next November or next December," said Gore,

Yeah, he's got to do something before even more folks understand the workings of the IPCC and the mere 60 insider scientists driving the entire "crisis" with faulty computer models and select data. Otherwise, all that $$$ he's invested in carbon credits won't be worth the paper it is printed on.

"I will ask my fellow US citizens who share my sense of urgency to join me in asking President Obama and the leadership of the US Senate to set a deadline of April 22, 2010 -- the 40th anniversary of Earth Day -- for final action on the US legislation," Gore said.

Good luck with that, Al. The final action most every American is seeking is a swift and final burial of Cap & Tax. And maybe a bit of evisceration of the EPA's declaration of CO2 among the gases "harmful to mankind."

Of course, Al couldn't let a speech go by without calling his opponents names:

Gore said that only "reckless fools" reject the science behind global warming.

The problem is that there is warming and there is Anthropogenic Global Warming. There are many who will agree that the former is happening to some degree but who will say that there is little or no proof that AGW is happening and to assume we humans can stop the warming is over reach at best and pure hubris at worst.

Hey! What could go wrong?

Speaking of government health care....

Kids' Swine flu shots recalled; not strong enough

Good idea!

[Allow me to rephrase]: Actually, I think this is a good idea: Obama administration aims for high school financial literacy. [Every member of the administration should be conversant in economics.] I see it as a major improvement over the way this administration has tackled the economic problems we curren...

What?

Oh! They mean for high school students to get an understanding of economics!

I guess that would be a good idea too since then the graduates could avoid the long, steep learning curve necessary to turn most 18 year old liberals into conservatives. Of course, that could mean the end of the Democrat's hold on the youth vote.

Wouldn't hurt if more teachers learned a thing or two about Economics 101 either.

Slicing Pizza Perfectly

Since I had the craving today for pizza and went to Papa V's in Mansfield for a pie, I was immediately drawn to this post on Boing Boing about two mathematicians who have bee working on a problem of "The perfect way to slice a pizza." Apparently, this is a serious mathematical problem, one that's been worked on for half a century or more.

It's a fascinating look at the problem. Still, I'd probably eat the whole thing before they got done drawing their diagrams.

(h/t to Instapundit)

Aerie Report, December 15, 2009

I spent the better part of this morning running virus software on my laptop trying to discover why it kept locking up on me. Locking up to the point where even pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del would not bring up the Windows Task Manager window so I could shut down my AOL browser and/or my Firefox browser. Finally had to go out the hard way and shut the computer off and restart in Safe Mode to run the scans. Nothing but tracking cookies showed up. Ditched them and rebooted in normal and the damn thing has been running fine ever since. Go figure.

******

While the virus scanners did their thing, I went to the workshop and put the final touches on the wooden quilt square. There are still some gaps I'm not happy with but this one went together pretty well compared to the one that provided four four-inch square coasters instead of a 20-inch square quilt. It all comes down to making precision cuts on a contractor's table saw. Ones that are within 1/32 of an inch of the desired width. And that, my friends, is damn near impossible with the rip fence I've got now. Maybe with the table saw I've got now. I can afford a new fence, but the saw is another story.

******

Another cloudy, dreary day at the Aerie. The high temperature of 42 degrees happened just after midnight while the winds were still out of the south. They switched to the west-northwest around daybreak and the temperature began slowly sinking soon afterward. We above 2000 feet are the only ones that still have snow on the ground from last week's storm. The valley yards and fields are all bare again.

Looking at the long range forecast on AccuHunch wasn't to encouraging either. yesterday the fifteen day forecast had many days with a mostly sunny/partly cloudy icon, today they were replaced with mostly cloudy with snow showers or just plain snow.

There's a saying about if you wish to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. Terry plans to go into New Jersey on this weekend to stay at her Mom's for a while. Mom is going to California for Christmas and Terry figured to stay with our daughter, Jessica, for the duration. She also has plans to party with her old stitching mates and even go into the city for a party with her old office mates. I would travel to NJ on Christmas Eve day for a party at my sister's house and return to PA on Christmas Day. Well, those mostly sunny/partly cloudy days that disappeared? Those were from the 19th to the 26th of December. Well, there's a good probability the folks at AccuHunch will revise their forecast--again. Last year I didn't make it to NJ because of an ice storm through the mountains of PA I'd hate to miss out again.

Oh, crap! There are little pellets of frozen stuff hitting our northwest facing windows and piling up on he deck.

******

Actually, I shouldn't be so down about the weather. I see they're forecast to get 5-6 inches of snow in Copenhagen in the next few days and then it will get even colder. The Good Lord does like to show who is boss sometimes. And He's got one heck of a sense of humor, too.

******

I've been troubled lately with some spam comments. Two types in particular have been showing up. One is in all Chinese characters with the exception of a word or two (notably "sex") and the other is about some investment opportunity. These have been showing up in posts four years old as well as some recent posts. I've gone back and deleted them (permanently) each time they show up. I don't want to do it, but if they become more troublesome, I may have to turn on word verification to prevent these bots from taking too much time.

Have any of you experienced a similar problem? Is there anyway to block them without using word verification?

Aerie Report, December 14, 2009

Gray, dreary day at the Aerie today. It wasn't supposed to be like that but it happened. The temperatures hovered between 30 and 36 degrees while the cloud cover allowed no peek at the sun. And tonight we are supposed to be getting some light rain/snow showers. I'm going to start taking screen shots of the forecasts every day. Each forecast seems to have a shelf life shorter than a fresh mushroom on the counter top. Twelve hours and they get mushy. Twenty-four and they're a pile of useless goo. last week there was little precipitation on the drawing board, now every day has some form of precip. Yeah, it's only 30 or 40% chance but still, it can get depressing as we approach the Winter Solstice, aka the shortest day of the year.

Accu-hunch has already started to hype a possible storm moving up the coast later this week. Like hurricane's they've put up three possible tracks starting off the Florida Gulf Coast. One goes out to sea and produces little or no effect on shore. One is closer and will produce some rain along the coast. The third moves north very close to the shore and will spread snow all along the Appalachians.

******

I noticed that Al Gore is in Copenhagen. I also notice that there's a forecast for about 6 inches of snow within the next day or two. And the temperature will be at or below 32 degrees F through the weekend.

Algore also is reported to have said that the Arctic Ice Cap will disappear with in the next five to seven years. Well, that gives us an idea as to why Gore flunked out of divinity school. You do not set a firm date for the apocalypse or the coming of the messiah when you want to keep your followers. For when that date comes and goes without your prophecy coming true, you're in deep doo-do.

UPDATE: The scientist Gore quoted as his source says he has no idea what Gore is talking about as he, the scientist, never made such a prediction. Don Surber as amended his post to include that quote. It's good for a laugh.

******

The feeders in the yard are really attracting a crowd. In addition to lots of mourning doves, chickadees, juncoes, goldfinches, blue jays, white-breasted nuthatches, hairy and downy woodpeckers, and red-bellied woodpeckers, we had a small flock of turkeys come by yesterday and the day before we had three red-winged blackbirds. Gray squirrels are also increasing in number now that there's snow on the ground. There were nine of them out there this morning. Everybody wants a free lunch.

******

I got all the small pieces of the wooden quilt square glued down this afternoon. Now it's a matter of attaching the backer board and frame pieces. That should take me about an hour. Then I can clean up as much of the saw dust as possible before starting the next project, perhaps something using the scroll saw.

******

That's about all I've got today. The BS going on vis-a-vis global warming, health care, stimulus, job's created and saved, etc, is just too upsetting to deal with right now.

Giants vs Eagles

So. I'm watching the Giants-Eagles game last night--you know, the one where they scored a gazillion points each?--and I'm amazed at the way each team's offense can move the ball so freely up ad down the field. Heck, back in the days before the shot clock, Princeton U. would score fewer points than either of these teams--and win! The final last night was 45-38. That's the most total points scored in a game featuring these two teams ever--and they've played 105 times.

Actually, the Giants should have won this game. They had a 512-374 advantage in offensive yards. Except for giving up a 60-yard fumble return for a TD (Brandon Jacobs got stripped of the ball, Sheldon Brown carried it the distance) and a 72-yard punt return for a TD (DeSean Jackson) and a 60-yard pass play for a TD (DeSean Jackson--again), the Giants did real well. Elli Manning threw a TD pass of 68 yards to Hakeem Nicks and another of 61 yards to Domenik Hixon. Even with those three plays, the Giants still could have won the game if there had been just one guy--ONE!-- polite enough to pick up the damn ball and hand it to an official during that freak play in the second quarter.

What? You didn't see it? Heck, NBC replayed it several times. The Eagles had the ball on their own 42 yard line. McNabb dropped back to pass but the Giants rushed him hard with someone on the right side coming in from behind him and knocking the ball lose as McNabb raised his arm to throw. The ball trickled to a stop on the turf near the line of scrimmage--and sat there--all alone. Two or three Giant defenders wandered slowly past the forlorn pigskin on their way back to the line for the next play without bending over to pick it up. Finally, the Umpire had to blow his whistle to end the play. Philly got to keep the ball back where McNabb had been stripped of it--the 32 yard line and the Giant defender got credit for a sack. But if just one of those defenders had bent over to pick up the damn ball, it would have been the Giants' ball around the 42 of Philly. Of course Philly went on to score a TD on that drive. What else?

Be polite for Christ's sake! Even when you're playing football. It could win you the freakin' game!

And Eli? Next time slide feet first so when the ball gets away it won't be a fumble. Okay? (Happened in the second half.)

Oh, and play until your hear the freakin' whistle jerks!

Aerie Report, December 12, 2009

Jeeze! What a difference a day makes. The sun came out today and the winds died to next to nothing. And the temperature soared. It was 19 degrees at sunrise and went up to 37 degrees around 3 PM.

The 19 was considerably higher than the forecast and the lack of wind was a surprise, too. I had already decided that, based upon the last two days and the forecast, I was going to sleep in and go down to the church for breakfast with Terry. (Mansfield is celebrating a Home for the Holidays event today.) Yeah, I could have gone out hunting this afternoon, but, well, the freezer is pretty full as it is. Instead, I finally got the Adirondack chairs off the deck, and then filled the firewood rack in the garage. (Burned wood all day yesterday as the temps never got above 17 degrees. That's why the reading of 19 at 7 AM this morning was such a surprise.)

Tomorrow's forecast is a puzzle. It will get down to around 20 degrees tonight. Then they say we'll start off with some freezing rain in the morning which will change to regular rain with a high of 38 degrees by the afternoon.

******

I spent some time in the workshop cutting the last few pieces of the quilt square. Then I sanded and fit all the pieces together. next will be to glue everything down to the backboard. Won't take more than a couple of hours to get everything done.

******

Army just can't seem to get Navy's goat. Thanks to a couple of penalties on long passes, the Cadets did manage to take a 3-0 lead into the locker at halftime, but after the intermission...it was all Navy with a 17-3 final. As a result, Army's season is over with a 5-7 record and UCLA (6-6) goes bowling against Temple in the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C. on December 29th.

Meanwhile, the Appalachian State-Montana semifinal in the FCS is turning into a heck of a game. The winner plays Villanova on Friday night in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was being played in Missoula...in the cold (15 degrees) and the snow. Montana scored a TD with 1:39 left to go ahead 24-17 but App. State marched down the field. They converted on a 4th-and-10 from the Montana 25 with 18 seconds to go. Then got a first and goal at the 4 with 6 seconds--and no timeouts. Two incomplete passes later and the Grizzlies of Montana were headed south to play one more game. Hell of a finish!

Where in the world is Al Gore?

Make that "Where in the space-time continuum is Al Gore?" I mean the man does seem to have trouble with time. The latest Climategate email is ten years old? First time I knew one month could equal 10 years.

Anyway....Just 8 degrees at 6:30 AM at the Aerie. Thankfully the winds have died down considerably so the wind chill is "only" -3 or -4 degrees.

Back later as I've a fire to build and a hot breakfast to eat before I can function.

Cold as a well digger's....

Y'all can finish the title to your personal preference depending 'pon how deep the water in the well is.

The high today at the Aerie was 31 degrees. Granted that was just minutes after midnight and it has been falling ever since then. Okay, it did go up a degree during the one hour the sun managed to peek through the clouds this afternoon. It went from 21 up to 22 degrees at that time. At sundown (4:30 PM), however, it slipped slightly below 20 degrees and at 6 PM it was down to just 17.1 degrees. And now, at 8:30 PM it's dropped to 13 degrees. Mmmm, 13, unlucky.

Add the strong winds out of the northwest (the reason for the freakin' cold air being here in the first place) that are keeping the chimes hammering out a lively tune, and the windchill is probably approaching 0 degrees. We got "decorative" snow showers throughout the day, too, as the moisture of the Great Lakes got swept south and east by the howling winds.

Now, I know some of you in Alaska, Frostbite Falls, or the Yukon Territory might be thinking that it's spring like at 17 degrees (or even 0 degrees). Well, good for you. I'm a bit ursine in nature and want to hibernate about now. Wake me up when the Ides of March arrive.

It's going to get colder over the next few days if the weather quacks are correct. The wind will die back--a bit--but the lows will sink down to close to 10 degrees tonight and 15 degrees Friday night before they get back to the 20s. Only a 30% chance of snow showers in the 10-day forecast so that's a blessing unless you're a skier. (Although the 30% chance occurs on 7 of the 10 days, so, do ya feel lucky, punk?)

******

I frittered away the day doing nothing but keeping warm and a little reading. I didn't see any new madness on the internet that I wanted to comment/rant about today despite visiting many a blog/news site, so I've not posted a thing except the story about coywolves in New England.

Maybe tomorrow there will be some new apocalyptic happening or political buffoonery that warrants comment.

Maybe tomorrow I'll reenter the workshop and get the next wooden quilted square put together.

Maybe tomorrow my pulse rate will soar up to, oh, 55 beats per minute and I'll have energy to spare.

Tomorrow...

I'll hitch up the dogs to-morrow,
And mush down the trail to Bill.
It's so long dark, and I'm lonesome -
I'll just lay down on the bed;
To-morrow I'll go. . .to-morrow. .

Ha! Good thing I've only got three cats in the house.

A little poetry on a cold, cold day.

Oh, not any of mine. I've not the skill to twine words together in rhythm and rhyme. No, this comes from the pen of Robert W. Service. It's the story of a man considered by his "betters" a failure. Yet which is in touch with his soul more? Which understands the world more? Which has lead an more enjoyable life?

The Rhyme of the Remittance Man

There's a four-pronged buck a-swinging in the shadow of my cabin,
And it roamed the velvet valley till to-day;
But I tracked it by the river, and I trailed it in the cover,
And I killed it on the mountain miles away.
Now I've had my lazy supper, and the level sun is gleaming
On the water where the silver salmon play;
And I light my little corn-cob, and I linger, softly dreaming,
In the twilight, of a land that's far away.

Far away, so faint and far, is flaming London, fevered Paris,
That I fancy I have gained another star;
Far away the din and hurry, far away the sin and worry,
Far away -- God knows they cannot be too far.
Gilded galley-slaves of Mammon -- how my purse-proud brothers taunt me!
I might have been as well-to-do as they
Had I clutched like them my chances, learned their wisdom, crushed my fancies,
Starved my soul and gone to business every day.

Well, the cherry bends with blossom and the vivid grass is springing,
And the star-like lily nestles in the green;
And the frogs their joys are singing, and my heart in tune is ringing,
And it doesn't matter what I might have been.
While above the scented pine-gloom, piling heights of golden glory,
The sun-god paints his canvas in the west,
I can couch me deep in clover, I can listen to the story
Of the lazy, lapping water -- it is best.

While the trout leaps in the river, and the blue grouse thrills the cover,
And the frozen snow betrays the panther's track,
And the robin greets the dayspring with the rapture of a lover,
I am happy, and I'll nevermore go back.
For I know I'd just be longing for the little old log cabin,
With the morning-glory clinging to the door,
Till I loathed the city places, cursed the care on all the faces,
Turned my back on lazar London evermore.

So send me far from Lombard Street, and write me down a failure;
Put a little in my purse and leave me free.
Say: "He turned from Fortune's offering to follow up a pale lure,
He is one of us no longer -- let him be."
I am one of you no longer; by the trails my feet have broken,
The dizzy peaks I've scaled, the camp-fire's glow;
By the lonely seas I've sailed in -- yea, the final word is spoken,
I am signed and sealed to nature. Be it so.

All the remittance man asks is to be left alone to enjoy his meager fare and the peace of nature's bounty.

Could it be a wolf howling at your door?

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

And Coywolves, too.

At least that what this study out of Albany, NY says. This could go along way to explaining the size of the "coyotes" around the Bolt Hole in the southwest Adirondacks. Some resemble wolves as noted by folks who know what a wolf looks like.

[Dr. Roland] Kays and his col­leagues [of the New York State Mu­seum] suggest that hybridi­zation with wolves allowed coyotes to rapidly evolve into an animal well adapted to colonizing the East. Being larger and better able to prey on deer than coyotes that took the southerly, wolf-free route, they ex­panded their range up to five times faster, which explains why coyotes did not show up in the Southeast until long after they were en­trenched in the Northeast.

Aerie Report, December 9, 2009

I spent the better part of the morning removing 6 to 8 inches of heavy, wet snow off the deck and driveway of the Aerie. It was strictly shovel work on the deck and I have to report that the use of Pam spray on the plastic snow shovel blade made all the difference. Without it, the snow stuck to the blade like crazy but as soon as I applied a coat of Pam to the blade the snow slid off easily. I even sprayed Pam on the plastic shoot of the snow thrower to help keep the wet stuff from sticking there and it worked equally as well.

I wish I could say the same about the thrower. The poor 5.5 hp Tecumseh engine did it's best but just couldn't toss the wet snow far enough to clear the center of the driveway/parking area without depositing it on another section that then had to be cleared. And that section became pretty darn dense when it got dumped on. I finally had to resort to using the shovel to get that stuff off to the side.

I wanted to get the as much of the snow off as soon as possible because we were supposed to be getting up to near 40 degrees this afternoon (we got to 38) and some sunshine was promised (we got about an hour total split over the entire afternoon). The warm temps and sunshine would, I felt, go a long way toward getting us back to bare gravel and clay. And, combined with one very heavy rain shower about 3 PM, they did just that.

Another thing about a gravel driveway; heavy, wet snow; and a snow thrower: when the ground isn't really frozen, the wheels on the thrower tend to churn things up. Add the fact that this was the first time the thrower was used this year, there were a lot of loose stones on the surface that got picked up and tossed by the thrower. Most were small and moved through without a hitch, but at the very end of the job, two pretty large stones got picked up and wedged in the thrower's blades snapping the shear pins. As I said, however, it was at the very end of the job so I just put the thrower away and got Terry and the shovels to complete the cleanup.

Once done, I went to remove the stuck stones and replace the shear pins only to find I had broken two and had only one replacement. Time for a ride. Off to Sears to pick up a couple 4-packs of shear pins. (The only got 4-5 inches of the white stuff down below before it switched to rain/sleet. And it was 44 degrees along Route 6 as I headed toward Wellsboro as opposed to 36-37 at the Aerie.) Back home, I had to hammer one of the wedged rocks free before I could replace the shear pins but I got the job done. The valiant machine now awaits the next storm.

Meanwhile, the weather station has issued a wind advisory for our area until tomorrow morning. We could get gusts of 40 mph, they say. These will be from the north-northwest and will bring seriously cold air our way. The low tonight will be in the 20s but Thursday, Friday and Saturday night it could get to the low teens with continued strong winds.

The winds have already shifted. This morning they were coming out of the south-southwest. As I type, they are coming out of the west. When they switch to the northwest, we're gonna get chilly.

I've not looked at today's news much. Might have more to say later, but that's all for now.

Target rich environment...

That's what we are faced with right now. Choosing just one or even two things going on in our world economically, politically, socially, or scientifically is damn near impossible. There are just too many to choose from.

You've got Obama's jobs summit attended by unions and not chamber of commerce members and now with a NEW! and IMPROVED! Jobs Program (no thanks to the GOP who created this mess, he says). And, as an added bonus, despite having rung up a gazillion dollars in debt in less than a year, President Obama wants us to spend our way out of the current recession.

There's Harry Reid over there saying stupid things--but that's not news.

The best and the brightest are protecting us at the TSA. They're just not doing so well at protecting their manuals. You know, the ones on screening procedures at airports.

And Rep. Charlie Rangel (who occasionally forgets to pay his tax bills, what property he owns--and what islands it's on--and how many rent controlled apartments he has) is meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (who also forgets to pay his taxes on occasion) to reform our tax code. You can't make this stuff up.

We've got international leaders (?) meeting in Copenhagen to hammer out a deal on Anthropogenic Global Warming while a hell of a blizzard rips through the heartland of the USA. One U.N. representative says the period from 2000 to 2009 may well be the "warmest decade on record."

Dr. James Hansen trying to pump up the hype on AGW ("We're all gonna DIE!") Oh, and he wants to promote his book while he's at it. The man really should be fired from NASA.

The EPA saying CO2 (necessary for plants and a natural by product of all living things on earth) at 0.03 % of the atmosphere is such a dire, foul substance that it must be regulated as a hazard to human life.

I refuse to bring up Tiger Woods' peccadilloes. Or the cancellation of "As The World Turns" after 76 years on the tube.

Or this out of North Carolina: NC woman accused of selling moonshine at day care. I bet the little nippers took long naps.

Or this story out of Germany: Coffee tax collection costs dwarf revenue (At first glance I thought it was a story about demitasse, it is not. It's about spending more to collect taxes than, well, the taxes amount to. Stupidity knows no bounds.)


So I'll stick to the weather.

Speaking of which: Must have been cold in Boise, Idaho: Boise firefighters rescue boy whose tongue was stuck to metal pole. ya know, you can show kids that this happens--and that it hurts--over and over again but there's always going to be some fool to come along with a triple-dog-dare-ya and WHAM! next thing you know it's time for a little warm water and gentle pulling.

Here at the Aerie, we are looking at 2-4 inches of snow turning to freezing rain with a 1/10 of an inch of ice accumulation before it switches to all rain tomorrow. (I hope they're right about that! Could be a first this week...but it is only Tuesday/Wednesday.)

CO2 A danger to human health

In case you haven't seen it yet, the US EPA has deemed CO2 (along with a number of other naturally occurring greenhouse gases) a danger to human health. (EPA: Greenhouse gases endanger human health)

Such an action paves the way for the EPA to write rules restricting the emission of said gases without any input by--well--anybody. The rules they are expected to approve will create havoc within our economy while doing absolutely nothing positive.



The EPA served a purpose once upon a time. Clean water, clean air are all something to strive for but this dictate is something well beyond its original mandate.

Aerie Report, December 7, 2009

It dropped down to 20 degrees again last night. It's now "up" to 27 at the Aerie at 1:30 PM. Weather.com says it's 31 wherever they've got their station and AccuHunch agrees. Both say we'll get up to 36 but, with overcast skies and precious little wind, I don't see it happening. The radio forecaster says we'll get some more snow late afternoon tomorrow and that it will transition to freezing rain overnight and then all rain on Wednesday. We'll see.

UPDATE: AccuHunch now says 1-3 inches tomorrow afternoon into the night. Then, they say, it will be flurries and sleet on Wednesday. Feh.

UPDATE 2: It's just after 4 PM and it's snowing. Not supposed to be happening. Never did get above 27 degrees. Double "feh" plus.

******

Terry's stitching clubs have started their Christmas parties at she made a big pot of vegetarian chili for today's event. I hope they leave some for us to add a bunch of venison chop meat to for tonight's dinner.

UPDATE: Half a pot came home! Yipee!

******

There were three windmills turning earlier today but they came to a stop despite some breeze still blowing. A couple of them have been doing that the last few days. Intermittent operations seem to be the norm at the moment. Makes me think that the crews are just running tests on them and that they are not yet ready to be put on line.

Even when the closest ones are turning, I can't really hear anything from them. Part of that is due to the rustling in the trees as the wind shakes the branches and part of it is probably due to the design of the windmills themselves. A spokesman for the company doing the installations did tell us that at 100 yards it wouldn't be any noisier than a refrigerator operating across the room. Not bad considering the blades on the things are 75 feet long. And the closet windmill is between 400 and 500 yards away and slightly over the ridge, to boot. Only its topmost blade can be seen when it's whirling about.

******

When I walked out on the deck around 1:30 this afternoon I was pleased to see a sharp-shinned hawk come swooping down amongst the little birds at the feeder. I didn't see it actually capture any bird but it sure shook them up! It landed on the garden fence a short distance from the deck and looked over its shoulder at me before taking wing and heading into the pines a dozen yards away. Its presence there got all the mourning doves upset and they fluttered away from the pines and the ground below the deck. The small hawk eventually took off to seek other prey--or perhaps just to launch another sneak attack later.

Let's Go Bowling!

If you’re a college football fan as I am, then you know that the second season is nearly upon us. I am referring to the Bowl Season, of course. Yesterday (Sunday) nearly the entire lineup for this season was presented to us. I say “nearly the entire lineup” because there is still some doubt as to who Temple will be playing in the EagleBank Bowl on December 29th. Should Army pull off a minor miracle and defeat Navy on Saturday, they will be the foe. If they do not, then it will be UCLA.

In any event, I present the matchups as they now stand including the network airing the game and the start time. There are 34 games in all starting December 19th and ending with the BCS Title Game on January 7th. Plan your holiday festivities accordingly


In the BCS games:

Jan. 1 Oregon (10-2) vs. Ohio State (10-2) Rose Bowl Pasadena, Calif. ABC 5 p.m.

Jan. 1 Cincinnati (12-0) vs. Florida (12-1) Sugar Bowl New Orleans, La. FOX 8:30 p.m.

Jan. 4 TCU (12-0) vs. Boise State (13-0) Fiesta Bowl Glendale, Ariz. FOX 8 p.m.

Jan. 5 Georgia Tech (11-2) vs. Iowa (10-2) Orange Bowl Miami FOX 8 p.m.

Jan. 7 Alabama (13-0) vs. Texas (13-0) BCS Title Game Pasadena, Calif. ABC 8 p.m.


In the Non-BCS Games:

Dec. 19 Wyoming (6-6) vs. Fresno State (8-4) New Mexico Bowl Albuquerque, N.M. ESPN 4:30 p.m.

Dec. 19 Rutgers (8-4) vs. UCF (8-4) St. Petersburg Bowl St. Petersburg, Fla. ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 20 Middle Tennessee State (9-3) vs. Southern Miss (7-5) New Orleans Bowl New Orleans ESPN 8:30 p.m.

Dec. 22 Oregon State (8-4) vs. BYU (10-2) Maaco Bowl Las Vegas, Nev. ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 23 Utah (9-3) vs. California (8-4) Poinsettia Bowl San Diego, Calif. ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 24 Nevada (8-4) vs. SMU (7-5) Hawaii Bowl Honolulu ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 26 Ohio (9-4) vs. Marshall (6-6) Little Caesars Bowl Detroit, Mich. ESPN 1 p.m.

Dec. 26 North Carolina (8-4) vs. Pittsburgh (9-3) Meineke Car Care Bowl Charlotte, N.C. ESPN 4:30 p.m.

Dec. 26 Boston College (8-4) vs. Southern California (8-4) Emerald Bowl San Francisco ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 27 Kentucky (7-5) vs. Clemson (8-5) Music City Bowl Nashville, Tenn. ESPN 8:30 p.m.

Dec. 28 Texas A&M (6-6) vs. Georgia (7-5) Independence Bowl Shreveport, La. ESPN2 5 p.m.

Dec. 29 Temple (9-3) vs Army or UCLA EagleBank Bowl Washington D.C. ESPN 4:30 p.m.

Dec. 29 Miami (Fla.) (9-3) vs. Wisconsin (9-3) Champs Sports Bowl Orlando, Fla. ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 30 Idaho (7-5) vs. Bowling Green (7-5) Humanitarian Bowl Boise, Idaho ESPN 4:30 p.m.

Dec. 30 Nebraska (9-4) vs. Arizona (8-4) Holiday Bowl San Diego, Calif. ESPN 8 p.m.

Dec. 31 Stanford (8-4) vs. Oklahoma (7-5) Sun Bowl El Paso, Tex. CBS Noon

Dec. 31 Air Force (7-5) vs. Houston (10-3) Armed Forces Bowl Fort Worth, Tex. ESPN Noon

Dec. 31 Missouri (8-4) vs. Navy (8-4) Texas Bowl Houston ESPN 3:30 p.m.

Dec. 31 Minnesota (6-6) vs. Iowa State (6-6) Insight Bowl Tempe, Ariz. NFL Net. 6 p.m.

Dec. 31 Virginia Tech (9-3) vs. Tennessee (7-5) Chick-fil-A Bowl Atlanta ESPN 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 1 Northwestern (8-4) vs. Auburn (7-5) Outback Bowl Tampa, Fla. ESPN 11 a.m.

Jan. 1 West Virginia (9-3) vs. Florida State (6-6) Gator Bowl Jacksonville, Fla. CBS 1 p.m.

Jan. 1 Penn State (10-2) vs. LSU (9-3) Capital One Bowl Orlando, Fla. ABC 1 p.m.

Jan. 2 South Florida (7-5) vs. Northern Illinois (7-5) International Bowl Toronto ESPN2 Noon

Jan. 2 Oklahoma State (9-3) vs. Mississippi (8-4) Cotton Bowl Dallas FOX 2 p.m.

Jan. 2 Connecticut (7-5) vs. South Carolina (7-5) Papajohns.com Bowl Birmingham, Ala. ESPN 2 p.m.

Jan. 2 East Carolina (9-4) vs. Arkansas (7-5) Liberty Bowl Memphis, Tenn. ESPN 5:30 p.m.

Jan. 2 Texas Tech (8-4) vs. Michigan State (6-6) Alamo Bowl San Antonio ESPN 9 p.m.

Jan. 6 Central Michigan (11-2) vs. Troy (9-3) GMAC Bowl Mobile, Ala. ESPN 7 p.m.

Update on Terry's Doctor's visit

I should have posted this before since I made mention of Terry's follow up mammogram in this post a couple of days ago.

They did a second mammogram and determined that the little blip they saw a few months ago was nothing more than some debris in a duct. So they kicked her tires and sent her home saying she was good for a year.

It was good news and like the main stream media deals with good news, I promptly forgot to mention it here.

Nearly FInal Top 25 (more or less)

The final week of college football is in the books. Only one regular season game remains to be played as Army and Navy will square off this upcoming Saturday. Win or lose Navy will be heading into a bowl game. Not so Army. [UPDATE: Should Army defeat Navy they will become bowl eligible with a 6-6 record and will play in the Eagle Bank Bowl against Temple. Should Army lose, then UCLA goes bowling in their place.]

As you might expect, with the championship play and several upsets there was considerable movement in the Top 25 polls. Each of the teams listed here will be going to a bowl as will about 30 other teams. There are some 34 bowls starting December 19th and running until the National Championship game on January 7th in Pasadena.

(The rankings are from the AP/Coaches Poll/CBSSports 120. Those in parentheses are those going into week 14. Team records are those after week 14 play.)


1/1/1 (2/3/3) Alabama (13-0)

2/2/2 (3/2/2) Texas (13-0)

3/3/3 (4/4/4) TCU (12-0)

4/4/4 (5/5/5) Cincinnati (12-0)

5/5/5 (1/1/1) Florida (12-1)

6/6/6 (6/6/6) Boise State (13-0)

7/7/8 (7/8/8) Oregon (10-2)

8/8/7 (8/7/7) Ohio State (10-2)

9/10/9 (12/12/11) Georgia Tech (11-2)

10/11/10 (9/10/9) Iowa (10-2)

11/9/11 (10/9/10) Penn State (10-2)

12/12/13 (11/11/14) Virginia Tech (9-3)

13/13/15 (15/14/17) LSU (9-3)

14/15/14 (17/17/15) Miami (Fla.) (9-3)

15/14/12 (16/13/12) Brigham Young (10-2)

16/20/25 (13/16/18) Oregon State (8-4)

17/16/19 (14/15/16) Pittsburgh (9-3)

18/17/18 (24/23/NA) West Virginia (9-3)

19/21/20 (23/24/23) Stanford (8-4)

20/19/21 (21/20/19) Nebraska (9-4)

21/18/NA (22/21/NA) Oklahoma State (9-3)

22/23/22 (NA/NA/NA) Arizona (8-4)

23/24/NA (NA/23/NA) Utah (9-3)

24/22/17 (NA/NA/22) Wisconsin (9-3)

25/NA/23 (NA/NA/25) Central Michigan (11-2)

NA/25/NA (18/18/21) Houston (10-3)

NA/NA/24 (NA/NA/NA) East Carolina (9-4)

Brrr!

Hey baby it's cold outside!

Got down to 20 degrees overnight making it the coldest morning of the season. and the snow that was supposed to have stopped sorta lightly kept on keeping on. Not much additional accumulation from last evening's 1-1/2 to 2 inches. What was coming down this morning was more along the lines of the lazy lake effect type of snow. Moisture in the air just gave up because it was too cold and became snow flakes. Since there is a gentle wind coming out of the west northwest it could well be from Lakes Erie and Ontario. Now that the sun is out, those lake effect snow showers will be more confined to the lake shores.

Points east of here--the Poconos for instance--got 6 or 7 inches of snow from the coastal storm. Looking at the maps for up in NY, There's some lake effect (1-3 inches) off the east end of Lake Ontario but it hardly reaches the Bolt Hole and might miss Utica completely. (They are still looking for their first 2-inch snowfall of the year. Normally happens early November.)

Anyway, the Sun is out now and we should be warming up to, or sightly above, the freezing mark. Certainly, the sunshine will melt the thin layer of snow on the driveway--won't it?

Week 14 Results

WOW! What a weekend. Lots of close games, a few blow outs. Some great individual performances. And several upsets. Who could ask for more? (The rankings are from the AP/Coaches Poll/CBSSports 120. Those in parentheses are those going into week 13. Team records are those after week 14 play.)

1/1/1 (1/1/1) Florida (12-1) The Gators lost to #2 Alabama(13-0) 32-13 for the SEC title.

2/3/3 (2/3/3) Alabama (13-0) The Crimson Tide made a statement against #1 Florida (12-1) winning the SEC Championship 32-13 in a game that wasn’t quite that close as the Tide dominated both sides of the ball.

3/2/2 (3/2/2) Texas (13-0) The Longhorns edged past #21 Nebraska (9-4) 13-12 for the Big 12 title. It took a video replay to show the Longhorns had one second left on the clock in which to attempt a 46-yard field goal by Hunter Lawrence. The Cornhuskers came T-H-I-S close to pulling off the upset after sacking Colt McCoy nine times. Nebraska was held to just 106 yards total offense on 55 plays but also held Texas to just 202 yards on 74 plays.

4/4/4 (4/4/4) TCU (12-0) DONE

5/5/5 (5/5/5) Cincinnati (12-0) The Bearcats outlasted #14 Pittsburgh (9-3) on Saturday scoring a 45-44 victory on when the Panthers flubbed an extra point in the final minutes and the Bearcats came back to score and make their own point after with just 33 seconds remaining. Mardy Gilyard scored on a 99 yard kickoff return, a 68 yard pass from Tony Pike and a 2 point conversion pass from Pike. Dion Lewis ran for 194 yards and three TDs for the Panthers.

6/6/6 (6/6/6) Boise State (13-0) The Broncos routed New Mexico State (3-10) on the Blue Rug 42-7. Kellen Moore was 19 0f 30 for 272 yards and just one TD in three quarters of work. He left with the score 35-0 after three periods. The TD was his 39th of the year, a school record. The Broncos’ Doug Martin ran just eight times for 84 yards but scored four TDs.

7/8/8 (10/10/10) Oregon (10-2) The Ducks slipped past #13 Oregon State (8-4) 37-33 on Thursday night to claim the PAC-10 Championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. LaMichael James ran for 166 yards and three TDs in the victory.

8/7/7 (9/8/9) Ohio State (10-2) DONE

9/10/9 (13/13/11) Iowa (10-2) DONE

10/9/10 (12/11/12) Penn State (10-2) DONE

11/11/14 (14/14/18) Virginia Tech (9-3) DONE

12/12/11 (7/7/7) Georgia Tech (11-2) The Yellow Jackets edged Clemson (8-5) 39-34 for the ACC title when Jonathan Dwyer scored his second TD of the game with 1:20 remaining. C.J. Spiller rushed for 233 yards and four TDs for Clemson.

13/16/18 (16/18/20) Oregon State (8-4) The Beavers dropped a close one to #7 Oregon (10-2) 37-33 on Thursday night.

14/15/16 (8/9/8) Pittsburgh (9-3) The Panthers lost a heart breaker to #5 Cincinnati (12-0) 45-44 on a flubbed extra point attempt in the snow/sleet with less than two minutes to play. They still lead at the time 44-38, but Tony Pike and crew were not to be denied as they rapidly scored and made their extra point for the win with 33 seconds to go.

15/14/17 (17/17/22) LSU (9-3) DONE

16/13/12 (18/15/15) Brigham Young (10-2) DONE

17/17/15 (19/21/19) Miami (Fla.) (9-3) DONE

18/18/21 (25/20/NA) Houston (10-3) The Cougars had a problem all afternoon with East Carolina (9-4) as the Pirates took the Conference USA title 38-32. That despite Case Keenum completing 56 of 75 passes for title game-record 527 yards and five touchdowns. However, he also threw three INTs.

19/22/13 (21/NA/NA) California (8-4) The Golden Bears got thumped by Washington (5-7) Saturday evening 42-10. Huskies QB Jake Locker was 19 of 23 for 248 yards and three TDs and also ran for another two in the rout. (Washington was 0-12 last year.)

20/19/24 (24/22/NA) Southern California (8-4) The Trojans lost to Arizona (8-4) on Saturday 21-17.

21/20/19 (NA/23/24) Nebraska (9-4) The Cornhuskers saw their chance for an upset over #3 Texas (13-0) sail through the uprights on a last second (literally) field goal 13-12.

22/21/NA (11/12/13) Oklahoma State (9-3) DONE

23/24/23 (NA/NA/NA) Stanford (8-4) DONE

24/23/NA (NA/NA/NA) West Virginia (9-3) The Mountaineers beat Rutgers (8-4) Saturday for the 15th consecutive year. This time it was by a score of 24-21. The Scarlet Knights held Noel Devine to just 65 yards rushing with one TD and had a 91 yard kickoff return by Joe Lefeged and a 65 yard TD pass reception by Mohamed Sanu. A 24 yard interception return by WVU’s Sidney Glover and a last minute interception of a tipped Tom Savage pass by the Mountaineers proved to be the difference.

25/NA/NA (15/16/16) Clemson (8-4) The Tigers lost to the #12 Georgia Tech 39-34.

NA/25/NA (22/19/23) Utah (9-3) DONE

NA/NA/20 (NA/NA/25) Northwestern (8-4) DONE

NA/NA/22 (NA/NA/NA) Wisconsin (9-3) The Badgers played at Hawaii (6-7) Saturday night. They really, really enjoyed their trip as they thumped the Rainbow Warriors 51-10. John Clay rushed for 172 yards and three TDs as the Badgers rolled up 554 yards of offense.

NA/NA/25 (NA/NA/NA) Central Michigan (11-2) The Chippewas beat Ohio (9-4) 20-10 for the Mid American Championship Game Friday night.

On a side note:

Thus far only Eastern Michigan (0-12) has failed to achieve even one victory in the 2009 season. The Eagles hardly soared as they are ranked 119 out of 120 in the CBSSports120 rankings.

Number 120? That would be Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The Hilltoppers have one more chance for a W as they play the 3-and-8 Arkansas State Red Wolves in their final game of the season on Saturday. As Chris Berman says on ESPN, “Everyone deserves at least one win. No one should go 0-for-the-season.” (I’m paraphrasing there.)

Let’s go Hilltoppers!

UPDATE: The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers played Thursday, not Saturday. And they lost to the Red Wolves 24-20 despite leading early in the second half 20-3. The winning score was on a sack, fumble and 27 yard return of same for a TD.*sigh*

Aerie Report, December 5, 2009

I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM, ate breakfast, got geared up and headed out to the woods. It was dead calm at 6:45 AM as I went out and the temperature had dropped down to 28 degrees. The sky was overcast and snow flurries were promised for the afternoon.

I took my seat and waited. And waited. And waited. The temperatures fell through the morning but there would be no new venison falling to the turf.

At 11 AM--after seeing nothing but one other hunter crossing the top of my property--I headed back to the Aerie.

******

Why return to the Aerie by noon? Two reasons really: Pitt vs Cincinnati and Rutgers vs West Virginia.

The first was a high scoring affair with Cincinnati eventually prevailing by virtue of a Pitt missed extra point 45-44. Not much defense there!

The second was a heart breaker if you're an RU fan. The Knights lost to WVU for the 15th consecutive year. The final was 24-21 and there was a lot of defense in this one. Each team had to punt nine times. RU returned one kickoff for a TD. WVU returned one of two interceptions for a TD. Neither team got more than 280 yards of offense. Noel Devine got 65 yards rushing for the Mountaineers--the same amount as the entire RU running squad. Tom Savage got sacked five times for minus 33 yards on the ground.

Both games were played on sloppy fields with rain, sleet and snow falling throughout.

West Virginia will be going to the Gator Bowl to be played on January 1st. Rutgers is also bowl-bound but we'll probably have to wait until Sunday night to find out where.

******

Speaking of snow.... We got our third measurable amount of snow here at the Aerie. It started son after I got back to the house after my morning hunt. A fine, light snow fell all afternoon yielding one to two inches by dark. It looks like it's stopped now, but it continues from a short distance east of here to the eastern seaboard. All afternoon, the temperatures fell slowly so that it is now 25 degrees.

Some one pointed out on TV today, that Houston, TX had two inches of snow before Syracuse, NY. Then again, there are towns on the shores of Lake Erie that have had over a foot of lake effect snow. Go figure.

Interesting...

ADDED: The End of the Line for Climate Hysteria? Read the whole thing.

Heh?

The AGW meme must be imploding big time:

Gore cancels on Copenhagen lecture – leaves ticketholders in a lurch

Or maybe Gore just didn't want the whole thing to be snowed out.

Remember, this is the man with a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his hype work and a bank vault full of weregelt from his proselytizing. This is also the man who has said repeatedly that "the science is settled" and refuses to debate any one of the many, many scientists who believe he is in error.

Thank goodness for Florida 2000!

(as seen at Watt's Up With That)

Oh my!

Under the heading of "Be careful what you wish for..."

Antarctica may heat up dramatically as ozone hole repairs, warn scientists

The hole in the Earth's ozone layer has shielded Antarctica from the worst effects of global warming until now, according to the most comprehensive review to date of the state of the Antarctic climate. But scientists warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea-level increases of up to 1.4m.

Let me first say that I sincerely doubt that the ice cap will melt if the average temperature rises just 3 degrees C. It will still be freakin' cold! They don't get many days above 0 degrees C on Antarctica but they get an awful lot of them at minus 20 and minus 30 degrees C.

My second thought is if the temperature did rise, wouldn't that allow for more evaporation and eventually precipitation? The place is a desert now getting only a meager amount of snow each year. More precipitation would mean more snow replacing the melting ice on the edges of the continent.

Third, wasn't it just a few short years ago that scientist screamed that we had to do something to shrink the ozone hole or we would all fry under the sun's brutal UV rays?

Yeah, I thought so.

A perfect example of why no one should be jumping to "do something" about AGW. Which doesn't exist. Or any global warming which hasn't existed for the last 11 years picture of polar bears on ice floes or not.

Repeat after me: There is no AGW

Oh for crying out loud! Let's just call these: "Stuck on Stupid!"


Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate'
This in response to a call by Sen. Inhofe to investigate the scientists for possible fraud since they 1) fudged data, 2) destroyed the original data, 3) violated FOI laws, 4) apparently trashed the peer review process, etc., etc., etc.

Sen. Kerry sees 'definite Republican votes' for climate change legislation
(But he's not naming names. sounds like a strawman to me. "They" will vote for it so you should to.)

Obama Science Adviser Urges Climate Action Amid Uproar

The adviser, John Holdren, said scientists generally are capable of defensiveness, bias and "misbehavior." But he said the meaning of some of the statements in the emails isn't clear, and that the significance of others has been exaggerated.

Human activity is "beyond any reasonable doubt" the primary cause of warming temperatures, Mr. Holdren said.

Mr. Holdren's comments drew a unanimously supportive response from Democrats

I guess there's too much power and money to let a little thing like fraudulent "science" get in the way.

******

Perhaps the folks still clinging bitterly to their AGW should listen to some real scientists. This is especially true for Senators Kerry and Boxer as well as Carol Browner (one of Omaba's czars dealing with global warming) who has said she will stick with the 2500 scientists promoting Anthropogenic Global Warming. Most of whom have either direct connections to the East Anglia Climate Research Unit or who have used the same fudged data.

Flawed climate data

Steve [McIntyre] and I [Ross McKitrick] showed that the mathematics behind the Mann Hockey Stick were badly flawed, such that its shape was determined by suspect bristlecone tree ring data. Controversies quickly piled up: Two expert panels involving the U.S. National Academy of Sciences were asked to investigate, the U.S. Congress held a hearing, and the media followed the story around the world.

The expert reports upheld all of our criticisms of the Mann Hockey Stick, both of the mathematics and of its reliance on flawed bristlecone pine data. One of the panels, however, argued that while the Mann Hockey Stick itself was flawed, a series of other studies published since 1998 had similar shapes, thus providing support for the view that the late 20th century is unusually warm. The IPCC also made this argument in its 2007 report. But the second expert panel, led by statistician Edward Wegman, pointed out that the other studies are not independent. They are written by the same small circle of authors, only the names are in different orders, and they reuse the same few data climate proxy series over and over.

Go read the whole thing for a clearer definition of "circle jerk."

CLIMATE CHANGE 'FRAUD'

THE scientific consensus that mankind has caused climate change was rocked yesterday as a leading academic called it a “load of hot air underpinned by fraud”.

Professor Ian Plimer condemned the climate change lobby as “climate comrades” keeping the “gravy train” going.

Professor Plimer wrote Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, The Missing Science wherein he goes into great detail as to what the climate "experts" missed in their investigation into global warming as they rushed to pronounce it "Anthropogenic" (man-made) in nature and that "the science is settled." (BTW Professor Plimer freely admits the Earth has warmed over the last 18,000 years and, more specifically since around 1800 AD. That's what happens after an ice age.)

Aerie Report, December 2, 2009

There's not much to report on at the Aerie.

I've been watching them make progress on the three windmills across the way. They got one of them up and running early this afternoon. Wouldn't know it was spinning if you weren't watching it. Totally silent as far as I can tell. A second was turned to face the wind but it hadn't yet been let loose to do it's thing yet. Both have blinking red light to ward of any planes stupid enough to be flying that low. Still, the blades reach some 75 feet above the lights. I imagine all three will be churning out the watts by tomorrow night. Most of those alone the ridge east of here and into Bradford County are already online.

I spent part of the day composing our annual Christmas letter while Terry has been addressing the cards. They'll get into the mail in the next day or so. We've already received one card from an old girlfriend of Terry's.

******

An hour with the Kitchen Aid yesterday turned out ten pounds of ground venison for the freezer. It's remarkable lean meat since the deer, unlike the cow, stores its fat beneath the skin and isn't marbled like beef. Tastes great in spaghetti sauce or in tacos but it makes a poor hamburger without more fat.

Add the ten pounds of stew meat chunks, all the steaks, fillets and roasts and we could live high on the buck for quite a while.

******

Terry has a follow-up mammogram tomorrow over at the hospital in Sayre. They'll take a second look at a small lump they found and investigated six months ago and determine a course of treatment if any is necessary.

******

It's been around 40 degrees all day with a leaden sky for much of the time. Rain finally started falling around 4:30 PM and will last much of the night. The guy on the boob tube says it will be heaviest around 4 AM but will end before 7 AM. Then the temperatures will drop...again...into the 30s for the rest of the week.

******

I'll be headed back into the workshop tomorrow to work on another wooden quilt square. I hope I cut the strips to the right width this time since I don't have any spare wood to use if I goofed. When the square is done, I might turn to the scroll saw to do some patterns I've got for ornaments/hangers. That is, if I don't grab the rifle to hit the woods in hopes of filling my doe tag.

******

Speaking of hunting. Things have really quieted down from opening Monday. Hardly any shots were heard today. I guess that's to be expected since the kids are back in school and the dads are probably going back to work for a few days. I know the number of guys at the camp down the hill has decreased and the deer (or was it two?) they had on their meat pole has (have?) disappeared. I expect Saturday will be another big day as will a week from Saturday which is the final day of the season.

******

Well, that's about all I got on the home front for now.

I don't watch TV, but...

Jon Stewert on Climategate



If you've lost Jon Stewert, you've lost the battle.

Just say no to Copenhagen and Cap and Tax

BCS Ranks Post Week 13

The BCS Ranks after Week 13 show little change at the top. Georgia Tech and Pitt dropped out of the Top 10 as might be expected after their losses over the weekend. The Top 3 solidified their positions going into the big showdown between #1 and #2 this week. That leaves #4 TCU and #5 Cincinnati with little to no chance of getting into a National Title game. I mean, either Florida or Alabama is in--unless they manage to play to a tie with a negative score or a jihadist blows up both team busses prior to the game. As for Texas? The Longhorns play Nebraska for the Big 12 Championship. The Cornhuskers may have been able to corral the Buffaloes of Colorado last week, but the Longhorn is a whole ‘nother critter. Unless there's a lot of swine flu on the Texas campus this week, they will play for the National Title against the SEC Champ.


1 Florida 0.987

2 Alabama 0.951

3 Texas 0.928

4 TCU 0.869

5 Cincinnati 0.855

6 Boise State 0.81

7 Oregon 0.734

8 Ohio State 0.688

9 Iowa 0.603

10 Georgia Tech 0.581

11 Penn State 0.55

12 Virginia Tech 0.538

13 LSU 0.514

14 Brigham Young 0.439

15 Pittsburgh 0.41

16 Oregon State 0.407

17 Miami (Fla.) 0.384

18 Southern California 0.357

19 California 0.239

20 Oklahoma State 0.225

21 Houston 0.22

22 Nebraska 0.149

23 West Virginia 0.14

24 Stanford 0.12

25 Utah 0.071

Week 14 Top 25 (more or less) and their opponents

Heading into Week 14 (and the final week except for the Army-Navy Game) we see lots of shifting around in the rankings once you get past those in the top 6 teams—which all remain undefeated. That, at least will change when #1 Florida plays #2 Alabama Oklahoma State (now #22 from #11) and Clemson (now #25 down from #15) fell the most after big upsets last week. Both have a chance to redeem themselves against higher ranked opponents this week. Lots of conference titles on the line this week, too, as well as bowl slots. Should be some good football on store. (The rankings are from the AP/Coaches Poll/CBSSports 120. Those in parentheses are those going into week 13. Team records are those after week 13 play.)

1/1/1 (1/1/1) Florida (12-0) The Gators play #2 Alabama for the SEC title.

2/3/3 (2/3/3) Alabama (12-0) The Crimson Tide squares off against #1Flroida in the SEC Championship game.

3/2/2 (3/2/2) Texas (12-0) The Longhorns will play #21 Nebraska (9-3) for the Big 12 title.

4/4/4 (4/4/4) TCU (12-0) DONE

5/5/5 (5/5/5) Cincinnati (11-0) The Bearcats play at #14 Pittsburgh (9-2) on Saturday.

6/6/6 (6/6/6) Boise State (12-0) The Broncos will play New Mexico State (3-9) on the Blue Rug on Saturday.

7/8/8 (10/10/10) Oregon (9-2) The Ducks host #13 Oregon State (8-3) on Thursday night.

8/7/7 (9/8/9) Ohio State (10-2) DONE

9/10/9 (13/13/11) Iowa (10-2) DONE

10/9/10 (12/11/12) Penn State (10-2) DONE

11/11/14 (14/14/18) Virginia Tech (9-3) DONE

12/12/11 (7/7/7) Georgia Tech (10-2) The Yellow Jackets play Clemson (8-4) for the ACC title.

13/16/18 (16/18/20) Oregon State (8-3) The Beavers play at #7 Oregon (9-2) on Thursday night.

14/15/16 (8/9/8) Pittsburgh (9-2) The Panthers will host #5 Cincinnati (11-0) on Saturday.

15/14/17 (17/17/22) LSU (9-3) DONE

16/13/12 (18/15/15) Brigham Young (10-2) DONE

17/17/15 (19/21/19) Miami (Fla.) (9-3) DONE

18/18/21 (25/20/NA) Houston (10-2) The Cougars face East Carolina (8-4) for the Conference USA title.

19/22/13 (21/NA/NA) California (8-3) The Golden Bears play at Washington (4-7) Saturday evening.

20/19/24 (24/22/NA) Southern California (8-3) The Trojans host Arizona (7-4) on Saturday.

21/20/19 (NA/23/24) Nebraska (9-3) The Cornhuskers face #3 Texas (12-0) for the Big 12 title.

22/21/NA (11/12/13) Oklahoma State (9-3) DONE23/24/23 (NA/NA/NA) Stanford (8-4) DONE

24/23/NA (NA/NA/NA) West Virginia (8-3) The Mountaineers play at Rutgers (8-3) at noon on Saturday.

25/NA/NA (15/16/16) Clemson (8-4) The Tigers face #12 Georgia Tech for the ACC title.

NA/25/NA (22/19/23) Utah (9-3) DONE

NA/NA/20 (NA/NA/25) Northwestern (8-4) DONE

NA/NA/22 (NA/NA/NA) Wisconsin (8-3) The Badgers play at Hawaii (6-6) this weekend.

NA/NA/25 (NA/NA/NA) Central Michigan (10-2) The Chippewas host Ohio (9-3) in the Mid American Championship Game Friday night.


On a side note:
Thus far only Eastern Michigan (0-12) has failed to achieve even one victory in the 2009 season. The Eagles hardly soared as they are ranked 119 out of 120 in the CBSSports120 rankings.

Number 120? That would be Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The Hilltoppers have one more chance for a "W" as they host the 3-and-8 Arkansas State Red Wolves in their final game of the season on Saturday. As Chris Berman says on ESPN, “Everyone deserves at least one win. No one should go 0-for-the-season.” (I’m paraphrasing there.) Let’s go Hilltoppers!

Who Dat!

Can any team stop the Saints? It sure didn't look like it last night! If my hearing didn't deceive me, I thought I heard the announcers say that there have been 19 (!) different guys to score for the Saints this year. NINETEEN! That's an amazing number. Yet they have no runner who has come close to rushing for 1,000 yards (Pierre Thomas leads with 648) or receiver close to 1,000 yards (Marques Colston has 808 yards and may make that 1K mark in the final five games). They currently rank #1 in rush defense and #31 in pass defense (probably because their opponents can't run and are usually way behind) for a #22 ranking in over all defense. But offensively...ah, offensively they are #2 in rushing offense and #5 in passing offense for a combined ranking of #1, baby.

So we now have two teams that are 11-0. While the Indy Colts have had some cardiac finishes, the closest any one has come to beating the Saints was in game 9 when the St. Louis Rams came within five points 28-23 thanks to three New Orleans' turnovers.

Atlanta at 6-5 and Dallas at 8-3 are the only teams remaining on the Saints schedule with a winning record at this time. They beat Atlanta on November 2 by a score of 35-27 in the Dome. They play in Atlanta on the 13th. The play Dallas in New Orleans on the 19th. They also play Washington (3-8) and Carolina (4-7) on the road while hosting the 1-10 Tampa Bay Bucs.

The Colts host 5-6, but red hot, Tennessee next week and then 7-4 Denver a week later. They're on the road for 6-5 Jacksonville, at home for the 5-6 Jets and then on the road to finish against 4-7 Buffalo Bills on January 3rd. Anything could happen but don't wager too heavily against Payton Manning and his peeps in any of these games. They have shown an ability to be stretched without ever really snapping.

Could we have two teams at 16-0 going into the playoffs? Maybe, but this is the NFL and on any given Sunday....

Aerie Report, December 1, 2009

Welcome to December!

I'm glad I got my deer yesterday morning. Not only were there more hunters afield than today (based upon the number of shots I heard between 7:30 AM and 9:30 AM) but the temperature has dropped like the proverbial stone. It was a rainy 45 degrees when I left the Aerie at 6:45 Am yesterday. Today it was a mere 30 degrees at that hour with very light snow flurries. It seems the temperature began dropping about the same time I was bent over and field dressing my buck. It got down into the mid to low 30s as I was boning out the meat.

******

After the venison gets ground and packaged this morning, I'll have to get back into the workshop to finish one more quilted square for Christmas. Then it will be time to put the finishing touches on the basement steps, frame the utility room door, put up the trim around the chair rail in the basement, build a shelf/closet or two in the laundry room, and do a myriad number of little items here and there. (If one thing is certain, the shelf/closets in the laundry room will get built around the freezer. No way am I going to move that thing for awhile!)

******

Speaking of venison and freezer...In order to make room for all that fresh meat, Terry pulled out a loaf of zucchini bread for today's breakfast and a package of pork spare ribs for dinner today and--based upon the size of the package--tomorrow. That spare rib pack sure looks good to eat, but they sure don't come in nice, neat rectangles now, do they?

I'll try to help out with the space problem by pulling out a bag of blue berries for cereal and ice cream topping. And another half gallon (more or less--mostly less) of ice cream will get moved tot he fridge freezer for consumption.