Monday, January 27, 2014

In today's news cows & sharks

Flatulent cows start fire at German dairy farm 

Maybe those global warning stories have some truth in them!
This one denied having anything to do with it when interviewed

and

And has time for a drink before heading to the hospital!

Seven-gill shark
(the actual shark)

Perhaps I have too much time on my hands today

and to close, a new way to beat the system!
Man gets 300 free airline meals

Sunday, January 26, 2014

The Lazy Farmer

The Lazy Farmer. Being a poem by my grandfather a few year before he died.


The Lazy Farmer

This weather with its ice and snow
and temperatures that drop too low
may suit the kids just perfectly
but I can't stand this kind of cold
if when its zero, I expose
my nose and ears, they're quickly froze.
No longer can my old legs lift
me through a frigid waist-deep drift
and even if they could, I'd wheeze
so much my ancient lungs would freeze.
My sense of balance has grown dull
a hog in ice is more graceful
than me, I either break my crown
or crash-land right where I sit down.
When winter blizzards blanket us
with snow it's much too dangerous
for me to venture out of doors
to help Amelia with the chores
and though I surely wish I could
I do not dare try chopping wood
for fear I'd hurt myself and she
a lone widow then would be.
It's foolishness of me to court
such danger, I can best support
the efforts of my loving spouse
by staying safely in the house
and keep logs roaring in the fire
so when Amelia starts to tire
she quickly can thaw out and then
get back to work outside again --

So please do not blame me
because it fits here perfectly. 

February 4, 1962

Richard von Berthelsdorf

He was around 85 when this was written and my grandmother perhaps 73 She made it past the 100 year mark. Possibly because "woman's work" at Trail's End  involved a great deal of hard labor.
The house continued to be heated by wood, there was no plumbing, and kerosene supplied the light at night for my grandmother well after he passed away.  The house to this day is without plumbing or electricity.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Some end of the year game cam photos

Click on the pictures and enlarge them. 
Not the biggest in the woods, but they sure make for a pretty picture!



I tried playing with the colors a little.






And the elk are still around!

And by request (see below) and a bit fuzzy as I didn't have a long lens with me, a Coyote for Budde!


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Thoughts for the new year


I was looking for the origin of a well known saying and ran across a web site  that had the answer.

Here are a few more I found that surprised me. I had no idea who first said them, nor that they were so old.

Take John Haywood (c.1497-1580)  for example. He was a musician, composer, and playwright and while none of his works have survived, just about everyone has either quoted or heard his sayings.

Of course I am taking on faith the attributions of many of these. 
========================================================================

You can drive out nature with a pitchfork but she keeps on coming back.      -- Horace (65-8 BC)

You drink out of the broad end of the funnel, but hold the little one to me. Fuller 1732

Easy come, easy go.      -- Chaucer (c.1343-1400)

He who hesitates is lost.      -- Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

Dead men tell no tales.      -- J. Wilson (1664)

It is possible to have too much of a good thing.      -- Aesop (c.620-560 BC)

Leave no stone unturned.      -- Euripides (480-406 BC)

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.      -- Washington Irving (1783-1859)

Willing is not enough, we must do.      -- Johann Von Goethe (1749-1832)

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.      -- Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

Good things come in small packages.      -- Aesop (c.620-560 BC

A penny for your thoughts.      -- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Beggars can't be choosers.      -- John Heywood (c.1497-1580)

A rolling stone gathers no moss.      -- John Heywood (c. 1497-1580)

Look before you leap.      -- John Heywood (c.1497-1580)

Wise men learn by others' harms; fools by their own.      -- Ben Franklin (1706-1790) 

And one of my favorites:
Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.     Mark Van Doren (1894-1972)

Wit that I wish you all a Happy New Year.