Saturday, September 30, 2017
I Haz A Sad
Today is the last day I can get my chicken salad sandwich at CFA. I was there yesterday for lunch and I will be there today as well. They have given us the recipe, but I doubt it will be the same. First they gave up the cole slaw and replaced it with kale, really who eats that crap? Now my sandwich is gone, what next the waffle fries? I won't be at CFA as much as I used to as I need to find something new to eat there. I was gonna give them up but I can't. The waffle fries and lemonade are enough to keep me coming back. I do like the southwest salad but the bbq sandwich is a no for me, that bbq sauce is to overpowering. I may have to try the chicken sandwich. So for today it is a sad world. I know they said it was not a big seller but...
Thursday, September 28, 2017
D24 and D27
Raptor Resource Project added 2 new photos.
Wonderful news! We have maps from D27 and D24 tonight! D27 is staying down near Postville and D24 is in the Decorah area. While we aren't sure how long D24 has ...been in Decorah, I saw an eagle with a transmitter last week near the junction of Highway 52 and the Upper Iowa river in Decorah. I asked Brett if D27 was in Decorah, and he told me she wasn't. I thought I was looking at a juvenile, but I believe I saw sub-adult D24!
It is wonderful to get postcards from both eagles. Fly high and strong, D24 and D27! D24, don't forget to call now that we've heard from you again!
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Why America Needed Trump
Someone tweeted this to me yesterday...I thought it was a good recap on why, otherwise normal people, are not offended by Trump, even though he confirms daily that he is the crudest of all Presidents. When at war, we need a true warrior - most come with unapologetic mouths and Trump is no exception. I'm convinced his economic plan is desperately needed at this time in our young 240 year history. Saving our country is priority 1! A country who is economically superior, can fight off threats more effectively than a weak, broken down country crumbling under its own debt - I'd say 20 trillion is about the breakpoint...how much are you willing to pass down to your children/grandchildren to figure out how they will survive as a country? 
🤔.
From a friend..
Trump's lack of decorum, dignity, and statesmanship.
My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.”
Here’s my answer:
We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency.
We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain?
We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney?
And the results were always the same. This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.
I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper” about Barack Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party. I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to cover your tracks. I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent. Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.”
The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ‘60s. To them, it has been an all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen as beyond the pale. It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of violence, demagoguery and lies from day one – the violent take-over of the universities – till today. The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety. With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America ’s first wartime president in the Culture War.
During wartime, things like “dignity” and “collegiality” simply aren’t the most essential qualities one looks for in their warriors. Ulysses Grant was a drunk whose behavior in peacetime might well have seen him drummed out of the Army for conduct unbecoming. Had Abraham Lincoln applied the peacetime rules of propriety and booted Grant, the Democrats might well still be holding their slaves today. Lincoln rightly recognized that, “I cannot spare this man. He fights.”
General George Patton was a vulgar-talking, son-of-a-bitch. In peacetime, this might have seen him stripped of rank. But, had Franklin Roosevelt applied the normal rules of decorum then, Hitler and the Socialists would barely be five decades into their thousand-year Reich.
Trump is fighting. And what’s particularly delicious is that, like Patton standing over the battlefield as his tanks obliterated Rommel’s, he’s shouting, “You magnificent bastards, I read your book!”
That is just the icing on the cake, but it’s wonderful to see that not only is Trump fighting, he’s defeating the Left using their own tactics. That book is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – a book so essential to the Liberals’ war against America that it is and was the playbook for the entire Obama administration and the subject of Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis. It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.
Trump’s tweets may seem rash and unconsidered but, in reality, he is doing exactly what Alinsky suggested his followers do. First, instead of going after “the fake media” — and they are so fake that they have literally gotten every single significant story of the past 60 years not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to the truth, from the Tet Offensive to Benghazi, to what really happened on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri — Trump isolated CNN. He made it personal.
Then, just as Alinsky suggests, he employs ridicule which Alinsky described as “the most powerful weapon of all.” ... Most importantly, Trump’s tweets have put CNN in an untenable and unwinnable position. ... They need to respond. This leaves them with only two choices. They can either “go high” (as Hillary would disingenuously declare of herself and the fake news would disingenuously report as the truth) and begin to honestly and accurately report the news or they can double-down on their usual tactics and hope to defeat Trump with twice their usual hysteria and demagoguery. The problem for CNN (et al.) with the former is that, if they were to start honestly reporting the news, that would be the end of the Democratic Party they serve.
It is nothing but the incessant use of fake news (read: propaganda) that keeps the Left alive. Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s church.. Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.
So, to my friends on the Left — and the #NeverTrumpers as well — do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course I do. These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years. So, say anything you want about this president - I get it - he can be vulgar, he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this man. He fights for America! *Evan Sayet*
🤔.From a friend..
Trump's lack of decorum, dignity, and statesmanship.
My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.”
Here’s my answer:
We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency.
We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain?
We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney?
And the results were always the same. This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.
I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper” about Barack Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party. I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to cover your tracks. I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent. Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.”
The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ‘60s. To them, it has been an all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen as beyond the pale. It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of violence, demagoguery and lies from day one – the violent take-over of the universities – till today. The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety. With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America ’s first wartime president in the Culture War.
During wartime, things like “dignity” and “collegiality” simply aren’t the most essential qualities one looks for in their warriors. Ulysses Grant was a drunk whose behavior in peacetime might well have seen him drummed out of the Army for conduct unbecoming. Had Abraham Lincoln applied the peacetime rules of propriety and booted Grant, the Democrats might well still be holding their slaves today. Lincoln rightly recognized that, “I cannot spare this man. He fights.”
General George Patton was a vulgar-talking, son-of-a-bitch. In peacetime, this might have seen him stripped of rank. But, had Franklin Roosevelt applied the normal rules of decorum then, Hitler and the Socialists would barely be five decades into their thousand-year Reich.
Trump is fighting. And what’s particularly delicious is that, like Patton standing over the battlefield as his tanks obliterated Rommel’s, he’s shouting, “You magnificent bastards, I read your book!”
That is just the icing on the cake, but it’s wonderful to see that not only is Trump fighting, he’s defeating the Left using their own tactics. That book is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – a book so essential to the Liberals’ war against America that it is and was the playbook for the entire Obama administration and the subject of Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis. It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.
Trump’s tweets may seem rash and unconsidered but, in reality, he is doing exactly what Alinsky suggested his followers do. First, instead of going after “the fake media” — and they are so fake that they have literally gotten every single significant story of the past 60 years not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to the truth, from the Tet Offensive to Benghazi, to what really happened on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri — Trump isolated CNN. He made it personal.
Then, just as Alinsky suggests, he employs ridicule which Alinsky described as “the most powerful weapon of all.” ... Most importantly, Trump’s tweets have put CNN in an untenable and unwinnable position. ... They need to respond. This leaves them with only two choices. They can either “go high” (as Hillary would disingenuously declare of herself and the fake news would disingenuously report as the truth) and begin to honestly and accurately report the news or they can double-down on their usual tactics and hope to defeat Trump with twice their usual hysteria and demagoguery. The problem for CNN (et al.) with the former is that, if they were to start honestly reporting the news, that would be the end of the Democratic Party they serve.
It is nothing but the incessant use of fake news (read: propaganda) that keeps the Left alive. Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s church.. Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.
So, to my friends on the Left — and the #NeverTrumpers as well — do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course I do. These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years. So, say anything you want about this president - I get it - he can be vulgar, he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this man. He fights for America! *Evan Sayet*
Saturday, September 23, 2017
Friday, September 22, 2017
Craig Johnson
Last night I had the privilege of listening to Craig Johnson for an hour. He is very funny and can tell a story that will have you laughing til your stomach hurts. Don't know who he is, how about Walt Longmire. If you don't know who Walt Longmire is, you should just stop reading now. Craig Johnson writes the Longmire books that have turned into 6 seasons on A&E and now Netflix. This will be the final season. I have not read the books because I was engaged in the TV series and I understand the books and TV shows don't really match up. So I figured when the TV series ends then I will start reading the books. I have always loved Westerns; the movies, the TV shows and the books. Walt Longmire is a sheriff in a county in Wyoming. He is a man's man, a real cowboy. Robert Taylor plays Walt Longmire and is a perfect fit. The reason he was selected for the role is because the author was asked to look at DVD's of possible actors and Robert Taylor was the last one. During the pilot show he goes to a woman's house to deliver a death notification. When she opens the door he removes his hat. That is who Walt is a real gentleman and voila we have Walt Longmire. He is very easy on the eyes as well.
If you have not checked out Longmire it is worth the watching. But you may have to watch the shows several times as there are many storylines as one main one as to who killed Walt's wife. I will be sorry to see the show end, but maybe as the rumor goes there will be a TV movie for each book kind of like the Jesse Stone books.
In case you have not looked up Robert Taylor yet here you go:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853079/
If you have not checked out Longmire it is worth the watching. But you may have to watch the shows several times as there are many storylines as one main one as to who killed Walt's wife. I will be sorry to see the show end, but maybe as the rumor goes there will be a TV movie for each book kind of like the Jesse Stone books.
In case you have not looked up Robert Taylor yet here you go:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853079/
Monday, September 11, 2017
Never Forget
http://www.michellesmirror.com/2017/09/a-great-way-to-never-forget-make.html#.Wbaky7pFzIV
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Tomatoes and Dragons
I love cherry tomatoes especially the yellow ones. I got this one plant of yellow bells and holy crap batman, it is growing like there is no tomorrow, it is crawling over the brick flower bed onto the front porch. I hope I dont go out the front door one day and it eats me.
The Rose of Sharon is finally blooming, I think she got too much rain and not enough sun.
The fennel and larkspur have got a second wind with the cool temps and rain. I have never grown larkspur but i will again. I have a new caterpillar.
This was a sunflower until the deer overnight ate all the flowers about to pop out. That deer sure would taste good on my plate.
The marigolds are providing for some seeds for next year. I love marigolds in all the colors and love the smell as well. This one thinks the grass is greener on the other side.
NO this is not a flower. I was asked to make this little red dragon for part of a item to be auctioned at the Irish Center Gala last week. He is a Susan B Anderson pattern.
The Rose of Sharon is finally blooming, I think she got too much rain and not enough sun.
The fennel and larkspur have got a second wind with the cool temps and rain. I have never grown larkspur but i will again. I have a new caterpillar.
This was a sunflower until the deer overnight ate all the flowers about to pop out. That deer sure would taste good on my plate.
The marigolds are providing for some seeds for next year. I love marigolds in all the colors and love the smell as well. This one thinks the grass is greener on the other side.
NO this is not a flower. I was asked to make this little red dragon for part of a item to be auctioned at the Irish Center Gala last week. He is a Susan B Anderson pattern.
D27 Whereabouts
A lot of birds are on the move right now as migration begins and
juvenile birds disperse.We're hearing about peregrines noisily defending
bluffs, migrating nighthawks and warblers, and concentrations of
red-tailed hawks along roadways and ditches. Interested in what might be
heading your way? Check out Cornell's BirdCast for migratory bird
forecasts and news: http://birdcast.info/
As always, thanks to Brett Mandernack and the Eagle Valley crew for sharing their data with us! If you'd like to dive a little deeper into D27's travels (or any other eagle we've tracked), visit https://www.raptorresource.org/eagle-map/.
Fly strong, D27! Our little eaglet isn't all grown up yet...but she's sure gaining her wings.
As always, thanks to Brett Mandernack and the Eagle Valley crew for sharing their data with us! If you'd like to dive a little deeper into D27's travels (or any other eagle we've tracked), visit https://www.raptorresource.org/eagle-map/.
Fly strong, D27! Our little eaglet isn't all grown up yet...but she's sure gaining her wings.
Monday, August 21, 2017
Clouds
It is Eclipse day, laying out in the driveway about the size of a fingernail left of the sun. It got eerily quiet and the wind completely died. In the distance I hear fireworks and half of my neighbors are out. It had been cloudy most of the day and then the sun came out. The more we laid outside the more the clouds came. It got darker and quieter and then bam there is one big ass cloud. Really you could not wait a few more minutes? I got to see some flares and the cloud move over the sun and the final ring, but nothing else as the sky opened and we barely got in the house before the rain came. Oh well, we go to see some of it so all is not lost and the food my friends brought well, we had quite the feast.
Just as everyone got there the thermostat died so good thing I have ceiling fans and it is not beastly outside or we would have been eating in the basement.
Hope you go to see the eclipse today cos it was pretty cool.
Just as everyone got there the thermostat died so good thing I have ceiling fans and it is not beastly outside or we would have been eating in the basement.
Hope you go to see the eclipse today cos it was pretty cool.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Learn the Lingo
How many times do you come across an acronym that you just can't figure out. If you work for the government they have way too many and each agency has their own for the same letters, it is like you need a dictionary to look them all up. Knitting also has their own lingo, so to keep up with your fellow knitters, her you go:
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
It's A Girl
Many thought D27 was a girl and sure enough she is. They put a transmitter on her and now we can watch her. She was my fav this season, the crazy stuff she did like falling out of the nest, the refusal to fledge and her constat squeeeeeing for mom and dad to bring her food. May you soar the thermals and soar high and may we watch your travels for a long time.
A bit from RRP on her catch and putting the transmitter on her.
Persistence Pays Off - a post by Brett Mandernack about the fitting of D27's transmitter.
It is early August and I have one satellite transmitter (or PTT) yet to deploy on a young eagle. Dave and Ann Lynch spent two solid weeks in late June/early July perfecting their craft of artful presentation of fish to the Decorah fledglings, yet the “kids” instead chose to food-beg loud and often and insist Mom or Dad bring them food at the nest. There was no evidence of any of the fledglings ever picking up a fish during that time. In previous years we’ve had multiple fledglings coming to the same spot – the mulch pile – for some easy meals, and usually within just a few days of watching and waiting for our talented trout tossers to appear.
When visitor attendance diminished at the hatchery in late July, all three fledglings were still being spotted with regularity by several of our sharp-eyed eagle watchers. Hatchery biologist Brian Malaise and I kept in touch often and he and his crew again put fish out in the same spot. Lo and behold, the female, D27, began showing interest and eventually took advantage of these easy meals each morning. One of the males was believed to have also helped himself to the free offerings.
We chose Monday, August 7 to attempt to capture whichever youngster decided to come to bait. My wife Carole, Eagle Valley Technician Ryan Schmitz, and I arrived at Willard Holthaus’s shop by 5:15 AM and quickly set the padam noose trap baited with three nice hatchery trout. Weather was perfect: 58 degrees, mostly clear sky, light wind. All equipment and supplies were laid out in the shop in anticipation of a successful capture. Then we watched and waited. A few adult calls were heard from near the nest tree by 6:05. Then at 6:15 an immature eagle appeared from the west just above treetop height. I speculated it was large enough to be female D27. She landed in the maple tree briefly, then headed toward the mulch pile, looped over that area, perhaps checking out what food might be there, then circled back and landed on the mulch pile. We had placed a small trout atop the mulch pile, which she decided looked like a great appetizer. She rather daintily ate the fish and began eying the three trout just two feet away. She walked inside the padam, grabbed a fish or two in a foot, and tugged at them a few times as we all watched intently. When I was convinced she had a noose around a toe or foot, I gave the call to “GO, GO” and Ryan and Brian sprinted ahead to secure her. She was captured at 6:18, hooded, and taken to the shop where she was weighed (9.48 #) and had several measurements taken. The composite of those measurements revealed she is a small female. The entire process of getting measurements, banding, and fitting of the PTT was fluid and seamless.
Within an hour of capture we were ready to release D27 and begin what is likely the final chapter of the Decorah eagle tracking story that began with our beloved D1 back in 2011. After placing her back on the mulch pile, she quickly oriented herself and flew north alongside the N1 Cottonwood tree to settle along Trout Creek.
A bit from RRP on her catch and putting the transmitter on her.
Persistence Pays Off - a post by Brett Mandernack about the fitting of D27's transmitter.
It is early August and I have one satellite transmitter (or PTT) yet to deploy on a young eagle. Dave and Ann Lynch spent two solid weeks in late June/early July perfecting their craft of artful presentation of fish to the Decorah fledglings, yet the “kids” instead chose to food-beg loud and often and insist Mom or Dad bring them food at the nest. There was no evidence of any of the fledglings ever picking up a fish during that time. In previous years we’ve had multiple fledglings coming to the same spot – the mulch pile – for some easy meals, and usually within just a few days of watching and waiting for our talented trout tossers to appear.
When visitor attendance diminished at the hatchery in late July, all three fledglings were still being spotted with regularity by several of our sharp-eyed eagle watchers. Hatchery biologist Brian Malaise and I kept in touch often and he and his crew again put fish out in the same spot. Lo and behold, the female, D27, began showing interest and eventually took advantage of these easy meals each morning. One of the males was believed to have also helped himself to the free offerings.
We chose Monday, August 7 to attempt to capture whichever youngster decided to come to bait. My wife Carole, Eagle Valley Technician Ryan Schmitz, and I arrived at Willard Holthaus’s shop by 5:15 AM and quickly set the padam noose trap baited with three nice hatchery trout. Weather was perfect: 58 degrees, mostly clear sky, light wind. All equipment and supplies were laid out in the shop in anticipation of a successful capture. Then we watched and waited. A few adult calls were heard from near the nest tree by 6:05. Then at 6:15 an immature eagle appeared from the west just above treetop height. I speculated it was large enough to be female D27. She landed in the maple tree briefly, then headed toward the mulch pile, looped over that area, perhaps checking out what food might be there, then circled back and landed on the mulch pile. We had placed a small trout atop the mulch pile, which she decided looked like a great appetizer. She rather daintily ate the fish and began eying the three trout just two feet away. She walked inside the padam, grabbed a fish or two in a foot, and tugged at them a few times as we all watched intently. When I was convinced she had a noose around a toe or foot, I gave the call to “GO, GO” and Ryan and Brian sprinted ahead to secure her. She was captured at 6:18, hooded, and taken to the shop where she was weighed (9.48 #) and had several measurements taken. The composite of those measurements revealed she is a small female. The entire process of getting measurements, banding, and fitting of the PTT was fluid and seamless.
Within an hour of capture we were ready to release D27 and begin what is likely the final chapter of the Decorah eagle tracking story that began with our beloved D1 back in 2011. After placing her back on the mulch pile, she quickly oriented herself and flew north alongside the N1 Cottonwood tree to settle along Trout Creek.
Sunday, August 06, 2017
More Caterpillars
Today i was looking at my fennel in the whiskey barrel with some larkspur. Hey what is this? I have 2 large caterpillars munching away. I read the adults munch on fennel and the caterpillars munch on the milkweed. I have seen nothing on the milkweed but here are these 2 big boys, looking they are ready to cocoon soon. Maybe I will have some butterflies afterall. On the bottom picture you need to look below the stalk that is pretty bare and there he is. On the top picture look under the top spead of seeds.
Saturday, August 05, 2017
Mrs Wilsons Knitting Circle
Today the lecture was about the silk thread embroidered post cards that were made during the war. These postcards were either mailed or taken home. They look like hankies cut and glued on post cards with the back available for a note to send home. They are beautiful and so delicate in intricate. I don't think I could do this kind of work. Th colors of the different countries that were our allies are used in the decorations. There are several butterflies and they have the different flag colors in their design.
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