We’re getting some beautiful weather here in Michigan this Summer. This morning I took the dog and went around taking some pictures from around “the yard”. My dog sitting in the Ranger EV. I intend to write up some impressions of this vehicle. We absolutely love it. It’s silent which lets us putter around the woods looking at wildlife but still a great utility vehicle for moving things around. This picture was taken in the orchard. ...
All photos linked from articles that are public domain or similar. May 20, 2012 is an annular total solar eclipse. The last visible in the US was 18 years ago, the next will be 14 years from now. The path takes it right over the USA and I guess people living in Oz with have a good view too. I live in Oregon, of course it is going to rain. There are some wonderful articles about the phenomenon and how to observe it safely. I remember as a little girl turning my back to the sun a...
Today was a reasonably warm day and very sunny. I used the opportunity to split one of my beehives into two. Here’s how that works. I have a beehive that’s doing pretty well. To split a hive, you take a bunch of frames from inside the hive that have eggs and open celled larva and move it (and the bees on the frame) to the new hive. In a few days, week, the bees will realize there’s no queen and feed one of the larva royal jelly which will turn that bee into a queen. I ...
I live in the suburbs. For over 20 years I lived so far out in the forest that it took half an hour to get to town, and if there had been a storm recently I wasn't getting there at all. Two weeks without electricity was not a burden. I miss living in the forest. Anyhow, I live in town now. My husband and I can't afford to live on our own (damn economy) so we live at a woman's house and trade paying some of the bills for a room. So, for the birds. The last few days the wild birds h...
One thing that usually happens right away is someone says, "She has Tervurens" No, I have Tervuren<-- singular Tervuren are Tervuren. One, two, twenty. It is one of those rare words that single and plural are the same. I guess perhaps because the breed is named after an area in Belgium. There are four currently existing varieties of the Belgian Sheepdog ( Chien de Berger Belge ) - Groenendael, Tervuren, Malinois, Laekenois. Although in other countries the dogs are considered ...
The puppy likes our sons but absolutely adores the 5 year old. It’s a weird thing.
Saw the movie "Water for Elephants", my son rented it for me for a Valentine gift. It was fairly good. Some of the scenes were hilarious, some were tearjerkers and it was a whole lot better than the movie I rented! got "Skateland" cause it sounded like a movie about rollerskating...and it is possibly the worst movie I've ever seen! Mason M mentioned "Firefly". I saw the preview for it about 2 or 3 weeks ago, want to see it. Looks l...
It’s hard to believe that our dog Bailey was just born one year ago tomorrow. Here’s how she looked 1 year ago: At 4 weeks: Here’s how she looked at 8 weeks. Now, fast forward about a year…
On Saturday, a group of us turned out at 9AM for a township clean up of our valley. The reason the township does this is that we are in a beautiful area that seems quite remote once you enter, but is close to town. It's a great place to drive through and enjoy the beauty, and it's a great place to come and dump your garbage. Your garbage may just be leaves or a couple stumps, or it could be large cement pylons, old hot tubs, tires, waste oil or couches. Perhaps 25 of us spread...
My puppy can be pretty disgusting. The things it tries to eat. The things it rolls in. It’s all bad news. And if it’s an indoor dog, it becomes your problem. And I have to say, I’m glad I waited until after having 3 children because when it’s your own child, you grin and bear it as you learn to deal with icky gross stuff. By the time you get the dog, you’re numb.
LOL. The cat (Patches the cat) got her spay surgery today so she was sent home with the lampshade (Elizabethan) collar around her neck. The same type of collar that the Pom puppy here got to wear after her surgery several weeks back. The dog wore the collar for about 10 days before we finally took it off and let her leave it off. She tried pretty hard for a day or two to get rid of the collar herself but was not successful in pushing it off or otherwise escaping it. Not s...
I live in an area of the country where the summer has not felt like summer at all. There were only a few weeks of blazing hot weather, which is nothing compared to last years summer where I felt like it never cooled down. Instead of the heat, there have been beautiful, cool days. The reason for the title of the article is that I heard someone attributing this to global cooling and I just thought it was funny because this time last year someone was attributing the weather to global warming. I'm j...
It's a sad day in the Terpfan1980 household as we lost a beloved pet today. Quite a while back (long before a bunch of spammers came along here offering deals on DirecTV or Dish Network) I wrote an article or two about some of the family pets including a wonderful little green cheek conure that the family had named Jules bird. He had picked up that name because of his apparent intelligence and curiousity, with the Jules name being a variant of Jules Vern the author of so much fame. J...
I am completely an utterly heartbroken. Last night, I came home from work, had a normal evening, ate dinner, fed the dogs, put the dogs in their crates and we headed off to Sasha Farm (a farm animal sanctuary that we volunteer at). Same thing we do every Monday. Nothing different. All the dogs were their normal selves. All ate well, all acted normal, all barked and ran up the stairs when we yelled "bedtime"..well, except Roscoe- we carry him because his hind legs ar...