Bogieblog

Wrong Way News

Apparently someone had too much to drink while they were creating this headline:

Didn't last on the site too long.

H/T Gregg

Good Reads

If you like post-apocolyptic books, and own a device that you can read Kindle books on (phone, Kindle, PC), then you just might want to look into Yesterday's Gone series by Sean Platt and David Wright. there are 3 seasons and you can pick them up a week at a time, or a season at a time. Sometimes the individual ones are free.

This is somewhat different in how it is written and the outcome, but I immensly enjoyed it. There are some characters that you will not like, at first, then you will find yourself drawn to them. If you are squeamish, this probably isn't for you though.

If you have Amazon Prime, I can lend the series to you, just drop me a line with the info I need. Of course, I have no idea what info I need since I've never borrowed or loaned, but I think it is fairly easy. I believe I can only loan it to one person at a time, but since I only have 4 readers, and I'm guessing 3 of them don't read this type of book, I think it will be fine.

Cats are Better

I have both cats and dogs, and love them all dearly. However, that doesn't keep me from enjoying 19 Reasons Cats are Better than Dogs.

Hat Tip Jeff Soyer.

News Shot

The other afternoon, I was watching the local news at noon, when I noticed something odd. They were talking about the presidential candidates and they had this backdrop:

I don't know if you can tell but the shot on the left is crisp and clear. The shot on the right is very blurry like an action shot taken at a very slow shutter speed. There was another instance like that shortly after (I should have taken a pic of it too).

Hmm, now why would a news program pick an obviously horrible picture (one I would delete from my camera if I had taken the shot), out of the thousands of pictures they could use?

Face Off

The other day I had gotten home from some errands and Sammy, the neighbors cat, came to visit. Fuzzy came around from the back yard to be let in and spied Sammy. He walked over to intimidate Sammy (Fuzzy rarely starts fights) and this is a little of what transpired:

Sammy laid down instead of walking away. That ensures there is no "chase" and helps defuse the situation. Notice how neither is directly looking at the other, although they are keenly tracking each other out of the corner of their eyes.

 
Then Sammy actuall rolls over so he is facing away from Fuzzy. This shows Fuzzy he doesn't want any trouble and further defuses the situation.

Fuzzy finally got disgusted, or decided it wasn't worth his time, and decided he had better things to do (eat) inside.

If that had been Tory, this probably would have played out differently, but Fuzzy and Sammy usually tolerate each other fairly well.

Weaseling Cats

Thursday, coming down the back hill from hanging laundry, I found one of the cats had left me a present at the bottom fo the steps to the deck.

I thought at first that it was a young fisher and was worried as that means there is a momma fisher around that could be a problem for the cats (I believe that is why Indy, Tory's sister, disappeared so many years ago - fishers were around and many cats and chickens disappeared from the neighborhood).

Upon further research, I believe it is a young weasel. I didn't find anything that suggested that fishers had a white belly, and plenty of pictures on the internet say that weasels do.

Maybe that is why the cats haven't been bringing me many mice - the weasels have been getting them all. Too bad, I wouldn't mind if the cats left the weasels left alone!

Hovering Around

I just know there would be a problem of texting while flying if these became standard on the roads!

Hey, and the definition of a bike (at least as far as NH is concerned), is that it has 2 or 3 wheels. Don't see no wheels, so don't go calling it a bike.

H/T to Scott.

Shield Bug

I was out in the flower gardn below the fenced area looking at how wild everything had gotten. I was contemplating pulling up some of the milkweed, but the leaves look well chewed, and I've only seen a couple of Monarch Butterflies roaming around, so decided to wait to make sure that the caterpillars have finished eating and pupating.

Arching over the particular milkweed pods / leaves was a rogue blackberry bramble (they are getting out of control in the corner). I happened to look up and see this

There were several more bugs on the same leaf, 3-4 moved off to the side when I disturbed them taking pictures.

I have tentatively identified the bugs as a type of green shield bug, Troilus luridus. If anyone can place a different neam on them, I'd be happy to correct that. Whatever name they go by, the shield bugs are insect predators that will tackle caterpillars and beetle larva.

If I get lucky, I will get a whole slew to hunt up the Japanese Beetle larva. However, I think since they are that close to the milkweed, that they are hunting caterpillars instead.

Tree Felling

Last weekend, the Wonderful Spouse decided to clean up the trees along the power line that runs to the house. There was a large tree that was dying and was leaning towards the house, so he decided to take it down in a control fashion. since it was at the edge of the woods, he couldn't just use notching to place the tree (okay, a professional might be able to, but he couldn't). There was only one direction it could go, and only about a 10 degree arc that it could be laid down in that wouldn't damage the house or power lines. He tied a line to the upper portion of the tree and used the trusty 4-wheeler to pull while he sawed. The results came out quite nicely.

It worked out nicely that I let the lower half of the garden lay fallow this year!

Garden Haul

On the 9th I got the first real batch of tomatoes in from the garden. Also got a zuccinin but I made the Greek Style Salad before taking any pictures. 

Then a couple days later, an even better harvest.

That is an 8 quart box those are in. I processed the tomatoes, added peppers and onions, heated the mixture to boiling, cooled it off, and froze it. Didn't want to add more heat to the kitchen by going thru the canning process for only 9-12 jars; I will do that later when most of the tomatoes are ready to process (or at least when it is cooler).

Tuesday I got another 8 quarts of tomatoes, and gave them the same treatment, except I only added onions. I will add the peppers when it is time for the final canning.

And here is a quiz, how many peppers are on this plant. The plant is only about 10-12" tall and maybe 8" in diameter (heck, my basil plants are bigger than the pepper plant).

This stupid plant has 6 peppers on it. It's brethern are pretty much the same way (in height and amount of peppers). I've never had sweet pepper plants be so prolific - taller and bigge,r yes - pepper producing, no. Apparently they are liking the heat and water (it's rained a lot lately).

I'm hoping the harvest stays like this for a while!