Flowers in the Forest

 

These flowers are rare and there's only a couple per acre if the forest is just right. There is only a handful of these flowers on the property.

Scorpion

Never seen a black scorpion here in the state before. Lucky this ones small. I should have saved this sample and checked it out further to find out if it's native.

Lots of fungus growing under this piece of ceder. Need to be watching what fungus is growing around here. Need to get a microscope donated.

Tiger Swallow Tails

 

Morning light and fluttering wings. The tiger swallow tails along with honey bees and several other pollinators frying from flower to flower. With it being so quiet here all you hear is the sound of little wings.

Found an old site of mine

Found a old web site. I thought it had vanished with my old crashed hard drive along with many of the pictures. Was surprised to see the pictures when I used film. I put this site together using Frontpage to try the software out since I never used it before and used the templates. Thought I'd post it in case anyone wanted to see some old photos about the time I started this site. Then I was just writing here and posting pictures there.
Out at Bobs at 741.com photos

Still want Mit after he said ....

Mit's been real outspoken when it comes to regulations, he doesn't want any even on the day Chase said it lost $2 billion dollars and that might not be all of it. There might be another billion dollars of fallout besides the stock price taking a dive. Mit said he wants to repeal Dodd/Frank Bill. What I don't understand is why they didn't enact the bill when it was first past. Economist said that the Volker rule would have kept this from happening. Another rule is the Lincoln act, which I just heard about tonight, also would have kept this from happening. Why they put off regulations a year before they go into effect has to be the stupidest thing. I think I'd be really mad if it was my money that was lost because the bill didn't go into effect the day it was signed. I'm guessing that it was so banks could make some shady deals before it goes into effect, such as what Chase did. I heard that one catch phrase, "To big to fail." So far Chase has been big enough to take the hit. I still don't think the Dodd/Frank Bill went far enough and the republicans watered things down. They said that the Dodd/ Frank Bill will put the country at a disadvantage. Seems the trader was in London that cause this $2 billion dollar mistake. So, it doesn't matter where your living if you do unsafe investments. Going to be a lot easier to make the case that regulations do something good. They aren't there because they want to stop business but to make sure that business plays fair and no one gets hurt.

Seems the republicans want you to believe the world of business will come to an end by regulations. I'm sure your happy that regulations protect you from your food and that you don't eat foods that are poison. The republicans have been going after the clean water and air acts so they can drill for natural gas and pollute the air and water ways. Gas wells are leaking green house gas into the air and also leaking into the ground and coming up in streams along with the fraking fluids. Every time you hear a republican say they wants to get rid of some regulations you can be sure they are tied to someone they know and it benefit them. You look at how Chaney wrote the laws which exclude the clean air and water acts when doing fraking. That was a sweet deal for Halliburton who just happens to be it's former CEO. Talk about a conflict of interests while writing the laws. That's like the US Mint having a back door that only you have a key to. Just looking at Chaney I never thought of him as an honest person. Little Bush is also pretty shady. Then all those really wealthy people always have that key to the back door.

Luger, hocked out

Was a good run of 36 years and you did a lot of good before the gridlock. Voters chose a Radical Right Tea Bagger meaning more gridlock. The last wave of Radical Right Tea Baggers brought people that would let the government shut down. They were going to say no and not make any deals. Boehner couldn't heard the cats. One thing people were saying in Lugar's district was he wasn't conservative enough. If you want to keep government working you don't want to elected a radical. I don't believe that this new Tea Bagger will be out crossing to other countries to get nuclear bomb materials away from the world and made into fuel. I think that was a good thing he was doing with Sam Nunn. If voters are going to be electing these sociopaths, I can't see it lasting much longer. The Radical Right Tea Baggers don't do what's good for the country but what's good for them. What gets me is they will say, "I'm an outsider, vote for me." Those same people who have done nothing but hold offices just not one in Washington yet. What gets me about Tea Baggers is they keep talking about the constitution but never have read it. They are made up of basically high school grade people. Maybe I should say non-college attending people. They will vote for people that don't act in their best interests. I can never forget the guy that said, "keep government out of my Medicare." Dude, Medicare is run by the government. Where did you think it comes from? Then they have to show you their guns and say it's our right to arm bears. So when I hear Tea Bagger, I think uneducated hillbilly. I also think they are for getting rid of unions because they are wage earners by the hour and don't think unions do anything for them. They don't want fair costs for medical and vote against anything that the government will do. They buy into the idea that there are too many regulations like keeping the air clean and the water fresh. I'm reminded of a sheriff in tornado alley that said, "The weather is changing and I don't know why." So you elect a rub you get rub laws and non-logical actions.

Fully loaded under wear

The news just amazes me with the people they get on to talk about security questions and stories.

The reporter will ask, "How did you get the info, did you have a spy?"
Guest, "I rather not say."
Reporter, "How did they improve the under wear bombs."
Guest, "they listen to the news and what was reported to improve the bomb."
Reporter, "So, you think we shouldn't be talking about national security secrets on the news because that would tip off the bomb makers.
Guest, "Yes, we need to stop telling the bomb makers how to make a better bomb."
Reporter, "So this bomb doesn't have any metal parts? Isn't that going to make it harder to detect? What airports are safe for the bombers able to get on planes without being screened?

Anyone listening to the news can and most likely does pass on the info and how they are screening people. As they said in WWII, "Loose lips sink ships." Now you just need to watch TV News and everything will be explained. Myself, I think all you need to say if that is a plot was stopped and that's it. Not how they planned to do the plot and how bombs have been inproved and that you can't detect the bomb by scanning. None of that needs to be reported.

Boehner need a guide dog to lead him around

CBS just had a story about lack of cancer drugs. Congress has been working on a bill to increase meds. When Boehner was asked why it's taking so long to get a vote. Boehner doesn't do anything that helps people. He only protects the wealthy and corporations. He also bought stock in the medical industry after the medical bill was past a buy from inside info which is finally outlawed. So when Boehner was asked what he's been doing for the last 18 months he blamed it on Obama. So what, Boehner needs someone to hold his hand. He's suppose to be a leader of congress but it's clear he's not management material. John Boehner's more of a tosser.. What a bunch of slug spit. So that's the best you can come up with, for doing nothing, blame the president, that he needs to lead you around. Boehner your a looser. Quit playing leader and do something for the country. I thought it was rude that another congressman was cutting in on your press meeting but it's just that your a slacker and he had something to say unlike you. The president is doing his job and can't take out time to lead you around. What John Boehner, your  slow on the uptake? Not the sharpest pencil? The presidents out getting terrorist saving the world from melting down. So, what are you doing besides being an obstruction. Then your he do nothing congress's leader. People that elected you must not be very bright. If that's the best you can do is take up oxygen. Spank on Johnny Boehner.

Puppy Girl on the table

FOXES:
I was sitting on the porch steps with my camera and flash. I thought she was coming in front of me and I was waiting but she ran up on the picnic table. She's such an interesting creature and very smart. I don't know if it's just me or why she responds so well to me talking to her. The Puppy Girl might show up and be sitting on the cedar fence or here on the table. It's like they, her and her baby Sprout come by to see me and wait for me to come outside. When I first saw the mother she was sitting in the shadows. I thought it was this cat that would show up every now and then. It wasn't until she stood up and started walking did I see the long tail. It's interesting seeing the foxes interact with the kitties or raccoons and skunks, they all seem to stay out of each others way. My kitties do like being around the babies of any species. How they know which ones are babies and which ones are older. The kitties tend to go to Sprout while mom sits and watches. There are three foxes that come by. The foxes really have strong legs at least they look real hefty. They are bigger then say a dogs legs for the size. It's amazing to see the foxes walking along the cedar fence, such great balance. They are so cat like in that respect. I'm amazed that the flash worked at this distance about 30 feet. I did have the shot setup for a closer picture.

MOON:
News was making a big deal about the moon being bigger last night. It was a bright full moon. They said it was closer then normal but I also heard a report on the radio from an astronomer who said it was only a thousand miles closer so that shouldn't make that much of a difference. I think the atmosphere would magnify it more since the air was warm. The news pointed out it was going to have higher tides because it was closer. It might a little but not anything to write home about.

The vinyl records:
Spinning some vinyl record albums today. Sort of interesting how old that technology is and how far we have come since we first started making noise by dragging a needle in a groove. The first recordings made on cylinders really haven't changed much o the flat disk of vinyl. It's amazing how long a piece of vinyl can hold it's shape. I've never done a taste test playing a CD and vinyl record side by side. It's really amazing that a vinyl record could have the frequency response it does. Now with CD's the numbers tell it to play a note at such amplitude. Expander and compression is all done digitally. From all the different software I've used and the file format that can be stored things are always being improved. I just wonder how much noise is generated using digital since it's not pure analog. I was reading about class D amplifiers where it's more a current control of a digital signal. The output voltage is fixed and you have a pulse wide signal applied to a speaker. Bose seems to be doing fine with that approach. Just playing around with the computer software that's out you can have a whole studio in a computer which can do the same thing if not better then the old mechanical systems. Forget the big mixing boards setup the sounds with software on a screen. Since it's a digital signal it always plays back the same no matter how many copies you make of it.

Something about spinning a record album, it's so personal the relationship you have between the machine and listening. For me I tend to play music on vinyl and really listen and not have it as background noise. There's an emotional component to listening to the albums and a time period when I got the album and the artists. I'm playing Frank Zappa's albums today which makes me think of all the concerts where I seen him and his band preform. Brings back memories of time periods and what I was doing then also. Well, on with my day.

Hearing Mit pander to the public looking for votes, saying what people might want to hear. I'm more conservative then he is and to prove it I'll take the country more backwards then the other republicans.

Today he said, "To create jobs we need to cut regulations on gas and oil." That's not going to make anything but dirty water and air and super fund sites.

We saw what lack of regulations did to Wall Street. Bush cut back the over seeing of Wall Street and they almost took the worlds economy into the stone age. Mit also calls for less government, Bush did that too but after 8 years of Bush the government was expanded mainly Homeland Security taking up trillions of dollars to build up a super American spy network. From what I've heard there are collection places in every state, at least one that is. People trying to find out more did find nondescript business building that were four story tall and went down ten stories. Police are driving around scanning plates on cars to see where people are at any given time. Then there's the GPS in your phone, perfect way of tracking everyone.
Mit's calling for more military spending and a bigger military. Who we going to be fighting next Mit? I remember early in the election race when Mit said God told him to take over the world. What's he going to do, force religion on all of us?

What gets me is hearing reporters asking voters questions about who they might vote for. "Well, I like his values," one woman said. What Mit's got values? He's shut down your job and though you out in the street for a profit, is that what you call values? Then there are the people that want to vote for people because of their religious views. What does that have to do with running the country.

Yesterday Mit said, "There should be 500,000 jobs a month being created." Well only 4 months in the history of the country did that ever happen. People, we just got by world economic collapse. Cutting spending by the government is totally the wrong thing to be doing right now. It's good to cut the countries debt but if you cut spending which causes growth then your going to have a austerity caused recession. Just look at the EU and UK both growth has gone backwards because of cuts. The government is the only thing big enough to spur the economy on which helps create jobs. Businesses are going to be risky to spur on the economy because they are nice guys. Corporations are out to make money for the stock holders and don't care about anything else. There is no loyalty to any county by a corporation.

It just amazes me how so called leader are saying less government and less oversight. That's how we got in this mess in the first place. Banks needed to be bailed out because if they failed every ones money meaning depositors money would be gone because of the repeal of Glass-Steagel Act. Banks merged normal banking with high risk investment banking. If anything the Volcker Act wasn't strong enough. The Dodd-Frank Bill got watered down and is weak because of lobbyist for banks and hedge funds. Finding out that for the most part trades and hedges aren't taxed and really should be. For that matter many of these abstract devices that banks come up with, no one know what they are and who has them. It's like Los Vegas without rules. It's like the bankers and Wall Street traders are dealing cards but the dealer gets to see all the cards and your beating your going to beat the dealer. If anything after this meltdown we should have broken up the too big to fail banks and created stronger regulations. We might get by for a while but this is going to happen again. Why republicans fight to save the corporations and not the country just gets me.

I'm amazed that republicans have forgot their roots which was started by socialist. They used to be for the people and now they are the enemy within.

When it came to health care bill that was just past, they say they want the for profit model yet they keep wanting to cut the safety net for everyone that has lost everything do to for profit medical industry. The medical industry needs to be turned into a not for profit business. Same with insurance, nonprofits. When medicine is for profit they only care about getting paid and not your health. The republicans would like you to believe that people want to have this for profit model but 85% of the country wants a single payer system.

When it comes to corporations such as Wall Street, Insurance and real estate they don't really care if you make it they just want the money. When you hear 401K, you think retirement but your paying for some firm to manage your account and take it's cut four times a year. By the time you retire you get what's left. Then you hear republicans saying they want to do this to social security. They are foaming at the mouth over that trust fund money. They want it and want to bankrupt the systems. What will happen, a bunch of old people left with nothing because we trusted the vanks to be honest. They aren't honest. They have no values. They don't care who you are. That's what gets me about voters that vote against their best interest. In dealing with Wall Street, you have a better chance to be playing a lotto. If there's a way of cheating the people on Wall Street will find a way of taking your money. That's their job, taking money.

So next time someone says I like their values and plan to vote for them. Ask them if they have a billion dollars so you can play with the big boys.

Then to believe that corporations are people is another big lie. Mit stands behind that one and said so.

Have you heard the tea baggers talking like they knew something. When I heard a retired man say I want government out of my Medicare, that proved to me people don't know what they are talking about.

What happened to the republican party? They all have been bought off by corporations. They don't work fr the good of the country. The only way they can win an election is through lies and cheating. The votes weren't even finished being counted when the supreme court appointed Bush president.

It really bothers me that people forgot the George W. Bush years. As far as the start of decay of the country it was started by an actor playing president. Taxes are the price we pay to have a civilazation. All those tax breaks in the tax code are because of the high tax rate we used to have. We gave people breaks so they would do things the government needed to be done. Now with the tax rate as low as it is the tax breaks are still there making it so the wealthy not to pay anything. If the top rate was higher and the tax breaks for the good of the country were there that would be more fair. We need to go back to the pre-Reagan years for what the progressive tax rate was. Republicans want you to believe that it would stunt growth but even in the 1950's when it was even higher the economy did very well. So cutting taxes for the rich is just a lie, it doesn't help the country make jobs.

Right now the wealthy are loaning the government money rather then paying taxes and they get interest on that money. Wouldn't be great if everyone could be treated like that.

Yard Work

Before. The yard after two weeks of rain. It was mowed down before the rain. As you can see by the oak tree near the retaining wall it's three blocks down to the grass.

 After. See how many blocks there are below the oak tree to the grass. I have the lawn mower set to cut about 8 inches above the ground.

A nice view of the trees and road. One of those nice warm days and all you hear is the sound of insects flying through the air.

Deer Friends and ...

 Grazing on the road. The deer know the sound of my car and know I'm inside so they don't move when I drive up. Any other car the deer will run off.

The girls here for dinner of fresh greens.

 Baby Sprout having dinner.

 Little Sprout with mom in the background

Little Sprout with mom in the background sitting down.

Here kitty-kitty-kitty

Daddy Cat getting some rays, lounging in the sun.

Happy Kitty. Must have some trust if he closes his eyes while I'm taking pictures.

 Daddy Cat has a unique orange nose which is a lot bigger then the baby kitties. It's also got shorter hair then Tiggers Baby.

Momma Kitty lounging on the cedar fence

Big yawn and big stretch, it's hard work being a kitty

Flowers of spring

 Lots of pollen. Getting close on yellow. It's amazing all the detail flowers have.

 Field of Yellow. The walkway if full of yellow and the bees are out. There are several types of bees and pollenators that visit the flowers.

 Little Blue Flowers. These little guys seem to come from no where.

 Amazing how compact the flowers are before opening over time to bring in the insects besides bees. I noticed that bumble bees like these flowers and another flower that hangs upside down.

Iris flowers are amazing in that they come up in threes. They have three flowers facing three directions. I don't know if that's to catch the wind. Insects have to crawl over the pestels to get into where the good stuf is.

Click on the pictures if you want to zoom in. The full size is 2000x3000, so you can get in close.

Foxy Girls

 Sprout seeing if it's okay by mom to come up and play.

 Puppy Girl, the mother watches as Sprout plays with Dieter.

 Dieter kitty comes out to play with her friend the little Sprout.

Little Sprout gets a close up. It's really cute how they sit and wait for me to come outside to see them. I've been seeing my little friend for a couple years now. Sprout is just the baby from last year and I think there's aa new puppy back at the den. When I first saw the mother I thought it was a cat that had been coming around. It was sitting off in the shadows and I called to her and motioned with my hand to come over and join everyone and she did. I'm really surprised to see how smart the foxes are. They seem to understand voice commands. Maybe it's just me and my bond with the wildlife they understand me. I try not to take flash pictures because it blinds them, so I take as few as possible. When Sprout was smaller it didn't have the black specs in it's fur, it looked white and yellow only. The other night I had the whole group here all three of the foxes, Mom, Dad and the kid. It really amazes me how the kitties act with the foxes and raccoons because they get close and rub on each other. The kitties are about the same age as Sprout. So, it's like kids playing with the same aged kids. EVen as I limp around my pain seems to go when I'm out with my forest friends.

Baby Fox

Wasn't expecting this tonight. I little baby Gray Fox.  It's at least half the size of mom. Very nervous or I should say cautious. Has the unique markings of the fox. Had to take this shot through the security screen. They aren't suppose to be this far north but the worlds changing. It's going to be adapt, migrate or die.

One of the most impressive Star Trek's is on tonight. Two cultures meeting for the first time trying to communicate but use two different means of talking. One referring to times in history, events of what has happened in the past. A language built on past happenings and their stories. Then there's us. How did we look to them.

"Timba, his arms wide."
"Welcome my Friend"

Oh no not another computer

There goes another computer. Not sure what all went wrong with the 650MHz computer but it said the hard drive cable wasn't there. I replaced the cable and still said 80 wire cable wasn't there. Tested hard drive on this computer and it couldn't see it. That could be because this computers even older then the other computer. Also found out on DIMM was partly bad. Could only see 130 megs out of 256 megs. Was rather depressed yesterday not as depressed today but don't feel all that great with things falling apart. I tried getting on line with this computer but it's been hit and miss. As I've been testing out the other computer and this one I noticed the one that failed power supply gets way to hot. I have the cover off and it should be even cooler but it's baking hot.

Don't know what it is but it seems I'm dropping more things which makes me mad. Almost tripped on carpet area rug something I've never done before and that didn't make me feel good either. I managed to stay upright and on one leg and didn't have a controlled crash. Something about computers failing and life all the sudden just sucking. I just feel overwhelmed. This computers doing a little better with a little more ram but I need much more for it to really work good. I have Ubuntu on this computer and Novel openSUSE on the other. I've been testing out as many type of Linux to see how they feel and look. I think I put openSUSE on the other computer because it was the only thing that worked on it from all the different copies of Linux I had.

Not sure why the blog is working today because it wasn't yesterday. I couldn't sign in and it just sat there waiting. Got farther on this page and with another Google page  Just drive me crazy when things don't work. What I hate is when it does and doesn't work and nothing makes sense.

Sprockets playing cute on the warm concrete getting rays

I'm not buying into that cute crap.

You can click on the pictures to zoom in up to th full size. ( 2000 X 3000 )

Sprout, my baby fox and friend

Sprout getting a bite to eat.

Sprout coming for a treat to eat.

Little Sprout and Tiggers playing together

 Tiggers baby, less then a year old. Was born in late spring early summer last year. She plays like a wolf, runs over to what I throw and looks at it.

No flash. would have been better if I was using Photoshop and my fancy filters. I'm real limited with F-Spot program that keeps track of my photos in a data base. That's Sprout in the front and Puppy Girl in the back, the mother of this almost one year old. She has another baby in her den which I hope to see soon. They are looking off at Tiggers playing with bugs or flowers. Just fantastic little friends.