I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange
Comments
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Sun and Bren- Last summer my daughter and I rescued a snapping turtle from the middle of Route 12 in Vermont. We got it to the side of the road by pushing it with sticks, and then a Vermonter drove up with a box and we got it into a box and down to a river. A box turtle would have been so much easier.
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People after my own heart....I stop for everything....irritating people I'm sure sometimes in the process. Slow down when lots of birds are around.....let squirrels get off the road --- so many people look at them as pests. It is prime time for turtles to roam here. Warm and they love to get out and move around and likely even find " a friend ". We stop and put them off the road.
Even though not so fond of them, we don't disturb the snakes either.....though do have to use some caution for the water moccasins. Mainly what turns up around our yard though are black snakes.....and they just eat other things you don't want around -- filed mice etc. There is a harmony to what is outside and we try not to disturb it too much.
Jackie
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Of all the interesting creatures around us, or ones native to other parts of the world, I think turtles are the most fascinating. I've never actually seen one outside of an aquarium or pet store (maybe they've never quite made it across the 49th parallel) but the shell, the way they move, the sheer "prehistoric-ness" of them always catches my eye!
Jackie -- The sheer ignorance if the TP idjuts just can't be hidden, can it? And as much as the old "establishment" Repubs are trying their darnedest to disassociate themselves from the Teavangelicals (yep, they really ruined the Republican "brand"), at the same time they well know that a formal split would spell the end of the GOP.
It's a bright, sunshiny day here in Niagara! Hope you're all enjoying fine spring weather.
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Morning Gal Pals,
Sure is good to have my computer back. I have a good-sized report to get to this morning ... Yay!
I love the box turtles. I move them off the road too. The ones I usually see are full grown, but I have seen some as small as a 50 cent piece.
Jackie ... Black snakes are common here as well. I know they do good, but their size and color scares the dickens out of me. The ones I've seen in the field and back yard were easily 5 feet long. I'm much less nervous about the little garter snakes or the pretty green ones. I do keep an eye open for the copperheads ... haven't seen one yet. Thank goodness for that. I usually don't have my camera with me when I see them, just got lucky with the turtle as I had my phone with me waiting for a call.
Sunnyflowers ... Did I tell you about the time I was on the riding mower and apparently sucked up a big box turtle. Somehow the turtle got stuck above the blades and when I parked the mower back in the garage he fell out the bottom. I was so relieved that I hadn't killed him. I just picked him up and put him back in the field. Sometimes they are really hard to see when I'm mowing.
Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend ... gorgeous weather!
hugs,
Bren
PS .. Hi Carrots! Next time I see you I can bring you a box turtle if you'd like!
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Love the turtle talk. Had me looking up what turtles I might find here in very northern California and there is actually one. The California Pacific Pond Turtle - not that I can admit to ever seeing one. Sadly, they use to sell the baby turtles at the neighborhood dime store in SF Bay Area when I was growing up. I'm sure every one of those turtles met a sad demise in their situation. Those transactions were banned at some point, but probably for the benefit of humans, rather than for the turtle's sake. I want to say "salmonella," but not sure if that's undeserved blame.
C4C - based on what I've read around here and the way Republican primaries go these days, I venture to say the traditional GOPers have gone silent and/or have left their party. While I know that isn't totally true because once in awhile one of the traditional sane ones in Congress musters all the courage he can and speaks out in opposition to the Tea Party. It's just getting rarer and rarer. I think my own Congressman has TP tendencies, but he knows he can't go too far off the egde (like our last one, Wally Herger) or he might lose the general election. It's laughable to watch our local avowed Tea Partiers push their Measure C in our county (to suceed from California). When asked specifics, if it should pass, the best answer they can come up with is "we'll figure it out later." They really are a bunch of thoughtless reactionaries with no idea of the consequences of implementing their beliefs into practice.
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Kam -- Your Measure C folks want all their own perceived "advantages" of secession, but none of the responsibilities. Reminds me of the separatists in Quebec (we've had 2 nation-wide referenda). Yes, they wanted to continue with the Canadian dollar and all the other advantages, but still wanted to run their own show without the big bad federal government telling them what to do. Well, the first nations peoples (native Indians to you) in Quebec decided that if Quebec could separate from Canada, then they and their millions of acres of land could separate from Quebec and remain within Canada! Oops!.
Reminds me of the idjuts in Nevada (Bundy et al) and now Utah. Nope, just like 2 and 3 year olds, they don't seem capable of thinking things through and seeing the consequences of their "wants", instead of their actual "needs".
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Morning rounds were wonderful this a.m. Our great weather is making a fairly quick return now ( I'll likely be complaining of the heat soon ) and kicking myself for not 'really' getting into this lull period. Sigh !!!! Sometimes there just isn't all that much time to 'enjoy'. I'm doing my feral cats as always but stopping along the way to take care of someone's else "beautiful treasures" who wanted to make a quick 4 - day trip to Florida to see her daughter. I'm also going to the Rec Center taking a two hour class and then walking for an just under an hr. afterwards. Then home to try and get us neat, tidy and clean.
Despite it all, it is good times for me. I usually lose weight when I put one extra "chore" into my daily routines. Seems to fool the body into keeping metabolism turned on better. Whatever.....I'm just glad it works.
Sitting here thinking how soon November will be upon us. That is for sure how long we will have to put up with the phony ( shame on Issa and Boehner ) scandal investigations. If we get lucky that bunch will have much more to concern themselves about afterwards. Well, time will tell.
Jackie
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C4C - so how did the first nation's people effectively change the vote - did Quebec vote secession down under threat? Our secessionists have already spoken about having our own currency. Gold!!! Of course, they haven't thought out all the details, like people's federal and state pensions, bills, local banking, currency exchange, value, etc.. The sad part is their proponents take themselves seriously while the rest of us roll our eyes. One of the guys speaking for secession at our last city council meeting is one of the most litigious citizens in town. Aren't the TP idjuts generally against frivalous lawsuits? (It is a county wide vote, but our council held a meeting on the affair and voted 3-2 to NOT support it - well one council member didn't show up - chicken and one abstained - chicken. The two Conservatives on the council.)
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Kam -- The first referendum in 1980 was a 60/40 split. The second vote in 1995 was a squeaker! The federal government chose not to play up the First Nations' threat (much to the chagrin of those who knew the vote could go either way). But now the separatist party (Parti Quebcois) just badly lost the last provincial election and now its support hovers around 20%.
Scotland will be having its referendum (to separate from the United Kingdom) in the fall. I don't know enough about all the politics and economic fallout to comment on the possible result -- whether good or bad. Scotland has been threatening to separate for many years now (Sean Connery being the most outspoken about it!). I trust they've weighed all the advantages and disadvantages, although I'm not sure there are actually very many advantages -- mostly it's the Scots wanting to distinguish themselves from the damn English!!!
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Sorry -- couldn't help myself:
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Alexandria - snapping turtles. Wow, last time I tried to help one to the side of a dirt road near me, s/he HISSED like a dragon, nearly bit the walking stick I was using to help her continue in the direction s/he was going in two - she eventually went BACK the way s/he was coming from.
We have myriad swampy beaver ponds around us, and the snappy turtles THRIVE, BIG, we're talking well over a foot in diameter side to side, and when they don't make it across the road, crows,hawks, and the ugliest bird I've ever seen ( apologies to bird lovers, which I am too) but a turkey vulture is another species ;-) They seem to really like snapping turtle when they're road kill.
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We tried to get the turtle to grab onto a stick so we could drag her across the road, but she didn't hold on hard enough, so we just pushed her with sticks. It's a pretty busy road and cars go pretty fast. The nice thing, too, was saving the turtle with my daughter. We had been fighting in the car - pre-wedding crap - and we bonded together to save that damn turtle.
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Whatever it takes to get back on common ground, eh. Whatever. Interesting that the universe presented you with 'something' that would make it possible.
Jackie
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Heh, I'm loving finding out so many of you are fellow turtle rescuers. I haven't had to rescue a snapper though - I guess I better put a long stick in my car...would hate to lose my cane to one.
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Morning Ladies,
Wonderful stories about the turtles. I love finding them in my fields. Just have to be very careful I don't mow over them.
It's going to warm up today ... maybe reach 80 degrees. Yay! It's been kind of chilly lately.
My work is so slow right now, I am in a state of panic. I applied for another job with a big company doing psych reports evenings and weekends. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I have contacted the company twice already and still haven't heard anything. It kind of sucks that my area of expertise is so specialized, as it makes it very difficult to find any other type of transcription work.
Hope everyone has a great day.
Bren
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rr - if you SAW the size of the snapping turtles around here, you wouldn't even THINK of a cane. Tho I always keep a cane size walking stick, and well as a very LONG one in the car, it was dicey even with the long one. THE hissing was enough to make my knees shake, and there isn't much traffic here, but it was on the way to the dump, our saturday morning ritual, no trash pickup in these small towns, and knew others would be using the road.
EVERYONE here stops for wild turkeys, so they can cross the road in their groups....my favorite is the young ones in a straight line, following Mom across the road, I SWEAR mom looks in both directions to make sure cars are stopped, and then goes first, hops on the stone wall and watches while her brood gets across the road. They can't hop up the height of the stone wall, there is usually a path between where they go.
Lots of coyote out this year, neighbor had a fox in her back field, with babies, can't remember what they're called, but they sure were cute!
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Sunflowers, we don't have wild turkeys here, have to go about an hour away for those. But we do have lots of ducks. They get in the roadway and you have to stop, get out of the car and shoo them out of the road. Some people will drive right through and hit them which is beyond upsetting. There was a coot sitting in the road the other day so we pulled over to see if it was injured. DH got right up to it before it moved off into the grass. It was fine, just liked the warm blacktop I guess. We also have coyotes, not right in town but in the surrounding fields. Only see a fox once in a blue moon. Now I have to go Google for a pic of baby foxes. I bet they are adorable.
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whoa, rr, tho there are many many hunters in our small town, ANYONE who drove and didn't "Make Way for Ducklings" wouldn't be happy to continue living here! We also stop for beaver, which abound, and if anyone hasn't YET seen the PBS program on beavers, do look for it, we really have them to thank for our wetlands, supporting so much life.
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Sunflowers, I don't think the same people drive through the ducks more than once. So far nobody's been shot but they do get yelled at. We don't have any beaver here but we do have muskrats...and for hardy souls there is a local muskrat dinner very Friday during Lent and occasionally at other times...no I've never tried it. DH grew up with it and hated it. He grew up hunting, fishing and trapping. The hunting was deer and small game - he was an excellent shot but suspiciously never shot a deer. (I am not allowed to tell anyone that he couldn't bear to shoot one, so you didn't hear it from me).
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Sun -- Baby foxes are called kits. We have a family living in a huge wooded property just down the street. It's so funny watching mother and kits running down the sidewalk!
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I see lots of wild turkeys in Vermont. A couple coyotes. One fox. An occasional moose.
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I would love to see a moose. - I've never seen one except on TV.
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We have tons of foxes in our neighborhood - both red and gray. DH sees one almost every morning when he is out for his walk. He saw a deer last year - we live about 7 miles from the White House and don't customarily get deer here. We do have raccoons and possums and tons of rabbits in addition to thr foxes. I saw a coyote a couple of years ago, too. I know they are around here - they are seen fairly often in Rock Creek Park.
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RL, we have more deer, raccoons and possums than we need....and skunks. The deer don't venture into the residential areas very often but driving in and out of town we see them pretty much daily. And there is a high incidence of auto/deer accidents in the area.
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We have huge amts. of deer here in our woods. We are at the lake......and there is no hunting here ( though many times you don't see the people....they are there. I think the deer have figured out that they are "safe " in some areas and there seem to be more of the. Biggest amt. I've seen at one time -- probably 35 or 40. They were not in my lane, but over by our mailboxes on the next road from ours.
We have beavers, muskrats, squirrels in droves, chipmunks ( so cute but so fast ) red foxes, coyotes ( we don't see them a lot but hear them at night. Wild turkeys, a few pheasants, possums, raccoons, blue herons that bark like dogs when startled, some eagles ( state protected bird ) geese, and lots of owls.
I have so loved living out here....it seems like it is in the wilds.....but only as we are in a well wooded area right next to the lake. We are staying put too....as long as we can survive. Dh just turned 75 and I am 68, and will turn 69 at the end of summer. We have a while to go, but it does get dicey now and then with the amt. of work it takes. We are surrounded by lots and lots of trees....60 or more. So, it is lots of work, but so worth it to experience nature on a daily basis. Peace and quiet so much of the time. A little heaven on earth.
Jackie
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The most exciting animals we have here are black bears and mountain lions. They use to hunt mountain lions in California, so it was rare to see them. Not rare anymore. A mountain lion went right up onto a lady's porch in town, not far from my old office, and snatched her cat - she opened the door for her cat and that very moment the mountain lion took the cat. He took the cat over to the house next door to the elementary school and had it for lunch. That was the end of that mountain lion. On a stroll around our office back 40, my office mate and I found it's den. I mapped it and it was only 350 feet from my office. (They found a partially eaten dog and cat in the den.) Between the feral cat manager and the Humane Society, they knew which dog and cat they were (small town ).
A bear ran past my bedroom window one night. I could hear the panting and pounding. It was quite exciting! Usually, they stick to the woods, but this one was finding pleasure in the neighborhood garbage cans.
On the topic of animals. My Devon Rex is absolutely, the most fabulous cat I've ever had. So well balanced, so mannered, such a nice mixture of sweetness, intelligence and playfulness. His only bad habit is to treat my other cat as object d'toy. I've pretty much decided I will get another one so he can have someone to wrestle with.
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Kam - i feel the same about my Tonkinese baby. He's great. I wish I had another one for him to play with, but my husband thinks they cost too much. I've read a lot about mountain lions in CA making a come-back - they've killed a few people as well. I like all kinds of animals - but having large predictors too close to human populations isn't good for either. Unfortunately, we've moved into so much of what used to be wild habitat that collisions happen.
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I had forgotten our visiting bobcat. I leave food out on our deck.....in an old washed and cleaned up doghouse to keep it from the elements when they happen. One day I came home ( un-expectedly ) since at the time both Dh and I worked for most of the day hours......and there crouched down by a round raised flower bed in my yard was this buff, fairly muscular looking cat. It took off running the minute it realized I was looking at him or her.
First time I saw it. During mating season they 'scream' for each other. They have about a 25 mile radius ( hunting ground/territory ) so there are months and months that we hear nothing. There are people who would shoot it and think nothing of it...since it will dine on other very small ( your small dog or cat ) creatures. I dislike the killing of anything if you can find another way.
I don't think we have many here and while I admit listening to the 'scream' they make ( something like a woman screaming ) is off-putting, I would hate to think it is gone for good. Maybe coming up in the next three or four months.....I'll keep listening.
Jackie
eta: Kam, the bear would scare the bejesus out of me I think. But, I guess it is like anything......if it comes with the territory, you just pretty much learn to take it in stride.
"Quinn =love".
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All female felines scream when mating -- apparently it hurts like the dickens when the mister pulls out (hope this won't be censored).
As for wonderful kitties -- each of them has its own 'specialness'. My Abby the Abyssinian is incredibly affectionate and would give me a tongue-licking bath all over if I let her! But...she is very much a one-person cat, clever but choosy! She behaves like a dog, always leading me to what she wants me to do.
Toffee, the Burmese, gets the most compliments when he visits the vet. They love him because he's not just beautiful but extremely well-behaved and affectionate with them. But, he's not terribly smart for a feline, more beauty than brains!
But cats don't have to be purebreds to exhibit any of those qualities. In fact, the smartest cat I ever knew was born in a barn and could open any door, and catch the fleetest of animals (he specialized in chipmunks!).
Another lovely day here, and my viburnum tree is beginning to bloom. The scent is heavenly!
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