General Discussion, Friday, April 15, 2016

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Stella

night-sky-stars-milky-way-photography-36__880

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130 Responses to General Discussion, Friday, April 15, 2016

  1. czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
    April 15, 2016 at 12:11 am

    Just walking by….honest

    Liked by 6 people

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  2. MaryfromMarin's avatar MaryfromMarin says:
    April 15, 2016 at 12:15 am

    You have the eye, stella.

    Liked by 7 people

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  3. czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
    April 15, 2016 at 12:16 am

    We have a period, just before sundown, where all wind stops and the lake turns glass smooth. The sky and the woods on the north shore will reflect off the lake just like a mirror. Only lasts until the evening winds pick up, about two stiff drinks in beer mugs, but it makes the day.

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    • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
      April 15, 2016 at 12:36 am

      Also, on a clear and moonless night we can see the lens of the Milky Way as clearly as we could years ago out west. In twenty-five yeras in New Orleans the only time I ever saw the stars was when Katrina knocked out all of the power. Forgot how much we missed them.

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      • Menagerie's avatar Menagerie says:
        April 15, 2016 at 7:50 am

        If there were no other advantages to country life, the moments leading to sunset and the night sky would make it all worth it. Okay, I also kinda like hearing roosters crow, and the early morning mooing of the cows, the geese honking, the birds waking up. Morning in the country brings the various species into a crescendo of beauty that culminates with the dawn of another day.

        I guess I should just admit it. I love country life.

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        • michellc's avatar michellc says:
          April 15, 2016 at 9:31 am

          One of my brothers married a city girl and they raised city kids, one of their kids and their city family came to spend the weekend with us a few years back. After they got the kids to bed and we were sitting around the kitchen table talking my niece said, “I’ve never understood how you can stand this?” I asked her what she was talking about and she said, “this, total silence, it’s like it gets dark and everything just dies, it’s really creepy.”
          I told her to listen it wasn’t totally quiet, you can hear the frogs croaking and the crickets chirping and the owls hooting. Then she said, “why would you want to? It’s even creepier.” I told her my brother ruined her.

          The next morning when they came down for breakfast, long after we’d been up and finished chores, I asked how they had slept and her husband said he had to turn on the radio for some noise, but then he slept fine until the sun came up and the birds woke him up and as he was trying to go back to sleep he kept hearing roosters, goats, and cows.

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          • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
            April 15, 2016 at 10:28 am

            Strange you should mention that. There are a lot of farm lakes/ponds in the area and we have geese that fly between them all day. Some try to spend most of their time here but at times we’ll have about a hundred. They’ll fly in in small groups at rooftop level, honking until just before they hit the water and if you’re close enough you can hear them lash down. At dawn we’recawakened by our purple martins chattering as they getvreadybfor a day of feeding.
            Neighbors have what I believe are fighting roosters so they’re sounding off all day. Again at night the large lake is alive with dozens of types of frogs while the land aroubd the lake’s joining in with toads, peepers, tree frogs – you name it, it can be noisier than the city but it’s a good noise.
            Around the 22nd we’ll have one of our favorite nights, a spring full moon. City folk forget how bright a full moon is when you don’t have that constant backlight, you avtually cast a shadow you can see clearly. This moon will be during prime amphibian brreding tome and the lake and woods will be deafening. We’ll have the tree frogs and Mediterranean geckos on the back porch, all squeaking and eating our plentiful harvest of bugs.
            We get a few folks who’ll come up from the city but their numbers are falling. The country lacks a predominantly right-angle bisage and that makes a lot of city folk uneasy, and most want to be home before dark or, if thry do stay, don’t want to be outside after dark. A trace of thar primal person remains, don’t wanna get eaten by a stalking cow.
            I agree with you, there’s nothing like a country life. Muchnof what we did in the city’s, to me, sublimation of natural behavior. Out here we can be closer to natural without having to worry about breaking some law about staying off the grass, no swimming in the lake, making too much noise or having to limit our physical activities to what a group of anonymous experts say is acceptable. Kids can also play as freely, wildly and loudly as they want outside without fear of ipsetting the neighbors or being assaulted by some thugs-in-training or chickenhawks. Neither of them last too long out here.
            In all if I have to die somewhere I prefer it to be out here.

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            • michellc's avatar michellc says:
              April 15, 2016 at 1:55 pm

              Several years ago an elderly couple I knew started having the kids telling them they were too old to live out in the country anymore and wanted them to sell out and move into a retirement community where they could be looked after. As long as the man was alive he stuck his foot down and said it wasn’t happening, but then he passed away one night in his sleep and the kids really starting pressuring their mom.
              They started forcing her to visit retirement communities. She kept telling them without her husband the only thing that made her want to get up in the morning was tending to the farm.
              They kept telling her how she could still dig in the dirt with containers and window boxes. She’d still have her own little house with a small yard that others took care of because she was too old to mow and she’d be surrounded by many people her own age and could make new friends. She told them if they wanted to kill her off to force her into what they deemed the perfect environment for her, because she wouldn’t last 6 months and her final days would be miserable.

              They finally forced this little old lady who was born in a farm house and had never spent one night in the city her entire life into one of these communities.

              I went to see her a few months after they moved her away. She was sitting at the kitchen table and she started crying telling me how much she missed her husband, her things, her house that she had raised her children in, her flower garden, the work, the birds, the only life she had ever known. She had wanted to live out her last days in her home.
              I felt so sorry for her and told her that if she wanted she could come stay with us. She was afraid her children would throw a fit and make life hell for us. Two weeks later she passed away.
              I could have seen her kids doing that to her if she had been in poor health and needed care, but she was healthy, had a sound mind and could still run circles around people half her age. She only lacked the backbone to stand up to her children and died miserable.
              Her daughter told me later that she had argued with her siblings because they just didn’t understand the bond she had with country life and taking that away from her took away her freedom and will to live.

              Some of us were made for city living and some of us were made for country living. The one request I’ve made of my children is as long as I can get out of bed in the morning don’t force me into a life I wasn’t meant to live.

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              • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
                April 15, 2016 at 2:12 pm

                Probably tacky of me to mention it but did the kids ‘help’ her by selling her property……?
                Back in the small ( then) Utah town we lived in we had a quite elderly pair of widowed women, Nelly and Ada. They were farm women and by the time we knew them their ‘farm’ had been pared down to about an acre but they had a small orchard they kept pruned and a garden plot the grew all of their vegetables on. They froze/canned/dried their produce for the year as well as keepingbtheir house and grounds shipshape and sharp. Each Halloween they ‘d spend days baking treats and thebkids and theirvparents looked forward to dropping, they’d turned their place into one huge open door party.
                We have a few elderly (that means older than me) around here who keep up farms and ranches, hundreds of acres in some cases. They’ll get into fights before they will abandon their steads for a rocking chair. One woman in her 70s can be seen cuting her yard with a push lawnmower and wrangling her cattle on foot. In the city one goes to a scented gym filled with stainless steel machines to get what you get doing work here, and you have to pay a huge gym membership fee to boot.
                General consensus herevis that the only way you’ll get us off the stead is carry us off in an ambulance or a bag.

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                • michellc's avatar michellc says:
                  April 15, 2016 at 6:56 pm

                  I can’t remember now how much land they had at the time. I know he had sold some of the land to a nephew before he died because he had given up raising cattle.
                  The kids however did force her to sell the house and what was left to buy her retirement home. I never really knew the business end of it.

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                  • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
                    April 15, 2016 at 7:20 pm

                    I know a couple of farms that the kids, now in the city, are dying to inherit and sell off. The sales prices invariably less than the starry-eted heirs presume they’ll be and, by the time the fees are deducted, there’s just about enough to buy a flashy car or two.
                    Heirs are trying to sell a really nice place right by us that a wealthy businessman built. He built the dickens out of it for his wife and himself and it’s valued at about three times what they’ll get for it. They’ve tried for years to sell it, even dropped it by about 30% but for what they’re asking a businessperson could buy a big house in the city where friends would be more likely to come to and the two-hour each way commute wouldn’t be such a pain.
                    Ain’t gonna happen to us, got that covered.

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                  • michellc's avatar michellc says:
                    April 15, 2016 at 7:28 pm

                    I’ve always said if I won the lottery I’d spend a big chunk of it on land. That would be the perfect life, thousands of acres of land with a house right in the middle of it and no neighbors for miles.
                    Then I’d make sure it was in my will that it could never be developed.

                    Liked by 2 people

      • Col.(R) Ken's avatar Col.(R) Ken says:
        April 15, 2016 at 8:24 am

        The beauty of the night sky…..

        Liked by 5 people

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  4. MaryfromMarin's avatar MaryfromMarin says:
    April 15, 2016 at 1:51 am

    Friday blessings to everyone. (And Caturday approaches!)

    Liked by 5 people

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  5. tessa50's avatar tessa50 says:
    April 15, 2016 at 5:31 am

    Morning. Hope all are well. Stella, your picture made me think of this song. Have a great day everyone.

    Liked by 8 people

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  6. nyetneetot's avatar nyetneetot says:
    April 15, 2016 at 7:40 am

    Mornin’ stella! (Smiter of those that ought to be smote) 😎 🍸 (Long Island Iced Tea)
    Mornin’ WeeWeed! (Master Mixologist Extrodinare) 😎 🍸 (Old Fashioned)
    Mornin’ Menagerie! 😎 |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| (Jack Daniels)
    Mornin’ Ad rem! (Queen Felis catus) 🐱 🍸 (Flaming Lamborghini)
    Mornin’ Sharon! 😎 🍸 (earthquake)
    Mornin’ ytz4mee! 😎 🍸 (cosmopolitan)
    Mornin’ partyzantski! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ texan59! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ ZurichMike! 🙂 🍸 (fuzzy navel)
    Mornin’ Col.(R) Ken! (hand salute) 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ czarowniczy! 🙂 |_| ( and Czarina 🙂 🍸 )
    Mornin’ letjusticeprevail2014! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ ctdar! 🙂 🍸 (grasshopper)
    Mornin’ tessa50! 🙂 🍸 (flaming volcano)
    Mornin’ waltzingmtilda! 🙂 🍸 (sidecar)
    Mornin’ varsityward! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ MaryfromMarin! 😀 |_| (Mortlach)
    Mornin’ Wooly Phlox! (aka “taqiyyologist”) 🙂 |_| (Roy Rogers)
    Mornin’ Howie! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ TwoLaine! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ Sha! 🙂 🍸 (Lemon Drop)
    Mornin’ BigMamaTEA! 🙂 🍸 (Harvey Wallbanger)
    Mornin’ cetera5! (aka “Cetera”) 🙂 |_| (Classic Daiquiri)
    Mornin’ The Tundra PA! 🙂 🍸 (bailey irish cream on the rocks)
    Mornin’ lovely! 🙂 🍸 (Tom and Jerry)
    Mornin’ michellc! 🙂 🍸 (Salty dog)
    Mornin’ auscitizenmom! 🙂 🍸 (Kiss on the Lips)
    Mornin’ Margaret-Ann! 🙂 🍸 (White Russian)
    Mornin’ Auntie Lib! 🙂 🍸
    Mornin’ holly100! 🙂 🍸
    Mornin’ ImpeachEmAll 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ Monroe! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ Les! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ shiloh1973! 🙂 |_| (Jack Daniels)
    Mornin’ TexasRanger! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ Ziiggii! 🙂 |_| (B52)
    Mornin’ oldiadguy! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ smiley! (“stuck in spambucket”) 🙂 🍸 (Spanish coffee)
    Mornin’ derk! (“Stellars”) 🙂 🍸 (Mudslide)
    Mornin’ Jacqueline Taylor Robson 🙂 🍸 (Shirley Temple)
    Mornin’ facebkwallflower! 🙂 |_|
    Mornin’ Ms. Cindy! (aka “Ms Cynlynn” aka “ms cynlynn”) 🙂 🍸
    Mornin’ sandandsea2015! 🙂 🍸
    Mornin’ whiners and complainers! ⭐ 😛 (No drink for you!)
    Mornin’ to people posting that I missed. 😳
    Mornin’ to all you lurkers! 😕

    Also just in case someday; mornin’ to Elvis Chupacabra and F.D.R. in Hell! :mrgreen:

    Breakfast!

    NEW and IMPROVED breakfast with extra bacon for ZurichMike!

    Pastries for coffee!

    ⭐ = Unprintable phallic symbol

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  7. Jacqueline Taylor Robson's avatar Jacqueline Taylor Robson says:
    April 15, 2016 at 8:10 am

    Morning Everyone! Awoke to dueling Mockingbirds this morning. Surely there’s a lucky female around somewhere! I love Spring-time!

    Liked by 4 people

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  8. WeeWeed's avatar WeeWeed says:
    April 15, 2016 at 8:21 am

    Mornin’ kids! TGIF!!

    Liked by 9 people

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  9. czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
    April 15, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    Interesting piece on the news yesterday (forgot to mention it). Seems that an unnamed Federal agency (NEST?) is using helicopters to create a map of ambient radiation in the Boston area prior to the marathon. No explaination as to why but other than a fear of a dirty bomb or even a tactical nuke what would be the reason to make a short-lived radiation map of an area? OK, other than some bureaucratic DHS puke trying to polish his apple by creating a ‘what if’ scenario…
    NEST has REPORTEDLY overflown areas for a long time doing radiation surveys but these were usually done unannounced. Might be done to ease public fears but how paranoid are the Bostonians to raise fears of an RDD or outright nuke attack?

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  10. Molly's avatar Margaret-Ann says:
    April 15, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    If I had all the time in the world, I’d want to learn how to keep plants from dying and create miniature succulent fairy gardens. 🙂 What would you do … with all your time?

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    • auscitizenmom's avatar auscitizenmom says:
      April 15, 2016 at 2:24 pm

      That is lovely. What a great idea. Gee, I do have time. I always was a procrastinator, but lately it has gone to a whole nother level.

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      • Molly's avatar Margaret-Ann says:
        April 15, 2016 at 2:30 pm

        I’m an extreme procrastinator, got that passed to me by my dad. But he gave me so many good qualities, I forgive him. LOL When I get moved, I am going to start creating, I miss it, and it makes me most happy. I threw this *out there* for thought .. mostly. I keep thinking about what Trump said “Do what you love.” which I’ve always known this. But he triggered me to act on it. Always did so in my careers, now looking at semi-retirement happiness. 🙂

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    • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
      April 15, 2016 at 5:32 pm

      I’m a expert on succulents, I’ve killed hundreds! My primary sin is overwatering, they are sensitive to too much or too little and I tended tomdrown them. I got straight when I bought a meter for my garden that let me measure water content in the soil and it finally dawned on me I should use it in determining the moisture in the succulent’s soil. Most of them like a drench then be left to dry as they grow roots when the soil dries out. Draonage is important as if the soil stays moist you’re going to gave expensive yet succulent compost, Do not over fertilize and use a quality succulent potting mix, you want ’em to live then you gotta treat ’em right.
      I’m down to just my Schlumbergera as I can’t resist having one of those 2,4-D ADHD moments where I say that if this is good than two times this is twice as good. Find out the names of the succulents youvare going to buy, read up on everything you can find on how to take care of that particular plant, then do exactly that and just that. If you ever feel the urge to kill them off slowly and painfully, get back with me.

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      • auscitizenmom's avatar auscitizenmom says:
        April 15, 2016 at 5:39 pm

        And, another important point: DON’T, DON’T get any ducks. Or, your plants will get smaller, and smaller every day, until they are pulled out of the ground with the roots exposed and there are no plants left. 😦

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      • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
        April 15, 2016 at 6:40 pm

        Amazon has a number of meters, some testing for more than moisture, for under $20, a few for under $10. I use mine in the garden and (now, finally) in my potted plants.

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      • WeeWeed's avatar WeeWeed says:
        April 15, 2016 at 8:48 pm

        Succulents thrive on neglect.
        Trust me.

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        • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
          April 15, 2016 at 9:12 pm

          I’m down to supervised neglect, still can’t not do anything. My Schlumbergera had a long talk with me, I agree not to do anything and they agree not to die. My only other succulent is a few prickly pears I’m growing to eat (haven’t told ’em) and I’ve put them where I can’t be tempted to mess with ’em.

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          • WeeWeed's avatar WeeWeed says:
            April 15, 2016 at 9:19 pm

            Well…. good luck on that. Mother Nature her-own-ugly-self may knock ’em off with normal rainfall. My Saguaro-baby-raising-experiment didn’t turn out so well in Slowdeatha.
            But….. I still have seeds if you wanna try! 😀 I dunno if you can make nopales out of saguaro or not….. but I do know neither one of us got 70 or so more years to see if they mature well.

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            • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
              April 15, 2016 at 9:37 pm

              I’m tempting fate as a dry day here humidity-wise is about 60 percent. My Christmas cactus are in dappled light, sandyish mix and out of the rain splash. The prickly pear should be able to withstand me – I borrowed a few pads last August, forgot about them in a box in my garage, and didn’t plant them until mid-January when I tripped over them. All six pads are sprouting so they may have the fortitude to survive me.

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      • Molly's avatar Margaret-Ann says:
        April 15, 2016 at 9:14 pm

        OMGoodness! I laughed out loud .. needed it. I do appreciate all your advice. I bought one 6″ variety from CA via Etsy a couple of years ago. Once is started to die, I tried to transplant all the individual plants .. they didn’t make it. I can grow ivy out the wazoo .. but that’s about it. Thanks for all the great advice. 🙂

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        • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
          April 15, 2016 at 9:19 pm

          Get a real quality succulent mix, I killed a lot by planting in soil. Drainage – holes in pots ( don’t ask) and that moisture meter. I actually have Christmas cactus going into their 3rd year. I have 60 acres of healthy trees and a dozen pots of succulents teetering on the edge.

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          • WeeWeed's avatar WeeWeed says:
            April 15, 2016 at 9:54 pm

            Some of the most gorgeous pots do NOT have holes in them. Do NOT be tricked, y’all noobs – the pot is worthless without holes. Your baby plant WILL croak. Expire. Give-Up-The-Ghost, buy-the-farm, pass on in pieces, if you get my drift.

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  11. Molly's avatar Margaret-Ann says:
    April 15, 2016 at 5:19 pm

    Anyone who is in the path of this storm — be safe and hoping you get just the right about of rain needed in your area. The farmers and ranchers here need it. (I’m a weather nerd) 😉

    https://weather.com/storms/severe/news/plains-heavy-rain-flood-threat-severe-mid-april-2016

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    • Col.(R) Ken's avatar Col.(R) Ken says:
      April 15, 2016 at 9:23 pm

      The High pressure that’s sitting over my part of PA will not weaken until Monday/Tuesday. So I’ll turn some soil this weekend and catch up on some mowing.

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  12. Cetera's avatar Cetera says:
    April 15, 2016 at 7:10 pm

    OK, here’s something I’ve been pondering. Assume that the GOP does prevent Trump from getting the nomination, who do you vote for? I’m also assuming that Trump will not be able to run as a 3rd party.

    A. Bernie Sanders
    B. Hillary Clinton
    C. Ted Cruz/Other GOP stooge if it isn’t Ted Cruz
    D. Write-in for Trump
    E. Don’t vote

    Just trying to plan ahead, and pre-plan my options, as it were. I think I’m leaning for D. I would be tempted with A, and just say “damn the torpedoes, burn it down, full speed ahead.”

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    • Stella's avatar stella says:
      April 15, 2016 at 7:12 pm

      I keep changing my mind, so I’ll wait until/if it actually happens. I would have said a few months ago that I would vote for Cruz if he was the nominee, but I can’t say that now.

      ADD: A and B are out of the question. Probably D or E (for President).

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      • Cetera's avatar Cetera says:
        April 15, 2016 at 7:34 pm

        There is no way C is an option for me. Same for B, no dice. I can’t vote for Hillary either, no matter what.

        I don’t like E. D seems not much better than E. It would be sending a message, but no one is there to receive that message. They don’t care.

        I will be voting straight opposition to all Republican encumbents almost without exception for the remainder of the ballot. That then causes me to think, if I’m willing to do that, why not Bernie? Teach the populace how much math actually matters. Again, though, that is a message they aren’t going to receive.

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        • Menagerie's avatar Menagerie says:
          April 15, 2016 at 7:45 pm

          I’ll be writing in Trump, and voting against every Republican who ever runs for any office the rest of my life. I will find every way I can to work against the Republican machine for as long as I can.

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      • nyetneetot's avatar nyetneetot says:
        April 15, 2016 at 10:02 pm

        D

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    • Stella's avatar stella says:
      April 15, 2016 at 7:50 pm

      This is what the State of Michigan Bureau of Elections says about write-in candidates:

      A write-in vote cast for an individual who has not filed a Declaration of Intent does not count. Similarly, a write-in vote cast for an individual who filed a Declaration of Intent does not count unless the office for which the write-in vote was cast corresponds to the office identified on the Declaration of Intent; if a partisan primary, a write-in vote cast for an individual who filed a Declaration of Intent does not count unless the office and party correspond. Write-in votes which do not count for the above reasons are not considered when determining whether an “over vote” has occurred or whether a “crossover” vote has been cast at a partisan primary.

      Click to access IV_Write-In_Candidates_265989_7.pdf

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    • lovely's avatar lovely says:
      April 15, 2016 at 8:44 pm

      I will never vote for Cruz, Bernie, Hillary, or Ryan. I will write in Trump.

      Like Menagerie I am done with the evil which clothes itself in the words I want to hear and then votes for or against everything in accordance with the political and/or monetary advantage it gives them personally.

      The republican party can go to hell. I will no longer reward them for lying to me and destroying my country. If I can’t vote for someone who is on the ballot I will write in Trump.

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    • michellc's avatar michellc says:
      April 15, 2016 at 11:49 pm

      A through C is out for me, I won’t for evil and I will never vote for the lesser evil again, especially when that lesser evil is chosen by the elites. D is out for me because it’s not allowed in my state. So my only option is to not vote or add an F to the list and vote for an Independent if there is one on the ballot.

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  13. nyetneetot's avatar nyetneetot says:
    April 15, 2016 at 11:11 pm

    I saw this and thought; you know, a few years ago and I might have tried….

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  14. MaryfromMarin's avatar MaryfromMarin says:
    April 15, 2016 at 11:26 pm

    I hear there will be a more positive post about little Sydney at tonight’s CTH O/T.

    Watch for it!

    Liked by 2 people

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  16. czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
    April 15, 2016 at 11:52 pm

    Sitting here watching the movie Concussion and took a break to watch the local news which was mostly about the Will Smith shooting. A movie about football players having mental issues due to concussive injuries, two ex-football players involved in a fatal shooting over something normal folk would shrug off…serendipity?

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  17. michellc's avatar michellc says:
    April 15, 2016 at 11:55 pm

    I was reminded today my least favorite thing about spring, snakes!

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    • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
      April 16, 2016 at 12:07 am

      They finally wakin’ up ’round your shop, eh?

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      • michellc's avatar michellc says:
        April 16, 2016 at 9:23 am

        We were weeding around our blackberries and almost grabbed a snake.
        We were stacking wood and a snake came out of the woodpile.
        We had a tarp over a chick pen that blew off in the storm and found it yesterday, went to pick it up and a snake was under it.
        One of the dogs was having a fit by the chicken coop, looked up and a snake was in the tree.

        The plus side is all were rat snakes except for the black racer under the tarp. Downside is both eat eggs and chicks and I hate all snakes.

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        • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
          April 16, 2016 at 1:40 pm

          Picking up/around thibgs with a 3-finger rake is just second nature. I get along quite nicely with the snakes except for the moccasins and the rat snakes will go after eggs and chicks but they do a super job on rats and mice and they do an even worse job on the chickens. I take some precautions but every now and then I have to dispatch a rat snake as it clinbs the 20-foot aluminum pole and goes after the purple martins.
          I just worry about moccasins though we’re supposed to have rattlers – none seen yet – though as mellow as the copperheads are I might get one that doesn’t wake up well. Judt part of the job.

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          • michellc's avatar michellc says:
            April 16, 2016 at 4:47 pm

            We have timber rattlers, although it’s been awhile since we’ve seen one. (knock on wood) I know there are some diamondbacks but we’ve been lucky there as well.

            If I go to their territory they get left alone, but if they come to my territory and I see them they have a short life.
            We live close enough to water to have moccasins but the only place we have problems with them is the land our cows is on and we have to go blast snakes at the farm ponds several times during season. Those suckers will come after you.
            We get huge copperheads that aren’t friendly at all.

            I hate snakes, they are the one thing that makes me scream like a girl and the one thing I’m perfectly fine with someone else killing for me. lol

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            • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
              April 17, 2016 at 12:42 am

              Local lore has it that there are no rattlers below the main east-west hiway about 4 miles north. Can’t see why but so far I’ve seen none whereas in Utah they were so common on the mountain benches we’d kick ’em outta the way ( yes, I had snakeprook boots, Gokey Sauvage actually.
              Copperheads here must be stoners as they’re totally cool, even had them slither up, pick up their heads and ‘sniff’, then just slither off. Black racers to beat the band, lotta speckeled kings (maybe why do few rattlers) and the bunch of aforementioned moccasins. Interesting thing is that every now and then you can see baby mocs swimming on the deep water side of the lilly pads get nailed by big bass or gar fish.
              Czarina will carry a gun sometimes but doesn’t like the way it breaks the stylish.curves of her bibs do if she sees a snake that decides to invade her space she just beats the @&$%# out of it with whatever implement’s at hand – think the lady in BC.

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              • michellc's avatar michellc says:
                April 17, 2016 at 9:28 am

                Guns are my preferred method so I don’t have to get so close, but usually it’s shovels that get used.

                More than one mean copperhead has been blasted with a 20 gauge or 410 under our porch. The vets always claim that dogs don’t seem to be bothered much by copperhead venom, but yet I’ve had a dog bitten three times and all three times I had to pay the vet to give them shots when they blew up like water balloons and couldn’t breathe.

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                • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
                  April 17, 2016 at 11:35 am

                  Yep, that’s my BD guard dog, anti-snake as can be, just not too skilled at biting them as they are her. Copperheads and moccasins pretty well gave the same venom and it’s not as deadly on a dog (depending on size) as a rattler would be. I keep injectables the vet gives me on-hand in case of emergency (many farm bathrooms look like drug stores anyway) which might cone from a number of sources. More fun and variable than livin’ in the city, eh?

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                  • michellc's avatar michellc says:
                    April 17, 2016 at 3:51 pm

                    I was told it wasn’t the venom, but an allergic reaction, so they give them steroid and cortizone shots and then pills to take for 3 days.
                    Our vet will sell us just about anything with the exception of a few things and those being among the few.
                    We have a refrigerator and a roll around cabinet dedicated to the animals. Almost anything you can think of we have. We can bring an animal into heat, labor and make contractions harder, we can treat just about any bacterial, viral or fungal infection, we can vaccinate for about any disease known to exist in the animal world and rid them of worms, we can ease pain, sew up cuts, you name it, yet the government says if we do not have the vet to physically give a rabies vaccine then our animal isn’t vaccinated. That drives me insane, we can buy the vaccine, but can’t give it and it be legally recognized. Now the USDA is on their way to making it impossible for us to even buy antibiotics.

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                  • czarowniczy's avatar czarowniczy says:
                    April 17, 2016 at 4:03 pm

                    Looks like we’re outta reply space – probably lotsa people yawning by now anyway. Got that sew ’em up/ cut ’em up kit, IVs, needles in the change tray of the truck, medicants, set for the barnyard Armageddon. I have benedryl and steroids gorvthe reaction, plus the antibiotics. Haven’t had to lance the edema the bite causes but set for that too. Amazing how self-sufficient you become when you have to be self-sufficient.

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