A couple more links

Family gets $333,000 after cops raid their house and shoot their dog.  The cops of course hate the judgement.  Personally, if judgements like this is what it takes to make the cops stop bursting into random houses and shooting animals and people who aren’t a threat then so be it.  Seriously, “protecting themselves” from a Lab?  Yes Labs aren’t small dogs, and yes they (on very rare occasions) can bite and be protective of their family, but really?  Its a Lab and, like the case not to long ago where police shot a Newfie, the large majority of the breed haven’t a clue what the word “aggressive” means.  Frankly the large majority of these cases scare the heck out of me, cause it means that if the police ever decided to use such a raid on my house then Apollo would likely be the first victim.

On a lighter note: 6 Reasons why the guy (or girl) who’s fixing your computer hates you.  I love reading Cracked.com.  This is especially pointed for me as I recently had to fix my coworker’s laptop for the 2nd time in the space of a couple months.  I sent him home this time with a 2 page list of instructions.  And you don’t want to know how many tool-bars I removed from his work computer……


Deer!

A couple months ago we set up a trail camera on one of the trails off the back of our property.  We’d seen wild turkeys in the yard, and lots of deer tracks all winter.  We were rather frustrated when week after week there were no photos of turkey or deer on the camera.  Lots of random photos of the trees though, don’t know if waving branches set it off, or a bird flew by fast enough to avoid the photo or what.  Twas rather annoying.

In the last couple weeks I’d seen the turkeys (or a bunch anyway) off one of the other trails in the back, which in retrospect wasn’t a huge surprise as there’s a small stream right there that stays wet in all but the driest weather.  So I decided that after I checked the camera this week I’d move it to THAT trail and see what I got.  What I wasn’t expecting was what was on my camera memory card when I checked it this afternoon!

First picture off the card!  Cool!  Wish it had gotten a bit more detail, but its a cheap camera, so I can’t complain.

Then I looked further…..

This young buck spent most of a half hour or so wandering back and forth in front of the camera.  This is by far the best of the shots.  The apple trees are only about 20ft behind the camera so I assume he was snatching bites.

How cool is that?

(now I want two cameras, one for each trail…..)

No pictures of the turkeys, but I’ll share this one from last fall instead:


A couple links

With husband around the house more I’ve not got peace and quiet in which to blog as much, hence the lack of posts.

I do have this though:  Amtrak’s 4 legged security system.  I really don’t see why this isn’t already used in the major airports at least, I really don’t…..

And a link to Lagniappe’s Lair….idiot resists when the police dog is sent in, and then threatens to sue for damages that have caused sexual disfuction as a result of that resisting……I don’t have much sympathy.


Home grown food

….or something close anyway.  Over at Daddy Bear’s Den he was talking about what they did with the produce they got from a neighbor and a farmers market nearby, and it reminded me of what I’ve been slowly working my way towards.

The garden this year is only producing jalapeno peppers as they, rhubarb, and the berry plants were the only things planted.  The berrys won’t produce till next year at the earliest, but once they do we’ll have a very nice selection to pick from assuming the critters don’t eat them all.  We’re thinking we’ll probly pickle the jalapenos as the 3 plants are producing lots and lots.  On a side note, I saw a comment somewhere online about digging up hot pepper plants just before 1st frost and potting them inside for the winter, then replanting them in the spring.  Anyone done this, or know any specifics I’d need to know about doing so?  Or if, once potted I could just leave them potted and set them into the garden area or onto the porch?

What we do have lots of are home grown pears and apples.  There are two pear trees and four apple trees (two each of two different types).  We didn’t bother with pesticides or anything this year (and probly won’t ever), and all the fruit trees are in desperate need of pruning, and so the apples are looking decidedly iffy.  Not sure how many good ones we’re going to get out of them.  But the pears….we’re already eating pears, and sharing them around.  I’m thinking I’m going to try my hand at canning them so we’ll have some for the winter.

Next year I’d like to get more in the way of vegetables growing.  Not sure how much, or what kinds yet, mostly as the beds aren’t put together yet.  I’d been planning on putting in a set of raised beds this summer to work with next summer.  Traditional beds, lumber rectangles about 1′ high, but then I saw this over at Smartdogs, and it got me thinking.  I LIKE that idea.  I know Helene does something similer with old fridges and freezers, but I’m pretty sure my neighbors wouldn’t appreciate that, but the galvanized tubs I could do.  Plus those could go closer to the house cause they won’t interfere with the septic system.  The only big downside is those tubs are expensive, and well, money’s an issue, anyone know of a cheap source?


They striked.

Yah I know thats bad grammer. 

Guess I wasn’t over reacting.  On the plus side my husband now has lots of time to do all the odds and ends yard work and the like that we’ve been putting off (and that don’t require any extra materials that we don’t already have).  Guess those trees we’ve been waiting to take down will be coming down shortly….he’s already got two co-workers lined up to help.  To bad they’re pines and as such the wood won’t be good for the indoor fireplaces anytime soon.  Maybe I should suggest its time to take down some of the younger maples in the back we were looking at too……


Gripe, Grumble…..

This post will be basically a “why me” whine, don’t read if that bothers you…..I’m hoping to get it out of my system.

This post will contain discussion on unions.  Do not turn the comments into a political discussion on “those evil unions,” I don’t have the energy to deal right now, I’ll delete them.

The job my husband does, for the company he works for, requires him to belong to a union.  Their contract is up as of Midnight August 6th, tonight.

Now, neither of us was entirely thrilled about being part of a union when he got the job in the first place as its not really possible to tell from the outside whether the (private, not public) union in question is decently run or badly run, but the pay and position was a massive step up from where he was so we decided he’d take it.  Barely a year after he took the job the contact came up for renewal, and all things considered the renewal was relatively painless.  The union threatened to strike, but didn’t cause they reached an agreement without to much fuss or bother.

Fast forward 3 years.  We’ve known since January that this contract renewal was probably not going to go nearly as smoothly.  With general public opinion running against unions in general the company decided it was going to stand its ground, and started issuing proclamations as early as January as to what it was going to do in the coming year, regardless of the union stance on those things.

We started setting aside some extra money, basically the puppy was our only big splurge, we’ve bought a couple new books, and a couple new games, and other than that most “extra” money (is there really such a thing when you own a house and have pets?) went into savings.  This has meant delaying several projects on the house that we’d planned to do this spring/summer.  It meant that the grand we had to spend on my root canal and crown after I broke a tooth hurt.  It meant when Apollo turned out to be a much more social dog than is usual for the breed, and his breeder recommended we consider getting a 2nd dog as a companion for him to help with some of his issues (and then offered us a 2yr old bitch that had been just returned to her due to the owner’s health, at no cost to us other than transportation), it was something that we couldn’t even consider.  And when just in the last two weeks I had the opportunity to possibly consider 3 other dogs (from three different sources, all either rescues, or otherwise in need of a “forever home” asap) as possible companions for him I had to close my eyes and explain that I couldn’t seriously consider it till we knew what was going on with my husband’s job.

Now unless they end up striking for an extreme length of time we’re not in any danger of loosing the house, though if they end up striking for more than a week my husband already has a temp position lined up to supplement our savings.  My job is not capable of supporting us alone, though its possible I could pick up a 2nd job if needed (I’ve done the two job thing before though, it sucks and if I can avoid it I’d prefer too), but managing such a schedule around the puppy’s needs would be a bit problematic.  It does mean that my application for a pistol license is going on hold till further notice.  That $100 isn’t much, but in the event of the extreme side of things it’ll pay for a couple weeks of groceries, or several weeks of animal food.  And even if it had already been spent spending the money on a gun would be out of the question.

The union has made it clear it plans to strike, but can still call of off any time between now and midnight, so maybe I’m over reacting, but maybe I’m not.  Arg.