Categories Nothing Much

New Camera!

by

About 3 weeks ago now I grabbed my camera to snap a photo…..and it rattled.  When I attempted to take the photo it turned on, but locked up when I pressed the button.  After trying new batteries, and opening up every easily accessable compartment I admited defeat and sent it off for an estimate for repair.  Pentax being kind enough to offer free estimates on the repair of most of their current model cameras.

Turned out the motherboard had come loose, and unfortunetly since my camera is 7yrs discontinued that part is no longer availible.

So as much as I’d not really wanted to spend several hundred dollars on a new camera I have to admit to being delighted to have an excuse to buy a new camera with all the extra features that I’d been drooling over….

I ended up with the Pentax K-5.  Technically also a discontinued model, but that just keeps the price down.  Its a much higher end camera than my old one, and I’ve been having fun playing around with it.

IMGP0066 IMGP0077 IMGP0096 IMGP0097 IMGP0105 IMGP0123 IMGP0131a IMGP0136 IMGP0138 IMGP0151 IMGP0171

Categories Gardening

How to get a laugh out of thinning the carrots

by

I had to go back in and re-thin the carrots as apparently I didn’t leave enough room between them when I did it before.  Oops.  Oh well, the baby carrots were tasty anyway.

But in the process I found these two carrots:

002

I kept meaning to post it and kept forgetting, till today, when I read DIY Housewife’s post on her carrots.  But I guess its a good thing I was thinning them a bit more!

Categories Apollo, Nothing Much, Trail Cameras

Uhoh

4 Comments by

The other day I pulled this picture off one of the trail cameras:

0075INFORMATION_STRIP_ON__TAG 29.50 inHg 79"F  07/22/13 01:02 PM MYCAMER1

Hubby and I looked at each other, and both agreed that that seems awfully early…..either he’s going to have a big rack, or we’re going to have a bad winter……

Then yesterday while brushing down Apollo I noticed that he’s already growing back in his undercoat……..and he’s not the only one, every Tibetan Mastiff owner I’ve talked to has said the same, the dogs had a long extended shed, and now, before they’re even done shedding, they’re growing back in their winter fluff……

This does not give me warm fuzzies for the coming winter…..

Categories Birds, Food, Gardening

Corn and updates

2 Comments by

Ok, the instructions I can find on growing corn state that once the silk dries the corn is ready to be picked.  But, can the weather force silk to dry early?

To check on my corn I pulled this one ear:

011The visible silk was totally dry.  Now obviously I have a fertilization problem, I planted these to closely together and so I will be hand fertilizing the remaining ears, but the kernels don’t look fully developed either?  Not that the screwy weather hasn’t helped….

In other garden news I picked my first two zucchini this morning, I forgot to take a picture but they made 3 batches of zucchini bread…..

There’s at least one nice looking baby cantalope, and at least one baby watermelon.  Pretty sure there’s a baby pumpkin.  Carrots are HAPPY, and there are at least a couple Hot Wax peppers and several Jalapeno’s.  So far no sweet peppers, but SOMETHING is eating the leaves, and I think I found the culprit:

0075INFORMATION_STRIP_ON__TAG 29.85 inHg 64"F  07/15/13 05:02 AM MYCAMER1I put this camera up in an attempt to watch the Ceder Waxwings that are nesting in that tree, the feeder contains raisens.  No luck catching the Waxwings, but look-it what I did see…..headed straight for my garden.  Why she’s only munching on the peppers and nothing else I have no idea….

Two of the Waxwings:

IMGP4721 IMGP4719

 

Categories Rants

McAfee SiteAdvisor blackmailing and slandering sites

by

Yet another reason not to use McAfee.  It was bad enough when their SiteAdvisor was flagging sites based on one single review, or for software flagged as good on other sites.  Now they’re flagging sites as RED for no reason!

Calibre-ebook.com is the free-ware I recommended back in my post on piracy protection on ebooks.

I took this screenshot of the listing on McAfee’s SiteAdvisor page just a minute ago:

Firefox20130717091835468

See something, anything, that might be causing that red flag?  Yah, me neither.  Here’s a screenshot of the comments:

Firefox20130717091858621

And Calibre is by no means the first this has happened to.

At least one site was blackmailed into paying $32,000 to get their listing fixed! (link may be a bit wonky, I think the Calibre folks have over-loaded it reading it)

Another article.

And another.

More info.

Categories Politics

So how come no-one’s sueing the MDSPD?

by

From Here

Either of those incidents could have put Trayvon Martin into the custody of the juvenile justice system. However, because of Chief Hurley’s attempt to reduce the school crime statistics — according to sworn testimony, officers were “basically told to lie and falsify” reports — Martin was never arrested. And if he had been arrested, he might never have been in Sanford the night of his fatal encounter with Zimmerman.

Something tells me no-one’s gonna either

H/T to Never Yet Melted

Categories Guns, Politics

I did not know this

by

But I find it quite amusing…..

Here

The fact is Florida’s stand-your-ground law is quite common, 33 states are effectively SYG states and have very similar provisions.  In fact there is one state that not only lets you to stand your ground,it explicitly allows you to pursue your assailant if necessary for your safety.  And that state is California [where the station is located].

(emphasis mine)

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing, hopefully I’ll have time later today.

H/T to Clark @ Popehat

 

Categories Politics

I’m mostly staying out of the Zimmerman case discussion

by

I followed the case enough to see enough of the evidence to realize just how badly the media tried to screw with the evidence.  Which basically just confirmed my distrust of the media in general.  And then people wonder why I insist on actual facts and data when I get into arguments….

Anyway, my sole real comment on the whole mess:

I sincerely hope that they never release the personal information detailing who the jury was…..

Categories Apollo

Bunny

by

Late yesterday afternoon I went looking for Apollo as he wasn’t in any of his usual spots and I was hoping to sneak out the back door to record some bird song, but first I had to make sure I knew where he was……

Didn’t take long, the house is pretty small, but I found him sitting at the back door, which I’d opened up so that we could get some breeze in through the screen.  He was staring intently at something in the back yard, looooong strings of drool headed floor-ward.  I followed his gaze out, and found he was staring at a young bunny, who was sitting about 10ft from the back steps.

I didn’t get to record my bird-song, but Apollo didn’t get his bunny either…..