Farm News 10-23-05
Sunday morning, after chores, 37°
NPR Pledge Week in the Barn
A radio in the barn plays day and night, tuned KCUR in Kansas City. KCUR has a lot of talk shows and runs BBC from midnight to 5:00 am. Hopefully, predators hear the voices and stay away. It doesn't work but the goats might gain a little culture.
The telephone in the barn is an old rotary dial phone. Pushbutton phones are far too easy for cats to operate and the ancient phone goes well with the cobwebs. The dial mechanism is dirty and sticky so that you not only pull the dial around to the stop, you have to pull it back again. People born after 1950 might not understand this.
This past week has been the Autumn Pledge Week for public radio stations. You have all heard the pleas for money that public radio stations put out during pledge week. If you haven't, you need to upgrade your radio listening. All Things Considered, the evening news show from NPR, is far and away the best news program on either TV or radio. Public radio stations are the ones down at the left end of the dial with the religious broadcasters; the difference is easy to spot, public radio asks for money just twice a year.
Guy Noir, the young tom turkey, is at an age about equivalent to a 14 year old boy. The hormones are almost up to full charge and he is just beginning to notice that something is different. Also, he can eat enormous amounts of anything at any time. Like many at his age, he desires nobility of character and bearing. He isn't yet old enough to display, but he is old enough to become captured by various noble causes.
Thus it was that I entered the barn to find Guy with the telephone off the hook trying to dial the phone to make a pledge. Pushbuttons wouldn't have helped him that much, he can't count, but he might have been able to accidentally dial Hong Kong. Even if the call went through, I doubt if anyone would be able to understand him, I certainly can't.
Guy's attempt to fulfill his responsibilities as a good citizen was admirable so I didn't point out that he has no money to pledge. Not that it would have deflated him in any way, tom turkeys are indeflatable.
Bump Has a Roomie
Bump has established a nice home under the chicken house. It is close to everything he needs, well sheltered, and the dog can't go under there. Now the brown hen duck has joined Bump. The duck, unnamed and of unknown heritage, has occasional fits of laying eggs. She is having one such egg-laying fit currently and is laying her eggs under the chicken house with Bump for company. Maybe she will go broody soon and hatch a clutch of duckling in time for the first blizzard.
Book Review
John James Audubon: The Making of an American
by Richard Rhodes
This one disappointed me. It is definitely authoritative, the man did his research well. It's just a bit too scholarly for my taste. A few things were left out that I missed, such as Audubon's discovery of a super-tornado track that was up to two miles wide and over 20 miles long. Rhodes barely covered Audubon's expedition up the Missouri to Fort Union, the journey that provided most of the material for The Quadrupeds of North America.
Rhodes did recognize and acknowledge one fact, that Audubon was one of the great frontiersmen of America. For instance, Audubon was well known for his ability to walk sixty five miles per day cross country and carrying a pack. He was a superb shot, also, a skill which kept him alive many times.
This biography did a better job than most of properly identifying the birds which Audubon collected and drew. It also carefully examined the development of his techniques and artistic style. Before reading this biography I hadn't known about his methods for mounting the birds he drew.
Today, perhaps, there are few people who are interested in Audubon's artistic development than in his adventures in the Mississippi cane brakes. For those people this will be an interesting book. If you are looking for the excitement Audubon expressed on finding a Pygmy Shrew, North America's smallest predator, in a trap set for a wolf, then this is not the book for you.
Where Are the Downy Woodpeckers?
Are the Downy Woodpeckers missing from your feeder? I went to a party on Saturday night and, it being a party attended by people of a certain age, activity at the bird feeder was a major item of conversation. No one is seeing Downy Woodpeckers, and most other birds seem to be sparse. Any Ornithologists reading? Could this be because of West Nile virus?
E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
NPR Pledge Week in the Barn
A radio in the barn plays day and night, tuned KCUR in Kansas City. KCUR has a lot of talk shows and runs BBC from midnight to 5:00 am. Hopefully, predators hear the voices and stay away. It doesn't work but the goats might gain a little culture.
The telephone in the barn is an old rotary dial phone. Pushbutton phones are far too easy for cats to operate and the ancient phone goes well with the cobwebs. The dial mechanism is dirty and sticky so that you not only pull the dial around to the stop, you have to pull it back again. People born after 1950 might not understand this.
This past week has been the Autumn Pledge Week for public radio stations. You have all heard the pleas for money that public radio stations put out during pledge week. If you haven't, you need to upgrade your radio listening. All Things Considered, the evening news show from NPR, is far and away the best news program on either TV or radio. Public radio stations are the ones down at the left end of the dial with the religious broadcasters; the difference is easy to spot, public radio asks for money just twice a year.
Guy Noir, the young tom turkey, is at an age about equivalent to a 14 year old boy. The hormones are almost up to full charge and he is just beginning to notice that something is different. Also, he can eat enormous amounts of anything at any time. Like many at his age, he desires nobility of character and bearing. He isn't yet old enough to display, but he is old enough to become captured by various noble causes.
Thus it was that I entered the barn to find Guy with the telephone off the hook trying to dial the phone to make a pledge. Pushbuttons wouldn't have helped him that much, he can't count, but he might have been able to accidentally dial Hong Kong. Even if the call went through, I doubt if anyone would be able to understand him, I certainly can't.
Guy's attempt to fulfill his responsibilities as a good citizen was admirable so I didn't point out that he has no money to pledge. Not that it would have deflated him in any way, tom turkeys are indeflatable.
Bump Has a Roomie
Bump has established a nice home under the chicken house. It is close to everything he needs, well sheltered, and the dog can't go under there. Now the brown hen duck has joined Bump. The duck, unnamed and of unknown heritage, has occasional fits of laying eggs. She is having one such egg-laying fit currently and is laying her eggs under the chicken house with Bump for company. Maybe she will go broody soon and hatch a clutch of duckling in time for the first blizzard.
Book Review
John James Audubon: The Making of an American
by Richard Rhodes
This one disappointed me. It is definitely authoritative, the man did his research well. It's just a bit too scholarly for my taste. A few things were left out that I missed, such as Audubon's discovery of a super-tornado track that was up to two miles wide and over 20 miles long. Rhodes barely covered Audubon's expedition up the Missouri to Fort Union, the journey that provided most of the material for The Quadrupeds of North America.
Rhodes did recognize and acknowledge one fact, that Audubon was one of the great frontiersmen of America. For instance, Audubon was well known for his ability to walk sixty five miles per day cross country and carrying a pack. He was a superb shot, also, a skill which kept him alive many times.
This biography did a better job than most of properly identifying the birds which Audubon collected and drew. It also carefully examined the development of his techniques and artistic style. Before reading this biography I hadn't known about his methods for mounting the birds he drew.
Today, perhaps, there are few people who are interested in Audubon's artistic development than in his adventures in the Mississippi cane brakes. For those people this will be an interesting book. If you are looking for the excitement Audubon expressed on finding a Pygmy Shrew, North America's smallest predator, in a trap set for a wolf, then this is not the book for you.
Where Are the Downy Woodpeckers?
Are the Downy Woodpeckers missing from your feeder? I went to a party on Saturday night and, it being a party attended by people of a certain age, activity at the bird feeder was a major item of conversation. No one is seeing Downy Woodpeckers, and most other birds seem to be sparse. Any Ornithologists reading? Could this be because of West Nile virus?
E-mail Subscribers: To subscribe, unsubscribe, contribute stories, complain or send a gift subscription, send an email to FarmNews@GeezerNet.com . The editor reserves the right to steal ideas submitted, rewrite submissions, and sign false names to them whenever it strikes his fancy to do so.
posted by The Geezer at 7:01 PM
2 Comments:
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