Kindness

Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.

Cock Crows Too Early For Town

I came across the below Yahoo News article today and it prompted me to write this soapbox diatribe -

Wed Nov 28, 10:22 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - A rooster crowing at the break of dawn has earned his owner a 200 euro ($295) fine in an Italian court after neighbors complained it was waking them up too early.

ANSA news agency reported on Wednesday that the rooster's owner in Bolzano province would appeal the sentence, supported by the local Farmers' Association, on the grounds that he needs at least one rooster to breed chickens.

This issue, if it truly is an issue, hits close to home for both my dad and I. You see apparently a crowing rooster is one of the only noise annoyances around these days and therefore many, if not most, towns have specific bylaws banning this animal because of their crowing. Of course towns seem to ignore other noise makers and go after the poor rooster/rooster owners. The town my dad lives in and the town I live in have such bylaws. Heaven forbid if a crowing rooster was to awaken some poor neighbor(s).

How bout these town start addressing and doing something about the other noise issues and other more important pressing issues? For example how bout they address the classroom sizes! My daughter is in accounting 1 that has a class size of 29 students. This to me is unacceptable but they've addressed the rooster issue! Let's see here are a few noise maker examples that come to mind:

1. The barking dog(s) - you know the dogs that are left outside for endless amounts of time, whether in a backyard kennel or tied to a runner or on the back porch or perhaps left to run free and it barks and barks and barks. The thing could be barking at it's shadow, a cricket, a walker, a jogger whatever but it barks and barks and barks. The owners of course never hear any of this and the dog continues to bark and bark and bark. However, this same neighbor, who doesn't hear their own dog carrying on is sure to hear a rooster crowing and be one of the first to call in a complaint...


2. The motorcycle(s) - it doesn't matter if it's a dirt-bag riding a Harley, a spoiled brat riding a rice-burner, a dick-head neighbor going through a mid-life crisis or anyone in between. The noise their motorcycle makes is fine, what noise they'll say. They'll rev their pieces of crap; vroom, vroom, vroom and be SO proud. However, these are prolly the same people who are the first to call in a complaint of a rooster crowing, go figure...


3. The truck(s) - typically the empty ones that are speeding up and down the street make the most noise but there are plenty of others that make just as much, if not more, noise. Like the landscaper trucks that pull the light trailers that bounce and rattle when it hits the tiniest pothole (actually is there such a thing as a tiny pothole? Like an asshole regardless of size, tiny or otherwise, if your an asshole you're an asshole. Same logic holds true for a pothole, yes?) Of course these knuckle heads might not live nearby but rest assured they have no problem with the noise their rigs make but they'll be one of the first to complain about a crowing rooster... Perhaps the town should address the speeding vehicle problem!


4. The neighbor(s) - this is a general statement and although not all neighbors are noisy there are some that are. Of course, in my opinion, the noisy neighbors are also the assholes. Like the neighbor, who perhaps is going through his midlife crisis. Maybe he's out in his driveway working on his airplane. You know tinkering with the engine and needing to start and stop it 4 or 5 times while letting it run for what seems like forever and SO proud of his toy. Or the neighbor that fires up his 'Hog' or riding mower at 7AM on a Sunday morning. Again, these prolly are the ones who pickup the phone to call in a noise complaint about a crowing rooster...

Sprats

The following Russian delicacy comes highly recommended by Vlad. He also says it should be eaten with a nice dark bread. He was kind enough to give me a can of these to try, which we served up on Thanksgiving day with the cheese and crackers. The general consensus was a thumbs up...

sprat
Pronunciation: \ˈsprat\
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of Middle English sprot, from Old English sprott
Date: 1537
1 a: a small European marine fish (Sprattus sprattus) of the herring family — called also brisling b: any of various small or young fish (as an anchovy) of the herring family 2: a young, small, or insignificant person

Sprats are little more than smoked sardines packed in a lightly aromatic oil, but that makes all the difference. Anyone who enjoys sardines is usually crazy about sprats.


Here is what a sprat looks like in the wild -


Here is what a sprat looks like in the can, minus the head.

A Guy Walks into a Bar...

A guy meets a hooker in a bar.

She says, "This is your lucky night. I’ve got a special game for you. I’ll do absolutely anything you want for $300, as long as you can say it in three words."

The guy replies, "Hey, why not?"

He pull his wallet out of his pocket, and one at a time lays three hundred-dollar bills on the bar, and says, slowly:

"Paint…my…house."

Doctor Ethics

Doctor Jim had slept with one of his patients and felt guilty all day long. No matter how much he tried to forget about it, he couldn't. The guilt and sense of betrayal were overwhelming. But every now and then he'd hear an internal reassuring voice in his head that said:

"Jim, don't worry about it. You aren't the first medical practitioner to sleep with one of their patients and you won't be the last. And you're single. Just let it go."

But invariably another voice in his head would bring him backto reality. Whispering: "Jim....Jim....Jim....you're a vet"

Hypnotist

HYPNOTIST AT THE SENIOR CENTER‏

It was entertainment night at the senior center and the Amazing Claude was topping the bill. People came from miles around to see the famed hypnotist do his stuff. As Claude went to the front of the meeting room, he announced: "Unlike most hypnotists who invite two or three people up here to be put into a trance, I intend to hypnotize each and every member of the audience."

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat. "I want you each to keep your eye on this antique watch. It's a very special watch. It's been in my family for six generations. He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting: "Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch...."

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until, suddenly, it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the floor, breaking into a 100 pieces...

"SHIT!" said the Hypnotist.

It took three days to clean up the senior center.

Distracted

This morning on the Interstate, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Cadillac doing 65 mph with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner.

I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.

As a man, I don't scare easily.

But she scared me so much; I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand.

In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my cell phone away from my ear which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed, and burned Big Jim and the Twins, ruined the damn phone, soaked my trousers, and disconnected an important call.

Guess the Critter

A lollipop goes to the first person who can tell me what kind of animal is in the first photo? Now, NO peaking at the second photo, that would be cheating! I'll give you a hint, it's circled in red and it's NOT a fan of the upcoming holiday...

If you give up page down...

We noticed three of these birds walking through the next door neighbors yard and proceed to cross our busy street just before dark. Then all of a sudden two of the three came flying back across - something spooked them. You really need to see these birds flying to truly appreciate just how easy they make it look for such a large bird. You'd think they wouldn't be too agile when it came to flying, however, they're very much like a peacock, very deceiving.

One of the two kept right on flying into the woods behind the neighbor house and we lost sight of it. The one in the picture took a different approach and went up, landing in this dead tree. As you can see he's up there, higher than the roof of the house. We kept an eye on him till dark and we couldn't see him any longer. It appeared that he decided to roost there for the night and was long gone come morning.

The answer is: a wild turkey

Boo

Happy (belated) Halloween

Here is our all black, declawed (front paws only because it would simply be too cruel to do the back paws too - wouldn't it?), indoor, basement dwelling cat Lila. She's hanging out in the bathroom windows checking out the sparrows just out of her reach.

Here are the pumpkins that we grew this year, all six. These guys grew from last Halloween's pumpkins that we added to our compost pile at the end of last year. I did the growing, Emilie did the harvesting and JoAnne did the carving. As you can see she also tried something different this year and spray painted one of the pumpkins all black...just like Lila.

Have you seen my motivation...

To the devoted readers of SFrye732_Blog, my sincere apologies for the lack of postings recently.

I seem to have lost my motivation. This has been happening more and more frequently these days. Perhaps it's the shorter days and colder weather or that cursed Frye gene kicking in...

I will see what I can do to re-motivate myself and get back on track.

Replacement Windows

We replaced 18 of our homes windows with vinyl replacement windows. The only windows we didn't replace are the three Andersen crank outs and the large bay-like window that over looks the driveway. Eventually we'd like to replace these windows as well - it's on the list...

What a noticeable difference it makes with the traffic noise alone. Maybe it's just me but the house feels more air tight. We had three really bad, leaky windows on the south side of the house and each fall we'd install plastic over them in a feeble attempt to stop the cold from coming in. However, now that process is no longer needed. There are no more leaky windows. The installer did a fantastic job not only installing the windows but also insulating, chalking, and cleaning up the mess even to the point of vacuuming the rugs in each room. Hopefully this will allow us to save some money on our heating bills this winter, time will tell...

Here is the upstairs windows on the front of the house.

This is the replacement window in Stephanie's bedroom looking out to the front yard.

With the vinyl replacement windows we lost quite a bit of actual window viewing area, approximately 3" on each side and 2" on the top and bottom but that was one of the trade offs.

We attempted to sell the old wooden windows on Craig's List and actually had a few folks respond but nothing became of it. Luckily we've been able to put several of them out in the curbside trash each week and they're being picked up. One more week and they'll be all gone, which will also allow JoAnne to park back in the garage once again.

Worms

It's that time of the year - time to put the yard, flower beds and gardens to bed.

The first picture is one of our raises garden beds where we planted kale, lettuce and tomato's. The plants have been removed, the bed turned and almost ready for the winter. All that's needed is to plant some winter rye. However, Emilie thought this was a good place to take a seat and dig for worms.

and here are the fruits of Emilie's efforts -

A handful of worms is a good indication of a well balanced, organically rich bed of soil.

Misumena vatia - Crab Spider

Misumena vatia is a species of crab spider, also know as "flower spiders" because they are most often found on flowers, lying in ambush for prey. Crab spiders do not build webs to trap prey, but are active hunters much like the jumping spiders.

I found this girl patiently sitting in wait on the passing flower from one of our Butterfly Bushes. I didn't stick around to see her diner victim. Hopefully it wasn't a Honey Bee or a beneficial critter but rather a fly or some other nuisance, pesky insect.

Geranium Bud Worm

Ah, my old nemesis...

Well, not really. Actually, truth be told this is the first geranium bud worm, also known as the tobacco bud worm, I've ever seen, let alone caught and squished. I really should have feed him to the chickens but I was too lazy to walk down back, honest.

Can you believe the nerve of this bug? As you can see it's done a pretty good job completely eating one of the buds. As Vlad would say, 'cmon man' (but with a Russian accent).

I've spent quite a bit of time pruning these geraniums - we have 5 plants in 3 different colors in 2-gallon pots. I dead-head the passed flowers, as well as remove the dead and yellowed leaves. The plants themselves are tired and winding down. They're not as green and full as they once were but they're still blooming today. Regardless, they're not available for dining bud worms.

Here is the dude shortly after I picked him off the flower and just minutes before squashville. Oh, that's a boo-boo there on the outside of my palm. I suffered from a blond moment and cut myself with a pair of hand pruners. JoAnne thought stitches were needed but we settled on liquid band-aid instead.

The bud worm is a serious pest to many garden flowers. They feed on the buds and petals of many commonly grown flowers, including the geranium, petunia and nicotiana. The adult stage is a moth with the caterpillar becoming full grown in about 1 month. The insect survives winter as a pupa in the soil. Where soil freezes deeply, most overwintering insects are killed. With New England winter right around the corner these critters don't stand a chance...

Diapheromera fermorata

Otherwise known as the Northern Walkingstick.

Yup, I came across this remarkable insect Sunday afternoon. It's only the second one I've ever come across and both have been on our property here. The first one was shortly after we moved in and we found him on an oak tree in the front yard. This one, which is a female, was climbing up the back of the chicken pen.

I am simply blown away with this critter. Out of all the insects I've seen, come across and caught over the years, this one is far and away the best..crikey


Here she is posing on the bud of a Dahlia, above -


Here she is camouflaged and hard to spot, above -


Here she is on a yard stick. She's about 4" long, including her outstretched antenna -

Again, a remarkable insect...

Ditch Digging

I did a bit of manual labor yesterday and got a tad dirty. Actually, it was more than a bit and more than a tad. I can almost stand up straight again this morning.

The 40' trench was dug to bury 4" PVC piping underground that is to be used for a basement sub-pump. I installed a "Y" connector at the house end of the piping with the plan being for the sub-pump to use one side and the houses front downspout the other side.

Up until now the sub-pump was using (4) gutter downspouts that laid across the lawn. Although this worked, the downspouts didn't connect well and often came loose, it was unsightly and a manual process to boot. However, now that it's underground all those issues are no more.

Stage 1: Dig ditch -

Stage 2: Install PVC piping -



Stage 3: Done and cleaned up -



I've sent Billy Ray Cyrus an email requesting that he modify the lyrics to his "Achy Breaky Heart" hit song and change, for starters, 'heart' to 'back'. It could be another hit for the blue collar works and weekend warriors like myself.

For those of you who've been living under a rock, click here to listen to "Achy Breaky Heart" on YouTube - "Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart".

Acorn Weevil Larvae

He's just a squirrel trying to get a nut or rather a legless, grub-like acorn weevil larvae emerging from a nut.

Yup, here are a couple interesting pictures I took of an acorn giving birth to an acorn weevil. It stands to reason that we would come across something like this. Between Emilie, JoAnne and I we've been picking up acorns from our front yard for weeks now. I am guessing well over a thousand already, maybe more, and they're still falling. We actually had a contest last night to see who could fill up their bucket the fastest, it was me against the girls. The girls claimed victory but I've filed a grievance and expect the ruling to be overturned. I won't get into specifics but it was ugly some of the tactics they used...

Anyway, I digress...you can see the little tucker struggling to make his way out or perhaps in, how would you tell. He looked stuck and the hole didn't look big enough so he didn't make too much progress on my watch. He might be out by now but I don't plan on digging through the trash to see.

The adult acorn weevil is a brown colored beetle about 3/8 inch long, and has a very long thin snout. The female uses her long snout to make a small hole in a developing acorn on the tree. She lays several eggs within the hole. Her eggs hatch and the creamy white, grub-like larva feeds on the developing acorn inside the nut until fall. The larva grows to 1/4 to 3/8 inch in length and is off-white in color with a brown head. The legless grub is curved and fat in the middle, tapering toward both ends. The larvae within the acorn on the tree fall to the ground in the nut in the late summer or fall.

In the fall the fully grown acorn weevil larva chews a perfectly round 1/8 inch hole in the side of the nut and emerges. The acorn larvae then tunnel into the soil to complete development. They remain in the soil for one to two years before emerging as a new adult weevil to repeat the process.

Part of the reason you find so many "wormy" or "holey" nuts under the trees is because the squirrels leave them behind. It appears the squirrels are able to select the good acorns and hickory nuts during their fall frenzy of nut gathering and burial. This leaves only "wormy" nuts for you.

Tomato Hornworm IV

Update...

Here is the latest on the Lincoln Street Tomato Hormworm front...

The above picture is what these big, fat, plump, juice tomato hornworms turn into. It's very unusual to say the least. The weird thing is that they are both alive in the above photo, which was taken about two weeks ago, and they're still like this and alive today. Well the bigger one now resembles the little one.

Not sure if this is their cocoon-type stage or what. For the most part these things are slow; they eat slow and move slow, perhaps it's a defensive thing because they're pretty hard to spot when on a tomato plant and therefore difficult for predators to see. Anyway, they each became very mobile and stopped eating just before entering this stage. Time will tell what happens next.

Oh, also and much to my surprise I found (2) more of these critters on one of our tomato plants tonight. One large and one small. I would have thought they'd be closer in size and pretty much done and into the above stage, as the weather is changing and it's getting colder. Go figure, alas...

Katydid 2007

Here are some pictures of a one-legged Katydid that we found hanging around on one of our kale plants. You can hear them carrying on all night long - I enjoy their songs but JoAnne not so much...

I'm holding the critter in the last picture. It's a pretty good close up picture and taken just before I tossed this dude into the chickens pen. There was quite the scuffle between Lucy and Ethel to see who was gonna get this tasty morsel. The good new is they both got a piece.

Fall's Here...

Happy Fall :-)