April 2007

A Suburban Raccoon

It’s surprising how some of the critters manage to survive in our neighborhood despite the traffic and human activity. We’ve seen squirrels, opossums, skunks and raccoons throughout the area, apparently getting regular meals.

Last night, this little ‘coon was in our yard, apparently interested in the bait in a rat trap. It must have set the trap off (I hope it didn’t hurt this little guy) and alerted our dog who promptly chased the little critter up the utility pole behind our house.

pole-coon

I guess after we brought the dog in the ‘coon slipped away into the night since we didn’t see or hear anything else afterwards.

Task Force Phoenix 5 – WOW

This week, we picked Task Force Phoenix 5 to be our Weblog of the Week (WOW). Todd is currently in Afghanistan but will be heading back to Oklahoma soon. We wanted to get him posted as our WOW before he heads back.

phoenix-5Todd’s website banner says all you need to know about his blog.

This site will focus on the good things we as soldiers and Americans do for other Nations and what it takes to improve the counrty of Afghanistan.. My name is Todd Larkin and Im with the 1-180th Infantry Battalion in Durant, Oklahoma. Our Battalion is on a one year deployment to Afghanistan with Operation Enduring Freedom and I want to show everyone or atleast who ever looks at this website what we do, what the tv and the paper doesn’t show.

We’ll put a link to Task Force Phoenix 5 in the footer of our Never Forget Tribute for the week.

Fox Gloves

Last week while shopping for colorful flowers to accent our yard and patio, I saw this interesting flower. The name of this variety is Fox Gloves.

fox-gloves

Read the following excerpt for some interesting facts about Fox Gloves:

Continue reading…

The Gore Effect — Revisited

coldwx.jpgThe chief climate propagandist at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) surely must be saying to himself, “Man, I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing greenhouse gasses.”

No sooner did the newest IPCC “climate report” predicting massive global warming doom hit the streets, than the weather decided to turn cold and snow on Easter weekend. Events were canceled, folks either endured 30° temperatures for outdoor Easter Sunrise Services (or went inside) and baseball games were snowed out. All this on the heels of the most dire report to date.

It seems that whenever there is a major “climate doom and gloom” event, actual weather phenomena say “not so fast.” Things like freezing temperatures in springtime and snowfall in Malibu tend to reinforce the notional Gore Effect.

Twenty years from now, Al Gore‘s histrionics will be all for naught since neither Greenland nor Antarctica will melt causing the oceans to rise and flood the world’s lowlands. The band of cartographers poised to “redraw the map of the planet” will simply not be needed. Top scientists often scoff at Gore, calling his crusade out for what it is — a sham.

The IPCC Report is yet another “over-represented” view of nature and the effects allegedly caused by mankind. The ultimate goal is to extort industrialized nations and to sell the idea of pyramid schemes like Gore’s “carbon offsets.”

Please visit our Global Warming Resources page for more on the topic of global climate change.

UPDATE: Big Dog is hosting a trackback for global warming articles.

Easter Lily

There are three of these beauties on the lily today. A fitting centerpiece for our Easter Sunday Dinner. We wish a Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all of our Military and your Families and to all of you who read this.

easter-lily.jpg

Cactus and Succulent Exhibition

Today, we went to the South Coast Cactus and Succulent Society Show and Sale at the South Coast Botanical Gardens in Palos Verdes. We try and get to this event each time it is held, and always are amazed at the beautiful flowers and exotic cactii and succulents.

We made a few acquisitions at the sales tables. We lost our stapelia (carrion plant) after a recent frost, and got a replacement today. We also picked up a ‘Fruhlingsgold’ Epyphylum which produces these wonderful blossoms.

fruhlingsgold.jpg