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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 5, 2009 0:30:31 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Jan 10, 2010 8:27:48 GMT -6
Anyone who has suffered through the Disco years, (it's amazing some of us made it out alive), has at least one time got the following stuck in their heads. "It's raining men Hallejulah It's raining men Amen" Did you know that the original lyrics were "It's raining iguanas"? It just didn't seem as catchy though. But with the cold weather recently, it's actually happening in Florida. www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319971,00.html
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Seeker
Whooshite Apprentice
Posts: 133
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Post by Seeker on Jan 16, 2010 18:26:09 GMT -6
Kids can be a hassle on the playground, even in the wild. Just take a look at these guys.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 18, 2010 8:39:58 GMT -6
Thanks for the smile this morning, Seeker. That mean ol' monkey playground bully looked like he was having too much fun. The tiger cubs didn't seem to mind either....for a time, anyway.
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Seeker
Whooshite Apprentice
Posts: 133
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Post by Seeker on Jan 19, 2010 0:32:35 GMT -6
Thanks!
Here is a cute clip I found a few months back and thought was adorable. The very last clip is the best. Enjoy!
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Post by katina2nd on Jan 19, 2010 19:25:03 GMT -6
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Post by Gabrielle On Nutbread on Jan 19, 2010 19:36:53 GMT -6
Ellie was very amused when we went to Wal-Mart earlier because I was amazed to see seagulls everywhere. We don't have those in Indy. Ellie told me they're sort of like "flying rats," because they'll scavenge for food and eat pretty much anything. Anyway, I looked up "seagulls" on YouTube, and this vid popped up. Made me smile so I thought I would share it. A thought I had after watching this: 'wow, must have been a slow news day.'
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Post by Phalon on Feb 19, 2010 18:51:47 GMT -6
This is not one of those cute animal videos....it's something that's caused destruction to much of our country's river systems, and is about to enter the largest body of freshwater in the world - the Great Lakes.
It's the Asian carp - an invasive species of fish which virtually starves out all other species of fish, because it eats up to 40% of its body weight each day, (and it grows as large as four feet and up to 100 pounds), and breeds at unbelievable rates. It also leaps 10 feet into the air, and "charges" boaters, leaving them injured and with broken bones. Hundreds of fish can be seen jumping at once, and turns normally calm waters into a weird kind of battlefield.
Though it's been in this country for years, I recently just heard about it as it's making headlines across the country because it's on the verge of breaking into Lake Michigan.
For a dramatic look at Asian carp on the Mississippi and its tributaries, check out this two-part mini-documentary on YouTube. Filmed in 2006, the videos, totaling about 15 minutes combined, give a good perspective of the destruction this invasive species has caused.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 2, 2010 6:38:38 GMT -6
On Friday, a customer at the nursery told me that it was one of Buddha's special days. I can't remember the details of what he said exactly, except on this day, (and I think four others like it throughout the year), deeds are increased 10,000 fold.
Earlier that day while shifting potted plants around to get ready for winter, I picked up a pot that felt quite light. Around where the pot had been, were piles of dirt. Mice!
This time of year, field mice are a real problem at the nursery as they seek a place to burrow for the winter. They get into the pots through the drainage holes, make a nice little nest, and gnaw on the plant roots. Because the pots are butted up against each other, packed tightly together for winter to prevent the roots from freezing, the mice go from pot to pot, gnawing roots and basically having a free all-you-can-eat smorgasbord until we open again in spring. We'll come in during March, and find scores of pots with nothing left but a little dirt and the tops of plants.
When I found the mice in the pots, I knew what my bosses would have preferred I did, but three little adorable field mice, with cute little faces where staring up at me from the nest they'd made, all cozy and warm. I just couldn't.....and I wouldn't have anyway, even if they were hideously ugly. I took the pot and set it out in the kid's garden about 50 yards away, and then went to help a customer, pleased with myself for "saving" the mice, and thinking they'd find a nice home in the garden.
How naive I was!!! I came back to the section I was working in about a half an hour later, and saw three little mice scurrying between the pots I'd already moved together, looking for a new home among all the free food.
Now, all I can think of is going into work one day, and finding those three field mice have multiplied by 10,000 each! Thirty-thousand mice running amok, eating all the plants!!! My bosses would fire me for sure!
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 2, 2010 16:19:54 GMT -6
I read that mice hate peppermint and spearmint ... how about adding extract/oil to the water and giving the plants one last drink for the winter. Or start adding the extract/oil to the plants water supply next autumn, a few weeks before storing them for winter.
Do a search for:
Mice Hate Peppermint & Spearmint
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 2, 2010 16:36:28 GMT -6
I read that mice hate peppermint and spearmint ... how about adding extract to the water and giving the plants one last drink for the winter. Or start adding the extract to the plants water supply next autumn, a few weeks before storing them for winter. [Edit: Okay. One site said it had to be oil and not extract.]
You can also sprinkle cayenne/red pepper powder on the ground around the pots. Or add to water and spray the pots with it.
Mice also hate mothballs.
Do a search for:
Mice Hate Peppermint & Spearmint How To Organically Repel Mice
ooh.
Stick steel wool in mouse holes. www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Mice-Naturally
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Post by stepper on Nov 2, 2010 19:36:57 GMT -6
Of all the things I've learned about you, I think I like this best. The world would be a sad place if there were no gentle souls left to care for its creatures.
Still, for the sake of the plants and next springs' profit margin, you may want to consider the Peppermint & Spearmint.
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Post by stepper on Nov 2, 2010 19:40:51 GMT -6
I know a country church that spread moth balls on the grounds to keep critters away. So far as I know, it worked out okay too. I've never heard of the steel wool trick - but with my luck if I had a mouse it'd hire a rat to drag the steel wool off to an outlet where it would short out and start a house fire.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 3, 2010 6:35:30 GMT -6
Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard of the cayenne pepper thing, and have tried it at home to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder. Kind of an interesting fact - most mammals are repelled by the taste of cayenne or hot peppers, but it doesn't bother the birds in the least. That's because they have so few taste buds; in comparison with humans who have 9,000, a pigeon, for example, only has about 30 to 60.
I'm not sure the peppermint or pepper thing would work though, for a couple of reasons. Several applications would be needed throughout winter, when the nursery is closed - the smells and tastes dissipate over time. There are thousands of perennial, daylily, and hosta pots - all favorites of mice. To water the peppermint in, it'd have to be applied to the irrigation system, somehow, which hits the entire nursery - all 40ish acres of it. That'd be a whole lotta peppermint oil, I'm thinking.
Of course, can you imagine how minty-fresh the place would smell in spring!
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 3, 2010 16:30:02 GMT -6
You're very welcome. Maybe a 'How To Organically Repel Mice' search will give you a workable answer.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 3, 2010 21:21:52 GMT -6
Well, ya learn something new every day. I brought this topic up with the boss today - the man boss, (technically, I work for his wife, the lady boss). Turns out they do use cayenne spray. They buy vats of the stuff. All this time I thought they were spraying anti-dessicant in the fall, a latex spray that coats the leaves of evergreens. The wind here dessicates evergreens over winter; the latex helps hold in moisture.
The crew goes around with a huge sprayer on a tractor, spraying all the evergreens in the nursery. What I didn't know, is that after the evergreens get sprayed, they mix in the cayenne with the latex, and then spray the stuff that the rabbits chew the bark from - apple, hawthorn, dogwood, and such. The latex helps adhere the cayenne to the tree so it doesn't wash off after a rain or snow. For a few years, a number of years ago, they tried spraying the perennial pots to keep the mice out. Unfortunately, because the mice get into the pots from the bottom, and eat the roots, it didn't deter them at all.
We also had nursery cats for a while, (before I started working there), and word was they did a fabulous job at controlling the mice. But there is the highway - just a two lane country road really, but it runs right in front of the store. After one got hit, the others found good homes as house pets.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 3, 2010 21:40:38 GMT -6
hmm ... They could do the invisible fence and put collars on the cats to keep them within the nursery.
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Post by stepper on Nov 3, 2010 22:18:14 GMT -6
That’s precisely why my cats are indoor cats. I would be inconsolable if one of my cats were killed and I could have prevented it. The cardinal this past spring wasn't "mine" but I still miss him.
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Post by Siren on Nov 10, 2010 22:55:45 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Jan 8, 2011 19:48:51 GMT -6
You know, Siren, I never could get that link to open.
Crows. You all know how I love them. I came across the following poem, and thought it was both a funny, and oh-so-accurate description of my favorite bird.
Crows Hunch in the trees To gossip About God and his inexorable experimenting, About deer guts and fish so stupid You could sell them air And how out in the deserts There’s a dog called coyote With their mind But no wings. Crow with Iroquois hair Crow with a wisecrack For everybody Crow with his beak Thrust through a bun, The paper still clinging. Crow in a midnight blue suit Standing in front of a judge: Your Honor, I didn’t Kill him, Just ate him And I wasn’t impressed.
~ Doug Anderson
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Post by Siren on Feb 3, 2011 10:07:26 GMT -6
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Post by Phalon on Feb 5, 2011 8:19:22 GMT -6
Be free, Molly B, be free!
Thanks for reposting the link, Siren. I see it's the same as the first one, but for whatever reason, I couldn't get it to open (maybe you posted it when I was having all those browser problems).
I wonder what happened to the cute little dolphin since?
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Post by Phalon on Mar 13, 2011 6:48:18 GMT -6
BP turned me on to this; she's had the lap-top on almost non-stop all weekend, just so she can check in periodically throughout the day. Her class in school starting following a pair of nesting eagles on the Internet. "The Decorah Eagles" (they look like bald eagles but the video stream doesn't say exactly what breed) are a pair in Decorah, Iowa whose nest is equipped with a streaming web-cam. The nest is HUGE; the eagles (who, as all eagles, return to the same nest each year) have been using this one since 2007. It's over five feet wide and deep, and is estimated to weigh 1 1/2 tons!!! The male and female take turns sitting on their three eggs, which are due to hatch sometime in April. I can't say this is the most exciting thing to watch out there on the Internet, but admit to getting kind of entranced a few times yesterday when BP yelled, "Mom, look what the eagles are doing!" Mostly one is just sitting, but still, it's pretty cool. www.ustream.tv/channel/decorah-eagles
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Post by Phalon on Apr 6, 2011 5:39:24 GMT -6
Two of the three eagles hatched this weekend - the first one right before LX and I left for our trip, and getting out the door was delayed because BP was so excited for us to see the little ball of gray fluff in the nest. I was informed of the second hatching early Sunday morning with a phone call, (too early, in my opinion, after Saturday night's concert).
Nothing happening with the third egg yet.
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Post by Siren on Apr 7, 2011 21:23:48 GMT -6
Oh, thank you, Gams!! I clicked over just in time for a baby to lift its head for a moment. What a sight! I am still agog that their nest is THAT big and THAT heavy.
I appreciate being able to see the eagles after dark. But I wonder if they mind?
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Post by Phalon on Apr 8, 2011 6:39:20 GMT -6
I wondered the same thing, Siren. I read further on down the page though, that the cameras use infrared light that is invisible to the eagles.
Oh, and since I last posted, the third egg hatched!
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Post by stepper on Apr 8, 2011 18:18:56 GMT -6
I enjoyed watching the baby chicks hatch Phalon - thanks for hooking us up with the link. === This guy found this baby hummingbird after it was attacked, he nursed it back to health until it decided to stay and be his pet. www.wimp.com/babyhummingbird/
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 8, 2011 20:28:52 GMT -6
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Post by Siren on Apr 9, 2011 7:16:49 GMT -6
That is a beautiful video! Neat young man, there. What it must be like to feel that almost weightless little creature, sitting on your hand!
My mom, a great bird lover, has always dreamed of holding a hummingbird. Apparently other people do, too. I saw an ad for a scarecrow-type figure you put in the yard, sitting in a chair, holding the hummingbird feeder. Leave it out there until the hummers are used to it. Then, you don the clothes the scarecrow was wearing, so you can hold the feeder.
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Post by stepper on Apr 9, 2011 10:32:08 GMT -6
We rented a home not long after we were married. The people who owned the house had humming birds accustomed to visiting and part of the deal was that we'd keep the feeders going for the rest of the first year for the birds which visited so often. One Saturday morning I noticed a hummer shadow very close to the window. When I checked to see why it was so close to the window, I noticed the feeder was empty and the hummer was trying to see in the window where the owners had their kitchen table. Quickly as I could I got the feeder and refilled it, then took it back outside. As soon as I was back out holding the feeder, one of the hummers flew up just in front of my face - within inches - like it was saying "Hold it right there bub!" I stood as still as possible while the hummer fed on the nectar in the feeder. It moved several times between the feeder and being directly in front of my face. When it was done it buzzed me one more time and then moved off far enough so I could put the feeder back up. It was amazing - that little bird getting right up in my face with no sign of fear whatsoever. I can't imagine what it'd be like to have one be so used to me that it would land on my finger.
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