Friday, March 28, 2008

My Brother, John, told me about this youtube video wherein a hunting party is attacked by a lion they had wounded. If that one guy hadn't kept his head and continued to shoot, they might not have survived. Yikes! Very close!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

CAN YOU GET A 100 ON MY CANDY QUIZ?

Name the candy:

1. A famous swashbuckling trio of old
2. Indian Burial Grounds
3. Galaxy
4. Large Good Looking Guy
5. Search
6. Not laughing out loud
7. Can't hold onto anything
8. A famous author
9. Famous former baseball player
10. Famous New York Street
11. Twin Letters
12. Big lies
13. a sweet sign of affection
14. favorite day for working people
15. charlie Brown's friend
16. nut happiness
17. two femal pronouns
18. a feline
19. single women look for him
20. round flotation devices
21. sun explosion
22. bite with crackling sound
23. determines who wins most games
24. dry cow
25. sweet infants
26. tough time
27. British game where you knock small pins down
28. a tract of open wasteland
29. taking a bite out of a twenties dance craze
30. when actors take a break
31. what an orchestra plays
32. positively abundant

Monday, March 24, 2008

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What percentage of the world's population has at least one food stain on the clothes they are wearing right now?

Saturday, March 22, 2008

"Out the Airplane Window"

"...And the prairie beyond the mountains
Like a sheet pulled flat."

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

MATT STROUD!!!

Matt Stroud has a website!!!

Among the controversial things you will find there is the saddening news that they have had some trouble in the bus loop, and that his favorite football team is the bengals!

Bengals?!?!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

AN EXCERPT FROM "THE AIRPLANE'S WINDOW"

"...A house stands alone on the swelling plain
Like a mint on a pillow,
And the farms stretch along the river
Like fabric along a zipper."

Saturday, March 15, 2008

"I was on the verge of total ruin,
In the midst of the assembly
and congregation"
Proverbs 5:14



"Remove your way from her,
And do not go near the door of her house"
Proverbs 5:8



"His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin."
Proverbs 5:22



"Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks."
Proverbs 7:22



"For she has cast down many wounded,
And all who were slain by her were strong men."
Proverbs 7:26



"Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with love."
Proverbs 7:18

"An unguarded strength is a double weakness"
Gordon MacDonald

WATCH OUT!!!



Oh, Lucy!



So yesterday Lucy came up to me and said,

"I'm MAD!!!"

So I asked,

"Why, Lucy?"

She replied,

"BECAUSE!!!"

So I asked again,

"...but Lucy why are you mad?"

...and she said,

"Because of the Bobie-Bobester!"

Saturday, March 01, 2008

I KNOW...I KNOW...TOO MUCH ABOUT MOUNTAIN LIONS

...but the plot thickens



The discovery of an old mountain lion kill has been made just 6 feet from the nature trail I built about a year ago. The bones pictured above are of a deer. In the close up below you can clearly see gouge marks (presumably from the big cat's fangs) in the vertebrae below the deers head. I removed the lower jaw of the deer for the purposes of a future exhibit, but half of the corresponding upper jaw and snout was missing. I understand that sometimes Mountain lions will suffocate their prey by crushing that part of the deer by biting down on it to prevent them from breathing.



The area around the bones had been scuffed up with pine needles and other brush scraped in the direction of the carcass. Mountain lions typically cover their kills in this fashion and revisit it over time. Much of the deer was missing, but we have been finding parts of it for some time down by the stream and behind Lisa's house. That would indicate that coyotes, ravens, raccoons and such have been visiting the kill as well.




The scary thing is that the deer carcass is literally 6 feet off of our nature trail. When I built the nature trail I largely followed established game trails, so on most days the trail is littered with animal tracks. The aforementioned biologist, Kevin Brennan, told me that where you have deer and raccoons in the San Jacinto Mountains you also have mountain lions. Not far from the nature trail is the Atipahato Lodge. The Atipahato has a problem with their leach field, which has resulted in profuse green grass spring up not far from where the kill was found. The deer have worn well-traveled trails between the bubbling leach field and nearby streams. These trails criss-cross the nature trail. I theorize that this is why we have the mountain lion hanging out in our neck of the woods. Kevin Brennan told me that people who have trouble with mountain lions coming too close to their homes are often guilty of feeding deer and raccoons. I think that, in effect, the Atipahato is feeding deer by not treating their septic problem.


(The section of trail where we found the kill)

I found more mountain lion tracks yesterday by dead man's cave. Not surprisingly they were found right where a multitude of deer tracks were going down to drink at a small stream that flows in front of the cave.




I called Atiphato and aired my grievances to their manager, and she advised me that she will be sharing my concerns with the owner, but I'm not holding my breath that they will do much about it. I guess I could contact the health department and use that as leverage to get the problem cleared up. Maybe I'm just a little too excited about the whole thing. I could be overreacting.



I like the idea of mountain lions being in the mountains, I just don't wnat them here in my camp. I have been worried about mountain lions for a while, and the topic tends to get me a little excited.