72 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-14-16”

  1. Good morning! Today is the day — 30 years since hubby and I tied the knot. It’s been good, and God has blessed us in many ways. I’m hoping for another 30 years yet, and more would be even better. 🙂

    Down the road we go to celebrate today…

    Have a blessed day, all.

    Liked by 11 people

    Reply

  4. Happy anniversary !

    I was jarred awake at 4:30 by some kind of wild animal pursuit and ruckus playing out on my front porch just a few feet away outside my open window. Saw a Huge raccoon (?) scampering up my porch railing toward the roof with lots of growls and snaps from below from what (I think) was the neighbors dog in pursuit. That or a coyote maybe.. Sheesh. I think he got away. It’s quiet now, I’ll see what’s out there in the morning (hopefully no blood!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Oooh, Donna! How exciting to have such sounds so nearby. It’s always something in the urban areas. It’s not so pastoral and tranquil as in the remote countryside like where Mumsee lives. Ummm I guess I forgot for a moment about the weasils and their shenanigans.😮

    Like

    Reply

  9. I have a question for the ladies. I need to replace some summer shoes. Three pairs of my sandals are too loose and are open on the heel end, therefore, though I dearly love them, they have become hazardous. What is a good style for both church informal and everyday?

    Like

    Reply

  10. Good Morning, Y’all!
    I am now officially moving on! Left the teaching field and have started back to school in radiology. Prayers appreciated! Hope all is well with all of my WV friends.

    Liked by 9 people

    Reply

  13. Best to you Inbutnotof — here’s to new adventures.

    rkessler, I know, and as if the whirling LAPD helicopter chasing criminals in our neighborhoods weren’t already “wildlife” enough …

    LA is a no-kill city and county (and the state is fast becoming a no-kill state, hunting is deeply frowned upon). So our wildlife populations are booming (and I live in a part of the city, like many others, actually, where there’s plenty of wild, natural habitat like ravines — one runs right across the street and next to my neighbor’s house; rats used to be the main problem with that, now it’s just about anything and everything else).

    Tonight there’s a meeting in one of our neighboring cities about trapping coyotes and our reporter who covers that city will be there. It should get wild, the coyote defenders have descended upon the city council & will be out in force to stage a colorful protest that will include native American animal rights dancers on the steps of the city hall.

    The commotion on my porch last night was quite spectacular, the outdoor small stone cross on my porch rail was knocked off, some plastic bins were all scattered … No blood that I can see and I think I heard the prey critter on my roof later this morning, so he must have gotten away. Whew.

    Like

    Reply

  14. Bin were empty, I do know enough not to keep ANY food anywhere outside, but it all may have looked worth checking out to someone anyway.

    Meanwhile, someone in town reported this morning to waking up and finding 5 coyotes in his front yard, evidently looking for his cat that sometimes gets to go out. Shudder.

    Like

    Reply

  15. Sunday my husband and I went to our favorite local state park, and among the sights I most enjoyed was seeing cedar waxwings in the tree of berries. I’ve wondered why I rarely see cedar waxwings on our street, since we have the cedar berries they’re named for (one of their favorite foods) and also other berries. Well, today I got up a little early (for me) and got a few photos of a trio of cedar waxwings at the top of the neighbor’s tree (a tree without berries). So then I had to go see if I could find any among the wild bushes and cedar trees across the street.

    To get to that area, I had to walk past a road-killed mature raccoon. Not quite in our front yard, but not far from it. I love raccoons, but admit I don’t relish the thought of a mature adult that close, for Misten’s sake, so I’m OK with it being killed. (And we’ve been having coon poop in our yard, so at least one coon, quite likely that one, has been coming around.)

    Anyway, I did see at least one, probably two, cedar waxwings, but in a neighbor’s evergreen and not in the wild stuff. But in the wild stuff I first heard and then saw a catbird, and I also saw a male goldfinch, a singing male cardinal, one or possibly two young indigo buntings (turning blue, so I think that means they’d be one-year-old males), a song sparrow waiting till it was safe to go to its nest with food, and a couple of swallows darting around. I’d say I live in a pretty cool place to see wildlife. The other day I was out in the heat of the day, hottest day we’ve had in two or three years, and dragonflies were (like me) reveling in it. They were darting everywhere. Common milkweed is just starting to bloom (the first flowers opened yesterday, with more coming along), so we should be seeing a few monarchs soon, I hope. We have flowers on the ones in our yard, but they’re still a few days from blooming.

    Like

    Reply

  16. A friend nearby had a major issue with raccoons in her backyard several years ago, they beat up her 3 dogs pretty badly (vet bills $$). She tried live-trapping them but couldn’t (they’d somehow they’d get the bait out but never got trapped). I think she wound up calling a professional trapper in. But raccoons can be vicious (as cute as they are).

    Like

    Reply

  18. I thought it looked like a catbird. But I don’t remember them being so gray. First time I heard one, I looked and looked for the little kitty.

    Like

    Reply

  19. I just talked with my friend, Karen, who used to be a nurse at Emory in cardiac surgery. She worked with the surgeon (Art is seduced to see) for a year when the doc was doing his residency. He was the doc Karen went to with any question or problem. He is the best in his field. Karen is pleased.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  27. Earlier, Forrest was making up exercises to do with me. At one point, after exerting ourselves doing one of his made-up exercises, he asked me, “Do you feel the burn?”

    Had to laugh. It was so cute.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  29. Happy anniversaries, 6 Arrows! Quite a milestone.

    I actually own a genuine coonskin cap, by the way. One Christmas I ordered several of them, some for my nephews and one for me. In fact, I wore it once when Petsmart had a “dress your dog for Halloween and get free dog treats” event, and I explained to people that Misten was already Lassie, so I was Timmy. I thought it was funny, but nobody else seemed to, so I ended up feeling silly. And one person told me Timmy never wore a coonskin cap, and I said I never saw the show, but I had heard that he had one, and later someone else said yes, he did have one. (But seriously, how can Misten “dress up” as anything other than Lassie? To me it was a creative twist on dressing up my dog. Oh well.)

    I also wore it to a women’s tea in which women and girls were supposed to come, fancy hats optional. I won an award for most creative hat. (Oddly, no one else was wearing a coonskin cap.)

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  33. All of my rabbits have disappeared since the weasels showed up.

    It has been raining a lot this morning. Very good for me, not so much for the farmers who had cut their hay and had it laying in the fields to dry. I planted a grape vine and dug trenches in my driveway to get the water to run off. It was a task given to fourteen year old boy last year but not in his area I guess.

    Like

    Reply

  34. I did not catch that change my phone made to the word scheduled. I am just wondering why the new phone is afflicted, too. It does not anticipate what I want to say since I use the word scheduled much more frequently than I use the other word, which I probably have never used on the phone.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  36. An earlier girly, store-bought ‘davy crockett’ hat in white met a horrific end when I left it outside in my grandfather’s front yard. Two wandering dogs found it to be wonderful inspiration for a game of tug-of-war. It never had a chance.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  37. I’m asking a favor. I’m having a lot of trouble with my website. Would one or two of you–preferably people who don’t frequent my website–mind taking a look and then answering these questions?

    Website is http://www.michelleule.com

    Questions:

    Ask a trusted friend to critique your website’s navigation system.

    Is the text in your buttons/tabs clear?
    Are buttons or the “3-bar” easy to find?
    Is your site’s navigation intuitive?
    Can you access ANY page on the site in one or two clicks?
    Is the site responsive – does it automatically adjust for optimal viewing no matter what device the user views it on?

    You can get to me, I think, by clicking on my avatar or through my website contact information (another test).

    Thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  39. I am at the coffee shop….internet at home is kaput! It may be the router…but then again it may be our provider….making me crazy!!
    Raccoons have emptied the hummingbird feeders three times this week….last night one pulled the bottom of of the feeder….we will be bringing the feeders in at night now….our hummingbirds need us!! I do not like raccoons at all…nasty little things they are…..I wish the coyotes would go on a hunt for them during the nighttime hours 😛
    Congratulations on your many years of wedded bliss 6arrows!
    Janice…I don’t wear open toed sandals…I wear Teva MaryJanes most of the time….and I do have Teva hiking sandals…and I like flats…and Crocs…and barefeet!! I am weird about my toes…no one can touch them and I don’t like showing them…I know I know…..(and I might add that I have “Fred Flintstone” toes….and fingers…short and stubby….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  40. From a nearly community near a naval base in LA area last night:

    “We’re back up against the base. A coyote jumped the barbed wire fence, came into the yard, broke through the screen on our patio, and grabbed our cat from our fenced in patio dragging her through the broken screen. We prevented the coyote from taking the cat, but the cat’s now at the animal hospital. The light was on on the patio.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  43. That’s horrible, Donna! I’m glad they could rescue their cat, though.

    In our neck of the woods, we have bear sightings fairly often, & recently had a moose sighting. Coyotes & foxes are around, & also fisher cats, which are in the weasel family, & are pretty nasty creatures. (They don’t fish, & they’re not cats, so I don’t know how they got their name. Maybe it sounded like the Native American name for the animal.)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  44. Hmmm…. I found it. I presume they have the same policy toward mice? Nobody is allowed to kill them are they? You people need to realize they were there first and you need to just get along.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  46. Mumsee, can you post a link? Scary stuff, Donna. If I lived there and had a baby, I think I’d be concerned, and I don’t think I’d even try to have a small dog or an outdoor cat.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  48. Now I’m rethinking the commotion on my front porch. Just talked to the guy who found 5 coyotes staring at him from his front yard this morning and it turns out he lives about 4 blocks away from me — and this was around the same time this morning. He said it took him several tries to shoo them off, they kept stopping and staring at him, forcing him to chase again. I would not have been that brave with so many of them (they have 2 large dogs & a cat that is indoor-outdoor, the cat’s bed is on the porch but the cat thankfully was in the back — probably would have been a goner soon enough if it wasn’t time for him to head out for work.

    Interesting policy that the Huntington gardens has on coyotes (and makes perfect sense, if LA would listen):

    “From time to time, The Huntington is asked about what it does to manage the coyote population on its property (207 acres). In fact, coyotes are part of the landscape of the greater Los Angeles area, including urban and suburban areas, canyons and parks. Because we host some 600,000 visitors each year and because we are aware of aggressive coyotes in the area, we have in place a coyote management program that includes removing brush, controlling pests that serve as food for coyotes, and using leaf blowers and similar equipment in areas they might try to inhabit as a means of creating noise and making the area appear less hospitable. We also have engaged an outside contractor to periodically remove coyotes to keep the population in the area under control. There is no effort to eradicate coyotes from The Huntington; wildlife biologists at the state Department of Fish and Game have assured us that’s not possible. But they do agree that removal can help re-instill the fear of humans, potentially reducing the likelihood of attacks. At the same time, they have told us that the incidence of coyote attacks on humans has markedly increased in Southern California and that as coyotes have migrated into urban and suburban areas, their numbers per square mile have increased dramatically, and their behavior has become increasingly bold and brazen. We know that we must balance two very important considerations: the need to provide protection to Huntington visitors, staff, and neighbors while being sensitive to the local wildlife population.

    We also know good coyote management means working in concert with the local community to ensure a consistent approach. With that in mind, we have held town meetings periodically to bring in wildlife management experts to provide education and outreach for our staff, volunteers, and neighbors regarding best practices for dealing with coyotes in urban and suburban areas.”

    Like

    Reply

  50. Donna, get an air soft gun and learn to use it. Shoot them. It will give them a sting but not penetrate and get you in trouble. They will learn that your territory is not their territory. Of course, you will be on your own on your walks. But at least they will respect your territory. For a while. Are air soft guns legal in CA?

    Like

    Reply

  51. Probably not. But I’ll check.

    Better than an air horn probably.

    here’s the latest story, just a preview on tonight’s meeting in a nearby city (that’s being covered by the reporter who usually covers that city):

    http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20160613/protest-expected-at-torrance-workshop-to-discuss-coyote-management

    My really in-depth story based on the interview with the researcher has yet to run. Hoping it gets in by the end of the week, it’s long and the editor says no one will read it on their phones.

    Ugh.

    Like

    Reply

  52. Michelle,

    On a desk top it looks good. The others I haven’t seen. It’s easy to navigate and move around, the links I clicked took me right where they shoulda. Pretty straightforward, laid out nicely as well. I like it.

    Clicking your name takes you to your website as well, which is nice. I clicked your Gravatar profile too. I didn’t realize you could add a work phone number. I was gonna call it too, just to see if it rang. Cheryl said, “Go ahead…” and then rolled her eyes. Usually that means I probably shouldn’t, so I didn’t…. 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  53. My neighbors have real guns.

    We only have bears and mountain lions in the northern part of the city, up near Griffith Park. Bears sometimes wander around and wind up in someone’s swimming pool or up in a tree or lumbering through the streets where they’ll get shot with a tranquilizer dart and returned to the hills.

    Coyotes are top dogs in our city & suburban neighborhoods, though, they’ve adapted to living among people and aren’t going away anytime soon.

    Like

    Reply

  54. Donna,

    Since you live in a state like Cali., you have to be more creative. There’s more than one way to skin a coyote, or at least scare ’em off….

    Go to WalMart. For $5 bucks you can get a hand held air horn. It will scare the snot outta your dogs as well, but it should deter the unwanted attentions of neighborhood prowlers as well, whether they’re 2 or 4 footed.

    http://www.walmart.com/ip/49581432?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227037243503&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=102945474288&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=145768193328&veh=sem

    Amazon’s even lower.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  56. Mumsee @ 8:31
    real guns work better.
    No matter who was here first coyotes have no business in urban neighborhoods.
    Nor any place else where children can play unattended. They are becoming used to people. But they are not domestic.
    That makes them more dangerous than those in the wild.

    We may be getting a similar problem in Hendersonville with bears.
    Bears need to be afraid of people.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  57. Chas, that is true, but she is living in California.

    Son told me they had the same problem in Ethiopia with the hyenas. They had become to used to people so the people had to be wary.

    They all do, need to be scared of people. But God says it will come to a time when the wild animals will be killing the people. As I said the other day, it is like they are lining up to be ready.

    Like

    Reply

  59. I suspect they will get used to air horns pretty quickly, but they don’t like to be stung. Loud noises are part of city life, they have adapted.

    Like

    Reply

  62. “But God says it will come to a time when the wild animals will be killing the people.” Mumsee, that passage doesn’t ring a bell.

    Like

    Reply

  64. Thanks for all the anniversary wishes! We had a nice time together today, and will do the overnight thing at a later date. Severe weather at both our destination point this afternoon, and, after deciding to get out of that town while we still could, in our own town when arriving home a few hours later. Flooded streets, rain pouring so hard it was like driving in a snowstorm, visibility-wise. Please pray for safe travels for 1st Arrow tonight. He has to be to work in one hour.

    Thanks, everyone.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  65. Cheryl: Fourth Seal, Rev 6:8. I don’t know what it means. But it ends with, ” Authority was given to them (Death and Hades) over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine, and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  66. There’s something to what mumsee says about more intensive hazing techniques (ones that imprint a memory of pain). Coyotes will easily get used to us waving our arms and yelling and blowing a horn.

    They may retreat at first. But after a while, they’ll just look at us and think “oh, she’s waving her arms and yelling and blowing a horn again.” They know there’s no real threat behind all of that.

    Like

    Reply

  68. Mumsee – Re: what you said about mice being here first. Tell that to my cats. They have no mercy, no mercy whatsoever, when a mouse comes to visit.

    Like

    Reply

  72. Donna, when we hear a commotion in the night, someone usually goes tearing outside in undies, boots(no socks), and a gun…. We have a predator control board that is paid for by livestock tax dollars. It finances the government trappers.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Karen O Cancel reply