Rabid Fox

Rabid Fox

I was out along the garden Saturday taking out some Sumac and Pokeweed , our next door neighbor came over to tell me there was a rabid fox staggering along it just went across her yard, she called the police, they were here in minutes, the office had his hand on his gun as he neared the poplar tree, the officer and another walked through the side yard by my workshop, we didn't hear a shot we we assume they didn't get him. We're keeping a sharp eye out...

It was a Dragon fly day Saturday, we had thousands, maybe more swarming, I'm hoping they are eating all the mosquitos! The skeeters are bad this year.  Winston saw them for the first time trying to catch them, he's still on a leash though so I couldn't let him go, he would have been doing flips if I'd loosed his leash.

Rose called our neighbor up on the hill to tell her about the fox, she mentioned they had a Black bear and 3 cubs running around, the cute cubs climbing trees. Something big got into my run in shed the other night trashing the fence that normally keeps the dogs out. I didn't notice anything else out of order.

Jarrod stopped by Saturday evening, he's got a new job, and a lot of gigs he's playing, and doing sound for.

Zeb is slowly recovering from his surgery. Looking better by the day... He's still wearing his cone of shame, sleeping a lot from the meds. he's on.

Winston has a vet appt. Monday AM to get his second Lyme booster shot.

Zeb started eating his normal breakfast this morning, after he didn't want any more of the canned food we hand feed him pills in, we had to resort to his other fave cheese. 

Zeb is definitely starting to feel better, not 100% yet but better. He tried to play a bit with Winston last night while he was doing zoomies between the living and dining rooms, it's funny to watch him going so fast up and over the back of the couch, back to the dining room, zoom, zoom... Winston really likes doing zoomies.

Like this tune...  Anthony Oliver Rich men North of Richmond

“I’ve been selling my soul
Working all day
Overtime hours
For bullsh*t pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away

 

Story Time... The mouse told everyone he was ok. He seemed ok. Nice house in a good neighborhood, pretty wife, 3 great kids, a vacation every once in a while. But he wasn't. He had given up his dreams to get here. Stopped following his passion to take a boring office job that paid for it all, but offered no satisfaction. None of his time was his anymore. Evenings after work were spent shuttling his kids to karate practice or piano lessons or play dates. On the weekends he went to swim meets and choir concerts and built treehouses. One Sunday a month he got to go do whatever he wanted, but usually ended up sitting in his car in the Target parking lot for a couple hours; half-zoned out, half-listening to NPR. Sometimes he'd cry a little. But not every time. Then he would come back home and declare that the lake isn't what it used to be. Didn't catch anything today, either. The rhythm of life made time pass weirdly. Sometimes the first few hours of stupid fucking paperwork on a Monday morning could be marked by the rings of a tree. Sometimes there was hardly any difference between a minute and a year. He blinked and his oldest was going off to college. He blinked again and he was talking options with his wife and the oncologist who would save her life over the next 17 months. He blinked a third time and he was old. It was Thanksgiving. There was a big stuffed turkey in front of him. A wife as old as he was, but still pretty as their their wedding day held his right hand. And all around them were their children and grandchildren and that one sad boy who lived next door to Cheryl (Steven's oldest) because he didn't have anyone to spend Thanksgiving with, so of course he could come. Smiles all around. They all said what they were thankful for. Everyone laughed when Tanner said he was thankful for Grandpa Mouse's fuzzy beard and great big bear hugs. But he wasn't joking. That's what home felt like to him. What love felt like.
Now Mouse could see he was ok, he really was. Actually, he always had been.

That's all Folks...

 

Political BS...

 

CNN reporter hears from the public... He said some on the left want to call them “deplorable” — but “there are millions of them!”

“They’re good people…They go to Church! But they believe things that would break our fact-check machine,” King despaired. “And they don’t trust us! They think we’re part of the problem!” Bingo.

Bash continued, then blaming conservative media for these poor deluded people.

 Ivermectin no longer just for horses – Useless FDA says can be used for Covid;

“It’s long past time to impeach Joe Biden,” Steube said. “He has undermined the integrity of his office, brought disrepute on the Presidency, betrayed his trust as President, and acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice at the expense of America’s citizens. The evidence continues to mount by the day – the Biden Crime Family has personally profited off Joe’s government positions through bribery, threats, and fraud. Joe Biden must not be allowed to continue to sit in the White House, selling out our country.”

AMERICANS NOT FOOLED – Two Thirds of Americans Believe 2020 Election was Rigged, The Feds Incited Jan 6, and the Biden's are a Crime Family.

AMERICANS ARE NOT HAPPY WITH BIDEN’S ECONOMY

•     American families are seeing higher prices for virtually everything, and they know exactly who to blame: Biden and Democrats.
•     Just 34 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy according to an AP-NORC.
•     66 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and 60 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation according to an Economist/YouGov poll.
•     76 percentof Americans say the economic situation is negative according to the latest Fox News survey.
•     74 percent of Americans say their financial situation has not improved, while only 35 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of inflation according to a recent Harvard/Harris poll.
•     73 percent of Americans believe the economy is worse off compared to five years ago according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey.
•     Just 16 percent of adults say their wages have kept pace with inflation according to the latest IBD/TIPP poll.

    Biden says the Inflation Reduction Act didn't have much to do with reducing inflation | Just The News https://t.co/q4M46pmGhR
    — John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) August 11, 2023

    KAMALA HARRIS: "Wages are up and inflation has fallen 12 months in a row! Think about that!"   Since Biden and Harris took office, prices are up by 16.6% and real wages are down by 3%. Think about that! pic.twitter.com/7TJTlNeUrW
    — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 8, 2023

    The American family is suffering under @JoeBiden.  Inflation is getting worse with Bidenomics with over 60% of citizens living paycheck-to-paycheck.  Families don’t deserve to hurt at the kitchen table because of Biden’s poor leadership. pic.twitter.com/fp0WSyjsBN
    — Mercedes Schlapp (@mercedesschlapp) August 12, 2023

An Open Letter To Joe Biden: The American People Are Absolutely Sick And Tired Of “Bidenomics”

The creators of the U.S. government did not intend for people to trust them or their successors with anything – no matter how well the federal government functioned. After all, they gave their own population the means to shoot them. And living today, we can see why. Trusting our government has yielded a war-hungry military-industrial-political complex that uses a professional army to create conflicts and instability abroad to justify a slo-mo totalitarian clampdown here. Or as James Madison put it, “liberty everywhere [is] crushed between standing armies and perpetual taxes.”

Zebulon's Saga Continues

Zebulon's Saga Continues

Tuesday morning Zeb's still in the hospital, his vitals are good, but he's still not eating, they are feeding him through a feeding tube.  We wanted to go and visit, but the vet said it may make him more anxious if we visit and then leave again as they'd like to keep him one more night... Hopefully this morning if he's still doing well and we can finally take him home.

Vet Update 9AM:Hello just wanted to give you an update on Zeb. So far he is doing well overall. He just started eating a small amount for us which is a good start. His vitals have been normal and he is bright and alert. His incision overall looks good, it is slightly swollen and red (likely from him licking it) but he is starting to lick at it and so we did place a cone on him (Cone of shame...) to keep from licking at it and he is doing well with that so far.

I spoke to the doctor as far as the plan for him today, they would like to continue care through the day, ensure he keeps eating and is able to hold his food down, and pending how he does through the day hopefully go home later this evening. Well that didn't work out... We went to see Zen tonight, Zeb is still kinda out of it and now has edema on his right legs, ugh they'll keep him overnight again, they took him off the IV fluids and are walking him every hour to bring the swelling down.  He looks very sore from the surgeries. It was so great to see him!  We brought some chicken, he didn't want it, 😥

 

The plan is to bring Zeb home today Wednesday, our plans have been dashed several times though so we'll see what happens today. They let us take him home, said he was anxious and not eating... We drove back to Manchester to get him, reviewed his release instructions, he's on 5 different meds for pain, some antibiotics, something to help with swelling. He looked a little better when we arrived and had a sparkle in his eye, and on top of that he was happy to see us. Once home Rose had him eating within an hour, I snuck him a chicken nugget, while Rose was feeding him yogurt and canned IAMs dog food. Yay! He slept for almost an hour this afternoon. He ate almost a normal size dinner yay! He has not had a bowel movement, kinda hard to do when you're not eating though. Sure is great to have him home! He's going to have a rough couple of weeks healing as he's still quite swollen.  Did I mention how great it is to have him home!

Looks very sore and angry to me... it does look better now.

 

Rose is simply an amazing mom to her babies, she's been up with Zeb the past two nights, he gets real anxious and a bit loopy on one of the meds, and his stitches started leaking we thought maybe from the edema he popped a couple stitches. We'd re-bandaged the area multiple times already this morning, we'll have to make a run to Rite-Aid soon to replenish first aid supplies.  He's still eating good and taking his meds so if we can get this oozing under control so the area continues to heal we'll be in good shape.

We couldn't get the bleeding/oozing under control, back to the Emergency room on Friday with him, well after a 4 hour+ wait they said the leaking was normal and they wanted that to happen, that's not what his discharge instructions said though. His now empty sac was infected... We're to keep doing what we're doing, using warm/cold compresses waiting for his meds to kick in on the infection, they upped up his meds to help keep him sleepier, less movement the better. We're back home now, we both feared they'd want to keep him overnight again.  Rose was wrecked from not sleeping for two days, being up with restless Zeb and dealing with the leaking around the stitches the past two nights. I'm up at 4:30 am Saturday morning, Rose was finally able to get some well deserved sleep! Zeb's doing a bit better daily now. The add-on med to make him more lethargic is doing just that. It's been a crazy couple of days here on the homestead, we both can't wait for things to go back to normal, whatever that is.

Winston our lab puppy is still growing like a weed, he lost his first baby tooth on Monday.

James and Lee stopped by last Monday night for a visit.

The Starlings and Blackbirds are starting to flock up already... Where did the summer go?

Dads door handle from Amazon finally delivered today...

 

I was out taking Winston for a potty run and we saw this guy, What the neck is that? 3+" long, as big around as my little finger...

Maybe this:

Emperor Moth

Scientific name: Saturnia pavonia

This European species belongs to a large group of moths commonly called "giant silk moths." The caterpillars are generally very large and often green in color, although they almost always have tubercles, spines, or club-like structures. The group ranges around the world, but the emperor moth and its related species are generally found only in Eurasia. These moths are not common, and since the adults fly at night and hide during the day, they are seldom seen. The caterpillars are sometimes encountered after they have left the food plant and are searching for a good place to spin a cocoon.

The Geese are flocking in the fields, that's it folks, summer is over, lol. Everything is starting to scream fall is here.

Bette Davis who famously said, “Old age isn’t for sissies!”

Winston laid on the floor this morning and cleaned Zeb's ear still wearing his cone of shame (to keep him from licking his healing stitches) as he lay under Rose's desk this morning.

Zebs coming home, maybe Monday

Zebs Coming Home

We took Zeb to the vets Friday, Zebs back home on Saturday, they think where the blockage is located is at a place that will let it pass now!  Saturday evening Zeb was still not feeling well, drooling, and lethargic.

Sunday Zeb's still not himself, just wanting to sit in the cool morning grass and drooling a lot.  It's back to the vet Sunday morning early, we left in such a hurry we left the front door wide open... they did an ultrasound just after noon, it showed the blockage, appears to be a piece of cloth toy, ultrasound worked better than the xrays to see the toy, it's major surgery for Zeb, they'll open him up stem to stern, because of the ultrasound they now know exactly where the blockage is so it'll be quicker, they don't have to go looking for it to remove it, as long as he's zipped open they'll neuter him (we had an appt. on the 23rd this month for that anyway) they'll also tack his stomach to prevent stomach torsion that German Shepherds are prone to. Wish us and Zeb luck, we're praying for him! We got a call at 6pm, surgery was a success, they pulled the arm of a stuffed sheep toy along with a squeaky bulb out his intestines, neutered him as long as they had him opened up, and stapled his stomach to the side wall, in GSDs (German Shepherd Dogs) they get stomach torsion if they get bloat, anyway Zeb was awake and sitting up but very drunk when the surgeon called, I think Rose called them just as she was about to call us... he'll spend the night and if all goes well with recovery, we might be able to take him home tomorrow night! Yay! We miss him a lot already! What a long weekend this was...

We received a nice text Monday morning from the vet: Good morning! Just wanted to send you a quick update on Zeb. He's recovering uneventfully thus far! No interest in food yet which is fair - we may begin some tube feedings a bit later today, but will probably decide after we recheck that 10am blood work. Feel free to call maybe around 11:30 or so to check in on the plan for the day :) otherwise his vitals have been normal, and he's been up and walking and going in potty no problem and has been getting all the loves.

 

Our Weekend Musical interlude!

God Bless America!!

Jason Aldean - Try That In A Small Town

Creed Fisher- If You Have A Right To Burn My Flag

Creed Fisher- One of 'Em

Aaron Lewis - Am I The Only One 

Aaron Lewis - Everybody Talks To God

Not a big rap fan, but I like this guy!

Tom MacDonald & Adam Calhoun - "American Flags"

In God We Trust - Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, Struggle Jennings & Nova Rockafeller

 

 

IT'S AUGUST

IT'S AUGUST

Still waiting on Amazon to deliver dad's back door Slider handle... maybe Saturday.

Market Basket, the cheapest food store around is selling a medium bags of chips for $5.00 each, wow...  Rose said everything is getting ridiculously priced.

Sunday we finally got a real nice day, I had to deal with some Wisconsin work issues and I mowed the damned lawn for the umpteenth time this year.  Bring on the drought...

Tuesday was amazing, 70s weather, blue skies, big change for us here in the northeast, FINALLY!  This is summer and it's almost over we're in August already.

Our Oil dealer is playing fun games, we called to find out the oil contract price for the year, (they still haven't told us in late July) the girl at Haffner's/Putnam told Rose they we'ren't sending out contracts that we had to go online to sign up, Rose say's "so how were we supposed to know to go online" as we rec'd no notification, the girl laughed at that, she said you're right... she'd send a contract out by mail... funny.

We're going to order wood pellets in the next week or so, last we called they didn't have any, we try to get them end of July as they are usually still at last years prices.

Gas is going up fast again, $3.69 at Cumby's

I need to go check the Blueberry bushes before tehe bireds get 'em all. I need to look at the Blackberries too, been so crazy busy lately.

Work is insane the last week or so. Conference calls up until 9-10PM the last few nights. Big goings on in Wisconsin, we're finally done in Wisconsin, we had the Secret Service in the plant for a week. A big contract announced with Nokia, VP Kamala Harris spoke at the plant along with the WI governor thus the reason for the Secret Service. My IT teams can finally breathe again...

I changed the air purifier filter and pre-filters, I still find it amazing how much dirt and dust the unit sucks up, glad to have it though.

Zeb's sick, we're not sure what's going on we need to see the vet Friday morning, he's throwing up what he's eating, and not drinking a lot.  They did xrays, nothing positive showed there a couple locations possible blockages, they are trying to get him cleared out today, they'll re-xray 10pm tonight, possible surgery if he doesn't clear the blockage. (Possibly a toy he ate).  They x-rayed him again last night and it appears he may have cleared the blockage, he's still not eating though as of Saturday morning, we need to go back and see him at 11am Saturday morning bringing him some of his food and some chicken to see if he'll eat that.  We're not out of the woods yet, but we're hopeful, time will tell.

Winston is doing well, a little confused that Zebs been gone since Friday morning.

We took him for a car ride Friday night to go buy a couple megamillions 1.35bn jackpot tickets, wish us luck.  Someone in Maine won... ;-(

A big doe has been coming in at around 3:30 in the afternoon the last week or so.  Eating off the deer block mostly.

Winston, my favorite pic

 

 

Got Storms?

 

We received several text and emergency phone alerts of flooding in Goffstown and New Boston last Sunday, so far we're high and dry!

Lots of still green blackberries on the bushes! Should be good eating if they don't all rot in the rain this week thru Friday.

Winston had a puppy night Sunday night into Monday waking Rose up pretty much every hour through the night.  Ugh...

Weee, Ha, Ha, Ha,

“Hellish heat wave searing US likely to drag on for weeks“ It’s Called July & August

Rose saw the Bobcat stroll across the deer-yard last Monday

We've had a couple of deer coming in nightly, I put out a new deer block on Friday night in case we're short on grain, we are... Grain store has been out of Wildlife Grains we feed for weeks now.

James and his girlfriend Lee came over Tuesday evening we went out to Ollie's for dinner, food was good service not so much.

96 degrees "Feels like" temps for Thursday and Friday coming up, ugh, wicked humidity too.

Thursdays storm hit Manchester hard, lots of debris in the roads on my way home.

Saturday they're predicting more bad T'storms, possible flooding.

Saturday we're headed over to Dads to install the slider handle, and adjust the door so it slides a bit easier.

 

 

Connie and George were up to visit

Connie and George were up to visit

We all had a blast!  Saw some folks we haven't seen in forever it seems. James had to leave early to get to work.  Great to hear how everyone's lives are going.

 

And life goes on...

And life goes on...

Rosie was vacuuming last Saturday morning, it scared Winston so bad he ran into the dining room and piddled... He then hugged my leg hiding behind me. He very cautiously went in to the kitchen to check out the vac once she turned it off.

I'm melting... 3 scorcher days in a row!

It was awesome seeing a bunch of family on Saturday, at Mom & Dads for ice cream and eclair pie. Maddie is off to Utah the end of the month, after a stop in Iceland, can you tell I'm jealous?  Asked her to send pics so we can enjoy vicariously!  Mom, Dad, Joe, Amy, Maddie, Lisa, Sheila, Rick, Todd and Nancy too!

Nobody won Mega-millions on Friday, no winner, there's still Powerball and another so a couple more chances to win.

Weather says General thunder this Saturday evening, what does that even mean?

Dad I can stop by after work this week to help with trimming the bush out back, let me know the distance between the screws on the slider door and I can pick it up on my way by Home Depot.

Winston was cute cleaning Zeb's ears Saturday night, just like Hannah did.

Winston had a rough night having to go out at 11pm, 12pm, 2am, and then at 5am he started whining and barking again.   I guess puppies are like babies, you forget what babies are like, good thing or nobody would ever have more than one, lol!

I was looking at Winston this morning, I swear the little guy grew 3" longer overnight!

 

Winston

Winston

Winston

Winston aren't I cute

Winston cleaning Zebs ears

Winston

Winston & Zeb
 

Worlds Largest LED Sphere 2.3 Billion dollars in Vegas

We're on flood watch, only issue here is the basement if we get too much rain at once,  I have a sump pump if needed.

Winston and I were in the living room Tuesday evening, Rose was outside with Zeb, she walked by the back windows, and Winston saw her, not realizing it was her. Winston ran to me, whipped around hackles up and barked real loud 3 times, we went to check it out, "good boy Winston!" he's going to be a good protector.

    Just Kidding...

Monty Python’s 1979 hit movie “Life of Brian” featured a song about optimism:

Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best
Always look on the bright side of life

So the clothespin bag saga is solved... Rose saw a Wren this morning fly out of the hanging bag, so we'll sacrifice it and won't clean it out anymore. The bag is full of leaves, sticks and moss.  We'll keep an eye on it.

 

Interesting: SpaceX has explained that it will reroute satellites if there's even a small chance of collision, so we're not talking about 25,000 avoided collisions. However, the satellites are clearly passing SpaceX's red line with much greater frequency as it expands the network. Even a single high-speed crash in space would have disastrous consequences, spreading debris that could damage or destroy other satellites. There's even a theoretical outcome called Kessler Syndrome, where a chain reaction of space junk collisions makes low-Earth orbit inaccessible. Avoidance maneuver protocols are going to be essential as the population of satellites grows by thousands or even tens of thousands in the coming years. Otherwise, space missions will become even more risky than they already are.

I fed the deer, around 8pm, and mowed the front, back and side yards before the Skeeters drove me in around dark Thursday night.  I've mowed so many times

Some nice lightning and thunder last night, sounded like huge slabs of granite toppling on each other.

We've not seen the fawn at all.  Doe is out at 12:30pm Saturday she still looks fat???

Winston is growing up so fast seems every day he's gotten bigger

This is funny... I looked up “what do I do if my squirrel has heat stroke?” and google was like, “Did you mean to ask: ‘IS YOUR SQUIRREL SPLOOTING?‘” I was like, “I absolutely was not” but I still clicked on it and turns out that tons of people are finding seemingly dead squirrels splayed out in their yards and it’s become so common that there is a name for it. Squirrel Splooting. Google assures me that seeing squirrels splooting is very normal during heat waves because they press their bellies to the the cooler ground to regulate their temperature and that you should just leave some water out for them

Rose is vacuuming again we'll see if Winston is still afraid

Man did it pour out Saturday evening and into Sunday

We were supposed to take Mom and Dad up to the High Tide in Hillsborough for seafood but the flood and tornado warnings coming in all Sunday morning postponed the trip, we'll wait for some better weather!

Stay dry folks...

 

 

It's July already!

It's July already!

We're starting to settle into a rhythm with the puppy.  He's still getting up in the middle of the night wanting to go out. 

Well, well turns out some folks did have fireworks for the 4th, 5th, and 6th, OMG the skeeters are bad though.

We picked up the new car yesterday. Hyundai Santa Fe

Winston was off to get his 1st round of puppy shots at the vet Wednesday.  He did fine, he slept a lot today.

Winston

Zebulon

Winston & Zeb wrestling, it looks worse than it is, Zeb is very gentle with little Winston.

I thought all the mushrooms in the yard was bad, the slugs this year are wicked too.  They're everywhere.

Our dehumidifier is working overtime in the basement this week.

Veronica

Camper dehumidifier emptied out.  I checked the battery attached to the solar setup today.

Roses clothespin bag has someone repeatedly trying to build a nest inside it over the past day or so, probably a chippy.

It's supposed to be a Scorcher Thursday and then again on Friday, before it gets too hot this morning I trimmed up a bunch of the bushes we've been talking about making it difficult to mow and otherwise get around the property.  With all the rain everything is sprawling like crazy here on the farm.  I got Dad's Plum tree trimmed pretty good, as well as the Russian Olive trees along the property line that I'd already trimmed heavily in the spring! Four trailer loads later I was done.

I mowed the road out in the field and along the workshop already almost 2 feet tall in spots.

   Rose & I getting trampled with all the gotta-do stuff around here this year!

I got the foundation sprayed for bugs, we've seen Black Ants crawling around.

Bear hasn't been back since tipping the grain barrels that one time several weeks ago.

Rose got the kiddie pool filled for the pups Thursday morning, they had a blast after lunch today.

TD BANK! on Thursday Oh No, Great!  "Due to a temporary system issue, Customers are unable to access up-to-date account information online, in person or over the phone. Thanks for your patience as we work on a fix as quickly as possible."  I think we may finally be done with them!  Numerous "to many to mention" issues over the years, the bank is just too convenient for us is the problem!  Something else to do, we'll add it to the list!

Grape Jelly/Jam for the birds, How is it possible I'd never heard of this before this year?  It's amazing the number of birds that love this stuff, Downy woodpeckers, Catbirds, Sparrows, and a couple Orioles and their hungry brood, they're teaching their fledglings to land on the dish with the jelly.

We're off to pickup grain and another deer block today.  We got two over in Hooksett, these blocks are bigger and are mostly big grains everyone including the crows love them.

Winston is not so sure about the sprinkler, Zeb loves it though.

Maddies back for the weekend, we'll stop over Dad's to see her off, she's heading to Utah at the end of the month.

Jarrod's family is up north camping, the campground they are at got deluged Friday, 2" in a short time, he said there was 2" of water everywhere, they managed to stay dry, others didn't fare as well.

That's it for homestead news...