Post a random thought

[Travlr]

At my house in the woods that burned down in a forest fire there was a bird house on a tree trunk next to the front door. A red wasp colony developed inside. Since I'm interested in the order Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) we got used to each other. It was interesting to see their social life. You could see their paper nest in there and what was going on. They are insect hunters, they kill insects, chew them up and bring the 'meat' back to the nest where they share it with others.

In the late fall all red wasps become grumpy. I think it is because their prey becomes scarce. These were definitely making some threats. So I decided to try feed them by putting little balls of raw hamburger on the roof of the bird house to see if it would change their behavior.

Then on Labor Day 2011 a giant forest fire burned up 55 square miles of piney woods. The wasps and their house burned up and so did mine. That was the end of my observations.
View attachment 49240

Insects are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

 

[greybeard]

I'm starting to think I'll never be old enough to know better..

 

[MrChevy]

We didn't used to have any wasp here on the farm until several years ago when we borrowed a tractor from the neighbor and we brought them over here. Now I can't seem to get rid of them. My hand is pretty swollen up from yesterdays sting.

We have plenty if you need some more. We have a large variety bees, wast, hornets, ground hornets, ect.
Do you need an raccoons ir opossums? We have plenty of them at well. Hahahaha

 

[CowboyRam]

We have plenty if you need some more. We have a large variety bees, wast, hornets, ground hornets, ect.
Do you need an raccoons ir opossums? We have plenty of them at well. Hahahaha

Nope, don't need anymore them vermin. I have not seen any raccoons for awhile, but we have a local fox that lives in on our farm. I let her stay because she keeps the prairie dogs down. I did run over a family of raccoons with the swather a few years ago. Our winters are probably to cold for opossums.

 

[Ouachita]

I didn't wake up Grumpy. I let her sleep!

 

[greybeard]

I didn't wake up Grumpy. I let her sleep!

in other words, she kicked you out of bed......

 

[greybeard]

I'll never forget my grandad's last words to me right before he died.
"Are you still there, holding the ladder?"

When you carve a pumpkin in September,

It's called premature ejackolantern

 

[Ouachita]

Lots of 'honey-do's' this weekend, but I have managed to squeeze in some 'me-do's' too. Got a nice rain on the chicken litter and food plots. Thinking about staying home till spring. She told me the freezer was low on deer meat.

 

[Ouachita]

I qualify this as random. I've been thinking about my granddad a lot lately, probably because of the empty lake and wishing he was here to see it and tell me stories.

Okay, random part.
They didn't get electricity until 1967. After they got electricity, they only used for refrigeration/freezers, and to string a lightbulb into each room.
Granny and granddad very rarely visited family or neighbors, because granddad could not understand how other folk could urinate and crap in their house. It seems funny or comical, but he was serious. He was unable to "evolve" that far.
They continued to cook with wood and live without indoor plumbing until year 2004.

There are many folks thought granddad was an odd duck. He just couldn't bring himself around to sheet in their house.

Until we've walked a mile in someone else's shoes……

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

When we lived on the ranch in Texas some older folks, a son and his mother, lived down the road and they did not have indoor plumbing. Sometime in the late 80s they got an out house. Water was rainwater in a cistern. My husband says he thinks Flossie got water from it with a bucket. They did not have a lot of money but wern't poverty stricken. They had beef cattle. She also milked a cow.

 

[greybeard]

I qualify this as random. I've been thinking about my granddad a lot lately, probably because of the empty lake and wishing he was here to see it and tell me stories.

Okay, random part.
They didn't get electricity until 1967. After they got electricity, they only used for refrigeration/freezers, and to string a lightbulb into each room.
Granny and granddad very rarely visited family or neighbors, because granddad could not understand how other folk could urinate and crap in their house. It seems funny or comical, but he was serious. He was unable to "evolve" that far.
They continued to cook with wood and live without indoor plumbing until year 2004.

There are many folks thought granddad was an odd duck. He just couldn't bring himself around to sheet in their house.

Until we've walked a mile in someone else's shoes……

Not the first time I have heard that, about pooping indoors. I had an old uncle out in Nolan county up on the divide that thought the same but his wife felt differently. She was tired of fighting that cold West Texas wind to get to their rickety old outhouse. I remember as a kid, visiting them you sometimes had to fight off tumbleweeds too, and as small as I was a good sized one would knock me down.
Their water came from a windmill pumped out of the same big round cement tank the cows drank from. Not the cleanest but nobody ever got sick till Uncle Richard came down with skins cancer from a lifetime of farming dry land cotton and redtop. Except frigid winter nights, their adopted teenage son slept on a army surplus bed on the front porch. Lived way off the paved road and ya woulda thought it was the 1920s except when the lights came on in the middle of the night, the sirens blared, and that Nike Zeus missile came up slowly out of it's silo in middle of another nearby grain field. Now that I think about it, that was an Atlas ICBM and not Nike Zeus anti missile

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Wow. . . .

Heres some random thoughts.

The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

"Free Beer for Breeders"

Idaho bar vows to bring back 'heterosexual awesomeness month' during Pride Month 2025

The Old State Saloon will bring back 'heterosexual awesomeness month' in June 2025, its owner says.

katu.com

 

[Travlr]

 

[Dave]

Drink cans and bottles are worth 10 cents at the recycle machines here in Oregon. This morning I found 3 empty water bottles along the road. I figure 500,000 more mornings like this and I will have the mortgage paid off. The wife put a damper on my celebration. She said at today's rate it will take 1,370 years to pay the place off. Hmmmmm These drinking litterers need to pick up their pace.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I'm starting to think I'll never be old enough to know better..

 

[Ouachita]

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I've only mowed my yard ( I could say lawn but that sounds too formal, and lawn has a 'manicured' tone to it which I assure you, does NOT paint an accurate picture of my yard) about 6 times this year (drought). Anyway, My son was mowing it yesterday evening and the mower quit on him. I've never had an oil concern with mowers, maybe because I don't use them often, IDK. Anyway. There was no compression and I checked the oil (actually lack of when I looked). As it's never been a concern, thinking back, I "might" have last checked the oil at the beginning of the pandemic (yikes!). Anyway, I started looking through the local buy/sell/swap garage sale type site on my phone (used to be a newspaper type ad, no more) and quickly found a decent (actually a bit bigger than the one I just blew up) mower an hour away. I made contact and they still had the mower. I offered my (now junk, but good for parts) mower in trade for 10 bucks off the asking price. Agreement was made for the 22" mower for $50. Drove an hour to get it. Location was in the true country (for here anyway) and I got turned around navigating the last mile to get there (anyone trying to find a location when its dark out in a network of gravel and dirt roads in a dense woods with no street signs understands this, the first 38 miles was a cake walk.) The seller was worried I wasn't familiar with those types of roads (I know them well and don't get flustered, I just have to take my time. not my first rodeo with that sort of navigation doings). I got to my location and they were worried about me. I explained who I was and what I do for my profession. From there I spent the next 2.5 hours "talking shop" with them about USDA programs, the cattle and pasture they have, their free range chickens, their woods that needs managed/a management plan. I love my career/job/way of life. I was not "working" at the time, but my time spent there was no different than what I would do if I was "working". They were very grateful for my time (It was from 9 - 11:30 at night). We actually walked part of their garden and hay field. I'm sure we will be in touch again. I was very grateful for the "yardmower" as well.