Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Good Morning!

Ol'  Chickenmom gave hubby a scare and was rushed off to the local hospital for a few days. Came home late last night.

All is well now, but I am going to take the rest of the week off and get my strength back.




Thank you so much for your e-mails - will reply to  all. (Charlie and the gang are amazed that you missed them!) 

And here's a funny in the meantime:








:o)

Friday, November 25, 2016

Friday Night Steam

A beautiful little video filled with steam, wonderful whistles and fog! Enjoy!







 

R 761
Maintained by Steamrail Victoria

This photo is kindly provided by Trevor Staats and shows R 761 and R 707 doubleheading near Maryborough on 17 May 2003. 
Builder
North British Locomotive Co, Glasgow
Builder’s Number & Year
27051 of 1951
Designer
Victorian Railways
Wheel Arrangement
4-6-4  “Hudson”
Entered Service
9 April 1952
Withdrawn from Service
6 July 1964
R 761 was commissioned in 1952 as one of 70 members of the Victorian Railway's R-class 4-6-4 "Hudson" main line passenger locomotives.  These locomotives were designed by Victorian Railways and were urgently required by the post World War 2 period, however construction was delayed by competing priorities.  Eventually construction was outsourced to the North British Locomotive Company, Glasgow but, as with so many post-war steam locomotives orders, delivery ultimately came many years after the demand required.
The R-class superseded the A2-class 4-6-0 locomotives on fast passenger turns however the simultaneous arrival of first-generation diesels reduced their usefulness and the R-class was destined for relatively short lives and low mileages.
R 761 was withdrawn as early as 1964 and placed in storage at Newport Workshops.  It outlived most other steam locomotives withdrawn around this time, eventually passing into the care of Steamrail Victoria.
R 761 has been immaculately maintained by Steamrail Victoria at their Newport Workshops base for many years.  It wears authentic black livery with red running boards and “blinker” smoke deflectors.  R 761 has delighted both rail fans and the public with many fast main-line excursions over several decades of Steamrail Victoria excursions, often double-heading with either R 707, R 711 or R 766.
Wikipedia provides further information about the Victorian Railways R-class locomotives.
YouTube has several videos of R 761 in railtour service, including this fine example “Snow Train 2013 with Hudson Steam Engine R761: Australian Trains showing R 761 on high-speed run pasts during the Snow Train II tour of 2013.  In addition, John Hurst has many images of R 761 in railtour duty in his excellent collection of railway photographs.
My thanks to John Hurst for this slide view captioned "R 761 waits at Pakenham for clearance", taken on 10 April 1994
The SCOAP wheel centres are prominent in this view.
The North British builder's plate centrally mounted on the German-style "blinker" smoke deflectors.
This view was taken as R 761 awaited departure from Bendigo during an Easter 1995 railtour.

Source: http://australiansteam.com/R761.htm

Today's funny :o)







:o)


I was lucky...

...... a few days ago! The vultures came back to roost in our trees!

 

 They didn't even fly away when I ran back to the house to get my camera:



 They usually roost in the trees in back of the stone wall.



 I'm glad they moved closer to the house this time!



 I've never heard them vocalize, but they can make grunting sounds.



 Just love it when they perch and spread their wings to catch the warmth of the sun!



 They turn around and get front and back warm!
 


And then - off they go!



That just made my morning!

:o)

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Good Morning!



Everyone is coming to Coopville for Thanksgiving and  there is LOT  to be done!





Taking the day off to do fire up the ol' oven and start baking and cooking to be ready
 for a hungry family !


Have a Happy, Blessed Thanksgiving!




:o)

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

A Rooster's Tale...

A  big H/T to BW for sending!  :o)



Wily Wylie Street rooster outsmarts all who try to catch him



Sharon Hughes

Sharon Hughes has photo prints that depict a rooster that comes onto her property.





Roosters aren’t allowed in the city, but tell that to the one on Henry Gaston’s property on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District.
This rooster, which crows at midnight and at all other hours, according to neighbor Sharon Hughes, has evaded animal control’s efforts to catch it for years. It has landed Mr. Gaston in magistrate’s court multiple times, and he was back before District Judge Oscar Petite on Wednesday.
City housing inspector Roberta Bullock told the judge that Mr. Gaston was in violation of the urban agriculture code, which does not allow roosters — only a certain number of hens based on the size of a property — and that the lot is overgrown with weeds.
“The weeds, that’s one thing,” said Ms. Hughes, “but this rooster is the real problem. It’s my alarm clock” at 3 a.m., 4 a.m., 5 a.m. and all hours of the day. She lives across the street. “I taped it.”
“I want to hear it,” Judge Petite said.
Ms. Hughes dug the recorder out of her purse and turned it on. Within seconds, a piercing cry sounded, definitely a rooster. Then another. The screech punctuated the ensuing conversation, prompting giggles from people waiting for their cases to be heard.
“It comes in my yard,” she said. “There were kittens born on my porch and the rooster was playing with them.”
Judge Petite’s eyebrows shot upward, and he said, “I’d like to see a rooster playing with kittens.”
He asked Mr. Gaston to respond, and Mr. Gaston said, enunciating each syllable slowly, “I do not own any roosters. How am I supposed to get rid of something the professionals can’t catch?”
“If I lived there,” Judge Petite told him, “it wouldn’t take three years to get rid of that bird.”
“I’ve lived there 27 years and I am really sick of it,” Ms. Hughes said. “I’ve got a gun but I don’t want to shoot it. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
“Go ahead and shoot it,” Mr. Gaston told her.
“You shoot it!” she shot back.
The district judge turned to Mr. Gaston and said, “How much time for the weeds? A week, two weeks?”
Mr. Gaston nodded.
“And you’ve got 30 days to get rid of that bird,” the district judge told him.
Later, back at the Wylie Avenue property, which was Mr. Gaston’s mother’s — he lives in Homewood — he said he has tried to catch the rooster and that he chases it off when he sees it, but he allowed that the property has been favored by roosters for decades and continued to maintain that they are not his birds.
“Why am I accountable for something that isn’t mine?” he said.
In the grass near a thicket of weeds and small trees, someone had sprinkled pinched-off pieces of wheat bread. A neighbor, Ruth Johnson, pulled up in her car and, after chatting with Mr. Gaston, got out carrying a bag of peanuts. She said she often stops to give the rooster peanuts.
“He knows me,” she said, peering into the overgrowth and calling, “Here Chicky!”
Mr. Gaston admits it will be a challenge to comply with the judge’s order in 30 days. Whether his or not, this wily rooster on Wylie Avenue has been around this property for a long time.
Ms. Hughes doubts the rooster will be captured. “There have been three or four hearings and animal control gave up. If that bird gets caught, I think it would be a miracle.”
Ms. Johnson agrees.
“You won’t catch him,” she said. “This rooster is smarter than all of us.”

:o)





Today's funny :o)

H/T to Wild river!  :o)






:o)




Monday

(The wind has still been howling - internet service is spotty here in Coopville)

Maude looking for something to eat - she does looked starved doesn't she? LOL!


 Hubby checking out the snowblower for when we really get some of the white stuff:



 Begging (again) for a treat:


 Spot the crow:


 All lined up waiting for their oatmeal:


 Another pretty sunset - have been getting lucky with them!


Watch the girls run to Charlie when he calls them as he pretends to find a goodie!



:o)






Monday, November 21, 2016

The Anhinga

H/T  to JC for recommending this gorgeous bird!!





Anhinga

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the bird genus Anhinga, see Darter.
Anhinga
Anhinga anhinga -Costa Rica-8.jpg
Male in Costa Rica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Suliformes
Family: Anhingidae
Genus: Anhinga
Species: A. anhinga
Binomial name
Anhinga anhinga
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Subspecies
A. a. anhinga
A. a. leucogaster
Anhinga Range.png
Range of A. anhinga      Breeding range     Resident range
Synonyms
Plotus anhinga

The anhinga (/ænˈhɪŋɡə/; Anhinga anhinga), sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word anhinga comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird. When swimming the origin of the name snakebird is apparent: only the colored neck appears above water so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike. They do not have external nares (nostrils) and breathe solely through their epiglottis.
The anhinga is placed in the darter family, Anhingidae, and is closely related to Indian (Anhinga melanogaster), African (A. rufa), and Australian (A. novaehollandiae) darters. Like other darters, the anhinga hunts by spearing fishes and other small prey using its sharp, slender beak.

Anhinga species are found all over the world in warm shallow waters. The American anhinga has been subdivided into two subspecies, A. a. anhinga and A. a. leucogaster, based on their location. A. a. anhinga can be found mainly east of the Andes in South America and also the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. A. a. leucogaster can be found in the southern United States, Mexico, Cuba, and Grenada. A fossil species Anhinga walterbolesi has been described from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene of Australia.
Only birds that live in the extreme north and south of their range migrate and do so based on temperature and available sunlight. Anhingas will migrate towards the equator during winter but this range is "determined by the amount of sunshine to warm the chilled birds". Although not in their usual range, anhingas have been found as far north as the states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the United States.
Kettles of anhingas often migrate with other birds and have been described as resembling black paper gliders.

Description

The A. anhinga species is a large bird and measures approximately 89 cm (35 in) in length, with a range of 75–95 cm (30–37 in), with a 1.14 m (3.7 ft) wingspan. The A. a. anhinga subspecies is larger than A. a. leucogaster and has "broader buffy tail lips". They weigh on average around 1.22 kg (2.7 lb), with a range of 1.04–1.35 kg (2.3–3.0 lb). The bill is relatively long (about twice the length of the head), sharply pointed and yellow as are the webbed feet.
Most of the male anhinga's body is a glossy black green with the wings, base of wings, and tail being a glossy black blue. The tip of the tail has white feathers. The back of the head and the neck have elongated feathers that have been described as gray or light purple-white. The upper back of the body and wings is spotted or streaked with white.
The female anhinga is similar to the male except that it has a pale gray-buff or light brown head, neck, and upper chest. The lower chest or breast is a chestnut color and as compared to the male, the female has a more brown back
The hatchling starts out bald but gains tan down within a few days of hatching. Within two weeks the tan down has been replaced by white down. Three weeks after hatching, the first juvenile feathers appear. Juveniles are mostly brown until first breeding after the second or third winter.
This bird is often mistaken for the double-crested cormorant due to its similar size and shape, although the two species can be differentiated by their tails and bills. The tail of the anhinga is wider and much longer than that of the cormorant. The bill of the anhinga is pointed, while the bill of the cormorant has a hook-tip.

Behavior

In order to dive and search for underwater prey, including fish and amphibians, the anhinga does not have waterproof feathers, (unlike ducks, which coat their feathers with oil from their uropygial gland). Because the anhinga is thus barely buoyant, it can stay below the surface more easily and for longer periods of time.
If it attempts to fly while its wings are wet, the anhinga has difficulty, flapping vigorously while "running" on the water. As do cormorants when drying their feathers, the anhinga will stand with wings spread and feathers fanned open in a semicircular shape, resembling a male meleagrine, which led to the anhinga being referred to colloquially as the "water turkey."
Anhinga will often search for food in small groups.

Conservation status

The anhinga is protected in the US under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The number of individual anhingas has not been estimated but they are considered to be of least concern because of the frequency of their occurrence in their 15,000,000 km2 (5,800,000 sq mi) global range.


:o)




Today's funny :o)







:o)




Saturday was an .....

.... unbelievable Fall day! Sunny and really, REALLY warm/ Almost laughed when the township issued a Winter Weather Advisory! But this time they were right - by 2:30 the temperature had dropped 20 degrees and kept falling! Hubby check out the house generator just in case.


 During the night, the wind started to howl. Hubby and I thought we were going to lose some tree limbs!

 Not a lot of snow, but it was bitter cold out there! And still very windy.


 Decided to go for a ride and get the Sunday Snarky news. The trusty camera in tow:



 Only the grass and dirt fields were covered, but it was pretty!



 Didn't seem to bother the ducks and geese at all:


 I wish this pic came out better - deep colored red leaves against the snow:


 Sunrise Mountain was all covered:


 We always smile when we pass this garage:


 Just a nice new barn:


 And an older one:



Had snow squalls all day and the temps stayed in the 20's. Today should be nicer!
 I can do without that dang wind!

:o)


Saturday, November 19, 2016

At the Hop!

Freddy Cannon









Date of Birth

4 December 1940Lynn, Massachusetts, USA
Birth NameFrederick Anthony Picariello
Nickname Boom Boom

Mini Bio (1)

Rocker Freddy Cannon was born in the Boston suburb of Swampscott, Massachusetts. His father, a truck driver, was also a semi-professional musician, getting gigs in the Boston area with local bands playing his trumpet and singing. Freddy taught himself to play guitar, and after graduating high school in 1955 got a job playing guitar on a record by a local group called the Spindrifts, "Cha-Cha-Do". The record became a regional hit, and Freddy began getting more studio work, including playing the lead guitar on The G-Clefs' record "Ka-Ding Dong", which went to #24 on the Billboard national charts. Although he took a full-time job as a truck driver to support his family--he had married and had children--he didn't give up his musical career, and eventually formed a group called Freddy Karmon and the Hurrcanes, which began to make a name for itself in the Boston area. His appearances on a Boston dance show led to his signing a management contract with a Boston DJ, and soon Freddy cut a demo record--written by his mother--called "Rock and Roll Baby". His manager took the demo to the well-respected producing team of Frank Slay and Bob Crewe (later of The Four Seasons fame). The pair saw possibilities in it, and after some tweaking they sent Freddy back into the studio to re-record the song, now called "Tallahassee Lassie". Philadelphia TV personality and record producer Dick Clark heard the song and, after suggesting some further tweaks to it, had Freddy re-record it and distributed the record on Swan Records, of which he was part-owner. The song's driving guitar solo, pounding bass drums and Cannon's shouts and cries of "Whoo!" made the song a major hit, hitting the #6 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959.

With his name now changed to Freddy Cannon--at the suggestion of the record company's president--and dubbed "Boom Boom" because of his unrestrained, boisterous style of singing, he finally achieved his dream of becoming a singing star. He had numerous appearances on Clark's New American Bandstand 1965 (1952) show, and altogether he had 22 songs place on the Billboard Top 100 list over the years. His follow-up song, "Okeefeenokee", did disappointing business, only reaching #43, but his next song, "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", was one of his biggest hits, going gold and shooting to #3. He toured the US and Britain. He continued to have chart hits, although no blockbusters, until 1962, when he came out with his best-known song and his biggest hit, the Chuck Barris-written "Palisades Park", about a famous New Jersey amusement park.

He continued to tour and record but his career faded somewhat until 1965, when he recorded the song "Action", which was the theme song for the Dick Clark-produced TV series Where the Action Is (1965). He also appeared in a few movies, in such teen-themed vehicles as Just for Fun (1963) and Village of the Giants (1965).

He left Swan Records and signed with Warner Bros. Records, and after leaving them in 1967 he recorded for various labels. In the 1970s he was working for Buddah Records, both as a performer and promotions man. He kept busy with recording and touring in rock-n-roll revival shows, and in 1982 made an appearance in the H.B. Halicki film The Junkman (1982).

He lives in Tarzana, California (where he is honorary fire chief) and continues to tour.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com






                                                                                 :o)

Friday, November 18, 2016

Friday Night Steam

Something really, really different for 'ya!


Let's take a ride on a steam trike:




Steampunk recumbent bike. Runs like a dream on its wooden chassis and raises steam in 30 seconds in its flash boiler.


Now that looks like a fun ride!!!


They have been around for a long time.





And they seem to be getting quite popular again!






:o)



Today's funny :o)

A big H/T to Wild River!!  :o)



Arthur is 90 years old. He’s played golf every day since his retirement 25 years ago.

One day he arrives home looking sad. “That’s it,” he tells his wife. “I’m giving up golf. My eyesight has become so bad that once I hit the ball I couldn’t see where it went.”

His wife makes him a cup of tea, and says, “Why don't you take my brother with you and give it one more try.”

“That's no good,” sighs Arthur, “your brother’s a hundred and three. He can’t help.”

“He may be a hundred and three,” says his wife, “but his eyesight is perfect.”

So the next day Arthur heads off to the golf course with his brother-in-law. He tees up, takes a mighty swing and squints down the fairway.

He turns to his brother-in-law and says, “Did you see the ball?”

“Of course I did!” replied his brother-in-law. “I have perfect eyesight.”

“Where did it go?” says Arthur.

“I don’t remember.”





:o)




Pic dump!

Just some sights around Coopville:

Two of the girls up on the deck:


 Wilmas sees her reflection in the glass. She wasn't impressed:


 A pretty red leaf:


 One of the neighbor's horses looking for a treat:


 View of the barn from back in the woods:


 A gold colored leaf among all the brown ones:


 Hubby discovered this tree had fallen down in the back:


 I think the woodpeckers like this one:


Just one of the many rows of wood Hubby has split and stacked:


 Wilma and Betting coming out of the barn - no goodies in there for them!


 And finally, a pretty sunset:


:o)