My horses are playing with a bear! - Link Fixed

Here's a link to this story with photos.

Thursday morning, 10/23/2008 about 7:30 AM EST the bear was first noticed in the horse pen. Missy was the first to notice this as our Paint was outside of the pen, a section of the electric fence tape was hanging on the ground, and one of the 3x5 fence posts was missing. Missy called me at work, 30 miles away and I sped home. Once I got there I found out the Paint had ran through the fence breaking off the fence post at ground level. These posts are new, are 3 feet in the ground and cemented in place. Thankfully we spent the extra money and used what I now consider a top of the line fence tape which didn't break but stretched slightly. Even the embedded stainless steel conductor wires didn't break. The bear and the horses actually spent about an hour together. The horses did kick out and the bear took a few good shots but hung around for about 40 minutes in the pen. When he did leave the pen, he stayed around our property for at least another hour. I realized early on the bear was not aggressive and appeared to be fairly young. Not wanting to kill the bear, I called the Game Warden. He advised me it was legal to shoot the bear if I felt it became aggressive, which the bear never did. About 10 minutes after the bear had left, the game warden arrived with a bear trap. He set up and baited the trap near the pen. The next day, the bait was gone but the trap hadn't been sprung. I'm not sure what got the bait but the warden is due back to re-bait the trap. The trap is pretty big and won't hurt the bear so if the bear is caught, he will be taken and released in a more isolated area which makes me feel better. All in all it was an eye opening experience, none of the horses have a scratch on them which surprised me especially with the Paint bulldozing down the fence post.

UFO or.........? -- Link Fixed to Movie

I know, many folks think seeing things in the night sky that can't be explained are examples of an overactive imagination or just a pure lack of prudence. I often thought the same thing especially being a member of the Air Force and an amature astronomer as well. I find myself quite regularly scanning the skies with my Mead telescope as well as binoculars usually after 11:00 PM EST, it is the vastness that intrigues me.

Several nights ago (July 24th to be exact) I was looking into the starry sky around 11:30 PM and noticed a bright object moving from my right to my left. The actual shape of this object was impossible to ascertain as it was quite high and I had only binoculars at the time. It moved at a speed that I would estimate as being easily twice that of a jet airliner. It crossed the visible sky in about 10 to 15 seconds and it was gone. There was no sound, and no trail as you'd expect from a meteor or a related object that has contacted our atmosphere. At first I thought maybe it was a satellite or space junk reflecting light from the sun. I kind of put the issue to rest.

A week later I was again looking into the same section of sky about the same time and to my amazement, I saw the exact same object in about the same piece of sky. I was sure that it was a satellite or junk. Just to be sure, the next night I went out at 11:20 PM and watched again. Ten minutes or so had passed when I saw the object for a third time, but to my extreme surprise, this time it was travelling from my left to my right.

I'm currently at a loss for explaining what I have seen. I will be watching more carefully in the near future and may buy a good video camera and tripod setup in the hopes of actually filming this event.

I have made an animated movie of what I saw. It is of course not the actual object but gives a really good idea of what I'm talking about. In the movie the object moves left to right, which it actually did the last time I saw it. As I said, the first two times I saw this it moved right to left.

See it here: Short Movie A new browser will open so you won't leave here. Let it play through more then one time as it will be smoother the second time and give a better idea of what it's supposed to represent. O, I don't have a very good animation program so this movie is not compressed and as a result is a large file. Sorry! Also, the movie is looped but I only saw the object cross the sky one time per event, not as the movie makes it appear.

I'd really be interested in hearing from anyone else who has seen this and may know what it is.

The Garden Slug

As a country boy, one of the things I like about spring is planting a garden. I like to grow a bunch of stuff, corn, tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, and so on. Well, this year I've been plagued by slugs in the garden. These guys come in several varieties and all of them are nasty. Nasty looking, nasty slimy, nasty tasting, (just kidding) nasty veggie eaters and this is where the problem comes in. They seem to only munch on new parts of the plants as well as flowers. So this is a problem since the veggies have to start as a flower, then as a new little cute veggie before they can mature to the point of harvesting. So, the flowers get eaten, no new veggies. If a new veggie happens to slip by the slugs ridicules appetite, it won't be long before the slimy little buggers find it and feast on my would be feast.

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Here's a photo of the little culprit:

And what they apparently do best:

Above - A flower that has been munched off a zucchini plant.


Above - A normal zucchini flower.

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So, why not just eradicate them from my garden you may be thinking? Well, these clever little cuties seem to be out at night for the most part. It appears that they have a low tolerance to the sun and heat so they are nocturnal, for the most part. Since I am not nocturnal, my chances are slim to catch these little garden killers in the act.

Anyone have a few slug traps you'd like to part with?

New guy here.....

Well, it was actually easier to set this up than I had anticipated. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm unprepared to start blogging. So I guess I'll just kinda give you my bio, well, a little of it anyway.

To start with, I live in Pennsylvania, in the north east corner where it likes to snow in the winter and the summers are usually extremely nice. Summer temps can range from the 70's to the low 90's during the hot months, traditionally July and August.

I ride a Harley Night Train, greatest Harley ever made but of course, that's just my own opinion. It's the denim black version (dull paint, no shine to the finish) with a few add-ons like pipes, security system, foot pegs, solid chrome rear rim and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting. I'll get a picture of her up soon.

I also play the drums, my kit of choice is Sonor although I think they ring a little too much for my liking but they were priced right and look gorgeous. I'll pop up a picture of them as well.

I served in the U.S. Air Force as an MP, loved that and would do it over again in a second regardless of the stability of the world. I also attended college majoring in criminal justice although that never really helped me in life. Not that I was a poor student or have a mental issue, I'm just one of those never seem to be in the right place at the right time kinda people.

I'm gainfully employed, I'm heterosexual, not overweight, but like to eat, so ya, I have to be careful about what I eat and I need to and do get gobs of exercise.

More about me later, kudos if you stuck with me this far!