Would You Like to Work in Texas?

In the great state of texas one in five construction workers is injured on the job yearly and scores of them die of their injuries. There is no requirement that employers provide workman’s compensation or even pay them their measly minimum wages. Workers put in up to 12 hours a day 7 days a week with no guarantee of work breaks or fresh drinking water in temperatures in excess of 105 in summer. Maximum work week legislation does not exist nor is there any requirement to pay overtime. Workers have no right to refuse unsafe work and indeed there is a macho workplace environment that discourages complaint. In this, the Twenty-first century were he alive today Dickens would recognize eighteenth century working conditions. These facts are not the stuff of tourist brochures.

5 Best Bird Feeders for Winter

By Alisa Opar

11/24/2010

Five bird feeders every yard should have to attract a variety of avian species.

Seed mixture. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Algont
 

Bird feeders are an excellent way to attract a bevy of birds to your yard mid-winter. Having multiple feeders placed around your property will attract a variety of species because birds usually feed at different heights.
 
“Woodpeckers, jays, nuthatches, chickadees, and finches readily feed in trees, so these will visit higher-set feeders,” writes renowned bird conservation expert Steve Kress in Audubon magazine. “Likewise, cardinals, towhees, sparrows, and juncos usually feed near the ground. Place feeders close to windows so that you can enjoy the action, but beware of large picture windows that may result in collisions. Avoid ground feeders if there is a risk that house cats will pounce from nearby shrubs.” 

 

Here are Kress’s picks for five feeders, and a little advice on where to hang them. (Click on each photo for a link to a site from which you can purchase the feeder, or learn how to make one.)

 

1. Ground-feeding table
This screen-bottomed tray sits several inches off the ground and is useful for helping to keep grain and bird excrement from coming in contact with each other. Some designs have covers to prevent snow from accumulating over the seed; others are surrounded by wire mesh to keep out squirrels and large birds such as crows and grackles. Place the feeder in an open location, at least 10 feet from the nearest shrub, to give birds a chance to flee in the event of a cat attack. Ground feeders are especially favored by doves, juncos, sparrows, towhees, goldfinches, and cardinals.

 

2. Sunflower-seed tube feeders
If you are going to put out just one bird feeder, this is the best choice. Be sure to select a model with metal ports around the seed dispensers to protect the feeder from nibbling squirrels and house sparrows. Hang the feeder at least five feet off the ground and position it near a window, where you can enjoy the visitors. These feeders are especially attractive to small birds such as chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, goldfinches, siskins, and purple and house finches.

 

3. Suet feeder
Suet is readily eaten by titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers. In addition to the regular suet-feeder visitors, wrens, creepers, and warblers occasionally pick at these mixes. You can hang suet chunks from a tree in an onion bag or a half-inch hardware-cloth basket, or in a more durable cage feeder like the one shown here. You can also make your own suet pudding and feeder. Suet puddings are made by grinding and melting suet and adding seeds. (There is no evidence that suet puddings are more attractive to birds than chunks of suet.) Pack peanut butter-cornmeal blends (when you mix the peanut butter with cornmeal it not only stretches the expensive peanut butter but also makes this sticky treat easier to swallow) and suet puddings into the crevices of large pinecones or into one-inch-diameter holes drilled into logs. Hang the pinecones and the logs from poles near other feeders, from trees, or from a wire stretched between trees. Avoid feeding suet when temperatures climb into the 80-degree range; it turns rancid and drippy and may damage feathers.

 

4. Hopper feeder
Hopper feeders provide dry storage for several pounds of mixed seed, which tumbles forward on demand. Position hopper feeders on a pole about five feet off the ground. Hopper feeders attract all of the species tube feeders attract, as well as such larger birds as jays, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and cardinals.

 

5. Thistle feeder
Especially designed to dispense niger seed, also known as thistle seed -different from the prickly garden weed-these feeders typically have tiny holes that make the seed available only to small-beaked finches such as goldfinches, redpolls, and pine siskins. Thistle-seed-dispensing bags are not recommended, since squirrels can easily tear holes in them and waste this expensive seed. Hang your thistle feeder from a tree or place it on a five-foot pole near other feeders, taking care to protect it from squirrels with a special baffle.

 

For more on backyard bird feeding, click here to read Kress’s story “The Winter Banquet.”

3 Ways to Keep Your Feeder Disease-Free for Birds

By Michele Wilson

12/06/2010

Photo: anyjazz65, Wikimedia Commons

Senior editor Alisa Opar recently offered up the five best bird feeders for wintertime. But it’s not enough to set your feeder and forget it. You need to clean it out, or you risk inadvertently causing the birds that visit to get sick. The same goes for birdbaths. The Grand Rapids Press ran a great article about this, which you can find here. 

 

Some of the more common diseases that birds can spread through feeders include house finch eye disease (the colloquial name for mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, which can infect more than just the bird for which it’s named), salmonellosis (caused by salmonella bacteria), aspergillosis (a fungal respiratory disease), and avian pox.

 

To prevent the spread of illness in the birds that frequent your seed buffet, try these three steps:

 

1. Clean feeders regularly, recommends the National Wildlife Health Center, part of the U. S. Geological Survey. Rinse the feeder well with soapy water, then dunk it into a bleach-water solution. “A monthly cleaning with a nine-to-one water-bleach solution will deter bacteria in plastic, ceramic, and metal feeders,” reads an Audubon at Home guide to Feeder Maintenance & Hygiene. “A dilute vinegar solution (three-to-one) or non-fragranced biodegradable soap should be used on wood to minimize fading.” Dry out the feeder before hanging it back up. Double the frequency of cleaning if you suspect disease a-lurking.

 

2. Tidy below the feeder. This can mean raking or shoveling up feces and hulls (seed casings)—particularly those that are moldy, wet, or spoiled—and throwing them out, recommends Project FeederWatch, a joint effort between Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada. “Bird food scattered on the ground also can attract rodents.” On snow-covered lawns, scraping off a few layers of snow should do the trick, the Audubon guide states. 

 

3. Share the wealth. Spread out food among a couple feeders so there’s less opportunity for sick birds to touch and contaminate each other, says the National Wildlife Health Center. “Crowding only expedites the spread of disease,” the Audubon guide reads, “so give the birds variety and plenty of room.”

 

If you see what you think is a sick bird, don’t try to treat it yourself. Instead, call the National Wildlife Health Center for instructions. Also, Cornell Lab of Ornithology tracks cases of avian illness so report any sick birds there, too.

Fitness guru Jack LaLanne dies

The Associated Press

Fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne pumps his fist after receiving an award from then California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, in December 2008. (Reuters)Fitness guru Jack LaLanne, who inspired television viewers to trim down and pump iron decades before exercise became a national obsession, has died at age 96.
His agent, Rick Hersh, said LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast.
Hersh said LaLanne ate healthily and exercised every day of his life until the end.
LaLanne credited fitness with transforming his life as a teen and he worked over the next eight decades to transform others' lives too.
He said, "The only way you can hurt the body is not use it."
LaLanne's workout show was a television staple from the 1950s to the 1970s. He maintained a youthful physique into his 80s.

The Great One at 50: Share your stories

CBC Sports

Wayne Gretzky set up in the place that would become known as his "office," behind the net. (Allsport)January 26, 2011. Wayne Gretzky turns 50. Seems hard to believe.
His achievements and records are endless and would take up too much space to list, but here is a sampling:

• Most goals in a season - 92
• Most assists in a season - 163
• Most points in a season - 215
• Most goals - 894
• Most assists - 1,963
• Most points - 2,857
• Fastest ever to score 50 goals - 39 games

For those who didn't see him play, there were plenty of reasons to call him the Great One. He was hockey magic.
By today's standards he was small. He was slightly built, six feet tall but only 160 pounds. He wasn't particularly fast, and he seldom threw a check.
Yet when he was on the ice the game was his.
His teammates learned to expect a perfect pass at the most suprising moments. Opposition goalies learned to never, ever relax when No. 99 was on the ice. He was uncanny
The point here is not to relive his very public success, but to explore some personal memories.
We'll kick it off here with stories from some of the Hockey Night in Canada commentators who played with him, against him, or just watched him work. We've included a story from someone who watched him play as a young superstar with the Brantford Nadrofsky Steelers.
We're looking here for your connections to The Great One. Read our offerings and then tell us your stories.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/01/22/sp-gretzky-50.html#ixzz1BnoQKXyo

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

I seem to be gripped by lethargy and procrastination. The concert last Friday was an enjoyable outing made even more pleasant by the fact that the rain held off to let me walk the half-mile to the concert hall without getting soaked. I’ll review the concert on my sister Music Blog.

On Saturday my neighbour William took me shopping in the rain. We toured a wonderful landscaping centre where we found parking because they know Will. There I looked at roadrunner sculptures but finding them too large to carry around settled for a cattail sunflower seed feeder and a covered two-station cylindrical bird feeder with a shepherd’s crook to hold it. At Target picked up two bags of seeds and at DSW a pair of Doc Martens slipons.



Home again I unpacked my feeders peeling off the labels and in the rain placed them in the grass beside my campsite. The covered feeder I filled and soon after it started getting visitors. Only the smaller birds are able to perch on it and feed, the others have to settle for the droppings caused by sloppy feeders. Despite the rain the birds came.

Sunday dawned overcast and wet, bands of heavy showers having settled in during the night and a glowering sky promising more to come. Having pretty much decided to stay put I settled back with my books and spent the day reading. I got so engrossed I even forgot to listen to Words and Music in the morning and NPR’s organ show in the evening. When the rain eased somewhat I went out to put seed in my cattail and as if to reward my efforts within a minute of my returning to my RV the Black-Crested Titmouse landed on its side and grabbed a meal.

So much entertainment value can be derived from watching the antics of birds I wonder that I’ve waited so long to set up shop with a feeding station. My privacy glass affords me a unique opportunity to observe my visitors up close without disturbing them. It is ironic that it is the smallest sparrows who are the most daring visiting new additions before the larger grackles will go anywhere near them. On their own the grackles will sidle around something strange and take side-glances then skitter away while the sparrows charge in leading the way until the larger birds take over. When the sun finally came out Monday morning things got really busy.

The large black Common Grackles are joined by their smaller Brown-Headed Cowbird cousins and the mourning doves sauntered in to feed on bottom droppings. The Titmouse got to share the cattail with the occasional sparrow until the Chickadees arrived. The English Sparrows were joined by dozens of smaller true sparrows in winter plumage. The Mockingbird skulked in the hedgerow darting out to grab a tidbit before retreating again as did a single Blue Jay. A rather tiny Cardinal made a brief colourful appearance before flying off.

When I wasn’t watching the birds I was reading and have finished two books already this year.

The Winter of My Discontent

This morning I used the last of the Edward’s coffee I picked up in Western Canada this Fall. It was a large container of good fine drip coffee. Walked to the local market two doors down to pick up some of their pricey locally roasted beans ground to order.

This morning when I bent down to get water for my bird bath from the nearby tap the slip-on shoes I’ve been wearing the last decade or so ripped along one of the seams with the sole in a last gasp. The replacement soles were starting to wear out in any case but....

With news of record snowfalls across the north and both coasts and scenes of cars buried in snowbanks I feel sheepish complaining about a few nights of freezing temperatures and a couple weeks of rain but in the last week I’ve used my onboard washroom more than I have in two years. In a repeat of last year’s experience it appears I’ll be walking to the Symphony tonight in the rain.

Aided by a resident squirrel and a stray black cat the Sparrows and Grackles have been cleaning my improvised feeding station out of house and home. I need to pick up some proper bird feed when I get out to go grocery shopping.

Before I wash dishes or do any more cooking I need to refill my onboard propane tank which means a trip to the depot. I keep checking the sea-saw motion of the Canadian Dollar--Loonie--as I need to withdraw some cash. It is pleasant to know I’m saving a cent on every dollar I spend at present. I do need to go grocery shopping but I’m in no danger of starving yet.

Living in America

Most of the time I have no sense of living in a foreign country when I spend time in the US. From my earliest years I had relatives who lived and worked in the United States.

There’s the obsession with guns that I will never understand and the number of people associated with the military but otherwise we speak the same language if one discounts the colloquialisms such as you’all and that Texas Drawl.

Today however I ran into a wall. When I went to pick up some more of my preferred Anti-Histamine three pharmacists declared they’d never heard of it. Suppose I should have kept the box my drug came in but the thought that it would bear a different name on this side of the border never occurred to me. The scientific drug name occupies an entire line on the page.

In the grocery store I commented that the grapefruit didn’t indicate whether they were red or white. A fellow shopper informed me that no one buys white grapefruit in Texas so they have to be red. Who knew? Bilingual labels here are in Spanish and English. It’s taken me three years to figure out that table cream as I understand it is light whipping cream here in the south.

Guess I’ll have to add it to my list of things I find unique. Like being served French Fries without vinegar, or sweet potato fries with cinnamon. Or the fact that as you head south sweet potatoes get cheaper than potatoes. Iced tea is served sweetened on ice in a tall glass and gets topped up regularly. Tea as I’d know it is a rare commodity. A pint of beer is 16 ounces.

Narrow streets that don’t have to accommodate snow plows and their banks. And roads that hump. I hope the roads enjoy the foreplay, I certainly don’t appreciate the speed bumps.

And then there’s the wind warnings for a 30 mile-an-hour breeze. What would they call a 60 mph gale--a national emergency?

Whether it’s a relaxed sense of time or lack of consideration for others I find it insulting when people show up late, do they consider other’s time so unimportant that they can waste it so casually. There also seems to be a lack of commitment in particular as regards planning for the future, when I tell a friend that I’ll be arriving at such and such a time 4 months hence they express surprise when I actually show up on time. Conversely they seem surprised when they invite me to something at the spur of the moment that I might actually have made other plans.

Band of Brothers leader dies

Last Updated: Monday, January 10, 2011 | 12:51 PM ET Comments5Recommend33

CBC News

A December 1945 photo shows Maj. Richard Winters, whose quiet leadership was chronicled in the book and television miniseries Band of Brothers. Winters died Jan. 2. (Courtesy of Sgt. Maj. Herman W. Clemens/Associated Press)Richard "Dick" Winters, a U.S. soldier and Second World War commander whose story was told in Band of Brothers, has died. He was 92.
Winters died Jan. 2 in central Pennsylvania after a battle with Parkinson's disease, according to family friend William Jackson.
The Band of Brothers miniseries, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, chronicles the story of Easy Company soldiers, from their basic training in the U.S., through to their jump into France during the Normandy invasion, their holding of Bastogne at the Battle of the Bulge, and their taking of Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
Based on the 1992 book by history Stephen Ambrose, the series highlights the quiet leadership practised by Winters, who became Easy Company commander on D-Day after the death of his predecessor.
Winters, who published a 2006 autobiography titled Beyond Band of Brothers, reflected on leadership for an August 2004 article in American History Magazine.
"If you can," he wrote, "find that peace within yourself, that peace and quiet and confidence that you can pass on to others, so that they know that you are honest and you are fair and will help them, no matter what, when the chips are down."
Winters was "one of the greatest soldiers I was ever under," said Edward Heffron, 87, whose nickname in Easy Company was Babe.
Maj. Richard Dick Winters is seen on Sept. 22, 2002 file photo. He was promoted to major after the Battle of Bastogne. (Laura Rauch/Associated Press)"He was a wonderful officer, a wonderful leader. He had what you needed, guts and brains. He took care of his men, that's very important."
William Guarnere, 88, called "Wild Bill," remembered Winters's courage in action.
"When he said 'Let's go,' he was right in the front," Guarnere said Sunday night from his South Philadelphia home. "He was never in the back. A leader personified."
Winters led 13 of his men in destroying an enemy battery along Utah Beach and in September 1944, led 20 men in a successful attack on a German force of 200 soldiers.
After the Battle of the Bulge, he and his men held their place near Bastogne until the Third Army broke through enemy lines.
After returning home, Winters trained infantry and Ranger units at Fort Dix during the Korean War. He started a company selling livestock feed and lived with his family near Hershey, Pa.
Winters was uncomfortable with the notoriety that came after HBO showed Band of Brothers. He asked that news of his death be withheld until after his funeral.

Back in the Grove

November 22, 2010

At the end of my first week here at the ‘Grove’ I am thankful to have a week in which I have nothing planned to catch up on chores and writing. Well, yes, I did get an invite to share Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday with friends but otherwise I don’t have to be anywhere until church on Sunday. Whereas it is pleasant to be publicly welcomed back to Gethsemane as well as wined and dined it has served to keep me busy this past week. So busy in fact I haven’t managed to get to the supermarket—HEB—to go shopping.

The most striking news I’ve read lately is the fact that as an austerity measure the British Government  under David Cameron is selling off heritage forests under its control and removing their protected status. One of these properties is at least a portion of Sherwood Forest. How would Robin Hood react to the logging of his hideout?

Thanks to the fact that I have no permanently fixed address on the road I’m stuck with using an online E-mail Address. I do my best to minimize the amount of spam I receive but I had no idea my manhood was so desperately in need of enhancement. Someone was using my Google Mail address to spread spam and nothing I did seemed to stop them but Google seems to have done something to stop it at some point between Xmas and New Years.

Reading about the snow that has recently blanketed the mountain regions I lately drove through and most of Canada plus the -20º F chill in Calgary I feel somewhat sheepish in reporting that the overnight low the last two days has been 72º F.

An online factoid. Peanut oil is used for underwater cooking in submarines. Undersea fleets like it because it does not smoke unless heated above 450 degrees F.

A pair of young-adult males shared a pop-up Volkswagonn Camper in the site beside me last night. And I thought my little RV was cramped lately.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yes, I safely made it back to Austin Texas. At least this year we’re getting some of the warmer weather I drove so far to enjoy. I still find it odd to see cattle grazing in pastures amid five foot tall clumps of large prickly pear cactus. What nutrition they find in that dry brown grass I hesitate to speculate about. Small wonder it takes 5 square miles to support one cow.

Since I arrived in Pecan Grove on November 15^th I’ve been trekking about Austin with one of my neighbours and have gotten to know Austin and the permanent residents of the grove a little better. The month of December saw me attend choir events around Austin, sing at church with the choir, attend services at Seniors homes and go carolling until I could barely sing anymore. I was grateful to have been invited to join friends Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even got to drive Santa to one of his gigues. Next time I do that I’ll try to remember to bring my driver’s licence along.

After three years it’s about time I saw some of the touristy sites here in Austin. The Elisabet Ney Museum is one such:

http://www.cityofaustin.org/elisabetney/default.htm

Another was the LBJ Presidential Library located on the campus of University of Texas. Fitting it seems as the man began his working life as a teacher in a slum Hispanic-American School. A half-hour film documents his rise from backroom hack to elected office in the House and Senate and his failed attempt at becoming his party’s candidate for president. Chosen as Kennedy’s running mate his presidency began with the assassination and ended with his announcement that he would not be seeking to be elected for a second term. His humble beginnings spurred him to see enacted legislation that strengthened civil rights, made education more widely available to all, ensured fewer children would arrive at school hungry, and began Medicaid and social welfare. He was renowned for his domineering personality and the "Johnson treatment," his coercion of powerful politicians in order to advance legislation. He understood the process of governence like few others before or since. The tragedy of his administration was the way in which whatever good he accomplished was over-shadowed by the war he inherited. His term in office spanned the 60ies. Can’t say as I saw LBJ as any more than a blip in history until that visit. Enjoyed my chat with one of the library’s docents.

I need to get out and see more of Austin in the next two months. This Friday I’ll see the Austin Symphony perform Dvorak’s New World Symphony along with a multi-media presentation on the cirmcumstances that saw it written. I’ve signed up for a tour of the U of T Campus in March. Since I’ve been driving around Austin twice a week this year I’ve finally found a grocery store between the campground and the church that is more to my liking. It has also been pleasant of late to see the items on my credit card bill come out less than I paid in American Dollars.

After being in the same site for three years in a row I’ve finally gotten around to improvising a bird feeding station. So far my principle customers have been common and brown-headed gracles and English Sparrows. The plastic plate on a construction block supplies those birds and a resident red squirrel with water. Just now I had a dozen Sparrows and a Northern Mockingbird. I’ve heard the latter quite often in the past but this time saw him up close. A Blue Jay spends a lot of time calling and lands in the fence row between my RV and the restaurant next door and a Northern Cardinal often sings nearby. I have yet to see anyone actually land on my improvised birdfeeder but it will take time for the little birds to accept it.

Such is life for this snowbird.