Ray's Thought for the Day - Tomorrow is Beltane

Day 125 of DY 1 is tomorrow, Beltane, that many call May Day. Beltane marks the end of Hope Remains, the season. Next day starts us on the long haul through Beelzebubberiffic. But meantime, we shall count our blessings, Praise the Goddess!!!!

OK. Here's some updates on the general goings on in these parts.

From my sister. Rayetta says that red admirals and the twain ladies also like bananas. So be sure to put out some bananas at your butterfly feeder. You won't be sorry.

Uh. La Migra almost got Raymone. That's because Raymone has a business providing fake, totally nude ids to French migrants stealing our jobs. I told Raymone not to get into that line of work, but he got into it anyway. Raymone risked arrest, torture, deportation to Algeria for more torture and life in prison featuring yet more torture just to practice the profession of nude id picture taker. Plus, in order to escape the gendarmes, Raymone abused his undetectable aroma powder privilege. So Raymone can't go outside for awhile.

Other than that, everyone is socked into their usual routines except for Crumby. Amazingly, Crumby still has a job. I reckon, now that the new camera is broke, Crumby is saving up for another one. This time, a trusty one, maybe. That must be why Crumby still has a job.

Oh! I almost forgot. Lomo has a girlfriend.

Crumby on the Job - Rainout

My job, bird enumeration, has rules. These rules, like in the pirate movies, are more like guidelines. One of the rules or guidelines is, if it is raining, you can not enumerate the birds, efficaciously. However, the guidelines leave it up to the professional judgement of the bird enumerator as to whether the rain is apt to hinder efficacious bird enumeration.

Today I used my best professional judgement and concluded that the rain was fixing to make bird enumeration less than efficacious. But I made that best professional judgement only after I had toted this and that around from this or that spot to some other spot and driven around a good deal in the trusty Tahoe when I could have been suppine on the ample bosoms, instead. Plus I got rained on.

My personal inclination is to do bird enumeration regardless of the potential for rain. That is partly because past experience indicates that a shower or two may promote bird enumeration. On the other hand, a great many bird enumerators, historically, have suffered electrocution from playing their tape recorders in the rain. I certainly do not wish to be enumerated among all those unfortunate victims of the Demon Electricity.

These days with the Demon Electricity promoting all sorts of new gadgetry, the electrocution toll among bird enumerators must be rising dramatically. How many bird enumerators have been electrocuted by their cell phones or GPS units? Nobody knows!

That's right! Nobody knows! Nobody knows what terminated all those unfortunate bird enumerators. That is because, when you get electrocuted out in the wilderness, days or even years can pass before your bleached, gnawed bones are discovered next to your cell phone.

What happened to this poor soul? Why didn't he use his cell phone to call for help? Mercy!

Rayetta's Butterflies - Asterocampa celtis

Yep. A butterfly new to the CB documentation system has turned up at the CB in addition to all the unidentified skippers. I first espied it yesterday, late. Today I resolved to take its picture. When I, Rayetta Pistrum, PhD., resolve, there is a resolution. So in preparation for a resolution, I said to myself, Rayetta, what do hackberry emperors like to eat, for I suspected that the butterfly I espied yesterday late was a hackberry emperor. Then I said to myself, I bet hackberry emperors like bananas.

Crumby, take those bananas out to the butterfly feeder. And see if you can get all those fruit flies to follow you out.

Once Crumby had the bananas and most of the fruit flies outside at the designated location I set up next to the butterfly feeder and waited. Anon, a hackberry emperor alit on the banana peels and I took this picture. This butterfly is 1 - 1 on the Rayetta scales, large and tame when it is on a banana peel. When it is not on a banana peel or a banana, it is totally nervous, - 3- and won't come down out of the trees.

Variegated fritillaries also like bananas a lot.

US Culture Today - General Peter Principle

A Newsy News Interview Provided Especially Intermittently to the US Home Audience -Courtesy of the Druid News Service (DNS) - Ms. Hope Remains, Ace Reporter, Reporting -

An Interview with General Peter Principle

Hello regular people and boys out there in the US Home Audience, eager beavers for newsy news. This is Ms. Hope Remains, Ace Reporter, DNS. Today, I have a very special guest on the show. This special guest is the very famous six star general, General Peter Principle, the greatest ever of the Americano generalissimos, maybe ever, maybe. Goodness gracious sakes alive! Just look at you General Principle! Can everyone in the home audience see how the camera lights reflect off the General’s bangles and spangles? Goodness! Sometime, General, when we have a few extra hours, you must come back on the show and tell US how you got all those bangles and spangles reflecting so audaciously from what would be an otherwise drab uniform. Goodness gracious! But let me just ask you about one of those medals. What service to US does that big gold one with the crossed golf clubs indicate?

Yes Maam. Attention US home audience. You civilians of the US populace may not be aware that the competition for six star general is intense. There are thousands of generals in our great big military, all of them competing for the elusive sixth star. So if you are one of those generals, and you have any gumption or ambition, the Crossed Golf Clubs decoration indicates a step in the right direction. A general, such as me, proudly sporting the Crossed Golf Clubs shows everyone that, in the absence of any real military action, a general can still make good progress on the golf course.

OK General Principle. I can see that, all righty then. So are you saying that the most important job of a general is playing golf?

Yes Maam. But like any activity that allows for forward progress, it is not that simple. You have to play golf with the US civilian leadership to get ahead. That means, you have to let them win.

Goodness General Principle, when you played with the Kinglet, Chitlin and Associates, and even old miserable Rumpler, did you always let them win?

That is affirmative, Maam.

Goodness General Principle, was Rumpler wearing underwear on his head when you let Rumpler win?

That is affirmative, Maam.

Goodness! Hmmm. Well General Principle, you must have seen some real action off the golf course some time or other. Tell the US home audience about that.

Yes Maam. I can proudly state that I have smoked a few Panamanians and Dominicans in my day, plus a good many of those miserable Iraqis. But of course, smoking miserable defenseless peasants and blowing up their miserable infrastructure, then having to build it back, for Christ’s Sakes, is not what I was trained up for. So I am looking forward to the day when I can get into a real war, like WWII, where I can enjoy real battles like I learned about in school.

Gracious sakes General Principle! Thank you very much for that informative short history of your career path to the Sixth Star. Well US Home Audience, we are out of air time. Goddess Bless those who deserve it, and everyone else, Watch Out for the Wickerman!!!!

Rayetta's Butterflies - Orange Dogs

Hmmm. So it goes. There are more than just little and littler orange dogs on the tickle-tongue. There are, in fact, several. So since we now have a history with these orange dogs, out I went to take some pictures. But of course, the new camera Crumby bought for us is already caput so I used the trusty C 5060. That new one is not trusty. No trusty camera would be in a box at the post office going in for repairs to its, of all things, software, already. Do I sense a Bill Gates moment?

Anyway, today we are focusing in on the anterior of the orange dog.

First crypto-head.

Now, actual head.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Can You Find Bee Fly Buddy?

Mmmm. That cinnamon bun was delicious. Ha! Bee fly buddy is in this picture somewhere. Can ye find, bee fly buddy?

Today, bee fly buddy was landing on stuff, most notably Salvia greggii flowers. Plus, bee fly buddy was going in the corollas head first like a proper pollinator, instead of biting through the corolla tube like a dang bumblebee would.

So I says, Bee fly buddy, why are ye landing on stuff today?

And bee fly buddy says, I need extra energy to deal with all the other bee flies that are about today, Ray. Which reminds me, I have to be bee fly sociable now, so ye, Ray, may go unmonitored somewhat.

Sure enough, I then began to notice a great many other bee flies, besides bee fly buddy. And bee fly buddy was interacting with the other bee flies, aggressively.

Then I says, Bee fly buddy, do you need any help dealing with all these other bee flies.

No, no, no Ray, bee fly buddy says, Ye need to stay out of my bee fly business.

All righty then, I says.

Here's my pal, bee fly buddy, enlarged.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Bee Fly Buddy

There's my buddy. Out of focus and off to the left of the Aesculus pavia nosegay. I have been trying to take my buddy's picture for weeks. But my buddy is anti-photogenic.

Apparently, this particular bee fly, if that is what my buddy is, a bee fly, has been assigned the role in nature: Watch Ray from different angles, but make sure Ray never gets a picture of ye. So that's what my buddy does, watch me from different angles, sometimes zipping up and hovering an inch or two from my nose.

My buddy never seems to land on anything. He seems permanently limited to zipping, hovering, and observing. What a carefree life that must be. No wonder the Goddess gave this bee fly, if that is what it is, a bee fly, the additional chore of observing, me.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Rainfall Update

18.09" + 0.40" = 18.49" through this Day 126 of DY 1.

Also today, Rayetta inidcated that the orange dogs are back. Remember the orange dog on the toothache tree sometimes known as tickle-tongue that the giant swallowtail was ovipositing on a while back. Well, those eggs are now two caterpillars, a little one and a littler one.

Looking at an orange dog, one wonders how orange dogs and pipevine caterpillars could be in the same Family. That seems impossible, to me.

Rayetta also says, uh oh, here's Rayetta now.

Yes Ray. I can spell for myself, thank you very much. Hmmm. I am quite overwhelmed by my busy schedule which now includes identifying all the new skippers I have taken pictures of recently. Identifying skippers from pictures is pretty tough. For one thing, multiple pictures of the same skipper may be required. Anyway, I am very busy identifying skippers from their pictures. That's it.

Thank you Rayetta.

You are welcome, Ray.

Say Rayetta, what was that yellow goo coming out of the littler orange dogs head.

Hmmm. Ray, that is what happens when you eat too much citrus, maybe. You foam at the mouth, especially when the citrus in question is tickle-tongue. Imagine, if you Ray, ate your weight in tickle-tongue at one sitting. Do you think you might extrude yellow foam from most of your orifices?

Yepper, Rayetta, I probably would. Or maybe green foam.

Anyway Ray, we are going to have even more information on those orange dogs anon, if something does not get them.

Mercy, Rayetta. Who'd want to get one?

No telling Ray. No telling what gets orange dogs. But I am quite sure, something does get them. Heck! Lomo eats caterpillars. Lomo could get them.

Mercy!

Yes, mercy, Ray. Mercy for those little and littler orange dogs out there in the wilderness, eating up the tickle-tongue.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Psoralea latestipulata

Lately, we have been too occupied otherwise to attend much to this venue. Hope Remains, the season, is winding down and that means lots of work for the Druids in these parts. We have to gird up our loins for the onset of Beelzebubberriffic, for example. Yepper. It's time to mix up some more inner thigh lubrication ointment, fer sure. Plus, there are the migrant warblers to consider. They are most in evidence about now in these parts. Mercy! In the bygone, there were many, many, many more.

Here's a scurf-pea, endemic to these parts.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Schoenocaulon texanum

Yepper. For more moons than many some of us have been collecting seeds out in the wilderness. We bring those seeds back to the Cow Barn. Then we throw them out in likely spots where they have a chance to germinate. But, we don't keep very good records of what we collect and put out. Once in a while, one of those seeds germinates and we get all excited about a new addition to the CB flora. Yepper. Today, Day 122 of DY 1 is one of those exciting days. For a seed that I now recall putting out about six years ago has germinated and grown up to be a great big blooming plant.

Here it is, or part of it. Green-lily, also called sabadillo.

Where are the sepals and petals on that sabadillo? Well, it aint got none, aint had none, don't want none. You see, reduction of floral parts is an evolutionary advance that means, if you can get away with it, that you can spend that much more energy on developing your essential fornication organs, stamens and ovaries in this case, rather than petals, sepals, colorful bracts, etc.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Lesquerella

I am sick and tired of not being capable of sight identifying all the Lesquerellas in these parts and not remembering their names. How about you Crumby?

Yepper. I am similarly sick and tired of just that aggravation also.

So what shall we do about this enduring aggravation, my bosom companion?

Ray, my bosom companion, we shall focus in on those pesky Lesquerellas. They are still about and fruiting these days, so perhaps we still have time to focus in.

I hope so, Crumby. I hope we shall soon be scampering about the landscape calling out the correct names of those Lesquerellas with such facility and alacrity that all who pay any attention to the twain of us shall be astonished.

Yepper. Plus we can start with one we actually know, Lesquerella grandiflora. That shall get us off to an optimistic start.

All righty then.

Crumby on the Job - Wide Angle

So last Tuedsay I get back to the trusty Tahoe that never lets me down unless I lock the keys up in it. I start to rig down, which includes taking off all my gear that I have adorned myself with for my job, bird enumeration. So I'm taking this and that off and I get down to these leggings that are supposed to stop snakes from biting me. They probably wouldn't work for that if a snake actually ever bit me, but they are warm and keep most of the cactus from sticking me in the shins. Anyway, I take off the right one and then I go to take off the left one. But lo and behold, the left one is gone. Mercy! It must have fell off somewhere. So then I realize I have lost one of my employer's cactus or snake leggings, whichever.

Now, even though those leggings probably do not work for snakes, they confer a belief in the wearer that the wearer is more impervious to serpents than he would be without the leggings. However, consider this. Is one legging better than none? Maybe if yer a one-legged bird enumerator, a dern parrot countin' peg leg it is. Otherwise one aint, better. One legging is, in fact, worse then none. Everyone knows a snake would go for the leggingless leg, fer sure. Besides, one legging would unbalance a person, causing him to walk in circles for eternity, maybe.

I have some chaps. So I got those chaps out yesterday and took them with me in the trusty Tahoe. Those particular chaps of mine are zippered chaps. They have zippers that make them possible to get on and off, barely. But my chaps' zippers were seized up in the up position and I could not get either one of them to zip down or even budge one zip. I even lathered them up with oil from the dipstick of the trusty Tahoe, but they still would not budge a solitary zip.

Consequently, I was pretty sure a snake would get me yesterday. I figured a snake has been planning to get me all along, and was just awaiting the right opportunity afforded by my seized up zippers. But the snakes had pity on me yesterday, so I figured they would get me today.

Naturally though, they did not get me today, either, because snakes do not get Ovates. It is against the Law of Nature for snakes to get Ovates. That's what I forgot in the first place. So you see, I had nothing to fear after all from those serpents and snakes.

Anyway, today I am strolling along enjoying how cool my legs are, when right there in front of me, not ten feet up the fire lane, is a great serpent of terrible aspect. Immediately I thought, "This is exactly why a photographer needs a wide angle camera lens." Yepper. I have never wanted a wide angle lens, because landscapes, closet interiors and fatty, lardasses are all especially redundant and I don't need a bunch of those kinds of boring pictures around. Er. Hmm. A collection of wide angle fatty lardass shots might be fun. But never mind that. Snakes are what you need a wide angle lens for. In fact, for this snake, I would have liked a wide angle, super macro, fisheye lens.

OK. So you can't see the snake very well. But despite that, the whole snake is in the picture. This snake happens to be a Texas rat snake. I can tell you it was lumpy with little bulges all along its terrible, serpent-like body. I bet it ate a bunch of baby mice. Also, that snake would not get out of the dang way. I had to step over it without my leggings. That snake was digesting.

Ray's pantaloons give me an idea. What the general non-Druid needs, when heading out to snake country, is a nice pair of inflatable pantaloons. Inflatable pantaloons are the best gear for preventing serpent bites. Plus, you can get air conditioned inflatable pantaloons for just a little bit extra.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Rainfall Update

Despite the Wicker Man roaming the land in the guise of the boy giant, Goliath, the CB got six ticks in the gauge yesterday. So far, so good. That makes 17.49" + 0.60" = 18.09" for DY 1, through Day 119. All righty then. Praise the Goddess!

Now for Rayetta.

Thank you Ray. Yes, today I have a group butterfly picture for everyone to enjoy featuring Asclepias asperula, a very popular milkweed.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Patterns

Yepper. The Wicker Man stalks the land, in the guise of the boy giant, Goliath. Lo and behold, as usual, a pattern is indicated. Yea verily, the Media Conserva-tive’ and the Media Liber-al’ hold a contest.

Yay! Let’s see who among us Media Minions can ask the stupidest question, on TV!!!! Yay !

Yay! And who among us has the stupidest answer to the stupidest question? Yay!
_____

Druids study patterns.

Rayetta's Butterflies - falcate orangetip (Anthocharis midea)

This is one I have been keeping an eye out for. I have seen five or six, but they never let me get within a mile. This one is a female, no orange on wings. I saw her fly to this cryptic spot. She is in the shade, mimicking a lichen. I am in the sun.

Rayetta's Butterflies - Strymon melinus on Salvia greggii (the wild type)

Hmmm. I may be fixing to get the hang of the new camera.

Goodness. Here's the backside, dorsal view, of a Strymon melinus on Vicia ludoviciana.

Ray. Do you have a thought for today?

Noper.

Crumby. Do you have a thought?

Yepper Rayetta. I do have a thought or twain. You know Rayetta, all these bourgeoise Mammonite environmental refugees are crowding into these parts. They are building gigantic mansions, hedging their tacky mansions about the paltry wildlife refuges. I am not sure why they feel obliged to do that. Probably, just because they can. The only redeeming aspect of having all these bourgeoise Mammonites polluting the environment in these parts with their ridiculous mansions and their gluttonous selves, is, that if they are here, they are not somewhere else, maybe. We need to figure out where they are not, and move there.

Yes Crumby. These newcomers are a gluttonous lot. Perhaps we should publish some pictures of their hideous mansions, towering as they are over the warbler preserves.

No, no, no, Rayetta!!!! I might get fired. I need to buy two more lenses for the camera before I can get fired.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Rainfall Update and False Earth Star - A Fresher One

It is Day 115 of DY 1, a delicious cinnamon bun day. Praise the Goddess. Whoa! I need to go check the gauge.

Later.

Yikes! We had maybe 0.1" in the gauge plus two of Rayetta's butterflies. Mercy! My first thought was, I'll take a picture of these two butterflies that have verily drowned themselves in the gauge. But lo and behold, those butterflies were still kickin'. So then I dumped the twain of them out and ran off to get the trusty C 5060 WZ. I was only gone and instant, but when I got back to the scene of the near drowning incident, one of the twain had already flown off. Only this one remained.

Will it survive its terrible near drowning? Those antennae look perky. That's a good sign.

So the new rainfall total for DY 1, Day 115 is 17.39" + 0.1" = 17.49". In reality we may have gotten more than that. But nearly all the rain last night fell sidewise, missing the gauge, entirely.

Seldom during my wanderings in the wilderness have I encountered a false earth star whose wad was not shot. This is as close to that, as I have got.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Pantaloons

The fruits depicted are supposed to remind me of pantaloons. And they do. Pantaloons and other things, also. (Thamnosma texanum) is the only herbaceous citrus occurring within the Republic of Tejas. All the rest of them, the citruses hereabout, are trees or shrubs. This plant, though little, is mighty common on the Glen Rose slopes in these parts.

Pantaloons, in common with many another plant, is phytotoxic to sheep. This means that a sheep can eat all the pantaloons it wants, if it stays in the shade. However, if the sheep goes out in the sun after eating pantaloons, that sheep will drop dead before it can shake its tail thrice.

So what about umbrellas and sunscreen for sheep? Yepper. That's what those sheep need. With protection from the fickle Ogma Sunface, a normal sheep, employing an umbrella and also lathered up with sunscreen could enjoy a nice stroll in the sunshine while eating up as many pantaloons as it could hold.

Rayetta's Butterflies - A Butterfly Perspective on Comfort Stations

Hmmm. I needed to warn everyone that sometimes butterflies follow coyotes around. The reason they follow the coyotes around is because they are waiting for the coyotes to go to the comfort station. Once the coyotes go to the comfort station, the butterflies have a poop party. Even Ray's flies are invited.

Ray’s Thought for the Day - Nappy Headed Hos!!!!

Whoa!!!! Early morning TV watchers, our virtual conduit to the ruling class has overloaded himself, maybe. Perhaps Mr. Imus has reached the limit on, “What repressive de-sublimation can do for me, Don Imus.” Mercy, spelling college lady basketball players as nappy headed hos may not be all that comprehensible to many of US, but surely there are those who get it, the context.

Yepper. You have to understand the context. Like when Mr. Imus spells, Chitlin is a war criminal. Next day, lo and behold, Chitlin and Mr. Imus are chatting on the phone. Not just anybody gets to chat with a war criminal on the phone. Get it.

Surely somewhere out there among US are some, that viewing college lady basketball players on TV, immediately think, nappy headed hos. And now, knowing that Mr. Imus also thinks, nappy headed hos, are confirmed in their opinion that it’s OK to consider, college lady basketball players as, nappy headed hos. It is not only OK, it is funny and even progressive, cause Imus said it and Imus is personal pals with Senator Kerry and Senator McCain. Whoa dude, me too, virtually, cause I, get it.

Yepper. But Chitlin is still a war criminal on the loose and a college lady basketball player is unlikely to be a ho, nappy headed or otherwise.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Speargrass

Today, when I got home from "werkin' in the sun", metaphorically, I had to mow some of the dang speargrass. Lo and behold the cows can not keep up with it. If we do not mow the speargrass, the pastures shall soon be, uninhabitable. Speargrass, also known as Tejas wintergrass, seems to be increasing at the CB, perhaps a response to the dearth of warm season (Beelzebubberiffic) rainfall and the subsequent decline in coverage of the warm season perennials.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Rainfall Update

Heavens to Mergatroid! We narrowly escaped a frost last night. Plus, we got sleeted on. Yep, this time of year may be perilous to the little wonders struggling to fornicate out in the wilderness. But happily, no fornicators got frost bit at the CB. And, we got more rain. Let's see. 16.64" + 0.75" = 17.39". Praise the Goddess!!!!

The day is 115 of DY 1. The weather is unusual. The weather persons cry out, "I am shocked, I have never seen nothing like it!" Yep. We had a record low last night, lending some credence to the hemi-theory that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by wicked scientists on the innocent humans; innocent humans who could not possibly be responsible for anything because they are so little, few in number, and well, innocent.

Er. This might be a good time to review the prevailing notion of innocence. Let's bring in my bosom companion, Crumby, to discuss that interesting sub-topic. Hold forth, Crumby.

Thanks Ray. I'll just jump on in this shit.

Jump on in, Crumby.

All righty then. Adam and Eve were happily married in the Garden of Eden. They ran around naked, eating fruit, much like monkeys in the woods; sort of like our pal, Lomo Sapiens. But then they sinned and got cast out into the wilderness and had to lead hard lives. I am not sure if their marriage got canceled out when they got themsleves put into the wilderness, but it may have been cancelled. Actually, I think that particular marriage was nullified. Yep, after they went into the wilderness those two, Adam and Eve, were most likely, fornicators.

Adam and Eve and all their generations of chitlins down to the time of Jesus lived sinful lives as polymorphously erotic fornicators with no regard to all the impacts they were having on the environment and the sheep. Then Jesus came along and saved all the chitlins that accepted him. After that, all those chitlins, down to this day, are innocent. Innocent means they are not responsible for anything, ever. So that is why global warming is a hoax.

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the Bunny Trail,
Hippity, hoppity Easter's on it's wa-aaaaay.

Three Jeez Louise's and three fifties of Mercy! Praise the Goddess for Beltane!!!!

Rayetta's Butterflies - Skipper Do!

Hmmm. This is a fairly large skipper, as I recall. It may be a northern cloudywing (Thorybes pylades). However, it does not seem to have all the spots it should have. Hmmm.

Crumby on the Job - (Matelea edwardensis)

Yepper. As my bosom companion, Ray, indicated below, the Mammonite Republicans are hell bent on turning Tejas into a desert similar to the desert in miserable Iraq. Along the way, the local Mammonite Republicans are also hell bent on off loading their real estate to dopey, environmental refugee, computer programmers migrating from California, before the water in these parts runs out, totally.

Here's something you dopey environmental refugees will not find on your newly purchased lot or ranchette, since your lot or ranchette was brush hogged anticipating your arrival.

Ray’s Thought for the Day - Mammonite Ecology in the Republic of Tejas

Yepper! Right here in the independent Republic of Tejas, the dominant Mammonite Branch of the Christian religion has thought up an ecology that neatly coincides with the opinions of the big Mammonite landowners that some call Jeffes. If you want to know how Jeffe is pronounced, here is a hint, heifer. A sentence using both words is, I am yer Jeffe and I own a bunch of heifers. So any ecology that would derive from the Jeffes would have to focus in on cattle production and lately, real estate.

The Tejas Jeffes’ pursuit of cattle production and real estate development without any outside interference on their private properties is the working theory behind Mammonite Ecology. Thus, anywhere a Mammonite Jeffe now owns property was, historically, part of a vast prairie that extended pretty much everywhere the Mammonite Jeffes, considered collectively, now own property. That means, the practice of Mammonite Ecology, is to promote “grasslands”. Happily, grasslands as the natural state of the vegetation, considered collectively, are the best places to do cattle production and real estate development.

What is the evidence that a vast prairie once extended everywhere that the Tejas Jeffes now own property? Easy that, wildfires formerly burned up all the trees and shrubs. Since the humidity was too high in these parts to promote fires, the Indians set all those fires. That’s how the vast prairie was maintained, Indian arsonists. These days, the teenagers set the fires, but somehow the fires go out before they restore the vast prairie on all the Jeffes’ properties.

Promotion of grasslands is a big industry in the Republic of Tejas. That’s why some resent the Kinglet and his amateurish brush clearing efforts on his private property. Let a professional help you do your property, Kinglet!

Yepper! Texas A&M University, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, County Extension, and lots of other assorted experts are available to help the Kinglet clear his brush and trees. Lots of Mammonite Jeffes take advantage of these experts to help them create the kind of grassland environment on their properties that is so important to their grassland lifestyles. But hark, once the brush and trees are gone, what’s left? Yikes! Do not fear, the experts have the answer; grasses from Africa, India, the Mediterranean and Asia, or wherever, shall re-create the grassland lifestyle the Jeffes formerly enjoyed historically. Plus, these new historic grasslands shall be better. All the ungulates from Africa, India, the Mediterranean and Asia shall habitate on these grasslands and provide sporting opportunities for the Jeffes, plus their dearest friends and associates.

See what I mean? Mammonite Ecology has spawned a big industry in the Republic of Tejas. Land clearing, introduction of exotic species, and the eventual sale of the land to a developer are a big industry bringing lots of progress to these parts.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Living with Imperialism

OK. Say that China was still a part of the British Empire. If China was still part of the British Empire, I bet their top consumer item in China would be opium, and the Chinese would be so doped up they couldn't manufacture those swell macro focusing rails in Shanghai or wherever.

US though, unlike the English Imperialists, have come tardy to Imperialism, hoping to skim a few cheap resources from the various defenseless heathen Paynims so we can use those cheap resources for our lifestyle and still have plenty of money left over to buy macro focusing rails. Slim pickings indeed when the miserable Iraqi oil is supposed to pay for the war to get ahold of the oil. How much does it cost to ship or airmail a tank to Baghdad if you outsource the delivery to a Republican Mammonite run company making a nice profit from delivering that dang tank? Will the tank actually get to Baghdad? Maybe, maybe not.

Crumby on the Job

Let's see. I have enumerated one bird in the last three days. Uh, oh. Many may think one bird in three days is a paltry sum. How about none in the last two days? How about that? If you can't see or hear those particular birds, they may not be enumerable.

I did enumerate these fornicators though. Little wood-satyrs (Megisto cymela) are the most common butterfly in the Juniperus ashei woods for the nonce. Today, it was cold, so lots of them were in the woodland clearings, sunning on rocks. But these two were fornicating on a cactus.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Our First Really Hot Day

Yepper. Today got hot. Beelzebubberiffic is nigh onto us. Our little planet is tilting our location ever closer to Ogma Sunface. Have mercy! Yet, while Hope Remains, the cool weather bloomers hold forth. Here's one of my favorites, an Iris, Nemastylis gemininiflora, only slightly afflicted by the tiny herbivores.

Rayetta's Butterflies - How Weird!!!!

Is it possible that three different orange skipper types could turn up on the bluebonnets in one day? Hmmm. That may have happened at the CB today, but maybe not. Anyway, since I have to go to work with Crumby tomorrow, assuring that he does not slack off on his enumerations, I do not have time to post all the evidence. So this may take a while. I'll do one now though.

Here it is. Fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus), maybe. The other two may be whirlabout (Polites vibex) and sachem (Atolopedes campestris. We shall look at them later. The new camera is quick.

Whirlabout, maybe.

Sachem, maybe.

This was supposed to be done yesterday. But time flies and my schedule is too busy now that I'm helping Crumby at his job.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Rainfall Update

OK. Just to catch up. Yesterday, my cinnamon bun was delicious. Also, we had some more rain. The pecans have now leafed out so that means we shall not have another frost. Generally, of late, these parts have had a frost around this time, but that won't happen this year.

The Druid calendar indicates Day 102 of the annual trip around Ogma Sunface and the new rainfall total for that current trip is, 15.84" + 0.60" = 16.64". That's a whopping total for these parts. All the little seedlings are clapping their hands with joy. Those parts of these parts remaining unpaved for the nonce, show all the shades of new green. Easy that look is, on the eyes.