Freedom of Choice, Is What You Got

Crumby and his bosom companion, Ray, are fixing to purchase a backpack even if it harelips Pope What’s His Name. Here’s what we are looking for in our future pack.

Waterproof, carry on friendly, big enough for a 60d, 400mm, 50mm, 10-22mm, E330, 14-54mm, 35mm macro plus their protective cases, outfits or Koonzies. Well maybe not quite all those. But close.




















Koonzies! Koonzies is the collective term for the coozies, dividers, inserts, mini-bags, etc., that might serve to protect the cameras and lenses from shock while inside their waterproof pack. Here is a pictorial example of a very simple Turner Industries Koonzie protecting a 50mm 1.8.

Then our pack also needs to be comfortable. It will go on our backs while we are hiking, boating, and thus potentially swimming, or cycling, shopping, mostly for short distances, like a few miles, during the daytime in the penultimate worst heat of the USA. So we don’t need to sweat unnecessarily. Plus, Crumby already features a slipped disk, a torn rotator cuff, and tendinitis in his bad elbow, so he dang sure deserves a dern comfortable pack.

Our first idea was the Lowepro waterproof products. However, many whine about the zippers on those particular products. Probably one could employ, Too Much Manpower, on those zippers during times of extreme angst or aggravation. So we decided the Lowepro waterproof packs are probably not for Crumby.

Then we became interested in several alternatives simultaneously. The most promising of all those are the 25L Aquapac which features a removable seat. Note however that the Aquapac propagandists do not provide the dimensions for their backpack so we have, despite the removable seat, summarily ruled it out. The Aquapac may not be carry on friendly . Or it could be carry on friendly. Nobody knows. Ockca uckerssa! The Overboard 30L which features an air flow back panel. The Aquaknot 29.5L also features an air flow back panel. The Mariner All-Terrain which also, I repeat also, features an air flow back panel. The 28L Rainwalker which features an aluminum internal frame, but may be too fat for carry on many smaller aeroplanes since its depth is 12 inches, also known as a foot.



















OK. So what additional features would we like. Well. We want to have places for water bottles on the outside in like mesh baggies or things. We need some way to hang the BushHawk, in lieu of a tripod, on the outside of the pack. Oh! We would like maybe a tough Naugahyde material on the bottom where you sit the bag down like we have on our current, definitely not water proof, Outdoor Products backpack. But we do understand that sewing or gluing on a Naugahyde bottom might compromise the waterproofness of our presumptive backpack. So maybe we don’t need that exact feature. However, Naugahyde trim would sure be a nice touch for the fashion conscious.

That’s about it. All the other accouterments, like storage for batteries, cards, wires and such can be provided in or on the various Koonzies.


Now we just need to figure out which of all these packs is best for the Bosom Brotherhood.

Too Much Manpower

Maybe Crumby over torques the bicycle spokes. Maybe that's why those spokes break. Or maybe the spokes fail while fixing to withstand the weight of 30-40 pound sacks of birdseed plus Crumby out of the saddle. Mercy beaucoup!

Whatever, changing out bike spokes is a biter, fer sure. Especially on the rear wheel if you happen to have a freewheel on it. Yes. to change out a spoke, the average bicycle mechanic must remove the freewheel. Plus, you need a dang vice and a special tool.






















But what if the average or slightly below average bicycle mechanic we are now discussing applies Too Much Manpower. Here's what can happen. Yes. Your cheap Harbor Freight vice isn't so cheap now. Is it? No. Now it costs what it cost plus what it costs to replace it. Too Much Manpower.

Just espy that pathetic busted vice. It's totally broke. Crumby made a half-hearted attempt at a cold weld. But screw that. It's totally broke.

Crumby had to take his wheel to a friendly bike shop. They broke the freewheel off. How embarrasing is that? Too Much Manpower.

Silybum marianum

Ray has previously reviewed in this venue much of the avialable information pertinent to Mary's milk thistle (Silybum marianum). Yet a thistle as interesting as Mary's may deserve annual commentary. That's because Mary's milk thistle probably features the biggest basal rosette of any weed in these parts, native or introduced.




















Check this out. Those are size 8 1/2 New Balance trainers sticking out from under those overall legs. Yet the main feature of this picture is a gigantic, variegated weed. Yes. It is a huge Mary's milk thistle. How much milk went onto that weed? Goodness!

You know. Try as he might, Crumby can never take a picture of a Mary's milk thistle that is safe to stare at for more that a fleeting instant or two. It's always the same. That variegated leaf pattern depicted in the picture is nauseating. Mercy!

Considered ecologically, Mary's milk thistle is early successional. That is, the best ones tend to emerge on bare ground. That's what happened here. Last summer the ground this thistle now resides on got dozer scraped. And now it's thistle habitat.

Probably, this particular Mary's milk thistle is at The End of the Trail, much like that old Indian in the picture. Yes sadly, the Stinky Valley enviro-cops shall mow it to death before it can seed out. Dum-duh-dum. Duddle-duddle-dum-dum. And that might be OK, a victory against the spread of Eurasian weeds, but for the fact that billions of other, much nastier, but less conspicuous Eurasian weeds shall grow, prosper and reproduce as the mow happy, mow happily, mow and mow, Moe. Dum-duh-dum. Duddle-duddle-dum-dum.

Guess what! Mowing makes the climate hotter. Makes it mo' hotter, I tell you.

Twitchers

Crumby always thought twitchers was a semi-amusing substitute for birders. Mercy! Birders is dumb enough. But then, after 20 years of bin toting, Crumby quit. Yes. Recreational birding got too silly even for the presumptive Ovate. So as soon as Crumby matriculated to actual Ovate, he quit birding. Yes. Crumby quit birding unless he got paid to bird. And of course, professional birding is way different than twitching. Because, you know, like you get paid to birdwatch.

However, when an average person like Crumby quits on recreational birding or twitching, he or she may need to phase quit or quit gradually. Like quitting birding may be like quitting tobacco. You may, if you are weak, need Jesus or more likely, gum. The equivalent of gum for a birder desiring to kick the habit may be a tiny binocular. Correct. Many tiny binoculars may be easily concealed. Then, they may be snuck forth,out of pocket, when no one is around. Mercy!

That's right. Little tiny binoculars are especially little. Some are so Liliputian, you may forget you have them, it. And gradually, since it is not much good for seeing birds in the first place, you may eventually abandon the birding hobby altogether. That's how Crumby quit. Not with help from Jesus, but employing a tiny binocular as a crutch.

Crumby's tiny binocular of choice for quitting birding was (is) the Eagle Optics Ranger by Celestron, a 10-28 multi-coated, waterproof gem that is hardly better than nothing for espying Class Aves. Crumby alway says, my Eagle Optic binocular is the next best thing to not having to carry a dang bin. It's totally little and light and you can't see hardly any birds with it. For goodness or Goddess sakes!

But now, in his dotage, and egged on by the daily bird feeder goings on at the CB, Crumby has started fixing to do some recreational birding again. And how fitting is it that the binocular that helped Crumby quit twitching in the first place, is the same binocular that may espy him at recreational birding again. Mercy!

Like just today Crumby slipped his diminutive bin into a jacket pocket. Then off Crumby went, cycling happily along. Suddenly Crumby espied bluebirds. Bluebirds! I better confirm that. Sure enough, with much effort and even a few expletives, Crumby was able to confirm four eastern bluebirds with his tiny bin. Plus, four is Crumby's number.

Leucistic American Goldfinches are Abundant and Variable

Every morning practically, Ray has to go out and feed the birds. Because Ray is a mere mortal, as opposed to robotic, the birds don't get fed precisely at the same time every day. But they do get fed eventually, normally.

This morning, Ray was out fairly early, even though, the stygian darkness hung on. Yes. The darkness was somewhat prolonged by the clouds. So when Ray went out to feed the birds, it was still fairly dark, just not stygian dark.

Soon as Ray got back in, he was espying out the window. It is Ray's custom to look out the window after he feeds the birds. That's because there is some chance that something out of the ordinary may occur. And if Ray isn't watching he may miss that extraordinary occurrence. How Zen is that?

















Which explains how Ray came to espy the leucistic American goldfinch plus take its picture. Now remember, the darkness Ray is faced with is practically stygian, so Ray needs to hand hold the 400mm 5.6 at like a shutter speed of 50. Fifty I tell you. That's why this picture is out of focus. Camera shake.

Nevertheless, one can easily espy that this is a very much leucistic bird of Class Aves. Many of the leucistic goldfinch pictures one finds on the internet have way more pigment than this example. For Heaven's sake!

Get Yer Yard Certified by a Genuine Druid as Wildlife Friendly

Yes. The Druids have finally decided to provide average individual property owners with a certificate that reflects on the recipients commitment to nature and/or the White Goddess. Yet unlike the typical bullshit backyard certification programs that emphasize totally environmentally bogus activities like rain water harvesting, the single Druid criteria for certification is the documented presence of wild rats in your yard. That’s right. If you aint got wild rats, you aint got wildlife habitat, and you aint doing your part vis-a-vis, Mother Nature.


So here we go.













This is an example of the kind of documentation you will need to provide before you may be certified as operating a Genuine Druid Certified Wildlife Friendly Yard. Note the hispid cotton rat enjoying a little bird feed that the birds dropped. See how cute this particular rat is. Cuteness is typical of your average wild rat.

Besides pictures of a wild rat or two, acceptable documentation would include; rat pellets, regurgitated owl pellets featuring wild rat parts, rats, dead or alive that your cat drug in, rats your dog threw up. Any of these is swell evidence that you have wild rats, a hugely important component of nature’s food chain in these or just about any, parts.


Like espy this bird.
















That’s a red-shouldered hawk on the lookout for a delicious wild rat.

So rush your documentation to Red’s Good Vs. Evil Cow Barn (RGVECB) and get your Genuine Druid Certifed Wildlife Friendly Yard certification as soon as an available Druid can check it out.

Mercy!

The Weather is Crazy, Crazy I Tell You!

These parts are a total mess, weather ways. Is it weather ways or weather wise? Same difference, maybe.

So 2011 of the Julian was the hottest and driest ever recorded in these parts. And so far, the winter of 2012 has been super wet and mild. Like the CB has enjoyed mass quantities of precipitation and only nine nightly frosts. Only one of the nightly frosts carried much sting.

Therefore, many perennials have already leafed out. The green ash, for example, has already leafed out. Good Goddess! The green ash leafed out during the first week of February. How crazy is that?

Last spring, if you want to call it that, spring, a few baby red buckeyes came up. The subsequent great heat killed them all. Killed them, I tell you.


This winter, so far, only one baby red buckeye has sprung to life. Here it is. Any bets on when it will go deciduous? Will it survive to this time next year? Mercy!

The Call of the Wild

What's the best time to visit Alaska? Easy that. If you dwell or stay in these parts, you might consider which time of the year is fixing to be the hottest, then go to Alaska during that time. Course it's a little hard to predict when the weather shall be hottest in these parts (too much competition), but August of the Julian is a good bet. Yepper. August, whether hottest or not, is a good bet for miserable weather and a swell or sweltering time to be somewhere cooler, like Alaska.

Mercy! Many a terrible, hot time, equivalent to Hades has Crumby endured. Yes. Crumby has dwelt his entire life within the miserable confines of the super heated Republico duh Tejas, almost. Mercy! In Tejas or close by his entire life. And 1/12 of that time, approximately, was August. Jeez Louise!

Semi poetic interlude:

Yet now, since the people continuously make shit hotter, mow the dead grass and live weeds shorter, and blow the corpses around with leaf blowers, oh!, how the hot wind blows. Goodness!

So naturally, just considering a change from the dreaded Austink August, Alaska at that time would be a wonderful treat. Yes it would. Alas!

Meantime, that crazy pyrrhuloxia that showed up at the CB the week of the Winter Solstice is still here. Every day it can be seen scrounging seeds from the ground underneath one of the bird feeders. Presumably, it gets seeds the other birds drop. Yes. Some birds are smart enough to operate the feeders by themselves, including the supposed close relative of the pyrrhuloxia, the northern cardinal. How about that? The cardinals can get seeds out of the feeders, but the pyrrhuloxia can't, or won't.

Is this sad fact true of all pyrrhuloxias, or is this particular pyrrhuloxia a retard? Crumby wants to know.

Anyway, Crumby has always figured that out of range members of Class Aves are out or range due to a knock to the noggin. So maybe if this pyrrhuloxia we are discussing was at home and hadn't been slapped up side the haid, it would be capable of operating a feeder. Maybe!