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Message 894327 - Posted: 13 May 2009, 21:56:55 UTC

Just dropped in to say Hi to all, and especially all our little critters.

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BETTER THE WORLD ~ PAY IT FORWARD
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Message 894502 - Posted: 14 May 2009, 4:59:33 UTC

I think this should do, how's this Angela?


Aren't you clever!!! Thank you SuperJoker!
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Message 894508 - Posted: 14 May 2009, 5:25:15 UTC - in response to Message 894502.  
Last modified: 14 May 2009, 5:28:13 UTC

I think this should do, how's this Angela?


Aren't you clever!!! Thank you SuperJoker!

Oh You're welcome, It didn't take long to do in Paint Shop Pro 4.12, Like less than 3 minutes total.

All I did was play around with the Brightness and Contrast levels and there You have It. :)

You can have a copy, It's FREE, If You haven't done It already that is.
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Message 894571 - Posted: 14 May 2009, 13:08:31 UTC


. . . here's something a Cousin sent me - she was real bored @ the time ;)

Beware of Small green Snakes also known as Garter Snakes (Thamnophissirtalis) can be dangerous. Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes.

Here's why.

A couple in Smithville , Texas had a lot of potted plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze.

It turned out that a little green garden grass snake was hidden in one of the plants. When it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa..

She let out a very loud scream.

The husband (who was taking a shower) ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She told him there was a snake under the sofa.

He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him on the behind. He thought the snake had bitten him, so he screamed and fell over on the floor.

His wife thought he had had a heart attack, so she covered him up, told him to lie still and called an ambulance.

The attendants rushed in, would not listen to his protests, loaded him on the stretcher, and started carrying him out.

About that time, the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg and why he is still in the hospital.

The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on a neighbor who volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, who sat down on the sofa in relief.

But while relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa.

The neighbor man, seeing her lying there passed out, tried to use CPR to revive her.

The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed stitches.

The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed that the snake had bitten him. She went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the man's throat.

By now, the police had arrived. Breathe here......

They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to arrest them all, when the women tried to explain how it all happened over a little green snake.

The police called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife.

Now, the little snake again crawled out from under the sofa and one of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table. The table fell over, the lamp on it shattered and, as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes.

The other policeman tried to beat out the flames, and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog who, startled, jumped out and raced into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car..

Meanwhile, neighbors saw the burning drapes and called in the fire department. The firemen had started raising the fire ladder when they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires, put out the power, and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area (but they did get the house fire out).

Time passed. Both men were discharged from the hospital, the house was repaired, the dog came home, the police acquired a new car and all was right with their world.

A while later they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night. The wife asked her husband if he thought they should bring in their plants for the night.

And that's when he shot her.


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Message 895369 - Posted: 16 May 2009, 12:01:39 UTC

Been watching the coon ramblings whilst I was away.......LOL.

Luv them coons......

And I luv Maine Coons.......Meeeowrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....
"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

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Message 896860 - Posted: 19 May 2009, 5:32:26 UTC

This was sent to me via private message from Scarecrow. I received his permission to copy it and share it with all of you. Hope you enjoy this great story as much as I have.


I thought I'd pass along a raccoon episode that occurred here over this past weekend. It's been warm enough here over the past month or so that (thankfully) I've had no need for a fire in the fireplace. For a week or so I'd been hearing what I thought were birds chirping in the chimney, and the dog and both cats seemed to be paying a bit more attention to the fireplace than normal. Well, Saturday night, while happily eating pizza and watching the NASCAR race on TV there came a rather loud thump from the fire place. Jake, the 'head cat' immediately zipped over to the closed doors and began a low growling. About the time Alexis, 2nd in command feline, arrived to see what was going on there was a second thump from within the fireplace. This sent both cats airborne, and upon landing they exchanged a few slaps and hisses at each other.
Assuming that a bird had gotten down into the fire place I went over and carefully opened the doors to see just what was lurking inside. To my surprise I found two baby raccoons sitting on the grate looking more than a little surprised. I of course quickly closed the fireplace doors and started to round up the feline and canine entities to lock them away in the bedroom, all the while while trying to figure out what my next move would be. It took about 15 minutes to get the cats and dog isolated. When I returned to the fireplace, now with a large flashlight, I was again surprised to see a third baby down amongst the charred firewood remnants, and downright shocked to see their mommy hanging upside down through the open damper. She quickly withdrew up into the recesses of the chimney. I left the fireplace doors open, and the screen closed, and just sat down quietly, still working out the logistics of the situation. Every so often mom would poke her head down through the damper and give that trilly little coon chatter. That would get the young'uns all excited but there was no way they could get back up to where she was.
So, in my best Grizzly Adams voice, I told mom to sit tight, I had a plan. I headed out to the wood pile and found the longest log could that still had some rough bark on it. Returning to the fireplace I told mom that if she promised not to drop on my head and do grievous damage to it I'd try making a 'coon ladder' Fortunately for me, mom apparently agreed to those terms. I reached in and put the log vertically in the fireplace. Not quite long..or tall.. enough to get up past the damper, but real close. With ladder-log in place I again took a seat in front of the fireplace hoping that I wouldn't have to devise a 'plan B'. Within a couple minutes mom again poked her head down and chattered. One of the babies immediately went to the log, started up it, and promptly fell off it about half way up. But that failed attempt seemed to give all involved the general idea of how it was supposed to work. At last one of the little ones started up the log. Almost to the top, a black-fingered paw came down from above and seemed to pull him up and out of sight. It took another 30 minutes for the 2nd baby to finally give it a try and make it's way up the log, but he/she did it in record time and was able to grab the damper mechanism and make it without any help. #3 followed in short order, and like #2, was able to 'jump the gap' at the top easily.
At this point the chattering was intense up in the chimney. Getting brave, I stuck my head inside the fireplace and shined my flashlight up the chimney. The chattering stopped, and I could see absolutely no sign of anything other than the bricks inside the chimney. I reached up and gently closed the damper door so the incident wouldn't repeat itself, and hoping that this was the beginning of a happy ending.
Tonight I was sitting out back on the deck when down the linden tree next to the house came (I assume) mom and FIVE babies. Quite a sight to see as they galloped across the yard and into the brush.
I really can't say that I recognized any of them, but considering the proximity of the linden tree to the house and chimney I'm reasonably sure these were my drop-in visitors. That was at about 8:30 last night, and as I sit here typing this now, I'm hearing the chimney chatter again...ABOVE the CLOSED damper this time.
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Message 896864 - Posted: 19 May 2009, 5:46:49 UTC - in response to Message 896860.  
Last modified: 19 May 2009, 5:47:58 UTC

Sounds like the Chimney screen(spark arrestor) at the top needs replacement. If there is one that is.
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Message 896879 - Posted: 19 May 2009, 6:58:42 UTC

Hello SC....
Pluto will always be a planet to me.

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Message 897095 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 2:38:25 UTC - in response to Message 896860.  

Awww, that was a nice story! Long time ago since I've seen Scarecrow around here.


"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

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Message 897108 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 2:53:35 UTC

My parents knew a couple that had just moved to their town in the mountain west from New York City. For several nights they had heard a dog rummaging through the trash cans, but it would always be gone before they could out to the (now dumped) trash cans.

Finally one night they caught the critter going through the trash. The wife swatted the dog with a broom. The "dog" then reared up to about 6 feet tall, and growled while the wife screamed. The couple was back in New York in a week.

P.S. for those that had not figured out, the dog turned out to be a bear.


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Message 897168 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 6:01:20 UTC

Last year we had a pair of skunks get caught in a deep trench we have between our house and our patio. One skunk probably climbed down there to look for food and the other one followed in hope. They both got stuck down there and instead of being smart enough to climb out, they tried to dig their way out. Most of the night though, they spent hissing and stamping and spitting and spraying each other. Our house reeked!

In the morning Eric built a "skunk ladder" for their escape very similar to what Scarecrow designed. He used an upside-down cat scratching triangle that fit very well in the space. It took the skunks about half and hour to notice it and figure out how it worked. Skunks are not nearly as bright as raccoons.

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.
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Message 897189 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 7:19:54 UTC - in response to Message 897168.  

ca
Last year we had a pair of skunks get caught in a deep trench we have between our house and our patio. One skunk probably climbed down there to look for food and the other one followed in hope. They both got stuck down there and instead of being smart enough to climb out, they tried to dig their way out. Most of the night though, they spent hissing and stamping and spitting and spraying each other. Our house reeked!

In the morning Eric built a "skunk ladder" for their escape very similar to what Scarecrow designed. He used an upside-down cat scratching triangle that fit very well in the space. It took the skunks about half and hour to notice it and figure out how it worked. Skunks are not nearly as bright as raccoons.

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.

Skunks and Racoons?????


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Message 897297 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 16:30:58 UTC - in response to Message 897189.  

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.

Skunks and Racoons?????

Any cats involved?
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Message 897306 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 16:39:32 UTC - in response to Message 897297.  

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.

Skunks and Raccoons?????

Any cats involved?

So far from what I've read, Only Polecats.
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Message 897321 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 17:23:14 UTC - in response to Message 897306.  

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.

Skunks and Raccoons?????

Any cats involved?

So far from what I've read, Only Polecats.

They can also climb poles?
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Message 897345 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 18:30:23 UTC - in response to Message 897321.  
Last modified: 20 May 2009, 18:32:41 UTC

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.

Skunks and Raccoons?????

Any cats involved?

So far from what I've read, Only Polecats.

They can also climb poles?

The word Polecat is another word for Skunk to some, Sometime in the past some people were called low down polecats(intended as an insult) or at least that's what I read and heard Skunks called.



And believe Me, I've smelled a Skunks discharge and I was a good ways away, And I only caught a whiff of that smell, As It's reputed not to come off for days even with scrubbing and general washing, A Smell best avoided I'd say.
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Message 897406 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 20:58:48 UTC - in response to Message 897168.  

They both got stuck down there and instead of being smart enough to climb out, they tried to dig their way out. Most of the night though, they spent hissing and stamping and spitting and spraying each other. Our house reeked!


Ewww.....!

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.


Of course. You never know when it'll be needed again. When another pair of skunks get stuck down there, you'll be thankful that Eric left it and that your house doesn't stink again. Imagine the hugs and kisses he'll get for being a hero and a thoughtful, intelligent guy who is not forgetful at all! He planned it that way!
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Message 897409 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 21:03:26 UTC - in response to Message 897406.  

They both got stuck down there and instead of being smart enough to climb out, they tried to dig their way out. Most of the night though, they spent hissing and stamping and spitting and spraying each other. Our house reeked!


Ewww.....!

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.


Of course. You never know when it'll be needed again. When another pair of skunks get stuck down there, you'll be thankful that Eric left it and that your house doesn't stink again. Imagine the hugs and kisses he'll get for being a hero and a thoughtful, intelligent guy who is not forgetful at all! He planned it that way!

Normally I'd say fill in the trench, But since I don't know What It's for, How about a cover or screen to keep the varmints out of It?
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Message 897410 - Posted: 20 May 2009, 21:05:08 UTC - in response to Message 897409.  

They both got stuck down there and instead of being smart enough to climb out, they tried to dig their way out. Most of the night though, they spent hissing and stamping and spitting and spraying each other. Our house reeked!


Ewww.....!

In case you are wondering, the skunk ladder is a permanent fixture in the trench now.


Of course. You never know when it'll be needed again. When another pair of skunks get stuck down there, you'll be thankful that Eric left it and that your house doesn't stink again. Imagine the hugs and kisses he'll get for being a hero and a thoughtful, intelligent guy who is not forgetful at all! He planned it that way!

Normally I'd say fill in the trench, But since I don't know What It's for, How about a cover or screen to keep the varmints out of It?


The trench is there to keep Mr. T away from Eric.
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Message 897607 - Posted: 21 May 2009, 2:50:20 UTC

Normally I'd say fill in the trench, But since I don't know What It's for, How about a cover or screen to keep the varmints out of It?


The trench allows us to have natural light in our downstairs rooms. If we filled it in we would have dirt over our windows. When we moved in, we installed a decorative rail to keep any drunken and disorderly relatives from falling down there during family parties. Raccoons have no problem climbing in to "explore" and then climbing out. Feral cats easily jump in and out. Only skunks seem to have a problem getting out, and Eric's skunk ladder seems to have fixed that problem.

Of course. You never know when it'll be needed again. When another pair of skunks get stuck down there, you'll be thankful that Eric left it and that your house doesn't stink again. Imagine the hugs and kisses he'll get for being a hero and a thoughtful, intelligent guy who is not forgetful at all! He planned it that way!


Actually, we both decided to leave it there. It is barely noticeable and it really does serve a good purpose.
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