60+ year old thread.

Here's to a New Year filled with good health and time with family and friends.

 

Happy New Years porch peeps! Had our annual New Year’s Day cioppino feed. Another success. All went home full and satisfied and looking forward to next years feed.
We had a tremendous storm come through Northern California this weekend. The meteorologists call it an atmospheric river. It’s like a giant river in the sky dropping copious amounts of rain. Saturday morning I had 1.5 inches in my rain gauge. This afternoon there was over 6 inches in it. In fact the gauge was over flowing. Huge winds with gusts to 60+ mph. Flooding all over. Highway 99 a main central California highway closed in several places due to flooding. Trees down all over. 150,000+ lost power, many still without power. Our power was out for 10 hours. Several feet of snow in the Sierras. And there are more storms coming in. They are lined up across the pacific. Storms and unsettled weather possible for weeks. We were in a 3 year drought, you wouldn’t know it today.
Generally the worse the weather the better the duck hunting. Duck hunters live for bad weather. You kind of have to be a little crazy to be a duck hunter. I’m a duck hunter and definitely a little crazy. If I can get one of my not quite right in the head friends to go hunting, I’ll be out there in a couple days when the next big storm hits. More to follow.
Happy new year, stay safe.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!!

 

Morning 60+

 

Good Morning Folks .
Wishing everyone a Great New Year and a safe one .

 

Good morning. Went out to music and dinner yesterday afternoon. The guitarist was really decent and played 60's, 70's and 80's tunes. Have to admit it has been a while since I have heard, Glen Campbell, Hal Ketchum, and James Earl Keen songs. Going to baptize a new Sauté pan with smothered pork chops tonight.

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue! The cold has inched it's way to the throat and congestion. Be glad to get rid of it. Getting the first rain of the year this morning, and it's the last day of Bowls. So, I might start taking ornaments off the tree while I'm watching. Might. Decorations down, yard clean up, and truck battery replacement this weeks, as things permit.

 

Did anyone watch 60 Minutes last night? I majored in Animal Science and have been noticing this as I hike and on the ranch. 13 minutes of interesting information.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-mass-extinction-60-minutes-2023-01-01/

I haven't seen a meadow lark for three years, once common birds. Hard to find a frog. On summer nights there are a lot less bugs on the screen under the porch light.

What think YOU???

 

I noticed while we were having Wx up here in upstate NY, that CA was getting hammered. What have they said about your drought conditions? Is this system capable of mitigating the water shortage situation you guys on the west coast have been dealing with?

 

Easy.
To many people in this world.
To much expansion.

 

Well, yesterday could have gone a bit better. Some things went real well and then...

Bought a new bumper and winch for the truck and while I'm waiting, I have been getting wiring set and a license plate mount made. Yesterday, I decided to get the winch set-up. All went as well as could be expected...until around 9:45. I noticed my back tightening up, I have had back problems for a lot of years, middle back. Must have been lifting the winch to the workbench and back down.

Did some stretching, which didn't do much. Decided to head to bed early and crank up the sleep number a bit to see if that would help. Nope. Around 2300, I had this feeling that I had better get to the bathroom, vomited from the pain. About a half hour later, I took an Oxycodone that I had left from a bout with kidney stones. Just kept getting worse.

By 0130, I couldn't take it any longer and wasn't sure I could drive. Ambulance ride and a 3 hour visit to the ER! Oxycodone finally kicked in and allowed everything to finally relax, I think I even fell asleep for a half hour.

So, today's plan is screwed-up and who knows what this does to the budget. Could be much worse.

 

Oh crap
Sorry Dude.
You never know…

 

Morning all:

I tend to agree!

Sorry to hear that the back went ballistic Rich, had that happen twice and it was not fun!

 

I’m a believer. I officially joined the good Dr’s Zero Population Growth movement back in 1970 when I went under the scalpel for No More Kids.
…Oh, and sore subject here on this thread, I don’t kill animals for fun.

 

I can't remember the last time I've seen one either. Once upon a time you couldn't walk through a field without flushing several of these birds. I can visualize one sitting on a fence post sing his song. Here's another one for you.
Where did chronic wasting disease come from. You never heard of back when we were all young hunters. I don't remember ever hearing of it in the 70's or 80's. Now it seems to be spreading everywhere. Is it a man made virus that escaped a lab. Mad cow is another one, never heard of it when I was a young man.
I do believe that we human beings, are not good stewards of the planet we live on. Greed and the almighty dollar are what drives things today, and it's world wide, not just here. Look at the Rain Forests in decline, African wild life in decline, South American wild life in decline. If we lose the common bumble bee which pollinates the majority of our crops, then we're in serious trouble. just my 2 cents worth.

 

Back pain in any form really sucks, ask me how I know. Try a heating pad, then some ice or even a bag of frozen veggies will work. But when it's really bad, nothing is better than a muscle relaxer and a pain killer cocktail.

 

My family hasn't had more than two children per couple since 1900. And I don't kill animals for fun either. I do to eat.

There are several keystone species that are worth protecting, and some of these environmental efforts are targeting one, cattle, as though they are a problem. In fact cattle are part of the human friendly ecology and build soil, keeping it fertile, as well as being a net benefit to life on the planet in other ways. A lot of our "solutions" are driven by popular opinion more than reality.

 

Water here in California and the west is a very complex and political thing. I obviously won’t comment on the politics. This last set of storms have definitely mitigated the drought. What many people don’t know and don’t understand is that we’ve had many many many droughts going back hundreds of years followed by a tremendous rain/snow winters. When we have a drought they usually last 2 to 4 years followed by a super winter that fills the reservoirs and makes us good for a couple years. With this last storm in the Sacramento area we are at 176% of normal rainfall and lots more on the way. Another major source of water is our snow pack in the Sierras. In the spring when it melts it fills and often over fills the lakes and reservoirs and some times causes flooding. Snow pack is currently way above normal too. So yes the last couple storms have saved our ass (as usual) and lots more on the way. There are some who will never admit the drought is over. But when you see the billions of gallons of water they are currently letting out of the reservoirs to make room for more run off and snow melt you can be pretty sure we aren’t going to be hurting for water this year.
I’ve closely studied the subject and read numerous books on the subject, I could talk about it for hours. Anyway probably no one east of the Rockies gives a rip about the water wars that’s been going on here in the west for over a hundred years so I’ll just end my ranting dissertation and prepare for the next storm. Stay dry all.

 

The only serious government effort to contain human population explosion was China's one child per family edict, now all but totally abandoned: Even Communist China values the economy more than the sustainability of life itself.
It seems now to be that rapid transmission of new fatal diseases may see some success in population growth where well meaning good ideas have failed miserably. Dr Ehrlich hit the nail on the head in his interview last night when he said "...the planet will take care of itself."

 

I don't kill for fun either, but in today's society can't I identify as a mountain lion, that should make it OK to kill those tasty deer!
I just watched a video of a bobcat taking down a deer, amazing that a cat that small can kill a deer, people think that they only eat bunnies, small rodents, birds, etc., WRONG, same goes for coyotes.

Makes sense Ken, it is what it is, and then there was the dust bowl, nothing new with droughts either!