Maggie's Farm

This one's for KAB:

It's an oldie -

The old farmer is late serving breakfast to the animals. Pig says to chicken "So, what will we have for breakfast?"

Chicken replies "I suggest eggs and bacon."

Yer editor at work, editing the heck out of an overgrown 15-acre boulder-strewn meadow. Photo does not capture the height and density of the overgrowth, nor does it fully capture the Yankee red-neck elegance of the world-famous blog celeb Bird Dog.

We were happy to see that there were still struggling grasses underneath the growth, which will now have a chance to thrive again. I think we will need to mow again in September in an effort to thoroughly discourage the saplings and to give the grasses and wildflowers a good head start next Spring.

We carefully gave a wide berth to a huge Painted Turtle who decided to dig a hole and lay some eggs in the field while we were working. Got some photos. This is the meadow adjacent to the beaver marsh.

from Anchoress:

A paradox of faith is that only by giving away (our) judgments and notions can we attain anything like Godly wisdom. Only by saying, “I surrender my notions of what would make me happy, to wholly accept yours,” can we hope to find true happiness and that peace “which defies all understanding.” Jesus went through an awful lot to demonstrate the power (and value) of “thy will be done,” and yet, we still struggle with it; we still resist, and want our own way.

Anne LaMott likes to quote a priest-friend of hers: “You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

Or, taken another way, “you can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that the plan God has for the world is, by happy coincidence, precisely aligned with your positions.”

Hot day today. I checked the Weather.com temp for my zip code: 84 F. Then I checked Accuweather: 87 F. Then I checked the local airport's weather station: 81 F. How's that for hard scientific data?

How do they get that the earth has warmed 0.6 degrees in the past 100 years from data like this?

Maybe the EU wants to self-destruct, but I am going to continue to borrow my friend's red Dodge truck.

I am not a big fan of pasta dishes anymore (used to be, but have pretty much tired of them - especially with red sauce). Still, a favorite snack for me is pasta with garlic and oil - Pasta Aglio et Olio. Simplest thing in the world.

Tips: For this or any other spaghetti recipe, use thin spaghetti - never the full size. For this recipe, the amount of chopped garlic you use, and the extent to which you brown the garlic, is to your taste. I like tons of garlic and I like it brown. I do it with coarsely chopped Italian parsley, and plenty of it. Plenty of fresh ground pepper too. Lastly, make spaghetti the Italian way, by throwing the spaghetti into the hot saucepan and tossing with the sauce. That's the right way to coat the noodles and heat up the pasta at the same time.

A pal told me at a guys' night out barbecue dinner last night that his favorite pasta is Pasta alla Norma, the hamburger of Sicily. I've never had it.

A view of the farm this weekend -

Had too much work to do to spend much time birding this weekend, but I tend to have outdoor situational awareness:

Yellow Warbler, Yellow Throat Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Mallard, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, GB Heron, B Oriole, Turkey Vulture, Wild Turkey, Wood Duck, Red-Tailed Hawk, RT Hummingbird, Blue Jay, Chickadee, Mourning Dove, Catbird, Cedar Waxwing, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Bluebird, Robin, Kingbird, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, Wood Thrush, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Song Sparrow, Ovenbird, Crow, Raven, Downy WP, Brown Thrasher, Pileated Woodpecker, House Finch, House Wren, RE Vireo,  Black and White Warbler, and numerous unidentified warblers.

Did not see any Meadowlark, Killdeer, or Bobolink. Probably passed through already, but I wish they would make summer homes here. I do not know why they don't.

Drudge's headline right now:
OBAMA REDISTRIBUTION VICTORY: PRIVATE PAY PLUMMETS, GOVT HANDOUTS SOAR

AVI reflects on Me 'n Limbaugh. 

My only meaningful disagreement might be that I do not see Rush's bragging as genuine, but as radio shtick. Nobody who says "I speak with half my brain tied behind my back, just to keep it fair" is a serious braggart.

I think what drives Lefties nuts about Rush (besides his opinions) are his cheerfulness, infectious optimism, fair-handedness and kindness with callers, and his regular-American (as opposed to elite American) points of view.

The lack of angst and anger is simply not fashionable and is, indeed, repugnant to the elite Liberal mind.

At Pajamas,

Tracy is believed to have smuggled 270 Somalis into the U.S. through Mexico. Let me say it again: An associate of al-Shabaab has snuck in nearly 300 Somalis from where they operate into the country. They remain here and we don’t know what they are up to.

As Dr X recently observed,

Rules, limits and boundaries are critically important aspects of psychological life, necessary to a sense of safety and security.  Even if we don't always appreciate this fact consciously, boundary violations are perceived unconsciously as wrongful, serious threats to our safety.  Without an appreciation for the profound psychological significance of boundaries, we cannot begin to appreciate why it is inevitable that immigrants unlawfully streaming across the border into Arizona are perceived as a menace to safety by many Arizonans.

But not just "perceived," Dr. X. People are getting fed up with flagrant violation of the law. It is not the best way to begin a new life in a new place as an outlaw, and this sort of thing does not help the illegal cause.

Photo in the MA Berkshire woods yesterday morning. An easy one:

Had almost the entire crew working on the farm this weekend clearing out the overgrown meadow. The crew included my 5 year-old nephew who my Greenie sister was teaching to cut saplings in the meadow with clippers.

Says I, encouragingly, to the young lad "Remember, every time you kill a baby tree, God smiles."

Do you think that was the right thing to say?

Name this machine. This one did a lot of rough work for us this weekend, but not without a few annoying mechanical glitches:

Photo is Le Thoronet, one of the three Romanesque Cistercian abbeys in Provence.

When I need a dash of perspective and feel open to a new thought, I check out One Cosmos to see what Gagdad has been thinking about. He reads books that I would not get around to reading.

(I wish he would leave the politics alone - not that I disagree with his - but I find the combination grating and disconcerting.)

A sample of Gagdad's recent musings:

 ...it is hopeless to defer to biology as to the nature of Life as such. As I mentioned in the book, a biologist knows no more about the nature of life than a watchmaker does about the nature of time. As I have noted before, although it is obvious to me that the cosmos manifests intelligent design, I do not rely on this to inductively leap the conclusion that God therefore exists. This is like proving the existence of time by studying watches.

Or something like this, from a more recent post:

Truth must be sufferered... Why is that? Because to know a truth -- i.e., genuine objectivity -- is death to the ego. But once the ego is out of the way, it doesn't hurt at all. In fact, it kind of tickles.

Image: A Hubble photo of a star nursery

This reasonably common migratory bird of the Eastern US is usually located by his loud, piercing calls. I have spent plenty of time tracking down the call, only to say to myself "Oh yeah, of course - I forgot" when I find the guy up in some treetop.

This bird should definitely be in The Handbook of Loud Birds of Central Ohio - or of anywhere.

Info below the fold -

Rough farm work this weekend, but I'd rather be digging quahogs for supper here in the mud flats. It beats an Easter egg hunt easily.

Stift Melk, along the edge of the Danube, is one of the world's most famous abbeys. Founded in 1069, it remains a Benedictine center. The current early 1700 baroque buildings do not charm me, but it's an impressive structure - and it's on my August trip.

Something valuable for your garden: a dwarf Buddleia called "Blue Chip." This new Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) is only 2' high, max, and thus can function like a perennial flower in a border while drawing butterflies from miles around. Plus they claim it blooms all summer, unlike my full-sized Buddleias. I have a spot for a few of these guys.

Wayside is the only place I know that has them. Loony Greenies should avoid them: they are genetically-engineered. Like Labrador Retrievers, corn on the cob - and cotton.

Hummingbirds like them too.

Sony has been pulling all of the Bob YouTubes they can find, but I found an interesting (outtake?) of Tell Ol' Bill (with different lyrics) which I can link but cannot embed.

Great song and great tune.

Did Jane Jacobs and her disciples take a moment in time and try to freeze it?

It's a worthy debate: Gentrification and Its Discontents - Manhattan never was what we think it was.

What's y'all's opinion on Draw The Prophet Day (which is today)?

And what do you think about my construction of the plural possessive "y'all's"? Correct, or a problem for the Grammar Nazi? Should it be y'alls'? In the South, I have even heard it said as "y'allses," as in "Where did you park y'allses car?"

(Grammar Nazi link h/t Tiger)

Saletan at Slate: Why should anyone give Richard Blumenthal a break? A quote:

Blumenthal has never given anyone a break. He has made a career out of holding others to the strictest standards of truth—and mercilessly prosecuting them when they fall short.

Also, a good one: USA Today: Political waves: Great pretenders drown in their lies

Also, Blumenthal Defense: I Didn't Lie All The Time