Free Republic

OK. I had a few small like hills in my backyard where moles (moles? gophers? chinese miners?) had dug up I guess for air or whatever. No biggie, really. Never had the problem when I had a dog, maybe getting another dog would be the ultimate solution. But this morning I go out there and there are SIX of these large hills, with the opening very clear and visible, no doubt the little bastids did a lot of work! While I applaud their tenacity and dexterity, enuff is enuff. So I have this stuff called "Critter Ridder". It is a...

Syracuse, IN (AHN) -- Two men and a juvenile have been charged with possessing more than 1,000 marijuana plants with the intent to distribute after more that 5,000 plants were found growing at a Girl Scout camp. Mario Comacho, 44, and Mariano Gonzales, 38, were charged with growing thousands of marijuana plants on land belonging to the Limberlost Girl Scout Council, which runs Camp Ella J. Logan in the area where the plants were discovered by Indiana State Troopers while searching the land by plane. Sherri Weidman, CEO of the Limberlost Council told the Journal-Gazette that the plants were located...

Where, oh where, has Sarah Jessica Parker’s famous facial mole gone? The “Sex and the City” actress’ face was mole-free when she stepped onto the field at Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium in New York. A source told Foxnews.com that the 43-year-old actress had her trademark bump removed sometime during the last two weeks. Another source told UK’s Daily Mail that the singer wants to keep “Operation Mole” on the down-low. “I don’t know exactly when she had it done but she has definitely had a procedure. She’s kept it really quiet, though,” said the...

Clues in Saratoga pot bust suggest link to Mexican drug cartel From the bags of beans and rice found in the camp to the type of fertilizer used on the plants, the large marijuana farm in the Saratoga hills that was the scene of a deadly shooting last week has all of the marks of a Mexican drug cartel, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The farm is part of a growing trend dating back to the 1980s, when increased security at the U.S.-Mexico border prompted drug trafficking organizations and cartels to move part of their business to California - and...

Sexually deceptive orchids, as biologists have long known, look and can even smell so much like a female insect that males will try to mate with the flower in a sometimes vigorous process that can result in pollination. But scientists now report that the tongue orchids of Australia are such thoroughly convincing mimics of female wasps that males not only try to mate with them, but they actually do mate with them — to the point of ejaculation.

It's County Fair season in Wisconsin -- when you can ride a Ferris wheel, win a giant stuffed gorilla at a ring toss, watch a "spine-tingling, death-defying" daredevil show, share a funnel cake with your family and watch sparkling clean hogs snore in a pen, all in one afternoon. It's the kind of fun that is hard to come by at any other time of the year. But it's something else, too.At the heart of most fairs are boys and girls who spend months, sometimes even years, raising cows, pigs, sheep, guinea pigs, birds and a variety of other animals,...

Deputies seized more than 60,000 marijuana plants over the past week from the Santa Ana River bed west of Norco, potentially removing millions of dollars from the pockets of drug dealers, sheriff's officials said.

After this weekend's barbeques and fireworks displays, you might wonder why some people wind up covered in mosquito welts and others are bite-free. It's not a coincidence. Each person's individual body chemistry determines how many mosquitoes will come calling. According to Joe Conlon, a medical entomologist who advises the American Mosquito Control Association, the insects can detect their targets from nearly 100 feet away. But what are they seeking? Mostly the scent of carbon dioxide and lactic acid, two compounds that indicate to the hematophagous — or blood-sucking — pests that their next landing pad is nearby. (It's worth noting...

Where’s the "First"? McCain appears before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, as reported in Politico: McCain, speaking first, promised the approximately 700 attendees that resurrecting the bipartisan immigration bill he helped shape last year would be at the forefront of his agenda as president. "It would be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow," McCain said in response to a question about whether he would pursue a comprehensive approach beyond his campaign promise to secure the border in his first 100 days in office. Seeking to win some points for his initial support for a comprehensive...

WASHINGTON -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. "No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon...

More than a third of Danes have used cannabis at least once in their lives, making them the top users of the drug in Europe. The new statistics from the European Centre for Monitoring of Drugs and Drug Addiction show that Denmark comes out ahead of France and the UK for use of the illicit drug. Of Danish adults 36.5 percent have tried it at least once in their lives, compared to 30.6 percent in France and 29.8 percent in the United Kingdom. However, Denmark only lies in seventh place for the use of cannabis in the last year, which...

Extreme weather has virtually wiped out Door County’s cherry crop for this year, which not only means slim pickings in orchards that attract thousands of tourists each summer, but also a loss of an estimated 350 to 400 seasonal jobs for workers who harvest and process the iconic scarlet fruit. At a time when epic rains and flooding have wiped out berries and vegetables in other parts of the state, Door County’s loss may seem surprising because it is attributed to an opposite extreme: a three-month drought last summer, followed by a January that brought rain and wild temperature fluctuations....

Back in 1985, I'm five years old and staring into my lunchbox. All around me, children are ripping into packs of Monster Munch. I've got yesterday's quiche and a mushy tomato. And there's something soggy at the bottom, possibly a homemade rock bun, but I can't be sure. My lunchbox was a testament to my mother's thrifty habits Today, it would be celebrated as a resourceful meal made from leftovers. Back then, I didn't give a hoot about food waste and packaging. I wanted pickled onion crisps and a Penguin bar. It wasn't that my parents were tofu-munching hippies who...

A rare wildflower never before seen in the Garden State has been discovered in a forest in northwest New Jersey, state officials said Thursday. The fern-leaf scorpion-flower, or Phacelia bipinnatifida, was found on the forest floor and adjacent rock outcrops in the natural area at Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Sussex County, a botanically rich location already home to 22 other endangered or threatened plants. "The amazing discovery of this beautiful wildflower underscores the importance of the work we are doing to thoroughly inventory the natural treasures that exist within hundreds of thousands of state-owned lands," said Lisa Jackson, commissioner...

What kind of insect is this? (The background is the close up of a chaise lounge pad)

WASHINGTON - Droughts will get drier, storms will get stormier and floods will get deeper with a warming climate across North America, U.S. government experts said in a report billed as the first continental assessment of extreme events.

London, England (AHN) - A British man has died from kidney failure after inhaling poisonous fungal spores. The 47-year-old died of a fungal lung infection after inhaling spore-laden dust stirred up while gardening. The symptoms started less than 24 hours after he had dispersed rotting tree and plant mulch in the garden. He died in intensive care a week later. By the time the man's doctors realized his condition was aspergillus fungal infection and began appropriate treatment, it was too late to save him. Later tests revealed he had developed acute aspergillosis, a dangerous reaction to aspergillus fumigatus spores. The...

Nancy Nedveck loves the colorful blooms that grow on agastache and penstemon, two plants that attract tiny hummingbirds. Some varieties of these plants used to be too fragile to grow in south-central Wisconsin, but now Nedveck is happy to be able to offer them among the endless rows of perennials on display at her nursery, south of Oregon. Thanks to global warming, these and other less hardy plants are surviving and even thriving in this area, said Nedveck, who has owned the popular Flower Factory for 25 years. "The change over the past 10 years has been gradual," she said,...

GAYS MILLS, WI -- Another wave of severe thunderstorms pounded the southern half of Wisconsin Sunday, creating flash floods, forcing evacuations and dredging up nightmares of flooding not even a year past. Reports of flooding came in across a 150-mile swath of the state, from the Milwaukee suburbs of Oak Creek and Cudahy to parts of Crawford, Dane and Vernon counties. The National Guard from Fort McCoy also was called in to help Vernon County emergency personnel evacuate about 50 people from a trailer park in Ontario that was flooded, said Jane Larsen, a spokeswoman for Wisconsin Emergency Management. Residents...

A jumbo black watermelon auctioned in Japan on Friday fetched a record $6,100, making it one of the most expensive watermelons ever sold in the country. In a society where melons are a luxury item commonly given as gifts, the watermelon's hefty price tag followed another jaw-dropping auction last month, when a pair of "Yubari" cantaloupe melons sold for a record $23,500.

LEONA VALLEY - Hundreds of cherry lovers wound their way into the hills west of Palmdale on Saturday to gather some of the first fruit of the cherry season. A handful of cherry growers have opened their orchards for the season. Many more are expected to open within the week, said Joe Lucida, the owner of Amber's Sweet Cherries on Leona Avenue and vice president of the Leona Valley Cherry Growers Association. "It's been kind of cool. It's slowed the ripening process," Lucida said. Amber's could open its gates for the "u-pick" season on Saturday because about 30% of his...

(Trouble is, Mukwonago officials say it's zoned for farming, not nuptials) Sherry Towns says she spends about $50,000 annually to sustain a formal French garden with six fountains on her 111-acre rural estate in the rolling fields of rural southern Waukesha County. Towns, who grew up amid Mukwonago-area farmsteads, can expect to pay even more this summer if Town of Mukwonago police ticket her on allegations that she's running an illegal wedding service in her lush, 10-acre garden, known as Millennium Gardens.A distraught Towns said Thursday: "It is easy to destroy, but difficult to create. Are we going to punish...

Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source, a new University of Virginia study indicates. This could partially explain why wild populations of some pollinators, particularly bees – which need nectar for food – are declining in several areas of the world, including California and the Netherlands. The study appears online in the journal Atmospheric Environment. "The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters;...

(With food costs rising, many are expecting green thumb boom) A perfect storm is brewing over Wisconsin garden centers, and if the forecast is correct, it will rain Early Girls, Beefy Boys, Mr. Stripeys and other colorfully named vegetables - assuming the weather finally warms up. The buzz at the start of Memorial Day weekend, traditionally prime time for planting gardens, is that sales of herb and vegetable plants and seeds might outpace last year by as much as 40% to 50%, according to the nation's largest mail-order seed company. A storm front of high food and gas prices -...

Ok. I don't mean Cannabis. These days, with the rising prices everywhere, it should be noted that there are a whole lot of edible plants that grow naturally. Of course everyone is familiar with the good old dandelion, which was originally brought to America as a food crop. But there are many other plants which are at least edible, even if not delicious, so I thought I would start a thread. And while many wild plants aren't too easy on the tongue, the first one I will mention is quite good. And just about overflowing with vitamins and minerals. So......

In what seems to be a genuine concern of the effects of radon emissions in residential homes. A certain website from a non-profit organization out of Houston has made it a point to imply without scientific proof, that natural stone could be a major contributor of radon in a household. The allusion that seems to be made, that natural stone installed in your home is dangerous to your health is raised repeatedly on the website and in a recent local Houston TV news program. It’s interesting to note that the two major contributors of this non-profit organization are manufacturers of...

The TV news report sounded so absurd that I grabbed the DVR remote and rewound to hear it again. "The cemetery says middle-age women are stealing flowers to make crafts," the anchor repeated. Move over, common everyday criminals. There's a new breed of lawbreaker in town, and no final resting place is safe. It turns out that some plastic flowers have disappeared from Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Cudahy. The culprits are crafters."They help themselves to the flowers they think we're throwing away," Butch Miller, director of cemetery operations at Holy Sepulcher, told me. "I ask them, 'Why would you want...

The trillium thief is not exactly a murderer, I know. Murderers usually commit their crimes out of hate, or jealousy or greed. You can figure out why. No one seems to know why the trillium thief drove into the Lac Lawrann Conservancy in West Bend and ripped off 54 red trillium plants valued at about $540. For money? "I can't imagine where they would sell them if they are going to try to sell them," said Gary Britton, president of the Friends of Lac Lawrann. It's not, he notes, like the thief is likely to pull down some side street...

Hundreds of Americorps members will join forces with the Natural Resources Foundation and the state DNR to attack invasive plant species in Sauk County on Wednesday, May 14. "From what we can tell, this is going to be the largest single largest one-day volunteer event to combat invasive species in Wisconsin history," said Kelly Kearns, plant conservation manager for the Department of Natural Resources. "Invasive species don't just threaten the beauty of Wisconsin's lands and waters, they also cost us millions of dollars each year," she said. The invasive plants to be combated on May 14 include garlic mustard, buckthorn...

WATERBURY -- The first thing that Hill Street brings to mind probably isn't farming, but in a small way, Sue Pronovost is hoping to change that image, one vacant lot at a time. "This is our crown jewel," said Pronovost, director of Brass City Harvest, a newly organized agency focusing on growing food in the inner city. Pronovost, whose specialty is grant writing, became a convert to urban agriculture several years ago and is now trying to bring the city up to speed on a movement that has been having a big impact in tough urban areas. With the Crownbrook...

The National Weather Service has issued a Freeze Warning from midnight Tuesday night until 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Wauwatosa, WI - There is a saying among urban beekeepers: Keep your fences high, your head down and your neighbor's honey pot full. It's a nod, of course, to the undeserved bad rap of honeybees, those mostly docile pollinators of flowers and fruit trees and vegetables, which are lumped more often than not with their ornery cousins, the hornet and wasp. The University of Wisconsin Extension is aiming to change that negative perception and bring urban beekeeping out in the open with a new program planned for the Milwaukee County Grounds. The Urban Apiculture Institute would offer five-month, hands-on courses...

The modernized America we know today is largely dominated by suburbs, the perfect mix of city and ranch, commonly on the outskirts of cities. Its not the stacked to Timbuktu apartments like in New York, Kansas City, and Chicago, but its not the "home on the range" sort of thing. We know the modern suburb as nicely assorted houses, separated by lush, thick, dark green lawns, that are neatly cut every weekend. We know them with the smell of barbeque every Sunday after the residents have come home from Church. Its these modern American paradises that house the factory-workers, the...

The green movement may soon take a step up -- to the roofs of grocery stores. Two UW-Madison students are launching Sky Vegetables, a business that would grow fresh fruits and vegetables on top of existing U.S. supermarkets. The idea dreamed up by Keith Agoada and Troy Vosseller earned a first place award and $10,000 in the UW business school's G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition last week. They will compete in the governor's Business Plan Contest at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Conference in June, where they could win $200,000 in start-up funds and services. The concept capitalizes on growing consumer...

Last Sunday I rode up to the Agriculture Center, to see the Spring plant show. I parked, got halfway across the lot, and realized I was about to hit the pavement. It looks like I'm going to get stuck to an oxygen hose again. I may also have to give up this cave, and move in with the kids. I'm welcome over there, but that's only because they ain't lived with me, recently, since I reached full curmudgeon status. The time to plan has come, anyway. I'll still have to take some pictures, no matter what!http://www.pbase.com/tsiya/root http://photobucket.com/albums/v244/tsiya/ http://cabbagehammock.blogspot.com/

LANCASTER [California] - Although City Park might look like a tent city now, by the weekend it will be the place to be - at the 17th annual California Poppy Festival. "Things have been going up since Monday," said Laurie Butts, the city's special events manager. "Tuesday was a bit difficult because of the wind. But the big tents are up and it's beginning to look like a festival. "Friday is when the festival really takes shape because most of the 400 vendors are coming in to set up their tents and wares. Then a few last-minute touches and we'll...

NEW HARTFORD -- Courtney Ieronimo is eager to fight back against the rising price of food by raising vegetables for the first time. "If you are savvy, you can save the seeds and freeze or can what you don't use right away," said Ieronimo, who has a leg up on other gardening novices as a sales associate at White Flower Farm in Litchfield. She already knows how to grow flowers, so she's hoping vegetables will be an easy next step. In addition to saving money, Ieronimo also wants to know for sure the food she puts on the table is...

Bring tennies, water for 8 miles of trails at reserve If you haven't been out to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve yet, don't worry. There are still weeks of blooms left. The show "will get better before it gets worse," said Sissy Feitelberg, management service technician for the California State Parks Mojave Desert Sector. The reserve was jammed all weekend with cars, lots of motorcycles, and on Sunday, bicycles. According to Feitelberg, even the overflow parking lots were full. "A couple of rattlesnakes popped out, too." Merchandise is "flying off the shelves" at the Jane S. Pinheiro Interpretive Center....

LANCASTER [California]- The flash of a smile, a flash of steel, a flash of skirt and a flash in the pan (actually a levitating table) got things started at Wednesday morning's press conference at City Hall to announce details of the 2008 California Poppy Festival. The annual event will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 19 and 20, at City Park, 43011 10th St. West. Mayor Henry Hearns smiled as he introduced Japanese swordsmen Michael Kazmer and Buddy Merritt of Araki Mujinsai Ryu Laido, who will perform at the festival. .... The swordsmen were followed by salsa dancers Zuly Zappala...

The female was drinking from the Lantana blossoms a couple of days ago. I put up the feeder, the male showed up today. I've had as many as 4 mated pairs around, gets wild when the little ones leave the nests. You only get the bright ruby color with head on shots, I'll change the angle of the feeder. The other guys never leave! http://www.pbase.com/tsiya/root http://photobucket.com/albums/v244/tsiya/ http://cabbagehammock.blogspot.com/

When more than 8 feet of snow has already been dumped on you, what's another half a foot, right? We could find out soon. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for Thursday morning through late Thursday night for southern Wisconsin. Snowfall is likely to exceed 6 inches across much of the area, forecasters say. If we get 6, that would put the Mitchell International Airport total for the season at 103.1 inches, less than 7 inches from the all-time record set 123 years ago.At least some of us, though weary, remain undaunted - even those with...

Poppy lovers flocked to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve on Lancaster's west side during the weekend, enjoying the orange blossoms and the great weather. And Judy Elgin, senior park aide at the State Parks Mojave Information Center in downtown Lancaster, can finally tell callers there are poppies to see. "There are scattered blooms throughout the park and there are more poppies coming out each day," Elgin told an information center visitor in the middle of last week. "And there's much variety in the blooms." The 1,800-acre reserve, on Lancaster Road at about 150th Street West, is a chief destination...

Yet another sure sign that spring is here: It's time to sign up for a growing season's worth of fresh food from local farms offering community supported agriculture (CSA) shares. This year, 11 new farms joined the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC), which will hold its annual open house March 29 at Olbrich Gardens. Go to www.macsac.org for event details. That's about a 30 percent boost in the organization's membership, which links people to producers through a host of services. MACSAC's 34 member farms offer a wide range of direct-to-consumer products ranging from vegetables of all kinds to...

Not much time or energy today, just made a fast run to the store for cat food, with part of the trip running through the county arboretum, LOL. It is looking good! On the way home I stopped at a little wild pond, the neighborhood Anhinga was sunbathing. I can't figure how they balance on little skinny branches with their big floppy feet, but somehow they do it. http://www.pbase.com/tsiya/root http://photobucket.com/albums/v244/tsiya/ http://cabbagehammock.blogspot.com/

To modern Westerners life without showers is unimaginable, but mankind somehow survived before the advent of soap and deodorants. For the modern, middle-class North American, “clean” means that you shower and apply deodorant each and every day without fail. For the aristocratic 17th-century Frenchman, it meant that he changed his linen shirt daily and dabbled his hands in water, but never touched the rest of his body with water or soap. For the Roman in the first century, it involved two or more hours of splashing, soaking and steaming the body in water of various temperatures, raking off sweat and...

QUARTZ HILL - Spring weather and an exuberant crowd graced the 59th annual Quartz Hill Almond Blossom Festival and Parade on Saturday. This year's festival is themed "Bloomin' In the Wind." Crowds estimated in the thousands danced to live music, rode carnival attractions and perused more than 100 vendor booths. "It's going better than expected," said Lee Barron, president of the Quartz Hill Chamber of Commerce, which organized the event. "We've changed the atmosphere of the entertainment to give it more space, open it up," he said. "We're trying to make it more of a comfortable event." With the 60th...

These two are comparable in price and probably in performance. Looks like the M1 is about 1-1/2 lb. lighter. Suggestions?

Out on Lancaster's west side sits the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. Downtown, at the State Parks Mojave Desert Information Center, senior park aide Judy Elgin fields phone call after phone call inquiring about the reserve. "Almost every call we get this time of the year is, 'Are there poppies yet?' When I tell them there are no poppies yet, some people are really disappointed," Elgin said. However, since Wednesday, Elgin doesn't have to disappoint callers - the reserve has its first poppy of the season. The 1,800-acre reserve, on Lancaster Road (Avenue I) at approximately 150th Street West, might...

Aphids that eat Brussels sprouts are smaller than normal and live in undersized populations, which has a negative knock-on effect up the food chain according to new research published today (8 February) in Science. The study shows for the first time that the nutritional quality of plant food sources for herbivores has a far-reaching impact on an ecosystem as a whole, potentially impeding important functions that the ecosystem performs, such as the natural predation and control of agricultural pests. The scientists compared aphids living on sprouts to aphids living on wild cabbages in a field experiment which took place on...