Saturday, Dec. 13th… Morning lights that twinkle bright…

Main Street, Hudson Falls, NY

This morning I was treated to a sight uncommon to most other mornings because I caught the sunrise and just before the sun actually crested the distant horizon and into sight, the light danced through the ice crusted tree limbs, giving an illusion that all the limbs were decorated with white Christmas lights. How beautiful to behold on such a clear, crisp morning only registering 16 degrees……… and how I shivered for those three minutes that I braved the cold in my sweats and slippers to snap these pictures.

Later today, we will jump into the car and drive up the northway to the Glens Falls exit just below Lake George and drive into Hudson Falls for the annual Washington Country Hospice Christmas tree lighting. It will be an enjoyable time that continues to keep you in tune with the holiday spirit as we dedicate a Christmas tree to Carl J. Alderman, Vicki’s first husband, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in May of 2006 after a five year battle. Although he is no longer with us, his memory will shine throughout the Christmas season in the light of this Christmas tree, so his spirit will know he is not forgotten.
We will see the Lights and dine somewhere along the way and as always, return the comfort of home when the day is complete.
We will document our day in pictures since there should be a ton we can take on such an outing, so watch tonight if it’s not too late, or in the morning when I’ll post of our adventure today & this evening.

Friday Eve, Dec. 12th… Crippled after being shot……… that’s me..

Lousy day……… gives breed to a lousy evening…… I always seem to have a lousy day after getting a flu shot. I wonder if you don’t get a little something or a little bit of the flu when you get that shot. I never have a reaction to the shot like some people……In fact I don’t even get any soreness at the site of the injection, but I do seem to feel a little poorly the next day. (Although I told you yesterday I was hatching something before getting the shot) Maybe it’s a sinus thing, because there is still a little dryness at the back of my throat yet. Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow. I hope, because we are going to Hudson Falls for a tree lighting ceremony sponsored by the Washington County Hospice association and we are dedicating a tree to Carl, Vick’s late husband, who lost his life to pancreatic cancer. Hopefully the weather will remain good both on the way up and back home in the evening. Our Columbia / Greene County hospice doesn’t seem to do anything like this yet, or we would be going to it here in our own county. Oh well, maybe in the future……… who knows? Well, it’s 1:00am, so I guess it’s time to hit the hay. Good night……

Friday, Dec. 12th… The ice is done and the snow begins……

It is now 9:15 and it has been raining since yesterday, early in the day, with temperatures hovering right around the freezing mark and below. We have a pretty thick ice cover on the ground and as luck would have it, the ice was wet when the snow started to fall just now. With the ice being wet, the snow will actually cause a rough covering over the surface of the ice allowing the deer and other animals a chance at walking without a lot of trouble. I always worry about pelvis injuries in our dogs, as well as the deer in the area, because when they walk on wet ice, their legs slip and spread outward, causing them to do a spread-eagle split and their pelvis cartilage tears, which leaves them crippled to die an agonizing death from hunger, exposure or predation. I’ve witnessed it happening and it’s a gut wrenching thing to behold and one of nature’s most brutal ways to die. The ice is now covered with a slushy white cast and will soon have a crunchy texture to eliminate the horrid condition this time. At least now, with this snow fall, there is now a seasonal beauty which has accompanied it to add to our holiday spirit. How pretty it is to gaze across the fields and see a fluffy, light snow falling into the grass and unto the ice covered trees. The only concern now would be the accumulation of the beautiful snow as it adds weight to the limbs and power lines........ quite
Possibly, beyond their capability to withstand the stress, causing breakage and downed lines. Hopefully, there will be limited damage with this storm, but I have already heard reports of power outages in the areas further north of our location, so who knows. We just wish for the best and try to enjoy nature’s show.
Look below to enjoy some yourself………

Thursday Eve, Dec. 11th… survived the Dr. and the ice continues…

Good evening from all of us here on the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm, as the ice continues to tighten it’s grip. It’s now 29 degrees out there and still raining, so you know what that means. I guess they are calling for 100% precipitation all night long at these temperatures, so you know we will have some heavy duty ice which will probably pull lines down everywhere. I hope not because it worries me about the animals without their heat lamps. They should all do ok, except, perhaps the five young chicks in the brooding house. They all have their adult feathers, but I would have to immediately move them to the barn or small chicken house where there is heat in numbers when they group together for warmth. We’ll be ok here in the house, with a full tank of propane for the fireplace upstairs and the stove in the kitchen. I do, however, wish we had a standby wood burner or maybe a good generator to run the pellet stove for heat downstairs. When they have 24 hours of rain and ice buildup, the power could conceivably be knocked out for a long time………possibly days!
We made it to the doctors office this morning and received what I considered good news, unlike Vicki’s nursing viewpoint, which she would call bittersweet news. First of all, my blood work numbers indicated that I was not (yet) diabetic. My sugar was 86 and actually my bad cholesterol was down two points…… a 146 I think, but the good cholesterol was also down about 2 points too. I forget the actual number, but I thought it was suitable and they could be lowered and raised by more aggressive exercise. Unfortunately, my alkaline phosphatase is at issue now. This happened last year, when they did blood work and my biliruben numbers were a little high along with the alkaline phosphatase numbers, indicating there could be a liver problem. Re-testing, however, gave us normal numbers, so she wanted to do more extensive tests, which we did. They came back normal, putting the issue to rest and we forgot about it. Now, today, the doctor found the alkaline phosphatase high againbut the biliruben was normal. She asked if I had my gall bladder yet, which could cause this. I assured her I have everything this body came with…. And that nothing (physically) was ever given away, so it was back to the needle and more blood tests. I forget what she is looking at now, dealing with the liver again, because I really don’t care……… unlike Vick. She thinks it is from my psoriasis, which can elevate the alkaline phosphatase numbers, since everything else is normal.

She worries and I hate that. We discussed the situation and she explained what she had gone through with Carl, Vick’s first husband, who died of Pancreatic Cancer in 2006. I understand her concern, but told her I will not worry about dying until it happens.... and then I don’t believe it’s very important to worry about it after that. She didn't see the humor in that and she didn’t agree. I asked her not to waste time worrying and she said that I needed to help her program her mind to not worry about these things that you can’t change then. I asked her if she was going to pick up the heavy metal flashlight we have at home and carry it around all day (in the day time) since we had such heavy ice buildup and mentioned that there would probably be things she would miss out on doing while she had one hand filled, holding that heavy flashlight all day. She replied, no…she wouldn't carry the flashlight because it wouldn’t be dark. I said well, what if it got dark at 1:30 in the afternoon today……and if she thought it might. Again she indicated that it wouldn’t get dark at that hour. I then asked if she still shouldn’t carry the light in case it might get dark before the usual time or if the ice would possibly knock the power off. She replied that we could worry about that if and when it happened. She then got my point……… Death will come to us all one day and I am not going to darken one moment of my life with worry about it, which is as foolish as worrying about carrying a flashlight during the day because it might get dark before it’s time. Be healthy, do what you can to remain so, but don’t waste a happy, active life by worrying about dying before your time. Every time she wants to worry about me, she could just as easily hug me and kiss me and enjoy my love in return and never regret missing a moment of what I have to give (or receive)………… Think about it!

Thursday, Dec. 11th… The Ice storm has arrived on schedule…

The dogs were surprised this morning, as they all exited the sliding glass door to the rear exercise area of the yard, roaring at their usual breakneck speed. Everyone was anxious to do their regular morning doo doo’s, but this morning they all ended up surprised and dazed. It certainly was funny to see the bewildered looks on their faces when they finally came to a slip, sliding, stop in a pile against the fence. There was a solid glaze ice on everything, making the high speed, negotiation of the turn off of the end of the deck impossible. They very slowly and cautiously got to their feet and quietly, one by one, went toward the back yard in a single file line. Obviously, they were no longer interested in chasing the imaginary what-gee-jigger that’s never been in the back yard, yet, we chase after every morning. I’ve often wondered what the heck this what-gee-jigger looks like and why they must all run at breakneck speed, barking and growling like the Hounds of the Baskerville!
After they all, very gingerly, came back onto the deck and entered the house, I toweled them dry, finished my coffee and donned my coat and boots and headed out to feed and water the captive animals. There was no way I was going to turn them loose in this freezing rain……… not when a day of rain in September caused such an epidemic among the chickens and the turkeys, what ever it was. They need to stay in their cozy outside runs, protected from the brutal elements.
I wonder if we humans will be as intelligent? I’m still planning to keep my 11:00 appointment with the doctor, unless she calls and cancels. I saw a few cars and trucks driving VERY slowly on the road in front of our house and the snow plow went by just awhile ago, spreading salt and cinders, stone, sand or whatever they use to coat and paint the sides of our cars up here. I’ll post a little later with a few pictures of the winter wonderland. Keep watchin’!

Wednesday Eve, Dec. 10th… The rain is gone and now the snow……

Still a few hours of rain predicted….then nothing …. then rain ….. then snow ….. then nothing again. You know, like I always said when I lived in Pennsylvania, they can’t tell you what yesterdays weather was and get it right, usually. I think they project the best they can, but you know, seldom is it right. Why they give you a 10 day forecast when they can’t even do tomorrow with any degree of of accuracy is beyond my comprehension. I guess I’ll know what is coming when I awaken tomorrow and look out the window. If it’s overcast, I’ll know it’s cloudy. If I get wet when I go out and look up, I’ll know it’s probably raining. If it’s cold and white rain flutters down into my eye, I’ll guess it’s snowing. If it’s dark outside, I’ll bet the sun has set and it might be night time. That’s how the weather works…..that’s how I will work it too.
I seem to hatching a cold or at least a good sinus infection because there is definitely a sinus drip and a little coughing and hacking in the morning until I get some good hot coffee in me. I have a tender head and feel like I’ve been rabbit punched in a boxing match. Perhaps some of it might be the dinner wine, after dinner wine and Sambucca in the espresso after the fine dinner last night at our neighbors house. I did relish a substantial amount of all the above before bidding them farewell for the evening and heading home. Anyway, I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow to go over my blood work results and see if I can get a flu shot. Perhaps with the threat of a cold or something brewing, she will not give me the shot, but I will still see what my new sugar numbers and such are since losing the weight, so I can’t wait. I will probably be a little late with a blog tomorrow due to the appointment, but keep watching.
Hope someone comes by to buy some eggs. We’re sitting on about 42 dozen chicken eggs and 2 dozen duck eggs out there. When you least expect it the guy from the city comes in asking for all we have. With the holiday coming……… who knows?

Wednesday, Dec. 10th… It’s cold, wet and yucky out there……

Was out early this morning to feed and water all the animals and I gotta tell ya, I think I’d rather have the snow than the rain. The rain soaks right in and with it, brings the chill that runs clear into the bone. I understand why God made animals like he did when you think of them being out in this kind of weather. He made the deer’s hair hollow and thick….thick enough that their coat is like a shingled roof. Each hair overlaps the others to allow water to wick down each and transfer onto the next until the water droplet reaches the end of the hairs on the belly and drop off……never touching the deer’s skin under the coat of hollow hair. These same hollow hairs are like the insulation in your house, insulating the heat in and the cold air out. A thick layer of underfur adds extra warmth. Snow, wind, and water cannot penetrate these hairs to the skin, so deer stay warm and dry.
Couple all this with God’s gift of pine thickets to help turn the rain and wind and a deer hiding in the southern exposure pine thicket can be pretty cozy. If there is snow on the ground, they’ll kick the snow away, down to the ground and use the same principle of coziness, only now the ground will provide fifty five degree heat under the deer and the hollow hairs will keep the snow on their back from melting. Once they stand up, they shake the snow off of a completely dry and warm coat of beautiful brown and white hair. Many other animals that don’t hibernate, such as the squirrels, live in cozy warm dens inside hollow trees in a bed of nice dry grass. Many times, there are several squirrels in these dens, cuddled together, sharing their body heat and remaining cozy while sleeping. The squirrel nest of leaves you see in the trees are sunning nests and warm weather nests, seldom used in the winter. They are primarily the birthing and rearing nests where mom can raise the little fur balls and keep an eye on them and predators such as crows and hawks.
Once you think of all these defenses against the winter cold, you can feel better about knowing they’re out there living, but still the rain and ice cause their lives to be a little more hectic.
The state doesn’t want you to feed wildlife, because the animals become dependent on it….. And usually when the going gets tough, the older stay inside. This is not in itself a problem……. BUT…it may be if you were feeding the wildlife and now that it is bitter cold and there are two feet of snow on the ground…… perhaps your feeder will remain empty and tonight the animal used to your feeding will go hungry to search for food somewhere else. Without you, this animal would be foraging for food all day long and into the night, finding plots of abundant food and staying there until it is depleted. Perhaps with this in mind, you’ll more easily except the states decision to not encourage feeding the wildlife.
We, like everyone else in the winter, do feed the birds and that draws the squirrels in also. When we throw scratch feed down for the chickens, sometimes in the evening I see deer that have come in to clean up the remainders left behind, so it is easy to find yourself caught up in doing what they don’t want you to….. In a round about way, but I must admit……… there is nothing nicer than looking out and seeing your chickens eating together with the ducks, deer, squirrels and the turkeys. That’s when you know you’re living in God’s country! What do you think, Uncle Harry? There's nothing better than grabbing your morning coffee and looking out across the yard to see wildlife of all kinds, enjoying your yard as they munch and fill their stomachs on grass or acorns from under the trees, is there......whether you're in the Catskill mountains of New York or the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. How bout it?

Monday Eve, December 9th… Loving you is a SCAM!! Listen Up!!!

Ok, all you beautiful debutants…you’re beautiful.. I love you… spend your life with me… give me your everything.. I need you!!
Believe me??? Why not, I’m serious. You’re beautiful….for someone I can suck money out of…I love you…and that big bank account you have there…… Spend your life with me…. Because I’ll abduct you to Ghana and you’ll never escape…. Give me your everything… including any stocks and bonds or money in jars or safety deposit boxes. I need you…. For my devil worshiping…don’t worry I’ll drug you before I sacrifice you by cutting your heart out.
There is a scam on the website match.com where men from Ghana will tell you anything you want to hear, to get you to believe that they are legitimate guys, out there looking for a girl just like you… one that is looking for a decent guy to spend your life with and would go out of your way to please, once you meet a guy like me… A guy to hold you and love you and protect you. I’ll listen to your every wish and transform myself into exactly what you are looking for and I’ll promise you happy loving days for the rest of your life. I’ll just not tell you that your life is not going to last very long once I get my hands on you.
NOTICE!!!
This is not a joke…… I tell you this because we were involved with this very thing last week and found it to be a scam very innocently…. Which saved a friend of ours regardless of our “dumb luck!”
I say dumb luck, because the scammer didn’t know I had a tracer on our blog page and he looked at our blog to satisfy our friend that he was really interested in her and her friends, but let’s start at the beginning of the story, since the police and match.com won’t do anything about it…… Perhaps if you read this and are careful, you’ll not end up in a shallow grave or robbed either.
Our friend, which Vick and I love like a sister, lives in Georgia. She is a nurse…… an ICCU nurse in a hospital…… a very good nurse. Loved by her patients and father and us. She is a hard working, self supporting young lady who has not yet had the fortune to meet her knight in shining armor. She doesn’t ask for much….just a man like me that would love her unconditionally and constantly as I do Vicki. She is very pretty and built nice, but is not interested in the usual one night stand. She wants to commit to a relationship and have happiness with a man for life. So she placed an add on match.com saying so and waited hopefully for a reply from Mr. Right.
It didn’t take long. Not long at all…… She met George C. Wayne….. A 46 year old businessman from Georgia….. Only an hour away from her in another nice town. They talked and got to know one another by email…. Exchanged photos and more intimate, private information about each other than you would list on match.com.
They emailed each other many times in the next several days and George showed her is 10 year old son to a previous marriage….. A marriage that was terrible and ended abruptly with her running off with another guy and leaving George and his son all alone to exist. We saw pictures of his pool, his house and the inside of the living room. Vicki and I got an email at her request to tell us that he loved her immensely and wanted to bring her to us to visit…… anything to win her heart and prove he was the man of her dreams and would be with her through all eternity. Sounds really good huh? She had him go to our website, http://www.cluckinacritterfarm.com/ where he could click on our blog, http://www.cluckinacritterfarm.blogspot.com/ and see our farm and all the stuff we do, so he did….to please her……. And…..
Busted!!
As soon as he did this, it showed he was in Ghana, West Africa. What the hell is going on here…we wondered. We asked our friend where George was…… and he said “in Georgia.” I told Vick that was a lie…… his ISP was showing him coming out of Ghana, So Vicki told her to ask why his computer showed he was in Ghana. There was silence on the other end…… a long silence…. Then he said he changed his computer time zone to Ghana, because he traveled there buying gems all the time. WRONG AGAIN!! That only changes the time on the computer…. It doesn’t show where you are…… only your ISP service provider shows where the signal is coming from. HE WAS A LIER!!! We then started drilling him, knowing he was a scammer, but hoping we were wrong. She made him give her the address of his house in the town near her. He was reluctant at first, then I think he thought she wouldn’t drive all that way if he just gave her the address and acted normal, but she did…… the very next day, with a close friend she works with and guess what? In the mean time Vicki and I checked him out on people search.com and found out that the address they were going to check on belonged to a George C. Wayne alright. But he was 62 years old. He had pulled the name and address out of a phone book, in a town near her, randomly…… and now we were worried she would run into him maybe. When they got there, the house was dilapidated and condemned. She checked with neighbors who confirmed that no one lived there for quite awhile, but a young, good looking guy sometimes drifts in and out…. But never stays around long. Now…… she called him and gave him a piece of her mind…… and threatened to report him to the police. He immediately became enraged and told her not to mess with him and that he didn’t like the word police. She told him she was going to report him to match.com and the police and he said. “you better watch what you say….I know where you live and I know where you work.” Do you get the jest of this story???????
She is now off the computer…… not soliciting anyone and not interested in computer dating. Thank God I have Feedjit and watch the real-time tracer or she might have met him at the airport as he wanted her to, when he called, saying he was back from a business trip and needed a ride. Had he got her into a car, God only knows what would have happened to our friend.
Please tell anyone you know that soliciting a stranger on these sites is not a safe thing to do, nor should they ever meet an email acquaintance until they are sure they are legitimate and they should never go alone, or they may never return.
We thank God our friend is still here and can complain about what the bastard did. I wonder if there were others that didn’t ever have that chance……… and are no longer alive.

Monday, Dec. 8th… Is it me or did I just step in… ahhh hemm…

How can life be so nice one moment and such a screwed up mess the very next minute??????? Just make the mistake of taking a moment to think everything is ok and the world is right and you’ll find out you’ve been looking through rose colored glasses. The world is a nasty place filled with nasty, jealous and Pious people that you’ve mistakenly wanted to be associated with. Then you realize you don’t give a damned if you ever set eyes on them again. Can it be real, that some people never do what’s needed to sustain themselves, yet fault you for doing that very thing? Could those same people expect you to provide needed substance to fund them as though you are their guardian. Lest you don’t do so and they fault you for living your own life? Could you forget that you never gave of yourself, and always did what you wanted while going where ever you wanted and could never supply the whereabouts of that person, so close to you? Would you then later expect that person to then supply you with everything you desired……… to the extent of expecting them to do without for themselves…… as if they were your parent…… giving up everything for their child. Remember, a parent gives up their time….their wealth and their love for their children without asking for anything in return……
Could you demand sustenance from another…….truly demand it…… even after those you demand from, watch you dedicate all to another and see it melt away…… thrown to the wind…..fiddle fuddled away on frivolous nothings, that no longer exist and do nothing toward extending sustained life. Worse yet that they be turned away thrice beyond any request ever made, to then be made aware that there will be nothing for them, so don’t ask…… yet you then in turn ask, yourself, when your sun burns out! I say nay…… for your life should be lived alone today also, as you have made it so.

Sunday Dec. 7th… 31 degrees and cloudy with Snow & Wind……

Note: Our internet provider has been experiencing problems all morning with their tin cans and strings! We have just now re-established an internet connection and a TV signal. If the wind wiggles a wire before we post, keep checking back. Sorry for such a late morning post.

Well, we had our appreciation dinner last evening for everyone who helped us out over the last year…… We invited anyone from Agway, GNH Lumber and other surrounding places to come and have a meal on us and spend the evening chatting and laughing. We catered the food from Frank’s Green Hill Café in Norton Hill and had 400 Maine clams which we steamed. There were only a handful of people to show up, but we still had a really good time.
Today seems like a “sit by the fireplace” day with the weather forecast of snow showers and then that high wind advisory starting at around 5:00 this evening. Perhaps we’ll just feed the animals this morning and keep them in their outside runs so they are not out in high winds at 30 degrees, which has to be a chill factor of near ZERO. Below are the pictures I snapped last evening at the get together. We’ll blog more later today.

Here is last night's "tiny" get together.

left to right standing... Danny, Vicki, Jeff.

Sitting... Jeff's girlfriend Renee and her daughter Ashley.

This is Danny's friend, Ronnie. Now he is our new friend too!

The Christmas tree in the living room.

This is the first ornament my mother and father bought after being married in 1946. It has been my favorite Christmas ornament for my entire life and always the first ornament up each year.