Pot Luck

Heat! (4.00 / 2)

Wow...

Friday Highlights

Newark, NJ: New all-time record high of 108 degrees. Breaks old all-time record of 105 degrees set on August 9, 2001.

[...]

Saturday Highlights

Newark, NJ: New daily record of 102 degrees breaks old record of 100 degrees for the date.

Baltimore, Philly, Trenton, Hartford and Altantic City have all set new allt-ime record highs over the past couple days.

It is 91 degrees in Newark right now, at 10:02 PM!!!

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 02:03:08 AM UTC

Heat index... (4.00 / 2)

114 at Newark Airport yesterday afternoon, 116 in Trenton.  118 in Atlantic City and Baltimore!

Newark's low tonight will be a few degrees higher than Portland's high was this evening...

It is 62 in San Francisco right now.

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 02:05:19 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

i like our weather out here much better (4.00 / 2)

I only lost half of one tray to the heat. Didn't get out in a timely manner to spray the trays this afternoon.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 03:05:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yeah... (4.00 / 2)

Thinking of my youngest niece back in NJ.  She was born in February (third of my youngest sister's kids, all girls!), she knows nothing of life but blizzards and 100-plus degree heat index temps.  Poor girl!

I will have an extra room for her in 17 years, she can go to school at PSU or Reed and be comfortable for a change.

:)

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 03:10:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

"I've run my race. You run yours." (4.00 / 2)

Did anyone watch Secretariat on Starz tonight?

Better yet did you know that, according to The Racing Form Secretariat still holds the track record for each of the three legs of the Triple Crown!

A wire to wire win by thirty-one lengths in the longest race in the sport against Sham, who would have won the Triple Crown if Sham was born any other year in history. The time was 2:24!

For most of us, it took an expert announcer to explain that Secretariat had just run the fastest Belmont in history. Probably after a moment of research it was noted that the winning time was not merely the fastest 1 ½ miles at Belmont Park, but also the fastest 1½ miles-time ever recorded in America. Maybe even in the world!

What a good movie that was. I'm going to watch it again on Starz West. Might be that it made me feel young again. I felt like I was watching those races all over and I was back in 1973.  

---

by: Eddie C @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 03:31:51 AM UTC

Gotta love a horse with heart! (4.00 / 2)

That's why I say that for all the movers and shakers in the horse industries want to use cloning to reproduce/replecate big time winners, you can clone the body, but  you'll never clone the soul of the horse, and in the end, that's what really makes a champion. Not the body, that just gives the exceptional individual the tools to get the job done. What really makes a champion is the horses' heart. And that, my friends, you can not clone.

My two favorite movies of all time - Seabiscuit and Secretariat!

I give you the horse - the prey animal with the heart of the lion....

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 03:43:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

The intro (4.00 / 2)

More than three thousand years ago a man named Job complained to God about all his troubles and the Bible tells us that God answered.

Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? He paused fiercely, rejoicing in his strength and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing, He does not shy away from the sword.  The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground. He cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.

---

by: Eddie C @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 04:19:26 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yup (4.00 / 2)

that's a horse for ya.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 04:51:44 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

For some reason... (4.00 / 1)

...LeBron James comes to mind here.

;)

And to some extent (Mets fan cringing...), Derek Jeter, too.

Heart.

Give me a LaMarcus Aldridge and a Brandon Roy any day!

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 04:49:45 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Clarification... (4.00 / 1)

The first name mentioned has none.

The last three have it in loads.

I realize my point may not have been too clear...

;)

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 04:51:19 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Out takes (4.00 / 2)

An island on Tiorati.

A dead tree on Askoti.

Kanawauke at dusk.

---

by: Eddie C @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 03:41:34 AM UTC

Slaughtering guinea fowl tonight (4.00 / 2)

I have to do it at night as that's the only time I can catch the little buggers.

Now on to the question of the day - plucking or skinning??

If I pluck, it'll be dry plucking. Pain in the ass, but wet plucking (scalding) is too. Skinning it the easiest and quickest. It's not like I'll be roasting any of these birds. They're yearlings, and too tought for roasting. Stewing is the order of the day with these birds, and you don't have to have the skin on for stewing.....

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Sun Jul 24, 2011 at 03:46:20 AM UTC

Syria... (4.00 / 1)

Wondering how certain types will somehow manage to blame this on Israel...

Perhaps most pronounced is the anger at Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim militant movement in Lebanon that has bluntly supported Mr. Assad's government. Hezbollah was widely popular in Syria, where sentiments against Israel and longstanding American dominance of the region run deep. But Hezbollah's backing for Mr. Assad has unleashed a sense of betrayal at a movement that celebrates the idea of resistance. At times, it has also given rise to chauvinism among Syrian Sunnis against Hezbollah's Shiite constituency.

"We've started to hate them more than we hate Israel," said Maher, a young father and protester in Hama, sitting with a friend who gave his name as Abu Mohammed.

Hama Protests Swell in Syria

Tens of thousands of people protested undeterred in Hama on Friday as a government crackdown in Homs, where sectarian violence and defected military conscripts pose a new threat to the government, drew a stark contrast between the two epicenters of Syria's uprising.

President Bashar al-Assad's security forces showed relative restraint Friday, with seven people reported killed across Syria, including one in Homs, compared with at least 24 killed the prior Friday, which has become the biggest day for protests on the Arab street.

Only seven people killed, eh?

Thirty miles south, in Homs, smaller crowds of protesters dodged gunfire Friday, with many residents staying home after a bloody week in which activists estimate as many 40 people were killed. Tanks fired mortars in two Homs neighborhoods on Thursday, residents said.

Contrast -

(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest against the soaring housing prices in the Jewish state. [...]

The demonstration heated up when hundreds of protesters attempted to block a major intersection and hurled a stun and a smoke grenade at police forces.

"Forty-three of the demonstrators were arrested, with eight of them indicted in court this morning for assaulting police officers", Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

But nobody was killed by government forces, right?  Okay...

Hey, maybe the UN should hold a conference about this in September!

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 11:07:49 AM UTC

Hollywood (Portland) farmers' market goes year-round... (4.00 / 1)

I remember caseyOR mentioned the possibility earlier this year, but I hadn't heard anything on it since.  This blog post notes that the Hollywood Farmers' Market in NE Portland will indeed be going year-round now -

Hollywood will be joining the ranks of year-round markets along with Lloyd, Hillsdale, People's Co-op, and Oregon City Farmers Markets, a definite plus.

Whoo!  Twenty-minute, one-line bus ride, plus a two block walk, from me.  Don't have to cross the entire city to do the Hillsdale market on rainy winter Sundays any more...

---

by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Tue Jul 26, 2011 at 14:33:49 PM UTC

Year 'Round Hollywood Farmers Market. (4.00 / 2)

Here is a little more info on the plan for HFM's move to a year 'round market this December. That will make two year 'rounders in NE Portland-- Lloyd Market on Tuesday afternoons and Hollywood on Saturday mornings. Yeah!!

---

by: caseyOR @ Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 08:22:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

best name of the day (4.00 / 1)

Head of U.S. cyber agency resigns suddenly

by Tabassum Zakaria
Reuters
20 hrs ago

Let's have applause for Tabassum Zakaria!

---

by: count @ Tue Jul 26, 2011 at 17:13:39 PM UTC

At last! (4.00 / 1)

Scientists invent way to test authenticity of Scotch whisky

I know this has been worrying all of us lately.

---

by: count @ Tue Jul 26, 2011 at 22:35:48 PM UTC

Love the comments (4.00 / 3)

Especially this one -

As for those who drink whiskey with coke, from what I know they tend to drink it with Jack Daniels which frankly has to be drunk with something sweet and fizzy otherwise its only other use is as paint stripper.

;-P

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 02:57:51 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Just did Joanne's farm tour! (4.00 / 3)

Joanne R has done a great job of solving the riddle: "How do I make a living farming but not work myself to death?" Very inventive mix of livestock and market gardening. I loved her tom turkey-- the most dignified brainless beast, even when he was trying (and completely failing) to have sex with the female turkey

---

by: la motocycliste @ Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 04:08:32 AM UTC

you saw (attempted) turkey sex? (4.00 / 2)

I'm so jealous! I've seen chickens do it. Not terribly interesting.  

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

---

by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 06:19:13 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well, (4.00 / 4)

watching Tank try to breed the hen is more like watching a comedy of errors....

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 06:23:56 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

It was great having you over. (4.00 / 2)

Place was a mess, but then that's SOP for out here...

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Wed Jul 27, 2011 at 06:24:47 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

you have three choices (4.00 / 2)

1. make the farm into a showplace and die of exhaustion in the process
2. Hire people to fix it up and go broke paying them
3. Do the best you can. I was impressed at how healthy and friendly your animals are

---

by: la motocycliste @ Thu Jul 28, 2011 at 04:33:36 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

My choice is (4.00 / 2)

#4 - let the fallow areas do what they do and explain to visitors that those 'weeds' are cycling nutrients out of and back into the soil.

;-)

Thanks on the animals. A few of them are a bit ribby, it was deworming week last week and they're in the process of putting the pounds back on. One of the hazards of not feeding them constant low doses of dewormer.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Jul 28, 2011 at 05:32:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Like I say (4.00 / 1)

everyone works out here, even the weeds.  

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

---

by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Jul 28, 2011 at 05:32:59 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Allen chickens (4.00 / 1)

Korean buyer committed to Allen plants, growers

JULY 28, 2011
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Korea's largest poultry producer said it plans to continue running Allen Family Foods' existing plants and buy from the company's contract growers as it uses its knowledge of Asian markets to expand operations.
...

Korea is experiencing increased demand for poultry.
...

Allen cited rising feed prices, operational mistakes and a cut in its credit line for the decision to seek bankruptcy reorganization. Harim outbid another Delaware company, Mountaire, at an auction Monday.

Allen is an industrial chicken company headquartered in Seaford, Delaware. The news that the company was in bankruptcy had escaped my notice until now. I wonder what the operational mistakes were.

Allen originally announced it would be bought by Mountaire, then Harim stepped in. Interesting that, apparently, neither near-neighbor Perdue nor any other U.S. chicken company was interested enough to submit a bid. The judge announced approval of the Harim bid, but the deal won't settle for a while. I wonder if anything interesting will happen before settlement.

---

by: count @ Thu Jul 28, 2011 at 19:00:38 PM UTC