Apropos of Nothing v.15

None there are as beautiful as what we saw. Sorry. Maybe I can get Dan to email me a photo.

FORCE him. He should know how hungry we are to see the pictures . . .

I second that!

OK I found it on line. Cypripedium Reginae. Dan has not seen it in the wild before. Obviously he has seen it coming from Herronswood.

This message was edited Jun 17, 2010 8:58 PM

That's it. I'm moving to Wisconsin . . . these guys are tough to grow. Constance source of aerated water, excellent drainage. I've been told that they get HUGE.

That's so beautiful, Steve! I can imagine what a wonderful sight a whole carpet of them in the woods would be. Thanks for "digging that up"....

I'm just glad to know a whole field of these still exists anywhere in the world!

They are in the swamps of Michigan. There is significant flow of water there that is constantly replaced. Lots and lots of Artesian wells. All of the swamps drain in the nearby Muskegon River and our water is bought by Perrier and Mountain Myst. It is highly filtered by the sand that is everywhere there are springs. They grow next to roadways, on swamp islands, and creeksides. I remember they as a child, these growing on river flats along the Muskegon where I lived in my tent all summer long. Dan was like a father with these. He had us point up to trees to make the passing cars think we were watching birds.
Oops sorry dave for the unauthorized picture it is ok to delete. I didn't know it was yours.

This message was edited Jun 18, 2010 8:44 AM

The under-appreciated beauty of Wisconsin. And probably better left that way!!

I am talking Michigan, not Wisconsin. Michigan has Spartans not Badgers.

Oopsy. Thanks for setting me straight. I guess I went to Wisconsin because know there are a lot of Cypripediums there, too!

Well God has blessed us the sun came out and the weather is perfect here in Montana. Hope it continues. It is supposed to.

WOOHOO!!!

It was fun everyone left today after a lot of plant digging and a couple of stolen rocks. It was very fun short of the hot weather causing a big hatch of misquitos. The fire was lively and there were only 13 people here which was perfect. Lots of tired people after out long hike into the mountains but wow!

Glad you had a great time. Anxious to see more pics.

I spoke too soon, I found the pics on the other thread.

I had to look it up to be sure my memory was accurate, but that Pink and White Lady Slipper is the Minnesota state flower.

Mine is in bloom - one flower!! No time for pictures yet. Hope I can get something tonight.

My little girl Sweetpea went to the "doggie dentist"today. She is wondering why I was charge full price for the cleaning when they extracted about 1/2 of her teeth! The extractions were extra. She is high as a kite right now. Poor thing! $425...that is what hurts the most!

Poor baby. She is so cute.
I'm baby-sitting my neighbors bichon, Mandy, for a week. She also had most of her teeth removed not to long ago. Doesn't seem to bother them once they recover.

That is what the Dr said too. She never chews her food anyway. She just inhales it. :)

Today is our fourth wedding anniversary. Tracy, being the insane gift-giving freak that he is, gave me a new handgun. It's pink. I call it my Barbie gun, and I really want to glue rhinestones on it. :D

Dang, I love that hubby of yours.

It looks like a toy gun. I guess he gave it to you cuz you wore your old one about shooting coons?

Very nice. Definitely glue rhinestones on it.

LOL I wish I had been shooting 'coons! Sure would be easier. (I drown them) We can't fire guns here because we live inside city limits.

The reason he got this for me now is that he takes the .45 and the rifles with him when he goes away to camp for the summer, and it really bothers him to have me home alone with no firearm. Even though this is a good neighborhood, there are sometimes unsavory characters walking by late at night when I'm out on the porch smoking.

We went to the range today so I could get a feel for it, and it has a LOT more kick than I expected for such a wee gun. But it fits in my hands a lot better than the .45, and I really like it. :)

(For the curious, it's a Taurus Millennium .380)

You drown raccoons. Not for reals, I hope?

Is this just me being 'unamerican' or is anyone else uncomfortable with the idea of a gun being made CUTE?

Sorry pony, I really enjoy your company, and I don't want to jeopardize my welcome on the thread, AND I'm not opposed to us having differing opinions on gun ownership, but when they are coloured to be charming I think the seriousness of owning a gun has been compromised. They are lethal weapons, designed to protect, and with the potential to kill. Colouring them CUTE seems to forget that. It really bothers me.

I'm so sorry Pony, I am not offering this as a criticism of you, I am questioning the thinking of the manufacturer. To make something as powerful as a firearm, and then to diminish the seriousness of its potential in a playful way just unsettles me to the point that I feel compelled to comment. I am so sorry - please don't let this come between us.

This message was edited Jun 25, 2010 7:31 AM

No, Laurie, handguns are at least as shocking to some Americans as they are to you.
I hate their very existence & have never even touched one.
I like pony too, very much, but am equally taken aback by talk of glittery pink guns & the drowning of raccoons!

You're certainly entitled to your opinions, Summer and Laurie. I don't hold them against you, and I hope you won't hold it against me for not agreeing with you. But I will not get into a debate about it on an internet forum.

Well, posting photos of guns on an Internet forum probably should be avoided then?

Down, guys, down. While I agree with Summerkid and Laurie about guns, we have them in our house too, although not pink, and my husband goes deer hunting every winter. We don't drown coons - we do catch and export them far far away - but someone else on DG said that once they start killing chickens they'll never stop so he kills them when he catches them. We do shoot squirrels - and English sparrows, because they oust martins from their nests. But there's room here for everyone, and I can see that if you got a pretty pink gun and were pleased with it, you'd want to post it. Kind of like pretty pink tool kits (hammers and screw drivers and such), which I think are silly, but different strokes for different folks. Pony, you have a thoughtful and caring husband.

I can post a picture of it if I want to. And you're free to not like it. Not liking it does not mean there needs to be arguing or condemnation.

As for the raccoons- transporting them elsewhere is against the law here. Killing them is not. Our area has huge problems with raccoons- the population is out of control, they do insane amounts of damage to people's property, and some pets have been killed by them. The state told us that killing them was our only option. You don't have to like that either. It is what it is.

Wow, I had no idea that transporting raccoons was illegal. A friend of ours who works with the nongame and endangered species department in the state here told us that transporting them was not recommended because they would disturb the population balance wherever they were transported to, but we thought that was still the better choice. We don't hesitate to kill squirrels, though.

When we lived in WA we had a raccoon who kept killing our ducks. DH shot it and we blanched, stuffed, roasted and ate it, more for justice than for anything else. I wouldn't do it again; it was pretty gamey, as you'd expect.

It may not be illegal where you are- it's a state-by-state thing. Raccoons are over-populated in WA, so moving them around isn't going to do any good. The state has issued a warning about raccoons with canine distemper in our area as well, so relocating an infected animal could do a lot of harm.

If the way they smell is any indication of how they taste, I have no desire to ever try eating raccoon. Stinky buggers, they are.

We have a lot of squirrels too, but they don't cause enough damage to warrant killing them. They're just annoying. Same with possums- we have quite a few of them, but I've had no problems with them. I often have to go out and release them from the cage trap, though- they like the marshmallows we use for coon bait. I recently had one who refused to leave the cage until he finished his snack- cheeky little critter.

I'm with you on this gun thing Laurie & Summerkid

I'm a complete coward and hypocrite... I can't even kill a slug, unless it's by 'stabbing it in the back' with sluggo or throwing it far, far away... I love a juicy steak and a fried drumstick, but I could never harm a cow or chicken.... I would become a vegetarian overnight if I had to kill my own meat, but since they're being killed and packaged anyway - I like to tell myself that at least their death was not in vain... I do respect people who are not hypocritical like me... I think we should respect life, and eat what we kill or have good cause to kill, like in defense of chickens, pets, etc.

Guns are such a controversial subject, aren’t they? They *are* serious tools, and the question is, does it trivialize the seriousness of owning them to personalize them? I think the problem is that this is a very subjective thing. Personally, I have no problem with it. Nothing trivializes the seriousness of guns more than their wanton use in movies and video games. That's a MUCH bigger problem than someone owning a pink gun, properly training with it, and storing it responsibly. Before guns, there were swords... there's a long tradition of engraving and decorating those. For me, it's the same thing.

Well said, Kur. Just because my firearm is pink, I don't for a moment forget that it is a deadly weapon, and I handle it accordingly. The use of guns in movies and video games bothers me, too. Especially the video games- I think it sends entirely the wrong message to young people about the use of firearms.

Tracy trained me to shoot, and in the near future I will be getting some training from our friend who is a police officer and firearms instructor. I dearly hope I never need to use my firearm for anything but practice at the range, but I am glad to have it in my home in the event of a break-in. I choose not to carry it with me when I leave the house, though Tracy and our police officer friend both think I should keep it on me all the time. That, I am not comfortable with.

Actually, pony, if you post a photo of a subject that someone finds objectionable, then them stating so is not arguing. I, for one, don't want to log into an innocent PNW thread & be forced to look at guns or, for that matter, dahlia-encrusted mammaries.

And I'm revolted beyond belief by the thought of drowning raccoons.

Kur, your reasoning about meat is one reason I became a vegetarian!

You didn't just state that you don't like guns- you implied that I am a bad person for owning the gun. Big difference. This is not the first time this subject has been discussed here, and you pitched a fit last time, too.

If things discussed/photos posted bother you that much, then don't read my thread. Start your own thread with rules about what people are allowed to post- it's no skin off my dahlia-encrusted mammaries.

Is anyone good with Excel? I have my plants listed on excel and a while back, one of the cells got this wierd box with an x thing in it. It's not covering the whole cell, just part of it.

I've tried deleting that line and it just jumps to the line below. I'm going to want to print my list out in the near future and would like to get it out of there. If anyone is good with Excel, maybe I could email you the file and you could take a look for me?

Gwen
who loves the diversity in this group, finds it odd that pink guns and tattoos have become so controversial, and thinks we should move to safer ground.....maybe religion and politics? ;)

Opinions are welcome. Perhaps when they differ, maybe not stating them quite as strongly? Laurie's first post is a good example of an opinion stated in a calm and understated tone.

The sun is out (sporadically) - let's get happy.

Aw, Gwen- I wish Tracy was home... he's rescued me from Excel disasters many times. I have a knack for screwing things up in that program.