Did you lose a guinea fowl recently?
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/02/25/guinea-fowl-belligerent-Swansea/1551614288880/
The police in Swansea, IL are asking the owner of a “Loud. Belligerent. Non-cooperative. Foul smelling,” (which, honestly, is redundant when referring to guinea fowl—OH, excuse me! I meant to say, “Italian-American Fowl.”) hen that has been terrorizing the neighborhood.
When I lived in New Mexico, there was a small flock of these buggers living wild near our house. We lived in a traditional adobe house, with a flat roof, so these birds would fly up there and walk around. Let me tell you: it is not a pleasant experience to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of thumping coming from over your head. Plus, they are LOUD AS HELL. Once upon a time, ranchers used to keep them around their other livestock to act as an early warning system against predators. So, not only would they wake us up when they were on the roof, but they would also wake us up when they were two miles away. They are simply the worst—except for a nice GLT—guinea, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the guinea fowl is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe. They’re so perky, I love that.
Any wild/not-wild animals making life difficult where you are?
My grandpa used to have guinea hens and chickens. He had one mean rooster and you’d have to grab a stick when walking across the yard in case it attacked you.
They were cute, if I recall a little smelly.
I have some fire ants for it to eat if it can make it’s way to Georgia. Also, please accept my gift of 100 virtual blue stars for the Princess Bride reference.
Fox territory stakeout season is beginning, so I expect to hear the blood curdling screams anytime.
Or how about some hehehe’s –
We have a lot of urban foxes in the parks here. It’s becoming a big problem. And there’s an office where a group of vultures hang out and they’re more aggressive than normal. They run at people entering and leaving the building. And hiss at them!
So it’s a law office….
We have resident Canada geese that will be aggressive during certain times of the years when the hatchlings are still young and the nests must be defended. So certain corporate campuses and city parks can be a bit of a gauntlet during those times. But we don’t have anything really affecting our home.
LOL! That was brilliant
The main problem with the geese here is that they are shit machines.
Where I work, since we are all WFH, the wild turkeys have taken over the parking lot. One guy came out and they were standing on top of his car. Fun fact, they can scratch the crap out of your paint job. So cute!
I used to know a lady whose job was to scare geese away from parks and government buildings with her Border Collies. She’d just hang out with her dogs and get paid. After a few days the geese would stop coming back.
Yeah, the real immigration problem in my state is the fucking Canadians shitting on our golf courses & beaches.
Oh, I think guinea fowl are adorable, they remind me of Napoleon’s hat. Very useful too in organic gardens for pest control.
Up until last year, it was the goddamned groundhogs. They would buzzsaw through our whole garden in a single day. Some of them…met with an accident. But, last year, they were nowhere to be seen–probably because I’m home all day. Hopefully, they found someplace else to terrorize.
We had a neighbor who let his yard go to shit. It became a habit for groundhogs. And of course they’d burrow into our yard and those of the adjoining neighbors. He’s a nice old guy and we didn’t want to cause him any trouble but finally we all got pissed and told him to clean up or we’d turn him to the compliance officer. He did, trapped the varmits and we haven’t seen any since.
I hate those things! I gave up vegetable gardening for awhile because of them. Slowly starting back up with containers. They ate most of my perennials too, so now I stick to shrubs.
You know what works though? Jack Russel terriers. You tube has a couple of entertaining videos.
I’ll bet Daschunds would too. Did I spell that right? When I need autocorrect it ignores me. I swear it’s a sentient malevolent spirit.
Pretty much any terrier-type dog is effective. Our problem is that we don’t know exactly where these particular groundhogs are burrowed because there’s plenty of wooded area around us. So, we’ve taken to building cages that fit over the beds for those plants which need protection, and that also seems to help. Fun fact: groundhogs do not eat tomato plants, any type of onion family plant, or most herbs. So, you can grow those with impunity.
The rabbits and squirrels will take care of those annoying herbs and the tomatoes for you.
We’ve never had a problem with either around here. The squirrels actually haven’t ever been an issue for us in our various locations. As far as the rabbits, there are too many neighborhood cats roaming around. I think I’ve seen all of two rabbits in five years here. In our other locations, just fencing with rabbit guard was sufficient because they aren’t prone to digging under the fence like a groundhog will. Hell, even the chipmunks don’t give us any problems.
The main thing we have to watch out for with the tomatoes are the birds. If we let the tomatoes sit on the plant for too long, the birds will tear into them for the liquid. So we will typically harvest as soon as we see color on the tomato, and then we keep them in a paper shopping bag to ripen fully.
no varmints here to get rid of, unless you consider a virus one.
I fiiiiiiiiiinally have an appointment for my Covid vaccinations–gettin’ them done out at the Mall of America site tomorrow afternoon and on the 20th.
By the time I get the second shot, it’ll have been more than 2 months since the first time I got a call and fell into the email black-hole, when my information (and that of a number of other co-workers who were also supposed to be “the first people in the district to get it”!🙃) was apparently misdirected, and we were all bumped to the absolute END of the employee line.😒
The school district i work for has more than 7K employees (we’re one of “the big three” in our state), the Early Childhood & Early Childhood Special Ed staff were supposed to be the first to get appointments–with those of us who have pre-existing conditions at the front of that group…
But, because of the way the state rolled out the password–with one, singular, password for ALL the school districts in the region, plenty of folks who got the first emailed invite then forwarded the password to friends and family (and some districts ALSO emailed invites to retired staff), so a bunch of us got kicked entirely out of line, and never got put into the state system–because the line jumpers basically stole our appointment windows….
So instead of being in the first 10% of employees to get our shots, we are now in the bottom of the last 10% to make appointments to get them…
At least we ARE getting them.
But it’s been exhausting & SO frustrating, seeing nearly all our co-workers get their second set of shots, before we were ever able to hear about getting our appointments for the first one…
Especially when we learned last week that even the high-school teachers and paras (who won’t be in-person for another couple weeks!!!), have had both their shots.🙃
The frustration factor & hurt feelings about that are because in our program, we’ve been in-person four days a week, since the week of Jan 18th…. and because of all those line-jumpers, we’ve only had our masks & a LOT of handwashing & sanitizing to try & keep us safe.
I’m INCREDIBLY Grateful, to fiiiinally have my appointments scheduled.
But as a frontline worker at *both* my jobs, someone at high risk myself, and someone who’s had to be in a hyper-vigilant state because of my roommate’s immunosuppressive med, the yanking around/feeling teased about being offered the shot & promised we’d get called “by the 25th or 26th (of January )!” and then falling into that damn black hole, has been completely demoralizing & exhausting.
I’m SO damn tired, of always needing to be 100% *every.single.day* and knowing I could kill someone, if I’m NOT… along with the fact that I’ve had to deal with Boy-roommie smoking indoors (giving me a sinus infection🤧🤕🙃), because of his fears interfering with common sense & causing his agoraphobia to go completely off the deep end…
I’m grateful, but I am SO tired right now, between school, both jobs, twisting in the wind until today’s text, AND knowing that I’m the only person in our household (aside from Girl-roommie, the one taking the immunosuppressive meds!), who’s been trying to consistently follow ALL the covid rules.
Boy-roommie is smoking indoors and not necessarily washing hands after going outside the apartment… the other PCA isn’t always wearing her mask when outside our apartment–and the moment she walks in our door, that mask is off… I also know she doesn’t immediately wash her hands after walking in, etc…
KKnowing I’m at least less likely to bring the virus home to Girl-roommie will be a bit of a relief, and I’m REALLY grateful for that.
I’m sorry, that’s really frustrating. Especially that you fall into two separate categories of workers that really should be prioritized in receiving vaccination. Glad to hear you finally got an appointment, but it’s still irritating it took this long.
Most of my coworkers have got their first dose. I’m being somewhat lax about trying to get mine scheduled. I’m not personally concerned, I think I’m pretty low risk, my job is pretty low risk, and I’m not prone to getting sick. Plus, I keep hearing about attempts to vaccinate people hit harder by this (mostly poor people and POC, with attempts to select for/favor by prioritizing zipcodes…), but that (mostly white) well-off people keep jumping the line and such. So, initially our employer was going to vaccinate us, but then they sent an email that we should just seek it through the state. And, that we should claim to be education/childcare, which I’m a bit uneasy with. I work for a university, so by some measures, I may technically be education, but I don’t feel that fits with the spirit/intention of prioritizing that group. I don’t deal with maybe more than a dozen people at work, and we are all spread the fuck out, with plenty of ventilation (hell, I’m outside alone most days…), and no contact with the public. And, since I’ve started a full-bike commute, I feel my risk is further reduced, since I’m no longer on public transit.
tl;dr: my coworkers have gotten it, I’m hesitant to apply, because I don’t want to be a line-jumper, I’m not personally worried, and lots of other people need it more than I do.
Thanks, Lochaber!💖
It was funny, today, about half an hour after I got my shot, I realized *exactly* how much of my brain’s capacity to process has been taken up by Covid worrying…
I KNOW I’m not actually in the clear yet, and that YES, I’ll still be masking up with the KN’s, and washing my hands ×1,000,000…. but apparently a LARGE segment of my brain was *constantly* subconsciously churning the “when can I GET my shot, Please?!?!?????” question around & around.
Because, for the first time in a couple MONTHS now, I can actually concentrate on things like homework–without needing to be in a “flow” state to do so… I’ve gotten 2 homework assignments in so far.
Most nights after class, I haven’t even been able to finish one…
It’s nice to realize I’ll be getting at least some mental bandwidth back again😉
Re you, and YOUR opportunity to get vaccinated, I definitely get your choice. If I was in your spot (low risk and low exposure), I’d probably feel the exact same way as you–although with the news today, I’m hoping that you’ll feel like you CAN reasonably go get one, pretty soon now, too💓
I definitely feel you, though, on the want to ride it out a bit longer, and hope that it can getting out to more BIPOC, and low-income/high need/high risk folks.
I’ve seen a few different stories in the last couple weeks, about wealthier white folks either sharing sign-up codes, *or* driving to poorer places, in some cases just so they can jump the line….
And that line-jumping is just heartbreaking & frustrating, having been *somewhat* on the other side of a similar situation.💔💖💞
Right about now, Canada geese would be starting to nest and chase people around the office parking lot. I never got anything more than an ambivalent hiss from them. I think they can smell fear. The only people who ever complained about being chased also said they always ran in terror, screaming. When I saw the geese out on my walk I’d give them a wide berth and say “hello how are you?” Never had a problem . I’m sure now w everyone gone they think they own the place.
At home buns and squirrels have started to make their appearance. But they clean up under the bird feeder and I may or may not set out special little piles of seed/nuts for them. They’re entertaining and cute! I just try to keep the rabbits off my plants but other than that, they live outside so why get bent out of shape about their existence.
I’ve never had an issue with Canada geese, but I tend to give them (any animal, really…) a bit of room, nesting season or otherwise.
I once attended this community college in the desert that had a little pond on campus, that was full of Canada geese, ducks, coots, seagulls, domestic geese, and sometimes even had some visiting pelicans. The Canada geese were pretty chill for the most part. If people were distributing snacks, they’d come up and get some, but other than that seemed to have a decent sense of boundaries or something. The domestic geese were complete assholes, and one particular one would often chase after students and harass ducks and such. He wouldn’t fuck with the Canada geese though, despite being bigger than them. One time I saw him chasing a student and some ducks, and got to close to the Canada geese, and the Canada geese just entered that “threat stance” where they extend their neck and lower their head, and the domestic goose just straight up turned around and fled. I can’t help but think they had an altercation previously, and the Canada geese just totally handed him his ass. 🙂
My boss has family in Swansea. I’ll see if she knows who lost their fowl.
Not that I’m there much now, but my office complex is right across the street from a landfill.
No, not the landfill with the radioactive waste and underground fires. That landfill is across the street and down a-ways, so I can see it from the northside windows but not adjacent.
Anyhoo, my work building is the tallest building around and the turkey vultures love circling it and perching on the roof. I love birds of prey, so it’s actually fucking cook to be sitting in a conference room on the 8th or 9th floor and a turkey vulture swoops right outside the window.
Also, they scare the asshole geese away from the building, so for that alone I love them.
um, not to be a pedantic asshole but turkey vultures are scavengers, not birds of prey. They don’t kill, they just eat the dead. fun fact: The bare neck and head keep them from soiling their feathers on carrion guts.
They are still birds of prey, despite being carrion eaters.
Sometime last week, a cardboard cutout of a coyote appeared at the bus stop that the turkeys liked to hang out in. It kinda confused me, because it was just far enough away I couldn’t make out any details, and all day I kept wondering what it was. Leaving work, I turned my cycle into the parking lot and looped by to see what it was (not a weird forgotten/unnoticed tree stump, which was my prior assumption), right as a security car went driving by. considering they notably slowed down, I guess my loitering or whatever didn’t go over too well…
Saw them in another location on my way out of work today, and there were a lot more than I usually see. I should look up their breeding/hatching season, and see if these are a batch of baby turkeys or something…