SGT Pepper RIP

Tree 507 file photo
Word has reached me that the farm lost Sgt Pepper this summer. I will spare my reader the gory details, but he did get euthanized in the Boss's garden-she brought him home from the vet's and paid a farm call so that he might pass in beauty. He deserved it-even the help that hates bucks loved Pepper.

I would re-post the pic of me bent towards him with a kissy face, except it is on the other comp which is awaiting more memory for a new virus protection package. I don't dare transfer anything in the meantime. So here is a cropped pic from deep in the Tree archives. RIP Pepper-I am sorry you missed apple season. :(

Epithalamion

1.
Thou aged unreluctant earth who dost
with quivering continual thighs invite
the thrilling rain the slender paramour
to toy with thy extraordinary lust,
(the sinuous rain which rising from thy bed
steals to his wife the sky and hour by hour
wholly renews her pale flesh with delight)
-immortally whence are the high gods fled?

Speak elm eloquent pandar with thy nod
significant to the ecstatic earth
in token of his coming whom her soul
burns to embrace-and didst thou know the god
from but the imprint of whose cloven feet
the shrieking dryad sought her leafy goal,
at the mere echo of whose shining mirth
the furious hearts of mountains ceased to beat?

Wind beautifully who wanderest
over smooth pages of forgotten joy
proving the peaceful theorems of the flowers-
didst e'er depart upon more exquisite quest?
and did thy fortunate fingers sometime dwell
(within a greener shadow of secret bowers)
among the curves of that delicious boy
whose serious grace one goddess loved too well?

Chryselephantine Zeus Olympian
sceptred colossus of the Pheidian soul
whose eagle frights creation, in whose palm
Nike presents the crown sweetest to man,
whose lilied robe the sun's white hands emboss,
betwixt whose absolute feet anoint with calm
of intent stars circling the acerb pole
poises,smiling,the diadumenos

in whose young chiseled eyes the people saw
their once again victorious Pantarkes
(whose grace the prince of artists made him bold
to imitate between the feet of awe),
thunderer whose omnipotent brow showers
its curls of unendured eternal gold
over the infinite breast in bright degrees,
whose pillow is the graces and the hours,

father of gods and men whose subtle throne
twain sphinxes bear each with a writhing youth
caught to her brazen breasts,whose foot-stool tells
how fought the looser of the warlike zone
of her that brought forth tall Hippolytus,
lord on whose pedestal the deep expels
(over Selene's car closing uncouth)
of Helios the sweet wheels tremulous-

are there no kings in Argos,that the song
is silent,of the steep unspeaking tower
within whose brightening strictness Danae
saw the night severed and the glowing throng
descend,felt on her flesh the amorous strain
of gradual hands and yielding to that fee
her eager body's unimmortal flower
knew in the darkness a more burning rain?

2.
And still the mad magnificent herald Spring
assembles beauty from forgetfulness
with the wild trump of April:witchery
of sound and odour drives the wingless thing
man forth in the bright air,for now the red
leaps in the maple's cheek,and suddenly
by shining hordes in sweet unserious dress
ascends the golden crocus from the dead.

On dappled dawn forth rides the pungent sun
with hooded day preening upon his hand
followed by gay untimid final flowers
(which dressed in various tremulous armor stun
the eyes of ragged earth who sees them pass)
while hunted from his kingdom winter cowers,
seeing green armies steadily expand
hearing the spear-song of the marching grass.

A silver sudden parody of snow
tickles the air to golden tears,and hark!
the flicker's laughing yet,while on the hills
the pines deepen to whispers primeval and throw
backward their foreheads to the barbarous bright
sky,and suddenly from the valley thrills
the unimaginable upward lark
and drowns the earth and passes into light

(slowly in life's serene perpetual round
a pale world gathers comfort to her soul,
hope richly scattered by the abundant sun
invades the new mosaic of the ground-
let but the incurious curtaining dusk be drawn
surpassing nets are sedulously spun
to snare the brutal dew,-the authentic scroll
of fairie hands and vanishing with the dawn).


Spring,that omits no mention of desire
in every curved and curling thing,yet holds
continuous intercourse-through skies and trees
the lilac's smoke the poppy's pompous fire
the pansy's purple patience and the grave
frailty of daises-by what rare unease
revealed of teasingly transparent folds
-with man's poor soul superlatively brave.

Surely from robes of particoloured peace
with mouth flower-faint and undiscovered eyes
and dim slow perfect body amorous
(whiter than lilies which are born and cease
for being whiter than this world)exhales
the hovering high perfume curious
of that one month for whom the whole years dies,
risen at length from palpitating veils.

O still miraculous May!O shining girl
of time untarnished!O small intimate
gently primeval hands,frivolous feet
divine!O singular and breathless pearl!
O indefinable frail ultimate pose!
O visible beatitude sweet sweet
intolerable!silence immaculate
of god's evasive audible great rose!

3.
Lover,lead forth thy love unto that bed
prepared by whitest hands of waiting years,
curtained with wordless worship absolute,
unto the certain altar at whose head
stands that clear candle whose expecting breath
exults upon the tongue of flame half-mute,
(haste ere some thrush with silver several tears
complete the perfumed paraphrase of death).

Now is the time when all occasional things
close into silence,only one tree,one
svelte translation of eternity
unto the pale meaning of heaven clings,
(whose million leaves in winsome indolence
simmer upon thinking twilight momently)
as down the oblivious west's numerous dun
magnificence conquers magnificence.

In heaven's intolerable athanor
inimitably tortured the base day
utters at length her soft intrinsic hour,
and from those tenuous fires which more and more
sink and are lost the divine alchemist,
the magus of creation,lifts a flower-
whence is the world's insufferable clay
clothed with incognizable amethyst.

Lady at whose imperishable smile
the amazed doves flicker upon sunny wings
as if in terror of eternity,
(or seeming that they would mistrust a while
the moving of beauteous dead mouths throughout
that very proud transparent company
of quivering ghosts-of-love which scarcely sings
drifting in slow diaphanous faint rout),

queen in the inconceivable embrace
of whose tremendous hair that blossom stands
whereof is most desire,yet less than those
twain perfect roses whose ambrosial grace,
goddess,thy crippled thunder-forging groom
or the loud lord of skipping maenads knows,
..-having Discordia's apple in thy hands,
which the scared shepherd gave thee for his doom-

O thou within the chancel of whose charms
the tall boy god of everlasting war
received the shuddering sacrament of sleep,
betwixt whose cool incorrigible arms
impaled upon delicious mystery,
with gaunt limbs reeking of the whispered deep,
deliberate groping ocean fondled o'er
the warm long flower of unchastity,

imperial Cytherea,from frail foam
sprung with irrevocable nakedness
to strike the young world into smoking song-
as the first star perfects the sensual dome
of darkness,and the sweet strong final bird
transcends the sight,O thou to whom belong
the hearts of lovers!-I beseech thee bless
thy suppliant singer and his wandering word.

ee cummings

Ignorance is bliss

Or apparently that is what the Bush Administration feels about the general public.
According to the following article, a small meatpacking company wants to tests each beef critter that comes through their slaughterhouse for Mad Cow Disease. Or rather, each carcass.

The USDA is blocking that. ONly 1% of slaughtered cattle are currently tested for the disease. The Bush Adminstration claims that is because it is so rare-the disease, not the steak.

The rationale is that if one company test all their beef, the larger slaughterhouses will feel compelled to do the same..aw shucks.

Records show that no humans have died of the disease in the US, but I have spoken with several people who claim to have known people that have died with all the symptoms of mad cow...hmmm...no mad cow disease in the US-no Golden Eagles in Maine-no Climate change-sound familiar?

Here's the article:


Court: US can block meat packer from testing its cattle for mad cow disease
By MATT APUZZOAssociated Press Writer
(AP) 01:42:47 PM (ET), Friday, August 29, 2008 (WASHINGTON)
The Bush administration can prohibit meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease, a federal appeals court said Friday.
The dispute pits the Agriculture Department, which tests about 1 percent of cows for the potentially deadly disease, against a Kansas meat packer that wants to test all its animals.
Larger meat packers opposed such testing. If Creekstone Farms Premium Beef began advertising that its cows have all been tested, other companies fear they too will have to conduct the expensive tests.
The Bush administration says the low level of testing reflects the rareness of the disease. Mad cow disease has been linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Great Britain. Only three cases have been reported in the U.S., all involving cows, not humans.
A federal judge ruled last year that Creekstone must be allowed to conduct the test because the Agriculture Department can only regulate disease "treatment." Since there is no cure for mad cow disease and the test is performed on dead animals, the judge ruled, the test is not a treatment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that ruling, saying diagnosis can be considered part of treatment.
"And we owe USDA a considerable degree of deference in its interpretation of the term," Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote.
The case was sent back to the district court, where Creekstone can make other arguments.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

The Democratic National Convention

Usually sitting around the TV with your kids is not a matter of National pride, but that was not the case this week.
We had a great thrill watching first New Mexico yield to Illinois, and then Illinois yield to New York. New York went through all their introductions and finished with Senator Hilary Clinton reequesting the convention to nominate Barak Obama for the Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

My eyes welled up along with many other viewers when a tearful African American woman was interviewed immediately afterward, and when asked why she was crying, she said that she was crying for her father. Her father grew up with segregation-white water fountains, colored only bathrooms...and she wished that her father, suffering advanced Alzheimer's, could be aware enough to celebrate the fact that finally skin color didn't matter-it was the best candidate that received the nomination.

Last night we watched Barak Obama give his acceptance speech, while his beautiful family and vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, along with 34 million television viewers and 84,000 Democrats in attendence cheered him on.

I thought that Mr. Obama spoke very elegantly, and his motto for change is a strong one. I was a bit disappointed that his focus seemed to be on what McCain will or won't do for the country, not specifics of what he himself would do, or rather how he would achieve his goals.

Obama did commit to spending 180 billion dollars over the next 8 years on developing alternative energy, including wind and alternative fuels. That was a bit of a relief for this Green, as he initally stated reducing our dependence on foreign oil would be achieved by focusing on Natural Gas, clean coal, and nuclear power. He also stated that we weren't going to be able to drill our way free...a bit clarification on his supporting offshore drilling.

All the other good things were there as well-better treatment for veterans; better education for our children; affordable health care; reducing taxes for 95% of the taxpayers (middle class); ending the Iraq war. He did some posturing in regards to chasing Osama Bin Laden down in his Afghan cave and some grumbling about Russia.

I look forward to seeing the debates between Barak Obama and John McCain in the near future. There's been an awful lot of mud slinging so far-it will be interesting to see what they say to each other's face.

Water snake

Willow and I saw a water snake in the dam pool when we were fishing this afternoon. I was looking it up and found these funny stories. Thought we all might need a chuckle....:)
And, I might add, I am glad swimming season is over !

Saturday, April 9, 2005
No reason for Mainers to have the heebie-jeebies over snakes
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
E-mail this story to a friend Snake encountersGot any good snake stories to share? Let's have them!
Source:http://outdoors.mainetoday.com/naturewatching/050409snakes.shtml

On the first warm days this month, garter snakes emerge from winter dens, and without a doubt, this harmless, interesting creature will send plenty of folks into the screaming heebie-jeebies should one of these colorful reptiles happen to slither across their feet. People without a deep-rooted snake phobia may find this screeching amusing, but for those who suffer from this irrational fear, it is no laughing matter.
In July 2001, I was hiking with a Winslow woman in the Camden Hills, and her fear of snakes was so intense that she could not say the word "snake." She referred to them as the "s-word."
Naturally, as you can predict, we were hiking uphill, when I spotted a rather large garter snake, lying in the dead center of the trail ahead -- really visible on the bare earth. It was about 24 inches long and had apparently swallowed a rodent or similar sized critter because it looked ever so fat.
She was looking at her feet and did not notice the snake, so I stopped, casually turned around and blocked her view of the trail ahead. In a huge maple back down the trail, a black-throated green warbler had just made its zoo-zee-zoo-zoo-zee call, a perfect diversion. For the better part of a minute, she kept her eyes on the top of tree, which was about eye level with us.
When a snake moves along the ground, as anyone with good ears knows, they make a soft sound. I could hear this one sliding off the trail and through leaves into the brush. We then resumed our hike. I suspect if she had seen it, she would have run the three miles back to my vehicle.
As snakes go worldwide, a garter snake is small, but this species is actually the second largest snake in Maine and can grow to 44 inches long, according to The Amphibians and Reptiles of Maine (Bulletin 838, July 1992), a publication from the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Maine in Orono. In this state, though, a garter averages 18 to 26 inches.
Maine and Alaska are the only two states in the Union that have no poisonous snakes, which lead people to think that our snakes do not bite. They do bite, and a quick anecdote says it best.

When I was 10 years old and my cousin, Bud Norton, was 12, his mother asked him to remove a garter snake from a window well by the cellar so it would not get into the house. With me tagging along, Bud walked up to the window well and saw the snake, rather large for Maine. It was coiled in the corner against the cement, so he reached down to grab it.

I said, "It'll bite you."

"You (expletive) fool, Maine snakes don't bite," Bud said. He stuck his hand into the window well and let out a howl. The snake had bitten him between the index finger and thumb in that soft flesh and held on. He was screeching like a banshee, shaking frantically to get the snake off his hand, and of course, I was laughing like a hyena. It took scant seconds to make the snake release its grip, but to Bud, the process seemed much, much longer. He now lives in Wayne, and I recently asked him if he remembered the incident. He did. How could anyone forget all that humiliation in front of a younger cousin?

Garter snakes have tiny, sharp, raspy teeth that fold back toward the throat -- just like a pickerel or pike. When the prey tries to escape from the mouth, the teeth make it difficult to get out. That explains why Bud was having his problems getting loose.

The snake had fallen back into the window well, but the next time, Bud resorted to using a garden rake to fish the surly critter out and carry it into the woods.

Small snakes don't inflict much pain with a bite, but infection often occurs later, albeit an easy infection to control.

Northern water snakes do cause pain with the bite, and Dennis McNeish, a fisheries biologists with DIF&W, once told me that this species has bitten him more than once. He grew up in Pennsylvania, where they are apparently more abundant than here.

In 2002, I had two encounters with northern water snakes, which have emphatically shown that if the snake is close enough, I quickly resort to the old saying that discretion is the better part of valor.

The first one occurred on the Sheepscot, while I was fishing in sandals and shorts. I had hopped along rocks out into the river, when a big, male (stout, blunt tail rather than tapered) water snake came swimming downstream, and the cranky little guy chased me up a bank.

The second one caused me to show cowardly behavior in front of Jolie Clement, my intrepid companion. One night in July, we were wading in the shallows of Long Pond in Belgrade Lakes village, fishing for smallmouth bass.

Just as twilight had turned to dark, I was standing there, minding my own business and waiting for the bass to begin their antics.

Suddenly, a large water snake that had apparently swum up to me underwater burst from beneath the surface and started slithering up my right arm. Apparently, it thought I was a stump and was trying to get on top of my head, but I was not interested in its intention. I knocked it off my arm, dashed for a nearby dock that belonged to Jerry Partridge and flew aboard.

A few seconds later, Jolie climbed onto the dock and asked indignantly: "How come you left me in the water with a snake?"

My heart was still thumping, and for a second, I had forgotten all my politically correct language.
"When a water snake is trying to climb onto your head in the dark, lady, it's every man for himself!"

Ken Allen, of Belgrade Lakes, is a writer, editor and photographer. To reach him, send e-mail to KAllyn800@aol.com
Snake encountersGot any good snake stories to share? Let's have them!

Say goodbye to the polar bear

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

August 17th 9 polars bears were spotted in the Chukta sea in open ocean. Several were heading north to the ice edge-400 miles away on that day. Polar bears have been known to swim 100 miles, but the ordeal leaves them exhausted and prone to drowning.

This is the second lowest level of Arctic Ice since satellite history-and it is still plunging, with a good chance of topping last year's record low.

Trojans, Back door bots, and all that good stuff

I have spent most of the day tinkering with the main comp after I had issues and discovered somewhere I picked up a nasty little trojan package. One folder showed it to be yesterday afternoon that I was struck. I recall clicking on several links from two different trusted sites-not on blogger-web sites I visit regulary. but one is a forum, so most likely the culprit.

Just in case, if you are running windows, you can check to see what is running on your comp. "Control-ALT-Delete" pressed simultaneously will bring up your running processes. If you see one of the following:
AFinding.exe
WServing.exe
wsldoekd.exe
svchoct.exe ( not host)
routing.exe
sobicyt.exe
roxtctm.exe
noxtcyr.exe

Just shoot yourself now, it's easier.

*EDIT* I thought I would say what I did since these are so new and there is not a lot of info out there. Please, I am NOT an expert!!! But if you get in a jam, as I did, this is what I did.

Download Malwarebyte's anti malware. It's free. Google a download location. I had to use my older back up computer as the main one wouldn't stay online for it. I downloaded it to a flash (usb) drive. I could not install it on the older comp due to OS incompatibility, so I installed it plain to the troubled computer and ran it without updating it. If you don't have a backup computer, try a friend or your local library. It is not a big file-could use a CDRW disc . Not sure if it will fit on a floppy. Would be close.

Then through the task manager, I quit the remaining suspect programs that remained. I was then able to get online to download the update, and I ran Malware bytes again. I also had to download another program called LSP fix and unchecked one thing, mmchost.dll which I found on googling yahoo answers, via firefox, since explorer was still not connecting.

That seemed to get my explorer connection back.

Then I downloaded and updated Spybot(free) and ran that.

I am also a firm believer in the program CCleaner-but running it everytime I closed the internet didn't stop this...but still is a good free program.

The current situation is that I still have a couple things that have not been removed-unknowns-roxctm.exe, and noxtcyr.exe, and wlsoekd.exe. I am watching google on those items waiting to find a way to get rid of them-they are new and if you are here then you know there is not a lot of info out there on them!

I just quit the process tree on them through task manager every time I reboot and so far they don't come back while surfing the net. That does NOT get rid of them, though! I had one last night that kept coming back, but a new update to Malware bytes took that out.

Or start googling the names of what you don't know in your task manager and find one of the good helpers out there if you need help removing them. Good luck-they are all new this month.

That will mean downloading a program called Hijackthis and posting the results on a computer forum. I have had good luck with that in the past on the older computer. I might have to go that route with this one, but since none of the forums seem to be posting solutions for them yet, I am going to wait .

I should have just rebooted from scratch, except I have so many photos I need to get off before I dump the lot. Hopefully I can get them off. :(

Uma Quilled

Tree

Porcupine quills

Colonel Forbin Tree

I received a phone call this morning from a distraught friend I had not heard from in awhile. Her two German Shepards got into a little tangle with a porcupine last night. I went over and her two teen boys and I tried without success to work on Uma.

Porcupine quills are extrememly painful to remove, due to their barbed design. I know, I had one in a foot once, and it hurt very much coming out! Worse than a bee sting.

Once I had a dog that tried to bite a porcupine-that was a trip to the emergency vet.

Another time, when I first moved in here, I had five bullmastiffs and no electricity. I let them out one at a time to do their business before bed (oh, the days I could just let the dog out). I woke up in the morning to five noses with porcupine quills. That time, single handedly, I managed to remove the quills. The least was 3 and the worse was Louise who had about 20.

It takes superhuman patience and a very steady hand to calm the dog to creep in for a quill, and easy to miss, when you have to start all over again.

Well, we gave up pretty quickly with Uma-it was too painful to hear her crying and I was too chicken to get close enough to her face to pull them. D was trying without success. I gave them a ride to get their Mom's car and they made a vet appointment for this afternoon. Poor puppies.

"When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind, and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed.

The future is yet in your power. "

Hugh White