Town @ MindSay

I haven't done any posts in a while, due to the fact that my father died recently. He attained 70 years of age, which was good going, seeing as he was an alcoholic. It was the addiction to alcohol that finished him off.

I failed to see him before he passed away. He did his usual disappearing act, before booking himself into hospital. He died only a day later.

He had a very interesting life, and there are many stories to tell about his exploits, and events that went on around him. He has been in the company of many in his life, and that includes a number of famous names. There's some tales to tell about them as well.

I'm going to include some of those in my blog in the future.

I don't have any good reason to call my father a saint, because that is something that he wasn't. He did many things considered wrong in his life, but somehow he nearly always seemed to get away with them. A lot of that had to do with his persuasive personality.

I decided to slip in a few of his favourite songs into my Youtube covers. One of his greatest loves in life was music, and he had wide ranging tastes. From the 50's to the present. I imagine that's where I got my love for music. The first of the tributes I've put up on Youtube is one of his all time favourite songs "Kingston town" by "UB40". This one always got him dancing, and dancing is something he liked to do often. Not only on the dance floor, but just about anywhere. I used this song as the exit song at his funeral, though not my version of it.

This is my version:

I've got some stories to tell. I don't really know where i should start. I think I will not do it in any particular order. He was unorthodox, so it seems right. I think I've got to be a bit careful about some of the stories because they cause a bit of fuss. I might use the term allegedly a lot. Lol.

Getting back around to Youtube. The numbers have still been climbing well, even though I've been away from it for a while.

I've now got 851 subscribers. A healthy increase.

My channel has now been viewed 19,745 times. 20k beckons.

The overall video views are now at 320,952. Still racing forward.

I'd like to upload a couple more songs that my dad liked. Then some other requested covers, and a couple of original songs.

there are many problems with the town that i live in

it is small for one

everyone is the same

and unless you are just like everyone else

you get singled out and ridiculed

i am one person that refuses o be like everyone

i have my own style

and i do what i want

apparently ppl here dont like it

i have ignored it for three years now

it has bottled up

and biult pressure i feel like exploding

i know if i do that it will cause more trouble and drama than i want or need

nothing here is secret and nothing can be private

if you dont want everyone knowing

then you cant tell anyone

you cant trust anyone and eventually ppl begin to hate you

for no reason just because

that is when you learn about the rumors

it gets the best of everyone

and everyone spreds them

parents

teachers

authority figures

EVERYONE!!!!!!

and ppl like me "EMO" kids

well not ppl but the person which is me

i am the only one in this town that is not like everybody else

get made fun of and pushed to the curb alot

mostly in my opinion because i am different

ppl here dont like that

We decided to go shopping before the zoo, my sister and I!  What a great day we had planned.  And it was going so well!  Out of the six major Thrift World Stores in the Metro area of Omaha, we hit two.  The two nicest ones with the Brand Name clothes!  One on the Northwest side of Omaha and one on the Southeast side of Omaha near the Zoo.

What a great way to end our mini camping trip that just turned in to being a mini stay at my sister's house due to the varying weather that kept popping up!  Instead of staying at the really nice free camp grounds we stayed at my sister's house for a few days, I wasn't going to chance being caught near a big man made lake that had extermly high levels near the banks of the camp ground!

Anyway, after a GREAT haul of a summer woredrobe for both kids from two different thrift shops and then treating the kids to lunch, we headed to Henery Dooley (sp?) Zoo for a nice afternoon.  It started out great!  We hit the Jungle, the Sea Lions, the Garden of Senses, the Cat House, part of the Avaiary, the Gorrila House, the Cat Complex, the feeding time for the smaller tropical birds, the Desert Dome, and the Giaraff House.  With smaller enclousers along the way of course!  Of course pictures are on here!  Enjoy!

While we were just ouside of the New Butterfly House and the Aquareme deciding which one we were going to go in first before we started heading to the town were my van was sitting so the kids and I could head home and my sister and her kids could head home, we heard the tornado sirins go off!  Now I know why so many ppl get killed in public places during storms!  The tornado sirns go off and the majority of the Zoo visitors head for the Goddess Dayum parking lots!  I kid you not!  Well being country girls, my sister and I herd the kids to the aquarememe (sp?) house under the canapoy and bust out our cell phones.  Each of us respectively calling our hubby's, asking them why the hell neither one of them called to tell us there was a storm system heading straight at Omaha!  We informed both of them that we were heading for the storm shelters in the Fish house and we would call once the storm passed.  Then we hearded the kids towards one of the Zoo Workers holding a door open to the basement of the complex leading to the exective offices and we were one of the first groups down. 

There were a few other ppl down there already but what we found the most funny out of this was that everyone single person down there including us, were NOT from Omaha persay but from the surrounding communities and areas!  We are NOT fools!  While the main secruity guy was telling us and the few zoo workers what the plan was, he was getting reports from the weather radio and the few of us that stopped and made calls.  Then he asked us to sit tight, while he and his other crew went outside to go round up the rest of the Zoo visitors and get them inside various zoo complexes till the storm passed.

We had a couple of upset kids of course, my daughter being one of them, and a lot of upset ppl, including ball players that stuck around after the College World Series before they went home.  Those of us from the midwest were laughing and joking and calming the kids down.  We kept telling everyone that we are in one of the safest buildings and don't worry about the animals they know what to do and the zoo workers were making sure they were safe also.  Once all the zoo workers got in the main secruity guy came back in to our basement and said it was pitch black out and winds up to 90-100 miles per hour and they would not know if a tornado hit till after it was clear out.  The lights did go out and thankfull the generator kicked on right away.

After we got the okay to clear out and leave the zoo, we got some pictures of the damage done in side the zoo.  Down trees and one of the heavy glass safety entrance doors to the Wild Kingdom Palliviallion was completely blown off and laid gently down in front of the Pavillion!  I missed that picture! There was hail everywhere!  We had to make our way out of the Eastern Side of Omaha back towards the I-10 exit so we could head to Freemont NE which is an hour Northeast of Omaha, where my van was sitting!  Damage everywhere!  While driving the news said, the Art Festival got hit hard downtown Omaha, there was a boat taken off of a dock in the Missiouri and was dropped on the roof of a house, trees blocking roads, and down electrical poles all over Omaha downtown/metro area!  We stopped on the outskirts of town to feed the kids and the Taco Johns we hit had running TVS.  The area heading to Fremont NE was hit hard also and a semi rig was entangled in electrical wires!  Cars of the road, rigs off the road, and major damage.  This system worked its way into IA and massive damage and two killed on the IA side.

We got detoured outside of a town between Omaha and Fremont due to massive damage and accidents.  Where I got a phone call from Randy when he got home.  My dog Spud died during the day yesterday!  Randy was upset and of course the kids and I were very upset also, but we also knew the dog was going to end up dying on us.  Spud was the dog with the unknown seizures.  At first Randy thought he somehow choked while he was outside on the chain but when he went up to examine Spud, there was plenty of slack in the chain and the collar would have slipped right off of his neck (we made sure that it could slip off if he was caught up when running or on the chain if something would have happened).  The way Spud was laying and his facial features, you could tell he had a massive siezure.  So trying to find our way on back country roads and county paved hiways we didn't know to get back into Fremont, we had upset kids and nobody was out directing the traffic.  My sister and I again being country girls said fuck it and got on a country road and started heading towards the sun because Northwest was where we wanted to head.  We picked up a truck in front of us from our home area just a different county and he had the same idea.  We got rerouted via the roads with no help from anyone due to big trees, silos, fencing, and other debries in the mushy gravel roads!  A normal 1 hour drive from Omaha to Fremont took 2 hours!

Once we got to a lil town Southeast of Fremont which would have been the quickest route we got denied by a State Trooper directing traffic.  Nobody was allowed into town where a small lake was surrounded wiht houses and such due to the damage!  They weren't letting anyone through not even family members of the town or land owners with no houses.  Ambulances and Fire trucks were all over the town and two of the rural fire trucks were making their way towards the other road leading to Fremont.  We just turned around and followed the fire trucks into Fremont.  Finally!  Fremont NE had no major damage.  Some trees down and some windows broken but no major damage.  Then we pull up into the truck stop where we left my van.  I got a lovely suprise!  My rear windsheild was blown out or a rock got kicked up in the storm!  I have no rear windshield now!  Nothing was stolen.  But everything was glass covered clear up to the front seat and everything was water logged!  Thank GODS I had what ever paperwork I did have in there in sacks and covered up!  My Leadership Manual alone would have cost me 100 some dollars to replace if it got water logged or damaged somehow!

So I called Randy yet again and told him we FINALLY made it into Fremont but I would be still a lot later because we had to clean up the glass and find places for the kdis to sit with out getting cut up!  Thankfull we were able to pull a couple of the pillows from underneith my tent that dind't have glass on it and give those to the kids to sit on.  My sister handed over one of her towels so I could sit on it while driving.  And then we rearrange the back so none of my Thrift shop finds, my tents, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, or other camping gear would go flying out for my hour drive home!  I ended up pulling over twice on the way home to rearrange my back but FINALLY my normal two hour drive ended up being a 4 hour and 45 minute drive and we made it home at 8:45pm.  where we promptly unloaded the van and shop vaccued it out so I could get some plastic on the windshield due to more storms coming this weekend.

After we got that done, we gave Spud my Fat Man Dog a burial worthy of a King.  See we couldn't bury him.  The ground is too wet and his smell would draw the local wild dog pack and the local coyote pack.  Not to mention all the other wild critters int he area.  So we took my lovely burn pile Randy made up for me this weekend and gave Spud a Funeral Pry.  We didn't want any other anmals digging him up and eating on him.  Randy loaded him on the bonfire and I threw some sage, cedar chips, and sweet grass all over Spud and we said a lil blessing for him and said our goodbyes.

Now today, I get to call his old family and inform them that he is gone.  I am doing laundry from the back of my van and going to take the kids down to my girl's house because they are still stressed from last night.  A lil fun down at Aunties house and coming home about the time Daddy gets home from work will do them good. 

Now I am off to throw another sleeping bag into the wash!  Pictures to come after this post!

These are some pictures of a red fox that I took about a year or so ago. We were in Syracuse Ks. at the terminal there , we had to go to another yard to drop a clean tank and pick up another one, on this lot which is in town, while hubby was talking to some fellow truckers out side, I spotted this fox in the back yard of someone, what was so funny about it was that the horse gave it no never mind and that the owner was coming around the hay to feed his horses and neither him or the fox knew the other was there. I guess the fox heard the man and took off running and I snapped as he ran. The man was never aware of his 'guest'. It is a mazing what all we miss in a day, I watch others and they never see what is going on around them and I am setting off in the distance see the whole picture.......aint that how life is, we think we are aware, and something happens, and we never saw it coming. Any hoo, I just love foxes, I thought this fox was alot bigger than the ones we have in Mo. maybe I am wrong, but while on the road I notice these things, like when I was in Minn. I noticed their red cardnials are alot bigger than the ones in my back yard. The ravens in my yard are smaller than the hugh ones out west and up north. anyhoo, enjoy the pictures

This fox reminds me that over the past 4 years I was blessed to be able to see at the least 5 fox dens along the hwy, some had little foxes sitting near by and others one of the parents, and one time in Laramie, Wyo, we saw a momma and her 3kits nursing right next to the hwy where her den was, I was very blessed and happy to see them that day, in fact we saw them quite often when we were hauling up into Utah.

may you all have a blessed day

  ******************************************************

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

boy these are cuties tooo

		"looks guilty don't he? looks like he was caught in the act."

Red Fox The red fox is not always red.

	Red Fox This animal is probably more numerous in North America now than when Europeans began to arrive in the 16th century  has a bad reputation as a chicken thief but is now usually appreciated by farmers for the vast numbers of crop-destroying small mammals and insects it consumes  is a patient, solicitous, and sometimes playful parent  travels widely during its first autumn—young males have been traced as far as 250 km from their birth sites Description The red fox Vulpes vulpes is a small, dog-like mammal, with a sharp pointed face and ears, an agile and lightly built body, a coat of lustrous long fur, and a large bushy tail. Male foxes are slightly larger than females. Sizes vary somewhat between individuals and geographic locations—those in the north tend to be bigger. Adult foxes weigh between 3.6 and 6.8 kg and range in length from 90 to 112 cm, of which about one-third is tail. Although "red fox" is the accepted common name for the species, not all members of the species are actually red. There are several common colour variations, two or more of which may occur within a single litter. The basic, and most common, colour is red in a variety of shades, with a faint darker red line running along the back and forming a cross from shoulder to shoulder on the saddle. Individuals commonly exhibit some or all of the following markings: black paws, black behind the ears, a faint black muzzle, white or light undersides and throat, a white tail tip, and white stockings. Other common colours are brown and black. Red foxes that are browner and darker than most of their species and have a cross on the saddle that is dark and prominent are sometimes referred to as "cross foxes." Red foxes that are basically black with white-tipped guard hairs in varied amounts are known colloquially as "silver foxes." Silver foxes are particularly valued by the fur trade, and large numbers were selectively bred in captivity when fox fur clothing was popular. Signs and sounds Red foxes have a sharp bark, used when startled and to warn other foxes. Habitat and habits Red foxes inhabit home ranges of 4 to 8 km2 around den sites. Pairs of adult foxes may separate during the winter, especially if hunting is poor, but they come together again in the later winter or early spring for breeding and denning. From autumn until March of the next year, the foxes take shelter in thickets and heavy bush, even during the coldest winter weather. Red foxes have been called bold, cunning, and deceitful, particularly in children’s stories. In fact, they are shy, secretive, and nervous by disposition, and they appear to be very intelligent. Unique characteristics Young foxes travel widely during autumn seeking new territories. Young males have been traced as far as 250 km from their birth sites. Red foxes have excellent eyesight, a keen sense of smell, and acute hearing, which help them greatly when hunting. The slight movement of an ear may be all that they need to locate a hidden rabbit. They can smell nests of young rabbits or eggs hidden by long grass. Sometimes they wait patiently for the sound of a mouse moving along its path in grass or snow and then pounce. At other times, hearing movement underground, they dig quickly and locate the prey by its scent. Range Foxes belong to the same family, the Canidae, as domestic dogs, coyotes, and grey wolves. Taxonomists, or experts who classify living organisms, once thought that the North American red fox was a different species from the smaller fox of southern Europe. It is now known, however, that they both belong to the same species. The range of Vulpes vulpes is continuous across Europe, Asia, and North America, and the species is expanding its range in North Africa and Australia, where it was introduced a century ago by British fox hunters. Red foxes are one of Canada’s most widespread mammals, found in all provinces and territories. There are probably more red foxes in North America now than there were when Europeans began to arrive in the 16th century. Scientists believe that the range and numbers of the red fox expanded at that time because the pioneers created additional habitat for these small mammals by thinning the dense forests and killing many of the wolves that had kept fox numbers down. Feeding Probably red foxes eat more small mammals—voles, mice, lemmings, squirrels, hares, rabbits—than any other food, although they supplement this with a wide variety of other foods, including plants. Their diet changes with the seasons: they may eat mainly small mammals in fall and winter, augmented in spring with nesting waterfowl, especially on the prairies, and in summer with insects and berries. They have been seen feasting on eggs and chicks of colonies of nesting seabirds, and will take other birds, and their nestlings and eggs, when they can get them. Red foxes have been known to eat and feed to their young lake trout weighing 1.5 to 3 kg, which they caught by leaping from the shore onto fish schooling in shallow water. They eat a wide variety of other items, including seal pups, beaver, reptiles, fruits of all sorts, and garbage. They will frequently bury or hide surplus food for later use, but other animals often find and use it first. Foxes have a bad reputation as chicken thieves, and they will in fact invade poultry yards when it is safe and easy to do so. On farmlands, however, they more than compensate for the odd chicken by eating vast numbers of crop-destroying small mammals and insects, and they are now usually appreciated by farmers. Red foxes hunt by smell, sight, and sound, as do most dogs. They have excellent eyesight, and the slight movement of an ear may be all that they need to locate a hidden rabbit. They have a keen sense of smell and acute hearing. They can smell nests of young rabbits or eggs hidden by long grass. Sometimes they wait patiently for the sound of a mouse moving along its path in grass or snow and then pounce. At other times, hearing movement underground, they dig quickly and locate the prey by its scent. They hunt mostly toward sunset, during the night, and in early morning. Breeding Dog foxes (males) and vixens (females) are usually, but not always, monogamous, or have only one mate. Two or more dogs often court a single vixen, and scientists have records of one den where three adult foxes tended a single litter of cubs. Home ranges around den sites are 4 to 8 km2 in size. Foxes breed between late December (in warmer areas) and mid-March. After breeding, the foxes seek a suitable den, which is often an abandoned woodchuck burrow, but may also be the burrow of another mammal, a cave, a hollow log, a patch of dense bush, or a customized excavation under a barn or other structure. Small knolls in fields, streambanks, hedge and fence rows, and forest edges are favoured locations. Dens in earth are usually lined with dry material, such as grass or other leaves, to insulate the cubs from dampness and cold. Dens sometimes have more than one entrance, to permit escape from danger. They are often south-facing, with good visibility from the main entrance, and are usually in dry, sandy soil. An undisturbed den may be used by foxes for many years. A single pair of foxes may have two or more dens close to each other. They will sometimes move litters of pups from one den to another to escape danger, although at other times they do so for no apparent reason. Pups are born from March through May. Litter size may range from one to 10 pups, but the average is five. The young are blind at birth, their eyes opening during their second week. Red foxes are patient, solicitous, and sometimes playful parents. The vixen takes great care of the very young cubs before their eyes are open and at this stage usually keeps the dog fox from entering the den, although he will hunt for the family. After the cubs’ eyes are open and they begin to crawl, the dog fox will relieve the vixen while she hunts. At one month, the cubs are weaned, or have made the transition from their mother’s milk to other foods, and begin to play about the den entrance. Both parents hunt for themselves and bring back small game for the cubs to play with. In this way, the cubs learn the smell of the prey and how to eat it. For as long as two months the adults feed the cubs at the den site and train them to hunt, by stalking mice in the long grass. The cubs practise hunting under the eyes of the adults. When the young are able to feed themselves, usually at about three months of age, they leave the den site alone. From autumn until March of the next year, the foxes bed down in thickets and heavy bush, even during the coldest winter weather. If successful in surviving their first winter and in finding a territory, the young foxes may breed the following spring. Pairs of adult foxes may separate during the winter, especially if hunting is poor, but they will come together again for breeding and denning. Conservation Humans are probably the most important predator of foxes. In the past, people considered red foxes pests, because they eat poultry, as well as game birds and small mammals that people also hunt, so governments offered rewards, or bounties, for killing foxes. The effectiveness of bounties in keeping down populations of mammals is doubtful, especially in the case of foxes, which produce five or more young every year. Fortunately, most people now recognize that the benefits that farmers derive from having foxes around far outweigh any damage that they do, and bounties have mostly been dropped. In recent years, too, long-haired fur has greatly increased in value, and red foxes are worth a lot of money to trappers. Management of foxes in North America mainly consists of prohibiting hunting or trapping during the season when young are being raised, and until early winter when the fur is prime for trapping. Nuisance foxes are often destroyed on a local basis. Wolves, coyotes, and dogs will chase and sometimes kill foxes when the opportunity presents itself. Interspecific strife with coyotes may be the reason that foxes usually occur close to human habitation in prairie areas. In some areas of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, coyotes have been aggressively occupying new range for several decades and perhaps displacing red foxes. Bobcats, lynxes, and probably cougars may prey on red foxes. Other mammalian predators, such as bears, are likely not agile enough to catch foxes, except accidentally. Although eagles and large owls are capable of preying on foxes, there is little evidence that they do so. Foxes have occasionally become a serious menace to public health, particularly in rural areas, when epidemics of rabies sweep through wild mammal populations. During epidemics, attempts are sometimes made to control the populations of foxes, raccoons, skunks, and other mammals that carry the disease. In Ontario, some advances have been made in the immunization of wild fox populations against rabies by dropping baits containing vaccine near den sites. Because the disease is almost invariably fatal in humans once the symptoms are in evidence, rabid foxes should be avoided. When rabid, the normally shy and elusive red fox shows no fear of people, is often seen in daylight, and may foam at the mouth in advanced stages of the disease. Children should be warned to avoid bold or apparently friendly foxes. Rabies is transmitted through the bite of an infected animal. If a person is bitten, the wound should be washed immediately, and a doctor should be seen on an emergency basis. Rabies is a reportable disease and as such must be reported to the nearest veterinary authority, usually the District Veterinary Officer of the Animal Health Division, Food Production and Inspection Branch of the federal Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The brain of the animal involved should be submitted immediately to a Federal Veterinary Laboratory. Delay could result in the death of the person bitten. Resources Print resources Banfield, A.W.F. 1974. The mammals of Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto. Hall, E.R. 1981. The mammals of North America. Volumes 1 and 2. John Wiley and Sons, New York. Henry, J.D. 1987. The catlike canine. Equinox 6(6):78–87. Lloyd, H.G. 1980. The red fox. B.T. Batsford Ltd, London. Peterson, R.L. 1966. Mammals of eastern Canada. Oxford University Press, Toronto. Rue, L.L., III. 1969. The world of the red fox. Living Books Series. Lippincott, Philadelphia. Seton, E.T. 1929. Lives of game animals. Volume 1. Garden City, New York. Voigt, D.R. 1987. Red fox. In M. Novak, J.A. Baker, M.E. Obbard, and B. Malloch, editors. Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Toronto. Wooding, F.H. 1982. Wild mammals of Canada. McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Toronto. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of the Environment, 1993. All rights reserved. Catalogue number CW69-4/5-1993E ISBN 0-662-21022-0 Text: J.P. Kelsall Photo: Tony Beck

Copyright © 2003 Canadian Wildlife Service & Canadian Wildlife Federation