A POTENT WINTER STORM WILL AFFECT THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
FROM SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY. AMPLE MOISTURE WILL BE PULLED NORTHWARD
AND WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE AREA. THE
PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN AS SNOW ON SATURDAY...BUT AS WARMER AIR IS
WRAPPED INTO THE SYSTEM SATURDAY NIGHT THE SNOW WILL BECOME MIXED
WITH SLEET AND PERHAPS FREEZING RAIN OR FREEZING DRIZZLE. THE
PRECIPITATION WILL WIND DOWN LATE SATURDAY NIGHT BUT SNOW
ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF 6 INCHES IS LIKELY FOR THE AREA ALONG WITH
A GLAZE OF ICE. IN ADDITION WINDS WILL PICK UP SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND
CONTINUE SATURDAY NIGHT WITH SOME GUSTS AS HIGH AS 35 MPH

2 inches of snow during the night. Sure makes everything bright under the moonlight this morning. I noticed yesterday that the Easton pond is frozen from the dam all the way up to Colby's gully. I don't think it froze last year until way later. Hopefully this is a good sign for the Castle Rock Family ATV Club's winter poker run in February.

The latest forecast for tomorrow is snow starting about noon, a quick six inches or so (that's what she always tells me too), then a quarter inch of ice during the night on top of that, then light snow on top of that for Sunday. And of course the wind is going to blow, but something I'm used to here in land-clearing country.

Speaking of which, I did get out again yesterday afternoon and cut some wood up (I don't cut standing trees though, unless I have to for some reason). I spent all morning talking with my realtor and marking property lines, so ran short on time in the afternoon. Had to leave some firewood laying in the woods, which is now covered with snow - one of the reasons I don't like to leave it if I don't have to. But, if nothing else, it will still be there in the spring when the snow melts.

Boy and snake are besssst of friends

KANDAL PROVINCE Sambath Uon, 7, plays with Chamreun (which means “lucky” in the Khmer language), a 4.8metre (16ft), 120kg (19st) female python, in his village of Sit Tbow in Cambodia.

Chamreun first arrived at Sambath’s home when the boy was 3 months old, and refused to leave despite the boy’s father carrying it back to the forest three times. Since then Sambath and Chamreun have been inseparable and even sleep together. Villagers believe that the snake has healing powers because of its human-like qualities. “I love the python like my sister,” Sambath said.

I finally got in the woods yesterday and cut a bunch of firewood. It felt good. I had planned to cut until it started to snow and I started to get wet, but it never snowed. Not even a flurry. How they can predict 2 inches and then we never get one flake, I'll never know, but that's why I'm not a weatherman.

Cold and windy this morning. More like it should be this time of year. The weekend sounds messy. I won't mind the snow this time, so I can try out my new blower, but we sure don't need any freezing rain. Not much a person can do with ice. But then again, maybe we won't get anything.............

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LA CROSSE WI
430 AM CST THU NOV 29 2007

....................AS THE COLDER SOLUTIONS COULD GENERATE SNOWFALLS OF 5 TO
10 INCHES PARTS OF THE AREA...WHILE THE WARMER SOLUTION COULD CHANGE
THINGS OVER TO ALL RAIN OVER OUR SOUTHERN COUNTIES. FOR NOW...
PLAYING A BIT OF THE MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD APPROACH. CONSIDERED RAISING
A WINTER STORM WATCH...BUT WITH THIS STILL BEING A FEW DAYS AWAY...
OPTED TO WAIT JUST A BIT LONGER TO TRY AND PIN DOWN THE TRACK AND
TEMPERATURE PROFILES BETTER. AS IT LOOKS RIGHT NOW...LOOKS LIKE
SNOW INITIALLY...MIXING OR CHANGING TO RAIN/FREEZING RAIN/SLEET
LATE IN THE DAY AND OVERNIGHT...THEN CHANGING BACK OVER TO ALL SNOW
LATE SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY AS THE COOLER AIR FILTERS BACK
IN BEHIND THE SYSTEM. ANYBODY PLANNING TRAVEL THIS WEEKEND NEEDS TO
WATCH THIS ONE.....................

Morocco's Climbing Goats

Goats on trees are found mostly only in Morocco. The goats climb them because they like to eat the fruit of the argan tree, which is similar to an olive. Farmers actually follow the herds of goats as they move from tree to tree. Not because it is so strange to see goats in trees and the farmers like to point and stare, but because the fruit of the tree has a nut inside, which the goats can't digest, so they spit it up or excrete it which the farmers collect. The nut contains 1-3 kernels, which can be ground to make argan oil used in cooking and cosmetics. This oil has been collected by the people of the region for hundreds of years, but like many wild and useful things these days, the argan tree is slowly disappearing due to over-harvesting for the tree's wood and overgrazing by goats.
As a result a group of people and organizations have banded together to try to save the tree. To do so one of the primary locations where the trees grow has been declared a biosphere preserve. It was also decided that by making the world aware of the oil, it's great taste and supposed anti-aging properties, would create a demand for it. However, the people who planned to market the oil could not envision people wanting to put an oil on their food or their face that was collected from goat excrement. As a result, a campaign is being led to ban grazing on the trees by goats during certain parts of the year to allow the fruit to ripen and fall off on its own. The fruit is then collected and turned into oil by oil cooperatives. So far, this arrangement seems to be working.

Hazardous Weather Outlook

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED EXTENDED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LA CROSSE WI
553 AM CST WED NOV 28 2007

IAZ008>011-018-019-029-030-MNZ079-086>088-094>096-WIZ017-029-032>034-
041>044-053>055-061-291200-
ADAMS-ALLAMAKEE-BUFFALO-CHICKASAW-CLARK-CLAYTON-CRAWFORD-DODGE-
FAYETTE-FILLMORE-FLOYD-GRANT-HOUSTON-HOWARD-JACKSON-JUNEAU-LA CROSSE-
MITCHELL-MONROE-MOWER-OLMSTED-RICHLAND-TAYLOR-TREMPEALEAU-VERNON-
WABASHA-WINNESHIEK-WINONA-
553 AM CST WED NOV 28 2007

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PARTS OF NORTHEAST IOWA...
SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA...AND SOUTHWEST INTO CENTRAL WISCONSIN.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL PRODUCE SNOW AS IT MOVES NORTHEAST
THROUGH THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY TODAY. THE BEST CHANCE OF
MEASURABLE SNOW WILL BE FOUND ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 94. UP TO
AN INCH WILL BE SEEN IN THE INTERSTATE 94 CORRIDOR...AND ONE TO TWO
INCHES ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN. THIS SNOW MAY MIX
WITH RAIN ACROSS SOUTHWEST WISCONSIN.

SUSTAINED WEST AND NORTHWEST WINDS IN THE 15 TO 30 MPH RANGE WITH
WIND GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH WILL BE FOUND ACROSS THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON
AND TONIGHT.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY

IT CONTINUES TO LOOK LIKE A POTENT WINTER STORM WILL AFFECT THE
UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY FROM SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY. THIS
SYSTEM WILL LIKELY HAVE ABUNDANT GULF OF MEXICO MOISTURE TO PRODUCE
HEAVY SNOW. HOWEVER THIS SYSTEM MAY ALSO BRING WARM AIR NORTHWARD
WITH IT TOO...WHICH MAY RESULT IN A WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION OR
RAIN. MUCH OF THIS WILL DEPEND ON WHERE THIS LOW TRACKS THROUGH THE
REGION...AND THIS IS RATHER UNCERTAIN AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED TODAY. HOWEVER SNOWFALL REPORTS
WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED TODAY...AND WIND GUST REPORTS THIS
AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT.

.EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATION...

NO CALL IS SCHEDULED.

$$

BOYNE

Honduras' Rain of Fishes

The Rain of Fish is common in Honduran Folklore. It occurs in the Departamento de Yoro, between the months of May and July. Witnesses of this phenomenon state that it begins with a dark cloud in the sky followed by lightning, thunder, strong winds and heavy rain for 2 to 3 hours. Once the rain has stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground. People take the fish home to cook and eat them. Since 1998 a festival known as "Festival de la Lluvia de Peces" (Rain of Fish Festival) is celebrated every year in the city of Yoro, Departamento de Yoro, Honduras.

Well I didn't make it yesterday on either thing, getting the wood stove maintenance done before the house cooled below 70 degrees and going the whole day without my headache coming back.

The house started out at 75 degrees, but 3 hours later when I was done hauling the wood up and cleaning the chimney, it had already dropped to 63 degrees. And it wasn't too bad outside, 38 degrees. Glad I did it yesterday, because it's sure ugly weather today. Looks nice out there, but it'll fool you.

I didn't have a headache all day, until I had no sooner fell asleep last night and at 11:30 pm the headache woke me up. It felt like someone had a knife stuck in my skull at my left temple, and they were trying to twist it. The usual stuff, except that it doesn't always start in the same place, and it moves around my head. I got up, poured some Ibuprofen down my throat, then settled into the chair by the wood stove. Like normal, it hurt so bad that I felt sick to my stomach, and my heart was skipping. But within a half hour my face started to feel numb and the headache went away so suddenly that it almost startled me. I don't always get that lucky, but sometimes. And, knock on wood, it was still gone this morning.

Don't know if I'll get to go out in the woods and cut some firewood today or not. Doing the stupid laundry today. Yuck. I'd much rather be cutting wood.

Castle Rock Family ATV Club Newsletter:

This is your reminder that the CRFAC is holding their annual Christmas Party
on December 1, 2007 at the Pine Cove on Castle Rock Lake. A membership
meeting will be held at 1200pm with eating at 2pm (bring a dish to pass).
The club will be providing meat, etc. In addition, the club will be prepping
for riding in the Mauston Holiday Parade from 330pm to 430pm. Participates
must be lined up at the high school by 5pm (this is latest information we
have).

The Events Committee will present the proposed 2008 Event Activities at this
meeting. More information regarding the web site, finances, annual meeting,
and Winter Poker Run on the Lake will also be presented and discussed at the
meeting. If you are unable to attend, please check the web site
www.crfatvc.com for more detailed information about the aforementioned
topics.

Welcome to our new members for 2007. The Hackett's, Tiffeiny's, Vince's,
Hardy's, Ligman's, Busleta's, Bocinsky's, Neul's, and Dable's.

If you have fellow ATVers that are interested in joining the CRFAC visit the
web site www.crfatvc.com - "Join our Club" for a membership application.
This is also an easy way to renew your membership. Note: The CRFAC does not
sell, distribute, or provide your personal or email address to any outside
entity.

Hope to see you on Dec 1, 2007 at Pine Cove.

Happy Holidays, Ride Safe Ride Smart

For the Board of Directors,
Roger Bean, Treasurer and "Temporary Recorder"

Venezuela's Everlasting Storm

The mysterious "Relámpago del Catatumbo" (Catatumbo lightning) is a unique natural phenomenon in the world. Located on the mouth of the Catatumbo river at Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela), the phenomenon is a cloud-to-cloud lightning that forms a voltage arc more than five kilometre high during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours a night, and as many as 280 times an hour. This almost permanent storm occurs over the marshlands where the Catatumbo River feeds into Lake Maracaibo and it is considered the greatest single generator of ozone in the planet, judging from the intensity of the cloud-to-cloud discharge and great frequency. The area sees an estimated 1,176,000 electrical discharges per year, with an intensity of up to 400,000 amperes, and visible up to 400 km away. This is the reason why the storm is also known as the Maracaibo Beacon as light has been used for navigation by ships for ages.

The collision with the winds coming from the Andes Mountains causes the storms and associated lightning, a result of electrical discharges through ionised gases, specifically the methane created by the decomposition of organic matter in the marshes. Being lighter than air, the gas rises up to the clouds, feeding the storms. Some local environmentalists hope to put the area under the protection of UNESCO, as it is an exceptional phenomenon, the greatest source of its type for regenerating the planet's ozone layer.

It's that time of month again. No, not that time, it's time to clean the chimney again. I'll see if I can haul my month's worth of wood up and get the chimney cleaned before the house drops below 70. I doubt it though. This place isn't built much better than a tent, so cools down pretty quickly even though it's not too cold outside.

Damn headache is finally gone this morning. Still feel weak and shaky, but that could be from all the pills yesterday. I hope it stays away, at least for the whole day this time.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get out in the woods after my two and a half month hiatus from cutting firewood. I know where there's at least one nice tree that tipped over.

My ISP was screwed up this morning again. Third time this month. Hopefully this isn't a trend. They've been real good for a long time, well, as good as slow dial up ever gets.

Last day of deer season. I visited with the good neighbors, before they head home for the winter. They had fun. Got one doe, saw a few bucks.

Damn headaches again. Yuck.

New York, the city that Thomas Edison electrified 125 years ago, has completed the transition from direct to alternating current, helping to erase the vestiges of a feud between giants of invention.

Last week, the Consolidated Edison utility pulled the plug on direct-current service. Electric operations manager Fred Simms, a Con Ed employee for 52 years, cut a ceremonial cable on a Manhattan street.

The change means that Con Ed now exclusively uses the alternating-current system invented by Nikola Tesla. The utility is named for Edison, whose Pearl Street Station in Manhattan was the nation's first central electrical power plant, serving 59 customers with direct current starting in 1882.

In the so-called "war of currents," Edison feuded with Tesla and George Westinghouse over which transmission method to adopt -- even publicly electrocuting animals in an attempt to show that AC was too dangerous.

AC, however, proved superior, as transformers allowed electricity to travel over long-distance wires. Con Ed froze the development of the DC system in 1928 but continued to supply New York's major DC customers with the existing system.

In January 1998, Con Ed began to eliminate DC service. At that time, there were more than 4,600 DC customers. By last year, there were 60.

Con Ed spokesman Robert McGee said some of the city's elevators still operate with DC using rectifiers that convert the utility's AC service.

The mystery animal was the topic of conversation among some patrons of Fraser’s Corner Cafe in Glen St. Mary during lunch November 19. When asked what she would do if she spotted the creature up in one of her trees, Christine Potter declared without hesitation: “Why honey, I know exactly what I’d do. I’d run like all hell.” full story

The gas man delivered LP to Mom's yesterday. Holy balls! $2.06 a gallon - $800 - and will only last 6 weeks or so! I don't know what is going on, taking forever to get the house listed. No one can even seem to decide on an asking price. Will I have to take charge? I suppose. If nothing else, I will sell my one fifth share of it. Or even give my share away just so I won't have to worry about paying the bills for a house that I don't live in and am not going to keep for myself. Not to mention the upkeep. Next - the $1000+ property tax bill for it! Yee haw!

It seemed that a host of critics were highly offended by my listing sites of exposed strata of the Paleozoic era that bore clearly defined sandal prints and foot prints, thus making those "human" imprints 250-million years old. If these were not hominid tracks, then such prints certainly appear to have been made by some bipedal creature with a very human looking foot.

Fossilized footprints such as this have been found throughout the planet--but perhaps especially in the southwestern United States. In addition, humanlike footprints have also been found in situ with the tracks of three-toed dinosaurs, thereby causing no end of controversy in the halls of orthodox science, for the conventional calendar of epochs has the great reptiles disappearing 60 million years before humankind's nearest ancestors even began their evolutionary trek. full story

A remote Chinese village has built a school in a giant mountain cave.

The school, named Middle Cave School, is located in the middle cave of a mountain in Getu village, Guizhou province.

It has expanded from just one class when it first opened to having eight teachers and 186 students, reports Sohu News.

"The students are very eager for knowledge, and the student who lives the farthest has to walk six hours each day," says the headmaster.

The school is like a normal school in every other way, with classrooms and a playground, but most of the buildings have no roofs "since they're not necessary", adds the head.

MARS DOUBLES IN BRIGHTNESS: During the past month, Mars has doubled in brightness and now it is putting on a nice show for backyard stargazers. A good night to look is Nov. 26th when Mars has an eye-catching close encounter with the Moon: full story.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

My favorite part about it nowadays is knowing that deer season is almost over, so I'll be able to ride my ATV again real soon!

The weather isn't too bad, as far as most Thanksgivings go. For awhile last night it looked like we might get a lot of snow, but only ended up with a quarter inch. But, it was the first snow we've gotten this year that actually covered the ground. Supposed to get down to 10 degrees tonight, so that will cool the ground and stiffen it up a little!

Exploding Comet Holmes is fading as it expands, and it is no longer easy to see with the naked eye. Comet Holmes is now about as wide as a full Moon with a vast atmosphere that overlaps the bright star Mirfak. It's a beautiful ensemble for cameras and backyard telescopes alike.

I dug out the old snowblower yesterday and did a little work on it. It's always good to have a backup, and that little blower used to move a lot of snow, just not very fast. It's all we had, from 1991 - 1996. That, and a scoop shovel. I cleared our driveway and others many times with it. One storm piled the drifts up as high as our garage door. I had just gotten a path cleared big enough to get my truck out when the drive belt broke!

We got it the very first winter that we lived here. The first couple of snowstorms that year, my wife's uncle would plow all the trails in the woods with his Jeep, push a pile of snow up into our yard as he turned around, then go away. I asked him, since he was pushing snow up into our yard anyway to turn around after plowing all the woods trails, why not make a quick pass in the driveway too and I would pay him whatever he wanted? He said that he doesn't plow other people's driveways, only his own (and a few miles of woods trails). I went right out after that bit of kindness and bought this little snowblower. We didn't have much money, but the $300 it cost us was well worth it. It sure beat the scoop shovel.

It hasn't even been started in at least two years. At first it didn't want to draw the gas up to the carb, but I got it working. The belt cover was rusted away at the bottom. I was afraid that snow would get on the belt and cause it to slip so I rebuilt the cover with some old tin I had. Now it should be good to go. Probably never need to use it, but I like to have a spare just in case.

A moderate geomagnetic storm is underway. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

My ISP was screwed up last night and this morning. Second time this month. They really aren't too bad nowadays though. A lot better than many years ago when I had old MAQS.net. They really sucked. I got rid of them and never looked back. A few people said later on that they got better again. Well, duh. Everybody left them for somebody else and when you only have 6 people using your server, it gets better all by itself! Ha ha!

Sure isn't bad weather for mid-November. Really foggy today. Looks like the big blizzard they were talking about is going to miss us completely. I guess that's ok. I wouldn't mind just one so I could try out my snowblower and a little white for Christmas. Then it can go away. Just as long as there is plenty of ice for the Castle Rock Family ATV Club Winter Poker Run!

This morning I came across some cool pictures of a dust devil. I saw one once like this, or maybe even a little bigger, in the field by my house. At first I thought it was smoke and something was on fire. It never left the field, but stayed there for 15 minutes or so before it died out.

Whether fact or lore, one of the most intriguing pieces of the puzzle are reports of five diminutive green bodies allegedly recovered with the UFO. Sprouse believes it.

A staff sergeant in his barracks was called to the hospital shortly after the crash, he said.

"He and two doctors and two nurses were in the emergency room, and they brought in one of those five humanoid bodies that they had recovered," he said. "They said, 'We want this dissected and we want a complete history of how it functions and the parts and everything.'"

The next day, the man from his barracks was transferred from the base, Sprouse said.

"We never heard from him again," he said. "We asked and (they said), 'Oh, we don't know nothing about it.' ... I heard later that both nurses and both doctors were shipped different directions and nobody ever knew where they went."

Sprouse recalled an interesting conversation with the owner of a funeral home in Roswell several years later.

"We had some friend of ours that died, and he said, 'Hey Milt, I want to talk to you,'" he said. "He says, 'You know the base come to me and wanted five children's caskets.' That was two or three days after the crash. I said, 'No kidding.' He says, 'I only had one, and I told them that.' They said, 'One won't do us very good,' and they went somewhere else and got them." Full Story

The recent outburst of Comet 17P Holmes was shown in English crop pictures two years ago: both its stellar location in Perseus on October 25, 2007, and its conjunction with Mirfak on November 21, 2007. Full Story

Here's my opening morning deer story:

As I was walking home from the barn, I could hear something in the woods just south of my yard. It sounded like antlers scraping on tree limbs (it's a unique sound you'd only recognize after spending your whole life in the woods). I leaned up against the woodpile on the edge of my yard, in plain view of the woods. Sure enough, here comes a 10 point buck right towards me. He never paid any attention. He had his nose to the ground, sniffing. He came within ten yards of me (too bad I didn't have my camera in my pocket), turned around, and wandered slowly back the way he came. He stopped under a large oak in the hollow, about 30 yards from the end of my house, and bedded down.

I just looked out the window in my wood stove room and he's still laying there. Ashley and I saw him a couple weeks ago too, while waiting for the school bus, and he has a dead cedar tree on the edge of the lawn all scraped up. I'm sure he'll spend all the daylight hours of the season right where he is. And I'm not telling anyone where he's hiding, only the viewers of my blog will know.

At an ICU in a hospital in Colorado, a nurse was testing her flash in the room with the lights off. Unknown date other than recently. Calendar is on the wall but not sure if it has the correct date on it.

"Formerly, the sun was the largest object in the Solar System," says University of Hawaii astronomer David Jewett. "Now, Comet 17P/Holmes holds that distinction." On Nov. 9th, a team of Hawaii astronomers led by Rachel Stevenson measured the diameter of the comet's expanding debris cloud: 1.4 million kilometers, slightly larger than the sun itself.

This composite image prepared by Jewett shows a Nov. 9th photo of the comet beside the sun and Saturn for scale. To photograph the comet, Stevenson et al used the 3.6 meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea, "one of the few professional instruments still capable of capturing the whole comet in one image," notes Jewett.
Comet Holmes exploded on Oct. 23th and it has been expanding ever since. How big will it get? See for yourself. The comet is visible to the naked eye as a fuzzball in the constellation Perseus. With only a backyard telescope you can see the comet's debris cloud in crisp detail and watch it expand from night to night. Nov. 19th is a good night to look: The comet will glide by the star Mirfak (alpha Persei) and appear to swallow it--a sight not to be missed.

Sky watchers, be alert for auroras. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and causing high-latitude geomagnetic storms.

"A man has been severely injured after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut on his car by blasting it with a shotgun.

The 66-year-old shot the wheel from arm’s length with a 12-gauge shotgun and was peppered with ricocheting buckshot and debris.

According to a sheriff’s office report, he was taken to Tacoma General Hospital with severe but not life threatening injuries.

His legs, feet and abdomen were worst affected, but some injuries went as high as his chin.

The man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for about two weeks at his home near Southworth in Washington state, about ten miles from Seattle.

He had successfully removed all but one wheel-nut on the right rear wheel and resorted to firepower out of sheer frustration on Saturday afternoon.

“He’s bound and determined to get that lug nut off,” said Deputy Scott Wilson. “Nobody else was there and he wasn’t intoxicated,” he added."

Can't say the temptation hasn't crossed my mind a time or two but...............................DUH.

I started putting up some of the outside Christmas decorations today. It's way too early, I usually like to wait until the week before Christmas, or even Christmas Eve day, but I thought this year I'd get a head start in case the weather turns cold and snowy. I hate fighting with the cold cords and wires because they're stiff and it's hard to get them to do what I want. And I can't stand working on stuff like that with gloves on, so my fingers always freeze. Anyway, if the girls don't want them turned on yet, we don't have to plug them in until later, but at least they're up. We won't put the tree up until just before Christmas though.

Here's a few pictures from my daily walk with the dogs yesterday.

Larry working hard to get FB's few little ears of unfertilized corn in the crib. Note the elevator being used is a bit too short to reach the top of the crib like it's supposed to. Ha ha! Fits right in around here:

They're putting another new irrigator in the field across the road from my house. Some money there:

Here's the route we took on yesterday's walk. Mostly we walk in the woods, unless there's a lot of hunting or logging going on, or the snow is too deep. Then we brave the road. The dogs are pretty good and easy to control when a car goes by:

"Old Smokey" really doesn't smoke too much, as long as the wood is seasoned well:

Goldie asking "is this the end of our walk?":

Snoopy waiting patiently to play with the cats when our walk was over:

Kitty says "no way am I playing with Snoopy today":

A Chinese restaurant has found a six-legged frog - and is keeping it to attract diners.

The frog is on display in a glass tank at the restaurant in Quanzhou city, reports People's Daily.

"I bought more than 5 kilos of frogs from the market the other day, and upon coming back found that one of them has six legs," says chef Xiao Song.

The frog has two extra legs on the front left side which, according to waiters, means that it has a lopsided hop.

Experts at the local forestry department say the extra legs were most likely caused by genetic mutation.

Europe's Rosetta spacecraft is buzzing Earth today. Closest approach: 5301 km above the south Pacific Ocean at 20:57 UT on Nov. 13th. The gravity assist maneuver will boost Rosetta toward Comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko where, approximately 7 years from now, Rosetta will orbit the comet's icy nucleus and deploy a lander to explore the surface.

The vintage Allis-Chalmers tractor has been the centerpiece of the harvest season display in front of the West Allis home of Terry Crivello and Jim House for the last six autumns.

Amid bales of hay, cornstalks and giant inflatable pumpkins, the orange 1952 WD that once pulled potatoes out of fertile fields in central Wisconsin is seen by the couple as a symbol of both Wisconsin's farm heritage and their community's gritty working-class history.

But the city that gave birth to the tractor and thousands like it from the sprawling plant that once served as its bedrock sees the antique farm implement as, well, a tractor - in this case a vehicle that is in violation of off-street parking regulations.

"You are hereby directed to take the following action immediately: Remove the tractor from the premises," reads a letter to Crivello from Terry J. Tauschmann, an inspector with the city's Department of Building Inspections & Zoning.

"I thought I could get an extension because it was being displayed as a decoration," Crivello said in an interview, explaining how the letter included information about a "request for an extension of time."

"So I went down there to talk to (Tauschmann). I thought it was no big deal," she said.

"He said it doesn't matter, it's a tractor.

"I said, 'But it's an Allis-Chalmers tractor' and he said, 'So?' "

But the city's chief building inspector said Friday that Crivello will get a pass, because it's a temporary, holiday decoration.

"As long as it's for that, and is removed right after, we can live with that," said Ted Atkinson, West Allis' director of Building Inspections and Zoning.

Atkinson said Crivello's notice is one of about 100 that go out annually alerting residents that they can't keep vehicles on an unpaved surface of their property.

"We don't want front yards turning into muddy parking lots," he said.

There was a misunderstanding in the Crivello case, he said, because the tractor wasn't yet decorated.

"This just got a little out of hand," he said.

The tractor, which was given to House by his father years ago, had a work history stemming back to his grandfather's tree farm in Wild Rose and potato fields in Wautoma.

The refurbishment of the WD included a coat of special orange paint with holographic glitter, Crivello said.

"It's an Allis-Chalmers Orange," she said. "It looks really neat."

West Allis allows parking on front yards during the Wisconsin State Fair and Crivello is drafting a letter to the city requesting an exemption for the tractor during the fall display.

"Obviously, if we lived in Mukwonago or someplace else we wouldn't have an Allis-Chalmers tractor," she said.

"But we're pretty proud of West Allis and the fact that it was made here."

For four decades, residents of the tiny Pennsylvania town of Kecksburg have told their story of strange blue lights in the sky one winter's evening and a fireball crashing into woods.

On 9 December, 1965, they say, they saw armed soldiers cordoning off the area and a large metallic acorn-shaped object bearing strange hieroglyphics driven off at speed on the back of a lorry. They talk of menacing plain-clothes officials visiting homes and warning local people not to tell anyone of what they saw.

Until now the US government has denied that anything sinister took place. It has maintained that a thorough search of the woods by the air force, the only federal agency to have acknowledged it was there, found nothing. But now Nasa has been ordered to examine its X-Files to solve the mystery.

Steve McConnell, Nasa's public liaison officer, has admitted two boxes of papers from the time of the Kecksburg incident are missing. The episode has parallels to the 1947 Roswell incident, when a UFO was said to have landed in New Mexico.

'For so many years, a lot of good people in Pennsylvania were told by their government that what they had to say was a lie or that they were hallucinating,' said Leslie Kean, a journalist who launched a lawsuit four years ago to force Nasa to open its archives.

Washington judge Emmett Sullivan refused to accept Nasa's claim that the papers had been lost. He gave it until the end of the year to examine its records. 'Something came down that night,' said Kean.

'Nasa has been stonewalling and now it's required to do the search it didn't do in the first place. It's a victory for those patriotic people who didn't like being told that they were making things up.'

Stan Gordon, a UFO investigator living close to the site, interviewed several witnesses. He said: 'It's interesting that [witnesses say] it was made of one solid piece of metal with no panels or rivets, and that it was moving relatively slowly and made almost a controlled landing.

'I have no doubt the government knows a lot more about this than it has revealed to the public.'

DOES COMET HOLMES HAVE A SATELLITE? Comet Holmes has erupted twice before, in Nov. 1892 and Jan. 1893. In 1984, great astronomer Fred Whipple proposed an explanation:

"An analysis of observations of comet P/Holmes 1892III's two 8-10 mag bursts indicates that these phenomena are consistent with the grazing encounter of a small satellite with the nucleus on November 4.6, 1892, and the final encounter on January 16.3, 1893. While after the first burst the total magnitude fell less than 2 mag from November 7 to 30, the fading was much more rapid after the second burst. It is suggested that the grazing encounter distributed a volume of large chunks in the neighborhood of the nucleus, maintaining activity for weeks."

Whipple's idea might be updated circa 2007 to include a swarm of orbiting debris produced by, say, a previous collision. From time to time a debris-fragment might hit the comet's nucleus causing a new outburst. It's possible: Asteroids have satellites, so why not comets? Furthermore, fragments going around a comet's irregular nucleus would have unstable orbits; from time to time they would naturally crash into the comet or fly off into space.

Warning: This is all pure speculation! No one knows why Comet Holmes keeps exploding. Perhaps the modern array of telescopes trained on Comet Holmes in 2007 will solve the mystery--but not yet. For now, we can only watch and wonder.

Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin on the afternoon of November 9, 1975 under Captain Ernest M. McSorley. She was en route to the steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit, Michigan, with a full cargo of taconite. A second freighter, Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana out of Two Harbors, Minnesota, joined up with Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, being the faster ship, took the lead while Anderson trailed not far behind.

Crossing Lake Superior at about 13 knots (15 mph, 24 km/h), the boats encountered a massive winter storm, reporting winds in excess of 50 knots (90 km/h) and waves as high as 35 feet (10 m). Because of the storm, the Soo Locks were closed. The freighters altered their courses northward, seeking shelter along the Canadian coast. Later, they would cross to Whitefish Bay and approach the Sault Ste. Marie locks.

On the afternoon of November 10, Fitzgerald reported a minor list developing and top-side damage including the loss of radar, but did not indicate a serious problem. She slowed to come within range of receiving Anderson's radar data and for a time Anderson guided the Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. The last communication from the boat came at approximately 19:10 (7:10 PM), when Anderson notified Fitzgerald of being hit by rogue waves or perhaps seiche waves large enough to be caught on radar, that were heading Fitzgerald's way and asked how she was doing. McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." A few minutes later, she suddenly sank – no distress signal was received. A short ten minutes later Anderson could neither raise Fitzgerald nor detect her on radar. At 20:32, Anderson informed the U.S. Coast Guard of their concern for the boat.

Once Anderson noted the loss of Fitzgerald, a search was launched for survivors. The initial search consisted of Anderson, and a second freighter, SS William Clay Ford. The efforts of a third freighter, the Canadian vessel Hilda Marjanne, were foiled by the weather. The U.S. Coast Guard launched three aircraft, but could not mobilize any ships. A Coast Guard buoy tender, Woodrush, was able to launch within two and a half hours, but took a day to arrive. The search recovered debris, including lifeboats and rafts, but no survivors.

I also saw this same thing out the window of my home, in the early Spring of 1997. It was before the mass sighting in Arizona. A guy that I was talking to on the CB at the time, who was several miles from my home, saw it too.

In 1997, during my second term as governor of Arizona, I saw something that defied logic and challenged my reality.

I witnessed a massive delta-shaped, craft silently navigate over Squaw Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona. It was truly breathtaking. I was absolutely stunned because I was turning to the west looking for the distant Phoenix Lights.

To my astonishment this apparition appeared; this dramatically large, very distinctive leading edge with some enormous lights was traveling through the Arizona sky.

As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man-made object I'd ever seen. And it was certainly not high-altitude flares because flares don't fly in formation.

The incident was witnessed by hundreds -- if not thousands -- of people in Arizona, and my office was besieged with phone calls from very concerned Arizonians.

The growing hysteria intensified when the story broke nationally. I decided to lighten the mood of the state by calling a press conference where my chief of staff arrived in an alien costume. We managed to lessen the sense of panic but, at the same time, upset many of my constituents.

I would now like to set the record straight. I never meant to ridicule anyone. My office did make inquiries as to the origin of the craft, but to this day they remain unanswered.

Eventually the Air Force claimed responsibility stating that they dropped flares.

This is indicative of the attitude from official channels. We get explanations that fly in the face of the facts. Explanations like weather balloons, swamp gas and military flares.

I was never happy with the Air Force's silly explanation. There might very well have been military flares in the sky that evening, but what I and hundreds of others saw had nothing to do with that.

I now know that I am not alone. There are many high-ranking military, aviation and government officials who share my concerns. While on active duty, they have either witnessed a UFO incident or have conducted an official investigation into UFO cases relevant to aviation safety and national security.

By speaking out with me, these people are putting their reputations on the line. They have fought in wars, guarded top secret weapons arsenals and protected our nation's skies.

We want the government to stop putting out stories that perpetuate the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth conventional terms. Investigations need to be re-opened, documents need to be unsealed and the idea of an open dialogue can no longer be shunned.

Incidents like these are not going away. About a year ago, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport experienced a UFO event that made national and international headlines.

What I saw in the Arizona sky goes beyond conventional explanations. When it comes to events of this nature that are still completely unsolved, we deserve more openness in government, especially our own.

I went over to JR's yesterday to help him work on Michael's car. Well, mostly what I did was watch. Michael is so excited, he bought new speakers for it already without it even running yet! Hopefully now it will run good. His first, very own car and I'm sure he can't wait to get behind the wheel.

I remember mine. A 1969 Rambler American Classic 440 (I never did quite understand what all the names and numbers that Rambler used meant). I drove it until the body completely fell apart, but it still ran. I have the engine yet, somewhere. I liked that thing so much that I eventually bought two more!

My favorite car was my 1966 Chevelle, which I got drunk and smashed. I liked that one much better than the 1964 Chevelle that I had which also got smashed while drinking (I haven't drank for almost 14 years now - couldn't afford it anymore).

The only car I ever owned that I really didn't care for was the Rambler American Rogue (I think it was a 1966). It was a cool car, but it had way too much engine for the light little unibody and a close-ratio 4 speed transmission. At the time, when I still drank, it scared me even when I was sober. I sold it to a friend of mine who got drunk and smashed it. He did it in a big way, lucky to be alive type thing. Broke a stop sign off with the roof of the car, upside down, while in the air. It was a two door hard top like the majority of my cars were, and the roof was smashed down into the seats when the car finally came to rest. How he could have survived is a miracle.

Despite their radical difference in size, these two dogs have something in common - Gibson the Great Dane and Boo Boo the toy Chihuahua are both world record holders.

Measuring a whopping 107cm, gentle giant Gibson was named tallest dog back in 2004. Joining him in the hall of fame for 2007 is tiny Boo Boo who only measures 10.16cm tall and is smaller than Gibson's head.

The two celebrity hounds, who were both bred in America, met up to celebrate Guinness World Records Day 2007 outside the White House in Washington D.C.

Boo Boo's owner Lana Elswick has bred Chihuahuas in Kentucky for 19 years and said she always knew her one-year-old pooch was special.

The tiny mutt was only about the size of a thumb when she was born; so small, in fact, that she had to be fed with an eye dropper every two hours before she could eventually nurse a bottle. Now she is a diminuitive diva.

"She has the attitude of a big dog she would let me know if anyone was around and she would try to guard me if she could," said Ms Elswick.

Owner Sandy Hall lives with her dog Gibson in Sacramento, California. The Great Dane is also the world's tallest therapy dog and regularly visits children's hospitals.

"He just puts a smile on people's faces," Ms Hall said.

"In one split second, people forget their cares and worries."

Space shuttle Discovery landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center today concluding a two-week assembly mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Discovery's visit was highlighted by Scott Parazynski's daring spacewalk to repair a ripped solar panel while the array was still electrified and the installation of the new Harmony module--both crucial to the future expansion of the ISS. To the heroes, welcome home!

"The nationwide average gasoline price ticked above $3 a gallon Monday to the highest in more than three months as climbing oil prices pushed up prices at the pump."

How dumb do they think we are? We all know exactly why the prices are going up. It's the holiday season, and they are raising the gas prices to screw the travelers. It's getting cold out, and they are raising the heating fuel prices to stick it to everybody else. Same reason the gas price goes up in the Spring just in time for Summer vacations, but yet the heating fuel prices do not follow suit until Fall. Heating fuel and gasoline all comes from the same damn barrel of oil, Spring or Fall. Really, they don't care if we know it or not because we'll still buy it since they have us by the balls.

The date was September 12, 1952. The place, Flatwoods, West Virginia.

On that crisp fall day, Kathleen May, Eugene Lemon, 17, Neal Nunley, 14, Eddie May, 13, Teddie May, 14, Ronald Shaver, 10, Teddie Neal, 10, Tommy Hyer, 10, and Lemon’s big old dog, climbed to the top of a hill and saw a “monster.”

They immediately felt they had to run, as fast as they could, someplace.

The huge dark figure with glowing eyes and a head “like the ace of spades” blocked their path. About 12 feet high (4 meters), the figure had a reddish face and seemed to “glide” (as cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson wrote) toward the eyewitnesses, who fled in terror.

The thing was said to be over six feet tall to the monster’s waist, and as opposed to “red” or “orange” eyes as noted in news stories, the witnesses all agreed the eyes’ illumination seemed to be pale blue in color, in records Sanderson kept.

Eugene Lemon fainted.

Grabbing Lemon’s limp body, the group instantly started doing what the dog had done moments earlier. They all turned tail and started running down the hill as fast as they could. Little Tommy Hyer would later tell Ivan T. Sanderson that he crawled under the fence to get away, but that Kathleen May cleared the six-foot gate without opening it.

The dog who had ran first to the bottom of the hill, vomited, then died two days later. Full Story

It's clear and cold this morning! I've got 21 degrees right now, and still dropping. Couple more hours yet before sunrise too. It's about time though, where we should be this time of year.

I went up to one of the good neighbor's yesterday to make sure he had his heater for his water pump turned on and I saw a really nice buck in the woods. Maybe between bow hunting and gun season one of them will get him.

Leaning tower of Pisa loses title

A German church steeple has knocked the leaning tower of Pisa from the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most lopsided building.

The tower in the village of Suurhusen applied in June for the title and has now officially beaten the famous landmark in Pisa.

Guinness Book of Records confirmed the award after officials measured it leaning at a 5.19 degree angle compared to only 3.97 degree angle at which the tower of Pisa leans.

Olaf Kuchenbecker of the Guinness World Records office in Hamburg said: "It is a world record."

The church was built in middle of the 13th century but a 90ft tower was added in 1450.

The tower was built on wooden foundations and the combination of the oak wood foundations and wet soil has caused the tower to slowly lean to one side over the years.

Several attempts to stop the tower from leaning any further have been made since 1982, and it was eventually stabilised in 1996.

The church is still in use and also offers guided tours but church officials are appealing for donations to help maintain the building.

Q. Why does the wind blow in Juneau County?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
A. Because Adams County sucks.

It didn't get as cold last night as the forecast predicted, only about 36 right now as opposed to 26. The wind is still blowing hard. I had several gusts yesterday in the 45 mph range. We got our first snowflakes too. Snowed really hard a couple of times for a few minutes, but the ground is way too warm yet for it to stick. Soon. The next few nights are supposed to be down in the 20s (as was last night). That should stiffen the ground up a little.

By Linda Godfrey and Richard Hendricks
It’s something that cannot be, and yet, there it stands. The paradox quickly overwhelms any rational mind.
A quick drubbing of two heavy feet on the pavement behind you, an impossible movement of hairy limbs to one side, and suddenly two lemon eyes fearlessly search your own with uncanny, brazen mockery. You’re transfixed, chilled, and completely bewildered. Once those eyes have owned you with their cogent stare for a few eternal moments, the creature’s head snaps away, fangs glinting, leaving you dazed as its hulking form leaps into the bramble or hurdles a stone fence to drop twenty feet onto a creek bed. After a parting glimpse of matted, dark fur, all you want is to be anywhere else. As your foot jams the accelerator or you stumble into a run, willing the lead from your legs so they will move in the opposite direction, you are desperately grateful to have survived this unholy meeting of strangers in the night.
And the night really is stranger, if you live in Walworth or Jefferson County.

The dark hours, the witching hours, are when the creature dubbed “The Beast of Bray Road” most often shows itself. The enigmatic “thing,” as most witnesses tend to call it, was christened for the country lane east of Elkhorn where it was seen by the first witnesses to go public. Over the past six decades it has shocked as many as three dozen area residents with its sudden, sporadic appearances.
The first known sighting was in 1936, when a security watchman at a convent and home for the developmentally disabled in Jefferson County made an unsettling discovery one evening as the clock neared midnight. Straining to see in the shadows, Mark Schackelman thought he made out something digging on an old Native American burial mound behind the main building. Thinking it must be a dog, he trained his flashlight on the animal. With a shock, he realized that it was no dog standing transfixed in the yellow glare, but a man-sized, shaggy creature with pointed ears and three long claws on each hand. In later years, he told his son, Joseph, he considered it a “demon from hell.”
Other sightings occurred through the 60s, 70s and 80s in the Jefferson and Walworth County area, with puzzled and frightened witnesses sometimes calling local police in an effort to find out what exactly they had seen. Unbeknown to one another, surrounding communities whispered for years about a creature known by its local names, “Bluff Monster” or “The Eddy.”
TThe witnesses, with one or two exceptions, seemed trustworthy. Most were reluctant, and many still felt fear when recalling their encounters. None had anything apparent to gain, and all faced ridicule from their family, friends, and neighbors. There was no single “type” of witness, either. They ranged from children to elderly, white-collar to blue-collar, male and female, local folk and those just passing through. Almost all of them said something like, “I know what I saw and nothing is going to change that.”
The descriptions stayed within a fairly close range: Height between five and seven feet; hair described as shaggy and often extremely “wild.” Coloration was usually said to be dark brown, sometimes with gray or silver streaks or tips. Those who had a good look at the head usually reported it to be like that of a wolf or German shepherd, with pointy ears, although some have claimed the head to be apelike. The creature was sometimes seen on two feet, other times on all fours. The most compelling characteristic, however, was the creature’s aggressive stare.

One witness, Williams Bay businessman Marvin Kirschnik, who came forward in 2003, was able to corroborate the other sightings with one of his own in 1981. His was unusual in that it happened in broad daylight, on an August afternoon. Driving along Highway 11 near Bray Road, Kirschnik became aware of a creature standing and staring at him from behind a fallen tree not far from the ditch. He pulled over and scrutinized it from the window of his van for a good minute, he estimated, as the creature returned his gaze. Finally, totally unnerved by its stare and by his inability to identify it, he sped off. But he made a drawing as soon as he got home. Its resemblance to those of the other witnesses is remarkable, although Kirschnik’s was made ten years before the newspaper story broke.
Does the Beast still prowl? Stories keep rolling in. However, most of the recent sightings have been in places other than Bray Road, which hasn’t had a report since the early 90s. A woman saw it in Washington County in the summer of 2003, and a Madison man saw a strange dog/ape type of creature prowling a sidewalk about 1 A.M. on a dimly lit residential street in May 2004. Some Illinois residents have also reported seeing it in four different places in recent months.
One woman who saw the Bluff Monster regularly while growing up in southern Jefferson County gave a description that sounds more like bigfoot than a wolfman, and there have been other witnesses who also felt the creature bore yeti-like traits. A professional couple from Kenosha both saw a seven-foot tall, almost classic Sasquatch-type creature hurdle a bridge rail at Honey Lake in eastern Walworth. Some cryptozoologists, those who study unknown animals, have speculated that the Beast may indeed be a smaller species of bigfoot.
Other popular theories are that it is a hybrid wolf-dog, a bear, a large wolf, a denizen of another dimension (either conjured up or visiting on its own), a true lycanthrope or shapeshifting werewolf, a hoax by someone with a very determined and decades-long obsession, and even a hold-over carnivore from the Ice Age, perhaps some sort of indigenous dogman. The creature seems to circulate around the Kettle Moraine State Forest, a strangely landscaped natural area with dense forests. Could something ancient have survived and reproduced here, venturing into civilization to harvest roadkill wherever cover is handy?
There have been other sightings of bipedal canines around the world and the United States, including the Michigan Dog Man flap in the mid-1980s. But the Beast of Bray Road remains unique for the number of sightings and the worldwide attention it has received. As to the true nature of the Beast, probably only time and perhaps a lucky capture or video will be able to solve the mystery to everyone’s satisfaction.

Is winter going to start today? Sounds like it. So far this early morning isn't too bad. Temp about 50 and light winds (light for here anyway). The short-term forecast says that's about to change in an hour or so. I suppose it will be vastly different by the time I'm done milking the cows. My motto once again: Bring it on, I'm ready!

I was talking to a couple of my good neighbors yesterday and they've seen a few nice bucks but nothing close enough to get with an arrow. I mentioned that I haven't noticed any turkeys around lately and they said the same thing. I wonder if maybe all the coyotes have been scaring them away. Hard to tell with turkeys, they are a funny animal.

I finished building my firewood fence yesterday, then split a little more kindling (if anybody needs some kindling for starting your fireplace, let me know). If the weather isn't too bad after deer season, I might go out in the woods and cut a little more firewood. I know where there's a big tree that tipped over recently and it has a lot of nice firewood in it.

The crescent Moon and Venus look cool this morning, right next to each other. Would make a good picture, if I wanted to. Haven't seen any meteors yet, through the window above the computer monitor anyway. The comet is still neat as ever, but no tail yet. They say it has a tail now, but it's pointing away from us so can't see it. Darn.

"Only"? What other direction can a motorist go?

It was a little frosty this morning. Not bad for this time of year, 28 degrees, but it's coming. Sounds like next week will give us our first taste of winter. Still, we've been pretty lucky. We usually get a little preview of snow before Halloween. Bring it on, I'm ready.

Mom's life insurance finally came through yesterday, so I was able to write a check to the funeral home. It's not about the money, but $4,420 funeral expenses don't leave much of her $5,000 worth of life insurance. And that's only if the funeral home waves the extra $400 charge for not paying it within 30 days. We'll see, they might, because it was close. If not, that leaves $180, and that's split five ways between my sister, brothers, and I. Good grief.

I've been hauling wood from one of my reserve piles to one of my main piles. The main pile I am burning from now is one that I am no longer going to replenish, because I decided that I don't need to keep much over 2 years worth of firewood in the yard. But, I believe that it's benefit as blocking noise from the highway and a windbreak are too good to pass up. I am going to have one row of wood where the pile was, like a fence, instead of the whole pile. So that's what I've been doing with firewood lately, building a "firewood fence"!

Last month saw a record October for tornado outbreaks, with 87 twisters forming in just one three-day span, government meteorologists announced today.

The outbreak, from Oct. 17 through Oct. 19, surpassed the previous record of 63 tornadoes set along the Gulf Coast from Oct. 23 through Oct. 27 in 1997, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The total number of tornadoes reported in October, 105, came in second behind the 117 tornadoes reported in October 2001. Records go back to 1950.

The massive outbreak occurred because two weather systems that had high potential to form tornadoes were simultaneously positioned over the country.

“The positioning of the jet stream from southwest Texas to northeast Michigan with readily available moisture streaming inland from the Gulf created conditions favorable for tornado activity in the country’s mid-section,” said Joe Schaefer, director of NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.

A low pressure system was the primary cause of storms that produced six tornadoes on Oct. 17 through the morning of Oct. 19 in the coastal regions of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle.

The remaining 81 tornadoes were produced by a system of low pressure that extended from the Central Plains to the Great Lakes. Intense thunderstorms developed ahead of the system, spawning tornadoes from southwestern Missouri to Michigan. Five fatalities, two in Missouri and three in Michigan, were associated with these storms.

Though tornadoes form more often in the spring months, conditions favorable to their development can certainly occur in the fall.

“These storms are a reminder to all that tornadoes can develop any time of year, and anywhere,” said Schaefer. “When severe weather is forecast, people should stay on top of developments closely. Monitor television and radio or listen to NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, the fastest and most direct link to hazard watches and warnings from local National Weather Service forecast offices.”

I was out looking at the comet last night. It's really cool! Who ever heard of a comet without a tail? It's quite big now too, half as big as the moon but a little dimmer.

It's easy to spot. Got out about 8:30 pm, look halfway between north and east, and about halfway between the horizon and straight overhead. There you will see a triangle of stars approximately big enough to fit the full moon inside. The left point of the triangle is the tail-less comet. You will notice right away that it appears fuzzier than the other stars and is bigger.

It looks cool just with your naked eyes (once the TV glare has faded from them), but if you have a pair of binoculars, point them at it for a real treat!

Halloween is over. Now what I call the "busy season" begins - gathering firewood, finishing picking corn, the holidays, Christmas shopping, deer hunting, the occasional early winter snowstorm, and on and on.

It's not as busy for me nowadays as it used to be. I use the Springtime and the cooler Summer days to gather my firewood so that I am way ahead of the game and I don't have to cut firewood during hunting seasons. I spent the better part of my life trying to train the neighbors to do the same, so they're on their own now.

I don't pick the corn anymore. It was way too much trouble for what little it paid, and I have never once been offered a pay raise. The less money you make, the easier it is to give up. Now it's somebody else's headache, whoever will do it for him.

I don't hunt anymore. When Dad and Grandpa were alive, it was fun. The ones that control the hunting in my life now are a couple of selfish mama's boys. I don't play their games. Too many strings attached. They are getting old, and can't live forever, so maybe someday hunting will be fun for me again. Until then.

My oldest brother, that lives in California, sent me this picture out the back door of his house as the fire approached. It was taken by my niece's co-worker. The fire came within 15 minutes burn time before it was stopped:

British marine biologists have found what may be the oldest living animal — that is, until they killed it.

The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, commonly known as the ocean quahog, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.

Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.

Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."