Day 20: breakable
That first little hole a chick pecks in the egg is called a pip. This egg has pipped.
I did put some fertile eggs under a chicken this year. It didn’t work out so good. Twelve eggs in two different goes. Result: three chicks, two of whom are boys. And then a fox ate the mama.
No, I have no idea if it’s going to work out when the boys are all growed up.
October 20, 2018 — 8:10 pm
Comments: 9
Day 19: scorched
Because they’re sunbathing.
One of the happiest sights for a chicken keeper is watching a pair of birds dust-bath together in the sun.
Sadly, it’s completely unpaintable. Because a bird with its eyes closed and its wings spread blissing out in warm soil in the sun is visually indistinguishable from a dead chicken flung on a dirt heap.
October 19, 2018 — 7:44 pm
Comments: 4
Day 17: swollen
Do chickens eat bees? Do they get stung?
There’s a surprisingly lively conversation about it online. There are bee- and chicken-keepers who deliberately keep hives near their henhouses. They say the chickens help by eating dead bees and hive parasites and almost never get stung. There are bee- and chicken-keepers who say their chickens won’t touch a bee, dead or alive.
And there was one poor soul having no luck at all because her chickens stationed themselves outside the hive entrance and plucked delicious bees out of the air as soon as they appeared.
Our garden is full of bees, including some great big (rare) bumblers. This is bee conservation country. I’ve seen my chooks chase them (and the cats too, for that matter) but never seen them eat one.
October 17, 2018 — 7:00 pm
Comments: 11
Day 16: Angular
Last night, my youngest girl decided she’d really rather sleep in a tree, if it was all the same to me.
It was not all the same to me. There’s a fox about. To her credit, she managed to work her way surprisingly high in the branches. She’d probably have been safe enough, unless she came down at dawn.
I started clipping at the blackberry brambles clearing a path to her, and she plummeted down to earth like a watermelon in a hail of leaves.
She started to do the same tonight, but thought better of it.
I have just discovered I have an #inktober tag.
October 16, 2018 — 8:00 pm
Comments: 12
Dead Pool Round 103: Inktober Edition
Tonycc wins the dick with Tom Petty, using Carl’s gambit.
Y’all have figured out Carl’s strategy, yes? He keeps his powder dry and doesn’t make a pick when the Pool launches.
Then, if he’s lucky, the news will announce an unpicked celebrity has fallen deathly ill. If said celebrity takes a measurable amount of time to die, he swoops in and makes the pick and viola.
It usually fails, but he stands a statistically better chance than a random pick. Hence Carl is the dickwinningest of participants.
As an encourager of weaselly strategies, I approve.
It would be a boring old Dead Pool if everyone held off, but it won’t happen. The strategy will only support a very few people until it becomes a merry snipefest, like the last ten seconds of an eBay steal.
Right, now that I’ve ruined Carl’s fun, we can begin:
0. Rule Zero (AKA Steve’s Rule): your pick has to be living when picked. Also, nobody whose execution date is circled on the calendar. Also, please don’t kill anybody. Plus (Pupster’s Rule) no picking someone who’s only famous for being the oldest person alive.
1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of (I don’t generally follow the Dead Pool threads carefully, so if you’re unsure of your pick, call it to my attention).
2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.
3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.
4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay? Also, make sure you have a correct spelling of your choice somewhere in your comment. These threads get longish and I use search to figure out if we have a winner.
5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy to catch the dupes. Popular picks go fast.
6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.
7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you’ve won before, send me your address again. I don’t keep good records.
8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.
The winner, if the winner chooses to entrust me with a mailing address, will receive an Official Certificate of Dick Winning and a small original drawing on paper suffused with elephant shit particles. Because I’m fresh out of fairy shit particles.
October 6, 2017 — 6:00 pm
Comments: 115
Day 4
I was short of time on Day 4, so I did a tiny Geralt of Rivia fanart (dude from the Witcher III game). Even though it’s very small, it still took considerable time to prep and put together, which is why I doubt I’ll make it to 31.
My mother trained in portraiture, and she was very good at it. I would love to have followed, but I cannot capture a likeness to save my immortal soul.
That’s a whole separate skill, quite apart from painting ability. I have a friend who is a not very good painter, but you look at her paintings and know who you’re looking at. Me, the most common reaction to my portraits is, “that’s a lovely picture of somebody, but it sure ain’t me.”
Here I demonstrate that I cannot reproduce an accurate likeness of a comic character with white hair, yellow slitty cat eyes and a huge scar. That’s just how good I am.
See you back here tomorrow for Dead Pool Round 103!
October 5, 2017 — 7:06 pm
Comments: 18
…and three…
And on Day Three, Charlotte. About whom, update.
The wound on her head healed beautifully, or so I thought. But a week or so ago, I noticed it had opened and within a couple of days…icky abscess.
The vet dealt with it, but left an open hole to let it air. It looks like a gunshot wound.
So I’ve been giving her an antibiotic pill and washing her head with salt water. Twice a day. Fun! Tomorrow we go back for a followup appointment, but I gotta continue this regime until Sunday.
Charlotte is a hissy, growly cat…thank goodness she had all her teeth removed years ago.
p.s. Oh, shoot — I forgot the best bit! The vet also turned up a couple of harvest mites in Charlotte’s ear. That’s when I learned, that little pouch at the base of a cat’s ear? It’s called Henry’s pocket. No, I haven’t been able to find out who Henry was, and they aren’t really sure what the pocket is for. Possibly to absorb lower frequency sound so the cat can better hear the high frequency ones. Like squeaky mice.
p.p.s. I declare tonycc the winner of the Dead Pool. He picked Tom Petty while he was at death’s door, but still breathin’. Tom Petty, that is. Fair’s fair. Meet you all back here Friday, 6WBT for Dead Pool Round 103.
October 4, 2017 — 6:34 pm
Comments: 18
Day Two
I realize this will get pretty boring, but I haven’t got the spoons to do a decent post AND a decent drawing. Maybe not even one of those things. Not to worry – I have the attention span of a fruit fly! I’ll never make 31 days.
And no, I do not intend to draw 31 wild pigs.
Talk amongst yourselves…
October 3, 2017 — 8:58 pm
Comments: 14