Country_Kat

 Just gonna use this to vent, so won't be surprised if not a lot of people respond. When I moved to Canada in 1978 to be with a woman I had met there (now my ex), I went there with little but the clothes on my back. Managed to work my way up to starting up a landscaping business and ended up buying three properties, our home, a business property (to store trees, shrubs, flowers, tools, all the things I would need to run my landscaping business) and a lake side property. When we split, my ex bought me out on the home as she wanted to keep it. I sold the property AND the title to my business to one of my workers who wanted to take over the business. What was left was my lake side property, with a cottage on it. It was going to be my retirement home once Covid restrictions would allow me to move back home. Then a storm hit, and the cottage was damaged. I also have a new woman in my life - as most of you already know - and she was not keen on living out of town - the cottage is pretty ...

  Hubble showcases the awesome beauty of a stellar "nursery" !  The vast clouds of gas and dust across the universe offer scientists the opportunity to observe the formation of stars and, consequently, their respective planetary systems—even providing clues to the formation of the Solar System.  About 4,900 light-years away from Earth is the AFGL 5180 nebula — and the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a dazzling image that reveals stars being born in this stellar "nursery." "Nursery" of Milky Way stars is found near the Solar System. The AFGL nebula 5180 is located in the constellation Gemini. This is a star-forming region with the right density of dust and gas. Eventually, its material collapses and then a star is born. The amount of dust in the nebula provides a beautiful landscape of color and light, but it hides the glow of the young stars.  Even so, the image released by NASA last Aug. 13 shows the lights of a massive star forming amidst a dense clo...

  Good morning everyone! I hope everyone has had a good week! Mine has went surprisingly well after a hiccup Wednesday and has been amazingly peaceful during the day lol! Wednesday, after the hubby dropped Little Man off for his first day of school, he called to tell me that no one could give him any sort of time to expect the bus dropping him off in the afternoon NOR when to expect the bus the following morning. How in the HELL does the school expect a parent to 'guess' what time their kid will be dropped off or picked up unless given an approximate time frame? So I gave it a couple of hours to make sure they were well into their day and not being bombarded first thing in the morning then I called the school to find out that the Vice Principal handles their bus scheduling and that she was in a meeting but that they'd have her call me back asap! Ok, her name sounded familiar so I went to digging to figure out for sure and yep! I went to school with her. So when she called, ...

  Good morning! Happy Hump-Day everyone! I hope everyone had a good weekend and has had a good start to the week! I apologize for getting the thread up later than normal but it was a little hectic around here this morning lol. Today is Little Man's first day at school! I got his book bag straightened out and set up yesterday and I don't think he sat it down longer than 30 minutes lol. He even stood in front of the TV, watching his DinoTrux, with the book bag on! It took him forever to finally settle down and fall asleep last night so I know the little fart was still tired this morning lol. I let him sleep as late as possible, hell, even I slept until 6:30. I knew it wouldn't take long to get him ready so I let him sleep until close to 7 since daddy was taking him on his first day and students can't get there before 7:30. It was funny as all get out though when I went in to wake him up. I called his name and was tapping on him initially which woke him up enough for him t...

Ireland's barn owls making comeback due to conservation project DUBLIN, Ireland: A conservation project has resulted in the births of some 255 barn owls throughout Ireland, according to BirdWatch Ireland. Following years of decline, the shy barn owl is making a comeback in Ireland. Eight months ago, BirdWatch Ireland volunteer Alan McCarthy installed an owl nest box he built at home during the Covid lockdown. The nesting box was placed at Ballindenisk farm on the outskirts of Cork city last December. It was hoped that the box might attract a breeding pair, which it did. Hatched eight weeks ago, two of three chicks have survived, said McCarthy. "Around 50 percent of the nest boxes that we've installed have been occupied by barn owls, which is absolutely fantastic. This nest box we installed in December last year, and normally it takes quite a few years for barn owl nest boxes to become occupied, so we were very surprised when we discovered that this box already had a family...

Good morning everyone! It's Friday!!!  I hope everyone has had a good week and heads off into an even better weekend! We'll be starting ours off somewhat rocky with extremely high humidity that will cause storms starting after lunch time when a weak front starts to move through. At least it seems that Henri will be staying 100 to 200 miles off of our coast! We've lost power twice this week already on SUNNY days so Lord knows how long we'd go without power should too bad of a storm roll through lol. I swear our power blips with every squirrel fart! It doesn't help that we are literally within the last 15 houses at the end of our companies lines so we're always the last to get power restored. Little Man had open house with his school yesterday evening. I didn't go because it would have put me leaving the house after I have to take my sleeping meds and I didn't need to be walking around the school looking drunk, but the hubs took him and to say Little Man i...

 Happy Hump-Day everyone! Good morning everyone! I do hope everyone had a good weekend and has had a good week so far! Our weekend was decent, the hubby worked Saturday, but my week hasn't gone the greatest. Y'all already know about my four legged furbaby Lily, she's the pit bull we rescued a little over 5 years ago from a high kill shelter. She's literally been the best dog and I love her so much more with knowing how protective she's gotten to be, especially over me and Little Man. This picture is of her and Middle Daughter taken the night that she was brought home. We adopted her in November of 2016, a month before we found out that we were pregnant with Little Man. When we first found out that we were pregnant, I was a 'little' worried because I didn't know Lily's history. I knew that she had shown aggression towards a certain ethnicity but figured that her old owners were of that ethnicity and simply didn't treat her right. Those worries wer...

In the Universe there can be between 100 and 100,000 planets for each star In our galaxy alone there are about 400 billion stars and in the Universe there are about two trillion (2,000,000,000,000) galaxies. So to consider that for every star there are about ten planets is simply overwhelming. But it is also estimated that outside any solar system for each star there are between 100 and 100,000 wandering planets that roam through space. A small percentage of them were expelled from their own solar systems, but the vast majority have never known the heat of a star. Many are gas giants and still more are rocky and icy. Many of them contain the necessary ingredients for life. Maybe one day they will have their chance. Until then they will continue to travel through the galaxy and through the Universe, vastly outnumbering the vast number of points of light that illuminate the cosmos. Astrophysicists calculate that on average in each solar system there are about ten planets, although they r...

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Good morning everyone! I hope everyone has had a great week and heads into an even better weekend! So anyone got anything fun planned for the weekend? As usual, it will be the same ol' same ol' around here other than it seems that the hubby might be working tomorrow. I 'thought' that he was only going to work Saturday IF he took the entire day off yesterday for him and his buddy to work on pops' truck (it's head gasket is leaking, taking in air making) but he found out it's a little more complicated than they initially thought so it will be done at my brother's shop. So he only took off 2 and a half hours early yesterday to do a small grocery stop and so he could go ahead and get the grass cut. He said something this morning about working tomorrow and I was like, oh... ok 😔. I'm honestly good either way but it sucks when he's not home, and yes, I know I'm clingy lol. We have the luxury of being under a heat ad...

  What speed bump? I don't see no speed bump! 😜 Good morning everyone and here we go, heading wide open into Hump-Day! Let's put the peddle to the metal and get it in gear... at least, I need to lol. I do hope everyone had a good weekend this past weekend and that everyone is having a good week so far. I apologize for the thread going up a little later than normal, I've been up since 6 but was too lazy to start it lol. I watched my morning videos and well, lazed out. It seems that Little Man is rather enjoying his break from Middle Daughter with her already back in school. It's so peaceful during the day now although he seems irritated, not understanding why she's in school and he isn't lol. I just hope that he keeps this enthusiasm for school going. Oldest Daughter was the same when it came to starting school and while she didn't "love" school, she seemed to enjoy school itself with exception to other students and teachers that forget that studen...

 Ugh, it's Monday again! How did this happen? Why can't it be the weekend everyday? Oh well, what the heck. Let's just remember there's another weekend coming, hooray! CAM

Wildcats return to Netherlands after centuries’ absence Rewilding of forests and ‘saturated’ habitats in Germany and Belgium behind growing population Jennifer Rankin They disappeared centuries ago, but wildcats have returned to the forests of the southern  Netherlands , local conservationists have said. The wildcat, which has longer legs and a flatter head than its domestic cousin, disappeared from modern-day Dutch territories in the middle ages as a result of hunting and forest clearance. The return of the animal, with its distinctive round-tipped and black-ringed tail, is a sign of the rewilding of forests in the southern Dutch region of Limburg, according to Hettie Meertens, a biologist who works for the ARK conservation group. The number of wildcats has been increasing in southern Limburg since 2013, she said, as they have moved from “saturated” habitats in the neighbouring Eifel mountains of Germany and the Belgian Ardennes to look for new territories. “The population is smal...

 Good morning all! We have arrived and are now parked in the "It's Friday" section of the week! So today is day number 2 of Middle Daughter being back in school! I had forgotten how peaceful Little Man was when school was still being held on campus. It sort of makes me feel like I was 'cheated' out of a peaceful year with him last year and now that he's fixing to start Pre-K... it sucks! When it's just me and Little Man, he's just as chill as a parent could want but when Middle Daughter is home, it's a constant war going on. The biggest issue I had out of him yesterday was him wanting to whine at one point because he wasn't getting his way BUT, one quick 'mom' glance and he straightened himself up lol. I'm pretty good with the 'mom' looks if I do say so myself. When he wakes up of the morning and I go in to get him and get him dressed, some mornings I mess with him a little. I put on a poker face when I walk in the bedroom a...

DOUBLE CLUSTER NGC 1850: SECOND BRIGHTEST STAR CLUSTER IN THE GREAT CLOUD OF MAGALHÃES The NGC 1850 double cluster, found in one of our neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an eye-catching object.  It is a young, "globular-like" star cluster - a type of object unknown in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.  In addition, NGC 1850 is surrounded by a filigree pattern of diffuse gas, which scientists believe was created by the explosion of massive stars.  NGC 1850, photographed here with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is an unusual double cluster that sits on the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way.  After the 30 Doradus complex, NGC 1850 is the brightest star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud.  It is representative of a special class of objects - young globe-like star clusters - that have no counterparts in our galaxy.  The two components of the cluster are relatively young and consist of a globular-shaped ...

  Good morning all! I do hope everyone had a great weekend and has had a good week so far! Our weekend went well. We went to look at a place Saturday and while it is quite literally my dream location, I wasn't impressed by the home. They said that the modular home was built in 2017 but to me it seemed way older. I guess the agent could have been right in thinking that it was the 'old country' style curtains that were there and some furniture that was more dated making it seem the home was older but I don't know. I'm still almost tempted being it's situated on 5 acres of land literally in the middle of no where NC. It would double the hubby's work commute though which he said he's fine with but it would mean that we'd have to find him a small car that much sooner as his dad's truck is KILLING us in gas already. His work commute could be shortened as long as he timed everything right to catch the ferry across instead of having to drive 15 miles fur...