Number 85 - To see a tree asmiling.

omg, i learned how to drive behind the wheel of a 49 Chevy, and have owned a chevy (except 21 years driving a dodge van) and my Chevy Silverado has over 175,000 miles and still runs like a charm...(restoring little by little, i'll drive the truck till i'm dead...that's the plan anyhooo)

Chevy's are the longest lasting cars and trucks on the road.

I will not read the 'hunting' portion of your post Hoft, cause it makes me sad.

hehehe, laughing at your "hunting" comment, Stradee. Nowadays, I don't call what "men" do as "hunting". About all it amounts to is "ambushing, backshooting and slaughtering". Doesn't appear to me to be any "hunting" involved. I don't do it any more either.

During the early '60's I had two different '55 Chevys. Damn good auto. I changed the clutch in one - parked it across a ditch, went under, disconnected and pulled the transmission, dropped the old clutch out, put the new one in and put it all back together --- took about 20mins. They were soooo easy to work on. And, that little 283ci engine would really romp and stomp if you knew how to work it. I could be tooling along at about 20 mph and if someone came up beside me and wanted to race I could very easily "double clutch" it into First gear and Pop Second in a flash and leave him in my dust. The last one I had I put a Crane Racing Cam in the engine. WOW!!! It was some serious "Blow Them Off The Road Time"!!! Those were some good times. Innocent fun stuff that hurt no one.

Oh, Hoft and Stradee, I drove the old "fishback" Chevy to High School. Wish I still had it. Straight Six Cylinders and would go down the road at 60 mph very well. But, not too much faster...........Grin

trippin' down memory lane...

My 49 Chevy was a bullet back...8 cyl, and hauled the 17 ft. cris craft my dad built to Clear Lake each summer. We drove from lake county w/ no second gear one summer and managed getting home without blowing the engine. Luved that car!

High School, drove a blue and white two door 50 Chevy and i couldn't tell you what i was running because it didn't go very fast. Probably on purpose. hehehe

Then dad asked me to drive a few Corvettes for him (work related) and i didn't wreck any of them...but left a bit of rubber still embedded somewhere in a few SF streets. Good ole days.

The Great Highway was Friday night drags until the city got tough...then Champion Speedway was built and kids could race their cars safely, and no, i wasn't one of them cause if i had wrecked any of the cars dad trusted me with? Stradee would have been in deep doodoo...LOL

Stradee, sounds like you were a thoughtful and responsible teenager - or, scared. Anyway, good thinking. Did you drive a Maco Shark - or was it Mako shark? Anyway, the Vets were sharks in those days and Stingrays later.
Here, in Atlanta, TX, we had a spot just outside the city limits that we called "the Bridges". It was exactly a quarter mile from the near railing of the first bridge to the far railing of the second bridge. Lotsa rubber laid there. I used to "float the valves" on the way out to race - that cleaned the carbon out of the cylinders. (That's revving the engine in first gear until it won't go faster) Then, at the bridges everyone gathered around and someone with enough guts stood out front and dropped a flag. The roaring was terrific.

LOL - no i wasn't scared...just respected my dad. He was a good guy. He was the type of person, that if something happened, he'd calmy sit and just talk. Like once when my youngers sister and i were out and about, she didn't close the back door of the chevy wagon (57, i believe) still don't know how the hell i managed wrapping the door around a mail box, but that's what happened. Dad and mom were going out that evening, and needed the wagon for guests they were picking up. All dad did was get a rope, tied the door to front and back door panels, and just looked at me. Well, that look was enough, believe me. Never said another word (till i was older, then we laughed recounting his daughters driving antics)

Was during the sixty's so the vets were probably rays. Nothing like a Corvette. I'd probably own one but because i don't live where speed limits exceed 70...well, ya know.

I dropped a few flags in my time...(shhh, dad might hear)... (grin)

Stradee, your comment re. speed limits reminds me of one of my old sayings, "The fastest car on the road is a tail-gaiter" Of course, that only applies to USA driving in almost all cases - in Europe on the autobahn one NEVER drives a slower auto in the left lane. And, when passing, ALWAYS look for flashing lights in the far distance before pulling out. I've been driving at 100 mph over there and they STILL passed me!!! That was long ago - now, MOST of the European roads are speed limited to 80 mph and in the cities where each intersection used to begin a drag race to the next red light, the speeds have been lowered. They mean it too. My last trip over I was really surprised at how slowly people drove. I was told that the reason for that was the fines are soooooo much you almost have to sell your home to pay for it. And, they have hidden cameras EVERYWHERE. All the above does not apply to ITALY!!! You take your life in your hands there when driving. Those people drive like maniacs. Serious maniacs.

It was kinda fun driving over there - just put the pedal to the metal and you blend in perfectly. Grin

Good morning to all. The thought of three houses to take care of makes my head swim - and all that stored stuff. Some people are going to have quite a chore to do when you pass on, Dan. I am trying to be mindful of the chores I leave behind. No matter how much I downsize, or try to get rid of unnecessary crap, there still is quite a sad chore left behind.

Will go click now.

Thanks for the reminder, sumac. When that day comes we have kids of our own and eleven grandkids to come and take it all away. Maybe some greatgrandkids before then. Grin Several of the grandkids are old enough to make that "great" move now.

Let's all make a Great Click and save another Rainforest Tree today.

Today, while at the movie place I wore a pair of fatigue pants from my days in the Army. While in line a guy behind me said I had dropped a button. I looked down, picked it up and said back to him,"It probably rotted off - these pants are from Vietnam." I did thank him for helping me.

Good evening, sue. Late start today.

LOL Isn't much safer walking across the street in Italy. Either Italians are the luckiest people on the planet, or the Pope keeps them safe.

A friend of mine lived in Germany for a few years and said when a car is seen on video speeding, the cops take all the information from license plates, then send out the tickets. If ya don't pay, you go to jail. Quick and easy...

The Corridor was the only place in Califorina where a person could drive 10 miles over the speed limit and not worry. Not any more. HP will stop people for five miles over the limit from Colfax to Auburn...people traveling from Tahoe and Reno are stopped constantly. Cops sit on the overpasses and onramps with radar guns, then call their buds. Not unusual seeing 10 cars on the side of the road getting written up for speeding.

Good morning all wildclickers. Have clicked for the day and nothing new to report from here.

Good earthturn all ~

Rain later today...adding mother nature nutrients to fed plants and lawns.

luv Spring

http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674

clicked this a.m.

sunny and warmish today

below freezing temps expected for later in the week

the roller coaster's fun!

(you just can't EVER put your coat and hat away)

Nice clickering all Wildclickers.

All clickered down here.

Absolutely beautiful!

Good morning all. Overcast here but not too cool.

Hi Teeny, good to see you again. I just now saw your post on the other thread I was on http://able2know.org/topic/142870-5#post-3941303
and wanted to let you know the people there weren't making fun of you, just joking around with each other. If you go back and read all the posts (mostly by Joe, who's a very good lawyer) you'll find the answer to your question - I think. Mostly inside jokes were involved - some I barely followed myself.

March 25, 2010
Op-Ed ContributorsToo-Busy Bees By MARCELO AIZEN and LAWRENCE HARDER
IN the past five years, as the phenomenon known as colony-collapse disorder has spread across the United States and Europe, causing the disappearance of whole colonies of domesticated honeybees, many people have come to fear that our food supply is in peril. The news on Wednesday that a Department of Agriculture survey found that American honeybees had died in great numbers this winter can only add to such fears.

The truth, fortunately, is not nearly so dire. But it is more complicated.

There is good news: While some areas are seeing a shortage of bees, globally the number of domesticated honeybee colonies is increasing. The bad news is that this increase can’t keep up with our growing appetite for luxury foods that depend heavily on bee pollination. The domesticated honeybee isn’t the only pollinator that agriculture relies on " wild bees also play a significant role, and we seem intent on destroying their habitats.

To understand the problem, we need to understand the extent of the honeybee’s role in agriculture. Humans certainly benefit from the way bees " and to a lesser extent, other pollinators like flies, beetles and butterflies " help plants produce fruits and seeds. Agriculture, however, is not as dependent on pollinators as one might think. It’s true that some crops like raspberries, cashews, cranberries and mangoes cannot reproduce without pollinators. But crops like sugar cane and potatoes, grown for their stems or tubers, can be propagated without pollination. And the crops that provide our staple carbohydrates " wheat, rice and corn " are either wind-pollinated or self-pollinated. These don’t need bees at all.

Overall, about one-third of our worldwide agricultural production depends to some extent on bee pollination, but less than 10 percent of the 100 most productive crop species depend entirely on it. If pollinators were to vanish, it would reduce total food production by only about 6 percent.

This wouldn’t mean the end of human existence, but if we want to continue eating foods like apples and avocados, we need to understand that bees and other pollinators can’t keep up with the current growth in production of these foods.

The reason is that fruit and seed crops that are most dependent on pollinators yield relatively little food per acre, and therefore take up an inordinate, and increasing, amount of land. The fraction of agriculture dependent on pollination has increased by 300 percent in half a century.

The paradox is that our demand for these foods endangers the wild bees that help make their cultivation possible. The expansion of farmland destroys wild bees’ nesting sites and also wipes out the wildflowers that the bees depend on when food crops aren’t in blossom. Researchers in Britain and the Netherlands have found that the diversity of wild bee species in most regions in those countries has declined since 1980. This decrease was mostly due to the loss of bees that require very particular habitats " bees that couldn’t adapt after losing their homes and food sources to cultivation. Similarly, between 1940 and 1960, as land increasingly came under cultivation in the American Midwest, several bumblebee species disappeared from the area. It is difficult to count and keep track of wild bee populations globally, but their numbers are probably declining overall as a result of such human activity.

Even if the number of wild pollinators remained stable, it would not be sufficient to meet the increasing demand for agricultural pollination. Could domesticated bees take up the slack? By looking at data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we found that the number of managed honeybee hives increased by 45 percent during the past five decades.

Unfortunately, this increase cannot counteract the growing demand for pollination or the shortage of wild pollinators. Domesticated bees mainly produce honey; any contribution they make to crop pollination is usually a secondary benefit. In most parts of the world, they provide pollination only locally and not necessarily where it is needed most.

Thus a vicious cycle: Fewer pollinating bees reduce yield per acre " and lower yield requires cultivation of more land to produce the same amount of food.

Eventually, a growing shortage of pollinators will limit what foods farmers can produce. If we want to continue to enjoy almonds, apples and avocados, we have to cultivate fewer of them, more sustainably, and protect the wild bees that help make their production possible.

Marcelo Aizen is a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina. Lawrence Harder is a professor of pollination ecology at the University of Calgary.

See my reply in the forum.

Oh, I'm all clicked!

Teenys got that boone boone pow (black eyed peas song)

Thursday humor. Take it or leave it.

Clicked today, and many days before. Roll, roll, on a roll, gently down the stream,....