And now Coyotes, too.

One of my mum's barn cats has gone missing, and its highly likely that she was killed by Coyotes.

I liked that cat, too. She loved it when I was around to pet her.

Nice snake! Her markings are so pretty. I wish she would come eat some of our voles.

TK, I’m sorry about your cat.

So sorry to hear about your cat, TK

I'd like to get a snake but my old lady is too afraid of them to have one around. If I were going to get one I would probably get a python because I like their body structure and their coloration.

Unfortunately, when we used to have chickens I had to kill a few black snakes that were eating the baby chicks. One was about six feet long or so and while I didn't really enjoy killing it, he had three or four lumps on his mid section where he had eaten a bunch of freshly hatched chickens. Bad thing about non venomous snakes is that they swallow other animals whole if they can fit their mouths around them.

Good pictures there Trey, she's a beauty. Impressive too, I've only once seen a snake (alive) in the wild, that was a cobra in India and at a sufficent distance.

No such wildlife here (well unless you count some of the locals), even most of the plants are dead.

Ahem....I..am actually rather scared of snakes, I think you're quite brave treydoggie to approach those that near....Ewwww


Aaaanyhow, I'm off tomorrow for Germany , back 5th of august. Just maybe I will get a chance or two to access internet, but I can't promise...so you'll have to be without me for some time!

See you all soon! Bye!

GAAAAAH !!!! Mrs. Treydog is brave, I may have to send her a medal with a snake on it (to match the one she sent me with the mouse on it) - the pictures are GAAAAAH !!! But my hat is off in a hearty "BRAVO !!!" to Mrs. Treydog !!!



Here is Mrs. Treydog's medal, the image on the right shows how the snake would have been climbing up into the house if Mrs. Treydog hadn't risked life and limb to deter it ... :


http://oregondigital.org/cgi-bin/getimage....&DMROTATE=0

*

sorry about the cat. I'd miss my buddy if she were to disappear. She always sits on my lap at night while I do stuff on the computer.

Several years ago I acted as Wedding Coordinator for my cousins wedding at an historical home that had a vineyard on the grounds. Everything was set up outside and we had a sudden summer shower which postponed the ceremony for about 45 minutes. The rain stopped and my son, who was 12 or so, and I went out and dried off all the chairs so we could get started. I was standing at the door as the first few people went out to take their seats and one of the men screamed like a girl "SNAKE" and of course everyone scattered. I walked out to see a Black Racer curled up in a slight indentation under one of the chairs. Casey, my son was by my side,( all of my children have incurable cases of Mama-itis) Thankfully all of my children have inherited my love of nature and all the creatures therein. "Mama sorry I missed him when I dried off that chair."

I gently moved the chair and removed our friend, he was about 5 1/2 or 6 feet. The rain had cooled him off a bit so he was pretty calm. I took him out to the far end of the vineyard and set him free. I made sure to ask him nicely to find another warm hole as we didn't need his company for the ceremony.

Anyway, every year on their anniversary, I get something from them with a "Thank you" card. Not for being the coordinator but for removing the snake. It always cracks me up.

Have a safe trip Minque, we'll miss you while you are away. Hopefully we'll be getting an update to Serene's story soon. Thyna is getting quite anxious over the whole thing.

I have a very conditional fear of Spiders. The worst of them all being Black widows, I mean...its this deadly deep black color, with a symbol human mortality, an hourglass, on its creepy abdomen. Yuck!! But all 'household' spiders, I hate and kill the second I see them.

On the other hand, I have no problem with larger spiders like tarantulas, I can handle them no problem. I like and handle snakes of all varieties, even a King Cobra once (Devenomized, no I don't support hacking into their heads, it was just an opportunity to handle one.)

And weirdest of all: I would actually love to own a Emperor Scorpion....

Do not click if the sight of a large black scorpion scares you...

Despite their fearsome appearance they're actually quite tame when handled and fed by humans regularly, and they actually do well in captivity, living 5-8 years, as opposed to 3-7 years in the wild, and the sting is comparable to a bee sting.

I am not allergic, as it once happened that I entered into my room several years ago, that I shared with a roommate, and saw this giant, evil looking black scorpion on top of my dresser in a small terrarium. I proceeded to leave the room and rant maniacally about said giant, evil looking black scorpion to my roommate.

After several weeks, I grew accustomed to Darth Darkness. (Not my idea,...his..) and began to handle him occasionally, once or twice I was stung by him. Not viciously so, but enough to get some of the venom in me, and it wasn't the least bit damaging to me, no shortness of breath or tightness in the throat.

So yeah...I household spiders...but I'll sick my giant, black evil looking scorpion on them...

My youngest daughter is deathly afraid of spiders, any spiders, she seems to be able to see microscopic spiders and will scream like she is being burned alive. She doesn't react like that to anything else. I don't like spiders or other creepy-crawlies in the house just because but they don't freak me out.

BH I think the scorpion is cool!!!

Athynae - that wedding story s a good one. Makes me glad we don't have many snakes here.

As far as spiders go I don't exactly like them but I'm not fussed and happy enough to have them in the house. They eat flies and I like flies far less than spiders. The only creature I just won't have around is wasps, I hate the things, especially at the back end of the year when they will just sting for no reason. If there's a wasps nest anywhere near by I do for it as soon as I find it.

That scorpion does look rather cool BH, rather you than me for keeping it though.

I like that story too Olen, I have a few other snake stories in my repertoire but that is by far my fave. I like any creature that depletes the pest population. Spiders, snakes, lizards, frogs they are all welcome, as long as they live outside where they are supposed to be. I currently have a Garter snake that lives in the crawl space under my house and even though I have a large yard and it's next to some fields and a creek I do not have any rodents trying to "get in".

I don't like wasps or hornets either but they don't harass me. I was swarmed by a nest of paper hornets when I was about 6, almost did me in, eyes swelled shut, tubes in my nose so I could breath, etc but since then they don't come near me, hehe. Doctor told me they could "sense" the toxin and so they leave me alone. You would think after 40 + years it would have dissipated but they'll fly around me and then fly away.

Spiders don't bother me much, I have to agree with wasps though (and hornets now, ouch). Moths are the worst for me, it's not a fear, I just don't like them for some reason. It could be because I live in northern England so there is nothing here and a large moth is as scary as it gets

I should send Her Highness, my daughter Shelby, to Northern England then, lol.

I’ve only seen one large snake in our garden. A black snake stretched across the driveway with three lumps along it. They were too big to be baby birds, I’m guessing they were bunnies. I just left it alone, and it went slowly about its business. I was afraid we would hurt it if we picked it up while it was full.

We have black widows under the porch, some of them get quite big. The rule is that if the ball goes under the porch, it belongs to the spiders. The ones that give me an occasional surprise are the big garden spiders who put their enormous webs across the front walkway. I have had more than one pre-dawn dance with those.

One summer I had a little jumping spider living on my kitchen windowsill. I guess it got the gnats that came to the night light. He was my cute, friendly little spider buddy. I’m guessing it was a he, since I don’t have a million more jumping spiders in my kitchen.

The best spider encounter I’ve had in my garden was a mama wolf spider like this one with babies on her back.

What I’d like to see less of are the damned deer.

Spiders of almost all varieties creep me out to no end, the larger the fangs the more freaked out I will get. Snakes and such I think I would be okay with, however since England is largely snake free I can't really make much of a claim to those.

Moths however I love, they're actually really pretty when you manage to get a look at them, the dusky colours and the fur and the large fluffy antenae. Out of everything my cats manage to bring in the moths are my favourite. I still have yet to figure out how the cats manage to both catch them, and bring them in perfectly unharmed though.

Here’s what you need, KC:
Going to Grits' House Suit

ROFL!!!!!! Grits, poor KC, he and my daughter would get along I believe, until they encountered one of said demons that is.

Then it's every (wo)man for himself/herself?

Each of them trying to throw the other to the wolves, I mean spiders, lol. Of course KC would be seriously hampered due to the extremely loud and high pitched screams of the 12 year old female. First hand knowledge of said scream renders one physically incapable of anything beyond covering your ears and falling to the ground while you hope she either faints from fear or a sudden shortage of oxygen.

Grits the Younger is something of a future knight in shining armor, unless he sees a flying insect. That boy will trample toddlers and bowl over the elderly to get away from a bee. Or even more amusing, something that he thinks might be a bee. He doesn’t scream, thankfully. He just wordlessly bolts.

Dear god those are huge spiders!

The things up here are babies compared to those! Also, any chance of tempting your family to go to oblivi- I mean under your porch to take some pictures of the widows? just curious to see the size of them.

Oh hell no! There are spiders under there! The only spider I’m afraid of is the unseen spider. *shiver* Here’s as close as I’ll get:

There Be Spiders

Now crawl about fifteen feet and look up. They build their webs where the porch meets the house. The biggest black widow I’ve seen was about the size of my thumbnail plus legs, and it was under the siding. We had to pull some off and fix the flashing, hello spiders. They’re pretty shy, and their webs are a mess. I checked the other spot I’ve seen them, inside the ash chute that comes from under the fireplace. Now there are just little brown spiders in there.

The garden spiders are much bigger. They hang in the middle of their webs, many feet away from visible support. The web strands are incredibly strong. So when you walk through them, the spider is right in your face. The strands wrap around the more you twirl in a blind panic attempt to remove yourself, and they don’t easily break. During which interval the spider (who has a discernable weight on you) is also trying to escape. Ah, better than caffeine for an early wakeup. Thankfully the spiders are harmless, unless you’re a cicada, butterfly, or small bird.

I. hate. spiders.

KC, don't read this.

Here’s a story about Mr. Grits and the Garden Spider. The garage at Grits Manor is used for exercise, so we park in the driveway. This leaves the cars vulnerable to disrespect from the birds and infiltration by invertebrates when Mr. Grits leaves the window cracked. So one fine day in the fall when the spiders have reached their maximum diameter, the Grits family piles into the Mr. Grits Wagon. Everyone buckles up, preflight checklist complete, when I turn the find the driver’s door hanging open and Mr. Grits mysteriously gone. I glance around and spot him standing in the driveway behind the car. WTF? I make a few gestures, but he just stands there. One of the kids in the back seat says, “Spider!” So I start looking in the back seat, turning around and completely cracking my neck by the way. No, the spider is in the front, they say.

Oh, in the front seat. With me. I turn around and immediately spot (because it is HUGE) a garden spider gently descending from the rear view mirror. I think, if I don’t catch this thing Mr. Grits is going to need a new car, because I’m sure not letting him drive the (spider free) Grits Wagon and he’ll never get back in here. The kids start a chorus of “Save the spider.”

So I scramble out to find some branch and leaf combination lying around that will be big enough to support the weight of this thing while I move it, calling to the kids still buckled in the back seat, “Watch where it goes.” Grits the Youngest, a curly-haired, dimpled, female child of about eight years at the time, bails out of the car. She has a cup in her little hands, harvested from the debris on the back seat floor. (Mr. Grits’ car, what can I say.) She scoops up the spider and relocates it to the bushes, leaving the cup there for good measure, cooing at it the whole time in a soothing manner. Then she goes to comfort her dad, six feet of muscle and manliness standing at a safe distance.

Now I realize where my son’s silent flight comes from. It would be bad strategy to alert your companions when you’re fleeing danger. He doesn’t have to outrun the bee, he just has to outrun his mom.

I'm with KC on this. Just reading this page gave my legs that strange feeling that only happens when I'm beyond terrified.



I should seriously buy that for when I need to go into the shed

I kept getting chills racing up my spine as if there was something on my back. GAH.
I DIDN'T.

Good god, can you believe that compassion that happened in Norway? Makes me sick to my stomach, that.

Always said fascism is a crime and not an opinion.

I'm okay with spiders, so long as they kill the cockroaches. Cockroaches.. Grrrr. Those creepy little busterds gives me the fear of death itself! And I'm 5'7 in height! Can you believe a giant could be so afraid of tiny little things? Well, my relatives and friends don't! Their crue japes of 'Let's-Prank-The-Giant-By-Bombarding-Him-With-Dead-Roaches!' will be come back at them tenfold I tell you!

Errr, point being I am a giant among my peers and have a shameful fear of roaches. And even if I have a bug-slaying spray in my hand, I'd rather take flight than fight.

-----------

@stargelman: What happened, exactly?

ureniashtram - a man with neo-nazi links set off a car bomb in central Oslo then shot a lot of people at a political youth rally on an island not far from it. The death toll is somewhere just shy of 100 at the moment. Take a look at almost any western news network.

Starge - yes it makes you think. For all the worry about unpleasant forms of Islam (and they certianly exist) the west cultivates its own share of problems. As for facism I suppose the question is where is the line drawn? There's only so much you can restrict free speach and most neo-nazi/ supremist/ facist views will try to feed off their being banned rather than being squashed out in the open but reasoned argument. But then on the other hand there are a portion of people who don't take reason, as this has shown.

Sympathies to those affected, of course.

What saddens me is that this terrorist, like other terrorists of the right, left, and both-at-the-same-time before him...AS WELL AS terrorists of the non-political kind, such as mass murderers, serial killers, child molesters...are slowly, case by case, turning human societies into societies based upon suspicion of one's fellow man, and societies in which the power of government to police, regulate, and investigate its citizens keeps growing - as it must, to fight terrorism in all its forms.

The Norwegian Prime Minister commented that his Paradise has turned into Hell. How true, and not just for Norway.

On behalf of my fellow coutrymen I thank you for your sympathies. As you can probably Imagine I'm in a state of shock at the moment, my cousin was one of the 87 people killed this friday on Utøya (another 7 were killed by the homemade fertilizer bomb in Oslo).

The last day's have been very difficult not only for me on a personal level, but for Norwegians as a whole. These last day's we've all been brothers and sisters standing together unified through our grief, so we must always remember that though we have different backgroudns and views like religion, etnicity, languages and political opinions we are all children of the same earth,

Tomorrow at 12 o'clock (Norwegian time) the country will be joined in one minute silence, I hope that those of you who can will join us in respect for the dead.

Tellie571 out.

Dear Tellie! I'm sooooo sorry to hear about your cousin! It's a difficult time for you and your family, as well as your countrymen. My thoughts and prayers go to you, your family, and your fellow Norwegians at this horrible time. Take care of yourself!

Bless you, Tellie- and all who are affected by this tragedy. My thoughts have been of you and our other Norwegian friends these last days. I have always hoped that, in its own way, Chorrol can be part of the process of bringing all of us closer together. It has been my great joy to have made friends from across the world- and as close as my own backyard- through the magic of this community.

The flip side of that is that terrible events no longer just happen to "other people," but to my friends. Perhaps, with more of that sense of community encompassing the world, there will be fewer tragedies. For now, we hold you and your family in our hearts.

Tellie, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry this has happened to you and your country.

Tellie, I stand with the rest of your Forum Family in passing along my deepest sympathy for you and your family as well as your fellow countrymen. We are holding you close in our hearts.

Tellie, you have my deepest sympathy. Many around the world will share your moment of silence. Please know that we are lifting you up in our hearts as you and your family grieve for your cousin, and in the time to come as you deal with what comes when a tragedy is brought about by violence. I am so sorry for your loss, Tellie. My heart breaks for you and your countrymen.

True story: My Maternal Grandfather was a German Jew immigrant to America in 1926. Fifteen years later he was in the American Army on the shores of Germany fighting Nazi's.

This perpetrator is a representative of a dying age in the world, an age where we fight each other for our differences instead of unifying with our similarities.

My sympathies to everyone's loss in this tragic time.

Sympathies and prayers for you, Tellie, and all those who were affected in this tragedy.

My sincere condolences to our fellow Nords for the terrible events that unfolded in Oslo today.

Anyways, on a lighter note, I just finished with importing my Fallout 3 install back to my hard drive. Again, all is exactly as I left it when my previous PC was lost, it was just a matter of reinstalling the game (to put all the needed APIs and registry entries back in) and replacing the old game data folder my previous game data folder.

Now, starting the game the normal way is likely going to lead to the famous "Ordinal 5360" error at this point because I have not installed the GFWL update needed, but I'm not going to because I can simply use FOSE to bypass the GFWL functionality. No reason to use it at all, since I purchased my copy GOTY.

So far, performance has seen the usual increase due to the massively improved CPU in my machine (Sandy Bridge vs. Core 2 architecture, it makes a helluva difference) and the game reloaded my previous save without fuss and didn't experience any terrible instability during my 10 minute romp in the Wasteland, so I think I'm solid here.

By the way Beth, thank you for fixing the HDR + AA issue in Fallout 3! I know, I could bypass it in Oblivion by forcing AA through my video drivers, but now even that is off the table due to OBGE's presence. Simple story, OBGE needs the depth buffer to work, and that conflicts with GPU Anti-Aliasing, since it need the depth buffer, too. DX9 only allows for one program at a time to use the depth buffer, so that means no more AA in Oblivion ever for me aside from shader solutions, which tend to blur the image as a side-effect.

Oh Tellie, I am so sorry! My heart goes out to you and your family, and to all who suffered or were affected by this.

That was a horrible thing that happened, if only the police had been able to react faster. The sickest part is that Norway has no death penalty to properly punish the sadistic prick.

Oh I think death is too quick and painless for him. In case there isn't a hell, lets make him suffer as much as possible before he goes.

hhmm, Hang him by his toes, cover him with honey and let the ants have at him.....and whatever other carrion eaters should happen by...

Actually Norway has death penalty. For High Treason and Crimes against the people, the government or King can order the prisoner to be brought to trial under military law (crimes during wartime/judged by military law). Then he can potentially found guilty and have to face death by firing squad.

They are already discussing whether to try him under peacetime laws or wartime, (longest sentece during war time is 30 years, after that firing squad).

Me I say that he is locked up for the rest of his life. Keeping someone locked up is far more inhumane than a quick death, and he deserves it.

Rant over.

Again thank you so much for your support, it is great to see how many friends we truly have here at chorrol.

Chorrol is and always has been my favorite fan forum, I just wish it was more active these days. It actually has picked up a little from what it was like a year ago or so but isn't and won't be as active as before OB came out.

I think that's part of its charm. Agreed it was way to slow a year ago, but it has enough going on now, maybe a few more active members would be nice but it moves. I can't be bothered with bigger forums which move too quickly. Poaching prize members from the other forum was an inspired idea by Trey, kept this place going with out it ended up like the other forums (which I've never even bothered to join).

Might see a bit of a surge as Skyrim gets closer too...

Personally, I like our little community. Get too big and you end up with the dreaded trolls and flamers, since we'd be so big. Right now were a small, close community. Everyone gets along well and we have no flamers. But lately...

Anyone else notice some of our recent new members being banned? Good to know we have active moderators and stuff!