Last summer one of my hens had the same sort of problem. I started calling her Mohawka because she just had a little ridge of feathers up the back of her neck. My vet has had to limit his practice and doesn't see livestock animals anymore, but when I talked to him about it (while he was seeing one of my dogs),he gave me a couple of doses of Ivermectin to give her 10 days apart. Don't know if that was what did it, but eventually Mohawka grew her feathers back. The other stuff? Who knows why chickens do what chickens do?!?! Some of my birds seem to prefer to eat off the floor instead of out of the feeder, too. Maybe she enjoys feeling like she's "stealing" the new birds' food? Hope they shape up and quit driving you nuts soon!

Indeed, it was a very nice afternoon at Glaciers End! We visited this place at the right moment because of the nice weather and taking pics, about 2 weeks later it was only white we would see because of the snow and ice chrystals...(see link) Dave, thanks for having us at your beautiful gardens! Some comments to the pics: Dave mentioned that he will cut off one leader of the Abies procera 'Rat Tail' in Spring. 'Rat Tail' is often seen as only 'Rat' but it's clear that this cultivar is named after it's tail and not the animal itself... Calocedrus decurrens 'Maupin Glow' When we were at Jason Hupp's nursery he told us that this one was found in Maupin which is a small town which is also in the Oregon State. Picea mariana 'Blue Teardrop' This one was found by Bob Fincham as a faster growing mutation on a Picea mariana 'Nana'. Somethimes you see it also under the wrong spellend cultivar names 'Blue Tierdrop' and 'Blue Tear Drop'... Picea abies 'Gold Dust' This is a big specimen indeed, but we saw a much bigger one which was at least 4 times as big at Don Howse from Porterhowse Nursery. 'Gold Dust' was found 30 years ago between understock seedlings by Talon Buchholz and I guess that Don's specimen was one of the first propagations... Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Drath Hexe'. This cultivar was found as a witches' broom on a 'Drath'. All nurseries are selling those as cultivars of Chamaecyparis obtusa but it was me who discovered that those are cultivars of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana because of the cones that the 'Drath' will produce. 'Drath Hexe' was found by in 1990 my German friend Guenter Eschrich. @ Sam, pizza, girls and conifers is the most ideal situation you can wish for. All this with a couple of beers and you feel like you're in heaven :0) @ Josh, unfortunately our photo camaras were left in the car but I bet Dave will go back there and will make a nice pic of her. He's a regular customer of that bar (I guess I know why now) and the only thing he has to tell her is that this pic will make her famous all around the (conifer) world. Well Dave, jump in your car and accomplish this mission so everybody here will know what I'm talking about :0) Here is a link that might be useful: bad weather for taking pics...

Hits: -New jute LR rug, it pulled the room together far better than expected and bonus points for being super-soft. Have to watch out for lounging felines when we walk through because cats evidently think it is a 9x12 cat Tem(purrrr)pedic and are ALWAYS stretched out somewhere on it -New recliners; they not only are totally comfortable but look so elegant and NOT reclinerish. Love, love, love them. Bonus points that I can at long last have cream chenille upholstery on LR furniture, woohoo. Although I have had sheets of aluminum foil on the seats for several weeks since the cats seem to migrate from the rug to the chairs if I let 'em -(Stolen from someone else) My holiday decorating this year was gorgeous, at least in my eyes :). Found some beautiful holiday pillows on sale at Pier 1, some lovely wreaths, all in my color scheme and everything appeared so festive . My sister told me that my niece said 'mom, the tree looks like it came out of a magazine'. The cats had no interest in the tree,they were sacked out on the jute rug Misses: -Huge expensive miss on new dining room table and chairs. Ethan Allen stuff and expensive enough that I just cannot get rid of 'em immediatly but I misjudged horribly on size. The table is far too large for the space and now I don't even have room for a tiny table or buffet. The chairs are bulky and pretty darned uncomfortable to boot. I made the mistake of buying for max capacity (holiday gatherings, annual club dinner at my home) without really thinking through the reality that 99.999% of the time the only people dining at home are my husband and me. Really, it's like that scene from Citizen Kane every night, him at one end and me waaaaaaaaay at the other. Luckily whichever one of the cats that has roused herself from the jute rug usually sits on an empty chair with her cat head poking up, so at least we've got a bit of visual comic relief -Still have several rooms of shame, including my son's room, the florida room and our office. I have a long standing goal of decluttering which didn't happen once again in 2014. However 2015 is looking promising: son is living with girl friend, daughter is moving out and I hope to get rid of miscellaneous extra furniture plus REALLY get in and toss out lots of detritus. Hope springs eternal. Cats love jute. That is all

Florence King Quotes American - Writer Born: January 5, 1936 True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories. Florence King In social matters, pointless conventions are not merely the bee sting of etiquette, but the snake bite of moral order. Florence King Now the only thing I miss about sex is the cigarette afterward. Next to the first one in the morning, it's the best one of all. It tasted so good that even if I had been frigid I would have pretended otherwise just to be able to smoke it. Florence King People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they're all asleep at the switch. Consequently we are living in the Age of Human Error. Florence King The witty woman is a tragic figure in American life. Wit destroys eroticism and eroticism destroys wit, so women must choose between taking lovers and taking no prisoners. Florence King American couples have gone to such lengths to avoid the interference of in-laws that they have to pay marriage counselors to interfere between them. Florence King Showing up at school already able to read is like showing up at the undertaker's already embalmed: people start worrying about being put out of their jobs. Florence King Americans worship creativity the way they worship physical beauty - as a way of enjoying elitism without guilt: God did it. Florence King He travels fastest who travels alone, and that goes double for she. Real feminism is spinsterhood. Florence King I'd rather rot on my own floor than be found by a bunch of bingo players in a nursing home. Florence King Time has lost all meaning in that nightmare alley of the Western world known as the American mind. Florence King Writers who have nothing to say always strain for metaphors to say it in. Florence King Writers, not psychiatrists, are the true interpreters of the human mind and heart, and we have been at it for a very long time. Florence King To achieve the very pinnacle of good taste, the neoclassicists wrote their plays entirely in alexandrine verse, a rarefied meter that is uniquely tailored to the French language and fits no other. Florence King Michael O'Donoghue Quotes American - Writer January 5, 1940 - November 8, 1994 It's very easy to make insects move. Because they do move mechanically without the rippling of flesh as you mentioned. They move more like real tinker toys and you can make models of them quite easily. Michael O'Donoghue Working with Woody Allen is like filming Howard Hughes's will. It's a very mysterious and strange event. You never get a peek at the whole will. Michael O'Donoghue Television doesn't want to admit it has those dreadful roach ads on anyway. Michael O'Donoghue Insects are my secret fear. That's what terrifies me more than anything - insects. Michael O'Donoghue Anyway, the title The War of the Insect Gods came before we had that ending, before we knew they had become gods. That we knew the evolutionary cycle they went through. Before we even knew anything about that. We had an ending. Michael O'Donoghue A Madagascar Hissing Roach chasing Jerry Lewis. That would be a really neat treat. Michael O'Donoghue Nothing important has ever come out of San Francisco, Rice-a-Roni aside. Michael O'Donoghue Once you put yourself in the hands of the government, you could end up in Utah. Michael O'Donoghue I try to attack all races and creeds, except the Irish. Clearly they are closest to the angels and don't deserve abuse. But the others have it coming. Michael O'Donoghue I think therapy interferes with the creative process. It takes off the edge. Michael O'Donoghue I am Hollywood's hottest young, middle-aged director, but I'll write out of New York because I don't want to become a salad head. That's what you become out there: a guacamole dip. Michael O'Donoghue One of my problems is I am getting so mature that I have to pick up a TV and toss it through the coffee table just to remind people of who I am. I want to go ranting and screaming into the grave. Michael O'Donoghue Any good humor is sophomoric. 'Sophomoric' is the liberal word for funny. Michael O'Donoghue Making people laugh is the lowest form of comedy. Michael O'Donoghue The true essence of comedy is a baby seal hunt. Michael O'Donoghue Sometimes you have to be cruel... in order to be even crueler. Michael O'Donoghue Hayao Miyazaki Quotes Japanese - Director Born: January 5, 1941 I am an animator. I feel like I'm the manager of a animation cinema factory. I am not an executive. I'm rather like a foreman, like the boss of a team of craftsmen. That is the spirit of how I work. Hayao Miyazaki I can't stand modern movies. The images are too weird and eccentric for me. Hayao Miyazaki I don't like games. You're robbing the precious time of children to be children. They need to be in touch with the real world more. Hayao Miyazaki I think Tokyo is going to sink under water soon. All those stupid high-rise buildings will sink and maybe all the traffic will be gone. And everything will be peaceful and quiet. Hayao Miyazaki All my films are all my children. Hayao Miyazaki I do all my work by storyboard, so as I draw the storyboard, the world gets more and more complex, and as a result, my North, South, East, West directions kind of shift and go off base, but it seems like my staff as well as the audience, doesn't quite realize that this has happened. Don't tell them about it. Hayao Miyazaki Animators can only draw from their own experiences of pain and shock and emotions. Hayao Miyazaki Plants exist in the weather and light rays that surround them - waving in the wind, shimmering in the sunlight. I am always puzzling over how to draw such things. Hayao Miyazaki We get strength and encouragement from watching children. Hayao Miyazaki I think we should stop using nuclear power plants because it's an old system that we can't control. Hayao Miyazaki I get inspiration from my everyday life. Hayao Miyazaki Humans have both the urge to create and destroy. Hayao Miyazaki People in Japan have experienced many tsunamis and various earthquakes throughout the ages. Hayao Miyazaki I like underwater life. Hayao Miyazaki Watching John Lasseter's films, I think I can understand better than anyone that what he's doing, is going straight ahead with his vision and working really hard to get that vision into film form. And I feel that my understanding this of him is my friendship towards him. Hayao Miyazaki Sometimes I test myself saying, 'If I get a death sentence if I don't make this movie, would I still make this movie?' Hayao Miyazaki My process is thinking, thinking and thinking - thinking about my stories for a long time. Hayao Miyazaki To have a film where there's an evil figure and a good person fights against the evil figure and everything becomes a happy ending, that's one way to make a film. But then that means you have to draw, as an animator, the evil figure. And it's not very pleasant to draw evil figures. Hayao Miyazaki It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime. Hayao Miyazaki We live in an age when it is cheaper to buy the rights to movies than to make them. Hayao Miyazaki I never read reviews. I'm not interested. But I value a lot the reactions of the spectators. Hayao Miyazaki I create women characters by watching the female staff at my studio. Half the staff are women. Hayao Miyazaki I'd like more of the world go back to being wild. Hayao Miyazaki If you're going to retire, retire early. Hayao Miyazaki Currently computer graphics are used a great deal, but it can be excessive. Hayao Miyazaki I can't do a film after having debated it. I am unable to do a film while discussing it with my team. I issue directives. I do not achieve it otherwise. Hayao Miyazaki Is someone different at age 18 or 60? I believe one stays the same. Hayao Miyazaki When a man is shooting a handgun, it's just like he is shooting because that's his job, and he has no other choice. It's no good. When a girl is shooting a handgun, it's really something. Hayao Miyazaki It seems like everything that we see perceived in the brain before we actually use our own eyes, that everything we see is coming through computers or machines and then is being input in our brain cells. So that really worries me. Hayao Miyazaki I'm not a collector. Hayao Miyazaki I think it's really good for a family or children to have a dog, cat, bird or whatever to grow up with. I've never studied psychology. Hayao Miyazaki I wish I was better at art. I love some of the great artists of the 19th century and, compared to them, I just feel I lack this technique that they had. They have so much skill. Hayao Miyazaki I don't intentionally make deep movies. Hayao Miyazak