Bird Brain… Not such an insult!

Gregory Peck has learnt a game… or he’s taught me one…

I placed a fir cone on a shelf for him. The shelf is at an end of the cage with a door in it. The shelf splits the door opening, so with the door open, you can either reach in to the shelf, or the floor.

Anyway, I opened the door, placed the cone on the shelf to encourage him to investigate.

He walked under the edge of the shelf, reached up and grabbed the fir cone and placed it on the cage floor, just under the shelf.

I opened the end door, he stood back so I could get the cone. I reached under the shelf, took the cone & placed it on the shelf again.

Once more, he hopped forward, reached up & took the cone, placing it nearer the middle of the cage floor.

I opened the door, reached under the shelf, took the cone & placed it back on the shelf. Again, Gregory hopped over, reached up and took the cone to the middle of the cage this time.

I went to get the cone again, but as Gregory had put it further inside, I had to duck down and reach in under the shelf…

…and with a flurry of wings he flew/leapt onto the shelf (shown no signs of that before) and hopped to the open door!

I stood up and blocked his way from escaping, but he just sat there… watching… then turned around and hopped down to the cone & flicked it.

Yeah, not likely Gregory! I know your plan!

I thought he was learning to play a game, but he was already one step ahead and playing me!

I tell you, these birds are astounding! I knew they were clever, but this is a step above learning to do something for reward by repetitive training! This is thinking things through, observing, testing…

Damn smart bird!

Once he’s healthy & got his feathers back, we’ll see if he wants to fly. A bit undecided, as he’s an old chap we think, and we may have rescued him on his last wild legs. Old, & with a prior respiratory infection, stiff wings, and a mostly bald head, it’s unlikely he’d survive winter in the wild.

Further checks over him show medium sized jaw teeth marks on his back, across his wings and chest, as if he has been caught & held by a dog. He’s a lucky crow.

We may end up making a large outdoor aviary for him. Protected freedom.

The name’s Peck. Gregory Peck.

The other day we lost Chicken 22 to old age. She was clucked out, but had a fun and free life after we rescued her from battery farm hell. A lovely lady and one of the oldest we had.

At the same time 22 reached her final days, a friend of a friend told Chris that she was moving  house and needed someone to take on her hens. Yes, it writes itself… The hen numbers are back to where they were a few months back. Lovely pets, and these two new girls are stunners!

Sally & Mabel

Avid readers of this blog (ha!) will probably have realised by now that we are animal mad…

It just got madder.

Chris picked up a new family member at the stables the other day. An injured bird had been hanging around for a few days, so with our birdy experience, Chris decided to nurse it back to health.

Gregory Peck joined the madhouse.

Now we know chickens are clever, but this guy is worlds apart. You can see him think… he looks at one thing, then moves on, then back to the other thing…. and you see the thought process… He’s not the largest crow I’ve seen, but he’s still a big lad.

He’s been in a fight. Maybe another bird, birds, fox… car? and he has an old scar across his back under his feathers and his head is half bald. This scar may be pulling his skin when he tries to fly, as he doesn’t seem comfortable getting airborne, even though his wings are fine.

He has a mild chest infection, and is a bit bug infested, so he is going through some bird nutrients and a bathing ritual to clean him up. He already looks a lot better.

Corvids are among the most intelligent, if not the most intelligent, of birds. Peck has shown this by completely accepting us as friends. Day one and he was very wary and pecky to us. Day two, after food, bath, blow dry and mite powdering he is easy to handle and no fuss at all. It is said that crows have very good memories and facial recognition, so if you cross one or mistreat it, it won’t forget. From a shy, scared and pecky wreck, he now sits on my shoulder with out a care.

More photos HERE.

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Jesus people! Get an education!

This is the YouTube hosted version of a video from the Christian ‘YouTube‘ clone ‘GODVINE’… (no… I’m not kidding).

Here is the actual Godvine site:

Woman Drowning in her SUV is Miraculously Saved

No one at this scene can explain how this woman was able to be rescued. It defies everything we know, and it can only be seen as a miracle of God.

http://www.godvine.com/Woman-Drowning-in-her-SUV-is-Miraculously-Saved-1342.html

No one at the scene can explain how the woman was rescued?

Well, that PROVES one thing and one thing only…. that the people at the scene did not have a clue about real world physics.

It does NOT prove the existence of a God.

Simple physics.

• She would have gone for the door handle, because the electric windows wouldn’t have worked due to water ingression.
• The door wouldn’t have opened initially, due to the high water pressure keeping it shut.
• She would have carried on trying the door as she saw people trying to get to her.
• Once the car is submerged, the water pressure inside the car matches the pressure outside the car. The door is easily opened.
• She puts her arm out and is grabbed.
• As the car is pulled forward out of the water after the rescue, the doors would shut in the current.

Some people find God in the most dubious of circumstances, but this again shows people using ‘God‘ because they don’t understand physics.

As someone mentioned on the Facebook feed:

…a lot of faithful Christians are insulting their own intelligence by immediately declaring this to be a miracle, when it clearly was the work of men and physics that saved this idiotic woman…

It’s a ‘wonderful‘ bit of commentary too, what with the misdirection about the window not being broken…

Also of note is how all the video comments from the Christian site (not the attached Facebook comments underneath it) are all praising God… and then the comments were locked. Makes you wonder how many comments like mine, telling how it REALLY happened, were posted on the original clip….and deleted.

Pathetic… and not ONE word of thanks to the real heroes who swam out and rescued her.

Very nice and Christian… Screw you guys, I’m thanking GOD…..

Ah, yeah… I address the “Thank God” crap HERE.

Whilst I’m at it, please feel free to look at some more of my religious picture rants over at Pinterest.

As I state on the Pinterest page:

 If you find offence in religious humour or commentary, then back away now. I’m not forcing you to look, so don’t go going all preachy on me. Respect. Peace Out.

Have a look, but go tongue in cheek, if you catch my Tokyo Drift. Don’t get all Fast and Furious on me!!!

Thank … God?

Okay… there are a lot of links in this blog entry. They go some way to showing what is involved, and who is involved, in parts of the following tale…. It is quite a short write up, considering how deep I could take it… so please bear with me…

The Scene…

A lorry has a tyre blow out on a major busy road in a hilly area of the country.

The trailer slides across the Tarmac & hits a car.

The car is smashed off of the road and it ends up upside down at the roadside.

A little girl inside is seriously injured.

In seconds, the traffic has stopped & other road users are phoning in the accident. They use mobile phones that have been developed over time by countless thousands of engineers who can trace telephone technology back to people like Bell and Marconi – or in this case, Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola with the first mobile phone.

These engineers went to school, college & university to study. They were taught by countless more lecturers & teachers who spent their lives learning their vocational skills and also attending schools, colleges, universities etc to enable them to go on and educate others. The same is said of the people who trained these instructors and… well, it goes on and on. Thousands of people lead to the witnesses of the crash being able to phone emergency services.

Of course, the emergency services couldn’t be contacted if there was no telephone infrastructure in place, and also if there was no way to generate electricity to power the systems that allow for the phones to charge and for the entire grid of communications to operate.

Again we have engineers, scientists and the initial inventors to thank for harnessing the power of electricity, into making it possible to give all the houses & businesses the ability to power their equipment… and go in all of the cars, lorries, boats, aircraft and so on… that all need batteries to start/run their engines, motors & electrical systems. And again there are the instructors, lecturers etc that teach these skills to enable this resource to develop and operate safer & more reliably day after day…. and the people who taught the people to teach…

Thinking about it, those teachers need somewhere to teach… so we must remember architects, builders, plumbers (ooh, the Romans for their work on plumbing), electricians, carpenters, roofers etc… and all the people who taught them… and those that taught those that taught them… etc.

Oh Hell, mustn’t forget the workers (and those that died progressing their areas of employment, working to provide for our prior generations, and those to come) in foundries, mills, mines, quarries who supplied the materials to build the schools… And don’t forget the people who taught them…. and here we go again….

So far we have a witness calling for help over a mobile phone, and someone from the emergency services taking that call & passing it on the the relevant rescue services… and we have thousands and thousands of people who helped make that call take place…. So many people who are each owed something for what they brought to the table on this day, so to speak.

Wiltshire Air Ambulance

Rescue and emergency services head out to the crash site. The rescuers included countless Police to divert traffic & control the crash scene for starters. Then the ambulances & fire engines come along. Paramedics & firefighters to cut the victims from the wreck & give emergency aid to get them stable for the urgent ambulance helicopter flight to an airport so that the girl can be transferred to a faster aircraft to get to the hospital.

I've worked on this aircraft at GAMA - I'm part of this huge chain that helped.

Think of the technology, the training, the skills and dedication involved in all of this! Even down to the rescue services “Jaws of Life“… the hydraulic cutters used to remove the roofs off of cars to allow people to be removed from them safely…

Heck, we need to thank the ancient Greeks & Chinese for their initial work in hydraulics, and Blaise Pascal (1600’s) for his work in modern hydraulic principles, that eventually lead to generations of teachers training generations of engineers to eventually come up with, and make “The Jaws of Life”.

All of those emergency vehicles have engines that developed from steam engines to internal combustion engines… We owe Karl Benz for some of the first practical motor cars… Nikolaus Otto is to thank for coal/gas burning reciprocal engines.

Then there’s the gas turbine engine in the air ambulance helicopter… this goes back to Bernoulli and more practically, Sir Frank Whittle… Oh yeah, the helicopter goes back to Leonardo da Vinci… and the modem father is Igor Sikorsky.

The technology that went into making all of those car, lorry, helicopter systems etc… is owed to an impossible number of inventors, scientist, scholars, boffins…. teachers, foundry workers… and on and on….

Almost forgot Babbage & the calculating machine he created, or the first simple mechanical computer of Thomas Fowler in 1840! … or the many variations of the abacus… or the efforts at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers… regarded as the fathers of modern computing… Without this line of thought & engineering, the computer reliant vehicles (ground and air) would not function… or be able to be designed…

Do I have to go into how many people have helped progress THIS side of technology! MILLIONS! Don’t forget all of those ancient mathematicians that developed theories, rules, formulas etc that allowed ANY engineering to take place… Archimedes, Aristotle, Pythagoras… some of maths many fathers…

So yeah… The little girl is cut from the car & her condition is stabilised. She is put in the helicopter & flown to the hospital (by trained pilots who have spent years training etc and so on… you know what I mean by now…).

She arrives at the trauma centre, which was an idea first established in the 1960’s by R Adams Cowley, and is rushed into surgery (developed from around the 1500’s by countless scientists and researchers in medicine)… and I think if you have half a brain cell, that you’ll know where this is heading….

Trained staff, technology, inventors, scientists, infrastructure, upper tier staff, lower tier staff, buildings, services…. allowing the paramedics, doctors, nurses & other specialists to save the little girls life, using equipment that has been developed over generations of medical and non medical research, by people whose names you can’t help but recognise, including the likes of Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Hannah Myrick, Louis Pasteur, Alexis Carrel and Henry Dakin, Joseph Lister…. the list is endless…. or at least it may as well be, because every branch of medicine or medical research was generated from a different branch, or developed into others…

Research has expanded and helped us… and with that expansion comes the need for more people to teach, to learn, to think, to progress…

Millions of people and their ancestors all helped

The above list doesn’t touch the surface of all of those that were involved in that one little girls life being saved, but as you can see, the human count in this pyramid that ends with that little girls life contains millions of unsung heroes. People who worked just to find answers. Some were imprisoned & forced to work. Some were slaves, some were kings & queens… All walks of life through the ages.

And then there’s the press who interview the parents after the girl has been saved…. and the parents… they turn to the camera and say into the microphone…

“Thank God our daughter survived…. We knew he was looking down on her all the time…”

No mention of the Doctors, the nurses, the pilots, the Police, the rescue and emergency services, the witnesses at the scene… let alone the millions in history that allowed it to all play out….

Even if you are religious, then sure, thank your God, but don’t forget the physical people who did all the hands on work.

If you do want to thank ‘God’….. Don’t forget one tiny little thing…

…Who do you think allowed the crash to happen in the first place?

Yes, you guessed it....

You live on the shoulders of millions who lived before you.

Don’t ever forget that.

Oh, and before you go and say “It’s all a test God has set us“… then please read THIS…

Mahāyāna

In 3 weeks our 1977 Series 3 88″ Land Rover has already given us some fun and surprises.

Chris calls ‘him‘ “Frank“… and it’s pretty much stuck, although I am adding “Mahāyāna” to that… It is Buddhist for “The Great Vehicle“…. I’m almost certain it wasn’t intended for a Land Rover, but what with reincarnation you can never be too sure…

New 7.5x16's fitted

At 5,000 miles on the clock, it must be one of the lowest mileage non-museum/non-showroom condition S3’s out there.

Land Rover UK gave us tickets to Goodwood Festival of Speed after I posted a few pictures up on their web site just days before the show, where we were then allowed into the owners area at the show – (now that we were owners…)

Alex at GW Festival of Speed

We have recovered a couple of vehicles stuck in sand at the beach (right place, right time). We rescued a Merc CLK & took over rescuing a VW Polo from a BMW 5 series that just span its wheels trying to tow the Polo.

Mahāyāna with a lesser vehicle...

All this happened within two parking space widths from where we’d parked. Fantastic! After the first rescue (which was so effortless!) I admit that I felt Frank could do anything. When we got back after paddling & castle making on the beach we saw the BMW hitching up to the VW… Still feeling pysched from earlier, as I walked past the VW & BMW drivers getting ready to try their first attempt, I said “I’ll be over by that old Land Rover when you need me….”~ How damned cocky was I!!! I blame Frank entirely!

Land Rover UK also  featured ‘Frank’ in their weekly web magazine. I didn’t realise until I received an email from WordPress saying that our blog had been linked to!

Little bits of work are being done to make Frank a bit more ‘daily drive’ practical, whilst trying not to move too far away from the original vehicle. Older Land Rovers aren’t the fastest, most economical or comfortable beasts, but they have a lot going for them – as I mentioned HERE.

Inertia 3 point harness

Frank now has new 7.5x16r tyres fitted (as originally intended) and has an Ashcroft high ratio conversion waiting to be fitted. Alex has a 3 point inertia harness fitted for his safety, and new Wipac halogen headlamps have replaced the original sealed beam units, as we like to see where we are going… Also, the Wipac units mean if a bulb blows, we can get one from a petrol station (you trying buying a sealed beam unit from a petrol station!).

WIPAC versus SEALED BEAM

The rear rubber matting was falling apart, so another job I carried out was to use some old wood effect linoleum… It didn’t turn out too bad! Kitchen floor reincarnation as  Mahāyāna’s rear floor cover!

Woody!

One of the next jobs is to fit an Ashcroft high ratio transfer case to take some load off of the engine and allow the great vehicle to cruise at 50mph without revving it’s nuts literally off. There is potential that a few more miles to the gallon could be achieved too – and that wouldn’t go amiss! Mind you, a Land Rover isn’t exactly the first choice for comfort, speed and economy! With this mod though, we can keep the original engine (we want to keep as much original looking as possible).

On the list of other things to do: Seal the chassis, get new seats (the previous owner had a dog…), restore the dented wings and repaint in the original colours. This all depends on money though – Funds are tight and all of these extra’s don’t really effect the running of Frank, so are low priority ‘niceties’.

Mind you, if anyone has any freebies going, then that’s a different matter! I’ll quite happily advertise you on this blog (and my other web presences) if you have anything to offer! (Hey… it can’t hurt to ask!). Frank will be going to a lot of Goodwood shows and eventually do the rounds of other shows and events, so companies willing to part with bits will be promoted and mentioned where ever we go. After all, one good turn deserves another.

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And then there were 6

Sadly, as mentioned previously, Terri passed away, so after some discussions we decided to get three new girls.

You see, you can’t just get one ex-battery rescue hen because it would get picked on. Getting two would leave us with five…. and that’s just not a round number of hens to have, especially as there would soon be two nesting quarters. That was it then… three new ladies were needed to make the number up to six.

Once that was decided, I took a look at the current run and nest box arrangement and figured out the best way to house and separate three new birds. They would need their own space to get used to the new freedom, but they would also need to be able to see the established girls to allow them to settle in.

I contacted Hen House World, the company I purchased the original hen house and additional parts from when we first got chickens. Back then I had asked for extra panels to extend the purchased run, and they were happy to oblige with advice and some ‘rejected’ panels – I just paid shipping costs. A little DIY skill was required, but I somehow managed…

I explained what I wanted to do this time, and chancing my luck I asked once more to see if they had any old or broken returned houses that may have been returned (they are always well packed, but couriers and the post office can always find a way to break even the best wrapped things).

They went through their returns with my wish list and sure enough they had some panel parts. For a very modest shipping fee the damaged parts were sent out to me. I knew what I needed and I knew I could utilise the parts for my design.

A few additional parts were found (old packing crates, some corrugated plastic and an old hinge) and I set to work on the extension.  The most awkward part was the low garden wall that separated the old run from the new extension – but a catwalk was added and that solved that.

Next up I put a chicken wire fence in the open air run to split it into two parts. I also put a mesh halfway down the enclosed run to keep the girls apart when they were put to bed. Everything seemed fine at this stage…

We put in our request for the next lot of freed ex-battery hens to the British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) – (BHWT are also on Facebook) and waited for the pick up day.

Things mostly went smoothly and soon we were introducing three new girls into the pack (Yes, I know a collection of hens is not a pack, but you watch them working together and tell me that it isn’t a more apt group name for them….) .

 

A few squabbles broke out and blood was spilled as the six girls fought to fix their places in the new pecking order – and I even had to make the wire segregating fence into a double fence because they were attacking each other through the single fence!

Over the next few days things settled down, and now the fences are down, they are all getting on with each other , albeit with a few pecks here and there. The girls are all laying and very happy in their new home….

…but what of names? Well, Alex was given the pleasure and now, joining Crispy, Chicken 11 and Mel….. we can introduce the new girls… Turbo, Terri 2 and Ginger…

NOTES ON THE VIDEOS:

The new girls arrive at their new home. Free from the Hell of the battery farm, the British Hen Welfare Trust find caring homes for thousands of commercial laying hens destined for slaughter each year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_cage gives some idea about battery farming conditions.

Our first girls (2010) were quite timid and quiet to start with, but soon settled in and have become great pets – very friendly and lots of fun. Our little lad (5yrs old) loves them – and we have all become very attached to these daft creatures.

Our new girls are a little ‘spirited’ right now, but they are fighting for rank (this is where ‘pecking order’ comes from). The thing to do is let them sort it out – stand back but keep an eye on them.

Be prepared for a little first aid – Vaseline & Gentian Violet (Purple spray – hides the blood, which just makes the others want to fight more).

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/