Headline of the day

Cummington Fair: "If you come once, you'll come again."

Sun flowers

The congress of chicken coops

Recently we had to “remove” a couple of old hens from our gaggle of chickens because they had become mean and awful. A quick history.

Last year we had a few chickens and once they got comfortable in the new chicken condo, they all started laying eggs, which was their sole purpose in our life. Sorry, but thats farm life. After a year together a couple of the older chickens, using seniority as a justification for taking control of the flock, we started to notice something insane and equally abusive.

The old ladies, who we started to call Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, mostly because they both seem mean spirited and vengeful, would take over the entryway to the coop whenever they wanted and controlled who could use the egg laying areas. We noticed as the takeover continued that McConnell and Ryan would arbitrally not allow entry to the coop somedays, just to prove their power. During this time, the stress and bitterness felt from the other chickens caused a vast change in laying. We started to have days when we would get no eggs, or one egg that appeared to just be perfunctory, but nothing substantial. It’s as if the ladies went into the coop and voted to defund Obamacare again, while parks fell into disrepair and bridges fell into rivers.

So, realizing something must be done, we removed McConnell and Ryan from their positions of power and made sure they could never again return to ruining the working arrangement of the coop. With the two old geezer chickens now out of the picture, miraculously we once again started seeing daily eggs and the chickens are working together, free ranging and laughing at inside chicken jokes.

There is a lesson to be learned here. When you remove the old, out of touch, bitter and power crazy chickens, the rest of the flock can actually do what we all want them to do.

At one

The Trump reach around

Last year my dead dog signed up to receive email from the Trump Campaign, because she is a right wing nut case and also because she likes clowns.

Periodically she received emails, but as Trump became the obvious (and dangerous) GOP nominee, she would often reply with terse and insulting comments directed at the obviously under qualified, moronic, orange faced, tiny fingered vulgarian. No matter what she wrote in reply to his mass emails, she never heard back. Until this morning.

First, she got this email from the Trump campaign:

"Dear Beth,

Make sure to get your tickets to join Donald J. Trump and team in Fairfield, CT tomorrow, August 13th, for a Donald J. Trump for President Rally! Details about the event are below:

Saturday, August 13th: Fairfield, CT
William H. Pitt Center at the Campus of Sacred Heart University
5151 Park Ave
Fairfield, CT 06825
Doors Open: 4:30 PM
Event Begins: 7:30 PM
Register for tickets by clicking here.
Please limit personal items and arrive early to expedite entrance into the venue - please note, NO homemade signs, banners, professional cameras with a detachable lens, tripods, monopods, selfie sticks, back packs or large bags will be permitted into the venue.

We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Team Trump"

To which she replied:

"Dumb Donny, you're a con man and an idiot."

Usually, that would be it. No reply, my dead dog feeling somewhat superior in her twitter like insult to an oblivious blow hard. Then a new email, in reply to my dogs message, was received.

"Good Morning,

We respect your opinion and we are sorry to receive your letter. Mr. Trump is fighting for every vote. We believe the information you have been provided about Mr. Trump’s views is not correct, and we encourage you to visit our website, www.DonaldJTrump.com for more information on Mr. Trump’s policy positions and his plan to boost incomes, rebuild our military, protect against terrorism, and to fight for you and all Americans against the special interests.

Sincerely,
Team Trump"

So my dog, who once successfully sued the United States Postal Service for supporting Lance Armstrong, replied as only a Harvard educated Australian Shepard could:

"That does not change the fact that Trump is a moronic bigot, multi-married, racist, bankrupt con man who is fooling low information rubes, but continues to lose in the polls because the vast majority of Americans will not fall for his con.
Good day to you."

She does not expect another reply, but because she's an optimist at heart, she secretly hopes Ivanka gives her a shoutout.

Logic of distance

Garden bowling ball

Imperfect

Week day

Mystery in rock

Mystery in rock