Archive for July 23rd, 2010

My new favorite televison show!

July 23, 2010 - 7:33 pm 2 Comments

Last American Cowboy, Monday Nights, Animal Planet.

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/last-american-cowboy/

You gotta watch this show! Seriously good TV. From Animal Planet:

“Hidden amid the mammoth- Montana landscape are three family-owned and operated cattle ranches and the setting of Animal Planet’s newest original series, LAST AMERICAN COWBOY. This epic adventure follows three families of tough, tenacious and headstrong cowboys through freak storms, deadly outbreaks of disease, hungry predators and forest fires that threaten their livelihood. Each ranch will need to rely on family bonds and personal strength to keep this tradition of the American West alive.

“LAST AMERICAN COWBOY shares the highs and lows of life on a ranch for the Hughes, Galt and Stucky families. From the multi-generational ranch family committed to working only on horseback to the modern rancher who uses high-tech equipment, all-terrain vehicles and even a helicopter to manage his massive operation to the small nuclear family determined to persevere against all odds, all must struggle to make ends meet and all are deeply committed to this classic way of life lived close to the land.”The Hughes family, the smallest of the three ranches, is as close to “Little House on the Prairie” as you can get. Scott and Stacey Hughes, along with their three-year old son and nine-year-old daughter, live on a 12,000-acre ranch and manage their herd of 500 Black Angus all alone. Comparatively, the Galt Ranch is one of the largest cattle ranches in Montana with over 100,000 acres, 5,500 cattle and 100 horses. It is so vast that owner Bill Galt manages it from the sky in his own helicopter. Bill and the rest of the Galt family believe technology is the future of ranching and necessary to efficiently run a ranch of this size and caliber. Contrary to the Galt family, the Stuckys are traditional ranchers choosing horseback over ATVs and doing most of the work by hand. Keeping these traditions alive is deeply important to the entire clan, and as the ranch continues to grow and expand, the Stuckys hope it will be passed down through generations.

“LAST AMERICAN COWBOY thrusts viewers into the glorious landscape of Montana and the remarkable world of cattle ranching. For these families it comes down to one paycheck per year, and they will do whatever it takes to continue to live and to share the life they love.”

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Face to face with a Homunculus!

July 23, 2010 - 9:20 am 5 Comments

Homunculus, Latin for “little human”, plural: “homunculi”; from the diminutive of homo) is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully-formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism. Currently, in scientific fields, a homunculus may refer to any scale model of the human body that, in some way, illustrates physiological, psychological, or other abstract human characteristics or functions.

Here is my homunculus! I met him last night…in my garage!

I could not sleep, so at 2:15 a.m., after tossing and turning for an hour, I rose from my bed and went downstairs to do…oh, anything other than obsess about how much I wanted to be sleeping soundly in my comfy bed.

Two cats slept upstairs. One cat slept downstairs on his cat tower. Yet…what was that? That noise in the garage? I opened the door from the laundry room, flipped on the light, and there stood a raccoon, standing tall on his hind legs like a little homunculus, staring right at me. I could see his brain working despite the mask he wore.

His first thought? “Busted!”

His second thought? “I ain’t afeared ‘o you, lady!”

I backed up and closed the door, sealing the cat door from the inside just in case he decided that the cat food in the kitchen smelled more appetizing than the cat food in the garage.

No, I don’t plan to shoot him. There’s a bobcat that patrols our neighborhood, taking at least a raccoon a week. She dragged one out of our backyard just a couple nights ago. Hey, it’s California. We live with nature. I’ve had coyotes in my yard, bobcats on my roof, hawks in my trees and a mountain lion in my driveway. My cats are smart enough to stay indoors at night.

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