Whatsthis? (3)

You have see this before, I know that you have. Maybe not quite like this, but you have.

No more clues for you!

Whatsthis? (2 reveal) Typha

It is a very common plant found along ponds and lakes called a cat tail, corn dog grass, bullrushes or punks. Parts of this plant are edible for humans and has had many uses; it has not always been simply a "weed" near the water.

Check this out, it really quite interesting.

Typha

There Is A Bright Side

This may look a bit depressing, in the coming months it could get worse. Look on the bright side. You can still get a Cheddar Wurst for $1.00.

Thats 4 cheddar wurst for the price of 1 gallon of gas. What a deal.

See there is bright side...sort of...if you want to have a heart attack.

Wurst
(woorst) (noun) A German or Austrian sausage

Whatsthis? (2)

Alright you have very likely seen this before; no it is not the carpeting from our old house in Mosinee. What is it?

You can do it. After looking at this I think I would get it. Maybe this is too simple..again

A Giant Thank You To The Choir

Sis. Anna Julson and the Lighthouse Choir. Very powerful singers.

Life is full of choices and changes. Recently my life had a major change; I left the only church that I have ever called home, and now go to church in a city about 45 minutes away. I was a minister at Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Wausau, and now I am an Assistant Pastor (again, but this time) at Riverside Apostolic Church in Marshfield. There was an opportunity to pastor in a city about an hour north of here, but I had to follow my heart, so I am at Riverside.

I had been going to church in Wausau for literally almost my entire life over 40 years at least. I have led worship, given sermons and Wednesday night Bible studies, taught home Bibles studies, served on the church board a few times, taught Sunday school, and nearly every other thing a person could do to serve in a church. One thing I really, really enjoyed about church was singing in the choir, I was the oldest member and the most out of shape but I love to sing.

So when I left the choir all of the members gave me a love offering as a goodbye gift. It was a sacrifice of love and I truly appreciate, and will always remember the choir.

The other day I went into the music store to get some picks and one of those wall hangers for my guitar to keep it off the floor and out of harms way; when I saw "it". I walked up to this beautiful guitar and I knew I wanted it. Without picking it up I gently strummed the stings with one of my finger nails while it hung there, to hear if it had a bright sound; and it did. It sang to me. I made my other purchases and quickly walked out of the store, I did not need to raid my savings account or take on credit card debt so I left. I ran away from the temptation.

But after I was on the other side of town I realized that this would be the perfect way to spend my gift from the choir. Every time I would play my new guitar I would know exactly how I got it, and the sacrifices that others made for me to have it. The guitar was on sale (in a big way) so it turned out perfect.

A giant thank you to the choir; you are amazing and very generous.

The Vomiting Vulture

This vulture is natures ultimate garbage collector with a bill that can rip open the toughest cow hide, yet with feet like a chicken instead of mighty talons like an eagle. A Turkey Vulture can eat carrion (dead and decaying animals) that are rotted and diseased and not get sick or die, as a matter of fact the birds droppings are disease free. The turkey vulture in fact plays an important role in protecting other animals from getting sick. Turkey Vultures love warm sunny days when the air currents are active and they can soar very high in a flight pattern called a kettle. Vultures are very common in Wisconsin and can be identified by the formation of their wings, when they soar and glide they hold their wings in a gentle "V" formation. Turkey Vultures are about the size of an eagle without the white head, as a matter of fact the Turkey Vulture has a "bald" red head and the Bald eagle has a "hairy" head of white feathers. I wonder why they don't call it the bald vulture? Probably because all vultures are bald...maybe.

This bird has no song or call because it does not have a voice box (syrinx) so it hisses and grunts to make sounds; otherwise they are generally silent. Vultures  have an instinct that makes them want to return to it's summer feeding grounds the exact same time every year regardless of the weather, which is around the vernal equinox (the first day of Spring). In 1994 bird scientist (who knew such thing existed) determined that the Turkey vulture was actually a member of the stork family. Did you also know that some of these same bird scientists estimate that vultures will consume 111 ponds of rotted, spoiled, diseased, dead things in a year? If the carrion is scarce a vulture will eat pumpkins, leaves,seeds and grass.

Okay now for the vomiting part. If you ever visit a Vulture roosting area or a rookery; BEWARE. Vultures young and old, will swiftly vomit in the direction of any disturbance or danger, to scare it away. Think of it, regurgitating a dead animal, that is scary all by itself.

Check out more for yourself at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture

Whatsthis? (reveal) Zebra Head

Okay fine that was too simple. Just wait till next time. I am going to terrorize your imaginative resources...you'll see. BWAHAHA.You will never get me. (ahem, sorry I got carried away).

We saw this fella at a drive through wildlife safari park near Springfield MO. Our windows got a little slobbery but it was fun; Mary was afraid.

There used to be a song that we used to sing that went like this;
"Hey there mister what do you see?"
"I see a horse in it's pajamas."
"No that's not what it is at all, that's an animal people call a zebra."
"I see, but it still looks like a horse in it's pajamas to me."

So Prove It

John 15:12 

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 

If we are in fact Christian, we are to love. I know that as Christians we try to be "like" Jesus; we don't do certain things and we take a stand against certain things and we pride ourselves at times on being peculiar.  The Bible says we are peculiar, but when the Bible says peculiar it means, a special purchased treasure, we are set apart as God's property. Our definition of peculiar often runs along the line of weirdness. I have often said that  many "so called Christians" are some of the weirdest people you will ever meet.

If we really are Christian we are going to love the things that God loves.

• We will love Him.
• We will love His Word.
• We will keep His commandments.
• We will love each other as Christians.
• We will love others who might not know how wonderful Jesus is.

If we do love God, than we must prove it to others; show someone how much you love God by your actions and your attitudes. Let your Christianity "leak" out into your relationships and lifestyle. I am pretty sure that non-Christians are pretty tired of the "weirdness" of christianity; let them experience a relationship, you love them first, then maybe they can trust enough to love Jesus.

Go out and prove you are a Christian...Love people to Jesus!

Whatsthis?

I hope this is not too simple but it was fun to see. I love to play photo games...if I win.

A Really Fine...Beer

Yes this month we are celebrating Root Beer with a recipe from our Peanuts cook book. If you simply follow the recipe you could be basking in the glow of a warm summer afternoon, and refreshing yourself with a fancy glass of root beer that has an exotic little cherry that has the potential to make you feel like one of the rich and famous. Oh snap!

I remember the rather short summers with the long afternoons; I never had a video game system like my kids; not even a Vic-20. Remember those old Commodore Vic-20, and C64 computers that had the game cartridges to play games or else you had to have the little cassette player to load a game and if you had all day you could program the computer by keyboard in C64 basic language? The C64 had the fancy disk drive with floppy disk that allowed you to load games with fancy graphics like Tank or Pong.

I got all of that cool stuff for my kids, They were spoiled!!!

( I walked to school uphill for...you get the picture)

My preferred choices of summertime fun were the swimming pool, climbing a tree, going fishing, or riding a bike. Pretty simple lifestyle really. Oh, and lets not forget, I never had a care in the world; my parents did all the worrying for me, I had wonderful dad, and have precious mother. Truly a wonderful childhood.


But a recipe like this could have made the good old days even better. Give it a try. After all Snoopy dreamed about it.

Worms On the Sidewalk

The saying goes "April showers bring May flowers." So here we are smack dab in the middle of April and we have had some rain already, but more to come I am sure. Have you ever noticed after a rain that worms are stretched out across the sidewalk and slowly making their way to; who knows where? What are they thinking? Little girls with new Easter shoes try to avoid stepping on the "ucky" worms, even big girls will do all they can short of dancing to avoid the worms. But really what are they doing on the sidewalk?

I used to think that the worms were trying to avoid being drowned by the water, that is no doubt saturating their tunnels, but worms can live for days in watery, soaking wet surroundings. Earthworms breath through their skins and need water, so that can't be the reason. Some people believe that earthworms are actually migrating to a new piece of property. Worms use the less restrictive wet conditions to slime their way across the drive way or road; it  it gets to be a very long trip when they get mixed up and go "down" the road instead of "across" the road. I wonder if there is a Guinness World Record for the longest distance traveled by a worm or crawler?

So what happens in a drought if worms need moist soil conditions to live? They simply dig in a little deeper and find the moist soil they need to survive. Did you know that earthworms will form herds? Scientists believe that worms may indeed use touch to communicate and interact with each other; they may swarm together to make group decisions...decisions about what?

Please enjoy the spring and do pick up every worm you find and give him a helping hand. If you won't do it for a worm at least do it for a friend in need.

You know what is really sad about worms on the sidewalk? When the sun comes out and dries the sidewalk the worms turn into...a  bacon sort of looking thing. Think of that next time you are out having breakfast at IHOP.

Alrightnowyoutellme (9 the reveal) The White Admiral Butterfly

Knowing my inability to get theses things right for myself, I have actually stumbled upon what is said to be one of the easiest butterflies to identify. The White Admiral Butterfly has no similar look alike in Wisconsin so I am confident that this may indeed be the White Admiral (I hope, I hate being wrong ALL of the time). The White Admiral is a northern sub-species, a butterfly known as the Red Spotted Purple that is the same butterfly but a southern sub-species. Male and female are nearly identical in appearance, the exception being that the female is slightly larger than the male.

The White Admiral is rather common in Central Wisconsin. The White Admirals will begin to show up again in early summer or perhaps late May. This butterfly lives along the edges of forests and roads or trails that are in the forests of Central Wisconsin, it is by no means exclusively a Wisconsin Butterfly, it is in fact fairly common throughout much of the eastern United States, and even as far north as Alaska and the Rockies (mountains) in the west . They are day-timers (diurnal) they are out and about from sunrise until sunset flying around, so if you are out walking keep your eyes open.

The White Admiral will find nourishment at sap flows on trees and bushes, and nectar from small white flowers, but they will also dine on  decayed fruit, dead animals (carrion), or even dung. So keep your eye open for this butterfly to make his appearance in a few months.