Posted on 09/25/2011 1:58:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An elk drunk from eating fermented apples in southern Sweden ended its binge by making off with a family's swing set and hiding it in the woods. Hunter in hand-to-hoof battle with angry elk (12 Sep 11) Drunken elk rescued from Swede's apple tree (7 Sep 11) 'Leffe the moose man' promises elk intimacy (6 Sep 11) A homeowner from Storebro in northern Kalmar County arrived home on Wednesday night to find his garden littered with bits of apple and other signs that an elk had been partying in his back yard, the local Östran and Barometern newspapers reported.
The concerned homeowner also discovered that the children's swing set which normally sat in the yard was missing.
The man immediately called police, who contacted a local hunter to track down the inebriated elk who was thought to possibly be injured.
Drunken elk are common in Sweden during the autumn season when fermenting apples are plentiful, both on the ground and hanging from the branches of trees which many Swedes have in their yards.
While police and the hunter failed to meet up with the prank-playing elk, they did eventually find the family's swing set, propped up in a tree deep in the woods about 500 metres from their home.
I don't write mysteries. But I may also have a problem creating characters that are not likable.
That may sound like a strange problem. But in any story, you've got to have a bad guy. There has to be a heavy to counter-balance all the light-hearted nice people.
So my bad guys are like Boris Badenov. Evil, but strangely charming all the same.
Naw, I’ve mellowed in my old age. Mostly windows shattering these days....
Oh, I know your life and place are mellow. How could it not be?
I was talking about Darks. I know that guy right down the middle.
Awwww! What a cutie!
I am posting on my computer made from twigs, leaves and a duel core processor that I stole from a passing squirrel.
Coming home tomorrow. Ought to make for an interesting weekend.
Here :)
One of my still-gestating stories involves a family living in a tree-house.
No, not a house built in or on a tree, but a tree that incorporates biological (or in this case botanical) equivalents for “all the comforts of home”.
You've probably seen pictures of Baobab trees, and that's a good start. I'd need something that grows more quickly though, and whose layout could be planned.
So it would grow more like a copse of trees all growing at once, and forming walls, windows, roof and cellar.
That seems pedestrian enough, except for the possibility of really quick growth, but here's where I depart from ordinary trees.
The tree would provide illumination, with bio-luminescence. Various frequencies of glowing cells would provide the equivalent of display screens inside also.
Even music could be generated by the trees, especially nice if you like woodwinds.
And it would have internal heat regulation as well. There are plants which give off considerable heat when they are driving perfumes into the air in early spring. Measurably exothermic, actually.
Then there is the matter of waste elimination, which we will in consideration of delicacy, not delve into too rigorously, other than to say that plants absorb and thrive on our waste products, and they are natural recyclers.
Okay, what's left?
Communication.
That's a little complex. There aren't any natural analogs for plant communication, other than alleged chemical signaling.
I'll go for root connections. Similar to neuronal synapses, I'll postulate that the tree-house can send and receive signals over great distances by a means of underground telegraphy.
Basically, I'll just gloss over that aspect with a cascade of technological double-speak.
.
So, ... like it?
I can relate, to the picture, alas! My daughter (over my strict orders not to associate with any males except myself and her brother until the convent releases her at age 40) has begun dating.
At least he's a conservative and likes guns and World War II trivia; his parents are libs and think my daughter is a religious fanatic.
Good thing they've never surfed Free Republic...!
Cheers!
It is indeed a quandry......
Good luck! Obviously the young man has some brains and gumption, if his parents are liberal and he isn’t!
I like it, especially the technological double-speak. Make sure to include soundproof sections for those who are playing guitar and drums while their family members are trying to sleep.
Let the cascade take you away!
In the hill country of India, they grow bridges across small creeks by training the roots. It takes a while, but the bridge is self-maintaining once large enough.
And if Star Trek can get away with "insert technical sounding stuff here" I don't see why you can't.:)
Of course you could also have all the trees be a offshoot of one tree and because of that connected by a network of roots which would account for the communication.
It would also allow you to have a built in limiting factor that would allow you to have people who can't live in one of those trees in certain areas or cut off communications if the plot seems to demand it.
LOL!
” In the hill country of India, they grow bridges across small creeks by training the roots. It takes a while, but the bridge is self-maintaining once large enough. “
They are a patient lot, no??
Things grow very fast in parts of India.
It’s raining here again, speaking of places with things growing.
” Things grow very fast in parts of India.”
Like their economy, often at our expense : )
We got our share of rain 2 months late this year. It is always needed, and most welcome.
On a totally new topic, Dr. Something-Polish’s office is billing us for all the maternity care. Either they’ve made a major error in filing the insurance (like didn’t get the new policy entered) or the policy is totally different from what DP imagined it would be.
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