The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, once he mentioned the tigers, I knew I had heard about this guy before. I asked him if he was the guy in the Chehalis Chronicle a few months back. (How many local guys have tigers, anyway?)

When he moved to the place he now lives in there was a story in the Chehalis paper about his new neighbors being a little concerned. While I agree it is highly strange, in his defense, the big pictures of his cats and their new compound that were in the paper looked like pretty healthy cats and a fairly big clean compound. (I tried to find this story online, but that newspaper requires a subscription fee to search archives)

I am sure that finding enough affordable meat to feed two tigers consumes this man's entire life. I hope he does a good enough job finding it. I heard that a cougar (less than a quarter the size of a tiger) kills about one deer a week, if deer are plentiful.

[Argh]

FRODO: How come, if I'm the protagonist, Lord Aragorn has TWO love interests, and I'm stuck in a subplot with Dick Cheney?

Oh, God, I'm laughing myself sick here! I'm so glad I saw you guys talking about Dave Barry's column!

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, he was willing to wait until Bay was dead anyway. I am just blown away by this whole experience. Just when I think I can predict what will conceivably happen, I meet a guy with tigers.

[HairOfTheDog]

It was funny! Gotta love Dave Barry. I posted in here in the thread on Sunday!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

There are quite a few folks who raise, or care for, exotic animals in Central Florida, including Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my!). There is a lot of this sort of thing in Texas too. I think that there are fewer problems in Texas when they get loose (every so often), since they have wider spaces than we do!

[300winmag]

Now..... The guy could have been a little less mysterious about his bizarre little question. But I then started to get some real information out of him. He usually buys whole turkeys and chickens and beef parts and such, and recently someone gave him a horse that had died, and he had really liked that.... lots of meat, and free.

Personally, I prefer to be the top predator in the food chain, with no competition near me. Living near Detroit, we get lots of stories about abandoned big cats that dope dealers turn loose. The animals I like can't carry the firepower I can, so I'm more concerned for their safety than mine.

I'm also concerned with the government "seeding" predators like wolf packs and grizzlies into areas where they have been gone for 100-200 years, if they ever even lived there at all. Coyotes are becoming a problem in Michigan, and yet some greenies are thrilled that there may be mountain lion moving back into the state. They want them given federal protection.

As a hobbit at heart, I love nice, settled farms and forests. That means large predators place should be on the wall, and not outdoors roaming around. I know they will prey mostly on their traditional food, but the pen-raised wolves have no fear of men or their stuff. We see even from the "pest" critters like geese, deer, racoon, etc. that they sense they are protected from harm when around people, and there are plenty of easy meals to be had. That's why the suburbs are now plagued with the kinds of critters that were seldom seen out in the countryside 100 years ago. Add large predators that associate humans with easy food, and the problem just gets worse.

[2Jedismom]

I'm glad they bring back warm memories of your daughter, but really, I just wanted a nice normal pair of sneakers! Back when I was in college, they used to make a plain white Nike canvas sneaker that had the blue swoosh on it, you know? They were just decent normal looking shoes and I was always wearing them. Then they quite making them and everything seemed like it went to "cross-trainers" that cost an ever-lovin' fortune! Then everyone started wearing Keds and I always thought they looked like cheerleader shoes and I generally can't STAND cheerleaders or anything about them. Now it seems that sneakers look like disco shoes and cost more than $100! Then a couple of years ago, I started seeing these Chuck Taylors more often and first I only thought of the boys...how good they would look in them. Then after I got the boys their pairs...I got to thinking they looked awful comforable. So that's how I ended up with them. They remind me a lot of those plain Nikes I used to wear all the time.

[HairOfTheDog]

I agree with wanting to be tope member of the food chain at my house...

That means large predators place should be on the wall, and not outdoors roaming around.

I can't agree with you at all there, unless you are just talking about the re-seeding of wolves not being a good idea. On that I tend to agree. I live 5 miles from a place called wolf haven, where some of the wolves for release are being raised. They are too efficient, and I think there are too many of us now for wolves to be able to co-exist. Not when we have so many rural people with fat slow stupid cattle around. In the end the wolf will lose again, and that cruelty will be our fault. Not theirs.

But I do hope we never lose our predator wildlife. We have cougar here, and bear, and of course, coyotes. They have an instrinsic place here too, and I hope we are smart enough to leave them some room. They are marvelous.

[2Jedismom]

What time does the president speak?

[Overtaxed]

9:00 Eastern, 8:00 Central.

[HairOfTheDog]

One hour from now.... whatever that time is for you! ;~D

I have to go out and feed horses early, in case he is long-winded.

[JenB]

Hi! I'll be here until the speech, which is an hour away. So what's up, all?

[300winmag]

But I do hope we never lose our predator wildlife. We have cougar here, and bear, and of course, coyotes. They have an instrinsic place here too, and I hope we are smart enough to leave them some room. They are marvelous.

I agree, I just want them at least two states away from me and my critters, and wary of me. Marl has had deer run into her vehicles five times already, and she's ready to see them hunted to extinction in a hundred mile radius around her.

[2Jedismom]

Just hanging out...getting the boys ready for an early bedtime. I'll be here during the speech.

[Overtaxed]

Umm...dishes, laundry, hot chocolate, speech.

[2Jedismom]

Can't you run out and get some??

[JenB]

We're watching it together and I feel I should give our President my somewhat undivided attention...

It's snowing, again, and we may get freezing rain. Choir was cancelled, which is good because it's a long way away and the road isn't that great. Today was so exasperating. All these little things that were dealt with weeks ago mysteriously undid themselves....

[2Jedismom]

I'm gonna haul the little tv in here with the computer and watch him with whomever shows up in the Hole or some other thread. Otherwise, I won't have anyone to watch it with! Steve has school until late tonight.

[JenB]

Cool! I'm looking forward to it...

[Overtaxed]

Can't you run out and get some??

When I get home from work, I'm not going anywhere. :)