T R

OK, it takes a few minutes, but well worth the wait. I have never heard a Magpie makes these sounds in the wild. The ones I raise all invariably end up huffing and squeaking. It is sweet music to my ears and sometimes its literally into my ear as they will hop up and start chattering. They   do mimic humans,I did hear one, it was caged, years ago, and it spoke clear as a bell. So I talk and talk and talk, I am down to just saying Magpie, but none yet have spoken. Someday.

Hunting pheasants, bang bang, lets eat and talk about how it flew out of the sky.

I live in an area where there are not many pheasants. I have walked by every
tree, ditch and bush, for a mile in any direction. There are only a few in my area,
of the 18 years I have lived here, I have not seen as many. Thats my qualification
for my rant.
You with your cameo shirt and pants, with your unmatching orange, vest. I will
never be able to stop you from hunting the pheasants in my back yard, or from shooting
whatever it is that your shooting. My only justice is thinking and laughing about
your white self, with your war paint on, playing Davy Crocket. And wondering
what your wife thinks when your neighbor man crawls from your bed on opening
morning, saying, got another one

whhhhh, man it is cold. Got a couple of inches of snow a few days ago, it thawed just
enough to become a mess and now its froze down tight. 10 below, no wind blessedly no
wind, but its spooky calm. Sounds, in the country, seem to change as it gets minus
degrees cold. Noises sound like they come from different directions, and they carry
(interrupted, the water quit,) long distances, with a strange echo delayed quality.
They birds become braver the colder it gets. They got nothing when it gets like this, no
food or water, and the ones that need grit for food digestion can’t pull nothing from what
little bare ground can be found. So we feed ( interrupted again by a wonderful sound,
the water came back on, whew) them. They eat from a community feeder, and as I said
the colder it gets, the more their differences are set aside, survival.
Lets see, 4 dogs, a bunch of cats, ( three or four cats are starving at the edge of
our little world, they just don’t come in, they will surely be dead by tomorrow if not
already) three peacocks, 4 ducks, one goose, and another really bad ass goose, a
rooster a crow, and a whole bunch of Magpies, and a single broke wing Raven. Now,
one would assume that the biggest would be the baldest, a huge white Great Perinese
dog, not the case. While he can have anything he wants, he only takes what he needs,
and never from another. As for the rest, I have watched the smallest jump all over the
bigger ones and vice a versa. I guess what I am getting at is they are all fine with one
another. Especially when its cold.
An interesting footnote, the Crow is a natural enemy of the Magpie. Most days
my crow friend chases the Magpies from his world, and the Magpies pluck the crows
rudder feathers, but this morning they are side by side eating cat food. It is so cool.
Now for the real reason I am writing about the cold. You know when we have
one of these big natural disasters, flood or fire, people seem to act different. I’m talking
about “most folks” not the ones that sell ice and water after a Florida hurricane, or
California earthquake. Those good people who aren’t quite sure which way to go in
everyday life, well when the chips are down, a realization sets in. That being, what we
all keep struggling to get, is in fact not what makes us happy. Its a tired old cliché,
money can’t buy happiness. It can buy comfort and warmth, and stuff, stuff, stuff. But it
will never buy happiness. So why the struggle for wealth and place. For the family
and other loved ones. We are not able to give of ourselves , because we are to caught up
in the struggle for happiness. Ever have a bad day at the job, the job you hate, but you
have to have that job because the big money buys all that happiness for the family and of
course, us. Well if you aren’t happy you can’t pass that smile from you to yours. It just
doesn’t work, its not there to pass. So you just work a little overtime, make a few extra
bucks, so you can buy that little extra something special, at least you can make someone
else happy.
It would be out of character if I didn’t say my piece, and you all have plenty of
happiness with out my help, so here it is.
My Kind of Christmas Story.
I have learned there are basically two types of people, with a few zillion degrees
of variation in between.
One type thinks there are unwritten rules for conduct, those basic, to become
deeply sublime, principles, we were all taught through the public system. Those rules
for life seem to get rolled into one basic belief. That is to treat others like we want to
be treated. This, conviction, has nothing to do with religion, money or politics, for many
its the staple of life.
It doesn’t mean they love thy neighbor, it just means they don’t steal from him. It
doesn’t mean they don’t look at their neighbor with lust, it just means they won’t act on
it. Something like a natural order of things, just because your a bird and I’m a cat,
don’t mean well can’t respect each other.
For many it falls back to that one thought and I will speak for those good folks
and sqy the reason they hold to this idea is they know it won’t work any other way.
The other type of person knows there are two types of us. Who speaks for them?
Whhhhhhh, man its cold.
Merry Christmas.