What a nasty day . It actually snowed here for a while . It didn't stick here but I guess it did other places on the island. Snow isn't unheard of in march but it has been allot of years for it to happen this late . It is supposed to get nice and be dry for a while so I plan on working on my log mill. Hopefully this is going to be the last of our winter weather. Politics is really getting nasty. It seems like both parties have allot of people that are taking a look at the other side. Mcainacrats ,Obamacans,and the like. I'm glad people are showing open minds and being less partasian . It shows voters just want our government to work together and solve some the countries problems instead of being stuck behind party loyalties. I have two friends that have both voted straight republican for 50+ years ,and for the first time in their lives are leaning toward voting democrat. A year ago ,I wouldn't have believed it could happen ,before hell froze over. I know there are allot of democrats that cant stand either Hillary or Obama . The republican party was on shaky ground early on, and now it looks like the democrats are imploding. I was most glad to hear that more proposals to reform the election procedure have been proposed by congressmen lately. With the Democrats still not resolving how two important states voters can be heard more attention is on how the two parties have the real control of choosing a leader . One congressman proposed -One person -One vote and getting rid of the outdated electoral college. It would take a constitutional election, but allot of political pundits made the case that it is long overdue. AMEN !!!! If popular vote in the primaries or especially the national election is not upheld again, people wont stand for it. When voters finally realize that the parties don't think we are smart enough to elect our own leaders without their corrupt ,expensive and long drawn out procedure they might be insulted enough to begin change. . I know I have said this stuff before but I just want to be able to look back in twenty or thirty years and see that I knew people would wake up sooner or later. "It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country. " Will Durant Pulitzer prize winning anthropologist and philosopher 1905-81 This alien cat tried to hypnotize me today and put me under his power, but it didnt work. But tomorrow Im going to kill all the dogs in the neighborhood and take it to Washington D.C. to meet president Bush like it demanded just to make it think it did.

It has been unseasonably cold lately ,wet blowy and even some sleet .I think we had more sunny days in February than March. I went for a hike along the beach and found a secluded swamp at the bottom of a steep bluff .there sure was allot of wildlife in the little patch . I jumped several deer ,and saw a otter run into a drainage culvert. It was startled and made a sound like a baby giggling to alert its companion to my presence . They took off like greased lightening I found remnants of flounders they had caught in the surf .Even though we don't have rivers on the island these are river otters,and make use of the salt water to travel from pond to pond .They are a pest and can clean out a pond of fish in a short time. I have seen where they seemingly hunt for fun and just leave the fish in piles on the banks of the pond. I had a friend who was the last licenced trapper on Whidbey Island ,but since his death the population of otter and beaver has exploded. The beaver cause allot of flooding in lowland areas. Some friends came back to they're property ,from a long vacation,and found a family of otter had been living under the house.They thought it smelled musty in the house but said they nearly vomited when they turned on they're furnace. They said the otter waste was six inches deep and with a diet of fish and shellfish I guess its unbelievable bad. They are trying to find someone to clean it up ,but have had no takers. All the insulation and heating ducts have to be replaced,and maybe some flooring. Yuk! A job for Dirty Jobs. I found a dry patch in the swamp where you could still see the cracks from where it dried up last summer, with little sprigs of spring swamp grass coming up . I for one am going to do my part and eat as many beavers as I can more than I probably otter . sorry thats really bad.

I hope you all had a nice Easter. I started of the day ,having breakfast with a friend and totally ignored my diet with a killer plate of blueberry pancakes .Yumm yumm. I went for a walk on the beach to work of some calories but the light rain I started out in turned into a real gully washer. When I got home I was so soaked my jacket must have weighed 50 lbs. I couldn't take many pictures today since the camera would have filled with water if I pointed it any other way but down ,so the only picture I liked was water going down a storm drain. I think the blackness of the water and the bubbles look spacey and kind of cool. Politics is still making me sick . Allot of people think Obama is really on the ropes with links to some bad people in the underworld and his not denouncing the radical preaching of his minister. I think Hilliary is holding on in hopes that the media casts enough doubt on his character and finds more skeletons in his closet that he drops out .I think it is just his turn for abuse and people will sluff it of soon and McCain and Clinton will have their turns. The media is calling McCain " Teflon John" because nothing is sticking to him right now. He just came back from the war in Iraq and played up how good things seem to be going. I think his whole candidacy rides on a continuing lull in violence in Iraq. If the Sunni -shite conflict turns back towards getting Americans killed, I think the voters will go with a democrat that wants to get out sooner . Today rockets and mortars hit in the "safe " green zone. Nobody was killed ,but if there had been deaths I think McCains speech on the rosy condition of Baghdad would have sounded a little less believable. McCain said the Iraq citizens are going about their normal daily life . Personally I think their the normal daily life of the entire region will be violent whether we are there or not.We are just presenting them targets while we try to kill cockroaches with a steamroller, meanwhile Osama Bin Laden continues to run free and makes threats from our "allies " country. What a mess this world is in. I heard today we will probably be on Mars in less than 20 years--- if antibody's left by then . And that's the optimists report for today. Makes me want to eat a entire chocolate rabbit. Here is a picture stuff going down the drain---I wonder where it goes after that.

Well the first day of Spring ,goodbye and good ridens to winter. It was a decent day here with a lot of sun in the afternoon . I mowed the yard ,for the first time this year. It really didn't need it but I wanted to get the bugs out of the lawnmower ,before the grass really starts growing . It sure smelled good . Something about that smell from the first cut of the year.It always takes me back to childhood .Its like rolling down a grassy hill ,when you are a kid. There was one patch of tall grass, down in the meadow , and as I cut it ,the deer started coming out of the woods. They started grazing along the edge not afraid of the lawn tractor at all. I ran the mower out of gas and by the time I walked up and got the gas can and back ,there were six deer munching away on the tender ,fresh cut grass . They didn't seem to worried about me until I pulled out my camera. They all did their slow goofy walk into the woods. I drove the mower up the hill and looked back down in the meadow less than one minute later and all six were already back. That must have been some good tasting grass to them ,because they sure wanted it .The deer are taking over the place ,since I don't have a dog anymore to scare them away. We are constantly scaring the hell out of each other when we accidentally encounter each other at close range. I have just about stepped on them lately while out wandering around with a camera. I can never get a good picture when that happens. The deer are starting to look skinny and mangy because they are losing their winter coat now . It comes out in patches, and you see it in allot of places in the forest. I used to wonder if they had the horrible CWD (chronic wasting disease) until I found it is just natural shedding. One doe is very big-probably from eating everything but the sprinkler, in my garden, last fall. She might fit nicely in my freezer come next fall, we will see.I don't usually take the stupid neighborhood deer, but there are getting to be an awful lot of them and they taste the same or better than the wilder ones. I haven't been able to watch politics lately , its gotten ugly .Its all about race and religion and other garbage. The guilt by association stuff only goes so far for me ,and that goes for all candidates. The Shawn Hannity crowd reminds me of a lynch mob in old western movies.These radicals on both ends of politics are dangerous . There will be allot more of it before the election and after but I just hope they get around to debating some more meat and potato issues. Like the price of meat and potatoes . Milk and gas seem to be in a race to see which will hit five dollars a gallon first. Anyway happy Spring .

Here is a couple more shots my niece Laura

Blogger wasn't letting me load my pictures or maybe I wasn't patient enough The top picture is Laura .Hope ya had a great birthday kiddo. The middle picture is my brother Jim and his wife Denise ,and the bottom one is my sister Judi and her husband Allen. Everybody has a little Irish in them except Allen he has Scottish blood( just has to be different) but that close enough on St.Pattys day . I'm finally feeling better ,I really was green the last couple days

Begorah ! Hope ya had a Irish day! GRREEEEEEEEN Ladie and Lasses for sure. My name is Snyder from my father , but my mothers roots are all Kellys Brackens ,Courtneyneys , and other Irish names . Try to trace your family genealogy when your great grandmother was Mary Kelly . Every other woman in Ireland at that time was named Mary Kelly . I feel Irish today !!! A Lucky son of a buck I am !!!! I berled my taters ,and cabbage to go with my corned beef , and quashed it down with a pint ,of Guinness. I want to wish my darling niece Laura, a happy birthday who definitely has the beautiful Irish eyes ,my Grandmother had. She doesn't read my blob but Happy birthday Laura anyways!!! Here are some pictures of her and her Irish EYES

I haven't been feeling 100 percent the last few days ,something seems to be going around . Today I just slept in and added a bunch of junk to the Blog. Some of the younger staff here at Bucksnort had never heard or Asteroids of Simon .I'm not much into computer games but it took me back to high school memories playing them. And Pong was so fantastic when it first cam out. Then I found girls and didn't have any money to waste in arcade machines .Do they even have video arcades anymore? Have some fun and try some of the games and tests. Simon drives me crazy!

Well I think I resolved my computer problem at least I hope so. Today the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln left the port of Everett on its seven month mission to Iraq. I went down to the beach to watch it pass by the island and was there for a long time but never saw it . Ive seen it several times but am always impressed that something that big can float . The Lincoln is the ship with the infamous Mission Accomplished banner. I never did put much weight in that whole controversy---the mission of overthrowing Saddam's regime was accomplished. There is allot of missions in a war. I must have just missed the aircraft carrier going by because all the helicopters and coast guard ships cleared out. That thing sure moves fast . I did see several of the Alaskan crab boats heading out . They are the same boats from the show Deadliest Catch from the Discovery channel -a hell of a show. You couldn't pay me enough to do that work. I thought about it when I first came to the Northwest but they quit paying the big bucks and hired allot less people once they started regulating it heavily . A few guys I know that went told me some horror stories from working on them .Scared to death ,most of the time working like a slave for little money. Watching the show I was glad I never did it . Not much happning in politics--no sex scandals or anything. New York's new governor is legally blind .I wonder how he find the hookers. They figured out that the governor spent 84 dollars a minute-talk about government pork barrel spending Sorry I had to--- they missed that one on the late night comedy shows. Leno and the others have been having a field day -------" I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." Will Rogers

everrt

Life is GREAT! My computer doesn't want me to voice my complaints . So I will only say good things . Spring is happening here even though its gray . I found a wild cherry blooming,in a opening, while hiking in the deep dark forest . The other fruit trees are about to bloom any day . I think it is very early. Tomorrow I will bitch and complain if this f7ck!n computer lets me. It just started to give me a little trouble, if IT doesnt like what I am writing. A few scotch broom blooming , cherry and plum are just about to pop . I think this is the earliest spring ever ,even if it isn't warm yet .Goodbye before blogger or my computer turns me off.

You just have to laugh sometimes. A self righteous governor, that prosecuted several prostitution rings getting caught up in one himself. Ha ha haaaaaaaaaa How about congress giving a huge defense contract to a foreign based company that is under indictment, and has no expierence in making that type of airplane. Instead of giving it to Boeing here in America and adding 40,000 plus jobs to a struggling economy. Who side are they one anyways? Soon theywill have to borrow money from the Chinese to bail out Boeing. Someday the military will just be buying planes ,straight from China . Our government that subsidizes the oil companies, one of which doesn't want to pay anymore money for the Exxon Valdez disaster ,(even though it would be only a weeks worth of their record setting profits) is leaning in their direction. Corruption is ruling the world---maybe the Mafia should be in charge ,at least they had loyalties to their own and made a profit. Probably fewer people would get killed in the long run. The pictures are just some menacing clouds that reminded me of the Mt. St Helen's eruptions. I watched the first installment of a new series on Discovery ,called Axmen. It is about the logging industry that I have always had a fascination and great respect for. I swear I have met several of the loggers from the show, while I was hunting . Its a great show with allot of colorful characters and some interesting logging techniques .Watch it if you can. My political quote comes from the Gipper ----Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.---Ronald Regan

I cant take it any more -- I watch shows like surviorman, and man against the wild and I think they are trying to kill people ! I just watched a navy seal ,that was so afraid of a twig that he heard snap in the middle of the night, that he abandoned the hole that he dug ,in a rainstorm, to sleep in , and decided to run through the woods at night because it might be a bear. In the light of day, he recommended running down hill as fast as you can to take advantage of gravity and covering as much ground as you can ,as quick as you can. After falling several times ,he came to a waterfall, and climbed straight down the middle of it. When he reached the bottom ,he decided to take a 40 foot plunge into a icy cold raging river to go downstream. In other survivor shows ,the host has camped inches away from alligator infested rivers or polar bear feeding places. They don't have shows where people that actually live in these places, but they have some guy that wrote some book on surviving doing the shows. Somebody is going to be killed listening to these idiots,== probably one of the people on the show . Most of the things they show go against all survival principals as well as human nature. I don't know what it is but , I have been ,hunting and fishing with allot of former military personnel ,that wanted to kill themselves using some survivor techniques. A few marines that I have known nearly killed us both, just doing simple camp chores. Some of the hard core military types scare the crap out of me. Yeah Im talking about John McCain .As far as the shows goes somebody is going to get killed soon. Sorry to ramble about crazy stuff but it is The BUCKSNORT blog ....you heard it here first. They wont let me post a picture today --oh well

I was cold and gray here today ,with the weekend looking decent, but looking cold and rainy next week. I sure get allot more done on the warm sunny days than this dreary stuff,but at least the day will be longer with the time change this weekend. I was down on the beach other other day at low tide and found about a dozen of these little oyster farms. I have never seen things like them before. Some of them had a couple dozen oysters in each bag, these were all empty. I don't know where the oysters went from this one because the bags were sealed up. Someone must be trying to seed the area with oysters, but I cant imagine who would be doing it. They went to a great deal of effort and expense but there was no names or identification. of any kind. they were spread over more than a mile of beach and I guessing there are many more in water that is to deep to see.Ive seen them grow in bags off docks ,but this is very different . I'm guessing that some private person ,or possibly an Indian tribe put them out ,the state would have marked them . I don't think they have much chance of working to seed the beach because it is the wrong type of beach ,but I hope it works. Politics is getting more absurd every day. At least I am starting to hear allot more talk about changing the primary system .If the democrats don't do something to fix their mess in Florida and Michigan soon I think there is going to be big protests and if the super delegates overthrow the popular vote there will be riots at the convention . I hope there is no violence but I hope it brings the issue up long enough so that people don't forget about it for four or eight more years. I think by election time comes voters will be so sick of the three candidates and the price of gas will be so high , nobody bother driving to the polls. McCain looks more and more like a older crankier hot headed version of Bush . Hilliary looks more and more like a untrustworthy conniving , bit(# , and Obama is all hopes and dreams and magic with no substance. God help us---one of these will lead us?

My intuition was wrong . Hillary is still hanging on, in fact some pundits ,think she still is hot and is the one to beat. I think she will end up as V.P. and then b!t(# so much she will end up as lead dog . I wonder how much ,Rush Linbauaghs push for republicans to vote for Clinton effected the vote. Huckabee went out ,very strangely,---finally giving McCain his support ,but voicing his messages to the end. I don't think we have seen the end of him, and I'm glad because I think he had allot of great ideas that people could have got behind ,if he wasn't such a religious figure. I'm sorry that people in the remaining states ,only have one option to vote for on the republican side.. If I lived in one of the many states , left to vote I would feel that my opinion meant ,very little in what candidate ,I could vote for ,but very privileged to decide ,which of the remaining candidates ,will be the president . Our system is idiotic . Some states ,get to cull the candidates , and some states get to decide which one of those get to represent their party. Things would be very different if we all got to cull each party's candidates equally by voting at the same time . The obvious reason is that it would allow a third party to have a chance of coming into play. Media controls who is in the race ,the same way as the do in sports. The world football league cant compete with the NFL , because it would water down the both leagues . Politics should not be -x-against - y , but as our founding fathers ,envisioned it ,as a multi party - forum .Other countries have this way of democracy ,but ours is held useless because of bipartisanship . Both party's have a stifled ,centrist mind but are bound by the far ends of their parties. We are screwed by this process ,because one party gives the other, radical concessions on each side, to accomplish an agenda that neither want. I'm going to bed and scream in my pillow now ,it makes me forget about this stuff that we seemingly can change . Here is one of my Siamese fighting fish --- I call him Dempsey.

They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but the end of February and the beginning of March have been very mild here.It was breezy here today with a few sprinkles ,but other than that ,I cant remember the last time it really rained hard. Today on the beach I found this tree trying to hold on,while the wind tried to push it of the cliff. It seemed like the other trees would try to reach out and try to keep it from toppling. It was creaking and groaning like it was begging for help. Even when the breeze would stop it would shudder and shake like it was scared as more rocks and dirt would fall from its roots . I thought for sure it would fall while I was there but I could hear it along time after I went around the corner of the bluff. I think I answered the question -that if a tree falls and there is nobody there to hear it does it still make a sound - I think this one will go out kicking and screaming till the end. Its kind of how I think Hilliary Clinton and Mike Hucklebee must feel ,holding on desperately, waiting for the last wind to shove them off , crying and moaning , to their end . Ha ha ha Most of the media thinks Clinton will win Ohio and continue her campaign race but I still think she will lose Ohio and Texas and will give it up soon. Its kind of to bad that her and Obama are going head to head, I think allot of people are having a hard time deciding between them. As for Hucklebee ,I have to say that I really admire him for staying in if for no other reason than to let people be able to have a choice. Some people will vote for him ,even though he has no chance of winning , just to let McCain know they are not satisfied with him. Hell has officially frozen over with Rush Limbaugh telling republicans to vote for Clinton .Its just to throw a monkey wrench into the democrats election but still I never thought Id see the day. . I cant wait till tomorrow to see what happens. I wonder how many trees will be left standing.

Today I dusted off a couple of my bows and shot them ,for the first time ,since last fall. My first four arrows were all good shots around the bulls eye .I shot about thirty more shots and got progressively worse as I got more tired and my fingers got cold and sore. Tonight I'm feeling allot of muscles I haven't used in a while. I hope the weather stays decent so I can get in some practice this week. These bows are a couple of Mongolian replicas ,that my friend Tom Shorey made. He has made hundreds of bows, in styles of ancient cultures from around the world. Chinese, Persian ,Indian, Turkish,Mongolian, and others .He made them from aircraft grade aluminum but they look like the authentic composite bows made from wood and bone .They are hand painted and are true works of art. They are very powerful and allot of fun to shoot. The pictures don't do them justice. Well that's about all I can bear to type, the old traditional bows really do a number on your fingers until you develop some calluses. I hope I'm not to sore to shoot tomorrow.