Fog ~ Rain ~ Bruiser ~ Picture of the Day ~ NY Beaver ~ Easy Taco Soup ~ Jo Ann Kirk ~ Winter Solstice

Good TGIF and first day of winter (YEAH!! the days will be getting longer from now on til Autumn!)  38º cloudy morning.

First the fog yesterday....

Then about 9:30 the rain started. By afternoon we got 1". 

The rain was POURING for hours! 

Here is the Rogue River off ramp

.... and downtown Medford......

We topped at 44º.

Try and work on my blog with Bruiser laying in the middle of my desk on top of my ELA Low Profile mouse pad!!!

Picture of the Day.....

Interesting about the NY beaver.......

The Beaver is the official mammal of New York State. It's a large, mainly nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodent. The beaver is well known for building dams, canals, and lodges which are used as domiciles. The beaver's predilection for building dams, which create still, deep waters, is both a defensive measure against predators and a means to float food and building materials. Beaver use their large incisors to harvest trees to build these structures.

The beaver once numbered up to 60 million in North America but now numbers from 6 to 12 million. The decline is attributed to hunting for the beaver's fur and glands. The glands can be used for medicine and perfume. It was the exploitation of the beaver that helped develop Dutch colonization in New York State. The beaver's economic importance in early New York, is undeniable. Both NYC and Albany had started as Dutch trading posts heavily dependent on the beaver. In an acknowledgment to this, both NYC's and Albany's flags depict the beaver.

By the late 1600's, up to 80,000 beaver pelts were being exported from North America annually. This rate was unsustainable. This, plus pollution, ensured the beaver's retreat, especially from heavily urbanized areas. By the early 1800's, the beaver disappeared from NYC, where it once widely roamed.

After a two hundred years absence, beavers have returned to NYC. Two beavers, christened Jose and Justin, have made the Bronx River their home.

In New York there is Beaver Lake, Beaver Island, Beaver Camp, Beaver Falls, Beaver Creek, Beaver Pond, Beaver Brook, Beaver Meadows, Beaver Campground, and Beaverkill Bridge!

Easy Crock Pot Taco Soup

Prep 10 minutes   Cook time 6 hours  Servings 6

• 1 lb ground beef
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 15.5 oz can kidney pinto, black or Great Northern beans
• 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 15 oz can sweet corn
• 1.25 oz pkg taco seasoning mix
• Optional: 1 tsp freeze dried garlic or fresh chopped garlic
• Garnish: crushed tortilla chips shredded Cheddar cheese, sour cream

• Brown your beef on the stove over medium heat, then drain
• Put your ground beef in your crock pot
• Pour your tomato sauce, veggies (undrained) and taco seasoning (and garlic) into your crock pot
• Give it a good stir
• Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours
• Serve with crushed tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream

Or............. put the ingredients in a pot on the stove, bring to slight boil, then reduce heat to low and stir often until ready.

Special birthday today, Jo Ann Kirk, wife of the infamous Joe Kirk (LASD ret.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO ANN!!!

Historically this date.........

 

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theater.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.

1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 2

2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.

And births this date include....

1922 – Paul Winchell, American ventriloquist (d. 2005)

1935 – Phil Donahue, American talk show host

1946 – Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys) (d. 1998)

L-R Mike Love, Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson (d. at 39), Carl Wilson (d. at 51)

1954 – Chris Evert, American tennis player

1957 – Ray Romano, Italian-American comedian

1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter (d. 1998)

1966 – Kiefer Sutherland, British-born Canadian actor

He's got the longest name of anyone I ever heard of! Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland!

All I know. Nuff said. Happy TGIF. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It occurs annually between December 20 and December 23.

The winter solstice is marked by the point at which the North Pole is at its farthest from the sun during its yearly orbit around the sun. It will be approximately 23 degrees away from the sun.  Despite the temperature outside, the winter solstice is considered the astronomical beginning of winter.  Meteorological winter begins December 1 and lasts until the end of February and is marked by the coldest average temperatures during the year.

Depending on how far north a person is in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter solstice, their day can range from 9.5 hours to absolutely no sunrise at all.  On the bright side, the days will gradually become longer in the Northern Hemisphere until the summer solstice in June.  In the Southern Hemisphere, this same day marks the summer solstice and the Southern Hemisphere’s longest day of the year.

The vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox conventionally mark the beginning of spring and fall respectively and occur when night and day are approximately equal in length.

Around the world since ancient times to modern day, celebrations, festivals, rituals and holidays recognizing the winter solstice have varied from culture to culture.

HISTORY

Since the marking of time and the earliest calendars, this day marked the hardest time of the year for early people.  Survival was paramount when food and heat are not reliable.  In all corners of the Earth, there are ancient remains that seem to have been built around marking the winter solstice.

• Probably the most famous of these is Stonehenge, England. Every year when the sun sets on the winter solstice, the sun’s rays align with two of the giant stones known as the central Altar and the Slaughter stone.
• As the sun rises the day of the winter solstice, its rays illuminate the main chambers of the monument dating back to 3200 B.C. at Newgrange, Ireland.
• In Tulum, Mexico an ancient Mayan city stands deserted. At the top of one of these buildings, a small hole casts a starburst when the sun rises on the winter and summer solstices.