One Drunk Redneck

In the last couple of days, Trump endorsed ten candidates, seven of them today, alone.  The only obvious difference between the ten candidates is they hail from different states.  Diversity goals met! Click pic for larger view Posted by A Drunk Redneck

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes Anyone who has been around dogs learns quickly dogs fear nothing.  They run, jump, dig, stick their noses everywhere and in anything, chase any size animal from a mouse in the grain feed to a bull in a pasture, and will even challenge the thunder.  There are no hidden spiders and bees to fear in the day or ghoulies and unseen dangers in the night. Dogs fear nothing...except snakes? By comparison to dogs, humans are scaredy-cats.  We won't reach our hands into a hole much less stick our face into one to see what's in there.  We don't run through fields or woods lest we twist our ankle in the hole we won't stick our face in.  Worse, we could run into a bees nest or poke our eye out with a branch.  When night falls, we turn night into day with any light source we can find.  Light keeps dangerous animals and ghoulies away, or at least in plain sight, so we can throw holy water on them or something. Most people might...

Yes, it's real.  It says so on the phone. Click for a larger pic Hold on to your britches!  I found what very well may be the last operational pay phone. As I came out of the Ho....whoa, hold on there.  Tricky you are.  I almost gave away this relic from the past's home location.  I certainly wouldn't want thousands...ok, maybe a handful...of gawkers showing up and disturbing its habitat. Needless to say, as I exited the store, I took a double take and snapped at least a dozen pictures.  Deep in the cobwebby depths of my mind, I remember payphones outside of every story and on every street corner.  A phone book hung underneath, protected from the weather by a hard, notebook-like covering.  If the phone book hadn't been stolen, usually the page you needed was missing...ripped out by someone with a short memory and no pen to jot the number they needed down. After I took my dozen pictures, I had to try the phone for old time's sake.  A...

Two major hurricanes in as many weeks with a third one looming out there.  What a catastrophic end to summer.  Fortunately, the third one, hurricane Jose, looks to be staying out to sea and not wrecking any havoc on land.  Hopefully, it's not to soon to lighten the somber mood summer left us with. Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

Imagine if you had to build this every time you got hungry and needed to catch a Big Mac Walking through the woods with my demon detector, this little fella pictured on the right halted my journey. Ok, you might be thinking, "What the heck is a demon detector and how do you walk it?" For now, suffice it to say that my demon detector plays a central role in my next article, The demon lurking in your e-cig .   You really wouldn't want me to spoil the upcoming article by explaining what the demon lurking in your e-cig is and what a demon detector does, now would you?   My couple of faithful readers, however, can probably guess what the heck I'm talking about.   Now, back to the unanswered questions wrapped in a spider web. The sunlight shone on this web at the perfect angle to highlight all its intricacies.   You might think dew accentuated the sun's effect, but the picture was taken a couple of hours past noon.   The dew, if there were any tha...

For my readers who may not be familiar with Delmarva, we're farm and fishing country.  Chicken farming is big business with Delmarva playing host to four major companies: Allen Family Foods, Mountaire, Perdue and Townsends.  Seventeen hundred family farms supply the processors with the chickens and when you add everything up (feed mills, hatcheries, and processing plants), the chicken industry on Delmarva employs about 14,000 people and growing. Can you imagine the size of the chicken attached to that neck? Now I don't know which of the seventeen hundred families raising chickens for the four big companies did it, but it appears a farm around Pocomoke City, MD in Worcester County raises record breaking chickens.  This sign outside of the SYSCO food distributor plant advertises they have 40 pound chicken necks in stock. Believe it or not, I found a question Google couldn't answer.  I wanted to know how big a chicken would be if it had a 40 pound neck.  ...

Taking a walk through the woods is more than looking at pretty trees and catching a glimpse of a song bird.   It's a learning experience.   All you have to do is look and ponder about what you are looking at. No, you don't have to stare.   You don't have to think until smoke billows out your ears.   You just have to take twenty seconds and run with the first thought that comes to your mind. Take my twenty second snapshot below.   Ants swarmed on the forest floor in preparation to start a new colony somewhere else.   I don't know how some ants decide their home is too small and they need to find a new one.   I don't know what triggers some ants to grow wings so they can leave while others choose to stay and remain wingless.   I don't know how the ones with wings decide when to take flight and the others know to follow.   I don't know what all the crawling by the winged and wingless ones is all about. "No, please don't leave lik...

I absolutely do not like mushrooms.  I've always said you can't trust something that grows in the dark in a pile of crap. Dang, that almost sounds like the current crop of presidential choices. Despite my dislike for their culinary tastes, I do find mushrooms and fungi to be the coral of dry land.  They come in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and colors.  Even though some mushrooms will kill you if eaten, other animals chow down with impunity, making even the poisonous mushrooms an important food source.  The eastern box turtle ( Terrapene carolina carolina ), for example, can be seen chowing down on the fungal delicacy, but a word of warning.  Box turtles can eat mushrooms we can't.  If you see a turtle eating a mushroom, don't eat it thinking it must be safe.  It might kill you.  And don't ever think you can substitute a box turtle for a snapper to make soup.  The poison they ingest from the mushroom is active in their flesh and will kill y...

In this modern day world of technology where we are inundated daily with everything that is wrong and bad in this country... In this modern day world of politics where presidential candidates vow to "make America great again" or "stronger together" as if we're not great, but are weak... In this modern day world of business where the almighty dollar is more important than principles and doing what's right... I come across this stand that defiantly boasts how honest we are and how great we are.  Prices for the produce are posted and plastic bags are provided so you don't walk off with the small baskets.  You bag your produce and leave the money in the money box.  The rusted old money box is testament to the many years this honor system of selling produce has worked for the farmer.  If only we all could focus on this business model and celebrate what it really says about us. Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

Follow Janes Island on Twitter: @ JanesIslandSP If you pay close attention as you walk a path through the forest, you'll see more than trees and an occasional animal bolting across your path.   You'll see drama. The scene pictured on the right is now playing at Janes Island State Park in Crisfield, MD.   It's one of the park's longer running shows.   I'm no tree expert, but I think it's safe to say the black cherry ( Prunus serotina ) engulfing an old stump is ten, maybe twenty-years-old.   Both trunks appear healthy so the show should continue for many more years to come. Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

I love the Easton Diner and Family Restaurant off of US 50 in Easton, MD.  Food is good, servings are huge, and the menu is reasonably and affordably priced.  If you're ever in Easton, MD, drop in at 8451 Ocean Gateway. You know you can't go wrong with a restaurant that fearlessly places their breakfast menu in a menu holder advertising beer.  My guess is the Bud Light would pair nicely with the two eggs any style, home fries, and bacon strips.  Michelob Ultra would pair nicely with the short stack (French toast or hot cakes) and sausage links. Dang.  Someone really needs to write a book, How to Pair Beer with any Food . Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

More information on the loblolly pine, Pinus taeda Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

The first warm spring day, fresh grass, and a Frisbee - now that's heaven.  Mango's expression of happiness is all in the tail. Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks

Yup, a twist to the classic, "Is the glass half full or half empty?"  I don't know who said it, but I remember reading a definition of a weed many decades ago: a weed is a plant growing where it isn't supposed to grow.  As simple as that definition is, it can be expanded to include so many things about human nature and how we define the world around us.  Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks