366 days of graatitude

Humour is the sunshine of the mind.

Oh yes, and today I’m grateful for the warmth, light and healing it brings.

Word of the day

Sphallolalia – flirtatious talk that leads nowhere.

Rural round-up

Red meat earnings potential missed – Andrea Fox:

It’s time red meat and fibre farmers woke up to the potential to lift their earnings that is right under their noses instead of blaming meat companies and markets and the dairy industry.

That’s the crux of the message to farmers at workshops highlighting missed earning opportunities due to lack of business planning and constant measurement of production performance.

Presented by ANZ, the country’s biggest rural lending bank as part of its red meat industry extension commitment, and agribusiness consultant Will Wilson, the ongoing workshops hammer the message that the most opportunities for beef and sheep farmers exist in their paddocks, not beyond the farmgate.

Beehive thefts annoy bee keepers – Kirsty Lawrence:

Beekeepers are wondering what more they can do to protect their hives as the prosecution rate for theft remains low.

In the past year, 375 beehives have been reported stolen between Palmerston North and Whanganui, a distance of about 75 kilometres.

In Northland, about $500,000 worth of hives were stolen earlier this year.

A 50-year-old salesman from rural Palmerston North has been charged with stealing eight beehives in Manawatu recently. . .

What about the rabbits? – Kate Guthrie:

If we knock back ferrets and feral cats will rabbit numbers soar? It is a concern that’s frequently raised, particularly in farming areas where rabbit control is already an issue. As rabbits are the main prey of ferrets and feral cats, it seems intuitively logical that rabbits will thrive without their predators. But there is a lot more going on with respect to what really controls rabbit numbers – as research into rabbit population dynamics reveals.

In response to the farming community’s concerns, Landcare Research scientists Grant Norbury and Chris Jones reviewed the current research literature on rabbits. . . .

A welcome for the shearers – Anne Hughes:

Running the shearing shed can be physically and mentally demanding. The lead-up to shearing requires good planning to bring sheep to the yards, allocate grazing after shearing and maximise returns from your wool clip.

This usually means lots of mustering and long days in the yards, especially when shearing is combined with weaning and drenching.

 

No farmer, no food.

Quote of the day

If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans. – James Heriot who was born 100 years ago today.

October 3 in history

52 BC Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrendered to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia.

42 BC  First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fought a decisive battle with Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius.

1283   Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, became the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

1574   The Siege of Leiden was lifted by the Watergeuzen.

1683   The Qing Dynasty naval commander Shi Lang reached Taiwan to receive the formal surrender of Zheng Keshuang and Liu Guoxuan after theBattle of Penghu.

1712   The Duke of Montrose issued a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.

1739   The Treaty of Nissa was signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia at the finish of the Russian-Turkish War, 1736–1739.

1835   The Staedtler Company was founded in Nuremberg.

1837 – Nicolás Avellaneda, Argentinian journalist and politician, 8th President of Argentina, was born (d. 1885).

1849  Edgar Allan Poe, US author, was found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances.

1873  Captain Jack and companions were hanged for their part in theModoc War.

1885 – Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist, was born (d. 1970).

1888  The NZ Natives, the first national rugby team to wear the silver fern, played its first game in the UK.

1906 – Natalie Savage Carlson, American author, was born (d. 1997).

1908  The Pravda newspaper was founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna.

1916 –  James Herriot, English vet & author, was born (d 1995).

1918  King Boris III of Bulgaria acceded to the throne.

1925 Gore Vidal, American author, was born (d 2012).

1929 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was renamed toKingdom of Yugoslavia, “Land of the South Slavs”.

1932  Iraq gained independence from the United Kingdom.

1935   Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italy invaded Ethiopia under General de Bono.

1941  Chubby Checker, American singer-songwriterwas born.

1942   The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany, this was the first man-made object to reach space.

1949 Lindsey Buckingham, American guitarist and singer (Fleetwood Mac), was born.

1950  Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San, primarily pitting Australian and British forces against communist China, began.

1952   The United Kingdom successfully tested a nuclear weapon.

1955  The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC.

1957 Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems was ruled not obscene.

1961  – Rebecca Stephens, English journalist and mountaineer, was born.

1962  Project Mercury: Sigma 7 was launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.

1964   First Buffalo Wings were made at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

1971 Kevin Richardson, American singer (Backstreet Boys), was born.

1981  The Hunger Strike by Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ended after seven months and ten deaths.

1981 The Communist Party of Namibia was founded at a conference in Angola.

1981  The Space Shuttle Atlantis made its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J)

1986   TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, was officially opened.

1990 German Unity Day:  The German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its territory became part of the Federal Republic of Germany.

1993   Battle of Mogadishu: In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s organisation in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Soldiers and about 1,000 Somalis were killed in heavy fighting.

1995  O J Simpson acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

2008  The $700 billion bailout bill for the US financial system was signed by President Bush.

2009  – The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey signed the Nakhchivan Agreement on the Establishment of Turkic Council.

2013 – At least 134 migrants were killed when their boat sank near the Italian island of Lampedusa.

2013 – The Gambia withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia