About those three-colored cats ...

[SPIKER]

Had one when we were kids female Ginger was one heck of a mouser, provider for her kittens etc. She once jumped off 2nd floor outside steps onto head of a roaming German Shepard, rode it out of the yard attached to its head with teeth & claws....
Mark

 

[flyerdan]

Here are my two girls, just had their second birthday last Sunday. Cat genetics are interesting, none of the four in the litter look like each other. The other two were a gray striped and a solid gray with white socks, a strong trait as the feral mother had them as well.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Dave, I have an aversion to copying full posts, so, at #8 your remark is exactly what Darwin said. He was both.

As for the goats, I bought 12 does as a foundation, all mongrels, and a pure bred buck I liked the look of. Apart from one doe, all were polled. I used the buck for two years and (from memory) had 5 intersexes. I got another polled buck and the same applied. I began researching and the best info I found was that if one parent is horned then these intersexes do not occur. Acquired a horned buck and no further problems -including previously affected does. I do not know the genetic reasoning behind it.

As to your last paragraph - I have absolutely no idea.

texasjohn, Very true now as in Pope's time, but there is so much information that I feel I only know a very little about many things.

Dave, Knowledge is a rushing torrent from which you may sip and nourish your mind as desired. Your quote or borrowed?

 

[dave1949]

As for the goats, I bought 12 does as a foundation, all mongrels, and a pure bred buck I liked the look of. Apart from one doe, all were polled. I used the buck for two years and (from memory) had 5 intersexes. I got another polled buck and the same applied. I began researching and the best info I found was that if one parent is horned then these intersexes do not occur. Acquired a horned buck and no further problems -including previously affected does. I do not know the genetic reasoning behind it.

texasjohn, Very true now as in Pope's time, but there is so much information that I feel I only know a very little about many things.

Dave, Knowledge is a rushing torrent from which you may sip and nourish your mind as desired. Your quote or borrowed?

Thanks for the goat intersex info. After some looking, I see it is now a sort of common goat knowledge thing. There is a description of it here: Raising Goats Naturally: The Complete Guide to Milk, Meat and More By Deborah Niemann.

Raising Goats Naturally: The Complete Guide to Milk, Meat and More - Deborah Niemann - Google Books

"Knowledge is a rushing ... " The words are mine but I doubt I am the first to express the essence of the idea. I see Alexander Pope did not condone merely sipping. Very stuffy. As you said, he didn't have as much knowledge to contend with. Think about how old hat the great libraries and the gatherings of learned men of Pope's time have become.

I thought he was shamelessly plugging Perrier mineral water using an archaic spelling: "Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring," but I see: "In Greek mythology, the Pierian Spring of Macedonia was sacred to the Muses. As the metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science ..."

 

[Xfaxman]

:shocked: Information overload! :shocked:

No such thing.

Knowledge is a rushing torrent from which you may sip and nourish your mind as desired.

Besides that, retired folks need something to do with their free time; something plausibly useful is out of the question. :laughing:

Ok then, :shocked: mind overload! :shocked:

 

[OldMcDonald]

Dave, I agree with you that 200 years ago there was not as much to contend with, but I would prefer to say information, rather than knowledge. A lot of the knowledge (and particularly skills) of that time has been lost.

I can empathise with xfaxman about mind overload. This is the time of year when almost all my work is limited to harvesting from the garden and irrigation. It means I can take time off in the heat of the day, and have long coffee breaks like now. I have been reading as much as possible about almonds and olives. Being a complete novice when I arrived I followed local professional and neighbourly advice about olives, but Portugal has just about the world's lowest olive production per acre - hectares are used here but that is matterless. After a couple of years I questioned local advice and now feel that I have a mind overload of information.

More and more technical papers are available online and most are in English, although I have learned to read a little Spanish and Italian. I Know I do not read the words the way they should be pronounced, but that is not important so long as I know what the word means. I also read as much non-technical info as I can, and there is just as much rubbish posted as there was written 200 years ago, including factual inaccuracies. There is also an extreme amount of plagiarism. Sorting out what is reliable and what should be avoided is not easy. I have a few ideas about why Portugal's production is so low, and I am making notes for myself, but I have always criticised people who make proclamations and tell the world how to do things when they lack the practical experience, so I am saying nowt until I have had a few more harvests from my 500 young trees. My ideas seem to be working on the few old trees I have, but they are in favoured positions and that is why I left them. I just need to stay fit long enough, but I follow yet another old saying - Live as if you will die tomorrow, but farm as if you will live forever. I Googled it to try to find who wrote it, but to no avail.