August Flora

Rose of Sharon.   Pretty.  Such a pretty little tree.

Meanwhile, this pretty flower has exciting possibilities.

Roasted sunflower seeds!  My hope is that by November, when baseball is all over, I can spit sunflower husks on my living room floor like the ball players do in the dugout.

Speaking of foodstuffs.  This is a fig tree.  (Well, the one on the left is a fig tree the other is oregano.) Anyway.  No figs yet but maybe  - if the tree survives under a blanket in the garage over the winter and bears fruit next year- we will have figs!

Let us return to the pretty.  This is what a poinsettia plant looks like in August!

The Evolution of Duck Eggs

Here at the homestead, the youngsters born this spring are now laying eggs, just like the grown ups.

It takes a few tries to pull off the perfect egg, however.

 Start small, work your way up is one method.

For scale: a small Kong and an extra large Kong. 

Another method, somewhat unnerving to observe, is an egg that looks like a regular egg in every way except the shell is soft and almost translucent.

 There will be no photos taken of these egg monstrosities for their appearance is, well, icky.  There is often a tail of white material hanging from the egg like the umbilical cord of an alien creature.  Happily, the Freakish Eggs are much more rare than the Mini Eggs.

Before long, the ducks start laying nice uniform eggs that are pretty as wild flowers.

You done with those Kongs yet?

Pop Culture Frenzy, Round 70

Welcome once again to Pop Culture Frenzy.  Let's get on with it.

It seems that a California billionaire has developed a vegan dog food.  He claims it's full

 of a special very excellent protein and will feed hungry dogs the world over. 

What is this vegan protein?
Fluffy?

Soybeans?

Hostmaster:  incorrect.  Bryan?

Dogs are not vegans! 

Hostmaster:  uh huh.  You want to answer the question?

Eggs?

Vegans don't eat any animal products. 

 They only eat plant based food.

Don't some vegans eat eggs as long as the 

chickens are free range or something?

If they do, they aren't vegans.

 It's cruel to eat animals and anything they produce

 no matter how ideal their environment may be.

Hmm, maybe I'll stop using milk on my morning Grape Nuts

 and use gin instead.  It's plant based and cruelty free!

Hostmaster:  good thinking.  Now back to the matter of the protein in the billionaire dog food.

Molly?

The only vegans I know are squirrels.

So, nuts?

Hostmaster:  incorrect.
Cyndi?

Koji?

Hostmaster:  correct.  The company says that koji fungus has more amino acids that are beneficial to dogs than steak does.

What are they calling this vegan nightmare food? 

 Fungi Feast?  Moldy Mangia?  Koji Krap?

Hostmaster:  I don't know.  The company is called Wild Earth.  It's a curious name choice since their product is created in a biolab.

Ah, the wonder of marketing. 

Next they'll say that  9 out of 10 dogs

 prefer slime pellets to steak!

Hostmaster:  Wild Earth has plans for a cat food.  The protein for the cat food will be made from lab cultured mouse meat.

That doesn't sound vegan friendly.

"Lab cultured"?  

Maybe they're test tube mice.

Maybe they're free range
clone mice!

At least they're not pretending that

 cats are vegans. 

This round is over.  Who's

up for some koji?  I'm buying!  

If this koji protein is so great, why

isn't the billionaire guy feeding it to
 hungry people the world over?

Read about the super fungus dog food here.  *****Sorry folks.  This link was allowed when this was first posted.  Now it is not.  The article is in FoxBusiness.com July 30, 2018  title:  Billionaire Peter Thiel backs vegan pet food start up developing lab-grown mouse meat.

Round 70

Fluffy/Molly  34

Bryan/Cyndi   33