well shaka, my impression was that the pockets were actually for keeping your hands in. if you keep your hands down at your side, hidden, you are not apt to make quick movements and thus scare the birds/animals that you hoped to get close to. that does make it difficult to use binoculars. i assume you gradually, carefully, slowly extract a hand, if the binos are the small variety, to observe. if you have the honking big mothers then i assume you withdraw both hands and catch a glimpse at the rare thingy as it high tails it away from you at the speed of light.

the killdeers are back in town. the order is usually grackles, redwing blackbirds, robins, killdeers, herons and then in may, the humingbirds. the robins are presently looking pretty disgusted with the weather. i saw some downtown at a travel agency.

we have snow geese passing through and they have been landing in the same field for a long long time. a friend of the family, now 85, said his dad used to take him to the field to see these beautiful white birds. they'd stay for 3-4 days and then be gone. life does apparently continue.

was in the bush today and boiled 120 liters of clear. the day before, 140. although today was incredibly beautiful, blue skies, all the trees were not awake as a few lines gave nothing. tomorrow is to be another wonderful day and then maybe the trees will rest as a cold front comes through. they do like a rest after a 4 day sap run. you can almost hear them say roberto duran's famous, 'no mas.'

and since i have to speak of uc, i understand they have a plant manager that's very good. knows his job well. so along with gerardo, uc is making great personnel selections.

a poster mentioned jim on mule back. jim suffered severe back pain a couple of weeks ago and had to get medical attention as it was so acute. nothing like back pain as it aligns with passing kidney stones and having babies. so i can imagine he was not too comfortable for his pony ride.(this does bring to mind curly larry and moe as curly did say to moe, 'i've got a weak back', to which moe replied, 'oh ya, since when?' 'oh about a week back', at which time he received 2 fingers to the eyes , deftly rejected by curly. i guess it's better said than written.

jim and gary are being very careful in getting uc to where they want it to be. we shareholders are certainly waiting for the share price to rise and it will. they will make improvements to their existing buildings. they are finding new sources of plata y oro in order to extent the mine's life. this stock will rise and stay up. they are very dedicated in this mission.

also saw a pileated. there are a few old beech trees on the property and they've been whacking away at nest construction. quite a sound.

cheers all