Hi,
The lowly opossum is quite the figure. Technically our North American opossum is different from the Australian opossum. They are one of the most adaptable creatures on Earth. They date back to the Eocene Epoch (55-33.9 million years ago), before the continents separated. That’s pretty darn old, they have adapted through ice ages, mass extinctions of many different life forms. If you drive down the road at night and most other woodland creatures would dart out of your head lights. Opossums just sit there eating their road kill, they just don’t care or fear. They look at you with a look that looks like “Go find your own road kill”. 🙂 They don’t need to worry about that, I’m not into road kill., they can have it all to themselves. Opossums are loners, they are not a pack or family animal at all. Mom gets pregnant, she can create 25 little opossums, but only have 13 nipples so almost half don’t make it. Moms are called jills, dads are called jacks and the kids are called joeys. She carries the joeys in her pouch or on with them clinging to her back until they are developed enough to go on their own. They are not all cute and stuff, but they do have quite the following these days. Heidi Conant of Vermont has started the Opossum Awareness and Advocacy and a Face book page. She got 20,000 followers in just over two days and is now over 100,000 in just short of a year. With this pedigree, you would think Heidi is some kind of professor or veterinarian, she’s actually a digital marketing professional that got caught up with a love for opossums. Some interesting things about opossums is they are the only marsupials in North America, eat Lyme disease carrying ticks (up to 5,000 a year), they also eat mice and garden insect pests. When attacked they “play opossum”, actually they are not pretending to be dead but go into a swoon like faint. If you read my September 4 post about my opossum visitor, they are incapable of carrying rabies or so the animal control officer told me.
So maybe we should welcome the little buggers with a little respect? 🙂
Speaking of critters we seem to be winning with the invasive lanternfly the invasive Asian bug that severely decreased South Korea’s crop yields in 2006. They had spread throughout the country in three years, we’ve had them for about three years and the PA Department of Natural Resources seems to have them contained in south eastern PA the only place they’ve been seen here in America. They like to feed on sap from woody and non-woody plants and leave behind a sweet fluid that promotes mold and can be devastating to crops like grapes, apples, stone fruits and hard wood trees.
Kiva is a global micro funding non profit organization out of San Fransisco. Kiva has been instrumental in 2.7M small businesses receiving $1B since 2005 to 2.7M entrepreneurs globally. Kiva is sort of set up like crowd funding, the applicant posts what they need and what it is for. Individual investors scan posts and decide if they want to supply funds and how much. The amazing thing is these are no interest loans! Kiva says they have a 97% pay back record. If you have a loan through Kiva and are falling behind in your payments, they can try and adjust the payment schedule if possible. They really can’t dictate any terms, the terms are agreed between the lender and borrower. To be a lender, the minimum amount is $25. Instead of the traditional credit information, most funding sources look for. Kiva looks at the character and business potential of each applicant. Pittsburgh has it’s own branch Kiva Pittsburgh has helped a number of small businesses here. Which started in 2014 and already has funded $1M locally. Some local recipients include jewelry artist Sarah Daigneault for equipment, Leona’s Ice Cream out of Wilkinsburg $25,000 for a new freezer, Warriors Call Boxing in Baden for $5,000 and the folks at I Made it Arcade.
I’m going to step up on my soap box for a minute, the special election in PA’s 18 district pits entrenched politician Republican Rick Saccone against new comer Conor Lamb. I have to give both men credit, they each ran a pretty clean campaign until the national Republican and Democratic parties got involved. And that is my point, the lies and half truths both are pouring into the airwaves is disgusting. I view myself as an independent, but am registered as a Democrat so I can vote in primaries. And I admit I lean more toward the Democratic party than the Republican. I could actually be a Republican if they weren’t a bunch of liars. The tax overhaul that is going to “help out the middle class”. I have two letter for that BS! Yes, you might give me a tax break for a year or two, but the 1% are getting permanent tax breaks. Mr. Saccone worked in Harrisburg for years and we haven’t had a balance budget on time in years. He as in Harrisburg when Republican Tom Corbett slash educational funding. Oh yea, he’s going to watch out for the working class. Yes, I’m being sarcastic Doreen. 🙂 My blood pressure’s going up, so I’m going to log off for now. Have a good night and if you are in district 18, be sure to go out an vote.
Nite,
ed
