Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

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I remember when Erma Bombeck discussed curses, she had one for mothers, "may you have kids and a dry mouth." No spit, to clean their faces, flatten cowlicks, etc."

My son was always horrified if I did that to him. Has a fit if I take sneak food off his plate. Thinks I will give him a case of cooties. I told him where he was for 9 mos. and I surely ended up with all HIS cooties. Guess you have to be a mother to understand.

Yes, Tara I am waiting to see the doggies in their finest holiday creations.
 
I remember when Erma Bombeck discussed curses, she had one for mothers, "may you have kids and a dry mouth." No spit, to clean their faces, flatten cowlicks, etc."

My son was always horrified if I did that to him. Has a fit if I take sneak food off his plate. Thinks I will give him a case of cooties. I told him where he was for 9 mos. and I surely ended up with all HIS cooties. Guess you have to be a mother to understand.

Yes, Tara I am waiting to see the doggies in their finest holiday creations.
LOL
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, I haven't heard Erma's name in years, You just told the whole world how well you remember your youth, My Dear Diva, you are a Gem!
Scott
 
Heel low:

Beef soup's ON...


Even Fixins had a bit in her bowl...after we came back from a bout of more toy tossing...let the soup cool a bit before slurping commences.
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Yup you've got skills. I like the etching... That would be quite the catapult if you where to match the scale of that slingshot... Lol could hit my house with it...

Thank you for the kind words.
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We all have skills of some sort...it is finding them that is sometimes hit and miss. I had thought in my younger days that I could take the artistic side and apply it to some form of generating money. Like making a living. I even did up a portfolio and sent that off to a graphic artist school...got a reply back that I had not made the cut. I found out that they get thousands of applicants.



My BIL, the one that did the guitar decoration was a graphic artist. Drew this picture of Rick's Sammie Niki with pastels. Pretty much freehand and using a photo Rick sent him--he did babysit Niki for Rick and definately got a feel for the pooch. I just love how he places the lay of the fur...he had lots of tricks of the trade he knew and applied.

He could do the most amazing hand done pin striping. Used a mahlstick and agian, free handed it. He did Rick's canopy before he had it painted to match the red Chev...but by then the pin stripping had long ago faded. BIL went out, wiped the area he was about to paint down, in the back alley, and away he went. He had to quit making a living being an artist too...opened a sign shop but with all the technology going to where they had computers hooked up to cutting machines/printers...basically one just becomes a layout person. Not alot of art in that to keep him honed.

Starving artist, but we can still play when the mood hits us. Sometimes in art, you have to do it...it belches to be let out and you have to get it gone, release it before you explode inside. I guess I can add TORMENT SOUL to "starving artist!"
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One might say that art puts man in a different place than animals, until you see a rooster, drake or tom strutting about the yard showing off his purdiness in feathered form--just watching them preen themselves shows you beauty is always a work in progress. There is an artistic flair of saviour faire in many beings besides us, eh.

Yeh, nope, opposable thumbs won't separate us either...yeh don't miss having raccoons on the Coast but see they don't have actual opposable thumbs tho they indeed sure seemed to use their hands quite well...
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There is a debate that the uniqueness of human thumbs puts us apart...strictly speaking...

Opposition is:

Now birds have an opposable digits on their feet (halluxes)...marsupials, reptiles, certain frogs, Pandas and many primates...agh...heaven forbid we forget the East African maned rat (Lophiomys imhausi)! Nope, thumbs and artistic talents ... not so different when elephants use paint brushes to express themselves!

Gonna post my wallet and purse set of photos now.


So drum roll, another gender lesson in birds...TA DA....

Gender linked - Purses and Wallets in Birds



So there is a more intense lesson when one can put on a display like this one above...people can pick up items, get a hands on feel for gender in birds...but suffice to say, on here, best we may do is show some photos and do some explanations. I hope I don't confuse people but do help by showing yet another way to think about bird genders and how they differ from say, mammals (boys are x/y and girls are x/x).


Eventually it will sink in that Girl birds can carry no real useful genetic material on their W chromosome (the one that makes them a Girl), but because they also have a male Z chromosome which is longer than the W one...Girl birds still are influenced by gender linked alleles from their one Boy chromosome. Girls are always pure (heh heh heh...pure like the driven snows!) because they have only the ONE Z chromosome...Boy birds are either pure or impure for gender linked traits, pending what is on the TWO Z chromosomes they have.


I have used a solid pink egg as the GIRL W chromosome...solid pink, showing clearly nothing contained or sticking to it. Empty of information past it is a GIRL W chromosome! It is a chromosome that quite simply makes the Girl bird a girl or female.



Used a blue porcupine sticky ball for the BOY Z chromosome...along with sticky balls of differing colours for some of the more common gender linked traits that are carried on the Z chromosome.

Z Chromosome may carry the following gender linked traits: B; barring/or/cuckoo, choc; chocolate, dw/rw/z; dwarfism, bl/pl/lk; female lethals, Id; inhibitors of dermal melanin, k; late feathering, S or s"+"; Silver/gold, and W/Y; white/yellow skin.




So Mom is shown with a pink sealed egg and one blue sticky porcupine ball...Dad is shown with two blue sticky porc balls (hmm, are we talking Chinese food...must be getting nigh to supper time!).
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Mom in the bird world has this very small PURSE...Dad in the bird world has the very large WALLET (holds a whole buncha gender genetic crap!).
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So displayed on a Punnett Square...



A Girl bird bred to a Boy bird produces a gender outcome of 1:1 ratio or 50 percent Girls and 50 percent Boys; so half and half.​


Mom's purse with her pink clear solid egg contains the NADA gender linked information from the W chromosome and one blue sticky ball for the Z chromosome that Mom has which may contain the gender linked information. Z/W


Dad of course has his big wallet with TWO blue sticky balls for the two Z chromosomes he has! Z/Z

Go Dad go...lots of stuff to give out that is gender linked on each one of his two Z chromosomes.
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So the clear plastic see thru Boy bird has himself entirely filled up with a whole assortment of gender linked traits...the Girl bird below him is a solid sealed bird...jest like the pink egg is...nothing inside there because her W chromosome can hold nothing--too short. Remember though that the Girl birds do have the one offsetting long Boy chromosome...so the Girl's Z male chromosome will be what she has for gender linked genetics. Girl birds are PURE for one set of gender linked items on their ONE Z chromosome and she cannot hide anything...she is what she is...the Girls are what they are due to the one dose of sex chromosome, their one Z chromosome and its potential set of gender linked traits attached to this Z chromosome which is longer which enables it to carry gender linked traits on it.

Now of course the male Z chromosome may contain NO information that is mutated from wild type too...so the Girl birds can have no mutations from wild type on their Z chromosome and therefore no gender linked mutated genetics at all, but so too may the Boy birds (have nothing mutated on their two Z chromosomes--devoid of gender linked genetics mutated from wild type and this is just fine and dandy).

Think in terms of say Barring/Cuckoo...all birds don't have to be Barred/Cuckoo (potentially crazy are they then?)...chickens get along quite fine with no gender linked mutated genetics too...just have only wild type gender linked alleles on the Z chromosome.

So an example would be that all birds do have at least one allele in the S-series (one for Girls and two for Boys)...the s"+" (superscript "+" means wild type) for gold means the bird has the wild type gender linked allele for the S-series on their Z chromosome(s)...the mutation for the S-series is Silver or S which means the bird has the Silver allele on their Z chromosome(s) that is the gender linked mutation in the S-series.

Girls = Z/W
Boys = Z/Z


The Boy bird Z chromosome may hold gender linked genetic information.

The Girl bird W chromosome is too short and holds NO gender linked information.

So visiting the S-series again...

Girls may be Silver (S/-) or gold (s"+"/-). Remember the "-" or dash represents the W chromosome (the small PURSE) that holds no real information in a genetic sense past she is female. The Girl bird is pure for Silver OR pure for gold because she has ONE Z chromosome that holds these alleles for her (how nice, the male Z chromosome is a gentleman and holds her gender linked stuff for her!). This is called hemizygote, so the female bird is hemizygous for s"+"/- (gold) OR S/- (Silver). She has only one allele in the S-series and by default of having ONE chromosome that carries stuff, she looks pure for the gender linked trait. One gender linked allele (on the Z chromosome) and a blank nothing (on the W chromosome)...bwa ha ha...never any conflict because the female bird W chromosome has nothing to SAY! How's that for the bird world, eh...a QUIET feminine chromosome (W chromosome) with nothing said...no input as she lets her masculine side (Z chromosome) do all the talking for her!
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Boys may be pure for Silver (S/S), pure for gold (s"+"/s"+"), or impure Silver/gold (S/s"+"). Them bird Boys have great BIG wallets crammed full of stuff. The Boy is homozygous (pure) S/S OR s"+"/s"+" and the Boy that is S/s"+" is heterozygous (impure). You may see people writing in short form...hom, het...abbreviations for homozygous or heterozygous.

Yeh, those ARE big scientific words; homozygous, heterozygous and hemizygous!
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There is the Girl with her PURSE...holding her one W chromosome (pink sealed egg) and her one Z chromosome (blue sticky ball that can hold and cling on to all those same gender linked alleles you see over there under the boy's blue sticky balls).

The Boy bird with his WALLET is showing he has TWO blue sticky balls with each one of them able to hold an assortment of gender linked alleles (each allele is represented by the many colours of sticky balls).



I will be amazed if you guys allow me to write out "sticky blue balls" one more time without someone hitting the dirty side of the ditch. Suffice to say most often my audience is young children that have not taken the dive as hard as most of us adults...so keep it civil and FAMILY orientated please...hee hee... I recall once doing a 4-H demo with a bunch of my bantam ducks and found the audience of girls and boys giggling uncontrollably...yeh, I finally figured what it was...I referred to "breeding birds" and they could not handle the word BREED...yeh, it was highly unfortunate because I can only imagine if I really went breeder person on them and started referring to male roosters in the correct term (these where ducks thankfully) or heaven forbid...female dogs as breeders refer to those with a capital B...heh heh heh...whatever... <<Hey Teila...first time I heard the term from Oz; B-box I near fell over...hee hee...>>

Sticky blue balls...
Sorry, could not resist my "get outta jail" FREE (card) for all...wah wah wah...
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OK...so hope I got all my Z and W's in a row correctly...now that I am back to behaving...sorta...kinda--no COAL in me stocking please...give that coal ALL to Bama...he deserves to stay warm...warm and cozy like...this winter at least...

VOTE; "Coal fer BamaDude!"
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Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

Edited to attempt to clarify, add "hemizygote," and that female birds have nothing to say...on their W chromosome at least.
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Hmm, I am pondering the wisdom of labelling the gender linked alleles as found on the Z chromosomes as "mutations"...

Quite frankly in the S-series, the S for Silver is the mutation and s"+" for gold is the wild type...hmm...I think I am struggling here on explaining this item correctly and clearly enough.

For those that have a handle on gender linked in birds...would it be more decisive and better to say just simply "gender linked alleles" that the male Z chromosome carries and avoid the term mutation which in essence is incorrect in reality?
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Sorry but I too struggle with gender linked...say the word SEX and I blush...tee hee...

I have found the reference to small purse for W chromosome and big wallet for Z chromosome to work well for people...but maybe the area of what the Z chromosomes carry could be worked on a bit better. Dunno and guess this is a WIP...
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Thoughts on clarity on this ?? Hate going this alone and making it up as I go along if it is not quite correct...sigh!

Tara
 
Hmm, I am pondering the wisdom of labelling the gender linked alleles as found on the Z chromosomes as "mutations"...

Quite frankly in the S-series, the S for Silver is the mutation and s"+" for gold is the wild type...hmm...I think I am struggling here on explaining this item correctly and clearly enough.

For those that have a handle on gender linked in birds...would it be more decisive and better to say just simply "gender linked alleles" that the male Z chromosome carries and avoid the term mutation which in essence is incorrect in reality?
hu.gif


Sorry but I too struggle with gender linked...say the word SEX and I blush...tee hee...

I have found the reference to small purse for W chromosome and big wallet for Z chromosome to work well for people...but maybe the area of what the Z chromosomes carry could be worked on a bit better. Dunno and guess this is a WIP...
tongue.png


Thoughts on clarity on this ?? Hate going this alone and making it up as I go along if it is not quite correct...sigh!

Tara
You are making it mostly clear to me. So I think that you just might be on the right path!
Keep up the good work.
Scott
 
I'm getting dizzy over the purse vs wallet stuff. Hard to comprehend since I haven't used a purse in at least 10 years. I switched to waist packs , so I don't leave a purse hanging on the public restroom door hook anymore. I had to run back furiously too many times -.
 
Scott Drumstick Diva is 67 years old and she'd don't care! Me neither. Actually Jan. 7 she will be 67.5- compulsive truth teller.
 

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