My Backyard

Fayetteville Ska Alliance CD

Updated with a new teaser!!!!

Warning! This is a brag post! For those of you who don't know him, I'd like to you to meet my son,

Chris Harriman.

Okay, so he's a little older now but I just had to add this cute picture of him at Christmas holding a puppy dog. Very appropriate.

He is my favorite child and I have told him this many, many times over the years. His interests are music and puppy dogs. He graduated from Rogers High School Class of 2002 and he was the Human Jump Rope on David Letterman. He played in a ska band call "Hustles the Hall" and currently works as a vet tech in Fayetteville. Back in November of last year he came up with the idea of making a CD of ska Christmas music. He called a buddy of his, Scott Cornish, and they began writing the very next day.

What is Ska music you ask? Good question... I had to ask him myself.

"The style of ska music that we enjoy the most has its roots in the Caribbean. The reggae music of the islands made its way to Europe where it was infused with the distorted guitars and punk beats of the counterculture. Our music is the American version of that style, also known as "third wave ska". Our particular brand of ska relies on guitars playing upbeats, distortion guitars playing power chords, horns playing melodies, and drums switching back and forth between half and full time. This album features primarily fast, upbeat guitars in a "typical" ska style, as well as a hearty dose of straight ahead disco, blues, and punk rock. There is one song that would fit in on a modern alternative rock radio station and another that could get radio play on an oldies station, but ska is the backbeat that holds it all together."

Still unsure? The group recorded and released Deck The Halls earlier this year. Take a listen.

How about a video of them hard at work... something a bit more traditional.

Charity

Instead of doing this for profit, Chris decided to make this CD for charity and he chose Spay Arkansas. This is a program that provides low income people the means to have their pets altered at a very reasonable price throughout NWA, thus reducing the amount of unwanted pets. Learn more here:

Rest assured that 100% of the sale of this CD will go directly to Spay Arkansas. Chris is not getting a dime. He launched a fund raiser this year to pay for the base costs of producing this CD. He reached his goal of just $2,500 with the help of family, friends, a huge garage sale, a hot dog raffle, and a few local businesses.

Chris is surrounded by some very talented people who like to have fun, too. This was filmed in the studio.

And here is a teaser of some of the music that will be on the CD.

There are 10 songs on the CD, seven are standards that we all know and love. Also, there are three original Christmas tunes written specifically for this project.

The album is titled "Merry, Happy, Jolly, Good Time."

1. Deck The Halls

2. Jingle Bells

3. Carol of the Bells

4. Hark The Herald

5. Up On The Housetop

6. God Rest, Ye Merry Gentlemen

7. Christmas Popcorn (A Medley)

8. Why Can’t Every Holiday Just Be Christmas?

9. Merry, Happy, Jolly, Good Time

10. Have Another Piece Of Pie

I had Chris answer a few questions.

How many people were involved with the project? The musical portion of the project took 18 musicians to complete, however it took many more people to make it all come together. We had a huge group helping behind the scenes helping with our website, graphical design, and fundraising. Without the help of our donors and business partners, we could not have raised the money to produce the album. This project has truly been an Alliance.

When and where is the CD release party? The Fayetteville Ska Alliance is hosting a CD release party at Rogue on Dickson in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday, December 1st.

Where will the CD be available for purchase? The physical CD will primarily be sold locally to the Fayetteville, Arkansas, area in local businesses. Physical copies will also be available via Amazon. Digital purchases will be available on many different websites such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Spotify.

So there you have it, folks. Keep your eye out for this CD and I'll keep you updated on where you can purchase it, either the physical CD or the digital copy.

Have a look at the official website and you can learn more about the entire project and even Meet the Alliance.
Fayetteville Ska Alliance

Also, give them a like on Facebook.

FSA on Facebook

And as always... We wish you a Merry Christmas...

Interested in the Making of the Jingle Bells video? Check it out here:

Making of the FSA Video

Insects R US

A few days ago, Mike and I took a long walk around the property and found some amazing stuff. I took so many pictures that I had to run back to the house for more batteries. Here we go. We'll start with this big green caterpillar. More later...

Next, a group of bugs.... what are they? I don't know, but they seem to enjoy this milkweed pod.

Bees are very hard to photograph. They move around too quickly... or I'm getting too old and slow to capture them. Ha!

This seems to be the milkweed pod that all the insects have been going crazy on. It has burst open to seed with the wind.

Here's a close up of said seed pod. They look like tiny balloons.

I have several pictures of this caterpillar. He's awfully pretty.

Is that a dirt dobber or a wasp?

Another shot of the green caterpillar.

The Peacock butterfly is all over this part of the country.

Close up... he reminds me of a toy that Chris had back in the day - Glo Worm!

Another shot of the bee... a little close... get your head out!

This caterpillar will turn into a Queen butterfly, which looks a lot like a Monarch.

Which end is which??

Nom, nom, nom...

Another caterpillar... I have no idea what kind of butterfly or moth he will turn into.

A bit closer...

I love milkweed!!!!

A bit of sun and sky for the little fellar.

We always have dragonflies of amazing color. Here's pink.

Okay, this is surely a dirt dobber... yes?

Fly... 'nough said...

I'm sorry, I took a brazillion pictures of this guy because he was so cool.

I did my research and I found out that he will turn into a Sphinx moth.

Am I looking at his head or his ass??

He's just pretty...

Here's a bright red dragonfly, the colors almost look fake.

Oh yeah, and here's the guy we started with. He's a peacock butterfly.

Insecticide, anyone?

Mike is the Turtleman!

Mike came in from a walk with Dusty and asked me if I wanted to get some good pictures of a huge snapping turtle. Sure enough, there he was in the back pond just hanging out.

Mike decides he wants to catch that turtle. Mmmm, okay.

So, he creeps into the water.

Dusty is there for the assist.

Heeeeere turtle, turtle, turtle!

What you don't see right about now is when this huge snapper decided to turn on him and made a go at his precious bare toes. He came flying out of the water!

Mike decides the logical thing to do is to poke it with a stick.

He manages to get the turtle turned around and headed in the right direction.

Poke, poke, poke. You got to make sure which end you are grabbing!

Got him!

The thing is huge. Look at the size of his head!

Mike is now officially the Turtleman!

Nothing special here....

I got nothing... so just another post of some random pictures I've not posted before.

Lantana... very small but when you zoom in you get some amazing color.

Your average Garden Spider. You can see his spinner.

Hmmmm, he looks like he's thinking too much.

Some kind of yellow wild flower bunch. I should add this to the Wallpapers.

A couple of SandHill Cranes. They only come in when it's wet.

Okay, I know most of these were already posted to Facebook.

Yes, some more F-ing bugs!

This picture is kind of minimalistic. The opposite of the usual big butterfly on a big bright flower.

That's all, folks. Please feel free to leave a comment or two.

The Anatomy of a Slick Deal

I said I probably was not going to write about this because it would bore the average person right out their skull, but I do get a kick out of saving loads of money. As most of you know I am lucky enough not to have to have a full time job and work for a living. I do get bored sitting here by myself so I end up spending a good amount of time on my computer and surfing the net. A gal's got to do something and here is what I do.

It's called a slick deal and here I will try to describe to you what all that entails.
A slick deal consists of several of the following components:

Product is on sale or clearance. That's pretty much a no-brainer, but it's an important first step.
Coupons! There a wide variety and the trick is to use as many as you can in one transaction.
- Manufacturer coupons (such as 50 cents off toilet paper)
- Store coupons (redeemable only at a certain store)
- Competitor coupons (some stores will let use you other stores' coupons)
- Percent off coupons (such as 20% of your entire order)
- Dollars off coupons (such as $5 off of $25)
- Catalina coupons (These are the ones that pop out of the machine at the register. Such as: buy 3 rolls of toilet paper and get 50 cents off your next order.)
- Online Coupon codes. (Such as Free Shipping)
Store Rewards Cards. These not only give you the sale price but many offer an extra bonus such as a percentage back each quarter or savings on gas and other things.
Online rebate sites. Click through their link and they can offer you a rebate on your online purchase. They'll mail you check after you reach a certain threshold.
Groupon type sites. Keep an eye on these. I recently puchased a $25 CVS gift card for only $10.
Credit card cash back. In addition to the 1% most offer, usually they have promotions for 5% back in certain categories. It does add up.

Take several of these, stack 'em, mix 'em up, and you have yourself a slick deal. Here's an example of one my most recent deals. First, I will list all the things that I purchased and as you go through the list, add up in your head what you think the final price will be.

20 oz Diet Coke x2

Bumble Bee can tuna x4

24 pack bottled water x4

Puffs w/lotion 124 count x4

Charmin soft double roll 18 count

Bounty paper towels 12 count

Hershey's small candy

Nivea cherry lip care

This consists of 2 transactions at CVS. I stacked manufacturer coupons, percentage off coupon, sale prices, store card rewards, a rain check, and that groupon type deal I mentioned before. The total price I actually paid - $12.48!

And to be honest, I should have done better. At one point I took an entire year and kept track of the money I made from deals such as this. I will reiterate: I'm not speaking of money I saved, I'm talking about money I made! I know of people who would read this deal and laugh that I spent that much out of pocket, but to do that you have to really stay on top and do deals several times a week. I'm just not into it that much any more. I'm just trying to save us a few bucks here and there on things that we need everyday.

If you have read this far and want to learn more about the tricks of the trade, let me know. I can talk your ear off. :-)

Now that I have officially bored you out of your skull, I will go back to posting pictures of animals and bugs and things.

Operation: Save the Tadpoles! Updated!!

We love our frogs, that's for sure. We have plenty of wallow spots left over from the rains and that is where the frogs have come to lay eggs. Mike spotted one spot with hundreds upon hundreds of tadpoles. Now this spot will dry up soon and leave them stranded. Also it's a sure thing that the water birds will have a feast here soon, too. So, we implemented Operation: Save the Tadpoles!