life moves on

ARM WRESTLING AT GEAUGA PARK

2025-09-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

3-13-2012- the day of the great arm wrestling tournament

it was just the other day in the doctors office the doctor had just came into the examining room and asked me if i wanted to arm wrestle. he is new to me but not to the world as he does look like he had been around a little. definitely had the edges wore off and was greatly undersized compared to me who was the only other person in the room. to my further amazement he tells me he is going to win. im beginning to think do i really want a doctor who is just plan down right stupid to try me like that , but figured it all to be a hoax and laughed at his remarks in a positive you really don't want to go there doc look.

i proceeded to tell him that i had arm wrestled professionally at seaworld at geauga lake in aurora , ohio in about 1977. he started asking me about how to do it and what the technique was all about. i mentioned to him , it was all about the jump after you start. you need to anticipate the start to get the jump on the other guy hopefully sending him into a downward spiral. and that it is possible to comeback and win with sheer strength but you need to try and avoid getting down at all.

the first guy i was up against was huge , since i was over 220 lbs, i was considered heavyweight. xxl . is the term but it also put me in there with the really huge guys weighing 350 400 pounds. a chunka chunk. twice the arms of myself and i am a fairly large person and at the time was working in a feed mill slinging sacks of grain for a living. would be nothing to tote around 20 tons of feed per day . stack it and load on customer trucks . also in the bars around my hometown i had never been beaten at arm wrestling , winning some drinking money at the bars with my arm. i felt as if i stood a chance. this first guy wiped up the floor with me. it was over so fast i just stood there and shook my head.

the second guy got up and since it was double elimination i had to lose twice. i wasn't about to and this time i had a better idea what to do. and since this wasn't his first competition he knew better to as he lost once before also. he was a formidable opponent . as after we started it see sawed back and forth , as both of us had determination to win. he had just about pinned me and i got my second wind and started bringing it back to the crowds approval . this spurred me on. as well as the news photographer was getting his tv camera out and was taking closeups of the action getting in my face as i strained to take him over the top. there was no down hill slide either as he was giving up ever so reluctantly . but the crowd cheered me on and somewhere i dug up enough energy to put him away. and the crowd cheered at his demise. life was good.

well the producer of the event said it was going to be a couple of hours till i wrestled again having won. so if i wanted to i could check out things on the grounds. well i never saw a killer whale , so i went and watched shamu as he did his stunts and just wondered all over sea world being amazed at every corner by aquariums , and happenings. i was in need of some relaxation as everything including going back wrestling were starting to overwhelm me. i decided to lean up against a fence much like in the first picture. it was in the shade and i never quite looked at what was on the other side of the fence. i didn't till it sent its appendage out seeking me and wrapped itself around my foot and tugged. i looked down and there was this grey thing wrapped around my foot . i about lost it high stepping out of there and looking back to see what it was as it disappeared under the fence. thinking it was some kind of snake or something.

when i looked back over the fence , i could see clearly who the aggressor was . it was a baby elephant. it was as cute as it could be . would have loved to take it home but im sure it wouldn't fit in vw seat , and my girlfriend was already jealous of the attention i was spending on this gentle giant. i would scratch his head and he showered his attention back to me. soon some guy came around the corner and says in rough tone. remember he is a wild animal. and disappears as quickly as he appeared. after awhile the elephant wandered off as my mind did too, wondering what his purpose was there.

well it didn't take to much wondering as i went on to the next show and was sitting there and heard an announcement for bertha the skiing elephant. and sure enough but who would appear on a set of water pontoons to look like skis but bertha the baby elephant as she whizzed by me at my vantage point along side the lake. she looked scared and apprehensive about whole water skiing thing as she did circles and such. it only lasted about 10 minutes but was glad to see her make it back to shore . i could only imagine how unbelievably horrible it would be for a baby elephant to slip off the skis in front of a crowd. imagine it would scare her being in the water. but then again i hear elephants can swim , and aren't afraid of water unless a crocodile is there.

630e6h0+\is all served to take my mind off the next match as again i was up against the first guy . the same one who had beat me so pitifully the first time. what a draw. oh well eventually if i was going to win would have to beat him or the guy that beats him also, so might as well get with it.

slap a diaper on this guy and he would remind you of one of those sumo wrestlers from japan. this time around he was huffing and puffing , in an apparent attempt to psyche me out . it worked as i stood there wondering if he was going to blow up when the match started. again it was over before i knew it. well so ended my professional career as a arm wrestler.

and this doctor is going to beat me he says. i kinda think he is prescribing himself way to much testosterone, and it is beginning to get him in trouble. don't know as to who is treating who here sometimes. but would hope that it was just an attempt at humor to offset the seriousness of the situation. then again, maybe the old fart is feeling his oats.

Rehash of, old blog post i thought entertaining.

2025-09-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

Dino the Dinosaur

2025-09-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Cat and the Dinosaur

To tell this story I will need to give you some background as to where and what I do.This would come in the form as an artist, writer, retired , grumpy , 69 year old farmer still wannabe. I am a lover of nature, and have spent a lot of time in it. Retiring about 3 years ago , I set some roots down in a year round campground. at first i thought I would spend my winters in the southwest, but after 2 winters I longed for our area around here. I also owned a cat and bought a perman-

Ms. Prissy
ent house trailer set up on a lot with water, sewer and electic in a Home Owners Assoc. or a HOA as i will refer to it from now on.

My days are filled with a fair amount of sitting as my back is grdually getting worse to what end i dont know. I used to be fairly active when younger, I was a chainsaw sculptor, and artist, heavy equipment opeator, beyond working a full day I would come home and work on the farm and feed my animals. As I had ducks, chickens dogs and cats that was the old days. I am a bit more relaxed nowadays. I try to move more often but I have to watch more carefully. Hav

ing fallen a few times here lately under stupid circumstances I am just more careful about what I do.

My current group of cats

Old pics of strays

Havent seen her for awhile but thought she was neat.

Here lately motivation to do something is great but just getting up and doing it,or as in this case sitting down and doing it. Anyhow tonite i would like to relate to you a story about my Dino the Dinosaur.

Dino came to me by way of a chore I was doing. Unusual in the sense that it actually involved the animal I was feeding. I have been feeding the stray cats at pikes peak campground partiallly due to untimely death of lela, the caretaker here that died in a an automobile accident a year ago. since then noone was feding he cats and it ws nothing to see them scampering out of the dumpsters slimy and wet from who knows what trying to scap up enough to eat. Last winter on my birthday in Dec. on a gloomy day they call your birthday. the day was grey and damp, snowy mess of a day and returning home i had to pass the dumpsters on the way in.

On top of one the dumpsters was this black, with brown streaks and a wad of long hair ball on its right leg stray cat. It digusted me that someone couldnt take the initiative to at least see them fed. So as i watched her scurry off I decided to go and get them a cxouple of bowls of catfood and feed them as a birthday gift to myself. A chore is what I needed to bring me out of my funk. To do something for someone else, as in this case feed the strays. It doesnt help the problem as there ar as many as always show up and a few new kittens. All the cats are black except that one I initially saw on top of the dumpster with the ice ball. When i say all, there is 7 black cats and 4 kittens of those 2 are juist weeks old and cute as hell. The other 2 black kittens are older and lovable , and if I am real lucky I can pet the choclate black cat. The kitttens all come out to greet the truck and know its sound. They run around the dumpsters in excitement and this one little one has me stomping around like I'm playing cow pasture polka.

I have turned what I thought was, and is a good deed I do into a daily chore with unknown longterm responsibilities that are better dealt with by our community. After all they were here before I was 3 years ago and longer as it has been a long standing problem our comunity tends to ignore as most places do.

My plans so far and as of my birthday was to feed them and work out the details later. This is what I did every day since I realized the only way anyone was going to do anything about the cats is that I needed to do it now. So I did and reluctantly yet steadfastly I have managed to every day to feed at the same time of 6:00 pm. I have found over my years of feeding animals is that they have an internal clock and they know that they need to be there to eat at the same time every day to get to eat.

Well an unusual and very unigue event happened to me the other day. Normally before I put down their full dishes I pick up their old ones. Anyhow in one of these dishes was this little plastic toy that looked like Dino the Dinosaur. I can only assume that one of those cats had found it and put it in the dish for me. I picked it up because it was so unusual that it was there. That there was no way it was humans that did it. There was plenty of places for it to lay even if accidentally thrown there. Moms surely wouldnt let their kids go in where I feed the cats behind the dumpsters. It had to be one of the cats that brought it intentionally or accidentally there as a reward for me. Dont know if its actually a reward or not, but i liked it right off the bat and recognized Dino as a mascot for Sinclair Oil Co. that was around in the early 60's that had toy gas trucks and even a board game which is where i believe this Dino came from and can be dated from around 1969. or 55 years old. Its only one piece of what i thought would be a multi piece set. Also this would be in the time frame of the park where I live when it was built. The game would go for 20 now used or more as it is rare but only if complete.So just one piece but the best one of course, Dino himself may be worth 10 dollars. Not much of a reward but still better than the nothings I usually get. The ducks would talk to me, the chickens would just pick. pick, and the dogs talk, and the cats at best will let you pet them,

But to actually get a gift besides a stick from a dog , I cant remember an animal coughing up much more than a furball. But here was a Dino the Dinosaur. A cat had to find it and then pick it up and carry it unknown distance just to drop in that bowl for me to find. And believe it or not, a cat to boot. Cats usually dont do much that humans want them to do and to find one that has empathy for you or even another cat is an on demand procedure for them. So in my eyes this is a really big thing and a nice return for the gift that keeps giving.

In the long run will have to address a few issues with the park. I had a complaint the other day from one of the old directors that the cats were shitting around the office. I retorted with just what am I supposed to do since the cats were starving. and in the garbage getting ice balls in their long fur because of getting wet scrapping for food in wet trash bags in the dumpsters. The ice balls rip out and take the hair with them and if cold enough will cause frostbite and with lack of food and health they will die.

I have heard complaints from others about the cats laying on their porches and under the campers. They wont feed them but enjoy bitchng about them. Some attempts to spay and neuter were made but they have gave that up since I am feeding. This is not sustainable and the problem is increasing despite as much as i like seeing the kittens come out to greet me daily . I realize there is one maybe 2 females that are not fixed. This needs to be done. It is hard to do or will be hard to trap the 2 mothers because number one they are all black and all except the kittens are ferrel, They even keep their distance from me until I drop off the food and pickup the empty bowl. They will have to be tamed down.

As far as the cat poop i will offer to buy a load of sand to dump along the fence behind the dumpsters and this will give the cats an area and beautify the dumpster area at same time. It is and was a combination of mud and so forth that atracts water and trash that spills over . It smells but with the sand it should improve the cat litter problem as well the cleanliness of the area. I also would like to make some five gallon cat houses as i call them and will put a little red light on outside and straw to give them a warm rain tight shelter. The association are the ones that should be responsible. Its their mess and they ignore it. No one wants to spend money to pay for spay and neuter , at least when they can bitch for free. I miss having a dog and still have my cat Ms, Prissy who has been out west with me a couple of times. Lately at 9 oclock nightly I can count on 4 young coons coming up and getting their bowl of cat food. This is costly but I consider it buying good luck. Surely feeding 9 black cats zooming this way and that, makes chances good of the going right to left will outweigh the bad luck of left to right and the good years of luck will add up enough to keep me going to 100.. Only 31 more years. I also have an injured possum who is not to old that comes infrequently or at least I think it does. It seems to come after the coons but they usually dont leave much. The injury appears to be to its foot and it appears to get around good and there are no open wounds apparent so it may heal itself. It appeared to be in good spirits after eating. I will add more pictures I have taken of the cats including the little ones, and the coons and possum. Enjoy, i have.

Concepts of a plan

2024-09-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hard to Get Started

Some days are better than others when it comes to writing, Some days the words fall out of your brain like rain down a gutter. Other days you have to search through the cobwebs to find the right words to say or even a place to go that your readers would follow. My topic today has to do with racism.

To me racism isn't a black and white issue that it was fifty years ago, It has become more complicated than that. In fact, racism goes way back in our national history from the very start of migration from Europe and beyond, Puritans seeking religious freedom experienced racism to a degree .

The definition of racism according to the oxford dictionary is-The inability or refusal to recognize the rights, needs, dignity, or value of people of particular races or geographical origins. More widely, the devaluation of various traits of character or intelligence as 'typical' of particular peoples. And I also need to include these definitions to further define racism -

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

These definitions were copied from a Google search and are not my own words. If you notice, nowhere does it say a certain skin color or religious affiliation is necessary to be a racist. Instead, it is more the way one group acts toward another. Blacks do not own being victims of racism any more than other groups. We are just programmed to think that way from birth having grown up in the civil rights era.
Jews were persecuted during WW2 to the extent that over 6 million lost their lives due to Nazis and Adolph Hitler's hatred for the Jews because of their religious affiliation and the way as a group they were able to amass fortunes and own property that was confiscated later by Nazis. It was more that they were jealous of the Jews because of how tight-knit they could be as a group. This closeness of Jews was necessary because of previous times when they were oppressed leading back to bible days.
There was a multitude of ways that the Nazis were racist to the Jews was apparent by the way they were marched off and starved in death camps because their name was on a list. they were tattooed so that when asked a number on their forearm could be correlated to the list. this tattoo was used when they were finally gassed and then cremated with the only crime of their life was being a Jew. During WW2 we allowed hundreds of thousands to immigrate to the USA while we went to war to stop the Naqzi fascism.
The US at the same time rounded and placed thousands of Japanese Americans in prison camps, only we said it was for their protection but in the same way as the Nazis, we reacted as a nation to protect ourselves from the possibility of retribution from Japanese Americans who might destroy or spy on our nation while we were at war with Japan.
Even the USA has been racist to a degree that we put native Americans on reservations and starved them for the color of their skin and the fact it hid American aggression when it came to taking their lands. Some of that hostility still exists today. Reparations will never make it right or be enough for their ancestors to ever forgive.
The same could be said for the blacks who suffered from the hands of white racists which led to the Jim Crow days when blacks had to sit in the back of the bus or were only allowed to drink water from fountains marked colored only.
Which brings me to this piece of crap sheriff. i felt a definition of racism is necessary to show how according to him a relatively meaningless post was taken the wrong way. A sheriff standing in front of his seal of office states that democrats(group) need to be included on a list for retribution because the way they feel when trying to treat other humans humanely.
The history of racism starts out a lot like this. We allow a person of authority to designate a group as undesirable and that action needs to be taken to make things right. This isn't necessary but a fact of life and will always be. This sheriff had nothing to do with illegal immigrants and in fact didn't have a dog in the fight but took it upon himself to make an issue out of illegal immigration to prevent it from coming home to him. I will include my post earlier and it has a link to his story.
SPON https://www.facebook.com/share/p/NTuX7BeYMpAvYD9o/-
The people being wronged are Democrats and why? Because we have a political party that aligns itself with illegal immigration when a lot of times they are the beneficiaries of these people who they hire and hide in their factories and exploit as necessary to do the work they wouldn't do. unfortunately, those who choose to exploit the illegals don't want any reform or allowance to work here and become citizens. making them legal means they would have to pay all the same as regular workers. Most who employ these illegals could care less if immigration comes through and deports them all. They will just hire more the next day and so continues the merry-go-round of illegal immigration. owners of these businesses who hire immigrants should foot the cost of deporting and transferring to the border these illegals as a deterrent to hiring them. if there is no place for illegals to work then they will have to seek a legal solution and illegal border crossings will go down. There is a solution to the problem but that isn't what the problem is.
The Republicans need an excuse to be in power. This is as good as any. This sheriff is just stoking the tension between political parties by suggesting that Democrats should be responsible for the immigration problem when in reality the Republicans have no real working plan to reduce illegal border crossings or to deal with the influx of disadvantaged peoples of the world. As Democrats, we just try to deal with everything. The good and the bad, but instead of complaining, we look for solutions to the problems.
One thing we don't want is retribution for wrongs from the other political party. it is useless to even consider trying to change them by penalizing them for their actions. we need to be leaders and can lead so well that they would have to be exceptional to ever be elected again. The downfall or the reward of that is that society will win. we will no longer be steeped in negativism that has been prevalent lately. Something this sheriff only knows how to do and that is stoking the fires of racism, even if it's between while folks.

Nuclear War. Are we ready to hand trump the keys again?

2024-09-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Nuclear War

Should Trump Hold The Keys Again?

I am in the process of rewatching the nuclear blasts that ended WW2 in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The devastation and destruction and loss of life on a scale rarely seen in human timelines. possibly the destruction that remained after the meteor that ended the dinosaurs may have been larger, but the lingering ill effects were probably worse with the atom bombs. We still don't know the total damage that may have been done from the radioactivity that was released from those bombs.

Long-term effects may include residual radioactivity of primary importance. From there, we may expect chromosomal damage in our DNA and the DNA of plants and animals around the world. This is compounded by our continual use of radioactivity for a variety of purposes, some beneficial to us and the planet and others that result in making our lives a constant receptacle for the buildup of radioactivity. We are constantly collecting more and spending the usefulness of it, then collectively storing it for an untold amount of years, till we find a way to denature it, or safely store it so no natural disaster may make it harmful to humans again.

As most people know, we also use radioactivity as power generators for domestic and military use. we also have facilities and mines where we produce and refine the radioactive material. Also, we use radioactivity in bombs like the ones we dropped on Japan in WW2. I believe 7 nations currently have bombs and several more working on refining the technique to produce their own weapons of mass destruction..We have had wars where we went to war seeking weapons when they fell into the hands of those we don't feel should have them. there are still those out there we try to negotiate with but have little success when it comes to trying to limit their ability to have their own weapons.

You know the players, of China, and Russia with Iran and North Korea being those we have had conflicts with before over their use of nuclear weapons. to say the least, we are walking a tightrope with our finger on the trigger of war every second. In the USA we allow our president to be the one to commit us in times of war and peace to use these weapons of mass destruction in a manner where they are used with the utmost consideration as to the consequences of said use. We are not just electing a president, we are electing a decision-maker who will look at all the parameters of the situation where we might use these weapons to defend our nation and people.

With all our technology and safeguards we still face the possibility of accidental loss or ignition of weapons to unforeseen mishaps involved with the safekeeping of said weapons. In this instance, we may have an exploded weapon from a foreign country that is an adversary under normal conditions. we need a leader who is willing to look beyond the relevant facts before acting on a plan to retaliate. An accident is an accident and although there will be repercussions we still need a steady hand on our nuclear missiles at least. They should be used as the last resort when it comes to a response.

Enter Donald Trump Ex-president of the USA, There was a reason why he is Ex-president and not President today. He lost the faith of the people in the previous election and they elected another president. Part of having your finger on the trigger of nuclear weapons is to have a level head. Not prone to spur-of-the-moment decisions, gut feelings, being a hot-head know-it-all, and a thorough understanding of what you are working with and who you are working for. Trump is guilty of bad traits and clueless when it comes to understanding physics or anything useful when it comes to nuclear warfare or nuclear use. His knowledge of science is limited to a great extent and is only overshadowed by his lack of respect for the office of president.

This is a man who has to win this election because he needs the protection of the office to avoid charges of treason and interference with elections as well as inciting riots. A man who constantly lies to the people is an existential threat to our democracy and swears vengeance on his perceived enemies. Who feels he is above the law, has placed the courts in a position to grant him immunity powers of a king, and has claimed he will be a dictator on day 1.

He is hardly my pick for president. he has no superpowers that make him any different than any other person seeking that office. His past actions grant him no remedy but to face the charges he is accused of like a real man, despite the ramifications. He was fired once from the job and should be again because he doesn't even understand the office of the presidency and wants to treat it like it is his personal plaything that he can do whatever with.

I am nobody with a keyboard and an opinion and that is all I need to do all I can to prevent this man from returning to office. if I can convince one more person to take a second look before voting for this man then I have done my job. I still believe every vote counts. If you don't vote then you must understand that I just listed his good qualities. Social Security and all aspects of government in the USA will be affected by this man who has nothing to lose with a second term. He knows we do. it is important to get out and vote and if you are not registered then do so now. It is your civic duty. Btw, I have only been called for jury duty once in my life but have voted for years.

POS Racist Republican Sheriff

2024-09-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

POS Republican Sheriff

So this is what voting and supporting candidates has come to. We are writing lists as they did in Nazi. Germany. Recording Democrats addresses for reprisal is the same as identifying Jews.

Republicans can have a list also. A couple of homes with Fuck Biden signs would be first on my list. I really don't think we want to resort to lists. This assholes next election may have all his cronies posted on the front page of the local paper. Lists are for racists and idiots who can't remember. Only in Ohio can we come with this crap

Ohio sheriff asks for residents' addresses with Kamala Harris signs to send illegal immigrants to homes

Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski issued a warning if Kamala Harris became president

By Stepheny Price Fox News

click here for story

So this is what voting and supporting candidates has come to. We are writing lists as they did in Nazi. Germany. Recording Democrats addresses for reprisal is the same as identifying Jews.

foxnews.com

Ohio sheriff asks for residents' addresses with Kamala Harris signs to send illegal immigrants to homes

An Ohio sheriff is ruffling feathers

Trump assassination in perspective.

2024-09-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Trump Assassination in Perspective.

He can't seem to understand why everyone is against him. Could it be he perpetuated a lie by JD Vance who fictionalized a tale of Haitians eating dogs and cats.

Trump says the Democratic rhetoric is what led a person to attempt an assassination attempt by an individual who waited 12 hrs in the bushes to take a shot at Trump. Yes he was a Democrat but like the KKK we also have good and bad on our side. But it wasn't sanctioned by Democrats though many see it as an end to a means, though very few would go to the extent that we have seen in this election cycle.

We are a peace party for the most part. It is the rhetoric of Republicans that make us appear capable of anything like attacking the capital after a lively political rally filled with hate. To just show the world we can take things in our own hands , and interfere with a political election.

We believe in letting the courts do our talking as well the Constitution , where we allow the rules that are written by our forefathers define the path we should follow. We make no exception for anyone special and we don't seek to change laws by petitioning the courts for exemption because they feel they are special.

We don't single out groups and protect all that come through our doors to give them basic civil rights they are entitled to. We don't make up stories to get elected by attacking legal residents by slandering them and making their lives miserable.

Our politicians are in office for noble causes, of trying to make our life better and give us hope and direction.

We don't have politicians who negatively portray our nation as an experiment in chaos. Who say one thing and look for a way to benefit themselves by accepting a leadership role.

Trump's rhetoric and hate is as much to blame for the attempts on his life as anything. A man who courted the NRA and has twice been shot at it with the high school shooters gun of choice. A rifle that has no purpose in our society. That can be stowed in a young shooters back pack and assembled and used to stop young lives not protected by the secret service, a senseless end of life. Trump refuses to even mention gun control for fear he will lose votes , let alone his life.

He is a person who carelessly ventures through life despite the possibility of assassination places his life in danger on a whim , let alone the lives that are there to protect him that he could care less. They don't just have a job. They offer to lay down their life for him , and he could care less or make their job any easier. They are more than I ever will be for that man.

Comment

Make Trump responsible.

2024-09-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Trump needs to Accept Responsiblity

They should start adding up the bills for police assistance and loss of services from schools and hospitals and government offices that were closed due to bomb threats and sue ex. President Trump and his running mate Senator JD Vance for promoting falsehoods that caused terrorist threats. Any money received should aid in compensating said facilities and also the Haitian community.who also have been wronged.

Millions are spent running thesr campaigns and there is no recourse for inflamatory statements on behalf of candidates that affect a broad swath of the voting public. The Republican National party should also be included in the suit so that going forward they strive to avoid damaging staatements on behalf of their candidates

theguardian.com

More bomb threats hit Springfield, Ohio, after Trump elevates false claims about Haitians

Two hospitals sent into lockdown, government buildings shut down and local schools evacuated

Comment

Supreme Court interference

2024-09-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Supreme Court Interference

The Supreme Court is going against their own govt guidelines called the Purcell agreement where as governmental agencies do not interfere with elections during voting season. And they decided to allow 40,000 voters to substantiate their voting rights and others currently registering to produce documentation to the effect they are citizens. This was adjudicated before and deemed unnecessary in RNC vs Arizona in an earlier SC case.

This is meant to be a last minute deterrent to prove elections are rigged. It is more conservative bs on the part of Republicans to win.

slate.com

The Supreme Court Just Signaled What It Will Do If the Election Is Close

The legal warfare over the 2024 election is well underway.

Comment

dead cats

2024-09-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Trumps dead cats story

After last nights debate ,the downfall of the Haitians eating cats and dogs as described by Trump and was declared to be fraudulent reporting despite a clip i saw today that didnt declare where it came from. The officers or the city involved and showing what was purported to be a Haitian woman being accused of eating cats, Though she says nothing and there is no dead cats. food enough for Maga though. But all in all and from several news sources it was declared a hoax. Initially Sen. Vance from the state where it was supposed to happen in Springfield , Ohio, also pushed this baseless accusation to further the horrors of illegal immigration.

A lot of the friction that resulted in Haitians being attacked as illegal stem from a bus accident where a Haitian immigrant accidentally lost control of the vehicle he was driving and hit a school bus. This resulted in a childs death. To this point i need to say is the father of the boy who lost his life has asked the public to quit politicizing the tragedy as he recognizes the immigrant was trying to work to feed himself and though he did have a license in Haiti , it wasnt legal in the USA and he wasnt aware. He wasnt drunk , he was just trying to feed his family. Also he wasnt illegal but instead came in the front door of the USA legally when Haiti was being overrun with gangs and he was vetted as any immigrantt should be, and given a work permit and since there was already a Haitian prescence in Springfield, he decided to come to Springfield.

The father of the boy that was killed was on tv begging that this use of his son as a political tool needs to stop. This is the last of these cat jokes and commentary i will do and respect his wishes.

How this became a Maga feeding event is because the hatred toward immigrants associated with the Republican part. It doesnt matter whether they are legal or illegal , It was a feast ready to set the table at any Republican event. Their hatred for immigrants is so rooted in evil that they scare people into believing that all immigrants are here to take your job and vote in elections . This is the crap Trump has been feeding his Maga crowd. Did trump or his minions ever go to Springfield to check on this fake story. No. if they had they could have avoided the embarassment. instead they throw together a supposed clip from a police action and spread it through the Maga crowd on the internet.

In fact most of the immigrants in the Haitian communitry are legal and here under the same conditions as any legal immigrant is. According to the local townsfolk they are polite and hard working sometimes working two jobs when they can at minimum wage and paying taxes on their income. They also have to pay into Social Security though they are not eligible to receive benefits till they are naturalized citizens. I will still laugh at other's Trump cat jokes as it shows the idiocy of savage old man on his last leg to keep his ass out of jail. He is on a sinking ship with his mouth wide open.

Comment

Facebook

The Blue Guerrilla

All reactions:

Hemp or Pot? Up in smoke

2024-09-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

So if I share thias article , could i be considered a pusher? Maybe 10 yrs ago this may have been . Hemp and marijuana are the same but there is a difference in growing and the euphoria of both. The genetics have changed drastically over the last 30 years. In the 1940"s the government planted it all over the place in Missouri and Kentucky. Today you can buy seeds that produce plants that produce no seeds but is high in THC. That will produce buds ready to smoke in 3 months. Growing pot is a very technical process or a simple one depending on your needs. It is becoming a source of fiber but the government is there for the most part , every step of the way except growing at home of which you are allowed to have 6 plants in various stages at any time. if we were allowed to grow unfettered we could use hemp as a fuel source . Hemp grows quite easily and produces more biomass per acre than most most woody fibrous plants , and all could easily be burned or used as bio fuel to fire a boiler and generator to provide heat and electric. This would also lock up carbon to an extent and help moderate global warming by utilizing the carbon in the stems to produce tall plants with high density wood fiber. this could be left in the field and dried naturally then chopped by farm equipment that exists today requiring no real great engineering need.

If we were to design housing close to these safe forms of energy production , we could easily produce all the energy we need locally on even the not so great farm or marginal land. the waste or ash could be returned to the soil to help generate more hemp for power production.

Several hybrid power generating methods could be utilized including methane/ hemp process where by human waste would be mixed in a methane digester as well as food scraps and paper and other wood products one might find in a municipality. these include products we pay to get rid of in todays modern society. Again the burned waste could be used on agricultural land and is currently being done by local municipalities. It is a resource that should be utilized more. Methane is a major contributror to global warming and would best be utilized by burning as a gas to generate electricitry and heat close to the source it originates from.

More the reason to build it as close to your home as is logically acceptable. A planned city that takes our waste into consideration is much better than adapting our present homes from the outhouse/ septic tank . forced main type of sewer system we have today. A planned city would take costs into account and for that reason keep sewer and water runs short. free electricity or low cost would encourage busienesses as well sewer and water and this would lead to low cost housing on a much smaller thumbprint. All with pot, it has a future. a real win win solution to global warming.

Humans are responsible for global warming and it is up to us to find solutions to ease the problem or try to make it go away. Think of that the next time you fart and remember you share this world with 8 billion others doing the same let alone mention the fact we drive cars and cut down trees and ship nothings all over the world till our polar caps melt. Folks this is us today. Think about your part and how you can help make it better.

Hall's On The River

osrtSpendoAbtf1e737t26 6ut4Mf0m3Sl taim0ti09rp1g:t0 e5fe10gi48

DID YOU KNOW? …In 1775, the hemp crop made its first appearance on Clarks Run Creek, located near Danville, KY. Because this crop was not native to Kentucky at the time, it had to be imported from New England and other European countries. The fiber from the hemp crop was originally used for homespun items such as twine, rope, thread and textiles. Hemp's popularity began to grow dramatically between 1790 and 1800 when settlements began to evolve into more organized enterprises.

During the early 1800s, Kentucky was considered a leader in the production and exportation of hemp and began to manufacture products from it. With a great amount of seed, came large amounts of fiber which was then spun into rope at locations known as “ROPEWALKS”. These areas were outdoor spaces where hemp fibers were spun in order to make this sturdy rope. By 1809, Kentucky was producing bailing materials for the entire South. Mills on Lower Howards Creek, located near Hall's on the River, were associated with the hemp rope production and shipped their products out of Holder’s Station to downriver.

The growth of hemp in the U.S. during the 19th Century dwindled with the availability of cheaper imported fibers from Manila and the East India Company. During War II, however, the Japanese took possession of the Philippines and the East India Company, and since jute supply from India was also restricted, the Americans had to produce hemp once again, for industrial purposes as well as to sustain the vast demand from the US Army and Navy. Rope made from hemp was used in rigging, towing and mooring the ships, paratroopers needed webbing for their parachutes and the hemp fiber was even used to make shoes for the soldiers. #hallsontheriver #hemp #hemphistory #kyhistory #kentuckyriver #winchesterky

Check out our menu: https://hallsontheriver.com/winchester-hall-s-on-the...

Comment

2023-08-15T21:12:00.001-07:00

Sequoia National Park Review

These folowing thoughts are mine and I will try to be constructive and offer positive remarks after pointing out what I considred to be flaws in my visit to the park. I must frame up my visit by explaining how i came to be there in the first place, renting a car in Vegas and heading out through the Death Valley and experiencing 119 degree heat was a forerunner to my heading down a long mountain valley to Lake Isabella as there were few highways over the mountains into Sequoia National Park.

I can remember as the closer i came to the Park the more i climbed higher that also the traffic increased so that by the time i reached the opening there was a long line of vehicles waiting to enter the park in single file. It was Memorial day weekend and memorial day itself and before the pandemic in 2021. Gas was plentiful and people were driven to get out and enjoy the summer.

Needless to say it was busy and slow going as visitors lumbered their way up the mountain sides in their vehicles navigating the cut backs to avoid certain death if one were to go over the edge of the road. As you climb higher into the mountains, there was shorter more drought resistant trees at the bottom of the mountain but as you climbed higher the trees suddenly began to get larger to gigantic. Yet these trees were just babies compared to the giants on the plateau above me. we must have climbed 3000 ft. in elevation or better to a landing and parking area at the the main area of the campground where the giants lived.

It was a madhouse with people coming and going and parking areas that constantly were changing so that rangers were hard placed to keep up with the throngs of visitors that was assembling there. people were parking everywhere and though mostly people seemed to be courteous and clean enough to clean up their mess after themselves there was still evidence of trash misplaced requiriung a cleanup personel to constantly follow the crowds around and clean up after them.

Finding ones way around wasnt to bad as I was depending on a cane to manuever my way around, the air was still and smelled of humans and not the deep woods smell i expected. wafts of carbon monoxide from the older vehicles chugging and smoking their way up the mountainside lent to the smells i was experiencing. in fact several signs warned of places to pull off on the 2 lane road to avoid breaking down and causing a major tie up causing more fumes and frustration. campers were forbid as the closer to the top the turns were tighter. Having a small car was a blessing in that respect as i was able to manuever into a good parking spot. Grabbing the cameras the first sight i was headed to was the Gen Sherman tree which was within a 1000ft. of the car wheere it was parked.

My time there was spent moving from one location to the other enjoying the magnificence of the beautiful trees overhead and watching the visitors take selfies besides the huge tree bases to show how insignificant humans are in comparison. yet still significant enough a pest to like myself drive and fly thousands of miles to just view them. Using myself as an example, i imagined how the hundreds to thousands of people all arrived there to do the same thing i did. How we all drove in vehicles as mass transportation of anything larger than 30 passenger bus would barely make it to the parking area. At least my vehicle was gas efficient , but there was only me in the car. Still the fumes from all the cars and the masses of people that came is leading to an ecological nightmare that reared its ugly head after i was there.

\ Forest fires are always a threat but with the continued drought it became worse and forest fires at the base of the mountain crept real close to shutting down the park later in the summer prohibiting all but fire personel to try and save the giants. They wrapped aluminum foil around the base of the Gen. Sherman tree as sparks came closer. they also wetted down the floor of the forest and used their resources to try and contain the fire away from the giants. They did good and was able to contain the threat but for sure it will not be the last time. Our continually heating planet and our unrestricted use of fossil fuels will assuredly bring us back to this situation again.

I regret in some ways my need to see these giants even as I sat there playing tourist as i have done many times since then at various locations in the soutthwest USA. for 2500 years these trees have been around and yet it seems ironic that in my lifetime we have reached the point of no return when it comes to our climate. We have taken down so many trees and used them to further human kind as fuel , food , and furniture , boats among other things since the late 1800s when the industrial revolution that we probably have 50 percent of the trees locking up carbon as we did in the 1800s. Fossil fuels are carbon producers and the irony comes when i traavel over 2500 miles to visit a 2500 year old tree, I have to ask myself is it really worth it, let alone the thousands and possibly millions who also visit this site and others in respect for the natural features but oblivious to the repercussion just that alone has on our beautiful parks. the same scene is being played out in every national park.

Staying home all the time is no option either. We are in transition to more earth friendly vehicles and this will change as we head into the future, But for now I intend to spend more time hopefully to enlighten others through my writing as i try and look for solutions to our future global warming problems. My next blog will be on how to make my next trip to see the giants better for me and hopefully better for them. I doubt i will live to see that day, but who knows.

2023-08-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

JUST ANOTHER DAY

Or is it? Have been to Arizona and California and back again for last 3 years and have no9t wrote much. We sold the farm, we being the family members who were left after Mom and Dad had passed. It wasn't pretty by any means but necessary. It was hard getting rid of everything and moving out. But it has been over 3 years and I have said little on the blog about it. I have tried to reconnect but it was hard getting set up to do it. And just doing it.

Which is where i am now as i once again begin to pound away at my old keyboard in the pecking style i have been familiar with. My plans to write isnt wityh any forethought so please bear with me as i get my sea fingers back under me. I live in Pikes Peak campground which is north of the Kimboltom exit of I77 in a trailer that is situated in a gated comunity. Sounds funny but it has its features including a swiming pool that is nice and open all summer long. I have a nice tan a i daily try to swim to improve the circulation in my legs. my ability to walk any distance has been hindered by circulation problems. I refuse to let it stop me and swimming is helping me. another reason to return tyo the keyboards is to daily get my dose of organized thought it takes to write a short story or experience.

There are still things i need to say and hope mi can convey them in a clear way. So let"s start. I will include pics of my California trip including seeing Sequoia National Forest.

This is a picture of the General Sherman tree that is the largest tree in volume and height in the world .

It is hard to imagine these trees are up to 2500 years olad or more . This is another pic from a different view of the General Sherman tree. This one also shows that this is a grove of these old virgin trees. Since i visited the park , global warming has showed that these giants are vulnerable to fires and at one point they had to cover the base with tinfoil because of sparksadvancing from below. they also suspended tourism for a week till the threat of fire subsided.

I am going to stop at this point and will continue with my California trip the next time i write. I would like to go into my personal thoughts as to how this park is run. Positive suggestions to handle the masses of tourists visiting the site.

b to b2

2022-03-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well to continue on with the story of the truck change and having just found a camping site. we being myself and the camp owner decided we were going to take the truck to the local repair shop. i am not going to mention the name of the shop and only that they couldn't take it right away but instead it would have to wait for Monday. so it was Thursday at this point and so i waited till monday and took the truck in and waited for them to check it out.

They seemed to think it was a speed sensor and there preliminary guess was right . the problem was it also melted a nylon bushing on the main tailshaft that the speed sensor rides in and gives you your odometer speed by which you judge how fast you are going. and that all these little pieces parts about a good handfull was floating around inside a a supposedly wet transmission.

But there and again was the problem that the tail shaft assembly was dry despite having a fill plug that was never checked although i had a local garage with a reputable business insist that they did check all relative fluid levels. it makes no difference as it could just as easily been a tailshaft seal that went bad from the truck sitting all those years. this is why you should not let a vehicle sit for more than a month at a time. you need to keep all these seals moistened. the problem is getting it fixed. They put the truck back together and put transmission fluid in dry tail shaft area and let me drive the truck home till they had the time to pull the tail shaft completely off which required removing the emergency brake cluster. They said this will be at least a two day , maybe longer job and wanted me to leave the truck. well being that far away from home and having nothing to get around in was a real pain in the butt. so i rented a pickup from enterprise car rental . This allowed me to freely visit the surrounding area, go to hospital in the event i need to., and all those fun things we take for granted.

Well i dropped off the truck and then went about visiting and didnt bother them for that whole day as they were going to remove the tail shaft assembly to see the extent of the damage and replace all necessary parts. And again the second day i heard nothing but i did stop by their business to see the progress that was being made. although the tail shaft was designed to be taken apart, the mechanic was having trouble separating the one part from the rest of the transmission and was afraid he would break something. He was frazzled by the whole thing and suggested i take it to a regular transmission repair shop where undoubtedly they would face d the situation before. so they put it back together and don the property owner where i parked my trailer took the truck another 30 miles to another repair shop.

Don had expressed interest in buying the truck because his son was a commercial welder and the truck was set up for welding. i was just going to play with the welder, and i had it in my mind that if a situation like this came up , that the welder would be a good point for resale, This whole transmission repair was throwing some serious wrenches in my travel agenda. Don jumped at the chance when i suggested to him a price for all welding related equipment. for me to sell all this welding equipment and buy a truck was going to lighten my load considerably , considering that gas prices took a hike the day i took off and have been steadily climbing. the welder was part of my generator for any off grid camping i was going to do. But in the end to me it was a chance to get back on the road and in better comfort with a lot more fuel efficient vehicle.

Don and I took the old truck to the repair shop where i assume it still sits today because the guy was dragging his feet to get it in. Then we took my rental vehicle and went truck shopping , and finally found a decent deal in the f150 I have now. If I had not made the decision to sell the truck , i would hardly be as far as i am today on my journey.

Back to Bloggin

2022-03-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Back To Bloggin

It literally has been over a year since I blogged , and really i have no excuse for my absence, outside of pure lack of drive. i have had things to say, but just lacked the wear with all to sit down and force myself to type. a lot has happened since the last time i blogged. we sold the farms and I am still in the process of moving.

Though i moved out of the farm , I am still moving, now from one place to another and trying to accustom myself to developing a comfortableness to my travels. Having a cold hasn't helped along with troubles of a mechanical nature that was associated with my choice of the first truck. also I am still getting used to the camper and finding out what works and what doesn't.

Currently I'm in Clovis,N.Mex. and in a nice reasonably priced RV trailer park for the next two days. iI started from home and made it to the southern edge of Kentucky before having any problems with the truck. Getting ready to leave and packing up years of stuff at the house where i was on the farm was a different story at some point i will go into more thoroughly. but as i was coming into Williamsburg , Kentucky I noticed the speedometer wasn't working right and that the truck wasn't shifting right. Also I noticed an odor of burnt oil ,although the oil pressure was still good in the engine , i had no clue what was going on with the transmission. my first thought was to find a place to do the basic checks i need to give me a better idea. there was a truck stop and a Walmart parking lot which is an RV'ers best friend when travelling.

I filled the truck with gas and checked the engine and transmission oil and both looked normal. I grabbed a bite to eat, and ran into an apparent resident of the Pilot truck stop I was at and I talked to him about his traveling woes, apparently he was at the end of the line with his RV. he still thinks he can get it to run but from the sounds of it he had been holed up in the Pilot truck stop for awhile. a few minutes talking to him , made me want to make sure that his fate wasn't going to happen to me. I decided to head next door to the Walmart parking lot in case I couldn't find a campsite for the night. also i climbed under the truck and didnt notice anything suspicious as to what may be going on , but I just needed a spot that was open and not much traffic to safely really inspect the truck and transmission. Walmart parking lot offered that to me. Also i needed time to find a campsite.

Although i still found nothing wrong with the transmission and it was still shifting though making a noise but nothing that sounded serious. I found a campground online that seemed like a good place to be , not too far out of town and the owner answered and told me had several sites available. So i just headed out to his place. the route was twisting and strangled at times as it curved around the mountains while dragging the trailer , but the truck , though shifting hard was going through the motions and never once let me believe that it was going to strand me alongside the road. My hope was to find a a place to park the trailer for awhile till i could trouble shoot the problems with the truck. one of the reasons i chose a fifth wheel trailer over a bumper pull trailer, is that if i wanted to leave it someplace , it is much harder to steal a fifth wheel trailer as it does a a bumper pull. also the weight is centered over the rear wheel and that increases the traction on the truck and eliminates sway. it is also more maneuverable.

Anyhow i made it to the campgrounds and was able to get set up. after talking to the owner of the campground i felt that I may have came to the right place as he seemed knowledgeable about where to get it fixed and it was a relief that i wouldn't have to drag the trailer to a repair shop or live out of it at the repair shop. I had no water onboard except bottled water because when i left Ohio it was still freezing daily. my next blog will go into my trials and tribulations with the truck from that point.

2019-12-31T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here We Go Again

It is no coincidence seeing me back again writing, I had full intentions of doing so. I just wanted it to be more meaningful and updated to latest technology. This I intend to use to write another sci- fi book I have had visions of in terms of dreams and plot that I was stumped on up until about a month ago. I have been toying with the idea of the dream and how I could use it in my novel, to not only give an air of mystery and suspense, but also unveil a vision I have for a future civilization.

I thought about using present day technology and future considerations of how we will exist in the future with concerns of global warming, and lack of quality food and water to sustain the mass population, overcrowding, depletion of natural resources and an expansion in human population that will require more resources from a planet that is now limited to what it has to offer.

We need everyone to think of how and what they can do to help all humans survive, even if that means limiting reproduction. Third world countries will push the population to 7 billion by 2050, just 30 years from now that isn’t that long, or a little over half my life. We are currently at about a population of 5 billion. Our societies are diverse and some are steeped in political and religious upheaval, some are just there , not really advancing man or his cause. War is a constant companion to all societies with lethal population destroying bombs of the like we have never seen before and hopefully never will.

We don’t know this as at best we never know for sure what ur future will be like. We can only plab and hope for the best. As an individual we have a tendency to be complacent and say that we are only capable of so much and in the scheme of things , this is almost nothing. But we are capable of much more than you think . individuals like alexander graham bell Thomas Edison, and albert Einstein as inventors and individuals made significantand life lasting discoveries that have changed the course of history. To think you as an individual are in capable of making a difference , than think about how our life would be different without any of these three being around. Yes we may have came to the same conclusions eventually , but what they had thought of saved countless lives and in some cases changed the course of history. You can easily make a difference and as a group we can move even farther with a group think olicy. A hundred minds solving a problem is always better than one. Sharing our thoughts and working towards a better society in general.

Does Utopia exist? If it did everyone would flock there and tell you what is wrong with it. Some would tell you how to fix it, or what they would have done to avoid it in first place, and we would be bored after a couple of days and want something different. Bliss in each of our minds means different things. It could be laying along a beach, basking in the sunshine getting drunk, partying with friends and family. It could be the early morning cup of coffee sitting in yard watching the dew rise off flowers and see a doe and her fawn eating in distance and the sounds of birds chirping, it may be helping an autistic child or talking to an older person, it may be a good book in a comfy corner. We all have different visions of what we expect total bliss is supposed to be.

Is it supposed to be stressful with politicians spewing hate and spending billions to be reelected while the poor and destitute would be happy with a warm meal and a piece of sidewalk to rest the next night without fear of death or being hassled because you have nowhere else to go. To spend money supporting a system that on a regular basis rounds up and locks behind bars, people who only want what everyone else has and that is a chance to make their life better. Drugs, greed and human trafficking are common place and being afraid to live in your house for fear someone will break in and hurt and rob your family. Where walking down the street may make you a victim of street violence ending in death.

This is only going to get worse if we don’t change the way our society is headed. Educating our young and letting them experience a life we lost long ago. Our digital gadgets are not preparing us for much as long as all we get from them is games and a canned society that is as fake as the president that is supposed to lead us. This is a sad reality of what we have to look forward to. We need to expose our young to so much more and in order to do this, we need to step up to the plate as adults and teach our kids. Teach them self-worth. We need to have kids that don’t crave death, or suicide, in place of living, and that we all depend on each other. We need to think outside the box so to speak, and see how some are able to survive like the Amish.

Religion is the glue that has held the Amish community together and yet they as a group are from a far from perfect society. Although some of what they do is admirable when considering traits of a perfect community. So I will attempt to include thoughts and visions of what I feel are a perfect society that would work for all. I will try to lay this out in the framework of the novel as I go along.

I also plan to share and keep to a time table as I did with my last novel and posting online in my blog as I go along. You will be able to follow along as lay out a plot, and insert facts and figures as deemed relevant, or possibly add inks to check out my sources as I go along. It will be a narrative and it may be in three different time eras. At no point is any of this real or meant to be a reflection of any person, I know . I may refer to national event as a means to further the story or advance my theories.

As far as I know this will probably be the last novel I will write. If I do anything I may write articles in support of my novel in the future should it become necessary. All proceeds from any sales will go to making this novel a reality. It will have a good ending for all. It is if nothing else be an outline for others to follow up on. I will own full rights and will transfer accordingly. Hopefully I will be able to negotiate a book deal upon completion. Follow me on my blog and if this ever does come to fruition, I will gladly sign your copy. In some places I may insert pictures and artwork as necessary to further illustrate my ideas; these are my property and would hope you respect that fact. I never claim anything as mine that I don’t have a personal interest in. I will try and footnote or link sources I use from someone else. This is a forward to my book and I hope you enjoy and get something from it, if nothing else maybe a chuckle.

2019-04-25T19:51:00.001-07:00

Here I Go Again

not going to use caps and all that fancy English language stuff tonight but will go back and ck spelling when finished. so save your comments for another time. just want to update those who know me what i have been up to. not much.
i have found out i have to have a new hip after the last surgery on my back did not alleviate all my pain by a long shot. i did well initially after the surgery including swimming a half mile daily. but then i had to stop swimming because i couldn't walk to parking lot to get in vehicle and come home. from there over the last 4 mos. it has gradually became worse to the point i can barely walk 100feet, and not even that if i didnt have a cane to assist. the dr. wanted me to to have physical therapy again and i refused till i had an xray of my hip. they found out i had no cartilage left and that it was basically bone against bone with necrosis of the joint.
he also mentioned it was beginning to be a problem in 2013 but i still had cartilage at that point. so 6 years later and one back surgery to correct, they think they may have found the source of my pain. on may 3 i am scheduled to have hip replacement on my right hip. so far the left seems to be ok. i guess the biggest disappointment in all this for me was the fact the medical profession with all their tools focused in on one area and fixed it and called me cured. making me think i was going to have to live with this residual pain the rest of my life. that sucked.
and indeed if not for my insistence to keep looking for source of pain i may have been subjected to even more crippling possibilities. the modern medical profession has blinders on. no one wants to go out of the scope of the work they had intended to do or specialize in . mri and cat scans were taken of my back as well as xrays, but none went into my hip region with any clarity to call out any problems i might be having. to look at the whole person and source of the pain instead they focused on what they do best. patient wasn't important as long as i didnt die on or table.
my quality of life has been slipping and limiting my ability to do things i used to do. i made up my mind to only chainsaw carve for myself and a select few friends understanding that i may never be able to resume my craft with the passion i did before. i did one carving last year for mom. glad i did . i placed it in the back yard and mom enjoyed it up until she passed away early last month.
so here i am the tallest and biggest of the boys and yet i had to drag myself into the funeral home and couldn't be pall bearer for either my mom or my aunt fran who also passed away this year. losing mom was tough but we knew she could not keep going on the way she was. having lost mobility it was tough to see her confined to bed. several of my blogs were about mom and me sharing moments in time. i should have spent more time with her at last but was having a hard time getting around. the thought of getting into the jeep and getting out one more time was hard to take. i cant walk and have to use the lawn mower , the jeep or the golf cart when ti is running to get around.
i also lost 10 ducks and my goose, gooser. the dogs had been hassling the ducks so they took up residence in the pond over the hill and daily i would t5ake the jeep and go over the hill and fed them in snow rain what ever. at one point i became stuck in a snow blizzard and couldnt get the jeep back up the hill. i had to leave the jeep and walk as hard as it was up to the top of the hill and just dived over the side and ended up in back of my house.; i stopped 3x to rest , refusing to sit down in snow and to keep moving after a moments rest. it was a tough trip. i made it. in the end the bitter winter froze over the pond and i am not sure if the ducks frozeto death or coyotes had them , but no traces of them were found after repeated attempts to find them. had i felt better i may have tried to move them over the hill and into a shed. they never took well to that shed although they were beside it all their life.
but i have seen a return of 2 wild ducks to our pond that have nested around here before. i hope the dogs leave them alone but doubt that will happen. i still have racy and she hasnt changed much. or doesnt listen well either. plus other dogs have came into picture threatening not only ducks but also my chickens. i still have 7 . as far as eggs , racy has been getting most of them . but i have managed to find a nest i hope they use more and is safe from racy. i built a laying cage but racy busted into it and is still having her way. i would punish her or scare her but cant walk fast enough to get close to her when she is getting the eggs.

this is a couple of pics of gooser and area of woods over thye hill after an ice storm . i miss gooser as he would talk to me regularly.

this is a pic of a statue i did for a friend i worked for at beaver excavating when i was their.

an artist who does sculptures in zanesville was visited by me again as i drove with a friend samantha to a seminar on growing wild edibles in woods environments , like ginseng and bloodroot. the seminar was at nelson ohio at wayne national forest headquarters. it was interesting , and learned a lot. but was for a younger person than myself .
so here i am now and with samanthas help in the greenhouse we have 50 plus baskets of hanging flowers , petunias primarily and we also have some perennials we will have for sale this spring. the perennials are coming along nice and hopefully will be ready for mothers day or shortly there after. not sure on the price yet. but we are looking in the 10 -15 dollar price range. my colors were limited to primarily white and red. red attracts bees and hummingbirds. i will also be doing a large sunflower planting and other flower plantings for my bees which are thriving despite me.

the above picture is a sculpture from the artist in zanesville . and from a view above bridges in zanesville the lower picture represents what the sculpture looked like from afar, taking into account the whole of zanesville.

if you look at the red brick building in the corner of the roof you will see the the statue above. sorry the artists name i forget, but could find for you if you would like to visit his museum. well worth the time and money to get there.

well my next month will be slow getting used to my new hip. being a combination of high tech ingenuity , i hope they left those nerve endings out that are causing me so much pain now. to just walk again would be nice.

thanks to my new friend samantha and her help on the farm. she is a blessed soul and doubt that i would have had the integrity and drive she does at her age to put up with my dumb butt some times. without her my life would have been harder and a lot less done. she gives me hope that there are some milenials out there that are more in touch with reality more so than some of my own generation. she understands the principal you have to give to get. give of yourself by helping others out and in return karma will bless her with many returns. i hope her life is filled with knowledge and happiness.

i am looking forward to writing a new book . i thought of editing the old one but instead would like to just move on , so to speak. my new book will be science fiction mixed with reality in a social experiment. a perfect society or is it? i dont know if i am going to post on my blog like the last one, but am still considering it. maybe i will start next month as i have to take it easy for awhile and gradually work my way into activity again. what a pain in hip or ass life can be sometimes. i am not complaining too much , as i look on dating sites and see numerous women who are now widows at my age. this means they have lost their loved one and have to move on.

i think i could take a hole in the hip better than a hole in the heart. i feel for those that have lost loved ones. mothers , aunts , fathers, brothers and sisters, whoever friend or foe , you never know how much you miss them till they are gone. 56000 hits on here and counting. thank you readers.

2018-09-26T19:26:00.002-07:00

Gee !!!

pic of pond over the hill from years ago.

I have been kicking myself about not writing in my blog for days now. Daily I think about it and yet no action. So while sitting here waiting on supper to cook I thought I would at least write about what I accomplished so far today. Not really doing this for anyone but myself and will try to be brief so I can get posted and place online in blog.

Today was an easy day and really not a lot to say. I did pick up meds at drugstore and took care of daily cleaning including myself. sat around too much watching TV, and watching favorite program of Yukon Gold. I took the tractor over the hill to feed the ducks at other pond where I have a campsite and started to improve the road leading up to the dike area. I intend to have a road across the dike where I can take visitors on jeep rides up into the woods. I can and do that now. It is pretty cool. In a way I am glad the ducks have decided to hang out over the hill as it does get me out and lets me see what is going on over the hill. It is quiet and peaceful over there when I am not running something. I call it deer spring and will include a fall pic of it I took earlier.

I have had a washout and had to reinstall an over flow pipe and that is settling in fine. Need to add additional height to the dike and in the process of fattening it up also to make it larger and more aesthetic. I will selectively cut trees around the pond area and open things up a bit more as well install that road across the dike. I have plans of building a small wood structure that looks down on dike area where one can go and relax and kick back . Will have a deck outside and will be built mostly primitive. I do plan on putting in a large window in one corner or two to allow one to view from inside better. I have a small woodstove that could be used as a cook stove I plan on using there. I will use the kiss principle. Keep it simple.

I need to. This summer has been the worse with my back. Not sure if it is any better after the operation but I have considerable pain, but x-rays show good spacing of discs in my back. So it must be arthritis and bone spurs as well as a cartilage in my hipbone doing goofy things. I have hardly carved at all this summer. And I am now just getting the bug to try some but have visions of making myself worse if I try. I was swimming but feel that may have exacerbated my back pain, and since I was swimming I have started a regimen of pills and currently have something inflaming my skin. I have dark splotches under the skin and large round sores on my legs and cant go back to swimming although it isn’t contagious it looks like heck and I am sure if I was in a public pool and saw me coming I would have to question whether I was safe to be in pool.

They had this commercial on TV and had this lady my age who had scoria tic breakouts on her skin. She was cute so I nicknamed her scabby , as I thought too bad I couldn’t meet someone like that , heck if it wasn’t for the scabs she would be almost perfect. She was actually selling prescription medicine that only people with good insurance could afford to buy. Anyhow scabby kept her in shape by doing yoga and other daily activities you could include in a 60 second commercial. But scabby didn’t have a boyfriend. Well I haven’t seen scabby for a while. Apparently that crap she was using must work and she is healed and no longer needs the insurance or the money she made. Who knows, maybe she even found a man.

But the problem is I am scabby now. I can’t remember the medicine she used and it probably isn’t covered by Medicare. Doubt if my dr. would prescribe it , but have already tried a slew of different salve and creams as well steroids which I think may be causing it. so now I am taking away meds till I find out what is causing this inflammation even if it means that I need to give up pain meds. What a pain in the butt, so to speak as that is where it hurts the most in lower back. Don’t know what the answer is , and questions abound. But will seek answers where I can and how I can. In a nutshell this is me , not a lot has changed but will try and update better. I haven’t forgotten and I have some new stories to tell. Would like to say I will be more regular about writing but that always gets me in trouble. So until next time this is scabby –out.

2018-07-04T07:01:00.002-07:00

Mother Goose Land day from Hell #100

a whale of a story-Once upon a time

Our Sundays at home when we were younger consisted of grandpa and grandma coming to pick us kids up for church. As soon as we were at church we would hurry away to Sunday school as at least there was something to do in church besides watch Grandpa snore and Grandma jabbing him in his side to wake him up. Sometimes when standing singing hymns I would swear he was going to fall over in the pews as his voice would travel off, and then when he felt himself going into sleep a little too far under, he would jump awake and sing with gusto. Must have been all the good living was wearing him out because all this would happen as soon as he was in church and sitting in the pews, it was then you could see his eyes go foggy.

After church and as soon as we finished saying our goodbye’s we would hop in the 69 green Ford Fairlane station wagon , Grandpa would light up his Sunday cigar and we were off to Burger Chef at the time or Mc Donald’s , where we would all sit around under the golden arches or in the sleek stainless steel signs of the future and eat quarter hamburgers and French fries till we would explode as this was a rare treat for us back then and only an ample reward for not having embarrassed Grandpa and Grandma during church service. I remember one time Grandma buying something like 20 cheeseburgers, 6 chocolate shakes for all and 10 French fries for our family and fed six of us for 8 dollars back then . I can barely get out of Micky D’s for that now myself. That was a stuff your face all you could eat till miserable dinner also and yet grandma thought that was terrible but still offered to get more if we needed it. I think they loved their Sundays with us kids, or at least they were good pretenders.

Then we would head out for a drive or sometimes we had our special place, and that was Mother Goose land , where Grandpa would again light his cigar and stroll hand in hand with my sister and Grandma as they went around the storybook place . Grandpa only smoked cigar on Sundays in his good suit and in the good car , as the rest of the week he choose to chew tobacco and often could be seen with a wad in his mouth and the thin dark spittle would puddle at the corner of his mouth as he relentlessly gnawed away at the dark foul tasting chaw in his mouth until he had to spit, and sometimes he would lean out the door of the car or the truck and release the wad of spit in his mouth at a traffic light. Or sometimes it would be out the door of the moving truck leaving a brown permanent stain arching from the door to the bumper. One would swear you could see the pavement melting as we drove along in the distance looking back at where the dark brown spittle would etch the pavements surface.

Sunday was a no Mail Pouch tobacco day for Grandpa as Grandma would not let him touch the stuff in his Sunday finest, and so he relegated himself to smoking cigars and keeping clean, something he had to work at as he showed my sister Sherry and Grandma around. Jim and I though was different story . We would look at all the different things there at Mother Goose land but we would just head for the old jet plane without an engine and relentlessly time after time we would work to pry open the cockpit of the old fighter so we could hop in and see what it felt like to be a fighter pilot in the Korean war and pilot one of those bad boys. It was an old relic of a not so long ago war at the time and still looked pretty sleek. You could slide in and out where the engine used to sit, but the cockpit was out of reach as it seemed they had rigged it on purpose to keep kids like my brother and myself out of it.

I was probably 13 and Jim was a couple of years older then, young enough to be able to enjoy the parks features yet to old to hang around in the petting zoo. We would take turns watching for people coming up and down the paths so no one would see us jimmying the cockpit to try and open it so we could crawl in, until one visit we managed to get it open a crack and then it threw open as it slid back and revealed its musty hot warm interior as the sun baked the top of the plane heating up specially inside the cockpit till you could barely sit inside. It didn’t stop us as first Jim jumped inside and soon I was taking my turn pretending I was a fighter pilot killing bad boys and banking the plane into the ground as I would grab the joystick between my legs and turn it hard and right as I pretended to make machine gun noises and blast my brother off the wing.

Things were going great till my brother decided I needed more realism and decided to shut the cockpit. I was hesitant to have it closed and told him so. He insisted as he wanted to know what it felt like. I should have gave up the seat and let him experience it for himself , because as soon as the cockpit cover closed I swear I heard it lock and at first it was pretty cool to be inside like a pilot would be, but real soon it was heating up and within a couple of minutes I was sweating and wanting out. We both tried to open the cockpit but it was a no go , and then I was forced to really look around inside and see if there was a lock mechanism that was keeping it from opening and I couldn’t find any. Jim was blaming me for pushing the wrong button and desperately tried making suggestions of things to try.

We thought there must have been something we did to unlock it as we had tried numerous times on previous trips to the park to unlock the plane but could never quite figure out how to do it. We were getting scared and especially I was as it kept getting hotter and hotter and we knew soon that Grandma and Grandpa would come looking for us and we would be in trouble . So we were hustling to get out of there. Soon other people came down the path as we struggled with him outside and me inside to get the cockpit door open as these visitors to the park would stop and look inside from their perch on a platform at the poor sweating boy as my brother would laugh off any suggestion I might really be in trouble.

A small crowd had gathered by this time and from my view I could see I had half of downtown canton viewing me as I slow cooked my way to fame inside the cockpit. . Surely something could be done to save myself. Then my brother came up with the idea of using the ejection seat to trip the canopy lock insisting that it was perfectly safe. Others round him that had gathered warned him that although the seat itself was gone, that maybe the ejection seat still worked and images flooded through my sweat soaked mind that maybe if I ever get out of that situation I would never listen to my brother again as it was at this time I could imagine the seat exploding off its base and the canopy still locked catching my body as it slammed skyward in a bloody crescendo , not quite the way I wanted to go out, and neither was sweating to death inside a tin can so it prompted me to seek other means of escaping my peril at the time . I swore , and I made the conscious decision to forget the ejection seat and seek another way. I turned in the seat and with both hands pushing on the canopy and with several people outside pushing back on the canopy from outside it finally lifted up in its track and slid back with ease allowing me to exit as I was now drenched in sweat.

The small crowd minus Grandpa and Grandma and Sherry now roared with delight as pictures were snapped and congratulations were offered , as well as helpful advice like I hope you never do that again, were repeated time after time. I would have never locked the cockpit door in the first place , as it was Jim that felt I needed more realism in my fantasy plane ride. We hurried away from there. Word had spread before my release from my cockpit of doom that maybe the police and fire department should be called as surely I could easily suffocate from the heat. Steam had built up inside the cockpit and obscured their vision of me inside and from me seeing the crowd outside. I just wanted to get out of that area before we ended up in more trouble. Jim and I ran down the path to the petting zoo and soon found Sherry and Grandma and Grandpa sitting in the shade watching the small animals . We acted like nothing was wrong although my shirt was wet with sweat as well as my pants and when Grandpa and Grandma asked me why I was so wet ,I told them I was running a lot to get back their with them. They seemed to buy the story and I was finally so relieved to be back in the fresh air.

On our way out we passed the old fighter jet and Grandpa made a remark as to whether we were going to check it out as we usually did and both Jim and I told them we already did, and so we passed the old jet , all the time my heart was in my throat that no one that had seen us before would recognize me again with them and tell them the story. They never knew.

For many years I would exit off he Tuscarawas street exit and if the tree foliage would allow it I would look down off the side of the exit and I would see the gleaming silver fighter jet and instantly my thoughts would return to that day. Finally the park fell into disrepair and the fighter jet removed forever. Maybe it’s a good thing but it did teach me a few lessons. One don’t listen to my brother, and two if I do listen , shoot myself in the head before he does he me in , the pain is not quite so bad as the crap he put me through. republished july 4th , 2018.

2018-05-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

i am back

not going to worry about caps, punct., etc., instead focus on posting some pics and maybe a brief explanation of what is going on in pics of the farm as i go on here. things are going well and hope all is well with whoever is reading. i did have back surgery last july 14, th and still have problems getting around. the pros say it woul;d take a full year before i get a real sense of whether i am doing better or worse. sometimes i think it is better. but other times i have top reflect back to what normal should be and i am no way close to normal. but i keep moving on as life moves on. so on we go with the show.

this is the chicken hutch i built or i am in the process of building . all i have to do is build a chicken access door and finish hanging chicken wire , today's job. the idea is to get my free range chickens of which i now have 10 to lay in the hutch as opposed to all over the place. racy my new German shepherd is eating a lot of the eggs , and i need to limit her cholesterol intake and expand mine, she gets so many she poops a yellow stream , but does have a shiny coat if that is any consolation. i started this project in the winter and soon had frozen fingers i was beating on with a hammer trying to pound these tiny staples with my big fingers. i was frustrated so i gave up till i had a better attitude and could hold staples with pair of pliers, avoiding the sore fingers. i believe all the chickens are producing well and that would be 16 eggs /day. actually the chickens have been the best producer here on the farm . the cost of keeping them is minimum as compared to what they produce. the bees and berry vines are also good producers and trees have been good to me. although i still do hay , some greenhouse stuff. most of that stuff has low resale value and high labor. something i cant afford to pay. initially i started this blog years ago with the purpose of chronologically documenting my journey through small farming. i guess we will just have to see if i can back into writing enough to continue on. i have the time, i am rested. no excuse not to.

interior of chicken hutch.

exterior of chicken hutch , although i put an all weather roof on it, not sure if i want to locate inside the garage or outside. contemplated placing by house and hanging a feeder with laying mash and meal worms in it as the chickens love the meal worms.

mothers day baskets i made for mom yesterday

i re-hived the bees as i lost both hives to swarm or freezing. one lasted 2 years , and the other lasted 3 years. maybe i needed to re-queen, or whatever, and in looking back , i was bad in maintenance because i should have been working hives. and at same time i was headed for back surgery and recovery and could do nothing but hope for the best from the hives. i did mange to get honey off the second year and it was great. i have entered into an agreement witrh another beekeeper to help maintain hives and manage properly for half the honey. they have the extracting equipment and i have the hives and bees and perfect location to expand a natural honey operation here. hope it works out.

this is a basswood leaf cluster from one of my bass wood trees i grew from bare root sapling . the reason it is included here is because it is a premium carving tree when mature with expensive carving wood. also it looks like a nice yard tree with spreading branches and shade and what appears to be blooms appearing on the end of the branches this year as it matures. a couple of more days and i will have a better idea.

dogwoods blooming behind a maple in the woods.

the activity at the hive entrance is slow but steady after 2 days of introducing new hives. will pull out bee carrier later today and have a better idea of what is going on in each individual hive.

this is an azalea i planted about 4 years ago. always looking for a perfect shot.
\

this of course is lilacs in the morn.

2017-08-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

Raci

So much to catch up on, or more than you really want to know

Well to begin with and as most know that my dog Babe has passed. It was hard to deal with and doubt I will ever get over her , she was a great dog and in retrospect I have to say I may have seen signs of her time coming around. And in contrast I have found another dog I am trying to save and so far have been successful and possibly what has stirred me to start writing again. Her name is Raci. She is in stark contrast to babe and I will go into detail about all of that later. I also need to catch you up on some other facts about my life I haven’t shared too much about , but feel it is important to share at t5his time. Somewhat so that you understand my frame of mind and need to express myself.

The miracles of medicine have shown some light on me. I said to myself years ago that I would never let myself undergo surgery on my back, but as time went on and further deterioration of my back left me dragging my right leg and being in constant pain and a future of steroids to possibly ease some of the pain I was experiencing.

I had heard of some amazing medical breakthroughs and consulted with my Dr. as to what could possibly be done. He was clueless but instead referred me to a specialist. after testing It was determined that I could possibly benefit from a major back operation and insertion of steel pins and a cage to separate the discs and relieve the pressure on the nerve root running down my leg. In fact 3 discs were going to be affected by this operation and a fusing into my hip bone would permanently arrest the degeneration of disc space and ease my pain I was experiencing.

The miracles they are performing in medicine now–a–days reminds me of a story i heard about this young baby that was born without any eyelids, his poor eyes had nothing to bat away dirt and debris or alert your nerves to the possibility of something foreign accidentally being projected into the eye. This is a rather serious and rare condition but was easily remedied by taking a portion of the tip of the foreskin of the baby’s penis and stitching it on the eyelid. Minute hairs now would eventually be replaced by darker curlier hairs later in his life. A simple solution to a problem that would eventually manifest itself if nothing is done, and Of course it really doesn’t affect his vision but none the less he will always be a little cock eyed.

Well it was 4 weeks this past Friday since I have had surgery. The leg I was dragging has seen a reduction in pain and nerve response. As well I have noticed an improvement in my left leg as well. still I am awhile from saying I am having total success in having this operation. I was told it would take about 6 weeks to have substantial recovery. Across my lower back I am still having problems and it affects my ability to walk long distances. I can make it into stores including Walmart and have found some therapeutic value of walking behind the cart. I am starting re-hab this week and will spend time in the pool and on exercise machines as I try to strengthen those back muscles. I would be happy to just walk longer distances of a couple hundred yards , or avoid that low back pain altogether.

They went in and cut right over the old scar I had from a previous operation and made it longer to acco0modate the work they needed to do. Discs were trimmed or removed and an elaborate stainless steel cage was built in my lower back with the pins holding my vertebrae at the proper distance thus separating them in the process, muscles and tendons were cut and re-stitched back together, as well that at one point there was a concern that I had lost some spinal fluid and there was a hole in the sack that surrounds my spinal cord. All of this has healed back in very well according to a multitude of medical personnel that have had the chance to check it out. All I can do is take their word for it.

So in that regard I guess if I have some back pain still, it in some respects could only be expected. Still I want to be able to go and do without regard to what I have just experienced or are still experiencing. This includes the monetary cost of the whole thing. I am looking at close to 170000 dollars but that is insurance scare you money, and instead Cleveland clinic settled for 17000, plus a thousand here and there for this and that. My cost so far is around 4500, I imagine by the time they are done. I doubt I have seen all the bills yet. Still for 4500 if I was buying a car I would expect I could find me a nice old muscle care with a decent paint job for that price. With a rebuilt motor and sound suspension could easily last me quite a while. In fact I have been looking at hummers owned by the government for that price and they seem reasonable enough.

The money I spent is nothing really if it brings me comfort and reduces the pain I was experiencing even just sitting at the desk writing as I am now is an improvement over the pain I was experiencing before. So far so good is all I will say and will move on from there.

I woke early this am and immediately thought of my new dog and realized something about her that I have been kicking the thought around as to why I have never heard her whimper, whine, bark , or cry out since I have had her. She has a problem digesting and now I feed her mostly canned food and also I buy chicken slices and hold those in my hand so that she has to tear them out of my hand. If I don’t do this or watch her portion size she will hack up what she eats in a foamy mess. She re-eats it much to my disgust, but it seems to be the only way she has survived so far. She has spent most of her time under the influence of an Amish breeder and she had a goiter removed , but she only knows what has happened to her and as I go along I wonder if she hasn’t had her vocal cords damaged or removed to prevent her from barking or even uttering a sound. I couldn’t shut babe up and now raci is the opposite. I feel sorry for the dog and I am doing my best to accommodate her and her condition, including multiple feedings at all times of the day. Part of the reason I was up at 3 this am. I feed her more often but less at each feeding. It seems to be working.

She is now eating small amounts of dry food and seems to be able to keep that down. I also feed her scrambled eggs. She likes them well and hardly has a problem keeping them down. Babe would eat once a day and she would eat dry food and most of the time I would share with her , and she would eat her dry food only after I had fed her for the day. In fact babe was eating her supper when she passed. I doubt I will ever forget.

Raci has an appetite despite having the problems she has. I was hoping it was just a phase she was going through, but now I tend to think she is mute, and never will make a noise, as well she will take a while to fill out . She has gained weight but she still has ways no go. The idea of her waking me in the case of a fire may be impossible unless she comes and grasps me with her mouth. This is something I need to work on with her. Not just for my sake but hers to. I want her to come and grab me if she needs water or to go outside to go to the bathroom. This is something babe did almost right off the bat, Raci needs some work. Raci is a smaller dog but I think she has the potential to get bigger as I think she is still somewhat young.

I didn’t want a puppy to start all over with, and besides there are so many throw away dogs, that I figured a rescue would come along. She has. And she is a handful, including for the reason she is named Raci is because of her running away. She did it the first day and just recently made a dash for it, so I have kept her on a leash since then , it is tough for both of us. I do have a cable run for her though. But walking her long distances is hard on me now, but a lot easier than chasing her all over god’s creation. She does have moments where you can tell she is happy. Sherry my sister makes her happy, being free, and me returning from store when she is locked inside. A whimperless dance is usually executed.

Well this is enough for now and don’t want to burn myself out, instead I need to write more often. I will cover some topics in more detail as I go along. But for now this should be enough.

what does trump and the presidency have in common? nothing.

2017-01-08T17:05:00.002-08:00

Politics of Blogging

I was told by a dear friend of mine to leave politics alone. Leave it to those who know. Of course what could I expect from a republican, I doubt if any appreciated criticism as much as they like giving it. Can’t say that I am any different as a democrat and you will notice I didn’t stutter. We have our flaws, but we are working on them and for the next four years we can take a backseat and feel free to express our displeasure as often as we like, and who better to have then the clown Trump to lead the way. My decisions to voice my opinions on Trump and the republican regime as I now call it since they do control both the house and the senate and will also place a supreme court justice to replace the one who died under the Obama administration and the Congress refused to fill the seat before elections. It seems like opinions is all we have as democrats for a while. Besides we heard enough about Obama during his two terms in office that surely the republicans can stand to be criticized for a while.

So Trump is due to take office in less than a couple weeks and has picked his staff of millionaires to surround him , and has in place his token poor white man known as Vice President Pence , who will no doubt be the brains of the Trump administration. I see his role as similar to that of Cheney’s and that would be the head of the gestapo unit or the SS unit. He will no doubt be in charge of filling Guantanamo bay with more terrorists of both the foreign and home grown type. He will no doubt help Israel take over the West Bank and making Jerusalem the capital of Israel eliminating any chance of a separate and independent state for the Palestinians. This will be the cause for a migration of Arab citizens to run for cover to Iran and will also help the conflicts in Iraq and Syria to reignite. In four years of Trump rule we will no doubt see no end to the conflicts that exist, but instead an escalation of terrorist activities and a need for more money to be diverted to the defense department to prepare ourselves for any eventual terrorist activity that may come our way. In fact seeing how the Mexicans are reacting to an increase in gasoline prices by rioting and civil unrest, talks of deportation and the wall will be hot topics causing unrest along our borders also if they decide to crack down on illegal immigrants. The war will no longer be across the pond but instead in our back yard. We have the rhetoric of trump to thank for this.

This will also be cause for more money to be diverted to defense to provide the necessary border control to effectively shut down the border. This will mean that domestic programs will be stagnant or will take a hit in funding as we either borrow more money to cover the cost of increased border control or we cut programs like Medicare and Medicaid as well as any health care to provide the funds needed to cover other costs. An increase in the gas tax will be necessary to improve infrastructure and to provide lip service to promises of rebuilding and reducing unemployment which will no doubt increase after republicans take office.

Regardless what Trump does it will eventually end up in impeachment hearings and will no doubt shadow him in his ability to get anything done. This will be a long drawn out affair and may end when he isn’t re-elected and Congress will eventually turned back over to democrats. Trump is in it for more than just doing his civic duty. He could have done that in the Vietnam war but instead choose a deferment while others were actually dying to get a chance to eventually become president. The oligarchy that exists in Washington will be replaced with independent senators and representatives who offer a more grass roots movement to be re-elected. Trumps meteoric rise which aptly describes his coming to power as he just blasted in at the last moment to win a race that was looking for something different than what Washington had to offer. Democrats tried to push a damaged Hilary into the office when they knew Bernie was a better pick. They along with the republicans will be lucky to have a party in four years unless they both change their ways. Republicans being in charge are pushing their same old tired issues and so will be wasting precious time having the last say, which by no means will be the last say on issues of abortion and Obama care , as well as a host of other issues that seem to never end in the back and forth of party politics. Leaving bigger issues of global warming and coastal land loss as well energy usage associated with burning of fossil fuels, a dying technology that facilitates the administration to fill the pockets of the millionaires Trump has on his cabinet.

looking back

2016-12-31T21:02:00.003-08:00

2016 In Retrospect

current project- ignore time stamp

   This hasn’t been a year for me to write a lot, apparently. In comparison to previous years I was keeping up with the writing and even feeling guilty about missing a couple of days here and there. That hasn’t been the case in the last year. What I did focus on was my priorities, whether I write or not won’t keep me warm in the winter. As of yet I haven’t received any compensation for my writing thus far. Maybe I need to change that and start submitting. Guess that would be a New Year’s resolut6ion I need to work on.

       According to rule 657. 321 of the wc code, it states, there are no rules to blogs and it is yours to do with as you please. I think I have fulfilled my obligation to you as a reader by doing just that, and not following any rules and in fact and although I shouldn’t allow you too, I still feel as if I owe you the reader more. so in an attempt at brevity, I will just get on with what I didn’t write about , that I thought was relevant to where I am at here on the farm.

     I am still trying to manage my pain and at times it feels as if my right hip is just going to drop off as I walk away, with my hip dangling in the air and blood pumping through arteries as I hop around in circles trying to miss stepping on a cat or a dog or a chicken. This would be my luck, and if the dr. would ask me what my pain level is after I get done throttling him I would say easily a 9. 9. Not knowing if a 10 would be that same leg landing in a mud puddle and then having it reattached and walking on it again only realizing that they forgot to wash it off first. So not only would have gang green and festering union of two organic surfaces coming together and having dirt and debris in the juncture , and maybe a couple gum wrappers and a cigarette butt wandering around inside. This would be close as I can possibly think one could get to 10. Needless to say I have had to make adjustments for this in my life. Also when you are in pain it is hard to concentrate on what you are writing as I am usually trying to figure out what tyo say as early as possible before I am even writing. And rarely have to stop writing except for mistakes as it should be.

      Sentence structure and all that stuff they taught you go to heck in a sec as I, myself need to keep moving as if I am talking. This is hard and frustrating to do when I am hurting so bad. Oh well back to my plans and accomplishments for 2016.

     I have had to change my plans as of recently as to the design of my house. I need to build something I can build by myself and using logs is hard and so I have been thinking of using the same floor plan but doing it in a post and beam structure. I can buy 8x8 dimension lumber and notch accordingly and install by myself fairly easy this will give me more free span distance and better control of dimensions. I might still do this with a smaller band-saw mill as I haven’t completely given up on that idea. I still plan on using logs and carvings but more as support posts that are carved and more for aesthetics lending itself to a more rustic charm

     My wine worked as far as I know. I sent one bottle to the neighbors and still have 2 bottles in reserve for what I don’t know. My sauerkraut didn’t do so good and although it may have been ok, I just wasn’t comfortable with it. I made app-le sauce and canned it, as well I canned my own spaghetti sauce, and it is a little hot but still very flavorful. I bought a freezer and from sales and other sources have managed to fill it completely and have the one over the refrigerator an average half full most of the time. I didn’t make hay but instead rented it out and that didn’t go the best in the world as they still left half or better to be brushhogged, so I still haven’t figured out what I am going to do this year for sure. Maybe make myself a bio mass furnace I can drop a whole hay bale into at a time. That way I can use my hay to burn and make hot water to heat my house. Would be easier to handle than wood, would. Might have to burn a bale to see how long they last. I can always take the ashes out and spread on field or include in compost to make better compost.

     I started the drainage around the back room and that has made a difference in my current place as I also included good downspout hooked into a regular drainage system . I covered the whole are with pea gravel and it seems to have cut down on mud in the house. I am working on stuff inside the trailer also as it will still be a couple of years before I remove it , so I need to try and improve and also get it ready to be dismantled when the time comes. When it is cold like this it isn’t hard to try and get things done inside. With my back the way iut is I spend time sitting more than I want top. I now kneel and avoid as much as possible just bending over at waist. I try to keep five gallon buckets close to where I am working or just take breaks when I can’t stand the pain. It sucks, and so does the pain, but I need to persevere to get myself in a better place.

     I am focusing more time on important things that will pay me back in the future. Or paying me forward, as it may be. 2017 will be here shortly so I will go for now and post this and tell everyone happy New Year , only 4 more to go with trump as president. We haven’t impeached him yet? Damn.

guess who?

2016-12-12T08:35:00.001-08:00

It’s Been Awhile

Since I have last written. I have been lax and at same time just taking a break, re-evaluating what I am doing. Making sure that I am trying to be the person I write about in my blogs. I have no intentions of being fake or unrealistic. I have no one to prove anything to except myself and that can be a task at times. So I am on a dating site, called POF, Plenty Of Fish , which I am sure a lot of people have seen or used, in fact I just read a study the other day that said that 30 percent of the people on the dating sites are in fact married. No wonder you can’t meet anyone on there. Always someone is trying to game someone else. I digress, as what I really want to do from here on out is document my house building. I will take you back to when I started and will hopefully carry you all the way through to a point in time when I have done all that I can do the house , I can possibly do. In those terms I doubt if I will ever reach that point so I guess you could say that my blog will probably go on indefinitely.

So in that sense I will chronologically bring you up to date with pics and progress I have made to date. I am also finding out as I go along that this is also an exercise in getting my shit together, so to speak. I have had to make changes to my present living situation in order to accommodate my future needs. I have had to install a new wood heater, rebuild the chimney after having it collapse on me. I have installed of all things a clothes line , to dry my clothes and in winter I dry them by the wood stove. It works and it is great because I am sure I am saving AEP American electric power a shit ton of coal every time I cheat them out of a kilowatt of power. I would like to think I am just getting started. Last month’s bill was 1 dollar. Unbelievable but yes it is.

What it actually amounts to is an estimated bill that was finally brought up to date. They had overestimated my usage and I actually came in with less kw’s than they actually estimated. What gets me is they have the ability to read the meters without even getting out of the vehicle. They just need to get close enough. We have a drive within ten feet of the power pole, and yet they have to estimate. As people say go figure, might as well they didn’t. It cost 41 cents to mail the bill. Hope they don’t get too rich on their 59 cents this month. I am sure the electric will be back up next month. This is the time of the year when AEP threatens all the back due customers so that they can get federal heap dollars to repay back bills. First they have to threaten a shut off before heap will help with emergency funds. Oh well someday my goal is to not have to buy anything but internet service to keep me on the grid. I have no desire to make a monthly rent payment to AEP or any other utility. It is just like paying rent only with a gun at your forehead. If you don’t pay, your food spoils in the fridge because you have no electricity. You can’t shower or shave, and basically if you were in jail you would be much better off. at least paying rent , it takes 3 months without payment to throw you out of your house. Try living three months without electricity. I am going to try.

My plan is to invest in solar , wind, bio-gas , or any other technology that will eventually allow me to gain whatever from nature to provide the necessary electricity I need to heat and cool my home as it will exist. What I have to look at is that I have an income from social security that will never increase beyond cost of living allowances. Most times these increases are behind the actual inflationary values, and will fore3ver doom me with less value for my money as I age and need it more. so I need to spend money to eliminate any extra expense I can , so I can do more with what I have. Easily said, harder done.

So I plan on using the format where I post pictures and directly below the pictures I will give a thorough explanation of what you are looking at. I will try and brief as I have to do all editing myself directly on the blog. And in the main body I will have a discussion and it could be about anything the title might suggest. The title should be an indication of what the discussion is about. It may not always be related to the building of the house, and could include any subject I have covered thus far, and also some new

just a pretty pic, from somewhere in pennsylvania.

the above pic of my house is from 7-2015 . at that time i had was still contemplating where to build , design considerations , etc.. this pic is from 10-31-2015 , and i have finally decided that in fact i am just going to add on to what is existing and then subtract what i dont want want after i finish building. in the meantime i will have a place to live . my old place as it still exists today is an old chicken house from sears (the rounded part) and a trailer combined . this is not my doing . instead something that has been bequeathed to me in a manner of speaking. it is nothing i would ever do and that is tie a trailer to anything. i hate trailers. but it is a roof over my head. it is a place to lay my head till i can build better . so here i am using the tractor to excavate out soil in the area where i am going to build. sears and roebuck used to build and sell chicken houses as well as a real house you could buy from their mail order business and have delivered to your building site . the top part of the house part was a chicken house unit , that grandpa bought in late forties and built it on top of the foundation of concrete blocks. peeps at most were kept in there at different times. and people lived there over the years for the most part. we had an outhouse that served as the toilet for years till my brother jim modernized the house by attaching the trailer. it is an abortion and i hate it. did i say that before? i will go into why i needed to build here as i add more pics and also describe my considerations i had toi take into account. i will also get into more about how long it is going to take me to finish at least the main part, and some of what i am going to have to do to make it happen .

i am going to try and chronicle all changes from the pics i have and bring you up to date.

thanksgiving and home made saurerkraut , cant beat it with mashed potatoes . a taste unlike store bought.

2016-10-01T07:53:00.002-07:00

Time To Make The Sauerkraut

(remember the old ad about making donuts, it’s time to make the donuts, Dunkin Donuts. )

I have been busy trying to get things done. One of the projects I am going to update you on and hopefully in this order is making sauerkraut, and then a short story , an anecdote so to speak related to the sale of sauerkraut equipment and how family can be at times. Estate sales can sometimes bring out the good and the bad in most people if they let it

Sauerkraut is the process of fermenting cabbage in a crock or as in my case, a food grade five gallon bucket which is disinfected. Whole cabbages of a rather huge size of around 5 lbs. each , when stripped of outer leaves and just leaving the inside. These I bought at Hartville flea market for 1.50 each or total of 4.50 for all the cabbage needed. I just happened to stop at papa gyro’s a couple of days later and saw some food grade five gallon buckets behind their restaurant and asked the manager if she would give or sell me a couple of buckets . They were cleaned out and can only be used once a commercial basis. She told me they normally sell their buckets and said .75 cents apiece and I said I would surely do that, so I add another 1.50 to my total cost despite only using 1 head.

I think to do over again I would say you could almost crowd four large heads of cabbage in a five gallon bucket, but will go with what I have and still it will be more than I need and some to give away if it turns out good. At this point I will go into process and then tell a little story about a kraut slicer we have here on the farm that has a tale behind it. Only the tale has nothing to do with making kraut, just bad feelings that kind of go on, sometimes to the grave.

Back to the process, basically remove the outer leaves till it gets down to the cleaner whiter inner leaves, even if clean and green it is ok. I still wash the head and keep work area clean or try to as I go along. My Ball canning book says you can use a food processor to make your cabbage slices but after shoving a couple hunks through the processor I wasn’t too pleased with the fineness and discontinued using the processor. Maybe there is a way to do more of shred then a chop on yours and yours may be ok. Instead I just took to slicing by hand trying to slice and shred as thin as I could, making sure I went back to grab oversize pieces. I also cut the heart or stem out and discarded these from the cabbage. I did this according to the book also, I imagine because they are harder and denser and texture would not be good in final product. That is just a guess. I quartered and chopped into smaller chunks and then using a paring knife reduced the pieces to shreds in a large bowl intermittently adding salt according to where I was in the process. This I would mix thoroughly with the shredded lettuce. It says in the book it is important to use canning salt or pickling salt as the case may be. I happened to have the right salt and it was ¾ ‘s of a cup to 10 lb of cabbage . So in total I used almost one and half (1.5 cups), for fifteen lbs. of cabbage.

Of course this is an educated guess and the major thing you will notice in the process is the brine solution coming out of the cabbage as you process it into the bucket. Failure to see a brine solution will cause air to spoil your cabbage. So if you do not see natural water and salt solution come to surface of kraut as you pack it add some more salt and let it set awhile before packing in your fermentation vessel , be it a crock or bucket. Once shredded it is important to let bowl set for about five minutes . Pressing on cabbage and kneading the surface will start the juice flowing. Then once it is visibly on surface then start packing in the bucket. Again I used my fist and constantly spin the bucket while adding more cabbage and salt solution trying to pack it tight as I can and to also get the brine to the surface.

So I would cut up cabbage and set in bowls, taking a break in between each head to allow the salt to do its thing. Eventually I finished all the shredding and salting and packing and ended up with just shy of ¾ of a bucket of kraut. This is still over twenty pounds of kraut or seems like it when I left it. When finished and if packed well enough you should have a layer of brine up to an inch deep all over the surface of the cabbage. I took cheese cloth and placed it over the top bucket and then placed a plate that just fit into the bucket and pushed it down into the brine till the brine completely covered the plate and then I folded the cheese cloth in around the plate forming a porous seal of sorts. On top of that I took an empty milk jug and added water and placed on top of the plate to keep weight on the plate and reduce the amount of oxygen getting to the kraut.

At this point it is ready to enter the first phase of making sauerkraut. It will have to ferment. They say a cool dark place is good, and you also have to watch your brine level. If all is going well the plate should go down as fermentation occurs. They say some foaming and scum may occur on the surface of the brine. If that is the case then just remove the scum to a bowl and discard. As long as brine is over the plate and the plate is submerged , then your kraut should be ok. When it looks like there is no action or anything happening with your kraut then you are ready to can your product. I am not there yet and will let you know what has to be done as I go along.

So after this long explanation I need to make my story about a kraut cutter short and sweet if I can. Sometimes that is hard for me. My grandpa was executor of great grandfather’s estate and was having an auction to settle the estate. This required that all household items be sold and included in this was a kraut cutter, a long sliding box on a board with a knife that would allow you to slice on a much larger faster scale, kraut for storing in large crocks. Well grandpa as the story goes , had carried the kraut cutter and a ram used to pack the kraut in crocks outside and placed on the lawn so the auctioneer could sell it.

For some reason grandpa returned to the basement later, and in a different place he found the kraut cutter and ram , again he carried it back out to sell , knowing someone had deliberately brought the kraut cutter back in to the basement to avoid its being sold . Not knowing who had done it, my grandpa issued orders to my grandma to buy the kraut cutter when it came up for auction, no matter the price. Grandpa kept an eye on the kraut cutter as well grandma did also as the auctioneer would go from item to item before finally coming to the sale of the kraut cutter.

My grandma was in a crowd of people an rally couldn’t see well but once the bidding started, grandma couldn’t see who she was bidding against but the price of the kraut cutter soon soared as a battle between two bidders was evident with no end in sight. At one point the auctioneer stopped and remarked how he had sold a lot of those kraut cutters but never saw one fetch such a high price, as now they were hovering around the ten dollar mark. A lot of money in the early 1940’s . Grandma was on one side bidding and it just so happened it was my aunt Myrle , my grandpa’s sister who was the one bidding against grandma and neither could see who they were bidding against. Eventually Myrle relented and let grandma have the kraut cutter. A big laugh on our side of the family was always had for winning the bidding war against your own family. Especially since grandma rarely would spend that kind of money for something so simple. But it was the principle of it, grandpa found out who was trying to get around the estate sale, and grandma had the satisfaction of one upping my grandpa’s sister.

This seemingly harmless feud between them would manifest itself in showing off of cars and food at the annual family reunion where one family would try to outdo the other with one- upsmanship as if that was all that mattered. I can remember some members of our extended family that never showed any of that type of that behavior at family reunions and seemed to show up with the same utensils , old car , and clothes , year after year as if they seemed to be locked in poverty. Both the husband and wife always seemed happy and content and never complained. They were the opposite of all the others were in subdued way, that always made you wonder how their life must truly be , and why things were the way they were. To this day there is no clue why things were that way for them. Yet they seemed happier and content, funny how family can be at times.