Bonfire of time

Today went by so fast and it seems like I got so little done. Some spraying, worked on the pump, tank and lines for the foliar feed applicator. Mowed and sprayed weeds in the vineyard. Feels like I was mostly busy but haven't got highly visible results to show for it. Lots of mental struggle today, looking for parts, arranging things etc. which is always difficult to measure while still being taxing.

Dad on the other hand made huge showing with the small ripper and the new chain-link drag I welded up a couple days ago. He also ran the field plane around what will be the tomato field so land work is totally falling into place.

We have a couple days of showers coming Tue.-Thur. which has caused us to postpone planting corn. Will spend a little of tomorrow and/or Monday calibrating the new fertilizer drops in the white corn field. We use a different seeder for that but the fertilizer can still go down first.

It's a pleasantly balmy spring evening. That special yellow color which I love so much has started to return to the sunlight which shines down our valley each evening now. Hard to be too down when such beauty abounds.

A happy night to you and yours.

Infuriation

After painstakingly constructing our expensive 7+ foot deer fence we expected and were having no predation on our broccoli, cauliflower and other greens. But last night the small doe and perhaps another deer managed to find an opening they could get through. In short order they devoured about 600$ worth of plants and the labor that it took to put them in and tend to them.

No doubt those environmentalists are chortling in glee at yet another example of nature exacting its tole on man. Stupid farmers trying to impose their will on mother nature, we don't need them we can just get our food from the all-organic grocery store.

It would be so easy to blame myself for this because I wasn't more careful in tending to the fence. It would be equally easy to sit up tonight and gut shoot every deer in the neighborhood; but of course I would never do such a barbaric thing. I will make another attempt to remedy the fence and hopefully will be able to at least keep the deer out of the grapes for the rest of the season. Unfortunately it is now too late to do anything about early greens and salads. Will re-till that field and plant it to artichokes or something else.

Take care and stay alert; there's a lot of things out there waiting to take a bite.

Done at last!

As Professor Hofstader's law says "It always takes longer than you think it will, even if you take into account Hofstader's law" If you ever get a chance to read Godel, Escher Bach: An eternal golden braid I challenge you to do so. It's a bit heavy but some brilliant thinking.

Tada! the glorious improved corn seeder with fertilizer applicators and additive drops:

Will beginning seeding tomorrow afternoon after getting fertilizer at the local Grange Co-op. Whoa! filled the truck with gas in Rogue River today, $3.21 a gallon. Gonna make the fertilizer drops extra valuable as they save one whole set of trips through the field.

Happiness to you.

Another day of welding

Almost, almost I say! done with the fertilizer attachment. Only two small parts to finish attaching in the morning and then, Fini!

Really kinda hoping it will rain a bunch tonight and so take the pressure off. Only 30% chance as of last night. No idea what the current status is. Probably going to sleep before I find out. Oh well, might just have to call on one of the fifty little gods. (Anyone theologically minded please don't take me so literally!)

Have a delightful day/evening/night/morning.

Scramble, scramble

Weather has turned good and we are in a tizzy trying to get the last bits of cutting and welding done for the corn seeder. Should be ready to field test tomorrow afternoon. Man! this agricultural design can be as mind bending as software engineering. So many different intentions working together towards a single purpose all having to mesh perfectly and move in the correct manner and synchronization.

Saw a big osprey or small eagle fly over today as I was exiting the greenhouse. My glasses were still foggy so I couldn't pin the variety down any closer. Looked really cool though.

The big deer fence is finally a success. Had one interloper that lost quite a bit of hair to the barb wire so we stretched one more length of smooth wire at the top to reach 7+ feet. No new incursions since. The cabbage will be safe.

Wishing you all a smooth, mellow night and a venturous day.

Mixed day

Sort of like a soft-serve ice cream cone with vanilla on top and chocolate on the bottom.

The day started with soil prep at farm#2. Once the equipment was hooked up to the tractor I left dad running the new harrow while I ran to town and bought parts for the fertilizer spreader. After all the errands were done I ran back to farm#1 and planted crookneck and zucchini. The rain really started to pick up just as I finished with that so I ran back over to farm#2 and got dad who fortunately had just finished. Now the corn ground is all ready for planting within the next week whenever the ground dries out enough.

After lunch we ran over to bro's welding shop and I laid down some heavy tracks. Also got a chance to play with a plasma cutter which he had picked up on sale. Very, very fun. Can't wait to cut out some truly groovy stuff.

Now having pizza for dinner before turning in.

Wishing you all a stream of productive, rewarding moments and refreshingly blissful interludes.

Seeder progress

Spent the whole day welding and boy are my arms tired. Looks like we'll have the new fertilizer drops built in time for our first planting of corn. What a labor saver that will be.

Good night everyone.

Day of discomforts

Ooohh!
Constantly changing air pressure makes me ache. Bruised my lower back when standing up too soon and accidentally hit a metal loop on the hoist. Minor head cold and/or allergy sniffling, sneezing, aching etc. Sinuses changing size with the different waves of air pressure blowing through with the storm pushing against my wisdom teeth, unnngghhh. Working on cold concrete while wind and rain lash the tin roof of the welding shop. Small, burning sparks of metal embedding themselves in my clothes and skin. Nothing good on the radio.

But the storm was lovely. Dark grays and blue, sublime white and misty shear.

Tired and sore, I wish the world a lovely night and virtuous day.

Planting onions in the rain

Got just shy of a thousand feet of onion planted yesterday afternoon. Showers blew in as we were finishing the last two rows of reds. Nothing makes me feel quite so alive as working in the rain.

Going back to bro's welding shop this morning to work on the fertilizer drops for the corn seeder. Couple of hours there then we'll come back for planting broccoli, cauliflower and some other plants which should be safe now that the deer fence is complete.

Wishing everyone a safe, peaceful day.

Rainy Saturday

Delightful spring rains! supposed to persist until about afternoon, gotta love it.

A hummingbird was sitting on the floor next to a shelf in my bedroom yesterday afternoon. I hurriedly gathered it up and carried it outside before the cat could get it. I think it came in through an open window. Black cat, sleeping on the bed, never even noticed. I carried the poor thing towards one of our hummingbird feeders but he flung out his wings half way there, changing from the dull green when I found it to iridescent orange and took flight towards one of the flowering apple trees.

A day of equal freedom to you.

Work, then more work

Finally had a chance to take a pic of our new "harrow" or whatever you care to name it. Now we're working on a fertilizer spreader to mount ahead of the corn seeder. Pre-fertilizing will be a huge advantage in labor, time and weed control.

Well, I'm tired so going to sleep now. Sweet dreams.

Rae Ann writes again

The vicious momma has some funny and thought provoking things to say about the recent "Imus in the morning" racial slur controversy.

I'm a Hoe: Updates of Past Stories

Busy, busy

The new cultivator/ripper/drag device worked great on its test run. All my welds held. Unfortunately the ground is too wet for us to just immediately put it to use but when it is time to plant corn it'll be really nice to have it.

After we got through with the test run we just spent the day cleaning up the shop. Was a lot easier with the equipment moved out so we did a thorough job of it.

My good friend Steve spent a chunk of yesterday evening chatting with me. We've been out of touch for about 2 or 3 months so it was a pleasant interlude. He is thinking of selling his house and buying a small farm to raise grapes and hops on. Another interesting alternative as to the future I might choose after mom and dad sell the farm.

Wishing you a night fraught with adventurous dreams and a day fraught with sublime mundanities.

Dirrizlizlnizzz

No reason for that title, just felt liking being different.

Showery sort of day all day, spent the morning welding and painting equipment then came back to farm#1 to finish putting up some fence gates. We made the mistake of putting out some early plants before the last 3 gates were finished and the deer finally took notice and gobbled a bunch of them down. Fortunately we hadn't put in terribly much yet but it was still really aggravating. The state claims ownership of the animals but won't pay for the damage they do, help me to control them or allow me to shoot them at need. My only option is to bleed off money and time of my own to construct obdurate fences against them.

Tomorrow we'll be testing the new ripper so wish me luck; it's all made from my own welds so no one else to blame if it falls apart.

Have a wonderful evening.

Happy Easter

I'm not a very religious person but I love holidays. Lots of pagan trappings to this spring right of passage but I don't care. Bunnies, colored eggs and chocolate; who could argue with that?

Been too busy farming to blog lately. Yesterday we put in about 200 mixed cabbage and lettuce plants. Will probably do about 500 more today or tomorrow. Also getting lots more welding experience in while working on the boom'd sprayer and the ripper/drag for soil prep. Just what I need, another alternative occupation should I decide to stop farming.

This is one of the most beautiful Easter mornings that I have seen since I was a kid. The sunlight was slanting in beneath a few eastern clouds with an amazing pastel color highlighting all the flowering trees. A sublime perfume fills the air combining with the other elements of natural beauty to envelope my every sense in wonder.

Have a very happy day.

Workflow

This morning got a late start because of the flu I'm still struggling with. Dizzy, dizzy when I first get up in the morning. But my head cleared after breakfast and we sidled over to my brothers welding shop to work on the ripper/dragger. Got another couple of good hours of welding experience in, pipe welding today.

Then came home for lunch and several hours of chores, a trip into Rogue River, etc. after 3:00 I gave dad a brake from plowing our new field at (technically) farm #3.

Now there is a fascinating experience not many people get in the modern world. A steel plow churning and turning earth under and over. The deep rumble of rock, soil and stone. The hissing, ripping, shredding sound of dirt and root-mat being torn up and flipped over. All overlaid with the deep rhythmic throb of a diesel engine. This is a power that hearkens back to ancient Sumeria when the first farmer turned land to create a new circumstance for his people.

I was plowing the field which used to belong to a good friend, Byron. He passed away last winter after we had already made arrangements to plant his field with corn. As luck would have it his grandson bought the land and we were fortunate enough to get a second chance. It made me a little sad that he wasn't there to see this day of turned earth but I know that at some level of existence, he was there.

Wishing you a night of pleasant dreams and a day of thrilling discoveries.

Good Monday's work

Today started out frosty which made me fear for the recently transplanted lettuce but they weathered the threat just fine.

Spent the morning and early noon welding on the ripper dad and I are constructing. I really enjoy that welding even though it is a bit uncomfortable of a chore. We're over half done on that job, 2 or 3 more days and we'll be able to try it out.

After lunch dad worked the cornfields at farm#2 while I finished prepping the onion, beet and turnip beds. Would've got the beets in already but that stupid little seeder got jammed and I had to spend the time fixing it. By then the day was just about done, will seed in the morning.

Had a brief jaunt into the library to return my books. All Jackson county libraries will be closing on April 7th for an indefinite period because the federal government refuses to pay its property taxes. Wonder if we can report them to a credit agency? Wendy, one of the many nice ladies at the Rogue River library who will soon be unemployed, told me that many people think it isn't going to actually happen. One lady upon being told they were closing on April 7th said "I've heard the stories..." as if it is some kind of urban legend. And apparently most people in the county think along the same lines. It will be vastly amusing (and distressing) to watch the ripples of domino effect spread from this event. Mark your calendars world, everyone has seen what happens when Bugs Bunny flicks a pebble down the slope of a snowy mountain.

Wishing you all a fine and felicitous day.

Go to the source

The power of blogging sometimes fascinates me. 2 brothers in Iraq (of all places) have stirred up their own little hornet's nest amongst America's mainstream media. Michelle Malkin has details here.

Planting and carpentry

Got the first row of lettuce planted and watered in just about the time my bro called needing a hand putting some siding and a window in his house. So dad and I finished up and drove over there. Spent the next 5 hours doing carpentry. The weather was lovely with many puffy clouds blowing around in fanciful layers. The work was easy, just pulling off siding and holding boards. Lots of standing around and staring at the hills. A pleasant time to spend doing something useful while in the company of family.

Not much else to report.

Have a great day.

Planting day

Will shortly be putting in onion seeds, broccoli plants, lettuce and an assortment of other early crops. Should be an interesting early start to the season.

I'm still struggling a little with the "dizziness flu" or whatever it is. Really weird, sort of like having a beer in terms of lightheadedness, vertigo etc. Might even be pleasant if it weren't imposed and damned inconvenient. But as long as I'm up and moving around it doesn't cause too much trouble.

Well, back to the dirt. Hope your day is fun and learningful.

Gettin' on

Been busy doing a lot of welding. Also came down with a head/stomach flu Tuesday afternoon which has made me less than sociable. The weirdest symptom has been a persistent dizziness, perhaps an inner ear infection or something.

Ok, enough grossness. The spring weather is keeping me busy too, trying to get plants and fields prepared for the oncoming avalanche of growth. It is at times like this that I regret not having any additional help. Automation can do much of the farming procedure but some things require direct human intervention.

Hope your day is fine and healthy.

Rainy day welding

I love the smell of ozone.

Dad and I spent the morning in bro's welding shop working on a 3-tier spring tooth crust buster. We put together 6 pieces of 3 inch thick wall tubing to make 3 pieces of tubing 10 feet long. Dad did the cutting I did the welding. That will be the part of the machine's frame which holds the spring tooth fittings and two four foot pieces of 2 inch by 6 inch square tubing will form the sides, probably by tomorrow afternoon. Should be done with the whole thing by Thursday and then we'll start on some fertilizer spreading attachments for the tractor and corn seeder.

A little note of support for our blog-friend Rae Ann, who's father-in-law is very ill and possibly hovering on the edge of that inevitable journey. From each of us a prayer to help her and her family through this difficult time.

The rain really started pouring about 10am and hasn't let up yet. These rapid air pressure changes always make me a little queasy and achy. Supposed to thunder and lightning a little this afternoon, that should be fun.

Joy and happy spring rains to you.

Plowing, fencing

And other stuff too. Working on some of my chemistry and materials experiments on the side. But mostly just the plowing and fencing. Only one more length of wire and 4 gates to build and the big deer fence will finally be finished.

Supposed to rain tomorrow. Might be nice to have a lazy Sunday, but even then I'll be busy with projects, clean-up and etc.

The last field plowed up real nice. We hung a pallet and some chain-link fence under a pipe sticking out the side of the plow and it did a world of good smoothing off the soil. About half that field, 96' by 300' or so, is ready to be planted now. Will probably push in lettuce, cabbage, bean and pea seeds for starters and/or stab in a bunch of 288 plugs of lettuce, broccoli, and assorted stuff dad sprouted in the little greenhouse. Also hope to try for early cukes, squash and melons as an alternative to taking a weekend at Reno. May even gamble an early row of tomatoes.

Wishing you a smooth weekend.

Broken Implement of the week #1

The first installment in a column I've entitled "Broken Implement of the Week" each week will feature a new broken implement, as we bust 'em!

This is the wide-spacing 2 row corn cultivator we used to operate in the golden jubilee fields we first raised 19 years ago. Dad and I busted it when trying to clean up some plastic mulch rows on Tuesday March 20th, 2007. First we busted one wing, then we broke t'other. Cause of bustin': poor welding and too many rocks.

Strangely appropriate

Only because it assuages my ego:

Guy is The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Operating a 21st century nanotechnology factory

In the first image we see the preparation of a new field of Direct Interface Resource-Technology, or D.i.r.t as the layman is want to call it.

This matrix-field will be laid-off and rolled over in preparation for seeding with the nanofactory main assembly, also known as Photon Loading Assembler Nano-Transcription System, or Plants.

The second image is of a photon gathering field wherein globes of water, sugar, cellulose, minerals and a smattering of proteins will be assembled for consumption by our appreciating crowd of customers.

Another mind blower

Go here and download the central graphic then if you have paintshop pro or any other image viewing software with multiple fields of zoom, roam around the image's depths in order to explore some fascinating relationships in science.

Some more great new med. tech.

Over at AZoNano is "MIT Chemical Engineers Step Closer to Theranostics" which contains the description of a brilliant new medical testing technology. Flow lithography is showing its potential.

Difficult to describe

Coming back to the barn from a little stroll into the vineyard I was struck by moon and star. The crescent was a perfect thin cup for what I think is Venus, pouring forth springtime energy into the celestial lunar goblet. A dark row of clouds dominated the dimming horizon beneath them. Framing two tall bull pines which stand alone in my neighbors pasture, the celestial pair created a sort of mystical allusion, but an allusion to what?

Today was a burn day so I torched off the big pile of branches and yard debris which dad and I have been gathering for the last few weeks. As the fire raged through tinder dry materials a bed of hot coals rapidly accumulated, aided by a forced air device which dad made from a motor and an old blower fan. Some broken bottles, crushed tin cans, bits of wire (galvanized, aluminum, copper and steel) and various other non-flammable materials had worked their way into the coalescing pile of fuel. As the forced air rapidly dried and combusted the lightest parts of the mass, these sundry bits of red-hot flotsam tumbled into the bed of coals and gradually congealed along with small amounts of melted soil and ash which fell into the mix. The flames took on a most dramatic and lovely color while this happened. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera which probably wouldn't have worked anyways. Should be a fascinating looking mass when it cools off sometimes tomorrow. Hope it rains so as to wash it off. If it looks cool enough I'll post a pic up here.

We also got some fence tightening finished, and now my description is completely out of linear order, but you'll just have to forgive my impertinence.

Like I said, today was difficult to describe.

Mind boggling stuff

The American Chemical Society's Nano-letters has some mind blowing new science and tech this month. Spring is always a great time for bright new nanotech discoveries, or so I have noticed.

The buffoon jihad

This article at MEMRI reminds me of chimpanzees wearing a hat in imitation of a human. The chimp doesn't know what a hat is or is for but since a human wears one, so will he. That's sort of like these "media mujahideen" trying to imitate modern methods of marketing and propaganda. They have no concept of how inured westerners have become to such methods, especially the specific methods they quote using. Sounds like a how-to book for Amway products written in like 1972.

Fencing in the Rain

This is one of those interesting days wherein work transforms a number of disparate factors into a delightful sequence of perceptions.

Normally one would avoid being out in the rain on a day like this but since we had fencing that needed to get done dad and I went out and heaved barbed wire around for a bit. The showers would come in muted waves of dimming light and white noise hissing across the half-rotted leaves of late winter.

Rain dripping off my blue baseball cap was a random highlight of deception. My cloths would just barely get damp and the shower would pass. We would struggle on with the next strand of twisting, jagged, shirt-sleeve tearing, scratch leaving wire. Crows cawing and occasionally silently winging over.

The next shower would sneak in as we were distracted by tying off one of the long strands. Finally the last strand was tightened. After cleaning up a few broken plum branches on one of the fence trees we beat a hasty retreat from a serious downpour.
Mhmmmm,,, fried meatloaf for dinner. Always made tastier by a long stretch beneath the open sky.

Lazy Sunday

Man! What a lazy Sunday. Haven't done a thing but read and watch some tv. I'm proud of dad, he hasn't stressed at all today, he's just watching basketball. I suppose later on we'll go out and burn some brush and tree prunings since it is a burn day but that'll probably be all we do.

It is a lovely day out there, sunny and bright with just a few clouds blowing around to decorate the sky. Hard to believe it isn't even spring yet. It is a little smoky from all the debris being burned but that's ok. It'll pass when the rains come in tomorrow.

Wishing you an enjoyable and safe lazy day.

Tyranny runs amok in Egypt

A bunch of bloggers and champions of freedom (35) have been arrested for protesting changes to their constitution. Sandmonkey has all the poop here.

Fence Saturday

Got a late start today as I woke up feeling not so well. A low level flu I guess from the usual symptoms: nausea, sinus headache, aching joints and sore muscles. Could just be spring and work putting me out of sorts. Also I didn't get to sleep until about 1am for some odd reason. So I just did small, easy jobs in the morning; spraying, pruning, clean-up stuff like that. Finally got my feet under me after lunch and dad and I got many hundreds of feet of barbed wire pulled around the north-western corner of the lower field.

Saw a hawk circling to the southeast this morning and of course the squirrels and turkeys were out in force. The day itself was extremely lovely, warm and cool breezes wafting the intoxicating aroma of plum trees in full bloom across the fields. I'm really feeling a strong imperative to get some beans, squash and melons planted even though it is much too early. Might gamble it anyways what with global warming and all ;-)

Hope you all sleep well and awake refreshed and loving life.

Fog and dew

Low gray blanket covers sky.
Ground is wet, air must cry.
Diamond rainbows wait for sun and eye.

I want to give a special shout-out to my friend Lorna, who has had a rough time this week due to losing a long time friend, amongst other things I'm sure (it never rains but it pours) Keep up the good fight, Lorna.

The Democrat that cried wolf.

As anyone who reads here regularly knows, I am in much disagreement with our President, George W. Bush on many issues. His porous border policy, bad decisions in warfare and generally abrasive political style makes for easy criticism.

But what is going on right now with Harry Reid, Charles Schumer and many other democrats is just embarrassing. I understand how desperately important they feel it is that they win the Whitehouse in 2008. When they resort to smoke screen tactics and blizzards of propaganda it insults the intelligence of the electorate.

Here's just one example of how their current round of misguided alarmism can backfire on them. A huge surge of "controversy" is now centering on the firings of certain U.S. attorneys. Yet this behavior is not new or unique, the last 5 presidents have all done much the same. Pres. Clinton fired All of the attorneys in 1993 in order to avoid investigation into his involvement with the whitewater controversy.

And therein lies the crush; for every example of controversy and corruption the democrats decry they expose their own "Acquille's heel". In the case of controversy it's the firings by attorney general Gonzales. In the case of corruption it's William Jefferson (dem. Louisiana) who took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Jefferson still hasn't been ostracized by his fellow democrats, a tacit approval of his action at best, collusion at worst.

If democrats want to prove to their fellow Americans that they are better than republicans they'd be best served by Being better than republicans.

Boo-hoo, another sunny day

Yesterday I had no time for posting because of tractor work and some truck tune-up I had to do. The sun is a fierce task master and I hate getting all greasy and scraped up working on that big ol' truck.

At least I had a really excellent night's sleep. No torturous nightmares or puzzling dreams (that I recollect) to disturb me.

Today will be much of the same, discing ground at farm #2, some plastic clean-up and herbicide application there too.

Wishing you all a productive and rewarding day.

Political Gumbo

Man! the Drudge report has a swimming stewpot full of whacky stuff today. There's coverage of the prosecutor-firing controversy and on the flip-side, an article from 1993 wherein Janet Reno fired ALL of the prosecutors in the same positions. Fascinating how Charles Schumer didn't have any objections at that time, eh? Then there's an interesting conflict brewing between Russia and Iran over payments for nuclear facilities and to complement that is a totally hilarious objection by an Iranian official over the movie "300" which he claims insults the Persian empire (which has been dead and gone for thousands of years). Hmmm, imagine that, an Iranian feeling insulted. I guess dramatic representations of real historical events are just too much for their sensitive constitutions. To top it all off is an assortment of global warming hysteria. My favorite: Actress Jennifer Garner crying over it. Oh, weep, weep those crocodile tears while you ride in your limousine to your 3 million dollar mansion built on top of once sensitive desert ecology.

The media's representation of our human world is one big freakin' joke. I'm so grateful to my friends, family and other community members like the ladies at the library and bank who remind me that there is a real human world full of subtle, wonderful people.

A delightful evening to you all.

No rain- busy, busy

Setting up tables in and moving transplants to the big greenhouse today. Then fencing, fencing, fencing. Mostly putting up the top 2 barbwire segments on the long stretches today. Spring less than 10 days away, oh my!

Have a great day.

Wildlife

First is this awesome hawk that flew over. Darn camera almost didn't get the shot. Then is these two spectacular tom turkeys and the unusual white turkey which showed up this year.

Foggy morning

The fog lies low and heavy across the fields turning the big oak tree in front of the house into a gnarled and skeletal visage.

The palpable greyness fits my mood perfectly. Uniform and almost blank except for a faint and subtle movement. Especially after last nights euphoria of visiting with all our local family up north near the little town of Glendale.

The aunts and uncles from Mississippi had their first chance to meet my nieces and grand-nieces and the evening was a delight for all. Mom and Sis and my niece Charley all out did themselves in the cooking department. My niece's chicken enchiladas I found particularly scrumptious.

Today is supposed to clear off and get sunny which will be nice for our visitors as they head back to Eugene after lunch to re-board the train.

Wishing you a day of refreshing adventures and joyful surprises.

Turkey morning

Lovely sunlight and thin puffy clouds out there this morning.

Just got through feeding the turkeys some corn we saved from last year's sweet corn crop. It's dry and hanging in the shop. The crunchy feeling of shelling it off the cob is sort of trippy, it hangs with my for a while- a ghost of sensation in my hands. Body memory.

The turkeys are gorgeous with iridescence in this morning's sun. Bronze and green and orange ripple and cascade across their backs especially the brave one that likes to get the kernels that sporadically drops at my feet. The others chase the corn I throw in the field and fight amongst themselves but this wise one has a found an easy meal.

A fine Sunday to you and yours.

Family night

After a day of contemplation and chores we just got finished with a delightful evening of visiting with my uncles Arnold and Bill and their wives Orma and Betty. Talking about their train trip from Mississippi, agricultural practices on their farms (catfish) and those of my cousins (grains, chickens, cattle, etc.). Discussions ranging from biofuels, politics, to the Katrina disaster in the gulf states. Really all sorts of stuff, too much to recollect it all here.

Today's wildlife: 2 squirrels, 2 tom turkeys and some crows plus the usual flock of finches, juncos, sparrows, chickadees, blue jays, and tit-mouses.

Wishing you each and all a wonderful evening.

Another busy day

Just scrambling with clean-up details still. Some rain, some sun today but I was too busy to look for rainbows.

The buds are starting to swell on the fruit trees so I'll have to gear up for spraying again soon.

Got a bunch of interesting books on alchemy from the library while I still can, oh and one by John Stossel; he's funny and makes you think.

So many interesting things happening in the world right now. Reprap has been making some great progress in the last few weeks. I'm not gonna dive into the politics except to say it still blows my mind that illegals are driving armored vehicles full of dope across the southern border and no one in our government seems to care.

Hope everyone's day is going peachy-keen.

Busy, busy

Ungh, numerous aches and pains. Spent the day doing a lot of stooping and hauling so many sore muscles in unusual places.

Lots of stupid stuff happening in the political world and the media but I'm too tired and sore to care. They can all go hang.

Hope your day or night is full of comfort and happiness.

A day of flame and smoke

Torched off lots of debris today. Also finally managed to get the fence line spraying done, should help keep down the weeds for a while.

Rain is supposed to come in tonight, nice change of pace. Although I have really enjoyed the sun and sky. With the big greenhouse up and cleaned out rain will be no impediment to work.

Have a fine and restful night or a fine and active day, which ever is appropriate.

Sunny monday

Long day, hard work, back hurts.

Nighty night, sleep tight.

Sunday even'

Got the greenhouse up and running, sorry no time to get pics.

Was a lovely day. Some sun, some clouds. It was a burn day so I had lots of fun setting the torch to things and just generally cleaning up. The first couple of trays of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and etc. are doing well. We'll buy some earlier stuff from Greenleaf Industries next week to get the jump on the season and then switch to our own plants when they reach size.

Well, I'm sleepy so I will wish you all a fine and feathery night and get on with my evening.

For the ladies

Found this at Sandmonkey, typical stupid web-meme vanity virus thing. But funny....

Guy's Name Is Too Too Sexy! :) Your name scored 209 in the "How Sexy Is Your Name Test"

How Sexy Is Your Name?

Sunday working

Trying to get the big greenhouse back up again but now the inlet hole has filled with water for some reason. So I either have to move the inflation fan to one of the other (outlet) ports or I have to come up with some way to drain the inlet. Started digging some trenches that will help keep any future rains out of the inlet but still have to come up with something more affective than bailing out the inlet which will only work temporarily. Thinking seriously of just buying a big extension cord and moving the fan; might be easier.

An easier and more rewarding Sunday to you.

Sunny=busy

Just some big patches of fog and cloud left up there. Lots of sun already flooding across the farm, so this'll be a short post. If I get a chance I'll put up a pic of the cool looking snow patches up on Mt. Fielder.

Hope your day is as light-full as mine.

Health Care

Rae Ann had some interesting things to say about universal health care in America in this post. Which has really had me thinking about a lot of the problems people face.

I got to talking with my dad specifically about the health care issue and right in the middle of our conversation an Aricept commercial came on tv. Yeah, it's great for alzheimers if you don't mind risking internal bleeding. My dad summed the whole conversation up like this:

"The medical and pharmacy system in America is like taking your car to the mechanic because you've noticed a knocking in the engine. The mechanic says 'yeah, we can fix that' and then he sells you a pair of ear plugs."

0% Unemployment?

An article at TCS Daily points out something I've been asking for years. Why is it necessary to have such high unemployment rates in America? Alan Greenspan kept commenting on the link between labor and inflation, especially through the 90s and I always thought "this dude is so out of touch, automation and computers readily absorb far more cost than is imposed by higher earning rates."

The article goes on to point out that this is even more true today with the outsourcing of labor to other countries that goes on. Inflation is no longer intimately tied to labor costs. Therefore, every American should be able to get a higher paying job; even those kids flipping burgers should get paid more.

Snow covered mountains

Wow! the valley is so beautiful today. The snow has melted a tiny bit off the hills bringing out just enough contrasting color. Not that it wasn't all really glorious in the fresh fallen snow but I guess every day is wonderful if you just look for the wonder.

Had a delightful breakfast with my friend Del this morning. If you're ever in Grants Pass, do yourself a favor and head down to the Powederhorn Cafe on 6th street. They have some really good biscuits and gravy and if you're there for lunch their pies are to die for.

Well, gotta go get back to work cleaning up in the barn. My uncles Arnold and Bill will be stopping by for a visit around the 10th of March and it isn't that I want to put up any sort of false front or anything, but it's a good excuse for getting some long standing maintenance jobs finished.

Hope your day is lovely.

2000+ words about snow

Here's dad clearing the snow from the carport:

A merry ol' prankster

Here is a delightful article about Stewart Brand who used to tour with the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead and who ran the Whole Earth catalog and helped to setup The WELL.

Oscars destroy life on earth

Can you imagine how much "greenhouse gas" was released transporting all those people to the oscar awards ceremony last night? How many CFCs were released manufacturing and dry cleaning their dresses and tuxedos? Oh, but they're going to save the rest of us from ourselves.

I am a trained scientist and I can tell you how to save mother earth, if each person will just send me 19.95$.

It's worth a try; if people are gullible enough to call Algore's scifi movie a documentary they'll believe just about anything.

3:10 am lightly snowing

Al Gore should do the planet a favor and hang himself; that much less hot air in the world.

Just got through clearing a couple inches of snow off all our "soft" out buildings like the small greenhouse. Fired up the computer to check the weather images. Imagine my cursing when I saw several more hours of rough weather coming.

Got go see if I can get a couple more hours of sleep before getting up and doing it again.

Happiness in the face of adversity.

Global warming my ass

Spring is only 26 days away and it's snowing here again. Cold, blustery weather plagues the entire country. I don't see evidence of any global warming much less anthropogenic global warming. The Greenland iceshelf slowed its retreat for the last couple years and India's glaciers are untouched. Global warming is a farce and it saddens me to witness how gullible my countrymen are to buy into it.

snow and rain

The mountains surrounding our little farm are decorated with an abundance of snow. The stark white texture sends a chill down my spine. The air has that sharp, sweet sort of metallicy smell which tells me the rain which is falling here has melted from the snow that is falling above on its way down into this warmer air. So glad to be inside, dry and warm on this Sunday morning.

I had a rough time sleeping last night, only one seriously weird dream about werewolves a strange river in a bed of black stone and the house I lived in when I was 14 out near Hugo.

Breakfast pizza is rapidly restoring my inner balance though, so I shouldn't have any trouble recovering from a spotty night's sleep.

Keep dry and be happy.

Codex Hammurabi

Wikisource has the Codex Hammurabi! This is the oldest written law known to mankind. As such it holds precedence over all that follows it. I especially like this one:

5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.

#1 answerer of questions

This fella is amusing, check out his blog.

Great quotes

Hope you are having a happy day.

My friend, Del, pointed out these great quotes. I hope they delight you and make you think, for they are good thoughts.

Politics and causes of death

Near the end of last year's sales season I had a couple of democrat customers show up who were lividly George Bush haters. Now, I don't agree with many of GW's policies, especially his immigration policy, but I don't hate the man. However, my discussion with those customers was a learning opportunity. They were singularly focused on the war in Iraq and the loss of our soldier's lives as the cause of their hatred. At the time I remember being subdued in my responses, because I couldn't find any perspective relative to their's.

However, now a recent article has enlightened me. It turns out that more American are killed every year by illegal aliens than soldiers have been killed in the entire Iraq war.

Not that this is a big surprise, after all violent crime in America isn't exactly absent. Our soldiers are probably as safe in Iraq as they would be in many American urban centers. However, the fact points out an inconsistency. If we are to be outraged over the loss of our soldier's lives in Iraq, shouldn't we be more outraged over the needless loss of our citizen's lives here at home? If it is so important for our democratic congress to stop the war in Iraq, shouldn't it be even more important for them to stop the killings here, in our own streets and homes?

Once more we see that government has lost the trail of doing what is right for those they govern.

Floor space

Am reveling in new open floor space that has come about as we've hauled away several loads of junk from the barns, shop and greenhouses.

Mt. Fielder is wearing a cap of snow although most of it around here has melted away.

Gonna go to sleep early tonight as I'm sort of tired. Apparently driving to Medford twice in one day is more taxing than it seems. Was fascinated by the enormous variety of trash that ends up in a landfill transfer station. We dropped a lot of stuff in the recycles, newspaper, assorted plastic, aluminum etc. But had half a truck of mixed junk/trash and when we dropped off our garbage there was so much construction waste and weird scraps laying in there. One dump truck was completely full of dry-wall. Yoiks! I thought, that's pure gypsum; I could've used that on my soil. Oh well, that ol' saw about one man's treasure.

About 28 days until spring, how strange to feel winter winding down like this.

Hope your day has been pleasant.

Condor journalism

Sometimes my dad can be so freakin' funny.

You know how there's all this damned news coverage about Anna Nicole Smith on the big media channels? My dad says "They've got their big ol' twelve foot wingspan spread out and are floatin' on hot air just looking for a dead body."

With full respect to her family, I wish someone would tell the media that this isn't the great big whoopin' crane of a story they want us to think it is. Nobody out here in peon land cares! Leave us go on to something that is actually NEWs.

Blogger sentenced to 4 years for being honest

A fellow blogger has been sentenced to four years in prison for speaking his mind.

out! out! darn snow

We've had about three inches of snow fall since last night. Got up around 2:30 am and raked off the greenhouse, carport etc. had to let the big greenhouse down again.

So as you can imagine, I'm grumpy today. The brunch burrito I just got through eating is cheering me up a little, however.

The snow continues to fall and melt. Although we've had several inches come down only an inch or so has accumulated. It is very squishy out there.

Hoping any squishiness you encounter today is fun squishiness.

Storm mess

Evil lookin' clouds come down out of the west as I drove home from the library.

It's starting to rain now.

Big mess in my barn from cleaning up; from chaos, order?

Dad and mom and I been talkin' about this maybe being our last year of farming. All our backs are achin' and the times been a-takin' their toll. Leaves me feeling really weird, the future uncertain, as it has always been, but now uncertainty more starkly lit.

Gotta get back out to the barn, it's a burn day and the fire will go well with this storm.

Hope your day is warm and dry.

The Purge

Spent today getting into the massive grind of a full scale clean-up. Borrowed my brother's truck while he's away in Idaho on a welding gig, put side racks on it and started a process of "survival of the fittest" that is, whatever we can't fit in the truck will survive ;-)

This weird changing weather is giving me aches and pains. I've been grumpy and jumpy all day. Supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. When we're done with the run to the dump I'm gonna spray the fence lines between showers if I can summon the courage.

Hope your day has gone/will go smoothly.

lazy Sunday

wonderful sunny day

Only 30 more until spring. I can feel the pressure starting to build and already my back hurts. Gonna have to start doing sit-ups again.

Today was a burn day in Jackson county. Hooray! Or as Beavis would say, "Fire! Fire!"
Torched off a huge mound of old cardboard and crate scraps and another big pile of grape and blackberry trimmings from last year. The jets of flame and pillars of smoke were glorious. Al Gore $h!t a brick as we rocketed past our "carbon cap". Three cheers for global warming, I can't wait until I can grow pineapple here.

No important animal sightings today although my black cat did come down and visit me in the field as I sat meditating besides the last smoldering embers of the blackberry pile. I could hear one of the turkeys, probably that ol' Tom chortling somewhere up the hill. I got into one of those still, peaceful states of mind wherein you can almost see the shadows moving, the plants growing.

Wishing you that same peace.

Suicidal congressmen

Henry Waxman (D-California) stood on the floor of the House of Representatives today and firmly tied a noose around the neck of every American. "What we now have in Iraq is a defeat." he said. What he was saying to our enemies was "We're a bunch of cowards, would you please come and kill more of us." Count on it my fellow Americans, just as it was in a Salt Lake City Mall so shall it be everywhere. Our brave new democrats are making sure that we have all the rope we need.

John Dvorak on politics and blogs

I have enjoyed reading John Dvorak's writing since an article way back in "80 micro" magazine (a Trs-80 sort of precursor to PC magazine back in the early 80s) He has an interesting article about why politicians will try and fail to corrupt the blogosphere in the upcoming 2008 election. I agree with his assessment: this should be, if not hilarious, at least worth quite a few giggles.

awful night

Glad to be up and about. Little sleep and poor.

Had several vicious nightmares last night. Strangely, woke up feeling rather detached and even indifferent. The silver lining was that I loitered part of the night away watching the Annanberg CPB show about sedimentary rocks and then the one on metamorphic rocks. The perfect antidote to macabre machinations of the dark.

My back got quite sore from all the pruning I did yesterday. Over half the apple trees are finished now and I'll probably finish the last yellow delicious today and start on the biggest tree in the middle of the orchard tomorrow.

There are now 19 wild turkeys grazing on our farm. They rushed me as I came out of the barn this morning, that was kinda scary. The one big ol' Tom has a beard about 9 inches long and the most spectacular bronze colors on his feathers. I quick grabbed a couple of dried corn cobs we saved from last season and broke them out some feed. It's things like that which always makes me laugh at the environmentalist's rhetoric against the farmer. Farms make more wildlife than those idiots could ever comprehend. But they're always railing against us and our fertilizer run-off and pesticides. As if any farmer still in business would waste fertilizer or pesticide so as to create run-off. Duh! Somebody tell them it ain't the '50s anymore.

Have a great and restful day.

A lovely late winter day

Started the day with a hearty breakfast at the Powderhorn Cafe in downtown Grant's Pass, thanks to my fine friend Del for the food and good company. Gave Del a little help with his computer and then made my way home through an assortment of errands for mom.

Got home and slacked for a while, reading etc. while the last few showers passed. Then finally got out and started pruning in the apple trees. That's pretty much all I've gotten done today, what a bum!

Last night I had a few interesting dreams. An ominously rumbling flying saucer covered most of the sky as I rode the lawnmower down the driveway. The funny part was upon awakening I realized that the "flying saucer" looked like the bottom of my dad's 8mm film projector which he had taken off for repairs. Even in my dreams UFOs are fake.

I've been reading Dinesh D'souza's book "The virtue of prosperity" which I have found interesting. Mr. D'souza seems to have the interesting distinction of offending both far left and far right sensibilities. Look him up on the web and you will find fevered attacks upon him from both camps. Sort of delights me; he must be saying many truths if diametrically opposed people dislike him. I find him thoughtful, thorough and insightful. His critics seem to be shallow and closed minded. The truth hurts they say and apparently Mr. D'souza is something of a mental sadist.

Wishing you all a thoughtful and insightful day.

Valentine's Day

I wonder how many people "celebrating" this holiday are aware that it is dedicated to a man who was killed for marrying people against church policy.

Taoism teaches that the universe is composed of complementary opposites. I've always figured that somewhere, somewhen, someone out there was a nice lady who is/was/will be my compliment. Despite the impossibility and futility of the thought, I'd like to wish her a happy Valentine's day. Sorry no chocolate, neither of us needs the calories ;-)

As for the rest of you, I wish you happiness and contentment in your hearts.

Off topic- Utah gunman was muslim

I normally try to keep this blog centered on my farming and events around this local area but I've been so disgusted by the mainstream media and government's cover-up efforts that I just had to post something here.

Over at Hyscience is a whole collection of links pointing to the fact that the shooter at that mall in Salt Lake City was a muslim carrying out his own personal violent jihad.

Sorry to post such downer stuff here but sometimes these things are necessary.

A lovely day

Spring has made its first influences known. Today was a sublimely delightful day. The sun radiated from between clouds of ominous color and shadow. The verdant hillsides seemed to ripple with a strange new strength. It was almost a buzz just being out working beneath the open sky again.

We got the big greenhouse blown back up and all was well. Some minor holes were punched in the plastic but no serious harm done. So nice to have that big, warm space ready again. And we got the northern section of deer fence up too. So all things considered a pretty good day.

Hope your day is/was/will be just as productive and happified ;-)

Cloudy work day

No significant dreams to report, only one fragment of one where I was trying to jump across the driveway which was covered in ice or running water. No idea what that was all about.

Done with my tea and crumpet. Just gotta get on my work shoes now.

Should be a good one for work today. Supposed to be partly cloudy today so blowing up the greenhouse this morning will be nice.

An interesting side note, D-wave devices is supposed to be demonstrating the world's first 16 qbit quantum computer today. If true that is a dramatic jump in our ability to use quantum mechanics for computing. I'll be keeping my eye on developments and will try to keep you apprised.

Have a great day.

Twilight weirdness

Just after having dinner with mom and dad in the main house I was trudging out to my barn with laundry. It was dark and raining and I had left my jacket outside. In the distance, to the west, a murder of crows was cawing a ruckus chorus of crow laughter. The bastards! they couldn't see me but they knew I was getting wet while they were safely tucked away beneath limbs and branches.

Oh well. I guess crows need a little humor now and then too.

The last few nights I've had intense and portentous dreams which leave me with rich and delightful after thoughts so I am looking forward to tonight's episodes. If you read this before Tuesday morning perhaps my mind will draw upon your consciousness to form new and interesting reflections.

Good night and good dreams.

Gordon Smith on Cspan2

We've been listening raptly to a rather in-depth speech by our good senator Gordon Smith detailing the betrayal of Oregon by our federal government. This is part of the egregious program of social diminishment started by president Clinton that has led to the upcoming closing of all libraries in southern Oregon as well as the extreme reduction of all other government services: road maintenance, police, fire protection, etc. etc.

If you have a chance to catch it now, it is quite revealing. Otherwise I think you can get it from the Cspan website or catch it on re-run.

Back to work

Not much rain today so it'll be back to work for me. My two month long weekend is just about over with, the next few weeks are gonna be sort of like getting ready for work Monday morning. Getting your socks on, warming up the car, packing your bag lunch etc. as we put together all the stuff we need. Seed orders have to go in, the greenhouses have to go up. I'll start setting my alarm a little earlier each morning. If we have 3 or 4 dry days in a row we'll start plowing and finish the deer fence.

My only regret is that I didn't get the fractal scanning software I was working on with Paul finished before this winter was over. Always nice to have the loose ends tied up before changing gears, if you don't mind a mixed metaphor. Oh well, just something to putter around with until next winter.

Wishing you all a productive and rewarding day.

Pat Sajak freakin' rocks

No wonder Ed Grimley liked him so much...

The Big Thaw, Part 3

The Broken Pipes Variance.

It took three days for the ground to thaw enough for water to finally flow again in my barn. Today the true consequence revealed itself in a small fountain of water in the driveway. So we shut the water off to my barn at the well and I started digging between rain showers. It's this sort of thing that taxes a guy. Instead of working on getting the last ropes across the greenhouse I'm fudging around with mud and muck.

The crows have been making fun of me all day. They must have seen this coming.

Wishing you all a day free of broken things.

Rain !?

Every forecast I could find yesterday had today just partly cloudy with the rains coming in way late today. But this morning it is just pouring down out there. So much for getting the big greenhouse back up today. Darn!

Couldn't sleep well last night so I sat up reading some "Dresden Files" the books are much better than the shows and the shows are pretty darn good. Consequence of late night reading: weird fragmented dreams. Which is sometimes better than weird coherent dreams.

Here in the basement, cocooned by the soft sussuration of rainsong, I can momentarily feel safe and warm. The world's mad dash towards god-only-knows-what is attenuated and my heart rests easy. For now.

Wishing you a warm, fuzzy and delightful day.

I like this

Hey, I found another great blog. A bit preachy and politicy but also some great clear thinking, enjoy.

Song of the wind

Today was a fine day beneath the clouds and blue sky. The sun played hide-and-seek all day. Another hawk came by a little after noon. She screamed that high pitched screech from very high in the sky. The thermals must have been great for riding around today. She wasn't a red-tail, her color was all white and gray pinions from below. Still beautiful.

The wind sang to me quite a bit today. Often I noticed her voice like some long forgotten friend. Even before the day started, right after I woke up I thought I heard someone calling my name, but I was alone.

Dad and I got the rest of the fence posts on the north side of the field driven in today and then we hooked up the terracer and dad plowed the dirt back into the greenhouse trench. If the rain holds off until tomorrow evening as it is supposed to we will finally have the big greenhouse back up and running.

Hope you all have a fine and happy day.

The voice of rain

As I was walking in the rain today I listened to the voice of rain upon my umbrella. It whispered to me of far away and secret things. The clouds swirled and mist flowed across the top of Mount Fielder. I breathed deep the faint aromas of winter. The air was clean, pure. The smells were faint ghosts, echoes of summer lawn mowing and watermelon seed spitting. Pines battered by the wind gave up a perfume of different memories.

The road had become packed by the few days of warmer weather before the rains came. After the frost it was loose and smooshy, thank goodness the rains held off a couple days. As it is, only a little sand and clay has washed to the bend in the driveway where dad and I cut a waterbar diverting the rivulet beneath the redwood trees.

We didn't get the greenhouse up before the rains returned but we got everything ready for the first good day. All we have left is to drive the tractor along the south side to bury that edge and pack it down and to tie off a few more retaining ropes. Then we will turn on the fan and return to our 140 by 35 feet of glorious artificial spring.

Yesterday morning when mom, dad and I took Sparky for a walk there was a gorgeous red tail hawk riding a thermal rising from our neighbors pasture. When we first saw him he was only about a hundred feet off the ground but in only a short while he ascended on spirals of sun and air to almost vanish in the blue sky. Then, just before he was too high to see, he dove out of the thermal and sped away to the southwest.

Free speech continues its descent

Along with Ted Kulongoski suppressing the free speech in Oregon, now 5 students have been fired from their positions on Long Island Collage campus for expressing themselves. Admittedly their video might have been in bad taste ( although the protest of muslims seems a bit ironic ) but they are still entitled to their opinion in this country.

Orblogs not so bad

I was forming the perhaps mistaken opinion that Orblogs was a liberal dominated oppressor of free speech but they've uplifted my faith in their service by highlighting Mover Mike's very interesting blog in their "popular" section.

Global worming

My state's gots worms and its name is "Ted Kulongoski"

My misuse of english in that sentence is no worse than the misuse of science which is currently going on in the Oregon state capital. It seems the King governor of Oregon, Turd Kulongoski, has decided to fire our state climatologist because he wants to be scientifically accurate and professional.

It is interesting to note that one of Canada's top climatologists had this to say on the subject of global warming. Or as the Sunday Telegram put it in yesterday's Grants Pass Daily Courier:



Now don't get me wrong, I'm totally in favor of reducing emissions and getting off the use of petroleum. But lying to the public about scientific inquiry is not the way to do it.

The Great Thaw, part 2

It's really getting nice out there. Almost all the snow is gone and the puddles have even begun to drain away. Quite a bit of the earth is still frozen but dad and I are thinking that the 2 main fields up here on the hill might actually get dry enough to run a disk over them by Tuesday. That would be so glorious, to smell fresh turned soil again. I just can't hardly wait. If all goes well I might be planting peas by this time next week. I'm getting giddy!

Hope you all are doing well and happy with life's little vicissitudes.

Mark (up) of the beast

Quite literally. I've been chilled and disgusted to find that once again our so-called government has instituted a pogrom of heinous proportions. I don't normally write about these sorts of things, but since this one directly pertains to farming I felt it appropriate.

There is a federal mandate to place RFID tags in all livestock in the United States. The program is called "NAIS" and will be paid for by the individual livestock owners. This includes you even if you just own one chicken or anything else that can be construed as livestock. This even extends to many pets due to the way the law is written.

This is another hidden law passed in the dark of night the only purpose of which is to help the government to control our food supply. Since the tag database is not available to farmers, scientists or anyone else but government officials it can serve no useful purpose. It is only to track the dollar value and location of the entire livestock supply of America.

More details here. We're one step closer to that horrible and inhuman scenario that everyone senses but refuses to think about.

The big thaw

Finally! After about a month of frozen conditions the weather has began to change. I could tell right off this morning when my wisdom teeth started to ache like someone was twisting them with a ratchet. That always means the air pressure is dropping. In most parts of the world an air pressure drop coincides with a temperature drop but around here it means a new front is moving in off the coast and that is usually accompanied with moisture and a more energetic air mass. Consequently in winter it often brings an actual increase in average temps.

The snow has started turning to slush in the driveway and is generally diminishing everywhere else although much of the surrounding soil is still hard frozen. Hopefully these conditions will sustain for enough days for the entire mass to thaw out. Then I can really get back to work.

Despite the agony of my wisdom teeth/sinuses I am overjoyed at this change. I'll see if I can find some herbal remedy to help with the transition and if nothing else is available there's always naproxen sodium.

Hope you all have as fine and more comfortable a day.

Some good reading

Charles Krauthammer is an excellent writer and makes some very thoughtful and significant points in this piece about who's to blame for the chaos in Iraq.

The Dangers of insomnia-Mooninite mania

For quite a number of years I have been struck with minor boughts of mid-night insomnia. Consequently I often sit up at 2 or 3 am in the morning and watch the Cartoon Network's AdultSwim block of "edutainment" especially the now notorious Aqua Teen Hunger Force which recently shut down Boston.

I've been checking out many other blogs this morning and laughing my butt off. I just can't help myself, I know I should be sympathetic, concerned and patriotic but I just can't get past what a bunch of asses the Boston authorities are being about this.

We live in a dangerous world wherein a drawing of muhamud can invoke riots and mooninites can bring an entire city grinding to a halt. What artwork must we fear next? Will the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David go on a killing spree? Are we all doomed to be memetically infected by the Andy Warhol soup can pandemic?

Let's all take a moment to laugh at ourselves; life is short and we need the exercise.

Canary in the coal mine.

Or maybe a candle in the wind.

It's official, our neighboring county of Josephine will be closing its libraries soon. And the Jackson county libraries may be following them shortly into oblivion.

These are the signs of chaos folks.

We've got a government that has flushed 500 billion dollars down the toilet of Iraq (some of which has gone to pay for weapons used to kill our own soldiers no doubt) and to add insult to injury now we have a congress dedicated to stopping our last chance to win in Iraq. The democrats are selling us out to special interests and the republicans are selling us out to big business. Neither party is interested in representing the well being of the run-of-the-mill American.

We've got enough geothermal energy to provide almost 100% of our electricity needs for 400 years but is anyone in government or business interested in pursuing that? No, just give us the status quo, never mind killing the price of oil and stopping our enemies dead in their financial tracks.

In Boston they're jumping at shadows, a couple of 1 foot square plastic placards shut down the entire city. But do any of them care that the southern boarder is more porous than cheese cloth? Heck no we need all that cheap illegal slave labor. Meanwhile millions of Americans are out of work and millions more are also homeless.

Chaos abounds. Tiamat's eye shutters open and Ctullu heaves a deep sigh of contentment while Kingu, Hubol and a thousand other bloody gods stir the cauldron of discontent. Human flesh is their favorite meat and bones burn to heat the stew.

Ok, I admit I'm being melodramatic. But come on people, does any of the stuff that's happening in this world today make sense?

Another lovely day of frustration

The sun is bright and warm, the air sweet with a gentle winter breeze. The ground is frozen hard like the heart of a vicious frost giant. Lovely crystals of ice decorate the driveway and orchards and I hate it.

The beauty is wonderful but it is just killing my ability to get done the serious jobs I have to do. And I'm sick and tired of spinning my wheels with make-work and trivial chores. It's too frozen to work on the equipment and even pruning is difficult with 2 inches of hoar-frost to contend with.

Sorry to be whiny like that, I sometimes forget how wonderful a life I have and what great luck to live in this land of freedom and choice. It is kinda funny and ironic though that things can be simultaneously so great and also so irritating.

Wishing you all a smoother and more melodious day.