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.