As the month of February draws to a close it sounds like our winter drought is also coming to a close. Last week we got 3 or 4 inches of snowfall, the first I needed to plow for the season. Last night a band of snow just missed us to the north by about 40 miles where they got several inches of the “white plague”.
Now the National Weather Service (NOA) is saying we have another storm coming from Tuesday into Wednesday. This one they have upgraded from a “Winter Storm” to a “Blizzard” warning. I am not certain where they get the “blizzard” business from, I assume it takes into account strong winds verses simply heavy snow. According to what they predict now, we sit right in the middle of the road on this one, but I see the possibility (being the weather expert I am J ) that this storm could pass just to the south of us and we “might” be spared the worst of it. Then again, we might get “hammered”!
MN is known for winter weather, but the truth is we rarely get over a foot of snowfall in one storm. That “pleasure” is reserved for those who live along the great lakes where they can get several feet of snow in one storm, or those out west in the mountains who get a similar burial when the conditions are right. From what I heard tonight they are talking a total of around 15 inches for our area between Tuesday and Wednesday. I have a hard time believing that, I don’t know why, other than we have had it so easy this winter we are “off guard” and don’t really expect it.
Traditionally March is the snowiest month of the year in our state. While the “old country” where I grew up (Ohio) is thinking of spring and beginning to have spring rains, in MN we don’t dare hope for spring until after mid-April. In fact, the worst snowstorm in my recent memory was in April a couple or three years ago. I remember it so well because it came with a double hit. That is when we get 8 or 10 inches of snow one day and two days later repeat the process. While trying to dig out of the first wave, the clutch went out of my tractor, so I was ‘up the creek’ when the 2nd storm hit two days later. That time I managed to get our old snow-blower running enough to get a path to the road open, but had to wait until the tractor was repaired to get the place properly cleaned up.
What makes our situation more difficult for snow removal is that we need more than just a open trail to the road. Having my lumber business here requires that I keep a lot of area open and cleaned up in order to operate properly. Such are the consequences of having a small one man business in the great state of MN.
Speaking of our great state. Last week I got a visit from our county “Conservation and Land Management” people. I used to think that the USA was a “free country” and “personal property rights” was a foundation of a free society. Property rights might still be the foundation of a free people, but we are only deceiving ourselves if we think this applies to the state of MN and I am assuming other states are not a lot different.
The strange part about this visit was that the two gentlemen that got out of the county car and came to my door, one with a camera in his hands, were not in the least bit interested in me or my property when they found out that I was not Amish. This farm used to belong to an Amish family before we bought it, so they assumed it still did. Never mind that they parked right beside my electric pole, something you won’t find at an Amish house, and I met them outside the back door dressed like anything but an Amish. They still ask me if I belonged to the local Amish community. I told them no, then they wanted to know if I ran a sawmill “too”, as if everyone that had some lumber setting around must run a sawmill. I did not bother to explain to them that I did have a small sawmill in one of my sheds, but since my business is not running a sawmill, I figured this was none of their business.
I explained to them that I kiln dry lumber, which would explain my piles of lumber they could plainly see. I did not want to pry into their business with the Amish anymore than I wanted them to pry into my business, but I could not help wondering why they would approach what they thought to be an Amish residence with a camera in their hands. By way of explanation, Amish do not want their picture taken, by anyone. It is one of those things that is hard for the rest of us to understand, like a lot of their ways. I do understand some of their thinking since I deal with a lot of them on a regular basis, but when people press me to explain why Amish think they way they do I am hard pressed to get a coherent explanation, that is because their ‘thinking’ is so foreign to the average person. My general statement is that “you would have to be Amish to understand the way they think”, at least to make any common sense of it.
The Amish and their ways is not the point of this blog post. My point is about the way “government”, all the way from the Feds to the local level has turned American foundational values on its head. There was a time when an American who owned a piece of property could consider that land and its use “sacred” in that the ‘owner’ had the full right to use and live on his land ever how he wanted to. But, as it commonly the ‘excuse’, in the name of “protecting the public” the government now takes the liberty to not only confiscate your property if they want to, for the greater good of course, but they now consider it their “lawful responsibility” to tell me what I can do with my property, where, or if, I can build an outbuilding, how big that building can be and they consider it their ‘sacred right’ to know everything I do with or on my small chunk of the “American Dream”.
Finally, these county fellows happen to mention what they were looking for, at least what they “said” they were doing. They were looking for any place that had more than one residence. Many of the Amish, (all the ones I know of) do not take social security from the government, when they get too old to earn enough money to live on, some of their family will build them a house next door so they can assist them in their old age. Our “dictators” evidently don’t like that some parts of our society choose to care for their older family members in this manner. So they have passed ‘zoning laws’ and one of those limit how many residential houses can be on a piece of property.
What bothers me is this. Many ‘normal people’ don’t understand the Amish ways and can’t figure out how the Amish think because they chose to live in a way that was “normal” a couple hundred years ago, without electricity etc. But the part that I can’t figure out is: “Who gave the government the ‘right’ to dictate to me or anyone else, that one cannot have more than one dwelling on their own piece of property? Our government is bankrupt, are they wanting mom & pop to move to town where the bankrupt government can care for them? Or is it that they just simply are desperate for money and want to ‘extort’ some from the Amish because they know most Amish would rather pay for whatever “permits” they are forced to purchase than be at odds with the local government?
I am hard pressed to know the answer. I only know what I have observed over the last year or two. Last summer the Amish had a co-op set up in our nearest village. Here they sold farm produce like eggs, jams etc. Right around harvest time our county “officials” walked it and shut the co-op down, saying they did not have the proper “permits” to sale produce. The same produce that I can buy off the back of a pick-up truck parked along side the road. I don’t always understand how Amish ‘think’, but for the life of me, I can’t understand how our government thinks either. It seems they are doggedly determined to undermine every traditional way for people to earn money from their small farms or land. While at the same time, this government is bankrupt! One would think that local, state and federal leaders would try to help people earn what little money they could by whatever honest means they could, but no, we have reached the point when for whatever convoluted reasoning the ‘dictators’ use, they are taking away all commonly understood rights of normal American people. But if you happen to have ‘slipped’ across the border into Texas under the wire, our beloved government will give you free medical care and a college education! Something is upside down folks.
Such are the thoughts of Ernie’s World.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Grandchildren
Ernie’s World has been quiet for awhile. That is because I have been very busy or just don’t have much to say. That was until I just got done spending 3 days with my grandson! What a joy that was. He is about 15 months old and I had not seen him since around late October. They sure grow fast at this stage in their young lives! His parents dropped him off and went on a fishing trip.
Back in October he was quite clumsy as he was learning to walk, now he is a fast little fellow. Since most of the “work” falls on grandma, that leaves the ‘fun’ up to me. Only those who have grandchildren can understand how much joy it is too look into those eyes and realize that this person is your 2nd generation offspring. Then see the pure excitement about life and learning there is in the young ones, something that we older folks have forgotten about.
I am sure all grandparents feel the same about their grandchildren. But this is the first for us and the first “boy” descendent that I have. In my mind that makes it even more special. We have two daughters who have brought great joy and excitement to our lives. A boy is a different critter altogether. Grandma said that while I was plowing snow, the young fellow watched the tractor with awe and did not want to leave the window as long as I was in sight. He likes machines, tools and anything that looks like it is mechanical. Girls have their own charm, but to watch a young boy study everything in sight, to see how it is put together is something I never noticed either of my girls doing.
We had a small plastic sliding board set up in the house for him to play on. On one side there was a plastic cap that was lose from a bolt, he worked time and again at trying to get that thing to go over the bolt head where he was certain it was suppose to be, but being broke it would not stay, but I don’t know at the times I saw him working at that thing, as if he was determined to fix it.
Yea, there is nothing like a grandchild to perk up ones interest in small children. Every small child has a grandparent somewhere who thinks the world of them, at least I hope they do. I know where there is one little fellow who does.
One more thing. How should I explain this so as not to overstate the case? We all know toddlers can be “notional”, even when it makes no sense. But the little fellow sure made grandpa feel “special” when we went to meet his parents to take him back home. I got him out of his car seat and took him to his mother. The little bugger pulled away from his ma and clung to my neck! After not seeing her for 3 days! How funny is that? Even knowing it was just the ‘notion’ of the moment made grandpa feel good. J
Back in October he was quite clumsy as he was learning to walk, now he is a fast little fellow. Since most of the “work” falls on grandma, that leaves the ‘fun’ up to me. Only those who have grandchildren can understand how much joy it is too look into those eyes and realize that this person is your 2nd generation offspring. Then see the pure excitement about life and learning there is in the young ones, something that we older folks have forgotten about.
I am sure all grandparents feel the same about their grandchildren. But this is the first for us and the first “boy” descendent that I have. In my mind that makes it even more special. We have two daughters who have brought great joy and excitement to our lives. A boy is a different critter altogether. Grandma said that while I was plowing snow, the young fellow watched the tractor with awe and did not want to leave the window as long as I was in sight. He likes machines, tools and anything that looks like it is mechanical. Girls have their own charm, but to watch a young boy study everything in sight, to see how it is put together is something I never noticed either of my girls doing.
We had a small plastic sliding board set up in the house for him to play on. On one side there was a plastic cap that was lose from a bolt, he worked time and again at trying to get that thing to go over the bolt head where he was certain it was suppose to be, but being broke it would not stay, but I don’t know at the times I saw him working at that thing, as if he was determined to fix it.
Yea, there is nothing like a grandchild to perk up ones interest in small children. Every small child has a grandparent somewhere who thinks the world of them, at least I hope they do. I know where there is one little fellow who does.
One more thing. How should I explain this so as not to overstate the case? We all know toddlers can be “notional”, even when it makes no sense. But the little fellow sure made grandpa feel “special” when we went to meet his parents to take him back home. I got him out of his car seat and took him to his mother. The little bugger pulled away from his ma and clung to my neck! After not seeing her for 3 days! How funny is that? Even knowing it was just the ‘notion’ of the moment made grandpa feel good. J
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Slippery Rocks, Tipsy Canoes & Ice Cold Water Don't Mix
Our great MN weather has taken a turn toward the cool side. At least for this mild winter it seems cold at around -10° the last couple mornings, with a nasty wind, as icing on the cake. Still nothing to what most winters are, but some of us are happy for the break. The lack of snow makes me even happier than the warm temperatures. So far we have only had a few inches, I plowed a little bit one time and now the ground is mostly bare. But we have March coming up, which is historically the snowiest month of the winter for us, so we might get a pile yet.
Today as I was going about some work in the shop, I was having some ‘flashbacks’ to days of my childhood and the small farm in southern OH that I grew up on, at least for the most part that is where we lived in my young years. It is a fact, that our young years have a decided affect upon our lives. I am not sure how other people look at these things, but for me, I loved living on a dirt road with very few neighbors and lots of room for a young fellow to roam, without getting into too much trouble. I took to country life like a young duck takes to water. It just came natural, as if instinct told me that my place was outside of cities and villages and near the woods, fields and streams.
Since becoming an adult, I have lived in some fairly large cities for short periods of times, but I was never ‘at home’ in a city or even living in apartments or houses in small towns. I wanted a place as far from neighbors as I could get. Not that I have an un-neighborly attitude toward people, a lot of my desire to live apart comes with some of my ‘hobbies’. Things that make a lot of noise and is bound to disturb some neighbors. Mainly that is with the boom of some of my black-powder rifles or modern deer rifles. I have been a fan of target shooting ever since I was old enough to shoot a BB-gun. I like living in a place that I can shoot when I want to without disturbing a lot of people.
On the little farm where I grew up we were very lucky to have plenty of woods where I went as often as I could escape my mother and just loitered with a single shot .22 or a shotgun. Not that I was always really hunting for game, but that was as good an excuse as any to hang out in the woods. We had a small stream that ran through our farm. On the maps it was called Little Raccoon Creek. A few miles down stream they dammed the stream up and build a reservoir that formed a fair sized lake, for that region. I was in my early teens when they made this lake and remember when they stocked it with fish. They did not allow fishing for 2 years after it was stocked, I tell you that was a long 2 years for a want-to-be fisherman. When you are young, two years is ‘forever’! But it was not against the law to fish in the stream. Most of the year there were not many fish in the stream, but in the spring the suckers would run up the creek to spawn. We made “hay” then!
We had an uncle who like to “gig” for suckers. In MN we would call it “spearing”, but there they used a frog gig to spear the suckers at night. I remember we would take old carbide miner lights as lamps. Then we would wade in shallow water where it would be rippling and there is where we could see the fish as they swam upstream in the shallow water. We carried burlap feed sacks to put our catch in, at times we would get 2 or three sacks of those suckers in a night. I have no ideal if it was ‘legal’ or not, I think it was, but am not certain.
One night I especially remember. We had worked our way upstream and got a few fish, but not very many. It was a cold night in April and I recall that night very well because I got desperate enough to get some fish that I took the chance of standing of a slippery rock over about 3 feet of water. Stream water in April is cold! I found out when my feet slipped out from under me and I went into the water body first. Of course it did me no harm other than a cold dunking and a pleasant memory.
From that night we flash-forward about 20 years. By then we were living in MN at the junction of the Shell and Crow Wing rivers near the village of Huntersville, MN. It was another April and I was in a canoe doing some spring fishing up the Crow Wing river maybe a half mile from our house. The ice was still on the lakes, but the river had been open for a few weeks and I just could not resist ‘casting a line’ with some crappie minnows and a bobber. I had tied my canoe off on a tree that had fallen into the river. The worst part is that I had been having some back problems and did one of those “dumb” things we sometimes do to avoid pain. I had an old lawn chair that I set up in the canoe to sit in while I fished. If you are familiar with canoes you can guess how that was going to turn out. But I had spent a lot of time in a canoe and had never tipped one in all my travels, so I was over-confident you might say.
I had just got comfortable and was ready to bait my hook, so I reached down to pull my minnow bucket up out of the water to get a minnow. I never got it out of the water. As I leaned over in that old style lawn chair it slipped on the bottom of the canoe and before I even knew what happened I had a ‘rude awakening’ in ice cold water.
There was a strong current in the spot I was at and as soon as my head came up out of the river I saw my lawn chair floating downstream. I wonder now why I bothered with it, but I swam out and retrieved the chair before I attempted to get out of that ice water. I suppose I did not want to have to chase the chair down with the canoe and then have to paddle against a very strong current to get back upstream to the house. Not that the chair was of any value, I hate too see “junk” cluttering up a wilderness river and that is what would happen if I just let the thing go.
The funny part to me was that I had a hat on and sun glasses when I went under the water, when I came up from the dunking my hate and sunglasses were still perfectly in place, albeit very wet. I am glad there was no one around with a video camera to film the fool in a lawn chair, in a canoe soon after the ice had left the river. Being fairly young and healthy at the time, and used to the cold, it did not bother me as far as the cold was concerned. The only thing that would have bothered me would have been if there was an eye witness to the event, there was no one around.
There is no moral to these stories, unless you don’t like taking a dip in ice cold water, then I would advise you to stay off slippery rocks and don’t even think of sitting in a canoe with a lawn chair!
What makes one think of such crazy things on a cold winter day?
Today as I was going about some work in the shop, I was having some ‘flashbacks’ to days of my childhood and the small farm in southern OH that I grew up on, at least for the most part that is where we lived in my young years. It is a fact, that our young years have a decided affect upon our lives. I am not sure how other people look at these things, but for me, I loved living on a dirt road with very few neighbors and lots of room for a young fellow to roam, without getting into too much trouble. I took to country life like a young duck takes to water. It just came natural, as if instinct told me that my place was outside of cities and villages and near the woods, fields and streams.
Since becoming an adult, I have lived in some fairly large cities for short periods of times, but I was never ‘at home’ in a city or even living in apartments or houses in small towns. I wanted a place as far from neighbors as I could get. Not that I have an un-neighborly attitude toward people, a lot of my desire to live apart comes with some of my ‘hobbies’. Things that make a lot of noise and is bound to disturb some neighbors. Mainly that is with the boom of some of my black-powder rifles or modern deer rifles. I have been a fan of target shooting ever since I was old enough to shoot a BB-gun. I like living in a place that I can shoot when I want to without disturbing a lot of people.
On the little farm where I grew up we were very lucky to have plenty of woods where I went as often as I could escape my mother and just loitered with a single shot .22 or a shotgun. Not that I was always really hunting for game, but that was as good an excuse as any to hang out in the woods. We had a small stream that ran through our farm. On the maps it was called Little Raccoon Creek. A few miles down stream they dammed the stream up and build a reservoir that formed a fair sized lake, for that region. I was in my early teens when they made this lake and remember when they stocked it with fish. They did not allow fishing for 2 years after it was stocked, I tell you that was a long 2 years for a want-to-be fisherman. When you are young, two years is ‘forever’! But it was not against the law to fish in the stream. Most of the year there were not many fish in the stream, but in the spring the suckers would run up the creek to spawn. We made “hay” then!
We had an uncle who like to “gig” for suckers. In MN we would call it “spearing”, but there they used a frog gig to spear the suckers at night. I remember we would take old carbide miner lights as lamps. Then we would wade in shallow water where it would be rippling and there is where we could see the fish as they swam upstream in the shallow water. We carried burlap feed sacks to put our catch in, at times we would get 2 or three sacks of those suckers in a night. I have no ideal if it was ‘legal’ or not, I think it was, but am not certain.
One night I especially remember. We had worked our way upstream and got a few fish, but not very many. It was a cold night in April and I recall that night very well because I got desperate enough to get some fish that I took the chance of standing of a slippery rock over about 3 feet of water. Stream water in April is cold! I found out when my feet slipped out from under me and I went into the water body first. Of course it did me no harm other than a cold dunking and a pleasant memory.
From that night we flash-forward about 20 years. By then we were living in MN at the junction of the Shell and Crow Wing rivers near the village of Huntersville, MN. It was another April and I was in a canoe doing some spring fishing up the Crow Wing river maybe a half mile from our house. The ice was still on the lakes, but the river had been open for a few weeks and I just could not resist ‘casting a line’ with some crappie minnows and a bobber. I had tied my canoe off on a tree that had fallen into the river. The worst part is that I had been having some back problems and did one of those “dumb” things we sometimes do to avoid pain. I had an old lawn chair that I set up in the canoe to sit in while I fished. If you are familiar with canoes you can guess how that was going to turn out. But I had spent a lot of time in a canoe and had never tipped one in all my travels, so I was over-confident you might say.
I had just got comfortable and was ready to bait my hook, so I reached down to pull my minnow bucket up out of the water to get a minnow. I never got it out of the water. As I leaned over in that old style lawn chair it slipped on the bottom of the canoe and before I even knew what happened I had a ‘rude awakening’ in ice cold water.
There was a strong current in the spot I was at and as soon as my head came up out of the river I saw my lawn chair floating downstream. I wonder now why I bothered with it, but I swam out and retrieved the chair before I attempted to get out of that ice water. I suppose I did not want to have to chase the chair down with the canoe and then have to paddle against a very strong current to get back upstream to the house. Not that the chair was of any value, I hate too see “junk” cluttering up a wilderness river and that is what would happen if I just let the thing go.
The funny part to me was that I had a hat on and sun glasses when I went under the water, when I came up from the dunking my hate and sunglasses were still perfectly in place, albeit very wet. I am glad there was no one around with a video camera to film the fool in a lawn chair, in a canoe soon after the ice had left the river. Being fairly young and healthy at the time, and used to the cold, it did not bother me as far as the cold was concerned. The only thing that would have bothered me would have been if there was an eye witness to the event, there was no one around.
There is no moral to these stories, unless you don’t like taking a dip in ice cold water, then I would advise you to stay off slippery rocks and don’t even think of sitting in a canoe with a lawn chair!
What makes one think of such crazy things on a cold winter day?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Only Children & Their Pets
Before I forget again! I discovered why folks have had problems making comments on this blog. I don’t claim to be very good at these things, but somehow I had the settings wrong from what I intended and it did not allow everyone to make comments. Hopefully that is “fixed”, so feel free to comment on anything you read here. Just keep it honest and clean, please no foul language or particularly ‘hateful’ talk. Disagreeing opinions are welcome.
You might note, that I try to avoid using other peoples names as much as possible on this blog. Other than names of friends that have passed away, I do this for security and privacy concerns. Between the internet and government it seems that no one can keep any degree of privacy. I just don’t want to use peoples names in my writing, at least not their full name. Personally, I don’t care about my own name being ‘public’, otherwise I would have never started a blog. But I try to avoid using my families name or friends names. Too many criminals spend too much time on the internet trying to learn all they can about people, usually for identity theft purposes or who knows why, but to avoid helping any of these attempts out, I just stay away from using names.
MN weather took a fast turn overnight. At 10 PM last evening it was still almost 30° , but by daylight it was down to 10° . At least it firmed up the mud and was still sunny and clear, so it did not feel as cold as it would if it was cloudy or windy. Tonight, they say, we will dip below 0 again. That is to be expected as we grade lumber tomorrow in the “great outdoors”, someone on this grading crew is a ‘jinx’!
All of us have heard most of our lives that it is not a good thing to raise an ‘only child’, I can’t argue the point, since I don’t have a great deal of experience with more than one child, that is, more than one at a time anyway! Not everyone has the ‘charming’ experience of raising 2 “only children”. Technically, since we have two children they can’t be said to be an only child. But when those children are born, by no planning on our part I might add, 22 years apart, they are raised for all intents and purposes as ’only children’. So we have the ‘pleasure’ of raising two ‘only children’.
I bring this up because when our first daughter was a child, pre-teen years, I was not around home all that much. Being young seems to require an extreme amount of time spent “on the job”, not that I spend that much less time working now, it is just that most of my work is just outside the backdoor, so to speak. So I get the opportunity to watch this latest child on a daily basis and see how they manage things without a sibling.
I can’t speak from their perspective since when I grew up, there was no such thing as being “alone” very much. With one brother and 4 sisters, there was always plenty of siblings around to either do things with, or ’antagonize’, whatever the case may be. From what I observe, only children make playmates with their pets. We have always had pets around, whether it be a dog, or several, or cat, or a whole herd of them, a goat at one time, now a ’half-wild’ horse. The children seem to spend a lot of their free time either playing with their animals or ’antagonizing’ them, just like other children do with their siblings.
In the current state of affairs, our 11 year old daughter is ’obsessed’ with trying to ride her ’half-wild’ horse. This is not a full size horse, nor is it actually a pony. Some people call it a miniature horse, but I don’t think that is truly the case either. At any rate, this horse is a bit larger than most ponies, but much smaller than a full size horse.
We have had this ’thing’ over 2 years now, just over the last month or so she has been able to climb on its back without being thrown off. I think it must be ’stuffed’ with ’horse treats’ to the point that it can’t throw her! I know it takes a lot of treats to keep it distracted long enough for her to jump on its back without saddle, bridle or even rope to hold too. She latches onto its mane with a ‘death grip’ and hangs on. Most of the time Brownie (that is its name) just stands there chewing on her treat. Then the child starts working at getting her to move. More often than not, when she does move, it is at a good clip so our daughter gets a good workout trying to stay mounted on this animal.
As I am working in the shop I can look out my window and often watch the circus. It is a bit worrisome at times wondering when there will be a ‘broken bone’ from this affair, but so far nothing serious has happen.
Then there are the times an only child will gather up all their animals, a dog, several cats and attempt to play “school”, with them being her students. Now that is funny! I suspect it is not much different than many classrooms you hear about on the news. Just try to get a young Beagle dog to sit still when there are 3 cats close by, a good definition of ‘chaos’ could be illustrated right there. Just like a ‘bully’ child, the Beagle knows which cat he can mess, the old Tom won’t put up with anything, but one of the young cats is the ‘victim’ of much abuse, the cat is plenty big enough to draw blood from the Beagle’s nose, but mostly it appears to like the rough play. In the mean time the “teacher” is trying to bring order to her classroom, without much success as far as I have observed.
Last evening we had some friends stop in who have 4 children, all under about 7 years old I think. Once those little fellows got warmed up, I could not help but think; maybe an only child is not so bad after all. J
You might note, that I try to avoid using other peoples names as much as possible on this blog. Other than names of friends that have passed away, I do this for security and privacy concerns. Between the internet and government it seems that no one can keep any degree of privacy. I just don’t want to use peoples names in my writing, at least not their full name. Personally, I don’t care about my own name being ‘public’, otherwise I would have never started a blog. But I try to avoid using my families name or friends names. Too many criminals spend too much time on the internet trying to learn all they can about people, usually for identity theft purposes or who knows why, but to avoid helping any of these attempts out, I just stay away from using names.
MN weather took a fast turn overnight. At 10 PM last evening it was still almost 30° , but by daylight it was down to 10° . At least it firmed up the mud and was still sunny and clear, so it did not feel as cold as it would if it was cloudy or windy. Tonight, they say, we will dip below 0 again. That is to be expected as we grade lumber tomorrow in the “great outdoors”, someone on this grading crew is a ‘jinx’!
All of us have heard most of our lives that it is not a good thing to raise an ‘only child’, I can’t argue the point, since I don’t have a great deal of experience with more than one child, that is, more than one at a time anyway! Not everyone has the ‘charming’ experience of raising 2 “only children”. Technically, since we have two children they can’t be said to be an only child. But when those children are born, by no planning on our part I might add, 22 years apart, they are raised for all intents and purposes as ’only children’. So we have the ‘pleasure’ of raising two ‘only children’.
I bring this up because when our first daughter was a child, pre-teen years, I was not around home all that much. Being young seems to require an extreme amount of time spent “on the job”, not that I spend that much less time working now, it is just that most of my work is just outside the backdoor, so to speak. So I get the opportunity to watch this latest child on a daily basis and see how they manage things without a sibling.
I can’t speak from their perspective since when I grew up, there was no such thing as being “alone” very much. With one brother and 4 sisters, there was always plenty of siblings around to either do things with, or ’antagonize’, whatever the case may be. From what I observe, only children make playmates with their pets. We have always had pets around, whether it be a dog, or several, or cat, or a whole herd of them, a goat at one time, now a ’half-wild’ horse. The children seem to spend a lot of their free time either playing with their animals or ’antagonizing’ them, just like other children do with their siblings.
In the current state of affairs, our 11 year old daughter is ’obsessed’ with trying to ride her ’half-wild’ horse. This is not a full size horse, nor is it actually a pony. Some people call it a miniature horse, but I don’t think that is truly the case either. At any rate, this horse is a bit larger than most ponies, but much smaller than a full size horse.
We have had this ’thing’ over 2 years now, just over the last month or so she has been able to climb on its back without being thrown off. I think it must be ’stuffed’ with ’horse treats’ to the point that it can’t throw her! I know it takes a lot of treats to keep it distracted long enough for her to jump on its back without saddle, bridle or even rope to hold too. She latches onto its mane with a ‘death grip’ and hangs on. Most of the time Brownie (that is its name) just stands there chewing on her treat. Then the child starts working at getting her to move. More often than not, when she does move, it is at a good clip so our daughter gets a good workout trying to stay mounted on this animal.
As I am working in the shop I can look out my window and often watch the circus. It is a bit worrisome at times wondering when there will be a ‘broken bone’ from this affair, but so far nothing serious has happen.
Then there are the times an only child will gather up all their animals, a dog, several cats and attempt to play “school”, with them being her students. Now that is funny! I suspect it is not much different than many classrooms you hear about on the news. Just try to get a young Beagle dog to sit still when there are 3 cats close by, a good definition of ‘chaos’ could be illustrated right there. Just like a ‘bully’ child, the Beagle knows which cat he can mess, the old Tom won’t put up with anything, but one of the young cats is the ‘victim’ of much abuse, the cat is plenty big enough to draw blood from the Beagle’s nose, but mostly it appears to like the rough play. In the mean time the “teacher” is trying to bring order to her classroom, without much success as far as I have observed.
Last evening we had some friends stop in who have 4 children, all under about 7 years old I think. Once those little fellows got warmed up, I could not help but think; maybe an only child is not so bad after all. J
Monday, February 6, 2012
War With Iran?
MN weather just continues to amaze and stay in the ‘surreal zone’. Today it was sunny and 42° , really strange. We even got reminded of what “mud” was, that unpleasant part of spring. Of course, the forecast is calling for around zero by mid-week, but that is still nothing to be concerned about. We still have only gotten a few inches of snow all winter, which pleases me to no end, since I don’t get a thrill out of plowing snow. The only thing I have missed is snowshoeing, but I can live with it.
It would seem that another war is almost sure before much longer. I am speaking of the situation with Iran. This has been brewing for over 30 or 40 years now. Remember the hostages under Jimmy Carter’s term in the 70’s? When the Muslim extremist took over Iran. Now they have or on the verge of having nuclear weapons. That within itself is nothing new, a lot of countries have such weapons, but most nuclear countries are not threatening to destroy their neighbors with them. In fact, ’promising’ to destroy Israel at all costs!
Here is my take on the whole situation. If our own government would let American oil companies drill for oil in our own country, plus the Gulf of Mexico, where many other countries are working, but our President restricts us from doing so. Then get busy with the pipeline that our friendly neighbors Canada wants in order to supply us with crude oil, we would not need to worry about “OIL”. So how can it be that an American president and his political party is bound and determined to keep us ’dependent’ on middle east oil? It is beyond me to understand. What is also beyond my understanding is how anyone who has not been in a complete coma over the last 3 years, would vote for this president a second time? But my honest feeling is that it is very possible that he will be re-elected, the power of politics has a long arm and voters a short memory.
Now as far as Iran’s threat to Israel is concerned. It is my opinion, having studied the mindset and history of that small country surrounded by enemies, the Israelis could ’take out’ Iran’s nuke plants in short order. That is if our president did not threaten them if they do it! But again, we don’t have a “normal” president that seems to be interested in American and our friends interests, nearly as much as he is interested in his own grip on power. That is a sad thing to say and I hate saying it, but how else are we to interpret his actions? He is a great speech maker. In his speeches he says many things that sounds good and American, but then in his actions he does exactly the opposite. Some would call him a lair, others seem to think he really does want to take the USA down the drain, doing away with our constituted Republic and replacing it with some form of Americanized socialism. What are ‘common people’ supposed to think about our own country?
Today the president announced more ‘toothless’ sanctions on Iran. Claiming to freeze their assets under control of any U.S. bank in the world. The only problem is, according to reports, Iran already removed any important monies out of U.S. banks or currency. So the new sanction is nothing more than ‘grand-standing’ for the benefit of the American public. Iran is already selling their oil to other countries using either gold or foreign money as the medium of exchange, not U.S. dollars.
How can it be that a country such as the USA has given up all its historic principles of freedom, honor and private enterprise in such a short time? Fact is, the American people as a whole have not given up our principles, but we are ‘blind’ to the fact that forces in our own government are undermining our very foundation. The only recourse we have is at the voting booth and that gets to be questionable, in light of some of the tactics that have been used to distort the vote.
Ok, maybe this rant is nothing different than most of them. My advice is this; before you go vote, educate yourself as to the principles of the individuals you have to choice from. Then vote for the one “least likely” to follow the lead of those who stand against everything “you” believe. It is not likely to find a viable politician who you could really trust these days, so I will take the pragmatic approach and choice the best under the circumstances and hope that God will have mercy on us and somehow open our eyes to what is happening in our country, then give us time to return to a sane mind.
It would seem that another war is almost sure before much longer. I am speaking of the situation with Iran. This has been brewing for over 30 or 40 years now. Remember the hostages under Jimmy Carter’s term in the 70’s? When the Muslim extremist took over Iran. Now they have or on the verge of having nuclear weapons. That within itself is nothing new, a lot of countries have such weapons, but most nuclear countries are not threatening to destroy their neighbors with them. In fact, ’promising’ to destroy Israel at all costs!
Here is my take on the whole situation. If our own government would let American oil companies drill for oil in our own country, plus the Gulf of Mexico, where many other countries are working, but our President restricts us from doing so. Then get busy with the pipeline that our friendly neighbors Canada wants in order to supply us with crude oil, we would not need to worry about “OIL”. So how can it be that an American president and his political party is bound and determined to keep us ’dependent’ on middle east oil? It is beyond me to understand. What is also beyond my understanding is how anyone who has not been in a complete coma over the last 3 years, would vote for this president a second time? But my honest feeling is that it is very possible that he will be re-elected, the power of politics has a long arm and voters a short memory.
Now as far as Iran’s threat to Israel is concerned. It is my opinion, having studied the mindset and history of that small country surrounded by enemies, the Israelis could ’take out’ Iran’s nuke plants in short order. That is if our president did not threaten them if they do it! But again, we don’t have a “normal” president that seems to be interested in American and our friends interests, nearly as much as he is interested in his own grip on power. That is a sad thing to say and I hate saying it, but how else are we to interpret his actions? He is a great speech maker. In his speeches he says many things that sounds good and American, but then in his actions he does exactly the opposite. Some would call him a lair, others seem to think he really does want to take the USA down the drain, doing away with our constituted Republic and replacing it with some form of Americanized socialism. What are ‘common people’ supposed to think about our own country?
Today the president announced more ‘toothless’ sanctions on Iran. Claiming to freeze their assets under control of any U.S. bank in the world. The only problem is, according to reports, Iran already removed any important monies out of U.S. banks or currency. So the new sanction is nothing more than ‘grand-standing’ for the benefit of the American public. Iran is already selling their oil to other countries using either gold or foreign money as the medium of exchange, not U.S. dollars.
How can it be that a country such as the USA has given up all its historic principles of freedom, honor and private enterprise in such a short time? Fact is, the American people as a whole have not given up our principles, but we are ‘blind’ to the fact that forces in our own government are undermining our very foundation. The only recourse we have is at the voting booth and that gets to be questionable, in light of some of the tactics that have been used to distort the vote.
Ok, maybe this rant is nothing different than most of them. My advice is this; before you go vote, educate yourself as to the principles of the individuals you have to choice from. Then vote for the one “least likely” to follow the lead of those who stand against everything “you” believe. It is not likely to find a viable politician who you could really trust these days, so I will take the pragmatic approach and choice the best under the circumstances and hope that God will have mercy on us and somehow open our eyes to what is happening in our country, then give us time to return to a sane mind.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Never Run Out of Work
Things in my world have been busy this week, as I expect them to stay that way, I don’t suppose my posts will be very regular.
One sure thing about being self-employed, you don’t run out of work, there is always dozens of things that need to be done. The only drawback is that many of those things are not very profitable, if at all, yet I consider it better to have plenty to do than to sit around worrying about ‘what to do’. If I was a good business person, I would eliminate all the ‘unprofitable’ work and only concentrate on the work that earns its way, which is something I do “try” to do, but then the matter of reality always gets in the way.
The ancient Greeks had a saying; ‘That ones character dictated their fate’. I have considered that little word of wisdom and find that it is probably very much to the point. My natural inclinations get in the way of using good sense when it comes to using my time in a profitable manner. One thing being, I don’t view ‘money’ as being the most important part of my life or business. Consequently I am constantly getting myself into a lot of work that does not pay very much, just because I want to do a certain job, even when I know I can’t make much money for the time invested.
It was well over 20 years ago when I first began woodworking. I had vague dreams that it could provide a portion of my necessary income and it has, but the fact is any teenager flipping burgers at a fast food joint, makes more per hour than I do on a woodworking project. The only advantage I have is that I don’t have to punch someone else’s time clock, that might not be much of an advantage, but it agrees with my disposition or you might say ‘character’ and so I face my own self-made ‘fate’.
Aside from work, our world has be socked in with dense fog for 3 days now. It moved in sometime during the night on Tuesday and has only began to dissipate this afternoon. It was somewhat eerie with such thick fog day and night. We could barely see a quarter mile during the brightest part of the day, it made me think of what it must be like in England, a land known for its dense fog. But this afternoon as it began to clear, we were left with a beautiful thick frost on the trees and everywhere we looked. That is how our lives are. From the deepest dark hours we eventually emerge to a brighter day, as long as we keep putting one foot ahead of the other and never give up to despair or discouragement.
Speaking of discouragement, no, I guess I won’t go there today. I was going to mention the GOP trying to choice a candidate to run against the current ‘occupier’ of the White House, but everyone running seems like they would rather self-destruct than see an opponent get the nomination. If they keep this up, one thing seems to be sure, the White House will stay in the hands of the one who is there. Just my opinion, but we who live in a state with only 2 electoral votes don’t have much of a say-so in either election. So the GOP will eventually put up someone, Romney I assume from the looks of things. One who I can’t see winning a head to head election against Chicago politics on a national scale. I am not sure anyone could. I surely hope I am wrong, but since we are for all realistic purposes ’bankrupt’, I am also not sure it will matter who sits in the oval office.
It is probably best for a common person, who likes a simple live close to the land, to just vote when the time comes and let the ‘destroyers’, as Ayn Rand called the political elite, do what they are going to do. While I, do what I can do to keep body and soul together by staying busy with my own small world. But I will still keep an eye on them!
Yea, that groundhog. Phil, whatever the rest of his name is, which I never could pronounce, much less spell, says 6 more weeks of winter. As a friend observed, we really have not had the first 6 weeks yet, even here in MN! I still have not forgotten what the Wooly Worm told me last fall. His coloring said we would have very mild weather the first part of the winter, but the spring would be long and nasty. Humm, I don’t really believe in the legend, but I have not forgotten it either. We could certainly have some very nasty weather here anytime from now to late April, but no matter how it turns out now, our winter will be much shorter than normal.
One sure thing about being self-employed, you don’t run out of work, there is always dozens of things that need to be done. The only drawback is that many of those things are not very profitable, if at all, yet I consider it better to have plenty to do than to sit around worrying about ‘what to do’. If I was a good business person, I would eliminate all the ‘unprofitable’ work and only concentrate on the work that earns its way, which is something I do “try” to do, but then the matter of reality always gets in the way.
The ancient Greeks had a saying; ‘That ones character dictated their fate’. I have considered that little word of wisdom and find that it is probably very much to the point. My natural inclinations get in the way of using good sense when it comes to using my time in a profitable manner. One thing being, I don’t view ‘money’ as being the most important part of my life or business. Consequently I am constantly getting myself into a lot of work that does not pay very much, just because I want to do a certain job, even when I know I can’t make much money for the time invested.
It was well over 20 years ago when I first began woodworking. I had vague dreams that it could provide a portion of my necessary income and it has, but the fact is any teenager flipping burgers at a fast food joint, makes more per hour than I do on a woodworking project. The only advantage I have is that I don’t have to punch someone else’s time clock, that might not be much of an advantage, but it agrees with my disposition or you might say ‘character’ and so I face my own self-made ‘fate’.
Aside from work, our world has be socked in with dense fog for 3 days now. It moved in sometime during the night on Tuesday and has only began to dissipate this afternoon. It was somewhat eerie with such thick fog day and night. We could barely see a quarter mile during the brightest part of the day, it made me think of what it must be like in England, a land known for its dense fog. But this afternoon as it began to clear, we were left with a beautiful thick frost on the trees and everywhere we looked. That is how our lives are. From the deepest dark hours we eventually emerge to a brighter day, as long as we keep putting one foot ahead of the other and never give up to despair or discouragement.
Speaking of discouragement, no, I guess I won’t go there today. I was going to mention the GOP trying to choice a candidate to run against the current ‘occupier’ of the White House, but everyone running seems like they would rather self-destruct than see an opponent get the nomination. If they keep this up, one thing seems to be sure, the White House will stay in the hands of the one who is there. Just my opinion, but we who live in a state with only 2 electoral votes don’t have much of a say-so in either election. So the GOP will eventually put up someone, Romney I assume from the looks of things. One who I can’t see winning a head to head election against Chicago politics on a national scale. I am not sure anyone could. I surely hope I am wrong, but since we are for all realistic purposes ’bankrupt’, I am also not sure it will matter who sits in the oval office.
It is probably best for a common person, who likes a simple live close to the land, to just vote when the time comes and let the ‘destroyers’, as Ayn Rand called the political elite, do what they are going to do. While I, do what I can do to keep body and soul together by staying busy with my own small world. But I will still keep an eye on them!
Yea, that groundhog. Phil, whatever the rest of his name is, which I never could pronounce, much less spell, says 6 more weeks of winter. As a friend observed, we really have not had the first 6 weeks yet, even here in MN! I still have not forgotten what the Wooly Worm told me last fall. His coloring said we would have very mild weather the first part of the winter, but the spring would be long and nasty. Humm, I don’t really believe in the legend, but I have not forgotten it either. We could certainly have some very nasty weather here anytime from now to late April, but no matter how it turns out now, our winter will be much shorter than normal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)