I was dutifully carrying the milking machine up the hill so I could milk the cow, while Nathan milked the goats.

I walked through the open gate in the “Causeway” – a narrow area about 15 feet wide, running the length of ground between the barn and the cow’s paddocks toward the bottom of the hill – say, 100 – 120 feet in length. We had this fenced off i as a failsafe – in case any of the goats or the cow got out when we were going into the paddock.
Anyway, I walked through the gate that was open and there, standing in the barn by her stanchion, was the cow – looking at us as if we missed the train or something.

Funny, how animals have a sense of time, routine and respond in an unusual (to us) fashion when their predictable world of routine is upset.
Fern, the cow, had knocked the gate to her paddock off of the hinges and had walked up into the barn to get milked – We were a bit stunned by this, but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense.
She needed to be milked and she knew where to go to get milked. The only think missing was a bit of grain in her dish by the stanchion and the humans to milk her…

–Pat

Because of the authors “financial insights”  (The Frank and Dodd team which helped cause the financial crisis by their work to “open doors of opportunity” to those that were not able to afford the mortgages they got for homes they couldn’t afford),  hedge funds will be strickly limited. Also, bonds will also be highly regulated and limited.

The three largest credit-rating agencies – Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings – immediately alerted bond issuers not to use their ratings, as they assess their legal exposure created by the bill.

Why is this an issue? Because it will adversely affect the $1.4 million bond market – which is largely comprised of consumer loans.

If you get a  loan to buy automobiles or houses, pay for schooling (student loans) or use credit cards – you’re going to be standing in a line waiting, or flat out refused credit because the consumer loan well has dried up.

And what kind of affect will that have on our consumer-driven economy?? Devastation.

And what about the farmers that use hedge fund derivatives as insurance against the cost of corn dropping before harvest? Or the cost of beef for the feedlot owner or the farm co-ops trying to make amends for the increases in diesel fuel for all of the trucks hauling livestock/produce? Sorry, you’re out of luck. Might as well take up gambling in ‘Vegas.

And what great words of encouragement comes from the grand masters that designed this financial reform that will make sure we never have to bail out anyone again (or, as President Obama said, “Because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes. There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.”)?

In an interview with The Washington Post, Dodd admitted legislators were uncertain exactly how the bill will work until it is challenged by another financial crisis:

“No one will know until this is actually in place how it works,” said a teary-eyed Dodd. “But, we believe we’ve done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done.”

HUH??? You mean you’re “guessing”??? You have absolutely NO CLUE what this legislation will do???

Sounds like Nancy Pelosi when asked about Obamacare:   “We need to pass ObamaCare so that the public can find out what’s in the bill.”

HUH??? You have no idea what this bill will do???

PLEASE! WE need someone to give a brain transplant to Congress!!!

Read the articles and weep…

Finance Overhaul Casts Shadow on Plains – WSJ.com.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704258604575361182317501188.html

–PAT

In fact, if we stopped eating the fruit loops, processed cheese food,  soups with MSG, ice cream with bug killer and antifreeze and the myriad of other things that the FDA allows in the more than 47,000 “manufactured” foods on the shelves in grocery stores, there wouldn’t be such an issue.

Hydrocarbons in Cereal Stoke New Debate Over Food Safety – NYTimes.com.

These pesky bugs seem to like the organic pest deterrents we have used. It seems that they drink it like kool-aid, but instead of dying, they multiply!

The only thing that works, according to the research we have done, is to pick off the bugs one-by-one and squash them. At the same time, we have to check top and bottom sides of the leaves for a cluster of yellow, orange (potato bugs) or brown eggs (squash borer).

We’ve watched as healthy, vibrant zucchini plants wither and die overnight. And the potatoes.. we’ve seen the leaves go from full and green to having more holes in them than Swiss cheese, and finally, to no leaves at all.
We harvested some smaller potatoes from all of the plants that had severely damaged leaves, to no leaves at all and gave them out for the CSA this Saturday.

The gestation period is 9 – 10 days, so we have to go out every day and kill bugs and remove eggs for about 2 weeks – and we have to replant every 4 weeks until the bug season is gone.

Then there are the peaches…
We have 10 peach trees and all but 3 are ripening. And, due to the really hot and really wet weather we are having, there is a fungus (brown rot) that is thriving – and it attacks the fruit.

We watch beautiful peaches go from yellow-green and then, as they ripen, to yellow-red. Then they appear to get a brown “bruise”, which spreads rapidly over the fruit and then, POOF! In an instance they are covered in a powdery mold – rotten and worthless.
Of the peaches we picked this weekend (a small wagon and 2 bucket fulls), we have managed to save maybe 10%.

And everyone wonders why organically grown produce is more expensive.

–Pat

He is appointing a new head for the Centers of  Medicare/Medicaid. One that will most likely usher in the “death by waiting” penalty for the aged, handicapped, mentally challenged and other “undesirables” that would weigh down the lean, mean Obamacare health care system with unnecessary costs for treatments.

Funny that no one has threatened to fight against the confirmation of this guy, but Obama was afraid to allow him to be questioned about his love affair with the Health care plan in Britain and his adoration of health care “rationing”.  Wouldn’t want the public to know that there really will be “death panels”, would we?

On the Recess Appointment of Donald Berwick – by Benjamin Domenech – News Releases.

In addition to this ray of sunshine, Hope everyone is exercising and eating right and are in fine health now – because if you’re not, and you have a pre-existing condition… you’ll be the first to be refused treatment under the new “high risk pool” plan.

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/sick-people-cant-count-access-high-risk-pools/2010-07-06

Obamacare – a health plan for everyone [that we don't kill off first to save funds]

–Pat

Reflection and reminiscing of old are both good for the soul.

I remember growing up in, what was then, the northwest corner of Phoenix, Arizona. A little hamlet called “Sunnyslope”. It was a quite little place, free of the pain and suffering of inner cities to come, lie those which had already risen in places like New York City and Chicago.

I was free to think, believe, dream, act and say pretty much whatever I liked. No retribution, except of course, from my father, should I choose to be insolent, demeaning, or down-right rude to someone.

I remember throwing firecrackers in the field across the street on 4th of July – only to have to run across the street and put out the fires (barefooted, I might add) started by my ignorance of the mixture of gunpowder, flame, and extremely dry weeds and grass in Phoenix during the July heat.

So what does this have to do with celebrating freedom?
I reflect on how uncomplicated life was. There were men and women – not transgenders, cross-dressers and other types, confused by their “gender roles”. And it was a very strange thing indeed to even consider that men would marry men or women would marry women. Or that men would go into women’s public restrooms because they felt “more at home” there. But had this happened, it could have been freely and openly discussed without fear of the thought police coming to arrest someone for “hate crimes”.

It seems, in my reflection, that we are really no longer free – government has regulated away freedoms, and I believe that Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Greene, Payne and all of the others who felt it necessary to break away from the Crown of England for freedom’s sake, would be aghast of the yokes, chains and bonds that we have been shackled with – all in the name of “freedom”.

I believe that the grumblings we here and read about from the common people today, (of which I am one) is, in a way, the very grievousness that the great men listed above were groaning about in 1775 – 1776.
They fought valiantly against such odds that we could not imagine. They stood up for what they believed in and they printed and spoke loudly in the public square that the abominations of the Crown should be repelled at all costs. Even at the cost of their very lives.

But today, we have become a society of whiners and complainers that is more concerned about who won in “American Idol” or with “Desperate Housewives” than we are about our freedom. The very essence of freedom has been slowly bleeding out of our lives as we have watched on the sidelines – immersed in the pot of complacency slowly warming on the fire – the comforting warmth of the pot, viewed as “luxury” or “entertainment”.

Our rights are being stripped away under the guise of “human rights” and “hate crimes”.

Yet, here I am. Writing this freely, without threat of incarceration – for now. So, I will celebrate te freedoms that I still have – but I will not sit in the pot any longer – no, rather, I will speak and write loudly for all to hear, until such time as my right to say these things is taken and I will go to jail for my beliefs and for speaking and thinking the way that I do.
It is my way of celebrating freedom…

–Pat

If only they could go completely out of business, stopping the genetic altering insanity they are pushing in the food industry.

But NO! They are losing money on Roundup (which is good) but are refocusing on the sales of their  genetically modified seeds instead.

Heaven help us all!!!

You can cry over spilled Roundup while reading the article here:

Monsanto’s Profit Drops 45% on Roundup Woes – WSJ.com.

–Pat

First thing Saturday morning, I went up to the orchard to check on them, as well as feed/water all of the chickens. When I got there, my heart sank. I saw a hole dug under the bottom of the movable house and there were no birds inside the pen! No feathers, bones, or other remnants of the birds. It’s as if something dug underneath, went in with a gunny sack and carried them all off.

So, I’m out about $160 for the 50 broiler chicks and the 10 turkeys I had ordered. And if I can’t get any more turkey chicks, we won’t be raising any to put in the freezer.

I guess we’ll go back to raising them in the garage side of the basement and putting them outside when they are 4 weeks old.

On a more positive note, Saturday morning, while waiting for customers to pick up their produce, I pulled 18 full frames of honey that were “capped”. I also saw that the bees were still working on an additional 12 frames that were not ready yet. “Capped” means that the bees have reduced the water content of the honey to 16% and sealed the cells with a coat of wax. How they know when it is at 16% water content, I don’t know. I do know that if I take the honey before they cap it, it will go rancid, but if I wait until they cap it, it will keep forever if it is kept in a sealed bottle after extracting it from the comb.
With my sons’ and nephew’s help, we extracted that honey. I poured it into the filter on the 5 gallon bucket and then bottled 19 pounds of honey (there is still between 1/3 and 1/2 of the 5 gallon bucket full).

I put the frames back in the supers on Sunday afternoon.

–Pat

We went back yesterday to fence it off, and, mysteriously, the corn had vanished.

So, while Marilyn and Sam reseeded the area with corn, Nathan and I started putting up a short electric fence. Before Marilyn and Sam had finished putting the corn down, there were 3 chickens following them… and EATING THE CORN!!!

I picked up a shovel and started smacking the ground by them and “shooing” them off. But they were persistent. Once they had that taste of corn, there was n stopping them!!

We finally got them out of there and Sam helped Nathan and me put the short electric fence up.
NO sooner had we finished, when Marilyn (in this adventure, entitled “spreader of gloom”) mentioned “it’s too short – the chickens will hop right over it”.

So, Nathan, Sam and I put up electric poultry fencing around the short electric fence – it should keep them out now… (Famous last words)

But, in any case, we know that, for next year… we’ll prepare the soil, put up the fence and THEN plant the corn. Those pesky chickens, anywho!

–Pat

Go figure… The WHO in bed with the big PHARM companies? Really? Like, that is so UN-global!!

Considering the amount of corruption in the UN [United Nations], I can’t understand why our own government, and many US citizens want to be part of the UN.

Reports accuse WHO of exaggerating H1N1 threat, possible ties to drug makers.

–Pat