Life has been crazy busy lately. There has been much going on with older family members, and as a result, not only are my sisters and I trying to keep up with our own duties, we’ve now picked up some additional ones. I’m not for sure how it is with them, but I know for me it’s put me behind on several things, blogging just being one of them. Since I was essentially gone for 4 days over the weekend, no it wasn’t exactly fun, I got further behind on some of my farm duties. Such as collecting eggs. Collecting eggs is one of those things it’s never good to get behind on. Now I know I wasn’t that far behind, but when I went to feed the chickens this morning and let them out into their playpen I got quite a surprise.
The first clue was the cheeping. The second clue was seeing one of my Auracana hens with four little babies clustered around her. NUTS!! Life is busy enough without raising chicks. And raise them I will need to do. If I leave them in the chicken house they will most likely be eaten by a snake. Or the other chickens may go after them. Not to mention they need baby chick feed and I like to put electrolytes in their water. None of this is possible down there.
But, it was time to go see my Aunt and take her the fresh laundry. So I finished chores and loaded up my car. On the way to town I talked to G_d about this, along the lines of “Seriously? You think I need baby chicks, NOW?” In the past I’ve enjoyed raising them, but now? They all four looked like they were Auracanas, which would be the breed I would choose to buy, so that’s good.
Then I began to think of names. I decided to try for things that are at low ebb in my life right now. So their names will be
אֳמונַה which is Faith, you could pronounce it like Emuna
חֵן which is Grace, good luck with this one, that first letter is Chet, so it is like a hard, never mind..just say Hen, and when you start the “H” part kind of clear your throat, you’ll be close.
תֽקוַה which is Hope, you could pronounce it like Tikvah.
גֽיל which is Joy. This one is easy, you pronounce it just like it looks, Geel.
They are currently in a small dog crate. That’s easier to keep body heat, plus they have an electric heating pad in a walmart bag. I hope we won’t have to do that over one or two nights. But again, these kids are only about a day old. I’ve dipped their little beaks in the special “chick kool-aid” with electrolytes, they’ve found the food and are eating. I left them nestled together on the heating pad. They have a little battery powered lantern in there so I can check on them and see what they are doing and a towel is draped over it to keep the heat in and breezes out. I’m hoping and praying they will grown up to be healthy happy GIRLS!
I guess as I’m watching how vicious the aging process can be, it is good to be reminded that life, is well, “life” חי .
If we are lucky, we see all the seasons. Although from watching my older family members, that fall/winter one is not for the faint of heart. But I see them facing it with grace and dignity and courage, a lot of courage.
So for now, I have some unexpected guests in the house. Hopefully in six weeks they can all rejoin their Mother, who is none to happy with me right now. I did promise her I would do my best.
So the BLM, Bureau of Land Management, swooped in to save the “endangered” desert tortoise from the Bundy herd of “killer cattle”.
So, when have you seen an army of 200 agents armed to the teeth, with automatic weapons, helicopters, tasers and attack dogs show up to defend an endangered species? Which is pretty darned interesting considering the Feds killed off a few hundred of them last year, and plan to kill off more. And then crushed a burrow of them during the rustling of Cliven Bundy’s cattle. Good thing the BLM is made up professionals that are familiar with the animals they are dealing with and the land they live on. Except they aren’t. They aren’t any of those things. They aren’t professional, they tasered protesters, they unleashed attack dogs on a pregnant woman, arrested and held a Bundy son overnight, I don’t believe they ever said what for. Hit one of the Bundy women with a vehicle and threw her to the ground. As the story grew bigger people poured in from all over the country. More media showed up, as Judge Andrew Napolitano pointed out, it was becoming a public relations nightmare. He also pointed something else very interesting out. Bundy lost his court case in Federal court. In Judge Napolitano’s opinion, this should have been tried in a Nevada State court. This is like having two 4 year old siblings, one gets to cut the last piece chocolate cake and make two slices, he get to decide it they are equal and he get to pick the first piece. Of course they are (most likely) going to decide fairly, right? Actually, you have a better chance with the four year olds than the federal government!
So the Feds go in, steal the cattle and hire some “contract cowboy” out of Utah to help steal the cattle and transport them across state lines to Utah and sell them. EXCEPT here is what happened. The federal government hires a contract cowboy (cost to taxpayers to steal the Bundy cattle $966,000, what the Bundy’s supposedly owe is $1.1 million) who is to go in, steal the cattle and are supposed to sell them to cover the fees owed. Now as I’ve read a couple places Bundy has been paying fees to the state & county. He feels the federal government is trying to put him out of business. Just because he’s the last rancher in Clark County, I don’t know why he feels that way, but he does. So it kind of looks like the federal claims of attempt to recovery money owed and protection of the desert tortoise could be, a, GASP, LIE!! Or, it’s like the government is run by someone who has no clue of finances, balancing books, or is just flat power drunk, like a community organizer. They have no clue how to run a business.
Now let’s look at how they “care for the land and they animals” they were suppose to sell for a profit to recover the cost of the grazing fees. They killed two prized bulls for fear they would “gore the horses and were dangerous”. Ok, valid fear, except at least one was in a pen and was shot five times. They destroyed stock tanks, corrals, fence and killed or have lost about a third of the animals they stole. Excellent documentation on this can be found here. It also points out the Governor of Utah forbid the cattle to come into Nevada, and the Nevada and Utah stock yards wanted nothing to do with selling stolen cattle. Be sure to listen to the video, as it points out the BLM wanted to “restore the land”.
So the BLM, the snipers and attack dogs have all pulled out. Is it over? According to NRA endorsed Sen. Harry Reid, no. Now while many politicians in Nevada have come out in support of Cliven Bundy, old Harry has been rather silent. Wonder why? Well, by now you probably have heard much of this. Darn it, I’ve really got to get one computer operating system installed and leave it! It’s putting me way behind on my current events here!
“Well, it’s not over,” he said. “We can’t have, in America, people that violate the law and just walk away from it. So it’s not over.”~~NRA endorsed Sen. Harry Reid. Unless of course it’s Barry Sot, Barry Oba,..Barak Obama (whatever it is this week), Eric Holder, Lois Lerner, Kathy Sebelliousnous (whatever), then we can.
Turns out ol’ NRA endorsed Sen. Harry has his fingers in a LOT of cow pies. He has been lobbying the BLM (bureau of land mis-management) to re-map the Desert Tortoise’s habitat to allow real estate mogul Harvey Whittemore to build on land near the Bundy’s ranch. You may have heard the name Whittemore, he was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions to NRA endorsed Sen. Harry.
Sen. Harry, never one to leave things to chance recently had one of his senior advisor’s, Neil Kornze, appointed to the head of the BLM. Why YES, the term “stacked deck” occurred to ME too!
Well, many cowpies, so what else? Turns out the BLM makes MILLIONS by leasing Nevada lands for energy exploration and fracking. This image is from the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and shows drilling in the Gold Butte area where Cliven Bundy runs his cattle operation. The red crosshairs are oil and gas exploration drilling operations, and oil has been found.
Oil exploration on Bundy cattle land.
So you can see why the BLM is so concerned about restoring the land to it’s proper condition by destroying water tanks, corrals, and killing the cattle so Rancher Bundy couldn’t resume his “illegal cattle operation”. No indeedy, they got $1.27 million for some leases to six different energy companies. That makes what Cliven Bundy supposedly owes pale in comparison, doesn’t it?
What other cowpies? Well, remember Bundy is the last rancher in Clark Co. Now it seems when Harry’s son Rory was a Clark Co. commissioner, (like the one who said out of state protesters coming to Nevada to support the Bundys should have funeral plans made) Rory convinced the county to sell 9,000 acres at well below market value to Chinese energy giant ENN Energy Group. They also want to use federal lands to build a solar farm, because one Solyndra is never enough. And the Bundy land just happens to be under consideration by the Chinese company.
So, NRA endorsed Sen. Harry Reid’s son Rory is representing the Chinese Solyndra who will be building the turbines and solar panels in China, and shipping them to the US, and who convinced his county to sell land below market value to the Chinese. Sen. Harry Reid is also promoting the Chinese company.
So NRA endorsed Sen. Harry Reid & his son are using the force of the federal government to shove an American Rancher, who provides beef to Americans at a time when beef prices are highest and supply is lowest since 1951 off his land.
As I’ve said before, what a great way to control a population, hunger.
YOUR tax dollars at work folks, MY tax dollars at work. Will congress critters protect the folks they are sent to DC to serve from the federal government? Will we hold them accountable? Or are they just so flat clueless they don’t even see how it applies?
You think Nevada is the only place the BLM is doing their land grab? Think again! 90,000 acres at stake in Texas! LAND GRAB!
Like many “transparent” things in the obama regime, the tortoise is not only transparent, it’s almost invisible.
There’s a storm a brewin’. A 67 year old rancher by the name of Cliven Bundy and his family consisting of 14 children and his wife seem to have always lived the simple, though far from easy life of a Rancher in Clark Co. Nevada. The basics of what is going on are pretty well out there on different web sites, but a quick run down is in 1993 Bundy stopped paying his grazing fees of $1.35 per animal unit month on the federal land. He claims that his family has used land in the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area since the late 1800s. I guess it would be hard not to graze on federal land since the federal government owns about 660 million acres across the United States, including one out of every two acres in the West.As best as I can gather from the news stories, Mr. Bundy quit paying the fees in 1993 for ranch land run by his family for a century or so. He runs about 900 head of cattle. One comment I read on a Cattleman’s web site says he is still paying the state of Nevada fees, but “fired” the BLM and quit paying their fees when he said he figured out they wanted to put him out of business. Could be right, Mr. Bundy is the last rancher in Clark County.
It seems this whole mess started over a desert tortoise. Now I like turtles, the little green ones kids used to have as pets, and when I was younger I’ve had a few box turtles as pets, but this is typical government left wing craziness. Beef prices are at an all time high, and aren’t expected to come down. The supply of beef cattle is about at the level of 1951 when America had about half as many people. So why would the government want to make it harder for ranchers? I’ll come back to that.
So far local politicians have only spoken, but not gotten involved. The local Sheriff has declined to take part in the cattle rustling, or allow his deputies to be commandeered. A Clark Co. commissioner, Tom Collins, doesn’t believe the BLM’s argument that it’s trying to protect the desert tortoise.
“The U.S. government has perpetrated a bigger fraud on people over those tortoises than Al Capone did selling swampland in Miami,” he said.
Collins added that Nevada officials are studying whether to petition the federal government for local control over a wide swath of land that includes the area Bundy is fighting over. Seems like all states should be starting to look at state sovereignty legislation. Missouri had the feds wanting to take over waterways in Southern Missouri, and Kansas maybe facing what Nevada is over the prairie chicken.
What an equally big story is to me is the federal government’s response. While they dither and dally about investigating “Fast & Furious” “Benghazi” no action has been taken towards law-breakers Lois Lerner or Eric Holder, the government has sent around 200 agents from the BLM and FBI including snipers to rustle cattle. Perhaps not content with merely shooting one un-armed woman holding her baby in the head (do a search on Vickie Weaver and Ruby Ridge) they are looking to flex their federal muscle again. They are patrolling the Bundy’s 150 acre ranch. According to the Bundy family they are armed with everything but rocket launchers. They said their ranch is surrounded, and roads are blocked. One son was attacked by the BLM, they set dogs on him, tasered him, beat him and detained him over night. His crime? Standing along side a PUBLIC highway filming the cattle as they grazed. They are perfectly willing to do this to anyone. This is MY tax money, YOUR tax money being spent to attack citizens protesting a man’s cattle from being stolen. It is costing 3 MILLION of OUR tax dollars to steal this man’s cattle. They are willing to set dogs on you, taser you, shoot you. They have set up “First Amendment” zones where citizens are allowed to be. You are not allowed to be any place else on PUBLIC land but where the BLM says you can be to film them stealing the cattle or attacking other citizens. The Governor of Nevada is very upset about the “First Amendment Zones”. Set far enough away people can’t film them stealing the cattle. If I were the Governor I’d be upset about my citizens being attacked to, but that’s just me.
Cliven Bundy’s daughter Bailey Bundy Logue had a very accurate comment on all this:
“Wake up America. Look what our ancestors fought for and we need to stand up for that. We need to realize what’s happening. They are taking everything away from us. This isn’t only about one family. This is about everyone’s family. This is martial law and it’s in America and so what are you going to do to have it stay out of America?”
Who knows what’s going to happen to the cattle. The BLM has brought in a dump truck, the idiots have separated some of the cows from their calves so the calves with die. The BLM spokesperson denied the BLM was killing cattle on purpose. Oh, well then.
The thing is, this isn’t the first time this administration has interfered in a big way with the food raising process. From 2009.
So remember the question I asked earlier? Why would the government want to make it harder for ranchers to raise food to feed hungry people? What about control? Look at what they are willing to do to the people protesting the theft of Cliven Bundy’s cattle? Set dogs on them, taser them, shoot them. They are very into control. Silence dissent by using the IRS, using your healthcare to control people. What parent won’t do almost anything the government says when their child looks up at them and says “Mom, Dad, I’m hungry”.
So is this the government plan? I don’t know. I DO know your tax dollars are being spent along with mine on this outrage, have you called your congresscritter today and demanded they STOP wasting your tax dollars, money the government doesn’t have (will China loan money for the government’s cattle rustling operation?) to perpetrate this atrocity!
So since I have a bit more free time on my hands I thought I’d upgrade my system to the new Mepis M12 beta. I put it on Mom’s computer a week or so ago and it looked and works great! On mine, because I do a lot more than she does it isn’t working out quite as well. I’ve installed it 3 times now. The first two I broke something. At least I go for variety, it was something different each time. Some of the things I need to make things work right aren’t showing up as being available, hmm, they were earlier. I’ve downloaded a version of Linux Mint I may try. I used SUSE when I first started with Linux, but once I found Mepis there was no going back. I was pushed into learning Linux because Micro$oft foisted an abomination called vista off on unsuspecting computer buyers. I used it for a day or so and decided to learn Linux. My cousin Jeff helped alot. I didn’t even know there were different kinds. It’s a steep learning curve for someone who has never taken a computer class. But I liked that if I didn’t want to upgrade, I didn’t have to. I could buy a computer and then put a system on I liked. Considering the stuff Micro$oft has been pushing out, I’m glad I stuck with it.
I’ve teased my husband that he was nuts to urge me to take them time to play with my computer and put the new system on I liked, but alas, I know whose idea it was, sigh, mine. I’ve used Mepis since around 2006 I think, if I switch to Mint it’s going to seem like I’m being disloyal. I may have to send my computer for counseling over the identity crisis.
Stay tuned, hopefully I’ll be back soon with my regular pithy posts!
I’ve been involved with a Second Amendment group in leadership since 2006. That role has now come to an end. It’s tough as I see a group that was once strong and unswerving in defense of state Second Amendment legislation begin to defer to the NRA, that doesn’t always have our best interests at heart. I listen to one board member say the group will never be a NRA rubber stamp. I would find that reassuring except I had just listened to another board member explain that we can’t fight the NRA because of their money they can donate to candidates. That the group doesn’t have that many members that will actually get out and help candidates. Is he judging all the members by himself? So the group will oppose legislators and publications that lie about the Second Amendment legislation, but not the NRA, because of their money. Now, what is that word……it’s just floating in the back of my memory, that word where you sell out principles for money….hmm. He then crowed proudly about the power of the NRA at getting an amendment stripped out of a bill. VERY impressive! The NRA got a one sentence useless amendment (See full story) stripped out of a good bill and you are proud of that? It doesn’t matter they lied about the bill? Something is seriously wrong here! You don’t want the members of a group that pay dues to be informed of what is going on in Jeff City to know that the NRA lied and they shouldn’t contact their legislators about an awful bill because the amendment doesn’t say what they said it says? You censor information that tells them this and you still think the group hasn’t become a NRA rubber stamp? WOWZA, I’d hate to see their definition of a rubber stamp then.
While I’m saddened to see the direction the group is going, there isn’t much I can do to stop it, and perhaps the ship will right itself. But if the members trusted me to tell them things honestly, I can’t be part of something that has made a choice to deceive them by censoring information. Isn’t that what the “lamestream” media does? No, I’m not built that way. And so, that chapter in the book ends.
I know God builds us all with a purpose in mind. Where he will lead me next is unknown. I do know there is enough going on right now just with some of my family members to keep me busy, and then it’s spring. There is always a lot of work on a farm in spring, I hope I can get caught up on chores I’m behind on. My horse let me know very clearly yesterday that he thinks he needs some of my time. I should have more now to happily give the big guy. So, now I end one chapter and turn the page. Time to start a new chapter.
I have this blog, and I like writing about whatever topic I choose. I also like the alternative censorship free avenue to share information. If you find an article that you think has info that would be of interest to someone, send them the link, please.
I’ve felt so many times to be so hip deep in alligators I should just name them and get them vaccinated. I can vaguely remember a life where I used to keep the house fairly (for me) clean, I sewed a lot, knitted, crocheted had a sense of humor, you know, was a real person! I worked with my horse almost every day.
For a long time it’s felt like I just run from one responsibility to the next. My fence rows need to be cleaned, my house needs to be cleaned, though it is better. I need to fix a fence, clean out the chicken house and their play area and make sure it’s safe for them. I’d like to read a book, see if I remember how to knit and crochet. Goodness knows Captain could use the work, though probably less than I need to work him. It’s good for me.
Today I did some of the things I needed to do, but I also read a real book, just for a little bit and then I took advantage of the beautiful day God gave us. I went out and fixed the downed panels in the little round corral and got Captain. We just worked some on line, then I had the bareback pad on him and got on. First time this year. It’s been a brutal winter. Seems either the footing was good and it was -20, which is probably why the footing was good, it was frozen. Or the weather was 30 degrees and the footing was too sloppy. Or I had 14 other things demanding my attention. But today, I was a human, I rode my horse. We weren’t spectacular, he is still coming off the rail, but he did very well for not having been ridden for at least 3 months. I was really hoping we wouldn’t rodeo, and we didn’t. He was really a good boy. He knows he was, he’s gets cookies when he gets it right. Hey, I don’t work for free, I don’t expect him to, and for him, it makes it more of a game and he likes to win that cookie.
We watched a movie tonight, Ring The Bell it is a Christian movie about a big city sports agent that runs from contract to contract with no need for God or really even other people in his life. He is a human doing, trying to accomplish all the goals the world says make him a successful man.
I think we can all fall into this trap, I know I have. Not because I want to achieve the world’s idea of “success” but because of the responsibilities that pull at me from many directions. The old, so focused on the journey, we forget to pay attention to the ride sort of thing.
As I search to find the direction God is pointing me, I need to remember I am a human being, there are times I need to just, well, be. And I firmly believe that blingy browbands can help me remember that I’ve been given many blessings by God. I should take time to appreciate them!
Naw, I don’t really have a Mustang….I have something way cooler, a Saturn SC2. Which the nicest old man backed into back in January. I finally took it in to Raymore Collision Plus the week to get it fixed. They were on the list of shops American Family (the hit-ers) insurance works with. The hit-ee (that would be me) can choose off the list and not have to get second estimates or anything. I admit, I had a lot of concern that it would look like an “appaloosa” car. That the spot would show, but it doesn’t. It looks perfect, and I mean perfect! They even cleaned the car out. They should get a medal for bravery for that!
I returned the rental car, and picked up my car. YEAH!
As soon as I got home I jumped in my truck to take it in to my regular mechanic to get the wheel bearings fixed/replaced whatever he’s going to have to do so I can haul the illustrious Captain (my version of the original Sybil’s Star) to where ever we need to go, safely.
I hope that’s it on the automobile shuffle game for a while. But boy Raymore Collision Plus sure did do a GREAT job. And they were all really, really nice!
The first part of the day was the Mustang part. I made good on my Valentines gift to hubby and had his horses teeth floated. For those that don’t know, that means filing the sharp edges off their teeth. This horse is old and only has about 4 teeth left. While it might seem like with 4 teeth it doesn’t matter, it matters even more then. Dr. Aaron did just a great job, and he says hubby’s horse is looking great for his age and for me to keep feeding the same way I have been. Almost like giving him two gifts!
Recent Comments