Chickens, Hay fields, Rain, Pool issue

Once again I've been thinking about doing this for a few days, but never really taking the time to do it. But I'm here now, and that's what matters, right? :-) Anyway, everyone's doing pretty well. The chickens who have had babies are being very good moms and the chicks are still cute as ever. One interesting thing is that although one 'mom of one' had her chick hatch 4 weeks after mom of nine's, the two families are getting along quite well. In fact the tiny chick who's an only chick frequently hangs out with the other 9 while hunting for bugs. It's almost as though the chicks of mom-of-nine know that mom is going to be turning them loose on there own soon, and have adopted the mom-of-one to be a surrogate mom for when that time comes. *grin*

We had a visitor yesterday. I know... SHOCK! SURPRISE! EXHILARATION! LOL. However, it was just the man about a mile from here who mows fields and then turns the cut grass into either square or round bales. He is the same person who did it for the previous owner of this place. He said he would've came sooner (we've been here 6 years), but he was either too busy, or we weren't home when he wasn't. So he brush hogged two fields and is planning on coming back in a couple of days to make bales. He told us that however many bales we wanted, we could have. The neat thing is that he's doing it all for FREE!  YAY! Now we're going to have hay for the chickens' nest boxes, as mulch for the gardens, and some to make paths for the chickens this winter when (if?) there's snow on the ground. We would've contacted him sooner, but we didn't know who the previous owner had doing it, because we didn't think to ask when we bought the place. *sigh* It's getting done now, and that's what counts I guess. *smile*

It's been HOT up until yesterday, too hot to do any major work outside. Not that there's a lot of work that NEEDS to be done, but even things that don't take much physical exertion are difficult when it's in the mid to upper 90's (Fahrenheit). I know that for a fact because I was going to move some rocks away from the front of the ex goat shed yesterday afternoon, only to find I was turning into a sweat ball after only a few rocks (cinder block size). It was even overcast, so I thought it would be a good time to do it, but apparently it doesn't take much to make me sweat - it was in the low 80's after all.

Haven't had any bleach or vinegar to put in the pool for almost a week, and the algae is trying to make a come back. *sigh* Unfortunately we don't get paid until this coming Friday. Hopefully the pool won't become TOO green, but judging by how the hot weather is helping the algae, we're going to need to re-clean it. Hence why we plan on adding 2 bottles of bleach and 3 bottles of vinegar this coming weekend. Don't know yet whether I'm going to vacuum the pool bottom. Will just wait and see how bad the algae gets before I decide. We keep hoping it's going to rain, because it's been somewhat overcast the last few days, but it seems the rain is just going around us. It has been about 5-10 degrees cooler, so that's nice, but we REALLY need some rain because the grass it turning brown.

And that's all I've got to say about that! :-)

Tags: hay, grass, weather, pool, chickens, chicks

E-card virus alert!

I hate getting those emails saying that there's a virus being sent around when the person did not check with Snopes or some other reputable site before forwarding yet another hoax. But, I just got this information in an email, I have checked it out and it is a valid virus - a REALLY BAD one. Also, your anti-viral software does not protect against this one. It started making the rounds on the net in June 2007, so it's very new.

It sounds very innocent. It's just an email telling you that you have a free eCard and has a web link to the site. If you click on it, the site installs a variant of the "Storm Trojan" which is "a very aggressive piece of malware that has been hijacking computers to serve as attacker bots." I actually received this email but marked it as SPAM, clicked on delete, and forgot about it. That was about two weeks ago.

The subject line on my email said, "You've received a greeting ecard from a classmate!"  I couldn't think of a classmate that would send me an ecard and assumed it was spam. It was actually a virus.

The email looks just like all the others you get when someone sends you a free ecard.

Feel free to check out the information for yourself at:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

Please let your friends know.

Tags: e-card virus, ecard virus, virus', snopes, malware

War with Iran. Protests

Now I'm not saying either will happen, meaning that I hope that it's not a foregone conclusion that Bush will order an attack on Iran. I really hope he doesn't, but from what I understand, he's determined to strike their before the alleged end of his presidency. I'm worried that if he does, then all hell is going to break loose in the middle east. Dare I say, "WWIII"? Maybe not, but I can't imagine that China would be real happy about it, since they too get oil from Iran. If the Chinese oil supply is threatened, would they not be tempted to protect their "country's interest". What would they do? And you know what would end the war in Iraq? If China, who has the largest standing army in the world (2 million plus), would send a million or two soldiers there and tell the Americans, "Get the fuck out! NOW!" Other than that, the neocons are going to continue to terrorize the Iraqi people as long as they can. IF there are elections for president in 2008, I don't  believe that there will be ANY difference in the State's war policy than there is right now, even if a Democrat gets in. Iran will probably slow oil production WAY down, thus affecting oil supplies of several countries, Chavez will likely follow, and 'things' ARE going to get messy (in death AND financially). Count on it! Speaking of the attitude of the soldiers in Iraq, I just heard on the news that one told a reporter that "all Iraqi men are 'insurgents'", and it was time to "step-up the violence".  I've also heard that *80%* of the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan is because the States invaded Iraq souly for their oil, under the guise of "regime" change against a man THEY put into power! And they attacked a country who was absolutely NO THREAT to the States of America, and that is totally against International Law. But the Bush regime believes that THEY are the ONLY world super power, so they get to make the rules. Meaning they feel they're perfectly justified in doing whatever the fuck they want to do, whether that attacking other sovereign nations or breaking International Law. They think they are ABOVE THE LAW of the world. And those democrats that "we" elected in 2006? Spineless rubber stampers! :-(

You know how 'they' say, "Why don't Americans take to the street in protests?" Well, they do, the mainstream media just doesn't cover them because they don't want "The People" to feel empowered. So here are a few links to said protests...

• immigrants protesting in Los Angeles and elsewhere

• Sat 08/7/2006 Sacramento USA Photos

• Wed 12/7/2006 Start of Israeli attack on Lebanon

• Wed 12/7/2006 Boston USA

• Fri 14/7/2006 Chicago USA II

• Sat 15/7/2006 Sacramento USA

• Sun 16/7/2006 Los Angeles USA

• Mon 17/7/2006 Chicago USA

• Mon 17/7/2006 Houston, USA
  Reports: I | II – Photos: I | II | III | IV

• Mon 17/7/2006 San Francisco USA
  Photos: I | II | III | IV

• Counter-Filibuster in SF

  by Bill Carpenter ( wcarpent [at] ccsf.edu )
  Thursday Jul 19th, 2007 5:16 PM

And the list just goes on and on. Check out other protests.

Tags: Iran, wwIII, protests, protesting, mainstream media, Iraq, oil, terrorism, terrorists, 2008 election, republicans, democrats, politics, government, congress, senate, rubber stamping, unitied states

Write to me

Okay, just got a wild hair about posting to this blog via email. This is basically a test to make sure that I can :-)

If you don't want to leave a public comment, feel free to email me a private message. Be sure to fill-out the subject line.

Sharpened blades. Garden bugs. Pool cleaning.

Sorry, but I have no pictures today, hence why I'm using Qumana to write my blog today. Anyway, got quite a bit done the last couple of days. Primarily, and something that needed to be done a while ago, I got the blades off of the riding mower and sharpened. They're still pretty dinged-up from hitting branches, rocks, etc, but the grass should be cut prettier (as opposed to pulled). Also that same day (Monday) we got a couple of grass/hay bales made. We have a 20 gallon can that we fill-up with grass, and then we tie it off with twine that we have, flip the barrel over to dump the home-made bale out, and Voila! - we've achieved bale-ness! :-) That day I also got a load of laundry hung-out to dry, and after I got the blades sharpened and put back on, I brought the clothes in. So it took pretty much all day to get that load of laundry done, but by gosh it did get done. *smile* It took longer than expected to remove and put the blades back on because I hadn't done it since we got the mower last year. I couldn't find the manual that came with it, so I had to go with the ole' trial and error method. Prior to looking at the situation, I thought it was going to be pretty straight-forward, but I was wrong, there was more do it. The important thing is that I got it done! Oh, I suppose I could've looked for pictures and instructions on-line, but being the man I am, I thought it would be "easy". *grin* Ya know I did take an auto mechanics class in high school, and have worked on my own cars in the past (once swapped engines from one to the other, or not, gosh, I can't remember what I did with the 'cherry-picker' back in 81')

Yesterday I tested the newly sharpened blades on a portion of the back yard. Seems to cut the grass pretty well. We also went to town (before the mowing) and got a few odds and ends. Not much because it's the end of the month and the money in our bank account is really low. Rain worked in her garden for a bit. Today we're going to open the gate to the garden and let the chickens rummage through it for bugs and grasshoppers. Rain says they're EVERYWHERE, and so far nothing she's tried has helped for long. She has tried picking the bugs off and tossing them in a bucket of soapy water, spraying leaves with garlic water (mixed w/something else?), and even some un-organic ant/bug spray that we got strictly for ants a while back. Nothing is really helping. Yeah, they're not getting everything, and we've gotten a ton of tomatoes already, but still. Hopefully the chickens won't kill anything, say like the pumpkins or squash. We shall see I guess.

I'm really happy that our friend told us about using bleach and white vinegar to use in the pool for cleaning and algae control. So far it seems to keep it cleaner longer than the algaecide and chlorine tablets that're made specifically for pools. Who'd a thunk? :-) So we figure we'll just dump a bottle of bleach and a bottle of vinegar in there once a week and we should be good. They're MUCH less expensive then the pool chemicals! :-)

Tags: swimming pool, chemicals, garden bugs, mower blades, cherry picker

Call for Impeachment - Please!

We've reached the impeachment moment for Vice President Dick Cheney. We've pushed the cosponsor list for H. Res. 333 up to 14. Chairman John Conyers says that if we get 3 more he'll begin the impeachment proceedings.

And many Congress Members must be recognizing that there is no other path available. Cheney and Bush have repeatedly refused to comply with subpoenas, ordered former staffers not to comply, and announced that the Justice Department will not enforce contempt citations from Congress. When a special prosecutor attempted to hold this administration accountable, Cheney's chief of staff obstructed justice, and Cheney persuaded Bush to commute his sentence. There is no course left for Congress but Impeachment.

On Monday, July 23rd, the fifth anniversary of the meeting that produced the Downing Street Minutes, Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Ann Wright, Debra Sweet, Dave Lindorff, David Swanson, Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin, Kevin Zeese, and Tina Richards will lead a march to Chairman Conyers office and not leave until he agrees to begin impeachment proceedings.

If you cannot be there, you can take two minutes on Monday and do two things: phone Chairman Conyers at 202-225-5126 and ask him to start the impeachment of Dick Cheney; and phone your own Congress Member at
202-224-3121 and ask them to immediately call Conyers' office to express their support for impeachment. Your Congress Member might be one of the three needed, not just to keep impeachment activists out of jail but to keep this nation from devolving into dictatorship.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm

Tags: impeach, impeachment, H. RES 333, Conyers, Kucinich, government, Bush, Cheney, dictator

Early PC. Why I blog. Chickens and their babies

Goodness, graciousness, I am so thrilled to be here, folks. And that is because my daughter decided she would lay down and nap for a couple/few hours with her mom after I got up. You're most likely thinking (don't you like how I assume to know these things?), "What's so thrilling about THAT?". Lemme' tell ya. Usually she (my daughter that is) gets on the computer first thing in the morning. And I mean FIRST thing. As in she gets up early (6:30 am [parents get up at 7]) and comes DIRECTLY to the computer. If my memory serves (and there's no guarantee of that), she told me eons ago that the reason for doing that is so that she can get "on" before "parents" (yes, they call us that for each other) and therefore doesn't have to wait. WAY back when, if I was the one getting up early with her to let the chickens out, I would get the computer and do my email and blog(s) and SHE would have to wait. Somewhere along the line it got lost that the little woman and I had decided that we (the parents) should get first stab at the PC. I don't know exactly when the young un' made the switch, but it was done pretty stealthily (or my memory's failing). A few months (?) back I know that I decided that if I couldn't get the PC first, then I would just watch TV (used to be Charmed, but I saw all the shows and have since stopped watching it) until she got done here. Which is USUALLY around 10 am or so. Now that I think about it, I believe it was after she found YouTube and the anime' videos that take FOREVER to load with dial-up, that she started having the computer for longer. And no, I couldn't get her to load them overnight so they'd already be loaded in the morning. *sigh* Anyway, all that to say that I was surprised last night, after I asked the daughter, "After I get up in the morning, why don't you just go lay down with your mother for a couple of hours, but only if you're tired?" I was SHOCKED when my wife told me later that our DD MIGHT lay down in the morning after we fed the chickens! She did, and so here I am!

Rain and I were talking a bit about me/my blogging and why I've cut back on writing. I was telling her that because if I was reading my blog, I'd find my life BORING. And why would ANYONE want to read that. I mean, you know, what's our routine? Get up, feed the chickens, watch TV or get on the PC. Some days we make a drive into town (10 or 20 miles each way depending on where we go), come home, maybe swim, mow, do the garden, or do something equally as excitement challenged. I just couldn't see how people would WANT to hear about days like that. And lately we haven't even been painting the house, so no updates there either! But she convinced me that people DO like reading about that stuff, seeing how people in the country live lives that are so much more laid back than the ones a lot of city people have, that some find it fascinating. Not only that, but once the reader finds out we're Pagan, they will know that we're really NOT all that scary. That we're regular folks, living life like so many other people. We don't sacrifice animals, babies, or anything else in rituals (in fact we don't have any rituals). We're just getting by day by day, paycheck to paycheck like everyone else. We just have different beliefs.

All that being said, I did a bit more mowing yesterday. The grass was getting pretty tall by the wood shed, and since I had pulled & cut some weeds around the pool, I wanted to make the grass surrounding said pool look neat as well. Other than that, the pool is still blue, that garden is producing LOTS of tomatoes, and we haven't found a decent color to continue painting the porch with.

We had one of the two broody hens hatch-out about 9 chicks a few weeks ago, and they're SO CUTE. Then we had another hen on another clutch of eggs, but she would only sit on some of the eggs SOME of the time, so we let her out and put another one on the eggs, and SHE wouldn't sit at all, or only at night, so we tried one more hen, and weren't too sure she'd sit on them either, but she settled down, and yesterday ONE of the 12 eggs hatched for her. This was a week PASSED the usual 21 day gestation period for those eggs, so we didn't think any would hatch. We were going to be letting her out in the day or two and tossing the eggs, but then we heard chirping yesterday afternoon. This hen had been wanting to go broody for a couple of months, but would ONLY do it in one particular spot that other chickens wanted to lay their eggs in. So it was late in the 2nd week of those eggs waiting for a decent sitter before she got to them. Anyway, we're just happy that she now can know that she didn't sit on them for the last 3 weeks in vein vain.

Pictures! Cat, plants, weeds

.
#1 This is Latte' sitting on a naked log

#2 Had a friend tell us this is Huckleberry. But in all of Rain's research on Huckleberry plants, it's nothing like what she found. Our have fuzzy, sticky leaves that are soft. Whereas what they said on-line was that H. has stiff leaves and are shiny. Help!

#3 I have NO IDEA what this is. Think it's cool looking and am hoping someone knows what the heck it is.

#4 I just think this is cool looking, but again, no clue as to what it is.

Technorati : help, plant identification, plants, weed, weeds

Deep thoughts? You decide

I've been thinking about it for two days now, and am finally doing it. That's right, writing my deepest thoughts down so the world can peek into my psyche. Should probably write something 'deep', 'enlightening' or 'profound'. Something that no one else knows, either about me personally, about someone only I know, or perhaps something that everyone wants to hear. The problem is... what is it? Should be? You know psychologists (or so I've heard in the past) think the word "should" is a bad thing. Don't know why exactly, perhaps because if ones feel he/she should do, say, or be something, one doesn't feel it's really their choice. Some I am sure would say that people have too many choices already, and that's why 'things' are so disheveled. Of course I don't follow that train of thought. Do sometimes think 'it' would be easier if someone else made "the hard choice" for me, but then I would feel diminished, or belittled, as though I'm not worthy of making such decisions. The problem when making some decisions, is that you are not the only one affected. And the more people you don't personally feel are cleared for the 'need to know' information, the more self-serving your choice is going to be, the more people are either going to be mad at you, ignore you, or strongly dislike you for making the decision you did. For some reason the saying, "You cannot love others until you love yourself" comes to mind. One could deduce that that means "serve yourself well first, worry about the rest later". And that kind of makes sense, although in today's society (as I understand it) that is a bad thing. Some have said that it's the "me" generation who's to blame for the mess the world is in right now. Not enough people thinking about others, whether first or even at all. Now the thought, "You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time". Now where am I going with this? I guess I'm procrastinating making a statement I feel is deep enough to say. Which I haven't, just so you know. They don't call me "Ramble" man for nothing.

Whatever!

Well, I was going to "blog", but in reality I don't have a frikkin clue as what to write about. There once was a time when I tried to write every day. Now I only, maybe, write once a week, and only then if there's something happening. Or if I did something "unusual", or "new". Guess what I'm trying to say is that I have nothing to say that's not been said a million times before by millions of other people. *sigh* I may or may not post this. Seems kind of depressing, and I can't imagine *anyone* thinking, "Oh joy, I'm SO glad I found THIS blog!". So as you can imagine, not much of anything is going on here. Cats are all doing pretty well, except that Spot has a sore ear. It is the inside of it where she's been trying to stop the itching and has made it look a little raw (irritated really). The chickens have only been giving us 3 eggs a day. Not good when you've got 30 hens and it's supposedly peak laying time! Rain is thinking that laying hens should have red ears, but right now most of ours have yellow ears (or vice versa, can't remember). And it does not appear as though they're in molt. So, come this fall we're going to cull most if not all of them and replace them with Road Island Reds.

As you know, the pool is up and running. The water isn't crystal clear yet, but we're hoping that after we add another gallon or two of bleach it will be. Not sure if we need to add another gallon or two of vinegar too, hmm...

I don't know what it is about my web browser (Firefox 2.0.0.4) lately, but it seems to be "hanging" a lot. Meaning that it sometimes takes a LONG time for a page to load (longer than Internet Explorer for the same page), or when I fill-out a form and click on "post", the page will just sit there until I 'refresh' the page. Any idea what the scoop is? Probably the dial-up that I hate! But that I'm stuck with! Sorry, I digress.

The garden is doing well. There's a HUGE pumpkin growing, so it looks like we won't have to buy one for Halloween this year. YAY! Rain is getting quite a few tomatoes, a yellow squash here and there.

I should probably eat something. All I've had since I got up around 9:30 is tea, water, and cigarettes. I'm thinking maybe a hamburger is in order, rather than what I'm tempted to have... chocolate cake.

Did I mention I'm no longer posting blogs to Myspace, Yahoo 360, or Xanga? Well, I stopped because *nobody* had commented on the last *several* posts to those places, so I figured, "Why bother?", so I don't.

Tags: gardens, tomatoes, pumpkins, firefox 2, internet explorer, chickens xanga, myspace, yahoo 360

Clean pool. Harry Potter movie

The good, no, make that great news is that our pool no longer looks like a pond. I added two gallons of bleach and 3 gallons of vinegar (white) and let all that circulate. Within only a few hours that water was clear and you could see that the bottom was blue. After we went to the store yesterday afternoon, after the Harry Potter movie, we put a container of clarifier into the pool. Haven't really looked at the pool since last nite, so not sure how clear the water is.

Yes, we saw and thoroughly enjoyed the HP movie. It was a long one, longer than the other ones anyway. Don't know what else to say, other than they did a pretty good job of following the book, at least according to my wife and daughter.

Technorati : harry potter, movies, pools

Pool fixed AGAIN. Pool Party. Harry Potter movie.

Good afternoon ladies and gentleman! It's good to be here. *grin* Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that once AGAIN the pool is fixed. On Saturday we vacuumed the bottom of the pool. set the filter to "filter", and then left it alone for an hour or so. After letting the water run through the filter for a while, sifting the newly loosen algae from the bottom of the pool (that I couldn't vac.), we decided to do what is called a "backwash" on the filter (to flush it out). Unfortunately, after turning the pump off, we couldn't turn it back "on" to do said backwash. The breaker-switch on the pole wouldn't go back on, so the pool got to sit once again, accumulating more algae (or at least not getting any out). So once again we thought, "Great! If it isn't one thing, it's another. Maybe this is a sign that we're not meant to have a clean pool. And that it's turning into one giant hole into which we're throwing money!" *sigh* Called the electric company and they came today and replace the breaker-switch. Prior to that, I replaced the switch at the pool so we didn't have to use *just* the breaker-switch. And this is the new switch and "fancy" water-seal I put on it. *grin*

It's a lot different than the old cover because we couldn't find one that the cover would work with. Although it occurred to me last night how I could make it work. But I figure that since we *rarely* use the outlets on the right side of that box there, I didn't need to. Not sure how well that duct tape will seal the switch from rain, so we may also put a plastic bag over it when we think it's going to rain.

Yesterday we spent 4 hours between 1 and 5 p.m. at the pool in Buffalo, where our friends set-up a birthday party for their daughter and a friend. The kids stayed in the water the entire 4 hours, and I was in and out. Out more than in because I wanted to mingle with the other adults. We also had cake and hotdogs. Both were delish!

Now that I'm done here, I need to go out and start the mower up and do a bit more mowin.

Don't forget.... Wednesday (7-11) the movie "Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix" comes to "theaters near you", and that's where we'll be that afternoon. *smile*

Technorati : Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, electric switches, movies, parties, pool party

Pool is fixed! More mowing

Remember me telling you that the reason our pump wouldn't work was because the switch had quit working (I thought it was the pump that went bad)? I felt so silly after my friend discovered that, because it never even occurred to me to check the switch because it was brand-new last year. Thought it would last longer. Guessed wrong! Still don't have a switch, but the pool-motor is the only thing hooked to the breaker-box, so we just bypassed the switch at the pool, for now, and turn the pump on via the breaker). Well, today we went to 3 different hardware stores (MFA, Sutherland's, and Lowes) looking for thin plastic washers to go on the filter control unit and found nothing. Finally, we decided to go to an actual pool & pool supplies store. Guess what? Yep, they had 2 washers that could be used to replace the broken ones. Back to feeling silly. While in there talking to him I mentioned that water just gushed out the top. He told me that those washers won't keep the water from getting out, there's an o-ring inside the control unit that does that, and he showed it to me (we took the whole unit in). Sure enough, the o-ring had come loose and was no longer sealing the water off from the lever (switches filter to different settings). Came home and installed it on the filter and VOILA!, it WORKS. Our pool is now running! So now we (probably me) just need to vacuum the bottom and add 3 gallons of vinegar & 2 gallons of bleach (chlorine), and we'll have a pool that you can see the bottom of (as opposed to seeing algae-green). Now the kids will have their summer pool back. They're very excited and can hardly wait till it is clean. I'm feeling the same, although I'm not looking forward to vacuuming it. But it's gotta be done, huh?

Just like I said we would, we got gas for the mower yesterday that I used to mow a little of the back and a little of the front yard. Supper was called, so I'll need to finish it, or at least get more done, after it cools off this afternoon.

Technorati : above ground pool, filters, lowes, mfa, pools, sand filter, sutherlands, swimming

Independence day. Air-conditioner. Monthly shopping. Homeschool play-day. Mowing. Line check.

Good afternoon, everybody! Hope you had a lovely 4th of July holiday day. Our was pretty much like any other day of the year, except that we went to the park in Long Lane, MO and watched the fireworks show. Pretty good. The only thing that was disappointing was the finally. Usually, at least the one we attended there 2 years ago, the ending was a mass amount of BIG fireworks, this year it was a barrage of little to medium ones. Still very pretty, just not as intense as in the past.

We finally put the window air-conditioner in yesterday. The heat was really starting to bother me (zapping almost all my energy), so we just did it. Granted, the unit is really too small to keep the house super cool, but it does keep the livingroom at 80*F or a little below. At least it's cooler than the outdoor temps that have been above 90*F the last few days.

Got our major, monthly shopping done on Tuesday. Still need to buy some meat. We'll probably go back to Lebanon tomorrow, to Smitty's, and partake in the 5 for $25 deal on packages of meat. We don't like to buy meat at Wal-Mart or Woods because they both get the meat that's been injected with water or whatever that raises the weight of the meat so they can sell it for more. We prefer our meat not to be injected with anything, if we can help it.

Today we'll be going to the park in Buffalo to meet with other homeschooling families. Should be a good time.

Oh  yeah, and we'll be filling our 5 gallon container with gas so that we (me) can mow this week. Since we've gotten quite a bit of rain since last week, the grass has grown A LOT. So, to keep any snakes that may be thinking about sneaking closer to the house from doing so, and to make it easier for the chickens to find any ticks that may be hiding in the grass easier to find, I'll be mowing.

Today a technician from CenturyTel is suppose to come and check the phone line and hopefully figure out a fix to the constant disconnects.

Have a happy day! Cheers! And all that! :-)

Tags: Independence day, Air-conditioner, Monthly shopping, Homeschool play-day, Mowing, Line check, Wal-Mart, Woods, Buffalo, Missouri

Worth a few words anyway. OR Garden pictures

More pictures. Why? Words just can't say what we've been up to lately, but perhaps the pictures can. You will NEED to click on them to enlarge them if you want to be able to read the captioning for each image. Although it *wasn't* easier than just typing them below the entire picture, I decided to be different and have text on the actual image.

Technorati : garden, photo, photograph, photographs, photos, picture, pictures, sweet potato, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tropical plant, tropical plants

Help support the September 15th march in Washington

~A message from Ramsey Clark~
"Time is short: The question is whether we have the will to act"
Help support the September 15th march in Washington

--Please Circulate Widely--

I am writing to you with the hope that you will help us organize and promote the September 15th March in Washington DC. Thousands of Americans from around the country will join together to demand the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and insist on the immediate end to the war in Iraq. September 15th is the date General David Petraeus is mandated to make a report to Congress on the progress of the so-called surge. The eyes of the national and international media will be focused on Washington DC at that time.

In the coming weeks we will be taking out newspaper ads, producing 500,000 leaflets, flyers, and stickers, and setting up outreach committees for the September 15th March in Washington all over the country. I hope we can count on you to help in this momentous effort. Time is short. The question is whether we have the will to act.

President Bush has said ..."the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." Feeling unappreciated he has questioned "...whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq." Let us count the acts of the Bush Administration for which the Iraqi people should be grateful.

We need your help How much will you give to impeach Bush? Please act now, as if the future of the country depends on it. It is essential that we raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to organize buses, to take out newspaper ads, to print 500,000 flyers, stickers, and posters, to cover the cost of sound and stage, and more. We can succeed but only with the help of you and thousands of other people. Please make a donation today by clicking this link -- you can make an online donation or send a check.

-US violence has brought death to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's and physical injury to millions.

-Hundreds of billions of dollars in property destruction caused by U.S. aggression will take decades after peace to rebuild.

-2.2 million Iraqi's, nearly one in ten, have fled their country to foreign exile, refugee camps and a doubtful future while at least 2 million more have fled their homes and communities to furtive lives of quiet desperation, to inadequate housing within Iraqi, without jobs or schools.

-3/4's of the people do not have safe drinking water.

-Iraqi's internationally acclaimed and free health care system is a shambles.

-Since Shock and Awe began in March 2003 infant mortality in Iraq has increased radically to the highest death rate of all nations.

-Iraq is the most unstable country in the world.

-The sight and sound of violent death has created a pervasive state of constant devastating fear.

For this Iraq should be grateful?

It must be clear to every informed and thinking person that President Bush has no concern for human suffering, truth, freedom, democracy, peace, justice, human rights, or the Constitution of the United States. His words and acts are designed only to increase his personal power and achieve his personal agenda and that of those who share his goals and hatred.

To this end, he will destroy relations with Russia by placing missile defense systems on its border inside Poland and in the Czech Republic, he will impose Wolfowitz on the World Bank, and he will retain Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

President Bush intends for a major American military force to remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future even if it destroys that country utterly and turns the whole world that cares about justice against the United States. Look only at the $600 million dollar U.S. Embassy built in the heart of Baghdad and nearing completion. He sees withdrawal from Iraq as the loss of control of its oil followed by Saudi Arabia and the Emirates with their oil and the expansion of Iranian influence.

President Bush seeks regime change in Iran and Syria and the perpetuation of repressive dictatorships in Egypt, Pakistan and elsewhere in the region. There is a high risk he will order an attack on Iran. Having achieved regime change of the fairly elected government of Palestine, he seeks permanent isolation and decimation of Gaza and tightening control of the West Bank through funding and arming of a minority faction there, ending the hope for a viable, free and independent Palestine.

He plans to expand his war against Islam that will involve the U.S. in a losing military conflict on Muslim soil for years to come with unforeseeable, but devastating costs and consequences.

To continue these policies he will further diminish the freedom, privacy and civil liberties of the American people and expand the domination of wealth and militarism over the economy and body politic of our country.

He has committed the most serious crimes against humanity from wars of aggression and threats of more to political corruption and the corruption of justice at home unprecedented in our history.

Impeachment now is imperative. If, We the People fail to force accountability for these crimes this fall, President Bush will have a free ride with impunity through the Presidential election year of 2008, when the Constitutional duty to impeach will succumb to political pressure, to the end of his second term in January 2009.

The impeachment of Bush, Cheney and the other civil officers of the United States is not merely the best way to bring our troops home from Iraq and prevent new aggressions, it is the sure way and the only way. President Bush, who assaults nations in the name of democracy has proclaimed himself the one man "decider" for the fate of our country and its victims. For him, democracy is an election controlled by wealth every four years and dictatorship in between.

If we fail, the world will see that the American people are powerless to effectively oppose Bush policies that have angered and embittered billions of people, making enemies of most nations, or worse, that the American people support Bush policies. How else could such lawless and destructive policies be tolerated?

We do have the will to act and by working together we can make the difference. Please act now, as if the future of the country depends on it.

We can succeed but only with the help of you and thousands of other people. It is essential that we raise hundreds of thousands of dollars right now. Please make a donation today by clicking this link -- you can make an online donation or send a check.

We can organize, arouse public opinion and raise funds over the summer to bring a massive turnout on September 15 in Washington DC demanding Impeachment and an end to the war. If you want to be listed as an endorser and supporter of the September 15th demonstration, you can do so by clicking this link.

We will work in key Congressional Districts, constituents to their Representative, to insure action on Impeachment. We will involve people in every walk of life, working together to stop the runaway lawlessness of the Bush Administration before we are so inextricably intertwined in aggression, war, occupation and alienation that it will take decades before we can pursue policies that serve humanity, rejecting militarism, domination and exploitation.

We need to know how receptive the American people are to an all out effort in this moment of maximum moral and political crisis to personal commitment to participation in a six month campaign to impeach Bush/Cheney, et al.

Are you? Let us know now whether you will join this campaign. Let us know how you can organize support, enlisting others, staging demonstrations across the nation, raising and contributing funds for massive T.V., newspaper, computer and direct telephone and mail campaigns.

I hope you will join us and make this effort a priority so we can persevere in common cause.

Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark

--please forward widely to your friends, family and email lists--

Please make a donation today by clicking this link.

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