the way isn't always clear!

Pause to Reflect

     The last couple of days have given me some reason to sit back and ask what all of this is for. Why should I try and devote all my resources to pursue what? Not asking for sympathy or even an understanding on your part as I hardly understand myself. Instead I take one obstacle after the next, and fight one fire after another, and just plug along like an old horse on a dusty trail to nowhere. The trail does lead somewhere, its end isn’t exactly clear but it is up ahead where I truly want to be, and where destiny will finally show me the way to.

     To begin with it all started a month or so ago with all this rain on the cycle it was on where, I couldn’t tie more two days of sunshine together to be able to dry it enough to make hay. This was ok I guess, as I always have other things to do and was able to keep busy. But even before that I had waterline problems and that set me back for the year with a lot of projects I had planned for the summer season, but the hay was rotting in the field waiting for the rain to stop. . This wasn’t all bad as in the end this gave rise to a new solution to my compost problem and actually eased the amount of work I have to do to get the compost I need.

      One rainy day I was watching a video of a hill girl in her bare feet pushing hay along the ground and gathering it to throw on a wagon , and realized I could do the same with the rake and windrow the hay and then take the bucket of the tractor and pile it up in loose piles , while all the time I was wondering why I was baling it, habit I guess . Loose big piles will allow the water to be absorbed as it lies in the field hastening the rotting process allowing it to compost much quicker than it ever will in a bale. In fact I have to tear all these old bales apart to increase their rotting as I am going to need lots of compost. Can use it on bare spots on the farm and it grows things big.

     My next project is to move the raspberries I had planted beside my house and transplant them into a regular row in a field where I can mow on both sides and between two wires to hold the canes up. Hopefully within a couple of years I will be able to start a pick your own of raspberries , red and black, black berries , and dew berries, which all grow here on the farm and are readily available for transplant. I was able to grow raspberries of the black variety up to a quarter size in compost, as well I have had the same happen from the red raspberries but lately they are overcrowded an need to be reset and composted again. This is all good, as I have compost on the hill and an area alongside the lane that will work for my initial start of the grow your own berries.

 

      3 months ago the tractor had a problem with dying out as I drove it around and I finally determined that it was the fuel pump and replaced it. Yesterday after raking hay that had been rained on, I brought the tractor to the house, and let it sit overnight, and when I climbed on it yesterday and tried to start it, it wouldn’t turn over, it had a hole in the fuel pump and drained the fuel tank into the crank case and the pistons had no place to go because they couldn’t push against the oil and fuel oil in the crankcase. I pulled the dipstick and oil shot out of the dipstick hole. We drained the crankcase and pulled the fuel pump and could visibly see the hole in the diaphragm of the pump. Anyhow we were able to turn the tractor over, the diesel shouldn’t hurt the crankcase and at most may cause a little oil use as it will clean the seals a little too well.

     Before that last week, it was tires as I had front tire blow as they are getting old. The tractor is ten years old but I only have 1600 hrs. on it, which isn’t that much, but instead just broke in good. The tires still had a lot of tread but because I had accidentally drove over some obstacles that required me to put boots over the holes in the tires weakening them. Eventually they required tubes and then the tires weakened to the point I was going to have a major blowout as I did, so I decided to replace the front tires and bought 2 new ones as part of a renewal process. Hoping the rear tires go one at a time as they are 600 apiece. Front tires were 200 apiece. Not bad if you are loaded with money. Not really the case for me. Now then another 68 dollars for a fuel pump and 30 dollars for oil just to keep the tractor going.

     On top of that I have had a coon problem and it managed to take 3 of my chickens right out of the chicken house forcing me to tighten up their security and for extra effort I left Babe out all night, as I don’t only have chickens but baby ducks as well and we started out with 8 and are down to 7 on one duck. The other duck beside my house hasn’t finished setting on her nest and from the smell of things, I think her nest may be rotten but she still sits on them. One egg I saw in the nest looked like it was developing so who knows maybe she will still produce some babies. Hope it is soon, really 

stinks.

       So no hay or plenty of hay as is actually the case and no way of picking it up or doping anything with it for a few days. Good thing I was going to let it rot anyhow, because that is what it is doing. My chickens are dwindling just when they are about laying size, ducks are doing ok and the sun is now baking everything in the greenhouse making me watch the water more carefully. There are times when you want to give up, but then what would I do. Sit around and obsess about small stuff, and slowly work myself into early Alzheimer’s. If keeping the mind active to avoid Alzheimer’s and early onset senility is any way to do it then surely farming is the way for me. But then again I have to be crazy to worry about all this when others are sitting around watching TV in their underwear, doing nothing. 

is there intelligent life out there?

Review of News Today 7-24-15

       I will start out on a positive note and give us all some hope, apparently our new satellite telescope has found another planet in a distant galaxy supposedly older and capable of sustaining life. Now you may ask how this news is going to affect you. Probably never, but it may affect your kids in their lifetime. It seems humans could if possible devote all their energy to a project from its infancy and be able to produce the likes of an atom bomb. But it seems like we move at a much slower pace when it comes to saving mankind.

     Why even search for another world? Well we are killing the life processes of this one hastening extinction of species as opposed to creating species as undoubtedly our planet did at one time. I can name a handful of animals officially extinct in my lifetime at the hands of man, yet even when I dig deep can find none that has been created in our lifetime. And on top of that we are killing mankind also, wars are being raged, terror is at everyone’s door step and now we all need a gun to protect what we have as it is necessary because the other 7 billion of you don’t know how to behave and get along with others.

     With terror comes fear and global doom, as the population increases and technology allows, fear comes at a quicker response. Where were you on 9-11, is a prime example.  Within minutes everyone knew what had happened. I was working running a push Cat d-9 dozer loading pans on a construction site south of the Conesville plant in central Ohio, virtually in the middle of nowhere leveling a huge hilltop while working for Beaver Excavating. Within an hour and half after the first plane hit the tower in New York City, out in the middle of nowhere I heard about what happened when others eating lunch started spreading rumors we were at war.  And where has that lead us to since then, more security , more loss of personal freedom , more of our income to support fear, while at the same time creating environmental nightmares as we bomb oilfields, and continue  searching for WMD’s in the name of security. This is why we need another planet,

    A sarcastic but very true poster I saw on Facebook from lady y or something like that which said the USA has went 0 days without a mass shooting, sad but true. We the people are screwing this one up, real bad at times.  Last night we had another mass shooting in Louisiana where a gunman sat in the audience for 20 minutes before standing up and opening fire on the audience. Now if everyone had a gun that was sitting in the audience, would this have stopped the idiot from standing up and starting shooting? Wouldn’t it make you a little nervous if your daughter Sarah a whole 11 years old whips out her Glock and empties it into the fool as soon as he stood up in a menacing way. How would you feel after she finished unloading the clip into him being careful to centralize the bullets around the heart , the head , and a few into his privates for the fun of it, and afterwards blowing the smoke off the barrel of her gun and smiling that sweet Sarah smile you thought you knew so well, wouldn’t this upset you a little or would you be proud of the fact she eliminated the fear for everyone else in the theatre as you all can  sit down and finish watching the movie before calling 911.

      Fear is what sells guns as people are intimidated by the fact that terror is at their doorstep. It is kind of like Donald Trump going to Laredo, Texas, and talking about the threat of Mexican illegals coming across the border. Well they say that Laredo, Texas has a lower crime rate than New York City where Donald Trump is from, give us a break Donald. So what has shown us? But what fear can do. At first it makes you think Laredo must be a bad ass place to be. Laredo isn’t the problem, our image of fear is, because we believe everything we are told and this is why we need another world. We are in fear of screwing this one up so bad that we need another to make it right from the beginning. A place where we what have no guns, no religion , no wars, no profit, where peace and prosperity follows all and we all get along with each other , and we have respect for nature. I am an idealistic person and believe that would be the perfect model, but in reality would be dependent on man to populate and start anew.

     But wait, if this civilization is older, could it not be more evolved than us. What if a species had developed itself as much as we have or even more, and had known about earth years ago and had even visited our blue marble and decided that although it is pretty, it has a species that could virtually kill their planet as they know it and had so far avoided detection till now? Fear had never been part of their daily regimen, but now it has to be, as it seems the people of the planet Earth have tired of killing their own and now has set their sight on their world. It may take us 100 years to develop the technology, but assuredly we are going to go, it is in our nature to wonder, we have to.  And it will take a lot less time if something tragic happens here on our planet, then we will soon be heading there as soon as we can develop the technology to do it, whether they want us to or not.

     Now then who is going to determine what the rules are concerning the new planet, we as humans? We aren’t capable, look at us we cannot go a day without violence and how do you expect everyone to be in agreement to say we have a chance for a do-over there.  Personally I think we should send everyone with over 20000 dollars to their name to the new planet and maybe this one won’t be so bad. But sadly as soon as you send those Wall Street brokers to a distant planet, others would climb up from the bowels of humanity to take their place. How about if we eliminated greed?  Anyone who is suspected of greed for things more than money is the first to go. Now that could be greedy for intelligence, wanting to be the smartest person ever. Or say for instance greedy for stuff. You know everyone has it stuff in the closet things you don’t use but keep forever, constantly spending effort to make sure your stuff is the best and you have a lot of it. Well that is greed and you need to go. Oh yeah, don’t forget your stuff.

     Maybe you like guns and maybe you need an arsenal although you can only fire one at a time you still want to have all the guns in the world and then you won’t live in fear anymore, you definitely need to go and take the guns with you. That is greed. Of course wanting money and never having to worry because you have so much that even if someone tried to take it away you would still have enough. You would never have to worry. Of course that is the greed we are most familiar with, where you can buy freedom, guns, security, and surround yourself with others that think because of their association with you, they too are never going to be in fear, an umbrella of safety to cover all your associates and shield them from fear helping to protect you in the process. Of course these are the people who are going to profit from such an adventure as starting life on a distant planet. Maybe they deserve to go first; after all they are paying for it.

       Well nothing is going to happen overnight and if there is intelligent world out there, hopefully the new planet is a cardboard cutout the real intelligent civilization left there to purposely avoid our gaze of their real world.  And since we will expend all our energy getting there to view the fake world, it will be that much longer before they are ever detected. I hope so for their sake. It is just that I am disappointed in man. We as humans can do amazing things, and at the same time do some of the most unimaginable things ever thought of. Build bombs to kill millions, allow starvation, and war to profit someone’s pocket, but at times can barely get along. I think we need to clean up our own house and act civilized before we go visiting someone else. If nothing else for fear they may be worse and looking for a world like ours to call home. At least if we have conquered our fears and learn to get along with what we have and everyone is happy, and the environment is at equilibrium with all species and is healthy. Then maybe we don’t really don’t need anyone else or another planet. I know dream on.

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back to carving

Update on Farm – July 18^th, 2015

    It is starting out the day a muggy one, after another muggy one yesterday. Tried to finish a bear I was working on yesterday but the heat and humidity beat me down big time. I was able to finish another carving I had been reluctantly putting off a rising phoenix sculpture where I just couldn’t just get the feathering right, or at least to what I thought it should be. Today I plan on delivering the carving an ending the nightmare that has plagued me personally. I feel I have produced the best carving I can. Was it all I wanted it to be? Not necessarily. But then when you are carving in wood, do overs are rare, to come out with anything close to what I had envisioned is great, it is only my interpretation of the project that pulls me down, as if I was perfect.

    There are ways of fixing wood carvings too. You can glue another piece on and cut it back off to what you thought in the first place. When you sculpt in clay, you have the ability to make it right the first time, before casting in bronze or plaster, but with wood it is harder to make it right or exact he first time through. Duplicating matching pieces or building furniture can have the same harrowing results when attempting repetitive projects, say scrolls etc. . Deformities in the wood, knots, and cracks, etc. cause their own special problems to be dealt with as you go along.

      As a chainsaw carver I am not that particular about which way the grain runs, or how it will affect the overall carving. Instead it is all about proportion and making it work. Trying to fit what you have in your mind into the piece of wood in front of you. You can’t worry about all the other stuff if the project you are working on doesn’t fit in the piece of wood or if you cut to deep. what are the ramifications of that? Every bear or carving has its own special circumstances you have to deal with as you go along.

    Well rain has played a significant role in my plans this summer, in some cases setting me back in my plans. I had planned on having started the foundation for my new addition, but I am still making hay. I also hoped to be able to saw out timbers I need for my house to set them to drying for next spring, for when I start erecting the rest of the structure. Another problem I have had is the duck setting on her nest just outside my door. Yesterday I pulled back the side of the teepee tent to reveal her to some potential customers, my white chicken was also there sitting alongside the duck, who is still sitting on her nest incubating the eggs below her. Hopefully she will be off the nest with some young’uns within the week.

    I had thought about just carving enough carvings to buy me a band sawmill, but at 6000 for a cheap band saw mill , this isn’t going to happen either. Instead I will carve to buy parts I still need for the mill I still yet have to build. Don’t know how this is going to all play out in the coming months to see if I am able to stay on schedule for finishing my addition on the house.

     The potato tower and tomato tower are doing well and the vertical wall around the pool is doing well also as it is starting to fill in. I will need to start thinking about adding solar water heating to pool to continue to use it into wintertime. Still have plenty of work to do, and I am again taking orders for carvings as well will be carving out some different ideas I want to pursue and will share with you as I go along. I guess as long as I have plans I will always have something to do to keep me busy. Really don’t know what it would be like to not have anything to do or be bored. 

gotta love them

Those Damn Ducks!!!

mama ducks daughter nesting now.

      My old Mama duck has disappeared. I would like to hope she is out there somewhere sitting on a nest, much the same as she has done at this time of year before. Most of the time to no avail as something would come in and clean the nest out eating the eggs, and destroying her hard work, that of her sitting for endless hours on her nest brooding and incubating the eggs so the new ducklings have a chance to live. Even if they do make it out of the shell alive, she has lost whole flocks to predators. It is amazing that she was able to raise a flock and carry on the original ducks I received from my sister’s friend.

       She was the last of 6 ducks I had that over the years that have tried to perpetuate the line. I picked up Greenie after Mama Duck lost her mate, and then this spring Greenie disappeared with no trace what so ever as is usually the case. I have only fond one carcass of one of my Mama Duck’s babies from last year, where it appeared as though a coon, from what I have read, took its life. Usually they are carried off. I like to think they flew off to duck heaven. Ducks are strange animals as they don’t take to well to domestication as they don’t seem to follow any rules and make the rules up as they go.

    I had to chase Mama Duck down in the snow in order to get her in shelter due to losing her mate and being the only duck left in sub-freezing weather where she only had a little two foot hole to paddle around in as the rest of the pond was frozen. I could just imagine her being carried off as it would be easy to grab her also, or just being frozen in that hole, so I intervened and chased her through knee deep snow till I was finally able to grab her and carry her to the greenhouse. So every day for a couple months after that I would carry a five gallon bucket of water, morning and night to the greenhouse as the water was turned off up there due to the cold, and I would pour this water into a large tub and Mama Duck would jump in the water and splash around happier than anything, till the water was dirty, and then she would hop out and eat her grain. It was a riot watching her go through this ritual daily. I added Greenie and he joined in with her and soon the two of them were frolicking together.

mama duck in greenhouse 

    I had to kick them out of the greenhouse eventually, they were reluctant to leave , but spring had returned and the ponds were clear of ice an soon she took to nesting and lost her first batch of eggs to whatever and so for the second batch she decided to set up camp by my door. She built a nest right beside my entrance door, under a work table I had there at the time. She was so close that when I would walk in I would hear her hiss at me as if I was going to destroy her nest. For almost a month she sat on that nest and eventually she was able to hatch them all out. I think initially there was 6 , again something has come in and attacked them till there is only the goose , one brother of the one I have sitting on a nest outside my door now, an a white male  duck I acquired from the sale of a bale of hay. I had 3 females and 3 males when this season started and now I am down to one female and 2 males and one goose. The goose is another story altogether.

greenie and mama duck in greenhouse 

    Well Mama Duck after she lost her nest earlier, was going around with her daughter looking for new nesting areas, and she was at my back door showing her where she had her nest before. Since then I have replaced the table with a teepee for Babe my dog so that she would have some place to stay in, in the winter when she wants to just stay outside. She hasn’t been in it since spring and so Mama duck and her daughter were checking it out one day when I was exiting the house and the next thing I know Mama duck’s daughter set up, and is nesting on a batch of eggs outside my door again in Babe’s teepee, not more than 6 inches from my door. Although I can’t see the duck I can look inside the teepee and view here and took some pics of her. I will; also include some pics of Mama Duck also. I will miss Mama Duck and Greenie and all of them I have lost before them as ducks are a strange animals , quite animated and funny to watch and have been a great source of entertainment for me.

     Anyhow I hope this new Mama Duck can finally hatch out her brood and be able to carry on the line with the addition of more females to keep things going. We will see.

all looking good

Update on Farm 7-11-15

    Went around and took some pictures of how some of my experiments are going. One is the potato tower; another is the tomato tower along with the vertical wall surrounding the pool in the greenhouse.  Also I will be talking about straw bale gardens with peas, and beans planted, along with pictures, hopefully before and after pictures. I have quite a bit to talk about so will get started.

     My potato tower went crazy, the vines have spread wide and occupies almost 8 ft. in width and show little signs of stress except from the weight of the vines. Originally standing straight up has succumbed to the weight of their mass and now resides on the ground, pretty much shading and obscuring all weeds around. The compost has created a mound of potato vines that should give me an ample supply of potatoes for my own use this fall. They are still growing and have no blooms yet, so are still a ways from maturing. I can’t wait to finally get into the pyramid and see just exactly how well it did. But all looks great.

    When planted:

    Now at 7-11-15:

     Next up is the tomato tower and it too has gone crazy. The center core of compost has been completely obscured and like the potato tower the weight of the foliage has dragged down the top of the tomatoes. The vines although contained in the cage are now more like a mushroom shape. Weeds have never been a problem. Picking tomatoes through the mass of foliage may be. One tower  still has plants standing tall . I imagine some as tall as myself if that gives you any indication to the size of the plants. I think 3 plants per cage would have been plenty judging by the size of things. Tomatoes are just now starting to set. I hope to have a heavy production based on blooms produced.

      When planted;

      Now at 7-11-15:

    The vertical wall is coming along in the greenhouse and I need to get back to building more lattice for it to grow on. The one lace vine died but the other took off fine from transplanting. So to balance things out and increase the spread of foliage I introduced trumpet vine to the other side in a large pot using primarily my potting soil as the major growing medium. It has taken off well and I now have vines growing up towards the lace vine. Hopefully between the two this will give me a nice permanent wall in the greenhouse surrounding the pool. The pool has worked out fine and I use quite frequently including when it is raining outside, which has been almost every day this last summer. My first cutting hay is still standing in the field, not being able to gather 3 days of subsequent sun to dry the hay enough to bale. All in all the wall is going great. With the added solar lights it gives a nice atmosphere to the greenhouse and the pool at night.

     Now at 7-11-15:

    The straw bale garden where I planted the green beans of the Kentucky wonder variety, and the peas, are also going crazy from the soil and rainfall. This required me to add extra support to help protect the vines from snapping their stems from the weight. The foliage is heavy and with the extra weight of the rain at times it seems to drag the vines down despite the tentacles of green clinging on to each other and the supports to keep them upright. Originally I had beans on one side and peas on the other side, now I have a mix of peas and beans as the vines intermingle from spreading so far. The peas are coming on heavy and I will have both peas in shell for stir frying, but also to be shelled for freezing to eat alone as a side dish. The beans are now just setting to blooming and small bean pods can be seen. I would like to clear all those vines out by end of month and replant for another crop of same if time allows.

    When planted:

   Now at 7-11-15:

    My other straw bale garden I planted as edge border of retaining pond has also went crazy by the addition of a pumpkin vine that has went on its own crazy venture blocking out my peppers view of the sun and I am sure hampering their ability to produce. Walking anywhere in the garden can be touchy and vine crunching, and has to be taken with caution. weeds has never been a problem , instead it has been more of a problem dealing with unruly vegetables destined to shield all other plants with vines and leaves soaking up all available sunlight making walking or finding an open space of soil almost impossible. In this regard this is what I want. Who really wants to pull weeds or lose valuable plants to weed growth? We would all rather see our plants do well and have very little time involved doing it. In this case I should have left the pumpkin vine out to grow in its own place where the vines won’t interfere with anything else going on. Oh well it looks as though I will have plenty of pumpkins to give away. This was supposed to be little pumpkins but instead from the size of them, imagine they will be just normal pumpkins judging from the size of the pumpkins now on the vine ripening. I also would use straw around the pepper plants as a mulch to prevent weeds as was my intention but the pumpkin took over instead. Kinda obliterating any thought of doing any mulching as it would be of no use.

    When planted:

    Now at 7-11-15:

      In conclusion: most of the projects I started are thriving well except the peppers due to the pumpkin taking over. Fertilization due to compost has generated an overabundance of foliage and has increased the weight on vines. A lot of the vine breakage is also due to the overabundance of rainfall this season, creating a perfect storm of potential for plants to do well.  I would give each individual project with the exception of the straw bale gardens more space. Also the pumpkin should be grown in its mound of compost completely separate from garden on the edge of a lawn. These things can be pesky if soil is fertile giving them all they need to grow. Most of this has been grown on poor soil that has never been part of a garden before. To prepare the area I dumped generous amounts of compost I made from manure and hay waste in a mixture of blended topsoil to create an almost perfect growing medium capable of holding moisture and also providing nutrients to maximize the potential of the plant without hybridization or genetically modified seed. This is all just heritage seed, straight run varieties maximized to their potential by providing all the nutrients needed by creating a perfect soil to allow the plants to grow to their potential. When plants are healthy they have their own built in pest defense as well shade weeds if given a proper start when planted. Companion planting also helps to provide necessary support for plants to reach their maximum potential. I will be doing more of this next season, by starting a straw bale garden with my compost using beans peas an corn and squash all planted together, where the corn acts as a support for the vines of peas and beans. And the squash or pumpkin can vine out as it wants, and hopefully the shaded of the foliage below the corn tops will help keep needed moisture to help the sweet corn grow. Oh well next year.

enjoy, but be careful

It’s Time to Celebrate

Happy Safe July 4^th

      Years ago I remember living beside this guy and his family at a converted chicken house they had made into apartments off of Sherman Church rd. in Canton Ohio. It was low rent and did accommodate my lifestyle at the time as I shared an apartment with my brother. A number of interesting people lived there and most I would not even bother spending time with but one guy and his family stand out in my mine still today. He was missing parts off the lower parts of both arms and one had a claw to replace his hand completely blew off making m-80’s for the Fourth celebration.

       Here was a man completely disabled and almost blinded by the senseless act of making homemade fireworks, so others could have a good time. He couldn’t hold his own children in his arms and had significant mental and physical issues , not being able to support even his own family, instead being dependent the rest of his life on disability , and what other social services he could meek out to help his wife and family exist. He would come over to my place and we would talk and he would share his feelings as we would smoke a joint. He liked me because I had two hands and fingers to roll with, and he would much rather smoke a joint than smoke out of a pipe. I enjoyed his company as he always had some of the best stuff, selling some on the side to subsidize his smoking habits, and I also felt he thought it was a much better alternative than drinking. I had seen him drunk a few times and a bigger self- pitying party one had never seen, and to this end I would say he was right.

      He happened to be rolling the M-80’s in paper when something went horribly wrong, it landed him in the emergency room, and he was months and years recovering and I doubt to this day he has ever recovered. It will always stand to remind me that at this time of year how senseless it is to carelessly play with fireworks. Luckily I have never been party to an event such as this guy experienced, but when partying we have had our moments when I thought that maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.

     A friend of mine turned me on to the Wooster city fireworks at the College of Wooster, and it was a gorgeous display, loud and colorful and it seemed in your face. It was so great that I decided the next year, not having anything to do, I was going to go again, and made it about halfway there, after taking a bath, putting on a new shirt and looking pretty good, I stopped at the Shady Rest bar outside Beach City ,Ohio, to have a few brews before getting to my destination. After ordering a drink I inquired as to why there was a 3 ft. long carp swimming in the mud hole out in front of the bar in the parking lot. Something you don’t see every day. The whole bar laughed, they said someone caught it in the backwaters of the dam and thought it was funny to throw it in the mud hole while they drank. They also thought it would be funny to blow it up, and they were going to do that in a few, as soon as they finished their drinks, and if I wanted to,I could also watch the spectacle.

      I then asked what their preferred choice of destruction was, and of course it was a M-80 firecracker equivalent to a quarter stick of dynamite. At this point considering my experience with my friend, I should have skedaddled on out of there leaving these redneck wannabe’s to their own miserable fate, instead I was somewhat drawn to this spectacle purely curious as an outsider. Well I wasn’t outside far enough. They had managed to shove the M-80 into the fish’s mouth, and not that any protest I could have had against animal cruelty would have rendered any different outcome, except maybe having M-80’s shoved in my orifices , they lit the fuse and returned the carp to the mud hole for the inevitable explosion . A fireball erupted and smoke and pieces of fish scales and mud went slinging past my face, and I was on the outer regions of the explosion. Some up close were almost blinded by the blood, the mud, and scales of the fish as it was able to exact its revenge on us all including me who was hesitant but curious to see such a spectacle. Bits of fish scales and blood and mud peppered my shirt also.  I was so disgusted I climbed back into my car and headed home having been taught a lesson.

     We were all lucky worse didn’t happen to us, as we could have lost an eye or worse due to the power of the explosive charge of the m-80. Alcohol and fireworks have no place in our society when comingled together. Other times we have played with the M-80’s and other fireworks, and plenty of times we have come close to people having permanent hearing damage or suffering from debris being thrown into the air. I used to work with dynamite and blow up huge swaths of land with explosives and thus have a huge respect for anything explosive today.  Down to and including sparklers, which although not explosive still burn with white hot intensity with a chemical reaction at over 600 degrees Fahrenheit, hardly suitable for little kids. But I have seen mothers give their babies a sparkler, when they could barely walk. To fall and land on the tip could severely burn them. It is not a good idea for a wobbly infant. And of course who hasn’t done battle with Roman candles shooting at each other. Definitely a no-no, but still done quite frequently.

      In the end, I guess telling you this is all bad and that you shouldn’t do it is kind of lost in the translation, instead, I ask you to use common sense, and supervise your young ones while they are playing with anything remotely dangerous including flaming marshmallows.  As far as yourself, if you are under the influence, just stay away from anything you need to dumb you down, you are already working under a handicap and you already have enough on your plate to cause you a whole room full of mess. Just chill and have a happy and safe Fourth.