from the ruins of a bad day springs hope.

What Falls Down is Soon To Be Up Again

 

other pics soon to follow. 

     

          Well I expect to finish on the chimney this morning at least as far as the outside goes. I need to stabilize the last section of liner I installed in the new chimney by adding another foot of brick to the base of the last section. I was able to salvage quite a bit of brick from the old chimney and used it to rebuild the chimney. Only this time I have installed a replaceable metal liner as I went along and it also has a clean-out large enough to remove the liner parts and still be able to install new liner pieces.

        My skills at laying brick are not too bad, opting for strength instead of looks, really just wanting to get the job done before bad weather sets in. By using a metal liner I also increased the safety factor of the chimney so that in case of a chimney fire I would have two layers of material to burn through instead of one. And with the old chimney and the mortar cracks it would have been a sure thing that if a chimney fire were to occur, then it could have easily spread to the house. The metal liner will allow an easier cleaning with a chimney brush. I also installed chicken wire in the top of the chimney under the rain cap to prevent birds and bats from setting up camp.

        So I took the chimney my grandpa built some sixty five years ago and have improved upon it I hope in a way that will make it last another 30 years and help reduce my relying on fossil fuels as a source of heat. Wood is a renewable source of heat that works regardless of whether there is electric or not on any cold snowy morn.

       Further plans include a hot water loop of copper coil and a heat exchanger to further reduce my need for using sources of electric or gas for heating water for baths. I am real interested in the tesla battery system that is now starting to be marketed for battery storage of electricity. This coupled with solar and wind could possibly get a person off the grid, only using electricity as a backup to your own electric system. We are entering a new age and the electric companies are running scared. In Fact they are contemplating charging solar and wind users an additional fee for infrastructure costs , regardless of whether they use the electric or not. At that point I think I would cut the wires, and tell them to screw themselves.

      An update on some of the other projects I took on is:

      The tomato towers worked great, except in my haste to get them growing and going I just grabbed tomato plants and ended up with possibly the best cherry tomato plants in the world with hardly a sign of the dreaded blossom end rot. In fact I must have at least thousand or two of the largest cherry tomatoes you ever saw. I would can them still, but what a job it would be trying to skin the little shits. I will try the tomato tower again with another variety next year. The volunteer tomatoes under my benches in the greenhouse have kept me supplied with tomatoes to eat in sandwiches so far this year, and all this with very little end rot as I saw last year. I really believe that although the blossom end rot exists in the soil, I still believe it is exacerbated by the lack of moisture at critical fruit ripening stage. I am no expert but others have come to the same conclusion when it comes to understanding the disease.

     The potato tower is also subject to some degree to blossom end rot but I myself found no evidence of rotted centers of spuds I planted in my potato tower , in fact I am at level three of digging potatoes and although there are a lot of small potatoes I have had some rather large potatoes . This may be due to overcrowding of seed potatoes and limited amount of root growth close to the top of the pyramid. I am looking forward to finish digging the potatoes to see how well the pyramid did. Already I have dug three times the original bag of seed potatoes. That alone is a success in itself. I will try this again. And instead of fancy cut 4x4‘s I intend to just use cut logs that have the bark stripped, stacked and notched like a log cabin at little or no cost to the grower. And like the 4x4’s can be reused again. Three of these towers would be more than enough to keep a family going all year long with potatoes.

      The pool is nice but even in the greenhouse is starting to cool off, and I have been using it less frequently so I have drained it in preparation for winter. I need to clean the greenhouse thoroughly of weeds, and plants like trees I need to plant outside and take off the watering list. I will be doing more planting and composting as well this year. I also will plant a lot more berry bushes yet this year as long as the weather holds out. I am trying to balance all these projects with progress on my house addition and the chimney, and bringing in materials to make cement and lay blocks is a very important part of moving forward with the house addition. Things are looking better, still I would have liked to have been further along with some of these projects.

      

rhettoric -definition: the art of effectively and persuasively using language to accomplish a means.

Politics and Farming

 how politicians see us

      Well when I was rid of the cattle I figured my days of shoveling bull was over, but again every four years there comes along a presidential election and soon the rhetoric and turd slinging begins anew. The stink is never as bad as it ever gets when politicians in waders, (ever wonder why you hardly ever see a full body picture of a politician unless he is on a podium, up on a podium it will take longer for his speech to rise to his new level, meaning the crap would have to get really deep fast), as they begin their spiel as slick as any used car salesman you have ever met.

     There are a lot of parallels besides the crap they are trying to feed you that endlessly sounds like an old vinyl record disc hung up on a scratch as they go on about reducing taxes, making America strong, and of course reaching down into the hearts of America and doing away with the present administ6ration and all the trouble they have caused. In fact if one listens long enough they begin to sound more like preachers instead of politicians, which is until they are elected. Then we citizens must understand and be patient with the new administration, until they are able to set things straight with Congress, while all the while forgetting what they promise the people, instead enacting their own agendas to make their run at politics more secure, knowing they knew what was right for the people. 

how we see politicians

 

     Billions will be spent on getting the word out there that they are running for office, which is kind of moronic in the first place. I mean with the advent of the internet and news media being what it is, do you really think it is necessary to spend billions on thirty second ads for what purpose, to tell you something that was already covered on TV, in some ways mindlessly drilling into our head a politicians name as if we were cattle and only needed to remember the butchers name before he sliced our head off. It’s as if we were mindless and knew nothing of the candidate or what he stood for before showing up in the voting booth. Far underestimating our potential at making our own decisions and showing how they are further out of touch than anyone could imagine by attempting to trample on our thoughts and instead train us by repetition of hearing a politicians name thinking that once we get in the polls the only name we will remember is theirs. Their ads are pure rhetoric as if anyone could really determine a politicians worth in thirty seconds one way or another.

      Could you imagine what all the money spent on mindless TV ads would do for the poor in our society if instead they spent their money buying houses for the homeless, making sure they were fed, and that all their medical needs were addressed? The more competition for the presidency would result in more money for the poor. Some people would say this is buying votes, but I am sure many poor people would gladly give up their right to vote in an election in which they receive aid to just have a roof over their head, something to eat, and the needed medical aid it takes to address their problems to return them to a dignified place in society. And look at it, all at no cost to the taxpayers. We could look forward to a presidential election to see who had the biggest pockets to make things right in a country where the poor’s needs are satisfied according to their ability to pay taxes. Why should the top exec’s at NBC , CBS, CNN , ABC, and FOX news enjoy fat lucrative bonuses while the poor get nothing but a bumper sticker without a car to put it on. 

    a new trumppiece?

      So what do you think the news organizations are going to do if finally they had to report the news instead of putting their special slant on politics as they do? They bring in political consultants, conduct polls and tell the voter who it is popular to vote for and follow, as opposed to who would be best in office according to his or her values. Wow what a concept, hiring a politician into office based on his humanitarian values as we watch as time after time we see them cater to the poor and the rich alike sharing 100 dollar a plate dinners in suit and tie affairs one night, then dressing down to blue jeans and a flannel shirt the next, as they head around the country stumping for votes as they should. The news organizations would still be there and don’t worry they will be selling pampers and other products, instead of thirty second ads for a million dollars. They know but ignore the mass populace at election time, instead catering to the future electorates hoping they will buy overpriced ad time.

       We would elevate our nation as a moral place to be. We would no longer have programs to feed, and clothe and house the poor as we really wouldn’t need them.  In fact this would lead to less rhetoric as politicians use now, as they no longer have to cut Social Security or exaggerate the needs of the poor as part of the budget and this would become a moot point in politics , instead it would be seen as see  what I have done for the poor. A humble politician would not say see what I have done, instead let others point out his good points as he scours the nation looking for deeds to be done to gain attention.  

      I know I am an idealist, thinking that taking money from the rich to give to the poor is a good idea; in fact there was a popular story about that called Robin Hood. Well instead of robbing the hood we would be giving something back. It will never work. Instead I know I will be relinquished to donning a pair of boots and wading through the bull and grabbing a pitchfork and shoveling the barn out waiting for the presidential election to finally end again.

the chimney is falling , the chimney is falling!!!!

Update on Farm

9-16-2015

Damn I hate it when chicken little is right!

it falls every night. 

       Well it has been awhile since I wrote and need to update on you some things around the farm. The leaves are starting to change and the morns are colder and soon we will be in the throes of autumn. I am still here plugging along on some old projects and starting some new ones. Some of the change is due to planning and others are by accident with emphasis on accident.

       We have been experiencing some gas flow problems and at times we are completely without natural gas from the oil well. If at worst , we lose our free natural gas , well it has been a good run having been drilled in around 1969 or 46 years ago, we have had the ability to reap the rewards of free gas energy from the well. Free anything is always good and 46 years of it is even a lot better. But the loss of gas has its own problems, as it still works but on a frequent or less basis. This means if you start cooking dinner on the stove, there is no guarantee you will finish it there. Drying clothes and having hot water to take a shower are also problems to be dealt with. In fact conservation of all gas related appliances including heat is on a ration basis, hoping that we can again have a reserve in the well to keep at least keep a couple of appliances running trouble free alleviating switching to electricity and propane to meet our heating and residential needs .

    As far as heat goes I can use wood and have a wood heater here in my house that could possibly be used for a dual purpose of also heating water of which I plan to do. I would like to use it as a primary heating source and use the gas as a backup. Also I plan on installing a loop of coil to heat water on top of the stove and that along with a solar heating element that will eventually provide me with a continuous supply of hot water despite the weather outside.

     My primary concern about all this was making sure the chimney which had not been used in years was of sufficient quality to allow me to use a wood burner without burning my house down. Burning the old trailer wouldn’t bother me at all as long as I am not in it and my animals and I are safe.  But would prefer to it wait till I had time to build the addition on and at that time would prefer to tear it out instead of letting it burn. So in some ways a fire wouldn’t be a good thing at any time, a chimney inspection was required.

     So I did this as the morns are colder and soon it will be cold enough to use a wood stove, so I needed to make haste to get this job done and Monday was the day for that job . I had a decent day getting various jobs done around the farm and this job I figured wouldn’t take very long and would give mean idea of what I needed to do to get the wood stove going.

     I grabbed the extension ladder propped, and leveled it against the side of the chimney and tested it by shoving my weight against the ladder and all seemed to be safe so I proceeded up the ladder and just as I was about to grab the top of the chimney possibly 14 foot off the ground , I felt the chimney starting to topple, and quickly but not quick enough back pedaled my way down the ladder which at this time was going with the chimney and falling onto the old part of the house and my foot was tangled in the rungs as I fell backward a good six feet to the ground and landed flat on my back slamming my head a lot more than I wanted to. 

 

     I saw stars as I laid there trying to figure how bad I was hurt, and although I have stiff neck muscles that have since turned to sore, I am fairly well unscathed. Luckily most of the chimney landed on the house and remained on the roof. The bottom section stayed in place, but after later inspection I realize it doesn’t have footer under it and this may have a lot to do with its failure along with weak mortar from time. It has stood for almost 65 years, probably since my grandpa had built it. I guess nothing lasts forever and I knew the mortar was getting weak but could not really see any major defect before this all started. I sure can now and fully realize that the chimney in its present condition would surely represent a fire hazard and needs replaced. Duh. 

 

     I have started to chipping off the bricks and will be able to salvage some but not all with the mortar being real weak and chipping fairly easily. I also have other bricks to make up the difference for what I have lost in broken bricks. I brought in a load of sand and stone to pour a new foundation and will begin laying up a new chimney as soon as tomorrow. This chimney will not only have new mortar and a footer,  but will also accommodate a metal liner of stove pipe that can be replaced down the road if need be. It will also have a cleanout to allow me to clean the pipe with a stove brush if need be as part of the regular maintenance.

      I will write more on this project as I go along and include pictures of my progress. Another project I am currently working on is planting raspberries and pine trees and have successfully accomplished both with more effort needed in both those areas before fall and winter arrives but this will have to take a backseat to higher priorities as I try to fight fires of importance in priorities. Picking and choosing those things most important for me to accomplish.

     I think I have a system for planting the pine trees I have in the greenhouse and in fact all trees I have in the green house will be planted or repotted this year even if it takes all winter to accomplish it. I have some new pallets for tables in the greenhouse and this necessitates me moving all the trees to make way for the tables for plants in the spring. Also I will need to move all plants I am able move to inside quarters to avoid freezing them over the winter. I doubt if I will have enough room for all, so some may freeze and die off over the winter. I hate seeing it but unfortunately you can’t keep everything. I have some huge hanging baskets as well some big planters full of flowers that have been a delight to me over the summer. Anyone wanting spider plants can have as many as they would want as I have quite a few and only a limited amount of space. 

 

      The pine tree planting went well and it required only me, the tractor, and the new mower, a bucket of compost and trees and enough tools to lay out a grid work of trees that will allow me to mow between, and eventually will allow me to sell the trees as dug or as Christmas trees down the road. If not sold these trees will still grow and transform an unproductive piece of field into a future forest with a variety of trees. I used a two man gas posthole digger to give me the equivalent of an 8 inch hole about a foot deep, of which I filled with 6 inches of compost. This will give the trees a boost and with its high organic matter will help hold moisture to get the tree firmly established. More hay mulch will be added later to also help the trees move along and avoid weed problems. I have tried to sell these trees to people and need to get in more as well behind in planting goals I would like to achieve personally. The goal of planting a tree a day for the rest of my life to make up for what I have used in my lifetime, or have been responsible for destroying so these trees will allow me to fulfill that in this year.

       Awareness of problems is not so evident when we are young and in fact our parents and grandparents could only see farming in one perspective. The slash and burn era of our forefathers is over as our planet heats up from the loss of trees and use of hydrocarbons  that create carbon dioxide a that causes global warming. My forefathers saw trees as a resource to be exploited for lumber and fence posts with trees in the pasture and field areas as a nuisance only to be removed. They were used as a source of heat at different times, much the same as I intend to do. The trees I will be using as firewood will be carefully selected using downed trees primarily as a source of firewood then cull trees as a second source. I imagine just the downed trees on a yearly basis will be enough to satisfy my needs. This is still a renewable source and only reinforces my need to plant trees to replace those I take for firewood. This will always lock up the carbon and reduce my footprint on being responsible for global warming.

IF IT ISN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT.

CAN DONALD SAVE AMERICA?

      Well he probably can and it wouldn’t be so hard a job , just pick up where the Democrats left off and repeal all of those changes made during the last Bush administration when we were looking for WMD’s and fighting the axis of evil.

      Donald wants to go off on a tangent every time there is a new headline about this or that, signaling a sign of what is wrong with America. Today it is immigration, tomorrow it is how Obama has started a war against police officers in this country.  I could just imagine Donald waking up in the morning and scouring the papers looking for something to blame the Democrats for. In fact when it comes to police officer deaths there are fewer deaths attributed to President Obama than to former president George Bush Jr. in the same 8 years of office, although president Obama’s term isn’t up yet, he still has quite a few less.

     Donald’s response to police killings was that it was the present administrations fault as a result of the stance President Obama took supporting the shooting of unarmed black citizens with president Obama supporting the citizens who have lost their lives to overzealous police tactics and targeting young blacks in cases of racial profiling. 

    Mr. Trump would like you to believe it is the fact that Obama is black and is standing up for the black population because of his race. But then again it was Trump that in the previous two elections called on Obama to prove his citizenship, thinking he was a Muslim from Africa, when in fact he was a citizen of the United States as proven by his birth certificate.  

      Then Mr. Trump who would like you to believe that his family had been here from the time Indians roamed this land and that he grew up trading trinkets in a teepee till he made enough money to build his first high rise in Manhattan.

      In fact it was his father that gave him a start in real estate and basically he was a silver spoon baby coddled and groomed for business in silver spoon universities till his dad gave him a break. As far as a service record goes, he was deferred because of a medical condition, but claimed he drew a high selective service entry date, keeping him out of the Vietnam War. At no time did he ever seek out the service as an option to enlist and fight in the war, and has no real war record or right to say anything about war related matters of service personnel.

      In my eyes I have a problem with his avoiding service when at the time the United States was engulfed in the Vietnam conflict that required other able bodied citizens to enlist and serve yet Donald managed to escape the draft and service with a deferment when he was able to work on his first project revitalizing apartments in Cincinnati, Ohio during the Vietnam years basically landscaping and making architectural improvements on the site according to Wikipedia. I would like to know the extent to which Donald performed manual labor despite having a deferment which prevented him from active military. Sounds more like another silver spoon baby with a doctor in his back pocket helping Donald evade military service. Although I never spent time in the service, the Vietnam War and the draft ended in the years before I graduated, yet I contemplated what i would do if faced with the same coincidence and was prepared to do what I had to, and enlist if necessary. Fortunately I had a legal out and military service was out of favorer among a lot of my peers at the time.

      He said to a group of reporters that his grandparents from Germany would flip over in their grave if they knew all about these problems we are having with immigration. I have a problem with the statement itself. Knowing his grandparents were German immigrants yet wanting to ship all illegal immigrants back to where they came from. In fact his mother was from Scotland and two of his wives were foreigners also. This just shows the insensitivity Donald expresses towards those he wants in his life and those he doesn’t. In fact Donald has a history of racism, having been sued time after time in court about his real-estate dealings and his feelings towards Blacks and Latinos.

      Also he has never held a public office in his life yet has been sued repeatedly for not following proper procedure in obtaining permits to build, or on proper procedures of how to do business with racial equality in the United States. He thumbs his nose at bankruptcy seeing it as a leverage tool, feeling no remorse about backing out on original deals, favoring the process of bankruptcy when it favors his business dealings. Choosing to stand behind the court and let judges decide how to justify his screwing people out of millions of dollars that in effect have helped him achieve his 3.8 billion dollars he has now.

     In fact Donald is no stranger to a courtroom or at least his lawyers aren’t. Whenever Donald feels threatened or attacked for his rash dealing with people, Donald runs to a courtroom seeking protection from the courts burgeoning an already exploited means of those with wealth and taking from those that don’t, compensation to fill their already full pockets, and heal their ego in a way that only those with wealth would understand simply giving the excuse,” It’s the principle of the thing”.

      With all his negative experience in dealing with minorities , and hiding behind the cloaks of judges , his pompous flamboyant ego driven rants , and basic know it all attitude yet cowardice when it comes to military service, I have to ask , is this the man we want for president.  The facts as I have presented stand for themselves.  For your own satisfaction do your own research and see that what I say is true and that his character is that which we shouldn’t be allowing as a candidate for presidency. If you think President Obama was bad then this guy is ten times worse.  In fact I would rather see George bush Jr. back in office compared to this ranting lunatic who uses yesterday’s headlines for today’s rants.

wouldnt it be nice to write your own paycheck?

SHOULD WE SUBSIDIZE PROFITABLE BUSINESSES?

HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH

CORPORATE SCREWING?

     According to a report on corporate tax payers and corporate tax dodgers (Stock options pad CEOs’ pockets) we are going to subsidize to the tune of 21.8 billion dollars in taxes to corporations in this last tax year. This is money that is lost as tax revenue despite these companies in some cases that are making money off the American taxpayers to begin with.

       A lot of the reason has to do with a loophole in particular that allows CEO’s and those in higher management positions in these companies to be paid with stock options and then the same executives who own these stock options then purchase the stock of their own company back with money saved in taxes the previous year, in effect increasing the price of their stock and manipulating their own salary, because as soon as they reach a certain level these executives are cashing in their personal stocks again flooding the market and devaluing the stock and making millions off these options. At which point their company then uses this loss to again to offset any tax in the present year they would have to pay and it is perfectly legal presently. Wal-Mart and General Electric have both took advantage of this and have rewarded their top managers with huge salaries.

     There is a lot of it going on in different industries and in the defense industry it is even worse despite the inflated costs of things like toilet seats and such. Whenever a defense contract goes out it is expected to cost a lot more due to the sensitive nature of defense and its needs. Also things like titanium and other metals or diagnostics not available in the United States is procured globally and this adds to the cost of the contract. Then on top of that we pay bonuses for successful completion of  contracts and in some cases the unsuccessful completion of a contract. Cost overruns are a commonplace occurrence with defense contractors and it is the American taxpayer who foots the bill. Recently Boeing Corp. completed a contract aircraft tankers of which they were awarded a contract with plenty of profit built in, and then they were awarded a 300000 bonus in effect wiping out any corporate tax they would had to pay on that particular contract.

      Now you as a taxpayer currently pay an average of 31 percent of your paycheck to the federal government and if you make over the average income of 53000 dollars per year, your ability to reduce your tax burden is negligible in comparison to our corporate tax cheaters like General Electric and others who have paid no corporate tax for the last 10 years, despite winning contract after contract off the American taxpayer. 

     General Electric( www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf) is the number one tax cheater in the U.S. despite making billions in profit off of the money you pay into the government. Some of it has to do with investment in new machinery and that machinery didn’t yield jobs in the United States instead it was used to buy equipment to move jobs in some cases overseas, and then applied to the taxes owed as an expense of doing business, and subsequently deducted from the tax burden they owed. This along with stock options allowed a lot of companies the opportunity to have a zero tax burden.  So you are paying 31 per cent of your salary and these corporations are getting by with nothing.

        Doing away with the tax loopholes would substantially increase the tax revenue and reduce the national debt. And even if the stock options were the only thing that was eliminated it would still add 98 million dollars of revenue shared by 20 of the top executives in corporations in the United States to the federal budget alone. 98 million dollars is the number that corporations reduced their tax bill with that paid as executive pay alone. Reducing this option won’t stop executive pay  but will leave them scrambling to find another way to rape the American taxpayer and artificially manage their stock prices to avoid a more realistic picture of what the stock of their company is really worth , and just how good a job these executives actually did and if their pay was justified . This will also close the inequality between executive pay and the regular worker.  Why executives should be paid to buy back stock and manipulate their company’s worth at taxpayer expense is a question we should all ask our congressmen.

      Course then again it is you the tax payer who needs to get out and vote and send these elected officials in Washington the message we are tired of being screwed while congress hands corporations billions in taxpayer subsidies while being fairly consistent about keeping the taxpayer rate 31 percent for the average taxpayer . This figure is from information provided by  The Tax Foundation Org.( The Average U.S. Worker Pays over $16,000 in Income and Payroll Taxes | Tax 0Foundation)includes your cost for healthcare and for social security deductions leaving you a take home pay 34, 000 for 50 000 average income or 16000 total deductions with 8000 in personal  taxes and 8000 in deductions for Social Security and others  on a yearly basis.

     At the same time the average of all the top 205 businesses was an average 18.5 percent on all profits, with some paying little or no taxes. American Electric Power just recently applied for a rate increase despite having a 1.2 billion subsidy in tax relief on profits made. They want to increase their profits despite raping the American taxpayer. Most of the figures I have used is supported by data from an independent tax research firm and is based on 2010 figures as it takes a while for the figures of what a company actually owes in taxes to be computed and deductions realized . They say it may take up to five years to get an accurate view for the tax and income figures to reflect a true value of what a company actually owes. Still the tax option rule is still in effect and tax payers continue to indirectly pad the pockets of executives while artificially inflating stock prices.

      It is time to change the oligarchy that govern us as a small group that influences all our decisions on a national basis and in effect directs the legislation that affects us at tax payer expense. This country needs change and sometimes the only way to change its governing body is by taking out those who have been their longest. Congress refuses to set term limits on their members yet will replace the president on a two term basis. The longer a sitting member of congress is in office the more chance is that they will develop ties that influence their decisions on an indirect basis, and completely forgetting the electorate’s needs in favor of what their political ties want.

      We need to set our own term limits of two terms and out. Vote all incumbents out despite their political alliance. Respectively if you vote Democrats and Republicans out equally the parties and lobbyists will have to scramble to train new members of congress to their way of thinking. In the meantime we will have a congress that can take a fresh look at some issues that need to be changed.

      One of those is that the idea that businesses or political groups funneling millions to influence voters through Pacs are allowed to influence political elections through support of their elected official is in effect allowing graft and favoritism to become part of our national dialogue. This has to stop despite Supreme Court rulings allowing that in effect. After all corporations wouldn’t exist without some form of human intervention and why should we allow them to have a say in whom we elect. Lobbying needs to be restricted also, to return our elected representatives to the core reason of why they are there. That is to weigh the will of elected populace first and make decisions based on fact instead of influence of what the elected voters really want.