Mother Goose Land day from Hell #100

a whale of a story-Once upon a time 

      Our Sundays at home when we were younger consisted of grandpa and grandma coming to pick us kids up for church. As soon as we were at church we would hurry away to Sunday school as at least there was something to do in church besides watch Grandpa snore and Grandma jabbing him in his side to wake him up. Sometimes when standing singing hymns I would swear he was going to fall over in the pews as his voice would travel off, and then when he felt himself going into sleep a little too far under, he would jump awake and sing with gusto. Must have been all the good living was wearing him out because all this would happen as soon as he was in church and sitting in the pews, it was then  you could see his eyes go foggy.  

        After church and as soon as we finished saying our goodbye’s we would hop in the 69 green Ford Fairlane station wagon , Grandpa would light up his Sunday cigar and we were off to Burger Chef at the time or Mc Donald’s , where we would all sit around under the golden arches or in the sleek stainless steel signs of the future and eat quarter hamburgers and French fries till we would explode as this was a rare treat for us back then and only an ample reward for not having embarrassed Grandpa and Grandma during church service. I remember one time Grandma buying something like 20 cheeseburgers, 6 chocolate shakes for all and 10 French fries for our family and fed six of us for 8 dollars back then .  I can barely get out of Micky D’s for that now myself. That was a stuff your face all you could eat till miserable dinner also and yet grandma thought that was terrible but still offered to get more if we needed it. I think they loved their Sundays with us kids, or at least they were good pretenders.

      Then we would head out for a drive or sometimes we had our special place, and that was Mother Goose land , where Grandpa would again light his cigar and stroll hand in hand with my sister and Grandma as they went around the storybook place . Grandpa only smoked cigar on Sundays in his good suit and in the good car , as the rest of the week he choose to chew tobacco and often could be seen with a wad in his mouth and the thin dark spittle would puddle at the corner of his mouth as he relentlessly gnawed away at the dark foul tasting chaw in his mouth until he had to spit, and sometimes he would lean out the door of the car or the truck and release the wad of spit in his mouth at a traffic light. Or sometimes it would be out the door of the moving truck leaving a brown permanent stain arching from the door to the bumper. One would swear you could see the pavement melting as we drove along in the distance looking back at  where the dark brown spittle would etch the pavements surface.

    Sunday was a no Mail Pouch tobacco day for Grandpa as Grandma would not let him touch the stuff in his Sunday finest,  and so he relegated himself to smoking cigars and keeping clean, something he had to work at as he showed my sister Sherry and Grandma  around.  Jim and I  though was  different story . We would look at all the different things there at Mother Goose land but we would just head for the old jet  plane without an engine and relentlessly time after time we would work to pry open the cockpit of the old fighter so we could hop in and see what it felt like to be a fighter pilot in the Korean war and pilot one of those bad boys. It was an old relic of a not so long ago war at the time and still looked pretty sleek. You could slide in and out where the engine used to sit, but the cockpit was out of reach as it seemed they had rigged it on purpose to keep kids like my brother and myself out of it.

      I was probably 13 and Jim was a couple of years older then, young enough to be able to enjoy the parks features yet to old to hang around in the petting zoo. We would take turns watching for people coming up and down the paths so no one would see us jimmying the cockpit to try and open it so we could crawl in, until one visit we managed to get it open a crack and then it threw  open as it slid back and revealed its musty hot warm interior as the sun baked the top of the plane heating up specially inside the cockpit till you could barely sit inside. It didn’t stop us as first Jim jumped inside and soon I was taking my turn pretending I was a fighter pilot killing bad boys and banking the plane into the ground as I would grab the joystick between my legs and turn it hard and right as I pretended to make machine gun noises and blast my brother off the wing.

     Things were going great till my brother decided I needed more realism and decided to shut the cockpit. I was hesitant to have it closed and told him so. He insisted as he wanted to know what it felt like. I should have gave up the seat and let him experience it for himself , because as soon as the cockpit cover closed I swear I heard it lock and at first it was pretty cool to be inside like a pilot would be,  but real soon it was heating up and within a couple of minutes I was sweating and wanting out. We both tried to open the cockpit but it was a no go , and then I was forced to really look around inside and see if there was a lock mechanism that was keeping it from opening and I  couldn’t find any. Jim was blaming me for pushing the wrong button and desperately tried making suggestions of things to try.

      We thought there must have been something we did to unlock it as we had tried numerous times on previous trips to the park  to unlock the plane but could never quite figure out how to do it. We were getting scared and especially I was as it kept getting hotter and hotter and we knew soon that Grandma and Grandpa would come looking for us  and we would be in trouble . So we were hustling to get out of there. Soon other people came down the path as we struggled with him outside and me inside to get the cockpit door open as these visitors to the park would stop and look inside from their perch on a platform at the poor sweating boy as my brother would laugh off any suggestion I might really be in trouble.

      A small crowd had gathered by this time and from my view I could see I had half of downtown canton viewing me as I slow cooked my way to fame inside the cockpit. . Surely something could be done to save myself. Then my brother came up with the idea of using the ejection seat to trip the canopy lock insisting that it was perfectly safe. Others round him that had gathered warned him that although the seat itself was gone, that maybe the ejection seat still worked and images flooded through my sweat soaked mind that maybe if I ever get out of that situation I would never listen to my brother again as it was at this time I could imagine the seat exploding off its base and the canopy still locked catching my body as it slammed skyward in a bloody crescendo , not quite the way I wanted to go out, and neither was sweating to death inside a tin can so it prompted me to seek other means of escaping my peril at the time .  I swore , and I made the conscious decision to forget the ejection seat and seek another way. I turned in the seat and with both hands pushing on the canopy and with several people outside pushing back on the canopy from outside it finally lifted up in its  track and slid back with ease allowing me to exit as I was now drenched in sweat.

      The small crowd minus Grandpa and Grandma and Sherry now roared with delight  as pictures were snapped and congratulations were offered , as well as helpful advice like I hope you never do that again, were repeated time after time. I would have never locked the cockpit door in the first place , as it was Jim that felt I needed more realism in my fantasy plane ride. We hurried away from there. Word had spread before my release from my cockpit of doom that maybe the police and fire department should be called as surely I could easily suffocate from the heat. Steam had built up inside the cockpit and obscured their vision of me inside and from me seeing the crowd outside. I just wanted to get out of that area before we ended up in more trouble. Jim and I  ran down the path to the petting zoo and soon found Sherry and Grandma and Grandpa sitting in the shade watching the small animals . We acted like nothing was wrong although my shirt was wet with sweat as well as my pants and when Grandpa and Grandma asked me why I was so wet ,I told them I was running a lot to get back their with them. They seemed to buy the story and I was finally so relieved to be back in the fresh air.

     On our way out we passed the old fighter jet and Grandpa made a remark as to whether we were going to check it out as we usually did and both Jim and I told them we already did, and so we passed the old jet , all the time my heart was in my throat that no one that had seen us before would recognize me again with them and tell them the story. They never knew.

    For many years I would exit off he Tuscarawas street exit and if the tree foliage would allow it I would look down off the side of the exit and I would see the gleaming silver fighter jet and instantly my thoughts would return to that day. Finally the park fell into disrepair and the fighter jet removed forever. Maybe it’s a good thing but it did teach me a few lessons. One don’t listen to my brother, and two if I do listen , shoot myself in the head before he does he me in , the pain is not quite so bad as the crap he put me through. republished july 4th , 2018.

            i am back 

      not going to worry about caps, punct., etc., instead focus on posting some pics and maybe a brief explanation of what is going on in pics of the farm as i go on here. things are going well and hope all is well with whoever is reading. i did have back surgery last july 14, th and still have problems getting around. the pros say it woul;d take a full year before i get a real sense of whether i am doing better or worse. sometimes i think it is better. but other times i have top reflect back to what normal should be and i am no way close to normal. but i keep moving on as life moves on. so on we go with the show.

      this is the chicken hutch i built or i am in the process of building . all i have to do is build a chicken access door and finish hanging chicken wire , today's job. the idea is to get my free range chickens of which i now have 10 to lay in the hutch as opposed to all over the place. racy my new German shepherd is eating a lot of the eggs , and i need to limit her cholesterol intake and expand mine, she gets so many she poops a yellow stream , but does have a shiny coat if that is any consolation. i started this project in the winter and soon had frozen fingers i was beating on with a hammer trying to pound these tiny staples with my big fingers. i was frustrated so i gave up till i had a better attitude and could hold staples with pair of pliers, avoiding the sore fingers. i believe all the chickens are producing well and that would be 16 eggs /day. actually the chickens have been the best producer here on the farm . the cost of keeping them is minimum as compared to what they produce. the bees and berry vines are also good producers and trees have been good to me. although i still do hay , some greenhouse stuff. most of that stuff has low resale value and high labor. something i cant afford to pay. initially i started this blog years ago with the purpose of chronologically documenting my journey through small farming. i guess we will just have to see if i can back into writing enough to continue on. i have the time, i am rested. no excuse not to.

 interior of chicken hutch.

   
        exterior of chicken hutch , although i put an all weather roof on it, not sure if i want to locate inside the garage or outside. contemplated placing by house and hanging a feeder with laying mash and meal worms in it as the chickens love the meal worms.

     mothers day baskets i made for mom yesterday

       i re-hived the bees as i lost both hives to swarm or freezing. one lasted 2 years , and the other lasted 3 years. maybe i needed to re-queen, or whatever, and in looking back , i was bad in maintenance because i should have been working hives. and at same time i was headed for back surgery and recovery and could do nothing but hope for the best from the hives. i did mange to get honey off the second year and it was great. i have entered into an agreement witrh another beekeeper to help maintain hives and manage properly for half the honey. they have the extracting equipment and i have the hives and bees and perfect location to expand a natural honey operation here. hope it works out.

 this is a basswood leaf cluster from one of my bass wood trees i grew from bare root  sapling . the reason it is included here is because it is a premium carving tree when mature with expensive carving wood. also it looks like a nice yard tree with spreading branches and shade and what appears to be blooms appearing on the end of the branches this year as it matures. a couple of more days and i will have a better idea.

dogwoods blooming behind a maple in the woods.
 

    the activity at the hive entrance is slow but steady after 2 days of introducing new hives. will pull out bee carrier later today and have a better idea of what is going on in each individual hive.

      this is an azalea i planted about 4 years ago. always looking for a perfect shot.
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     this of course is lilacs in the morn.

Raci

So much to catch up on, or more than you really want to know

        Well to begin with and as most know that my dog Babe has passed. It was hard to deal with and doubt I will ever get over her , she was a great dog and in retrospect I have to say I may have seen signs of her time coming around. And in contrast I have found another dog I am trying to save and so far have been successful and possibly what has stirred me to start writing again. Her name is Raci. She is in stark contrast to babe and I will go into detail about all of that later. I also need to catch you up on some other facts about my life I haven’t shared too much about , but feel it is important to share at t5his time. Somewhat so that you understand my frame of mind and need to express myself.

        The miracles of medicine have shown some light on me. I said to myself years ago that I would never let myself undergo surgery on my back, but as time went on and further deterioration of my back left me dragging my right leg and being in constant pain and a future of steroids to possibly ease some of the pain I was experiencing.

        I had heard of some amazing medical breakthroughs and consulted with my Dr. as to what could possibly be done. He was clueless but instead referred me to a specialist. after testing It was determined that I could possibly benefit from a major back operation and insertion of steel pins and a cage to separate the discs and relieve the pressure on the nerve root running down my leg. In fact 3 discs were going to be affected by this operation and a fusing into my hip bone would permanently arrest the degeneration of disc space and ease my pain I was experiencing.

      The miracles they are performing in medicine now–a–days reminds me of a story i heard about this young baby that was born without any eyelids, his poor eyes had nothing to bat away dirt and debris or alert your nerves  to the possibility of something foreign accidentally being projected into the eye. This is a rather serious and rare condition but was easily remedied by taking a portion of the tip of the foreskin of the baby’s penis and stitching it on the eyelid. Minute hairs now would eventually be replaced by darker curlier hairs later in his life. A simple solution to a problem that would eventually manifest itself if nothing is done, and Of course it really doesn’t affect his vision but none the less he will always be a little cock eyed.

       Well it was 4 weeks this past Friday since I have had surgery. The leg I was dragging has seen a reduction in pain and nerve response. As well I have noticed an improvement in my left leg as well. still I am awhile from saying I am having total success in having this operation. I was told it would take about 6 weeks to have substantial recovery. Across my lower back I am still having problems and it affects my ability to walk long distances. I can make it into stores including Walmart and have found some therapeutic value of walking behind the cart. I am starting re-hab this week and will spend time in the pool and on exercise machines as I try to strengthen those back muscles. I would be  happy to just walk longer distances of a couple hundred yards , or avoid that low back pain altogether.

     They went in and cut right over the old scar I had from a previous operation and made it longer to acco0modate the work they needed to do. Discs were trimmed or removed and an elaborate stainless steel cage was built in my lower back with the pins holding my vertebrae at the proper distance thus separating them in the process, muscles and tendons were cut and re-stitched back together, as well that at one point there was a concern that I had lost some spinal fluid and there was a hole in the sack that surrounds my spinal cord. All of this has healed back in very well according to a multitude of medical personnel that have had the chance to check it out. All I can do is take their word for it.

      So in that regard I guess if I have some back pain still, it in some respects could only be expected. Still I want to be able to go and do without regard to what I have just experienced or are still experiencing. This includes the monetary cost of the whole thing. I am looking at close to 170000 dollars but that is insurance scare you money, and instead Cleveland clinic settled for 17000, plus a thousand here and there for this and that. My cost so far is around 4500, I imagine by the time they are done. I doubt I have seen all the bills yet. Still for 4500 if I was buying a car I would expect I could find me a nice old muscle care with a decent paint job for that price. With a rebuilt motor and sound suspension could easily last me quite a while. In fact I have been looking at hummers owned by the government for that price and they seem reasonable enough.

      The money I spent is nothing really if it brings me comfort and reduces the pain I was experiencing even just sitting at the desk writing as I am now is an improvement over the pain I was experiencing before. So far so good is all I will say and will move on from there.

     I woke early this am and immediately thought of my new dog and realized something about her that I have been kicking the thought around as to why I have never heard her whimper, whine, bark , or cry out  since I have had her.  She has a problem digesting and now I feed her mostly canned food and also I buy chicken slices and hold those in my hand so that she has to tear them out of my hand. If I don’t do this or watch her portion size she will hack up what she eats in a foamy mess. She re-eats it much to my disgust, but it seems to be the only way she has survived so far. She has spent most of her time under the influence of an Amish breeder and she had a goiter removed , but she only knows what has happened to her and as I go along I wonder if she hasn’t had her vocal cords damaged or removed to prevent her from barking or even uttering a sound. I couldn’t shut babe up and now raci is the opposite. I feel sorry for the dog and I am doing my best to accommodate her and her condition, including multiple feedings at all times of the day. Part of the reason I was up at 3 this am. I feed her more often but less at each feeding. It seems to be working.

        She is now eating small amounts of dry food and seems to be able to keep that down. I also feed her scrambled eggs. She likes them well and hardly has a problem keeping them down. Babe would eat once a day and she would eat dry food and most of the time I would share with her , and she would eat her dry food only after I had fed her for the day. In fact babe was eating her supper when she passed. I doubt I will ever forget.

       Raci has an appetite despite having the problems she has. I was hoping it was just a phase she was going through, but now I tend to think she is mute, and never will make a noise, as well she will take a while to fill out . She has gained weight but she still has ways no go. The idea of her waking me in the case of a fire may be impossible unless she comes and grasps me with her mouth. This is something I need to work on with her. Not just for my sake but hers to. I want her to come and grab me if she needs water or to go outside to go to the bathroom. This is something babe did almost right off the bat, Raci needs some work. Raci is a smaller dog but I think she has the potential to get bigger as I think she is still somewhat young.

      I didn’t want a puppy to start all over with, and besides there are so many throw away dogs, that I figured a rescue would come along. She has. And she is a handful, including for the reason she is named Raci is because of her running away. She did it the first day and just recently made a dash for it, so I have kept her on a leash since then , it is tough for both of us. I do have a cable run for her though. But walking her long distances is hard on me now, but a lot easier than chasing her all over god’s creation. She does have moments where you can tell she is happy. Sherry my sister makes her happy, being free, and me returning from store when she is locked inside. A whimperless dance is usually executed.

        Well this is enough for now and don’t want to burn myself out, instead I need to write more often. I will cover some topics in more detail as I go along. But for now this should be enough.

what does trump and the presidency have in common? nothing.

Politics of Blogging

   I was told by a dear friend of mine to leave politics alone. Leave it to those who know. Of course what could I expect from a republican, I doubt if any appreciated criticism as much as they like giving it. Can’t say that I am any different as a democrat and you will notice I didn’t stutter. We have our flaws, but we are working on them and for the next four years we can take a backseat and feel free to express our displeasure as often as we like, and who better to have then the clown Trump to lead the way. My decisions to voice my opinions on Trump and the republican regime as I now call it since they do control both the house and the senate and will also place a supreme court justice to replace the one who died under the Obama administration and the Congress refused to fill the seat before elections. It seems like opinions is all we have as democrats for a while. Besides we heard enough about Obama during his two terms in office that surely the republicans can stand to be criticized for a while.

     So Trump is due to take office in less than a couple weeks and has picked his staff of millionaires to surround him , and has in place his token poor white man known as Vice President Pence , who will no doubt be the brains of the Trump administration. I see his role as similar to that of Cheney’s and that would be the head of the gestapo unit or the SS unit. He will no doubt be in charge of filling Guantanamo bay with more terrorists of both the foreign and home grown type. He will no doubt help Israel take over the West Bank and making Jerusalem the capital of Israel eliminating any chance of a separate and independent state for the Palestinians. This will be the cause for a migration of Arab citizens to run for cover to Iran and will also help the conflicts in Iraq and Syria to reignite. In four years of Trump rule we will no doubt see no end to the conflicts that exist, but instead an escalation of terrorist activities and a need for more money to be diverted to the defense department to prepare ourselves for any eventual terrorist activity that may come our way. In fact seeing how the Mexicans are reacting to an increase in gasoline prices by rioting and civil  unrest, talks of deportation and the wall will be hot topics causing unrest along our borders also if they decide to crack down on illegal immigrants. The war will no longer be across the pond but instead in our back yard. We have the rhetoric of trump to thank for this.

       This will also be cause for more money to be diverted to defense to provide the necessary border control to effectively shut down the border. This will mean that domestic programs will be stagnant or will take a hit in funding as we either borrow more money to cover the cost of increased border control or we cut programs like Medicare and Medicaid as well as any health care to provide the funds needed to cover other costs. An increase in the gas tax will be necessary to improve infrastructure and to provide lip service to promises of rebuilding and reducing unemployment which will no doubt increase after republicans take office.

         Regardless what Trump does it will eventually end up in impeachment hearings and will no doubt shadow him in his ability to get anything done. This will be a long drawn out affair and may end when he isn’t re-elected and Congress will eventually turned back over to democrats. Trump is in it for more than just doing his civic duty. He could have done that in the Vietnam war but instead choose a deferment while others were actually dying to get a chance to eventually become president. The oligarchy that exists in Washington will be replaced with independent senators and representatives who offer a more grass roots movement to be re-elected. Trumps meteoric rise which aptly describes his coming to power as he just blasted in at the last moment to win a race that was looking for something different than what Washington had to offer. Democrats tried to push a damaged Hilary into the office when they knew Bernie was a better pick. They along with the republicans will be lucky to have a party in four years unless they both change their ways. Republicans being in charge are pushing their same old tired issues and so will be wasting precious time having the last say, which by no means will be the last say on issues of abortion and Obama care , as well as a host of other issues that seem to never end in the back and forth of party politics. Leaving bigger issues of global warming and coastal land loss as well energy usage associated with burning of fossil fuels, a dying technology that facilitates the administration  to fill the pockets of the millionaires Trump has on his cabinet.

looking back

2016 In Retrospect

current project- ignore time stamp

   This hasn’t been a year for me to write a lot, apparently. In comparison to previous years I was keeping up with the writing and even feeling guilty about missing a couple of days here and there. That hasn’t been the case in the last year. What I did focus on was my priorities, whether I write or not won’t keep me warm in the winter. As of yet I haven’t received any compensation for my writing thus far. Maybe I need to change that and start submitting. Guess that would be a New Year’s resolut6ion I need to work on.

       According to rule 657. 321 of the wc code, it states, there are no rules to blogs and it is yours to do with as you please. I think I have fulfilled my obligation to you as a reader by doing just that, and not following any rules and in fact and although I shouldn’t allow you too, I still feel as if I owe you the reader more. so in an attempt at brevity, I will just get on with what I didn’t write about , that I thought was relevant to where I am at here on the farm.

     I am still trying to manage my pain and at times it feels as if my right hip is just going to drop off as I walk away, with my hip dangling in the air and blood pumping through arteries as I hop around in circles trying to miss stepping on a cat or a dog or a chicken. This would be my luck, and if the dr. would ask me what my pain level is after I get done throttling him I would say easily a 9. 9.  Not knowing if a 10 would be that same leg landing in a mud puddle and then having it reattached and walking on it again only realizing that they forgot to wash it off first. So not only would have gang green and festering union of two organic surfaces coming together and having dirt and debris in the juncture , and maybe a couple gum wrappers and a cigarette butt wandering around inside. This would be close as I can possibly think one could get to 10. Needless to say I have had to make adjustments for this in my life. Also when you are in pain it is hard to concentrate on what you are writing as I am usually trying to figure out what tyo say as early as possible before I am even writing. And rarely have to stop writing except for mistakes as it should be.

      Sentence structure and all that stuff they taught you go to heck in a sec as I, myself need to keep moving as if I am talking. This is hard and frustrating to do when I am hurting so bad. Oh well  back to my plans and accomplishments for 2016.

     I have had to change my plans as of recently as to the design of my house. I need to build something I can build by myself and using logs is hard and so I have been thinking of using the same floor plan but doing it in a post and beam structure. I can buy 8x8 dimension lumber and notch accordingly and install by myself fairly easy this will give me more free span distance and better control of dimensions. I might still do this with a smaller band-saw mill as I haven’t completely given up on that idea. I still plan on using logs and carvings but more as support posts that are carved and more for aesthetics lending itself to a more rustic charm

     My wine worked as far as I know. I sent one bottle to the neighbors and still have 2 bottles in reserve for what I don’t know. My sauerkraut didn’t do so good and although it may have been ok, I just wasn’t comfortable with it. I made app-le sauce and canned it, as well I canned my own spaghetti sauce, and it is a little hot but still very flavorful. I bought a freezer and from sales and other sources have managed to fill it completely and have the one over the refrigerator an average half full most of the time. I didn’t make hay but instead rented it out and that didn’t go the best in the world as they still left half or better to be brushhogged, so I still haven’t figured out what I am going to do this year for sure. Maybe make myself a bio mass furnace I can drop a whole hay bale into at a time. That way I can use my hay to burn and make hot water to heat my house. Would be easier to handle than wood, would. Might have to burn a bale to see how long they last. I can always take the ashes out and spread on field or include in compost to make better compost.

     I started the drainage around the back room and that has made a difference in my current place as I also included good downspout hooked into a regular drainage system . I covered the whole are with pea gravel and it seems to have cut down on mud in the house. I am working on stuff inside the trailer also as it will still be a couple of years before I remove it , so I need to try and improve and also get it ready to be dismantled when the time comes. When it is cold like this it isn’t hard to try and get things done inside. With my back the way iut is I spend time sitting more than I want top. I now kneel and avoid as much as possible just bending over at waist. I try to keep five gallon buckets close to where I am working or just take breaks when I can’t stand the pain. It sucks, and so does the pain, but I need to persevere to get myself in a better place.

     I am focusing more time on important things that will pay me back in the future. Or paying me forward, as it may be. 2017 will be here shortly so I will go for now and post this and tell everyone happy New Year , only 4 more to go with trump as president. We haven’t impeached him yet? Damn.