So our beneficent federal government has suggested 2 more ways they can offer us little people relief from the big-scary-meanies who roam about our free world..
First, it seems that one senator wants legislation to prevent airlines from making us pay for checked baggage. This is in response to an airline who wants to lower all ticket prices and then let those who need overhead space to pay extra for it. OK. Who cares? Don't go on that airline if it gets you in a lather. How is this the business of the US Legislature?
Second, the President suggested that the federal government can make it so that people won't die in mining accidents anymore. Where has he been all our lives? All we need is a federal law that makes it illegal to die in a mine! Wow. How'd we miss that? Lets see...thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people have been mining since ancient history, and, odds are, NONE of them wanted to die doing so. Same odds are that most of them thought of EVERY possible way to avoid dying, and tried to implement that. And all it took all along was for our federal government to tell us how to do it. Wow.
Where in the US Constitution is it written that either one of these things are what we are paying these people to worry about? I suggest they take a look and focus on what we can do for ourselves (most) and what we need from them (least).
Monday, April 26, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
New neighbors
It was pretty interesting yesterday, put new bees in their new hives. The way its done is they are put in the box with a very small opening, and the bees crawl out to explore their new home. After they have acclimated to the new place they are supposed to come out through a small hole in the hive to orient to the new place.
One colony of bees just went crazy, flowing out of the hive and flying all over the place and looking everywhere for the hive entrance, getting lost and being stupid.
The other colony was more conservative. It was interesting. Two bees walked out side by side from the entrance. They looked around for a second or so, and then they rubbed antennae together as if they were talking...one went inside and the other sat at the entrance, guarding.
This morning I went out to check on them. Outside of colony number one there were 3 dead bees...looks like they never made it home.
Hive number 2 - one live bee guarding the entrance.
i hope it wasn't the same one.
One colony of bees just went crazy, flowing out of the hive and flying all over the place and looking everywhere for the hive entrance, getting lost and being stupid.
The other colony was more conservative. It was interesting. Two bees walked out side by side from the entrance. They looked around for a second or so, and then they rubbed antennae together as if they were talking...one went inside and the other sat at the entrance, guarding.
This morning I went out to check on them. Outside of colony number one there were 3 dead bees...looks like they never made it home.
Hive number 2 - one live bee guarding the entrance.
i hope it wasn't the same one.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Spears
Went out to the neglected vegetable garden area today after mowing. Found several spears of asparagus valiantly standing against my neglect. I am very glad for them, as it has inspired me to clean things up to put in new veggies. We'll either feed the deer again or enjoy some produce from our own ground.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Dirty Job
There is a season for everything. I think the season for starting back to blogging is appearing.
I remember when I was in junior high my dad built a cesspool in our yard. Actually, I'm not 100% sure what it was, except that it was a solution to an overflowing septic system. It was a giant hole, and in the hole he stacked cinder block with their holes facing out.
He gave me the job of hauling rocks from a pile on the other end of the yard to this hole. The idea was that I would fill the space between the sides of the hole and the cinder block. The rock pile at the other end of the yard was something like 100ish feet from the destination. I used a red wagon, one of the big ones, to haul the rock. I hauled and hauled. The thing I remember most about the job was how important I felt being chosen to haul the rock. It was a big job I was big enough to be in.
Today by 12 year old son got his first big job. My oldest son at home had dug a new fire pit for us for burning brush and for our backyard camping expeditions. The result of his very fine job was 2 large piles of clay-ish fill dirt and 4 decent piles of topsoil. When I showed him what to do, I showed him other large digging jobs his predecessors had done; two shed foundations, a couple of utility trenches, and, of course, the fire pit. His job - move the piles to a long term storage spot about 30 feet away.
To my surprise he worked without complaint all afternoon and actually moved about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dirt. He never spilled the wheel barrow, and he even put his tools away. I think he's on to something. Life goes on.
I remember when I was in junior high my dad built a cesspool in our yard. Actually, I'm not 100% sure what it was, except that it was a solution to an overflowing septic system. It was a giant hole, and in the hole he stacked cinder block with their holes facing out.
He gave me the job of hauling rocks from a pile on the other end of the yard to this hole. The idea was that I would fill the space between the sides of the hole and the cinder block. The rock pile at the other end of the yard was something like 100ish feet from the destination. I used a red wagon, one of the big ones, to haul the rock. I hauled and hauled. The thing I remember most about the job was how important I felt being chosen to haul the rock. It was a big job I was big enough to be in.
Today by 12 year old son got his first big job. My oldest son at home had dug a new fire pit for us for burning brush and for our backyard camping expeditions. The result of his very fine job was 2 large piles of clay-ish fill dirt and 4 decent piles of topsoil. When I showed him what to do, I showed him other large digging jobs his predecessors had done; two shed foundations, a couple of utility trenches, and, of course, the fire pit. His job - move the piles to a long term storage spot about 30 feet away.
To my surprise he worked without complaint all afternoon and actually moved about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dirt. He never spilled the wheel barrow, and he even put his tools away. I think he's on to something. Life goes on.
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