SmallGreenRiver

Good to know

2011-09-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

So the other day I overheard 2 of my adult children arguing. Not unusual, so I tuned it out as I do (unless I hear things breaking). Voices started raising, so I paid some attention. I don't know what the argument was totally about, but I heard this "Let me tell you, Poppa is NOT a butthead..."

It wasn't actually buttHEAD, but the second syllable did start with "H". In the interest of keeping this "G" rated, I'm saying butthead.

Anyway.

I was relieved to know that learning did sink in to at least one of them, and I have been validated as not a butthead.

I am appreciated as a non-butthead.

Hmphhh.

Feeling pretty good about myself.

But...then again....I am wondering what the rest of the conversation was about ....no I'm not.....I don't want to know....well.....maybe....

Weighed down

2011-06-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

About to start nother bout of the old lose weight so I can gain it back cycle.

But this time I'll keep it off.

Really.

So, it's back to that special diet that exclude anything delicious, that makes us believe cardboard is better than dark chocolate, and that what we look like after working out is better than how we look peacefully snoring in the couch.

Mega Fathers Day

2011-06-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

So there is a reward for having 18 kids...especially with 12 of them being adults and some of them having actual means of their own. I got to experience that this Fathers Day. In fact, I am posting on it right now...my brand new IPad 2. My kids gave me an IPad for Fathers Day!

Oh yeah.

Cool.

Of course, when I got it, there was an immediate inquisition as to what I will do with it.

Play games? No.

Music? Nope

Movies? Uh uh.

TV? Nope

Then what?

You know. Work stuff. Reading. Writing. Information.

...boring Poppa...

So here I sit posting to my blog on this cool little thing, (I wonder if posting to the blog on the IPad has any value in the "cool" department).

Part of the magic is that this thing will work well with my Mac when the ICloud comes to life.

ICloud

Wow.

So now, I'm wondering what "I" thing comes next. IMac, IPod, IPad, then IWhat?

After a little though, I think I know. It's coming true! Steve Jobs is an instrument of God!

God did say He is the "I Am". Yes. The ultimate power in the universe! Infinite gigs, processing power that creates life with a Word....think about it...I AM!

And, yes, He will come back on a (this is the great part) Cloud!

His Cloud!

So I have the latest in "I" stuff, and can't wait for the I Cloud. But the greater thing is what's coming next.....the I Am returning on His Cloud.

Whew.

You did what?

2011-06-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

So today the kids had their night at the go cart track. They save all year to go there, plotting how they will win. With 8 of them, they usually dominate the track.

But they also demonstrate why we need to wait a little longer for driver's learner permits.

All of them

Watch out sea creatures....

2011-06-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

It is pretty hilarious watching my boys collect the various wildlife that dares show it's face while they are prowling the beach. They dare each other to pick up the crabs, they've learned by one's unfortunate experience that jellyfish are not worth touching. Today they found a school of very unlucky small fish that got caught in a shallow tidal pool. My boys knew the fish should be in a bucket rather than this natural habitat.

To keep balance my wife times the captures so that any animal gets freed after 5 minutes. The boys try hard to stretch the 5 minutes, or to find a place that counts as "freed", but still affords them the fun of playing with the critters.

It's good for the species that we only live at this beach for 2 weeks at a time.

The games continue

2011-05-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today's score was

children - 17 crabs, 47 sand fleas, 238 clams.

giant jellyfish - 1 child.

Even though the numbers don't show it, the wildlife won.

Can anyone tell me who wrote this and when?

2011-05-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

"I have never been able to understand all the fuss some people make about the government wanting to do something to improve and protect the health of the people. I usually find that those who are loudest in protesting against medical help by the federal government are those who do not need help. But the fact is that a large portion of our population cannot afford to pay for proper medical and hospital care."

I'll bet you'll never get the answer!!

Proliferation

2011-05-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

One of the stunning results of having a lot of children is that over time, the numbers associated with the family start growing faster than you realize. Finding a restaurant that can seat you becomes a major outing challenge.

This weekend we had 3 children graduate from high school. Two of them were homeschooled, and one was a public schooler (another dozen posts to explain that one). The homeschool graduation was on Saturday and the public school one on Sunday.

I am very aware of the importance of that moment in time, that glory time, that pinnacle of achievement that high school graduation is, but, I need to say, a weekend of them is very trying (to be nice).

I digress.

Back to the family size.

So at the Saturday graduation, a community homeschool ceremony, there were only 12 graduates. We had a local church auditorium to use. Of course, being homeschoolers, there were families galore, and no limits on how many could attend. At a point I looked out at who came to be with my 2 girls, and there were almost 4 full rows of cheer section for them. Grandmom and Grandpop, adult sisters and brothers, inlaws, girlfriends, grandchildren, a virtual family reunion all there to witness the big event (a sort of miracle in fact). It was very sweet and a very big deal. And my girls were thrilled as they basked in the glory of this success.

As this batch grows up, the exponential growth of family size will only only get worse, or better, depending on whether we're talking restaurant or Christmas. The idea of "go forth and multiply"becomes as mathematical as it is biological.

Its very fun to watch, and amazing to see the seats fill up with a writhing mass that is my family.

When I was at the graduation I realized that the cause of this crowd actually happened almost 40 years ago, when I was in high school and I met this girl I knew I would marry.

I did.

Get back

2011-05-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

I'm really hoping that the President's declaration that Israel should retreat to the pre 1967 borders isn't an indication of his willingness to retreat in America, After all, what if he decides the US should retreat to pre 1850 borders...or pre 1776...crazy?

I'll bet the Israelis think pre 1967 is as well.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people AREN'T out to get you

2011-05-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

The crazy prediction that on this Saturday at 6PM the rapture will occur flies in the face of what we know from scripture - that Jesus Himself said only the Father knows the when. He said to just be prepared, and it really won't matter when it happens.

There is plenty written on how this latest prediction, which follows hundreds over the century, feeds into the naysayers who believe CHristians are crazy. I suppose we are - to believe this will happen at all. Nonetheless, we do. And it will. There is nothing to say it will happen on the 21st at 6PM, but, the truth is, there is also nothing to say it won't.

The important thing is to be ready...to not be fooled by the foolish predictions, but to look hard into the face of reality; let the Holy Spirit affect your heart - take the invitation and surrender to the most gracious power in the universe - the God who saves those who ask.

It is simple, and then the "when" won't matter.

Be ready.

And have your church clothes ready for Sunday.

Prophesy before us

2011-05-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

As expected, the individual who commented on my post (2 posts back) about Stephen Hawking fulfills what was predicted in the scripture he mocks:

"in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires." (read 2 Peter chapter 3)

Thank you sir. You join the millions of scoffers and prove the point.

To inform you, not to convince you (I don't imagine you want to be convinced), faith has to be exercised before it can be proven. Only the faithful get the privilege, that is the essence of faith. The issue is not a contest between intellect and faith. Intellect tries to prove in advance, faith is the conscious choice to believe in advance. Neither is a higher order than the other...they are completely different from each other. Highly intellectual people are also highly faithful. Proof comes to the faithful.

You can mock that if you choose. When you do, you prove your own limits that prevent you from experiencing the power of faith. The billions who have understood that for thousands of years experience that fact, they do not argue, they live.

Faith in intellect is like other empty faith. Wooden and stone idols, images in the sky, chants, and rituals all distract us from faith in the truth that has been seen throughout the history of mankind. Don't think it is unintentional. Again, mock if you like, and understand that you are playing directly into the hand of God's enemy who mocks you in your intellectual denial of the truth.

Still, there will always be those who scoff. I suggest they are afraid of finding the truth that will make them accountable. Instead of trusting these words, they trust the waivering "intellect", the intellect that said "the world is flat...oh, no, it is round.....it is the center of the universe, see?... oh, no, it is not,...ok, well, life began in a primordial soup...oh, no, it must have come from inside volcanoes,....oh, no, it must have been seeded from comets, or asteroids, or meteors....there are 3 elements, oh no, there are more...the universe is expanding....shrinking....must be life on Mars...little green men? How about just a microbe...well, maybe not, how about Europa? Lunar dust is many feet deep by our calculations....well.....ok, maybe some of it fell off..." Wasn't it early scientific intellectuals that insisted that flies spontaneously appeared alive and that lead can be made into gold? And do you, sir, really understand what Steven Hawking is saying other than he isn't afraid of the dark? You choose to believe him, perhaps mostly because he denies the truth you can't bring yourself to look at. OK. Dr Hawkins invites you into his long line of scoffers, and according to the prophesy you fulfill in doing so, has a lot of company.

From the front page of FoxNews this morning

2011-05-18T04:25:00.000-07:00

These are for among the 15 "Latest News" headlines

- Texas Teacher Allegedly Had Sex With 5 Students
- Family Barricaded in Home by Angry Landlord
- Boy Grilled by Secret Service Over Facebook Post
- New Jersey Child Dies in Vat of Cooking Oil
- Police Probe eBay Posting to Sell Toddler

It would be hard to make this up.

Stephen Hawking is a fool

2011-05-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Heaven is 'a fairy story,' scientist Stephen Hawking says
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor

The concept of heaven or any kind of afterlife is a "fairy story," famed British scientist Stephen Hawking said in a newspaper interview this week.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail," the physicist said in an interview published Sunday in Britain's Guardian newspaper. "There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

This man is a fool who thinks he can imagine reality rather that participate in it. It is OK for him to remain a fool, but it is unconscionable that he is taking so many people down with him.

Shame on him. Shame his computer is so limited.

"Fools base their thoughts on foolish assumptions" (Ecclesiastes 10:13)

"Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools" (Romans 1:22)

On the Rock

2011-05-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was pretty awesome. Two sons, one son-in-law, and a very generous friend joined me as we mixed concrete one shovel at a time to pour an 8 1/2 yard floor in a building that is not accessible to a ready-mix truck. We worked from 8 AM to 5PM and got about 6 yards down, around 20ft by 23 feet. We had to admit defeat when one of team's back began to give problems that said "you're done".

We formed it off and planned the next day of adventure. Fifty years ago this was the way things were done. Yesterday it was as well. What great blessings to have such generosity.

A little rusty

2011-05-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

I do enjoy the History Channel, though I am in the minority in my house. Some of the shows are "think pieces", others are entertaining. Some claim to present "fact", but are really just well presented guesses.

One last night was such a show. It explained how we got deposits of iron ore spread throughout the earth's crust. As it presented the facts, the show proposed that "iron is virtually under our feet wherever we stand on earth". That seemed easy enough to accept, it ought to be evident. As the show progressed, it demonstrated how iron is mixed in various concentrations in formations and is fairly well know.

Here's where it got a little off the "fact" track. As the writers explained how the iron got there, they came up with a beaut of a story. You see, the earth was once populated by a large number of solid iron mountains. That was a stage we went through. During that time, the earth had torrential rains that had high acid concentrations. This rain was so torrrential that it filled the oceans, and with the dissolved iron, the water contained high levels of iron. Remember, the iron mountains were melted into the oceans...

THEN, as many moons went by, the iron began to settle out of the water, and it settled onto the bottom and formed these layers and deposits we now know as our iron ore deposits. That probably took more time than we will take paying off our national debt.

I'm not convinced these guys cleared this whole story with the one about the oceans being formed by the icy comets bombarding the earth...and I'm surely not sure where the melting of the iron mountains fits into the movement of the continents from Pangea.

And, having owned cars built in the 80's, I'm not sure how we use acid to dissolve iron into water and then get it to settle out into iron ore...I've seen Chevy Vegas go through the melting part, but the powder that was the result would be very unlikely to recompose into iron...

Just sayin...

For the birds?

2011-05-07T05:22:00.001-07:00

I have a bird feeding station just outside my office window. I have regular visitors, who, when I fail to refill according to their needs, sit on the feeders staring pitifully at me. Or so it seems.

There is a pair of cardinals, male and female, who are regulars. The female sits in a tree a few yards from the feeders while the male collects seed and delivers it to her in the tree. There has been a small black bird visiting recently who sits on the feeder staring at the window. Every now and then he darts to the window, crashes into it, and then goes back to the feeder to stare some more. I assume he is picking bugs off the house, which taste good enough to tolerate the headache from crashing.

When we are told that God's care for birds is an example of what we can expect from him for ourselves, it deserves some real detailed thinking. To observe the cardinals, and how He has provided the food through my desire to see them, the loving care of a mate for each, and the protection of the male bringing her breakfaat-in-the-tree, I can see He gives them much more than simply available food. God cares enough for the birds to have provided a whole chain of capability to make sure these little wonders do more than just survive, He provides so that they flourish.

How much more must He do for me?

Its almost time for the beach

2011-05-06T05:22:00.000-07:00

Every year we go to the same place on the Outer Banks for a 2 week break from the rat race. We take most of the rats with us, so what actually happens is the race is relocated. The good news is we are mostly free of schedules and "must do's", so we enjoy the time together, basking in the sun and splashing in the rushing waters. We casually walk the race instead of running it.

I think the crabs are the ones who like it hte least.

We are now within the 3 week window of leaving. Naturally, the schedule at home increases and the "must do's" pile on. It doesn't matter though. On the appointed day we will pack the kids and stuff into 2 vehicles and a trailer, haul it all to the house we know and love on the sands of Nags Head and pretend we are bums for 15 glorious days. Thanks God!

You can't always get what you want.

2011-05-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Stopped raining long enough for me to mow. Funny how that works, and probably funny how it must look to the Lord - we need the rain, we pray for it, and when it comes we whine about having it.

As kids we want more than anything to grow older. We grow older and remember the good ole days as kids. We can't wait to get out of school and get a job, then wish we had the same schedule as high school.

I think I like it the way it is. Right now the sun is shining on my pretty green, freshly mowed grass, I don't have to tolerate teachers' dirty looks. And the Lord is blessing my family with His care and grace, giving us work to do for His kingdom.

Don't mix up the round stuff and the square stuff

2011-04-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

I have many children, and as a result, see many solutions to common problems. If, for example, you asked a random child to clean out the refrigerator, you should expect random choices as to how the stuff get's rearranged back into the clean fridge. The scheme I find most entertaining is putting things back in by SHAPE.

Yes. SHAPE.

For example, square stuff in one place, large round stuff in another, etc. We recently had our spice cabinet done this way. It's great if you know what shape whatever you are looking for is.

This seems innocent enough. The trouble is, those people grow up, and I think they get jobs arranging goods in a grocery store. For example, when sent to a store to get "Hawaiian Punch", I head for the aisle marked "Juice". Nope (confirming what we all suspected). How about "Drinks". Nope, that's for what I would label "Soda". Not with "Water and Flavored drinks".

Its with "Snacks". Oh.

How about "White VInegar"? With "Baking goods?" Nope, even though all of the vegetable oil is there. Near the aisle with Olive Oil? Nope (that was with the "International Foods)?!. The Vinegar was on an aisle with canned goods. But it comes in a bottle...

It is so random it CAN'T be an accident. I think it is an effort to sort the experienced grocery-getters from the occasional errand runners like myself. We are easy to spot; staring in wonder at the signs, looking lost, mouth hanging open, looking in the same aisle 4 times hoping it'll be different than it was the last 3 times I looked.

Is it changing us?

2011-04-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Once it was a new thing to have a blog. That "once" was maybe 2 years ago. Now, us oldsters have blogs, seems the "social networks" have taken over, where you can say in 140 characters what you used to craft for an hour or so, and publish as a short paragraph.

I like the freedom of a blog, for some reason it seems a little more thoughtful and exists in a calmer environment. Who cares if nobody reads it?

Nobody?

Are you reading this?

Anyone?

Easter

2011-04-25T06:44:00.001-07:00

Thirty-eight years ago I made the choice to believe that God created the heavens and the earth. I listened to the schools that deny God and listened to Him and made my choice.

On the other hand, the Smithsonian will only listen to the one unbelievable story and not listen to anyone else. In fact, they will only criticize anyone who challenges the theory they morph to fit the conditions. It is worthy of pointing out that the comet story I discussed in my last post is a recent addition to the fairy tale since science figured out that it is mathematically impossible for life to spontaneously erupt...so they needed it to come from SOMEWHERE not on the earth, so the comets seemed like a good place since they have ice and everyone knows how much life likes to live in ice (like the things living in your freezer). Of course, this all begs the question...how did it get on the comets?

For thousands of years is was foreseen that a messiah would appear in Israel, provided by God Himself to solve the manmade problem of sin separating us from Him. It was also foreseen He would be killed as He was, and that He would come back to life on the 3rd day following His death. He himself told of that miracle, and it happened just like He said. Just the same, He promises an intimate involvement in the lives of those who CHOOSE to believe Him.

Rather than back into a "plausible" explanation of what MIGHT have been, like oceans-of-ice striking to cover 71% of the earth with water miles deep, I chose in advance to believe what God has said. The result has not been a belief morphing to fit a changing story, but fulfilled promises of blessings and daily guidance that proves my faith consistently, the same today as yesterday and tomorrow. The Smithsonian answers evolve as much as the theory portends the universe does, but the Word of God is forever.

It is sad as the sincerest institutions, like the Smithsonian, close themselves off from the truth in the name of a need to know more than God. It's an old story first told in Eden. Even so like the miracles in my own life, this story is one whose results are foretold...over and over and over.

Faith

2011-04-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

We went to the Smithsonian during a visit to DC with the kids the other day. I was apprehensive about taking my children there because of their dishonest and close-minded approach to education. While there we listened to the beginning of a presentation of earth history. "Four billion years ago, the earth was covered in volcanoes. As the volcanoes erupted, they released water. Also, many icy comets crashed into the earth. These 2 conditions filled the oceans." You know the oceans - the ones that now cover 71% of the earth.

That's 343,423,668,428,484,681,262 gallons of water. That's how much water there is in the oceans.

From comets and volcanoes?!.

Do the math...if it covers 71% of the earth, in some places many miles deep, how much could have been INSIDE (to come out in volcanoes)(remembering the inside is SMALLER than the outside), and how many comets must have bombarded the earth to put the rest of it in the oceans.

Really? Volcanoes and comets?

Why did the comets stop? (I know...I know..we RAN OUT of them...)

Sure takes a lot of FAITH to believe THAT. Another new story to explain the unbelievable.

Take it on faith

2010-09-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

So, in our science that operates on "facts" versus faith, the following appeared in numerous news web sites today:

1. A planet that has characteristics that can support life (based on what on earth supports life) has been identified "near" the earth. (actually, we can't see it, we can only assume (is assume like faith at all?) its presence by anomalies in what we observe of its sun)

2. It is about 20 light years away...meaning that if we traveled at the speed of light it'd take 20 years to get there. (that is "near" the earth?) (and, how exactly do we "know" it is that many light years away...no one has traveled a light year)(...and...the light we are observing occurred 20 years ago on that assumption...any faith there?)

3. It is "100%" certain to have the characteristics that would allow it to have abundant liquid water, a statement the discovering scientist is "nearly certain" of.

And they think we people of faith make some big leaps...

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-09-30-planet30_ST_N.htm

Interesting discussions

2010-09-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting discussion with one of my teens today about evolution versus creation. She really wanted the fast answer, of which, of course, there is none. I asked her which she thought took more faith to believe.

Creation.

OK, how did we get the creation story?

I dunno.

We have it written in a book that has been used for at least 3 thousand years of human history, including the 3 biggest belief groups in the world, that was written by someone who was there, stating it happened around 5-6 thousand years ago, and was carried forward in oral-then-written form so accurately it has never been contradicted by archeology.

OK, and now how did we get the evolution story?

It was written by theorists over the last 200 years or so about things that, if true, would have to have happened billions and hundreds-of-millions of years ago. What actually happened and how it happened have been the subject of dynamic theorizing since the theory was developed in the 18th century.

Which believer has to have the greatest faith in his version of the beginning?

Ohhh.

Aliens?

2010-09-27T06:59:00.001-07:00

Funny how the search for extraterrestrial life has moved from the H.G.Wells War of the Worlds flavor to the certain satisfaction the geniuses would feel if they found 1 live virus under a rock somewhere in space. What a gift we have in this perfectly balanced earth...

huh...huh...huh...huh....?

2010-05-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

So there are certain kids who assume that when you answer them with something other than what they want (like "no") what you really mean is "ask me again sometime". And, invariably, that kids will be back, often within minutes, asking the same questions looking for a different answer. Sometimes they are clever, and change the question slightly as if you might think differently if they ask differently.

Our democracy seems to be taking lessons from those kids. Watching the news we see that if something is voted "no" in the Senate, they will wait a couple of days, then try again....and again...and again...till they (the majority party) get what they wanted in the first place.

Like the kid, the question for the Senate seems not to be "is this right?" or "is this what the people want?". Instead, it is "will you vote yes now or later?"

It is a form of misrepresentation that annoys mne

Politics or Values

2010-05-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

As we muddle through the divisions in this country I wonder how we can maintain our values and not sell them out for the political gain. Winning is the political piece, integrity is the values piece. Each is important, but I propose that the values piece trumps. What good is it to give way on our values for a political win? We sit in the seat weakened...often in leadership and affected by our sellout.

I see our society doing this even in our public schools. We can't tell the students the truth because of a political point...we want the money so we sell the truth short....we rationalize that truth might not - in fact - be truth...("truth for you might not be truth for me..").

The problem with letting this go to the schools is that we are indoctrinating a generation, and as that generation indoctrinates it's young people, they will have weaker values, watered down by the weakness of their predecessors. How can we stop the madness?

I wonder if he read it or heard about it like our Attorney General

2010-05-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

The following is a clip from the news today talking about the Mexican President's visit to our Congress:

"The Mexican leader also told lawmakers reluctant to take up the immigration issue this year that comprehensive immigration reform is crucial to securing the two countries' common border.
Calderon, the first foreign national leader to address Congress this year, said he strongly disagrees with the Arizona law that requires police to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they are in the country illegally.
"It is a law that not only ignores a reality that cannot be erased by decree but also introduces a terrible idea using racial profiling as a basis for law enforcement," he said to cheers, mainly from the Democratic side of the chamber."

Huh?

It is wrong for police to ask people to show that they are in the country legally? Has anyone ever been to Mexico? Seen their police in action? He was on a visit to the President of the US, not the Governor of the sovereign state of Arizona. The people of Arizona, not the people of the US chose this direction, largely because of the failed policies of the federal government whose job it is to manage immigration, whose failed policies are directly threatening the people of Arizona. A law that ignores a reality? I think not. It looks to me like it actually recognizes a reality.

What!?

2010-05-07T05:31:00.000-07:00

So the fact that a "typo" could make the stock market lose 10% of its value in less than 5 minutes should be more than a little frightening. The guy typed "billion" instead of "million", which is equivalent to what would happen to my checking account if I typed "thousand" instead of "hundred" when paying my electric bill. Of course we are expected to say "oh dang" while our 401Ks hit the skids. I wonder if my bank would do the same if I made the "typo"...

Time keeps on slipping....

2010-05-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

As the time slips away we see it's already May. I don't even have enough time left in May to review my calendar. Go figure that. For people with eternity we sure fret such things.

Today I looked forward to when I can get back out in my beehives. I wonder if they are waiting for me? Probably not. They just know there's nectar to be gathered and brood to rear. Maybe I could focus on the same and end up with a totally sweet outcome.

In plain sight

2010-04-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

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).

New neighbors

2010-04-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Spears

2010-04-18T16:29:00.001-07:00

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.

Dirty Job

2010-04-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Pigs don't fly

2009-10-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

So a friend told me she was worried because the President had just declared an emergency around the swine flu. Her worry was that if they want to, they can forego regulations otherwise required to speed treatment and reactions to the flu as it spreads. After all, 1000 people have died. (Of course, 35000 died last year with all of that in place.)

To console her, I said "Hmmm, well, in a national emergency virtually anything is on the table for the sake of averting the emergency. For example, some liberty might have to be suspended in the interest of protecting us from the flu. Like involuntary segregation of the sick and well. At home? Not necessarily, in publicly monitored places. Actually, that didn't console her.

I think that is something to watch. How much freedom is on the table? The party line is that this flu is a threat through the winter. Seems odd, doesn't it? The flu would be a threat from last spring through the winter? Will we forget about the suspension of the rules during that time? Not if we make a point of watching.

What a man!

2009-08-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

So the hysteria continues. I hear the 5 year declaring loudly that the 12 year old boy now has hair growing in his armpits. I laugh inside, not saying anything but remembering those days. Then, later on in the day, my 9 year old son announces loudly "Look, I have hair in m armpits just like my brother!". He walks over to show his mother - whaddya know, he does - he scotch-taped pieces of red yarn under his arms. Checking further, he had copied his 12 year old brother. I asked if he had hair on his back yet, he lifted his shirt and lo-and-behold there was a lone red piece of yarn growing out of a piece of tape on his back.

The fun never ends.

Ranting. How many times do I have to say NO?

2009-08-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

There is a sneaky phenomenon happening in our American public place that I worry about.

Seems pretty frequent that when something is voted on in our democracy, the result is not the final answer.

An example is a local one. Two years ago our county voted quite strongly against allowing our Charles Town racetrack-slot parlor to add table-game-gambling to the ways to lose your money for entertainment. In the legislation that authorized the games, it was written that there had to be a local referendum to make it legal, and if it were defeated, the issue could not be resurrected for 2 years. Guess what!? It is 2 years. And, guess what?! They are back to try again. Here's the rub. We said NO.

What has changed that we should be asked again? Here's some of what has changed...the out of state company that owns the track is arguing about all we lost by not letting them take home the hundreds of millions of dollars they think will come in exchange for the few millions they will "contribute" to the tax base...the same tax base that will have to fund the increased burden of roads, traffic, security, infrastructure, etc. The other thing that has changed is they figured out there is opposition and they must fight it to win. I have a 5 year old that uses the same tactic - try to wear us down to get what you want.

mom.....mom....mom...mom....MOM....MOM....MOMMMMMM

We have the same thing going on in Washington. We revert to failed security policies (policies from Set 10, 2001 and back) because the policies that worked since Sept 11 2001 make us seem mean to bad people. We resurrect gun legislation that has already been turned away by the courts, as though if we "sell" it differently it will be legal this time. We want to relook at the definition of marriage as encoded by law, as though something has changed over the course of thousands of years of history, the foundation of our nation, and the core of the American people...even thinking maybe it's time to repeal a law passed strongly to protect marriage as it is known in those thousands of years...what changed?

We condemn our former President for being and idealist, and we lionize our departed Senator Kennedy for being (shhhh!) an .....idealist. Huh?

Seems to me we'd have a more peaceful time if we went with the decisions made at the time and quit trying to reinvent for the sake of reinvention Save the transformation for the color of your livingroom, and leave the majority ruling please.

Someone moved my cheese

2009-07-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

This new situation has some twists and turns that are interesting to say the least. The new situation is the heavy kid population that has taken over our estate.

Example is this afternoon.

Kate takes the girls and I take the boys. Fair, it seems. The girls go off shopping and the boys go swimming in the backyard. Divide and conquer.

I've been a dad for a very long time, but this deal is new every morning. When I get the boys, that means I have 5 boys from age 5 to 12, all of them rivals...as it should be.

Kate takes the girls - fair again - that is an 11 year old, a 15 year old, and a 16 year old. Whole different dynamic.

"As it should be" with boys is different than "as it should be" with girls. The idea that "boys will be boys" was put forth by someone long ago who simply gave in to the reality.

I had a domain for years I was in total control of...the yard, the fringes of the outside...my domain with no interference from short people with no sense. Now - it's like trying to hold a handful of water - they dig up, take apart, break, climb, or otherwise move everything they encounter. Every living creature is subject to capture, large or small, crawling or flying. There are no borders between garden, lawn, and woods. All trees are climbing devices. All rocks are in the wrong place and must be moved, usually to where I mow. Sand does not belong in the sandbox. Whew.

And I wouldn't trade it for all the nice grass in China.

The 3AM Phone Call

2009-07-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

It happened.

Actually, it was a midnight phonecall that demanded action at 3 AM.

It'll never make the news because its not big enough.

Neither Pres Obama or Sec State Clinton answered.

Kate did.

"There was a tragedy, someone has died. Despite the tragedy, they donated their organs for transplant, and a kidney is available that matches your daughter. We need her here between 5 and 6AM".

The call came from 2 hours away.

So they left at 3AM and are waiting for a noon time surgery.

What a miracle.

Thank God it was Kate who answered the call and not either the Pres or SecState.

Hey Mom, guess what!?

2009-07-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

So no sooner had I finished the last post and I'm sitting in the livingroom with my wife. My 6 year old liddle darling comes out of the powder room and announces "Hey Mom - I just peed out of my butt!!

We looked at each other, holding onto the thread of seriousness that hung us precariously away from utter hysterical peals of laughter. My wife says "oh, you still have (insert the "d" word)?"

"Yes, but I'm not doing that anymore Mom."

I wonder if I stirred something up.

Hey Poppa, does this hurt?

2009-07-09T17:51:00.001-07:00

The "boys will be boys" thing is interesting. Now that I am thrust into the role of father to 5 boys between ages 6 and 12 I have this ever raucous bunch of minor testosterone wielding beings who are something akin to a small herd of puppies. While at age 55, the more you "rough house" the tired-er you get, for this set the more they rough house the more energy they have...kind of like one of those little friction motored cars where you rub it on the floor to wind it up and -zoom...

A piece or reality hit the other day when my 19 year old left for boot camp. We took him to the airport, and the boys, whose interest in his future was limited to how many time he was actually going to get to shoot the gun, bemoaned on the ride home "who are we going to fight with now?"

Turns out its me.

I'm up to it. With some limits. In the spirit of "never let them see you sweat", I roll around and fling, push, twist, knock, and otherwise take it, always appearing to be invincible. At a time of my choosing, I find a reason to depart the area, find the aspirin, and hope the next round waits till I have recovered my fatherly invincibility.

My son returns in February.

Ok. Ok......

2009-06-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

I sat on the beach all day knowing that the time had come - I need to get things wrapped up to move our family of 12 back into the van, the jeep, and the trailer we haul everything in. On the packup-to-go-to-the-beach end it's a bit more complicated, lots of decisions being made as to what to bring, etc. Additionally, there's a constant wondering as to whether everything will fit while leaving room for the fam to sit the 6 hours of the trip. Coming home it is somewhat easier...everything that is left needs to come home, and if we got it here we must have room for it.

Nonetheless, I sat there all day waiting for the moment when I would get started. It was easiest to sit there enjoying the yells and screams and shrieks of the kids and the fun, knowing that if I started the process somehow the vacation would end sooner.

As it turned out, around 4 this afternoon a large, black cloud came from nowhere and cleared everyone off the beach. It rained long enough for me to put the top back on the jeep and for the day to be declared over. As soon as we got started moving crates and passing out jobs the cloud moved off with it's payload of rain and the sun shone.

Message delivered - message received.

We're done.

When pigs fly

2009-06-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

So our social engineers are planning to "declare" a pandemic because of the swine flu. It's a prerequisite for them to take control when and where they want to in order to avert the disaster about to be unleashed. Of course, one of the smaller issues is that this flu isn't really that different than most. According to the BBC "Although most sufferers experience normal flu symptoms and make a full recovery, the WHO has confirmed 141 deaths from 27,737 cases."

One hundred forty one deaths out of 27,737 cases? We kill more babies each day in America in the name of choice. Are we stupid?

Since the press blamed the flu vaccine shortage a few years ago on Pres Bush (I guess he brews it in the back room of the oval office), our change President wants to make sure no one blames him. He will use this bent statistic to make federal guarantees for drug companies, who we know only work in the interest of the public, so that they produce enough vaccine whether we need it or not, or whether it works of not. The PR will be good for his survival, since we all know him being sustained in elected office is the objective, and the beneficiary will be the manufacturers, who will be stimulated...both economically and in the voting booth.

Chriat?

2009-06-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

So since Daimler couldn't make Chrysler work for them, now Fiat is going to take a shot. It'll be just like them to pull it off. The working man's car that has been the mainstay in Europe forever will be able to do what the snob couldn't, just like the same snob can't compete with the working class cars on the continent. When Fiat seemed to be down and out they pulled it out and are now renowned for their R&D, a fitting place to be as they snap up the bargains of the industry. My '85 Alfa Romeo may be able to see it's younger cousins running around West Virginia soon...!

Can I drive?

2009-06-09T05:31:00.000-07:00

I painfully agree to go on the "double" go cart with my 10 year old grand daughter, and worse - I agree to let he drive. After getting her assurance that she wouldn't kill me I then recognized the next difficulty - the passenger seat is not intended for adult men - so I squeeze behind the placebo steering wheel and reach to put on the shoulder belt (realizing more than ever how important it is), finding that it won't close around me due to it's years of use for little kids in the salt air.

I sigh as we prepare to take off.

There is some relief (for my safety) as we take off and she has both feet firmly planted on the gas AND the brake. I tell her (yelling in a coach-like manner) "take your foot off that pedal" and she took it off the gas, stopping us as everyone passes us. Again, in a "coachlike" way I grab the wheel, twisting it toward the inside lane, cutting off someone who has lapped us twice already, instructing her in a not-so-gentle-panic to press the gas as hard as she can and not let up we steer on the inside track and finish second.

Second to the last.

She loved it.

lookamyskin!

2009-06-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

So the 5 year old walks up to his 16 year old sister with his hand open, showing off a new treasure. "Look at my skin!"

"What?"

"My skin"

"What are you talking about?"

"Look" as he peeled another small piece off his sunburnt side.

The shutter that quaked her body was only comparable to the look of disgust on her face.

Another victory for boyhood.

Just a pinch

2009-06-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

So one of my boys - age 6 - comes walking up with a large sand crab in his hand. He's holding it to study and entertain, as the crab reaches desperately backward to try to pinch him with the large front claws. Undeterred, my son walks around very satisfied he has a new friend. We told him he has to put it down and let it go - he complies, and then comes back half an hour later with another. He continued through the day until he came to me looking a little upset - look Poppa, a crab pinched me...

God teaches us daily...

Little boys

2009-06-06T15:04:00.001-07:00

We have always been a household predominated by girls. Over the years we have probably had 30 or more daughters in our foster care and adoptive ministry. While we've had numerous boys, the girls have always been in the majority.

Now we have a of majority boys. And these aren't just any boys - they are 5 boys ranging in age from 5 to 11. Whew. They are made to dig, excavate, destroy, fart, gross out, hunt, hurt, wrestle, laugh, and move faster than the sound of your voice.

The girls struggle for supremacy, and at this time the only advantage they have is age. It'll be fun to watch - what'll win - age or speed.

Whitehouse Bees

2009-06-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

Fun to see. Look at the government version of a beehive, apparently totally secured against any possible incident. http://www.tonitoni.org/photos26.html

Now look at a typical beehive by us "commoners" who don't have a trillion dollar budget

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickbusse/2586012050/

I was actually excited to find out that the beekeeper who got his bees in this beeyard has some colonies with queens from the same breeder I am using. Kind of a brotherhood. Fact is, those are sissy beehives. They are bolted to the ground on a concrete pad, strapped in. I guess we wouldn't want the little Obamas to get stung. For my yard, I have the hives on cinder blocks and the kids are told to stay away or they'll get stung. The bees take care of the discipline part.

Crabby

2009-06-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

Last night the older ones went on the late night fishing trip. There is a pier down the road they love to fish from. They usually don't catch much, but they get to stay up late and have fun trying. I myself like everything about fishing except dealing with the dead or dying fish. Their haul wasn't much - 2 sting rays. Next stop - crabbing under a bridge this morning.

Is it bees, or Osama, Obama, or being burnt?

2009-06-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a while, so the commentary is very out of date. There is much to say.

For example, very soon Fiat will be bringing in cars to what used to be your Chrysler dealership. Fiat. Does anyone remember what that used to stand for?

Or, does anyone know that Fiat owns Alfa Romeo?!

Or, does anyone join me in wondering why in the world a Chinese machinery company wants to own Hummer. Seems to me that if GM couldn't get people to buy those things, there is little chance Americans are going to buy them from a communist company?! Why do they want it?

Looks like Osama isn't buying into the idea that we can talk to each other nicely and work out our differences like the President believes. His goal to kill Americans and bring down the American nation can't be moved forward by talking. Although that is all he is able to do right now. Maybe he'll stick his head up 'cause he thinks we aren't looking...

I have a decent honey crop going right now on a totally unrelated note. I took off 3 "supers", which total about 120 pounds, or about 10 gallons. I have 10 more supers on the hives right now, but I don't think they'll fill them all. I have some slacker colonies that aren't playing right. Thing is, I have a lot of bees right now, 8 colonies, so I am hoping for a very good crop followed by a very good winter.

Finally, on getting burnt. We are. The sun is good and we are spending our days sitting under it and watching the kids in the surf.

I know I said finally, but there is another thing. Why are we listening to these people as they continue to tell us lies, that they know how to run everything in this country, that until they came to power everyone in history was wrong and they should have been running it all along. The most likely result of this kind of governing is a massive round of inflation coupled with a lot of American's being killed by people who hate us and think we are stupid and weak. We have been here before. Why are we again? As the transparency turns to translucency we sit around debating left versus right and miss the fact that the central government has been taken over by dangerous radicals who are not smart enough to listen. Instead of demanding they get it right we gloat or argue about them not being the last guys. Or the last guys. Or the last guys. Someday maybe we'll get it. Before it's too late.

OK. One more finally. So sad about the Air France crash. So sad.

Sugar candy and Sugar syrup

2009-03-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

The bees are out and going. I checked this morning and they are busily taking the medicated syrup I gave them this weekend. That was fun...3 of my kids dressed in spare bee suits and escorted me as we opened each up, removed their winter food and replaced it with feeders and sugar syrup. The bees cooperated nicely, curiously surrounding the kids in their suits. The kids did well too - after I assured them they PROBABLY won't get stung, they allowed the bees to crawl on them, and they calmly watched the flights in and out of the hives with various reward for foragers.

I got assigned a student to mentor from our beekeeper's association starter class. In April these students will start their first real bee hive with a package of bees in new hives. I'll be on standby to encourage my student.

I think this is going to be a sweet honey season!

The widow's mite

2009-03-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

So the conversation has changed...maybe that was the change we voted for?

Some of the first was the idea that by "not hiring lobbyists" he meant except for the ones he wanted. Like it was OTHER people who weren't as smart as him in that he can pick out the GOOD GUY lobbyists...probably like republicans would...he meant THEY shouldn't hire lobbyists...

Then, as long as a cabinet appointee makes good on the taxes he didn't pay - that makes him a good guy. Tiny Time pointed out he didn't have to...the statute of limitations had run out...(isn't that for when you break a law and don't get caught..?)

Of course, now the idea is that TRILLIONS are the new BILLIONS. Our outrage over the Bush Administration's $100 Billion a year for the war as unsustainable seems like chump change with the news every day that a check for another $700 billion was written to cover bonehead businesses who are wrecking our economy. Oh, they need the money to send to other business and banks so that THEY don't lose out on the bad investments they made, because, after all, that would be bad? Are you following this? It's all because of the evil people who earn over $250,000 a year. They did it. And they need to give Tiny Tim all their money. Now. I mean it.

Meanwhile the refugees in Darfur are sitting in the middle of the desert without any help, medical or food, because THEIR government through out all foreign aid workers. They needed to do this because these aid workers were likely to be complicit in arrest warrant put out for their president for crimes against humanity. So he showed them, no more aid. Now. I mean it.

Should that president get a bonus? Who is bad and who is good?

Some math

2009-02-25T05:35:00.000-08:00

So I've been doing some math to figure out what our new President is really saying.

First, he said that his plan will create or save 3.5 million jobs. Or 4 million. Or 3 million. The number changes, but that isn't so important. Create or save? How do you count how many you saved? Easy, I'm figuring. If you didn't create them you must have saved them. So, if he didn't create a single new job, but there was no net loss, he accomplished his goal. A low standard, since he came to office on the heals of six million losses. So, if no one gets their job back, but none others are lost, he has accomplished the goal. Four million saved. Pretty slick.

Second, the Deficit. This is a really good one. He says he will cut the deficit he inherited in half. That's ripe. He claims what he inherited was $1.3 trillion. Let's pretend that's a real figure. Of that, $.75 trillion was the November stimulus package, and .15 trillion was the spring stimulus package, both one time payments that aren't "budget" items (which is the real issue - we budget more than we make). Take those out ($1.3 minus $.90), and the "real" deficit is $.4 trillion, or, $400 billion. So, by him saying he will cut the deficit in half (one half of $1.3 trillion is $.65 trillion, or, $650 billion)(he actually said it would be $533 billion), he is giving himself some real wiggle room. If the "real" budget deficit were cut in half, the $400 billion deficit would be cut to $200 billion. Instead, the President has proposed that he INCREASE the end-of-the-Bush-era budget deficit from $400 billion to $533 billion by the end of this first 4 years...a number he is touting as the LOWEST number of his administration. Whew.

Here's the thing. If he feels he needs those kind of numbers because the country is in a mess and he has to run up the bills to fix the mess, then why not tell us the truth, not mask it behind number-puzzles?

Did I write about the 60 pages of the 400 page spending part of the stimulus package that is devoted to MANDATORY FEDERAL COMPUTERIZED HEALTH RECORDS? How does that stimulate you? For me, more of the same.

So, it depends on what you mean by the word "transparency".

Charles Town gambling

2009-02-21T15:42:00.001-08:00

Our esteemed corporate benefactor in Charles Town who owns our race track claims to be a big contributor to our community's well being. They boast about how much the give, and will be expecting us, the voters, to approve them to add table games to their repertoire of gambling devices to help them help us.

Wow.

We need them to take money away from us to give some back?

What a great deal!

Out of almost $500M in revenue a year, they recently made a big splash (1/2 page) in the local paper for giving $62,000 to the local schools. Yes. Sixty Two Thousand dollars out of their almost Five Hundred Million dollars!

Is this help or political showmanship at virtually no cost to the company?

Are we, the citizens of Jefferson County, so naive that this pathetic "gift" will move us off our position (56% against) that we don't want our community changed from a peaceful, country community to a playground for their gambling clientele?

It's bad enough that the argument is about money instead of values, but with them insulting us with a "gift" that gives back slightly more than one one-hundredth of a percent we should all plant our feet more firmly than ever.

Does anyone else out there feel this way?

Leave her alone...it is none of your business

2009-02-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

It's a sickening place we are in.

There is a woman out west who recently gave birth to octuplets. These 8 little ones are added to the 6 she already has.

Wow!

Miracle?

Rejoicing?

Congratulations?

No.

The press has lathered itself up condemning this mother and the medical staff who assisted her because THEY don't approve of the CHOICE she has made. (I am quite sure if she had made the choice to kill them everyone would be happy). She decided quite consciously to have this large number of children and we are left with the questioning of the press as to (1) should anyone have this many children? (2)how can she afford them? (she lives with her parents) and (3) is it right that our society should let anyone have this many kids?

Read it yourself http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=au75gZCr7Gd0

WHAT?!

This isn't China I don't think...or maybe since we get so much else made in China we are now importing our population control policy.

Does everyone else see what is happening here?

We are becoming a herd society, slowly but surely, where the good of the whole supersedes the good of the individual. Has anyone ever before tried to contorl the population by saying who can have a baby, how many, and then, what sex, and then, what hair and eye color....?

It really is a product of our society's addiction to blaming the government for everything and to the converse, expecting the government to solve all ills. The number one argument against the mom of 14 is that she is likely to need assistance, and since she is, the government ought to be able to tell her how many children she can have. Who would you pick to make the choices for her?

Congress? (here...take a trillion and see me in the morning)

If we lived in a society where each of us takes it upon ourselves to share our blessings to take care of those who need help rather than ask the President to do it, the argument would be out.

Where are we going when we call it immoral to have children and applaud killing them by sticking a probe in their head as they emerge from their mother or we dissect them in the womb to make sure they aren't born at all?

Equal justice for all.

Bee uuutiful

2009-02-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

So today it is the big break from the cold weather. Sunny, warm, and a good day to check in on the bees. I knew from a quick survey a week ago that I still had 7 of my 7 colonies alive. A very happy result...

I prepared last night for this visit by making bee candy to feed them. It is really a formula for rock candy, made with molten sugar, with the addition of a protein product called "MegaBee". This product was invented by a scientist in Tucson, AZ. I think it is illegal for bees involved in professional sports to take MegaBee.

Anyway, you pour the molten mixture into molds (best done on the garage floor in case there is spillage)and let it set overnight. The result is a brownish bar of strange smelling candy. I like to taste it. As a matter of fact we had a visitor who wanted to see it, I let him try it....don't think he was as impressed as me and the bees.

So today I suited up in the hot part of the afternoon and opened the hives up. Very nice - inside each hive was a reasonably large colony of bees who were - well - busy as bees. I took a quick peak to assess their population and put a chunk of candy inside each of them.

Now my the bees are guaranteed not to starve. There is a threat of that as they are beginning to raise a new generation of brood at this time, they've eaten most of their winter food supply, and during the warm days they fly out to poop. While they are flying they forage for food, and, of course, they don't find anything...nothing is flowering yet.. (although I did spot a few coming in with pollen on their legs...probably left over from last year). This is the time for starving colonies. Mine will find the delicious sugar candy and MegaBee...the protein will be good for the brood and in amoth or so I should start to see some realy nice, large colonies...boiling with bees.

Snow and bees

2009-01-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

The kids are trying to hold back - this night there is 1-3 inches of snow predicted over the next 24 hours. To them that is a sure thing. Of course, we've heard that before.

Meanwhile I went to check the bees today - there are signs of life in all 7 hives. It is amazing...though it "ain't over yet". They haven't frozen to death yet, now we see if they continue and then survive - the queen should start laying in the next week or so, the spring brood will be hatching in mid to late February.

There are dead bees outside each colony. That only happens when they get dragged out by live bees. It is a bit of a gruesome task, each hive has some bees whose job is undertaking, getting rid of the bodies. Chances are those bodies are ones who froze to death.

I guess they should stink less...

Change has come to America (change back to the way it was)

2009-01-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

So in the first few days the new President has the opportunity to let it be known how he will implement the keynotes he campaigned on and presumably was expected to enact because of his victory.

President Obama made an issue of "Change" and that he was going to change the way business is done in Washington, that he was going to rid of us of the divisiveness that impairs our government's problems solving ability.

Great.

So he made sure to take the most emotional issue of his opposition's repertoire, abortion, and stick it to them. In the first three days he lifted the ban on fetal stem cell experiments and the ban on American funding of foreign abortions. He did it "quietly".

Wow. A lot of change. Change back to the Clinton ways. No bipartisan discussion, just a memo and executive order. So, if the issue of infant life can be overlooked, I guess we'll all get along....

Pathetic winter

2009-01-19T17:17:00.000-08:00

We had an inch of snow today. My poor, desperate children (it has been a long time since we've had a good snow...global warming and all that) donned their snow gear and prepared to go sledding. They went to their favorite sledding hill (a neighbor's yard) and debated whether or not you could still sled despite the grass showing through.

Sad.

You can't.

Lets remember the truth

2009-01-18T18:01:00.000-08:00

As our new President takes the trail to Washington this weekend, he is doing so in a way to reminisce on the first entry to Washington by Abraham Lincoln. He (Mr Obama) is taking a train, the long way, to remember the entry of our great 16th President. It is impressive and exciting.

As Mr Obama travels the road Lincoln did, it makes a great PR event. It invokes thoughts of the past, but, unfortunately, also overlooks some of the differences of today versus the past.

When Lincoln made this trip, he didn’t do it to wave to adoring crowds, he made the trip necessarily “sneaking” into town to avoid what were certain threats to his safety. The train was a secure way to arrive.

Today thousands of people have had to put themselves on the line to make sure Mr Obama can make this journey safely, from the Coast Guard to every law enforcement institution in the path. The train is not so secure...

When Lincoln made this trip, he did so facing a nation that was tearing its fabric apart. He faced the reality that the union was attached by a thread, and he was holding the thread. Mr Lincoln said “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.

Mr Obama, in an attempt to invoke some memory of this first inaugural speech of Mr Lincoln, said “What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives — from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry — an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels.”

A new declaration of independence? Independence from ideology? Whose ideology? Our Declaration of Independence itself speaks of an ideology, concluding “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Is Mr Obama suggesting we should withdraw from that ideology as well?

The reference to our “better angels” alludes to Mr. Lincoln’s speech, but fails in its context. Mr. Lincoln’s speech was virtually dedicated in its entirety to the issues of the nation’s impending civil war and his duty to preserve the union. He explained his view on slavery “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” He explained his view of the job ahead of him after that inauguration day “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

It was only after saying this that he said “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

We are most privileged to live in this land of freedom, blessed by the rights given us by the documents which are our foundation. We cannot trample on them, belittle them, or relegate them to the past without condemning our future. We cannot abrogate the ideals that undergird our land and its historic intent by rewriting history to reflect our wrongs as though they outweigh our good. We are still the land of the free, the home of the brave. To say we must dismiss this ideal so that those who reject the freedoms of some idealists for their own, that courage to stand firm is stubborn and unreasonable, that to have an ideology is something needing “our better angels”, or a new declaration of independence is to wish for us as a people to get washed up on the shores with the unfree and unbrave failed states of history.

Faith is unreasonable…for to be faith it must ignore “reason” . Jesus said “I tell you but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish…”

Where are we headed? Should we reconsider the past which has gotten us here for a more “reasonable” present? Why are we looking to the government, the government which is only an agent of “We the People”, who allow the government a place “in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”. It is "We the People" who must fix the mess we are in, to change our behavior, change our direction, to take on the risks to have the benefits of freedom...risks by which millions have died for in the past.

Should we reconsider? I say no.

We the people must remain firm in love with what Lincoln said on his day “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.”

God Bless America. Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

I believe...

2009-01-13T07:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the cartoon "Doonesbury" took a shot at our outgoing President I need to comment on.

The cartoon commented on the President's "Legacy Tour". A character asked him if he was going to set up a "Think Tank" in retirement. His replay was "Belief-Tank", and then the cartoon commented snidely that "the thinking must be already done".

Sad to be here in a country where we would think you can only do one or the other. I wonder if George Washington at Valley Forge had any beliefs he placed higher than "thinking". I wonder if his logically arrived at the conclusion that being there made sense, or that he believed in what he was doing and chose to be there based on that belief. Certainly everything pointed to the logical, thinking man's conclusion that he should pack it in and go home...but he BELIEVED that he must go on and struggle.

Thinking should lead us to believing, and believing is what drives us. We are not "Mr Spock", where only logic prevails. And, just to make sure we don't flatter ourselves, neither you or I are nearly smart enough for our thinking to supersede believing.

The great movements and the great decisions of our history have been more from those strong enough, bold enough, and, yes, smart enough to put their BELIEVING above their THINKING. It is a smaller, weaker person who has no beliefs, not the other way around. They are those who do what everyone else says, what everyone else does. Those are the ones who, like our 2 or 3 year old child, make no decision based on higher-order thinking, they base their decisions on what tastes the best (candy), what smells the best (baked bread), what feels the best (playing), what looks the best (brightly colored fantasies), what sounds the best (being told "you're OK, do what you want"). These people "(are) lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power..." (written 1930 years ago describing people of a future time to come....hmmmm.....)

No beliefs? How stupid. Even those that claim to believe in nothing believe THAT...

The argument the devil presented Eve in the Garden of Eden was just this. He said "God knows when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Her choice was, BELIEVE what God said, or THINK as the devil says...thinking that rejects what God said.

A dangerous tactic.

Should we think? Of course. Should we believe? Even more - yes. Which is harder to do?

It is a non-thinking person who would ridicule a man for believing.

The good news is the bad news.

2009-01-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

It's been FIVE years for the Mars rovers. Those amazing little machines have been up there doing their thing for 4 years and 9 months longer than expected, beaming back the bad news - there is nothing to indicate there was - is - or ever will be spontaneous life on Mars. There might be life, it'll be life we bring up there.

No workee no playee

2009-01-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

My boys were looking for some work. Actually, they were looking for some money. They are new here and didn't thoroughly understand the connection between work and money. At first they balked at the idea that I wold make them work. Then they saw a benefit. At the end of the week they got MONEY. And, they could SPEND it. Ah, a seed for the American Dream.

They asked me if there was a way for them to make some more money. They wanted to buy games for the new game systems they got for Christmas. I said "oooo - my lucky day!". The other kids had smart alek looks on their faces - knowing what was coming.

"How much do you want?

"20 bucks"

"OK, I'll look for a $20 job".

I knew what I wanted. As luck would have it, the trenching that was done for the new geothermal heating system left a lot of rocks around the place. I don't mean a few - I mean a LOT. There are good rocks, like really big ones, and thousands of round-ish river rocks from the size of golf balls to basket balls. I staked off 2 areas, outlined them with string, and called the boys out. I told them "When each of these 2 areas are completely cleaned of rocks, you get $20 dollars."

"How long do we get?"

"All the time you want"

"Really?"

"Yep."

"When do we get the money?"

"When you are done."

"oh"

It took them 2 days. They did a magnificant job. I gave them a 10% bonus for good work. They asked Kate to get on Amazon and find the games they wanted.

Hurray for the 2 young Americans.

Oh. That's 2. I have 3 boys.

The youngest came up to me and told me he wanted some money.

I said "Well, here's what I want you to do", and showed him some rocks to move.

"I don't want to do that."

"OK, then you don't get any money".

"OK"

Two out of three isn't bad, and he's got a little more time to get the connection.

Economic stimulus

2008-12-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

So today we wait for the first real chance at snow. Ah snow. Yes, 1 to 2 inches possible. Really jacks up the toilet paper, bread, and milk sales.

My son who graduated last year and now has 3 jobs and college is really excited about the prospect. Unfortunately he hasn't thoroughly digested what snow does for working people.

Nothing.

Poke

2008-12-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Ah - it has started. You know how it goes, those wretched Christmas cards that come written in artificial ink from people who really don't care about you, demonstrated either actively in words and deeds or passively in silence and absence but have some strange need to one-up by sending a card with nothing but a signature under the preprinted greeting or something like "best wishes". The only words spoken for the year "best wishes". Whew. Some of them are asking for money, and, oh by the way, "happy holiday". Others are from an individual, checking off the list.

I got one from Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter. It's nice they thought of me.

So far I've gotten both kinds.

Don't get me wrong, this is different from those that are the careful reflection after a busy year or a "where did the time go" year where the friend writes "I wish we got to talk to each other" or something like that. Those are the real ones, they are ones looking for the promised peace on earth. The others are a way of giving reason for asking for money or satisfying inner looking, both stimulate the Walmart and Post Office economies.

I suppose all of that needs to be done. Tis the season.

The warm earth

2008-12-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

We installed a geothermal heatpump this year to replace 2 16 year old and 1 5 year old traditional heatpumps. I took on the task of doing the installation mostly because I'm cheap and a little because I wanted to see if I could make it work. It turned out to be a vastly more complex task than I anticipated.

The problem solving I had to go through to make the system work was, in fact, just the education I needed to know what I am dealing with. It's a monstrous beast, extending 4200 feet of pipe into the yard 6 feet underground, piping refrigerant from the attic to the basement and into the garage, followed by wiring for thermostats, power, backup heat, and the unit itself. I still have to hook up the hot water, whereby my water supply for the hot water heater will be pre-heated to around 100 degrees by my new system.

I still marvel at the technology. During these past few days of 20-30 degree weather, my new system is faithfully sucking 55 degree water from the ground, stealing its heat, and returning it to the ground to be rewarmed by the earth. I fell a little better about mowing this patch of ground now, knowing that the soft green grass is actually a cover for an engine that warms the bedrooms of my home.

Dad said I could.

2008-12-07T17:52:00.001-08:00

We sat in church this morning listening to the pastor preach on words. He has talked about the subject for a couple of weeks. Today's were words of confession. I must confess, it was moving. OK, not so funny.

It is true, though... I must confess.

Confession is first realized by submitting myself to Him, the Lord, so there is a standard by which I cannot justify myself. regardless of my story, my position, my reason, in the light of the omniscient Father I am not worthy of Him. I fail Him constantly...and the gift of grace He gives is because of His quality, not of my deserving it.

It is good to move into that light.

That would be too easy.

2008-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

I heard a good suggestion for the bailout of the big 3 auto makers - the oil companies ought to loan them the money. It makes a certain amount of sense. What do you think?

Will that be new or retread?

2008-12-01T17:38:00.001-08:00

Good to see the change in Washington, eh? Changing back to the good ole days of the Clinton administration. It's like old cars - I saw a '73 Ford Maverick the other day - one of the kids said "cool car"...wait a minute - a Maverick? Not cool, no matter how old it is.

If we do the same old things the same old way we'll get the same old things. Looks like we're going to get it again. Too bad.

Over the hills we go.

2008-11-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

We are getting ready to take my daughter to the airport so she can return home from her holiday stay with us. It was good to have her here, along with our lovely granddaughter. We didn't get to see our grandson - he went to be with other grandparents. Actually, we are taking her to our daughter's home that is near the airport, she will spend the night and leave very early in the morning. She will get to visit with another granddaughter and our brand new grandson.

It was a fun holiday. I got to talk to my brother, my aunt and my cousin. We had 4 generations of our family around the family. Lots of laughs and smiles, lots of food and stories, rooms full of love and warmth. That's the way real family is, and that is what the holidays bring. What a great time of year!

Whats in a word?

2008-11-27T18:12:00.000-08:00

With every new child we face a new opportunity to teach. Very often the first lessons revolve around language.

"Ah ain't never seen nothin like that."

"It's 'I haven't ever seen anything like that'"

"You ain't either?"

"No, I mean ain't is not a word."

"It ain't?"

"It isn't"

"I never know'd that"

"Never knew that."

"You ain't?"

"I didn't"

"Me neither"

And life goes on.

In combat we called them "John Wayne Bars"

2008-11-26T13:31:00.000-08:00

I made "Roman Army Flat Bread" for a snack during tomorrow's "eat-a-thon". You eat it with goat cheese and roasted red peppers. Instead of the oven, you cook it on the grill. It's made of spelt, a grain I ground into flour. You have to knead it buy hand, it's so stiff it's easy to figure out why the Roman Army ate it...you need the arms of a centurion to move the stuff around. All in all, it came out pretty good...we'll see how it goes with American turkey tomorrow.

Would it be "ole turkey eye"?

2008-11-25T15:52:00.000-08:00

There is a legend that Benjamin Franklin wanted our national bird to be the turkey. I don't know if there is any truth to it, but it seems that the turkey is a very smart bird and would represent us well.

OK. I wonder. Ever look into the face of a turkey? Would that be the look we want with the waving flag in the background? I dunno.

Also, if that HAD been the case, would we protect turkeys and instead eat eagles on Thanksiving? Would we say *when describing someone of questionable sensibility) "that guy is a real 'eagle'"....or, have a famous rock song "Fly like a turkey". Or, would we substitute eagle for beef in hot dogs when we wanted to eat healthy?

It's mind boggling. The list of possiblities is a real eagle shoot.

Pecking for dinner

2008-11-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in a seat that overlooks our bird feeders. I have an assortment of feeders, designed to provide a variety of feeding methods and food. Its fun watching the birds arrive, as though they are waiting in the nearby trees for me to put out the food.

We have pretty regular visits from a couple of woodpecker varieties along with finches, wrens, and chickadees. Cardinals show up along with blue jays.

The woodpeckers own the suet. Sometimes a chickadee will have the audacity to peck away at it, but when the downy woodpecker show up, he jsut has to fly near the hanging package for the chickadee to move off.

It's hard to imagine life out there, 18 degrees at night. They don't have to worry about the market, the heat bill, or even the next grocery day. All they have to do is hope I see the feeder is getting low. And even if I do, somehow they find other sustinence until the next time I refill. Pretty amazing. A good thing to notice for this week of thanksgiving.

43 to 44

2008-11-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

As our peaceful transition of government proceeds I stand in awe of how we do it. Even with the rancor and the blogs of insults, our leaders respect each others' roles in the process and do things in order. Each has their place, and the competition is what takes the sharp edges off the difficult task of governing this nation.

It isn't about democrats or republicans. It is about America. America the Beautiful. We always have a difficult task, we always have the seems-to-be-insurmountable problem at our feet. Whether the invasion of the British in our early days, the division of our nation in the middle, the imminent death of us all from the 50s to the 90s, we've faced the future with the sure knowledge that every 2 years at least part of our federal leadership must face their real employers - the voters - and nothing is a sure thing. And when they face the result, they take a quiet walk back home, no showdowns, no coups, it is about America.

Let us all look up to our flag and have that stir in our hearts. America the Beautiful, from sea to shining sea.

Are we really OK?

2008-11-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

CNN has a story today about the "pregnant man". The headline of the story quotes his wife as saying "We are a normal couple". It reflects a Larry King interview where they described the pregnanacy and the process, etc.

So, here's the question. What is "normal"? The husband was born a female and has had alterations that include chest reconstruction and hormones. It has not included surgery "down there". The wife injected the male contribution (they had shipped to their house) into the female part of the husband, making conception possible. Wait a minute. The female part of the husband?

He is listed on the birth certificate first as father, then changed to mother, then back to father. Makes sense...because whatever he is she isn't and whatever he isn't she is. Normally.

In the end, they are listed as "parents". That's fair. It is too hard to decide, because the father is normally not the one giving birth nor is a female. So, in this case, neither fit the "normal" or "standard" definition.

What is normal? What differentiates a man from a woman?

Seems kind of basic, and a little obvious, that one of the distinguishing features of a woman over a man is the biological construction enabling childbirth.

And if we choose to make those changes to live the way we want, we are free to do so. But,

What is normal? Who decides?

Close is only for nuclear weapons.

2008-11-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

Being the father of boys is very different than being the father of girls. I knew that, I've done it before. Still it really doesn't hit you until if actually....well....Because of the way we as foster parents aquire children the demarkation is very abrupt. This is very true of the three amigos that just began to transform our home last weekend.

For example, after resurrecting our bike pile last weekend I realized I needed a place for the bikes to land at the end of the day. The place has to be well defined, with definite parameters. I found a spot outside of the garage side door, took my oldest son in the pickup to Home Depot where we bought 10 bags of gravel, brought them home, spread them in a large area, and declared the new rule..."The bikes get put on the gravel at the end of the day".

Easy?

Right.

So I was out of town for a couple of days for business. I came back and proceeded to inspect the place for rule compliance...what do I find? A moderate effort...the bikes were NEAR the gravel. Moving them the 18 inches to be ON the gravel was too much I guess.

So, we had a remedial bike-putting-away class and now the bikes rest comfortably....ON THE GRAVEL.

Dad

2008-11-10T18:01:00.001-08:00

The other day my Dad and I got to spend some time together. We live a little apart from each other, so we don't get to see each other as often as I'd like. When we get together we have some laughs, we solve most of the world's political problems the world faces (no, we're not running for office), and we eat somewhere my Dad picks. We're usually the last of the lunch crowd at the restaurant, our conversations and laughs just go on and on.

They are good times. We haven't had much time together for most of the last 30 or 40 years, so these visits are pretty special. The Father God has given us the image of a father relationship for us to understand him better with - I get the privilege of these times to appreciate how deep and wide that can really be.

Thanks Dad.

I'm up, I'm down...no, I'm up...

2008-10-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

It's a little hysterical right now how even the 24/7 news can't keep ahead of the stock market. They start the day with "stock futures point to bug selloff" and the market opens around 80 points down. By midmorning it's up around 30, but the headlines read "profit taking causes stocks to stumble". That's because there WAS a profit snatch, but it lasted one hour, making the index to drop more than 200 and then swing back up.

It's a littl elike the weather forecast is for rain, precipitation chances 100%, and out the window you see sunshine. Seems there are some things we can't control or predict.

Are you Granma Kate's Poppa?

2008-10-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

I love being a grandfather.

I need to love it, as it has become a rapidly growing status as the population of those who refer to me as such grows. The latest 2 are a grandson and granddaughter born within about 9 weeks of each other. Funny, 9 week old Ensley, the grandson, looks HUGE compared to the new liddle darling Lauren (born last Thursday). Funny too, as he looks at her with a knowing stare "I remember back when I was like that...."

There are many good parts of it. One of them is getting congratulated. Oh yes, like I did anything?! I give the knowing smile in thanks, as though there was an ounce of effort. I just held the little dickens and made funny noises.

Another thing is the whole diaper thing. When the bottom vibrates, you look for a mom and "presto" - you are out of it. Nothing like being a grandfather.

But, best of all are the children who have grown and blessed me with this privileged title. My girls have all made me very proud to be the grandfather of their children. (Still waiting on the sons to reproduce...with some trepidation). They come from far and near to show them off and let me play with them. I teach them things (I haven't once succombed to the threat to teach them bad words), and I explain such unknowable things as "Poppa, what happened to you hair?".

Ah the imponderable.

Broke the code

2008-10-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

I did figure it out - that Weight Watchers thing. The points are a simple way of controlling your eating behavior. Problem is, for Americans it goes against our grain to imagine that if the number is smaller it is a good thing. Like golf, I guess. The lower the score the better you are. Why couldn't that apply to bowling, in which case I'd be a candidate for Olympic golfing?

Anyway, the points measure the taste of a food. Foods that are universally recognized as tasting good, like you find in restaurants, have high point values. Foods that are healthy (therefore DON'T taste good) have low point values. Foods that NOBODY would recognize as satisfying OR tasting good have zero points. For example, who would sit down with a nice chunk of cauliflower to munch on instead of a couple of slices of the cold pizza in the fridge from the night before? Only someone doing the WeightWatchers thing. (I actually did that, and actually had that choice to make...)

Makes me long for the days when I enjoyed the fine taste of a good fat-free cigarette. Do they have points?

Watch this!

2008-10-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

This weight watchers thing is kind of depressing. I thought I was doing good having a blackened tilapia sandwich today at Ruby Tuesday for lunch. I mean, it's fish. How much could it cost me?

20 points.

I get 30 a day.

Dang.

The madness

2008-10-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

My dislike for sports is the basis for what I think is my dislike for some of the drivel we hear in the "24/7" news world.

People who follow sports spend an inordinate amount of energy predicting what will happen when it is in the midst of happening. They get excited about the game and the team, hoping and guessing. It seems kind wasteful to me - if you wait for a couple of hours you find out the answer in real life. Think of all the emotion, energy, potato chips, and beer that gets saved!

Elections are kind of the same. We citizens are presented the options, and we have a decision to make. Who might or might not win shouldn't really matter to the choice - we choose who we want the most and our part is done - vote and wait for the outcome. It is what it is.

Who cares what others think? They will vote the way they choose. Who cares what the polls predict? Does that change the choice the individual has? The press and the machine is spending it's resources trying to tell us why our choice is bad and why they are smarter. Make the choice, cast the vote, go to bed, and see the outcome.

I would like it much better if everyone got a mailing from the candidates that explains their position and that ended it. We make our choice and move on. Drop the hype and drivel; cut the news back to 2 one hour shows a day; take the money that is wasted on ads and stickers...maybe spend that on something that actually produces something...maybe then we'd get regular people with comon sense in office...

Don't be fooled.

2008-09-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Don't let these nice breezes and mower-free weekends fool you, winter is approaching! It is sneaky, it comes just when you think you want a break from the heat. My kids were walking past the pool yesterday exclaiming "I love winter" "I can't wait for winter" and other such foolishness.

If everyone was so danged excited about winter then why don't people flock to places like Alaska and Iceland, building houses in the middle of snow drifts, renting houses buried in snow in zero degree weather for more money that they spend in 2 months on their mortgage? Oh, that's right, that's what they do at the beach - in the hot weather - BECAUSE SUMMER IS GOOD AND WINTER IS NOT!

Don't be fooled. Winter is sneaking up and we'll all be huddled around our heaters wishing for those endless days of balmy sun. We'll wonder how we could have ever been so foolish when it's zero degrees and DARK at 5:30 PM.

Skinny me

2008-09-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

So I'm participating in WeightWatchers online. It's a pretty good thing, easy to use, and full of promise. Till now my weightwatching has been by looking down and - voila - there is my weight. Which is why the new leaf is turning over.

The program is simple. You count points. It is a lot like counting calories except the numbers are smaller. Very simple numbers. I get 30 a day. A caramel apple is 9 points. A 4 pound tomato is zero points. So the deal is - the better something tastes the more points it has. Buttered popcorn (about a thimblefull) - 3 points. Popcorn with nothing added to make it edible (about a bucketful) - 1 point.

It is worth it, though. It promises that I will regain my youthful good looks. At least my youthful weight. (Part of the regaining of the good looks would require either a weave, transplants, or magic hairgrowing salve).

When I look down I won't have to look past my weight to see how light I am.

Did you know if you rock back a little on the scale you are actually a little lighter?

Listen carefully

2008-09-10T06:29:00.000-07:00

It's pretty sad that our country is now listening to a large voice which says "suspect a political candidate who looks to God for guidance, one who prays to God that what we are doing pleases Him, who asks for His will versus our will."

I wonder who's voice that really is.

The narrow mind of Christ

2008-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life; No one comes to the Father except through me."

This quote of Jesus from John 14:6 is a pretty narrow definition.

Not much wiggle room.

"No one".

I pondered that in church this morning. The preacher talked some about how, no matter what we as humans try, we can't fix the world with government, with taxes, with policy. The real fix is through our Creator.

Seems to me that means none of us can claim an exemption. I can't. He said "no one". I can't reason "I don't believe that". If I don't believe, does it change any facts?

I can only choose to accept the fact or reject it.

And live with the result. (or die)

Seems it makes sense to make a decision like that fully informed.

What's behind that smile?

2008-09-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

It is true that the ultimate leadership starts when the alarm goes off at 6AM. It goes off then so that she'll have time to read and pray before the little rascals wake and the endless routine starts over. Her head hurts, she was awoken 3 times during the night, and she already knows what the morning will be like. Her 3AM call was a blood curdling scream of dream terror, not as easy as a head of state.

She gets up anyway.

When the first one toddles down she looks like she was waiting up for her. She holds her arms out, and the tired, soft, warm little one moves in slow motion into her arms, resting head on shoulder and comfortable knowing that mommy has her.

Fact is, her head still hurts, the excedrin migraine hasn't kicked in yet and there are more feet pitter pattering. She never got to finish the Bible verse. But, the prayer list has been the same for a long time so she can scan that with the eyes inside her head and the Lord knows - He's been listening for as long as she's had the list.

On it goes through the day. At around 8PM, the last one is tucked away, she can put her feet up and sigh. Waiting for the alarm to go off at 6. She'll get on her own pillow about 11.

A new generation will get launched by that leadership. One little one at a time there will be a generation who learns that there is no red or blue. Instead, the most real thing is the love that starts that first day when the strip says "Yes you are" and the delicate little one first attaches itself inside her That sacrifice is true leadership.

It takes 20-30 years for the excedrin to really kick in.

For the best, it probably never will.

September. The unremarkable month.

2008-08-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow officially ends August, and so the slide to winter begins. The grass is cooperating, only growing enough for a weekly to 10 day mowing...my bees are clustering in the cool evenings...we have tomatoes still coming...there was a dry spell that drove some leaves off the trees enough to remind us of whats coming...my apples are turning red.

Of course, I still have enough summer projects to carry me for another 4 or 5 summers. Seems ambition isn't enough. Nothing takes the amount of time that is scheduled. And, nothing starts on schedule. That's why we have 30 year mortgages.

They say we'll have a cold winter without a lot of snow. How do "they" know? Wooley Caterpillars. They know. The only good thing about the onslaught of winte ris that it leads to spring.

Prime time is all the time

2008-08-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

Where's the headline?

A few days ago the headline was "Dow slides 241 points" on a particularly bad day. Then, right afterward, it climbed around 25 points, then 89 points, then today up 212 points. No headlines for the good news, we wouldn't want anyone to have the impression there's anything GOOD going on, now would we? If them news guys say we are suffering economically, we must be. I mean, look at those cars at the gas pumps....they are filling up for $75 dollars twice a week and are darned mad about it...and the danged lines at the Ruby Tuesday...you'd think you wouldn't have to stand in the danged line so long to spend your $37 on them big hamburgers...and if my 5th grader complains onemoretime about that old fashioned 6 month old cell phone I gave her, I'll take the $40 dollars a month and buy something for me with it.....

Yep. Times is hard.

We did get the good news of the 8 gold medals by the American swimmer. We also got the good news the Hillary would let her people vote for Barack. That was nice. And that they were so generous they decided not to vote for Barack, let's just all yell "hurrah" and call it a day - who needs those time consuming voting things anyway? Hurrah for the great leader. Yeah. Caught up in the moment...

Why do we have these conventions anyway, since everything is already decided? So there is a forum for all Americans to hear the list of impossible promises and pandering, and to be convinced that though there are no values discussed and that lying is OK if they are white lies and don't really hurt anyone anyway and if I say sorry..we can all feel GOOD about ourselves and ...whoops...what's that sound...? Sounds like flushing water....or is that rushing water....? If I don't believe it maybe it won't be real!?

Can you tell me what I want to hear one more time? C'mon, tell me a liddle lie...

To bee an assassin

2008-08-20T11:51:00.001-07:00

I'm having the first year in my bee yard where I feel like I have a clue. Only a clue, but it's better than nothing.

I started the season with 4 hives, all 4 had survived the winter. I divided the strongest ones early, making 6 out of the 4. I have pulled off what will turn into around 20-25gallons of honey as soon as I go through the arduous task of extracting it from the comb.

Last week I dethroned 2 queens who weren't performing up-to-snuff, replacing them with a pair I bought from a local breeder. (that idea lends itself well to all kinds of child-rearing applications, doesn't it?) The idea is to go into the upcoming winter with a queen who is producing a lot of eggs so the population that has to go through the winter is as large as possible.

The guy I bought the queens from showed me his operation - very interesting. He is selectively breeding queens for their gentleness (always good for bees), their parasite resistance, and their ability to survive our winters. Amazing, because he and his wife control the entire gene pool by not only selecting the queens from the colony, but they also artificially inseminate the queen from males in known colonies. Yes. Artificially inseminate. I was pretty amazed that you could do this with the tiny little queen, but even more, that you could to the "removal" from the little tiny male.

Think about it.

Anyway, one of the beekeeper tasks is to know the environmental threats to the bees and control them as much as you can. The other day I was out in my beeyard and I spotted an amazing creature...a threat to bees but not really a problem for a beekeeper. He is called an assassin bug. This guy is about an inch long, and appears to be armor plated. He has hexagon shaped plates covering him, and a large, curved proboscis that reminds you of a Samari sword. He was holding one of my unfortunate honeybees in his front hands like we hold corn-on-the-cob, turning and nibbling. Very impressive.

The good thing, my colonies are very full and each have about 50-60 thousand bees in them. There's plenty of food for Mr Assassin Bug and plenty left to get my colonies through the winter. Cooperating with the natural world, I let him keep nibbling.

Poor, unfortunate bee.

Welcome to Napless Valley

2008-08-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

So I think I mentioned before how we got these 3 new kids in our home..a 2,3, and 4 year old. They are basically good kids, except that they are 2, 3, and 4. That many of them in one house makes for some real vintage whine.

In addition, someone trained them that the way you tell someone you need or want something is you stand in the middle of any group of adults and cry loudly and unreasonably. I knew some guys in boot camp that tried something like that.

Once.

These kids know you don't need tears, you just need the sound. As all of us know, any adult with more than 15% hearing will respond by offering everything possible until the right thing hits.

Not good.

The 2 year old and I have a routine now where I stand there and mock him in response to his crying. It annoys even me, but he seems to understand how stupid it is....he sometimes just stops and stares at me. Of course, nobody offers me anything to make me stop, they just hope it'll work so I'll stop. Being annoying to get what you want isn't restricted to kids.

We are getting some progress, as the 4 year old almost never cries, and the 2 year old can turn it off with the right prompting.

The 3 year old, however, hasn't moved very far from her first day. She cries for no apparent reason sometimes. Often, the only option is isolation until there is quiet...a technique that often makes things worse (decibally speaking) before they get better. She doesn't buy the "Poppa's crying too" routine...I think she sees it as validation rather than redirection. Sometimes the "cry accelerator" gets stuck, and she just wails and pants and screams. She'll get it sooner or later, we're hoping sooner.

Our institutional system for providing parents for children who need new ones them has a fatal flaw. It assumes that children can be moved until there is a good fit. These newest little guys we have point to the fact that a child, especially a very young child, is a different person almost week by week as their brains wire to fit the environment they are in. They sometimes lose opportunities to learn when that enviroment is jerked away or undergoes a radical change without warning. They leave with neurons left hanging. Like my new 3 year old demonstrates, they are stuck in a rut of an age-inappropriate behavior set that requires remedial teaching to overcome. The problem is - then they lose out on what is appropriate, what might have happened if they weren't occupied with recovering. The more times this happens the more the deficits build on each other.

I suppose there is an economy stimulation effect though. It does create employment for counselors and analysts as these people reach their early 30's...

I hope my new little girl has the crying worked out before then.

The baby wins!

2008-08-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Little Ensley was born around 5:30 this morning. He was between 5 and 10 pounds, somewhere between 15 and 25 inches long. He has a healthy voice, 10 fingers and 10 toes. I'm sure the other, more precise stats will be published as soon as they are verified by our analysts.

As things like this go, he decided he'd rather take the short vertical road versus the long 1 foot trip we thought he'd take. The medical advice was that it needed to happen yesterday, so all means were on the table, so to speak.

Mother and baby are resting comfortably now, recovered and ready for the next 100 years or so.

Off the charts!

2008-08-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, this waiting game is good for my readership. My readership is up about 300%. I even had a second comment! I haven't had that kind of attention since last summer when I talked about you know what and you know who lambasted me on the air...(by the way, that's going to come back on me if I run for public office..)

That's the thing about dadhood. I get to deliver information and take messages. I am known because I am Kate's husband. I am also known because of who my children are, a fact that can enhance and, let's say, not enhance me in the eyes of the beholder.

So, for all you fans in my new 2 digit readership, she hasn't had the baby yet. There is likely to be some medical help in the way of a contraction-horsepower-booster. She's in the hospital now, everyone insists it'll be tonight.

Little Ensley hasn't voted yet.

Are we going for a record or what?

2008-08-05T04:15:00.000-07:00

So I sit here at the early morning table still waiting word that Ensley has made his appearance. Both my wife and my daughter's mother in law have joined her and her husband, trying all the old tricks to get that baby to make the trip. As we all know, in the end a baby will do what it wants when it wants to.

ALl the signs are there, labor proceeding with big, strong contractions at about 8 minute intervals. They have walked every street walkable in the neighborhood, of course, 8 minutes of walking, stop, breathe and stare, then walk some more.

Of course, those Martian Rovers have lived over 3 years beyond their original intent of a 90 days mission...

I await word. Prayer and patience for now...

The longest foot

2008-08-03T17:04:00.000-07:00

I like to track the progress of the Mars Rovers. These amazing machines are crawling around Mars at the command of joy-stick-holding scientists here on Earth. Each command takes a few minutes to be recieved on Mars, and then another few minutes to be acknowledged back on Earth. A long trip is 4 feet with a response time like that. Amazing remote control to the extreme.

Well, that is nothing.

My brand new grandson, Ensley Smith, is about to traverse the most dangerous, the most arduous, and the most mysterious 1 foot road he will ever see. My daughter called from her home about 1 1/2 hours away to say that the new baby signaled very clearly that the trip was starting. he was positioned for the launch and the countdown was starting. My wife got her prepacked bag, hopped in the car, and began her 65 mile drive to attend the occassion. The thing is, she'll make that 65 mile trip in about 1 1/2 hours, and Ensley will undoubtedly take most of the night traveling the 1 foot he has ahead of him.

It's the shortest and hardest road, fraught with danger, shock, and surprise. And at the end of it he will never be the same, emerging from his warm dark home with the muffled sounds and endless feeding to the cold, lighted world he'll spend his next 80-100 years in.

This is some of God's greatest work. He blesses my wife and I with the joy we see in our own child and her husband. They, his parents, are blessed as they see their marriage manifested in this greatest gift, this timeless memorial to love, this promise of a new start that illustrates the birth the Christ makes possible for all of us. He, little Ensley, is blessed with new life in this world, an exciting life that may even extend to the 22nd century. Whew!

A joyful night is happening.

A place of your own.

2008-07-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

It's happened about 40 or 50 times over the last 20 years.

We had our 3 and 5 year old foster children returned to their mother recently. That doesn't happen often. (getting back with the mom) What happened next does.

We had a rest from the sights and sounds of toddlers, thinking we'd not have to do that for a while...maybe no more. After all, while we look pretty darned good, we've been parenting for a long time...and little ones are....so....well....little. You know.

But then, we got the call.

"we have a small family of children that just need a place temporarily - a short time - just till we get a permanent situation arranged...so can you take them?"

"yes"

Then it begins. There is a room shuffle. The oldest son is now in the large bedroom. He's got a double bed and the distinction of the "big room". Of course, looking in the room brings to mind the chorus to the Elvis song - you know the one - "...in the ghettttoooh..."

He gets ejected to a smaller room so the 3 and 4 year old new kids can have a room together. The new 2 year old is going in the smallest bedroom that was recently vacated by our former 3 year old. Yes, I did say we just got a 2, 3, and 4 year old.

My wife and one of our grown daughters sized up the room situation. They took beds from 4 bedrooms as well as the attic, remixed them, re matched dressers, toys, trinkets, curtains, blankets, and everything that makes a kids room the kid's room, and worked for about a couple of hours.

When the dust had settled (I was there for the heavy lifting and then went away), I quietly walked through the new arrangements, particularly the room for the new kids (due to arrive in an hour or so at that point). There was play china on the little table, and little dolls and stuffed animals strategically placed in what had been the ghetttoooh a couple of hours before. I imagined these little ones displaced and torn from their family walking in to their new place...their new Mommy, temporary or not, had made it just so.... like she has for these many years...a special place...one where you can sleep peacefully.

The Lord watches over these little lambs.

But He likes them to be quiet at bed time.

Unauthorized photography prohibited

2008-07-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

There was a bad accident on the road leading to our development about a month ago. It was bad enough that the county put up some new signs "Do Not Pass" along the road to try to avoid a repeat.

When you think about it, that's kind of a dumb sign. When I was a kid, I wondered why they had a road after a sign like that? Why would they build a road past a sign they didn't want you to go past?

Of course, we had a sign in my neighborhood where I was growing up that said "Slow Children". I objected to the implication, until, being bright like I was, I realized it must be referring to my sister.

But the one that was most heinous was the sign indicating the exit to the town we lived in. We lived in a town named "North Reading". The sign said "No Reading". Now you tell me, I thought, why would they put a sign up instructing you not to read it?

Sheesh.

You can be the special one

2008-07-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

I am blessed to be a grandfather. It's "grand" in the sense of "big" (which is age-driven, physical and status). The status part of the "big" means I've been a father for a very long time and that I am this for a pretty "grand" (large) group.

I have grandchildren by a couple of different paths. I have 7 and one on the way the old fashioned way. I have 7 others and one additional one on the way through other means. In all cases, these kids call me "Poppa", slip occasionally and call me "grandpop", "poppy", "pops", and other such traditional titles. Whatever it is, the title is their recognition of what I am in their life, a privileged insider to them who fits a special seat. For them, they get to climb on me, to look under my mustache, to puzzle over why I have no hair on top but do have hair on my face, to ask about when their mom was my little girl...

I remember the special place my grandfather had in my life. He held the keys to a lot of mystery. One of them, the one who I remember only as as a very young boy, was a "tickler". All I really have left of memories of him is a good feeling, a special affection that I have when I think of him. My other one, who was alive into my adulthood, was someone who I always counted on to validate what I did - if he approved it must be right. He tickled also.

It is a special honor indeed. They are spread from Africa to South Dakota, and when I get to see each of them, some once a week and others once every couple of years, I am reminded of the importance of this job. I see their smile, hear their laugh, tickle them, and let each of them know how they can be the special one.