My Sister Florence Patton (229)

On April 2, 2008 I wrote a story on this blog, quite a long one about my sister Florence. If you care to read it just type in Florence Patton on the search box on the left corner here and up it will pop....She was a young 92 then but has spent the last 2 years since in the Mulberry Nursing home. And the last year I know has not been good at all, and it is so sad when one gets to the point of being ready to pass on but the old body just hangs on for dear life and prolongs the passing. But I am told by my brothers that she quit eating about 10 days before and that usually is a sign that the end is not far ahead. Her four surviving sons and the rest of us will all miss her, but I know we are all comfortable with this turn of events that has sent her on to the life after joining her husband, her son Tom and her parents and sisters and brother that went before her. Going to keep this short if you have the time try and pull up my story of two years ago about her. Her son Jim took this picture with his cell phone awhile back..it is pretty good of her.

My First Tea Party (228)

Last week I think it was Tax Day I left a perfectly good working corn planter for a couple hours to attend my first Tea Party. Folks were giving speeches and lots of signs to see and lots of flags. I do think this T Party movement is good for our nation. People are waking up to the fact of our responsibility in government. Not to take care of everyone like the clowns in DC would like to do, but to take care of the business of sending to Washington people who will be about the basic business of our government. Downsizing it, repealing the boondoggle healthcare bill, maybe getting us out of NAFTA, and all this envolvement with climate control and foreign aid to everyone. I mean we have been led down the garden path the last 30 years or so thinking our representative were doing a good job. Actually they like all of our government enities have just taken on a life of their own. It is true government it seems likes to grow and do more things so they can grow even more. Trouble is someone has to pay for this stuff and that someone is all of us. We have allowed ourselves to spend ourselves into oblivian a we probably have a very limited amount of time to correct this and reverse this process...I hope the American people will be up to the task...

But I would not be surprised with the Washington arrogance of fixing everything for everybody all over the world that maybe they will pass an emergency bill to stop this volcano from erupting in Greenland...you know pass it, let Obama sign it and see what happens...it makes as much sense as climate control so give it a whirl...

An Open Primary Election (227)

Recently I heard of this idea, of an open primary election. If we were to adopt such a primary election all candidates of all parties would file for office and we would all have opportunity to vote for one or maybe even two of them. Then in the fall the two highest vote totals would oppose each other, regardless of political party. To me this just seems to make so much sense that the two most popular would be opposing each other for the job. No doubt the present two party system would oppose such a change because they would loose the power they hold over candidates. A lot of power would be in the hands of the candidates and the voters. But we as voters, the people with the power to elect like thinking people could make this happen. This could be tried on a state by state basis first, but then to extend this to a national primary would get pretty exciting. Think about it, the more you do the more sense it makes.
Maybe such an idea could be on the State ballot for a popular vote?

Yesterday was 3 years since my wife of 28 years, died. Last night I looked at pictures and listened to some cassette tapes. I swear it does not get any easier as time passes. But it is my choice I guess to remember as best I can on occasion, so maybe as time passes one tries less hard to remember, I don't know......

Daffodil Dam & Recreational Farming (226)

Fourteen years back this farmer was in Lowe's store in the fall and saw they had daffodil bulbs on sale..it was late in the year and they were trying to clear them out to make room for maybe Christmas stuff maybe. Anyway an idea hit me to buy maybe 200 of these things and plant them on the back side of the dam that I had just finished building. Maybe in the spring if it was covered with yellow flowers I used to refer to as "Easter lillies", but know better now they are daffodils. So harvest was over I had the time to plant them I figured. And I did just that but I think maybe I planted them about 6 inches deep or more and it must have been a little to much. They came up OK the next spring but not one bloom, just the spiky tops.

Well 14 years have passed and each year they come up but never a bloom. A couple times I thought what I should do is did them up and plant them more shallow...Well you know how that goes its easy to know what you should do but doing it is sometimes another matter. Much to my surprise last week as I walked around the pond spraying a little chemical to control algae I noticed some large yellow blooms. I thought well how about that finally one daffodil has decided to bloom. As I walked a little farther I then noticed maybe 20 or more clumps of blooming flowers...

The only think I can figure is time has done it for me maybe. I know as these bulbs grow they do produce other bulbs and maybe just maybe as they did that each year they moved up toward the surface and were shallower than the older ones. And finally this year the new bulbs must be shallow enough to do what daffodils are supposed to do this time of year...It was a nice surprise as you can imagine...
So if you click on the Picasso of pictures to the right and look closely you will see some of the Daffodils blooming right now on Daffodil Dam...And if you click on the picture it will bring up a larger version of them that reveals the pretty flowers I am trying to write about here.

The sign was a gift from a painter friend named John Getz who has passed away. Susan added fresh paint this year but the work and the words were John Getz who was an artist...I remember when we named the dam a lot of people kind of got a kick out of our choice of what to name the dam if it even needed named...Well we thought it did as we named about everything around here, the grain trucks the tractors they all had character and so they had names to maybe try and match that character....Daffodil Dam seemed to fit well what else after planting 200 daffodils that then never bloomed, until 2010, this year....

Farming season has started here. Many of my neighbors are out doing "recreational farming" I call it...they pull large equipment across the fields tearing it up leaving a trail behind them of freshly worked black soils..it does look nice and gives one a real sense of accomplishment...and it is not without merit its just that the cost of the machinery and fuel for some additional yield potential in my eyes is just not worth it...I love the "no tillage" system of farming that I and a few others are engaged in these days. I know for sure that the bottom line is about the same, some years it may be more so one way or the other one never knows...but I do know also that the soils need to be protected from erosion and with no tillage the residue from last years crop does hold the soil from eroding and being wind blown. I like the system and it allows me to do other things as I wait for the right weather and soil temperatures that will allow my seeds to get off to a good start....

So when you see these farmers recreating out there wave to them...there hearts are in the right place, they are as convinced that the system they are using is the right one as I am that it is not...

Happy Easter Everyone (225)

Happy Easter everybody out there. It is a great season for sure, as the price was paid by our saviors death on the cross but the thing we celebrate this day is not the death but the empty tomb they put him in. That is something to get kind of excited about it. You know the old saying none of us are going to get out of this alive?

Well that may be true but for some of us those who believe in Jesus as your Savior and what he did, well we are going to get out of this with eternal life in heaven...He showed us the way and extended it to us with his rising from the bonds of death...that is exciting and why we celebrate Easter....

So, wow it used to mean getting up Sunday morning to a basket full of green plastic grass chocked full of great candy to enjoy, not even thinking much about what we were celebrating...That was then, now its just thinking about what it means for all of us and maybe just a very small piece of candy...Reality sometimes just has a way of sneaking up on us does it not?

But in the end candy or not we do have a risen Savior to celebrate and an eternity to look forward too....Happy Easter see ya in heaven some day...

Takes a real Man to Apologize (224)

Here it is folks, I apologize to our wonderful President Obama. He truly is such a wonderful leader for our nation. We had no idea what we needed as a nation until this brilliant man came from nowhere, and told us that change is not only possible but if elected he would see to it. I was dead wrong this guy has it together, and along with Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, why they have done truly wonders for this nation. Even though we are doing it on borrowed money it is without a doubt all good...I mean what good is borrowed money if we don't just spend it for wonderful things for the American people?

And it does feel good to finally get this off my chest, I have been feeling this need now for quite sometime, that I need to join in and realize finally what a great leader the majority led us too. This new healthcare bill is going to make things so much better for all of us. The one they are working on now the global warming is so needed and will eventually pass when the stupid Republicans just "get it" and quite struggling to stop it. It also will be so good not only for us but the entire world if not the entire universe maybe. I say throw open the doors and just let it happen, amnisty for all, maybe legalize marijuana, lets get it on, why not, the only thing stopping us now from total freedom is nothing. We have the people in power to do the things we all know is best for us...

So there you have my sincere apology for having struggled with all of this for the past year...and also you have my sincere APRIL FOOL......

Yes I would never say any of this but on a day like April 1...