First Crappie (305)

We had a guy gathering here last Sunday afternoon. Guy gatherings are necessary when things are happening like Wedding showers the lady folk do before a wedding...That will most likely be another blog story in about 3 weeks...But for the guy gathering we decided to try fishing, after of course we had a cook out and a couple drinks, yes of course..
My son John attended and not long after the fishing began yelled "hey Dad I caught a Crappie"....To me it was pretty exciting as the last couple years I have tried to introduce Crappie to the pond and did not know if any of them had survived. But as you can see in the pictures here at least this one not only survived but looks to be very vigorous and healthy as Crappie's go...
I remember my brother in law Ralph Hengst used to refer to them a "paper mouths". And if you look at the mouth of a Crappie it does look to be very transparent. I have very fond memories of catching them with him and my son at a lake near Cloverdale Indiana. Cloverdale now that is a name for an Indiana town if ever you heard one, or needed one. But moving on we did catch a lot of Crappie there on one occasion I remember meeting Ralph there and we fished all day. The limit was 25 each so we caught at least 75 maybe closer to 100 and my son and I stayed all night in the boat but sent the fish home with Ralph to clean. Then the next day we caught maybe 75 more by mid shortly afternoon and headed for home to clean them....It was fun, sleeping in the boat was painful but all in all a good time.
Back to the Crappie caught here we released him as I just don't know how many have made it and before I keep any I guess I would like to see evidence of them spauning and that would be some real small ones getting caught I guess...But hopefully all of this will happen. At least there is hope which makes for excitement for this blogger....Next post will no doubt be the July 4th celebration held this year on July 3rd...Gonna have campers here, good eats and maybe fire crackers and sparklers...

Sex in the Cornfield Again, Soon very Soon (304)

I took a walk today, as I do almost every day during the growing season. We farmers do that as we have a lot of money invested out there in our crops and we need to be re-assured, almost daily that what we have done, or failed to do, has not messed up in any way what God's mighty hand is doing each and every day. Most of the corn in our area is now between 'knee high' and 'waist high' as you can see by the picture I took today with my cell phone from the south end of my corn field where I live. We have had ample maybe way more than ample rains since we planted this corn between frequent showers this spring. This field was planted May 9th, the first day I was able to get at the job that desperately, "needed done". I was pushing it, as I really would have preferred to allow it to dry a few more days. But when the weatherman says more and lots of rain coming at us and optimum planting date of May 10th fast approaching, you take a chance. As you can see it turned out OK and more rain did follow and the seeds did indeed get the start they needed. Had it then turned off dry, as it sometimes does, it may have not been such a pretty sight. It is indeed as pretty a corn crop as I have ever grown or seen. As my farmer friend John Lehe stated not so long ago, "farming with water, sure is better than farming without water". We have some ponds scattered around the country side in corn fields, but I remember a "wet" year like this maybe back in the 70's that I remember reading a Pro Farmer newsletter in which the writer proclaimed, "forget about the ponds, on each side of a pond is a slope and that is where your corn will yield and make up for the pond". I think that is the case, this will be a great "hillside" year in which land that sometimes lacks for water and restricts the yield will tap the unused fertility that has accumulated in those areas and possibly produce an above average yield. It is looking so far like that kind of a year. Rains are predicted yet again for next week and soon after the 4th of July this corn will begin to send out its tassel the male part of the plant. Followed by the ears that will appear the female part and we will have once again, "Sex in the Cornfield".

Those little silks that stick out the end of the ear will await the arrival of the pollen from the tassel above. And miraculously the microscopic pollen will attach and work its way inside the silk and travel all the way to where each silk attaches to the cob and will then form a kernal of corn...maybe 100 or as many as nearly 200 of those miracles will happen on each and every ear of corn. Farmers are very fortunate in that we see God's design being played out over and over again. And witnessing this, one has to know that evolutionist, that do not have a stong belief in God, have to have an even bigger faith of a vacuum, that those of us who know that the creation does indeed prove the presence of the creator.

Things change almost daily during a growing season, and I count myself blessed to be a witness to life here in the fast lanes of Indiana watching corn grow.

Bee's Brains and Blessings (303)

Ran onto this swarm of honey bees the other day while mowing grass. First time I have ever seen a swarm of bees like this ever. I would guess maybe there is at least 10,000 honey bees here hanging on the limb of an apple tree. What are they doing there? Well the expert bee guy I asked about it explained it this way. They have left their hive probably not too far from here and "flew the coop", so to speak. The queen bee has decided to move on maybe to greener pastures. He told me that when she spreads the word that they will be moving soon that all of the bees eat as much honey from the hive as they possibly can..Then she takes off and they all take off after her. But they don't go far as they are full and they get sleepy. So she lands on this limb to take a nap and they all land and swarm around her and take naps too. Looks like they would smother her but I guess not. They were there all day but gone the next day. So who knows where they ended up. He said someone could have gotten a empty hive and placed it under the limp and shook the bees into the hive and they may have been happy with this and stayed or they may have cut out again. Thought it interesting enough to write about as I have in my 69 years and 46 months never seen such a thing...
Moving on to brains,specifically the brain of liberals. I realize this photo is not for real, but it ain't to far from real when you get to looking at it. One of my concerns these days is the amount of money being spent on the large wind mills supposedly to generate electricity for us all. But it is the true cost of these things that bothers me. No one seems to want to do the mathmatics or cost analyst on these specifically how much is the true cost of them and maintaining them verses the value of the power they will generate say in 30 years time...compared to the cost of power say from a coal fired generating plant. Maybe someday I will find out...maybe they are worthwhile but I have my doubts. Government subsidy's are driving these things and maybe that was OK on the first few to get them started but now it is time to stop that and make them stand on their own. Ethanol production as well needs to stand on its own from here on. Farming a lot of things needs to stand on their own as our nation does need to get its financial house in order. People who believe in Global warming and even worst that is our fault have to have these lobes seen above in their brains. They don't care what anything cost or what it's cost will do to our country. It is madness. We are already at a distinct disadvantage to the rest of the world in labor cost. Our jobs have left our shores for cheap labor...Now let us not shoot ourselves in the foot by raising our utility cost by being stupid...While the rest of the world cleanly burns coal and natural gas and produces cheap power...

Now for the Blessings...well for one, God is good, we continue to get rains in the midwest to support the much needed corn, beans and wheat that are in short supply nationwide. We would all suffer if we were to have a crippling drought this year and so far, so good. The big blessing I think we may have coming I discovered watching the Republican Presidential debates the other night. I was so impressed by all seven of the announced candidates to replace the community organizer, currently occupying the oval office. I especially was impressed by Bachman, Romney and Gingrich, but all of them or I should say anyone of them would be a good replacement and for the countries sake cannot come a day to soon. Check out the sign from Georgia to the right of my blog...This statement is pretty much dead on. I think a lot of people voted for Obama because we had never had a black President and it just made them feel good. Ignoring any negative ideas on him and allowing the liberal democrat press to guide them right into the voting booth...

Kayaking and Gardening in Indiana (302)

The "raised garden", is alive and well as seen here. Picture taken yesterday, shows how good things are growing in Indiana this year. Nice Spinach bed to the left of the walkway. Radishes to the right side. Broccilli, Culiflower, Eggplant, Tomatoes, Cabage and Peppers all doing fabulous. The Okra is still real small there in front of the two patches of Spinach and radishes..But before you know it those tiny Okra plants will be 5 feet tall and 3 inches in diameter and I will have switched my daily vegetable from Asparagas to Okra...I fix both of them on the grill and never seem to tire of them..Well maybe a little bit but what is one to do when its ready and so fresh and good you just eat it.
Susan and I Kayaked the Wildcat Creek yesterday evening. Floated from one bridge to the next near Dayton Indiana. Susan had a wonderful time as seen in the bottom picture. I had fun but I made some mistakes early out...Probably was in the water all of 30 seconds and got myself lodged against a log jam...Figuring that was not a good place to be with swift water and being in a set in kayak, I used my paddle to push myself away from the jam. I think in doing so I pushed my self over and instantly my kayak filled with water and tipped upside down. I just remember falling out the bottom of it and then coming to the surface thinking man with this water moving pretty fast I need to get a hold of the kayak and the paddle quickly.
The paddle was moving on down stream pretty fast but Susan was ahead of me and was able to capture it for me. I worked my way floating with my thank goodness good Life jacket and the submerged kayak to a sand bar where I was able to drag it out of the water and stand it on end and drain the water. Soon I was back into it and we continued down stream having a good time..With all the rain we have had the creek is a little higher than usual and the water moves pretty fast..Our trip from the Dayton Bridge to the Haggarty Bridge was maybe only 45 minutes including the time we came upon the log across the creek, as seen in the middle picture, and had to carry both kayaks around the jam and then put them back in...

All in all it was great fun, except for turning my kayak into a submarine the first 30 seconds. But that is all part of it, great fun if it is someone else doing it but even a little fun if it is you....Next time I will be used to it and how fast it can happen if you are a novice and don't know what you are doing out there...We plan on using them quite a bit this summer floating various creeks and rivers and lakes and even in the pond...We have 4 of them so we plan on taking other novices with us and have even more fun....

The crops corn and beans are getting a good start on the growing season. The corn is about 15 inches tall with about 7 leaves out, and the soybeans maybe 5 inches and getting their second trifoliate leaf...The rains have been a little too much but farming with water is much better than farming without water. The old adage "rain makes grain", is with us and so far so good...I hope it continues until these crops are made......

A very interesting theory or thought process I came across. (301)

I could not verify if this was written by a certain author so I have
removed his name...but am sending it along because it is an interesting
thought process about the consequenses of something that happened about 65
years ago and the possible effects it has on us today...never really
thought about it this way but it is something to think about....jack

Auschwitz if your not familiar is one of the German camps where they
exterminated Jews during the war...


ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ Interesting perspective..A must
read... The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer
and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It doesn't take
much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and
possibly to the rest of the world.

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER!
Date: Tue. 15 January
2008 14:30

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible
truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and
replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture,
thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen,
because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science,
art, International trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world.
These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to
ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates
to 20
million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious
extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an
unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into
the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan
the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred,
creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and
superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their
talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging
to life because life is holy,
for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death
for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by Europe ...

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE
BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population. They have
received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1990 - Elias James Corey
1994 - Yaser Arafat (inventor of modern day terrorism-started killing
innocent civilians) 1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics:
(zero)

Physics:
(zero)

Medicine:
1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7 SEVEN

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN
MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population. They have received the
following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:
1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon
Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:
1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabl
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Pe nz ias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 -
Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charles Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:
1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:
1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 -
Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 -
Richard J. Robert s
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis
1996- Lu RoseIacovino

TOTAL: 129

The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training
camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of
Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill
athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.
There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church. There is NOT a
single Jew who protests by killing people.

The Jews don't traffic slaves, or have leaders calling for Jihad and death
to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard
education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that
humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the
Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more
culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it
all:

"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more
violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more
Israel ." - Benjamin Netanyahu


General Eisenhower warned us. It is a matter of history that when the
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found
the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be
taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered
through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because
somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that
this never happened'

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The
Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim
population, which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.
However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the
world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million
Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic
priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented
on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way.

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to
be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This
e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial
chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center
'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United States ?