313 NOW THEY ARE GONE

It's kind of a sad time of year for me. I have come to admire and enjoy my Purple Martins each year. I knew the time was short that they would soon be leaving my place for South America. The last 3 weeks I have noticed that they spend very little time in their Martin Houses that I provide for them. They spend a lot of time coming and going from the houses the first couple months while they are building next laying eggs and hatching and raising the young ones. Then when the young ones can fly they spend little time in the nest and its every male or female for themselves catching bugs and building up bodies for the long flight south...And believe it or not they have spent a lot of time diving close to me as I am outside or swimming in the pond. Letting out a little scream as they pass by. It is as if they want to each say good by before the planned departure day. Three or Four days ago I noticed them all on the antenna from mid afternoon on. I knew the time was very near as I have seen this happen many times before. They had a good year here raising many new offspring. I guess when they came in the spring I had maybe a dozen pair which would be about 24 birds. I think on the antenna here there is maybe 50 or 60 counting a few in the air coming and going. They talk a lot on the tower, probably going over the flight plan and check points along the way...who knows, my God has quite an imagination and I figure he gave them that skill.
I don't know the exact time they left but the next day they were gone. I may have seen a pair or two a day later not sure they could have been the regular barn swallows who also hang here all summer long. Since the day they arrived I have seen maybe one or two mosquitoes. Now in about a week until it frost they will be some biting me and I will long for them to return again about next Easter. Now I will take down the houses and clean them well and put them in the barn to keep other birds from contaminating them this fall and winter. My Martins love it here and the feeling is mutual...

Note...click on the title above for a read on how long they live...

also to watch a "classic" go to the right side upper and click on Jimmie Obama

312 Taking the Nation Back in 14 months

They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are "Baby Boomers" getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time. We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were.

We have worked hard, raised our children, worshipped our God and grown old together. Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true. But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.



In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age. Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience. We remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. For those of you who don't know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators. A few even remember when cars were started with a crank. Yes, we lived those days.



We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many. But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off. We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet Nam . We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so. We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield. We didn't fight for the Socialist States of America , we fought for the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag. We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner , America , and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing. We have lived what many of you have only read about in history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America .

Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us. We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep. There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.



It was the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress.

You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies." You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don't like it after all. You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or "Climbing the Social Ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting. Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer's remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn't have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the 'Cool-Aid.' Now you're paying the price and complaining about it. No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom. This is what you voted for and this is what you got. We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.



Well, don't worry youngsters, the Grey Haired Brigade is here, and in 2012 we are going to take back our nation. We may drive a little slower than you would like but we get where we're going, and in 2012 we're going to the polls by the millions. This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It belongs to "We the People" and "We the People" plan to reclaim our land and our freedom. We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren. So the next time you have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor our country, and thank God for the old geezers of the "Grey-Haired Brigade."

~Author, Anon. Grey-Haired Brigade Member

311 Fried Garden and a slight cancer

I suppose some men left alone in the Kitchen could be bad news, maybe most men, but when one is left alone in the house because of cards that life has dealt one you adapt. I think I have for the most part, my cooking has improved as time when on. Thought process has done it for me. You learn to think ahead about what the objective is, how is this mess going to turn out, and will anyone really eat it? Now when it is you that mainly is the "anyone", you do start to "dig in" and try and get into this cooking thing. And I am starting to enjoy the process believe it or not. Looking back I wish I could have worked on these skills years ago...Necessity being the mother of invention answers that question I guess...
But today, I just felt like fried Okra and Red potatoes. Sometimes I do that kind of thing. Okra may be my favorite vegetable. I acquired a keen taste for it while living in Texas for a spell long ago. Before that did not know it even existed. But having purchased some from a roadside garden learned to appreciate the way the stuff is grown. All starts out with a very small seed, half the size of a peanut I'd guess. Planted a quarter inch deep maybe and allowed to find its way in the world. But before the summer is over this little seed turns into a plant maybe 5 to 6 feet tall and 2 inches in diameter...Blooms a lot of yellow flowers that turn within a few days into Okra pods. I enjoy them two ways on the grill with meat and other veggies kind of steaming while the meat cooks. You simply pick them up by the stem and eat the whole thing one nice bite...very good....But I think my favorite is to fry them in Olive oil in a small skillet either along or adding other vegetable.
Today I kind of went nuts I guess and am calling my dish, "Fried Garden".....And it was as good as it looks, it was delicious for sure served with about 4 wheat crackers from Pay Less/Kroger store.

Today I started with my Okra slicing it cross section about a quarter inch think..then I diced a red potatoe and slowly fried it in a very small amount of olive oil....The really really extra extra virgin kind of course...But after it got going so did my mind to other things outside my door in that raised garden...So out I went and picked a very small tiny head of red cabbage, a tomato, a green pepper and I topped it off with a fresh shucked ear of sweet corn. Sliced the uncooked corn into the skilled with the other veggies...I knew fried corn is great to why not...Well its all history now its all in the old "tum tum" and feelin good. And I think you will have to agree it was pretty healthy...But don't worry, I am not headed to being a "vegetarian"...no way, I still like my pork chops and my steak and of course fish....

Right side picture here is a bump on my arm that quickly appeared the last 4 to 5 weeks. It was kind of a callous like thing that I a couple times picked off but it quickly would grow back and became sore. So Monday I called Dr. Martin my skin guy and then scheduled me in Tuesday and he took one look and said, that my friend I am sure is a very fast growing cancer. I will remove it and send it in for sure but the good news is it will probably not shorten your life....That is good news of course, but we will know for sure if I need any further treatment in a couple weeks.
It is amazing though how fast this thing popped up and did not want to heal or go away....glad it is off and on its way to the lab...I had a regular appointment with this Doctor just 5 to 6 weeks ago...and it was not there...and yesterday when he looked at it he said I may be getting older but rest assured I did not miss this thing 6 weeks ago...glad you came in....

310 A Good Rain Today.....

I got 6 pots of "Rain Lillies" and today I noticed everyone of them were blooming. In the past few days, ocassionally, one or two of them would bloom, but not all..And those days it did rain other places, maybe 20 to 40 miles from here...so they were right, the conditions were right for rain, just not on this farm...But today all 6 had blooms, I doubted their wisdom and I was wrong......
Thank You LORD!!!!!! Today Sunday afternoon we received 1.25 inches of rain. I love doing the math on this but that equates to 37,500 gallons of water for every acre of farmland, lawns, gardens, forest or even dusty old gravel roads in Indiana....And that equates to 5 quarts of water for each corn plant in my fields...that my friends is a "liberal" drink...I don't much like that word but in the case of water for crops about to perish...I do like the word....

For the corn it is too late to bring back or retrieve the yeild losses we have suffered. But at least it stops the deterioration for the time being..maybe a week and maybe just maybe the rain patterns will change and we will start getting an inch or so a week...In that case what we have now may be what we will have at harvest time..I surely hope so....I have paid into federal crop insurance for corn for the last 25 years maybe without a claim...this year I hope I still will not need it but I think I am just about to the point of the crop insurance kicking in "if the yields get any lower"....I hope they don't our government can ill afford paying a bunch of crop insurance out to farmers at this time...I would rather get my dollars from the market place not borrowing it from the Chinese..

But for the soybeans this rain will start to recoup some of the yields we appeared to be loosing..August is the month that soybeans are produced and if the rains become more common place we should make a comeback on soy and maybe attain as much as a 75% or normal yield possible...I hope so, especially since I do not carry crop insurance on the soy beans....never have had less than half a crop so decided long ago to "take my chances" on soy...

Well that is the joyful rain report here from Lake Wobegon, Indiana where as you know the "women are strong, the men good looking and all the children are above average"....Amen...

309 Good and Bad and Better......

They always face the east, every day all day long. My sunflowers don't follow the sun east to west like I thought they would. They just stand there facing east, which is fine with me. I planted them a couple months ago for bird seed this next winter...they will stand tall above the snow drifts and Quail, Cardinals and maybe Bluejays will be well fed if I should happen to be gone for a time now and then. I complained to the my Wildlife Biologist Dean Zimmerman about not being able to attract Pheasants to my 5 acre parcel of Native Grasses I have had for 14 years now. He said, "well if you want them I can tell you this you have to feed them". In other words have food available for them to eat all winter. Then and probably only then will they look your place over and maybe decide to "hang out".....so here is my effort I have about a quarter acre of these pretty sunflowers and even if I don't get the big birds it will be fun to watch the songbirds maybe enjoy these seeds. Thus the "good" of this story today.
For the bad we need to go no further than my corn fields. We have been very dry and very hot all through the month of July with exception of one half inch of rainfall about 10 days back. My corn crop is surely hurt pretty bad. It is stressful to say the least. Farmers have a natural tendancy to kind of take on a little stress when the crops are doing likewise....Until a month ago I truly thought I was headed to my very highest yield ever so far. In one short hot dry month I think I am looking at maybe no more than half a crop. And compared to say TEXAS well half a crop may well be better than no crop at all...notice the cracks in the soil, some places it does not crack open quite this much but the ground is dry and cracked everywhere to some extent...We really need a good rain of 2 inches or more to even start to help this crop. We got 2 tenths of an inch last night but I noticed that none of it reached the soil and was stopped by the corn foliage which maybe bought me another day or two who know. Rain now is going to be too late to increase yields back...but maybe a good one will at least stop the deterioration....
Now for the better of the all of this lets go to the beach...my little paradise right here at home. It has gotten lots of use this season. I have been able to control the algae this year maybe for several reasons, I am not sure. I have a circulation pump running 24/7 and along with my AC in the house has resulted in my first over 200 electric bill since I have lived here. Also we dipped a lot of silt out of the pond last fall and I think that also had an effect on my water quality this year...For whatever reason my fish seem to be very happy living in this water..And I too am very happy to share with family, catch and eat fish, evening swims and in general enjoying the better the best....

Please if you have not clicked on the title above and watched the next Ronald Reagan do yourself a favor and do so....Jack

308 Saving the Country

Today it looks as though at least temporarily we will come to an agreement to "kick the can down the road" by raising the debt limit and agreeing to cut some spending. And agree to further study more ways of also decreasing our spending.

There are a few good hard working politicians in Washington. Contrary to what a lot of people say they are not all crooks and should be kicked out of office. For instance watch this video and since I don't know how to highlight it click on the title above about Saving the Country and it will take you there...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-fsG4jLBmrs

I watched this young Senator get elected last year in Florida...He is Marco Rubio a young man of pretty high intellect I would say. Someday he could be possible President of this country I believe. But listen to what he has to say and I at least gain a sense that he does in deed want to Save our Country. And that he like me is tired of our Media trying to label people. There are other good politicians in DC and there a whole lot of them that possible should be voted out of office...I think the key thing for all of us as citizens is to learn how to recognize the "truth"...And learn how to recognize when we are having our pud pulled so to speak...being lied to is a better term.. Common Sense is a virtue that we all have a dose of...And utilizing it is really not to hard to do...But be truthful to yourself when you listen to political retoric...Does what you are hearing really ring true to you or do you know it has a hidden adgenda in it and you are willing to overlook it because maybe the party of your past choice is grinding that axe????
I surely hope that during this next upcoming election people will listen to the candidates as to what they are for and against. And think about it as to how it relates to the good of our nation. We must get our house in financial order or we will truly sail right off the edge as a nation...I hope a lot more people will start viewing the nations business as their own business...because it is....

307....Another Wedding and DC Drama

Gosh another great wedding in our family this past weekend. My daughter Sharla married to Jeff Plaspohl have triplet daughters. This week triplet number two walked the isle to Marriage...Abby Plaspohl is now married to Brian Livingston. They both are grads of Butler University where they met...Abby has her Masters in Accounting a great job which will be needed as she assist Brian in his quest to become a Medical Doctor at Indiana University this fall...They will do fine...Both are mature and focused on the future...they had a great outside wedding..it was hot, almost rained on us but we dodged the rain bullet and all went fine.
They used my motor home to dress the ladies before the wedding, a hot day but the AC was cranking and they enjoyed getting ready in there and then coming out and walking the isle to the outside wedding. The wedding went real well but we were all glad when it was final and we headed into the Trails Dinning Room for the reception that followed. Fun was had by all...good beer, and Butler wines were offered to us all...Cokes too for the less aged and daring of course. Great dinner was served, everyone really enjoyed the event.
And in this pic Sharla dances with her new son in law Brian...Off to the right side here you will see the other two of the triplets...Lilly to the Left side is married a couple years back to a great guy Ryan Cappecci...Both so far have done well I believe in selection of a life's mate. So only Elizabeth remains...someone has to be last but let me tell you I think Elizabeth will do well...She is very cute, a true petite I would say...I think she is hanging tough so to speak on the tree...She is allowing the worthwhile male to take the time to climb the tree and pick a very nice apple...Keep it up Elizabeth...you will also make someone a great wife, don't settle for anything but the very best.
Last picture here is myself and Susan (my sweetpea) in a picture after the ceremony with the newly married couple Brian and Abby Livingston....Wishing them a very happy life ahead.
OK now to the DC Drama going on just a word about that...Watching this budget crisis take place is interesting....never before have the "people" caused congress to 'get down to business'....We just all drove down the road windows open and listened to the radio and thought about "what is for dinner and the next vacation"

this is all somewhat stressful as we whip our servants into shape...some are real persistant resisters for sure....but we will get there eventually I believe....

The people have finally awoke to the mess that has been created the last 50 years....

Now it's time...the facts have always been there but no one cared....now we do...

And in a way it is good drama watching these current crop of servants finally go to work....

July 4th Party and a Cute Maiden in Waiting (306)

We had a great party this year celebrating our nations 235th birthday. It all happened right here in the pole barn and down by the water or in the water of the pond. We do it every year and have now for maybe 12 years or more. Its kind of a yearly family reunion with Susan an I also inviting a few close friends now and then for new blood to kind of spice things up. This year we must have had the right combination as we started at noon as usual but it was midnight before we called a halt to the festivities.
To start things off we had kind of a camp ground thing going on this year also. Jessica, Susan sisters family came up from Nashville, (part of our new blood) and stayed in my motor home. And my grandson Lucas and his gal Rachel brought their new RV up and stayed for three nights in a very premo location close to the beach. They have a very interesting RV called a Trail Manor and if you click on the title above it will take you to the Trail Manor website that will expose you to the wonders of said RV company. There's is the 2720SL model, pretty darn cool.... Also available here off to the right side is a Picasso of pictures showing their RV and allowing you to see how easy and compact this quality RV folds up. Click on the picture and it will take you to a larger shot of each of the pictures. It is amazing how small this RV is fitting into their garage at home and how big it is unfolded (27) feet in length.
The party started with a change up this year instead of all 60 of us doing the pledge of allegiance we decided to do some singing. I had printed off the words to Lee Greenwoods song Proud to be an American...The night before my 12 to 13 year old granddaughter Allison Stair asked me if she could sing the national anthem for the people and then do the lead part in the other song we were all to sing. I was taken back and did not know what to say thinking she would get cold feet at the last minute and embarrass herself. But she was begging and so I said, well OK guess it will be alright. Well "alright" it was, as she had her pretend microphone in hand,(she said she needed that although it was not plugged into anything) and just a tad nervous maybe on the first few words, she belted the song out like a real trooper...And then did the lead parts in the other song as well, her voice getting stronger all the time, after she seemed to get her "stage legs" under her....We then enjoyed our wonderful meal of great brats, chicken drumsticks and wings and a vast array of carry in dishes that the good folk all brought with them...I always tell them not to hold back but bring something exciting and believe me they do it. The pond got used by a whole lot of us, swimming, kayaking, swinging off the rope into the pond and general sunning by the water. Also in the back ground was the same above grandson Lucas playing his guitar and singing some good songs...All of this went on until midnight including a campfire on the beach and making of "smores"...it was a great party.
Now also keeping one eye on the pending "Sex in the Cornfield", I have noticed some maidens in waiting starting to appear. Took one of there pictures here as the future ear of corn starts to peek its head out of the corn leaf. It won't be long now, and I will keep you posted...

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 ?

Social Security headed for trouble (300)

Someone sent me this picture to the right side here of a Social Security Office somewhere. The troubling thing about it is their is few older Social Security aged people in the waiting room. I know for a fact this is the case all over the country and it is kind of a shame that it has evolved to this. I have visited both the office here in Lafayette In. and in Naples Florida..Maybe a couple times each and each and every time I have to look pretty hard to find someone in there that is of my age. It is full of people trying to declare themselves worthy to collect social security for the rest of their lives. So there we are we are indeed "in trouble" on this for sure.

It has nothing to do with the pretty heavy rains passing through the midwest today and tomorrow, but I purchased a couple Kayak's today. One from Sam's Club and one from Dick's Sporting goods....we think they could be a lot of fun this summer both on the pond and maybe floating the wildcat creek when time allows. We enjoyed the Kayak event we did in Naples a couple months ago so anxious to get out there and try those things out. Well it is bedtime and short post are better than none at all so maybe the next post will see us trying out the new toys....

Obama "slapped silly today"....(299)

Not often does watching the 5 o'clock news make "my day" to the tune of pouring myself another glass of wine...Today was one of those.

Just watched the Israel Prime minister stand before our congress and state in his speech that Isreal would surely not be returning to the boundries that were there before the 1967 war....Benjamin Netanyahu I think is the spelling is one of my favorite people...He is a very intelligent no nonsense type of guy and he today, "slapped our President Obama, "the empty suit" silly....How did he slap him silly, well let me tell you..He made his declaration not really caring how congress would react...But our congress got on its feet and gave the guy a standing ovation...that my friends is equivilant to the Prime Minister of Isreal and the Congress all rejecting this nonsense statement from Obama and slapping him "silly"...it made my day...

Maybe, just maybe there is hope for our nation yet after all....

The Triplets Plaspohl Graduate from College (298)

The three ladies pictured here are my Granddaughters Abby, Elizabeth and Lilly. Saturday they all three graduated from College, Lilly and Elizabeth from Purdue University and Abby from Butler University. There parents seen in below picture have to be mighty proud to have put 3 through college for 5 years each in today's economy. A job well done I must say. Look out world here they come....ha Off to the right here I have added a picasa of shots I have taken lately and back a few years maybe.
Lilly is no longer a Plaspohl she is a Capecci now marrying Ryan almost two years back. Ryan graduated from Purdue and is now a practicing nurse here in Lafayette. Abby is engaged and will be married in June I think to Bryan Livingston seen in a pic here in front of Hickle Fieldhouse taken last Saturday. Bryan graduated last year from Butler and is now a med student at Indiana University. Elizabeth is still in the running you might say so I added a picture of her from her running days in high school...My daughter Sharla, her hubby Jeff and Susan and I attended Abby ceremony saturday at Butler. Elizabeth and Lilly choose not to attend the walk on graduations at Purdue. We were all kind of glad of that as for one thing it would have been a logistics problem but also, "man those things are kind of drawn out and one gets really sleepy trying to keep up with it all. I nodded off quite a few times myself and I think I may have caught the dad Jeffrey doing the same a time or two...
Pictured above is the grandpa about the end of the graduation ceremony, getting a little bored, but still enjoying and glad he came, and ready to move onto "Champs" for lunch.....
Sunday they had a great reception party in my pole barn. They had it all fixed up real nice as they had worked on it Friday. Great food for everyone who attended..We all had a good time and now they are off to a great start and looking ahead to the rest of their lives...I know they will do good, all three of them...and the parents also, after recouping from this endeavor....Congrats to all of you....

Corn in the Ground....(297)

May 11, 2011
The corn is in the ground as of about an hour ago....90 acres is all I do and I am glad that it is done...according to Purdue the yield should be "normal" getting it done by May 10...that is close enough for me ....

It went in a little on the "wet" side but what is one to do with the weather man calling for more rain in the forecast....I think it will be OK, I hope so for sure...

Now onto spraying the ground to plant soybeans in the morning and then wait for that ground to get 'right for planting'....maybe tomorrow maybe next week we will see...

Spraying consist of round up and other chemicals to keep weeds out of the beans all year long...including trees even that seem to like to pop up on "no till" ground from time to time...Cottinwood is the tree that I see a lot on a ground that was not farmed last year...about two acres where a house was going to be built and then was not...

Ok got to run hamburgers on the grill tonight and a nice manhatten to celebrate.....

The Royal Wedding (296)

I can not believe I am doing a blog story on the Royal Wedding last Saturday...But I am and I am because I did indeed wake up at 4 am to watch it. And the reason I am doing a story about it is this. It was a very Christian wedding...I loved it and was truly impressed with the mention several times during the ceremony of "Jesus Christ"...

Now I have watched many of the reruns or recaps of the wedding...All of those mentions have been "cut out" like they never ever happened...is that strange or what??

The part that made it so Christian, so special in the eyes of Christians is cut completely out during the recaps...Yes that is very very strange...I think anyway...

Why is that I wonder? Well the world does not feel it important I guess...

I did love the precision in which it all went off from the different arrival times of the participants to the precise arrival of the bride at exactly 11 am....they had it down for sure...

I loved the wedding watched every bit of it...I think I like the Britts and the way they do things...long life the Queen... but in case she does not there is Charles and then there is William....and so there will be little William I predict....

See ya

Osama Bin Ladin is out of here.....(295)

The mighty arm of Uncle Sam delivered justice yesterday to Osama Bin Ladin in Pakistan.
It is a great day of celebration for our nation. My son in law, Todd Stair called last night at 11 and told me I may want to watch the news..I was so asleep I was confused and thought he meant we had killed Omar Kadafi in Libya and told him I did not think I would get woke up just for that...Then as I lay there trying to go back to sleep it dawned on me what he had said the we had killed Osama, the Hitler of our time, so I turned it on for a bit to make sure it was true and then went back to sleep...I slept well, knowing this man that had really started this wave of terror wars had been delivered the justice that he deserved. These Navy Seals are so good at what they do, am so proud of them and also their commanders decision to take his body back with them so they could not make a memorial out of his burial site. And to bury the guy at sea and wipe him off the face of the earth was also very smart...

This morning I watched some reporting of the event on Fox and they interviewed Mr. Beamer who was the father of the guy who is credited of stopping the flight that was headed to DC and crashed the plane in Pennsyvania. He was great, I loved what he had to say about the event and what lies ahead for us...I agree that we did good, but by doing so more attacks may come from these nut jobs who embrace terror. But that we must be vigilant and be prepared to serve them justice as well when it happens. We do live in a great county in spite of ourselves....

I switched over to CNN as I like to do when major events like this happens just to see how they assess the situation and how they report it to the public...Currently they just had a guest who wondered if burial at sea was proper for Osama since Islam prefers to buried in the ground? And the reporter joined in questioning whether proper Islamic prayers and rituals were offered for him before he was buried? I shook my head, but continue to watch as they work their way through how great a deed this nation has just pulled off...They can not help themselves it seems, they are committed to always looking at the dark underneath side of things. It blows my mind that anyone would watch such a network...I think soon I will switch back to Fox and other networks that report things from the positive side of the street....

It is a great day for America....

Thank GOD, I made it home. (294) all the way...

After much Prayer, Stress and Money, I finally this day made it all the way home. The final act of this drama started today with a phone call from Louisville Caterpillar service center that my motor home was done and the bill being prepaired...I took off for Louisville about 11 a.m. and arrived there about 2 P.M. The coach was done and the bill was prepaired to the tune of over 2,000 dollars...I gulped and simply asked that they at least consider that I had paid 500 to the same owner of the service center in Lexington and for the same problem more or less. They finally agreed to remove 4 hours labor at 90 dollars per hour or 360 dollars bringing my bill down to the 1600 dollar range. Never thought I would appreciate a 1600 dollar repair bill for a fuel pump, but after first being told over 2000 you bet your sweet bippy, I was very appreciative.
Picture above calls for a celebration of sorts. I made it home and here I am parked in front of my home in Indiana...and it ran good all the way and surely hope it continues to do so for years to come. I had a case of my finest wine in my wine cellar of the motor home. Emmediately upon shutting it off for the first time since Louisville I proceeded to that compartment and removed the several bottles of my Brown County Old Barrel Port Wine and skipped my way into the house. Pulled the cork on one of them and poured my self a "liberal" pour of it and did all the right stuff...First smelling it then taking a small sip...Ahhh yes it was good, very good and after a couple sips I ventured out to remove my truck from the motor home..tucking it away into the garage for the night I did indeed finish my liberal glass of the wonderful grape product....

I was home man did it feel good, I have to admit this trip has caused a fair amount of stress on this fella...Total bills for 3 tows and 3 service repairs all for the same problem, 3500 plus dollars....makes you ill to think of it but what is one to do?

Troy Wooten the service manager in Louisville assured me that he was confident that they had found the source of my problem...My confidence was not so sure but it grew as I passed through Indianapolis and then Lebanon and onto US 52 and headed north toward home and still running OK...It truly really felt good to turn off 52 onto Wyandotte Road and into my drive way and on up the lane still running good...Tomorrow I will drive it to Bible study and back home, thinking that maybe short trips around home here will be the smart move until time has passed and I am also confident that the problem is indeed solved...Thank you Lord for riding with me all the way home....

The Trip Home...Still in Progress (293)

Some might call the events of the past 10 days a trip from Hell, not me, it's not that bad but maybe one could say at least a trip from Purgatory. Susan and I started home with the motor home on April 8th I think it was and everything went smooth until Knoxville Tenn. and then as we started up a long slope of a hill the motor just lost power totally like someone had just pinched the fuel line with a large pair of vise grips maybe. I immediately started moving to the right side and onto the berm of the road along I 75...When we came to a stop we were off the road by maybe 3 feet with motor home and tow vehicle and about a foot from the guard rail along the edge as seen in the pictures. We were about 100 yards from exit 17 that would have offered us more safety, but we were done, it would not restart.

It was Saturday night about 9 PM. I called a friend kind of like they do on the Millionaire show where you win a lot of money...Except this was kind of a reverse thing, I called trying to gain info that would maybe save money and also bring in some expertise that I maybe was lacking being in a strange town and mechanically challenged as I am. Terry lives just a few miles north in LaFollette Tenn. Maybe three rings and he answered just like on TV. He said Hello, and I said, Hey Terry, Jack here I am broke down on I-75 told him how the coach quit on me and do you know of a tow truck service and where should I take it? He suggested the Cat dealer but did not know of any towing companies...I thought Terry might as he had owned a large trucking company there a few years back. So next thing called my Progressive Insurance company and found out I did have some coverage and they would call one for me. Finally contact the wrecker company and talked to the manager..Just for fun I said hey do you know Terry Claiborne?....He said yeal, matter of fact my mom is Shirley Claiborne's sister...Terry is my Uncle...Small world has not much to do with the story but anyway they sent out a wrecker..He arrived at midnight and left at 4 am after deciding they did not know how to hook it up or did not have the right wrecker who knows..They called Progressive and they told me they had no other wreckers and to call 911 and let the police handle it...Tow Pro the towing company did say they would contact the Cat dealer for me to call me later and see if he could help. We laid down on the couch's and immediately fell into much needed sleep but dreaming all kinds of stuff every time a semi passed and tossed us too and fro....

7 O'clock a.m. phone rings its the Cat dealer...He knows a tow company that knows how to do it..they arrived at 10 am. By 12.30 we got hooked up as seen in other picture and arrived at the Cat dealer in Knoxville, Sowers I think is the name. They brought in a mechanic who did nothing but remove my fuel filter which was dry he said fill it with fuel, had me crank it and shot in a little either and it took off. We took it for a test drive after he also put hooked it up to his computer...He said I was good to go charging me 600 plus dollars added to the 650 tow bill I know the insurance company will probably be pretty upset about..So we were off driving to Lexington Kentucky that night. We parked on a street close to Jill and Matt's place, stayed with them leaving before 8 am for home. Got 5 blocks and it went down right in front of the ST Joe Hospital, our hearts sank as we knew the problem was still very much with us.

Another tow truck this one very quick in an hours time we were at the Whayne Supply Cat dealer in Lexington. They worked on it until 3 testing for leaks in the fuel lines. We finally left at 3 heading home in the tow vehicle leaving the motor home for them to solve the problem...

We went down and picked it up Monday, they had found a pin hole leak in a fuel line. I hoped the problem was solved.

Hooked up the tow vehicle and we were off again. Running good all the way to north to exit 16 on I65 north of Louisville pulled into a truck stop for a sandwich circling the semi's finding a spot and 10 feet away from where I planned to stop down it went again..I took off the fuel filter which had been sucked dry the previous two breakdowns and checked it..it was still half full...filled it with fuel, Susan cranked the engine and I injected a little ether...it would not go..Called Cat they said my nearest dealer is Whayne Supply in Louisville. Another wrecker yesterday, arrived after a two hour wait.... motor home is at Cat, I am back home, hoping and praying that this problem can be solved as it is very very stressful and Expensive...Bothers me that the service manager in Lexington as I was decribing my problem stated that the Hewy pump was probably the problem and I don't think they every checked it...hope they will now among alot of other possible things..Somewhere between my fuel tank and my Engine there is a problem....I need to be semi retired and thinking about future travel and not this....
But I still love the motor home and its way of travel...Still love Caterpillar, they make quality stuff and employ my son in law at the large engine plant in Lafayette. Some how it will all work out....I hope.
This has been the longest spell I think between blog stories since I started this 3 years ago...Stress has a way of messing up schedules...

Packing boxes for the troops and Homer Helters Museum (292)

One Saturday while I was in Florida, I had the pleasure of packing boxes up with goodies for the troops in Afganistan. We did boxes for females and male troops, different stuff for different folk...it was so much fun, can not wait to do it again next year. It just feels good....But this story is about a driving force behind this effort to keep the troops supplied with a piece of "home"....and that guy is a Marine I have come to respect and admire, that being Homer Helter, who owns the Antique Military Museum in Naples on Shirley Street just off Pine Ridge Road...I love going to his place, you can spend hours in their talking to veterans from many era's of this countries good efforts of keeping this world free for the most part. A job that continues today with little help from our allies as we are witnessing today in all three of our areas of confrontation. And then additional hours and I mean hours looking through a portion of what he has on display and forsale. And by the way Homer, you need a web site...I searched the internet and could not find a link that I could promote for you...get on it Sir...

Anyway the day of the box packing Homer has some guys in and cooks a big picnic for the help and his customers and friends that are in his Museum...that saturday as usual was barbeque Chicken, maybe the best I ever had, hamburgers, Brats, and baked beans all real good...see my plate in the slideshow to the right...Couple bites out of the cheeseburger all so good I had to take a picture.


I can tell he has put his heart and soul into this place and into service to his town and his nation...He is an honest to goodness veteran that I am proud to say that I know...Semper Fi Homer.......the bottom pic here is me on Homers German Side car BMW motorcycle from WW TWO...he loaned it to me to "patrol the perimeter" of my residence till we catch the no good crook that broke into my house...

Naples Florida 2011 (291)

Needless to say I love Naples and Marco and especially Silver Lakes RV Park located on the "road to Marco" off US 41.....
Love it so much that I am going back again next year...I love the fishing in the back waters in and around the 10,000 islands off the lower west coast of Florida.
Writing in past tense as I went home early as I was broken into the first week I was in Florida at my home in Indiana...They still have not caught the dude even though they know who is, he has been on the loose for a week now...He had a lot of fun dumping every drawer in my house looking for money...he found a little and he found a check book... and he was not too smart..he wrote himself a check and drove to my bank and sent the check and his drivers license into the teller via the drive up window...

The called me immediately and asked if I knew him and informed me the check was 25 out of sequense....What a Bank......and I said no way so they asked him to come in and he left right away in his white truck...Hard to belive this dude is still 'at large' so to speak..they have his drivers license and his finger prints on the check and from inside my house...go figure.....

So I am home early from Florida cleaning up the mess....practicing close range target practice with my two pistols a Colt 1911 45 caliber and 9MM. Keltec P11...next time he may not be so lucky....I may have one in each hand...

But Florida was wonderful...it still is wonderful. Gosh I love fishing the back water looking for spots that fish will likely to be...and sometimes finding them...80 degree temps, sunshine,great neighbors, great RV park, what more could a farmer from Indiana want that what I got...

Can not miss adding my enjoyment from the Donald Trump appearance on the View the other day...Donald want to see the Birth Certificate of Mr. Obama and you know what I would too....

What the hell is going on....if he ain't wanting to share it I think we have on our hand an "illegal President"...they are to be born in this nation you know...I don't think he was or he would be sharing that document....

So Donald I salute you Amigo.....it's time to ask the empty suite to produce the document that the nation should have insisted upon before this guy was ever nominated...unbelievable that we could have a seated President that is not qualified to be so....unbelievable....

And all you folks that voted for him, you got to wondering too......

ST. Pat's Parade and lots of Fishin (290)

I may be having "borderline" too much fun here in Southwest Florida, Naples/Marco Island area to be more specific. First off my buddy Ernie Maier has been keeping me almost fully employed as "first mate" on his pontoon boat. I think we went out the day after I got here and we did real well catching 5 nice Sheep Head plus on top of that George and Gladis Thompson were out there and gave us 2 additional fish that they did not want to clean...Which by the way is my other boat I am sometimes employed on as "first mate"...Looking forward to that trip out with them soon also...You see for years down here I just fished off the banks or off the fishing pier down at the Marco Island bridge..Well they closed the pier after the hurricane for political reasons is my guess, but anyway My fishing boat owner buddies came along here just in the last 3 years maybe....It is much much better going to the fish instead of hoping the fish come to you..I have learned to "read the roots" on the mangrove islands...when they have the right amount of crustations of shells hanging on them, it is a good bet that sheephead and other species will be in the area, working these nibling on these shells or oysters whatever they are.

Well sandwiched between my fishing trips I marched again with the Marine Corps League in the St. Patrick's day Parade. Gosh I love doing that, and was especially anxious to this year with my new stainless steel knee that was installed in June, to see how it would perform under the two mile march leading the parade. I was a little worried about it and spent some days prior walking 2 miles and hurting just a bit now and then...But you add bagpipes behind you and a recording of a Marching songs and the Marine Hymn and there a no stopping you...Your chest kind of swells a bit to be with your comrades again and listening to the cadance caller to keep in step...I guess you have to be there but let me tell you, things went well and we never missed a beat...Well truthfully I did have to "skip" a couple times to get back into step but that was mostly caused by the real Marine recruiters leading us not listening to the drill master's words...We had about a dozen marching League members maybe including our own Randy Kington in his motorized wheel chair...I am proud to be a member of this Naples League, as they do a lot of civil service things around town from picking up trash along the highways to mentoring disadvantaged kids in the school system here...A program they call "new horizons". That I have to admit I am not involved in because of my short stays here, but they surely are and I am proud of them for it and allowing me to be a small part and at least set my left foot down on the 1's and the 3's on St. Patricks day when the Marines lead the parade here as they have for over 30 years....It is truly exhilerating....The top picture is me and a nice sheep head fish...my favorite catch here..but the lower picture is a weird fish I caught yesterday on my second trip out in Ernie's boat...This dude had 3 legs on each side and two wings that it could spread out...and then all the regular stuff a fish has for swiming...I don't know what it was...I guess if you were a evolutionist you could make a "weak" case for this thing being a forerunner of life crawling up from the ocean and even becoming a bird maybe...But I don't buy any of that nonsence even for a new york minute...My eyes and the brain God gave me tells me without a doubt that life on this planet is way to complicated to have started with algae, it had to be the handy work of a creator...I will thump my Bible and know this is how it all came about....

Rainy Nignt in Georgia (289)

I am setting in my motor home at a Cracker Barrel in Dalton Georgia....My favorite campground...I love parking at Cracker Barrel cause it "free"...and in the morning I will enjoy a nice breakfast and I will thank them for allowing me to park my motor home in their parking lot...I always do and they always say, "glad you stayed with us last night"....We have this thing going on me and cracker barrel I guess...I provide "security" for them, by parking by the back door in my motor home...burglars just don't pry open back doors when there is a motor home outside with a guy in side with a cell phone and a 9MM Pistol inside...So me and cracker barrel, yes, we have it "going on", I guess you could say...

On my way south to Naples Florida for some R and R...Rest and Recuperation....

It is pouring down rain here..and maybe back in Indiana too...left there this morning early....had a nice nap about noon for an hour and then recharge I moved on through Nashville Tn. on to Chattannoga and now Dalton Georgia...I like Dalton, it is the carpet capital of the world you know...the place to buy carpet if you are buying very much...

Looking forward to spending a month in Naples close to Marco Island...doing as much fishing as time will allow...it will be great...And then back home to plant corn and beans....that is my rotation you know corn beans and then Naples...

Thursday update on my excellent adventure...
Drove 640 miles yesterday to Ft. Myers, only lacked 50 miles to Naples but had to stop at yes you guessed it another Cracker Barrel...with my tow vehicle I had to utilize 5 Bus/RV parking slots to contain me...but I am special so I knew they would not mind...I was exhasted for sure...Susan woke me at 7.30 on her way to work...Went into breakfast and thanked my host and while in there a monsoon type rain came through the area...glad I was inside...now setting up my home site in Naples has rained all day...