an Excellent meme

This award was given to me by TexasmomKJ.


DeconstructingVenus has tagged me. No worries, it is not a RFID chip.

7 Things

1. My favorite song is not of the metal genre. Candy Colored Clown by Roy Orbison. (But to justify it, I fell in love with it when I saw the Blue Velvet)

2. FogHorn LegHorn is my nemesis, and if I would eat him my life would be slightly less enjoyable.

3. I am 5 foot 9 inches tall

4. Since I have done this meme several times, I am having problems picking out new facts for you.

5. I watch cartoons, even when my boys are gone.

6. I had my first rememberable kiss in Kindergarten, and then wouldn't allow a by to touch me again until Junior High.

7. I wear glasses, not because of poor eyesight. I have better than 20/20 vision, but my eyes argue over light when I try to see in the distance.

I would tag 7 people, but I have learned that the people I choose tend to inform me that they have already done this and will not be doing it again. I think this is my 5th time.


I had thought abbagirl74 tagged me, but I can't find it.

Have a great weekend! Tonight, we sleep with the dinosaurs.

Oh the Drama!

I awoke to 3 inches of snow, and now I am watching it still come down. It is one of those mornings where I feel like I am 12 years old again.

I don't wanna. Shuffling my feet through the house, my hands making odd limp gestures at my side as I fling my shoulders about. Boots thump on the floor, as I huff at my chores. Ungrateful mutters escapes my tight lips as a thrust my boots on, a motion better used for pulling fence posts. Stomp stomp stomp, heavy snow boots smack the floor, the door slamming behind me as I push my way through the white-out. I bet if I fell down and froze to death, no one would care or notice. A once repressed teen angst bubbles to the surface as I call out DDDDOOOOOOONNNNKEY! Smokeysmokeysmokey, trinatrinatrina, Arrow. chickchickchickchick! Making a cursory head count of who I still have running for their food, I eye FogHorn LegHorn with disgust. You would kill me if you could.

Snow batters at my exposed face, stinging my eyes as my shivering, gloved hands grab the pitch fork and begin to break the ice in the water trough. My eyes glancing from side to side, watching my own back from attack. Foghorn Leghorn stalks about, crowing his putrid hatred, and dancing the dance of a murderer. He moves in for a strike, my angst disappears as I know I must now struggle to keep my own life. Instinctually my combat booted foot flings out toward my attacker, my kick misses, but the white feathered death stills runs into the boot. You're a little challenged, aren't you. I mutter my disgust. He shakes it off, and crows as though he was king, and he meant to do that. With a shake, he flies up on the fence, a perch were he can eye me, and threaten me easily.

The ice is broken, and I trudge my way back through the gate, still keeping an eye on that rooster. Even my leather work gloves can no longer hold back the bitting cold. Just as I close the gate, Foghorn Leghorn makes one last desperate attempt to dispatch me. His regal attitude towards my leaving the pen, shows that he is the victor in this life or death struggle that is replayed daily.

Blinded by the snow, I manage to slowly find my way back inside my warm house, where coffee is waiting for me, hopefully.

No Subject Specified

No secret that I am a bibliophile, this is a well established fact. This morning I was at a loss as to what topic to broach. As in my usually manner I turned around and grabbed the first book off my homesteading, diy, cookbook bookshelf for an idea. The first book I pulled out was Complete Handyman Encyclopedia Vol. 25. Opening it randomly took me to a page about growing your own peaches, but I have already talked about peaches here. The next subject was on other orchard maintenance, something else I have written about here. So I went to grab another book. This one turned out to be the Complete Handyman Encyclopedia Vol. 22, and guess what it was. . . you are correct, it was all about gardening.

Am I to take this as an omen? A sign that I should lecture you on gardening once again? Or should I solicit questions about gardening from you, my wonderful readers?

I realize that I have a freakishly early garden going inside right now, and it is only the end of January. This is the time we usually sit around, looking through all the wonderful catalogs, drooling over the heritages, and wishing that this cool looking fruit/vegetable wasn't a hybrid.

If you have a question, something you have been wanting to ask, please, leave it in replies and I will be happy to answer it to the best of my knowledge.

Now for an update on the homestead.

My oven has taken on a mind of its own. While baking it goes on and off when it deems it necessary, either burning or under cooking my breads. Fortunately for me, my neighbor whose ducks were stolen mentioned that she was getting a new to her stove. Nothing was wrong with hers, it was just outdated, and would I like to have it. YES! OH YES! Well actually I am a little more coy then that. Now I have a working oven, and with a little bake test, discovered it runs slightly hotter then my old one, but not a problem, I just decrease the baking time by a few minutes. Today I bake!

After my father died, my wonderful friends over on livejournal decided they would send me a hug box. A wonderful goody bag that any homesteader would be proud to receive. Included was a certificate to the McMuarry Hatchery. Yesterday I place my order for, Mottled Houdans, Black Cochins, Partridge Cochins, Golden Polish, Black Minorcas, and Araucanas, now to catch the thieves before the chicks arrive.

An Editorial

I am not sure if I should be posting this, it is the post that I was going to write today, before finding the AP article on RFID. Right now I am listening to the wind howl and waiting for the snow to come. But what I am going to say, has to do with last night, and the coming days.

It is more than slightly obvious that the US middle class and lower are suffering a recession. And if we are not careful, it will lead into another depression. It frustrates me to no end that It is happening now, just when things we finally coming together for my family. But it is not my husband or I that I really worry about. Have we taught our children the tools needed to survive without us?

I watch a lot of News programs, I talk back to anchor men, and write editorials. I have been belittled and called a chicken Little, I have been watched and possibly black listed, yet none of that bothers me. Last night however one glimpse at a program almost brought me to tears. It is a program on MTV called My Sweet Sixteen. If you haven't seen it, then you are fortunate. I have a feeling most of my readers would loathe this program. These children demand and expect a birthday party that will cost their parents hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's all fine and good if the parent wants to do this, my problem is the attitude of the children. I will admit that if I had half the fortune that these parents have, I would splurge and indulge my child for a birthday, but the moment one of my boys decides that he is entitled to have an elephant escort him to his party, or that he deserves a Mercedes, it will abruptly end.

This program made me take a step back and look at what I have been teaching my boys. Will they grow up with the mentality that the world owes them? Or will they grow up as part of the world? Maybe not so much the world, but their immediate surroundings. Will they continue to say Sir, and Ma'am, thank you and please and actually mean it? Will they pull over to help a stranded motorist in this world of cell phones? Will they still open doors for women, or give up a seat to a pregnant woman or the elderly? I realize that some of you will cringe as you read these statements. Even in a PC world, a time when woman feel that men should not do these things, I still think they are important and shows respect. I have told a woman to shut up because of her holier than thou attitude toward a teen that held a door open for her, she didn't deserve the respect that boy gave her, yet he did it and only responded by nodding his head. That is the type of teen I hope my boys grow up to be.

Besides the shows of respect, have we given our children the ideals and the skills necessary to survive in a world that could be crumbling from its traditional ways. If we do find ourselves in a depression, will our children truly know the value of hard work, of a family that pulls together, of a dollar? I truly can not answer that question because those circumstances have not reared its ugly head. My children do ask for things, expensive items that their friends have. My ten year wants a cell phone, like his friends, he wants a tv and a Wii in his room. He wants all these items that they have, and even before we found ourselves in a time a some struggles, we did not give in to these wants. They are not needed. His friends would come over, enjoy the daylight and twilight out in the field, but then become bored and wish to go home because there wasn't anything for them to do. My ten year old will come home after staying the night at their houses and complained that all they wanted to do was play video games. (sigh of relief there)

I have noticed that the children that come out here treat chores as a novelty. When they go out and help with the gardening or the chicken clean up, parents are astounded to find out that their children did these things willingly, that they had even asked to help. They exclaim that their child won't even clean their rooms,. Well neither will mine, it's like pulling teeth, and I was the same way. My children know why their rooms need to be cleaned, not just that under my dictatorship these things are punishments, it just a bull headed, push your buttons attitude. Something that they will get over, no stress. It is the other chores, those other skills that they learn that I will fight for them to do. When my boys are grown and have left my home, I want to be assured that they can cook for themselves, that they can grow their own food, that they have those survival skills needed to conquer any unknown hindrance.

I want my boys to know a solid work ethic, and not to allow others to push them down out of resentment for having it. Good guys finish last feels far to real. And I can only hope that my boys will not cheat and steal, lie and connive to fit into a world that is no longer use to their kind. And that the looks of surprise or disdain doesn't bother them when they say, Pardon me, ma'am.

Maybe A Chip in a Goat Doesn't Worry You

But maybe this story on the AP will.

Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision

By TODD LEWAN

Here's a vision of the not-so-distant future:

Microchips with antennas will be embedded in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumer items - and, by extension, consumers - wherever they go, from a distance.

A seamless, global network of electronic "sniffers" will scan radio tags in myriad public settings, identifying people and their tastes instantly so that customized ads, "live spam," may be beamed at them.

In "Smart Homes," sensors built into walls, floors and appliances will inventory possessions, record eating habits, monitor medicine cabinets - all the while, silently reporting data to marketers eager for a peek into the occupants' private lives.

Science fiction?

In truth, much of the radio frequency identification technology that enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly already exists - and new and potentially intrusive uses of it are being patented, perfected and deployed.

Some of the world's largest corporations are vested in the success of RFID technology, which couples highly miniaturized computers with radio antennas to broadcast information about sales and buyers to company databases.

Already, microchips are turning up in some computer printers, car keys and tires, on shampoo bottles and department store clothing tags. They're also in library books and "contactless" payment cards (such as American Express'"Blue" and ExxonMobil's "Speedpass.")

Companies say the RFID tags improve supply-chain efficiency, cut theft, and guarantee that brand-name products are authentic, not counterfeit. At a store, RFID doorways could scan your purchases automatically as you leave, eliminating tedious checkouts.

At home, convenience is a selling point: RFID-enabled refrigerators could warn about expired milk, generate weekly shopping lists, even send signals to your interactive TV, so that you see "personalized" commercials for foods you have a history of buying. Sniffers in your microwave might read a chip-equipped TV dinner and cook it without instruction.

"We've seen so many different uses of the technology," says Dan Mullen, president of AIM Global, a national association of data collection businesses, including RFID, "and we're probably still just scratching the surface in terms of places RFID can be used."

The problem, critics say, is that microchipped products might very well do a whole lot more. Continues>>>

Week 4

If you go for the easy green. . .

Normally I am not the type of person that refers you to a company, period. Let alone a company who has decided to advertise their greenness. This green thing seems to be another way to "keep up with the Jones' ". And as more and more companies push this in their ads, the more annoyed I get.

I did however receive an email the other day, it was asking if I would write about a company's plant a tree drive. I took some time to mull it over and look at the people involved. Eventually agreeing to write up a post. Most of you know my addiction to books. I have my fair share of paper books. So my hesitation is not purely based on the greenness factor, ichapters is a company that sells text book chapters to people when they need just those chapters. If I was in school, this would be great for me, personally however, I am not fond of the online media form. It doesn't feel a intimate to me, plus it gives me a headache. Yet this is an era in which more and more people are choosing to read their assignments and entertainment online.

If you buy a book or chapter from ichapters.com, they will plant a tree in your name. Unlike other companies that end up charging you for this program, they have partnered up with Changing the Present, there will be no other fees involved.

So if you really want a tree planted in your name, hey it could end up next to mine, this is a good way to go. Especially those of you that have nowhere else to plant a tree.