I was fine today until 15 showed up at the time she should have been at the bus stop.  It is dressing like the 80’s day at school today and she asked me for an oversized sweatshirt.  I had a red one but she wanted a purple one.  I only had one sweatshirt and it is not purple.  I told her to get dressed and get down to the bus stop.  Half an hour later she showed up needing a ride to school.  Not wanting her home all day with me I took her the 15 miles to school in rush hour traffic.  As she got out of the car I noticed she was wearing running shorts.  I told her that the shorts did not meet the dress code and she said she was going to try to sneak by the hall monitors.  I drove home and went next door to report to her 42 year old mother that she was wearing running shorts and the school would be calling her to bring clothes.  Of course I will have to be the one dragging the pants to her school.  Her mother did not seem upset and I noticed she was wearing a shoestring to work for underpants. 

My daughter’s oldest daughter is a clone of my daughter.  She probably has a shoestring under her running shorts right now.  My daughter even takes her to concerts where there is a lot of drugs, etc.  Then when daughter is at home; about 3 hours a week of quality at home time with her kids they sit and watch a show called intervention. That show is about as stupid as ghost hunters.  They are drama queens and watch the real life thrillers.  And from that she takes 15 to drug infested concerts and that started when 15 was 12.  

There is something wrong with my oldest daughter and I don’t understand how this happened.  I am not white trash and never wore a string for underpants.  She has a better education than I ever got, lives in relative luxury with her cars, house, etc., has a good job that she has now had ever since getting out of college, and yet she has these white trash characteristics that others don’t see. You would not believe this about her if you met her because she is always in a business suit and looks conservative.  Works in a corporate office, does not drink, smoke or swear.   With this backdrop she just spent an entire three days in a class to learn how to ride a motorcycle. She told me that the instructor liked her and wanted to “be friends” with her.  He was almost my age and had a wife in Michigan and don’t think the wrong thing when she brings him home.  She said he is here because there are no jobs in Michigan and in Texas he rides around on his Harley and teaches motorcycle classes. She thought his lifestyle was pretty cool.  She told me she would never have sex with him because he is married and the next day she came home saying he is a dirty old man.  Obviously he was not interested in a platonic friendship and must have been hitting on her in class.  Then she took me to see the Harley she wanted to buy.  It weighed three times as much as her.  The next day in her throwback to the 70’s class she for the third time was unable to keep the Harley from falling over.  She is to short and a slight weighted person that cannot handle the weight of such a machine.  She did not buy the Harley (yet).  BTW Harley’s cost more than a car.  The clothes and special shoes, etc. for the thing cost more than my Honda. 

I asked 12 before she got on the bus this morning if she was wearing a shoestring for underpants.  She said her mother bought her a few of those but she does not like them and wears her underwear that are made for children. That was a great relief as she waved at me from the window of the bus.  

Maybe I am the problem and should go get a pair of those shoestrings, take the motorcycle class to meet the old hippie and leave my daughter in charge of her own children. I am strong enough to handle the Harley and I don’t mind that he has a wife in the UP of Michigan.   I have an ex in the BWCA of Minnesota.  We both left our partners behind in very cold hostile environments.

President Obama is impotent to protect us from the banking and corporate globalists at best, and, at worst, a willing shill for the shadow government.

The latest report this weekend on Huffington Post, and quoted by Kunstler (or was it George Ure?), that Goldman Sachs was going around the country buying up real estate mortgages that they knew full well were toxic, then bundling them up and selling them to foreign banks and pension funds. Meanwhile, they took out insurance against these derivatives so than when they failed, they would cash in. This is just a sample of what got us here. I mean it is still going on and after December we will see our taxpayer money go to these thieves in the way of bonuses. Big bonuses. And then they try to blame it on people buying houses they could not afford. They handed out mortgages like Halloween candy and the poverty stricken grabbed as much candy as they could. BTW, I only had 7 kids show up for the free Halloween candy on Saturday evening. The perv next door did not show up.

The police yesterday called to say they had him in custody again and asked what we wanted regarding punishment. Daughter took the call and said the death penalty would be great but she knew since he is only 15 they will let him out before she can get to the end of the block. They settled on a restraining order so he cannot come over to steal underwear anymore and mandatory counseling. We would send him all our old underwear if that is all he is after but unfortunately the prize eventually becomes not the panties but the person wearing them. OK enough..back to my original theme.

The wealthiest five percent now own ninety percent of the wealth of the land, since Reagan and his “trickle down” theory of economics became the law of the land. He would b e rolling over in his grave to see what has happened here in the U.S. Well maybe….I must be an optimist!

The false flag event of 9/11 threw enough people into a panic that the constitution has been dismantled, and now virtually anyone can be labeled an “enemy combatant” and renditioned, tortured, and incarcerated forever without trial. The NSA just opened up a new center to help with the surveillance of our e-mails and electronic transactions – and they plan to invite corporate entities to man the facility as well.

Oh, wait… we have comforting “news” by Katie Couric, et al, on the lamestream media that assures us that things are looking up for the “recovery.” Just who’s recovery is not real certain. I am not in recovery and now I am in what could be called chronic pain almost always. As I mentioned before I have Spina Biffida and it is a mild case compared to others. I can walk, talk and have control of my body functions but I remain in pain. It is usually nerve pain going all the way down to my ankle on my right leg. It at times results in spasms from my lower back, hips and leg. I take OTC pain meds and I am sure they help but with nerve pain you cannot really tell.

I know all of you are telling me to get on things like the Gold Card or go to churches to get help, etc. My problem is that my income is too high. I collect unemployment and must decide if I will have shelter and food or healthcare. I have to live another 3 years like this before I qualify for Medicare.

Walmart opened one of those clinics and I went over there to talk to them yesterday. It is not cheap. $60 bucks for treatment of a cold, flu, diabetes, etc. $40 for a flu shot, $200 for a shingles shot. That is what I was asking about. I had chicken pox as a kid and now I am into my 60’s so my elderly neighbors tell me I need to get a shingles shot. They think I have shingles even after I explain that what I have is a birth defect that I have had all my life. It just has been getting progressively worse in the last 10 years as the Mayo Clinic told me it would. I was not willing to blow $200 on a shingles shot. What I have is worse than shingles and shingles would be a walk in the park in comparison.

I try to keep as active as I can. Sitting and laying down makes it worse. I have to get up and just before the spasms start I need to sit down and bend over. I get relief within 3 or 4 minutes and then I need to get back up on my legs again. I do this for the first hour every morning and usually-on a good day- after an hour I am able to be up for the day. If I am up standing still then my leg goes bad..I mean really bad so I have to keep moving. So yesterday I painted the trim on the doors of the house. Three coats of paint.

Today I am making a pork roast and brownies for the kids. I have to return blinds at Home Depot and that is going to be a fight. I already threw away the boxes they came in and one of them I already shortened. So I may not succeed on that one.

Pictures:  All 3 just down the street from me….

Been sitting to long….Hope you are all doing OK out there….

U.S. economy to lose 20 MILLION jobs this year - By the time “the dust settles” at the end of March, total U.S. weekly lay-offs will amount to nearly three million jobs. Yet, according to Bloomberg, the U.S. government is about to make the fraudulent announcement that only 660,000 jobs were lost in March – equal to one week's lay-offs.
U.S. “mass lay-offs” at RECORD high - Large-scale lay-offs in the U.S. (defined as lay-offs of 50 or greater at one time) hit the highest level since this statistic was created in 1995, according to an article from CNN. This is yet another indication that the U.S. economy is plummeting downward – with absolutely no signs of stability, let alone a “recovery”.

Then consider this:  Russia ready to abandon dollar in oil, gas trade with China

UPDATES:

Perp Next Door:  He was arrested last week again.  The fingerprints matched his that were left on the upstairs 2nd story window going into 15’s bedroom.  I have the camera system pointing at where he comes over the fence.  They can see the cameras from their upstairs windows so they now invested in a camera system and a home security system.  I don’t think any of us will ever climb over the fence to play with their underwear.  I was expecting the perp to make another visit the night he was arrested but he did not come over or do any damage.  They must have seen the cameras by then.

SIL…  He spent 5 days in intensive care due to pancreatitis.  He almost drank himself to death.  They transferred him to a fancy treatment program and his insurance will only cover 10 days so I imagine he will be back out on the street this weekend.  I had arranged for a 90 day treatment stay for him and worked a deal to cover the cost…  They know me and once I gave the director a free bed for her drug addict son….  That was in the 80’s so she owed me one.  If SIL does not take advantage of the opportunity then I told them to save it for possibly a grandchild.  You never know what you will need in the future. 

It is supposed to rain here for the next two days and then another cold front so we will be running around outside again by the weekend. 

TEFLON COOKWARE

One of my very expensive pans has the Teflon chipping off.  I did not want to spend money replacing the piece and so looked up how to fix it myself.  I found the stuff that you spray on and then put the pan in the oven at 550 degrees for an hour.  It will have a new coating.  That is a great relief because every time I need new cookware it is because of the Teflon.  I will let you know how well it works after it is shipped to me.  This is what I found out about eating Teflon:

Teflon, which is one manufacturer's name for polytetrafluoethylene (PTFE), is not poisonous. This chemical is inert (not active or reactive), so if it's ingested, it will travel through your system without being absorbed. So, you needn't worry if you accidentally eat a bit of it (though you probably wouldn't want to make a meal out of it).

I guess I will make pancakes after all….  I make a weeks worth at a time…For my house that is about 40 pancakes.  Kids eat them and they always have weekend friends over.  Lots of frozen pancakes get heated up…  To make them it costs about 5 cents a pancake.  Pretty cheap meal until you throw in the sausage and bacon…

The deer was across the street this morning….

It is beautiful weather here and I was out in it for a few hours this morning.  Now I have a sick kid home from school to tend to.  Two neighbors need help with their computers so later I will try to get to them.  With that here are some of my morning pics….. 

A break in the heat.  I mean a real sweater break.  We went from sweating to sweaters this morning.  Beautiful day outside.  I told everyone I ran into at the bay that this is the best day of the year.  It is a lay out in the sun and enjoy the break.  Either that or a go fishing day….

BTW I did get a pic of a guy doing just that at sunrise.  I passed my driving test so now I again have a drivers license.  No car but a license.  My car is in the shop.  Daughter’s ex boyfriend tore the door handles off of it when he left and I refuse to climb in and out the window on the roof.  Things move kinda slow out here.  They have had my car in the shop for 3 weeks and I called and they said OK..if I needed it they would work on it and call again in another week.  That works for me….

Ok here are the sunrise pics and the guy heading out to go fishing…Have a great day everyone. 

  I always liked the feel of a newspaper in the morning.  For most of my adult life my morning included reading the paper.  Many of those old papers I read have now stopped being delivered or printed.  In Houston we are down to one daily paper.  Back in the early 90’s the Houston Press went under but they are still online.  That left us with the Houston Chronicle.  For the past 20 years it has been dropped at my doorstep daily until 2008.  Now it is sometimes dropped at my doorstep.  About one to two days a week I don’t get it.  I have sent emails to the email address I am supposed to use and generally get an email back apologizing and explaining their efforts to improve service and yada yada yada.  I have called the number they give but generally it may be the weekend or not 9 AM yet when I call.  I would go to work without reading the paper.  One time a replacement paper was delivered and the other times nothing happened. 

When I got a notice that the cost of the paper delivery is going up I canceled my almost lifelong subscription.  That was a few months ago and I have to say they are just not on the ball over there.  I continue to get the paper about 5 times a week.  I no longer report the other two days since I am not supposed to be getting the paper anyway. 

Most of the paper is free online so I will read it online.  There are very few people in our subdivision that get  the newspaper delivered anymore.  Maybe 20 at best out of 300 plus houses. 

I am anxious to go out and get pictures but it is hot and muggy.  Everything you touch out there is wet and you can no longer see outside the windows due to the sweat build up on them.  The biggest problem right now are the fire ants and huge mosquitoes.  Of course I put stuff on when I go outside for any length of time but it is the quick run outside that gets me.  Just going to the mailbox I am bit between 10 and 20 times.  They say a cold front is coming this weekend and I will be so glad.  Well for us it is a cold front.  It is going to only get into the 70’s at night instead of our current 80’s at night.  It might even get colder than that.  I doubt it will have much impact on biting creatures but still more tolerable.

Hope your weather is better than this…Picture is a washed up jellyfish.  They are very abundant right now.  We always carry meat tenderized at the bay for those who come in contact with the critters..

In the US over 50% of homeowners or renters are not allowed to hang their clothes outside to dry.  Home owners associations have a great deal of power over our rights.  Some neighborhood also restrict rain barrels, outside vegetable gardens,  and solar panels.  My youngest daughter lives in one of those neighborhoods and the neighborhood she lived in before moving to Georgia also had the same restrictions.  She and her husband prefer living in highly controlled neighborhoods.  In her neighborhood she has to get permission to change the style of her mailbox and get permission to paint her house.  A committee decides if the paint color matches the profile of the community.  In their house one of the bedrooms did not have AC ducted into it.  It was a huge room that was like 20 by 20.  They were not allowed to use a window AC unit according to the neighborhood association.  They did not want to tear down the sheetrock and redo the room with the ductwork and then increase the capacity of their AC unit.  It would have been an expensive proposition.  Their backyard is huge and empties out into a forest.  Nobody could see the rear of their home unless they were lost in the woods and came up over the privacy fencing all around the yard.  I told them to go ahead and put a window unit in and to hang their laundry outside if they wanted to.  They were to frightened to do so and really wanted to fit into their uppity neighborhood. 

In the US 6% of our household utility bill goes to our dryers.  I live in Texas and our electric bill comes out to about $4800 a year.  Now if you do the math we pay the equivalent of paying for a new Maytag dryer each year.  It took a long time but I finally convinced my other daughter to hang her clothes outside.  I strung clotheslines and bought her clothespins.  Living here in the intense heat the clothes dry as quickly on the outside line as they would have dried in the dryer.  We generally get no more than 2 or 3 days a month of rain and unless it is a tropical storm the showers come in fast and leave quickly.   This is a perfect place to hang out clothes.  I surveyed the 300 homes in our area and found only 3 other homes that had clotheslines that I could see. 

My mother quit hanging out clothes when she got an electric dryer.  She did not want to look like we could not afford a dryer.  I find out that is why many people back in the day quit hanging out clothes.  Home owners associations thought it made the neighborhood look shabby.  Of course back then there were no home owner associations because once you bought your property you could do what you wanted to do. 

The benefits of outside drying are:

http://www.acontrario.org/node/398

According to a 2001 Department of Energy Study _ only the refrigerator and heating and cooling units top the cost of a dryer being used by Americans! If all Americans switched to line drying laundry we would save 6.5 billion dollars (of consumer money), and if they line dried just half their loads we would instantly decrease residential U.S. Carbon emissions by 3.3% according to a 2007 article in the New York Times.
Line drying will make your clothes last longer and decrease the need for ironing.
There are also safety concerns: the U.S. Fire Administration reports that dryers are responsible for 15 deaths, 300 injuries, 15,600 structure fires and $99 million dollars lost to damage yearly on average (data from 2002-2004). Moreover having people outside serves as an informal neighborhood crime watch.

Alexander Lee, a lawyer in Concord, N.H., who runs a Web site, Project Laundry List, to promote hanging clothes to dry, said the actual electricity consumption by dryers was probably three times as much as federal estimates because those estimates did not take into account actual use at laundromats and in multifamily homes.

I just read where Ontario is handing out free clotheslines to anyone willing to become eco friendly by solar drying their laundry. 

In the last year state lawmakers in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have overridden these local rules with legislation protecting the right to hang laundry outdoors, citing environmental concerns because clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumption.

Florida and Utah already had such laws, and similar bills are being considered in Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia, clothesline advocates say.

.A new documentary is coming out called “Drying For Freedom. a Film About Clotheslines.  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/boston/new-documentary-drying-for-freedom-a-film-about-clotheslines-093774 

The above is a link to the 5 minute trailer.  You will turn off your dryer after watching it….

.

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor and says, “I don’t understand this stimulus bill. Can you explain it to me?”

The professor replied, “I don’t have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I’ll be glad to explain it to you.” The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor’s house. The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said, “First, go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can.” The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, “Follow me over to the shallow end, and then dump all the water from your bucket into it.” The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times, and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, “Excuse me, but why are we doing this?”

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow end much deeper.

The student didn’t think the economics professor was serious, but figured that he would find out the real story soon enough.

However, after the 6th trip between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become worried that his economics professor had gone mad. The student finally replied, “All we’re doing is wasting time and effort. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything will be at the same level it was before, so all you’ll really have accomplished is the loss of what could have been truly productive action!”  Source- http://blog.theconspirator.org/

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, “Congratulations. You now understand the stimulus bill.”

Keep your powder dry and pantry full.

One of the needs that is arising out of the downturned economy is boarding homes. Boarding homes are almost unheard of now. It used to be that when Pa died Ma turned the old house into a boarding home. She was able to generate enough money to pay the property taxes, buy food, utilities, etc and have a little left over. She was used to feeding a big family and so nothing really changes for her after Pa dies. She rents the bedrooms by the week initially because that way if she ends up with someone she does not want she can throw him out after the first week. She has control of the kitchen and prepares the meals. If a boarder does not show up for the meal it is his or her problem.

You can keep hold of your home, even if one or both of you get laid off. More and more people won’t have any place to live. They can’t afford houses, even now, so they rent apartments. But very few apartments are being built, what with the credit contraction, so prices there are rising. People will be coming to you. Give a married couple a slight discount ( the cost of two boarders, minus a little ), since two are staying in one room.

Another big consideration is the communal eating/cooking. You are factoring in the food with their rent. Together, their two costs constitute a bargain for them. For the home owner, there is profit without out of pocket expense. You can cook cheaply because you have the time and equipment and knowledge to cook from scratch. Plus, you can buy at a Costco, Sams or Restaurant supply place for a discount. Your boarder can do neither. While he pays you less than what it would cost him, he pays you a lot more than what it cost you. It is a win/win. You are already giving him cheap shelter by only allowing them a room. Then, you give them a cheap way to eat because you are splitting the bulk cost of food and energy. If you are baking twenty loaves of bread at a time, the cost per loaf energy wise is much more negligible. Granted, a single person could bake an entire ovens worth and freeze the surplus. They could buy meat in bulk and freeze. They could crock pot. But, most of them can’t do it, out of ignorance or out of lack of equipment investment. You are providing a service most can’t match on cost.

You turn into a house bitch and keep your home quiet and orderly. You are providing something that your boarders are dependent on and cannot find a better deal short of the homeless shelter. You can even provide wireless internet for an added fee and for nothing you can put an antenna on your house and have all bedrooms wired for a TV. So each boarder can have a TV in their room for an additional fee.

I tried to check rates online and only found one local and they only rent out rooms for $16 a day. There were 5 boarding houses in the Houston area and they would not disclose their rates over the phone and they all had long waiting lists. I am sure there are others unlisted but that just demonstrates the need for boarding houses.

Onto another subject: I have many readers who are not commenters and I guess we all have that. I have some that have been reading for years and occasionally emailing me. A few days ago I made a comment about not knowing how to make my own soap and I was surprised by the number of people that make their own soap. Here is a list of recipes that I got as a result of that post. (this came off of another blog post from someone but they did not leave the link so I also can’t leave you the recipe link)

Laundry Detergent
1 bar soap, finely grated (I use whatever is cheapest but make sure it's white or it could color your clothes)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup baking soda
Mix all ingredients together. Use 1-2 tablespoons for each load.

Everyday Surface Cleaner (works on anything)
1 part water
1 part vinegar
Combine in spray bottle

Heavy Duty Surface Cleaner (for grimy messes)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 tsp borax
10 drops orange essential oil (optional)
5 drops lemon essential oil (optional)
Mix all ingredients in spray bottle, spray on mess and wipe away.

Glass Cleaner
1/2 cup ammonia
2 cups rubbing alcohol
1 tsp dishwashing liquid
water
Mix ammonia and rubbing alcohol in a 1 gallon container. Fill almost to the top with water. Add Dishwashing liquid and mix. Top off with water if needed.

Carpet Cleaner
*test a small area first
1 part laundry detergent
2 parts hot water
Scrub into carpets and let dry completely
Vacuum.

Floor Cleaner
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 gallon hot water
Combine ingredients. Mop or sponge onto floor. Use towels to dry floor immediately.
Toilet Cleaner
Sprinkle with baking soda and lemon juice
Let sit about 10 minutes and scrub with a toilet brush
Oven Cleaner
1 tsp liquid dish soap
1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp bleach
1 qt warm water
Mix all ingredients, spread over oven surfaces. Allow mixture to sit for 45 minutes. Scrub and rinse well.

Bathtub Stains
2 lemons
1/4 can cream of tartar
Wet surface. Sprinkle with cream of tarter. Rub with cut surface of lemon.

Laundry Pretreatment
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup ammonia
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup laundry detergent.
Combine all ingredients, mix in spray bottle. Let mixture soak into clothes for 5 minutes, then wash as usual.

I had other emails with recipes for making your own laundry soap:

1 cup grated Fels Naptha bar soap
1/2 cup A&H Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax Laundry Boosting Powder
Mix and store in an airtight container (I use an old gallon ice cream bucket) and use 1/8 cup per load. That's all! I quadruple the recipe.

Next Recipe

1 cup grated Fels Naptha bar soap
1/2 cup A&H Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax Laundry Boosting Powder
Mix and store in an airtight container (I use an old gallon ice cream bucket) and use 1/8 cup per load. That's all! I quadruple the recipe.

Recipe 3

1 Cup Grated Soap *
1/2 Cup Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
1/2 Cup Borax

Mix together and use 1 Tablespoon per load, 2 Tablespoons if it is a really soiled load.

When I get home from Georgia I will make my own laundry soap!

PS:  The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that Mayor Gavin Newsom has ordered all city departments "to conduct an audit of unused land--including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips--that could be turned into community gardens or farms."

The largest North American heron, with a head-to-tail length of 91–140 cm (36-55 in), a wingspan of 167-201 cm (66-79 in), and a weight of 2–3.6 kg (4.4-8 lbs), it is blue-gray overall, with black flight feathers, red-brown thighs, and a paired red-brown and black stripe up the flanks; the neck is rusty-gray, with black and white streaking down the front; the head is paler, with a nearly white face, and a pair of black plumes running from just above the eye to the back of the head. The feathers on the lower neck are long and plume-like; it also has plumes on the lower back at the start of the breeding season. The bill is dull yellowish, becoming orange briefly at the start of the breeding season, and the lower legs gray, also becoming orangey at the start of the breeding season. Immature birds are duller in color, with a dull blackish-gray crown, and the flank pattern only weakly defined; they have no plumes, and the bill is dull gray-yellow.

This was the heron I got a picture of yesterday morning.  That is a big fish he got and he is handling it like he is going to bring it some where else to eat it.  I got 4 shots of this giant before he decided he had to let go of the fish in order to escape my camera.  He was very aware of my presence and did not want to leave the fish behind.  He finally dropped it and walked away very rapidly.  He watched me for quite a while and when I got far enough away he went back to snag the flopping fish.  I left him alone at that point.

Everyday that I go out I know I am going to get some unique picture.  I just don’t know what it is going to be until it appears in front of me.  It is like gambling and suddenly hitting the jackpot.  I get an immediate rush when I see the target.  This was a great rush!  This was an absolute giant of a bird.  After getting that bird I rode another few miles in a high…I then decided to focus on flowers and shot about 18 varieties of flowers. (go to my album to see them)  My high lasted almost all day.  I went out again at 6 pm until 8 pm but did not expect to capture much and did not.  I was out for the exercise. 

It was 120 degrees in the sun and 99 in the shade and it did not bother me.  Sometimes I can just handle that heat and ride for many miles and other days it tears me up right away.  Yesterday I had no problem with the intense heat but I stopped every mile or so and drank a lot of water.

While I put up an antenna on the house 12 was playing and got her foot in a mess of fire ants.  Her foot is still swollen and we put lots of drug store stuff on it to fix her.  Her mother will give her a Benadryl before she goes to bed.  I gave her one and she slept for 2 hours.

I got one of those boxes people are supposed to use if they don’t have cable TV.  I went to Sam's and got a good antenna after trying a cheapie rabbit ears one.  Now with my over the air antenna I get about 50 channels.  I did this because when we have storms the cable goes out and sometimes for days at a time.  Of course if there is another hurricane the cable will be out for weeks or months.  So I have a little TV that can be recharged by the sun and we can just hook it up to the antenna and have news.  I set up a switch box at the antenna in line and can switch all the TV’s from Cable to the antenna.   Just flip the switch and you have digital TV.  I mean 50 perfect clean channels of TV.  It sounds better than it is.  12 of the channels are in Spanish, 14 are church stuff, 8 are selling stuff all day long, 3 are weather all day long, 4 are cartoons all day long, and the 11 of them are regular channels.  There is one channel that is movies all day long and all night long.  I sat and watched a couple of OLD movies today and really liked them.  Not bad at all for free…

If I wake up in time I will get the sunrise tomorrow.  Two days now I missed Grandfather Sun and I better get back out there on time. 

Update:  I overslept again.  At 11 twelve and her best friend came over.  They were starving to death.  12’s mother made fish for dinner and they would not eat it.  I also would not eat over there.  When my daughter’s boyfriend is done putting all those Mexican spices on everything you cannot tell what you are eating.  Still this morning their house totally smells like garlic.  So I again made dinner during the night and got all the kids from over there to eat.  They were all grateful.  She and her boyfriend live for themselves….  So I am going out right now since the sun is not shining.  It will overcome the clouds shortly but I need to get out and back in 2 hours so I don’t cook.

Have a great day everyone…

Living along the coast post Ike I have learned a lot about tent cities. Our tent city is now gone. It got really big. A few months ago people started just building their own small shelters on their property while they continued to try to get FEMA and Texas Windstorm help in rebuilding their homes. We got proportionally a fraction of the help that Katrina people got and it was because we were in neighborhoods that were not totally poverty stricken. About 1/3 of the structures are now rebuilt and some are still looking the exact same as they looked the day Ike hit. We now have shanties that people live in.

People decided it was safer to hide out on their own property rather than live in tent cities. For a while they were getting FEMA trailers but the city of Seabrook (the 2^nd hardest IKE hit area with Galveston being the worst)Seabrook decided it was an eyesore so they then passed some rules saying that the FEMA trailers could not be in Seabrook anymore. The ones that were there were grandfathered in. One of my best friends has one of them right on Main Street or I should say 2^nd Street.

As a result of this people stayed in tents on their own property for quite a while and as winter came they built small shanties hidden in the back of their property. The city began to inspect these structures and they even showed up at my house. Remember I built my small house in 2005 and did it without anyone really knowing about it so I had no permits, etc. Well the inspector showed up and I told him it is a mother in law house. It is on my daughter’s property. I did not try to hide anything and told him I did my own electrical and plumbing. Told him my dad and brothers were always in the electrical and plumbing business so I pretty much knew how to do all of that. I followed code and he could find nothing wrong other than to say I should have a fire alarm on the ceiling. Five bucks later I had that on the ceiling. He told me I should have had a permit to run the waste into the street hook up but that it happened so long ago there was absolutely nothing they could do now. He thought my house was really cute and well built.

Other people are not nearly as fortunate as I have been. We now have a lot of doubling up of families. Families that either are related to each other or neighbors now sharing the same structure. That is not only because of Ike but also because of the collapse of the economy. There is a lot more unemployment than is being reported. Only 25% of the unemployed in Texas are reported. That means that we actually have almost a million people unemployed now. On my street alone there are 4 houses with extra friends or family living in them and campers all over the place with people living in them. One in 7 US homes are in foreclosure or they are close to it now. 1 in 10 previous working people are now unemployed. Actually it is 1 in 5 because we do not report many of these unless they are currently receiving benefits. Pretty soon I will fall into that category and no longer be counted.

We have one elementary school where over 1/3 of the kids are homeless. They live on the streets with parents or in a shanty under a bridge or in some other unstable environment. So daily over 200 homeless kids show up and it is pretty sad.

For the most part these people are invisible in this country. Nobody wants to see them and so they don’t see them. In Dallas a few years back a group showed up to try to help feed homeless and it created a big stir. It became illegal to feed the homeless because they felt it would increase the homeless. I blogged about that back in I think 2005. I do know that there are active churches in Dallas trying to help.

  The homeless here move around a lot. They can get arrested in Houston if they are living on the streets. Consequently, it is not a good lifestyle as you never know where you are going to sleep. There are homeless shelters but they have rules. Many in Houston are religious type of things and you have to be able to tolerate a certain number of hours of indoctrination before you get something to eat. After a while people figure out it is easier to dumpster dive for food.

So in answer to your question Marge, yes we still have cities of homeless people. They are not all from here; your homeless people find their way to Texas because they would freeze to death in Iowa, Minnesota, etc.

 We have a huge tent city near Harlingen Texas. That is the River Grande Valley. Every time I have gone into Mexico I cross there. The $111 million tent city, between a federal prison and a county jail, is used by the government to hold captured

non-Mexicans until they are sent home. Previously, most such detainees were released into the United States before hearings, and a majority simply disappeared. Civil liberties and immigration law groups allege that out of sight, the system is bursting at the seams. In the Texas facility, they say, illegal immigrants are confined 23 hours a day in windowless tents made of a Kevlar-like material, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones. Many are transferred from the East Coast, 1,500 miles from relatives and lawyers, virtually cutting off access to counsel. Instead of calling it Gitmo we call it Ritmo. Most of the Mexicans caught are just thrown back over the border. LOL… There are over 30,000 non Mexican’s in our new tent city jails or other locations in the US but I believe most are in Texas. For each person there you pay $78 a night to keep them there. That is where your taxes are going.

Comments on this prison from:

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1433

Detainees are subject to penal system practices, such as group punishment for disciplinary infractions. The tents are windowless and the walls are blank, and no partitions or doors separate the five toilets, five sinks, five shower heads and eating areas. Lacking utensils on some days, detainees eat with their hands.
Because lights are on around the clock, a visitor finds many occupants buried in their blankets throughout the day. The stillness and torpor of the pod's communal room, where 50 to 60 people dwell, are noticeable.

Goodwin described a group of women who huddled in a recreation yard on a recent 40-degree day with a 25-mph wind. "They had no blanket, no sweat shirt, no jacket," she said. "Officers were wearing earmuffs, and detainees were outside for an hour with short-sleeved polyester uniforms and shower shoes and not necessarily socks."
Perhaps more troubling, lawyers said, large numbers of immigrants have been transferred from Boston, New York, New Jersey and Florida, far from their families and lawyers. Because some immigration judges do not permit hearings by teleconference, detainees are essentially deprived of counsel.
Immigration violators in the United States are held on civil grounds and have no right to appointed lawyers. But federal guidelines call for providing them law libraries, telephones and phone numbers for legal aid.

We had a real problem with the general population of the Rio Grande Valley during Ike. They thought it was headed for them and most of the people refused to go to shelters as they thought that ICE would pick them up and send them back to Mexico.

Also did you see on the news that we are sending about 13 Gitmo detainees to a small island and paying the island like 100 million dollars to take them. That is where you tax money is going.

It just gets crazier….

So I hope that answered your question about our tent city problem here…

I feel like a kid again with all my freedom. I spend about 3 hours a day riding my bike and on some days more than that. I did not go out this morning. When I opened my door the heat and humidity left me gasping and for the first time in weeks I did not go out after waking up. It will be in the upper 90’s today with humidity matching the temperature. When I go outside for my bike rides I am soaking wet within 15 minutes. I wear a band around my forehead so I can see. If I don’t do this the sweat pours into my eyes. I carry a gallon of water in my rear basket and if I forget to do this I will have a screaming headache by the time I get home from the dehydration. Even with that said it is worth it. I see all kinds of wildlife and last night I saw an alligator gar. Texas had tried to exterminate these ugly fish but they failed to do so. They believed that the gar was a vicious fish that would eat people. That has been proven wrong but it did not stop them from exterminating and gill netting most of the gar population.

They failed and I am glad they did. The alligator gar looks like an alligator but it does not attack people unless people threaten it. It eats the food it takes whole so it would take a 300 pound garr to eat a person. Yes they used to get that big and eventually we will have the big ones again. Catching one of these big ones will feed a family for a very long time. Remember we have stark poverty here and even in the cities half our children go to be hungry here. So a persons ability to catch a big fish was important and still is important.

The garr I saw was only about 20 inches long so it was a baby. I talked to fishermen along the waterway and they also said they have seen the gar coming back. The gar have two sets of teeth and they are razor sharp teeth. So taking them off your hook is a serious business. There is a good chance you will get snagged by those teeth if you are not careful. Fishermen started saying the gars attacked them but it was incidents where they were taking off the hook. Being from up north where we got big northerns and huge muskies we always used a pliers type of tool to get the hook off. I have never seen a fisherman use one of those here.

It is important to let the big fish take your bait and swallow it before setting the hook. When the bobber takes off, follow it until it stops. This is the fish positioning it to swallow. When the fish starts to move off again is the time to set the hook. Whole mullet is a preferred bait, and many believe in scaling the bait before using it.
Never bring a gar of any size into the boat until you are sure it is dead. Gar especially big ones can really hurt you with those needle teeth. Gar don't consider humans prey but there is one reported attack on a person in Lake Pontchartrain. The person (girl I think) was dangling his/her feet in the water when a large Alligator Gar mistook here splashing foot for a fish. It bit but thankfully let go. Actually that has been proven to be an alligator bite.

Yuppie fishermen use a bow and arrow to snag the gar. They are special bow fishing gear that you buy. You can get set up for about 200 bucks to be a bow fisherman. I have spear fished before on Lake Superior and I assume it is basically the same principle. We would set up our teepee on the ice and watch our fish hole. When a big Muskie went by we would shoot off the spear that had a line attached to it. Only Indians were allowed to spear fish as I recall since we needed to fish to survive on the reservations.

Eventually I might add a bow fishing outfit to my survival gear. I have plenty of fishing gear but no spear or bow fishing gear.

I tried to take a picture of the gar but it was dark against a dark background and it did not work. Gar are excellent to eat. Cleaning them is hard since their scales are like made out of steel.

I will go out again on my bike ride at about 6 pm and be home by 8 pm. Here are some pics from last night….

Look at that picture of the 4 wheeler type of homemade vehicle.  Now look at the rear view mirror.  You can see the guys face perfectly in it.  Odd picture so I threw it in.

  It is the spring and I am getting some great pictures. Today I got an alligator. It is an American Alligator that almost went extinct a few years ago. They are back strong now. He was in the bay and I walked about 15 feet from him in the water. That was really dumb but I felt like nothing would happen to me and nothing happened. The waves were pretty choppy so it was hard getting a good picture of him. I snapped several pictures of him and then some men got involved and lassoed him. The cowboys got the rope around his neck and another one was able to grab his tail. They dragged him into the sand.

Within minutes there was a crowd of 40 people around. He was snapping and rolling and the guys were trying to control him. I was telling them to get the kids away and to let him go. I saw a police officer a block away and so I jumped on my bike and told him what was happening. He said it was not against the law. I pointed out to him that there were children running around the alligator but he was young and flustered as he turned away trying to ignore it. I then rode my bike to a neighbor’s house and told him to go down there and rescue the alligator. By now they were poking it with sticks, etc. This was a baby alligator. He was probably about 6 feet long. When he is an adult he will be 15 feet long and weigh 1.000 pounds. Right now I doubt he weighed more than 250 pounds and he was ungainly on land but a swift good swimmer in the water.

I couldn’t hack watching it anymore so I came home. The cowboys were feeling strong and brave showing off to the crowd.

Here are some pics of the poor baby. I will go down at sunrise tomorrow and I hope he is long gone an d does not try to get so close to humans ever again.

This is a really rare bird. It is obviously a Kingfisher but I don’t know what kind it is. It flew like a Ringed Kingfisher and had the same colors but it is not a Ringed. There is no ring around it’s neck. So I sent it to our local bird watching club and they might know what kind it is. There are about 30 different Kingfishers that have been seen but there are no pictures of them. So maybe this is going to be a first.

I had been sitting in this spot for about 20 minutes meditating and not moving. I suspect since I had my big hat on that blended into the brush I was unseen. As a result he landed close to me and I got off about 5 shots before he left. His wing span was about 30 inches and he had a loud squawk. So if you know his name give me a holler.

This one was near him and I had my eye on her for about 15 minutes before she decided she had enough of me. She is a Snowy Egret. They are a dime a dozen here. I was actually out looking for a Roseate Spoonbill. Since Katrina they have been a dime a dozen here but I have not seen any this year. Ike may have convinced them to go back to Florida. I visited all my old haunts and no sign of him or hardly any of the big sea birds.

As you can see our old fishing pier was taken out by Ike. It goes out a quarter of a mile and a lot of fish were caught off of her. I don’t know when or if she will be replaced. So I just rode around in the woods along the trails.

I then got back on the road and I and a guy in a pickup stopped for this huge snake. He was at least 10 feet long. I had my camera on macro so it is not a good picture. The guy’s motor was running and the snake quickly went under his truck and got into the front hood of his truck. I don’t know what kind of a snake he is but he was very long. Certainly taller than me or the guy standing across the street. He also was a quick mover.

The last picture I got was a turtle. He was pretty far off and pretty big.

If it is not raining tomorrow I will go out again. Hope you all are having a good day….

Cheryl

I got up before sunrise and was outside looking for pictures. I was on my recumbent bike peddling down the road and began chasing two deer. Deer and other wildlife cannot tell you are a human on a recumbent bike and will stop to get a look at you. In this case I was downwind so they saw me before I saw them. Even with that they stopped to get a look before running off. I chased them for 3 blocks along the bay and was only able to get two presentable shots. I got a lot of other shots but in the dark if they were running it turned out to be a blur.

After I got the deer I went down to the bay and took pictures of the sunrise and birds. I then went half a mile up towards the main road and what to my wondering eyes should appear? A quail standing in the grass watching me. I again ride right up to him and snapped his picture. I believe this is the first time I have seen quail in a residential neighborhood. They are good to eat.

I swung by the chemical plant that is less than a mile from my house and got a picture of that. It is totally out of place being so close to the ocean and in a residential area. We fought it for years and we fought them building the port right next to us but it all depends who the local politicians are and basically we got sold out after a 15 year fight. The people with the means moved to another area on the bay hoping to not be affected by the changes. Most of the families in our 300 house subdivision stayed.

Well this is pictures of my photo bike ride and I will go out later today and get other pictures….

Look at this gecko.  I was walking on my deck and he had another gecko’s head in his mouth.  They were fighting and I could almost hear them snarling at each other.  I ran in my house to get the camera to snap some very unusual pictures but by the time I got back out there the other gecko was on the other side of the deck snarling at the winner.  The winner ate whatever they were fighting over and I still got a rare picture because the winner had so much work trying to get the prize into his belly that he could hardly move.  These are not monsters but tiny.  He is about 6 inches long from head to end of tail.  I now have an overpopulation of these things.

The neighbor did not want the raised planter.  She is always lamenting how she missed gardening now that she cannot get down on her hands and knees to weed, etc.  I guess she just complains in order to exercise her mouth because when given the chance to go do her gardening again she turned it down.  So I will make use of my small back yard behind the shed.  I have used all my other space.  I decked out my entire area and have a 30 foot by 4 foot flower garden along the side.  I can always convert it to a potato or bigger vegetable garden later.  I have used every bit of scrap treated wood I have been able to find that is in good shape and added onto my deck to the point that everything is decked out now.  After the hurricane people have been collecting on insurance and throwing out perfectly good lumber.  That and I tore apart my daughters deck or a portion of it for the fencing after they sold the back half acre of land.  She has that decking and they will expand their deck along their side of the house. 

Now my decked runway between my house and shed is 45 feet and the width varies from 5 feet to 12 feet.  I then built a garage/shed for my bike and that is 5 feet by 9 feet.  My bike is almost that big.  I have the raised portion of the deck and the sides up.  I now need to build the door and the roof.  Today I am building a ramp that is 8 feet by 6 feet.  I need to get my bike up on the platform and it is to hard on my back to try to lift it.  I have done it many times and can’t continue.  There is to much threat of injury to my back.  The pictures look pin cushioned and they are due to the camera angle.  You can tell I used all kinds of sizes of treated lumber and some pretty new and some old.  Treated lumber is supposed to last 50 years even if it is underwater. 

Scattered through the long narrow remaining back yard are a few pieces of useable left over lumber and PVC pipes.  Don’t ask me what I am going to do with the PVC.  I don’t know yet but in front of the house I have a lot more of it.  It is all good new left over piping from construction jobs in the neighborhood.  Now you know why I have a huge strong box on the back of my bike.  The kids used to be able to ride in it but also I can pick things up and bring them home.  The kids turned into giants.  I will find a good use for the PVC pipes.  Nothing goes to waste and everything has a use.  Now I need to find about 30 treated 2X4’s and I will have what I need to do the raised planters.  I bought the plastic planter boxes at Home Depot yesterday and now laid out over $100 on the project.  I already had about 15 other planters around that will be used.  I will do what is called  square foot gardening.  In a raised planter your production is twice as much as it would be if you were to plant it in the ground.  So theoretically this 5 foot wide (actual 3 foot because I need 2 feet of walking space) by 50 foot long space will grow enough to feed a family of 6 and that is what we have here.  The plants will be raised enough that you will weed them standing up.  The width of the planters will be 2.5 feet and underneath will be shelves of plastic containers for storage of outside equipment.  I have five 18 inch wide by 3 foot high nice Rubbermaid 4 drawer chests to hide under the planters.  They will be hidden with a fence skirting along the bottom but unknown to anyone else the fence will have inside accordion hinges that open and close. So whatever is in the drawers will be waterproofed and sealed before going into the chests.  The chests will not be on the ground but will have a platform built on the ground for them to sit on. When I get to that part I will need 50 foot by 3 feet decking.  That is 30 eight foot decking boards.   I just checked the price of new treated boards and it would come to $300.  Throw in the bottom braces under the decking and you are getting up to $400.  Then the 50 feet of fencing is another $100 and then the planter box lumber prices will be another $150.  A total of $650.  My budget is about $200 so I will get the raised planters in first and begin growing my vegetables.  Slowly as I find lumber along the side of the road in the neighborhood.   I will get the bottom framing done and then the fencing.  I already have accordion hinges but not enough of them so I will have to pay for those and I have plenty decking nails left for the job.  Sorry you all had to read this part but I was trying to figure out my construction materials and the price….  Maybe the PVC pipes can be used to hold hanging plants along the top.  The fence is 8 feet high so at 7.5 feet I can have the pipes coming across for holding the hanging plants or the racks for things like tomatoes to climb up instead of having them climb up the fence.  OK... I have that one figured out….  Enough already…

I am Reprinting this Article because it is very important information. Stay safe everyone and Happy Mothers Day.

People who venture into the woods or fields should be aware of a very serious, but underreported, threat to their health, the deer tick. Deer ticks carry and transmit Lyme disease and a half dozen other serious diseases. Deer ticks can be found in most parts of the world. They are very common in Central Wisconsin which has a large population of deer, their preferred host. Thanks to the anti-hunting nuts and poor government management practices deer can found in residential neighborhoods, including large cities.
Most people are familiar with the dog or wood tick, a large, easy-to-spot tick that feeds on human blood and is very ugly when engorged. It is however, relatively benign. The deer tick is especially dangerous because it is very small, smaller than a match head. Their size makes it very difficult to detect on clothing or on your body.

 Two years ago I was bitten a number of times while clearing land for our retreat. It was prime deer tick habitat; heavily wooded, high grasses and lots of deer. You may not know that you have been bitten by a deer tick (unless the tick is still embedded). It will however sting like a bald face hornet – and for a good 24 hours.
After I started developing the symptoms I put two and two together and did some Internet research. I suspected that I had Lyme disease. I had the classic bulls-eye rash on my hip; it looks like the Target logo. The primary symptoms were extreme fatigue and body aches. After years of outdoor work and practicing yoga I could barely get out of a chair.
I went to the local clinic. The NP took one look and said, “You’ve got Lyme”. She said she had got it earlier in the year, her husband the year before. I was given antibiotics. The symptoms went away  within three days. I thought I was cured.
The following year I was not the same, better, but still lacking energy. Over the last year I have experienced the same deep fatigue as well as many other symptoms. I had previously been very healthy. The symptoms come and go and express themselves in a variety of ways. Reported symptoms include heart, lung, visual and mental problems – it can be fatal. It is one bad bug.
I cannot say for sure what the cause of my problems is or recommend a treatment. Lyme disease is poorly understood and often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. It is a complex issue and requires much research into the subject. Most physicians are Lyme illiterate; they don’t have a clue about the disease. One place to start is with a Google search for Joseph J. Burrascano, Jr., M.D. for information from one of the foremost Lyme experts. Also see http://www.turnthecorner.org/lyme-disease-quick-facts.htm for more information.
Prevention is the best medicine. When we have been in tick territory we do a complete body check in the evening – head to toe. Ticks prefer the torso; I have been bitten in the center of the back, hip and groin. I was recently bitten under my arm, my wife under her breast. Ticks live in tall grass, especially along human or deer paths. They are most active during the spring and early summer. A powerful tick repellent should be used around the ankles, wrists and neck. I wrap my socks with wide duct tape – sticky side out, to trap ticks; it works, but is no substitute for a full body check.
It is reported that if you remove the tick within 24 hours of being bitten the disease will not be transmitted and not all ticks carry the disease, this may be wishful thinking. If you do get a tick follow these instructions for removal: http://www.lyme.org/ticks/removal.html
Note that dogs can get Lyme. There is a dog vaccination available.
I urge everyone who visits or lives in areas with a deer population to exercise constant vigilance for deer ticks. If you are bitten you should consult a physician familiar with Lyme disease. Failure to do so can lead to serious long term consequences.- Bill S.

http://survivalblog.com/

Our local library has been closed since Hurricane Ike slammed into it 8 months ago. Not only did I use it but my grandchildren used it every week. Their school was across the street from it and after school they would go there to study or do research. They also used it for a place to go when they waited for their swim team to start or when they needed a ride and were waiting for a parent. It had a big bathroom that accommodated them switching from their school clothes to their swim suits. It was a safer place compared to the school parking lot. AT the library there was always a library worker keeping an eye on them. It is now gone and the replacement won’t be built for another 3 or 4 years.

On another note I saw this raised garden at Sam’s. I loved it but decided I could build that for pretty cheap with the left over treated lumber, etc that I have around here. I would not have the fountain in the middle. The fountain did not come with this price. As you can see when you look at the picture there is just not much to the deal. Without a fountain I could have it longer and not as wide. The bottom can be shelves underneath with doors for added garden storage. There would be a side for climbing plants and across the other 2 long sides I could put hanging plants. I need sixteen 1X2 treated boards, my boxes would be made out of the remaining fence material I have and I have plenty of hinges. I would need the screening material and that would about do it. I would build it on a deck and I just enlarged my deck so that is almost done.

OOPS..give up the idea of shelves. Underneath it needs to be able to drip. Depending how difficult it is I can then go build one for another neighbor who would give her right arm for such a thing. She has a wheelchair and a scooter. She could wheel her scooter in it and work on her plants. It would be at the right height that she could reach everything. Watering it may be a problem for her. I will have to run a double hose deal on her outside faucet (I have an extra one in the shed) and have an attachment at her height for her to reach the hose with a nozzle on the hose that she can turn on and off from the raised garden. (I also have an extra nozzle like that) Her middle section will have to be wider for her to prevent getting sprayed when she waters the top plants. Her gate would have to be a swinging gate that has a simple hook lock on it. Then there could be a place in it for all her gardening tools. I figure with what I have lying around here and the extra stuff I would need the cost would be about $150.

Now that I am writing this and thinking about it I think I will only build her one and me none. She would take great joy in gardening and she would most certainly be overjoyed to share the produce and the seeds she gains with her church people. I would have a steady stream of fresh vegetables from her and in my yard I can plant the under the ground types of plants. Things like carrots, potatoes, etc. Better yet, I would let her look at the picture and have her design it on paper for me to build. She could come up with her own measurements, etc. She would know what heights to use for her beds as it may be different from something I would use. She is always asking me what I am going to do with all this treated stacked lumber in my yard so she will not feel like I am spending a lot of money on it. I could even put a compost bin out there for her garden. Of course it would be quite small and that is all you need for something like this. Now this is exciting…..It is dark and looks like rain today. I will wander over there later with a printed set of pictures of raised garden beds. I will Google it and find other designs also.

I can tell you right now where she will locate it. She has a huge side dining room window that she can see everything from. She will want it right there where she can keep an eye on it and it is already built up with pavers so she can wheel herself over to it easily. Very cool idea!

Well I will let her come up with the cool ideas and do the building at my house and bring the various sides and pieces over there to assemble. I would rather build it in the shade thank you very much! I will let her come up with the cool ideas and let her know I want one but I don’t want the daily work involved in maintaining it which is true. Her church people will go nuts over it and they will be bringing over the right kind of dirt, etc.

Well enough already. As I work on it I will take pictures….. Neat and inexpensive project that will give someone else hours and days of joy, and give me a steady supply of vegetables and medicinal plants. Happy Mother’s Day neighbor….

Later….It is my house cleaning day..

The first car I ever bought brand new off the shelf was called a Fiat. I paid about $3,000 for it and at that time it was more expensive than an American made car. I liked it because it was small and I thought cute. My husband was trying to be supportive but I could tell he would have preferred that I buy an American made car.

The next morning I went out to start it and it would not start. The dealer came and got it and brought it back in the afternoon good as new. Unfortunately it had many mechanical problems over the next month and it finally went back to the dealer permanently. I knew that a car from Italy would not make it in the climate I lived in. I ended up with a VW which ran until the floor boards rusted through and IO thought one of the kids would forget and put their feet on the floor of the car and be instantly dead as the car rolled down the road at 70 MPH. I lived in St. Cloud Minnesota at the time and due to the winter salt on the roads you could tell a northern car but the rust on it. We did not have the special stuff you pay hundreds of dollars for now to undercoat cars.

Now the American car companies have crashed and burned and the news is both Orwellian and Kafkaesque, coarsely propagandistic and twisted at the same time. Chrysler, we are told by our president, will emerge stronger, better, more wonderful than ever, etc.

Really? Based on what? Sadly, the company has almost no new models in the works, and has partnered up with another failed auto company in Europe which is essentially propped up by another government (Italy) keen on saving a relative handful of high-profile unionized industrial jobs.

All of that is for another blog….

  It seems we all shut our eyes and took happy pills and just switched the TV channel. Where are we proud Americans? The only real American car still standing is the Ford. On my father’s deathbed he told me to never buy a Ford. For the life of me I don’t know what he had against Ford’s but I suspected he was able to see into a different dimension or some such thing as he gave me his last words. I never bought a Ford. This caused me to reflect on other advice given to me by my father but I won’t go into that now. He has been dead now for almost 40 years and he died at the age of one of my living children. A very young man in today’s standards.

My father did no die a rich man but everything he had was paid for. He died in his prime and was just beginning to make enough money to take a vacation. As a child we never went on a vacation and as an adult I never went on a vacation. It just was not a big deal in our family. Before my father died his wish was to see Madeline Island in Wisconsin. That is about as spiritual as he ever got. Madeline Island was the stronghold of the Ojibwa Indians for many years. I guess he wanted to kind of go back to his roots. My mother drove him to Wisconsin and they drove his Chrysler onto the ferry and took the 10 minutes drive around the island. We laughed at the humbleness of his request to see his ancestral homelands but as I matured it became very meaningful to me in my life.

It helped me to move back to our ancestral homelands and I stayed for 10 years. I lived on the mainland of Lake Superior in Bayfield Wisconsin and could look out of my huge living room window facing the lake and daily I could see Madeline Island. One of my grandchildren is named Madeline.

All of this rambling brought me to this point. This is what happens if you don’t stay focused on the point. I guess you all don’t get to read my rant on the Big Three today.

There is so much of importance to write about and here I am rambling on memories. Like in the front page is “Appointees Gave (Governor) Perry $5 Million”. Houston and Chicago seem to have a lot in common. The home of Enron!

 I wrote this blog on Tuesday and only today posted it.  An update first.  My cut hand looks really good.  The swelling is gone and the butterfly bandages kept it closed.  I got real scared about the spider bite when it was realy hurting on Wednesday.  I put a new poltuice on it and by yesterday it was much better.  It had seemed to be getting bigger and by today it is almost closed and healed.  I still use the polutice and will until it completely closes.  Thanks for all your concerns and I am really fine. 

No I can't get insurance.  At my age it would cost more than my monthly income.  In 3 years I will qualify for old age insurance.  Medicaire... 

The deck is totally demolished now.  I have the lumber stacked up and the roofers are here today so I can't work outside.  Shingles and stuff flying around out there. 

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Tuesday I wrote:

Within minutes of each other I had 2 minor medical problems. I have been tearing down the old 20 foot by 30 foot deck. It is easier to build a deck than tear it down. Many of the screws have rusted and you have to saw each of them off and that is a hard job. Then when you get the plank off you still need to watch out for sharp edges from either the pulled out screws or sawed off ones. Each plank is 10 feet long and pretty heavy since it is all treated lumber. I am stacking them up about 100 feet away. Long walk with something weighing 50 pounds. Then you have the undercarriage of the deck and I have found a few places where that has been rotted away. This treated wood is supposed to last 50 years so I suspect my ex son in law did not use treated wood on the undercarriage. That would be his speed. I know the first 20 feet are treated under carriage lumber because I bought all that lumber about 10 years ago. He added on the last 10 feet later. So it is the last 10 feet that I believe is not treated and probably has termites. I have a contract with Terminex so I called my guy and he will be over later in the week to treat my house and yard anyway. He will know if it is termites.

I have been carefully watching for snakes. Lots of Water Moccasins around here and under the deck it is wet after the ran we had last week, In fact it is standing water. They tend to live under the deck and if we don’t bother them they don’t bother us. You just don’t reach your hand under there without first looking. There are 2 of them under there right now and I am not fooling with them. They were not my medical emergency. Not really an emergency but incident.

First I snagged my hand on a rusty screw and it tore an inch long slit in the side of my hand. Remember the board is about 50 pounds and I could not hang onto it when it slipped. Very dirty cut with lots of blood. I sat on the deck and injury number 2. Brown recluse spider bit my leg. He is a dead spider now. He is poisonous and whatever he injected into my skin will rot the skin. I cleaned both my leg and hand with lots of antibacterial soap. Now if I had insurance I would have jumped in the car and spent a few hours at the doctor’s office. No insurance and lots of survival gear here. I put ointment on the hand and bandaged it up. It would not stop bleeding so I went to the next step. I grabbed the wound with locking clamps and had 2 butterfly bandages. As soon as I stopped the flow of blood I sprayed on another antibacterial stuff, let it kinda dry and then squeezed on the 2 butterfly bandages.

I just can’t say enough about them. Fantastic little bandages that have tightened the cut and stopped the bleeding totally. They work as well as stitches and they don’t fall off. OK the more serious problem is the brown recluse spider bite. I had vermin in my leg as bad as a water moccasin would have provided. It started hurting right away. I had bought a powder for recluse bites many months ago after being bit by one in my sleep..

The Brown Recluse Solution (in a glass bottle)

• Echinacea
  • Powerful infection fighter and natural antibiotic.
  • Effective blood purifier
  • Supports the body against blood poisoning.
• Lobelia
  • Encourages the flow of oxygenated blood.
  • Long history of effective use on insect bites.
• Plantain -
  • Powerful astringent which works to contract the skin tissue.
  • Healing, antibiotic, and styptic effect on sores and wounds.
  • Some have reported good results on Brown Recluse bites using this herb alone.

When combined...

When combining the Brown Recluse Solution with the Advanced Adsorb Powder to produce a poultice, the result is a very effective, all natural cure. Well I I had all my powders mixed up in a glass jar and just added water to make a poultice.

That problem should be taken care of and I will not need to go get antibiotics for it.

I live in a sub tropical rainforest and there are lots of biting things here. Fire ants will actually eat you if you let them. They are meat eaters and we have mounds everywhere. Millions live in each mound. They are fast and efficient. They are up your pant leg before you know you are standing near a mound. Then they all start biting at once and more are crawling up you as you swat the ones already in place. You need to strip off your clothes immediately as you run away brushing off the ones on your skin. The pain only lasts about 10 minutes….thank God! They do not survive the washing machine and that is where your clothes end up after you shake them out. As you shake them out inevitably more find you but you need to shake out your clothes before dumping them in the washer. You can tell I have lots of experience with fire ants. I never saw a fire ant or a cock roach until I got to Texas. I can truthfully say I have no cockroaches in my house. I will get a flying tree roach in a few times a year and that happens when the door is open and usually you don’t know they are there until night. I hunt and release.

In my last house I had fire ants and in my last office I had fire ants. No cockroaches… just ants. It was a new house and on all 3 floors I had ants. I would poison them and that would last a month or so and then they were back. So every month I put fire ant poison in the carpeting. That house was totally carpeted and in my new house you might find a throw rug but no carpeting ever. If you spill something or leave crumbs the ants will know it and within a few days they found a way to get in your house.

If you are killing ants outside then you take a bar of lye soap and melt it in 5 gallons of water. You pour it all around the mound. After you circle the mound you kick the mound a few times to get all the ants out of their nest and ready for battle. You then pour the lye on them and you might even kill the queen ant. You must circle their mound or they get away. Another method is destroying their scent trail. Just before a rain, or in the early evening before the ants have gone underground for the night, dig up and scatter them. Fling them as far as you can, DOWNWIND. Their scent trails will be washed out by the rain or dew. Most of them will not find their way back. This may need to be repeated several times.

 Another thing you can do is begin the 3^rd world war. It seems that fire ants from different colonies do not get along. You can try putting this to your advantage by mixing up the ants from different mounds. Colonies can be eliminated, or at least, weakened, using this method. It should work, as long as the area you live in does not have multi-queen colonies. When there is only one queen, the fire ants are territorial and will fight invading ants.

Using a long handled shovel, take a shovel full from mound one and set it aside. Take a shovel full from mound two and place it where you removed the ants from mound one. Then take the ants you put aside and put them into mound two. If you have three colonies, you can do a three way mix. Watch what happens. You should see piles of dead ants in a few days.

If you have them in your house or office then you pretty much have to use a pesticide. I would sprinkle it on my carpeting and a few days later vacuum it. I would follow the ants back to their mound and kill the ones in the mound…but even with that in a few months they are back.

Well I took my break from my wounds and now I need to get back out there and tear up the deck.

It is bird watching season again. Actually here on the coast it is always bird watching season. I put up a bird feeder and a duck blind for myself two weeks ago. It took the birds 2 weeks to watch the bird feeder and the duck blind. Today in the rain they decided they were safe and I was very close to them. Closer than I ever got to be in previous years. It is cold here…in the 40’s. Great morning and in my wait I got 3 types of birds and plenty of squirrels.

The first bird is the Mourning Dove or what we call the Love Bird. You can tell what he is by his long tail feathers and his back feathers are outlined in white. These birds are loyal and have the same partner for life. He and his partner will produce 5 or 6 babies a year. Incubation is 14 days and the new babies stay in the nest for another 14 days. They leave home at age 14 days. It is a protected species and I don’t know why. Anytime I look outside they are there. She is considered a game species but I don’t know anyone that ever ate one.

The next bird is about half the size of the dove. He is a Cactus Wren. Where I am is the most eastern edge of his territory. They normally nest in the heavily barbed cholla cactus and I have only seen a few of those cactus in this part of the coast. Instead they nest in barbed underbrush here. Once they build their domed nest they pretty much keep it for their life. They do not keep a lifelong partner. They are the biggest of the wren family but even at that they are never more than about 8 inches long. Most that I see seem smaller than that. They are becoming rare in Texas but I have a huge population of them. They form families and remain with their family for life. The family could be up to 15 or 20 of them. They are together wherever they go.

The next 2 are either blackbirds or cow birds. I don’t know which. It is cowbirds that have usually a brown head and a black body. The ones I have are just the opposite. Most likely this is a grackle. He is huge and cow birds are not this big. The grackle is 18 to 19 inches long and his wingspan is up to 25 inches. These boat-tailed grackles are rare and only live here along the gulf coast. They live from here, all the way through Florida and all along the east coast. They are loud and fight each other and other birds for food. One of the pictures is one with a useless leg. I am sure he was a great warrior but not anymore. He gets out of the way when others approach. Look at how vicious they can look. The one with the eye contact saw me and was trying to threaten me. Actually he initials did not know I was a human and as soon as I moved and he saw my eyes he was gone.

The last picture is a cow bird next to the grackle. I only got one shot of the cow bird and the grackle realized he was there and attempted to attack. You can clearly see the difference in their size. Well the rain is getting pretty heavy so that is it for today. The rest of the food will go to the squirrel.

Have a good weekend everyone...