Excusing The People Involved

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Kelsey

I have seen that in the last few days there have been a couple of guys who were clearly photographed during the Capitol riots who have turned themselves in to local law enforcement. I have got to say, fair dues to them. I hope that is taken into account during sentencing. I can respect them owning up to their misdeeds.

There has been one who incited the riots who so far has not taken ownership of his role in it. That is to be expected. That is why he is, and always has been, a clear and present danger. I do not know how anyone can excuse his behavior prior ro the rioting, but after it?

I know there has been chatter online about another protest, this one armed, that has been planned for the Sunday a week from tomorrow. We’ll see how that plays out. IT would be a good time to show a bit more contrition than that, but there are those who have been anticipating a Civil War for years, and I will not be surprised to see them show up and start it. But that is jut me and ear to the ground listening. I have not had my ear to the ground much. But I have heard talk of it for aas long as I can remember. I have seen the events of Ruby Ridge and Waco unfold, and there are fols who still harbor ill towards the government for things like that.

I would like to see us come to peace, and I would like to see the Republicans deal with the election of Biden the way I had to deal with the election of Trump. Sometimes a fella has got to just suck it up and ride it out. That’s hard when it affects people’s jobs and such, and when it involves wars and the like. But the tin hat conspiracies are way too much for me. I’d like to think that most forls are just doing the best they can according to their priciples. Well, whatever the case, I think I see as I get older just why some people are so damn nostalgic for times gone by. It is not that it was so much better or worse, but that as the number of bad things that happen are seen, it gets to be a pile of pain and cynicism that drives one to look back towards their personal time of innocence, when they had not been so aware of how bad it all can be.

My personal anger is starting to subside a bit. My neighbor missed their garbage pick up this week, so I offered them the use of one of our bins to get them through so they don’t end up under a pile of garbage in their house. They have cleared our snow twice before when we were in deep, and I remember that. But even if not, I just prefer to be that way. That is the kind of thing that is at the core of a community, and at the core of understanding one another and living peacefully. Then it is a matter of understanding by extension that most people are as good as the guy next door who clears your snow. Sure, there are exceptions, but…

I have looked into Facebook a few times over the past couple of days. Stupid Capitol riots made me want to know what people were saying, and what memes have been passed around. I see that I am not the only one outraged. With both sides guilty of rioting now, maybe they can look eachotehr eye to eye and see eachother with a bit more understanding? Well, I wish. I doubt, but I wish.

I’m tired. Time for bed.

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Why I Am Pissed Off

Posted on January 8, 2021 by Kelsey

In November 2016, the United States elected what I saw as the absolute worst candidate for Presidential office in my lifetime. He was a man who mocked the handicapped, lied about immigrants, lied about “caravans” coming to America to take jobs, incited crowds to violence and said he would pay the court costs of those who would hit someone in opposition to him. In short, he was a divider. He has called democrats “do nothing Democrats” because they don’t subscribe to his divisive politics, and he has incted cities and communities against one another when protesters stood up against police brutality. In short, he was from the begining till now a divider and a narcisist in search of his own agenda, which I have on the suspicion side always believed was the tail wagging the dog while he enriched himself on Wall Street with simple tweets.

In 2016, Trump won the election while accusations of Russian interference flew. He won the election despite losing the popular vote by more than 3 million people. And I had to swallow my hurt and pride and accept that he was the President of this country. Yes, I supported his impeachment, when he tied Congressional funding to an ally to his reciept of “dirt” on the Bidens. That was unethical and illegal. I watched as his childish caucaus behaved like a mob and violated Capitol security protocols for publicity, and to stunt the process based on thier own lies about their exclusion from it. They were not excluded. But hey, whatever. It is not like anyone would try to behave like that again, right? It’s not like they set the example of mobbing the Capitol.

Trump’s ass-kissers in the Senate did not vote to impeach him. Susan Collins said she thought he learned his lesson. The only one with enough principle to see the evidence and rule according to his Constitutional oath was Mitt Romney. I completely disagrss with Mitt Romney, but I sure do respect his commitment to principles and to his oath.

Then when the campaign began, Trump foreshadowed for months what happened in the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021. Epiphany. It means enlightenmment, or revelation. That was the orthadox holiday of that day. It was the litteral revelation of that day what Trump really is, a coward who would incite a mob to do his bidding, who would vow to accompany them, and who would then hide away in the White House while the mob took off. Does anyone think that mob would have been as out of control if he HAD lead them? Does anyone think he was brave for setting them lose?

Apparently, Trump sat on his fat ass and watched the events unfold on TV. He apparently seemed to take glee in the mob “fighting for him.” Joe Biden beat him to the screens of America to tell the mob to go home, and then to demand Trump do the same. The true leader revealed himself.

I am also pissed that organizations like FOX News and people like Rush Limbaugh have been formenting these attitudes and lies for years with no reprocutions, and not even a hint of being required to at least identify themselvs as opinion hosts, spin doctors, propaganda, and bullshit artists.

America has egg on her face at the hands of the party that claimed to fear authoritarianism, and at the hands from which the prepper movement sprang. The people who feared black helicopters all through the 90’s have come to Washington and tried to overthrow Democracy, and the will of the majority to install their authoritarian, and that irony is not lost.

Storming the Capitol is unacceptable. Making allegations of alligations of voter fraud in order to submit allegations of voter fraud as evidence of voter fraud is unacceptable. There are Senators, such as Cruz and Hawley, who should resign before the end of today, Friday. Five lives were lost during their little riot. Those were lives that were supposed to be protected by them as US Senators, not endangered for lying’s sake. Donald Trump lost by over 8 million votes. Evidence before the election suggested that many of his former followers were sick of his shit and jumping ship in the election. We should not pretend to be surprised.

This is not a revolution. A revolution is about ideas. This was about a man. This was a revolt. The revolters were inside the Capitol, destorying more than public property, but what once made America Great independant of any one man. They destroyed our reputation, and that was public property. Well, I suppose the America Ego needed a little bringing down to realize we are just as vulnerable and just as good as anyone else in the world.

But I do believe this is a phase. I hold out hope that we can and will recover from this. I hold out hope that we can get at least a few of the tin-hats out of governance, out of the public spotlight, and we maybe educate ourselves to recognise when we are being lied to by an asshole with a god complex who thinks he can shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it.

So yes. I am pissed off. My candidate did not win in 2016, and still, I accpeted it and moved on. My candidate did not win in 2020, and I am moving on with it. The inevitable result of a constant stream of lies fed to a party by news organizations and opinion hosts has come to its inevitable result.

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A Coup in America

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Kelsey

Yesterday we witnessed something that has not been done in America before.  Don’t let anyone belittle it by telling you it has happened before when a State House was taken by racists more than an hundred years ago.  They did not take the Capitol, and they did not try to force a national coup in opposition to the 8 million vote majority of the American people.  Yesterday, a mob was incited by The President of the United States of America.  Yesterday he knowingly riled them up against the Congress while they were working through a Constitutional;y mandated formality to certify the Election.  All the while, he promised to go with them to the Capitol to stand in opposition, and then went home to The White House, and created with that, and the almost loose words he used, plausible deniability.  It was the kind of wording we have heard before, during the Ukraine call.  All the while, Ted Cruz initiated objections to State’s Elections, interfering with State’s Rights, and pretended he was just serving the interests of those who think there was voter fraud, of which there was no evidence and which Cruz himself said there were many instanced of allegations of voter fraud, which he and Trump and Trump’s loser lawyer made, and stirred among the tin hats of our country. 

I almost made it to 50 before witnessing such a serious threat to our democracy.  What I find wild is that I thought the people who did it were the nuts who for years complained that the government was coming for them.  Instead, they came for the government, and they came for the majority of the American People. 

There is talk of having Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment.  That is a bad choice.  It is designed to work for a President that is physically incapacitated.  It is not designed for someone who will receive a letter saying “We think you cannot do your job,” and he can rebuke it with a simple letter back saying. “yes I can.”  Furthermore, it ignores an important aspect of this crime, which is punishment.  So we begin with impeachment.  How long does it take to write up the reasons why, vote on it, and pass up on the discussion when the iron is hot and we all still feel the burn of it?  Donald J Trump has committed an act of sedition.  We all have born witness to it.  His followers should bear the shame of it. 

Yesterday, WHILE the Capitol incursion was happening, my child was on a group call with some students from her school.  One boy was heard by me to say, “Donald Trump won the election, and there is nothing you can do about it.”  I know that is just a child, but I am sure he reflects the teachings of his parents.  “Nothing you can do about it?”  I beg to differ.  I don’t need to do much about it.  His followers are hell bent to destroy this Democracy for the sake of an authoritarian.  We have words for that kind of thing, and the one that comes in particular to mind is fascisms.  I am reminded of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon.  Trump cannot be allowed to.  He needs to be removed, and prosecuted. 

Free Speech is first enshrined in the Constitution, to protect the people from government retaliation.  Understandably it has its limitations.  Inciting a riot is one of them.  Putting people in danger is not legal even under “free speech.”  Encouraging a mob to go to the Capitol and putting an end to a Constitutional process is not legal. 

And above all, I have to ask, why would anyone follow a leader who promised to go with, not to lead, then failed to do even that? 

Yesterday was depressing.  It was most of all depressing because it was plainly coming, and that has been apparent for years.  It has been apparent for as many years as I have been telling my children that “this is not normal.”  The behavior of the current President is not normal.  It has not been for quite some time.

Trump has been working on this division for some time.  He has been belittling “the Democrats” for years, calling them “the do nothing Democrats,” and treating his political opposition as though they were useless and did not matter, rather than as people who he was supposed to represent.  He has had a team, and he has had an opposition, which has lead to this coup attempt.  This has not been an accident.  This is premeditated.  And to those who say, “well, he’s just a fighter.”  He has no grace.  He is not suited to national leadership.  He may have done fine in the military, but for those damned bone spurs. 

There is so much more to say on the subject.  But for now, I don’t care to.  People better suited than me are in the position to actually DO something about it.  That’s what matters.  Our Democracy was threatened yesterday by a bunch of tin hat crazies who bought their hats off their dear leader, and they want to follow him.  I do not.  I want a government that acts in the interest of my needs, and the needs of every citizen.  Not a dictator enshrined by people who have got to follow some higher power. 

Lastly, Conservatives are always calling Liberals “snowflakes.”  What was that blizzard on the Capitol yesterday? 

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2021–New Year, New Things

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Kelsey

It is just a time marker, I know, and nothing more dramatic than that, but I am well in the habit of using it for the sake of making progress and moving forward, and sometimes just putting things behind me.  While 2020 has had more than its share of horrors, it has had its pleasures, too.  This year started with my sister-in-law out here visiting us from the UK, and while things quickly deteriorated with the advent of Covid just as she departed for home, we never did suffer too much personally.  I cannot pretend that 300,000 people in America alone has not had its affect.  After all, I am not heartless.  That is horrible!  300K, and that is with some efforts to stop it spreading!  What could it have been if we threw caution to the wind and just let Covid have at it?  That said, is many ways 2020 has been our best year yet as a family.  Having to lock down and stay close to home all year had little effect.  In fact, for us, it was more like others were getting into the groove of doing what we already were.  We already were in love with online grocery shopping, and not having to walk around the store for hours fighting with the kids over what goes into the basket, and not taking things we see just because we saw them.  We were also already home schooling our kids, and have been doing so for many years.  The world seemed to have tumbled into the niche we were well established into. 

Now the new year has started and the world is looking at getting vaccinated and reestablishing normal and we are making our plans for the year to come.  We have a lot to fix on the house still in order to improve our return on it if we ever decide to sell it.  It is a beautiful old house, and I would hate to see it lost to the wrecked hulks that have been falling down in our community around us.  This place has stood an hundred years, nd could easily stand another if we can get a few things fixed.  They are big things, though, including foundation work.  There are things we will do ourselves and things we will hire out for, and part of this is determining which is which, and what other investments such as tools we will get to do ourselves and save the money which will set us ahead on the tools. 

Missus makes a decent salary, and we have seen the fruits of it this past year more than any in our time together.  We have some more picking to do if the tree is still bearing fruit. 

That said, we are still do-it-yourselfers.  We still like to live fairly cheap in order to live as well as possible on what we have got.  It just has happened that this year past we have had a few more things new rather than all used or barely gotten. 

So, nothing profound to start this year, and only a small set of specific goals.  Most of those goals are setting up workshops for Missus and Me, and getting my tractor to do a load of work around the house and daily chores, and a bit of farming across the street.  We will be rearranging our animal and livestock situation to be more specific to our needs and less of a run amok farm.  I have got to get water supply out to the farmyards because bucket carrying in the winters sucks bigtime, and I am not getting younger.  If I get a wood mill and continue to have access to the free wood I have been getting, I would like to start milling our flooring this year.  That is an ambitious one, I know.  But there are a lot of other things I could use a mill for, too.  I have woodsheds that need putting up, and I would like to build some furniture for the house.  I turn fifty this year, and still have some good working time in me, so I would like to accomplish some things with it.  And these are things that have been put off for too long.  I have some ideas that I would like to work on on the spare bits of the pasture, too, to make the place look better and to give us a place to be in nature.  And most of that work will be just diesel fuel.  Well, and some scissors to take cuttings for replanting. 

Always moving forward.  Always, always.  Happy New Year! 

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Farewell to 2020

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Kelsey

I always suspected that 2020 would be ironic and the cause for clear vision.  It came in, and almost straight away there was a hint of change on the horizon.  It was when the NBA cancelled in March that I realized that things were pretty serious for an organization like that to call it quits for the season.  It was jaw-droppingly amazing!  Trump got on the TV and pretended to be doing something, which he continued to do in smaller fashion with his daily briefings, till he got bored of it and stopped.  I m not sophisticated enough to tell you if the clown show turned into a shit-show, or the shit-show turned into a clown show.  Whichever it was, the clown finally took a shit on all of it after the election and abdicated what duties were left to try to run for re-election after he had already lost resoundingly.  Tonight, we ring out the old year, and forget the worst of them since 2016 when everybody and my mother died. 

I nursed a shot of Baily’s tonight, wishing it would make my teeth numb, but there is no chance of going so far on so little fuel.  But it’s okay.  I’ll be 50 this coming year.  That is so exciting that I am happy to head off to bed soon myself.  I have got some chores to do tomorrow anyhow.  Don’t let the banker taking the day off make you thing that anyone else is. 

Till then, I sit and write.  I ponder it all, and where I fit into it.  Nothing profound comes to mind.  I wish I knew that when I was 25.  Well, well, well…  So it really is what I make of it, and not some grand design!  It makes my teeth feel numb. 

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This Is Only A Test

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Kelsey

Today I am just running a test post from a different computer.  This is going to be nice, isn’t it? 

But truthfully, this is also the end of 2020.  I am not going to miss this one, I am sure!  This has been a rough year, overall.  More for other people than our family, true, but it is not myself I am feeling sorry for.  I am sad for the hundreds of thousands lost prematurely due to Covid, and for the fact that there are so many people who are indifferent about the lives lost because it has not affected them, and if it has, then my goodness… 

And let’s hope that 2020 is not only a test. 

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Teaching an Eight Year old “Theory”

Posted on November 17, 2020 by Kelsey

Today I have been working with our youngest on understanding a pretty important concept, the differenc ebetween a scientific theory, and the use of the word by a casual observer.  It was not easy, but we used how driving theory is developed through testing and measuring and establishing safe driving protocols through that, in order to codify them into law. 

The hard part is to get a kid to understand the difference between say, The Theory of Evolution, based on scientific findings such as in archeology, astronomy,  Paleontology, biology, DNA testing, and many other fields, versus two dudes sitting around a campfire one night getting stoned and one of them saying he thinks the universe was created by grasshoppers so people could farm and make crops, but because people are so far advanced, the grasshopper made weed to keep the humans from completely surpassing their creators, the grasshoppers.  The kid loves her science, but needs a sound understanding of things like the differences between theories and guesses, and how people confuse the words describing them. 

It’s break time now, and the kids are playing about or socializing with friends.  It seems a good day to take the part about observations out to the field and make observations in the pasture prior to the the lowering of the canal into pipes and burying it, thus reducing the leeching that happens in our field, watering it from below.  Hard part will include what things to measure and record in order to cmpare to new observations in the future, after the canal is underground. 

First observation worth a note right now is the weather. 

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Listening To Walt

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Kelsey

I am listening to Walt Whitman at the moment. I think he seems to lack a certain something, and I am trying to figure it out. His poetry is vain and seems a bit hippie, something to do with his method of observation and puttin ghimsel fin the middle of everything. Then, I think I am guilty of the same as I write in this blog/journal. I guess I should shrug my shoulders and just keep getting his point of view as given from so long ago, and enjoy it.

I have not written a poem in a long, long time. I think that is because the rythem of life is my poem right now, as I give the best not in verse, but in the work of my hands and the time I spend with the girls, especially Khallie, as I teach her the things she needs to get through life, and to love to learn for all her life.

There is also the efforts to keep this little farm, and make sure the animals get through, and the provisions are made for them.

Also is the rythem of the seaons, summer planting, winter staying warm, spring blossoms and autumn leaves falling to the earth. There is poetry in living the things, and in the little breakfasts I make for Missus, and a kiss from time to time.

I am no poet. But I live a poem.

It’s not as weird as Walt.

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Getting Up There

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Kelsey

This week we got our new washer and dryer delivered, and wow! You know, in the many years Missus and I have been married, this is the best we have ever done for our laundry. We bought a new washer in the UK once, and that was about it. It was a front loader, so, efficient, and fair at washing. But other than that, we have been in old machines and such. Some have been okay, some have been bad, but nothing we have had has been great.

So last week we decided that rather than go to Home Depot to buy just the dryer, which was not working, we would go ahead and switch from propane to the electric which was already wired and left unused. We also decided to get a matching washer and clear out our thiry year or more old washer that was left here by my grandmother. So we went to see what was up in th furniture store in Preston, our local town.

We looked over a couple of sets which were in the $400 a machine range, and were just about to it, when Missus asked me which I would rather do. I pointed to the Speed Queen set, which I knew were the type used in the laundromats and which the lady advised honestly were the type you bought for a twenty-five year purchase rather than an eight to ten year one, and I said, “honestly I would rather just get this set and be done for a while rather than back here again in a decade or so.

The machines came on the delivery truck yesterday. The guys hooked up the washer and I loaded it with my laundry and got it going while the dryer connections were finalized.

Oh my Hell!

It’s been years since I had a load of laundry come out so clean! I forgot it could! If you are accustomed to it, you would probably not know what I am talking about. But we have been on a tight budget since before we both said “I do! I think!” and “well, maybe…” But as time goes on, it is normal to accept a status quo, and we did.

Apparently in order to have these machines, it is necessary to join some kind of cult. The Speed Queen Cult are die hard fans of the procduct, and it has something to do with the quality, the fact the machines are built like tanks, they are user servicable, and they are made in America. Well, if they can do in twenty-five years what they did to my laundry yesterday, I will be a card carrying member, myself.

The price was twice as high as the other machines. I expect that you do get what you pay for. The programs for washing are exactly what Missus wanted, which is basic, and nothing much more. Apparently, that is how Speed Queen rolls. The clothes get cleaned, not confused.

It’s a little thing. It’s a thing that can easily be taken for granted. But there comes a point, and then it gets fixed, and a person is like to look at the result and say flatly, “oh.” That was me yesterday. Oh. It is possible to get really clean clothes from a basic set of machines!

Our list of things that need doing has been so long. This is one more thing off it. It is always one off, one on, or two off, one on, or one off, two on. It gets tiresome feeling like it is impossible to get ahead, and really feel like we are doing well for our family. There is so much to do in this house! It is more than an hundred years old! There are always things that need attention. Yet, it seems like when the list is complete, this place should hold up for another century. We are just a part of that legacy. There are some things that need doing, which if left undone, will undo the whole house, and leave it an abandoned hulk, wasting away like so many of the hold houses do around here. That would be such a bummer! This place is historic and fascinating in its own ways.

Since I was heading to the salvage yard with the old washer and dryer, I cleaned up some of the metal from behind the future workshop. (That is code for ‘the really old workshop that has served as a house for junk for years.’) I got some of it up there, but still have a few pieces to clean up. When done, I will be able to make much better use of that back end of the barn and put the horse trailer there, then the utility in front of it. Then I can clean up some parts of the yard that I lament for their ugliness now. I have the horse trailer at the back of the granary, and want that to be clear and the grass cut there, so it is a better piece of our driveway for now, and eventually I can work out where to put more useful stuff than an old horse trailer we hardly use for anything. I also love that back part of the barn when it is cleared up, as it looks lovely back there facing the neighbor’s farm and dairy cattle. We have lots of room there, which wants something a lot more useful or fun than old piles of crap that predate our living here.

Stupid little things. We got a truck this summer. What a difference that has made on so many levels! The largest one has been the firewood. We also have the reliability of having two vehincles, now. There is the ability to clean up some of the mess that has been here since my grandparents lived here, which we were unable to deal with while using only a little sport utility. It’s just another thing I think could be taken for granted when one is used to it, so I mention it so I can remind myself in the future what a pain in the butt it was back when we had no truck!

There are still goals. For the farm I want a tractor and irrigation. I would like to raise some beef cows, including our annual slaughter. I want to get the other animals into profit, from llama fiber to chickens raised for eggs and meat, and not pets. Our pig would be better if bread, and the pot belly pigs are just pets. All the pigs need, ah-hem, streamlining. I don’t want to rais chickens jut to have chickens on the farm anymore. They serve little use pooping all over the steps and such, and eating the young plants we are trying to grow, or scratching at them, or dustbathing on them. The egg coop is fine for a dozen birds or even more if we have the facility to sell the excess eggs. A meat flock of cornish rock is fine as long as we raise enough for ourselves and the kids, and no more, unless we have the facility to sell them, and can do so safely.

I half expect the canal to be put underground in the next year or two, tops. I have little insight into this, but I speculate it is so because they worry about losses from leaching and evaporation. This local canal company shuts down too early and starts up too late, while the one in Utah can be seen pumping water for easily a month longer each year. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, the people in charge seem to think there is no water in the river. Still, if we had irrigation, we could do a lot with what they offer. We could at least keep our pasture up and the animals on cheap feed for longer. Or we could put the whole field to hay and raise enough for summer and winter feed. We have access to other water for now, and will have to make do with that. It is one mroe reason for a tractor, especially if I can get a PTO pump. Then I could pump the water we have access to.

I also wish I could get the tractor before winter this year for snow removal. It will improve our ability to work and do so safely and easily in the yard. I am also worried that two of our llamas are past their sell by date, and will fall over in the snow and need removal. Damn animals that freeze to the ground are no good! I don’t want them left hanging about because they are too heavy to lift! Nevermind the billion other chores that can be done with the tractor, not the least is just about everything.

Well, today is October 20th. It is nearly Halloween, and again, I have done nothing of what I want to for it. It is my favorite holiday, and I never get anything done for it. I always want to set up a haunted house, or come up with a super cool costume, or something like that. This year, I just want a few games and some straw bales to play among for the family, then I can dump the staw onto the gardens in time for snowfall. We could carve pumpkins on them, put the apple bobbing tub on them, hide behind them, set them up for a scarecrow or whatever on them, set the candy dish and games on them. It makes sense as a very useful item to have, and I never seem to get them before the holiday. Best go a looking!

The kids are all planning to be over for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Can’t argue with that! We are nearly done with our Christmas shopping, so there is the traditions and food to sort out. All the decorations are in the preliminary organization stage, which is to say they have all been moved en mass into new storage boxes, and will be put up from there, then put back in better after the holiday. But for now, we know where all of them are, at any rate. That is a step above the past. And with the new boxes, everything should be in great shape. We’ll see.

I have finally started with at least listening to some of the classics that I meant to when I got old. I guess I am old now. I put on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass last night and have been listening to that. I have a great set of headphones now, and a tablet dedicated to literary use such as this, and for writing, though all the parts for that are not yet arrived. I am waiting for a Bluetooth keyboard and a wall mount that will allow me to write from in bed with ease. Don’t judge! It is where I close my days. I also have a good stand for the tablet to sit above the keyboard for use at any table arounf the house. I also have my primary tablet, which can access the same programs and cloudservers.

Two weeks till Election Day. I am hoping for a landslide against Trump, just as I was in 2016. That one did not work out so well, so I am not holding my breath, as such, this time. Still, I can dream, can’t I? I am always amazed at how many people try to show real respect for their Trump supporting friends and family. At least they say they do, though I suspect there is a reason they try to emphasize this fact so much! Compensating for something? Trump is so obviously corrupt and so dicatotial that it is damn near impossible to see how some people either don’t see it, or they do, and they see it as a good thing! The man operates on Chaos theory, and without any understaning at all of science, political science, history, humanity, empathy, or just about any virtue that I have been able to identify. I do suffer Trump Fatigue. I don’t know how I could handle four more years of his cultish followers waving their stupid Trump flags, or his face on the evening news. I want to just forget about him. Obama has been quiet since he left office. I doubt Trump will be, at all. But it is a nice dream.

It has been two years, and more than a month now since I socialized on Facebook. I have said ‘hi’ a time or two, but then cut out again. Being on it or thinking about it cut into my time too much, and kept me preoccupied with things other than my own life. Besides, with the politics and such, things were unberable. And now, I think I am reprogrammed to do the worst part of Facebook, which is to be more open than I should be about my own stupid opinion. Let it go. Let it go!

I tried Instagram for a bit. That was hard to get into, because once joined up, I tried to find people to “follow,” but it started limiting me for fear of me plotting an asSPAMination. Well, whatever. When it finally let up on me, I have been able to find a few interesting feeds to follow, and relevant ones, but nothing that is so urgent I need to spend much time with it at all. That makes me someone who will post now and then, but hardly look at another person’s feed, making me a full on spammer!

Well, it is getting bedtime, and I need to go listen to what Walt has got to say.

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Not Much I Can Do About It Now

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Kelsey

Lately, there have been a few new things show up at the house.  I sorted out a radio for the truck, and now have both vehicles set so we can talk back and forth.  I put a new back door on the house.  That ought to make it a bit warmer in the pantry.  I have got some firewood gathered up and brought home.  Most of it is split and stacked, though there are a few more rounds.  I am contemplating going out to get more from either the neighbor, or the Logan City Landfill, where there is a lot on offer for free.  That takes longer, but I can often find wood there that is not rotten in the middle 

Today I ordered a pump for our ketchup container, which is one of those big Heinz ones from Sam’s Club.  That ought to help when filling the little squeeze bottle, and as a sperate dispenser in it’s own right.  I have a few of them coming, really, so maybe we can get mustard, too. 

I have also ordered a new tablet to replace the one I am writing on now.  I want to have one to keep using around and about.  But I want on dedicated to writing and publishing and such.  That is where the second one will come in.  I got it on sale yesterday, but today a SD card came up on sale, so that is on order now too.  Next thing to come up may be the keyboard, and also I would like to find a wall mounted arm to allow me to sit in bed and watch Netflix, or type from a bluetooth keyboard, or whatever. 

The highlights are in things right now.  That is not the most important thing.  The most important things are the people I live with.  My daughters are on break from school this week.  My wife is back from her trip out last week, so we keep our fingers crossed that there has been no Covid exposure.  We have a boy going in this week for his Citizenship.  We have one losing his place to live because of his roommate moving out.  Obviously, there is the fall weather settling in and the resurgance of Covid. 

The promise of a vaccine before Election Day is utter crap.  If one were to put stock in that, then I could only say it is a foolish thing to do.  Talk to me when a vaccine has been dispensed, and tested and proven.  Obviosly, in a desperate situation, that all changes.  But till that situation arises, no.  We need hard science, not hard politics to solve this mess.  We are now at 214,061 deaths.  That is a huge mass casualty event.  The incompetance in assigning proper leadership and handling of this situation is unforgiveable.  The lack of reverence for the seriousness, the lack of empathy for those who have lost loved ones is astonishing.  My vote is cast.  I cannot change it.  Happily, I would not change it. 

All we can do is move forward.  Things may go to crap.  But till they do, move on.  That is all we could ever do. 

Today I was moved to spontaneously clean the chimney as a sort of last ditch opportunity prior to the change of seasons.  The weather may hold out for a little while longer, but if it decides to let the temperatures slide, we have the stove ready for burning.  I also made the goats a house.  They needed it.  The two girls are expecting.  I have no idea how many.  We think it could be between two and five total.  It would be good if they have a place to stay out of the weather, so I cut a door in a large IBC tank and laid it up on its side with the door facing south, so they can get sunlight in there.  Let the babies come!  We are expecting them around my youngest daughter’s birthday in first week of November.  It ought to be interesting! 

The one thing always on my mind now is getting a tractor.  I wish I could sort it out now, ready to clear snowfall, and to move animal feed in the winter, as well as any of the larger animals if they die.  Nothing is much worse than moving a large, dead animal by hand when it is frozen into the ground.  There is hay to move, and there is firewood to lift and move around when required.  Come spring, there will be tilling, and dirt to move on the field across the street where we are going to be making some changes to make it a friendlier place for the livestock and hopefully eventually even for the water fowl.  I have wood on that field that needs moving, but is too heavy to.  I have to move snow from the roadside where the post carrier comes and complains that I have got to clear sisxty feet of access for the mail delivery, and it is right where the snow plows push piles of snow too when they clear the road.  There are the driveways around the farm, and there is being able to drop large loads of hay into the livestock feeder and leave them to it across the street, properly fed.  I have quite a few projects around here that require digging, which would be lovely to do when it comes time to put water hydrants in around the yard, rather than having to had dig the five foot trenches for several hundred feet, and then the 18 inch trenches for electricity.  And we will nevermind the plumbing and basement issues that could be addressed.  I could carry water to where the livestock lives if I had a good loader and used the IBC tank I have set up for it.  Just need to get pallet forks on the tractor for that.  Buckets of water through a foot or more of ice and snow really sucks.  Animal pens need cleaning, and I need to be able to reset some fences.  There is some levelling that iquired out front of the house, and a firewood sales stand set up, with a way to carry wood out to it on the tractor loader.  And this is all just off the top of my head, and for the first four to six months.  Wait till we start building things!  Wait till we start loading and unloading truckloads of stuff with it! 

I am saving to make a down payment.  But with things in the air with Covid right now, is it the best time?  Then, there is looking to earn some money with it, too. So much to do. Then comes next summer…

Posted in Coronavirus, Journal Entry | Comments Off on Not Much I Can Do About It Now