WARNING: Before reading, please note that a Liberal amount of Profanity and Irreverance may occasionally be found below.
I blame it on the Alcohol.

Friday, April 9, 2010

New additions at the Ranch


Hmmm..... I wonder what Bandit is staring at so intently? Bandit is mostly Border Collie, but looking at this photo, he may have some other genes, too. Just before I snapped this, he had one front leg raised, just like a bird dog.........





So............that's whats in the box..........

     


Ten new Barred Rock Chicks. Found them on sale the day after Easter for $1 each. (I love to buy things on sale)
I showed a friend this pic and she said, "oh, how cute, You're not going to eat them are you?"

I explained to her the "Rules for Chickens" here at the Ranch.  You see, we have two teams for the chickens to join. They can be "Layers" or "Fryers"..........their choice.

More new additions coming in about two weeks. Thousands of new girls arriving! I pick up  two packages of honeybees on the 22nd of this month.

Wish me luck!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

MacBook

Well, I don't want to start a Mac vs PC war here, but I just got my first Mac, after years as a PC guy. My company has a Mac Pilot project going on, so I volunteered for it.
First impressions:
The touch pad is REALLY Slick.
Graphics are Awesome.
I think its going to have a serious learning curve......
I'll let you know in a few days, what I think after I get better aquainted with it.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Tea Party

Update # 2: Even more about the Tea Party Folks Class Act
Update: Oh yeah, these are real classy folks:
Read here

I just found this VERY interesting article in Forbes magazine on the Tea Party movement. It is written by Bruce Bartlett, who according to Wikipedia was a domestic policy adviser to President Reagan and a Treasury official under the First President Bush. So you can see he is no wild eyed liberal.
Bartlett is not complimentary of teh Tea Partiers, but I most liked the article because it is filled with facts.
I love facts! Especially when they agree with my own biases.
Have a read if you are interested. The whole thing is here.

Hopefully I'll be able to read more of this type of drivel once I RETIRE.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Been a long time comin'

I think I started working (for pay) when I was still in High School. I had a variety of part time and odd jobs while going to high school. When you come from a poor family with 6 children, every one has to pull their own weight.
Two weeks after graduation from HS, I hitchiked away from home to go work in an Apple Orchard in the Yakima Valley.
That was 1964. 
In the intervening years, I have had a variety of jobs, but have almost continuosly been employed. Even during the early 90's, when I was going to College, I still worked full time.
Let's see, 2010 - 1964...........hmm, carry the 3, I think that's 46 years working somewhere or other to earn a living. (thank gawd for that calculus class I took in college, otherwise I might have screwed up that math).

Well, that's all coming to a screeching halt in exactly, approximately,  lets see......12 months in a year, 22 working days in a month, minus 11 paid holidays, minus 25 days vacation/sick time, (oh my head is going to hurt after this math calculation)....umm, carry the 3, that's  212 more days at work before my


Retirement

which I am planning for February 25, 2011.
I'll try to keep you updated as I go through this last year. Right now it's a lot exciting, and pretty scary, this being about the first time I've actually said the word "Retirement" out loud.









Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines Day

Oh, Hell.
I know I'm going to catch a load of crap if I don't show y'all (O for Gawds sake, did you read the post just below? I live in the SOUTH!) a picture of the wonderful Valentines Gift I got the very lovely and talented, Mrs GLB.
Now, am I not the most romantic guy in the state world Universe?

.

Heh! Top that GQ!
Well, at least the new couch is comfy.............

Small Town Livin' Redux

Awhile back I wrote  here about going for dinner at a Mexican Restaraunt, and how that was interesting partly because of living in a small town and (I remembered this part later) partly because I live in the South. (Yes, THAT South, Y'all).
So, today while I was working daydreaming napping checking for holes in my eyelids while watching the Olympics on TV, I got to wondering...........
Do you think they serve Sweet Tea at the Mexican Restaurants in say......Mexico City?

Friday, February 12, 2010

Bandit the Rescue Dog

Bandit is quite the swimmer, as you can see above. But when he came to live with me, he didn't know how to swim. Well, maybe I better start at the beginning.........
In 2003 I bought a house in Central VA. It was adjacent to a large wooded area, used only occasionally by humans, as a day camp, used constantly by many deer who live there. One of the reasons I liked the house was because it had a nice garden spot, and I like to garden. However, everyone I talked to said "You can't raise a garden there, the deer will eat everything." I talked to the neighbors and they said the former owners of the house had a dog who lived in the back yard and kept the deer away. Ahh, good idea! So off to the local animal shelter I went.
There he was, looking all sad in his cage. When he moved, he limped a little on his right rear leg. "His name is Hero" said the nice lady showing me the dogs. "Why do you call him Hero?", I asked.
Well, it turns out he had been brought in to the shelter by a man asking that he be put down. The poor doggie had been hit by a car and had a broken leg. The dog's owner had taken him to a Vet to see about getting the leg set, but the cost was going to be $650 which the man could not afford.
The shelter took ownership of the dog, and found a Vet who would set the leg, including installing a pin in his leg, from hip to knee.
"He just came back to the shelter," the nice woman said. "We adopted him out about a week ago to a woman who lives on a farm. She thought he would be a great companion for her 25 YO horse. Unfortunately, even with the pin in his leg, he would chase the horse, grab his tail and hang on. The woman who adopted him was sure either the horse would run, fall and injure himself, or kick the dog, further injuring the broken leg. It was not a good match, so she brought him back."
I wasn't sure I wanted such a project, but he had that "take me home" look in his eye, so I he adopted him me.
The nice woman at the shelter said "Now he has that pin in his leg, so you have to keep him quiet"
Have any of you ever tried to keep an 18 month old Border Collie quiet? Ain't happening.......
The house Bandit (yes, I changed his name before we even got home, it just seemed more fitting after hearing the horse story) and I moved into, had a pool right behind the house. When we moved in, the cover was still on the pool.
Have I mentioned yet how much Bandit likes to chase tennis balls? I think we were still moving in, and Bandit brings me a ball while we were standing on the deck overlooking the pool. Without thinking much about it, I tossed the ball toward the pool........where it bounced on the cover, and over a small wall into the backyard. Bandit, of course, was right behind it. Down the steps, directly across the covered pool, and with one leap, over the wall into the back yard. Well, the wall is only about 18 inches high on the pool side but six feet high on the back yard side. My heart was in my stomach when I saw him go over the wall, but Bandit bounced right up, and came trotting back up the stairs with the ball, begging me to throw it again. So much for keeping him quiet! That's pretty much how it went for the next two months until I took him in to the Vet and had the pin taken out. I did try to keep him quiet, but fortunately he has a strong constitution and survived all the times I forgot.
I DID immediately begin training him to not chase cars.I read how to do it online, pretty simple process. He was pretty much ignoring them after about two weeks. Fortunately he lived in the backyard when not with me, so he wasn't tempted too much when off leash.
After the pin was taken out of his leg, I noticed that the formerly injured leg, was much thinner than his other rear leg. The muscles had atrophied due to him favoring that leg. What to do? Remember the swimming pool? And the tennis ball? Well, it turns out as much as they like to chase tennis balls, Border Collies are not natural swimmers. Bandit, however is  a quick learner. Tennis ball in the pool. Bandit pulled into the pool on his leash, thrashing about (kinda like I still swim, but that's another story) for about two lengths of the pool, and then he's learned to swim like a champ. Since it was now well into spring, nice warm weather, the pool open, here became the arriving home from work drill: I would change into shorts, grab a beer, and sit, dangling my legs in the end of the pool with two tennis balls. I would toss the first ball to the end of the pool.  Bandit would jump in, return to me with the ball in his mouth. As he got to me, I would toss the second ball to the end of the pool. Bandit would drop the second ball, go for the First. Repeat until one of us got tired,(usually always me). He soon could easily do over 30 laps without tiring. Within a short amount of time the right leg was just as strong as the left. He was also very good with the deer. Loves to chase them away.
Bandit is now about 8 years old, and has never shown any signs of problems with that leg. I give him Glucosamine every day, just in case. We have moved from the house with the pool, but now he has a river to swim in, and a buddy to swim with. You do know you should never swim without a buddy, right? Right? Didn't you ever go to summer camp?


The story of Tye, Bandit's swimming buddy, to come later.