A Brief Rant -- America Needs to Vote

This weekend, the Kentucky Governor was hung in effigy, in the front yard of the Governor's Manson, where he and his family are living.

Fortunately, his children weren't home when armed terrorists invaded their private space and stood on the front porch.

Now I'm gonna get on my soapbox, because these terrorists aren't operating in a vacuum. These guys were whipped up a couple weeks ago, by other elected officials. Republican officials, who don't give a damn about saving lives. They are merely more GOP sociopaths drunk on power.

The pattern was set in stone years and years ago, by the likes of Newt Gingrich, and the cancer that has eaten the soul of America has continued unchecked since the creation of Fox News.

Why has this minority, because this emotionally dead contingent IS the minority, been allowed to take power?

Because not enough Americans vote.

Americans, especially those of us in #FlyOverAmerica, need to get off our asses and vote, in every election, every time. We have to take back our cities, towns, hamlets and townships by voting.

If everybody in America voted in every election, we wouldn't have ANY of the problems we have today. Because America isn't a nation of extremists, it's a nation of middle-of-the-road, good people who have forgotten their power is in unity.

OUR power is in the ballot box.

Buttercup War

One of the worst things about country life, farm life and hobby farm life, is how equipment breakdowns bring a homestead chores to a crashing halt.

Two years ago my old tractor broke down, the same time as my lawn mower. The tractor went into the shop, and due to it's age and the expense of replacement parts, we didn't get it back until March of this year. The weeds, particularly creeping buttercups and a couple nameless Roundup resistant weeds, colonized the pasture and choked out the grass.

This made my old horses lose vast amounts of weight because buttercups are toxic. I lost my beloved black hunter to old age and blindness last spring.

I was behind on mowing, seeding, stall cleaning all year, two springs in a row. I got some help, we've got great neighbors, but getting half caught up is not the same as getting it right.

This year, we got the old tractor back, but it wasn't fixed. It shot out oil and oily smoke, which combined with vast quantities of buttercup pollen, aggravated my asthma and gave me migraine headaches. I was in danger of letting these toxic flowers, already covering 75% of the pasture, complete saturation.

But instead of losing the game, we decided to make an investment in equipment. The old tractor was replaced with a new one. The lawn mower will get a new deck, but is currently in use to haul things and run the manure spreader.

The first thing I did was mow down the buttercups, wearing a mask. The tractor, a new 19 Horsepower diesel with a 48" bushhog struggled at a few points, but the buttercups went down. After two days it was more yellow than red, and needed a rinse, but we got the buttercups down to the point where I can work outside without a mask.

It will need a second pass. But at last I have the right equipment for that job. It's a relief to know that I've won the war for the moment.

The old tractor has gone to a new owner. It's one of those things that couldn't be fixed easily, unless one could weld the wrenches oneself. I'm not that kind of woman. I can do a few things, but rebuilding engines isn't one of them.

Who Bugged Out?

Not long ago, there was an out-cry from resort towns, the wealthy 'summer people' were coming to their towns in droves, bringing their germs with them. There's nothing like importing your germs to a place with little access to healthcare to make you welcome in a small town.

Robert DeNiro was on Colbert's A Late Show -- from a quaint log cabin -- somewhere.

A Tennessee GOP Senator was also online from a quaint log cabin -- somewhere. He was bragging how the GOP was having the ACA gutted to uselessness.

I'm watching Meet The Press right now, with a rich black philanthropist who is obviously bugged-out in a quaint cabin -- somewhere. He even has his windows tightly shuttered so there's no telling where he really is, but the decor gives it away.

You know damn well the Tech Giants are ALL bugged-out of their city homes to somewhere.

Trust me, a Wal-Mart employee pays a higher percentage of their income in State and Federal Taxes (25% is average for us) than these Tax-Free parasites pay. Most of them paid nothing and got back BILLIONS of dollars of OUR tax dollars.

A few thousand people in a handful of states, people who don't think about the Common Good, don't care about real Americans who need things like jobs, roads, bridges, hospitals and schools have put into power a greedy, ruthless minority who are sucking the life out of OUR country.

Folks, this shit needs to change.

The only way it's gonna change is if everybody in America Votes in EVERY election. Right now, since so few people vote, the American Extremists have taken over State and Local Governments.

Vote in your local election.

Jump the hoops, sign the stupid documents. Get the ID and do it NOW.

November is coming, the virus will still be here, write your GOVERNOR, of your STATE and tell them you want to vote by MAIL.

At this time, more 80k Americans have died. Let their lives mean something.

Do what you have to do to Vote.
Every Election.
Every Time.

College Sports - Creepy and Expensive

I'm no doubt the only one, but I find the fanatical worship of college sports creepy, and I think colleges spend WAY too much money on them.

How about we separate "Church and State" by separating Colleges into Academic and Athletic schools? Maybe not all sports, but certainly Football and Basketball are institutions that don't require academic affiliations.

Why would I see the American Athletic Apple-cart upset?

Well, I'd like to see America offer free college and technical college to all. That means minorities wouldn't HAVE sacrifice their children in the name of COLLEGE SPORTS. The economy would win, minorities would win, there would be a middle class again.

SPORTS FANS would have their own TEAM COLLEGE that could spend all the money it wanted on stadiums, endorsements, (don't forget drugs and hookers). There are only a few jobs in professional sports, a handful of young men get drafted to basketball and football teams every year. Let those who want that life go for it, just not in a college setting.

These Junior League sports teams can call themselves college teams, if they want. Whatever floats the boats of the sweaty old men who leer at young (mostly minority) men, calling them racial slurs and pretending it's about Higher Education, not betting, endorsements, drugs and hookers.

This would allow colleges to concentrate on Academics!

Imagine that! The price of college tuition would drop until it was free, or close to free.

Because, let's face it, a College Education is expensive MAINLY because the Sports Programs get all the money. Why should Jill Average pay for something she'll never do, (Football or Basketball) for the next 20 years of her life, so some handsome, athletic minority boys can be exploited by a bunch of old, sweaty, leering rich white men?

Jill wants a degree, AND a house for herself and her husband and children. Not a 20 year mortgage for a substandard education because SPORTS TEAM needed cars, stadiums, drugs and hookers.

It's silly for hundreds of students like our Jill to pay the inflated salary of a Rick Pitino or Jerry Sandusky - and their legal bills when the abuses come to light. Cut the Football and Basketball teams free, they earn plenty of money on their own and let Academics go their own way.

What To Do, Just In Case

How to be more Prepared, without becoming a right-wing nutcase?

Everyone has been affected by The Shutdown. Some of us have been knocked flat on our butts by it, scarcely able to understand what happened. Others are reeling, some drunkenly, just barely keeping their sanity as the world turns upside-down around them.

For some of us, this is another kick in the teeth, another devastating kidney punch that has kicked us off the ladder of 'Success' just as we were getting back on it. No one wants to get caught flat-footed again, but not many people want to become Survival Extremists, either.

What is a rational person gonna do, in case this horrendous virus comes back in the fall? Well, assuming that one is just looking ahead for a return of this pandemic in the fall, let's see what one could do - without going full Doomsday Prepper.

I'm gonna make a few assumptions: this virus will come back in October, my readers have a little bit of money and some room for storage, and are willing to learn to cook.

There's a lot of math involved with this, because everyone's situation is gonna be different. First thing is to read up on portion sizes, and figure out what's gonna work for your situation. Then get a few good recipes for soup, because that's the easiest way to cook several meals using dried foods. Get a crock pot, or some kind of slow cooker and learn to use it.

The easiest foods to put away for 'What If?' are dried foods. Since we are talking about food to buy over the summer, for use this fall and winter, shelf-life shouldn't be an issue. All this stuff will last a year as long as mice and bugs don't get in it. It's all something one could eat over the course of a winter, even if things don't go badly, this food doesn't have to go to waste.

Quick rolled oatmeal for breakfast, two big cans of it, raisins to flavor it, or packets of instant flavored oatmeal. More on that in a minute.

Dried peas, beans, barley, rice, soup starter/mixes, powdered beef and chicken broth, ramen, dried egg noodles, dried milk, dried herbs like bay leaf, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, vanilla, and chili powder for dinners. All these need to be in mouse-proof containers, but can be stashed in a tub until needed. I use recycled ice cream containers, and anything else I can get my hands on for this. It doesn't matter what it looks like, slap a label and a date on it, then tuck it into the tub for safekeeping.

Oatmeal in bulk containers needs flavoring. I've found that one packet of cheap instant oatmeal can flavor two cups of plain oatmeal. Just mix it together with water and nuke it according to directions for the bulk oatmeal. The fiber in the oatmeal is good for the digestion, cholesterol, and the carbs are good for energy.

Tissue paper, toilet tissue, laundry detergent, won't fit in a single tub, but pain/fever relieving medication, ant-acids, cold and allergy medicines, whatever your family uses over the course of the winter, will. Just buy an extra generic one, tuck the smaller boxes into the tub with the dried food.

One doesn't have to spend a fortune, just think about it and tuck away an extra bit here and there. I'm assuming money is gonna be tight all summer, so any "prepping" is gonna small scale.

We all know what is in short supply. So this summer pick up an extra one and stash it. Toilet paper, toothpaste, no need to buy a case, just pick up one or two small packages.

I was surprised at the absence of rice in general and brown rice in particular.

We eat a good bit of rice, I keep three or four different rice mixes, so I never thought to stock up on the plain brown rice, because I've got other types in storage. I'm gonna buy a two extra bags for the fall and winter. Just two extra bags, putting it in glass jars and stashing it away. I'm gonna get 5 lbs of white rice, 10 lbs of flour (I bake bread) and 10 lbs of sugar. I will need two large containers, which I don't have at the moment.

The point is to have a extra on hand. However, there's no point in buying things one or one's family won't eat. This is where the extra thought comes in, what and how to cook stuff that the family will eat?

Practice. It's the only way to learn.

Here at Jordan's Croft, I have a pantry. It was the first part of my kitchen that I fell in love with. I keep extras in the pantry. So I have two jars of peanut butter, two jars of jam, four kinds of rice mix, six types of noodles, a case of ramen noodles, an extra bottle of cooking oil, three types of flour, raisins and nuts as well as potatoes, white and sweet, garlic and onions.

We eat a lot of stir-fried foods with either rice or noodles. Years ago I decided that I liked to eat different vegetables stir-fried together instead of just carrots or peas or cabbage. So I just cut up whatever we've got on hand, stir-fry it, put it over either rice or noodles and enjoy.

We really like eating this way. A few staples in the fridge, a bit of rice, some flavorings and dinner!

Anyone can do this. One just needs to find out what works for you and your situation.

How does this work out?

When the store shelves were empty, we still had toilet paper, because there was an extra pack in the guest bathroom. We had everything we needed to make a big pot of beef soup and chicken soup three days later because we had powdered broth, noodles, dried vegetables and herbs, a little bit of beef and a couple chicken thighs stashed in the freezer.

By the the time we were running short, most of the things we really needed were back on the shelves. I needed fresh foods the most, carrots, celery, potatoes, and milk. Frozen vegetables and chicken thighs were enough to keep us eating. We're almost out of oatmeal, but it's back on the shelves, so we are fine. We picked up a small pack of toilet paper one week, and a larger one a week later, never opening the extra pack in the guest bath.

Hope this helps.