Our pantry

Concord Grape juice from last Falls crop, below that tomato sauce.
The pickles are from last years garden too, I only can pickles
every other year.

Our collection of medicinal and culinary herbs. Sorry it's so dark, the

flash wouldn't work because of the light to the left.

Herbs on the upper shelf, honey, dried beans, peanut butter, etc... on

lower shelf. The shelf directly in front holds canning supplies,new lids, a

case of Sure Gel, vinegar,etc....

Can't get the whole area in a picture, so here is a sliced photo. The

canned goods( apple sauce, green beans, chokecherry juice,stewed

rhubarb sauce, canned beets, etc.....) are on shelves around the back

half and the front half(left side) is our dried goods( flours, raw sugar,

dried beans, pastas,etc...) and the refrigerator for milk and eggs is just

to the left of the buckets.

Just canned these last night, 7 pints of Basil dill beans. Ummmm,

Ummm!

Well, we need to get a move on it, we're picking beans, corn, cukes

this morning, then we'll get barns cleaned, then roll up hoses and start

mowing. I still have a load of sheets to hang out, but am waiting for

whites to dry.

I'll get more of Cortney's pictures posted ASAP.*wink*

Yellowstone National Park, through Cortney's eyes

The famous attraction at Yellowstone National Park, Bison and
I think the wolves are the next biggest! Sadly the wolves have done far
more harm, especially to the elk population. It's an ongoing debate in
Montana and Wyoming, because the wolf packs have migrated out of
the park and are now targeting the ranchers livestock. Wolves kill
not only to eat but for the fun of it. I'm torn, I see the frustration and loss
for the ranchers, but yet these wolves didn't get here by themselves
either, it was the environmentalists who fought to have them
re-introduced. They had to be introduced, why, because they were
killed by ranchers trying to protect their stock and it's happening again.

Bison have caught there fair share of the blame as well, with the
Brucellosis issue and again sadly it isn't there fault. The spreading
of this disease, which causes cattle to abort their calves, is in large
part due to it's a disease that's been around for a long.... long... time
and elk are also carriers, more so than bison. The elk calve, in the
same areas the ranchers have their cattle and thus the spread of
disease continues. Don't get me wrong, all of the animals need to be
controlled for the health of the animals themselves as well for the area
ranchers.

Bison drinking
More bison( buffalo) grazing, there are plenty to see in the park.
A bull elk( and Cortney's finger*wink*), still showing signs of being in

velvet. These animals are accustom to onlookers and getting their

pictures taken, but they are still wild animals. Many people think they

are tame and every year the park has incidents of injury to people,

some fatal.

I remember, when I was about 12 yrs old and our family went camping in

and around Yellowstone Park, we saw a man walk out to a HUGE bull

elk and lift up a child as if to set the child on the elk.

My Dad said,"We're leaving, someone is going to get hurt!"

The man even grabbed one side of elk's antlers,

Yikes!

Cortney with one of the falls of the Yellowstone River in the

background.

She loves waterfalls, so took plenty of pictures*wink*
Here is a view from the walkout platform, it's a long way down. You can

virtual tour of the park online and get all the wonderful info.

This is a young moose, it's mother is just off to the right of the photo( out

of view)

It's kind of hard to see them( click to enlarge the photo) and you'll see

mama and baby. They are awesome creatures and until you see one

up close you don't realize just how big they are. My Dad and Jon, our

son, were lucky enough to get permits and both filled them. This

happened on different years, my Dad got his cow and then 4-5 yrs later

Jon got a yearling bull( no paddles) This is one of the finest wild game

meats I've eaten, very lean and tender.

Can you find the chipmunk? The gang stopped for lunch and these little

guys showed up and begged like mad for a treat!

I still have whitewater rafting and zip line pictures to post. She had a

great time and saw old friend, made so many new ones and that is

a blessing indeed.

I don't like the signs I'm beginning to see!

Well..... as you know and I've said it before we've had the Summer without Summer and now yesterday I see the cottonwoods are already changing in color. Cortney and I have so much catch up work on weeding and with all the harvesting, canning, freezing and add now working on getting our hoop house in place over the tomatoes. The maters look wonderful but are GREEN as can be! We need to get some heat on them, otherwise we'll need to find lots of recipes for green mater and right now green mater spaghetti sauce, chili sauce or tomato sauce doesn't sound to good! Let's see I have to think in reverse now to see what we've been up to since the last blog, Hmmmm. Watering the garden has kept up busy, especially since you have to douse yourself in DEEP WOODS OFF to kind of fend off the skeeters. Let me tell you it's miserable trying to weed or pick produce and they are dive bombing you, literally trying to suck you dry!!! Friday morning and early afternoon was spent prepping for Farmer's Market. Dad and Mom joined in, and helped Cortney pick pole beans, while I picked cucumbers and bush beans. When this portion of the harvest was done we have 10 gallon sized bags of Kentucky Wonder pole beans and 2 gallon bags of Boccochia bush beans and approx. 25 slicing sized cukes. Next we harvested carrots, beets, spinach and I cut two Flat Dutch cabbage and two Red Rock cabbage. Actually we were packed and ready to go 30 minutes before we needed to leave, so took a breather. Once we arrived people started coming over, even before we were set up. We sold out of carrots ( 6 bunches, approx. 1lb each), sold 6 bags of beans, of the 5 bags of spinach, we returned with two. and sold out of cukes. The beets weren't as good a seller this time and we found out onions don't sell at all. I thought fresh garlic would sell too but it has had very little activity. It was a pleasant afternoon at the market and we had several repeat customers. We didn't take baked goods for lack of time, but the lady next to us had several items and another vendor had pies and they all sold out. One thing that struck me funny is that several of the people buying from us, weren't even sure how to cook the veggies, let alone have any idea of recipes. If I can get organized enough maybe it would be a good selling point to have sheets of recipes for the veggies we sell, to hand out! I guess because we eat and cook from scratch it NEVER dawned on me that not everyone does that, in fact one lady said," I'll be able to fix a meal, so we can eat at home for once." We'll be able to sell for sure at this coming Friday's market, but the following Fri(Sept. 4th) we'll be busy preparing for Cortney's small BBQ gathering for her graduation on the 5th. Speaking of the BBQ for Cortney's graduation, we NEED to get the garden/yard and house into shape, as well as fix , coleslaw, baked beans and a fruit salad of sorts. It's been a long haul doing home schooling, but it's worth it and we get to have a party to celebrate. The only other kind of a party that would be as much fun, will be our mortgage burning party and we're praying that will be soon! Since the firewood lean to was completed, Mike has hauled home a load of wood and the splitter, to split what is already here. On Friday morning my Dad started splitting wood and ran into problems with the splitter, so had to stop. Mike brought home the needed parts with the intention of getting it up and going early Sat. morning, but alas late Fri. evening a friend called and asked if we wanted to bale some straw for our own use. Well..... we need the straw for winter bedding for the cows and it is almost FREE( we'll insist they take something for the straw) so.... Mike gets the tractor and baler hooked up and heads off to the field to bale. He returns about an hour later and says the three windrows netted us 106 bales of straw, WaHOOO!!! You see last year Mike didn't have time to do this when the friend offered, so we ended up buying large round bales from the same friend, but they are a pain in the backside to get straw off of. Small bales just work so... much better for Cortney and myself. Mike and I went to load the straw last Sat. afternoon. My one concern was the place we had to enter the field was muddy and we had to drive through a small ditch. Anyway we loaded the straw on the truck and trailer and headed for the way out. Mike's truck is only a two wheel drive, so tried to stay on the drier side of the entrance. Okay truck made it through but...... the dual axle trailer was stuck and the truck just spun it's wheels. So Mike calls on cell and tells Cortney to bring the three wheeler over and pick him up. I wait in the truck, fighting off skeeters, soon enough I see Mike and his tractor coming. He hooked onto the truck with a chain and I was to drive the truck slowly as he pulled with the tractor. Ya, you bet, I'm nervous, I hate trucks and I don't want to be yelled at. So I have to do this, let the clutch out slowly, give it a little gas, wait a minute Mike is yelling to get off the gas" CUT IT!" is the sign I'm getting. It seems and I admit that in all the excitement I was giving it a bit much gas, but we're out so all is good, right? Did I say I hate trucks, so I took the tractor home, while Mike drove the truck and trailer. I get along with the tractor fine*wink* Yesterday Mike was up and gone by 6 am. on a wild land fire just East of us. It was ignited the evening before by lightening and evidently there were some missed hot spots that reignited. He returned home around 11:30 am and asked Cortney and I if we were ready to go. We asked where and he said someplace, anyplace, we all just NEED to get away for the afternoon. Some chore needed to be finished and clothes changed and we were off to the city. We decided a movie might be just the ticket. The last time we'd been to a theater was when, "The Passion" came out. We decided we'd try the BRAND new theater, it has 14 screens! We didn't even know what was playing until we got there. We decided between G.I. Joe and District 9, our choice District 9, because I wasn't feeling up for war games. Wrong choice, District 9 was really weird, I think G.I.Joe would have been the better choice*sigh* The matinee cost was $6.50, it used to be $4, that is part of why it's so long between this sort of treat, way to spendy for our budget and then the movie is weird to boot! Back home in time for Mike to work on fixing the wood splitter and splits some wood. In the meantime Cortney and I snapped approx. 5 gallons of beans and we still have 4 more to go. Today we're doing laundry( although it's grey and ugly outside, again!) canning beans and hopefully weeding in the garden, if we can stand the skeeters for long enough. There is a slight breeze so better get a move on it in the weeding dept. Well that's the excitement from here! Blessings for your week from, The new tractor driver, move over Jon you lost your place!

What really happened with the President's visit to MT

This was sent to me by my Aunt, it is her friend in Bozeman who wrote this and I felt led to post it here for all to read, the TRUE news. Not exactly what was reported by our liberal local news media, but that really isn't much of a surprise.

People are waking up, I fear it is to little and "To Late" already.

What Really Happened Last Week in Montana

Hello All,

By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last
Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not
covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport
on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with
the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with
others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this.

On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would
be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare
and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they
were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than
the date.

On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall"
at the airport. (This is only because Bill knows EVERYONE at the airport)
Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very
remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that
is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote
location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from
the public.

FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a
large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums).
All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!!
$$$$$

During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly.
Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was
our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially
during a recession. $$$$$

Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be
handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be
arriving around 12:30 Friday.

Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were
printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm......900
tickets just DISAPPEARED.


This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch
and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama.
Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been
really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the
Recession?? Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is
doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.

On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that
wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to
protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be. A large bus
carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up
onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion
and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a
fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they
did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd. The SEIU crowd was
very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were
not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even
wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with
them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted
signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER
area)

Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid
confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept
coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and
aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.

So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs
and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you
name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He
found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to
protest.

If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks
were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked
on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were
even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the
crowds. We did have some local news media around us from this state and
Idaho . Speaking of the local media...they were invited. However, all
questions were to be turned into the White House in advance
of the event.

Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.

It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the
White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make
it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare.
Even those people that talked about their insurance woes........the White
House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and
asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and
mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The
amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not
living in the United States of America , more like the USSR !! I was
physically nauseous. Bill and I have been
around when Presidents or Heads
of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened
for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care
about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress
hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so
much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in
Washington DC . Scary!!

Kathy
Bozeman , Montana

Still running, now I don't know if I'm coming or going, LOL!!!

Okay, I even forgot and did the pictures backward, go to the bottom
to see how it all began*sigh*
The stainless bowl has beans to large for canned green beans, but...
they work great for Dilly or Pickled Basil Beans. Here is the recipe;

Pickled Basil Beans

4lbs beans
1-3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
3-1/2 tsp. whole mustard seed
3-1/2 tsp dill seed
14 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of fresh Basil or 3-1/2 tsp dried Basil
5 c. apple cider vinegar
5 c. water
1/4 c. salt
Pack beans vertically in clean, sterile pint jars. To each jar
add 1/4 tsp red pepper,1/2 tsp. whole mustard seed, 1/2 tsp.
dill seed, 2 cloves garlic(crushed) and a sprig of fresh basil
or 1/2 tsp dried basil.
Combine water, vinegar and salt and bring to a full rolling
boil, add to jars filling to within 1/2 of rim. Seal and water
bath( on a full rolling boil) for 10 min.

Our first picking of sweetcorn. This is an OP, old fashioned variety

so not necessarily perfect and pretty, but ever so tasty! We have lots

coming and still have our late corn crop, tasseled and forming ears.

Our second batch of canned beans, our canner hold 7 qts. You can

see in the background, cukes green peppers and my two extra rubber

seals for the canner. BTW, we had this checked at the Extension

office and the gauge was right on, so we're good to go!

This is our third picking of the Kentucky Wonder pole beans. The bowl

in the background( plastic) is a Tupperware That's A Bowl and the

stainless steel bowl is quite large too. We netted 14 qts of beans

and the bowl of larger beans for pickling.

On today's agenda:

Wash clothes, about 7 loads because we bought some clothes at a

secondhand store yesterday.

Change sheets on beds

Morning chores

Make bread, an extra batch, to make hamburger buns

( to put in the freezer) for Cortney's Graduation BBQ on Sept. 5th

Mow the yard

Get water going in the yard and garden,Especially the cantaloupe,

corn, cukes and russet potatoes.

Mail Cortney's Graduation announcements

Get dinner going, so it's ready by 6:30 pm.

We do have beautiful pictures to share from Cortney's trip to,

Yellowstone National Park but need to downsize them before

putting on here. Some are, action packed white water rafting

and zip line riding!

See you soon!

Never Done Kelle *wink*

This is the telephone pole flowerbed. I posted pictures awhile back
and just look at it now. The flowers on the right side of the pole(tall
ones), they are Maximilian sunflowers and won't bloom until mid to late
Sept.

This is one of my favorite canning books, it has recipes with all natural

ingredients, such as making jam and jelly with honey instead of sugar.

There is also a Stocking Up II and a volume III as well. If you might find

a volume 1 they are a great homestead tool!

Some more pints of pickled beets, a few fresh green peppers, banana

peppers, cucumbers and a small tomato( this mornings picks) The

1/2 bushel basket has new potatoes, dug last Friday.

A large enough harvest of beans( 1/2 bushel) to mess with canning.

They're coming on like gang busters, and soon enough I'll be sick of

dealing with them.

I just have to remind myself of all the lovely homegrown, home

preserved foods for a long winter and well into Spring 2010.

Cortney's cat, Callie taking a moment to pose for a quick picture, then

right back to mousing

I can't seem to get both these boys to look at the camera at the same

time, so this is the best of three I took. Casino(left) and Tuffy are not

loyal companions, they are our guard dogs( Casino is the mouth piece,

Tuffy the muscle*wink*) Tuffy is the working dog and he is fairly good

at herding the cows when we need him to, especially for no formal

training.

Mike's latest, "Honey Do!" He; with a bit of help now and again from

me, built this lean-to for storage of our firewood. YEAH! no more frozen

tarps for Cortney and I to fight all winter.

Okay, yes that is Kosha weed and yes it is tall, but it's left on purpose

for the Fall feeder pigs. Mike has to move one side of the pig pen in a

about a foot. To the left is their hut and when it's cold, it's stuffed full of

straw and you can't see a pig one, until they hear the slop bucket, LOL!

Click to enlarge. You'll be able to see all the beautiful colors in the front

wildflower bed and in the beds along the sidewalk. I think in the 6-1/2

yrs. we've lived here this is the best our yard and gardens have looked.

:o)

Those Zinnias were a gift from a friend in NE, Hi Dawn! Aren't they

lovely?

A close up of some of the front wildflowers. I think next year it will be

better, as they reseed themselves for next Spring.

Here's what it looks like and let me tell you it's better than mowing in the

slant. This used to be a irrigation ditch and it is dangerous to ride on

a mower along it, so we always ended up mowing it with the push

mower.

Concord grapes, although not as plentiful this year. This is why you

should take advantage of bumper crops when you have them. We have

plenty of canned juice in the pantry.

The garden looks good, don't look at the weeds please*wink*. I think

we'll put our mini hoophouse over the tomatoes again this year.

It just hasn't been hot enough and on Sat. our fore casted high is

supposed to be 65F. I have a weird feeling Autumn is here. This has

been the summer with no summer*sigh*

I can't believe how tall some of the hollyhocks have gotten, I guess the

rain has helped them.

Still working in the greenhouse, these are new starts of some of our

favorite herbs. These will hopefull sustain us through the winter.

pictured is Sweet Basil.

Majoram and lettuce leaf basil
Our greenhouse salad planters, going to seed. Speaking of seeds, I

you are remembering to collect seed.

The tomatoes are doing well, giving us a few ripe fruit every day or so.

It is my plan to see if we can overwinter these in the house.

Sorry for the absence, but as I always say,"Life happened" and it will

happen again*wink, especially with harvest and canning in full swing.

I've been trying to keep up on all your blogs, but those with lots of

picture on each page,I'm having trouble getting them to

load quick enough, so will catch up with you at a later point when

things slow a bit. I am reading as fast as I can, but don't always have

the time to comment.

Take care and I will be back in touch, I promise.

Blessings to each of you.

Pictures of the Living History Farmstead ....

If you click on the picture, you'll be able to read a bit of the history of
the farmstead. The smaller cabin is the picture below this and it is now
used as a blacksmith shop.

This is the small cabin that the family of 10( Dad, Mom and eight

children) lived in for 17 yrs.

The layout is like this; to the right of the front door is the dining parlor;

to the left is the living room and straight back is the kitchen. The

staircase to upstairs is to the left of the kitchen, just inside the front

door. The upstairs has four bedrooms and a larger room( over the

kitchen) and was set up as a sewing/ spinning, weaving and quilting

room. There is a covered porch off the kitchen and the well with

pitcher pump is just 5-8 ft away from the porch area. There is a root

cellar, two seat outhouse, blacksmith shop, barn, garden shed with

cold frames on the south side.

The gardens( flower and produce) are absolutely beautiful! They

contain only heritage plants and it was so very exciting to see all the

flowers growing, that I didn't know even grew in MT.

If you click the picture, you can see the back porch and the roof top of

outside entry to the root cellar( far left, just past the pine tree) The

window to the left is the kitchen area, it is actually quit large for a

home of this time period.

A picture of a sample of the flowerbeds and one of the four vegetable

gardens.( click the picture to see larger version) If this farmstead

was closer to our local I'd be on the volunteer list, for sure!*wink*

I couldn't go inside without paying for admission again, so no inside

pictures, sorry. :o(

This speaks volumes, praying many are listening....

Have you ever not been able to put your finger on a feeling or lack of interest in a growing movement? This is how we've felt about the two below movements and Mr. John Galt took the words we couldn't convey right out of our mouth, thank you John. Please read the article below, pray and then follow your heart.



An Open Letter to the 9-12 Movement and the Tea Party Participants

August 6, 2009

Dear Participants of the 9-12 Project and Tea Parties,

God Love ya’ gang.

I know what you are trying to do and believe me, I think it is noble. Five years too late, but noble. I am aware that some of your groups have been hijacked by the usual screwball hypocritical RNC types and some groups are doing all they can to evict the clowns or bypass them. Others just get into lockstep and march with the liars who brought our nation to this point thinking that a Republican Progressive is better than a Democrat Socialist Progressive. That’s for another day or for everyone to read the editorial I wrote titled “Blame Wisconsin” for a historical perspective.

The AstroTurf protests look great (sorry but I just grinned reading the grimace on the face of the White House Robots when they uttered those words) but now what? You’ve caught the semi and have the rear tire in your dog jowls and you don’t know what to do. Meanwhile, the socialists are trying to shift the big semi of public opinion into reverse and crush your movement. As the big dog right now, you can either move up to the front and chew those tires off or play by the same old playbook and get steamrolled by the MMM (Marxist Media Movement) which will be more than happy to have pictures of your protests broadcast worldwide with plants wearing Nazi emblems as the Wicked Witch of the West so proudly lied about on national television.

Glenn Beck took a call before the noon hour today about the protests and town halls and his suggestion was to protest outside of their offices in local communities and if they were single, in front of the homes of the cowards, er politicians who were ducking their constituents. The problem is that your movements have failed to realize that you are not their constituents whether you voted for them or not. Glenn fails to address this issue not because he is scared, although he should be, in reality he probably cannot address the issue due to legal liability problems. Thus I offer a solution which will cost your movements and the protests a measly $2.20 each to start and a wee bit more in the end, if you would like to learn how to win the war instead of just one or two battles.

I was Them

This is a first time, hard time, and most painful admission but most of my readers would understand that if you were a college student in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s odds are you were a Reagan hating left wingnut lunatic.

I was at that time as a sophomore, one of those subterranean slimeballs because it was great dating hippie chicks and even better it meant you did not have to be responsible for anything. Until you graduated from college and reality sets in. Which I did. And then you realized the hippie chicks were nasty skanks who viewed clothing optional the same way they viewed shaving and showering as optional also.

Thus a great conversion happened in my life and I was saved from a life of being a community organizer with no morals and a preplanned desire to usurp the Constitution and institute every Marxist’s wet dream fantasy. However during my time being a moron and a bum, I did learn how their non-violent tactics worked and much to my chagrin now, they were quite effective. Until the really radical nutcases moved in and that is when America finally had had enough and rejected the scum.

So just how did they do it?

$0.44 and Ingenuity



A stamp can cause more pain to the Obamanation than a screaming seventy year old woman at a town hall meeting. More on that a bit later. Now that the Marxist movements have captured your strategy, you can not stay static nor remain focused. It is time to attack, not with violence but with brilliance, the constituents of the political class need a message sent to them and considering the fragile nature of their economic designs, they are most vulnerable at this time for paying attention to the voters and not their lackeys in Washington, D.C.

There is a website provided by the very people who we need to send a message to at the Federal Election Commission which provides you a portal for the 2008 and 2010 elections to see just who is donating money to these morons who refuse to listen to the will of the people. A lot of people are under the misconception that businesses do not listen and do not pay attention but alas, that is a lie. You see, what the left wingnuts used to do during the hippie transition era of the late 1970’s is exactly the same tact that the poverty pimps used during the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Thus if you wish to get the attention of the political elites, you have to approach the business community and get their attention. First, you contact in writing or via telephone the business in question. You notify them that you are aware of their contributions to a certain Democratic Congresscritter, oh, like Kathy Castor from the Tampa area. You politely remind them that you pulled the information from the FEC website and that you do not approve of businesses who contribute funds to a politician who wishes to promote a certain issue, like socialized medicine. Let’s take a look at a sample page from this year with a list of contributors from the FEC website:



Wow, two large companies felt it was necessary to pay homage and contributions to a noted left wing socialist type who supports everything antithetical to capitalist ideals. I guess this means that they won’t mind then, a series of protests in front of their businesses with oh, say 200 or 300 9-12ers or Tea Party supporters with signs stating that their companies support stealing health care from the elderly, Eugenics, and candidates that support these causes. If you do that, do it on a public sidewalk and make sure that when they television cameras arrive, you bunch up and look noisy so the reporters can report that the “mob” makes them “uncomfortable.” Whatever you do, do not act violently! Be peaceful, chant, pray, sing whatever to cause pain for the business in question until they agree IN WRITING to no longer support the cause or politician(s) you oppose.

That is how the left did it. They realized decades ago that protesting the candidates or politicians accomplished nothing but by boycotting the contributors on a local basis you can create pain that will piss off the donors and finally get legitimate recognition that the media will not ignore. Think about “Joe’s Chevrolet” should it be on that list. How many customers do you think will avoid the ‘Cash for Clunker’s’ bargains if there are two hundred protesters on the sidewalk in front of their business on a Saturday afternoon because the owner decided to pay bribe money to a local politician? You can not win calling, you can not win faxing, you can not win whining to Mr. Beck on the radio; you must adapt, change and confront.

Now for the big question: What happens if the police arrive?

You have to have a plan to bail the cohorts out of jail. Do not resist arrest, simply sit down on the sidewalk, lock arms and start singing the “My Country Tis’ of Thee” when they start to assemble in force. When the officers approach, politely inform them you will not disburse, that you are exercising your First Amendment right to protest (make sure you have a permit but if the local government is corrupt, screw them, assemble anyways) and tell the officer you have to be booked. If they have to start hauling 200 people a day to the local lock up for processing, the businesses will begin to feel the impact as you spread the word.

When an officer approaches, ask if you can pray first and invite him to pray with you. Recite the Lord’s Prayer, then unhook your arm from the person next to you, and follow his or hers instructions with a “yes sir” or “yes ma’am” (unless the officer’s last name is “Boxer” then you say ‘yes Senator’) and they will haul you off to jail. If 200 people did this, the police will respect you for cooperating but you’ll get a small fine as a result and some media attention, especially if they arrest 200 plus seventy year old protesters.

Now for the first class stamp. A major corporation like a Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, etc. could care less about one letter. But a million letters a day? Yeah, that would get their attention. Do not waste your time on sending letters to companies where the government has direct control or ownership like Bank of America, Citigroup, Fannie Mae, GM, etc. Work on the medium sized companies that do not have the staff or personnel to handle the load. Look for a mid-Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 company for example with revenues less than one billion bucks, but enough to contribute to the anti-American politicians and causes. A semi-trailer full of bags of mail for a week will slow their company processes down and with polite letters mixed in with their regular mail either force a public comment about their support for Obamanation policies or better yet, force them to withdraw financial support for those politicians (the real goal) who think you are just another right wing radical nut clutching your Bible and gun. This is more of a 9-12 Project type of thing but in your letters, please be factual, polite and do not curse. Most importantly, hand write every one of them and thank your local Post Office for the hard work those poor folks put into the effort carrying all the mail. They are just schmucks like us, trying to get by.

That is how the nuts work gang. They want to disrupt and hijack funding, not convince the masses they are right or wrong. They realized this in the 1990’s and moved accordingly. I would suggest those of you so inclined to make a difference consider your position, your liabilities and these tactics as there are oh so many more which one can use if you read their playbook or just remember what annoyed the hell out of you in the late 1970’s.

As for myself, I will remind you that I’m a 73er. The last person you want to make a call to action for.

I wish you the greatest of success and hope you win the day. If not, we are ready.

God Bless,

John Galt

www.johngaltfla.com

Gheeezz.... has it been a week already?

I can't believe it's been a week since my last blog, where does the time go? Okay I'll try not to ramble but will update as to what has happened around The Never Done Farm. Wednesday Dad and I took Cortney to camp. She had to be checked in by 2pm and we actually arrived around 1:30 pm. Everyone was glad to see her and glad she could come at a moments notice. We said our goodbyes and asked the quickest route to the Museum of the Rockies. We found the museum and our first stop was the Planetarium. The shows we've seen in previous visits were much better, this show was more based for children, which is probably due to summer and loads of kids visiting the museum. We walked around looking at all the great dinosaur skeletons, reading info and taking stock of how many digs were from close to our are and even from our county. They have Indian history as well as U.S. history sections in the museum as well. I liked the dinosaur info and was in awe of how HUGE these animals were, but my favorite tour was of the Living History Farm. It's an homestead, and the property is it's original local. The main house is two story( wish I'd have remembered my camera), maybe we can get some photos on Thurs. trip to pick up Cortney, and was built in 1898. They have women who cook meals on the beautiful wood cook stove and a blacksmith and a gardener on staff, in period clothing. My Dad was quick to share with one of the ladies that we live a very similar life. She said, "Oh, you don't have electricity or running water?" I sheepishly explained we do have those modern conveniences, but cook on a wood cook stove, wash with a wringer washer, can our harvest of produce, raise our own meats, dairy and such. I had to giggle; here I think we live such an old fashioned life and she was quick to point out that we aren't so old fashioned at all, we do have the modern conveniences of electric, natural gas and running water, Sheeesh* blushing* Anyway I love this "Living History Farm". If you are ever going through Bozeman, I'd put it on my list of places to stop and see, it's The Museum of the Rockies. You can easily spend an entire day there looking and learning. We didn't hit the road for home until after 5 pm but made good time arriving home around 7pm. Thursday I HAD to get laundry finished*blushing*, pick beans, cukes and a few maters and mow the yard! After an inch of rain in previous days and a few days of sunshine it was almost in need of swathing. We have a riding mower but not a bagger and this grass was long and therefore left piles, so I raked too, and the chickens, turkeys and Mo loved the clippings! I wasn't finished by the time Mike came home, so he pulled out the push mower and started in on the back orchard area. We had it all wrapped up by supper time, many hands do make light work! Friday I spent the day prepping for our first farmer's market. I'd held off picking until that morning to have the freshest possible produce to sell. It was a grey and dreary morning but I had beets, onions and carrots to harvest. It's a good thing I'm not made of sugar, it drizzled all morning, into early afternoon*grin*. I had a bushel basket full of nice sized beets, a bag of onions and enough for several nice bundles of baby carrots. After washing and deciding the best way to present these veggies, I had price tags to make and the table, chair, umbrella and coolers to load. My Dad graciously came over to help with the coolers( one was big and awkward to handle alone) Here is what I took, beets( bagged in ziplock bags, 6 to7 small and medium sized), carrots( 10-12 per) bundled and bound with a rubber band, onions( 2 per bag), tomatoes( three per bag), yellow peppers,( 4 per) and garlic in braids. This is a new market, so it was slow at first(from 4pm to 7pm) but as people were getting off and heading home from work it picked up. I was pleased with the amount of sales I had. I was worried about my pricing( I didn't want to under price but also didn't want to gouge anyone either) The tomatoes were the hit, nobody else had any. I wish we'd had more to sell, but it is just the extras we decided to sell. Beets sold well, not one bag of onions sold, garlic sold well and the baby carrots were a hit as well. From our first ever market sale we made $50 and this is again a new market just starting up so I was happy. This Friday I hope to have New Zealand Spinach, slicing size cukes,green peppers, green beans, possibly a few tomatoes, baby carrots( I NEED to thin them),garlic and new potatoes. I'm not sure if I'll take onions again and I may try to package some fresh herbs and see how they sell. If the market clientele keeps growing I will add breads, but not right now. Sat. Mike had to work and his store had it's 6 month inventory. This is where EVERYTHING has to be counted, every nut, bolt, and hitch pin. It's a job to say the least! Helping hands were short, as one of the employees was on vacation, so I offered to help. I missed not having Cortney to help count while I wrote down the description and count. I arrived later than the rest, due to chores and getting supper thrown together in the crock pot( ham bone, new potatoes and fresh snapped green beans with a little onion and garlic added to enhance the flavor) and worked until 3:30pm. Our dogs are not accustom to being locked up for this long so figured I'd better head home to let them out. The store inventory was NOT finished and Mike and his employees worked until 6:30pm and they still have some small items to count yet. Since they were late getting away on Sat. they didn't do the cleaning. Mike and I decided that he'd like to count some more and I would work on cleaning the store on Sunday afternoon. Sunday we got up and fed at 5:30 am and then returned to bed and slept in until 8am., WaHooo! Mike worked on tearing down a cylinder for repair and I cleaned up breakfast dishes and did reg. chores. I had noticed that the trap under the kitchen sink was dripping a few days earlier( placed a bowl under it to catch any drips) and mentioned it to Mike. He took a look and discovered that our mineral rich water(grumble, grumble) had eaten away a portion one of the nuts that attaches the pieces. So off to the nearest hardware store for a new nut and silicon seal. When we returned we figured we better get up to his store and clean and count so we'd be done for evening chores. We ended up DEEP down cleaning in some much needed areas and lost track of the time, it was 8pm when Mike's cell phone rang, it was Cortney to tell us about her exciting day! After each talking and hearing of her day and all the animals she saw, we closed up the store and headed for home. We had supper already, my Dad had BBQ-ed some venison burgers earlier, so all we had to do was reheat them in a cast iron pan( on low, just to heat not cook) we also had salad, chips and deviled eggs. So far this week I've been playing catchup on cleaning and gardening. Today it's already time to mow again. I NEED to weed whack, which I have begun to really dislike doing*groan* I also need to pick beans, raspberries and finish irrigating the garden. Doesn't sound right I know, over an inch of rain late last week and already irrigating! Our soil is sandy so moisture doesn't stick around for long. Coming soon....... our first harvest of sweetcorn! The electric fence seems to be working, no evidence of coons in our corn nor deer in the melons. The Kentucky Wonder pole beans will be ready for their first harvest in about a week, I'd guess. I'm thinking coleslaw sound good, so will cut a head of cabbage soon. I told Mike I think we're going to have to put our tunnel over the tomatoes again, to get enough heat to ripen them quicker, than one or two at a time. I need to make and can some spaghetti sauce, chili sauce and tomato sauce and that will be impossible if they keep ripening one, two and three at a time. Plus the tunnel will keep the deer out! *Grrr..* Okay I've written a mini novel, may the remainder of your week be full of blessings. I'll work on getting some pictures of the Living History Farm and updated photos of the garden. I'm off to hang laundry, let the girls( cows) out and clean barns and roll up hoses and begin mowing before it gets to warm, although today it's fore casted to be in the mid 80's, not bad! I've missed hearing from all of you*wink*!