The recession is unofficially over

Don't you feel better now?

We may all want to move to KS . . .

. . . because some in their state senate are planning to opt out of a federal socialized medicine program.

However, I wouldn't bet on the feds letting that happen. Besides, if all freedom loving American's moved there it might get kind of crowded.

Only a few more days until #3 son's first hunt

We can hardly wait. In the mean time we got some good pics on the game cam.

Here is a nice bit of venison.

He wanted to come back and let us get a pic of his other side.


Here is some more with a nice helping of turkey on the side.


This is another nice chunk of meat.


Here are a couple of younger ones.


This is a shot of some very tender meat standing with next years crop.


This could be Thanksgiving dinner. The tree rat just had to get into the shot.


We could have ham for dinner.


Here are some hors d'oeuvres. Now you know the purpose of the cage and sheet metal.


Thieves.

I hope everyone has good luck in the hunting field this season.

Hussein has tied President Bush at something

Some people liked to complain about how much golf President Bush played while in office. Well, President Hussein has now played as much golf in his first 9 months in office as President Bush did in 2 years and 10 months.

Here is your link.

For my part I wish President Hussein would play more golf. That would leave him less time to harm the nation.

Getting #3 son ready for his first hunt

He is 6. I took him out Saturday to do a little shooting. We hadn't been out for a while so I had to go over the Four Rules with him a little. After a few warmup shots at paper with the .22 he was doing pretty well and fired several nice groups. We switched to a steel plate. I think it is a 4" diameter plate. When he hit it 6 times in a row I declared him "up to speed enough" and he switched to a "deer rifle".

This is a Marlin 336 with an XS Scout Mount and a Simmons Prohunter 2x pistol scope on it. It also has an adjustable cheek rest from Fulton Armory. If you search the blog you will find links to this stuff. The youngster was also using a PAST Magnum Recoil Shield.

The ammunition was Remington Managed Recoil factory loads which have a 125gr pointed softpoint Corelokt bullet at a nominal 2175fps. It has much less recoil than full power factory ammo. My experience is that this is plenty of power if you hit a deer properly. Again, if you search back through the blog you can probably find some info on deer that my oldest boy has taken with this load.

At any rate the young hunter fired his first shot at 25 yards to see what it was like. He liked it. He said he enjoyed the recoil. Good man. I like a good belt up to a point. He then fired 3 more shots at the same target. His first group with a "high powered" rifle was four shots in about 3" at 25 yards.

When his older brothers could do as well at about his age they were declared ready to make venison and they did just that.

I think we'll have a full freezer again this year.

Sitting out in the dark and freezing cold for hours waiting for deer and turkey to come along is good for youngsters. "It builds character" and all that sort of stuff. The same boy that will sometimes stop and cry when he gets a grass burr while walking will say "Ow, ow, ow!!!" and keep going when he gets a grass burr while he's helping to lift his deer into the back of a truck. Seeing what a bullet will do to a living creature gives youngsters a respect for firearms that talking and books just can't deliver. Seeing, smelling and touching a still warm animal and later eating a meal from that same animals helps youngsters understand their place in the world and where food comes from. Kids know that hamburger comes from cows and fried chicken comes from a bird, but they don't really KNOW it until they've had a hand in the process and seen it for themselves.

Get your kids out in the field. Killing things and eating them should be part of their education.

Maybe I should call my mortgage company

Why? Check this out.

I could call them and tell them that if they don't knock a bunch off my principle then I'll just quit paying. This area isn't hurting as bad as many parts of the country but there are a lot of For Sale signs around and a lot of them have been up for quite a while.

I'll call this strategy "post-contractual renegotiation" or some such legalese sounding nonsense. It works for the government, right? If it's good enough for them then it ought to be good enough for me.

To steal a line from Dilbert, "I'm working smarter, not harder."

The government paying the mortgage for the unemployed in PA

So if you're unemployed in PA you only have to pay $25 per month on your mortgage?

That's a nice gig if you can get it. Between the government forcing someone else to pay for your mortgage and your health insurance unemployement doesn't seem so bad.

The program is supposed to last for two or three years "depending on the individual's finances and the economic situation" which means three years. After three years I guess the individual is supposed to start paying back the loan, but the the article doesn't mention any details of that. When the state of PA starts trying to make people pay back these loans you will hear wailing and whining about the poor victim having to pay back two loans at the same time.

My favorite part is where the article mentions describes the program as one "which has depleted resources". No kidding. I can't think of any forced wealth redistribution program that doesn't have "depleted resources". They ALL have that. If there is ever a forced wealth redistribution plan that doesn't have "depleted resources" then the government will expand the program to cover more people and transfer larger amounts of money until the resources are depleted.

As obvious as the whole "depleted resources" issue is, what is the federal government doing? If you said "More of the same and piled higher and deeper" then you are right.

From the article:

Using taxpayer funds to keep out-of-work homeowners in their homes until they find another job is an option being looked at by some officials in the Obama administration, according to people familiar with government financial rescue programs.

At issue is an administration program that is employing $50 billion in taxpayer funds from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to help lenders modify mortgages for troubled homeowners.

When I was a kid I remember one of the many times I did something stupid. I don't remember what I did but I do remember my dad asking me "Why did you do that?"

I replied "My older sister did it, too."

He replied "If she went out and stepped in a pile of dog mess on purpose and tracked it on the carpet would you do that, too?"

Evidently, this administration would.

Here is another little bit that I love:

The loans would not accrue interest until their income is restored.

I see a benefit of high inflation rates as far as the government is concerned. Want to bet on whether the "income is restored" part is indexed to the inflation rate?

I don't think we have to worry too much about the recipients of this program ever having to pay back these "loans" from the government.

I don't really know what the answer is to this situation, but I'm pretty sure that throwing more money at it isn't going to help.

We're on the path to a "banana-republic-type of financial situation"!? You must be kidding!

Well, somebody seems to realize that we're not in Kansas any more.

What do you mean "You can’t keep running these programs out and not paying for them. And you can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt."?

Is the guy trying to say that running the printing presses 24/7 isn't such a great idea?

FL plan would bar some patients in case of severe flu

From this article:

Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases.

I wonder why they would bar those patients only if they are overwhelmed by flu?

Why not a terrorist attack? Surely if a dirty bomb is set off in FL the people with cancer and MS should be barred from medical treatment to save resources for others, right?

I realize that in times of high demand for any service there may come a point where you have to perform a sort of triage.

I see two messages in this:
1. Some people in government may be getting worried about a severe flu outbreak and they want to have rules in place to handle the situation.

2. This is a good way to get people used to the idea of rationing healthcare.

I wonder if they will have "end of life counselors" on hand for those they turn away?

If you can you should prepare to take care of your own to the best of your ability. The government has no duty to protect you from the flu any more than it has a duty to protect you from a murderer or rapist.

Tax Break for Pet Car Expenses!?

Are you kidding!?

I guess not. Even if you accept the idea of a tax break for pet care expenses don't you think $3500 is a little much? That's enough to get me to feed the next stray dumped out by some suburban jerk who thinks people outside the big city all need another cat or dog.

For that matter maybe I could get a little tiny rat terrier or something and then claim the .22 shells I use on coyotes are a "pet care expense".

The possibilities are endless.

Trying to keep old cars running

The vehicle that was my daily driver is out of commission again. It's a high quality government motors vehicle. I shouldn't complain too much because it recently passed 175k miles if you believe the odometer is right. Cooling problems again.

Interesting thing is that after I gave up trying to find the leak we went to drop it off at the garage and the area around t he shop was so full of cars we could barely get in. They have been really busy since early spring. It used to be that I could call them on Monday to get something done and I could drop it off no later than Wednesday. The last time I had them work on the old clunker I called them on Tuesday and they told me to bring it a week from Wednesday. Mostly they are busy because people are trying to keep their old clunkers running so they don't have to spend money on a new ride. I'm in that boat.

My wife's daily driver is getting close to the point of needing a timing belt and that is fairly big bucks. It also has a leak on the bottom. It's been too wet for me to jack it up and crawl under but from the location it looks like a seal on the transaxle. That will be fun on the checking account, no doubt. Fortunately, the leak seems to be slow enough that it hasn't significantly affected the level of any fluids so I'll probably let it go for a while. I can put a lot of transmission fluid in it for what a proper repair will cost.

Good for me that my backup vehicle seems to be working fine, although it has a slow oil leak. It's been leaking for years and it seems to lose about 1/2 a quart of oil between oil changes so I'm not that concerned about it.

One advantage of a gravel driveway is that oil leaks aren't a big deal.

More illnesses around here

One of the schools in a town near us was closed last week. The reason - 40% of the students were out sick. The kid's soccer game was canceled last week because the other team had so many players out sick that they couldn't make a team. Normally if a team doesn't have enough players they have to forfeit so I suspect they weren't the only team that came up short due to illness.

In these conditions I'd just about as soon my kids didn't go to the games either. Well, that and the fact that the games interfere with hunting season. Who in their right mind would schedule a ball game during hunting season!? They need to get their priorities right.

Dollar loses reserve status to Yen and Euro

No surprise here.

From the article:

Over the last three months, banks put 63 percent of their new cash into euros and yen

And:

Currently, dollars account for about 62 percent of the currency reserve at central banks -- the lowest on record, said the International Monetary Fund

When you consider what our fearless leaders have been doing recently this is not a surprise.

This pretty well sums it up:

After printing up trillions of new dollars and new bonds to stimulate the US economy, the Federal Reserve chief is now boxed into a corner battling two separate monsters that could devour the economy -- ravenous inflation on one hand, and a perilous recession on the other.

Peter Schiff is quoted as saying:

"The stimulus is what's toxic -- we're poisoning ourselves and the global economy with it."

No kidding. There is always a bright side to every bit of bad news. In this case it is the following bit from the article:

Bernanke could go down in economic history as the man who killed the greenback on the operating table.

That gave me a sort of sick little chuckle.

What can I say about this?

Here is a link to the article.

The President's Wife's Ancestors Were Slaves!!

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

It would be interesting to track her families history back and find out if her ancestors were enslaved by muslim traders or by members of another tribe in Africa.

Another Pork Pie bill? Just what we need.

If you flush a huge wad of cash down the toilet and it doesn't help your economic situation, what would you do?

If you are a left wing looney you would flush another huge was of cash down the toilet.

I guess when all that worthless paper stops up the sewer line you could call the plumber. When he pulls all the cash out you could put him on the front page of the news to show how flushing money down the can helps out the little guy. Where is Joe Plumber when you need him?

Quote of the Day from my father

Never shake hands with a one armed camel driver.

Saudis want aid if the world cuts dependence on oil!?

You've got to be kidding!

Today is obviously going to have a very high laugh quotient.

Have the Saudis ever heard the story of the ant and the grasshopper?

I guess not. They should have been socking something away for a rainy day instead of throwing their money away on custom 747s and refrigerators in their cars to keep their gold plated telephones cool in the desert.

From the article:

“We are among the economically vulnerable countries,” Al Sabban told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the talks ahead of negotiations in Copenhagen in December for a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Oh, I'm so worried about their economy. I really am. LOL.

Here is a funny:

“This is very serious for us,” he continued. “We are in the process of diversifying our economy but this will take a long time. We don't have too many resources.”

Ha ha ha.

I'm opposed to the whole "global warming" nonsense legislation and treaties, but if it puts the fat "king" of Saudi Arabia and his decadent family back to riding camels and chopping off each others heads with scimitars then at least we would get something out of it. If we're going to commit suicide with those treaties at least we can take the Saudis with us.

Reading this article reminds me of those people that go to pick up their food stamps in their new Lexus SUV.

I pity the people at the bottom of the society there but I don't have any for the people at the top.

Hussein get's the Nobel Peace Prize!?

ROTFLMAO!!!

From the article:

U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world "hope for a better future"

He got the Nobel Peace Prize for "giving the world hope"!?

You've got to be kidding me.

Well, I guess that he fits in well with Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore.

More nonsense:

"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said in a citation.

Please!!! No more!! I've got to run to the restroom and lose my breakfast.

I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry. On one hand it is funny. On the other hand it's a shame that the so-called Peace Prize has descended consistently to this level of silliness.

I don't know why the price committee didn't award the "Peace" prize jointly to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il, and Barack Hussein Obama. I guess they didn't want the chosen one to have to share the spotlight.

Seasonal Flu Shots

The company I work for works with an outside provider so that employees can get seasonal flu shots at work for a reduced price.

This morning they announced that the program was canceled. Seems the provider can't get the seasonal vaccine because manufacturers have decreased production to prepare for the N1N1 vaccine.

I've read of some studies that showed taking the seasonal flu vaccine increased your chances of getting H1N1 so maybe this isn't a bad thing.

I don't know about that for sure but I know that people are getting alarmed about H1N1. The local school district in the town nearest to me is closed because of a high rate of absence due to illness. They aren't saying it's because of H1N1 but you can bet that is a big factor. The schools in the next nearest town my be closed.

Why don't they have strict personal disarmament laws in MA?

Oh, wait, they do. Somehow that didn't seem to stop this little incident.

From the article:

Police said the 38-year-old shot his neighbor John Rota in the stomach Friday when they got into an argument over the disposal of leaves near their Randolph homes.

There are no details in the article except that the shooter was charged and plead not guilty. That's not what caught my attention about the article.

What did catch my attention was the way the LWM in Boston had to get their little left wing bias into action here:

Rota told police that Leonard always carried his gun, even when cutting the lawn or playing with the kids in the yard.

What is wrong with that?

You can count on the LWM to get bent out of shape at the thought of a person carrying a firearm while playing with their children. The very idea that one of the unwashed masses might be able to protect their children is scandalous to many "reporters". Here is a news flash for the "reporter" - many people carry guns while playing with their children. Some people out here in flyover country take their kids hunting when they are very young.

I can see the headlines now:

OH NO!! Man Lets His Children Murder Bambi!!!

Somewhere in the article would be the line "Sources say that he always carried a gun, even when letting his children shoot helpless animals."

You should always carry a gun. Carrying a gun and knowing how to use it well are basic obligations for any parent. How can you protect your children from some of the various threats they may encounter if you aren't armed and trained? I guess you could be like the silly girl in Texas who had to use billiard balls because she didn't have a firearm.

My suggestion is to always carry a gun and always try to avoid having to use it on a person. Tasty animals are another story.

The end of using the dollar in oil trading?

This makes me feel really good.

From the article:

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Here is a bit more:

China imports 60 per cent of its oil, much of it from the Middle East and Russia. The Chinese have oil production concessions in Iraq – blocked by the US until this year – and since 2008 have held an $8bn agreement with Iran to develop refining capacity and gas resources. China has oil deals in Sudan (where it has substituted for US interests) and has been negotiating for oil concessions with Libya, where all such contracts are joint ventures.

Furthermore, Chinese exports to the region now account for no fewer than 10 per cent of the imports of every country in the Middle East, including a huge range of products from cars to weapon systems, food, clothes, even dolls. In a clear sign of China's growing financial muscle, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, yesterday pleaded with Beijing to let the yuan appreciate against a sliding dollar and, by extension, loosen China's reliance on US monetary policy, to help rebalance the world economy and ease upward pressure on the euro.

So China is getting more involved in middle east oil production. At the same time we are sending our manufacturing overseas the Chinese have been using their increasing manufacturing base as a trade item with oil producing nations. Somehow we've missed the boat on this one.

Here is a scary bit, although not too surprising:

Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East.

"Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security." This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy.

We seem to forget that the Chinese are not our friends.

When is this supposed to happen? The deadline is 2018.

Of course there is a tinfoil hat side to this as well:

Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq.

I don't see any of this helping our economic situation. I wonder what, if anything, our wonderful President has in mind regarding this.

Question of the Day

Why is it that "progressive" states are blue while conservative states are red?

No Response from Magnum Boots

I think they've washed their hands of this matter.

Buyer beware and all that stuff.

The question is what to do with the boots?

I could use them for a shooting test. You know, a "Will steel toed boots protect your feet from gunfire?" kind of article. I'm sure I can find something that will penetrate the toes on them.

Another option is to soak them in diesel and set them on fire on my driveway and then test a fire extinguisher on them.

Instead of being destructive I could have a give-away. Maybe I could ask anyone interested to write a short essay on why they should get the boot (pun intended) and I could pick the lucky winner. Lucky being a relative term here regarding comfort.

I'm leaning towards burning them and reviewing the performance of a fire extinguisher. Maybe I could send the video to Magnum.

Went to the farm this weekend

Met my dad there and we cut limbs, fixed a water supply for game, and set up another feeder.

For cutting limbs I was using a Poulan Pro Pole Saw. I am really pushing this little tool to it's limits. It is not a commercial grade tool and it says in the manual "For Occasional Use Only". LOL. In one afternoon I probably put it through 10 years of the kind of use it will see with the average homeowner. This is the second year I've used it at the farm for opening up areas so we can see game easier. I've also used it some for clearing trails around my house which is mostly cutting the bottom limbs off 15' tall cedar trees.

This little tool has exceeded my expectations. It has been easy to start so far, although sometimes it takes it a few minutes to warm up before it is ready cut. Once it's warmed up it makes quick work of 6" diameter limbs. The largest I cut was about 8".

One thing to be careful of when using a pole saw is sawdust in your face. I wore goggles with foam pads that sealed around my eyes. If there is any wind the sawdust goes everywhere and regular glasses may not help you.

Another thing to remember is gravity. When the limbs come down they sometimes make a funny twist or turn. A limb 8' long and 6" in diameter coming at you from 10' above can be serious. Before you start on a big limb check the area around you and make sure you have room to move without tripping. It is easy to get caught up in cutting limbs and not notice how many you have on the ground. Having a partner helps because one of you can move the limbs out of the way while the other cuts.

I find it easiest to start at the very bottom limbs and work my way up. The reason is that if you start at the top the limbs will sometimes hang up on the limbs underneath and give you trouble - either hanging in the tree or bouncing off the lower limb and moving in an unpredictable direction which usually means right at your face. The exception to starting at the very bottom is on cedar trees or other trees with large limbs right at the ground. They are often so dense that it is hard to see in and cut lower limbs near the ground. I usually pick a spot that looks easy and start cutting. I often end up cutting the same limbs several times as I work my way in.

Another thing to watch out for is wasps, hornets, and wild honey bees. My dad was cutting a limb off a cedar tree with a chain saw and there was a wasp nest he didn't see on that limb. They stung him 3 times on the head and that was when he found out he had a new allergy he'd never suffered from before.

If I had my choice I would have a Husky pole saw but I believe I got my money's worth out of this one.

Quote of the Day

History does not deal kindly with the willfully naive!

John Farnam

The White Leghorns are starting to lay again

They made one egg per day the last two days.

We think they had started to molt a week or two before we left. We had seen a more few feathers than normal and their production had gone down from 5 or 6 per day to 3 or 4 per day.

I'm glad the girls are getting back to work!!

Magnum Boots "60 Day Comfort Guarantee"

Here is the guarantee:

All Magnum Footwear are backed by a 60-Day Comfort Guarantee. We guarantee our customers will be completely satisfied with the comfort and fit of our boots or Magnum wil issue a full refund within 60 days of the date of purchase.

I thought that sounded pretty good. I found an online place that had some on clearance. Clearance usually means the vendor isn't going to carry that style any more or the manufacturer has discontinued them. In this case the vendor clearly stated that they won't do exchanges or refunds on clearance items. I checked the Magnum website and the boots I was looking at were still shown on their website so I ordered them thinking that Magnum would exchange them under their guarantee if they didn't fit.

Well, they pinch the heck out of my toes and I can't wear them. I called Magnum and asked about the guarantee and I was told to go back to the place I bought them from and they would exchange them. I explained that they were on clearance and the seller wouldn't exchange them.

The nice customer service employee at Magnum said "In that case you are out of luck."

Well, isn't that nice.

The guarantee doesn't say that the dealer will issue a refund or exchange. It says that Magnum will issue a refund. I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting Magnum to either refund what I spent or offer an exchange in another size.

I've emailed Magnum about this using the form on their website. I'll post again when I get a reply.

BTW the boots are still listed on the Magnum website, so it's not like they are discontinued and don't have any to exchange.