The Riley Factor #110

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
October 16, 2011, Issue No. 110
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley -- Riley has been wandering leash-free in the woods while Susan and I cut some trees down and up.  He generally stays within 20 yards of us, and usually within 10 feet.  He loves gnawing on sticks and finding mud puddles to splash in.  After three or four hours, he generally collapses upon our return to the yard, sometimes falling asleep right on the lawn or patio.

Wedding Wishes -- We wish our German-Italian friend Moritz Gottschalk wonderful wedding wishes on his October 15 wedding in Cyprus.  And all the best to his parents Uschi and Joachim on gaining a new daughter, Sanya, Moritz's bride.  Moritz spent a school year with us, 1999-2000, while on a foreign exchange attending Hopkinton High School.  And we have visited with Moritz and his parents here in the U.S. and in Italy a few times since then.  How fast time flies.
Planting and Plowing -- Farming has been rather dormant, but one morning on our routine run with Riley, Susan saw eight deer in the third field.  They were standing and grazing on uncut hay and the left-behinds from recently cut & combined oats.  Riley was oblivious to them all, and was sniffing and snorting as usual, pretending to be the great hunter.  The deer watched the human/dog team suspiciously, but did not run off.

And They're Off -- Rio and Lady clamor for apples every time we ride or walk by the pasture.  They snort and stomp hoping to be fed or tossed a few of the round snacks - green, red or yellow, they have little preference for any specific varieties.

The Herd of Four -- Also part of the apple clamor, Eli, Lily, Michael and Raphael run for apples whenever the feeding looks imminent.  Unlike the horses, who chomp and chop them with their big horse teeth, the cattle like medium and small-sized apples popped whole into their mouths for grinding and crunching.  Especially with Eli and Lily, the feeding process resembles popping quarters into slot machines at your favorite casino.  We await any payoff.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- On good weather days, Susan and I have been chain-sawing trees in the woods that fell across logging roads during Hurricane Irene and other storms this year.  We are down to the last half dozen trees or so.  Some are manageable in size, while others are gigantic.  In the first week of October, we cut about two cords of firewood, some of which still needs splitting, some was stacked as is.  Great exercise and a great time being in the woods in sunny warm weather.  We thought we had basically zero damage from Hurricane Irene. Which is what we did have in the yard and barn area.  But in the middle of the woods, several large trees, 8" to 15" in diameter, snapped-off just above ground level or tipped-over roots and all.  We have found several tees like this, mostly lying across trails and logging roads, within 100 feet of the fields.  Who knows what lurks deeper in the woods where we travel only once or twice per year?

Fowl Weather -- After a week gone missing, one of our French Guinea Hens returned from wandering around Fort Plain.  Slight limp, but otherwise no worse for the wear.  Susan's prayers were answered, as she felt bad for what was our lone remaining Keet, who was roaming aimlessly until her friend returned to make a flock (of two).

Visitors -- As fall settles in, all quiet in Middle-of-Nowhere.  Ames, Debbie and Cameron joined us for a couple of days, mid-month in October, while Barbara and Nancy dropped in for the afternoon on the 15th.

Blog -- The Riley Factor's official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.blogspot.com/.  It contains all issues to date.  (If you actually spend the time and search through our Internet site, you may need more help with your life than we are able offer....  But we digress.)

Quotes of the Month --

     Just Win Baby. -- Al Davis, 1929-2011   

     Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The nerds. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. -- Steve Jobs, 1955-2011, Apple Inc.'s Corporate Manifesto

      You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. -- Dr. Adrian Rogers

     "The laws that forbid the carrying of arms .... disarm only
those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.
Such laws make things worse for the assaulted
and better for the assailants. They serve rather to encourage
than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be
attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -- Thomas Jefferson

     Said of those Occupy Wall Street protesters currently hunkered-down in New York and other cities ... Win-less, parasitic bloodsuckers ... Meet the Flea Party -- Anne Coulter

Facts of the Month --

     The real unemployment rate is 16.5%, not the 9.1% that was reported today. -- Peter Schiff, economist, author, October 7, 2011

Commentaries of the Month --

     It is the moral obligation of society to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.  But we must also insist that those who can take care of themselves do so. -- Joe Granoff

     President Obama has encouraged the idea that the government owes you a living.  Medical benefits.  Unemployment benefits.  Welfare payments.  Food stamps.  Disability payments.  Retirement without work.  Entitlements for everyone.  Well, what the government owes everyone is the same thing ... opportunity. -- Stuart Varney

     This financial crisis was not created by Wall Street.  It was created by the government attempting to have everyone own a home.  The Democrats pushed FNMA and FHLMC to give everyone a loan.  The Fed reduced interest rates to 1%.  Government failed everyone.  And these Wall Street protesters are against capitalism and now want even bigger government. -- Brian Wesbury

Investing 101 - Advice From Some of the Best

     "Be patient with winning trades; be enormously impatient with losing trades. Remember it is quite possible to make large sums trading/investing if we are 'right' only 30% of the time, as long as our losses are small and our profits are large." – Dennis Gartman
     "It's Far Better to Buy a Wonderful Company at a Fair Price than a Fair Company at a Wonderful Price." – Warren Buffett
     "Do you really like a particular stock? Put 10% or so of your portfolio on it. Make the idea count. Good investment ideas should not be diversified away into meaningless oblivion." – Bill Gross

     "We're getting hurt, but I'm a long-term investor." -- Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal
     "You learn in this business … If you want a friend, get a dog." – Carl Icahn

From the Infamous Malcolm ...

Did you notice who Obama threatened when he wasn't getting his way on raising the debt ceiling?

He threatened to not pay: 

 

  Social Security Retirees, Military Retirees, Social
  Security disability and Federal Retirees.

Now ... Let this sink in really good -

   He did not threaten to stop payments to illegal aliens

   He did not threatened to take frivolous benefits such as Internet access away
from violent inmates

   He did not offer to fire some of the thousands of unnecessary federal employees
that he hired

   He did not offer to cut down on his or his wife's frivolous gallivanting around

   He did not threaten to not pay the senators and representatives or any of their
staff

   He did not threaten to take benefits away from welfare recipients

   He did not threaten the food stamp programs

   He did not threaten to not pay foreign aid

   He did not threaten to cut back on anything that involves his base voters

The list could go on and on. Obama is in full political re-election mode!

• Why are we allowing this person to destroy this wonderful country with his

selfishness and his lies?

• His type of change is killing our country. He needs to be stopped and only our

votes can stop him.

• Do not forget about his tactics when it's election time. Vote Obama out of the

Presidency in 2012.

NFL --

     September 8 ... Green Bay Packers 42, New Orleans Saints 34 / Patriots 38, Dolphins 24
                       18 ... Green Bay Packers 30, Carolina Panthers 23 / Patriots 35, Chargers 21
                       25 ... Green Bay Packers 27, Da Bears 17 / Bills 34, Patriots 31
     October      2 ... Green Bay Packers 49, Denver Broncos 23 / Patriots 31, Raiders 19
                         9 ... Green Bay Packers 25, Atlanta Falcons 14 / Patriots 30, Jets 21
                       16 ... Green Bay Packers 24, St. Louis Rams 7 / Patriots 20, Cowboys 16
                                        (And then there was one)

And Then There's This --

    You know your lawn is too long when ... a stranger knocks on your door and asks if he can harvest the mushrooms growing in your front lawn by your driveway, because they are edible and some of the largest he has seen growing wild in the many years he has been mushrooming. -- at the back door and in the driveway @ Rock Creek Farm, October 2, 2011

The Riley Factor #109

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
October 2, 2011, Issue No. 109
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley -- One Saturday morning, The Riley and I were driving around Downtown Fort Plain doing the typical errands (feed store, hardware store, bank, etc.) and as we rolled slowly around a corner, a small boy crossing the street hand-in-hand with his mother looked at Riley, who was calmly sitting in the passenger seat of the pick-up, and the boy shouted, "Look - a pony!"  His mother reassured him that it was just a puppy.  Nevertheless, the boy stared in amazement.  I think I saw Riley suck-in his stomach a bit.

Sold ... A Bargain -- Recently, we spent a couple of evenings at local auctions.  In beautiful Downtown Fort Plain, the entertainment included the owner of the auction house throwing-out one of the bidders for conduct unbecoming, or some such infraction.  Parties had to be restrained.  The next night in beautiful Downtown St. Johnsville, we saw among other things a collection of a dozen bureaus, a dozen desks and a dozen night stands, all nearly brand new in cherry finish, sell for the might sum of one dollar.  No explanation.  Over the two night stand, we acquired such treasures as ... a bugle, a cannon ball, a bell, a Tonka fire engine, an Esso tanker truck bank, a pot belly stove, a Jarts game (remember those lawn dart games of the 1960s? Well, they are now illegal in all 50 states, according to the auctioneer), a 3-foot in diameter steel Coke sign, and several other 'gems'.

Planting and Plowing -- Probably no more planting this fall, unless we decide on some winter wheat and/or winter oats.  I recently mowed-down all the fields that were used this year for wheat, oats and hay.  And Susan did rototill the recently combined-and-cut fields nearest to the house and out by the upper pond, about 10 acres in all, destined for grain planting in the spring.

And They're Off -- Lady and Rio spend most of their days, whenever they see us, trying to coax us into getting and giving them more apples.  They are addicted to the fruit.  Hand feeding is best, but it is hard to keep up with their appetites.  Luckily, we have a few apple trees within throwing distance of the pasture.  The steer manage to get the half-eaten hand-me-downs, although you can feed apples to Eli and Lily as fast as you can feed quarters into a slot machine.

The Herd of Three -- On September 28, the Herd of Three officially became the Herd of Four, with the addition of Lily, a two-year-old Jersey cow.  Lily is a favorite of our friend, Bradley Chadwick, who is downsizing his farm a bit.  He is 75, just had heart valve replacement surgery, and has six remaining head of cattle, three horses, three goats, and other assorted animals running around his 265 acre spread in nearby Ames, NY, where he lives alone.  Lily is soon to be bred via artificial insemination (AI), assuming that Susan and I can identify when she is in heat and call the AI GUY in time to visit us and perform The Act.  This should make for some great rural theater.  Stay tuned.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- Low and behold, after seeing only a few deer this year, one late summer morning, we did see in the third field one average-sized doe and one giant doe - actually Riley saw them first and the chase was on.  Riley lost.  The large doe was almost as large as a horse (no rack, so it wasn't a buck).  We saw the pair of deer again that afternoon, but not since.  And one morning, Susan saw 8 deer standing in one of the mowed oats fields, happily munching on left-behind grain and grass.  Most of the maple and selected other trees already are showing yellow foliage.  Oaks, chestnuts and beech are still full green.

Fowl Weather -- A couple of new birds have joined the Great Blue Heron in the ponds -- a Great White Egret and a Dark Morph Egret.  Beautiful to watch, about two-feet in height and wing span, with sharp pointed beak, 5 inches or so long.  On the chicken front, one red chicken has become the gang leader of a pack of a dozen or so of the new Jersey Giant chicks (hatched July 1, now almost the size of a full-grown chicken).  They roam all around the yard, garden, around the pond, into the garage, into the equipment shed.  And they are noisy.  And to complement the cacophony, when the egrets are around, the two remaining French Guinea Hens squawk their little orange and gray heads off - no love lost between those two breeds.

Visitors -- Stevie spent the first weekend of October with us, as the rains continued to fall in beautiful Middle-of-Nowhere.

Blog -- The Riley Factor's official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.blogspot.com/.  It contains all issues to date.  (If you actually spend the time and search through our Internet site, you may need more help with your life than we are able offer....  But we digress.)

Quote of the Month --
 
     My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me, as we change it. -- Barack Obama (during his 2008 presidential campaign)

     Those who have little have nothing to lose. --  Paladin, Have Gun-Will Travel

     And on the morning after the completion of the Red Sox 2011 collapse, the most extreme in the history of baseball ... "If there are any Red Sox fans living in upstate NY, they are probably jumping off their barns". -- Greg Fuchs, insulated deep inside sunny south Florida

Facts of the Month --
     Here are the true facts about income taxes, according to the IRS, September 21, 2011:  
          >>  The top 1% of American taxpayers pay 38% of all income taxes paid.
          >>  The top 5% of American taxpayers pay 59% of all income taxes paid.
          >>  And, 51% of American households pay zero federal income tax.

          >>>>  The so-called 'wealthy Americans' not only 'pay their fair share', but they pay the majority of all federal income taxes collected, financing and providing for all the government and all the federal programs, agencies and departments for everyone.

Commentaries of the Month --

Income Tax Structure

If Congress fails to adopt a more permanent tax structure before the end of 2012, the income tax rates and the estate and gift tax would revert to pre-2001 law, ushering in across-the-board increases for all classes of taxpayers.  Although there is nearly unanimous support at the White House and in Congress for preventing tax increases on low- and middle-income taxpayers, there are deep disagreements over what to do about tax rates for higher-income individuals — typically defined as singles with income above $200,000 and couples with income above $250,000. -- Deloitte Tax LLP

The 10 Best Things the Government Has Done for You

1.) Protecting our freedoms. Our political and economic rights are the foundation of our democracy and capitalist economy.
2.) Giving away the land. The United States developed as one of the most egalitarian nations in history, mostly because the government gave away millions of acres of land and sold more at rock-bottom prices to regular people who worked that land and made it productive
3.) Educating everybody. Our economy and democracy would be impossible without an educated, skilled populace. From the beginning of our nation, offering free and universal public education has been one of the most important functions of government.
4.) Helping us retire with dignity. Social Security and Medicare keep millions of Americans out of poverty, allowing them to live out their lives in dignity. And these essential programs are provided by government at far less cost than would be possible from the private sector.
5) Improving public health. Many of us owe our lives — literally — to the government. The greatest advances in longevity are due to public-sanitation measures such as water treatment, sewer systems and trash disposal.
6.) Building our transportation networks. Every major mode of transportation — from canals to airports — has received critical financial support from the government.
7.) Investing in communications. Communications networks, like transportation systems, create lots of external benefits that cannot be easily recouped by the builder. That makes them perfect for public investment.
8.) Building our energy supply. Most energy investment comes from private companies, but the government has played its role. Government-built hydroelectric dams provide a lot of power in the Northwest and Southeast, and all nuclear-power plants can trace their lineage to the Manhattan Project.

9.) Inventing the future. The space program and defense research continue to spin off benefits to our economy. Because NASA and the Pentagon demanded (and paid top dollar for) highly reliable and lightweight components, advancements in medicine, electronics, communications, materials and manufacturing were accelerated by decades.
10.) Defeating totalitarianism. The United States has faced few serious external threats in its 235 years of independence. When it did, the government spent trillions of dollars to defend us from the forces of fascism and communism.

NFL --

     September 8 ... Green Bay Packers 42, New Orleans Saints 34 / Patriots 38, Dolphins 24
                    18 ... Green Bay Packers 30, Carolina Panthers 23 / Patriots 35, Chargers 21
                    25 ... Green Bay Packers 27, Da Bears 17 / Bills 34, Patriots 31
     October     2 ... Green Bay Packers 49, Denver Broncos 23 / Patriots 31, Raiders 19

And Then There's This --

    Today's Dialogue of the Day, brought to you by the vacationing CJ, from somewhere around here in Upstate New York ...

       CJ:  I think I've diagnosed your affliction.
       Me:  I didn't know that I had an affliction.
       CJ:  You're unable to relax without toiling.