The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
July 6, 2012, Issue No. 120
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)
Fort Plain, NY
July 6, 2012, Issue No. 120
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)
Riley and the Littles -- Hot weather has both Riley and Gabby venturing into the pond more and more often. Now, they have taken to wandering over to the lower swimming hole for a dip on their own, and wandering back, as if they never left the patio. Although The Riley generally dries-off in an hour or two, it is an eight-hour marathon for Gabby. They are both troupers in going for their 2-4 mile runs every day, regardless of heat or rain.
Plowing and Planting -- The last of the planting was done - the eclectic pairing of 700 tobacco plants with sweet potatoes and kohlrabi. All in the ground in early June. Mid-June brought haying season, which was not without its weather challenges. Haying requires a minimum of three and preferably four consecutive days of warm, sunny weather, and an accurate weather forecast that reliably predicts same. After one false start and one cut-short by early rain, we managed to get 898 bales of first-cutting hay into the barn - dense and aromatic. It took a while to get the new baler adjusted - initial bales were 60-70 pounds - hard to lift. As time tolled, we got the bales down to 35-40 pounds or so. In some cases, the new kicker baler launched bales over the hay wagon and flying back onto the hay field. No helmet required, but, just as in the NFL, one must keep his/her head on a swivel. Back in 2009 and 2010, we planted our 14 acres of hay fields, and our resulting hay is a thick, mostly weed-free crop combination of timothy grass, rye grass, red clover and alfalfa. This year, we had help baling and stacking from Annie and Barbara Kanagy, Chester King, Melvin Miller Jr., and three of the younger Kings, Stephen, Jacob and Elmer. And we also baled hay from a half acre of Lloyd Vanalstine's back field. The horses and cows love our hay, the greener the better, in their humble opinions. But hay needs to be dry and mostly lacking in green before it can be baled without risk of molding or spontaneous combusting.
And They're Off -- June 14. 11pm. This is the City. Errr ... Country. All settled-in and asleep for the night. Suddenly, honking in the driveway. An unfamiliar pick-up truck. Some guy shouting something. Oh - Oh. "Your two horses are in the road." We scramble into consciousness and then onto our feet. We are now out in the driveway, in the black of night, looking for two horses - dark brown, Rio, and light chestnut, Blondie. Like Sargent Schultz, we see nothing ... noth-ing. Then, we decide, simply, to call Rio. He arrives like a trouper, with Blondie in tow. Snap a lead on each. Tell them how bad they were and how good they are. Then, back into the pasture. The investigation is ongoing as to who left the main gate ajar and when the infraction occurred. Separately, a few days later, we found one of Blondie's shoes laying in the pasture, and asked Chris King to stop-in and remove the other three, so she wouldn't spend her life walking in a circle. Since our horses spend precious little time on paved roads, or running hard on the trails from Dodge City to Cheyenne, they do not need shoes.
The Herd of Four -- Eli, Lily, Abe and Ike are spending most days and nights out in the pasture. On the hottest of days, they prefer spending day time in their stalls and overnights out in the cool night air. Lily's July 22 due date is approaching fast - no telling how that delivery will go. A calf can run anywhere from 40 to nearly 100 pounds at birth. Jerseys are a fairly small breed, so we are guessing we should be near the low end of that range. One never knows though, and cows occasionally bear twins. About 9 in 10 bovine births go uneventful, requiring no human intervention. Report to follow.
Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- Not much free time to prowl the woods, but we have begun stalking firewood for this coming winter. The logging roads are mostly clear and dry, so travel in there is at its best, which for those of you who have traveled the journey, means you can still get lost or stuck if in the woods outside of the high-in-the-sky-sun hours of 10am-3pm.
Fowl Weather -- Turkeys everywhere. We have 10 Standard Bronze, 7 Narragansett and 4 White American Broad-breasted. As for the chickens, we have too many - could be 50 or so. Soon to be 25 in the coop and 25 in the freezer.
Visitors -- Editor's Note: Inadvertently left out of our last edition's visitor report was young Matty, who traveled here with parents Daryl and Sally from Toronto, for the Memorial Day picnic. And this month, just after the hay was in the barn, CJ traveled to Middle-of-Nowhere to spend a few days of his June vacation with us.
Blog -- The Riley Factor's official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.
Quotes of the Month --
The government doesn't do anything well. You can't expect the Federal government to run any program right. -- Wayne Rogers
The people spend their money much better than the government does. -- Chris Christie
Who do you want to spend your money? Studies show that a dollar spent by private industry adds much more to the economy than a dollar spent by the government. The U.S. needs smaller government. There is no demand for all these existing so-called government services. We need to reduce the size of the government workforce. -- Gary B. Smith
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. -- Ronald Reagan
Obama has reportedly told Democrat donors that he will work on fixing his health care law in his next term. What a great pitch to run on! Barack Obama 2012: Elect me and I’ll spend the political capital of my second term fixing the unpopular, health care law that I wasted the political capital of my first term pushing through. Then I’ll get to the issues that you care about with whatever diminished political capital I have left. -- Jamie Weinstein, The DC Daily Caller
I teach high school. I'm not in high school. -- Stevie Fuchs
Bumper Sticker of the Month --
If you want to feel rich, just count all the gifts you have that money can't buy.
Facts of the Month --
The IRS sends more notices annually than the number of taxpayers. -- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Here's what really happens to your federal income tax dollars. >>> The top three counties in the U.S. in terms of median family income are in the Washington D.C. area. And 10 or the wealthiest 15 counties in the U.S. are in that same Washington D.C. area. A large portion of your federal tax dollars goes to pay the salaries of overpaid, underworked, ineffective Washington bureaucrats.
The U.S. is the engine of global economic growth. We are the only nation that buys/imports goods in significant quantities from other countries. Not Brazil. Not Russia. Not India. Not China. Not Europe. Without significant economic performance and growth in America, the world economy stagnates. Or worse.
More high school students currently smoke marijuana than smoke cigarettes. In a May 2012 survey, 23% of high school students said that they recently smoked marijuana while, 18% admitted to having recently smoked a cigarette.
For March, the Country's unemployment rate was 8.2% and New York State's unemployment rate was 8.7%. Here in Montgomery County, the rate was 10.9%, up 0.2% from a year ago.
Commentary of the Month --
I AM A HUMAN BEING
I am not just some tissue.
I am not just an issue.
I am not merely a choice.
I'm a child without a voice.
You can speak for me,
But you won't.
You can defend me,
But you don't.
If not you, then who?
If not now, then when?
I am not a fish.
I am not a cat.
I want to be born.
What's wrong with that?
The child after birth, you protect.
The child before birth, you neglect.
Why, except for his age and size,
Should one live while the other dies?
I am not only voiceless,
I am voteless, too.
So, remember in November
That I shall have much need of you.
And then there's this --
Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the '100 Women of the Century.'
BARBARA WALTERS WRITES:
Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War.
The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat. In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison the ' Hanoi Hilton.' Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJ's, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American 'Peace Activist' the 'lenient and humane treatment' he'd received. He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was dragged away. During the subsequent beating, he fell forward on to the camp Commandant 's feet, which sent that officer berserk. In 1978, the Air Force Colonel still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his flying career) from the Commandant's frenzied application of a wooden baton.
From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4E's). He spent 6 years in the ' Hanoi Hilton'...the first three of which his family only knew he was 'missing in action'. His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. His group, too, got the cleaned-up, fed and clothed routine in preparation for a 'peace delegation' visit. They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they were alive and still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of his hand. When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: 'Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?' and 'Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?' Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.
She took them all without missing a beat.. At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him all the little pieces of paper. Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Colonel Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know of her actions that day.
I was a civilian economic development advisor in Vietnam , and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held prisoner for over 5 years. I spent 27 months in solitary confinement; one year in a cage in Cambodia ; and one year in a 'black box' in Hanoi . My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Banme Thuot, South Vietnam, whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I weighed only about 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs).
We were Jane Fonda's 'war criminals....' When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi , I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with her. I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the real treatment we POWs received... and how different it was from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as 'humane and lenient.' Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees, with my arms outstretched with a large steel weight placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane.
I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda soon after I was released. I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV. She never did answer me.
These first-hand experiences do not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of '100 Years of Great Women.' Lest we forget....' 100 Years of Great Women' should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots. There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them. She needs to know that we will never forget.
RONALD D. SAMPSON, CMSgt,
USAF 716 Maintenance Squadron,
Chief of Maintenance DSN: 875-6431 COMM: 883-6343
