The Riley Factor #133

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
July 7, 2014, Issue No. 133
 (All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

                                                                                                          

Riley and the Littles -- Riley has been limping a bit on one of his front legs, but still gets-in his daily mile-or-two run.  Stryder injured his left rear leg somehow one night (no cut or bump) but could barely walk for a week.  He too has recovered and has now only a bit of a limp.  The girls, Arwen and Izzie, have plodded-along without incident.  And we have seen a fifth cat, orange and white, living out back in the wood shed and under the garden shed - appears tame, but too skittish to get too close to greet us.

Plowing and Planting -- We roto-tillled the garden and second field for a second time this spring to get ready for outside vegetable planting ... potatoes were in the ground on April 28.  Onions the next day and corn to follow.  Squash, cucumbers and tomatoes are still growing in the green house waiting for warmer weather.  We brought the Oliver combine over to John Fisher for a rebuild.  John is the local Amish Bishop, the leader of the church and community, who also runs an equipment repair and machine shop.  He and his lone employee, Anthony Weaver, are great talkers, as is John's wife Annie.  Last year one day, I met three of John's grandsons.  When I asked John how many grandchildren he had, he leaned back in his office chair, looked at the ceiling pondering for a minute, and said, "Oh, I don't know, must be at least 50 or so".

On June 30, we completed the spring haying, putting 1,345 bales of hay in the barn.  At an average of 50 pounds per bale, that represents over 67,000 pounds - just enough to last us for a year, when added to the 250 bales we have left-over from last year's cuttings.  All in, it took a day to mow 22 acres of hay fields.  Then a day to ted (think splash-around to enhance drying.  ANother day for the raking into windrows.  And finally, a long, long day, with four teenage helpers to bale and stack  it all.  Probably the four hottest consecutive days so far this year - temperature in mid-80s with full sun every day.  Our baler broke three times during the day, but a replaced chain, replaced shear pin and replaced plunger bolt got it on its way toward completion, with a little assistance from Lloyd Vanalstine and John Fisher.


And They're Off -- Rio and Blondie, along with the bovine herd, have been spending nights out in the pasture.  No incidents to report ... no escapes, no coyote battles, no intra-herd scuffling.

The Herd of Four -- Lately, Isaac, one of our red Jersey steer, has become a bit aggressive, taking opportunities to bump me, head-butt me and square-off facing me.  I bought a cattle-prod, but if Isaac does not simmer down, his 1,000-pound frame may be making an early trip to the butcher.  Abby, the youngest and smallest of the lot, is the only one that we left with horns, and she uses hers to bounce-around the bigger guys.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- Spring auction season has come and gone.  Although we went to a couple, not much was acquired, other than a small trailer and a heavy duty back blade (think snow plow or road grader that mounts on the rear of a large tractor).  I was bidding on the back blade in the equipment section of the auction field when Bill Armitstead, the owner of the auction company, walked up to me and said that there was a woman in the first aisle at the other auctioneer using the same bidder number as mine, who was wearing the number out.  He said he thought her name was Susan.  I said, "Yeah, you ought to deactivate that number, for the good of all of us". 

We bought a small cabin at the Amish Mohawk Produce Spring Consignment Auction and had it delivered to the area overlooking the upper pond.  We prepared the site with gravel and stone and angled the front porch toward the pond and the rolling hills of Cherry Valley and West Minden.  Should be a perfect retreat for relaxing and pondering the meaning of life.

Fowl Weather -- Tough time this year breeding the chickens and turkeys.  Our incubator broke (overheated) and many of the eggs did not hatch.  A few eggs exploded (alack and alas the sign of a too hot environment).  In April, we hatched 7 Red Star chicks and bought 16 Delaware chicks to add to our chicken flock.  And May brought the first hatchings of turkey chicks - Standard Bronze breed.  Susan has named one turkey chick "Peep Peep" because he wanders around the yard with his mother and father constantly peeping.  He looks a bit ridiculous so small wandering in, out and under the big birds as they patrol the grounds.  Fairly entertaining.  Peep Peep was actually hatched in the incubator and then Susan tucked him under one of the turkey hens that was sitting on eggs continuously for a month.  The mother hen instantly took to him and he to her, and they have become fast companions.  The next day, Susan was able to get rid of the 14 eggs that were being sat on but would never hatch.  Separately, a turkey hen has been sitting on 15 eggs, presumably fertilized eggs, for nearly a month now, in a nest out by the cold cellar.  Soon, these eggs should be hatching, if they are to become turkeys.

Our large tom turkey, who we have named McSnood, owing to his large snood that hangs down from his brow when he is agitated or excited, has become obsessed with attacking me.  McSnood is the protector of the flock and watches-over the 5 turkey hens and Peep Peep all day every day as the go about their wanderings in the yard, pasture and gardens.  McSnood frequently sneaks-up on me, as much as a 30-pound bird can sneak, and if allowed close enough will jump at me claws first.  I have tried sticks, brooms and other items to ward him off, but he is relentless.  He leaves Susan alone, and seems to react adversely to men only.  My best defense?  Summoning The Riley to stand watch and guard me.  McSnood will not mess with The Riley - big mouth, big bark, big teeth, enough said.


Visitors -- Mostly quiet.  We have had a couple of visits from Stevie and Jackson, and CJ stopped-in twice.  All very welcomed.  Many steaks barbecued, along with lemonade and the occasional cigar.

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 -- 

     The White House has gone from "Change you can believe in." to "Changing the story until you believe it". -- Jay Leno

     The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. -- Albert Einstein

     Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Chirchill      

     It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men. -- Samuel Adams

  

     Genius could be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way. -- Charles Bukowski, German-born American writer

     The press is constipated by their own ideology. -- Wayne Rodgers

     President Barack Obama and his Democratic minions have mastered the art of deception in addressing issues such as the failures of Obamacare and vast abuses of Federal power. -- Bob Livingston, Personal Liberty Digest

Facts of the Month --

     Food - One in Four Americans is currently on some sort of Government Food Assistance Program.

     Retirement - The average age of retirement in the U.S. in 2013 was 62, up slightly from since 1991.  The average age that non retired workers expect to retire is 66, up from 63 in 2002. -- Gallup

     

     Gasoline - An oil company makes 4% profit on a gallon of gasoline, while the government taxes a gallon of gas 15%. -- FOX Business Channel

     Bankruptcy - 62% of those declaring bankruptcy in the U.S. cite medical debt as the trigger to heir financial ruin.   One in three Americans are having difficulties paying their medical debt.  28 million Americans have exhausted their savings accounts, 21 million are paying-down large credit debt and 21 million are unable to afford basic necessities.  -- Kaiser Family Foundation

     Deer - On average, a deer eats eight pounds of vegetation per day, and can jump an eight-foot fence.  Deer do not eat grass, but feast on broad-leaf greenery, including leaves, weeds and tree buds.  Deer eat the most in late spring, summer and early fall. -- MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife

     Government employees are even worse than welfare layabouts.  In a  triple whammy for taxpayers, they are: (1) hideously expensive, (2) impossible to fire, and (3) doing things you don't want done at any price. --Ann Coulter

Thought of the Month --
     

     A U.S. college graduate will earn $800,000 or more over his or her lifetime than a high-school graduate; a number that has taken into account tuition and the opportunity cost of attending school for four years. --Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Bumper Sticker of the Month --

     I LIKE MY GUNS LIKE OBAMA LIKES HIS VOTERS - UNDOCUMENTED

 

And then There's This ... 

Homeland Security Is 'Out of Control'

The Department of Homeland Security has often been assailed from the right, with Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions calling it "the most mismanaged department in the federal government."

Now a fresh attack on the DHS comes from the left-leaning Undernews, the online report of the Progressive Review, which castigates the department in an article headlined "Homeland Security Department Out of Control."

Excerpting an article from the Albuquerque Journal, Undernews reports: "Today, in addition to protecting America's borders and airports, [the department] is interrogating people suspected of pirating movies at Ohio theaters, seizing counterfeit NBA merchandise in San Antonio, and working pickpocket cases alongside police in Albuquerque.

"Some government watchdogs and civil liberties advocates — and even the nation's first Department of Homeland Security secretary — question how those actions serve the purpose set forth in the 2002 law" establishing the department. That former secretary, Tom Ridge, told the Journal: "They've kind of lost their way."

In its first year of existence, DHS had 180,000 full-time workers, and its budget was $29 billion in 2003. Today the department has 250,000 workers, making it the third largest federal agency after the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, and its budget this year is $61 billion.

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service last year disclosed: "The U.S. government does not have a single definition for 'homeland security.' Multiple definitions, missions and an absence of prioritization results in consequences to the nation's security. "There is no clarity in the national strategies of federal, state, and local roles and responsibilities, and potentially, funding is driving priorities rather than priorities driving the funding." Ridge said: "Someone needs to explain to me how critical all these new people are to the nation. Are they getting so big, they're actually making work?"

And Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and Harvard Extension School, calls the DHS "a colossal and inefficient boondoggle."

And then, there's also this ...

The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act

Representative Steve Stockman (R-Texas) has introduced legislation that would afford average Americans the ability to “offer a variety of dubious excuses” for not having tax documents for the Internal Revenue Service after “the IRS offered an incredibly dubious excuse for its failure to turn documents over to House investigators.”

Stockman’s tongue-in-cheek legislation, “The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act,” would offer taxpayers 10 outlandish reasons for not submitting paperwork requested by the IRS:

1.         The dog ate my tax receipts

2.         Convenient, unexplained, miscellaneous computer malfunction

3.         Traded documents for five terrorists

4.         Burned for warmth while lost in the Yukon

5.         Left on table in Hillary’s Book Room

6.         Received water damage in the trunk of Ted Kennedy’s car

7.         Forgot in gun case sold to Mexican drug lords

8.         Forced to recycle by municipal Green Czar

9.         Was short on toilet paper while camping

10.       At this point, what difference does it make?

 

The Riley Factor #132

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
April 20, 2014, Issue No. 132
 (All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley and the Littles -- Riley endured the extra cold winter with the rest of us (minus 19 was our own record low temperature, but we also had nearly 20 other days with below zero temperature readings).  Riley is now back to his daily mile or two runs, each ending with a swim (or gold-fishing trip) in the lower pond.  Riley's pal Izzy, the smallest in our herd of cats has finally left the house to venture outside ... it only took her seven years. Senior citizens Stryder and Arwen are approaching nine years of age, and run all about the place with AJ, the hunter, a reformed wild barn cat, capturing mice and other rodents.

Plowing and Planting -- In mid-March, we spread a ton and a half of 19-19-19 fertilizer on about 25 acres of hay fields and wheat and barley crops.  Winter wheat is flourishing, and the barley is just now coming to life. The greenhouse has been up and running since mid-March, with seedlings planted for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, egg plants, candy onions, red onions, leeks, celery, lettuce, butternut squash, long island cheese squash, yellow squash and some herbs.  Outside in the garden, we have broccoli, cauliflower, peas and some garbanzo beans (chick peas) in the ground.  Next up ... potatoes, carrots, more onions, green beans and some corn.  For no reason, no garlic this year.


And They're Off -- Rio and Blondie are reliable and love the outdoors, rain or shine, warm or cold.  Much of the day, they run the pasture fence, and then stop and graze.  Rock Creek has been flowing fairly strongly these past few months, so their watering hole provides them with all the liquid they need.  They will always take the odd apple or carrot, when we offer them.  And they love to be stroked on the neck and face.  We don't ride them nearly enough.

The Herd of Four -- Lily remains the boss of the Jersey herd, while Abraham, Isaac and Abby, all born in the summer of 2012, have each grown to nearly 1,000 pounds and can no longer be pushed around by us as we try to get them from here to there, or into or out of the barn.  Good thing they like us.


Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- We heated the house with wood all winter, going through about 11 cords of hardwood.  We kept the main trails out back open all winter, but there were several weeks where we only used them three or four days due to cold temps and winds.  In late winter, we felled 40-50 trees up in the woods, where they were limbed, bucked (cut to 15-18 inch lengths) and left to season.  We will bring the logs down to the barn and split and stack them over the next few months for use next winter and beyond.  A desired side effect is the opening-up of the woods to let-in more sunlight.  Deer were fairly plentiful in early fall, but thinned as winter progressed.  Many wild turkeys run all about the trails, fields and woods.  And we have heard large packs of coyotes running fairly close to the house on two or three nights ... always a bit of an eerie experience.


Fowl Weather -- We hatched seven of our own bred chicken chicks to add to the 19 adult chickens that run about the place, and added another 16 Delaware chicks bought from a mid-western hatchery.  We have another dozen turkey eggs in the incubator, which should hatch in the next couple of weeks and another dozen turkey eggs being sat upon by mother hens in the bird department in the barn.  Success of the turkey breeding to be determined.  Last year, we hatched six of our own turkeys, added to 15 turkey chicks purchased from a hatchery.  With the exception of those few kept over the winter for next year breeding, all our turkeys are butchered a week or so before Thanksgiving.


Visitors -- Winter was quiet.  Stevie has visited us a couple of times, with the new and improved Jackson.  Born in December at barely two pounds, 13 weeks premature, Jackson is now in great health and over eight pounds in weight, essentially where he should be for a newborn or three-week or so old baby.  Jackson spent 72 days in the NICU at UMass Memorial Medical Center, where he received exceptional care.  Over Easter, Stevie and Jackson, along with CJ, visited us for several days.  And we took a day and traveled back to Amherst to visit my aunt Phyllis, which was a great time for us all.


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 --
       

     Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -- Mark Twain

     Hillary Clinton has failed to achieve anything of substance or significance on her own. -- Vladimir Davidiuk, The College Conservative

     Sending John Kerry to negotiate with the Russians is like sending a cupcake to negotiate with a steak knife. -- Ambassador John Boltin     

     There's no education in the second kick of a mule. -- Old Kentucky Saying

     With all your acquiring, get understanding.  -- Bible, Proverbs 4:7 

     Know what you own, and why you own it. -- Peter Lynch

     If it's obvious, it's obviously wrong. -- old Wall Street adage

     If you are taught bitterness and anger, then you will believe that you are a victim.  You will feel aggrieved, and the twin brother of aggrievment is entitlement.   So now you will think that you are owed something, and that you don't have to work for it, and now you are on a really bad road to nowhere, because there are people who will play to that sense of victimhood, aggrievment and entitlement, and you still won't have a job. -- Condaleeza Rice

    

     Abortion at any stage is the taking of human life. -- Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood, in her 1931 essay distinguishing between contraceptive measures that prevent a sperm from fertilizing a woman’s egg and post-conception measures that would destroy a fertilized egg, an embryo.

Facts of the Month --

     Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., killing more Americans than all forms of cancer combined.     

     Cell phone use is now estimated to be involved in 26% of motor vehicle crashes, up from 25% last year. -- National Safety Council

     Every year in the U.S., twice as many people are murdered with fists and feet than are murdered with rifles and shotguns.  Rifles and shotguns account for 2.5% of U.S. murders. -- FBI

     Today, collectively, the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

     Annually, on average, in the U.S., cattle kill 20 people.

     Vladimir Putin is 5'5" tall.

     More than $1 billion is being spent on travel every year by Barack Obama and his family.  Obama is spending 20 times what the entire royal family spends for travel. That sort of luxury and excess would make the sovereigns of any European nation wince. The latest trip to China includes all the must-see sights, such as the historic city of Xi'an, the southern district of Chengdu and the home of China's beloved panda bears. American taxpayers should be in open revolt, as they're footing the bill for this opulence and grandeur.  Adding insult to injury is the simple fact that Michelle Obama won't answer a single question about the entire trip.  Rumors persist that Michelle Obama is out of control in the White House and that even the President is not able to control her.  There is even a possibility of divorce before Obama's presidential term ends. -- Britain's Daily Mail

Thought of the Month --
     

     The theory of 'man-made climate change' is an unsubstantiated hypothesis. The theory is that CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuel causes 'global warming.' In fact, water is a much more powerful greenhouse gas and there is 20 times more of it in our atmosphere [than carbon dioxide]. Carbon dioxide has been made out to be some kind of toxic gas but the truth is it's the gas of life. We breathe it out, plants breathe it in. The green lobby has created a do-good industry and it becomes a way of life, like a religion. I understand why people defend it when they have spent so long believing in it. -- Dr. Leslie Woodcock, Ph.D., University of London, NASA
     There's no way to rule innocent men.  The only power that government has is to crack down on criminals.  Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.  One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. -- Ayn Rand

Bumper Sticker of the Month --

     YOU MIGHT AS WELL REPLACE THAT 'OBAMA' BUMPER STICKER WITH ONE THAT SAYS 'I AM STUPID'

And then There's This ...

The Riley Factor #129

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
February 15, 2014, Issue No. 131
 (All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

It has been a while, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR, from Middle-of-Nowhere.

And welcome into the world ...

Jackson Christopher Douglas Bentley

... born December 20, 2013, 13 weeks premature, to Stevie and Scott, weighing 2 pounds, five ounces, and 14.2 inches in length.  Lengthy stay in UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.  He is doing beautifully.

Riley and the Littles -- This winter, I put The Riley in charge of the four cats, AJ, Stryder, Arwen and Izzy, with instructions to keep the cats in line and make sure they each caught their quota of mice.  Riley is a poor boss.

Plowing and Planting -- No planting or other farming recently.  But  five acres of hard red winter wheat and winter barley is in the ground and grew to about six inches in height before winter dormancy set in.  The plan is for them to spring forth in April or so and grow through mid-July or so, when they will be combined and stored in the barn, mostly for feed but with some used for baking flour.  In early February, we dropped-off the funnel spreader to John Fisher, for a rehab of the spreading plates and funnel gate - all rusted from too many fertilizer applications, which are generally done a ton or so at a time.  Next up is the drop-off on the combine for a 2014 rehab.


And They're Off -- Rio and Blondie have calmed as they became accustomed to pasture and barn life together.  Although, on the morning of February 15, they were up to their old tricks.  Knock on the door at 10:15AM.  No, it was not the horses.  But only because they were in the middle of the road running away.  And a nice lady had stopped-in to inform us of our latest equine transgression.  By the time we found the pair of ne'er -do-wells, about 2 miles away, on Clinton Road, it took 15 minutes to corral them, with the help of a couple of young Amish girls, and their three-legged German Shepherd dog, Benji.  Then, in the snow, we began the hour-long process of "walking" the two stooges home, first on Clinton Road, with little traffic, and then on state route 163, with much more traffic.  Susan trailed the three of us 50-100 feet in the Xterra with lights and flashers on duty.  After trying a couple of different approaches, we settled on "walking" Rio on a lead and letting Blondie run free, which was generally within 25 yards or so of Rio and me.  At one point, Blondie plunged off road into the 3-4 feet deep culvert, full of snow.  Surprise to her.  She managed to get in and out of the snow pit without difficulty.  Other than a few bloody toes from a foot stomp from Rio, everyone remained unscathed.  All was back to normal by 11:30AM, such as it is.

The Herd of Four -- Lily, our on-and-off again Jersey dairy cow, is happy and healthy.  And the three Jersey calves born in the spring and early summer of 2012, Abraham, Isaac and Abby, roam contentedly.  We had a huge apple season this fall, many dozens of bushels of perfect apples, so the cattle and horses ate heavily most days from the orchards.  As did we.  The calves are now each approaching 1,000 pounds.


Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- Mowing has long been over.  Musing comes and musing goes.  And we are still cutting and splitting wood for exercise and heating.  We began winter with about 14 cords split and stacked for use this winter, if we need it, along with another 25 felled trees that need splitting and stacking, to get a year ahead, for use next winter.  On an ongoing basis, we also cut dead standing trees from the trails area, mostly elms.  Many of these trees have been dead for so long that their bark is virtually all gone, but the wood remains dense and hard, and generally only five to 10 inches in diameter at the base - easy to cut down and cut up, and perfect for use in the kitchen stove.  Susan, CJ and I cut another couple of cords of the long-standing dead elm trees for buring in the kitchen stove.  And, in early February, we had Aaron Miller, Daniel Stoltzfus and Vernon Peachey cut down 40-50 large hardwood trees, and leave them in the snowy woods, limbed and bucked, for use two winters out.


Fowl Weather -- Well, as usual, the weekend before Thanksgiving brought the annual butchering of our turkey herd.  Always a melancholy day.  We started the turkeys early this year, in April, buying 15 chicks and breeding another six on our own.  We lost one in a road accident, butchered 14 and have one tom and 5 hens left for over this winter and spring breeding.  All Standard Bronze breed, which is a heritage breed that was the turkey of America until the 1930s or so, when the American broad-breasted white took over as the Country's most popular.  We also have one Narragansett hen left over from last year, which we will also breed this spring.

Visitors -- It has been a quiet winter on the visitors front, with a couple of visits from CJ.


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 -- 
               

    When all the experts and forecasts agree – something else is going to happen. -- Robert Farrell 

    The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it. -- George Orwell

     President Obama got some good news today.  The IRS ruled that he can write-off the first half of his second term as a total loss. -- Jay Leno

          
     Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. -- Winston Churchill
     America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts. And by the false philosophy that says one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization. -- Anonymous

     You fail all the time.  But you're not a failure until you start blaming someone else. -- Bum Phillips, 1923-2013

     Who is more foolish, the fool or the fools who follow the fool? -- obi wan kenobi

     Zero tolerance always goes too far.  It results in authoritarian dumbness.  Zero tolerance always kills common sense.  We should treat each person as an individual and exercise judgment in decision making. -- Tucker Carlson

     A man's true wealth is measured by the good he does in the world. -- Mohammed

     Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. -- John Adams

    
     Change your thoughts and you change your world. -- Norman Vincent Peale

     If you're going to make a mistake, make it at full speed. -- Lance Briggs (linebacker, Chicago Bears)

     Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. -- Niels Bohr

     No more excuses, Barack Obama is a liar ... He should resign. -- Allen West

     Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. -- Ronald Reagan

     For liberty to expand, government must now contract.  For the economy to grow, the government must get out of the way. -- Rand Paul

     Let us not seek the Democrat answer or the Republican answer, but the right answer.  Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past.  Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. -- John F. Kennedy

     Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. -- Winston Churchill

     The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy. -- John F. Kennedy, 1962

     Defiance, not obedience, is the American's answer to overbearing government. -- Ayn Rand

     It is not that I am so smart, it is just that I stay with problems longer. -- Albert Einstein

     Before you embark on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves. -- Confucius

     Stay committed to your decisions, but remain flexible in your approach. - Tony Robbins

     To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. -- Thomas Paine

Fact of the Month --

The Earth’s surface is 70 percent water, while the majority of the human population inhabits only about 3 percent of the landmass.

Thought of the Month --
     

LIBERALS THINK WE SHOULD BE EQUAL AT THE FINISH LINE.  CONSERVATIVES THINK WE SHOULD BE EQUAL AT THE STARTING LINE.

    

American exceptionalism has evolved from “We are exceptional because of our free society,” into “We are exceptional therefore life in our society should be free.” 

Bumper Stickers of the Month -- well, not really a bumpersticker because of its length, but ... --

The 5 best sentences you’ll ever read on this experiment of Obama and Democrat Party Socialism

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!.
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Fact of the Month -- 

50 percent of Americans believe that the Country is still in a recession.

And then There's This ...    

The Riley Factor #128

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
October 18, 2013, Issue No. 130
 (All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

It has been a busy summer - four months since the last edition of The Riley Factor, which was June 15 or so.

Fort Plain Floods -- On the morning of Friday, June 28, at 6AM, a four-foot wall of water rushed down Main Street in Downtown Fort Plain.  The Otsquago Creek had surged out of its bed, adding 20-30 feet in height to normal water levels.  An 87-year-old woman opened her front door to look and was swept away - not seen since.  State Highways 80, 163 and 5S were impassable.  When the water settled, every basement in the Downtown area was full of water.  Every business was closed.  Mud everywhere.  Electric power nowhere.  Red Cross, state troopers, FEMA, Homeland Security, sheriff deputies, local police, local fire departments, etc. everywhere.  Virtually every bridge in town was breached and made unusable, including all the small bridges on all the back roads in the agricultural areas surrounding the downtown area.  Clean-up ensued, but more rain on June 29-30 and July 1-2 followed, forcing more evacuations.   Two months later, clean-up continues.  Most bridges have been repaired, some houses are condemned, the State has been working in the Creek, reshaping it, all summer, and the worst hit area, Abbott Street off of Route 80 is still a mess, with many houses in the area still without power.  By October, most damage has been repaired, but several small businesses never returned to downtown Fort Plain, and Abbott Street is still a mess, with all its houses condemned and unlivable.

Riley and the Littles -- The Golden Boy and his summer time minion, Watson, the yellow lab pup, run hard, play hard and sleep hard.  Both Riley and Watson think that biting the tails of the cats is fun.  The cats disagree.  Alack and alas, Watson left us at summer's end for his hopefully permanent home. 

Plowing and Planting -- Mid-June brought haying.  First, a day plus to review the mower, tedder, rake, baler and hay wagons and get them into shape for the task.  Then, required for making hay while the sun shines are three straight days of forecast and actual sun, warmth, breeze and zero rain.  Well, we got this and more from June 19 to 23 and put 1,190 bales of hay in the barn, 290 more bales from the first cutting than a year ago.  We mowed our primary hay fields,14 acres, on Thursday.  The tedded the hay once later that day and once on Friday.  Then, we raked the hay into rows late Friday and did the baling and stacking on Saturday, with the assistance of Melvin Miller Jr. and Daniel Stoltzfus.  Susan, Nancy and I were well worn by Saturday evening.  Spring of heavy rain and summer of no rain has taken its toll on the grain crops.  Hay was bountiful, but wheat, oats and barley a bit sparse.  A number of the corn fields in the area are half growing and half gone.  Apple trees are full with more apples than we'll ever use.  We did a second cutting of hay in mid-September and put another few hundred bales in the barn. 

And They're Off -- Rio and Blondie bask playfully in the pasture.  We saddled-up Rio and CJ, with friends Andie and Scott, rode a bit.  Andie clearly the expert.  Scott was tossed-off when we looked away and only mostly recovered from the bruise on his butt. 

The Herd of Five (now Four) -- Eli, Lily, Michael, Isaac, and Abby summered in the pasture and recently fenced trails area, spending most evenings outside.  They love roaming the trails but still come running for their daily dose of hay, offered each evening by Nancy.  The three calves passed their one-year birthdays this summer.  In early October, it was time for Eli, then a 2,000+ pound fully-grown Holstein steer, to head to the butcher for processing, yielding 900 piounts of hanging-weight beef and over 800 pounds of finished, packaged and frozen steaks, roasts, ribs and ground beef, enough for us for another year or two.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- We cleared the shooting range and tried-out the new targets and .22's.  Great success.  And mark the date,August 25, a bit down the road on Freysbush Street, Susan saw a brown bear run into a corn field.  Last year, Susan saw a mother bear and two cubs at a creek right next to the road, while driving on Route 20 out near Duanesburg.

Fowl Weather -- The turkeys are growing ever larger as their mid-November showdown approaches.  Most of the hens are in the 12-15 pound range, with the toms a bit larger.  Still a month month to go/grow, so finished weights should be 20 lbs. or so.  One of the 18 Red Star/Silkie chicken chicks hatched this past spring just laid an egg, so the evolutionary process marches on.  Soon, we should be getting a couple of dozen eggs per day.

Visitors -- Stevie, CJ and friends spent a couple of July weekends at the Compound.  Giant bonfire scorched a portion of the lawn, but no real damage.

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 -- 
               
     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- Declaration of Independence

     Only a fool holds out for top dollar. -- Joseph Kennedy (the father)

     Economic forecasting is a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. -- William Shakespeare (Macbeth)

     The only reason people lock their car doors when Obama walks by is that they are afraid that Obama will tax them to death. -- James Woods

     Every time something really bad happens, people cry out for safety, and the government answers by taking rights away from good people. -- Penn Jillette

     The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims. -- Che Guevara     

     We must do away with all newspapers. A revolution cannot be accomplished with freedom of the press. -- Che Guevara

     If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. -- Thomas Jefferson

     Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half the people are stupider than that. -- George Carlin

Thought of the Month --
     

America's Obituary

   
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the
University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the
Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always
temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent
form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous
gifts from the public treasury. From that
moment on, the majority
always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from
the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally
collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a
dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the
beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200
years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

Bumper Stickers of the Month -- a tie this edition --

     ONE-SIDED AND PROUD: SOCIALISM  (seen on a car also sporting bumper stickers saying OBAMA and GREEN)

                                                  and

     PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR A LIVING ARE OUTNUMBERED BY PEOPLE WHO VOTE FOR A LIVING

                                                  and

     IF OBAMA WAS THE ANSWER, HOW STUPID WAS THE QUESTION?

                                                  and

     NOBODY FOR PRESIDENT IN 2016 - START LEADING YOURSELF

Fact of the Month -- 

     For every one job created under the Obama Administration, 75 people have gone on food stamps.

     Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty, or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. (Associated Press, 7/29/13)


And then There's This ...
   

                             Clocks in Heaven

A man died and went to Heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the
Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are
all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are lie-clocks. Everyone on Earth has a
lie-clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh", said the man. "Whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating she's never
told a lie."

"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved
twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life."

"Where's President Obama's clock," asked the man?

"Obama's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

   

AND THEN THERE'S THIS -- 

                                                                                
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The RIley Factor #127

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
February 28, 2013, Issue No. 127(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley and the Littles --  Winter in Middle-of-Nowhere has for the most part been cold and snowy.  No particularly huge storms, but constant overnight and daylight lake-effect snow frequently has been adding up to an inch or so of accumulation per day between storms.  And not too many warm thawing days.  Riley and his feline entourage alternate between running about the place and lying about the place.  We also now have an orange and white stray cat living in the wood shed and under the garden shed.  All of the little ones love running around in fresh snow.

Plowing and Planting -- The only crops growing here now are the snow and ice, although we have started some peppers and onions indoors.  The greenhouse has yet to be opened for the season, owing to the cold overnight temps.

And They're Off -- January 24 brought minus 12 degrees at 6AM in beautiful downtown Fort Plain.  Well, Fort Plain anyway.  Record cold for our 5-year stay here in Middle-of-Nowhere.  Also, a record low of 26 in the barn, which was cold enough to freeze the barn water, and necessitated our hand-carrying warm water to the barn from the house to thaw the animal water buckets and the hydrant.  It had warmed to a toasty minus 6 by 9AM when we embarked on the chores.  Rio and Lady always want time outdoors, but our several severe cold spells limited that a bit.  We have had a few 4-7-day spans where the daily high temp was in the teens, with overnight lows below zero.  Leaving the animals in the barn during the day keeps the barn temperature in the 30s day and night.

The Herd of Five -- Cattle is mooing, eating and pooping all the day long.  The Fearsome Fivesome senses the cold and have become somewhat adjusted to spending a few days in a row in the barn without time in the pasture.  When the temps warm a bit, we release the cows to romp in the snow.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- We mostly heat the house with wood - will probably burn 10 cords of hardwood this winter.  We took a few of the milder days over this winter and began cutting trees to continue opening-up the woods a bit and collecting firewood for next year.  We already have 14 cords of newly-cut wood split and stacked under cover, and have another 26 trees felled, limbed and bucked, lying in the woods for collection and piling by the woodshed for splitting.  Once this year is done, we will stack 5-6 cords in the basement and leave the rest outdoors for seasoning.  Cutting and stacking firewood is really as much of a winter hobby and exercise program as anything else.

Fowl Weather -- Turkeys and chickens love the barn life.  One of our roosters, an all-white Jersey Giant/Red Star mix, who we have named Foghorn Leghorn (I know, a bit obvious) has taken to attacking Susan and Nancy during feeding time.  Although using a stick to ward him off, or tossing food into the pen gets around this temporarily, old Foghorn had better be careful, or he might end up as chicken soup.  His confederate rooster, Silky (all black with feathered legs and red and turquoise hues throughout) calmly watches the antics.  Breeding season has begun for the birds, and we already have 23 eggs in the incubator.

Visitors -- Very quiet here in Upstate, although we have made a few trips back to the Boston area.

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.)

Editorial Comment --
     President Obama and his progressive socialist agenda are destined and doomed ultimately to failure, unless and until they come to recognize harsh reality, and view the private sector as the generator of economic growth, and not the as means to fund government. 


Quotes of the Month -- 
         Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing. -- Benjamin Franklin     

     No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. -- Aesop    

     May blessing and peace of heart be your rich gifts from God. -- I Thessalonians 1:1

     Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.     

     This is the time to remember, 'cause it will not last forever. These are the days to hold onto, 'cause we won't although we'll want to. -- Billy Joel
     At the end of the day, all stock price movements can be traced back to earnings. -- Steve Reitmeister, Zachs.com

     To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens. -- Adolph Hitler

     Obama is a doctrinaire socialist, who believes government can, and should tax and spend your money to achieve the remaking of America as he and his leftist pals see it. -- Bab Bauman, The Sovereign Investor

     Man is not free unless government is limited. -- Ronald Reagan
     In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time, we've been
tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to
government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to
govern someone else?  -- President Ronald Reagan, first Inaugural Address, January, 1981

     If a Republican doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.  If a Democrat doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. -- Jeff Foxworthy
     If a Republican doesn't like a talk show, he switches channels.  Democrats demand those channels they don't like be shut down.  -- Jeff Foxworthy 
     Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. -- Albert Einstein

     I have a bad feeling about this... -- Princess Leia

     Who is John Galt? -- Ayn Rand


Thought of the Month --
     Whenever you do not understand what’s happening in your life, just close your eyes, take a deep breath and say 'God I know it is your plan. Just help me through it.'


Bumper Sticker of the Month --
     PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR A LIVING ARE BEING OVERWHELMED BY PEOPLE WHO VOTE FOR A LIVING

     D. A. D. D. D.   Dads Against Daughters Dating Democrats


Who is Rich and What is fair? -- By Alexander Green, Investment U --

     Answers are largely a matter of opinion. But here is a fact: IRS figures show that the top 10% of income earners make 43% of all the income and pay 70% of all the taxes. Is that fair? If not, how much should they pay: 75%… 90%… all of it? And how about the now widely recognized fact – thanks to Mitt Romney’s secret videographer – that 47% of Americans don’t pay any income taxes. Is that fair? Opinions will vary.  According to the IRS, the top 2% of income earners – the ones that just had their marginal tax rate raised 13% to 39.6% – already pay approximately half of all income taxes. President Obama says it’s about time these folks “chipped in.” What a kidder.

     And who is “rich?” For today’s discussion, I’ll leave aside the truism that you are rich if you enjoy good health, a loving family, close friends and varied interests. Politicians (and most voters, apparently) seem to believe that a person’s wealth can be determined by his or her income. I would argue that you determine real wealth by looking at a balance sheet not an income statement. But why not look at both?  According to the Tax Policy Center, if your annual household income is $107,628, you are in the top 20% of income earners. If your income exceeds $148,687, you are in the top 10%. You are in the top 5% if it is $208,810. And if your household income is $521,411, congratulations. You are in the top 1%… and perhaps demonized by those who view hard work and risk-taking as a matter of good genes and good fortune.

Facts of the Month -- 

     In 2016, the government we will begin paying-out more in Social Security benefits than it collects in Social Security taxes.  Without changes, by 2037 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted.
     51% of adults in the U.S. are married.  A generation ago, the number was 72%
     41% of births in the U.S. are currently to unmarried women.  33% of U.S. children are being raised in single-parent homes.
     In the short time since President Obama was re-elected, November 6, 2012, the federal government has issued hundreds of new regulations. The bureaucrats never stop. There are now more than 170,000 pages of federal regulations.  

     One in four children in the U.S. were on food stamps in 2011. -- USDA

     The average age of a vehicle currently on the road in America is 11 years. -- Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford   

 80% of all antibiotics sold in America are used on food animals, mostly to promote growth or prevent disease in crowded, unsanitary conditions. -- Consumer Reports
     40% of all employers perform an online check of prospective employees when evaluating employment candidates, including reviewing services such as Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter, as well as performing Google and other searches.

     According to the FBI annual crime statistics, annually the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs far outnumbers the number of murders committed with a rifle.  In 2005, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 445, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 605.  In 2006, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 438, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 618.  And so the list goes, with the actual numbers changing somewhat from year to year, yet the fact that more people are killed with blunt objects each year remains constant.  In  2011, there were 323 murders committed with a rifle but 496 murders committed with hammers and clubs.  Another interesting fact, according to the FBI, nearly twice as many people are killed by hands and fists each year than are killed by murderers who use rifles.


     The U.S. is no longer a nation where workers earn wages and save for the future.  See the following comparison of net worth now and 25 years ago.

Commentaries of the Month --

Zero-sum Makes Zero Sense

But the worst thing that you’ve done internationally is what you’ve done domestically. You sent a message to America in your reelection campaign. Therefore you sent a message to the world. The message is that we live in a zero-sum universe. There is a fixed amount of good things. Life is a pizza. If some people have too many slices, other people have to eat the pizza box. You had no answer to Mitt Romney’s argument for more pizza parlors baking more pizzas. The solution to our problems, you said, is redistribution of the pizzas we’ve got—with low-cost, government-subsidized pepperoni somehow materializing as the result of higher taxes on pizza parlor owners. In this zero-sum universe there’s only so much happiness. The idea is that if we wipe the smile off the faces of people with prosperous businesses and successful careers, that will make the rest of us grin. -- P.J. O'Rourke, World Affairs

Pathetic Leadership

The deficit for fiscal 2013 is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to exceed $1 trillion once again — for the fifth consecutive year.  Mr. Obama persuaded Congress to raise taxes to pre-2001 levels for every individual tax filer making more than $400,000 and joint filers making more than $450,000.  How much extra revenue will that produce? Roughly $60 billion. That's just 6% of the $1 trillion annual deficit, if that number is even believable. (In reality, it's probably much higher than that, but let's just keep it simple and say it's only $1 trillion a year.)  Making a 6% dent in a problem that threatens the future worldwide economic leadership of the United States is not much of a solution. It's pathetic. -- Greg McCoach, Wealth Daily