The Riley Factor #98

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
May 17, 2011, Issue No. 98
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit to print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley -- As wired and happy as always.  When he meets new visitors, he is beside himself with excitement, jumping up, running in circles, even barking at times (barking is a Riley rarity).  He is getting very comfortable riding in the front passenger seat of the pick-up -- looks like he's been there his whole life.  When we leave him in the vehicle, even if only for a minute, when we return, he is always sitting in the driver's seat.  Fortunately, he has neither a driver's license nor feet long enough to reach the pedals.  (And the whole lack-of-opposable-thumbs thing makes starting the ignition a tough task for Riley.  Plus, he has no pockets to carry the keys in.)

Planting and Plowing -- Lately, much has gone into the ground.  Only cold-loving vegetable plants outside (spinach, broccoli, onions, cauliflower, potatoes).  Inside the greenhouse, the tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, melons, peppers, squash and various herbs started from seed await their fate to be transplanted.  Susan also put-in a wide selection of green beans, navy beans, kidney beans and lima beans, outside near the greenhouse.  Out in the fields, we have about five acres of hard red winter wheat and semolina planted from last fall (most wheat is planted in the fall and harvested mid-summer the next year).  Also, on May 11, we planted two acres of oats, and expect to plant another two acres soon.  And, we put-in a small patch (less than a quarter acre) of barley.  Only corn planting remains for this year's field crops, plus the final few vegetables in the garden.

Horses -- Rio longed for the return of Lady, while she was sway being trained.  Fortunately, she took to being ridden very well, and returned on May 16, after being away for only a month.  At the King Farm in Danube, Lady shared a new small barn with four stablemates, including two other Morgans, one of which was a yearling.  They had a view of the pasture where the dozen working mules called home when not hitched to a wagon or some farming implement.  Trainer Chris King rode her almost every day, usually on saddle but occasionally bareback.  We visited her once or twice a week.  Now, she is back in our pasture with Rio and the bovines.

The Herd of Three -- A new favorite snack of Eli, Michael and Raph is grass cut from the lawn.  As soon as a mower starts-up, the Herd comes running and mooing for the grass buffet.  Susan routinely accommodates, at the expense of adding grass cuttings to the soil in the garden beds.  One experiment that went terribly awry was letting the steer out the lower gate to munch the longer grass, untethered and unconstrained by fencing.  "I thought they were trustworthy", commented Susan the CEO.  I retorted, "Those little bastards will run for the hills".  Needless to say, we spent the afternoon wandering the south woods and trails first locating and then coaxing each half-ton-plus behemoth back through the gate.  At days end, Susan summed it up, "Well, we had our first rodeo."  "Yeah", I said, "but the steers took home all the trophies."

Fowl Weather -- The chickens are hitting their stride laying eggs, producing almost three dozen per day.  The two roosters constantly chase the hens seeking to mate.  Best pick-up line overheard to date is ... "I say, I say, hey you cute chick, haven't I seen you here before?  Of course, I could be wrong since all you hens look the same."  We now have 35 laying hens, and they set a record on May 9, leaving 40 eggs.  On the dark side, we have a weasel that has tunneled into the barn, killing five of the chickens over a three night period.  Weasels are nefarious ... one as small as four ounces can kill an animal weighing four pounds.  More to follow on this topic.

Mowings, Musings and The Woods -- On a recent sunny day ride over to horse trainer Chris King's to visit Lady, we saw a wind farm on the northern horizon across the NYS Thruway and Erie Canal.  We saw more wind mills than we have ever seen before, here in the east.  As I sped along Clark Road in Herkimer County (all the back roads in NY have 55 mph speed limits), Susan counted 45 of the giant spinners.  It is fairly common here in upstate NY to see from one to dozen commercial wind mills in a grouping, usually atop some hill or small mountain.

 

Visitors -- CJ and a friend spent the May 13-15 weekend here in Middle-of-Nowhere.  We went to Robert Hancock's auction at Glimmerglass Pools, where they were selling everything from a 12'x24' log cabin to a circa 1900 lower half ladies lingerie form.  Susan bought a table and a couple of crocks, while CJ's friend bought an old sled.

Blog -- The Riley Factor has entered the 21st century, and its own official blog site is located at http://the-riley-factor.blogspot.com/ and you can see all issues to date.  (If you actually spend the time and do this, you may need more help with your life than we are able offer.  But we digress.)

Quotes of the Month --

     Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on , or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free. -- Ronald Reagan

     The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. -- Sen. Barack Obama, March 20, 2006

     It remains to be seen whether Barack Obama will be a worse president than Jimmy Carter. -- Michael Reagan

     Working is fine for killing time, but a shaky way to make a living. -- Brett Maverick

Fact of the Month --

     We have reached the tipping point - Now, more than 50% of all American households pay absolutely no federal income tax. -- The Wall Street Journal (51% pay no tax, according to a just-completed Congressional study of 2009 income tax returns)

     The 15 highest-taxed counties in the United States are located in ... New York State, north of New York City.

     The world is currently burning four barrels of oil for every one barrel of oil that is being discovered.

     20% of working-age men in America do not work at all (the highest percentage for any country in the developed world).  8.2 million Americans receive payments for being on permanent disability.


Commentary of the Month --

                              

                        555 PEOPLE   by Charlie Reese, in the Orlando Sentinel

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.  Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, Why do we have deficits?  Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, Why do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.  You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.  The House of Representatives does.  You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.  You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.  You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 555 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.  I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.  They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing.  I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash.  The politician has the power to accept or reject it.  No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. 

Those 555 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.  The President can only propose a budget.  He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.  Who was the speaker of the House?  Nancy Pelosi.  She was the leader of the majority party.  She and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.  If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 555 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility.  I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 555 people.  When you fully grasp the plain truth that 555 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.  If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.  If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 555 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.  Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 555 people, and they alone, are responsible.  They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.