The Riley Factor #123

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
September 30, 2012, Issue No. 123(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit-to-print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley and the Littles -- Bad news ... At 5:30am on September 12, Nancy's dog, Gabby, was hit by a car and killed, in front of the Bartlett's house (across the street, next door to Lloyd's).  She died instantly.  The driver stopped and told Susan that the dog simply ran right out in front of the car, and that there was no way to avoid hitting her.  Lloyd's daughter, Laura, was up at the time, and said that she heard the driver hit the brakes before hitting Gabby. Gabby was a wonderful dog, a seven year old Belgian Tervuren, a shepherd dog, who behaved perfectly and was friendly to everyone.  She will be missed.  We buried Gabby at the top of the property at the edge of the fourth field, giving her burial site the best view on the Farm.

Plowing and Planting -- September began with harvesting the last of the potatoes, onions and tomatoes.  Eggplants and peppers continue to grow strong.  The final huge crop of green beans was harvested on September 10 & 11.  On September 7, we planted 4 acres of hard red winter wheat - four steps: plowing, rototilling, grain drilling and culti-packing.  The seeds germinate within a couple of weeks and grow to 4-8 inches within the next 6-8 weeks, after which we will add a bit of fertilizer.  Then the crop lies dormant until spring, when it bursts forth with a vengeance, to be harvested in mid to late July, 2013.

This year, New York State is forecasting the worst apple crop in over six decades, expecting 80% less than 2011 and 50% less than the average from the last five years.  After harvesting far more apples than we could use in 2011, our own 2012 entire apple crop was lost, owing to almost three weeks of temperatures in the 80s and 90s in March, which produced early blossoms on all the trees, followed by the typical later frosts in April and early May.

And They're Off -- Rio and Blondie get along well, spending 23+ hours a day within 10 yards of one another.  They often come to the rail seeking attention from anyone walking or riding by the fence line.

The Herd of Five -- Since we expended the pasture to include the two acres in the orchard, all five bovines have enjoyed wandering for their grass feed.  Eli is the pack leader, and moves the five-some from place to place, but it is young Abby that runs circles around the herd and gens-up the energy level.  Lily is producing a quart to a gallon of milk daily, in addition to providing Abby with mush of her needed nutrition.  Abe & Isaac continue to promote mayhem.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- During September, we spent several days cutting trees and brush to widen the riding trails, and in addition to providing more space to ride, actually cut about a cord of small firewood for use in the kitchen stove.  We added another fenced-in pasture area for the horses and cattle, about nine additional acres containing a couple of miles of trails and much light brush and secondary growth.  Thirty years ago, the entire area was pasture, but was left to grow unmanaged until we cut some trails a few years back.  So far, the animals love their new playground.

Fowl Weather -- On September 10, we took another dozen and a half chickens to the butcher to whittle down the flock to a manageable 23 chickens, to go with the 20 turkeys.  The young Red Star breed hens, which were hatched on or about this past April 20, have just started laying eggs, right on schedule.

Visitors -- Grandmother Barbara visited for a day on September 10 and whisked-away Nancy, who spent three-plus weeks at the end of September back in Western Mass, working at The Big E.  All the Rock Creek Farm animals missed her.  Other than that, all is quiet here on the Western Front.

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 -- 
          
     Capitalism is about voluntary exchange for mutual benefit. Businesses don’t “take” money. Only government (which has a monopoly on the legal use of force) and criminals do that. Businesses merely collect the money that consumers and other businesses voluntarily trade for products and services. -- Alexander Green

     Lamborghini has announced a major recall of their cars.  So, if you have a Lamborghini, please return it to your local rerun of Miami Vice. -- Conan O'Brien

     Never rely on government.  Rely on yourself. -- Nick Hodge, 9/21/12

     Protect yourself:  Hang-up the phone on anyone who tries to sell, give or help you with anything. -- Consumer Reports

     Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. -- Ayn Rand, 1947

     As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. -- Irving Fisher, 1929

     I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. -- Wimpy

     There are 47 percent who are with him (Obama), who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. -- Mitt Romney
     We just can't allow America to be a place where it is easier to get a government subsidy check than to get a job. -- Mitt Romney, 9/19/12
     Our $16 trillion national debt is not a concern right now, and besides, it was Bush's war that caused it in the first place. -- Barack Obama, 9/18/12     I actually believe in wealth redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody has a fair shot. -- Barack Obama, 2008

     The economy will get better the day Romney is elected.  If Obama is re-elected, it will never get better. -- Don Imus, 9/20/12

     But we have to pass the bill, so you can find out what is in it. -- Nancy Pelosi, speaking on the ObamaCare legislation
Bumper Stickers of the Month -- 
     STOP WHINING AND START WORKING

     IF OBAMA IS ELECTED FOR A SECOND TERM, JUST THINK OF THE MESS HE WILL INHERIT THIS TIME

     SHOULDN'T YOU HAVE TO PASS A URINE TEST TO GET A WELFARE CHECK, SINCE I HAVE TO PASS ONE TO EARN IT FOR YOU?
Facts of the Month -- 

     Workers who work 44 hours per week earn 50% more than workers who work 34 hours per week (50% more pay for 29% more work - it's not about the activity, it's about responsibility, productivity and judgement in the workplace).   

     In the United States, suicide has become the number one cause of death-by-injury, passing death-by-auto-crash.  In 2009, there were 37,000 deaths by suicide in the U.S.

     95% of workers in America earn more than the minimum wage.

     Our nation's $16 trillion national debt, represents $61,000 of debt for every living man, woman and child in America.  $5 trillion of it was accumulated over the past four years, under the leadership of President Obama.  $16 trillion is enough money to feed every American family for the next 100 years.

     The top 10% of taxpayers pay 70.47% of personal federal income tax collected. -- IRS, for the year 2009

     If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%.  The broader U-6 unemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who want full-time work, is at 14.7%. -- James Pethokoukis, CNBC & The Enterprise Institute

      There may not be a ‘death panel’ lurking in the Affordable Care Act but there is an Independent Payment Advisory Board that has some folks – including many physicians – scared it will ultimately find a way to ration care for the elderly.  --  Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.
     Dreading ObamaCare: Company finance chiefs foresee increased taxes, discouragement for hiring older workers, and a pretty strong incentive to move away from employer-based health coverage entirely. -- CFO Magazine

Commentaries of the Month --

     President Barack Obama is laughing his ass off at all of you because you are so dumb. It’s astonishing, Obama acts as if his words are actual reality, and they mean nothing to him. And I’m going to tell you something — all you liberals out there, all you people in the media. I’m telling you, Obama in private is just laughing his ass off at all of you because you are so dumb, so gullible, so easily manipulated. And all he has to do is tell you that there is a doughnut in the sky and you’ll report there’s a doughnut in the sky. And behind the scenes, he knows he is advancing his radical agenda and that you’re helping him do it. And he knows what fools you all are. And he knows that you have basically drunk the Kool-Aid and that you’re out there and you will say and do whatever he tells you to say and do. -- Sean Hannity

     Obama's Dreams -- After reading Barack Obama's book "Dreams from My Father," it became painfully clear that he has not been searching for the truth, because he assumed from an early age that he had already found the truth — and now it was just a question of filling in the details and deciding how to change things.  Obama did not simply happen to encounter a lot of people on the far left fringe during his life. As he spells out in his book, he actively sought-out such people. There is no hint of the slightest curiosity on his part about other visions of the world that might be weighed against the vision he had seized upon. --Thomas Sowell

     If you can’t beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the Republican party, shut it down. Start new, with new people because this is a give-me election, or at least it should be. And the millions of dollars— I keep going back to the million and millions and millions of dollars that are paid to these political consultants election after election. We hire people who have lost previous campaigns, that run campaigns that have failed, who have message campaigns where the message fell flat — and they keep getting rehired. I don’t understand that. I don’t know why those are the people you hire.  The numbers that came out on Friday show not only is there no recovery, but the real unemployment rate is around 12 percent,” she said. “People have abandoned all hope of getting a job. We have 400,000 people almost who quit looking for work. That’s hope? -- Laura Ingraham, Radio Talk Show Host

     America has huge reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, which can give us the ability to be totally energy independent without  importing anything from foreign sources.… If the will was there to do so. There is not another country on this earth that has the  amount of natural energy resources that we do and is not doing its best to  exploit them for their own national security and economic health.  All countries look at the United States enviously for its great wealth in  energy…yet we do not fully exploit them.   In some  circles on the left, they seem even ashamed and actively try to destroy them,  such as the war on coal being waged.-- AMAC

And then there's this --  

     I predict that the annual price of private college will reach $100,000 in 2023 using the historic 7% inflation assumption. The price for UMass Amherst would reach $40,000 per year at the same time with the same inflation assumption. Worse yet, the four year price for a private college would surpass $800,000 for a child born today. -- Glenn Mangurian