So yesterday we bought the paint and other supplies for the basement. Lori filled all the holes in the walls, washed and caulked the baseboards and taped everything off.  Then the painting began. She’ll do most of it today but at least has a start on it. Meanwhile I was upstairs cleaning out some cabinets that hadn’t been cleaned for 14 years. I boxed up two large boxes of cd’s, two of dvd’s and threw out a bunch of trash. This in itself took two hours! I did find some fun stuff like baby pictures including ones of Dixie, Don, Scotty and Julie and Bob all holding Jagger when he was a baby. There were lots more fun memento’s like that as well.
Before that Jagger and I had baseball and Ty came along to play at the park. We have another practice today as our first game is next Friday. I think Jag will be the starting pitcher which is a big deal. He’ll also play first base mostly and a little bit at third base too.
Wisconsin won their basketball game and is now in the college Final Four which is great. They’ll play Kentucky next who are 38-0 but almost (should have) lost to Notre Dame yesterday. I only mention this as my Mom’s a big fan so you all better cheer for the Badgers. (that’s the name of Wisconsin’s team)
Lori and I did make it to Red Rocks yesterday after I went to the gym. I think she’s going on a walk today with a friend so maybe I’ll drag the boys up there again to hike the 60 rows of benches with me a few times.
That’s it, time to run, lots to do as usual. It feels really good to be getting things done around here whether we move or not. We’re going to be pricing our home high, really high, and if it doesn’t sell, well, it doesn’t sell. In any case, we’ll have fixed everything up around here. We just wish we had another 1000 square feet!
In closing, a little bit of a warning for you all. The Fed Reserve is out of touch and control. Most people don’t understand this much less anything at all as they all have the “it won’t affect me” attitude. Well, it’s getting really really close to affecting all of us. To give you a snapshot, read the is.
1. Europe’s banks now have negative interest rates. That means it costs you money to keep your money in the bank! Get your money out of the bank now and buy some gold or silver!
2. Taylor Swift was just voted as a more influential leader than Barack Obama. Nice!
3. Minimum wage in 1963 was five silver quarters. About 17 dollars in today’s value. And those 5 quarters would buy you goods that would cost $17 dollars today. It was actually possible for a soda-jerk to raise a family back then, if he scrimped and saved. Today one hour of minimum wage will buy you goods worth $0.27 in 1963!
and last, any really unbelievable,
Police Raid Small Family Farm, Charge Family, Seize Animals Because they were Free Range
Image from Friends of West Wind Acres Facebook Page
Schenectady County, New York – Earlier this month, a family farm in rural New York was raided by police after the owners were cited on a number of trumped up regulatory violations. Joshua Rockwood, the owner of the farm, is being accused of mistreating his animals, and the local government has began confiscating some of them.
Police initially visited Rockwood’s property on February 25th to investigate reports of unlicensed working dogs, weeks before the raid. Unfortunately, Rockwood voluntarily showed local police around his property, which he had not yet tended to that day because of their unexpected interruption.  After showing them around, they began to critically assess every aspect of the farm, writing a number of citations for arbitrary offenses.
The very next day, Rockwood had a veterinarian visit the farm to check on the animals to confirm that they were well taken care of and in good health. According to numerous reports, the vet said that the animals were just fine, and did not seem to share the concerns that the officers alleged during their walk-through.
A second veterinarian was also called in to verify the health of the animals and they also found them to be in perfect health.
A week later, police returned again to notify Rockwood that he was to appear in court the next Thursday on a number of charges relating to the animal’s food and shelter. In total, 12 different charges were brought against Rockwood, but he has posted a number of photos to a Facebook support page, which shows the animals with sufficient housing, and plenty of food.
Rockwood has been charged with 12 counts of animal neglect and abuse – some of the charges relating to frozen water bowls and tanks – despite the animals still having access to water. His dogs and horses have been seized and taken away. Rockwood treats his animals better than most factory farms do, but since he uses traditional farming methods, his farm will fail regulatory inspections, while factory farms will pass.
Meanwhile, New York is one of many states that are currently considering “ag-gag†laws, which place criminal penalties on activists who expose animal abuse at factory farms.
The controversial ag-gag laws prohibit “recording an image or sound without the operator’s permission; gaining ‘access to an agricultural operation under false pretenses;’ asking for a job at a place for the purpose of making recordings; and making a recording while trespassing.â€
The irony here is that the state will lock you in a cage for filming the horrific atrocities at a factory farm while simultaneously trumping up ridiculous and petty violations if you aren’t a factory farm. Just who does the state “protect†by doing these things?
Rockwood has launched a $50,000 gofundme campaign to raise money to post bond for his horses and to pay for the disrupted legal fees and lost business he has incurred and will incur due to the publicity and effort involved in defending himself. He means to go to court to try to fight the charges and to win back his reputation, his rescue dog, and his horses.
Because of his caring and generous customers and supporters they are almost halfway to that goal.
All I can say it what the F__K!
God Bless us help us all!
Take care, God Bless.