Tractors and subsidies

TRACTORS and Subsidies

We actually felt OK when the old tractor Ed drove the most went rolling down the hill pushed by the new owners, the 3 generations. Grandpa, Dad and son.

How else could we feel? It was just right to do. We agonized and pondered and finally decided neither one of us has that as either one of ours or even our dream. I got my picture snapped on the old tractor which was a challenge to climb up on. I had to use an old bucket and some twisting and wondered how Ed did it all those years. Fred drove it too and he told me stories more valuable than what is left of that poor worn tractor.

Someday the young boy will recall to a young boy his going out to the farm one sunny day and pushing the tractor down the hill with his Dad and Grandad. How do they not deserve it? I think Ed would have approved. If he could have he would have sold it too.

Now the next area will point you to a site for identifying farm subsidies

 

mulchblog.com

Check it out and put your favorite megafarm in and wonder how they got 100's of Thousands of our hard earned money and still hire (illegals) foreign manual labor?

Why are farms allowed to be subsidized when they are huge and eat up all the small farms?

If I saw some poor schmuck on the list I might have felt differently.

The garden is growing and the weeds and bugs competing. Now 2 young deer stopped by the garden tonight. Fresh worries.

Went to the mailbox and my farm subsidy wasn't there. We couldn't even get a farmer loan. They didn't think we were serious about growing switchgrass for fuel.

Have a great day where ever you are. Hope you get the tractor you dreamed about.

 

 

 

Tags: Tractors and Subsidies

Solar and other alternatives to paying the middle man

The Sun is the topic of today's brief entry.

Carol even gave the sun credit for improving Mom's mood after surgery. I agree. A powerful healer.

How Warm it is and how Powerful.

How we miss it when the clouds keep it away like this week.

off and on with brilliant Sunshine which led to tall fluffy clouds and black bands of showers.

We we glad to hear from Mary Sue and a flash update. 27 trips around the Sun, our solar friend, and another pops up out of the blogosphere. Welcome, Mary Sue, back to know us, although we are not as young and no, things cannot be defined as the same as we remember them. Even photos have a different meaning over the years. An Enlightenment so to speak. Kind of bold but I believe true. Seeing the valley where we live in fresh LIGHT. Not better or worse or warmer or colder (although with menopause feeling a little warmer these days). Not greener but seeming so. So, Mary Sue, since I cannot write to you directly, take this as an invitation to see the valley in your new Light. And when you close your eyes you will see the cows in the valley and smell the warm Sun and hear the quiet and peace we still harbor here.

And in the theme of the SUN. here is a link to Frank's Bakery website, the solar powered one.

fathersunmotherearth.org

He also has a link to his bakery web site near 9N in Crown Point, NY. We spent Sunday am marveling at his solar bakery, his container grown food plants, and learning native americancustoms.

This all leads to the end where I go to sleep on this side of the planet and wake up in a different spin/direction so to speak. Hope your place in the universe is peaceful and lit by our father sun. mary

Tags: Father Sun

A Tear and a Smile (or two)

A Tear and a Smile (or two)

This past few weeks brought Hunter to daylight and he is a healthy beautiful boy. Such a smile he has already.

It also took our dear friend Firmin and with it an eerie emptiness already as we planted the garden and hauled away the old International Truck without our familiar Sunday visitor. We shed tears with friends on Friday the 13th.

Then from the past a voice from MarySue my first roommate in VT commented on my blog. What a strange connection from years of spinning around and I now live accross the road from our old apartment which is now a horsebarn.

So I had wanted to say more but will leave it for now as a tear and a smile now two. I wish you peace and that you might make a connection every time you lose one.

Au Revoir Firmin

Tags: A Tear and a Smile or two

May Recap

May Recap

I know recapping a little early but also has been 5 weeks since I entered any thoughts and I fell my complacency directly proportional to our recent travel and catching up since combined with spring garden yard panic and wonderful cool weather that has teased us and caused us to all dread the summer. Vermont has a finite number of gorgeous beautiful days. Which makes them so precious to us.

Likewise the superstitious among us feel too many good days will lead to monsoon or other weather extremes.

When people first move to Vermont like I did so long ago, after a spring warm spell they often ask, "It must get warm now?...It is time to plant the tomatoes?" These questions worded as a statement with a question mark as an afterthought, knowing deep down the bad weather real never goes far.

one thing that happened this month was

us going to Illinois to see the parental units and siblings and their aufspringen.

The town I grew up in just doen't look much like it used to. I missed going to the old neighborhood this time. Memories stronger than the sights I saw there. Deep memories and people long dead.

If I had to give you one message I learned in our journey to the flatland,

I would tell you what Dad said about working longer. He would have worked longer. I would say going blind and deaf really is one of the worst robbers. Somehow losing touch by phone was made up with one touch of the hand.

I hoped his tactile sensation made up for not being able to see me as more than a vague circle of blur or hear my voice like he used to clear and loud.

My Mom would give me a lesson that says don't try this at home. The pain is too great and the pills don't work or they knock me into a haze and make my head spin. Makes me pray for a cure for arthritis.

Dad with senses diminishing and Mom with pain intensifying.

Sensual imbalances deficits and excesses.

Me trying to make some senseof it all and make it all better.

Frustrated by my inability.

And now back home to the familiar scenes.

The highlight of the trip for us was my Brother Dan's Edwardsville introduction to the Tim-Tam Slam, an Australian original pasttime.

It seems his boss is Aussie and passed on the well guarded secret in a Dallas undisclosed location.

We then did the Tim Tam as a Fam..ily and laughed and smiled like none of us had any of the problems we do and did.

The Tim Tam Slam gave us a great break and brought the Tim Tam close to the 90th meridian.

Then this week, The Tim Tam Slam was performed I believe for the very first time in a public building when I introduced the subterranean obsession to my office co workers as it was my turn to celebrate the next birthday in the office.

Everyone either watched or participated or both.

Once again the Tim Tam traveled a bit farther, to Vermont now.

And we all found a few minutes to laugh and forget our troubles.

May you find the Tim Tam to take your troubles away even for a minute.

Say a prayer for Hunter and Mom and Dad for safe arrival hoefully before May's end.

mary

Tags: May Recap and Tim Tam goes halfway around the world

At long last quilt pictures

At Long Last Quilt pictures

and

wall hanging.

Spring time flies and with it time to sit and contemplate stays behind in winter memories.

I thought I had written in the last week but someone reminded me as I have been caught up in spring sprucing up and airing out.

As I promised,

Hunter's quilt   ********   Trip around the Universe pattern

There are little Harry Potter's in outer space and black cats, tractors, trains, bears,

tools and school supplies.

It is actually on top of a great quilt a friend recently made and gave us.

Also the wall hanging made with Mom's blue & red bias tape and yellow ric-rac. It added the perfect border and was handy and right there. The color matched perfectly.

My favorite is Number 9. (No not like the loser NY Gov).

Count first five then the next 4 on second row.

See the little rabbit in the space ship?

My theme wasn't intentionally outer space related, only subliminally and coincidentally.

There, Vista conquered and little plastic pieces with a million pictures stored on them.

Some day soon will seem crude and old fashioned.

Here is a wish for everyone (anonymous) everywhere and forever.

May all your joys be quilted

and

All your sorrows be patched.

Tags: Quilts accomplished

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_2

Spring thaw

I don't want you to think the winter is still raging here.

Because it is not. The sap is finally running, the tulips and daffodils poking up and possums are breeding. The sun is warmer and kinder. The air is fresh and the birds are coming through and to this area. The frost has come out of the ground. We are thankful winter has receded for the most part.

Still a little snow teaser this weekend planned by Mother Nature. We will ignore it as irrelevant to our weekend plans of painting and resting and will probably watch the Last Waltz DVD again. Wow. It was so good way back when but now we can look back and see all of the artists in their absolute prime. Every one. I have yet to finish reading

Levon Helm's book

This Wheel's on Fire.

But what I have read is amazing and I want to savor every page. He has awesome talent and grit.

Hope your corner of the universe is as you wish and that peace envelopes the planet.

Do rent The Last Waltz and buy Levon's book.

 

Tags: Spring in Vermont for a minute

After Easter and Transition

Happy After Easter

and Transition to

Spring.

And now I find myself 50 years old.

Our accountant said it plainly. You already have been 50 for a year. You know, when you are born you are zero.

My bubble of stress burst. I had been 50 for a year and felt no different. What a rapid transition. Why couldn't spring come any faster. As if the last cold was the stubbornest and clung to the ground in great cakes of ice and dense snow.

But I wanted to recall Easter day. A holiday and symbol of the spring and apparently governed by the lunar calendar. Also nature based rituals of egg gathering and rabbits. chocolate? and pork? At least for traditional midwesterners like myself. Pork represented a great corn harvest from the previous year. Bounty. Abundance. Now a source of fuel (food deprivation) and certainly some misguided farm subsidies.

Really, seeing Mars Attacks as an offering on the satellite TV signal catcher on Easter was not merely a minor shock but also a pleasant diversion from the conflicting religious and food stimuli and normal daily obligations. Mars Attacks reflects the arrogance of man and government and rebirth of man's vision of the universe. Not as an innocent explorer wandering off to the nearest spinning object, but as a participant and survivor. One willing to utilize even a demented old woman and shy caring young man to stumble onto the only way to save the world. The movie gets better every time we see it. We bought a copy but still feel celestial intervention decided to put the easter bunny to sleep and crack the traditional eggs and play it on the satellite dish, sure to be enjoyed by man and martian alike.

Best wishes. Spring is around the corner and in the case of VT, down the road apiece as well.

where did al gore go? the picture I sent him of our record breaking snow pile in March came back no forwarding address. lesson: don't try to predict the weather. In VT spring may be optional.

Tags: Spring