Thumbs

Handy darn things thumbs are. Ever try to pick up something without using them? Hit one with a hammer hard enough, and the statement "sticks out like a sore thumb" will make perfect sense to you. I bet climbing a rope is about impossible without thumbs, and getting the hook out of your fish would be pretty tough too I imagine, let alone putting a worm on the hook in the first place.

There are geographic thumbs like the chunk of land sticking out called the thumb of Michigan. There are rules of thumb, with a definition of that term being... "A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination." I thought I knew what a rule of thumb was, but it's definition sure makes it seem complicated.

So as you can see, there are several different thumbs I could talk about, but today I want to talk about green thumbs... I don't have one, Margie apparently does.

From the Brian Hoag dictionary... Green Thumb: A person with skill at growing things, especially when referring to house plants and home gardens. I won't count farmers in as having green thumbs unless they are gardeners too. To me, a farmer has to be green through and through. It still amazes me what goes on in the fields around my place.

A year ago we didn't have a garden of any type, and we wanted one, but were still trying to figure out how we were going to take care of the farm in the first place. This year Margie worked up a little spot and planted some tomatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, lettuce, and potatoes, and the stuff is growing like crazy as far as I can tell. To make this blog a reasonable length, I'll just say that Margie brought in her first harvest from her garden. A couple radishes for starters, and I'm sure she is well behind most of you experienced green thumbs... the garden wasn't in the ground very early due to some travel plans. Still she was excited, the radishes were delicious, and I can barely wait for the tomatoes.

Most folks around us seem to have green thumbs too. Our little garden can't hold a candle to our neighbors plantings, but it is the first garden we've had on the farm since we moved to Nebraska a year and half ago, other than the two tomato plants we had last year, so we feel like we're still making a little progress around the place.

One final note about green thumbs and my lack of same. Though I can kill any plant inside a house or garden with little effort, I seem totally incapable of killing the weeds on the farm with any real success. The weed war continues, and for all the chemical and mechanical counter attacks against the invaders, few gains against the enemy have been made. While ever so slow progress seems to be occurring, I attribute it to Margie's hand to hand combat with the weeds and not my efforts with a sprayer and mechanized assault vehicle (riding mower).

Snake Story

When I was a kid, my mother would scream at the sight of a snake. I'm pretty sure she hasn't changed her tune much over the years either, so I'll blame my dislike of snakes on her. I'm not really afraid of snakes, but the darn things always surprise me even though they seem to be mostly interested in getting away from me about as much as I want to get away from them.

There is just something about snakes. A TV actor commented about the movie "Snakes On A Plane" by saying... Snakes on a plane, now that's scary. Imagine them in the seat back pockets, in the overhead, under your seat, ... you get the idea, and to be sure, though I somehow consider snakes on a plane an unlike prospect, if they were there, it would be scary. Even action hero Indiana Jones asked... "Why does always have to be snakes", so my dislike of snakes is pretty widely held.

What brings this all up is that last evening our neighbors stopped by with the remains of a rattlesnake draped across the front of their ATV. It was a rather large specimen I was told... about 45 inches long, with at least 10 visible rattles and more looked like had they been broken off at the tip. Even though the darn serpent was dead, I wasn't interested in touching it either. The head was missing so I KNEW that snake was going nowhere... just the sight of the creepy thing was all I needed.

Now I'm not sayin' I think my neighbor is a practical joker, but the conversation moved on to what to do with the dead snake. One comment was that it would be fun to coil it up on so and so's car seat, and another idea was to place it on the front step at another place.

So if you are reading this and found a headless snake in an unusual location, I KNOW NOTHING! I subscribe to the ideology of plausible deniability when it comes to snakes, their demise, and their final resting places.

Who Tells The Truth?

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." —Charles H. Duell, U.S. Patent Office director, 1899

What brings the above quote to mind is the new computer I got recently. Brandy new, latest and greatest. with the biggest and best whatsits and widgits. I opened the box, plugged the machine in, and the first thing it does once it gets online is start downloading updates. 43 updates to be exact. Still amazes me that computer companies are so anxious to get their new product out the door that they build and ship them knowing there are problems and then let the consumer find all the bugs and other problems for them and then they come up with a downloadable "fix". Oops, to get back on topic...

We see new inventions and devices all the time now-a-days. IPods, laptops, notebooks, digital cameras, cell phones... the list could go on seemingly forever, so it's pretty obvious that when our buddy Chuck Duell made his famous quote about inventions, he was totally WRONG! But I got to wondering if the director of the patent office really would make such a statement so I did a little research into Duell's quote. A company named TRW probably made the quote famous with full page newspaper ads that I recall seeing in the mid 80's. What I discovered is a rather interesting story really of how a statement can be restated enough different places to become "fact".

What Duell really said as near as I can tell is "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." If you are interested in the whole story and the documentation I most trusted from my research into the quote, it's available here... http://www.myoutbox.net/posass.htm

If you search the Internet for the quote, there are numerous "quote" web sites that attribute the exact statement to Duell. So what's my point, unless you hear the whole quote first hand, it might be fabricated, altered, or otherwise out of context. Dang, makes you wonder if there is any information source out there you can really trust.

Light Show Finale

Around our place the last few days, we've had almost constant clouds it seems. Other than a little hole in the grayness on Saturday, it's been fairly dark and gloomy around here... reminded me of Springtime around Seattle. After a hit and run visit by relatives on Saturday (10 family members on a road trip in a rented RV stayed for just an hour), we decided yesterday to hit the road for fun and excitement. Not that we found all that much excitement really, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves and found some history and sunshine to go with it.

The day started off nicely with a trip to the vet with the mother of the kittens we have around our farm(stead) to get her kitten makin' stuff removed. Semi retired Doc Stear agreed to spay BS (short for Black Spot) and told us she should be ready for pickup around 4PM.

With most of the day free of plans, we decided to head to North Platte, have some lunch, and see the Buffalo Bill Ranch there as well. To make a long story a bit shorter, the sun came out just south of Wellfleet, we had a great lunch and skipped the ranch as we noted we didn't really have enough time.

We jumped on I-80 eastbound instead and vowed to stop at the Pony Express station at Gothenburg on our circuitous route to pick up BS on time. This was a good choice as we were treated to a pleasant fellow that loved to give a history lesson about the Platte River valley and Pony Express through the area specifically, and across the West generally. His enthusiastic "lecture" brought up visions of riders on horseback heading east and west with a small fortune in mail with them. $5 per 1/2 ounce letter, and the riders carried a maximum 20 pounds of mail... do the math and it's a bunch of bucks in 1860 dollars!

We got back on the road and headed to Arapahoe and a quick stop for some ice cream at the Take-5, then on to pick up BS right on time. Poor thing was sure woozy when we got home, but she seems to be nearly her old self this morning.

To wrap up a near perfect day, we were treated to a fantastic light show from the the storm that rolled through last night.

This livin' in Nebraska isn't half bad!

Weather

To read the blogs on the Gazette lately, you might get the idea that folks talk about politics more than anything else. Conversationally, I have not found this to be the case in any way, shape, or form. The number 1 thing I've found people discuss is the weather.

It's windy or not, hot, cold, damp, dry, cloudy, sunny, raining, pouring, humid, or (insert any weather term). Any you know what? We never seem to get tired of talking about the weather current and past... "Why I remember the blizzard of..." is a common historical weather story we've all likely heard. We get an advertising paper called "The Messenger" and the first thing I do is leaf through it to see the old photographs they show. They have on several occasions shown extreme weather related pictures such as snow to the top of phone poles which I enjoy seeing.

I suppose there have been academic studies made as to why we talk about the weather. It effects most of us every day one way or another so we have a vested interest in what is currently happening with it that may determine our ability to survive on this sometimes hostile little planet.

I have my own theory... The weather puts us all on common ground. No matter who you are, the playing field is always level when it comes to weather. You can find out just what you are made of because of the weather, and the worst of weather seems to bring out the best in people. Look at all the volunteers that poured into the Gulf states after hurricane Katrina, and that doesn't begin to count the volunteers that organized clothing and food drives to assist folks that got hit by that devastating weather event.

Though I've not witnessed a bad weather event in our corner of Nebraska, I've heard stories of folks coming to their neighbors aid when bad weather has hit. Group efforts in the past have saved thousands of head of livestock during blizzards. You probably already know that, but a lot of city folk have no idea.

Just yesterday my farming neighbor stopped by and sprayed the weeds in our "North 40" for us. Naturally the weather came up in our conversation as the cool damp/drizzle we've had has made it tough to get his hay put up, but it's helping the wheat crop. Is there such a thing as perfect farming weather?

Weather around our farm(stead) has been cloudy and cool the last few days with intermittent light drizzle. We got a good 3" of rain a couple weeks ago, and another 45/100 overnight...

Getting Rid Of A Collection

Are humans gross by nature? I mean, why is it that people can miss the trash can at the rest stop, and instead of picking up after themselves, they leave it for someone else. You see plastic bags along the road that have been filled. by volunteers in many cases, with the trash people thoughtlessly toss out their car windows. I guess the person that misses the trash can at the rest area should be commended for at least getting close to the proper receptacle?

Folks around here do a pretty good job of keeping up with the trash along the roads, but that trash is only one of the things we find ourselves getting rid of one way or the other. We get rid of unwanted buildings, old cars, and in some cases even our spouse. The list of things gotten rid of is long, so today I'll just talk about getting rid of my old cement.

Which brings me to the title of today's blog... when we closed on the farm(stead) a year and a half ago, one of the ladies in the office made the comment that if you have more than three of anything, it's a collection. Well, we're getting rid of our cement collection. It seems that our farm had use for a lot of cement in various forms, but was just about all broken up over the years and buried. Now it's starting to work its way to the surface so I've been digging it up and making a rather substantial pile (collection) of unwanted cement.

Now one problem with cement is getting rid of it when you don't want it anymore. Here is where we are lucky, our farming neighbor happens to have a ravine he is trying to fill with the exact kind of material my collection is made up of. The other problem with cement is that it's heavy and difficult to move around. Fortunately my brother in law Gary was in town with his pickup and we loaded up some of the bigger pieces of my collection and deposited them in the designated location.

I've still got a lot of smaller "collectibles" to dig up that continue to show up and find their way onto the mower blades, and my collection is available to anyone that wants what's left of it before I get the entire collection removed. Just promise you won't bring it back.

Balance

God went missing from Heaven, for six days. Eventually, on the seventh day, Michael the Archangel found him, resting.

He inquired, "Where have you been?"

God smiled deeply, and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds. "Look, Michael! Look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it 'Earth' and it's going to be a place to test 'Balance'."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, "I'm still confused."

God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people... Balance in all things."

God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, "What's that one?"

"That's Washington State, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of software."

Michael gazed in wonder and admiration, but then asked, "But what about Balance, Lord? You said there would be Balance."

God smiled and said, "Oh, there's also another Washington. Wait till you see what happens there!"