Irrigation 101

I got my first real lesson on farm irrigation recently. Oh sure, I've seen the center pivot machines cranking out the water, but my recent experience was with a bit older technology... gravity.

It all started one dark and stormy night a few weeks ago... well it was dark anyway. At 10:30PM a mystery tractor with what appeared to be a corn planter showed up and did some work just west of the barn. Now ordinarily, a tractor working in your yard well after dark would be cause for concern if we were city dwellers, but we've learned farmers can work some pretty crazy hours now and then out here. We also knew our farming neighbor had been busy planting his field corn and just figured he was involved... not so!

OK, so maybe he was a little involved as it was his tractor, but not him at the controls. The operator, who will remain nameless, I understand planted around 5 acres of sweet corn in three different plots... one of those being 50 rows west of our barn. Well shortly after the corn was planted, farm protocol seems to dictate that each row needs to be "hilled" for irrigation purposes, and I've learned that works pretty good!

Since I'm not a farmer, and my thumb isn't even the lightest shade of green, I try and pay attention to what the professional experts around me have said about water requirements and corn. Well as soon as I noticed that sweet corn was starting to tassel, I started watering. And I watered, and watered, and watered. After about 8 hours of gravity feed from a garden hose, I had 5 rows of sweet corn adequately watered.

Lesson number 1... Don't plant more stuff than you can water and care for. This may come into play a lot more later on in the season as we're trying to water most of the plot with some success, but when that corn is ready, I wonder what we're gonna do with it all at the moment. I have some ideas but I digress...

Until the last couple weeks, I just figured that farmers fired up the irrigation pump and water poured into the fields with little further effort by the farmer. I suppose that is mostly true for those with center pivot machines, but the gravity feed irrigation it turns out is pretty labor intensive. I had no idea that those pipes had numerous shutoffs that had to be opened and closed manually. It's one of those things a city slicker never thinks about I guess, at least not this one.

To shorten the story a bit, I've helped open and close those irrigation spigots, found out wet soft dirt supports absolutely no weight... I sank in a good 10 inches in places, and worked the dumb end of a hoe quite a bit opening up waterways in my little experimental field.

Final note... neighbors stopped by with cucumbers already this summer. The green thumbs are at it again!

Throwbacks

In the last few years, National Football League teams have started wearing replica uniforms from their early years. My favorite Denver Bronco's wore their vertical stripped socks for a game. Yikes! You folks that go fishing probably brag about your last fishing trip... including the throwbacks that were over 2 pounds. But today I want to talk more about going back in time... my time to be specifically.

It was just a few weeks ago that I was reading the Denver Post online when I came across an article about a local Denver performer and the 5 year success of her business venture. Lannie Garrett is the performers name, and her Clocktower Cabaret located in downtown Denver. Ordinarily I don't pay any attention to Denver's entertainment scene, but Lannie Garrett has a special place in Margie and my lives.

It was the night of Oct 5, 1991. Margie and I were going out on our first Date. My life had changed in more ways than I every could have imagined. I'd gone through cancer and its treatment, with pretty significant consequences. During the course of the treatment I lost 110 pounds taking me to my low of 97. Okay, so it's a good thing I started out fat, but I don't recommend that sort of diet. Like many, my ex couldn't take the changes I went through, and I just figured I'd be a loner for the most part going forward but I digress...

Lannie Garrett was performing with the Denver Symphony Orchestra that night, and to shorten this story to a reasonable length, it must have been a great concert as Margie and I fell in love and are living happily ever after out here on the farm(stead).

What brings the above to mind is that the article in the Denver Post I mentioned compelled me to write Ms. Garrett an email thank you. I had never considered writing to thank her, but Margie and I often speak of that night and the concert, and I felt compelled to write so I did. Imagine my surprise when I got a reply from her, offering free tickets to one of her shows as her guest.

We took the short notice opportunity to go to Denver and accepted the invite to Ms Garretts sold out show. Margie and I have not been in downtown Denver in many years and I admit the downtown area has all kinds of things going on with big crowds of people seemingly everywhere. All I want to say about that is I'm so glad we live on the farm(stead).

Our seats in the renovated basement cabaret were great. The show Lannie put on was entitled "Great Women of Song: From Billie to Bette", and was nothing short of wonderful as far as Margie and I were concerned. She is a first class entertainer, and we enjoyed the show as much as the last time we saw her 19 years ago. The last song, Judy Garlands "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", was performed so beautifully that it brought tears to Margie's eyes... one of her all time favorites I learned. Pay attention guys, I don't think we will ever completely know 'em.

To wrap up our weekend, we stopped in to visit an old friend on our way out of town. We related our previous nights excursion into the depths of downtown Denver only to learn that our host knows Ms. Garrett and quite well if I heard correctly. I guess Dave knows or knew Lannies agent... anyway small world.

And my last throwback I want to mention today includes a conversation I had recently where I got to relate my feelings for one of my uncles. I doubt my uncle had any idea how much I looked forward to seeing him and my aunt. He was a big man with big stories, and his work had him in the Pacific Northwest in the timber industry. I loved going into the woods in his 4x4 pickups down logging roads dodging logging trucks and watching the fascinating process of moving trees from upright to the saw mill. His stories kept me entertained almost as much.

We never know what effect we may make on someones life. Lets all try and make it a good effect whoever we deal with.

Free

Free is a pretty powerful word. When we see or hear the word free, we always pay attention. We've all figured that you can get something for nothing, but we also know it isn't necessarily the right thing to do, or that there are "strings attached".

Back in December of 1931, Ted and Dorothy Hustead bought a small town pharmacy after searching Nebraska and South Dakota for their perfect location. They settled in Wall, SD with a depression/dust bowl population of 326. At first they struggled, but a brainstorm came to Dorothy and the rest is history. Free ice water put Wall Drug on the map from the first day they offered it. You can read some of the history at... http://www.walldrug.com/t-history.aspx

We see advertising all the time offering something for "free". Free with the purchase of... you probably have your favorite example, but mine are the TV ads that ALWAYS say... "but wait, if you order now, we'll include another widget absolutely free, just pay shipping and handling" bla, bla, bla!

What got me thinking about free stuff was a story of a boy who made a pretty good income offering free lemonade. His "business plan" was to offer sweet and sour lemonade for free, and having a donation jar be his fee collector. You can read about him here... http://www.parentdish.com/2010/06/30/7-tips-for-a-successful-lemonade-stand/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl5|link1|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F06%2F30%2F7-tips-for-a-successful-lemonade-stand%2F

In reality, almost nothing is free anymore. Our atmosphere used to be free, but now it's regulated or taxed for companies and devices that operate within it. Water used to be free, but now it has to be treated before and after it's used, so we pay for these services. Taking a hike in the mountains used to be free, but now you need to pay a fee to park your car and use the facilities. The commons are being taken away from us ever so slowly by privatazation and nobody seems to mind a bit.

Still, we live in a relatively free society, and our freedoms have not come cheaply. As we celebrate the birth of our nation, lets take a moment and reflect on how we got started, what we have been through, where we are, and where we are headed.

Happy Birthday USA!

Sky Kings

Summer is here for sure with crops reaching for the sky with growth I wouldn't believe if I hadn't watched it out my living room picture window. "Knee high by the 4th of July" is a term I've heard most of my life referring to corn growth, but the stuff around here is obviously on steroids. I guess the new term may need to be "Head high by the 4th...".

The lightning bugs entertain us evenings, when we can avoid the mosquitoes, and add a few temporary stars in the night sky. Living in the country has it's advantages when it comes to star gazing, but the last few nights, it's the Moon that commands attention. The clear skies and full Moon nearly turn the night into day.

Speaking of reaching for the sky, our old barn is perfect habitat for barn swallows. We never tire of the aerobatics that go on just outside our window. Of all the birds we see around the farm(stead), the barn swallows can't be beat for aeronautical maneuvering. I must admit that I always hope they don't collide with my head when I open the barn door... there have been numerous close calls.

Something us former city folk have not become completely accustomed with, is the crop dusters take aim at the fields surrounding us. This morning was absolutely perfect for aerial crop spraying I bet, but the sound of a plane flying over our place at low altitude always gets our attention really quickly. Maybe I'll get over it someday, but that first pass always makes me hope it's not a plane about fly in the window.

Embellishing Your Resume

I don't know if many places in Nebraska use a resume or not when screening new job applicants. During my working years, though I had a resume ready to hand out at a moments notice, I never did hand one out. When I got hired on at the phone company, I filled out a job application and was never asked about a resume. I was applying to be a worker bee, not a manager, so perhaps that's the major difference between a job and a career... you have to craft a resume for a career position, and fill out a job application to actually work?

A recent survey of hiring managers found that 57% of the time, applicants lied in their resume or job application, though only 5% of the employment seekers admitted to fudging about the facts of their life. The good news for the embellishers is that though 93% were not considered further, 7% still got hired. I suppose their fib was pretty mild, or the hiring manager had other motives...

If you Google resume embellishment, over 600,000 results are available, with the very first one saying "Embellish your resume without lying". The implication is that it's OK to stretch the truth as long as you don't go over the line... whatever that blurry line may actually be. Wordsmithing is obviously the bomb when it comes to resumes!

How are you doing on your life resume? Not the one about your career accomplishments, but the one where wordsmithing has no value and only your acts and accomplishments are considered. Your resume certainly contains the reputation you develop over a lifetime with family, friends, peers, and God for the believers among us. Why not make a conscious effort to embellish your resume this week by doing something out of the ordinary. Mow your elderly neighbors yard, make a donation to the food pantry, volunteer, try and do something that helps someone, anything.

Risky Business

Colleges have risk management courses listed right along with business ethics. Considering the way some business ventures operate, it seems like the risk management classes are well attended, but the business ethics classes are totally elective. It seems many business majors skipped the ethics classes or passed with a "D".

Goldman Sachs may turn out to be a good example of good risk management, but lousy business ethics. It appears they certainly hedged their bets with derivatives. How about BP in the Gulf of Mexico? Would Toyota with their massive recalls be included? You might think of including Massey Energy and the recent deadly coal mine explosion in West Virgina. Union Carbide and their Bhopal India disaster could likely be included, and of course the Challenger and the death of 7 Astronauts is blamed on poor risk management by allowing a launch in cold weather. Let's not forget Chernobal... billions of ruples down the drain and a dead zone for thousands of years.

There are thousands and thousands of examples available where man made problems have created a nightmare. I suppose the phrase high risk, high reward was ingrained into the business world long ago, but unfortunately it seems some business takes it beyond the limit. The reward of meeting a deadline or selling something new outweighes safely providing products in my opinion.

Considering the BP fiasco in the Gulf, you have to wonder how deep BP's pockets are. Though it seems unlikely, what if they go bankrupt over this deal and the problem persists? It's not unprecidented at all that a business goes bankrupt and you and me end up paying the bills. A while back I blogged about the Summitville Mine in Colorado and the Canadian company that went bankrupt leaving an environmental mess that you and me are paying for to this day.

If you look into engineering disasters over the years, there are several factors that go into these failures. A study of the cause of some 800 engineering failures shows...

Insufficient knowledge ............................... 36%
Underestimation of influence ......................... 16%
Ignorence, carelessness, negligence .................. 14%
Forgetfulness, error ................................. 13%
Relying upon others without sufficient control ....... 9%
Objectively unknown situation ........................ 7%
Unprecise definition of responsibilities ............. 1%
Choice of bad quality ................................ 1%
Other ................................................ 3%

Looking at the major causes, it's quickly obvious that human error one way or the other is the overwhelming cause. OK, so we all make mistakes right? But when your life gets thrown into turmoil because of the actions out of your control caused by someone else, lawyers, government, and who knows who all will get involved.

With the reporting of the BP gusher in Gulf, a story about a $500,000 piece of equipment that is required by other countries was not required by the US of A has emerged. Would this piece of half million dollar equipment prevented the current crisis? I'm sure only time will tell, but considering the risk if something goes wrong, wouldn't you think it would have been at least wise? If it was required by regulation, we wouldn't be guessing about it, but many folks are against regulations and think business should govern itself.

So... How's that drilley spilley thingey working out? It's easy to place blame and say that we should ban off shore drilling. It's true that it's a dangerous and risky business extracting oil, but until somebody comes up with a suitable replacement, we're going to be drilling someplace for more oil and offshore is as good a place as any to look.

My whole point is really about rethinking government regulations, or coming up with smart ones at least. If the half mil device were required and staved off this mess, the regulation would be smart. When a business wants to perform dangerous or risky ventures, it would seem wise to me that public safety be considered way above the companies desire to make a buck.

Engineering disasters causing great human sufferage have been and will continue to be a problem. Regulations often can help mitigate the problems. An example is that every oil storage facility in the country has to have a containment wall around it. It's not a matter of if we'll have major engineering disasters, but when the next one will occur.

I must have been asleep in 1986 as I don't recall hearing about this at all. Oil exploration has and will continue to cause some big problmes. I hope you will watch this short Youtube video all the way to the end as the final words ring so true...

Just One Word...

Many of us somewhat older folks remember the 1967 movie "The Graduate". For those that have not seen this flick, it's the story of Benjamin Braddock, a recent college grad and the events that take place after his graduation. Young Ben is the son of a wealthy family, and his graduation party finds Braddock family associates and friends offering valuable information and tips for his future. I'll never forget one of the bits of advice one of the party attendees gave young Ben. The man said "I want to say just one word Ben, just one... Plastics".

Well the movie writers got it right about plastics. What a wonderful invention that has ingrained itself into the very fabric of our lives. Almost everything you can think of uses plastic one way or another. Packaging is one use for plastics. Go into a big box retailer and you won't find much that isn't made of, covered, or coated with plastics. You can't even get your stuff from the store to your car unless you use a plastic bag to haul it out, unless you are one of those folks that uses a reusable shopping bag, which by the way are very often made out of recycled plastic.

Yep, plastic is some really great stuff. Modern medicine wouldn't be very modern without plastics. Your car would weigh a lot more and get a lot less MPG if it wasn't for plastic. Product prices would be higher because plastic is cheap to manufacture and is used to package just about everything... just look at how much of it we throw away.

Plastics durability is something else too. Do you know how long it takes a plastic bag to decompose? I've read it takes 1000 years. Now I don't know if that is really true or not, but we all know that plastic is pretty tough stuff. Recycling of plastic isn't very cost effective compared to most other consumer products like aluminum, and though a lot of plastic gets recycled, it's a drop in the proverbial bucket when compared to the amount manufactured.

Here are a few plastic facts...

Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR! Approximately 3 out of 4 get tossed. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year. Over 5 trillion plastic bags are manufactured worldwide each year. Just in the US of A, 380 billion plastic bags are used each year. That's about 1200 plastic bags for every man, woman, and child in the country. Of that 380 billion bags, at best only 2% get recycled. The rest end up in a landfill or somewhere else.

Speaking of somewhere else, have you heard of the Pacific Trash Vortex? It's a huge area larger than the state of Texas full of plastic and other crud that has found it's way into the ocean. You can read about it here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

So today my point is that I hope you will consider what you buy and how you use plastics. While I know we can't get along without plastics, I also know that we could get along with a lot less of the stuff. Try and find products that don't require the single use of plastic. Try and find ways to reuse plastic containers. Do anything you can do to reduce your plastic use and you help us all in the long run.

Nailed

I've been working around the farm(stead)s house the last few months quite a bit. I've been adding insulation and finishing our mud room for one thing, and part of that project included installing thin tongue and groove boards for the ceiling. To do this, the easy way would be to use an air or electric pin nailer and that's what I did.

What makes this story even the slightest bit interesting is that the nailer I used and am still using for all kinds of projects hasn't been made in years. With the old discontinued nailer, you might imagine that the nails for the nailer just could be a tad bit difficult to find.

Step back I have no idea how many years... My dad has a project of some kind and needs an electric nail gun. At that time, a company called Swingline made staplers and nailers of all kinds, and they manufactured this slick nailer that dad bought. Now I have no idea what dad's project was or how old this thing is as I inherited it, but it works great. I tried out the nailer for the first time on some scrap wood pieces I had laying around, and it has an amazing amount of power to drive the odd size nails it requires.

Now this nailer was built long before all the safety gizmo's were required, so an idiot could actually hurt themselves with this device, but with reasonable diligence, it can be operated safely. The original box my dad had saved the nailer in all these years had a partial box of nails, but I knew that there were not going to be enough for my mud room project, so off to a source for finding everything... the Internet!

I Googled, I Binged, and I Yahoo!ed with absolutely no success except to find a 2001 forum post from a guy asking if anyone knew where he could find these nails. No luck. So I'm thinking... I'll go ahead and use up my supply of nails, and perhaps the folks at Lord's in Indianola will have something that the nailer could use. (Very wishful thinking!)

I walk into Lord's and the always helpful staff asks what I'm looking for? I show my original package of nails and off we head to the electric nailer nail area of the store. If you have never been to Lord's, I recommend the trip, just to see what they have... if they don't have it, you likely don't need it really but I digress.

So once in the electric nailer nail section, things quickly look like my quest for nails for my inherited nailer will go on... well would you lookie there at the back of a shelf... an overflowing case of nails for my Swingline nailer! The clerk helping me said "I bet we haven't sold one of these in years". As it turned out, it appears Lord's has the worldwide market cornered on the nails my nailer requires.

I figured that I was going to be buying a new pin nailer and stumbled onto the mother lode of nailer nails I needed. Stuff like this still makes me think that me and Margie are here for a reason, now all we gotta figure out is what that reason is. I'm pretty sure it's not really about finding impossible to find nailer nails.

War Zone

Spring is here, and so is the enemy. The winter truce is over and Leafy Spurge, Bindweed, and closely allied Pigweed have combined to attack from all directions. Yep, it's that time of year again and the weed warrior is starting to fight back with a combined armored and chemical defense, followed up with hand to hand, er, hand to root combat.

Long time followers of The City Slickers know of what I speak already. These Nebraska country weeds are tough. I've quickly discovered that fighting weeds here is nothing like the fight I had in Colorado Territory, and the realization that staying ahead of them around the farm(stead) will be a yearly summer battle requiring extensive planning and resources has finally sunk in.

In my past life as a city dweller, taking care of the yard was fairly easy. A little fertilizer, a little water, a little Weed-B-Gone, a sharp mower blade and your were good to go for the most part. Here in Nebraska, I'm finding that it takes no fertilizer, no water, and a lot of Weed-B-Gone. I'm about to put on my third set of mower blades after one mowing season from hitting old buried junk that is working it's way out of the ground in support of the weeds. The old junk seems to appear overnight over a wide area turning the battle zone into a mine field of metal fragments for the mechanized assault vehicle (lawn mower).

My weed war is just getting underway for this season. We've only been here a couple seasons now, and we're just starting to get a handle on what it takes to fight successfully. I've learned weeds are smart asses too because the they shout mockingly... "Look at me FARMER Brian, YOU MISSED ME!!! HAHAHA!!!" Even they obviously know I'm no farmer. They also know they have Crabgrass just waiting to counterattack when I least expect it.

Rocks

A great classic comedy film is called "The Long, Long, Trailer". This 1950's vintage movie was about a newly married couple (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) and their RV adventure. It was always going from bad to worse for the duo as they hauled a very large travel trailer over the mountains and through the woods.

Luci wanted to make the RV their home in the movie, and did everything she could think of to make the trailer just like a house. She planned on preparing dinner while driving down the road... with the expected hilarious outcome of stuff everywhere and Luci covered in flour. And of course part of having a home are mementos of travels and Luci decided she was going to collect rocks to place around the trailer when they got to a location they would be at for several months at a time.

Luci was good at it too. Big rocks, small rocks, rocks just about everywhere you could think of in a trailer. Only one problem... rocks are heavy and Luci didn't get the concept... that is until the pair got stuck in the mud, Desi found the rocks, had a tantrum and unloaded the trailer of all Luci's rock collection.

Poor Luci. Her life was totally out of control. Everything she planned wasn't working anymore. What was important to her had absolutely no meaning to the people in her life, and as you might expect, our couple's honeymoon was not off to a good start at all. I can easily relate to Luci's feelings as I know, especially as we get older, that the things we accumulate can get to be pretty near and dear to most of us, and the rocks (metaphorically speaking) we collect during our lives are collected for a reason.

Margie and I went through a dramatic reduction of rocks when we sold our house and moved into our RV for 5 years. Margie had a pretty tough time getting rid of her rocks through our lifestyle change for quite a while, so I guess I understand what folks have to go through when they have to make some difficult decisions about how they want to spend their "golden" years.

We all are gettin' older everyday. Old age is just around the corner and you and me will be faced with the rock dilemma sometime if you haven't faced it already. It's real easy when we look at another persons rock collection to see what has to go and stay, especially when the time comes that something has to change for the rock collector. So when the time comes in the future when you are doing your best to help the rock collector in your life, I hope you will keep in mind just how much that collection might mean to the collector.

Do You Believe In Magic?

We've all seen magic shows either on TV or in person. Margie and I saw the magician David Copperfield a few years ago, and the "illusions" that he pulls off makes it seem as if he is not from this planet by performing feats humanly impossible.

There's something catchy about magic for most of us. We wonder how in the heck the guy gets the rabbit out of the hat, or moves through solid steel walls, or cuts the lady in half. Though our rational thinking lets us know we are watching a skilled illusionist at a magic show, when real "magic" and power happen would you know it?

My mother has been staying with us for the last few months as she has needed some assistance due somewhat to age, but mostly health issues. A couple days ago she died. Well... maybe not. You see I feel I witnessed a miracle on Monday. Mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table visiting when suddenly mom gave me the scare of a lifetime.

All I can really say about Monday mornings events at the farm(stead) is that from death to being back at home the next day feeling and acting as though nothing happened is pretty miraculous.

So today I'm sharing my miracle. Those that are not believers will quickly attribute this to some known medical condition and perhaps that is the "scientific" magical answer. But I'm here today to tell you that I was there, I'm the only one that really knows what went on in my living room, and God is real, powerful, and works miracles.

Now that's the kind of magic I totally believe in!

The Whole Shebang

Most of us have heard someone use a phrase like "the whole shebang" and we know the person is referring to the whole thing or all of something... whatever the something actually is. But did you ever stop to wonder how the phrase came to mean all of it, or the whole thing?

According to a website all about phrases, there is quite the history behind "the whole shebang". For instance, what is a shebang? As far as I can tell, the earliest known use of shebang was in a poem written in 1862 by Walt Witman, and it made reference to a shelter or dwelling perhaps.

Mark Twain made reference to a shebang in 1872 in reference to a car, but the first actual use of the whole shebang with its current meaning apparently appeared, also in 1872, in the Sedalia Daily Democrat. You can read about the history of the term at... http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-whole-shebang.html

What brings this to mind was my recent trip to Omaha. Omaha has sure grown since I was a kid there. During my trip I drove past the homes I grew up in, and down streets that I was familiar with from back in the day. I was just 15 when we left Omaha and moved to Colorado territory, but many of the streets have not changed much and I had a pretty easy time of getting around the old neighborhoods.

Now unless you have driven in Omaha on the main and side streets lately, you likely are not familiar with the potholes in the streets. I admit its been a harsh winter in Omaha, and there is a couple feet of snow on the ground contributing to the problem, but I gotta tell ya... the potholes are big enough in places to swallow a bicycle.

So as near as I can tell, the guys that think the whole shebang means all of something got it wrong. Me thinks that the term originated in Omaha when an old cars driver yells... "Hole!"... then you hear "SHEBANG! as the car nearly falls apart after hitting a 8" deep pothole at 35 MPH. I bet the alignment shops love the weather on the eastern shore of Nebraska.

Commercials

The Superbowl is upon us this weekend, polls have been taken, players interviewed, projections made, fictional games played, and all manner of ways to promote the game have been developed. Even the TV station in Kearney asked as part of their nightly news poll question about what people like the best about the Superbowl, and one of the choices was "The Commercials". Commercials didn't win the poll, but the fact that 14% of the non scientific poll results pointed them out as being a big reason to watch the game show how much people enjoy them.

Superbowl commercials are for sure some of the best... for those into commercials that is. Since the Superbowl is watched by over 100 million folks, which is somewhere around ten times the average number of prime time show TV watchers, the price companies spend for their 30 seconds of fame is steep, so most try and get the most bang for their buck.

One commercial that I remember was for Continental Tires. It showed a guy in a white lab coat with a picture of a tire and a pencil. The guy stabs the picture of the tire with his pencil and then spins it. The voice in the backgrounds says "At Continental, we don't make great commercials, we make great tires".

It's obvious that commercial advertising works, or companies wouldn't budget huge amounts of money for them. Lately we've been bombarded with ads touting political agendas as if it was an election year... oh wait! It is! It just seems so early to be starting down that road again. With the decision by the Supreme Court about allowing corporations to spend as much money on political ads as they want... Oops, that's another blog but I digress.

Yep, commercials try and sell us everything from health care to tires, but until recently, we haven't seen much religious advertising. The Catholic Church has started its "Catholics Come Home" campaign, and though I didn't catch who is promoting the ad, another ad promotes going to church "Before It's Too Late". How refreshing to see ads for something way more important to most of us than trying to make a buck or push a political view. Pay attention to those religious ads... I think it's good advice!

Me things the Colts will win, though I would love to see the Saints come marching in, and the following is probably my favorite commercial of all time...

The Hot Sheets

Did you ever see the movie Men In Black? For those of you that missed that science fiction production, it's the story of a secret organization in charge of monitoring, licensing, and policing intergalactic aliens here on planet Earth. The reason I bring up Men In Black is that part of the movie involved investigating alien encounters, and the information source our hero's used was referred to as the "hot sheets". In the movie, the "hot sheets" included supermarket tabloids such as "Star Magazine", "The Mirror", and perhaps the best known... "The National Enquirer", and we discover in the movie that these publications offer the best source of investigative reporting about aliens on the planet.

For many years now, I've stood in lines at the grocery stores where the above mentioned tabloids are sold. Looking at the sensational headlines these periodicals show on their front page, many of the headlines seem unlikely at least, and a crazy fantasy at worst, though the information is presented as fact.

You should know that I really enjoyed Men In Black, but I never embraced the notion that grocery store periodicals were in fact "hot sheets" of information until today. I learned today that one of the biggest political scandals of the last year was originally reported by The National Enquirer more than couple years ago. Yep... The revelation that John Edwards had an affair and fathered a child that has come to light in just the last few days was originally reported in the fall of 2007 by The Enquirer.

So the next time you see some wild tabloid news headline, even if you don't trust the source, it may turn out to be true... or not.

Presto!

I'm not at all sure when I heard the word presto used first, but I imagine is was on some early day TV magician show where the guy taps his top hat with his magic wand, says "Presto!", and out pops a cute white rabbit. Now the definition of the word presto is...

presto-[pres-toh] adverb, adjective, noun
–adverb
1. quickly, rapidly, or immediately.
2. at a rapid tempo (used as a musical direction).
–adjective
3. quick or rapid.
4. executed at a rapid tempo (used as a musical direction).
–noun
5. Music. a movement or piece in quick tempo.

Now what brought me to thinking about the word presto was an occurrence the other day in our mud room. With the nice warm days we've had, for some reason our unfinished mud room collects fly's, and on this particular day, one of those little pests was on one of the windows so I took a swat at it with my cap and Presto!... my window turned into garbage. I guess the little metal button on the top of the cap hit the glass just right.

It's amazing how fast something can go from useful to useless... kinda prestoish.

Unintended Consequences

One of the laws former President Bush signed into law during his second term defined the amount of lead permitted in children's products. Lead has been a health issue for years, and the legislation Bush signed into law was important and at first, seemed like a good idea to protect children's health. But there were some unintended consequences.

The law was broadly written and included hand made products. An extreme example of what the law required for testing of children's products determined an amount of just over $2000 for tests of a $10 hand made bib... http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2009/02/09/congressional-ban-on-lead-in-toys-has-unintended-consequences.htm

The new standards have been in effect for less than two years, and this past week we learn of another unintended consequence of the lead restriction. It seems that some manufacturers have switched to the use cadmium as a legal substitute for lead in kids products, though the dangers are as bad or worse for children.

I don't know if this is another case of profit at all cost or not, but the dangers of cadmium exposure have been known for years. As near as I can tell, cigarette smokers and those working at or living close to industrial facilities that use cadmium in their manufacturing processes have been most exposed. I have done no research as to why cigarette smoke has cadmium in it, but manufacturing plants make sense as cadmium is used in plating processes among others.

So it seems to some of the worlds manufacturers, it's okay to bend the spirit of the law (protecting children) as long as they don't break the actual rules. It's too bad that we as consumers don't seem to learn who is poisoning us and stop buying their products, instead of expecting the government to protect us with laws that end up being bent, not broke.

Insulated

Most folks have never had to work outside, let alone work outside when the temperature is below zero and the wind is howling. It's down right dangerous for those not prepared, and miserable for those that are prepared performing necessary tasks in extremely cold weather.

As an phone repairman, I spent everyday outside in the elements, but only a very few in extreme cold. I have the utmost respect for those that can't escape their job when the weather turns brutally cold. Utility workers are the first that come to mind. When the power goes out, or a water main breaks during cold weather, somebody has to fix it.

Fire fighters and other emergency personnel don't catch a break either. Their jobs become so much more difficult and dangerous as the temperature drops. When you get in trouble who do you call? 9-1-1 and some how, some way, someone will show up and help you no matter what the weather.

Ag workers obviously don't catch a break either when it gets cold. Livestock needs attention, especially when the temperature drops, and it only takes a half second of observation to see who is dressed to work outside and who isn't. When the livestock needs help the most, it is always under the most difficult of conditions, often in isolated locations. I don't envy ranchers and farmers this time of year!

So as you cuss your car for not starting, your glasses for fogging up, the ice you just slipped on, or the price of your utility bill during this cold weather, don't forget to thank the folks that do the outside jobs so the rest of us can remain insulated from winters harsh reality.

Historic Places

Driving around southwestern Nebraska, you quickly see the state has spent a a lot of money providing signage about geographic locations. It seems southwestern Nebraska is the canyonlands based on all the different canyons described along the roadways. Now I admit what is described on a road sign as a canyon in Nebraska is a bit different from what I'm used to in Colorado, but I digress. Rivers and streams are almost always signed, and historic area signs and monuments are along most highways as well.

I often wonder where place names come from. Some old timer for sure had something to do with the name, and that's true around our place. When Margie and I bought the place and didn't know anyone yet, we "named" a cut of the road through a nearby hillside "Skunk Hill". The reason we named it what we did was we'd seen three dead skunks shortly after we moved in and it made sense to us.

Funny thing about naming something, you usually find out that the place already has a name and Skunk Hill is known by everyone around these parts as Rippy Pass. I have not asked anyone yet about old Rippy and the story of the name, but I'll get around to it one of these days.

What brings the above to mind is today's trip into town and back. Right at Rippy Pass sitting atop a Cottonwood was a Bald Eagle. Just sitting there enjoying the view along Medicine Creek I guess as it was still there on our return trip. Had we not already misidentified Skunk Hill and learned of Rippy Pass, we'd have called the cut Eagle's Crest.

This is the first Bald Eagle we've seen up close in Nebraska, but it's just another reminder of many great things to see around here if you keep your eyes open!