Overwhelmed!  That seems to be the feeling of the day.  It’s July 1st and the 4th is just around the corner.  Sherry and I are involved with the celebration here in this little town, she with her task and me with mine.  Usually I can free myself up to help her, but this year it is not the case.  Why?  Hay.

I vote not to cut and bale hay until after the 4th from here on forward, too much, too soon.

I have yet to look in the POS for range stuff and I hope there is enough cardboard to cover the range for the shoot on the 4th.  What if there isn’t enough?  I’ll be in big doo doo!  So put that on my to do list, I have to check things out and do it soon.

Today is “finish up the cutting” in the field, which includes the back swath.  Hook up the rake to the Massey in preparation for the raking that begins in the morning.  At 7:30 tonight I have my turn at the rehearsal for the talent show that happens tomorrow night at the church.  I have several phone calls to make to see if other people want hay…we have had some “back out” because they have their own celebrations to attend and vacations to be had and hay is not in their plans on the 4th of July (another reason to put off cutting and baling on the 4th).  There are some final details to work out for the shoot on the 4th and I still have not heard from the fire chief about prizes…hmmmm…am I pressured?  Is he pressured?  I can always give money as prizes so I’m not worried about that.  What about the parade?  On the evening of the 3rd I have to go to the gravel pit and set up the range…I have helpers for that, but what about the raking of the hay?  We are marching in the parade to advertise the shoot right?  Are we going to have a float?  What trailer?  We are going to use Wapitis 3 place for the porta potty that has to be picked up on the 3rd of July.  But won’t we still be raking the hay on that day?  And that is the night for the fireman’s dinner and dance right?  Parade at 9 a.m. on the 4th, then the races, bingo, display in the city hall (Sherry’s deal), grab some lunch at the concession stand…we have to support the firemen right?  Then at 1 p.m. it’s time for the shoot…gotta be there by noon to make sure the gate is open and things are ready!  Expecting over 50 shooters this year…this shoot is turning into a big deal and I’m really glad.  I’ve had calls from some of the “old timers” that say they will be there…way cool!

Then there is the situation with our own back yard party.  What about setting up the big awning…who is going to do that?  It covers not only the 4th of July party, but also the end of the hay season party on the 6th!  It all takes time and manpower.  And Donnell is moving in on the morning of the 5th to begin the baling!  Gotta be there to help with that…and finish the raking!  One more time to turn it over to make sure it’s cured enough to bale!  And we have to have at least 500 bales on the ground for Gary and Brenda to pick up on the afternoon of the 5th.  What about Hartline’s hay?  Will there be enough for him to pick up on Friday as well?  Can Donnell get it all baled on Friday so the other hay buyers can pick up on Saturday morning?  Who’s stressed?  Heck the barn isn’t even cleaned out yet alone the trailer checked to see if the tires are flat or not!

I sure like the 4th of July….usually….

Bears Butt

July 1, 2013

HOT!  HOT!  HOT!  Record breaking temps around these parts and all the time we are cutting hay!  Mostly we just sit around in the shade and watch the custom cutting guy do the work.  But once in a while he has a problem and out we go to assist with the fix.

Last night was a long one for a couple of us as Donnell really wanted to get it all cut.  I suppose if he had been there the whole time it would have gotten done, but his son, Landon,  did a great job on most of it.  He couldn’t help it if the equipment kept breaking on him.

It has been an interesting year so far.  We saw a fox the night before last and yesterday a new born fawn.  It was an interesting encounter with the fawn, as I was leading Landon around the edge of the field while driving Fat Ducks 4 wheeler, suddenly I heard a very unfamiliar noise close by.  I was looking all around for where the noise was coming from when suddenly right at my side the little fawn jumped up from its hiding spot and jumped away, instantly hiding once again in the deep grass.  I got off to see if maybe I had run over it and here came momma out of the bushes!  I backed off and then momma ran away leaving the little one where it lay.

I directed Landon around the little critter as he went cutting past and the fawn jumped once again and went back into hiding a little deeper into the swamp on the edge of the field.  Later that evening while cutting that same field, we saw momma again, but no little one.  We worked late to get that field cut and I got home about 11 p.m.  I have never been involved with cutting hay that late before.

Earlier in the evening, Donnell was having a time keeping the grass from wrapping up on one of the drive systems and asked me if I had any duct tape.  I headed to the house and grabbed what I had (Gorilla Tape) and while at it I thought I should get a piece of cardboard as well.  When it was all said and done, this little bit of ingenuity kept the drive from getting wrapped up any more.

So, as hot as it is and as much sweat as pours from our bodies, we have to look at the job and say…”It’s worth it”!

Bears Butt

June 30, 2013

Scanning through my emails just now and came across one that was forwarded to me from another address…the one that belongs to one of my nieces.

Without giving out too much info here is her address:

Cyndi Summers
BSER for UT and NV
United Healthcare M & V

Of course there is a lot more to that address, but this is enough for you to get the point of this writing.  I have often wondered just what it is that she does at her work and now I think I have it figured out.

You see, she does a whole lot of traveling, all over the country giving training sessions and assorted informational seminars.  She is hardly ever home and when she is it is just long enough to wash some clothes and mow the lawn.  Her hubby is a traveling guy as well, only he travels the world, while she stays withing the confines of the US borders.

So, I picture her standing before a large audience and gives them the latest updates on things that help them do their job, her arms are waving all around as she talks and her power point presentation is going on just behind her head.  She might even show a short movie to get the folks’ attention and knowing her she adds here 2 bits worth in the form of a joke…

So, what is it she actually does?  I still don’t know, but lets look at her address once more:

Cyndi Summers
BSER for UT and NV
United Healthcare M & V

The key is “BSER”…They could have made her title something else, but I think they hit the nail on the head…”BS er”!  🙂

Bears Butt

June 27, 2013

It might be the heat (101 degrees) but it’s probably something else plus the heat, but things have been really “not cool” this afternoon.

Sherry is trying to get her 4th of July stuff done because she is running out of time very quickly…AND…as things usually go, problems with her printer just happened to occur.  For her project she needs her printer very badly.

Yesterday we went out and spend nearly $100 on ink to make sure she would get it all done..today…it won’t print anything!  Well, almost nothing, she was able to print pictures from her pictures files, but nothing else.

Top off her crammed time schedule with a viewing of one of her relatives this evening and having the kids over for a couple of days/nights and the frustration level rises even more and quicker!

To try and help, I attacked the printer problem just after getting the kids dog out of the kennel.  Two hours later and almost half the new ink the printer is back on line.

An additional “irritant” was when I called the HP 24/7 hot line for all your HP products help….the hardly understandable voice on the other end of the hot line asked what my problem was and when I told him the printer would not print nor would it copy…his answer…call a local technician!  AAAHHHHHHHHHHH and pull out some hair….

It’s now time to get ready to go to the viewing and Ang has taken the kids to the ball game at the upper park (Thanks Ang).  Each kid armed with enough funding to buy a snow cone!

When we get back from the viewing I’ll plop some chicken thighs on the barby and slug down a few brews!  Our game plan is to have the kids sleep in the coach tonight…that will make them seem like they are sleeping outside or camping.  They will have everything they need out there except the air conditioning…if it’s too hot by bedtime they will sleep down stairs.

That’s the GAME PLAN!

Bears Butt

June 27, 2013

I received an email from a cousin who so graciously shared the following letter written to the AARP.  The letter is very well written and the lady who wrote it was spot on with her statements to them.

I went on the SNOPES website and verified that she did in fact write it and sent it and that SNOPES claims its validity…the only problem is that it was written in September of 2009 and is only now getting to my email inbox.  I have some important issues in my personal life that requires I remain a member of the AARP organization and with this letter I need to search for alternate sources to get the protection I need with these personal issues I mention.

Here is the letter:

Dear Mr. Rand,

Recently you sent us a letter encouraging us to renew our lapsed membership in AARP by the requested date. This isn’t what you were looking for, but it’s is the most honest response I can give you. Our coverage gap is a microscopic symptom of the real problem, a deepening lack of faith. While we have proudly maintained our membership for years and long admired the AARP goals and principles, regrettably, we can no longer endorse its abdication of our values. Your letter stated that we can count on AARP to speak up for our rights, yet the voice we hear is not ours.

Your offer of being kept up to date on important issues through DIVIDED WE FAIL presents neither an impartial view nor the one we have come to embrace. We do believe that when two parties agree all the time on everything presented to them, one is probably not necessary. But, when the opinions and long term goals are diametrically opposed, the divorce is imminent. This is the philosophy which spawned our 200 years of government.

Once upon a time, we looked forward to being part of the senior demographic. We also looked to AARP to provide certain benefits and give our voice a power we could not possibly hope to achieve on our own. AARP once gave us a sense of belonging which we no longer enjoy. The Socialist politics practiced by the Obama Regime and empowered by AARP serves only to raise the blood pressure my medical insurance strives to contain. Clearly a conflict of interest there! We do not understand the AARP posture, feel greatly betrayed by the guiding forces that we expected to map out our senior years and leave your ranks with a great sense of regret. We mitigate that disappointment with the relief of knowing that we are not contributing to the problem anymore by renewing our membership. There are numerous other organizations which offer discounts without  threatening our way of life or offending our sensibilities and values.

This Obama Regime scares the living daylights out of us. Not just for ourselves, but for our proud and bloodstained heritage. But more importantly for our children and grandchildren. Washington has rendered Soylent Green a prophetic cautionary tale rather than a nonfiction scare tactic. I have never endorsed any militant or radical groups, yet now I find myself listening to them. I don’t have to agree with them to appreciate the fear which birthed their existence. Their borderline insanity presents little more than a balance to the voice of the Socialist Mindset in power. Perhaps I became American by a great stroke of luck in some cosmic uterine lottery, but in my adulthood I CHOOSE to embrace it and nurture the freedoms it represents as well as the responsibilities.

Your web site generously offers us the opportunity to receive all communication in Spanish. ARE YOU KIDDING??? The illegal perpetrators have broken into our ‘house’, invaded our home without invitation or consent. The President insists we keep these illegal perpetrators in comfort and learn the perpetrator’s language so we can communicate our reluctant welcome to them. I DON’T choose to welcome them, to support them, to educate them, to medicate them, or to pay for their food or clothing. American home invaders get arrested.  Please explain to me why foreign lawbreakers can enjoy privileges on American soil that Americans do not get? Why do some immigrants have to play the game to be welcomed and others only have to break and enter to be welcomed?

We travel for a living. Walt hauls horses all over this great country, averaging over 10,000 miles a month when he is out there. He meets more people than a politician on caffeine overdose. Of all the many good folks he enjoyed on this last 10,000 miles, this trip yielded only ONE supporter of the current Regime. One of us is out of touch with mainstream America. Since our poll is conducted without funding, I have more faith in it than ones that are driven by a need to yield AMNESTY (aka-make voters out of the foreign lawbreakers so they can vote to continue the governments free handouts). This addition of 10 to 20 million voters who then will vote to continue Socialism will OVERWHELM our votes to control the government’s free handouts. It is a “slippery slope” we must not embark on!

As Margaret Thatcher (former Prime Minister of Great Britain) once said “Socialism is GREAT – UNTIL you run out of other people’s money”.

We have decided to forward this to everyone on our mailing list, and will encourage them to do the same. With several hundred in my address book, I have every faith that the eventual exponential factor will make a credible statement to you. I am disappointed as all get out! I am more scared than I have ever been in my entire life! I am ANGRY! I am MAD as heck, and I’m NOT gonna take it anymore!

Walt & Cyndy Miller,
Miller Farms Equine Transport

KEEP THIS MOVING.

Bears Butt

June 26, 2013

A busy day yesterday, a busier day today!

The farm equipment is all ready for the hay.  The one piece of equipment that just keeps amazing me is the old John Deere Tractor…I pulled on the choke, hit the starter and it fired up on the second turn of the motor!  PUTT!  PUTT! PUTT!  For a 1948 vintage piece of equipment it’s just like the EverReady Bunny!

Then it was clean up the coach for our guests, cousins Paul and his wife from Oregon.  They are hear visiting all the relatives in the area that they can see in the short time they have to spend down here, but they are mostly visiting their own kids and grand kids.  I guess yesterday was a marathon day for them!

Today, much the same!  We went to bed late and are up early.  Heading for Idaho first thing, while Paul and wife are at a Temple session in the Brigham Temple.  They should finish with that about the same time as we role back into town and then we will hook up with them for lunch and more visiting.

This evening I will be with Conner and the scouts and it’s my job to try and eat whatever the scouts have prepared for the dads and grandpas.  Make it good Conner!

Bears Butt

June 25, 2013

The last week of June 2013…how quickly time flies!  The day is dedicated to the farm for the most part.  It’s time to get the equipment up and ready for the hay as it gets cut this Saturday.  This time of year is always a blessing of sorts, it is the end of the farming season for us, and the beginning of the next year at the same time.

It comes at an odd time but it shouldn’t seem odd, it is always the same time of year, it just seems strange to be involved with the farm work while play time is upon us and around us…July 4th is play time right?  So much to do and so little time.

On top of this we have family visitors in town and they are staying out our house tonight.  So, there is the coach to make ready for their stay.  They will be sleeping in that tonight and I have to make sure it’s clean and has clean bedding.  The coach makes for a great guest room in the warm months, not so much when it’s freezing outside.

So, with the farming about to come to a close for the season, what’s next?  Vacation!  After the 4th celebration and our involvement with that, which at this time seems to be all consuming, we will have a short break (except for the baling and hauling of the hay), and then Sherry and I are off to California to see our relatives out that way.  Our plans are to take us South first, to visit with some of her family, then to a place called Bunkerville, to see where some of my relatives lived…then to Vegas and off toward San Francisco…not sure of the travel route toward there yet.

Anyway, it’s about time for the gang to gather for the farm equipment prep work…gotta go!

Bears Butt

June 24, 2013

YO! I just got off the phone with a man who says he and several others are going to attend the Willard 4th of July Blackpowder shoot!  And guess what?  It’s our old friend Lynx Killers son!!!!

He tells me he will be in attendance with about 5 others and they are looking forward to some great shooting.  He asked me about the skills of some of the other shooters that regularly attend…my comment was….Well, occasionally they get lucky.  What else could I say?

Now, some of us know just what Lynx Killer shot and how good he was with that old rifle and his son said he was now the proud shooter of that fine piece.  Boys and Girls, YOU have some competition coming to this shoot!!!

I also passed on to him some secrets that even you don’t know about this shoot…is that unfair?  Not in my mind!  Keep in mind what I said earlier…THINK SMALL…you’ll be fine!

This shoot will be a blast and I hope that this guy will talk his dad into coming up even if as a onlooker!  It would be great to see him again!

Thanks Todd!  See you at the shoot!

Bears Butt

June 23, 2013

I clicked on the “Super Moon” articles this morning to read about what peoples’ impressions were and found that most, if not all, were less than enthusiastic about what they saw last night.  I might go look tonight for myself, as just because last night it was supposed to be its largest, tonight there can’t be that much of a change.  Anyway, it got me thinking about the moon and the stars and all that we have read about the galaxy etc.  And the word “lunar tic” came to mind.  Sort of my rendition of a person attracted to the lunar system high above us.  A person who likes to lay on their back in the dead of night and stare up at the lunar system.

At any rate the word “Lunartic” did not exist until fairly recently.  Some guy invented a hub-less bicycle and called it a “lunartic hub”….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPsY2NfPJtw

When you go to this link the video is what it is and the bike looks pretty neat, but on the right side there are other videos of other inventions using this same idea to create motorbikes etc.  What a crazy world we live in.

My curiosity also lead me to famous names like Aristotle and some dude I had never heard of named “Pliny the Elder”…he and Aristotle were on the same page back in the day, but Pliny didn’t get the recognition that Aristotle did, I have to surmise that is the reason I had never heard of him.

It seems that Pliny was a guy who liked to investigate natural phenomena around his local world, Italy, Germany and basically the Roman Empire at the time.  He would write down his philosophical take on whatever it was that he was observing and left little to the imagination when he did so.  That seemed to be the way all the philosophers of the day did their writing and it got a whole bunch of them into trouble if their writings didn’t match the thinking of the person who was ruling the country at the time.

If the king or whatever the ruler was called didn’t like what he was being told or read, off came a head…did it pay to be a philosopher at the time?  Some survived so I guess it did for them.  Speaking of surviving, this Pliny guy died while trying to get his boat to float when Mount Vesuvius was erupting.  He wanted to get a closer look, but the winds kept his sails from unfolding and he died (probably from a heart attack) trying his best to get things moving.

Well, on that note I guess this Lunartic Hub idea just might fly!

Bears Butt

June 23, 2013

I’ve been busy so far getting ready for the big neighborhood yard sale which happens tomorrow.  We don’t have much of anything really good like guns and fishing gear, but we do have some outdoor stuff and a bit of everything…somebody will find something they want.

Anyway, today is the first day of summer.  The longest day of the year, some say, but then we all know there are only 24 hours in any one day, so what is meant by that is that it’s the day with the most daylight time.  We will be able to still see outside without a flashlight until after 10 p.m.

Well our buddies over at the National Geographic Office decided they needed to take a picture of the sun at 10 a.m. every day from the same spot and see what the sun looked like when all those pictures were put together into one.  Go to this link and see what it looks like…really cool to me.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/photogalleries/101228-sun-end-year-analemmas-solstice-eclipse-pictures/

Bears Butt

June 21, 2013