A Little Raw

I don't like the fact that hummers are being sold to the general public. They are vehicles designed for the military. Now every bozo with a big wallet can fell like a big man by driving one of the overgrown things. I guess it's not that bad for most of you, but since my son died in a firefight while in one of those things (he should have been in his Bradley) it really is like getting stabbed in my heart whenever a commercial comes on TV. And again when my wife is with me and I know how it hits her. It's not the same as a Jeep, because they weren't available to the public until after WWII. Yeah, I'm just in pain tonight.

Christmas Greetings

Christmas has finnally arrived and I hope everyone is well. Did you all get the things you really wanted? Remember the best presents are the ones that can't be wrapped.

Out here on the farm, we are having a quiet and white day. I finally got the drive with the 4-wheeler last night as Laurie got stuck trying to leave. (my fault). The last few days have been really cold and nasty. Whiskey stayed in the barn and didn't try to get out because of the cold. Yesterday the temp rose and everything was frosted. It was very pretty. It also knocked out our satellite internet. Whiskey got out and feasted.

Today it's about 20 above and a lovely day. Those of you living up here know what I mean. This morning Laurie, Eliza and I opened presents. Alex is at Kay-Cee's today and will be here tomorrow. I never really ask or expect much for Christmas. I like others to have a better day than they expect. I only asked for two things this year. One was clothes because I really need some, and the other was a camera. I don't like using Laurie's 'cause it's hers and I want to have one with me. So, basically, I got clothes and a camera. I'm happy about it.

So, what happened for your Christmas this year? Was Santa good to you? I really want toknow, guys.

I just want again to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with Love, Peace, and Happiness.

Love to all!
Patrick!

Immigration Psychosis Hits America!!!

I'm listening to this report on O'Rielly Factor and some things pop out at me that just p--- me off! Now, this has nothing to do with Bill's stand or comments on the subject or with the particular incident being covered. Here's the thing. A city in Texas has an out-of-control crime problem where many crimes are being committed by illegals. I know, not all of them but these are the ones I'm addressing and yeah, not all illegals are committing crimes. But solutions are put forward such as deporting criminals and opponents say "How are you going to distinguish good from bad?" as if being caught in the commission of a crime isn't a red flag. Then someone says "the fence needs to be finished". But they say, "they'll just get around it anyway" This is stupid. In SD where the fence is finished, crime and crossings are way down. And even if some are going to try to get around it, isn't it like saying prisoners will try to escape anyway so we shouldn't put them in prisons? Then they offer a more "intelligent" solution like just giving them driver's licences and I.D.s so they can get honest work. As if the drug dealers and thieves are going to take a legitimate job at minimum wage and stop being criminals. And we're going to pay them off with work and citizenship so they'll go straight? Give me a break. Close the border to illegal crossings and deport or imprison all aliens caught committing felonys. And yeah, you can raise my taxes to support it.

New Idea!

Here's a couple of pictures from the last set. The first one is from inside a wind break looking throught the middle. The other is our front yard going south. The trees in the distance is the wind break of the first picture.

I had an idea to start a schedule of subjects. What I mean is I'll set aside days for types of posts. One day for politics, one for home, one for sports etc. It doesn't really matter since no one reads this anyway, but I like the idea and this is for me anyway.

North Dakota, Wind and You

As if it doesn't get cold enough here anyway, ND is a perfect place to sample the effect of windchill. You might think it's all in your head and that it isn't really colder with a wind, but you'd be wrong. What wind does to us is cause us to lose body heat faster. So if it is 20 degrees and there is a 35 MPH wind, you'll get the effect of it being 0 degrees. There is even a formula for this:

Windchill (F) = 35.74+0.6215T-35.75(V(to the 0.16thpower))+0.4275t(V(to the 0.16th))

T= air temp F, V=wind speed MPH

You just had to know that didn't you?

So, it's -1 right now with a wind of 14MPH making it -20. Oh joy!

(if you don't like the weather, move)

Winter drops in like a ton of bricks

Wow! It snowed all day Tuesday (12-04). We spent Monday in Devils Lake shopping for the storm. (finally found one we liked - lol). Went to work Tuesday morning. We came back Tuesday night and couldn't get down the drive. We hiked to the house and packed some clothes and grabbed our daughter, fed the horses, and shouveled our way out. Drove back to "Forks" and spent the night at Alex's. Girls went home on Thurs as the guy was finally able to plow our road. I didn't see my house until Friday night. It wasn't a lot of fun, but at least I got to work. I wouldn't have been able to if we'd stayed home. I want to wish my sister a belated Happy Birthday since this all happened around then and I haven't had access to things. Everything is white now, as we got about 5 inches. It's been down in the single digits (6 - -6) so all the snow will be here until spring unless we get a couple of days above 35.

My computer got zapped again, I don't run a lot of protection so it happens. I have a separate hard drive so if I do a system recovery I don't lose anything but the junk. I've been trying to copy all my archived MP3s onto it so I have access to them better. I'm also trying to update my music list so I can send copies to people who might be interested.

Monday morning I looked out and one of the horses was out. I got him back in but I really don't know where he got out. The charger on the fence isn't showing a ground-out and there are no breaks in the fence.

This farmer came out a few weeks ago and dug up our yard. I have to explain. There are drainage channels running through the farms. They allow low spots to drain so they can be planted. They ultimately dump into a nearby river and flow into the Red River into Canada Etc.
There are two in this area. One of them runs through my little spot of ground, crossing under my driveway. They do get filled with silt and have to be maintained. Also some really bright former residents here deceided they wanted a wetlands and blocked the drains. So it needed some work. So Aaron came out with a Catapillar and dredged out the channel. Made quite a mess of our road and such. He wasn't planning on leaving it and had arranged for someone to fix the road. The guy didn't get out, the temp dropped, some snow fell, and we have a mess. Aaron felt bad and came out and did what he could, also he improved the county plow guy's work, and moved most of the hay bales spread around our property to the side of he barn. A blessing I assure you. The great thing about all this was that when Whiskey got out, he just stayed by the barn pigging out on the bales. I hate to think where he'd have gone otherwise.

Well, It's not like we aren't ready for winter, but you can only do so much until it hits. I'll get some pictures soon.

First Storm

Backyard facing North - - - - - Looking North in front - - - - There are actually snowflakes here

This should have been posted just after the last post, but I couldn't get to the machine to do it. As the Predicted snow hit, I went out and took some pictures of the yard and house. Afterwards, I was out on the 4-wheeler and plowed the driveway. It was about 4 inches, not a lot, but icky to drive in. Plowing was fun. I got all the way to the road and then plowed the road too. The guy who actually plows out here won't plow unless all the roads are bad. Just about everything south of us was clear so he wasn't out. If he does, he plows the county roads first, then the township roads north and south of town. our road is not a priority. However, our neighbor works at the Ag service so the guy will do his and my driveways too. Kinda nice. Another bigger storm is coming I'll try to get some pictures of that, too.