The Useful Duck!

Contribute to my Vacation, please...

Friday, March 30, 2012

I listen to Hank Jr.

I finally found a Hank Williams Jr. album that I like. Actually, I've been looking for it for years! I should record it. Back in the day, I recorded everything and only listened to my albums once or twice. Now I never listen to tape. My records are getting more wear now than in 30 years of collecting.

I have nothing to say...

I got up this morning after hearing torrential rain all night. I checked the river level before I went to bed. I looked out the little view corridor between my carport, the dead tractors, by brother's house and the old walnut tree to see if I could see water. I could.
The river has flooded once again.
Once again I have not moved my old IH truck. There should be a good half inch of mud in the transmission and rear ends. So... if Ralph wants any gauges or truck parts he had better let me know. Not that I will actually get around to scrapping it, but I will think about it every so often, which is just as good-except for the money/income part. It is kind of how I deal with my non-addiction to playing the lottery. I just think I might win, despite the fact that I never play...
I listened to "longhair" music at the far end of the dial last night. The wife and child are gone to the beach for spring break. That is one trip that didn't turn out quite like expected. However, the Oregon coast is pretty neat in a storm. Obviously you are not going to walk on the beach but you can go stir crazy playing pictionary in the hotel room whilst the horizontal rain blasts the windows with the force of a midlevel Harbor Freight pressure washer...
If gas was not so expensive I feel like I'm riding Mr. Garrisons bicycle every time I fill up I would drive out there.
Speaking of Mr. Garrison... I lost the check for my Disk Mower, and had to drive into Salem last night to get another one. I took the guy some spare parts I had found, which ought to pay for the "stop payment"  on the old check. I do not know how I could lose a check that I was that proud of. I never let it out of my site except for that missing 5 minutes hour that I can't account for.
Aliens? Hot Russian spy with mind blocking drugs?
Probably I hit my head on something... Cell phone radiation... The Ledge...
I don't know.
I guess I will wander outside and wait for the neighbor to tell me that my truck is underwater again...
I was not meant to be a farmer.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

What we did Sunday afternoon and what I did today

I am weird and I guess it only follows that I would leave a bad influence on my daughter and nephews.
We spent Sunday afternoon at the river building a fort. And carving cryptic messages into willow trees.

I finished the sprayer today. Three months is not a world record. The booms now fold.


I am now setting in my easy chair listening to the Allman brothers on the Rek-o-kut and sitting in my arm chair. My speaker rebuild sounds pretty good.
I also sold my Hesston disk mower today so I can take my lengthy advert off of Craigslist. I told the fellow everything wrong with the mower as well as what new parts were on it and what he should fix in the next few years. He offered me $500 less than I was asking and I took it. I have a drill payment to make and tractor parts to pay for.
But then again, the lottery is up to a couple million. Perhaps I'll drop the five grand on lottery tickets at Dad's Market. I could use a couple million...
In the words of the neighbor boy, "hookers and beer!" His father didn't know he exclaimed that...

Back to my regular programming... Things go wrong, old stereo stuff, and so on, and on and on...

I suppose I will have to go back and delete the previous posts as the search engine will bring people who don't really care about old farm equipment and farming.
I am back to my usual activities, grinding feed, old music, dynaco stereo equipment, and sitting on my arse in the easy chair.
I had to make feed the other day and hooked up the Super. The M670 super has a lot more bottom end than the IH 656. Actually it has quite a bit more horsepower all the way around.
I've been rebuilding the PTO on the 656. It comes out in one piece. I had it all back together and then knocked it off the bench busting off top of the control rod. A new control rod costs $100. I did jump back quickly so it did not land on my feet. I suppose new feet would cost more than $100.

Later I rebuilt my baby Advent speakers. I bought a kit on eBay which was well reviewed. It came with new tweeters and woofers and crossovers and not real good instructions. The family helped me install them.

I was so enthused that I decided to take my Dynaco stuff off of the table and install it in the bookshelf. The Dynaco components are not very deep and will fit nicely on a bookshelf.
I soon discovered why those bookshelves were such a good deal... They are crap!

Monday, March 26, 2012

What the Treyvon uproar is really about...

I am a slow learner...
I was thinking about the whole Florida thing while loading some hay this morning and I had to come back in and post.
I would like to first apologize for anyone offended by my previous comments on the "Undeniable Virtue of the Oppressed," post.
I fell for the trap!
The reason that this shooting in Florida is all over the news is that it is the perfect tool for activism.
You have the wronged minority and there is a huge bonus in that he is underage.
BUT...on the other hand you have a Hispanic guy with a "white" name who also can put forth a defense but who used a hand gun and a self-defense law. Of course this incident gets national headlines, it is not a good example of racism.
Here I am looking at the "other" side of the story and trying to say wait a minute, but in the same time alienating my readers of color.
It brings forth confrontation and anger.
So sides are drawn and people go after each other , back vs white vs brown. No money is to be made, and no power is to be attained from everyone just getting along! Exceedingly clever. I didn't really look at it from that angle until I read Stanchez's comment on the previous blog.
 Very clever... I bet no one can set their cherished personal ideals aside and look at it from that angle!

I get into the argument more but don't use an easily searchable headline

My wife was reading me more stories about Treyvon this morning.
He was wearing his hoodie up because it was raining. The bulge in his pocket was from his Icetea, he was talking to his girlfriend on the phone. I don't know how she recorded it but she has a record of the conversation.
Zimmerman is screwed. You just can't shoot the wrong guy. There is no way around it. There is a responsibility that comes with using a gun. You are betting your entire life when you pull that trigger.
It does not matter that homes were broken into or that Zimmerman helped to catch one of the robbers and that it was black young people who were doing the robberies.
Treyvon was the wrong guy.

So, was it worse than what happened in this story? I lifted the link from someone else. 

Racism makes money and gives power to people and they are not going to turn loose of it. Racism will never be solved when we accept the manipulation.

I object to the manipulation. The whole hoodie argument where no one can accept the idea that a piece of clothing can take on such significance as to raise suspicion when seen at night.  I would tell Hispanic kids not to wear stocking caps when it is 80 degrees at night and white kids not to show off their tattoos and wear those stupid wife beater t-shirts and a baseball cap turned backwards either.

Read the comment from stanchaz as quoted below. He could apply his own argument to himself. The example of a manipulated society is this very comment on my blog. It takes what may be a tragic mistake and turns it into racism. It is a perfect excuse for the public to be manipulated in some way. A child "victim," a Southern police department,  and no possible criticism of anything sacred like the Feds or the President or the real issue of why people get uptight when they see people who fit a certain profile in their neighborhood.

Blame the Hoodie? Walking while black with a hoodie, punishable by death?? Have we come to this???
GIVE ME A BREAK. Hey, the poor kid was running in the rain .....and being stalked .......and ....I’M SORRY...but we don't ALL use Totes umbrellas when going to the corner grocery store for a snack. NOR should we risk losing our very lives while doing so! Mr. Rivera: you should be ashamed of your inane, insensitive comments about Trayvon’s death, and your attempts to create "excuses" for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman (...AND...those that would imitate him). We are becoming a society that seeks and sees threats under every rock; a frightened society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us;  a manipulated society with control-freaks running rampant (whether politicians or mayors or police chiefs or individuals). Power-hungry people that are only too eager to take advantage of our fears; that are only too willing to get away with anything and everything that they can, as they deprive us of our our liberty (and sometimes our lives).....all in the name of defending it. What a shell game. But were it only a game. For it includes the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, the police spying on innocent people, “papers-please” and stop&frisk gone wild, the “right” to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, and out-of-control homicidal vigilantes such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a serious, slippery slope... one that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba - NOT the America that I know and love. We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such sorry places. Now we imitate them. Our country is better than this. Our values are better than this. WE are better than this. Don’t blame the hoodie......blame what we are becoming, and allowing, and doing as a society. As Shakespeare once said: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves: For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time... it’s way past time, to reverse course. Let bring some good out of this tragedy.... and work to never let it happen again. You DO have the power, my friend. USE IT.

The Undeniable Virtue of the Oppressed-I am NOT Treyvon Martin

I was going to ignore this due to the fact that I don't like rent-a-cops but frankly this is total BS. People wearing white hoodies to Church?
I started to care about the story when my neighbor with the Obama sticker got all worked up about it and started telling me about race inequalities in New Orleans in 1962 which I think is pretty relevant to the issues at hand.  Then He tells me witnesses saw the cop mouth "self defense," to the guy and that hoodie-boy's father identified his screams off the 911 tape. So I looked it up. Took me about five minutes to find a second opinion. The neighborhood watch guy got knocked down and beat up.
I don't think he should have shot hoodie-boy but after I heard that his brush with law enforcement was due to him pushing an ATF officer I got a little more sympathetic.
Then I saw the news today. People are wearing hoodies out of solidarity...
Great, we will all dress like gangsters now? Get gold front teeth? Go around and provoke jumpy neighborhood watch people?
There are lessons to be learned all right...Tragedy equals political gain. Never, ever let black folks forget they are victims. White people are racist by definition.
Lessons not to be learned, trying to look tough is not a virtue, don't mess with a guy with a gun, an over six foot 17 year old is not a 12 year old.
Look at this supposedly sympathetic link, what are we trying to do-create a race war? Geraldo Rivera's son is ashamed of him the only time in Geraldo's life he has made anything close to a sensible statement?
This is total activism, out and out manipulation and no one has the moral courage to say a thing. Except for Newt...
It is a total set up for something which will result in 1. a loss of personal freedoms, 2. Nothing at all beneficial to the cause of stopping racism-cause it wasn't.
Anyway, someone sent me a link to this blog and he says pretty much what I wanted to say. The basic facts are out there but I'm sure it will all go down the memory hole. After all this is of course the South in 1962...
Anyway, my opinion doesn't matter. You will believe what ever fits your worldview. Wonder if the story would have gone national if the guy's last name was not "Zimmerman."
Frankly I don't like either one of the people involved.
Is there no actual racial incidents to get riled up about? Why make up a story when I've read any number of stories about totally innocent black kids getting roughed up by cops or hassled. What about that story about the guy that had restored the car and somebody hit him and the cops hauled him in and he spent the night in jail? I'll have to look up that link again. That was injustice but of course nobody got killed and there was not a gun law involved.
After all the stories we hear about old guys getting locked up for stopping a burglary and there was one about a guy in I think it was Miami who was being attacked by gang members so he shot his AK into the ground so the gunshot sensors would get the cops there faster. He got hauled in.
Frankly, I can't believe cops would pass up an opportunity to haul in a guy for defending himself with a gun unless there is more to the story.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

The sun is out and I should not read depressing blogs!

The Classic Liberal has some good stuff. Reading his Blog makes me look over my shoulder. If I have to drive after checking it out, I usually try and make three consecutive right turns in a row to check for the Pink Panther on my tail.
He has a good post today, which came from The republican Mother blog which is interesting in its own right.
I find it depressing to find out how totally screwed "we" are. And I now understand why I dislike NewsMax.
Money, money, money...
And now, I'm going to go outside and NOT make money!
If only I could get a grant!

Edit: Instead of going to work I got distracted by the Republican Mother blog. Check out her "x-files" links. I like General Butler's book!

Friday, March 23, 2012

I looked at my Amazon Associates Account today!

I would like to thank those fine individuals who purchased though my Amazon Associates account.
I hardly ever check it as it is not that often that people buy though it.
But, I got a notice that I had a gift card from Amazon. So I checked.

Appliances!!!
SPT Energy Star 3.2 cu. ft Double Door Stainless Steel Refrigerator!!! What the heck?!

Automotive:
OTC 7121 Pencil-Type Fuel Injector Nozzle Puller, (my brother-thanks!)

Books purchased: 
How Do You Kill 11 Million People: Why the Truth Matters More Than you Think
Nathan Coulter: A Novel
Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can do At Home - But Probably Shouldn't

MP3 Downloads
American Pie
Farmer's Song

Music
Beethoven: Les 9 Symphonies (Box Set)  Could it be Zeta Woof or is it merely a coincidence? I wish he allowed comments on his blog!  I would return the favor and purchase though his Amazon Account as I don't get the discount if I use my own. But I do not have any credit cards any longer and so can't buy from Amazon myself. If I do it will go on my wife's credit card and I don't do that unless it is an emergency-like I'm out of underwear... I will have to see if I can apply the gift card credit or if the gift card has been spent...


Tools & Hardware
DeWalt DW 4904 Crimped Wire Wheel Brush
Reliance 2.5 Gallon Electric Water Heater (Me)
Skil 120v 6 inch Bench Grinder (Brother)

Women's Underwear
14 x-tra large women's panties printed with days of the week-Two week supply, special deal. Plain brown shipping selected.  Customer's note: "For my Aunt." 

From all your efforts I got $36.21 from $792 in revenue for Amazon.
And for that I say,
Thank You Very Muchly!

Your typical day

It was one of those days.
I had to grind some feed. I got the ratios wrong. Neighbor gave me some wheat. It had large rocks in it. The rocks jammed up the auger on the power bin.
I killed the PTO in my free International tractor.
The White 2-135 is apart still.
I used the M670 super which has more HP than the IH but I am scared I will kill it as well and be tractorless.
After about the fifth auger jam I commenced to swear.
My wife appeared with coffee and tried to help.
She then left in not as good a mood as when she arrived.
I finished after dark.
She made the mistake of asking how my day went. I went on a rant.
I later over heard my daughter asking if I was going to get a new job.
Earlier today I discussed planting with a competitor. (Sort of a competitor he has a drill and charges to plant)
He makes people prove it was his fault before he replants or gives money back on failed plantings.
I generally tell people I will replant for a reduced rate or not charge them or just tell them to pay me what they feel like paying me. Most of the time if I replant I just charge a reduced rate whether it is my fault or not. Perhaps this is a stupid thing to do.
However I really mostly plant for people I am friends with. Having a Great Plains drill and a White tractor keeps the tight-arsed people away. They don't hire me.
In other news,
Today there was snow.
I figured out how to get my tuners to work. You take that FM antenna you bought at Radio Shack and toss it in the trash can. Then you get a chunk of wire 59.6 inches long and connect it to the 300 ohm terminals on the back of your receiver. Or 53.4 inches for 90.7 FM.
I found the bare copper wire a bit ugly and unwieldy (of course I got it tweeker style-by burning the electrical insulation off some old house wiring and so it was a bit scorched) so I wrapped it around a hollow piece of some sort of insulating material I found in the shop. Then, contradicting how I thought it all should work, I ran an insulated wire through the center of the tube and connected it to the far end of coiled copper wire. I hooked one end of the copper and then insulated lead to the 300 ohm connectors on the back of the receiver and I got even better FM. It is a little more directional than just the plain loop.
Then I realized I had a lot more to do than screw around with tuners and I went back to work.
If someone would just give me a million dollars I would say thank you.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Random

Random thoughts.
Strange weather patterns. This makes me nervous. My wife's school in on a two hour delay because of snow. We live in western Oregon... What will this mean for the summer weather? How will I do enough planting the point when it stops raining and the time to make a drill payment? What will happen with hay cutting this year?
I am strangely over-tired. Sometimes I wish I were re-tired. I stayed up late listening to the Linda Ronstadt collection I found at Goodwill a couple months ago and trying to find missing invoices for tax purposes.
My lovely wife has put me on some sort of natural health improvement program. Large pills in the morning make me queasy and so she went to a huge effort to find me beneficial minerals and vitamins in liquid form.  The evening formula is supposed to make me sleep better.
I have no idea if it works or not.
I am also supposed to stop drinking coffee. Perhaps I will switch to tea.
In other news I bought a Dynaco AF-6 tuner on eBay. This was one of those "whoops" moments. Instead of bidding $16 I bid $61.00. They make it really hard to put in an accidental bid but if you are in a hurry and hit return several times you can seriously screw things up.
I usually use jBidwatcher, which is a sniping program. It automatically bids for you in the last 30 seconds of the auction.
I was just putting in $16 as the Tuner was at $8 with several days left. If I really would have been serious I would have used jBidwatcher to "snipe" it at the last minute.
It arrived in the mail yesterday. It was supposed to have been for parts or repair but when I hooked it up I was able to pull in stations. The tuning knob is a little sticky. I suspect the little thread that runs around inside to run the needle and the tuning is slipping.
The AM antenna needs some fooling around with to make it work so there is a bit of a loose connection.
The Dynatune feature is pretty cool. When you turn it on it locks on a station. It turns on slowly and you have to have the tuner centered on the station or it may lock on an adjacent station.
But there is one big problem.
FM radio is fine for random listening but there really is not selection of stations. AM is worse. This tuner has a switch for wide/narrow/medium tuning in AM so you should be able to tune stations in pretty well. But, what stations are you going to listen to? The old country station is gone. I'm not a big talk show fan as of late. NPR gets a little old.
You can't rapidly change stations like you do in the tractor.
The FM jazz station is gone.
The oldies rock station is gone. Everything else is on tape which repeats way too often.
I've actually been listening to KGON. They play the same five songs they have always played....
The 21st century is a wasteland. A million choices but only the most mediocre is heard. Sounds like the Republican presidential primary...
Have a nice day!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Science Project Time

I first thought of Muddy Valley's encryption skills..
Actually, what I first suggested was illegal.
I couldn't find plans for the Ion Propulsion rocket as described in the 1965 World Book Encyclopedia.
We are thinking of building a device to demonstrate pulleys or leverage using an old Erector set.
Menthos and diet soda rocket?
Then I ran across links to these ordinary folks who got into trouble with science.
A truck driver by the name of John Coster-Mullen built a replica of the atomic bomb and sells instructions and information on the same. Or did. Supposedly you can buy it from Amazon.
There is also Larry Walters who attached weather balloons to a lawn chair and went for a ride. My daughter did not want to try that.
Mr. Walters is somewhat of a personal hero of mine as I remember the live newscast of his exploits and rooting for him to get away from "emergency" workers and police who were looking for him when he came down.
I remember the interview with the airline pilot who saw him floating around. Pretty funny!
Here is a link to a site with a lot of info on Lawn Chair Larry.

And this link to interesting truckers.

Have a nice day...

Monday, March 19, 2012

Oh what the heck

I took my daughter for some firearms training from a licensed NRA instructor. Later we looked for arrow heads. After reading the article in Wired I realized all email and texts are being saved as well webpages and blogs, and since I sent this photo to my wife and texted her about the whole thing I guess having a photo on the Lazy Farmer ain't gonna matter.
The caption is supposed to note that we were shooting at the dirt bank. I think the infamous beaver is swimming just to the right of the black dot in the photo. You can see a faint "v" in the water. Kind of funny I think. (probably wrong but it makes a good story, kept thinking of the gopher in "Caddy Shack."

Sunday, March 18, 2012

The age of American Censorship

I had an interesting and fun day. However, I think it best not to post about what I did. I also pointed out to the other person involved that it would be best not to mention what we did to friends.
I'd kind of like to post about it.
Ten years ago it would have been fine.
Lets say we went on a walk and enjoyed the beauties of nature. We learned some important things about safety and Frank James would have approved.
We also enjoyed some history and wondered about those who lived here before we did.
We looked for evidence of their lives, but left it as we found it.

When we got home we listened to the Legendary Stardust cowboy...
Shadow of a Tiger, it is a good thing we learned about a certain type of responsibility and safety earlier in the day...
I couldn't find the song on youtube so here is "Bathroom Blues."
I hope what ever agent is assigned to monitoring The Lazy Farmer is a fan of the Ledge

Friday, March 16, 2012

Ralph Posts Song of the Lazy Farmer!

So my blog is titled, "The Lazy Farmer," and Ralph has all the cartoons!
Click here to read the Song of the Lazy Farmer

My neighbor called me at 6:30 a.m. to tell me the river was up

He wanted to know if he could hold his Friday hamburger BBQ in the back of my dead IH truck as it is now lakefront property. That was really funny...
The river is now up for the third or fourth time this year and our freshly planted Oats are drifting to Portland.
It is all bad karma/payback for the mean trick I played on my daughter. The other day.
I had been using spray foam to plug up holes in my grain bin and thought one of them looked remarkably like a turd.
I put it in her slipper.
She was not amused...

We discussed this yesterday whilst sitting on the porch enjoying ice cream cones. She told me I was the best daddy she ever had. But then we got on the subject of mean pranks to which she had been subjected.
-Like when I put a fake hand up my sleeve and then when she shook my hand and it came off saying, "oh no, you broke it." (She cried) I actually feel bad about that one.
-Telling her everything was in black in white when I was a kid and that our town got color after everyone else due to it being out in the country. And that my mom would buy color paint on sale not caring that it was a strange color because we didn't have color in our town and then one day we got color and it turned out the bathroom was hot pink with an Avocado  green door. She repeated that story-as a joke I am sure. But it got me quite the phone call from my sister-in-law.
-Making her listen to the Ledgendary Stardust Cowboy
-Breaking wind and then blaming it on her
-Or pushing her off her chair in order to win super Mario Brothers on the Wii.
There were a few more items but you get the general idea.
She still maintained I am in fact the best father she has since she only has one father, but then down graded my status relative to other fathers, pointing out that I had to be the most annoying father she knew of.
It is good to know your are number one in something...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Bob Caldwell vs Robert Caldwell

I have been thinking about the differences between the lives two people named Caldwell which I have compared though my search for juicy details on a fellow who just took the Rockefeller exit. (Click here for a funny (in my opinion) post on this subject)
Instead I found the Robert Caldwell who led a fascinating life and who should be held up as a hero. He is an example of the America that I think is long gone.
Robert Caldwell was an Intelligence officer in the US Army during WWII. He went on to be part of the CIA and took a stand against things like torture and idiotic decisions which lead to a loss of liberty and the good standing of the USA in the world. He had some really good ideas on how bad decision making and poor training can lead to ideas of conspiracies which are not there.
It also appears that his son, who wrote the biography, has a fascinating life in his own right.
Bob Caldwell was the editorial page editor of our local Big paper. He died in the arms of a prostitute who is referred to in the press as either a "College Student," or "Tigard Resident."
It is kind of funny.
Taking into account there is probably a %15.87 chance (careful calculation using the Pearson's Square gave me that number) that she was actually just a hot college student that needed encouragement and a little cash "for books," and perhaps a mentor, and the %1 chance she was really a dude, and the %5 chance she was really ugly, I'd say she is most likely an escort who uses the college student line to bring in business and seem more respectable. Not a bad marketing plan.
It is funny that she was not named in any of the stories. Is it respect for privacy? or cover-up? What would the news have been if it would have been someone else less popular?
(And there is also the chance that Mr. Caldwell really thought she was his mistress. He may have had quite fond feelings for her. I respect that. We all believe what we need to believe to make our lives work for us)
That has happened before.
It is just really good fortune that she turned out to be 25 and not 17 as was the case with this former Doctor and respected man of the community.
I bet when he found out the truth he said, "oops!"
I personally think prostitution should be legalized. Honest pay for an honest hour's fifteen minutes, three minute's two minute's work. I find the double standard shown by people in authority to be kind of amusing.
I think it should be legalized even though I would not patronize the business and would encourage people not to go into that line of work...
But, that was not the point of the post. Now I've forgotten the point of the post. Oh well...

Edit: Back after a couple hours of actual work... Yes I forgot the punchline of the joke but in talking with my brother found he found the same humor in the Bob Caldwell joke.
So here is the punchline.
In the news report they said the police did not arrest the "college student" (wink, wink...) because Bob hadn't paid for the sex that day... Now that is funny!
I just think it is a good thing the "Tigard Resident" wasn't a real stickler for payment up front! Or perhaps no one noticed all those PCC college bookstore Gift Cards laying around!
He hadn't paid yet that day so it was not "prostitution."
I swear this is the ultimate in unfairness, just ask Eddie Murphy, he was just giving the girl guy a ride home! People are still laughing at him!

Back a half hour later: The story gets even better. His wife was cool with it! Read the story and see the feminist commenter about how the wife must have low self esteem.
Ok, Help me with my belief system...
Slutwalk = Empowerment (even though it laughs in the face of being self aware and safe in the city)
College students who have lots of sex but don't charge=Really Good!
College students who have the gall to charge for the sex= Bad, especially if it is a Republican who is paying but it is ok for the girl if the guy is liked by right people and if he is "paying for books."
Old guy paying for sex=Bad unless he is liked by right people and if he is "paying for books."
Wife who is probably tired of sex and tells her husband to go find a hooker (I could be wrong on this one, but I bet not)=Bad, but only because the feminist quoted thought the Oregonian was still a so-called "conservative" newspaper and didn't realize the editorial page editor was liked by the political establishment in Portland.
Perhaps I'll just stop there as I'm getting confused...
Wonder if they will name the girl or will she fall off a roof like Eddie Murphy's boy did...
Link to an interesting story about Eddie's helpful deed. Sort of NSW (not suitable for wife)

I really like this picture

http://bjws.blogspot.com/2011/10/evolution-of-american-artist-teacher.html

How do I put a picture on my blog and not violate copyright law? I want to send readers to the site where the picture is located as I don't want to reprint all the details. Also, I don't want to really use the art, just reference it.

It is a painting by David McCosh, titled, "Highway in Oregon," he also drew some pictures of grain elevators. I find that a worthwhile endeavor.

Google Search for the picture

I can steal the image very easily. I would do that very thing with a link to the site I borrowed it from but I don't want to run afoul of the copy police. I think that would be "fair use" as I am not claiming it or using it for gain or background wall paper, but rather using it as a link to more information about the picture.

I would enjoy it on my wall. I wonder if there has been a "paint-by-numbers" kit made of this picture?

Upon further search I found this link to the whole collection of David McCosh.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

How to remove the over/under/direct shifter on your White 2-135

This is what I did today. After scaring a hundred geese out of our wheat fields which they have mowed down like a lawn. Well, not my lawn as the lawnmower is broken I have not repaired it yet.
The powershift/hydrashift/amplitorque or whatever you call the on the go shifter on a White tractor failed on our 2-135. It failed in a mud hole while spreading fertilizer and the tractor came to a complete stop.
However, after the transmission cooled down it would move in over and direct. In underdrive it does not move. The oil is black and smells like fried clutch disks.
You have to remove the engine to get to the over/under which is a separate unit from the main transmission.
To remove the engine you remove the standard stuff, sheet metal, wires, fuel lines, and you remove the radiator and that big brushed aluminum mystery metal grill thing in the front. The oil cooler and a/c condenser fold forward. You have to remove the a/c pump but not the hoses. It hangs off the side. We sat it on the hay bale we were using to stand on.
To remove the fuel tank you block it up, remove the hoses, take the air intake off the air cleaner, unbolt and rotate the metal elbow straight up out of the way. Then you unbolt the supporting straps and unhook the fuel sending unit.
Then you remove the front tank support, pull the blocks from under the tank and tilt the front of the tank down as far as you can. That way you can tilt the back of the tank up to get it past the cab and lift the tank up tilting it to clear the air cleaner housing. It is a bit tricky which why I'm writing it down. I forget from time to time.
The next tricky step is removing the engine and over/under without getting the short PTO shaft jammed up. It will either stick in the flywheel hub or the hub on the transmission side. If you know were it is going to stick you can either remove the engine and over/under as one unit or you separate the two at the clutch bell housing and pull the engine by itself.
The book shows how to make a clever little set screw plug thing that inserts into a hole in the over/under and clamps the PTO shaft. It doesn't work so after you make it you might as well just chuck it as far as you can throw it.

In theory you can use a bar to slide the ending ahead and then lift it straight out of the frame. However, that didn't work. We made a spreader bar to keep the chains from collapsing the valve covers and built it so you could adjust the center point. Then we hooked it to the loader tractor so when we lifted it pulled the engine forward. This worked pretty good but...

You then have to figure out if the PTO shaft is stuck in the clutch hub or in the transmission. This a very critical step as if you do it wrong things get very jammed up. I'm not really sure how to tell you to figure it out. I turned the fan and it seemed like too many things were turning. There is a coupler between the over/under and the transmission. I think you can slide it back far enough to get your fingers in to feel the PTO shaft but I couldn't. We took the weight off the engine and over/under as one unit but it just didn't want to slide far enough ahead.
So I slid it back and we unbolted the bell housing. The engine sprang free and we lifted it out.
Here is a photo of the offending PTO shaft. I was having a hard time getting the shaft loose from the transmission hub but I found that by turning the tractor wheels and backing up just a touch the over/under just slid off the shaft. Don't do this if you are not rebuilding the over/under as it can ruin the seals in the middle of the hollow shaft in the over/under which result in many puddles of oil and much frustration. What you should do is block up the over/under and make sure it is not in any kind of a bind and then you should be able to pull the shaft out by hand.

Make sure you have plenty of blocks to hold up the engine as it will otherwise crush the pan when you set it down. Also, make sure to block off the turbo intake. And, that is one heavy engine...
Having the proper sound system also helps. We hooked up the Sony portable reel to reel and listen to a little "mood" music.  I must say that several farmers who stopped by to observe were somewhat nonplussed by the sonic stylings of Boots Randolf and Matt Monro. Later we progressed to The Georgia Satellites, Joan Jett, and The Cars. Then the dogs knocked the speakers over...
Pictured below is Stanley, the dog who nearly made the music die. Not even dogs like "Leaving on a Jet Plane," set to strings. I think it was an act of desperation.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

You have to read this story!

I got off on a tangent when I went in the house to warm up and put on a slicker so I could wash a tractor in the snow...
I was looking up info on the editor of the Portland Pravda who died whist nailing his mistress when I discovered the biography of what an American is supposed to be...
Click on this link
The wrong people are the ones who always are in charge!

Sergeant Schultz was just a regular guy...

The face of evil is not usually the simpering villain as show in Captain Klink. Instead it is everyday people just doing their jobs.
I've thought of that when dealing with some Hispanic people who have way too much money or some local folks who I know will steal you blind but yet are your friend when you see them in town.
And I think of it when I have my nice conversations various inspectors and petty bureaucrats who with one stroke of a pen, can fine me out of existence.
I've heard it as a child from my Uncle who immigrated to Texas from Germany between the wars and I think about it as I listen to stories told by people in LE to whom I sell hay.
My wife, by law, must report all suspicions of child abuse, OSHA inspectors MUST stop and inspect if they see any violations while driving, and I understand clergy and therapists must report anyone who asks for help which may involve suspicions of abuse.
I have been looking up convictions on Oregon's environmental crimes laws and it is amazing how little information I have found.
I did find out where an 80 year old guy is going to jail for not submitting to the authorities. They say he is not disposing of manure properly and he says he is. Of course NRCS has gone into "Captain Klink" mode and he is facing jail time unless he submits.  In the mean time local municipalities can (by accident of course) discharge MILLIONS of gallons of raw human waste into local "salmon" bearing streams with no threat of felony charges. And the irony is that if the older gentleman had this possibility of runoff written into his "conservation plan," and had applied for a CAFO permit he would be ok.
It is all about submission and assigning blame, and about a successful prosecution and a promotion. It is not about right and wrong and preventing harm to people.
This case is interesting because when you read the news story you see a picture of a independent person who believes he is right and the government who says he is wrong. I will reveal my bias when I state that I suspect much of the charge against him is manufactured to nail him for refusing to get the "correct" permit and to show how much the Gubment cares about the environment. (On the other hand I find it pretty funny that a fellow who thinks chemicals and commercial fertilizer should be banned is facing jail time for environmental crimes.)
Anyway, I'm starting to drift on my subject matter a little.
Here is a link to quotes from the ODA official who has the power of life and death over all of us.
He thinks he is a good person. He talks about how people are thankful that State has shown them the error of their ways. Well, of course... When he smacks you in the side of the head you say, "thank you may I have another," if you piss off the petty officials they fine you out of existence and you are guilty of a felony.
Take a good look at those quotes. That is the smiling face of oppression. "After all, it is for your own good."
And now I'm going to work...
One final thought, with the growing number of felony convictions for code violations, meaning random laws made up by regulatory officials, why is there not a lobbying group for convicted felons? I suppose by the time the State is done with them they have no finances but why not band together to hire a PR firm and improve their image? It worked for the "religion of peace," why not give it a try?

Edit: Here is a link to a local dispute, who do you want to believe? Farmer or the developer? And does the silt in the steam really matter? Erosion occurs in nature. It is part of the circle of life. We should not purposely pollute, purposely create horrible erosion problems, dump municipal sewage into the Yamhill... But of course, the question is, what about enforcement.

Monday, March 12, 2012

More from the culture of victimization

Problems arise when the accepted view is challenged.
Witness the righteous indignation when homeless people were offered $20 a day to be mobile wireless hotspots.
People went nuts about the exploitation of the homeless. It reaffirms my belief that no one has any perspective in the country.
I think it is pretty simple, they have a choice. They could say no...
First of all it was just a silly marketing plan. A gimmick. So, yes in that way it was condescending. There could have been a joke that they were paying homeless people to be hotspots.
On the other hand, why not?
$20 a day plus tips is not a lot of money but who knows if the plan would work and there are a significant number of homeless who may not make good wireless hotspots for various reasons.
If I were out of work I'd do it. In fact if someone would pay me $20 to carry around a wireless hotspot thingy in town I would consider it. Hey, it is $20.
I suspect that the opposition to the plan is perhaps more offensive. Is it opposition to the idea that there are homeless people who don't want to be victims. Homeless people getting into our comfort zone? People blurring the "caste" differences?
The homeless person has no job and no housing and so any little bit helps. I personally would not use the service because homeless folks on the streets of a big city make me nervous. I don't know how to talk to them and I can't tell who is harmless and who has a knife. I may very well be completely in the wrong but at least I will be honest about it.
CLICK Here for the link

Strange things that are connected by search engines

Ok I lied... I am still setting in my chair... My brother will probably fire me... Wish he would come over for coffee. We could listen to the my Charlie Rich 8-track. Actually I bought it for him but I stole it back.
I have been doing Google searches for thedailystrumpet.blogspot.com and "read the lazy farmer blog," and I found this on you tube.
Look at the suggestions for other similar You Tube video collections! What a motley crew!
I hate to say that we have our own demographic...
And I am not really sure the very nice MsLadyDeborah really wants to be associated with a bunch of crusty old farmers! She must have mentioned "International Pickup" at some point in her blogging career!
Now I really am going to work.

Edit: I clicked on my link and see that the recommendations change. It must look at your browser history and make the recommendations so you may or may not see people associated with The Lazy Farmer. If you see recommendations for Porn, don't blame me... Unless it is a search for "girls in New Zealand shocked by electric fence,"(That's why the video is sideways)  followed by "cheerleaders smoking swisher sweets and hitting each other with pillows while wearing flannel pajamas and listening to Blue Yodel #5." No! No! That was not me... that was my employee using my internet with his phone or perhaps the dog or my 85 year old uncle or...
I got it Chronic Boy! I can blame everything on him.. Not that here is anything to blame, oh my this is so going to ruin my future political career...

A truck photo, a computer, a lazy farmer, rain, wind, suffering and famine...

I hope my brother is at work.
I went outside, I took my daughter to school, I came back inside to wash my coat, and I sat down in the easy chair. I feel like crap. I seem to have aged 10 years since I twisted my back.
We are having a pretty good wind storm. But, I have a lot to do.
I am not ready for spring...
My lovely wife bought me a refurbished MacBook. I do not know the cost nor will I look it up. The possibility of seeing the cost makes me unbelievably uptight. That was not the point of the gift, so I will respect the intent.
I am going from a Motorolla based RISK processor in an iBook G4 1.33 12" inch screen to something dual core with huge ram and huge HD. I don't see that much of a difference. The daughter does. She has been playing with Garage Band musical instruments and sort of teaching herself to play chess.
Of course it requires a different cord that what I have to connect my old iBook to the new MacBook and do the overnight transfer of files. I learned from another blogger not to use the wireless feature to migrate.
What I did learn is that camera photos have GPS coordinates imbedded in them and iPhoto can read those and put your photos on a map. I am not sure if I like that.
I have never used iPhoto as I found I hated it the first time I tried. I use Graphic Converter. However the daughter likes to make movies with a digital camera and legos and iDVD imports from iPhoto better than from Graphic Converter.
In other unrelated commentary I discovered my farm coat reeks of this chemical. I was very careful and have no idea how I got it on my coat. I didn't mix it or handle it. I must have backed up to a fertilizer leak or something. I guess that explains my sore throat...
An experiment with iPhoto. This is a very well preserved 1960 something Peterbilt
And now I will go back to work. Have a nice day... As Mr. Harry used to say...

Sunday, March 11, 2012

blah blah blah as usual

Stopped at a estate sale on the way to a birthday party today. Wish I would have been the first guy through the door instead of an hour before closing. Fellow was an electronics collector. There was evidence of some pretty cool stuff.
Bought an amazing vari-ac for $7 and an 8-track player recorder for $5. The 8-track was a disappointment, it works but I forgot how bad 8-track were.
The people who run estate sales are morons. You just wonder where they come from. I could do random pricing and be grumpy...
2-135 3-spd powershift failed in a mud hole while spreading fertilizer.
Belt on the mixer/grinder exploded.
I planted 60 acres of radish and managed to get the seed rate wrong, (despite hours of work setting the drill) and I got mixed up on the field size and put twice as much fertilizer in as needed. At $6 and something a gallon you don't want to be 100 gallons off. Couldn't pump it back into tank as it had an additive which I later realized I am not authorized to apply.
Gave me a bit of a sore throat. I am extremely sensitive to certain chemicals invented by the Nazi's. I didn't mix it or get near enough to inhale the fumes. I wore rubber gloves when touching anything fertilizer related and I wore safety glasses. A respirator was not required and I really couldn't smell the stuff in the tractor. However, after a few hours I got that soreness in the upper back side of my throat. I didn't get queasy and I have not gotten sick. Very strange, such small amounts should have no effect. Probably my imagination but I have got to issue a ban on additives to the fertilizer.
Have a funny news story to read. Actually it is the comments that are funny.
The clever folks sure do not like the pickup trucks...
CLick here

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Fire Truck on Craigslist that the fellow paid $1800 for

And now wants just a little bit more!
Pretty funny...
Click here

I wonder if this guy needs chicken feed?

Click here for a cool old stereo in a cool old house
Or dead Minneapolis-Moline tractors or would trade for a non-working hot tub that my neighbor bought me or a dead ford ranger or hay or five other reel to reels in various stages of disuse or a smile and a kind word.
Probably not... I'd just like to tour his house. Bet he has lots of cool old crap.

Back to the Drawing Board

 The drawing board is pictured above...
My wife says I should stop being grumpy and not look at customers as potential annoyances but as opportunities. I need to start answering my phone and be friendly because what I am really doing is just thinking about myself and it is counter productive.
She does make a good point. If I truly "didn't care," then I wouldn't be affected by annoying people because, why do they annoy me? Because i am thinking about myself? Right?
What I wonder is what other grumpy people think.
Why do you want people to "just leave you alone?" Is that selfish reasoning?
I have read, "How to have friends and influence People," and I do realize I get very good results from following the ideas in that book.
Going to farm meetings and talking to other farmers is the way to make friends and bring in business.
If left to my own devices i would muddle about the farm and build useless things and mess with old stereos and grind feed but not sell it to anyone.
I think the real problem is that deep down I am lazy. Being grumpy and remote facilitates that...

Monday, March 5, 2012

More things that make me happy

I am still pretty messed up. I can now stand on my own. I can pick up small objects. I can lift my coffee cup. I can turn records over.
I was going to go to work but them my helper showed up.
I just don't want to have to talk to him. I will have to sit in the store and have coffee and explain the whole injury and then he will pretend to care when really it is the first of the month and he is out of gas. Then he will offer to do all sorts of things for me which he fully intends to do when he offers but if I make the mistake of taking him seriously I will be very disappointed.
We are getting quite a storm so I guess I am off the hook for planting.
I gave my brother a list of instructions for the helper.
There is really nothing to have him do other than grease the drill.
The shop is full of unfinished projects which he won't want know how to finish. I don't want to start new projects as that means more unfinished projects. He mostly likely will only work long enough to put us in danger of an OSHA inspection. While he has been to nearly every safety seminar we can't just tell him to go put shields on stuff as he will just drink coffee for two hours, say he doesn't know what to do, and then go home early.
He won't be able to fix the window in the truck he is going to drive, he may be able to fix the air leak, I changed the oil in my tractor myself, I don't really see him finishing the sprayer as he pretends he can't weld.
Frankly, I don't know what to do with him until I am well and not grumpy.
Perhaps I'll send him over to help MuddyValley build fence...

Eye of Polyphemus: The Real Issue with Sandra Fluke

Eye of Polyphemus: The Real Issue with Sandra Fluke:

1. Everything seems to be about politics and sex and money.
Wife and I went to the Sleep Number store and looked at beds. There was a card to fill out as to where you heard about the Sleep Number bed. They advertise equally on Air America and Lars Larson.
You could check a box for Randi Rhodes or Michael Savage or Rush Limbo.
Rush only apologized because he was losing advertisers.

2. The girl who was offended came to talk in front of congress about her need for birth control. It is all kind of an inside joke sort of like the "Slut Walk" girls. Now of course I live out in the backward part of the country but I have some younger friends and I listen to them talk.
No one wants to shut off the flow of free sex and no one wants to do anything to make "chicks" raise their standards but at the same time, girls who put out frequently get no respect.
Now it is a complicated thing. Guys will get so carried away with the easy access that they will marry the girl and of course drama ensues. But, unless they guy is such a stud that he can get sex from other women with the snap of his fingers and just doesn't care, there is always that little bit of distrust.
The contradictory thing that really sets the one dimensional thinkers in academia on the path to free love is that guys don't admit this to anyone but other guys. In fact, guys will do what ever it takes to continue the free love, lying is perfectly acceptable, lying to yourself works also, and a general disrespect for women is what follows.
Then there is the other problem, guys fall in love and suddenly the little trollop becomes quite virtuous.
Put this all together and you see the strange confusion that is life and love in 21st century American culture.
This is just my opinion from local observations.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Could someone come over and change records for me?

I injured myself.
I was helping my wife with her straw bale gardening project. I don't think the people who wrote the book on straw bale gardening really envisioned 110lb straw bales packed so tight you can't get your fingers under the strings and made with a centerfeed baler so there is no "cut" side.
We put a row of bales on edge and I was using the chainsaw to cut a "v" in the tops (actually the side but they are on edge) of the bales to put the dirt into. I think I need a skip tooth chain. It is not a easy as you think when you are sitting in your chair drinking coffee and talking about doing it.
Anyway, I felt a sharp pain in my side and kind of ignored it as I just wanted to get the project done. A few minutes later I discovered I couldn't quite straighten up.
After I put the chainsaw down and straightened up I discovered i could no longer lift the chainsaw. Heck, I couldn't even lift my coffee cup!
This was a bit of a problem as I have a planting job and I still needed to get the grain drill ready to go.
I got my wife to help me hook up the drill as I couldn't push in the quick connect hoses or even lift the bundle of hoses to begin with. Amazingly enough, we got the hoses hooked up correctly even though the little zip ties that I put on them to mark which hose went to which remote fell off over the winter.
I tried out the hydraulic power fertilizer pump and it worked! I turned on the seed monitor and all the rows checked out ok. The little TV camera that shows if the drill is full or empty actually worked!
I still need to remove two thirds no-till openers as I'm planting on 22.5" spacing. Need to shut off the unused fertilizer tubes, need to calibrate drill for tillage radish, need to unhook unused seed sensors and figure out if I have to reprogram the monitor. Need to grease the drill, fix a broken hub on one marker. Make sure the foamer works in case it is too wet to use the markers and the hillside is too steep for the GPS to read accurately, hook up the GPS so I will have glowing lights to watch while planting. Need to check the oil level in the front hubs of the 2-155, need to clean out my cab, need to look at the field. Actually I need to look at the field first as I want to plant some oats at home before I move 10 miles down Highway 18.
My wife declared that I was to sit down in my chair. She took away my laptop and phone and my little notebook that I am drawing pictures of the stereo stand I will never build. She brought me an icepack and Advil. She refused to turn on the Legendary Stardust Cowboy...
Later she relented on the laptop, phone, and notebook. But, not on the Stardust Cowboy, I don't know why.
I think it is because someone has to turn the records over for me. And my stereo has no remote.
Later today I have to attend a funeral.
I have been applying ice, now we are applying heat. If I didn't have the funeral to attend and 70 acres of radish to plant and 40 acres of oats and the sun wasn't out I would apply some Old #7 and take an afternoon nap.
At this point, I have discovered that for some reason I don't seem to be able to stand up. Well, at least not very well. Once I get up and moving then I am better. The last time this happened I had to crawl until I loosened up enough to stand up. It was most inconvenient.
I hate getting old...
At least if I am crying at the funeral people will think I care..

Friday, March 2, 2012

It is a sprayer you pull behind a 4 wheeler or small tractor


Supposed to work on wet ground but It may be a little heavy. No foam markers. It has 15ft boom, same width as the drill. If I measured correctly, and that is a big "if," the tires will fit down 24" fescue rows or 30 inch corn rows.
It has an electric pump. Note the battery and pump mounted on tongue. The tank can be adjusted fore and aft to change weight distribution. I was going to put mounting brackets for a row sprayer on the tongue close to the hitch, but ran out of time. Putting a row sprayer behind you is hard on the neck. The idea would be for it to be lined up with the wheels so as long as the tractor or 4wheeler tires are between the row the row sprayer is lined up properly. With a long tongue you have less problems with over steer and the resulting "cultivator blight."
Anyway, have to get drill going. Have a planting job. Sprayer is almost finished.



What I've been doing

What I've been doing... Needs some finish work. Paint, welds, hoses, spray, a field, just little items

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Trouble in Paradise

I was sent another link to a story about the new religion of science. I am shocked to see that it has corruption in it just like the old religion.
It would seem there is a little room to skim at the grant writing, public funding, greenwashing private funding, tribal consulting, public tough.
Again, the fun is in the comments.
Note how all the University people support these guys. Note how "important" everyone thinks they are.
Note how they say how the wonderful "biologists"  can't be guilty because they are doing such great work, (for the environment) how they are such great people and how it is a set up by the DA and the Tribe.
I find it absolutely hilarious when the shoe is on the other foot and someone in the science religion is being prosecuted.

Main story

Follow up story

So they really were getting paid millions to tramp around in the forest and smoke dope all day count spotted owls. Can you imagine, getting paid to go hiking? Sure you have to count owls and the occasional lupine and its' accompanying blue butterfly, but what the heck, if you get it wrong-who is going to check up on you? Better to error on the low side than on the high side, right?

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