Thanks Monsanto!

Japan shut down imports of Oregon grown soft white wheat yesterday after Genetically Modified Wheat was discovered.

The wheat was apparently discovered by a farmer who applied Glyphosate to a field and discovered a significant amount of wheat which did not die.

The farmer reported this to his local extension agent who sent samples on for testing.

Monsanto did test trials of Round-Up resistant wheat in 2000.

My neighbor reported that Portland had stopped accepting wheat yesterday and would not make contracts for this summer's crop.

Soft White Wheat is the type of wheat grown in the Willamette Valley of which I am a resident. This is somewhat of a niche market. The wheat goes almost exclusively for noodles and pastry. 

It is a big deal...

The questions which are unanswered by news organizations are as follows:

1. Liability-I don't care if GMO is good or bad, what the customer wants is what makes the sale.

2. How did it escape the test plots?  You first have to realize no one wants GMO wheat here. If Japan won't buy it we do not want to grow it. So it is most likely not a result of someone saving seed.

It could have come from seed left over from the test plots but I don't really see how. Most wheat is sold by variety. I could see contaminated seed if it was of the same variety as the test plots but the resistant wheat is supposed to have showed up in fallow ground which was supposed to have been killed out.

3. Does GMO really cross pollenate? 

4. What do we do about it?

It is pretty common knowledge that there is Round-up resistant bluegrass all over Eastern Oregon at this point. They escaped from test plots set up by Scotts company and spread and they keep on spreading.

We did some yield plots for Monsanto years ago when we were early adopters of Round-Up resistant Corn seed.

I had some one connected with the seed industry tell me once that the "plan" was to just get GMO into the grain handling system so that it would be impossible to prove anything is NOT GMO. I sort of laughed at this until I saw photos of Non GMO corn fields sprayed with Round-up and 10-20 percent of the corn still standing.

A Post Memorial Day Post

I feel remiss in not celebrating one of our nation's sacred holidays.
Decoration day was originally a day to honor those who died in the war of Northern Aggression  or if you prefer, Lincoln's War.
I found a classic Hoyt Axton song for your enjoyment.

I have a fascination towards the unrepentant. I didn't fully appreciate the Southern "attitude" until I read the title story from Allan Stilltoe's, the Loneliness of the Long Distance runner. It was collection of short stories set in post WWII England. It had nothing to do with the Civil War but much to do with the "Clever Folks" destroying a country. But perhaps that was just my perspective, I could have gotten the whole message wrong, I was only 13 years of age.
But, when the runner stopped running it changed my life...

Tank chase in San Diego

On May 18, 1995, Shawn Nelson was gunned, execution-style down by police officer, Richard Priner, after Nelson stole an M60 tank from the local National Guard Armory and took it joyriding on San Diego streets.
Previous to stealing the tank Nelson had become obsessed with digging holes in his backyard, to the point that he lost his plumbing business. And there was also something about meth.
(What do you think of my choice of words to make the cops look bad and Nelson look like a poor sucker)
The policeman says when they popped open the hatch and started yelling at the guy, he just looked up at them with a blank expression on his face and kept rocking the tank to get if off the median. So the cop shot him. It was for the best. The guy really shot himself because HE made the choice to escalate the level of threat. Plus, somewhere in San Diego there were children. Children probably in direct line with that tank, if it would have kept going straight for 5 miles. AND, a school bus, or a mini-van full of daycare kids could have been on the other freeway lane.
So, yes it was the best thing to shoot the guy. I'm very relieve that first they shouted obscenities at him first cause that ALWAYS makes people give up.
This is sort of off subject but since most cops are dedicated church people how do they deal with the whole shouting obscenity thing. Obviously people won't surrender if you ask them nicely and you have to yell "M.....-F.....!" but Christians are not supposed to say bad words. Do you yell "Drop the gun poopie butt?" Or "I command you in the name of Jesus to drop that gun?" I think that would be more scripturally sound.
And what about lying? After they tell the guy whatever it takes to get the confession do they have to apologize for lying?
I understand the killing. It was explained to me how the "perp"escalates the level of force needed to subdue the threat, so you really have to smack someone if they didn't take their insulin or how it is a good idea to shoot suicidal people, but I wonder about the swearing...

CLICK HERE for more info on the unemployed plumber. I wonder if, in context of the digging holes in his backyard, if he at any point in the rampage yelled out, "I am the underminer, I am beneath you and nothing is beneath me!" Probably not since that movie was not out in 1995....

I enjoyed watching the video of the sheer damage and destruction done by the tank. Mostly because nothing I owned was in the way of the tank...
And the cops...
They had almost as many cop cars after that tank as the Blues Brothers. The video I saw had interviews with the cops which were pretty funny.
Now, I do understand it is pretty hard to stop a tank. But it become pretty apparent that the cops are only trained to stop force with greater force. It is also obvious that many emergency responders are in it for the rush and when that siren sounds they get to go crazy and do stuff that civilians would get arrested for.
I just keep thinking back to the time I saw the Amity Police officer pounding on the roof of his car to get his partner to go faster.
And the time they blew up their police car in front of our house and the guy they were chasing went back to help them. (he didn't know they were chasing him because they were letting the folks with burned out license plate lights get a long head start so they could drive the cop car faster-I am not kidding!)

Here is a video of a police department in action. I'm sure it is real because I've gotten many hours of entertainment from farming near our local speed trap. (Ok, I do realize it is obviously not real and it is from the same person that did the Smokey video)

Who says you can't fight City Hall.

This guy did it with a bulldozer.
(Click Here)
In solidarity with Marvin Heemeyer I am boycotting Mountain Park Concrete.
I find it amazing to watch police in action. They take themselves so seriously.
You can watch the news footage if you click here.

Where I am not...

A couple weekends ago I was here at this very dock.
We are not fishing.

Lulu is mapping the lake floor with her Gumball 3000 camera.
The Gumball 3000 is a poor man's GoPro. She had a waterproof housing for it. We found an old T-shirt and a Mountain Dew can.
Ralph Goff has a GoPro.
The GoPro is a little more upscale than the incredibly cheap Gumball 3000 which is actually a Movu or something. The Gumball 3000 is a promotion for the coast to coast auto rally but I've forgotten the whole story.
Speaking of Gumball rallies, I bought the movie on 16mm. Anyone want to come over and watch it on the side of the big white barn?
Well, not right now... After dark... When it is not raining...
So, hypothetically speaking... Anyone up for Gumball Rally?

I laugh at Ralph Goff and his puny feed operation!

I have completely out paced Ralph in the sheer dangerousness and noise of my feed operation. I feel quite proud of myself! Him and his puny Cockshutt! (oh but it sound so nice, just putt, putting along)
I have an 806 International WITH A TURBO! A huge old New Holland mixer/grinder, a Mercury-Pettibone Forklift of indeterminate age that is powered by a three-cylinder Detroit diesel and I think I have finally found something more dangerous than an open flatbelt.
I had the shop put a bin bottom with a door in the bottom of an old fertilizer bin. I set this on my home built scales. I then dump in my exclusive feed conglomeration, (only what the customer orders as I am not a feed company, just a custom grinding company) and then, I pick the bin up with the forklift and suspend it over the hammer mill.
I have a collection of old fertilizer spouts that I found along the roadside or stole from Wilco and once I open the door in the bottom of the bin, it all self feeds!
Now I just need to get a set of gauges on the IH, and fix the front main seal so it doesn't dump oil everywhere and fix the hydraulic oil leak, and the water leak, and the dent in the hood and rewire it and, and, and...

Look at that black smoke! Every day is Earth Day for farmers!
(Note to safety inspectors, I have NO employees and I'm exempt from inspection. Furthermore, Nothing is unshielded and I am not standing under the fertilizer box.)

No News is Good News?

I was looking for a news story last night and I once again found that the only source of real-time, eye witness news is social media and the internet.
What I was looking for was a story about the annual "Reach the Beach" bicycle marathon which blocks traffic every March in my general area. It is a benefit for lung cancer research but it would be more beneficial to local residents who have to work on Saturdays if it were for stress related heart attacks instead.
Generally, this race provides me with an opportunity to rant against bicycles riding eight abreast on country roads, but I missed my annual anti-bicycle rant as were working at home and I didn't get to see all the bicyclist on the highway.
(I also have had to eat some crow as my wife has taken up bicycling and goes as far as to take a group from her school riding in the San Juan Islands. I told her that even though local people waved they still hated her and she accused me of being a weird old curmudgeon.)
I had completely forgotten about the ride until a neighbor from Ballston stopped by to tell me the amazing story of bicycles hitting the railroad tracks and crashing into each other while emergency responders yelled at them to stop. Time after time after time after time. I asked him why he didn't put a cell phone video on youtube as it was quite entertaining. It is a perfect example of the bicycle mentality. There some sort of tunnel vision that takes over a bicyclist's mind, especially if they are in a group. It is the road in front and the glory of bicycling and not so much the large trucks behind them or the stop signs or the emergency responders frantically waving them to stop.
Even if there is already a pile of bicyclists in front of them, on the pavement, bleeding.
I have to wonder about the race organizers.
Last year the whole race blew through the stop signs in Amity and the po-lice started giving them tickets, and they just kept coming... They did complain afterwards.
The railroad tracks at Ballston have been there for a couple years now, but always come as a great surprise to the riders.
But the point of my Blog headline differers from the above story.
I was searching the News Register (local paper) for info about local evens surrounding the ride when I discovered the News Register has once again won awards.
This is a huge joke.
Newspaper people get together every year and pat each other on the back.
The thing is... There is no competition, no one knows they are incompetent.
Click here to look at the online edition of the News Register.
Doesn't it look like a real newspaper?
What you don't realize is that if you ever talk to someone interviewed by Paul Dalequarteapoopiebutt they will say, "well, I didn't really say that." Or you know he never actually came out to talk to me or see what happened, he did it all over the phone."  Or, "No, that is not what happened."
And if you exclaim in amazement, "But you didn't complain?!!!"
The response is, "Yeah, right, like who reads the News Register?"
And so it goes.
I suppose this carries on to the national level.
I see it on the local news. The TV news is terrible. All they do for national is report the top five news stories that show up on my internet startup page in Safari, and they only give out half the info.
Last night a bridge collapsed on Washington State. There was more relevant information on NewAgTalk has more info on the bridge collapse than the local stations. The locals still haven't figured out a truck hit the bridge, they are reporting it like it just collapsed. The most important/relevant information is hidden at the end of the story.
I watched the BBC on NPR this morning and the BBC had it figured out, but not KOIN or KGW or whoever sponsors OregonLive.com.
But they did have this headline how bike tourism will save towns devastated by the "loss" of timber jobs. CLICK HERE. Yeah, right...  Dumbasses with bicycles will bring in the money to replace $20+ per hour manufacturing jobs.
What a joke...
Have a nice day, I'm going to work.
I swear I could start my own newspaper and do a better job just not hiring morons as reporters, oh but wait... where would I find reporters who are not been though our fine college system and who are not morons? Perhaps I could import them from Mexico, like you have to do to get any actual work done...
The modern reporter certainly has not sailed around the world on a tramp steamer or come up through the ranks as a copy boy or ever had to do been able an honest day's worth of hard labor in their hard-scrabble middle class existence.

We told the kids this bicycle in the drill was a result of bicyclists blowing the stop sign at the end of the lane. I think they are immune to these misinformational declarations at this point in time. It is really that I just hate to walk...