Winter Weather

 

Looking like winter now. It's been pretty mild so far but it was mid-twenties yesterday morning when I went out, it warmed up a bit later and started snowing in the late afternoon. Nice pretty snow with big flakes. The photo is from the files since I still haven't figured out how to get my pictures downloaded from either the email account or directly from the phone. I had a reader who was gracious enough to recommend a way to download the pics directly to the hard drive but I haven't mastered that yet. I followed the online directions, the screen message said the transfer was successful, but I wasn't able to locate them on the computer. Otherwise, there would have been a finished photo of the sled and an egg.

I'm down to only three chickens these days and the egg yesterday was the first one I've seen from them in a couple of months. Seems like a strange time to start laying with the cold and the short daylight, but at least I'm getting a small return on my investment. I need to decide if I'm going to stay in the chicken business or not. The coop yard needs some work and a half dozen chickens are not really economical anyway. But I do like keeping chickens.

Since the sled job is done, going to spend a little time on some more cleaning and organizing and then try to get back to finishing a couple of things. I had a meeting with the finance guy yesterday morning and started working on getting a room set up for the ham radio. As it stands now, I've got a power supply, my new radio and my old Heathkit receiver I put together years ago to accommodate. I've got a good FM receiver and mediocre speakers in there already. I need to throw, give, or donate some things away - like out in the shop and the barn, too much stuff. At least things are moving in the right direction.

State of the Union

 

That pretty much describes me these days. Maybe not too much ruder, but older and definitely more intolerant. If St. Don can drive the snakes out of Washington like St. Patrick did in Ireland, my mood may improve some - but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

I think most everyone will agree that the Covid -19 was a gigantic scam-o-rama right from the start and it's done irreparable harm to people's health, finances and education. Knowing that, I just read where some pork producers are injecting the hogs with a mRNA vaccine, for what purpose I don't know, but according to what I've read there hasn't been any safety testing done at all. What could possibly go wrong with that?

I also read that New Jersey started the new year dropping the requirement for new teachers to pass a basic education test prior to getting their teaching license. If they can't read, write or do math, seems like there shouldn't be a place in a classroom for them. According to the article I read, classroom teachers can earn $80K per year. That's substantially more than I ever made, and I had two Batchelor degrees, a Master's and a skilled trade. I would think someone needs to look into why people are no longer willing to go into the teaching profession if $80 large won't entice them. 

And one of my pet peeves: trucks that can't haul anything. Fortunately, it's still possible to buy a 2-door pickup with an 8' bed for around $40K, which isn't all that bad as long as you can live with a vehicle that's very much utilitarian - which is precisely what I think a truck should be. But as always, to each their own.

I'd buy one of these bad boys for $10K or maybe the Hilux if they were available in the US. Between the Chicken Tax and regulations, however, that's not likely to happen.

Anyway, here's hoping for a better 2025 than what we've seen the last few years. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast", and all that.

Best wishes for peace, prosperity and good health to you all this year.