up the valley

A sunny afternoon on the leased pasture for our cattle.

Although I include photos of the creek, because it is the heart of this valley, the cattle are fenced from it everywhere except one point on our own property where they can cross to more pasture on the other side. Creeks are healthier ecosystems without big bovines trampling their banks.

Up here the wildflowers are just beginning to bloom even though it seems late and is almost summer. We had a cool and wet spring which may not be over since it has still been 40 F in the mornings. It's rather as though our summer season shifted a bit and lasts now much later into what used to be fall.

The scotch broom is invasive and isn't food for animals even though it's pretty. It is something Farm Boss is quite allergic to. Because it's leased land, we aren't sure how much we can invest in grinding or pulling it off. It does help to rebuild damaged soils through putting nutrients back into the soil. It keeps erosion down but it is obnoxious especially to those allergic to its pollen.

It's easy to see why the cattle enjoy their access to this place. It lets them feel they are more like a natural herd in the wilds. Cows love to explore, to move through grazing areas with their usual spots to ruminate. Not a bad example for humans actually.

This last photo is on our own land. Farm Boss wanted a photo illustrating how he brings in the sheep these days.

Private sector is doing fine

Oh woe, Obama did it again-- they call it a Biden Moment. He said, the private sector is doing fine, rather like that time he said some people cling to their guns and religion. The Republicans and media gleefully jumped on him both times.

How dare he came from the righties-- the man is so out of touch. *rub hands together with satisfaction*  Oh woe if it was a leftie-- we're going to lose we're going to lose *wring hands*. Either way, those few words were the story.

How could he say the private sector is doing fine when the unemployment rate is still so high? Try this--

maybe the private sector is doing fine

The problem is Obama tries to say something that is true and give Americans credit for understanding it's part of the story. That is always a mistake. Never give humans too much credit.

Everywhere I go in my part of America (which means throughout the West), I see new construction, businesses expanding and scratch my head. How can there be so much growth when we are supposed to be in so much trouble? This much building and new businesses isn't enough? If not, what would be?

Part of the problem is with this new growth, new business strength, rise of the stock market, some people have been left behind. Some of this always happens in times of growth as markets and needs change. There are multiple reasons.

The workers left behind were trained in something that is no longer needed. 

Their manufacturing can be done cheaper overseas. 

The government has not done anything to make it unprofitable to close a company here and reopen it in a Third World Country or in some state where there is a tax policy that has been created just to draw the company to them. 

The government has not helped when a company goes bankrupt and actually is rewarded by tax policies while the feds pick up the pension and the investors walk off with millions. 

Retraining workers costs money. Some don't want to spend it.

Some workers don't want to do it (or can't meet the needs of the new markets).

If you are a Republican, you can't really elect a president who will fix it anyway because you don't want the government doing anything-- free market and all that, right?

As for Obama, he needs to quit apologizing, figure out his story, learn how to tell it like Republicans (with zero deviation and no logical extensions of where that leads) and maybe he can get the zombie vote also!

Occupy -- grow up!

As usual, Bill Maher nailed it last night and will infuriate a certain number of lefties while doing it. His point was that Occupy needs to take on the system by working and getting into the system. This business of camping, marches and singing folk songs just won't change either Wall Street or Congress. They probably look down from their lofty heights and chuckle because when that's happening, nothing real will be done to change anything.

Bill Maher on Occupy

If you have time, watch the video. It's, as always, worth viewing. Anybody who disagrees with it, please come back here and tell me how camping will change things while getting our own 60 some members into the House wouldn't.

I don't know what it will take to get lefties off their duffs and finally realize this is a battle for the direction of this country. If we lose it, the wealthy will grow wealthier and our grandchildren will have very little chance for the kinds of lives we believed we could have just 50 years ago. It is not too late. Someday, sooner than we think, it could be! One more far rightie Supreme Court Justice of  a young age, and you tell me how long it will take to eliminate our remaining rights, and when there will be any chance to get them back.

American division growing

The writer in this link takes the view that what we need to get anything done in this country is more moderate Republicans.

Obama's delusions on working with the GOP

First of all dream on. Even the so-called moderate Republicans who I know, the ones who would support gay marriage, who don't believe in probes before abortions, who see value in helping the needy, who do they vote for? They vote for someone like Romney who claims to be moderate while he said he supports a federal ban on gay marriage, supports personhood bills which would make vaginal probes unnecessary as there'd be no abortions, isn't worried about the poor as they already have supports; then adds on his desire for tax cuts for those who already had them and no regulations on anything because everybody knows the corporations only care about the best for fairness and human life on this planet.

I know too many lefties who think like they did when they voted for Nader-- both men are the same. That's so ridiculous that it's hard to know where to start but let's look at Gore v Bush. Anybody really believe Gore would have put us into war with Iraq? How about cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans? Gut environmental regulations?

Frankly it's not just getting moderate Republicans elected in a time when the Republicans can only think of revenge and blocking Obama and they are electing Grover Norquist pledge types to do that, it's even getting Democrats to realize what is at stake.

To have any hope of turning this around to something healthier for the country, we need not only Obama as president but also control of the House and 60 real votes in the Senate. IF I keep hearing that ridiculous-- he had that control in 2008, I will scream. The House had it and passed a lot of legislation through its body, but the Senate even with 60 votes had too many Democrats in Name Only types. They would not vote for single payer or a better Stimulus plan. They pretty well managed to make what they did vote for worthless. Many of them are now gone being replaced with extreme Republicans.

Obama has to govern in the real world. He has to operate in foreign affairs with things as they are. He cannot deal with a dream of some idyllic future where we all sing Kumbaya and sit around thinking what can we do to make this world a better place. Not happening not in a time of greed and viciousness.

So Democrats, we must see what happened in Wisconsin as a good warning to us. Obama can lose. Romney can not only win, lies or not, and he could end up with the House and Senate under the thumb of those like Norquist. If that doesn't inspire Democrats to work for our own beliefs, we don't deserve the country we were born into!

Disappointment that money talks

Well Walker won in Wisconsin due to massive influx of billionaire money which proves to those oligarchs that they can control the vote and win whatever they want by using their millions (which for them are like dollars would be for working class families).

Unions lost and working people lost but the working people, who voted for Walker, don't really get it yet. They voted as they did because they were convinced it was all about the other getting something that they were entitled to instead. They became convinced they were on the side of Walker and the billionaires. Interesting to see how that works out for them.

So we shall see if the same 10 to 1 spending in a national presidential election can do the same thing. With a lot of Democrats down on Obama for not going farther left, it might.

I liked this quote, which lays out what is at stake. It was in Andrew Sullivan's blog--

 "Suppose for the sake of argument that our national debt has become a huge problem. How did it become a problem? Because of the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq War, and the recession (which, whatever its root causes, came about under Bush). Suppose for the sake of argument that future spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security has become a huge problem. How did it become a problem?

"Because of massive increases in the cost of medical care, which has been exacerbated by Republican obstruction of national health care policy (the US spends about 50% more on medical care as a proportion of GDP than other western countries).

"If Romney wins, and uses the so-called debt crisis to end collective bargaining rights, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as we know them, it will be nothing less than another Reichstag fire," - "Metrosexual Black AbeJ," Balloon Juice.

GasLand

 As expected, we as a nation are bombarded by conflicting facts where it comes to natural gas and whether it's our energy salvation or will doom our land. If you are a right winger, get your info from Fox, you see it as a money pool. They pay people, who own the land money to frack under it. That can amount to $800 a month or even hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how much land. The beauty of it is that you okay it but you have no liability for the damage it might do to someone else's water supply (likely not even your own).

The argument from the natural gas industry is that the fracking is so deep that it cannot hurt water for wells which is not anywhere near that far down. So when someone turns on their tap and can light the water with a match, it's coincidence. And if you are a right winger, you believe that or just consider it worth the price.

If you are a leftie, you see it quite differently. You want the facts on what is happening and facts are hard to come by. Dollars easy. Facts hard.

We watched GasLand, a documentary on fracking and the price some are paying for others to have a rich pool of natural gas.

What's to not like? This is a win win, right? Well, not so quick. GasLand goes after another aspect of it-- the price to the environment and human stories of what it has done to individuals. And what it makes someone like me wonder when I see how much of the US has this natural gas under it.

Right wing-- yeah who cares on individuals. Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet right? It's about dollars, cheaper fuel, and energy self-sufficiency.
Left wing-- Fracking has hurt people, made them sick, spoiled water sources.
Right wing-- not enough to matter besides-- coincidence.

People only watch a documentary, award winning or not, like GasLand if they truly care about the natural environment and don't trust the system. They should not watch it if they already have high bp as the next morning because despite mine having been down for over a week thanks to the meds, the morning after, it was higher than it should be again from stress.

I say I can handle politics without it stressing me and generally I can, but GasLand is about families, individual people and their experience with finding the system failed them and didn't really care about what had happened to them. Being a country living woman, who has a well, who lives on a creek, I related to all of these people who form the bulk of this documentary.

 Of course, the right wing has put out protesting sites to explain how Josh Fox was all wrong about fracking. The Natural Gas Industry Goes on the Attack. If you are a rightie, that's all you need to hear-- that a corporation says it was perfectly safe and justified. Of course, the corporate powers would not do something wrong. Naturally a leftie film maker would cheat or play the hearts and flowers theme.

After all, go the arguments from the foxies, think of all the good that can be done from this lush source of natural gas (school buses and all trucking may be all running on it soon-- bye bye diesel and ethanol). So what if there are a few families with poisoned wells, bodies, and lands (they call that collateral damage or a coincidence). In most case they would be paid off cheaply by bringing them filtration systems or water but not because the process did it. Just out of the goodness of their corporate hearts. You know how warm-hearted corporations are.

From Delaware River Basin Commission Votes I got this map of where in the US this will be and is an issue:

The powers that be, who have managed to defund more and more regulatory bodies who might look into the truth of what fracking has done, naturally say it's not an issue and never really damages anything including wells that suddenly put out water that catches fire or is totally black or full of enough chemicals that my chemist husband (who doesn't blanch easily) blanched and groaned with disgust. Most of us do not know what these chemicals are. He does.

Here's the thing. The rest of the nation is being convinced it doesn't impact them. Corporate interests can do this fracking (explosions) and it won't put natural gas into wells. After all the deposits are way below the wells. Couldn't possibly relate.

Would they lie? Would they care that people get sick? Not if they can pay them off and shut them up with confidentiality agreements.

If you thought Love Canal was behind us because we learned from it. If you thought the Gulf Coast was a one time deal. If you thought that Mustang gas tank, that they knew could explode but were caught saying it was cheaper to pay off victims, couldn't happen again. If you thought any of that was in the past, you are kidding yourself. If you think this won't impact you because you don't live over one of those fields, you are also kidding yourself. This is about an attitude. An attitude that doesn't care about people and is making drones and zombies out of previously thinking Americans.

Dick Cheney had a lot to do with getting regulations gone so that this kind of thing could be done with no concern over past scientific wisdom. Now the right argues that there was no rule about fracking for him to take away. True but that's the problem. It had not been regulated and now it never will be. Cheney used the same excuse he used to take away our Bill of Rights. We need it. And we, the selfish people that we are, if it keeps us safer, makes our lives easier or cheaper, we don't give a damn what it does to someone else.

We are the frogs being slowly cooked in heating water and most of us don't even know it.

Whatever you believe, whatever party you support, this is one issue on which Americans should go out of their way to inform themselves.  The people who would do this to those people with homes near those wells, those same people will do the same kind of thing to you over something else. They just don't care about anything but their profits.

You are about to vote for one of them to be your president...  and no, it's not like Obama has been a lot better about fracking (although it was begun before he took office), and he is hamstrung by Americans who vote in right wingers to balance power.

Except what that balance of power actually does is make sure nothing can happen-- good or bad. Why not elect people who care and will work for our good-- not just to get lower taxes but clean air, water, quality education for kids, safe roads, the services we already depend on but are being slowly leeched away like regulatory bodies for environment or economics? There is one reason why not-- money.

Watch GasLand (it's on Netflix) and when you have or if you already have, let me know what you thought.

Boondocking

When our children were small, we grew tired of dragging around all the required gear to tent camp and bought a little vacation trailer. It was 15', had no facilities to speak of although we put a porta-potty in its closet. The water was provided in a single sink with a pump handle. Hot water? You jest.

There was a small refrigerator, gas stove. a small floor furnace, a dinette, a sofa and a shelf that was above the dinette where we built a bunk for the kids. We dragged that thing all around the West. Many years we would head for Arizona in May taking along school homework and we vagabonded it with no reservations, no set places we had to be. I used to think I could live in that trailer with say a canopy alongside it, and I still believe I could have back then.

As our family aged, with teen-agers, we went back to tent camping. When the kids grew up and out, we had an Astro van and Farm Boss and I used it many places again around the West. All we needed to sleep was a wide spot in the road. We cooked meals over a sterno stove. I have some wonderful memories of those years along creeks or sometimes in campgrounds. A few unusual ones too.

The van grew undependable; and frankly it had a major drawback-- no inside facilities which is a bigger deal in grizzly, moose and elk territory. The truck didn't provide a comfortable bed in back. So for awhile we mostly left behind camping (with a few memorable exceptions) for renting vacation houses or staying in motels. That was less than satisfying as it didn't allow us to sleep in the areas we most wanted to be.

We talked of buying a trailer because we had a truck that could pull one. I was not that confident Farm Boss would have enough time to use it; so we held off. We'd look once in awhile, but we waited until the time seemed right.  That time came in May as he is slowing down his taking of new projects.

We actually thought we'd get a trailer that was 22' up to 25' but we wanted the capability of taking our cats-- or at the least our oldest cat, the one we hated to leave home for fear he'd die while we weren't there. To find that capability required going one foot bigger than we had planned, but it is a very nice unit, well-built, and would enable us to live in it if that ever became necessary (I'm always thinking that way for some reason).

There is always a little guilt feeling when you think of pulling a rig this size in a time where gasoline is an issue-- but if we take it somewhere and stay with it, it might end up less fuel usage than driving from place to place. 

I am now doing research on places we can boondock-- which means camp where there is no campground and where the law permits which is most of the BLM lands in the US-- Rules for BLM Use.

This kind of camping, out in the open, with the wilderness around us, maybe as much as a month at a time, ideally mountain or desert, that's the kind of thing I love most and look forward to roughing enjoying again.

The fancy trim above the windows is going. Not my style. It fell off one (second photo) before it got home. I like that better.

The view inside is with the slider open.

It is fancier than I had in mind but not remotely as fancy as they get (think granite counters), I think this one is in the middle for luxury. In a few weeks (there are things to do before we can take it out like sheering sheep) it will have dust all over it-- I hope ;)

Oh and if readers haven't already discovered it, Trolley, has made me  jealous inspired in this endeavor. This blog has reminded me of so many good times. Give it a try if you haven't already been reading it.

Curioser and Curioser

Following around Mitt Romney's campaign (editorially speaking) always leaves me scratching my head. What is with this guy? And there is nothing stranger than the way he caters to Donald Trump-- the way he plays to him as though he thinks he's using Trump for his own eventual electoral gain.

So Romney puts out a birth certificate right before a Vegas fundraiser with the big showman. What was that all about except a kind of dig at the fact that secretly he agrees with the Donald on birtherism? He hints that he doesn't but then he does that?  (Personally, in his case, I'd rather see 10 years of his tax statements). He wants the birther votes obviously. Doesn't he think he'd get them anyway? Oh wait, he wants theirs and the ones who think that whole thing is nuts.

Mitt Romney's Stockholm Syndrome Behavior

To someone interested in human behavior, Mitt's bowing before the Donald has me shaking my head.

Is it that he sees the Donald as the cool guy he wanted to be but he had to be too straight as a Mormon kid? Is it he thinks he can use him but not put him in his Cabinet, not have him wanting to tell him what to do once he's President? What is really going on in Romney's head when he runs around with a jerk like Trump? Is it that they both like firing people and most of the rest of us can't relate?

Birtherism is nuts pure and simple. And that Trump stays with it, doubling down on it, shows how much he resents Obama and not the least probably is how he so subtly ridiculed Trump at the dinner when he knew he had given orders that nailed Osama bin Laden. What he said that night turned Trump into a laughingstock. Like he wasn't already...

Trump and Romney are the boys who feel they should run the world. They both were born to wealth but made more of their own once they became adults. Trump as a gambling and slum lord and Romney as a vulture capitalist. They are both kind of weird looking men for all their pretty features. They are the kind of men most women look at and go ewwwww. Handsome doesn't actually draw in women the way some think and these two guys have the ewwwww quality in spades.

The thing is Romney has said it time and again, he won't tell Americans what he will do as President because they wouldn't vote for him. He now said he would hang around with anyone to get that 50.1% of the vote. Isn't that a warning to us all-- on both sides of the political spectrum?

The thing with Trump is he thinks he's going to be the power behind the throne. That's pretty obvious when you listen to him talk. So why does Romney want to run with him? It makes him look like the kind of guy who automatically respects those who have money. Oh wait, he is.

Creative Destruction

Last week I read an article-- Private Equity Insider offers some pointers, which said Romney isn't wisely defending how he earned his fortune. He should refer to what people like him do as creative destruction. I loved that term but well understand why Romney wouldn't want to use it. Here's what Wikipedia says regarding from where it came and what it means: creative destruction

Basically you get the idea-- you destroy one thing to get a better thing. It's about growth and advancement... Perhaps Americans should consider what that advancement means and who gets it? They are about to vote in a man who made a fortune with this 'creative destruction' and it's his sole reason for saying he's worthy of being the president of the United States.

Romney cannot run on policies because he's been all over the place in those policies. One time he says he will be the gay's best friend. Next time he favors a federal marriage amendment which would totally end all gay marriages in all states-- with or without kids.

He's for choice. Oh wait, now against it as he had an enlightening experience-- wanta guess from where?

Hates ObamaCare but since it was formed on the policies of RomneyCare (his only real success while running Massachusetts) now he has to deny it).

He criticizes our educational system but would gut it with sending tax dollars to private schools while he also advocates for bigger class sizes. Everybody knows a teacher can teach better with 40 students than 16. (wonder what size classes his kids benefited from). If ANY teacher is supporting him, they aren't paying enough attention.

He saved Denver's winter Olympics by-- wait for it-- getting government aid for it. But he's against government aid.

He's against the deficit while he talks war with Iran. And on it goes. I am an old woman but in all my years of voting, I have never seen the like. Maybe in the lower ranks but never with a real shot at being president. Well, maybe Sarah Palin if something had happened to McCain after he got the presidency.

You tell me what Romney (the I'd cut the deficit the first day in office or wait-- everybody knows if you severely cut the deficit right now we'd go into a depression) would do policy wise, but we do know what he'd do in economics based on his consistent past performance. Success is measured by how well the stock market does. It's not about jobs. It's not about pensions. It's not about good salaries. It's not about working conditions. It is all about whether the investors did well.

So as president, he'd be all out there for investors; and those who are funding  Super PACs know this. If you are an investor-- good going to support him. IF you are an average Joe and have a little pension you've been building up through the company where you work-- you better think twice. This man doesn't believe in people accumulating wealth in the lower levels. That kind of thing, along with good salaries for the average worker, blocks prosperity. If he had taken over your company, you'd have been fired, your pension gone, and if you were lucky and the company survived, you could reapply starting all over again for benefits. Guess who walks off with whatever pension pool there might be!

How do you suppose the Bain investors, like Romney, came out of their endeavors with so much wealth? They did it on the backs of the workers. They broke unions, smashed contracts, paid those workers less, and walked away with millions time and again-- even if the company failed.

The irony of this with Romney and likely many like him-- no guilt. I always wondered why GW Bush had no guilt either. They simply don't get what they put others through. They don't care. It's all about them. Is this a case of to the silver spoon born?

When you vote, you better think about what you care about, Unless you are rich, Romney isn't in your corner and you know it if you study anything about his record. He favors gutting public schools, increasing their class sizes, banning a whole group of people from marriage simply for their gender, gutting regulations (because everybody knows corporations don't cheat or do damage to the environment). OR he doesn't and he's been lying this campaign season. Which do you suppose it is?

Just remember one thing about it all-- creative destruction means you!

Lest we forget

Joe Biden gave a recent speech which was both emotional and a powerful reminder that some families have sacrificed everything in our recent US wars while many of us have given nothing. Any war is tragic, a failure, but can we learn from them? If we do, it's not all in vain.

And one thing we need to learn more than anything else is both to thank those who fought them and be sure we don't forget them when it's time to deliver the promised Veteran's benefits.

Quail

For fans of quail, I put most of the photos we took, while in Arizona this April into May, onto a slide show (without music so you can take your time looking at them). Quail tend to be excellent at blending into the background and when you think there's just one, wait a minute as they travel in coveys or pairs.

Oregon does have quail, but they don't frequent our farm. I do miss watching them. You can sit and do that for hours and even get the point of recognizing different pairs. The other thing I enjoy while there is the sounds of the mourning doves.

Tucson quail

And there is this one photo that I didn't get into the last blog. It was taken at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, one of those places I always love to spend time when in Tucson. Now that looks relaxing!

Assorted pics from our month in Tucson

and in no particular order of importance

Yellowstone Experience

My enthusiasm for writing this blog is low in the aftermath of driving so far and with so much traffic. I came back to the farm feeling highly stressed which didn't lessen when I got an episode of food poisoning at the same time as the emotional upset over it led to sky high blood pressure. EEk.

So I went to my doctor-- reluctantly I might add-- even though the numbers were back down to what is normal for me but borderline not okay by the medical system. He suggested with one of those little smiles he does so well, that I try a med for it. I was prepared, mentally resigned, and so I am starting onto something he claims is mild, without side effects-- and might help.

I also know I need to reduce my stress level by expecting less of myself, walking more, losing weight, and not letting things get to me. I am a lucky woman in a ton of ways but stress is about anything that isn't going well or does upset a person. I am going to work on improving my reaction to it.

Today I am relishing the sound of rain outside an open glass door. I do love that sound and all the green that is so lush around the farmhouse.

So, stress tips appreciated and in the meantime, here is one of the scenery videos I created for YouTube. I had put it out before but with different music. For this I used JewelBeat (which provides a license to use anywhere for $.99 or free if you allow their name at the end). But I like owning the license and this brings back wonderful memories of one almost magical trip and all the wonderful animals we saw. Doubtless I will go there again but it's unlikely I will ever have so many wonderful chances to photograph so many animals. It was awesome.

The music perfectly matches its energy. See if it helps your stress level.

You might consider bookmarking my YouTube Channel as once in awhile I will add more of this sort from trips that truly did feed my soul as I took them and now again through these photos!

Traveling

It might be awhile before I post something rational here as we just made the long drive back from Tucson but will only be at the farm a day before we drive south again to attend our grandchildren's choir concert. Then maybe a quick side-trip to get photos I could use in another book trailer before back to the farm, and I hope settling in for awhile before going anywhere.

The Tucson trip was successful in terms of all the work done on the house. It didn't allow for any real play time and a lot of what I had hoped to do, with a whole month to be there, didn't happen. I can't believe how fast the time went.

The complication was the heat. Most of what Farm Boss had to do was outside and with temps above 100°F, he really could only get that work done during the mornings and evenings. The energy that might have gone into hiking simply was gone then for doing much else.

My plans had been to visit the Arizona State Museum for research-- didn't happen. Spend time at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for wildlife photos-- quick trip but no photos. Hike a lot-- nope.

What did happen was a lot of great landscaping and repairs; so that the house looks much better than when we arrived. Also Farm Boss got work done on his consulting business, and I had many beneficial hours writing with one more book now out on Kindle and a couple of trailers either done or on their way.

Some ask why do trailers if they don't sell books. Well I don't know if they do sell but here's the why-- it's more places to have the book titles show up. Frankly the biggest problem for an indie writer is getting their work seen at all. Every single place you can put them, is a benefit. It's all about marketing, marketing, marketing because without that, the books disappear from view.

We also had one very nice day-trip down in the San Rafael Valley.  That is the Old West even today (although some of it is very yuppified). It is wild and potentially dangerous with long distance between water sources, roads with very little traffic, and the potential of meeting up with smugglers (warning signs up from the Border Patrol in the most likely areas).

That country brought back fond memories to me as when Farm Boss was at the UofA, we would go out there with our friends (parapluie and fisherman) and walk up the gulches looking for minerals. Back then the only danger would have been rattlesnakes, falling, or getting lost. I don't think I'd hike up those gorges these days.

We had one amusing moment in one of those places. I heard a turkey gobble but didn't see it. Farm Boss stopped the truck and I gobbled back to the bird. Then the bird would gobble again. Each time I'd make the sound, he'd reply but didn't come out of his tree or hiding place. It was funny and so I laughed... Big mistake. After that when I gobbled, he didn't reply. I would say he was a little put out.

When I have time, which will be next week probably, I'll put together some of those photos from that day into a video. I was thrilled with all I got and want to spend more time there... Which might happen if we get back down this year sometime... or might not. There is a lot to do up here too.

Will America elect a bully?

Because I have been extremely busy and the week ahead won't get lighter, I haven't had a lot of time to put into this blog. I have been reading though and there is a lot I am thinking regarding Romney. This writer says some of what I feel.

Will America elect a jerk? 

To me it's worse than that. If he was just an unthinking jerk, it'd be one thing; but he has used power, every single time he has had it, to bully others. He chuckles as he relates the experiences, and I'd say that means he sees it as empowering him. That's how bullies operate.

 Prank or Pattern? 

Some see that Obama having been a community organizer was bad. I mean helping people succeed, how good can that be? To those with that viewpoint, they see Romney as better to be president because he got wealthy. Perhaps they see it good that he made his fortune by firing people or bankrupting companies where his corporation could cannibalize their parts and put together new companies.

They think he started Staples therefore it means he will be good for business--

one more of Romney's lies.  

He saved the Olympics--

Romney's Olympic Legacy: Savior or Self-promoter?

 Finally for those who find it hard to keep track of all his lies--

All of Romney's lies in one place-- 

Keep in mind these aren't things he said he would do or that he changed his mind about. These are out and out lies and a lot of them not even logical which basically makes him a pathological liar, I think.

For the Americans who think because he made himself wealthy, that means he can make them, I have a bridge to sell them--- one to nowhere.

What I'd like to know is why is the Republican party foisting this guy off on the rest of us?

Colors of the Sonoran Desert

For people not familiar with the Sonoran Desert, deserts often seem desolate places. While there are places like that, the Sonoran Desert is a rich habitat with diverse plants and many creatures living well within its expanse.

Tucson is around 2000 feet elevation. Its vegetation is related to elevation and varies quite a bit across the valley. When the first pioneers came here, the valley was full of tall grass and the Santa Cruz River ran full with cottonwood trees along its banks. Overgrazing and human use changed some of that, but still it's lush and has many different types of habitat within its valley as it's ringed by mountain ranges. Some go up to the level of pine and fir trees, others are desert mountains.

Where we have our home, is a ridge off one of the Catalina Mountain's ridges. It is one of the areas where ironwood trees flourish as well as palo verde. For a very brief season, right around Cinco de Mayo, they often bloom at the same time and the colors are brilliant.

Ironwood trees are lovely, providing good shade but they also are slivery with the kind of tiny, nearly invisible slivers you don't see, but if you touch their branches, leaves or walk barefoot around them, you find them quick enough. I don't suppose many people would purposely plant them, but I love them for their shapes and that brief season in spring when they turn into cotton candy balls.

Most of the year, palo verde trees are a rather feathery green but as you can see, they have a spring season of intense color. When the two types of trees are in the same area, it's like a cacophony of color.

These photos were all taken of our Tucson yard. besides the many on our ridge, there are more in an area set aside for them called Ironwood National Monument.

javelina

Being way too busy and with my mind not exactly operating in a way that leads to great blog posts, I thought I'd put up some photos of the javelina. We photograph them whenever see them. Oddly enough they are not biologically pigs but rather are rodents. I have no idea how scientists decide such things but there must be a reason.

Farm Boss was coming out from the pool area and said he smelled something before he saw them-- like skunk like odor. They were just standing at the quail block and watching him.

You will see in these photos why they can be animals to be cautious around. They really don't go out looking to attack humans but if they feel cornered, they will and their tusks can open up a leg quite easily.

Tucson got what is called a haboob Wednesday which meant big dust storm. This photo is looking toward Pusch Ridge and as you can see, it was dusted out. We could not see the Tucson Mountains from our house. It led to not a lot of fantastic color for photos; plus the animals and birds do know when to take cover in those weather events. I will get back to the quail before we leave.

I created the following video about this house, the one we call Casa Espiritu, and the creatures who live here.  It's is also on my YouTube channel. If you find videos of interest, bookmark-- Rain Trueax Channel.

 

I have also decided to create a blog just for trailers, no real talk, just these videos as well as possibly those by others who would like to share theirs. I'll provide a link to that when I get it set up.

What's gone wrong with us as a people?

Yesterday should be framed in black as yet another group of voters became convinced by the religious oligarchs that their religion should dominate the country in terms of laws and rights. It is what this group has promoted in state after state with North Carolina only being the most recent. Oregon did it in 2004 with the usual accompanying rhetoric. Oh the woe if one group of people do not take the rights from another. It's so typical of mankind's history and it's so disgusting.

This article, which Hal had on Facebook, says it so well.

Amendment One and a Nation's shame

I don't know how far this will go before Americans wake up-- if they wake up in time. I keep asking who we are as a people? How does Arizona put forth a bill that stops women from getting help for mammograms and pap smears from Planned Parenthood? Personhood got rejected even in the South but the Republican candidate for president said he supports it-- at least during the primaries, who knows what he thinks about it today.

I was disgusted to hear Billy Graham come out in support of the North Carolina ban which even went to no civil unions. I didn't blame him so much though. It was just a disappointment, but he's a very very old man and perhaps no longer capable of full reasoning. He has a son in Franklin, who is proving himself to be all he was from his early days of causing trouble, where it has now switched to using his evil fundamentalism as a club against everyone who doesn't think as he does about religion and its purpose-- which is to amass power.

This is a disgrace, and I am still ashamed of my own state regarding what it did, Voting on discrimination? Does that make sense to anybody? Why do Americans need to have one group to attack and to whom to feel superior?

Straight out-- the government's part regarding marriage should be a business contract. It's that simple. Government has no right to have bigoted discrimination as part of that contract.

Let churches argue over whether the ridiculous interpretation that Sodom and Gomorrah is about gay marriage instead of a time of out of whack sexuality and abuse that is practiced by some so-called straight men all over the world. The government has NO right to limit the contract based on any religion. Separation of church and state, remember? *taking some deep breaths*

I am just plain mad and if we had a Supreme Court of any honor (half of it clearly has none), they would declare this as unconstitutional as they once did slavery... Oh wait, the good old boys on the court back then didn't declare that unconstitutional. I swear this nation has been on the wrong track from the get go. It's past time to change that.  If some states could vote to okay slavery, take the vote back from women, or legalize discrimination against one race or gender, they still would.

If people think it doesn't matter who wins the presidency, this is a good example of why it does-- and equally important the House and Senate. Get off our duffs and work to get the right people in the Congress-- and the right president or don't go whining about the results in four more years! That Supreme Court will be so embedded, it'll take another lifetime to have a chance to remove any of them. (well we could impeach Thomas for having not recused himself on those issues where his wife clearly was impacting his defining of constitutional).

UPDATE: Good for Obama on finally standing up for full marriage equality. Better late than never and this is a time we all need to stand up for everyone's rights. In the end, they are our rights also.   

Obama cites his faith in supporting same sex marriage

Evening and quail babies

More quail. The top photo is how the chicks are taught to hunker down when the parent makes the right call.

I hope to take more before we have to leave here. I'd like to get some of the way there is this pecking order where some push others out as soon as they try to get at the seed. It isn't easy to get photos as they move so fast.

May full moon-- flower moon or corn planting moon

May 5th was what some call the super full moon for 2012 because the moon is closest to the earth for this year. It was naturally something we could not miss the opportunity to photograph from our Tucson home-- both in the evening as it rose and again in the morning as it set. Absolutely gorgeous.

 I wanted one with the moon, cactus and ironwood. I think you'll have to enlarge it though to see them all.

Due to haze in the air, the moon was as yellow as it appears and near the horizon, just as large.

Quail in our backyard

One of the more relaxing things to do in this Tucson house is watch the birds, bunnies and assorted other denizens who live nearby or travel through. That can mean snakes, javelina, bobcats, coyotes, rabbits, packrats, and assorted birds.

My favorites are the quail which is especially neat when they come in families. For anyone who has not had the pleasure of observing quail in their native environment, they generally travel in a covey or as pairs. We have several of them right now with chicks. The youngest family had 12 chicks but not sure what is there currently as those chicks, until they get feathers to fly are bottom of the food chain for snakes and all other predators including predator birds like the Harris hawks who also enjoy watching quail.

So here are a few photos of our quail families. I might put these onto a video someday except to truly appreciate quail, you have to hear their sounds. They communicate with a wide variety of chirps and cries. When daddy doesn't feel babies are moving fast enough, he has an impressive bark. They also give warnings which cause the chicks to hunker down and make like rocks. The content sound is kind of a du-wheep, and I can tell if it's parents coming by the sounds they make to the chicks.

More quail photos to come next blog.

from Bill Maher

I'll have a new blog up soon on the quail here but while I am sorting photos, how about this badge again on Kay's blog.

It's the simple truth and people who think they can opt out might opt out of making decisions, but they cannot opt out of the consequences of the ones others' make!

Stephen King's Message to Romney

Kay at Kay's Thinking Cap put this badge up. It needs to go viral as it so true. The right wing is convincing a lot of people of lies and the left needs to push back hard with the whole truth. We can't let rightie pundits and politicians twist slick words into something that sounds good to those who don't take the time to look at the whole picture. These people talk so loosely of patriotism while they put their own money in foreign banks. Yeah patriots all!

Good for Stephen King-- expletives and all. There are times that swear words are needed for punctuation!

Link: The Daily Beast article by Stephen King