Just dreams...

I just read a couple of interesting posts this morning. One concerning how the government takes your right to bear arms and then forces you to pay for a 'license' to get them back in the form of a concealed carry permit, and another over the fear mongering by the government's lapdog, the mainstream media, as it stresses to us over and over the necessity of interference by the PTB in our lives for our own safety.
One of these days I'll learn to wait and read my mail later.  I hate getting pissed off before I've even had my first cup of coffee!
I don't have any issue over paying to use public roads, it saves wear and tear on my car, and I don't have to cut down all those pesky trees to get where I'm going. But forcing me to pay another tax every year to register my car, require me to get a license to drive my car, then using both to keep track of me and every other aspect of my life PISSES ME OFF!
And then off course, the MSM constantly harping on how we have to interfere in this country's politics,  or that country's ethics to somehow preserve our American Way Of Life, while the PTB are giving America to illegal aliens and Islam, somehow just PISSES ME OFF!
I like my coffee, red meat, beer, a bunch of dogs, and doing stupid shit that might get me hurt just because it's fun!
My PARENTS taught me not to drop my pants in public, treat the elderly with the respect their years have earned them, honor my country, choose and follow my own beliefs, and cleave unto the cleaver of my preferred cleaving orientation, while treating the fairer sex with courtesy and respect. The "golden rule" should always be adhered to, and always try to ensure my actions didn't harm others.
I was allowed to put scissors in a light socket! I only did it once, and better to learn to respect electricity with a good solid jolt of 120 volts than die fucking around with 240! I ate candy and drank sodypop. I rode my bike without a helmet and climbed trees forty feet high.
I hunted using a (shudder) UNREGISTERED real gun, whittled with the pocket knife I carried since first grade, which I actually carried in school, but knew to keep in my pocket, and ate what was put in front of me, or had the option to go without.

Reading two separate articles which hit on my two biggest issues with big government first thing in the morning can't be helping my blood pressure.
When the PTB allows laws "for our own good" while giving illegal aliens and foreign beliefs sway over us, then the American Way of life is already gone.
The "American Dream" isn't all that difficult to achieve if the bigwigs in power would simply leave us to live it. It's not some prescribed and steadfast set of rules for everyone. Some love the money game; wheeling and dealing and seeing who dies with the most toys. Some prefer romance; caring for hearth and home and the needs of family or spouse. Some prefer the silence of nature; spending time on land THEY own and coaxing a living from the earth. There are even those who thrive on publicity; the beibers and gagas who get off on wild displays of idiocy.  Well bless 'em all!
The American Dream for me is to be left to live or die doing what I can with what I got. Using skills and training gained over more than half a century on this rock. NOT being told what I should or shouldn't do or how I should do it. Not being told I can or can't do something 'for my own good' and then being punished for not bowing down to the demands of those who think they can run my life better than I can myself. Fuck 'em. In MY dreams, "this" really does equal six inches...

Coffee's done.  I'll be back sometime after my blood pressure gets back to normal... Think I'll have a cigarette with my coffee while they're both still legal.

So what's 'the dream' for you?

update

Thankfully just a nasty kidney infection. Gotta lay off the beer and drink lots of water.... Which is kinda nasty in itself.  Fish fuck in that stuff!
Still, I can do without any additional aches. Between my shoulder and this, not much gonna git done around here. And I still have to dig out my sewer line, finish the last 15 feet of skirting and put the trim on, and put handrails on the front steps.
Oh well, life goes on. Deal with it!

Haven't been posting much, I know.  It's been a tough week, and I'm finally giving in.
Monday I woke up with a sharp pain in my lower left back.  Figured I've been overdoing it since the weather has been mostly nice, took some advil and ignored it.
By Wednesday, it'd started to spread down my left leg, and it took most of my reserves just caring for my livestock.
Yesterday I gave in and had Rose call the doc. Going today at 1:00, and get this shit checked out. Can't function worth a fuck with my back shooting pain every time I move, and got too much work to do to stop.
I HATE going to the doctor's.  Seems like every time I do, they come up with some other way I'm trying to die. Haven't they learned yet I'm too fucking stubborn to kick off?
Maybe I'll just stay home and drink some water or something...

Angel

Also known in the blogosphere as hiswiserangel, this sassy red head dynamo is not only Mom to her two girls, but also to many of us!
ANY one in need knows she'll be there, leading a brigade of Patriots she gathers at her call.  And they all follow because she's... well... Angel.
She has done more for me, sight unseen, (her good fortune! ) than most family members would.
Both my wife and myself think of her as family. Of course, she IS family to so many of us here: sister, mom, that eccentric aunt we all hope no one knows about, and I've heard Websters dictionary replaced Lindsay Wagner's picture with hers on the definition of Wonder Woman.
(Who else could convince Wirecutter to write his memoirs?)
She's funny, annoying, outspoken, shy, bright, naive: she's a lot of things to a lot of us; and as contradictory as she is a stabilizing force for all for us.
God's bless you always, Angel.  You are loved by so many!

Look her up.  You'll never regret knowing her!
The Lonely Libertarian

Thanks!

Robert,
Thank you. Rose has a birthday in July, and this will let me get her something nice. It's been too long since I've been able to do that.
Steve
aka Xenolith

The 'bring it on' moment

I was born a poor black child... Oh wait.  That was a Steve Martin movie.

It doesn't matter where I was born, I don't remember that particular aspect of my existence. But I was raised in a small farming community on the east coast of Michigan's lower peninsula. Retired army dad with a full pension and a good paying job. Three brothers, two sisters, and of course I was the baby.
Keep in mind, I'm old. This was back around the time of the Cuban missile crisis, and everyone was aware of the potential for nuclear war.
We had a 'fallout shelter' built six feet under ground, cots, food, water, clothes, everything my parents could think of to take care of and protect the family.
We also had a huge garden every year, raised cattle, hogs, goats, chickens, and butchered and preserved both enough meat and vegetables to last at least till the next year.
I was RAISED to be a prepper. Mostly out of my parents fears of people in power doing something stupid.
Now we have a new prepper movement out there. And I agree whole heartedly with the concept of self reliance.
What I don't agree with is these gung-ho idiots who WANT the shit to hit the fan so they can go play Rambo, or sit on their porch with the lemonade they made from fruit they grew in their solar heated hothouse, watching their crops growing all around them thinking "See?  Told ya so.".
The PTB aren't sitting in Washington wringing their hands and hoping the sheep never awaken.  They WANT us to start something.  Obama would like nothing more than to have an excuse to proclaim martial law. And think how many police behave like they can do whatever they want NOW. Can you even possibly think how bad it will be when they CAN?
We 'right wing gun nuts' and Grizzly Adams wannabes are long on talk, (and I'm including myself here), but for the most part short on action. I strive every day to become more proficient at homesteading, and increase my sustainability levels if our government were to fall. But what if it doesn't?
What if it's not the fall of our government that causes the crisis, but the crisis of government that causes the fall?  Internet will no longer be an option as the PTB will control ALL access.  Cell phones are easily shut down. They already control main stream media. And while some sit smugly thinking they'll head to the hills and play hit-and-git like Wolverines, the reality is far less entertaining.
Our own government is the enemy. Not Russia, not China. When the world goes to hell,  (and it pretty much is), we won't have to worry about them. It's those who can reach us we have to be wary of.  And absolute power not only corrupts absolutely, it desires nothing more than to grow. Even the most philanthropic minded individual doesn't give away everything. They too need to maintain themselves and their families. Does anyone truly believe governments are any different?  The only thing they give away is other folks money. They only pass authority to those who support theirs.
Our nation has become corrupt, and soiled by the greed of politicians. We the sheeple are left to graze in our little pastures, fertilizing the land THEY control with OUR preparations, while they sit and laugh at our futile efforts. They want you to start something, Rambo. Go ahead and hate your black neighbor. Burn that synagogue. Make all those plans to pillage and burn when the shit hits the fan.
It's not if, but when.
We must not allow them to turn us against each other. We must not only prepare for ourselves, but for our neighbors as well. The PTB are united and strong. We must unite and be stronger.

Xenolith.
Keep your powder dry, neighbor!

We forgot to set our alarms and our nation sleeps on...

When are we as a nation, born out of our ancestors in a desire to be free, going to wake up? Even those of us lucky enough to have made a decent life for ourselves, and hopefully our descendants, have to fear that it can all be taken in one moment.
Who among us can claim that there is no niggling fear in our minds as we lay awake in the small morning hours categorizing our achievements, that our own government can, and many times has, stolen the fruits of these achievements?
Those of us who are poor have little enough to make it through a single day. Leaving what little we have therefore even more precious.
Those managing a comfortable life; nice house, two cars, 2.5 kids, and having managed to find the American dream, can lose it all through one calamitous event. The cost of a single operation from an accident can be devastating, and a mathematical error on a tax sheet can be ruinous.
And yes, even those among the rich fear. Our Government has become a collection of the best career politicians money can buy! But what if you buy the wrong one?  A million dollar investment to ensure your financial security can just as easily be taken by the next. Our politicians care less about our lives than they do that of the cows butchered for their next steak dinner;  so long as the millions keep rolling in.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence weren't all rich any more than they were all poor.  They were farmers, lawyers, business owners; a mix of average men who decided they no longer wished to live under the fear of someone else deciding their futures.
What they had, that we don't, is a clear focus of an enemy separate from themselves.  They saw through their own eyes the wrongs being thrust upon them, and we're able to unite amongst themselves against a visible threat.
Our society has become a nation blind and pacified through 'reality' tv, hero worship of celebrities, be they athletes (some of whom are so uneducated as to barely enable them to sign their own name to their million dollar contacts), or simply born by natural means to be better than average looking, thereby somehow making them above the rest of us.
We no longer have a meaningful say in who will our will not rule over us unless we have the money to back the right horse. Our 'go along to get along' mentality has pervaded every level of society from the Regular Joe who entered politics to somehow make a difference, down to those who turn on their neighbor to get a pat on the head from a big brother system only determined to keep us segregated.

I don't have a long list of links to insert here to prove some kind of plot, or another government cover-up or excess. Why bother? If you can't see the direction of our nation, nor the tyranny we live under, its already too late for you. I don't need to produce (usually fictitious) graphs or pie charts to validate what is right there in front of us.
As a NATION we must open our eyes, get out of our recliners, and WAKE UP before the American dream becomes an apocalyptic nightmare!

Phil

I've been through a hell of a lot over the past two years, and have met, both physically and internetinally (and yes, I DID just create that word (patent pending)), a LOT of great folks, and thought I'd do a spotlight post on the best of them. This is in NO order whatsoever,  and I could just do one post, but this way leaves me more raw material!

Trust me, if you haven't been mentioned yet, you WILL be!

Anyway, PHIL.  You know who you are. This scrawny, OLD, cantankerous SOB is plain and simple the salt of the earth!  He bitches more than both my current AND ex-wife,  yet managed to send me enough for a sixpack on my birthday when I needed a boost.  He is pugnacious and determined more than the hardiest bulldog, and spends WAY too much energy on a car I hope he will someday get maybe on the road possibly.

Devoted to his wife, he consistently works on her sister's car, while bitching and moaning, knowing full well it makes him feel good to be there for her, because he's needed. 

This old fuck is probably my best friend.  1. Which I should probably apologize for mentioning in public to avoid him the embarrassment,  and 2. I've never even met him! 

He's a blogger buddy,  and you REALLY need to check out The Vulgar Curmudgeon.  (The name alone should day it all!)
http://bustednuckles.blogspot.com/

XenoBabes

Kinda liked this one...

It's a start

Not what I was hoping for, but it's a start! 

This is what I have for a garden this year.  Only 13X13, but considering I had to turn it by hand,  and it took me 3 days to turn it, and another 2 to rake it clean,  I'll take what I can get! 

I have corn, green beans, beets, sunflower, peas, onions, acorn, zucchini, yellow, butternut squash, pumpkin, cantaloupe, watermelon, carrots, tomatoes,  pickles,  and spinach, so I'm pretty pleased for now. I doubt I'll have enough of any of them to do much canning, but it will help keep down my produce bill this fall. 

I also started my salad greens inside, and have transferred them into my small salad garden:

This has kale, spinach, tomato, romaine, Bibb, and Simpson lettuces, cabbage, and collard greens.  

I have my herbs started in the house, and will be putting them in larger individual pots outside for the warm months, then bring them back in for the winter.

Working on the front stair railing tomorrow. Hopefully get that done and then get the aluminum skirting done.

It may be a small start, but my attitude toward life gets better with every task completed. Better to start small and add on then do nothing...

I know. Boring shit. But hey, again, better than nothing.
Take care my friends. And keep your powder dry!