As ususal we post to notify family of a shooting expedition. In two weeks Gr@ym@n and Dawn are coming to visit. We plan a shooting expedition, a fishing expedition a horseback riding expedition, and a camping expedition.
The tick farm and a local horse back riding expedition and a local lake. All family members interested stay tuned for dates. We would like a few 4X4 vehicles for the the shooting trip to the Tick Farm.
It’s a new record. You should be proud….
 ”Rasmussen Report 8 July 2008
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.”
Nancy, Harry, Dennis another truimph.
    Ma and I took a swing past the Tick Farm on our way back from vacation. Here are a couple of photos of the Sac river at Caplinger Mills.
This is a shot at the Mills. It is high water. The river is washing over the dam that powered the mill. Unfortunately this is where a young man died this summer. He was swinging out into the river upstream on a rope tied to a tree. The current washed him down and over the dam. The current rolled him, and pulled him under. This is why we never swam in this river. The young man was 23. He was a veteran of two tours in Iraq.
This unused bridge is just downstream of the dam. You can see a guy fishing on it. It is reported someone jumped off this thing to try to get to the young man who was in trouble. The current made it impossible.
Here is a view looking downstream from the bridge. The water is way up into the trees. We had a very rainy year so far. The canoe rental is just to the right out of view.
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The upper part of the tick farm. It’s getting quite grown over. New trees and bushes. This shot is looking out over the section where the boys and I got the van stuck. Amazing soil there. Stuff sinks. Well the Ram Charger did okay there but the van was never meant to leave the pavement.
This would be the road that borders the Tick Farm. Yes the directions to the place include the phrase … “turn off the hard surface road. There is a creek at the bottom of the road where you see it go down hill. In the rainy season it can be underwater.
And this is the way it looks down towards the creek. This is where we go plinking. After a number of years we eventually suceeded in shooting one tree down. Now if you look real carefully, you can see poison ivy (Chris ususally finds it all) and about a million chiggers and ticks waiting for our next trip down.
“Sen. Dodd’s Popularity Slips in Connecticut
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
By Andrew Miga, Associated Press & , Associated Press
Washington (AP) - If veteran Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd’s trademark jaunty smile seems a bit forced these days, it’s no surprise.
The five-term Democrat’s home-state popularity has slipped in the wake of his failed presidential bid and allegations he got cut-rate mortgages from a leading offender in the subprime mortgage meltdown.
The state’s longest serving senator, who faces re-election in 2010, is scrambling to repair the damage. Dodd spent his July Fourth break from Congress at events stressing economic recovery themes, including jobs, the foreclosure crisis and costly gasoline prices.
“He has suffered a dip, there’s no doubt about it,” said Quinnipiac University Poll director Doug Schwartz. “He’s been around a long time and he’s only getting a lukewarm job approval.”
Lets all hope he gets dumped. Thirty years is too much.
“Teachers’ Organizations Seek to Break Education Union Monopoly
Monday, June 28, 1999
Justin Torres
(CNS) - Recently dismissed by American Federation of Teachers president Sandra Feldman as insignificant, non-union teachers’ organizations are nonetheless a rapidly growing alternative to the AFT’s and National Educational Association’s power over issues like teacher’s pay, charter schools, and curriculum revisions.
In right-to-work states like Georgia, Texas, and Missouri, union alternatives are larger than the state affiliates of the national teachers’ unions - and in 22 states, they claim 220,000 members and growing.
These organizations, such as the 46,000 member Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), the 94,000 member Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE), and the 42,000 member Missouri State Teacher’s Association (MSTA) have come together to “provide teachers with a choice about whether or not to join their state union,” Larry Comers of ATPE told CNSNews.com.
These teachers’ organizations do not engage in collective bargaining, initiate strikes or work stoppages, and unlike unions who negotiate collective bargaining agreements in states without right-to-work laws, do not force non-members to pay dues.
Many of these organizations, ATPE and PAGE included, are not limited to teachers, but include bus drivers, administrators, school employees, and other non-teachers, because, as Dee Ann Aull of MSTA told CNSNews.com, “It takes all of us to educate a child. . . .It’s important that we both independent and all-inclusive.”
They also focus on collaboration and cooperation rather than confrontational tactics in advocating on educational issues.”
This is a breath of fresh air. The NEA and the AFT are a unholy alliance of NeoComs (New Communists) and Barking Moonbats who use Environmental Wacko doctrine as their religion. They need to be pounded to non existance.
Mike B sends:
Subject: Obama, from Stanford University Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow
The Hoover Institution Stanford University Stanford , California 94305
By Thomas Sowell Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Many years ago, a great hitter named Paul Waner was nearing the end of his long career. He entered a ballgame with 2,999 hits — one hit away from the landmark total of 3,000, which so many hitters want to reach, but which relatively few actually do reach.
Waner hit a ball that the fielder did not handle cleanly but the official scorer called it a hit, making it Waner’s 3,000th.
Paul Waner then sent word to the official scorer that he did not want that questionable hit to be the one that put him over the top. The official scorer reversed himself and called it an error. Later Paul Waner got a clean hit for number 3,000.
What reminded me of this is the great fervor that many seem to feel over the prospect of the first black President of the United States . No doubt it is only a matter of time before there is a black president, just as it was only a matter of time before Paul Waner got his 3,000th hit.
The issue is whether we want to reach that landmark so badly that we are willing to overlook how questionably that landmark is reached. Paul Waner had too much pride to accept a scratch hit.
Choosing a President of the United States is a lot more momentous than a baseball record. We the voters need to have far more concern about who we put in that office that holds the destiny of a nation and of generations yet unborn.
There is no reason why someone as arrogant, foolishly clever and ultimately dangerous as Barack Obama should become president — especially not at a time when the threat of international terrorists with nuclear weapons looms over 300 million Americans.
Many people seem to regard elections as occasions for venting emotions, like cheering for your favorite team or choosing a Homecoming Queen. The three leading candidates for their party’s nomination are being discussed in terms of their demographics — race, sex and age — as if that is what the job is about.
One of the painful aspects of studying great catastrophes of the past is discovering how many times people were preoccupied with trivialities when they were teetering on the edge of doom. The demographics of the presidency are far less important than the momentous weight of responsibility that office carries. Just the power to nominate federal judges to trial courts and appellate courts across the country, including the Supreme Court, can have an enormous impact for decades to come.
There is no point feeling outraged by things done by federal judges, if you vote on the basis of emotion for those who appoint them. Barack Obama has already indicated that he wants judges who make social policy instead of just applying the law.
He has already tried to stop young violent criminals from being tried as adults. Although Senator Obama has presented himself as the candidate of new things — using the mantra of “change” endlessly — the cold fact is that virtually everything he says about domestic policy is straight out of the 1960s and virtually everything he says about foreign policy is straight out of the 1930s.
Protecting criminals, attacking business, increasing government spending, promoting a sense of envy and grievance, raising taxes on people who are productive and subsidizing those who are not — all this is a re-run of the 1960s. We paid a terrible price for such 1960s notions in the years that followed, in the form of soaring crime rates, double-digit inflation and double-digit unemployment. During the 1960s, ghettoes across the countries were ravaged by riots from which many have not fully recovered to this day. The violence and destruction were concentrated not where there was the greatest poverty or injustice but where there were the most liberal politicians, promoting grievances and hamstringing the police.
Internationally, the approach that Senator Obama proposes — including the media magic of meetings between heads of state — was tried during the 1930s. That approach, in the name of peace, is what led to the most catastrophic war in human history. Everything seems new to those too young to remember the old and too ignorant of history to have heard about it. Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy.
You know you just gotta love the way this gentleman can hit a nail on the head. Amen.July the hot time of year. The time to get out and explore things. Noah loves the races … but the noise is really loud.
These guys have never heard of Midas.
But they wear neat clothes and will sign autographs for guys and girls.
Maizie on the other hand prefers the calm of the farm, and the dignity of the tractor. I think her tractor is ……. cute. So is she and she is getting so tall!
And here are Noah Maizie and Emster in the flower of their youth. Man they grow fast. Maybe we shouldn’t water them so much?
And now the Cookiecrumbexpress takes great pride in announcing that Gr@ym@n and Dawn are now formally engaged. In keeping with Gr@ym@n’s stealthy environment the wedding is planned for about a year for now at an undisclosed location date and time.
It will be a small wedding and reception. We would like to welcome Dawn into the tribe, even though she is a Navy vet we are feeling most ecumenical.
Congratulations to Gr@ym@n and Dawn.
Stay tuned.
For those of you who weren’t able to attend this year … here is the photo review.
Miss Eva and her mom watch the others do fireworks stuff.
Ma in the process of drinking her traditional 1/2 beer on the 4th. Ner and Maizie attend. Maizie holds Hope.
And here is Hope starring as the “Pass around Puppie” the lovable little fuzzball.
Miss Eva spots the camera. Pa just can’t get away with anything anymore.
Now Doodlebug spots me. I just can’t hide worth a durn anymore. Oh that case in the bottom of the photo is a Hope Transport Devise.
Matt likes the brownies with the sprinkles on top.
First you light a punk…. and then ….
… that noise starts again. The glorious noise celebrating our independence. The noise of Freedom. In the background are Mike his frind Crystal and her son Matt.
The shade held out well, the temperatures were very moderate, the breeze was nice and it was a good day.
