Friday Eve. Aug 7th... Missing you...missing Us... seems to be in Style for Sat...

We haven't seen Barbie or Boobie, but here is BB.

We will be missing the Farmer’s Market again this Saturday due to the molt.... We go out and get a day of good egg production, then a few days of not worth a poop! There are feathers all over the back yard and they are floating on the pond like crazy, because the wind blows them from the yard into the water and then they float all over the place. Looks like snowballs floating around.... Next week we will have plenty to go with and we will continue to sell off the porch all week long, because a lot of our customers come here regularly for eggs.

We hatched seven chicks out today and there are another twenty seven eggs to go and Joodee is giving us another two dozen to hatch so we can sell the chicks. They are cute and since we have the brooding house, there is no work to hatching chicks year round if we want to. They can stay in the brooding house until they are fully feathered juveniles and then be transferred from the brooding house to the bunny brothel to mature before going into the other barn with the adults. The way we loose chickens to hawks and foxes......it’s good to keep them hatching and replenishing.....layers only produce well in the first year and once they go into the molt, I don’t think they ever lay heavy again for the most part. Having juvenile birds coming on can mean the difference between this slump we are in now and producing normally as some start and some slow down all at the same time.

I received my ISBN numbers today. I need to start processing the first one for the poetry book and get everything completed and sent off to the printers. After that, I’d guess within two weeks, we’ll have books in hand. Then I will start to market them with all the major book outlets and purchasers. Should be fun and such a rush!! Both Vick and I are psyched about publishing....

We went to Marylou this morning and drew blood for the breaking down of the CPK enzyme test to see if we can determine why and what is elevating it. She also recommended we go to a chiropractor to start therapy on my back as indicated by the MRI report. We left there, went to get our hair cut and then went home to check on all the animals, before heading to Pastor’s Chiropractic in Guilderland. Vick had him pop her back and then he put me on the table. It is the first time I was EVER touched by a chiropractor and he did simply one treatment and twisted my lower back slightly. End of lower back pain!! I was amazed....gone and still is. The burning in my thighs and calves however is still there and will be for a bit I guess. Also, we think I injured my hamstring severely awhile back when I stepped off the bumper incorrectly. That...both, Mike and I found...to be an excruciating pain when you try to draw that knee up against your chest. In fact...that is a “need to stop this right now” type pain!! We didn’t go there anymore today! Mike said we would talk about that on the 17th when I return. Until then, the blood test will be back and should shed some light as to why the CPK was or is high.



Here is the rear deck cooking area..





The roof came out great!






Eggs in the incubator are hatching...

The finished product..... for sale at $7.00 ea.

These guys are hours old...

Here is the brooding box...

In this brooding house, we can hatch year round if desired....

This was snapped in complete darkness... Night Runners????

Here is Rooster Cogburn with his ladies... Look at those spurs boys!

Luke and Iggy... we just shot them today with Ivermectin for parasites.

A view of the duck house

Another of those across the yard in the dark shots.... The new duckies have to wait until there is no light left before retiring to the indoors.

A shot of the roof from the barn...

Iggy looking sexy with his bangs...

Luke at the doorway, coming in...

Hibiscus..... double blossum at that!

Beautiful and jammed full of blooms

Bollero... our little boy!

Vicki's $23.00 Begonia she just got at Stanton's Farm Stand...

The rest of the pictures are flowers on the deck. What a place to eat breakfast and sip coffee... check it out!

Vick is tending roasting ears and clams boiling on the stove.... dinner in the making.

Friday August 7th... We’re Off On Another Day...MRI Results are Back...Uh Ohhh...

We got a call yesterday from Marylou about the results of the MRI which I had done last week. It came back showing about what I expected it would show... that there were a lot of really long and hard miles put on this old body.
I have a bit of degenerative disc disease, a few slightly bulged discs and a slight lumbar spinal stenosis......all of which are probably very normal for a 58 year old that has basically abused their body for forty eight of those years.....
The thing that is really of interest, is the results of my bloodwork, which was done the day Marylou made the MRI appointment...it showed a level of CPK enzymes, twice the normal limit. This isn’t in itself an alarming thing to me...especially with Vick being a registered nurse who is very much on top of things. I trust her judgment at the same level as Marylou’s, so I’m pretty well taken care of. We know that elevated CPK enzymes can occur from heavy exertion from work or exercise. We also know that I spent one and a half hours on the roof putting purlins on a day or so before the blood test. Marylou checked me for an under-active thyroid which was normal and we will run more bloodwork to narrow the cause of elevation. We’re also sure that prostate cancer isn’t a concern, because I have no problems in that area, but Marylou will run that check also. Vick has read much about the effects of psoriatic arthritis and found that it can elevate several different enzymes, so we’ll just wait and see. I go this morning around 11:30 to give her more blood for the tests.

Getting a hair cut, along with Vick after that and then back to the farm to do whatever needs doing. Rear deck project came out great...Pictures later...Lots of pictures to update you all.

Thurs. Aug 6th... Let’s Face it... Some are Legit... some are "fershit"...but most just forget...

The post of yesterday was answered with a few opinions about the health care reform package President Obama has proposed...and as was pointed out, he has requested that people snitch on each other about the opinions (especially negative ones) about his package, by calling a hot line. That’s all and well if people are causing a stir, just trying to block its passage with lies and bullcrap, and I thoroughly despise the racist “minstrel type white faced” poster which is totally out of line and very juvenile of its creator! Extremely POOR taste!
I have looked at the proposed package and am not saying the president isn’t intelligent in his attempt, or that he is doing something underhanded, or that he is knowingly, trying to pass legislature that will be bad for anyone. I really think he is trying to make a viable plan that will work, but those around him which advise or suggest or “egg him into things”, I’m not so sure of... Remember, the black text is both saying what is proposed and how I interpret the statement can or could be interpreted. I’m not saying that is the intent of President Obama in any of my interpretations, so I think I’m entitled to my thoughts without retribution from some presidential hit squad. People simply need to know that things as important as this need to be looked at positively and completely, because “honest people sow the flowers that dishonest people later reap into poisons.”

On a more positive note...Adam and Matt, the roofers, came back yesterday afternoon with the last two pieces of metal roofing and within a few minutes, had the roof completed. After that we sat and chatted with them under the roof, enjoying it, since they had a small part in its creation. Vick then presented each with their formal invitation to come to our next “friends BBQ & Clam roast” when we have it and to bring their wives. Usually Vick will pick up a bag of four hundred Maine clams, some burgers, dogs, sausage and sweet corn and we have a friendly get together to feast and chat with people we have worked with around the farm over the last year. Usually everyone who is family, friends, contractors or customers come to the gala event. This year under roof.
We will probably have one soon...before the end of summer or just into fall when it cools down a bit, making it comfortable to cook and sit outside.

Today, we go to the bank again. We went yesterday, but didn’t have all the materials we needed and it was an early close day. Today we will go and open accounts. They are SO MUCH BETTER than the bank we are leaving. Everything we now pay for is free! We should have checked this earlier, but they were where we first went when we moved up here and we remain loyal to those that treat us right, then they started changing...so now we are the ones changing. Bye-Bye...

As soon as my back is stronger (which appears to happen daily now) I can install the ceiling fan above the table under the new deck roof, which will have a light. We can then use the light out there in the evening and turn the fan on to blow the mosquitoes away from us...that way we can sit out there on sticky hot nights and listen to the soft music that is piped out, to weather proof speakers. NICE..

Wednesday August 5th... The news sickens me...Always Crucifying Everyone...

Don’t you love how the media writes immediately about everything that happens? Well after all...that’s what they are supposed to do! The problem is that very few Americans take the time to read the columns displayed and then think or check into the validity of the content. Most either shuck it off as something they don’t care to hear, because it’s about a person they like or they just don’t care one way or the other. The ones that just don’t care are ok...remaining in a little bubble until it is forcibly popped...or they remain there and bother no one. The ones that carry on...just tuning out incident because it is about someone they like, are creating a protective cloak, similar to that of a parent who says “my child would never do that...leave them alone.” That child continues to do whatever they have been protected from until the s**t finally hits the fan and it can no longer go unanswered for. The problem here is the damage done before crashing into the fan!
I reference the current internet and media draw to the west coast poster dilemma in which Obama is portrayed as the Joker, of batman movies. Much is written about the premise of the poster. Latest Birth certificate scandal or maybe Clinton in Kenya to see Birth Certificate .......
Some love it (and love stirring the pot), some hate it (cause they love Obama, but don’t know anything about him) and few have taken the time to analyze what it is all about...what is implied...what follows truly what the man is all about. I don’t like him...never did...I said so from the beginning...and remain steadfast in my opinion of him as “shady” both in his agenda and as an American. I still don’t believe he was born in the USA, nor do I believe he is qualified to be president because of that and I am not prepared to just “roll over” because Hawaii says he was. (Documents too easily forged if you have his money and the “believed followers” he flocks with) Although I don’t like him...this is uncalled for and childish...Racist too.
Again these are my beliefs, based on studies I did over the time he was declared running for president and now...and I’m always reading and watching. I, for one, don’t like where we are heading either.
Have you read the latest health care reform proposal?

Here are some points in the Obama's bill. (Bear in mind this bill is over 1,000 pages long, so this is literally taken from only the first half of it!)

Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!

Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!

Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)

Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.

Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.

Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.

Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.

Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)

Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.

Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)

Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens

Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and AmeriCorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.

Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.

Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.

Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.

Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.

Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll

Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays 2 to 6% tax on payroll

Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Page 170: Any NON-RE SIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).

Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.

Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that.

Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.

Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)

Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc
Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.

Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.

Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!

Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.

Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.

Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!

Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.

Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.

Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.

Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.

Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.

Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).

Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?

Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.

Page 425: Government provides app roved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.

Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.

Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient 's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans.
An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.

Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.

Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.

Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.

Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.

Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.
This, my friend is a really scary piece of proposed legislature affecting all of us except those that will vote it in and he who proposed it. Let’s require all of the politicians including Barrack Obama to receive the same insurance and see how that goes!!!!
I dread what I read...every morning..... I wonder....... We’re all big boys and girls, don’t listen to anyone...check these things out for yourself. Get involved and protect your America... No matter what conclusion you come to!

Tues. Eve Aug. 4th... It was a good and bad day...But, all in all...Just Another DAY...

The day started out with my intentions of going to the bank of Coxsackie to open an account there since the Bank of Greene County is still working out of the 1800’s. As I said this morning, three tellers standing side by side can’t give you the same figures if you ask them to tell you what your account balance is. And, on top of the three figures they will give you, the ATM will give you a fourth figure and then if you access it yourself on your Iphone while still standing there you get a fifth figure! That my friend...is no shit either.........Well, with the other events that happened, we didn’t get to the bank. We went to Bryant’s Grocery Store to grab some lunch items and coffee and when we got home, Paul from Agway delivered a ton of wood pellets and unloaded them for me into the tractor shed. We then showed him around the farm and chatted for a bit, but he had to run to get the truck back to Gerry, his boss and owner of the Hilltown Agway.
After Paul left, we grabbed a bite to eat and sat on our new roofed deck for a few minutes and chatted and watched the ducks and chickens running around.
I then went to get the tractor and wagon, went to the bunny brothel and got the transfer crate and went to meet Vick at the brooding house, where we loaded all the juvenile chicks into the transfer crate and moved them to the brothel. We hung the cage on the wall about eighteen inches above the floor and opened the crate door. They slowly jumped out and mingled with the other, older juvenile chickens and adults. We then went to the brooding house and removed the vent plugs and egg turner from the incubator. We candled the eggs as we put them back into the incubator. Out of the thirty-six eggs in there, we found two that were not fertile, so we are expecting a possible thirty-four chicks to hatch in three more days. We cannot see movement in the eggs, because they are almost full term and fill the egg completely, not allowing us to see the chick in the egg, so we just have to wait and see. The two that were not fertile passed light right through the shell and egg matter, making it a cinch to tell. After that I retired to the chair on the deck and then inside to the couch. (Vick doesn’t want me doing too much until the MRI results are back and we see the doctor.)
Anyway, Vick cleaned out and disinfected the chick station where the juveniles were and now has it ready for the newly hatched chicks in three days.
Now it’s time to hit the hay and get ready for another adventure tomorrow.

Tuesday, Aug 4th... We Have Here A Busy...Busy Day in Store For Us Today.......

Today is the day that the egg turner is to be removed from the twenty or so eggs in the incubator. We will take the candler to the brooding house and check each egg for life as we transfer them to the non-rotating incubator for the final three days until hatching. We also need to check with Ideal Hatcheries special send to us this morning. For just $1.90 each, we can get 25 Rhode Island Red pullets shipped to us tomorrow, which is quite a deal because it is definitely at the end of the season. We really don’t have to care though, because with the brooding house and the bunny brothel, we can have chicks all winter long if we want.
Anyway, all the present juvenile birds in the brooding house are ready to be shipped over into the bunny brothel today after (or before) we move the eggs around.

Ahhhh yes, then there is the issue of changing banks... say goodbye to the old and usher in a new one that doesn’t nickel and dime you with their inefficiencies. The bank we use now can’t give you an updated account balance that is correct anywhere! Ask them for a current account balance and they give you a figure, go around the corner of their building, to their ATM machine (still at their building) and you get another figure, then access that account on Vick’s Iphone, (while still sitting at the ATM) and you get a 3rd figure. When you have four accounts there...with money in each.....amounting to far more than any check you would write out, HOW in God’s name, could you have a deficiency problem with a written check? Why would you have to endure the embarrassment of explaining to a person you gave a check to that your checked bounced because the bank can’t keep their books updated? Nah....we’re outta there and on to a bank with state of the art electronic banking that functions correctly. SORRY BANK... not gonna pay unnecessary and ridiculous fees and penalties for your mistakes. Especially since they seem to happen all the time, repetitively, sorry, YOU LOSE!!

Monday Eve, Aug 3rd... Back and Hanging in There.... The MRI went well...

We were up early this morning to shower and get ready for the big MRI event at 10:00Am at GMA in Catskill. Made it on time and everything went well with that little venture..... It was a pretty tight squeeze in that little, vibrating rattletrap of a tube. I’m glad I’m not claustrophobic at all, because you are in there for a good half hour while they take picture after picture (I guess) Of course, we’ll now have to wait for the results to be sent to my doctor’s office in town, before I’ll know anything. That’s fine....sometimes I think I’m getting better daily anyway.

Just got back from having an after dinner dessert with our friend and renowned artist Stanley Maltzman. We like to spend as much time with Stan as we can, because he is a very special person. We have also learned a lot from him about art by spending time with him too. Joyce, his girl friend, was working this evening, so we went with Stan to keep him company and chat a bit.

I’ve been taking Celebrex ever since Marylou gave it to me last Friday and I think it might be reducing the inflammation in my back, which has been causing my torment with the sciatica of my right thigh. Perhaps since getting the MRI today and Marylou seeing that and the Celebrex, I might be able to get back to the hospice gift shop before too long. Boy I’d love to finish up all the work on it and we’ll be essentially completed. (I guess we were going to build a little turkey house on the end of the Bunny Brothel, but that’s a cinch.)

I’m sending the application for my “ten block” of ISBN#’s from Bowker.com. I have also purchased a UPC code for the poetry book I’m publishing first. This is quite an adventure for me to be publishing my own books through my publishing house “Skip Watt Publishing” which is marketed at http://www.skipwattbooks.com and can be seen there. The book is not yet completed, so is not yet available, but Vick and I are psyched!! How ultimately COOL!
Once my first book entitled “Poetry From the Heart - Unpretentious Notions of a Minimalistic Man” hits the book shelves, I will then begin publishing book# 2 which is a biography about Vicki and I and how the evolution of the farm. It is entitled, “It All Began With a Puppy... Our Uncommon Journey”. Once this book is completed and out, I’ll publish the biography I’m now writing, about me as a twelve year old, growing up in a tiny village on the edge of the Scotia Barrens, an old, deserted iron mine in Central Pennsylvania during the early sixties. Its title will be, “Life In the Barren World”, which is a pleasure for me to write...and Vick loves to proof read it. I think it will be a real hit with readers as it takes them back in time to their childhood too.

Sunday, Aug. 2nd... Another Rainy Day and Again My Back is Being Weird......

I got awake this morning at six o’clock and after taking a good minute to get myself from a prone position to sitting on the edge of the bed, I then limped my way into the bathroom. I have no idea what is going on here, but it appears that the enduring pain in my left calf and right thigh while walking, seems to be coming from my lower back. I’ve never had a back injury or anything worse than a sore back for a day or two until lately. Oh well.........little does it matter, because I am going into the tube Monday morning at 10:something in the morning. I’ve been in the MRI before, so there is no apprehension about that.......it doesn’t bother me at all, so after Monday, we’ll know what the old back bone looks like and maybe why we have all this leg pain, which is slowly progressing. The scary thing is that Vick knows I didn’t do anything capable of causing this, so what’s going on inside me that is making my legs ache? I know how Vick thinks and I can’t quell her worry.
Rain.....it’s raining here in upstate New York. Now that’s something we haven’t seen for a whole day! We need more rain, like a fish would need those little blow up water wings for kids, to help them swim! Everything around here is saturated and any drops that hit the ground now are destined for New York Harbor and believe me.....they will not stop anywhere along the way either. This was reportedly the wettest July in history for this part of New York, according to the news commentary the other day. We fear for the cost of hay for our Alpacas, which we should have gotten earlier.......because right now is not the time that we should be getting ours.....not right now, when I can’t walk well or do heavy work, and we won’t even think of the wife doing any of this kind of thing will we Vicki... my love and spinal decompression therapy survivor????
Anyway, what are we all to do? The farmer’s fields are so wet, that they probably won’t be able to get into them for the rest of the season, so any late planting will be out of the question and most of the crops that were being counted on for income, are rotted and lost. Yeah, Yeah, I know....this is where we complain about the cost of hay, produce and the trickle down effect of everything, which is dependant on all of the other things, but remember this one fact. It costs us more, but the farmer gets nothing for all the crops that rot and the days he cannot farm because he can’t get into his fields to work them. We pay more, but we’re still getting our income, which we must spend a little wiser........they don’t have any income to stretch! Hopefully they have some sort of crop insurance, because if they were farming and taking a chance with the weather, they’ve lost...big time this year.
I guess we’ll pay a little more for the hay, if we can find it and be happy we got it.