To the rescue!

I love men! I especially love country men! Here's why.

My girls are visiting friends and my husband was out of town today. I had a rare afternoon to myself to write, clean house, do some barn chores, and batten down some hatches because snow is expected tonight. Nothing unusual. Everything was fine.

A few days ago we moved the cattle from their summer pasture to the wooded side of our property. This way they have access to our limited barn space in bad weather. The older animals are used to the routine, but it's all new to this year's calves, who have never been in the wooded side before.

Then Beefy, our little four-month-old bull calf, escaped. (A neighbor notes that most fences are merely decorative, and I concur.) It's impossible for a lone person to herd a wily little bull calf who doesn't want to be herded and doesn't know where to go. After an hour of increasing frustration (with all the rest of the cattle bellowing in sympathy and looking ready to jump fences themselves), I called the neighbors on one side to get help. No one home. I called the neighbors on the other side. No one home. I called a third neighbor. Not home. Since I was now out of neighbors, I called a friend who lives a mile away and asked if I could borrow her husband to help me herd Beefy back inside the woods.

"I'm in town right now," she said (they only have cell phones, no land lines), "but I'll tell Chris to go over the moment I get home."

I thanked her and tried to calm down. (So much for my quiet peaceful afternoon.)

Within ten minutes I saw an ATV coming down the road. Then another. Then a truck. Then another truck. Up pulls Chris. And Dallas (another neighbor). And Spencer (Chris's son). And Sam (a friend). Then Zack and Nathan (Sam's sons). Suddenly I had six strapping men and teenage boys, all come to my rescue!

"When you put out the alarm, we don't mess around!" announced Chris with a grin.

With so many willing hands, little Beefy didn't stand a chance. He was back with his mama in five minutes.

Oh, I just LOVE country men!

Vulgar chuckle du jour

Okay, so I contracted a bad cold a couple days ago. I've been going through the week in a haze of coughing and aching and snorting and hacking and being unable to think clearly (you know how it goes). This morning I needed some brain candy so I started trolling the People of Walmart website.

First thing up was a photo so painful to look at that I decided I needed an aspirin:


But this one caught me by surprise. I was so shocked I immediately went into a coughing/hacking phase:


I think I'll go back to bed now.

No no! Entitlements good!

In response to last weekend's column in which I lamented the desire for people to get entitlements for everything from starting a business to getting health care, I received the following email:
_________________________


You have better wake up to the realities of the 21st Century. There are no jobs out there and those few good jobs that do exist are going to the minorities and overseas workers due to diversity, Affirmative Action and visas (Over 70% of the new jobs are going to illegal aliens).

You are writing about the realities of the time prior to President Ronald Reagan. This was the president who changed everything and put America on the skids from which we will never recover.

President Reagan was the person who with his amnesty program opened the door to the fifty million illegal aliens and their stealing of tens of millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of our welfare dollars.

This is the president who with his Free Trade policies allowed tens of millions of our good jobs to go overseas and to Mexico, resulting in tens of millions of Americans settling for jobs paying half of their former wages. And this is the president who violated the civil service laws and had tens of thousands of tenured Federal employees thrown out in the streets, never to get a good job again. (I was one.)

Wake up, sister. You have been living in the woods too long.
___________________________

I'm sitting here trying to wrap my mind around the idea that this guy is still blaming Ronald Reagan for his inability to get another job that paid as well as his government job. Uh, sir, it's been 21 years since Reagan left office. And you haven't been able to "get a good job" since then? Have you considered going back to school or something?

Which leads back to my original point in the article: Why are YOU entitled to MY help in obtaining a job?

Just asking.

Dexter affairs

Sorry for the silence! I've been slammed with multiple deadlines this week. I had my usual column due last Friday, another one due next Friday, an article due this morning for Crafts Report Magazine, and I had an (ahem) exciting mystery surprise also due last Friday (I won't report yet what it is, but keep your fingers crossed - it could be good news).

But my biggest shindig at the moment is putting the finishing touches on the layout for a quarterly magazine I do for the Purebred Dexter Cattle Association. This is a big issue, sixty pages. It was technically due today but I'm not quite finished.

Those are our cattle on the front cover. I took the picture two winters ago when we were still baling round instead of square bales. The bales look enormous but that's only because they're up close. In reality they're only about five feet high.

A Christmas Wish

’Twas the month before Christmas
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ‘Holiday.’
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS
Not Happy Holiday!

Not a good day

We had to put our cat to sleep this morning.




We got Hopi as a tiny kitten on the weekend of July 4th, 1996 when our oldest daughter was six months old. We named him Hopi because he had the colors of the southwest in him - blue eyes, white and orange fur. Gorgeous animal.







Hopi has been an indoor cat for the last few years. He went missing on Saturday, and I found him around midnight Saturday night. He'd managed to crawl behind a stack of books in a spare bedroom. One leg wasn't working properly. I thought at first he had dislocated it, but when I brought him to the vet this morning, she said it was probably blood clots, and the leg was essentially dead. He also had congestive heart failure, failing lungs, and a host of other difficulties.

It all happened so quick. It's hard to believe I never have to kick him off my keyboard again. Or that he won't be sneaking under the covers on our bed on a cold winter night. Up to this point he looked like a perfectly healthy cat - like an elderly statesman, dignified and a bit goofy.

Damn.

A unique point of view

In last week’s column, I invited people to tell me why they thought the Constitution was flawed or unfair, or with what parts they disagree. The following email is among the most unique opinion I think I've ever heard with regard to our government. I received permission from the writer to post it on my blog.
___________________

I am someone who is an oddity. I happen to think the Constitution is flawed, and limited, and do disagree with the US Founding Fathers on a great many issues, particularly Thomas Jefferson. That said, I am not a Liberal. I'm a Loyalist, who is very attached to my British Ancestry, and who cannot morally accept the American Revolution as I see it as simple Treason against the legal Government, and who also believes that most of the complaints against the Crown by the Rebels were not valid, and believe that the legitimate Grievances could have been settled by peaceful means.

I do not love Democracy. In fact, neither did the US Founders. However, I’m not a Republican either. I think Elected Governance and Republican rule is simply not efficient, and, contrary to conventional wisdom, I don’t link it to freedom as a necessary component. I believe we can be free to live in Liberty even under a Monarchy.

I am a Constitutional Monarchist, who believes that the old (Not new) Parliamentary system works best, in which we have unelected Lords, some Hereditary, some Spiritual, and some appointed, should be a component to Government. Oddly the US Founders wouldn’t disagree as much on this, except the Hereditary Peerage, and possibly the Spiritual Peerage. It wasn’t until 1913 that Senators where elected anyway.

That said, I would also reverse the Order, save for some laws. I'd let the Commons (representatives) decide tax laws, and a few other civil matters, but would allow the King (or Queen) to make all laws, whilst setting in the Lords. The Lords would debate laws and create them, and the King approve, or else the King would create the law, and see if the Lords approve.

Then it would be passed to the elected Representatives to either accept the law as-is, or to not accept, and if not accepted, to either reject it outright, or amend it. Thus I'd reverse the order, preserving rule by Consent of the Governed, but allowing the Government to be separate from the concerns I see as spoiling of the political process.

I do not think that choosing our leaders based solely on a Popularity contest works, and Barrack Obama is living proof that Charismatic figures who can capture the imagination can easily win even with no credentials or skills.

I instead favor either a King appointed for life based upon merit, or Hereditary succession, in which people are raised to rule.

I'd also favor a Neo-Feudalist system in which our individual rights are safeguarded, but in which most things are local, not centrally controlled by a remote capitol miles away.

I've given my strongest case, as you said to be brief, but can elaborate if you'd like me to.

I do love your column though, and you are on my top three of the WND columnists. Unlike the Liberals who berate you, I can at least respect, and try to understand, the views you hold civilly. I just disagree with elected Government and Republicanism in General. I also disagree with Revolutionaries who overthrow just laws.