A Homesteaders Seasons

This is a repost from this summer.For those of you just beginning to get into homesteading, this is what you have to look forward to mentally.

The Hat Wears Me.

The heat has been almost too much to be bearable this summer. 108F can make the most optimistic person lose any and all enthusiasm. Can you imagine what it has been doing to me? Lucky enough we got a break, the temperature has dropped into the high 80's, making it possible to think again. Yesterday the rain drizzled and occasionally spewed down the entire day, making pleasant work for all of us. The boys ran around, screaming joyously until they fell in the mud, dizzy from the excursion.

The heat of course is bad on thoughts. You wonder why on Earth you do the things you do. Wasn't there joy in all of this at one point? Perhaps. Even after doing it for years, the heat wears on you, questioning what it was you actually thought you would accomplish by being this type of person. Once upon a time you were a suburban lounge about. Content in the central air and fruit smoothies. Then you went and pulled this stunt. Pushing yourself, hoping that in some way it all works the way you want it, but most of the time, it blows up in your face. But even in the heat, you must admit that those mistakes made you a better person, that you no longer harp on those mistakes and you no longer fear rejection. Some time ago, those things slipped away. Unfortunately the heat can bring it back in sweeps of emotional turmoil.

Then it cools, and the world looks and feels so much brighter. You have accomplished so much, you know this, you recognize it. And it no longer matters that you don't have an audience to applaud you. Did it ever really matter? Of course it did. There is just something about another person patting you on the back, telling you that you had done a good job. You can always get your accolades from the drool that suddenly appears dribbling from the mouths of the cattle you have spent months working with. When you see that, you know that what you have done was good. You accomplished something that hadn't happened before in these animals lives. You watch as your children no longer begrudgingly take on their chores. It doesn't matter to you that many of their friends have fewer or no chores, and it clicks with your children, it no longer matters to them either.

Babies are born, and you swell with pride, no matter what this creature's future holds. For you, in a very small way, helped this animal into being. It doesn't matter that you put hardly any work into it, this is your baby, it would have never come to be if it wasn't for you. You give it a name, and protect it fiercely, not once thinking what the future is for your baby. It sits there in the back of your mind, but you do what needs to be done to make sure that your baby has a wonderful life, healthy and happy until the future creeps up.

The heat always returns. The flies come back in full force, gnawing at your animals and biting you as you sit in the over heated barn. Thoughts turn dull again, you go through the day on autopilot not really caring about much except finding a breeze or maybe stripping down completely and sitting in a cattle tank. Modesty goes away in the heat, and who cares if the neighbors can see, it will give them something to talk about over their iced tea. And you can be assured that you will get a sly smile and a wink when you see them in town.

With the heat so persistent, the vegetables come in. Much more than you can safely keep in a fridge. Canning season rushes up on you. And of course you find yourself slightly unprepared. Are we ever truly ready for the canning frenzy that is about to commence? Sometimes, but never mentally. You know it's there, you do it every year. But that heat! You only make things worse by turning every burner you have on. It maybe only 101F outside, but the house reaches 115F before you know it. Now the thrill of canning season is sucked out of you. It becomes a chore. You knew all along you would have to do this, but you behave as though it is the bestest thing evah! You forgetful fool.

Fall descends and you finally get to sit back and take in everything you accomplished. Pictures are taken and the Internet is full of gorgeous jars of food. Every where you turn, one person is attempting to out do another. Look at my shinny jars of food stuff! Aren't I amazing? I wasn't when I created it, but now that the heat is gone, I am. The coolness of the fall brings in all the optimism you had lost in the summer. You are amazed at the things you did through that heat. It doesn't matter if it was old hat, and you have a foggy recollection of doing it.

Winter, and the brutal cold emerges. You curse and spit at mother nature for constantly preforming this cruel joke. You go about your chores, bundled against the elements that thrust their bitterness at you, and you long for the spring and the summer's heat. Seed catalogs arrive in the coldest of January, and you picture yourself in your bountiful garden, your skin no longer the winter pale, but the color of clover honey. The sun radiant on your face, but you neglect to remember that detail of sweat and heat exposure. We like to forget, and only remember the good parts of it all. The heat will return, and you fall right back into the rhythm of autopilot and lose the focus of the actual bliss that is happening around you. But you know, it's ok. You will remember when the cold assaults you, as we always do.

War between Israel and Iran in the next 6 months?

Abd Al-Bari 'Atwan, editor of the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, wrote in a February 13 editorial that if Israel attacks Iran, Syria is likely to respond with a brutal attack against it: "[Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's declaration that his country is a 'nuclear nation'... and that it can enrich uranium to above 80%, exposes the real aim of Iran's nuclear program – that is, to produce nuclear warheads.In a phone conversation with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, he demanded that Syria wage war against Israel and eliminate this country if it launches an attack in the region (on Iran). In my view, this is the most important development, particularly in light of the fact that [Ahmadinejad's] demand comes at a time of stepped-up preparations for war [by Israel]...

"I don't know how President Assad responded to the requests of his Iranian colleague and ally, but according to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Mu'allem, it appears that he felt that the explosion was imminent...

Egyptian MP Muhammad 'Ali Ibrahim, editor of the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya, wrote in his editorial that Iran has already made the first move towards war, but that only U.S. President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu know when it will actually break out and what it will entail.

"Iran is interested in this war, because it sees it as an opportunity to suppress its [domestic] opposition and accuse it of cooperating with the West. [It also hopes that] the shared sense of danger will prompt the Iranians to unite around their leadership. The U.S. is also interested in the war, because it will enable it to sell advanced weapons to the countries of the region, to impose its air defense umbrella on the Gulf states, and to determine oil prices independently of OPEC...

"The most salient element in Iran's responses is Ahmadinejad's assessment that a war will break out in the spring or summer, and his threats that if Israel attacks, the resistance and the countries of the region will crush it. He has also threatened that if new sanctions are [imposed] on his country in response to its nuclear program, he will cause the superpowers to regret it.

Read the entire article here at MEMRI>>>

From ABC News;


Israel's air force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and could fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting rival Iran within its range. Read entire article here>>>

Unfortunately, no matter what these two Countries decide, we as the US, will be forced to be involved. If our Presdent will actually stick up to our core beliefs and that we as a Country have always supported Israel. The Arab Countries are very concerned about this war, and in turn, so should we. We are of course talking about nuclear war. Let us hope that it ends before it really begins, but personally I have my doubts, and we will see a war. Iran seems set on bringing about Armageddon. Keep your eyes open.

What if Nothing Happens?

A great post from the American Preppers Network Homepage.

Here's an excellent article submitted by our member Cin

What if nothing happens?

My husband asked on a long drive one day. He was speaking rhetorically of course, but it is something that made me think. We had miles to travel and nothing else to do, so we talked about it for a while.

We’ve prepped enough that we can make a stand or bug out if needed. We have the beans, bullets and bandages. We’ve modified the homestead to take care of our needs, on-grid or off. We have a running creek that shouldn’t dry up, but have stored water, just in case. We have a woodstove and firewood. We have enough food in the pantry to take care of ourselves and a few others. I’ve experimented enough with cooking from storage that I’m comfortable with it. There are plenty of simple medications and herbals to take care of colds, injuries and even a few life-threatening wounds. (However, I still need to update my Red Cross certification).

We have BOB bags in the car, the garage and good camping equipment kept in an easily reachable area in case we have to move quickly. Even our dogs have packs to carry.

Last year, a major hurricane in Houston , Texas took out thousands of homes, left people in Red Cross shelters for several weeks, and resulted in people still working to this day to repair all the damage done. A friend on the ground there called with updates. She was prepared for 2 weeks. After that, her life became a round of driving around looking for gas, food and water. Rumors flew and she was often hopping in the car to run down to another store to get water/food. She managed to make it to work, and found tips on where gas stations were that still had gas. Roof damage in her apartment complex put water in her ceiling lights, and caused mold to grow down her walls. A crack in the walls appeared above her fireplace due to the weight of a tree on the roof. It took over 6 months to have the damage repaired, when the power came back on. Why? Because every contractor and subcontractor was tapped out. Maintenance people were worth their weight in gold.

She volunteered at one of the shelters. People had nothing, they didn’t have extra clothes, or food…nothing. Because the shelter didn’t have facilities beyond toilets and washbasins, she said no one bathed. The shelter eventually set up portable showers but they were inadequate for the number of folk being sheltered. Businesses donated T-shirts and pants so the people could change clothes, at least. She came home exhausted and discouraged by how unprepared those people were.

Read the entire article here>>>

While we live, let us live!

I was just watching a program, and something occurred to me, too many people take too many things too seriously.

Now I am not saying that you shouldn't take preparedness seriously. You have your kits in your trunk, you have the routine of checking and rechecking things, you buy a little extra food to store away, but what about your emotional preparedness?

If you harp too much on what you are preparing for, you might miss out on the adventures of it all. You might get depressed, or angry. You might loss faith in people or in yourself.

What is the point of preparing for something that may never happen? It is never about what might not be, but what it could be. Prepping itself can teach you life skills that you would not have ventured to discover in another way. Preparedness is full of educational skill, lost arts, and personal fulfillment, if only you play your cards right. If you only buy the foods or ammo, plan your escape routes, dig out a shelter, what is the purpose to life?

When you are on you path to preparedness, take a moment to discover a hobby besides food buying or map memorizing. (although I must say that there is a sadistic pleasure in map reading)

Play

Look

Listen

Breath

Life is happening full force around you, do you want to miss any of it just because something may happen? Of course not. Balance is key to it all. Make prepping a habit, but take on learning new skills with a flourish of excitement and energy. Do not learn a skill that you find tedious or boring. When canning, try new things to create gourmet masterpieces that can be stored away.

There are some great old school skills that you can learn, and perhaps it will lead to you making a little money on the side.

For example, I make chainmaille. Not much use in this modern world, but I can make a great fishing net. I make jewelry and garments for people and animals. But I also cook and bake, desserts are my specialty, using turn of the 20th century recipes, only modified and I use only locally grown ingredients (except chocolate). I grow many of the ingredients I use, gardening is an interesting hobby to say the least. Top that off with animal husbandry and good like minded friends and I would say my life is hardly boring.

Weather you are interested in blacksmithing, candle making, cooking/baking, weaving, or cobbling, it is never too late to learn and enjoy.

Never fret over what may never be, for you will never be happy. And above a, prepare for the worse, and foresee the best.

Comments

Comment moderation has been turned on. Not my choice mind you.

I do not like comment moderation because it leads to issues about "Why are you not allowing just anyone to comment", and the such. I like comments, both good and bad, as it gives me a sense of what you are thinking and what I should be sharing.

Now, how this will go about, all comments good or bad will be posted. However spam will not be. If you hate me and want to tell me so, go for it, I will post it. If you love me and you know it clap your hands. . . I mean say so and it will be posted.

Proof is in the pudding you say. Well take a look at the comment I left alone on the Post entitled The Misnomer of Civilian Assault rifles.

"You effing honkys who don't think so are ignorant trailer trash sister loving idiots."

of course this person informed us how ill educated and dangerous he is by continuing to talk, I allowed it, and chose not to respond. The quote is edited because of the family oriented status of this blog.

If you feel that your reply was not posted and you want to know why, or if maybe I over looked it, please email me. You can find the address on the sidebar, Phelan. Just please give me a day or so before the onslaught of you effing witch start coming in. I am not always around to approve messages.

The reason for the moderation is because of the shear amount of spam that we have been suffering from.

This Day in 1861

Kansas became the 34th State. But of course we had to go through a very nasty period of war before that could happen. Kansas was set up not to be a Free State, but a Choice State. Kansans would have the power to decide.

A Mass. Senator Named Charles Sumner gave an interesting speech on the States behalf in 1856 called "The Crime Against Kansas" This prompted a Congressman named Preston Brooks from South Carolina to beat Senator Sumner with a cane as he sat at his desk. It took 3 years for Senator Sumner to recover from that attack.

MR. PRESIDENT:-- You are now called to redress a great transgression. Seldom in the history of nations has such a question been presented. Tariffs, army bills, navy bills, land bills, are important, and justly occupy your care; but these all belong to the course of ordinary legislation. As means and instruments only, they are necessarily subordinate to the conservation of Government itself. Grant them or deny them, in greater or less degree, and you will inflict no shock. The machinery of Government will continue to move. The State will not cease to exist. Far otherwise is it with the eminent question now before you, involving, as it does, Liberty in a broad Territory, and also involving the peace of the whole country with our good name in our history for evermore.

Take down your map, sir, and you will find that the Territory of Kansas, more than any other region, occupies the middle spot of North America, equally distant from the Atlantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west; from the frozen waters of Hudson's Bay on the north, and the tepid Gulf Stream on the south, constituting the precise territorial centre of the whole vast continent. To such advantages of situation, on the very highway between two oceans, are added a soil of unsurpassed richness, and a fascinating, undulating beauty of surface, with a health-giving climate, calculated to nurture a powerful and generous people, worthy to be a central pivot of American Institutions. A few short months only have passed since this spacious mediterranean country was open only to the savage, who ran wild in its woods and prairies; and now it has already drawn to its bosom a population of freemen larger than Athens crowded within her historic gates, when her sons, under Miltiades, won Liberty for mankind on the field of Marathon; more than Sparta contained when she ruled Greece, and sent forth her devoted children , quickened by a mother's benediction, to return with their shields or on them; more than Rome gathered on her seven hills, when, under her kings, she commenced that sovereign sway, which afterwards embraced the whole earth; more than London held, when, on the fields of Crecy and Agincourt, the English banner was carried victoriously over the chivalrous hosts of France.

Against this Territory, thus fortunate in position and population, a crime has been committed, which is without example in the records of the Past. Not in plundered provinces or in the cruelties of selfish governors will you find its parallel; and yet there is an ancient instance, which may show at least the path of justice. In the terrible impeachment by which the great Roman orator has blasted through all time the name of Verres, amidst charges of robbery and sacrilege, the enormity which most aroused the indignant voice of his accuser, and which still stands forth with strongest distinctness, arresting the sympathetic indignation of all who read the story, is that away in Sicily he had scourged a citizen of Rome -- that the cry "I am a Roman citizen" had been interposed in vain against the lash of the tyrant governor. Other charges were that he had carried away productions of art, and that he had violated the sacred shrines. It was in the presence of the Roman Senate that this arraignment proceeded, in a temple of the forum; amidst crowds -- such as no orator had ever before drawn together -- thronging the porticos and colonades, even clinging to the housetops and neighboring slopes, and under the anxious gaze of witnesses summoned from the scene of the crime. But an audience grander far, of higher dignity, of more various people and of wider intelligence, the countless multitude of succeeding generations in every land where eloquence has been studied, or where the Roman name has been recognised, has listened to the accusation, and throbbed with condemnation of the criminal. Sir, speaking in an age of light, and in a land of constitutional liberty, where the safeguards of elections are justly placed among the highest triumphs of civilization, I fearlessly assert that the wrongs of much-abused Sicily, thus memorable in history, were small by the side of the wrongs of Kansas, where the very shrines of popular institutions, more sacred than any heathen altar, have been desecrated; where the ballot box, more precious than any work, in ivory or marble, from the cunning hand of art, has been plundered; and where the cry "I am an American citizen" has been interposed in vain against outrage of every kind, even upon life itself. Are you against sacrilege? I present it for your execration. Are you against robbery? I hold it up to your scorn. Are you for the protection of American citizens? I show you how their dearest rights have been cloven down, while a tyrannical usurpation has sought to install itself on their very necks.

But the wickedness which I now begin to expose is immeasurably aggravated by the motive which prompted it. Not in any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its origin. It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of Slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved longing for a new slave State, the hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government. Yes, sir, when the whole world, alike Christian and Turk, is rising up to condemn this wrong, and to make it a hissing to the nations, here in our Republic, force -- aye, Sir, FORCE, -- has been openly employed in compelling Kansas to this pollution, and all for the sake of political power. There is the simple fact, which you will vainly attempt to deny, but which in itself presents an essential wickedness that makes other public crimes seem like public virtues.

It is a very long speech You can read it in it's entirety here at Furman EDU.

Of course none of this has anything to do with prepping. Or does it? Isn't there a saying out there "Those who fail to lean from history are doomed to repeat it"

enjoy Kansas' Birthday! And stay warm, I think there might be a little snow out there (4 inches here)

Personal Experience in Recalling Learned, not practiced, skills

I am going to share something very personal with you. But it is relevant to prepping It is about not having the practiced skills, but reading or seeing something and recalling it at the appropriate time. I have said over and over that prepping doesn't mean that you have to learn all the skills necessary, you just need to be able to retain the info.

I found out I was pregnant with my first son on my 18th birthday. I wasn't scared or upset. I was in love with a man that was wonderful at the time. We were struggling of course, but happy none the less. I quit smoking, I quit everything that was nasty for your health. I saw my doctor regularly and did everything right

My due date was still 3 months away when I got sick. I made a doctors appointment for two days later. Then the pain started. No one had told me about back labor, so I had no idea what was happening. I suffered through it. Suddenly my water broke. We had just moved into a new place, and didn't have a phone. The man I was with ran next door to use their phone and while he was gone, I gave birth, alone, on my bathroom floor.

He was so small and sounded like a kitten mewing. I stuck my finger in his mouth, and stroked his sides keeping him annoyed to keep him crying. Crying=breathing.

The man I was with returned, and almost passed out as he saw me, and his new son sitting on the floor. I snapped at him and told him to get me something to tie the cord off with and something sharp to cut. He neglected to turn on any lights, and I could hear things being thrown around. He returned with a knife and a shoe lace.

I told him where and how to tie off the cord, and told him not to cut it. He followed my orders perfectly.

The EMS workers arrived, and the first thing they asked was how did I know to do all that I had done. I told them. . .

I watch way too much Rescue 911.

They chuckled. And later I was told that all the things I had done in the first few moments of life gave my son a better chance to survive.

He died at 1 month old.

But I did help him and did give him a better start, all because I had retained some idle time information.

And that is what I hope to bring to all of you.

( for those of you curious about why I went into labor early. I had the flu. . severe. . . and they think that my body reacted like the pregnancy was the problem and attempted to abort it)

Are you Prepared for Jail?

I have had this discussion with my family as well as many friends. I am prepared to go to jail. There are some things in life that you must stand up for, things that you are so passionate about that you will refuse to abide a new law that makes little sense. And as long as you hurt no one or destroy property for what you deem is right, you are in the right.

I am prepared to go to jail over NAIS. Have been for a few years now. Some of my fellow homesteaders and ranchers that I have talked to are also prepared to go. We request that we can all be on the same cell block. We realize that we will lose everything if NAIS becomes mandatory and we don't comply with it. But we also know that we will lose everything even if we do comply. There just isn't the money for us to do this thing. With Cap and trade about to be passed, adding an extra $1400 to our utility bills, the extra $45 per animal isn't going to be there. And those of us that raise natural livestock will lose out on that one thing "natural". Not to mention the loss of privacy, and the power the USDA will wield over us.

Wendel Berry had the same thoughts, and told them at a NAIS town meeting.

I understand the principles of civil disobedience, from Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King. And I’m willing to go to jail to defend the young people who, I hope, will still have a possibility of becoming farmers on a small scale in this supposedly free country. Thanks you very much. (applause, cheers)

Read his entire statement here on Farm-to-consumer Legal defense.

The 13th amendment reads—
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.


I am prepared, Mr Berry is prepared, but are you?

Misunderstanding

Pardon me, but I feel a little chatty today.

I have noticed that there seems to be a huge misunderstanding out in the world. Much more than I have seen in the past. Things look ugly, and feel tense. People for some reason feel a need to spew their hate without acknowledging the fact that it is indeed what they are doing.

I can't not lump individuals into a solitary group. I know too many people that claim to belong to a certain "group" yet don't fully identify, or defer in opinion with that group, for me to do so.

I watch several different news stations. If they can be called news anymore. And have noticed a theme of us against them. Why? I have my opinions, you have yours, I will not call you names to feel better about my views. But even when our own President attacks his own people, I get concerned. All of us should.

We claim to be a melting pot, yet we treat each other as enemies. For whatever reason, some people feel that it isn't ok to be this melting pot. And no I am not just talking about Neo-Nazi's or KKK members. I am talking about anyone that feels the need to attack any group of individuals because of their belief. And I am talking about the tea parties being mocked by their own government.

And then there is this story;
World Net Daily

"On April 10, 2009, Good Friday, a female countyemployee came to the Joneses' residence. The county employee appeared in the front yard and proceeded to take pictures of our clients' home," the letter said. "She noticed the Joneses' daughters in the front yard and asked to speak with their mother. Although she did not provide any paper work or identification, subsequent information obtained by the WCLP leads us to believe that the county employee who went to the Joneses' residence was Code Enforcement Officer Cherie Cham."

"Do you have a regular weekly meeting in your home? Do you sing? Do you say 'amen'?" the official reportedly asked. "Do you say, 'Praise the Lord'?

The pastor's wife answered yes.

She says she was then told, however, that she must stop holding "religious assemblies" until she and her husband obtain a Major Use Permit from the county, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top tens of thousands of dollars.

What? Now this is bad, very bad. We can not continue to criticize the American people, nor should we penalize anyone for their beliefs. What happened to the America I grew up in? I never thought I would see the day where my President doesn't have my back.

I grew up in a Marxist household. A household that taught the religion where for people that were afraid to die. I grew up in a house that believed in Socialized medicine, that taught a civil war of class was coming. I remember being told that when the middle class is no more, people will riot. This was out of the mouths of socialists. They were for the people, they believed that the government should help run their lives to an extent, but not as much as what has been happening over the past several years. These people also encourage us to test the world, to seek out individuals with differing opinions, to learn from them and teach them. To try different religions to see if any of them fit our life. None of that was discouraged. Now I see a man that many people are calling a Marxist, not behaving as one. Marxism looks good on paper, but not in life.

I grew up and moved on from that system of belief, and many of the others that use to sit around our kitchen table have as well. They learned to embrace America with all her flaws, and conflicts. You become a much happier person when that happens.

America is a melting pot. Legal immigrants teach us new things, and we teach them. We are allowed to voice our opinions without being labeled and placed on a list. And I have been on a list for years because of my parents. I have no fear of it. If they come for me, so be it. I went from the communist list and probably on the terrorist list now. It makes little difference, once your on the list you stay on it, the header changes with the times, but little else,besides more names.

I can accept our President and the Congress for their opinions. Mine differ from theirs. I never call them names, or ridicule. No wait, I have said that the House was behaving like toddlers and they should stand in the corner for timeout. I disagree with many things that comes out of different speakers mouths, but that doesn't give me the right to personally attack them.

As preppers the only thing we really have in common is a boyscout motto. Not every one that writes for the Network is Christian, or conservative, or loons. Some don't own guns, some are survivalists and some are homesteaders. If we are able to get along, with our vast differences, the same types of differences that polarize other groups, why can't we be respected, and given the acknowledgment that we are entitled to our opinions? Only one thing brings us together. We have found that common ground and respect each other because of that. What is the need to bash and harshly criticize another for opinions? Now when we are talking about laws that will negatively affect us as a person or nation, that is fair game. We all want our rights for personal freedom, for our personal choices to matter to us, to be allowed to live the life that our founding father's envisioned for us. But they also envisioned the downfall of our lifestyles.

We now take too much for granted. We have been taught to be self indulgent, we have been taught that there is no need to fight for ourselves and that we needn't struggle. And even though I grew up in a Marxist home, there were somethings that were so ingrained into my parents that they unwittingly taught me. We love Israel, and will always stand up for them, you work hard to get things in life, work makes you a better person, education and work ethic make you stronger, that you have to stand up for yourself and your beliefs with out resorting to mockery, that we are a free nation and although I don't like your opinion I respect it, that your duty is to serve your Country, and that freedom isn't free.

The Greatest War, the Greatest Generation

My father, who was not in WWII, lay dieing in his hospice room. Next to him another man lie dying. I remember my father fondly of course. The years he spent raising me, the hours he spent cheering me, and the weeks he spent with my family before he died. The stranger that he shared his room with also left an impression.

His name was Norman. And to be honest I don't recall if it was his last or first name, but as we were in a V.A. I assumed it was his last. And we never properly introduced ourselves.

Norman and my father spent hours talking, while my father could still breath. My father told Norman and I the role the Navy really took at the Bay of Pigs, and never once acted as if it was a defeat. He told Norman about some of the pranks that the crew would play on one of the Destroyers my father was stationed on, the USS Charles S Sperry. Norman was a stoic man. Listened while my father prattled on, never interrupting and seemed generally happy to listen to my father.

Norman was Airborne, he was there on D-Day. He would whisper stories here and there to my father. It was a way for them to top one another. Neither talked about horrors, or honors for that matter. It was always about their friends. They would smile and laugh, you could hear their laughter down the quiet halls.

Norman survived Normandy, only to out live everyone in his family. His wife, his beloved, whose picture sat on the window sill smiled back at me, died years before. She was his first and only love. And sometimes you could feel that Norman was jealous of his wife, she had died before his two sons did. Their military photos had their own place of honor on the brightly lit window sill. A handsome family to say the least.

Norman never complained. But he was alone. I was his only visitor besides the occasional VFW volunteer, or candy striper. He would smile politely, but seemed annoyed that they would be there. I hoped that he never got annoyed with me, but I was dutifully there, next to my father every day. I walked the halls, greeting and smiling to the other hospice patients. All of whom had seen one war or another.

I never saw photos of grandchildren, so I assumed that he was indeed the last of his blood. No flowers came, or gifts for various holidays were visible at the time of my visits. Norman was all alone. Most of the men in the VA were alone. Rarely did I run into another visitor. I held all the boys attention, smoking and talking out front, the boys were happy to tell me their stories, and the stories of their friends that died years upon years before. The glistening wet of their fondness often appeared in their eyes. But not Norman's, as I said, he was stoic about his death, and the fondness of fallen comrades.

Norman had the capacity to complain, but he never used it in front of me. It was how they were raised. You take your lot in life, and make the best of it. A lesson we should all take from them.

Norman died shortly after my father, no one sat vigil at his bedside. Something that I would later feel guilt about. Even though Norman would have never complained about it. He was and still in my thoughts.

We remember these soldiers on this day. But for how long? Will there come a point that we are so blase about war, and about the boys we send. Will we rewrite chapters of history to make them seem like they were the bad guys? Will we apologize for their actions? Or will we take time now to meet the boys that are left with us, not just the ones alone, but the ones with a room full of family? Will we seek out our beloved boys to thank them, to tell them that they are our hero's? Will we sit quietly and allow them to tell us about their lives, their friends, their loves? Will we promise them face to face that we will not forget them nor their friends that they hold so dear?

I silently promised Norman, I would never forget him.

The Decline of our Personal worth

I have been thinking a lot lately about the differences of homesteaders verses Preppers. The simplest definition I could think of was that homesteaders prepare for winter, and let the chips fall where they may, while preppers prepare for anything and everything. This of course lead me to the thought of do I really wish to associate myself with the preppers movement? Do I really want to be singled out and placed on some kind of list just because I think like a boyscout? Then I remembered I am more than likely already on a list, has something to do with a hippie mother that was arrested and had a little red book in her possession. I remember men showing up to our house years after the fact, questioning my parents and my siblings as well as me. I was rather young, and don't remember the entire thing, but my family was labeled communists.

After 9/11 I stopped flying on planes. Not because of what happened, but because I am certain that my family name is on a watch list. I grew up on planes. My father worked for a major airline. I love flying, simple. But I don't wish to be intimidated by those that think they are in charge, those that think they know me, know my family because of one arrest so many years ago.

My family name lead to other thoughts, the IRA. I remember a time when we as Americans applauded the IRA. When we supported them, and didn't have terrorist ideas of the group. Didn't Clinton even donate money to them? We knew they were blowing up buildings, but they were empty and people were not harmed, at that time. How quickly our thoughts change. We no longer saw them as fighting for their country's freedom, something we did once ourselves, we started to see them as a terrorist organization. And yes, I do know the history, I know what they have done, but that isn't what I am speaking about. It is the American mind set that I am pondering.

This then leads me to Israel. I have noticed a decline in support. This shocks me. When did we stop loving Israel? When did we start feeling like they might be the bad guy. At this point in our history we would not allow Mexico to attempt to reclaim parts of our country, yet the sentiment seems that Israel should give up most of their land. That they are in the wrong. Once again the American people aren't doing their own research, their own thinking. We should be ashamed.

I fear for our future. Not because of any other reason but how our thinking is drastically changing in so sort of a time frame. We forget our recent history, or fail to learn it. It almost feels like as a mass we think along the lines of being failures. That we will never be greater than what we once were, that there is no need to fight because we will just fail. And then, then there is our children, many of which have instant gratification issues, and I deserve mentalities. When did any of us actually deserve anything? When did wining become a sin? Not everybody can come in first.

Good try people, but you lose. And I will not be handing out participation ribbons. Earn your respect, earn your responsibilities, earn your worth, and earn your rights and freedoms.