Good morning! Yesterday was a
fairly uneventful day. Joanna went with Zak to work and they dropped Cedric off
to spend the day and night with Nick and whoever else was going to be there.
The only thing I managed to really do was make turkey chowder for supper and
get the dishes done. Well, plus the usual feeding of the animals which isn’t
much of an accomplishment but does help keep them alive.
Speaking of such things, the
goats have a heated water bucket. They had a five gallon bucket but it died so
now they are using the two gallon bucket. It works but is smaller and they need
it filled every day rather than every other day. It’s kind of funny how it
works. One day, I took a gallon out (I use a gallon pitcher because I never
know how much I’m going to need—sometimes one gallon is enough and I wouldn’t
want to lug more out there if it wasn’t needed) and dumped it in. By the time I
got out with a second, they’d emptied the bucket so I took a third out.
Yesterday, I took a gallon out and they still had half a bucket. Today, the
bucket was empty but they were more interested in food than water so they only
needed one more. Silly goats.
The turkey chowder turned out
pretty good. I like it when it turns out, I don’t like it when it doesn’t. It’s
a good way to use the turkey broth that gets generated when I boil a carcass
after we have turkey and it’s a good way to use quite a bit of turkey if we
have any left over. The only problem is that it doesn’t use all of the broth so
I suppose I should get out the pressure cooker and start canning what is left
so that we don’t waste anything. Yesterday, I just gave most of what was left
to Scooter.
Seth and Joseph were pretty
good. It’s amazing what a difference it makes not having one child here. Cedric
and Amena just won’t quit once they get going at each other and it is something
that either one of them could stop if they just made the decision to do so. I
think it’s just a really bad habit they’ve developed that needs to be broken.
Especially when it carries over to others. Yesterday there was a fairly brief
time of Seth picking on Joseph. Not happening, boys. Anyway, it’s just
different when one of them isn’t here; it isn’t just Cedric.
Today is a very pretty day outside
with the sun shining and ice everywhere. It never got warm enough to melt
everything so we’ve still got a layer of slippery ice all over the ground. The
steps at least were deiced but not the driveway. We are supposed to be getting
a big storm Thursday and Friday which might play havoc with Amena’s planned
birthday parties. She is planning one Thursday night for her church friends and
one Friday night for her school friends. I personally don’t like to cancel or
reschedule so far in advance because the weather isn’t cut and dry. Even though
a big storm is predicted, it might not be as bad as they say, it might not even
happen. Only time will tell and I’m not willing to bet anything on a forecast
of the weather. I probably should tell parents that if the weather is as bad as
the reports indicate, we will reschedule but that we will make the call closer
to time.
Tonight we are planning a candy
and chip and dip extravaganza for New Year’s Eve. I think the plan is for four
kinds of dip and at least two kinds of candy (I have to make more caramel—can you
believe it?). To some that might not be overly extravagant but it’ll do for us.
Have you seen the blurb about
gun control that goes like this: “Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk
driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.”? For fun, I looked
up the numbers. There are almost 29,000 gun related deaths in the US. This
number includes suicide, homicide (including those killed by law enforcement but
we won’t get into that right now), accident, and unknown reasons. Motor
vehicles result in more than 40,000 deaths each year. Really? That’s food for
thought. Here’s the real kicker: an estimated 443,000 people die each year from
cigarettes. You know what’s really sad about that number? About 42,000 of them
die because of second hand smoke. Do you see anything wrong with this? More
people die from second hand smoke than do from guns. More people die from
second hand smoke than motor vehicles. Why are we making a war against guns?
One of the websites I looked at briefly (it wasn’t an academically sound
source) said, “Gun empower people.” Gosh, really? Does smoking empower people?
Does driving a car empower people? Another said, “One is too many.” Really? And
one death in a motor vehicle isn’t too many? I can tell you from personal
experience that it is. One death from cigarettes isn’t too many? Really?
Another: “Some people think that gun control is the worst problem in the USA.”
Are you bloody kidding me? I don’t think so. Let me reiterate that: I DON’T
THINK SO. Did you catch that? No freaking way.
What is the matter with people?
Personally, I think it’s in the first blurb: Guns empower people. You’re darn
right they do. The problem isn’t in owning guns, the problem is that we, as a
society, have lost our respect. We no longer respect each other, we no longer
respect life. And everything is all about ME. Gun control is going to solve the
problem of almost 29,000 deaths each year? Nope, don’t think so.
Have a fantastic last day of
2013!
No comments:
Post a Comment