CMA's.

With my wife being out of town, I figured I would settle in and watch the Country Music Awards, since most female country singers are worthy of a 2nd, 3rd, or 58th glance.

Let's join it in progress:

8:04: Good Lord, Carrie Underwood is a doll.  I hope they didn't let anyone sit in the front three rows, or they are getting to see more than they bargained for with that dress. God Bless Al Gore's Internet for already having pictures.  This one is from Zap2it where they are trying to count how many dresses Carrie goes through tonight. 

8:10: Hah...Country Singers and their fans don't like Obamacare...who knew?

8:15: No, no, no...Florida Georgia Line's lite pop-rock song cruise control was NOT better than Miranda Lamberts lite rock-pop song, or Darius Rucker's popped up remake of the bluegrass song Wagon Wheel.

8:25: Casey Musgraves' song Follow Your Arrow was better than Jason Aldean's generic 'look how redneck I am' anthem, Night Train(although, it's not as annoying as other 'look how redneck I am' anthems), AND she has nicer legs. 

8:32: Not one of Lady Antebellum's stronger songs.  Kind of neat to see Hillary Scott still looking like a lady who just had a baby back in July(not even 4 months ago).  Some of these celebrities lose the wait scary fast.

8:43: Little Big Town...that's some good harmony...they are a band that could have found success in any time period of country music. 

8:50: Disagree...Thompson Squared AND Sugarland AND Big and Rich(who I didn't know were still together) are all better than Florida Georgia Line.

8:52 Can't believe they made me wait almost an hour for our first Miranda Lambert sighting...and that's sharing the stage with Keith Urban.   Mrs. Dum Vivimus is my be-all-end-all, but if Miranda ever calls and asks me if I want to go deer hunting with her...I'm saying yes. 

Wait a minute...this show is three hours long?  And I don't know if Miranda is going to end up on stage again?  May end up fast forwarding this...or just hitting the highlights. 

9:02: Taylor Swift is not a highlight(even if she is turning into a stunning woman).  Taylor on stage with an obviously black-mailed Vince Gill and Allison Krause...still not a highlight...but much, much closer.

9:25: The Band Perry.  Perhaps my current favorite country group right now.  Kimberly Perry makes me wish I was 10 years younger.  And richer, and better looking.  And, you know...had an excuse to meet her.  Or, I can just listen to them.  Young lady has some pipes.

9:50: Taylor Swift, special award...blah, blah, blah.  She failed to kiss George Strait's ring...I hope she makes it off the stage before lightening strikes her down.

And that's it...I wanted to watch the tribute to Kenny Rodger's mannequin(you mean that's him!?!?!?!?) but it's almost bed time.  A three hour award show...who's idea is that? 

Fast forwarding to the morning after, I got not problem the big awards that were given after my bed time.  Countries power couple, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton won Female and Male Vocalist of the year, and George Strait, on his farewell The Cowboy Rides Away tour, won Entertainer of the Year. 

Sprouts!

In an effort to keep providing the chickens with fresh(cost efficient) growing things over the winter, I've started getting into sprouting.  So far I have tried three different things with various results:

1. Whole oat groats, which did poor, poor, poor. Only done one batch so far...will have to try again since I still have half a pound of them to play with.

2. Lentils.  Have made two successful batches so far...and they have done 'okay.'  We have um...plenty of them in the house, and it's a good excuse to rotate some older bags out.

3.  Clover seed.  I went to the local health food store looking for things to sprout, and while they have a generic 'salad/sandwich sprouting mix', it was right around $15 a pound, but I noticed it appeared to be made up of roughly 50% clover seeds by volume, and clover seeds by themselves were only $6 a pound...so I got all kinds of cheap, and bought half a pound to see how they did.

They did OUTSTANDING.  This is my 2nd batch, which the birds will get tomorrow.

Almost 2/3rd of a quart from 2 table spoons of seeds.  Not too shabby.  And they don't taste bad either...I grabbed a pinch of the first batch last week.

Next week, I'll look for a few other things to try.  We have many different types of beans around the house...I'm sure I can try a few different kinds of them, for some variety. 

What a choice.

A very sobering story out of Indiana, where a young hunter(well, 32 is younger than I am), fell 16 feet out of tree, crushing C3, C4, and C5 vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed from the shoulders down. Doctors were keeping him under sedation and on a breathing machine, while his family tried to make some decisions about his future...the biggest one being, do we leave him on the ventilator?

Instead of making that decision in a vacuum, the family asked if the man, Tim Bowers, could be taken out of sedation, so he could make his own decision.  The doctors did so, and after everything was explained to him, Mr. Bowers asked to have the breathing tube removed so he could talk to his family, and requested that no actions be taken if he was not able to breath on his own.  This resulted in him passing away later that day. 

I don't blame him...and it's quite possibly the choice I would have made.

I don't have any kind of religious objections to suicide(not that I am certain this would fit under the definition of suicide, but I know some feel that taking no action to stop ending a life is the same as actively working to end a life).  If you decide you are tired of living...go for it.  Just please do it in a way that is the least inconvenient to other people.   Don't shoot up the ceiling of a mall, don't stand on a bridge, stopping rush hour traffic for a whole morning. 

In this case...according to doctors, it wasn't going to get any better for this guy(well, they might have been able to fuse his spine so he could be left sitting in bed instead of laying down)...but...that's it.  Potentially 30-40 years laying(maybe sitting) in a bed...having a machine breath for him.  He was never going to have more of his family around him then he did right then. 

There are selfish parts to the decision...I don't think I could spend 30-40 years in a bed, not able to move, or feel, or laugh, or joke because a breathing tube is down your throat without going slowly insane. 

Part of it though, is making the tough decision for the rest of your family.  Is it right to be a load on your family for 30-40 years?  Yes...my wife(and I hope his wife of barely 3 months) love me unconditionally...but how long with that love last without being able to get hugs, kisses, tickles, or even hands held?  Without me being able to tell jokes, or sing to her, or tell her how beautiful she is.  Maybe the right call is 'let me end it now, cleanly, instead of watching me rot away, while love slowly turns to melancholy?'  How long before the daily visits become every other day, and then weekly...you have to cut her(and the rest of your family) free.

I think it was the right call...I just hope I never have to make it. 

But it's not evil when WE do it.

I don't know why hypocrisy bothers me...but it does.  This week, I have been seeing a lot of folks on facebook going off about Big Business Subsidies, and of course, they are all the Republicans fault. 

Except when it is the Democratic Governor of Washington calling a special session of the State Legislature to get a series of bills passed that will save Boeing $8 billion in an effort to convince Boeing to open a new factory in the south Puget Sound area. 

You know...I really don't have a problem the idea itself.  I'm assuming that someone has done the math and figured out that even though they are saving Boeing $8 billion, the state expects that they can make MORE than $8 billion in increased excise taxes and property taxes. 

Mmm...that word...assuming.  Guess I'd rather say 'assuming' than 'hoping'...using the first one means I expect to be disappointed. 

Now, THAT'S a home economics class!

My wife showed me a lesson plan she has penciled in to start on in a few weeks...20 days of Holiday Cookies!

Now...I'm not saying I'm excited for all of them.  For instance, on day 2, the blog author says her Cornmeal Cookies (Paste di Meliga) ended up as chicken food.  There are also a few days where the author does not offer non-gluten free alternatives. But, there are chocolate chip cookies, and soft ginger snaps. 

I give this my home schooling stamp of approval. 

Don't call them weeds.

The word 'weed' has a certain negative connotation to it...and it's hard to be too negative about things that have a use...and save me money.  The fact is...the chickens LOVE the weeds.  Common Mallow, chickweed,  wood sorrel(which I always confuse with clover), and plenty of dandelions.  

I had done a lot of research before we got chickens, and one thing that came up again and again was their weed control ability...but after learning that they like eating normal plants like tomatoes and the wife's hosta just as much as they like weeds(and pooping on my patio), we don't give them free run very often any more.  Which means I need to bring the weeds to them...so it's not saving me time, but it is saving me money...as the chickens want green stuff, and the thought of having to buy them bags of lettuce and spinach...well, it hurts. 

Now, I just need to decide if there is some kind of etiquette I need to follow before I go knock on my neighbors doors and ask them if I can weed their flower beds for them.

Rule 1: The Stupid Shall be Punished.

So...a wise man learns from the lessons of others.  In this case, the lesson is, if you break the rules, don't send pictures of the results into magazines so they can publish them!

Man's hunting magazine photo gets him in trouble

It's kind of confusing...because they got the guy on was not what they originally started investigating him for.  I watched a few local news stories to get the whole picture.  Kyle McCormack(referred to now on as chucklehead) sent Buckmasters Magazine a picture of two whitetail bucks he shot in Kansas, claiming he shot one in archery season, and one in rifle season.  A lifetime hunter in Kansas says 'strange...you can't shoot two antlered deer in the same year in Kansas', and tips off the authorities.

Upon investigating chuckleheads house, they find antlers from a bull elk and a black-tail deer that were taken in the Capitol State Forest here in Washington without proper licensing.  What they were actually able to get him on was the 'illegal interstate commerce of wildlife', and he plead his way down to one year of probation, and a $500 fine, and then agreeing to donate another $2500 to the Lacey Act Reward Fund(which goes to reward tips against wildlife law violators).

Two things missing from the article, and I'm trying to do research to find out more info...but what about future hunting licenses?  None of the stories I've read say anything about that...and that is how you get to guys like this.  Make him wait 5 years before he can go hunting again...and not just in Washington where he broke the rules...EVERYWHERE.  As near as I can tell, this guy was gunning for his own TV show...not being able to hunt would curtail that career choice.

Also...Why WASHINGTON?  And why the Capitol State Forest?  As a Washington resident and hunter, I'm here to tell you...Washington is not a premier hunting location.  To get here, he had to go through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho...all of those are better choices for elk hunting than Washington.  And as for the Capitol State Forest...it's a nice little 90,000 acre state forest that begins about 5 miles south of Olympia, and it's proximity on the south Puget Sound area make it a very popular hunting destination for folks who can't take time off to get further away.  It's not a trophy factory though.

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.