Back to work

I spent some time the past couple of weekends venting my frustrations on horse weeds, poison ivy and any other weeds that happened to grace the blades of the brushcutter.

The results of a few hours:

Looking north from under the cottonwood trees I discovered some more pines that were struggling for daylight, bringing the total to around 20. One of the taller white pines' lower branches were rubbed off by the deer and I replaced the small cages with a woven wire cages.

If I had run the mower through this, I would have mowed over the pines, some hackberry and small walnut trees. Using a hand brushcutter, I've been able to (for the most part) find the small 1-2 foot trees and save them. A few perished under the blades but it's hard to kill a walnut once it's rooted.

Number One son and I used hand sickles last fall and was able to clear off from under the cottonwoods in 8 hours. I cleared off twice the area in about three hours using a polycut blade on a Stihl FS55. I was really pushing the limits of that machine as I was asking allot from it but it did a good job. I've since added a larger weapon in the arsenal with a steel cutting blade and productivity has increased again.

Once cut, I sprayed this section with a mixture of broadleaf killer and insecticide to help control the ticks. It's below the pond so no worries of runoff to harm the fish. Not that we have to worry about runoff since it hasn't rained in almost three weeks and the forecast is spotty at best.

The lack of rain is taking its toll on the pond and hurt the hay, cutting into the yield. The maple seedlings have been struggling while the pin oak are doing okay as they had a chance to grow their deeper tap root. We've hauled water from our sand point at the homestead for the past two months to keep them going.

I really picked a good time start a tree farm...

We had a few discoveries, plenty of mistakes and a pleasant surprise or two this summer at Camp Stranded.

I came up a little short

Didn't get the job...

Assault Veggie Ban in the works

 After the recent assassination attempt on our Governor Branstad, State Senate leaders Mike Gronstal and Jack Kibbie announced the formation of a study committee whose focus is to make food safer for elected politicians.

"Its unfortunate that Republicans chose snacks that are choking hazards," remarked Gronstal. "President Bush choked on a pretzel, and now Governor Branstad had to be rushed to a hospital because of a carrot. I mean, [former] Governor Culver would never have chosen a healthy or salty snack item. He preferred something soft, like cake or ice cream."

Senator Kibbie added, "Until these assault snacks are removed from our grocers shelves, or at the very least, cooked thoroughly or pounded into mush, no elected Democrat would dare to indulge themselves on raw vegetables or salty and tasty snacks. That would also include Sterzings since the company isn't in my district and they're probably run by Republicans."

A Libertarian think-tank spokesman, Lee V. Mealone, decried the announcement, stating: "This is another attempt by state Democrats to meddle in people's lives. What's next, ban broccoli and cauliflower unless they are deep-fat fried? While everyone should enjoy them fried up on the specialty plate along side onion rings, I don't understand the reason to ban raw veggies. Iowans deserve the freedom to choose the crispiness of their foods."

Although the largest grocery chain in Iowa, HyVee, had no comment, previously stocked fresh produce sections were mysteriously depleted and many shoppers throughout the state noticed the missing orange roots. Miss Ida Grove commented, "I was checking out the Muscatine melons and I turned around and all of the carrots were gone. Now, you tell me what I'm supposed to shred up and put in my lime jello for the church pot luck. I don't think cabbage would be a good choice, do you?"

After a brief check up at a local hospital Governor Branstad returned to the USS Iowa where he was joining in the celebration of the USS Iowa becoming a floating museum at the harbor in San Pedro, CA.Visit her at the Pacific Battleship Center.

The editors here at BTR are glad no harm came to Gov. Branstad and would like to remind everyone that the above writing is an attempt at satire. But do visit the USS Iowa and the Pacific Battleship Center at the links above.

Touching base

Similar to the unfortunate player above, the Stranded household is darn near flat on its face. With recent projects completed, I have a few lose ends to take care of at work and I can walk away knowing we made things better. A recent layoff of the Mrs. has thrown our budget for the year into chaos which caused a missed opportunity for a new piece of equipment for Stranded Tree Farm.

I have a Camp Stranded update that I'd like to share as soon as I get images off of the new camera. Being a Luddite at heart (causing a paradox because of my IT career choice) these things should be a bit easier. Or maybe I'm due for an upgrade?

Speaking of upgrades and my career, I rolled the dice a few weeks ago and I'm hoping for a little luck to shine my way. No - I wasn't one of the Powerball winners in Cedar Rapids, but I should be hearing something by the end of the week or mid-week at the latest. I'm optimistically pessimistic, or pessimistically optimistic, whichever the case. But Stranded is at a four-way stop and the direction I can go is up to others right now.

I'm hoping Friday will be a day of good news as I should be getting my brush cutter from the shop.

Oh, and maybe other news.

Saturday will be a day of celebration or disappointment. Either way some horse weeds will die.

Out of Steam, 5/29/12

This reminds of many scenarios, not the least of which is my employment:

The 8305 has lost all her friends, at one time there were about a dozen 0-8-0 steam locomotives on this siding, now she sits alone and tender-less the last of the Northwestern Steel & Wire mill's engines, left with a cold and uncurtain future. The locomotive was sold to an individual under the agreement that it would be moved within a year, but that was over a year ago. The Tender was moved but the engine still sits on a siding in Galt, Illinois. The IRM has taken back ownership of the engine after the contract with the new owner was not fulfilled, but the new owner now has the tender in their possession. It looks like a loose/loose situation for both parties.

4 system upgrades and 2 network upgrades implemented in the last 4 weeks. We have one more system upgrade to implement in late June if the local telecom can get things done in time. I know I posted that I would give a little more time to this lowly blog, but there hasn't been much outside of work that I've concentrated on. I should be of better service to those few readers I have left as I assume I've lost most of you by now.

Among the irons I still have in the fire, the upcoming primary will shape up several races including a David Johnson running for the state house. Hmm...

 Based on the Secretary of State's website, more Republican votes than Democrat votes were cast for Governor in 2010 in District 1 and, despite the stronghold of the Socialist Republic of Johnson County, in District 2. This should bring pause to Reps. Loebsack (Dist. 2) and Braley (Dist. 1)., with Loebsack facing a token primary challenger.

My District 1 Republican primary faces off Rod Blum and Ben Lange, who gave Braley a run for his money two years ago. I've listened to a couple of interviews with Mr Blum and I'm familiar with Mr Lange, who I spoke with at a gun show right before the 2010 election.

The editorial board, in our last meeting, suggested leaning toward Lange, but it was after a discussion concerning my blog performance, so I may have missed something.

The King v. Vilsack race should provide good comedy for the coming months while the Latham v. Boswell is uninteresting.

Now, back to the irons.

Ron Paul backers take the state GOP by storm

The Paul campaign strategy has been to concentrate on caucus states and to nominate and support delegates out of the precinct level and on to the county, district conventions and then to the state committees.

Iowa GOP district committees met on Saturday, 4/21 and it's looking like that strategy is working.

Iowa’s 28 delegates are all “unbound,” meaning they can individually decide which presidential candidate to support. To stop Paul supporters from controlling the Iowa delegation, Romney backers in Iowa said they will likely focus on teaming up with Christian conservatives here.

Paul loyalists did well in getting their supporters onto the GOP’s “state nomination committee,” which will nominate Iowa’s 13 at-large national delegates. Another 12 district delegates will be selected June 15. The GOP chairman and Iowa’s two Republican National Committee members are also delegates.

The ultimate outcome could be that neither Romney (original winner of the Iowa Caucus) nor Santorum (the declared winner) will end up with the majority of delegates out of Iowa.

Almost restores my faith in the state legislature

Not quite.

Legislative output won’t be high this session

“When you can reduce the number of bills, that’s probably a good thing,” said Rep. Ralph Watts, R-Adel. “If you put all the code books side by side and you look at the growth of them over the years, you can really relate that — as those books grow, your personal freedom goes down.
“People complain about, ‘well, it’s a do-nothing Legislature.’ My experience in the time I’ve been here is the shorter time we’re here, the better off the people out there are; the less we get involved, the less we meddle in their lives,” Watts added.

Well said.

[Sen. Rob] Hogg, vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — an area that traditionally sees a lot of legislative action — said the panel took a limited approach this session to House-passed measures dealing with gun laws and other bills that seemed politically motivated or designed to take advantage of an election-year session.

 Because enjoying protections from prosecution\persecution while protecting yourself is "politically motivated" and has nothing to do with protecting one's life.

Looks like the legislature will adjourn on Friday, barring a recall from the governor.

No "castle doctrine", no addition to the state constitution, and traffic cameras will be allowed to expand across the state instead of banned.

Giving them a D- for not being freedom-minded legislators.

Camp Stranded update, 4/23/12

It's been a frustrating first quarter for the Stranded clan, not the least of which has been a project that was dumped on my lap because of a 6 month period of neglect. (BTW, it has to be completed by June 30th).

There were some dark days that we are still finding our way through. Nothing major like other folks but just enough to keep us humble, as my dad would say.

Week days and nights for a job I keep wondering about, the one bright spot has been the acreage. It's been tough not to be thinking or planning what needs to be done while at my "real job" or at home, as the only real time I have to work down there is during weekends, if not beckoned because of work.

The hay (which really needs to be rotated out or reseeded) received frost burn last week but luckily not enough damage to make me worried. After intense negotiations with a neighbor (he stopped by and asked), he's going to buy the hay this year. If we treat each other right, we can continue but for some reason he keeps insulting my shed building skills, so this may be a short-lived relationship. Hmmm...

Our reforestation plan got a boost through the generosity of True Blue Sam, and please forgive me Sam, but I shared some of the coffeetree nuts with my brother who lives in Henry county. Hope you don't mind as long as no one tells him I kept the best for myself. We've got them all in the ground, some during the February-March thaw, and others I cold-hardened and then planted in pots. I have a couple up already.

This past weekend, we planted a couple of honeycrisp apple trees and a couple of the delicious variety. And I'm sure they're in the wrong spot as I wire caged them to try to keep the deer out, but I'm not out much except time. I have 30 or so red maple seedlings ready to transplant, a dozen hackberry and about 50 pin oak.

This is my spring harvest:


Two gallons (so far) of red maple seeds. If any of my readers are interested in some let me know as I have more than enough to share. This year's crop has been generous and I won't guess how many tens of thousands of seeds my two trees have produced.

A ten-year rotation of maple trees might make a good cash crop, who knows.

I transplanted a few of the red cedars to a family friend this past weekend and I'm heavily leaning on transplanting others to make a windbreak along the west road. Time being the factor on that project.

I've also got an over-abundance of box elders that need a good home and silver (soft) maples that need to be removed. Anyone interested in either of those, let me know. I'm not interested in keeping any of the soft maples and there's hundreds of two-foot tall trees.

We put some other work on the place to help control erosion and clear brush, but my biggest problem is that there's so much to do, it's a matter prioritizing.

I'll be sharing more news in the coming week (unless all hell breaks loose at work or Herr Oberführer Gronstal actually allows legislation to be voted on in the state senate).

Traffic camera bill passes house

HF2450 prohibiting the use of traffic cameras, passed the house on a 58 to 42 vote.

It now goes on to die in the senate.

Statehouse shutdown. And the people rejoice!!!

Not exactly. But at least they didn't raise taxes today.

This afternoon, state representative, Ako Abdul-Samad (D-Des Moines) received a "threatening letter" that contained a unknown white substance. Hazmat teams were called in to clear things out, just in case.

While this is a serious matter, the cynical side of me has reservations regarding the incident.

And the Kabuki Theater entertains us all:

The hazmat teams arrived in protective suits while the representatives and staff kept a watchful eye on the proceedings.

Across the aisle, a state senator thought the response was unimpressive.

And then Senator Gronstal, as always, displays the decorum and dignity that worthy of his position:

“Don’t let those bastards in here. They’re House members for Christ’s sake,” Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal joked at around 5:45 p.m. as senators waited at their desks for further instructions from emergency officials.

"Joke" is the word I use for Gronstal all the time.