A Man and His Deck

  Have you ever wondered about the special relationship between a man and his deck?  Have you ever noticed how men like to talk and compare the decks with each other and how some men are embarrassed by the size of their deck? There's a lot that can be said about a man and his deck. To me, I think it should be an  ''extension'' of himself.   It should ''project out'' letting the shape be prominent.

   Now here's a question for yall, should it  be elevated to qualify as a deck? The reason I ask is because I have a concrete deck.  And when I was in the navy and on board  ship, I had a steel deck. Now I know a lot of men have prefer their deck made of wood, and there's nothing wrong with getting some wood, but you have to admit concrete is harder and will last longer under repeated use. It is also impervious to disease and we all know what can happen to a deck if it gets infected with something. Concrete can also handle the wet better. Sometimes you, have to cover your wood deck with something in order to protect  it.

  Another question that comes to mind is size. How big should a man's deck be? Is size all that important? I think if a man is happy with his deck and it gets the job done of entertaining properly, then he has nothing to worry about. And if you do happen to suffer from ''deck envy'', you can always add on to it pretty easily, right? To me, the perfect size would be large enough to entertain on(nothing worse than not having enough deck for people) yet of a size you can easily maintain by proper cleaning and preservation.

  My final question is now the foliage around the deck. How much does a man need around his deck? I guess it depends on what the man prefers. Some men seen to like it fairly bushy while others prefer the well trimmed manicured look. To each man's deck, his choice to make I say.

 Lastly,  a deck is a personal thing with a man. Although primarily used for entertaining, there's something to be said just sitting alone outside, a man with his deck............

Just What Kind of "-ist" is Obama?

I've heard and read about all the ''ists'' that Obama has been called from a Socialist to a Crony Capitalist and I'm gonna lay out the what I like to call The Cow Theory of Economics in a bit. But first I think I might just toss in some background on our Fearless Leader.

 You ever wonder why he hasn't succeeded in fixing our economy? Maybe he doesn't want to? I do know that happy and well off people make lousy revolutionaries. You need them angry such as the 1%'ers. and let's be honest here, is there a method to his madness?

 He talks of redistribution thru fairer taxes, of everyone having insurance( thanks to the state) and has tried to consolidate power thru the appointments of ''czars'' which seems like he's bypassing the Cabinet to his own version of a Secretariat. He, thru his czars, has managed to gain of control of quite a bit of our economy. There are  other things he's done and plans to do but Y'all know about those. So apply what you know of his actions and words and see if you can figger out where he fits in on my Cow Chart

The Cow Theory of Economics

Socialist: You  have two cows. You offer give one to a neighbor who doesn't have one. However, the neighbor thinks it's unfair for him to have to tend the cow. He thinks you should just give him a share of the milk.

Marxist(Communist): You have two cows, the government seizes them and gives you a share as dictated by a central committee. unfortunately, the committee has now experience with cows so the cows die and you are let with no cows or milk.

National Socialist(Nazi): You have two cows. The party says you are guilty of crimes against the state and seizes your cows, then tosses you into a camp or prison before eventually shooting you.

Great Society-ist: You have two cows. the government buys the milk, then dumps it out and pays you not to milk your cows in order to maintain an artificial high price for milk. It never realizes that by doing so it causes  unemployment to rise because of less work for the dairy industry.

Capitalist: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. You are willing to risk  your capital by reinvesting in your business. You work long hours for for a promise of reward in the future. As your heard increases, you are able to hire workers and raise their standard of living; which in turn provides more money to be spent in your community.

  There you have it. Now take Obama's words and actions and see just where he fits in and what kind of an ''ist'' he really is. It's kinda frightening isn't it? I can think of one other person that started as an ''organizer'' in the late 1920's and  he wound up cowering in a bunker about  20 years later.

 Well I know this might seem like an over simplification of economics, but I didn't spend four years in in college studying it. So I have to rely on good old horse sense. it's served me in good stead over the years, so I think I'll just keep on riding that horse.

Cooking With The Pioneer Woman

 As all y'all know, I love to cook and have amassed quite a collection of cookbooks from all over ranging from The New York Times' to Paula Deen's. I read them as a bookworm would a novel or a musician would a book of sheet music. To be honest, I look at cooking as an art form which allows an individual an opportunity to express themselves. There are as many cuisines as there are genres in painting or music. And I love to try out recipes from my cookbooks and add my twist to them much as a musician would when playing.
 Now one of my favorite cookbooks isn't even mine. It belongs to my wife, Jane. However, I did get it for her and even sent it to the author who was kind enough to autograph it and mail it back to me in time for Christmas; so I don't feel bad about borrowing it from time to time.
The author of this book is none other than Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. 

  For the few of you who might not know who she is,  she's a wife and mother who happens to help her husband run a working cattle ranch up in Oklahoma along with being an author and star of her own cooking show. I've tried several of her recipes and found them to be delicious... In fact I've used some of her methods for food prep and it has really made a difference in  the texture and how it tastes.

What makes her book one of my favorites is the fact the she uses what's available and does most of her shopping in a small town grocery store.And, one of her favorite ingredients is butter. If a little is good, then more has to be better? My kinda thinking.Her recipes are simple yet very tasty and very filling. She has all different kinds of recipes in her books, but I'm drawn to the "Stick to Your Ribs Food" recipes. You know, the kind of food that will get you to the next meal without your stomach thinkin' your throat's been cut. A meal that will let you do a day's work with feeling famished. If you've ever worked cattle and been in the saddle from breakfast till dinner, or any other kind of hard physical labor, you know a watercress and cucumber sandwich isn't going to cut it. 

 I'd like to share some of her recipes that have really been favorites that not only were delicious but very simple to make. I'm gonna just tell about them starting with:

Breakfast: Her Blueberry Pancakes are awesome to say the least. Very simple to throw together and delicious. Couple them with some sausage and eggs and you have a serious meal on your hands.

Dinner: Comfort Meatballs are filling, tasty and easy to make... Ever mixed milk with your hamburger?? You need to try it once before turning up your nose. It gives it a whole new texture and works well as a binder.

Sunday Dinner or Supper: Ree's Perfect Pot Roast... the name says it all. Her roast has a depth of flavor from one of the cheapest cuts of beef you can buy. Add the obligatory root vegetables and you got yourself a Sunday Dinner that will be a regular on your table.

I do think it would be fun and educational to share a kitchen with her and see what we could concoct. Be a lot like like a musician "jammin' with Willie", but  I heard he uses a different blend of herbs. Who knows, her being from Oklahoma, she might like some real Texas Style Barbecue.

 Well, there you go, a cookbook that even the most inexperienced cook can use and recipes that will make you a hit and hero with your family.. Oh, did I mention my wife, Jane has also tried some of her recipes with some successes and some that didn't quite turn out the way she had expected... But, as in life, it happens to all of us from time time to time... All we can do is just keep trying... Soup's on...

Oh, on a closing note, if you'd like to read about Jane's trip down recipe road just  click!

Click Here

Who's My Candidate?

  I've been following the debates, listening to the candidates and watching the ads and have yet to really pick one I can truly rally to. It seems they all have these big ideas and the same answer to all our problems: " When elected, I will enact programs to solve those problems."

  I guess my problem is that I don't want a candidate with big and grand ideas. I'm waiting for one with small ideas. I want one who will say, " I don't think big; I think small. Such as smaller government, smaller taxes, less interference in your lives, and smaller budgets."

  The government is bloated and unwieldy as it is and more programs will grind our ecconmy to a halt. Between the banking regulations that have crippled the housing industry, a tax code that even lawyers can't comprehend, ag regulations that prevent farmers from raising the crops that could feed most of the planet to strangling regulations on our enegery providers that force us to pay higher costs,the government is collapsing under its own weight(I'm not even going to go into Obama-Care).

 The country has had enough of grandiose schemes, ideas and programs. We need small ideas, and it will take a "Big Man/Woman" with matching cojones/ huevos to be willing to run on a ''small'' platform.

As Ronald Reagan so aptly stated, "Government isn't the solution to our problems;it's the cause".

The Factory Worker’s Kids

          We had finally done it. For years we had rented, but now we had managed to put enough away to buy our first home. Mother had worked off and on at the slacks factory for a few years but it had only been when we had needed some extra money. Now she had decided she would go to work full time there to help with the house payment. Ours was a small town and the only opportunities for women to work were either as a waitress or in the slacks factory. Mom had a god reputation as a worker so she was going in as an inspector.

          We were a pretty close family and mom had always talked to us  like were adults so she flat told us that this was very important and let us know she couldn’t be coming home to settle squabbles and we would have to handle a lot of things ourselves. You see, the factory’s management felt that once there you were theirs. If you were a minute late you were docked a quarter hour’s pay. And if you were late too often, or if you had to leave early much, then you were gone. Like I said there weren’t many jobs for women and for every job in that factory, there were five women waiting to get on. We understood all too well what mother had said to us. If she lost her job, we could lose our home.

          So it rocked it along smoothly for a while and we worked a lot of things out among us as to who would do what. But one day at school it changed suddenly. We were at school one afternoon at recess when my buddy found me and told me my little sister had hurt herself on the swing. She was only six and had fallen out and hurt her wrist. I ran over to see what had happened and when I got there I was thankful no teacher had shown up. She was sitting on a swing and holding her wrist like it was broken. I looked at it and couldn’t see much swelling and she could move her fingers, so that was a good sign. I asked her if she would be okay till we got home and we could take her to the doctor then. I knew she wanted to call mom and she could only nod because it hurt so badly, but she agreed to wait. So my other sister and I took turns sitting with her. My other sister was only 8 and I was 10 at the time and knew we had to keep that wrist from swelling so a bunch of us got our cartons of milk that we got every afternoon and used them to try and keep the swelling down. Then my sister sat there and held her till I could get back to her when school let out for me.

          You see we knew we couldn’t tell the nurse, because she would have to call mom and mom would drop everything to come to town and take her to the emergency room. And we din’t want to lose our home. We had helped to paint it. We had helped build the fence around the pasture for our animals. It was our home and we wanted to keep it so badly we would have done anything. So my little sister sat there holding her arm while my other sister sat there with her. Some of our friends gave their milk to help too because some of their mom’s worked there and we all knew the cost of our moms leaving their job. So we helped each other and kinda looked out for each other whenever we could. Well she managed to make it till the bus picked us up and took us home. By the time we got home you could tell she was hurting bad so we got her inside the house and started icing down her wrist. By the time mom got home from work and picking our other sisters, my sister’s wrist was starting to feel better from the ice. Mom took one look at it and loaded her into the care and rushed her to town.

          She was gone quite a while so while waiting we had started supper and we were doing our home work when we heard the car pull into the drive. I knew that there were going to be words when mom got in after I had seen the look on here face as she got out of the car with our sister. So I sent Lee Anne off with our younger sisters and waited to face the music. And, from the look on her face, I knew I was in for it. “Why didn’t you have them call me? How could you let your sister hurt like that? Her arm could have broken. Would you want to sit there and hold your arm all afternoon like that?” she demanded. “Well, answer me”, she said. “We didn’t want to lose our home”, I told her. “What do you mean?” “Well, we were afraid if you came to town the factory would fire you and we would lose our home”. You know I was ten years old and had seen my mother cry only once before, but she just collapsed into a chair and broke down completely saying over and over between wracking sobs that no house was worth this. But I put my arms around her and told her that we had done the best we could and I was ready to be punished for not calling her. She just looked at me through those tear filled eyes and just smiled and said my punishment was to go into the kitchen and get my sisters a piece of cake and to get a piece for myself.

          We managed to keep that home for quite a while and from that incident our family grew much closer than most and we still are to this day. Though mom has been gone a while; we are still very close to each other and if one of us needs help, there are five us ready to stand by the one that needs help.

The Lion versus the Hyenas

  Y'all all been told how the lion is the king of the jungle and really has no natural enemies in the Animal Kingdom, right?  Well, he may not have a true enemy, but a pack of coordinated hyenas can make him defend himself instead of being able to protect what is his.
  A hyena will run in at the lion and nip at him from behind. Then, when he turns to defend himself, another hyena will run in and attack him the same way. These blindside attacks will continue till the lion is forced to retreat and leave his kill for them.
  Does this scenario sound familiar at all? Let's substitute a Conservative for the lion and the Mainstream Media for the hyenas. Get the picture?  By coordinating their stories and news releases, they can keep a candidate so busy defending himself, he can't spend the time or money to get his message out. Then he finally gets frustrated, pissed off and says the heck with this, who needs it and goes back into private life. The media then pats itself on back thinking it has done its job by vetting a candidate when in reality it was merely a pack of scavengers feeding on carrion.
  This is going to be a very long and dirty campaign. The Dems have no record to run on so they are going to have to run against the candidate we select.  Obama is going to unleash pack after pack of hyenas. They are going to smear, dig for dirt and if they can't find anything; resort to half truths and outright lies. No candidate we select will be perfect. We all won't agree with all she or he stands for, but we must be the ones to research, listen to them and find our own lion. Then, we must help him fend off the hyenas so he can be allowed to do what lions do.

They Aren't All Occupiers

A lot is being said about this generation of twenty-somethings and how they feel they are owed something. Yes there are some out there like that, but, I personally think they are in the minority.

Much has been said and written about our parents being America's "Greatest Generation".  And ,what they accomplished is is for the books and I will never say or write anything to diminish what they endured and accomplished. But, I'd like to say a few things in defense of this newest class of twenty-somethings....

• For every one of them that has their hand out, there are a bunch of others that have their right hand up swearing to defend our country...
• For every one of them that thinks a college education should be free, there are hundreds of others that work two or three jobs to pay their way or borrow money knowing what it will take to pay it back.
• For every on of them that thinks they should get a high paying job with a degree in Philosophy right out of college, there are hundreds of others that take any job they can get; knowing hard work will get them where they want to go by doing a job well to get a better job.
• For every one of them that occupies a a park in the name of peace, others will occupy a church and learn of true peace.
• For every one of them that stands up demanding  to be heard,  the rest will quietly about their business knowing actions speak louder than words.
• For every one of them that craps in the street in the name of freedom, thousands of others will don a uniform to protect that freedom.

I could go on but I think you get the gist of what I'm trying to say. It's like building something up and then handing it over to your kids saying, "Here you go, we've come this far; let's see what you can do".