'Splain it To Me Lucy

For those of you too young to have watched Lucile Ball & Ricky Ricardo in "I Love Lucy", this was the cry from Ricky each time Lucy and her sidekick Ethel got into some wild scheme. It was all pretty tame because of the censorship in the early days of TV, but it was in re-runs daily for years. Our economy is in a wild scheme and the Federal Government is making moves they think will correct it. I liken it to the famous chocolate factory job Lucy has where she started stuffing candy bon-bons down the front of her blouse.

Now, let me see if I can 'Splain the Feds moves. I am winging this so if I get somewhere off the beam, I apologize in advance. A while back, some banks and lending institutions started aggressively loaning money to people buying houses. They would make a loan and then turn the debt into stock in rapidly expanding finance companies or sell bonds to cover the debt as the baby boomers were looking for ways to build their retirement funds. Yes, as the market caught fire because of the expanding money for housing loans the prices of housing went way up. There is a terrible disparity in the housing market. What can be bought for $100,000 here in the Heartland is worth almost a million in New York or Southern California. Add this to the expanded Student Loans and you can see that there is a lot of debt out there built on a house of cards. For the purpose of this discussion I won't even start to explain the crushing credit card debt out there at 18% or more. How people can do that to themselves almost defies logic. Not even The Feds have a good answer.

While the Citizens of the good ole' USA have been sheltered from the truth or have an inability to read the truth, the World Banks can sense the problem and have devalued the dollar. That is the biggest reason for the price increase in Gasoline. When the value of the dollar fell against the Canadian, Euro and the Chinese Yen, gasoline costs more in terms of the US dollar. This increase in cost was not based on much else. The rising cost in goods from the stores is a lot based on increased transportation costs (Diesel is over $4.00 a gallon).

Under Alan Greenspan, when the economy started to falter, the Fed under his leadership would cut the interest rate and all would be well. Well, boys and girls times are changing and the prime interest rate is now 2% (That cut is due today or tomorrow) and the Government is going to start mailing out checks this week to get us to spend the economy back into prosperity.

The question of the week is, "Will all this manipulation work or will we find ourselves in a deepening spiral?" I think I can explain it, I just don't have the expertise to prognosticate the million dollar answer.

My fear is that all the problems will lead to inflation as the house of cards starts to fall apart. The candidates for the Presidency are talking about a lot of things but expansion of the Government and its programs (focus on health care for everyone) will put more pressure on the demand for the dollar. Sometime in the next year or so, the demand will drive up the cost or continue the devaluation of the dollar. In the 70's, this led to interest rates to raise to 13-17% for housing loans. It will be great for those building a nest egg for retirement, but the increased costs will erode what they have saved.

If you don't think the rising cost of real estate is a local problem, all you have to do is look at Idaho. The people in California as they retire are moving to Idaho in droves. This has increased the housing costs there to record levels. The traditional Republican's are being out voted by Democrats moving in and they now are a change in progress in the face of their Government. A house that sells for a million can be replaced in Idaho for a couple of hundred thousand. The extra money goes into the money investment pit and the ride continues.

Where the wheel stops no one knows. The impact in the long term will be a tough ride for some. I hope you have a book of tickets and can hold on. The real problem is that not enough people even know what the problem is. Where in the reading of this did your eyes glaze over and you lost interest?

Oh well, What the Hell, What the Heck do I care?

MUD

Will this be the Day?

The professional Liars, aka the local weathermen, have promised us 70 degrees today. It seems like forever since we have had a great day out there. By the time it starts to get warm enough to get out and work or play it is almost dark. Will this be the day that the gentle southern breezes bring a nice day? We'll see.

I am thinking that I need to start putting my recumbent in the bed of the truck with a sign, "What'll you do when you run out of gas? Get Bent! (Recumbent Bikes that is.) It is clear that we have way too many narrow roads to really get out there and ride in traffic. The good news is there is a lake with some great paths not too far from here. Do you see a theme developing here?

Yes, I do have some work to do but I think I need some "Play" today also. The Valley Brook house needs to be scraped, primered and painted. I also need an outside faucet to help clean up the painting mess.

OH well, whatever happend to day, it won't start here on this machine. Gotta run, er ride!
MUD

Champions Again!

Unless you were totally not a Basketball fan, you well know that KU beat a great Memphis team for the 2008 NCAA Basketball Championship. A wonderful team won and now we move on.

A very small item in this weeks paper mentioned that the KU debate team won the NCAA 2008 championship for debaters. I think that this should be a widely a celebrated victory as the basketball championship. After all, we can all debate with others and we are not all great round ball players. The debate team represents what students should be in school for. I hope that every student asks why and has an answer when they complete their formal schooling.

God Bless the debate team! God Bless America.
MUD

System Problems

I know there is a loose nut behind the keyboard on this machine. In addition to this, our E-mail programs are both playing stupid. My HP will work for a little while and then the Mac will not. The Mac works and then mine craps out. Then to add insult to injury, AT&T/Yahoo will send me this little note that I am sending unencrypted mail to their server and it pisses them off. They send me to a link that goes off merrily to a page that won't load because of my unencrypted attempt to read it. Another link tells me to locate the account settings for your particular client. Hell, it is their program I am using, they should know how to do that, I sure as hell don't.

Oh well, it is a beautiful and cool day here in the heartland. At least there is some sunshine so there is hope that the temperature will get above 50 (do I hear 60, boys and girls?)

Two Dogs, I was all set up to take pictures of the food yesterday and right in the middle of all that I just plum forgot to get the camera. It was all good and everyone had a good time. There was the usual take home bags of food for the attendees. The wife said I can't cook a new item until we eat our way through the leftovers.

OH well, what the hll, what the heck do I care. MUD

9866

9,866 people have visited my site since I put the counter on. I'm not sure when I started that counter but I have been blogging since September 2006. It is really time to write that damn book and go there. Oh well, back to the cooking, cleaning and getting ready to have fun.
MUD

Fajitas Day

Barb Sr., Captain of the Tecumseh Jay Walkers, has organized a Fajitas party for her team. As the chief cook and hear laborer here at Rabbit Run, I get to handle the food. We all participated in a project called "Walk Across America" and reported our mileage. We made it the requires 420 miles. I think it is just a reason to do some serious spring cleaning but hey, back to the food.

Most of my meals start with serious grilling of copious portions of meat. I prefer to do steak but it seems like the chicken is the healthy choice, the popular choice of the ladies and it turns out very tasty. I marinate the meat in plastic gallon sized zip lock bags with different flavors. The steak generally gets some combination of soy sauce, garlic and Worcestershire . One bag of chicken got some soy sauce and Italian dressing. The other bag got some garlic hot sauce and soy sauce. All the meat got the smoky grill trick with plenty of hickory smoke. I hardly ever expose the meat to direct heat but hold all the coals on one side of the Webber with a log of hickory. That allows the log to burn and smoke. Something about the design of the Webber grill causes the logs to burn brightly when the lid is off but then just make smoke when the lid is on. I always come in from the patio smelling like a hickory fire.

I will serve the meat with a copious quantity of tortillas, Spanish rice, chips and lots of toppings/fixings like guacamole & con queso. If you go home hungry from a dinner at Rabbit Run it is your own damn fault. I think Barb has also made a fruit salad using strawberries and pineapple. I will also have Ice tea and water. I know a good cerveza (beer) would be great but I had to give that up and save my liver.

Yesterday must have been wildlife day here at Rabbit Run. Barb saw three deer, a Baltimore Oriole, some kind of Taninger and a purple bird that I thought was a bluebird until I saw it in the sun. It was kind of cloudy most of the day so I didn't get really good photographs. Should be a better day today but I'll be kind of busy and Barb Sr. has a cake decorating demonstration at Michael's. She teaches the Wilton cake decorating class and once a month she has a demonstration at the store. I have high hopes that she will continue to teach classes and do less work as a cashier. I think from the questions she relates to me that she mostly is their "go to guy" for questions none of the kids can answer.

Having been involved in the store set up and having a wide range of practical knowledge she can either help them or tell them where to go. I mean that in the nice sense, as Barb Sr. generally can get all the mean out of her system by focusing it on me. Not totally undeserved I might add.

Oh well, I can smell the coffee and my cup is empty. Have a great day out there.
MUD

Won't go there!

I have decided that those blog sites that have the authentication feature turned on won't be getting anything from me. I refuse to fight the crappy feature anymore. You can eliminate spam with one click and I can eliminate comments to those sites. See ya later Alligator.
Dennis

Funny Picture

Just goes to show you that poking your nose in places can in fact kill you.
MUD

Just a note!

For those of you that have those letters we must copy on your blog. All you have to do to get rid of offending comments is to click on the trash can below the comment. It is a simple thing to do. I probably have to do it about once a week. That would save a bunch of us from having to figure out what the hell they want. I seldom get past that filter on the first try!
MUD

Earth Day in Topeka

To celebrate Earth day/green week here in Topeka, the local land fill has decided that Saturday AM we could have a free trash dump day. Does this sound right to you? Shouldn't it be a free recycle day?

I do know that we have accumulated the biggest assortment of crap of anyone, no wait one person comes to mind, I know. We do have two or three garages full of stuff and a pile at the 29th street house.

Better get organized and get some of the stuff done that's on my list.

Martha Stewart Junior, aka Barb Sr, aka Bobwa is calling.

MUD

Wednesday Morning

Barb puts together family pictures for a calendar every year. This is the April picture. It is Coach Jenn and my Mom. Two nicer people couldn't be found any where.

It was 70 here yesterday and we spent a lot of time outside. I ran out of steam about noon and wasn't worth much. I will start cleaning for our Saturday Fajitas party. Barb's "Walk Across Kansas" team is invited for good food and great company this Saturday. The toughest job will be removing the fine coating of dust that has accumulated.

PS, Is anyone else as tired of the primary coverage as I am? Is anyone else surprised that the "Most Liberal" Senator is ahead?

OH Well, MUD

Another Day!

Yesterday turned out to be a better day that it started out. Barb and I went to Tractor Supply and bought some fencing to enclose the garden area I tilled up on Sunday. Finished the fence last evening and rested.

Up and at 'em early this morning and went over to the Valley Brook house to finish the ceiling in the back porch. It is one of those hanging grid systems and at least 11 of the drop in pieces and some insulation needed replaced. I had about 8 and bought three more. The paint job on the outside and an additional hose attachment on the back side and it will be done for a while.

I would begin the list on the other rental houses but that will all happen in time.

MUD

Today in the Heartland

Today started out with an overcast so it didn't cool off last night to the 30's. They are predicting a 30% chance of rain and that makes it hard to plan much outside work. I'm sure that after tilling up a couple of new flower beds, barb has some planting in mind. I just might go out and pick up sticks again today. Every time a wind blows up another storm, I'll have to repeat that process.

I did have a couple more pictures from Arnold's Greenhouse but my computer or the server didn't seem to want to take any more. They were just some more unknown flowers so I figured that it was no big deal.

For those of you that can read this blog fairly easily, I am using a slightly larger size font as a test. My niece had a blog with tiny green font on a black background and those of us with old eyes just couldn't read it. Kind of like double spacing your papers in school to get credit for more pages. More space instead of more content!

Oh well, better wrap this up and move on smartly!

MUD

Things I probably won't ever do, Again?

The other day as we drove down 45th Street here in Topeka I saw the roller rink there on the south side of the road. From no where, the thought came to me that I'll probably never roller skate again. I fall down enough without adding six inches to my height. As a kid I skated all the time and fell down a lot. Then I was able to bounce back up and go some more.

That thought made me think about all the things I have given up because of age, intelligence or sheer fear of hurting myself. The reason for the question mark in the subject of this post is there are things I have never done and probably won't do for the first time. Here are some:

• Skydiving. I know Bush 41 did it late in life but I just never did have any thoughts that I would willingly put on a parachute and jump on or off anything. When the subject of jump school came up when i was in the service I asked them who the other two people would be? What other two? those big som'bitches that it would take to throw me off that plane.
  
• Hunting Even without VP Chaney, I probably won't go out and take pot shots at Bambi or the birds. I have been known to ambush a squirrel or two when they start eating the house but that is hardly hunting.
• Throw a rip roaring drunk. I may not be sober for the rest of my life but I am sober now and will probably remain that way. It has been 15 years or so, so I'll probably not do that.
• Go to War. It isn't that I am afraid for my life, but damn, I need a nap now and then and those sneaky enemies might just get me . They sure as heck could find me from the snoring.
  
• Driving a race car. I can't turn my head fast enough at 70, I can't imagine what it would be like real fast.
• Climb Mountains. A guy can get hurt doing things like that.

I guess I'll just continue being the same old boring guy I already am. Writing this crap may just be as crazy as it gets.

MUD

Arnold's Greenhouse, Leroy, KS

On our way home from Tulsa, Barb asked me if I was just sold on driving all the way (2 more hours or so) home ofif we should spend the night in Independence. Sure, OK by me. I didn't even remember the sign that Arnold's greenhouse near Leroy KS was up the road. It was too late on Friday sna by the time we got there on Saturday the joint was jumping.

This is just one small bench of flowers and the green house rivaled the Superdome with at least 1/2 acre of trees outside.

Rows and rows of tables with flowers of all kinds. Don't ask me, I don't know an annual from a perennial.

For the guys, I threw in a picture of the roof system in the greenhouse. It appears to be some kind of fiberglass/plastic fabric with the ability to open for ventilation.

This picture is supposed to be a hanging basket but I did get another view of the roof.

Yep, them are flowers. Don't have a clue what they are but the master gardner I live with does.

This is an escargo plant that pinwheels off the main stem. Pretty cool Huh?

Same kind, different color.
OK Guys, they have this cool old 51 International Harvester/Studebaker truck in there just to keep the guys interested. Little rusty and in need of a lot of work.

This cute little girl stopped and stared at me after splashing in the water. When you look at a guy with a camera, you get your picture taken. That's all for this trip. Barb will have me out working on the flower beds soon. I won't tell you what a trunk load of flowers cost. She didn't complain when my steering part cost over $100.00 (with the shipping)

Have a great day out there.

MUD

Bierocks

The main part of the bierock is the filling. I use a combination of hamburger and the filling from bratwursts. I brown the meat, add onions, garlic and chopped cabage. Salt and pepper to taste. I do not overcook the cabbage.

There are several ways to make the dough. Barb's favorite is to buy the frozen loaves of bread dough in a package. Let them thaw overnight and then take them out and let the raise and make sure the dough is warm all through. I have put the dough in a metal pan and put that in hot water in the sink. Barb had made some pie crusts and I put the dough in the oven with a dish cloth cover. Cut a pie off the big dough ball and roll them out with flour and a roller.

Barb sprays pam on the pan and places the filled dough balls making sure that there is some room between balls to raise. After they have raised heat the oven to 350 and let them cook for 20 minutes or until the rolls are golden.

Barb takes them out of the oven and puts butter on them while they are hot. I wish I could recommend a good way to eat them. I love them hot, cold or anywhere in between.

I have been told that these simple rolls were a pretty big staple in the German farmer's lunch. My next door neighbor, Art Longhoffer who was a second generation German American ate pretty much German food as that was all his mother knew how to make. During the depression they grew cabbage and onions and Kraut was the filling. If one of the boys could shoot a rabbit that was the meat in the filling.

Good luck and good eating.

MUD

Buffalo or Bierocks?

On our trip south on US 75, there is a town called Buffalo, KS. We have driven by there so many times that curiosity got the best of me. We side tracked to the down town just see the grand sights of Buffalo. There was a building right across from the...

Bar and next door to the ...

US Post Office. Man were we underwhelmed. We did see a church and probably both of the county employees working on the street. One was using a road grader and the other a bobcat filling in holes the road grader didn't fill.

Salute to those wonderful people in Buffalo. Next time I'll just honk the horn as we drive by on the highway. No wait, we don't have a vehicle with a functional horn. Dang!

MUD

Tulsa Family Pictures

We made a trip to Tulsa and helped Mom celebrate her birthday. (86 years) Here she is with Rebeca holding a birthday pie. Barb made four pies and this was a chocolate one that went home with Beck.

Here is my other niece Kristy and her son Ethan. They are a sweet pair and we had a nice visit with them.

This is Rebeca with he daughter Melanie. We had a nice visit after running into them in WalMart. That's another story for another time.

This is the future Rock Star Kristen. She brought her guitar over and played a few songs for us.

This is the love of My Mom's life. Sassy, has turned into a real lap cat and goes everywhere Mom does.

What the hey?

For several years barb and I have passed this sign on the road leading south out of Lyndon, KS. As we returned from Tulsa, we saw the sign on US 75 as we headed north just on the Kansas side of the State lines. I just had to take a picture and see if any of you historians have ever seen the sign.

It seems the Creek indians had a pretty rough time during the war of 1812 and after that war were forced to move to Oklahoma. (Read about the trail of tears and see how bad it was) As the Civil War broke out half of the Creeks asked President Lincoln for help and the Texas Forces did their best to keep them in Oklahoma or kill them. They managed to escape from Oklahoma but met with such tragedy in Kansas that they might as well as stayed in Oklahoma to die.

In 1995, the Governor of Kansas signed a proclimation and dedicated US 75 in Kansas a the Opthole Yahola Trail to honor these brave braves.

OK, That is more than I knew. If you look the name up on the WWW there are pictures of the current day survivors of this family.

MUD

Oklahoma Bound!

Last weekend we were going down to Skiatook to see my Mother and the creek went out of the banks and you couldn't get there from here unless you you knew the secret trail into town. We would like to see more of Mom but I do get to talk to her on the phone on a pretty regular basis.

We will stay at the local Indian casino. I say that with a smile on my face because it is really one smoky room filled with weird slot machines that gobble my money faster than a teenager at the Thanksgiving table. So far I haven't even had a kind word let alone a free drink.

Got the dogs fed, the trash out to the corner and the dishwasher loaded. A shower, a little light packing and we're off. Going to take the camera but it is going to rain most of the way down there.

MUD