26 November 2021 Friday

With Thanksgiving is behind us now and Christmas is looming up before us. Those Americans who were fortunate enough to have eaten their fill yesterday should indeed be thankful. There were some Americans that did not partake of the bounty and there are likely to be a lot more of them by next Thanksgiving. The country is being flooded by non-American poor people from around the world. They are expecting to partake of the bounty of America whilst doing little or nothing to increase that bounty. Many can neither read nor write the language of the country from which they have fled and certainly not American English. Most have not received even the minimum of preventative vaccines for childhood diseases and are bringing with them diseases that were eradicated decades ago in America. They are ignorant of the American culture and many seem to have little interest in assimilating into the culture of America. In other words, there is a whole class of people who will divide up the resources of the American ’safety net’ leaving less for everyone. Our elderly, impoverished America children and war veterans are going to get a much smaller slice of the ’safety net’ pie. All Americans, aside from Native American, are the descendants of immigrants. Virtually all of these immigrants came here legally, adopted the American culture and language. They received no aid and they went to work doing whatever they could to feed themselves and their families. Each ensuing generation did a little better until America had a burgeoning Middle Class. In the past 60 years we have very nearly destroyed the Middle Class with almost unlimited giveaways (so called entitlements) and soaring taxes. So called ”entitlements” have driven men out of the family unit. Our politicians and labor unions have lined their pockets with cash whilst driving most of our manufacturing, the heart of America, overseas. The minimum wage has destroyed youth employment and the work ethic once instilled into young people. High taxes have driven the mothers of the children into the work place and the children are feral because they have no supervision by either a mother or a father. On top of all of that, those among the illegal alien population who are willing to work, will work for less, which will take the last of the jobs that might would have supported an American family. I’m scared to death that America might be done.

We had a White Thanksgiving and we will almost certainly have a White Christmas. About 8 inches of the fluffy white stuff fell out of the gray sky. This did not chill our Thanksgiving cheer. Summer had brined and roasted a chicken for our Thanksgiving dinner. We had cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, candied yams topped with marshmallows, yeast rolls, cranberry sauce, apple and pumpkin pie. There were only three of us to eat so we did not need to cook an entire turkey. Some of the leftover chicken has just become a chicken sandwich. Yesterday’s overeating is being followed by today’s near fasting. I got around to eating the aforementioned chicken sandwich at 2:30 in the afternoon. The morning was nothing but coffee. And speaking of coffee, I cannot fathom how some of you get up in the morning and then don’t drink coffee. 2 to 4 sixteen ounce cups of coffee start my day everyday. I don’t become a functioning human being until I’ve had, at least, one 16 ounce cup of that flavorful brown liquid. Prior to the consumption of that first cup, communication is grunts and gestures. Before coffee, I am an annoyed, non-verbal cave dweller. After that first cup I become my usual calm, collected and verbal self. While I still am not yet ready to do more than sit at the table and read the news on my computer, I am alert and coherent. After the 2nd, maybe 3rd or even 4th cup, I’m ready to put on cold weather clothing and get on with the outside chores.

I may have mentioned that we have fenced in the geese. This has led to the daily chore of making sure that they have water. Their pond has frozen solid so my old beat up body has to schlepp 5 gallons of water to them whether I want to or not. Same for the chickens but they are more of an every third day chore. Picking up the eggs in everyday and sometimes twice a day since they freeze and crack pretty quickly after the hens get off of them. I got these minor chores done about an hour before sunset today. usually do it earlier but the caloric hangover from yesterday slowed me a bit today.

I most certainly did not get all of the summer work done but I did get all of the loose debris picked up. Tomorrow I’ll see if the snowblower will start. i shoveled some temporary dog paths through the snow today. Tomorrow I’ll put in longer and wider paths leading to all of the buildings. The little short legged Taco will then be able to run around outside the house and bark a trees falling in the woods 500 miles away. Betsy being long of leg has no trouble navigating 6-8 inches of snow. She just goes wherever she wants to go.

So far this winter has seemed, if not in fact, colder than the past couple of years. I found a web site called electroverse.net. The writer contends and has the proof to show that we are in a low sunspot/ lower output phase of the sun. It appears that even NASA grudgingly agrees with him. He contends that we may be in for several years of colder winters and cooler summers. So far he seems to be correctly analyzing the data. However, time will tell. If the summers are indeed cooler that is going to lower crop yields and, perhaps, create some hungry people in the world.

Today’s high was about 15F Tonight is forecast to be around 0F. Currently at just past sunset it is 10.5F.

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s and today’s snow.