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Do goats and parrots have that fiesty independent attitude too?<<<

Do they ever, Dink left me bleeding most of the time, but loved me...well a little.

When Bill was able to go to work after his heart problems, he had to go out of town, that is where the jobs were, Dink never spoke a word from Sunday until Thursday, only bit me.

Considering that he did not live in a cage, that meant he could make a flying attack and draw blood on the run.

Then Bill came home for the weekend and poor sweet Dink would be there when he woke up, he would even preen the sleep from Bills long eye lashes.

Dink would find my cigarette package, pull them out one by one, take a bite out of the middle, drop it to the floor, turn his head sideways, look to make sure it was on the floor and reach for another.

It took me years to figure out when he knew to wake me up and you had better be feet on the floor when that alarm went off.

Then one morning, I was awake and I heard it, the alarm made a click, before it started ringing and that was Dink’s clue.

Jo had told me that she thought that I should take him, for he was lonely at her house, Jim was a cop and she worked at the bank, so they were gone for long hours, and there was always something in my house, and I was raising/breeding birds.

Finally one day, she said please follow me home and get Dink, she had him for 2 or 3 years, he was an illegal immigrant, came across at a day or two old and the arresting officer, asked Jo to try and save for in the 1970’s we had no one to take care of the smuggled birds in our area.

I had no idea what I was going after, got there, found a small parrot, a Petz Conure, who LOL, had a 6 foot tall cage.

We got the cage loaded and Dink in a carry cage and started home, of course to the far side of town.

It was late and Bill was still in the goat pen, for that was the day one choose to have a difficult birth, which Bill was good at dealing with.

We set up the cage and went to bed.

Bill got up early and did not like my chattering, for they said that I hit the floor talking and it was more jobs for Bill, if he listened.

So over the years, we settled into married life, he got up alone in the morning, did not want food or talk.

I stayed up at night and did crafts, read or whatever and even when we had a house full of foster kids, we both had periods of being alone.

The first morning with Dink went like this:

“I am putting my pants on damn it”
repeated several times, as Bill stood by the bed, attempting to put his pants on and talk at the same time.

LOL, of course I woke up and asked what was going on, then I heard Dink, in the other room yelling “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” over and over.

Seems Bill went to start the coffee and woke Dink up, who considered him to be an intruder.

I thought it was funny, Bill did not.

When I got up and went in the kitchen, Dink started in on me,
“I Want a Bath!!!”, I want a bath, over and over, with more cuss words as he rejected my efforts to put bowls of water in his cage.

When I got to work and told Jim, he said Jo forgot to give me the bathtub.... an 8 inch round cake pan, to be placed in the sink and a trickle of water allowed to run, so Dink could shower, himself and the entire kitchen.

In later years, he took a shower on my shoulder, most of the time...for he got in the habit of wanting a bath in every glass of water and as you watered house plants.

I had a list of 139 words that he could say and did when he wanted to, that were used correctly.

He would scream at me, I was the evil stepmother, I did not allow him to drink beer and none of the cans that I opened, ever had beer in them.

My brother had allowed Dink to share a beer and forever after Dink wanted beer in every can.

Mary would come to dinner and he would set on her knees and talk to her, as if he knew he was talking to a real victorian lady.

But let Bill’s boss’s wife come to dinner and Dink was plain rude, he would mock what she said and she was one of those, who bragged a lot, how dink knew which words to repeat, I did not figure out, but he would pick her brags up and sit there repeating them.

Dink was with me about 24 years.

For Vegetable Gardeners, It’s the Second Season

July 30, 2009
Susan Reimer
Baltimore Sun

Those who caught the vegetable gardening bug that swept the nation this spring need not weep when the last tomato is harvested. The second season of vegetable gardening begins - now.

Seeds for cold-weather crops will be available at garden centers by the first of August, if they are not there already. And seedlings - an easy shortcut for vegetable gardeners - are not far behind.

Broccoli, cauliflower, beets, turnip greens, chard, cabbages, carrots and peas, not to mention another round of lettuce and spinach, are the most popular fall crops. Not only can they survive a frost, they taste better for it.

“The fall may be the better time for anything in the cabbage family,” said Gene Sumi, education coordinator at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville. “They are actually going to taste better when they get hit by a frost because the low temperature brings the sugar out.

“And fall is another chance for people who love lettuce and spinach.”

Homestead, like other home and garden centers, is preparing for a significant uptick in sales for fall vegetables.

Carrie Engel of Valley View Farms in Cockeysville said she has ordered 20 percent to 25 percent more fall crops, especially lettuces, spinach and broccoli, because of April sales. “We sold more greens than we ever have before.”

Burpee Home Gardens reports that garden centers in its Dallas test market ordered nearly the same number of plants for the fall vegetable and herb gardening season as they did for spring.

“Dallas represents a warmer zone with a longer gardening season, but still illustrates a trend that retail garden centers have recognized and are capitalizing on - fall gardening is more popular,” said Burpee representative Jessie Atchison.

Fall crops come with their own set of issues, however.

Gardeners can “free sow,” simply scattering seeds in a way that isn’t possible in the cold and wet of early spring. But drought and insects are a problem in the fall. And critters still devour seedlings, just as they do in the spring.

“Insects are a problem,” said Engel. “The best thing to use are translucent row covers to protect against them.”

Gardeners should start planning now for their fall crops. Here is some advice:

•Clear the garden of spent plants, composting any material that shows no signs of disease. Test the soil to make sure the ph level is still above 6.0. If not, add hydrated lime, which will work quickly for the fall crops.

•Add more compost and dig it in. Any portion of the garden that will not be planted with fall crops should be covered with hay, black plastic or a cover crop of rye grass.

•Even if you did not have a vegetable garden this spring, consider planting in the bald spots that appear in the perennial gardens in the fall. The south side of your yard will have the best sun during the shortening days of fall.

•Seeds for fall crops of broccoli and cauliflower should be sown in containers now. Likewise, late crops of squash, beans and cucumbers can be directly sown now, according to the University of Maryland Extension Service.

•If you are starting seeds in containers, you won’t need to provide an artificial heat and light source. But too little moisture and daytime temperatures that are too high can be a problem. It makes sense to nurture seedlings in a stable environment.

•Although you can start seeds in containers any time now, some crops may require you to wait to free sow until after Labor Day. That way, temperatures will have moderated by the time the plants are mature, said Sumi. The same is true for planting seedlings. In any case, read the packages directions for fall planting carefully.

•The old wives’ tale is true: Don’t harvest until after the first frost. The vegetables will taste sweeter, Sumi said.

•And finally, planting fall vegetable crops holds the promise of a wonderfully fresh Thanksgiving feast.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/home-garden/bal-ae.li.susan30jul30,0,659126.column

http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/09_Food_Water/090731.gardeners.2nd.season.html

//Snip// Re: H.R. 2749 just passed by the House.

The legislation requires food manufacturers to identify the particular risks they face, create controls to prevent that contamination, monitor those controls to make sure they are working and update those measures regularly.

//snip//

It also allows the FDA to quarantine a geographic area, blocking the distribution of suspect food to the rest of the country. And the FDA would gain access to records at farms and food production facilities.

Under the legislation, the food agency will get new enforcement powers and be able to impose beefed-up civil and criminal penalties. One provision allows the FDA to declare food “adulterated” simply if the grower or manufacturer has failed to follow safety standards, regardless of whether the food is actually tainted.

The bill does not address the fractured nature of U.S. food regulation, which is spread among 15 federal agencies, as well as thousands of state and local health departments.

Agriculture interests were able to win key concessions. Small farms are exempt from registration fees, ranchers and farmers now regulated by the Agriculture Department are excluded from the requirements of the bill and the FDA will have to consider the special concerns of small growers and organic farmers, among other provisions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/30/AR2009073003271.html?hpid=topnews

Well, Granny - we knew this was coming didn’t we...

- - - - - -

Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to “Assist” with Pandemic Outbreak

related: Military Planning for Possible H1N1 Outbreak

July 30, 2009
By Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Until now, what I’m about to tell you would have been easily dismissed as a conspiracy theory. It’s the kind of story that you might expect from some extreme fringe blogger... the kind of story that never appears in the mainstream media. Only today, it did. And it’s not a conspiracy theory, either.

CNN is reporting this evening that the U.S. military is gearing up to get involved in the H1N1 swine flu outbreak widely expected to strike the U.S. this fall. As CNN reports, “The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.”

When it comes to the U.S. military, the word “assist,” of course, could mean almost anything. Typically, the U.S. military offers assistance at the end of a rifle. This “assistance” could mean assisting with quarantines, assisting with rounding up infected people or assisting with arresting and imprisoning people who resist vaccine shots.

Just to make it even more interesting, this operation will include “personnel from all branches of the military” and it will involve cooperation with FEMA — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is the group of geniuses who handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They’re the ones who confiscated firearms from law-abiding citizens defending their own homes, then thrust people into toxic temporary housing that caused neurological symptoms and breathing problems.

Internationally, FEMA is known as the Federal Emergency Laughing Stock Administration. But now, with H1N1 swine flu, FEMA will be backed by the power of highly-trained, heavily-armed military personnel.

Imagine One Possible Future in America...

There’s a knock on your door. A peek through the window reveals two young soldiers in urban camo fatigues gripping M16 rifles slung across their chests. In front of them, an official-looking doctor person sports an N95 mask and carries a clipboard thick with ruffled papers.

Knock knock. “Is anyone home?”

One of the soldiers catches a glimpse of you peering through a sliver of curtain covering the living room window. “I’ve got movement.” He tightens his grip on his rifle and elbows the soldier next to him. “Someone’s home. Knock again.”

Knock KNOCK. “We’re here from the pandemic response team,” insists the doc. “We’re here to help. Open up or we’ll be forced to come in.”

Reluctantly, you inch towards the door and grip the doorknob with damp, sweaty hands. Your pulse pounds hard as you crack open the door.

But the doctor isn’t in front of your door anymore. It’s one of the soldiers — the larger one — and he wedges his foot between your door and its frame, prying it open and forcing his intimidating self into your doorway. “We’re with FEMA. Please step away from the door.”

“Our records show you haven’t received the swine flu vaccine yet,” squeaks the doctor from behind the bulk of the domineering soldier now squarely positioned in front of you. “We’re here to administer your vaccine.”

“I don’t want a vaccine,” you protest. “They’re not safe.”

The soldier chuckles, blurts out, “They’re as safe as the U.S. government says they are.”

The doctor peers out from behind his military companion and makes eye contact. “Sir, as you well know, vaccines have been required for all U.S. residents since President Obama’s emergency pandemic declaration last month. Please extend your arm and we’ll be on our way.”

He produces a syringe and stabs it into a half-filled vaccine cylinder. As he pulls the plunger and liquid races into the syringe, you realize you have mere moments to make a decision. Will you willingly accept the vaccine and avoid being beaten, arrested or shot by the two armed enforcers at your door, or will you resist and pay the consequences?

“Please extend your arm now,” the doctor says. The military grunt clenches his jaw, eyeing your hesitation with obvious scorn. He fingers the safety on his rifle and clears his throat...

... what will your choice be?

We’re Only Here to Help

That scenario might seem like fiction now, but it could unfold in America in the next few months. What seems outlandish today could become a police state reality before Christmas.

But this is no joke. These people are serious. Even the words tell too much: The order to approve all this is about to be signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and it’s called an “execution order.”

So what, exactly, would military personnel be doing in your neighborhood in the event of a swine flu outbreak? The CNN story says they could assist with the “...testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.” There’s nothing in the story about rounding people up, maintaining quarantine road blocks or cremating the infected bodies of the dead. These realities of a pandemic outbreak are better left unsaid if you’re the U.S. military (or the mainstream media).

That’s why the full story of what the U.S. military is planning for will never be told to the masses. It’s too disturbing. But make no mistake: The military is planning for a worst-case scenario (that’s what the military does), and a worst-case pandemic outbreak scenario would involve gunpoint-enforced isolation, military-enforced quarantine zones and most likely the forced vaccination of nearly everyone. Those who resist the vaccinations would be arrested (or detained) and injected at gunpoint, then set free back into the population.

Hollywood has already imagined some of what might happen in such a scenario. Rent the movie The Siege (Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington) to catch an imaginative glimpse of how the U.S. military might handle things in an “emergency situation.” It’s not a documentary, of course, but much of what it presents seems strangely on track with what’s shaping up if a pandemic outbreak occurs.

The very fact that the military is now leaking this story to CNN says something all by itself: The U.S. military is preparing to be stationed on U.S. soil, and whatever freedoms you mistakenly think are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution will be long gone by the time the soldiers arrive at your door.

http://www.naturalnews.com/026732_military_pandemic_outbreak.html

FEMA Report Missing Section Detailing Palmer, TX “Population Removal”

July 30, 2009
By Joey G. Dauben
The Ellis County Observer, Texas

PALMER, Texas - The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s reports of how to mitigate potential civil uprisings and disasters have sections dealing with the mass relocation and confinement of citizen populations: except in Palmer, a city 20 miles south of Dallas.

The City of Palmer and the Palmer Police Dept., according to a former reporter for conservative weekly The Ellis County Press who requested the FEMA documents for three months, have the federal plans but the section instituting population relocations came up missing.

“I have already talked to [Palmer PD Chief Mike Zaidle] about FEMA in Palmer the section of the emergency management plan regarding moving people into camps is totally gone from the 3 inch binder,” said Brandy Owen, the former reporter who penned a series of articles on the Trans Texas Corridor last year. “There is a chapter or [section in] it but the section is gone from the plan.

“He [Zaidle] is quite aware of federalization and says he has tried to be “compliant” and make proper arrangements for housing people in the high school gymnasium and other places,” she said. “FEMA always tells him his plans are inadequate.”

Recently, plans were announced by the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office to team up with local church pastors for a “safety seminar.” Some critics of the federal government plans involving local police agencies and churches cite FEMA’s attempt to “quell” dissent and facilitate the confiscation of guns from private citizens.

“A shocking KSLA [Shreveport, La.] news report has confirmed the story we first broke last year, that Clergy Response Teams are being trained by the federal government to “quell dissent” and pacify citizens to obey the government in the event of a declaration of martial law,” Paul Joseph Watson reported two years ago for Austin-based website Infowars.com.

“In May 2006, we exposed the existence of a nationwide FEMA program which is training pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to “obey the government” in preparation for the implementation of martial law, property and firearm seizures, mass vaccination programs and forced relocation.

“A whistleblower who was secretly enrolled into the program told us that the feds were clandestinely recruiting religious leaders to help implement Homeland Security directives in anticipation of a a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.”

When she first approached the City of Palmer, Owen said Mayor Lance Anglin fielded requests to City Administrator Doug Young.

“For three months I asked and checked back in with Palmer City Hall,” she said. “Mayor [Anglin] turned all of his emergency plan responsibility to Young. Lots of sections are missing but specifically relocation of people.”

http://www.elliscountyobserver.com/?p=7948