Free Republic

Ahhh! Small minded people.

Even stranger. Was it intended to be a joke? I don’t get it.

That’s pretty bad! I guess he’d think I was a fool for making and serving 12 ounce homemade fruit smoothies (each) to our tree workers crew (4 adults) who were working on one of the hottest days of the year recently. I was going to offer just water, but then had the idea of fruit smoothies instead. They loved ‘em! Took a quick break and had new energy to complete the job!

Excellent!

Believe me, I know. It’s where I grew up. I think it’s where I learned that I can get along with people even if I disagree with them about many things. Back in the day, there wasn’t this kind of cancel culture. Politics and religion weren’t things we discussed. Music, food, movies, sports, yes.

My family alone is bigger than 10 adults, and I know there are many more like- minded ones. They’re just greatly outnumbered by the university types.

Over the top. Conservatives in Alachua County deserve better than this!

LOL, good one! I really dislike women announcers and women referees for men’s sports. For women’s sports, it makes sense.

Do we need an alternative to Trump?

There was a time when I listened to Focus on the Family nearly every day. It was very helpful to me. Thanks, Dr. Dobson. RIP.

Since we live near woods, we often see a doe and two fawns nearly every year. This year, I haven’t, until the other day when we took our usual walk through the neighborhood. At the end of our street, we saw two spotted fawns, no mama nearby though. We figured she was around somewhere and out of sight.

Then a neighbor saw us, and told us that the two fawns have apparently lost their mama. Probably a car hit it or something. There’s a retention pond on that side of the neighborhood and beyond that another set of woods. The neighbor told us they were glad to see the fawns because they thought maybe they wouldn’t survive, but here they were, managing to make it anyway!

They are so cute, and now I see why one neighbor’s hostas don’t look so spectacular this year!

An absolute must see! I’d love to hear what you think if/when you actually do.

Hello! Lots going on here the last few days. Most of it has had nothing to do with gardening in any fashion.

Number 2 son and his wonderful girlfriend returned from their trip to a few places in Europe. We kept their cat here, although she really didn’t like being here. Or maybe she doesn’t like me. Anyway, we all have survived the ordeal with few scratches (ok, I endured 3 of those over the days).

We rarely get to see our kids for long. That proved the case this time, too, BUT we did spend about 10 meaningful hours together, hearing about their trip and whatever adventures they took on. We are so glad that they had a wonderful time! They learned a lot about history of the places they went, and the art and architecture, the foods, and the culture of the peoples. They had a really good time. It made it worth whatever we did back here in their absence.

As a treat, I took their car to the car wash yesterday, in part because one of the pine trees that he parked under produced sap that smeared in their front and back windows. Then I felt compelled to vacuum the mats and seats. Then I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could get the dashboard a bit cleaner? It was very dusty. Before I realized it, I had detailed their interior completely! I guess I was in the groove, and didn’t want to stop until I would’ve been comfortable in it. It didn’t feel like work. I was a little worried that they would feel I overstepped my bounds, but they were actually TRULY surprised and very grateful!

They bought us lunch! That was a lovely thank you, BESIDES all the gifts they brought for us from their travels.

The weather today was exceptionally beautiful. Temps were lovely with a steady breeze.

After the kids left (with some shishitos as a parting gift), I noticed that another one of my potato planters looked ready to harvest. 5 baby red potatoes were planted around Mother’s Day, and today I dug up 25. Score!

Dear Reverend, may I address your last couple of posts?

I will be bold here. You have an ODD way of dealing with your fellow FReepers. For months on end, almost 2 years (!!) you have posted links to your website solely, and as if by magic, completely DISAPPEAR! NO CONTACT with other FReepers until the last week. Many have tried to reach out to you TO NO AVAIL. I have tried to reach out to you with comments, for months! You ignored us, until just very recently. I’m curious about what may have changed.

You consider yourself a reverend. Well, so does Al Sharpton. Is he really the company you want to keep?

I have a few suggestions for you, if you want to be a FReeper in good standing.

1.) If you want to spread the gospel, you are free to do so here at FR. Just post your *entire* piece, instead of using a paragraph or two (which is at best what you’ve been doing for YEARS). That way, FReepers will see your MESSAGE about the gospel in its entirety.

You have said it’s NOT about the MONEY, it’s about the GOSPEL. Well, you can do that here. When you direct people to YOUR website, then YOU are getting eyes to YOUR website, ie, that’s MONEY in your pocket. We aren’t naive here. That’s how things work in this day and age. Doing that means it’s not about the GOSPEL, it’s about your website, and your ego, if not your wallet.

If you don’t post your entire article, you will be accused of posting “clickbait”and “blog pimping”. These are FReeper terms. You do know what those mean, I’m sure. You bait FReepers with an engaging paragraph, and lo and behold, if they’re interested, they click the link to your website. Clicks = eyeballs = $$$. You offer, ie. “pimp” your “blog/website”. Yes, it’s not that far removed from what pimps do with their girls. They dress enticingly, so as to grab someone’s attention. You do the same with your brief intros, and then if someone wants to know more, well, a simple “click” will take you there. Got one!

2.) Please ENGAGE with your fellow FReepers. Many of us are nice people! For nearly 2 years, you have engaged NOONE, save the last few days. You aren’t really a FReeper if you only talk AT us, not WITH us. You have been completely uninterested in communicating with the rest of us, until just the last week. I’m surprised you haven’t been zotted.

Other than trying to reach JimRob, have you ever conversed with another FReeper on ANY other thread? A look at your posting history shows us you HAVE NOT.

FReepers aren’t one dimensional. We don’t read only one source. We read lots of sources. If you want to be a FReeper in good standing, why don’t you engage anyone on any other thread other than your own? If you think FR is just politics and the gospel, you are MISSING OUT.

We are a COMMUNITY!

Love our country? Look for posts about our military and help sustain them.

Want to pray for people? We have threads every day about prayer requests. Don’t you care about offering prayers for FReepers who are hurting? I’m certain you can bring them comfort. If you are truly a reverend, as you say, why do you not want to help FReepers who are distressed about their circumstances?

3.) You have said you love FR. I think you do, but I think you don’t love it the same way many of us do. You love it for the exposure it gives you and your website. Many of us love it because we get to engage with like minded folks who have our same values, love of God and country. You don’t want to engage. We are lesser than you in your mind.

4.) I won’t even go into the possibility that you have been copying and pasting others’ work product without linking to their websites. Unethical. I hope you aren’t doing that. I will cut you some slack here, but I have my doubts.

5.) Donating to Free Republic. This website is not like Facebook or X. Jim Robinson doesn’t have the resources those ginormous websites do. We have no ads. No pop ups. A LOT of FReedom. I have been donating something to FR since I originally signed on ( a different FReeper name) since 2003. At first it was yearly. When FReepathons happened more frequently, I changed to quarterly donations, and then eventually to monthly donations.

I consider every article that YOU post to be a VANITY post, and for those it’s a common practice to donate $5 (at least) for every vanity. That would be IN ADDITION to the regular donations.

Sorry, but I’m having trouble believing that you donate to help keep this website up and running.

Jim doesn’t use it for himself. He uses it for operating expenses. Please help Jim out. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4335628/posts

6.) You mentioned other websites getting excerpted, and wonder why you can’t excerpt YOUR OWN? Do you really not see the difference between a random FReeper seeing an article on Gateway Pundit (not one of the Hoft brothers) and posting an excerpt, and you posting an excerpt to YOUR OWN WEBSITE. Those are two totally different things. Don’t be dull, reverend.

***In conclusion, you can do better than this, sir. If you want to be respected, you have to be respectful. Stop USING FR to your own benefit.

Have a nice evening, sir.

It’s in the original packaging! Label and all!

I’m not sure what kind of fish we ate as young kids. I do know I hated fish sticks. Had to eat them anyway. If you didn’t eat what was put in front of you, you went hungry. If you complained about how you didn’t like something, you got a smack AND had to eat all of it under threat of more severe punishment. There was no pussyfooting around that. Amazingly, I am not a picky eater, save for a very few things, which I still sometimes try, and still reject. (I don’t like bleu cheese or goat cheese. I keep trying them every so often, but I still haven’t taken a liking to either of those.)

They are guys dressing in girls’ uniforms. They want to be considered girls. Taking a spot from an actual girl. So gross.

Ping! Thought you might be interested in this Bee story. 🤣

QUITE the setup!! You could go whole hog on that smoker!

I used to have that fear of swallowing a fish bone as a kid. That happened to a kid in my class in first grade and he had to go to he hospital to get it removed, and the bone once retrieved was taped onto cardboard, and he brought it to class to show us how we needed to chew the fish meat first before swallowing. I never forgot about that bone, and I was terrified about eating fish for a long time.

Fortunately, my father became an expert at filleting fish, and fresh fish is sooo good, that I still pay attention to when I’m eating fish, but I have largely not worried like I did when I was a kid.