Maintaining Our Equipment, The Garden’s “Still Kickin!”and My Take on Giveaways:

Good morning to you all, and welcome back to Ridin Out the Recession.

We haven’t posted in a few days now, but we have been busier than normal lately, and this is from our business slowing down some. So how does that work? We’ve slowed down work wise, yet we’ve been busier than usual??

This is simply because we utilize down time by performing preventive maintenance on our equipment. For those that don’t know already, we’re in the paving business. In the housing crash of 08, we didn’t work for nearly two years…no exaggeration.

We weathered that go round, and we hope we don’t see that again! The last year and a half though, we’ve held our own.

BUT, from the very initial slowdown, this is when Deb and I realized our need to “simplify” our lives some. Back to growing gardens, and producing enough food from our place to be more self-sufficient in our lives. We went back to canning, food savering, and freezing more vegetables, meats, stews, etc.

We installed the old style hand-pitcher pumps for water if we had a power outage. We picked up some cows, and we’ve built a chicken coop, but as of yet, we haven’t built their run, so the bottom line in regards to our chickens is…we ain’t got none yet!! LOL!

But these are but some of the things we did to insure our family eating if our economy got worse. In these times, in our opinion, it surely doesn’t hurt to put a little back.

Once more, the worst case scenario is, the economy grows and thrives again, which we ALL hope it does, then you eat the food you put back anyway. It simply is…an investment in an uncertain economic future.

Well, returning to the subject of preventive maintenance for just a few more minutes, we just tore down one of our sealcoat tanks to replace the bearings on the agitator shaft. The front bearing went out and this allowed a waste of sealcoat, as when we agitated our mix, some leaked around the shaft. So what we did was to replace both the front and rear bearings on the shaft.

Although the front seal was bad, we replaced both while we had the tank tore down. We have to take our main motor and air supply tank off. Even though this is quite a job, this is the first time we’ve had to replace the bearings. You can’t moan or groan too much over this because we’ve had this particular tank since…1995!

As far as our other equipment it is all getting maintenance. All chains are oiled, oil changed in our motors, all fittings are greased, any tires that need plugging or replaced have this done at this time also. We take care of the equipment, and in turn it takes care of us.

We’re still getting okra, but since the cooler weather, which isn’t very cool to most of you other readers considering where you guys are located, but to us, and our okra, in the low 50’s at night, is actually pretty cool considering where we’re at. We have though the last couple years seen 22 degrees on 3-4 occasions. To me the 50’s are “just right,” but you get in the 20’s, well, that’s just too dern cold!

Our okra that we were cutting once a day, and no longer than every other day, is now going about 3 days between cuttings. But, it will continue to make until the frost gets it. It keeps making, and I keep pickling any excess.

Our mustard greens are doing well too. This little garden of ours really produces the vegetables for us, and the more it makes, the better we like it. We’ve been sharing it with our family and friends and they sure aren’t griping over this.

Our garden has been so good for us on account of several things. The first is obviously the produce it shares with us. For those who don’t realize it, the fruit or vegetables you produce are so much better than store bought.

Stop and think about it for a second or two. The produce purchased from your nearby supermarket had to come from some part of our Country, or another one. It has to be picked, washed, packaged, THEN shipped.

From there, does it go straight to the market place? Sometimes it does, but many times it also is shipped to a warehouse, then unloaded, stored in a cooler, then reloaded and delivered to the stores at this point.

So, in Deb and my thinking, we feel there are times that we may pick and keep some of our vegetables in our refrigerator for a week, then cook, or can them. Now, we hardly ever, if at all do this, BUT, even if we did, we feel our vegetables would still be just as fresh or fresher, than you can possibly get from the marketplace. Don’t you?

Our garden not only provides us with the food it produces, but Deb and I literally find gardening therapeutic to us both. It gets us outside in the fresh air, and is good for us physically too. Throughout the life of our garden we are weeding, or fertilizing, spraying for pests and even the stooping over and picking the produce is good exercise.

We also take great pleasure in simply watching our garden grow. To see those seed popping up out of the ground, and then establishing themselves as small plants is in itself, very rewarding to us. Then as they start bearing their produce, we love watching the vegetables start to size up, change color, and then ripen for us to eat and share with our family and friends.

We then get the feedback from them as to how much they enjoyed eating our produce. This too we find very rewarding. In many cases life is about giving, and we as Christians believe this is God’s will. Help your neighbor if possible.

This is how our Country was built…helping your neighbor it times of need. This belief comes from the goodness of your heart, but for the last 40-50 years or so our government has bestowed the belief among far, far too many of us, that THEY should be the ones to help us out, and that we’re not capable of helping ourselves.

Is this how our Country became great? Of course it isn’t, and since the government has bestowed upon themselves the title of “our keepers,” our Country has rapidly become a “Nanny State.” This philosophy has nearly bankrupted the greatest Nation in the world…from within.

Political power is the driving force behind such thinking, and the amazing thing to me is the stupidity of so many of our citizen’s, that have become “indoctrinated” into such madness. How can these people, through giveaway programs think for even a split second their elected leaders are concerned with their plight…because simply put, they ain’t.

You cannot make me understand that through our government’s actions, such programs can be good for anybody. In reality, for a mere pittance, they are enslaving themselves to a political system that is all about the power of our politicians.

One quick look at this is the marriage of the Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea. How many millions did this cost? YET, they are fighting for the poor and oppressed. In reality, they want you poor and oppressed. Why…their power. NOT YOURS…theirs!

Since the “war on poverty” and the “great society,” startup, what has been accomplished? Are our inner cities any better off? Nope. Are the poor and oppressed better off? Nope. Has our government recognized this? Nope. Well, actually they have, but do they care? Nope.

This is all an ideology people, that’s all. It is about more government control, less freedoms and rights for “we the people,” and is basically the “communist oriented” ideology that has failed no matter where it has been tried. In the long run, this ideology bankrupts and destroys the Country and its citizens.

Throughout history this has been proven time and time again. For example, look at Cuba. What kind of standard of living does its people have? Not much of one if any. BUT, take a look at its leaders, and their cohorts. Using a Southern expression, ole Fidel and company live “high on the hog,” wouldn’t you agree.

The reasoning for this…they ARE the power. They have conjured up in their own minds that they are “the elites.” They know best, YET the people suffer a tough existence. Survival isn’t a term to these people…it is a reality!
My neighbor is from Poland. You ought to talk to him about the socialist ideology. For those that believe in such a system here in the U.S., he has but one statement for you guys…BULL! For the life of him, he cannot understand the thought process of many, many Americans today. Honestly, he cannot come to grips with our situation here at all.

He told me just awhile back, that we here in America are now literally, living under a socialist rule, and WHY, can’t we as Americans simply see from history past that this entire ideology is only a mirage.
He tells me that in Poland the people were promised the world. They were promised work, food on the table, a roof over their head, and life would be so much better with all living as a collective. They gave the people a little of this, a little of that, and by this the people “sold their souls,” to the communist propaganda,” or the “utopia” promised to all.

He says through the “buying into” of this ideology, before the people realized it, the system went bust…no money. This “promised utopia” became a nightmare to the people. You couldn’t find milk for your little ones, and meat and eggs were found only through the black market at a vastly inflated cost….IF, you could find these things period.

So, once more, the people were in a fight. It became all about SURVIVAL, and this, once again, is not an expression, but reality.

Many, many of us today see this happening here in the US, but the problem we are now faced with is potentially not having the numbers to continue to have much choice in regards to our election process, and sadly our power hungry politicians have known this for years.

This is why today all of these giveaway programs are out there. They are “buying the votes” of their constituents! I’ll say this one more time then shut up about it. Through a mere pittance being given to the people, the politicians are lining their own pockets, and it’s snowballed into literally theft of our tax dollars, for their agenda.

Why are they pushing so hard for the amnesty given for illegals, which by the way could easily top 20 to 30 million people, and who knows how many may actually be here? VOTES are the reason. The politicians are selling out our Country, it’s morals, and its standards…all for their power and greed.

The 2012 election is going to be a very, very important election in regards to our Country and its troubles. So, please try and educate your friends and neighbors of the agenda’s behind our politico’s today. It’s time for Americans to run their own lives again, and this next election is our chance to do our part at the polls, and elect leaders that have our Country, AND its peoples best interest at heart.

Let’s put an end to “the professional” politician as well. Let them serve a term or two, then, bye now, it’s back to the private sector workplace and earning their own way too. The politician’s today have established themselves as elites too, no different than dictators around the world.

They have extravagant, pensions, retirement packages, health care, and salaries. We allow double, and triple dipping among public sector employees. This is when they retire from one job, and go to another in the public sector workplace…often the VERY SAME job. This practice is appalling to me, and should be to EVERY taxpaying American. This is OUR money, not theirs!

You might like to read an article in the Canada Free Press from May 17, 2010 in regards to taxpayer cost of the public sector retirement plans…it is an eye opener.

Here.

Rick Scott, the governor of the State of Florida passed a new law advocating drug testing of people collecting welfare. I wholeheartedly agree with this. YET, the courts have shot it down for now. WHY??
Working people, who by the way are furnishing the money for these programs, many times have to undergo drug testing in the workplace. Why? Insurance, and safety reasons quickly come to mind, huh? Also wouldn’t you believe that through the use of drugs in the workplace job and product quality would have to suffer?

BUT, the people who don’t work, and I’m not talking about people who have just lost their jobs, but the millions who are on welfare programs and have been on them for years, don’t have to undergo drug testing. How does this make any sense at all. To me it doesn’t make any.

Our politicians look at this completely different than we the people. Once again it’s about…their power. Take a quick look at the fraud running rampant through these programs. This in itself costs us, the taxpayer, billions yearly! Billions, people!

Our politicians turn a blind eye to this. If they were to step in and stop it, why shoot, that would cost them votes, and they don’t want that to happen. Why? Because they know that most could not receive in compensation from private sector jobs, anywhere closer to what being an elected official can make anymore…Yet, if I were to jump on the bandwagon and start raping the system myself, guess what? I’d go to prison!

Fraudulently accepting food stamps, is a biggie. How bout the buying of food stamps from the recipients for cash, 50 cents on the dollar, and many times this being done by store owners. Where does this cash go? Many, many times for the purchase of drugs. But, once more, our politicos can’t enforce this, and WON’T. If so, they lose votes, and through this, their power and “gravy train!”

So today, here in America, our morals are being twisted. Right, many times is no longer right in our politicians eyes. This has been reversed, wrong today is many times right. Not that it is truly the case, but through their agenda, they shove it down our throats. Our politicians have sold their souls…at our expense!

They have taken the Cloward-Piven Strategy and have now entrenched it firmly in their agenda. This is to NOT get people off welfare, BUT instead, get more people ON welfare. Our economy cannot possibly sustain this, and believe you me, are politicians understand this inside and out. It is about the destruction of our Country as we’ve always known it.

Shoot, Obama told the world what he was going to do…”fundamentally change America!” I have to say this, and I promise you I’m closing this out.

How did we, as citizens of the United States of America, elect a man as the President of our Country, who refused for so long to salute our flag, refused to wear a flag pin, and stand there with hands folded in front of his crotch while our National Anthem was being played? I will never, never be able to fathom this.

But, from the liberal point of view, it’s only because that I’m a racist, redneck, right-wing extremist who advocates the Tea Party.

My only answer to these accusations is merely that IF, our election was held tomorrow, my selection at this point, although I am still considering my choices as we’re still early in the process, would be…Herman Cain.

So, as bad as the left likes to use color as a basis in our decisions, it is simply a lie, and they know this to be true among themselves, but using race accusations, they keep their constituents inflamed with conservative views. Alinsky taught…the ends justify the means.

But we, as true believers in our Country’s Founding Fathers Constitutionally backed standards, race has not been in issue for many, many years now. We believe in the morals and standards of our elected leaders, not their skin color, and from the polling done so far, Herman Cain is a fine example of this statement being factual!

In closing today I’d like to express two things. The first is for God to Bless you in your lives, and God to Bless America.

Also, Deb would get me good if I didn’t tell you all in closing, to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

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