Why are voting computer so hard to get right?

Computers are being used for banking, FBI data, confidential company information, ect, ect, ect… So why are these voting machines miss-counting votes? I have heard a few different things. Democracy now had an interview with Mark Crispin Miller that was really interesting. He said, "We now see a burst of vote flipping by…, electronic voting machines in a couple of states. This is something that we saw in at least eleven states in the 2004 election, hundreds and hundreds of people coming forward to say, “I pushed the button for Kerry, and the button for Bush lit up.” So, clearly, this was a systematic programming decision by the people in charge of the machines, which in that case and this one is the Republican Party."

Now I bet if you would have voted for Michael A. Peroutka, the Constitutional Party candiate for 2004, there wouldn't have been any problem. More reasons to vote for real change in this country. No more GOB(oys), er… I mean Rebublicans, no more Socalism, er… I mean democrats. Small, responsible government. Now that's something else!

This year was great for pears. We picked a little over 300 lbs in 2 evenings. They have been in the house now for a little over 2 weeks, and have ripened up just perfectly. This year we've decided to dehydrate many of them, as time has been strapped due to some house remodeling, woodcutting, fruit collecting… you can make yourself as busy as you want! Anyhow… Out of the many fruit trees around this old place we bought, there are about 10 pear trees. They are all Bartlet as far as we can tell, however, one tree had possibly a different type of pear that was really small. We did pick around 25 or so pears off of it. Here's a picture: 

Drying the pears is the easiest process for sure. It is actually my favorite because when I get home from work, the entire house smells just wonderful. Dried Pears and Pear butter make excellent gifts too. A good friend of mine sent me some bananas he dried from his farm in Kauai. They were the best dried bananas I have ever had, and I like dried bananas.

Now someone might ask; "what are the essential tools of the pear drying and canning trade?" While some might not ask, I will share with you what is used anyways. (Skip this section if you already know.) You for sure need a dehydrator, we like the Excalibur dehydrator. An apple/pear corer, a couple large pots, big knife, spatula or slickapot, food mill, and loads time. It's worth it though. A lot of the time you can find trees in town that are just dropping fruit everywhere, ask the owners if you can have it, and enjoy some free dried, buttered, sauced, fruit.

1450 5G NO SPILL GAS CAN

I am thinking about do it. They use so little energy! Speaking of energy, you have got to try this:

YUMMMMM!

Welp, I'm hitting the sack. 

Every morning we'd wake up and hang out down on the river. Some folks in our group fished most of the days we were there, but didn't catch much. The one day I was looking forward to going fishing for a King, happened to be the day after the commercial fishermen had been out… so our guide friend, Ryan, said the fishing was lousy. It was dumping rain that day anyhow, not that I mind since I had a rain proof outfit, but giving Ryan a day off is nice too.

We took a day and headed down to Homer. That place is wonderful. My wife's brother in law is the architect of the library in Homer, so we had to check it out. If you go there, I hope it is raining, which it probably will be, and you have to check out the large gutter falls. You'll know it when you see it. We took a drive down the spit to do the "shopping" thing with everyone. Had some fish and chips. My sister got a Salty Dog sweater. Had some coffee… etc… it's nice to walk around down there. The view from the spit is amazing. As we were driving out of town, we remembered we were supposed to check out the Two Sisters bakery. My sister got a big 'ole chocolate thing, my wife a hunk of bread, and mom and I got a couple loaves for the cabin. Nice place, good bread, groovy atmosphere. Over all, Homer is really beautiful.

On our way back to Soldotna from Homer, we stopped and checked out the Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik. Ninilchik would be a quiet town to live in I bet.

We got back to the cabin and had a bigger dinner than we should have, but hey, we're on vacation right? My buddies wife is a great cook. She made some type of coconut deep fired salmon with some of the fresh fish he'd caught dip netting a few days before. I had thought of moving to Alaska, just for the reason of dip netting alone. You can catch some crazy amount of fish with your boat, some friends, and a 4' wide net. You won't go hungry.

The day after we got back from Homer, my buddy and I skinned some Spruce trees and made an addition to his stair case. It turned out nice. A couple more days at the cabin doing some reading and relaxing, and we had to take off for Anchorage to catch our planes. We left earlier on the last day and went to Seward. I am glad that we took the time to go down there. Ray's on the Waterfront has amazing seafood chowder. Get some! I could live in Seward in a heart beat. I think the skiing and snowmobiling there must be crazy. The mountains BOOOOOM! out of town, almost like the beginning of the drive into Thompson Pass. It's a nice town, but not super touristy like Homers' spit seemed to be. We tripped around a bit in town then headed to Anchorage. Half of us got on a later flight that same day, while my wife and I stayed at her sisters place till our flight left the next day.

I've left a lot out describing our time there, but I just want to thank everyone for the hospitality and great time. Until we do it again!

(You can view more pictures here) 

P.S. Have you ever seen these folks around? They started in South Africa 5 years ago and have driven around Africa, Europe, South and Central America, North America, Asia and into Russia! According to their map… Nice guy to talk to. 

The flowers are really doing well, being now established for a season. Some rogue or volunteer sunflowers have shown up here and there adding to the asthetics of the wonderful garden environment. Pears are really growing well. We have 6 trees with pears this year, verses the 2 last year. The 2 from last year have double the crop this year. Plums are also doing well. We got 3 last year, there are 3000 this year. We have an early summer blueberry plant that is now beginning to really give some tasty blueberries. We have a net over it to keep the birds off, it’s worked so far. The rasberries are tasty, but few and far between. I think the birds are getting them. I planted about 100sqft of Asparagas for next year. It’s nice to see it begin to show it’s fern like growth. We have had a strange lettus garden. I planted a good amount of it early, we got a warm spell, like 90 degrees in May and the majority of it has already gone to seed. It’s about time to plant the other half of the row I think. July 15th and we have Kale, Lettus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Beets, Onions and Radishes that have been edible for the past month. The herbs have been good for the past two months. Here are some pictures of the garden. Enjoy!

If you are looking for a beautiful, early summer, late spring, fragrant flowering shrub, the Mock Orange is hard to beat. It is one of my favorite flowering shrubs. The fragrance is fairly strong, similar to the strength of lilacs. The smell is pungent and sort of sweet. We have the mock orange planted in a partial shade area. After trimming it up this past winter, it really showed it’s flowers this summer. The mock orange is about 25 feet from our bedroom window. Some evenings when the sun shines on it for a while and the wind is just right, we’ll get a nice filling aroma bringing a wonderful relaxing sensation into our small home.

There are a variety of Mock Orange that will grow in our area, so I am not sure of this exact type. It is either a:

• Philadelphus Coronarius (Sweet Mock Orange)
• Philadelphus Glacier
• Philadelphus Lewisii (Wild Mock Orange)
• Philadelphus Minnesota Snowflake
• Philadelphus Natchez
• Philadelphus Virginal

…so that really doesn’t narrow it down. According to the Sunset Western Gardener’s descriptions, I would say it’s a Philadelphus Coronarius, or the Sweet Mock Orange, due to it’s “cluster’s of flowers” and height of about 10 feet max. We have a couple others around the yard that are very small right now, but as we continue to build soil, water, and fertilize with organic options, they will begin to really grow.

First we get the Lilacs in white and purple. The fragrance is amazing! You get nice wiffs of it through the house on the warmer days. After the Lilac flowers are beginning to die back the Plum Tree’s white blossoms show. They don’t last too long. After the Plum blossoms, this yellow rose booms out of the yard and down the rock wall. The flowers don’t have a real fragrance to them, but they are just beautiful in the early morning and especially in the evening. The kind of glow out of the green back drop. About 2 months after these roses pass, we’ll be sharing our plums with everyone. What a great cycle!

P.S. This yellow climbing rose is either a Garden Sun, Golden Showers, or a Royal Gold according to Sunset’s Western Gardener.

Unintended Consequences
By STEPHEN J. DUBNER and STEVEN D. LEVITT

“One year from today, a new president moves into the White House. This president will be eager to carry out any number of plans — including, surely, plans to help the segments of society that most need help. Extending a helping hand, after all, is one of the great privileges and responsibilities of the presidency.

But before charging ahead with such plans, the new president might do well to first ask him- or herself the following question: What do a deaf woman in Los Angeles, a first-century Jewish sandal maker and a red-cockaded woodpecker have in common?”

Read the Whole Article

I built it out of 50% reused materials from around the yard. It took a while to decide where in the yard to put them. I generally like to have the animals closer to the house, that way I can hear if anything is going on. We decided to put the chicken run and house about 250 feet from the back deck. Not as close as I’d ideally like it, but it’s a level spot with a good sun shade ratio.

I started off by pulling 6, 8 foot railroad ties out of the old fence and digging holes a couple feet deep to drop them into. They stand out of the ground about 6′. After packing the decomposed granite (DG) around them really well, they are firmly rooted in the ground. Then I put some 2×4’s around the top of the railroad ties, and one through the center. I treated these with Lifetime Wood Treatment. The 2×4’s really firmed up the whole enclosure. We then pulled the chicken wire tight around the outside and stapled it into place for the time being. I then dug a 1′ deep trench around the entire outside of the enclosure. This trench has the chicken wire down in it with a pipe attached to the bottom and rubble like bricks, cement and rocks piled on top.

After I got the wire and pipe down in the trench and back-filled it with the rubble, I shoveled all the dirt back on top and stamped it down really well. It turned out really well, and doesn’t look bad at all.

Under the gate I put a large 4×12 with chicken wire wrapped around it. It is securely screwed into both posts the gate hooks on. Once the wire was pulled tight and buried, it was time to put the top on. A friend of ours gave us a large quantity of chicken wire that we unwound and strung over the top. Once again, we stapled one side and pulled it over to the other as tight as we could. I have since put 1×4’s that we have been given on all the stapled areas. This will keep any of the wire from slipping. Hopefully, even with the weight of some snow on it.

The gate took a little longer than the rest of the coop. Most of the railroad ties angles are not square and the old Cedar post I found to use for the other side of the gate, well, it wasn’t square either. In any case the gate turned out great. I even put in a mini door for the chickens to use. This keeps the deer out of their scratch and water.

The gate is made out of 2×4’s that I purchased. I used some old larger hinges I found around the yard. I bought some large wood screws with a hex head and drilled them through the hinges into the railroad tie. It’s bomber. The mini door is super great too. It’s like the little door on Willy Wonka. I used the same screws to hold it down, it’d take a large animal to break in. So I hope. For latches I used a self catching latch for the bottom and a slide bolt type latch for the top. I put a string from the bottom gate latch to the top latch that can be easily pulled to unlatch the bottom latch. How about that latching?

Overall the gate swings easily, latches well, the chickens use the mini door, and they are fully secured within. We can now take a couple extra days on our camping trips. I feel fine leaving the chickens within this enclosure. Before, they would fly over the fence and we’d find them in trees at night. Below is a picture of the finished product. If you have any questions or would like to know any details, feel free to contact us.

]]> http://norcalpublicnews.com/2008/06/12/chicken_enclosure_finished_empire_growing/feed/ http://norcalpublicnews.com/2008/06/07/one-fine-chicken-you-are/ http://norcalpublicnews.com/2008/06/07/one-fine-chicken-you-are/#comments Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:49:05 +0000 Jason http://norcalpublicnews.com/?p=144

This is a picture of our pet and egg provider Hen-a-C, the Australorp Chicken. We have 2 Australorp hens. They are Great Chickens! Read more about Australorps.

Click on image for a very large image.

In an old house we lived in a few years back, there were some old Iris’ that never bloomed while we were there, the year before we left I took a shovel and dug all around them, then gave them some BioSol. Bam! We had flowers in June. Below are a couple pictures from our Iris’ that are blooming now.

As for the fertilizer, I think spreading the chicken manure out as we clean the coop is just as effective. On a positive note, I haven’t seen many bugs at all in the garden. No cutworms or the like. They do the work in that aspect. Next fall we’ll let them fatten back up in the annual section again as everything begins to die back and go farrow.

My sister took a digger on her mountain bike. She’s not afraid. She’ll be back at it next week.

UPDATE! She’s way better. Has some big metal brace in her mouth, but the scars are almost all healed up. Black eye is just about gone. It’s cause she eat’s her greens!