Weekly round-up

Well, another week is done. Can't say that I got much accomplished. But nevertheless, it has been interesting.

First, the garden. It has been growing like crazy!

The two tomato plants are as tall as I am, and just loaded with small green tomatoes. Our plants are so large and so loaded with fruit that they overwhelmed the trellis I had them tied to, shoving it almost completely flat. I had to prop it up to keep the plants off the ground. We should be harvesting quite a few fairly soon, now that the non-stop rain seems to have finally gone away, and the sun and the heat can start them ripening. We did manage to harvest two small ripe ones a couple days ago. The Debster swears they are the best-tasting tomatoes she has had since she was a child, helping her dad pick them from their garden. Personally, I don't like tomatoes, but the Debster is more "normal" than I, so I grow them for her. And, maybe next year if I put in more than two plants, I can try making my own spaghetti sauce and stuff, which I do like. But that is for next year's blogs. Moving on ---

Two more large cucumbers here, ready to harvest. You can barely see the second one hiding below the one on top. They are now sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting for the Debster. Like the tomatoes, she loves cucumbers and I detest them. Yes, I know, I am weird!

Here are two of many small zucchini that we are watching. They have a ways to go yet, but hopefully the one plant will, in the long run, yield between 8 and 12 of them. I don't care for them raw, or even cooked in large chunks, but grated into zucchini bread and stews and stuff, they're OK.

The green pepper plant has one small fruit still growing. Going to be disappointed if that is the only one we get.  The romaine lettuce, rosemary, chives, and green onions are toast, smothered by the cukes and the zuchinni. The spinach is struggling as well. Some of the basil has fought its way through the jungle and continues to grow. 

Even if we don't get a ton of produce from this year's garden, I am "harvesting" a lot of lessons that I can apply next year. So, as in most things in life, even a "total failure", which this is not, can be a positive thing if I learn from my mistakes.

Our new puppy, Gidget, is now almost 15 weeks old. She has learned to scamper up the stairs like an old pro. Going back down them is still a bit of a problem, but she is getting better. She only falls on her nose every third step or so now. By next week I expect she'll be running down them like it was never an issue. So much fun raising a really young puppy. I haven't done this in many many years, and had forgotten how much fun it could be.

We are having vehicle problems. A few weeks ago, we had to put our 2000 S-10 Blazer in the shop; it was running horribly. No power, "service engine light", and most concerning, a bad knock in the engine. With 260,000 miles on that engine, I feared the worst. Yep, engine was shot. We thought about buying a used car, but any decent used car would cost anywhere from $4,500 on up. Which we don't have, and I refuse to go into debt. 

So I talked to Terry, the owner of the shop, who is a long-time friend of the family, about options. Rebuilding the original engine would have cost well over $2,500, and replacing it with even a rebuilt engine, not to mention a completely new one, would have cost as much as a good car. We decided to go with replacing the engine with a used one. This was done, to the tune of about $1,900 parts and labor, which we did have although it wiped out most of our savings. It did come with a 30 day warranty. The engine had 146,000 miles on it.

We got the Blazer back. For a few days, it seemed OK, other than a problem with a fuel evaporation sensor, which we got fixed. So, we took it to the park two weeks ago. Uh oh! Oil pressure bottomed out to zero! That was NOT good. Parked, let it cool a few minutes, checked the oil. It was quite low. I put oil in, and the pressure came back up. Still lower than normal, but acceptable for the moment.

As we were pulling into our driveway, the pressure went down to zero again, every time the engine dropped into idle speed. The next day, I nursed it the couple miles back to the shop. We still haven't got it back yet. Terry is making sounds about maybe having to replace the engine, and the place he got it from doesn't have a replacement on hand at the moment. I am not happy, and the Debster is semi-furious. Right now, we are forced into a wait-and-see-what-happens mode.

In addition to the car troubles, we got a letter from the IRS this week. Due to Obamacare issues, we owe them over $2,400, which must be paid in three weeks. No idea where we are going to get that money. A friend of the Debster's has offered us an interest-free personal loan with very generous repayment terms, but, like I said, I hate going into debt, especially to a very dear friend. Guess we will try to work out some kind of payment plan with the Feds.

I'm not going to get into details about my problems at work, but suffice it to say that I have to take a 3-day unpaid "vacation". My own fault, completely. But still, it comes at just the WRONG time! Losing that large of a chunk of pay is really an issue right now ...

On the positive side, the Debster's health keeps improving. Her legs are really doing well, and she is getting around pretty darned well. She still goes for exercise therapy twice a week, and it is doing wonders for her. You go, girl!

Did you all notice that photo in my blog a couple weeks ago, roasting hot dogs with my nephew? 

Do you see that gut on me? That is just plain disgusting! No wonder my back and feet hurt all the time, and that I am "pre-diabetic", and have high blood pressure, and have so many other issues. I have obviously known that I have gotten really fat, but I guess it didn't strike me as such a big issue (pun intended) until I saw this picture. I MUST do something about this, or it will eventually kill me. Literally.

So, a couple days ago, I started the Adkins diet. I did this once before, 12 or 13 years ago, and lost almost 90 pounds. Then, I did what so many others did. I went off the diet and resumed my old eating habits. I gained that 90 back, with plenty more to boot. Took time, but ... here I am, morbidly obese again. So, back to the diet, with even greater reason to stick to healthy eating habits and lifestyle.

And, beginning Tuesday, I am going to start a course of physical therapy at the place where the Debster goes. Even if my insurance doesn't cover it, it only costs $5 per session, 2 or 3 times per week. A therapist will evaluate me in detail, and set a course of supervised exercises and probably also diet. So though progress will be slow, it should be steady, and maybe a picture like this next year will show a much-different man. 

Well, that's enough for now. 

God bless you all!
Ron, and the Debster

"OTO" (One Tool Option) as a life philosophy

"The more you know, the less you need." -- Mors Kochanski, legendary Canadian bushcraft instructor.

There is a debate that crops up regularly in the bushcrafting community. It is the "One Tool Option". The premise is that you are forced into a survival situation in the wilderness, and only have one cutting tool available to you. You are going to be needing to process tinder, kindling, and firewood, skin and clean fish and game, build a shelter, and do all manner of things that require a cutting tool. So, what one tool would you prefer to have in that situation? 

The debate then rages over various knives, axes, hatchets, multitools, and saws. Since most if not all outdoorsmen carry several tools, such as a belt knife, a pocketknife, and a folding saw, the premise is in a sense rather silly. For example, my current health and fitness level prevents me from doing any backpacking, and relegates me to car camping. Since I don't have to worry overmuch about weight, I usually have a multitool, a pocketknife, a belt knife, a hand ax, and a bow saw. I'll be adding a full-size ax to that list soon. So, I have a tool for almost any cutting task that may arise.

However, the "OTO" mindset leads me to not only become proficient in using each of these tools for the task they were designed to do, but to also "cross-train". Could I clean a bluegill with my hatchet? Could I split logs with my pocket knife? 

Sounds silly, I grant you. But things can and do happen. Murphy's Law is alive and well. Tools can break or get lost. So being prepared and trained to improvise by using tools in ways that are "outside the box" is a good idea.

My personal approach goes like this: At age 55, almost 56, I am just now trying to get back into an outdoors lifestyle. I did a lot of this stuff when I was younger, and was fairly proficient. But that was decades ago. Any skills that I might still possess are very rusty. So, for the time being, I am going to concentrate most of my efforts on learning the strengths and limitations of my various tools, and practice using them for the tasks they were designed to do. (Just for giggles, I'll change up and try various other things. For example, I might use my pocket knife to carve hardwood wedges that I could use to split logs.) 

Once I am satisfied with my level of proficiency with each tool, I'll spend more time using each of them in unorthodox ways, until I have reached a point where I can be confident that if push came to shove, any one of my tools would allow me to survive if I had to.

Now, let's apply this concept to other areas of life. What about cooking? What if, instead of a whole collection of skillets, pots, pans, baking tins, and so forth, you had to prepare meals using just one utensil? Which one would you choose? Personally, I think I'd choose a cast-iron Dutch oven; it could be used for baking, boiling, and frying with little trouble. But what if I only had my tin coffee pot? Or an eight inch skillet?  Or a loaf pan? Could I adapt my cooking to make do with one of those?

How about gardening? Shovels, spades, hoes, tillers, rakes, clippers, pruners, trowels. Pick one?

Let's get a little esoteric. I have done a little preaching in my time, and have a fairly decent library of Biblical reference books. If I could only have one, which would it be? A Greek dictionary? Strong's Concordance? Robertson's Word Studies In The New Testament? (Concordance for me.)

You get the idea. Become proficient in the proper use of the tools you have. Learn and practice until you can do those things blindfolded. But don't stop there. Exercise your brain and your hands. Figure out how to use those tools in other ways. Practice those things too.

You never know when the skill of improvisation may become necessary, in any part of your life.

God bless!
Ron and the Debster

Weekly roundup

Well, another week has gone by. Last few days have been fairly decent, weather-wise. Nice to see the sun again, after weeks of pretty much non-stop rain!

A friend posted this to Facebook the other day.

There have been some fun things done this week, but first, let's address the elephant in the room: The Supreme Court has issued several rulings. Two of them have been getting a lot of play on the news and social media. 

The first involved the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare". The immediate issue concerned the federal "Healthcare Marketplace". The ACA, as written, passed by Congress, and signed into law, stipulated that individuals without insurance needed to sign up for subsidized healthcare via "Marketplaces" set up and run by the individual states. However, many of the states refused to set up Marketplaces. 

The Federal Government was horrified by this. The ponzi scheme financing of Obamacare required that a majority of citizens to either sign up for insurance or to pay massive fines, to provide the funding for those that couldn't afford unsubsidized insurance.

So, to bring in the required number of "insured" from the non-compliant states, the Federal Marketplace was set up. To begin with, it was a joke. There were huge problems with their software that allowed hackers easy access to very personal information. Fingers were pointed, lower-level people were fired, higher-level people were vilified. Eventually, they managed to get most of the bugs out of the system.

However, this was NOT what the ACA allowed for. The ACA only allowed for the state-run Marketplaces, not a Federal one. The Federal Marketplace was completely outside the scope of the ACA, and of course, lawsuits were filed thick and fast.

The issue finally reached the Supreme Court, and in a stunning blow to the Constitution, they ruled that the Federal Marketplace was legitimate and would be allowed to stand. The bottom line is that the ruling allows the White House to circumvent Congress and rewrite any law that it sees fit, in any way that it sees fit. This was a major step away from representational government and a major step towards tyrannical dictatorship, and all of it by the blessing of the Supremes. This is a very dangerous precedent!

Overshadowing the Obamacare ruling was another ruling a couple of days later, that effectively banned states from enforcing laws against same-sex marriage. Honestly, I saw this one coming a long time ago. 

The majority of the states allow same-sex marriage. The US Constitution requires that the individual states recognize licenses and other things issued by other states. That is why my Missouri Driver's License is valid in all fifty states, for example. And why the marriage license that the Debster and I have, although issued in and solemnized in Missouri, was valid when we lived in Illinois. So this ruling did not come as a major surprise to me. The minority of states that maintained bans against same-sex marriage would have eventually been forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. So, it made little sense to keep their bans in place.

One problem, in my opinion, is that once again the Federal Government is dictating to the States what they can and cannot do. This is a violation of the Tenth Amendment, if nothing else. But, it has the blessing of the Supreme Court, and that, as they say, is that.

There is a bright side to this, however. Allen West wrote THIS ARTICLE concerning possible side effects and unintended consequences to this ruling.

The other problem is the moral problem. From my position as a Bible-believing Christian, that is the biggest problem. One that needs to be addressed separately. So stay tuned, my friends!

I want to publicly thank God for the care He took with my dear friend Mary P. Mary's van caught fire the other day, and burned down to a pile of slag. Thanks to some kind and brave strangers, she was extricated from the burning vehicle completely unharmed. God is good!

We had another death in the family this week. Our last remaining cat, Bull, died this past Tuesday. He was just shy of his 14th birthday. This is a photo of him from a few years ago, with his sister Cow, who died in November of 2013.

Now, on to the fun stuff! The Debster and I were blessed to be able to spend today (Sunday), with my grand-nephew Tyler, who just turned seven. 

First, we went to breakfast at Steak-N-Shake. I had the country skillet breakfast, and was only able to eat about half of it. The rest is in the fridge for my breakfast tomorrow. Tyler and the Debster had chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and powdered sugar. Looked awesome, even though I am not a fan of whipped cream.

Then, we went to Lone Elk State Park, and drove through looking at the critters. We only saw one deer, and didn't see any bison at all, unfortunately. But we did come across a large herd of elk!

What a cute calf!

Look at the rack on that bull elk!

From there, we went on to West Tyson County Park. Although Lone Elk is a rather major tourist attraction, the nearby West Tyson park is virtually unknown, tucked away in the hills off the highway outer road. Doesn't even have a marker sign on the highway. But in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful parks in all of the Saint Louis County Park System.

There, I finally managed to get some "dirt time", as my bushcrafting friends call it. Nothing special, but I did get to play with my new Mora knife and Kobalt hand ax. I made a pile of shavings and batoned (split with my knife) a few  branches, and gathered a large bundle of twigs. Built a fire, roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. We all had a blast. Even if it did try to rain on us a couple of times, and the wood was all damp making the fire difficult to get started.

Kobalt hand ax, Mora Classic #3, Buck folding knife

Used the Mora to baton some small branches down to kindling

Spine of the Mora used to scrape dry dust off of inner bark for tinder

Bark, bark dust, shavings, some kindling

Tyler and I roasting hot dogs. Wow. Look at that gut I have. I have GOT to do something about that!

Tyler with his first fire-roasted hot dog

You can see the moisture boiling out the ends of the fuel.

Gidget relaxing next to the Debster while Tyler and I played with fire.

Well, that's enough for this week. Stay tuned, folks!

God bless you all!

Ron and the Debster

Weekly round-up

I know, it has been a few weeks since I have posted, but I really need to post more often. There is almost always SOMETHING going on that I could write about. So, if nothing else, I'm going to try to post at least a weekly update of what happened during the week.

So, although this is a "weekly" update, this first time out will be actually a monthly update.

Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, we lost out dog Stempy to cancer back in early May. Daisy, the youngest of our dogs, took his loss very hard. Her playmate suddenly disappeared, and she searched and searched and cried and cried, and then just moped around. Poor thing! We felt so sorry for her, because we were going through the same thing.

Pam to the rescue! My eldest niece called me out of the clear blue towards the end of May. She had this little itty bitty pupy that needed a home, and thought of us. She brought her by the house, and we fell in love with her.

"Gidget" joined our family on May 25. She was only about 7 weeks old; she was born March 31. Weighed maybe 8 ounces or so. Part fox terrier, part chihuahua, part who-knows-what-else. Mostly white, with black head and ears and a couple of black spots on her back. And BIG ears standing straight up. Fox terrier heritage, I believe, showing up there. And so tiny!

Gidget with the Debster, the day after she joined us

We had hoped that an energetic puppy would rejuvenate Daisy, but for the first few days, it was a little touchy. Neither Daisy nor Chelsea wanted anything to do with this little thing, and our cat just stared at her with a "WTH?" expression.

Well, eventually Daisy warmed up to her, and they have become pretty tight. Daisy is back to her playful self again.

Here is a YouTube video of Daisy and Gidget playing in our back yard last week. 

(Sorry, I haven't figured out how to insert a thumbnail image.)

Our garden has gone insane!

We have been harvesting Romaine lettuce, spinach, green onions, and herbs for several weeks already. Just as well, because with all the rain we've gotten the last couple weeks, the tomatoes, cucumber, and zucchini plants have completely overtaken everything else. I'm trying to keep them tied up, but they have still completely smothered the remaining lettuce and onions, and are threatening the pepper plant, spinach, and the herbs.

I harvested one large cucumber earlier this week, and several more will be ready soon, as will some of the zucchini. The tomatoes are loaded down with smallish green fruit, so we should be able to start harvesting them in a week or two.

Well, if nothing else, I have learned some valuable lessons about planning the layout of the garden that I can apply next year when I expand to two full size 4'x8' beds. The tomatoes and squash-type plants will each be completely enclosed in separate cages about 20" in diameter, and the smaller plants will be kept farther away from them. And I think the herbs will be in individual containers rather than the main beds. Live and learn!

Haven't done much at all lately with genealogy. Too many other things have kept my interest. My interest in prepping has led me to re-discover my love of the outdoors, especially bushcraft and survivalism. My personal health issues and physical limitations will limit the extent of what I will be able to actually do. Long backpacking trips are out of the question, at least for the foreseeable future, for example. 

But I can still do some things. Day-trips are always possible, and camping for extended periods as long as I camp near the car and stay reasonably close to the camp and don't try to do too much at once. 

As the weather gets hotter and muggier, I probably won't be doing much. So for now I will concentrate on collecting and maintaining a decent collection of gear, and practicing various skills that I can do mostly at home. Then, when cooler weather returns, I'll be out and about a lot!

This is a Morakniv Mora Classic #3 sheath knife, and a copy of Dave Canterbury's first book. They were very early birthday gifts from the Debster! Gotta love that gal o' mine! She has little interest in the type of camping and outdoors activities that I prefer, but she is very supportive of me anyway. I really don't deserve this wonderful woman. But God has seen fit to put us together, and so I must be the best man I can be, for her if for no other reason.

Well, that's enough for now. We'll talk again soon.

God bless you all!

Ron, and the Debster

Growing free vegetables!

The Debster & I have seen this kind of thing posted on Facebook many times, and decided to try it.

l-r: celery after about 10 days; celery after about 5 days, Romaine after about 3 days

We had finished a bunch of celery, and instead of tossing the "butt" into the compost bin, the Debster put it in a glass coffee mug with some water, and sat it in the kitchen window.

It started growing almost immediately. After about ten days, it is about eight inches tall with a full root system!

We started another, and after just a few days it is already about 3 inches tall.

So, just for giggles, we tried it with the butt end of a bunch of Romaine lettuce. It worked! In fact, it is growing faster than the celery.

These will be going into the garden in the next day or so.

How about that. Free vegetables!

(The kitchen window gets very little sun; if it was a south-facing window that actually got real sun, they would probably have done much better. Perhaps we need to set up a small area with a grow-light on some sort of timer? Hmmm ... something to think about.)

God bless
Ron & the Debster

Backyard salad greens

My back yard is not a golf course. There is grass, but it is a distinct minority. More weeds than grass. And I like it that way.

No, it's not "pretty". But it's not boring, either. And, after some time spent browsing the Internet the other night, I found that I have a treasure trove of nutritional greens, just waiting to be picked and eaten. Some of them I knew about from my Boy Scout days (back when dinosaurs wandered the earth), some of them new to me. Since I don't bother with fertilizers or insecticides, they are safe to consume once they have been thoroughly washed in clear water.

Broad-leafed plantain. Clover, both leaves and flowers. Dandelion greens and flowers. Lambs' quarters (sounds so much better than pigweed). Chickweed (who knew?). And of all things, newer leaves from the maple tree. Just five minutes work gave me a good selection to work with. 

If I had looked into this a couple of weeks ago, I could also have had a huge pile of maple seeds to munch on. But the ones that are still left on the ground have gotten a little bitter. (Supposedly, boiling them in one or two changes of water would take away the bitterness, but that's just too much work for the small amount that the rabbits and squirrels haven't yet got hold of.)

Sorry the pic is a little blurry.

I didn't realize it until after I ate the salad, and it was too late to retake the picture.

So, I made a small salad with some of what I picked, with some cooked and crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, and a light vinaigrette dressing. Not only was it tasty, it was chock full of vitamins and minerals that are NOT found in that silly boring iceberg lettuce that is the mainstay of most "civilized" salads. In fact, just as good if not better than the expensive "spring mix" that is found in the store, and it didn't cost me a dime.

I have had one more "backyard salad" since then, and still have a little left over that I'm going to try boiling and adding a little butter and salt, or perhaps a little lemon juice. They're supposed to be pretty good that way, also. Kind of like spinach or kale.

Nice to know that the uncultivated part of my yard can supply me with salads and greens most of the year, at absolutely no cost to me.

For the more "civilized" garden that I am trying, it's going crazy. We've had an unusual amount of rain lately, which has helped. I've only had to water it twice. The tomatoes are starting to show flowers, and everything is "jumping joints" as the Debster puts it. Should be able to start harvesting some spinach and Romaine lettuce leaves and a few of the herbs pretty soon. Also need to get the tomatoes and squash plants on a trellis before they get much bigger.

That's enough for today. As always, thanks for reading!

Don't forget to use the email subscribe tool at the top left of this article so that you don't miss out on one of my brilliant little essays! <grin!>

God bless

Ron (and the Debster)

Good by, li'l buddy ...

Stempy Johnson

January 21, 2004 - May 11, 2015

This is a tough blog to have to write ...

September, 2004. I'm a newly married 45 year old man. A guy I work with, Bob, knowing I am a serious dog lover, asks me if I would be interested in a small dog, a nine month old mostly-grown puppy. It belongs to his sister & her husband and young son, and her husband is very displeased because the puppy is chewing things around the house, and occasionally has "accidents" before he gets out the door. The dog is half dachshund on his mother's side, and half golden retriever mix on his father's side. ... Not sure I can visualize how that happened, but ... there it is. His name is Stempy, and yes, he had a twin brother named Ren, who is not part of this story.

I've had a lot of dogs in my time, and had always figured that if a dog couldn't knock me down, it wasn't a real dog, merely a wannabe. But a few years before, I was disabused of that notion by a Maltese Terrier mix that literally followed me home one day and wouldn't leave. I named him Fritz, and he was one of the neatest pets I had ever had. I was heartbroken the day he died. Also, my best friend, a big burly lumber-jack type of guy, and his wife had dachshunds . So, I was at least amenable to the thought of another little guy.

Well, Bob brought the mutt to work, and I immediately agreed. Such a cute little thing! He mostly looked like a tiny golden retriever. Slightly shorter legs and a slightly elongated torso were the sole markers of his dachshund heritage.

The trouble began that evening when I took him home for the first time. Remember, I was NEWLY married, for the FIRST time, and had been single and independent my whole life until just the month before. It just didn't cross my mind to check with my wife first. Although the Debster is just as animal-crazy as I, she had just had surgery on her Achilles tendon, and was hobbling around wearing a boot-cast on her foot. So while I was at work she would be stuck with trying to finish his house-training and keeping his chewing confined to dog-toys and not shoes and furniture. She was NOT pleased. She loved the dog, but was aggravated that I hadn't checked with her first. Understandable. 

So, for about a week, I took Stempy to work with me every day. I was managing a small used-car sales lot, and had some free time at work. He would wander the lot with me, play fetch with sticks, and play with the customers. 

Unfortunately, as he became acclimated to living with us and "adopting" us as his "pack leaders", his aggressive dachshund nature asserted itself. He started growling at customers, especially if they got too close to me. Not good. Not good at all! So, I tried keeping him in a crate behind my desk. Didn't work; he would bark his fool head off every time somebody came in the door, and wouldn't shut up until they left. Can't run a business with that kind of nonsense. So, I was forced to leave him at home with the Debster.

Well, she had gotten over her little fit of pique, and had grown quite fond of the little runt, as I knew she would. There were a few issues that developed over time. Our yard wasn't fenced, and he "decided" that the whole neighborhood was his territory, and that the only people allowed were me, the Debster, and Travis, my step-son. Neighbors, not so much. One day, he chased the neighbor's wife back onto her own front porch and scared the daylights out of the poor woman. After that, whenever he had to go outside, it was on a tie-out lead.

Another issue was his rampant adolescent male interest in mating, if you know what I mean. Although, to the best of my knowledge he never showed interest in any person's leg, any four-legged creature that he could get hold of was fair game. Didn't matter what gender, age, or even species. If he could figure out how to get his front legs around the critter, it was open season! I don't know how many times we had to pull him off of one of the cats before he got sliced and diced by their claws. And the Debster's dog Chelsea? Just two years old herself, she bore the brunt of most of his attentions. She would raise Cain and whoop on him, but nothing would deter his ardor. As he got a little older, he mostly outgrew this, as I knew he would. He wasn't the first male pup I had raised, after all. But for the Debster, it was a fairly hilarious experience.

Other than that, he quickly became an integral part of our home. He loved both of us, but as luck would have it, he became more of a daddy's boy than a momma's boy. Maybe because he and I were the only males around, surrounded by females and cats. (Cats are all female, you know, regardless of what "plumbing" they have.) He also became closely attached to Deb's mom, and she to him. Every time she visited, he spent the whole time sitting in her lap loving on her, and her on him.

He sure did like to get comfortable!

Stempy had one annoying quirk. When he got REALLY excited, he would scream. Not bark, or whine, but SCREAM! Sounded just like a three-year-old girl throwing a temper tantrum. There were a few times I was kinda surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops to investigate the "child abuse". 

When he was about five years old, there was a rather alarming development. He began having "fits", when he would suddenly start scuttling stiff-legged with his head off to the side. He would look for me, scuttle towards me, and rear back on his back legs, waving his front paws frantically. If I didn't reach down and grab him quickly, he would fall on his side and just twitch. I would hold him tight and talk quietly and calmly to him, and after a few minutes, he would snap out of it, jump down, and go about his business as if nothing had happened.

The vet diagnosed it as canine epilepsy, and put him on a twice-a-day dose of phenobarbital. That got the fits under control, but also made him a little lethargic. He was never again the highly energetic bundle of fur that he had always been. But we all adjusted.

Stempy & Daisy, taking a break from playing hard

He was a very sensitive dog, quick to pick up when a household member wasn't feeling well. He would snuggle up to and get all lovey-dovey with any of us, even the cats, if we were sick. This was always a comfort to the Debster, especially when she was going through some nasty bouts of depression.

He was a very jealous dog. If any member of his family payed attention to someone, or something, other than him, he had to get in the middle of it. It got to where it was an adventure just trying to kiss my wife goodby on my way to work. But we turned it into a little game, and had fun with it.

About two years ago, a new addition was added to the family, in the person of Miss Daisy, a tiny year-old terrier mix. This little six-pound bundle of playful puppy energy almost immediately adopted Stempy as her very own "chew-toy", mostly by default since neither Chelsea nor the cats wanted anything to do with her. She most definitely kept him busy! They'd be outside, and she would wait till he was in mid-squat, and hit him from the blind-side like an NFL linebacker. Off and running! Initially, I was a little concerned that the sudden increase in physical activity would be detrimental considering the epilepsy. But the vet said not a problem, in fact, a good thing. It added to his quality of life.

Napping with his daddy

Well, a few weeks ago, the morning of April 11, I came home to a sick dog and a frantic wife. Our beloved Stempy was coughing and wheezing and lethargic, hacking up blood. Wouldn't eat, even when a hot dog, his favorite treat, was put in front of him. An emergency vet run gave us the bad news. He had incurable lymphoma in his lungs, with a prognosis of a couple or three months at best.

The vet put him on prednisone, an antibiotic, and an anti-fungal medication. The anti-fungal was just in case the lymphoma was an incorrect diagnosis, but she was pretty sure it wasn't the fungus. Within a day, he was doing much much better. We were overjoyed! He was still wheezing and breathing hard, and a little weak, but he had regained most of his pep and vigor, and even played with Daisy some. One funny side-effect of the prednisone, which is a steroid, is that it made him revert to his adolescence, in a way. He suddenly became interested in the females again. Poor Daisy! He wouldn't leave her alone! It was so funny to watch them tussle, and suddenly he'd have her wrapped up and doing his darnedest to, well, you get the picture.

Things went well until this past Friday evening. I woke up about 9pm, to get ready to go in for my midnight shift. The Debster had laid down with me for awhile, and she got up first. All three dogs were wanting to go outside. Stempy made it to the back door, but before she got there, he suddenly whimpered and laid down. She got to him just as he drew his last breath. He was gone.

We were both devastated. I tried to take off work, but my boss, though sympathetic, said there was no one available to cover my shift and couldn't let me take off. So we picked him up, laid him in his favorite dog-bed, and set it and him in a chair. The next morning, when I got home, we took him to be cremated. We'll get his cremains back in a short while, and they will have an honored place in our home, until it is time to mingle his, and the other pets', with mine and the Debster's.

He's in heaven now**, laying on Gacky's lap, getting to know the Debster's dad, and my parents, and all the other family and pets that have gone on before.

God bless you all, and thanks for reading.
Ron, and the Debster.

** Yes, I know, in theological / Biblical reality, animals don't really have a soul in the sense that humans do, and thus don't go to heaven. I know that when I get to heaven I'll be completely entranced by the presence of my Lord and Savior and that the dog will only be a pleasant memory. But, until then, sometimes you just gotta wink at "reality" and take comfort in these little fibs we tell ourselves.

This year's garden is planted!

A friend posted this to my Facebook page recently, and I couldn't resist sharing it.

Ya see, I was raised right by my father. One is to root for two baseball teams. First and foremost, for our beloved Cardinals. Second, for whoever is playing the Cubs. Hee hee!

I did it! I did it! Finally got a garden in!

I have this really bad habit of dreaming of a big project, and then when I am unable to get it off the ground, just letting go completely.

Well, this year I resisted the urge to think about a big garden, and wind up with nothing. I went with a small garden, a test garden if you want to call it that. A little over four foot square.

I knew I wanted a raised bed rather than ground level, for two reasons. It is easier on my chronically aching back. And, my yard soil is so bad, mostly clay, typical of the Saint Louis area.

So, day before yesterday, I picked a spot near the house that gets a fair amount of sun. The existing plant life needed to go; I didn't want the grass and weeds to work their way up through the new layer of soil and causing problems. So, I thought, briefly, of getting out the hoe and shovel and digging all the grass and weeds out, down to bare dirt. Then I realized that wasn't necessary. The grass had recently been mowed and was still fairly short. Covering it with cardboard would kill it yet still allow for water to drain through.

I had a large corrugated cardboard box that was ready to be recycled, so I opened it up flat, and it was just the right size. I laid it flat on top of the grass, and poked a few holes in it to facilitate drainage and allow earthworms to work their way up into the raised bed. Next, I needed to make the sides of the bed. I didn't have any 2"x8" lumber around, but I did have some concrete blocks. So I used those instead.

Daisy, of course, has to supervise my efforts.

You notice that the cardboard extends past the end of the bed. I'm going to leave it like that. If this works out, I plan on extending it to a full 4'x8' bed next year, and so the cardboard will already be in place.

I had a couple of 40-lb bags of topsoil handy, so I dumped those in. There was also a big bucket of potting mix salvaged from various planters that only had dead things in them. (The Debster's thumb is even browner than mine.) That got tossed in, after I cleaned out the old roots and stuff. Finally, I added three two-cubic foot bags of garden soil mix from the local big-box hardware store. That filled everything up just right. I raked it smooth and called it a day.

Yesterday morning, when I got home from my midnight shift job, I saw the dirt had been dug in and messed up sometime during the night. I'm fairly sure one of our dogs did the deed, although the Debster said that it wasn't them. She said she let them out once or twice during the night (Stempy's meds make him go often and a lot), and she didn't see them go to the dirt. But I know my dogs, and I know that the Debster didn't have a good view of the planting bed from her vantage point near the back door. Not to mention it was a dark night with poor visibility. So who knows?

Anyway, yesterday morning, the Debster had a dentist appointment and Stempy had a vet appointment. On the way home, we stopped and picked up some plants. I got busy.

All told, in this small-ish bed, I have two tomato plants, four Romaine lettuces, a zucchini, a green bell pepper, a cucumber, half a dozen spinach plants, a couple dozen red onion sets, three sweet basil plants, two rosemary, and a clump of onion chives. There is room for more. I will probably add garlic chives and some more onion sets this weekend. (We eat a LOT of onions!)

If I can figure a way to keep the pesky rabbits away from my little garden, we should be able to harvest a little produce later this year. And this fall, if everything goes right, I'll replace the blocks with a 4'x8' wooden box, and add more topsoil to fill it up. The blocks will probably then go into a firepit that I'm kinda sorta planning. But that's for another post later on.

Well, that's enough for today. As always, thanks for reading, and please feel free to share this with anyone that you think might be even remotely interested!

God bless!
Ron, and the Debster

Love, sex, and marriage

The following is a post I wrote on Facebook the other day:

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Heb 13:4 ESV "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."

Physical intimacy between a husband and his wife is a wonderful gift from God Himself, the "glue" that holds a marriage together (Gen 2:24), and the means by which He chose to bring children into this world. As such it is, in a real sense, a sacred thing.

God has made Himself quite clear on this subject.
Physical intimacy between a married man and a woman not his wife is ADULTERY, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a married woman and a man not her husband is ADULTERY, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between unmarried man and an unmarried woman is FORNICATION, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a man and another man is an UNNATURAL ACT, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a woman and another woman is an UNNATURAL ACT, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a human and an animal is an ABOMINATION, a SIN.
Jesus also made clear (Matt 5:28) that not just the physical act of (sinful) intimacy is wrong, but even mentally contemplating it is as much as sin as the act itself. As a married man, I don't have to actually be intimate with another woman to be guilty of adultery, all I would have to do is to "look on a woman to lust after her".

Do I look for a return to a hypocritical prudery? No, of course not. Do I think that we should make a crime out of all forms of sexual immorality? No. As a freedom-loving American, I recognize, and even cherish, the legal right for any individual to act in any way (s)he sees fit, provided no one else is coerced into it or physically injured by it.

I have many friends and relatives that live in immoral heterosexual relationships, and several that are practicing homosexuals. I love them all, unconditionally. They all, I think, know what I think and feel about this, and with a few exceptions are willing to accept me as I do them. (A few are not so kind, but oh well. I love them anyway, even though they don't believe that.)

I am not naive. Both of my parents had been married and divorced before they got together. And just to add a little more spice to it, I was born on their wedding night. (Talk about a buzzkill on a honeymoon!) Doesn't mean I think less of them. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I practically worshiped them, especially my father.

Some fifty years or so ago, the so-called "sexual revolution" tore our society to shreds. Lifelong monogamy is out. Serial marriage is in; just the other night the entertainer Jennifer Lopez, on American Idol [what a telling name that is!], joked about how many men to whom she has been married. A television show now almost must have a homosexual character to be truly successful. And now, I understand, one very popular daytime drama (soap opera), unveiled a major character as a transgender woman-that-used-to-be-a-man. Who knows what will be showing up in mainstream "entertainment" in the coming years and decades? I sure don't.

Once upon a time, the homosexual lobby pressed for toleration, to be allowed to act as they wanted. That was granted. Now, however, they are going much further, demanding not only toleration but celebration. And they are winning.

It is almost amusing to watch as people fall all over themselves to cater to them. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, went on the offensive against the recent Indiana Restoration of Freedom of Religion Act, saying they won't do business in a state that "discriminates" like that. Yet Apple aggressively pursues business in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuals not only don't get wedding cakes, they get EXECUTED. (O Hypocrisy, thy logo is a partially eaten apple!) President Obama, who a few years ago as a state senator in Illinois, voted FOR a virtually identical law in that state, has condemned Indiana's law. Can anyone say flip-flop?

I am not perfect. Never have been. Never will be as long as I inhabit this body that came equipped with a well-functioning sinful nature. (These days, that's just about the only thing that still works perfectly LOL!) It is only by the grace of God that I will not have to suffer His wrath and His judgement for the sins that I have committed, and they are many and varied, believe me.

But Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to save sinners like me. He was born of a virgin, lived a perfectly sin-free life for some 33 years. He trained as a carpenter under his human step-father, then ministered to thousands for about three years. He gathered a small group of loyal followers, but was executed by the Roman government at the behest of the religious leaders because He had the audacity to claim to be the Son of God, and equal with God. But that grave couldn't even hold Him a whole weekend! On the third day, a Sunday, He rose from the dead and burst free from the tomb! (Much of the world will be celebrating the anniversary of that event this weekend, as a matter of fact.) He conquered sin and death, and even now sits in heaven waiting for the day that His Father sends Him back to earth to collect His followers. He bestows repentance, forgiveness, eternal life and eternal joy to all who believe in Him and trust in Him alone for salvation. He will save forever all whom He calls.

Do you hear Him calling you? If so, don't wait to respond. Take the plunge! It may seem scary at first, I know it did to me, but the rewards sure make up for it! And the greatest is this: God is now my Father, and Jesus is my beloved Savior, and no greater joy can be found than that!