A rant

I will have to post the family pictures we took tomorrow. I can not get them to upload. Had some of them posted and then it froze up.
This article was in the Letters To The Editor in our newspaper The Spokesman Review. It is titled Last roundup overdue and smoke is about to come out my ears. I will copy it here. I could probably get it electronically and cut and paste but I don't do that very well so will just copy it.

"The cruelty and blatant waste of America's hard earned tax dollars to remove wild horses has reached staggering proportions.
The level of disregard, disrespect and criminal behaviour the Bureau of Land Management exhibits in response to the American public outcry is something we can no longer ignore.
The wild horse herds are a symbol of Americans freedom. At what point do we need to make a stand?
Al.ready, 39,000 wild horses are in holding facilities and 11,000 more are scheduled for roundup next year.
These roundups are being operated on a deficit budget.
They castrate the stallions, break up the family herds, run the foals until their hooves fall off, lie about their numbers, and tell us they are starving to death and destroying the ecosystems while millions of cattle are allowed to roam and overtake their designated herd management areas..
The videos taken of the roundups reveal healthy, terrorized horses and unscathed landscapes.
Contact President Obama and demand he put an end to wild horse roundups."


I won't print her name. I don't know her but I will invite her to our Mustang Club Meeting in January. I am going to respond to the paper with an answer to her letter. If any of you care to it is editor@spokesman.com and letters can not be over 200 words and must include your daytime phone number and street address although they will not be printed.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. This is America but I am entitled to disagree with her opinion and I DO. First of all the BLM is not doing anything criminal. There are not millions of cattle on the horses herd areas. There are cattle who are allowed to range for periods of time in particular areas. Cattle do not eat the grass to the roots like horses do. They have to wrap their tongue around it to eat it, horses bite it with their teeth. Consequently horses can eat to its roots. I have not seen cattle in any of the herd management areas. I have been to several herd areas in Oregon and southern Montana.
There are other wild animals there besides the horses. Deer, elk, antelope, ect. and birds and little ground animals. They all have to eat and all use the same land.
I don't know where this lady got her numbers but I have not seen them before. There are a lot of horses in holding facilities and on rescues ect. For the most part they are well taken care of.
Yes, when they gather, to keep the horses from starving to death, they do castrate the stallions. Not many people want to adopt a stallion but many will adopt a nice gelding. The horse herds are in family units and must be moved around to keep the genetics pure. Inbred horses are not good.
The video's of the last gather in November were doctored to look bad. I have seen videos taken by other people. The horses were thin and needed to be brought in and fed up. They were not run over the ground. In fact it took two days to get them there because they did not want to stress the animals. The horse that broke her neck just wigged out and they could not stop her. They did nothing to make her so upset just tried to move them in to a different pen. The helicopter was NOT close to them, it was an optical illusion. I was not there but have two friends who were and photographed and videoed it all. We are going down next year to observe and photograph.
Bob and I are BLM volunteers and have been for several years. We turn in many hundreds of hours every year. We personally know many of the BLM workers in Oregon, Washington and Montana. They love the horses and would never hurt them deliberately.

There is my rant. I am going to write a letter to the editor tomorrow. Maybe by then my emotions will be in a better place.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and a quiet Christmas. I will hope to get the pictures posted of our family tomorrow.
Blessings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL. I HOPE YOU HAVE THE MOST BLESSED DAY. REMEMBER WHY WE CELEBRATE -'AWAY IN A MANGER NO CRIB FOR A BED THE LITTLE LORD JESUS LAY DOWN HIS SWEET HEAD'

Our tree all ready for our family tomorrow. We will have brunch at 11 and then presents. That will give us a free evening to go to church and with our friends to midnight mass. We do that most years. Although we are not Catholic it is a beautiful service.

The main candle. I love candles.

A few weeks ago after viewing in the paper and magazines we ordered the Amish made heater to look like a fireplace. It is working wonderful. It was really a good buy. Its electric heat some how. We looked at another one that was more like a space heater but I love this.

Pistol wondered what it was. She eventually curled up in front of it. It is set on low and the living room and into our bedroom is warm as toast. We set the furnace at 60.

I made 5 dozen baking powder biscuits earlier today and have the table about half set. If there were one more of us we could not sit down. It will be crowded but i like sitting down at one table (well actually 2 put together). I have to finish cleaning off the tops of the counters yet and lay some things out handy in the morning. It will be an exciting day.

Cameron came and worked with Liberty today and Bob helped him worm Liberty and Abby. He had never done it before. Just Rusty left and even Bob is having trouble catching her. Bob helped Cameron do some things with Liberty that he was having trouble with. He is a real novice but wants to learn.

Have a wonderful blessed Christmas Eve.

2 Days to go

Two of our silly dogs sleeping. Pistol rarely sleeps anywhere except curled up either with Bob or I or Skeeter. And Maggie, well Maggie sleeps like that all the time. I should never have let her start getting on the couch but I did.

I did get the cookies made but not decorated. I guess that is tomorrows job. Sorry "Farmer" no pictures. You will have to just imagine. I am done baking cookies. Tomorrow I will made baking powder biscuits for our brunch on Friday. We will have biscuits, an egg/sausage/lots of stuff casserole and fruit. I will nuke the biscuits just before we set down so they will be hot.

It is snowing this evening. Maybe it will cover up the ugly dirty snow. After this next weekend it can all go away.

I put the horses out this morning because Bob was helping a neighbor. We have put Rosie back out in the pasture and Amelia in the stall. She was losing weight and it was time. I am keeping an eye on Ditto too because she will probably have to come in soon too. Pepper is doing well, he is stalled at night on a diet. He was really naughty when I put him out this morning. He took after the other horses kicking and squealing. I was about to go get him and put him back in but he cooled his jets so I let him stay out. Sage is so sweet and acts like she really likes to see me when I go down there.

Blessings

Busy Day

Today did not prove to be a day that I accomplished much that I had set out to do. For one thing I woke up about 3:30AM and could not go back to sleep until about 5 and then I slept too late. I needed to go to town for a couple of errands and that took longer than I had thought. I just have been dragging because I need to sleep more.

Bob is a retired plumber, drain cleaner ect. I have a plugged up kitchen sink. It has been about half clogged for weeks. I keep reminding him and he has not "had time". He just plunges it for a temporary fix. Love that man but he is driving me nuts. I am about to call someone to come do it.

Nothing else happening. I did not get the cookies baked today. Tomorrow, tomorrow, maybe tomorrow.

Blessings

On Our Way to 1000 Blessings

572 - Andrea Bocelli - The Lords Prayer
573 - Bob home safely from his visit to the coast
574 - Flowers from a sweet granddaughter just because
575 - Sunshine on the snow
576 - New Friends
577 - Its A Wonderful Life
578 - Andrea Bocelli - O Holy Night
579 - The little Chinaman Christmas ornament that was my grandmothers
580 - Pepper got well
581 - Fun Baking
582 - Bob's Search and Rescue group was successful, they found the elderly man
583 - A safe trip to Pullman and back
584 - Hallelujah Chorus
585 - Holly Trees
586 - The Washington Palouse covered with new snow.
587 - Christmas With Grace - at church
588 - Hugs and kissed from a great grandbaby girl
589 - An invitation for Christmas evening
590 - Advent Wreath
591 - Josh Groban music
592 - Driving around looking at Christmas lights
593 - Bob found his cell phone
594 - The Dollar Store
595 - Gladys is better
596 - Hearing from people I have heard from in a year
597 - Christmas caroling
598 - Gingerbread men
599 - Hit cider
600 - My new permanent

Christmas Week

Russian Tea Cookies without nuts. I was ready to add them and didn't have any in the cupboard. Oh that upsets me. But they are good anyway. Tomorrow is sugar cookie day and then I am done baking. Need to give the house a good cleaning for Friday and then I will be ready for Santa.

Went and had a permanent today. I was just sick of the straight hair even though it seems to be the style. It is a little curlier than I expected but the first time I wash it it will loosen up.

This afternoon went grocery shopping so I am ready for Friday. I hope I did not forget anything. I probably did though knowing me.

Blessings