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Monday, March 29, 2010

Is it creepy?

It was pointed out to me this morning that "calling out the lurkers" was creepy, this is something I had been considering doing for some time, not wanting to scare anyone off I have held off doing it, but I wanted to say "hi" to the regulars, especially to those who visit on a daily basis. So, what do you think? Your thoughts and feelings are important to me, answer the poll and let me know what you think. The poll is on the upper right of the blog.

UPDATE
I truly do have the best readers! Thanks for everyone's responses, the poll ended up having 36 responses, 33 approve, 3 disapprove, so all in all, the majority of you think it was OK to say hi to my readers (and lurkers). I'll remove the poll. I was going to remove this message, but I have gotten such great comments, I decided to leave it in place. Thanks again everyone! :)




All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Friends I Have Never Met

Part of my daily internet activities is to see who is visiting me (my blog). Over these last few years, I've noticed the same "names" over and over, I have come to think of these in a fond way, much like old friends coming by for a cup of tea and a chat. Some visit once a day, some visit every couple of days. I'd like to say hi to you, without giving away too much information about who you are, you should be able to tell who you are. :) I hope I put the same smile on your face by reading this as you put on my face by visiting.

There is Fitch Affordable Telecom in Midland, I see that name on a very regular basis, you are practically a neighbor in terms of distance (on a Texas scale), and a big hello to Reynolds in Arlington, you must really like my site :), I smile when I see your visit, you are very near my home town.

Lei hao to my friend in Hong Kong. Hola to my friend who is south of the border. Hi to Cleveland Ohio (sorry for the misspell), do you really have a radio station called "The Buzzard"?

And to my number one fan in Georgetown, I thought you might be someone I know, my brother-in-law since he lives there, but no, it turns out that my bro-in-law has to go to the library to access the internet right now, so that leaves you as my number one fan in terms of return visits.

I know there are many more of you who visit on a regular basis, but because of the way the IP addresses tend to change on most internet providers, I don't recognize the return visits.

Thank you each and every one, to those I see coming back, and those who I don't recognize but are regulars none the less, I am blessed to have so many internet friends.


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Time To Grow Tobacco - Spring Is Here

Spring is here, while the nights are still rather on the cold side, 24 degrees F last night, the days are warming up nicely, it's a lovely 71 degrees F with a slight breeze and a high, thin overcast.

Click here to see all the pictures I took today.

The garden is calling, well OK, it's been calling all winter for some TLC, it's high time to get out there and get it ready for some spring planting.

I am about to start my tobacco seeds, I'm not worried about planting them in the protection of the garden, I don't think anything will mess with them after the first nibble. I saw a show on one of the history or nature channels that showed tribes of people living in high mountains, the only thing that they could grow well was potatoes and tobacco. They had to protect the potato plants from the pigs that ran around, they had lots of pigs. They only had to protect the potatoes, the pigs wouldn't touch the tobacco, I figure if pigs wouldn't eat it, then nothing else will either.

I'll start the tobacco seeds in plastic cups, one or two seeds per cup. I know the tobacco plants will grow well here, I have a neighbor up the road who grew some test plants last summer and they did very well.

I received a disturbing email a couple of days ago, it seems that TPTB, in their infinite wisdom have been trying their best to make it illegal to purchase cigarettes through the mail, this will hurt the Native Americans who raise tobacco and sell cigarettes, most of their business is done through the mail. This will make it impossible to get inexpensive cigarettes, and will ultimately hurt the poor folks of this country, they/we are the ones who will have to pay higher costs at the register. Apparently all this bill needs now is to be signed into law by our prez. Here is a copy of the email I received:

On March 17, 2010, S. 1147, The PACT Act, the bill designed by the Congress to prevent tobacco companies from sending low cost cigarettes through the mail, passed.  Now that it has been passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives all the bill needs is a signature by President Obama before it becomes law. 

We urge all of our customers to contact President Obama today and ask him to veto the bill.  Not only will this bill be an excessive hardship on people with fixed incomes, it will also devastate Native American communities nationwide.  Many of these Native American communities are in remote locations.  Without the ability to get their products to market via the United States Post Office, they will have no opportunity to earn an income.  Does the government really want to return to the days of massive Native American poverty?

Please call and write President Obama today. Please forward this email to everyone you know and ask them to call too.

Let the President know that you are against this bill and all other bills that encroach on the freedom and liberties of Americans.

You can call or write to the President at:
Phone Numbers:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
Mailing Address:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
TTY/TDD:
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121
If you really feel strongly about this issue, please call more than once.  
We thank you for your support!
Sincerely,


So now more than ever, if you are a smoker, you should really consider growing your own tobacco, and processing it into your own smokes. If you aren't a smoker, then you shouldn't start, but for those who are addicted, or just plain enjoy it and don't like the gov reaching into every little part of your life, strike back, grow your own tobacco and roll your own smokes. Click here for the of a great book to teach you how to grow your own tobacco and how to process them into cigarettes.

Click here to go directly to Grow Your Own Tobacco-Grow-Roll-Smoke site!

Get your seeds from this guy. tell him Wretha sent you. :)






.All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!



Disclaimer-
This article is promoting a book that I believe is a great book (otherwise I would not promote it), if any sales occur through the links on this article, I will make a small commission. Thank you for your support, all support goes toward the upkeep of this blog and life.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Last Train from Hiroshima - Book Review

I have been listening to great audiobooks, the one I'm listening to now is called The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, I first heard about this book about a month ago while listening to Coast to Coast am, it was a weekend show LINK, I don't normally listen to the weekend shows because I prefer the host that does the show during the week, the weekend host isn't as appealing to me. So it takes a very interesting show to catch my attention on the weekend.

The C2C show was very interesting, it was an interview with the author, Dr Charles Pellegrino,  he spoke of the strange and horrific things that happened in the first second and beyond. While listening, I was interested in getting this book, but put that thought aside. Then a while later, I heard that Pellegrino was coming back on C2C (LINK) to explain his side of the story about why the publisher was not going to be printing or selling any more of this book. Well, that was interesting, it turns out the problem was one of his eye witnesses was not where he said he was and couldn't have seen what he claimed to see.

From Henry Holt and Company and Macmillan Books
It is with deep regret that Henry Holt and Company announces that we will no longer print, correct or ship copies of Charles Pellegrino's The Last Train from Hiroshima due to the discovery of a dishonest sources of information for the book. 


It is easy to understand how even the most diligent author could be duped by a source, but we also understand that opens that book to very detailed scrutiny. The author of any work of non-fiction must stand behind its content. We must rely on our authors to answer questions that may arise as to the accuracy of their work and reliability of their sources. Unfortunately, Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction.

Mr. Pellegrino has a long history in the publishing world, and we were very proud and honored to publish his history of such
This from a New York Times article
Mr. Pellegrino said he had relied on information from a source, Joseph Fuoco, who claimed he was a last-minute substitute as a flight engineer on one of the escort planes for the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Late last month, scientists, historians and veterans denounced Mr. Fuoco as an impostor who did not ride on the mission.
Well, that really got my attention, I figured that yeah, even if one of the sources is being called a fraud, the rest of the book is still fascinating, the science, the details that are laid out, it is utterly fascinating.

I found the website of Dr Charles Pellegrino, and from the forum on that site, Pelligrino said that Fucoc said he was there and flew that mission, even though the records (which can be questionable in themselves,,, ever tried to get records from the government?), anyhoo, you can read it here if you want:
http://www.ibdof.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=118989&sid=e5360470e44942e995de7bc01bb91764. Apparently Pellegrino is researching the problem and is going to rewrite the questionable parts if necessary.

Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices detonated over Japan changed life on Earth forever.

I have found since the controversy, the book price has shot up to ridiculous amount, right now on Amazon.com it's running almost $100, the audiobook is still  reasonable though. Since I prefer audiobooks, it is just as well for me. If you are in a bookstore, you might want to look to see if this book is on the shelf and grab it up, it's a good read, and if nothing else, it might fetch a pretty price on the internet.

The author of this book, Charles Pellegrino has written a very fascinating tale of what happened, in detail at ground zero and the surrounding area in the first seconds of the blast. Believe it or not there were people who survived the blast who were right at ground zero.There were 2 ladies in a bank, right at ground zero, they were there early because during that time, the female tellers were expected to double as the cleaning staff.

Since they were there early, they were inside this building and more or less protected from the direct hit, they were protected in what Pellegrino calls a "shock cocoon", a protected place that was essentially in the center of the blast. They were exposed to radiation though, and one of the ladies had a severe back injury because she was thrown into a wall. Other than that, they survived in a place where most would consider survival an impossibility, and were able to walk out right after the blast and see where the other people had been outside. There were others who survived at ground zero as well.

Pellegrino talks about the "ant walkers", these were the still living, who were in shock, can you imagine... one would start walking aimlessly around, others would fall in behind them, creating lines of people walking aimlessly around, if one broke off for whatever reason, then the line would break into two lines with some following the original line, some following the new line.

It's interesting to read/hear about how two people might be standing close together, perhaps talking, one survived with little more than bumps and scrapes, while the other was instantly dead, the randomness of it was eerie.

Here is a YouTube video of part of the interview on C2C


Here is a link to the whole C2C show on YouTube
C2C Charles Pellegrino interview
and
C2C-Charles Pellegrino defends his book

Imagine going about your normal life, doing what you do everyday, and then in less than the blink of an eye, you are either instantly dead (I have to wonder if they weren't the lucky ones), or you are plucked from reality and thrown violently into a world that is so unreal, everything you know, probably most if not all of everyone you know is gone, your friends, your family, your home, your workplace, your town, everything flattened, gone, obliterated into something so unrecognizable that it defies explanation.

I am in the middle of this book, I am listening to it mainly at night when I go to bed, nice dream fodder huh? So, even with the controversy of the questionable sources, I am still really enjoying this book. Check it out if you can.

A political disclaimer, I am not saying we shouldn't have done what we did, even as terrible as it was, chances are the death toll on both sides would have been much higher and the war would have stretched on longer if we hadn't used the bomb. I only hope and pray that no one, including us, ever does this again.



All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Legal disclaimer. While I am promoting this book because I believe it is an interesting read, I have links to Amazon.com for the book and will get a commission if there is a purchase made through that link.

Podcast-03 Knitting, Cooking and Our First Night Here

I created another podcast, this one was created  a little while back, had some trouble with the podcast site, they were doing some maintenance and upgrades so the newest podcasts weren't working, but now they are working. So listen and enjoy... oh and here are some pictures of things mentioned in the podcast.

Click here to listen:


Music Provided By http://freeplaymusic.com
The music on this podcast is called Corn Liquor, you can find it and other songs here:
http://freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?t=v&i=7
To listen to all podcasts go here:
http://offgrid.mypodcast.com/index.html,



All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Contest - More Free Stuff

M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster, is giving away a  The Tactical Advantage book and DVD set by Gabriel Suarez and a copy of Don’t Get Caught With Your Pantry Down by James Talmage Stevens! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for more information.


Let's make this one a good one!


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.




Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Family Visit

I had a very nice visit with my sister and niece this week, this is their first time here, I must say that my sister and niece handled the primitive conditions, poo-bucket, cold nights and such very well.

Unfortunately the visit wasn't long enough, they arrived late in the day on Saturday and left today, Tuesday. They got a late start the day they left, it was sprinkling with some snow mixed in for good measure, but it dried up nicely by mid-morning and they were able to get away just fine.

I took some pix of them before they left, so you can see what some of my family looks like.


My sister is 2 years younger than I am, and my niece is 14, they sure grow up fast, I was there when my niece was born, it seems like yesterday. I think they had a good time visiting, Heather (my niece) and PB climbed up the mountain while I was driving my sister around the neighborhood. We could only take one at a time in the Bug, there is no back seat.

My sister and I are pretty close, but we are pretty opposite, we like to say that I got the cooking gene and she got the jewelry gene. I am perfectly happy being out in the middle of nowhere, she gets antsy if she is that far from a WallyWorld, so for now, we will just have to be happy with visits, I'll not be talking her into coming out on a permanent basis, at least not until TSHTF, there will be no WallyWorlds then. LOL!

Oh, BTW, you can see the knit hats they are wearing, those were made by yours truly, I knitted them just a few days before they arrived as a surprise. My sister especially appreciated hers, she slept in it to keep warm. My sister's hat has a couple of rows of fancy stitching, it's hard to see in the pictures, and since the yarn I used for her hat is so soft, the fancy stitches don't show up as well. My niece's hat took some doing, I knitted the brim as usual, but took it off the knitting loom, turned it inside out, placed it back on the knitting loom, then turned it to make the brim, there is probably an easier way to create that look, but since I tend to make things up as I go, I didn't follow a pattern, I am happy with them.



All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Bobage

Pop yourself over to my Off Grid On The Cheap blog to watch some PB Bobage in action.

Click here: http://offgridonthecheap.blogspot.com/2010/03/bobage.html


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sh*ttin' In Buckets

I love watching Travis and Jonathan, also known as Red State Update on YouTube, yup, I love redneck humor. This one hits pretty close to home for us, so... are they making fun of PB and I? LOL!

Warning, adult redneck language and toilet humor, if you are easily offended, don't fuss at me if you go ahead and press the play button.



Speaking of buttons, I can't believe how hard it has been to find buttons around here, I am looking specifically for large, flat buttons to use on a mp3 case that I'm knitting, that's all I need to finish this case/carrier.

I thought I could go to the local (that's relative BTW) Alco store last week, they have a nice sewing section, they sell fabric by the yard and lots of sewing paraphernalia, I fully expected to find buttons for sale there. Well, it wasn't to be, the funny thing is the looks I received when I asked if they sold buttons, you'd think I was asking for something foreign.

Today, I went to town, the thrift store had all their clothes on sale, 25¢ each! I figured I could find some clothes with good buttons there, I didn't mind paying a quarter for a piece of clothing that I didn't intend to wear. I found 3 items with the size and color of buttons for what I wanted to do, though I really hate tossing out perfectly good clothes after ripping the buttons off of them, I'll probably keep them around for something, might make something else out of them, a pillow, or use it for patching clothes, that should appease my inner frug for now.

I couldn't believe how busy the thrift store was, on a Wednesday in the middle of the day, it was the only place in town with a lot of cars parked in front, we had to park out back. One guy in the store purchased $15 worth of clothes, he had a huge pile of clothes, you do the math! LOL.

I ripped the buttons off of 2 of the 3 items of clothing I purchased, the third thing is a cute denim skirt, I think it may fit me, so for now, I'll hold off on that one. I'll post pictures of my finished knitting projects soon, I promise.


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Real Pioneer Living

I've seen this a few times, but it still brings a smile to my face each and every time I watch it, I thought you might like it too. This couple is living even more rustic that we do, I believe I could live this way, I'm nearly there now. Enjoy.




All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!