Newest Family Member

Princess Ruby Jean Cher Saint Clare

I have been wanting a bigger dog that I can take with me on hikes and that I don’t have to worry quite so much about. Axel and Conway are great dogs but frankly not the most practical animals ever breed. So a couple of weeks back I had the opportunity to adopt a little pit bull pup and after meeting the parents and owners decided to add little Ruby to our family.

Naming a dog is as important as picking the animal. I am very quirky about my dogs names and really enjoy the naming process. Most important thing is that the name is short and unique you don’t want your dogs getting confused by near sounding names like Ruby and Rex. So any way here is how I came up with the name for Ruby.

Princess - Because she is just a little princess

Ruby Jean - I picture myself standing on the front porch in my underwear holding a can of Pabst yelling "Ruby Jean get your ass in this house" or "Ruby Jean let go of that mans neck" or “Ruby Jean I raised you better than that”.

Cher - Well ok I just love Cher…don’t judge me

Saint Clare - Saint Clare is the patron saint of good weather and television both of which I like. As a matter of fact I was at my partner’s house a couple of weekends back watching TV and Ruby was sitting next to me on the floor completely focused on the box.

We didn’t have the usual break in time for a puppy. Both Axel and Conway were very shy when they were first brought home but not Ruby she dove in head first playing and rolling she was not reserved in any way.

The real funny thing was watching how the boys react. When I brought her home they loved it “yea a new toy” lots of playing and tired dogs. But then they quickly grew tired of her sharp teeth and razor like claws and simply jumped up on the back of the couch to avoid her…waiting for Ruby to leave. When they realized that she wasn’t going they started to teach her manners.

Axel , the oldest, would lay on the floor with a bone. Ruby would jump in and try to take the bone at which time Axel would growl at her or snap at her if she actually got her teeth on it. When she lay still beside him he would give her the bone. I was kind of impressed. Both dogs have worked on her socialization and appropriate puppy play. Axel is teaching Ruby how to nap in sun in the picture.

As the boys work with Ruby I am seriously considering rename her to Ruby Jean the Poop Machine.

Hindsight

If American workers would have done this 20 years ago this country would still have an industrial infrastructure and millions of manufacturing jobs. I really like the way they think.

Mob beats Chinese steel factory executive to death

Thousands of workers had gathered in northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua to protest the takeover of their company and threatened layoffs.

July 27, 2009

Chinese state media confirmed Monday that a steel factory executive was beaten to death after thousands of workers gathered to protest the takeover of their company.

Chen Guojun, an executive at Jianlong Steel Holding Co., died Friday after an angry mob in the northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua beat him and then blocked ambulances from reaching him, according to the China Daily.

The protesters worked at the state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, which was going to be sold to Chen's privately owned Jianlong Steel. Chen sparked the riot by announcing 30,000 workers would be laid off, the newspaper said.

They dispersed later only after they were assured by authorities the sale would not go through.

Wealth Confiscation and Cash

MSNBC ran an article Monday on the dangers of keeping cash. The story "Money hiders risk a wealth of woes" documents the risks involved in keeping cash stored at your home and not in banks. The story is an obvious banking industry propaganda piece planted to scare Americans into depositing their increasing and untraceable saving into lending institution where the usage and existence of those funds can be monitored by the government.

America is moving toward a policy of wealth confiscation to pay our massive dept owed to foreign countries. Soon the government will freeze American banking assets for confiscation issuing IOUs to the citizens that can be traded and used to purchase approved items such as house payments, taxes and "healthy" food. The American government issued IOUs will be "cashless" and eventually converted for pennies on the dollar into either the new North American currency or more likely a new global currency. Cash in any form will no longer exist, all transactions will be electronic and monitored. The banks will charge a heavy "convenience fee" on the usage of these IOUs guaranteeing massive profits and government compliance.

California's issuance of IOUs is being allowed and even touted not necessarily as a model but more to plant the seed of IOUs in the American conscience. We will soon start seeing stories about how great and easily traded the IOUs are in California. Remember California...or the United States for that matter...has no way to recover from this economic collapse without millions of good paying jobs being created on which taxes can be levied. There is no such thing as a jobless recovery and lost American jobs are not coming back!

Further proof of the wealth confiscation plot can be seen in the current fight between Switzerland and the United States over foreign tax shelter accounts. The United States wants Switzerland to report all monies held in private foreign accounts by American citizens to target tax dodgers. The Swiss claim that revealing information on private accounts violates centuries old privacy laws. They instead are moving all American bank accounts into "special banks" set up to comply with the United States governments requests for information.

Obviously this has nothing to do with taxes. Businessmen who utilize Swiss privacy laws are hiding money from business partners and family or because of lawsuits, not the United States government and the IRS. Clearly these businessmen can afford a good accountant who will take advantage of the existing tax laws. Moving the monies to a "special bank" allows for easier transfer and confiscation of wealth.

Once the financial networks switch over and accept only the government issued IOUs cash becomes functionally worthless everywhere accept in underground trade. For instance items that are deemed unhealthy under the new mandatory insurance/health laws such as booze, cigarettes and red meat will not be illegal but you can't purchase them with the IOUs. Home produced biofuels, ammunition and NON genetically modified produce (organic) will also be unattainable with the IOU system.

The new IOU based system will work much like the current electronic food stamp system. If an item is not approved you will not be able to purchase it. Barter and trade will flourish under this system but only as far as the American conscious will allow. In other words we are use to going to the store and buying what we need not carrying barter items to trade for booze. The old greenback will fill this void.

The government may not accept the old dollar but as longs as the people recognize its value it will still be used. Gold and silver might fill this roll but I truly don't see that happening to awkward and not enough people have the metals. So don't turn in all your cash it might be a needed commodity in the post dollar world.

A Woman Screams

I woke up Saturday night to a womans scream. It was around 2 in the morning and I was sound asleep with the dogs. A high pitched scream jolted us awake. Most of the windows were open and the evening was very warm. The scream appeared to come from the hill right outside the bedroom window.

I jumped out of bed thinking it was my neighbor but quickly decided it was a coyote...a high pitched coyote. The dogs stayed in bed growling which was strange. I grabbed the flashlight and went out on the front porch. I really like to listen to the coyotes...they all have slightly different voices. Since the neighbor now has chickens they have been coming fairly close to the houses.

Anyway as soon as I got out on the porch it screamed again this time from behind the cabin on the ridge. It wasn't a yelping but a single long high pitched scream. It gave me the chills. As I opened the door to go inside it gave out one more scream. I turned on some lights and made some noise and didn't hear the animal again. The dogs were still in the bed growling.

Sunday at my neighbors get together I was telling a friend about the "coyote" and its strange scream. He informed me that the scream was most likely a mountain lion and that I needed to be careful with the dogs. I have seen mountain lion tracks several times and once spotted a big cat walking down the neighbors driveway.

So I am going to take a few precautions like making sure the doors are bolted so they can't be pushed open and that the lower windows are closed up when I am not here. Plus when I walk the dogs I always carry the bear mace with me...very effective that bear mace.

Night noises are really a strange thing. Living in the city I could have gunshots right outside the house and it wouldn't bother me in the least. For that matter a woman screaming would only get a mild reaction from me. I would roll over and go right back to sleep. When you remove the background noise of society a wonderful eerie stillness is left. Every noise in that stillness is amplified and although 99% of the sounds are benign your filter still needs to adjust to the newness of the experience.

Don't Mace The Mice

Let me say that mice are not cute little critters, they are dirty destructive rodents that should be eliminated. At first I thought of them as furry little jokers and would simply remove them outside with a shovel but not kill them. Now I smack them with that same shovel and fling their dirty little bodies out on the road for the coyotes to eat.

What changed my perception? Well they eat everything and crap everywhere. The boys food bowl is about 3 inches deep by 8 inches round. I would fill it full and they eat what they want but the bowl started being empty every morning. Those awful mice where carrying off the entire bowl worth of food every night storing it under the cabinets. The dogs chew bones and several stuffed animals that frankly were way to big to get under the cabinets where also stored away. Magic mice perhaps.

The dogs like chasing them and Conway patrols every night starting around sundown. He darts from spot to spot cornering them when he finds them. A quick bark alerts Axel who jumps in to help, Axel is more of a supervisor leaving the hard work to Conway. I grab the shovel and pull the dogs back. The mouse is usually cowering under the sofa or behind the trashcan. A quick smack dispatches them. We are slowly reducing their numbers to a more manageable amount.

Traps didn't work they just took the food leaving the trap unsprung. Those little tent sticky traps were apparently a challenge...they chewed a hole through the side and removed the food. Can't use poisons with the dogs but did try a unique approach one evening.

I was getting tired of hearing them scurrying about so arrogantly. I thought that if I could get them out of their little nest I could smack them with the shovel killing off several at once. So I took my bear mace and planned to spray just a tiny squirt under the cabinets making the evil rodents run out where I could quickly dispatch them.

THIS WAS A VERY BAD PLAN

Needless to say the mice didn't scurry but I filled the house with bear mace causing the dogs and I to scurry. Bear mace works by the way and doesn't come off. I was dipping myself and the dogs in the tub out back which only makes it worse. Apparently you have to use milk to neutralize the oil based spray...ironically it was the mice eating into my only box of powered milk the night before that started me on this very bad path. I took the brunt of the spray the dogs only picking up a small amount...the dipping in the tub pissed them off much more than the spray.

So I have decided that as long as the mice keep their numbers in check through common sense family planning and as long as the boys enjoy chasing them I will live with the mice. Oh they also have to stay out of the bed...that's a deal breaker.