Amish Driveby

Doesn't happen often, but when it does, it looks cool. :)

I am enjoying the long weekend, with today being sort of "Labor at home" day. I am in between putting up pieces of drywall in the eternal bathroom renovation/rebuild project. I have already succeeded in giving myself a haircut, and we are prepparing to can a slew of seckle pears from our tree, which has produced wonderfully this year.

We are trying to get our stock in order and trying harder to make use of the produce from our fruit trees. We are also planning in earnest to do some serious planting in the Spring for our garden. Actually we have two, an herb/vegetable garden and a purely vegetable garden, the latter being a large one. Because the deer and groundhog sacked the plants away from the house, I will be building a fence in the future in addition to clearning our raspberry patch.

There's lots to do, and complicate that with renovating a house at the same time, it makes it difficult to prioritize, let alone find the cash. So many projects too little time.

I wanted to get this off my chest: I recently had a run in with one of the county inspectors for my work. He was damn rude to me, and so I filed a respectfully written complaint with his HR department. Within 24 hours I not only had a response from the county's HR dept, but also I had his boss calling me on the phone to apologize, explain the situation, and beg to give the guy another chance. I think this will be the last time the haughty inspector screws up like this. Sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword. That's why I train with both. :)

Anyway, one point I drew from this experience is how some bureaucrats take themselves so seriously, are so into their codes and so forth, that they cannot be plainly spoken with about a point of concern. No, you have to go to the supreme boss at HR, file a complaint, make the guy scared of losing his job (if you are lucky enough to have them take you seriously) and so forth, to get his attention. Imagine if this was a faceless bureaucrat for government run health care, making the decision about whether or not your son or daughter dies. This would be a nightmare scenario to say the least.

Pres. Obama, you are not my doctor, comrade.

Finally, I just wanted to include in this update that I have been listening to www.thesurvivalpodcast.com. I really enjoy listening in and have been especially getting into his recommendations for year round gardening. I just can't read a book on gardening--to damn boring for me right now--but I can listen to someone passionate talk about it, especially while I wash the dishes.

Alright, over and out. Enjoy your Labor Day, yo's.

--Nick-Dog