Our extra long working weekend

So what did we do on our long weekend?? We had 4 cords of firewood delivered of which I had to re-cut @2.5 cords of. Our supplier likes to cut his wood long, 18-20 inches. The problem is that our wood stove is only 16 inches deep and wide, so most of what he brought us will not even come close to fitting, grrr!! I cut just about all of the 2.5 cords when my awesome wife whom was stacking it all while I was cutting it, had had enough and decided to just pile up the remaining wood for cutting at a later date. I must mention just how awesome my wife is! She stacked nearly ALL the 3.5 cords we got put up by herself as I was re-cutting the rest of it! I was cutting it one piece at a time with my power miter saw when my awesome wife suggested piling the wood up on timbers over a ratchet strap, tightening it up to hold it all together and cutting it en masse with the big chainsaw. I am going to try that at a later date as we also had a friend from work out to try to cut down our dying walnut tree.

Our friend had said he'd probably be able to cut it down without a bucket lift but after cutting 3-4 big limbs off having one clip the power line coming to the house, he re-evaluated this decision and told us he needed a bucket, we agreed, no harm no foul ;o) He agreed to sell me one of his small chiansaws, a 14" bar McCulloch 130. This little saw is going to save my back when limbing out trees that are coming down as now all I have is Poulan 20" bar monster that gets pretty heavy when working with smaller limbs, etc... He also agreed to bring me out his wood chipper so I could start chipping up the mountainous pile of brush I have piled up from our basswood tree that came down last fall. My original idea was to save the brush to cut into small enough pieces to use for kindling to light our fires with..... I worked about an hour one day a couple weekends ago on that idea and let's just say that plan was a bust as I simply do not enough time nor patience to try and accomplish that goal.

I spent the whole next day splitting and stacking all the wood from the limbs and cutting, splitting and stacking more big wood we had out back. All total, I cut, split, and stacked @ another half cord. We now have @ 3 full cords out back seasoning, our friend thinks we probably have @ another 2 cords in the walnut tree to add to that in a few weeks. We have a bunch, 4-50 gallon trash cans FULL of end cuts from the @2.5 cords I had to cut to length so we decided to cook our steaks over it that evening. AWESOME! I had never had a steak cooked over hardwood before, but now we know we will be able to use all those end cuts eventually. I also plan to try my hand at making homemade charcoal with some of that stuff.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up all the brush and bark that was left over from the walnut limbs and 4 cords we had delivered.... Then my friend showed up with his brush chipper and the small saw I bought. He helped me chip up a bit of the brush just to show me how everything operates and of course we chatted for a while ;o) He took off and I finally was able to get my mowing done and of course as usual, crazy neighbor had to drive his car on his property to be sure I hadn't mowed over the property line..... Yes, he is a douche and then some, it's a long story I won't get into here.

Now that I have a chipper here I would really like to be able to take the rest of the week off to get the brush all done but, I guess I'll have to try to get at it on the weekends. The way the forecast looks for the upcoming weekend, I'll not be able to get anything done outside as it's saying there's a 60% chance of rain ;o((...... So again, we had an extra long weekend that we spent working, not vacationing ;o) I suppose that's the price we pay for wanting to be prepared ;o)

So you say you believe in freedom... Do you really?

Since the election of chairman maobama I've been hearing folks yelling about getting government out of our lives and that chairman maobama is creating a dictatorship. His actions would definitely incline many to believe he is indeed on the path to creating such an environment. However, one must look at the amount of power and control our government's, federal, state and local, have been allowed to accumulate over the generations by the only folks supposedly with the power to stop it, We the People. This did NOT start under chairman maobama's reign. This downward slide into tyranny began long ago while our great grandparent's, grandparent's and parent's were in charge of keeping our once great and free republic FREE. Little by little as life became more complicated they lost track of what it meant and what it took be a free citizen of this Representative Republic that was so ingeniously formed by our Founding Fathers. Our Founders REQUIRED participation and education of our citizens in our political process. They rightly believed that the only way a republic could be maintained was for the PEOPLE to know what was going on and PARTICIPATE in deciding issues of the day. How far we have fallen from that model. Hell these days MOST of our "citizens" cannot even name those that they send to the capitals to represent them. So again, why are we sliding into the deep, dark, black hole of tyranny?

Besides citizen inaction, non-participation, and general apathy one would have to look at what our citizens consider freedom. For some it means anarchy, for some it means no limit on governmental authority, for some it means something in between. Sadly far too few of our citizens ESPECIALLY those in the patriot movement have had an honest discussion with themselves as to what they believe freedom means. I've even heard Libertarians, the so called vanguards of the liberty movement, state that the government should legalize then REGUALTE marijuana..... Yes, that's right, those who claim to believe in limited government want to give the government MORE power by allowing it to regulate a common weed anyone can grow for themselves in their back yard or basement! I've also had Libertarians ban me from their facebook pages for merely asking a question on their pro gay marriage postings. I asked if the gay marriage legislation they were supporting was going to include language regarding those whom believe in plural marriages (similar to polygamy) as well ? What was the answer I received? Any guesses? I received NO answer, I was merely banned from commenting on that person's posts, a person by the way, running for elected office as a Libertarian and whom I voted for in the primary! Thus the title of this posting here. Do you REALLY believe in freedom?

It is not just the Libertarians whom have this inconvenient problem with their positions when it comes to freedom. The republikrats are possibly the worst of the bunch. They all espouse their belief of freedom yet pass laws that restrict freedoms of certain groups they deem not deserving of freedom.... The last few election cycles of republikrats (think bush and his merry band of usurpers) are even worse than the damn demoncraps (at least the demoncraps tell us they plan to restrict our freedoms). Passing such freedom robbing laws like the un-patriot act that created the department of homeland security and the tsa were the most Un-Constitutional power grabs in recent American history yet because the republikrats did it "for own safety" no-one bats an eye at this most egregious transgression!

So the question stands.

Do you really believe in freedom?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to have more than one wife?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to smoke a little herb in the privacy of my own home on my off time?

Do you think a woman should be "allowed" to choose to have an abortion or not?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to plant a garden in my FRONT yard?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to shoot my firearms on my own property as long as I'm doing it safely regardless of where I live?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to let my grass grow as long as I want to provide cover for mother natures creatures and allow wildflowers to grow?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to euthanize a pet dog of mine if said dog is old, sick, and in pain?

Do you think I should be "allowed" to keep dogs WITHOUT paying the county for a license to keep them?

If you answered no to any of the questions, why? I could write more questions asking about what some believe is freedom, but I think my point has been made. So ask yourself....... Do you REALLY believe in freedom? I believe that far too many of our citizens do NOT believe in freedom. All we have to do is look at the assbag our citizens seem hell bent on electing..... Romneycare? Seriously? WTF?!

Just remember when our republic slides the rest of the way off the cliff into tyranny, smile and say thanks because you brought it upon yourselves and all of the rest of us!