Jerkey Time!

A while back we bought a food dehydrator/jerkey maker unit. Debby surprised me this weekend by making some beef jerkey. Good stuff!

Chip's Right Wing Blog

Seeing that I've been blogging for a while now, and that apparently election season is upon us, I felt it appropriate to weigh in on things political. From the picture you will see me and a right wing. Ha!

Yes, I'm a right wing conservative. I'm pro life. I believe in God. I believe in family. I believe in personal responsibility.

I'm supporting the McCain/Palin ticket. McCain/Palin will win Tennessee, we are a red state. As for the rest of the country I don't know.

My wife and I homeschool our children, previously we enrolled them in private school. Just like the founding fathers of our country were educated. The democrats however don't support school choice. As I frequently observe with liberals this is just one more example of "do as I say, not as I do". Barack Obama sends his children to private school. So did Al Gore.

I believe charity begins at home. Government social programs work against family and faith. Liberals are generous with other people's money, not their own. Obama has a brother living in a hut in Kenya and an aunt living illegally in a slum in Boston. Barack wrote a book from which he earned big bucks. In his book he described his family, his responsibility, and he claimed to be his brothers keeper. Barack earned millions and gave zilch to charity until he began running for president. Barack's running mate Biden earned millions and also gave virtually nothing to charity.

Obama joined a church and supported that church and it's pastor for 20 years. When it became public knowledge that Obama's pastor was preaching a lot of hateful things Obama claimed that he did not know. I don't believe him for a second on this. I've been to a lot of churches. While living in Yorktown, VA we briefly attended a church that was close to our home. We went there for a few weeks and were surprised and offended by the pastor. We had never before nor since experienced a pastor like this man. We quickly registered with and began attending a different church which was farther away.

Obama pledged to take public financing back in 2007, citing at the time John McCains pledge to do the same. John McCain stuck by his pledge, Obama did not. Obama now has a huge spending advantage in the election. Obama should be way ahead and easily win the election due to his huge spending advantage. Obama also has a big advantage by having the liberal mainstream media in the tank for him.

Obama wrote in his book that he used illegal drugs. Until recently he was a smoker, it's possible that he still smokes. Obama has a pattern of associating with some questionable people, for example his relationship with domestic terrorist William Ayers. Obama wants to be president but would likely not pass a background check for a job at the FBI.

Obama politics are the typical democrat tactics of class warfare, division, and dependence. Obama has compiled the most liberal record of any sitting US senator.

McCain voted with the Republicans less than Obama voted with the Democrats. I like McCains preference for market based solutions more than Obama's big government solutions. I trust McCain as commander in chief. Obama has waved the white flag of surrender and voted to cut off funding for our troops

It'll be interesting.

PS: just a comment on voting. I prefer the old fashioned paper ballot. Tried and true. Add optical scan if you want, but stick with the paper ballot. Electronic voting is not secure. Electronic voting makes it possible to hack an election. Another thing, I don't like early voting. I think that early voting opens up more possibility for fraud.

Scary Halloween

On Friday afternoon Debby called me at work and told me that she felt sick and needed me to come home right away. She was complaining about a vision problem in her left eye, a headache, dizziness, and numbness in her left hand. I talked to her on the phone as I rushed home. I called our doctor and Debby spoke to the nurse. The nurse said we should go to the emergency room and that's what we did.

At the hospital they put Debby in a room and connected her to a blood pressure monitor, heart monitor, etc. They did a CT scan and bloodwork. After a couple of hours the results were back: Debby is in perfect health but was showing classic symptoms for a migraine headache, something she has never before experienced.

The doctor said that with migraines one needs to be careful with salt, caffeine, and stress.

This medical event put a serious crimp in our Halloween plans, we missed a party at a friend's house but I was able to take the kids to a planned Trunk or Treat event at a baptist church in Kingston. Mary dressed as a princess, John as a scary ghoul. Both had a wonderful time. Unfortunately no pictures :(

At the end of the day we counted our blessings. Debby got a thorough medical check and is in perfect health. The children enjoyed Halloween with their friends.

Spirit, napping in the sun

Snapped a picture of Spirit taking a little nap in the sun. The weather was just gorgeous here yesterday and Puppy and I went hiking and exploring and were headed back to the house when the kids spotted us and came out to join us in the field. I decided to lay down in the grass and the kids just piled on. Debby came out and joined us. We all laid down in the grass, enjoyed the sunshine, and took a little rest. Delightful.

In the picture is a little feeder rack I built. It's a frame built from 2x4's that fits over a pair of T posts. A feeder bucket can be hung over the 2x4 cross rail. Previously we used a round rubber feed pan to give sweet feed/grain to the horses but they always step on them and turn them over. This arrangement works much better.

Pup Pup Birthday!

We had a birthday party on Saturday for Pup Pup who is now two years old! We don't really know his exact birthday, he is a stray dog that we rescued. At the end of August last year the vet told us that PupPup was about 10 months old, so we think his birthday is on Halloween. We were unable to celebrate on Halloween so we celebrated the next day. Debby baked homemade chocolate cupcakes and icing for the event. Puppy got a bone, we had cupcakes! Don't be afraid of the big spider, it's just a Halloween decoration.

Swingset, friends

Here's a picture of a swingset I built a while back. It was sort of a quick and inexpensive prototype swingset, but the kids love it. We had a nice wooden swingset at out last house but a tree fell on it during a storm and snapped it in half.
This swingset is made from all 2x4's. The legs are 10 feet long. The top pieces are 8 feet long. I made some gusset plates out of 7/16 OSB. I built two frames and they are connected together by a pair of hinges. So, you can pull the legs apart or make them closer, the whole thing will fold up if you want to move it. I built this for about $20, and am surprised at how stable it is and how much the kids enjoy it. We'll see what comes next.

As for this picture, I took it a week ago, it shows Mary and her fried Sarah who spent the night here. We often have fog in the morning and it was just starting to burn off.

Taylor Story

A guy I work with named Taylor told me this story today:
"It seems that a man was arrested for killing a bald eagle. In the courtroom the judge said that the bald eagle was an endangered species and that it was illegal to kill them and he asked the man to explain why he did such a thing. The man told the judge that he and his family were hungry and that he killed the eagle for food. The judge took pity on the man and dismissed the case. As the man was leaving the courtroom the judge called out and said he was curious and wanted to know what bald eagle tasted like. The man replied that bald eagle tasted like a cross between california condor and spotted owl."

Marathon Bro'

My brother Greg Piller today ran in and successfully completed the Marine Corps Marathon race! Totally awesome! This was his first marathon (full marathon, 26.2 miles), and he already has plans to compete as part of a team in a 200 mile race next year. Way to go bro'!

Dropping gas prices

I filled up the car today and regular unleaded was $2.53 per gallon in Kingston, TN, definitely the lowest price I've seen in a while.

Mamaw's 75th Birthday Hike

The family gathered last weekend to celebrate Mamaw's 75th birthday. On Friday evening there was a fondue in Vienna (the TN Pillers were en route and did not arrive in time). On Saturday morning we met at the McDonalds in Warrenton. Aunt Doris, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Doris Anne, and Uncle Lloyd had breakfast with us and we had a very nice visit.

We then proceeded to the Shenandoah National Park and set off to climb Old Rag Mountain. We hiked the saddle trail and on the way up we encountered members of a wedding party on their way to the top. A young couple had climbed Old Rag when they first began dating and decided that they wanted to get married on the summit of Old Rag. There were about a hundred friends and family members that made the climb and we also witnessed the wedding ceremony.

While on the mountain we encountered another small group, a young man in the group had a guitar. We asked if he could play Happy Birthday and he said yes, so we all sang Happy Birthday to Mamaw.

We saw a warning sign about aggressive bears in the area, and the children were terrified (not really, they were just acting)!

The weather was just about perfect for the hike; no rain, not too windy, not too hot or cold.

After the hike we went to the Outback restaurant in Warrenton and enjoyed a wonderful meal. Debby, John, and Mary met us at Outback.

Nanny's Flowers

We were up in Virginia for a family visit last weekend and I snapped a picture of some pretty flowers at Nanny's house.

There is a nice park just down the street from Nanny's house, the kids enjoyed the swingset and we met several nice dogs that were taking their owners for a walk.

Training for Old Rag, Fall Foliage

Next Saturday we plan to hike Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to celebrate Mamaw's 75th birthday. Today I successfully hiked from the house down to the mailbox and back as a training exercise. The fall foliage is beautiful right now.

Horse Update

Yesterday we took Peanut back to his former owner, Lexi, in Bulls Gap, TN. A while ago we realized that Peanut was not the right horse for us, or conversely we were not the right owners for him at this time. I had a nice visit with Lexi, today she called Debby and said that Peanut was doing very well. I dropped off a dozen bales of hay yesterday with Peanut, Lexi wants to buy one or two hundred more bales from us. We really did enjoy Peanut and learned a lot and are glad that things have worked out the way that they did.

Yesterday Rene visited with her family to check on Spirit and I snapped a photo of Rene with Spirit, compare it to the picture I took of them at the end of August. Spirit is really growing fast!

Rain!

It's raining. Yay! Finally. It has been extremely dry here since the early summer. Our county was declared an emergency area for farmers. The ground here has been hard, dry, and dusty. It looks like we will get a good soaking rain.

Last month Mamaw and Papa and uncle Mark visited and one of their outings was a trip to the Lost Sea, a local cave with a large underground lake. The level of the lake had dropped 20+ feet due to the drought.

Our three pigeon lofts are well protected and are nice and dry. Debby and I put a new roof on the barn a few months ago so our hay will stay nice and dry too.

Catholic Church Tour

Last week at Blessed Sacrament church Father Sweeney invited interested members of the congregation to come to the church on Wednesday evening for a tour and explanation of a Catholic church.

Last night we went to the church for the tour and met some friends. Father Sweeney gives the tour each year as part of the RCIA program. Father did a wonderful job explaining the Catholic church and answering questions. We learned several interesting things about the church and it's appointments as well as some additional history about the church and how it relates to incarnation and the corporeal world (holy water, what's a narthex, a nave, a sanctuary, choir loft, stations of the cross, sacramentals, what's a cathedra, why use candles, history of the altar, stained glass windows, why priests wear black, lectionary, book of gospels, etc). The tour was followed by refreshments and socializing.

Frosty Morning

Turned on the heat this morning at home, it was 37 degrees outside. Light frost on the grass, I had to scrape the windshield of my car.