STOP NAIS

Please. Contact your representatives (you can use the button in my side bar!) and tell them that you want them to stop NAIS.

The USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was originally designed to give big beef producers help in getting export markets which required disease controls. The idea is that every single livestock animal in the United States will be identified and tagged. All livestock animal movements, including horses taken to a training facility across the lane, will be tracked, logged and reported to the government. The benefit is to the big factory farms as they get to do single ID’s for large groups of animals. Small farmers, pet owners and homesteaders will have to tag and track every single animal. There are NO exceptions - even small farms that sell direct to local consumers will be required to pay the fees and file all the paper work on all their animals. All owners/breeders of horses, llama and alpaca, exotic bird, etc. will be required to participate in NAIS. Homesteaders who raise their own meat and grandma with her one egg hen will also have to register their homes as ‘farm premises’ and obtain a Premise ID, tag all their animals and submit all the paperwork and fees. Those who refuse to cooperate with NAIS will be subject to heavy fines and will be denied the right to exhibit their animals at state fairs, 4-H fairs, Future Farmers of America shows, and all horse shows. You can be assigned a premises ID against your will or without your knowledge. NAIS is not legislation but a program designed by USDA bureaucrats with the help of businessmen and manufacturers of ID tags. This program hopes to obtain the billions needed to oversee every single animal in the US by slipping it into the Farm Bill."USDA's proposed program could be compared to a finely crafted blueprint for a concrete blimp." -LivestockWeek

This is everyone's issue. Not just people who want to raise animals. This is worth your time. Go,, do it now.
If you live in the Huntington area I'll make it one step easier for you:

Senators • Robert Byrd (D) • John Rockefeller (D) Representatives • Nick Rahall (D-3)

Governor • Joe Manchin (D) Senate* • Evan Jenkins (D-5) • Robert Plymale (D-5) House of Delegates* • Kevin Craig (D-15) • Carol Miller (R-15) • Jim Morgan (D-15) • Doug Reynolds (D-16) • Kelli Sobonya (R-16) • Dale Stephens (D-16)

All you have to do is say" Please say NO to NAIS". You don't have to be an expert on the subject (but please, do your own research) to call or email your representative and take your government back.
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Could you use a new TV stand? Who couldn't, right?
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Soggy but Nice.

Well, it's just lovely out today. About 70 degrees and sunny. We sink to our knees in mud if we go out but beggars can't be choosers can they? ha ha.
I didn't get much when I went out shopping yesterday. I don' t know why I thought that I'd see anything to buy AFTER Christmas when there wasn't anything BEFORE Christmas. blah. Oh,, don't get me wrong,, I still managed to spend some moolah but you can't hardly leave the house without spending something.
I bought some clearance Christmas junk, some clearance candles (our power is going out A LOT lately) a pair of pants, a shirt, and a jacket. Big whoop.
The chicky girls have been laying machines lately. We have a surplus of eggs. Well,, that is until I make potato salad on Monday! Mmmmmm,,, 'tater salad. I never tire of the blue eggs we're getting. They're so pretty! I can't wait to get some more birds in the spring.
Speaking of tasty natural organic food. Please read this article: SWAT team raid on private family's home
I don't generally take WND as actual "news"(too many of their news story's have been later refuted) but this time they are dead on the money. I read the story in the family's local paper (online) about 2 days after it happened. That story has now been edited (content taken out,, not replaced) and then went missing. This is RIDICULOUS. This stuff really happens. The fact that it's not front page news is suspicious at the very least.
I'm trying to follow this story as closely as I can. They are a homeschool family and their means of schooling (in the legal sense) has been confiscated by the authorities. I'm assuming that they use OVA for their children's education since they said that all of their children's schooling was done via the computer.
What a crock this is. The authorities even took their personal food supply.
Ok, I'm just ranting now, you'll have to make your own determinations about the situation.
I'm off to enjoy the lovely day!
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I'm so glad that I'm beyond the point where I have to concern myself with engagement rings!
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Shopping!

I will be going out into the world today by MYSELF!
whoo hoo!
My kids are to the age where they would probably be more fun for me if they were girls (tho I'm happy they are boys) because they've lost their tolerance for shopping.
When they were wee, I could just ply them with candy, pop them in the stroller and we were off but now it doesn't matter how much I bribe them with, they last about 20m.
Now, don't get me wrong, they are well behaved, but they do this subconscious thing where they turn into zombies. They stand about 6 inches away from me. When I take a step, they take a step, when I look up, they look up, when I turn, they turn.

It's very annoying.

When they come out of their zombified stooper, they whine things like
"where are we going next?"
"and then where?"
"When will we be done?"
" can we go to EB, Babbages, ToysRus?"

Now, before I had kids, my genius plan was that I would always take the kids to the toy store FIRST, that way I'd avoid the constant "when are we going to the toy store?" question. What I did not anticipate tho was MY limited amount of energy and their patience taking a nose dive after they've got what they wanted.
So today, I leave the 9 year old and the 12 year old with my mother and I venture out into the land of clearance brasseries without shame or whining.

I can even stop and eat something without it costing $27.00.

It's POURING here. I went out to let the chickens into the run. I have on my knee boots and I'm carrying an umbrella. The girls have never seen an umbrella apparently because they had a total fit. They all escaped into the barn yard and huddled in the corner while staring at me in terror and cussing me. I had to close my umbrella to get them back into the hen house. Better yet, upon reentering the hen house, Coco started setting in the nest so I'll have to go back out an collect eggs again.
YAY FOR THE RAINY SEASON!

Carpenters. Jesus and the Singing Ones.

Merry Christmas Darling.
The greeting cards have all been sent, the Christmas rush is through.....

Thank Goodness. I bought the last gift today. ( I need an appropriate emoticon for this space, perhaps a dead smiley )
All that's left is the big day.
This year isn't going to be like the years previous. We'll actually still be able to see the Christmas tree. It won't be obscured by the massive mound of gifts. Every year we set back and look at it in utter disgust.
The definition of stupidity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Well, buying all those gifts never made us feel good and didn't do anything to glorify the reason for the season so why do it? Not this year. I'm sure there will be bitterness from the spoiled children but "oh well". I can only try to replace the gifts with a little peace and simplicity.
I don't have all the gifts wrapped yet but I think that's the last thing on the list.

I took the boys up to the Mall today to enter a Call of Duty competition put on by the Army. Yeah, I know it's a recruiting gig but no where.... on ANY of the signs did it say there was an age requirement. It never occurred to me about the age requirement on the game. They were not kind to us and it kinda pissed me off. All the punk kids that were sitting there laughed at T1 and I wanted to go over and grab their "soon to be shorn" heads and bang them together. All T1 wanted was the participation Tshirt. We'll not even mention that he would have kicked all their asses. But I digress.
After that we ran into Walmart to pick up some blank CDs and rent a movie from the Redbox. We're standing there at the Redbox by the front door and we hear the "whomm whomm whomm" go off of the security alarm. We hear a guy scream "STOP" and come barreling into the front buggy area. This is a HUGE guy by the way. Not "good huge" but like 450lb 5ft 8. He stops cold, buckles over and grabs his chest and puts his other hand on his knee. He sits there a second and I start to move towards him to get him on the ground and call 911 when he raises up and says "JUST KIDDIN!"
DIE. Seriously. If you're acting like you're having a heart attack at your size you D*** well better be. I could have smacked him.
I think I'm going to take a nap. I feel a bit moody and unwell anyway and I shouldn't have left the house today. BLAH!
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I'm going to need some diet pills after this year's overfeasting!
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Took a little Vacation

• Baked cookies
• Christmas shopping.
  
• Still haven't sent out cards
• Up to my eyeballs in school stuff

I took a bit of a blogging vacation didn't I? ha ha. I just a bit overwhelmed I guess. Blogging seems to be the first thing that falls off the list.
I went out and made cookies at a friends house the other day. That was fun. It really was. I made my butterscotch no bakes. I thought it would be good not to take up any oven space. Plus they are soo soo easy to make.
I still haven't done any Christmas shopping. Nice huh? I swear, I just have NO good ideas! It's getting down to the wire. Saturday, my mom is going to keep the boys so I can go out and spend tons of money on worthless crap that no one wants. Yay. (That's me in the picture by the way! lol) I just can't get into it this year. Spending money this year seems so irresponsible. Sigh.
I did buy Christmas Cards. I haven't sent them OUT but hey,, I bought them. I have addresses on most of them but I've yet to sign them. Most of the ones that are addressed and signed are setting in boxes that I've yet to mail out. Nice, right?
Then I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff for EAGLE and TESTING. Groan. I'm just a ray of sunshine today aren't I? ha ha.

I'm Tired.

It was a pretty big day. I mentioned yesterday that our new group was having a registration fair today. I didn't need to do a whole lot to prepare for it but there was still quite a bit to remember.
We had an EXCELLENT turn out! I just cannot believe how many folks showed up! I haven't counted how many families we have involved yet but I think it's somewhere around 20.
Of course it was pretty near pandemonium all day but I don't think we missed anything really. All the "i"s are dotted and all the "t"s are crossed.
I hope.
Today started with me getting up and doing laundry, putting on a roast and loading the car. Oh yes, and checking my email 14 times. I just knew if I didn't, that I'd miss someone that was trying to get ahold of me at the last minute. After that I drove to a friends house and picked up her stuff because she's in Florida (DOG!). Next we set up and discovered we had no change for the cash box. Off to Kmart. I did about 20 different things all day. I felt like one of those 8 armed goddesses. I even got to hold a baby twin! Oh, he was very cuddly. (NOT THAT CUDDLY,, Don't you people get any ideas)
At the end of the day, I helped jump a vehicle and headed home. Not before stopping at Goodwill and dropping off a bunch of junk though.
When we got home, I straitened up a bit and CRASHED. When Chris got home it occurred to me that I have a turkey in the fridge thawing. I'll have to cook that tomorrow. I was out of the stuff to brine it so off to the store.
My Kroger had Cheerios for $1.00 a box! The BIG box! That's just too good of a deal. the trick is that you had to buy 4 of them. No big deal, I can do that! I'm going back tomorrow to buy more! Guess who's making White Trash next week!?! ha ha.
So, the turkey is brining in the fridge as we speak. I hope it's good. It's the first time I've ever tried brining. I used Pioneer Woman's recipe.
Now I'm going to finally hit the bed. Wow... am I tired.
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I'm supposed to write about home theater sconces. Really? In our house that's called a lamp. LOL
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