FEMA, FEMA everywhere, nor any drop to drink...

Just to let you know we're still alive here! But still working pretty much to exhaustion every day, trying to get the harvest in without a truck, tools, or the mowers needed so we could actually walk through the plantings and find the crop-

It will come as no surprise to those of you who've already been through a disaster- but the gummint is pretty much useless for most of the victims, in spite of the newspaper coverage about how on the spot they are. Here's an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune; now what?.

I'm not sure that link will work; you may have to be a subscriber; we'll find out. These folks were REALLY hit by the flood; - and here's a quote from that article; the bottom line:

"The floors of their Victorian home in town were buckled, the walls ripped out at the knees, the basement filled with raw sewage. At their farm outside town, rivers tore 6-foot-deep gullies into fields, turned pastures into beaches, uprooted culverts, toppled fences and scattered cattle and sheep into surrounding forests and bluffs.

Hours of tedious meetings with Red Cross and FEMA workers led to, well, nothing."

FEMA wants proof they actually own that house, before they'll do ANYTHING. Guess what? the papers were - in the flood. Like nobody there knows who these people are.

Atrocious. Unforgiveable. Actually, the same answer we got from the sheriff when we reported our truck stolen, while all the law enforcement folks, and the National Guard, were enjoying themselves watching the flood- "What truck? prove it - or we won't come out." No, really.

And we're really on the edge of it- "did you get flooded?" uh, no. "is your corn killed; are your cows loose? " uh, don't have any corn, or cows. Well then, it's not a problem.

We HAVE had some fabulous volunteers come to help with harvest. People, not institutions.

Global Warming.

Oh, yeah; not kidding- and a huge threat rarely included in the analyses. Bureaucracies have a known tendency to waste their time and energy chasing their tails, looking busy, and not getting much done. As disasters become more frequent- the ability of government to actually respond in a useful fashion is going to decrease. Less and less will be possible, in general.

Make more friends- they're the ones who will keep you alive.