Death to the Weasels!

Ha, I bet you're expecting another diatribe about the Wall Street Grand Casino.  Nope.

At the moment, anyway, we're talking about actual weasels.  So, I'm getting ready to finally put the guinea pen together- and as I walk out by the windmill- here on the path is- a dead weasel.  

My first reaction was- "oh, no; the damn dog has killed a weasel!" - because- in the larger scheme, weasels are our friends on this farm, big time.  They eat mice.  And more mice.  Tons of mice.  Mice are huge pests and crop thieves.  Big bucks.  I love weasels, mostly.

And this one was beautiful- a full grown male Short-Tailed weasel; also known as an Ermine.

Then it dawned on me (not too much later, and before I really started chewing Bruce (the pup) out) - this weasel had been in the perfect place to wipe out our guineas- in one fell swoop.  They are known to kill more than they can eat- they're really good killers.  And the guineas are all babies- no adults to fight back, at all.

And, though this is a serious predator, one our cat would never think of attacking- it's so slender it might actually be able to just squeeze right through regular chicken wire.  No kidding.  Which is what I had just been about to install.  Did I know that already?  Yes, I did.  Idiot that I am, I seem to have needed the additional reminder of having a dead weasel in my hand in order for that to truly strike home.

Ah, reality.  This weasel was in the wrong place.  And Bruce, who is turning out marvelously, with more common sense than most people, had just been doing the job we hired him for- protecting us.  There's plenty of room on the farm for weasels still- just not so close to home.

I'd been murmuring "no, no- don't do this, Bruce..."  (he understands English perfectly) - but when I realized - he'd probably saved our entire guinea flock; with no instructions needed, that changed to loud "GOOD dog, Bruce; good dog!"  He understood.

He hasn't eaten it; though I've seen him eat bunnies.   (Sorry).  Weasels stink, pretty uniformly, and most likely taste bad to boot- few things eat them.  Owls do.

So here I am, inside, not putting up the guinea wire.  Because pretty clearly- where there is one weasel, there will be more, and the wire we have is not good enough.  Plus, we have yet another species of weasel here- the Least Weasel; which is only about 1/4 the size of an Ermine- but plenty capable of killing chicks, and maybe even adult guineas or chickens.

The darned thing is going to have to be a fortress, Bruce or not.  He did a splendid job- but even he has to sleep sometimes.  More money; and a trip to town for wire- wire more expensive than chicken wire, for sure.  Sigh.

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The guineas are an education, of course.  For all of us.  We started with 33 new keets (chicks).  We're down to 28.  That is what usually happens- a few of them just won't make it.   In our case, I successfully brought all 33 through the first 10 days- but then 5 of them just- failed.   Quit growing.  Lay down, and died.

Smidgen already knew a little about death, in the abstract- even children's books and movies are full of it.  But here was her first real acquaintance with it.  Scary, for a parent-

I think it was harder on Spice and I than it was on Smidgen, though.  She did cry, just a little.  But the reality was right there- death is natural; part of life.  The rest of the keets go on.

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Off to town; more gas, more money, more time.

Financial Tooth Fairies, Ex Machina!!

Zooming out to work on the guinea run before the sun gets hot, still I couldn't resist sharing this bit of astonishing fiscal humor with you before I go.  From the New York Times: "A New Tool Announced To Support Home Loans."

The boys in The New York Stock Casino have come up with a new game!!  (that's what a "tool" is-)  it's called- "covered bonds".

Oh, be still my heart!  Finally, the magic wand is waved, and the mortgage collapses all go away.  If you're not cackling and rolling on the floor in helpless laughter yet, you really should be.

They're all chanting "I DO believe in "tools"! I DO! I DO!"- and hoping, praying, the rest of the world will join them.  Puffing new hot air into the housing bubbles- which just don't hold air anymore.  There's no such thing as housing expansion.

It's a short article.  If you can see anything besides smoke and mirrors in these "covered" bonds, by all means, let me know.  It's pure, pure, puerile fantasy.  This is what our financial leadership has been reduced to.  What they're really showing us is that their entire system of air castle builders has no idea- none- what real wealth is; or real value.  All they know is: money; and if I sell you my pile of money, and charge you interest on it, you can sell me the same pile of money back, and charge ME interest on it; then I have a big pile of money again, and I can sell it back to YOU, and charge YOU interest on it; and we all get bonuses at the end of the year!  Forever!  Really!

Then, look at the list of who's going to be selling these new covered bonds "secured by pools of assets like home loans" - and then read this little bit in the article: "Unlike mortgage securities, which pass all the risk to investors, covered bonds collateralized with mortgages would continue to perform even if the mortgages backing them default — as long as the bank remains solvent."

ROTFLMAO!!!!

I'm going to run right out, and bet that Wells Fargo is going to remain solvent!!  Sure I am.

oh, dear, tears of helpless laughter in my eyes.

What fools these mortals be.

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Update-  OMG!!!  And it just gets better and better!  A followup article, NYT- has a little more discussion about what the heck a covered bond is, and what it might do-  and contains this gem:

"Covered bond markets exist in many European countries. In some of them, laws make the legal standing of such bonds clear, but Mr. Paulson and the other agencies concluded that no legislation was needed, and that policy statements by regulators would suffice."

My god, why aren't these guys writing for Saturday Night Live! ???  I mean- just look where running our entire financial system based on "policy statements by regulators" has gotten us so far!  By all means- we need more of that!  

Tears in my eyes!!

You can see it: in "Blazing Finances" --  "Legislation?  We don' need no stinkin' legislation!"  Mel Brooks, I hope you're taking notes.  Or Broadway could really use "Springtime For Paulson"; coming soon.

"Springtime, for Paulson, and Bernanke.  Winter, for Congress, and hope."  It even scans.

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And the Washington Post chimes in! "Executives from four banks -- Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo -- stood shoulder to shoulder with Paulson at the news conference and issued a joint statement saying they would consider issuing covered bonds, although they were not specific about their plans."

Guys, you're killing me!!  "Shoulder to shoulder!!!"  forsooth!!  Our brave, brave little soldiers in pinstripes!!! - and all committing to- oh, wait, they didn't actually commit to anything at all.

I'm gasping for breath here!!!

Thank god the "Financial Sector"  (gasp!  choke!  cackle!)  is good for something these days; I haven't laughed this hard in years!

Deep Summer

Strange to use the phrase here in Minnesota, but Deep Summer is what I've got.

It's mostly a phrase from the US South- and it means the heart of summer- and the heat.

My current experience is mild, really; maximum daytime temperature is barely hitting 90°F (32°C); but there's a gaggle of accompanying factors that require a human to adapt, somehow, or collapse.  Here is the day-

The morning is still.  No wind.  No wind for almost 2 weeks now, we're having to haul house water from the solar-pumped greenhouse well, since our windmill isn't moving.  No wind coming in the next week, either.

Soaking dew; until noon, moving anywhere on the farm without tall rubber boots means soaking shoes and socks.  Barefoot?  Not if you're working.  Thistles, hammers...  The rubber boots are hot, and heavy.

Hazy sun; all day.  The humidity stays at "120%" - not actually possible, but that's a reasonable estimate of how it feels.  The 85° air is comfortable; until you move; just walk and you will sweat.  Work will have your clothing soaked through, literally to dripping, within just a few minutes.

You have to be very careful in this weather- it's so damp, wet, drippy you can easily forget you're losing water, dehydrating - and losing salt.  When your skin is covered with salt, sweat evaporates more slowly- cools less well.  When you look up from hoeing the beans, and world fades to white- you're on the edge of "heat exhaustion" - otherwise known as a critical shortage of water and salts; you need more than sodium; you're probably running short on potassium and calcium too.  One thing we do is add some salt, and "salt substitute" (KCl) to our lemonade; do-it-yourself "sports" drink.  Plain water is not enough, if your vision is fading.

People have coped with summer forever, of course.  Two major paths- let your body get used to it, adapt; and/or avoid it.

Your body will adapt, if you ask it to.  Work in the heat an hour today; and aim for two hours tomorrow.  Full adaptation can take weeks.  Be careful.

Or- change your hours.  Become crepuscular.  Wake before sunrise; work in what cool there is, before the sun hits; then move inside for other chores, or a nap- with a little fan, perhaps.  (I have one one me now- 12VDC, running directly from the hot sun on my solar panels; designed as a fan for a boat, 20 years old, I think.)  Evening presents more opportunities for outside work, without the sun.  The mosquitoes, alas, tend to be crepuscular, too.  The evening tends to be warmer; but dry- no rubber boots.  Until the dew starts to form.  Our solar heated shower is dangerous right now- it may be way too hot; shower carefully.

Here we tend to have little wind from mid July through late August.  Fact of life.  Cuss and bear it, mostly.  And drip.

And what are we doing about refrigeration?  Not a thing.  Water out of the well is very cool; water stored a day is still cooler than the hot outdoors.  It's cool enough.

At the moment, I've got gourmet meat for 3 days, ready any time.  No fridge.  

This is where I keep it- inside the charcoal grill, where it was slow-cooked.  

It's a boneless chuck roast; on sale when I was in town.  Tasty- but tough, usually.  I set it to cook slowly, inside the charcoal grill, after using the hotter fire to do a little chicken.  The very slow cooking, not over the coals, but beside them, with a little hickory added to the other side of the fire, actually does a little tenderizing, and does wonders for the flavor.

And, incidentally, sterilizes the roast- and the grill.  Once it was mostly cooked- I closed the grill's vents, thus asphyxiating the fire, and any microbes.  The meat is partly smoked, slightly dried, and quite safe right were it is, inside the closed sterile grill, 90° days, or not.

I've eaten some for dinner yesterday, and lunch today; and have 3 more meals there, I think.  Open the lid; cut off a chunk quickly right on the grill with a sharp knife; close the grill.  Yes, one, or two, bacteria got in when I did that.  They landed on dry, smoked, charred meat surface- not a friendly place to them.

The cooled, slightly dried chuck is pretty firm; easily sliced very thin, which solves most of the remaining toughness problems, and makes it perfect for adding just a little flavor, just a little protein, to whatever else I'm having.  Delightful.  It does require chewing.  Consider it exercise.

Any meat will keep after smoke cooking in a closed grill; at least a day, probably 2.  3 starts getting a bit iffy, particularly if you're dealing with chicken or have kids in the house.  You need to make sure the meat was cooked - hot right through- in the first place, though.  Sometimes a cooling fire may leave your meat cool, and not really kill all the bugs; this is something you need to watch meticulously.  The other hazard with this method is closing the grill and leaving it with the fire still too hot- and finding nice chunks of charcoal instead of chicken, when you open it up tomorrow.

This kind of smoke-heat preservation is really pretty safe for large cuts of meat; but don't try this for sausage or burgers- too much chance for bacteria to be incorporated in the grinding.

Now, I don't have to cook tonight, nor did I last night.  No extra heat required.

I'm gaining on the work adaptation, too.  Or, of course, you could always just move somewhere for sissies!

signs of the times-

This post is not as much fun as dirty dishes or guinea fowl; but it's another one where I just can't help gritting my teeth and shaking my head.

Big news?  Front page, NYT?  Golly, the industry based on pandering to the Wall Street Grand Casino staff, is set to tank; there may be $18 Billion less in "bonuses" this year for them to spend on - you, stuff.  There's a cool graph of bonuses- damnedest thing, right after the neo-cons got in, the bonuses started to skyrocket.

Tiny news?  So little you can't find it?  Suicides- caused by foreclosures.  In the "Health" section of ABC news.  Way down there.

One suicide.  Would you wanna get there are hundreds more, that have already happened?  And how many "investigative journalists" are there digging out that story?  ?  It's nice to know, the mortgage company said they were "devastated".

There are times when I don't like the news writers much.

oh, yeah, and the news in the middle- visible, but barely - 2 more national banks were seized; on Friday; just a bit after the Grand Casino closed for the weekend.

Back but buried

I drove 2200 miles, to hand deliver my greenhouse product.  Kinda buzzy on return, and overloaded with piled up work.  Once again, too many thoughts running through my head to sift into sensibility easily here; just wanted you to know I haven't disappeared or abandoned the blog or anything.

An example of the overload- we have 28 guinea keets (chicks) here and growing.  According to the available info, they want you to keep them in a brooder situation for 3-4 weeks, then a pen until week 6, when you can start letting them out into the world. 

Except, yesterday, as I was turning on their heat lamp for the night (solar powered, by the new panels installed last fall) - I turned my back on them after putting in clean water and food- and when I turned back, one of the little stinkers was sitting way up on the edge of their brooder pen.  He had to fly up there.  Which means my pen is not going to be containing them tomorrow, and I've GOT to figure out yet another temporary pen rig, since the Chicken Dungeon is far from ready (building with sod turns out to- uh- take a lot of work, and time; imagine that)-

AND, after making coffee this morning, I discovered I'm out of propane for the summer cook-stove; so I can't wash dishes until I go to town- AND Spice is not here, but on her way to visit parents, far away, for the first time in a year and a half...  AND in her hurry to pack, and toddler wrangle, and do extra greenhouse chores, she left me with a sink full of dirty dishes, so I don't have a plate to eat off of...  (I'm fishing for pity here, in case you can't tell, and lots of opprobrium for my cruel wife)  :-)

you get the idea.  

More next time it rains, and I'm inside.

All is swell; with police.

Just a quickie.  Thank goodness IndyMac is "back in business!" (according to CNN) - but things still seem a tad dicey- since they needed police today, to keep "angry customers" in line-

Just a little minor note there in the news.

And here Oliphant's input - on AuntFannie, etc-

So how do they keep up the fantasy, when our official court jesters proclaim the truths so loudly?  It's a mystery.

I'm on my way out of town for several days- so input here will be slender; though ya never know, I might manage one from the road.

Hang in there.

Media cahoots

8:30 AM  This is a time sensitive post; I'm sure the links here will look differently in a few hours.

But right now we've got a spectacular example of how the Mainstream Media is indeed in cahoots with the "financial sector"- they're not just reporting the news- they do tweak it, a bit.

Right now their action is perhaps admirable- so they think, anyway.  They are trying to fight off a real full-blown PANIC in the stock markets.

Take a look here; at the NY Times Business section-

It's all about how the two huge quasi-governmental mortgage corporations, known as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; crashed so hard on the stock market yesterday that the US federal government was hours away from "nationalizing" them- (though we don't call it that here, of course).  And trumpeting how this disaster was avoided.  (Teresa, you'll find more than you want to know about Fannie and Freddie there.)

Do you see, anywhere, any mention of another huge mortgage company; Indy Mac?

Shortly after the stock markets closed on Friday - it WAS "seized" by the government, as being completely insolvent and dysfunctional- 

According to Reuters, "The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said."

Golly, that sounds like a headline to me.  But it's totally buried under the constant reassurances that "all is well!  don't panic!  NO REALLY!! DON'T PANIC!!"

Maybe we should panic?  

But you can't find a trace of this story on the front pages of the major US newspapers- yet.  Though it happened last night.

(And, sure enough; shortly after I posted this; if you really dig, you now CAN find the story on the front page of the NYT - in the tiniest font they use, a link elsewhere, not a story.)

(ah, and now, 15 minutes later, the Washington Post; likewise, tiny font link on front page; to a nice reassuring story: "But John M. Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, said IndyMac's failure was a 'unique' incident that 'does not signal a direction for the industry as a whole.' ")

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1:30PM (CDT) - the BBC has finally put the story up as an "Other Top Stories"; in middle font; still following "Pope to apologize for sex scandal", though.  

The whole story has now disappeared from the NYT front page- it's not only inobvious, but if you search for "indy" the result is - 0; it's not there at all.  It's barely visible in Business; tiniest font, very obscure, as "mortgage lender seized"; which is also the language of The Washington Post.

The Google News compiler has been varying all day- right this second- the story is NOT findable; but it was a half hour ago.

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2PM - FINALLY!  CNN- headlines it in the Business section, though still not screaming on the main front page- "may be the most expensive bank failure ever..."    nah, what story?

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4PM - Story is now gone from BBC front page, though the Pope is still apologizing for Australian pedophile priests in exactly the same place; the collapse of Indymac is now only to be found on the Business page; replaced in "Other Top Stories" by: "France Rejects Veiled Muslim Wife".  Cute eyes.

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Next day- CNN wins the spin prize!  NOW, it's the top front page feature; big photgraph- "Back in Business: IndyMac Reopens Monday!"  No, it's not back in business, it's still in collapse.  Yes, the doors will reopen, but it's mostly going to be for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to start paying newly printed money to depositors- since IndyMac was broke.  The FDIC wants to find a buyer for IndyMac within 90 days- but at the moment, no one is offering a dime for it.

BBC now has "Key US mortgage lender collapses" as a subheading under Business.

NYT - no mention at all on front page; no mention at all on Business, to my astonishment; but if you go to the "whole paper" Most Popular page; under Most Blogged - it's #1 - and I don't think that's my fault.  :-)