Hay & Straw Exchange (Buy it, sell it and trade it.)
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/HayandStrawExchange 

My one line of advice for for those who find themselves in trouble during this current economic pit is - "Don't hunt a job, make one..."

 I was channel surfing early this morning when I hit a kids show, Sesame
Street I think. What caught my attention was the young lady talking
about pumpernickel bread, one of my favorites... A young teacher was
doing something with her class that my sister (first grade teacher,
retiring this year) has done for some years with hers. They were
planting a little patch of wheat. I didn't really notice the size of the
plot but it may have been 100 square feet or less. They tilled the spot
up (hoes) and stirred in some manure then seeded the patch. They
trampled in the seed with their feet and watched it grow over the
winter. I don't know where it was but they had sandy soil. The wheat was
not great looking and the heads were tiny compared to the soft red
winter wheat we grow here but it did grow and did produce. They cut it
when ripe and tied it into small bundles and stacked it up. They then
spread it on a sheet and flailed it out with sticks and winnowed it
clean. They fed it through a hand crank grinder and baked some thin
bread from it and each student ate a little piece of it. I don't suppose
 many of the kids that saw that segment of that show this morning will
long remember what was done (but some will) but I'll bet that every kid
in that class will always remember where bread comes from...    :-) 
 We need a whole lot more of that in our schools... Not only will most
of their parents never expose them to that kind of knowledge, most of
their parents don't even have that knowledge... The system just wants to
teach them to pass test and to prepare them to become fodder for the
corporate machine...
 "Entrepreneurial thinking" should be a required subject every year from
K through 12. If our economy was based more on a zillion small
businesses instead of a handful of greedy giants it would be far more
stable and flexible.

"The real danger to liberty in America comes not from
bombs or guns nor foreign tyrants. It comes disguised in the
cloak of imagined safety provided at the cost of many
willingly surrendered liberties. Such safety is an illusion
and the price unimaginable..."

******************************************************


"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben
Franklin

Ben understood the price.

I have been putting in a hundred zillion hours this
month working on genealogy stuff. It becomes unbelievably
complex faster than most people would think. By the time it
reaches 20 generations even with some missing small branches
it has spread out wildly.
In the 40+ years that I have been cutting trees for
firewood and to feed the sawmill when I had one, I never had
a single injury beyond a "barked" :-) shin. Last night
while working high in the family tree (about 1525) I heard a
loud snap. I thought it was the branch I was working on but
quickly realized it was my brain instead. Hanging there in a
stupor I soon discovered that I didn't enough functioning
brain cells to climb down. I never fell from a tree in my
life but I fell out of the family tree hitting about every
fourth limb on the way down. The "Hurst" branch of about
1705 was an especially nasty blow.
At that point (about midnight last night) I went
off-line, shut down the family tree program and crawled off
to bed to lick my wounds.
It is snowing here today and temps are to plunge toward
single digits all afternoon. I think I will just sit in a
window sipping diet cola and watching snow flakes. It is
time for a break...

There are too many people out there working on family
trees and just guessing at stuff or working backward from
famous people and trying to force them to fit in. That
"leaves" :-) the path strewn with broken branches.

I spent a week looking for better family tree software
than what I was using. I didn't want anything too
complicated but mine was a little too limited. I kept
downloading programs and trial programs and then entering in
a few generations of a family to try them out. I lost count
but I know it was between 16 and 20 that I tried. Some were
only on my system long enough to make a quick run and laugh
hysterically for 2 minutes before un-installing them. There
is some real pathetic crap out there.
One fairly simple one that wasn't too bad was Genopro
1.9 It was more like flow chart software than most family
tree stuff.
The one I settled on was Legacy 3.0 It may not be for
everyone but it was just exactly what I was looking for.
Price wasn't really one of my criteria but I didn't mind
that they have made a new release with more bells and
whistles and have made 3.0 free to everybody. If anyone is
looking for a good program they are at:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/
I have not run across a single thing I will need that is
not in this program (except a replacement brain). With one
minor exception it is one of the most intuitive pieces of
software I have used. The minor exception took me a few
minutes to find a couple of hidden data entry points. I
suppose it is in the instructions if you read that sort of
thing. ;-) ;-)

Why the US will attack Iraq...

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/muller020702.asp

For big organizations, hoarding wireless bandwidth costs
more than giving it away. Smell a free lunch?


http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/garfinkel0302.asp


farmer
Proud to still be using granddad's old hammer. I have
made a few repairs to it. It has had 3 new handles and I had
to replace the head twice...

This is a test posting to my new Blogger site. Hopefully I can keep this site interesting.

farmer (small "f")