More Portents for Katie Rose

More news from Katie Rose on the alfalfa front.

more on alfalfa and grass hay

by Katie Rose

After putting the goats out to pasture I drove down the hill to the local hay dealer. I just have a gut feeling I am going to want one more ton. Folks had told me he still had hay.

What he does is grow about 2000 acres of alfalfa and then buys copious amounts from other farmers - some here, some in Montana, and some around Yakima/ Ellensburg. I usually avoid him as I'm not certain that his bale weights are accurate.

I drove in and it was eerily empty. He had no alfalfa at all. None. Then I asked him about grass hay, and he told me he had "just a little bit." He went on to tell me that he had just called his regular suppliers in Montana, asking for a few semi truckloads. He was told that the ranchers had sold all their hay "for quite a bit more" than he was used to paying. He could locate no hay, and the 2000 acres he grew has been sold to local folks like me.

Then he looked at me with this shocked, befuddled look and said, "Folks who haven't gotten their hay aren't going to get any. Come Spring..." he just shook his head, whistled and walked away.

I ran out of hay last spring, and came running to him. I wonder how many of his regular customers are planning on him having hay for them when they run out?

I have been fretting and fretting about stacking alfalfa instead of PM's this Fall. Now I am extremely grateful I chose alfalfa.

The hay really is all gone.

War clouds gathering

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Values Voters Summit in DC. Normally I would not go to such a thing because I am no longer a Christian and the treatment Ron Paul got from his own party in both 2007-8 and 2011-12 makes me want to have nothing to do with the Religious Right. However, a friend and colleague of mine paid my way and there was an pretty good breakout session on "Surviving the Coming Economic Earthquake" which we both wanted to attend. Also I just wanted to hang out with my friend cause we don't see each other enough.

At any rate, there was another breakout session called "Radical Islam 101" which I also wanted to attend at least partially because of all the folderol over that video. I'm not one to ignore the position of others just because I have some disagreements with them so I wanted to let them present their case. I definitely learned a few things. I have never been soft on Islam. I am an atheist. I think all religions--particularly the monotheistic ones--are irrational and they stunt the advancement of civilization, but I do have to admit that of the Big Three Islam is the worst. The presentation today definitely reinforced that opinion.

But the big takeaway I got from that seminar was this: we are headed for a war that's going to make Afghanistan and Iraq look like a picnic. As Bob Dylan once said "The line it is draw, the curse it is cast." There are intractable factions on both sides--fueled by the aforementioned irrationality--that will not quit until the blood is flowing as deep as a horse's bridle. This is what they want. They will not be happy until they have destroyed everything.

Fuck Islam, fuck Judaism, fuck Christianity. You lunatics are going to get us all killed for a fairy tale. I know each group thinks God is going to save them because they are his special little jewel, but I've got news for you: when the shooting starts your invisible friend will be nowhere to be found and if anyone survives what's coming they are going to piss on your moldering corpses for the miserable ruin of a world you've left them.

I almost hate to say it...

...but I have considered these guys to be populist hucksters. I'm listening now.