Advance Apologies (Political Rant)

With the recent surge of suddenly-fiscally-concerned citizens out there, there have been more people searching for wasteful government spending.  Which isn’t a bad thing.  Several other bloggers have also been pointing out some of the more absurd tax-payer funded entitlement goodies.  One of them is the “Emergency” cell phone. 

I saw an ad for this several months ago at my Mom’s house and later looked it up online.  If you are special enough (i.e. are on disability, food stamps, HUD housing, etc.) you qualify for a free cell phone.  Because, you know there might be an emergency where you would need a cell phone.  Ok, I’ll sort of agree with that.  But get this; the plan includes TWO HUNDRED & FIFTY minutes of talk time.  What kind of emergency would require you to receive 250 minutes of cell phone time?

José Fuentes, TracFone's director of government relations (and brainchild of this program)  was quoted as saying, “A telephone service, just in general, is not a privilege, it's a right….”, and the government is more than happy to perpetuate that absurd idea.

You ticked?  I am.  But get this little piece of garbage on another “Free Emergency Cell Phone” page:

Copied directly from the Reach Out Mobile “About Us” page:

“The Universal Service Fund program is not a tax paid by U.S. taxpayers. The Universal Service Fund program is funded from contributions by telecommunications carriers collected in part from the Universal Service Charge applicable to all forms of interstate telecommunication services.”

Hmmm, not a “tax”?  Well, what would you call it then?  Look on your phone bill (cell or land line) and under Taxes, Fees and Surcharges there is a charge for the Universal Service Fund Surcharge.    So let me get this straight.  I didn’t ask for this USF “service” to be added to my bill, but I’m still paying it.  I don’t have a choice to opt out of this so-called service.  So as long as we call it a “Fee” or Surcharge”, it’s not a tax, hugh?

I’m convinced that this little blurb on their webpage is there for the sole purpose of washing their hands of any taxpayer-wrongdoing.  And I’m sure the government was all for this “disclosure”. 

But wait.  The USF was created by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and they are a government entity.  So a government body is mandating that you pay for this funding.

Last time I checked, that would be considered a tax.

So, not only is our government saying everyone has a right to a cell phone, but they are denying, no – let me rephrase that - LYING, about the source of funding for it.  Namely, you and I.

Ok, I’m done with this Political Rant & I apologize for the interruption of your regularly scheduled Krazo Acres blog.  But I wanted to give you some information if some leftist wackjob tells you that he KNOWS it’s not taxpayer funded. 

Zucchini Fritters

Even through this insane heat wave & drought we're having, the zucchini are still putting out.  Well, maybe "putting out" isn't the best term.  Makes them sound promiscuous.
Anyhow.....I finally managed to cook one of the two Monster Zucchini last night.  And I used a recipe (slightly modified) from a new blog I found, but I can't for the life of me remember which blog it was.  So if you recognize this recipe (or it's yours), please let me know so I can give proper credit for it.

The sole survivor of last night's supper.

BTW, that's not a huge fritter, it's on a saucer, not a dinner plate.

Although, I could easily manage to eat one that large.

It is now my favorite way to prepare the amazingly abundant zucchini and it even works with those bigger-than-a-toddler sized zukes.
4 cups shredded zucchini (de-seeded & squished to drain out moisture)
4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup flour
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. dried chives
1 Tbsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. each basil & oregano
Pepper to taste (I used about a 1/2 tsp.)
Oil to fry it in

Beat eggs, dump in rest of ingredients & mix well.  Ladel about a 1/2 cup for each fritter into hot oil, flip when browned, then done when other side is nicely browned.
If anyone else has a recipe to use up those huge zucchini, please post it here.  As much as I like the fritters, I'm always open to new ways of cooking squash.

Black Hole of Aridity

I now have irrefutable proof that there is some sort of moisture-sucking black hole surrounding our property.  There was hope of rain headed our way as I could hear the thunder off in the distance and the sky was overcast.  I checked the radar & alas, there was a small storm system coming and it looked as if we might be smack dab in the middle of it.  A few minutes later it started raining.  Nothing heavy, but enough to make you wonder if you should have an umbrella with you if you decided to venture from the house to the barn. 

Rhiannon wanted to go outside so I threw a play dress on her and her shoes so we could feel the rain on our skin.  Before she could get out from under the porch, the rain stopped to something I wouldn’t even consider a drizzle.  You know, where there’s a big “plop” of rain every here or there, enough to convince you that the sky is still capable of producing moisture, but only as if nature is occasionally hocking a loogie at you.  So little rain falling from the sky that the goats haven’t even bothered to take shelter (and if you know goats, at least mine, they absolutely detest getting wet).  Even the Wicked Witch of The West would have no qualms about hosting a picnic outside.

So I go back into the house to see if I had made a mistake on the radar site and pulled up the wrong area, but alas, it was the correct screen.  And the storm tracks showed rain coming towards us, then magically moving all the way around us, like a big frekking black hole.  And it’s not even like it’s a huge black hole because just a mile or two north & south (and east & west) of us there is rain.

So Rhiannon is playing in the front yard and I am sitting on the porch, typing away.  I guess I technically could be out in the yard, away from the protective cover of the porch roof as there isn’t enough drizzle to make me worry about frying my laptop….but there’s a bench on the porch and I’m lazy.

So I click back & forth from my blog writing to the radar screen, hoping that there will suddenly appear a bright red splotch of radar-rain directly atop our latitude and longitude.

I guess there is some good from this though as it’s only 82 degrees and the sun isn’t scorching the plants. 

Yet.

It's so hot you could.....

After sharing how incredilbly hot it was yesterday with some of my Facebook friends, I was challenged by one to fry an egg on the hood of my car.

Well, I figured, why not?  Before you all gasp at the apparent disregard I have for the exterior finish of my vehicle, I told him that I would be up for the challenge, although I'd attempt it on a metal object other than my Hyundai.

The smoker seemed just as good a place as any.  And it would be high enough up that the dogs or chickens wouldn't feel compelled to lick the egg off the surface.

So camera in hand, I went out to the chicken coop to procure an egg.  It had a small crack in it so I didn't feel too badly wasting an egg as it would have just gone to the dogs for dinner.

OMG, even my HAND looks fat! 

How does your hand gain ten pounds in a picture?

Clambered up a makeshift stepstool and cracked the egg on top of the smoker:

Not much happened.  The outer parts of the egg white started to cook a little bit, but definately no frying occured.  I went back in the house for a while & came back out to check on it about fifteen minutes later and nothing much more happened.

This is what it looked like this morning:

Everything basically just dried out.  Not hot enough to fry egg, but the humidity was only 20% yesterday so it just slow cooked and dehydrated.  Teeny tiny little black ants managed to dig a tunnel into the yolk & were bringing out little pieces to take back to their pantry.  Isn't it amazing how they find food like that? 

Kind'a neat, so I stood there for a few minutes watching all the little guys.

I have no life.

Paul's Take
Actually, he hasn't commented on this yet, but if he did it would go something like this:
"You're darned lucky you didn't do that on the hood of the car!  Now I suppose I'm going to have to be the one to clean off the smoker.  Shouldn't you be watering and weeding the garden instead of doing stupid stuff like that?"

Satan called.....

And he wants his thermostat back.

Milking Woes, Part 2

After confirming that Nettie had mastitis in her left udder, I went to the local farm / feed store and bought four tubes of Today.  I already had Oxytetracyclene, needles, syringes and Probios on hand.

Since suspecting something wrong with Netties milk,  I continued milking her but gave the milk to the chickens.  The first morning of medicating was no different, except I had to administer the Today, the antibiotic and the Probios after I milked her.  I figured that the Today medication had to be somehow inserted into the teat, but it just sounded strange to be squirting something UP a teat instead of having something come OUT of the teat.
The instructions said to insert the tip into the teat orifice and slowly depress the plunger.  Nettie has smaller teat orifices than all of my milkers, so I was afraid inserting the tip of the syringe was going to be difficult.  Well, it wasn’t easy-peasy, but it wasn’t as huge a challenge as I had feared.  It did, however, feel really funky.  You insert the soft-tipped syringe into the teat orifice, pinch the bottom off as not to let any medicine escape, then push the plunger until it’s all gone.  While you’re pushing the plunger, you can feel the stuff go in and it kind’a makes a funny squishy sound.  Then you massage the udder to spread the medicine around.

Nettie was very considerate through all this.  Getting milked, goo squirted up her boob, injection of antibiotic in the front shoulder and a drenching gun filled with Probios down her maw.  She’s such a good goat!

We did the same thing four days in a row; milked her out, infused her udder with the Tomorrow, gave her a 6mL shot of Oxytetracyclene, gave her 5mL of Probios.   By the fourth day, Nettie was not as cooperative, nor very happy to see me coming with my medicine bag.  But we got through it.

It’s now been two weeks since I started the meds on Nettie.  After the fourth day of medication, I started drying her up but she’s still really full.  Not so much as it looks painful, but still really full.  I swear, she never wants to stop producing milk.

Last night I did another round of CMT tests on all the gals.  Ishtar and Annette were fine, although Nettie’s sample may have been a little bit gooey, but I may have just been looking for it to be gooey.  I’ll do third round of tests on the gals in a few days.

The August of Austerity

There have been a few fellow bloggers who have done No-Spend months and reading about their adventures and successes have given me a big enough nudge to do one myself.

I think it’s a good idea to take a break from spending in order for one to realize how much they really ARE spending…..and I’m sure a lot of it is pretty much unnecessary.  Not only that, but that spending can become a fix. Nick the homebrew husband over at Northwest Edible Life wrote a nice post several days ago about the The Treat Spiral and the end of their No-Spend month.  Go check it out.

So beginning today, we’re not going to spend money on anything other than on a few pre-determined, pre-ordered or emergency items (being out of chocolate constitutes an emergency, right??).  Those items being the hay we are having delivered this month, the baby Cornish Cross chicks that I ordered (but won’t be paid for / delivered until the middle of August) and goat feed.  In cooler weather I could go a month without buying goat food, but the grain gets moldy in the muggy summer months and we can really only buy three bags at a time or risk it going bad. 

Other exemptions are any vital recurring household bills (basically just internet and electric) and fuel for the car & motorcycle.  Paul has been taking the motorcycle to work almost every day in order to save on fuel.  As logically-sounding as it seemed, there was a slight flaw; it left me with the car at home and I was starting to drive everywhere for any ol’ reason.  So I will definitely be driving less.

I did The Great Pantry Challenge back in January of this year and was able to “survive” then, so I’m just going to take it one step further and include all forms of shopping, not just grocery shopping.

It will give us the opportunity to pare down the items in the deep freezers.  This package says "Deer Steaks"...we haven’t shot a deer in three years.  I don’t remember buying any Lean Cuisine meals, how did it get in here?  What in gods name is that thing?  Is it meat or vegetable?   You get the idea.

It will also require me to do some sorting and rotating of stock in the pantry.  When the month is over, we’ll take inventory again and schedule a run to Aldi and Sam’s Club to restock.

And I won't be making any, "Oh since we're in town, lets just stop in the store for a yadda-yadda-whats-it."

So be forewarned fellow bloggers, the complaining will begin soon enough.

Paul's Take
She was complaining about it before it even started.