For What it's Worth
Do you know what the world looks like when there is 12 inches of snow on the ground and then it starts raining? It is not pretty. Poor horses!!! I was supposed to drive over to Navajo City tonight, but there is no way. If it gets cold and the mud freezes, I'll be able to go early in the morning.
My last hunters of the season finally pulled up stakes yesterday. I realized that I don't really care for most hunters, our values are too different. This year I would say there were two or three that I thought were the kind of people I would want for friends, but the rest are from a different planet where the environment can take care of itself and war is a good thing. Sigh.... I've been reading a good book (available for free online) about those fundamental differences in values. It's called Thinking Points and comes from the Rockridge Institute. The author, George Lakoff, holds that when you boil it all down the different values all have at their roots either a "strict father" mindset or a "permissive parents" mindset. He doesn't hold that one is right or wrong, but that the consequences of these fundamental paradigms explain almost all the political polarization in the world. Furthermore he says we are all a mixture and that if we want to influence the thinking of people on the opposite side of the spectrum, we have to talk to those parts of their individual psyches that are already in agreement with us. We have to not let the wingnuts get us caught up in arguments of issues, we have to stick to values because values are what matters. I think it's a hopeful book.
Yesterday I moved the puppies out of the apartment. At five weeks old they are too rowdy and smelly to share my living space. When the hunters pulled out, I went to the haybarn and got all the spoiled hay bits. It took two big carts full to bed a small guest room down. I barricaded the door and loaded the puppies in. Now if Becky wants to eat, she has to be in with the pups and if she gets tired of them, she can jump up on the bare bedframe. The pups are much happier to have mom locked in more. I am much happier not to get woken up by them. I have plenty of hay bits to change the bedding when it gets stinky. The puppies are so cute though it is not possible to not love them. They follow me around and come to be petted like they were the most domestic critters on the planet.
Roger BearClaw Sonntag is apparently getting ready to move up to Montana next month.
John just poured the cement for the gas station. This weather is really perfect for curing the concrete, which is all covered in insulating "blankets". They can now hook up the dispensers, test the system and fill up the tanks. It won't be long. We have run out of funding though so we decided to mortgage this property.
The appraiser came out last week after the big snow. He seemed to be a pretty jolly character, but it wasn't long before he was scratching his head. "I've always prided myself that I could figure the value for anything, but I don't know how I am going to do this." He kept repeating, "I don't know how I am going to do this..." Well, how he did it was that he measured everything and drew up a little map, he copied the tax bill, and he checked the price of the nearest property to sell in our neighborhood (about 50 miles away, an 80 acre ranch with a small house sold for $200k). The bank subsequently told us that the appraisal value was $246k. Well, we have that much in it, but we are only looking to borrow $70k, so it doesn't matter. Maybe having the appraisal will help when I go to apply for insurance... if the underwriters don't have to scratch their heads like the appraiser did, maybe they won't just turn us down again.
JD, the Wiley Mustang, is due to come back from Billy's most any day now. As sorry as I feel for these horses in the rain, poor ol' JD doesn't have any shelter up there at Billy's place. That means no dry place to lay down. Quite pitiful, really... sigh.
Yrs,
JRW
My last hunters of the season finally pulled up stakes yesterday. I realized that I don't really care for most hunters, our values are too different. This year I would say there were two or three that I thought were the kind of people I would want for friends, but the rest are from a different planet where the environment can take care of itself and war is a good thing. Sigh.... I've been reading a good book (available for free online) about those fundamental differences in values. It's called Thinking Points and comes from the Rockridge Institute. The author, George Lakoff, holds that when you boil it all down the different values all have at their roots either a "strict father" mindset or a "permissive parents" mindset. He doesn't hold that one is right or wrong, but that the consequences of these fundamental paradigms explain almost all the political polarization in the world. Furthermore he says we are all a mixture and that if we want to influence the thinking of people on the opposite side of the spectrum, we have to talk to those parts of their individual psyches that are already in agreement with us. We have to not let the wingnuts get us caught up in arguments of issues, we have to stick to values because values are what matters. I think it's a hopeful book.
Yesterday I moved the puppies out of the apartment. At five weeks old they are too rowdy and smelly to share my living space. When the hunters pulled out, I went to the haybarn and got all the spoiled hay bits. It took two big carts full to bed a small guest room down. I barricaded the door and loaded the puppies in. Now if Becky wants to eat, she has to be in with the pups and if she gets tired of them, she can jump up on the bare bedframe. The pups are much happier to have mom locked in more. I am much happier not to get woken up by them. I have plenty of hay bits to change the bedding when it gets stinky. The puppies are so cute though it is not possible to not love them. They follow me around and come to be petted like they were the most domestic critters on the planet.
Roger BearClaw Sonntag is apparently getting ready to move up to Montana next month.
John just poured the cement for the gas station. This weather is really perfect for curing the concrete, which is all covered in insulating "blankets". They can now hook up the dispensers, test the system and fill up the tanks. It won't be long. We have run out of funding though so we decided to mortgage this property.
The appraiser came out last week after the big snow. He seemed to be a pretty jolly character, but it wasn't long before he was scratching his head. "I've always prided myself that I could figure the value for anything, but I don't know how I am going to do this." He kept repeating, "I don't know how I am going to do this..." Well, how he did it was that he measured everything and drew up a little map, he copied the tax bill, and he checked the price of the nearest property to sell in our neighborhood (about 50 miles away, an 80 acre ranch with a small house sold for $200k). The bank subsequently told us that the appraisal value was $246k. Well, we have that much in it, but we are only looking to borrow $70k, so it doesn't matter. Maybe having the appraisal will help when I go to apply for insurance... if the underwriters don't have to scratch their heads like the appraiser did, maybe they won't just turn us down again.
JD, the Wiley Mustang, is due to come back from Billy's most any day now. As sorry as I feel for these horses in the rain, poor ol' JD doesn't have any shelter up there at Billy's place. That means no dry place to lay down. Quite pitiful, really... sigh.
Yrs,
JRW
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