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Hunters Sharing the Harvest sets the Holiday Season tone

Pennsylvania is a long time big time hunting state, with such a great and famously known outdoors sports tradition that the iconic red and black “buffalo check plaid” wool coat made by Woolrich, Filson, and other long established wool clothing manufacturers was dubbed the “Pennsylvania Tuxedo” back in the 1920s.

Today our clothing may have improved since then, or may not have improved, depending upon whether you like your hunting pants to be flammable, or not, and I do not (which means I prefer wool in all outdoor clothing), but one thing remains steady: Pennsylvanians rightly love to hunt.

And just as much as we love to hunt, we are also generous with the fruits of our time afield. We have a long tradition of sharing the fruits of our hunting labors.

Well do I recall as a kid waking up in late November or early December to find some fresh venison left on our doorstep by one or two of our neighbors, all of whom had big farms and all of whom were big time hunters.

Back then in that area, kids brought fresh venison jerky to school to share and trade with other kids during and right after deer season; everyone had their own proprietary jerky recipe that they liked and were proud of. Sharing venison is a real longstanding Pennsylvania tradition.

Back in 1991, local hunter John Plowman had a vision to harness that generous spirit among Pennsylvania hunters and use it to provide for the needy. He started Hunters Sharing the Harvest, which today annually supplies well over a hundred thousand of pounds of fresh, free range, wholesome, lean, natural, organic meat to Pennsylvanians in need. That translates into about 667,000 annual “meals” for individuals and families in need.

Yesterday my son “harvested” his first Pennsylvania deer (see photo below), a young spike buck that junior hunters are allowed to take, as the rest of us are limited to bucks with at least three points to a side of the antler rack. As we had incredible good fortune yesterday, and took other deer, my son decided to donate his deer to Hunters Sharing the Harvest. My boy is enjoying the act of charity and contributing towards the basic welfare of his community.

Both Deimler (Cumberland County) and Sensenig (Dauphin County) are deer processors close by our home, so either one would be the logical place to drop off the young buck.  But Deimler has the advantage of being right down the road from Johnson’s Furs, where we have our furs tanned and where we buy our trapping supplies, so that is where the critter has been dropped off.  Mutli-tasking, ya know?

And that is the neatest thing about this Hunters Sharing the Harvest option: We get to share our cake, and eat it, too, in the charitable spirit of the Holiday Season.

 

 

The original Thanksgiving Day proclamation

[New York, 3 October 1789]
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington

Best time of the year

November through January is the best time of the year.

“It’s Christmas in November, December AND January,” say my fellow outdoorsmen.

From small game in late October  to archery for deer, to the current bear season and then rifle season for deer next week, and then trapping season, it’s nonstop action.

With the nonstop political drama and annoying ankle biting behavior of certain partisans representing themselves as news reporters, we can all use a break. I have been enjoying a break. Friends and family hanging out together, eating together, hunting together, and then hanging out again in comfy relaxation, it’s really an unusually best time of the year.

Under no other circumstances can or will so many people take off from work, drive long distances, and see old friends, as we do now. Maybe a big high school reunion will draw in a lot of disparate people from far and wide. But we do this hunting bit every year.

Santa brought us snow early. The better to hunt and track in. The better to hover around a warm fire from. Thank you, Jolly old Chris Cringle!

Everyone enjoy your winter!

 

Why California burns

Year after year, Americans are treated to images from California of flaming cars and zillion-dollar homes either burning down to the ground or sliding down canyon walls like toboggans on ski slopes.

No, these images are not from Hollywood movie sets designed to create fake images. These are the real thing, a hell on earth environment does in fact happen as badly on the ground each time we see it from afar.

Why these fires happen is right now subject to some debate, which does not make sense, because their explanation is very easy to understand.

No, President Trump did not cause these fires because his administration’s budget cut the fat off of some bloated California line item cost passed on to Americans everywhere. What a silly thing to say; it is just more “Trump did it!” goofball politics stuff.

No, “climate change” did not somehow cause these fires or the damage resulting from them. That would be impossible. Again, this is just silly politics stuff.

And no, sorry President Trump, these fires are not necessarily happening because California is mismanaging the forests there. That accusation would be correct for a lot of other Western areas, like Colorado, but I am sure that it does not apply to Malibu, California.

It is a fact that much of California’s landscape is a fire-based ecosystem, where wildfires are a constant, expected, and necessary part of the area’s natural cycles. Not only do the plants and trees there burn easily, some of them actually require fire in order for their seeds to germinate. For example, both redwoods and sequoias, two hugely famous trees that grow along California’s coast, have pine cones that will not open unless they are subject to fire. Without fire, these two tree species will not naturally regenerate. They evolved in a fire-based ecosystem.

Humans have built widely in this natural wildfire zone, by choice and with a lot of fore-warning about what they can expect while living there. So it is a mystery why the humans there then run about wringing their hands and trying to blame politicians whenever there is a wildfire that burns down their poorly placed buildings. Serious wildfire is one of the few things they can actually expect to experience at least once a year, every year.

Additionally, the soils along the California coast are the absolute worst types of soil for building on. These are crumbly, loose soils that move around easily, often following gravity downward and carrying whatever humans have built on them along for the ride.

Think about it this way: New York City is famously built on bedrock, a great feature for standing still on a solid base when humans have invested billions of dollars on skyscraper buildings above. Coastal California soils are the exact opposite of New York City’s bed rock.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “[these] soils are on side slopes of hills and mountains. These soils formed in residuum and colluvium derived from inter-bedded shale and sandstone. Slopes are 4 to 75 percent.”

What this sciency lingo means is that these soils are loose and easily eroded. Moreover, fire temporarily reduces plants holding the soil together, and then water carries the especially but temporarily loose soil to the ocean. This is natural, it is how this area was created. Building on it is foolish.

A dear friend of mine owns a wonderful vacant lot in the heart of Malibu. Her large tract overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by very expensive futuristic homes. Despite this lot’s beauty, she hasn’t built on it yet, because it has been washed away several times and burned at least once. One night we were looking for her corner survey stakes, and we found them down the street. About two feet of soil had washed away in that rain storm; it was mass wasting, really. A home there would have gone along down the street.

Which begs the question: Why would people build homes in a wildfire-dependent ecosystem and on soils that are as slippery as wet soap and as solid as sand?

Well, there is another question, too, which is why are all those expensive homes built on the San Andreas fault? But we can’t answer that until The Big One rocks California to the bone (and we get to see if Californians have an ounce of self-reliance left).

More important, something is going on with the people who live in California. This ‘something‘ is not good, because they are living in a self-imposed fantasy land that does not want them to live there; it is trying to burn them out and flush their buildings into the Pacific Ocean. The people there know what to expect, and yet they do the wrong thing anyhow, over and over.

Watching them now trying to blame President Trump for their own poor judgment would be funny, except the political consequences are serious.

California: Beautiful place, fascinating geology and ecology.

Californians: Bad character, poor judgment, American taxpayer welfare queens.

UPDATE: A friend commented and pointed out that New Orleans is built below sea level next to the seashore, and that Miami is built on a sand bar in the direct path of most hurricanes, and that Phoenix, Arizona, is built in an arid desert with no water anywhere around. These are all similar examples of humans tempting fate and defying Mother Nature. Good luck with that. And yes, I do feel badly for the people who have been directly affected by the most recent fire around Malibu, Paradise, and other California locations. How could I not feel bad for them? It is a sad situation. But the message of this post is that humans cannot successfully defy Mother Nature. It just never ends well for either party, but unlike the humans, Mother Nature can almost always fix herself. Humans need better development planning.

Trump’s first Attorney General

Former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions left his job yesterday, and now America is finally about to have an actual Attorney General.

Yes, for two years former US Senator Jeff Sessions had occupied the office at the DOJ that has the plaque on the door that says “US ATTORNEY GENERAL.”

But Sessions did not really, truly act like an AG.

Sure, he distinguished himself by enforcing a lot of actual existing immigration law, something that Democrats now call “racist” because anything that prevents them from getting political power through unlimited illegal immigration is automatically “racist” (and as a result, that politicized crutch word has sadly come to mean almost nothing).

But overall, Sessions was MIA from the most contentious and serious issue facing America from Washington, DC, and that is the prior administration’s corrupt and evil use of official government positions and resources to try to eliminate their political opponents.

Upon confirmation to AG, Sessions had immediately recused himself from anything to do with the Mueller witch hunt, and had therefore gone AWOL on the most important ancillary work: Stopping the silent coup d’etat directed against the new administration from holdovers from the prior administration.

History books are full of colorful descriptions of the first FBI chief, J. Edgar Hoover, notorious for using the FBI’s incredible investigative and legal power for sometimes political and even personal reasons. Those history books use Hoover as the symbol of how NOT to run government. And yet, the past administration mis-used the FBI and the DOJ (and the IRS, and EPA and and and…) for political vendettas to try to cement power for just one political party in a way that would have impressed Hoover for its audacity and bald-faced partisanship.

Stzrok, Ohr, Rosenstein, McCabe and Comey are just a few of the names that have been publicly associated with the corruption of sacred law enforcement duties at FBI and DOJ. Surely there are many more names that will emerge now that Sessions is gone.

For example, deputy AG Rosenstein has steadfastly blocked a sitting president’s executive order to release the unredacted (blocked out) documents surrounding the fake “investigations” into political opponents. Anyone anywhere who refuses to do what their boss tells them to do is usually fired on the spot, but Rosenstein has been basking in the aura of a politicized department. Had Sessions done his job, the documents would have been made public long ago, and the American public would have been educated about just how corrupt the past administration was and has remained through its political hold-overs still sitting in government positions. This is all about to change, and the implications are enormous.

Now, the day after one of the most contentious and arguably important elections in American history, members of one political party are demanding yet more marches and violent civil warfare in public streets, because Sessions is now gone.

“Everything is a five alarm fire with these people. Trump hires Sessions to AG…take to the streets! Emergency! Trump fires Sessions…take to the streets! Emergency!,” writes one online commenter.

“These people are acting like we haven’t been putting up with this hoax [Mueller] ‘investigation’ for over two years…so according to Leftists, unless you roll out the red carpet for a rabidly over-zealous [and partisan] prosecutor to indefinitely skulk around D.C. trying to dig up ANY dirt on the President or someone willing to flip on the President in order to complete the Leftist coup…they should take to the streets and riot,” writes Doug S. in an online comment.

This call to take-to-the-streets-again comes from officials from the previous administration as well as currently elected officials aligned with the past administration. This looks like a last-ditch effort to block and cover up the incredible crimes committed by the past administration. If you believe in justice, then you don’t try to block justice. And if this week’s historically weak election of opposition to the sitting president means anything, it shows that the American people are on to the Mueller charade and its illegal role as political cover for ongoing corruption.

Matthew Whitaker, the new acting AG, reportedly shares none of Sessions’ qualms about acting as AG and doing the work that an AG is required to do.

And so, with our first AG in the new administration, America is about to see the rotten underbelly of the most corrupt and evil past administration in our nation’s great history, led by Barack Hussein Obama.

Election Blue Wave? More like a blur wave

Despite an embarrassingly partisan media’s best effort to concoct a “Blue Wave” Democrat Party – sweep of the US Election that thankfully, blessedly ended last night, what  really resulted is a ‘blur wave’.

A wave for sure, as there was a lot of change, but a blur, because a lot of seats in both parties flipped. This change is a blur, neither blue nor red.

True, the Dems take the US House, but not by a whole lot and only by winning a handful of congressional seats, each by the narrowest of margins, like a 1% difference. That is a split and very narrowly divided electorate.

And the Rs gained big in the US Senate, now holding a huge lead there, where they will continue to hold public hearings and confirm administration nominees with alacrity and uninterrupted.

Historically, mid-term elections result in a shellacking for the incumbent president’s party. That did not happen yesterday, not by a long shot. A very divided electorate likes President Donald Trump, a lot, and also allowed long-time incumbent politicians in both parties to both stay in hostile territory and get bumped off in friendly territory.

It is truly a mixed message.

No distinct color won. A blur wave resulted. Kind of how America was designed to operate.