Hay Season

Hay season is upon us…. I can’t wait until my fields a lush with Bermuda so that the cattle can graze with out my dropping hay bails every other day. Oh, but it will not be time to rest on my laurels. There will be plenty of work to do in order to sow feed for these beasts.


My wife cousin farms turkeys, harvest their feces in order to fertilize the fields. This in its self is a major chore as I’m sure you can imagine the smell isn’t something one would call rosy. Once we have dumped truckload after truckload into the fields, its time to wait for mother rain to do her part.


We usually move the cattle to a couple of the other fields so that we can have a good harvest without interruption. Once the Bermuda is ready, its time for the bailing.


The barn will be filled to its rafters with hay, also the bailing row. Surprisingly enough, there is just enough for the winter months and rarely enough left over for sale.


But that sleeping in a little longer during the summer months sure is great!

New Blog

Some of you may have seen this coming, A Black Man's Prospective has now been created.

This will not be a daily post and I will only post but a post where I will only post two or three times a week.

The blog is to give a better understand of the African-American culture. Why have I started this blog? After reading and debating about cultures in other blogs, I felt that it was time to help others understand that black men are not all ballers, drug dealers, and rap artist.

http://ablackmansprospective.blogspot.com/

Miracle Fruit

My wife brought this to my attention this evening, so I thought I would write about it just in case you’ve not heard about it.

Apparently there is a fruit from West Africa, that turns anything sour sweet. My curiosity peaked when I heard that it turn sour foods sweet because I have an awful sweet tooth, and this may be why I am over weight. Anywho, moving on.

They say that this is good for those going through chemo, as with chemotherapy food taste like metal. I can not attest to this has I have never had cancer, or the need for chemo. However, I am trying to cut sugar out of my diet, so I am thinking of purchasing a few of these, 20 for $60.00, and try them on food I absolutely detest such as rice. Below is what I have read so far on this so-called wonderful fruit.

The miracle fruit plant (Synsepalum dulcificum) produces berries that, when eaten, cause sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed later to taste sweet. The berry, also known as miracle, magic, miraculous or flavor berry,[2][3] was first documented by explorer Chevalier des Marchais[4] who searched for many different fruits during a 1725 excursion to its native West Africa. Marchais noticed that local tribes picked the berry from shrubs and chewed it before meals. The plant grows in bushes up to 20 feet (6.1 m) high in its native habitat, but does not usually grow higher than ten feet in cultivation, and it produces two crops per year, after the end of the rainy season. It is an evergreen plant that produces small red berries, with flowers that are white and which are produced for many months of the year. The seeds are about the size of coffee beans.

The berry contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin.[5][6] When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing sour foods to taste sweet. While the exact cause for this change is unknown, one hypothesis is that the effect may be caused if miraculin works by distorting the shape of sweetness receptors "so that they become responsive to acids, instead of sugar and other sweet things".[3] This effect lasts 15-30 minutes.[7]

The fruit has been so popular that some are having tasting parties and trying its sweetness on several different items such as hot sauce with its taste turning to honey. That’s different! I wonder if I will be able to get this in a juice some day? Now that would be awesome. I could sit down with a bowl of rice, and my miracle fruit juice and be as happy as a clam. What would be even better is, if I could get a few of those seeds and plant me a nice grove of these evergreens. And it looks like I found the place. Now if I can just keep out those rodents! Ya’ll have a good night!

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/miracle_fruit_pictures.htm

These are the people who are spending our money.

Your government at leisure..... A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples:

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)

2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. While I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, she interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts "Without trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, ''Cape Cod is in Massachusetts , Capetown is in Africa '' Her response - click.

3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando . He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, 'Don't lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!'' (OMG)

4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked , ''Is it possible to see England from Canada ? '' I said, ''No.'' She said, ''But they look so close on the map.'' (OMG, again!)

5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas . When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.'' (Aghhhh)

6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois , but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, 'No, why do you ask?' She replied, ''Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!'' > After putting her on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno , CA is (FAT - Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii . After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California , and then take the train to Hawaii ?''

9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?'' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.''

10. A lady Senator called and said, ''I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida . Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?'' I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola , FL on a commuter plane. She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!''

11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China . After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. 'Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.'' I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, ''Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!''

12. A New Mexico Congress woman called to make reservations, ''I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .'' I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ''Are you sure that's the name of the town?'' ''Yes, what flights do you have?'' replied the lady. After some searching, I came back ith, ''I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere.' ''The lady retorted, ''Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!'' So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally > offered, ''You don't mean Buffalo , do you?'' The reply? ''Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.''

Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it's in! Could anyone be this DUMB? YES, THEY WALK AMONG US, ARE IN POLITICS, AND THEY CONTINUE TO BREED!

My Trainer Is Shit

I have not been posting because I have been working out as some of you may know. Well, I have a trainer who is also a friend of mine; the guy from the tough man post, well that's him.

We discussed what we would be doing on our day of training, and decided to run, as he had a dinner planed that evening. Unbeknown to me, we would be running 3 miles. OK, here's the problem, I am not a very athletic man; meaning I did not play football in high school, nor did I run track. So, running is not one of my strong suits. However, in my mind, what's a mile, I can do a mile, or can I.

I meet up with him at his home at about 5 p.m. we drove to the lake area near his house, and began my nightmare. Walking to the track I see a small plate that reads "1 mile", I think to myself again, " a mile, no problem." We walk a few feet, and he calls out "ready" and takes off.
I run behind him thinking this isn't so bad so far. Boy was I wrong, we hit the mile marker, yes I made it, but he keeps going. By this time I am out of breath, and my run has turned into a power walk, with him no longer in sight. I try again to run, but by now my lower legs and the side of my stomach is in so much pain I can't see straight.

I catch up to him as he is now waiting at the mile and a half marker. I am out of breath, and he has hardly broken a sweat. We walk some more; about another 50 yards, and start into a slow jog, and this I can do. Its just up from a power walk, and again after a few yards, my legs fail.

We power walk the rest of the track with the agreement that I would run the three miles back to the truck. We get to the end of the track, stretch again, and start again on our run back. You will be happy to know that ran one and a half miles back to the truck. I think it was because I wanted it all to just be over with. Today I am regretting that I ran so much my first time out, as my legs today are killing me. I have been popping Ibuprofen all day, and the pain isn't letting up.

I spoke with him today, and he was wanting to know if we would be going out again this afternoon, fat chance. However, I did make an appointment for Thursday to start our next set of training. However, I will refrain from the running for now.

Let this be a lesson to you all who do not walk your farm. On day its going to haunt you if you keep riding those ATV's.

Sydney And the Tractor

The Misses has been handling most of the chores on the farm for the past few days. Sydney wanted to spend some time with Mardi, so she brought her along to hay the cattle.

Some of you may think that this is some sort of child abuse, but it is just a fact of life living on the farm that you learn to drive when you are 5, in some cases, even earlier. I have been letting Sydney drive my truck; just up the dirt road to the fields, and to the house, not actually on the street, and so Mardi thought she would let Sydney drive the tractor today.

My Latest Ebay Find Joseph Abboud $125.00

I have been a fan of Joseph Abboud since high school when I would shop at my favorite men's store; Gentry LTD, in Wichita. Which brings me to mind, that I need to check and see when they will be offering online shopping, I can't wait. While scoping out a few suits I came across this nice herringbone suit by Abboud. I will need to shorten the hem a little, other then that per their measurements its a perfect fit.

I plan to wear this next fall with a nice pair of suede oxfords I picked up last week. I have been to my latest favorite men's store here locally, and have three new French cuffed shirts on order, and one of them I have in mind for this suit. I'm still working through the many pocket squares I have to match with this item, but will not know for sure which until the suit arrives. So far I am very pleased, and can't wait until it arrives. I have the perfect braces for this item as well.

My reason for being such a fan of this designer, is due to my skin tone. The designer is of Med-Eastern decent, and usually caters to those of the more hickory bronze skin tones.

My Sydney/ Visting Uncle Mike & Family In Branson.

Sydney w/Mike's daughter.

With uncle Mike, my best friend.

One of my favorite pictures.

Photo's of The Ice Storm 2

To give you an idea how dark it was, I tried to take a photo of the moon. Yeah, I'm no photographer. My wife took all the photo's you see here.

Notice the tire tracks. Yeah, this is how we had to get out. Our road was completely covered with brush.

Me and the dog

Damn The Luck!

While in search of an online vintage shop, I came across this beauty. I have been wanting one for sometime now, and I finally found it. One, problem its not my size. Damn the luck! However, it has a nice story, and if anyone else is looking for this type of jacket see the link below. OH, and its only a whopping $75.00.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=cat3_gallery_20&listing_id=22016111

Bad Asses, Ropings Cream of The Crop

Joe Beaver pictured in the center.

Joe Beaver
Titles Won: 8(1995-96, 2000 World Champion All-Around Cowboy; 1985, 1987-88, 1992-93 World Champion Tie-Down roper).
Career Earnings: $2,864,172.00
WNFR Qualifications: 22
2006 World Standings place: 4th (TD), 6th (TR), 2nd (AA)2006 Wrangler NFR place: 3rd (TD), 12th (TR), 1st (AA)2006 Wrangler NFR earnings: $74,552 (TD), $53,362 (TR), $127,915 (AA)2006 earnings: $146,626 (TD); $112,202 (TR); $259,541 (AA)Tour Finale titles: 1Pace Chute-out: 2000Tour Finale qualifications: 11Pace Chute-out: 2000, 2004 (TD), 2002-03 (TR)Summer Tour Finale: 2002-04 (TD), 2006 (TR)Championship: 2003-04 (TD), 2006 (TR)

Fred Whitfield
Events: Calf Roping, Team Roping (header)2008 World Standings place: 8th (TD)2008 Wrangler NFR place: 4th2008 Wrangler NFR earnings: $57,6022008 earnings: $130,249 (TD)Career earnings: $2,716,735

Dummies

Most of you may know that rodeo is a sport that came out of the days of the old west when men worked cattle for a living. Driving them through Kansas, a place where it is still legal to drive cattle through the city of Wichita on horseback, to the plains of Oklahoma, Texas, and all other points’ west.

You no longer have to work cattle on a daily basis to become a 10 roper, however it might be a good idea if you were to have done it at some point in your life. With the world of technology comes the roping dummy. Some as you can see in the photos are made to be attached to an ATV, whereas someone will pull the dummy around the roping arena as you test your skill set. Others are stand still dummies in which you do not have to rope on horseback. My favorite, and wish I could find one, is where you sit astride a dummy horse, with a dummy calf underneath.

What is cool about this dummy is the horse is life size, and you actually have to tack it. This is also a plus, as when you are finished you merely dismount and walk away. While atop the dummy horse, there is a lever on one side. You kick the lever and the dummy calf shoots out from under the horse on a track. I have been looking for this dummy for years since I tried it at one of my favorite nightclubs in NM. So if anyone knows where I can get one, I am willing to pay top dollar.

This ol' boy has a great forum. Notice his arm, and how he is pulling the slack on the rope. Once you hit, you want to pull the slack and dally the rope. You need to be very careful at this point, as many a cowboy have lost their pinkie or thumbs, something I will get into in another post when I talk about the art of roping. Yes, there is an art and a science to it.

Great tool to teach children roping skills. My daughter is now wanting to join in the fun. I first need to teach her how to ride like the young lady in this photo. Notice this dummy has no hind legs unlike the dummy below. This dummy is to learn heading. With the dummy below, you can train in either heading or heeling.

Pull behind an ATV

I serve two purposes. You can rope me, and I'll even keep your beer cold until you are finished.

The World of Judgment Enforcement.

My Company Logo


Though I work in the legal industry, I am not an Attorney. Some have asked where I attended law school; which I did, though briefly and I will not be going into where or when as it is not important.


I am however, the owner of a judgment enforcement company. Some ask if I am bounty hunter, which I am not. So what is it that we do?


Lets say that you file suit against party "B", in the amount of $20,000.00. You win your suit, however, the judgment is worth nothing unless party B pays you. Now, it is 2 years later, and you are strapped for cash. You have this 20K judgment that still has not been paid.


You have three choices...1. Call the debtor and hope that he/she will pay you, good luck there. 2. Hire an Attorney or do the leg work yourself and petition the courts to levy. This option is OK, however, if the Attorney finds no funds, you still have to pay him. Now you are out not only the 20K, but the fees you've paid to your Attorney. 3. Or you could come to someone like myself. We are not paid any fees, unless we collect.

How It Works

You've come to me, and I have asked you a few questions. 1. How much was the judgment? 2. Do you have any information on the debtor; i.e. SS#, do you have a check that he/she has written to you, do you know where they work and how long, etc.. Once I have gotten as much information as I can, I then do what we call a lite investigation.

Lite Investigation

A lite investigation is where I will spend little to no money investigating the debtor. Also at this stage, I will only look into items that are public record as I do not have all rights and titles to the debt. From this point, I will have a better idea if the judgment is worth contracting. If the contract is worth consideration, I will contact you with a drawn contract.

The Contract

The amount of the debt will depend on the contracted rate. Other stipulations will also apply. If you are a business, lets say a banking entity with lots of judgments, I would be willing to lower the fee contingent on getting future contracts. However, in this case this would be a one time deal, and with that per my scale, the contract on 20K would be a rate of 25%. I'm not greedy, as most in my profession ask for 50% on all accounts. If you were to have visited us with a smaller judgment of lets say 5k, then the contract would be at the 50% rate.

Until the contract has been signed, I can not levy against the debtor. Once the contracts have been signed, all proper documents will be filed with the courts. Now for the hard part.

Enforcement

I have filed all documents with the courts, what my next step? I now have all rights and titles to the judgment. This means that I have the right to levy against the debtor. We will make this an easy one for the purpose of this lesson. Your debtor, is a business owner, and business is booming. With my army of information brokers, or one of the 2 private investigators, and one of the three attorney's I employ we begin the process of the levy. We find that the heart of the debtors business is technology. He has a computer system that is the basis of his business. when we have found this information, we pay a visit to either one of the investigators who also has a licence to deliver writs, or we have the local sheriff's ofc deliver the writ and take the components that run the computer system. Do I have to warn the debtor, no, but it is always nice for me to ask for the funds before going to the lengths described.

The debtor's business has been shut down until he either comes to the table and outlines a payment plan; which I'd rather have then full payment up front, or he pays the balance in full.

Why would I rather have payments instead of payment in full? If I have 30-40 debtors paying me every month, then I will have a steady stream of income.

If the debtor elects to pay monthly, you will be paid first with the exception of all fees that I paid to enforce the debt. Once those fees have been paid, you will start receiving the monies you are owed. Once the balance reaches its threshold of the contract, I then take all payments that are made. However, this debtor elected to pay in full. I cut you a check for 15k, and I take my 5k, and move on to the next case.

This is not an easy business. Most debtor have no money to pay, and you have to garnish wages, or levy against property you really don't want to take in order to fulfill the debt. Often, what you have levied against doesn't even pay for your legal fees, bank accounts is the number one culprit in this case. No, you do not get to know the amount in the account before you levy. You only get to know that they bank at this bank, or that bank. I feel the worst in this business during Christmas. However, if my client doesn't have the money his family wont have a Christmas, and that's how I choose to look at it.

Goal Stats

You may have noticed that I now have listed a counter on the blog. I did this because I wasn't sure if I am waisting time posting. I know that the blog is new, and I can not expect a following over night. The counter is to give me an idea as to how many people are visting the blog on a daily basis.

Photo's of The Ice Storm & Country Livin' Ain't Easy.

My plan was to write about a NJ bank that was fleecing my mother-in-law out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of an inheritance, but it will have to be another day. My wife has finally downloaded the photo’s that were taken during the ice storm.

Creek bed, another photo of the back yard.

Running out of room. So this will be the last one.

Section 3, entrance gate area to the other side of the farm. As you can see from the small foliage on the left, the ice is getting thick. This is nothing compared to what it had gotten to. At this point we still had power.

A little blurry, however I wanted to show another photo of my back yard. This is a view to the SW. The tree area to the left is just past the pond.

Section 1, my back yard. One of the ponds on the property. This was before the storm got really bad.

Section 2 of the farm. Notice the green foliage and how low it is hanging to the fence line. There is actually a road that is on the other side of the fence. We had to take the tractor and rip out most of these tree. Sad, very sad. This summer I plan to take more photo's of this section, so that you can see its true beauty. There is actually an old farm house deep in the woods that my wife and I plan to refurbish and use as a photography studio for my wife. It also has a working water pump. I think the house dates back to the early 1900.

Trees in same field as creek bed.

The tree line that you see in the background is the end of my back yard.

most of these trees are now either damaged or totally destroyed.

Downed trees on the creek bed leading to one of the ponds.

If you look carefully you can see the large gaps in the trees in the background.

Another tree in my back yard.

As the Storm went on, we could hear the trees breaking off in the distance. I wish I had a way to place sound on my blog so that you could have gotten the full experience. Farm living ain't easy. We have to contend with power outages all the time, in fact a week after power had been restored, I returned home to a house with no power due to a small branch that had fallen on the line. The city will not clear our roads because they are deemed as private roads. The city will not clean up the fallen trees on our property as it is private property. One makes sacrifices to have peace and quite, and a retreat from the hussle and bussle of city life.

There are no gas stations, or grocers for miles. If one of us were to be seriously hurt here on the farm, we would not expect an ambulance to come to our aid, but a life flight. You have to contend with all sorts of rodents wanting to live in your fields, and yard. From armadillo's, to hogs, and coyotes.

Now for the good stuff. I do not have to hear the sounds of my neighbors loud music, I have a firing range in my back yard, I have hunting grounds for which I can feed my family if need be, I have a place that I can ride my four wheeler, I have a good neighbors I know well. My dogs have free range, and I have no need of worry that they will be hit by a car, or bite someone; well maybe people I don't like. My neighbors are all helpful; "one of the true meanings of a gentleman", and the sky is big and bright at night. You can actually see the stars, and hear the sound of the whippoorwill. The smells are sometimes bad, especially after we fertilize the alfalfa, but by and large the air is crisp and clean. Plan to see more photo's of the farm in the near future.

DUN, NA, DA, DUNT, DUNT....DUNT, DUNT!

Them tune from green acres. I don't know, I thought it was cute. OK, I'm going to bed now, I'm being silly so I must be tired.

This Ones For You Stephen

While reading a reply to a post left by Stephen on my stance on reparations, I thought I would write on another interesting subject. Clive Owens latest film The International is actually a true story with the fictional Hollywood twist of course.


In the film Owens is an Interpol Agent who works with a Manhattan District Attorney to bring a powerful bank to justice.


In the film there is a lot of action and adventure, however truth be known the real Attorney; I’m not sure of his name, and I’m sure someone will tell me later, says that the process was rather boring. Sitting in his office reading paper trails, and getting calls from government officials telling him, "you don’t really want to do this" was his biggest threat.


I’m asking the question, how much money has this country funneled into genocide? In the film, and true account, these banks were making loans to third world countries to fund wars on other countries. As stated in the film, mind you I have not seen it as of yet, "They make money, not from the war, but the debt from the war." That in its self draws me to the film like a moth to a flame. Of course, it is ridiculous to think that a third world country could pay the loan back, hence this is why it is a Hollywood production. However, the bank this Attorney took down was funding monies to countries to wage war.


Should we, and this is getting a tad political, be funding such banks with these high stimulus bills, tax payer monies? Without sounding like a conspiracy theorist, what are these powerful banks really up to?


Money is not the root of all evil; it’s the lust for money that is the evil. For centuries banking has been at the forefront of this evil, and I bring you East India Trading Company. A British company who funded many wars, for its own financial gain. It also came to rule large swathes of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions, to the exclusion, gradually, of its commercial pursuits. Company rule in India, which effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, lasted until 1858, when, following the events of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, and under the Government of India Act 1858, the British Crown assumed direct administration of India in the new British Raj.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company


Are we, the United States becoming an Empire with realms such as the British Empire through our banking system? Though it is only a movie, we need to not forget that it is also a true account of a fight that a New York District Attorney fought some twenty years ago. I will also admit that I am ignorant of the banking system, but I am not ignorant of their greed. I myself have been through some fisticuffs with the bank lately, but that will be in another post on another day.