Monthly Archives: June 2012

Friday Foibles

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“People are pleased that gas prices have dropped about 40 cents from the near four dollar high,” the Burlington, Vermont, DJ said.

Say what?

I don’t know what planet the Burlington, Vermont, DJ gets his gas on but it isn’t Planet Vermont where gas prices didn’t drop, didn’t drop, didn’t drop and have only now slid slightly to about 20 cents lower than the near four dollar high and have held there for a few weeks. Gas in New York State (number ONE in the nation by fuel taxes) were lower than gas prices here last week.

The average price of gas nationwide dropped below $2/gallon in November, 2008.

Vermonters are almost ready to drive to Canada for gas.

Thorsday Trials: @#$%^ Comcast’’s Digital Diminishment. Part III

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!@#$%^ Comcast has changed their online TV listings again. And they were dumb enough to include a “Tell us what you think” survey button. No good can come of this.

We’re really excited to share our new TV Listings with you and want to know what you think!
1. Do you think this version of TV Listings is better or worse than previous versions?
There was no button for “This Sucks.”
2. What makes this version of TV Listings better or worse?
You took away the easy navigation drop menu that allowed jumping to a different day or time.
3. What other improvements would you like to see in TV Listings?
Dump this turkey. Reinstate the prior version. Or the one before that. Barring that, add a navigation drop menu that allows jumping to a different day or time.

No good can come of this: either they will tabulate the survey results for a year without telling us anything or they plan to ignore the results entirely. Either will annoy the crap out of us. And then they can change the interface for the worse again next year, telling us they responded to the survey.

Sure would please us (all) if we could deal with somebody other than !@#$%^ Comcast.

Snow in June

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I went wading this morning.

I walk outdoors most mornings when the weather permits. This morning I could have used my barn boots instead of my sneaks. Yesterday, Jack Parent started trucking the first-cut hay down the road and neighbor Charley Smith’s Cottonwood trees began snowing. It wasn’t quite knee deep at the bottom of the hill but it is piled higher and deeper.

“The trees do that for Father’s Day each year,” Mr. Smith said.

Cottonwood Tree It doesn’t appear that we can spin cottonwood seeds into yarn let alone loom a fabric and the lumber is lousy; it splits poorly, rots quickly, and offers about 12 BTUs per cord of firewood. On the other hand caterpillars love the wood as food.

Mr. Smith’s bigger issue is the chopped grass that sluices off the farm trucks. The Parent farm is divided. His new farm is about three miles north of his home farm and about half a mile north of me. I get to watch a regular parade of 8-wheel tractors and liquid manure trucks and open dump trucks.

CottonwoodWe pick up half a bale of hay for each truck that passes but we have about 500 feet of road frontage. I don’t think Mr. Smith gets quite that much although there is a bump right in front of his land.

“There ought to be a law,” he said. “Farmers have too much power. We should have a regulation to keep the roads free of debris.”

I’m not much for rules. I googled farm bureau regulations and found about 2,230,000 results in 0.21 seconds. Regulation > Policy & Politics > Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. “Farmers fear effects of proposed child labor regulations” at the Iowa Farm Bureau. Arkansas EPA regs. Suarez on Labor Regulations. Texas Farm Bureau Commodities and Regulatory authority. Guide to Lighting Regulations for Farm Implements, Guide to Open Burning, and Women’s Food Check Out Day at the Tennessee Farm Bureau. The Stanislaus County Farm Bureau also administers the ILRP on behalf of the East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition.

Hay Truck And so on.

Heck, there were about 4,290,000 hits, nearly twice as many, for Vermont farm regulations alone.

Maybe it’s time for someone without a Ph.D. to wade through this mess. There is no way on this green Earth that any farmer could comply with every reg already on the books, let alone the 1,523 new ones under consideration right now.

Meanwhile, Mr. Parent probably should think to cover his dump beds; after all, feed is even more expensive when the road gods get that sacrifice bale every day.

This farm report brought to you by the letter G.