20 December 2008
19 December 2008
BIG brother
This is priceless. I honestly believe that we're in the opening stages of the collapse of Western Civilization. Freedom is being abolished in the names of safety and the collective.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/18/new.york.budget/index.html
The masses are drunk off of affluence and entertainment - they're unwilling to risk their comfort and demand their freedoms. The American train has derailed and is headed straight for a brick wall. It's time to jump off, but where can one go? In my opinion, the only reasonable alternatives are Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Unfortunately, those places are farther down the path to collectivism than the United States! There is no escaping this issue. One might limit its effects by moving to a more classically liberal region, but they would still be putting a Band-Aid on the problem.
Difficult questions, difficult answers.
addendum:
Great sites relating to this post...
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/24/75-threatening-to-move-to-canada/
http://www.slate.com/id/2202070/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-notte/where-will-conservatives_b_144524.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/18/new.york.budget/index.html
The masses are drunk off of affluence and entertainment - they're unwilling to risk their comfort and demand their freedoms. The American train has derailed and is headed straight for a brick wall. It's time to jump off, but where can one go? In my opinion, the only reasonable alternatives are Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Unfortunately, those places are farther down the path to collectivism than the United States! There is no escaping this issue. One might limit its effects by moving to a more classically liberal region, but they would still be putting a Band-Aid on the problem.
Difficult questions, difficult answers.
addendum:
Great sites relating to this post...
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/02/24/75-threatening-to-move-to-canada/
http://www.slate.com/id/2202070/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-notte/where-will-conservatives_b_144524.html
14 December 2008
Hockey Pond
This post is borne out of my search for information on how to build a pond solely for the purpose of playing hockey.
(Yeah, I love playing hockey that much.)
The ponds on which I currently play have a number of drawbacks. Our favored location (a friend's pond) was built for hockey and swimming. It is NHL regulation size and between 1 and 4 meters deep. It is also 20 minutes from my house. It sounds great, but its inflow keeps it from freezing on one end (and occasionally floods the ice), and its depth makes it the last of our playing areas to freeze. I have a pond on my farm, but it also has a number of drawbacks. For starters, it's located a quarter of a mile uphill from my house. That distance prohibits a morning skate before work or an evening skate before dark. Other problems include its small size (a circle about 15 m in diameter) and its tendency to silt up. As a result of these difficulties, I have begun planning der Über Teich - the Super Pond.
The hypothetical Super Pond has a number of attributes. It has a rounded rectangular surface area of 20 m x 40 m. It freezes early in the season and thaws late in the season. It freezes completely - it does not have places of weak or thin ice. It is located within 200 meters of my house. It is located "close to" a water source (to facilitate resurfacing). It does not require periodic silt removal.
When I list the attributes, it doesn't sound very difficult. Unfortunately, it's a lot more complicated than that. What type of pond is appropriate? If I locate it in a wet spot, will it remain filled? Will the soil support a pond? Will it require a clay liner? If it's located in a natural funnel, will I have a problem with silting? Will the inflow end freeze? Will the ice be flooded by mid-winter thaws? How deep should the pond be?
Now it sounds a little more complicated.
These are just some of the questions that require answering before I can begin construction of a pond. I have intensively searched the internet, but I have not found a website with the answers I am looking for. Next spring I will contact my county soil and water conservation office. They are supposed experts on pond construction, and I plan to make full use of their knowledge.
In the mean time, I'll continue to hope for cold days and even colder nights.
(Yeah, I love playing hockey that much.)
The ponds on which I currently play have a number of drawbacks. Our favored location (a friend's pond) was built for hockey and swimming. It is NHL regulation size and between 1 and 4 meters deep. It is also 20 minutes from my house. It sounds great, but its inflow keeps it from freezing on one end (and occasionally floods the ice), and its depth makes it the last of our playing areas to freeze. I have a pond on my farm, but it also has a number of drawbacks. For starters, it's located a quarter of a mile uphill from my house. That distance prohibits a morning skate before work or an evening skate before dark. Other problems include its small size (a circle about 15 m in diameter) and its tendency to silt up. As a result of these difficulties, I have begun planning der Über Teich - the Super Pond.
The hypothetical Super Pond has a number of attributes. It has a rounded rectangular surface area of 20 m x 40 m. It freezes early in the season and thaws late in the season. It freezes completely - it does not have places of weak or thin ice. It is located within 200 meters of my house. It is located "close to" a water source (to facilitate resurfacing). It does not require periodic silt removal.
When I list the attributes, it doesn't sound very difficult. Unfortunately, it's a lot more complicated than that. What type of pond is appropriate? If I locate it in a wet spot, will it remain filled? Will the soil support a pond? Will it require a clay liner? If it's located in a natural funnel, will I have a problem with silting? Will the inflow end freeze? Will the ice be flooded by mid-winter thaws? How deep should the pond be?
Now it sounds a little more complicated.
These are just some of the questions that require answering before I can begin construction of a pond. I have intensively searched the internet, but I have not found a website with the answers I am looking for. Next spring I will contact my county soil and water conservation office. They are supposed experts on pond construction, and I plan to make full use of their knowledge.
In the mean time, I'll continue to hope for cold days and even colder nights.
Glory!
We were dumped on (by last year's standards) with 15 cm of snow last Thursday/Friday! For the first time this season it was really a winter wonderland. Ironically, the weathermen had forecast a bunch of freezing rain just a day before the storm. They weren't completely wrong, because that's what we got for about 4 or 5 hours. However, after a solid layer of ice accumulated, we were blessed with close to six inches of the white stuff. As I LOVE to snowshoe, I walked about a mile through the woods on Friday afternoon - pure bliss.
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