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Friday, August 6, 2010

I miss Jerry

I have been a follower of the Dead since I was old enough to buy their music and I am an old fart! But Mon. the 9th is the anniversary of his death, and his birthday was just last week. The dead was not just Jerry but the band was as one. All their money went into one pot, they all lived in the same house and had their own Hang out in San Fran where they all went everyday. Never a commercial hit band, touch of Gray being their most successful commercially. They had a following of people who in gypsy caravans followed the dead and a whole culture evolved from this group known as "Dead Heads". Pig Pen the leader of the band before he died, had a def. influence on the band and after his death, Jerry took that position. Never one for the limelight Jerry just made music and played in the band, appearing in his "Uniform" of black t shirt and shorts, Jerry never wore tye dye, Phil was the one to be colorful. Jerry had a bunch of other projects as did all the members and today the Dead still tour under the name of "The other Ones" Just not with Jerry of course. The Dead influenced the Band New riders of the Purple sage who had a couple of commercial hits with "Henry, Panama Red, and L.A Lady". The era between "American Beauty and Workingmans Dead" is considered by many of my friends to be the best time of the band before Jerry discovered Heroin. Jerry died in rehab of a heart attack more than likely brought on by his addiction. Like the Kennedy assassination and the Challenger explosion people remember where they were when they heard of his death. I was on an Island in the Chesapeake bay known as Fox Island. He was buried in LA with his current wife and his former wife Mountain Girl in attendance as well as a group of well know celebrities. Jerry is gone but the music lives on.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Investements and your future

Okay this is a Sportsmen blog site and not a investment site but I have been reading and thinking about a few things lately and today I would like to share with you some of my personal opinions I have gathered along the way. As a young man I was what you would consider a hippie sorta. I grew up in a beer garden (bar) that my grandfather built and my parents owned outside of a village known as Parsonburg,  When I was in the first grade my parents moved to a chicken farm in the village of Mt. Hermon. Directly across the stone chip road was a older man known to me as Mr. Sampie Perdue, and he did everything in the old school way. He had horses he would plow with and a forge, a corn crib and a cow for milk, chickens for eggs. he was a Baptist preacher, but I never saw him in anything but overalls. Our neighbors were a beautiful black couple that lived in a former one room school house that they had made into a home with a garden. I always called them Nana and Papa. My child hood friends were a couple of kids whose Russian (Ukraine) parents had escaped the Germans during the war, and a German family whose father had escaped the Nazi's.  My Mother and Father owned the chicken farm and I was expected to earn my keep sorta, by working alongside them in the chicken business. My father was a first generation Italian and my mom as American as they came. Her great grandparents were English settlers and Native Americans and was as Eastern Shore as you could get. So you can see I grew up in a VERY multicultural neighborhood of very back to the land type people from all over the world who understood the ways of their fathers and the rhythm of the land. From these people I learned the art of investing that I will share with you.
FOOD: I learned very early on that a few seeds could make a lot of really good food, and it was not tied to inflation, or the economy. If you had a garden you had a dinner, and not all of our dinners were meat and potatoes, my father cut meat for local farmers and I learned how to turn a cow into steaks when I was just a kid and how to turn a nonlaying chicken into chicken salad, but some meals in the summer were right out of the garden. So by growing a garden you are putting hard cold cash in your pocket, plus you can sell the surplus if you want or put it up for the winter. Plus you can trust this food that you grow, some horse manure in the very early spring, maybe a shot of lime and you have your own organic food supply.
SECURITY: If you have a larder full of fresh food you have security, a deer harvested during the season, root crops in the cellar and the pantry full of put up vegetables will hold you over till you can plant again. By keeping some heirloom seeds and not hybrids you can be assured of genetically sound produce, that you can save seeds from.
HEALTH AND FITNESS: If you are hitting the gym 4 times a week to keep that youthful figure, well you can cancel that membership and put that money in your pocket when you establish a garden. Pulling weeds is the best squat thrust exercise and the plants do not care what you wear, wheeling the wheelbarrow, shoveling manure, hoeing, and tilling are the best exercise and your body is designed to do these things. Believe me your body was not designed to lift 300lbs 5 times for 3 reps so you look good at the beach. So you do not have the time? Well figure what you spend time wise on driving to, exercising, showering, and returning to home, you could have a beautiful garden providing you with fresh vegetables, fresh air and exercise for the same investment.
PERSONAL REWARDS:  In the evening when you set the family dinner table with fresh fruits and vegetables that you grew yourself, a Venison roast you took off the farm, or a fat duck or chicken you know that you have done your best for your family, and you can rest easy knowing you have provided, the very best for your family.
Now Gardening is not for everyone and today the pull on you to provide the material things that we all seem to desire may not provide you with the time to be a full time gardener. But a flower pot of herbs on the counter, or a corner of strawberries can still bring to you the joys of playing in the dirt, and help you have a healthier lifestyle. Try it you'll like it!!!


                

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Food plots

Well you have to love em or hate em but the bottom line is food plots are everywhere so just how effective are they anyhow? Some people say that food plots give them time to size up an animal and to get a good kill shot on it, some claim that it brings deer into their area, and some others claim to grow big antlers with special mixes of browse to eat. Personally we live on the Eastern shore where Soybeans and corn rule the land just how much more food plot does a person need? I mean if you are shooting a open field then at 200 yds you had better be ready to harvest your deer. But just maybe you want the deer in a certain location for you to be able to shoot safely or to place the animal closer to a pick up point for your truck, then a food plot could work wonders for you. Personally I like food plots to keep deer in a certain area and to offer a variety of food for them to eat on. Corn. clover, turnip and rape are all excellent food sources for deer and provide a varied diet allowing deer to remain healthy. If a deer has been shot at over a bean field they may become very nocturnal and your chances of harvest go down because they hang on the edge of the woods and fields out of sight. If you have a food plot established in a out of the way location they may feel more comfortable in hanging out there while it gets dark and offer a gathering spot of sorts. for the hunter this means increased opportunity prior to nightfall. So food plots love em or hate em but  now they have convinced us that a basket of apples is just way out of date.