Cow Farts Will Kill Us Eventually

Methane emissions from cows is going to kill us per one George Dvorsky (if he can over dramatize so can I).

https://gizmodo.com/we-ve-grossly-underestimated-how-much-cow-farts-are-con-1818993089

He starts out with, “the new finding means it’s going to be even tougher to combat climate change than we realized.” assuming we are all in accord with the notion we need to ‘fight’ climate change.

What he doesn’t mention, while the USDA estimates the USA has about 98.4 million cattle, in 1880 an estimated 60 million bison inhabited North America. Does Gerogie not understand bison are one of about 12 species of bovine inhabiting our Earth?

 OK, some species may now be extinct. All bovines belch and fart methane. One wonders just how many bovines exist today world wide (1.3 to 1.5 billion) as to how many before, say, 1900?

Methane is an efficient “green house” gas that persists for around 16 years in our atmosphere. Could it be that methane is a necessary component to keep our atmosphere stable?

 All these climate change fanatics use the planet Venus as their justification. How sure are we that Venus’ atmosphere persists solely because of ‘green house’ gasses?  Venus lacks a magnetosphere. Apples to oranges comparison?  

Surely pleasing to his PETA readers, he slips in, "suggests we should cut back on our consumption of meat and dairy. The privilege we have over these animals, it would appear, now comes at a hefty price".

Sadly, all this “settled” science’crap obscures good science. Information that should be taken seriously gets ignored IMO.

OK, one point to the PETA types. Cattle are fed food to fatten them that causes such severe bloating that anti bloating chemicals (Tums?) must be added to the feed. A fight for another day?

A Minor Rant

Numerous past poor financial decisions mean I am still working for wages into my seventh decade.

Three days a week I drive through the valley of frustration (and potential death) called Sugar Valley, US 26 from Gurnsey, WY to North Platte, NE. Luckily I can turn South at Scottsbluff and head South on Highway 71.

The drivers who live in Goshen County, WY and Scottsbluff County, NE are horrible. Either they are bumbling along below the speed limit or are following you two car lengths back.

Blinker fluid must command a premium these tight asses won’t pay. Pulling out on the highway with no regard for the speed of oncoming traffic may be a birthright.  Slowing way down a mile from where you will turn off is necessary so you can adequately view neighbor’s crops and livestock.

Going South on Highway 71 is easier. Little traffic and four lanes help. By the time I reach the Kimball County line (where people know how to drive) my blood pressure drops out of the stroke range.

My advice? Note the county prefixes on the header pictures. If, anywhere in these United State you see one, go on high alert!

Blundering Boondoggles

Denver International Airport administration continues their historic mismanagement and fiscal misadventures. The latest? A 11.5 million dollar sign.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/19/new-dia-agreements-call-for-massive-lighted-welcome-sign-big-parking-and-shuttle-deals-aerotropolis-promotion/

The sign is now under construction contributing to congestion. When completed, it will give the revenue generators (aka Denver Police) several new honey holes.

One problem. The sign cannot be used as intended because it would violate a Federal Highway Administration regulation. The only solution seems to be a literal Act of Congress.

http://www.9news.com/news/local/next/this-obscure-federal-rule-is-not-good-for-dias-fancy-new-welcome-sign/477324902

Then there are the conspiracy theories.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/31/definitive-guide-to-denver-international-airport-conspiracy-theories/

What isn’t a theory is the million dollar baggage system that doesn’t work, and seemingly, cannot be fixed. Ask any frequent flyer about retrieving their bags in a reasonable time.

When DIA first opened, you had to pay a toll to leave. An elaborate building was erected and acres of concrete poured.

After closure, the area was closed to any parking. A convenient cell phone waiting area with portable restrooms was closed. Instead of re-purposing the toll plaza and building as a cell phone waiting area, a new “Food Court” and cell phone waiting area was built.

 Hard to reach, inadequate parking and difficult to use, it continues the hallmark of DIA mismanagement.

As a frequent air freight shipper, I say the air freight facilities suck.

TSA has been wonderful for the airline and ancillary companies. All inefficiencies and bad customer service experiences are blamed on “security regulations”. Some may even be true.

The freight agency I’m forced to use, Air General, would make the average DMV office look like a drill team.

At least I don’t need to use FedEx. Their DIA operation seems to be modeled after a Cold War East German border crossing. Differs in not being as user friendly.

DIA probably isn’t the worst airport, or has the worse mismanagement, but must be considered a contender IMO.

Damn, and Double Damn

Wildfire swept over the old family homestead today.

 http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/winter-valley-fire-near-elk-springs-reaches-5200-acres-burning-on-cross-mountain-in-western-moffat-county/

The cemetery area was spared. The housing area wasn't. The above picture was a dugout cabin where my grandfather and great uncle spent a winter while they built houses for their families still in the Denver area. Later, my uncles slept there.

One house had long since collapsed but the other had been recently dismantled and the  posts and beams salvaged, stacked, and preserved. All gone now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6bCBkHShH4&t=10s

My grandparents and great grandfather. My grandfather died when my father was sixteen. My grandmother died when I was four and my great grandfather about the same time.

Tough people who lived through tough times. The homestead was a great place to show succeeding generations our roots.  The land remains.

Many thanks to my cousin and her husband for these pictures. 

Priorities

Being older than dirt, can't make sense of Millennium's priorities.

Waiting for the Walmart cashier, looked at the young lady in front of me in the line. Pleasant, put a separator marker behind her purchases on the belt, and had a nice smile. Her purchases were a quart of generic motor oil and a few cheap food items. OK, many of us are poor or know what it is to be poor.

She was dressed in mismatched raggedy thrift store cloths. They were clean. On her left calf was a $500-1,000 tattoo (just guessing, all I know of tattoos is I have none).

Oh well, it is a free country.

Wyoming Sunrise

A perk of the job. Seeing some awesome sunrises. Need to start taking my better Canon instead of just the point and shoot.

Cowboy Romance

When a cowboy removes his hay hooks from the passenger side floor of his truck before picking up his date, he is in a serious courting frame of mind.

Funerals

We buried my oldest cousin yesterday who passed after a ten month fight with cancer. After a traditional church service and VFW/American Legion 21 gun salute in Craig, CO, his cremains were interred at a private family cemetery West of Maybell, CO located on a 1913 homestead that is still in the hands of family members.

Lee was a gunner’s mate on destroyers in his younger days.

A portion of the road in.

The entrance.

His cremains were placed in his boots and those and his hat were interred.

The church was packed while the gathering at the cemetery was mainly relatives.

One of his daughters insuring his favorite M&Ms went with him.

In our clan, we dig the graves and fill them.

R.I.P Lee. Ride those wild horses cowboy.

There is nothing formal about the graves area. People just pick a spot.

My father’s grave.

 What appears to be a rope in the upper left corner hanging from the tree is bark caused by a deer scraping velvet from his antlers. From the location, he probably stood on the grave. My father would be pleased. Seems the badger has stopped trying to den in the grave as noted from our last visit. A cousin’s husband added some more rock to the site.

I rode over with my sister. We have started getting rain, helping to put out wildfires, and the early dawn light show was amazing.

At 8,000' ASL the leaves are starting to turn.

As always, life goes on. The youngest person at the church was a great grandchild, age two months.

Possibles

"I don't care if you go naked, take all the clothes you possible can".

                            Era (Erie) Burtis
                           Wyoming Rancher

Heading my late grandfather's advice, and knowing winter is coming, checked and repacked my daily possibles sack. A roller bag/backpack, it goes into whatever vehicle I'm driving.

Two winters ago I was in Cheyenne during a blizzard and decided to return home. Ignoring the barricades closing Interstate 25, started South. Ran off the road. The Prius I was driving won't let you turn off the traction control so I spent the next six hours in the ditch. No problem as I was prepared.

Had I been able to disable the traction control, I would have jacked up the car, put the floor mats under the driving tires, and backed out of the ditch. Might have taken a few tries but I only had about eight feet to go to get back on pavement.

That whole kit was under $200 including the thrift store sourced backpack.  

Food For Thought - An Email From a Friend

I used to think I was just a regular guy, but...

·   *    I was born white, which now, whether I like it or not, makes me a racist;

·     *    I am a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today's standards, makes me a fascist;

·     *    I am heterosexual, which according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobic;

·     *    I am non-union, which makes me a traitor to the working class and an ally of big business;

·     *    I am a Christian, which now labels me as an infidel;

·     *    I believe in the 2nd Amendment, which now makes me a member of the vast gun lobby;

·     *    I am older than 70, which makes me a useless old man;

·     *    I think and I reason, therefore I doubt much that the main stream media tells me, which must make me a reactionary;

·     *    I am proud of my heritage and our inclusive American culture, which makes me a xenophobe;

·     *    I value my safety and that of my family and I appreciate the police and the legal system, which makes me a right-wing extremist;

·     *    I believe in hard work, fair play, and fair compensation according to each individual's merits, which today makes me an anti-socialist;

·     *    I believe in the defense and protection of the homeland for and by all citizens, which now makes me a militant;

·     *    And recently, a woman called me and my friends a “basket of deplorables.”

    Please help me come to terms with the new me... because I'm just not sure who I am anymore!

    I would like to thank all my friends for sticking with me through these abrupt, new found changes in my life and my thinking.  I just can't imagine or understand what's happened to me so quickly.

    Funny... it's all just taken place over the last 7 or 8 years.

    And, as if all this crap wasn't enough to deal with, I'm now afraid to go into either restroom...

Bitching and Moaning

President Trump does an end around the Republican ‘leadership’ in Congress and cuts a deal with the Democrats. Oh, the bitching and moaning!  Bet many of the K Street lobbyists are ready to stroke out. All that money invested and their boys can’t deliver. It is so bad even the Washington Post is commiserating with the RINOs.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-betrays-everyone-the-president-has-a-long-record-as-an-unpredictable-ally/2017/09/08/9cf64768-94a8-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html?utm_term=.b388dd43

What a great time for the corrupt, lying, filthy, smug, egotistical, weird, deviant mainstream media (h/t LL).  They can now appear bipartisan.

President Trump was elected in spite of the Jeb! RINOs. He answers to the people who elected him. Bitching Mitch and pissing Paul find out the place they have ass kissed and compromised to achieve can be bypassed and neutralized. Onward with draining the swamp!

Posting will be light in the days ahead. The Big C is currently running amok in my extended family and I have funerals to attend. 

I have/had fourteen aunts and uncles plus fifty six or so first cousins. Of the ones no longer here, most were taken by cancer.

The collective ethic from both sides of my inheritance is to get up every morning and start putting one foot in front of the other. 

Seems to be the way we all handle adversity. 

Swetville Zoo

Forget politics and social turmoil for awhile and view fifty or so photos of Bill Swet's whimsical creations.

His creation honoring Air Force and Naval aviators.

And more. The River is the Cache La Poudre.

How many parts can you identify?

And more.

The Diavel made him do it.

A few more.

My oldest son. Sure glad I didn't listen to the "expert" when he was two. They advised putting him in an institution and "forgetting him".

 And finally, one for Coffypot. Nothing lectin free on their menu.

More information here.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10787

Some of these pieces must be offensive and racist. Surprised the place hasn't been picketed and demands made to remove the art work.