Yesterday we spent the day at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island, Nebraska. Before we headed back home to the farm we stopped at a nondescript Mexican Restaurant for lunch.
As I mentioned in a past post (here), because of the area packing plants there are a number of Mexican families living in Grand Island. This restaurant is a perfect example of the culture that is brought to a community by these workers and their families.
I have also commented in the past how hard it is to find good seafood in landlocked Nebraska. Finding this Mexican seafood restaurant was amazing.
You can't get Americanized tacos here, only seafood. The menu is in Spanish and takes some help from the staff to work through. But what a payoff!
I've never had seafood at a restaurant in a small beachside Mexican village, but expect this is as close as one could get. Mexican culture at its finest thanks to immigrants.
It's been at least 20 years since we've taken in a state fair.
So, this morning we loaded up the truck camper and took off for the Nebraska State Fair.
Not much has changed over the years with all the rides, concessions and animals.
After a long day of walking and overindulging in fried fair food we were glad to get back to the camper. Now we'll need a day to recover from the state fair.
Yesterday former Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff and convicted felon Joe Arpaio, 87, announced he is going to run for Sheriff again in 2020.
In the 24 years he was Sheriff, lawsuits involving Arpaio or his office cost taxpayers $142 million in legal expenses, settlements and court awards. In 2017 Arpaio was found guilty in US District Court of criminal contempt for violating a racial profiling court order and continuing patrols to target immigrants.
In her opinion US District Judge Susan Bolton wrote that Arpaio showed a "flagrant disregard" for the order to cease racial profiling. "Not only did [the] defendant abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise," Bolton wrote. Notwithstanding that Arpaio was pardoned by racist-in-chief Trump, he remains a convicted bigot and his attempt to be elected Sheriff again is a blatant appeal to the xenophobes. Surely Maricopa County Arizona voters won't put this racist slob back in office. Just one day more...
Here on the farm certain jobs require a tractor. For the past 10 years it has been a 1962 Ford. While mostly functional, it has had its problems. It was always hard starting and did not have power steering.
The time had come for a change and that was a Kubota compact diesel tractor, which came with a removable loader.
Because we have 4 acres to mow, we also purchased a pto mower with the tractor.
The peach tree here on the farm is putting out peaches again. This tree has a streak of independence.
The past couple of years it didn't produce any peaches and was just yard art. This spring I decided to trim it back dramatically because it had too many disjointed branches. Wouldn't you know it... now it is putting out peaches en masse. So many I had to prop up a branch with a board.
It turns out I should have culled out some of the peaches when they were small. They are so crowded it is limiting the growth of some. That doesn't matter though since there will be so many peaches.
This tree, with a mind of its own, continues to educate me instead of the other way around.
Our not-so-old HP printer-copier-scanner has been doing a not-so-good of a job of printing lately. It was low on ink, so today I was mulling over whether or not to shell out the $29 for another ink cartridge.
While standing in front of the display of ink cartridges, thinking they need an armed guard for the outrageous prices of cartridges, I glanced over at a display of Canon printers on sale for $19. Huh?! Nineteen bucks for a printer-copier-scanner?
I scouted up a clerk and asked, "what's the catch?" "Does it come with the black and color ink cartridges?" He assured me that it did come with the cartridges, albeit the smallest sizes. The "catch" was that Canon, not unlike other companies, makes up for the cheap price of the printer on replacement cartridges. Still suspicious I compared the price of the Canon cartridges to the HP. Turns out, depending on the size, they are comparable. So, off I went with a $19. printer-scanner-copier.
As I mentioned in the past I'm techno challenged. I can't understand how they can manufacture a printer-copier-scanner for the same price or less than the ink cartridges required to run it.
Back on the farm I'm dealing with downloading the driver to run the printer on our Verizon rip-off mifi that is suppose to be "unlimited." We are in the middle of the month and at the GB cap, so they are throttling us down to dial up speed.
What would take 5 or 10 minutes to download at McDonald's has been dragging on for 2 hours on the Verizon "unlimited" mifi.
I recently changed oil in the farm pickup and have been paying attention to the worn tires.
It rained last night and this morning, so we passed on doing any work outside. Early in the afternoon we decided since it was Sunday it might be a good time to get new tires on the farm pickup. I phoned a couple of Walmart stores to verify that they would have the tires in stock and to find out if they were busy. So, off we drove the 60 miles to the nearest Walmart in Lincoln with tire sales.
What started out as a good plan dissolved once we got there. What was "we're not busy" on the phone turned out to be "there'll be a long wait" when we got there. Nearly 5 hours later the new tires were on.
That's right - nearly 5 hours. But we had driven 60 miles to get there and turning around without the new tires didn't seem to make sense. Two guys were the only ones working the oil changes and tires, presumably because it was Sunday.
Have you ever had to wander around Walmart for 5 hours? My shopping limit is about 30 minutes. Get in and get what you need, then get out. By the end of this ordeal my legs and back ached.
Nebraska raises a lot of livestock, including beef, pork and chickens. Nebraska also processes a lot of livestock.
Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. Schuyler
Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. Dakota City
Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. Lexington
Greater Omaha Packing Co., Inc. Omaha
JBS Swift Beef Company Grand Island
Nebraska Beef, Ltd. Omaha
Nebraska Prime Group Hastings
Farmland Foods, Inc. Crete
O’Neill Packing Omaha
Gibbon Packing Gibbon
Tyson Fresh Meats Madison
It is arduous work, not for everyone. In fact most packing plants in Nebraska are staffed by Mexicans and Hispanics. They are willing to do the work where others aren't. Plain and simple.
Because of the proximity of packing plants in Nebraska our family has become accustomed to Mexican families living in our state. In every single instance we have seen a people of culture and pride. In every instance we have seen a people who give back to the community, both economically and socially.
Not-my-president trump continues his barrage of disparaging hate against Mexicans and Hispanics, fueling violence and hate, including separating parents from their children. ICE continued the separation of children from their parents on their first day of school when raiding packing plants in Mississippi. "We are a law enforcement agency, not a social services agency," an ICE official said.
What is happening in America is despicable. I am ashamed of our country.No child should be put through the trauma of being separated from their parents. If anyone feels disadvantaged by Mexicans and Hispanics working in the packing plants they should get off their asses and do the work. History tells us that isn't going to happen.
