No Kings 2.0

 

Thugs

Effectively the Republican dominated Supreme Court has approved racial profiling in America, not seen since the days of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (storm division).

        

"In a 6-3 vote, the justices granted an emergency appeal and lifted a Los Angeles judge's order that barred "roving patrols" from snatching people off Southern California streets based on how they look, what language they speak, what work they do or where they happen to be." LA Times

Anyone can be stopped on the weakest premise by masked immigration thugs armed to the teeth dressed in military style gear and even plain clothes. 

"Federal agents have been seen swinging batons, smashing car windows, using explosives to blow the door off of a home with children inside, emerging from unmarked vehicles with weapons drawn, shooting into a family vehicle, and grabbing people off of the street and putting them into unmarked vehicles. In cities such as Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Miami, officers donning face coverings without an agency designation and driving unmarked vehicles have conducted immigration enforcement actions at schools, courthouses, religious institutions, and work sites."  Amprogress.org

America's fascist state marches on. 

Miscellanea

As we head into fall it is day-to-day here on the farm.  Because of an abundance of rain the grass has done well and we are still mowing every few days.  

The nice neighbor farmer's cows are doing well with plenty of pasture left.

Oktoberfest events are right around the corner and I have six on the calendar in September and October beginning with a Czech brewfest tomorrow.

Fall weather is the best to hook up the camper and head out for Oktoberfest.

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And then there is this:

Grandson says, "what is Oktoberfest without German wurst, but what the hell kind of sausage is this!?"

And this:

The Best Laid Plans...

It was a frustrating day here on the farm.  Rather than pay the hundred bucks for a simple oil change on one of our most used cars I decided to do the job myself.  

Fifteen years ago when I was a man it was routine and simple.  Not so much so anymore. Next month I will turn 75 and it is a struggle to get up off the concrete floor.  I still service the mowers, tractor and atv's, but getting up from under a vehicle is a chore.  I'll just have to suck it up and pay someone else to do the job.  

What made it worse is when I went to take the oil pan plug off.  It should spin off easily and this one seemed to be stuck.  It wasn't until I got it off that I saw why.  The threads were stripped at the point it is cinched tight to the pan.  The last oil change was at one of those so-called 10 minute joints.  And someone had obviously put the plug back on with a torque wrench.  When they realized that they over tightened and stripped the threads they stuck the plug back in with gasket sealer (the residual goop at the bottom of the bolt in the pic).

I thought I might have a spare in my box of bolts, however no such luck.  Which meant a round trip to town to get a new pan plug.  What should have been a 30 minute job turned into a couple of hours.  "The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry." 

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The country under the leadership of a convicted felon keeps getting worse.  The billionaires and millionaires have passed legislation that once again favors the rich and dumps on the middle class and poor.

All the while increasing the national debt trillions more.

And the asshat felon is now running around with a hat about him solely renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

"The gulf has been known as the Gulf of Mexico since the 1550's having derived its name from Mexica, the Nahuatl term for the Aztecs. The name soon became internationally recognized and in use by bodies such as the International Hydrographic Organization."

For over 475 years it has been the Gulf of Mexico and this narcissistic felon unilaterally overrides history.  November 7, 2028 can't come soon enough to reverse all this idiocy.  That is if we still have any kind of a country left.

 

Nuts! aka Hitting Rocks

 It's going to be hotter than blazes for the next few days here on the farm.

Any outdoor projects will have to be done in the morning before it gets unbearable outside.  One project that I was able to finish yesterday was replacing a mower blade after hitting a rock. 

We don't have any rocks in the acreage to be mowed.  This was my own dumb mistake of getting too close to rocks in the driveway.  

Anyone who has changed mower blades knows it isn't an easy job and using the tractor to elevate the mower makes it easier.

Apparently Dodger stadium in LA has refused convicted felon Trump's sturmabteilung stormtroopers, aka ICE, on their property.  Good for them!

Seems to me with the expansive authority they are exerting they should be required to be dressed in clearly identifiable uniforms.  And what's up with those masks and scarves they wear?  Clearly they aren't involved in "undercover" operations.  This whole barrage of totalitarianism is dragging America further into the abyss.

On a lighter note, it has become fitting to make fun of convicted felon Trump's hokey military parade.

What's not funny is the cost of $40 million to stroke this dictator's ego.

The 14th.

 Summer heat is upon us here on the farm.

With the extreme heat leaving the doors open on the metal buildings is necessary.

Today is the NO KINGS protests across America putting the Constitution above a monarchy.

Since we won't be able to attend a nearby protest we've brought out the sign we put up during the election and modified it to support the NO KINGS protests.  This is the same sign that someone shot at with a shotgun one evening causing us to bring the sign in the garage every night.

Once the sign was in place yesterday some people drove by shouting obscenities and throwing trash in our yard.  On the bright side there have been others who honk in support.  The simple fact is that our democracy is failing and remaining silent isn't an option.  Even if we have to "babysit" this sign all day, so be it.

 

Around The Farm

 As Washington continues to take America down the toilet...

... we lament, but keep ourselves busy here on the farm.

I pulled a couple of rotted stumps with the tractor and having a ballast box on the tractor kept the back end grounded.

The repairs to the mower are ongoing and I took the broken pulley (see previous post) to the Kubota dealer and they agreed it should not have failed like that and exchanged it for a free pulley.  I still maintain that it is a design flaw and if it happens again I'll just have the broken piece welded back on.  In the meantime I decided to check the bearings on the spindles.

 

While there wasn't much play in the bearings I decided to order new bearings to have on hand, however the dealer had to order them.  Since we needed to mow right away I cleaned up the old bearings.  They are sealed bearings and there is no way to grease them.  Another design flaw in my mind.  I greased as much as I could and we got back to mowing.

It's hard to see in the photos the haze from the fires in Canada that has migrated this far down.  So sad to see so many fires in Canada.

 

The nice neighbor farmer brought the cows back to the lush pasture and we enjoy having them here.

We provide electricity for his fencer and water for the stock tank.  I got the stock tank ready by cleaning it and leveling it.

The two brothers who farm the ground around us are super nice and it always makes for good neighbors when we can help each other.

And so it goes here on the farm.

Mower Fail

This is the time of the year when we have a lot of mowing here on the farm and a mower break down can really put a kink in the mowing schedule.

 

Last week a blade pulley on the Kubota mower broke.  

This is the second pulley in a couple of years that has snapped at the spindle attachment point.  Aside from the aggravation of having a mower out of commission, replacing the pulley isn't a major task.  What is hard to understand is why these pulleys are so poorly designed.  As seen on the new pulley, they are made of aluminum (failure point #1) and the attachment nut is welded only on one side (failure point #2).

At a cost of $75 for a new pulley the built in failure rate is too much to absorb.  Further adding to the frustration is the snail mail USPS shipping of a week to 10 days.  Suppliers don't want to pay the added cost to ship FedEx, which they would tack onto the cost of the pulley anyway.  

No matter what we have shipped here to the farm USPS is bar far the worst.  Rather than ship direct they sent the product all over the country for days on end and watching it on tracking languish in their system day after day is maddening.

Nine days later it's time to get the new pulley on and get back to mowing.