Saturday, July 01, 2006

Texas Holsteins -- Milk them three times a day

Author note to students: Do not quote this Web site as a source for your research work.
Nothing you find here is true except the 'Home Baked Pie' of Presho South Dakota story. .

Texas Holsteins once claimed this old barn as their home. This breed gives twice as much milk as your ordinary Holstein can make. This really shouldn't surprise you, everything is bigger in Texas, three milkings are expected here.

You might ask why would they give more milk? I don't know why, Mother Nature has provided.

Texas Holsteins are bred to have multiple births, mostly twin calves. It just works that way, that they must be able to produce large quantities of milk for their calves.

Those poor calves. They don't hardly get to drink any of that milk. The morning after they are born they are taken from their mother cows and shut up similar to the way hogs are raised up north.

No free range calves in the East Texas ranges. They are force fed soy bean milk, scuttled to an oat and corn diet until they are ready for steak. Get butchered for steak, that is.

Texas steak is might fine, especially Holstein. No one knows why, but we call it O'myha meat. I think they used to have a large slaughter house up there, maybe two, in Omaha.

You can get a steak that came from Omaha, but it wasn't butchered or grown there. Just shipped and maybe wrapped there, and 'named' for a town that used to be famous for it's slaughterhouses.

That reminds me of a time we stopped at Presho, South Dakota, for a noon meal. The nice little restaurant had a sign saying 'Home Baked Pie.' I had apple and it sure was good.

I asked our waitress if perhaps all the help baked at home, then brought them in with them to work. They surely weren't calling them home baked if they made them in the restaurant.

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Right away, she said they were Mrs. Smith pies. She could see I wanted more, so she added, "we bake them at home." 'Nough said.

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Of course these cattle eat more than you would expect because they are about twenty percent larger than your ordinary Holstein. That's more meat per hoof, and you know the price of glue is cheap now-a-days.

Too many hooves already. Even for all the Jello too. By the way, I don't eat Jello, you won't either if you are a vegetarian.

Why doesn't everyone everyplace get these Texas Holsteins? The Texas Agriculture Code prevents it, Sec. 39, Subsec 1 through 28 covers it all. Look it up, it's in Volume 3, TAC, S 39, SS 1-28. [The librarian will want you to say "3TAC 29(1-28)," please.]

The Texas Holsteins are carefully guarded by our Texas Border Patrol to enforce these laws. They can't escape or be taken out. I think the feds are being persuaded to even fence the once open range between us and Mexico.

I've heard there are a few herds in the mountains of New Mexico. This would be breaking our law if that can be proven.

We have a saying in Texas, "If you don't own a Texas Holstein or two, buy one then buy some more."


# posted by Jim : 7/01/2006 12:10:00 AM  4 comments

Friday, June 30, 2006

Adi Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walk the beam

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Walking the beam
takes lots of practice!
[click picture to enlarge]
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Could you figure out that some of yesterday's blog wasn't true?
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Adopt a cat for half price. Today is the last day for this promotion by the Houston SPCA (link).


# posted by Jim : 6/30/2006 12:04:00 AM  6 comments

Thursday, June 29, 2006

July 4 Conroe Symphony Orchestra Concert of Conroe, Texas, on June 27 this year

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You are seeing a picture of our house guests this Monday and Tuesday. This picture was taken Tuesday night before going to the concert.

Mrs. Jim's nephew, Phil is a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He is a medic and has had his share of the worlds troubles. Bosnia and Desert Storm required him to be in those far away places. I have heard of his story about the SCUD missiles landing very near to his pad. Scary just listening, but to actually be there?

Beside him is his wife Lisa (married 17 years now), then their two children, Gabby and Marty. You just saw the kids, Gabby with Adi, then both of them with me and Adi in the golf cart.
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This is most of the Conroe Symphony Orchestra. Missing is the piano at the right and the flags in from of the stage. Our guest conductor for this night was Dr. Don Hutson. You may have seen him conducting the Oklahoma Symphony or at the Aspen Music Festival.

When the 80 voice choir came out, he was replaced by Tom Tillman, Choir Director for the First Baptist Church of Conroe, Texas. Every other Sunday he also directs the orchestra when the choir is singing. When the orchestra is playing their production pieces, they have a regular orchestra director.

Below is the program. Click on it to enlarge it a bit, it is rather small to read.

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Since the program is hard to read here, this is the rundown:

The following were performed with the choir:

Now, without the choir:

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Here are Phil and Lisa standing when the orchestra is playing the Air Force song during the Salute to the Armed Forces. Lisa was in the Air Force when they were married. She has seven years of service, also as a medic. [Guys, please don't be too upset with me, I know there is a technical term. For me, they have always been medics.]

I stood with my fellow Army guys. Most of us were pretty old, the majority older than me.

Phil is in uniform because all service personnel in uniform and their families got in free. That was a savings of $75, when we include Mema, who came in with them.

Mrs. Jim and I also got in 'free.' This night we were ushering, but we have season tickets that really weren't free. We are members of the Conroe Symphony League which supports the Orchestra through fundraising, service, and educational projects. This orchestra has been consistently ranked as the best volunteer orchestra in Texas.

Our visitors left Wednesday morning to spend time with Phil's mother, Mrs. Jim's sister. We are missing them, I know they will all have a nice time visiting Mom. Mrs. Jim's other nieces and nephews and greats will all be there too for a nice reunion.

WISH WE WERE THERE!


# posted by Jim : 6/29/2006 12:21:00 AM  5 comments

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Adi Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Say a really nice goodbye

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To her very nice cousin


# posted by Jim : 6/28/2006 01:17:00 PM  6 comments

Limbaugh Detained, soon to be a three time loser?

Limbaugh Detained in Viagra Seizure in Florida - New York Times

"Rush Limbaugh caught smuggling in Viagra by Customs Office personnel" brought the house down last night. Dave Letterman didn't need a punch line, just saying something about like that brought down the house with laughter.

Read all about it! All of us would be in deep trouble. Is Rush is headed towards the 'three time loser' status where they just throw away the key. Even for theft of a candy bar if that is the third crime.

"Customs Bureau officials found Viagra apparently prescribed with another name in his bag." His lawyer will argue it wasn't breaking any laws, so let him go.

I want a lawyer who can prove I'm not breaking any laws for me like that next time I am caught smuggling in contraband stuff.

# posted by Jim : 6/28/2006 12:28:00 AM  5 comments

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Adi Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ride in the Golf Cart with Her cousins and Jim




[click on picture to enlarge]

# posted by Jim : 6/27/2006 11:49:00 AM  5 comments

Anchorage, Alaska Bad Ass Coffee Company location



These are the entrants to the location contest:

Ralph -- Austin Texas -- never been there -- never heard
Rachel -- Fort Worth -- never heard
Susie -- Ft. Worth
Cliff -- Hawaii
Seeker -- Greeley, Colorado
Rachel -- changed to El Paso
Anonymous (won't count, no name given) -- Maui, Hawaii
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If I missed you, please let me know. I really appreciate you're doing this.
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A side goal was to inform about something most didn't know or hadn't heard of before. I think that was accomplished a little.

(Drum roll) Seeker is the closest, but nowhere near. Thanks to everyone guessed and entered.

This one is located in Anchorage, Alaska.



[click picture to enlarge]



This picture is courtesy of the Ice Fairy, at her site, Ice.(link) She is from the United Kingdom and was near the Artic (north Alaska); she had received a grant to investigate the impact of climatic change upon a small Artic town.

Fairy was there from September through the first part of this June. Her blog is pretty interesting, you might want to at least look at some of the Artic pictures. Now she is back in England.

Back to Bad Ass. In 2006 there were 59 franchise outlets. They originated in Hawaii, but are headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to their Web site (link)
"The Bad Ass Coffee Company of Hawaii™, Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the premier franchise for an existing and rapidly expanding chain of gourmet coffee stores. We had our start in the beautiful state of Hawaii and we have grown to over 45 stores in home-towns and popular tourist destinations throughout the Hawaiian Islands and North America. We have new locations opening in Japan and other locations world-wide."
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Note that gourmet coffee is their leading product.




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These pictures are of the Houston store. Note the Hawaiian motive.

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Those aren't Hula Girls, but it's a job.

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This is the front door, looking from the parking lot.

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Blogger just rebelled or I would have had a map showing the loctions of the various stores. So click here to find it on the net.


# posted by Jim : 6/27/2006 12:29:00 AM  7 comments

Monday, June 26, 2006

Friends (again) and a couple of nice gift baskets and their stories

[click on pictures to enlarge]
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A friend gave Mrs. Jim this nice gift basket. It is what Lynn, our friend who gave it to her, calls a gag basket. Lynn gave it to cheer Mrs. Jim up after some surgery on her cheek bone.

First things first, Mrs. Jim is recovering nicely. Her surgery this last Thursday was outpatient so she came right home. Today (Sunday) she went to church and out to eat at the Long John Silver/A & W Root Beer fast food restaurant. For Mrs. Jim some fish bites and a root beer float in a frosted mug filled the bill.

Now to the cheerful basket. The book is a mystery, Irish Chain, by Earlene Fowler. There isn't one cuss word in it! That book is history at our house now, Mrs. Jim really enjoyed reading it.

Next is a year 2000 Beannie Baby bear named Cashew. Mrs. Jim doesn't have any Beannie Babies, I have a few. If I could find it, there is the mouse (forgot his name) who had been keeping company with my computer mouse at work before I retired. It's in a box someplace.

The tall item is a package of "Handcrafted Magnetic Shaped Notepads." It is similar to a 5 x 8 1/2 legal pad, with refrigerator magnets on the back. On around will be a Mary EngelBreit Pooch & Sweetheart magnet, The Princess of Quite-a-Lot. Missing is a four-pak of Hunt's Snack Packet Smores pudding.
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That paisley pencil has a huge smiley face eraser. She needed the pencil, but never such a large eraser, Mrs. Jim makes very few mistakes. Two jars of baby food (the sawbones went through her upper mouth to get to her cheekbone) that don't require much chewing, applesauce and peaches, are in the little jars.

A package of "H" sticky notes and a can of French Vanilla Cafe' complete the gift. That is important because both of these nice ladies are of French descent from Louisiana.

In fact they have common relatives they can trace back to France, on Mrs. Jim's maternal grandmother side. Mrs. Jim and I have visited the paternal side relatives who live in Bordeaux, France, a couple of times. They are very nice people, just like Mrs. Jim.
Other friends were very nice to Mrs Jim (and me) too. We are just finishing the soup and chess pie they brought, soft food, you know. We enjoyed their visits and food. One friend brought Mrs. Jim a pretty princess tiara. Mrs. Jim wears it around here now.


The other basket:
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This basket was a welcome gift from the Domaine de Valmouraine, Hotel de Charme, at St. Remy, Provence, France. I say a welcome gift, that was what their advertisement said, instead it was given to us on our last day there as a parting gift.

The very much appreciated basket contained a nice container of olive oil, a bottle of Provence area wine, a jar of honey, some Melange Aromatique to use in our linnen drawer, and some room freshening locally grown potpourri. The theme of this basket was local Provence area goodies.

Both baskets themselves were very nice. Their motive was suited exactly with the purpose and contents of each basket, i.e. keepers.

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This was one of the many signs steering us to our hotel. For the longest they would read at the bottom, "(arrow) 5 KM." Do you think there would be some showing lesser distances? No, they all said 5 KM until we started seeing these.

From the first one at the turnoff of the road out of St. Remy it was about 3/4 kilometer, though there were several more signs like this one. It must have been cheaper to only have two kinds painted.
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Our hotel was excellent, it was the "jail" I had talked about (in a previous post) being sent to, before we went to Europe this spring.

# posted by Jim : 6/26/2006 01:53:00 AM  8 comments

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Buffett to Give Billions to Gates Charity and Others - New York Times - Stand in line

Buffett to Give Billions to Gates Charity and Others - New York Times


"Warren E. Buffett, considered the world's second richest person, is to start in July giving away 85 percent of his stock in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, to five foundations, with most of it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation"

Do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? No, not really, it's foundations getting the Berkshire Hathaway Company stock he owns, not the people.

"Asked if it had occurred to him of the irony that he, the second richest person in the world, was giving billions of dollars to the first richest, Mr. Buffett said, according to the Fortune report:

"When you put it that way, it sounds pretty funny. But in truth, I am giving it through him, and importantly, Melinda as well, not to him." "

Well, a lot won't going to Planned Parenthood like his deceased wife's gifts did. But since her death, Warren has become more concerned with 'inequities' concernning his fellow human beings. [from a nice article here in the Houston Chronicle]

"Moreover, his vast holdings of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock had been expected to go largely to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, begun by his late wife. Her foundation has given millions of dollars to hospitals, universities and teachers, as well as to Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups."

Fortune magazine has just told the world about this newest venture. Berkshire Hathaway's Web site also sheds some light on this matter, by publishing his letters to each of the charrities.
[Note: I have posted the letter to Bill Gates on my altenative blog (link) in case you have trouble reading the PDF file.]

I wonder if I'm too late to get my foundation started. There will be others beside these five, I'm sure.


[Please enter the Bad Ass Coffee Co. 'Where Are We Now location' contest which follows--if you don't see it, click here anonymous and friends welcome--it ends Monday morning!]

# posted by Jim : 6/25/2006 05:28:00 PM  3 comments

A new wine for seniors -- Thanks to cousin Judy

(got this e-mail)
[Click picture to enlarge]

[Please enter the Bad Ass Coffee Co. 'Where Are We Now location' contest which follows--if you don't see it, click here anonymous and friends welcome--it ends Monday morning!]


# posted by Jim : 6/25/2006 02:20:00 PM  0 comments

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