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 |  What's new on Pleasant Hill |
 This Blog contains day-to-day thoughts and other nonsense.  {c} ![Merit Badge in Community
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I'm starting to see your name everywhere I go *^*Bigsmile*^*. Thank you so very much for all you do around WDC! It is people like you, who make WDC such the awesome place we call our second home *^*Heart*^*
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Tracey](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Community-210.gif) Thanks to intuey  for the MB![Merit Badge in Cheerleading
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I wanted to give you a badge you didn't have yet, and this cheerleading badge suits you. You are such an encouragement to many members of this site, including me, and I wouldn't know what Writing.Com would do without you. *^*Smile*^* You're a gem, Barbs. Thank you for your friendship and everything that you do. Love, Me *^*Smile*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Cheerleading-210.gif) Thanks to pencilsoverpens  for the MB![Merit Badge in Funny
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I've never laughed more, thanks Barbs](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Funny-200.gif) Thanks Wolfdale  for the MBThanks to pencilsoverpens  for the awardicon for this blogThanks to Equilibrium for the pretty green ribbon she pinned on my poetry folder. Thanks to Alfred Booth for the Awardicon for Happy Book and for my wonderful, vibrant sig. |
| One of my favorite times of the year has arrived. Ripe tomatoes from the garden time. Yipeee!!!!! We gorge ourselves on BLTs for several weeks in August each year. Until we have canker sores from all the acid. But they're so good. Personally, I am a non-traditional BLT kind of person. I skip the L in favor of a slice of American cheese. I think that would make mine BCTs. Anyway, it is one of the little joys of having a garden. Or, in our case, friends with a garden who are willing to share. I stand on my head to please those friends. Moreover, the tomatoes are wonderful here this year. No hydroponics for us in August. Yum. Excuse me while I step away to put on a clean shirt and wash the drips off of my chin. |
| I want to thank Pencils for the warm fuzzies in my mailbox this morning. She read and reviewed all of my poetry, pinned a pretty green ribbon on the poetry folder, and sent a cheerleading MB my way! Thank you Equilibrium Also, if you haven't yet tried the Storymaster's "A Trivial Challenge"  as yet, it's fun but terribly addictive. Another fun item is Mavis' "Invalid Item" I found out I'm not so very rational but had fun figuring that out. Thanks Mavis. |
| The Wood County Fair is slated to open its doors on Wednesday, August 30 this year. Area 4-Hers are busy grooming and trimming their sheep and cattle, gardeners are tending their rows of prize carrots and onions, and cooks are putting up those perfect jars of peaches and raspberry jam. All want their entries ready to catch the judges eye. Randall Meyer, Loyal, Wisconsin, is no exception. With three of his children, he farms some five hundred acres and milks 170 cows at this time. That would be enough to keep most men busy. Not Randy. In his spare time, he competes and demonstrates his Belgian horse hitches throughout the Midwest at fairs and other farm gatherings. The Marshfield Fair is on his list of stops again this year. When I visited with him this week, he had twenty-one of the gentle giants on hand. Most are his and some belong to a son. Like the farm work, the horses are really a family affair. In addition to his children, there was a nice assemblage of grandkids in evidence too. They seemed right at home with the big horses. The Belgian is native to the country Belgium. It is the largest and most powerful breed of horse and was used for cultivation of land in the days before the tractor. In the last thirty or forty years, the breed has enjoyed a renewed popularity as a show animal. Randy is an affable fellow with a gleam in his eye. He clearly relishes his work with the horses. They all have names and each, a personality to go with it. He puts together one, two, unicorn, four, six, eight, and ten horse pyramid hitches. The latter is his specialty and he loves the challenge. As a child, Randy developed a love for things equine. His dad kept horses on the family farm. Now he is passing the tradition on to his children and grandchildren. He has been showing Belgians for twenty-five years and is a member of a small fraternity of folks from central Wisconsin who share his passion. There is much to do when showing eight or ten horses. To get them ready, they are kept in the barn during the day to preserve their rich sorrel coloring. Manes and tails need special attention, hooves need shoes, the harnesses needed to be washed and polished, and the animals all need to be exercised regularly. The wagons also must be cleaned and serviced. Putting a big hitch together requires manpower, cooperation, and practice. Randy says he requires a crew of twelve men to harness and assemble a ten-horse hitch. This mean that children, friends and neighbors come together to assist with this production. The process of transporting everything to the fair is complex as well. He has one trailer that carries up to nine horses and all the fancy tack. A second trailer carries the remaining animals. Two trucks will carry the hitch wagons, still another hauls all the feed, and the camper goes too. It's a regular parade out the driveway. While I was there, I met Rex. Rex is one of the tallest horses around. He measures nineteen hands, one inch. That is equal to the horse listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Mr. Meyer is six feet tall and the horse dwarfed him. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** The draft horse activities are scheduled for September 2-4 in the horse arena. Randall Meyer and his team will be there. On Friday, September 1, there will also be a horse-pulling event at 6:30pm in the arena. |
| Gollee, I sure am a slacker lately. I can call it a summer vacation of sorts but it'll be hard to get back to the all blue calendar again. I have two thoughts today, requests, actually. First, I have a plea to all of you who know our man, Zack Hume. He's trying to sponsor a video contest but so far, there hasn't been a landslide of entries. Everyone's shy? Those of you who are read by millions each day can help by giving him a plug and listing a link to his contest item. The number is 1133151. Lets all help get the word out for the Z-man. Like this: "Invalid Item" Then, every day when I drive into town, I pass the house that Habitat for Humanity is building this summer. I just want to toss out the suggestion that Habitat is a nice way for folks to volunteer with their hands to help someone right in your own community. You'll meet a grand group of people that way.  Thanks for listening. |
I have a new product report to pass on. In my dotage, I have developed a benign tremor of my hands. It is somewhat like Parkinson's but without the bad consequences. However, it has made me a messy eater. Often I leave the table wearing some of what I ate, usually on one of my headlights. Recently an advertisement for a new product caught my eye. Something called Tide to Go. The package says instant stain remover for fresh food and drink stains. Bingo!!! But, does it work. I could not buy some fast enough. I was a hundred miles from home today when I managed to decorate my self with a gooey black substance. I slipped away to the lady's room and whipped out my Tide pencil. Under the cap, I found a wedge-shaped felt tip. Directions say to press the tip against the stain and rub with the tip. A drop of liquid is dispensed onto the stain, when pressed. I rubbed. 50% lighter. I repeated, 75% gone. OK, once more and it was virtually erased. I would recommend this product and will never again be without it. Thank you Tide! |
| "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" are the now famous words uttered by Dr Henry Stanley in 1872 when he located Dr. David Livingstone in the interior of central Africa. Despite Dr. Stanley's concern for his safety, he refused to return to the coast and, weakened by illness, Livingstone eventually died there in1873 at the age of sixty years. Dr. Livingstone went to South Africa in 1841 to work as a missionary and to explore the Dark Continent. He spent the rest of his life there. One Auburndale fifth-grader chose to read a Livingstone biography for a book report project and found inspiration for her "life dream." When we recently visited she said, "I knew then that I wanted to travel to Africa and be a missionary there." She has not wasted any time following that dream. Auburndale town resident Elizabeth Peters, D2002 County Line Road, is someone you should know. As a High School junior, she spent one month in Mombasa, Kenya as a Christian missionary. She loved it. She graduated from Auburndale High School in 2003 and enrolled at Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota. Now 22, she is in their nursing program there. Her school sponsors various world trips each year for students. This year they offered the opportunity to spend twenty-one days as a medical missionary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, in central Africa. She and seven other students flew with a leader to Kigali, Rwanda and then traveled three hours overland to Goma, Congo. She says she found a country suffering from years of Belgian colonialism, ethnic strife, and civil war. This year the country held its first democratic elections. Elizabeth says that the city of Goma where she stayed was patrolled by UN Peacekeepers and relatively stable by day, but thieves roamed the streets at night. Rebel militias, however, controlled the surrounding countryside and travel there was less safe. Goma is a city of roughly a million people and is situated on the shore of Lake Kivu at the foot of the active volcano Nyiragongo. It erupted in 2002 sending lava flowing thru the center of town destroying 40% of the community. Elizabeth says the natives refer to Kivu as the bottomless lake. Of the seven students, several worked in orphanages while there, others with street children, and Elizabeth helped in one of Goma's four hospitals, the Doctors on Call for Surgery Hospital. It is a seventy-bed facility. The largest wards are the pediatric and maternity areas. Many of the hospital patients were victims of accidental gunshot wounds. The hospital staff was very happy to have her help and taught her how to administer intravenous infusions, give medications, and to clean, and dress the gunshot wounds. She said that the people of Congo are very gracious and appreciative. One woman was so grateful for Elizabeth's care that she was invited to name the lady's newborn twins. Elizabeth and the others lived in the walled compound that encloses the hospital area but found time to venture out and enjoy the scenery of the surrounding area. The Congo is a beautiful place and a tourist destination for residents of other African countries. Small shops and kiosks offer local wares. Transportation is mainly by taxi or scooter and gas costs roughly three or four dollars per liter. Everyone uses cell phones and speaks either French or Swahili. Most residents are very poor. The average weekly wage there is the equivalent of ten dollars American. She said, "I love Africa. I want to go back and hope that the college offers another trip like this next year. If they do, I will be on it. Life in Goma is an unhurried affair. I had to adjust when I came back to the states. We're so time and schedule-oriented here." So, one hundred fifty years after his travels through the dark continent, Dr. Livingstone is still influencing others to explore the world and do good things for people while they are at it. Bonne chance, Elizabeth Peters! Auburndale can be proud of you. And a fitting quote for today: When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers. Colleen C. Barrett |
| Our new Verizon phone books came Friday. First I was ticked 'cuz whoever brought them tossed them in the ditch behind the mailbox. I didn't look in one until today. Geesh! They've reprinted the whole book to save three pages. That means they reduced the type font to about a 4 point type. It's ridiculous. I plan to write a letter to Verizon in the same size type in complaint. Anyone else out there irked about this??? |
| CONGATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking . As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes (sometimes with sprinkles), white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem . We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents . We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! |
| Cattle make the Wisconsin farm go 'round. Moreover, the undisputed king of Wisconsin cattle breeds is the Holstein-Friesian, valued for its quantity milk production. However, not every cow is a Holstein and some farmers have a different business model in mind. Such is the Caldwell Farms operation on Yellowstone Road north of Milladore. Lorna Caldwell is someone you should know. She and her husband, Michael, have been hard at work for the past four years developing and making ready for market, a line of USDA certified organic beef products. The "Certified Organic" designation is a coveted value-added label. This means that their animals, the land on which the animals live, and the food they eat is all free of agri-chemicals, hormones, medications, and any other non-organic contamination. Their cattle are all bred and raised with care and attention to detail on their family-owned farm. The breed that they have chosen to produce is the Scotish heirloom Belted Galloway. Belted Galloway cattle were first brought to the United States in 1950 and have developed a loyal following since that time. Four years ago, the Caldwells purchased thirteen registered Belted Galloway cattle. A year later, they invested in some eighty quality breeding stock from a ranch in Wyoming. Those cows have formed the genetic foundation for their business. Through selective breeding and management, they have grown their herd to roughly two hundred twenty five animals including eight handsome bulls. Each bull, cow and calf is registered and its pedigree documented by the latest DNA technology. These cattle have a distinctive coloration. They are a solid color stem, and stern, with a continuous white strip around their middle. Some light-heartedly refer to them as the Oreo cookie cows; black on both ends and white in the center. In addition to the black and white animals, some are dun colored. Their black coloring is replaced by a butterscotch shade of tan. There are also red and white Belties. Belties are naturally polled, or without horns. They have a thick curly coat of coarse hair with a dense mossy undercoat, and are stocky in stature. Lorna says they are social and very protective of their young. All of the Caldwell animals are grass fed and Belties are big eaters. This requires extensive pastureland. The Caldwell Farm is a sprawling operation. I recently visited the farm and Lorna took me for a "range ride." No, I didn't have to get on a horse, we traveled on their four wheel vehicle accompanied by their dog, Latcher . We moved through a maze of gates to find the herd in the shade of the woods at the back of the farm. It only took one or two calls from Lorna and 140 head were on their feet and trailing behind us as we moved into a different pasture. They were suddenly knee deep in fresh alfalfa and the forward progress stopped. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** We checked the watering facilities to be sure there was a full supply of fresh clean water. From there we went to check on the young stock in another part of the property. This is a daily routine for Lorna. Additionally, she keeps detailed records for each animal, the food they eat, and the records documenting their land management. The USDA inspects their operation annually to qualify their operation for "organic" certification. All of their records are scrutinized at that time. Since their entire operation must comply with USDA rules for a full three years before they can call their meat products "organic," they received that designation this year. This year they will offer their first commercial beef products. They will be available through Pete's Meat Service in Rudolph. They also sell animals for breeding purposes. Their web site is http://www.caldwellfarms.com. And, today's humor is the definition: ADMIRATION, n: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves. Ambrose Bierce |
| July 2 I reached 1000 clicks on this blog. It took two and a half months. I just went over 2000 views and that happened in a little more than forty day. The thought that you would care to read what I have to offer is humbling, to be sure. Thanks to those of you who tune in from time to time. I appreciate. |
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Thanks for these Barbs, we really miss you around here! Update us on everything some time alright! 