A note again on the polygamy- stolen children thing. They now believe a 30 something year old woman made the distress call. Yet they continue to pursue separating the children from their families. They are doing DNA testing- at an incredible cost to the taxpayers I may add, on all the children. So who cares who fathered who if there is no abuse? Prove or at least have a good suspicion of abuse then DNA test those children only.
Too bad we can't order DNA testing of all the acquaintences of the 15 year old with a child on welfare who claims she doesn't know who the father is. We might find some abuse there or at least a father who needs to pay child support.
DNA testing and results take time- its not like crime shows on TV. There are many important crimes waiting to be solved because of a DNA testing backlog across the country. I cannot believe we or Texas anyway, is still proceeding with this witch hunt.
On a lighter note
Our beautiful string of almost summer like weather has ended. It’s nice in away but it has made many things flower that now may be injured by the coming cold. I almost welcome cooler weather as the warm muggy stuff makes the hard spring work not as appealing.
I have a new granddaughter, probably the last grand child. Shaan had Alicia Grace just a month before her 40th birthday. It is her second child, the older one is 15, and she had her tubes tied. Alicia is beautiful, healthy, and normal and the first child for her proud papa. It takes brave parents to begin raising a child when they are 40, if I had done that I would have a teenager at home now and I don’t think I could handle it. Except if it was a teen age boy he sure could be a help right now. Whoops that’s sexist. Any teen could be a help right now. Our grandkids are all too far away to help us.
I was worming cocker spaniel puppies today 5 little black girls and one blond girl and one blond boy. The black ones are so much alike it’s hard to tell them apart. One we call Dora the explorer has managed to climb over every barrier we have made between the puppy room and the living room that her mom could still jump over.
I have tried to distinguish her from the rest so when they all become equally active I will be able to identify the smart one. But so far it’s been hard. A ribbon was promptly removed by her sisters. The inside of her ears is too black for a marker to show. Trimming some hair on her foot doesn’t make enough of a marker. I am thinking about trying to find a white marker.
Hay has gone up to $7.00 a bale at the feed store. The grass is growing but the problem is the sheep eat it as soon as it grows. We had to mow the yard yesterday, it is a shame that the sheep can’t eat it. The east pasture still hasn’t had the fence fixed, we are stuck on getting the new dog kennel done. That has proved to be a nightmare. Putting up the kit kennels is bad enough but tearing up the old stuff is worse.
I love spring but it seems to pass in a whirl wind of activity. I am so busy it’s a wonder I have time to blog. I keep saying that once all the projects are done I’ll have a spring where I can just poke around in the flower beds. I don’t know if that will ever happen but its nice to imagine.
Living the dream
Visiting grandmas farm.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Rumors lead to stealing children
I am so annoyed by this raid at the so called polygamy compound and going on line to read many citizens comments on news stories. Most people are assumming that all sorts of things went on there that they have no proof of. All kinds of wild stories with no supporting evidence are floating around. In a few stories they talk of an informant feeding a sheriff information for four years. If this informant couldn't find anything in four years that would call for a raid why should a phone call suddanly bring one on?
So far no one can find the teen girl who supposedly made the call and a similar call to another police department in another state really makes you wonder. The man the "girl" claims raped her hasn't been to Texas since 1977. The calls also come around the time of the anniversity of the Branch Davidian cult raid. Makes you wonder- or should.
It's also mentioned in the news stories that some women weren't at the compound when their children were stolen. Obviously they are allowed to come and go and are not prisoners. Also medical records were seized, which means outside medical care was probably obtained. Yet there was no complaints from residents before or just cause from medical evidence to justify action previously.
Over 400 children were forcibly removed from their homes in a traumatic manner. There is talk of putting them in foster care- if they can find enough homes. Many of the mothers went with the children but their side of the story isn't being allowed to be heard. Instead we hear all sorts of things that supposedly are going on in this compound- without any proof any of them are.
I saw clean, neatly dressed women and children in spring colors, hair nicely done, looking well fed. Not a single boy with his underwear hanging out or a girl with her belly button showing. Their homes appeared neat and comfortable.
Pregnant teens are not new in this society. Look in any low income living area and you will find many young teen girls who are having sex with men who treat them like dirt, who are often gang raped or beaten into gangs and who expect to raise their children alone, like their mothers and grandmothers before them. You could say this is a "cult" or at least a way of life. Yet we don't raid these places to remove children from their mothers to protect them, even though many calls to law enforcement from the area have probably been made. If we do take children out of a home in these neighborhoods we take only those who are being abused or neglected, not all the neighbors kids too.
It should be easy to examine the children removed from this Texas compound and find signs of abuse. Signs of physical and sexual abuse are identifiable. The parents of those children should be charged. At least the children of the pregnant teens were being cared for by their fathers, not the government in this situation- at least they were.
Polygamy is a crime and possibly we should arrest those men and women who practice it. I say possibly because we allow Muslims from other countries to bring more than one wife into this country, live with them and become US citizens. Is one religions polygamy more legal than anothers? It is "said" that many Muslim girls are still forced to marry at a young age, even in the US and that many Muslims quietly practice polygamy here. Yet I don't see authorities raiding Muslim neighborhoods and rounding up Muslim children on the suspicion of what might be happening.
We can't raid homes and take children because of rumors of what might be happening. And just because one young woman in that compound was being mistreated by one man doesn't mean that all the children and women were being mistreated, that they all were in plural marriages or all were unhappy. Polygamy in itself does not equal abuse of women and children.
Punish those who do abuse children but don't punish children because of their religion. Yanking those children from their world and separating them from their families, and putting them into god knows what kind of foster care is also abuse.
Remember if we allow this to happen to these people it will happen to us next.
So far no one can find the teen girl who supposedly made the call and a similar call to another police department in another state really makes you wonder. The man the "girl" claims raped her hasn't been to Texas since 1977. The calls also come around the time of the anniversity of the Branch Davidian cult raid. Makes you wonder- or should.
It's also mentioned in the news stories that some women weren't at the compound when their children were stolen. Obviously they are allowed to come and go and are not prisoners. Also medical records were seized, which means outside medical care was probably obtained. Yet there was no complaints from residents before or just cause from medical evidence to justify action previously.
Over 400 children were forcibly removed from their homes in a traumatic manner. There is talk of putting them in foster care- if they can find enough homes. Many of the mothers went with the children but their side of the story isn't being allowed to be heard. Instead we hear all sorts of things that supposedly are going on in this compound- without any proof any of them are.
I saw clean, neatly dressed women and children in spring colors, hair nicely done, looking well fed. Not a single boy with his underwear hanging out or a girl with her belly button showing. Their homes appeared neat and comfortable.
Pregnant teens are not new in this society. Look in any low income living area and you will find many young teen girls who are having sex with men who treat them like dirt, who are often gang raped or beaten into gangs and who expect to raise their children alone, like their mothers and grandmothers before them. You could say this is a "cult" or at least a way of life. Yet we don't raid these places to remove children from their mothers to protect them, even though many calls to law enforcement from the area have probably been made. If we do take children out of a home in these neighborhoods we take only those who are being abused or neglected, not all the neighbors kids too.
It should be easy to examine the children removed from this Texas compound and find signs of abuse. Signs of physical and sexual abuse are identifiable. The parents of those children should be charged. At least the children of the pregnant teens were being cared for by their fathers, not the government in this situation- at least they were.
Polygamy is a crime and possibly we should arrest those men and women who practice it. I say possibly because we allow Muslims from other countries to bring more than one wife into this country, live with them and become US citizens. Is one religions polygamy more legal than anothers? It is "said" that many Muslim girls are still forced to marry at a young age, even in the US and that many Muslims quietly practice polygamy here. Yet I don't see authorities raiding Muslim neighborhoods and rounding up Muslim children on the suspicion of what might be happening.
We can't raid homes and take children because of rumors of what might be happening. And just because one young woman in that compound was being mistreated by one man doesn't mean that all the children and women were being mistreated, that they all were in plural marriages or all were unhappy. Polygamy in itself does not equal abuse of women and children.
Punish those who do abuse children but don't punish children because of their religion. Yanking those children from their world and separating them from their families, and putting them into god knows what kind of foster care is also abuse.
Remember if we allow this to happen to these people it will happen to us next.
Well let’s start with the weather. Doesn’t everything start with weather? Here in Michigan we had 70 degrees yesterday after which came severe weather. We had 2 inches of rain in about 36 hours. Everything is soaked but the good news is that the pond is filling up and the grass is getting green. The crocus and iris reticulata are blooming. However it is supposed to snow tonight. Welcome to spring in Michigan. It won’t stick, but the cold isn’t welcome.
The sheep are starting to get a little grass. Thank God because hay at 6 dollars a bale is hard on the budget. If the weather holds we should be done buying it in a week or two. Taco the bottle lamb has finally became part of the sheep herd. He has a girlfriend, one of his cousins. I have even quit giving him a bottle and he is eating hay, like a sheep should. I still sneak him some animal cookies everyday.
We had a new baby lamb born about 2 weeks ago. It is another Hereford marked one but I still don’t know whether it’s a boy or girl. Susan surprised us with two Jack Russell puppies, we knew she got bred but she never looked pg. One died, but the other little female is doing fine. The cocker pups are eating well and trying to get out of their pen constantly. One little female is the most successful, then she waddles over to me and wags her little stub tail wanting to be picked up.
We had Gus the stud Jack Russell neutered but it didn’t stop him from tearing open his kennel again and then into Crickets kennel a week later. The vet says we may still have puppies from this, sperm still lives in the reproductive tract a while. We have left him with Cricket, we have new kennels to put together for the outside dogs, but the weather and time haven’t allowed us to get them done yet.
We had a young couple stop by the farm looking for scrap metal. He was out of work and they were cleaning up yards etc for metal to sell. I showed them the back of the barn were we had a tangled mess of old wire pens and told them they could have that. Then we looked at the shed tacked onto the back side of the barn that was collapsing. We didn’t feed the sheep from the barn this winter because I didn’t think that mess would hold up all winter and would fall on them or make getting feed to them hard.
Anyway they agreed to tear it all down and stack the good lumber if I gave them my old car. In one day while I was at work they ripped it all down, sorted and stacked everything and hauled a bunch of it away or burned it. This was a big shed, 20 by 12, that we had built with pallets, (yes pallets), about 12 years ago. Had we put a better roof on it, it might have lasted longer. I had to burn some more of the old pallets the next day and then they came and removed the rest. There is still some rusty fence here and a pile of old roofing but the change is immense.
The barn possum was a casualty though. He was hiding in some wood when it got thrown in the fire. The back side of the barn cats were all a little spooked but I fixed them some new beds just inside the back door of the main barn and they are settling in.
Next we tackled the fence between the dog yard and the sheep pasture. The dogs have been terrible this spring getting out under the old chain link. The wood posts we had were rotted and the bottom gave too much, they could dig a little then push the bottom and lift it up to go under. Steve freaks out when they get out when I am gone, they won’t let him catch them and he can’t move fast enough. I had tons of cinder blocks and boards along the bottom but nothing worked for long, they just found another spot.
So last Sunday we replaced it all with 5 foot high welded wire on metal posts. It was the first big day long project we had done in a good while and we were both exhausted. I put a board all along the bottom that I nailed to the fence, laying on my belly in the pasture. The next day I had to fix a spot where Ginger got through but it’s been fine since. We still have to replace the walk gate and re-work the drive gate but we are almost done with that. Then it’s on to replacing the fence along the back of the barn, and rebuilding the dog kennels. And the east pasture needs the fence along the woods repaired and up by the orchard.
I want to take some of the old lumber and make raised garden beds for vegetables, all the flower beds need cleaning out and I have baby chicks arriving Tuesday to get ready for. We need to make a new trellis for the grapes and move them as they are in too much shade now. And then of course there is the porch/laundry room roof that needs to be torn off and replaced, my son says he will be up around the first week of May to do that. When that’s done I want to put up a 6 foot wide deck on the east side to make it easier for Steve to get in the back door. I think we can do that. What I need is several strong grandchildren to use as labor but they are too far away!
It amazes me what changes this house and farm have been through in the 13 years we have been here. And what changes we have been through ourselves. When we moved here Steve was capable of doing things like putting up sheds from pallets, and getting in and out of the house on his own. I seemed to have a lot more energy and physical strength too. I just keep thinking that when certain things are done everything else will be easier, but the work just never seems to end. I love spring but it is such a busy time!
The sheep are starting to get a little grass. Thank God because hay at 6 dollars a bale is hard on the budget. If the weather holds we should be done buying it in a week or two. Taco the bottle lamb has finally became part of the sheep herd. He has a girlfriend, one of his cousins. I have even quit giving him a bottle and he is eating hay, like a sheep should. I still sneak him some animal cookies everyday.
We had a new baby lamb born about 2 weeks ago. It is another Hereford marked one but I still don’t know whether it’s a boy or girl. Susan surprised us with two Jack Russell puppies, we knew she got bred but she never looked pg. One died, but the other little female is doing fine. The cocker pups are eating well and trying to get out of their pen constantly. One little female is the most successful, then she waddles over to me and wags her little stub tail wanting to be picked up.
We had Gus the stud Jack Russell neutered but it didn’t stop him from tearing open his kennel again and then into Crickets kennel a week later. The vet says we may still have puppies from this, sperm still lives in the reproductive tract a while. We have left him with Cricket, we have new kennels to put together for the outside dogs, but the weather and time haven’t allowed us to get them done yet.
We had a young couple stop by the farm looking for scrap metal. He was out of work and they were cleaning up yards etc for metal to sell. I showed them the back of the barn were we had a tangled mess of old wire pens and told them they could have that. Then we looked at the shed tacked onto the back side of the barn that was collapsing. We didn’t feed the sheep from the barn this winter because I didn’t think that mess would hold up all winter and would fall on them or make getting feed to them hard.
Anyway they agreed to tear it all down and stack the good lumber if I gave them my old car. In one day while I was at work they ripped it all down, sorted and stacked everything and hauled a bunch of it away or burned it. This was a big shed, 20 by 12, that we had built with pallets, (yes pallets), about 12 years ago. Had we put a better roof on it, it might have lasted longer. I had to burn some more of the old pallets the next day and then they came and removed the rest. There is still some rusty fence here and a pile of old roofing but the change is immense.
The barn possum was a casualty though. He was hiding in some wood when it got thrown in the fire. The back side of the barn cats were all a little spooked but I fixed them some new beds just inside the back door of the main barn and they are settling in.
Next we tackled the fence between the dog yard and the sheep pasture. The dogs have been terrible this spring getting out under the old chain link. The wood posts we had were rotted and the bottom gave too much, they could dig a little then push the bottom and lift it up to go under. Steve freaks out when they get out when I am gone, they won’t let him catch them and he can’t move fast enough. I had tons of cinder blocks and boards along the bottom but nothing worked for long, they just found another spot.
So last Sunday we replaced it all with 5 foot high welded wire on metal posts. It was the first big day long project we had done in a good while and we were both exhausted. I put a board all along the bottom that I nailed to the fence, laying on my belly in the pasture. The next day I had to fix a spot where Ginger got through but it’s been fine since. We still have to replace the walk gate and re-work the drive gate but we are almost done with that. Then it’s on to replacing the fence along the back of the barn, and rebuilding the dog kennels. And the east pasture needs the fence along the woods repaired and up by the orchard.
I want to take some of the old lumber and make raised garden beds for vegetables, all the flower beds need cleaning out and I have baby chicks arriving Tuesday to get ready for. We need to make a new trellis for the grapes and move them as they are in too much shade now. And then of course there is the porch/laundry room roof that needs to be torn off and replaced, my son says he will be up around the first week of May to do that. When that’s done I want to put up a 6 foot wide deck on the east side to make it easier for Steve to get in the back door. I think we can do that. What I need is several strong grandchildren to use as labor but they are too far away!
It amazes me what changes this house and farm have been through in the 13 years we have been here. And what changes we have been through ourselves. When we moved here Steve was capable of doing things like putting up sheds from pallets, and getting in and out of the house on his own. I seemed to have a lot more energy and physical strength too. I just keep thinking that when certain things are done everything else will be easier, but the work just never seems to end. I love spring but it is such a busy time!
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