If a business wishes to operate based on the labor of people from countries other than the US, they ought to set up shop in a more fitting place than the US. What sense does it make to set up or keep a business here with the intent of relying on an illegal labor force? Part of planning a successful business is choosing a location where there are potentially enough workers. A business owner’s poor planning should not endanger the security of our country or drain our social resources. There are plenty of Americans actively looking for jobs, too many of them because of the ill effects of illegal aliens working here and more jobs being sent there.

In another example of how our government no longer works for us, a two-strikes law in Arizona that would suspend the licenses of employers of illegal aliens has been made much less effective. Now, illegal aliens hired before this year will count towards the losses felt by Americans, but they won’t count towards the law that would otherwise shut their employers down. Businesses in many states are continuing to pressure the government to support their illegal hiring practices, claiming that being forced to operate legally would cause economic hardship.

Most of that economic hardship would fall on the illegal employers and their crooked government. Certainly we Americans could figure out how to survive comfortably and safely without the assistance of criminals and traitors.

News like this makes me wish we’d toss our failing government and the illegal alien employers it represents over the border, then build a gateless fence.

Technorati Tags: illegal aliens, illegal immigration, illegal employers, employment, Arizona, Indian, Kentucky, government, crooked politicians, New York Times

Technorati Tags: Tarot

The nice weather has shown again that there is life outside the intertubes. In fact, if it would stay like this forever, I’d probably not miss typing on this keyboard one bit, ever. But the people- I’d sure miss a few. After stepping into the garden and plucking one weed or blade of grass, it’s impossible to leave. The earthy, green smell and the soft dirt under palms, knees and fingernails, the birdsong, the distant neighborhood voices, seeing how the plants have grown… what a rich experience! It’s just as new each time.

Dogs playing in the yard (brown patch from the tent- lol!), sun tea, and a reel mower… things that make a perfect summer picture.

A few small other things are different too. The new Sunlawn LMM-35 reel mower got here last Tuesday, less than a week after I ordered it from People Powered Machines. The brand of my old reel mower is American Lawnmower Company. Four years with it convinced me to never go back to a gas powered mower. It also left me with a broken, unadjustable bolt, the final straw that began my search for a new mower. I had ordered a Scott’s from Amazon.com, but their free shipping seemed to mean it would take a month (literally) for the mower to get here. This meant canceling the order and bumbling into People Powered Machines, which was lucky. The company is very focused on customers, and knowledgeable about the best mowers. Brill is priced out of my range, but the Sunlawn sounded like a better fit for our weedy, patchy yard anyway.

The Sunlawn took less than ten minutes to put together. The only thing that required assembly was the handle. The sides of the mower are plastic, but it’s so sturdy that I’m not worried in the least about it breaking. Besides, the sides of it don’t do the cutting. These plastic parts do make it a cinch to adjust the mowing height, up to two inches. Two bolts, one on each side, adjust how close the blades are to the cutting bar. My old mower had four, and they were “the Devil.” The Sunlawn has springs that allow for the perfect adjustment of the blades, which have to be slightly away from the cutting bar. A metal strip is included for making sure the adjustment is just right. Since the blades don’t hit the cutting bar, they are supposed to stay sharp for years longer than other reel mowers. On this, time will tell. The mower is almost perfectly quiet, allowing for the enjoyment of more pleasant summer noises. As I said, my lawn is weedy (I’m working on this), but the Sunlawn made short, easy work of mowing it. The smaller cutting width, fourteen inches instead of the old mower’s eighteen, made no negative difference, but it does make the mower easier to push and to pick up and put away. I’m back to finishing our yard before the neighbors, on their ride-on beast, can finish theirs.

Amazon.com’s free shipping… slow. I also wasn’t too confident in their customer service. It’s nice, too, to be able to walk into a physical store once in a while. So back to Barnes & Noble it’s been. Along with a long awaited sequel book for Krystn, a Rodale’s book on Organic Gardening is next up, because every possible help is needed to turn these thumbs green.

The kids are taking more of an interest in composting this year. We’re having a contest. Whoever adds the most things to the bin gets to have Mom do their chores. The garbage can sure looks lonely now! Bob’s friend has lots of pallets he said we could have, so we’ll use these to make garden boxes in the front yard. Then the compost will really come in handy.

Another new thing? Ubuntu. Finally, the newest version is on this ‘puter. It works well, but that’ll be a blog post that doesn’t focus on outside. Which is what I’m going to enjoy some more right now.

Technorati Tags: yard, lawn mower, lawn, reel mower, push mower, Sunlawn, American Lawn Mower Company, People Powered Machines, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, compost, organic gardening

I’ve been trying really hard to remember when, exactly, it was that our oldest could have been swapped with Satan’s spawn. If that sounds harsh, it should. I’m not serious. Not quite, anyway. Certainly many kids have colorful things to say about their parents as well, but they’re still family.

(Read the rest of this post…)

Beans and peas. I just got done planting a few extra in the garden, where the bunnies had trompled on some of the first ones. There are always bunnies in the yard, and usually a few nests. The garden offers them shade and early growing lettuce that ran wild on us. There is often a bunny under the potato leaves, taunting Morgan, who can’t get in there.

Morgan did catch a bird this year. Sad. But she is a hunting dog. The birds love bathing in the pond, where the lilypads are starting to spread out. The roses exploded in color. Some will have to be transplanted, as they are creeping towards the path to the garage.

Bob is sleeping like a log right now. He and the kids stayed in the tent he got for Father’s Day last night. They ran an extension cord out the basement window and played video games ’til who knows when. We roasted marshmallows over the fire pit earlier in the evening. Everyone here has been working hard on springtime fixing and chores. It’s nice to just sit around, relaxing and enjoying one another’s company.

No rest for the wicked today though. The laundry is almost dry on the line, and Bob has requested pizza for dinner. It’s almost time to fold clothes and dig out the pizza stone (between that and the cast iron, I can’t decide which is my fav to cook with). And the best part is we can load the pizzas up with all the bought-on-the-vine tomatoes we want, now that the latest food scare has been narrowed down.

To all the Pops out there, Happy Father’s Day!

Technorati Tags: Father’s Day, camping, tent, kids, family, gardening, pizza

Kare-11 has a bit about the recent fire at Harvest Land. KSTP does too. It doesn’t seem to have been covered much in the news, which is surprising since it hit such a vital part of Morgan (affecting the broader community) and lasted for so long.

Technorati Tags: fire, Morgan, Harvest Land