August thread

[Canadarangers]

the dog days of summer are just around the corner....

[RRCmdrBennett]

Summer has been good so far.

[Phillip Gross]

Busy this aummer, which has been good. Going to hate it when my little buddy has to go back to school and we don't get to work together everyday anymore.

[Mark Jones]

Guys. There is still tons of summer left.  Went fishing the other night with my Ranger Bud Rob.  I caught 17 fish.  2 nice bass and a bunch of google eye and all in 1.5 hours.

Rob caught a big bass in the 18 to 20" range. It was a nice fish.  
Regatta Saturday.  Pow Wow camping tommarrow night.  Woo whoo Rangers!  

Mark Jones
p.s. I don't like summer months. Too hot too buggy.  BRING on the cooler weather and the backpacking! YES! I haven't healed up from Camporama yet. Brain still cooked from Camporama!

[Phillip Gross]

We kick off our Ranger year this coming Sunday with our annual Back to School Bash. To be honest I haven't even looked over anything in preparation. I've been so incredibly busy this summer with work that I just haven't had time. All of our racing plans went out the window early this year. To be honest I really do get tired of the constant Rollercoaster ride of business. Either so incredibly busy that I can't think about anything else, or slow and watching pennies to stay afloat until the next busy spell. I know I probably sound like a broken record with this, but it's the life I live...

[joecool]

Philip, you're Main Street, not Wall Street. And that's why you and your opinion are more important than the latter. Have you been in the business long enough to draw an economic comparison between the Bush and Obama presidencies?

[joecool]

Franklin Graham was in town yesterday for the latest stop on his 50-state tour. Perfect weather and a crowd of 3000. Not bad for Montana. His words were well-received and the paper's write-up was fair. Well, except for the long quotes from a Planned Parenthood supporter whose safe place was invaded. Somebody call the waaaaaaaaaah-mbulance for her. But wearing her PP t-shirt and big button, she was likely there to initiate confrontation.

[Phillip Gross]

Philip, you're Main Street, not Wall Street. And that's why you and your opinion are more important than the latter. Have you been in the business long enough to draw an economic comparison between the Bush and Obama presidencies?

For some reason I didn't see this post until today.

I started in the trade in 1996. I stepped in to run the company in 2009 and officially bought it in 2010. We skated through the housing bubble burst of 2007-2008 just fine. We had our largest grossing year in 2010 in the first three quarters... then the bottom fell out for us. It took me by surprise because I thought we were immune when everyone else was going belly up (I was younger and naiver than I am now) and thought we were going to skate through. In the fourth quarter of 2010 it was like someone flipped a switch and our contracts shut off! Things that were supposed to come up got shelved or got delayed.

Anyway, all that to say that we got hurt during the Bush administration too, but in my opinion that was caused by Clinton policies that ran their course. Just like Reagan policies that had run their course and Clinton took credit for the good economy, Bush gets blamed for the crappy policy effects of Clinton... but I digress.

I would say that in spite of the economic turmoil during the Bush years, there wasn't a hopelessness like there is in the Obama years. There was still a belief in American exceptionalism during the Bush years that is gone now. Now everyone views waves of success as nothing more than a hedge against the next downturn. That's sad...

I say all the time that while I was young, I grew up in the Reagan Era when if you wanted to be successful all you had to do was work hard and you could make it. You also didn't need to apologize for achieving success. Things have changed and it's sad...

[joecool]

There was still a belief in American exceptionalism during the Bush years that is gone now.

You didn't build that. How privileged of you.

[Claymore]

MY privilege is to pay extra taxes so that some Deadbeat can get a free Cell Phone!

[joecool]

Anybody go outside to catch the meteor shower? Walking over to the grandkids' house in 6 minutes.

[joecool]

One hour under the skies and we saw two dozen meteors. The first one was awesome. Super-bright and long lasting, in the moonlight we could see the smoke trail after the burn faded out.

[RRCmdrBennett]

Ya know the free phone began during Reagan era as a landline to help people get jobs by putting a number on the applications. It should never have evolved into cell phones where you can hock it $40 worth of drug $$$.

[Claymore]

One hour under the skies and we saw two dozen meteors. The first one was awesome. Super-bright and long lasting, in the moonlight we could see the smoke trail after the burn faded out.

I went outside, after I saw your post.

Skies in Mississippi were 80% covered by wispy clouds.

I strained my neck for 15 minutes, saw nothing, & went inside.

[Phillip Gross]

I have been in some nasty houses in my life and they many times are filled with fleas. Over time I have come to think of nasty homes with fleas and homes with fleas as nasty homes as one and the same. That being said, I was mortified to realize recently that we have a flea infestation...

Both of the dogs are outside dogs, but a couple months ago I found that our female lab had found a way to open the scuttle hole door and let both labs into the crawl space of our house. I fixed the door so that she couldn't get in anymore as soon as I realized it, but apparently the damage had already been done. Because I've been so busy this summer, I hadn't made the time to get the dogs to the vet as I should have to get their flea medications. Add to these two issues the fact that we had massive flooding here several months ago and we are still super humid. Yes, it was a perfect storm to usher in a flea infestation... UGH!!

So now we're in full flea combat mode. I've of course "found time" to take the dogs in to get the trifexis and we've been using over the counter foggers (we've bombed the house three times so far) in the house, spraying flea killer on carpet, couches, beds, etc. to no avail. I crawled under the house yesterday and threw three foggers around before crawling back out, at which time I found that I was quite literally covered in fleas. I sprinkled 7 dust under the porch. We've sprayed the yard. Etc. Etc. Etc. Yet still the fleas cometh!

I called several exterminators today to see what they could do and when. A few of them just said that they'd come in and spray the house, but didn't do crawl spaces. What the heck??? What kind of exterminators don't do crawl spaces? They didn't seem like they had a full action plan, so I kept calling people. Finally found one that will do the inside, outside and underneath. They come out Monday morning.

So the moral of the story is that while many times nasty homes are filled with fleas, and many times flea ridden homes are nasty places, it isn't always one and the same. I've had a paradigm shift.

[joecool]

Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their back to bite 'em
And little fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitum
(Author unknown)

If a flea had money, it would buy its own dog (Jamaica)
A flea can trouble a lion more than the lion can harm a flea (Kenya)
A single finger cannot catch fleas (Haiti)

[Phillip Gross]

Well I plan to get some nematodes to put out as well for a longer term fix. The problem with nematodes is that it doesn't work overnight.

[Phillip Gross]

Had a good day today. I've been going over financial advice with Phillip Jr since he made real money this summer. I'm proud of him because he bought his own school clothes for the start of the year. It was pretty funny about that though. My wife took him out shopping the other day, just the two of them. She asked him where he'd like her to take him, Old Navy, Gap, etc. He said, "Walmart will be fine". It's amazing how your choice of store changes when you're the one footing the bill!

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been telling him that while saving money is good, investing money is even better. I told him that only people who've never figured out how to grow them will tell you that money doesn't grow on trees. I explained that you must "plant" your money in some good soil and then water it with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. In the end you'll have a very nice money tree!

He thought about it for awhile and then said that he'd like to get into breeding dogs. I told him that I thought that would be a great investment for a young man who will have time on a daily basis to take care of them. He's always loved Golden Retrievers so we found a breeder with some females that was giving full registrations (vs limited registration that a lot of breeders give), so we drove down to Georgia today to pick her out. He ended up with a beautiful little Golden tonight.

It was great watching him deal with the breeder. When Jr paid, the breeder counted the money he'd been handed and then gave Phillip $100 back and said that he felt that Phillip was a very nice young man and wanted to give him a price break. He was impressed that a young man had saved his money and was investing in something useful instead of blowing it on video games and such.

Yes, it was a good day. And now there's a young man sleeping in the next room undoubtedly dreaming of the time he'll spend with his very own dog.

[Claymore]

You and your son have figured out, in a season, what our Government has forgotten over the past 100 years -- people value things more, if they have earned them, and people do not value what they have not earned.

Good Job!

[Phillip Gross]

I wish I was as optimistic as you are. I don't think they've forgotten at all. I just think they also know that if allowed to, humans will take the easiest route. Unfortunately that route leads down the road towards tyranny. I think they've been doing it intentionally.

[Phillip Gross]

That's why it's vital that we train children up to learn a better way. That's why RR is such an important ministry. We get to impart a little bit more truth to a group of boys every week! For some that might make the difference in their life when they come to the crossroads.

[Claymore]

I was told today by our Church Coordinator that she heard her grandson, in Royal Rangers, singing a song.............

"Father Claymore had many sons
Many sons, had Father Claymore
And I am one of them, and so are you
So let's just raise our hands............................"

[RRCmdrBennett]

Philip I was going to say it was intentional too. LBJ made a very nasty remark on how dems would get blacks and others voting for them for 200 years. Control necessities and healthcare you own people.

[Phillip Gross]

It's a very cunning trap, but one as ancient as the world itself. Prey on the needs or desire of a person or animal, and make it seem harmless. Once they're far enough into the trap, spring it and they can't get out...

Maybe I should run the Primitive Snares merit and explain the parallels of snares with certain political policies...

[Canadarangers]

Had a great weekend. Saturday was spent trap shooting with some guys from the church. Brought my 10yr old son and he burnt through 400 .22 rounds in the few hours we were out. We actually had more firearms then people incuding 2 vintage WW2 Soviet Mosin Nagant's and an M1 Garand.

Heading out this week to go camping with seom friends. It's gonna be a hot week, I'll be glad to have the lake close by.

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