http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/08/18/rainy-day-open-line Comments On: Rainy day open line by Lindsey Millar en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Sat, 18 May 2013 05:30:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by plainjim]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 17:27:39 -0500 Arkansas Times
Anywaz, Faye Boozman maintained during his campaign, which was built in part on anti-abortion, that women could not get pregnant from forced raped. It earned him well-deserved ridicule in all women's circles and likely cost him the election even though he attempted to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

In Missouri it's deja vu all over again:

"Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy."

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/…
Posted by eLwood]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:36:31 -0500 Arkansas Times
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business…
Posted by radical centrist]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:11:56 -0500 Arkansas Times
Our pond is only about 1/4 acre and is situated along a long slope of maybe a half mile from my neighbor's above us, across my property to the pond and then below the pond is more acreage where I get some leakage (red oak trees around the pond killed by that blight). We lose some water but there are also artesian wells showing up as springs in the winter and early spring and we may be getting some now but that would be hard when you consider we haven't seen all that rain that Conway had (~3 inches in places) or Little Rock.

Our pond was here when we arrived 16 years ago and it is deep on the down side and hopefully there are still a few large (~10# catfish surviving). We thought about another pond about 12 years ago and spoke to NCRS (federal conservation aagency) and they came out and made some recommendations but we would have had to create the pond off of a neighbor's pond run off plus a short area of my pasture and decided not to do so. You may want to talk to them as they also have some funding available sometimes to help with part of the bills.

We do have a creek that wonders through a band of trees across the property which gave the horses shelter in storms and could be bankful in a matter of minutes after a downpour. Most of the year the pools on the creek take care of the deer and other wild animals but now they are showing up at my cattle tank for water and a small amount of cracked corn I leave there for the burro.
Posted by couldn't be better]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:58:42 -0500 Arkansas Times If I can help you in any way, please let me know.
Posted by mountaingirl]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:01:33 -0500 Arkansas Times
And you are blessed to still have an aunt. I lost my last one about 3 years ago. This makes my sis and me the family matriarchs! My sis is up to the job---I'm not sure about myself.
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:45:36 -0500 Arkansas Times
I am excited to learn you are considering building a pond and I wish you well in the venture. I would encourage you to do so for the reasons I have previously mentioned, plus you have livestock that would benefit. There are so many warning signs, as eLwood and others have written about, of what we can expect in the near and distant future regarding our weather and climate that I believe any water containment or holding areas we can develop will be beneficial to everything sharing the planet.

Your question about silting is a valid one. Here is an article from my “pond library” you might find informative http://www.pondexpert.co.uk/dealing-silt-p…. There are many others if you do a search. My situation may be a little different from yours and the issues you might face with silting because much of our area is being dug from rock. We are hoping that will help to keep the water clean. But no one knows for sure since this deep excavation has not been done up here before. However, most all ponds have a silt issue to some degree over time. I am a big advocate of aerators. I have no doubt this is the only reason my fish have survived this drought. I even checked into having it powered by a windmill, but there were too many complications with the lay of the land up here and how we could harness wind when there is 200 feet straight up of solid rock as a wind screen on two sides.

You would have a big advantage if you have a fresh water source that could feed into your pond. I only have that when it rains and we get the runoff from the areas above us. But I would suggest you check into what lies above you along that stream to make sure there is no runoff from farms (pesticides or herbicides), cattle (for the reasons you mentioned), or anyone fertilizing with waste from poultry houses or any sewage that might contaminate your pond.

The small pond we built last spring was actually a clearing and redesign of the footprint left from the original pond my dad built 50 years go. Do to neglect and abandonment, there was really nothing left but a slew. The odd thing we discovered, and no one seemed to remember until we got the dozer in there and cleaned it up, was that the original pond only had two sides with banks. The other two sides were simply the natural slope of the mountain. I regret to say that several trees were cut in the process to clear and build the other two banks and a levy.

What I am doing now required no tree demolition at all because the whole area lies in an unused field between the vineyard and the existing pond.

This is probably much more information than you originally asked for but I hope I answered your question. CBB might have some helpful information to share with you also. If you have a Farmer's Co Op in your area, I would suggest you visit with them. I have found those guys to be a wealth of information and they are as familiar with the issues of your specific area as anyone.

Posted by mountaingirl]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:07:25 -0500 Arkansas Times
The iEconomy

"Skilled Work, Without the Worker"

DRACHTEN, the Netherlands — At the Philips Electronics factory on the coast of China, hundreds of workers use their hands and specialized tools to assemble electric shavers. That is the old way.

At a sister factory here in the Dutch countryside, 128 robot arms do the same work with yoga-like flexibility. Video cameras guide them through feats well beyond the capability of the most dexterous human.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/business…




Posted by eLwood]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:05:16 -0500 Arkansas Times
Gabriel Gomez who was on Hardball Friday and is promoting the supposedly "nonpartisan" Swift Boating of President Obama, is a principal in a private equity group based in Boston that does joint acquisition deals with Bain.

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/bain-capi…

Chicken shits just can't help being chicken shits and lying about it by omission.
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:24:48 -0500 Arkansas Times
Everybody needs to listen to Up With Chris Hayes' coverage of voter suppression. There is already a ground game in PA to get the proper ID's for people who will be disenfranchised if they don't win the appeal.

http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.com/

The blatant grab for power and the shamelessness about it on the part of the repubs is mind boggling. They are trying to engineer a bloodless coup d'état. They did it in 2000. All their blathering about constitutionalism and how they love the constitution makes me want to puke.

Going back to Nixon, they pandered to the worst of us because they couldn't win elections without the lunatic fringe. Now that they can no longer win elections WITH their lunatic fringe who are now controlling what used to be the GOP, they are going after the core votes of the democratic party.

Low turn out always helps repubs. They fear a high turn out as much as the DemGaz fears the words "Pussy Riot".
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:43:25 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by Mara Leveritt]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:49:36 -0500 Arkansas Times
http://talkbusiness.net/wp-content/uploads…
Posted by radical centrist]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:47:00 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:45:00 -0500 Arkansas Times
Now the repubs are opening a new front. They are pitting old geezers against the under-55 set. Witness Ryan at The Village with his mom in tow yesterday in Florida. Chris Hayes has it.

http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.com/

He also covers voter suppression, but I haven't watched those yet.
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:13:29 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by radical centrist]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 10:07:24 -0500 Arkansas Times
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/…
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:34:15 -0500 Arkansas Times
We are sorta living through a dark and stormy night. This November will tell us where we go in the short term---the next decade or two. Longer term, it's anyone's guess.
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:12:48 -0500 Arkansas Times
Guess who that is about!. Not wunderkind Ryan, but a wunderkind from another time---David Stockman. A time when deficits exploded but Cheney, as eL has told us, said deficits don't matter (as long as a blah man isn't in the White House).

Here's Stockman today talking about republicans in general and Ryan in particular:

"It's rank demagoguery. We should call it for what it is. If these people were all put into a room on penalty of death to come up with how much they could cut, they couldn't come up with $50 billion, when the problem is $1.3 trillion. So, to stand before the public and rub raw this anti-tax sentiment, the Republican Party, as much as it pains me to say this, should be ashamed of themselves."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-paul/p…

Anti-tax kool-ade drinkers just can't stop drinking Koch/Norquist,Rmoney/Ryan kool-ade.
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 09:02:56 -0500 Arkansas Times "In the beginning..." Writers are told that's already been used. So lets start with the Declaration of Independence. "...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...rights...Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."
Not so well known are the complaints against the King of England. Many of those complaints are now being foisted on our people both by commission and omission.
Lincoln would reiterate them in his Gettysburg address "...dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal..."
Today, the "Party of Lincoln" has declared the above not true, and are endorsing it with their restrictions on voting. What next?
Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:52:18 -0500 Arkansas Times
Mountaingirl, if you're out there, have you given any thought to ways of keeping your pond from silting up over time? I have been mulling over the idea of a new pond for a while. I think I will also have my old pond cleaned out. It may be 5 feet in the middle. I don't know how big a pond needs to be before you can put marsh plants in it. I do know those types of plants are good filters and can improve water quality. I think a very small spring feeds my old pond. It stays clear.

I am thinking of another pond about 150 yards east of the old one. Lots of water runs off the hill there, and it stays soggy for a long, long time after the rains have stopped. I am not sure if a permitting process is required. Anybody know?

The mules are very neat and tidy pond users---unlike cattle. They wouldn't dream of pooping or peeing in their water supply.

I just wish they would learn to co-exist with dogs. I have been fostering a puppy since June and I can never let her off-leash. Her big brother and her BFF from across the road are bigger and faster and can get away when the big guys give chase.

My brother and sis-in-law have been looking at pound dogs, and I have convinced them they need this little girl. She was dumped on the hill above my neighbors place. I will be driving her down to TX in September.

The vet thinks she is half Shar-Pei and half dachshund. She's got doxie paws, not as many wrinkles as a Shar-Pei but more than I would tolerate. She has Shar-Pei hair---a permanent Marine buzz cut. I think she looks like she was assembled from spare doggy parts. Neck's too long. Head's too big. AND she is smart as a whip! She was easy to housebreak. She's just the happiest little thing. Everyone who meets her thinks she is cute and precious.

She is spayed, vaccinated, and ready to go. We go into town a few times a week and work on stuff like heeling, sitting, and staying. We can't do the lessons at home because her big brother and BFF won't let her concentrate.

She is still pushing her charm offensive on the cat. He doesn't like the game of "train" that she likes to play. That's the one where he is the engine and she is the caboose and she follows him around with her nose coupled to his rear. It sometimes results in loud hisses. Their other game is "staredown" where they see who can go the longest without moving while staring at each other.
Posted by the outlier]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:22:47 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 07:44:58 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by Bill]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 07:22:15 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by Doc]]> Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:30:28 -0500 Arkansas Times Posted by the outlier]]> Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:49:56 -0500 Arkansas Times
http://assets.amuniversal.com/f675d9f0c2dd…
Posted by Cato]]> Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:48:09 -0500 Arkansas Times