Just a Bit of Everything!

The puppies continue to grow...and squeal...and whine....and, well, you get the idea. Moved them out of our closet into the living room. Baby (mama dog) is okay with that. She can now escape the whining pups by jumping up on the couch and letting them whine themselves to sleep on occasion. Yesterday she fed them, bathed them and snuggled them...but still they whined. I came into the living room to find her standing over them in their *puppy box* looking a bit perturbed. She looked at me and her expression was the classic "What do I do? What do I do!? Make it stop, make it stop!"
Welcome to motherhood, poor thing.

The political season is going full force. I didn't watch the conventions and I stopped watching the news on t.v. a couple of years ago. I TRY to avoid political commercials, but the sneaky buggers seem to buy time on all the channels....sigh.
Will I vote?
Well, my candidate is not even on the ballot here in Texas. I could go and vote for the Libertarian candidate, in fact, if I go to vote, that is probably what I will do.
Other than that, my main focus is reading news that matters, not the fluff pieces promoted by the main stream media.

The USAs credit rating was dropped lower again and now China is starting to insist on paying for oil/selling oil for yuan instead of dollars. A Very Bad Sign. The price of oil has been stabilized for decades by linking it with the American dollar, as the dollar has historically been the most stable monetary instrument.
Now...not so much.
The drought in the midwest (aka, America's breadbasket) has slowed a bit due to the remnants of a hurricane or two. But...too little, too late. Hay and corn prices had ranchers dumping their cattle at feedlots for slaughter. Small farmers, too, found themselves having to slaughter their small herds to save on feed costs.
The price of beef, and pork will dip a little, temporarily, but meat can only be frozen so long or held so long in grocery stores. When the cheap *dumped* livestock runs out, prices will go up as those farmers that were able to hold on to the core of their herds try to build back up and don't sell.
We had rain here in the desert...too much rain!...and the price of hay went down. Still, corn prices went up and so did feed prices. A lot of folks here have been getting rid of their chickens and other barnyard fowl and small livestock, such as goats and sheep. Roy, the animal guy, currently has 4 ducks rooming with our geese and brought in a couple of new lambs, too. He buys them cheap and then finds buyers that will buy them for a little more. He is doing okay so far.

We have learned that the Darlin' Man has some medical issues that, while serious, can be dealt with. He may be able to retire a little earlier than we thought. While he is slogging through the paperwork for that, we are still looking at properties in Vermont. A couple stand out, but we can't make any decision....yet. I won't be able to make a visit up there this month...or next month. Just too much going on here. Maybe in January or February. We'll see.

The past week, I gained a couple of followers and lost a couple. I admit to not knowing who I gained and who I lost as I still haven't figured out how to navigate the new blogger interface stuff. It confuses me...which isn't too hard as I am a bit of a computer illiterate, lol!
To those I gained...Hi there!
To those I lost...Bye!