[near horse]

Hi Erik,

I see what you’re saying but I think of my Iranian friend (now exiled from Iran and the rest of his family) who spoke out more than once against the shah and was jailed and beaten. When the shah was overthrown and the Ayatollah Khomeini (sp) became the leader, many of his friends said “see what happens when you speak out. We get a worse leader.” His response was, “the shah was a tyrant regardless of who replaced him. And now I’ll speak put against the Ayatollah. And the next leader after him and the next until we get someone who treats the people well.” I think he makes a good point but also recognize that he’s in exile for those beliefs as well.

Another analogy would be slaves on southern plantations – a master provides you with food and a place to live. Are you willing to stay a slave for those “benefits” or take the risk of living free and possibly fail or die?

The Egyptians could be in for a rough road ahead but it’s their road. Maybe they can grow food instead of export cotton. We’ll see. I hope for the best.

[near horse]

How ’bout the term “bumpin knots”? Do you all hear that one much?

[near horse]

Unfortunately, the history that we “learn” is often not the truth but a rewrite that redirects our perception of reality.

Read “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn and compare it to what we’re taught in school.

Erik makes a great point about international ag – people in developing countries starve while their ag sector grows export crops for the developed world. Corporate colonialism or, is it “the new world order and globalization”? Somethings don’t change and are so lucrative that they’re just repackaged and sold back to us over and over. Yick.

Mubarak just resigned so let’s see where Egypt goes with this. Regardless, it is impressive that the protest has made this much progress!

[near horse]

Why do you all cut the linseed oil with turpentine? I’ve always just used it straight – and we are talking about boiled linseed oil, right? I’ve used it on my neck yokes and doubletrees and it does good.

[near horse]

Strictly for “discussion purposes” but I think of Goerge Carlin’s comment that “careful, nonviolence can get you killed.”:confused: So can complacency – it’s just a slower death.

NOTE the irony of this being in a thread titled “mobile slaughtering” OOPs!

[near horse]

Wow – I just read thru a summary of the VT regs in something like Agri-vermont. Rife isn’t even a strong enough word to cover that mess I read. It’s like each member of the legislature wrote down one issue then they put ’em in a hat and pasted together the first 10 or 12 they pulled out!

I apologize – I HAD NO FREAKIN’ IDEA it was like that – those folks appear to be able to screw up a rock fight:mad:. Good luck.

Matt – with stupid regs like these we’ll have to escalate from farmer pirate to either “farmer vigilante” or “farmer anarchist” (didn’t want to say farmer terrorist but I thought it.)

[near horse]

“Who pays for the “court” , Judge , jury, court house, security……? “

That’s already paid for by your tax dollars – not any additonal cost.

[near horse]

If I recall, manuals say something like “use hard oil” – couldn’t ever figure out what that meant – gear oil or grease?

[near horse]

@Big Horses 24645 wrote:

Thing is John, this isn’t about drilling. It’s about a bunch of coke drums and parts being hauled to an already existing refinery in the Southern part of Montana. No drilling involved. Amazingly, the news station in Missoula, MT did a question/poll last week on the subject of letting them haul the parts through MT and over 78% replied YES! and Missoula is a pretty “green” town. I just don’t see much of a justifiable argument for not letting them haul it, personally. The road has already been there, was put there a long time ago, and has been a pretty heavily used truck route for many years (I hauled hundreds of loads over the route, grossing well over 100,000# along with LOTS of other trucks). There is minimal impact caused by the hauling of these parts, other than a bunch of people getting all riled up and causing delays with frivilous and costly (to me as well as all taxpayers) court battles and such. If there were damage being done, or drilling, or something like that, I’d be much more apt to agree with them…but it’s not.
Just my opinion. I’ve tried to keep my mouth shut about how I feel, as I’m sure it’s going to result in a rave from a few, but the false info needs to be addressed.
John

The issue with the CP loads headed to Billings is that they are being identified as “the test case” for opening this highway up to this type of traffic – 207 more form Exxon Mobil, 60+ more from a Korean oil company and others chomping at the opportunities being promoted.

You can’t say that the damage will be minimal as even ITD admits they’ve never ever had a load even close to this size travel this route (or any other in ID for that matter).

Here’s the poll from the Helena paper – note: while the yeas did outweigh the nays, it was hardly 78% ( more like 56%)and it’s an unscientific sample (not random) so hardly indicative of true public sentiment – either way.

The online voting in our unscientific poll came out in favor of allowing the vehicles to pass through Montana, with 823 votes in favor of allowing the project and 635 opposed. But the majority of the comments we received were from people opposed to the project.

Also, 100,000# is a far cry from 675,000# in anyone’s book. Heavily used is a relative term. The 207 loads Exxon/Mobil plans to send will also take 4 days to make the trip over the pass and, since they’re not supposed to have 2 rigs on the route at the same time, that’s 828 straight days or more than 2 years of loads that size every single day. Since it’s unlikely they’ll be able to travel every day, we’re probably looking at close to 3 years of traffic to complete that one contract, with more to follow. I doubt even you would want that travelling through your neck of the woods.

Please identify the said “false info”.

The delays cost you nothing as a taxpayer as CP is footing the whole bill for the legal actions/defense on behalf of the state of Idaho.

While I don’t know what kind of organized response may have been generated by CP to this poll, I do know they bussed over a load of employees from Billings to the Boise hearing, complete with CP T-shirts. That’s at least 400 miles one way and I doubt those folks were “off the clock” for the couple of days they were present. That is completely different than a gathering of citizens taking off work to show support for stopping the shipments from using this route.

BTW – our Gov said if we don’t allow these shipments, we’ll have $5 gas. So I guess he’s going to pick up the tab when gas hits $5 AND these shipments go through.

[near horse]

I have a 6 and a 9 – started with the 6 and did some repair/renovations, in fact that external gear “blew apart” after some pea gravel got jammed between the knife and a guard. Don’t know why the pitman stick didn’t bust first – that’s why it’s wood (like the precursor to the shear pin). Many of the parts cross over. I didn’t find out until recently that the gear box was oilless as well – it seems weird to have the pitman and ring gears enclosed but have 1/2″ hole in the bottom of the case. I thought the “plug” must have broke off – nope!

[near horse]

I saw The Horsedrawn Mower Book for sale on Ebay -32.95 + 6.80 shipping.

Here’s the link – if it doesn’t work, let me know.

http://stores.ebay.com:80/Buggy-Horse-Stuff-and-Sleigh-Bells/_i.html?_fsub=4539828

PS – there’s more than one copy available and you don’t need to bid, just buy at that price.

[near horse]

There was an episode on Rural Heritage that showed pack mules in the Sierra Mtns of N. California, hauling the mail with snowshoes on. Even showed a guy putting ’em on a mule that laid over on its side while he attached them. Getting up must be the tricky part!

Amazing what those beasts will tolerate from us.

[near horse]

@Jim Garvin 24578 wrote:

Geoff;

I haven’t forgotten about posting the pictures, but the snow has kept me quite busy for the past week and a half. Last night capped it off with a thunderstorm!! I just got thru scaping 3-4″ of packed ice off the driveway. I have the trailer covered right now, so I’m going to have to dig around it so I can access the back enough to get in and take the pictures. I’ll try and do it by the end of the week.

I hated Bartsow, CA when we were there in August of ’09….but it’s getting to look better and better every day!!

Jim

No worries! Barstow – hah! I had a math teacher who explained some math concept by saying “It’s like Barstow. Nobody GOES to Barstow – they just pass through it.”

[near horse]

Hi Jim,

I know you’re up to your eyeballs in winter but wonder about the plexi-glass panels on your stock trailer. Did I miss the pics somewhere or is the trailer in a drift somewhere out back:eek:

Your neighbor Pete sent me a pic of Ed’s place w/ just a bit of snow so I certainly sympathize.

[near horse]

Oldkat – I have a hard time swallowing the “oil companies operate on marginal profits” scenario. Do you expect us to believe that they’re out there doing this for “the good of the humanity” or something? If it was marginally profitable, they’d either raise prices or get out – that’s how markets work. No decent profit = no incentive to stay and invest, period.

And, oil companies know we have no other choices, for the most part. Our infrastructure was designed and developed to operate based on cheap petrol.

In my most recent experience here, the reps of Conoco/Phillips and Exxon/Mobil have been nothing but underhanded and deceitful, misleading the public with bogus advertisements and slandering local residents who are opposed to their actions in this area – in fact, actually telling our state troopers they felt there could be “terrorists” trying to stop their trip. So local citizens who were honest and above board about saying they were going to make sure the loads were in compliance with the agreement, were pulled over by ISP and harassed in the need to thwart terrorism.

Now those knuckleheads are stuck in the mountains in a snowstorm – after already sideswiping a guardrail and rocky outcropping enroute.

I’ll post this excerpt again so we can see just how poorly those companies are doing in this struggling economy. Not a tear from me will be shed for the poor oil companies and their investors.

Excerpt from: Exxon’s Profit Rises in Quarter, Helped by Higher Oil Prices By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times, Jan. 31. 2011
>>
>> HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil, the largest American oil company, reported a 53 percent increase in its fourth-quarter profit on Monday,…
>>
>> Exxon Mobil’s profit in the quarter was $9.25 billion, or $1.85 a share, compared with $6.05 billion, or $1.27 a share in the quarter a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected $1.63 a share. Total revenue in the quarter was $105.2 billion, up from $89.8 billion in the quarter a year earlier.
>>
>> For the year, Exxon Mobil made $30.46 billion, or $6.22 a share, compared with $19.28 billion, or $3.98 a share, in 2009. Revenue in 2010 rose to $383 billion from $310 billion the previous year….
>>
>> “Exxon Mobil remains well positioned to maximize shareholder value,”….

BTW – As I drove across the country last fall, I can’t count the number of signs I saw in the rural areas of different states saying “No Fracking …..” But our Energy gods tell us now they’ve found more than 100 yrs worth of natural gas, so no power worries – Right, guess where?

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