Our Eagles Nest Is Gone
By: Stan Jordan
On Monday night, November 28th, there was quite a wind storm and it blew our local eagle nest to pieces. In fact, the next morning, what remains of the nest is hardly any bigger than a squirrels nest.
I talked to Jim Pendergrast about this situation, as to whether the eagles will rebuild or vacate the area. He says we will have to wait to see.
I talked to another fellow about noon on Wednesday and he had just driven by the nest area and he said one of the adult eagles was sitting on a limb looking the area over. He was not repairing the nest, he was just looking at what was left. On Monday a man told me their was an adult eagle sitting in that tree looking things over. I hope they rebuild in a hurry, as it will soon be mating time.
See ya!
A Little More on the Social Security Administration
By: Stan Jordan
Back in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted a program, that would make it easier of older people to enjoy their retirement, something to shoot for. By putting in part of their earnings now, they would have something laid aside for when they turned 65.
That was a blue ribbon idea and has worked well for years. Over the years, 82 to be exact, it has been added to, subtracted from and kicked around a lot.
The addition of Medicare was a brilliant idea, it helped everybody. Even the nation’s economy got a big boost from Medicare. Look how many big hospitals are built with Medicare money.
For many years it was in the Health Education and Welfare. Calle the H.E.W. and a lot of other plans were tied into with social security money.
In the cities sometimes, the whole family is supported by the government. For instance, about two years ago there was a story in the Reader’s Digest about a woman in Baltimore who had six kids, different fathers and no man at all in the house. She drew a check each month of $4300.00 from the government to support her family. Her oldest boy was 17 and trying to worm his way into permanent disability, and he will probably win.
This type of deal is prevalent in most of the big cities, especially New Orlean, the government even pays for their rent. In lots of cases the H.E.W. even pays for their college schooling and in some areas, furnish a car and a babysitter.
President Roosevelt did not plan on his social security program to go that far. Basically his was a retirement program, but over the years too many other plans were added on to it. I think Medicare and Medicaid are fine ideas, but some are handouts and should be curtailed. There are are too many families milking this program and have been for years.
The papers that I have read on this subject says the SSA fund will run out in 2034. This is because there are people retiring each year and with the bad economy there is less tax money being paid, plus the fact there are way too many people receiving a government check each month that shouldn’t.
But I don’t think any of that will change anytime soon. In Washington the feds are running the government with money left over each year in the SSA, but no senator or congressman will bring up a bill to make things different.
See ya!
Sam Rivers, Indian Agent Chapter 11: Going to the Lakota Camp
By: Stan Jordan
We left shortly after daylight and headed north to the Lakota camp. The hunter and I in the first wagon, the other two soldiers rode in the second wagon.
I left Mo at the agency with Callie. He has a couple of chores to do and I think Callie wants him to help plant some flowers. He is also the runner, if need be.
We had a beautiful day, nice warm sun shine all day. We just bounced along until we came to the Loop River in the afternoon and we turned to the west and followed our trail marker until we got to the place where we ford the river and go north to the encampment.
It was getting late in the afternoon and I said, “We will ford the river in the morning. We will camp on the south side for tonight.” It turned out that was one of the wisest decisions that I ever made.
Callie told me to take the one burner oil stove along in our wagon. It is so much easier to use on the trail.
For supper I made coffee and Callie had sent sandwiches and cookies and a can of peaches.
Well, we got up at first light and had breakfast and there was some thunder in the air. We got all our gear packed and that thunder was louder, but it wasn’t thunder it was a war. The hunter said, “that ain’t no storm, that is a buffalo herd.”
It sure was a big herd coming out of the northeast on the other side of Loop River. There was a good line of trees on both sides of the river. The line of trees was between us and the buffaloes.
Well, the heard was fording the river just where we would pretty soon. We stayed close to the trees and had to hold each horse because they were jumping and scared.
It seemed like this went on forever but only a few minutes and they were going away to the southwest. We let the horses settle down and the dust storm moved away and then we crossed the river and that is when we got busy.
Right by the south bank of the river a small buffalo or last year’s calf, I suppose, was half in half out of the water.
We looked the situation over and the hunter said, “He has a broken legs,” and his mother just kept on running, she probably didn’t know that he was down.”
He said, “We must kill him because he can’t live out here alone and we will dress him out and give him to the Indians.” The hunter shot him in the head with his Army rifle. Then the hunter took charge of everything and gutted him out and washed his inside cavity out and the five of us loaded him in the back of the second wagon. It didn’t take all that long, the five of us each had a skinning knife and the hunter told each of us what to do.
After he was loaded we all washed up and we headed north to the campsite. We stopped for lunch just to let the horses rest, but I did make a pot of coffee with the ‘little jim dandy’ oil burner and then we headed out again at a little faster gait to get in there awhile before dark.
It seemed like forever but I could see a little smoke and dust up ahead that would be White Elk’s camp. A couple young braves rode out to meet us, or they figured the only people with wagons and coming from the south would be the Indian Agent. After the one boy saw us and our Totem he turned his pony back toward camp and away he went. We had been here once before.
By the time we got to the middle of the camp we stopped both wagons and I gathered the soldier boys around and made sure no weapons were visible. I didn’t know if the blue bellies would cause a problem or not. I guess my being there was enough to see all was safe.
By now, Limping Buffalo was on hand and we all shook hands and I had the soldiers shake and howdy, and we all smoked the pipe and talked a bit.
I explained to Limping Buffalo that we had just planted our garden and that Farmer had come with a new plow and told him what we intended to do.
Well, to get the garden area all ready to plant at one time was a great improvement. He talked to a fairly old native and talked to him in their native language, and the way he grunted and nodded I figured he was the main garden planter.
After a few minutes, I told Limping Buffalo about the buffalo we had killed and that it was in the wagon for the tribe to eat. He talked to some young fellows and they all nodded and left to take care of the fresh meat.
Next Week: We all learn
See ya!
Trump is a Bump
By: Stan Jordan
The Constitution says that I can voice my opinion if I do it right.
Well, Mr Trump has not been sworn in as President and he already has rebuffed China twice. China has called his antics childish. That is a good assumption. For the months that he was politicing he said a lot of childish things.
They have already said that they can buy all the imports they need from our competitors, who are the South American counties.
China buys more of our farm and meat produce than anybody and if we lose that market we will fall into a recession. Farming is America’s most important business.
See ya!
