Turkey Butchery

Sorry for the blogging break, with the holidays and some family staying with us we haven't had the time. This is what you've missed...

By now you know we are a little different then most of the world, so this shouldn't be a big shocker...we had an alternative turkey option this year. :) By the title, you know where I'm going with this...
Instead of the traditional heading to the store to buy a frozen turkey this year we had the option to slaughter our own turkey. Some friends had been raising turkeys, free range, of course, and we hosted a "slaughtering party" at our house and got to keep 2 of the turkeys for Thanksgiving.

So, we joined together with friends and some family to slaughter 15 turkeys! Here's some pictures. (Just in case you were wondering, the turkeys were delicious!!)
Here's Dusty cutting the head off one of the turkeys...

My mom and Kathy

Tara, Kevin & Tyler are at the "defeathering station"

Here's Tara at the scalding stage

Here's Dusty with a wild one...Grandpa is holding the door

Killed, scalded & defeathered...Jon, Kevin & Dusty

Dusty's mom AKA Gran was visiting and recovering from surgery...she made it out to see what was going on with all this turkey business.

The slaughtering cone. (Kevin, Jon & Dusty)

It's a family affair with a camp fire

Here's some of the crew minus a few

It's snowing!

Just a wee tiny bit of snow but enough to excite this gang! :)

Gold & Silver moving up the ladder??

Dusty and I have a weird habit of following the prices of gold and silver on a daily basis. This little habit started back in '04 when we lived in California, our watching of the prices was more sporadic back then but now with the economy in the situation that it is we both find it even more interesting to watch now. We've never had the extra cash just laying around to invest in precious metals so for me it's like a game of what I would have gained or lost depending on when I would have invested.

We came across this article today, the headline reads "Expect Higher Silver and Gold Prices this week"

Monday, November 17, 2008

Expect Higher Silver and Gold Prices this Week

Gold Price Close Today : 741.90

Change: -0.50 or -0.1%

Silver Price Close Today : 9.33

Change: $16 cents or 7.1%

Gold Silver Ratio: 79.52

Change: -1.442 or -1.8%

Dow Industrials: 8,273.58

Change: -223.73 or -2.6%US Dollar

Index Today: 86.93

Change: -0.49 or -0.6%

The key reversals upward posted last Thursday in SILVER and GOLD PRICES prices remain in place. The silver price is weaker and must not close below $9.20, but it should manage. I suspect today's lackluster metals performance (the gold price up 50 cents and the silver price up 16 cents) stemmed from shorts returning form their weekend and placing new positions.

Expect higher silver and gold prices this week. As long as that key reversal holds, you can safely buy, because the bottom has been made.There was no big news today, other than the new announcements of massive layoffs, auto manufacturers bailout, and more bank bail outs, but something sure made both stocks and the US Dollar index sick. Stocks appear to have contradicted their key reversal last Thursday by closing below Thursday's 8,835 Dow close, down today 224 to 8,274. The Dow tried twice to pierce 8,900 and failed twice. It closed today virtually on the day's low. Unless it reverses upward tomorrow, the Dow is headed much lower. Some force is hammering the US DOLLAR INDEX above 87.5. With two lower tops (88+ & 87.5) the dollar has the look of having topped. Only a rise above 88 would put the fear of lower prices behind the buck.

Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought.-

Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger"Buy Silver and Gold Coins at:"The-MoneyChanger.com

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate in a bubble, primary trend way down.

posted by goldprice at 4:29 PM

California Wedding

Here are some of the pictures from the wedding we attended in Santa Barbara, Ca. The wedding was for Dusty's cousin Jhenie. Austin and Alanah were in the wedding. I was very sick the day of the wedding, I finally caught the bug that had been floating around.


This is my brother in law, Jed with my sister in law, Ruth and our youngest niece, Adia.

Joe & Melanie Potter

My step-dad, Herb and my Mom, Janis

Cool guy Austin all dressed up

Dusty and his brothers...Jed, Dusty, Luke & Joe

Cousin Laurie and Dusty's brother Luke

Jhenie & Nick AKA bride and groom

My sister in law, Ruth and me.

Kaianah's 1st Birthday

Kaianah's 1st Birthday, yah I'm a little late in getting the pictures up...we celebrated in California along with my nephews Jaden, who turned 5 & Nate who turned 2. So, three birthdays in one. Here are some pictures.

Dusty & Kaianah...sorry to disappoint you all but we didn't let her eat this, we didn't want to take any chances with her getting sick! Her road has been bumpy enough without adding a cupcake on top of it all.

Getting a little help from dad with opening those presents.

She started getting the hang of things...

This is little Nate and his birthday cupcake.

Then we have Jaden and my brother in law, Jed. Jaden turned the BIG 5

Beekeepers...

Okay, I really want to be a beekeeper. I've been checking out bee starter kits and it's an investment to get started, at least for us. The starter kits run from $140.00 up to $299.00



I heard a very interesting quote while we were on vacation a couple weeks ago. The quote was:



“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination… no more men!”

Did I mention the author of the quote, oh just an everyday Joe, have you ever heard of Albert Einstein?? Yep, that's the author of the quote.


If that doesn't get you thinking about being a beekeeper I don't know what does... We love the taste of honey, plus all the added heath benefits of honey AND the step that would be taken towards sustainability. Did I mention candles??

I've Got DARRRKKK Hair

I've been toying with the idea for months now but couldn't seem to make up my mind...go dark, go light, go dark, go light. Hurry up and make up your mind the gray is taking over!

On our trip to California my brother in law and sister in law gave me a late birthday present...a trip to the salon to finally make up my mind, plus a trim if I so desired, and of course I did! Since we've been back I keep shocking people with my new hair color so I decided to show you all some pictures~and hopefully lessen the shock a bit. :)
Kaianah is getting more and more curls!

These photos are also a special treat from a photographer friend here in Idaho, THANK YOU TAMMY!! These pictures were taken on our property...The fall season is here!!

Beachy Shenanigans

A few beach pictures from our trip...

To all the family in Hawaii, try not to get jealous of the murky water and brown sand beaches! ha, ha :)

Austin's wearing a dress & girls sunglasses!!

She loves the beach!

Okay, this is like a "Where's Waldo" meets "Running of the Bulls in Barcelona"

Just to the right of the yellow trash can you can see Alanah running with the birds. She was having a blast scaring them away.

Josiah is a 6 ft. bull legged man with sunglasses on the beach in Ventura, Ca.

SWIMMING LIVE~~ IN THE 805

The Davis boys were given the gift of swim lessons from Grandpa & Grandma Fitzpatrick while the boys were staying with them. THANK YOU GRANDPA & GRANDMA!! The boys LOVED the lessons and are still talking about it. Dusty took some pictures from the last lesson.

This is Austin and his instructor.

Smiley Siah

Back floatin' Noah

I thought this was so cute...

Look at Dad and say "cheese". I guess we forgot to mention SMILE!!

Here on Gilligans Isle...

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip (to California)
That started from this tropic port (Idaho)
Aboard this tiny ship. (The Toyota Sienna mini van)

The mate was a mighty sailing man, (though he was SO sick the day we left)
The skipper brave and sure. (trying not to get sick and needing to drive since the mighty sailing man was to weak to drive)
Seven passengers set sail that day
For a three week tour, a three week tour.

The weather started getting rough, (we hit snow on the way down)
The tiny ship was tossed, (when we almost hit a deer just before Jordan Valley)
If not for the courage of the pewking crew, (yes, pewking crew)
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too, and the 5 little dwarfs...
The movie star
The professor and Mary Ann, Here on Gilligans Isle.

So this is the tale of the castways,
They're here for a long, long time,
They'll have to make the best of things

COMING SOON TO A BLOG NEAR YOU...

All of our travel details and tons of pictures!!

WE GOT CANNED!

I just love playing around with those titles, here's what I meant. :)
Last week I got to learn how to can tomatoes with my friend Tara. Today Dusty and I tried it on our own at home. IT WORKED!! Yeah!! We canned 6 wide mouth mason jars. (Not all pictured above)
Now we can make salsa for a while longer and still be using the tomatoes from the garden. I don't know why I was so intimated by canning...it's really not hard. Dusty and I enjoyed doing this together today, both the girls were taking a nap so we had a good window to get this accomplished.
Mr. Multi-tasker...talkin' on the cell phone and canning tomatoes.
This is a horrible picture, but hey, I got canned tomatoes! :) Maybe after I eat some my eyes will open up again! hee,hee

Winter Chores

Winter is coming, winter is coming! Back when we lived in California winter used to mean put on a sweater once in a while, and get excited about frost on the lawn, but we really didn't need to do anything to prepare for winter. Living on the coast meant flip flops year round pretty much.

When we moved to Idaho winter took on a whole new meaning... having our own land winter means get the wood ready, get the heat lamps out to the chickens, blow out the sprinklers (which I had never heard of before me moved here), move the clothes line into the garage & trying to figure out how to keep the cow's water from freezing along with a ton of other winter "chores"...It is a lot of work, but we love it! :)

Socktacular Times By: Alanah

Alanah and I were waiting to meet Dusty after work one day this week. So, as we patiently waited Alanah decided to have some fun taking off her shoes. She thought this was pretty hilarious!

one shoe off...one to go

Success, she did it.
She wanted me to do "the piggy song". You know which one, "this little piggy went to market"...
Things get serious when she tries to put her socks back on, it takes total concentration.

Blog Worthy

This is a letter written from Ron Paul...many of my close friends know that we would have loved to have him elected as president. Generally speaking you won't find political emails in your inbox from me, you won't find me pushing my beliefs down your throat, and you won't hear me trying to change your mind on where you stand BUT since this is our blog, I can put whatever I want on here! :)

Here's what he has to say, I thought it was "post" worthy. :)
And in case you were wondering, I think the bailout is a BAD idea...Just my 2 cents, the 2 cents that I would like to keep!!

Dear Friends,

The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived.

We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets.
Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, since I'd only be repeating what I've been saying over and over - not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.

Still, at least a few observations are necessary.The president assures us that his administration "is working with Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in our markets." Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve and its money creation spree were even mentioned?
We are told that "low interest rates" led to excessive borrowing, but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs engage in malinvestments - investments that do not make sense in light of current resource availability, that occur in more temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth instead of being toyed with by the Fed.
Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or "wildcat capitalism" (as if we actually have a pure free market!).
Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: "Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable investments, and put our financial system at risk."
Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown that the "many" who "believed they were guaranteed by the federal government" were in fact correct?
Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary "the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet." Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on propping them up.
It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the economy recovered within less than a year.
The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days.
F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his day - and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:
Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.
To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.
The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a "rescue plan"? I guess "bailout" wasn't sitting too well with the American people.The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American people overwhelmingly oppose. The very fact that some of you seem to think you're supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to annoy them.I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate yourselves on these subjects - the Campaign for Liberty blog is an excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the comment section, and learn.H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

The Davis' Minus 3

My Mom and Step-Dad just headed to California with our 3 boys yesterday. I got a phone call this afternoon that they arrived safely today. Here's the "biggie" they are keeping the kids for THREE weeks!!! Pray that the kids are little angels for them, please!!!!
Dusty and I had a nice day with the girls yesterday. It was a great time to just focus on them and much needed. Maybe we can get Alanah potty trained...hummm?

I got a package in the mail today and this was how Alanah spent her afternoon...


Alanah said that she was cooking...she would use the wooden spatula and carry the little pieces to a plate. (Over and over again! :)

I MISS YOU AUSTIN, NOAH & JOSIAH...Mommy and Daddy love you guys. Be good for Grandma & Grandpa. I put a special note for each of you below in your favorite color.

Austin, you are a great oldest brother and I'm so proud of you. Remember to lead by example, your little brothers are always watching you. (Yes, I remembered that you have 2 favorite colors! Love you buddy!!)

Noah, you always make Mom & Dad laugh and we love your spirit. Remember to help out, make good decisions, and don't tease your brothers. We love you bunches and bunches!!!!

Josiah, you have the biggest heart, you are the best big brother to your sisters. Remember to use your "inside voice" and remember that whining won't get you what you want. Use your words when you are mad and don't hit!!
Can you feel my lovin's?? We love you so much!!!

Good Night Boys!!!