The RAnts of RA

I don’t even like to think about those days, but I’m willing to share my story if it helps save even one person from the agony I endured.  My late husband and I dreamed of having a farm.  You know, a little piece of earth that we could pass along to the kids and they could always call home.

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station

The trouble is, we were flat broke.  No, we were less than flat broke.  Dave was working at a winding shop, he was learning to be a motor winder and he really enjoyed it.  The trouble is it only paid $4.35 an hour, not much.  Not only that but he was paying court-ordered child support of $125.00/mo, so basically he was working to support his children and I was supporting us.

Nevertheless, I knew that if we worked hard and saved our money we could still make it happen.  On the weekends, we couldn’t really afford to do anything, so we would drive around the countryside and talk about our dreams.  We wanted a big house and a yard for the kids to play in.

Motor Winding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53OA2pUeNq8

One day we found this house, sitting in the middle of a field, empty.  It was pretty big, it had a barn that was made from real logs split in two.  They were massive. We walked around the place. There were no doors, so we went inside, to have a look around.  It was pretty bad — all 32 panes of glass were broken, there was no bathroom, no kitchen, the furnace was about 75 years old.  We didn’t know if it would ever work.

We drove out a couple more times, located the owners and bought the place, with nothing down.

We were on top on the world, and Styrofoam.

We decided to move in right away, so we could start working on it right away.  So, once it had doors and windows (HEAP did it all for free, including insulation.  What a blessing.), we moved in.  We took turns at night stoking the fire, we slept on Styrofoam mats in front of the wood burner.  We ran an electrically cord from the barn to the house. For some strange reason there was power to the barn but not the house.

Our Farm

Tomatoes – still green.

The farm was located outside Toledo, Ohio on the edge of the safety zone for Davis-Besse  Nuclear  Power Plant, so we often had really loud sirens going off.  I could see those towers like they were sitting right in my own backyard.  The farm was surrounded by crops as far as the eye could see.  Life was hard there. I was constantly boiling water on a little two burner stove for baths and cooking.  A neighbor gave us a tub and we converted a closet into a bathroom. We didn’t care that there was a window in it.  We just hung a curtain over it, or in our case a towel.

I’ll never forget our second Thanksgiving in the house.  We had a bunch of people coming and  it was our first big dinner in the house. Dave was supposed to have the hot water hooked up before then.  He finally got it hooked up and installed as people were pulling in the driveway.  It was a Happy Thanksgiving!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDfVBXcQiGY

Raising Animals

We planted a garden and  raised a few pigs — 25 at the peak of things, 300 chickens each year, a couple ducks, a couple lambs, turkeys,  pheasants, a goat and of course the dogs and cats. (We didn’t eat the dogs and cats, but everything else was fair game.)    Things were good, or so we thought.

We had been there a few years without any trouble. The corn fields were a little trouble, because in the fall, when the fields were cut, the mice would come out of the woodwork.  We had a good mouser which  we bought in the house for just such occasions.    I remember the first year they planted soybeans.  I thought it was nice because we could actually see across the fields  whereas the corn was too tall to see over, in the fall.

Then came the crop dusters, and half our garden died.  We managed to save most of the tomatoes and broccoli but the corn: complete  disaster.  That night I broke out in hives, I was  itching  and my lips swelled, my face swelled, my hands swelled.  I was taken to the hospital, put on Prednisone and sent home.

Prednisone – the worst drug on earth!

Prednisone: The Double-Edged Sword

I would break out a few days after I quit taking the Prednisone, which would mean another trip to the hospital. It was a  vicious  cycle.  Then I had an allergic reaction to the Prednisone and that started my prescription days.  I was taking so many medications I often didn’t even know what day it was.

I was sick  every day  after that.  I ballooned up to 270 pounds from my normal weight of 135. I could hardly breath, and could barely walk.  We didn’t even give a thought to the spray when we picked our vegetables.  I think that was the year  all my tomatoes were big, juicy,  gorgeous  and GREEN.  We had to pick them or lose them, so we picked them.

I thought, “oh, good Lord we’re going to have fried green tomatoes until the cows come home.”  Fortunately, that was not the case.  I washed each  tomato, adding about 1/2 teaspoon of bleach to a sink of water, rinsed and  dried  them well.  Then I put them back in the basket.  The  tomatoes  on the top, exposed to the air would turn red.  We had fresh tomatoes until February that year.

Drastic Changes Were Needed

If I hadn’t made some drastic changes around that same time there is no doubt in my mind that I would be dead.  I couldn’t walk, I could hard breath, I was so out of breath all the time.  I could not live my life surrounded by soybeans.  I’ll always wonder if the people we bought the house from knew there was a problem and sold the house anyways.  I guess I’ll never know.

Dave had a heart attack, it was there we found out that the headaches he was having was due to aspartame.  At that time, we was drinking three our four 2-liters a day.  He would get terrible headaches.

I was taking Vioxx for my arthritis and had told my doctor about my  heart palpitations before they discovered any problems.  I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, so I quit taking them. A year later they were pulled off the market, people were dying.

I took my health into my  own hands, but it took me ten long years of suffering and pain to recover.  Today, I live in the mountains  and I no longer see the doctors. I care for myself and treat myself with food and things from nature.  Do I live a healthy lifestyle? No, not on your life! But I know how to feel better when I hurt myself.  I avoid GMO when I can and I’m just happy to live my life, surrounded by friends and family and the people I care about.

Related articles

• Oh allergic woes.
• Book aims to highlight importance of women in farming
• Can prednisone cause tongue ulcers?
• It’s Time to Rethink America’s Corn System
• Judge orders $1 a month in child support for the next 1000+ years
• Losing Toledo Again?

Everybody knows social media works for businesses – but Matt McKee wants to put it to work for a better cause, not just during the holidays but all year long. Founder and owner of the digital development group ROAR, McKee is giving away free apps for one thousand churches and non-profits now through December 31.

iPhone App

Each one will be developed individually, offering users the chance to download sermons from their favorite church, donate money, make prayer requests and more. Using social media for churches is the topic of McKee’s new e-book, Be Social: Social Media Handbook for Churches.

McKee points out that some church administrators may feel intimidated by the prospect of working with a mobile app to help keep members connected. But, he says, “You don’t need any development experience to run it. ROAR takes care of all the heavy lifting for you. All you have to do is input the content into our content management system and sit back. We take care of the rest.” The apps can be designed for use on IPads, IPhones or Android devices.

The actual application design usually costs up to $2000, so this is a significant savings for churches and non-profits who are probably feeling the pinch of tight budgets right now, says McKee. Even small churches can benefit from a mobile app.

A mobile app can be used to help a church or other non-profit connect with its followers in a number of different ways. ROAR develops programs that allow access to audio and/or video podcasts of services, workshops or classes. Live video feeds are also available, allowing members to be a part of church life even when they’re out of town. Photos from events or mission trips can be a part of a mobile app as well.

Churches or other organizations can also provide relationship-building tools like an events calendar, links to related content, a locations listing or mailing lists. A prayer wall feature lets church members connect with each other, not just the church office, and a giving function supports the all-important mission of funding the organization. Even advanced options like push notifications, an RSS reader and a QR scanner can be part of the package.

“I love making a difference,” McKee says. “I am an entrepreneur and I believe creativity is a gift God means us to share with others.” McKee has served as a pastor for students and children in Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently lives in Atlanta with his family.

Please visit the ROAR website at: http://roarapp.com/freeapp

Let’s face it folks, Obama is going to lose this next election. He’s going to lose to whoever wins the Republican nomination. That’s a given. You’d really have to have your head buried pretty deep to not have accepted this by now.

Easy Cheese, with a Birth Certificate!

Frankly, he would lose to a can of Easy Cheese, assuming that it were able to provide documentation to meet the age requirement. I hear you can accomplish that for under $20 online.

So, assuming you’re intelligent enough to accept that Obama is going to lose, your decision is now which Republican from those that are seeking nomination will actually represent you for the next four years.

• If you’re a progressive, you’re pretty much out of luck.
• If you’re a RINO, you’ve got quite a few options which, I’m sure, the Mainstream Media  will do their absolute best to pick the best one for you. With so many to choose from, it could take months.
• If you’re a conservative, there’s only one choice.
• If you’re a liberal, there’s only one choice. Coincidentally, it’s the same one.

Who? The invisible man, of course!

The Mainstream Media would have you believe that Ron Paul doesn’t exist. That he hasn’t won every straw poll (from Values Voters Summit  to Iowa to Florida). The thing is, he does. Not only does he have a strong following, the highest voting  consistency of any politician in the last hundred years and experience in both his own business and congress, he’s the only potential nominee that could actually gain true bipartisan support – and actually make both sides happy.

Why? Ron Paul supports states rights. He believes government has no business legislating morality, nor imposing upon the rights of human beings. While he is Pro-Life, his position is that government should not be imposing this decision on the states.

Further, Ron Paul is a Christian, but his belief in the separation of church and state is an indivisible principle. Marriage is a religious ceremony, and thus it’s  dependent on the religion to determine what is a compatible relationship. If you take government out of that equation (as it should be), there’s nothing preventing a civil union between members of the same-sex.

Unlike Obama, who has started several wars since receiving his Nobel Peace Prize, Ron Paul would actually  get America  out of the nation building business.  And since there aren’t formal declaration’s of  war for any of them, we’d have most of our men home  within 30 days.  We wouldn’t be invading other nations, either. That’s not to say Dr. Paul is against war. As a former Flight Surgeon in the Air Force, Ron Paul  has served this man’s military and  has  seen first-hand the harm it causes.  Should the USA really police the world? Of course not.

Unlike both Bush and Obama, who increased the invasions into the privacy of ordinary citizens, Ron Paul has consistently voted against any legislation  that violates the premises of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ron Paul voted against the US PATRIOT Act (that’s a misnomer if ever there was one), and said “Everything we have done in response to the 9-11 attacks, from the Patriot Act to the war in Iraq, has reduced freedom in America.”

Unlike all the other hopefuls,  Bush and Obama –  Ron Paul  acknowledges the issues of the War on Drugs. A war against a large number of the population simply can not be “won”, and should not be waged.

Ron Paul has also made clear his plans to abolish the Fed, the  Department of Education, the Food and Drug Administration and bring our troops home.

Ron Paul opposes the subsidization of businesses here and abroad, and the government sponsored crony capitalism that it encourages. Cronyism, for example, is why two and a half cents worth of medication can be sold for a profit of 500,000% here in the USA.

Ron Paul supports homeschooling, a balanced budget and developing energy sources here at home, and true fiscal sanity that will encourage business growth and jobs in every community in America, possibly even saving some of those businesses left in the wake of a visit by Obama!

Assuming you haven’t completely thrown in the towel, and you’re not stupid enough to actually want a President Perry, you need to vote for Ron Paul in the Republican Primaries. For that to happen, you have to be registered Republican. Depending on the state you’re in, you need to change parties up to three months in advance.

Change now. Vote Paul. Save America.

Related articles

• Ron Paul wins Values Voter Summit straw poll (hotair.com)
• Ron Paul Wins Values Voter Summit Straw Poll; Bachman Near Top of VP List (cnsnews.com)
• GOP Strategist: Ron Paul Could Win Republican Nomination (destructionist.wordpress.com)