I Don’t Get It

It’s the State of Wisconsin and the Federal Governments that have me baffled.  Is it just me, or is the thinking really skewed?  The thing that has me scratching my head these last few days is the news that one of our Wi Senators would like to see a sandhill crane hunt here, and to that end he is circulating a bill that would require the DNR to create a sandhill hunting season.  From the Fond du Lac Reporter “State Rep. Joel Kleefisch, an Oconomowoc Republican and avid duck hunter, began circulating a bill last week that would require the DNR to create a sandhill season.”  Proponents of this bill are using farmers as their reason for wanting to kill sandhills.  They’re saying that farmers would be happy to see these beautiful birds hunted and killed because of the crop damage they cause.  Lee and I are farmers.  Yes, we’ve had some crop damage, but the treated seed helps with that.  We don’t want to see a hunting season on cranes.

The thought of going from this:

to this: really makes me sick. Click to see the pictures full size.

Sandhill cranes were once on the endangered species list, and they only raise one or two chicks per year.  I just think it’s a crazy idea.

Along the same line of thinking, Gray Wolves were also on the endangered list and were recently delisted in WI.  Now, according to some of our neighbors, gray wolves have been documented right in our neighborhood, by people using trail cams.  We have sheep and miniature horses and we sure don’t want wolves anywhere near them.  Why didn’t the government just leave it all alone.  Now they’re talking about allowing limited hunting permits to kill the wolves that do damage to livestock.  Why build them up so you can knock them down?  Crazy!

PS:  This is my 100th post on my blog!

 

Drying Food

We got a Nesco Food Dehydrator for Christmas.  Our intention is to make healthy snacks.  So far we’ve made some tasty treats and one miserable failure.  Don’t ever  try to make potato chips by drying raw potatoes.  They’re just nasty.  The sweet potato chips turned out great though.  These use olive oil and salt.  Next time I’m going to use soy sauce instead.

The fruit leather was easy and good.  I used applesauce and peach sugar free jello.

The jerky is a huge success.  This batch is made from ground beef, using a jerky gun.

I have apple rings drying at the moment.

Adventures in Medicare

I’m going to turn 65 in March.  Consequently I’ll be eligible for Medicare.  This whole Medicare adventure has been stressful for me.  I tend to freak out about things anyway (really, Carol?) and this Medicare milestone has been fuel for my  “now what do I do?” thought processes.
The actual Medicare enrollment was painless.  The government sent me a card that in effect told me that I would be signed up for Medicare automatically, and if I don’t want it I should tell them.  That was easy.
The tedious part has been choosing a Medicare Advantage Supplement that will help pay the bills that Medicare doesn’t cover, and also provide drug coverage.
The insurance companies try to be helpful and bombarded me with mailings detailing their plans…over and over again. It’s been overkill, and adds to the confusion.
There is a Medicare website which helped me to understand what my options are and gave me tools to narrow down my choices based on my needs.
I realized that it’s important to me to stay with my Doctor and clinic.  It’s not so important to stay with the pharmacy I use now.  I then had to peruse the provider lists of the supplements I was considering.  The ones that don’t have my Doc in their network get the heave ho.
I found a plan that works for me and sent off the enrollment form the other day.  It was kind of scary.  I don’t know why.  It just makes me nervous.  The good news is that if I made a bad choice I only have to stick with it for a year and I can change during the next open enrollment.
Now I’m enrolled and all set up, I hope.