Thanks to all who wrote. We’ve had some setbacks recently that kept me from posting.

First, Walt Schaeffer, The King, my longtime webmaster, shot himself. Apparently, he suffered from a depression pretty deep, going back to his childhood. The financial turmoil saw him losing some possessions, as well as the foreclosure on his house. I guess the strain was so great, he decided that life just wasn’t worth it anymore. I am still numb about it, and I will talk more about it when I can.

Second, this drought is causing some serious water stress here, and just when I needed my wells the most, one of my deepest wells saw the pipes break and collapse back into the well. We were replacing an old pump with a new one, and I couldn’t grab the pipes in time. We are trying to fish them out, but it’s tedious, sweaty work. Swear words and whiskey were made for something like this . Shit!

Third, my new webmaster turned out to be poorly attuned to actually doing quality work, and as you can see, rearranged my blog, it’s a mess. I will have to fix it up when I can. I am in the market for someone who actually knows how to spell the word “computer”.

Wish me luck gang. Rick

I am planting this corn today and tomorrow, and will probably finish this weekend, at the latest. That’s my last seasonal planting until late September.

It’s a long-forgotten variety called Papago, a soft grinding corn. My friend Dave Christiansen sent it to me from up in Montana. It’s the last line of this corn held by anybody, as far as we know, in the US and probably the world.

It is very drought-tolerant, incredibly insect and disease resistant, short day, and productive. It’s crucial I finally get it in.

As soon as I finish, I will do the last 2 dynamics.

 A lot has happened since we last talked. Not least of all the King is Dead. And no, I don’t mean Michael Jackson, Steve McNair, Arturo Gatti, or anyone else. I mean Walt Schaeffer, THE King, he who developed my website. Walt shot himself last month. Another sad victim of this financial breakdown in our towns and communities.

We’ll yak friends, amongst our grief, sadness, uncertainty, anger and frustrations. We’ll yak soon.

Rick

Stay cool everyone, and thanks for all the compliments.

I will finish this manifesto with the last two dynamics ( 1, Male Abandonment, and 2. The Fact That A Teen Having a Baby as a Teen is often a very Good Idea ) this weekend.

Then I will post A. Bristol, Jamie, Juno, and then B. The Abstinence Delusion, and then wrap it all up with C. Perris, Zip Code 92570, and how the ignorance and stupidity and silence of all the adults destroys a small town in America.

I am trying to get it all done, really I am. Thanks again to all.

Yes it’s that day again, where we come up with a reason to celebrate our gridiron heroes. So all of you who enjoy football, we say-Go Steelers!

I’m less interested this year, mostly because I am getting tired of athletes in general. Not sports- I like sports, especially participating, although age and injuries slow me down, but I am pretty tired of the pampered, overrated, rich, smug overpaid illiterate, “the world revolves around me” athlete.

Such is life though. I am also tired of the overrated politician, the overrated superintendent, the overrated school board trustee, the overrated parent, and so on and so forth.

It’s early in the morn and we’re off to the Farmer’s Market to make some money. Am I overrated? Maybe, but I hope not. At least the dog doesn’t think so.

This week I’ll be finishing up the Teen Pregnancy Manifesto, and whoa Nelly!, have I been taking some shit for my views. I have been called out-of-date, out-of-touch, blind, sex-obsessed, know-nothing, and completely stupid. I wrote a rebuttal on The Huffington Post about the reality behind the TBR (teen birth rate) and I was reamed by teens who told me that if the teen girls who get pregnant would just knuckle down and get their shit together, not to mention keep their legs together,  they too, could accomplish their dreams.

Ahhh, ’tis a sad thing to feel unloved. To be castigated by the very souls whom you are trying to help. People keep equating teen sex with teen pregnancy-Not true. Stop it. Now.

After I finish that up, I have two special posts about our friends Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin. Then I will put it all together with a post about one small town called Perris, where I show how ignoring this very disturbing social problem will completely and utterly destroy the fabric of the town, and all the people in it. Only the stupid and ignorant ignore this.

Ok Josh, I’m back. And finally, a big hello to Melba R. Thanks for reading along. I hope I make it worth your time.

I still haven’t had time to finish the manifesto on Straight Male Behavior- lots of seasonal work to do.

But hang tough- I’ll be back soon enough.

I have not abandoned my manifesto, but instead am finishing up some Winter Planting. I should have my farm work done by the end of this week, and I will be back to  explain the last 4 dynamics behind what is called “The Teen Pregnancy Problem”. Thanks for waiting for me.

Rick Machado

Buying really quality day old poultry can be problematic.

First, there’s the issue of reliability. If the chicks, kits, poults, or whatever you buy die in transit, will you get reimbursed? If they die within a few days, will the company you bought from offer to replace them? Will the newly arrived poults grow as advertised? Were they priced reasonably to begin with? And finally, do you really believe in the company, are they trying to make a difference?

We used to buy from a company called Cebe Farm, out in Ramona Ca, and they sold really superb chicks, mostly cornish crosses, red and black, and some other types. But they grew very fast, and were very hearty. The main guy, whose name was Joe Cebe, was very kind and helpful. They are still around, but don’t have a website. But here is the phone #- 1-800-777-8730. Good service and good stock.

Lately I have been buying from Sand Hill Preservation Center, out in Calamus Iowa. They are genetic preservationists,  selling rare breeds of poultry to  preserve these genetic lines, some which were thought to have been extinct years ago. Glenn and his family are lovers of the Farm and Agricultural life, and sell excellent birds for the table or for eggs. The catalog is great, the service very good. They are somewhat busy, they are hard to get ahold of. But order early and you won’t have to track them down. They often sell out a year in advance. Look for the link under General Agricultural Information.

Like most blogs, we have several links to look through, and we will continue to have more.

Each link is important to us, very important. We see an enormous information overload on the Web, and we DON’T want to waste your time. So if you see a link from us, it’s a pretty big deal.

Take the Women and Power links. We believe women should be running the world. We want women to run the world. So this is our way of promoting women to a better status in life, by giving them their own platform. I love these links, I hope every woman in the world gets a chance to see herself through them.

As a farmer, we deal with drought constantly. We work to understand it, try to minimize it, anticipate it, head it off. So we want to pass along what we learn through the Drought Research links. There is a lot of research, but not all of it easily accessible or easily understood. I hope to do my part by bringing you current and past information on this important topic.

The Clothes for Working People links are as important as all the others. Clothes can make or break your day, a day in the rain with poor clothing can make for a long, unhappy workday. Proper fitting clothes that are what you need are in necessary and important, and again, let me pass along what I have learned.

From time to time, I will add new links. I will always do my best to explain them in a paragraph or two, and give them some blog space.

This is my last post to go backwards and explain how I do things. From here on in, it’s new. Believe me, we’re far more than a simple farm. We have thoughts, opinions, a point of view, and beliefs that fall all over the Board.  So as Tom Waits would say, Step Right Up.

Today, August 20th, 2008, we start our blog.

This is Rick Machado, and it just happens to be my 53rd birthday. Coincidence only.

To begin, I am going to transfer the contents of our News and Info Page from our website www.machadofarms.com to a new page.  The page will be called, surprisingly, News and Info.

All the links will slowly be posted in our links part of the blog, and after that, I will really get into posting information.

If you are curious, if you are interested in alternative subjects, if you find yourself starved of authenticity, then we welcome you here. Feel free to comment. Tell us what’s on your mind. Be cool-no insults.

As I get the hang of this, I will edit it and hopefully, do a better job over time.

I’m excited. So let’s get to it.