[AT] RFDTV

[Indiana Robinson]

On 16 Aug 2005 at 8:10, Matthew wrote:

> If you took the survay you saw they asked about horses twice.  I got the
> feeling that they wanted to slant the stats.



	"Figures don't lie but liars figure"...   ;-)



> 
> Horses take up an odd place in the rural scene.
> 
> I was looking at a 4H site the other day for info on dairy goats for a guy
> up the road.  The site had some comments along the lines of don't keep the
> ones that you will not eat, and if you will not eat them, sell them to
> someone who will.  You put too much food into them to get nothing in return.



	I was once told by an old fellow who had a huge menagerie of all manner of animals that 
his pappy said "never make a pet out a critter with horns". I thought that was good 
advice.   :-)



> 
> That struck me as very strange coming from 4H ahd it seems most of the public
> 4H stuff I see is centered around horses, and I can not think of a single
> more useless animal then the horse.  Please don't get me wrong, we have one
> and we like him, but hell, our pygmie goats are better companion animals and
> run pretty much all summer with little intervention.  The horse on the other
> hand is always needing something.
> 
> Sad to say, but with the exception of the few people who keep horse powered
> farming alive for personal reasons, I think horses are the #1 useless
> critter.  Kind of like boats only you have to feed and deal with them
> all the time not just the few times a year you take them out.



	That is the reason I am boarding horses not buying horses. Even if I lose money at 
boarding I am still ahead of owning.  :-)
	I must admit though that I would truly love to have a good team of working drafts. I 
would also like to have a large donkey to keep me company as I work around the farm. I 
could use him as pack animal to carry my tools and I would sound less loony talking to a 
donkey than talking to myself. I would want to be able to ride it a tiny bit just so when 
someone calls on the phone that Diana could tell them I was out sitting on my ass 
someplace...   ;-)
	Actually I am more into renting stalls, pasture space and drylots than actual 
traditional boarding. A couple of current renters do all of their own care and I just 
provide the space. I don't actually claim to be a horseman. Actual "boarding" will come 
later. I am also working on a couple of lots with shelter not too close to the regulars 
where I can allow folks who are traveling across country to spend a night or two camping 
with shade, water and basic lights next to those pens and have a decent place for the 
horses to be safe overnight (of course a horse can hurt itself on a nerf-ball).   :-)   
We are only two miles from the local "calorie canyon" and several motels for those that 
don't have camping units. 
	We plan to move to the other house next summer and we are talking about remodeling this 
house into a sort of lodge / B&B. I keep saying a "Bed and fix your own damn breakfast" 
place.   :-)   It would lend itself well since our present living/family room at the 
front is a 24' X 36' with cathedral ceiling and two good sized open nooks off of it.



> 
> Much like boats they are sort of a status symbol.  Look, I can afford to
> keep 12 large useless criters in a prestinley kept area.  And I think
> RFDTV is aiming there programming where the money is.



	I have seen boats described as a hole in the water into which you pour money...   :-)



> 
> If the current zoaning nazis keep threatening our old iron and we need to
> buy $10,000 permits to keep old iron, and a lot of people do it, then
> we will look like an attractive target too, but for now we are just
> a humble curiosity.
> 



	There are a few areas on Indy's north side where I doubt that paying $10,000 would even 
let you keep even one nice restored small old tractor inside of a garage. Such people 
should be given their own country someplace far away from here. Of course they would 
still want to control the rest of us... Sometimes it is hard to understand how so may 
highly "educated", highly paid people could be such shallow empty phoney creatures so 
devoid of true humanity and so totally uninteresting as people. Give me real people any 
time...

-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America 100 
years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net