Rick McBee's Writings to Enhance your Life
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Just Shuckin’ the corn in Oregon with a WARNING for your Dog!
I went out the other morning into the garden and 2 dozen quail take off out of my corm patch. No this isn’t a large patch, only 7 rows of 25 feet in length so I know something must be up! Yep, as I walk through my stalks, many with two or three ears set on them I can see the damage. The Quail rip back the husks and the stand on the exposed ear pecking away until we’re left with nothing but a bare pecker-head. The result?
See for yourself!
25 Ears eaten? That’s a bit of MY food! Time to either eat Quail or get some corn out of the field like PRONTO!!
So I start picking the ears that are ready, leaving the immature ones for another week and hopefully not for Mr. Quail! Over 100 ears in that little space of 7 x 25 ft. rows! All juicy and ready to eat! So I take them out on the back patio and watch the ducks on th epond while I shuck corn! Feels like Montana in the 40’s and 50’s all over again when Mom supervised Gail, Chris, Anne and Me, making sure we shucked our fair share before we could go off and play! (Somehow us bigger kids always had to do more than the little ones. Hmm!)
Here’s my Shuckin’ Site!:
Here’s a closer look at what I got when it was all done.
Take a good look at what we have here! A Genetic mixture fit for a class on Mendel’s inheritance rules.
A. My one row of Indian Corn – red/yellow/purple and white. B. My Mixed Indian Corn and Yellow sweet corn from my saved seed from last year’s corn-mixed because of pollination by wind. and C. Yellow sweet corn from my seed last year which didn’t get pollinated with Indian Corn pollen.
Cool!
Now to throw all that corn into boiling water and cook it up for 2-3 minutes, let cool and slice off all the Kernals to go into freezer bags. Here’s some of the final take:
Also a bunch of ears in the refrigerator to eat for the next week until I pick again! Note the Indian Corn is roasted with seasoning when we take it our of the freezer and then it’s like munchies for around the house snacks!
Plus! – 12 Nice Indian Corn Ears for Thanksgiving Decoration and planting next year!! Think I’ll put in about 10 rows of Indian Corn next year and sell the dried ears at the harvest festival here in Hood River next fall!
ONE BIG FINAL WARNING!!!
DON”T GIVE YOUR DOG THESE!!!
CORN COBS ARE LIKE INTESTINE CORKS!! THE DOG WOLF’S THE CHUNKS OF COB
THE CHUNKS PLUG UP THE INTESTINE
YOU WILL HAVE BIG-TIME VET BILLS TO SAVE THE DOG!
PUT THE COBS IN THE GARBAGE, THE COMPOST, OR FEED THEM TO THE CHICKENS!
Korea’s Developmental Christian Mission Project to the USA!
The good that goes around comes around!
As former developmental missionaries for the United Methodist Church in Africa in the 1970’s, my wife and I were amazed to get a package the other day with 20 of these Masks! WOW!
Note the Writing! Korean!
I looked up the masks on line: These masks, https://kmact.com/products/dr-puri-kf94-mask-for-adult?variant=32055327785045 are sold in English labelled packets of 20 for $46.00, the Dr. Puri KF-94 Masks are some of the very top level masks! These ones came direct through the Board of Global Ministries from Korea!
Inside the package was this note:
So my little brain says:
Why is Yonsei University Health System sending these? Thank-you Internet, I was able to look things up on Wiki and other sites to find out!
Before 1885, there was no practice of Western medicine in the country of Korea and no training facility. Then in 1885, a Missionary spark from the North Presbyterian Church brought this development to life in that country!
Now called Yonsei University Medical School, in Gwanghyewon, South Korea, the school dates back to April 10, 1885 when it was founded by protestant missionary Horace Newton Allen, a developmental missionary from the North Presbyterian Church. Full management of the University, initially called Chejungwon, was transferred to the North American Presbyterian Church in 1894 and the Severance Union Medical College and Hospital was opened by Dr. O. R. Avison in April of 1899. June, 1908 saw the first seven graduates receive the very first doctor’s licenses issued by the Korean government.
By 1913 – 6 Christian Denominations including: North Presbyterian Church, North Methodist Church, and Canadian Presbyterian joined together for funding the school and renamed it: Private Severance Union Medical School.
Today! Yonsei University is one of the 3 most presigious universities in the country along with Seoul National University and Korea University. All are of world renown in science.
Then came COVID-19!!
South Korea stood out by flattening the epidemic curve: a. without closing businessed! b. issuing strict stay-at-home orders c. having a strictness of grouping size orders and compliance by the population that was much stronger than in other high income countries.
So! Because of 1. Fast Government Action, 2. Lots of Testing,3. A well functioning National Health System and 4. Ample human resources and 5. Strong support from the national government including: The Office of the President, The Ministry of Health, and the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Korea became a model for other countries around the world.
WHAT A MISSION PROJECT!
If these folks sent a packet of 20 to each of the former missionaries in all the churches that have supported them in order to help us through our mismanaged COVID_19 Crisis, then they just spent hundreds of thousand of dollars to help protect retired former missionaries worldwide who had supported them!
CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION! TO AMERICA!
From a country a fraction of the size and wealth of ours!
DON’T YOU WISH OUR COUNTRY COULD BE LEADER IN WORLD MISSIONS FOR HEALTH AT THIS TIME OF GLOBAL CRISIS?
Our leaders of the wealthiest nation on earth who profess Christianity but do not act only to Store up Wealth here on Earth should be ashamed.
IT is EASIER for a CAMEL to fit through the EYE of a NEEDLE than for a rich man to enter HEAVEN!
Book Review – Wolf Pack by C. J. Box
Wolf Pack by C.J. Box
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A GREAT three day read! I got started on this particular C. J. Box novel and couldn’t put it down! It keeps moving and the interplay of themes which include the real-live wolf pack as well as the human “wolf pack” keep you thinking about what the outcome of this series of murders and Sheriff Joe Pickett’s life problems will be. Author Box got it just right with the trade-off of chapters between the deliberate actions by Joe and the his sidekick Nate and the mayhem and chaos sown by the human wolves of the Sinola Cartel. The Western setting of Wyoming is where author Box does the best descriptive work being familiar with the Bighorn Mountains. I loved the falconry and the episode with the drone that sets the wildness of the area against the technology that is invading it. A couple of the murders are a bit over the top for Box’s normal action writing, but still do a very good job of setting the stage for the action in Saddlestring, WY and the fitting triumph of justice in the very fitting ending.
View all my reviews
Book Review: Eye for an Eye by Ben Coes
goodreads.com/book/show/1604503
This is my first book by author Ben Coes and I think I’ll go right ahead and look for another of his books because he gives you a bit of everything in this action thriller starring Dewey Andreas, a former Ranger and Delta operative. The motion never stops, the motives for revenge are strong and the characters on both sides are cunning in their planning, double crossing and execution of plots that lead to the assassination of an Israeli Mossad mole, the killing of a U.S. National Security Advisor, the Kidnapping of a Russian arms dealer and the drawing out of Dewey’s most formidable opponent in covert warfare, Fao Bhang of North Korea. The author keeps you engaged, involved with the characters so that at times you actually empathize for the bad guys although you know good will triumph in the end. Enjoy the read.
View all my reviews
Starting Schools – Failure of National Leadership with Opening just around the corner!
The United States of America has become a disease ridden country through Failure of Leadership at the National, State and Local levels of Government with few exceptions.
Dont! Start School LikeThis!
+ 
=
If you disagree that school can open here safely without mandatory masks, testing, and social distancing, then answer these questions:
HOW can the USA with 329.9 Million people have 75,821 new cases of Covid 19 on 17 July 2020,
WHEN:
- China with 1 Billion 429.3 Million only has 22 new cases on this same day?
2. India, has 1 Billion, 380 Million People yet only 34,956 new cases on the same day?
3. Germany, U.K., Italy, France. Spain with 326 Million People combined has only 10,759 cases?
What is the USA doing wrong in fighting this Forest fire!
The Forest Fire rages because the President doesn’t support mandatory mask wearing and social distancing for all even as we go back to work. The President has not called a Nationwide conference of Governors to get everyone onto the same page with masks and social distancing. The Governors have not acted in unison to get their states to honor mask wearing and social distancing and to have CONSEQUENCES for Adults who can’t follow basic health rules.
Because we have no unified nationwide attack on this disease, which, by the way, doesn’t care whether you are rich or poor, doesn’t give a rip about your race, and really doesn’t care what age you are, it won’t stop as long as we keep feeding it with more juicy little bodies.
. + or 
and peace of mind?
YOUR KIDS ARE NEXT IN LINE: THINK ABOUT THIS LONG AND HARD BEFORE YOU SEND tTHEM BACK TO SCHOOL WITH NO MASKS OR SOCIAL DISTANCING OR ANY PLAN TO KEEP YOUR TEACHERS AND STAFF AND AUXILIARY STAFF SAFE AS WELL SO YOU CAN GO BACK TO WORK–
WITH PEACE OF MIND!
Help Douse The FIRE OF COVID-19:
Wear A Mask and Social Distance! And demand that your Schools Open with this in mind!
visit to the Dentist: How Hypochlorous Acid Dispensers can help schools open more safely
IF YOU ARE IN A RUSH, SKIP TO THE LAST 4 PARAGRAPHS WITH KEY LINKS!
I generally hate going to the dentist, but the other day, having been given the grace of three months by our COVID director, I went in for my annual inspection and tooth cleaning. Here’s what I found out which as a former Science teacher and Secondary School Principal gave me increased hope for modified openings of schools on a safer level for teachers and students.
My dental technician was suited up per usual in her scrubs, gloves, goggles and wearing her surgical mask per usual with the addition of extra masking even though I had already been quizzed about my recent contacts, symptoms, had my own temperature taken, and was wearing my mask.
“So you’re finally back at work. This must be one of the most dangerous types of profession for exposure to the Virus,” I said.
“Yes, we’re right up there at the top, about in the 97th percentile group of those most likely to get the virus from our work,” she replied.
“Not comforting,” I replied.
“No, but we have to keep the beans and bacon on the table. We were one of the first dental offices to close and one of the last to open, because the Dr. and all of us here wanted to get the safety thing right.”
“So what have you done?” She hands me the special glasses and tips me back i n the chair.
Dr. found a way to cut down the escape of aerosol splattering when we use our sprayers or do drill work with the water on as a coolant. He also found some great HEPA air filters that take COVID viral particles out of the air and are quiet enough to use in our office and work areas. Best of all! He found that Hypochlorous Acid in a safe anti-microbial mist in each room kills viruses on contact, by forming a protective film on the surfaces of the counters and anything we might touch so that any viruses are instantly killed.”
She pauses, reaches over and flips a little toggle and I hear a sucking sound coming from the little funnel just next to my left ear. The water squirter goes into my mouth and she cleans out the first batch of debris in the regular manner, while I feel a slight movement of air from my mouth, past my cheek toward the mouth of the funnel. She stops washing, flips the suction apparatus off, and says, ” Open wide” before I have a chance to say anything.
” Pretty neat, Huh?”
“Ungh-Ungh,” I manage as she presses down and scrapes the back of my lower incisors, going after a year’s worth of plaque.
“Good Gums!” she says, bearing down one more time on the scraper. “We all know the basic drill : Social Distancing, Don’t touch your face, Wash your hands and Wear a Mask! If everyone did these things, our country would already be out of this crisis the way many other parts of the world are.”
“Ung-Ung!”
“Butwe don’t teach self-discipline in our country, so it’s like herding cats. Those of us who have to work need to look out for good old # 1, because the Dufus-ass who walks into our work place may not have the brains to folow the basics.” She lets me sit up for a second.
“So what are you doing to keep safe? 97th percentile doesn’t sound like a good place to be.” She leans me back.
We bought us these HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) Filters that take spores, bacteria, many viruses out of the air completely. See the link: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=hepa+filters+are+used+to+remove+microbes+from They are so efficient that they take things out of the air down to 3 nano meters. Since Covid 19 Virus is qbout 120 nano meters in diameter. Bingo! Virus! Out you GO!”
“But that can’t stop your Dufus from getting spit on your equipment or countertops. What do you do?” I manage to blurt out before the next round of scraping and cleaning begin.
“Hypochlorous Acid!”
I must have jerked because she sat me up and let me breath for a moment.
“No, silly, you’ve had chemistry, Not that stuff! That would Kill you! I said: HYPOCHLOROUS” She spelled it out, “H-Y-P-O-C-H-L-O-R-O-U-S”
“Eh?”
The good Doc walked in about that time. “Tell him about hypocholous acid, Dr.,” she said.
“A Great natural killer of bacteria and viruses,” he said. “Your body makes it is certain blood cells. In the office and here, it can be disseminated in an aerosol of 200parts per million by a machine in hospitals, operating rooms, our dental office, even regular work offices. We have a special generator for it. Kind of our extra insurance policy that we don’t get COVID19 here in our office. Here, Let me give you the link to a Dentist who really explains it. Got your Cell Phone?
I whip out my phone!
Here’s the link! Dentist During Corona Virus: https://abc7news.com/dentist-during-coronavirus-near-me-open-and/6213749/ “Complete with a Video!“
“Wow! “Could this be used to safely disinfect schools during COVID?”
It’s approved by the FDA and The National Institutes of Health have done studies on in for Office use for exactly that purpose! Here’s a Link to that really important set of informtion! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7315945/
Is it being used?
“Well it’s been used in a number of schools that had Influenza problems and works on a rotational basis. Here’s one good one that all Educational Leaders should be looking at right now. Fort Smith Schools did it with just one Fogger Per School! ! I’ll bet it will work for everyone in the country if we can just persuade some leaders! https://www.fortsmithschools.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=39&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=76112&PageID=1
The Doc glances around my mouth. “Hmmm, Nice Gums! Keep up the flossing!” Then He’s headed out the door.
“Thanks Doc! You may have just saved one heck of a lot of lives! “
WHAT DO YOU THINK!!
Veterans! Re-purposing Those old Military Uniform Buttons
It’s been a Loooong…. time since I wore any part of my old military uniform. Kind of like 50+ years.
Mainly because I worm most of my old fatigues out (I do still have an old set of Tigers) or gave a couple of shirts to my daughters who wanted to wear them back in the late 90’s when it was cool at school. My dress uniform hung in the closet until it actually got clothes moths in Roseburg, Oregon and I decided to decommission it by removing the buttons and then giving it the old back yard cremation and burial.
So for 40+ yrs. I’ve had the buttons kicking around with my medals and coin collection. What to do with them in an age when I now wear hearing aids, glasses and gimp around at half the pace I could sustain at my peak at 25?
Then a buddy gave me an idea on a hike!
We are walking along through the woods headed up to Burnt Lake on the side of Mt. Hood and I note that he has buttons on his glasses frames. Buttons on your Glasses Frames ..You say?…..
So he asked me, “ Have you ever had your COVID 19 mask straps catch on my hearing aides?”
“No Duh, guy. Who hasn’t at our age?”
So he whips out his mask from a pocket and slips it on, hooking the elastic behind the two buttons on his glasses frames rather than onto his ears.
Intense watching on my part. Memories of my ‘Old Man’ saying, “Watch and Learn!”
Then he whips off the mask and stuffs it back in his pocket. “Cool Huh?”
“Whoa, Dude! What a great idea! I’ll bet I can do that too when I get home!”
At home, searching through buttons, I come across a lone ‘fake military button’ that has a great flange on the back with a rectangular hole. Eureka! No messing with thread, D-rings, or elastic, this will fit right on the glasses frames.”
I dig out my Real buttons.
Plunge the curved earpiece ends of my wire frames into boiling water, straighten the curved ear piece and pull off the plastic ear pad. Slip the button on so that the eagle is upright, slip back the ear pad and put a drop of glue to hold everything in place. Voila!
Here are my glasses! 
Here is my mask.
Here it is on! Great! 
Patriotic and Useful! Yeah!
Remember, there are only two weapons we have against this Virus which is beginning to look like it’s getting lose like an Oregon wildfire with a 50mph wind:
1. Wearing masks and 2. Social Distancing.
You don’t want to get downwind of this baby or your Goose could be Cooked! If you haven’t watch Dr. Fauci’s presentation, click here. this guy is the expert and doesn’t beat around the bush.
Keep Safe, wear those masks, Veterans! https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-docs-coronavirus-32-states-spike-in-covid-cases-fauci-174651410.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_15
Most Deadly! Malaria vs Covid-19
When I was 16 my father gave me a copy of “Animals without Backbones” by Ralph Buchsbaum (1957). In it is a sentence that still applies to much of our world to day: ” Malaria is the most important disease of man in the world as a whole. At least half the people who die, from all causes, are probably killed directly or indirectly by this disease” Wow! Holy Cow! ….“The apalling social and ecnomic consequences of this widespread disease make it a problem that requires attack not by individuals alone, but by Governments”
In 1966 when I went to Cameroon for two years, my Dad, a microbiologist, talked to me about his concerns that I would be working in an area of the world known at that time as The White Man’s Grave! because of all the parasitic and other diseases.
Even today, despite modern medicine, Malaria is a disease to recon with for humanity. It has developed resistance to many of the drugs used to treat it, and still kills between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 persons each year, many of them children. In fact, under the age of 5 years of age, Malaria kills 50% of the children who contract it and are not treated. Now wonder the deadly genetic adaptation of Sickle Cell Anemia, developed in Africa as a way of saving lives from Malaria, because it gives some ability to fight off the disease to about 50% of persons who carry one gene while killing 25% who carry two genes and leaving 25% of the population with no gene to take their chances. Whoa! Heavy! Dude! https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sickle-cell-anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355876
People in areas of the world with Malaria take precautions when in Malarial areas of the world They take the latest medications prescribed by their doctors, sleep under mosquito nets, wear insect repellent or clothing impregnated with repellent, don’t go outside in the evenings, drain swamps, spray swamps and houses with insecticide, etc. Here’s what the Brit’s recommend and it ain’t just having another swig of your Gin with Quinine tonic water: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/malaria/prevention/
Now let’s look at Covid-19 also a nasty customer.
- World Wide – 9,180,000 Cases – 475,000 Deaths – 5.17% mortality of those identified with COVID 19 – USA – 2,390,000 Cases – 123,000 Deaths – 5.15% mortality of those identified with COVID 19
- Doesn’t sound too bad when compared with the Stats for Malaia you think?
- Well Think again. This disease is spread by human contact not some bug that just happens around.
- If every infected person touches, spits on, shouts at yaks for several hours with, dances with …with other humans and only gives three other people the disease and and those three each only give three more people the disease, and so on, the progression is :
- 1,3,9,27,81, 243, 729, 2187, 6561, 19683, 59,049, 177147, 531441, 1,594,323, 4,782,969, 14,348,907
- 16 x with 2 weeks in between each of these gives us over 14,000,000 cases possible in 8 months
- We’ve done a bit, but we don’t have many things we can do. fortunately we can pause the viral spread in the USA with more attention to:
- Social Distancing
- Wearing Masks
- Washing our hands
- keeping to small groups
- etc. as the good Dr. Fauci recommends
Now watch this very short Graphic Video comparing reported COVID 19 death to Malaria and othercauses of death: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2634167/?fbclid=IwAR126Ac8bDgeIKRca8uE5xA_obz0_sSidlVmyb65xq6dswNGAPvGfwb-BOI
AMAZING! Watch it again if you didn’t catch what is happening to the COVID 19 stats!
Don’t stop the precautions folks, cause the next 16 weeks could be really bad since we aren’t starting at 1!
Varied Pandemic Response is not new! Look at National Geographic’s 1918 – 1920 Spanish Flue information – Revealing!
We always tend to think of ourselves being on the cutting edge of innovation and change as we move forward in our human endeavors around the world. In fact, History and Geography can tell us as far back as written history goes, that we have been locked into certain human behaviors that haven’t changed a lot since we walked out of the caves in Africa some 2 million years ago.
The 1918 Flue Pandemic illustrates how with one hand we can try to modify human behaviors with rules and with the other we can choose at the drop of a hat to ignore or avoid those same rules. The Geographic’s description of trying to get mask use in Paris -1919 is one example: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/03/how-cities-flattened-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=History_20200615&rid=B26615A77E4786091E9D169FFF2601A7
The Geographic’s description of how Philadelphia came down hard on various behaviors in 1918, and then only days later allowed a parade of over 200,000 people is another: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/03/how-cities-flattened-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=History_20200615&rid=B26615A77E4786091E9D169FFF2601A7
If History and Geography are correct, don’t expect you will see an end to our current Covid -19 Pandemic for quite some time as the bug keeps moving along at it’s own pace. Note our own recent changes in outbreaks across the country and as people loosen up too much, wait 15 – 20 days and watch for the blips that will appear in various localities. https://www.yahoo.com/news/infectious-disease-expert-says-coronavirus-180244347.html
Hood River Oregon is a typical example of social gatherings that result in the virus getting into the very safety conscious fruit packing houses and then spreading into our community. Some who get the disease will be deniers of the problem, others will be persons who have worked hard to avoid getting the disease. Random chance and mother nature don’t pay a whole lot of attention to our human opinions, wishes and behaviors, they are just facts of life. https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=hood+river+covid+19+cases&fr=yfp-t-s-m&fp=1&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
Keep wearing those masks and maintaining social distancing folks!
The Term “God’s Waiting Room” is not one to bandy around. A serious Pandemic
I was struck today by the Governor of the State of Florida kind of blandly saying that the 20% of elderly folks in Florida who live there are in “God’s Waiting Room”.
I hope the Governor has looked at some of the lines of coffins being buried or cremated in other states and countries and taken this to heart.
Today, as I was looking at news from the countries where I spent much of my career as a teacher and principal I was especially struck by two countries for which I have fond memories although they were trying times for both.
86 – 90 in Lima Peru at Colegio Franklin D. Roosevelt and 96 – 2000 at Academia Cotopaxi in Quito Ecuador.
The former city is now under seige by the corona virus and the pictures in the article attached says it all. I hope you will think about those pictures in the Cathedral of Lima the next time you forget to wear your mask or joke about this virus.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/peru-thousands-faces-mass-none-195417788.html
The latter is a happier scenario from Academia Cotopaxi which is now celebrating its 60th Anniversary. Wow! I’ve been gone 20 years? Seems like only yesterday! Here are two of our old school cups I still use.
Cup for pre-1996 – The “I Love Cotopaxi” Cup – Best Kept Secret in South America!
Enjoy!
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