"Home is any four walls that enclose the right person." - Helen Rowland

The Dems are apoplectic and vowing all out political war over the President's plan to spend $8 billion on a border wall (or barrier, depending on who's talking). Brett pointed out a few weeks ago in the context of a sermon illustration about perspective that the national budget is $4.4 trillion ($440,000,000,000 and will, after revenue, leave a deficit of $985,000,000 billion. That means the money the President wants is 1.8% of the national budget and increases the deficit by .8%.
If a couple's combined annual income is $75,000 this would be a fight over $1,350.
Worth all of this?
Note: check my math 'cause I almost certainly put a decimal point in the wrong place.
Another noteworthy aspect, IMO, is that Israel has announced the construction of a new wall as a barrier between Gaza and Israel. It would seem a good tactic for the administration to point that out and put Dems in a position where they either have to criticize Israel - a politically tricky thing - or admit that walls work.

And/or identify some of the Dem's pet goals (e.g. the New Green Deal) and hang a price tag on them for comparison's sake.

After today's UPS delivery I have all the pieces and supplies to replace Sally's passenger side floorboard. After this month's S.S. income hits our account (the end of the month) I'll order the new carpet and shift console so I can install them. Next up: a radio? a new dash pad?

The new bedroom windows should arrive Monday so I'll install them on the first dry day we have after that. Could be May.

Check this out.
Pam's latest project
She made this for Aubri who will give it to her niece who is turning two soon, Aubri watched her for months after she was born and is attached to the little girl.
Pam put in a ton of work on this and told me today there are just shy of 250 pieces in the book and she created all of them.

I use Weather Underground for getting our local weather conditions (wunderground.com). One of the options is to go to the "Wundermap" page where I can choose to see what various crowd-sourced weather stations are reporting, a precip map, a wind map, webcams, and several other cool option.
The weather station graphics shows icons I couldn't completely figure out. Today I finally found the map key. The number inside the circle is, as I suspected, the temp and the line shows wind direction. If it's just a straight line the wind is under 5 mph. A straight line with a short right-angled line means wind between 5 and 9 mph, and a longer line means between 10 and 14 mph. A short and a long line means 15-19 mph and so forth.    <5 10-14="" 15-19="" 5="" a="" and10="" and="" between="" etc.="" is="" line="" long="" mph.="" mph="" nbsp="" p="" short="" thus=""><5 from="" mph="" nbsp="" north.="" p="" the="">



This is on This is on Bring A Trailer. It's a 2001 Isuzu Vehicross. I'd never heard of it or seen one but I like it and...here's the best part...so does Pam. At this point, with 6 days left in a 7 day auction, it's already priced to go way above any ceiling of ours but it's what we're looking for in a vehicle. The necessary creature comforts (basically just AC and cruise), has a very utilitarian interior that would be easy to maintain out here in the woods, and 4wd. Plus, it looks cool.
But wait! There's more!
It's in Portland, two hours away.
If you're inclined go to the link and see the rest of the pics. Personality, not the cookie-cutter SUV that is quickly becoming ubiquitous.

I went to the feed store this afternoon because I was out of hay for the goats. No part of that task from hooking up the trailer onward is a ton of fun in a cold rain. And the goats didn't even say thank you.