The fourth and final verse of the Star Spangled Banner By Francis Scott Key 1814:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Anyone who has actually looked into the reasons for the current drought in California will understand that occurrences of dry spells have been common for the area over the course of eons.
It is left-wing politicians and the complicit media that have fanned this drought into a sh*t storm that they quickly blame on man-made (anthropogenic) climate change. In their book, the adage of “never waste a crisis” is repeated loud and often.
Image: One of many similar signs posted near I-99 and I-5 in Sacramento Delta country.
In a case of actual science, the folks at CO2 Science reviewed a paper entitled “Assessing the Uniqueness of the California Drought of 2012-2014″ which concluded that, as noted before, droughts have repeatedly hit the current drought area long before the evils of man-made carbon emissions. The review conclusion is ” . . . it would appear the answer is not so unusual, unprecedented, or unnatural, and there is no evidence to ascribe it to rising atmospheric CO2/global warming.”
We all know (and the left knows it too) that the issue is very poor water management in California. In the name of saving the endangered “Delta Smelt,” a two-inch fish, the politicians have steadfastly refused to allow water from the Sacramento River to flow to places where it is needed. The URLs of organizations visible on the sign in the image (click to enlarge) link to groups who know this and are working at the grassroots level to promote water flow.
As an aside, did you know that CO2 Science is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization? Donations to this anti-anthropogenic global warming organization are fully tax deductible. We donate to their organization not only to promote the truth about AGW, but to piss off the IRS, the Obama administration and all the Greenbats in general by getting a tax deduction for doing so.
There are others that fit the 501(c)(3) piss-em-off category. The Second Amendment Foundation, numerous Christian organizations, Military and Veteran support organizations and so on. We no longer have mortgage deductions, so to offset that, we tend to donate what we can to good charities who will promote our values.
I usually try to put up a slideshow towards the end of springtime to display pictures we have taken of cactus flowers each year. This is this year’s collection of flower pictures taken since the first flowers of spring in March, or so. Click on the image to advance each slide.
This is a list of the flowers in the slideshow (in order of appearance):
Not all of these flower pictures were taken on our property, but most of them. All were taken within town limits of Wickenburg, AZ.
I show a lot of desert flowers here because they are so beautiful. This one is no exception to that, but it has a little story behind it.
A couple of winters ago, I removed a paddle from a prickly pear cactus growing on the hill east of our house and put it into a pot in the courtyard. Like a good little succulent, it took root and sprouted more paddles. When it got fairly large, we transplanted it to the side of the RV drive west of the house, where it still grows.
This summer, the cactus had this single flower bud. In the image above, you can see the little cactus in the inset where it sits next to the RV driveway. Click on the image to enlarge.
I planted another paddle in a pot in the courtyard last year and it is now also just about ready for transplanting. We’ll get to that one and several others when time and cooler weather permit in the coming days.
The first flower of the season on my Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus latispinus) has opened. I got this photo yesterday before the rabbits and/or other desert critters munched on it and a couple of the buds.
I think I have the binomial name for this species correct although many of the on-line references show purple or pink flowers. I have another, smaller, Devil’s Tongue Barrel that does get purple flowers in late summer or fall. This one, however, has always had yellow flowers in late spring or early summer.
This cactus followed us from California in a large terra cotta pot. We planted it in the ground and it seems to like it here, as do many of the cacti we brought with us.
Click on the image to enlarge. Don’t mind the little bugs on the petals because I’m not about to flick them off with all those sharp spikes down there.
It is really difficult to believe that it has been a year already since we were agonizing over the water damage to our old house in the (formerly) golden state. All of the difficulty of making numerous 300+ mile six-hour each way trips to the old homestead were happening, starting just over a year ago. There were myriad chores: external property maintenance, insurance claims and adjustments, undamaged property disposal and repairs to the plumbing which was the original cause of the flood.
And now, we’ve been out of the old place for over nine months and couldn’t be happier about it. We have had our minds on getting our Arizona home improvements completed and are nearly finished. Best of all, we’re doing well in the financial end of things, having liquidated the excessive obligations of owning the “albatross” in California. You know, property tax, mortgage payments, utilities, gardener, road trips out there to do “whatever” and all that.
Tempus Fugit translates from the Latin to “time flies” and it certainly feels like it has since those desperate days. The best part about the passage of time in this case is that we don’t feel any older because of it. Damsel and I are glad that we’re in a position to get on with our retirement unabated by fixing up the old and improving the new.
There has been the possibility of rainfall most of the day, but I’m glad it waited until late afternoon. The sun, getting ready to set in the west, was not obscured by clouds and shone brightly toward the rainfall to the east of us making bright rainbows visible.
It rained hard here for a while before the clouds moved off to the east where it continued to rain. The desert always needs rain, so we’re thankful for this little storm.
The rainbows varied in intensity and were double bows occasionally. I stepped outside the courtyard gate and captured this nice shot of a full arc over our big saguaro out front. Click on the image to enlarge.