To Congress, The 5 Pledges

1. I believe in a balanced budget and therefore will vote for a freeze in government spending until that goal is realized.

2. I believe government should not increase the financial burden on its citizenry during a difficult economic times, therefore I will oppose all tax increases until our economy has rebounded.

3. I believe more than four decades of US dependence on foreign oil is a travesty, therefore I will support an energy plan that calls for immediately increasing usage of all domestic resources including nuclear energy, natural gas and coal as necessary.

4. I believe in the sovereignty and security of our country and therefore will support measures to close our borders except for designated immigration points so we will know who is entering and why. I will vehemently oppose any measure giving another country, the United Nations, or any other entity power over US citizens.

5. I believe the United States of America is the greatest country on earth and therefore will not apologize for policies or actions which have served to free more and feed more people around the world than any other nation on the planet.

Orton Sibling reunion

The Alva Orton Family reunion is normally held on the fourth of July weekend but the sons and daughters of Alva and Clora have an annual get together in May, without any kids or grand kids!
Every year it just gets better. This year we invited some of our beloved cousins who were in the Salt Lake area and that was a real treat.
As usual we met at Marks on Saturday. Each family brought an assigned dish and we ate until we were nearly sick. We sat around afterwards and talked about old times. The stories don't change much from year to year but they do get better.
We miss Nical each year but other than him there were no missing siblings. Janie (Wayne's wife) has been traveling a lot lately and asked to be excused so she was missed.
Here is a couple of photos of the group.

'Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.' ~ Thomas Jefferson FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE 1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject. 2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone. 3. Colt: The original point and click interface. 4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control. 5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords? 6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words. 7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms. 8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any. 9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither. 10. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved. 11. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you not understand? 12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others. 13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday. 14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians. 15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety. 16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive. 17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer. 18. Assault is a behavior, not a device. 19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer. 20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson. 21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them. 22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for. 23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more. 24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves. 25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control. IF YOU AGREE, PASS THIS 'REFRESHER' ON TO TEN FREE CITIZENS.

Idaho Falls tea party

Back in 1980, my brother Marcel and I decided to go into business doing what we knew best, Concrete work!
After a couple of years of Jimmy Carter and all of the other government regulations, taxes and other shenanegans we were not able to continue that effort. during that period we were able to spend considerable time discussing the current gov't policies and how they were affecting us. We decided that the 'R' party was most in line with our thinking at the time but we could see lots of chinks in that armor even then. Since that time both parties have continued to oppress and our representatives have become more self serving and less responsive to their constituents as I see it.
It seems to me that it is past time that we organize to let them know that we are not happy with the current thinking in Washington. I was thrilled that someone finally organized a tea party to let them know to wake up. I was really thrilled when the idea started to spread beyond Boston! I was more than really thrilled when I found out that there were going to be tea parties in Idaho Falls and Pocatello.
I took time off from work, picked up Geritt and we went to the party. It was raining practically the whole time but we hardly noticed. Mel Richardson spoke elegantly for a while and then invited people out of the audience to 'bear their testimonies' so-to-speak. Their was a politician that tried to speak but he got out of bounds and was shouted down, there was a Democrat that said he loved his country but was losing it to spending, there was a teen ager who is afraid that she will be in bondage to the gov't for the rest of her life and then the veterans who nearly brought tears. It was great, I'm glad we went. Jim is in Boise on some school boondogle so she wasn't able to go with me.

I was able to finally get into my garden to do some roto-tilling during March but I haven't done much since. I did square it up in April and set some posts in the corners. I am in the process of fencing it to keep the neighboring horses, cows and sheep out....... OK, to keep my chickens out!

Slideshow

I am going to try something different, something I don't know will work. A powerpoint slideshow

If I could get Jim to write in this blog then I'm sure that the tone would change somewhat , but since I am pretty much the guy what does the posting you may see stuff like this. This is what I want to see.
Yea, I could show pictures of my house or of my dog or of my chickens or of my truck even, but when it comes to the really perty stuff, this is what you will get to see. When we have our family reunion in July, The Orton family riders will plan their summer ride and then I'll have some real bikin' pictures to post

Brigham and Courtney

Wow! This is a happy bunch.

Actually they are, I think the photographer screwed it up.

In January we had an awesome time traveling to California to attend to Brighams wedding to Courtney. We attended her Endowment session at the Fresno temple and then drove to Los Angeles for their Sealing. Colman, Megan, Brig and Geritt went in Colmans car so they could play computer games and Grandma Shiner went with Jaymee and me. We had fun until we got to Primm which is the last chance watering hole casino in Nevada. There they routed us off of the freeway into the casino parking lot for four hours while they did some blasting in California.

That was a blast! Here's a couple of shots of the happy couple who are presently living in Pocatello, Idaho while Brig completes his education.

Binky

Isn't she cute?

Binky

Binky

February

I know, I started this blog last November and I haven't been very diligent in updating it.
Quite a few things have happened since I last shared any fun stuff so I will try to get this thing caught up so that it becomes meaningful to any who are interested in what we have to say. One of the reasons I have been negligent is because I was trying to get Jim enthused about it so that she would faithfully write and I would be able to just sit back and enter a brilliant excerpt once in a while. She wanted to put in a cool background so she went and looked at a bunch, none of which really tickled her fancy but she tried uploading one anyway just to see if it worked. It didn't show up on her computer so she talked to it for a minute or two and gave up. I went into the blog a few days later on my computer and there it was! This is the very reason that I have converted over from a MAC to a Win-Tel machine, lots less frustration, everything works all of the time. Well, usually anyway!
Oh, we got us a puppy. Of all of the dog breeds out there, I have always thought that I would least be likely to ever have a chihuahua. I saw them and heard them bark on my mission, I saw them on TV, I've seen them in the movies before too and I have often wondered why anyone would want one of those things.
Colman and Megan saw this puppy at the pet store and they thought it was the cutest thing they had ever seen, called Jim and now little Binky is here and really is what they said. She is cuddly and feisty and she really doesn't make much noise and she really is cute. Best of all Grandma loves her to death.

February