Please Explain America For Me..

[maplesky7]

Quote:
Are you sure that's not Illinois??

 

[jeremy]

2 words... sunny California.

Come visit!

 

[maplesky7]

Quote:
yay!!! I love seeing your farmstead... I've always imagined but wow... I love the designs one sees from the air made by the equipment... so cool to see your cows out to pasture.... and now i'm envisioning you and your grandkids in the truck.... what a happy scene.

 

[maplesky7]

Quote:
Do ya need some extra help out there? That is drop dead gorgeous out there!

That's what I was thinkin boyd.

 

[Mahonri]

I spent the first 19 years of my life surrounded by beautiful mountains in the Great Basin, (Utah) milking cows and picking cherries. It was a great place to grow up.

I've traveled a bit in this great country, I've spent summers in Ohio (Ashland, Bucyrus & Alpha), the San Joaquin Valley of CA (Fresno, Chowchilla & Merced), and eastern Indiana (Richmond, Winchester & Fort Wayne). (I also spent two years in Ecuador too, but that's another story) I lived for four years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.... I loved the people, but disliked the winters!

For the past 23 years I've lived in the central desserts of Arizona. In two hours I could be in the middle of a snowy field near the San Francisco Peaks or driving in another direction, on a sandy beach in Mexico. We live in Paradise from November through March and we live real close to Hell from June through August.

Unlike others in our country, I have a nice garden right now where I am daily harvesting at present. I'll enjoy that until the heat withers it away in June and then I'll plant again the end of August and enjoy my vegetable garden until June again as long as it doesn't freeze in December or January.

While some in our great country worry about keeping their chooks warm in the winter, we worry about how to keep them cool in the summer. I actually have an AC unit in my chicken coop.

I'm close to the heart of downtown Phoenix and we enjoy being close to Chase Field and USAir Arena (Where the Diamond Backs and Suns play), then to the east we are not far from the spring training field of the San Francisco Giants and the major airport is a 5 minute drive to the south. We have great hiking trails in desert preserves just north of us with mountains (big hills) overlooking the big city, our yard is irrigated from canal water that comes from the mountains to the north and east and just today I enjoyed a dip in our swimming pool.

From the top of Squaw Peak one morning last September...

And from the top of Camelback, (the mountain in my avatar) a few weeks earlier.

Gotta love Arizona, it grows on you.

 

[Soph xo]

Quote:
not a guy, now get back on topic

Who then?

 

[jafo]

America is a Republic, and operates under a Constitution. (or is suppossed to) A document that guarantees freedoms and liberties to it's citizens. It also has certain LIMITS as to what our ELECTED government can and CAN"T do. But those in Washington pretty much look at those limits as just words, scrawled on a piece of paper. The majority of the people are too busy in thier own lives to really care what goes on in Washington, thinking "they know what's good for me" which opens the avenue to lie cheat and steal our "freedoms" away. Elections are stolen, people are jailed without due process, homes that have been in families for hundreds of years are confiscated by thugs mascarading as government entities. There are people in positions of power that don't like the freedoms and liberties granted by the Constitution, so they are constantly undermining them. Much like Australia and the loss of your guns for instance. Now your crime is up 44% I hear? So whether it's gun rights (2nd Amendment to the Constitution) or freedom of travel, the right to vote, assemble, or free speech, there will always be a group in the barrel that wants to take it away. I suggest you read a copy of our Constitution. The men who wrote IT, and the Bill of Rights (the first ten Amendments to the Constitution) were more than just farmers, printers or politicians. They were great seeers of future, knowing what would happen to this great country if certain things were allowd to happen. "Destruction will come from within" A great unraveling of the most beautiful ball of yarn on the face of the planet. And yes, we do have diversity, many different religions, many different ethnicities, all because of our Constitution, which ALLOWS these differences of opinion, and free speech, without persecution. I live in the Northeast, with 4 seasons of weather. Winter sometimes with 3-4 feet of snow, spring with mud 2 feet deep for 6 weeks, summer with temps hovering between 60-100 degrees, and fall, with a splash of colors like no artist could ever capture on canvas. Cities riddled with gangs and drugs, country with farms and fields that roll on forever. Baseball and apple pie. America is indeed a great place, if we can keep it.

 

[Amyable]

America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave! I live in Wisconsin, the Dairy State, located in the Midwest. We have almost as many cows as people. Our cheesemakers produce over 600 types of cheese, far more than any other state. We also have large crops of corn, soybeans, cranberries, and maple syrup.

Our topography is quite varied. Thick forests and thousands of lakes in the north, rolling farmland in the east and south, and rocky cliffs in the west along the Mississippi River. Two Great Lakes, Superior and Michigan, border us on the north and east sides.

There are few large cities. Milwaukee and Madison, our capitol, are in the southern part of the state. Milwaukee is north of Chicago, IL, and has a high crime rate. Green Bay, near where I live, is a smaller city and home to the famous Green Bay Packers pro football team. Wisconsin is chock full of small towns, and most folks are very friendly. My hometown, Eagle River, in the far north of the state, is home to the WI hockey hall of fame and a unique wooden dome hockey arena, and has the largest chain of inland lakes in the world.

Wisconsin has many natural resources, parks, national forests, and lots of wildlife. Hunting, fishing, and tourism are important to our economy. We have 4 seasons (5 if you include deer hunting season); cold snowy winters, warm summers, and drop-dead gorgeous autumn colors.

There's a saying here: "I can show you where I live on my left hand." This state is shaped like a mitten, so hold up your left hand, pretend you're wearing a mitten (not a glove) and that's what WI looks like. I live right by the bottom thumb knuckle

We have our issues, but I love living here and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Fun stuff to do here: snowmobile (they were invented here), corn mazes, pick cherries in Door County, go waterskiing and tubing, downhill skiing, play at Noah's Ark Waterpark, birdwatch at Horicon Marsh (nation's largest cattail marsh), sample awesome beer and cheese, small-town Fourth of July parades, lots of farmers markets, tour quirky museums, summer music festivals...well, ya just gotta visit!

My backyard in spring.

My in-law's backyard in Eagle River last winter.

Autumn near Milwaukee.

My brother and cousin tubing on the Chain of Lakes in Eagle River, July 4th.

 

[turney31]

AND THEN THERE IS TEXAS......................................A country unto itself! Deversity personified.

You will need a month in Texas alone to just scratch the surface.

Micah

 

[mom'sfolly]

Speaking of Texas, its huge. It is about 1/10th the size of Australia, and it varies from large cities to completely rural. It is the third largest state in agricultural production in the US. It is near the bottom in ranking for education level; but has some of the best colleges in the US. Until the mid-fifties, Texas was racially segregated. It has a liberal capital, with a conservative population everywhere else. It also looks different than you might imagine. Hollywood movies set in Texas were generally filmed in California. My first reaction when I moved here was how green it was. Central Texas is very different from the Piney Woods of east Texas, or the rolling plains of the Panhandle. Houston is one of the biggest ports in the country and the fourth largest city in the US. It is also really smelly because it has about 25% of US refineries there. It has coasts in the east and mountains in the far west and has the foreign border of any state but Alaska.

Famous Texans include:
Lyle Lovett
Farah Faucett
Tommy Lee Jones
George W. Bush
Barbara Jordan
Lyndon Johnson
Neil Armstrong
Sam Houston
Cynthia Parker
Quannah Parker
Jim Bowie
Janis Joplin
ZZ Top