Washingtonians

[Ogress]

Quote:
It has changed a lot in just that last few years with all the funding cuts to education. Each year they ask for more and more for their fundraising goals, plus we are asked to provide more and more of the supplies that the schools used to supply. Our schools even have school-grounds maintenance weekends where parents come in on the weekends and pull the weeds, trim the bushes, mow the lawns ... The school no longer has someone to do grounds maintenance; the parents do it and it is a public school (and it is horribly maintained - pretty much all weeds and almost no lawn). I'm just waiting for them to ask us to come in and scrub toilets. I know the janitor retired after they cut his hours to almost nothing.

They take up class time bribing the kids with prizes. The prizes they give out too are just ridiculous. At last years walk-a-thon, my daughter won a drawing for a VIDEO CAMERA!!!! What the heck does she need that for? I don't even have one! What the heck is that teaching our kids? Get us money and you can win prizes worth more than the stuff your parents carefully picked out for you for your birthday? I'd rather they kept the $ for the school.... and that was not even the GRAND PRIZE! It was one of several lesser ones. She would have been just as happy had the prize been a container of bubbles. I assume someone donated the prize items.

I wish instead of the fundraisers they would just give us the amount at the beginning of the year and let those who need to pay by installments do so. Hitting us all up at the beginning of the year when we just spent everything on the supplies they require is just too difficult.

 

[herbandteas]

Quote:
It has changed a lot in just that last few years with all the funding cuts to education. Each year they ask for more and more for their fundraising goals, plus we are asked to provide more and more of the supplies that the schools used to supply. Our schools even have school-grounds maintenance weekends where parents come in on the weekends and pull the weeds, trim the bushes, mow the lawns ... The school no longer has someone to do grounds maintenance; the parents do it and it is a public school (and it is horribly maintained - pretty much all weeds and almost no lawn). I'm just waiting for them to ask us to come in and scrub toilets. I know the janitor retired after they cut his hours to almost nothing.

They take up class time bribing the kids with prizes. The prizes they give out too are just ridiculous. At last years walk-a-thon, my daughter won a drawing for a VIDEO CAMERA!!!! What the heck does she need that for? I don't even have one! What the heck is that teaching our kids? Get us money and you can win prizes worth more than the stuff your parents carefully picked out for you for your birthday? I'd rather they kept the $ for the school.... and that was not even the GRAND PRIZE! It was one of several lesser ones. She would have been just as happy had the prize been a container of bubbles. I assume someone donated the prize items.

I wish instead of the fundraisers they would just give us the amount at the beginning of the year and let those who need to pay by installments do so. Hitting us all up at the beginning of the year when we just spent everything on the supplies they require is just too difficult.

I agree to that!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Nope its too far south and east of me.

I was getting smoke from somewhere this morning when the wind was blowing 15mph out of the north Really big fires smudge up everywhere; I'll never forget watching the smoke from the Chelan complex spill over the passes in- was it 1995? We were in San Francisco eleven years ago when there was a big fire east of Sacramento that spilled smoke down the river and out in to the Bay, weirdest thing to see from the air.

 

[cmsdvm]

Quote:
Well, here's hoping but they made it very clear to me yesterday that, when you pay for overnight shipping on live birds, that means they are guaranteed to be there in 3 days. If they get there today, they'll figure they've done their job. They will no longer check on flights like they used to, they just tell you, "Be here by 3:45 pm and they'll be there the next day." Not true, of course. That's why they changed to a 3 day guarantee. Typical government run program: let's not do it better, let's just make it so we're off the hook for incompetence. The animal rights group are no help: they think we're the cruel ones for mailing an animal- let alone owning them in the first place which is also not on their agenda. The Post Office has wanted to stop carrying lives for years. Lobbying by farm groups and hatcheries has kept them shipping. I won't be surprised if some day the PO goes under and then we have no way to ship birds except someone driving them there. Maybe some day we'll look back on the old PO with nostalgia.... The good news is that tracking now shows them in Rhode Island, so they're getting a lot closer.

 

[cmsdvm]

Here is the PNPA website for anyone interested in the upcoming Stevenson show: www.pacificnorthwestpoultry.org
This is a quote from our president's message in the PNPA newsletter:
" Finally, and I can’t stress this enough, it is important to at least periodically take some of your birds to a show. The birds can look fantastic by themselves in their own surroundings, but with competition and the impartial eye of a judge you will receive feedback that helps you understand whether or not your breeding program is on track."
I totally agree with this statement. All too often, we see birds advertised as "Show Quality" by people who never darken the door of a real poultry show. If you're producing pets or layers, fine. If you are telling people you're breeding good birds- get out and see if you really are. You don't have to be a nut about it and go to everything, but if you go to nothing, you really have no clue how you're doing.

 

[VelvettFog]

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Nope its too far south and east of me.

Its hazy in Yakima due to the Goldendale fires

 

[Chicken Rustler]

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Very well said. Kind of like don't just tell how good your stuff is show how good it is by allowing a judge to decide.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

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Nope its too far south and east of me.

Its hazy in Yakima due to the Goldendale fires

That would make total sense. But not clear over here.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

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Glad to hear they have made some progress. But I still think that WE ALL need to stay after this. See I tend to be pretty easy going but I don't just go along with the brush off and that is what the USPS has done here is try to brush cmsdvm off in hopes she will give up and go away. It is just a mind set that too many have brush em off and ignore them and they will go away. DO NOT do that STAND UP for what you believe.

 

[Ogress]

Quote:
Nope its too far south and east of me.

I was getting smoke from somewhere this morning when the wind was blowing 15mph out of the north Really big fires smudge up everywhere; I'll never forget watching the smoke from the Chelan complex spill over the passes in- was it 1995? We were in San Francisco eleven years ago when there was a big fire east of Sacramento that spilled smoke down the river and out in to the Bay, weirdest thing to see from the air.

That fire above Sacramento (2008? or 2007?) was burning very close to my brothers home in Foresthill along the American River Canyon. He was not too affected by the smoke, though the fire got uncomfortably near. He is a California Hwy Patrol officer and got some awesome photos of the fire while patrolling the closed roads. It was my sister and her family in Lincoln, just bellow Auburn on the edge of the Sacramento Valley that got most of the smoke. It was soo thick that they had to drive with their lights on, and no one was allowed out doors. It was so dark in the daytime she said she could not even see to the end of her block, and she lives on a short block! We ended up taking her kids up here for 3 weeks just so they could get some outdoor time. My little nephew who already has severe asthma was having a difficult time breathing and he was up here for a few days before it no longer sounded like he was struggling gor each breath. Sadly their 98 year old great-grandpa who lived nearby passed away the first week they were here. He went to the hospital with breathing difficulties and developed pneumonia which he never recovered from. The doctors would not blame the smoke and said he died due to his body shutting down from his age! B.S. Just a few weeks earlier he was staying with my sister while his daughter (whom he usually lived with) was on vacation. He went for long walks along the Lincoln Slough by himself every day while he stayed there. (He was a strong, old Norweigan Farmer who had lived most of his life in North Dakota. They moved from the family farm in the 1980's. It's way out in the middle of nowhere somewhere near the Canadian border - never could sell it so it still sits there abandoned).