Ok folks . . . just what did we do to Canada that they had to send all that smoke down here to us last week. We’ve seen smoke from different areas before, but nothing like last week. It makes me think of past events when even worse things happened.

Like in Pompeii, Italy when more than 2,000 years ago an entire town was covered with volcanic ash from a nearby volcano.

Like, even in Nebraska where the historic site at Ash Fall State Park in Royal is located. A mere 10 to 12 million years ago a volcano in Idaho sent enough ash and smoke to northern Nebraska and killed many animals and preserved many of them for us to see today.

Of course, most people can’t forget the 1930s in America when strong winds carried dust and dirt from Middle America to the east coast and even to Europe.

History is full of such events, it’s part of nature. But, I never thought I’d be around to witness such an event.

Let’s pray that Canada can find a way to put out their forest fires, with or without the help of Mother Nature. After all, this isn’t a political problem. You don’t have to like their leaders to pray that the forest fire be extinguished.

A O

The chicken is king . . .

One of my favorite meals is a rare prime rib beef special at any of our area restaurants, or even at home. A pork barbecue rib dinner can also be great. These animals have soybeans as part of their feed and soybeans have become a vital part of many other products.

I bring this up because of an article I read last week considering the “checkoff” programs involved in so many agricultural commodities.

I’ve heard of ‘checkoffs’ for many a year, but know little of what they have done for us. Seems they are federally chartered (which maybe should have given us pause in hoping they were doing good) and have been around for more than 30 or 40 years.

If I understand them correctly, they collect just a little bit of money from the sale of any of the 21 commodities with which they have anything to do with. The funds raised from these transactions is put into use to promote the use of each commodity, with the intent of increasing the productions and price of such items.

According to the article written by Mr. Alan Guebert, the results have been far from what was hoped for. A few results he gives (after noting the checkoff provided billions of dollars for the commodities promotions) for several items were:

• Milk consumption is about one-half of what it was 40 years ago.

• Beef has fallen from 73.7 pounds per year to 57.4 pounds.

• Pork was 48.8 pounds in 1987 and now is 50 pounds.

• Chicken: per-capita consumption of chicken increased from 56.6 pounds in 1987 to an estimated 101.8 pounds in 2023.

Seems Chicken is King.

Chicken producers have not put a cent into any type of federal or state “checkoff” program.

“Cause and effect;” “Unintended consequences;” call it what you wish. Almost any and most likely all federal programs of all kinds come down to results most people didn’t realize, or want, to happen.

I’m certainly not in a position to judge whether or not these ‘checkoff’ program are worth what farmers are paying for, or not, but it may be time to take a good look to see if they are worth their price.

A O

As long as I’m talking about what I’ve read lately, maybe my favorite bit of trivia comes from the editorial pages of the New York Times.

Seems they are blaming auto makers for the increase in auto thefts these days. A certain brand of auto seems to have an ignition system that is easier to turn on that others and that brand of auto is now the favorite of auto thieves.

The auto maker may be guilty of many things, like being stupid in making such an auto, but not guilty of theft.

They certainly did not force the auto theft to take place. The individual who did it has to take that responsibility

How many times has the ordinary man, or women, been presented with the opportunity to steal something . . . but pass it up because it is wrong . . . no matter how easy it might have been.

The New York Times is a “Left” leaning newspaper and tries to influence many a political event. However, when they try to make auto makers guilty of theft, they are trying to rewrite our complete moral code.

I hope we all are able to read whatever we want, but that we are also able to understand what is “right or wrong.”

A O

Just waiting . . .

Twenty-two years ago, we in the United States endured an attack on our culture and lives with the attack on 9-11-2001 on the World Trade Center in New York. Almost 3,000 people were killed that day due to the actions of a small group of religious extremists.

The last direct attack on America before that came at Pearl Harbor when over 2,400 people were killed in that one attack.

Now, in WWII, we knew what country conducted the attack and we were able to direct our efforts at Japan and win the war.

In the year 2001, the 9-11 attack did not come from any one country, but rather from a group of people with a real hatred for the United States. There was no “country” to direct our efforts at, to win a “war.”

What we did was conduct a war against specialized groups on foreign countries’ soil to eliminate such groups that helped to form those who conducted the 9-11 operations.

We spent some 20 years or so in our effort to eliminate those groups and to keep ourselves safe from their efforts to kill us and change our way of life.

You know what. It has seemed to work. Large attacks by these religious extremists have been few since the United States declared war on them and has worked to eliminate their efforts.

However, our good president, Biden, has changed all that. With the disgraceful exit from Afghanistan it appears the United States has changed its effort to disrupt and eliminate those “terror” groups that enjoyed the 9-11 attack.

Maybe some people have forgotten all those other attacks around the world before 9-11 that took place . . . I’m just waiting for those to begin again and for those “terror” group to again attack the United States of America.

A O

For a final remark this week I’m going to ask for help. I love genealogy but have not had time to do much with it.

However, I’m now trying to track down some common ancestors of the Pohlmeiers and Ostdieks. The name “Schnitker” has come up, but I can’t find and complete genealogy study of the Schnitker family. We’re talking about the mid and late 1800s here folks. Also, Anna Schnitker married Henry Bentler who farmed near the St. Stephen area for some time. I have some history on the Schnitker ladies who married into the Ostdiek and Pohlmeier families, but just don’t have a lot of history on the Schnitker family.

If anyone out there has more information, would you be kind enough to share it with me.

A O