There is a lot to write about now. From politics to the Olympics to the weather and everything in between the world is a strange place right now.  North Korea is reaching out to Russia and Russia making deals with South Korea.  Clinton and Trump are going after each other and neither seems to have a real edge on the other regardless of what the mainstream media is saying.  Floods in Louisiana have thousands separated from their homes the rain keeps falling in what is the wettest August I can ever remember.  We are in the heart of Hurricane season and as of now it is "local" storms that are causing more devastation than the big tropical storms.  The middle east is still a hot bed of hate and unrest while here at home, it seems like we didn't learn a thing from the Summers of 1967 and 1968,  Our cities are filled with unrest that is fueled by the media.  There is so much going on that I don't know what to write about.

Summer is in full swing and for those of us heating our homes with wood, we should be stockpiling firewood for the winter, but it is so wet that I can't get my Jeep and trailer into the woods to cut up the downed timber that I normally would be cutting at this time.  If the rain doesn't stop soon, I will have to walk into the woods and cut the downed timber into firewood and wait until it dries enough for me to drive in to pick it up and bring it to my wood pile.  I have not been able to read the signs for what I think the winter will be, but my feeling is that we will have a cold winter here in the south.  That is probably because we have had such mild winters for the past two years.  For several weeks the coyotes have been staying close to our home.  During the past two weeks they have moved on.  I don't hear them at night anymore and that means they have done there hunting here and have moved on to easier hunting.

As a result of their movement, I see am seeing more deer in our area.  Their coats are dark and they are fairly fat for this time of year.  My experience tells me that this could mean that there is a greater than not possibility that we are going to have a cold winter.  I have seen no woolly worms so I can't tell by that.  I have seen some golden rod beginning to bloom.  This is about the same time as last year so no sign here.  It is weeks until they are in full bloom so it is too early to use this as any sort of sign.  So, as for now I am just going to have to go with my feelings that we are in for a harsher winter than we have had in the past couple of years.

Now let's think about the world for a few moments.  I am not a futurist, but it seems we are own the brink of something big.  I hope it is good, but I fear it is something bad.  I think there is desperation among the terrorist in the middle east and desperation generally translates to desperate acts.  I am watching for signs that will provide insight into the future, but as of now anything I say is just a guess and nothing more. I know a lot of people that think the fast growth in the stock market are great signs for the economy, but I see it differently.  The market is nothing more than a reflection of what traders want it to be. The real measure of growth in this country is the growth domestic product and the stock market measures very little into that.  Honestly there are a couple of factors when measured, are a much stronger barometer than the market. The things that should be watched are population growth and personal income growth.  Those two things mean a great deal in the measure of GDP.  We have a huge population growth and a very small growth in personal income.  We need to see a change or our economy is not healthy.  We need to have more people working, more companies feeling good about the economy...good enough to give raises to their employees or it doesn't matter what the stock market does, our economy is not strong.

Ok, I have said enough for one time... I will sign off for now.

Until next time.