Iris

Took a long time for this one on the left to bloom. The deer kept eating it and the squirrels (yes, ground rats) kept uprooting the rhizone. But I nursed back and man-o-man look at that beauty. No going back now, it is established.

This one next to it is also a beauty.

Pity one has to wait for spring to see them bloom.

Crawfish . . .

We attended the first crawfish boil of the year and were pleasantly surprised at the size of the crawfish. They were really big and dark colored. Usually, the dark preboiled color indicates what I call "spillway" crawfish, meaning they came of of the spillway and not off the farms and rice fields or from the river. Of course, there is no way to tell for sure unless you are there pulling in the traps.

We had heard on our way down into Louisiana for the annual Morrison Farm, Inc meeting that the cold weather had driven the crawfish back down into their holes. At that time, early March, crawfish were scarce. So maybe they had a little longer time to get bigger.

They were tougher, the shells were harder than usual, but no matter, they ate about the same - very good. Perhaps another indicator that they were in their abodes longer. Just a little harder to peel.

River crawfish are usually lighter in color and have thinner shells - softer shells. Ergo, the reason to call the older dark ones as spillway or swamp crawfish. Yes, the river crawfish are easier to eat, easier to peel but they are also not as common.

Personally, them old black crawfish taste just the same - superb. My kinda food!

Thanks Becky and Dave.

A Quandry . .

Fritz is back - along with Fritzina. Yes,there are two of them and they seem to be a pair. Not sure they will hang around for very long as there is not yet much to eat - bugs. Lacking a food source, I am sure they will move on but should return when hunting gets better.

They like the little wood pile, their coloring fits right in. So it makes a good place to hide from their enemies. They can dart into the pile and you can not see them as they blend so well with the colors.

Grass cutting today, maybe I will spot them out somewhere.

Fritz is back . . .

Or is it Fritzina? Any way our small wood pile lizard is back residing in his wood pile. We first saw him/her about a week ago. This lizard is very timid, so if it is out and we pass by, it darts into the wood pile post haste.

But that is okay. It means the patio will be insect free. I am sure Fritz is enjoying the May Flys. They seem abundant and everywhere at this time of year. Next will be June Bugs. Then the chirping Crickets.

When Fritz has eaten them all, he seems to move on. But for now he is somewhat protected - no Road Runner will get near the Patio and the Crows will stay away too. I doubt any hawks will come that close either. So, yes, he/she is protected.

Yes, Spring has sprung!

Yard Work . . .

We have begun to do things outside. Judie has been weeding the flower beds and around the trees. Not necessary to weed around the trees, does look good though.

The water well is back on and the leaks fixed. Had a pretty bad one at the faucet across the yard from the well. When we had the well drilled I had an extension on the line to connect the sprinklers over to the south side of the back yard. That way we could use well water instead of city water in the back yard. I had intentions of adding a faucet up front but never got around to it.

We have found the glue we used for the additional sprinklers out back was no good, it gives up the ghost to easily. So come spring, I have to find the leaks and repair them, usually replacing the bad joints. I have become a master at installing slip joints, this takes the load of the glue joins and allows expansion and contraction. It is the contraction that is causing the glue joints to fail.

The last failure was a the faucet, the vertical iron pipe was attached to a post and held in place by the concrete that held the post in place. So during our cold winter, the joint backed off. I had to dig a hole along the pipe finally finding the leak up next to the post. Using a steel rod and hammer, I chipped off the retaining concrete around the pipe and freed it up. Used a hack saw and cut the pipe, took the iron pipe off and took the joint inside and washed off the dirt.

I cleaned up the connecting PVC pipe and joint, used some acetone to clean it, a little 600 grit emery paper to get rid of the bumps and old glue. Then coated it up with new glue and stuck together again. The reassembled the whole thing with a slip joint (no more pressure on the glue joint). Done.

One thing I learned in California with the first house we had that had an irrigation system - every spring one had to tune up the system. An irrigation system is a constant work in progress. I am now used to it, just wait for the outside temperature to get to pleasant enough levels to do the work.

Happy Easter all!

Spring Is Here . . .

Spring is here. Our Iris' are bursting out every where. Alas they will soon be gone. We do have some ever blooming ones but not these.

We have to split the Iris'. I did that last year and they just multiplied more. The are everywhere. I suppose we will string them out along the fence; that seems to be a good place for them. They get sun all day long there.

The peach trees are all setting fruit. Now if we can make it through the spring storms - hail - then we will enjoy a few native grown peaches. I hope we are successful this year.

More on VA . . .

Well, I Googled around and found out how the calculations are done. First the VA awarded me a disability rating of 90% with Special Monthly Compensation. Don't laugh, the SMC as it is called is worth an extra $96 a month (Tax Free!!!). That is all VA disability compensation is tax free from both the Feds and State authorities. I do not have a clue why I was awarded SMC but it is acceptable to me.

But as I previously said, the VA disability compensation was deducted from my retirement pay and then given back to me by the VA (as Tax Free income). So essentially, I was paying my own disability compensation, the sole benefit was that I got it tax free. Congress in its wisdom acknowledged that that was not fair and set about righting a wrong. But they did it over 10 or more years unless one was 100%disabled and unable to work, then that individual did not have to pay his own disability at all. That means he/she collected all the VA compensation in addition to the retirement pay.

The correction is known to us VA disabled folks as Concurrent Receipt Disability Pay (or CRDP). It turns out that it is a percentage calculation over a 10 year period with certian adjustments. So the numbers can be calculated. It is not a simple table but a table of percentages couple with other exceptions (sounds like the IRS, doesn't it?). Well it is a government agency that deals with money.

Some of my disabilities are also known as Combat Related Special Compensation or CRSC. In my case specifically, my Diabetes Mellitus, Type II is a CRSC. However, you can not collect twice. So one elects to either accept CRSC or CRDP whichever pays the greater amount. In my case, it is CRDP.

It will take the DFAS - that's the people who pay me the military retirement - awhile to get it all correct. That drives Judie wild as it makes all the numbers change. More money one month, less the next until it all settles out. That's just life and deals with the changes as they come. In the end it will settle out to her satisfaction but until then I have take the brunt of the changes. Not a big deal but can be irritable at worst.

Done With The VA . . .

Yes, done with the Veterans Administration. That is a red tape zoo, understandable as there are many veterans and a lot of them need help. Some need more care than others. Today we call it PSTD, during WW-II and WW-I it was called it shell shock. No matter there are many levels and degrees, those that suffer the worst usually end up in the VA alcoholic ward. I don't have disease fortunately.

But I do have lingering effects of Viet Nam, Agent Orange. Years ago, when other veterans were having problems I never thought it would effect me. After all they were awash in the stuff - Dioxin. Dioxin is the primary agent that attack us humans in any number of ways. In my case, it is the liver. I have had problems for years with high chlorestorol - that's probably primarily caused by hereditary liver problems. That is my liver was generating the stuff - much more than eating eggs, oysters or fatty meats. I was happy when the physicians put me on statins, primarily Lipitor. Over time I take more and more of the stuff. I am pretty tolerant of using it but it is supposed to effect one's memory a bit. I thought it was just getting old (maybe both???).

My Viet Nam disease is Diabetes Mellitus, Type II. VA has done several studies and had positively correlated the disease to Agent Orange exposure. I was on the flight line at both DaNang and Bien Hoa Air Base which staged the "Ranch Hands." That was the code name for C-123s that sprayed the stuff on the jungle. It kill the trees and deprived the Viet Cong from a place to hide. I can even remember rooming with a Ranch Hand pilot at DaNang. He carried a different gun each day he flew: he had 38s, 45s, AR-15s, even a Thompson submachine gun. The guy was a walking arsenal!

Back to the VA. My doctor, a good man, recently put me on Metformin, a drug that helps the liver deal with insulin rejection. He also had me on Januvia, another Type II drug that works on the liver. (Poor liver - Lipitor, Metformin and Januvia). So that restricts my alcohol intake - an occasional glass of Red Wine is okay. Maybe have two a month, no more Martinis at night.

So I filed a form, the VA is full of forms to use, for reevaluation of my circumstances. That was 1 September 2009. Nothing happened. Finally, in December 2009, I called the VA, got a nice person by the name of Sande Jones. Things began to happen. I was given an appointment to be examined by a VA contractor - a doctor. He did a good exam but did not even seem concerned about Diabetes for which I had filed a request for evaluation. I later learned he did detect a loss of sensitivity -known as nueropathy. This was in both feet and left hand. I did not think much of it but I guess it was significant.

Later, I had an examination by an Ophthalmologist. He said my cataracts were chemically caused but because there is no rating for that, he had to associate it with Diabetes Mellitus, Type II. That was significant in that he said, "Good that he saw the cataracts before I had any corrective surgery." Otherwise, the VA would have disallowed it. That was in February 2010. Slow progress.

Things were perking along slowly, so I contacted the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). I am a life member of the DAV. I contacted them via the Internet and got an instant response the next day. And within four days the DAV provided me with data that my new rating would be 90%. That was preliminary, and "Did I agree with it." Now I was expecting a change from 70% to say 80% and that the rating percentage to pay the compensation would move from 60% to 80%. So yes, 90% was acceptable. But I also said there was yet one more physical exam to be conducted by a VA contractor.

I received a letter from the VA with in a week saying actually I was now rated 110% disabled but because the VA combine certain ratings, it was only 90%. And that I was to get a compensation slightly greater than 90% (I did not know they had shades of gray). So I get a bit more than the normal 90%er. This was adjusted here and there to get to the number and oh, by the way, there was still the examination to be conducted on my other existing disabilities.

So there is potential that it could go higher but somehow, I don't think that will happen. The good news other than I confirmed I am getting older and sicker, that the compensation is 100% tax free (from both state and federal taxes). I am yet to figure out what effect it will have on my retirement income.

The military pays its own disability, it is deducted from my retirement and given back to me by the VA - tax free. A number of years ago, congress agreed that it was unfair, so they adjusted that at rate of 10% or per year. That is known to us retirees as "concurrent receipt." So I had just about worked off the old "60%" and now will have to deal with the "90%." I don't think it will start all over but some of it will get so treated.

We will see. Already, have had some impact on retirement but not paper work yet to tell us what is what. That took eight months but the good news is they adjust rates based on the date I originally filed - 2 September 2009 was when they received the request.