It been along time since i blogged. I broke my camera when I washed up on this island. If this reminds you of a movie your right . It like Gone with the Wind. Im hopeing to get a camera soon .

Well Saturday it was gorgeous and record high temps .It supposedly was eighty degrees in Seattle but wasn't that hot on the island . Today it was back to cold and rainy . I still haven't finished my taxes ,so that is what is what I'm doing tonight . I'm pretty much finished ,but just checking it over because Ive screwed up before. I haven't writing much lately because I have been talking to my long lost true love ,---Kathy lately , and it makes my head spin. She is in the navy and is shipping off to Iraq in a week. She is just completing four months of battle training, that's sounds like it was some pretty serious stuff. Its been great talking to her lately but I don't like the idea of her going off to this dam war. Thinking about it has made me a little crazy, but I am sure she will be fine. Good luck Kathy ! I'm going to get back into taking some pictures ,nothing has caught my Eye lately. Halibut season opened up and a 96 lb. slab is the biggest that Ive heard of. I probably wont get out for them , but maybe ling cod next month. My mill is almost ready to go ,and I cant wait to get using it. Politics is just to pathetic to comment on .,just a bunch of low grade character assassination. Id give credit to the photographer of this shot butt it was posted anonymously .

I haven't felt very literary lately and have taken 500 pictures and not one any good. The big thing in politics is Iraq and more and more Iran. I have always thought we invaded Iraq to secure a base in the middle east. I don't know how we could get into another war if you believe what they say about are military being stretched thin but you sure hear allot of murmurings of it. I'm really surprised a draft hasn't been implemented. It will have to be a ground war we wouldn't dare nuking or heavily bombing the worlds oil supply.Talk about ww3 on the horizon. The Olympics are once again going to a big political battle ground . I heard the nuts in San Francisco put out the torch because it contributed to global warming. I guess Ihave temporarily lost my urge to rant and rave because there is just to much to rant an rave about. I started a book written by Jesse Ventura ,the former wrestler and governor. Dont Start The Revolution Without Me.--- I always took him as a joke but so far I really agree with the things he says. His points about change from the strangle hold the two party stem has on us is exactly how I feel .He says if he could get ballot access for the presidential race ,he would run and win. I actually believe he would. The only thing I don't believe in like he does is the 9-11 conspiracy stuff . I'm glad the weather is finally supposed to get nice here . 70 degrees forecast for Saturday.!!!!! I'm not sure that we have even seen 60 yet. I hope I can turn my political rant blog into a fishing blog pretty soon. I'm a little worried because they are talking about shutting down the salmon season because of poor returns. The last time they did that so many fished came back it choked the rivers so bad with spawned out salmon , that it was a heath problem . Halibut season open in a few days . Maybe Ill be able to get out .I sure would like to put a few 90 pounders in the freezer. I'm tired of chicken even though a few of these would fill the freezer pretty quickly.

Still gray and chilly here,for the most part. I sure get allot more done on the nice sunny days. Today I went up to Dave's house and he gave me a orientation on some of his new barbecue design ,that he is going to put me to work helping him fabricate . I think it could work out well being able to work on my sawmill or go up and work in the metal shop. I have a few projects rolling around in my head ,for a few projects combining the two ,and even enlisting the talents of some of my other friends. I have friends who's bailiwick's very from blown glass to sculpture ,from basketry to painting , and others ,that I have got visions of wild creations,incorporating them all . If I have to get rich and famous ,Id like to do it with my friends and I like to have fun doing it . That's the dream for now anyways. ------- Today in politics someone from Obamas organization called John McCain a war monger. I felt sorry for him, as he looked hurt denouncing it. He shook off the pain quickly by leading the crowd in a sing along featuring his ever catchy Bomb -bomb bomb ---bomb bomb Iran ,crowd pleasing parody and ending with ---ninety- nine more years of Iraq ----for us all ..... ninety nine bloody more years -- shoot one down pass it around ...... I think John McCain is a very brave American Hero who's service to our country was extraordinary but I believe he would jump resol ving conflicts with war ,before other options were exhausted. I didn't think joking about bombing Iran makes him look like any ing but a war monger when the situation calls for diplomacy ,---not words to aggravate the situation further. I think he is a man in the twenty first century with a nineteenth century mentality about waging war. Obama and Clinton continue ruining each other chances of winning,----completely blowing what was once a almost sure thing and still they haven't resolved anything with the two state primary debacle. I think both parties are falling completely apart. What a tragedy .

Thank you for all your concerne To answer your emails every thing here at Bucksnort central is going along swimmingly. Im sorry that your thirst for my insight has gone on unquenched for so long. Since I last wrote the weather has turned very nice with cold clear nights and mostly sunny ,mild days . I have been working very hard. Ive been too sore in the evenings to type my thoughts into my blog. To be honest ,Ive got so out of shape doing so little physical work this winter , that a few days of "bust in butt" really takes its toll. I have been to tired to even type .Even my hair hurts. It actually feels so good to have nice enough weather to get things done. Its funny how nice it is for it to be dry enough to sweep the porch ,mow the lawn. I think the weather here is the best in the world, for my likings. but I'm differently ready for our beautiful ,spring -summer weather. Among many other things I have been working to set up my sawmill .at my friend Dave and Louies's house . They have allowed me have a really nice space,to put it ,and I think it will work out so unbelievably nicely for me to use it, I'm very grateful. We have been cleaning up the area that he used for storage . He collected millions of water heater tanks that he uses in his welding -barbecue business ,and it was time to make the unusable surplus go away. We loaded them up on several steel salvage trucks,and it made for quite a interesting load. I think of them as the Whidbey Island bottled water trucks. When the rest of the Bucksnort central staff returns from their mission, i will get back on track to my political commentary that you all cry out for. The staff has completed their forth orbit ,and as mission leader , Gregg Steen reported ,all systems ---green - go -. Full steam ahead. Here is the salvage guy headed out . All he said was "Tanks allot for nuttin"

What a nasty day . It actually snowed here for a while . It didn't stick here but I guess it did other places on the island. Snow isn't unheard of in march but it has been allot of years for it to happen this late . It is supposed to get nice and be dry for a while so I plan on working on my log mill. Hopefully this is going to be the last of our winter weather. Politics is really getting nasty. It seems like both parties have allot of people that are taking a look at the other side. Mcainacrats ,Obamacans,and the like. I'm glad people are showing open minds and being less partasian . It shows voters just want our government to work together and solve some the countries problems instead of being stuck behind party loyalties. I have two friends that have both voted straight republican for 50+ years ,and for the first time in their lives are leaning toward voting democrat. A year ago ,I wouldn't have believed it could happen ,before hell froze over. I know there are allot of democrats that cant stand either Hillary or Obama . The republican party was on shaky ground early on, and now it looks like the democrats are imploding. I was most glad to hear that more proposals to reform the election procedure have been proposed by congressmen lately. With the Democrats still not resolving how two important states voters can be heard more attention is on how the two parties have the real control of choosing a leader . One congressman proposed -One person -One vote and getting rid of the outdated electoral college. It would take a constitutional election, but allot of political pundits made the case that it is long overdue. AMEN !!!! If popular vote in the primaries or especially the national election is not upheld again, people wont stand for it. When voters finally realize that the parties don't think we are smart enough to elect our own leaders without their corrupt ,expensive and long drawn out procedure they might be insulted enough to begin change. . I know I have said this stuff before but I just want to be able to look back in twenty or thirty years and see that I knew people would wake up sooner or later. "It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country. " Will Durant Pulitzer prize winning anthropologist and philosopher 1905-81 This alien cat tried to hypnotize me today and put me under his power, but it didnt work. But tomorrow Im going to kill all the dogs in the neighborhood and take it to Washington D.C. to meet president Bush like it demanded just to make it think it did.

It has been unseasonably cold lately ,wet blowy and even some sleet .I think we had more sunny days in February than March. I went for a hike along the beach and found a secluded swamp at the bottom of a steep bluff .there sure was allot of wildlife in the little patch . I jumped several deer ,and saw a otter run into a drainage culvert. It was startled and made a sound like a baby giggling to alert its companion to my presence . They took off like greased lightening I found remnants of flounders they had caught in the surf .Even though we don't have rivers on the island these are river otters,and make use of the salt water to travel from pond to pond .They are a pest and can clean out a pond of fish in a short time. I have seen where they seemingly hunt for fun and just leave the fish in piles on the banks of the pond. I had a friend who was the last licenced trapper on Whidbey Island ,but since his death the population of otter and beaver has exploded. The beaver cause allot of flooding in lowland areas. Some friends came back to they're property ,from a long vacation,and found a family of otter had been living under the house.They thought it smelled musty in the house but said they nearly vomited when they turned on they're furnace. They said the otter waste was six inches deep and with a diet of fish and shellfish I guess its unbelievable bad. They are trying to find someone to clean it up ,but have had no takers. All the insulation and heating ducts have to be replaced,and maybe some flooring. Yuk! A job for Dirty Jobs. I found a dry patch in the swamp where you could still see the cracks from where it dried up last summer, with little sprigs of spring swamp grass coming up . I for one am going to do my part and eat as many beavers as I can more than I probably otter . sorry thats really bad.

I hope you all had a nice Easter. I started of the day ,having breakfast with a friend and totally ignored my diet with a killer plate of blueberry pancakes .Yumm yumm. I went for a walk on the beach to work of some calories but the light rain I started out in turned into a real gully washer. When I got home I was so soaked my jacket must have weighed 50 lbs. I couldn't take many pictures today since the camera would have filled with water if I pointed it any other way but down ,so the only picture I liked was water going down a storm drain. I think the blackness of the water and the bubbles look spacey and kind of cool. Politics is still making me sick . Allot of people think Obama is really on the ropes with links to some bad people in the underworld and his not denouncing the radical preaching of his minister. I think Hilliary is holding on in hopes that the media casts enough doubt on his character and finds more skeletons in his closet that he drops out .I think it is just his turn for abuse and people will sluff it of soon and McCain and Clinton will have their turns. The media is calling McCain " Teflon John" because nothing is sticking to him right now. He just came back from the war in Iraq and played up how good things seem to be going. I think his whole candidacy rides on a continuing lull in violence in Iraq. If the Sunni -shite conflict turns back towards getting Americans killed, I think the voters will go with a democrat that wants to get out sooner . Today rockets and mortars hit in the "safe " green zone. Nobody was killed ,but if there had been deaths I think McCains speech on the rosy condition of Baghdad would have sounded a little less believable. McCain said the Iraq citizens are going about their normal daily life . Personally I think their the normal daily life of the entire region will be violent whether we are there or not.We are just presenting them targets while we try to kill cockroaches with a steamroller, meanwhile Osama Bin Laden continues to run free and makes threats from our "allies " country. What a mess this world is in. I heard today we will probably be on Mars in less than 20 years--- if antibody's left by then . And that's the optimists report for today. Makes me want to eat a entire chocolate rabbit. Here is a picture stuff going down the drain---I wonder where it goes after that.

Well the first day of Spring ,goodbye and good ridens to winter. It was a decent day here with a lot of sun in the afternoon . I mowed the yard ,for the first time this year. It really didn't need it but I wanted to get the bugs out of the lawnmower ,before the grass really starts growing . It sure smelled good . Something about that smell from the first cut of the year.It always takes me back to childhood .Its like rolling down a grassy hill ,when you are a kid. There was one patch of tall grass, down in the meadow , and as I cut it ,the deer started coming out of the woods. They started grazing along the edge not afraid of the lawn tractor at all. I ran the mower out of gas and by the time I walked up and got the gas can and back ,there were six deer munching away on the tender ,fresh cut grass . They didn't seem to worried about me until I pulled out my camera. They all did their slow goofy walk into the woods. I drove the mower up the hill and looked back down in the meadow less than one minute later and all six were already back. That must have been some good tasting grass to them ,because they sure wanted it .The deer are taking over the place ,since I don't have a dog anymore to scare them away. We are constantly scaring the hell out of each other when we accidentally encounter each other at close range. I have just about stepped on them lately while out wandering around with a camera. I can never get a good picture when that happens. The deer are starting to look skinny and mangy because they are losing their winter coat now . It comes out in patches, and you see it in allot of places in the forest. I used to wonder if they had the horrible CWD (chronic wasting disease) until I found it is just natural shedding. One doe is very big-probably from eating everything but the sprinkler, in my garden, last fall. She might fit nicely in my freezer come next fall, we will see.I don't usually take the stupid neighborhood deer, but there are getting to be an awful lot of them and they taste the same or better than the wilder ones. I haven't been able to watch politics lately , its gotten ugly .Its all about race and religion and other garbage. The guilt by association stuff only goes so far for me ,and that goes for all candidates. The Shawn Hannity crowd reminds me of a lynch mob in old western movies.These radicals on both ends of politics are dangerous . There will be allot more of it before the election and after but I just hope they get around to debating some more meat and potato issues. Like the price of meat and potatoes . Milk and gas seem to be in a race to see which will hit five dollars a gallon first. Anyway happy Spring .

Here is a couple more shots my niece Laura

Blogger wasn't letting me load my pictures or maybe I wasn't patient enough The top picture is Laura .Hope ya had a great birthday kiddo. The middle picture is my brother Jim and his wife Denise ,and the bottom one is my sister Judi and her husband Allen. Everybody has a little Irish in them except Allen he has Scottish blood( just has to be different) but that close enough on St.Pattys day . I'm finally feeling better ,I really was green the last couple days

Begorah ! Hope ya had a Irish day! GRREEEEEEEEN Ladie and Lasses for sure. My name is Snyder from my father , but my mothers roots are all Kellys Brackens ,Courtneyneys , and other Irish names . Try to trace your family genealogy when your great grandmother was Mary Kelly . Every other woman in Ireland at that time was named Mary Kelly . I feel Irish today !!! A Lucky son of a buck I am !!!! I berled my taters ,and cabbage to go with my corned beef , and quashed it down with a pint ,of Guinness. I want to wish my darling niece Laura, a happy birthday who definitely has the beautiful Irish eyes ,my Grandmother had. She doesn't read my blob but Happy birthday Laura anyways!!! Here are some pictures of her and her Irish EYES

I haven't been feeling 100 percent the last few days ,something seems to be going around . Today I just slept in and added a bunch of junk to the Blog. Some of the younger staff here at Bucksnort had never heard or Asteroids of Simon .I'm not much into computer games but it took me back to high school memories playing them. And Pong was so fantastic when it first cam out. Then I found girls and didn't have any money to waste in arcade machines .Do they even have video arcades anymore? Have some fun and try some of the games and tests. Simon drives me crazy!

Well I think I resolved my computer problem at least I hope so. Today the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln left the port of Everett on its seven month mission to Iraq. I went down to the beach to watch it pass by the island and was there for a long time but never saw it . Ive seen it several times but am always impressed that something that big can float . The Lincoln is the ship with the infamous Mission Accomplished banner. I never did put much weight in that whole controversy---the mission of overthrowing Saddam's regime was accomplished. There is allot of missions in a war. I must have just missed the aircraft carrier going by because all the helicopters and coast guard ships cleared out. That thing sure moves fast . I did see several of the Alaskan crab boats heading out . They are the same boats from the show Deadliest Catch from the Discovery channel -a hell of a show. You couldn't pay me enough to do that work. I thought about it when I first came to the Northwest but they quit paying the big bucks and hired allot less people once they started regulating it heavily . A few guys I know that went told me some horror stories from working on them .Scared to death ,most of the time working like a slave for little money. Watching the show I was glad I never did it . Not much happning in politics--no sex scandals or anything. New York's new governor is legally blind .I wonder how he find the hookers. They figured out that the governor spent 84 dollars a minute-talk about government pork barrel spending Sorry I had to--- they missed that one on the late night comedy shows. Leno and the others have been having a field day -------" I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." Will Rogers

everrt

Life is GREAT! My computer doesn't want me to voice my complaints . So I will only say good things . Spring is happening here even though its gray . I found a wild cherry blooming,in a opening, while hiking in the deep dark forest . The other fruit trees are about to bloom any day . I think it is very early. Tomorrow I will bitch and complain if this f7ck!n computer lets me. It just started to give me a little trouble, if IT doesnt like what I am writing. A few scotch broom blooming , cherry and plum are just about to pop . I think this is the earliest spring ever ,even if it isn't warm yet .Goodbye before blogger or my computer turns me off.

You just have to laugh sometimes. A self righteous governor, that prosecuted several prostitution rings getting caught up in one himself. Ha ha haaaaaaaaaa How about congress giving a huge defense contract to a foreign based company that is under indictment, and has no expierence in making that type of airplane. Instead of giving it to Boeing here in America and adding 40,000 plus jobs to a struggling economy. Who side are they one anyways? Soon theywill have to borrow money from the Chinese to bail out Boeing. Someday the military will just be buying planes ,straight from China . Our government that subsidizes the oil companies, one of which doesn't want to pay anymore money for the Exxon Valdez disaster ,(even though it would be only a weeks worth of their record setting profits) is leaning in their direction. Corruption is ruling the world---maybe the Mafia should be in charge ,at least they had loyalties to their own and made a profit. Probably fewer people would get killed in the long run. The pictures are just some menacing clouds that reminded me of the Mt. St Helen's eruptions. I watched the first installment of a new series on Discovery ,called Axmen. It is about the logging industry that I have always had a fascination and great respect for. I swear I have met several of the loggers from the show, while I was hunting . Its a great show with allot of colorful characters and some interesting logging techniques .Watch it if you can. My political quote comes from the Gipper ----Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.---Ronald Regan

I cant take it any more -- I watch shows like surviorman, and man against the wild and I think they are trying to kill people ! I just watched a navy seal ,that was so afraid of a twig that he heard snap in the middle of the night, that he abandoned the hole that he dug ,in a rainstorm, to sleep in , and decided to run through the woods at night because it might be a bear. In the light of day, he recommended running down hill as fast as you can to take advantage of gravity and covering as much ground as you can ,as quick as you can. After falling several times ,he came to a waterfall, and climbed straight down the middle of it. When he reached the bottom ,he decided to take a 40 foot plunge into a icy cold raging river to go downstream. In other survivor shows ,the host has camped inches away from alligator infested rivers or polar bear feeding places. They don't have shows where people that actually live in these places, but they have some guy that wrote some book on surviving doing the shows. Somebody is going to be killed listening to these idiots,== probably one of the people on the show . Most of the things they show go against all survival principals as well as human nature. I don't know what it is but , I have been ,hunting and fishing with allot of former military personnel ,that wanted to kill themselves using some survivor techniques. A few marines that I have known nearly killed us both, just doing simple camp chores. Some of the hard core military types scare the crap out of me. Yeah Im talking about John McCain .As far as the shows goes somebody is going to get killed soon. Sorry to ramble about crazy stuff but it is The BUCKSNORT blog ....you heard it here first. They wont let me post a picture today --oh well