Update: FLDS Children of YFZ Ranch

(This post is an on-going update to the "Abuse in America" story written Jan 28 - Feb 3, 2008. You can find the full 3-part story by clicking "Older Posts" at the bottom of this page.)

Several news sources are reporting yesterday's appeals court ruling in Texas. The appeals court ruled the State of Texas had unjustly removed the 400+ children from the FLDS Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, TX. Texas Child Protective Services has ten days to appeal this ruling. During this time, the children will remain in the custody of Texas.

Needless to say, FLDS sect members of the YFZ Ranch are celebrating this appeals court decision.

Please pray the judicial process will continue to insure the safety and welfare of these children. Unless the FLDS discontinue several of their "religious" practices, these children are not safe with their parents. Because the removal of these children was settled peacefully with little stand-off and no loss of life, this may be the only chance anyone will have to stop this misguided cult from abusing their children.

The time is now for this sect's abuses to be brought to an end. They cannot claim the right to religious freedom while denying other constitutional rights. They cannot be allowed to continue to abuse women and children in the United States.

If these children are returned to the YFZ Ranch, I fear finding them again will be a real problem for law enforcement. The FLDS have at least one other guarded compound in Idaho. If the FLDS members feel they cannot be allowed to continue to practice their religious dogma freely in the United States, they could very well head to another country where they could be under less scrutiny.

This link is for the MSNBC report of this story. Several related NBC Today Show video links can also be found on this site. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24789427

Also, this blog has been very busy lately: http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/.

"Bucket" Plants

In our patio garden, we have a fairly large, very beautiful Nikko Blue Hydrangea. Every year, just as the blooms are beginning to form, I clip part of the hydrangea back a little so it doesn't become an impediment on the patio. A couple of weeks ago it was time to trim the hydrangea. Instead of tossing the cuttings away, as I usually do, I filled my garden bucket with water and placed the leafy green cuttings in the water to propagate several more hydrangeas for empty shaded areas of our garden. A few days later, I trimmed several long stalks of a very healthy, large white geranium. Might as well see about propagating a few more of these too, I thought to myself, as I pushed the geraniums into the bucket among the hydrangeas.

The Colonel's mother has a very light colored pink geranium with a very different colored leaf design. This geranium is a variety I have never seen before and I have admired for many years. Last week as we were hanging a flower basket for the Colonel's Mom, I asked her about that geranium with the different colored leaves.

"Oh, honey," she said, "there used to be a lot of those geraniums bordering the fence. They are more than forty-years-old. We planted 'em when we built the house. You want some of that plant?" she asked as she started toward the geranium. "I'll just break you off a piece."

Before I could say anything, she bent down and broke a huge piece off of the forty-year-old geranium and handed it to me. I kind of stood there speechless holding the geranium in my hand. She turned and headed back to tend the basket we were almost ready to hang.

"I'm going to go get a wet paper towel and wrap the bottom of this," I said, looking at the heirloom geranium.

"You don't have to do that," she replied. "Just let it dry out a little and put it in the ground. It'll grow."

"Really?" I asked. "It doesn't need water. It won't die?"

"No. It'll be just fine," came her reply.

I gently placed the plant on a table in the shade and went back to hanging the basket.

Later that evening, following her instructions to "let it dry a little," I laid the geranium cutting on the picnic table on our patio. A few days later, I saw the somewhat wilted geranium on the picnic table, picked it up and stuck it in the bucket among the other hydrangea and geranium cuttings.

We've had some really beautiful weather. When all of this gardening and plant clipping was taking place, our temperatures were in the mid-70's, absolutely great weather for gardening. Two days ago, our temperatures hit the mid-90's. Yesterday's high was a record 106 degrees and today is expected to be much the same. In that kind of heat, plants won't survive long without water. So, this morning I went out to give all of our plants a good drink of water before the day heated up.

There, in a shaded corner of the patio, I found my forgotten bucket of hydrangea and geranium cuttings. Knowing the hydrangea had been in the water the longest, I pulled one out to find several slimy leaves, a slick stalk, and a few small roots. As I continued watering, I knew I had to do something with my "bucket" plants.

I hate to see anything die, and this includes plants. One of the hardest things for me to do is remove a dead or dying plant from the landscape without first doing everything humanly possible to make it survive - even sometimes to the visual detriment of our beautiful patio garden.

It's now 3PM. The temperature outside is 101 degrees. My bucket of flower cuttings is empty.

The 40-year-old geranium is in the ground under our 8 foot tall "miniature" lemon tree. Six hydrangea cuttings are in the ground in empty shady spots in our garden. Fourteen hydrangea plants are in pots. (When I am sure these are going to survive, I am going to take them to friends to plant in their yards.) And the two white geranium plants are also in pots. (I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet.)

I am hot and sweaty and in desperate need of a shower and then maybe a nap, but all of the plants were saved. I believe most, if not all, will survive and should bring us and others many years of enjoyment.

I don't think I'll have any more "bucket" plants any time soon!

Lost In Slingo-land!!!

With all of my efforts to keep up with the intense happenings in Texas and the FLDS, I suppose I could say I was due for some down time. My needing "down-time" is pretty hilarious. My life is virtually stress-free. What started as research for one of my contract jobs has become my newest video game obsession.

I have never been obsessive-compulsive, but when it comes to video games, I think I see a definite trend developing. You may remember reading "Whoa Dude! Rock On!" about my experience with the Wii and Guitar Hero. (To read this post, go to the bottom of this page and click on "Older Posts.") Prior to Guitar Hero, I was playing XBox Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom. During the Spongebob obsession, I remember flying back home from one of my weekly business trips and peeling the XBox controller caused calluses from my fingers. At a very minimum with Guitar Hero and Spongebob I could use Katy as an excuse. After all I was spending quality time playing video games with my young friend. Okay, maybe not quality quality time but we were having fun and spending time together. As for my latest addiction, I do not think Katy even knows what Slingo is.

Maybe you have heard of Slingo. Slingo is an on-line multi-player game. Think bingo with a kind of slot machine spin. Six or seven years ago a friend enjoyed playing Slingo on-line and convinced the Colonel and I to check it out. We loved playing Slingo and spent quite a few hours playing on-line with friends. Back then, Slingo was likely one of the few multi-player games available without charge on the Internet.

To make a long story short, about a month ago, I needed to do a little research about on-line video gaming. While doing my research I ran across a link to http://www.slingo.com/. Hhhhhhhmmmmm, I thought. Slingo. I remember Slingo. I haven't thought about that game for several years. I think I'll go play a game of Slingo, just to see if I remember how.

If you knew Slingo before, like I did, you would barely recognize it now. Slingo.com is now a large world-wide on-line community of games and gamers. The original Slingo game is still there, now called Slingo Millennium but you can also play more than 50 other different types of Slingo games. Just to mention a few . . . Texas Hold'em Slingo, Slingo Slots, Slingo Trivia, Sling-Do-Ku, Slingo Mahjong, Slingo Poker, Slingo Solitaire, Slingo Golf. If you can name it, there is probably a Slingo game for it.

You play these games in a Slingo "room" equipped with a "chat box" feature so you can chat - or not chat if you choose - with other players. You can play in rooms defined by geography or by the number of coins each game will cost you. Slingo even has "high stakes" rooms for those wanting to risk more to receive a higher payout when and if they win.

One really fun and interesting feature of playing Slingo games is playing with people from around the world. I play regularly with people from Spain, Australia and South Africa as well as many, many people from the U.S. and Canada. Because you can "chat" (type messages) with others as you play, I have learned much about a very diverse group of people. (Well, I can say "a little" literally in about four different languages now.)

What are the advantages of Slingo for a freelance writer? I have my own profile page on slingo.com with this web-site posted. I met a woman from Cape Town South Africa who works in publishing. I guess there is not much opportunity here because she speaks much better English than I speak Afrikaans, her native language and one of eleven official languages of South Africa. And every time the guy from Spain shows up, I end up losing my game while trying to translate when he types in Spanish. Okay, so I'm still exploring the freelance writing opportunities in Slingo-land. I'm sure there are some, I just need to find them.

Slingo.com does not cost anything. All you have to do is register and start playing to earn Slingo coins. Slingo posts daily contests - crossword, sudoku, word and jigsaw puzzles, etc - to help you earn extra Slingo coins. Honestly, I like the daily puzzles almost as much as I like playing the Slingo games. You can also use coins to enter daily, weekly or monthly cash drawings.

Recently, the Colonel noted how much time I was spending in Slingo-land and decided to revisit Slingo too. Now, even less is getting done around here and much of the time it sounds like we live in a casino filled with slot machines. My e-mail is stacking up. The house is a mess. The laundry is piling up. The garden needs pruning. Poor Drew is getting very little attention! Although, we do remember to feed her and the meanest "fe-lion," we sometimes forget to feed ourselves!

So, if I've missed your birthday, a phone call, a visit or a dining invitation, or am late in answering an e-mail, please forgive me. It's all I can do to remember to do the minimal daily household stuff and make it back to my laptop before the next Slingo game begins.

If you really need me, you can find me at http://www.slingo.com/. My screen-name is FrazzToo and I'm playing Mixed Matrix Slingo in one of the "100k" rooms. Gotta run now, a new Slingo game is starting! Woo-hoo! Maybe I'll see you there! I sure hope so!