Many of the things mentioned, are from previous safety failures in farm management. He considers his farm clean to process meat. Uninspected, unobserved, the animal and meat handling could be anything! I have seen home butchering done in the barn aisle, carcass dropped onto an old bloody sheet or canvas to cut up for packages. No washing of the butcher person, he is wearing his overalls, old muddy barn boots as he wrestles the half and other portions onto some boards across sawhorses to cut up. Open air, lots of flies on the meat, because it is a warm spring or fall day. Flies come on over from the paddocks of contained animals amd manure in them. Yep, I REALLY want to get my meat from him! Actually, I no longer accepted dinner invites from those folks after helping with some job or just visiting!! You would never know about that "handling method" as you buy those little meat packages. Whining writer could do as others do, sell the portions of animal. Then he will have animal processed at the butcher location, customers pick up the finished product from the Gov't. inspected, licensed facility. It is not going to cost him any more at all. Gov't. Inspected can mean a lot of things, they are not all equal. However the place and methods get looked at now and again, better than nothing. Hiring regulations are to protect the worker. If a farmer or his family members use tools that are elderly, questionable with no safety guards or bad wiring, that is a family choice. Hired help should not be forced to work under those conditions. Power tools, by their design, are not something you let small kids or younger kids use. They come with manuals of safety, handling instructions that no one reads, to protect the user. Do the farm employers take time to do safety training of these employees, to use the various tools? Not often, if at all. Everyone already "knows" how to do farm stuff!! Kids seldom will argue with an elder person if told to do a job. Kids do not have the experience to spot dangers or understand the problems that might occur in doing a job the wrong way. They don't often think, period! Kids want to earn money, are not going to worry about the dangers they place themselves in, while doing that job. Plus kids forget what you said, ignore the directions they were given before, THINK for themselves. Original thought by kids might add to the dangers!! Their "kid brains" just work that way! Part of growing up is brain development, which can't happen before brain is ready to grow that way. Actual body development may hinder kids in trying to do things, they have different visual fields, motor skills. They often can't help how they think and react, just an age thing. Each grows up at their own speed, should not be grouped by age in all cases. Big size or older age, is NOT mature in body or thinking!! Adult farm workers may not read well, or have used this kind of tool or machine before. They SHOULD be shown how to use it, have the guards and safeties in place to protect them. I can't believe how often the safety features are over-ridden or removed to make it easier to get hurt. Yet it happens ALL THE TIME. I guess you have to protect people from themselves because they will hurt and kill themselves if not supervised. I will agree there are many conflicting and peculiarly written laws in farming. Still were always written for a good, original reason. Farming is about the most dangerous occupation in the US. I think deep-sea fishing is number one. So many places and ways to get hurt in any farming operation. Even if just reading the laws makes you think about your lack of meeting the rules, you might CHANGE a couple things to be better/safer, for yourself. As we live in the setting, we lose our discerning eye for danger. No longer see the repaired cords, long extensions run to get power in a location, double plugs on an outlet, jury-rigging to keep a tractor running, instead of REALLY fixing it right. Just keep rounding up the loose animals, not fixing fence. Climbing the ladder with missing or cracked treads. Not turning off the tractor to unhitch the wagon by ourself, on the hill, with brakes we never repaired. Taking constant chances, which so far have not broken the odds of survival. Yet stuff like this IS a source of danger, we have become used to it or ignore the dangers. The Gov't. gets involved because this thinking is so prevailing, bad stuff never is fixed, endagers the hired help. Not acceptable as safety in Industry, or on the "old farm" either. People die with ignoring safety. The original writing is totally a rant, no one gets to do everything his own way, anyplace. Many nations are much more strict than the US. The food chain is very vulnerable anyplace in the length. It does need checking, to keep things somewhat safer than you would ever see with self-governing along the way.

Some of my favorite characters have already been mentioned. I agree wholeheartedly with Rosefolly about Elnora Comstock from Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. Aerin from The Hero and the Crown and Harry from The Blue Sword both by Robin McKinley are also favorite characters. My favorite Georgette Heyer characters are Leonie from These Old Shades and Sophy from The Grand Sophy. (Oh yes, the whole family from the Amelia Peabody series). For male characters, as a young girl, I wanted to be just like Tarzan, heck, I wanted to be Tarzan! Later, I just wanted to marry him and live in the jungle with him. (vbg) Other favorites include Jim Chee, Brother Cadfael, F'Nor and F'Lar from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider series. I also loved Aragorn, Legolas, Frodo and the other Hobbits from The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein. I'd better stop there, suffice it to say that I have several favorite characters from several favorite authors!

Thanks for the quotes from one of my favorite authors. It must be terrifying to know that you have Alzheimer's, especially when you are a writer and your brain is the tool you depend on. There are quit a few quotes which I identify with, not related to his disease.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes American - Poet May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882 A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts. Ralph Waldo Emerson Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time. Ralph Waldo Emerson Make yourself necessary to somebody. Ralph Waldo Emerson Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know. Ralph Waldo Emerson As soon as there is life there is danger. Ralph Waldo Emerson All diseases run into one, old age. Ralph Waldo Emerson Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved. Ralph Waldo Emerson The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck. Ralph Waldo Emerson The highest revelation is that God is in every man. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay. Ralph Waldo Emerson We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples. Ralph Waldo Emerson All mankind love a lover. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons. Ralph Waldo Emerson A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. Ralph Waldo Emerson Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self? Ralph Waldo Emerson In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs. Ralph Waldo Emerson Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. Ralph Waldo Emerson Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence. Ralph Waldo Emerson I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it. Ralph Waldo Emerson A good indignation brings out all one's powers. Ralph Waldo Emerson The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work. Ralph Waldo Emerson People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is creative reading as well as creative writing. Ralph Waldo Emerson Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about. Ralph Waldo Emerson Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures. Ralph Waldo Emerson Some books leave us free and some books make us free. Ralph Waldo Emerson Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men. Ralph Waldo Emerson One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every man I meet is in some way my superior. Ralph Waldo Emerson Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. Ralph Waldo Emerson The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers. Ralph Waldo Emerson If a man can... make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door. Ralph Waldo Emerson It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'always do what you are afraid to do.' Ralph Waldo Emerson Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day. Ralph Waldo Emerson Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain. Ralph Waldo Emerson Our best thoughts come from others. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated. Ralph Waldo Emerson This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret. Ralph Waldo Emerson Reality is a sliding door. Ralph Waldo Emerson The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence. Ralph Waldo Emerson Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events. Ralph Waldo Emerson Good men must not obey the laws too well. Ralph Waldo Emerson Money often costs too much. Ralph Waldo Emerson As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. Ralph Waldo Emerson A man in debt is so far a slave. Ralph Waldo Emerson Children are all foreigners. Ralph Waldo Emerson A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. Ralph Waldo Emerson Genius always finds itself a century too early. Ralph Waldo Emerson The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society. Ralph Waldo Emerson Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff. Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature hates calculators. Ralph Waldo Emerson The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. Ralph Waldo Emerson No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every hero becomes a bore at last. Ralph Waldo Emerson Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense. Ralph Waldo Emerson I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. Ralph Waldo Emerson Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Ralph Waldo Emerson When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it. Ralph Waldo Emerson Revolutions go not backward. Ralph Waldo Emerson The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every wall is a door. Ralph Waldo Emerson If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare. Ralph Waldo Emerson Cause and effect are two sides of one fact. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side. Ralph Waldo Emerson Power and speed be hands and feet. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is always safety in valor. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified. Ralph Waldo Emerson A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes. Ralph Waldo Emerson Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is my desire, in the office of a Christian minister, to do nothing which I cannot do with my whole heart. Having said this, I have said all. Ralph Waldo Emerson Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant. Ralph Waldo Emerson Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes. Ralph Waldo Emerson The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike. Ralph Waldo Emerson Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. Ralph Waldo Emerson O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught. Ralph Waldo Emerson We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass. Ralph Waldo Emerson The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough. Ralph Waldo Emerson I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons. Ralph Waldo Emerson We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more. Ralph Waldo Emerson The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood. Ralph Waldo Emerson People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. Ralph Waldo Emerson I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women. Ralph Waldo Emerson If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest. Ralph Waldo Emerson In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise. Ralph Waldo Emerson Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation. Ralph Waldo Emerson A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue. Ralph Waldo Emerson Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. Ralph Waldo Emerson Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness. Ralph Waldo Emerson Preaching is the expression of the moral sentiment in application to the duties of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres. Ralph Waldo Emerson Without electricity, the air would rot. Ralph Waldo Emerson The smoothest curled courtier in the boudoirs of a palace has an animal nature, rude and aboriginal as a white bear. Ralph Waldo Emerson Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the 'Not Me,' that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, 'Nature.' Ralph Waldo Emerson What is a farm but a mute gospel? Ralph Waldo Emerson As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus of their own volition, souls proceed into Heaven, into Hell. Ralph Waldo Emerson I have lost my mental faculties but am perfectly well. Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature is the incarnation of thought. The world is the mind precipitated. Ralph Waldo Emerson We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse. Ralph Waldo Emerson Life is our dictionary. Ralph Waldo Emerson A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before. Ralph Waldo Emerson When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless. Ralph Waldo Emerson Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. Ralph Waldo Emerson For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is more difference in the quality of our pleasures than in the amount. Ralph Waldo Emerson If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground. Ralph Waldo Emerson Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none. Ralph Waldo Emerson There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. Ralph Waldo Emerson No great man ever complains of want of opportunity. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well. Ralph Waldo Emerson Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are. Ralph Waldo Emerson We are wiser than we know. Ralph Waldo Emerson No man ever prayed heartily without learning something. Ralph Waldo Emerson Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others. Ralph Waldo Emerson Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom. Ralph Waldo Emerson We are symbols, and inhabit symbols. Ralph Waldo Emerson The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson Nothing external to you has any power over you. Ralph Waldo Emerson There are other measures of self-respect for a man, than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France. Ralph Waldo Emerson Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed. Ralph Waldo Emerson Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one. Ralph Waldo Emerson The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye. Ralph Waldo Emerson In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man. Ralph Waldo Emerson Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. Ralph Waldo Emerson The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom. Ralph Waldo Emerson People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is a tendency for things to right themselves. Ralph Waldo Emerson Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. Ralph Waldo Emerson A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Ralph Waldo Emerson God screens us evermore from premature ideas. Ralph Waldo Emerson The method of nature: who could ever analyze it? Ralph Waldo Emerson We acquire the strength we have overcome. Ralph Waldo Emerson The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain. Ralph Waldo Emerson Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances. Ralph Waldo Emerson Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action. Ralph Waldo Emerson Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never. Ralph Waldo Emerson There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere. Ralph Waldo Emerson A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is an optical illusion about every person we meet. Ralph Waldo Emerson A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace. Ralph Waldo Emerson There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports. Ralph Waldo Emerson Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant. Ralph Waldo Emerson The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting. Ralph Waldo Emerson Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Ralph Waldo Emerson The faith that stands on authority is not faith. Ralph Waldo Emerson The intuition of the moral sentiment is an insight of the perfection of the laws of the soul. These laws execute themselves. They are out of time, out of space, and not subject to circumstance. Ralph Waldo Emerson We have listened too long to the courtly Muses of Europe. Ralph Waldo Emerson A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days. Ralph Waldo Emerson