https://muckville.com/2014/01/02/the-great-muckville-blog-free-bloomin-onion-essay-contest/

These photos below are of the official presentation of the 3rd Bloomin’ Onion certificate in the Great Muckville Blog Free Bloomin’ Onion Essay Contest!

Back on January 24th we had the 1st winner, my cousin Lindsey Laprise!

https://muckville.com/2014/01/24/we-have-our-first-bloomin-onion-winner/

Below are photos and the winning essay! And keep in mind … there is still one left!!!!

Thank you Outback!!!!

Lindsey is a very bright and funny young lady and my second cousin!

Here is her winning entry:

Dear onion, 

I would like a free blooming onion from outback because the black dirt runs in my family….I love the smell and feel of an onion…..every time I go to the black dirt all I smell is onions and it makes me want to eat a whole one…onions make me cry and i wish they didn’t do that because I should be happy eating or chopping a onion. The blooming onion reminds me of a fair on a nice hot summer day where all you can smell is onion and fried clogging arteries every where you look. This is why I want a free blooming onion cause some Pollocks can’t afford one!

Thanks!

I literally have tears in my eyes in regards to this entry! Onions tend to have that effect, you know!

Link for the second winner: https://muckville.com/2014/01/29/we-have-another-bloomin-onion-gift-certificate-winner/

Link for the third winner: https://muckville.com/2014/03/16/the-presentation-of-a-bloomin-onion-certificate-in-the-great-muckville-blog-free-bloomin-onion-essay-contest/

Remember, you can still enter for that final certificate!

As I have mentioned multiple times previously my campaign to raise funds for an editor will be featured in an upcoming episode of the new Crowd Funder Show.

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1efvb/ab/61mkb2

My campaign has now been modified. Since I now have a literary agent I no longer need to raise funds for an editor for my memoir. Now I am exploring the creation of a tv show based on my life and experiences, the same experiences detailed in my yet to be published memoir “Muckville!”

What is the Crowd Funder Show and what does it mean to appear on the show? According to their website:

The Crowd Funder TV Show highlights various ideas that have been selected based on their merit for creativity, social relevance, and commercial viability. Each episode focuses the spotlight on six or seven inspiring projects and personal goals that give the viewing audience insight into the campaign, its principal, and the reason(s) why it should come to fruition. The Crowd Funder TV Show highlights various ideas that have been selected based on their merit for creativity, social relevance, and commercial viability.

What is so neat about their crowd funding method, versus Kickstarter’s, is that it is not “all or nothing.” Further, the rewards are much more exciting. Again, from their website:

Viewers can choose to support the projects they watch by contributing directly to the campaign website or by calling a toll-free number. The Crowd Funder Show rewards contributors with sponsored gift cards for the same amount of money they contribute, up to $100. Supporting people and their projects has never been easier so it’s no wonder you can’t help but feel like you’re a part of something special. The Crowd Funder TV Show is an interesting, inspiring program that highlights human ingenuity and co-operation.

When you go to my page you will see locations once can choose from for the gift card include: Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot and Toys R Us. So, if you plan on doing any shopping at any of these locations anyway you are essentially donating to my cause for free. A total win-win!

Continuing the theme of posting pictures during the growing season here are some pictures of the start of the season. They are pretty self-explanatory but don’t hesitate to ask any questions if you have them!

This is my first blog posting for the 2014 growing season! I will try to do these as the season progresses throughout the year.

A note about this spring … it is TERRIBLE! Typically we start planting once the frost leaves the ground, which can be as early as the beginning of March. Not this season. I had a friend report back in late February/early March the frost level in the ground was between 44-48 inches. We were still hitting pieces of ice in the ground last week. What did all that frost do? We;;, combined with a moderately cold March the frost remained far longer than normal, and this frost did not allow the rains we received in March to drain properly.

So, it has been extremely wet/muddy! And all of our ditches filled with silt, exacerbating the drainage problem. Thankfully, my brother and father bought a used excavator from a friend who is retiring from farming, and we were able to dig all of our ditches. Our cousin Ted ran it much of the time, and I ran it as well. It is something I had never operated before, and it was FUN! As I tweeted,back on April 3rd:

“Running this Kubota excavator is almost as much fun as having sex. And I have fantastic sex. There, I said it!”

https://twitter.com/ChrisPawelski/status/451819002822938624

Below are some random pictures I took of excavating. Some of cousin Ted, some of me, quite a few of turtles I kept digging up (don’t worry, no turtles were harmed during the production of this blog), some of tile lines pre and post digging, and lots and lots of ditches!

Check them out and tell me what you think!

These photos are from my mom’s side of the family. many come from old tintype photographs. My mom is not sure who all the persons are, though she believes the one photo is of her mom. Two of the others are of Lucha relatives, Johnny and William.

Enjoy!

Back in 2011 the floods of the Wallkill River (the first in the spring, the latter two after Hurricane Irene & Tropical Storm Lee at harvest time) devastated the crops in the black dirt of Orange County and wreaked damage all along the Wallkill River and Rondout Creek. The first flood delayed planting which in turn delayed harvesting. It turned out to be a very costly delay.

Flooding, sadly, has not been a new occurrence in the Wallkill River area, especially in the black dirt:

It’s been a river poorly maintained over the decades. The last extensive study conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called for “channel modification” or dredging of the river back in 1983. The federal government didn’t have enough money to do that. Instead they did a far less extensive clearing and snagging project in 1985. The farmers back then were told it would be a “20 year” project. And the extensive flooding in fact held off for 20 years. But 20 years later we experienced our first “50 year flood” in many years. Since 2005 we have now experienced 7 such floods.

In response to the devastation and poor response by the federal government after Irene and Lee I created a Facebook page devoted to that destruction:

https://www.facebook.com/savemyonionfarm?sk=wall

The page has 3 photo albums, one containing pictures of my crop before the storm and two of the crop during and after the floods:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.176620685760221.46787.170844949671128&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.176627995759490.46790.170844949671128&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.176667082422248.46798.170844949671128&type=3

Also in response to the initial poor response by the federal government I put a 50lb bag of onions up for sale on eBay for $150,000. This blog posting explains that in detail:

https://muckville.com/2014/01/13/the-backstory-behind-my-150000-50lb-bag-of-onions-on-ebay/

Shortly after the Irene and Lee flooding I was asked by Senator Schumer’s office to give them an estimate of the crop damages caused by the flooding since 2005. I contacted USDA (the United States Department of Agriculture) and FSA (the Farm Service Agency, a division of USDA) and asked them for their payouts for the federal crop insurance program and NAP (noninsured assistance program, for crops that aren’t covered by crop insurance https://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/newsReleases?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=pfs&newstype=prfactsheet&type=detail&item=pf_20080819_distr_en_nap08.html) for Orange County and Ulster County for years 05, 07 and 11, the years the “50 year floods” wiped out farms and crops, and these are the totals:

05: $2.9 million crop insurance; $900K NAP
07: $1.8 million ci; 400k NAP
11: $5.9 million ci; 900k NAP

Now, one thing to keep in mind, crop insurance payments, as Eve and I have experienced, typically only cover pennies on the dollar on our losses. Our experience, conservatively, has been 10 cents on the dollar. So, when you look at these loss totals you need to multiply the amount by 10!

For example, if you add up 2011 it equals $6.8 million roughly in govt payments for losses, multiply it by 10 and you have $68 million dollars in crop losses due to the floods in Orange and Ulster Counties. (This Times Herald record article estimated the agricultural losses to be at least $50 million: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20120304%2FNEWS%2F203040318

Total all of it over those 3 years and it equals $12.8 million. Multiply it by 10 and that equals $128 million dollars in crop losses for the “50 year floods” that affected crops. We had a “50 year flood” in 2010 that didn’t affect crops and of course these figures do not take into account the homes, businesses, and infrastructure damage that has taken place during those 7 “50 year floods” since 2005 either.

If this doesn’t require action, what does? When will the powers that be finally comprehensively and aggressively address this problematic river and address it from “A to Z” so to speak, or from New Jersey where it starts to the Hudson River where it empties? Irene and Lee dumped an excessive amount of rain but these other floods were caused by far less rain. Five or 6 inches of rain should be something a river of that size should be able to handle. If it had been properly maintained.

How many more times do we have to be destroyed till the impediments to getting something done or swiped aside and this chronic problem is addressed?

Please like my two Facebook pages, the one devoted to the flooding and this one, devoted to my memoir:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Muckville-Farm-Policy-Media-and-the-Strange-Oddities-of-Semi-Rural-Life/182345468639212

My yet to be published memoir has a couple of chapters devoted to this issue.

The following blog contains some classic old videos. Two are from my dad (one is just a shortened version of the other) and two from my mom and her side of the family (same, deal, a long and short version). Plus there is a video from the early 1980’s about flooding in the black dirt!

These are fantastic artifacts of the black dirt region of Orange County and the travels of Richard Pawelski

Enjoy!

Rich Pawelski short version:

Rich Pawelski long version:

Grace Pawelski family movies long version (starts with Vince & Polly Kasuga’s wedding in 1937:

Grace Pawelski family movies short version:

WNEW-5 in NYC on 4/25/83 (Bill Mazer is at the end):

S.S. Seward Institute of Florida NY Class of 1984 graduation video! A true historical artifact!

Enjoy!

These photos are of the official presentation of the 3rd Bloomin’ Onion certificate in the Great Muckville Blog Free Bloomin’ Onion Essay Contest!

Back on February 27th we had the 3rd winner, Mr Donald Guy Wilson III!

https://muckville.com/2014/02/27/we-have-still-another-bloomin-onion-gift-certificate-winner/

Below are photos and the winning essay! And keep in mind … there is still one left!!!!

Thank you Outback!!!!

Donald is a very bright and very funny young man who is also the son of Don Wilson. His dad graduated 3 years ahead of me in high school at S.S. Seward and worked on our farm as a teenager for many years back in the 70′s and 80′s! He was a great worker and good friend.

Here is the latest winning entry:

Many people feel most content in their rooms, or perhaps doing an activity they most enjoy. Weird it may seem, but I feel most myself while being locked inside of a three-drawer office filing cabinet. My marred childhood led to what seems like a strange discovery, but it led me to an epiphany: everyone is just a file.

When I was nine years old, my parents passed away at a rave due to an overdose of MDMA ecstasy. My only memories of them are that of abuse and neglect due to their abhorrent drug addictions, not only to ecstasy, but to heroin and crack as well. My worst memory was when my father was in a crack-induced rage and swung at me with a metal folding chair, thinking I was an opponent in an upcoming wrestling tournament, breaking three of my ribs. I was rushed to a hospital, where I stayed for twenty one days.When I got the notice that my parents passed, I felt bittersweet, knowing that the years of abuse had finally ended, but a void was created where my parents used to be.  The void was quickly filled by my uncle Tertius, who took me into his household without question. However, Tertius proved to be just as abusive as my parents, and I quickly turned to codeine, having a supply to alleviate the pain of the injuries my dad gave me. When I turned twelve, I got a job working at a local three-story office building, sorting office supplies in the storage rooms. The manager of the office, Tria, became a mother figure to me, giving me not only a place to work, but guidance in life. She even helped to cure my addiction to codeine. However, after three years of working at the office complex, Tria passed away. To cope, I ran away and fell back to codeine. I was walking down my town’s Third Street, and found an aged, beat up three-drawer filing cabinet. My mind was cast back to three years ago, where I first got the job working with Tria at the three-story office complex. I quickly jumped inside the cabinet, knowing that the three drawers would offer me the comfort and solace that codeine could not. As I lay inside, remembering the how at home I felt working for Tria, I decided that this cabinet would be my new home. For forty days and forty nights, I wandered the streets, but I always came back to the three-drawer filing cabinet.

As the fortieth night began, I climbed inside the cozy cabinet, and it hit me: I was a file. We are all files, trapped inside the filing cabinet that is life. I wrote a three-page paper to the Triad Record, describing my thoughts on the situation. We enter the filing cabinet little files with nothing in them. As time goes on and on, our files grow, until one day, they are removed from the cabinet. That is, we die. These realizations brought me the epitome of tranquility that I always hoped for, inside my new home, the three-drawer filing cabinet.

In short, I should get a free Bloomin’ Onion coupon.

CONGRATULATIONS DONALD!

Link to first winner: https://muckville.com/2014/01/24/we-have-our-first-bloomin-onion-winner/

Link for the second winner: https://muckville.com/2014/01/29/we-have-another-bloomin-onion-gift-certificate-winner/

As I have mentioned multiple times previously my campaign to raise funds for an editor will be featured in an upcoming episode of the new Crowd Funder Show.

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1efvb/ab/61mkb2

My campaign has now been modified. Since I now have a literary agent I no longer need to raise funds for an editor for my memoir. Now I am exploring the creation of a tv show based on my life and experiences, the same experiences detailed in my yet to be published memoir “Muckville!”

What is the Crowd Funder Show and what does it mean to appear on the show? According to their website:

The Crowd Funder TV Show highlights various ideas that have been selected based on their merit for creativity, social relevance, and commercial viability. Each episode focuses the spotlight on six or seven inspiring projects and personal goals that give the viewing audience insight into the campaign, its principal, and the reason(s) why it should come to fruition. The Crowd Funder TV Show highlights various ideas that have been selected based on their merit for creativity, social relevance, and commercial viability.

What is so neat about their crowd funding method, versus Kickstarter’s, is that it is not “all or nothing.” Further, the rewards are much more exciting. Again, from their website:

Viewers can choose to support the projects they watch by contributing directly to the campaign website or by calling a toll-free number. The Crowd Funder Show rewards contributors with sponsored gift cards for the same amount of money they contribute, up to $100. Supporting people and their projects has never been easier so it’s no wonder you can’t help but feel like you’re a part of something special. The Crowd Funder TV Show is an interesting, inspiring program that highlights human ingenuity and co-operation.

When you go to my page you will see locations once can choose from for the gift card include: Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot and Toys R Us. So, if you plan on doing any shopping at any of these locations anyway you are essentially donating to my cause for free. A total win-win!

I’ve had a few postings by readers asking for my links. They may be spam, but, in case they are not I’d like to point out where you can find many of my social media links.

If you look tot he right of my page and scroll down you see two bio boxes. One is my Gravatar:

http://en.gravatar.com/chrispawelski

The other is for my about.me page:

http://about.me/chris_pawelski

Both of these pages contain links for various social media websites I am on. They include the following:

Farmroot: http://www.farmroot.org/index.html

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisPawelski

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisPawelski

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-pawelski/1/5b9/7a1

Newsie: http://newsle.com/ChristopherPawelski

Check them out!