Tag Archives: Jonah Pawelski

Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt’s Resolution recognizing my efforts on behalf of onion farmers and the onion farming industry in New York State

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Back in 2013 Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt introduced a resolution that recognized some of my efforts in behalf of agriculture over the years. I actually discovered it one day by accident while surfing the internet. Annie intended to surprise me and I sort of ruined that.

I was totally floored and humbled by it. Truth be told, in all the years of my doing volunteer public policy work Annie and her staff have been one of the best elected officials and offices I have ever dealt with. Extremely pro-active and not easily deterred Annie and her team have accomplished a great deal in our behalf over the years, including along with Town of Warwick Supervisor Mike Sweeton getting the speed limit lowered on Pulaski Highway. That alone has saved lives in my opinion. But she has been a fantastic supporter and friend of farmers over the years.

Well, eventually in June Annie held a formal event to present the proclamation to me at one of my favorite places, the Quaker Creek Store. Below is the Resolution, a number of media pieces about it, and finally the link for the online version.

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/72OxNc

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!

Here is the link to the online version of the Resolution:

http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/K324-2013

Enjoy the articles!

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Onion World Magazine December 2012 “Planting Seeds for Sound Agricultural Policies!”

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Of the hundreds of media pieces we have appeared in over the years, this too is a favorite, from the December 2012 Onion World Magazine the article by Eric Woolson entitled “Planting Seeds for Sound Agricultural Policies.”

Link for the article online: http://reader.mediawiremobile.com/ColumbiaMediaGroup/issues/104444/viewer?page=1

It is a fantastic article well written by Eric (an Iowa man, though he went to the University of Northern Iowa vs being a Hawkeye, but that’s close enough!) that nicely re-caps some of the more interesting things we have worked on over the years in terms of public policy and fighting in behalf of farmers.It also contains a number of neat pictures, including the cover photo taken by our son Caleb. Below you can see the article, including a second cover.

If you look closely at that cover you see it is signed by someone … former Senator & Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Here is the story behind that signing … back in September I was down in DC for numerous meetings and to attend Sen. Gillibrand’s Ag Working Group & NY Farm Day reception. It is a fantastic event first started by Sen. Clinton and continued by Sen. Gillibrand, who is the first New Yorker to sit on the Senate Agriculture Committee in some 40+ years. It is coordinated by Jim Trezise, President of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation. Jim is a wonderful human being and a good friend who does a spectacular job year in and year out in regards this and numerous other functions (http://www.winejudging.com/bios/jim_trezise.htm).

Well, at this year’s event I happened to run into an old friend who used to work for Senator/Secretary Clinton. As we chatted and briefly caught up I pulled a copy of this issue out of my bag to show him, since it had a picture of Eve and Jonah with former President Clinton. I laughed and said “I’m sure the President has been featured a few times in “The Onion” but I bet he never thought he would be in “Onion World.” He laughed. I then asked him if he wouldn’t mind giving a copy to them, in case they hadn’t seen it. Plus they might get a good laugh out of it. He happily agreed.

About a month later we received an envelope in the mail from the former Secretary. When I opened it I was surprised to see the magazine and was sort of disappointed it was returned. But then when I got to the top I saw why, it had the very gracious signature. Very cool!

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/72OxNc

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!

Enjoy the article!

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A dead skin on feet removal experiment!

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Yesterday my fantastic friend Blaise G. posted the following picture on Facebook:

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Well … this was simply too good to be true! So, I had to try it of course! An added bonus … Eve’s wonderful mom Emily is visiting us from South Carolina … so she got to observe this experiment first hand!

Here it is … a photo-essay-experiement!

Going over the recipe!

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Will my feet fit? Not both … can only do one at a time!

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Assembling the ingredients!

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Mixing it up!

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Eve says this smells!

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Me: “It’s not so bad.”

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Jonah begs to differ.

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The concoction is mixed … time to dip the foot and begin!

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Eve’s mom Emily is closely observing … Jonah does what he does best … photo-bombs!

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Dr. Mom is now monitoring the soaking process! Once complete she now starts he post soaking evaluation process.

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Eve’s verdict … the dead skin is not peeling off.

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As the first foot gets evaluated the 2nd foot begins soaking!

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Ahh … the return of Pedi-Spin to work on foot #1!

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Jonah says it smells!

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Chloe says it smells too!

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Final verdit … it didn’t work … except make my feet a little softer for Pedi-Spin and made them smell a little funnier than normal!

PediSpin = Strange Family Activities!

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The following is a series of photos taken on February 25, 2012 … it chronicles Eve doing PediSpin on my feet. Our youngest son Jonah saw it in the mall and said “ma, you gotta get this for dad.”

Check out the series of photos taken by our oldest son Caleb. Why don’t you add captions and text.

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Don’t you hate when this happens?

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What am I pointing to in the picture above you ask? It’s a small nail brush. You can see a close-up below. How did the brush get there? A great question. The following event took place some time in 2004.

Eve used to keep that brush on top of the downstairs toilet next to the sink. One day we opened the door to my basement and saw it had about 2 feet of water in it (it’s an unfinished basement).

There was poo poo and toilet paper floating everywhere. Lots of poo, I may add. My septic line must have been clogged for 2 or 3 days before we noticed. My drain line had a separate feed from my basement floor to drain my water softener (this has since been changed). Something clogged the main line which caused the poo poo to back flow into the basement. Obviously we had to call a plumber who had to snake the system. We had to dig up the hatch for the septic tank to do it. When the clog finally broke we saw what caused the blockage. It was that brush you see below. My youngest, Jonah, who was 2 at the time, flushed it down the toilet.

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 I pulled it out, wearing gloves obviously, from the septic tank. I rinsed it off and put it in my garage. It will be the gift I give him when his first child is born.

But this is only half the story. About a week later we opened the door to the basement and once again we had a foot or more of water, along with more poo poo and toilet paper, floating as well. WHAT HAPPENED? 2 year old Jonah claimed innocence but I thought about water boarding him to verify.

Once again we had to dig up the hatch, call the plumber, snake it, etc …. What caused the blockage this time? Out came a chunk of dry laundry detergent that was bigger than a softball. My grandma, who lived in the house till 1990 always used dry detergent (“it’s cheaper my darling” she would say) and it congealed and stuck to the inner pipes. The brush evidently functioned as a crude form of angioplasty that cleared the line of the clump of detergent. 

Thanks Jonah, for causing our basement to flood with water and poo-poo twice.

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“Do I have to eat it?”

So, Eve decided to buy these Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches when she went grocery shopping on Sunday. First sign of trouble … Jonah yesterday.

Jonah: “Dad, do I have to finish this?”
Me: “Your mom paid a lot of money for it. Eat it.”
Jonah: “But dad, it’s gross. I can buy breakfast at school. Please!”

I wasn’t going to force him to eat so I gave him $3 and told him don’t tell his mom. This morning I spy Eve making some more of those things and I tell her what happened with Jonah.

Eve: “I might have made it wrong. You’re supposed to microwave it in a paper towel.”
Me: “I think it was more than that.”

A few minutes later Caleb came down and Eve gave him one of the two that she nuked this morning.

Caleb: “Jesus, this is disgusting. Do I have to finish it?”
Eve: “No. I just finished mine and my stomach is not making happy noises.”

Folks, it’s not a good thing when Eve’s stomach is “not making happy noises.” Thank you Jimmy Dean … may you rot in pre-fabbed sausage and egg sandwich hell.