October 17, 2011

Duck season opened this weekend with a bang ... dang, I'm funny. At a little over 5 months old Ruger did better than I could have hoped. Blind retrieves, open water retrieves and open field retrieves and he sat quietly in the blind without trouble. His best retrieve came yesterday. We were packed up and sitting by the trucks with a small group of ducks landed back by the blind. We jumped them and put one down, but it landed about 150 yards away and across the canal ... YIKES! We had it marked, so we drove over and started looking for it. It was an open field next to a thick creek bottom and after about 10 minutes of not finding the duck Ruger started getting "birdy" and suddenly found the bird. What a great weekend with the pup.

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Rain, rain and more rain, not good with hat down. We finally got two fields dry enough to bale ... it's not perfect, but the cows will eat it. We'll be working on fence all week and will start hauling cows home next weekend. I still can't believe it's almost November ... where did the year go?

I attended the third Tribal Retrocession Work Group Meeting last week in Olympia. The topic, Criminal Retrocession. I still have a lot of questions and concerns about the state retroceeding criminal jurisdiction to the FBI, BIA and tribes.

I'll be speaking at Perry Tech's graduation this week and will be at the Sunnyside Republican Clubs meeting Friday morning. We've got a lot to do before the November 28th Special Session, but we'll get there.

#Ruger #ducks #rain #hay #bale #tribal #retrocession #FBI #BIA #Perry #Tech #Special #Session #15th #District #Rep #David #Taylor
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August 24, 2011

Good news here, Ruger (our Black Lab pup) is finally getting over is bout with Parvo. I worked him with three tennis balls the other night for blind retrieving and he did spectacular. Time to get him back on the pheasant scent and tracking birds through brush. I'm pretty anxious to get him working some real birds this fall.

Playing Mr. Mom (or taxi cab driver) all week. Today is the last day of volleyball "two-a-days" for Tiffany ... nothing like an 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM practice to totally interfere with getting things done during the day. Seems like every time I get something started it's time to leave the house again. I've been taking Tessa to soccer practice too, so add that in as well. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ... 8:00 AM drop off Tiffany, 9:00 AM drop off Tessa, 10:00 AM Pick up Tiffany, 11:00 AM pick up Tessa, 3:00 PM drop off Tiffany. Down to single practices tomorrow ... can't wait.

It looks like the next couple of months could be fairly busy with constituent meetings, committee meetings and a possible Special Session. Back in July, it was reported the state is down to 6 to 8 weeks of cash left. That, coupled with what could be a terrible September revenue forecast, couple mean a very ugly fall in Washington.

Now is the time to start focusing on real job growth, real economic development and real fiscal sanity. I spoke to a builder yesterday who summed it up quite well. "Want economic development and job growth, get the government out of my way." Amen to that!

#Ruger #volleyball #Tiffany #Tessa #economic #job #growth #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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August 18, 2011

Another busy week comes to an end. I was able to bring Ruger home on Wednesday from the vet and now he's bouncing off the walls, 2nd cutting of hay is done, we're starting maintenance on the equipment for the last cutting, sorting calves, and getting caught up on everything else.

I spoke at the Yakima Republican Women's meeting yesterday about the 2011 session, the interim and plans for 2012. I always enjoy speaking at their luncheon, the ladies always have great questions. I'll be at the Realtor function tonight in Yakima and have a few meetings over the next couple of weeks. It seems like legislative issues are starting to heat up again and rumor is we could be heading back to Olympia in late September or October for another Special Session.

#Ruger #equipment #Olympia #Special #Session #Realtors #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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August 9, 2011

So the last few days have been really, really bad. We're trying to get the second cutting of hay done and things just seem to keep breaking down. First, we couldn't get a really thick grass/alfalfa field to dry out, then we couldn't get any dew on a different alfalfa field. Finally things looked good, but the parts we ordered for the rake we're the wrong ones (not our mistake though). We were able to borrow a rake for a day and things looked up again. We got our rake fixed with the right parts, only to have it brake down again ... this time badly. Spent Sunday working on the rake, got the bearings pulled and put into a different piece only to have the part break on the last bearing unit ... ugh! Finally after starting at 1:30 AM this morning, things looked good again. Only have about 13 rows left to bale in the alfalfa field and BOOM, the freaking front axle broke. Yup, broke! So instead of getting a little sleep today, I'll be back working on equipment. {sigh}

Not like things weren't bad enough, Saturday night Ruger's brother Remington (the new pups) was diagnosed with Parvo, so now we're on Parvo watch with all the dogs. Thankfully Remington is already back at home with the Beebe's, but I'm still worried about my little guy ... only time will tell.

The Moxee Hop Festival went really well. There were lot's of people and we had a good time (up until taking the dog to the emergency vet clinic at 7:00 PM Saturday night). I spent an hour in the dunk tank as a fundraiser for Wellness House and it sounds like they made a few hundred dollars over the course of the day.

#Moxee #Hop #Festival #Parvo #tractor #hay #rake #Ruger #Remington #Rep #David #Taylor #15th #District
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