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Ben you and Kira sure are having a rough year of it! I hope you are safely back to Minnesota getting some rest and healing time.

You forgot that Bullfrog said he giving away his opinions. He did not mention
doing any physical labor or adding goods and cash money to the offer🤣
 
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And I thought I was having a hard time of it working in the heat on a non running car.

Better than getting hit with the heat of a running one. Truly hope you recover quickly Ben.
 
You should join pirate camp… Doug is the master there of giving of self!
lol!!! I have looked forward to doing that several years from way back when Camalu made and sent me my “I don’t need no stinking badge” badge! It seems every year I meet more people day to day to help, in fact so much I never make it! I did when I went to the early RTR’s camp in the more remote areas in the 14 day stay area as I prefer being a hermit and don’t really like crowds. I would see people on the back way from the long term area headed to the RTR so I guess that makes me a Pirate Camp stalker! Lol!!! Get healed up quick before something else happens would you? Hope your time back north goes well.
 
And I thought I was having a hard time of it working in the heat on a non running car.

Better than getting hit with the heat of a running one. Truly hope you recover quickly Ben.
I’m very blessed… only my arm is pushing third degree burns in a couple spots. I can attest flushing and cooling with cold water is the best thing I could have done. And now my “tan” from being in the south just got peeled off… rats! Start over!
 
For me it is best to volunteer or give “one on one” directly to local people I know in need in my opinion.

Just finished the online training for election-day poll worker. Have to take a different training for early-voting poll worker but it's not ready yet. It's more complicated than I imagined...
I did this for a number of election cycles at a very, very busy polling location, working as much as 13 hours a day for the ten day early voting periods. Honestly, I loved it! (And, yes, there was some drama from time to time.) I know you'll do a good job, and hope you enjoy the experience.
 
There are various websites, like charitynavigator...
One thing I noticed a while back is that there were very few organizations serving immigrant populations that rated well on CharityNavigator (at least in Texas). I wonder if you have any insight into why that is, or how to vet service providers in that arena.
 
I’m very blessed… only my arm is pushing third degree burns in a couple spots. I can attest flushing and cooling with cold water is the best thing I could have done. And now my “tan” from being in the south just got peeled off… rats! Start over!
When I was in the military living just a mile or so off base I got blown through a wall of a mobile home lighting a propane heater. Needless to say my arm was burned to a point they didn’t think I would be able to use it again. Fortunately there was snow on the ground and I packed it around what had been my arm and was at the flight surgeon’s office in minutes. The burn center there put some new at the time ointment after cleaning it and wrapped it in a big bundle and told me to take my meds, don’t get it wet and come back in 6 months. Six months later they unwrapped it and to everyone’s surprise I didn’t even need a skin graph although my skin is very thin and I cut and scrape easily a year later I had full use of it and two years later it was almost as strong as it ever had been. I’m sure treatment has gotten better over the years. Hoping all goes well for you as it did me!
 
One thing I noticed a while back is that there were very few organizations serving immigrant populations that rated well on CharityNavigator (at least in Texas). I wonder if you have any insight into why that is, or how to vet service providers in that arena.
Lord, I wish I did. I have had a whole series of (to me) surprisingly bad experiences in that field. In fact I just quit out of what I think is going to be the last one today :-(
I think there is a lot of waste and amateurism in this field -- more than in other fields? I don't know! -- There just really doesn't seem to be a lot of accountability. That is one person's very subjective impression and I don't want to diss these people any more than they deserve.
As a volunteer, two places in TX that I thought had it pretty together were the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition in Del Rio (very fast paced and pragmatic, their main job is to get people fed and onto a bus for San Antonio where they can get more help) (they're probably one of the more conservative organizations, they work closely with the TX National Guard, it's a very mixed staffing situation, which I really liked) ... and the Sacred Heart church's shelter in El Paso ("Casa del Sagrado Corazon"). Long-term housing was too hard to find in Del Rio, so I couldn't stay long, and later I got this bad ankle and it kicked in at the El Paso place (and they couldn't find me anything sit-down to do). It was frustrating to deal with the volunteer coordinators at the El Paso place (I think they went through 3 in <1 year). But they treat the clients great and seemed well organized from what I could see.
Or are you looking more at services for longer-term immigrant populations that are already ~settled in, services like case work and language lessons? That I don't know much about. I don't know why not, I just never drifted in that direction and the couple of orgs I did have an experience at, I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
There's so damn much hype in this field, and the media misses so @#$% much, that I don't know where you could go other than sites like charitynavigator etc. Keep in mind those sites don't always have data on smaller and newer organizations.
The only thing I can think of that you might try is find one that gets a reasonably decent grade for financial stuff and then go volunteer there for a few days and see what you think of it. That would be a lot of effort, of course.
For giving $$ when I have any extra, my go-to is Doctors Without Borders. They got good marks when I checked (a long time ago, should check again) and I don't think they've ever had a scandal.
I hope that's not too TMI and that some of it is relevant to what you're looking for. It's just what I happen to have stumbled across over the years.
 
I hope that's not too TMI and that some of it is relevant to what you're looking for.
Thank you, this is helpful. (I wish we could stop our Attorney General from suing non-profits for providing food and shelter.)

Doctors Without Borders still meets my criteria for awesomeness, BTW. The work they do is amazing!
 
The monsoon season brought enough rainfall this last week to make an impact on fire restrictions. The Coconino National Forest downgraded from stage 2 restrictions to stage1. The adjoining Kaibab National Forest downgraded from stage 2 restrictions to no restrictions.

Of course at all times of the year there are no fireworks of any type allowed in the National Forest anywhere in the USA.

Flagstaff AZ puts on a laser light show on the 4th. That would be fun to see sometime.
 
Right now at the Walmart I'm at they have 2 -1 pound propane for $5. If you use the green bottles this is a great deal. Check your local Walmart to see if they have the same pricing.

IMG_20240629_103534.jpg
 
Right now at the Walmart I'm at they have 2 -1 pound propane for $5. If you use the green bottles this is a great deal. Check your local Walmart to see if they have the same pricing.
Best price I have seen on the Greenies in quite some time!
 
I used to buy them a lot for my Mr buddy heaters. Lowest I recall them being was was $6.24
 
I used to buy them a lot for my Mr buddy heaters. Lowest I recall them being was was $6.24
I would call that one being an “odd price” for a store to use but numerically it is an even price.
 
I would call that one being an “odd price” for a store to use but numerically it is an even price.
I know right? It was that exact price for well over a year in the various Walmarts I shopped at. That's the only reason I remember it so well. Recently it was over $10. Go figure.
 
I carried a Coleman single burner stove for backup for the last 4 years. But I never needed it during that time so I donated it to the Quartzsite food bank this spring along with two greenies before I went north for the summer. They said they would find it a home where there was no way to cook food.
 
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Bummer, 90 degree high temp, sunny, weather and a national holiday in the forecast. I suppose I am like the forest rangers in thinking a cooler and rainy 4th of July week that keeps people at home in the local towns would be the best possible weather forecast!

I like the monsoon weather when it clouds up in the afternoons and cools off as there is more wind from the thunder clouds and there is some rain to control the dust. Qualified of course by…as long as the rain is not torrential for hours and the lightning is not directly overhead.
 
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Adding just a small amount of salt to my drinking water and coffee has gotten rid of my battle with dehydration. It is not enough salt that I can taste it but it was what I was lacking. Extra salt in my food was not stopping the dizziness, for me apparently it has to be consumed as part of my fluid intake. No problem I can do that, easy and super inexpensive as well.

Today was a go into town day. I was out of drinking water and I had just about run out of clean clothes plus I had been meaning to wash all my microfiber blankets. My mattress pad, that is on top of my bed/ couch cushions, is a self inflating camping pad that has foam inside of it. I made a pillowcase style slip on covering for it ftom microfiber fleece yardage. I had been meaning for the last four years to sew a pocket sleeve into the end of my two microfiber fleece top blankets so they cannot come untucked from the foot of my bed. I finally got that chore done. I told myself the time had come, no more excuses, no more avoiding that chore. Of course it would have taken very little time to stitch it with a sewing machine. But with the help of an audiobook to make the time pass more pleasantly I got the stitching done by hand. It did not have to be pretty stitching work as the stitches are invisible when buried into fluffy microfiber. Plus the stitching is all under the mattress, not visible on the top side. No more popsicle toes in winter from the blankets getting kicked out of position. At least avhundred more chores to go, fix, clean, paint, glue, lubricate, install stuff. It is never ending but not nearly as bad as living in houses as there is no yard work to do! At some point this summer the cows will be set loose in this forest area to mow the grass.
 
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