And the top bar it would change the length accordingly depending of the location. So that was very handy and And it's very quick to do this try to do this another software and Yeah, it would take ages, but the next problem is that I need to look to locate Each of the blender objects Exactly where the anchor needs to be we are talking about Millimeters of accuracy that we need to provide for the builders to make this a work, but I'm going to do it. Well, maybe yeah, you can see here the anchor the blender anchor in the exact location So maybe it's time for Super Blender, but you might say don't be silly What are you gonna do? Are you going to get the default Q put in a cape and put it fly it around in the blender scene? And then put a hero position at the end. No, I'm not talking about that I'm talking About using About you see thank you. I'm talking about using Python plus blender and then you get Super Blender But I had a problem. I had coding phobia and I think some of you might have it too But yeah, how how you overcome this topic like I know that maybe all of you you want to get it more into Coding but you look too afraid because it's so complicated But it's easy just to you have to keep it simple start with the basic. I started coding for kids making easy games Keep it interesting and fun. It's like I've been trying to learn French and sometime on YouTube. I check Peppa Pig in French. I know it sounds silly but You start getting used to the this language this new language and it's the same with Python So in most of the time in my coding, I just use for loops and if a statement That's the only thing that I that I use. Well, not the only single month most of the time So I'm gonna show you here how the the for loop works Well, the the video is running But you can see that For I which is like a variable and Then we have something called here selected object. So this I This variable is gonna become The data of each object When we run when we run the loop what you see here at the bottom is just to to redraw the Screen and this is just to give you the chance to see it's just a delay for you to see the change That you saw just before But see I'm saying this object called cube Is equal to I the data of I and and what is the data of I the world is gonna change on Each iteration of the loop is gonna change through all the selected objects. So what you saw before is what happened so that's very very useful tool for programming and then if you put at if a statement So it's gonna be the same we have the for loop here and the if is saying when this data is equal to Suzanne The name of the data is equal to sustain Then you put the scale at two so you will see Suzanne now has a scale by two otherwise else Do nothing just keep it like a scale by equal to one So another example if we change to sound by icosphere and we press play you can see how it changed and When it when it gets when it got to the ice quest for the escape was to do So those are the the mainly the two structures that I usually use for coding in Blender and any you might ask both how you get all this line of code here Well, you can easily go to the you select the object go to the property that you are looking for your right click And then you can copy the full data path and then you paste it here and then you just basically You paste it here equal to two and that's it you can run this line hitting the in the console and Presenter and it's gonna do the change for you Yeah, I usually this console for me is very useful. I I even use DC as a calculator when I open my blender a project I Make a new window a small one and then here you can do math you can do put sign cosines everything This is very useful And I use it in every single product even if I'm not coding Okay, now we are going to see the demonstration how We are going to take all these selected anchors and we are going to position it Exactly where they have to go and you can see here the the for loop. Well here There is any for loop if obtain them, but that's because I want to grab the object that don't have any children And because that that's the master object and then another for loop that is essentially saying if you find an object within within this Area So in X and X location and Y location make it equal So I press play and then all the anchors Went to the exact the exact location. So that's a that's a win and now The next challenge will be to provide in a excel sheet all those The list of all the anchors with the property that I mentioned before Like ups Going back Going forward again. Okay Okay, what you see here is the coordinates of the project because as I mentioned was Eastern North and East and they have to be Like the global coordinates. So I just I just use that one because that came with the IFC folder and then Okay, another if a statement another forest them and with an if a statement just to grab them the parents with Just the parent and then here A for a statement and in this one I'm gonna get the length of the anchor so you can see children children and Dimension because that's the the length of this object here and then I need the length of the bottom object and after that some tweaking for the the values and Then here is when I'm writing See right lines is it here this where where when I write the lines in in my Excel sheet, but it's not a excel sheet. It's a CSV file and when I press play Look, it looks like maybe one or two second to provide a list of 315 anchors With all the values that I needed Thank you That's a nice celebration. It was getting happier It's time that something like this happened and then well, of course, we need we need to show all these anchors in the in a in a drawing And and to do that I just blame there again because with a with a few lines of scope I can make a label for each anchor and then a position that the label Close to the the object that is gonna be labeled With this distance so you can always change the distance I want the label to be a little bit higher So location zero is x location one is y and location two is that so what I'm saying is like Make the label at this distance from the original and make this label at this distance from the original in the set axis So when you press play see all the labels appear and then yeah, you have to tweak it a little bit to make it more readable And and then that's it. Then you what you can you can export this one as a an image and then just put it in a PDF file and that's what I did We have other software to do drafting but those of what don't do this And then the third challenge, which is the I think was the main one It was about communication because if you remember The supports oops go back if you remember this the support Each support is holding the bridge and there are some loads That the the supports are taking the the forces of the bridge and as you move Forward those forces are gonna change during the launching But how how you will show that to the operational team operational team they need this information because they need to know a What kind of jacks are we using to hold the bridge at each location? so we have supports here support here and We get this information from the The engineers team in this way Very as you can see there's no you can see the full picture of what is happening during the launching So In this one, I think we can use at the moment. I'm not sure you because this one was a Prey geometry know that was like two years ago and geometry know wasn't available But I think now with geometry know you can you can extract information from a CSV file I'm not sure but I did it using Python And essentially here I put this like wrong in the console and that's because I Just wanted to strike all all that data and make it at least in Python And what you have to mind is like each column has a number And that's what I'm when I'm doing the this is another very useful structure is called a function in Python So when you do when you do a function, that is something that you want to repeat each time And then as you can see as I put it there in In the in the console I can get all the data that I need But just by repeating copy pasting this one changing the number and then I will get the column Where I need the information from and then yeah after I have all the data in in Python. I mean in blender Then I can link all that data To objects in the scene like you see I have an arrow here, which is essentially a plane and And the tip of the arrow. So what is happening is that? with this script Depending of the distance of the launching It's gonna link link that distance to the value of the load and it's gonna be It's gonna change the scale of this plane and it's gonna change the the Location of this arrow And what you see here is just a function functions that I define before and I just keep just copy paste copy paste One thing that you have to be careful is make sure that you have all the data of your objects Well label because you need to find it later later on And well that something for sure is that the distance between two objects can be easily Defined using geometry notes both to show a The load from a list. I still don't know if that's something that it can be in geometry. No But at the moment yeah, I think you can do it using Python And this is an structure that you need if you want to run The script each time that you change the frame is called handlers and You can see when I when I change the The timeline I get the the values of the load and I get the scales of the of the arrow changing Accordingly in all the location so that that's been very helpful for the operational team and the the The civil thing all all the design team. They are loving this And it's so accessible that they don't believe it I tell them you don't need admin rights to install blender Just go download the portable version get it in your computer and open my file You can do whatever you want with my file Just press click to to make the script running and then you will see everything that I'm showing you but this this has too much potential and and One of the potentials that I can see That it's gonna have a Big value in the construction industry is that you can get the the data from a crane You can get the pdf online for a specific crane Because the capacity of a crane it changed depending of the configuration of it if your crane have the boom Extended so long the capacity is reduced and the same with the angle So by by having all this data and and look it's just a maybe 10 lines of code Putting some custom Constant custom properties you can see how the capacity of the of the crane changes Automatically, and I'm not using reading here. It's just drivers and and nothing complicated This object has all these constant properties and these objects. They have drivers links to each of these properties And yeah, let me tell you that if people in the working industry realize that how easy is to do this one that Could become like a very popular in in the in the industry and Well after doing all this I Can say that I am happy again and I just want to finish my presentation with a quote from a Very famous Greek philosopher Give me a for loop and a if staining and I will call the world. I came I need to do this healthy. I know that's a record sorry photo Thank you so much


Great, good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today at the NDSU Extension Agriculture Challenges webinar today We are going to be talking with some of our resources about connecting with resources for real stress and health our speaker today is Lisa Peterson the livestock of the livestock specialist at the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center in Streeter, North Dakota, and she's going to be sharing about some of her personal experiences handling rural stress Hold on here. So good afternoon or good morning if you're in the Mountain time zone so Thank you Miranda and Some of you are probably wondering why Specialists is about farm stress is I get my sides up here everything good see him or no now good Yes, okay, and I have been as a part of a team at NDSU Extension looking at at Rural stress or farm and ranch stress and I was asked to share some of the things that our family went through in the dirty 80s And some things that I see Resilient producers the the traits that they have today So first of all a disclaimer is that I am not a trained mental health professional very broad shoulders and I like to hear from producers and learn from them and help them when I can I Am sharing my family my and my family's experiences of surviving the dirty 80s I have a video here and all's I'll say about this video is it's going to leave a mark It's a cow actually kicking a lady who is trying to help her and so this lady is Trying to help this cow have a calf actually and she just nails her right in the face And that is how my dad would tell you that going through the dirty 80s in agriculture was for him It was a kick in the face almost every day I will give you the view that I have through my rose colored glasses that I'm going to share my observations of what I see Resilient ag operations have in terms of some traits and some things that my father and I just Discussed that helped us Get through the dirty 80s. And so here on the right. I love this little meme or Picture if you will and it says how deep is the mud it depends on who you ask and we all go through the same stuff differently and so my dad is the big guy's about six six and even if he was five foot tall He would still go through things like this big dog on the right and I know a lot of other people who Really don't shoulder things the same way my dad does and so one of the things that I think I Would help us all get through tough times Even if it's not dealing with harm or rural stress is a positive attitude and misery loves company I All I know producers that I really like I think they're great producers But I know when I talk to them that it's going to be a downer discussion and so even if things are going great It's a bad day to them and I know that winners have winners attitudes And while I was doing some research for this presentation. I found a pretty new research project from Stanford Where a researcher had spent a winter in the most northern part of Norway and they they call this report the Norwegian secret to a long winter And they have one of the lowest Depression rates in the world there even though they never see the sunshine and really what it came out of it was that the the people in that community in that area embrace and happily take on their long winter and Have decided that it's a great thing instead of a bad thing. I Would say to always have try. I have a picture up here of secretariat My family raises and races race horses and it is really really hard to Duplicate try and I know that in people as well It's that don't quit attitude in a quote from Michael Jordan is don't be afraid to fail But be afraid not to try and as long as you're always giving your best and trying I think it's really really hard to actually fail My dad always says to me when I'm in a tough situation He always says well, you know how to eat an elephant, right and the answer is one bite of at a time And so eventually we will work through those challenging times One of the things that I think is really important is to remain or become active in your community in person And I have in in person here highlighted Get off your device get off your phone and enter get interact with people people to people I was talking to some people who had survived the dirty 80s in agriculture in our community at a Church event this past weekend and all of them talked about how the kids basketball games in the community Helped them survive and the same set of people were all talking about that they were sad Their kids had all grad their grandkids and all graduated from high school Because they hadn't been out and as active as they had in previous years going to games And so, you know find whatever that social event is but get off your phone And I'm bad, you know, I interact with the world through Facebook But get off the phone and interact with people in person And my bottom quote here says don't be so busy being busy that you don't take time for yourself And anybody who knows me knows that I'm preaching to the choir there and myself But the reality is is that we need to take time for ourselves and Even if it's that hour going to the game and getting out of the tractor, that's important Volunteer so my dad would tell you that he thinks one of the things that kept him going through the dirty 80s was volunteering he Set that on the colorado cattleman's Associations board during that period of time and the things that he will tell you is that it allowed him to learn from others and to Remain relevant. It was something that he could do to give back even when things were really bad at home And he thought we were going to lose everything He was still relevant in a part of something bigger and he learned a lot from His fellow board members and other cattle producers and industry professionals on how to make our operation better I think one of the most important things that we'll talk about and it's probably the hardest to talk about is that your farming operation and and the the financial sides of that and the goals that need to be a team With your your employees and maybe other co-owners, but also your family and When I look back on things so when people were really struggling and when I did some adult farm business management work the Family living expenses oftentimes did not match up with the income coming off of a farm and As my other presenters know several years ago I was called early in the morning by a young producer in the state And his first question to me his first statement to me was Lisa if I kill myself will my life insurance policy pay out and I didn't know the answer and I don't know the answer today But what the the real take-home message was is that he was in a relationship with a lady Who her? Expectations of him financially were not feasible with the amount of money he was gaining off of his operation and That really bothered him and he was trying to to provide what her expectations were But the operation could not do that and so for this to happen leadership has to be open and transparent and You need to to talk to each other about what the operation can provide You know, I will tell you straight out that my mom she could Probably make our family live for a month off of what I wasted in the day today And it was because she was on on board was saving our family's ranching operation Versifier operations Health they're more integrated and holistic and they're more sustainable And what it does is it allows you to ride the highs sometimes of two or three different enterprises And you can do that by adding a diversity of agronomic crops and and or diversity of livestock in in our operation We added a fairer to finish hog operation and we're a buying station for hogs And so it allowed us to continually have income coming in rather than only getting income once a year off of a set of cows It's important to be flexible and have a willingness to change In my eyes and I've told Sean this and he'll talk about some things going on in new zealand The integrated resource management program the colorado state university offered saved our family's operation in the long term And what that allowed us to do was we were calving in February in a place that gets over 100 inches of snow a year A place that you feed cows legitimately for a good 10 months out of the year And so they suggested us that we consider moving our cows to a more desert operation Where are those cows with graze all winter? Well, it meant that my dad wasn't going to weigh every calf when they were born They might not all get tagged It was going to be a way for us a way that we would have to change the way we did things But at the end it has allowed us to Remain more financially stable and feasible and at the bottom here I have a quote from steven covey And it says one things for sure if we keep doing what we're doing We're going to keep getting the same results Or we're going to keep getting what we're getting one definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results And so when you can be flexible and bringing in a group of people to look at your operation Maybe do what we would call a 360 review It's your whole farms health not only the financial health, but the mental health and the Soil health and the livestock health and the crop health. I think you can help your operation And then use them on on the farm or ranch income Don't be too proud to find another job In my in those four or five years that we were really going through tough times in colorado my dad managed an auction He Hype he worked in the oil field He did a lot of different stuff to keep the boat afloat and the young man that I have a picture of here on the right Is a young man in South Dakota that supplements their Ranch income by preg checking and AI and cows And so that has brought in a lot of money To their operation and my final slide is says when you're going through hell keep on going That's uh in a pretty popular song here in the last couple years and I've seen that quote attributed to Winston Churchill I don't know if he really said that or not, but I would just tell you keep on going We'll get through this and we're here to help Thank you, Lisa Our next speaker is Becky Dunham and she is a social worker and farm stress therapist with Lutheran social services and she's going to talk about some about depression and some of the support services available Hello, um, let me get my power point working the way I need it to here Um Going to be stubborn on me and not want to switch over to presenter mode Here we go Um, are you guys seeing things the way you need to see? You need to switch your display settings again Thank you for that reminder. And of course, it's not going to let me do that. There we go We'll get there eventually So I am Becky cop Dunham and I am a therapist that contracts with Lutheran social services and I have taken a special interest in reaching out to the farm and ranch community my husband and I farm and so We have an in-depth I guess understanding of what it's been like to manage in Especially this most recent year and because this is as I tell everybody this is a population That's near and dear to my heart. These are my people and so it it hurts me to see people struggle and knowing that I can That I can reach out and offer some support to people is something that means a lot to me and so I'm going to take some time everything that lisa and Sean are going to talk about today are things that that I would echo as well that are great I'm going to stick to the mental health piece here a little bit and talk about What you see here is this wearing out your bootstraps. It's a collaboration between multiple agencies and dsu extension being one of them To just reach out and educate people on the accessibility of mental services. You're going to hear me talk about farm to farm therapy and I Am a therapist that when I do if you're logging on right now This is how we do telemedicine. We call it telemedicine or online therapy if you're able to do this you're able to do Telemedicine with me you'll see it in the same way that you are seen and hearing me now and I very often do it from my farm in minnesota and I can reach out to anybody throughout north dakota and If you have an internet connection, you have the ability to do that or obviously in person therapy as well so the the first Slide that I want to talk about is that we There's the saying right that you you we lift ourselves up by our bootstraps. Well, that that's expecting a lot a lot out of us and especially in years where Farmers and ranchers are historically and I say this with love a bit stubborn And I say that with love, but they're they're known for being a bit stubborn when it comes to even physical health services or mental health services and This is a time where we need to do something different It it is been an exceptional season and It is time that we we that we reach out and the greatest asset to your farm and ranch Is your mental and physical well-being? If you're not Mentally and physically well, you're unable to complete what you need to do Around your farm that is actually going to be what what can generate some income. And so this is a way um, I use this this analogy, I guess that You know the the tractors we have the duels on right to get through the mud this season therapy is like that and so It isn't just powering through and you don't have to power through there's people like me and a multitude of other providers who are here More than willing to offer that support with some farm understanding and people often wonder, you know, well, what am I going to talk about? I'll guide you through every bit of it. There's no need. You don't need to worry about that So talking a little bit about sadness versus depression Um, I'm not going to go through. I know you can see it on your slide I'm not going to go through every symptom But I want to just pull out a few points that are relevant to the farmers and ranchers that at least I've had experience with It's getting into that hopeless mindset and you heard lisa speak to maintaining that positive mindset or that winning mindset and That really does have a lot to do with it and and it doesn't minimize the struggle that we're all going through this year It doesn't make the harvest easy. It doesn't, you know Our wheat had disease in it too because it was wet I mean, it doesn't minimize any of that But for many people and I know not everybody and I'm speaking about ranchers here That how many harvests have you been unable to get any crop off your field? Not how hard was it or how difficult breakdowns whether How many times have you been unable to get any any crop off your field? Well, all the farmers I've spoken to were like, well, no We've always been able to get some harvest off So you've had a hundred percent success rate then In getting some crop off your field and again not to minimize what what we're all going through in this season But there is a lot to be said about mindset and that's what depression is Is it really pulls you into that hopeless? Helpless mindset that there's no way out of this And that is what crosses over from just being stressed into depression And so I just wanted to speak to that. I know you have the the symptoms in front of you, but also In general men tend to Filter all feelings as anger And or tend to withdraw and so just because people are withdrawing or angry doesn't mean they're not depressed very often That's how men Show those feelings because that's become what is more culturally acceptable And so just to also keep in mind with that also if if chores aren't getting done The farmers and ranchers I know take a lot of pride In and their equipment and their farms and and their livestock And so if that isn't getting done and that's unusual for them, that's something to be paying attention to So again the next Slide it says even if you you feel alone in this you aren't and I think that lisa said something That was really important and it's about reaching out to people and I know we all have the technology that We can reach out to people virtually But there's a lot to be said about being in the same room with someone right and like, you know I love our local cafe You'll see a group of farmers at the table drinking their coffee talking about the weather There's a lot to be said about that personal connection and and I think Having that connection with the therapist is just another way to do that and especially A therapist that has that farming connection where you can I understand some of that language and I'm not a family member You know a lot of farmers are at risk of losing their farms and I'm not Grandpa, I'm not a spouse. I'm not anybody who Has a very deep personal interest in that farm where you can speak the way you need to speak about what is going on And I'm a neutral person that can that can share that with you Some of the things that you can do If you're worried about someone absolutely ask if they're okay And there's a lot of people that are afraid to do that that oh, I'm going to upset them Or I'm going to make them think about If I ask them if they're thinking about hurting themselves I'm going to give them that idea and that research doesn't support that actually You're not going to give anyone the idea and oftentimes there's a lot of relief in being asked If a person is okay, and so I absolutely encourage you to reach out if you want to If you are a spouse or A family member a neighbor And you are worried about someone offer to help them schedule the appointment offer to go with them to the appointment Not even necessarily to sit in but just to go with And offer that support we can make lots of different things work. And so don't hesitate to reach out To someone you're not going to you're not going to plant any ideas and there oftentimes is going to be relieved about that Depression is absolutely treatable and One of the things again that Lisa spoke to our thoughts and our feelings and behavior are connected and that's what therapy does is I I help keep your I help your thoughts and feelings of behavior being on a path that offers you some success These are some options here of where to get help Again, lss of north dakota has a website and a phone number there also india see extension. You can also reach out there This is my contact information. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out becky k at lss nd dot org And that is my work cell phone number 715 5214 and i'm Always willing to to ask to answer any questions you might have That is everything Thank you becky Yeah, our next speaker is Sean brother brotherson and he is a family science specialist here at ndsu with extension And he's going to talk about some of the resources available to our farmers and producers going through these tough times right now Hi, this is Sean brotherson with ndsu extension and Good to be with you today. I'm just going to share a little bit about Some resources that you might access that are designed to help promote health and wellness Particularly for farm and ranch populations and then Just two or three takeaway coping strategies that are important to consider when you're dealing with times of stress in agriculture Miranda i'll ask can you see my presentation? Okay Yes, everything looks good. All right. Thank you um So the first thing maybe to think about is um, what kind of priority do we place on managing our our health uh On a regular basis when we're operating in agriculture and this um particular little graphic ask the question which matters more to us equipment maintenance or farmer maintenance And um, all of us know that um when it's time To use equipment get out on the field and work that we really rely on the functionality Of the equipment that we use in our farm and ranch operations The same thing is true when there's critical times Where you need to be a peak functionality in your physical and mental health and uh when there are stressful times in agriculture then you need to Really pay attention to your own physical and mental well-being because you depend on that as a critical resource to get you through those tough times As uh, becky mentioned sometimes we can be a little bit stubborn about that This is a quote from a farmer down in australia on farmers and mental health And he said often they maintain their tractors. They maintain their pumps and everything but they don't maintain themselves So that kind of leads me to my next point Maybe think about is when you think about Uh listing of your tangible assets on a farmer ranch operation you optimal think about land livestock seed equipment things like that But we don't typically list our health or well-being and yet It is your health that actually allows you to function every day on that operation to make decisions to keep things moving forward and so really If you think about it your health is actually your most important asset as a farmer rancher or agricultural worker It allows you to do all of those things and it's it's the resource that is most important to your resilience in tough times And so if it is truly That important of an asset that you can't really do all of the other things in your operation without having sound physical and mental health Then we need to make it a priority in the way we manage our operations and In the type of activities we engage in on a daily basis. So I'd encourage you to think about placing Health and safety is the most important priority in managing your farm operation And that means you need some resources and strategies that will help you to do that So i'm going to go through quickly five resources that are designed to to get you started down this path and then maybe three just um coping Practices that that can be useful to you So the first is think about starting your wellness toolbox all of us When we are working in agriculture It's useful to have a toolbox of things available to us that we might we might need For a repair and doing a particular job And so this little graphic just says start your wellness toolbox Select three or four things for your wellness toolbox of things that you can start today This little graphic you can get from ndsu extension. Just go to the ndsu farm stress webpage You can search that find it really easy. It's called 12 tools for your wellness toolbox There's a link to it in this in this graphic, but whether it's exercising for 20 minutes or more a day Whether it's taking 10 minutes to plan your day and your activities ways you can be positive and productive that day Going in for a Medical checkup with your health care provider. So you're getting us a baseline assessment of your current physical and mental health Doing a gratitude journal where you try to Cultivate a positive mindset like lisa talked talked about right down at least three things every day that you're Grateful for despite the challenges that you're going through all of these things are simple wellness strategies You take a few minutes a day And you can pick three or four to put in your wellness toolbox and begin So that would be the first thing that I would encourage it to to do the second is It's helpful to connect with others via their stories and and both lisa And becky mentioned the importance of connecting with others Maintaining those social connections those really help you to be really resilient and to rebound when you're going through some challenges Um one resource for this is the transformation podcast series It's put on by the minnesota department of agriculture and the red river valley farm network um Just search transformation Um, so that's a little play on words with the word transformation And they have a whole series of podcast episodes where they are in conversations with people who have dealt with various aspects of Tough times in agriculture farm stress. They have a lot of good strategies of what they've done. What's been helpful for them? so, you know Go ahead and access that connect with others through their stories and that podcast series is a really good way to do that Um another is i'm going to give your permission to slow down and watch a movie or two But there's some specific ones that may be useful If you are concerned about okay, I need to know a little bit more about How to handle some of these stressful conditions in agriculture, maybe with a spouse maybe with Employees or other family members. Maybe how how do I deal with depression hearing other people talk about it? There's two really good short video series one. There's a series of 10 videos at farms.com They have a youtube playlist and there's 10 videos there each two or three minutes and dr. Val farmer who For over 30 years has been a specialist in in rural stress Um has 10 very short two to three minute videos that you can view on various topics related to this The other is the national institute for mental health as what's called the real man real depression video series These are men who are in in farming law enforcement agriculture Firefighting all sorts of areas who have they're very open about hey, I dealt with depression Uh, you know, I'm a man who goes to work every day. I take pride in what I do, but I experience depression It's not something that's shameful Let me explain to you what I dealt with and how I dealt with it and some Resources and perspectives that might be useful to you So I would encourage you to maybe access those resources third is that the country of new zealand has perhaps the most comprehensive wellness initiative for those working in agriculture of any place in the world it's called the new zealand farm strong initiative And it just has a focus on living well in agriculture how to stay healthy In good times and tough times They have a wealth of resources on there and ideas Just go to the farm strong new zealand website And uh, that's a a place to begin and think about okay. How can I Start pursuing this idea of resilience in my own life in agriculture. They have a lot of really good ideas Finally, um, there seems to be an app for everything So take time to download the common the storm mobile stress app It's an app you can download to your phone Helps gives you very practical right to your phone easy ideas every day things that you can do to pursue wellness, right? Whether it's taking, you know, have you taken a break for a few minutes today? Do you need to do a little mindfulness and breathing? Things like that. So um, download that app very easy to find online the common the storm stress app um As far as coping priorities, um, just just three strategies to think about one is That you do need to take time to rest and renew yourself You can't be going 24 seven last night. I was driving in cast county And I get it people are trying to get the harvest in and people were out very late in the fields It was dark. They were working out there. It was cold. I understand that But in the midst of those challenging hard working times Also, take, you know, take those needed breaks that you need for a few minutes And if you're not taking care of yourself, it's really hard to maintain your health and take care of your family and your farm operation And so for sources of personal renewal that work for you. It might be a hobby. It might be exercise It might be faith practice, but whatever is meaningful take time for that and again Take time for some of those connections with others who help you laugh talk Get a sense of support The second one I'd encourage you to think about is make healthy communication a priority as Becky mentioned It's easy, particularly for men To become angry irritable or to withdraw into themselves These are not healthy patterns of communication when you're trying to manage these particular difficulties So be open to sharing your concerns with others But part of what Lisa was talking about as you as you're out in the community volunteering or connecting with others It'll just give you a chance to have those positive healthy talks with other people So avoid those patterns of withdrawal or anger as your primary mode of communication Finally, the last thing Is remember to focus on your relationships the farm operation kind of becomes a member of the family And so sometimes during tough times you spend all your time taking care of that member of the family but All your family relationships are important and and if you focus on them They can help sustain you during times that are challenging. So That might mean working through a conflict. It might mean giving reassurance to children It might be just having regular family routines that that things just don't go by the wayside that you still have some family routines You can depend on on a regular basis So I'd encourage you to to think about those three coping priorities For more information on our farm stress resources again, you can just Search online and issue and farm stress those resources will come up Happy to take any questions that you have now you can contact Me Sean brothers and an issue extension anytime by phone by email And happy to visit with you as well through your local county office. So thank you Thank you Sean And I want to thank every all our speakers today for joining us to share about this very important topic Well, I'll open it up for any questions I mean, you can either ask them out loud or type them in the chat box and either way we'll make sure they are addressed couple reminders while we wait to see if people have questions is That all of these are all of the webinars have been recorded and are available I put the link in the chat box They're on the NDSU extension Page and if you go to the livestock management tab There is a topic that has all of the webinars on and they will also be on our agriculture disasters Page which is in development right now We also have one more webinar left tomorrow We will be talking about weaning strategies given some of the challenges and the later than typical weaning dates that Are being implemented this year as a result of Of the weather and other challenges That are facing our farmers and ranchers So thank you for joining us And I'll give you one last Um opportunity to ask questions if there are any questions All right. Thank you


What's going on everyone? Sam here with late in sports garage been 23 tops tribute baseball hobby six box case break number 16 random Team style so look again at your random results as always you can find those on the website under the results tab As well as the link that's in chat. It's good luck everybody here. We go. What'd you get? Don't play soon. No No, I wouldn't call myself the biggest Marvel fan in the world. I've seen moat like a lot of the movies But usually I just see him because they're popular and they're just they're well made so but Yeah, like I saw the most recent Guardians that was good Seem like all the big Avengers ones too Really, I feel like you'd like them out of me honest. Yeah At fair Poo holes Eric Jeter and first hit Kyle Tucker for the Astros game use Jersey. That's when they're Houston to 199 Stamp of approval fury. Huh interesting There's Corey seager. We got Jason Veratek Nice one there for the Red Sox to 175 Yes, we did actually we did get return to the top Star Wars return to the Jedi sapphire We do I think we have group breaks of them listed right now Victor. Yeah, we did get them Yeah, a lot of them to a lot of them Bobby Whit Boba shut there's a Alex Bregman three of ten That is a game use ball. Hell. Yeah, dude. That's sick Congrats Astros. That's awesome That's so cool three of ten in the Bregman. Very nice one-off Jersey number That's sick. I like that Lou Bob and Fergie Jenkins gonna be your auto to 150 Nice one there for the Cubs. Congrats Cubs Here is your guys is link again to impeccable T-Mall Yeah, just three group break spots remaining. It's a home on Derby ball. Is it? Yeah. Wow Yep. Wow 2018 T-Mobile home on Derby. Let me see it really quick again the back Yeah, that's gonna be a home run Derby use ball to catch on that one. That's awesome from 2018. Wow Yeah, the home run Derby in 2018. That's so the milestone.  I love those. That's one thing about Tribute that's really good Wade Boggs to 25 for the Red Sox Trish and Costas rookie Red Sox Yeah, we got Four more tribute cases after this Dennis Eckersley nice Ek 8 of 25 on the orange for Oakland. That's when they're ease Dennis Eckersley box two It'll be live for all the tribute breaks that I am tiktok For sure we got two more random teams and then a right two random divisions after this And we're into basketball There's a a rod Corbin burns and Aaron judge Derek Jeter dual game used Jersey to 199 there go Yanks the two captains The two Capitans Sean just dropped you guys a link to impeccable team all Asia Uh, thank you guys again. Let's get that filled up.  It's good stuff a rose arena That is Mookie Betts and Steve Carlton Uh one of 45 on the olympus auto for the Phillies. That's sick, dude. That's so sick Yes, this has books in it. I don't know if it has knobs or barrels. Let me look I don't think they have knobs or barrels in it But they do have cuts and they have books. They have books as well Mike Schmidt Bryce Hapa And uh Riley green nice one there 199 that's game use jersey game use rookie jersey. So bat and game use jersey Taking Aaron judge bat knob of the bat he hit 62 with that'd be dope You know how up in arms people would be if that got put into a trading card. Oh my god Christian Yelich Corbin Carroll to 99 going to the diamond backs. There we go Jared P. Congrats, buddy Hell yeah, man Congrats on that linsu taking a spot in impeccable team. Oh, thank you linsu down to 18 to go guys Nice one there. You can man this carol. That's nasty first carol of the day What's the uh What game is it? Uh, uh, wahoo's Oh, oh, oh Nick Castellanos to 99. Yeah, we'll put it on No one Ryan there's michael toglio rookie auto to 99 for the Rockies And George Springer stamp of approval to 199 versus Panama gold cup semi. Yeah putting on right now I'll just start it nice It was random C. J. Abrams uh tom siever And auto Gabriel Moreno to 199 for the blue jays Nice one there blue jays down to 18 to go on um Impeccable team all Asia by the way everybody I'm gonna drop you a link to that now. Thank you again linsu picking up a spot 18 to go everybody Also need to fill up uh flawless and select full case random divisions as well Shoiza Mark McGuire nice one there and boba shut for the uh, uh, blue jays game you stamp of approval to 196 196 Interesting Shohei they could have made four more. I don't know weird steven kwan and ken and smith and jigba to 150 For the pirates jacksons, bro Great pirates on that one Fernando top these two at 75 on the yellow Jack petersen and dual kreg bezio hosel two of them. That's dope. That's so dope Uh, 23 of 99 very jealous of that Bijio and al-tubei very nice There is a bit of a scratch by bijio. I'm gonna send an empty box and wrapper with the astros Still a gorgeous card Like I said big fan bijo have autos in this. I see a bijio's got up because I already know i'm hunting the moment He has the finest auto the moments auto bagwell bijio dual booklet Auto oh, that's nasty That's nasty Do you mind tweeting and facebook and uh, when you get a chance? I just oh you did beautiful. Thanks, sir Jackie robinson and a deki matsui two of ten god zilla tribute to nicknames For the yanks philip k Congrats phil Oh, that's so sick, dude That's so freaking cool god zilla. Oh, that's so awesome. Oh, that's so freaking cool One sec. Sean. I'll let you know. Let's go phil congrats, man I know it's gonna say got back right in time for sheriff on my lord. That thing is nasty.  I'm a Cedric Mullins. There's a kunya game used 11 of 50 that jersey number Believe it is. I think he's number 11. Is that true? Is he number 11? Am I right on that or no? That's when they're bat jersey bat the briefs All right, yankies are loaded in tribute. They always are any product like this they'll always be loaded wade boggs jason veratech Uh one of 175 for the red sox I swam there. Where's me and my dad used to say jason very bad She like that. What's that me and my dad he's called jason veratech jason very bad Basically freddy freeman red uh six of ten Listen dude's a local legend, right? No he is. They bring me high school Carlos Correa, there's a cow ripkin jr. Uh six of 50 iron man. Nice one there for the orials Bat bat jersey. There's two. You got two? Oh good. Uh it was uh pleats printing plates I believe it is. Mike trout cow ripkin Mark burley one of one printing plate auto for the white sox. Hell yeah, dude Love me some mark burley Perfect game legend marlins legend blue jays legend actual white sox legend Nice one there on the burley david Ortiz pita lanza That's pretty cool. Got a buddy kennedy 32 of 99 for the diamond backs rookie auto on the green And another bgio al tuba game used dual jersey to 75 four of 75 Mikey stremsky travis swaggerty t swag 39 of 150 for the pirates Nice one there pittsburgh p swag alex bregman jordan alvarez two of 25 stamp of approval for the astros luke voit zekeel diran rookie auto 91 of 199 for the rangers nice one there texas peyos one second guys Francisco alvarez incoming andy. That'd be awesome, dude Or a baby a nice like low numbered bret baby luke garig like thomas purple two 50 shawen murphy for the braves And a brandon woodruff gave me a stamp of approval two of 99 for the brew crew That's one there milwaukie ronald acunia to 75 on the yellow jazz chiselm And eddie murry two of 50 nice one there for baltimore nice legend hit right there eddie murry eddie murry Judge mariano, there's a dual clayton kershaw walker bueller to 50 six of 50 Nice one there la garrick coal joe mower and oswaldo cabrera 141 of 199 for the yanks. There you go new york A few scratches on it. I'm gonna send an empty box and wrap rookie yanks as well Two more pass left here gladi jr hose al-tube fernando tatis jr uh triple jersey 30 of 199 for the padres Game used all the way around Pedro j rod and jonathan aranda rookie auto at to 75 for the race nice one there tampa yellow jonathan aranda Grats on that tampa last box. Good luck everybody see it what we've got freddy freeman salvatore pares there's a nolyn gourman green rookie jersey to 99 Nice one there cardinals That's on that st. Louis There's green wander For the raise to 99 Grats race george bret and miguel vargas rookie auto at to 75 yellow for the uh dodgers Grats dodgers brine f with a team all spot. Thank you brine down to 17 17 to go everybody Seya Suzuki ryan mount castle. There's an eloy to 75 Uh stamp of approval 70 of 75 The white socks arlocunia louise castillo. There's a rookie auto at leo verpeguero 299 Nice one there for the pirates leo verpeguero one of their top rookies in this product or in this class I would say and a rod 34 of 199 for the inks jersey bat dual jersey bat Nice one there again guys. Here's your link to asia team all impeccable 17 to go 17 to go let's get that sold out cal martin wander franco oswald peraza for the inks And then cal michel that is 140 out of 199 for the pirates cal michel pack of the break. Good luck everybody See something huge See it's something huge hobby bias Paul goldschmidt fergie jankins 76 of 150 going to the cubs nice one there again chicago All right guys quick recap here start with our jerseys. We had a rod eloy uh no one gorman for nano tatis jr Uh dual for the dodgers brandon woodruff yordan alvarez a dual for the astros bijo altube Cal ripton ronald lakunian another dual astros boba chef george springer Uh riley green erin judge jeter erin judge alex bregman. That is from the 2018 uh home run derby milestone's memorabilia kyle talker We had autos now cal michel Oswald uh oswaldo cabrera zekeel diran gabriel marina jason baratak twice Fergie jankins travis swaggerty canon smith and jigba Fergie jankins leo verb aguero buddy kennedy michael toglia miguel vargas jonathan aranda steve carleton to 45 eddie mary Dennis ackersley one-of-one printing plate auto mark burley had the hideki matsui two of ten Godzilla tribute to nicknames and a corbin carol 27 of 99 for the donebecks I'll do it for the break guys. Thanks again for the fill coming up next is number 17


I enjoy making a difference in people's lives. I'm Senior Airman James Bretz and a Security Forces Patrolman here at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Day in the Life of Security Forces would consist of a variety of different duties anywhere from working the flight line, providing security for assets and working entry control points such as our gates, the installation to working armory duties, issuing out weapons and dispatching patrols to where they need to be for certain emergencies and different incidents. Security Forces is vital to the mission for obvious reasons such as security to the installation, security and protection for everyone on the installation, protecting our assets. Not only are we like the largest career field within the Air Force, it's good because you run into people all over the place, all different walks of life. In Security Forces, there's many different opportunities that you could be a part of. To join Security Forces at Selfridge, it's a unique experience being that we are the largest Air National Guard Base. We do have a really cool mission set with the A-10s and the KC-135 aircraft. It is a large community. It's like a family here. There's a good team to be a part of. Anybody looking to join Security Forces, be prepared. A lot of physical requirements that go along with it, but it is rewarding at the end of the day knowing that you made a difference in someone's life or being an important role to the mission.


This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters Here. This is a half-hour program that explores the Hawaiian connection with the Vietnam War. I'm your host, Vic Kraft. Paul Seabury and Angelo Codavilla wrote in their book War Ends and Means, A Blood Appraisal of War. One of the more telling passages from their book goes like this, quote, a belligerent with small regard for human life is far less sensitive to taking casualties than one accustomed to cherish life highly, a factor that surely must enter into strategic calculations. The American practice of body-counting enemy casualties in the Vietnam War was mindless, innocently assuming that these deaths had a bearing on North Vietnamese capabilities and willpower. The weight of burdens up to some unknowable point is relative, nor will it do to try to calculate the economic costs of each side's losses or efforts. Not only do people put different values on things, but more important, military goods are valuable not for the material and labor that go into them, but for the strategic gains that can be got out of using them. No one in wartime has ever been struck by a piece of gross national plodding, end quote. Our guest today led a double life with violence. He is Larry Johnson who experienced combat with F-Trupp 17th Cavalry 196 Infantry Brigades of the American Division. On his return from combat, he ended up training others who would eventually end up in Vietnam. After his time in the US Army, Larry found a career in law enforcement and retired from the Clay County Missouri Sheriff's Office. Larry now resides in Wai Nai and participates in veterans activities. Aloha. Hello. Welcome Larry. Thank you very much for the invitation. My pleasure. We got a lot of pictures to go through and you sent me a lot of stuff and I was really interested in the stories that you had that goes along with them. I'm going to take a look at the first one here and if you can explain what's going on here. That was my bunk at one point in time before it all disappeared there, but I had just arrived in country not very long before that and was sitting down just relaxing. Which didn't happen too often, did it? No. My machine gun 50 caliber is sitting up on top and the 2x6s there would protect us from rockets or mortars if they happen to come in and hit the ceiling. Well, let's explain what it was that you were doing in Vietnam and go to the second one there and see what it was. These are what are known as APCs or armored personnel carriers and I believe you are probably one of the track on the far left and that's you up in the couple off. That's me kind of semi standing up there on the top of the track. I guess this brings to mind some of the arguments that were made during the Vietnam War that we were going after the enemy like a business of instead of using a fly slaughter we were using steam rollers to go after the fly. How effective were these things? They were pretty effective. We carried or transported infantry people on top occasionally and although they were not really good in rice paddy water and mud and foliage as you go to the forest part there that you could see, they did a good job. They carried a lot of ammo and they managed to get us from one place to the other pretty much safely. I know that you were telling me, you go to the next one in order there, you didn't really carry any troops inside the vehicles but this was your view of the world from a couple on the top of the track vehicle but as you were telling me when you took what's called a rocket propelled grenade or an RPG sometimes the sides of the vehicle didn't exactly absorb. They were not necessarily steel on the sides and if an RPG did hit a side panel as it melted its way through it showered the inside with molten metal and was quite a hazardous position to be in. For instance my particular location there on top I sat on a 2x6 so in the event we hit a mine that the force inside would throw me up and away from the track. There was an M79 grenade launcher there and my 50 was there and that was that was my home pretty much. Yeah and I recall you saying that you didn't really carry troops on the inside of those things because they were kind of hazardous to the health of the people inside them and I believe at one time that's how you got wounded. I got wounded from an RPG that happened to break apart on its way in it hit a rice paddy dyke and a portion of it come off and then the rest of it came up and that was how I got wounded. Had a multitude of shrapnel that eventually was taken down. Yeah I know I still carry the blue marks. It was not a pretty sight. Yeah it can be. As far as going out on missions in these things I mean did you have this feeling of invincibility or? There were times that you felt too safe and that pretty much was taken away as soon as they would ambush us or something like that but you also felt that you had some protection against small arms fire and that you could put back a whole lot more firepower than they were showing at us. But there were times that you felt like we can go through anything. A lot of trees a lot of bushes a lot. The only thing we couldn't go through real easily was bamboo because bamboo would bend over and then want to push us back or a tree on the other hand would break if it wasn't very big. I know we're going to be coming up on one of the pictures in here where you have a line of vehicles getting ready to go into the jungle and it was the track vehicles on mass and I know that we're going to see a picture of a Sheridan in here. Which one do we have next here coming up? There we go. That was a rather long day. That's napalm going off or having been dropped. The depressions in the soil are actually I'm going to say like tire marks for a track and as you can tell we were further up and we had to back up because we were taking a lot of fire and we called for air support and napalm happened to be one of the things they dropped other than explosives and they dropped a lot of napalm. Which is now outlawed. Which is no longer used. Yes. At one point I know that of course I was in a unit that used to drop that stuff on bad guys and I can recall we would run out of it and the ability to make napalm basically is I shouldn't give away trade secrets here but detergent and gasoline and we would be actually filling the stuff. It would dry up and we would use it to heat up sea rations and we'd come out of the canisters that we had on the aircraft and we'd just kind of ooze out and just break off a piece and light it up and heat up our sea. We've done that with C4. Yes. But yes you get into these firefights and saying you would go out on patrols I would assume. We would go out for sometimes just a few days. Other times we'd go out for a week or two maybe three. We'd get resupplied out in the field in Framonition and if we happened to have injured people they'd medevac people in or medevac them out. I got medevac'd out but the helicopter that I was medevac'd out on was actually a gunship because they put me next to the door gunner and the other people on the floor and we flew out of there. I mentioned in a program earlier that with Alan Ho the dust ops which were the medevac helicopters which had nice great big white squares with red crosses in them actually became targets as opposed to being observed as far as the Geneva Convention and I know that they were carrying M60s on the side for protection. I got to see the helicopter that flew me out a few days later and it had a number of holes in the back section of it that I really never recalled being had. I couldn't see anyway they had my eyes all covered up and with bandage and a number of different bandages all over me but when I got to see the helicopter I went who flew in on that? When they told me I did I went ooh we really shouldn't have made it back. I'm thankful that there wasn't a whole lot that was possibly vital to the flight of the aircraft. There's a lot of things they can hit in the tail section and that was where most of the rounds were at but I never remembered it being hit or didn't remember hearing it. Can we see the next slide please? Ah, again you guys are out looks like not just APCs but you also have a Sheridan or two there. We have a couple Sheridans there a number of APCs we were out on a mission at that particular time and we were being resupplied. The individual there in the picture isn't me it's a friend by the name of Eddie Craig who just a few days after that picture was shot and killed. He'd been over to talk to me and was heading back toward his Sheridan and he was also from Kansas one of three of us and both of the other ones were killed I was the only one in that unit from Kansas that managed to make it back but it's rather dry there a little bit of mud where he's at from the but the rice paddies there would look dry until you rode through them and then the water would start coming to the surface. But he was a very good commander and many many times I said cover me and because I'd be out on foot and I never had to watch my back when I knew he was there.  Yeah we had told the other APC that we were where we were at and not to be shooting our direction and although they stayed away from us for a while when it did come in my driver Ron Russell said get down we're taking fire and I got down and Eddie got hit in the side of the head had I not got down he wouldn't have been hit from the direction that the rounds were coming in we tried to do something with it and at the time friendly fire wasn't a real main topic it wasn't something that they followed up on a lot no publicity like there is now something like that would happen again. It's rather tragic that those kinds of things happen in combat and I know a lot of steps have been taken both in training and with the technology that we have being able to make sure that we don't hit the friendlies. Quite a bit so. I laughed about it with Eddie on the first time he was shot because he was shot with an M16 the first time when he was on foot and got shot at and somebody got a little carried away and had shot him in the shoulder. Oh jeez. It wasn't a severe injury I mean he was out for a couple of weeks and came back and eventually friendly fire got him again. I'll tell you what we'll talk a little bit more about this but first let's take a break. Von Lee think Tech Hawaii is Volunteer Chief Operating Officer and occasional host and this is Minky. For the first time think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online web-based fundraising campaign to raise $40,000. Your thanks Think Tech will run only during the month of November and you can help. Please donate what you can so Think Tech Hawaii can continue to raise public awareness and promote civic engagement through free programming. I've already made my donation and look forward to yours. Please send in your tax deductible contribution by going to this website www.thanksforthinktech.cozvox.com. On behalf of the community enriched by Think Tech Hawaii's 30 plus weekly shows thank you mahalo and shesher for your generosity. Welcome back we're speaking with Larry Johnson veteran of the American Cal Division I guess it was an upper two core I core I core oh you were an I core that's right you guys were that far north just a little bit south of today oh wow okay and again if you look at the beginning of the program you'll see the map of Vietnam and understand what we're talking about I core two core three core four core Vietnam was divided into those or those regions or military regions for our benefit not necessarily for the enemies but for our benefit where was your home base by the way where the unit was actually stationed at Hawke Hill it was just a little bit south of Da Nang originally the unit was a signed to LZ Baldy which on a recent 10 hour or 10 series program LZ Baldy was pictured along with a sign that F troop carried to oh and Ken Burns documentary yeah yeah during that documentary yeah um but we were just a little bit south of Da Nang we were north of a city called Tam Ki but we went there on numerous occasions to block enemy forces that was coming in from from their west and if they were attacked well we were usually one of the first people called so you said you go out on patrols or missions that would last upwards of a week and be resupplied how far west did you guys go because you guys are pretty close to the to the sea weren't you we we went out into the sand dunes or the the sand on the ocean side and we went clear to the mountains and hep duck on the other side uh ashaw valley was also in that same area so the same amount of troops are the same type of troops were in both i core was pretty busy yeah it was i can recall you know even on christmas truce uh it wasn't so much of a truce i think we probably ran more operations off of the alert alert pad on christmas day than we did normally we were out in the field for christmas and um we couldn't shoot at them but they were sniping at us so we were limited to what kind of round we could use we were using tear gas and smoke and a few other things but we couldn't use explosive rounds back to them which on the 26th day of december proved to be the wrong thing to do that we should have been shooting at them for the last three days mm-hmm yeah you know that's uh it's it's crazy some of the things that occurred in vietnam as far as policy and uh we've had other guests on the program talking about how uh it was controlled by washington and the rules of engagement uh or necessarily dictated to us that were not the way we were trained as far as yeah we were restricted in in regards to some things that we could do in other areas icor was more of a free fire zone most of the time if you seen them you could fire yeah um we reconned by fire which they can no longer do which amounted to us firing at something to see if we get fire back to see if they return fire let's take a look at the next picture here what do we got ah rather somber moment that is a funeral it's covers nine people nine friends as a matter of fact the helmets on the left side with the speakers were all track commanders or tank commanders and the three on the right hand side those were like machine gunners on the back of my track they would wear a steel helmet um that was not a real happy occasion but that was how we held our funerals they do it a little different now but that was one of our funerals um and that's on a on a Sheridan tank it's on the front of a Sheridan tank uh there's a piece of plywood or something underneath all of it and uh I remember the funeral quite well yeah I think we all have moments like that and I know that at one point in time we were told we couldn't have any gatherings or any unit uh meetings or formal gatherings of anything larger than 25 people we made too much of a target we made a target on on Hock Hill yeah not only for that but on a couple of other funerals um they were not something you wanted to be involved in yeah but F troop during the years of 69 and 70 lost the most number of people that um were killed no during the time that they were assigned to Vietnam no can we see the next one please that's an American flag that I purchased um and we I kept it my friend in Michigan Ron Russell has it now um and I had it framed whenever we came in out of the field if we were involved in a firefight where um enemy was killed injured captured then we would hoist a flag up on our antenna just like kind of like the fishermen do when they catch a marlin or something well curiously uh looking at the flag uh when I first saw this picture I remember uh Alan Ho bringing the flag that he purchased in July and I think that's where you got that's where I got mine uh the difference between the two of them is that his I believe quite a bit bigger or at least a little bigger than than that one that one you could kind of roll up in a ball his was also uh rather I wouldn't say small but I think it's probably around the same size probably made by the same person could be made by the same person because the stars were plastic yeah so the ones on Alan or vinyl whatever and then it was some kind of vinyl or cracked so it wasn't it wasn't cloth no it was I know means I had it at a uh ceremony where a memorial was dedicated in Kansas City and there were several people that came up and said that they thought that flag had seen more combat than some of the people that were there can we go to the next one please ah that's also me a little younger of course and I weigh a lot less um the gentleman that was wearing that helmet um didn't get to keep it um I picked it up after he was shot but um I don't remember the picture being taken as the the ironic part a friend of mine recently sent it to me and uh with some comments along the way but um that was a Chinese made helmet perhaps I don't know it wasn't real it wasn't real real heavy and it was kind of like 10 well can we go to the the next photo I think after this oh this is the last one okay great which brings me to the point I mean here you are in a violent atmosphere of course and uh as you said uh in iCorg it was if you saw the bad guys you could shoot them uh you were enlisted in a way in law enforcement after your time in in vietnam after you were also in training other people uh I guess we're at Fort Leonardwood or uh well I was at Fort Knox when I was as a drill sergeant there and then when I when I came back um went into law enforcement relatively quickly um went into a reserve unit and then went right on the police department you know well the the thing that I find interesting is you and I both suffer from PTSD and uh and trying to control violence in a way and uh frustration and here you were in Vietnam surrounded by armor to some extent to some extent uh and yes you were wounded but uh you you are now in a police car rolling around and uh you're facing an unknown situation similar to what you had in Vietnam uh when you walk up to an automobile after you've pulled them over for a bust of taillight or whatever uh I'm sure we've all seen episodes of cop or cops where the the dash cans takes pictures of the officer walking up to the car and all of a sudden there's gunplay involved and the car screeches off and thankfully the law enforcement officer is wearing some sort of protection and some of those he is and in some they just he didn't make it but I mean how how it had to have affected your ability to do your job at some point in time uh walking up on a car not knowing yes um it's a a period of time that you don't really know what you're about to encounter but about 95 percent of the time those are nice people um it's husband wife family um perhaps or just some kids that really aren't out to shoot you or shoot a police officer now I'm kind of wondering if you actually know for sure at all but um most of the time that's you just stop somebody that's normal they get a traffic ticket or they had a taillight out or they weren't violent and the same thing in Vietnam not everybody you walked by into in any of the towns or the villages were violent they maybe didn't like you but they weren't intentionally ready to kill you yeah yeah no I'm just uh thinking but it it had to have affected you both uh I mean you now had a diet of this in Vietnam and you know throughout a 20 30 year career uh in law enforcement and uh it had to have impacted you in some way and uh although I've known you for several years it's uh in terms of judging people I know that uh we've we've learned certain things and how to control this control that violence and I think one of the things that you and I both benefited from is going to our vet group and participating there uh of course we had our Monday night meeting last night yes uh I think that uh we were talking about it earlier it was a good meeting and uh I highly recommend uh other veterans to get involved with any of the vet center activities uh they very beneficial there's not just meeting other veterans but there are other activities that are sponsored by the the vet center there's a lot of jokes and we have snacks available on our Monday night group it's more of a meal but we talk about anything the number of friends that I've met there that if my car broke down or I had a problem I could probably call any one of them and have some help because we're now all friends we're not just veterans that happen to be on the island yeah well there I want to thank you very much for being here today and uh we'll be talking to you some more later thank you very much a little over a week ago we observed Veterans Day in the United States Veterans Day is an outgrowth of the remembrance day which was inaugurated by King George V in 1919 this in recognition of the war dead of what was then called the Great War in some places it is known as Armistice Day and another is Poppy Day in reference to the poem in Flandersfield by the Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCray who did not survive that war I sincerely hope that while most of us got a day off from our daily grinds you took a few moments to reflect upon the sacrifices made by so many of us all journalism is not objective no matter how hard we try we all carry some amount of prejudice towards the topic however there can be alternative journalism where an issue can be discussed without rhetoric or animosity I believe this is what we have to offer here at Think Tech Hawaii this media offers an opportunity to bring more than one perspective to the community Think Tech also provides information on a host of topics that can aid in improving your life but all this costs money we speak of free speech is one of our rights in our constitution but it requires maintenance that maintenance has been measured in the lives of those who have defended it and by those who support such efforts as Think Tech Hawaii through their contributions the staff here are not volunteers and they would like to continue to pay their rent the hosts of the programs you watch are 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It is now time for member's statements and I will remind the members, these are 90 second statements, not a second more. I recognize the member for Scarborough North. I'd like to thank Abbey Batten and the entire board of director of Scarborough's Somaliland Community Association in my writing of Scarborough Centre for inviting me to their ribbon cutting opening ceremony on Saturday, March 4, 2023. The Scarborough Somaliland Community Association is committed to addressing the unique needs of Somali community, including youths, seniors and people with disabilities, as well as supporting new Somali immigrant and refugee transitioning to life in Canada through provisions of culturally and linguistically relevant education, training and mentorship service. Cultural community organizations are community champions and play a pivotal role in meeting the short term settlement and long term integration needs of many immigrants and refugees. As we look to the skill immigrants to fill our labour shortage and grow our economy, I continue to support and advocate for the cultural organization in Scarborough Centre and across the province. Thank you for your countless contributions to Ontario's social, economic, community and political fabric. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Thank you. Member's statements, the member for Toronto St. Paul's. For the arts and culture sector, artists and cultural workers have been disproportionately hit by COVID and to be frank, it's not COVID alone. This government has chronically cut and underfunded the arts well before the pandemic, despite the fact that we can count nearly 30 billion ways in which arts and culture contributes to our GDP, not to mention the near 300,000 jobs the sector creates for our province. Make no mistake, committing to sustainable funding at or above the rate of inflation is key to the survival of our creative sector, a sector where most creatives weren't even able to get served during the pandemic, and most in live performance saw their careers go poof without notice. Most government funds for smaller art organizations tend to be targeted towards individuals and short term projects which does not help the organization build capacity for long term planning. That is why I'm demanding today that the OAC budget for the Ontario Arts Council remain at 65 million in the 2023 provincial budget. On behalf of every creative worker and community based organization in St. Paul's, we're pleading with this government. Do not cut the already strapped Ontario Arts Council budget again, especially with the work that they do for priority groups like deaf artists and artists with disability, artists of colour, francophone artists, indigenous artists and new generation artists to name a few. Speaker, visit any gallery, any museum, any theatre, any library, any art studio, the arts are the way of the most fight to save. Thank you very much. Members, statements? A member for Mrs. Saga Moulton. Mr. Speaker, skills empower people through financial independence, empower people, empower families, and empower families, empower communities. And this is how we empower humanity. And this is precisely the connection Canada from Mrs. Saga Moulton is doing. Breaking the cycle of poverty one family at a time through development of open environment that encourages French speaking immigrants to explore opportunities for career and entrepreneurship. Funded by our TF since 2020 through Braids on Call training program, Connecture has helped more than 90 women for marginalized community in peel to become certified braiders. Graduate braiders can earn decent money, setting them firmly on the road to financial security. Last week I had the opportunity to attend graduation ceremony as the new graduates celebrate the launch of their career. I witnessed the smile of confidence and the laughter of their successful future. I can still feel the music of their success in my heart. Mr. Speaker, this is a great example of skilled trade transforming lives. I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Executive Director Rose Cathy Handy and Testoff and Volunteer at Connecture for supporting the Franco-Ontario community. Braids on Call is now encouraging trained braiders with entrepreneurial skill to attract more clients and become business partners to scale up. My best wishes for your contact. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member statements. Member for London Fanshawe. Speaker, I want to talk about a topic that's weighing on Ontarians minds. And that's the public health care system. And this government's making changes to decimate those services that people rely on. I want to share an email I received and this woman wanted to remain anonymous so I can't give her name. She says, I got a quote of $3,680 to do a cardiac surgery in a private clinic. If I don't want to pay, I have to wait 15 months to get the appointment at St. Joseph's Hospital. Where can I get help to find out other city hospitals wait times for cataract surgery? Speaker, those operating rooms are there. They're ready to take more people who need public health care for cataract surgeries. We need to fund those institutions that already have that infrastructure. Bringing a bill that's going to further privatize our health care system is wrong. It won't make a change to what people are requiring. The NDP has given us suggestions. So I want to give those suggestions back to the government so that they will consider those instead of further privatizing health care. Speaker, adequately funding hospitals, repeal Bill 164, expedite training and hiring international nurses create more nurse practitioners led family clinics. These are the things that are going to keep public health care public and they're going to have the quality of care that our constituents deserve and expect, not privatization of hospital and public health care services. Thank you, Speaker. The next member statement, the member for Scarborough Waging Court. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government's commitment under the leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Health to improve the quality of health care in Scarborough has begun to pay off. Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the groundbreaking of the North Pine Diagnostic Imaging Department at the Scarborough Health Network's General Hospital. The people of Scarborough have been waiting for 20 years for the state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging unit. I would like to commend the Scarborough Health Network team for this important achievement. This is the first of many groundbreaking projects in the Scarborough Waging Court and the Scarborough. Other health-related capital infrastructure projects such as the brand new Birchmont Grace Hospital and the Bridal Town Dialysis Center are in the various stages of planning and approval process. In addition to health infrastructure projects and the allocation of thousands of long-term care beds, our government is backing the opening of new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and integrated health at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. This school will serve local communities in Scarborough by graduating physicians, nurses, PSWs, physical therapists, and other life sciences professionals. Mr. Speaker, Scarborough is not forgotten, borrowed anymore. Scarborough is getting the attention it deserves. Thank you. Thank you. Member statements? Member for Scarborough, Southwest. Earlier this week we had dozens of families of children with autism here at Queen's Park with the Autism Coalition who brought stories of the struggles that they face every single day and they wanted us to listen to those concerns. Families have been stuck in the vicious cycle of dysfunction of the Ontario Autism Program for years. Parents wait for years to get an invitation and then keep waiting for their assessment and then they keep waiting for their funding to be released and then they wait to access the programs that the child actually needs and then when they find access to that program, sometimes their funding deadline finishes or they start again. This is the vicious cycle that they go through every single day here in this province speaker and this is the reality. The program is set a target of registering 8,000 children into the program but the reporting from Global News shows that we have only registered 888. If the program applications were to stop today and there was no new applications, we would need 66 years to get through the program, the wait list. Speaker, I cannot even imagine the pain some of these parents are going through and some of them come to my office and the tears I cannot tell you the horrible situations they are going through. So I implore this government to take a hard look at the program, invest the funding that's necessary and make this program. Thank you very much. Member's statements. The Member for Ajax. Mr Speaker, I rise today to say it's an honour to represent the people of Ajax. This past weekend, my colleague MPP McCarthy, MPP Koh, MPP Quinn and Minister Bethan Falby and I had the pleasure of celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Durham Ability Centre and its first accessibility awards entitled Unlocked Potential, hosted at Deer Creek Banquet Facility in Ajax. The accessibility awards is an event to recognise people creating change that re-imagined how people with accessibility live, work and play. I want to congratulate all the nominees and winners but a special congratulations to Sanjay Nathan, who was honoured with the Jim Flaherty Award. This award is presented to a person who has shown leadership in a significant contribution towards promotion development and advancement of accessibility and inclusion. Sanjay was involved in a car accident at the age of 15 that led to him paralysed from the chest down. Rather than seeing this as a barrier, he pushed on to receive a degree in software engineering and founded a company called Exxon Technology, through which he developed a driver-assisted program that uses facial recognition and voice recognition to activate distinct function of vehicles, making driving easier and more accessible. This remarkable young man is a true community champion and nephew of MPP Kanapathy. I would like to personally congratulate Sanjay on this award and your tremendous contributions to breaking down barriers. Member for Orleans. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. About three weeks ago, the residents of Orleans were awoken by an enormous jolt. The walls and windows of their homes were shaking and a few moments later, the near-constant sound of emergency responders racing somewhere in the distance. On February 13th, a home under construction in a new subdivision exploded and it destroyed four homes and damaged many more. The explosion could be felt for kilometres and I've read that it was heard as far away as the village of ours. I'd like to thank the emergency responders in the city of Ottawa for their quick response and decisive actions that morning. Two people were rescued from the rubble with serious injuries and several others were hospitalized, including children. Residents of nearly 30 households were displaced for several days. When you see the images of destruction, it's hard to understand how nobody lost their life. I'd like to commend my city Councillor Catherine Kitts. She and her team were on site right away ensuring residents were being taken care of, then neighbours were being provided the information they needed to ensure that those displaced had somewhere to sleep and receive a hot meal. There will be several important lessons to be learned from what happened. Lessons for home builders in securing their sites, lessons for first responders, and lessons for this government and the lack of supports to help those who no longer have a home to move into. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thank you. Member for Hastings. Thank you, Mr Speaker. As we were watching the news from the United States, we're seeing the painful reversal of years of advances in civil rights. We can be thankful that that's not the case here in Ontario, but we can never take for granted that basic human rights will not be trampled. We all must remain diligent. I want to share with this House a poem that was written just after World War II. You may have heard it by Martin Nijmaler. Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. And then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Speaker, earlier this week, I had the pleasure of hosting a group of people from the Greater Napa-nee Pride Committee. These are dedicated members or allies of the LGBT community. And they came here to show that like everyone else, this is their house. I'm forever grateful that in this house and in this government, all of our constituents are represented. Yesterday was International Women's Day and March 31st will be International Trans Recognition Day. I ask all of the members of this house to celebrate our differences, to celebrate our diversity with respect and humility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements, the Member for Mississauga Streetsville. Speaker, we observed and celebrated the many accomplishments of women in this house and around the world. I would like to take this opportunity to mention two women who had a profound influence on my life. First, my mother. Widowed and left to raise six children on her own. The resilience, work ethic and kindness of my mother was what was instilled into me. I was the youngest of six siblings and was also probably the most challenging of all of my siblings. My biggest regret in life is that she passed away before I was first elected. I know that she was extremely proud of me and she continues to bless me from above. The second influence in my life was my constituent and former Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. In 1998, when I hosted a national conference on spousal abuse, she spoke about the increase of people fleeing abusive situations and opened up yet another shelter in Mississauga. Since then, I've heard from women all over who have said they would probably be dead if it wasn't for those shelters. True leadership. I've talked about the two most influential women who helped shape who I am, but now I'm fully influenced by my two granddaughters, Tara and Tia, ages four and two. To see the world through their eyes, to make decisions as a parliamentarian that not only affects us but to build homes, hospitals, highways and communities to make sure that our future generations... Thank you. Thank you very much.


The last time I talked about this study was in the context of the carcinogens in the smell of frying bacon. The ability of the fumes generated by frying meat to mutate DNA, potentially explaining both the increased risk of respiratory tract among cooks, as well as the lower proportion of deaths from respiratory diseases and lung cancer among vegetarians. This was borne out in a new study on the exposure of pregnant women to both the consumption of grilled meat as well as just exposure to the airborne fumes of grilling meat, even if they didn't eat it. Yes, the study found evidence that prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from a diet including grilled meat might be hazardous for fetal development. For example, the effective ingested barbecued meat consumed in the last pregnancy trimester resulted in a birth weight deficit of 165 grams, a significantly smaller birth weight. But even if she didn't eat it, airborne exposure alone amounted to a birth weight deficit. Compared to no exposure, oral or airborne, just being around the barbecue was associated with a birth weight deficit, including a smaller head circumference in the newborn, nearly the same head shrinkage seen if she actually ate the meat. See, after being absorbed into the body, these cooked meat compounds are distributed to almost all internal organs and are transferred through the placenta to the fetus. And it appears that newborns and young children are especially vulnerable to toxic effects in terms of birth outcomes. Most importantly, it was recently documented that prenatal exposure to airborne PAH may also have an effect on future cognitive development of children. We should never smoke around children. Maybe we should stop grilling around them as well. Even just living next door to a restaurant preparing meat may pose a hazard. They measured the incremental lifetime cancer risk. The excess cancer cases expected in backdoor neighbors of restaurants given what's spewing out of the exhaust outlets attached to the fume hoods in the kitchen. They compared what was coming out of Chinese restaurants, American-style restaurants, and barbecue joints. Which do you think was worse? It was the Chinese. Why not the barbecue places? Well, they think it was because of the fish. They're broiling more fish in Chinese restaurants than in the barbecue joints. How bad is it? Well, they estimate that given the excess cancer risk, you wouldn't want to live right behind a Chinese restaurant more than a day or two a month, though maybe you could squeeze in an extra day behind one of the other restaurants. Their model suggests it may be riskier for adults since they breathe more, eat more, and have more skin for the carcinogens to be absorbed through compared to children. Instead of trying to breathe less, though, it might be better to just move or convince the restaurant to go vegetarian.


For many locals who were looking to get some tips about their own personal gardens, they headed to the Brainerd Public Library today to hear from Joanne Weaver. Joanne is a master gardener who does several talks in the area to help inform gardeners about how to best garden in the climate of north central Minnesota. On average, our lowest temperatures are going to be minus 35 to 30, and we're going to have around 115 to 20 growing days. So when we buy plants to put in our garden or seed, we don't want things that don't start producing until they've been in the ground 100 days because we're near the end of the season. So we sometimes should choose things that have a shorter season. She bases her presentations on questions or concerns that she has heard over the years. For today's lesson, she focused on where the roots of gardening come from. The soil. On soil, we tend to overlook that a little bit because it's not real pretty. We don't put it on a table, and yet it has to be there to make things grow. Many of the attendees are excited to learn new techniques and then put them into practice in their own gardens. One guest of today's presentation was surprised by many of Joanne's tips. Also over-chilling. I was kind of surprised about that. I thought, well, I need to chill my garden every year. But apparently I don't need to do that. Gardening is always growing and always changing, so presentations like this one are necessary to keep the garden as healthy as it can be. Very interesting. They're quick. Very informative, and I know Joanne, and she's a good speaker. I enjoy her talks. She's very informative, and very down-to-earth basic good information that everybody can use. The Brainerd Public Library will continue to have a Master Gardener visit the second Tuesday of each month, reporting in Brainerd, Sarah Winkelman, Lakeland News. In addition to the monthly presentations in Brainerd, the Master Gardeners are planning an expo to be held in the spring of 2018. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.