Czechs and Balances

I never heard of a political party that didn't charge its members dues, but then I never joined the Democrats.  I don't think you can be a member of any organization just because you say so, you have to be accepted and enrolled.  There must be some kind of Democratic Party headquarters in Chicago.  You could go there and ask them about it.

People from Cheboygan are called "Cheboyganites".

When I was a kid most, if not all, of the Czechs I knew called themselves "Bohemians", but my mother told me that the folks in the Old Country called themselves "Czechs", and their country was called something that sounded like "Checky", but I don't know how it was spelled.  I do know that the inverted "v" over the letter "c" makes it sound like "ch".  Without that mark, "c" is pronounced "ts".  There is no "c" sound in the Czech language.  I learned later that "Bohemia" is actually what the ancient Romans called the country because, when they first made contact, it was inhabited by the Bohii tribe. That tribe went extinct before the Czechs arrived, but the name stuck for centuries afterwards.

I buy my diesel fuel at the local gas station five gallons at a time.  I have been told that I could buy it in 55 gallon drums from a distributor and get out of paying the highway tax on it, but a 55 gallon drum would last about a year, and it's not a good idea to store fuel that long because condensation might water it down.  A five gallon can used to last about a month in my old tractor, but this one burns it a little faster because it has a bigger engine and power steering.  I think my old tractor had a three or four gallon fuel tank, and I always ran out of gas before the tractor did.

I have always practiced the "composting in place" method.  If some tree branches end up blocking my way, I push them off to the side but, other than that, everything rots where it falls.  That's the way Mother Nature does it, so it's good enough for me.  We don't really have a lawn. Lawns are for people who don't have enough land to practice agriculture or forestry.   I mow the areas I don't want reverting to forest once a year with the tractor, and I run a weedwhacker around the house two or three times a year, depending on how much rain we get.

The only snakes I have ever seen around here are common garter snakes.  We get a few mice in the garage and the barn from time to time, but D-Con makes short work of them.