07 January 2023 (00:06-UTC-07 Tango 06) 17 Dey 1401/14 Jumada t-Tania 1444/16 Xin-Chou 4720/07 январь 2023 года
Anybody who spends some time on social media knows there are plenty of free advice/video posts about how to preserve food at home, yet the University of Idaho apparently thinks they can make money off food preservation classes.
The University of Idaho is based in northern Idaho’s Moscow (don’t confuse with Idaho State University based in Pocatello), but is offering home-food-preservation classes in eastern Idaho’s City of Rigby, and southeast Idaho’s City of Pocatello, for a price!
If you don’t like social media, then you can always checkout the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s National Center for Home Food Preservation, yes it is free! The state and federal taxpayer funded National Center for Home Food Preservation has instructions for canning, drying, freezing, smoking/curing, fermenting, pickling, jams/jellys, and storage (whew)!
National Weather Service claims Blizzard about to hit East/Southeast Idaho, air temps climbing into the 20s Fahrenheit, but the evil winds are howling back, with gusts up to 55mph, wind chills down to minus 25F! Starting tonight, 20DEC2022.
Incomplete (tip-o-the iceberg, seriously this isn’t the half-of-it!) list of United States drug related crimes and oddities for the month of October 2022:
U.S. Coast Guard photo by Information Systems Technician First Class Vincent Aguirre, 12OCT2022.
The U.S. Coast Guard claims it captured 2-thousand-980 kilograms of opium, and 4-hundred Kgs of methamphetamines, while patrolling the Gulf of Oman on 12OCT2022.
U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Corporal George Nudo, 29OCT2022.
The 29th of October was the official DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) National Drug Take Back Day in the U.S. Grammatically, by the DEA saying it is a drug ‘take back’ it indicates the drugs originated with the DEA.
ALASKA: The National Guard, and even the State Parks, was deployed for an anti-drugs propaganda mission in Alaska’s grade school system. Alaska National Guard video by Victoria Granado, 25OCT2022:
USCG photo by Petty Officer Third Class Mikaela McGee, 01OCT2022.
Crew members aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge (WPC 1102) offload approximately 1-thousand-4-hundred pounds of cocaine, and 1-thousand-840-pounds of marijuana, on Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, 01OCT2022.
In this U.S. Navy video by Mineman Second Class Justin, dated 12OCT2022, the narrator brags how the crew of the USS Billings-LCS 15 (which is based out of Mayport) tripled the captures of illegal drugs, among other operations, on its most recent patrol of the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific:
OKLAHOMA: Apparently, illegal drugs have become such a problem that the Army and Air National Guards have been called-up.
Oklahoma National Guard Photo by Anthony Jones, 27SEP2022.
From September 27th to October 7th, 75-thousand marijuana plants were captured and then thrown into trash-burn pits.
Oklahoma Army National Guard photo by Specialist Tyler Brahic, 06OCT2022.
Video interview, by Sergeant Reece Heck, from anti-marijuana operation 07OCT2022:
After the Oklahoma National Guard’s participation in the ganja bust, they then took part in a local, state and federal law enforcement training session concerning the “rising tide” of fentanyl. Oklahoma Army National Guard video interviews, which explains why it will never go away (it is actually used by the healthcare industry), by Specialist Haden Tolbert, 19OCT2022:
PUERTO RICO:
Video by Ricardo Castrodad, the crew of the USCG Cutter Winslow Griesser (WPC-1116) offloaded 721-pounds (327kgs) of cocaine on San Juan, 05OCT2022. Four alleged smugglers are waiting trial in a federal court:
TEXAS: An investigation led by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) resulted in the arrest and conviction of a Texas man for selling fentanyl, which led to the death of a Fort Hood Soldier. The Soldier thought he was taking Percocet, which is a pain reliever that contains opioids, instead he was taking pure fentanyl: “This case shows CID, along with our law enforcement partners, is dedicated to bringing justice to those that harm the public, and members of the Department of the Army, through the distribution of fentanyl. CID remains committed to protecting the force, and the public, from the scourge of the fentanyl epidemic.”-Maria Thomas, CID Special Agent
U.S. Marine Corps graphic by Corporal Lauren Salmon.
During the month of August 2022, the U.S. Marine Corps conducted the first ever live-fire ‘wargame’ for its new CH-53K King Stallion, over the Saylor Creek bombing/gunnery range in South-Central Idaho.
USMC photo by Corporal Adam Henke, 11AUG2022.
Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461 had the honors, and launched out of the U.S. Air Force’s Mountain Home Air Force Base, in Southwestern Idaho. HMH-461 in based in North Carolina, they chose Idaho to test their new mount, because Idaho is geographically and climatically different from North Carolina.
USMC photo by Corporal Adam Henke, 17AUG2022.
USMC video, by Corporal Adam Henke, HMH-461 gets their King Stallion acquainted with the High Desert terrain of Idaho, 08AUG2022:
The USMC, and Lockheed-Sikorsky, claim the new-build CH-53K is more powerful, can fly higher, can stay airborne longer, is safer and easier to maintain than the older CH-53E Super Stallion.
USMC Corporal Adam Henke video of heavy lift operation, 17AUG2022:
In my opinion, the King Stallion is different enough that it should be considered its own helicopter family, apart from the CH-53 lineage.
USMC Corporal Adam Henke video of GAU-21 .50-cal ‘door-gunner’ live-fire, 17AUG2022:
USMC music video, by Corporal Adam Henke, of the first ‘exercise’ of the King Stallion, 30AUG2022:
17 October 2022 (12:39-UTC-07 Tango 06) 25 Mehr 1401/21 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1444/22 Geng-Xu 4720/17 октября 2022 года
Snake River M1A2SEPV2 Abrams. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 13SEP2022.
In September 2022, the Snake River Brigade’s 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team (CBCT) was busy in Texas, where it was transformed into Task Force Rattler, next stop Kuwait and Iraq.
The Army National Guard’s 116th CBCT is based in Idaho, but has units spread through Florida, Montana, Nevada and Oregon.
South Carolina MRAPs. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 13SEP2022.
Ohio’s HMMWV Ambulances. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 14SEP2022.
The 118th Infantry Regiment from South Carolina Army National Guard, as well as the 285th Medical Company from the Ohio Army National Guard, have joined with the 116th CBCT. They are all being deployed to relieve another 116th CBCT led unit which was deployed in November 2021.
Snake River M113 Mortar Carrier. It is basically an upgrade to the old M113 based M106/M125 mortar tracks. New version can carry the 120mm mortar. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 14SEP2022.
It is all part of the ongoing Operation Spartan Shield. The U.S. Army side of Operation Spartan Shield is called Task Force Spartan, which is dependent upon part time Army National Guard and Army Reserve units. Task Force Rattler will be the second, back to back, 12 months deployment for the 116th CBCT.
Snake River M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 15SEP2022.
Before they actually deploy to The Middle East, units must spend 45 days on Fort Bliss, Texas, conducting final deployment training, despite having trained in their home states for as long as two years, and very likely having been deployed many times before.
This AH-64 Apache was being used by the evaluation team out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 14SEP2022.
To make things more confusing, the U.S. Army evaluation team on Fort Bliss is not based in Texas. The U.S. Army evaluators are from the 189th Infantry Brigade Combined Arms Training Battalion, normally based on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.
Idaho Air National Guard Photo by Staff Sergeant Joseph R. Morgan, 14OCT2022.
On 14OCT2022, the families of the Idaho Air National Guard’s 190th FW-124th FS were treated to some A-10C Thunderbolt-2 action on Saylor Creek bombing and gunnery range. Even enjoying the view from atop an Idaho Army National Guard M109.
Idaho Air National Guard Photo by Staff Sergeant Joseph R. Morgan, 14OCT2022.
The moment was sweeter because the 124th FS had just won its fourth Hawgsmoke competition, setting a new benchmark for number of wins.
Gowen Field (East end of Boise Airport), Idaho, 07SEP2022. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.
Probably the most non-combat gathering of A-10C Thunderbolt-2s you will ever see! 37 ‘Warthogs’ from Air National Guard, as well as Reserve and Active U.S. Air Force units congregated on Idaho’s Gowen Field, hungry to chew on the Saylor Creek bomb/gun range, for the biennial (normally every other year, except during Pandemics) Hawgsmoke competition, from the 6th through the 8th of September, 2022.
Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds, 07SEP2022.
Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds, 06SEP2022.
Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds, 06SEP2022.
On the official opening day of Hawgsmoke 2022, a P-40 Warhawk and a P-47 Thunderbolt (from Idaho’s Warhawk Museum) conducted a ‘heritage flyover’ as part of the opening ceremonies.
A 47th FS ‘Dogpatchers’ A-10C arrives from Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds, 06SEP2022.
A 354th FS ‘Bulldogs’ A-10C, also from Davis-Monthan AFB. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds, 06SEP2022.
104th FS Air National Guard A-10C out of Maryland. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 08SEP2022.
Air National Guard A-10C, 122nd FW ‘Blacksnakes’ out of Indiana. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 08SEP2022.
Missouri’s ‘KC Hawg’ of the 442nd FW. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Becky Vanshur, 08SEP2022.
Air National Guard’s 124th FW ‘Red’ Idaho (there are ‘Blue’ ones) A-10C. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras, 08SEP2022.
A 124th FW A-10C lets one rip. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras, 08SEP2022.
Idaho Air National Guard video by Ryan White, A-10Cs passing gas all over the Saylor Creek range, 08SEP2022:
For the fourth time, and setting a new record for wins, Idaho Air National Guard 190th Fighter Squadron’s 124th Fighter Wing took the Overall Team Award. That is four wins: 2008, 2010, 2021, 2022.
Other winners of Hawgsmoke 2022: Top A-10 Overall Attack Pilot; Lieutenant Colonel John Marks, 303rd Fighter Squadron (FS)-442d Fighter Wing (FW), Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB), Missouri. Top Strafe Team; 303rd FS-442d FW, Whiteman AFB, Missouri. Top Tactical Team; 47th FS-442d FW, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. Top Bombing Team; 354th FS-355th FW, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.
In 1995 the decades old ‘Cold War’ era Gunsmoke ground attack competition came to an end, in 2000 a new ground attack competition was started called Hawgsmoke.
13 October 2022 (12:23-UTC-07 Tango 06) 21 Mehr 1401/17 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1444/18 Geng-Xu 4720/13 октября 2022 года
It has been established that there are not many good paying, steady, long term jobs spread across The Gem State, and that there isn’t a lot of available land for private ownership, resulting in a low population, and that there has been plenty of house construction since the end of the 1990s. In other words, sparse population due to lack of decent long term jobs (90% of the population growth has been in the Boise Metro Area), and decades of house building actually resulting in a glut of houses. Yet, housing rental prices and purchase prices are too high. This is the excuse that local municipalities and property developers are using to justify the approval, and acceleration, of massive residential construction projects.
For proof here is a list of links to articles (just the tip of the iceberg) proclaiming new housing projects, and reporting on housing cost problems, across Idaho, from the past month:
Ada County area real estate agent says the number of actual available units are flat despite all the construction, and predicts inventory will actually go down, which means rents and prices will stay high. Reveals a disturbing trend that was insignificant before 2008 and is also the cause of high prices; residential Institutional Buyers, aka Investors/Speculators, who outbid families trying to buy a home:
13 October 2022 (01:46-UTC-07 Tango 06) 21 Mehr 1401/17 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1444/18 Geng-Xu 4720/13 октября 2022 года
Idaho’s reign as a top destination for domestic migrants (U.S. citizens leaving their states for The Gem State) was short lived, and is now reversing; more people leaving than coming in!
I’ve documented how for decades the entrenched, arrogant, leaders of Idaho boasted of how things were booming in Idaho, using domestic migration as one of their proofs. They claimed that one reason for the influx of domestic migrants, was that Idaho was full of good paying jobs. Anybody that has lived in Idaho for as long as I have knew that was a bold face lie! I have experienced what I call revolving door employment for almost 20 years as employer after employer downsized or halted operations altogether! If it wasn’t for the fact that my property is paid for, I would have been forced to move a long time ago. (I am not here for the money, I love the climate and the space, which apparently is what many recent newbies to Idaho don’t like)
Here’s another wake up call for our fearless leaders: There was only a slight uptick in Idaho’s overall population, from 2010 to 2020. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the sparse population of the geographically large state of Idaho went from 1.8-million to only 1.9-million, despite a decade of ‘leaders’ telling us that the population was booming. The overwhelming majority of that population growth took place in the Boise Metro Area (Treasure Valley, Southwestern Idaho region).
Here’s another reality check: More than 61% of land in Idaho is owned by the federal government. Less than 30% of available land is privately held. So, in reality the relatively small population is partly due to lack of available privately owned land. There is also the fact that one of President Joseph Robinette Biden Junior’s first executive orders (America the Beautiful Initiative, or 30×30 order) makes it even harder to make land available in Idaho:
The state government owns land, and has been selling it off, not just to make more land available, but it has become a major revenue source for the state government (which might explain its mysterious budget surplus).
Then there’s the fact that rich people from other states (Texas) are buying up private property and then using it to block access to public lands:
By 2020, moving company trackers had ranked Idaho as the number three destination, but now, just two years later an Atlanta, Georgia, moving assistance company reports that Idaho has dropped to 20th position, and the region of Eastern Idaho is experiencing a mass exodus!
While the Move Buddha report admits that people are changing their minds about moving to Idaho, the author still says Idaho is “The Place to Go”! Move Buddha reports that the Eastern Idaho city of Rexburg, home to the Brigham Young University-Idaho, is bleeding residents, and blames it on lack of jobs. According to Move Buddha’s “in-to-out” formula, for every 49 people moving into Rexburg, 1-hundered are leaving! In Rexburg’s next door city of Idaho Falls, once the economic darling of Eastern Idaho, there are now 1-hundred people leaving for every 95 moving in!
But even the top five cities that people still want to move to are on the decline, with Southwestern Idaho’s Eagle leading the pack with a 56% decrease in Move Buddha’s “in-to-out ratio”.
There is still massive housing construction going on in Idaho, all across the state, it has been going on since the late 1990s. Housing developers and politicians have always claimed it is because the population is booming, and it is necessary to keep housing costs down. That is interesting, because homes prices/values skyrocketed, anyway. Just this year, Bannock County jacked up the value of my property to where they now consider it worth four times what I paid in 1997, despite the massive home construction that is still going on around my neighborhood! In 1997, my neighborhood was surrounded on the south and west sides by farm fields. By 1999, the farm land was sold and huge housing tracts were under construction. This never let up, year after year the city slowly moved westward, annexing County territory, farm land being sold-off and new housing development taking its place. The claim was that the population and economy is booming, yet starting in 2001, I witnessed, experienced and documented the economic destruction in my part of Bannock County, and it has never recovered.
Prices for homes are finally ticking down in Idaho, but don’t blame the Pandemic, the massive focus on property development, that was never justified, is to blame. Now, the mass exodus that is beginning to take place will push Idaho’s housing market into the Pit of Hell.
In this report, which chronicles the destruction of iconic Green T, the mayor of Chubbuck boasts it’s “…the beginning of some real good things coming in.”:POPEYES QUIETLY SHUTS DOWN FOUR IDAHO RESTAURANTS!
U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 14SEP2022.
Is Winter coming early in the Northern Hemisphere? In September 2022, Talons from Atlantic Southeast Florida decided to migrate to Pacific Northwest Idaho.
U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 12SEP2022.
The U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) 2d Fighter Training Squadron is based on Tyndall Air Force Base (AFB), in Florida. From the 12th through to the 23rd, of September, the 3rd Generation T-38 Talons flew around Idaho, helping the USAF teach its youngest bird, the 5th Generation F-35A Lightning-2 (which had also flown north from Luke AFB, Arizona), how to fly.
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 12SEP2022.
The airspace over Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, is known as Gunfighter Country. USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 16SEP2022.
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 14SEP2022.
According to Captain Ryan ‘Joker’ McCooey, of the 61st Fighter Squadron’s B-Flight, the training over Mountain Home AFB is the final schooling of a long F-35 program taught mainly on Luke AFB: “At the end of their six-to-eight month basic course, students put together all the building blocks we have taught them throughout the course into these Capstone rides where they do both air-to-air and air-to-ground [tactics] during the same sortie. They get to practice all the things we taught them in a large force exercise, integrating with different assets that we don’t always have the ability to do at Luke.”
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 16SEP2022.
Final F-35 training is usually done over Mountain Home AFB, against the F-15E Strike Eagle, but I believe this is the first time the T-38 Talon was involved.
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 12SEP2022.
While over Idaho, the Florida Talons play the ‘bad guy’ (Red Air) against the Arizona Lightning-2s. Playing the bad guy has been the forte of the T-38 trainer for decades, all the way back to the days of the non-declared, non-official, Cold War.
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 12SEP2022.
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 13SEP2022.
While launching from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, the T-38 Talons helped qualify six F-35A pilots, and help upgrade the qualifications of four other pilots to instructor status.
3rd generation T-38 and a 5th Generation F-35A. USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 16SEP2022.
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 13SEP2022.
The concept of aircraft generations was started by U.S. air historian Richard P. Hallion, back in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until Russia adopted the concept that it became standard in the United States (apparently it was Russia who first referred to the USAF F-22 Raptor as a 5th Generation fighter).
USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Betty R. Chevalier, 12SEP2022.
CHICKENS & COWS STARVING TO DEATH, BLAMED ON UNION PACIFIC, CLIMATE CHANGE, LABOR SHORTAGE?
