Thursday, 25 September 2025

TREE HOUSE NEWS 🏡

Land of Whispering Pines 🌲

Good morning! May the Great Spirit bless you 🙏

(((GOOD ~MORNING ♪♫~ LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.' ))) ✨🟰 & 🍁

Well, the weather is cloudy, but still lovely and warm. I have the glass doors open leading to my Green Space. It is silent out there about 88% of the time; it really feels like we are in a treehouse in the woods. The only other sounds outside of the ravens are the distant sound of a shooting range, and I can hear the small popping sounds.

TODAY'S DISCUSSION:

Memories, Yesterday vs Today

It reminds me of those years when Mom and I lived alone on the homestead; I became somewhat proficient with a hunting rifle, and for a time, I was a gun collector. I especially favored the Centennial Hex barrel lever-action Winchester. I am a gun enthusiast in the sense that I have an interest in collectibles and antiques, anticipating what will likely become a sought-after item in the future.

As for handguns, the Colt .45 was my favorite. I used to have one, a real one from the 1800s, among other antique guns. I also collect porcelain dolls, some of which may now be antiques and possibly even rare. I've gathered fantasy statuettes like dragons and fairies, elves and even some angels, as well as a part of what's left of a rock collection of each state and province I traveled through. 😁

Do you remember living in a house where the closest neighbor is 5 miles away? You had to stock up on firewood for the winter; that's about a month's labor, collecting the wood, preferably with the aid of a chainsaw and a garden tractor. However, we have done it, family effort and maybe a neighbor or two with a bucksaw, cutting the logs into stove-sized chunks and strong-arming the wood out on sleighs. But it was fun. I remember my sister always wanting the job of driving the garden tractor.

There are many quaint memories of those days, such as when we were sitting around the wood stove in the evening, listening to the radio. Mom and I often sat in front of the stove with our feet in the open oven door, either knitting or reading, and listening to the beige plastic radio. Another job that wasn't easy was drawing water from the lake, which was about half a city block from the house, in two five-gallon cans, and luging it home on a sleigh.

The Good Old days, you bet! Couldn't do that anymore now, but if I had the vitality and youth, I would do it again, just with a different script, if you don't mind, Great Spirit! I no longer enjoy this GROUNDHOG DAY repeat. It's GIVING ME VERTIGO! 🤢🤮

BREAKING NEWS:

White House budget office threatens mass firings if government shuts down

The White House budget office is telling federal agencies to prepare plans for mass firings in the event of a government shutdown – an apparent threat by the Trump administration amid a standoff with congressional Democrats over federal funding.

The directive, outlined in an Office of Management and Budget memo to agencies and obtained by CNN, represents a sharp break from the government’s handling of past shutdown scenarios. In the memo, OMB directs agencies to identify programs whose funds will lapse if Congress fails to meet the September 30 funding deadline and that have no alternative source of funding. Those programs should then be targeted for sweeping reductions in force that could permanently eliminate jobs that are deemed “not consistent” with President Donald Trump’s priorities.

“We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary,” OMB wrote in the memo...

Gutting the federal workforce:

Updated Sep 25, 2025, 8:32 AM ET - Updated 1 hr 45 min ago

- CNN -

The Orang Pus Bag, THE WALLET CHOCKER! Come to shear we the sheeple, or is it the sheeple, then get your wallet choked and become a non-person at the mercy of his Dunce Brigade, Gestapo. Perhaps with some luck, they'll deport you to that island with the penguins. I think it was Heard and McDonald Islands, located near the southern tip of South America, the nearest to the South Pole. Bring your snow shoes!

US opens tariff investigations into medical equipment, robotics and industrial machinery

Washington, DC

Reuters

—

The US Commerce Department said Wednesday that it had opened new national security investigations into the import of personal protective equipment, medical items, robotics and industrial machinery.

The “Section 232” investigations, which were opened on September 2 but not publicly disclosed previously, could be used as a basis for even higher tariffs on a wide swath of medical and industrial goods including imported face masks, syringes and infusion pumps, as well as for robotics and industrial machinery like programmable computer-controlled mechanical systems and industrial stamping and pressing machines.

The probe asks companies to detail projected demand for robotics and industrial machinery and the extent to which "domestic production of robotics and industrial machinery, and their parts and components can meet domestic demand," as well as the role of foreign supply chains in meeting US demand. The US Commerce Department is particularly interested in the role of major exporters like China in meeting US medical needs and the "impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices."...

Read More:

PUBLISHED Sep 25, 2025, 7:03 AM ET - 3 hr ago

- CNN -

CANADIAN NEWS:

Nova Scotia man in desperate need of organ transplant turns to Ontario clinic for survival

Pancreas transplants aren't offered in Nova Scotia, so Samuel Provo-Benoit referred himself to Toronto program

Samuel Provo-Benoit sits in his grandmother's living room — surrounded by family photos, angel figurines and bible verses — and waits for a phone call that could save his life. Provo-Benoit, 35, lives with his grandmother in North Preston, N.S. He passes the time watching television, waiting for a daily visit from a nurse to check his dialysis machine, and glancing at his phone. There's an anxious stillness here.

When his phone rings, his feeling of anticipation quickly turns to disappointment. Provo-Benoit was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 10 years old. Complications from the disease have claimed his kidneys, so he requires dialysis or a transplant for survival...

Had to self-refer:
Transplant patients turned away:
Ready for the next step:

Posted: Sep 25, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

- CBC -

Canada's divisive 'weird' chocolate, the Cherry Blossom, now worth its weight in gold

'It's real,' says Canadian selling discontinued Cherry Blossom on eBay for $48K

You can do a lot with $50,000, should you happen to have it.

Buy a new SUV, for instance. Or pay for a major kitchen renovation. Make a down payment on a house. Set it aside for retirement. Or, you could bid on a 24-pack of Hershey's Cherry Blossom chocolates on eBay, where a seller from Oakville, Ont., is currently selling the discontinued candy for $48,300.

-CBC- News reached out to the seller, listed as jocst-_0, who confirmed via direct message that the listing is real, and yes, they've gotten a lot of messages about the posted price, but hope that eventually theirs will be the only Cherry Blossom left...

The Cherry Blossom resale boom:
'Maybe the last one in Canada':

Posted: Sep 25, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 23 minutes ago

- CBC -

I found this story sad, even if I am not a chocolate eater. Chocolate disappearing like that is like the ending of a legend. Like another piece of the fading American Empire.

Something for the archaeologist to decipher in the ancient history of the HomoSapien in a couple of thousand years from now, when they begin chipping you out of that iceberg at McDonald Island, the isle of Penguins.