2005 News

1. Polly's CarePage
2. Alternate Fuel Articles
3. John Deere Lawn & Garden Tractors
4. Live History Days at the Museum
5. Preservation Editorial
6. A Visit by Molesworth Furniture Collectors

Polly's CarePage

Merry Christmas wishes to you from Polly & TonyO. with this invitation to visit "PollysPage". So you need not wait for Tony to send you a Christmas card (by Easter, maybe — if he can find his addresses and stamps). Here on CarePages you may read updates on Polly's situation and see 15 PIX of her, and even send her back a message!

Dear Friend or Family Member,

You're invited to visit Polly Ostheimer's online CarePage. A personalized Web page, called a CarePage, has been created for Polly, so you can easily receive the latest news, view photos and share messages of support.

To visit the CarePage, please click the link below:
http://www.carepages.com/ServeCarePage?cpn=PollysPage
(If you cannot click through this link, please copy and paste the entire URL into your browser's address window.)
… or you can use these manual instructions:

1. Go to www.carepages.com
2. Click "Visit a CarePage"
3. Register
4. After you've registered, enter the exact CarePage Name below:
   CarePage Name: PollysPage

Alternate Fuel Articles

Subject: MSN domestic gas price database …
Have you seen the MSN "gas prices" page? It's a database of ONLY domestic oil co. prices, leaving out EXXON (Middle East imports), CITGO (Venezuela imports), Shell-BP (North Sea imports), and the other International "Oil Patch Kids."

This MSN autos page is pretty nifty and worth bookmarking. Just enter your zip code and it tells you which gas stations have the cheapest prices (and the highest) in your area. It's updated every evening.

Cellulosic ethanol may replace fossil fuels …
According to a Reuters article picked up by MSNBC [updated link; also blog], Sir Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, said that he's building in the next year a plant based cellulosic ethanol fuel company to be called "Virgin Fuels." Fuel costs and pollution for Virgin's fleet of 100 aircraft will be significantly reduced, by mixing the cellulosic ethanol produced, into crude oil based jet fuel. Within 30 years Branson predicted that fossil fuels will no longer be used.

Alternate fuels versus the IRS diatribe …
Willie Nelson's wild "Indian Chief" bus runs great on bio-diesel! He's using second hand vegetable cooking oil, filtered, with additives. Any vegetable oil works raw as bio-diesel too — corn, soybean, sunflower, peanut, canola, olive, etc. And Willie's method grabs old stuff headed for the dump, so he's recycling a potential problem into a useful fuel. Bob Giordano (who runs Missoula's Free Cycles program) ran a bus to Glacier Park and back on used cooking oils bio-diesel two summers ago but didn't get the publicity Willie has.

For low compression gas engines, wet garbage can be fermented, converting the sugar to alcohol, with the fermentations distilled off, and some of the stills are extremely efficient. I have one, but have never licensed or used it. I plan to someday, and run it in summer off some solar-thermal panels. Maybe go to a 50/50 gas and ethanol mix, called"E-50." Some say we can go as high as 80% ethanol with no engine damage. But, Industrial Hemp oil would be the best bio-diesel because it is a hugely productive crop — up to 40 tons per acre in cattle feed forage (corn seldom hits that, even in Iowa) — and because it doesn't compete with human food crops. The present CRP lands taxpayers are subsidizing as non-productive could be put into certified Industrial Hemp, the hemp oil squeezed out of the stems, then the roughage chopped up and fed to livestock, or fermented first to raise the protein and get off some alcohol too.

Probably, we'll see slow conversion to bio-diesel and E-20 to E-50 sold at the pumps before we'll see hydro sold at stations, even in California where Arnold Governator has bought a large fleet of straight hydrogen-powered state-owned cars and talked several gas companies into placing hydrogen pumps on their service station islands. (Have you seen the "centralized" system Arnold envisions in CA? The oil & gas companies will control hydrogen sales! Contrast that to a "distributed" system, in which any of us consumers can run rainwater from our roof-edge gutters down the spouts to our tanks, and decant off the clean water into our cars' fuel tanks, now full of water as fuel!) Presently the engineer guys are mostly highly paid by the interlocking corporation system to spoof most of the alternative fuel and energy ideas. But what I'm suggesting is a governmentally sponsored and led crash program in which engineers are rewarded for developing three generations of alternative fuels and energy. Willie's bus is an example of the first generation — off the shelf stuff and known technologies, tweaked to work. E-20 to E-80 "gasoline" mixes, and Industrial Hemp bio-diesel oil on a huge scale, will probably be the second. But water as fuel (hydrogen) will likely be the third generation — because water covers 70% of Earth's surface and is relatively plentiful in most areas, and because water engines emit only water vapor and are therefore environmentally way better. (I agree that BlackLight's talk about "hydrinos" without accompanying demos or stats is hardly an answer!)

If you think about some of our present problems — Oil Wars, imbalance in foreign account payments from importing foreign crude oil, inflation / debauching of US currency as a result of that, potential for energy frauds as we saw in ENRON (and locally in Montana Power Co.), greenhouse gas emissions as more coal & natural gas is burned as substitutes, global warming (?) — more violent and more frequent storms, etc. — and balance those costs against a few energy companies' stockholders making obscene profits, doesn't a crash alternative energy development program make good sense?

But, probably, we'll instead continue to face government repression for talking about alternative fuels. Willie Nelson went through three years of IRS horror the first time he championed alternatives. My IRS problems started within one month of registering "Montana Sunflower, Inc." to make & sell solar-thermal panels from local materials, and test solar PV cells for Chronar Inc., which got torpedoed & went bankrupt because of Montana's Sec. of State. I'm still (again!) in US District Court, Missoula, pressing "Ostheimer vs. CIR & several John Does & Jane Roes CIV-05-69-M-LBE" because of it, and Polly's neurological condition seems to have started then, triggered by the verbal assault on her by IRS collections thug [name withheld] on 1/3/89 in front of two witnesses.

We seek a full refund of all they stole, and reinstatement of our GE stock certificates as of the date they were stolen and on which they either forged our "endorsement" signatures or managed somehow to transfer and liquidate without any signatures. IRS did all that to us without any signed tax assessment certificates (they knew we owed no taxes so no IRS employee would have wanted to sign a fraudulent tax assessment certificate Form 23-C), and they failed to legally advertise our GE stock certificates before any sealed bid sale or auction, and failed to hold any sale, so we were denied due process notice and denied any opportunity to redeem the stock or make any offer in compromise. IRS employees were violating four other procedural sections of their own Internal Revenue Code. In this court case, we also seek a letter of apology from IRS, and if we have to litigate for any of that, then we seek further to:

1. impose the "Impartial IRS Taxpayer's Ombudsman Program" that Congress passed into law but for which President Clinton never appointed anyone to fill.
2. be appointed "IRS Taxpayer's Ombudsman" for either Montana, Alaska, or both — until someone better qualified is found.
3. place IRS, Bureau of Mint, Bureau of Engraving, and Federal Reserve System all under direct control of Congress as the Constitution requires.
4. revoke the so-called "War Powers Act" so that Congress again has the power to declare war and issue "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" — only Congress!
5. hold IRS financial accountable by a jury for what they caused us and what their agent [name withheld] started in Polly's neuro system.

Did you see all those peace demonstrators out yesterday? Yet not one person is questioning why our president can declare war anytime or anyplace he wants to — for the profit of his oil patch friends, and no one is questioning that he can make a war and from his executive branch suite. Also why can he lay and collect taxes via the IRS to pay for that war, or print money instead of coining it, or determine our money's value via his buddies in the "Fed" (Andrea Mitchell and her husband Allen Greenspan are the leading talking heads), or control interest and discount rates, etc.? We Americans ought to admit that "Dubya" and many presidents before him (because it ain't no "Republicrat" vs. "Demopublican" thing) have all the powers of Napolean, and then do something about it before we go the same route as France tragically did.

Our Founding Fathers set up a system of separation of powers with checks and balances, but it's become perverted by change agents so none of it works, not even the electoral process — perverted, as jerks get elected then just do what they're told once in office. So Congress can delegate away powers We The People granted ONLY to Congress — with NO (ZERO) authority to delegate anything. So banksters can finagle with our money and play with all the fiscal enema toys they use to consolidate wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the many. So corporations (which already live forever) can pick & choose without social obligations, and leave behind environmental disasters, cast off broken employees and customers, and maximize their bottom lines, and so the media can hype it up and make money on all the chaos that results. We'll have a nation of knee-jerk responders instead of forward-thinking planners and leaders. Once again, our young potential future leaders are being killed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, for what?

Hydro for combustion …
How goes it with you? Nice rains recently down here at the Molesworth Ranch! Hope you got some of that too.

I thought this web page and site from BlackLight Power might interest your engineering bent on hydrogen as a fuel — note the claim in Para. # 3, that the energy released by this process is hundreds of times in excess of the energy required to start it.

I saw this booklet on eBay and thought you might be interested. I was really searching for auctioned "hydrolizers" and oversized alternators, plus solar PV panels to embed in fiberglass on the roof of my vans. My "theory" is, one's car can collect solar PV energy all day parked in the sun, store that in a separate battery, use the stored energy to make hydrogen for starting, then the belt-driven generator does the hydrolizing once the engine's turning over. One needs a larger "gas" (water) tank. And then needs to stop next to water hozes or a roof rain run-off downspout / tank to fillerup. Or carry a 12VDC water pump and some hoze to fillerup from the river, lake, irrigation ditch, etc. OK, so tell me why it won't work! I do agree with you that it's low efficiency, low MPG on water, besides requiring a "conversion kit", but water is basically "free" here. Also, I'd tube the O₂ into my van and right to my nostrils so I's a more alert driver … drivin' on H₂ and high on O₂!

Subject: Montana gas prices …
Dear MSSA Friends,

I thought you might like this link to a Website that shows current Montana gas and diesel prices: part of Gas Buddy.
You can search for specific communities, and find the best prices locally.

Gary Marbut
president, Montana Shooting Sports Association
author, “Gun Laws of Montana”

John Deere Lawn & Garden Tractors

Good luck with your mowing! I've got 3 of my 4 mowers working well now, but the heavy wet grasses burned up belts on both my JD 212 garden tractors and Triple W JD dealership was out of stock for 2 weeks - others were having belt troubles too! But I love the lush green look of our lower valley. Almost 8" of rain fell here in June! But now starts the hot dry weather! Several weeks at 80°+ and we could have many grass fires and even a return visit to August smoke conditions!

It is correct that Ace and Sears mowers are fine, reliable, and about 1/4 the cost of a John Deere. They just aren't green & yellow! I just like the older JD 200 series with their Kohler cast iron blocks and mostly interchangeable parts. So I have two of the 212s: 12 HP and made in 1979. They have 48" decks (mow 47" per pass) and cost me $900 apiece including a snow plow blade with one and a snow blower for the other. What saves my heinie when one breaks down is, I can still run the other one, until it breaks down too! JD also made a 210 - 10 HP (which was underpowered) and a 214 - 14 HP (which is perfect) but most original owners still keep them running. Someday I'll pick up a rear mounted roto-tiller, landscape rake, and some of the other "attachments" JD made for these 200 series and maybe have a "complete collection".

I still mow the main lawns with a Worthington golf course "Fairways" mower pulled by one of my large JD tractors. Takes 15 minutes! It's a 5 gang reel-type eleven foot wide massive cast iron thing with heavy rollers and spring loaded leverage to roll tighter when the ground is slightly wet or soft. I found that some years back stacked up on Triple W's scrap iron pile. They'd taken it in on trade from Larchmont Golf Course for one of the early zero turn radius mowers. So I got it for $50 bucks, the scrap iron price at the time being 10¢ / #, got a Worthington parts list over the Internet, and was able to get all the parts needed to run it for under $100 bucks including S&H. I actually got an extra gang with it, so I have a spare in case one of the 5 goes bad. Problem with the reel mower is, when grass gets too long, or the "plantation" begins to shoot bloom stems and go to seed, the reels won't cut all of it, so by July I have smooth rolled lawns thanks to the heavy Worthington, but must fall back on the JD 212s to get all the stems cut. Takes 2 hours instead of the Worthington's 15 minutes!

Live History Days at the Museum

See you at Live History Days (LHDs) on July 16 - 17, 2005?

Presently the Miracle of America Museum (MoAM) in Polson MT is sorta isolated from the main Hwy 93, and participants and guests will have to enter from the south end through access for Les Schwab Tires, Nickel Cars, etc.

I'm hoping to get Gil a second black powder shooter from the Kalispell area, plus a kids' face painter who's quite a character (tho' just for Sunday), and maybe Gene Belile's John Deere "D" on steel wheels with the rare experimental serial number. 3 years ago he brought it and belted up to the vertical shingle sawmill and sawed up a storm of dust and splinters!

Hope to see you there! Happy Independence Day!

Preservation Editorial

"Preservation?" What does "preservation" mean to you? Can anyone "preserve" anything in this world? For how long? For what reasons? Is it worth preserving any of Thomas C. Molesworth's original commissions? There are few left still in their original settings. And how many of those are in Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. - influenced Lodges? With Edward T. Grigware dioramas? With aboriginal artifacts and rugs? With Winold Reiss and Frederick Remington prints?

Dr. Robert Ballard who rediscovered and photographed the SS "Titanic" wants to preserve her on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean! How? For whom? For how long? But Ballard's already raising funds to do it! "Different (preservation) strokes for different folks?"

So, what's so important about our Old Lodge that we should preserve it? It's at 3,000' elevation above sea level, not 13,000' deep beneath. It's easier to visit and view than the "Titanic." But why preserve it and "how?" Is "preservation" seeing photos of it up here on the Internet? Because we've done that - we need only maintain this site, on this or another server. Is "preservation" seeing it recorded in scores of photos? Because we've done that also. Would another level of "preservation" be seeing our collection recorded as a series of high resolution photos in a beautiful collectors' item folio-sized hard cover book? Obviously, that would be both very satisfying and a higher degree of "preservation," but this is not yet attained. Is leaving it to our next generations and trusting their judgment going to lead to "preservation?" Or to an "estate sale" or "auction?" In the meantime, does not "preservation" necessarily include the risk of fire, theft, moths, and simple wear and tear depreciation? Would "preservation" perhaps include seeing the whole collection, doors and hardware, dioramas and wood carvings, aboriginal artifacts and pottery, go off for another family's enjoyment in another setting, but with its history documented and recorded for posterity? Obviously, there are other families equally interested, and better able. So, let's hear your ideas about this, OK?

Because nothing lasts in this world forever, but if it lasts at all it's because someone did the right thing in the right way. When we came here to the ranch in 1974, we were already conscious of "Cowboys and Indians High Style." Anyone who watched "westerns" at the Saturday matinees saw " High Noon," "Shane," "The Lone Ranger," the series of Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers - Dale Evans movies, and even "Bonanza" ("Ponderosa" in reruns), understands the influence the American West has had on both American and world culture. Along the way, we've learned that every major western movie hero and heroine visited this ranch as guests of the Romer Family from 1938 to 1953 (John Wayne excepted - he owned his own ranch on Arizona's Moggollon Rim). Gary Cooper was born in Helena. Myrna Loy was also born in Montana. And we have an old movie, donated by the Romer Family, showing the "Pow Wow" style Bar-B-Qs they held for their Hollywood guests, some famous and some not yet. We in turn donated a copy of this movie to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes' Cultural Committee because it shows many of the "locals" dancing in their tribal finery, and elders at the time were able to identify many of the dancers. Although in color, this movie was sadly silent, so the drumming cannot be heard as the dancers do their struts. But the Native costumes and dances are unchanged, preserved as a spiritual observance and as a cultural art form to this day, and are still viewable worn by younger generations of Pauls, Matts, LeftHands, Finleys, McDonalds, and Swaneys at the July 4th Arlee Pow Wow, and at the Standing Arrow Pow Wow held annually at Elmo on Flathead Lake.

If you travel to London, Paris, Hamburg, Athens, New Delhi, Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong, and even Tokyo, you'll be surprised at all the western jeans, cowboy boots and hats, and western-style cowboy and Indian fringed shirts local folks there wear - and how many still love watching American Western movies. Their fascination over American cowboys and Indians isn't just over jeans, boots, hats, and shirts; they also appreciate that Western Americans kept their word, were "straight shooters," lived out under the stars, understood herbal medicine and natural healing, trailed cattle from Texas to Montana, brought sheep from the Ohio River to Wyoming and Oregon Territories, made beautiful rugs from homespun and Germantown wool trade fibres, and began the Agricultural Revolution which enables one American today to feed 98 other people. Both Europeans and Asians copy Native American flutes and drums, beadwork, pipe chokers, textile and rug designs, and some of their tattoo parlors even copy Navajo and Plains Indian motif designs.

A Visit by Molesworth Furniture Collectors

Terry Winchell has been working on THE BOOK about T. C. Molesworth, "Molesworth: The Pioneer of Western Design" [release: October 15, 2005] and "Molesworth Montana Institute and Ranch" may get to be a chapter in that book! Here's a link to Terry's Molesworth Originals (AKA Fighting Bear Antiques) website in Jackson Hole WY.