Leadership

Compiling some resources on leadership:

"Leadership from a Dancing Guy" (3:00) ~Simon Sinek
"Thunderstruck" (4:58) by 2Cellos
"In Each of Us There Is a Leader" (6:12) Tree on road in India
"In Each of Us There Is a Leader" (2:06) Tree on road in India

Possible?
"How Great Leaders Inspire Action" ~Simon Sinek

Perennial, Productive Plants for High Country Desserts

Here is a link to some info to some info from UofI including lists of what trees, grapes, blackberries, etc. grow well in high country deserts.

Here is some info I got from a friend on some perhaps less traditional options:

The elderberries grow well, but they need to be watered about as much as your grass, they are supposed to be medicinal as far as antiviral stuff goes. 

Sea berries are pretty exciting they are supposed to taste somewhere between a mix of orange juice and peach juice - tart though need some sugar. they also have all sorts of omega fatty acids and anti oxidants in them. 

Goji berries are more of a vine once they get going they are supposed to do well. I'm waiting to see if mine come back this year. 

The saskatoon blue berries are about the most exciting they look and taste like blueberries, but unlike normal blue berries they grow really well in our alkaline soil. Mine are still fairly small but are heavy producers. 

You could also look at black walnuts - they are supposed to have all the essential amino acids in them Same as an egg, but easier to store). English walnuts also grow well around here - both black walnuts and english walnuts needs some kind of shelter the first couple of years like a fence or something to keep the wind off them. I planted mine out in the open and they die each winter and then come back each spring so they never get very big. My neighbor down the road has some nice english walnuts in her yard - it's a little more sheltered.

plums are also nice to get started, just for the change.

Choke cherries also grow well once they are established - make a good syrup. My neighbor down the road has a bunch. She also grows a lot of rasberries - she says she never has the birds eat any of her rasberries because they are always so busy fighting over the chokecherries. she never gets many chokecherries but birds will rob everything off most of the other plants so they would be worth it just as the decoy.

These are some of the edible plants they say we can grow around here. I put the link to burnt ridge nursery under the plant and then the link to wikipedia because it tells a lot about each plant.

elderberry
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=41&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_nigra

sea berry
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=43&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides

goji berry or wolf berry
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=36&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycium_barbarum

serviceberry or saskatoon blueberry - will grow well in alkaline soil
http://www.burntridgenursery.com/fruitingPlants/index_product.asp?dept=35&parent=28

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier_alnifolia

Good Luck!!!

Ben

Thomas Jefferson

I received this in an email and thought it too good not to post.

Enjoy...

Who was

Thomas Jefferson ?

This is amazing. There are two parts. Be sure to read the 2nd part (in RED).

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.

At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started his own law practice.

At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America? And retired from his law practice.

At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

At 40, served in Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.

At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello.

At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

A Few Good Thoughts at this Election Time

Here are some quotes someone put together that were circulating via email:

BRUCE R. McCONKIE

�It is our firm conviction as a people that the stars and stripes will be waving triumphantly in the breeze, as a symbol of the greatness and stability of the United States of America, when the Lord comes. This nation was established to be the Lord�s base of operations in this final gospel dispensation. From it the gospel is to go to every other nation and people. The greater its influence among the nations of the world, the more rapidly the gospel spreads. But the Lord has told us that all nations, the United States included, shall cease to be when he comes� (The Millennial Messiah, 491).

 

JOSEPH SMITH

                �We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith when he said: �Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction� (Church Historian�s Office, Salt Lake City, July 19, 1840) (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 623 - 624).

 

JOSEPH SMITH

                Words of James Burgess: �In the month of May 1843, several miles east of Nauvoo, the Nauvoo Legion was on parade and review, at the close of which Joseph Smith made some remarks upon our condition as a people and upon our future prospects, contrasting our present condition with our past trials and persecutions by the hands of our enemies; also upon the Constitution and government of the United States, stating that the time would come when the Constitution and government would hang by a brittle thread and would be ready to fall into other hands, but this people, the Latter-day Saints, will step forth and save it. . . .I, James Burgess, was present and testify to the above� (The Words of Joseph Smith, 279).

 

EZRA TAFT BENSON

          �The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith there would be an attempt to overthrow the country by destroying the Constitution. Joseph Smith predicted that the time would come when the Constitution would hang, as it were, by a thread, and at that time �this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction� (Journal of Discourses, 7:15). It is my conviction that the elders of Israel, widely spread over the nation, will at that crucial time successfully rally the righteous of our country and provide the necessary balance of strength to save the institutions of constitutional government�  (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 618 - 619).

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010, Daniel Kelly Ogden wrote:

There are some extraordinary and very timely thoughts from President Harold B. Lee (speaking in October 1973) circulating on the Internet.  I looked into the quotation carefully and have confirmed that the words below are accurate; at the end I list the sources.  Latter-day Saints and all Americans need this right now.

President Lee: 

"Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail.

This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden.  This is the place of the New Jerusalem. . . . This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple.

We are living in a time of great crisis.  The Country is torn with scandal and with criticism, with fault finding and condemnation.  There are those who have downgraded the image of this nation as probably never before in the history of the country.

I plead with you not to preach pessimism.  Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. . . . It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.      

We must be on the optimistic side.  This is a great nation; this is a great country; this is the most favored of all lands.  While it is true that there are dangers and difficulties that lie ahead of us, we must not assume that we are going to stand by and watch the country go to ruin.  We should not be heard to predict ills and calamities for the nation.  On the contrary, we should be providing optimistic support for the nation.      

You must remember . . . that this church is one of the most powerful agencies for the progress of the world, and we should . . . all sound with one voice.  We must tell the world how we feel about this land and this nation and should bear our testimonies about the great mission and destiny that it has. 

If we do this, we will help turn the tide of this great country and lessen the influence of the pessimists.  We must be careful that we do not say or do anything that will further weaken the country.  It is the negative, pessimistic comments about the nation that do as much harm as anything to the country today.  We who carry these sacred responsibilities must preach the gospel of peace, and peace can only come by overcoming the things of the world.  Now, we must be the dynamic force that will help turn the tide of fear and pessimism."

(Excerpts from a talk given at Ricks College Devotional Assembly, �Have Faith in America,� October 26, 1973, and printed in two sources: Ye Are the Light of the World: Selected Sermons and Writings of Harold B. Lee, 340, 350-351, and The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, edited by Clyde J. Williams, 36

1000 Years of European History

Here is a very interesting time lapse that shows political boundaries in Europe over the past 1000 years.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greek-election-aftermath-1000-years-context