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Ted Dantzler

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Posts posted by Ted Dantzler

  1. Fun Fact, Almost everything at Applebees is a fancy microwave dinner. This comes from a girl I know who used to work at Applebees corporate. 

    The same restaurant group that owns Applebees also owns IHOP and she did quality control. She would have to fly to random area's of the country, walk into an IHOP and order a meal then take pictures of the pancakes/etc with a measuring tape to show how big the pancake was/how many chocolate chips were in it etc. Then with the waitress not looking she would bag up all the food, label the restaurant and time then ship it back to HQ for it to be analyzed. 

    She would go to 5-6 IHOPs a day and then ship everything back in coolers with dry ice. Interesting job. 

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  2. As Royalsfan and other have pointed out this conflict is turning commodities markets on their head. Wheat futures up 70% YOY and that's just the beginning. Russia/Ukraine account for 25% of all wheat exports and 20% of all Corn exports. 

     

    Even if the farmers can get their grain planted/harvested Russia seems hell bent on cutting them off from the black sea. Russia has been shelling their ports and has sunk some merchant vessels. I think the Ruskies try and take all of Ukraines black sea coast (they are halfway there) including Odessa and that would make it impossible for Ukraine to export anything they harvest. Almost 95% of Ukraines exports go through the black sea. 

     
    Even if they don't succeed, no commercial bulk cargo ship is going to pull into Odessa to get filled up with grain if there is a possibility the Ruskies might shell the ship, the insurance companies wouldn't allow it. Gonna be a wild summer in MENA if this war continues. 
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  3. 13 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

     

    Deer. Squirrels. Seagulls. Pigeons. Cockroaches. All pre-adapted to the environment humans create when they turn nature into a place to live.

    Coyotes at least perform a service by eating feral cats, pigeons, stray or lose dogs. Give me coyotes over any of those any day.

     

    Coyotes come around where I live fairly often. My dogs go crazy wanting to get out. They don't seem to realize they would be lunch (or a midnight snack) for a pack of coyotes.

    My family has some land out in western ks and the barn cat population goes from boom to bust every couple of years due to coyotes. About 2 years ago there were around 6-7 full grown cats and 10ish kittens running around the barns and outbuildings. Within 1 year they were all gone due to coyotes and the mice population boomed due to no cats, you could open a barn door and see 10 mice scurry to cover. 

    My dad tried to grab some feral/barn cats from a city shelter to repopulate the farm but they kept asking questions about how he would care for them, are there predators around etc so he just found some other farmer who had a surplus of cats and relocated a couple to his land. 

    The coyotes will probably get them at some point but then the cat and mouse game will begin again. 

     

     

  4. 21 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

    Feral dogs out in the country are not uncommon from what I have read over the years.

     

    An ex GF's dad used to farm in western KS and he said every couple of years he would have to shoot some random dogs messing with his cattle. According to him people in the city (5k towns) would just drive their dogs out to the country and let them go if they couldn't take care of them since there were no shelters around etc. 

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  5. 22 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    I do need to say— in a way, Ukraine can emerge as strategic threat to the Russian regime and any regime likely to replace it. I can’t stress enough how much Russian authorities rely on framing the “West” and its ways as foreign, hostile and entirely unsuited to the Russian people as a source of internal legitimacy.  Poland, the Baltics, and all of Central Europe can be absorbed by the West, but they have always been “other”— Catholic, or Germanic, or non-Slavic.  They belonged TO Russia but were not OF Russia.

    The absorption and integration of Ukraine into the West cannot be explained away in similar terms. Although much of the official Kyivan Rus to Moscow Princes timeline is bunk, it is firmly ingrained. Ukraine is not the other. Ukrainians are brothers. 
     

    And so a successful, prosperous, peaceful Ukraine integrated into Europe would be irrefutable proof that Russia is not mystically destined to be forever ruled by despots and would destroy the idea that what is good for the Westerner will not work for the Russian.  And the Russian people would begin to really ask— like they did in the 1980s— why them and not us?  The Kremlin knows the logical end to those questions. 
     

    This is not theoretical, it’s a very real fear.  A similar terror that a Communist or Socialist state might actually WORK haunted o Western policy makers minds for decades, so the impulse should be understandable. And even if Shady Ray’s grimmest pronouncements on the state of Ukrainian democracy are true, the Kremlin can’t take any chances. And we need to remember that keeping Ukraine poor, corrupt and dysfunctional has been official Russian policy for years now, and that every step away from Russia they take presents a risk (to Russia) that they might actually clean up their own house. 

    This is the best explanation I have seen for the Russia/Ukraine conflict. 

    I interviewed for a job this summer where I would live in Kiev and train employee's at the company's Ukrainian office. Good pay, free condo to stay in, free travel, they talked up how first world Kiev is and not some Eastern European shit hole etc etc but I turned it down specifically because I didn't want to be stuck in Ukraine if Russia started screwing with them again....which is exactly what Russia wants, to keep Ukraine from sliding further into Western European/American influence. 

  6. I have never hunted deer but may try and grab one in early January next time I'm out there. Mix of white tail and mule deer, I've even seen a couple of antelope.

    They usually come up and drink from the cattle water tanks first thing in the morning.





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  7. 22 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

     

    just curious, what do they feel is wrong in your industry?

     

    I'm not drifter but there are some definite negatives of being a truck driver. 

    - Away from home for long stretches of time.

    - Unhealthy lifestyle due to driving 10+ hrs a day and eating truck stop food. 

    - Most drivers are treated like shit by shippers and receivers... 15 minutes late to your appointment because of bad weather? Sorry, wont be able to unload you for 18 hours etc. 

    - Boom/Bust industry. Rates are good now but there is a constant yo-yoing of rates every couple of years since it's such an easy market to enter/fragmented. 

  8. I worked in the transportation industry for 10 years and this will never happen in the US. The 25 largest trucking companies in the US (Jb hunt/swift/etc) only control 20% of the truckload freight out there, the vast majority of the TL freight out there is moved by small companies or independent operators who would lick their chops at some of the big company drivers going on strike.

    Plus TL rates are through the roof right now, if there was going to be a strike it would of been spring of 2020 when every carrier out there was hurting for freight due to lockdowns.

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  9. Cleaning out my grandfather's stuff I found a picture of the flight board they used to document each bombing run. This was one for a bombing run on Berlin, May 8th 1944.

    I put it in a frame along with a poster for his unit and some other random items.

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  10. 8 hours ago, victory88 said:

    You can possibly open an HSA account where you deduct the taxes now when you contribute.  I believe with TD ameritrade you can actually invest it into their funds and then if you use it on medical expenses when you are older, you don't pay taxes when you withdraw, almost like double dipping.  I read this years ago but haven't actually tried it.  I could be wrong and missing details but it was one avenue I was looking at to try to limit my tax exposure.

    Maybe someone in finance/investing field can chime in.

    Assuming you are healthy HSA's are the best option after getting up to your 401k match ,the only downside is the low amount per year you can contribute.

    No tax going in, no tax on earnings and no tax on withdraws(for health expenses)...and the best part...If it goes directly from your employer to your HSA there are no FICA taxes taken out either. 

    Once you turn 65 you can withdraw from it like a normal IRA or continue to use it for health expenses without paying taxes.

    As they are currently set up there is also no limit on how long you can wait to reimburse yourself for for medical expenses. Lets say you have a $5,000 medical bill and pay it out of pocket without using funds from your HSA. You can save a copy of that receipt and reimburse yourself that $5,000 tax free from your HSA 10/20/30 years from now. In the meantime that $5,000 is still in your HSA growing tax free. 

    Its really the ultimate retirement account

    https://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/

     

     

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  11. 3 hours ago, Royalfan5 said:

    Weather variance makes Kansas an interesting place to farm because the ground is priced for the shitty weather years, but it's pretty much good enough dirt that the good years can blow away anyone else on returns. Of course, you're socially obligated to grow wheat, milo, and have cattle though. 

    Weather variance is putting it lightly, we have some family land in NW KS and got 26 inches of rain in 2019 and 13 inches in 2020. 

    When we first inherited the land I was going through some numbers with my dad and they just weren't adding up so I asked him "How does anyone make money farming?" His response.... "The government". 

  12. Random K-State fan here but I dated a girl this summer who's older brother was a homeless drug addict living in Austin. When covid started her parents bought him a bus ticket back to KS....he lived with her parents for a couple of months and stole some stuff then headed back to Austin because "It's better there"

    Nothing more to add besides that besides the whole fitlump becoming a city councilwoman story is wtf/hilarious since I don't live anywhere near Austin. 

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  13. On 12/6/2020 at 10:40 AM, Al Czervik said:

    First Pheasant hunt NW of Dumas. Expected lots of exercise, wind, dust and a fun time. Watching the dogs work was great and more than a little helpful, without their help it will be a very long day.  Will do this again.  

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    Glad to see some pheasants in this thread. How far south do pheasant get in TX? 

    We recently inherited some of my grandparents farmland in western KS so I've got into pheasant hunting the last couple of years. I still have no idea what I'm doing but just love walking around the edges of fields and blasting at the random birds that fly up...worst case scenario you go on a nature hike for a couple of miles. 

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  14. Yeah, that was what I meant by the curiosity thing.  He may have thought they were bobcats, which would be stupid given the obvious differences (namely the tail).
    But the moral of the story seems to be that seeing mountain lion cubs is kind of a worst-case scenario, because mama is probably around and is not going to be pleased by your presence.
    Not all bobcat's have bobbed tails

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  15. 1 hour ago, BabaYaga said:

    We had one at the ranch years back.  Found multiple half-covered deer kills that they semi bury to return to later.  Warden told me they'd been moving in.  Guy said he heard a scream at night.....turned his blood to ice.

    Buddy's place near ours, but off the HWY, they killed a large female that was so old and unable to hunt, but lived solely off road kill.  

    *and according to Steve Rinella, they taste AMAZING.  White meat, better than pork!

    Last year I was hunting pheasant in some CRP(tall native grass) in NW Kansas. I came to the top ridge of a V shaped gully and about 150 yards away a large cat that had been bedded down in the grass took off on a sprint through the grass away from me. I couldn't get a good enough look at it to actually confirm if it was a large bobcat or mountain lion but the coat looked solid light brown with no spots as it was running through the tall grasses. 

    I watched it for a couple of minutes as it ran across another pasture, looked back then disappeared into a recently harvested corn field. My dog was blissfully unaware of the entire situation. 

    More than likely it was a bobcat (game cams have shown some large bobcats in the area) but it definitely scared the shit out of me. 

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  16. 2 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

    I hate Nebraska in ways a Texas fan couldn't possibly understand.  So I get this.

    But I miss having that kind of hate in conference.  I don't really hate anyone in the Big 12 except for Baylor, and that doesn't really have anything to do with sports.  If you're a fan of a Big 8 school other than maybe Oklahoma, you hate Nebraska with every fucking fiber of your being and miss having the opportunity to punk them, or given the case with their recent program, just reign blows down upon their ragged corpse as payback for 50 years of dominance, and then taking their ball, going home, and leaving us for dead on the side of the road.

    God, I fucking hate those cock suckers.

    Being a Kstate fan I agree with this 100%. They beat up on Kstate and the other Big8 schools (minus OU) for 60+ years, just pummeling our faces in while smiling about what great fans they are. When Kstate finally started beating NU consistently (5-2 from 98-04) they couldn't take it and fired Solich which started their downward spiral to where they are now. Then they left us and their 100+ year history with the Big8 schools to prove they were still relevant. 

    I would have loved nothing more than to have spent the last 10 years jumping up and down on their dying corpse as corn kernels shot from their mouth like BB's. 

    I want them back in the Big12 for that reason alone, to kick them while they are down until there is no more leather left on my shoes. 

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