Sunday, May 12
May. 13th, 2024 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
A reasonably nice day today, weather wise. We had a lot of smoke in the air yesterday from fires (already) further North of here. I'm kind of taken back by this, as we did just get rain. It's hard to enjoy summer when every year just seems like endless fires and people losing their homes, often in the same places each year.
We got a fair bit done today on the cleaning things up list. My Sweetie did the dishes, I got the sheets changed, and throughout the day I did many loads of laundry, and folded and put away.
I wanted to address the humongous mess the mudroom and "future bedroom" have become. All we've done in the future bedroom is use it to put things to get them out of the mudroom, and all we've done in the mudroom is stack up empty cardboard boxes from the cupboards (we bought them from Ikea, and the parts all come in boxes) and our winter outer clothes just got dumped on the floor in a heap...because we're still working on the porch and have nowhere to hang them.
So today I cracked down on those rooms and made some headway. We do have a free standing rack downstairs that was meant for jackets, so I rounded up everything that we no longer need and got them hung up properly. We went through the piles of work gloves and such, threw out ones with holes in the fingers, and put the rest in a tub for storage.
Winter boots got put away.
A pile was made of things to wash, like fleece vests and scarves and hats, before they are put away. Our barn clothes get really dirty, and shouldn't be stored covered in hay and hair.
The cardboard boxes got taken out to the quonset.
I had some art stuff in there too, that got put back upstairs in the craft room.
Some garbage was picked up and removed.
Then we went outside, cleared the dead stuff away from some day lilies and ornamental grass.
Then we dug up dandelions out of another section of the garden. The soil is really nice and loose in that spot. When the soil is loose like that, you can really get rid of the weeds and remove the root, and thus you also have fewer weeds. The more "clay" areas get a lot more quack grass, and very difficult to pull it out.
Then I went to see River, and my Sweetie rode his bike there.
River was okay. We worked outside, and his focus was good while we did groundwork and I rode a bit with just the neck rope and he was relaxed and responsive.
I did work more in the indoor arena since we needed to work on our freestyle pattern, and made a bit of progress there.
Chatted with both the Sunday rider and R.
R took several students/horses to a small local show yesterday, and it sounds like it was pretty stressful and a bit concerning here and there, but everyone lived.
We got the money for our X-Terra, so that's good.
We came home and watched more "Boardwalk Empire".
Togo is a narrow country only about 115 km wide, tucked in between Ghana and Benin. It does have coastline along the Gulf of Guinea (thus only one port for trade), has about 8 million people, and considered "least developed".
"Various people groups settled the boundaries of present day Togo between the 11th and 16th centuries. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the coastal region served primarily as a European slave trading outpost, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast". In 1884, Germany declared a region including a protectorate called Togoland. After World War I, rule over Togo was transferred to France. Togo gained its independence from France in 1960.[2][21] In 1967, Gnassingbé Eyadéma led a successful military coup d'état, after which he became president of an anti-communist, single-party state. In 1993, Eyadéma faced multiparty elections marred by irregularities, and won the presidency three times. At the time of his death, Eyadéma was the "longest-serving leader in modern African history", having been president for 38 years.[22] In 2005, his son Faure Gnassingbé was elected president."
When it belonged to Germany, a colony called Togoland was established that was more or less all about forcing the local inhabitants to grow cash crops like coffee and cocoa and cotton and pay taxes. So, nearly or probably slaves, and they STILL had to pay taxes.
In the First World War, France and Britain invaded Togoland and it was divided into French Togoland and British Togoland.
After WWII, The British part joined what is now Ghana, and the French part become "Togo" on it's own.
Not too good on human rights:
"Togo was labelled "Not Free" by Freedom House from 1972 to 1998 and from 2002 to 2006, and has been categorized as "Partly Free" from 1999 to 2001 and from 2007. According to a U.S. State Department report based on conditions in 2010, human rights problems include "security force use of excessive force, including torture, which resulted in deaths and injuries; official impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; executive influence over the judiciary; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; discrimination and violence against women; child abuse, including female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual exploitation of children; regional and ethnic discrimination; trafficking in persons, especially women and children; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; official and societal discrimination against homosexual persons; societal discrimination against persons with HIV; and forced labour, including by children."[60] Same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Togo,[61] with a penalty of one to three years imprisonment.[62]"
Oddly enough, it does have pretty good religious freedom.
It is a tropical savannah, with coastal lagoons giving way to rolling grasslands, and low mountains.
The economy is based on phosphate mining, and agricultural products like cotton, peanuts, coffee, and cocoa.
These markets are volatile, and not always with strong prices, so the economy is not that stable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo
There are few horses in Togo, since they did not use them for any kind of war or work traditionally. Much of the land is not hopitable to them, and there are many fly borne diseases. They do have some horses, and they are mostly ridden for status and have a kind of mythological role in the culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_Togo
https://youtu.be/KtBU-HnxiCo?si=ifok09zEyFSaTNj-
A reasonably nice day today, weather wise. We had a lot of smoke in the air yesterday from fires (already) further North of here. I'm kind of taken back by this, as we did just get rain. It's hard to enjoy summer when every year just seems like endless fires and people losing their homes, often in the same places each year.
We got a fair bit done today on the cleaning things up list. My Sweetie did the dishes, I got the sheets changed, and throughout the day I did many loads of laundry, and folded and put away.
I wanted to address the humongous mess the mudroom and "future bedroom" have become. All we've done in the future bedroom is use it to put things to get them out of the mudroom, and all we've done in the mudroom is stack up empty cardboard boxes from the cupboards (we bought them from Ikea, and the parts all come in boxes) and our winter outer clothes just got dumped on the floor in a heap...because we're still working on the porch and have nowhere to hang them.
So today I cracked down on those rooms and made some headway. We do have a free standing rack downstairs that was meant for jackets, so I rounded up everything that we no longer need and got them hung up properly. We went through the piles of work gloves and such, threw out ones with holes in the fingers, and put the rest in a tub for storage.
Winter boots got put away.
A pile was made of things to wash, like fleece vests and scarves and hats, before they are put away. Our barn clothes get really dirty, and shouldn't be stored covered in hay and hair.
The cardboard boxes got taken out to the quonset.
I had some art stuff in there too, that got put back upstairs in the craft room.
Some garbage was picked up and removed.
Then we went outside, cleared the dead stuff away from some day lilies and ornamental grass.
Then we dug up dandelions out of another section of the garden. The soil is really nice and loose in that spot. When the soil is loose like that, you can really get rid of the weeds and remove the root, and thus you also have fewer weeds. The more "clay" areas get a lot more quack grass, and very difficult to pull it out.
Then I went to see River, and my Sweetie rode his bike there.
River was okay. We worked outside, and his focus was good while we did groundwork and I rode a bit with just the neck rope and he was relaxed and responsive.
I did work more in the indoor arena since we needed to work on our freestyle pattern, and made a bit of progress there.
Chatted with both the Sunday rider and R.
R took several students/horses to a small local show yesterday, and it sounds like it was pretty stressful and a bit concerning here and there, but everyone lived.
We got the money for our X-Terra, so that's good.
We came home and watched more "Boardwalk Empire".
Togo is a narrow country only about 115 km wide, tucked in between Ghana and Benin. It does have coastline along the Gulf of Guinea (thus only one port for trade), has about 8 million people, and considered "least developed".
"Various people groups settled the boundaries of present day Togo between the 11th and 16th centuries. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the coastal region served primarily as a European slave trading outpost, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast". In 1884, Germany declared a region including a protectorate called Togoland. After World War I, rule over Togo was transferred to France. Togo gained its independence from France in 1960.[2][21] In 1967, Gnassingbé Eyadéma led a successful military coup d'état, after which he became president of an anti-communist, single-party state. In 1993, Eyadéma faced multiparty elections marred by irregularities, and won the presidency three times. At the time of his death, Eyadéma was the "longest-serving leader in modern African history", having been president for 38 years.[22] In 2005, his son Faure Gnassingbé was elected president."
When it belonged to Germany, a colony called Togoland was established that was more or less all about forcing the local inhabitants to grow cash crops like coffee and cocoa and cotton and pay taxes. So, nearly or probably slaves, and they STILL had to pay taxes.
In the First World War, France and Britain invaded Togoland and it was divided into French Togoland and British Togoland.
After WWII, The British part joined what is now Ghana, and the French part become "Togo" on it's own.
Not too good on human rights:
"Togo was labelled "Not Free" by Freedom House from 1972 to 1998 and from 2002 to 2006, and has been categorized as "Partly Free" from 1999 to 2001 and from 2007. According to a U.S. State Department report based on conditions in 2010, human rights problems include "security force use of excessive force, including torture, which resulted in deaths and injuries; official impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; executive influence over the judiciary; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; discrimination and violence against women; child abuse, including female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual exploitation of children; regional and ethnic discrimination; trafficking in persons, especially women and children; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; official and societal discrimination against homosexual persons; societal discrimination against persons with HIV; and forced labour, including by children."[60] Same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Togo,[61] with a penalty of one to three years imprisonment.[62]"
Oddly enough, it does have pretty good religious freedom.
It is a tropical savannah, with coastal lagoons giving way to rolling grasslands, and low mountains.
The economy is based on phosphate mining, and agricultural products like cotton, peanuts, coffee, and cocoa.
These markets are volatile, and not always with strong prices, so the economy is not that stable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo
There are few horses in Togo, since they did not use them for any kind of war or work traditionally. Much of the land is not hopitable to them, and there are many fly borne diseases. They do have some horses, and they are mostly ridden for status and have a kind of mythological role in the culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_Togo
https://youtu.be/KtBU-HnxiCo?si=ifok09zEyFSaTNj-
