Laugh if you will but I made sure I included the Asknod website in my Travel Board hearing briefing. Judge Vito Clemente is well aware of the website and my proclivity to question the nonadversarial posture of Veterans Law Judges. Fortunately for anyone who has the luck of the draw, it would appear we have a kindred spirit in him. He’s a Vet which, to me, goes a long way towards establishing an even playing field for an appeal. Considering my encounter with VLJ Hindin, he’s a breath of fresh air. As for the BVA Board in 1992 of VLJ Jane E. Sharp and J.U. Johnson, I was using DAV. That explains it all.

In impressing on the good judge that I was an avid gardener, I included links to the ILP blogs to brief him in on the concepts enumerated in VA OGC Precedents 34-1997 and 6-2001. They are the last touchstones to sanity left in ILP jurisprudence.

This summer, to inhabitants north of the 45th parallel, it has resembled the Mojave Desert- cool in the mornings and late evenings and hell after 11. With enough water, corn and ‘maters will grow faster than Jack’s bush beanstalks. And so they have. Yesterday was a cool 94 and today is slated for just a degree less.

We always hope for “knee-high by the Fourth of July” but we hit that by the 28th of May.

Please don’t laugh. This is my first selfie and it’s my Sony camera. The corn was the object, not me.

First tomatoes

And speaking of water…Our next door neighbor Rog, drilled to the first aquifer below us on a budget. He went for the 160-foot deep, eight gallons a minute vein. That’s all well and fine if you don’t plan on keeping 3 acres of rolling lawn looking like the Chambers Bay Golf Course fairways. Three of them big four foot tall Wilco®  Spik-spik -spik—-tig-tig-tig-tig sprinkers throwing a 100-foot circle can burn up 8 gallons in a heartbeat. Throw in the washing machine, dishwasher and a 18 year old boy taking a 45 minute shower getting ready for a hot date and you’ve got a recipe for a dry hole. Rog hit bottom last August towards the end of the last year’s dry spell. This year’s spell started a month earlier in May. His lawn is still looking like a million bucks-all green and wrinkled. For now.

Being a far thinker and a future Vet farmer , we opted to go to the deeper 336-foot aquifer and 27 gallons a minute. We ran it for 45 minutes and never lost pressure. And yes, my water’s for sale. Poor Rog got off on the survey pins back in 2004 and his well was accidentally drilled 19 feet onto my property. A man can never be too rich or have enough wells.

And lastly, for three years I’ve been trying to grow”creamsicle melons” they sell for $8  a pop down at the local Politically Correct Organic market. I couldn’t get one of them to do squat for three years. I planted the last 24 seeds this year to get rid of them and damn if 23 didn’t come up. Yep $5.00 a pop-Freight On Board-minimum order of 5. Dealer Prep and destination fees , fuel surcharge, shipping and handling and you can be eating these puppies for breakfast by late July for just … $8 a pop. (Local distribution only.)

The very best part of this ILP adventure is best summed up by our mentor Bruce Almighty, the ILP greenhouse guru- ” You’re gonna blow an ass gasket laughing after you win when you see the look on their (Seattle VR&E gomer’s) faces, Buckwheat.” It’s true. For almost four years I’ve patiently bided my time and kept hanging paper on their door. And now it all hinges on a fair shake from Vito. I trust him. Or should I say, I trust the statute and the OGC opinion to carry the day. As most know, we at asknod and everywhere in VA Legaland equally relish the idea of a panel on this at the CAVC. Talk about a matter of first impression. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Happy 4th of July to all of you across this beautiful country who are finally slaying the “Dragon” as we refer to Hepatitis C. To Randy, Mark, Sam and all the rest who have gone before them, I salute you for surviving long enough for a cure.

And a P.S.

Never put your horses in the pasture that connects to the Raspberries.