Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 04-17-25_THURSDAY_8AM

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

04-17-25_THURSDAY_8AM

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at ClouserDrilling.com. Seven after eight. How you doing, David? It's Conspiracy Theory Thursday. I'm doing fine. You wanted to continue the conversation yesterday that we had with Kevin Sterrin. I'll just I'll I'll just say quickly regarding the judges.

They don't need to be charged with treason. They need to be put in their place. OK, that's all that needs to happen don't need to be charged with treason. They need to be put in their place. Okay? That's all that needs to happen is they need to be put back in their place because they've gone far beyond the scope of their jurisdiction. You know, you would have thought that the Supreme Court saying that we're putting you back in your place would have been enough, but I guess that's not working right now.

I guess not. Anyway, so I wanted to review, you were talking to Sterrett yesterday. I love this camera. I like Sterrett.. He's got to own it and he's a fighter. But one thing I picked up on, you know, we're not younger people anymore and we've lived in Oregon for a long time and we're going to get tired of it. I'm approaching retirement and we're starting to think, you know, maybe we should just get out. And I was hearing you, I hear a lot of other people say, no, you got to stay and fight. But I picked something up when you guys were talking yesterday.

So you were talking about how just completely kind of lame and feckless most of the Republicans are. And you got to the point where both of you said you're being contacted, I get contacted too, you're being contacted by people who want money. You know, Republicans in Oregon who want money and they say, if you just give us money, we'll fight and then they're not fighting. And both of you guys said, well, I'm not going to send you money. And I think that's where we are, Bill.

I feel the same way. I think, you know, the Republicans say a lot of things. There's not really only a tiny handful that'll actually do anything. And then that's the problem. Everybody's like, look, you're weak. Okay, you're lame, and I'm not going to give you money. And it's like, how are we going to get anywhere? Let's face it, the Republican Party in this state is ineffective.

It doesn't have money for all those reasons. And so maybe I'm just spitballing here because I do love where I live. But why am I going to stay here, you know, and deal with that until there's some sort of kind of wholesale, you know, change there and we get fighters in there, people who just stop drinking the water in Salem, okay, and start fighting. And I just don't see that anywhere on the horizon. And I have absolutely no problem. You know, they could even walk out here, David. They could walk out and still might lose, right? I get that. But at least you're showing that you are willing to go to the wall for your constituents. And until I see that, you know, to me it

just says you're not using the one tool you have. And I was even talking about some of the bills being passed. Hey, Kim Wallin is going to get a bill passed on getting cell phones out of out of government schools. Hey, that's really good. The only reason her bill got any traction is because Democrats like it. You know, that's just it. So, you know, now is getting cell phones out of school worth destroying the Second Amendment right in Oregon by giving quorum? I don't know. I'm laughing. You know, I probably shouldn't be laughing, but you know, you're completely right, Bill. Here's the thing. You have the biggest example in the world with Donald Trump, love him or hate

him, whatever you do. You look at Trump and you look at what he's gone through just for the country, not for himself. He didn't enrich himself. He didn't enrich his family like other people we know did. Okay, look at what he went through. They threw everything at the guy. Okay, and yet he stood up and he stood firm, okay, because he loves America. All right, and it's like,

maybe you guys can do a little bit of that in sale, something, and I just do not see it. Yeah, yeah, something, something, you know, something, yeah, could you do something in Salem that makes it that makes it clear that you don't think your job is to be there in order to help Democrats pass the worst legislation that we've seen in our entire life. And then, you know, if they want to get their budgets passed, then they negotiate with you to come back in and they excuse your absences, and then you can vote for the stuff that really

matters and maybe leave the transgender surgeries out of the budget. Just me. I'm just… They're all afraid, Bill, and fear, when you operate from fear like that, again, it's weak and it's worthless. I appreciate it. I hope you have a great day and a great weekend, my friend. I'm going to do my best. Thank you very much, David. Captain Bill Simpson standing by and we're going to talk with him a little bit. Yeah, we got to talk a little bit about the horse season, the fires and the various other things here. We're going to be heading into a fire season. I know the weeds and the brush have grown and grown and grown and grown. I don't know if there's enough... Hey, that's what we need, air drops of glyphosate on the entire state. I can hear people... What are you talking about? But anyway, after Kim Commando, Captain Bill.

This hour of the Bill Myers show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing. For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit FontanaRoofingServices.com. Hear KMED in Krantz Pass on 1059 K290 AF Rogue River in South Jackson County on 1067 K294 AS Ashland. Quarter after eight. It's time for the animal update we pull out the animal bed for this and in this particular case it may be horses but Captain William E. Simpson we haven't talked to him for a few weeks they're over in Wild Horse Fire Brigade

in northern Siskiyou County hey Captain Bill welcome back and you just got back had this amazing big film festival was for documentary films that you and your sweetie went to isn't that right? Yeah correct yeah good morning Bill and you know it was down Palm Springs and one of our donors one of our large donors insisted that we go. Normally I don't like to go to those kind of things you know but it was a chance to network with potential supporters down there who just had suffered a phenomenal wildfire in Los Angeles. We all saw that disaster unfold. And so, and I think the lesson that people need to learn, I guess, I don't know how many times you got to hit somebody in the head with a

with a ruler. I mean it's like Catholic school or something here, you know, we keep seeing areas with no forest like Palisades, like Alameda, like the Marshall Fire in Colorado in midwinter. I mean over and over, Lahaina, there's a long, long, long, long... Yeah, yeah, grass and weeds, grass and weeds and brush. And right down by the beach, I mean Palisades is a beach community and just south of Malibu. And so you look at this and you know there are a lot of people down there hurting from that because you know there was family and friends and you know so on and so forth just like up here. So we had a really good event. There was some phenomenal movies

down there and we actually met a producer director from Chile who's very interested in our work. His film that was there was a three and a half million dollar production about whale sharks. You said it was a pretty good documentary too, right? Oh, it was amazing. I've got the whole box set of nature and all that kind of stuff and Nat Geo and all that. His documentary was phenomenal. We wanted to win but we're in a different if it would cost us a lot because his film was phenomenal. But he didn't win. I mean, there was some other film that I thought was far less relevant. And let me guess, and I will take a wild guess, and in fact, when we talked about this yesterday, my guess was, let me tell you, there was someone from the island of misfit humans

that was part, who ended up winning because of politics, right? Yeah, there's a lot of social identity politics down there. Yeah. You know, in other words, it has to be the gay person or the underrepresented minority, whatever the case might be, that person wins the documentary competition, right? Yeah, well, we see that across the board. I mean, you know, it's kind of a reverse discrimination against straight people. And that's really unfair because I keep reading about inclusiveness, diversiveness. You know, they fly that flag all day long, but oh, but if you're straight, no.

You're excluded, you're censored. There you are, feral, wild horse riding, straight guy, forget about it, right? Yeah, well, you know, I've got a lot of friends. I've got gay and lesbian friends and so does Michelle and, you know, we don't discriminate, but it's sad to see the people who claim they're not are, you know, it's the reverse. It's just, you know, it's kind of like Alinsky's rules are radicals, accuse others of doing what you're actually doing. Yeah, it does seem that way. Hey, Captain Bill, wanted to touch in with you though and get your take here. That wet winter,

I don't think I've ever seen more grass and more brush and more gasoline being grown on the landscapes than maybe after this last winter. I know it's early in spring, you know, at this point, but I'm telling you this is going to be really interesting year, wouldn't you say? How do you see it? I'm very, very concerned. This is the setup that I saw up here on the Oregon-California border right before we had the big Klamathon fire. I mean, but this was worse. We have more precipitation.

The vegetative material is just out of control. And you know, I'm kind of tired of some of my political friends telling me forest, forest, forest when, hey, all of the data, all of the science, all of the data all the science all of the insurance analytics everything says two-thirds of all the fires all the wildfires are grass and brush field and that 90% of the loss of life and financial impact is from grass and brush fires not forest fires but there's a lot of people that want to play forest fire, and you know, that's where they are, and they make money off of it. But at the great disservice

to the rest of 99% of humanity, who we don't make money off of firefighting in the forest. And so, you know, the thing for me as a former logger, I think logging is great for the sake of logging. We need to manage forests for sustainable timber harvest and to have good roads for recreation and all that other good stuff. But there's a huge but, and I'm going to emphasize this, when you cut a forest down or if you even open the canopy up a little, the first thing that happens is the grass and brush takes over. That is the first thing in a successional forest.

So what the loggers are not telling the public is that logging increases grass and brush, which is the rocket fuel in the landscape that burns hotter and faster than trees. And you look at, all we have to do is look at Curry County and the Calmeopsis Wilderness. The forest got burned out because the understory was full of grass and brush. It wasn't managed because the herbivory has collapsed, not climate change. The lawn mowers are gone. I mean, anybody with a lawn knows if you don't mow your lawn for four or five months, the grass is three feet tall.

And then it gets dry and then the first spark, boom, off it would go. Boom, and it doesn't matter. I'm tired of people want to argue about what caused the fire. I don't care about that because we can't control lightning or human behavior. That's uncontrollable. It's like Marcus Aurelius teaches, worry about the things you can change, not the things you can't. Okay, we've tried for a thousand years to change human behavior with with prisons and all kinds of punishments and fines It doesn't work, but we can't control the fuel the grass and brush fuel with herbivory And you know, I don't care. We just put the right tool in the right spot

You know goats are us could have been down a Palisades up here in the mountains where we are for the you know The remote fire breaks outside of areas where you know, maybe I mean nobody's gonna put their cattle and sheep up in the mountains where we are for the remote fire breaks outside of areas where maybe, I mean nobody's going to put their cattle or sheep up in the mountains here unless they're crazy. We already have packed the wolves down in the valleys because there's no food, there's no deer. California is down, almost two million deer. We have the lowest population in deer in California since 1917 and California Fish and Wildlife crazily still sells deer tags. Well and I would imagine this is the same with the state of Oregon because it is well it's profitable I think for the state too

isn't that part of the reason and there's a lot of demand you know this is popular too. Yeah they're not gonna lay off their people. I mean, Trump's talking about laying people off, but the thing is, is fish and wildlife, I don't care if it's California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, whatever, they make money by selling fishing licenses, deer tags. They're trying to find other species that you can hunt and kill so they can sell a permit to do that too. Yeah, I get that and we understand it and but yet you've talked about for years how the herbivore, in other words, animals that would go out there and eat the plants on the landscape, the grass and the various things, that's been

under pressure and now I know you advocate the wild horses, you have the empirical evidence that shows the wild horses has helped out in your particular neighborhood where they were and keeping stuff mowed down. Sheep would be great. Goats would be great and all these other things. But what about the deer and elk? I mean, do you honestly think that at this point it is time just to have a moratorium and let those herds build up? What say you? Well, Well yeah we have to do two steps. We have to first of all fill the gap immediately and the horses can serve some of that. The wild horses. Unfortunately the Bureau of Land Management and their extreme negligence.

I mean these guys are grossly negligent. They're out there rounding up the last herbivore. I mean these people need to go toent. They're out there rounding up the last herbivores. I mean, these people need to go to prison. They need to go to prison. I mean, the BLM is probably the most corrupt federal agency we have. But you look at the FBI files, their people get hammered all the time for all kinds of things. You had an agent mean, so the VLM needs to be, we need to brought the collar that dog and get it to heel because the bottom line with the VLM is they're making fires worse by removing the last man standing, these wild horses are the, you know, one horse is five deer as far as

reducing fire fuel. Now what about the deer too? Let me ask you Captain Bill, Captain William E. Simpson with me this morning. I could see people that were saying hey listen you know if you if you stop the killing of deer if you don't hunt them for a year or two or how whatever it takes to build these herds up again all you're going to do is just end up having more deer in the, you know, in Jacksonville and Ashland and everything else just causing troubles. Do you think that's true or is it a little overstated? No, I think the people that say that don't have any training in wildlife biology and ethology.

The bottom line is that the deer, the few deer, okay, first of all, in 1917 we had a moratorium in California on deer hunting because all the miners and prospectors and all the Chinese miners that were here were all killing, you know, deer for game. I mean, they needed food and they just shot everything in sight. So in 1917 in California, we had a moratorium

when deer hit 500,000. It took 10 years in 1927, we were back up to two and a half million, a little bit over 2.7 million. So it works. It works, we know it works. Okay, and today we're under 400,000. Okay, we're below where they did it in 1917.

And coming back this time is gonna be much harder because we have a lot more vehicular accidents. We have chronic wasting disease in the state, in Oregon and California now. And then we have a far more aggressive fishing game. And the Fish and Wildlife people are far more aggressive at selling deer tags. So bringing these deer back is gonna be a real challenge,

even with a moratorium, because also you have a lot of poaching. And so the first step is to stop the BLM ground we have to stop the roundups other than horses that are in areas where they're in conflict with livestock grazing we bring them out as families we put them into the remote areas where you can't do livestock raising that solves that problem for both sides ranchers win or we win for reducing fire,

and the horses get to be doing what they normally do. And then the second thing is, is our legislators need to get off their butts and focus on some sort of a deer recovery program, deer and elk recovery program in Oregon and California. If we don't do that, we can just plan on burning to the ground again. I mean, Oregon had the worst year last year, 1.9 million acres. But we're told that it's climate change, right? It's not.

Climate change, okay, do you see the Serra Desert on fire? No, there's no grass there. You know, climate change doesn't change anything. It's all about fuel. There's no fire without fuel. And we have more fuel than we've ever seen before because the herbivore is gone. It's that simple. Now climate affects the fuel. It dries it sooner, it keeps it dry longer, it opens the window for any kind of a, you know, lightning or somebody with a cigarette or a chain or whatever you want to, or even arsen arsonist, it doesn't matter. The fuel is there and then it's dry, it's going to explode into flames. And so we can control the fuel by using a mixed herbivory.

And so, you know, like in Alameda, you know, you could, there's places where we could add goats. I mean, I watched them use goats in these really high-end communities in Grass Valley. The shepherd will bring them in and they just have a couple dogs there and the dogs keep the goats right where they want them. You can use goats in urban areas very effectively. And then, of course, we have livestock raising. We need to do that everywhere. We can do it reasonably without losing animals to predators. Now does that mean also getting rid of the BLM's policy, you know, the ones in which it's very anti grazing? Isn't that part of the issue you'd be dealing with

too? Yeah, the thing about the BLM is they're tying up this land for mineral and gas oil extraction. They don't want any animals in the way where wildlife people can then bring lawsuits because the animals are being destroyed by commercial activities. I mean look at what they do. I mean you know there's no reason on God's green earth to be rounding up the horses in Pocagama. The horses along Highway 62 up there in the forest up high there by Lake of the Woods and Diamond Lake and over by Klamath. I mean there's a lot of land up there that's very rugged, remote land where there are a few wild horses left that they're taking. They're rounding them up so that there's nothing there eating the grass.

So that whole remaining forest around those lakes, they're going to look like immigrant lake. Those beautiful forest covered lakes that are up there. In a few more years, when that gets done burning, they'll look like immigrant lakes. Just open mud around the edges, dirt and mud, and no forest. That's what you're going to see up there if we let these people keep doing what they're doing.

We need to put our foot down on the BLM right on their neck. The BLM is one of the, I mean, talk about public enemy number one. They're mismanaging the heck out of our public land and but we can do better. I mean we do need to open up logging but we need to do that for the sake of jobs and sustainable timber production and then we need to

focus on the elephant in the room which is all the grass and brush and we have a we have a very simple program that's proven by nature to be very effective and it's very cost effective. But the challenge though is that it is cost effective too because right now firefighting has been profitable in the system up to now. Up until you burn the firefighter's house down. I mean these fires are indiscriminate. They don't care who you are. They don't care if you're a wildland firefighter like my brothers. That fire will come right up and

devour your house and put your family on the street. So these firefighters and these loggers need to start thinking because, you know, if we don't stop these fires and the smoke is killing 5,000 people every year prematurely in California. You know, Bill, I can't help but think about this as the state of Oregon, I was just reading on OPB the other day, that the state legislature is all in turmoil about trying to figure out how they're going to pay for wildfire fighting costs, right? But yet they're not looking at the fuel aspect of things, right? It's only about how to pay for the wildfire fight is all they're saying. That's all they talk about.

How do we monetize? That's the problem with, unfortunately, and it's pervasive even on both sides of the aisle, how do we monetize this disaster instead of how do we prevent the disaster? Nobody is having that argument. Everybody is saying, well, how do we monetize it? Well, after we already have the fire, it's too damn late. You look at the US Forest Service budget. Okay, the US Forest Service, I read the GAO report on their budget.

90% of their money gets spent on firefighting, 5% gets spent on prevention. And guess what that is? It's more burning. It's prescribed burning, which is not scalable. I know. You know we will have to figure this out at at fuels reduction is really going to be the key in the in the near to long future okay. Hey Captain Bill I'm Ron Short on time here but I'll tell you I am going to put your open letter out there that you sent to the county supervisors and you know unless you're doing something to to get rid of these hot hot super hot fuels then we're probably going to see

continued challenges we'll just kind of leave it at that okay and what's your website over there at the wild horse fire brigade what is that again it's wildhorsefirebrigade.org I wanted to say hi to Scott one of your listeners was down here oh yeah with his mother looking at the horses the other day and we bumped into him and they go, oh, you're Bill Simpson. So yeah, we had, it's amazing how many listeners you have, Bill. You must have half a million listeners out there because I bump into people all the time and they go, oh yeah, Bill Meyer, Bill Meyer.

Yeah. Well, that's, well, we try our best there, but yeah, you're pretty distinct. I think you stick out in a crowd. All right, Bill Meyer, Bill Meyer. Yeah, well, we try our best there, but you're pretty distinct. I think you stick out in a crowd, alright Bill? It's okay. Hey, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for the take on it, alright, as always. Alright, thank you Bill. Take care.

Take care. It's 833 at KABD, 99.3 KBXG. I'll tell you what, let us do the Diner 62 Real American Quiz. I promised you we were going to have one before the end of the show and we got plenty of time to do that right now. This is going to be wonderful. In fact, Diner 62 is going to be delivering some sort of wonderful food to me. I can't wait for it because actually I'm really hungry.

I don't know if it's going to be a breakfast favorite like an omelet or a skillet or a waffle, the biscuits and the gravy, the chicken fried steak, the cinnamon rolls the size of your head I don't know the anticipation I can't help it anyways next to the Chevron station just south of White City on highway 62 open 63 Monday through Friday Sundays through Saturday rather Sunday 72 I get everything that you're looking for it's's everything good. All right, 7705633. If you haven't won this in the last 60 days, you could play it and win next. One of each K4, VIN 016551, MSRP 24145, Telluride VIN 6240073, MSRP 44730. This is News Talk 1063 KMED, and you're waking up with the Bill Meyers Show. Let's see if we can get a winner on the Diner 62 Real American quiz. We're talking about history April 17th of 1790. It involves

Benjamin Franklin. Let me go to John. Hello John, how are you? I'm good. Hey John, it was today 1790 American statesman, printer, scientist, writer, Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin dies in Philadelphia. 84. That was a pretty old guy in 1790, you know. He was born in Boston in 1706. Ben Franklin became at 12 years old an apprentice to his half-brother James and then he was a printer and a publisher. Okay. Franklin's resume, long, pretty impressive. He invented the Franklin Stove. Still made made today by the way, bifocal eyeglasses, I'm wearing those right now, among other very practical inventions. Now Franklin John is also a member of an International Hall of Fame for a particular sport. What sport is Ben

Franklin in the Hall of Fame for? I had no idea. I'm gonna run the... even Scuba Steve looking at me through the window, he has no idea. But maybe you know. It's either cricket, swimming, chess, rowing, or horse racing. It's one of those five. What do you say, John? Well, what are the options again? I had no idea Benjamin Franklin was even in such a hall of fame. Yeah, I didn't either. This is the first time. Is it cricket, swimming, chess, rowing, or horse racing? He's in one of those five sports.

Oh, gosh. Horse racing? Horse racing, yeah. He would strike me as a gambler. I would be agreeing with you, but that's what I would have picked, and I was wrong too. Okay, I'm sorry John, let me go to Melinda. So we know it's not horse racing. Hi Melinda, how you doing? Hi Bill, good.

So we're talking about cricket, swimming, chess, or rowing. Ben Franklin, what is he in the Hall of Fame for? I'd say chess. You'd say chess. Cerebral kind of guy, right? A thinker, right? No. He's not in that one. I was pulling for you though. That's what Scuba Steve thought. Scuba Steve's thinking chess. Especially because he was kind of a big guy. Let me go to Todd.

Hello, Todd. How are you doing? Hi Bill. Good. We're talking about Ben Franklin. He died today in 1790, but he was in the International Hall of Fame for one of these three sports. Cricket, swimming, or rowing. What do you say?

I have no idea. Let's try rowing. Rowing. Yeah, you could see him row, row, row your boat across the Potomac or something. No. Cricket. Yeah. That's not that. All right. Let me go to Jack.

Hey, Jack, you got a 50-50 chance here. How are you doing? I'm doing good, Bill. You? I'm doing great. Now, Ben Franklin is in the International Hall of Fame for either cricket or swimming. What do you think it is? Well, it's international, it has to be cricket. Cricket? I know! I can't believe this! We went to the very end. Brian is gonna be so happy. He loves it when he gets people to the very end. Hi, good morning. Who is this? Welcome. North Valley Pete. North Valley Pete. So it was Ben Franklin in the Hall

of Fame for swimming or swimming? Probably swimming. Yes. What a great story here North Valley Pete. Benjamin Franklin was actually a sports enthusiast, particular big passion for swimming. He was an avid swimmer. In fact, I read that he liked to swim naked too. I don't know if the ladies like that or not. But he also invented swim fins at the young age of 11. He advocated for swimming as a beneficial sport.

He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame posthumously in 1968. Now he was also known for his skill as a chess player and he even wrote an essay on the morals of chess according to a post on the side about the Boston Tea Party ships and museums. So pretty interesting guy. But yeah, International Hall of Fame for swimming and I never would have picked that. I never would have picked that Pete, but you're going to Dinerers. You know, it's gotta be totally swimmingly going to, you know, have a good meal later. Absolutely. You hang on. We're gonna take care. I need your address and we'll pop it out to you, okay? Another Diner 62 Real American Quiz coming soon. This is The Bill Meyers Show. From the KMED News Center, here's what's going on.

Your community. Your home. In North Medford, South Medford, and Grants Pass. This is The Bill Meyers Show on 1063 KMED. Call Bill now. 541-770-5633. That's 770-KMED. Okay. We're going to have some emails of the day too if I can squeeze those in, but I need a dad joke because we've had such serious stuff we've been talking about.

Did anybody send me any good dad jokes here? Let's see. Okay. Well, you know, this is one kind of similar to the, you know, the Diner 62 question here. Mark ends up sending, hey, Bill, what did George Washington say to the troops before crossing the Delaware get in the boat men? So there we go. We'll give him a dad joke of the day dad joke of the day And by the way, you can submit those to two dogs fab comm two dogs fabrication And by the way, they have built their business on custom fabricating. They will transfer your truck at

their business on custom fabricating. They will transfer your truck, transform rather your truck and trailer into an ultimate work rig. And the Dad Joke's of course sponsored by Two Dogs Fabricating. You'll find them on Bryan Way off Sage Road in Medford. And you can certainly come up with a better Dad Joke than the one that I just read here.

But you know, still go ahead, have a lot of fun. They are the local dealer for Iron Bull Heavy Duty trailers made by North Star. They will take care of you. And by the local dealer for iron bull heavy-duty trailers made by Northstar They will take care of you and by the way, you got a hitch problem something It needs a little welding or fabricating they will help you out on that too to dogs fab calm They go to Brad. Maybe got Brad on the phone here. Hello, Brad. What's up? Greeting my brother from another mother

Good morning, Brad. What do you think? You had a speaker that I found very intriguing because I lived that life. She was speaking about being a senior and still working or something to that effect. Her name is Risa Ryan. She ended up, well, I guess she's technically a senior. You're a senior, I guess, now when you're 55 years old, right? Right.

Yeah. But she founded this website, which is about getting professionals hooked up with work, like on projects, and it's called the Unretired Group. And she's thinking that this is going to be a trend, and especially when you're living longer. I mean, it used to be if you retired at 60, 65, 70, whatever it is, you were ready to die and now, gosh, you know, we have people living to be 80, 85, 90, in fact my in-laws lived to be 90 and 85.

A lot of life after retiring still going on. Well, the reality of life is I'm 70 and so I'm kind of in that middle range, but I'm also a cancer survivor and I was fortunate to beat a very bad cancer 13 years ago. But the reality of the reason I share that, it costs a lot to live. It cost me a lot of money, even with excellent insurance to pay that bill off. I'll bet it did. Yeah. Sure. It took me, it took me nine years. And the reason I share that is because of that reality. I'm fortunate. I live out in the country. I have a lifestyle, but I still work. I work five, four, five to six days a week. Oh really? Yeah and in order to provide the income I need to do the things that I like to do it all costs money and I have to create

those dollars and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. A lot of people you know looking at this I you know this this whole concept of retirement, Brad, is something that was relatively recent in American history. It used to be, though, that people worked until they dropped. Now, I'm not advocating having to work until you drop, that sort of thing. But back then, people were doing hard, heavy physical labor for the most part. And Reese is making the case that it's a little bit different now. We can we can do this differently and have the best of all worlds, I guess, and you're kind of doing a bit of that, right? And

the reality of it, Bill, and I'm sure I'm not alone in my analysis, but to live in this economy at our age group, we're in a different culture than we were in 20 years ago. The one thing that's pretty clear though is that I don't think you're going to be able to keep the corporate job until you're 75 or 80, with rare exception. I don't think that part's going to change. But I can see where doing some project work could be really helpful. And plus it keeps you busy and occupied. I mean, I'm an ants in the pants guy. Are you an ants in the pants kind of guy too? Just curious.

Yeah. And then the reality of it is, and I won't tell you on the phone, but there is a huge demand for people that know how to work. That's true. Yeah. And our people that know how to work. That's true, yeah. And our age group knows how to work. The one thing that is for sure though, you have to try to keep your health as best as possible. So remain healthy, you had that health scare yourself and you're holding up okay from the looks of it.

Yeah, I'm fortunate, but you know, I'm a survivor and I chose to push forward. I appreciate your call and thank you for making that, Brad. Brad, my Slovenian brother from another Slovenian mother. It's nine before nine, really. Now, let me go to another phone here. It's Conspiracy Theory Thursday. Hi, you got a good one or something else on your mind?

Who's this? Yes, thank you. This is Gregory out in City Cove. Hi, Gregory. Possibly a joke of the day because I did see a book that was for jokes of the day. Oh, yeah? Yes, sir. And then a statement about perhaps the stock market or investments.

Okay. And the joke is, why did the customer order the clam chowder? I don't know. Why did the customer order the clam chowder? I don't know. Why did the customer order the clam chowder? Just for the halibut. Just, that's a dad joke. All right. That's a good dad joke.

Thank you for making it. I like that. Make me laugh. And then in closing on the day, is there any possibility of the investments like a stock portfolio that helps the homeless? Thank you. Boy, that's an interesting question.

A stock portfolio like an investment portfolio that could be formed to help the homeless, what might that look like? I wonder. It won't be like anything else though. And maybe a stock portfolio, investment portfolio that then would take its profits then and spin that off into affordable private sector housing. I don't know. What do you think? You can talk about that. Anything else on your mind too?

770-5633. Only a few minutes left on Conspiracy Theory Thursday if you wanted to get in. This is Brent from Holman-Built Beck and Fence. Your Trek with Stephen Westwell, Riffy and E. And I'm on KMED. Emails of the day sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson and Central Point Family Dentistry. Centralpointfamilydentistry.com. By the way, well-established practice for everything you need for dentistry. Alright? Don't take my word for it though, even though I, everything you need for dentistry, alright?

Don't take my word for it though, even though I go there, he's my dentist, alright? They have so many positive reviews from all over the community of many sharing their experience and you'll be happy too, right? Try them. That's what I love about Central Point Family Dentistry is that they provide the dental care how you always expected it to be. No, no, no, not the way it was done by my old dentist back when I was a kid, Dr. Wempa. Dr. Wempa was a Marine that I think he got

out of World War II. And I remember that you can tell he didn't really enjoy being a dentist. And I remember this because, Dr. Wempa, it hurts. No, it doesn't. And he would tell me that. Telling the kid it doesn't hurt doesn't make it not hurt.

But no, that's not the way that Dr. Steve is, okay? And a lot of people writing to me about Skyview, about Skyview Drive yesterday in Medford, you know, the fellow who was on and also Danny Jordan's responding, that was... but anyway, we have Jeff writing, hey Bill, what we need to do is have a fundraiser party for the folks out on Skyview Drive, have a big party, get local businesses to offer product, service, discounts, etc. Promotion, man. Promo, promo. All right. Dave writes me about Skyview, Bill, my uncle in California bought property where the road failed and the bridge

went out. He sued the seller and the buyer's realtors for errors and admissions, didn't explain the purchase. Court found it in his favor and the real estate company returned the money. Also, is it mortgage fraud if their home has a bank loan? Could at least help you call her. Yeah, I don't think so, Dave, because everybody signed up knowing that that road was privately owned and it's been failing for years, I suppose. Don ended up writing me, by the way, Don Boyd was the person I interviewed and he wrote back too. He says, Bill, to date we have not received any bids in the 20 to $30,000 range for road

repair as Danny Jordan mentioned when you had him on the radio. As a small community collective, our financial resources necessitate a phased approach addressing road maintenance one section at a time. Our initial project focused on Buena Vista Drive. The improvements implemented are readily apparent when compared to the county paved Orchard Home leading up to Buena Vista. As previously communicated, our group had planned to pave Skyview Drive this year and had already got quotes for the project. However, these plans are now suspended pending a resolution regarding this huge washout that Skyview Road has, requiring the immediate attention.

I understand and respect Mr. Jordan's position, and I suspect I'd be making a similar decision if I were in a situation. However, speaking candidly as a member of a smaller entity, the financial implications of this undertaking are considerable and I'm uncertain whether we have the resources to absorb such a substantial cost. Thanks again for your assistance in trying to find some answers for us. Okay. And a gentleman who wishes to remain anonymous here, Bill, answers for us. And a gentleman who wishes to remain anonymous here, Bill. Last night I attended a small local community school board meeting.

I learned that the Oregon Department of Education is expanding its human sexuality courses to include all grades K-12. The state is moving forward with teaching the kids things you can't explain even on your show. To boot, the board quickly spoke about an exemption from parents that they could fill out that would exclude their children from being exposed to their sickening agenda. The Human Sexuality Exemption form that needs to be filled out is not on the ODE website. Instead, it is a district-specific form that can be found at the local school districts

or the school district website, as stated in the ORS. Some districts can require written documentation of a religious or disability-related reason before granting the exemption. Please help inform parents so that we can stand together on this and fight this agenda on a local level. Oh, I love this. By the way, anonymous person, they say, well, religious or disability-related. Hey, how about just the fact that you don't want your kids exposed to a left-wing porn

agenda? How about that? Is that too much to ask? Another reason why you have to be involved in your schools if your kid's in the public school for sure. Thank you very much. Email Bill at BillMeyersShow.com and we'll catch you on Find Your Phone Friday.