About the Grindstaff Chronicles

First and above all, we are farmers and ranchers. We are all neighbors, sometimes separated by many miles, but bound by deep friendships which tend to be necessary when you live on properties separated by many miles. We probably represent every 'race', a word we hate, and indisputably, practically every faith, including one agnostic couple and one atheist couple. We don't get to see him often enough, but we are blessed by the frequent visits of a friend, a Tibetan monk. We enjoy each other's company enormously. We enrich our lives by studying, learning and sharing our thoughts in what one of our neighbors calls a gourmet's Salon.

Gourmet, well, that might be a stretch, but we surely do enjoy getting together every night after putting in hard days on our farms and ranches, sitting out on the back porch when the weather permits and sipping cocktails while we wait for our multi-course dinners to be ready to serve. A lot of work? A tad perhaps, but there are twelve couples so the effort is not tiresome, and we'd all rather have excellent multi-course dinners with wine than the pre-made rubber or plastic food most people grab 'off the shelf.' For our neighbors of a faith which discourages the consumption of wine, we always have nonalcoholic bubbly drinks from Spain and Mexico.

When we were planning the farmhouse, everybody thought I was crazy to want the centerpiece of the kitchen to be a French range with four ovens, six burners, two griddles, a grill and the oversized hot plate in the center. On the perimeter of the kitchen I also planned two work stations with additional ovens, one for steaming vegetables, and two multi-burner cook tops and four water saving dish washers. You could cross the Atlantic in the copper hood over the French range! The last bit of planning I did was to ensure that in addition to the dining area for twelve in the great room, we would have a separate dining room capable of seating the twenty-four of us who gather nightly, with the possibility of adding a few chairs to seat thirty when we have extra company.

Now, the greatest wonder of all: our fortuitous compatibility on the issue of what we believe to be the right way to behave towards others, and which way is the wrong way. Regardless of our faith, or lack of faith, we are unabashedly unafraid to stand firmly and patriotically for the same system of beliefs and duties that are found in the Beatitudes. Funny, no? For a group that includes people who do not believe in the Bible. It's simply, I think, that we all just believe in what is right, and not in what is wrong. And you can call us Democrats, liberals, progressives, or even, oh shudder! 'bleeding heart liberals.' All faiths and most good people believe in some version (even secular versions) of the Beatitudes, as opposed to our brethren who identify themselves as Republicans, neocons, or conservatives, whose chief belief system relies overwhelmingly on the worship of the Golden Calf, and whose overpowering sense of mission is the same one the moneychangers that Jesus threw out of the Temple had. Sadly, you cannot only worship the Golden Calf and at the same time believe in the Golden Rule.

You have the right to know why we want you to read our 'Chronicles.' We are determined to become as large a fundraising outfit as we can. We know that progressives need to raise as much money as possible if we are going to revert to a Democratic United States. After that group, we feel a profound need to contribute as much money as possible to groups that provide advocacy for the mentally ill, for groups that advocate for and do research that one day may find cures for both Parkinson's Disease patients and patients who suffer from Alzheimer's Disease, since the Republican party refuses to help them, either through adequate financial help or through stem-cell research. Advertising is planned for the site to realize these goals.

Currently, the group consists of 14 couples and a bunch of kids. The adults now represent many faiths; one couple professes no faith, and one of our couples is a same-sex couple. As with any community the number will expand and contract with time. We are not looking for converts or members. If you feel akin with us that's great, but we have achived a balance in numbers that we would prefer not to change. Find others that think like you/us and start your own group, family, commune, political movement, country, or whatever. Sign up for our mailing list.

Finally, please be forgiving of us, but we are equal-opportunity insulters, à la Archie Bunker.

Well, folks, that's who we are!