Thursday, March 28, 2024

Practice Resurrection


Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

 

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.


So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.


Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.


Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.


So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

Monday, March 25, 2024

Long Wings on the Cliffs

I biked to the Peregrine Falcon nest today.

I’m never going to compete with the folks with $15,000 lenses, $4,000 camera bodies, and $2,000 tripods. I generally use no tripod, the camera is point and shoot, and everything I use, added together, was $600. But is the Nikon P900 good enough for me? It is.

Riding Side Car

The Battle Against Predators






A local Audubon preserve has pretty poor habitat (weed-crowded fields and secondary growth of a very small caiber), but they are big on well-defended Blue Bird boxes, and they also have a Purple Martin set up, as well as a bat house and a large artificial chimney for Chimney Swifts.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Motorcycle Overlanding With Airedale in 1951

Peggy Iris Thomas rode her BSA Bantam 14,000 miles around North America with her airedale Matelot in 1951, then chronicled her trip in a memoir.

Canine Kinetic Chemistry

Dogs are like gem stones -- they are made by God, but they are perfected by humans. A good working dog in the hands of the wrong person may never achieve its potential, while a mediocre dog may shine quite a lot in the right hands. When an extraordinary dog meets the right person, and is given the right set of experiences at the right time, what happens next is deeply rewarding for all sides. It is a kind of kinetic chemistry. It is close to magic.

Three Feet Versus Seven Feet

The difference between a 3 foot dig and a 7 foot dig is exponential, not linear.

The first dig is maybe 3 cubic feet of dirt if you can pop in with a single hole.

The second dig requires a hole big enough to stand in while shoveling dirt up and out. Figure 5 feet on a side, or 175 cubic feet of dirt, or about 6.5 cubic yards of dirt.  It’s a lot.

Three Longhorns Down the Road

No Puppy for You!

Today is “National Puppy Day”. Guess what? You’re not getting a puppy. Ever.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

The Terrarium Abides

My pet Eastern Hercules Beetle grubs (largest beetles in this area) have their own pet — a millipede.

The large beetle grubs are on their 10th month in this terrarium, and my guess is they might have another 8 months before they reveal their rhinoceros splendor. There should be three in here; they live off of a substrate of crumbling oak gleaned from the backyard, and occasionally reveal themselves through the glass.

A Fabulous Trunk



After coffee, the wife and I went down to "Great Stuff by Paul,” which has been running a "sale" for over a year. A close inspection found that, indeed there was less inventory overall, but still quite a lot of stuff. Most notable was this massive late-1800s barrel top trunk with fabulous metal work and a terrific custom-interior. I think Paul said this trunk was owned by an Italian ambassador’s wife, and that it’s her portrait painted on the inside.