There is the famous gardening adage of ‘4 in a row’ but it seems there should be another one something like ‘Every single success brings 4 new challenges’.
Because of course, now that we’ve spent years building up a gorgeous loamy soil from our heaps of sand and clay, the moles, voles and gophers have moved in with a vengeance. It’s gotten so bad I’ve had to enlist Handy Hubby with his big guns.
Rodent traps: a lot of work, but at least they are working, 4 captured, and counting.
And now that we have the fanciest coop in the county, we’re losing more eggs and chicks than ever—to the only beasts still able to penetrate the walled and fenced fortress—snakes. Another job for . . . Guess who?
Yes, that’s a water moccasin, poisonous. Hubby’s also found a couple of HUGE rat snakes stuffed full of eggs and chicks.
A dozen chicks lost and a broody hen giving new meaning to ‘a bucket of chicken’
Of course the snakes don’t go after the rodents, why go to the extra effort of hunting when there’s free food lying around everywhere?
Of course the cat doesn’t go after the snakes or the rodents, or maybe she does, but she can’t keep up with the steady traffic.
So we’ve lost all our cabbages, most of our broccoli, a couple dozen onions (don’t believe the hype, onions are not a rodent deterrent by any stretch of the imagination).
But, at least the forest beasts are well-fed.
Tori: “I don’t like onions anyway, where’s the chicken?!”
“The requirements for this awakening can be harsh, but are necessary in order to survive unscathed. Avoidance of the truth leads to a dishonest response of diplomacy and compliance in order to “get along.” This can only lead to widespread submission and an inability to face any challenge. This country’s inhabitants are now consumed by ignorance due to long-term mass indoctrination, and have become unable to distinguish truth from lies, fact from fiction, and reality from fantasy. Because of this purposely-created phenomenon, honesty and courage have virtually disappeared, and have been replaced with cowardice and indifference. This has led to what might be described as gross intellectual obsolescence of the majority.”
I can’t help but wonder what happened to that wise mantra of never negotiating with terrorists? These vaccine and health passport-pushers and participators are terrorizing our bodies and minds with intentions to colonize our very Being.
Thorned beauties of civil disobedience Reveal your mysteries Through pricks of blood How your scent seduces Your shades beguiling eyes Your petals whispering Your pollen nourishing But especially The simple way you Keep predators at bay
Here are a few of our thorny Resistance warriors, well worth a visit:
“As you might be pulling out your hair over such inspiring good news, with local venues, corporate monstrosities, and colleges and universities telling you and your loved ones that you must be poked to enter their hallowed halls of illness, dismay, stupidity, lies, propaganda, absurdities, and any information designed to end your ass, there are avenues opening where you can say…’oh yeah, fuck off with your bullshit’, and back up your talk with solid shit like this: Form for Students Attending Colleges or Universities Requiring Covid-19 Injections – via coreysdigs.com Form for Employees Whose Employers Are Requiring Covid-19 Injections – via coreysdigs.com Vaccines and the Law – via americasfrontlinedoctors.org The ground work for each of us is there. All that is needed, is to realize that these government and corporate dopes, are nothing more than the bullies you encountered back in high school – and all that is needed to end their tyranny, is a back bone – which God, Mother Earth, or the Committee of Dolphins who started this circus, imparted to you upon birth.”
Decker offers up a musical selection after every post, but I don’t have such knowledge for that, and don’t wish to be an exact copycat, so we offer instead a funny face.
Originally posted on STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC: From The Babylon Bee: WASHINGTON, D.C.—According to anonymous sources, the CIA has replaced enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding with something even more torturous and effective: 12-hour academic lectures on intersectional feminism. “Waterboarding has been shown to be very effective,” said the anonymous source. “But that’s been replaced now.…
Listen to this article.Social media was ablaze yesterday over a CIA recruiting video which you should definitely watch if you haven’t seen it already, because it has to be seen to be believed.The video features a Latina CIA officer proudly describing her ascent to her position in one of the most depraved institutions that has ever…
Our weapons will be manufactured by corporations that have pansexual CEOs and Muslim shareholders.
The bombers will be emblazoned with rainbow flags and flown by empowered women of all colors who will scream “YAAASSS QUEEN!” as the mushroom clouds arise.
The desert sand will turn to glass in the blasts, and that glass will become a ceiling, and that ceiling will be shattered by a lesbian CIA Director.
People will be vaporized on the spot, or watch their own bodies fall apart like sandcastles, but they will never be misgendered.
We will march as equals, white, black, Asian, indigenous, and whatever miscellaneous extras we can find (so long as they’re photogenic enough for Instagram), arm-in-arm singing “Fight Song” in one voice beneath a drone-filled sky to the edge of extinction where we will leap together screaming “This is all Susan Sarandon’s fault!” into the face of the abyss.
It won’t be pretty, it won’t be wise, but at least, for one glorious flash, we will get to feel like we really tried.
One of the hallmarks of totalitarian systems is the criminalization of dissent. Not just the stigmatization of dissent or the demonization of dissent, but the formal criminalization of dissent, and any other type of opposition to the official ideology of the totalitarian system. Global capitalism has been inching its way toward this step for quite […]
What to do with giants’ bones you find in the garden? You call the Authorities, who ‘donate’ them to the Smithsonian, where they disappear forever.
What to do with a dead owl found in your yard? You call the Authorities, who tell you to throw it in the trash, and pretend it never happened.
Electrocuted on your perfectly safe electrical wires? Impossible. Just like a duck the year before? Impossible.
Just like you, your own-human-self, jolted with permanent shoulder injury by our perfectly safe electricity? Nonsense.
That’s impossible. That never happens. That’s why we never record it or offer any way for any one to document it, because that proves it never happened.
The duck, the owl, your shoulder, NEVER happened. Report that, and that only, #6, to the Proper Authorities.
Yes Sir, that never happened. I have no electrocuted owl in my freezer. I have never been hurt personally by your Superior methods. I adore your system. I bow to your Eternal Authority.
Source – oftwominds.com “…The boats I would avoid are those with wealthy, powerful people who confuse their position and wealth with competence….Boats filled with self-important, self-absorbed people I would avoid as death traps….I would look for a boat with low-key individuals with high situational awareness and experience in responding to crises and danger. Combat veterans […]
“Boats filled with self-important, self-absorbed people I would avoid as death traps. I would also avoid boats with do-gooders / would-be saints whose motivation (above self-preservation, until it’s too late) is to defend the rights of the weak as the most important principle, even in life-and-death circumstances. These types are especially dangerous because their life experience is that Somebody Will Rescue Us. They thus conclude we can devote asymmetric resources to the weakest because Somebody Will Rescue Us.”
We had a Foraging Walk that was well worth the two years waiting. The first postponement was after a tornado leveled their property during one of their tribal ceremonies, the Caddo Mounds in Weeping Mary, which I wrote about here and here.
The second time was during the initial stages of the Plandemic, when I cancelled due to mask mandates.
On this fun foray, 3rd time was a charm, no storms, no masks and a very educational afternoon. Top 3 things I learned:
1. Medicinal weeds should never be dehydrated in a machine, something about chemistry. Two ubiquitous weeds I thought had no other redeeming qualities besides bee food: Goldenrod and Carolina geranium, are in fact beneficial medicinals.
2. There’s a compound in red cedar that inhibits the breakdown of alcohol for 18 hours. So, a common practice is to soak some branch tips in strong spirits for a month. The final product becomes kind of like Absinthe in that it’s potent enough to cause hallucinations, which can lead to great art, says me, or, a cheap date, says Hubby.
3. Foraging in areas where there was once iron mining operations, quite common around here apparently, unbeknownst to me, should be avoided due to potential mercury contamination.
A super exciting swarm event is next on the Fun list!
I’ve been wanting to populate a couple of re-furbished TopBar hives, but the dimensions are not the same as those Hubby’s crafted, so splits would prove very challenging.
Bearding in summer, not too unusual in our hot climate. But, bearding in spring, probably a sign they’re really cramped.
I was hoping for swarms, and got one off the ‘bearding’ hive I recently wrote about (pictured above). They stationed themselves about 75 feet away in a young cedar tree and I got lucky to find them there immediately, while I was nearby harvesting mulberries. This is our first plentiful mulberry crop and I’m not sure what to make with them. Any suggestions?
I did recently learn from the Deep Green Permaculture site that it’s possible to get a 2nd crop of mulberries by cutting the branches back after the 1st harvest.
As far as the swarm goes, my first attempt was dismal, in the ‘Don’t do this!’ category of the pathetic novice, which I should know better by now, which I post so y’all can laugh at me, as I well deserve.
I don’t know what I was thinking! I wasn’t even good at holding a tray like that as a cocktail waitress. Spontaneous blasphemy makes this quick clip RATED R—For Mature Audiences Acting Immaturely Only. (Bet you didn’t know in a past life I was a sailor!)
Cringe-worthy
The 2nd attempt was successful, thanks to Hubby, who sawed the branch off into my waiting hands so I could gently walked them over to their new hive. They seem to be adjusting nicely! These thoughtful bees saved me lots of messy work.
The Ninja* colony has attracted a gorgeous bird, which I’m pretty sure after consulting my field guide, is a Summer Tanager. Though I don’t approve of his hunting live bees, he does also forage dead bees under the hive, so he gets a pass.
*Ninja colony, so named due to their constant battling yet relatively calm nature. I believe this is at least partly due to their position right next to the house, where they get constant traffic, but seem unperturbed by it, unlike the more remote colonies at the far end of the orchard, who are just plain abusive.
My favorite farmer, right after Joel Salatin, hope y’all enjoy as much as I do!
For those of you who don’t track sasquatch sightings in your spare time, my county is home to a bigfoot named Knobby. His last sighting was about ten years ago when he was caught snooping through a cabin window. The owner of the cabin called 911 to ask if he could shoot “the beast,” but…
