Homestead Happenings

Mostly happy snaps this post, plus a few weather woes.

Hubby’s gorgeous melon patch is starting to produce more than just a feast for the eyes. He’s come up with quite an integrated system there and when I expressed how impressed I was with his companion planting scheme (and wondered whether he’d been taking a permaculture course on the sly) he informed me it was all a matter of frugality.

His penny-pincher logic is: the melon mounds have a lot of water run-off and sometimes erosion, so he added a ring of clover at the base of them. It’s just a bonus they are also good for the soil and the bees. The sunflowers are fodder for the goats and the chickens, plus they help shade the melons. The sea of black-eyed Susan’s just turned up there, apparently as impressed as me with the space.

Hopefully the melons don’t go the way of the onions, which has been our worst year yet. Luckily the garlic still did fine, which is from our saved seed, which previously came from a nearby friend’s saved seed. That has become a theme.

Elephant garlic does much better here than anything else, and I’ve tried many others for many years. I think I’ll give up that practice now and stick with what works, avoiding future costs and frustrations.

The success of the tomatoes and peppers so far has also been thanks to saved seed. I bought several varieties of each from the store, just for more variety, and those are the ones suffering more from the rain and high humidity. Several have already died, a few aren’t growing at all, and several of the others have bad issues.

Ours on the left, theirs on the right.

The purchased squash is already full of pests before giving us even a single fruit.

At least we got a few zucchini off our own saved seed before it too is already beginning to succumb to some kind of mold.

But other saved seed, the Trombetta squash and the mystery squash from last year, have proven to be more resilient than the popular varieties.

The filth-filled skies continue and not even the regular rains clear them up for long. I’m sure the sorry state of the skies has nothing to do with the crazy storms, right? The intense lightening, sudden flooding rain bursts, intolerable humidity, hail, tornadoes, and so on, that folks are experiencing across the country?

Just ‘mother nature’ they tell us. OK.

Well, too much ‘mother nature’ is not so good for the garden. It looks plenty green and lush, so that’s nice. But, look a little closer and we find it’s not so pretty below the surface.

But we’ve been relatively fortunate so far this year, just lots of rain and some wind gusts. Others have had far worse.

The yucca didn’t get lucky, but the blossoms are still lovely, even on the ground.

There’s some long-term requirements that fall on Hubby, which I mentioned last update, an upgraded culvert is required now in order to drive to the back half of our property. He’s already gotten started on that, a huge undertaking for sure. After that he can look forward to tackling the pond that’s now washed out.

In better news, there’s been some amazing growth in just one week.

A side by side comparison of 8 days growth.

We’ve prepared for the swelter season by crafting another shading system where these tomatoes and peppers should be much happier into late summer. It’s recycled from another project and a bit awkward to move through, but it should do the trick just fine for supporting the shade cloth.

The asparagus beans, a first timer here, have really taken off in the last week. I’m excited to try them!

In even better news, the mamas and kids are growing well. We’ve started forcing them out of the corral during the day so I was able to give that space a much needed refreshing.

It seems they sometimes prefer following the chickens instead of their mamas. 😆

I’m getting the first fresheners ready for milking by training them on the milk stand. Soon it will be time to start separating them at night so I can milk them in the mornings before putting them back together again during the days. It’s not a happy time for anyone and I’m not looking forward to it.

But, I am looking forward to making lots of cheese again. We’re getting a bit of milk from Chestnut, who rejected her boy, and her girl is only nursing from one side. So, if I weren’t milking her she’d become even more lopsided than she already is.

It’s not a lot of milk, but enough for a little mozzarella now and then. I’ve found another method from my new favorite YT channel which is completely natural and far more tasty than the vast majority of those found online.

Raw milk mozzarella, mmmmm!

Unfortunately, the 2nd time I tried it was a failure. But, 99.9 % of the time a failed cheese can always become another delicious cheese. Some of my best cheeses have been from failures.

Not necessarily the case with failed wine. This cheese ‘failure’ will be soaked for a couple of days in the leftover must of the now fermenting wine, another tip I learned from my new fav YT channel.

This one was mulberry and I’ve also started a blackberry.

The blackberries seem to very much appreciate the extra rain and our harvest has been great, inspiring me to make blackberry wine for the first time. Last year’s harvest was very disappointing after getting some kind of strange disease right after their flowering period. (Not normal development, despite what several folks claimed at the time.)

I’ve decided to try more natural, traditional methods with the wine-making, like with the cheeses. Modern methods require all kinds of chemically-obtained inputs, which most insist are necessary for a fool-proof product.

Yet, last year we had a major failure using that method and ended up with several cases of vinegar. Very disappointing after all that work. We have had great success in the past or we might be too discouraged to try again.

Blackberries, banana peppers and Nigella seed pods

Traditionally, country wines were not made with all those foreign yeasts and I don’t really want my blackberry wine to taste like merlot anyway. While we may not have a decent cultivated grape harvest this year, the wild grapes look promising again. Also the pears are looking good, could be a bumper crop like we get only every few years.

If so, I’m going to do some side-by-side experiments, traditional methods vs. modern methods, and make a real project of it.

Blackberry wine in the making, hopefully

It’s easy to find lots of instruction using the identical modern method. For that I’ll rely on this book.

The wild grapes are looking promising. Our cultivated grapes still uncertain.

It’s not as easy to find good instruction on traditional methods, no surprise there. But this channel has a lot to offer and she uses nothing but a homemade fruit fermentation starter for her wines.

A teetotaler who makes wine, don’t see that everyday!

She also teaches how to make natural sodas and mead on her channel which I’m also very eager to try.

Blackberries fermenting beautifully after 36 hours.

The elderberry is also liking the extra rain. I might even try to make elderberry wine too. The blossoms are excellent in kombucha and will make an effervescent ‘champagne’ like beverage or flavor a cordial. And the goats love it. It’s just an all-around fantastic plant that is popping up everywhere now, so I’m going to create a big grove of them trailing down the hill.

A couple happy snaps in parting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Geoengineering Update

There are two replies I generally hear from others when I attempt to talk about geoengineering and weather modification which I also often see in the comments section of others posting about this topic.

So this post I’m going to share some new links and quotes and personal observations in the hope that folks really start to get a better sense of the scope of this issue.

So few folks are even aware of the long history of weather modification, though it’s been well-documented and these days is very easy to research.

This is something I’ve written about many times already, because it sets a precedent. I am no longer going to bother with this vast history in future posts, because now there are plenty of others talking about it online.

Here’s a recent one of interest:

https://efrat.substack.com/p/uk-geoengineering-foi-request-lead

I’ve noticed that when someone is aware of the long history of weather modification, they usually reply that it’s just about ‘cloud seeding’ which is no big deal, they say, they’ve been doing it forever, so what’s the problem?

As Agent’s Substack starkly points out, there’s nothing safe & effective about cloud seeding. And if you’d like the ugly truth expressed in some pretty harsh terms, I urge you to read his article. (Some of his work is behind a paywall)

“They’re just cloud seeding, it’s not chemtrails! It’s harmless!”, they tell us. In fact, it’s so harmless that the vast majority of states in the US have some form of seeding program currently taking place. Many of them are funded with our tax dollars, but some are sponsored by corporations you would never expect to be involved in GeoEngineering. Idaho Power currently spends $4 million a year on cloud seeding which results in a 12% increase in snow in some areas.
Although the internet assures us Cloud Seeding is super-duper safe, today we are going to look at what chemicals are being spammed into the atmosphere, according to the Manufacturers of the chemicals and a crazy CDC document I unearthed.”

He’s also shared his sky photos in another recent article and has lots more geoengineering materials.

“I had an idea for an experiment: Pick a month and photograph and/or video the sky every day in 2023 then wait a year and do it again in the same month, then compare the GeoEngineering. Would there be anything to learn from this? Let’s find out…

“First, they (meaning, The Powers that Be) claim the suns rays are harmful and causing Climate Change (Global Warming), therefore, to keep the temperature of earth down, they need to block it. This is not a conspiracy theory, it is well documented. I have written a number of articles on the topic. They have been discussing blocking the sun since the 1960s and NASA was doing extensive research in the early 1980s which involved releasing chemicals into the sky and running tests to see how much of the suns rays were blocked. They began planning heavily in the early 1990s. read my piece 1992: Should we Spray Sulfuric Acid or Dust to Block the Sun?
In the mid-to-late 1990s, only a few years after the 1992 document, people in the USA began reporting white grids and lines appearing in the sky. These grids and lines blocked the sun.”

A friend in UK driving to her vacation destination recently sent me some pics of the sad state of the skies there. Look familiar?

I wish I had better news. It’s not good. It’s not benevolent. It’s not about saving us from global warming or helping our farmers cope with droughts. It’s not about that AT ALL.

That’s just the cover story, because there always has to be a cover story.

It’s about weaponizing the weather for control purposes of war and power. Now it’s also being used to force populations in myriad ways and fleece everyone with ridiculous carbon schemes. The academic publications which hype on and on about climate change do not talk about geoengineering as an on-going global operation, but as mere proposals, and this is how they’ll lock in their ‘World Governance’.

As the public outcry grows, so the solutions will be put into place.

Screenshot

Several US states have gotten on this bandwagon to outlaw geoengineering on various levels, which will have zero impact, because it’s a global issue, by design.

Screenshot

‘To prostitute the elements’ : Weather Control and Weaponization by the US Dept of Defense by R. Pincus
2017 War & Society p. 64-80

‘To Prostitute the Elements’: Weather Control and Weaponisation by US Department of Defense: War & Society: Vol 36 , No 1 – Get Access

“The US military has a long and robust history of scientific research programs, often conducted in conjunction with civilian scientists at non-military governmental agencies as well as universities. These programs flourished in the immediate post-Second World War and the early cold war years, as the field of military science expanded to address the sprawling Soviet threat. One area of growth was in atmospheric science, which had already taken off preceding Second World War in conjunction with the growth of air warfare. Advances in meteorology, cloud science and climatology enabled military interests to align with weather forecasters and also agricultural interests, as old ideas about cloud seeding and weather control were revived in the light of new research. The military, largely through the Air Force, advanced a series of projects investigating the potential of weather and climate control, manipulation, and ultimately weaponisation.”

What we have are Global Public-private partnerships cooperating internationally to manipulate the weather and change the climate as well as fleece the populace with projects that do not help the people.

Like these: the Greenhouse Gas Removal by Enhanced Weathering (GGREW) projects

“One example of a research project on the feasibility of enhanced weathering is the CarbFix project in Iceland.[33][34][35]”

“An Irish company named Silicate has run trials in Ireland and in 2023 is running trials in the USA near Chicago. Using concrete crushed down to dust it is scattered on farmland on the ratio 500 tonnes to 50 hectares, aiming to capture 100 tonnes of CO2 per annum from that area. Claiming it improves soil quality and crop productivity, the company sells carbon removal credits to fund the costs. The initial pilot funding comes from prize money awarded to the startup by the THRIVE/Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge.[36][37]”

I’ve been documenting some of what’s been happening in our skies for nearly a decade. It is not cooling us, it is not stabilizing our rainfall, it’s the exact opposite. And, they know this!

“In their own words from one of their reports, the Royal Aeronautical Society (based in London): “the current overall effect of contrails and contrail cirrus is a net warming – about 1.5 times that of aviation’s C02”. This is a smoking gun because it affirms that what they are doing is actually having the opposite effect of what they claim to be doing. It’s warming things, not cooling it.”

But what do academics concern themselves with? Issues of governance, because, warmer temperatures might increase small arms purchases. And other GLOBAL concerns about the control of the ornery plebs.

Screenshot

https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/90095/9789400604780.pdf?sequence=1#page=338

https://edepot.wur.nl/654185

Yes, more manmade clouds.

In my last post I included a recent photo from our area. These are the among the ‘new cloud species’ which some will actually tell you have always been there, we just never noticed them before Smartphones. Yes, I’ve actually heard this ridiculous answer on multiple annoying occasions.

“Mammatus clouds” they call them, because to name them is to normalize them. And the kids grow up “knowing” and are diligently taught to accept anything that has a name. That’s Science!

New Cloud Types Added For the First Time in 30 Years | The Weather Channel

The official sites, the academic sites ALWAYS normalize, that’s their job. The rest of us are just all crazy conspiracy theorists. See, totally normal, because it’s right there in the International Cloud Atlas!

Thanks for reading folks, please research and pass along information!

Homestead Happenings

Some brief updates this post and not as many happy snaps as I’d like. But, it’s been so busy and carting my tablet around everywhere is not usually an option, especially where it’s wet and dirty, which is a lot of places at the moment.

Kidding season is over and it’s been a bit stressful, no surprise there. I’ve been wanting to try something new—which is the greatest lost homestead technique I could think of—making our own rennet.

We’ve only had goats a few years now, all of this still feels very new, but, we do want to keep moving forward on the path to self-reliance, so this one is pretty essential on that list. It was as challenging as I expected it to be!

I am squeamish, so that’s the first of the issues. Hubby does all the slaughtering and butchering and for a while I did help plucking chickens, but then we got a machine, so I don’t even do that anymore. I’m not accustomed to seeing the interiors of the animals, let alone having to identify all the parts.

So, trigger warning for this section for anyone reading more squeamish than me! Move to the next section, if you please.

For the briefest of intro lessons, rennet is made from the 4th stomach of the ruminant animal, the abomasum.

This photo is from a calf, so for us we were dealing with far smaller features. Obviously, this is a precious commodity. The abomasum must come from a nursing animal, as it still has the enzymes required for cheesemaking. It can also come from a stillborn, an unfortunate event turned into a beneficial one with proper immediate attention.

In our case, we’ve had 2 stillborn, one this year and one last year. This year we also had a very small doe, a first freshener, who had fairly large twins. We decided to cull one of her kids as part of our efforts. Of course this is never an easy decision to make, and I lose sleep over stuff like this. I was never meant to be a goat farmer, I just want to make cheese!

Anyway, I am glad for the tough choice and going through the trouble to acquire this precious skill. Hubby and I sat down before the guts together, at the kitchen table. One of the great many sentences I could never have imagined I’d be writing!

It’s not easy to find information on the how-to’s of this process, and I certainly had no one to call or visit for advice. It was not enough information to substantially build my confidence, that’s for sure. Sometimes that just takes doing it.

Luckily, I did find one YouTube video, and one blog, both again working with a calf, for which I’m exceptionally grateful.

Another brief aside about rennet, if I may bore many readers a bit further! As I’ve written before, most cheese made today, at least in the U.S., is not made from real rennet, it’s made from a lab-grown rennet substitute, made by Pfizer.

While it’s not that expensive for home cheese makers to buy animal rennet online, relatively speaking, considering only a tiny amount is required, I don’t want to have to entirely rely on far-away sources for such an essential item.

Another thing I’ve been experimenting with to overcome this issue is vegetable rennet, again, from a natural, local source, not a GMO lab-purchased source. We have figs, so that’s what I’m using, but nettles are another source.

It’s not possible to set a large hard cheese with this method, but it works for soft cheeses and very small, what I’d call semi-hard cheeses (because they don’t need a press) like the one I just tried after discovery this channel’s excellent demonstration.

This cheese is so easy! I’ve only just made it, so I can’t yet vouch for the taste, but he makes it look delicious. For this cheese you don’t need any special equipment—no molds or cultures, no aging fridge, and no rennet. Instead of the cute baskets he uses I just poked some holes in an old sour cream container. (And can I just add how much I adore his heavy accent and classic Italian hand gestures!)

We did eventually figure it all out, and here is our final product, now drying for 3 months or so, according to processing directions. It will then be sealed and last for many years and make many dozens of cheeses.

A great big thanks to the multi-layered efforts of man and nature for this magical gift!

In weather news, we’ve had a lot of rain. While I mentioned last update how much I love the rain, it is causing problems. We lost most of our onion harvest, for starters. This is a big disappointment because we were so close to harvest, just a couple more weeks. Not anymore, they were rotting in the ground, we had to pull them, lost a great many, and the others are mostly very small still.

So between the pitiful potatoes and the sad state of the onions, we are not starting off too well. The peas are already done as well, because of the heat, but that’s pretty normal here.

What’s not normal is my usual complaint—the manufactured weather. We can’t drive to half our property until Hubby upgrades our culvert, a huge undertaking. But we are very lucky this time around! No hail, or tornadoes, or other immediate disasters to deal with, like a great many.

Yes, more manmade clouds above our head. We’ll learn what NASA calls them next post.

But, I have a future Geoengineering Update in the works, so I’ll save further lecturing and complaining for now!

Instead we’ll end with a snap of one of our favorite dinners, just how we like it, burned to perfection! Not our pepperoni or cheese this time, but some just foraged chanterelles, homemade sourdough crust, and homegrown pork sausage. 😋

Thanks for stopping by!

Homestead Happenings

It’s raining caterpillars!

And other news this post, including Hubby’s big mistake, lots of garden snaps, critter updates and the new normal weather chaos.

Big ones, small ones, skinny ones, fat ones . . .

Black ones, white ones, green ones, yellow ones . . .

Let’s see, perhaps a bit of 80s pre-conditioning before our current day “You vill eat ze bugs!”?

We’ve never seen so many, and such a variety. They do not look the least bit appetizing and clearly the birds agree, or there couldn’t possibly be so many.

I’m not exaggerating when I say you cannot take a step without seeing one. I’m hoping they turn into gorgeous butterflies and soon we’ll have a garden full of them. But I haven’t looked them up yet and they could easily become some voracious relative of horn worms for all I know, about to attack the tomatoes.

They’ve destroyed my spring cabbages and are working on the fava beans and snap peas now.

Fall cabbages in the back compared to spring cabbages up front

At least the goats appreciated all those Swiss cheese-like leaves.

Snap peas don’t last long here anyway and while those creepy crawlers get the leaves of them, and those of the radishes, at least they leave us the fruits.

I’ve already made a large crock of sauerkraut and a quart of fermented radishes. Plus we’ve been getting loads of mulberries thanks to Hubby who has been destroying the tent worms that have been appearing all spring. Those little buggers love the wild cherries too and can easily destroy all leaves and fruits in a matter of days.

So, big kudos to Hubby for coming to the rescue, and spending a fair amount of tedious time harvesting these little beauties as well.

But, Hubby is also responsible for the misdemeanor crime of killing our potatoes! I should’ve caught it. I know, he was just trying to help. So, he filled our potato buckets with too much compost too fast and now we have potato disaster.

Lesson learned, you can only add a couple inches at a time, even if the greens are much taller than that.

I’ve got lots of herbs companion planted with the tomatoes that are all looking great.

Thyme, cilantro and dill growing between tomatoes

One of the best garden decisions I’ve made is far more flowers in the garden. Not only to attract pollinators, but to attract us too. It’s a far more inviting space than just rows of crops and makes me want to go in and play. 😊

The Peggy Martin rose just one year after planting a cutting from a friend.

And the Burr rose, many years old, huge and seemingly indestructible, even from constant nibbling by the sheep and goats.

And one of my garden favorites, which my photo doesn’t do justice at all: Nigella, a delicious seed and lovely tiny blooms in blue and white.

Their seeds have a grape-like flavor and are delicious in bread and kombucha.

A larger garden view

Another fruit that so far seems successful are the persimmons. We have both Virginia and Asian planted and the flowers on them are so unique, just like their fruits.

I’ve also got the citrus planted at last and I’m so excited! I cannot fail! (Says no one but me and I’ve gotten quite a few discouraging words from others on this venture.)

Meyers lemon, Satsuma orange and Key limes, don’t fail me, please!

Planted along with the new ‘kiss me under the garden gate’ flower which is doing quite well, and the still unfinished wattle fence.

In the best news we have our first kids just born this morning. Milking season approaches too quickly!

The weather madness continues, unfortunately. Big surprise.

Some still think these are contrails! Good grief!

This weekend’s forecast looks like a drop-down menu: 1/16th inch rain possible, or severe storms, or flooding, or hail, or tornadoes. Try planning for those options, peasants! 😩

Hope life is a little more predictable in your neck of the woods!

Thanks for stopping by. 🤗

Geoengineering Update

I have to applaud our reader Highlander for sharing this musician who has me laughing so hard I have tears streaming down my cheeks! Nothing like a good laugh for health. So, first the fun stuff.

I believe this kind of ‘meaningful entertainment’ is an excellent way to spread the word about unpleasant news.

Another good one I’ve shared in the past, not a parody tune, a ballad, and very sad.

And, winding down, if you can muster the courage, Dane’s weekly Bad News Broadcast, which I never miss (much to Hubby’s chagrin!)

Keep laughin’, keep preppin’, and thanks for stopping by! 🤗

Homestead Happenings

Almost entirely happy snaps and almost no complaining at all, really! The garden is mostly great, the weather mostly fine, summer in full swing already, ready or not.

It’s been busy around here, as usual. But, busy in the country way, which is very different. Our preservation season has already begun, and it’s fixing to get very busy very soon. I have mixed feelings about that, but here it is anyway.

I’ve been saving the rose petals for drying and kombucha after admiring their scent and beauty in many lights and angles.

The poppies continue to pop up in random places, among the roses and in cracks and crevices, like dandelions.

And the bees love them as much as I do.

Another rose variety, the thornless Peggy Martin, I just planted last year, is now getting its first blooms.

I’m so very pleased with the transition from cool-season coral honeysuckle blooms to the Dortmond rose takeover, lovely! I especially like the short spell they co-habitat.

The wattle fence I began with the best intentions is languishing due to too many other priorities. It has been a sheep deterrent at least, since the mamas and lambs have taken over the front yard. And even Shadow doesn’t dare stand in their way!

This is where the citrus will go, my new big project. I’m even considering throwing an avocado in there too. I know, very ambitious! But, I want to give some of the new methods a try and it seems like a good time. This side of the house is ideal, the house breaking the north wind and the heavy late afternoon sun. Plus, there’s the extra warmth accumulated in the walls of the house to help in cold snaps, along with the extra heating and draping methods that seem to be working for others.

Ooohhh, anticipation!

Just like the tomatoes and cucumbers coming so soon, right around the corner, and I can hardly wait. The last fermented cucumbers we used up a week ago, amazingly, and they were still crispy and flavorful. I plan to continue and expand my fermenting efforts this summer and fall. More herb pastes, more tea blends, more spice mixes.

The lambs are still doing fine, my how fast they grow.

Spring lambs on springs! 😆

My garden mascots, two white rabbits.

And my single complaint—the spray continues to ruin our beautiful days.

Is this why we can so clearly see these colors, because we have an atmosphere saturated with reflective particulate matter?

Cool pic, or chem-filled haze?

“I’m no prophet Lord, I don’t know nature’s ways.”
Anticipation’ by Carly Simon

The Story Arc(h)

So many stories not told. They don’t fit the mold.

While the same stories are repeated over and over. The approved stories, with the approved arcs and twists, capturing audiences beyond time and space.

Hero or Villain? Victim or Culprit?

The ordinary stories of ordinary folks are bypassed. Not sexy enough. Not dramatic enough. Too slow-paced. Not Catchy. Or spicy. Or click-baity.

Not nearly sticky enough.

Stories must be sending the right message. Clicking the right boxes in the right moments in the accepted paradigm according to the right models.

Triumph over adversity are ultimately the only stories allowed. Even the stories of failed heroes are spun in such a light, otherwise they are considered ‘dystopian’. And even then we see tragic heroes ‘set free’ by their surrender to the ‘greater force’ or ‘liberated’ by a merciful death.

How the stories are told indicate what the audience will perceive. Here I provide some examples.

These are all still ‘my stories’, just spun to be acceptable, or not. My goal here is to get folks to question WHY certain stories sell. Is it a matter of authentic taste? Of expectation? Of social programming?

Is it the audience who choose, or someone else, perhaps more subtly who chooses for you?

Here are some stories never told, true (ish) stories from my own life. You be the judge/critic/pretend publisher and let me know.

***

While in NOLA, a hurricane. The story that would sell: Young teacher moves to New Orleans for her new position at a prestigious Southern university one week before the most devastating hurricane in its history. She evacuates to a remote part of the Louisiana bayou and learns about Creole and Cajun history and music and cuisine and finally settles in the region of the native Caddo tribe to study Pre-Colombian cultures of the Deep South.

The story that won’t sell: Young teacher moves to New Orleans for her new position at a prestigious Southern university one week before the most devastating hurricane in its history. She evacuates to a remote part of the Louisiana bayou and learns about weather modification and clandestine military operations pertaining to centralized, unelected power structures controlling the U.S. government.

***

While in Galveston, a hurricane. The story that would sell: Couple not long ago evacuated from New Orleans experiences second 100-year hurricane evacuation after just three years. After being forced to split up in order to continue working, they blow through a decade of savings, suffer marital issues and nearly divorce, but are called by God to settle in the remote hills of East Texas to build a homestead.

The story that won’t sell: Couple not long ago evacuated from New Orleans experiences second 100-year hurricane evacuation after just three years. Wife begins seriously researching ‘chemtrails’ and learns about the 70+ years of weather modification that leads her to the ongoing Geoengineering projects—that is the global ‘climate remediation’ experimentation, much of it covert operations of global public-private partnerships with zero accountability or known oversight.

***

While in Elkhart, a tornado. The story that would sell: Couple experiences third weather disaster and nearly loses home and wife talks of ‘meeting death’. She finds God, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Enlightenment and starts a fundamentalist cult which then gets attacked Waco-style by the government and all cultists die in flames.

The story that won’t sell: Couple experiences third weather disaster and nearly loses home and wife talks of ‘meeting death’. She turns to herbalism and organic gardening and a life of quiet reflection about the nature of evil and tyranny and the statist system broken beyond repair and the inadequacies of every group-think solution to this issue, including the anarchy renamed voluntarism and the so-called ‘mystery schools’ and the exhausting rehashing of ‘Prophecy’ and is just generally permanently dissatisfied with all the solutions and proposals she’s ever heard, and she’s heard a fucking ton of them by now.

She discovers a mass effort at brainwashing against the ‘victim’ —some kind of crazy signaling effort of victims to rally other victims, and wonders who does this attitude really serve? So, we ‘victims’ are now considered by the establishment as of a ‘dark triad’ type (witches?) if we don’t spin our circumstances to always be whistling while we work, in whatever chaotic wind they care to bare down on us. Or so it would seem.

“Victim signaling, defined as ‘public and intentional expressions of one’s disadvantages, suffering, oppression, or personal limitations’ is strongly correlated (r = .52) with Dark Triad personality traits”.

The Psychology of Social Status and Class: A Conversation with Jordan Peterson

So, so many stories not told. But don’t worry! We’ve got a new generation now, selling the same story in a whole new way!

Stop complaining! Smile. Be happy now.

Square Clouds, Bankers’ Dreams

Two quick shares today—a very short peek at a few radar clips from GeoengineeringWatch.org. These ‘anomalies’ occur daily, obviously it’s not natural. Are the meteorologists all in on it? They can’t be so dumb as to think this is natural, right?

*************

A poem shared by The Naked Emperor Substack

The Banker

Performed By Mike Daviot

Written, Directed and Produced By: Craig-James Moncur

******

Hello, my name is Montague William 3rd

And what I will tell you may well sound absurd

But the less who believe it the better for me

For you see I’m in Banking and big industry

For many a year we have controlled your lives

While you all just struggle and suffer in strife

We created the things that you don’t really need

Your sports cars and Fashions and Plasma TV’s

I remember it clearly how all this begun

Family secrets from Father to Son

Inherited knowledge that gives me the edge

While you peasants, people lie sleeping at night in your beds

We control the money that controls your lives

Whilst you worship false idols and wouldn’t think twice

Of selling your souls for a place in the sun

These things that won’t matter when your time is done

But as long as they’re there to control the masses

I just sit back and consider my assets

Safe in the knowledge that I have it all

While you common people are losing your jobs

You see I just hold you in utter contempt

But the smile on my face well it makes me exempt

For I have the weapon of global TV

Which gives us connection and invites empathy

You would really believe that we look out for you

While we Bankers and Brokers are only a few

But if you saw that then you’d take back the power

Hence daily terrors to make you all cower

The Panics the crashes the wars and the illness

That keep you from finding your Spiritual Wholeness

We rig the game and we buy out both sides

To keep you enslaved in your pitiful lives

So go out and work as your body clock fades

And when it’s all over a few years from the grave

You’ll look back on all this and just then you’ll see

That your life was nothing, a mere fantasy

There are very few things that we don’t now control

To have Lawyers and Police Force was always a goal

Doing our bidding as you march on the street

But they never realise they’re only just sheep

For real power resides in the hands of a few

You voted for parties what more could you do

But what you don’t know is they’re one and the same

Old Gordon has passed good old David the reigns

And you’ll follow the leader who was put there by you

But your blood it runs red while our blood runs blue

But you simply don’t see its all part of the game

Another distraction like money and fame

Get ready for wars in the name of the free

Vaccinations for illness that will never be

The assault on your children’s impressionable minds

And a micro chipped world, you’ll put up no fight

Information suppression will keep you in toe

Depopulation of peasants was always our goal

But eugenics was not what we hoped it would be

Oh yes it was us that funded Nazis!

But as long as we own all the media too

What’s really happening does not concern you 

So just go on watching your plasma TV

And the world will be run by the ones you can’t see

*******

Homestead Happenings

Wow, I’ve posted no update since the end of August (aka Late Swelter Season). Now here we are already well into Weather Whiplash Season, my how time flies!

This post we’ve got lots of happy snaps, the usual weather bitching, some cheese boasting, and long laments about our dear Shadow’s woes.

Notice the band-aid on his ear? Useless.
But, apparently we needed to learn that the hard way.

Sometimes time flies, but when things get really bad, it crawls. Especially when it goes instantly from nothing much to Holy Shit!

And as bad as it is, in the big picture the weather whiplash is still way worse. So, best get that report out of the way first. No rain, in our rainy season. No real season at all, just a rainless rollercoaster, and not nearly as fun as that sounds.

Not natural clouds, folks! And soon the kids won’t be able to see any difference, though the atmosphere has significantly changed in the last two decades, as the weather has changed, as they lie about their climate scam, and charge ‘carbon taxes’ to ordinary folks to pay for their madness. Makes me SO FURIOUS!

I could be taking such photos on a regular basis, but it gets old. And then someone could comment on the ‘pretty’ sunset. 🤯. Argghhh, Noooo! Can’t someone please make it stop?!

No? Ok, moving on.

More bad news. We’ve had the most prolific acorn year since we’ve been here, that’s about 15 years. Sounds like good news, I know. It is good news, in many ways. The pigs are getting fat, the sheep and goats are gorging. Literally. And that’s the problem. One of the young twins gorged himself to death. It was terribly sad. His little stomach ballooned up as if his body couldn’t contain it anymore and he was suffering for hours.

I’d read baking soda could help, but it did not in this case. Perhaps it was too severe. I also read there’s a surgical procedure which would alleviate the pressure in his gut, but I don’t have the confidence to perform that myself and the vets around here don’t treat goats. I held the little guy for a long time, trying to keep him warm and help him feel better, but we lost him. Oh the perils of animal husbandry!

Another problem of the acorn bumper crop is much less severe. We live under a large oak tree and have a metal roof. It’s been rather windy lately and once those nuts start shaking loose, it’s kinda like the sky is falling. If our veteran neighbor with PTSD comes by I expect he’ll be darting for cover quick, because it sounds eerily like machine gunfire when they get popping off the roof.

The acorn perks include some plump pigs and happy goats, two of which I’m still milking, which is making for some very tasty cheeses.

Under the oaks: happy pigs, sheep and goats.
Can you spot the perfectly camouflaged foraging pig?
Happy goats make for delicious cheeses.

I’ve gotten so successful I’m confident enough to get very daring!

Chèvre wrapped in sassafras and fig leaves for aging.
More aged chèvre—the top log is covered in dried goldenrod leaves and flowers, the bottom one is wrapped in honeybee comb.

Our fruits were nearly non-existent this summer, but we did just get our first ‘crop’ of persimmons, a whopping 5 of them! A couple of years ago I harvested lots of them from a neighbor’s tree and they were delicious; that was the first time we’d ever tried them.

Fuji persimmon

We planted both varieties, but the American variety takes much longer to start producing fruit and the fruits are generally smaller. These pictured above are Fuji, quite different, harder, larger, less sweet, not at all astringent, and also very tasty. The closest in taste I’d say would be a very ripe mango, the American varieties are especially super sweet, like jam.

If you’d like to learn more about this fancy fruit, here’s an enthusiastic lesson from James Prigione.

We’ve been getting a few mushrooms, but the lack of rain is certainly hindering our foraging experience. A friend brought us a huge chicken of the woods, our first time trying it and it was excellent.

Laetiporus sulphureus

The lactarius paradoxus are hard to spot and deceptively unattractive. In fact, they are exceptionally tasty and have a longer shelf-life, and of course a different season, than our favorite chanterelles.

Even while foraging mushrooms it seems the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. 🤔

In the garden we do have two nice full boxes of varied cool-season produce we protect from the frosts with row cover cloth. In addition to lettuces there’s some broccoli and cauliflower, spring onions, cilantro and parsley, radishes and Chinese cabbage. We’ve also got our garlic already shooting up and a couple rows of turnips started for the pigs come spring. Our neighbors are now buying eggs from us, so we throw in the surplus veggies when we can.

3 of 6 colonies survived our terrible summer. The hives are a bit hodge-podge at the moment while we do maintenance on them.

The honeybees are occasionally making an appearance, though since the frost there is little for them to forage. One of their last favorites is another one considered a ‘nuisance plant’ by the ‘experts’—it’s called tree groundsel and it’s pictured after the frost in the right photo above, in the background behind the boxes. Quite a lovely late-season plant, if you ask me.

And approaching it before the first frost sounded like the buzzing metropolis that it was! A last hoorah for the bees.

So we come back to the current day and our crazy Shadow drama. It all started with a tiny Band-Aid.

He’s got the ear-span of a small plane and we have the living room space of its cockpit. When he shakes his head he invariably hits some piece of wall or corner of furniture with his Dumbo ears and it’s actually pretty amazing it didn’t happen already: a tiny gash on the tip of one ear that he doubtlessly cannot even feel.

Forever happy and oblivious

We were racking our brains for several days, trying everything we could think of and just digging ourselves deeper. One tiny failed Band-aid led to bigger Band-aids led to bigger wraps led to taping menstrual pads to the poor creature!

Nothing was working. We also tried several over-the-counter products, like liquid Band-aid, blood-clotting powder, and some spray-on crap. Not only was nothing working, they all seemed to be making the problem worse.

We even tried to craft our own ‘No flap ear wrap’ made out of my doo-rags, which also didn’t work. So, we purchased a pricey one online which should be arriving any day now. Obviously, this is a universally common dog issue. A result of over-domestication no doubt, but that’s fodder for another post.

Then I start racking my pea brain in frantic desperation. How to stop the blood flow pronto?! Crimp his ears with clothes pins? Tie his ears up on top of his head with a scrunchy? Stitches? Soldering? How about just cut the whole ear off? Yes, we did briefly consider the vet. But we’ve been spending the many months since we got him trying to detox him from all the vet potions and it feels we are finally making some headway there. I kept imagining the new meds that would be required for this new issue and their invariable side-effects, which would start us off at square one with his detox.

Clearly I don’t think very well in high-stress situations. I was really trying hard and the bad ideas were piling on. The blood, which had gone from a tiny occasional drop, to a full-on drip, to a steady stream, and from then within a few hours a sprayer-hose in every direction with every shake of his head. And that boy loves to shake his head.

Between the blood splatter and the acorn fire it feels we could be living in a battlefield training zone.

Yup, the crazy, bloody mess had arrived and is still visible all over our living room, deck, porch, siding. We covered all the furniture and even the walls with old towels and sheets. Hubby started following him around everywhere, with a giant towel extended between his outstretched arms each time he sensed a head shake was about to turn into a sprayer-hose of the sticky, red, splatter paint across the windows, the screens, the ceilings even. (Where are those magical elves when you need a deep house cleaning?)

We needed a miracle, and fast!

And thank the heavens, I got that miracle in one brief email. Thank you UK herbalists, Kath and Zoe, miracle workers! It should’ve occurred to me sooner. Me, especially, considering I did start the Herbal Explorations pages earlier this year and have been getting educated on herbal remedies. It honestly did not occur to me that herbs could solve this acute issue. I didn’t think anything would be fast or effective enough, especially when every other thing we were trying had failed and even worsened the problem.

Zoe suggested powdered myrrh as her preferred method in order to stop the blood flow, but we didn’t have that on hand. I ordered some online, but in the meantime chose among her other options, yarrow, and we have plenty on hand because I like it in Kombucha. I made a strong tea with it, as well as grounding some up into a powder and that whole concoction I held on his ear a few times with a cloth, some of that powder getting into the wound and sticking there, and the blood flow finally stopped. Holy Heavens! As of this writing we are still in good form and have our reserve remedies soon arriving in the mail.

What I clearly need now is an official Herbal First-Aid course. Herbs are not just for gentle healing and routine health, I see, they can be used in emergencies, too.

Why did I not think about it sooner?! It seems like such a no-brained to me now, that I’ve started to consider other potentials that didn’t occur to me at the time—like the old Russian folk remedy bees podmore—which I just happen to have been saving for a rainy day for 3 years now.

Quite an expensive lesson, but a welcome one nonetheless. 😊

A huge thanks and deep bow to Kath and Zoe, from all of us on the wee homestead! 🙏 🤗

Technology & Sustainability II

I venture once more into this unsavory file. I have to force myself, because there are about three thousand things I’d rather be thinking and writing about. Here’s the first one in my on-going efforts.

But, it’s the kind of questions that keep circling round and round in my mind day and night. Why are technology and sustainability being pushed on the public as essentially and inextricably connected? With the follow-up question being, and why do folks keep accepting it?

I read and listen to quite a bit trying to wrap my tiny mind around it all. I still can’t. But, do know I’m not giving up, and feel free to click around at some articles and quotes of interest.

All I can come up with is, it’s a classic Bait & Switch.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/04/28/how-technology-is-driving-a-sustainable-future/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/using-technology-and-innovation-to-ensure-the-world-won-t-starve-by-2050/

“Three years ago, Olam International, a global agribusiness company with nearly $27 billion in annual revenue, took a big step toward helping the agriculture field meet its ambitious goals to lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste, and improve the livelihoods of farmers by launching AtSource with Olam, a groundbreaking digital sustainability platform. AtSource makes it possible for customers to trace their products’ origin, measures the environmental and social impact of those supply chains, and offers insights on how to influence them for the better. Customers can view the journey from source to factory for more than 20 ingredients across more than 60 supply chains, and in many cases they can trace crops to specific groups of farmers, calculating the environmental footprint of a specific crop by volume, origin and destination.”

Obviously, this is customers and regulators teamed together to squeeze producers around the world into compliance. It is not that much different than administrators and students taking over academia, squeezing the critical voices out of even tenured professors, which I experienced first-hand.

Businesses will have to employ this technology in order to ‘live up to’ their sustainability pledges according to the Davos Agenda 2022.

I wonder if the rancher up the road has made a sustainability pledge to the Davos kingpins? I dare say he hasn’t the slightest clue what the global public-private partnerships have in store for him, his cattle and his land.

How digital technology can improve your sustainability game | World Economic Forum

“Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, but an environmental, economic and social driver that’s changing our day-to-day lives in almost every way imaginable.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/31/how-technology-can-provide-a-more-sustainable-future-for-the-industrial-sector/

How is the digitization of all life going to create global sustainability?

“For example, a 5G-enabled IoT network allows smart cities to automatically monitor and manage utility systems, helping conserve water, combat pollution and reduce energy consumption. Smart cities will also enable dynamic traffic management systems that continuously collect and process data from thousands of vehicles to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. Additionally, smart agriculture will allow the industry to minimize their use of water, fertilizers and pesticides through a more precise application. This is a significant opportunity, as agriculture irrigation currently accounts for 70% of water use worldwide. Finally, 5G-enabled smart buildings and homes will be equipped with sensors that react to environmental conditions and occupancy to reduce energy consumption caused by lighting, heating and cooling.”

Sure, there are problems with industrial agriculture, this is not news. But why are the only solutions offered requiring so much tech and so many sacrifices for the average person?

Why don’t they talk about why there are such water constraints? What’s causing so many droughts, for example? (Geoengineering and Weather Modification!) Why do we allow industry and corporations and global mass consumerism to exploit our resources? How will digitizing everything change that?

“In recent years, agricultural regions around the globe have been subject to extensive and increasing water constraints. Major droughts in Chile and the United States have affected agricultural production while diminishing surface and groundwater reserves. These and other extreme weather events, like floods or tropical storms, are also expected to be more frequent. Climate change is projected to increase the fluctuations in precipitation and surface water supplies, reducing snow packs and glaciers and affecting crop’s water requirements.
Coupled with these changes, farmers in many regions will face increasing competition from non-agricultural users due to rising urban population density and water demands from the energy and industry sectors. In addition, water quality is likely to deteriorate in many regions, due to the growth of polluting activities, salination caused by rising sea levels and the abovementioned water supply changes.”

Water and agriculture – OECD (check out their site also for plenty of Covid19 and Ukraine propaganda)

All I seem to find is more big business solutions aimed at getting blood from turnips.

What is the role of technology in sustainability? – MAHB

Digitalization to achieve sustainable development goals: Steps towards a Smart Green Planet – ScienceDirect