Just a couple of vids to share today. I have not (yet) done any sort of deep dive on the Hill Country flooding. I have heard some of the speculation and I’m sure readers could guess my opinion to any question of whether this was a ‘natural’ disaster.
I was confused by this first video showing how quickly the flooding happened in an area that was getting no rain at the time. It looks like something from an amusement park. But, I did hear they opened certain dams in some areas to divert the intense water flow, so maybe that could help explain it. I’m going to look into this part of the operation in future.
What’s far easier to see is the current government propaganda drive, and it’s thick and multi-layered. We’ve got promises of disclosure coming from stooges and patsies being played as blame gets shifted and terminology gets altered.
We will not be led into their narrative spin cycle. That’s why I’ve included the 2nd video. The Spinners want the public blaming small, local cloud-seeding operations, not the global military operations.
NOLAButterfly is the researcher of the 2nd video and has been active for a very long time. Notice how few views she gets, how little exposure. I’ve seen her kicked off multiple channels over the years and get in heated arguments with top researchers like Jim Lee, who definitely looks to me like he’s joined the dark side.
I cannot say if her theories are correct. I can say her silencing speaks volumes to me. From what I’ve experienced and seen myself, I believe she has some very plausible ideas backed by research. She explains clearly in the vid what she sees happening and it’s worth a listen.
Click on the link for the 2nd video, because the embed doesn’t work properly with Rumble videos.
It’s been so long since an update I don’t know where to start. Or where to end, or what to include. But I figure there have got to be a few readers out there hankering for some other news besides the shitstorm coming at us from the global mafia and the media cartels.
Mostly done, finally!
In my last update we’d started remodeling the kitchen. That was a very big DIY job, it took a very long time, and we’re still not totally finished. But we are very pleased with the results that were easy on the budget and tested our creativity, skill and resourcefulness.
I thought I’d include our first time redoing the kitchen, in 2009 when we first moved in, with the previous owners’ belongings to haul away before we could begin. It had been empty for many years and the mice and roaches had taken over. It was a disgusting experience, the worst of which we got to avoid this time, so that was a bonus.
This time we also repainted the ceiling and walls and all the cabinets as well as the breakfast nook bench and storage unit Hubby had built previously. He also replaced the countertops and handcrafted new lighting and shelves, expanding on the same ‘steam-punk’ style as he used on the entryway table he built last year.
Work in progress:
Just installed butcher block countertops, quite the challenge when floors and walls aren’t level or plumb!
After way too many lost hours, I was not always a happy DIYer! But I am pleased with the result.
I spent a lot of time stripping and re-staining the kitchen table. I still want to dress-up the windows treatments and paint the doors and bases of the table and stool. But then we got too busy and had to devote our time to the garden and orchard.
The cucumbers and zuccini that were badly damaged by hail in late spring did make a bit of a comeback, but now are succumbing to the heat.
Unfortunately and as usual, a lot of the time devoted to the garden gets wasted because of crazy weather. This year has been no different and we had a lot of rain at the wrong time for some crops at some stages. The older peppers did fine with it, but the younger ones look terrible and are not recovering. Same with the tomatoes. The heirloom Scarlet Runner bean is struggling and not producing, but is still quite pretty as an ornamental.
I’ll be writing about those seeds, as well as the ones that grew this great big beautiful Black Hopi sunflower (the tallest I’ve ever seen!), in an upcoming post about Gavin Mounsey’s book Recipes for Reciprocity, because the seeds came from him.
These cucumbers were just the right age for survival and are going strong now.
I’ve gotten good at succession planting over the years for the reason of crazy weather. In very early spring I try to get tomatoes, flowers and herbs started, but am often disappointed by late frosts. Days of heavy rain and high humidity with overcast skies can easily cause damage to younger more vulnerable plants in early summer. By this time of mid-summer I’m sowing more cucumbers, herbs, and sometimes beans, but it’s often already too hot for them to get established. At this point, we get what we get until fall brings more hope.
But of course I can’t be satisfied with that and am always experimenting. Often it’s fall tomatoes or melons, which rarely work out. This year it’s the challenge of romaine lettuce through summer. I seriously doubt it’s possible, but I’ve got a tray that has just germinated under lights inside to give it a try. I’ll put them in a shaded box, with plenty of hardwood mulch in an attempt to keep the roots cooler. It’s been in the 90s everyday lately, humid and not cooling off much at night, but there’s still some growing that wasn’t smashed by the heavy rain and hail a couple of weeks ago.
Left photo is view from garden, normally the creek is not visible at all. Right photo is walking along the power easement to the very flooded creek banks.
We also had another big oak tree die suddenly in the prime of life. The last one was just taken (partly) down by the electricity company’s crew because it risked falling into their cables. The latest one Hubby will have to fell himself, before it comes down on the fencing. That will probably be after he fixes his bridge to nowhere that he just built last year in response to flooding and was nearly taken out by this year’s repeat performance.
Sudden Oak Death Syndrome?
In the last two years, with no tornados or hurricanes to blame, we’ve had three large trees right around us flash out dead in a matter of days. Rather disconcerting to me, to say the least.
No such bounty this year I fear.
Still, let’s end on a positive note. Some years are better than others. We had an inexplicably bad blackberry year, but this year was excellent. Hubby made blackberry wine with much it, which was much better tasting as a young wine than the one I tried to make and age last year. Some years we have amazing tomatoes. Other years it’s great melons. Maybe this year it will be spectacular grapes?
It doesn’t take much for fabulous meals when food is fresh. Fermented herbs and veggies add flavor and nutrition with just a little garden surplus or foraging time. The chanterelles always do better with lots of rain. Hubby’s delicious young blackberry wine makes such a refreshing spritzer when mixed with kombucha. Eating seasonally from our land is so rewarding even when we don’t have a bumper crop.
I have a long list of content coming up during the swelter season, so all the more excuse to stay indoors. Thank Man for air condition! 😆
“In conclusion, the use of military climatic and environmental modification technologies appears to be the most relevant explanation to understand the increase in natural disasters over the last 20 years.
“For a half century, the military has been developing technologies to turn climate and extreme environmental phenomena into weapons. This study is a literature review, which was conducted with the following objectives: 1/ to expose the known powerful military technologies of climate and environmental modification; 2/ to emphasize that many extreme environmental events observed in recent years coincide with the effects that these military technologies are able to generate; 3/ to analyze the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the origins of the increase in natural disasters. The literature used comes from official sources: peer-reviewed scientific articles (except one); patents; intergovernmental organizations; military documents; policy documents; university documents; national newspapers; news agencies; writings by respected scientists in their fields. Results of the literature review reveal that HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program), the most powerful ionospheric heater in operation, is able to influence climate. High-power electromagnetic pulses in the earth’s crust, produced by a mobile magneto-hydrodynamic generator, is a technique developed since the 1970s to trigger earthquakes. Directed energy weapons, a real technology, can ignite destructive fires at range. For several years, official documents report effects on health and the environment similar in all aspects to those that would be detected if solar geoengineering by stratospheric aerosol injection, a climate-altering technique, was used. Due to numerous biases and a lack of objectivity, the IPCC’s arguments on the causes of the growth in extreme environmental phenomena (heat and cold waves, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, 75 droughts, floods, wildfires, air pollution, etc.) are flawed. The solar hypothesis isn’t appropriate either, given its low activity for several years. In conclusion, the use of military climatic and environmental modification technologies appears to be the most relevant explanation to understand the increase in natural disasters over the last 20 years.”
Folks keep sipping on their Hopium bottles despite all evidence pointing to a big, fat, juicy Nothing Burger.
The States are outlawing Geoengineering! Even Texas has jumped on board! Nonsense. This will have zero impact, not even the Texas Weather Modification Association cares about these new ‘laws’ or proposals, because they know they won’t stop anything, or go anywhere.
Individual states continue to ‘ban’ Geoengineering. Dane Wiggington continues to pretend this will make some great awakening happen and folks will begin brandishing their proverbial pitchforks after decades of silent tolerance and cowardly sniveling.
This is nothing more than posturing and stalling and making themselves feel better. It may also be their opportunity to file lawsuits against the chaos-creating of these public-private partnerships poisoning the atmosphere, destroying infrastructure and ruining people’s lives.
If they happen to profit from continuing to sell their airspace to the highest bidder we can rest assured that Ordinary folk will never see a dime from those lawsuits.
“I live in TN and have been emailing the governor regarding the fact that they are definitely still spraying and today emailed Steve Southerland who sponsored the bill. Here was his response. Thank you for reaching out about SB 2691. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has notified us that they will not be enforcing this law. I recommend that you reach out to Governor Lee’s office to voice your support for the bill. This is his office number: (615) 741-2001. I would say unbelievable, but I can’t say that I’m surprised. I knew it seemed too good to be true.”
Too good to be true? Read that again: “The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has notified us that they will not be enforcing this law.” They can’t even get the cooperation of their own State’s environmental protection agency! Come on people!
NOAA does not recognize any “spraying” EVER. Even when they are actually spraying for “legitimate” weather modification. That is, for the operations they recognize, which is primarily cloud-seeding for snow augmentation and hail/fog suppression.
From their own Q & A section:
“What if I see streaks in the sky and I think someone is modifying the weather? These are contrails, produced by planes. Contrails are the condensed products of combustion and vapor generated by airplanes traveling at higher altitudes where the atmosphere is colder. They have been prominent atmospheric features since the beginning of jet plane travel in the early part of the twentieth century. Official observations of contrails were made just after World War I as planes began to fly at high altitudes. NOAA does not have federal responsibility for regulating airplane exhaust, and we do not manage the National Air Space. The Environmental Protection Agency establishes aircraft emissions standards for any air pollution that could endanger public health and welfare, pursuant to the Clean Air Act. The Federal Aviation Administration administers and enforces emissions standards FAA factsheet (pdf)”
Weather Modification Project Reports – Weather and Climate Collections – NOAA Library at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
One need only to recognize the typical pattern of the Federal/State/Local deliberate, yet unofficial, quagmire which we see at play at any level we choose to observe.
For example, something as simple as cannabis laws. For another example, any crime against humanity ever committed.
Politics as usual, it’s a game of Hot Potato, like when Clinton was governor of Arkansas and claimed the Iran-Contra “Scandal” was a Federal issue and then when he became President declared it to be a State issue. After many, many millions of taxpayer funding was spent on ‘investigations’ and nothing changed and no one implicated got more than a slap on the wrist. (Or murdered, for those who found themselves on the wrong side of their game.)
In fact, it was International Organized Crime, just as Geoengineering is. That the “environmental” agencies play along just shows they know what’s really at stake and aren’t willing to lift even a pinkie finger for the public good.
They will continue to play Hot Potato with these international crimes against humanity.
And it’s about far more than just the weather, as if that wasn’t enough already.
For those willing to do some due-diligence:
death by aluminum – the toxic aluminum thread that connects vaccines, 5G, dew’s, geoengineering and ‘wildfires’
No sooner do folks start looking up and questioning en masse the filth-filled skies and crazy weather than the government’s public-private partnerships double down.
The mass marketing and mass regulation phase has entered the theater. Now there will be university-level competitions on how fast and effectively they can poison the skies, and all of life, in order ‘to learn’ about the atmosphere.
Just as a reminder, conspiracy theorists have been screaming about this since the turn of the century. Serious activists have been making documentaries and knocking on every conceivable door, from those of every corridor of officialdom for a minimum of 15 years. All effectively denied and deflected until very recently.
What does that mean for you? That’s why this is so important, right? That’s why I keep harping on about it (pun intended HAARP, get it?)
Now the costs will be absorbed by the public even as the consequences to us increase, globally. Just like with vaccines, the perps have zero liability. The public bears all costs, financial and otherwise.
“The Department of Energy (DOE) is one of 15 federal member agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) established by Congress in 1990 to coordinate federal research including, but not limited to, Solar Radiation Modification (SRM).”
U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Experimentation – Zero Geoengineering
Two more voices who convey what so many of us keep repeating, it’s happening, it’s not a proposal, it’s not just theory.
And furthermore, it’s going to get worse, not better. The government is not ever here to save you. The experts and professionals ALL rely on the government at some level.
Allow me this simple wish through advice I don’t repeat often enough: skill up folks, please, real life skills, not just prepping for a few days without grocery stores. The kids have got to learn some real life skills, and how will they do that if the parents have no skills? The Internet? OK maybe, but how can they apply them, how will they know, if their parents are still doing nothing? Saying nothing? Preparing not at all.
If that is you, and for some reason you still read this blog, I’m talking to you, personally.
Learn something useful! Pay it forward! For free, if you possibly can.
And thank you very much for reading, and considering. A solemn and sobering solstice blessing to you.
The chem-filled skies continue into our Yo-Yo Season, formerly known as fall and winter.
I suppose art students are now learning to draw filth-filled skies as fine and normal the way we used to draw puffy clouds as kids before the 90s.
Scientists will be taught that aluminum, barium, strontium are all to be expected in our snow and rain and soil.
We’ve been talking about it for a decade, providing all the proof we could get our hands on, and the government put their blinders on like good little minions and the greedy scientists and corporate media spinners did as they were told in order to keep collecting their paychecks and pensions.
And now it’s all coming out. Officially, finally. “Conspiracy theory” is no longer an out for them. IT’S OFFICIAL!
IT’S NOT JUST CONSPIRACY CRAZIES POSTING PHOTOS OF CONTRAILS. WOW!
SO THESE REALLY AREN’T JUST BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS AND FUN CLOUD FORMATIONS MADE BY THE WEATHER GODS FOR OUR ENJOYMENT?
WOW!
So now what? What does it all mean? Trump’s here to fix it all, right?
No silly! Now comes the part where we get Global Governance, through more war and manufactured disasters blamed on nature. The big reveal, the book Behind the Green Mask was published 13 years ago.
Looks like it’s all happening right on schedule. With the exact same people hiding information for the last 50 years leading the show.
22 November 2024 | ZeroGeoengineering.com | Planning, development, and implementation of weather interventions and atmospheric experimentation are funded by Congress and directed by interagency groups including those in partnership with the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).
The USGCRP was established by Congress in 1990 to coordinate ‘global change research’ and collaboration with international and federal agencies.
Ending USGCRP interventions will require repealing federal laws including but not limited to, the National Weather Modification Policy Act, the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization Act of 1992 and Trump’s Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law No. 115-25, Title IV, sec. 402, 15 U.S.C. § 8542.
I’m sure our crafty disaster capitalists will be filled with hope and solutions. Anti-radiation suits. Fancy new protective devices.
I’m sure the high fashion industry and the home and garden gurus will have plenty of new high-tech solutions to save us all. And the ‘detox’ solutions, of course. So many solutions! Don’t worry!
“Did you know radiation is a central component of weather control?
At the heart of weather experimentation is NEXRAD, or NEXt-generation RADar and the transmission of microwave radiation pollution. The cell phone you hold in your hand and the cell phone towers it’s communicating with are transmitting and receiving microwave radiation. Shown below, definitions of pollution and pollutants from Verizon and AT&T”
Surface modification control stations and methods in a globally distributed array for dynamically adjusting the atmospheric, terrestrial and oceanic properties
“Surface modification control stations and methods in a globally distributed array for dynamically adjusting the atmospheric, terrestrial and oceanic properties. The control stations modify the humidity, currents, wind flows and heat removal rate of the surface and facilitate cooling and control of large area of global surface temperatures. This global system is made of arrays of multiple sub-systems that monitor climate and act locally on weather with dynamically generated local forcing & perturbations for guiding in a controlled manner aim at long-term modifications. The machineries are part of a large-scale system consisting of an array of many such machines put across the globe at locations called the control stations. These are then used in a coordinated manner to modify large area weather and the global climate as desired.”
Listen to the beginning of Dane’s broadcast this week where a man confronts the (supposedly ignorant) atmospheric terrorists and makes them squirm like the worms they are! 😆
An article worth sharing and which re-emphasizes for me the Catch 22 tied up in a tight Gordian knot that is this topic.
I haven’t shared this site in the past because it calls for a government solution, and I believe government already has its paws all over these projects and nothing they can or will do can possibly be of any benefit to the average person.
However, like this site proposes, I also want it banned. So, therein lies quite the predicament. How to stop something like this without the Global Governance structures that are exactly what the perpetrators want in place?
On to the article.
The Governance of Geoengineering in 2025+
July 19, 2024 | ZeroGeoengineering.com | The false “solution” of geoengineering as a “remedy” for environmental crisis follows a model that readers may understand as the Hegelian dialectic –problem, reaction, solution.
In his 1968 article, How to Wreck the Environment, Professor Gordon J. F. MacDonald of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles describes the use of weather as a weapon “peculiarly suited for covert or secret wars…Such a ‘secret war’ need never be declared or even known by the affected populations. It could go on for years with only the security forces involved being aware of it. The years of drought and storm would be attributed to unkindly nature and only after a nation were thoroughly drained would an armed take-over be attempted.”
More than a half-century of geoengineering,weather, and climate modification has resulted in catastrophic weather extremes, incalculable harm to life, and damage to property. This engineered climate “problem” is promoted by media, globalists, NGO’s, academics, militaries, and corporate interests to stoke fear in the population and induce a public “reaction” urging governments to “do something” about the “problem”. The solar radiation modification (SRM) geoengineering “solution” is then promoted by the same entities who engineered the crisis.
A 2019 policy memo in the Journal of Science Policy & Governance, An Approach to Scientific and Legislative Governance of Solar Radiation Modification Research in the United States states: “With a lack of domestic and international policy, researchers will continue to self-govern research into SRM.”
Society faces a crisis in policymaking. In order to honestly evaluate the climate “problem,” the history of weather and climate modification must be added into the current equation.
Geoengineering is environmental warfare and is therefore not “governable”– it must be banned.”
(View the full article here, which has many relevant links and references.)
Most folks I know don’t believe Geoengineering is actually happening, they’ve bought the conspiracy theory narrative. So, I guess the first they’ll believe, over their very own eyes and experience, is when we have Global Government controlling our weather.
Because there’s no way technologies like these will not be used by someone, somewhere. It’s simply a matter of who and when. And of course, who is willing to fight wars in order to control the most powerful of all weapons—our atmosphere and weather.
It’s been a challenging month on the wee homestead. We’ve had some successes and I am still hopeful for more positive outcomes, but I focus on them overly, because I’m being a bit avoidant, because really, I’m still concerned.
The determinate tomatoes are long gone already, but Hubby’s made many delicious jars of puttanesca and salsa for our future enjoyment. Must keep up morale!
So I’ll share about that this post, along with some happy snaps and surpluses, to help the medicine go down. I know it’s part of the lifestyle. Life, that is.
Yes, I’ve gotten better at it. That is, the death part of life. But also, we must understand our own limitations, and for that we must first broach them.
So if there are still any rose-colored glasses sort of readers remaining here, armor up.
Bye, bye Bluebonnet.* (I share more about my observations on her death at the end, for those who choose to go there.)
I’m so sad to say we’ve lost one of our new mamas, and her mama, our herd queen Summer, has also been very ill. Several of the does are too thin and are not producing enough milk. This all happened quite suddenly. I was training them on the milk stand for a month, even getting a bit of milk from one, I had high hopes of daily cheese-making by now.
Summer and her daughter Bluebonnet, who I figured would one day replace her as herd queen.
The learning curve is so very high and I’ve set myself impossible standards. I do understand that, though that understanding changes little.
I want a treatment-free herd, or no herd at all. Like with the bees, which took me years of failures, I simply cannot stand the industry standard. I cannot abide such total reliance on pharmaceuticals and exotic inputs from far-off lands. I cannot trust the science. I refuse to believe the only way to raise healthy pets and livestock is to poison them with vaccines and parasite treatments and feed them full of processed foods.
There has got to be another way! A much better way!
And I aim to find it.
We are not directly poisoning our garden and still have plenty of success despite the manufactured crazy weather.
I truly believe a large part of the problem is the processed foods causing the need for the supplemental treatments. It’s a vicious cycle and I want off, and I want ALL I see around me every day off it also, including the land, the water, and the air and ALL the critters!
Is that so much to ask?!
But I already know the drill, thanks to the bees. Every professional and expert says that’s impossible. Like with the gardening when we first got here. Every farmer, every gardener, every Farm & Ranch professional, repeating—You’ve got to spray. You’ve got to treat.
There’s a swarm up there, can you see it?It came off this hive and we watched it, amazing! The large pine in front of the tractor is where it stopped. Too high up to catch, but I’m happy to report another totally treatment-free colony repopulating the county.
“Here, follow this quarterly poisoning routine, and all will be well.” NO!
Is it any wonder they all readily accept without objection whatever the hell is being sprayed over our heads at regular intervals?
The latest geoengineered filth-filled skies over our property.
We’re not giving up yet. As long as we have irrigation it will be a jungle out there. But without it we’d be screwed, that’s for sure. It hasn’t rained for nearly 3 weeks.
(Photos below Left to Right) The datura is a blessed monster. The sweet potato vines are prolific and a favorite snack of Summer’s. The melons and green beans are thriving. The indeterminate tomatoes and some of the peppers are doing fairly well under the shade cloth and I’ve been succession planting the cucumbers.
From the front: New cucumbers coming up with purslane to help cool the roots and shading from above, old screens protecting some struggling Romaine lettuce, and a growing grove of well-watered elderberries.
We’ve also been lucky to get some wild grapes, which are now fermenting along with the mead and the blackberry and mulberry wines.
He is literally Hubby’s Shadow!
It’s not an easy life, but it’s a life well-lived. Our first figs of the season, along with our last blackberries.
A Czech classic—so simple—Bublanina, made with blackberries or any number of fresh fruits in season. (Comment below if you want the recipe and I’ll post it. )
*The observation which I’ve found most interesting from Bluebonnet’s death, was that her kids adjusted immediately. She died the evening of the full moon last week. She left the corral with the rest of the herd in the morning, she seemed to be improving, I thought. But then in the afternoon she planted herself under a tree on a hill and wouldn’t leave, even when evening came and the rest of the herd returned to the corral. I went and sat with her there at sunset and stroked her neck and she laid her head on my shoulder. I wanted to be hopeful, but I felt she knew, and I felt horribly helpless. I hope that the feeling of helplessness is the worst feeling in the world. The next morning I woke before dawn and I went back to the tree in the dark, the full moon shining on her corpse.
There was a bit of relief for me that her kids adjusted so quickly. I find it odd really, it was like an immediate weaning. While her mama, Summer, is so ill she stopped producing milk, but her kids are still so attached to her their health is also suffering because they won’t go out and eat with the rest of the herd or accept being bottle fed. I’ve been mixing them special feed dosed with milk replacer and they are doing ok, and Summer today joined the herd again to forage, which I’m praying is a good sign. 🙏
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.
