Over the past few weeks, I have had the privilege of working with some brilliant people on establishing a challenge to virology in order to finally put their (pseudo)scientific methods to the test. Stemming from the mind of Dr. Tom Cowan and meticulously crafted by Dr. Mark Bailey and Dr. Kevin Corbett, theNo “Virus” Challengeis designed to meet virology halfway. We want virology to show us, using their own methods, that they can actually independently reproduce and replicate the exact same results while blinded to the different samples that they will be working with.
I will leave the exact details of the challenge to be explained by the document linked below, but we are offering a first step to finally settle this debate once and for all. Whether the virology community (and those who back them) will accept this challenge (which Dr. Cowan has already received financial backing…
As hot and dry as it still is, we’re still managing to get-r-done. Much has died in the garden, but the weeds and grasses still thrive with irrigation. We used to complain how well we grew grass and weeds, and little else, but we have a different attitude now. It all serves to feed the critters, who in turn feed us, which is a pretty good deal.
The honeybees love the purslane, and we love the honey.
The goats love the morning glory, and we love the goat cheese.
The bumblebees love the luffa flowers, and the pigs love the luffa fruit, and we love the bacon. How fortunate for us this cycle of life!
The volunteer cucumber has shown me we can indeed get fruit in 100 degrees, it just has to be from a fresh plant.
Fence clearing duty, thank you! And who doesn’t love pink zinnias?
Chestnut and WalnutPeek-a-boo!
I think we can tell who will be the next herd queen—Bluebonnet, daughter of the current herd queen—go figure.
Bluebonnet, Queen of the HillMy favorite new pepper this year—Hot Purple Czech; Zucchini still producing somewhat; And grapes ripening very oddly
A fantastic shot from a friend in the northeast US, so amazing, I just had to include it!
Wow! Almost makes me want the new IPhone.
And last but not least, Bubba and Buttercup in their favorite places, which is always, as close to Hubby as possible. 🙂
“American homemakers are increasingly aware of their rich heritage of cooking, of its wide variety as a result of its regional origins. We have the fine culinary traditions of those who settled in Louisiana, Virginia, New England, the South, the North, the East, and the West. No statement of the excellence of the cooking of American homemakers, who are representative of every race of mankind, is complete without a reference to the fine cooking of the Negroes of the South, who are natural gourmets. They seem to have inherited a sort of tradition of good cooking, and it may be that this will have a large place in the final development of a real American type of cookery.”
Introduction, The Gold Cookbook by Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy 1947
Oscar Tschirky
Just a couple of decades later, and in another book, on another topic, which to me at least, is not at all unrelated . …
An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power
“When Lyndon Johnson succeeded to the presidency on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he proved to be a very different president. A decade older than Kennedy, Johnson was fully a son of the New Deal, one with deep faith that government could solve social and economic problems. . .. With the help of an overwhelming electoral victory in November that year, Johnson prodded Congress to pass bill after bill. The Equal Opportunity Act (1964), Mass Transit Act (1965), Appalachian Regional Development Act (1965) Head Start (1965), the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act (1966), Higher Education Act (1967). Along with many other, smaller, programs that involved the federal government in areas of national life it had never before been concerned with, these cause a breathtaking rise in federal expenditures. Nondefense government expenditures rose by a third in just three years, from 1965 to 1968, from $75 billion to $100 billion. Two years later they were $127 billion. Meanwhile, the Vietnam War escalated quickly. In 1965 the defense budget had been $50 billion. In 1968 it was $82 billion.” (P. 382)
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” ― Philip K. Dick *** Climate Engineering: 40 Million in US West Without Water in 2023 – via armstrongeconomics.com Posted July 22, 2022 by Martin Armstrong Our models have been indicating a decline in both the food and water supply, which go hand-in-hand. […]
Sharing a bold buffet of links and quotes, just because. In case you might be bored and/or in need of new material.
“It’s better to be exploited than be useless.” Dare to differ? And who are you to disagree??
“In any event, I definitely feel like some kind of indigenous, gender-indeterminate, non-binary, African-American woman with an incurable-but-treatable emotional disability trapped in the body of a farty old white man. Fortunately, there’s an ever-expanding range of pharmaceutical and surgical solutions for this. I’ll be looking into some of those shortly. For example, although I’m well past child-bearing age, given the fact that I’m now a woman, I could get a womb transplant and become a “birthing person.” I could birth my very own indigenous, pan-gendered, Jewish-African-American baby and chest-feed it unsweetened soy milk on TikTok! Or I could have my genitalia removed and get a full-body skin transplant! And, of course, there’s no shortage of pharmaceutical products to treat my emotional disability, or my chemical imbalance, or idiopathic dysphoria, or whatever I eventually decide it is.”
“The hookah lounge was barren. The hostess was shocked to see me and the hookah-master was aloof as I selected the blend of tobacco that I would smoke from a hollowed-out grapefruit. I felt it was my duty to order a Corona with lime, so that’s exactly what I did. And then I got out my laptop and began to type:
MOSCOW – Despite the stubborn March cold, heroic young ladies in the Russian capital have already shortened (one might say improved) their skirts by at least 15 centimeters. Surely this should give us all confidence to carry on, even as the pillars of western civilization melt away like the last winter frost. What on earth happened, anyway? […] Fear and mindless acquiescence has gripped the western world, and there’s simply no going back. Cultural, political, spiritual and economic suicide are all around the corner. Maybe even a fun little war. […] Predicting what comes next is easy – just try to imagine the worst possible scenario. Now multiply that by a factor of ten. Your outlook is still too rosy, but optimism is only human. Signed: Edward Slavsquat, an American in self-exile in Russia who sometimes writes things on the internet.”
Just posting some happy snaps to distract our attention away from all that’s dying in the garden. And the fact that the hens have mostly stopped laying, our oldest goat is looking dangerously thin, the grass has turned crispy, and there’s no end in sight.
Bubba trying to keep cool
Still, the kids are growing like weeds.
Walnut’s nearly as big as her mama already (back left) and even little Athena (front) is catching up to the rest of the kids.Morning glory, another goat favorite
The birds and the bees are still doing their thing while we can’t manage to stay outside past 11 am.
Unfortunately, so are the ants. The leaf-cutters are slowly destroying our young fruit trees. Only the more mature pear is escaping their attack.
Young peach tree strippedA trail of chopped up leaves reveals the culpritAlmost ready, fingers crossed!
Plants are simply amazing. The purslane and arugula are growing fine and make a great pesto. The sweet potato vines are a goat favorite, the okra’s just coming in, the peppers and watermelons are still hanging in there.
The zucchini hasn’t given up either, and somehow we still have broccoli that’s not bitter.
Just as the old cucumbers got bitter, the new volunteer is producing like crazy. Not too shabby! 😁
It’s hot. It’s dry. It’s miserable. Every day we enter the garden and the orchard knowing we’ll find something else dead.
First it was the tomatoes, then the salad cucumbers and cantaloupe, now it looks like even the tomatillos are giving up before ever producing well. The squashes are all struggling and the peppers and figs are mostly stalled.
I wish that meant it was time to rest on our laurels and have some long, slow and sweet indoor days of movie marathons and Kombucha cocktails.
Cantaloupes out, Watermelons in. Still broccoli and carrots in this heat? Now that’s a big mystery.
But no such luck, because it’s time for making wine!
Our painstakingly cultivated Muscadine grapes are not doing well, we expect a minimal harvest, at best.
But, the native Mustang grapes are a lot tougher, apparently.
So, fortunately! We’re still able to make some wine and jam.
Did I mention it’s really F’ing HOT? And dry?
I’d whine a lot more, except I keep going back to the miracle of all the critters and plants who can take it so much better than we can. Though, I know they are struggling too, and are just less whiney than I am.
And just for those keeping track, the ‘chemtrails’ have not abated.
Drama in the canning community? This sounds serious. Especially now that it’s coming home to roost.
Or is that roast?
Yes, now that Hubby has enthusiastically taken up canning, there’s trouble brewing in Kensho paradise.
It’s not only that he dominates our small kitchen for hours on end, heats up the house with his fancy pressure canner, or is filling every conceivable space with his jars. It’s not even that’s he’s far better at it than I ever was.
No, I’m generous that way, perfectly willing to share in the glory.
I am, however, growing weary of his methodology. His modern, high-tech, USDA, strictly by the book, precision style is beginning to conflict with my laissez-faire, look how the old timers did it, just wing it attitude.
I suggested we try the ‘Open Kettle Method’, which for the record is taken directly from my 1933 Kerr Home Canning Guide.
He quips, “No way, it’s not approved.”
Huh?
And I’ve just learned we’re not alone in this clash. There’s some fiery online debate—wouldn’t you know it—as in politics, so in the kitchen.
They call themselves the ‘Rebel Canners’ and that’s got me quite intrigued. Those rascals are daring to question The Official Science! They must all have a death wish. Clearly they have they never heard of botulism.
It was no sooner than Hubby and I had a tiff over water bath timing that a YouTube video hit the top of my feeds.
How did they know?
A rebel canner, in the flesh.
She doesn’t look nearly as crazy as I thought she would. She brings up the Amish, who never pressure can.
Never! Not even for meat.
It’s positively scandalous.
Hubby tries to block out the insanity coming from the speakers. I tell him I want to try it. Meat, my dear, imagine, meat water bath canned!
Let’s go for it!
He looks at me with the same look as when I try a new foraged mushroom without proper identification. And I know just what that look means.
I can repeat the sentence for him, I’ve heard it so often.
“You go ahead, sweetie, someone has to live to tell the story.”
