Shooting Mockingbirds

He now knows I’m hunting him, no doubt.  I’ve shot twice and missed.  I’ve never been a good shot.  Now, he knows that.  He strategically positions himself like a bull’s eye in the small window of wires just above the transformer.  His predecessor did that too.  What are the odds?

His predecessor hit the grass thanks to Handy Hubby, a far better shot than I.  It’s not like we make a sport out of shooting birds.  We love the birds!  But please, don’t let their small stature, or innocent and cute demeanor cloud the fact that they are really loud, opportunistic, clever and occasionally infuriating.

Did you know mockingbirds will go on all night long?  So, when they’re right above the bedroom window, I’m sure you can imagine how exceptionally annoying it is.  That is, if you’ve ever heard the mockingbirds go on and on all night long.  They must be the most annoying-sounding birds ever, right after guinea hens.  It would take a real saint to suffer through it incessantly, I’m sure.

The mockingbirds are, as James True has made me deeply consider, gifts of Ba’al.  They force me to get up from my cushions, to feel the shame in my lack of skill, to suffer their shrill monotony, to become a better shot.

They make me understand that irritation is a very powerful motivator for me.  And my own limited threshold for verbal abuse, and my own cunning, and sensitivity, and impatience, and so on.  For better, but moreover, worse.

I got lucky this time, don’t know why, seem to be riding that wave lately, at last.  I heard him out, while weeding in the garden.  He went on and on, right over my head.  I was so tempted to get the gun.  But I thought, let me try my patience today.  A little self-test.  I didn’t notice he’d gone until a day or two afterward, remarking on the silence suddenly, while weeding once again in the garden.

How calm and quiet, what’s changed?

Low and behold, the mockingbird was gone, and no replacement has yet appeared.  But, the same morning I realized this, which was yesterday, I had to rush our old dog Papi to the vet, half his tongue is paralyzed, well into his throat and he can’t eat, is drooling badly, has a fever, and they’re keeping him for the weekend under sedation.

He’s old and sometimes as annoying as the mockingbirds.  He’s always been our ‘problem child’.  It’s been fairly constant for his now 12 years—in and out of the vet for snake bites and ear issues and inexplicable poisonings.  He’s fond of disappearing for days, one time he came home clearly overdosed on mushrooms.  He drives me into a regular frenzy by, in general, being a real hooligan.  I miss him already, a lot.

Not that these random instances might be related or anything, just noting the timing, just in case.

Get well quick old buddy, your annoying antics are missed already.

Her Mother’s Jade

She gave us a million dollars, surely we can grant her this one thing?  Keep it alive, that’s all she asked.

Her mother, she says, was a saint.  This jade came through her, and through her mother, and her mother’s mother.  Jade is a special sort of plant, kind of like a Wandering Jew in that way, give it what it wants and it’s immediately invasive, take it out of its narrow comfort zone and it withers dramatically before dying.  Your negligence would be in the spotlight for months while you went on not noticing, or, not caring.

She was a saint, it is said.  She could knit through wails for twenty minutes before noticing a thing.  Once trance broken, “Oh, Oscar stop already” muffled huff, return to needles.  Oscar scoffs, and stops.

Saint is code word for Expert of Dissociation.  Give the lady another medal. She could read or knit or drown in TV while the seas parted around her, and remain oblivious.  She could minimize and whitewash every ‘love bite’ and ‘love pinch’ and smile, or shrug, or eye-roll her way through a dozen abusive slurs.  That’s what it means to be a saint.

Long-suffering Jades, pass it on, don’t forget, don’t neglect, and always, pass those seeds on.

 

 

Blind Empathy

I’ve had a recurring nightmare for a decade or so.  This is not unusual for me, I’ve had them all my life, the contents and themes just shift.

I only have an elementary knowledge of dreams and their symbolism and I avoid over-researching in this domain, because I believe these things to be highly subjective.  But still, I try anyway to record them and discern their meaning through dynamics happening in my life and all around me.  I know someday I’ll have a broader lens and previously unseen layers of the dreams will be revealed at the right time as long as I don’t fall for the illusion and convenience of ‘forgetting’.

This most recent recurring stream recently ended and I’m so glad for that.  I believe energetically the message the dream meant to convey was purged, after a traumatic few months last spring, which thanks to any kind readers who’ve hung around that long and are paying attention, because I don’t have to repeat the entire storm scenario.

This recurring nightmare was different, but very similar versions of losing everything and being lost—being alone in a big, foreign, sometimes bustling, sometimes abandoned city, unable to contact anyone because I was without money, had lost my wallet, phone, even my shoes and sometimes clothes.  I’m always barefoot in these dreams, on the pavement of a foreign city, completely without support or resources.

Then just over a week ago the dream shifted, dramatically, for the better.  It started off just the same, no wallet, no shoes, no phone, no contacts, in another crowd, of this time all women.  I’ll skip the boring details.  It was some kind of meeting group in a mall, I set my bag down for minute, then walked outside.  Once outside I realized I’d forgotten my bag, knew just where, went right back in, but the bag was gone.  I immediately yelled at the women there to give me back my bag, that I know someone took it, and I was very angry.

All of sudden, a woman threw my bag back at me.  And then a dozen women began throwing at me all the wallets I’d ever ‘lost’ (in the dreams).  I was stunned, but happily so, and was marveling at all the different shapes and colors of them from over the years.  My anger that they might have been stolen, and my shame that I’d lost them, dissipated instantly.  I smiled, dropped them all and walked back out the door.

Today I read two excellent article by Michael Tsarion, and listened to an interview on it.  It struck me that these passages are related somehow to what I hope is the permanent passage of this nightmare for me, and also where I think the culture in general is currently circling the drain.

I wish I had the insight now to connect the dots for any curious readers, but I’m afraid I don’t.  I think it’s one of those cases of knowing what you’re doing without knowing what you’re doing.

All text below from either of two recent MT articles: Souls in Darkness and/or

Children of Thanatos

“Basically, human consciousness and behavior are directed by the search for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. The Marcusans decided to co-opt this basal tendency and use it as a tool for building the utopian society they wish to see replace Western civilization.

The Marcusan plan was to establish a society based on the Pleasure Principle. They believed they were following the course of history, and that their dream was quite rational.

Success was assured as long as one systematically removed obstacles causing distress, want and injustice. Hence the welfare dependent “Nanny States” that now proliferate throughout Europe and America. Hence the endless supply of bread and circuses and “good times” had by all.

Nine times out of ten, there’s not much wrong with the psychopath’s sexual life. Why should there be? It’s just a physical act. Because no feeling is involved, and because there’s no genuine care for the other person, what’s the problem? The psychopath has no hang-ups in this regard, no need to sweat bullets like a neurotic or seek out head-shrinkers to help him develop confidence with the opposite sex. Sex is mere recreation for the psychopath.

Indeed, male psychopaths often have no problem getting dates. Many women actually find themselves attracted to them, adoring the fact that they can finally be with a “man” uninhibited by loathsome morals, ideals, sensitivity, hang-ups or qualms. They just get on with it, and don’t care about boring social graces. In extreme form this condition is known as Hybristophilia.

Since the psychopath is unencumbered by emotion, he can easily focus his brain and learn things quickly. If he already has a high IQ, his success is certain. This is why we find a great many psychopaths in high places. They covet the power offered them by religious and political appointments. Our present hierarchical systems make it easy for psychopathic types to excel. Indeed, our world is infested with them. Without upgrading our psychological knowledge, we have no way of ridding ourselves of their loathsome presence.

Sadly, no expert on pathological types dares utter a word of this in public. There’s no longer any mention of the effect on society of psychopaths in high places, and no comment about how whole nations can be psychopathic.”

Butterfly Language, Caterpillar Peeps

But, he had a mental illness.
But, he meant well.
But, he was a good provider.
But, I’m uncomfortable when you agree with me exactly,
at the exact wrong moment.
And, by the way, Happy Fucking Mother’s Day!

Homestead Happy Snaps

Just another loungey Sunday on the wee homestead.  And just wanted to share a bit of it with y’all.

Peek-a-boo, I see you, hiding in the geranium!

Handy Hubby crushes again crafting a chute for loading livestock.

 

 

I’ve just tried my first hive split of the season, fingers crossed!  And I came across this excellent document, for any beekeepers, or wannabes, transferring a typical nuc/ hive into a TopBar.  I’ve not tried it yet, but it looks very do-able on paper.  I really like topbar, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons, like esthetics, lack of upper body strength and general laziness.

How to convert a Langstroth nuc into a TopBar hive

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As much as I can appreciate spiders, this one had to be evicted from a bait hive, sorry little fellow, but I know the bees don’t love you like I do.

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Our one Langstroth hive, bedazzled, the only hive I use more conventional methods. Still completely untreated, but with full foundation and a queen excluder in order to harvest the honey.

The garden is looking fabulous, fingers crossed again.  With just a bit of good fortune, this will be our most fruitful year yet.  After last summer, with almost no garden due to a shoulder injury and gaping miserably at large downed trees all over our property, it’s hard to even express how wonderful that feels.

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One of over a dozen, over one year later. Eventually they sort of look like yard art.
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Wild grapes growing great!

Two antique roses I planted about 7 years ago and have no time to bother with, yet they still do their thing.  On the left is Apothecary, a rambler great for rose hips.  Behind Buttercup, our most agreeable model, is Chestnut, needing some serious pruning.  Ain’t got no time for that!

Moving to the veggie garden, a friend gave me seeds of cardoon, a great heat-loving alternative to artichokes (which I’ve tried to grow every year we’ve been here, with no success).  I’m hoping the cilantro will bolt more slowly tucked tight under the eggplant.  I’m trying a new supposed cilantro substitute this year called papalo.  We will see if it’s even remotely as delicious as the real thing.

One of my favorite herbs, chervil, aka gourmet parsley, with a hint of anise flavor, already bolting because it’s a cool season crop.  And one of my favorite wild plants, mullein, because it’s really cool looking, but survives the heat just fine, not to mention it’s many medicinal benefits.

I’m enjoying a YT permaculture channel new to me, a bit high on the marketing for my taste, but loads of good info for the beginners or the old hats, nonetheless.

Twilight Zone Episode 19-Cov-ID

It was a small town, deep in the Piney Woods. There was the usual traffic.  Every drive-thru food establishment had lines around the corner, mostly with $60,000 pick-up trucks.

The grocery store shelves were full.  Signs everywhere boasted reasonable prices  : $6.99/beef tenderloin
$1.99/rack of pork ribs
$.69/pound chicken quarters
$2.29/dozen eggs

Yet, new employees emerge wearing bright vests emblazoned with a new title:  ‘Social Monitor’.   Vaccines are promised at lightening speed.

In the dinosaur media, new lingo and new rules fill the crevices that fact-banning once carved out: social distancing, home quarantine, face masks, flatten the curve, global lockdown, hotspots, crowd restrictions, contact tracing.

In the alternative media, looming threats of food shortages, mass starvation, accusations of vast conspiracies spin through a dark web of shills and trolls.  Scapegoats are threatened and delivered.  Crisis actors mingle with confused arm-chair detectives while artificial intelligence collects all the Big Data of the Virtual One World Takeover.

It was a pandemic.  It was a Plandemic.  It was the fog of war, against a virus.  Welcome . . .

Actor Forrest Compton of Twilight Zone fame dead of Corona virus at 94.

 

 

Homestead Happenings ++

++ Why this is the greatest Apocalypse ever!

This is so hard, because it is so good.  Kinda like when Elon Musk says, “It must be real, because it looks so fake.”  OK, never mind, hopefully the opposite of that.

It’s just, well, here on the wee homestead things are really good.  But, it’s hard to talk about that when I know so many are really suffering.  I don’t want to boast, or say I told you so, or wag a shaming finger, because it’s not like that.  It’s really not.  I don’t want, like, intend, wish, prefer, or otherwise conspire to see others suffer. 

Well, maybe once that happened.  But he totally deserved it.

But, it’s not hard at all to talk about how good things are with many of those in our local community, because they get it. 

(Or with the crew on James True’s livestream, whoever and wherever they are.) Lord, or God, that is the question.

We still greet with hugs and hand shakes.  We’re not wearing, or home-making, masks, for the most part.  Few noticed the restaurant closings or curb-side only service, because most of us can cook.  Folks miss their churches, sure.  Some miss the libraries.  Some get annoyed at the grocery stores. 

But otherwise, those I know mostly think this is all much ado about nothing.

And just as I refuse to pretend it’s good when it’s bad, I also can’t abide saying it’s bad when it’s good.  That would be like pathological empathy.  Been there, don’t intend to go back.  It’s a road to nowhere.

Hubby’s employer has delivered their second round of layoffs, so he’s probably next to lose his job. (Note to self: Be careful what you wish for.)

Our nearest neighbors finally started a garden of their own, and even got St. Croix sheep, like ours.  And livestock guard dogs.  On our one little dirt road there’s now about 12 dogs, that’s about four per household.  How fun is that?!

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One local friend just gifted me three high-quality top-bar hives, since she’s decided to go full Langstroph after an overload of frustration. Lucky me!  She has the cutest kids I’ve ever had the honor of knowing, homeschooled, unvaxxed, growing their own gardens and whipping through the fields on 4-wheelers at 5 years old.  Beat that, Gates of techno-hell!

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She also lent us her prize, papered, top-notch breeding ram, for free.  He’s just been introduced to his latest harem, ours, and he was ON like Donkey Kong.  We’ll have a meadow full of little lambs in no time.

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Ladies, check out my Fruitful package! (her girls named him Kiwi, hmmm)

Another nearby friend sold us her little old stock trailer for a good price and gave me seeds of a squash she loves that I’ve never tried before, Trombetta.  Can’t wait to taste them.

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I gave a SCOBY to another nearby friend, and now she’s as totally into Kombucha as I am, and along with the ram-lending friend, we are trading tips and recipes as excited as girls of the old Matrix trading Charlie’s Angels cards.

Sunday here is same as it ever was. 

A walk in the woods.  A gander into what’s coming out good this year (berries are abounding!)  A dip in the creek.  A tour through the gardens.  

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Got some great heat-loving greens going: Arugula, Oak-leaf lettuce, Malabar spinach
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What else is growing on? Tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peppers, herbs, okra, eggplant, etc.

A lounge in the hammocks.  A full scale effort to exhaust the dogs.

Mission accomplished.

  

Guillotine Gates

The man who invented the Guillotine—Joseph Guillotine—widely praised for his compassion.

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The man who re-invented NOVEL vaccines, to save us all from certain death—Bill Gates—also widely praised for his compassion.

Do we really create our own problems?

It’s all how you look at it.  Every challenge is an opportunity.  You reap what you sow. That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  It’s a spiritual battle.  Staying positive is essential.  Crisis is a gift.

I’m glad to know a precious few who find these platitudes repulsive.  Most of the folks who repeat them call themselves good Christians or Course of Miracles brand New Agers.

Well, but, you have to make the best of it, right! What else can you do?  That’s called Enlightenment these days, by the way.  I guess I used to be quite Enlightened, but now I’m terribly Embittered.

That boy born with one eye is actually lucky because he got to develop his ‘cosmic sense’.  Same with that boy whose doctor gave him a vaccine that gave him polio—having only one leg is a true growth opportunity.  Autism’s just another word for special.

It’s like the Cat Stevens song I used to teach my English as a foreign language students for a fun lesson of translating lyrics—Moonshadow—“If I ever lose my legs, I won’t cry and I won’t beg.”  (Great for teaching vocabulary.  Maybe not so great for living actual life.)

No, of course not, who needs legs, because, then you’ll sing, right?  You’ve still got your vocal cords, maybe that, along with one hand, and you can start a revolution from your bed.  Who needs to eat really, either?  You know there are spiritual masters who live in caves for years without eating.

Really? Good for them!

Honestly those repeating such nonsense to someone who would’ve really just lost their legs need to ask themselves who they are helping—because I’d bet the ranch they do it to make themselves feel more comfortable when confronted with another’s tragedy.  Don’t worry, be happy!  Because you’re just simply a dull jackass when you’re not.

Getting canned means you can follow your dream career now.  Wearing a mask means you’re saving the elderly and the children, don’t you feel heroic.  Just keep pushing the boulder up that mountain, and when it comes back down, do it again.  You’ll get used to it, we promise.

You think you know something about life? About pain? About darkness? You who sit comfie on your cushion and traveled India on a trust fund?  Did you have to skip a meal one day, oh so sorry, that must’ve been so tough.  Do you fast, by choice? Was that divorce difficult? You poor dear, but now you’re so woke, so it was worth it, right?

Spin. Spin. Spin.  To all those wanna-be alchemists and magicians chomping at the bit out there, that’s not transmutation, just fyi, that’s sugar-coating.  But don’t worry, you’ll eventually figure that out, because as soon as you experience actual, real-life, pain and suffering, those platitudes and fake attitudes will make you nauseated, finally.  Or at least I hope.

Let me tell you a smidgeon of actual truth, for every one person who manages to make and sell their lemonade crafted from chaos, there are dozens more who don’t. You’re welcome.

But still, tell the controllers, thank you.  Repeat, three times daily ‘Thank you sir, may I have another?’

Follow with seven times ‘Mantra of Slave Class’—A.A.S.S—Adapt, Adopt, Serve, Smile. And Love it! Big smiles!

Until we say, “No Smiles!” About Face. Adopt Mask.

In fact, there’s no easy path for the truly righteous few.  You’ve got to get your hands dirty.  You’ve got to discard the cushions and rainbows and unicorns and silver linings.

Now, with all that proper bitchiness said, here’s the real rub.  I think James True is spot on—This is the Greatest Apocalypse Ever! 

More on that in the next far more pleasant post. 😉

The Resistance Grows! – LewRockwell — MCViewPoint

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/04/allan-stevo/the-resistance-grows-10-examples-of-americans-resisting/ By Allan Stevo It is becoming increasingly evident that the lockdowns are an over-reaction and a power grab by power hungry and sociopathic authorities not being kept in check. Henry David Thoreau writes “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” As if channeling the spirit of the man who […]

via The Resistance Grows! – LewRockwell — MCViewPoint