That disgusting-looking melon is the first one to be halfway decent this year. We nearly fed it to the pigs out of looks alone. Our cucs and melons have been crap. We don’t know why. The cucs were bitter by their first harvest, the melons are ripening in a most bizarre haphazard sort of way that half rots while the other half remains unripened.
It’s not quite the same as the old adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’
that ugle cheese on the plate is a first-time cheese experiment success. and damn how I needed that yesterday. a soft, non-renneted fresh cheese wrapped in fig leaf and aged for 6 weeks.
I love cherries so much I display them over our own grapes, also coming in half-ripe, half-spoiled, on the same bunch.
That is, cherries from Walmart, on special at an irrestible $2/pound! On my once-a-month town run, which I mostly loathe, especially when it includes Walmart!
We call it a ‘bad year’.
I’m exhausted.
Hubby barrels on in the heat on our new bathroom, while I wither.
Bad years are to be expected, yet . . .
What will it take to see it through fresh eyes?
Tomatoes and feta, ugly, but still pretty tasty!
We don’t typically expect how that will feel.
Whether good or bad. It sort of molds into a morph-space best called ‘unexpected.’
I was not raised to be a ‘tough times’ sort of girl. I struggle every summer here, I complain in writing every summer. I think it helps, but, only because it helps me, to carry-on.
Seduced by slogans
I only became a fantasy tough-times type through marketing. So, forty years later I really understand its power.
My maternal grandfather was a salesman who used to try to warn us about marketing. He used to turn down the commercials on the constantly-on TV. The commercials were often the only part of the selected programming that I liked.
moisture in the cheese from fridge failureMajor cheese aging breakdown, a day’s unexpected work, severe frustration.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or, so the slogan says.
I liked this sewing lady’s take, she seems more aware and accepting of the times than I am. Sometimes inspiration comes from the oddest places. Thanks for that.
Luxury comes at great costs we rarely acknowledge, especially the appearance of it.
A homestead happenings post complete with dirty DIY pics, jungle-garden updates and my attempts at calm amidst the chaos.
While I see others around the world are thrilled with finally warm temps and blossoming gardens, we’ve already hit the hot mess stage. I’m embarrased a bit to include pics of the jungle that just a few weeks ago had several brag-worthy elements.
It’s so hot, wet and fertile here the seeds are coming up anywhere!
Oddly, not the cucumbers nor the onions. We’ve had bad onion years before, but cucs are our biggest no-brainer. I can’t recall ever having a bad year, normally they are so prolific they become pig food by this time, but this year we haven’t even had a big enough harvest to pickle, and they’re already dying back in the swelter. I’ve succession planted and can only hope whatever fluke has hit them, the youngens will bounce back by next month.
I guess it’s relative, when I see the onions displayed like that in Hubby’s hand-crafted bins, it seems ok.
The green beans in Hubby’s monster row are producing by the bushel and I’m already sick of them. We’re too unsettled with the bathroom DIY to do any canning and have even stopped harvesting them. Such a shame, I do hate to see them go to waste, but it’s all I can do to keep up with all the other chores.
Like the flowers! I know, it sounds rather frivolous compared to beans, to devote my painfully precious hours of manual labor to flowers instead of food, but they make me so happy I’ve gotten over it.
These Black Hopi sunflowers were actually volunteers from last year’s seed gift from Gavin Mounsey who sends heirloom seeds to those who buy his book or become a paid subscriber to his Substack newsletter–so worth it, a gift that really does keep giving! 😘
They are so rewarding and of course very functional as well. These giant sunflowers are not only gorgeous, but they serve as mid-day shading for the tomatoes and there are pollinators all over them. I even saw a squirrel up there eating the seeds. Too bad I didn’t have the tablet, it would’ve been a great shot, but I didn’t even see him until he started barking at me when I was picking tomatoes right underneath him.
First bloom of the lovely Blackberry Lily
Meanwhile, while I’m goofing off, Handy Hubby gets to experience male priviledge. Mr. Know-it-All likes to impress me and the dogs with all his savoir-faire. I know he secrectly delights in sweating and rolling in the dirt under the house with Buttercup. He’s totally thrilled that the bathroom remodel has turned into dirt to rooftop overhaul and his fancy tile project has been delayed by a month and tidy unplanned sum.
But not only was the subfloor coated in mold and mildew, but the piers and beams were sagging and unaligned and the drainage was partially blocked. He had to dig all that out and replace some and add more and while unexpected, it wasn’t terribly surprising. It was built as a camp cottage in the 80s, no one ever lived here full-time until us.
Considering that, Hubby says they did a good job and that the quality of materials for a camp cottage back then was leagues better than what goes into the pre-fab modern construction. We’re really lucky we got on this whim to remodel when we did, because that mess was only going to get more ugly with time.
That’s the bad news. The good news is the other development that grew spontaneously out of this project–I now have a real flex-room–a place for fermenting and seedlings and maybe just lounging. Considering how small our place is, I know it sounds a little crazy, but considering we’ll most likely never move again, why not? There was a big bed in there that just made for useless space, now it’s full function. Or rather, it will be, whenever the bathroom gets done.
Hubby is never so impressive to me than when he is in Mission-Man-Mode. He has a single-minded, goal-oriented side to him that perks up with such vigor suddenly you’d think he was once again a 30-something in hot pursuit of a sexy young thang (and by that I mean me). 😂
Seriously though, it is impressive and he can work leagues past my breaking point when he’s in the zone. And Youtube is another godsend sometimes, the two of them in lockstep is like any DIYers dream couple. Between that and the regular influx of inspiration from the home shows on TV, there’s really nothing a devoted follower can’t learn, it seems. How marvelous to be learning so much still at our age!
I nearly made the same mistake with the Chinaberry tree as I did a decade ago with the Mimosa tree.
I must make even greater efforts to De-institutionalize my mind.
It’s like with the official Farmer’s Market, in the small city 40 minutes away, which grows along with the city, but doesn’t get any better, because there aren’t enough farmers and there are too many regulations.
A treasure from a local plant swap now starting to bloom, Plumeria, how exciting! how it will hopefully look one day! It’s the tropical delight used for making leys in Hawaii, with a delightful fragrance.
Meanwhile the very localized, small, rural events have been well worth the time. At one we got several new plants I’m still excited about.
Catalpa tree is another I’ve been longing to grow, but only found available through a local swap.
Catalpa blossoms, the ‘worm tree’ as it’s called in these parts I’ve just learned from a local angler
And at another we ate better tacos than we’ve had in years. And at the last one I gave away lots of cheese, because I’m still too apprehensive about selling or even bartering it. Giving it away to strangers felt a baby step closer to that potential future possibility.
So it goes with the Chinaberry, too. At least this time I didn’t waste an entire decade believing the official nonsense that these trees are invasive and toxic and in the case of Chinaberry, even illegal.
But I did still waste almost a year, and that’s why I’m complaining now.
I’m disappointed with myself. I thought I knew better by now. But damn if old habits don’t die hard.
It’s not the same story exactly, but it sure does rhyme, and the refrain harkens back to a very common problem, not just my own.
I still did not trust my instincts, wisdom and preferences quickly enough.
Put into perspective, and relatively speaking, I have come a long way. I’m much better than I used to be and considering I know folks who still think vaccines are safe and effective, I could afford to be a bit more self-forgiving.
But I’m not getting any younger and time’s a wastin’! Trees don’t grow overnight, you know!
My little Chinaberry foraged/stolen from the abandoned lot where I first fell in love with it.
Instead of spending that year trying to identify the tree and wasting lots of precious time, I should’ve said at first sight–I love it, I want it, I will have it.
There is something magnificent about that speckled mahogany bark, those tropical-looking yellow berries, the glossy deep green foliage surviving even in drought in the dead of summer, that sleak curve of the trunk and the little grove it’s trying to form. I must have it. Pure instinct.
Instead of trying to germinate the berries, which is so much more challenging with many trees, I’d have taken cuttings right away. Instead of going to official sources, online and through various experts and professionals, I’d have gone to the most local source I could find, folks living in these parts for many generations.
I was given wrong identifications online, and from our university extension service that is the Master Gardeners, the usual Corporate-State fear propaganda of ‘invasive’ and ‘toxic’ and unsafe.
Because if they don’t sell it at Walmart or Lowes, it’s got to be bad. Because if it’s an ancient medicinal, it’s got to be poison.
They think they mean well, I suppose, sometimes.
But othertimes I think nope, not at all. They don’t mean to do well at all, they mean to stay compliant with the authorities. They mean to collect their paychecks and their pensions. They mean to think themselves well-meaning without ever examining themselves.
When we first came here and first becoming gardeners and stewards of this land, I vowed beyond our veggies I’d grow only ‘native species’. I didn’t know any better and that sounded to me like an admirable approach to a new venture.
I now think the term ‘native’ is itself highly suspect and what’s considered ‘invasive’ is highly relative and shifts with the breeze of the current oligarchy.
I will be satisfied when my intuition (I want that tree!) trumps my logic (what’s it called?) at the speed of the mind of a 3-year old.
It really is about the mindset, but not in the relentless Positivity sense of ‘everything is possible’ of the pop psychologists paid to entrain us to the status quo, but rather in the learn to Trust Yourself First mindset. Even in baby steps, even prolonged over decades, even against the tides more often than not.
No, not everybody, but enough to make it miserable for the few malcontents who just want to be left in peace and who care for truth and beauty over comfort, convenience, or malignant and uniformed collaboration.
Next post, all about the splendid, but illegal in Texas, Chinaberry tree.
That’s all this post, just some photos I like with a bit of commentary.
My first year growing Cosmos and I’m loving them!
I started to look up what sort of moth this is enjoying the Cosmos and I stopped myself. I’d like my first impulse to evolve from always wanting to name and label and define, often before I even truly and deeply experience. I think that chimes back to the old adage, ‘Stop and smell the roses.’
Another first flower for me in the garden–Tythia Mexican Sunflower–my how the bumblebees are loving it!
Our bees are remiss to allow me to split them lately, even though they appear to need more space.
In years past I’ve complained I have too little dill to last the year and it bolts so quickly in the heat. This year I swung in the opposite direction and have so much I don’t know what to do with it all.
We agreed to have an easier garden seadon since we are very busy remodeling the bathroom, which has already grown into remodeling the 2nd bedroom/office/cheese room/seedling space, but somehow that never works out.
We’re getting loads of green beans from Hubby’s super green wall which also includes Trombetta squash, luffa, sunflowers and volunteer tomatoes.
The lettuces and peppers are doing great and we’re getting loads of tomatillos already. We decided on those over tomatoes this year because the green salsa is so delicious.
And the chanterelles are abundantand the Mimosas are blooming, and I just can’t resist.
I’ve been working on the latest addition to the Herbal Explorations pages, another demonized tree I’ve finally been able to identify and start growing and I’m so excited, the Chinaberry tree, called invasive and deemed illegal to buy, sell or import into these parts. The usual official nonsense that attempts to destroy the reputation of yet another beneficial and medicinal species.
More on the gorgeous Chinaberry, of Persian lilac in the next post.
That’s a photo from online, but I hope mine looks like that someday!
Here is the happily growing young Mimosa I dug up from the road 2 years ago.
Some wild flowers on my route to my milk lady’s house.
It was too much news last time for one post, and I didn’t care to skimp on the cheese bragging, especially!
But then I got sent off on a cheese tangent when trying to simply explain why most commercially-produced cheese on grocery store shelves should not even be called real cheese anymore.
In fact, maybe even some of these fabulous-looking cheeses from traditional French fromageries like I used to love to frequent might also make the fake food list. I sincerely hope not, but France, like all of ‘the West’ are increasingly subjected to the same chemical onslought as we are in the US.
Making cheese is the best thing I’ve ever done. In my life, without exception. Thanks to it, I have uncovered some of the rarest, most simple, deepest and most common of universal life lessons.
No offense to Handy Hubby, marrying him is definitely a close second. 😆
I’ve heard similar magnanimous claims recounted only through such trials and tribulations as come through miracles such as child birth and motherhood. But I have not been a mother.
Don’t cry for me though, because I found cheese!
From it I’ve delved into the practicalities–the art, the craft–of the most delicious hobby I can imagine. I have also been either introduced, or expanded my knowledge on topics as diverse as vaccines, germ theory, pleomorphism, alchemy, modern chemistry, even math–some things which I rejected with ease or sometimes ferocity–which now claim me, my mind and passions and preoccupations, like one conquered, lured and pushed, exposed and protected, by some ultimate wisdom.
Anyone who knew me in my younger years would be surprised, I’m sure, as my sister was, that I would willingly and repeatedly entangle my brain with math and science. Not that either is entirely necessary for traditional cheesemaking.
Every cheese pictured here, and plenty more that are not, I’ve made with the same 4 ingredients: locally-sourced raw milk, our own animal rennet, clabber and salt.
From David Asher’s fantastic tome, Milk Into Cheese: The Foundations of Natural Cheesemaking Using Traditional Concepts, Tools, and Techniques
Most commercial producers of cheese believe that packaged starters are the only option for cheese’s proper production; that milk is deficient in the appropriate microbes and rich in dangerous ones; and that they are incapable of realizing the work that is normally done by trained microbiologists. DVIs (Direct Vat Innoculants–freeze-dried starters) are considered the only acceptable way to safely make cheese, and the most convenient option for producers, big or small.
He’s too polite and wise to say the industry has been completely captured, but I do believe he’d agree with me on that!
Industrial starters are by and large produced by multinational corporations. Danisco, the most prolific starter producer, is based in Denmark and is a subsidiary of DuPont. This corporation and others like it profit off cheesemakers’ demand for a product that they do not truly need.
Industrial starters are monocultures of microorganisms that have no precedent in nature and need perfectly sterile environments in order to function correctly. They are out of touch with the reality of cheese, which needs dozens if not hundreds of species of microbes to evolve according to their safest and most flavorful pathways.
The deception on the foundational level, resting on disproven science from the early 1900s, is bad enough. But the consumer sees none of that, instead being swept up in extremely dubious marketing practices that call these starters natural and necessary.
And that’s even before we delve into the mass manufacturing of “vegetarian rennet” –that is the lab-derived coagulant now used by the vast majority of cheesemakers large and small around the West and perhaps the world, which also also claims to be natural.
Four ingredients. Just think about that for a moment, please! That is all it takes to delight, and/or to disgust, in a thousand different ways.
Labeling, on cheeses as on GMOs, is simply another way to con the consumer. The process is as important as the ingredients and changing the meaning of words is par for the course. More on that next post as I delve into the “Nutrition” label of a popular cheese brand.
Fermentation and the art of putrefaction is the process. Technically putrefaction is the wrong word, though it does sort of work!
Affinage is the correct term for the fine craft of cheese maturation. According to AI the difference is:
“Putrefaction refers to the decomposition of organic matter, which can negatively affect cheese quality, while affinage is the controlled aging process that enhances the flavor and texture of cheese. Proper affinage prevents undesirable putrefaction by managing environmental conditions and microbial activity during cheese maturation.”
So it’s basically desirable putrefaction. It’s like the difference between a weed and an herb, it depends on whose garden it is.
But still, think about that! Like aging fine wines and wiskeys, even hot sauces, this is proper fermentation, where territory REALLY matters. Where some old-school crafters even insist no one else can touch their concoctions or they’re immediately spoiled. True story!
It’s POD taken to an extreme unknown even to our own extreme-loving culture.
POD, or DO (designation of origin) is to the cheese world what Provenance is to the art world. It is, literally, about ‘savoir faire’ (know-how) –being able to trace the work, the process, back to its source.
Perhaps so that industry can try to capture a piece of that magic? Individual and smallscale crafters in the market are not allowed the same right to privacy as the Big Food manufacturers, who routinely get to claim “proprietary” status whenever they care not to divulge their special little secrets.
Aging cheese, affinage, is an art, craft, indeed a profession, so ancient it predates our recorded history. It has nothing at all to do with commercial pasteurization, or chemically-adulterated cheeses, which has absolutely compromised the craft. Which has been further compromised by a negligence of public health standards and an indifference to territory and creating a GloboGlob culture that is so synthetic it now considers consuming chemicals as food ‘natural’.
And if you are among the great many who are allergic, they don’t tell you it’s because they’ve completely adulterated the ingredients, the process, and even the meaning of words, oh no, they tell you ‘plant-based cheese’ is the next great thing they’re creating just for you!
The new ‘art’ eh? I think not. But time will tell.
Our tastes tell us a much bigger story than our grocery stores care to oblige. And the ever-increasing health consequences and debilitating diseases point to our palates and our plates, which should take their rightful place at the top of that pyramid of problems.
Cheese is full of life and how each cheese is treated determines its outcome. Kind of like children too. It is not a source of disease, though like rearing anything, it can be a source of dis-ease!
I also feel such a drive to protect these precious processes. The downright bastardization of what’s considered natural in these times is only escalating toward greater absurdity. “Natural” and “only possible to manufacture in a lab setting” should not be synonomous!
If that makes me a food snob, I am pleased to claim the title! We’ll need an army of Queen Food Snobs to push back against this crazy.
We’ve got a sad-but-funny Shadow story, the usual weather nonsense, garden goodies, another instance of AI lies, lots of cheese bragging, the will of pigs, my creativity commitment, all in no particular order.
My how they’ve grown!Spring 2024
We’ve had both new setbacks and new achievements so far this growing season.
The false friend of an early spring might feel nice for some temporarily, but most got slammed hard by the subsequent freeze weeks later. We lost all the fruit trees except the citrus, which Hubby’s been painstakingly covering and uncovering all Weather Whiplash Season. The figs, mulberries, magnolias and even the oaks got it the worst as they were already well leafed out.
The lovely wild cherry we uncovered about six years ago when Hubby cleared for the new chicken coop was another sad loss, again. It looks so beautiful full of blossoms, but only once did they last long enough for a cherry harvest. If it’s not the late frosts, it’s the wind, or the bag worms that destroy them.
I’m sure it has nothing at all to do with these totally natural clouds that come right in lockstep with our strange weather, I’m certainly not seeing any patterns and I surely don’t imagine these are some sort of chemicals that fill the sky and do weird things like change the atmosphere, and the climate. Heavens no!
What crazy talk! This is just beautiful big Texas country skies, that’s all!
On the fun success side of things, we have the earliest pepper harvest ever, by far. This was no thanks to the weather either, but rather to my laziness. Now that’s a rare and welcome anamoly! I had excellent success for the first time over-wintering three varieties, after multiple failed attempts. The trick seems to be to never move them. Whereas before I’d haul them in and out during our warm to freeze snaps, thinking I was benefitting them with all the extra effort, in fact no, they did best parked in front of the window for three months.
We’ve already had a little harvest because I feared the still small limbs so heavy with fruits might not fare so well in our next big wind.
The strawberries are another big success, which I finally achieved after so much trial and error, especially error. So successful I shared wheelbarrows full of plants with many friends and neighbors, one who asked to share my tips with the Master Gardeners county extension newsletter. So, here they are! It is certainly a high maintenance crop, but such delicious rewards.
We were able to save the majority of tomatillos from the freeze, but not the tomatoes, not sure why. We had to double cover them, with pots and then frost blankets on top, but that worked. We’d already opted for tomatillos over tomatoes this year for a nice change of pace.
The onions and garlic were not bothered by the freeze and are still growing strong.
plus we’ve got lots of carrots and lettuces, while the crucifers jump directly to seed in their seasonal confusion.
We were also able to get an early jump on blooms we housed with the citrus, so that’s fun. I never tire of more flowers!
Even an extraordinarily early datura!
In other happy news there are always the cute little lambs.
They appear so sweet and harmless, n’est ce pas? But don’t ask our poor terrorized Shadow to agree with that assessment!
Friend or foe, sometimes we don’t know.
He looks, and often acts, like a big brut. But one mama has such a hate toward him he can’t even cross the yard in her presence! Hubby literally has to escort him if the lambs are in the front yard, she will charge at him from 15 yards, and even his meanest growl won’t keep her from butting him if he’s unprotected by a human. The poor dear, it must be terribly immasculating. 😆
Please refrain from shaming the Shadow, he’s a lover not a fighter!
But speaking of fighters, pigs can be extremely pig-headed, in case you didn’t know that slander is very true.
Hubby had already decided to take a sabbatical from pig-rearing last year, and planned it for this spring. He put old Papa Chop down in December after his last breeding hurrah. Seems providence wanted to put a fine point on that decision, by making this round particularly painful. Knowing a big storm was coming, he positioned Mama Chop’s birthing area under cover. She had other ideas, probably because it was so damn hot. They tusseled for two days, she won. Just as Hubby predicted, 3/4 of her litter drowned. And that’s the end of his breeding adventures.
Other changes in our territory are equally ambiguous, are they for better, or for worse? Two opposing, and/or related events. One on the plus side–we seem to be having a resurgence of wildlife. I’ve had multiple sitings of wild turkey, and now we hear some down by the creek seeming to have taken up residence there. I’ve heard many stories of abundant wild turkey in these parts from oldtimers, but in nearly 20 years here had not come across them. Feral hog are another story, they’re always around. But there’s been more deer too, it seems. And rabbits, squirrel and bobcat. No complaints from me, I love to see it! Though I do wonder, might it be because all the oil activity here now is forcing them out of other nearby habitat?
Time will tell.
Friend or foe, sometimes we’ll never know. Like this little guy, lounging in our garden shed, who didn’t seem to find me nearly as cute as I found him! As he struck at the bill of my cap and made me jump like a squealing teenager.
Harmless, I know, jump and squeal I still did! 😂
The last two points will have to wait–my creative commitment and the latest AI lies–they are intrinsically related, please stay tuned.
And the cheese bragging! Coming very soon!
And thanks for stopping by! Until then, a simple song, for us simpletons. 😆🤗😘
Another one from the deep archives, 9 years ago this month. In reflection what I wish is that I’d had more time to elaborate and get better photos. Noted, but probably not improving much in all these years. Maybe that’s why it had zero likes besides my own?! Room for improvement.
I know in these old posts formats and links are screwy. Sorry about that, but hope it’s still of value to someone, somewhere, sometime, besides me.
3.20.2017
Some iconic lines in films imprint on the psyche collectively and I know you could think of one right now that instantly crosses several generations and continental divides.
“You can’t handle the truth!” Name that film, name that actor. Could you even name his co-star in that blockbuster?
Somehow, somewhere, as a collective, we’ve given ourselves over to worship and celebrity and fantasy and distraction in the most destructive ways. I am not resolved from that influence and never will be. I watched TV constantly for years in high school, only to give it up for years later in exchange for an exhaustive social life, only to give that up more years later for work I found most of all, exhausting.
I had/have this secret fantasy I’m going to share right now (again). After hurricane Katrina, right after, when I heard on the news the city was more or less safe, and me many hours away in a quaint bed and breakfast drinking wine with lunch, the hurricane widely reported as much less dangerous than anticipated, but that residents would need to stay away for a few days at least for safety precautions, I was glad. Nearly giddy, and not from the wine.
I had just started a new position at Tulane university and already I didn’t really want to go back. It took a day or so more before all hell broke out and select areas of the city flooded terribly and all residents had to stay out indefinitely. In our case, we were allowed to go back after two months. For some, it was never. We lived in a trendy and relatively upscale area right on Audubon Park. It was a beautiful spot, both before and after the hurricane. Some were far from so lucky and they’d been there many generations, not just two weeks, like us.
I do hold shame for this secret fantasy, because I still feel it. When I dwell, necessarily, in the dark places of my life and the world, I know there is much sickness, far too much. Far too much destruction, voluntary and deliberate and needless. Still, I have dwelt in destruction.
And there is too much wind, dammit, all around me lately seeming to get worse every year. It’s bloody annoying! We had no winter and now no spring. The plants and animals struggle with it far less than I, but still, I know, they do.
Wind is really stressful! This makes me smile, because there was a time I lived in Chicago and worked downtown and yes, the wind was legendary, but it was mostly something I peered at from the window and got annoyed at how it affected my hairdo.
But the wind is far more powerful and penetrating than I had, and I think most, ever realize. Is that not what blew down the house of each of the three little pigs?
They are blowing, those wolves, our weather right now is as manipulated as the currency market. And in my secret fantasy I sometimes can’t help but wonder—would we all be better off in the long run if they would just blow it all down? Roses blooming at the same time as the dogwood?! It just ain’t right.
This week’s breadcrumb, I’ve got so many I’d love to share this week, but this one is so essential it needs to stand alone.
Unslaved podcast, exploring the self in the work of Ayn Rand and others.
As the world reboots, this is where the rubber will meet the road.
After I got over the shock of hearing the squeals of a drift of wild hogs crashing through the forest, and the fear that I’d lost our dearest Tori, I was amazed to see her come through the trees clearly proud of herself. Still a fav, La Duchesse de Brabant, unfortunately with a bad case of ‘black spot’ but which I’ve been treating with whey, banana peels and chicken poop. Tori’s ‘Illuminati’ pose, hehehehehe!
A combo post–a bit of Homestead Happenings with a bit of my favorite conspiracy theory.
We are having our New Normal weather whiplash where 1/4 of the population pretends the weather has always been like this; another 1/4 couldn’t care less about it, normal or otherwise; 1/4 who think it’s all manmade, but not by tech, by carbon pollution; 1/8th who LOVE the idea of man controlling the weather; and the final 1/8th who believe one of the following: it’s NAZIS controlling the weather, aliens are controlling the climate, a global ice age is coming, too many paranoid plebs are actually causing climate change through their malignant minds, or, the world’s militaries have been using weather tampering against the public for many decades.
23 February 2026 | ZEROGeoengineering.com | Report below published in 2021 by the Land Forces Academy Review evaluates the use of weather influencing technologies and their impact on global security. The authors discuss potential damage resulting from weaponized weather changing activities: “artificially increasing the level of precipitation in order to cause floods and paralyze the enemy’s transport communications; artificially reducing the level of precipitation, in order to cause drought in enemy territories and difficulties in the supply of fresh water; the creation of unfavorable weather conditions that impede the conduct of hostilities (increased wind speed, deterioration of visibility); violation of radar and radio communication by direct impact on the Earth’s ionosphere. The use of technologies for changing the weather for military purposes leads to the destruction of infrastructure, paralysis of the economy, losses in agriculture, disruption of the work of state and commercial structures, mass casualties, large financial losses and demoralization of the local population.” Olena Shevchenko and Kira Horiacheva, Impact of Weather Change Technologies on Global Security, Land Forces Academy Review, Vol. X XVI, No. 4(104), 2021, DOI: 10.2478/raft-2021-0042
“increased wind speed?” check “unfavorable weather conditions?” check “artificially reducing the level of precipitation, in order to cause drought?” check “demoralization of the local population” check, check and check! Well they can certainly count me in! It’s indeed demoralizing to see the bumblebees out because it’s over 80 degrees for a week and all is blooming, only to then frost and kill all the buds. Including the fruit trees. Or to be told by a young gardener that ‘winter is our dry season’. What? Since when?! So I guess all seasons now are our ‘dry season’. Except for when it suddenly floods in one county while the neighboring county stays bone dry. Or the crazy winds that make these sudden and highly unnatural shifts with storm-level gusts that continue for days making any outdoor activity really unpleasant, if not impossible. Soon every five mile radius will have its own climate, and the technocrats will cheer, even if it makes vast swaths of the world uninhabitable by all but the scorpions and robots and data centers.
Can you see the honeybees on the henbit? The henbit does really well as a groundcover even through our last ‘wintery mix’ (used to be called snow). They also like the other early bloomers and I LOVE to see them. But, for bee sustainability it’s not a good thing, necessarily. If they build up their colonies too quickly too early there will be a lot of starvation of the young brood if (when) the temperatures plunge again killing off the buds.
Until that time I guess we’re stuck here counting our blessings.
We did get that frost, and now we’re going right back up to the 80s.
A few garden blessings doing well, one box under protection with lettuces, radishes, the last of the crucifers, some parsley and cilantro
Crucifers, like many veggies, do not like weather whiplash
Atleast if we can share some credible and valuable information while it’s available to us, the next generation might know more what they are in for when they move to the country thinking they’ll start a farm or homestead in order to escape the rat race. Newsflash, you might want to research underground gardening, because between the inclement weather and the cost of energy you won’t be able to garden, indoors or out!
It really helps to start seed indoors, an extra protection from weather whiplash season, but it’s not exactly economical these days. Growing here are lots of tomatillos, my garden mission this year, and more broccoli, flowers, squash and lettuce.
Everybody’s doing it, nowhere to escape!
Oldfield, J. D., & Poberezhskaya, M. (2023). Soviet and Russian perspectives on geoengineering and climate management. WIREs Climate Change, 14(4), e829. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.829
“Soviet science contributed significantly to our understanding of anthropogenic climate change and, as part of this, played a central role in the emerging science underpinning climate modification and geoengineering initiatives. A key focus of discussion was the use of stratospheric aerosols linked to the innovative ideas of Mikhail Budyko and colleagues. This work had its origins in what has been termed the theory of aerosol climatic catastrophe, which gained prominence in the Soviet context during the early 1970s.”
Onions also don’t like weather whiplash, but we usually get a decent crop I finally got most of the strawberries replanted. They multiplied like rabbits last summer and I gave wheelbarrows full to the neighbors and still plenty went into the compost. It’s taken quite a lot of effort to get the strawberries to multiply during our summers, but I think I finally figured it out. We’ll have to wait and see how well they produce in a couple of months. I’ll keep y’all posted!
Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to watch your skies!
Just some happy snaps with minimal commentary this post, because it’s been too long. With more coming very shortly, as soon as my new keyboard arrives, because I loathe the hunt and peck method of the digital keyboard.
Some aged cheeses and winter herbs: smoked cheese on lees, kenshobert, pepper havarti, dill havarti and cheddar, with some fresh sage, cilantro and rosemary.
My biggest cheese this season from 9 gallons, caraway cheddar aged in a poke-tinted tallow coating. Unfortunately, it’s not my favorite. Fortunately, others like it fine so I happily gave the whole thing away.
My personal favorite, my signature Kenshobert, a local take on Camembert.
A large dill havarti and variety of experiments, most quite good!
Sharing a charcuterie board of cheeses and cured lamb.
A winter harvest of romaine, onions, herbs, radishes and even an orange from our little shrub and some cherry tomatoes because it’s been so unseasonably (and unnaturally) warm. Plus a pot of today’s milk becoming clabber for tomorrow’s cheese.
A Christmas bumblebee!
Unusual winter roses turning strange colors.
A few more happy snaps . . .
A darling bird of prey I watched right off our balcony from our recent quick roadtrip to Gruene in the Hill Country.
Also in Gruene, a so-called ‘mud-flooded’ building, more coming soon on that conspiracy theory in the new year.
They have preserved some gorgeous trees there from the ever-encroaching urban sprawl, and more power to ’em!
I wrote about Gavin’s book and gift of seeds recently, and now I’d like to share a bit about the recipes and his approach to gardening, food, cooking and life in general that I align with so much I can easily overlook our superficial differences–like we’re at nearly opposite ends of the gardening calendar, we’re decades apart in age, and I would normally never buy a vegetarian cookbook.
But as I already said, it’s much more than a cookbook. And I have too much respect for Gavin’s work to shun it just because it’s vegetarian! 😆
I’ve got a dozen pages marked of delicious-looking dishes I can’t wait to try. A number of dishes are already on our regular routine, like sourdough pancakes, heuvos rancheros, enchiladas with salsa verde and refried beans, and Greek salad (and we make it with homemade feta!)
At the top of my ‘Must-Try’ List: Shakshuka. The name alone sounds alluring!
We do eat a lot of vegetables and we always have salad daily and I’ve gotten plenty of new ideas–combinations I hadn’t considered, like a zucchini salad with mint–I’m often wanting to use more mint, it grows like crazy here.
The recipes are very adventurous too, drawing from diverse cultures and culinary traditions–Ethiopia, Morocco, Bali, Mexico, Greece, Thailand –which I truly appreciate, because we tend to get stuck in a bit too much of a routine sometimes. When the garden produce is rolling in by the wheelbarrow, there’s not much time to get creative.
The lovely and edible Borage flower, used as a garnish in Gavin’s Gazpacho recipe on YT. (Photo credit: Kath-UK)
In fact, on the things that really matter, we agree completely.
Like on the importance of fermented dishes, and especially sauces, because the ones that are mass-produced are full of chemicals and highly processed garbage. It’s hard not to sound preachy, maybe even impossible, when telling folks how terrible their diet most likely is. But it’s the plain and simple truth.
I still go to the grocery store from time to time and I see what’s available and what’s in most folks’ carts and it’s pretty hard not to get judgy and to bite my tongue!
The difference a few dietary adjustments can make over time is really impressive–and it starts with naturally-grown fresh food.
Considering the vast majority of folks are outsourcing their health to Big Ag, Big Food and Big Pharma it’s not any wonder why our societies are collapsing under the weight of it all!
I’ve been enjoying goofing around with the free meme-maker ap using Gavin’s gorgeous photography and inspiring quotes. 😊
“In the past hundred years or so most people have forgotten about those ancient fermentation practices because of the advent of ‘instant gratification’ mass-produced products has allowed for entire generations of people to become completely dependent on corporations that supply them with the ‘food’ they need to survive. These ‘ultra-pasteurized’, pre-packaged, chemical-laden ‘food products’ are devoid of life, contain very little if any nutrients and are produced in ways that cause much damage to the planet’s ecosystems. Though eating prepackaged factory food (with unpronounceable ingredient lists) might be considered by some as ‘normal’ by today’s standards, it is certainly not a ‘norm’ that is conducive to longevity, sustainability or common sense.”
With thanks once again to Gavin, for his great many gifts, and for sharing them so graciously and generously. I’m already looking forward to his next book!
