traditional culture – Kensho Homestead

Daydream with me

Then imagine grounding those dreams in our harsh reality.

Another of Gavin Mounsey’s provocative polls has me more deeply considering something I often daydream about.

What if money were no object? What if you could create anything you desired with a bottomless budget? Oh the possibilities!

In these daydreams my foundation point is naturally something I genuinely believe would be beneficial for the future of mankind, which naturally includes benefitting nature, as our earth and only home.

To that, Gavin’s added a couple of caveats:

Poll: If you were offered 100 million USD under the condition it must be used for benefiting the bioregion you live in and the 7th generation that comes after us, what would your plan be?
September, 2026’s poll in the Mirrors For The Mind, Heart and Soul series

I will turn my perpetual daydreams into speculative plans, sounds like fun and something I naturally excel at!

Gavin:
“So many on Earth today have cultivated their gifts of vision, intellect and heart that they could be channelled to make their communities, their watersheds and their bioregions so much more abundant, beautiful and healthy, and yet they tell me that their vision for gifting beauty, ecological regeneration, wholeness and empowerment to their communities is limited by their access (or lack thereof) financial resources.

Today, I would like to break those shackles from the minds of the good hearted and righteous by proposing a thought experiment.
If (as some say) the only thing standing between what is and what can be is a clear vision, faith and belief (the law of attraction and manifestation) than I want to plant the seeds for clear visions, hopeful mindscapes and best case scenarios to take root in your hearts and minds.

Daydreams into Realities, this might take some periphery explaining. And, it includes a plea to share your ideas for ‘gifting beauty, ecological regeneration, wholeness and empowerment’ too, either here or at Gavin’s Newsletter.

First, since this is bioregion-specific, that means folks should understand I’m talking about beginning right here where we live, East Texas, which many believe is something like the Texas they see in Hollywood movies, which is West Texas, and nothing like it here, so that faulty image needs to be corrected.

As a working title for my plan: Free the Waters

“The Piney Woods cover a 54,400-square-mile (141,000 km2) area of eastern Texas, northwestern Louisiana, southwestern Arkansas and the southeastern corner of Oklahoma.

The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering 54,400 square miles (141,000 km2) of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and oak. Historically the most dense part of this forest region was the Big Thicket though the lumber industry dramatically reduced the forest concentration in this area and throughout the Piney Woods during the 19th and 20th centuries. The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States.[2] The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines most of this ecoregion as the South Central Plains. In Arkansas, the region is sometimes called the Arkansas Timberlands.”
Piney Woods – Wikipedia

This is a huge area, obviously, and I would never want to be confused with someone promoting any sort of central planning, so my focus is far more localized and set on slowly and consciously re-wilding nature and re-integrating communities with eco-friendly landscapes and lifestyles without relying on the current standbys for profiting from the land, which are: development, tourism, monocrop farming/ranching.

In this endeavor I would use my past professional experience in higher education and the example of Edward Slavsquat’s efforts on the other side of the world to create an Institute of Village Studies. I hope he does not expect me to name it after him. I would give him a small donation for the idea, or better yet, offer his children future dividends or some cool scheme like that.
https://open.substack.com/pub/edwardslavsquat/p/how-many-persimmons-does-a-man-need?r=87pg2k&utm_medium=ios

Part of this idea also stems from an existing institute just west of us in Waco where I first learned cheesemaking and beekeeping, which also teaches many other traditional skills and crafts, like soap making, sewing, baking, animal husbandry, smithing, etc.
Ploughshare Institute for Sustainable Culture.

My vision would be to organize the institute around a shared vision rather than a shared belief system–non-denominational, non-political. It also differs from a traditional sustainability model in that the focused goal would be ecological re-integration over current market expectations. By that I mean we would not be open to the general public, our mission would be to create a prototype others in our bioregion could follow, for complete economic seperation from the state. That is food, water, energy indepedence and autonomy.

Skills are important in my vision, but so is tech, the part that makes me especially excited, is the possibility of resurecting old tech, or what I believe was old tech, but have never seen it beyond my imagination.

For this we would need several key pieces of equipment I’ve seen available which can map the underground terrain. I believe geoscopes available here would do the trick, but I’d need expert advice on that.
Environmental XPRT – The Environmental Industry Online

We will also need to purchase the adjacent land, which just happens to be for sale. We’d eventually expand to a few thousand acres in order to ideolological compete with the current large landholders in our region and to continue in our liberating the waters. I think acquiring the land would not be that difficult with such funding, because places are going up for sale around us routinely, and for the right price I’m certain other adjacent land could be fairly easily obtained.

Liberating the waters is the first order of the plan. By that I mean first right here at home, then to our surrounding area, then extending out as we accumulate more land.

We will be locating TWO essential resources first, springs and salt. What most don’t realize is this region has plenty of both and most likely, even under just our 55 acres, we have both. With that information we will be able to locate and dig a ‘primary water’ well. Most folks don’t know about primary water, others think it’s some kind of a scam. I do not agree with those sceptics, but I’d hire this guy to find out for sure.

From his site:
“There is in fact a lot of published science supporting the existence of water stored in the Earth’s crust. It’s been described as volcanic water, crustal water, juvenile water or what we call primary water. Below is just a fraction of the more recent scientific evidence:
• 2022 Smithsonian Magazine – How the Earth’s Mantle Sends Water Up Toward the Surface: ”[…] within the first several hundred kilometers below the crust—there is another ocean. It is, most likely, the largest ocean in the world.”
Primary Water Well Locators

The reason for starting with the water is first for health, then for power generation, and eventually for transport. For centuries travel and transport in this region relied on the rivers and their tributaries and I believe on a small scale that could be restored without having to appeal to the current establishment to release the dams on the resevoirs and recreational lakes which dried up so much of the adjacent landscapes.

Canoes are unobtrusive; they don’t storm the natural world, or ride over it, but drift upon it as part of its own silence. –John Graves, Goodbye to a River

There is plenty of water for all our needs and even most of our desires, I’d bet the ranch on it!

The most pivotal part of the plan is energy. My idea is to rehabilitate old tech based on spring houses, wind towers, yakchals, and other methods, some known, some suspected.

https://youtu.be/tbUGSI6w6Wc?si=IVWMrXszZKpLkPf2
https://youtu.be/L1ZM0iNs6hA?si=10109gaDRUZUysJh
https://youtube.com/shorts/-NaJk3pNYys?si=kmkNJtFdCyYJ1W8e
Even magnets maybe?
https://youtu.be/8QXUyOQKsWo?si=c27HBBV1GfwSrKxP

I don’t know how this exactly works in execution, I’m a dreamer playing a planner, looking for an engineer! And with that kind of budget, I bet I could find a few of them!

Here’s what I see. Moats around fortified castles and canals around and through cities were repurposed a few centuries ago and originally were not about protection from invaders. The towers with the slits were not about shooting the enemies, they were about air circulation. It was a system of water circulation and oscillation with the underground currents caused by the movement of the primary waters. I believe these existed in every country of the world. I have no proof of this. I understand it goes against every accepted hisorical and technical narrative of our age.

All I have is my imagination, some speculation by crazy conspiracy theorists on the internet, and some simple art. Like this favorite of mine, which I’ve posted several times.

What do you see? Just a man in a dress standing on a fish in some sort of canal? Would that be the sort of iconic art that survives for centuries?

Why is his dress bell-shaped? Why does his rod go into the fish-as-vehicle? A cavity resonator to produce oscillation, perhaps? Why is there steam coming out of the sun? Why do the tiny fishes and the hills appear to have motion? Why so much emphasis on the color green?

Does this strike you as a great piece of art, or as art conveying a specific meaning through symbolism?

Did the artist intend a 7th generation sort of purpose to his creation? How does my plan fulfill that criteria, considering my extensive limitations and the considerable budget?

I believe they need a new paradigm based on integration of time and space. I realize the ironies on the surface–use loads of fiat cash in order to escape the extractive economic slave system–how does that alter anything for the future of mankind or the bioregion?

Because right now the development in these parts is off the chain. Because otherwise we will continue to depend on oil, gas, tourism and ranching, none of which are creating healthy ecosystems. Because I believe folks would be happier and healthier if they lived more simply and closer to nature, but that most have already forgotten this due to generational amnesia, so they need a replicable model in order to envision it. We will be that model.

A model of man and nature reintegrated. A verdant and abundant oasis in the middle of the encroarching demands of the Texas Triangle*. Not an escape, not a destination, not a resource, but a newly restored relationship between small rural life living communities and the greater landscape. Not a return to an Amish idyllic dream, but the ideal place to build on a dream, eliminating, one by one, all exploitative ties to the existing failing system.

*”The Texas Triangle is a region of Texas that contains the state’s five largest cities and is home to over half of the state’s population. The Texas Triangle is formed by the state’s four main urban centers, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.”

Thanks for the food for thought, Gavin!

https://recipesforreciprocity.com/shop/softcover/

A daydream with plans in progress. . . ! Add your dreams and plans too, if you please. 😊

Dousing the Doldrums

There’s no water for this type of dousing. We are deep in drought.

Our new normal.

It’s funny-annoying when I hear folks talk about the coming autumn ‘just around the corner’, these folks not living in Texas, obviously. They show boasting photos of their onion harvest or the growing masses in their pumpkin patch.

I gaze confused at their plans for weekend fall foliage drives as we daily read the thermometer at 90 to 100 degrees in the shade, with two months yet to endure before some reasonable relief is to be expected.

The late planting of cucs was a total flop

I feed my imagination while gazing out the window while doing the dishes. It’s much less of a chore these days, even while we are cooking almost constantly and have no automatic dishwasher.

The birds and bees and the flowers that can survive in this misery are my refuge. I’ve made the mistake in the past of stopping the feeders well before the summer dirth, thinking the birds were more migratory and it was better for them to move on. I’ve completely changed my mind, we have constant activity at the feeders, which rejuvenates my mood sans cesse.

The bird at the feeder here is the gorgeous, but shy, Painted Bunting, I’m thrilled they’re coming so close.

What’s not dead yet? The basil, which becomes such good pesto. The luffa, which is not irrigated presently, but still produces fruit for the pigs and for sponges, as well as continual pollinator forage.

The jalapenos, for making Hubby’s fantastic poppers, with our homegrown-homemade bacon, 2 different raw milk cheeses and baked till bubbly and brown.

So yum!

It’s almost impossible to believe our neighbors used to be able to grow peaches and pecans here without irrigation. Now even with irrigation we can’t grow them. Or plums and even pears are hit or miss. Figs as well, which is the biggest disappointment of all for me, because I so love figs.

Luckily, we can still rely on plenty of fig leaves, which is my favorite way to age cheese this time of year. The leaves are also wonderful for flavoring ice cream, tea and kombucha. The scent is unique and unmistakable, slightly floral with undertones of coconut and vanilla, but not sweet, more like mildly grassy.

Of all the failed fruits this year, we were not disappointed by the grapes. Soon I’ll be making jam and wine while I hide from the heat in the cool kitchen. Cooking is definitely my main summer doldrum douser. I even got a trial subscription to America’s Test Kitchen, of which I’m taking full advantage.

They actually have a few interesting free episodes about cheese, my favorite topic. As much as I’ve followed in the footsteps of the cheese-snob in generally criticizing American cheeses and our popular preferences for pasteurization and manufactured faux-cheese-like substances, we do a few of the bad things really well, like mac and cheese.

Fun fact I learned, the trick behind the creamy, saucy American version of mac and cheese is all about the science, and the science spells NACHO. 😆

Seems to me what the science is actually attempting to trump is refinement.

The art and craft of maturing cheese, affinage, is typically translated as ‘aging’. In fact a better word would be ‘refining’. Refining is the difference between nacho cheese and aged Parmesan. It’s important to understand the difference, no matter which is preferred.

Is taste in the tongue of the taster? Or is there objectively refined taste, as refined art, and refined beauty? I say yes. One who prefers nacho cheese over aged Parmesan is fine, but would we want that taste setting the standards? I say no.

For me, the doldrums are doused mostly by refinement–by taste, art, craft, imagination, potential–wherever I can find it.

Even here, where others might see sex and seduction, I see mainly refinement. I see taste, art, craft, imagination, and the enormous amount of discipline those take. I am awed and humbled by what’s possible. There’s absolutely no room for the doldrems in that place!

How about you, what’s your favorite recipe for dousing the doldrums?

Looks Be Deceiving

It’s more than mere marketing.

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.

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 failure

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.

And thanks for stopping by!

Bubba with Beautyberries, 2025

Herbal Explorations: Chinaberry Tree

Melia azedarach

Persian lilac is my favorite of its very many common names. In fact, seeing how popular it is globally, I’m really surprised it took me SO much effort to identify it.

Located in an abandoned lot among several Mimosa trees and lots of very prickly bramble

‘Free, or noble tree’ –I like that one, too. I noticed it on an abandoned lot behind a relatively new grocery store in town. It was so striking, with its dark trunk, high, feathery and deep green foliage with druping yellow fruits. I pulled over in the late summer Texas heat, during extreme drought, walked through some crispy grass and aggressive bramble to reach it, and I was sure I’d never seen one before.

Though not at all surprised by the fact that, once identified, I saw it’s another of those ‘highly controversial’ medicinals.

Photo and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melia_azedarachtext from Wiki

Melia azedarach, popularly known as the chinaberry tree, Pride of India, bead-tree, Cape lilac is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. The plant is native to China, Japan, the Indian sub-continent, south-eastern Asia and large parts of northern and eastern Australia. Cape-lilac, Chinaberry, Indian lilac, Persian lilac, Sichuan pagoda tree, Texas umbrella-tree, bead tree, chinaberry-tree, margosa tree, pride of India, syringa berrytree, tulip-cedar, umbrella-cedar, umbrella-tree, white cedar, Bastard Cedar, Bakain, Drek, Deikna, China Tree, Maha Neem, Bakain, Bakarja, Bakayan, Betain, Deikna, Drek and Azad-darakht are the few synonyms for the tree Melia azedarach. It is an ornamental tree with multiple uses. It possesses significant medicinal properties but these are not much appreciated in India by the people and are neglected in favor of the more well-known Neem.

The genus name Melia is derived from μελία (melía), the Greek word used by Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC) for Fraxinus ornus, which has similar leaves. The species azedarach is from the French ‘azédarac’ which in turn is from the Persian ‘āzād dirakht’ meaning ‘free- or noble tree’. Melia azedarach should not be confused with the Azadirachta trees, which are in the same family, but a different genus. This tree’s fruit is poisonous to humans. Once the fruit is ingested in quantity (so a few too many of this tree’s berries), depending on its toxicity, the person eating it may die after about 24 hours of ingesting the fruits. Its flowers are a respiratory irritant and its leaves, bark, flowers and sometimes fruit are poisonous.

While I do credit the Master Gardener who informed me of the name, which was essential to doing further research, it’s unfortunate our learned experts are so myopic. She also repeated the common mantra of so many of our unfairly demonized plants–it’s toxic, it’s invasive, it’s dangerous.

She said the berries are really sharp and children and pets can hurt themselves when stepping on them. She did not say what I later learned, that folks around the world make jewelry with them

Chinaberry necklaces, a popular ‘Indian’ and ‘folk’ craft

It is also an ancient medicinal with many healing properties.

Historical records of Melia azedarach date back centuries in Sanskrit manuscripts like Kalpa-raksha (16th century), where it was referred to as “Bakayantra.” Ayurvedic sages documented its bitter fruit as “kaya-hara,” implying body-cleansing qualities. In medieval South India, the Tamil Siddhars praised chinaberry oil for its ability to relieve arthritic pain; some palm-leaf notes from 14th-century Kerala mention powdered berries mixed in ghee for parasitic infestations. In Persia, around the 10th century under Avicenna’s influence, Persian lilac extracts were recommended to promote healthy digestion and as a mild vermifuge. Chinese herbalists of the Ming dynasty classified jin chen (Chinese for Chinaberry) among top measles remedies, attributing antipyretic and anti-inflammatory properties to its root bark. Over time, European colonists introduced Melia azedarach to the Americas and Africa; by the 19th century, American settlers used it in decoctions against intestinal worms, calling it “Southern chinaberry.” Doubts arose in late 1800s European herbal compendiums about its safety due to reports of livestock toxicity—hence many modern traditions prefer leaf extracts to avoid seed hazards. Despite that, rural communities in Brazil and Mexico continue using controlled doses of the fruit internally for dysentery and topically as poultices on insect bites. Usage shifted after Pasteur’s germ theory: 20th-century Ayurvedic scholars began exploring its antibacterial potential rather than purely digestive effects. Today you can still find village healers in Maharashtra making chakra pestanas—herb-laden fomentations with boiled chinaberry leaves to treat rheumatism.

Melia azedarach in Ayurveda | Benefits, Uses & Healing Properties

As popular as it is I was twice given misidentifications by AI

Therapeutic Effects and Health Benefits

Melia azedarach is credited with a spectrum of health benefits—each anchored in tradition and backed by varying degrees of research:

Anti-parasitic: Ethnobotanical surveys (Kashmir, 2018) report village healers using fruit decoctions against intestinal worms. Modern rodent data confirm significant anthelmintic effect with minimal adverse reactions when dosage is controlled.
Anti-inflammatory: Triterpenoids in leaf extracts have reduced paw edema in rat models (Indian J. Pharmacol., 2017). Real-life application: I once prepared chinaberry leaf poultice for a friend’s sprained ankle—noticed marked reduction in swelling after two applications.
Antimicrobial: In vitro studies against Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli show up to 70% inhibition (Phytotherapy Res., 2019). Topical ointments featuring chinaberry bark oil have been used for minor wound care in Marathi folk medicine.
Digestive support: Bitter principles enhance gastric secretion. Anecdotal accounts from Maharashtra cite a pinch of powdered dried berries in warm water relieving occasional bloating and gas.
Analgesic: Leaf-infused oil used in traditional massages to ease rheumatic pain. Clinical pilot (2020) noted a 45% pain score reduction in volunteers applying 2% chinaberry oil twice daily.
Antioxidant: Flavonoid-rich extracts demonstrate free-radical scavenging in DPPH assays, suggesting potential in adjunctive therapy for oxidative stress-related disorders.

Despite these promising applications, it’s critical to note that effective benefits rely on proper preparation. In raw or high-dose forms, seeds can be mildly toxic (contained saponins). Documented case reports (J. Med. Toxicol., 2013) detail nausea and dizziness after overconsumption of fruit tincture. Hence, therapeutic use demands precision in extraction and dosing.

Melia azedarach（Traditional Chinese medicine）_Baiduwiki

Apparently the ‘toxic’ part is the only part some scholars and experts read before claiming it illegal, which it is in Texas.

And of course that it is supposedly ‘invasive’. A little ridiculous since I’ve been here 20 years and it’s the first one I’ve seen. Since asking around locally I’ve found another one, which the owner really likes and has been attempting to propagate more.

‘Invasive’ is now at the top of my list of Corporate-State nonsense words used to intimidate and control populations for the sake of industrial preferences–usually agricultural and phamaceutical.

And just for fun, I’ll share my ‘crazy conspiracy theory’ notion here for the first time. I believe this region was once under the rule of the Persian Empire and that ‘native’ is another nonsense word, these supposed invasive species brought by Europeans is a false history used to cover up the truth that our ‘Native Americans’ were in fact actual Indians, and like the Indians there presence here predates European colonization.

Chinaberry is on the Texas Dept. of Agriculture’s list of Invasive Plants which are illegal to sell, distribute or import into Texas.

How to Eradicate

For information on how to eradicate this invasive, view our statement on herbicide use and preferred alternatives for invasive plants.

So while most around the world are learning to appreciate and cultivate this useful and beautiful specimen, we are expected here to kill them.

Melia azedarach – Native Plant Society of Texas

Chinaberry is most invasive in riparian zones or disturbed sites. The tree can form a monoculture, outcompeting native vegetation due to its high relative resistance to insects and pathogens. The tree grows rapidly from several root sprouts and can create dense thickets that crowd out native plant species. The tree’s leaf litter raises the nitrogen level and pH in the soil, which can prevent germination and growth of native plants. Chemicals in leaves inhibit insects’ digestion. All parts of the plant, especially the fruit, are poisonous to humans, some livestock and mammals, including cats, dogs and horses. Cattle and some birds can eat the berries without harm.

For more technical research into Melia azedarach

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dr-Dharmendra-Arya/post/what_is_the_best_method_to_extract_and_evalute_the_antimicrobien_activity_for_calotropis_procera/attachment/5bbcf9153843b006753d80db/AS%3A679895759851521%401539111189704/download/EVALUATION+OF+ANTIMICROBIAL+ACTIVITY+OF+DIFFERENT+SOLVENT+EXTRACTS+OF+MEDICINAL+PLANT+MELIA+AZEDARACH+L..pdf

I’ve also read it has been interplanted with crops as a pest deterrant, or trap crop, but I’m still researching that angle. It seems the bias against this tree in the south-east U.S. is tainting our academic research and we must look to the scientific research of other countries to learn more about the many uses of this beautiful tree.

http://innerpath.com.au/matmed/research/Melia%5Eazedarach.pdf

My little Chinaberry foraged/stolen from the abandoned lot where I first fell in love with it.

Dos Rancheros Extraños

Two odd ranch stories in one day, one a local tradition new to us, the other a strange sort of scam and also new to us.

We don’t get out much, but when we do what fun it is to have a little impromptu adventure. We’re just about to start the bathroom demolition and have been scatter-brained with the necessary prep. We have only one bathroom, which means we go back once again to our early years here, needing an outhouse and outdoor shower.

We headed to town yesterday to select the tile, but the shop was closed. We stopped by the Farmer’s Market, having heard it has recently grown, in step with the small city’s population.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t improved, only grown in vendors. It’s dissapointing to live rural and still not have a decent farmer’s market in any nearby town or city. I’ll refrain from complaining further, but one question first.

Should they be able to call it a farmer’s market when there are no farmers there? No fruits, no vegetables, no herbs, no dairy. One tiny ranch, not exactly local, offering beef shares, some jam and honey sellers, one stand selling really expensive breads, that was it besides the very many stalls of crafters.

Anyway, from those two disappointments we soon headed back home and along the way comes our fun ranch story.

We took the back route for a nicer country drive, one we’ve taken very often over the years. There are mostly woods and rolling hills dotted with small farms and ranches, cows mostly, very few people.

So when we caught sight of a parking lot full of trucks we got curious. Hubby pulls into Los Pinos Ranch, which we’ve never seen full of cars before, had hardly even noticed before among all the other ranches. We followed the line to a couple of security guards.

“Hi!” Hubby says to a well-built and well-kitted black man, “We’re just driving by and being nosy neighbors.”

Being we were still about a 10 minute drive from home, neighbors might sound like a stretch, but around here that’s still considered neighboring territory.

The man was cordial, not exactly friendly, but not at all off-putting, so Hubby continued his inquiry, and I also began to chime in, now with curiousity well-piqued since seeing how large this event actually was.

“What’s all the crowd here for, some sort of festival?” Besides the security duo we appeared to be the only gringos in sight, which later upon entering we learned to be true. There were no signs at all, in Spanish or otherwise.

Looking around while Hubby was speaking, I spotted a track, and horses, but still, it was all so foreign, while practically in our backyard. I interupted them.

“Oh, is it a horse show or training or something?” My confusion was probably obvious, but the guard’s reply only engendered more of the same. Neither Hubby or I had yet to clue in to the nature of the event.

The guard was attempting to tell us, but without speaking the precise words, I understood only later.

Well, he said, they like to compare.

Huh? OK. Still clueless.

Then he pointed to a couple of ladies down the path aways and said they were the organizers and we should talk to them.

So we did and they were very nice, just the one spoke English, but she was as friendly as could be and said we should go on in, they want more locals to participate, in fact. Participate in what, we did not know. And, there were food stands on the other side of the tracks, so we were sold.

Then, crossing the track, it suddenly dawned on me. Horse racing, duh! And the odd words of the guard came back with a flash of clarity. They ‘like to compare’ was his gringo euphemism for ‘they bet on the races.’

We don’t gamble and we’ve never been to a horse race, so perhaps our severe ignorance can be excused?!

Although in hindsight it’s so obvious. Now, I’m not judging, but I do believe that sort of gambling is illegal in these parts. Not that we really care a hoot about that, especially once we got a whiff of the taco stand.

The simplest of setups you could imagine, why can’t they manage that at the farmer’s market? Charring beef, frying onions, our senses led us in a beeline. Fresh diced tomatoes, two kinds of salsa, cilantro, boiled potato side served with a chunk of grilled onion. Delish!

Better tacos than we’ve had at any establishment in town, cooked and served out of the back of a trailer.

A bit of reasearch once home and the tradition is alive on social media (like we would know!) and we can look forward to more excellent tacos and racing festivities next month.

@rancho.los.pinos7
Finalistas del Maturity “El Mero Mero” en su primera edición exclusivo del Carril Ramcho Los Pinos 🌲, si señor‼️#paratiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii #viralvideo #CuartosDeMilla #CarrerasEstelares
♬ sonido original – Rancho Los Pinos

Think what you like about horse racing in general, or gambling in particular, but it’s a huge deal better than what was the thing among dudes where I grew up, which was car racing and monster truck pulls. Loud, noxious, destructive and, well, just REALLY loud.

This was fun! You could hear the music and it was catchy mariachi, not depressing country ballads like they play in the local farm and ranch stores.

Of course we did stick out like the gringo sore thumbs we are. Ball caps, not cowboy hats. Crocks, not cowboy boots. Cringy, I know. But we’re committed to taking it down a notch next time we go, for the tacos, of course, not the gambling.

For Hubby that will mean absolutely no shorts. Mexican men are not short-pant people. There seems to be a certain amount of pride attached to that fact, but it’s lost on me.

For my part, a bit of more feminine appeal would be in order, if I can muster that anymore. Case still open.

Which leads me to the next ranch story. And the mystery of the sexy bras I’d never have worn, or even purchased on a huge whim, even in my sexiest days full of youthful vigor.

I was not nearly as dumb-struck by this oddity as I was by the impromtu ranch races. Clearly it was some very strange mistake, not a surprise hinting gift from Hubby, who would know me far better, and never dare make such a vulgar assumption.

Green and bedazzled, come on! Meant for a harem girl, no doubt!

Come to find out after some perplexing Google searches that there is currently a large scam going on, and I’ve just been ‘brushed’. WTH?!

From the return sender’s address, it comes from a fancy ranch in California. Far too fancy for me! But according to the news, this scam, which is becoming more common, probably uses both fake addresses and fake names. Yasfara does sound kind of fake.

But what could they be after sending me free stuff? I now realize this happened already twice before, I just never chalked it up to a con.

Several years ago I received seeds I never ordered. So did a lot of folks. I often order seeds, folks sometimes me seeds, I just brushed it off. Brushed?

Then a couple months ago I got two pairs of shorts. Because I’d recently ordered shorts from Amazon, I figured it was them, just not exactly what I’d ordered. They weren’t too bad, so I kept them, only receiving the correct order weeks later.

After Hubby’s sleuthing he discovered the “Brushing scam” with the objective of inflating the products’ ratings by collecting ‘verified purchases’ and giving fake reviews with them, apparently.

Here is our ‘Yasfara’ of the ‘Rancho Cucamongo’ reported on at the Better Business Bureau, along with a news clip about the fraud.

What to know if a mysterious empty white mailing envelope shows up at your house

Scams Details Better Business Bureau

Strange times, indeed. Just for the record, we don’t mind feeling like foreigners five miles from home, it’s rather a pleasant nostalgic feeling for us both, recalling our own pasts of living as illegal immigrants in other lands.

But, if you’re going to send me bras, please send the comfortable variety, padless, without jewels or sequince, cotton, white, for those rare occassions I still wear one.

Or, if that’s all you’ve got on hand, may I suggest sending them to a more appropriate recipient, like a still-young sexy lady at the Rancho Los Pinos right down the road?

Homestead Happenings

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.

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. 😆🤗😘

Industrial vs Traditional Cheesemaking

Such a synchronistic interview popped into my feeds, which I just have to share. Not only is our wee homestead full of young blood sucking down mamas’ milk, but I’m also teaching another cheesemaking workshop this week.

So, milk is big on my mind, nothing unusual there.

This interview from Weston A. Price is priceless! It really is such an awesome feeling for me when a new and powerful voice comes on the scene repeating what I sincerely believe and what we have been diligently cultivating on the wee homestead. We are losing too much of great value in our blind rush toward ‘progress’. We’ve got to work harder to keep hold of our wise traditions, or they will be lost forever.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wise-traditions/id1072618042?i=1000753987209

This traditional cheesemaker, Trevor Warmedahl, follows the David Asher school of ‘black sheep’ cheesemaking and is doing such an inspiring job of it.

He discusses the on-going rennet controversy, which I’ve also mentioned, here https://kenshohomestead.org/2024/03/04/cheese-brought-to-you-by-pfizer/

Clearly this issue is getting lots more attention lately, but it has been on the radar of many cheese-lovers since the 90s, including yours truly, because I was so peeved to have to give up cheese, because I was suddenly ‘lactose-intolerant’, like loads of other people. But at that time it was only in the U.S. I couldn’t eat breat or cheese, not in Europe.

Today in Europe they have also been inundated with ‘vegetarian’ rennet and glyphosate and other chemical industrial products and processes, and when it comes to cheese, the vast majority are not labeled as such. I got suspicious, started asking a lot of uncomfortable questions, and found out A LOT about GMOs and our body’s reaction to them.

The interview summary and link for anyone interested in some fantastic cheese talk (he even talks about the maggot-ripened cheeses I’ve mentioned quite a few times on this blog!)

Traditional cheesemakers respect the process of cheesemaking. They honor the environment, the animal, its milk and traditional techniques – all of which lead to delicious, nutritious cheese. Industrial cheesemaking, in stark contrast, emphasizes sterile conditions, uniformity, and artificial inputs (including GMO-derived rennet). The cheese that results from the conventional approach is consistent… but misses a lot in terms of flavor profile and nutrients.

Trevor Warmedahl is a cheesemaker, fermentation educator and the author of Cheese Trekking. Today, he takes us on a cheese adventure, as we gain insight on traditional, artisanal cheesemaking. He gives us pause about what is in our fridge and where it comes from.

Trevor has trekked all over the world, working alongside artisanal cheesemakers, so he understands and shares the importance of working with (instead of against) microbes and nature. He describes cheeses you may have never heard of, along with unique approaches to making them. Trevor also helps us take stock of what has been lost in our modern approach to cheesemaking.

Visit Trevor’s website: sourmilkschool.com

Listen to the interview:

What’s Been Lost II

We’ve all heard the expressions: “History is a set of lies agreed upon” and “History is written by the victors” and most have come to accept these tropes.

But what they may not have considered is when the history is that flexible, all those academic fields which are history adjacent–like anthropology, sociology, philosophy, literature, all cultural studies, even linguistics– become subject to those authoritarian whims and fashionable irregularities.

Generalization, subjectivity, distant observation, even making obvious comparisons across vast and complex measurable units–ie. pattern recognition–is not just discouraged, it’s potential grounds for dismissal. It’s considered sloppy, unprofessional, unacademic. Pseudo-subjects and conspiracy theory.

Academics are especially vulnerable to such manipulations as their fields are controlled in a strict hierarchical system and their studies, even as tenured professors, tend to stay very narrow in scope. They do not need to strive for a cohesive worldview in their academic work as they are mostly employed to measure the minutia, to dig deep into one tiny corner of the field, as has been the case with the historical and architectural world of the Mound Builders.

What the volumes of academic work on these cultures tend to do is narrow in so microscopically as to make all similarities irrelevant and cross-cultural observations inadmissable. They debate ad nasauem around shards of pottery found just beneath the surface of their archeological sites and the thousands of ways these tiny artefacts differ from one locale to the next.

There are literally thousands of pages published on comparisons and categorizations of tiny fossils and shards of the various Mound Builder tribes of the Americas. Specific measurements are taken of the space between the decorative lines and their width, length and coloration. All is catelogued in such microscopic detail as to bore to tears all but the most myopic of minds.

Truly, it is a form of academic gaslighting. Keep searching right here, right in this tiny framework where we’ve given the appropriate boundaries and designations. Don’t broaden, don’t do your own investigations, don’t venture out of your assigned territory, all alien parameters will be squashed with contempt and mockery and quite likely, career death.

Observe, very closely, and question every narrative.

That singular, rigid, hierachical model has been demolished with the Internet and for me, who formally studied and taught for four decades the very subjects now being shamelessly dismantled, I couldn’t be more pleased about it.

Actually, I could be. If there was a guarantee the ends would somehow justify all these means–as in the decades of lies and indoctrination and then subsequent ripping away of those foundations and the now erupting attempts to filter the masses into new molds for better slave management and more prosperous slaveholders–then I would certainly be more pleased.

But I’m not so naive as to think there’s ever any such guarantees. (As an entertaining aside, James Corbett here at his comedic best with more on our system of modern slavery.)
https://youtu.be/ZjwO9_3g4xQ?si=8u5_OumKlk-LOMub

https://youtu.be/ZjwO9_3g4xQ?si=pw51f4Aejlhz1zGX

But my topic today is a continuation of the last What’s Been Lost new Kensho series. And say what you want about formal education, I’ve experienced the pros and the great many cons, but for all those naysayers and critics, my serious education these days comes from Youtube, mostly. I know, right?!

Don’t knock it ’till you try it, there are some really amazing teachers there (they call them creators now, which is nice) and I’m not watching them to buy into any of their conclusions, but just to appreciate their work, collect their evidence, and consider, that’s all.

There are relatively few in my life who care about this stuff at all, so I’m grateful for the company and impressed with their body of work. Yes, I do understand some of them are part of a big club, and I’m not in it. I don’t mind. And I’ve got no where else to go, and I’ve got a bit of time and loads of interest.

So for those others who might be interested in exploring and considering with me, we continue in search of what’s been lost.

Last time I shared about the Yakhchal, a common radiative cooling system used from ancient times, still in operation in parts of the Middle East, and perhaps close by as well, as close as Dallas.

https://kenshohomestead.org/2026/01/18/whats-been-lost/

Now I will introduce another thread to this story, the so-called Mound Builder ‘indigenous’ tribes of the South, officially referred to as having been ‘occupying’ these lands before the arrival of the Europeans.

https://youtu.be/Gw6A2RgVwjs?si=bUXC9lyrKKuRHSQb

A recent video by Jarid Boosters was perfectly timed and is well worth a complete viewing. In it he considers one such Mound Builder culture in present-day Moundville, Alabama, once called the Kingdom of Pafalaya, which includes Fort Morgan. Most of these sites are former military installations and are owned by universities and used as tourist traps now. Some of them are privately owned, all have vast areas not open to the public.

We have one very close to us as well, known as Caddo Mounds, which I’ve written about briefly before, after a sudden (manufactured) tornado hit during their cultural ceremony, destroying much property, killing one and injuring many. The site has since been upgraded and reopened, though there is little to see besides some very basic ‘replica’ huts and of course, a large gift shop.

One of the most famous ones is in the mid-West, near St. Louis, not that far from where I grew up, called Cahokia Mounds.
https://youtu.be/Gw6A2RgVwjs?si=bUXC9lyrKKuRHSQb

What I propose has happened with these sites is a deliberate militarized program of generational amnesia.

“Generational amnesia refers to the phenomenon where each generation forgets important knowledge and experiences from previous generations, leading to a distorted understanding of the past and the environment. This can result in a lack of awareness about changes in society and nature, as new generations accept their current conditions as the norm without recognizing what has been lost.”

They tell us ‘Generative AI’ will solve this mounting modern social problem. Promises, promises. Let’s not wait on those any longer.

For a bit of background, Mound Builders refers to ‘prehistorical’ cultures of the ‘ancient’ South. For our purposes, ‘prehistorical’ refers to the most recent rewriting of history, or ‘reset’ as many interested in these topics are calling it; and ‘ancient’ refers to the ‘Roman’ era and all those pre-dating it. In this version of history we examine especially the period of the so-called “Civil” War, or the war between the states, or the war of Northern agression, or whatever other term seems appropriate for that period of time when much of the southern US was destroyed and their history re-written by the victors.

At this time the official narratives went under the command and control of the military, if they weren’t there already. In my estimation we have always been a military industrial complex, this wasn’t a new phenomenon predicted by another puppet president.

There are other ‘fringe’ channels that deal more specifically with military history, that is not my main interest, one I could recommend for this angle would be that of a former history academic:
https://youtu.be/LqiZPX0Ordc?si=IOKaZQ7FT2Bjr7Wg

In fact, there are so-called Mound sites all over the South, and I’d suggest many of them are as yet ‘undiscovered’ because they sit on private property where even the land owners have no idea what’s beneath them.

In nearby Nacogdoches there is another ‘curated’ Mound site:

“Excavations at the Washington Mound site have uncovered the archeological remains of a large Middle Caddoan period (ca. A.D. 1250-1350) mound complex in south-central East Texas. The investigations of this heretofore unknown complex indicate that there was a significant post-Alto phase culture in the region that may have had a significant impact on subsequent regional Caddoan manifestations.”

While there are teams of academics studying the tiny differences in the fossils on the surface and money rolling in from the tourist trade, and grants galore for those academics willing to tow the official line, the accepted narrative framework gets further cemented into the public consciousness.

The new Southern history started in 1888 or thereabouts, with 1933 appearing oddly often. The commonalities of these sites, like the ‘charcoal-filled pits’ and ‘post holes’ are left as side curiousities or mysteries or given barely-plausible labels like ‘ceremonial spaces’ or ‘burial grounds’.

According to Wiki we see some typical features, like the involvement of the Smithsonian Institution, and a minimum of curious names and the all-important dates to keep our minds distracted from the bigger picture:

The earliest recorded written mention of the mounds was in 1779 by Athanase de Mézières, who traveled from Louisiana to San Antonio in the employ of the Spanish government. In 1919 American James Edwin Pearce was the first professional archeologist to record the site for the Bureau of Ethnology (Smithsonian Institution). In 1933 archeologist E. B. Sayles concluded that the site was a Caddo mound center, after conducting surface collection of artifacts at the location.
The first scientific excavations were conducted from 1939 to 1941 by H. Perry Newell, a University of Texas archeologist with the federal Work Projects Administration in the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Newell died, archeologist Alex D. Krieger took over investigations at the site and concluded that it had been a major Caddo site. Further excavations in the 1960s and early 1970s by Dee Ann Story pinpointed the timeline of the site to 780 and 1260.

Following military service, Tunnell returned to Texas and began working with archeologist Ed Jelks on the Texas Rivers Basin Survey project funded by the Smithsonian Institution. Their first investigations took place along the McGee Bend of the Angelina River in East Texas, later impounded as part of Sam Rayburn Reservoir. He also worked in the Lake Amistad area along the Rio Grande.

As State Archeologist, Tunnell participated in scientific investigations at the Alamo and other important Spanish Colonial mission and presidio sites in Texas, directed archeological excavations at the ancient Folsom-age Adair-Steadman site, and braved the waters of the Rio Grande in order to record the archeological resources present in the canyons of the Big Bend region. He battled commercial salvagers to retain the 1554 Spanish shipwreck artifacts for the State of Texas and was instrumental in the development of the Antiquities Code of Texas, the legal tool to protect historic resources on public (state) land, including submerged shipwrecks.   His films and audiotapes documenting the work of numerous folk artisans and craftsmen in the Texas-Mexico border region may well represent the only records of the practitioners of many vanishing crafts and arts. In 1981, Tunnell became THC executive director, a position he held until his retirement in January 1999.   Through his decades of state service, Tunnell traveled to all 254 Texas counties and developed lasting friendships in all regions of the state. Tunnell passed away suddenly at his home on April 13, 2001.

His name was Tunnell, former military, and her name was Story. Isn’t that special. He liked to talk about Arts & Crafts. But not so much about Antiquitech.

What I wonder is, do the actual tunnels tell another story?

We’ve got mounds and post holes and charcoal-filled pits; we’ve got vast stone walls covered over by lakes and resevoirs and now deemed ‘legend’; we’ve got historical timelines that have clearly been ‘revised’, many times; we’ve got buildings and other structures that make no sense, but get little attention.

The burying of the past continues, the generational amensia widens, and aside from a few Youtubers and their marginalized audiences, I wonder if anyone else really cares.

Just in case you are one of the few who do, thank you, and you’re welcome.

More on the vast and ubiquitous caves and caverns of Texas and the mid-West on a future journey.

I Have a Dream!

I have a dream that when asked where I sell my delicious locally-produced raw milk cheeses my response will be one of beaming pride instead of deflated frown.

Instead of–“Sorry, I can’t sell them, it’s illegal”–in my dream I reply instead:

“I have an assitant who delivers our homemade cheeses twice a week to the community Farmstead Store in town. You probably should call her and make arrangements because she always sells out by lunch. We have Farmstead Stores in every small town in our region who send out drivers to exchange with one another. Our free-range pork and our neighbor’s beef sell out even faster than the cheeses. They’ve also got year-round fresh produce there, eggs of course, honey, wine, kombucha–all sourced and produced from within 15 miles.”

Instead of my dream, in my reality I get asked, “Can’t you get a license?”

No! No, of course I cannot get a license! Instead of dream-speak I get the nightmare reality.

It’s not only impossible to get a license for a home cheesemaking operation, it just happens to also be against my philosophy.

“An agorist is one who applies the principles of libertarianism consistently through counter-economic practice. They aim, that is, to bring about the voluntaryist society not through political (in)action but through direct counter-economic action.”

No, I cannot get a license. Since we are in the South, I wonder if another appeal might be in order?

Imagine if instead of ‘philosophy’ I said ‘religion’. So my reply becomes:

“Appealing to State and Federal officials for what I, and my neighbors, choose to purchase for consumption is against a fundamental aspect of my religion which preaches the gospel that God chooses my food through my tastebuds.”

“This is not a trivial point. A free society is not merely an ideal society to be philosophically formulated, but a process to be enacted through conscious action. Thus, the idea of separating the free society from the actions that free human beings must (or must not) engage in is self-contradictory. What else defines a free society except for those actions?” James Corbett

“Furthermore,” I continue in my dream space, “I’m allergic to paperwork and authoritarian nincompoops and I refuse to spend what little time I have left on this spinning green insane asylum kissing the arses of Velvetta-eating officials mansplaining me what I must do to make safe cheese.”

Also from Corbett
In “An Agorist Primer” Konkin explains:
“We see that nearly every action is regulated, taxed, prohibited, or subsidized. Much of this Statism — for it is only the State that wields such power — is so contradictory that little ever gets done. If you cannot obey the (State’s) laws and charge less than [because of “Fair Trade” laws], more than [because of “Anti-Trust” laws], or the same as [because of laws against cartels] your competitor, what do you do? You go out of business or you break the law. Suppose paying your taxes would drive you out of business? You go out of business — or you break the law. Government laws have no intrinsic relationship with right and wrong or good and evil. Historically, most people knew that the royal edicts were for the king’s good, not theirs. People went along with the king because the alternative looked worse. [. . .] But everyone is a resister to the extent that he survives in a society where laws control everything and give contradictory orders. All (non-coercive) human action committed in defiance of the State constitutes the Counter-Economy.”
In effect, Konkin takes the plight of the modern-day citizen, stuck in a web of ridiculous, contradictory, and impossible-to-follow laws, rules and regulations, and flips it on its head. It is not a source of shame to be acting against the arbitrary whims of the state, but a virtue. Economics is the realm of white markets: legal, licensed, sanctioned and regulated exchanges in the aboveground economy. Counter-economics is everything else: black market and gray market activity either specifically outlawed by the state or not licensed or approved by it.
People tend to get squeamish when they hear “black market,” but we’re not just talking about gunrunning, counterfeit smuggling or drug dealing here. Any (non-violent) activity that doesn’t have the blessing of the state is counter-economic.

“Of course, individually, these actions seem unimportant, even trivial. But in combination they drain significant resources away from the clutches of the state and toward the people participating in the actual productive economy. It is estimated that 20% to 30% of Americans fail to report taxable income. In some parts of Latin America it’s closer to 80%. Can you imagine if it were 100%? A few isolated counter-economists acting in a disorganized haphazard faction is a minor inconvenience to the powers-that-shouldn’t-be. Millions of people acting in concert in a deliberate undermining of state authority is a revolution. This is the promise of counter-economics.”

The quotes that are not in my dream are taken from the following 2 articles by James Corbett, well worth the read.

https://open.substack.com/pub/corbettreport/p/why-i-talk-about-agorism?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

https://substack.com/redirect/ba0aa4ad-e65c-49d6-889b-40771af20c61?j=eyJ1IjoiYXBsankifQ.vij_GSi8NAkTixijJIkYbmIMsSylddJaDImehSkL3TQ

Do you have a dream, too? Care to share?? 😁🤗

A Tale of Two Cheeses

This is a repost of a few of my first cheesemaking adventures way back in 2015. I decided to repost it since not only is it Hubby’s favorite, but also because my cheesemaking workshop is right around the corner, so my cheese posts are getting more views lately.

From the archives:

I’ve now made nearly two dozen different cheeses. When I started out, my only raw milk source was a five-hour round-trip drive, I was aging them in the veggie drawer of the fridge, and I was following the recipes to the letter.

I now have an aging fridge packed with cheeses, my raw milk source is at least in the ballpark, I’m creating my own recipes, and I may even spring for a pricey PH-tester. It’s been a long, fun road with a steep learning curve made in a relatively short time, which is what I say about pretty much everything in our adopted rural lifestyle.

But the best cheese I’ve made so far was the third one I attempted, and it started out as a smelly, rather disgusting potential disaster.

In our cheese-making class, we were strongly encouraged to take notes on our every hard cheese-making venture and being the diligent student I usually am, I do. This time was no exception.

Has odd fishy odor” is at the top, middle and end of the third cheese’s entry. I was a bit reluctant to include the less-than-savory details as to why that might be.

First, a bit of background on my past experiences with stinky cheese. I am no expert, I can’t even call myself a true aficionado, but I’m more cheese-fearless than most, especially most Americans. After all, I did live in France for a while, and spent a few months in Corsica, where I met the only cheese that scared me off.

The Corsican cheese is quite popular and, being a sensitive traveler attracted to regional specialties, I was anxious to give it a try. I went to the farmers’ market, found the oldest, roughest-looking cheese-monger of all the vendors and marched right up to examine his wares. He looked like an ex-sailor with wrinkled, sun-burnt skin, black patterns on his forearms where I assume tattoos were once legible, and an easy-going, toothless grin. He eyed me as I pretended to know what I was doing. I glanced over his table and tried to make out the curious handwriting to learn what I might be able to pronounce well-enough to order.

My eyes went right to the group of words I was searching for – traditional Corsican cheese – how easy was that? I felt already triumphant. In my best French, I tell him I want that cheese, and he replies, “Avec ou sans habitants?” At that point I feel certain I saw a glimmering in his eyes. He points down to the sign below the ‘traditional Corsican cheese’ sign, which reads just as he has stated: “AVEC OU SANS HABITANTS.”

Instead of triumphant, I’m instantly befuddled. I had no idea what that meant, and the question so baffled me I thought I clearly did not understand. I said quite sincerely, “I don’t understand.” But, in retrospect, I think I kinda did, I just didn’t want to believe it. “With or without inhabitants,” it was clear and easy to understand even for a non-French-speaker. This was not a linguistic block I was having, it was a reality check.

At that moment my market companion attempted to come to my rescue. She didn’t speak English, but understood my dilemma apparently without words exchanged, being French and rather snobbish about her cheeses. “Inhabitants …,” she repeated to my complete horror, “as in maggots.” After which she pinched up her nose slightly and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head, like she was trying to reassure me – ”Don’t worry, on the mainland we don’t eat that sort of cheese.”

Maggots, I’ve since discovered, is just one of may unsavory methods of ripening, there are many, like ‘cheese mites’ and they are still deliberately used to ripen certain cheeses in various parts of the world, like Casu martzu – Wikipedia.

So, back to my Cheese No. 3. The first two times I followed two different farmstead cheese recipes to the letter, wrapped them to age, and made my notes, nice and clean, without any question of potential perfection in outcome. This third time I found a recipe online that was so vague in steps, measurements and temperatures, I had to wing it a bit for the first time.

To make matters worse, this particular day had a pronounced increase in kitchen traffic. After I’d muddled through the recipe and began the pressing process, Handy Hubby had a dramatic building challenge of the electrical variety that required him to tear into the wall in the vicinity of the press. He’d just been on the roof cleaning up mice nests, and they’d managed to chew through some of the wires, which he now had to replace.

I wondered momentarily if that was something I should include in my notes. Nah, best forgotten, I decided.

But I could not forget, and what I’d hoped would be a quick in-and-out project around the press turned into an hour, going on who knew how many more. With Hubby going in and out, meant the dogs are following him. They think this is a game and don’t understand Hubby’s irritation as he curses the mice only under his breath … and … is sweating through his T-shirt. Right over the press!

Tori and Papi, our dogs at the time, who were often guilty of playing games around the cheese press.

Finally, the straw to break this camel’s back – I glance over from the sink as Tori’s tail brushes over the press. Tori is our Dane-Mastiff and about 6 feet from nose to tail tip. In a flash I imagine it snake-like engulfing the entire cheese.

“Stop, stop, oh my god, stop the pressing!”

I neither wanted to perceive myself as excessively anal nor offend Hubby’s already delicate mood any further, but my stomach was churning and my mind screaming at me for what I was allowing to happen to that poor cheese. I immediately disassembled the press, moved it to the office, and, with trepidation, examined the cheese, slowly unwrapping it from the muslin.

Just as I had suspected, dry-wall debris, dog hair, and who knew what other invisible entities had found their way onto the surface of Cheese No. 3.

In a moment of panic and disgust, I nearly threw it in the garbage. Then I thought, no, wait, chill, this will be the perfect testing ground. I’ll continue to do everything wrong, according to all things science and sensibility, and see what happens.

So, I stopped following the vague directions and followed instinct instead. What would the Corsican cheese-monger have done, I repeated to myself as I decided not to wrap it, to leave it at room temperature uncovered for days, then put it in with the others to age in the drawer of the fridge.

Not only did it look completely different from the others, it also smelled completely different. The fishy smell had stabilized, mold started growing on the air-dried, uncovered rind, and the texture softened inside until it began to sort of pooch out around the middle like love handles.

I felt some encouragement then, thinking, “Might good cheeses be like good dogs and begin to resemble their masters?”

A couple weeks more and it began to look and smell so delicious the temptation was starting to weigh on me. It was becoming irresistible. On Christmas Eve, I could wait no longer. The vague directions said it would be ready in two months, but my instincts were saying, ”Dig in, woman!”

So I did, and it was delicious! I am now convinced the best cheeses were discovered quite by accident and our ancestors turn over in their graves every time we get squeamish over a few dog hairs or even . . . maggots.

The only problem is, I have no idea how to imitate it.

The latest cheese ‘failure’ supposed to be a pepper jack– story and tasting coming soon!

Fast forward to last week, October 2025, and we have another crazy cheese mistake, which may turn out to be just as delicious!

Here’s the ‘pepper jack’ after further aging abuses, looking and smelling full of potential!

Only time will tell.

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