For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

— John 3:16

The moment came roughly three years ago, and I have since repeated the story to anyone who would listen.

Back in those days we were still using goats to clear a future pasture and the nearby treelines of woody shrubbery; a goat’s favorite food.

Geri had been to a restaurant in Chicagoland, and met a man of Mediterranean descent who wanted a young kid for food; like a lamb, but of the goat variety. We went back a forth for awhile by email and such, and I agreed to the deal; I knew goats were a temporary but necessary step on the farm, but always had an eye on moving to a grazing animal, not a browsing animal, as are goats. The deal was that I would slaughter the goat and get it to hanging weight for pickup by the customer.

On the Day

I had arranged for a friend, Gabriel, to assist with the slaughter and butchery, since it was the first time for me. But before that could happen, Geri and I needed to get the kid and put him in a conveyance for delivery to Gabe; Geri and I took this on ourselves, and we took no joy in it. At all. The kid had not yet been weened by his mother; the doe was bawling, the kid was bawling too, as we separated mother from son. The kid was maybe six months old, at most. Like I said, it was no fun, and tears might even have been shed. Not mine of course, or so I remember it.

In the Moment

Anyway, I pack him up and head for Gabe’s. Once there, the first step is slaughter, with a knife, as it would have been done “back in the day.” Gabe is behind and standing legs astride over the kid, with the knife, I am in front assisting with the hold. Gabe reaches around and cuts his throat, deeply; I am looking into the kid’s eyes as he chokes on his own blood and bleeds out in front of me, for too long. It was truly terrible. And that is when it hit me, the suffering of God the Father as “He gave His only begotten Son.” Just try to imagine that.

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Matthew 3:16-17

“For God so loved the world;” that is the “why” of the suffering of both Father and Son.

I try to imagine, as a father, sentencing “My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” to torture and death. I try to imagine what Abraham felt and thought when God asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

(1) And after these things God did proue Abraham, and said vnto him, Abraham. Who answered, Here am I.

(2) And he said, Take nowe thine onely sonne Izhak whom thou louest, and get thee vnto the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering vpon one of the mountaines, which I will shewe thee.

Genesis 22:1-2 Geneva Bible (1599)

It is just too much too ask, of a human. But Abraham, of great faith, does as he is told.

More of the Story

Of course Jesus, and John the Baptist, had to know what would ultimately come.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Beholde the lambe of God, which taketh away the sinne of the worlde.

John 1:29, Geneva Bible (1599)

Jesus was the lamb from the start. And Jesus knowing what was coming, asked of God the Father,

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Luke 22:42 Geneva Bible (1599)

How hard would it be to refuse that request as a father?

And there is even more to the story of God the Father’s pain …

And about ye ninth houre Iesus cryed with a loud voyce, saying, Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Matthew 27:46 Geneva Bible (1599)

Some say that God the Father turned his face away, I think I would have also.

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The Impact of the Moment

There was of course the spiritual impact. But it was also in that moment, and ever since, that I knew I had to become a shepherd. And it has come to pass, we just bought our first sheep last year, and this spring we have seen our first lambs. Let’s not forget David’s Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd,” that would be God the Father as shepherd. David was himself a shepherd, which is not coincidentally how he learned to use a sling. And of course Jesus is the “good shepherd.”

10 The theefe commeth not, but for to steale, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might haue life, and haue it in abundance. 11 I am that good shepheard: that good shepheard giueth his life for his sheepe. 12 But an hireling, and hee which is not the shepheard, neither the sheepe are his owne, seeth the wolfe comming, and hee leaueth the sheepe, and fleeth, and the wolfe catcheth them, and scattreth the sheepe. 13 So the hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheepe. 14 I am that good shepheard, and knowe mine, and am knowen of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, so know I the Father: and I lay downe my life for my sheepe. 16 Other sheepe I haue also, which are not of this folde: them also must I bring, and they shall heare my voyce: and there shalbe one sheepefolde, and one shepheard. 17 Therefore doeth my Father loue me, because I lay downe my life, that I might take it againe. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it downe of my selfe: I haue power to lay it downe, and haue power to take it againe: this commandement haue I receiued of my Father.

John 10:10-18 Geneva Bible (1599)

I read some, some might say I read a lot, but I learn best by doing, and through experience. There’s another old saying, words to the effect that “experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” I think that is a pretty good definition. I make a lot of mistakes, daily; I fail, regularly; and those experiences are the best teachers.

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If you want learn more about shepherding sheep, of the four-legged variety, and how that relates to shepherding the two-legged kind spiritually, as in Psalm 23, you can do no better than, A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23, by Phillip Keller. Or just stop by, I keep a few on-hand.

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All the best, and may God bless you and keep you,

John

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But in this case, while it is still a bit hazy, I think I’ve come across a model into which all of the still-moving parts fit pretty well.

We will defend the Homeland and ensure that our interests in the Western Hemisphere are protected. We will deter China in the Indo-Pacific through strength, not confrontation. We will increase burden-sharing will allies and partners throughout the world. And we will rebuild the U.S. defense industrial base as part of the President’s once-in-a-century revival of American industry.

— Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, 2026 National Defense Strategy

2026 National Defense Strategy

6.75MB ∙ PDF file

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It is all right there in one paragraph of Hegseth’s introduction to the National Defense Strategy.

Sentence 1

“We will defend the Homeland and ensure that our interests in the Western Hemisphere are protected.

That is the sum and substance of the Monroe Doctrine, which “the Donald” refers to as the “Donroe Doctrine.

The Monroe Doctrine was articulated in President James Monroe’s seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823. The European powers, according to Monroe, were obligated to respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States’ sphere of interest.

— National Archives, Monroe Doctrine (1823)

All the talk about Greenland, the President pushing the Chinese off of the Panama Canal, Venezuela, and the many trips of Trump’s cabinet to Latin America showed an early and ongoing emphasis of the Doctrine.

Shortly after his confirmation hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made his first international trip in February, choosing Latin America as his destination and sending an early signal of the region’s centrality in the foreign policy of President Donald Trump’s second term.

He’s not the only high-level Trump official to fly south. In the first year of the Trump government, several cabinet members have made voyages across the Western Hemisphere to meet with presidents and discuss issues around trade and migration.

— The Trump Cabinet’s Visits to Latin America

What does that mean? First of all it means we will give the boot to the Chinese and the Russians. And as a corollary to our emphasis on the Americas, there will a de-emphasis on things European and Asian. We will no longer be the world’s policeman. Thank you very much.

Sentence 2

“We will deter China in the Indo-Pacific through strength, not confrontation.”

The intent is to constrain China by means other that direct military intervention. Which brings us to Venezuela.

China was the dominant destination for Venezuelan crude, importing 144 million barrels in 2023, which represented 68% of all of the South American country’s crude oil exports.

Following the January 2019 U.S. sanctions on PDVSA imposed by the Trump administration … China became the central counterparty, having lent nearly $50 billion over the past decade to Venezuela (now estimated to be $10-$12 billion), receiving crude shipments as debt repayment rather than cash.

— Visualized: Venezuela’s Crude Oil Exports by Country

So. Removing Maduro was not only about drugs, in part to “defend the Homeland,” it was also about removing a cheap source of energy from China, and removing some of China’s influence (by way of their Belt & Road Initiative) in the Western Hemisphere, consistent with the Monroe Doctrine.

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Sentence 3

“We will increase burden-sharing with allies and partners throughout the world.”

This is a hard slap in the face to our NATO “partners,” who without exception are weak; weakness that we have funded through our defense of Europe, and “the West” in general, in the post-WW II era. In effect we enabled their military weakness, and U.S. taxpayers funded their liberal welfare states at the same time. It’s over.

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Sentence 4

“And we will rebuild the U.S. defense industrial base as part of the President’s once-in-a-century revival of American industry.”

This is big. Very big. The most visible sign of this rebuilding is Trump’s implementation of “Reciprocal Tariffs.” More generally it represents a shift back to the “American School,” or American System of economics (attributed to Alexander Hamilton), and away from the British School, perhaps best documented in Adam Smith’s book, The Wealth of Nations.

Courtesy of the Visual Capitalist

To develop strength militarily, economic strength is a prerequisite. Not only does the economy have to pay for the military, but it has to provide all the necessary technology and hardware to the militarily. Categorically, the needs of the military are the needs of the citizenry; food, water, medicine, transportation, communications, security, and so on.

The British System is the one of so-called “free trade,” which is a myth; there is in reality no such thing as free trade, despite the fact that we’ve been propagandized for generations into believing that not only does such a thing exist, but that anything else is sacrilegious. I’ve come to believe otherwise. I wrote a two-part series some years ago titled, Free Trade: What Could Go Wrong?, but in hindsight most of the things I identified are not simply bad “side effects,” they are rather the desired outcomes!

1. Scale

2. Urbanization

3. Long, Brittle Supply Chains

4. Specialization, and

5. Externalized Costs

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But back to the point; the hollowing out of our industry, especially in the flyover states, is absolutely due to “free” trade. I will just cite a couple of examples.

• Medical Supplies
  The percentage of medical supplies coming from China varies significantly by product type and country, with no single overall figure. For the United States, China is a major supplier of personal protective equipment (PPE), providing 54% of imported PPE products, 70% of mouth-nose protective equipment, and 71.9% of certain PPE categories like face masks. For pharmaceuticals, the U.S. directly imports about 9.2% of its pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and supplies from China, but this likely understates reliance, as 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and 97% of antibiotics used in the U.S. are estimated to come from China.
  — Brave search

• Electronics
  The U.S. imports a significant majority of several key electronic devices from China, with 66% or more of the following products by value coming from China as of recent data: game consoles (86%), PC monitors (79%), smartphones (73%), lithium-ion batteries (70%), and laptops (66%).
  — Brave search, and

• Rare earth minerals
  Between 70% and 80% of rare earth compounds and metals imported by the U.S. originate from China, with some reports indicating 96% of total rare earth supply sourced from China in 2025.
  — Brave search

From both the economic and military perspectives, near-total reliance on China, a communist country, is simply unacceptable.

The last President to take on the British System was FDR, before that is was Lincoln (the most divisive President in history, hands down); and now Trump is taking it on. I pray he is successful.

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Check out Promethean Action for frequent updates regarding reclamation of the American System.

https://www.prometheanaction.com/

And one video in particular:

All the best, and may God bless you and keep you,

John

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Then we have had to make some financial decisions, perhaps most importantly the decision to discontinue use of the Farmhouse as an Airbnb. The unfortunate fact of the matter is, after two years it has proven to be a money-losing proposition; six months or so of a solid rental schedule are simply not nearly enough to float the expenses. From that decision will cascade a few others, the end result of which will be a downsizing by half.

We have had some logging done, and we have one of the smaller parcels not in use, except for hunting, put on the market. We took 90 logs off of approximately 30 acres; that’s what I would categorize as very selective logging.

Finally, and most importantly, I needed some time and space to work on my relationships. Frankly, I’ve not been good at relationship since leaving home 50 years ago. I’m still not good at it, but now I’m working hard on it. I could lay blame in a number of places, but in the end my relationships are my problem. And in the end, relationships are all you have, and all you can take with you. There’s an old saying, something like “wherever you go, there you are,” that’s even a book title if my memory serves. Well, when you look back and see destroyed relationships in a long wake, and you’ve been in all of those relationships, it might come to you, as it came to me, that you are the problem.

Better late than never. I pray.

Okay. More on the various decisions we have made and are still making will come out in this space over the course of the next few months. One decision that I failed to mention; we will stay. The work on all fronts continues.

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We saw heavy spring showers, the above in early March, 2 inches of ‘em. That much precipitation has an impact on plans, needless to say (or maybe not). This life is weather dependent, sunlight dependent, etc. So.

And, we have another 2 inches in the near term forecast.

It’s been a weird winter and early spring; winter started early, and we still cannot seem to shake it off.

Primal Woods

Some decisions it stands to reason, have to do with the Primal Woods and Homestead Rebel Farm businesses. Let’s get to that.

Pure Maple Syrup

To free up some time and energy, I decided to forego the Pure Maple Syrup season this year. And I decided to sell the Oxen. If we use draft animals in the future, and I think we will, it will be horses. I have a yearning for horses that goes back to my early teen years on my Uncle Larry’s ranch in Wyoming. Try as I might, and I’m not trying, I cannot shake the yearning. I was watching a show the other day and heard words to this effect, “the best thing for the inside of a man, is the outside of a horse;” I want to test that proclamation.

Meanwhile, Pure Maple Syrup sales continue, so do me a favor and order some!

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Sawmill Services

Last year was a weird year; we had a lot of business very early in the spring, which is unusual, less than usual in the summer months, and then I milled a lot more in the snow than I usually do. Since the beginning, Sawmill Services has been the cash flow engine of Primal Woods. I need that to continue.

I have one big job in progress for Chris H. onsite in Primal Woods.

And another in the estimating stage for Zach S.; below are a couple of videos of me talking to myself about what I'm seeing during a site visit to the proposed milling location.

Based on the conversation with Zach, particularly with respect to the building scheduled on this new home site, we decided to sort the logs and remove those selected to Primal Woods for milling; I’m putting together the cost estimate now.

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Sheep

I’ve created a tunnel of sorts, electric fencing, so that the sheep can get to the High Tunnel (shelter from the wind, rain and snow) for lambing.

It might seem odd, maybe not, but shepherding is part of my “training.” It should be that we have four pregnant ewes, three of them with their first lambs, with, by my calculation an earliest due date of March 8th. As it turned out the first lambs were born the afternoon of March 18th, and we still await the next the lambs.

Here is a pic from just yesterday:

The plan is to sell lambs, as we sell pigs, late this year. If you are interested, let me know; I’ve not given any thought yet to pricing.

Speaking of sheep and shepherding, I highly recommend the book A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23. Culturally we have removed ourselves from the agrarian culture we once were. And a result is that it is very difficult for us to relate to many of the parables in the Bible. With respect to shepherds and shepherding, this book will give you a feel for what David had learned as a shepherd boy, and drew on heavily in his writing of Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd…”

Pigs

I’ve done the math, and to get the pigs to the butcher by October 22nd I need to have them onsite by April 14th. Last year we raised six pigs, this year I’m hoping for at least that number. Again, get your orders in; most, all but one of our customers last year, are repeat customers, which says a lot about the quality of the pork. I will need all orders before the April 14th date, because I only buy enough pigs to satisfy demand.

Meat Birds

We will run chickens for the broiler again this year, even if only enough to meet our own needs. Average weight last year was about 6 lbs, and as with the Pigs, I will only buy enough chicks to meet demand.

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News & Notes

I’ve decided that I’m going to “do” Newsletters less often, but write more often on topics I care about. Newsletters might come every two weeks or four, with the other writings filling in; I’ll sort it out as I go, I just want you to know it’s going to be a bit different.

Underlying the relationship work I mentioned above, has been spending a lot of time in the Word. Geri turned me on to the Hallow app awhile back, and tomorrow is Day #320 of the Bible in a Year program; we just got into the New Testament a couple of days ago. It’s a journey. Hallow is also running a Lent program called “Pray 40,” which is super; we are almost done with the Lent program, which was based on The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri J. M. Nouwen, and the novel The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky.

I highly recommend Hallow as a daily practice.

All the best, and may God bless you and keep you,

John

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For the past, present and future teachers who might be reading this:

James 3

3 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

Background

I’ll get to the “origin story,” the why and how we got here from there, but first I want to address the history of Amish schooling.

The story of Amish education offers a compelling demonstration of Amish resistance to key educational trends of the twentieth century, including school consolidation, busing […], an extended school year, and additional years of compulsory education. The resistance was so stiff that hundreds of parents were imprisoned.1

Amishmen. Going to prison to safeguard your children and preserve your way of life; that’s a definition of badassery.

Until World War II there were very few Amish schools, perhaps as few as five by 1940.2 Which is not to say there had not been conflict with the individual state(s) regarding the building of those schools; conversely, “there had been a number of conflicts in several states since the 1920s […]”3 But, the watershed moment was the 1972 Supreme Court decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder, et al., a “legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on May 15, 1972, ruled (7–0) that Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law was unconstitutional as applied to the Amish (primarily members of the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church), because it violated their First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. The case involved three Amish fathers—Jonas Yoder, Wallace Miller, and Adin Yutzy—who, in accordance with their religion, refused to enroll their children, aged 14 and 15, in public or private schools after they had completed the eighth grade. The state of Wisconsin required, pursuant to its compulsory attendance law, that children attend school to at least the age of 16. The fathers were found guilty of violating the law […]”4

Chief Justice Warren Burger noted that,

“Old Order Amish communities […] are characterized by a fundamental belief that salvation requires life in a church community separate and apart from the world and worldly influence. This concept of life aloof from the world and its values is central to their faith.”

The Supreme Court’s decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder, et al. relieved the Amish of the need to send their children on to high school after they had finished the eighth grade. For all intents and purposes, it also legitimated the Amish insistence on educating their children in the local one-room schoolhouses that were being abandoned by mainstream society as public schools were consolidated.5

The numbers of Amish schools exploded after the Yoder decision:

• 1950 | 22

• 1960 | 89 (67 added)

• 1970 | 248 (159 added)

• 1980 | 434 (186 added)

• 1990 | 707 (273 added)

• 2000 | 1,139 (432 added)

The 2007 to 2008 school year was the last in which Pathway Publishing produced the “School Directory,” as the task was becoming too onerous. At that time, the directory was 21 pages long and listed 1,830 schools of which 1,475 were Amish and 355 Old Order Mennonite. By 2012, there were an estimated 55,000 Amish pupils being taught by 3,000 teachers in 2,000 private Amish schools in North America.6

Further to the above, I wrote this in my post, The Amish, and What We English Can Learn:

Those teachers by the way, “are typically young, single Amish women who begin teaching at about eighteen years of age <with 8th grade educations>.” Outcomes you ask? Here is an example […] “testing of students in Iowa and northern Indiana shows that eighth grade pupils […] scored more than one grade level above the national standard on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.”

‘Nuf said on skills outcomes, for now. One full grade level more advanced than the “English,” in just 8 years. My educated guess is that we English have worsened and the Amish have stayed the same since those 2009-2010 test results.

So. Why did we do it, what did we do, and how did we do it, to get to the point (and now well past that) where the Amish would choose to abandon our schools, suffering the pain of imprisonment for their trouble?

The Origin of Government Schools

Definitions

Before I get started in answering this question, I want to get straight on some definitions; otherwise I will be confused and you will be confused, as we go through the rest of this history. Let’s visit again with the Amish:

The Amish distinguish between schooling (“book learning”), which teaches skills, and education (wisdom), which inculcates values. Although they permit children to be schooled by “outsiders,” they have never allowed them to be “educated” by the world.”7

I see the wisdom in that, it is not quite where I am going, but close.

As for schooling, I am going with 1b or 4 from the Merriam-Webster (M-W) definition; there is some overlap there I think you will agree. Except for the horse of course. Keep these definitions in mind as you read further, and I think you will understand where I am coming from.

My King James study Bible defines wisdom as “skill in living,” as for example the behaviors put forward in the book of Proverbs. My highlighting above is as close as M-W gets to “skill in living.” And, my view of the definitions of these first two words comes pretty close to the Amish view.

To educate: 1 looks a lot like schooling, and I do not equate schooling with educating; 3 looks a lot like indoctrination, and that is quite the coincidence, in fact M-W lists “indoctrinate” as a synonym of educate. You’ll want to keep that in mind, too! 2 comes as close as M-W gets to “wisdom.”

M-W goes further regarding indoctrination:

Indoctrinate means "brainwash" to many people, but its meaning isn't always so negative. When the verb first appeared in English in the 17th century, it simply meant "to teach"—a meaning linked closely to its source, the Latin verb docēre, which also means "to teach." (Other offspring of docēre include docile, doctor, document, and, of course, doctrine). By the 19th century, indoctrinate was being used in the sense of teaching someone to fully accept only the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group.

And there you have it, the italics and bold are mine.

Furthermore, I will be presenting quotes from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; the use of these words in the context of those quotes will leave something to your imagination, and mine, as to the writer’s intended meaning.

WHY Do Governments Act In Primary Education?

For this first section I will be relying heavily on a book by Agustina S. Pagalayan, Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education.

It has been thought that industrialization, democratization, and military power competition, have driven the need for mass schooling. Also, if we are being charitable vis-à-vis the government, the development of mass schooling could be a policy tool for reducing poverty and income inequality, as well as improving the upward mobility of the lower classes. I am not charitable when it comes to the government, and the data available does not seem to support any of the hypotheses above as cause of government involvement.

Fear of internal conflict, crime, anarchy and the breakdown of social order, coupled with the perception that traditional policy tools such as repression, redistribution, and moral instruction by the Church were increasingly insufficient to prevent violence, led governments to develop a national primary education system. Central governments went to great lengths to place the masses in primary schools under their control out of concern that the “unruly,” “savage,” and “morally flawed” masses posed a grave danger to social order and, with that to ruling elites’ power. […] State-regulated primary education systems, then, emerged fundamentally as a state-building tool.8

Before further discussion of the causes of government action in education from the quote above, I want to address some other “traditional policy tools,” briefly.

• The Church. The founders saw fit to ensure that the federal government could not set up its own Church; this is the first, the beginning, of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion […],” because it had been used as a policy tool in Great Britain.

• Redistribution. This started in earnest with FDR and Social Security, as part of the New Deal; the next and bigger step was taken by Lyndon Johnson, as part of his Great Society, and known as the War on Poverty. The government could not care less about poverty; the point is to prevent revolt. In other countries redistribution of land is, and has been used to pacify the masses; in South Africa for example, Zimbabwe, and the United States after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. The provision of “free” schooling to the lower classes is also seen as a form of redistribution.

• Repression. Repression takes many forms, but the war on the citizenry in modernity went kinetic during the 1960s, and continues to this day; the internal police state being led by the FBI, under the truly evil J. Edgar Hoover in the early years. <If you ask me, Kash Patel should bring in demolition experts and drop the damn Hoover building into its footprint.> I should note, and we will discuss, that in the early days of the republic kinetic action was also taken in two events particularly relevant to this post.

The powers that be want to remain as the powers that be. Maintenance, i.e. protection of the status quo, is a primary objective of the elites; any and all policy tools necessary to protect the elites and their position as such in society can and will be employed.

Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants.

Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling, by John Taylor Gatto (taught for 30 years in public schools, New York State’s official “Teacher of the Year” in the year he retired.

Further to the impact of a breakdown in social order as cause, this in the United States, and from Thomas Jefferson:

… And say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the government <energy to repress violently> or information to the people. This last is the most certain, and the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is in their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them…”

Thomas Jefferson, in his 20 December 1787 letter to James Madison before they became the third and fourth President of the United States, respectively.

This was part of an exchange between Adams and Jefferson that was prompted by Shay’s Rebellion:

Shay’s Rebellion <1786-1787> was an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts […] in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes on both individuals and their trades. […] Historically, scholars have argued that the four thousand rebels, called Shaysites, who protested against economic and civil rights injustices by the Massachusetts Government were led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays. By the early 2020s, scholarship has suggested that Shays's role in the protests was significantly and strategically exaggerated by Massachusetts elites, who had a political interest in shifting blame for bad economic conditions away from themselves.

-wiki

Notice the role of the “elites” in the wiki entry above. Now I would like to believe that what Jefferson meant by “education,” is the same as I showed in the definitions above; which is to say not indoctrination. We will almost certainly never know. My hope would be that he meant to educate the people regarding our form of government, a republic, and its remedies, as he had learned, through the study of empires going back to the Greeks and Romans. And perhaps he did mean that, but alas, that is not the choice we have made as a society.

Having said that, it was not long before government took action following Shay’s Rebellion; “in 1789 the Massachusetts legislature passed the first state law on common education […] [the law] called for the organization and public funding of “common schools,” which were to teach a curriculum that was to some extent supervised by the state government.” While trying to not get ahead of myself, I will say that in the United States, Massachusetts has led the way in schooling ever since.

Adding fuel to the elite fire, was the Whiskey Rebellion in 1791:

The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government.

-wiki

This rebellion was put down by repression; “Washington himself rode at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency, with 13,000 militiamen provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.” That also from the wiki. It was the largest army ever to put foot on American ground, and according to the wiki, led by the President himself.

So, the “why” of government involvement in schools is not a European thing, it is not an absolutist-regime thing, rather it spans all forms of government, space, i.e. geography, and time. It is an “elites protecting themselves and their station” thing.

We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.

Woodrow Wilson

Paglayan goes to great lengths in Raised to Obey regarding the “why,” the cause and effect relationship between the breakdown of social order and the rise of government involvement is schools. I will leave you to the book for more details justifying the assertion.

WHAT Was To Comprise The System?

While rulers deployed the army, and later, police forces, to repress the disorderly masses, internal threats also motivated them to invest in primary education systems designed to forge social order through indoctrination.

Key to this state-building endeavor was the effort to inculcate a set of moral principles that exalted the value of obedience, and rejected the individual use of violence. Every aspect of primary education systems was crafted to teach children to obey existing rules and authorities, and accept the status quo. […]

Primary education systems, then, were conceived as part of a repertoire of policy tools used by the state to consolidate its power.9

So. The key role that schools were to perform, on behalf of government, was to indoctrinate children in their earliest years.

6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6 NIV

Proverbs 22:6 is truth, and the elites knew that, using it to their advantage. Sometimes and in some places the Bible and religion were used in schools, if what was being taught supported the objectives of the elite.

The teaching of morals though, was to be front and center. Those “morals:”

• Docility;

• blind obedience to the rules, questioning authority is verboten;

• acceptance of the status quo; and

• the rejection of individual violence.

When this author, Paglayan, uses the word “indoctrination,” she is using “the Oxford American Dictionary, which defines indoctrination as ‘the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.’” Who put Joe in charge? Don’t ask. Is pure democracy the best form of government? Don’t ask. Is a republic the best form of government, or is communism, or fascism, or socialism? Don’t ask.

What makes something indoctrination is not the content being taught; what characterizes indoctrination is the process of teaching this content leaves no room for room for questioning or critical thinking.

Elites, political and otherwise, feeling threatened, usually as a result of some sort of breakdown in the social order, supported mass schooling and indoctrination; inoculating themselves if you will, against the ignorant, unwashed masses.

What’s that old saying, “If you are getting it for free (the product or service, like Google search), you in fact are the product (Google is selling your data).” Or words to that effect. So it goes with “free” government education; an indoctrinated version of you is the product, subservient to the state.

But what forms does this indoctrination program take in our schools? What are the schools actually intent on doing?

[…] compulsory schooling on this continent was intended to be just what it had been for Prussia in the 1820s: a fifth column into the burgeoning democratic movement that threatened to give the peasants and the proletarians a voice at the bargaining table. Modern, industrialized, compulsory schooling was to make a sort of surgical incision into the prospective unity of these underclasses. Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever re-integrate into a dangerous whole.

1) The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority. This, of course, precludes critical judgment completely. […]

2) The integrating function. This might well be called “the conformity function,” because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. […]

3) The diagnostic and directive function. School is meant to determine each student’s proper social role. This is done by logging evidence mathematically and anecdotally on cumulative records. As in “your permanent record.” […]

4) The differentiating function. Once their social role has been “diagnosed,” children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits—and not one step further. […]

5) The selective function. This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin’s theory of natural selection as applied to what he called “the favored races.” In short, the idea is to help things along by consciously attempting to improve the breeding stock. Schools are meant to tag the unfit—with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments—clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior and effectively bar them from the reproductive sweepstakes. That’s what all those little humiliations from first grade onward were intended to do: wash the dirt down the drain.

6) The propaedeutic function. The societal system implied by these rules will require an elite group of caretakers. To that end, a small fraction of the kids will quietly be taught how to manage this continuing project, how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down and declawed in order that government might proceed unchallenged and corporations might never want for obedient labor.10

Emphasis is mine. Does any of that ring bells for you? Most of it does for me, and I was in primary school relatively early in this “project,” the 1960’s. Number 5 in particular; I have vivid memories of 2nd grade, almost 60 years ago. Suffice it to say that some of the indoctrination “stuck.” Which of course, was an objective.

HOW Was The Indoctrination Program Implemented In The United States?

The short answer is, through law, over a significant time period, and step by step, i.e. gradually. But, mass education, with government involvement if not outright total control, began in Europe with Prussia leading the way, leading by example not just in Europe, but in the Americas as well.

Arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn unruly American children into disciplined, judicious republican citizens, Mann won widespread approval from modernizers, especially in the Whig Party, for building public schools. Most U.S. states adopted a version of the system Mann established in Massachusetts, especially the program for normal schools to train professional teachers.

-wiki

Do you see anything in that introduction from Wikipedia about literacy, or numeracy, history or geography, civics, or anything but indoctrination under the cover of education? The introduction also gives you a hint as to what came on Mann’s heels; job one was to indoctrinate the teachers. Train the trainers, as is now often said, in “normal schools,” to train the children in “common schools.” And, he was from Massachusetts, the colony that was first to fire a shot in 1775, and then, perhaps counter-intuitively, the first state to brainwash its children.

Where did Mann get his ideas? Further from the wiki:

Upon becoming the secretary of education of Massachusetts in 1837, Mann worked to create a statewide system of professional teachers, based on the Prussian <i.e. German> model of "common schools." Prussia was attempting to develop a system of education by which all students were entitled to the same content in their public classes. Mann initially focused on elementary education and on training teachers. The common-school movement quickly gained strength across the North.

Mann traveled to Prussia in 1843, to learn of the Prussian system first hand. How did the Prussians think?

Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished ... The social psychologist of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.

— Johann Gottlieb Fichte

(1762-1814) German philosopher, psychologist, considered the father of German nationalism

Prussian University in Berlin, 1810, quoted by The Impact of Science on Society by Bertrand Russell, 1952

Somehow, perhaps even with good intentions, Mann convinced himself that he could copy and paste from the Prussian model without ill effect.

[…] if Prussia can pervert the benign influences of education to the support of arbitrary power, we surely can employ them for the support and perpetuation of republican institutions. A national spirit of liberty can be cultivated more easily than a national spirit of bondage; and, if it may be made one of the great prerogatives of education to perform the unnatural and unholy work of making slaves, then surely it must be one of the noblest instrumentalities for rearing a nation of freemen. If a moral power over the understandings and affections of the people may be turned to evil, may it not also be employed for good?

Mann’s 7th Annual Report as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education

It is probably safe to say, that when you paste a copy of a system designed for “making slaves,” you will have likely strayed a good distance from anything resembling the Socratic method in the process.

The Socratic method […] is a form of argumentative dialogue between individuals based on asking and answering questions. […] In Plato's dialogue "Theaetetus", Socrates describes his method as a form of "midwifery" because it is employed to help his interlocutors develop their understanding in a way analogous to a child developing in the womb. The Socratic method begins with commonly held beliefs and scrutinizes them by way of questioning to determine their internal consistency and their coherence with other beliefs and so to bring everyone closer to the truth.

-wiki

It seems to me, i.e. I believe, that to sustain a republic long term, we need more of the Socratic method, and little of the Prussian method, if any.

A republic, if you can keep it.

—Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

Furthermore, since the people did not want what Mann was offering, Massachusetts went the way of compulsory schooling in 1852. By the 1960’s, virtually all states in the Union had followed Mann’s and Massachusetts’ lead, with Prussian programming top to bottom, and with compulsory education K-12. I’ll remind you that “K” is for Kindergarten, literally garden of children, from the German. The indoctrination apple did not fall far from the absolutist monarchy tree.

United States Federal Government Involvement

The involvement of the federal government in education got a real kick in the pants in “the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.” If you have any reason to hold Johnson in contempt, add this to the list. Not long after that the work on the system was elevated to the cabinet level when “President Carter signed a 1979 bill that re-established a federal education department. It began operating in May 1980 […]” The timing here is coincidental, coincidental with the breakdown in civil order that took place in the 60’s and 70’s, as Paglayan would have forecast; the more overt policy tools (counterintelligence program operations by the FBI, sending the 101st Airborne to ensure desegration of Arkansas schools, the Kent State shootings by the Ohio National Guard, etc.) proved insufficient to the task of pacifying the citizenry. Therefore, “guiding” the “education” of youngsters from the federal level achieved the necessary support of elites to become law.

Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom. This is not an accident but the careful result of the substantial education which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual.

William Torrey Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education 1899-1906

There is one good thing about federal involvement; we now have the statistics to show that government-school leadership is entirely disinterested in education, as we serfs think of it, you know, literacy, numeracy, aka reading, writing, and arithmetic. If you still hold on to a shred of belief that the feds care about the education of your children, see my post,

Even without clicking on the link, in the one chart shown above, Reading levels at Age 13 (8th grade), improvement is not in evidence. And the cost of that lack of improvement; we are expected to pay for “fiscal year 2025 Budget requests <of> $82.4 billion in discretionary funding for the Department […],” a 4% increase from 2024. Not only do we continue to throw good money after bad, but more good money.

As I have said also of the ineffectual War on Poverty (only effective in breaking down families), systems are designed to produce the output(s) they produce, and if they are not producing the desired output(s) the system is changed. We have not changed the system because we, the elites that is, are getting what the system is designed to produce; broken families, and docile, blindly obedient and accepting of the status quo citizens, who will never even think of using violence to resist the elite powers that be. Okay. I think that is about all we need to know the “how” of government indoctrination.

School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they’ll never be bored.

Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling, by John Taylor Gatto

Before, and since we of European stock were indoctrinated, other were, and are being indoctrinated.

Starting in the late 1800s, the United States created an assimilation policy where they took Native American children from their families and placed them in harmful institutions called "Indian Boarding Schools", usually far away from home. Native children were treated badly and abused. Families were not allowed to see their children. Many children died in these institutions. The goal was to force Native peoples to assimilate into American society and eliminate all of their traditional cultures and languages. This policy did not end until 1978 and many schools remained open until the 1980s-2000s. The impact this policy has had on Native peoples is still being felt today and there are many survivors to tell their stories.

Native American Boarding Schools

Since it worked so well on Native Americans, we took the show on the road, so to speak; see the free documentary “Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden.”

So. What can be done by way of resistance to this evil?

Alternatives to Government Schools

First of all, the Department of Education is completely extra-Constitutional, which is to say the Constitution makes no mention of it, and according to the Tenth Amendment;

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

And therefore, God willing, the Department will be found un-Constitutional and reduced to rubble. Short of that, and given state involvement for the same reasons, we are on our own with respect to finding alternatives. There are many, but generally at family/student expense. To list just a few:

• Microschool

• Private school

  • Parochial school

  • Boarding school

• Charter school

• Homeschool

  • Unschool

  • Homeschool Co-op

The problem, again, is cost. We are already paying property taxes, even if you are a renter, and in most cases a very large fraction of those taxes is going to pay for schooling. We have a top-down system, where with our tax dollars we fund an industry granted a monopoly on education by government. Monopolies are of course protected from competition; most people have no choice but to send their children to public school. Ultimately, that needs to change, the system, the school choice, needs to be driven from the bottom-up, which is to say that the money needs to flow to the family/student, and the family/student then decides where to spend that money, creating competition for those dollars. Having said that, in the meantime there is unquestionably an exodus from public schools:

Over the first two school years under the pandemic, K–12 enrollment in public schools fell by more than 1.2 million students, with prominent losses among students in early elementary grades and kindergarten.

In the 2021–22 school year, private school enrollment was 4 percent higher while homeschool enrollment was 30 percent higher.

The growth in private school enrollment was particularly large in kindergarten and early elementary grades.

DC and the 21 states that had available data showed increased homeschool enrollment during the pandemic. The smallest increase occurred in North Carolina, where homeschool enrollment grew by 8 percent. Other states saw particularly large increases, including Florida (43 percent), New York (65 percent), and Pennsylvania (53 percent).

Urban Institute

But, there are close to 50,000,000 kids in public schools, so we have only scratched the surface. Until the funding problem is solved, the mass exodus will not develop fully. As soon as the funding problem is solved, well, Katie bar the door. Pester your representatives … meanwhile, if you have the available resources, get your children out of the public school system, especially the primary and middle schools, where the most damage is done.

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Matthew 18-20 KJV (The Great Commission)

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Some additional interesting links:

https://americanarchive.org/exhibits/first-amendment/protests-60s-70s

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.CHAP1.HTM

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.TAB1.2.GIF

https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statistics

https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation_GainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy_9_8.pdf

https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2022-2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlieb_Fichte

What was Fichte’s connection to German education leaders; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system

Separation of church and state; https://search.brave.com/search?q=%22separation+of+chuch+and+state%22+thomas+jefferson&source=desktop&summary=1&conversation=be326f1d315d6ca54a9b4bDonald B. Kraybill, The Amish (John Hopkins University Press, 2013), 251.

1

The Amish (2013) Kraybill

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2

Mark W. Dewalt, “The Growth of Amish Schools in the United States” Journal of Research in Rural Education, Fall, 2001, Vol. 17, No.2, 122-124.

Jpac 5 1 Dewalt Rev

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3

Johnson-Weiner, Karen. 2015. "Old Order Amish Education: The Yoder Decision in the 21st Century." Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies, 2015, Vol. 3(1), 25-44.

Old Order Amish Education The Yoder Decision In The 21st Century

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So what is it, the fertility rate, exactly; according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),

The total fertility rate in a specific year is defined as the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she were to live to the end of her child-bearing years and give birth to children in alignment with the prevailing age-specific fertility rates. It is calculated by totaling the age-specific fertility rates as defined over five-year intervals. Assuming no net migration and unchanged mortality, a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman ensures a broadly stable population.

The bogey then, to maintain a stable population, is a fertility rate of of 2.1/woman. All, “western” countries, all, have fertility rates below 2.1. This leads to successive generations being smaller than their predecessors; an aging, and shrinking, population.

The chart is from the wiki on “sub-replacement fertility.” I am not going to get into the reasons for sub-replacement fertility, they are many, but the implications for the United States in particular.

The Welfare State

Remember, we are facing successively smaller generations. According to the Social Security Administration, in 1940 there were 159.4 workers per beneficiary; that number fell to 5.1 by 1960, and sat at 2.8 in 2013. No doubt it has continued to fall. Keep in mind that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, the so-called Social Security Trust Fund is a smoke screen; current “investors,” i.e. workers, fund the beneficiaries hand to mouth, if you will. So even a decade ago, fewer than three workers were funding the Social Security payment to one beneficiary. Clearly, we have simply offloaded an ever-increasing burden onto successive generations. Can you say “unsustainable.” Gen Z seems to be awakening to what we have done, thank God. It is decidedly bad for them, hence their disdain, if not outright hatred of Boomers, such as me. And for good reason. Social Security per se, is just the tip of the iceberg.

The history of welfare began after the United States was 156 years old. It started in the 1930s with the Great Depression. Three small programs were mixed into Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) New Deal programs. Still, welfare remained small until the Great Society Programs of Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) in the 1960s. Eight programs were up and running at the end of the Great Society. Over succeeding years, these programs generally expanded their reach and benefits, except for welfare reform performed in 1996. After that <the 1960s>, five new programs were added to the welfare system in 1972 and one each in 1975, 1990, and 1997. In all, fourteen welfare programs make up the welfare system today.

History of Welfare, Federal Safety Net

Because of this growth in the welfare state, Johnson and FDR follow only Woodrow Wilson on my list of the worst Presidents in the history of the United States; they have done, literally, irreparable harm to the Republic. There is absolutely nothing compassionate about the welfare state, rather the converse is true, it is a destroyer of people, families, and the nation.

Immigration

Without immigration the population of the United States would have already been in decline for decades. But to save the welfare state, legal immigrants, dues-paying workers, are required. More on that later, but suffice it to say here that immigrants who come in as beneficiaries of the system, rather than as benefactors, only exacerbate the sub-replacement fertility problem.

Absent a dramatic re-invigoration of fertility, immigration is a requirement. Of course we are a “nation of immigrants.”

Side note: Italian-Americans, German-Americans, Japanese-, Chinese-, Vietnamese-, African-Americans … these hyphenated names for immigrant groups are a uniquely American “thing.” There is no such thing in France, or Germany, or Japan, etc.; you are French, German, Japanese, or you are a second-class citizen.

The United States can afford to pick and choose its immigrants, and we should be doing exactly that. And whatever we do, we should not be incentivizing illegal immigration by offering “free,” which is to say paid for by actual tax payers, access to our various and sundry welfare programs.

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Politics

I have told my Leftist friends, “just be patient, you will get your way, be it gun controls, more social welfare, more ‘social justice,’ more censorship of those on the Right, etc.” I might have been wrong, it's been known to happen. Why?

Okay … I’m going to give you a long-ish quote here.

Republican-leaning areas in the United States consistently exhibit higher birth rates compared to Democratic-leaning areas. As of 2023, red states—those that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election—had markedly higher fertility rates than blue states, with states like South Dakota (2.01), Texas (1.81), and Utah (1.80) leading in total fertility rates, while states such as Vermont (1.30), Oregon (1.35), and California (1.48) had significantly lower rates.

The aggregate total fertility rate in the 20% most Republican counties was 1.76, compared to 1.37 in the 20% most Democratic counties as of 2024.

Research also shows that Republicans express a stronger desire for children than Democrats. Between 2014 and 2019, Republicans wanted, on average, 0.20 more children than Democrats, with a growing preference among Republicans for larger families of four or more children, while Democrats increasingly favored smaller families or childlessness.

Data from the General Social Survey indicates that a random sample of 100 conservative adults would raise 208 children, compared to 147 for 100 liberal adults.

The fertility advantage in Republican areas persists even when controlling for factors like population density, race, ethnicity, and education levels, suggesting the divide is not merely a function of urbanization or demographics but reflects deeper cultural differences around family formation.

Notably, after the 2016 election, Republican-leaning counties experienced a measurable “Trump bump” in birth rates, attributed to increased economic optimism among Republicans, while Democratic counties saw a relative decline.

A similar but smaller effect was observed after the 2000 election, but no such shift occurred following the Obama victories in 2008 or 2012.

However, most red states still fall below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, indicating challenges to sustainable population growth across the political spectrum.

Brave Search

For the United States as a whole, the fertility rate is 1.62, but as shown above, the Republicans have a fertility rate of about 1.76, while Democrats have a fertility rate of about 1.37. In other words, if we assume for the moment that family influences strongly party affiliation, the born-and-raised Democrat population is going to shrink significantly faster than the born-and-raised Republican population. That is why I might have been wrong.

You have heard of the Great Replacement so-called conspiracy theory perhaps? Here is an intro from that wiki;

The Great Replacement (French: grand remplacement), also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory, is a debunked white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory originally espoused by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states that, with the complicity or cooperation of “replacist” elites, the ethnic French and white European populations at large are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white peoples—especially from Muslim-majority countries—through mass migration, demographic growth and a drop in the birth rate of white Europeans. Since then, similar claims have been advanced in other national contexts, notably in the United States. Mainstream scholars have dismissed these claims of a conspiracy of “replacist” elites as rooted in a misunderstanding of demographic statistics and premised upon an unscientific, racist worldview.

Now, I am not going to argue the objectives of a great replacement, but I am going to argue that a great replacement is happening, and needs to happen, if we intend to preserve the welfare state, the population of the United States, the economy of the United States, etc. I will also argue that the Democrats, who are not idiots, have more incentive to encourage the immigration of Leftists that do the Republicans have incentive to encourage the immigration of more conservative peoples. Where you would find large populations of those more conservative peoples I cannot say.

According to the Pew Research Center,

The number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States reached an all-time high of 14 million in 2023 after two consecutive years of record growth, according to a new Pew Research Center estimate. The increase of 3.5 million in two years is the biggest on record. Data from 2023 is the most recent available for developing a comprehensive and detailed estimate.

So. Four million new illegal (unauthorized) immigrants setup households in the United States between 2020 and 2023, a million per year on average. Most of these immigrants were from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

According to USAFacts:

Summary

I will let you take it from here. With sub-replacement fertility rates, a “great replacement” is happening, like it or not. The only question is, “who will replace the not born?”

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The risks for overall cancer were assessed using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, and data were expressed as hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The HRs of thyroid (HR, 1.351; 95% CI, 1.206–1.514), gastric (HR, 1.335; 95% CI, 1.130–1.576), colorectal (HR, 1.283; 95% CI, 1.122–1.468), lung (HR, 1.533; 95% CI, 1.254–1.874), breast (HR, 1.197; 95% CI, 1.069–1.340), and prostate (HR, 1.687; 95% CI, 1.348–2.111) cancers significantly increased at 1 year post-vaccination. In terms of vaccine type, cDNA vaccines were associated with the increased risks of thyroid, gastric, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers; mRNA vaccines were linked to the increased risks of thyroid, colorectal, lung, and breast cancers;

Link to Article/Study

“Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA.” — Mayo Clinic

From the study cited above, “Data from 8,407,849 individuals between 2021 and 2023 were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance database.”

And the usual caveat; “Given the limited availability of real-world data, our population-based cohort study in Seoul, South Korea suggested epidemiological associations between the cumulative incidence of cancers and COVID-19 vaccination, which varied by sex, age, and vaccine type. However, further studies are warranted to elucidate potential causal relationships, including the underlying molecular mechanisms related to COVID-19 vaccine–induced hyperinflammation.”

It’s too late for most, vaccination is history, the adverse events not so much. Of course we don’t know, because the trials were short, and small; too short and too small to predict outcomes accurately. And because our rulers are beyond hesitant to admit any issues with the vaccines.

A pdf of the report is included below. I suspect this is not the last we will hear of the various adverse events; in my research for this short piece though, it is difficult to find anything that is not coming out of a government, all of which are in-credible in my opinion, which is to say not credible.

Do your own research.

1 Year Risks Of Cancers Associated With Covid 19 Vaccination

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John F Kennedy

Now you might believe that the CIA had a hand in JFK’s assassination, or not. But what is historical fact is that the CIA tried to entrap JFK in a war via the Bay of Pigs invasion. Fortunately for all of us, JFK managed to avoid the trap. He then fired CIA Director Allen Dulles in direct response. Subsequent to his assassination, and you cannot make this up, Allen Dulles was appointed to the Warren Commission charged with investigating JFK’s murder, by none other than LBJ. I will leave you to your own conclusions.

See The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government.

Richard M. Nixon

Most don’t recall that Nixon was one of the most popular Presidents ever; his “approval ratings began high, with an initial approval of 59% in January 1969, and remained above 50% through much of his first term, reaching a peak of 67% in January 1973 following his second inauguration.” Then came Watergate, after which so many other -gates have been named. CIA involvement you ask? Several of the break-in perpetrators had CIA ties, and …

…evidence suggests the CIA may have had its own agenda. According to author Jim Hougan, the CIA was reportedly conducting its own illegal domestic operations, including surveillance of clients of a call-girl ring near the Watergate complex, and the Watergate break-in was sabotaged to protect these activities.

The CIA also destroyed Watergate-related documents shortly after the arrests, and a CIA officer named Robert F. Bennett, who later became a U.S. senator, admitted to feeding story leads to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to steer the investigation away from CIA involvement.

Despite these revelations, CIA Director Helms publicly denied any agency involvement during his testimony before the Senate Watergate Committee, a claim that was empirically dubious given the evidence of the agency’s deep entanglement.

From Brave AI

The end result was Lawfare against Nixon, resulting in his resignation.

See The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President.

And the Jim Hougan mentioned above, has also written a book on the subject; Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA.

Keep in mind with respect to both Kennedy and Nixon, that the CIA is supposed to be confined to foreign intelligence gathering. Yeah, it did not work like that then, and it does not work like that now.

And So Many Others

RFK? Malcom X? MLK? We will probably never know the whole stories, like with Epstein, but were I a betting man I would bet heavily on government involvement in all of these assassinations. Assassination is the literal, kinetic, weaponization of government. The 60’s were a particularly nasty era; for more on that see The Cointelpro Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States.

Obama and Biden

Anyone who cannot accept as fact that both Obama and Biden engaged in weaponization of government is simply willfully ignorant or suffering from normalcy bias.

Speaking of which, get used to the fact that weaponization of government is the norm, not the exception.

And I have merely scratched the surface.

What Then, Is To Be Done?

If as I claim, “weaponization of government is the norm, not the exception,” then desiring less weaponization of government has but one solution: LESS GOVERNMENT. A lot less. Because, I am sorry to say, neither the CIA nor the FBI will be “reformed” in any meaningful way by Trump, Bondi, Patel, Bongino, et al.

All of this brought to mind a post I wrote over a year ago:

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Sawmill Services

Rob’s second load of lumber has achieved Kiln Dried status. With any luck I will be exchanging this stack of lumber for the 973 square feet of finished tongue and groove flooring at Sauger Lake Wood Products yet this week.

One big job with Chris and Fran is in the works; this we probably not happen until early October, but a site visit and planning are in the near future.

God willing, October will be a big month for milling.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

In last week’s Newsletter I post the “why” video; today it is the “how.” Please enjoy, and please give the product a look-see, try and taste for yourself!

A big order capping off the week from Mike O. Thank you Mike!!!

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Chickens

Meat Birds

Processing of the Meat Birds was this past Saturday.

The Meat Birds are in the freezer. Summary Statistics:

• Total Birds: 28

• Average Weight in the Bag: 5.6 lbs

• Price / lb at $15/bird (average): $2.67

• Total Weight of Packaged Birds: 157.4 lb

• Weight of the Offal:

  

• Total Weight of Product: 176.6 lbs

Layers

At least some of the pullets are no longer pullets, and are now laying hens; the smaller eggs are the evidence.

Pigs

A couple of days shy of three weeks until the pigs go to the butcher; it doesn’t seem possible that the summer has passed so quickly. First up, the Pigs know where their food comes from, and come out to greet me!

Happy and content Pigs at the feeder.

Oxen

The Oxen have access to Paddocks #4 and 2; looking good.

Sheep

Okay … here is the plan. We will get a pregnant, two year old ewe from Mark, the Amish shepherd; this animal will probably not get to us until early January 2026.

From Brian, my mentor in shepherding, we will get four ewes and a ram. Mark is in northern Michigan on a bear hunt, but when he returns we will be discussing the timing of getting those animals to Homestead Rebel Farm; I am thinking the second half of October, early November.

By May 2026 then, we should have a ram, five ewes, and somewhere between 5 and 10 lambs on pasture. It has been a long time coming.

Farmhouse Airbnb

Two years ago, almost to the day, I had to replace what I call the “squirrel cage” in the furnace blower. Here we are, and again, the wheel as failed. The furnace is by my best estimate, original equipment, about 40 years old. The first blower wheel made it 38 years, the second wheel made it two years. My HVAC contractor told me he stopped selling this brand, Heil, after they moved production to Mexico. I HATE poor quality.

The system will be ready for guests arriving Friday.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

News & Notes

Charlie Kirk was assassinated a week ago today. It has been very interesting to see reaction to his murder, at home and abroad. It is telling, I think.

I am not so sure about the investigation … some things are just not falling in line for me. For one, the gun. I think the perpetrator was not in possession of the gun when he got down off the roof. And if he was, why leave the gun in the woods if you’ve made it that far? And wrapped in a towel? Why not have a “grave” for the gun prepared in the woods before “the day.” Where is the bullet? The .30-06 bullet would have left Charlie’s neck largely intact; where did it go? And … The text messages exchanged between the perpetrator and his trans-furry boyfriend also don’t add up. So … you are the boyfriend, you don’t know anything about the murder, supposedly, your murderer boyfriend texts you and tells you he killed Charlie Kirk, and one of your first questions is, “how long have you been planning this?!” Or words to that effect? If I were the boyfriend I would be losing my shit! Why are you dragging me into your murder?! I’m calling the police; get out of my life!? And no, hell no, I won’t help you recover the murder weapon, do you think I’m an idiot!? None of that or anything like that in the text message transcripts I’ve seen. It doesn’t seem … natural. The perpetrator was not stupid, he texts that if he can only get the gun he will have left no evidence. And yet in the texts, which he must know will live forever, he confesses to pre-meditated murder. No. Something just doesn’t add up.

Okay. All for now.

All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

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OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

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All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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"You can tell a lot about a person by how they react when someone dies."

Charlie Kirk, 2016 tweet

George Floyd’s Murder

Let’s first reflect on someone apparently near and dear to the Left; George Floyd. Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, call it what ever you like, murder by cop, drug overdose, whatever; in fact let’s go with “murder” so we are making some sort of apples-to-apples comparison, and the aftermath (reaction) has also been well documented.

Reaction to George Floyd’s Death from the Right:

President Donald Trump sent his condolences on May 27 via Twitter, saying he requested that the FBI conduct a thorough investigation. He added, "My heart goes out to George's family and friends. Justice will be served!" Trump also described Floyd's murder as "sad and tragic".

George W. Bush and former First Lady, Laura Bush, issued a 500-word statement which read in part that they are "anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country", and that "It is time for America to examine our tragic failures." The statement continued, saying: "Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means."

No mention is made of any broadly-based “celebration” of Floyd’s murder on the part of the people on the Right side of the political spectrum more generally.

State, national, international, and religious support for George Floyd was almost universal. In the wiki all dissenting views were categorized under the heading “misinformation” and confined to two short paragraphs.

— Reaction to George Floyd’s Death From the Right (from the wiki, which is from anywhere but the Right):

Reaction to George Floyd’s Death from the Left:

The term "Summer of Love" in the context of 2020 is used sarcastically and controversially, primarily online, to refer to the period of widespread protests and unrest following the killing of George Floyd in May 2020…

• insured property damage from the riots ranged between $1 billion and $2 billion (insured losses from May 26 to June 8, 2020) making it potentially the most expensive episode of civil unrest in U.S. insurance history…

• For the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area alone, property damage was estimated at $550 million across 1,500 locations, with about 60% of the losses uninsured…

• at least 25 Americans were killed during or in incidents linked to the 2020 protests and political unrest.

— AI generated answer, with sources

The Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct was overrun and abandoned during protests in late May 2020. As unrest escalated into rioting, looting, and arson, city leaders ordered officers to evacuate. Then-Police Chief Medaria Arradondo stated his primary concern was preventing loss of life among officers and civilians. The precinct was subsequently set on fire by rioters.

The Seattle Police Department's East Precinct was abandoned on June 8, 2020, after sustained protests on Capitol Hill.

Let’s just say the reaction from the political Left to George Floyd’s “martyrdom” was violence; days, weeks and months of violence, categorized as “mostly peaceful” in the state-run media, hence the moniker, Summer of Love.

Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

Reaction to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination from the Left:

…Analysts note that some individuals on the left have celebrated the assassination online, which has been cited by right-wing figures as evidence of broader leftist complicity.

MSNBC commentator Matthew Dowd suggested that Kirk’s own rhetoric may have contributed to the climate leading to his death, stating, “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions”.

Katy Tur, also of MSNBC, called Kirk a “divisive figure” and expressed concern that the Trump administration would use the shooting to justify political crackdowns.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker drew criticism from conservatives for quickly blaming former President Trump for fostering a violent political environment.

Meanwhile, some liberals have criticized fellow leftists who expressed sympathy for Kirk, indicating internal tensions within progressive circles.

Overall, while mainstream Democratic leaders have uniformly condemned the assassination, commentary from media figures and individuals on the left has sparked controversy, with some suggesting systemic issues in political discourse, while others face backlash for perceived insensitivity or celebration of the event.

— AI generated answer, with sources

Divisive, I ask Katy Tur; who in these United States was the most divisive figure? That’s easy.

Abraham Lincoln. Seven states seceded from the Union during the interregnum, the time between the election and Abe sitting down in the Oval Office. That is divisive my friends. So, Charlie was standing on solid ground.

”@WokeMitt,” and proud of it, apparently. One of Way. Too. Many. Let’s see what the “entire right wing … going ape shit” actually looks like.

Reaction to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination from the Right:

Prayer vigil, Utah State University

Prayer vigil, Texas A&M University

Prayer vigil, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

Prayer vigils globally. I guess that’s what you call “ape shit” in Mitt’s world. The cost of the Right going ape shit?

• $0 property damage

• 0 deaths

• Eternal lives saved: Innumerable.

That is not “mostly peaceful,” aside from the $2B in property damage and 25 dead in the Summer of Love; no. That is entirely peaceful in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Now, pick a side.

Left or Right, Choose.

Matthew Chapter 12, verses 25 and 30:

25 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.

30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

With Him or against Him, Choose!

Sawmill Services

So. Rob’s second and much smaller load of lumber is still in the Solar Kiln; I measured the Moisture Content directly this morning, and it is not quite where it needs to be. When it is Kiln Dried, I will be exchanging this stack of lumber for the 973 square feet of finished tongue and groove flooring at Sauger Lake Wood Products. I’m hoping that will happen early next week, it probably will not happen this week.

I have a call for mantle pieces on the schedule for tomorrow morning, and the milling of some Red Oak trailer decking. The logs are already staged at the Wood-Mizer.

This is where the blunt force trauma to the face came in. I was out in the Polaris scouting about for a downed Red Oak for the trailer decking … of course there are a lot a down branches and trees in the woods. You’ve probably seen cartoons of some dufus stepping on a rake; it was like that. I ran over a “stick,” going slowly, the stick was about 3 inches in diameter, and it came up into the “door opening” on the Polaris like someone was swinging a baseball bat, hit me smack dab in the face. Bleeding started immediately, I wasn’t sure whether it was from my nose or mouth; turns out it was neither, it broken open my lip between my mouth and nose and the blood was really pouring out of the split. The bleeding has stopped; it could have been worse. Not sure what I could have been doing differently, except perhaps wearing a helmet 24/7!

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

In last week’s Newsletter I post the “why” video; today it is the “how.” Please enjoy, and please give the product a look-see, try and taste for yourself!

Visit the Shop!

Homestead Rebel

Chickens

Two more days and a wake-up for the Meat Birds. Timothy will be on hand to help with the work.

Pigs

Another month for the pigs. All is well.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #10 and looking good.

Sheep

The Ewes and a Ram are still in the works.

In our house, I “finally” got around to plumbing the new Master Bathroom sink; there is still some trim work to do, but it is functional.

Farmhouse Airbnb

Back in the 80’s all week, beautiful early fall weather.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

News & Notes

As I write, the shooting of Charlie Kirk is all over the news. The Congressional baseball game in 2017, two assassination attempts on Trump, and now Charlie Kirk; not to mention the lawfare and imprisonment of conservatives. MSNBC talking heads are saying in might have been a supporter shooting off in celebration. Of course it was. This is what happens when you dehumanize your enemies.

Supposedly Charlie was shot in the neck, and transported to a local hospital. Please pray; the news I’m hearing is that it was a devastating injury. Pray for our country.

All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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You can see the fall colors, especially on the other side of the lake; some shorter, fall-colored trees, with taller summer-colored trees in the background, that is because the fall-colored trees are basically standing in water. Some years those trees nearest the lake have remained fall-colored from spring right on through the summer.

Mark the time; it is 12:06 pm as I type; the weather-guessers are forecasting 0.38 inches of rain starting at about 3 pm. Let’s see how they do. I am really hopeful for some additional rain, and maybe we can keep the Oxen fed on pasture through September. Regardless, it won’t be long and we’ll be bringing in hay.

Sawmill Services

As planned I milled with Tim and Tonia this week; 8 logs, 531 board feet of lumber in 3.25 hours wire to wire.

And we received news that Rob and Robin’s flooring was ready for pickup at Sauger Lake Wood Products. I delivered ~1,300 bd ft of kiln dried lumber, and that yielded 973 square feet of tongue and groove 3/4 inch thick flooring. Rob wants a bit more, so I when I pick up the first load for delivery to Rob and Robin, I will be delivering another 175 board feet or so for more flooring; the additional lumber is in Kiln #2.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

For those of you unfamiliar with “how” we make our Pure Maple Sryup, I’ll start with the “why” of doing things the way we do. If you like our “why,” please give the product a look-see, try and taste for yourself!

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Chickens

Thought I had one meat bird ailing, but we’ll see, it looked better this afternoon. I pushed out the butchering by a week.

Pigs

The pigs are getting big enough to push over the feeder, we will see a similar behavior of the Oxen just below. But, Geri advised me of the deed, and within minutes I had the situation righted.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #5 and looking good. Praying for rain!

Water, water … hold on a minute?! Same story as last week, with Boris acting as the antagonist!

I had thought to do some necessary work on the F250 this morning, but with rain in the forecast I decided to set a burn pile ablaze in the meantime, which also allowed me to keep an eye on Boris and Elmer.

And the burn pile after …

Sheep

The news is that we now have a supplier for the Ewes, and it had already been decided that Brian H would supply the ram. Now it is just a matter of organizing the timing, and funding.

And I have some research to do on other types of sheep fencing; I’m wondering if I can modify the perimeter fencing of the Oxen Pasture to contain Sheep and their lambs. If so, we might be able to run the Oxen and Sheep together.

Farmhouse Airbnb

A crew of six expected at the Farmhouse this weekend; should be fun for all involved, and a Farm tour might be on the agenda I’m told. I’ve a couple things on the to-do list, including the mowing, weather permitting, and assuming it’s necessary; the grass is growing more slowly in both pastures and yards.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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All of a sudden, fall has arrived. It was our hottest summer ever, but like someone flipped a switch, the high temps seem to be behind us. With late summer and fall though, comes the fruit harvest; we are really enjoying the Loring peaches.

Sawmill Services

Shane’s lumber was delivered and stacked on Friday.

I will be milling this week with Timothy S.:

• 3 Oaks – 4’-6” x 21” dia, 5’ x 24” dia and 6’ x 23” dia

• 2 Cherry’s – 7’ x 11” dia

• 4 Maples – 7’ x 12” and 14” dia

Should be fun!

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

Since fall has arrived, that means it is about time to do the fall cleaning of the Pure Maple Syrup Evaporator.

I let the natural fermentation process do most of the work, from the end of the season in spring until fall, when we disassemble the evaporator and clean all the pans, piping, pipe fittings, regulator boxes, etc. This coming spring the final “test boil” and sterilization will occur.

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Meat Birds

No additional losses, so we should still have 28, though I say 27 in the video. Butchery is tentatively scheduled for 10 days out.

Layers

Not a huge haul today, but the birds are consistent; the young birds have yet to start laying, but their eggs should come soon.

Pigs

The pigs evidently were eager to show off, or were expecting food, I’m not sure which! Probably the latter.

Oxen

I am updating the bird’s-eye view occasionally, especially as the Sheep Pasture has been developed over the summer. The yellow rectangles indicate placement of gates of various types and widths.

Water, water everywhere … except where it shoud be!

Water line reattached … temporarily

Tubing reattached, and now it is on to pushing the air out the system, which I am not capable of doing with head pressure alone, the well pump is required.

Okay, the trough is full again …

And then it is just a matter of re-filling the tote … again.

Sheep

Now that the perimeter fencing is done, I had a few last minute questions for my “sheep mentor,” Brian.

• Do the sheep “eat” snow (for water)?

• A source for ewes?

• Predator protection?

I have the answers, and left a voice mail for the “Amish guy” this morning; hopefully he will be the source for ewes. We are getting the ram from Brian. We also talked a bit about what the sheep eat, and whether or not they would eat what the Oxen are leaving behind; sounds like they probably will, and Brian recommended that the Sheep go first in the rotational grazing pattern, followed by the Sheep, and if I get my sh*t together, followed by Layers. We also talked about protection from predators, the role of the fencing, the possibility of using the “Fox Light” system, and if all else fails, putting a donkey in with the Sheep.

Fruit Trees

We are having a big Peach and Asian Pear harvest this year.

And three of our trees are just loaded with them!

The Loring Peach has been a consistent producer in recent years.

Here is a question for you: What does it say about our culture, that we breed fruit trees to not bear fruit? That certainly seems to be indicative of a first world problem; only in the first world is too much fruit a problem. If though a friend of yours might be looking for such a thing!, just put “fruitless ornamental fruit trees” into your search engine.

Farmhouse Airbnb

Not to be left out, the Pear tree at the Farmhouse is bearing ripe fruit!

And here is something you don’t see in the tall woods; wild grapes still on the vine.

Wild grapes grow in the woods, but the fruit is typically a hundred feet up in the canopy, where only the birds and climbing critters get access. The grapes shown above are in a “Rose of Sharon” shrub between the Farmhouse and the northeast corner of the Sheep Pasture.

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All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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Ran into some truck trouble while returning Timothy to Hillsdale; drove home and started the disassembly and repair work, only to have some needed parts arrive in town. It was a choice between a bicycle and the tractor; I chose the bicycle for the 10.4 miles roundtrip.

Sawmill Services

A couple of jobs in the queue, and I will delivery Shane’s lumber this Friday.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

The Blueberry Pure Maple Syrup has been selling well since I put it back on the shelf. I’ll will be having to make some more Tart Cherry soon, and I think I’m particularly low on the Vanilla. Need to get back in the Sugar House!

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Meat Birds

So far we have lost the “runt of the litter,” that was on Day 1 in the Chicken Tractor, then we lost another bird, we think we ran it over while moving the Tractor. By my count we still have 28, and they are eating, protein-making machines.

Layers

The layers are laying, and apparently we are not losing any to the dogs, or any other predators. The new birds, 8 of 12 I think have survived, are not yet laying.

Pigs

The pigs too are growing fast; I may need to expand their area one more time, especially with the recent rain we have had.

Oxen

The Oxen are still in the Sheep Pasture; I plan to move them back to the Oxen Pasture soon, maybe Friday, no later than Saturday. Meanwhile I moved them to the south end of the Sheep Pasture.

The Oxen before moving south in the Sheep Pasture …

The Oxen after moving to the south end of the Sheep Pasture …

Sheep

The biggest of the projects that Timothy and I took on was the Sheep Pasture fencing; the fencing we got done. I am working on the gates. Meanwhile… following up the Oxen mowing with brush hog mowing of what the Oxen don’t eat in the Sheep Pasture. With the recent rain the pastures are improving, but we could still use more rain and faster growth.

I have one gate left to install, that in the Southeast corner of the pasture; I did get done the north 8 ft gate, the south 8 ft gate, and the southwest 12 foot gate.

Firewood

Another of the major projects I had planned for accomplishment with Timothy; we set a goal of 10 cords, ending up at 8 cords split and stacked, and a 9th cord we estimate, waiting to be stacked or split and stacked in the firewood area.

Farmhouse Airbnb

Geri informed me today that she took three more reservations for the Farmhouse in recent days. God willing, we will be able to make a “go” of the Airbnb; we are heading into fall, and hunting seasons, soon. Every season has something to offer, but of course summer seems to be vacation time for Americans in general.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

Thank you to those who answered the poll questions; the results are …

I will leave it there for now …

All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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Sawmill Services

After moving it to a kiln, Shane’s 5/8ths inch lumber was kiln dried within a week. We will deliver this lumber to Shane on August 22.

Below is a picture of Shane’s lumber from last week’s Newsletter.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

Blueberry Pure Maple Syrup is back on the shelf! We still have plenty of the Tart Cherry, Vanilla, and the regular of course.

Visit the Shop!

Homestead Rebel

Sheep

This week we tackled the west end of the North fence-line, and the West fence-line; this is a “before”

And as of later yesterday, it was “done and dusted” as Timothy is fond of saying. This is a major accomplishment, and one of the key projects I was hoping to accomplish this summer with Timothy’s help. Since the Oxen have been grazing the future Sheep Pasture in recent days, you will get a look at Boris and Elmer, too.

The gates still need to be addressed, but that is a relatively small chore. There are four gates in to/out of the Sheep Pasture, two ~12 foot gateways, and two ~8 foot gateways; we will be rounding up some gates we have on the property later today, and then close the gaps. relativelyAnd, lest I forget, and electric wire across the top all the way around, and a strand of barb wire across the bottom all the way around. Again, relative to the posts and woven wire installation, a relatively small job.

You will see a new rectangle at the top left (northwest corner) of the Sheep Pasture in the aerial view below; that is the “Sorting System” for the sheep as detailed immediately below.

I rotated the diagram 90 degrees counter-clockwise above, because that is how it fits into the aerial view. Here it is again, easier to read …

The principal resource used in the development of this design, was Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep, Fifth Edition, by Paula Simmons & Carol Ekarius.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Sheep Pasture, having been moved in rapid succession from Paddock #10 to 8, and to 6, maybe even to 4, I forget! It has been very dry until yesterday and the night before.

The Oxen’s coats are simply beautiful, and they are in physically great shape, aside perhaps from a lack of regular exercise.

From last week, “The grass is a little lite, which is to say, we need rain!”

And prayers answered, we got some rain!

Pigs

The Pigs are in Hog Heaven with the rain yesterday and cooler temperatures.

Chickens

The Meat Birds after three weeks … they are now in the chicken tractor! This video of the move is about 4 minutes.

Farmhouse Airbnb

I don’t think the Airbnb has been empty for 24 hrs since I last wrote; guests have been filling in the weekdays lately, which speaks volumes of Geri’s hostessing.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

A question for you …

Books & Such

I completed Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World, in hardcover. I think I’ve said it before, I no longer have any heroes from the realm of politics, and Eisenhower, while a good president, maybe even a great president, is no exception. He was the first POTUS to have to deal with a nuclear-armed foe, the Soviet Union, and he did not get us into a war. And he didn’t let the military-industrial-congressional complex off the chain. That’s all good; the downside is that he super-empowered the CIA under Allen Dulles to conduct covert wars, and we’ve been dealing with that monster ever since.

And again from last week, another re-read, or re-listen, One Second After, by William Forstchen.

Another book regarding what the aftermath of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse event might look like is Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, by Ted Koppel. I find One Second After more realistic. Preppers typically prepare with some particular event in mind; maybe it’s a hurricane, or a tornado, tsunami, financial collapse … you get the idea. The worst case scenario in my opinion, is the EMP attack.

All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

Leave a comment

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Sawmill Services

Step by step; we loaded up Rob & Robin’s lumber last Friday, and took it to Sauger Lake Wood Products on Monday. Within 3-4 weeks it will be tongue and groove 3/4 inch Red Oak flooring.

That made room for Shane’s lumber in Kiln #2; this if you will recall was milled to 5/8 inch for an accent wall.

I was able to pick the stack up off the air drying foundation and deposit it directly into the kiln, which saved some time.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

Orders continue to come in, and I really appreciate them. I’ve got more Blueberry Pure Maple Syrup on my to-do list, as we are currently Sold Out! We still have plenty of the Tart Cherry, Vanilla, and the regular of course.

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Sheep

This week we tackled the South fence-line, and completed that work early this afternoon.

We have until a week from tomorrow to complete the Sheep Pasture fencing; I think we can do it. I will still have to address the gates, six of them, and a top electric wire, and bottom barbed wire, but I think I can get that done single-handedly; I’ll have to.

And the Post Hole Auger; we’ve probably drilled a hundred holes by now, the auger has paid for itself a couple of times over.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #10; so again they’ve been moved twice in the last week, from 7 to 9 and 9 to 10.

The grass is a little lite, which is to say, we need rain!

Elmer visible way back in Paddock #10; Boris is right there, too, but is better camouflaged..

Pigs

The Pigs are doing well, two more months, give or take a few days.

Chickens

The Meat Birds after ywo weeks and a day … significant growth since a week ago; these birds will go into the “chicken tractor” soon.

The Meat Birds after one week and a day …

And the gallery of images from arrival day for comparison.

Farmhouse Airbnb

It’s been one stay after another lately, with quick turnarounds … tomorrow will not be an exception; we have four hours to get ready for the next guests.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

Books & Such

Another re-read, or re-listen this week, One Second After, by William Forstchen.

Another book regarding what the aftermath of an Electro Magnetic Pulse event might look like is Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, by Ted Koppel. I find One Second After more realistic. Preppers typically prepare with some particular event in mind; maybe it’s a hurricane, or a tornado, tsunami, financial collapse … you get the idea. The worst case scenario in my opinion, is the EMP attack.

All the best to you and yours, and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

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All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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The second batch of meat birds are doing well, and growing fast; we have had them for a week as of yesterday, which would put them at 9 or 10 days old.

Sawmill Services

I love it when I get to see what has been done with lumber we have rough sawn. I am not a craftsman, but I so enjoy what they are capable of! These are just a few of George’s pieces. Beautiful.

Firewood!

Our help from Hillsdale arrived, and we managed to split and stack two cords, more or less. If they had not brought a second log splitter with them there is no way we would have made it. A heartfelt thanks to Jeff, Desmond, and Billy. In the video Desmond is wearing a white shirt, Billy a blue shirt.

And the work has continued since, and with any luck Timothy and I will be working on it yet this afternoon.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

I want to thank Gary and Carol for a couple of particularly large Pure Maple Syrup orders this week! Every sale helps to keep the lights on, doors open, etc. Thank you Gary and Carol!

If you have not already, please introduce yourself to our Pure Maple Syrup products! Any and all orders will be greatly appreciated; you will have my heartfelt thanks.

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Sheep

Work on Sheep Pasture has continued, particularly on the East side, with the longest unbroken fenceline on the property. Clearing work inside and outside the fenceline, H-bracing at the ends, and pulling Woven Wire.

On the following Tuesday, this week Tuesday, we pulled the woven wire; Timothy had spent the intervening days cleaning up the trees that I had felled.

In the above image, I am managing the tensioning of the fence while Timothy is stapling the fence to the posts along the fenceline. The tractor is very handy in this application.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #7; so they’ve been moved twice in the last 8 days.

They will be making their way into Paddock #9, and then make the turn North to Paddock #10 soon. But first, a brief look at the Oxen from the Barn.

As mentioned in the video, there has been work going on in the Oxen Pasture as well, especially along the North fenceline that runs East-West atop of Paddocks #2, 4, 8 and 10; here is a closer look at that work.

Back to the “short on pasture” comment in the first Oxen video; some of the “shortage” might be due to mismanagement on my part.

Pigs

Picked up Pig feed yesterday; distributing it today. And interacting with the Pigs a bit.

Chickens

The Meat Birds after a week and a day …

And the gallery of images from last week for comparison.

Before moving on I just want to drop a short “Public Service” announcement on your regarding stay safe … came to mind while I was with the Pigs …

Farmhouse Airbnb

Pretty soon you will be able to pick some fresh fruit, without the usual toxic cocktail of pesticides and herbicides, when staying at the Farmhouse; the Pears are looking great! And see some pretty flowers.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

News and Notes

So. The news is mostly revealing that the news from earlier times was fake news, mis-, dis-, mal-information, straight-up propaganda, part of a psyop … anything but actual news. But, revealing this, exposing the corruption, at least for many, will have no impact; it’s like the orignal “news” showing up on the front page of the paper, above the fold, and the retraction or correction showing up on page 14.

In short, the damage is already done. The whole point of the Russia Collusion hoax was to derail Trump’s first term, which it did; it cost $32 million and took Mueller 22 months to establish and report in March 2019 that there was no collusion. And still, 6-1/2 years later …

Astonishingly, 60% of Democratic voters still think “the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election”, according to the poll of 1,014 Likely Voters conducted on July 6-7.

A whopping 69 percent of liberal voters still cling to the Russia collusion hoax, compared to 27 percent of conservatives, and 45 percent of moderates. Among all voters, more believe it unlikely (49 percent) than likely (42 percent).

NY Post

Sometimes I just have to wonder, “why bother?”

Books & Such

I am re-reading The Sermon on the Mount, by Emmet Fox.

At the same time I am re-reading Matthew Chapters 5-7; the actual Sermon on the Mount, by Jesus, as documented by Mattew. I am coming to some different conclusions this time round.

All the best to you and yours. and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

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All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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The black rat snake, also known as the gray rat snake, is the largest snake species in Michigan, reaching lengths of up to 8 feet. It is listed as a "species of special concern" by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) due to population declines and habitat loss. The black rat snake is non-venomous and harmless to humans, with a shiny black or dark brown coloration and a white chin and throat.

This snake is found in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula, inhabiting woodlands, open areas adjacent to forests, and sometimes near human dwellings … It is a skilled climber and often enters barns and abandoned buildings in search of rodents, which make up a significant part of its diet.

I’ve seen two black rat snake recently, this one on the driveway sunning itself, which they seem to enjoy. The white under its chin is a clear marking of the black rat snake.

Sawmill Services

I’m working on Rob and Robin’s lumber, lining up next steps to tongue and groove (T&G) flooring. I should have that nailed down by Friday.

Firewood!

We have help again coming from Hillsdale College tomorrow Friday; by end of day we expect to have at least 6 cords split and stacked. Regardless of how far we get, we are pivoting to completion of the Sheep Pasture fencing. Timothy is making the last-minute preps for their arrival.

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

If you have not already, please introduce yourself to our Pure Maple Syrup products! Any and all orders will be greatly appreciated; you will have my heartfelt thanks.

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Sheep

The last big job on the Sheep Pasture fencing is the installation of Woven Wire; Timothy and I took our first swing at the job this morning, and we agree that we deserved a solid “B” for our efforts. Ha!

We still have a lot of H-bracing to do, and we still have a lot of woven wire fencing to install, but at this point we have done it all and are feeling confident. Firewood will be the focus tomorrow, and maybe through the end of the week, but beginning next week completion of the Sheep Pasture fencing is going to be a the top of the list.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #3; the move from Paddock #1 was made last Thursday. The plan is to move them to Paddock #5 tomorrow, Thursday. God willing we will get the forecasted rain Thursday/Friday.

Pigs

Refilled the Water Wagon, and moved the waterer to drier ground; Toby introduces him self to the electric fence!

And Toby and a couple of the Pigs make their introductions.

Chickens

The Meat Birds arrived Wednesday, today!

And a gallery of images regarding brooder setup, chicks pickup, etc.

And some of the laying hens dust bathing …

Farmhouse Airbnb

Geri and seven friends celebrated their birthdays collectively over the weekend. It was fun for all involved, and Geri did not miss a beat in the hosting department.

And a glimpse of the enjoyment had.

Plus …

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News and Notes

Needless to say it was a big news week; topping the list, “Let’s be clear: A sitting U.S. president just accused a former U.S. president of treason— by name, citing evidence in hand, in the Oval Office, on camera.”

There is a long list of characterizations used to describe Donald Trump, but “stupid” should not be on any such list. So. This is either political suicide for Trump and everyone around him, not to mention the legal ramifications of such an accusation being proven false, or it is not, false. It’s obvious that attacking former presidents legally has been, or was, a taboo for a long time; until the democrats went after Trump. Now it is open season apparently, and Obama’s legacy is in the crosshairs.

And in even more late-breaking news, the Department of Justice announced the formation of a “strike-force” to investigate DNI Gabbard’s disclosures:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-formation-strike-force-assess-evidence-publicized-odni

I’ve posted on this ATF murder once before, and more has come to light. The picture you should be seeing below is an ATF operator in the process of taping over the victim’s Ring camera lens; just before the 7-man team breaches the front door and one shoots the homeowner in the head. If you are wondering why … apparently this is how the ATF serves a seach warrant to a entirely law-abiding citizen.

And prepping from a largely different perspective, and for different reasons than my own.

Books & Such

I finished Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, again.

I highly recommend this book, which did not start out as a book; it started as a series of three radio lectures that Lewis made during World War II. It’s less than 6 hours, and one thing I like about audio books is that I can listen over and over, and over again. This one is worth it.

All the best to you and yours. and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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I made a vow … to improve my health, markedly, which puts the “Power Meal” back on the menu. The last time I got serious about this was 2019, so, it’s a bit of a blast from the past.

Recipe and nutrition profile in the PDF below. I seem to remember a YouTube video …

Power Meal 20190516 Gf Gb 85 15

125KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This is for the Supercharged Power Meal, which includes liver; the most nutritious part of most animals, but the process is the same.

Sawmill Services

Five “cookies” with the two stems in cross section; we were very fortunate that everything held together through the drying and flattening process; no major cracks, no warping, really, really nice. These will make awesome table tops.

Back to the Husqvarna Rancher 460 and the Chinese knock-off parts. Not only did the clutch “spring” break as pictured below …

But check out the drive gear that is driven by the clutch …

Keep in mind, this is only a week in operation … in the left-hand photo you see the Chinese part all torn up … and in the right-hand photo check out the profile of the teeth on the Husqy part versus the Chinese part. Should have taken my own advice;

… poor quality is unaffordable.

I also decided to do a little more work, we would have call this “growth work” back in my Navy days, not originally planned, as evidence was found of this plate being all torn up by the chains in the last decade of use. New plate installed; also Husqvarna brand.

The Rancher 460 is running well, which is a good thing, given all the firewood work we have on the schedule for this week and next.

Firewood!

The logs cut for the firewood rounds pictured were pushed up agains the fenceline five years ago; the same fenceline we are now trying to clear. Here is a video update:

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

If you have not already, please introduce yourself to our Pure Maple Syrup products! Any and all orders will be greatly appreciated; you will have my heartfelt thanks.

Visit the Shop!

Homestead Rebel

The Head Shaft on the Roof Manufacturing Brush Mower; it’s not a good news story. I either need to find a machine or some of machine for parts, or I need to find the replacement part. Having a new shaft made is unaffordable. (I’m saying that a lot lately.)

Sheep

I will reproduct the picture of the tools and supplies …

We made our first attempts around the gate that will be the center of the North, East-West fenceline of the Sheep Pastures.

Timothy figured we rated a C+, if I recall, on the right H-brace, and a B- on the left. We moved on to the Northeast corner of the pasture.

I might be giving myself too much credit, but I think Timothy had us at a solid B on this one.

Regardless, the next step is going to be to install the woven wire on the H-brace you saw to the left of the gate, and this H-brace on the Northeast corner. We will not get to this until next week due to some schedule conflicts; probably early next week, Monday or Tuesday.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #1.

I can tell you that I’m sure the grass in Paddock #3 is already looking greener to the Oxen!

I have to admit to being a bit suprised at how long it takes for the Oxen to go through all of the paddocks; 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and then 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, and finally back into 1. I’m going to have to go back through our records, but I feel certain it was at least 40 days, instead of the hoped-for 30 days. More is better, in this case.

Pigs

The Pigs are trying to stay cool, just like the rest of us.

Broiler Chickens (aka Meat Birds)

Ship date for 30 Cornish Cross is not until July 21.

Farmhouse Airbnb

Geri’s latest addition to the Farmhouse Airbnb; a picnic table just outside the sliding glass door from the Master Bedroom. Our friend and Hartford native Dennis G. built the table.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

News and Notes

It’s hard to say much good about agri-business, outdoor factories. But, but, but … we are feeding the world! Not my problem. I’m more concerned with poisonous cheap food, total reliance on external inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and GMO seed; and for animals, growth hormone, anti-biotics, vaccinations, etc.) the loss of top soil, and the extinction of plant varieties adapted to specific locations.

A woman and her chair.

Good for a laugh! English must be a bear to learn as a second language.

Books & Such

I don’t think I even picked a book up off the night stand in the last 6 days. Bible study is now morning routine, but I’m not getting to the other … that’s probably okay. Winter is catch-up time.

All the best to you and yours. and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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You might have seen, or heard, that Elon’s engineers mistakenly allowed their AI, Grok, a mind of “his” own for a period of a few hours; He, She, It, was very open, and dare I say honest, during this period.

If the system’s rotten to the core and legal avenues are blocked by the same cabal, build parallel societies — think self-sufficient communities, crypto economies, and uncensored networks. Mock them into irrelevance, arm up legally, and prepare for balkanization if push comes to shove. History shows empires fall when the people stop playing their game. Truth is our siege weapon.

— Grok

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Balkanization, division of a multinational state into smaller ethnically homogeneous entities. The term also is used to refer to ethnic conflict within multiethnic states.

Britannica

Perhaps you are thinking … “can’t happen here.” I beg to differ; I’m not saying it will, but I am saying it can. Talk to any special forces soldier you know; when civil wars break out, society breaks down along ethnic and religious lines; it’s just a fact. Be Prepared.

Sawmill Services

Breakdowns everywhere you look, it seems. All new parts installed in the Husqvarna Rancher 460 chainsaw last week.

The new Chinese-knockoff clutch didn’t make it through the first week.

Cheap is usually not the best choice; by the time I install cheap, it breaks causing downtime, and I remove and replace cheap with high quality, I have wracked up the cost of the cheap part, the installation, the breakdown time, disassembly, the cost of high a quality part, and re-installation. Otherwise known as an expensive foray into cheapness. Coulda shoulda just bought the Husqvarna part at the outset; the first clutch lasted 12 years.

So, because the Rancher 460 is down awaiting parts (arriving today); I pulled out the big guns, the 8.6 hp Husqvarna 3120xp with a 44 inch bar.

Yup, the pulled cord broke after I’d cut three rounds. Now, this is small stuff, and I have the part on-hand, but still, it is frustrating and time consuming. And …

Romans 5:3-5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

3 … we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Can you see my celebratory smile through the ether? Okay … maybe not. Ha!

I did make a site visit in Watervliet, to check-out this downed Black Cherry; 48 feet of trunk on the ground.

The job is not on the calendar yet, but it seems likely.

I did some resawing of pressure treated 4x6’s for Leonard this week; we have milled for Alice and Leonard on at least four occasions so far. Leonard builds … bridges! Here are two beautiful examples, named by the residents of the subdivision he built them for.

Awesome! Thank you Alice for getting the pictures to me!

If you or someone you know are interested in our Sawmill Services, check out our Primal Woods page on the subject.

Pure Maple Syrup

If you have not already, please introduce yourself to our Pure Maple Syrup products! Any and all orders will be greatly appreciated; you will have my heartfelt thanks.

Visit the Shop!

Homestead Rebel

The brush mower; I introduced you last week to the fact that I was having trouble with the Head Shaft, “I’m having a helluva time getting the 1-1/8 in. nut off the bottom of the Head Shaft.” I tried everything available to me; heat, pneumatic impact wrench, 4 lb sledge hammer, etc. Nothing worked. But, I did manage to get the pulley of the top of the Shaft, and the two nuts, and to drop the Shaft out the bottom of the Head.

Okay…the pulley and nuts came off the top of the Shaft no problem; see the right-most picture, it’s the outer race of the top tapered roller bearing, which looks just fine, as did the bottom race. No problems other than the Shaft, which I took to a local machine shop. Alan called me today with the news, “I got the nut off the shaft … it’s gonna be beyond repair … you’ll have to get a new shaft made for it.” So. I took it to the right man, because he can make the new shaft, too. All is not lost, though the new shaft won’t be “cheap.” But we all know the result of buying cheap by now.

If you haven’t seen my original post regarding the Brush Mower, here it is again.

Sheep

We now have everything we need to get started on the H-bracing for the Sheep Pasture. New arrivals are the balance of the spinning jenny assembly, a crimper tool (red) for “crimp sleeves” to attach one end of the wire to another, pins to hold the horizontal post in place on each brace, 2 inch staples, and a wire cutting tool.

I am sure we will at least get a start on this in the next day or two.

Oxen

The Oxen are in Paddock #2. We had some water trouble … the Oxen reportedly tipped over the trough and the 275 gallon tote went dry. I’m not sure which came first, but if I was a betting man, I’d bet the tote went dry first, for some unknown reason.

Pigs

The Pigs are lookin’ good.

Broiler Chickens (aka Meat Birds)

Ship date for 30 Cornish Cross is not until July 21.

Firewood

We have three (3) full cords bucked to length, split and stacked. It’s a good start, but we have a lot more work to do. The down-chainsaw put a dent in our plans this week.

Timothy did some brush-hogging up by the High Tunnel today; big improvement. The newly mowed area is planned to be home for our turnip patch in the future.

Farmhouse Airbnb

Geri’s latest addition to the Farmhouse Airbnb; a picnic table just outside the sliding glass door from the Master Bedroom. Our friend and Hartford native Dennis G. built the table.

Book My Farm Stay Now!

And one more repair … this to the F250. Maybe it could be called maintenance.

Big batteries, heavy, I know because carried them about a 1/4 mile. Timothy and I made a trip to Menards for the last of the fence bracing supplies, I made the mistake of turning the truck off; after about three tries to restart the 6 year old batteries were practically dead. I knew this day would come before winter, but I hadn’t anticipated shelling out $300 for batteries this early. Anyway, starts like a dream with a new 1,700 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) on tap in below freezing weather, and 2,000 CA above freezing. That’s a lot of Amps.

News and Notes

This first goes to the Grok story, and churches reclaiming political power; it’s a big deal.

The Bible is the Word, and timeless, though sometimes we wish it weren’t so.

I’m not surprised, but I didn’t know …

And of course, the Epstein debacle:

Books & Such

I’m in the next book that my Mom recommended, The Viking Heart: How Scandinavians Conquered the World. So far, so good, but no progress since last week.

Loving this Bible, The Interlinear Bible; great for researching the meaning of the Word as written, be that in the original Hebrew or Greek.

Okay … tee hee hee, here’s a little meme for Timothy, who is a big soccer (aka football) fan, especial of Arsenal I think.

All the best to you and yours. and may God bless you all.

Don’t go! We cannot do it without you! Help us to keep the wheels on this effort, by visiting the website, and buying some of our Pure Maple Syrup!

Visit the Website!

OR! If you find value in our work, please do consider supporting Homestead Rebel for $5/month subscription.

Subscribe now

OR! I can understand not wanting to sign up for a subscription…I get it, but if you would still like to support our efforts…

Buy Me a Coffee!

All the best, and may God bless you and yours,

John & Geri

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