Newsletter #249 2024 Mar 08 Friday
Homestead and business goings-on, AND calls-to-action for fellow Michiganders
Primal Woods
Pure Maple Syrup
As it turns out, after a final count, we had 765 sap buckets in the woods this year; total buckets available is 986.
The buckets are now ready for storage until next season.
As a side note, the solar array in the background, which is as near vertical as it can be for winter, will be reset to a shallower angle at the Spring Equinox.
The spring equinox, which takes place this year on March 19 at 11:06 P.M. EDT, marks the moment when the sun sits directly over the Earth’s equator as it heads northward. The Northern and Southern Hemispheres share the sun’s rays equally at the equinox, and night and day are roughly the same length.
Finally, I want to thank Brian and Shawna, our de facto Indianapolis distributors, for picking up a large order of Pure Maple Syrup products this week; it goes a long way towards keeping the doors open. Thank you! Brian has been a great friend and supporter since we met on a milling job some years ago. I sent him home with some newer product for beta testing, and we look forward to his feedback.
Sawmill Services
I’ve still got one log from Travis in front of milling the 25 walnut logs for George; I am now looking at Monday March 11 to begin this work.
Homestead Rebel Farm
Layers
Geri has decided to start selling eggs, at least on a small scale, having been influenced by our friends Brian and Julie. Julie was the impetus, when she published this picture over the caption, “Chicago egg vs farm egg...”
The farm egg was from us. So, surprise surprise, Geri brought home another dozen Golden Laced Wyandotte chicks yesterday. Fortunately, I can now be ready to accept delivery in minutes.
The chicks will stay in the brooder for several weeks, at least until they are fully feathered out. At that point we will introduce them to the coop, still inside a large dog crate, until the current residents are comfortable with their presence.
The pullets will start laying at about 6 months of age, and Wyandotte’s lay about 200 eggs per year, per capita. Twelve birds, 2,400 eggs/year, or an additional 4 dozen eggs per week, more or less. That should be plenty, for now.
pullet
poo͝l′ĭt
noun
A young domestic hen, usually one that is less than one year old.
Pigs
Three are accounted for so far; don’t forget to let me know if you are in the market, as I plan to have them onsite inside two weeks from today, or March 22.
Send an email to john@primalwoods.com, call me at 269-487-6365, stop by, or send up a smoke signal!
News
The news this week hits close to home; I’ll go in chronological order.
At first I thought of this as bad news, but I’ve changed my view; it’s a good news story. Push-back.
Karla Wagner at Ax MI Tax has put together “A Citizen's Ballot Initiative to Completely Eliminate Property Tax.” All of the details are available at the AxMITax website; a summary of the proposed constitutional amendment, and the full text, is available on the Michigan Secretary of State’s website. There is also a very informative video on the AxMITax website Home page.
Property taxes drive people out of their homes, and off their land. Many folks come to mind, but farmers and the elderly are at the top of my list. I am not saying, “don’t tax;” I am saying “don’t tax property.”
My call to action is to inform yourself, and sign a petition if you support the effort. If you want to support the initiative by signing a petition and don’t know how or where to do it, please let me know; john@primalwoods.com.
Next up is “Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Siting.” Here’s the background in brief. What I’ll call “localities,” including counties, townships, and towns/villages/cities, are pushing back against the siting of grid-scale solar and wind farms. The Democrats and the Governor in 2023, along straight party lines, passed “Public Act 233 of 2023 (PA 233), which grants the MPSC <Michigan Public Service Commission> siting authority for large solar, wind and energy storage projects,” which enabled the State to wrest control of siting from the localities. I sat in on the first implementation meeting yesterday, as did Geri, and was appalled at the extent to which the lower level governments have been set up for failure. Again there is push-back.
And again the push-back takes the form of a ballot initiative; in this case the charge is being led by Citizens for Local Choice. There is some overlap between this issue and the first, because some farmers, no longer able to afford the property taxes required to stay on their land, have little choice to but to lease their farmland to wind or solar “farm” developers. Again, the call to action is to inform yourself and support the initiative, if your conscience leads you to do so. You can request a petition on the Citizens for Local Choice page.
Books
I finished the book Letters To The Church, by Francis Chan. For me there were a couple of key “take-aways:”
First up, what was it that the early Church (first century A.D.) was about?
God commands the Church to be devoted to His Word, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper <breaking bread> and to prayer.
Letters to the Church
Four things. The emphasis is mine. See Acts 2:42-47
And secondly, suffering will be involved.
There are millions of men and women who have been taught that they can become Christians and it will cost them nothing…Jesus taught the exact opposite!
Letters to the Church
See Luke 14:25-33
Of course Chan wrote an entire book delving into the details, but those two key points sum it up for me.
As I wrote last week, “if this book doesn’t challenge our view of the American church nothing will. Having said that, it is the church I want and need. I’m excited, and anxious at the same time. The cost of going down this path will be high; that much is promised.”
I’m now on page 336 of Giants In The Earth, and the adventure continues. It is late winter now, of the first year, and they are off to the Sioux River, in a blizzard, sleighs behind horses and oxen, to collect more firewood. A new life has been brought into the world, and they have expanded their community of fellow Norwegian ex-patriots. It’s a good yarn.
Still unopened on my nightstand; The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, by David Talbot.
Before Chessboard, by necessity, will come Fearless Farm Finances: Farm Financial Management Demystified. Since we have now stood up Homestead Rebel Farm LLC as a business, I need some “how-to” help with the bookkeeping.
Online Presence
Work continues; Lisa is progressing diligently, and my to-do list is probably going to be the hold-up. Almost an inch of rain is forecasted for today, and I am hoping to complete the publishing on Substack of the Top 25 posts from the Primal Woods blog; that will allow me to check one to-do off the list.
And a final note: If you are interested in anything, or all things military, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to Chasing Ghosts by Bill Buppert. Bill has the experience and expertise to write authoritatively on the subject. Check it out, or simply subscribe now.
All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
Earn rewards, free access to paywalled content, by referring a friend!
If left, Michigan at least has enough conservatives to be considered purple.. Local choice is an imperative and the left is actively attempting to wrest it away in order to impose their worldview on the masses. Unfortunately, here in CO we have gone full California and we have a basically nonexistent Republican party to try and maintain some sanity. One of the problems of urbanization is the complete disregard for rural voters and the completely different needs and views they possess.