Newsletter #290 2025 Jan 06 Monday
I'm back in action at 100%; it took several days. Of course the work ahead of me has simply piled up to a greater depth than before.
January 1st, well actually late New Year’s eve, the oxen decided to go for a stroll up the driveway. My neighbor at the head of the driveway opened his picket-fence gate after he was alerted by his dogs; the oxen strolled in and spent the night. You can’t make this up! I learned of it the morning of New Year’s Day, went up with a lead for Boris and walked them back down. Needless to say they were hungry. I have some fence repairs to make, and for a couple of days I put them in the corral, allowing me time to get organized; I’ve excluded access to the section of fencing that is in need of repair.
Primal Woods
Pure Maple Syrup
I’m trying to find dried tart cherries for the next “infused” Pure Maple Syrup; one thing I’ve noticed is that regardless of vendor, the ingredients list includes added sugar and sunflower oil. I’m not sure what the need is for those adds to the fruit, but I’m looking into it.
Meanwhile the Madagascar vanilla bean infused Pure Maple Syrup has been going fast! Before too long I may have to bottle more. Try yours today, at this direct link.
Sawmill Services
It looks like I may have a milling job to line up in the near future; this would be a second visit to Bob K, I milled for him in December. Yet this calendar week, if possible.
Above is from my last visit to Bob; he moves some big logs with his articulated loader, and the board feet total piles up quickly.
Homestead Rebel Farm
Rain, snow or shine, in sickness and in health, we make a point of continuing to heat the house with wood. It’s inconvenient at times no doubt. Still, we try our best to reserve the propane only for heating water and cooking food; 500 gallons goes a long way, if heating the house with propane can be avoided.
We are keeping the house at 64°F, so bundling up a bit is par for the course.
The cold continues; not brutal in the Dakota winter sense, but cold enough that water freezes, making the chores a bit more involved. Recommissioning the well pump in the barn has helped this year; underground (i.e. not frozen) water storage at the barn and High Tunnel are in my plans for next year. Step by step we are improving the infrastructure.
No problems with the pigs, aside from twice-daily watering due to the freezing temperatures.
Round bale #10 is now on offer. While I was under the weather, I fed them two bales available 24/7; as you might imagine these went more quickly than hoped for, but it saved me the trouble of twice-daily feedings. We are back to the usual modus operandi now.
I have received the replacement 6-port fuel tank selector valve, that I think is the problem with my inability to use the front fuel tank on the F-250. As mentioned last week it’s going to be a pain to replace, specifically because two of the 6 fuel lines are connected to full fuel tanks. This might not be on this week’s to-do list, but it’s coming soon. I may use the garage at the Farmhouse to make this work a bit less uncomfortable.
The yellow caps cover “Source,” larger ports, the red cover “Return” ports; the lower set of ports is for the front fuel tank, the left-most set of ports is for the rear fuel tank, and the top ports are to/from the engine.
Farmhouse
We’re down to about 5 weeks before Pure Maple Syrup season; I hate to think about how much work I’ve yet to do! If you are interested helping let me know, if you have kids that might enjoy some part-time work let me know; by definition the season is in early spring, and the real cold is behind us. Again, mid-February to mid-March would be the best timing for a visit; I can’t guarantee that sap will be flowing during a visit, but I can guarantee that buckets will be on the trees and I will be in the Sugar House most days.
News
I’ve reengaged with the News, at least to some extent.
First, let’s talk about war; it isn’t what it once was, as our experience since no later than Korea should reinforce. Technology marches on, and as it does the nature of battlefield warfare changes. Not to mention the fact that what we think of as “the battlefield” now encompasses far more than it once did. Everything has changed, is changing, and will change in perpetuity. At least until the second coming.
We like to think, or to believe…I’m using that phrase all too often…that in this case “clean energy,” or “renewable energy,” both oxymoronic, is about stopping “climate change.” As Michigan is proving in taking down forests (actual solar farms) to build silicon-based solar farms, it just ain’t so.
Finally, and perhaps foremost, you can’t believe anything.
When everything Americans believe is false, our misinformation campaign will be complete.
― William Casey CIA Agent Head under Regan
Books & Such
I’m close to finishing Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, that war being World War II in particular. Here is the gist. At the end of World War I cooler heads did not prevail, and the Treaty of Versailles was exceedingly punitive of the Germans; it didn’t take long before Great Britain and France came to this realization, too late, and it’s not a stretch to say the Treaty gave rise to Hitler. Having said that, the abject failure of diplomacy leading up to World War II is almost incomprehensible; “…if not for the blunders of British statesmen — Winston Churchill first among them — the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins.” One of the other statesmen directly responsible for World War II was Neville Chamberlain, and specifically his “war guarantee” to Poland; even at the time it was known that this guarantee could and probably would lead to war, a war that Hilter did not want.
And yet today, as then, we want to believe, we apparently need to believe, that our leaders have the best interests of the citizenry at top of mind. As this book shows, our leaders are cut of the same cloth was we, and are as susceptible if not moreso to the same weaknesses of character, and intellect. As a direct result of these failings, some 50,000,000 people lost their lives, and more spent 50 years under Stalin’s boot.
Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Fair Copy of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
[before 4 Oct. 1798]
What the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President, and the President of our choice has assented to, & accepted over the friendly strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country, & it’s laws had pledged hospitality & protection: that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the President, than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, & the forms and substance of law & justice: in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.
We would do well to remember Jefferson’s words.
Happy New Year!
All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
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All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
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