TREE FROGS

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

The tree frogs are at again tonight. They have become one of my favorite annual rites, their appearance somewhere near the middle of sugaring season and peaking at the time when the fiddle head ferns start to poke up from their corms. They start up all at once, every evening after the Sun has dropped below the mountain to the west. Singular, then in chorus, it rises and falls in waves over time, like the sound at the beach, chirp, chirp, chirp, in threes and then coming to a full stop for no apparent reason.

After a while you can pick out specific frogs at a certain distance, his voice clear and rhythmic, a single note in the falling darkness. I listen to them before bed for as long as I can before drifting off to sleep, the window cracked just enough to hear their nightly concert and think how fortunate I am to experience this sensation, of listening in to another species as it acts out its biological imperative. They don’t care what it sounds like to me, but it’s beautiful just the same.

I spent the day in the garden. It was cloudy for the most part with a steady breeze from the south. The windmill cranked slowly in the warm air as I flipped the beds with a spading fork, one clod of black earth at a time. I gathered all the bone dry stalks of corn and sunflowers that had been left through the Winter and piled it into a heap. I lit it with a single match and it went up instantly, the smell of smoke and small ashes floated across the dooryard while I flipped clods of black soil onto themselves.

Outside the picket fence the chickens picked at the grass, pausing to scratch and then watch for movement in whatever scrap they’d tossed, then moved on again. We haven’t kept the chickens in a pen for years now. At night they go into the hen house in the backyard and take to their roosts, and we shut the door behind them when it’s dark to protect them from predators, but once the door opens in the morning the entire farm is theirs and we’ve learned that rather than fencing animals in, we fence them out.

Between their natural inclination to range and their domesticated preference to human interaction, they roam the farm as far as they like. There are all kinds of benefits to this type of system, from the chicken powered fertilization of the lawns and orchards to the insect control they provide by constantly scouring the property for sustenance. We spend nothing on feed, providing them only water during the warmer month and they grow rapidly, producing a daily supply of delicious eggs, with yolks the color of clementines.

They never get sick and we’ve never used a drug on them for any reason in all the time we’ve been raising them this way. And whenever we want, we enjoy a delicious chicken dinner, dining on the most delicious flavored meat you could imagine.

The events of the past few months have had almost no effect on our daily lives. If I wasn’t paying attention I might not notice were it not for the interactions of the people I run into when I leave the farm. The ones who come up to visit, our friends and neighbors, the people who come up to buy piglets or sausage, they still shake hands and stand face to face when we talk, just like they did in the good old days. When I go to the next town to pick up something it’s a different story.

The slow progression from looking skittish to dressing like an intern on his way to surgery has turned into something sinister. The averted eyes now accompanies every twenty foot dodge across an open space gives the impression that everyone is either on their way from or on their way to a bank heist. It’s disconcerting and it makes me feel disconnected from that type even more than I would have in the past. This isn’t about politics or beliefs any longer, but between a form of delusion and a wide eyed assessment of this collective madness.

I’m shocked really, just how quickly so many people have given in to fear, an irrational anxiety over something that is perfectly natural, like the seasonal cycles, the logic of which has eluded them this trip around the Sun. When I read anything at all from the American media it focuses on the deaths and the numbers. If ever there were an opportunity to teach the people something about viruses, now would be the time to do it, but that conversation has yet to take place. No one has the courage to tell people that we will never defeat something that has existed as long as we have been a species and that any attempt is not only futile, but compounds the problem by ignoring the root cause.

People aren’t dying from the virus, but from the failed immune systems that are endemic to a population rife with underlying health issues, poor nutrition, and confined to urban areas unfit for healthy habitation. If it weren’t for our insistence on a global system of just in time deliveries and unfettered travel of human beings by the millions over the entire surface of the globe, this wouldn’t have been more than a local problem that would have long ago burned out. People seem unaware that virus strains immediately begin to weaken in strength so as not to kill their host and that this can only occur with a spread through a population.

Viruses are not germs or bacteria, but a form of DNA/RNA that cannot reproduce on it’s own and that it is so small that no filter mask could possibly keep it out of your mouth or nose yet and entire population has turned the modern world into a scene from a Hieronymous Bosch painting. The reactions are those of a herd, not of reasonable adults thinking for themselves. This virus, regardless of its origins, is a natural process. It is akin to a forest fire, a cleansing of the individual system on one level, a culling on the next.

The vulnerable are always the weakest and the elderly and while it may be painful to lose a loved one, it is the outcome of every life, by one cause or another. This response to something so fundamental is an aberrant behavior, a abnormal reaction to a natural condition. All of the sober judgments and rational precautions that every generation since our founding has taken into consideration, from basic hygiene to living a healthy lifestyle are still the best defense against sickness.

Encouraging people to live closely packed together in urban areas numbering in the millions, to be proud of their obesity, to tranquilize their anxieties with pharmaceuticals- these conditions have so weakened the population that it was ripe for this form of morbidity.

I do not believe a single word uttered by any media outlet or any person in position of authority. This was not my natural inclination, nor is it something I would have wished for, but their compulsive lying, their intentional fear mongering and more importantly their tyrannical actions have rendered them completely impotent as far as trust goes. Every action they have taken can only be explained by rank and systemic incompetence, or a deeply entrenched corruption with designs to destroy whatever liberties we still posses to satisfy their pervasive degeneracy and pathological desire for power.

This particular strain of influenza is but a blip on the human radar and it will go the same way as every other virus that has ever existed in short order, notwithstanding the desire of those in positions of authority to both prolong and promote it. The destruction of economy, the loss of freedom and the long term damage to the very fabric of social interaction will endure far longer and may very well end the experiment altogether.

My family is healthy, our herds and flocks are thriving, and the land and soil we live upon increases its tilth and fertility year after year. When I worked in an office, commuted to work five days a week, and lived in suburban community within driving distance of twenty million people we got colds every year and the flu every three or four. I haven’t had so much as a cough in over a decade and not one of children has been sick since they were little.

If you asked the CDC they’d say that this is anecdotal and without further studies no conclusions should be made, but I don’t need an annual budget of 9 billion dollars to tell you that there is a connection between eating well, working hard, sleeping deeply, living in close contact with the natural world, and excellent health.

Once upon a time it was obvious. It doesn’t require advanced degrees to make the connection between the number of dead from coronavirus and the percentage of that population with underlying health issues is nearly 100%, yet rather than quarantine them, the entire population must surrender their rights so that they might not suffer the consequences of age or mortality.

The tree frogs are at it again tonight, just like they were this time last year and the year before that. The forsythia is about to bust out in that canary yellow that envelopes the bush and then softens, fades and is replaced by deep, dark green leaves that emerge afterwards and following that the lilacs will bloom and by the time my sixtieth birthday rolls around their perfume will fill the air as it has every year of my life.

Cycles, observable realities, the ebb and flow of life aren’t subject to policies or programs of bureaucrats huddled in cubicles typing up orders and dictates they imagine they will implement on a docile population cowed by fear. It works until it doesn’t and then reality steps in an corrects their work. Today I’ll package the syrup we made this season and ship it to people shut in all over the country so they can sample the sweet flavor of what Nature has always provided to those willing to observe its flow and dip their finger in for a taste.

Whatever the deranged and power hungry mandarins in capitols around the world come up with today will fail like every other thing that they touch and soon the universal laws will step in make the corrections that always follow their tyrannical aspirations. I don’t worry about it the way some people do because I live in the moment. There exists a design that unfolds every second of the day for as long as this world has existed and that is where I place my trust, in the great leveler that has wound the watch of time and has a plan that never fails.

Contact Hardscrabble Farmer before supplies run out of the best damn syrup in the world

[email protected]

Or call anytime at 603-748-6917

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old white guy
old white guy

Man it is scary when I read something that could have been taken directly from my brain. I wish I could be as eloquent.

Anonymous
Anonymous

i like and respect you, but this virus is NOT a natural process.

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

That is exactly the point I was trying to make. They’ve managed to convince you that a natural phenomenon is “unprecedented” when it is in fact an annual event for our species. It always has been and it always will be. Viruses will not be eradicated no matter what these people do and if you notice the advice the experts give is almost exactly the methods used in the 13th century. That’s your scientific advances.

If you are vulnerable, stay away from people until it passes.

Vixen Vic
Vixen Vic

Also, vaccines don’t work on virus because they are constantly mutating. The flu shot is a prime example of that.

Hardnox
Hardnox

Risking being a member of the “tin-foil hat club” the evidence by leading virologists claims that this virus is not a natural mutation.

Lebowski
Lebowski

The so-called Tin- foilers are the ones who think independently rather than just watching the governments idiot box

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

I’d say the odds are 50:50 it was a deliberate release, either through a vaccine or some kind of deliberate spread by means I can’t even imagine. Pretty sure it wasn’t a bat soup at the wet market, but that’s because I know a line when I see one and the terms wet market and bat soup are lines.

Here’s the thing.

It really doesn’t matter, not at all. They could have done the same thing with any other influenza outbreak which are seasonal and always appear in human populations.

This is really about what happened after that matters.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Could the virus be China’s antidote to Trump’s tariff threats?

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

I were to guess I’d say it looks more like a coordinated effort between the two governments to spread it as effectively as possible while maintaining a thin cover story of trying to contain it. Trump has repeatedly made the claim that he “shut down” flights from China while that was demonstrably false and yet the media which supposedly hates him continues to allow this falsehood to circulate when they know it isn’t true.

But what do I know.

old white guy
old white guy

A reaction to that and Canada’s arrest of their executive. Speculate is all we really do. It came from Wuhan China.

SmallerGovNow

Bingo! It IS the flu! Let it go naturally just like every single flu season. Great post… Chip

ursel doran
ursel doran

MSM Selling the FEAR PORN here worked even better than the man caused global warming HOAX that we were all doomed in a few years unless we gave the U.N. and other serious fighters lots of money to fight the HOAX they created in the myth, and implement the “Green New Deal”.
REALITY of the actual stats so far is in this, NEVER to be seen in the MSM fear porn peddlers.
“Men it has been well said, think (hallucinate), in herds, go MAD in herds and only regain their sanity slowly, one by one.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2020-04-15/food-thought-covid-19-and-annual-flu-mortality-compared

Anonymous
Anonymous

if by natural you mean naturally occurring, again i say, it is NOT natural. for example, brass is made fron natural elements but does not occur naturally

RiNS

How do you know the it is not natural?

And if it wasn’t then so what mouse! The virus for better or worse is in the wild now and will follow the natural cycles whether you like it or not!

Anonymous
Anonymous

how do you know it is natural? chinese virology labs stealing corona samples, US professors indicted for illegally colludimg with China on viral research, extreme infectiousness, asymptomatic spread, damage to kidneys, heart, liver, etc. in some patients, indications of dna insertions reported by Indian researchers, re-infection in some patients, length of recuperation, co-morbidity lethality effects, length of survival of virus on surfaces, blahblahblah. does that sound like seasonal flu, fool?

RiNS

Fuck you Mouse!

I never said it was.. reading for comprehension must not be yer strong suit….

Chase conspiracies if you want that’s fine with me. But count me out though.. it’s split milk now and whether it is natural or not is secondary to fact that its on the loose.. but do point me to your studies that you referenced in your compelling argument just above..

As to your analogy about Brass being made from natural elements I am not sure where you are going with that.. to be honest. Last time I checked it was real and that mein freund is all that matters..

Anonymous
Anonymous

that Mouse thing really hurts. was that what your domineering single mother called you as a boy?
you implied it was natural like the seasonal flu, and i know you don’t like to read deeply, but the above facts are easily found in rcent reports. so find it yourself. and if the stated data are factual. how is that “conspiracies”? and the brass analogy implies that the virus, like brass, may be manufactured from natural elements, but not naturally occurring. got it?

RiNS

I have had shits that have had a higher IQ than you. As far as recent reports it was you that started that. And its up to you to substantiate your claims. But you can be counted on to doing none of that.

Can’t you!

You being too busy sucking your own cock..

One of the benefits, at least to you, of being a mouse!
comment image

(EC)
(EC)

Geez, anon, RinSey serves up a perfect opportunity for a rejoinder and you go mum.
You could have said, oh, yeah, are you homeschooling them? What’s their call on re-opening the country? Tesla?

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Why do dogs lick their balls?

Mygirl....Maybe

Why do dogs lick their balls?

….because they can.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2
(EC)
(EC)

RiNseY, my buddy Chris chided me for stringing a bunch of bible verses together, they were convenient mots but unjustifiably connected to prove a point. He didn’t offend me and I am grateful for GCP’s further instruction concerning cherry picking from the bible.

I say all that to observe that anonymous has a similar ‘argument’ consisting of disconnected and incoherent bullet points that make no sense. Now I understand why my friend scolded me and called me a legalist. To quote my hillbilly buddy – it didn’t hurt my feelings but it opened my eyes.

Every time I start running like the wind thinking I know something, I get checked, reined in, by somebody who knows just a bit more. I hope anon might take the time it takes to develop and flesh out his outline above and come to a well-supported conclusion instead of merely shouting Attica, Attica!

Anonymous
Anonymous

please tell me where the hole in logic is, given the multiple unique symptoms stated, only a few of which would be necessary to deem this virus unique in many ways and therefore unnatural. and – what fucking bullet points? a list of symptoms with an appropriate analogy is what i see.

(EC)
(EC)

It’s a list of disconnected items, Karen. After your initial question, you make a list of talking points that would make Uncola want to kick your ass so badly, you’d have to change your name. It would make a great comment if you took the time to flesh it out.

Mygirl....Maybe

After your initial question, you make a list of talking points that would make Uncola want to kick your ass so badly, you’d have to change your name.

Shit son, that made me spit out my coffee…

Anonymous
Anonymous

Ouch..Karen’d him.. that’s gotta hurt.

Javelin
Javelin

Multiple unique symptom? Sounds like a normal virus and the body’s reaction..they attack organs because they are systematic, they are pervasive with co-morbidities, they proliferate looking for ideal hosts, they have varying but limited lifespans outside of a host, they enter primarily through the respiratory…
Some flowers are tiny and grow on things like chickweed, some are beautiful and aromatic like roses, some stink, some produce fruits and berries, some have thorns and others are soft as silk… For all of their variance, they are all still flowers, they all have similar birth processes, life cycles and purpose.. same as viruses.
Winter/spring of 2017/2018 and the annual virus kills 61,000 Americans (most with co-morbidities, some not) just the natural way of things on planet Earth we share with them… 2019/2020 we are up to 23,000 with the current virus strain…seems a little lighter to my pragmatic mind.

Javelin
Javelin

PS: We have had one Rona death in my entire county…a stage 4 cancer patient ( seriously) who’s death was classified as”Corona related”… terminal cancer is now “Corona related… the world is suffering a collective madness.

RiNS

You are right Yote but I’m feeling a bit feisty tonight!

Chubby Bubbles
Chubby Bubbles

Enough with the pissing contest.. do none of you peeps remember that bike biologist talking about running the virus through multiple generations of ferrets?

And that’s why the microbiologist on Joe Rogan’s show could say -coyly- that (paraphrasing) “no computer could come up with that sequence” (hence it must be “natural” as opposed to artificial)?

(EC)
(EC)

Chubbs, we have been educated past the high school level of the media thanks to Maggie’s efforts. And See Bee opened our eyes to the bullshit going on in the hospitals.

I keep seeing doc Pangloss’ wisdom confirmed: the pioneer gets an arrow in the back and the settlers move in.

old white guy
old white guy

Get over it because it will run it’s course like all other flu.

(EC)
(EC)
(EC)
(EC)
(EC)
(EC)
WestcoastDeplorable
WestcoastDeplorable

Breaking news tonight 4/15, Fox is reporting it originated in one of the Wuhan Labs. Now apparently there are two labs, but one or the other is where it spawned. They figure one of the workers got infected, then infected his GF. The rest is history.

Unintellectual (EC)
Unintellectual (EC)

They isolated it or manufactured it but it didn’t spawn. That makes it sound like nobody is to blame; hey, shit happens.

It’s a convenient story but it makes little sense for a high security lab like that to allow a lab worker to skip the PPE and just go to work in shorts and flip-flops. Then he goes and infects his GF and he never finds out?

It’s Chinese New Years and lots of people come and get infected but an eye doctor spots it and gets whacked because it might spook the millions of travelers in Wuhan.

Who writes these stories?

Shhh, hey come here, China did it now here’s $1400 cash, forget all about the Gates vaccine and the WHO coverup. You never saw me.

flash
flash

Ok, Karen.

Tim
Tim

Hardscrabble – Can you talk a little bit about your garden and the chickens? Specifically: I have a 1/2 acre and I have the same kind of chicken management system. They get locked up in the coop at night, and free range during the day.

They are not separated from the garden in any way. As a result, I can’t grow a garden. They scratch up every green shoot that comes out of the ground, and eat every green tomato long before it turns red.

It is my conclusion that my idea for free-range eggs is mutually exclusive to growing a garden. I can’t figure out how to make my chicken/garden system work, without spending a bunch of money on fencing.

How do you deal with this? Thanks.

Great piece, as always. Thx

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

“…fence them out…”

You have to pick the places on your homestead that are reserved exclusively for human use and fence all forms of livestock out. Picket fences are the most effective for chickens.

Paula

said the hardscrabble comic LOL

(EC)
(EC)

Where the fuck is Maggie? We need more Bike to the Big House briefings to stay ahead of the motherfuckers.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

She’s too busy blowing bike boy to come up for air.

nkit
nkit

now, that’s funny..

Mal
Mal

The answer is right there.
“we’ve learned that rather than fencing animals in, we fence them out.” Fence the areas where you don’t want them … easy peasey. works on keeping the rabbits and such out as well.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Pretty easy to teach the family dog that chickens aren’t welcome near the house or garden. Dogs are territorial and pick it up easy. Chickens seems to learn also, even with their chicken brain.

TC
TC

One of my buddies grew up on a commercial hatchery farm. Like most kids thrown into the family business who either eventually love or hate it, over time he grew to truly loathe chickens. One thing he said stuck with me: “those damn chickens are dumber than a thermostat.”

Copperhead
Copperhead

Guineas will make chickens look like Einsteins

Anonymous
Anonymous

Guineas will drive your neighbors to loath your bird fetish. Those are the loudest most obnoxious creatures I have ever been around.

Mygirl....Maybe

Guineas…I have a fondness for the strange creatures, I adore them at someone else’s place. As to tree frogs, I have a great fondness for them as well as leopard frogs. The tree frogs stick to my windows, tantalizing the cats and making strange little decals. comment image

Unintellectual (EC)
Unintellectual (EC)
flash
flash

Having guineas is not recommend if you have neighbors, or a wife.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Ah, but they are the best tick eaters on the planet…

Mygirl....Maybe

Ditto scorpions and…snakes…..that’s one big mofo rattler in the pic….comment image

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Looks like an older day witch burning.

Mygirl....Maybe

In addition to the size of the snake, count how many guineas there are. Think that would make a racket?

Javelin
Javelin

Amen to that..my nearest neighbor is about 200 yards away toward the East end of my property and on a hill..those damn guinea hens he bought NEVER stop with their incessant noise..day or night.. anyone know of a silencer for a .308?

ottomatik
ottomatik

Poor choice, gonna have to get over 300 grains to get it subsonic or powder down like crazy, careful with that, make sure the case isnt less than half full or could be bad.
Targets are guineas, .22 sounds infinitely more appropreiate, get some of that augila .22 SSS, super quiet and will cycle and there you go.
Poison peanuts are even quieter.

Javelin
Javelin

Thanks for the tip..was just thinking that blasting one of those obnoxious bleaters at 200 yards might be an easier shot with my .308… I’m pretty accurate with it …and been practicing more lately

Anonymous
Anonymous

you have to spend money or time, to be an effective manager of resources, else you are just pissing into the wind, and hoping your rain coat has no holes.

use a small solar powered electric fence plus the plastic mesh fence embeded with wire. We use these to fence in cows into certain sections of pasture, should be just as effective at keeping chicken out of the garden. it is non-lethal voltage, just enough to change behavior.

if you don’t want to buy crap, them make something:

take the spark unit (a transformer) out of an old oil furnace, add a 1 ohm resistor in series and use that as the charge source, not as elegant, but much cheaper. These run on 120 v and produce 10k volts, the 1 ohm resistor will soak up any current resulting in a “hot” wire when compared to ground. Test with a spark plug and thick rubber gloves.

you will eventually figure out what works, probably find a zillion youtube vids on this subject.

Lebowski
Lebowski

Spend a bunch o money on fencing

flash
flash

Terror works. My chickens-when I had ’em- knew that the vegetable garden was off limits and the few times I would catch them in it, they would run screaming into the woods only to re-emerge a half hour later as if nothing happened. How did they know the garden was off limits … because I would run screaming at them, beating a branch on the ground as I ran . Funny too, they were only scared of me when in the garden. It helps to be surrounded by fields and woods , so they had other kicking and scratching options.

Hardnox
Hardnox

Well stated.

Oh yes, the chorus of tree frogs. The original country music. I too live out in the sticks 25 miles from anywhere. My closest neighbor is 2 miles away. My interaction with people is the same as it ever was. Hard work, fresh air, and eating healthy is a natural antidote to most anything. It sure is good for the soul too.

Going to town has been an eye-popper seeing all the wannabe bank robbers scrambling for toilet paper and ground beef.

robb88

i too grew up to the sound of tree frogs and cicadas chirping in the nite. its music to my ears.

Baba Looey
Baba Looey

I thought that there was a chance that all of the madness might pass by my part of the woods, but it seems we’re in full panic mode here too. Furloughs, layoffs, closed businesses–this is a controlled implossion of the economy akin to building 7 on 9/11. I hoped and silently prayed that the people would not react like they did during Y2K and 9/11, but here we are again, exactly as you describe. Debts that cannot be repaid, will not be repaid. Unnatural ways are not sustainable. Hubris from the “smart” people manipulating the levers of power has no limit, it seems. And…nobody makes onion rings nor chicken wings at home. That means industrial farming is probably toast too at this point in history. I have given up on trying to figure out the end game in all of this.

Chubby Bubbles
Chubby Bubbles

Ha ha!! That’s exactly the analogy that came to mind when I heard about the lockdowns.. that WTC owner saying, “Pull it.”

James
James

Cool,am more of a large bullfrog guy meself,do not see them much as I did as a kid,I do still wander around swampy steams ect.,perhaps I need to do it more!

Craven Warrior
Craven Warrior

There’s just too much common sense in this article for the 21st century.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

Another excellent and soothing essay HSF. I think one of the things I miss the most is seeing the smiles on people’s faces as they walk around the stores, especially the little ones. I tend to smile most of the time and it brings smiles in return.

Chubby Bubbles
Chubby Bubbles

Everyone here has given in and masked up by now.. I can’t really tell if they are smiling back, but I don’t think they are. They disapprove of my lack of mask.

Last week? mostly no masks. Two days ago? 50/5o.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

About the same here. Probably 75% of the people in Kroger were masked and half gloved on Saturday when I popped in for a couple of things.

TS

Ah, yes, the frogs.
We don’t get them here every year, only when we have run-off from the mountains. But then the nightly chorus is incredible, coming from the hundreds of acres of flood-plain that immediately surround us.
Our property is even more isolated than yours and I haven’t had a cold or flu for many years, also. In fact the only time I ever got the flu was immediately after a mandatory flu shot in the service. Used to get colds and a bronchial thing, but never before leaving the ranch and never after returning.

I don’t worry about it the way some people do because I live in the moment.
That is the key to it all, in my opinion.

SeeBee
SeeBee

But..but…but..we aren’t ALLOWED to DIE! That’s what the medicalization of society and culture promised. We’ve been so ruined, brainwashed and mesmerized such a personal, profound and natural experience has been debased, distorted and disgraced.

Thank you for expressing so well what has been on my chest since the get go of this calamity.

Two if by sea. Three if from within.
Two if by sea. Three if from within.

Yes! No One allowed to die coupled with incessant erring on the side of caution has induced many from examining the broken ice below. The trains operators are losing their grip on the brake lever while the passengers,all wide eyed and anxious, wear their masks .

Javelin
Javelin

Karen for President 2020

gregory michaud
gregory michaud

You are a very gifted writer,after every paragraph i can shut my eyes and envision it! We still have a Month or so before the frogs start up here on the Crown of Maine..thanks again for keeping me centered

Anonymous
Anonymous

Nice article. Loved the song-I forgot about it.

Watched Ben Hur on Easter and noticed how they social distanced from the lepers. I thought that was interesting.

Would love to have your lifestyle, but cannot afford it. Owning enough land to farm in my state would require being a millionaire. I’m not there yet. It’s a privileged position to be in.

BB

Don’t know much about tree frogs but tree frog legs might be worth a try.Just a thought.
You are right about our so called ” leaders” .I don’t believe a word that comes from their mouths.

Mygirl....Maybe

Tree frog legs for eating? That’s like the ‘how do you smell moth balls when it’s so hard to get their tiny legs apart.’

Javelin
Javelin

Good one

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

It’s got to be a bull frog to be big enough to eat the legs. Tree frogs would not be worth the effort.

(EC)
(EC)

How about bat legs, think they are worth the effort? Got bats, HF?

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Most of the brown bats died of a fungal disease here in New England about 15-20 years ago. I used to go fishing at dusk at my camp and on any given cast the bats would hit my line over and over. Now, no bats in sight. Kinda sad. I spoke with Greta, she said it was climate change. I promised to burn a tire in her honor.

Mygirl....Maybe

We still have bats here but the white nose syndrome is happening though not near so bad because of our warmer climate. There is hope that the decline is reversing.

nkit
nkit

We still have a lot of bats here in FL. No balls though. The moose out front should have told you that the season was closed..

Javelins
Javelins

It’s warmer here in the Mid-Atlantic region by the Chesapeake Bay and we can still watch them performing their evening acrobatics.. don’t think it’s climate related..

Robert Gore

HSF

An oasis of rationality in a desiccated desert of deranged, deluded, degenerate, and demented despair.

Whatever the deranged and power hungry mandarins in capitols around the world come up with today will fail like every other thing that they touch and soon the universal laws will step in make the corrections that always follow their tyrannical aspirations. I don’t worry about it the way some people do because I live in the moment. There exists a design that unfolds every second of the day for as long as this world has existed and that is where I place my trust, in the great leveler that has wound the watch of time and has a plan that never fails.

That may be the best paragraph you’ve ever written, although you’ve given yourself plenty of competition. Thank you, and I can’t wait for my syrup.

(EC)
(EC)

The rains are back. Too bad this corona wave cancelled the AV annual poppy festival. Of course drought messed up the show of flowers several years back. The media somehow conveyed the idea that California was drying up. Ghouls across the country cheered the impending slide into the ocean. The desert rats crowed that they would soon have beachfront property. Now that the air has cleared and the LA smog a distant memory, the rain clouds rush in over the LA basin and crest with joy over the mountains to wash the sins of LA off the valley floor.

The birds are back, bathing in the birdbath in the cold air of morning with little fear of catching cold. My cats are dead, good riddance! They stopped being kittens long ago when the kids were still young. Then the kids moved on and the cats lived on, one of them liked to hunt birds especially the birds that made a nest in the rose arbor. The birds that used to nest in the arbor are back. I had gone outside in the rain to sweep the leaves from the drain because the water was puddling, creeping onto the porch. I got too close to the arbor and the little birds became alarmed an raised a ruckus. I left quickly in case the mom was a jay that would attack me and tie me to a tree and mace me.

We went out for a drive this past weekend, headed to Lancaster. The sexy mulatta (She’s not that sexy but now but there’s no point in qualifying it as the almost sexy or the formerly sexy.. I went to the couch to see her and the isolation or something happened, she looked beautiful. It was like I had found a bottle of liquor, I said, what are you doing here? She looked at me like I was nuts.) wanted to drive by the poppy preserve. The sign said it was closed and that it was another 11 miles further. I looked to the right and saw a golden landscape over by Quartz Hill.

I said, we can keep driving on avenue I for 11 miles or we can go 4 miles south towards Palmdale and see that show at the foot of the Sierra Pelona. We drove down 60th West into Quartz Hill. I explain to her that Palmdale and Lancaster grabbed up QH and divvied it up, on the other side of avenue M is Palmdale’s half of Quartz Hill. We drove to the end of avenue L at 90th west. The poppies glimmered in the sun shining from the south and they looked like a sea of shiny orange-yellow sheet of plastic. When we looked to the north, the poppies looked more clearly like plants and flowers.

Perhaps next weekend we might go north towards Cal City to see the rest of the wildflowers in bloom in the desert. This will be a good year to see the carpets of blue and stretches of white flowers in the desert around Cal City and North Edwards. North Edwards used to have an old wooden sign at the entrance – North Edwards is a bird sanctuary. I expect there will be many birds this year. Maybe on the way back we will drive over to 90th east to see the tiny flowers that paint the desert floor a bright yellow all the way up the ridge to Alta Vista.

TS

One year in Ridgecrest – ’90 or ’91 – there was one of those rare springs with abundant rain. The flowers around there were literally a once in a lifetime event. I have some pics of whole secluded valleys miles away from the crowds completely covered in color. Completely covered in yellow in one valley, blue in another, red in yet another. Very few had more than one brilliant expanse of color. I have one shot of my wife laying back nude in the middle of a mile wide valley, completely surrounded by yellow. It was awesome.

(EC)
(EC)

Pics or it didn’t happen, heh. My wife sat down on a berm so I could get a pic of her with the flowers and snow-capped Tehachapi mountains in the background. I’m glad you know what I’m anticipating, the fields full of the strangest and most delicate wildflowers with a buttload (myriad) of colors.

nkit
nkit

Hell hath no fury like a pissed off jay bird mommie.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

Mama mockingbirds will give them a run for their money. I have seen many a cat on the run with a mockingbird dive bombing from the rear.

(EC)
(EC)

Last year I had a bit of fun watching a jay chasing a raven over the empty lot in front of the house. He plucked one of the raven’s feathers. This year I have watched a conspiracy of ravens, 15 or so, flying in a circular pattern over the same field. The pigeons take off from rooftops as evening approaches and they fly touch and go patterns. The mourning doves fly solo. The sparrows and grackle and jays keep busy in more important pursuits in the backyards of homes here.

nkit
nkit

Years ago, I spent many hours photographing Barred Owls. It is easy to find them. Just listen for the Blue Jays squawking (TORONTO…Bastards that they are) . They love to attack or just piss off a sleepy Owl.. They are mean-spirited..

robb88

i have seen 3 or 4 mockingbirds divebombing hawks i suppose to drive them away from their territory. they are mean little birds.

Unintellectual (EC)
Unintellectual (EC)

Did you see nkit’s vid about the cat that leaps backward and catches the little fucker jay?

Lebowski
Lebowski

If you pass bye Slab City give a shout out for me The Dude

(EC)
(EC)

I think I saw a video of the place, lots of RV’s. Could you do a write up on the scene?

Mygirl....Maybe

I love it when you write, I love that you found your wife beautiful….again. Beware murders of crows, latest prescient dream involved a school bus, rolled over, crushed and damaged, no one badly hurt and the bus still drove after the fact, no windshield, missing side mirrors, rusted and beat up but it still ran. It is a foretelling of what will be happening in the country. We will be tossed and wrecked and badly damaged but we will still run, despite the damage. There was a large tree, in a desert landscape where the bus was. The tree was green.

(EC)
(EC)

I’ve always found her beautiful. It was just at that moment I blanked out and blurted a question I didn’t really mean to ask, it just came out.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Maggie G

Listen… I was quite Mistaken about HSF here… he just assumed something I didn’t say, which happens a lot.

Not everyone grew up with a father who taught them to read and write in code.

There. I’m down here linking up with a variety of former military types quite well connected and have discovered that my being NOT connected has saved me from getting my radios confiscated.

My bratty son is smug again about refusing to go back to that class. So, I can do only one thing… I can broadcast on MURS frequencies but not the monitored frequencies. I have the signal list and code keys the Family of Families put together but I have no idea where to “go” to broadcast passively.

If there are any radar troops out there, please please please tell me a good spot to get to the ears of someone in Poplar Bluff. HSF was right. The American Flag came DOWN on a certain US Marine’s pole the day we went into quarantine while the rest of us just turned ours over and flew it anyway.

HSF? I need YOU to post Red Newton’s story from Agnes Queroton if you don’t mind. I don’t think there can be a copyright on my father’s hand transcription of that conversation. I don’t want any credit. What someone is doing to my father’s memory to try to make money is awful. I did not know people in Tennessee had claimed copyright to my father’s stuff and the family did not know.

Self-publishing really is EASY, if you really own the copyright. My father bound some of his books by hand.

He had a lot to say.

Marc? They took out ALL of his pictures. I will send you the replacement book for #13. No pictures.

It is like putting him back in hell again.

Maggie G

My version says neverchanging.

Am posting Red Rope’s Lament for Coyote at the other place and hope you will do some double duty for a while. I ended up in a quagmire like when Deborah Meeks got Courtsmartialed. Sure, she was a lesbian, but damn, she was a hell of a commander and I NEVER knew she was gay. And we played quarters until I swallowed the thing and shit it out three days later.

Anyway… send me an email to confirm you want to know. I am calling in the other Red Rope officially. Someone violated Daddy’s copyright.

And this Red Rope is righteously indignant.

Do you know the difference in right and righteous?

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

You have turned into a fucking crazy woman.

Mary Christine

They started up here a couple weeks ago. I love those warm evenings we can sit out on the patio and listen to them. This week it’s very cold so they went silent. There is a chance of snow flurries later this week. I’m concerned about our lavender because it came out of dormancy.

This whole thing has divided our family, my inlaws are not speaking to us because we are not willing to give up our freedom to “protect the elderly”. But they are perfectly willing to have my sis in law and her 3 yr old daughter over for dinner. The father-in-law has all of the co-morbidities needed to send him over the edge and he should quarantine himself. But he thinks everyone else should quarantine, too. Except his daughter and grand-daughter. I think lack of oxygen has ruined his brain. But I digress.

I haven’t given up on traveling this summer and I won’t until we are coming right up near time to leave. One has to have something to look forward to, ya know?

(EC)
(EC)

Where are the Karens when you need them?

Paula

heard on the news the slaughterhouses of south dakota are shutting down production

famine is on its way

Lebowski
Lebowski

You’ve always got the family dog

Maggie G

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I wanted to show the people I blog to in Missouri how despicable some of you really are.

People like myself come here believing that good intentions abound and we discover pigs like yourself. Now, when my friends from the Southeast Missouri blog visit they can shit all over any thing you say too.

comment image

You are “it.”

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Pretty sure that was a joke.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

link?

Dogbone
Dogbone

Yep get ready for it. Happening to pork, beef and poultry processors all over the country. Big protein shortage coming.

Articles of Confederation

Icelandic chickens. More expensive at ~$10/chick but very few are looking for anything other than Franken Chicks.

Mygirl....Maybe

I am (maybe) in the market for Buckeyes.

Smoke em if you got em
Smoke em if you got em

Thank you. Your writings are achingly beautiful.

RiNS

The mob has been cowed to buy trains!

StackingStock
StackingStock

I shook a customers hand last week and he said he didn’t know if I would, I said I’ve been doing business with you for ten years.

He then said he knows of none that have this thing, I said the same thing.

We left it at that.

Galicant Wiseword
Galicant Wiseword

I’m going to try again to get some syrup. I particularly liked this article because I was listening to the frogs in the dense forest surrounding my house last night. My cycle of the full new spring starts here with the first firefly, or “Keister bug” as my now grown daughter called them when I could carry her around with one arm (because their keisters’ light up). I’ve been gardening and working the land for the past three years. This year I’m uncomfortably certain that what we produce might be all we get to eat this winter besides what we kill. This belief has had me working twice as hard (and with fortuitous free time provided by the unconstitutional actions of an overzealous state). Hardscrabble, I appreciate the stories you have shared. They have inspired me over the years.

subwo
subwo

HF, that was great. I remember fondly listening to the locust on summer nights in Nebraska. The natural sounds of animals and insects are soothing. If I were king I would require this essay be read on NPR and CBS Sunday Morning if only to hear heads explode as they hear ideas contrary to everything they believe.

downeasthillbilly
downeasthillbilly

Of all the wondrous things I have seen in nature, it is the smallest creatures that have made the greatest impact . .
a may fly hatch on the upper Potomac
a nebula of fireflies over a pasture in Amish country
a population explosion of tree frogs (three varieties)

Uncola

Hardscrabble,

Just want to say that much of your descriptive prose is as good as any I’ve read; and I’ve read a lot.

I also wanted to thank you for the smile that crossed my face while reading this paragraph…

The slow progression from looking skittish to dressing like an intern on his way to surgery has turned into something sinister. The averted eyes now accompanies every twenty foot dodge across an open space gives the impression that everyone is either on their way from or on their way to a bank heist. It’s disconcerting and it makes me feel disconnected from that type even more than I would have in the past. This isn’t about politics or beliefs any longer, but between a form of delusion and a wide eyed assessment of this collective madness.

And, not to sound like an Emersonian transcendentalist here (although there’s nothing wrong with that), but I, too, have noticed the seemingly increasing divergence between the new dystopia and our natural surroundings. For example, I alluded to it in my last piece when I wrote how the stars now seem more “intimately near”.

Perhaps that perception is merely a result of societal fading ; no more or less ordinary than the accelerating wilt of a plucked flower passing from vibrancy to black. Or the way the clouds illuminate during peak sunset prior to them dimming into lumbering gray shadows, hovering.

I was thinking of some parallels between the two worlds: There is truth in nature and even when an element of fear is present, like when sheltering from fierce weather or battling a wild beast…, the truth remains. But the two factors that exist in all dystopias, either real or fiction, are lies and fear . These provide a tainting effect that, like the wilt of a flower, progresses .

You captured this conception in a fantastic way and I am gratified to know you see it too. You wrote:

…has turned the modern world into a scene from a Hieronymous Bosch painting

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Weird dystopias are stitched together by illusions, delusions, dread and dismay. And, yet, the tree frogs sound.

Thanks for the words, Man. I really appreciated them.

BL
BL

HF- Just for you today, I went to Trader Joe’s to purchase some premium German mineral water and I noticed large white eggs are up to $1.39 per dozen. Up 10 cents.

Mygirl....Maybe

The tree frog don’t care about no virus, the earth will continue on, the seasons come and go and, if we silence the inner chatter we, too, can live this day, this moment and see with new eyes. comment image

TS

I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.

Billy the Speareshaker

Mygirl....Maybe

I love Waterhouse and Millais.
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comment image

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

That’s one lucky dude. Yes yes I know, that’s not how the story goes, but one can fantasize, can’t they?

Mygirl....Maybe

?

(EC)
(EC)

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Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

Beautiful.

I love the painting too.

Mygirl....Maybe

Millais’ model posed in the river itself for him. Wonder what it was like to languish in the water while singing and pretending to drown? I look at those touches that make the painting pop, in the nymph painting, look at the water lillies, see how the artist chose a red violet to contrast the yellow green? The same violet is used to highlight the folds of his tunic. The color harmonies in both paintings are superb/

Here is an exquisite graphite study of her head that he made for the painting…
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And here is the detail of the model’s head in the actual painting…comment image

flash
flash

You make life on the farm sound so amazingly fulfilling it’s a wonder everyone isn’t doing it. If I were 40 years younger, I’d be truly inspired to give the ‘ol dirt farming wheel a spin . Somewhere Robert Rodale is smiling. Thanks .

flash
flash

No one could’ve known.

“What we found is that the childhood experience of green space can actually predict mental health in later life,” Nieuwenhuijsen says. “The people that reported more exposure to nature actually have better mental health than those that don’t even after we adjust for exposure at the time of the interview, when they are adults….Overall, they found a strong correlation between low exposure to nature during childhood and higher levels of of nervousness and feelings of depression in adulthood.”

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/scientists-discover-a-major-lasting-benefit-of-growing-up-outside-the-city?utm_source=pocket-newtab

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Tree frogs? We call ’em Peepahs round heah.

ottomatik
ottomatik

“People aren’t dying from the virus, but from the failed immune systems that are endemic to a population rife with underlying health issues, poor nutrition, and confined to urban areas unfit for healthy habitation.”
But isn’t there a pill for that.

“or a deeply entrenched corruption with designs to destroy whatever liberties we still posses to satisfy their pervasive degeneracy and pathological desire for power.”
This, definitely this.

James
James

Farmer,down here on Marthas Vineyard helping out me mum during this nonsense.I stepped outside to use a “facilitree” and I heard little pepping in the background.She is on the ocean with fresh water areas right behind home,not exactly sure what little frogs we got here but they were out in force last night!

robb88

once again a jem from you.again,thank you.

ursel doran
ursel doran

MSM Selling the FEAR PORN here worked even better than the man caused global warming HOAX that we were all doomed in a few years unless we gave the U.N. and other serious fighters lots of money to fight the HOAX they created in the myth, and implement the “Green New Deal”.
REALITY of the actual stats so far is in this, NEVER to be seen in the MSM fear porn peddlers.
“Men it has been well said, think (hallucinate), in herds, go MAD in herds and only regain their sanity slowly, one by one.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2020-04-15/food-thought-covid-19-and-annual-flu-mortality-compared

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

Beautiful piece. There are two brilliant minds inter-faced with keyboards. One writes in the comment section:

“There is truth in nature and even when an element of fear is present,”

The other writes:

“so they can sample the sweet flavor of what Nature has always provided to those” (along with captital letters for ‘sun’ and ‘winter’)

Is there a particular reason why? Is it because of the writers’ belief ? “Nature”…as in Mother Nature? or Gaia?

“surface of the globe”…..?

Was the book of Ecclesiastes written by King Solomon? Some biblical scholars disagree…..I think the common author through out the Bible was the Holy Spirit…..who held the pen to be of lesser consequence.

The sun, moon and stars were placed in the heavens for signs and for seasons, but maybe those signs and seasons are for pointing to the fullness of time……..not just for planting corn.

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<——-== "In the beginning" matters……as does where the invisible enemy originated matters..

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

Out of respect for forms.

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

I took my 3 a.m. walk, and the blue flickering lights got me to thinking about ‘respect for forms’. I only know that, when properly set, forms allow for a plumb foundation to support the frame…..but when I got back I did a quick search of “why capitalize the word nature”

At the top of the page, in a box was this:
“There is no hard-and-fast rule on capitalizing the word “nature” as it is not classified as a proper noun. The reason we capitalize the proper noun is to differentiate it from other common (non-proper) nouns as it is”

Just below the box, and apparently from the same source article was this bit:

“You could only capitalize it when it means. The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. It will largely depend on your personal style and preference whether to capitalize nature…”

orthography – Capitalisation of “Nature” – English …
english.stackexchange.com/questions/313537/capitalisation-of-nature

I then notice the next two on the results page:

Capitalization of the word “Nature”
https://essayforum.com/grammar/capitalization-word-nature-15698
Feb 18, 2010 · Nature is a proper noun, and as such it should be capitalized. It also makes good sense in the interest of distinguishing the name Nature from the noun ‘nature,’ as in ‘the nature of Nature.’

Why is the word Nature sometimes given a capital letter …
https://www.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_word_Nature
Jul 20, 2015 · The reason Nature is seldom capitalized is that Christian clerics have long maintained a policy of decapitalization of the names of entities, such as Nature, Earth, Sun, and Moon, that have been the objects of Pagan worship.

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<——==

Modern Jew (EC)
Modern Jew (EC)

Dang, now I need to drop a tab of acid to wash all that stuff down. Let’s drive to the Antelope Valley.

card802
card802

Common sense, HSF, you overflow with it. Just wish that was contagious, spread some of that around to the mindless idiots.
Useful idiots in Michigan are losing their collective shit.
Between the news Trump’s name will be on future stimulus checks, Trump abandoning WHO funding, his threat to fire Fuci, and the Gridlock Rally at capitol city, spontaneous combustion just might save us all. I mean people are getting rabid, on both sides and this can’t end well. If our dictator extends the lockdown further into May, more people will take to the streets.
Good news though, a few Sheriff’s wrote the Gretch a letter at the rally yesterday. They promised they took an oath to defend the Constitution of Michigan and the United States, they will not enforce her executive orders, as they are the last line of defence defending what’s left of our civil liberties.

Heart disease kills 1.4 million people every month worldwide, that’s 17 million people a year. We’re told if we change our lifestyle we could save lives.
Eat less fries, lower our weight, get off our ass and take more walks, eat more healthy foods, you know, change the way we live, like so many of my friends and family happily embrace to stop a virus that has killed (allegedly) 138,000 worldwide.
This is a real head scratcher.

PhotoGoblins
PhotoGoblins

Well said, and thank you for a beautiful dose of reality. You freed us, for the moment, from the stench of the demon media. Very refreshing!

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