Sunday, May 8th, 2022. Week number 18
Good morning. It’s 8:00 a.m. and I’m in the kitchen but I am not making breakfast. I had breakfast more than an hour and a half ago. I just came in from the garden where I am doing some light work. I think my days of heavy labor here are finished. I tried to do a bit of that at the end of last week and I just don’t have the legs or the energy for it anymore.
The real reason I came in off the field was that I could hear the chicken people getting ready to use one of their poison machines. I hate to think of it as enjoying the pleasure of gassing Jews but it seems too apt not to go with. I just didn’t want to smell the fumes, which are so disgusting I have no words, and I wanted to make sure that the door to my house and the windows were closed. It doesn’t really help but I guess a percentage is better than nothing.
I can’t see that the cabbages are completely dead but I also can’t see that they are immediately thriving in their new home. There are lots of variables. I do think I have enough organic material in the boxes for them to eat over the long run. I also think planting them in a hole of planting soil was the right idea. The big failure is a failure to mulch. I left the ground bear and I think that was my big mistake. At least this is what I am most sorry for.
So, instead of digging in the canals, I went out and simply raked Forest leaves. Like I said, this is much lighter work, there is no digging or hauling anything of great weight. It’s just light work and I think I’m okay with this. I’m glad I did my season of serious labor. Probably I needed it or at least I needed to do it. But now I think I’m ready to take it easy on myself. Gardening is not supposed to be a Bloodsport even in an environment where they try to kill you everyday.
I found that one decent wheelbarrow load was enough to put a covering on an entire box. This is good to know because it gives me an idea of how much material I need to bring in. The lower gardens are probably not going to be fed as much as I originally thought but they are going to be covered. If this keeps the weeds down, that’s not the biggest part of this. It’s really about water retention and eventually the organic material that feeds the plants from above. Like I said, it is a lighter variant but hopefully, it will have a positive effect.
The other thing that I’m doing right now is I am running a really interesting cultivator through the lower gardens. I have no idea what this instrument is called in any language but it is basically too long steel tines, like 2/3 of a pitchfork but bent around into something that looks like vampire fangs. This is an incredibly good instrument for pulling grass. It goes deep into the ground very quickly and basically pulls the roots out and up to the top. It takes two or three swipes to do the job but you can see the grass plants starting to appear at the top and then you just pull them off and throw them in the pathways. A great cultivator tool and very good for keeping the ground aerated and fluffy.
I have a presentation for today but I’m not going to get into it right now because I want to go back to work. But I do want to mention my Friday evening meal because it was a revelation.
The last thing I did outside was to take a basket and a pair of scissors and I cut maybe 20 horseradish plants. The leaves will grow back as sure as the sun comes up in the morning but I took probably a little more than a kilo of fresh natural wild Greens. I still have more. This stuff grows wild all over the place. People usually take the roots and grind it up with purple sugar beets to make a local spicy condiment. I’m not fond of it because it’s too much work for very little love and I don’t really like the taste very much.
But horseradish leaves, especially young ones, are absolutely phenomenal. They are super spicy, the spice is very much like horseradish and not peppery like cabbage but if you fry them down, it is the most miraculous super spinach imaginable.
The meal I made was super simple. I threw an onion in the pot with some unrefined sunflower oil. And then I cleaned and strained the entire batch of horseradish leaves and just Chucked them in my big skillet. I put a light dusting of local spices just for the fun of it and then tossed three of my favorite cornstarch cellophane noodles to steam into life. The whole thing took probably less than 8 minutes all together for the leaves to come down, a sauce to come from the steam and the noodles to melt down and absorb all the flavor.
It was probably the most delicious thing I have eaten in months. Just mouthful after mouthful of delicious noodles and fresh greens with that fantastic horseradishy flavor.
Were there any adverse reactions? I would not say yes. It went through me as you would imagine a kilogram of wild greens would but I didn’t have any particular stomach problems from it. The only effect I had was feeling very, very alive. There was probably more life in that meal than anything I have eaten in a long time. It was outstanding!
The best part is that I have plenty of these greens growing all the time. With all of the hassle of trying to grow spinach and lettuce and of course all of these cabbages, it seems that god/nature is making an argument telling me that not a lot of this nonsense was necessary. It’s not like I don’t like cabbages and during the winter, it is an absolute staple food for me along with onions and potatoes. But already in the month of May, I just ate an entire kilo of greens, the cost of which was a short walk down the Garden pass with a pair of scissors and a basket. Best shopping trips so far of the year.
All right, back to work. I’m going to keep going until it gets too warm to work or my legs tell me that I’m not supposed to be doing this. I have been coming to the decision that the massive amount of physical labor I did this spring, massive for me anyway, was not a waste of time or a destruction of my property. I’m glad I did what I did and I’m glad I have what I have as a result of it. But my body does not want to do any of that heavy work anymore. It was too much. It was too much pain and too much injury. I’m going to be okay and I’m getting stronger every day but I am not going to assign myself such heavy labor again for a long time.
Let’s say I satisfied my ego that I could do this stuff. Let’s say that with my ego satisfied, I don’t need to practice such masochism again anytime soon. Let’s just take it easy and enjoy the summer from here on out.
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It is 11:20 on a very nice day. It’s a bit overcast but not rainy. The weather is very buggy and Birdy. I have done a pretty good morning’s work. It helped to get started nice and early. I have one more box to mulch but I am taking a break because my leg says that I do not need to be a hero. It is better to let go for a while and fight the last of these battles a bit later on.
I only have two jobs left for myself. The first is to do this last mulch run. Indeed, the work is much, much easier when you’re not really digging. It’s probably not the best idea in the world to retrofit a garden like I am. We should have done this before planting. I believe it would have made all the difference in the world. True, it was probably the frost that put the kibosh on our cabbages and bombed them back to the Stone age like Russian missiles heading to Ukraine. But better late than never and again, we can always replant. The market is full of people selling baby cabbages.
No, it’s not the same as my ex partner’s work this spring. But we live and we learn and the project is going to be successful one way or another.
While I was working I was listening to an audiobook version of the Tao Te Ching, the book of the way by Lao Tzu. Have you ever listened to this? You probably should. Or you can if you want. Or it is here if it was meant to be before your eyes.
The two main thoughts that I had while listening to this were how exactly correct the teachings are as compared to the modern world. It is as if nothing has ever changed. Or, if you want to look at it another way, we have never learned anything. My friend Steve said that we have simply grown too much for the game. This applied to global warming and globalization and the absolute Instagram weirdness We now call society would indicate that the game has never changed but now we are way too dangerous to play it.
The second thought I had is that in a way, I’m kind of preaching to the choir. I want a bit more literacy in the world or at least reasonable contemplativeness. I am and have been an English teacher but as a language teacher generally, I want people to access their thoughts through language. I vote for intelligence over power and individual democracy over allowing others to make our decisions for us. The problem comes with the fact that the only people who would take my advice and sit through these 2 hours of dichotomous platitudes would already be a thinking person. Conservatives would never dream of walking through one of my blogs or reading any of my books. They are power people. They believe themselves to be a part of the illiterati. They are stupid on purpose. They are of the exquisite wisdom I do not think, therefore I am.
I guess you could also say “I do not work and therefore I have money”. But that’s not really in the vein that I am speaking of.
What I really wanted to do here while I’m sitting down is to walk through a group of links I picked up that I think are relevant. Exactly along the lines of what I am speaking about here, I tend to go intellectual shopping for this blog. I don’t specifically seek out things. That’s kind of bad science where you demand that the world understand your idea by creating evidence to support it. I usually just find things along the way and when I believe that they go with someone or something, I send it along. If I think something belongs in my blog, it’s here. I also find things that are perfect for certain people I know and I send it along to them. Just internet habits. Nothing new.
I guess we should start off with Zelinsky speaking about the irony of the day of remembrance of the victory over fascism in the second World War.
This is a very somber but yet stylish Instagram speech shot in front of ruins created by Russian missiles.
I definitely feel this irony as being significant. I have been here for 20 years and living in town, I saw the students putting flowers at the base of memorials to the people who fought in the War. There are several ceremonies a year concerning the Nazi invasion. Of course we have Jewish memorials as well but even the non-jewish population suffered significantly. This particular country was well abused during the effort.
The point though is that these are Russian holidays as well. Specifically, they are Soviet holidays that still exist even 25 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. It is an obvious remembrance because basically every family that lived here lost people. A tragic time.
But yet what we see from the Russians now is that they are attacking what would only be considered as their own people with the same disregard and maliciousness as the Nazis who came through here and Ukraine. It is a relentless brutality that is the stuff that creates memorials and holidays and days of remembrance where people say that they will never forget. And yet, here they are practicing exactly that same action while obviously completely forgetting that it was never supposed to happen again.
Rachael Maddow on free press
The question about Russian propaganda and Russian attacks on Independent Media have now spread beautifully over to the United States. Donald Trump may still be screaming in his homeless lunatic manner of speech that Russia was a hoax. But yet, there is more than ample empirical evidence that the conservative party in the United States seems hellbent to stop people from reporting their actions.
I personally do not believe that democracy has anything to do with our representative form of government. I do not believe that a vested interest in one’s home, neighborhood, region or country is possible if we are giving the power of decision making and lawmaking to other people. This is not just in the case of leaders who are not actually elected but chosen by the party. It is also a matter of using propaganda instead of asking people to be respectful and helpful to the world around them. This is not just a mistake, this is the bloody end of the world.
Speaking about the American free press or the so-called Free press, this is Trevor Noah’s remarks from the White House correspondents dinner
Trevor Noah does this professionally. Literally, this was the same thing he does on his show every day. He is a remarkably accurate young man. He is well versed in politics. I do not throw in with him 100% because he does pull his punches and he does allow the existence of this same representative system I’m speaking about. He does say we should speak truth to power but at the same time, he does not allow for the possibility of that power becoming available to be spoken to.
It’s a subtle difference but if you’re into name dropping, he does not pull his punches to either side. But yeah, he slams The living daylights out of Fox News and the conservative party but he also has jobs for the liberal media as well. At the end of the day, his heroes are my heroes and his respect for the Free press comes out in a very heartwarming finish. The guy is a professional. I say check it out because free speech is cool and he said this stuff right to the president’s face.
Oslo and climate change
The City has developed and adopted the Oslo Climate and Energy Strategy, which is in accor- dance with the Paris Agreement. The target is to reduce the city’s CO2 emissions by 50 per cent by 2020 and by 95 per cent by 2030, compared to the 1990 level. The Strategy shows how we will implement the green transformation.
This particular link is from a general search I made because of something I heard about Norway and its capital. Specifically what got my attention is from their decision to invest very heavily in bicycle infrastructure. Norway is one of these communities that embrace the bicycle as a means of personal travel. Additionally, and understanding that not everybody has the fortitude to push their own bike, they are also deeply embracing e-bikes as a replacement for cars.
I don’t really have a specific article here to look at but you are welcome to look around the search and I think you’ll find quite a few interesting things. Once again, Norway seems to be a model for reasonableness and at least thoughtful enough to attempt a human based manner of living. The government in this case is very interested in accommodating people. They do not create an infrastructure based upon the oil business first, they are more interested in quality of life overall then just the thrill of owning an automobile and all of the debts that come along with it.
Well done.
E bikes and the future of urban travel. And also Norway is mentioned specifically as a city that has rebuilt its bicycle infrastructure
Going along with this thought, here is yet another video that I found talking exactly about bicycle infrastructures and better City planning with an eye towards a more sustainable future.
And then one more video discussing creative and intelligent infrastructure in the Netherlands that includes all forms of public transportation as well as the bicycle which is, appropriately enough, King.
But then back in reality, Zelinsky speaks to Britain and mentions the truth of the brutality of the Russians and the existence of nuclear blackmail, not just on Ukraine but on Europe and most probably the United States as well.
And just in case you were dreaming that the world might actually be getting smarter, Now they are shooting missiles at Odessa.
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I don’t think I ever really wanted to say this but I have named my house. Yeah, it has a name and one or two people in the world are aware of the name of this house. Naming this house does not make it particularly special. And the name of this house is kind of fanciful in its way. I didn’t mean to make it unduly special by giving it a name and truthfully, I don’t think of it by this name most of the time. Most of the time I think of it as my house.
The name that I gave my house last year in a moment of ostentatiousness is Hata Tampopo. This is a crazy name that is a combination of two words. Hata is the Belarusian word for cottage maybe. Something like that. And Tampopo is the Japanese word for dandelion.
Basically, the dandelion house.
As to why I gave it this name, it has to do with the color that it’s painted. It is yellow and green. I guess I could have called it the Oakland A’s house for the Green Bay Packers house or something like that. But the movie Tampopo has always been one of my favorite foodie movies of all time. It’s a farcical romp through almost completely unconnected vignettes all of which are somehow related to food. So the combination of these two words very much appealed to me. I know it’s very perverse and weird to name your house but again, up until this moment, it was only for a few people.
The reason that I am saying this is that it is exactly dandelion season right now. I know what you are thinking. Dandelions are weeds and should be stricken from the vocabulary of homeowners. They should be destroyed completely so as never to make an appearance again. They are evil! They should be struck down!
The reason I am talking about this, or rather the two reasons why I am talking about this, is that there are quite a few Epicurean benefits to eating or making tea out of dandelions.
Last year when I had goats for a little while, I noticed that they loved eating the dandelion flowers. What this told me is that the flowers themselves are probably sweet and tasty as all imaginable. Goat physiology is not really all that different from human physiology. And if you have ever spent any time getting to know goats, you know that their mindset is not all that different either. Put them under pressure and lock them up and they are unbelievably friendly. They give everything they have when they’re freedom is taken away. But let them off the tether, and they are explorers doing whatever they want. Can you imagine that? Animals with a sense of curiosity who like to wander around and see what they can find? Sentience? Without question.
The basic premise of dandelion tea is just to collect the flowers and greens and dry them. Drying them is not hard, just put them on a screen out in the sun and it doesn’t take very long at all. After that, just add hot water and you have a very delicious beverage to enjoy with whatever you enjoy tea with. And as you can imagine, I have a field full of them.
As always, I come back to the question of why it is such a normal understanding that we are supposed to hack these things down. They are weeds! They should be destroyed as quickly as possible!
But why do we do this?
Without thinking about it too hard, the idea is that it is simple commerce. If people believed that they would have a tasty beverage that grows wild and is available to them to enjoy as a gift from god, this would completely destroy the Lipton company. Who could possibly spend money on herbal teas if they were to find out that Garden weeds actually had some value after all? What a shocking concept?
Anyway, I am collecting the flowers and the leaves these days and simply setting them aside in a bowl. I have a mouse problem these days and I do not have a cat so there’s a great possibility that the rats will get into them and eat a little bit. But they won’t eat enough to destroy the tea. And exactly like with the horseradish leaves, about 20 minutes shopping to walk around and collect the flowers and the leaves will be enough to keep me in tea for, oh, I don’t know, the rest of the year?
Are you a fan of herbal tea? I am a friend of verbal tea. Why shouldn’t you be a friend of herbal tea? I mean, give it a choice between coffee and herbal tea and the question of which one is actually healthier for you, what do you think the answer is?
I’m sorry, did I ask too simple a question for you? I do that all the time. I should be jailed! Ask my neighbor about that and she will completely agree. I should be jailed! I am wrong! I am bad for the system. I also do not do blackmail well enough. I should bow down and take my ass fuckings more easily. Sorry babe. You just are not good looking enough for me.
Anyway, if we are grinding along facetiously and talking shit, let’s take a brief look at the United States of America and the absolute genius behind the conservative party Monopoly of Sinclair media and all of those bright god-fearing Christians who rule the fucking world. They are striking down Roe v Wade in America.
What exactly does this mean? It means that the politicians get to make the choices and the people do not. There are no other issues at stake. There are no other realities to consider. There are no bowels to the economic system that created teenage pregnancy or the manic thinking of Americans as to what is right or wrong. The psychopaths who are making sure that Christian values are real and everywhere and beyond hope of any individual believing that they can exist outside of it have made sure that in this one simple case, you have no choice but to accept fate.
Drunken stepfather? Fuck you. Rape? Fuck you. Incest? Fuck you. Just a teenager who’s feeling what they are feeling and got pregnant and suddenly understands that they simply cannot afford to take care of a baby? Fuck you to hell and back you evil, evil, evil non-Christian anasma. You will go to hell and we will watch you on your journey and invite you back providing you are willing to kiss her ass forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
Why? Truly, why? Were the world of eight billion complete fucking idiots, why? Why do we need more fucking idiots? Why do we need more suffering? Why do we need more Christian values? Why do we have to continue to live in stupidity and helplessness under the care of ruthless carpetbaggers just trying to get every possible cent out of us that they can?
Have I made it clear what side of the aisle I sit on? Have I stated my case that this nonsense should never have happened?
Well, I’m a theater guy. And these people are theater people that I’m about to show you. It was on American television and as usual, it hits the nail on the head.
Fuck you very much American Christians. You are not helping. You are making it worse than it needs to be so that y’all make money from us and our suffering. If Christianity has any reality to it, let y’all burn in hell.
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