We are accelerating into year three of the global pandemic. Four or more waves of infection have ravaged the innocent, whose only transgression was to violate well established protocols. Covid has swarmed our population. “Largely a disease of the un-vaccinated.” tells it like it is, but is also dismissive of our own humanity. Every single death, since the beginning, was preventable. Quarantines were amd continue to be breached and that is why we have so many variants, each attempting to extend that family of organisms’ habitat and what we recognize as virulence. The better the virus gets at infecting us, the less we can do about it. Please continue to quarantine, get vaccinated and get tested.
The energies of Imbolc are such that it is believed, in the deepest “heart” of the Earth, the Feminine Goddess called by the name Brigid, in her own right a tri-fold deity, forges in her crucibel if you will, of her womb, the fire and promise of the coming Spring. The coming season’s Healers, Poets and Smiths all owe the patron of their craft, Brigid for giving them the fire each use in their craft. All life rests on the consort of the underworld bringing that fire to life.
It is well to remember that There is a different time signature of life, getting reset to the ancient clock, honoring Brigid is the rustling of old pages in our genetic memory, a wisdom lost, yet as vital today as it would have been many thousands of years ago. The rustling of spring, time for feast and bonfires. If you can appreciate the power of a simple fire, honoring this time for which there is no replacement, May your bonfire burn bright!
Brigid had two sisters and in many ways, has represented the facets of her tri-fold nature..
Having dialogue with the ancient, understanding the give and take each of us has to balance, that is what this end of midwinter celebration is about. The worst days have passed, but we must not run out of hay for the animals or food for ourselves for at least six more weeks, until Spring greens begin in earnest. This time of reflection and assessment, of both thankfulness and anxious striving combine, allowing us to pick over and get clarity about our motives and reaffirm our dreams and commitments for the coming season of growth. Our basic human needs have not changed, have not transformed greatly since we lived in accord with the land. The desire to re-birth that connection, drives some to want to eat local; produce at least some of our food, grown with our own hand, to not only nourish our bodies, bringing Brigid’s fire into our cells, but moving our hearts, our minds, our emotions fuel the fire of metabolism, growth and renewal. It begins with listening to the elders from days when the hearth was the center of our lives. Learning their stories, living in cadence with their messages. This is a great time to make char! Making new commitments and the first steps toward the coming quickening, are perfectly appropriate in light of the Spring’s first rustlings.
Not only are we necessary to carry on the stories, we bear responsibility to the ancients to never forget, not their highest achievements nor their tragic failures as well. This is the time when the ends of the spirits of the past are reaffirmed. Aspects of our history and culture that damage or degrade humanity must pass if we are to have a clean slate or at least a clear conscience. We must put those shortcomings our ancestors had to rest and redouble our efforts to move forward. As the crone passes, the maiden is given her day. Impregnated in the underworld, her child is birthed in spring and brings life to us all. At this time of year, we have reason to understand our relationship to both past and future, to understand that our refinement of ancient instincts falls to us to enliven and enact as our own! We have both the right and responsibility to re-make our stories, our reality, our myths and dreams in a more just and equitable way. Building a sustainable culture requires an active dialog with our past, our ancient ancestors who gave their all for us to survive and have a better life. It is now our turn to take up the tools of building culture and redefining our own striving as we deem appropriate. This undertaking can hold the power to focus all of us, everyone on the planet, not just on doing better for now but for future generations as well!
We have stumbled into a response to this global pandemic that makes crawling out of the hole we have dug complicated and difficult. first, we let liars say whatever they wanted for nearly two years. We are only now beginning to reign in some of the fictions that were perpetrated early on. Expecting a president with a “bully pulpit” to do the right thing, in these times, would perhaps be a bit too much. Instead, we give someone who actually lost the popular vote a megaphone and expect them to cheer lead for our team U.S.A. This pathetic whelp of a man whose ego is so fragile that he needs all the king’s horses and all the king’s men to constantly prop up and apply plasters to his whiny fragility as it splinters. Yeah, that guy claimed, regarding covid-19 “…it will go away as miraculously as it appeared.” and as he advocated untested, dangerous, even deadly treatments, impersonating a doctor in fact, the media continued to pump us full of his lies. There can be no justification for allowing the air wages, which collectively belong to all of us, to be dominated by treacherous, deceitful or traitorous lies. I have studied public figures since becoming politically aware in 1968. It was one thing back then to simply erase the most egregious Watergate Tapes and you could just resign to save face. Now, the scale of the false claims had to ratchet up daily or not one person would have paid any attention. With a flourish, the twice impeached, twice to lose the popular vote ex-president signed more than a dozen Executive Orders to great fanfare and media attention, but as each failed on Constitutional grounds, virtually nothing was said in the media about his failures. This was the real story. The crushing neglect and dereliction of what reasonable people would assume to be his duty as Commander-in-Chief has led to nearly a million dead in under two years. At times when no action is advised, that is when that guy would run in spraying an endless barrage of assaultive accusations and half-baked conspiracy theories. Hundreds of slanderous comments were transformed into libel whenever reporters published their “news”. When strength or action was warranted, he could only obfuscate and then, delay, delay, delay.
It is not difficult to see how an invisible virus could overwhelm such an out of balance character. Mop up after the bloodletting may take generations. Now we have even more lies infinitely sub-divided and each resulting shard pumped up with more lies until it is like the scene in Fantasia where Mickey Mouse tries his hand at wizardry. The last thing we need right now is people to let down their guard, like we did when we voted deceitful traitor out of office. Like we did after we got vaccinated, like we did after our booster. The rush to get back to normal is real, I feel it. What we can’t afford to do, as long as significant numbers refuse to get the vaccine, is to continue quarantine. You need every aspect to reign in the spread of the virus. The cheapest, by far and the easiest is quarantine. If people (everyone) stay (s) away from everyone else for a few weeks, we could be done spreading it right then and there, but there will always be a few people who think they are special, or healthy, who just don’t want to stay in lock down o5r who think they know better that will ruin it for everyone. The next level of protection, barring complete isolation is to stay distanced in public and always wear a mask, but for the few people who will still get infected with those things going on, the vaccination becomes essential. another often overlooked part, because we overwhelmed our ability to do anything about it is to contact trace, so people who have not yet tested positive can find out of their own exposure and take the precaution of at least getting tested if not go into quarantine.testing and contact tracing are the other part of this that people just don’t want to understand. without doing everything in our power to stop the virus, we are willfully allowing it to continue to live in us. We humans are one and if some are threatened, we all are.
IF WE ARE EVER TO GET TO A POST-PANDEMIC STATUS, it will require doing everything science has known about for over a hundred years, in concert, to stop the spread. We can’t afford to wait. Twenty percent of the population has gotten the virus, one in every five U.S. citizens. All of them could get it again. 850,000 have died and we are currently losing a thousand more every day. Learn about the things that you can do to stop the spread. https://www.honorhealth.com/healthy-living/10-ways-you-can-reduce-spread-covid-19
First, we begin with a Time Map. It illustrates the portion of the analemma, the map of the year; that most folks in the Northern Hemisphere, at least the parts near the 45th parallel, characterized by distinct seasons, recognize as the growing season. The “clock” can be read, from the bottom left up, in the relative direction shoots grow, then, left, through the peak of Summer, then back across through the harvest time. The reason I chose to start with something so abstract is because I wanted to point out how when we map for a certain thing, by default we have to leave out other things. That is why there are so many maps in Permaculture.
The Base Map for instance encompasses anything that exists. It is the physical representation of all the items that would appear in an aerial photo plus what lies underground. The things that will not move, watercourses, house, road, water lines, power poles, buried cables or tanks etc. Around this all the other maps will essentially revolve, but just like our picture map of the growing season, by nature there is always more left out than “appears”. Getting a better picture requires the Wind Map, which incorporates high and low wind areas, the natural flow of cooling breezes at night and the places that get baked or parched and feed thermals, in Summer and those places that are eddies, or even stagnant areas where fog might hold on until late morning. If you have plants or livestock that is not adapted to that even slightly arid area, you may have to carry buckets of water to them frequently. There are readily available wind roses for locations across the U.S. and I’m sure if you ask any meteorologist or airport, they can steer you to ones for your area. It is a composite “map” of what percentage of time the wind blows from every direction.
This is the wind rose for my area in the month of October.
If I needed a wind break in fall, planting it in a Northwest to Southeast, diagonal would be the best. If I wanted to protect livestock from the most bitter winds in February, I would consult the wind rose for February…
The same orientation of would perform as well for winter protection as during fall harvest, you might just have to move stock depending on the day to opposite sides of the wind break. February winds are fickle here.
As you can “see”, there would be a few days where the wind would still whistle down along the direction of the plantings, but the majority of the time, at least in my area, a hedge or windbreak of some kind would help protect my creatures.
Another pair of maps that can often get forgotten are the View Map. It not only looks out from the house, garden and wherever you like to spend the most time outdoors, out across the property and beyond. If there is an industrial complex on the horizon, no shame in planting a bushy plant like an elderberry to block that! however, if you have a favorite rose bush out by the mailbox, you may not want that to be hidden from view, so your management could change depending on what you want to see and what you don’t. It is also well to consider views from the people passing or the views people get of your spread as they approach. And the Noise Map, this is the one that takes into account a busy road or neighbors, things you would like to screen off a bit with vegetation if possible. “Noise” can also refer to the things that might make you less productive, we have a very precocious neighbor kid who would be right up on the fence if our workshop was too close to the property line and neighbors on either side who seem to have all day to talk. If that is going to interrupt your flow, it is better to be fore warned, so you can take necessary steps to screen some of those distractions. in essence, you might just need to move a door from one side of a garage to another, or the noise of wasted steps might require you to have stairs or a pathway to the other side of some obstacle. For example, we had a house that we purchased that entering the house from the driveway required over forty steps eight of them were up a staircase. By moving the stairs to the other side of the porch, it cut the steps by more than half and since the ground was higher on that side of the porch, only six were up stairs. Those things that are unproductive can be minimized or eliminated if we take the time to assemble a better picture in our mind’s eye of how we will react to and interact with the space, as well as the geography of the whole system. that is the special domain of Permaculture, designing efficient systems and giving all the parts and pieces consideration helps things to run smoothly and efficiently with the least wasted time, effort and money.
The Moisture Map can show where drainage happens, where downspouts are, where you could channel the runoff to do the most good. For instance if 80% of your rainwater goes one way and twenty the other, you may not want to put a big rain barrel on the smaller catchment. If you are putting in a gray water system, you may want your outflow to be as high in the landscape as possible so it has time to percolate as it drops through a series of micro terraces. Or if you have an outdoor washing station or shower, you want to plan for where the runoff is going to go. Beginning to think about water cycles before you start will prevent you thinking about how to solve inevitable problems later on. It is well to remember that whatever problems crop up later will be more expensive and time consuming to put right, so spending a day, or a week, or indeed waiting until the ice goes out to see where the flows come from and where they go, is worth the cost of not understanding the micro-scale hydrology of your site. also in this map, planning out services if you know there will be a need for putting in irrigation or electrical services for a future greenhouse or pond, penciling in these sources and storage facilities for water, including rain collection and diversion systems should be on either this map or the base map. On a sprawling acreage, perhaps, a USGS 7.5 minute topographic map might be enough, but on a small holding, having more detail is essential to developing realistic long-term management strategies.
The Sun Map allows you to plug in the direct Sun hours of the different areas of your house. If it is less than five or six hours, you may not be able to plant most garden plants there, but you might still get some lettuces to grow, or in deeper shade, put ferns in, they can be harvested and are both tasty and nutrient dense. Here is an important factor, many people overlook. Late afternoon in a garden is a hot dry time and many plants do better with a bit of afternoon shade. It also helps if you are most likely to pick produce from your garden in the late afternoon for supper, the time you spend out there will be slightly more pleasant with some shade. It takes a little while to get the hang of it, but looking at summer sun track and winter sun track can be very different, so the more in-depth detail you can express in your map, the more likely you are to build a workshop or animal shed where the Winter Sun can flood in, but that gets some benefit of cooling shade during the hot Summer, especially in the mornings and/or afternoons.https://www.sunearthtools.com/dp/tools/pos_sun.php is a great link to use to see the sun angle virtually anywhere! Just type in you longitude and latitude and Bob’s your uncle!
The Slope Map is related to but not the same thing as the water map, knowing which areas are less than 1/4 inch slope per foot, those that will pretty much just pond water without draining away and where the steep slopes that should never be plowed are is great, but the real value comes when you can see, again the range that lies within that. 0-5% slope might be fine for tilled gardens and areas where there is less structure holding soil together, but when getting closer to about 10% slope, it is important to use some erosion control measures to keep from losing soil or breaking down soil structure due to erosive factors. Beyond 10% slope it is often better to keep these areas covered at all times, use all the erosion control techniques available and only till rarely. Allow these areas to be occasionally grazed, if you have livestock to help keep soil in place and runoff to a minimum. With increasing slope it is best to only occasionally graze and to leave a permanent living root in place. Not just to increase water holding capacity but to sequester carbon and reduce potential runoff. Somewhere around 20 to 25% slope, even on well-developed soils, it may be difficult to graze without damaging the soil health and then, primarily forest cover is best. Keep in mind that this sweeping generality may change drastically on sandy soils or compacted ones, places where there are exposed clay soils or even variations that come about because of concave or convex slopes. concave slopes are slightly more resistant to both flood and drought, convex ones, are “sticking out” into the weather more and can both erode more quickly and dry out faster. The more depth of information you have in your slope map, the better.
I like to add a Soils Map, if there are some sandy or gravelly spots, a thick mat of peat or some well developed topsoil, I would rather note it in my maps and keep it at the level of awareness than to forget to record it and find out later that some of my best spoil was covered by chicken coop or driveway! Additionally, getting some accurate soil tests for different areas if there is variation may become very important in the future. Most countries now have some sort of consideration for increasing soil carbon or sequestering carbon in soils or through restoration of soil biology, use of biochar or committing the land to forestry, or active reforestation. as we get more serious about sustainability, these carbon prices, what landowners get paid for sequestering carbon can only rise. Documenting how much was there before you started will be important in the future to calculate how much has been added. Make sure that any soil tests you get have % C (carbon) included.
Then, we need to complete two more maps, Sector Map includes.https://otherfishwrap.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/22ea5-sectoranalysisinpermaculturedesingexample.png areas that are established by several of the above parameters, but combining into regions around buildings that may be in wind shadow but wet, wind shadow but dry, wind blown with poor soil, area of waste ground, etc. These may be seen as the micro-climates around which the rest of your design will flow. I like to think of it as regions with similar conditions that may lead to similar management strategies.
The Zone Map is typically concentric rings around the house, places near the house are best for things you may interact with several times, if not many each day each day; like an herb garden, special greenhouse or other extremely needy plants or critters. there are rings further and further out, representing places you go only once a day, every other day, typically only once a week, and further afield, places you might not go often at all, at the furthest ring out, you may only use it for grazing animals and wildlife habitat. a generalized version of this could look exactly the same as an archery target, with five rings organized around the home, bu tin real life, there are unique borders of each zone, along the path to the mailbox or out to the school bus, you might plant zone one plants along the path to zone two or three, invite the edge of a paddock in closer so you would be able to interface with livestock more easily, but remembering that the more often you do work in each zone, the more logical it is to bring it closer, up to a point. putting the compost right outside the kitchen door, or under a kitchen window, unless you are adept at feeding it in ways that assure it will never smell is good, but if critters are attracted to the pile, do you want them right at the backdoor trying to dig through your kitchen scraps? I can tell you one thing is for sure, you never want to surprise a skunk when it is just trying to get some grubs out from the bottom of a compost heap.
Finally, the Master Plan Map indicates what will go where in the new design, what has to be actively removed, cleared, stripped, installed, prepared for, composted, tilled if you are going that route, where and in what orientation any new structures will be built, where water and electric lines need to go, or the pump, etc. Some prefer having several phased master plan maps, showing what they are planning to put in in the first year, then the second, etc. so they don’t get bogged down or overwhelmed. Remember, if you need a temporary structure or some sort of planting in an area, just to act as a placeholder for a few years, until you can get your preferred plantings in, don’t worry, It is better to be prepared than to end up surprised at new problems you may create by trying to move too quickly into that desired future state.
We have just reached 1/60 of our goal! If we thought of our fundraising needed to protect 80 acres, as a mile long run, we would be 88 feet in. Many of our supporters are making the effort to donate smaller amounts but a little bit here and a little bit there. Some choose to share the news of our work with friends, family and other interested folks. this week as part of our community outreach and community building efforts, we found land that is adjacent to the property that has lake access and facilities for up to sixteen guests just a short walk away!
The Q-anon. sub culture had not even really hit national news status when I began to lose friends into the folds or that convoluted thing. sometimes it was people who had grown accustomed to being ostracized or just shut out of discussion. Within the shared delusion were all the elements of bad judgement, held up as idealized fiction. The very fact that something could not be proved, made it, supposedly sure to be real. Calling contrails, the clouds formed by “wringing out” moisture behind airfoils, “chem-trails” as if aerial spraying could be cheaper than dumping it hydraulic fracturing slurries. If there is divergence from basic facts into lurid flights of fancy, all the better. I can hardly keep up. First according to their Apocalyptic designs, their revolution was going to be election day, then, the day of the Electoral College vote, then, March 4th, where some people even came together in D.C. thinking that the ex-president, the traitor who contemptuously committed sedition, would ascend to the throne.
Without a date certain on the calendars of these fringe groups, something to believe in, the fervent adherence to these incoherent predictions wanes. Like the religious zealot who needs their fix of rural church radio, these people are nothing without the latest ravings and end-time predictions. Imagine if we spent our time instead creating whatever we know will come next? In my case, building an outdoor school where people can come to learn permaculture and carbon-smart farming, sustainable life skills and patterns of life that mimic and replicate the same sorts of systems in nature, performing layering of services serving multiple uses, often doing so with cast off throughput of commerce and industry.
Instead of getting revved up on self-righteous indignation, a sort of sanctimonious putting down the non-believers, why not channel our energies into making the world a better place for all? I’ve seen it a hundred times, while someone spends many hours a week praying and acting pious, lets the world go without active engagement. I understand how much the adrenaline rush of hate can make one feel great, however, I also know that the metabolites of adrenaline are toxic. I understand that feeling part of something bigger than yourself can be extremely pleasurable as well, but to all those following breadcrumbs down rabbit holes, remember, that’s how Hansel and Gretel got lost in the woods. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3zH5wIlMTk
I love you guys, if you drank the Kool-aid, we’ll forgive you. You just need to sincerely apologize and make amends. We never stopped loving you, we just want you to heed reason. How about for the Ides of March, we shift gears and work toward something we want instead of getting sucked into a negativity vortex as seeing everything going to rack and ruin!
In one song, this instant classic from Julien Baker does more to explain the Q-anon tragedy than all the psychiatrists and game theorists I have read so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxRMvwG8E4
We are coming up on the date selected for Q-anon followers to fervently believe that deceitful traitor will return to office. I know it sounds wacky, but it is no more ridiculous than Scientologists believing that a giant space ship will come rescue their adherents from Earth one day or the folks who died at Jonestown in Guiana believing that poisoned Kool-aid was integral to their own spiritual re-birth. It is particularly disturbing that the fervent cannot be led to understand simple facts but are capable of weaving such gaudy and filamentous webs of interconnected conspiracy theories. In spite of their creative fabrications, these Q-bots are not able to comprehend basic math, physics or even, it seems, basic facts. I suppose that if you wanted to select a day to get your thoughtless zombies to act as one, picking the day on the calendar that is, as far as I know, the only date that doubles as a command would be a good date to select. You may need to spell it wrong, of course, but that is a strategy that has been well-played by these cult members for years. So well played that there is a patination of people polish over the pretzel logic required to perform their sort of word-play.
So many of my friends have descended into this labyrinthine rabbit-hole that I feel as able to speak of it as anyone. The majority of my friends who have been lost to this region beyond reason share a few things in common. They were always outsiders with little supportive community surrounding them. They were used to being put down, ridiculed and taken advantage of, but when they found a group of like-minded conspiracy theorists online, they suddenly developed a “community” which encouraged them. A digital family that made them feel safe in their crazy. No mental gymnastics were out of bounds. Like the “Pizzagate” lie that claimed that the Democratic Party Leaders and their agents were running a sex-slave operation out of the basement of a pizza place in Washington D.C. In fact, the store eventually got staked out by Q-anon followers and although they remained convinced in the subterfuge, it was revealed that the building was built on slab. There was no basement. It does not matter though because the most common refrain when push comes to shove is something like, “It’s so big, no one can see it all,” or “It is so evil, you don’t want to know it all.” I have told my friends who have been tripped up by this absence of logic, the same thing over and over. “I’m not talking about the whole thing, just this one thing. These are the facts.” to which the inevitable come-back is “That’s what they want you to think.” Talk about a Teflon philosophy, no fact can get or take hold in this realm.
If we never lose another person to this mental ambiguity, the ones we have lost so far will always present a problem. The time they have spent looking for clues, breadcrumbs they call them, has not only been wasted and can never be reclaimed for positive works, but their beliefs and generalizations will require un-learning. It will take time to decipher the lies and for someone else to have to spend time deprogramming them, even before serious therapy can begin. It is hard to imagine anyone but our nation’s enemies guiding this “Q” phenomenon. How else could one justify introducing this sort of mental contamination to our people? In my case, I have always had the same rules for dealing with my friends who are high on Q-talk. I try two or three times to make sense to them and after that, I can only refer them to therapists. I am not trained to do that sort of work. I let them know that I love them, care for them but cannot encourage them or even remain friends if they are intentionally not listening to facts. I typically remind them that I have been studying politics and government as well as ecology and sustainability for decades and that none of their claims, make a lick of sense. I encourage them to look me up when they are ready to have a conversation but if they insist on trying to convert me, just like I would reject religious believers, seeking to convert me, I have no reason to include them in my life. It saddens me even more deeply that every so often one of the people I thought of as a friend seems to be fine with that. They would rather have ethereal, digital “friends” encouraging them to believe in fantasies than a real person they can see, feel and touch who holds them to truth telling. https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/
When I was first referred to as a Bioneer, I had not heard the term before, but it fit better than most things environmentalists were getting called in the Eighties. Marshall McLuhan said: There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew. I had been exposed to those words early in life and have always known that I’m not an environmentalist, first, it isn’t like an artists or scientist, a machinist or an evangelist, where the relationship is between me and my work, or me and my trade that I do for some hours, and then, put the brush down, or shut off my tools, no.I have a reciprocal give and take with nature that abides, in and around me with every breath. I will never go home or put out the lights in the studio, even unconscious I respire and pump nutrients that came from Mother Earth through my veins and arteries. this will never allow me to become an “ist”. Some of my largest and most beloved art works have been large enough to carry a camera aloft to photograph, even the kite and rig itself was art. I created work meant to be seen from a six story window, experienced in the remote wilderness or were better viewed not on the Earth but to be seen by airplane or satellite. Bioneer hints at pushing at the edges, establishing new outposts, exploration and that fit a little.
That was more than two decades ago This was yesterday. The first ten minutes are best skipped, I was having technical difficulties.
ELO may say, it best. “It’s all over!” America’s nightmare has ended. The past nearly six years, have been such difficult time across our nation that I have found less to be hopeful about. Every time we had a half step forward, we would get overwhelmed by backsliding. The floor had been retracted to reveal a landscape dominated by rabbit holes, each shaped like the images we see that help us to imagine black holes. The problem with our current situation is that many were forced down into those holes and many may never return. The last Administration not only encouraged people to believe lies, but offered nothing of substance ever. The racists and pedophiles, the baptists and charismatics have never been or felt as important and protected as they have over the last four years. The jig is definitely up.
The flame of caustic lies and deceit which drove the regime of right wing nut jobs seems to have blown itself out. Those who care to try to take the temperature of our body politic have been taking polls and publicly sharing their results for decades, but in just the few moons since the election they have documented a drastic shift in our nation. They say that no one loves the losers in history, but I think it is more fundamental than that. It can’t only be the fact that rats are always quietest when fleeing a sinking ship or like the Bible says that apostles supposedly denied knowing Jesus after he was put to death. I believe it is even more important a dynamic. Pollsters registered an almost immediate drop by 50% of those “supporting” the raving lunatic also known as the losing, twice Impeached former Cheeto-in-charge. Fully half the people who claimed to “like” him as a choice for President fell away as soon as the votes were counted and the election was called; bringing him down to around fifteen percent of registered voters proclaiming themselves to remain in his corner.
I have been curious enough about what is being reported in the news to spend a few hours getting down to brass tacks regarding the most recent election. This is what I found. Fully 1/3 of registered voters didn’t even cast a ballot in this election. Although the rate was slightly less abstention than most elections, so when you add the 34% who voted for Biden, over 2/3 did not want Tiny Hands to have another term. Less than 31% took him seriously enough to waste their vote on him. What is most disgusting is that the few remaining advocates of Cheetolini keep trying to say the election was “close” or that there was rampant cheating that gave the win to his rival. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just a week into his Administration Joe Biden has higher approval ratings than the self-proclaimed “stable genius” had during his entire time in office! Having watched elections closely since 1968, typically following returns throughout the night I can say, with confidence that we finally got back to something that looked more like a normal election. It has been nearly ten years since we have had what looked like a normal election here in Wisconsin. For the first time in twenty years, Georgia did not have to rely on machine counted votes with no paper trail, but had paper ballots that were eventually hand-counted and showed virtually the exact same results. Putting to rest accusations of cheating in that state.
The sixty court cases filed to prop up the falsehoods of voter fraud were thrown out for either lack of standing or complete lack of any evidence at all, but there were still a significant half of DJT’s supporters that would not let go of the lies. Then, the January Sixth Terrorist Attack on the United States Capitol took place and each time the courts threw out another racist challenge you-know-who dropped a few more of his followers by the wayside. Then, it got down to people only caring because of their own morbid curiosity, like passing a car wreck on the highway, some people just felt the need to look. After the attack, again, pollsters noted a 50% drop in support in just one day. That took him down to 7% approval or so. The same percentage that wanted him at the start of his campaign for President. In any case, there is far more to be hopeful about now than there was before the election and as the calls for revolution finally die down, we can get to the business of creating positive change in the world around us. To that end, I along with our local not-for-profit, have also made a new beginning.
Our work here at The Otherfish Wrap has not stopped, as the last nearly six years has slowly crept by, it has just shifted slightly. I have been blogging at several places and this one just got put on the furthest back burner. Now, I feel inspired to take on the challenge of rebuilding my audience and rewarding those who exhibited great patience with my absence by writing more regular posts, inviting people to share ideas, share the information I uncover through research and i ask all my readers to let me know how I’m doing, as well as whether the information is helpful. If you like the style and content of my work, please also find me at ecotoursofwisconsin.blogspot.com or otherfishwrap.blogspot.com I continue to research how to efficiently sequester carbon in soils while building the health and nutrient availability in that soil for plants. The gofundme project is building momentum and every donor who contributes fifty or more can get up to two hours of my time to help them be successful in making and/or using biochar.
Your success is our passion; if you touch the earth, not only will using biochar help you to be more profitable with less labor, and costs but it will let you become part of our global climate solution and have fun with purpose!
This is the opening of a new chapter. In so many ways, good has triumphed over evil, the light has begun to shine again in a very very dark place that seemed to have become the U.S. of America. The majority unequivocally rejects the hateful spite of Deceitful Traitor, but the minority had ruled, and only they liked it. However, with enmity and distaste for every democratic institution that had ever been created, the right wing nut jobs continue to assault our very nation. Systemic gerrymandering, that allow candidates to choose their voters rather than the voters being allowed to choose them. We are all watching very carefully what is being done by those who pray for Armageddon or are members of American ISIS. Religion has become, for self-proclaimed X-tians, nothing more than a cover for their shirking ways.
We must beseech those who have been taken in by the cult of personality, or Q bot technologies that have sold them a figmentary bill of goods, but we must also understand that some will never admit to making the whole charade up out of thin air. Their minds are so intransigently made up that they can never allow themselves to become self-reflective. In the words of James Baldwin, people cling to their hate so strongly because if they allowed themselves to feel love, they know on some level they would have to experience pain. It has become the ultimate ego defense mechanism, to the point of literally being weaponized. Until they get therapy or come to the realization that we are actually one, all human life is but one species that must work together lest we tear ourselves apart, there will be no end to the lies that people will be told.
Collectively, we will stand against insanity, the self righteous ramblings of a self-proclaimed king. That being said, and as many of my readers understand, I much prefer calling myself pro-sanity. I hate to ever take a stand against something, because it usually just gives that thing more power. I’m pro- rational thought, scientific method, the humanities and humanitarian efforts. I think we all agree that on a very basic level we all want the best for everyone. Only those who have swallowed the “competition” model of reality think that we are always in a battle for resources. Quite the opposite in nature, actual science proves that only by sharing resources and providing multiple layers of support for other communities, can organisms hope to become successful.
My collective, the environmental partners I have working for me are billions of organisms per teaspoon that thrive in the biochar that I create. Organic growers, even people who don’t even touch the Earth by way of growing gardens can invest in a kilogram of vitrified carbon that will be around for aeons. That is the basis of the biochar that I make, like billions of microbe condo complexes. I offer to make some of this material in your name if you wish. I only use it to make boutique biochars that respond to local soil needs of specific locations. I am willing to consult with anyone about soil tests and making biochar specific to your location. I want everyone to be supported by an intact ecosystem and health begins in the soil. At human scale, our friends, families and farmers that supply our food touch the Earth in ways that we may not even understand, but we can give back by sharing what we know about doubling crop production, reducing the need for fertilizer and irrigation by 30-50% or sequestering carbon in soil for periods of geologic time scale.
I have heard of buying a star for loved ones, but buying the basis of the healthiest soil on the planet? What is that worth?
Permaculture, ECO-ethics, Trees 
