Desperate Measures

[willoweyes]

I went out to the barn yesterday and Black Angel was butting her head obsessively against the big ex-telephone poles that hold up our barn. I've never seen that in my twently years of goatkeeping.



This morning, I brought in firewood from the big pile of holding chocks in the back yard. You see, TXU was constructing a giant pipeline across North Texas.

It would carry natural gas from a newly discovered field. . . somewhere.

and to hold the huge gas pipes on railroad flatcars, they ordered thousands of 12 ft x 4 x 4 inch beams, each cut from the trunk of a tree. The beams showed their origins from holy firms and plants; elder, oak and Princess Sycamore.

Workers had created triangular chocks and attached them to the beams with a nailgun and at least ten nails apiece.

upon a tip from a railroad man, Doublecross and I collected a hundred of those beams from a staging place nearby. You see, they had been burying or burning the beams as waste because it was much much cheaper than using them some other way.

Someday soon we are going to make a little house, far back from Highway 91, with those beams.

We also collected fears, and I lost every friend I ever had, except those that were far, far away.

That's when I realized the extent of our Problems.


I brought in a load of chocks this morning each chock bristling with ten nail points. My cat started rubbing her head against the nails, so violently I feared she would injure herself, so I moved them out of reach.

That's never happened before, either!

Also, thousands of robins bob and weave all over the farm this morning.

I just thought I'd mention it.
_______________________________
"If it's good enough for Philip K. Dick, it's good enough for me."

[bopes]

what do the signs portend?

[willoweyes]

i do not know. Fear, rage, or do the very beasts echo our moods?

[sidecross]

i do not know. Fear, rage, or do the very beasts echo our moods?


It is only self-control that keeps me from pounding my head into a wall; our animal family may lack this ability.

[willoweyes]

i diminish my friends' communications by suggesting they might be merely a sign of my own mood.

And the wild birds are not afraid.

[willoweyes]

I think the birds were trying to tell me to ditch Raymond James.

I stuck all my savings into an IRA around 15 years ago, when the govt was forcing my hand with big tax breaks. I gave it to a financial advisor--I now have $500 less in that IRA than when I started.

The stock market will be saved when the govt. gives people the right to invest their social security funds themselves. Like the IRAs of course, the govt. will not let you do what you want to with the money--that would be imprudent. You will be forced to place it in some sort of Ponzi scheme.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Listen Sweetheart.I know what land is worth where you are.
Sell it all,Buy something here or build on the farm.Buy a piece of it and hire SB to work the front desk of the law office well start.I've got the perfect building in downtown Checotah or Eufaula.
We'll let CM manage some investments,import some people who can no longer afford to live,but will work hard,like it was in 1776.

[suebee]

animal behavior is underrated. people dont seem to know to pay attention to it.

willow, i dont get how you lost your friends. collecting fears like trophys i get.

i also do not see in any way shape or form how your IRA could lose money after 15 years. even my what the hell? brother the republican 'dont believe in global warming' stockbroker has made 15 - 17% for my tiny account for twenty years. maybe those days are over. :eek: i can give you his email.

eufaula. when the heck are tornados out of season? willow could drive north. we could sit around the campfire and dream up a transmutation. how about may? august?

[willoweyes]

Suebee, i do not understand it myself--all i know is our money manager is driving a Lexus while we tool around in a `1988 honda or on a ten-speed. Not that I envy her--you should see the size of her caboose.

Don't cry for me--as Isaiah pointed out, our farm was a far better investment, and something comprehendable and beautiful besides.

You don't want to do Eufaula in August. And tornadoes? Why, nowadays we have them in Wisconsin in January.

[willoweyes]

and i lost my friends thru insistance on realizing the extent of our Problems in their presence--and by attempting to drown that awareness in an ocean of alcohol. I might have puked on a few carpets besides.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Willow I just ordered tomato seeds from company in Wisconsin.Wind Chill factor there today is 19 below.
Yes,it is very hot here on Lake Eufaula in August but we do have an air conditioner.That is,if I don't lose everything to the stock market and credit cards.
No tornados then though.

[bopes]

I don't know about goats, but cats are zen masters. When I was a kid we had a calico cat, a mighty huntress, who gave us a blunt discourse on the "true meaning" of Easter, perhaps, when she brought home a rabbit on Easter eve. Talk about levels of meaning! We kids were aghast. She killed the Easter Bunny! But I doubt that's what the cat meant, exactly. Whether the rabbit was a willing participant is an open question, but it seemed resigned to its fate. Of course, maybe the rabbit was the one doing all the talking all along . . .

[Isaiah Mpski]

Bopes, a very prominate member of this board ask me kinda why would I use the word screw instead of fuk.
My response is that as this site is being translated into different languages the symbol,or that level of consciousness transfered by such symbol may be misunderstood.

[willoweyes]

Try Pinetree Garden Seeds. Pruden's Purple tomato. (really a deep red) yum.

Gardening leads to lip-smacking anticipation of what the future may bring. A valuable quality in these times.

[Isaiah Mpski]

Already got me tomato and corn and sunflower and millet and soy seeds ordered.
If we can get the old tractor back together-cracked tow arm and semi flat tire will make potatoe bed and plant some clover for green cover on last years garden site.Got a good acre of Austrian winter peas up and some winter wheat,rye,vitex,turnips etc on another acre.
I order for the most part tomatoes in bulk-cheaper by the lb in Texas.Enough for acres but have about 3 diiferent-100 seeds of Heirlooms.
Our government graciously allows me to pump over 6000 gallons of water out of Lake Eufaula for my yard and garden per day so I don't worry about water.
I think though,Ill try and use the glacial water well to keep everything organic as possible.
I bet that lake is full of all kinds of chemicals and shit.

September is a good time to start out in Oklahoma.It is sometimes the beginning of some cold spells,puncuiated(sic) with warm days.Great fishing and harvest and planting time.

Anybody know where to get some GOOD poppy seeds of my Asian kin?


Would also like to make some ethanol this year along with sun and wind power development.

Send them to Boxholder POB 243,Checotah,Okla,74426

[drew hempel]

I'm on to you Isaiah:

Try this book:

"Neither Wolf, Nor Dog: American Indians, Environment and Agrarian Change" by David Rich Lewis (Oxford University Press, 1994).

And I quote:

"In societies where women farmed, government meddling with this gendered division of labor upset not only functional production but also the power structure of native societies. Forcing hunters and warriors to take on women's economic roles generated internal confusion and opposition as it transformed women's source of power."