I still think that Russia can very easily make the heads of every single world leader explode by applying for membership in NATO and asking for help defending themselves against Ukraine. To sweeten the deal, they can offer up a ton of Chinese miltary secrets that they just got access to. It would be the ultimate face-turn.
Yeltsin was drunk literally all the time. He probably forgot what NATO was when he said it and thought it was a strip club we showed him during Glasnost.
The thing is, as pessimistic as I generally am, I do believe there are enough combat-capable and courageous Americans left to make an effective stand against an existential threat on home soil. It may not stay that way forever, but I do think we're still a force to be reckoned with.
Understand that I should have prefaced my posts months ago with this statement:
I'm a simpleton.
There's a great deal to unpack in your Thor's day ...and I won't remember most of it. 😑
Short term memory version:
Wth is with the ghost butternut or??? Do you have any idea where/what your seeds where? If not...unfortunate( or not) crosses may have occurred. Let me know if you ever want to grow our local heirloom: North Georgia Candy Roaster.
You husky got BOTH feet in his mouth? Honestly, girl...we really need video of sone ofbthe Gutterfarm antics. I'm really sorry you torqued your knee, and not at all sorry that no tusks or other porcine parts mangled you or your not-hunting hunting dogs! You have some great neighbors.
2 weeks! Let us know ahead of time if being checked on will piss you off.
I like the idea of Elon...but I do not trust that fucker . With or without trust, I am enjoying the hysterical and entitled libs making demands and disassociating in real time. I appreciate Elon has provided that entertainment.
Ummm.... oh yeah... propaganda is totally on the menu - hard- with the aboutbto be astrological alignments. Enjoy the last day( today) of Jupiter regressing in Aries...because... the 12th house beckons...
Russia...Ukraine...the eclipse passing over juuuuuust that stretch of the world! Fun times! ( no...no I lie. Not fun. Sheesh)
No judgement if you need to re-read it a few times. I tend to go really long on them.
Isn't the ghost butternut super weird?!? It, like everything else in that picture, is as I said the result of scattered seeds from pig shit. I have absolutely no idea what their origins were.
I would love to try some of your heirloom squash, which I would do next spring with our three sisters. If I ended up getting viable seeds this year- which I think I did- I'll send you some Cherokee Purple, which has become our mainstay tomato.
I am going to do my very best not to be a crybaby or a complainer but I am legit a little nervous about being as disabled as I'm going to be for at least the first few months. I was told I may possibly be doing election day in a wheelchair. I don't mind anyone's concern but I'm not going to fish for it.
It's unfortunate that you'll have no idea what types of winter squash you had going on, because the 3 main types won't interbreed...but the same types ( pepita etc ) sure will. I'm requesting a taste report after the ghosts get a good month of age on em.
I'd take Ch Purple, thanks! Do you have my email? . I think the most delish full size black tomato I ever grew was a Russian heirloom called Black from Tula. Had the rich complexities of the " black/purples" but also tasted like it had been pre- salted right off the vine. I grew only Black Cherry this year. I wish I had enough sun to grow corn, and in fact I have heirloom red Florentine dent Corn for making polenta etc, should I meet someone near me who wants to swap. I have many heirloom seeds ...my whole upstairs currently stinks because I just now got my garlic shipment in 🤣
Don't fret a day or three in a wheelchair. If you can borrow and not rent one...keep it for a few weeks to do fresh air excursions and for jousting with unsuspecting populace in the grocery store. Honestly...your armpits will thank you. I used one for weeks after my brain surgery. Sometimes just not having to wobble somewhere while in crowds is well worth it.
I know it's scary... and I'm glad you'll not be offended by us asking how you're doing. We care. Also we're gunna need to know if you'll be needing an alibi for pain bitchiness... " Jeeez Louise! She could NOT have done that! She's in a wheelchair, officer! I think she mentioned that throwing axe having been hurled over their fences a time or 5...so it's Definitely not hers!"
Yeah, I've been careful not to go all "poor victim" over Fetterman; he was, as I said, a dilettante clown with truly radical lefty ideas and absolutely no real-world wisdom or experience worthy of respect.
I'm honestly surprised the conservative/Republican news sources that are happy to publish critical news about him don't constantly mention his vax injury.
But honestly, most of them are COVID cultists too. The great and mighty Ben Shapiro just now allowed himself to admit he'd been a fucking idiot.
I mean, not so much the leg trouble, but the story was great. Glad the doggos are ok, even if they need a smack; glad the piggie is ok, even if he is to be delicious bacon (especially if!); high five to Curtis!
Glad you guys found a game store to hang out at too; I need to check to see if the ones down this way have opened up more.
They apparently do 3 nights a week and are running 4-5 tables each night so I imagine we will be able to poach 3-4 peeps to join us for private games besides 5E (which I like okay but don't love compared to other way more interesting games).
Crazily absolutely no one but me seems to be in any lasting discomfort from the boar ordeal. But it was some straight up Wild America shit. I expected Marty Stouffer to start opinion about how death is a natural part of survival and so-and-so will nourish a million oak trees or something with their carcass.
I love reading your posts, especially the parts about the farm. I’ve never dreamed nor wanted to be a farm girl, so I get a kick out of your antics. That type of country living is too rough for me. I subscribed to your Substack because you were not afraid to use the word “fuck”in your comments to other authors. It’s my favorite swear word, releases all my emotions! I became a paid subscriber when I found out about your farm, your family, and your contributions to society. I wanted you to keep Substack , and not stop writing to p/u a high paying word soup gig.
I'm in awe of you. I'm failing miserably at 5 chickens and have spent a king's ransom securing the coop against rats. Just discovered a new superhighway and I believe they've set up camp in the nesting box straw but I'm not brave enough to rummage around and find out. As an animal husbandry poser, I bow to the real thing.
However, I do have some fine accidental chickenshit pumpkins. They grew in a lush jungle
onto the roof of the vacant quarter of the coop that was being deratified. So there's that.
Oh and the geopolitical analysis is damn good too. Not being a guy, I won't call you naughty names.
I've been talked dirty to by plenty of girls. It's all good in the hood. :)
But seriously, rats are very hard. Unless you're prepared to pour concrete you can't fortify against them. We dealt with this in our backyard coop in NY.
You really have two courses: you get security in the form of a large, aggressive rooster or guard goose, or a cat that lives near but not in the coop, or you get extremely tidy about food; no loose accessible food, no food waste lying around. It means feeding only controlled portions and is a PITA.
You will not win a war of attrition against rats. You have to have permanent guards that can kill them or you have to cut off their food supply. Either or both will make the colony look elsewhere.
A smaller coop (seven hens and a cock) on legs did the trick against mice, voles and such for us. Too many foxes, badgers and vipers plus there aren't any rats in the village anyways.
I built a box, double walls and a slanted roof, all insulated with dry sawdust I collected at the local mill. Say 4' wide, 4' high at the higher end and 3' at the lower so rain and snow can lide off the roof (used an old piece of corrugated sheet metal I found lying about), and about 3' deep; knock off 3" for inside dimensions. For easy cleaning I made half the front into a hatch, secured with a deadbolt at night - no need to tempt the fox, eh?
The legs are about a yard in length, and the bottom plate for the coop is part of an old barn door I cut to size, so it's easily 2½" thick. From the edges to where the legs are attached measures to 6" or so.
I also built a couple of wooden boxes with one short end left open, 10"*4"*4", to put over the traps (got to put down traps where the feed is no matter what) so the wee tweety-birds don't get caught in them - I use Frolic, a doggy treat, as bait and it works a charm.
Best of luck - rats will move when they don't find food.
He is surprisingly nice for how intimidating-looking he is and how grumpy he can be. Sadly he does not seem to be an effective breeder any longer, but he has been a very good pig.
In this case, it's not just the raising, it's the breed. American Guinea Hogs are much closer to red meat than white. They're so mild you don't even need to castrate the males to keep the meat from being gamey.
Dogs and boars and Curtis, oh my! What a fright! Not afraid of moose, pine marten, wolf, lynx or bear - but boars, especially the wild ones in the southern half of Sweden scare the breeks off of me. Walking in the beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests down there and suddenly you here them drumming the ground in warning, but you don't see them and the drumming seems to come from all around you - no thank you. So my sympathies on your ordeal or whatever the ---- one's supposed to say.
ToH is best enjoyed with newly-minted players (nyeh-heh-heh-heee). "I put my hand into the hole" - muahahahaha! We once combined it with Paranoia and whiskey shots, "Mekong-whiskey my mate who'd been in Vietnam called it since he brought it from there and the label was in vietnamese only. Day after the tongue felt as if you'd been licking freshly laid asphalt.
Can't fault your reasoning on elections - sounds like home to me, 'cause that's the way the Socialist Democrats has played it from the mid-1970s: Economic downturn on the way? Leave a walk-over while paying lip-service, then come back with a vengeance the next election, blameless and washed clean in the blood of democracy, or something.
Can I ask out of sheer curiosity, if it's not too personal, why Balder and not Frej (or Frö as some spell it)? Balder is nice and all, being a thoroughly good guy, but fertility and agriculture is Frej's thing. Not to mention him having a ship you can fold up and put in your pocket, a sword which fights on its own accord, and that he rides a golden boar.
In the interest of fairness, I tend more towards Ull (Uller) and Vidar, and Frigg.
I tend to think of Baldr as a gift-giver, and the pumpkins and squash were completely accidental and unearned. I see him as present in "random acts of kindness," so to speak.
Frey is over the main gate into my pasture. I have found some very nice wooden reliefs that I will probably put facing the posts for the various human-sized entryways so we can easily reference them "Odin's gate, Frey's gate," etc.
Frigga is very important to me currently as we are working on the baby process and I will probably make some offerings in earnest once that process is formally underway.
I have a little keychain for Skadi that I take to the range.
But always, always, the All-Father speaks to my heart most, for wisdom and cunning and competence in the war of all against all. :)
Oh-ho! Knowing how Frej was usually depicted based on old amulets and such, that could get in-ter-esting indeed.
What seems strange to us over here (or me anyways) is how americans view Skade, Loke and Fenris. Loke is the mother/father of monsters, the betrayer, the instigator of strife but in US popculture (blame Marvel Comics I guess) he's depicted as a trickster like Anansi or Coyote, which doesn't really fit, to my mind. He's no friend of humans at all, and Fenris is an outright monster.
Skade is... well, a modern interpretation would be difficult. I mean, she thinks she's getting Balder in compensation but it turns out to be Njord and she can't stand the ocean and the gulls, and he can't stand the mountains and the wolves. But for hunting and skiing and such, it's her and Ull that fits the bill. I think the current theory is that Ull, Ygg, Vidar and Njord and maybe a couple of othersare from the earlier pantheon before the one we know today became established, but I'd have to look it up to be sure; it ties into the hypothesis that the war between the äsir and the vanir is an oral tradition about a war between to peoples in Scandinavia during the Bronze Age that ended by intermarriage among the chieftains - but that's more or less based on "Yeah, that sounds reasonable" and nothing more.
Oh well, rather a living mythology than dogma, right?
>> I think the current theory is that Ull, Ygg, Vidar and Njord and maybe a couple of othersare from the earlier pantheon before the one we know today became established
My understanding is the best we know now is that they were transitional from the original Indo-European religion that was the root of Norse/Germanic/Etc. faiths.
I suspect that was broadly true of the "pre-Aesir" in general.
I don't understand the Americanization/modernization dilution of Loki at all. He isn't a cool trickster god; that's Odin. Loki is no friend of mankind. If anything, he's a Satan figure.
It's like what my grandmother used to tell me about the fairies (which would be analogous to Alfr). They're not nice and helpful and friendly, they're sadistic predators from another level of existence that see you as dumb animals to toy with.
Exactly. You don't pray to those things, rahter the reverse. "Pray the fay away" kinda.
The proto-thingy is as far as I recall the usual model of explanation seeing as gods like Tor and Marduk share qualities, so a common generalised root or core concepts originally based on real people via oral transaltion is probably the best model we can come up with, barring some kind of Rosetta-stone style find or a time machine.
There are old word-of-mouth legends not acknowledged by academia about where Loke lies imprisoned. My pick is the one that places him under mt. Billingen which would be a hill or hillock in the US but since it rests on Västgötaslätten (West Goth Plains, literal translation) it sticks out like a pimple on the forehead at prom night. It's also a ridiculous rich uranium deposit, my pet theory being ancestors might vae noticed crops failing and animals avoiding the place and so on - pure speculation to the point of make-believe, but still.
Well, got to go to bed, because I've got to pitch a tent for the car tomorrow. Bleh, work. Gives you fleas it does.
>> Oh well, rather a living mythology than dogma, right?
I think the Norse and related faiths connect to a broadly compatible underlying model of the universe that has some practical truth to it, if it can be discerned. I believe they are true stories that have gone through a few hundred rounds of the "telephone game."
My approach to recalcitrant fruit trees is they ain't dead until I say so. This has worked pretty well.
My attempt at organic salad-growing was pissed away by the late unlamented ex-father-in-law's wretched dog Jackie. One of my great triumphs was the moment my presumably now long-gone dog Kallie put an amused paw on Jackie and knocked him down, entirely without malice.
The behavior of your dogs reminds me that maybe I'm one of the luckier people alive in that the street dog who adopted us graciously chose never to take my hand off at the forearm. We had a little game between us where she'd take my hand in her mouth and I'd whack her with a newspaper, rinse, repeat. I trusted her absolutely but less fortunate people, throughout history, have said the same right before they lost all of their limbs.
Good political round-up. But I remain pretty sure that Democrats will rally behind Fetterman to the end because they expect the missus to take over as soon after the swearing-in as can be managed. Everything hangs on a Mastriano victory to thwart that and that don't seem completely likely.
Dr. Paul Alexander, in one of his posts yesterday, was making the point that maybe "we" should throw the midterms to give "them" a nice long time to completely make everyone hate them, so we'd be able to take 2024. Mentioning that if we take the midterms it would probably bode that it would be the last election any Republicans would ever win. With never again a Republican president. --- Fetterman makes me think of a WWE wrestler, with the IQ to match.
I volunteer Gens Y and Z for the front lines of whatever war we end up with. ALL of them, no volunteers, all drafted at once. Lots of them can be paratroopers. (They get shot floating to the ground.) Hopefully, any newer parents can raise their kids to not be such losers.
I've got you tell you that I enjoy your posts so very much. Even the weird polls.
Those are some beautiful squash. Volunteer squash at that! The only volunteer plants I have in my yard are weeds. 😒 Although, some of them are edible, so if there are no groceries and the government makes me stop growing lettuce, I can still have a salad.
VERY glad that you and the dogs weren't hurt and that poor piggy is healing well. Also, that you've gotten the cows "trained." 😂
Also, on a local level, the cows are very much enjoying spending all day our in Pasture 3, tentatively being held in by just the electric wires while we work tirelessly to put up fence panels around the outside, and then coming back home by 6pm or so for a big bucket of feed corn. It's a routine that everyone all just kind of fell into, and have been following for about a week now, and we're super thrilled that it's going as well has it has been. The couple of times we forgot to go check on them before dark, we went out there with flashlights to find them waiting dutifully for their dessert.
I closed my PayPal this week. Almost exactly nineteen years of funding billionaires for very slight convenience shopping on line. Couldn't even remember the last time I went on eBay, which was the only reason to sign up originally.
Strange how wistful I become when thinking of putting a cheque in the post to buy cheap SuperNintendo games.
I also am weary of Musk but his antics get the demoralised leftbots up in arms and that's always worth a lol.
I still think that Russia can very easily make the heads of every single world leader explode by applying for membership in NATO and asking for help defending themselves against Ukraine. To sweeten the deal, they can offer up a ton of Chinese miltary secrets that they just got access to. It would be the ultimate face-turn.
I still think this would be the best troll that Putin- or indeed anyone currently in The Game- could possibly do.
He and Musk should team up on it.
Was that really your brother commenting? (I'm a nib shit.)
Yes, Brothermouth is my brother and Husbandmouth is my husband.
I was just surprised that there was another possible member of the Mouth family commenting. (I'm a spaz, so sue me.)
Boris Yeltsin suggested that russia join nato way back in 91
Yeltsin was drunk literally all the time. He probably forgot what NATO was when he said it and thought it was a strip club we showed him during Glasnost.
The world needs more drunk world leaders with nukes.
But, like, relatively small ones just to keep it interesting.
With bowl haircuts, perhaps?
The nukes? Um, sure, I guess?
that was russian disinformation!
In Soviet Russia, club strips you.
It would be epic.
That said, this administration is so stupid, that they may take the intel Russia gave them and inform China.
Then China invades Russia.
I would pay to watch that war movie.
Russia would beat China, because in the movies the humans always beat the robots in the end.
They'd have a better chance than the US.
I wouldn't trust this last two generations to defend us.
Yup.
We have to survive long enough to burn through the deadwood before becoming someone's bitch. It's that simple. If we manage that, we have a chance.
Yeah. It'd be the likes of you and I doing the fighting.
As you contend; Force in the end.
The thing is, as pessimistic as I generally am, I do believe there are enough combat-capable and courageous Americans left to make an effective stand against an existential threat on home soil. It may not stay that way forever, but I do think we're still a force to be reckoned with.
Stop it, Ryan! You ruined my fantasy of sending Chiii-na to hell.
Chiii-na! You crack me up.
Cheers!
🤗
I so want to party with the two of you for the laughs alone.
Hopefully I can actually pull that off someday.
They could offer to join the fatwa against those Russian hackers and election fortifiers.
OMG! THAT would be so fucking awesome and hilarious!
Understand that I should have prefaced my posts months ago with this statement:
I'm a simpleton.
There's a great deal to unpack in your Thor's day ...and I won't remember most of it. 😑
Short term memory version:
Wth is with the ghost butternut or??? Do you have any idea where/what your seeds where? If not...unfortunate( or not) crosses may have occurred. Let me know if you ever want to grow our local heirloom: North Georgia Candy Roaster.
You husky got BOTH feet in his mouth? Honestly, girl...we really need video of sone ofbthe Gutterfarm antics. I'm really sorry you torqued your knee, and not at all sorry that no tusks or other porcine parts mangled you or your not-hunting hunting dogs! You have some great neighbors.
2 weeks! Let us know ahead of time if being checked on will piss you off.
I like the idea of Elon...but I do not trust that fucker . With or without trust, I am enjoying the hysterical and entitled libs making demands and disassociating in real time. I appreciate Elon has provided that entertainment.
Ummm.... oh yeah... propaganda is totally on the menu - hard- with the aboutbto be astrological alignments. Enjoy the last day( today) of Jupiter regressing in Aries...because... the 12th house beckons...
Russia...Ukraine...the eclipse passing over juuuuuust that stretch of the world! Fun times! ( no...no I lie. Not fun. Sheesh)
No judgement if you need to re-read it a few times. I tend to go really long on them.
Isn't the ghost butternut super weird?!? It, like everything else in that picture, is as I said the result of scattered seeds from pig shit. I have absolutely no idea what their origins were.
I would love to try some of your heirloom squash, which I would do next spring with our three sisters. If I ended up getting viable seeds this year- which I think I did- I'll send you some Cherokee Purple, which has become our mainstay tomato.
I am going to do my very best not to be a crybaby or a complainer but I am legit a little nervous about being as disabled as I'm going to be for at least the first few months. I was told I may possibly be doing election day in a wheelchair. I don't mind anyone's concern but I'm not going to fish for it.
Re-read...you mean people look back ???* gasp*
It's unfortunate that you'll have no idea what types of winter squash you had going on, because the 3 main types won't interbreed...but the same types ( pepita etc ) sure will. I'm requesting a taste report after the ghosts get a good month of age on em.
I'd take Ch Purple, thanks! Do you have my email? . I think the most delish full size black tomato I ever grew was a Russian heirloom called Black from Tula. Had the rich complexities of the " black/purples" but also tasted like it had been pre- salted right off the vine. I grew only Black Cherry this year. I wish I had enough sun to grow corn, and in fact I have heirloom red Florentine dent Corn for making polenta etc, should I meet someone near me who wants to swap. I have many heirloom seeds ...my whole upstairs currently stinks because I just now got my garlic shipment in 🤣
Don't fret a day or three in a wheelchair. If you can borrow and not rent one...keep it for a few weeks to do fresh air excursions and for jousting with unsuspecting populace in the grocery store. Honestly...your armpits will thank you. I used one for weeks after my brain surgery. Sometimes just not having to wobble somewhere while in crowds is well worth it.
I know it's scary... and I'm glad you'll not be offended by us asking how you're doing. We care. Also we're gunna need to know if you'll be needing an alibi for pain bitchiness... " Jeeez Louise! She could NOT have done that! She's in a wheelchair, officer! I think she mentioned that throwing axe having been hurled over their fences a time or 5...so it's Definitely not hers!"
poor piggy, theyre smart enough to know you were trying to help
Fetterman was an idiot before his vaccine injury, i fail to understand why anyone with an iq above that of a 4 year old would vote for him
king twit will have a great time screwing with his 'demanding' staff
Yeah, I've been careful not to go all "poor victim" over Fetterman; he was, as I said, a dilettante clown with truly radical lefty ideas and absolutely no real-world wisdom or experience worthy of respect.
Not enough is made of the fact that it was a fucking vaxx that put him in that state
I'm honestly surprised the conservative/Republican news sources that are happy to publish critical news about him don't constantly mention his vax injury.
But honestly, most of them are COVID cultists too. The great and mighty Ben Shapiro just now allowed himself to admit he'd been a fucking idiot.
Oh, seriously. Also, Fuck Ben Shapiro.
Love it!
I mean, not so much the leg trouble, but the story was great. Glad the doggos are ok, even if they need a smack; glad the piggie is ok, even if he is to be delicious bacon (especially if!); high five to Curtis!
Glad you guys found a game store to hang out at too; I need to check to see if the ones down this way have opened up more.
As well as all the other stuff.
They apparently do 3 nights a week and are running 4-5 tables each night so I imagine we will be able to poach 3-4 peeps to join us for private games besides 5E (which I like okay but don't love compared to other way more interesting games).
Crazily absolutely no one but me seems to be in any lasting discomfort from the boar ordeal. But it was some straight up Wild America shit. I expected Marty Stouffer to start opinion about how death is a natural part of survival and so-and-so will nourish a million oak trees or something with their carcass.
I forgot to mention the birthday surprise!! Yay Gutterhubs!
Just gonna say it, you're more man then I am. And I'm a man. At least I thought so until I read this post.
How do you figure? I'm nothing special.
I've never wrestled pigs and dogs, to start.
That's just lack of opportunity, really. :)
Just you and my husband make me laugh-snort.
Then your husband is a very funny man indeed.
Haha! True!
I love reading your posts, especially the parts about the farm. I’ve never dreamed nor wanted to be a farm girl, so I get a kick out of your antics. That type of country living is too rough for me. I subscribed to your Substack because you were not afraid to use the word “fuck”in your comments to other authors. It’s my favorite swear word, releases all my emotions! I became a paid subscriber when I found out about your farm, your family, and your contributions to society. I wanted you to keep Substack , and not stop writing to p/u a high paying word soup gig.
Well, I'm extremely grateful, and I hope you continue seeing value in your subscription!
I'm in awe of you. I'm failing miserably at 5 chickens and have spent a king's ransom securing the coop against rats. Just discovered a new superhighway and I believe they've set up camp in the nesting box straw but I'm not brave enough to rummage around and find out. As an animal husbandry poser, I bow to the real thing.
However, I do have some fine accidental chickenshit pumpkins. They grew in a lush jungle
onto the roof of the vacant quarter of the coop that was being deratified. So there's that.
Oh and the geopolitical analysis is damn good too. Not being a guy, I won't call you naughty names.
I've been talked dirty to by plenty of girls. It's all good in the hood. :)
But seriously, rats are very hard. Unless you're prepared to pour concrete you can't fortify against them. We dealt with this in our backyard coop in NY.
You really have two courses: you get security in the form of a large, aggressive rooster or guard goose, or a cat that lives near but not in the coop, or you get extremely tidy about food; no loose accessible food, no food waste lying around. It means feeding only controlled portions and is a PITA.
You will not win a war of attrition against rats. You have to have permanent guards that can kill them or you have to cut off their food supply. Either or both will make the colony look elsewhere.
A smaller coop (seven hens and a cock) on legs did the trick against mice, voles and such for us. Too many foxes, badgers and vipers plus there aren't any rats in the village anyways.
I built a box, double walls and a slanted roof, all insulated with dry sawdust I collected at the local mill. Say 4' wide, 4' high at the higher end and 3' at the lower so rain and snow can lide off the roof (used an old piece of corrugated sheet metal I found lying about), and about 3' deep; knock off 3" for inside dimensions. For easy cleaning I made half the front into a hatch, secured with a deadbolt at night - no need to tempt the fox, eh?
The legs are about a yard in length, and the bottom plate for the coop is part of an old barn door I cut to size, so it's easily 2½" thick. From the edges to where the legs are attached measures to 6" or so.
I also built a couple of wooden boxes with one short end left open, 10"*4"*4", to put over the traps (got to put down traps where the feed is no matter what) so the wee tweety-birds don't get caught in them - I use Frolic, a doggy treat, as bait and it works a charm.
Best of luck - rats will move when they don't find food.
It seems like Xi wants Wang even more.
I'll show myself out.
That's what Xi said.
Glad Thistle feels better. That nose💕
He is surprisingly nice for how intimidating-looking he is and how grumpy he can be. Sadly he does not seem to be an effective breeder any longer, but he has been a very good pig.
I'm sure he'll be delicious.
He definitely will be. I'd like him to gain another 50 pounds at least before January. And no more stress.
I've only ever had home grown chickens and eggs. And they are light years away from the garbage you get in supermarkets.
In this case, it's not just the raising, it's the breed. American Guinea Hogs are much closer to red meat than white. They're so mild you don't even need to castrate the males to keep the meat from being gamey.
https://guineahogs.org/guinea-hog-pork/
But that said, these are not factory hogs. You have to farm them right.
Keep post- op pain under control. It's hard to ketchup 😂
Seriously, though, you'll do great, champ! No throw rugs
Dogs and boars and Curtis, oh my! What a fright! Not afraid of moose, pine marten, wolf, lynx or bear - but boars, especially the wild ones in the southern half of Sweden scare the breeks off of me. Walking in the beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests down there and suddenly you here them drumming the ground in warning, but you don't see them and the drumming seems to come from all around you - no thank you. So my sympathies on your ordeal or whatever the ---- one's supposed to say.
ToH is best enjoyed with newly-minted players (nyeh-heh-heh-heee). "I put my hand into the hole" - muahahahaha! We once combined it with Paranoia and whiskey shots, "Mekong-whiskey my mate who'd been in Vietnam called it since he brought it from there and the label was in vietnamese only. Day after the tongue felt as if you'd been licking freshly laid asphalt.
Can't fault your reasoning on elections - sounds like home to me, 'cause that's the way the Socialist Democrats has played it from the mid-1970s: Economic downturn on the way? Leave a walk-over while paying lip-service, then come back with a vengeance the next election, blameless and washed clean in the blood of democracy, or something.
Can I ask out of sheer curiosity, if it's not too personal, why Balder and not Frej (or Frö as some spell it)? Balder is nice and all, being a thoroughly good guy, but fertility and agriculture is Frej's thing. Not to mention him having a ship you can fold up and put in your pocket, a sword which fights on its own accord, and that he rides a golden boar.
In the interest of fairness, I tend more towards Ull (Uller) and Vidar, and Frigg.
I tend to think of Baldr as a gift-giver, and the pumpkins and squash were completely accidental and unearned. I see him as present in "random acts of kindness," so to speak.
Frey is over the main gate into my pasture. I have found some very nice wooden reliefs that I will probably put facing the posts for the various human-sized entryways so we can easily reference them "Odin's gate, Frey's gate," etc.
Frigga is very important to me currently as we are working on the baby process and I will probably make some offerings in earnest once that process is formally underway.
I have a little keychain for Skadi that I take to the range.
But always, always, the All-Father speaks to my heart most, for wisdom and cunning and competence in the war of all against all. :)
Oh-ho! Knowing how Frej was usually depicted based on old amulets and such, that could get in-ter-esting indeed.
What seems strange to us over here (or me anyways) is how americans view Skade, Loke and Fenris. Loke is the mother/father of monsters, the betrayer, the instigator of strife but in US popculture (blame Marvel Comics I guess) he's depicted as a trickster like Anansi or Coyote, which doesn't really fit, to my mind. He's no friend of humans at all, and Fenris is an outright monster.
Skade is... well, a modern interpretation would be difficult. I mean, she thinks she's getting Balder in compensation but it turns out to be Njord and she can't stand the ocean and the gulls, and he can't stand the mountains and the wolves. But for hunting and skiing and such, it's her and Ull that fits the bill. I think the current theory is that Ull, Ygg, Vidar and Njord and maybe a couple of othersare from the earlier pantheon before the one we know today became established, but I'd have to look it up to be sure; it ties into the hypothesis that the war between the äsir and the vanir is an oral tradition about a war between to peoples in Scandinavia during the Bronze Age that ended by intermarriage among the chieftains - but that's more or less based on "Yeah, that sounds reasonable" and nothing more.
Oh well, rather a living mythology than dogma, right?
>> I think the current theory is that Ull, Ygg, Vidar and Njord and maybe a couple of othersare from the earlier pantheon before the one we know today became established
My understanding is the best we know now is that they were transitional from the original Indo-European religion that was the root of Norse/Germanic/Etc. faiths.
I suspect that was broadly true of the "pre-Aesir" in general.
I don't understand the Americanization/modernization dilution of Loki at all. He isn't a cool trickster god; that's Odin. Loki is no friend of mankind. If anything, he's a Satan figure.
It's like what my grandmother used to tell me about the fairies (which would be analogous to Alfr). They're not nice and helpful and friendly, they're sadistic predators from another level of existence that see you as dumb animals to toy with.
Exactly. You don't pray to those things, rahter the reverse. "Pray the fay away" kinda.
The proto-thingy is as far as I recall the usual model of explanation seeing as gods like Tor and Marduk share qualities, so a common generalised root or core concepts originally based on real people via oral transaltion is probably the best model we can come up with, barring some kind of Rosetta-stone style find or a time machine.
There are old word-of-mouth legends not acknowledged by academia about where Loke lies imprisoned. My pick is the one that places him under mt. Billingen which would be a hill or hillock in the US but since it rests on Västgötaslätten (West Goth Plains, literal translation) it sticks out like a pimple on the forehead at prom night. It's also a ridiculous rich uranium deposit, my pet theory being ancestors might vae noticed crops failing and animals avoiding the place and so on - pure speculation to the point of make-believe, but still.
Well, got to go to bed, because I've got to pitch a tent for the car tomorrow. Bleh, work. Gives you fleas it does.
It's fun seeing you respond with the Swedish naming conventions. It always takes me half a second. :-)
Well then, seeing as I've been binging "foreigners try swedish candy"-videos, here's a word you might get a rise from the pronounciation of:
"Krokant".
Means the crunchy sugary bits used in some chocolates and cakes and tarts. But it's pronoinced quite close to -
Crew-cunt.
Milk chocolate bar with crew-cunt flavour. Mmm-mm!
>> Oh well, rather a living mythology than dogma, right?
I think the Norse and related faiths connect to a broadly compatible underlying model of the universe that has some practical truth to it, if it can be discerned. I believe they are true stories that have gone through a few hundred rounds of the "telephone game."
I have 2 of my shield maidens/granddaughters in be with me right now. I call the 4 year old “Loke” because she is quite the prankster.
My approach to recalcitrant fruit trees is they ain't dead until I say so. This has worked pretty well.
My attempt at organic salad-growing was pissed away by the late unlamented ex-father-in-law's wretched dog Jackie. One of my great triumphs was the moment my presumably now long-gone dog Kallie put an amused paw on Jackie and knocked him down, entirely without malice.
The behavior of your dogs reminds me that maybe I'm one of the luckier people alive in that the street dog who adopted us graciously chose never to take my hand off at the forearm. We had a little game between us where she'd take my hand in her mouth and I'd whack her with a newspaper, rinse, repeat. I trusted her absolutely but less fortunate people, throughout history, have said the same right before they lost all of their limbs.
Good political round-up. But I remain pretty sure that Democrats will rally behind Fetterman to the end because they expect the missus to take over as soon after the swearing-in as can be managed. Everything hangs on a Mastriano victory to thwart that and that don't seem completely likely.
Until yesterday I wouldn't have said so. But I've even noticed some Fetterman lawn signs awkwardly removed since yesterday. :)
I think your predictions are likely.
Make sure you do your ROM!!!
Don't worry, I intend to take it very seriously.
Good, cuz then you might stop complaining about it!
JJ. I know how bad it can be.
Dr. Paul Alexander, in one of his posts yesterday, was making the point that maybe "we" should throw the midterms to give "them" a nice long time to completely make everyone hate them, so we'd be able to take 2024. Mentioning that if we take the midterms it would probably bode that it would be the last election any Republicans would ever win. With never again a Republican president. --- Fetterman makes me think of a WWE wrestler, with the IQ to match.
I volunteer Gens Y and Z for the front lines of whatever war we end up with. ALL of them, no volunteers, all drafted at once. Lots of them can be paratroopers. (They get shot floating to the ground.) Hopefully, any newer parents can raise their kids to not be such losers.
I've got you tell you that I enjoy your posts so very much. Even the weird polls.
Those are some beautiful squash. Volunteer squash at that! The only volunteer plants I have in my yard are weeds. 😒 Although, some of them are edible, so if there are no groceries and the government makes me stop growing lettuce, I can still have a salad.
VERY glad that you and the dogs weren't hurt and that poor piggy is healing well. Also, that you've gotten the cows "trained." 😂
Curtis was awesome to come to your aid!
Well, as one of my most prolific readers, I'm glad you're still enjoying yourself thoroughly.
Also, on a local level, the cows are very much enjoying spending all day our in Pasture 3, tentatively being held in by just the electric wires while we work tirelessly to put up fence panels around the outside, and then coming back home by 6pm or so for a big bucket of feed corn. It's a routine that everyone all just kind of fell into, and have been following for about a week now, and we're super thrilled that it's going as well has it has been. The couple of times we forgot to go check on them before dark, we went out there with flashlights to find them waiting dutifully for their dessert.
Hey, Brothermouth!
I know. Good to "meet" Brothermouth!
I closed my PayPal this week. Almost exactly nineteen years of funding billionaires for very slight convenience shopping on line. Couldn't even remember the last time I went on eBay, which was the only reason to sign up originally.
Strange how wistful I become when thinking of putting a cheque in the post to buy cheap SuperNintendo games.
I also am weary of Musk but his antics get the demoralised leftbots up in arms and that's always worth a lol.