Becoming B

Good morning. Off to start the Ford shortly. It's 50 out there. Warmer than it's been the past couple of mornings. Stars still shining. Sunshine and seventy in the forecast. And I will hopefully be back again tomorrow morning with another fire photo.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

6:15 AM. Good morning. 🔥 Off to the mall trail soon. Thermometer says 37. Supposed to be above 70 and sunny today. Can't complain. Wouldn't do any good anyway. :-)

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

6 AM. Good morning.

#gm #coffeechain

My hope has always been to onboard people into the Bitcoin network so they don't feel like burning it all down. Sort of like what the middle class used to do. When there was upward mobility. And a political center to keep the fringe in check, which now run the show!

#Bitcoin

If Electricity Got Shut Off

What happens to #Bitcoin if all the electricity gets shut off everywhere on Earth for ten years?

https://www.youtube.com/watch

#Bitcoin

It's just me and Skippy (cat) in front of the fire so far. It's 8:15 AM. He's curled up in his bed. It brings me joy to see him lying there.

I am going to empty out before Annie wakes up. It'll be long winded. I haven't had a chance all week to sit down and write or read.

The mail trail was heavy with Amazon packages and political mail this week I hate political mail. I feel ashamed handing it to people.

I drug two car killed deer off the road yesterday. They were there a while. I at least get them down in the ditch or beyond so there bodies can touch the earth and return to it easier. Order to disorder. Physics at work. Whatever created this knew what it was doing. I like to help out when I can.

I found out yesterday I have to work my scheduled day off tomorrow and beyond. One of our substitutes resigned. We're short on carriers. So every carrier in the office is working their day off.

It's hard to hold onto carriers. The two substitutes we do have are in their 60's. One woman is in her late sixties. Her hair is snow white. I've been there long enough to remember when it wasn't. I have a lot of respect for her. She's tough. She buried her husband about 10 years ago now. He died by his own hand. And now she's on the farm taking care of his mother who can barely get out of her chair. Plus she's got a herd of cattle she tends.

The other guy works a full time job at night at Links. It's the beef jerky factory. He helps keep the machinery running. Maintenance.

It's hard to feel sorry for yourself around people like that.

I have a granddaughter coming into this world in February some time. That makes me smile.

I post this on Nostr, too. It's a decentralized social media app. A Zuckerberg or Musk can't own it. It's pretty cool. There's no algorithm trying to create division and despair. In other words, your less likely to have your shadow activated. They make money off that. Picking away at your Monkey Mind. But I have friends and family here. It's hard to leave.

I need to go now. I hope you have a great day. I''ll be back before I head off to the mail trail tomorrow. Until then I hope you have a great day.

#gm #coffeechain

I study Michael Saylor's "21 Rules of Bitcoin" when I become unsettled about the way things are going in the space.

#Bitcoin

6:15 AM. Good morning. It's Saturday. 31 here. I was outside at 4. The stars were shining bright. Frost on metal surfaces. I took the spray nozzle off one of our hoses. Needed a channel lock to twist it off. The hose wasn't frozen solid. The ice clung to the inside surface of the hose forming a ring. If I would've turned the water on it would've passed through.

Off to the mail trail soon. Sunday and Monday off. Looking forward to it. It's been a heavy week. We're approaching the holidays believe it or not.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

From the front meadow: Little bluestem* in October

*(Schizachyrium scoparium)

10.17.26

#natives

I mentioned before that I am reading "Providence," by Daniel Quinn again. I first read it in my mid-twenties. It was a godsend then. Reading it again close to 30 years later it occurs to me one reason why. He said he loved the world. There aren't many people who say that. They feel betrayed or victimized or fill in the blank by it, but they rarely say they love it.

To love it and feel loved by it is a rarity.

#daily #writing #books

6:15 AM. Good morning.

10.16.26

#gm #coffeechain

6:15 AM. I take a picture of the fire. Just like yesterday. Like clockwork. Off to the mail trail in 25 minutes.

Yesterday was long. I didn't get back to the office until 8. Delivered in the dark for over an hour. It's always stressful. Today the hope is to get home safe with plenty of daylight left.

Brewers play at 7 tonight in LA. Looking forward to watching it with the family.

I was out there at 4:30. It was lightly raining. I think of all the roots refreshed in our meadow.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. 6:15 AM. Just above 50 out there. I was out there at 4:30. There was a light mist falling. Flat surfaces were wet.

The Brewers won last night. They started at 4 PM. We watched it as a family. It was fun. Everyone looks forward to it.

A few months back I was the only one who was familiar with the players. Not anymore. That's the way it was back in '82. I remember my Grandma telling my Dad about a game she stayed up and watched while the Brewers were making their World Series run back in '82. She never watched baseball.

It seems we get swept up in athletic excellence, especially when it's the home team. It's golden as the poets say.

Off to the mail trail. I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

In front of the fire again. Haven't lit one in a couple of days. It supposed to only hit 60 today. And not get much above the rest of the week. So the house will start cooling down.

We watched the Brewers beat the Dodgers last evening. Our whole family is here. So we popped popcorn and such. We made it an event.

Tomorrow it's back to the Mail Trail. Not looking forward to it. It's the day after a holiday. There will be double everything. The office will be full of Amazon packages and mail. Tensions will be high.

When I leave nearly every inch of space in my jeep will be filled with mail or Amazon. I say nearly because I still have to see out my side mirrors and the front windshield.

I am looking forward to being on the route though. To see the familiar faces and landscape. To stop in at my mom's to see how her and my grandma are doing. And to hopefully return to the office to know that I put in an honest days work for an honest days pay.

I cut seed heads off from Indian grass yesterday afternoon. I got enough to fill a gallon ice cream bucket. I don't know what we are going to do with them yet. Maybe spread them in the neglected meadow on the other side of The Bean Brook, or around my mom's meadow.

Well people are starting to wake and move around. Time to go and tend to that. I'm never comfortable being around family and people in general with my face buried in my phone, or staring at a screen, or however you want to say it.

I hope you have a great day.

#gm #coffeechain

7 AM. I sit in the dark. Visiting family asleep on the floor nearby. No fire this morning. It's 66 here. Supposed to get above 80.

A campfire last night though. We talked, laughed, and made S'mores together. Stars shined bright. We imagined how bright they'd be without electricity. An occasional owl called. A few geese would fly over.

Grandpa and Grandma from Arizona were here. Hayden forged them a bottle opener over a coal fire. Steel glowed red hot while he pounded it. We watched and asked questions.

Tonight we plan on watching The Brewers play the Dodgers.

Tomorrow my last day off. Then back to the Mail Trail. Day back will be a full day after a holiday.

Off to read "Providence."

Happy Sunday!

#gm #coffeechain

I didn't light a fire this morning. I wanted to, but I held back.I I'll post a picture anyway. :-) It's 58 out there. And it's supposed to get up into the mid 80's today.

It's just past seven. The house is completely dark. We have family visiting for the weekend. They're sleeping on the living room floor. I don't want to turn on lights and wake them.

I do see some light coming in through the cracks around the edges of the curtains. Leaves are swaying back and forth in the light. When I was out there before six I noted the wind was blowing out of the south. There were some faint stars in the sky.

I have mentioned that I am reading "Providence," by Daniel Quinn. I have read it many times over the past 20 years.

His work will not leave me alone. I feel like before I die I have to go into deep enough so it will let go.

Quinn's books were about saving the world. And to save it you have to understand it. He helped me understand it.

What he meant by saving the world is saving it as a human habitat. Every species on earth needs habitat. If you destroy their habitat you destroy them.

The more habitat that is destroyed for other species the more it effects humans physically and spiritually.

If you ever wondered why we grow native plants that's one reason why.

Quinn was objective with his approach. There was no sentimentality in it.

What he taught me was the world was created by a competent God or gods. One or many, whatever works for you. And anyone who knew how to look at it objectively (phycists, biologists, astronomers, etc.) marveled at how well it worked.

For example Canadian geese fly south for the winter, human babies are in the womb for 9 months, whitetail deer lose their antlers in January, etc.

I gotta go now. Until next time. Hope you have a great day.

#gm #coffeechain

"For a writer, telling the truth is the struggle. Telling lies is easy. Telling lies is writing a book that anyone could write."

Daniel Quinn, Providence (1995)

#quotes #writing

I think this is Morning Fire #4. I'm in front of it reading "Providence," by Daniel Quinn. The book blew the top of my head off back in my 20's.

I find it a pleasure to read. So I'm going to get back to it before the fire burns down and family starts waking up.

It's 38 here. The sun just coming up in the east. This is a good place to be . . . in front of this fire.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

"From the time when man began to live on the earth, from the time of Adam, there gradually began to be formed in us—with the help of God, of Nature, and of all our surroundings—an organ, whose function is conscience.

"Every man has this organ; and whoever is guided by conscience, automatically lives according to God’s commandments. If our conscience were clear and not buried, there would be no need to speak about morality; for consciously or unconsciously everyone would behave according to the dictates of the inner voice.

"Conscience is not a stick with two ends—it is realization of what is good and what is bad formed in us through the ages. Unfortunately, owing to many reasons, this organ is usually covered up with a kind of crust, which can be pierced only by intense suffering: then conscience speaks. But after a while a man calms down, and once more the organ becomes covered up. A strong shock is needed for this organ to become uncovered automatically.

"For instance, a man’s mother dies; instinctively his conscience begins to speak in him. To love, honor, and cherish one’s mother is the duty of every man. But seldom is a man a good son. When his mother dies a man remembers how he had behaved towards her, and he begins to suffer from remorse. But man is a great swine, and soon forgets, and again lives in the old way.

"He who has no conscience cannot be moral. I can know what I should refrain from doing, but, through weakness, I cannot prevent myself from doing it. I know that coffee is bad for me—the doctor has told me so—but I remember about coffee, and only when I don’t want to drink coffee do I agree with the doctor and refrain from drinking it. When I am full, I can, to a certain extent, be moral.

"You should forget about morality. Conversations about morality at present are simply empty talk. Your aim is inner morality. Your aim is to be Christians; but for this you must be able to do—and this you cannot. When you are able to do you will become Christians.

"External morality is different everywhere. One should behave like others and, as the saying goes, when in Rome do as the Romans do; this is external morality. For internal morality man must be able to do, and for this he must have an “I.” The first thing necessary is to separate inner things from outer, similarly to what I said about internal and external considering."

~ From Gurdjieff's Early Talks

#quotes #soul #spirit

7:25 AM. Good morning from the front of morning fire #4. It's 38 out there. The colder it gets the more grateful I am for fires. That's all right now. I want to get back to reading a physical book. Like the old days. LOL.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. I planted three new jersey teas at my mom's yesterday. In sandy soil where it gets full sun. We were selling them for five dollars a piece. They are in three inch pots. We have 4 left. If you want to buy them let us know within a day or two. Otherwise I am going to plant them. They don't survive the winter in pots.

It's supposed to be 67 and sunny here today. I lit a small fire to keep the stove warm for when it cools off again. Yesterday we had some windows open to moderate the temperature in the house.

We stayed up and watched the Brewers last night. If you haven't heard they lost by a run. It was close until the final out. Looking forward to watching them tonight. Our whole family is.

Not much else to say right now. The fire is burned down. Still quiet in the house.

Hope you have a great day!

Morning Fire #3

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. It's always nice to be thought of. Looking forward to another day off from work with family. Hope you have a great day!

Morning Fire #3

#gm #coffeechain

Looking forward to the ups of Uptober.

#bitcoin

Good morning. I am in front of morning fire #2. It's 35 degrees out there. Sun just coming up in the east. When I was out at 5 the stars were shining. They're predicting a sunny day.

I am thinking Hayden (16 yrs. old) and I are going to drive over to Minnesota to get some coal for his forge. I have the week off from the mail trail. It's one thing we wanted to do.

Yesterday we hiked up to the top of St Pete's Dome. It took us over 2 hours. It's not as easy as it used to be. I turn 52 today. I am starting to feel it.

We got home in time to catch the last 2 innings of the Brewer game. That was worth it! They were down to their last strike of the game and won it with it a hit up the middle. What an exciting season to be a Brewer fan.

I am going to go and read some big ideas before my family starts to wake. I need that continuous reminder that there is a divine purpose behind all of this.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

7:36 AM There it is, .first morning fire of the year. It's 44 out there. When I was out at 6 the stars were shining. Porch wet. Earth roof dripping

Noticed leaves blowing off the trees on the mail trail yesterday. Canadian geese feeding in a picked cornfield on the way home from work. On the way to work a doe feeding on the wood's edge by the Earl Cemetery. She was probably cleaning up corn they didn't get during harvest.

We did a first last night. We streamed Fox One so we could watch the Brewers play the Padres. We have lived in the house for roughly 20 years and have never watched network television. The commercials annoy me. I have a hard time unwinding while there's a television running. But it worked! It was enjoyable. It's fun to get into the spirit of October baseball, especially when the Brewers are finally in the the thick of it with the possibility of making it to the World Series!

Supposed to be another sunny Sunday. We will more than likely head up to St. Pete's Dome. I will post pictures later. This, I think, will be our fifth Sunday visiting a State or National park near us.

Well, I don't have much else to say right now. I am glad to be writing in front of this fire. I feel connected to you who are reading this. I always have. There is something about sitting in front of this fire, mostly in the dark, with everyone asleep that I thoroughly enjoy.

The fire is burned down. Time to close it off. I hope you have a great day! 🙏

Morning Fire #1

Forty seven out there. Cloudy. No fire yet. Not supposed to get above sixty today. The house will slowly cool until we can't stand it. Then it's two hour hundred and some fires later and brighter days

Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day.

#gm #coffeechain

6:30 AM. Mail jeeps warms. 33 out there. Warm in here. Frost on windshields. Stars at 5 AM. Planted 2 New Jersey Teas last evening. They won't make it through the winter in pots. Still some left if you want some. Today is our last day open. Thank you to all of you. Next May will be the next open day. On Mother's Day.

Off to the mail trail. Have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

No need to wait until we die. There is more to want here than money and being famous and bites of roasted meat.

~ Rumi

#gm

6:25 AM. Dark out there. No light in the east. Jeep will be running soon. Still wearing shorts. No leaves on some natives in pots. Purple coneflower in picture not purple but brown. October 1st now.

Off to the mail trail. 📬

#gm #coffeechain

Moving through mist, seventy miles an hour, windshield wipers whip, seven am, I make it to work. 📬

#gm

Good morning. 6:20 AM. Foggy and humid out there. 64 degrees. Leaving for the mail trail earlier.

Owls were nearby calling to each other last evening. They've been active all spring and summer. Guessing they're barred owls.

That's a stiff golden rod (Oligoneuron rigidum) going to seed. I like the colors. I planted a few of them in my mom's meadow this summer.

Off to the trail. Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Back to the mail trail today.

That''s a bee buried in bee balm.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Writing on rocks I've noticed along Lake Superior recently.

#travel #water

Good morning.

A recent photo of aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) from the front meadow. We still have quite a bit for sale. It's tough. It's growing in sand in various spots in the front meadow.

I planted a cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) the other day. Went to plant another one yesterday and noticed the one I put in prior was eaten off even with the ground. Hoping it comes back.

I collected seeds from one we might've planted 5 years ago. It's been eaten off a number of times over the years. We were surprised to see it bloom this year.

That's it for now. My last day of vacation. Then it's back to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. I took this photo along the highway outside of Trego yesterday. Milkweed at the end of September.

Afterwards I picked the pods. Enough to fill a gallon ice cream bucket. I took them home with the hope of more milkweed around me in the future.

Before that I planted 3 more compass plants (Silphium laciniatum) among the Indian grasses at the corner of our driveway. I didn't get around to putting in another cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) like I wanted to. That would be among the Indian grasses too.

Someday the yellow flowers will hopefully poke up above the indian grasses. Compass plants can take 5 years to bloom they say.

Yesterday a customer stopped in and said they follow my writing and was interested in Bitcoin. I wasn't here. Annie said she wished I would've been.

I'm starting to call those moments "shocks."

There are times when I want to stop writing on here. It ebbs and flows. Recently I've wanted to hang it up. Then I get shocked by a story about someone mentioning my writing. It pushes me forward. The universe at work.

We're going to take a family trip up to Lake Superior today. That'll be another shock. The beauty of the big body of water will hopefully put things into perspective.

I hope you have a great Sunday.

#gm #coffeechain #natives

They're ready just outside of Trego, WI. It doesn't take long to fill an ice cream bucket. :-) 🦋

#Nature #Plants #Pollinators #Natives

Good morning.

I hope you have a great weekend.

I took this photo at Amnicon Falls last weekend. I thought aster flower heads lying neatly on rocks was interesting and peculiar.

Tomorrow we might go north and check out Lake Superior again. My sister told me about a secluded spot her and her family visit. It'll be the fourth Sunday in a row we get away and visit a public park.

I read four pages out of "A Sense of The Cosmos," by Jacob Needleman this morning. It took me about a half hour. It's dense. Philosophical. I wrote down quotes in my notebook periodically.

I made sure to read before I got caught up scrolling on my phone. I'm much calmer afterwards. Time seems to be moving slower. I looked up a couple of times while reading and couldn't believe how much time I had left.

Back to the book. Needleman points out that no one has ever committed a crime in a sense of wonder and awe. The feeling you get when you stand under a starlit sky with little or no light pollution.

That feeling came over me last weekend walking out to the lighthouse at Wisconsin point on Lake Superior.

I like it. I want more of it. Maybe tomorrow.

Ok. Like I said above. Have a good weekend. I am going to end it this time. :-)

#gm #coffeechain

“May God us keep From Single vision & Newton’s sleep!" ~ William Blake

I don't call myself a writer. If I paid the bills with what I made writing I would. I deliver mail on rural roads in and around Springbrook, WI to do that.

I was at the kitchen table earlier struggling. I wanted to write something great. The thing that would draw comments, reactions, and praise. The thing that would inspire people to share their stories. Connection.

I sat frozen. I stared out the window for a half hour. Mad that I wasted my time I found a picture and posted something that didn't move me. Just something. I could say I put something out there. Maybe it would satisfy the muse. It didn't.

I figured I would go outside and work it off. Cutting and piling firewood usually helps. My family doesn't understand this. But they're not inside of me.

So I went to put my clothes on. I took my flannel "comfortable" pants off to put on my work pants covered in dirt, sawdust, and scented with chainsaw smoke. Then it hit me. Words flowed.

I put my flannel pants back on and sat back down to the kitchen table.

It's not that I didn't want to live when I was in my late teens and early 20's. It's terrifying to even admit that. They medicate you for that. Maybe even lock you up.

No, I was stuck. And I didn't know how to become unstuck.

We all get stuck. One of the shocks to help me get unstuck was Daniel Quinn's work. His novels opened me up to ideas that I would not have been open to prior.

I think there's a lot of ways to get unstuck. Hallucinogens, therapy, conversations with a friend, etc. For me it was ideas.

I had to understand how words on a page could cause goosebumps and hair to stand up.

Ideas are different than thoughts, you know. Ideas come to us, I think, from the divine. And it cares about us along with the rest of creation.

But ideas are meant for us humans. The rest of creation aren't interested. It's the way things are. Different strokes for different folks.

But the ideas saved me from single vision and Newton's sleep.

In other words, I learned there was depth to this world. That there was more than one way to look at myself and life in general.

It's how we interpret things. And ideas help us interpret. Without them we are blind.

That's enough now. I hope you get something out of this.

#Daily #Journal

Good morning. It's 8 AM. 51 out there. Still a haze in the sunny sky from the early morning fog. Not quite burnt off.

We open in 2 hours. We'll be open for five more days. We've had customers the past two. You never know if anyone will show up this time of year. Putting plants in the ground is not a priority for most people in the fall.

That's it for right now. Looking forward to another day off from the mail trail and working around the place and being with family.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. The gold of goldenrod on the first day of Fall (yesterday).

We all need a little gold in our lives.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

It's the first day of Fall.

#nature #biophilia

Grandchildren. The start of them. A woman at work said we're going to have to get you some suspenders. LOL.

#Family #Life

Good morning. 8 AM. It's 39 out there. Chilly. Sun shining. Slightly foggy. No mail trail again today. An opportunity to take a few pictures. This one, the best one, I think.

Noticing bees buried in goldenrod heads They must've spent the night there. There's one in this picture if you look closely.

Hoping to spend the day around here cutting and piling firewood and helping Annie with the nursery.

Our native plant nursery will be open 7 more days this season. Next Friday our last day.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Time is short. It's 9 AM. Sunny out there. Crows calling while I was out taking this picture a minute ago.

That's a 388 pound anvil in the back of our minivan. One of Hayden's mentors bought it for him yesterday. He has to pay him back the $1500. They got it from a farmer near Barron.

The anvil came to be in 1901. He thinks it was caste in Germany.

That's all for now. We're off to figure out how we are going to unload the thing.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning. That's highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum). Annie took this picture along the shore of Lake Superior yesterday.

Before heading here we visited Amnicon Falls first. Walked the trails. Took some nice pictures. Hayden (16 yrs. old) tried to primitively start a fire with a hand drill. And to finish off the visit we sat down in the sun at a picnic table and made and ate sandwiches.

While there we threw toffee covered peanuts to a red squirrel living nearby. It would eat a few, then bury a few, then eat a few, etc. I have never watched a red squirrel bury food. Or I have, but not extensively. It was entertaining. Cute. And even better it opened the door to wonder. I wondered what it would be doing at night. What time it would be up. What its winter would be like.

After that we drove up to Lake Superior and walked out to the lighthouse on Wisconsin Point. Well, Hayden and I did. Sophie and Annie stayed back at the van. Waves crashed into the big rocks we walked across them. Invigorating to say the least.

We also checked milkweed pods in ditches in traveling spot to spot. They're not quite ready to harvest yet.

That's it for now. Time to head over to my neighbor's to work on a mail jeep.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

A gift from our daughter-n-law.

#Bitcoin

Good morning. I went back to October 20th to get this one. They're aromatic asters (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium).

Besides the beauty in the photo, it reminds me that we still might have a month left before the permanence of winter begins to set in.

I think aromatic asters are my favorite aster. They're tough. They grow in sand and dry conditions. They bring promise to a piece of ground with little promise.

Oh, that reminds me. I heard something cool on a podcast the other day. My friend was talking about soil compaction with his partner. And she made the point that the roots of plants are what make water soak into the soil. No roots leads to run off etc. I was like well of course. But I never think of it that way. I like it when people explain the obvious in a way you can understand.

It's like the earth is coded to survive. We just don't know how to pay attention to it. Well, we're at war with it. There's that. I mean why not state the obvious.

Yesterday I was reminded of the long periods I spent at home with my family. It was in a conversation I had with a coworker half my age. I'm 52. He might be 24.

He's got a new girlfriend. Things are hot and heavy. He was quoting St. Paul about marriage. About how it was not up to the man to make sure his wife respects him, but up to the wife to make sure she respects him. In other words, I took it as it's not up to the man to police his wife's attitude towards him.

I like discussing ideas like this. It's tough to do at work though. Time is a priority because of our route evaluations. Yet good conversation slows things down, and I like that. Because you're into the realm of the soul. Death, marriage, birth, aspirations, depressions, love etc.

I wanted talk about my time at home with family. But this is enough for now. I don't go back to the mail trail until the 29th! So you'll be hearing more from me.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Those are sky blue asters. They're blooming right now. We were going to thin them in the spring. We're glad we didn't. A bit messy. We put up with it because of the beautiful blue blooms and buzzing bees.

Off to the mail trail. Last day. Then a week off.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Time is short. Off to the mail trail.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Annie texted this to me yesterday. It's from our front meadow. Monarch enjoying showy golden rod. She said "it's like looking through stained glass."

Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Half inch steel heated, hammered, and honed at home by Hayden (16 yrs. old).

#proofofdad #homeschooling #countryliving

Good morning. New England asters starting to bloom. They're always covered in bees. More than the mums we've bought in the past. Much more.

Off to the mail trail for 4 days. Then a week off!

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning.

Photo from Pattison State Park on Sunday.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. I took this photo at Pattison State Park yesterday afternoon. We drove up there as a family. The four of us.

Driving home. The kids sleeping in back. Annie looks in the rearview mirror and says to me, "They are my favorite human beings in the whole world."

There is something about getting away from the daily demands and spending time with water and the nonhuman world.

Something sublime maybe.

I notice more. My attention sharpens to the inner and the outer.

There's a lightness and a heaviness to it. Heavy in that it can't be this way all the time.

I used to feel the same way when my Grandpa and Grandma would take my mom, dad, sister and me camping as a kid. Why couldn't it be this way all the time I would wonder.

Fishing, cooking, playing games, and sleeping together as a family.

No wonder it felt right. We lived this way for hundreds of thousands of years. This experiment we're running, or being run on us (one never knows) is unsettling to say the least.

Well, that's enough meandering for now. Spitballing. My neighbor is going to help me change the oil and rotate the tires on my mail jeeps in his garage.

Thank you for good neighbors. 🙏

I hope you have a great day.

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

From our family trip to Copper Falls near Mellen, WI last weekend.

#Wisconsin #countryliving

Good morning. I hope I haven't posted this picture yet. It's the one that jumped out at me this morning. It's a rosin weed (Silphium integrifolium).

I planted it along the driveway a few years ago. It bloomed for the first time this year.

I planted a couple sickly looking ones next to our mature ironweed a few weeks ago. They were in 2 inch pots. Root bound. Slowly dying. Annie said, "Go ahead plant them. No one is going to buy them."

Our front meadow is full of sickly looking plant stories. Sometimes I look at it and say what a mess. But then I remind myself, it's my mess. When I'm in the meadow I am learning. And I become quiet inside. I become unsettled when I start worrying about what people are going to think of it, and of course me. Because I identify with it.

Self concern leads to separation, as the Buddhists say.

Quick story if you have made it this far. I used to have a life coach. She was a woman in her late 60's or early 70's. She immigrated here with her parents from Nazi Germany as a little girl.

We found each other on Facebook. It was through the Ishmael Community (that's how Annie and I also got together in a roundabout way). It always comes back to that damn book. LOL.

Anyway our coaching sessions would last an hour. I would drive down to Spring Lake boat landing, call her (she lived in Texas), and she would coach me. It was a master/student relationship. It lasted for maybe 5 years. It ended in 2020 along with a lot of other things in my life.

Whenever I would get stuck in our sessions, which was a lot, she would say "would it be okay if life was easier," or something like that.

And then we would uncover how I was getting in my own way. I remember it as worthy work. The suffering was worth it. And life would slowly become easier.

Sort of like learning about native plants in the front meadow. I believe life was easier when we understood plants. When we lived more primitively so to speak.

And that's the vision I try to live into. One where life is a sacred process that I am a part of. The rest will take care of itself, as my coach used to say.

I am off today through Tuesday. I am happy about that. :-) I hope you have a great Sunday.

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Off to the mail. Fifth and final day. Then three days off. Need it.

That's a blazing star. I think a meadow.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning. That photo is from 2 years ago right around this time. Black eyed susan and bee balm.

I planted my first compass plant in the front meadow at dusk last evening. It was the sickliest looking one we had for sale. Looking forward to planting more. It's a Silphium. Supposed to be well behaved..

Out of time. Time to hit the Mail Trail.

Hope you have a great day. 🙏

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning.

Off to the mail trail. Tomorrow the start of 2 days off. Looking forward to it. Things to do. Firewood to haul, cut, and pile. Help with nursery. Celebrate daughter's 14th birthday. Etc. Always things to do.

Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend!

(That's a harebell flower I took a photo of 4 years ago in the front meadow)

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Good morning. Off to the mail trail. Last minute call in. Supposed to have the day off.

Photo from 3 years ago. Sky blue aster. I don't think we have any for sale. They didn't germinate well this spring.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

Good morning!

Mail today. Off tomorrow.

Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain

"Life is a single player game. You’re born alone. You’re going to die alone. All of your interpretations are alone. All your memories are alone. You’re gone in three generations and no one cares. Before you showed up nobody cared. It’s all single player."

~ Naval Ravikant

Good morning. One of our customers took this photo in the middle of August back in 2024. Bee on a Liatris she bought from us. I was going through photos and it jumped out at me.

I have the day off again. My 4th. Another one tomorrow, then it's back to the mail trail for 2 days.

We blew a line to our wash machine yesterday afternoon. It sprayed water until Annie got the valve shut off. Luckily she was close by and heard something was off. It would've flooded the house.

Still isn't fixed. What happened was the hose corroded and broke where it screws onto the brass shut off valve. We have hard water. So it eats away at metal in our plumbing fixtures.

I was able to chisel, pick, and wire brush most of the corroded metal out of the brass threads. But apparently not good enough. I couldn't get the new hose tight enough to seal last night at eleven. So I'm waiting on a thread chaser from Amazon. Due here tomorrow.

This morning my neighbor said he's got a few tricks up his sleeve to get it to work. I figured he did. But I didn't have a way to talk to him late last night. Either way I think we'll get 'er working again.

Quick story, then I gotta go. I was over at a friend's house the other day doing some work. I deliver mail with her. While I was helping her clean up her chainsaw (her husband can't do it anymore) she told me a story. It was about her Dad who passed away a few months back.

One day she was having a hard time staying awake on the route. So she called her Dad and told him what the problem was. He was a farmer in the area for years. In the nursing home at the time though. He loved to tell stories. So she asked him to tell her stories to keep her awake.

For an hour and a half he told her stories from his youth. She kept delivering mail and packages while he spoke stories through her speaker. "It worked! It got me through." She said.

Tlme to get on with my day. I hope you have great day!

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning. I noticed yesterday the asters are starting to bloom. Another sign we are moving into fall. I was reminded yesterday the golden rods starting to bloom is another indicator.

We are open 10 to 4 today, our usual Sunday hours.

The plants have perked up since it started raining again. It was dry for so long it was starting to feel like it would never rain again.

The plants in our garden kits look especially healthy. We've wondered about this throughout the growing season. We're wondering if the plants would rather be surrounded by other species while in pots waiting to be sold.

Otherwise it's a quiet morning so far. The sky is gray. Everything damp. Like it lightly rained on and off throughout the night.

That's all for now. Hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning. That's prairie coneflower (Ratibida pinnata). This photo was taken 1 year ago today. I don't know if I would get a photo like this today. A lot of them have gone to seed in the front meadow already.

Our neighbor stopped by yesterday and bought more cup plant. She has shared photos of mature cup plants she bought from us in years past.

We drove over to New Prague, MN yesterday to buy a pickup a guy had for sale on Facebook Marketplace. It was 3 hours to the west of us. Acres and acres and acres of cornfields along the way.

Anytime I leave home into uncharted territory, which is rare nowadays, I notice this. I think about the work and energy that goes into maintaining King Corn. I have picked rocks on, plowed, disced, drug, and planted fields. It's all work.

We passed through a small town that had a house with a front yard full of cup plant. The house was old. Paint peeling off the wood siding. "That's a lot of cup plant. It's pretty." Annie remarked.

I thought of my neighbor. I thought about the smallness of this front yard compared to the vast acres of corn surrounding it outside the city limits. At one time cup plant grew on those acres. It was prairie.

I like to think the world made more sense then. That there was a wholeness to it. That the future extended out for millennia.

That's one reason why I think we grow and sell native plants. There's a wholeness to it. And a connection to an unbroken past.

I"m off to start my day off visiting with family and doing some work for the nursery. It's lightly raining out there. Things will be slow at the nursery today I presume. But I'm not complaining! After that dry spell we just had any rain is appreciated.

I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning. Feeling Fallish here. Those are the seed heads of Bradbury's Monarda.

I was going to post this picture a few days ago, but it's not a bloom. So I held back. Figured the post wouldn't get much attention. To me, though, the fall and winter patterns and colors of natives are just as interesting as the bright blooms.

We discovered bees living in our cordwood wall last night. Bees nest everywhere around here given how many native plants we have. The house is literally surrounded by them.

I always try to work around the bees. I use it as an awareness exercise. The rest of my family doesn't see it that way. Getting stung isn't fun. And when you're not aware of them it happens.

We have to get them out of the wall (I am not looking for suggestions). Some of them found their way through the cordwood and into my son's room. You can put your ear up to the wall and hear it buzzing. The energy of the hive is pretty cool. Not so much when it's in the wall of your son's room though.

I have a friend who negotiated with coyotes once. They kept killing his chickens. So out of desperation he told one of the coyotes when he saw it that he would offer the remains of the chickens to them after he butchered. They quit killing his chickens. I can't remember if they started up again. He wrote about it in his book "A Language Older Than Words." Warning: It's a hard book to read. It tears your heart open. I still think of that book 20 years later.

I wish I could negotiate with the bees. Let them use the wall until they're done doing what they need to do, clean up their mess, and be on their way.

I was listening to a book on the mail route yesterday: "A Sense Of The Cosmos," by Jacob Needleman. In it he makes the he point that humans are microcosm of macrocosm. So if we have consciousness so does the world surrounding us. Whatever created us created the universe. So why wouldn't it be sentient?

Native American hunters, for example, would ask the woods and spirits to offer them a deer. And when it did they gave thanks. I've done this before. But most of the time I haven't. Because I forget the world just might respond to my wishes. Why wouldn't it? Other humans do.

Well, anyway. I am musing this morning. I have the next 5 days off.

We're off to look at a pickup in New Prague, MN this afternoon. So we're closing the nursery at Noon.

We discovered recently our 2006 Toyota Tundra's frame is shot. My neighbor was going to weld it for me, but said there was nothing to weld to. 20 years of Wisconsin road salt does that.

The truck we are going to look at is 2 years older than the Tundra, but is from Idaho. So it's only seen Minnesota road salt for 8 years. It looks appealing in the Facebook Marketplace photos. And the seller has been responsive and flexible. So far so good.

Gotta go now. I hope you have a great day!

#gm #coffeechain #countryliving