STAYING WARM

I have had a busy Morning. I had a plethora of small chore to do plus I had to go to the feed store. It is already 2:15PM and I need to go to town to pick up some stuff for a party tomorrow.

Gregory, Noah's Son, is visiting from California. Several of his Uncles, Aunts and cousins will be gathering here at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a party. This is great for us because we don't get to see everyone over Christmas. I notice that Gregory didn't bring any of that warm air from California.

It has been a little warmer today, even a couple degrees above zero F. It supposed to get colder again tonight and I have to haul up more wood for the stove. It has been quite a cold snap. We will rejoice when it is over.

I will be here Monday to wish everybody Happy New Year and perhaps I will have something more to say.

I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve celebration.

Love and Peace, Gregg

AND IT IS COLD

A cold but beautifully Sunny Morning. It was -20.7 F at 8:AM, now two hours later, it is 11 below.

There is no wind so I felt quite comfortable when I was out doing the chores. I ran into a little problem with the chicken water. I water them inside the coop using a rubber container. I think they are rated at five gallons but they hold close to seven when brimful. I have been breaking the ice or adding hot water or both every Morning. This Morning I couldn't break the ice with a hammer. I had to haul out the bucket and slam it on the ground to break the ice. There was very little water left unfrozen. I haven't taken a head count of my chickens lately, but I don't have enough to make the water chores easier. In times past, the water would only get a skin of ice when it got down to zero. I never had trouble breaking it at any temperature. We usually carried 35 to forty chickens. They put out a lot of heat and that was enough to keep the water from freezing except in this kind of weather and then it was easy to break the ice. We need to get more chickens,

We were very grateful to discover the water pipes under the kitchen sink were not frozen. Yesterday morning one was and it took two hours of hair dryer action to thaw it out. We have lived here since 1975 and only had frozen pipes in recent years. The kitchen is over a crawl space. About thirty years ago we had some freezing pipes and Jamie stuffed some insulation down around them and that solved the problem. Then a couple years ago the problem returned. Last Winter we had a cold spell in December and we had a few nights where a pipe froze. It is always only one, for a couple years it was the hot and recently it is the cold. The years when we had no trouble were not particularly warmer. We decided that some mice or larger rodent was having a good time with the insulation.

Last year our daughter Laura gave us the tip to use a fan to blow air under the sink on these bitter nights. It worked and we had no more trouble last year. On Monday night I noticed it was already 12 below at Midnight so I set up a fan. I must not have had it positioned right and I had it at low speed. I didn't think we would need more than a gentle flow of air to keep the pipe from freezing. It is very warm in the kitchen. It was frozen on Tuesday Morning. Jamie set it up last night. We were very happy to find it worked. We are going to get someone to crawl under the house and fix it once and for all. Jamie has been threatening to, when I was younger I crawled under there a couple times to fix a plumbing problem, but now..... uh uh.

I suppose I am going to have to look at the new tax law. We haven't had to pay state or federal income tax for ten years. Our pension is taxable income but we don't make enough. If it was a higher it would trigger the inclusion of our Social Security. From what I have read I can't tell if we are going to need to pay. We live like royalty. We have no financial needs and we have a sumptuous and elegant life style. It is amazing how little money one needs when they don't owe anything. We have had times when we made four or five times more money and were poorer.

We have considered moving occasionally and we come up against the obstacle of paying for housing. We couldn't move w/o being able to come out even. All young people struggle when they first attempt to get established. I think my generation had a much easier time than the current one. I went to college, bought a house, had children on the G.I. Bill and a minimum wage part time job. That would be impossible today.

We need to start being nicer to our young people; all our people. I know this old world isn't going to last much longer. I look forward to the day when we can just love each other and care for each other and enjoy the marvelous benefits of living on this wonderful planet. It is time for our separation to end.

Love and Peace, Gregg

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL

It was 9.6 below zero F when we got up and it is still 5.8 below zero. I don't think it will be warming up much today. The Sunshine is marvelous.

When it gets below zero our geo-thermal heat pump works overtime to keep the house warm so I put a fire in one of our wood stoves, we have two, one in the dining room and one in the living room. Either one of them are capable of heating the house although the dining room one is more centrally located.

I started a fire in the living room stove last night. I love wood heat. We heated the house with only wood for over twenty years. Now we only have them fired up when it is bitterly cold or for their atmosphere, a nice contribution to the Christmas Season. That is not entirely true, in the Spring and Fall we often put a fire in the stove in the Morning when it is chilly as we won't need the furnace the rest of the time.

Thank You, to all the folks who send us Christmas Cards. We don't send them out. In the forty odd years Jamie and I have been married we have only sent them out a few times. Sometimes I have taken the initiative and Jamie other times. I think we use the excuse that we see everybody in person around the Holidays. That is less and less true. I love getting cards. Maybe next year?

We are going over to the Amish to get milk. I don't notice the Amish celebrate these holidays. I keep thinking I am going to research their traditions, perhaps I should just ask them. We have to get some eggs. We realize we need eggs for pecan pie and Yorkshire Pudding. Our elderly hens don't lay much this time of year. We got two eggs this Morning.

We need to get going so we can return here and get the dishes washed and create our Christmas feast.

A MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Love and Peace, Gregg

AND THE SUN RETURNS

Well, I woke up after the longest night of the year about 7:20, it was still dark. I dressed in the dark because Jamie was still in bed and I didn't want to disturb her by turning on the light. I put my stockings on, then one shoe, it felt funny. Did my foot swell up in the night? Did I have the shoe on the right foot? It looked like it was on the right foot. I put on the other shoe that felt funny too. What did I do yesterday? Did I walk a lot? Did my feet swell up? It felt strange walking down stairs. I got down to the living room, turned on the light, examined my feet. I did have my shoes on the wrong feet! I didn't think these shoes were loose enough to go on the wrong feet. I know this happens to grade school kids. Is this a second childhood? Galloping senility?

The rest of the Morning has been okay, except that I was questioning and watchful. Instead of automatically turning on the correct faucet, I stared at them trying to remember which was the hot and which the cold. It lasted only a couple seconds, but unnerving. Things like this happened when I was thirty, forty and fifty, but one notices it more when your over eighty. Oh well, aging can be fun. I am going to write a blog on growing older, but not today.

We are going to a Christmas Party tonight many of our old friends will be there. The party starts at 6:PM and I have a dentist appointment at three this afternoon. I hope I am not still all numbed up.

For the first time in many years we don't have a party scheduled for Christmas Day. We have been invited by family members but it would require travel. It is going to be cold on Christmas and traveling more than fifty miles seems too much. Another sign of age I suppose. We have a beautiful beef roast and Jamie will make Yorkshire Pudding. We will have a good time. Who knows, we may have visitors.

I didn't let my chickens out because I didn't think many would accept the invitation and I wanted to conserve the heat in the coop for the cold that is coming. However, it is 23 F I didn't expect it to get that warm. The below zero temperatures were originally forecast for tonight. I think they pushed the bitter cold about 24 hours into the future and Saturday Night it will get cold. This blog is really a ramble, isn't it.

My original intention was to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Festivus or whatever we choose to celebrate. Every culture seems to have some celebration to mark the shortest day and the return of the Sun. Today is two seconds longer than yesterday. It won't be long before we start dreaming of Spring and planting our gardens.

Let us have glorious celebrations to welcome the return of the Sun.

Love and Peace, Gregg

RAISING THE LEVEL OF DISCOURSE

It is overcast and cool but I am having a great day. I had a good sleep and I have been having a nice Morning. I am getting a very late start on my blog and for no particular reason.

I have something on my mind I would like to discuss. I enjoy the political satire and the attacks on the folks I don't agree with, but I am troubled by the extent of the negativity. Can't we be nice to each other?

Because we have taken separation to the nth degree, there are many people in error and their errors are sometimes atrocious, but it is error. Folks don't see their own errors, at least not why they are in them, we tend to justify our opinions and decisions on some trumped up [not a pun] moral grounds; as distorted as it may appear to us, at the time, those in error cling to the belief.

We have become so divisive that we demonize those in the other camp as not redeemable. People who are attacked for their opinions are rarely edified. Folks tend to take a firmer grasp onto their ideas when attacked. If they are in error we drive them further into their error.

Can we attack the ideas and not the people holding them? Can we criticize their beliefs without demonizing them? If we really believe we are the ones who are right and they are in error, can we approach the situation as educators and not condemners?

I own up to the fact that I get a chuckle out of some pretty negative stuff aimed at the other camp, especially some of the cartoons. I have also been appalled at times.

In our division between those wanting connection and those wanting separation, which is the choice between love and fear, we will find people whose separation from most of humankind puts them in a very erroneous state. From our point of view they may be very wrong. They are not devils.

As we realize that love is the only energy we want to embrace, we must also learn to forgive those who are temporarily embracing fear. I say temporarily, because we will all sometime turn to the light. Some of those, deepest into the dark, may take a few more lifetimes.

We have all been in error. We know that an attack on our person rarely helps us see the light. We know that love and forgiveness will provide a better approach.

Hopefully we can raise the level of our political discourse. One more interesting observation; the people I meet in our local community, our family and friends do not express a fraction of the negativity I experience in both the alternative and main stream sources. I wonder if that is just my experience?

I have dishes to wash, which are now languishing in cold water. Hmmm can dishes languish?

Love and Peace, Gregg

THE WITHERING

It is a beautiful day! The temperature just bumped above freezing at 33.2. I noticed via a Facebook memory I shared that is was -27.4 F on this day last year. Wow, that is cold for this time of year! I don't remember it. My weather calender, that has the recorded temperatures 60 miles or so South of us, has the record being -24 on this date in 1983. Must have been a cold year because tomorrows record is -29 for that that year.

We forget that it can get really cold in December. One year in the 70s I planted an orchard of trees that included pears and apricots that were supposed to be hearty on the zone 3-4 boundary. It was a mild Fall and the trees did not get a chance to harden off before the temperature plummeted. It got down to 40 below zero F. one night and in the Spring I discovered I lost all my trees including some sturdy zone 3 ones. According to my weather calendar, all the record lows this time of the year are in the mid -20 range.

We don't like anticipating weather that cold but when it happens we live through it just fine.

You notice how everything seems turned upside down. Trump could be the worst president we have ever had, however, it seems like we attack him for the wrong reasons, or at least not for all the right reasons. We [liberals] longed for a better relationship with Russia for a generation and then when Trump seems to be willing to cooperate with Russia we attack him. Trump is guilty of so many destructive impulses, that isn't one of them. I doubt if any collusion in the election had anything to do with him winning any way. The information that is leaked seems to have more to do with collusion with oligarchs not the government. Shady business dealings and money laundering, not election swinging.

There are so many horrible things happening, like lifetime appointments to the judiciary with ultra-conservatives. Congress blocked most of Obama's appointments and now the benches are being filled with characters that could affect us for generations.

Our governments support of Saudi Arabia has always been criminal, but Trump's support is over the top. He just lets his Generals do whatever they want. We are destroying innocent Yemenis, for what reason, because the Saudis and Iran have a pissing contest to see who will control the Middle East. Of course the the empire, which is corporate and world wide and housed in the USA, is behind it. The United States supplies the planes, the reconnaissance and in-flight fueling for the American supplied planes so they can continuously attack.

We have unleashed drone warfare and are now using them in third world countries that we have no formal quarrel with. We have created terrorism and anti-terrorism and are using it in a desperate attempt to get control of the world. This has been going on since the first Bush administration and it has been cranked up under Trump. I am not exempting the democratic administrations from responsibility. Actually, I am not sure presidents have much power over foreign policy. It seems like we have a government within a government. Presidents can slow down the momentum though, and they can be honest with the people if they dare. We have not had a president who has dared to be honest.

All the agencies that exist to protect the consumers, the environment, education, health etc. are being destroyed. All regulation and power is being handed over to corporate control. We hear very little about this. Why?

How come the main stream media which has been the darling of the conservatives is suddenly pretending it is liberal? Do you remember the MSM ever fully backing a democrat? We have had fox news which is rabidly republican and we have the rest of the MSM which is traditional republican.

If we look at substance and forget the window dressing, i.e. identity politics, we see that the lines have become quite blurred between the two parties. The Cabal [or deep state] runs the media and they will back any who will do their bidding.

I don't know why I am bring this up. I guess it is because I am tired of seeing people I love and respect getting caught up in causes and issues that are created by the media to create conflict and division. Doesn't it cause you to cringe when Trump says, “Fake news.” We have been saying it all along. We know it is true. There are grounds for removing Trump from office but most of the stuff that is thrown at him in the media is nonsense.

The Empire, The Deep State, The Cabal, whatever you want to call it, is losing its grasp. They are desperate and in their final throws to maintain power, they are causing death, homelessness, and destruction all over the world. It is not just in Yemen. The news doesn't cover Yemen much but we hear a little, we don't know much about the horror our drones are causing in Africa and in the rest of the world. Our mini-wars in South America have been going on for over a hundred years, lately they have been disguised as drug wars, they are for control of the continent.

I don't spend my time looking at this crap, because I know it is over. The consciousness of humankind will no longer support it. Those who are dedicated to power and money will gradually be replaced. Of course there will be some upheaval, but not as much as we might think. All the time the dark has been grabbing for power, people have been waking up. We have been seeing we can have a different world. Somehow it has occurred to us that everything is energy. The people of the dark use fear. We use love. Fear is no match.

If the folks of the world could refrain from accepting the invitations to be afraid, that are dangled in front of them by The Cabal, the dark ones would wither away. The Dark, The Cabal, The Deep State, no matter how they are labeled can only exist with energy of fear.

So just love each other folks and watch this ugly horror movie wind down. Let us not react to it. It is not real. We will discover only love is real.

Love and Peace, Gregg

IT'S WINTER

The Sun has returned. It looks beautiful, looking out from my window in the North room. It is nice but cool 21.9 F. The chickens won't come out. I have had chickens that would brave almost any kind of weather, but this group is not very adventurous. If I threw some kitchen waste outside their door they may hop out, but without a good reason they choose not to explore the outside world. They enjoy their cozy coop.

The sheep are enjoying their large hay bales and it brings peace to me. Now when they baa at me, which they do whenever they see me, I can be sure it is just a greeting and not a distress call. It is sometimes more than a greeting however, I throw out the kitchen garbage for the chickens, the sheep have come to expect it. Why sheep would like egg shells, coffee grounds and scraps of this and that I don't know. They are so greedy the chickens don't get anything. Over the years I have noted much variation in the behavior of sheep i.e. kitchen garbage. In years past I have had sheep nose around to see if their was a bit of lettuce or carrot but they turned up their noses at the rest. These particular sheep like it all and think it is a spectacular smorgasbord. They know in the afternoon when I am going to bring it out and they are waiting.

The local tax people are weighing whether we are a farm or not and are threatening to raise our taxes. I think we will prevail. We have just twenty acres but we have always raised some kind of livestock. Their issue seems to be whether we are making money or not. If you are renting out your pasture for a farmer to use you are automatically included. If you just have a few animals, you may be a hobby farm and not eligible. It is neither a farm, in the commercial sense, or a hobby, it is our way of life. I am not sure they have a classification for that. It won't change anything if they do raise our taxes, but there is a principle involved.

The snow came in dribs and drabs and finally covered everything. It must be four or five inches deep. So Winter is here, indisputably. It kind of snuck up on us with that roller coaster of above average and then below average temperatures.

I can't believe Christmas is only ten days away. Time flies when your an old codger. I am going to devote a blog to the curiosity of aging. Not today. I just want to wish everybody a Happy Friday!

I hope we can all keep our minds away from the world's craziness and find pleasant companionship with each other. It is so nice to have loving kindness for yourself and envelope all others in it.

Love and Peace, Gregg

WE WILL BE FINE

 

It is a good day! The news out of Alabama is great sigh of relief. My hay man is coming this afternoon. It is cloudy out, but not too cold, 24.8 F.

I shouldn't say what I am going to blog about. I said Monday that I would talk about the economy today. I don't want to. I don't know anything. The people I rely on for economic news state logically why we are on the edge of a precipice. When and if we tip over is the question.

Economist are all over the map on that question and even more over the map on the best way to deal with it. They vary from the uber-logical to the hysterical. They generally tout there past success at prediction. One needs to have a good BS detector. Some say get out of cash. Some say invest in cash. Some say real estate is the best investment, others say to be shy of real estate. Some say gold is where it is at, others say its a no no. If you follow their reasoning, they are all right according to how they see the situation playing out. The problem is we have only the past to predict how the scenario will play out.

My best guess is we are going to experience crash of the current global monetary system and a re-issuance of a currency based on gold. To get a picture of our current fragile situation. I would recommend you read James Howard Kunstler's blog, “Clusterfuck Nation.” It will give you a good perspective of what is happening. Don't expect to agree with everything he thinks. He blogs on Mondays and Fridays. His last couple have been focused on the economy.

I would like to be able to give people a timely heads up. I can't. I don't think things will be the same a year from now, but I thought that before. Kunstler will help you see the bigger picture.

I think the consciousness of the common person has raised to the point where no calamity will bring us down. We know how to care for each other. I think there are forces at all levels of society who have felt something coming and are ready to step in as our current institutions crumble.

If we keep in mind that this is always a choice between love and fear, oneness or separation and always keep our faces turned to the light, we will be the benefactors of a crumbling world not the victims. All that is required is that we make all our decisions with love. Is that so hard?

We have explored separation to the nth degree. It is time for it to end. We see the collapse everywhere. We can help by not being seduced by ideas that cause division and promote judgement. Be careful of causes. They may sound right up our alley, but do they invite judgement? Do they cause us to look down on others? Beware of feeling righteous, that is a sure sign we are contributing to separation. In these uncertain times we are all wrong much of the time. Some of us are more in error than others. Error just points out that we haven't discovered how lovable and loving we can be.

Let's keep shining our light. We will get through this. We are remarkable beings.

Love and Peace, Gregg

FRED FLINTSTONE

I noticed that the weather prognosticators were predicting snow for last night. I checked a couple times during the day and they said there was a 90% chance of two to three inches. I was hoping we would miss it because they also predicted it would be over freezing and we could get rid of some we got. Well after midnight I looked outside, not a flake. Ah...... checked the forecast again and they raised the probability to 100% but lowered the expected amount to less than an inch.

When I got up this Morning we had over two inches. It was warm though, it is 35 F now. I like the snow but I was hoping the sheep could get more use out of the pasture. I called my hay man, he was on his way home from Texas where he bought some goats. He said it was 63 degrees there. He will put me first on his list. The sheep are okay, I got several bales of that poor quality hay. The hay is fresh and what they can eat is nutritious, but it is full of sticks and stalks they wouldn't eat. I bought it for another purpose.

We still didn't get our remote. I have difficulty watching TV without a mute. Two days ago we tried to escape into Netflix. Netflix was having some kind of promotion where we had to sign in. We couldn't figure it out. We tried to put our name in etc. got nowhere. We figured we would have to wait for one of our tech savvy children to visit.

The next night I tried again. Oh, in much smaller letters at the bottom of the screen, there were instructions to put in our pass word. We had no idea what our pass word was. Our daughter, Naomi, helped set it up. I thought she might know. Then I noticed a 'forget password' message and was able to click on it and set up a new password. Works fine.

Yes, neither Jamie or I are tech masters or anything close. On Thanksgiving I was trying to take some pictures with an iPhone. I was having some minor difficulty. My older daughter [Laura] looked over to my younger daughter [Naomi] and said, “Fred Flintstone.” Humph........ I felt the love in it so I didn't protest. And how could I protest. I was at a store not too long ago and I was having trouble with my car. I asked a clerk if I could use the phone. He handed me his cell phone. I looked at it. I had no idea how to use it. I had to hand it back to him so he could dial the number. Note that I wrote dial. That was automatic.

Naomi gave us an iPhone as a gift. I think she might be worried about us having an emergency and being away from our land line. There was a tutorial available to teach one how to use the phone. It was quite long, perhaps an hour, it went on in detail about all the great attributes of this instrument. I don't remember it saying anything about how to use the phone. The assumption must be that every idiot knows how to use a cell phone. Well there are some old idiots out here that are just learning. I can do it but I haven't had much experience. I call Jamie once in a while and pretend I am a robocall.

There is growing older and there is the world leaving you behind, two different things. I am as tech savvy as I need to be and a little more knowledgeable than these writings probably indicate. I don't mind growing old. At least most of the time. There are advantages. I have been meaning to write a blog about growing old. I will soon.

Wednesday I want to write more about the economy and what may be on the horizon.

I need to wash dishes and go to town with Jamie.

Love and Peace, Gregg

PARADISE BECKONS

We have a break from the frigid weather. It has been windy and cold the last three days, today the breeze is moderate and it is warmer 30 F, which is even higher than the forecast.

The chickens came out for the first time since Monday. I saw them out a couple hours ago and then just a few minutes ago I was looking for them, I couldn't see them, I thought they went back inside. I walked around the house looking out all the windows and I spotted them on the edge of the shelter belt. Chickens don't like snow especially if it comes up to their shanks. Despite the blizzard conditions Monday Night, it was brief, and there wasn't much accumulation. It was probably the cold and wind as well as the snow that kept them in the last three days.

I just saw the sheep wending their way across the North pasture. They pause now and then where a clump of grass emerges from the snow and paw and eat a bit. I need to put a fire under my hay man, what I am feeding them isn't top grade. They would actually find enough digging through the snow in the pasture. They have made it clear, however, they prefer me to feed them.

We don't care very much for the newer television shows but we do like to listen to some oldies in the Evening. However, we hate the commercials! About a week ago, it seems longer, the remote that controls the sound [mute and volume] went on the fritz.

We are too old to jump up and down every time a commercial comes on, besides the buttons on the sound bar are recessed and we need a flashlight to see them. Gone are the days when we had a child that could be trained to be a mobile remote, besides those rascals need to be in bed too early and the older kids tend to get rebellious when it quits being fun.

So we have been have been learning much more than we wanted to about prescription drugs besides a whole lot more. Those drugs, wow, I can't believe people actually pester their doctors for them. They must somehow blank out the side effects. Some say, “sudden death may occur.” That would discourage me. Are there people that are not active mute pushers? I can't imagine people listening to these commercials. Some of the none drug commercials are funny and some very clever. Before my remote broke we listened to some we knew were well written and well acted.

Those drug commercials though, all that I can say is wow again, they appear to be the dark side of medicine.

We wait everyday for the new remote that will come by mail, UPS, Fedex or whatever.

I don't know how to talk about the world. Everything we see in the media seems to be a smokescreen hiding what is really happening. We discover that and then we discover what we thought might be some truth and it is more cover. The real scenario will come out bit by bit. I think it will be shocking.

What is happening in the financial world may be a little easier to access. There is no real financial news in the main stream media. The economy has not been improving. The real wealth of the working and middle class has steadily declined since the 70s and has taken a steeper decline since 2008. The stock market rise does not reflect the economy, even of the Corporate World. Corporate profits are way up, but that is all due to the free money available through the Fed. Quantitive Easing they call it, the Fed quit doing it a couple years ago, but other World Banks took over. This is money that is only a number on a computer. It creates giant IOUs that some miracle will take care of. The only thing that can save it is for real wealth to grow, real production. It isn't happening. The stock market going up is not healthy. The only thing that could save us is for all that extra Wall Street money to be divided up and given to the poorest 70% of the population. In our present consciousness that is not likely to happen. Historically the world looks a lot like 1929 only worse. Then too, the top 1% were hogging all the money.

We are just spectators watching the empire crumble. It is not a bad thing. It all has to go. We know what a sane world look like. We know how to help it emerge.

It all starts in our minds, “Are we choosing love or fear?”

The world that is passing was created out of fear, that is what separation is, fear and all its children.

We know how to Love. Paradise beckons!

Have a Great Friday! Celebrate!

Love and Peace, Gregg

THE NEWS FROM LAUGHING WATER FARM

I just heard my wall clock strike eleven, it is abut time I began hitting the keyboard. I haven't quite recovered from the dramatic change in the weather. It was fiftyish on Monday Morning and 15 F Tuesday Morning and Monday Night we had a blizzard.

I mentioned on Monday that we had a function to attend to that Evening and the forecast was not favorable. I wanted to keep an eye on the weather while we were there as not to get caught in the snow storm. Well we were having way too good a time to pay much attention. We were being reacquainted with some old friends and meeting new ones. When I noticed it snowing I decided to leave. We only had twenty-five miles to drive, but I am an old codger.

It was snowing briskly when we left Cambridge and it appeared to get more ferocious as we went North. The wind was driving the snow in a way that was blinding. We couldn't see much with the lights on dim, but on bright they were worse, as the snow reflected the light back in our face. Jamie serving as my guide and navigator warned me more than a couple times that I was turning into a driveway and not a roadway. Twice I turned into driveways by mistake far enough to back out. We had to drive so slow, that it seemed a long time from when I would see the sign for the road we wanted to turn on, to actually come to the turn. I didn't record the time, but I think it took us over an hour to drive the twenty plus miles. I was very happy to turn on the dirt road that led to home. By the time we got home the snow had abated and if we would have waited another half hour to leave we might have had an easier time.

It was all good. It was a remarkable adventure. It was good to discover the old guy could still do it.

On the domestic front, we caught our first mouse of the season. They usually invade the house earlier in the Fall. It has been a relatively mild Autumn. It is also possible that Jamie has been catching them all along and I am too out of it to know it.

My sheep are disappointed in me because I am not giving them the kind of hay they prefer. My hay man is late in delivering me the big bales they like. It didn't matter until yesterday as the pasture was still good, but now with the snow cover, they will need hay. I have some old hay that will get them by, but they know how to complain when they are not completely happy.

It was only 13 F when I got up, but the Sun has been shining off and on and it is now a balmy 22.1.

This is not a day to report on the big world. As one of my departed brothers would say, “Be good to yourself”. Love your neighbor.

And that is the news from Laughing Water Farm.

Love and Peace, Gregg

TO THE END OF OUR SEPARATION

 

We are on the high side of the weather roller coaster. It is over 50 F and it is supposed to begin raining this Evening, turn to snow, and drop down to 15 degrees. We have a function to attend to this Evening, I hope the worst happens after we are back home.

Wow! Could the polarization in the world be greater? The division and the retreat to various camps is phenomenal.

At the same time and quietly, folks are seeing this is all nuts. We don't want any part of it. Many of the folks who can't take the nuttiness are people, who all along felt that we were all one, and separation from each other was the source of all the craziness.

Can we imagine a world of separation that has become so extreme that folks on one side of this beautiful Earth plot the annihilation of folks on the other side? How about separation so extreme that one group decides that another group should not be cared for in terms of health, education and welfare? What if that same group decides to raise the taxes on all but the wealthiest? How could we believe that? Wow! That is way too extreme!

Those of us who realize that separation is an illusion will be able to find peace, love and joy in the comfortable presence of each other. No we don't need to be part of that illusion. We are realizing that only love is real, and all made from the idea of separation, will pass.

Humankind has been on a great journey to discover if separation is possible. We have carried out separation to the nth degree. Most of us are ready to give up the idea and some of us have awakened to the point where we see only love is real and are beginning to see a new world emerge.

Many of us who are seeing this truth are too shy to have this conversation with their neighbors or even family members. They don't want to be seen as kooks. By opening the conversation they will discover that many are kindred souls. The awakening has proceeded at a much greater pace than they thought. We have a lot of company. In fact most people realize we are 'One'. They may not know how to express it, but they know in their heart it is true.

We know we cannot judge those who still embrace separation. Judgement is what causes the problem in the first place. We will develop compassion for them regardless of the destruction they have caused. They are the ones in the most pain because they have been pursuing substitutes for love. Those substitutes, usually power and money, will always leave one empty and the demand for more, insatiable.

As we learn to give up all our substitutes for love, a new world will open up to us.

Love melts all illusion. Love knows no separation.

Let's have a toast: To the end of this illusion; to the end of our separation; to our awakening to our Oneness; to our awakening to who we are; to our awakening to Unconditional Love; to the realization we are in Paradise.

Skoal!

Love and Peace, Gregg

WELL.......

 

I have the worse case of writers block I have ever had. I don't know if I am really a writer. I record my musings in a blog. I really don't want to write about the craziness in the world and I have made my recommendations for how we should deal with it many times.

I awoke this Morning happy to greet the day, I was at peace with myself and with the world. I did the crossword puzzle. I let my chickens out and gave the sheep some water. Filled my sink up with hot water to let my dishes soak, I am sure the water is getting cold by now.

I have three things I read on the internet every Friday Morning. I have been sitting here dozing off and occasionally getting up to do this or that.

Any inspiration..................no, the only thing that comes into my mind is, why are dogs so heavy when they are laying on your blankets? Our dog Xena, a Yorkie-poo, sleeps with me. I usually can get up and back in bed without incident. This Morning I got up about 5:00 and when I came back to bed I couldn't get the sheet back on me. I pulled on it and pulled on it. She can't weigh more than 7 pounds. How is she able to defy the law of physics and pin down the sheet? I suppose I could have really yanked it from under her. Instead I slept with only a quilt covering the rest of the Night.

I don't have any more fascinating stories. There is so much I could comment on but I would like to see things play out a little more. The proposed tax bill appears to be national suicide, undercutting the working and middle class, who are the very people who need to purchase things to survive. Without there participation the economy doesn't have a chance. Well, it looks like it [the economy] is in the dumper anyway. It is teetering and a crash is coming soon. We are losing control of the petrodollar and our dominance as the World Reserve Currency. It is almost as if the top 1% is trying to suck up as much as they can before the excrement hits the fan.

Let's keep our noses out of the idiot box and celebrate this marvelous Friday. There is life outside of the main stream media and the alternative media too; they are both just different thermometers measuring a very sick, fevered world.

Let's dream of our new world. A world where people actually love and take care of each other.

Love and Peace, Gregg