More eclectia

 

A lovage plant being transplanted. Shovel for scale.

Zinnias.

Baffling

One of the truisms of dating was that you could learn a lot about the person you were dating by watching how they treated their parents.

Some people are very protective and kind to the people who are closest to them. Other people are abusive or treat them as an asset to be strip-mined. 

I "get" that in some circles "being sassy" and "sticking a thumb in da' man's" eye increases in-group status. But what if the target of the "sass" is somebody who you want to maintain a close relationship with? In my opinion, unless the relationship is pathological, it is not possible to have both. It is an either/or situation.

Burning wood

Europe is facing a crisis in the supply of natural gas. The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia gutted the normal supply channels.

As bad as the United States is for unwieldy regulations, the EU is worse. I have been given to understand that it is pretty much impossible to burn wood for space heating, even of old people are dying from hypothermia. At least in the US, the Executive Branch can unburden power producers from air quality standards via "Emergency Relief" powers. The authority in the EU seems to be much more diluted and less capable of moving quickly.

Kubota update

He just texted me "Huge 8 point out here".

He went out there with one arrow. I hope he gets lucky! 

I purchased my deer tag today

In southern, lower Michigan, hunters are restricted to five does per season per county for 2026.

Another change is that "high powered, bottleneck, center-fire cartridges" are legal in all parts of Michigan for deer hunting. I have already heard dire predictions of carnage falling out of the sky from seven miles away.

For that to happen, the deer would have to be climbing trees. Regardless, hunters: Pay attention to what is downrange from your intended target.

Relative biomass

Scaled so human biomass (on earth) is set to 100%.

 The class of terrestrial animal with the greatest biomass are termites.

Regarding election results

We survived 12 years of Obama. We can endure two years of grid-lock. 

If the Democrats ran on cost-of-living in 2026, it will be interesting to see if the policies they implement will reduce costs. Sadly, the US electorate tends to have very short memories.

In talking to people who shoot at pop-up targets from 25 yards to 400 yards, the one's that "kill" the shooter are the 25 yard ones. Washington D.C. is about 500 miles from Eaton County. Time spent in my gardens and orchards will be more productive than whining about the new set of yahoos coming into office.