Creeping Normality

Younger voters tend to think inflation is "not all that bad". Their temporal yard-stick is not long enough to see curvature, or if they can they don't understand the implications.

Another issue is that many younger voters think they are high enough above the river to never have to worry about flooding. "Oh, I make $50k a year and my S.O. makes $80k, so we will be fine." or perhaps "I make $150k and my S.O. makes $180k..." Younger voters cannot grasp the ever-increasing, nonlinear nature of inflation, and how it will impact them, because it is outside of the realm of their experience.

Consider the story of the lily-pads and the lake. Scientists discover an infestation of an exotic lily-pad in a small lake. Based on historic data, they know that the lily-pads' footprint will double every day. Based on the current size of the infestation, they determine that the lake will be completely covered with lily-pads in 20 days.

Pop quiz:

1: On what day will the lake have half of its surface covered with lily-pads?

2: Assuming the lake is 1000 acres in area (1.6 square miles), how much of the lake is covered with lily-pads today and will be covered tomorrow?

Answers below the fold

"Only dead fish go with the flow"

 

 

I expect only about 10% of my readers to be interested in this. An executive summary can be found HERE. The executive summary lasts about one minute.

Father Mark Goring is not the typical Catholic Priest. He uses shovels and axes and wears work-gloves. He has a video where he goes dumpster-diving. He lives somewhere in eastern Ontario (Canada, not California). Not that it matters, but he might have a bit of First Peoples in him.

In this video, which is over 30 minutes long, he makes a three-day retreat away from distractions of modern life. He sleeps in a "deer-blind" near a river, catches fish to eat and spends time meditating and praying.

Boring? You can only make that judgement for yourself. He is irrepressibly cheerful and wears a tee-shirt for every occasion.

Boiling defensive handguns to the bare-bone essentials

 

This is a fairly short clip with a run-time just under three minutes.

It is a refreshing take on what is important with regard to defensive handguns.

Spoiler: Hickok45's opinion is that the only two things worth obsessing about are:

1. The ability to extract the weapon from whatever kind of holster and clothing you are wearing in a "reasonable" amount of time and 
2. Being able to hit an 8" target at a "reasonable" range every time. He suggests an 8" pie plate at 7 yards as "reasonable".
   

Or, as the CAS are fond of saying: Grip it, rip it, trip it (and don't miss).

Scion list for 2025 grafting (running list)

Pears

Rousselet de Rheims Pear (pollinator)

Kieffer Pear (main crop) one at bottom of each row

Harrow Sweet Pear (main crop) majority of row

Shenandoah Pear (pollinator)

Duchesse d' Angouleme pear (pollinator)

Concorde pear (pollinator)

Chojuro and Korean Giant Asian pears (pollinator)

Apples

Liberty Apple (middle)

Melrose (north end)

GoldRush (south end)

Enterprise (east, hill-side on MM-106)

Smoothie Apple

Spigold

Tolman Sweet?

Limbertwig (Victoria? Black?)

Small Fruit

Polka Raspberry Norse five plants

Seeds/herbs

Origanum syriacum

Tagetes lucida

Tagetes minuta

Artemisia ludoviciana

Lippia graveolens

Vines

Moonlight Clematis

Blue Ravine Clematis

Clematis virginiana

Hops: Comet, Crystal

Cull plan

Remove all but four Black Walnut along east side of orchard at edge of wetland. Length of line of 240 feet. Back-fill with Shellbark Hickory seedlings.

Black Lives Matter?

The death rate due to drug overdoses of Black Americans under the Harris/Biden Administration has been 47 deaths per year per 100,000.

The death-rate due to drug overdoses of Black Americans under the Trump Administration was 28 deaths per year per 100,000.

That is an increase of more than 65%.

The Democrats' refusal to stop the flow of drugs coming into this country resulted in the deaths of tens-of-thousands of Black Americans. THEY DON'T CARE.

Best Economy Evah!

Rite Aid in Eaton Rapids is closing its doors.

The reasons given in the press are that Rite Aid was hit particularly hard in litigation that pursued prescription drug abuse. Somehow, the drugstores were supposed to be the traffic cop and refuse to fill prescriptions filled out by doctors.

If the economy was strong Rite Aid would not be shrinking its market footprint.

What are you buying?

Mrs ERJ asked me what I was going to do with my Social Security checks when they start showing up. Being a "planner" by nature I had already given that some thought.

One difference between people who are comfortable in monetary terms and those who are not comfortable involves the kinds of things they are apt to buy. For the sake of compactness, let's call them Ants and GHs for grasshoppers.

Ants are more apt to buy classic clothing in fabric that is sturdy and easy to care-for. GHs are more likely to buy trendy clothing or event-specific clothing that isn't appropriate in other venues. I was aghast to learn that there are many people who buy a pair of shoes for a party and never wear them again. Obviously, I don't get out much.

Ants are more apt to buy hardware that has a ten, twenty or even fifty-year useable life expectancy. Feedlot panels, fruit trees, adding fertility to their garden, thoughtful upgrades to their houses, classic books (especially how-to books). On the property I am managing, I am working with forty and fifty-year-old apple trees.

The champion fruit trees are ones that are growing on their own roots and throw suckers. A thicket has the biological potential to live for thousands of years. The Pando Tree is a single aspen clone joined at the roots that covers over 100 acres and is estimated to be between 9000 and 11,000 years. Pears, plums, persimmons and some apples and a host of other fruit trees are either known to sucker or "walk". Walking trees are trees that fall-over and the limbs that are touching the soil strike roots.

GHs chase the latest thing which guarantees it will be obsolete within a year or two. Examples are "Technology" or electronic gizmos, software and entertainment and digital content stored on the cloud.

Some things that might appear to have long shelf lives don't. Bags of premix concrete are an example. Other things that are similar might have very long shelf-lives with a modest amount of care. Bags of salt are an example of that kind of commodity.

Some medicines and vitamins have short half-lives. Others like acetaminophen have a shelf-life that is measured in decades.

Gas powered tools have three common weak links: Fuel-related issues, lubrication and misuse. A gas-powered tool that is fed fresh, clean fuel and has regular oil and filter changes can last for decades if it is not misused. Electric tools are good only as long as compatible, replacement batteries are available.

Hand tools can last a long time when cared for. They last even longer if you have the wherewithal to replace handles or parts that are likely to fail. A little bit of skill with a spoke-shave can vastly extend the life of a hoe or shovel or ax.