(as the past few blogs)……..MADNESS. Ya know? All the stuff that seems crazy to me?
Anti-vaxxers. Anti-maskers. Hate mongers. Fox News. Those that blame Biden for Afghanistan (Trump and Pompeo surrendered to the Taliban last year and did nothing to mitigate the impact of that. Trump caused Kabul). Trudeau – in every regard, of course. The so-called Health professionals making Covid statements and then reversing them and then getting up to the podium again and again…… Demonstrators protesting any health measures whatsoever. I am inclined to go on that same old blog theme as before: madness that just keeps going on. And on. And on.
But wailing and ranting doesn’t actually do much except vent my spleen and so I really must move on. Preferably on to something positive………and stating that we are all positively living in madness is not good enough. But, of course, before one writes about the positive, one must first find some. And I have been looking. Honest.
Search rule# 1 – start local, start small……..Our summer temps have noticeably cooled. I really needed that. Mind you, it is the end of August and I am wearing a light jacket in the house but still, it is absolutely fine compared to the two heat domes we experienced. Climate change is upon us and likely here to stay (for my lifetime, anyway) and so I will have to adjust the best I can. And I will.
Lumber prices are almost back to normal. Whew! And Sal and I managed to keep working at the new shed-build using reclaimed wood in the meantime. It is almost 100% framed. Just awaiting plywood and siding and roofing. A small victory but a victory nevertheless.
Whales have visited again lately. Oooh.…that is always good but last week they were doing an acrobatic show and that was a marvel to see. Bonus (for the whales): many, many fewer whale-watching boats. Many, many fewer kayakers, too, so far. And our water system – which was down to the trickles – has picked up a bit and has remained steady throughout. That is a HUGE plus on the Gulf Islands – especially this summer.
One of the nearby OTG islands had a cabin-fire that quickly escalated to a small forest fire but the local community leapt to the challenge and fought it into submission. The Fire Service helped and likely provided the ultimate squelching but they were full of praise for the locals. It was ugly and dangerous and threatening but it was subdued. Kind of heroic in my eyes. Locally, we are doing good.
Globally, however……..I think the most positive way of looking at all the madness and chaos is to see it as the normal perception and response to change. There is no question we are in a time of transition. We are changing. The world is changing. Because we cannot see exactly what it will all look like, we mostly just see madness and fear. Make no mistake: the change a’coming may very well be worse. Fearing change is natural because sometimes the change is not a good one.
Yin and yang. Optimist or pessimist? Glass half full….of what?
On the other hand, this GIANT change is striking several positive notes already. Even some Conservative, right wingers are suggesting that the age of BIG OIL is over. Wow! Some amongst the blind can now see!! A lot of people have been kicked into a work-living perspective change, as well. Not so many wanna go back to the grindstone anymore. Many do not want to even go back to the office!! That has to be good in a myriad of ways.
There seems to be a gradual but significant reduction of racism but I may be seeing something positive that isn’t quite there yet. We’ll see. There is no question about climate change anymore. Even Bubba comes around after being hit by drought, plague, pestilence and tornadoes. A double-wide can only take so much! We also seem to be more aware of the environment on the whole….I hope…we’ll see.
Please consider reading: Natural Capitalism, Drawdown and Regeneration. All three books are by Paul Hawken. Elon Musk is smart, Paul Hawken is genius.
If some kind of shake-up doesn’t happen in our hoary institutions and the way we live, I will be very surprised (but, most likely, I’ll be dead. None of this is happening fast enough for me to see great societal-shift-in-my-lifetime). But what more evidence is needed? The police clearly need some kind of therapeutic re-make. Our hospital-doctor-nurse pedestal model needs reform – the sooner the better. Politics may be unrescuable so we may simply have to get more revolting (I am doing my best). Education has long been moribund but the industrial model on which it was built is changing even more so and fastest of all. New-think has to be coming. How can they perpetuate all that old nonsense much longer? It has to change.
The Capitalist model seems here to stay but many flaws have been exposed ever since 2008. In response to the flaws, the poor are getting poorer but that might be needed before reform is demanded. Infrastructure is finally getting the review it needs. Well, it needs a serious rebuild in so many ways but a review is, at least, a start.
Personally, I want mag-lev bullet trains but well, that’s just me. See: I have positivism. I positively want a cross continental system of mag-lev bullet trains (and then I’ll shut up)
Our Off the Grid Home 
I do so enjoy reading your writing JD. It most often shows one is not so alone. I hope that is a good thing!😉
I try to steer clear of the news and espec politics. It is such a joke and so sad. Most of those folks being so low and acting intensely privileged… on my/our dimes. It’s too revolting. And change? It seems folk are just too thick and too stuck to make the positive,sensible change, at least as I see them, so somewhere down the road some form of revolt will be necessary. Tricky that, as the establishment is so well armed to keep us at their teet. 🙏🙏🙏 But prob not in my lifetime either. Part of why I brought us here was to keep all of that at a distance, tho I’m not sure we’ve moved far enough away for that. We sure love it here, TRULY LOVE IT, and our neighbours are just plain Grand.
Death of big oil? FAB. We have seen 1st hand how amazing solar can be, tho we do rely on propane backup genny – and hot H2O as well as the stove/oven – and we could do so much better with a bit more solar panels or, preferably, a decent wind genny – we do plan on a wind gen to supply power in the dark, breezy winter AND to heat the floor some – and we’d buy a, mostly solar powered, electric truck and boat if at all possible. They ARE coming!
But will we be safe from the Honey BOO BOO Effecr – those that watch and consider Honey BooBoo quality entertainment – as well as the current, almost completely cretinous load of politicians ? I just don’t know. All I do know it that I hated Harper and his ilk but that coward Trudeau kinda scares me. There is no quality road that I can see, as yet.
Prayers and prepping seemingly required!😯😲😳🙏😎
Take good care all… D.
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Well, ya know I agree (especially about not being far enough away). As for wind power….well, I have given up on it. Too fickle. But a mini-hydro works. Mini hydro works best of all. My problem is that I am too far away to do it easily so I use a genset. But, when Teotwawki gets MORE real, I will design something, build it myself using old alternators and I think I will be better off. OK, after I have built it, rebuilt it, fixed it, replaced it and done it ten times, I will be better off.
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Wind would be right up our alley as it is almost always breezy here, and it sure gets dark, and early, in the Winter…
I’ve seen hydro done with a clothes dryer drum that seemed to work well. We have flow, overflow actually, from the well, but not enough for power in the later Spring, Summer and early Fall, but if you’ve got a flow that’s the way you should go!😉
Wish Us all LUCK!!! D.
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Since you are into building, think you should build a wind gender that works at low and high speeds. Then improve it, so that it works well for when we arrive!
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At the rate of my work output, Elon will be on Mars before I improve the wind generator sufficiently. I am gonna put my waning energies into a tipped over washing machine placed in the creek that somehow generates power….as per Matt Todd and his NZ You Tubes. I just need the knowledge, the time, the washing machine and the pipes. I have the creek already.
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Please do post some pictures of your constructions, would like to see them! Amazing how inventive our minds can be! Still seeing the pictures in my head from the solar oven you built JD 😉
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You’re awfully prolific these days By the time of thought of a clever response, you gone off on a new topic. Winter’s coming on. Save some for the dark and dreary days!
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You are right, of course…except that, when the passion hits, you gotta go with it. And there is something else, too…..I just realized as I was responding…..I really do not have a readership. I crack jokes about it, saying I have seven readers…but then a friend passes or Aldo stops reading or Moira calls me names and I am down to six. So, I am down to six! Which isn’t quite true. I seem to have a few hundred over a few days……so it is not as bleak as I claim. But then I see some dork-imbecile advocating for Ivermectin in Kentucky as a cure for Covid or some major dickhead campaigning on Trumpism and vowing to fight a Civil War and note that they and Kim’s butt have millions of views. I mean; I write primarily to get a monkey off my back but still, What is writing for if not for reading?
Michael Moore just launched a blog/newsletter on Substack. Readers have to pay $7.00 a month to have access. That is insane and $7.00 is the lowest subscription amount! He has readers! WTH!!! Now MM is a good writer and I like to hear what he has to say but his first few (free samples) are pretty lightweight. Paul Krugman is way smarter and a better writer and he is free. I just don’t get it. In other words: I may be in the death throes…..this may be the last hurrah….I may be done and there is a small flare of resistance before the darkness descends.
Fade to blac……..
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Just in case it will soothe or appease you a tad…
I don’t often reply, but I ALWAYs read your stuff, and I’d say exclusively with a chuckle, a ‘yep, been There’, or at least an “Amen”, so, FOR SURE, you have at least One!
Great stuff about the bottle, except the sad part. Who wouldn’t pick up a bottle?
My biggest problem these days is the two bear dogs. They book it every time my back is turned. The lovely neighbours are helpful and understanding. I, and espec the wee wife, worry on them badly as the trail cams REGULARly pick up wolf, cougar, black and Grizz. I fear they don’t know what they are playing with. But they are bear dogs, of Karelia, and the bravest of the Brave. Still they only weigh 75# or so. I guess I’ll really have to crack down on them. Such is Freedom in the Geeat Bear Rainforest.
Take good care! D.
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I know so little about Bear dogs but I would venture to guess that, if there are two of them, they OWN the area around them. Their only real threat would be the wolves. A pack is not only unafraid, strong as individuals and aggressive towards other dogs, they usually have the pack. The bears, of course, are stronger but slower and the cougars won’t go near the two of them. If they are within pe’en distance, then they are close enough. Pe’en distance is (supposedly) a term used in the old days to describe the amount of space a prospector could claim on anyone’s land based on the area his (or her?) dog claimed in the usual way.
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I didn’t REALLY mean to whine…..it is just that I was answering John and well, the answer went on a bit too long. To be honest, I do wonder why Kim’s butt gets more views than my blog (have you ever actually SEEN her butt? Once is more than enough!). Mind you, I do not really have a THEME anymore. What started out as awe and amazement about where I was and what I was doing morphed somewhat into topics-of-the-day. But that is who I am – I love OTG but also watch intently as the world turns. C’mon, the world is mad and yet fascinating. I am 100% sane (the only one) and so somewhat boring. It makes entertainment sense to switch around, no?
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