A shrunken head museum online. It is sad, thinking that each one of these heads was once a person, killed for a trophy. I read a most interesting book written in 1912 called The Sea and the Jungle. It was about an expedition up the Amazon. At one point in the true story the local shopkeeper heard of a gold strike in the jungle, he left and was never heard from again. Some months later a native came through with some heads he had purchased from inland tribes. And one of them was the European shopkeeper. His friends bought the head to remember him. Who knows where it is now.
Zombie Time gives us a little glimpse into the omission of facts that is so common in the media. This same media that the leftists say distorts the truth to help the administration actually seems more to omit facts to cover up who is the prime motivators behind the 'Anti-War' movement. In their essay Anatomy of a Photograph we see that a recent Anti War rally had several teenagers directed by an openly Communist organizer who even walks with the flag of Communist Vietnam on her shirt. The Newspapers will not show people like her, they will show the 'Mother Sheehans' to elicit sympathy. If the average American knew that it is our own enemies in this country, people who have an interest in overthrowing our government and enslaving anyone who does not think like a communist were behind these rallies, perhaps they would not feel the same for the protestors that so many do right now.
I am sometimes invited to organic and vegetarian festivities. And with my 'easy-going-hippie-type' demeanor, long hair and casual speech, I fall right in with the crowd. You would not pick me out from a bunch of anarchists or peaceniks at all. But I am something of a 'back-to-the-lander' survivalist type, and definitely not a left-wing liberal or socialist. But sometimes I rub shoulders with these types, and I have learned to hold my speech. Because when I am with a group of them, if they find out how conservative I am, they all gang up on me, ringing me in a large circle and shouting at me. These folks don't care to debate in a rational manner, they prefer to shout down their opponent with invectives and slogans and 'out-of-left-field' oddball statements (like "baby killer"). Sometimes the folks I run across are the types such as the anarchists. These are scary folks, people. Now believe me, if anyone should be for anarchy it should be me, cause I'm one of the biggest, baddest and potentially meanest summabitches ya ever met. And if there is a line and I wanted to push my way to the front not many people would care to quarrel with me. And if it's anarchy you want, I've got a load of buckshot for you if you decide to raid MY food stockpile, Sunshine! These anarchists such as 'The Coalition Against Civilization' remind me of the 'White Power' trash you see on TV interviews (not the true Aryan Nation guys from prison who really ARE bad dudes). Many of these anarchists seem to be unemployed layabouts and college kids living on their parents capitalist dollars while they fight the 'Capitalist system' that gives them their blue jeans, college education and food, as well as the fuel to drive to their rallies where they rage against the corporations and smash windows like a bunch of Brown-shirt Nazis from 1938's Kristallnacht. PrimalWar.org is an interesting link. I must admit, I have a bit of a yearning for a simpler lifestyle, riding a horse about in the wilderness, finding smoke from some distant settlement, sneaking up there in the middle of the night, burning houses, killing people, stealing their children to raise as my own, their women to use as slaves, eating all the food they worked hard to grow, and taking their horses to carry my plunder. That is what anarchy is all about people, and when some skinny pimple-faced kid tells me he is an anarchist, I wonder if he would even try to prevent me from just snatching up his hemp-shirted and mini-skirted girlfriend (dang, I LOVE those hippie chicks), tossing her over my shoulder and riding off into the sunset with her, while he runs to the cops complaining 'cause "this 250 lb giant took his girlie away" from him "Waaaahhhh!!!!" Yes folks, that is the face of anarchy, and that is what will happen if the barbarians win, and these kids burning buildings and trying to uproot fiber optic cables are the modern barbarians, and sometimes the barbarians win. For a more detailed field of vision on this than I gave, you might
want to visit
'Visualize Industrial Collapse' They have done an excellent job
of illustrating the perils in the anarchists vision to society. In
short, the anarchists think most people in an anarchistic society would
be cool, act right and righteous to one another. But I know better about
human nature. I know that when the constraints of society are removed,
people tend to become animals again, a feral species that is out for
blood and responds first and formost to the reptilian brain and the Four 'Fs'
(Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding, and Sex). It is the policeman standing
between me and the pimply faced kid and his sexy girlfriend who is the
ultimate deterrence to me carting her off over my shoulder. And that kid
is the one who wants the cop to quite his job. Believe you me; I know
about Feral, I was this close (holds finger and thumb real close
together) to being feral at one point in my life. Ferality (I made that
word up) is not the higher evolution of our species, it is retrograde; a
degenerative step back in time.
Here is a Skunk Spray Antidote I got from Paul Krebaum
Hurricanes, will the presence of man make them more virulent? There are conflicting theories on this, I like this analysis. Why, oh why are there so many hurricanes this year???? Good question. See what an expert says. Hurricane expert predicts years of more storms The forecaster says "The Atlantic is in a cycle of increased activity that may last 10-20 years". For years we've been reading that we were in a period of fewer hurricanes. And that we were experiencing a housing boom along the coasts where people used to know they were in danger of having their homes blown and washed away. People used to know the government could not really help them. Now were are a population of people that expects the government to come around at the last moment; bugles blaring and swoop us onto the saddle just before the deluge happens. Well, I've got some sad news for you sunshine, the cavalry is no faster now than it was one hundred years ago. We have more people in the way of danger, and when bad things happen those people will be exposed.
Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, here's a woman who decided to have her husband's lover killed. She contacted a private eye and paid him nearly ten thousand dollars to carry out the execution, suggesting he chase her on a motorcycle in a tunnel and spray her with a biological agent. Then when he did not kill her fast enough she went to the police and REPORTED HIM to the Police for not carrying out his end of the bargain. Now, we thought property was going for a lot in Cali. But here's a tool shed that sold for hundreds of thousands in Dublin.
and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. ~John Muir Yes, I like our trees. We have nearly one hundred Monterey Pines. Many of them are nearly one hundred feet tall. These are huge magnificent specimens. I love walking along the driveway with these behemoths rising up on both sides of me. But I cannot grow the cactus under them. The roots of the pines reach under the areas I have tilled and pull moisture and nutrients from the cactus. Their huge roots, thick as an elephant's leg are in the way when I want to go and build a new terrace. We have our cactus areas, and our pine areas, and never the twain shall meet. For a year or two I've been grousing to people about these two particular pines. They are confounding me with their presence, and I did not wish to try cutting them myself due to the proximity of power lines. Finally a friend of mine decided to help me out, so he came over to top and fell the trees, leaving me to do the work of cutting up the remains. But that's OK, because I just needed help on the tricky part. But what was amazing was the dexterity of my buddy in that tree. He's as skilled with a chainsaw as Ted Nugent is with a guitar, and he's as comfortable in his arboreal world as a squirrel. He gave me plenty of tips and we had a good time having a few beers after the scary part was done. He pulled up a website about his hometown in Mexico called Temastian. He showed me his little Pueblito, he pointed out all the places he knew, and several people who he was acquainted with. He misses his home, and I understand that. When I was in Germany I missed the good ol' USA. I was lucky enough to have family there to visit and assuage some of that heartache, and now I miss Germany some. But to be so far from a home you really love is a bummer. Allejandro is a good example of the benefits and rewards of the work ethic. He works hard, and works smart. He has a dream of saving his money, and moving back to Mexico to open his own restaurant on land he has already bought by the city gate. And you know what....? I bet he's gonna do it, and make a good go at his dream. He has the initiative, and the drive to bring his dream into fruition. He is also a heck of a philosopher; he and I spoke several hours of the differences between the US and Mexico, and I have always felt that the German/Hungarian tradition in my family is very similar to the old time Mexican traditions. This country can give you all you want, you just have to keep your eyes on the prize, and work toward that end result. Enclosed are some photos of the trees before the cutting, and also some of Allejandro in the trees working his art.    
K-PIG is a local radio station. It has the most interesting mix of music I have ever heard on a radio station. If you like Blues, Bluegrass, American-Country Folk music and more, then you would like this station. The best thing is they even have a simulcast from their website. They have a play list that shows you what has been playing in the last eight hours. Pig Squeals is where you can post comments. A Local events calendar is fun for us locals.
Here in Anatolka, we have traditions for everything, How to sleep, how to eat, how to work...how to wear clothes. For instance; we always keep our heads covered, and always wear a little prayer shawl, this shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, "how did this tradition get started?" I'll tell you; I don't know. But it's a tradition. And because of our traditions... every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do. ~Fiddler on the Roof  My nephew came over today to BBQ with us. It is a pleasure when your kid sister's kids are old enough to come by on their own, but even a greater pleasure when they are old enough that they bring food with them! Jason brought over the traditional foods for this area; beef Tri-Tip, salsa, and garlic bread, ready to put on the grill. We provided the traditional salad, more salsa (this made with cactus), and a local sausage favorite called kielbasa. We also tossed in some non-traditional BBQ ingredients such as green bell pepper, carrots, corn on the cob, potatos, and cactus leaves. The local area has a deep lore of BBQ that goes back over two hundred years. In the seventeen hundreds when the large Spanish land grants were being handed out, and the California coast was abuzz with cattle ranches, the yearly roundups on the unfenced lands would be done as a community effort by all the local ranches. Whoever had the gang over to their ranch for the roundup that day was expected to slaughter a steer upon which the party would feast that day and the next. This tradition has been continued to the present day. All over the Central Coast weekends are full of civic groups with moveable BBQ trailers, cookin' up a storm. Chicken and Tri Tip are the foods most often found at these shindigs. Families will gather at parks, backyards, and courtyards all around, sharing the blessings of this land and the beauty of this area and it's people. When you have decent health, and family, you have the world at your door. You can experience the world without ever looking out your window if you have friends and family to share with you the things they have seen. Family is really the only thing of value we have in this world, share your best time with your family. And here that includes the BBQ grill.
I heard a fellow the other day on the radio, he was saying that the cost of illegal immigrants to Texas alone costs each family some $720 yearly in additional taxes. He thought that this entitles each Texan family to get an alien and make him mow his lawn, hang wallboard, or clean his house until he has $720 worth of services performed. I like this idea; I could use a weed picker in the cactus garden. You have no idea how difficult it is to pick weeds in a patch of plants with spines on them! You have to be very careful where your tush goes when you bend over to pull a weed. You learn very quickly that you really don’t have any friends when you need someone to pull a spine out of your butt. The beauty of this system is that you would not even need to file federal, state and local papers to hire these illegals. Since they are illegal it is illegal to hire them, so papers would be a dead giveaway. It’d be like those stoned dope growers who complain to the police that their plants got stolen! (What a dope!). Workers comp can be a pain when you deal with a plant that is spiny, and has mean terrible creatures like rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions and mountain lions hanging around ready to pounce on some unsuspecting cactus picker. With illegals not having to have papers, we’d not need worker’s comp (We don’t need no stinkin’ worker’s comp!!). But if I did this we’d not be able to proudly state that we comply with all local, state federal and moral principles as to the treatment of our people (which so far is Vickie and me, and a dozen mouse catchers who work on a barter system). We also comply with the avowed aims and methods of organic production as stated in the new Federal Organic Standards law, and are registered and inspected for complience by CCOF, and are organically approved for international production principles in accordance with IFOAM certification standards. All this, and I am a guy who hates paperwork and bureaucracy.
The Bible says that man is made in the image of God, and was created to be above all other creation, even the angels. When I listen to music it makes me think that perhaps the tones I hear, put into a harmonious arrangement by man is proof enough of the existence of a Creator. But when I see the pit that mankind will sometimes sink into I have to remind myself that it is freewill given to us by the Creator that enables us to ruin the world we were so graciously given. Then, there is the mix of both that I see in the new bands rising from the despondent peoples of the world who have been run over by the larger popular culture; groups that have taken the lessons and technology of this time and blended it into an amalgam of styles new to the world, but that would still find the ear of an ancient from that culture. I think of this as I watch a video of a band from New Zealand called Te Vaka. This band uses modern instruments and weaves traditional rhythms, chants and vocalizations into a new style of music that is pleasing to the ear. And to watch them perform on my television is a delight, after all, Polynesian dancing girls in grass skirts are always a good idea. When one culture subdues another with force, enmity is a sure result. There may be a handful of generations of people grown with the idea that they and their culture are substandard. They may feel like they have no hope in their life to be able to get out of the despair of second-class citizenship. This has happened many times in history, and it is no big surprise now. It happened to the German peoples when the Romans conquered them and the Gauls two thousand years ago. Both of these peoples learned from the Romans, and adapted the new technology they learned to create a new world, different from the Roman world, but markedly changed form the original culture they knew. This band Te Vaka is a good example of the resurgence of cultures that we are likely to see in the coming decades. These cultures are not going to be like the original cultures from hundreds of years ago, but they will be harkening back to an earlier time, of memories when those tribes knew only each other, and the outside world was across the mountaintop, or over the ocean.
I’m finding myself intrigued with the HBO series ‘Rome’. For a web page with critiques of the show you can go to UNRV History Particularly interesting is the collaboration between the History Channel and HBO, with the History Channel showing a series this week on Roman history It features cuts from the series, as well as using some of the actors as narrators. It is fun having a series based in an ancient land, and using some sequence of factual events. They weave in a fictional storyline also, using secondary characters. This series illustrates that history is indeed made up of real people, and in some ways they shared much of the same hopes, and fears that we face.
One Way Donkey Ride by Mary Black
Someone is drowning down there in the flood
No one is given the map to their dreams
While we stumble in blindness where once there was sight
God bless the poor ones who want some, but are denied
Europe along with most of the rest of the world has seen a continuous succession of wars. Rarely is a generation allowed to go without some conflict between itself and some neighbors. When one studies history one can become quickly caught up in the futility of humankind; how our petty squabbles can degenerate into full-scale warfare and the killing of millions. And now I find a website with some really interesting first-hand amateur excavations along the sites of both ancient and more recent wars in the Ukraine. This is particularly fascinating to me since some of my own family fought in this area in the Second World War.
The website is called The Serpents Wall due to the ancient town fortifications stretching for miles along the river.
If one is easily offended do not watch this movie. It has a fair amount of cursing and some lewd and raunchy behavior with the occasional foray into criminal misadventure. But when one watches the whole movie one sees that this is not a paean to an immoral lifestyle, for both protagonists suffer damage as a direct result of their actions. But the highlight of the movie was the scenes of businesses I have been in, roads I have driven. To watch the evening haze coming in from the Pacific as the sun sets is a marvelous sight. But to see the same scene on television and knowing that what you see every day millions across the world can now see, that is an exciting prospect. The people here all know of the special scenery we have that we drive through daily, but when one passes beauty daily it can become commonplace. It is nice to see that beauty out there for all others to admire. All-in-all I enjoyed the movie immensely (mostly due to the local scenes). But young children might perhaps be better off when shielded from this language and behavior.
We get the neighbor's cattle coming into our place on an occasional basis. It's not too much of a problem for us, although they sometimes eat things we plant, usually they eat the brush on the hillside and the grasses growing among our landscape. Our dog Whitie likes to herd them away from the house, and he's really cute as he chases them off, and continually looks back at us to make sure we approve and that he is doing the right thing. Also, it's really funny to see a chihuahua run along chasing off a herd of two thousand pound cattle. I submit a couple of photos of our neighbor's cattle grazing at our place.  
This is from an e-mail I sent out regarding the origin of some of our varieties of cactus. We got the 'Burbank's Spineless' in 1993 from a fellow at a nursery in Fresno, I think it was 'Henrietta's Nursery. As he himself (since deceased) said, the Burbank's 'spineless' is not really spineless at all. But he said it was one of the varieties Luther Burbank put together. I don't actually have any use for it, other than a curiosity since I so admire Burbank. So we sell it, but with the disclaimer that it is not spineless at all, and the 'Santa Ynez', 'Santa Maria' and 'Lynnwood' are much superior for fruit production. But I don't know of Burbank growing any of these particular ones. 'Santa Ynez', 'Santa Maria' and 'Lynwood' were all named by me in the absence of any particular names by the people who I got them from. Here is the background on these three: 'Santa Ynez', is named after the town near where we got this plant. A woman in her eighties who had come to California some years ago to live with her daughter gave us some cuttings. She came from somewhere in New Mexico and was Navajo. She said her family had been growing this variety for over three hundred years. And that she had always been told her family had bred the spines out. We got it in 1991. It was our primary variety for some years. She had no name for the plant other than Nopal (Spanish for Cactus). This one has spineless fruit when ripe. It is a pleasure to harvest. She used it mostly for the fruit.
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