Catching up a bit

July 21.



We did get a lovely downpour from a lovely evening thunderstorm. Total precip was circa 1.25 inches, which was very welcome indeed. It greened the warm season grasses nicely and will boost their biomass production, at least a bit.

July 22.

My friends the Swainson's Hawks.



And one of my favorite places, the Scotch thistle outbreak at the northeast edge of the south unit.



I've a new work regime going on which I won't detail just now. I will say that my physical ranch labor now begins hard on the heels of eight hours of laboring for a different outfit.

So when I come to the thistle patch or fencing project on the EJE it's later in the day and the hours I spend are golden hours. Growth and strength-building are maximized when mind and body are tired.

At my new job I have two 15 minute breaks and a half-hour lunch. Thus far I've spent that time walking and running steps. Getting the blood moving sharpens my brain and makes me feel far more refreshed than sitting around power slugging pastry. Seems a good thing.

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July 24, before work.



Lunch walk/run. Some of you might remember this, Smokebong Hill. One of my favorite running hills; 400 yards of progressively steepening slope. It's an ass kicker. You might be wondering why I'm exercising hard when I suffer from traumatic lumbar spondylosis and radiculopathy. It's very simple -- fitness is better than non-fitness, and serious workout movement reduces the pain and forces healing, albeit at the cost of some pain during the actual workout. My roadwork includes walking on hard, flat surfaces, and running up steep, non-surfaced hills. Running up hills works because energy transfer over time through the complex of levers which make up feet-ankles-legs-pelvis-spine is essentially non-traumatic. Vigorously working these parts increases blood flow, improves joint lubricity, and prompts healing.



Move it!



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Today. Saturday, July 25.

So much for the Scotch thistle infestation. On our side of the fence anyway. And in this particular location. There's more. But not a lot more.



After several hours of hard physical labor, it was time to hike with a load on. And I don't mean drunk hiking.



I did just over two miles in 30 minutes, so I pushed it pretty hard, especially considering the hills I climbed. My load consisted of rifle and pistol, nine 30 round mags for the rifle and five 12 round mags for the pistol, spare ammo (100 rifle/138 pistol), four pounds of water, and survival shit.



Curious cows on a hot July day which featured hard physical labor, hard physical exercise, good practice and experience, good pain and good non-pharmacological pain control, and a great deal of enjoyment, satisfaction, growth, learning, and fun paid for with all that hard shit.



Professional victims -- especially career government bureaucrats who've never been anywhere or done anything but know everything -- don't understand basic economics. You trade shit you have for shit you don't have, but want to have. That only makes sense if you've earned the shit you do have and therefore understand its value. Then you have a good idea whether it makes sense to trade a cow for a handful of magic beans.

Today I had the capacity and willingness to trade hard physical effort and discomfort for the delight of living and doing and experiencing in the real world.

As they said in the movie Dances With Wolves, "Good trade."

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Interesting and challenging changes in my life. They're all hard and complex. In navigating these challenges there are a multiplicity of wrong approaches, and a very limited number of right approaches. The secret is to not violate foundational principle. This is hard, and it savagely assaults the professional victims in my life. In this sense it's a win-win. I get to fill the unforgiving minute again and again while the victims continue to wail and gnash their teeth.

Life is good.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.