seem to be inside a cloud this morning...
But it only rained a little then stopped....
I've been doing my usual routines; hiked up and packed firewood down
off the mountain, chopped it and split it with my favorite axe,
rebuilt my fire with sidelogs, and got some pea soup going.... its
done now, and I just put on some flatbread...
another experiment in minimalistic cooking... after discovering that
I could make thick flatbreads in banana leaves, I tried it without
the leaves, by using a smaller fire & cooking more slowly, and it
worked very well....
so this morning's experiment is trying it with unleavened corn
bread... so I ground corn, and rinsed all the floaties out of the
meal at the spring... and mixed with some wheat flour to glue it
together, and just poured it into the skillet....
Have been having monkeys show up at my shelter site to steal bananas,
they come within a few feet of me now... got a wheelbarrow load of
bananas this week, split half with my worker, and now sharing with our
arboreal little cousins...
and observing their antics, reminds me of people, and how they grab
from you and say meaningless things while doing it... I guess we
havnt come all that far in the last million years, still self
centered...
I think I'd rather center the self....
I've learned alot from living "poor".... its not what you lack that
hurts, its how people treat you... attitudes... so I'm thankful for
the humility 101, knowing others is wisdom... Now just to apply it to
myself to enhance personal enlightenment....
Lately I've been having some success, changing/improving my own
habits.. have been using organizing & repairing & maintaining my gear
as a way to improve my life at low cost, and need no one to make it
happen...
I find living alone to be very educational... No one to blame for
anything except the mug in the mirror... others may do thoughtless
things, or lie, or have their attitudes, but I've figured out the best
way to prevent being trashed emotionally by people's trips, is to
remove my own "me element" from the equation... so I'm learning to
accept that people are incurably egotistical, and use the experiences
to push for my own personal independence...
if I try to do something, and think it requires help, and ask for
help from people I assist however possible, and then get refused,
I'm learning that rather than become hurt or angry, I get farther by
just "going around" the problem...
i.e. Figuring out another way, that doesnt require anyone else....
this has been working well...
the more self reliant I am, the less I bother others... And the less I
need others, the less I feel trashed by their self centeredness..
and I've been finding that my neoindigenous lifestyle helps alot...
When you live minimalistically, the first thing you discover, is you
still have too much...
at one time, I owned 100x more than I do now... and now I find that I
still own 10X more than I need.... so why did I have all that other
stuff?
These days, I try to want, only inside the neoindigenous paradigm...
This creates a focus...
And I dont get side tracked by the endless wants that get inserted via
electonic means into the heads of the TV zombies.....
I was Chatting the other day, via text messages, with a local woman,
nice lady, two kids, living with her mom & step dad... I was talking
about the farm, that we just planted beans & corn, and that I'd loaned
land to a friend to plant beans on, and that he sent beans to his
mother and his son... And then I chatted about food recipes I was
experimenting on... Which led to mentioning firewood.... And the
woman got short with me, and said:
"Theres no firewood here! Good night!"
it was the last I've heard from her....
And thinking about it, I realized that she was too into a vanity land
existence, and didnt want to hear about free food & cooking fuel,
because it didnt match her goal structure... she wants some guy with
money to buy her food, so she can sit on her ass in a house & watch
soap operas...
well babe, from the looks of the economy, youre going to lose that
body fat aft fairly soon if you insist thats how its got to be.....
I had the same problem with my exwife... she wanted fancy food, not
stuff that came in 100 lb sacks or that I grew....
well, she's somebody elses problem now... And lives in a nice house
the bank owns....
I suspect she's under water on it, in spite of two incomes and
selling a second house...
I feel sorry for her, she's worked alot of years, since I put a stop
to her milking me... I used to call her "Norma Lee Normal" as her
highest aspirations seemed to be being as normal as she possibly
could....
well, I've observed that normalcy is the best way to insure you get
used badly...
"Must I do as others do? Thats crazy!" (paraphrasing the Tao)
sure is.... and getting worse every day... meanwhile, I'm trying the
cornmeal & flour flatbread, its about an inch thick, and not much
different from regular corn bread... Why have I used leavening for the
last 40 years? Because everybody else did.....
and thats how the big lie works... It steals us as puppies, and we
learn to be dogs not Coyotes....
meanwhile, every "Tentwife" of a thousand years ago likely knew what
I'm just discovering now.. That thick unleavened breads are great, if
you cook them slowly....
well, the peas, corn, and flour were all about 60 cents a pound... So
the dog and I eat well today, for less than $2........
I think we'll have ripe bananas for dessert, I hid some from the
monkeys.... and have four types going ripe...
Lately I've been searching online for images of crossbow releases...
i'm thinking about building another crossbow, after I finish the steel
limbed long bow I have 80% done now...
I see several types of releases and sears, and am thinking I may
kind of create a new style using elements from the others.. What I
want to build, is a repeater; a crossbow with a magazine for 8 inch
quarrels, that I can shoot as fast as I can draw it like a bow, and
release it... I've been sketching on it for several years, and
have most of it drawn out...
I'm thinking use spring steel for the bow, but have the limbs
narrower & longer than on a crossbow, so I can pull it manually..
Hoping for maybe 75 lb draw....
I was pleased during my online searching by the stuff I saw being
made... its obvious to me that alot of people are into muscle powered
weapons now... which makes sense, in a soon to be post collapse/post
Nuclear war reality..
relying on chemical propellants, is like relying on fossil fuels.. On
the day after the greedheads nuke the dogshit out of each other, &
everybody else, that .308, or .45 ACP are going to be wall hangers
after the last round exits the barrel...
what that translates into in survival speak, is gee! Youre out of
ammo forever...
this is why many survivalists also have bows, crossbows, swords
etc... And the extreme fringe go for aboriginal skills... Which is
why I took up knapping obsidian points..... which I can do one in
about 15 minutes... TV glass also works great....
I prefer steel broadheads, and prefer home brew to boughten... I've
made myself a simple swage to do ferrules, by drilling a hunk of 2
inch steel shaft, drilled it by hand by the way, using a carpenter's
brace and a steel bitt... Then I used a small hand reamer to taper the
hole, and then ground a punch to fit the taper.... it took several
hours, dripping sweat in the tropical heat, but now I have a lifetime
tool... I also make my own shafts... From splits, using a block
plane and a simple guide I made... works good... takes about an
hour to make a shaft...
( I have wild monkeys 6 ft from me eating my bananas.)
I'm thinking about switching from fletch to vanes on arrows... and
making the vanes out of cooking oil jug plastic... people raise
turkeys here in Costa Rica, but you cant get them to save you any
feathers... they ask why? And you tell them for arrows, and they
think youre crazy and burn the feathers... Had it happen many times,
including when I offer to pay money for the feathers...
continued.
--
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