Category: The land

I have bonded with my ATV


The meadow across the road. Click here for high-resolution version.

I was embarrassed for even wanting an ATV. I was embarrassed when I bought one. It seemed like a trashy thing to have. But I’ve had it for two months now, and I haven’t regretted it for a minute.

It gets me outdoors much more. I don’t zoom around and make a lot of noise. I even installed a “silencer” on the muffler to make the ATV run quieter. I go slow to see what I can see. I have never even used fifth gear. I go places I would never go during snake season for fear of stepping on a snake. I’m getting to know individual trees. I’m learning where the blooming things are. It’s even a social thing, because sometimes a neighbor and I ride together.

The valley in which I live, with its two ridges, is a lot like a tiny state park. There are between two and three miles of roads and trails, two small bridges suitable only for tractors and ATV’s, and two fords across small streams. There are two springs with deep pools where frogs and tadpoles live. There’s an observation tower on one of the ridges that neighbors built. I’ve helped install antennas on top of the tower for emergency use. There is solar power in the tower. A VHF radio that I provided is installed there permanently. I have a rugged HF transceiver that I can take to the tower in case the electrical grid ever goes down (far from impossible during my lifetime).

The ATV is a 2001 Honda Rancher 350 with four-wheel drive and electric shift. I was extremely lucky to find a classic 25-year-old ATV in like-new condition. It’s a beast, though it feels friendly. It often reminds me of riding a horse — sitting on a saddle, feet on foot rests that feel like stirrups, knees clamped against the machine’s chest, watching out for overhanging limbs that might slap me in the face, sometimes rising in the stirrups for a better look up ahead.


⬆︎ Rose of Sharon in my backyard. Click here for high-resolution version.


⬆︎ Butterfly weed in the meadow. Click here for high-resolution version.


⬆︎ The backyard at the abbey at 7:20 a.m. Click here for high-resolution version.

Outlasting them is the best revenge


Jefferson Griffin, vile fascist pig

Today, at last, a ruling by a federal court put an end to a six-months-long attempt by a swamp-scum Republican, Jefferson Griffin, to steal a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. It’s important to understand the absurdity of Griffin’s claims to be able to invoke the appropriate level of disgust for this man. I won’t rehearse the details here — the mainstream media coverage has been good. But adding to the disgust is the fact that Republicans on the North Carolina Supreme Court kept Griffin’s claims alive for months when it was so obvious that Griffin had no legitimate claims and was only trying to subvert yet another election for Republicans.

North Carolina is a purple state. My expectation is that North Carolina will become bluer and bluer between now and the 2028 election, as Republicans show the world that what they are now is fascists. One of North Carolina’s senators, Thom Tillis, is up for re-election in 2026. He seems to understand that he cannot win a statewide election now, so he is one of the few senators market-testing flaccid Republican attempts to stand up to Trump.

My track record on Trump predictions is not good, because I have always been too optimistic that someone would stop him. Again and again, for years and years, the courts have let him skate, and Republicans in Congress blocked impeachments twice. For what it’s worth, I expect the next three and a half years to be a horror. But I still cannot imagine that fascism in America can survive the end of Trump. The fools who voted for Trump deserve all the misery that they are likely to get. Hatred for Trump already has reversed two elections in two other countries, Canada and Australia. Americans are far more stupid and more gullible than the people of Canada and Australia, but I don’t think Americans like fascism any more than Canadians or Australians, once Trump teaches them what fascism and corrupt government are, and they slowly perceive that it was not what they were promised.

Actually, the media have been negligent on one angle of Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to steal an election. I’ve tried to find out who paid for that six months of appeals, which must have cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars. I still don’t know. We need to know who is paying for these Republican attempts to subvert the law, the Constitution, and some of the most important principles of democracy.


2001 Honda Rancher TRX-350, 4-wheel drive, electric shift

I did not need an ATV

For several years I have fantasized about buying an ATV. Everybody has one here in the sticks, whether they can afford it or not. It’s considered essential equipment. I can by no means justify spending much money on an ATV, but I came across a 2001 Honda Rancher 350, well maintained with low mileage. I bought it from the shop that had maintained it. It had been parked for a year. It has new tires and got a thorough servicing including a rebuilt carburetor. It runs perfectly, and, like my 2001 Jeep, I expect it to still be running when I kick the bucket at age 104. It’s a classic.

I like the design of the older Honda ATV’s. The body has soft, curving lines, as opposed to the sharp lines of newer ATV’s. My 2001 model also has a kind — if slightly goofy — face, unlike the aggressive faces of newer ATV’s. I have plenty of woodland trails here to ride it on. I may get a little yard work out of it. And when I’m too lazy to walk the half mile to the mailbox and the half mile back, the ATV will get me there. It will get me outside more. Plus driving it is more of a workout than I would have thought. Steering it is far from effortless, and riding it in hilly woodlands requires a constant shifting of body weight according to the terrain. Maybe it will help keep me young, the better to outlast the fascists.

New glasses

At my age, part of outlasting the fascists is to take care of the brain. We now know how important good vision and good hearing are for keeping the brain healthy and active. It had been almost three years since I got new glasses. I have glasses for reading and glasses for driving, but I particularly notice the improvement with my new reading glasses (which I also use for the computer).

The book is Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, by Diarmaid MacCulloch, an Oxford historian. I’ll have more to say about the book when I’ve finished reading it. It’s already pretty familiar terrain to me, though. When I claim that there is nothing on earth more cracker-fed delusional than the church, and when I further claim that there is no subject on which the church is more horsewash whacked than sex, I’m entirely serious. Anyone who doubts it either doesn’t know much about the history of the church or will believe pretty much any old thing as long as they’re told that it came out of the mouth of God.

My eye doctor is in King. That’s where the The Dalton bar and restaurant is, which I’ve written about before. (A Bistro and Bar in Trumptown). As usual, I had the grilled salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled green beans.


I tried to talk the bartender into selling me a half shot of Oban 14, just so I could taste it. But he wouldn’t do it.

Mountain Laurel

Mountain laurel is very common all over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here in the foothills it is less common, but it is very abundant on the ridges and creek valleys around my house. The ATV gets me to places where I’m more able to appreciate it. Just now the mountain laurel is approaching the end of its blooming season. If I had ever seen mountain laurel bloom before, I don’t recall it.


Scottish pie from the high street bakery in Dunbar. One of these is a meat pie, and the other is a fruit pie.

Scotland calling

Travel is another thing that helps me outlast the fascists. I’ve booked a trip to Scotland in late September — a lovely time of year in Scotland. I’ll be hanging out with Ken, of course, near Edinburgh. But also an old friend from California is making his first visit to Scotland, so I’ll meet up with him and tag along for a few days in Aberdeen and Inverness. I have been to Inverness, but not to Aberdeen.


Scottish pie from the high street bakery in Dunbar

MSG for roasting


A low-carb, high-protein meal: salmon cakes with roasted Brussels sprouts and leftover slaw. Click here for high-resolution version.

I’ve written in the past about how I think MSG (monosodium glutamate) has gotten a bad rap. Thus I won’t go into that here, other than to say that MSG is not unnatural. It’s found naturally in some foods, and the commercial product is just a refined product of fermentation. When used for sautèeing and roasting, it hastens browning and adds umami.

My favorite way of cooking many vegetables these days is to wrap them in foil (with seasonings and oil), and put them on the gas grill. Turn them halfway through cooking. Total cooking time (at least on my grill) is 15 to 20 minutes. The vegetables get some steaming along with the roasting.

Asparagus is in season. Foil roasting on a gas grill is a great way to cook asparagus, not to mention broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and even carrots. You don’t need much MSG. A quarter to half a teaspoon will do.


The rhodendrons are blooming, as is the snowball bush in the background. Click here for high-resolution verson.

Foxes!


Click here for larger version.

I have been spreading bird seed in my back yard each morning, hoping to befriend a pair of crows that I believe have a nest in the woods behind my house. The crows come regularly, as do the squirrels. But I was surprised to see foxes eating the seed.

I believe these foxes have their den, with pups, in a brush and stump pile in the woods a hundred yards or so behind my house. They deserve more than bird seed, so this morning, once the sun is up, I have some other things for them — leftovers, and some eggs.

The foxes seemed very comfortable in the yard. I suspect they’re very familiar with the place but that they usually come after dark.

Photos before the frost


Deciduous magnolia. Click here for high-resolution version.

Deciduous magnolia blooms are very susceptible to frostbite. In many years, frost gets my deciduous magnolia trees before they reach full bloom. There may be frost tonight. But at least the magnolias were able to fully bloom.

As far as I know, even the summer-blooming and evergreen magnolia grandiflora, also called Southern magnolia, grows well farther north, including in the United Kingdom. To my lights, every landscape (or garden, if you’re in the U.K.) needs magnolias. The deciduous magnolias have very little scent. Whereas Southern magnolias can be smelled a mile away (I’m exaggerating) on a hot summer night.

The apple trees are not yet blooming.


⬆︎ Deciduous magnolia. Click here for high-resolution version.


⬆︎ Plum. Click here for high-resolution version.


⬆︎ Peach. Click here for high-resolution version.


⬆︎ Periwinkle. Earlier I had identified this as bluets, but the PlantNet app seems pretty certain that it’s periwinkle. Click here for high-resolution version.

Three generations of white deer?


A neighbor shot this photo of the youngest white deer, now two years old. She is muscular and remarkably healthy.

It was more than ten years ago that I first saw a white deer in the woods here. Sometimes I was able to get a photo, and comparison of the photos from year to year led to a strong suspicion that there were two white deer, almost certainly of two generations. Then, in the spring of 2023, a baby white deer appeared. That would make three, all part of the local deer herd, whose range includes my woods, the opposite ridge to the south, a lot of creek bottom, and a field or two along the ridge north of the creek.

Fortunately their range is not crossed by a paved road, and as far as I know the local herd has not had any car fatalities. The deer are often in my yard. They’re hard on my day lilies, but they’re welcome to the clover. After I stopped keeping chickens, I opened the gates to the orchard. The deer now do a fine job of keeping the undergrowth (mostly honeysuckle) out of the orchard.

My nearest neighbor keeps a close watch on the local deer herd. He puts out corn for them as well as mineral salt. He is a longtime hunter, but as far as I know he has never shot a deer from our local herd. Rather, he sees his job as keeping poachers out and letting it be known that anyone who shoots a white deer — or for that matter any deer from the local herd — just might get shot, if caught. There are plenty of hunters who would like to have a white deer as a trophy.

I asked my neighbor, in a text message, if the youngest white deer has a white mother. He replied:

“Not sure which doe it was. There are genes in this area to produce the white deer. I’ve heard that there are several between here and the river.”

There is a lot of wild bottom land between here and the Dan River, which is less than two miles away. Bears are seen in that area pretty often. There is a pack of coyotes, though I rarely hear them. They must have a pretty large range.

There are places in North Carolina with white squirrels. The commonly heard explanation, probably false, is that they escaped from a P.T. Barnum circus truck after a truck wreck. If Brevard is still having its white squirrel festivals, I wonder if there are any for sale on the black market. Woods with white deer ought to have some white squirrels.

Helene, mother of mushrooms


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It has been a week since Hurricane Helene brought such destruction to the Appalachian Mountains. Here in the foothills there wasn’t much damage. But the tropical weather than brought Helene has lingered, with warm days, humid nights, and some showers. It’s the perfect weather for mushrooms.

An online site that attempts to identify mushrooms from a photo thinks that the orange mushroom above probably is Amanita jacksonii. If that’s what it is, it’s edible, though I would never eat a wild mushroom. Mushrooms from the amanita family are common here, including Amanita muscaria, which is a hallucinogenic (though toxic) mushroom.


Probably a Chlorophyllum molybdites, a poisonous mushroom. The mushroom in the photo is just a youngster. A day later its cap was eight inches in diameter.

That yellow-flower time of year


Tickseed sunflower

I call September that yellow-flower time of year. As soon as September arrives, yellow flowers appear all along the roadsides here in the Blue Ridge foothills.

And there’s another thing that arrives in September — bread season. The kitchen, at last, is cool enough to want to use the oven. My first loaf of the season was barley bread. It’s about ten parts barley flour to one part gluten flour, plus salt, a teaspoon of yeast, and water. As long as you add gluten flour to the barley and keep the dough warm, it will rise, even though barley flour is a little harder to work with than wheat. I grind my own barley flour from organic hulled barley. You can get the barley — and grain grinders! — on Amazon. My grinder, though, is a classic Champion juicer with a mill attachment.


Barley bread with fixin’s

If I only had a field…


From my morning walk. Click here for high-resolution version.

There are many beautiful hayfields in this area. I covet them. I have only woods. I’ve often talked about how much I’d like to have a pasture, or a field. Then again, maybe not. A hayfield is not a hayfield unless there also is a tractor with a mower and a baling machine. I don’t have such things, nor do I have the farmerly skill to use them.

Hay is a major crop in this area. Sadly, though, most of the hay goes to feed beef cattle. This is not horse country, though there are some. Country people love their beef. I can say this for their local beef, though. It’s all grass fed. The beef cattle all live in excellent pastures, and they winter over with local hay.

The political situation

I haven’t posted lately about the political situation. The changes have been dramatic, but everything is going well, and I have little to add. I would like to mention a piece in The New Republic today that detests the political punditry as much as I do. It’s “Beware the Pundit-Brained Version of the Democratic Convention.”

When a political event is on live television — for example, a president’s state of the union speech before a joint session of Congress — the brainlessness of the punditry is on full display. C-SPAN, if you can get it, may televise such events with no pundit “analysis.” But if you watch it anywhere else, you’ll have to listen to the inane and endless yipyap from witless talking heads that passes as analysis. I have not been watching the Democratic convention live. I do watch some of the speeches the day after, and, if there is yipyap, I skip over it.


⬆︎ Click here for high-resolution version.


⬆︎ The road past my house. The house is hidden behind the trees on the lower right. Click here for high-resolution version.


This hayfield plant has remarkably beautiful powers, but I well remember it from my rural Southern childhood and what its briars can do to children’s bare feet. I believe this is Carolina horsenettle, Solanum carolinense. Click here for high-resolution version.

A baby rabbit, and baby figs

I see the baby rabbit every day. It likes to hang out near the front steps and eat clover. Each year the fig crop gets better and better. I have to fight the squirrels for the apples, but it’s the birds that I have to fight for the figs. I have three Rose of Sharon trees. Each is a different color and blooms at a different time. This one grows at the edge of the woods in the backyard and seems to like it there.


Click here for high-resolution version