Maggie's Farm

 The Return of the Tradwife

 Trump Is Right to Go After Harvard

Med Schools Replace Medical Merit With Obesity Denial And DEI Doctrine, Watchdog Reports

TGIF: Vladimir, STOP! President Donald Trump, joined by First Lady Melania Trump and the Easter Bunny, delivers remarks during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House. We bid adieu to the woke pope. Trump embraces Deportation Nation. Young’uns fall in love with the right. RFK gets a win. Harvard teaches Chinese paramilitants. And much more.

 Rod Dreher: ‘Cry More, Libs’ Is Not a Strategy

New Evidence Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia Drops... And It’s Bad

 Germany Downgrades Growth Outlook, Now Expects Recession For Record 3rd Year, Blames Trump

Whatever Happens, Love Thy Neighbor

The writer used to live in Park Slope (a nice part of Brooklyn).It's a nice post, and I agree with the sentiment. Because of my moderately conservative views, I do not liked to be viewed as garbage by some who have entirely different views of life.  

Yes, it can be done.

Lawns are sort of silly things, but good for kids. I like a Cape Cod lawn - which is no lawn. Sand, some wild grasses, some Black Pines and Scrub Oak. Zero maintenance. Well, we can't all have that. Deserts are easy too except for the golf courses.

OK, around here late September and early October is the time to overseed. Grasses like cool weather, and the new seed needs to be watered once or twice for at least two weeks unless it rains: How to overseed a lackluster lawn.

 As we've said before, lawns are artificial, gardens really. With irrigation they are almost hydroponic gardens which is why they need fertilizer, etc.

To make them less artificial, I like to have the mower mulch cut grass, and fallen leaves, into the grass unless there is a grass-suffocating leaf fall.

It must be nice not to have a lawn. Out in Wellfleet, you just have beach grasses and sand.

Of course, fancy places in Nantucket have irrigated, fertilized regular lawns. Totally fake and unnatural, but some people expect it.

I have around an acre of regular lawn. I'd prefer 50 acres of meadow, but it's what I have here. No choice but to keep it civilized.

We have posted many times about lawn care. I understand that a lawn is meant to imitate the sheep-mowed English estates.

Lawns are good for croquet and soccer. Plus they just look nice around a house in a temperate zone.

Today, just about getting your lawn power-seeded if it needs it. In September around here, it can work pretty well.

Powerseeding

It probably does, because any lawn benefits from it. Does Your Lawn Need Aeration?

The machines that pull out plugs work best. In southern climates (in the US), best done in Spring. In cooler climates, in September. 

It is enjoyable and satisfying to do even if your greedy wallet screams in pain.

Suggestions: Replace all bad wood and stone. Get house painted expertly (costs more). Re-point your chimneys. Install a new gas furnace. Get a lawn service. Get new outdoor lighting. Replace and expand outdoor stone seating or decking, and throw in a nice stone outdoor fireplace with a pizza oven.

Those things are good starters for getting rid of money: Middle English: from Old French moneie, from Latin moneta ‘mint, money’, originally a title of the goddess Juno, in whose temple in Rome money was minted.

 Boredom and Gratitude

 Antarctica Is Colder, Icier Today Than At Any Time In 5,000 Years

 UCLA study: Gay couples at greater risk from climate change

 Bill Maher rages at Hollywood for putting kids at risk, calls Disney an aphrodisiac for pedophiles and slams Drag Queen Story Hour trend

 Bill Maher against Wokery

 The Trans Reckoning Is Here

Pro-Hamas Protests Rage Into the Night at Columbia University

 New anti-Israel tent city takes over Columbia University lawn days after NYPD raid as activists vow to stay ‘forever’

 The Intifada Comes to America. Now What?

" I considered moving out of the USA..."

 Democrats are taking from taxpayers to expand their own power

 Germany: Violent Migrant Crime Hit Record High in 2023

 How Climate Change Narrative Is Preventing Africa From Modernizing and Gaining Prosperity

 The Second Cold War Is Escalating Faster Than the First - To understand what is at stake in the fight against the axis of China, Russia and Iran, just read “The Lord of the Rings.

 As long as American officials are writing checks to Kyiv, Ukraine will continue to push for maximalist goals. 

 Turkish President Backs Hamas, Urges Palestinian Unity Against Israel

 Brain health and exercise: Combining aerobic and strength training boosts cognitive health in elderly

 Economics Lessons from the Kibbutzim

Planned Parenthood is Helping Teenagers Transition After a 30 Minute Consult. 

 The Vatican’s New Exhortation On “Climate Change” Has Many Errors

 Offshore Wind Company Wants To Pay Large Fine To Break Contract In Latest Sign Of Trouble For Industry

 The Sexual Devolution

 Fury as women in tech conference is overrun with men claiming to be 'nonbinary' - who cut in front of female attendees to network with employers

 Today’s blacklisted American: Man’s life ruined because a black man slandered him for profit

 Famed MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer talks about his guilty-until-proven-innocent experience

 Central Park's Great Lawn had to be closed early due to damage from the Global Citizen Festival.

 Illegal Alien Invasion from Sea to Shining Sea!

 What hath Matt Gaetz wrought by tipping over the House apple cart?

 FBI Quietly Created New Category of Extremism Ahead of 2024 Election to Include Trump-MAGA Supporters

I think about 5 hours is all, maybe 6, over this weekend. It's Spring here, so time for weekend functional movementss instead of gym. Unlike gym, beer is permitted here. But damn, my wheelbarrow broke so more deadlifts than I wanted.

- Till vegetable garden (mostly for tomatoes, but some squash too despite the f-ing squash borers) with shovel, and prepare trenches for tomatoes in a month or so. I will like to put some annual flowers in there too, for fun. Also, Mouse Melons and cucumbers. Someday, I want to make an herb garden, but now I just stick them in pots or anywhere. Thyme is my favorite flavor, and it lives forever.

- Prune all shrubs, roses, peach tree, and fig tree.

- Fertilize all shrubs and the rhubarb patch too. Late to do that, but better late than never. Really should have dumped a pile of manure on the rhubarb before it emerged.

-  Fertilize lawn. Man, my lawn is not up to snuff. I found a spot where the coyotes like to poop. 

- Planted all of the indoor seasonal narcissi in the front garden 

-  Put wren houses out and repair Screech Owl nest box (too late for that?).

As we have posted almost annually, lawns are not natural. They are more like turf farms. In the US, lawns and golf courses are imitations of UK sheep meadows and cattle pastures. 

 When to fertilize your lawn in spring? Lawn experts share their advice. Get the timing right for when you fertilize your lawn for lush and healthy results

And those are just the ones that were reported.

I am reposting this because I had a chimney fire yesterday morning, shortly after our men's Bible study group left my study. This has been my second chimney fire here. Fortunately, I am not too far from the firehouse. I had this flue cleaned last winter, and my sweep was scheduled to come again next week. (I use my fireplace daily.) I climbed a ladder and sprayed the top of the chimney with a lawn hose. Seemed to work.

If you use a fireplace regularly, you need a chimney sweep. In the past 20 years, we have had two chimney fires here, and one at the Farm. It's not a joke.

Spring and summer are the cheapest times to get it done.

Addendum: What burned down Parliament? 

My theory is that it is best to tip people, always.

Barber, delivery guy, food service person, lawn guys, garbage guys. And the Dunkin Donuts staff.  It makes everybody feel good.

That applies to the US.  It's different in Europe, where they often apply a service fee. Who knows who gets that money? In Europe, tip like a miser even if you feel otherwise.

Tipping in Scotland. 

California Winter

It is winter in California, and outside
Is like the interior of a florist shop:
A chilled and moisture-laden crop
Of pink camellias lines the path; and what
Rare roses for a banquet or a bride,
So multitudinous that they seem a glut!

A line of snails crosses the golf-green lawn
From the rosebushes to the ivy bed;
An arsenic compound is distributed
For them. The gardener will rake up the shells
And leave in a corner of the patio
The little mound of empty shells, like skulls.

By noon the fog is burnt off by the sun
And the world's immensest sky opens a page
For the exercise of a future age;
Now jet planes draw straight lines, parabolas,
And x's, which the wind, before they're done,
Erases leisurely or pulls to fuzz.

It is winter in the valley of the vine.
The vineyards crucified on stakes suggest
War cemeteries, but the fruit is pressed,
The redwood vats are brimming in the shed,
And on the sidings stand tank cars of wine,
For which bright juice a billion grapes have bled.

And skiers from the snow line driving home
Descend through almond orchards, olive farms.
Fig tree and palm tree - everything that warms
The imagination of the wintertime.
If the walls were older one would think of Rome:
If the land were stonier one would think of Spain.

But this land grows the oldest living things,
Trees that were young when Pharoahs ruled the world,
Trees whose new leaves are only just unfurled.
Beautiful they are not; they oppress the heart
With gigantism and with immortal wings;
And yet one feels the sumptuousness of this dirt.

It is raining in California, a straight rain
Cleaning the heavy oranges on the bough,
Filling the gardens till the gardens flow,
Shining the olives, tiling the gleaming tile,
Waxing the dark camellia leaves more green,
Flooding the daylong valleys like the Nile.

Matins

You want to know how I spend my time?
I walk the front lawn, pretending
to be weeding. You ought to know
I'm never weeding, on my knees, pulling
clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact
I'm looking for courage, for some evidence
my life will change, though
it takes forever, checking
each clump for the symbolic
leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already
the leaves turning, always the sick trees
going first, the dying turning
brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform
their curfew of music. You want to see my hands?
As empty now as at the first note.
Or was the point always
to continue without a sign?

Around here, this was the weekend when many birds left their nests and scattered around begging their parents for food.

There is a fledgeling Catbird out my window right now in the rose bushes, asking Mom and Dad for a bug or two.  We have fully-spotted Robins, still with their wide mouths, on the lawn. A bunch of tiny House Wrens in the shrubbery. A fledgeling Cardinal in a Holly tree. Four baby Barn Swallows, sitting in a line on a dead branch. Noisy baby Grackles on the lawn and fledgeling Crows cawing for food in the treetops.

And, down the lane, two fledgeling Ospreys exercising their wings on a high nest, preparing for their first adventures. 

Captain Lorenzo Baker's 1800 mansion, in downtown Wellfleet, MA. He was the banana king.

12 bedrooms, 5 baths. And a two-story giant barn which needs work. In fact, it all needs work. No report on plumbing and heating. Roof looks ok for now.

Huge lawn for croquet, lawn tennis, badminten, frisbee, dogs, etc. Gee, as a bonus you get a Resident Beach Pass. It's in town - no waterfront. Own a piece of history, with plenty of room for all of your best friends.

What is it in the human heart that wants to possess wonderful, charming things? I mean, rather than just appreciating them. Is it a transmuted sexual thing?

Where can you go, really, right now?

At least I think I will do some practice fly casting on the lawn. Why not?  I can always use practice with that game. Rain and wind just make it more interesting.

 What do you confess to the plants in your life?

To Help Birds This Winter, Go Easy on Fall Yard Work - A manicured lawn might look nice, but messy is better for birds and bugs.

Amish man and teen drinking in horse and buggy run after police pull them over - The buggy had a stereo system on its roof and police found "multiple open containers of alcohol."

 Newly passed California resolution blames ‘religious groups’ for LGBT suicides

 Writer Freaks Out Over People Eating Delicious Chick-fil-A: 'They’re Eating Fried Chicken SPITEFULLY!'

Social Justice Culture is Now Infiltrating the Study of Medicine

UK  Mom blames healthcare system after her son went blind from diet comprised of french fries and Pringles

Save the Robots - Bill de Blasio reveals his scrambled vision of innovation and labor.

 How We Know California's New Rent Control Law Will Make Its Housing Shortage Worse

 Compilation of Failed Ecopredictions

 Doomsdays that didn’t happen: Think tank compiles decades’ worth of dire climate predictions

 George Packer Gets Mugged by Reality

When the Culture War Comes for the Kids - Caught between a brutal meritocracy and a radical new progressivism, a parent tries to do right by his children while navigating New York City’s schools.

 Is Everyone Who Opposes a New School Zoning Plan in Brooklyn Racist?

 Do You Know What the Democrats Said at Their Debate?

 Democrats’ Red Flag Laws Meant to Take Weapons from Rural Gun Owners – But Not Gang Members Who Commit 80% of Gun Homicides

 It's All About Disarming White America

Sandy Hook Promise Ad Hypes the Danger of School Shootings, Fostering Irrational Fears and Bad Policies - Official responses to these extremely rare crimes are grossly disproportionate in light of the risk they actually pose.

An unusual traffic stop 

Coasties attack a narco sub

Ballsy 

 US Fast-Food Drive-Thrus Will Soon Use License Plate And Facial Recognition Technology

To Delay Death, Lift Weights - Two new studies remind of us of what we already know but sometimes forget

 American Psychological Association Pushes Polyamory

 We Need A Green New Deal To Defeat Fascism

 Ocasio-Cortez announces bill to make electoral college tuition-free

Catfight escalates: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hurls race card at Nancy Pelosi

 Vanity Fair: You Know Who Should Be Worried About Epstein’s Photographs?

A question: This stuff is illegal, but is it really "pedophilia"? 

 House Judiciary Committee Continues Subpoena-fest Of Trump Officials

 Why Do Democrats Hate Jobs So Much?

 Lawrence Jones on disdain for Pledge of Allegiance: 'This starts on college campuses'

 Joe Biden: ‘I Respect No Borders’

Get offa my lawn, Joe 

Texas Reporter Watches 300 Migrants Cross Border in Six Hours

 Hillary Posts Instructions IN SPANISH For Illegal Aliens to Evade ICE Agents

 President Trump should set the refugee cap for 2020 at ZERO