Viking dream

OK, so I had this dream one night last week in which I was a person participating in something like a “Society for Creative Anachronism/Historical Medieval Battles” competition, but it was all Viking. It took me this long to post it here;a version has appeared on Facebook.

Anyway, the dream. In order to join this “Society for Creatively Anachronistic Historical Medieval Battles” you and your Viking-wannabe friends have to band together, get involved in the competition, and if your hacking and slaying, looting and pillaging were sufficiently acceptable, you were in.

And my group apparently were already members, and we had an enjoyable time in this particular event which also had wannabe Vikings competing.

One such group of hopefuls was from a western NY human services org that caters to people with developmental disabilities. I used to work at this particular agency. However, these Viking wannabes were mostly, not entirely, but mostly, women. And “women can’t be Vikings” was one of the rules of the Society for Creatively Anachronistic Historical Medieval Battles. But they comported themselves well, and by any standards, save for the rule barring women from joining, they’d be a shoo-in for membership.

So, we were like, “Who’s gonna tell ’em they can’t join?”

“You tell ’em.”

“No, you tell, ’em.”

“Uh-huh. I ain’t gonna tell ’em!”

And so it went like this for awhile.

Off to the side observing all this was a group of lesbian feminists holding broadswords. Now, THAT’S disturbing dream imagery. Anyway, they were passing judgment on us, saying that we’re Neanderthals (“Uh, no, we’re VIKINGS! Neanderthals are in another Society…”) for doing all this hacking and slaying. They went on to say that they were offended by our society’s competition and were going to have it banned.

We didn’t particularly like this, and pointed out that we members of the Society for Creatively Anachronistic Historical Medieval Battles don’t just go around hacking and slaying, looting and pillaging.

“Oh?” asked the lesbian feminists, hands on the broadswords leaning up against their hips. “And just what else do you do?”

“We’re environmentalists!”

“What?” They were incredulous.

“Sure! While we’re out there in the forest, hacking and slaying, looting and pillaging, we’re not just keeping track of blood-volume spilled and a body count. We’re observing tree growth, animal migratory behavior and deer herd numbers!”

They still seemed incredulous, but didn’t respond.

Two of our members quietly discussed the situation and were heard saying, “We can solve this right away at once; we can tell the human services people that we need ‘further evidence of their prowess’ and so they’ll have to take on the lesbian broadsworders. We won’t tell the lesbians anything, they’ll have no choice but to defend themselves. They look pretty handy with those broadswords…”

“That’s what freaks me out,” interrupted the other.

“…and the other people should be able to take out most of them, while losing many of their own. Afterwards, the surviving lesbians will just go their own way, leaving us alone, and whoever’s left from human services will probably change their minds about joining!”

“Brilliant!”

And with that, the dream ended as I tend to naturally awaken daily at 6AM, plus or minus a few minutes.

Now bear in mind that this was a dream and not indicative of my personal opinions of human service organizations, lesbian feminists, Vikings and anyone who enjoys a good broadsword, blood and guts. I am NOT RESPONSIBLE for anything my subconscious dredges up.

It was an odd dream. I’ll try to post odd ones now and then, they’re at least entertaining. I think I was reasonably accurate in relating this one, Lord only knows what didn’t survive the awakening.

There really is a “Society for Creative Anachronism;” they usually dress up as medieval knights and such and go jousting, or something. There is also an “Historical Medival Battles” organization. From what I can tell from Facebook and You Tube it is a sporting competition where guys dress up as medieval knights, enter a ring like is used in boxing or mixed-martial arts, and beat the living heck out of each other with swords. They do wear lot of padding. It is very popular in Europe, especially so in Russia and Eastern Europe.

The SCA allows women members, the HMB probably has a women’s combat division, for all I know. There is no such organization that combines the two names, and banning women is sexist, anyway. I’m not even going to explore why that attitude showed up in my dream.

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random garden updates

I had promised garden updates off and on through the year. Here’s one. No photographs as it doesn’t look that interesting. If I find my camera tomorrow that may change.

The hoogle is not going to be happening this year. I had fallen somewhat behind in early June when I was hit by bronchitis, knocking me out of commission for two weeks. I went to work, but didn’t do anything outside. As a result, the hoogle sticks are buried in tall grass. I may still complete the building, and do planting of shallow-rooted crops if I feel like it; otherwise “wait till next year.”

The bronchitis also delayed the regular vegetable garden; to the point where I had to bring in someone to rototill it as the weeds had reclaimed it. On June 20th I limed the garden and the only reason I bring up this dull detail is to copy/paste a Facebook post that was inspired. OK, maybe not “inspired” but I thought it pretty dang funny:

“Spread lime around the veggie garden this evening, preparatory to planting on Monday. We don’t have a fertilizer spreader, so I just dumped the stuff in a little garden cart, dragged the cart to the plot and applied it. So, basically, what I did was…

“I put de lime in de garden cart den I spread it all around…
I put de lime in de garden cart den I spread it all around…
wa-hoooooo… wa-hooooooo..

I put de lime in de garden cart den I spread it all around…
I put de lime in de garden cart den I spread it all around…
wa-hoooooo… wa-hooooooo..”

Lime in the coconut

The plants were put in on Monday. Twenty-four tomato plants (12 ‘Better Boy,’ 8 ‘Celebrity,’ and 4 ‘Early Girl), four acorn squash and four cantaloupes. On Wednesday evening/Thursday morning a deer jumped the chicken-wire fence around it and ate 6 tomato plants and 2 or 3 acorn squashes. So Thursday my wife had the idea of using last year’s garden fence (cheap netting for vines as I couldn’t afford better stuff; worked all right last year nonetheless) as an additional barrier. So with that in mind, that fence was place maybe 4 feet farther out from the chicken wire fence. Deer have little to no depth perception and won’t jump over if they can’t figure out the distance.

It’s working so far. Now to replace the plants so savagely killed…

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

The Lamb’s Supper by Bryan Bustard

I’m in this painting!!!!! I’d have some sort of contest where the winner has to find out which person is me, but as I’m po’ folk, that ain’t gonna happen. 🙂

the-lambs-supper-bryan-bustard

I’m the guy with the bald-spot on my head, lower left corner, next to the hairy, bearded blond dude. (Who is one of my best friends, Jerry Gordon Kohlbrand, but I’m sure he’ll deny that till his dying day 😉 )

Courtesy: The Lamb’s Supper by Bryan Bustard.

Bryan is a talented artist, and frequently paints religious themes (mostly Catholic) as well as “geek” stuff like comic heroes, fantast literature and the like. From his Fine Arts America (FAA) bio:

“I consider myself primarily an illustrator. I never quite fit in with others, so I grew up isolated and found much of my comfort in movies, comic books, music, and books. My artistic influences include fantasy illustrators from the ‘Brandywine’ school of Howard Pyle to the best comic book artists of today. I get my inspiration from such widely diverse sources as the absurd, music, classic movies, myth, pin-up, fantasy literature, and my Catholic sensibilities.

More than willing to do commissions, I am adept at portraiture of people and pets, landscapes, painting buildings and other such standard fare. It is with greater pleasure that I use portraiture or landscape as a jumping off point for creating something more unique for a client according to the client’s interests…”

Bryan does commissions… perhaps if you’ve written a novel and need a good cover artist… contact Bryan! His Facebook Page: Portraits and illustration by Bryan and his FAA site: Bryan Bustard

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

…and then there were three…

It didn’t happen this way, as Rosie isn’t a morning person. But this is how it might have happened if she was…

Rosie stretched awake in the early morning hours, sunlight filtering its way through the curtains and painting the bed with it stark colors.

“Mrmphlph?” she asked, and hearing no reply from her husband Paul, glanced over and noticed his side of the bed was empty.

Getting up, she gracefully exited the bedroom and wandered down the narrow hallway to the rest of the house, becoming aware of a silence filling the place with… an expectation of something…

And then she saw… for over by the windows in the living room, eerily quiet, was Paul and their two cats, Ninja and JerrieCat, looking intently out the window towards the ground. They took no notice of her.

“Uh-oh,” she thought, “this can’t be good.”

“Um, honey…?” But she got no further as Paul motioned her to be quiet. He pointed with his hand as to what the trio was looking at.

“What?” she persisted, to be met with and low rumbling growl from JerrieCat.

And so Rosie walked over to the window, navigating the floor strewn with catnip toys, actually missing them all this time. Arriving at the window, she looked in the direction indicated and saw…

…another cat. Mostly tabby colored, with white fur here and there. Perched imperiously on the small front porch landing.

“Oh, no, and then there were three…?” she wondered…

TO BE CONTINUED (???)

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

The lot up the road

I live in a rural area; the road we live on is zoned “agricultural.” There are a number of houses along it, but all are pretty widely-spaced apart. During the early morning when the weather is nice I like to go for walks up the road with a Rosary in hand and pray while strolling. I say “up the road” as there is a rise in the grade to crest the top (the road climbs over a hill). Soon after starting out from the end of our driveway there is a pleasant pastoral vista of an empty field “up the road” backed by a long row of evergreens and other trees. (For some crazy reason, I get an almost irresistible urge to grab a copy of Grit magazine and start reading.)

firstshot

second

The other day when I was driving home from somewhere I saw to my dismay a sign posted along the roadside by this vacant field, “SOLD: nameofhousingdeveloper and phonenumber.”

Rats. Someone is going to build a house (or houses?) there.

While I don’t begrudge or hold a resentment against anyone from wanting to build a home along a nice, quiet, rural street, I couldn’t help but feel that “I wish they picked somewhere else!”

I stood there with Rosary in hand pondering the scene in my pajamas. Yes, I go for walks along the street in the morning still dressed in my jam-jams. As I said, it’s a rural street, hardly anyone else is around. So there I am, Rosary in my right hand, slippers on feet, floppy gray socks, plaid pajama bottoms and baseball-sleeved shirt with coffee stains on front, and faded thin bathrobe wafting a little in the breeze, the rare vehicle taking wide berths around me (despite my being along the shoulder of the roadside-there are no sidewalks, either.)

Where was I? Oh, yes, pondering the scene. So I’m staring vacantly across the road at the sweet empty field of various grasses and weedy flowers and I’m trying to get all spiritual about it as I want to write a blog post about something, anything. And something did develop in my consciousness.

fourth

Someone’s going to build a house there. Maybe more than one. That land has been there for like, millions of years and probably no one has ever lived there before, (population density being on the profoundly low side prior to European colonization of North America). Given the perpetually uncertain future, who knows how long the presumed housing will last and if anyone will replace it centuries hence? So, for uncounted eons no one’s ever lived on that spot until a year or so from now.

We are not here, then we are here, then we are not here, again. The land remains. No wonder some misguided people worship the created instead of the Creator. And it is a wonder that while in the “we are here” phase, some other people, also misguided, confuse “ownership” with a moral absolute to do whatever they wish with the land they own. I am by no means denigrating the private ownership of land; on the contrary, that concept is the bulwark of freedom and autonomy. But we should be cognizant that the things we “own” are far more ancient than we are, and others will come after us and may wish to enjoy the land, too.

We “own” the land but should be mindful that it is more like “held in trust” for future people. What does that have to do with someone possibly building a house on that lot? Probably nothing, really. People come and people go, their dwellings, too. The land remains. And my brain takes off and arrives at conclusions unknown from the starting ponder.

Although my walk was this morning, it didn’t occur to me to take a camera, hence the late afternoon photos.

fifth

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

hugelkultur

This sounds rather unorthodox to me even though it’s been done for thousands of years and it is just laying a bunch of sticks, branches, logs and other wood-like things on the ground, burying it somewhat with compost, soil and dirt, and then planting vegetables on top.

What is this? It’s “hugelkultur” and links to articles on it have been showing up in my Facebook feed quite a lot these past few weeks and so I’m thinking that Someone is suggesting for whatever reason known only to Him that should I try it. Or it is Springtime and many of my friends are open to innovative gardening methods and it is the workings of probability and coincidence. Or both.

I’d never heard of hugelkultur prior to this month. The following article is a popular reference, quoted and propagated (a gardening term! HA!) by others, complete with images depicting the progression of the hugelkultur plot through the years: hugelkultur: the ultimate raised garden beds from RichSoil.

The next picture is NOT of my hugelkutur plot, it is courtesy of Grow Your Own Fruits and Vegetables UK but it most closely resembles what mine might look like if I tried and didn’t horribly mess it up. It looks very successful, is relatively modest and quite do-able. (I did a Google Images search for “hugelkultur.”)

Photo0669

A Facebook friend mentioned a story of a Zimbabwe man who was banished to live on an almost barren hilltop by Robert Mugabe. He had to either farm it or starve. He hugelkutured and lived.

Here’s another blogger’s hugelkultur efforts, with good lessons: Slowlyspreadingandsinking

I love the quote from the Rich Soil article above: “It’s a german word and some people can say it all german-ish. I’m an american doofus, so I say “hoogle culture”. I had to spend some time with google to find the right spelling. Hugal, hoogal, huegal, hugel …. And I really like saying it out loud: “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” – it could be a chant or something.”

That inspired me to go around for a while just saying “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” I thought, “This is another way for me to be annoying around the house,” until my wife essentially ignored it. No fun being annoying if the effort is wasted. 😉

We do have tons of wood lying about the land. We had a rougher than usual Winter this past year (sorry I didn’t document it here) and there’s plenty of material about. You do have to be careful as to what kinds of wood that you use; some woods consume a lot of nitrogen while decomposing. Nitrogen is necessary for many plants and vegetables

Like I said earlier regarding the vegetable garden that’s planned, I …may…post…a photographic record of my hugelkultur patch.

hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur hugelkultur

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

The Burned-over District

I found a copy of this book in a stack of used books that my wife had gotten from one of the 8,420,972 used book sales we attend yearly. (A light exaggeration, but we do love books. We even read them now and then!)

burnedoverdistrictcover

The “Burned Over District” was a name referring to Central and Western New York and it refers to the religious fervor and poitical zeal which swept over the area “like burning flames” during the first half of the 19th Century.

This is where the Mormons got their start, as well as the utopian, free-love socialists of the Oneida Community.

Say what you will about the relative merits or demerits of any of the movements that found fertile soil in this land, to me it is proof that my part of New York State was the “Land of Fruits and Nuts” long before California ever became a state. No offense was intended by that sentence (I’m a Catholic, which is admittedly a weird religion by most human standards), as there has got to be something positive about a place, be it early 19th Century western NY or 20th Century California, that can foster such diversity.

“Burned-over District was a name applied to a small region, during a limited period of history, to indicate a particular phase of development. It described the religious character of western New York during the first half of the nineteenth century. Time, subject, and area have thus all combined to confine the scope of this book. The study has nevertheless seemed rewarding, mainly because its implications transcend all three limitations. The meaning expands in a geographical sense because this one area provides a case history in the westward transit of New England culture. Likewise, it is representative as a sample of the change from youth to maturity in a single section affected by continuing westward movement. The subject of religion has broader significance in this period and locality than might at first appear. This section was the storm center, and religious forces were the driving propellants of social movements important for the whole country in that generation. As far as time goes, this book is an illustration of the way in which the minds of one era help to form the destinies of succeeding generations. Neither the causes of the Civil War nor the origins of national prohibition, to cite only two prominent examples, can be thoroughly understood without reference to the Burned-over District.” from the Preface”

Source: The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual History of … – Whitney R. Cross – Google Books

A local blogger has musch to say about the BOD (this is a link to his BOD post category): Burned-Over District Observer

More info here: Burned-over District at the Rochester Wiki

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

working habits

In working on my novel, I have discovered that I have odd working habits. Not that they are getting in the way of progress, but it’s interesting to observe in myself. 😉 I’m sharing this only because I want to, and you can extract whatever value you can, especially as I’m not a published novelist yet; you should really pay more attention to the work habits of the successfully published ones. But this stuff “works for me” and has kept me from “giving up” on this particular work.

For example, I don’t outline beforehand. I outline after every few dozen pages or so to map where I’ve been and I outline the next several scenes. Otherwise the novel is all in my head and pours out in some manner.

I do keep a separate bulleted list of plotlines, just to keep track of all the disparate action and so that I don’t fall into the rookie novelist’s trap of forgetting to resolve a plot. This is also helping me to direct a convergence of many of them into a epic scene where the novel “finally gets going” in the minds of the millions of readers who will buy the book. 😉

I employ a heavy use of LibreOffice’s highlighting function to color-code ideas in these outlines and lists. I use LibreOffice for everything in writing; I don’t bother with commercial novel writing software or other fancy pieces of software like mindmapping and wikis and such that other writers report using to their great profit. I prefer to keep it simple (albeit messy) in a software that works equally well across operating systems (I use Mac OS X and Linux). I think I’m replicating what I would have used “back in the day” when typewriters and legal pads and notebooks –  the paper kind – were all the rage.

And recently I’ve sidestepped making actual progress on the draft by also doing something backwards: I am now writing up a backstory, actually a biography, of a character who is turning into a pivotal protagonist. In doing so I am also fleshing out ideas for the novel, giving it some meat for certain scenes I’ve already written and will be writing. From what I gather, many writers do much of this sort of thing beforehand. To me, it’s like a cross-pollination. I am developing new ideas for the character, while also incorporating ideas already used into the biography; it’s a synthesis of material.

It’s an interesting exploration of how i’m crafting this work.

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Prairie Hoof Farm

It seems like there’s been a flurry of meritorious GoFundMe campaigns during this Lenten/Easter season. Well, there’s another worthy campaign that I am bringing to your attention…

PLEASE… if you can.. support Prairie Hoof Farm by Kevin and Mary Ford in their attempts to re-establish their farm to the Topeka, Kansas region.

The Fords:

TheFordFamily

Kindly go to the GoFundMe link and read up on it; Kevin tells it much better than I can.

But in short, the Fords currently run a farm in south-central Kansas. It has experienced a few bad years, “bad” enough that it would have convinced most people to hang up their mucking boots (or whatever it is that farmers wear when they muck around in pig … stuff…) and repurpose their life. But not Kevin. Kevin, you see, is the founder of the “New” Catholic Land Movement. Kevin descibes the NCLM succinctly:

“A great hope we have for our farm is to make it a place where families can come to live, work, and pray together. Our culture so fragments life today that we feel an experience like this on a farm could really help families to be what they are meant to be. Making our business successful will help us to be able to fulfill this ministry. We would like our farm to one day be a base for the New Catholic Land Movement to use to train families in homesteading and farming-related skills.”

This is Kevin with a pig friend: (The boots he’s wearing are what I was referring to a couple of paragraphs above.)

Kevinmuckingwithapig

Kevin maintains a site and blog dedicated the the NCLM, where there is a more complete description of it: Introduction to the New Catholic Land Movement.

Please find it within yourself to contribute… This is an excellent opportunity to help an independent business, complete with family to boot AND help an aspect of American culture that need invigoration. If you are a Catholic who supports certain aspects of Catholic Social Teachings such as “solidarity” and Distributist economics, this is a way to get involved. Thanks!

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)

Foray into mundanity!

Well, today was the first day that I was able to get outside and do something besides shovel snow. I wish I had been documenting the lousy Winter we in western NY have been having. You all missed out on a lot of serious whining and complaining.

I had intended to dig the veggie garden over but was unable to as it was too water-saturated from snowmelt and recent rains. So that may be a while. I did attempt to figure out the garden’s new dimensions (I’m expanding it a bit (to 30′ x 21.5′ from the 25′ x 20′). At least I got outside and quite dirty! I’m a firm believer in “going outside to ‘get outside’ yourself.” Admittedly that is much easier when the temps are very warm.

I may… keep a photographic record… of the plot.

St. Anthony took me very seriously when he helped me find my Mom’s Rosaries. Extremely sentimental, I had misplaced them, I knew not where. No clue. Asked St. Tony for help. Usually this comes… after a while. He likes to meander with me. This time, however, within like a minute or two I got a hint to “Check in that thing.”

And that’s where they were. (“That thing” being a mug I retired from coffee and tea use.) There’s a chance I might have placed the Rosaries in it some time ago during a desk reorganizing, but it would be against my typical considerations to put these valuable beads there. It might have been in an atypical moment, however. Thus, a low probability that I would have placed that mug on my search list. No proof of anything miraculous or supernatural, I’m just happy I found them.

These were Rosaries that she had been given by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA) at my Baptism. The story she and Dad told was that the nuns had looked me over (I was all of 10 days old) and prophesied that I’d become the first American Pope.

Scary thought, that one.

(In an attempt to get this blog more operational, I may have a few ‘personal,’ ‘reflective’, or ‘mundane’ posts through each week. Hence, ‘Foray into mundanity’ as the title for this post…

I’ll try to NOT BE narcissistic. I doubt that’ll be a worry as I’m not that interesting.)

Are you a creative Catholic? ""Building a Civilization of Love: A Call to Creative Catholics," is my new book exhorting Catholics to apply their faith to change the culture for the better!

Know someone who is an alcoholic or addict? "The Sober Catholic Way" helps Catholics by describing the many ways in which their faith can assist in maintaining sobriety, and is a basic handbook on how anyone can live a sober life. . (Thank you!!)