Despite the nanny surveillance state that I now live in, I am profoundly grateful to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the unknown thousands who fought for freedom from the crown; as well as the unknown millions who have fought for the ideals of liberty ever since. May we each fight for our own freedoms and liberty, every day and every way. God speed, and happy Independence Day! 🎆 #grownostr #freedom #liberty

'When life hands you lemons', there's a variety of paths you can take. There's the usual 'make lemonade', but is that lemonade only for you, or are you starting a for-profit lemonade stand? What about baking a lemon meringue pie? You could slice it and let your kids lick it and enjoy the pucker face they get. You could just throw the lemons away. If you let them sit around long enough, they'll mold and rot. What if, after squeezing the juice out of the lemons life handed to you, you plant the seeds and grow a few lemon trees? Then, after a few seasons, you harvest a whole bunch of lemons and grow your lemon empire. Whoever said money doesn't grow on trees must never have had the lesson of the lemon. #grownostr #shadetreephilosophy

'When life hands you lemons', there's a variety of paths you can take. There's the usual 'make lemonade', but is that lemonade only for you, or are you starting a for-profit lemonade stand? What about baking a lemon meringue pie? You could slice it and let your kids lick it and enjoy the pucker face they get. You could just throw the lemons away. If you let them sit around long enough, they'll mold and rot. What if, after squeezing the juice out of the lemons life handed to you, you plant the seeds and grow a few lemon trees? Then, after a few seasons, you harvest a whole bunch of lemons and grow your lemon empire. Whoever said money doesn't grow on trees must never have had the lesson of the lemon.

After seeing it a few times and musing over it for a couple days (yeah, I'm slow sometimes) I figured out what the fiat mines are. And here I am at my mine of choice. Happy Saturday, y'all. #fiatmines #grownostr

As we try to disentangle ourselves from the systems put in place by society over the decades, centuries, and millennia, it seems as though there is another hurdle so many of us find it so hard to cross. That is how comfortable we are with ourselves. Our raw, naked selves. Perhaps behind closed doors you can unwind by stripping down, but how many of our fellow human beings are ashamed, embarrassed, disgusted, or just uncomfortable with the body they're in? Rules are put in place that we cannot show too much skin, lest it suddenly be discovered that everyone has a body just like everyone else. That we really are so much more alike than different. There is research that has been done by a Dr Keon West showing that nonsexual, communal nudity leads to feelings of self acceptance that can last for months afterwards. And more research is ongoing. I'm not saying that everyone has to call themselves a nudist or a naturist and get naked with dozens of people, but we should be willing to ask ourselves, deep down, what is it that is stopping us from that level of familiarity with ourselves, our closest associations, or even a stranger on the beach. #Nudism #Naturism #selfacceptance #grownostr

We had a nice little late spring rain here in California's central valley. It's nice to be so relatively cool so late in the year, especially for these fur covered critters. It has also been nice for our recently transplanted fodder trees that we're growing, to hopefully rely less on bagged feed and the systems. I wish we were out in the country, but we're doing our best to build freedom where we are on our own little suburban homestead. #rabbitstr #homestead #grownostr