Good morning. Off to the mail trail for day 5 of 6. God it's good to see Bitcoin go up again. It seemed like it was never going to move. I hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning! Stiff golden rod blooming in one of our gallon pots we have for sale. Caught my eye when I stopped in on the mail route yesterday afternoon. Off to the mail trail for day 4 of 6. Hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning! A customer shared this the other day. It's always good to see plants that leave our place doing well!! Off to the mail trail. Day 3 of 6. I hope you have a great day. #gm #coffeechain

Good morning Nostr. Off to the mail trail. Day 2 of 6. I hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain

Good morning! Off to the mail. The first of six days. Hope you have a great day. #gm #coffeechain

Bitcoin is written into a larger cosmic picture. It's not going away according to @Myriel ✨ BTCStars

Good morning. It's 10:15 AM. Much later then I usually post. I finally have a moment to sit down. God it's good to be home. I just ran the mail trail for 6 days. Tomorrow is the beginning of another 6. The time away really deepens my appreciation for home and family when I get it. Thank God my immediate family isn't a mess and I want to be here. A lot of people don't have that luxury. Annie is out with a pair of customers that showed up together. They're browsing our native plant selection. I was out there earlier appreciating it. We've been selling natives for 4 years now. It's hard to believe. And it looks like there'll be a 5th. Two weeks ago it didn't look that way. But given our living situation it's seems to be our best option moving forward. I'll keep running the mail trail and paying the bills Annie can be home with the kids and make a bit of money on the side selling plants. Our kids aren't really kids anymore. One's married, moved out, in the military, and gonna have a baby daughter. The other 16 and hanging out with older male mentors. The youngest is going to be 14 and loves to ride horse with her mom. We've asked them all periodically throughout their childhoods and adolescence if they wanted to go to school. It was,and is, always an emphatic no! Of course I look back on my school years and see what they're missing. Friends, access to learning, school events, etc But that was the 80's and early 90's. They're navigating a world where information flows freely. The thought of sitting in a school terrifies them. And I can see that. God it was boring. It did teach me how to wish away my time though. I have had to tap into that running the mail route full time the past 3 years. What sustains me now though is that I am sacrificing my time for my family. Back then I didn't I didn't know what I was sacrificing for. I didn't have any real world experience. I loathed the world of adulthood. I didn't want anything to do with it. At 51, part of me feels like I still haven't got with the program. That part of me is looking forward to grandchildren. It's archetypal (a pattern written into the universe). Grandparents and grandchildren sorta bond and rebel a bit against the middle generation, the parents. Grandpa and grandma get a little eccentric before moving on to the great unknown. I read that once in a James Hillman book. It made total sense to me. It put ideas to feelings I was having. Good psychology. Not the kind that's going to tell you to pull yourself up by your boot straps every single moment of every single day. I am done meandering and musing now. Time to move on to firewood cutting. If you made it this far I hope you have a great Sunday. I took this photo this morning. They're asters. I can't think of their name right now. I should know it. I have planted a lot of them. But I'm tired. My soul is still somewhere back on the mail route.. Hasn't caught up yet. Bye. The Midwestern kind :-) #gm #coffeechain #countryliving

From the mail trail: Mist on my windshield. Don't stop please. Put an end to this dryness and drought.🙏 #rain #countryliving

Good morning! Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great weekend! #gm #coffeechain #countryliving

Good morning! Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day. #gm #coffeechain

Good morning! Off to the mail trail. #gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Took this at dusk yesterday. From the front meadow. Rough blazing star. I am off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain

Good morning. That's bee balm on September 7th of last year. I was going to get a photo of one last evening, but ran out of light. Hoping to get home earlier today. There should be less Amazon packages and political mail. Yesterday was heavy. Mondays usually are. That's all I have time for. Off to the mall trail. #gm #coffeechain

Good morning. A photo from 5 years ago. Not much has changed, except for more Liatris and bees living in the front meadow. Off to the Mail Trail for 6 days. Hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechsin

Good morning. That's butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Captured it at dusk a few days ago. Lately I have been taking the time to look up the Latin names. Something about it feels official. Like I've tapped into an ancient tradition. I was over at my neighbor's yesterday afternoon working on my son's car. He lost power on his way to Pioneer Village yesterday morning. It was on the Interstate. He handled it well for 16. He shut it off, started it again, and was able to make it to the village. Later on I went down and got it. Swapped him our minivan. It drove fine all the way home. It's over 45 miles. It's an electrical problem. It's a 2O10 Impala. It has rust. So my neighbor and I removed the backseat and passenger seat to check the wires running to sensors and modules that activate mechanisms to keep you in the seat during a collision. We didn't find any shorts or disconnections. So we put it back together and ordered a new gas pedal that comes with a built in sensor hoping that will remedy the issue. That's how I spent my day yesterday. It wasn't my intention until I got the call. I wanted to stay home, cut firewood, and help out with the nursery. But The Machine intervened. I am going to try again today. So far so good. Good chance it'll work out. It's Sunday and no one's scheduled to go anywhere. Tomorrow it's back to the mail trail. I hope you have a great Sunday! #gm #coffeechain

Good morning. That's ironweed (Veronica fasciculata). Behind it County E going west. It's supposed to be an aggressive plant according to Roy Diblik, a well known master gardener from southern Wisconsin. We've been lucky, it hasn't gotten too aggressive. This might be its 7th season. I am guessing because we planted it in undisturbed ground. If there would have been open ground near it would've spread. Showy golden rod did that nearby. Don't know much else right now. I have the weekend off. I'm up early at the kitchen table. Everyone else asleep. Hayden (16 yrs. old) was here with me. But he left for Pioneer Village to volunteer in the blacksmith shop. He's being mentored by a seasoned blacksmith that also volunteers there. So it goes with homeschooled kids. My oldest son was the same way. He found all kinds of useful activities to get involved in. That's always the worry . . . that they won't get properly socialized. Whatever that is. At 51 I have no idea what that is. I am off to read and relax. I hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain #natives #gardening

Good morning. That's a rosin weed. It started blooming yesterday. I took this photo at dusk yesterday. It's tall. Maybe 5 feet. I planted a couple of them this summer so far. One here the other at my mom's. They were sickly. Probably wouldn't sell. I like nursing plants like this along. Watching them progress. The damn rabbits have eaten off nearly all the milkweed I plugged in 3 weeks ago. I still water them (it's dry here!) with the hope they'll come back. Never had much luck planting milkweed here. Gotta go! Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain

Good morning! Photo of hairy golden asters from the front meadow. They bloomed early this year. Off to the mail trail. I hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Liatris along the tracks and mail trail. Took this one yesterday afternoon turning off from Hwy. 63 onto Chappelle Rd. Earlier on I ran into Tony who was running the ditch mower for the County. I asked him if he'd be willing to only mow a narrow strip along the ditch in front of the nursery. "No problem!" he said. And it looks great. I am off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day! #gm #coffeechain

Good morning. Off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great day! (Photo from the front meadow) #gm #coffeechain