Becoming B

5:45 AM. Good morning! Fire 181 4.2.25

5:43 AM. Good morning. 🔥 Fire 179 3.31.25

It's 7:36 AM. Everyone still asleep. A day off from delivering mail. In here the fire burns bright and hot. Out there there's a frozen crust of sleet/snow mix covering everything. I stepped out at 5 AM. and was able to walk on top of it. The indoor/outdoor thermometer reads 32 degrees. The other day Hayden and I heard a woodcock calling in the evening. It was just before dark. I was listening to A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold earlier in the day on the mail route. He wrote beautifully about the courting rituals of the woodcock. I had to shut the book off when he wrote about the "Good Oak" though. At that moment it was too much to be reminded of how destructive we have been to the nonhuman world. I eventually turned it back on and finished a few more chapters. This is rare for me. I have been reading about this culture's destructiveness for decades and have been able to stomach it. Something about this time though... The next day on the mail route, I pulled over and did a google search. I get out on the route, get settled in, get in a zone, and my mind starts to wander. With the possibility of time off in the future looking more certain I started thinking about traveling. The first thing that came to mind was the Schulenberg Prairie. I hear Roy Diblik, a master grower/gardner from southern Wisconsin talk about it a lot in his videos. So I was curious. The first thing I learned was this: "One of the nation’s oldest and most successful prairie and savanna restorations is a thriving habitat and a place of beauty." That's all I needed to know. 30 seconds later I was back on the route delivering mail. A place I want to visit in the future for sure. That's all I got to say right now. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday. Fire 178 3.30.25

'if we cannot tell a story about what happened to us, nothing has happened to us." -- James Carse Something I find interesting: I can tell you the month and year I bought into the Bitcoin network . . . July of 2022. It ranks up there with other memorable moments in my life. The day I got married, the birth of my children, the day my dad died, etc. They're moments I can tell you what the weather was like, what I was feeling, who was present, etc. I can tell you a story. Something BIG happened. #Bitcoin

We burned grass again last night. It was the ditch along County E. It is now burned from our west line to our east line on our 32 acre plot. This is the first time we've accomplished this in 17 years. We didn't think it would go. In the morning it was covered in snow. An afternoon of late March sun dried it up fast though. A south facing bank. At first glance this report might not seem like much. It is to me though. The fire between father and son burned bright and hot. Fire 173 3.25.25

I went for a run last night, just after dark. Snow fell. The ground not quite white. This morning I sit in front of the fire wondering will it be white. It's back to work today, to the mail trail. I don't want to fail. So I tell another tale. With the hope it's not too frail. Fire 171 3.24.25

We burned some grass last night. It was just Hayden (15 yrs. old) and I. It was along a roadside ditch and edges of the main meadow. Fire breaks for the big burning we're anticipating. It was the 5th day of my 6 day vacation. Today my last. I can hear the wind whipping out there as I sit in darkness in front of the fire at 8:37 AM. I'm glad we got to work together on the land last night. He was into it. We both were away from screens and their effects. He mentioned that we could go into business doing this. He brought up memories of burning grass with his big brother who is stationed in Ohio. I told him about burning my Grandpa's pasture off with my uncle and cousins back in the early 90's. A big burning that seemed daunting during the telling but just another chore back then. He said not enough people do this anymore. I think Aldo Leopold, wherever he is beyond the stars, would agree. Screens take up too much of our attention. And, to a certain degree, we are what we attend to. Last night we were instruments of the land, not this or that influencer or job description. Tomorrow it's back to the mail trail. Where I get to be mailman in my community. Don't look know how I got here. But I'm feeling this right where I need to be. Fire 171 3.24.25

Read Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn #Ishmael

"I find it good to remember the eternity behind me as well as the eternity before." ~ Henry David Thoreau Photo from the mail trail. Just down the road from me on E. Once farmed now fallow. It's filled with little blue stem. The Jack pine growing will eventually shade it out. The ground will be full of needles, acidic. My neighbor says it's good tick habitat. I think the field needs fire. I wonder if it agrees. I'd rather burn than plow. 3.21.25

“The most amazing thing about bitcoin, apart from the founding story, is anyone who works on it, or gets paid in it, or buys it for themselves—everyone who puts any effort in to make it better—is making the entire ecosystem better, which makes the price go up." -- Jack Dorsey Making the Bitcoin ecosystem better is one thing that has attracted me to it. Quite the opposite in our Federal Reserve Banking system. It feels like I am getting screwed. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/05/10/former-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-says-bitcoin-will-go-beyond-1-million-in-2030

Just after 9. Chickens feed in the front yard. A few weeks ago they wouldn't come out of the coop it was so cold. Now the ones that still lay eggs are laying them. Sophia excitedly reported we had 4 last night. Yesterday Spring officially sprung. The other evening It was a sad report. We lost one. They said it was sitting on the floor stiff like it was sleeping. Hayden and I walked it down the woods trail a ways, faced it west, and said good bye under the night sky. A few weeks earlier we did the same with another one. There was no sign of it anywhere. Nature has a way of cleaning up after itself. I have been noticing hawks flying over fields gone wild on the mail route the past couple of weeks. There's a bunch of pussy willows in a swamp I've been watching that are getting ready to burst when it warms again. We returned from Rice Lake at dusk last night to see robins running around on the ground. A first for this year here. That's it for now. We're all sick yet. Gonna get outside anyway, move around, and make some things happen. There's yardwork to do. The day always ends better after that. I hope you have a great day! Fire 169 3.21.25

I have noticed that I can become consumed by Bitcoin. There's something about it though. I go back to what Michael Saylor has said. To paraphrase, people come to Bitcoin because they're curious or desperate. I was both when it found me in July of '22. #Bitcoin

Good morning from the front of fire 168. It's just after 8. Been up for close to an hour. The third day of my 6 day vacation, or as my Supervisor called it: staycation. We're all sick with head and chest colds. Haven't done much. The usual keep the animals watered, split firewood over at my mom's with Hayden, keep the fire going here, and the occasional get sucked into this or that outrage on social media. That's the worst. I feel like a sucker most of the time. Like Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) said in a talk I listened to recently. To paraphrase, the social media platforms are programming us. We think about and focus on what they want us to focus on. It creates division outside and inside ourselves. There I go generalizing.. It creates division outside and inside myself. How do I know what it's doing to others. It sure looks that way though. So I turn to tending plants and the land. The third option. The option that calms the inner and outer division. The option that helps me remember that death is life, and life is death. 3.20.25

Your depression is connected to your insolence And your refusal to praise. If a man or woman is On the path, and refuses to praise — that man or woman Steals from others every day — in fact is a shoplifter! ~ Rumi Sometimes she comes into work and her head of white hair is matted in back partly combed. Maybe she just got out of bed. I doubt it though. She raises sheep, cows, has lots of cats, takes care of her mother-n-,law in the house next door. One time she told me when she fires up her leaf blower to blow the cobwebs away in her basement the cats will disappear for a day. Another time she told me she tried to tell her husband their financial situation would be ok, that was before she found him behind the pole barn dead with a self inflicted bullet wound to the head. Sometimes we get to talking about her family's history when we should be working. Her grandparents were harassed by the Gestapo back in their homeland. She says the job reminds her of the stories they told. Management oversight and the tracking scanners we carry. Everybody's got their job to do Sometimes she'll say what they say about safety is all lies. We're just busy bodies. Then we'll laugh together about our lack of freedom. We work at the same pace her and I. We leave about the same time and are usually the last ones back. Nobody wants to be the last to leave and return in the office, but we're usually the ones that do. We're a service, not an assembly line putting out products. We're both approaching 20 years with the Post Office. Where did the time go?! Hope you enjoyed this piece of praise for my fellow postal worker. The world of work is wonderius at times. Fire 167. 3.19.25

We should ask God To help us toward manners. Inner gifts Do not find their way To creatures without just respect. If a man or woman flails about, he not only Smashes his house, He burns the whole world down. Your depression is connected to your insolence And your refusal to praise. If a man or woman is On the path, and refuses to praise — that man or woman Steals from others every day — in fact is a shoplifter! The sun became full of light when it got hold of itself. Angels began shining when they achieved discipline. The sun goes out whenever the cloud of not-praising comes near. The moment that foolish angel felt insolent, he heard the door close. ~ Rumi

"How important is [Strikes] lending product? We enable people to never have to sell Bitcoin ever again. People only sell Bitcoin, in my opinion, because they have to not because they want to. If you don't have to, why would you?" - Jack Mallers @ 54 to 58 min. https://www.youtube.com/live/9YgaLHZdKz8?si=sPBf38hGe6a5gLtD

Good morning from the front of 166. The first day of six days off. It feels like a near two year postal tour of duty has come to an end. We have nothing big planned the next six days. It will be time to rest, recuperate, and recalibrate. Looking forward to Annie to awaken so we can have a cup of coffee together and talk about anything and everything. This happened much more when we both worked part time, when life was more leisurely. I miss it. Life shrinks without leisure, suffering happens. I know this well. Not today though. I've seen and heard nuthatches this morning. The chickens cleaning up under the bird feeder even looked like they belong. Looking forward to the next 6 days. I hope you have a great day! 3.18.25

A reflection on sitting in front of the fire. Somewhere back there 17 years ago or so we decided to heat our house with wood only. Somewhere back there when Dad walked on I started to take pictures of the morning fire and write. A ritual came into being. Right now, if I was to pin this ritual to a lofty thought, it would be this one by Aldo Leopold: "There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace." When I logged trees turned into numbers, cords to cash. I was a kid saving money for my future. Making my way in the world. Everybody was happy for me except me. I never said thank you to those trees for what they gave me. In front of this fire I don't have to say thank you. The process grants grace. For that miracle I am thankful. 🙏 Fire 164 3.16.25

Before death takes away what you are given, give away what is there to give. No dead person grieves for his death. He mourns only what he didn't do. Why did I wait? Why did I not . . . ? Why did Ineglect to . . . ? I cannot think of better advice to send. I hope you like it. May you stay in your infinity. Peace. ~ Rumi

5:50 AM. First coffee, quiet, fire. Then off to the mail trail. Hope you have a great weekend! Fire 163 3.15.25