Twin oaks. Yesterday. After rain and snow the day before. 12.30.25 #trees #countryliving #plebchain #wisconsin #winter

GM 🔥 Morning Fire 79 12.30.25

Christmas Eve. Caught my oldest son on camera scraping a deer hide. The family found her in our pasture. I was delivering mail. The meat wasn't fit to eat. She looked like she was hit by a car. Whatever comes of the hide there'll be a story, a family story. For that I am grateful. #fatherhood #dad #countryliving #plebchain #primitive #tanning #homeschooling #unschooling #family

GM. My second day off from the mail trail. I am starting to feel better. Oh, that's right I didn't tell you I was sick. The morning after Christmas I was a pitiful man. I should've went home from work. I was chilled, nauseous, and achy while I sorted mail. I felt old beyond my years. When I got on the mail route I would continuously moan and talk to myself. It was hard to imagine the next 10 minutes. An hour in I wrote a text to my supervisor to tell her I was done. I didn't send it. Instead I texted Annie to have her bring out some pain killers. An hour later we met close to our house. She brought Tylenol, Aleve, and 2 mason jars full of water. God it was good to see her. She left disappointed though. She thought I should've called it off. It was the day after Christmas though. I was scheduled. And I didn't want to inconvenience anyone at work. A half hour later, after taking the Aleve, I felt human again. I could imagine the day progressing. It got me through. That was the worst of it. A wave of pain and nausea hit again in the afternoon. So I took a couple of Tylenol. That seemed to eventually dull it. Nothing like the Aleve though. Here I am 4 days later at 80 to 90 percent. It snowed all yesterday. When I raked it off the hood of my mail jeep at 10 PM there was over 8 inches. The wind started blowing hard at dusk. It blew the snow off the pines and created white outs. I was snow blowing then. When I went in the house to get a drink and warm up they said the lights were flickering. Ever since the power outage in the winter of 2022 there's been concern about them. Well, I am going to finish this fire off and enjoy the heat before heading out to move snow for the automobiles. It's 14 now. Half of what it was when I went to bed. I hope you have a great day! Morning Fire 78 12.29.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm #nostr

Yesterday. Dusk. Snow still falling. 12.29.25 #countryliving #cordwood #plebchain

I got my biggest zap today. Now, that's a good feeling! #zaps #nostr #thankful #appreciation

Late summer we posted pictures of Hayden's (16 yrs. old) forging shelter. It was another family project. Here he is working in it recently. I was out and about doing chores and the pounding of red hot steel caught my attention. #countryliving #community #forging #homeschooling #unschooling #fatherhood #parenting #northwestwisconsin #bitcoin

This speaks to me. Dark Nights pressed down in my late teens early 20's. "Ishmael", by Daniel Quinn was a lifeline for me. Did any literary works serve as a lifeline for you? #asknostr #books #depression #psychology #soul #authors #selfhelp

GM. It's 8;30 AM. I am writing this later than usual. No work today. Not for the next 3 days Thank you Lord. The first fire about burned down. I hear blue jays outside. No noise in the house besides the space heater I start out of habit and the occasional crackle of burning wood. It's above average temperature outside. 33 on our thermometer. By tomorrow we are supposed to be in the single digits and have 6 to 12 inches of snow on the ground. Annie was reading the weather report to me last night from her phone. They're calling it a "bomb cyclone." I laughed. I read out of "Time and The Sou" before writing this. I can pick that book up, start anywhere, and I'm hooked. It's always been that way with me. Philosophy and psychology pull me in. Jacob Needleman, the author, throws a wisdom phrase in there that doesn't let me go. Last week it was "the other door." That's the door that becomes more apparent as we age. I'm 51. I feel and think about that door more than I did when I was 30. This morning it was "the soft eyes of the heart." He claims that all of our self help techniques fall short because they don't offer us this. He's got a point. Who talks about the depths of the heart anymore? Basically it's use your time effeciently, effectively, and you will be rewarded monetarily. Yet time moves faster and faster. Time, he says, only slows down when the Self and the self make contact. Our breathing and sense of time changes. I can't tell you how many times I have felt this standing on a frozen lake ice fishing under moon light. The feeling of "I exist" arises. Let me throw this out there. Mother Nature softens the heart; while all this technology we are dependent on tends to harden it. That's it for now. Morning Fire 77 12.28.25 #cofffeechain #plebchain #gm

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~ Mark Twain

GM from the front of Morning Fire 76. 12.27.25 #coffeechain plebchain #gm

Good morning. The day after Christmas. Back to the mail trail. All presents been opened. All family back home. Good to be together at Mom's yesterday. Thankful. 🙏 Morning Fire 75 12.26.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm

Honoring Deer And More Broadly Wild Nature #wildnature #homestead #christmas