GM. I am in front of morning fire 94. Thankful for it. The light, the heat, the sound. It's 33 out there. Back to the mail trail today. Not much to say right now besides: I hope you have a great day. 1.13.26 #gm #coffeechain #daily #plebchain

GM. I'm in front of morning fire 93. My second day off from the mail trail. I really like days off. Just saying. Before I started the fire I went out fed hay to the animals and watered them. I usually don't do that. Fire comes first. Well, actually, fire comes 3rd. First it's cold shower, meditation, then fire. So fire came 4th this morning. Now that that's out of the way. :-) The important part is that while I was out there I saw the waxing moon in the southern sky. There were colors in the eastern sky. Red. Yellows. Dawn at 7 AM. A few weeks back we layed to rest a deer carcass back on the banks of The Bean Brook. Daniel, my oldest son, was checking it out yesterday. He and his wife are up visiting. He saw bobcat tracks around it. That was good to hear. I like hearing about wild nature. Whatever created it knew what they were doing. Now this system we live in, that's a different story. It's good to be away from the political podcasts for a few days. I hope you have a great day! 1.12.26 #gm #coffeechain #plebchain #fire #nature

It's Sunday morning. A day off from the mail trail. Post morning fire. Daniel and Kelli are up for the weekend. The whole family here. Kelli takes and texts photos to me. This is one I had to share. The two ladies in my life. 1.11.26 #daily #gm #family #coffeechain #plebchain

GM. Don't complain about autumn. Walk with grief like a good friend. Listen to what he says. - Rumi I opened up my journal this morning to see what day my das passed away 4 years ago. I was thinking it was the 12th. Nope, it was the 10th. I should know that. I won't be to tough on myself though. The morning I got the call, around 4 AM, it was 20 below. Anytime it drops below zero at the beginning of January I'm reminded of that morning. The world around me doesn't let me forget. For that I am grateful. Because I know some day that won't be so. I was actually thinking about him on Friday a lot while delivering mail. It was sunny, above 30 degrees, felt like spring. I could do anything I wanted and he'd still love me. I dropped everything in my early 20's and lived how I wanted to live. By that time I owned 100 acres, logging equipment, and had built a house. Everything most parents would be proud of. Son with financial security. I achieved it through discipline, hard work with my hands, and of course luck. Today it would be much harder with the price of land and such. But I was miserable. Depressed and anxious a lot of the time. It got to the point where I couldn't go on another day bearing the weight of it. My mom saw it while they were "up north" visiting. So we closed up the house I'd built with their help. Then they took me home to where I grew up to live with them. During all of it he never criticized me once. I inherited some of it from him. I'm guessing he understood this at some level. One time he told me to never get in a rut like he did. He put 30 years standing on the floors of the same factory. The lines by Rumi that follow the ones I started this off with are: "Sometimes the cold and dark of a cave give the opening we most want." Little did I know the darkness led me to the "opening I most wanted." I've spent the last 30 years following my nose trying to understand what happened back there in my early 20's. I remember James Hillman, the father of archetypal psychology, saying one time some people will spend a lifetime trying to understand a depression. One thing it taught was to deepen. To deepen my relationships with humans and nonhumans. To not forget moments of wonder and awe. My Dad gave me space to do that. There's a good king and a bad king in mythology. When it comes to this Dad had his good king going on. #gm #coffeechain #plebchain #fire #fatherhood

From the mail trail: Fifteen seconds of flow in Stanberry, WI. 1.9.26 #water #daily #vlog

GM. I walked over to the splitting stump at 4:15 AM. Just in my boxers. It wasn't cold. I knew I'd be getting into a cold shower immediately anyway. I forgot the kindling there. I split it last night. It was covered in snow. Packable. A snow man could be built. I still remember the first time I figured out how to turn a snowball into an immovable object. It really is a wonderous thing as I sit here and think about it. Anyway, the mail trail is calling. I've got some shoveling to do beforehand. The roads will be slick and sloppy. Have to leave early. Tomorrow a day off! I hope you have a great day. :-) Morning Fire 91🔥 1.10.26 #gm #coffeechain #plebchain #daily

From the Mail Trail: The Bean Brook 10:42 AM 1.9.26 Springbrook Township Washburn County, WI #photograghy #mailtrail #plebchain

GM from the front of fire 90. A small window of time exists before I head to the mail trail. I choose to randomly open "Time and The Soul," by Jacob Needleman. Enough time to read one page. I don't get through it. I'm moved to write down this quote: "When we love and value another human being, when we look calmly and attentively at each other, we know, we see that there is something in a man or woman that is not of time." Rarity. We value rare things. Thoughts like this are rarely expressed. I'm like a child picking up a pretty rock. LOL. At myself of course. Off to the mail trail. 1.9.26 #gm #coffeechain #daily #plebchain #soul #time #eternity

It's unsettling, I admit, to hear influencers tell me it won't be long until robots will delivering Amazon packages to your door. And I just handed an Amazon box to a gracious elderly couple. What did Fredrick Winslow Taylor say back in 1911? "In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first." #plebchain #daily #amazon

GM. 5:45 AM. I go through phases. One of them is I read Rumi first thing. Before I buy Bitcoin. Before I check social media or email. It sets a tone for the day. He shakes something loose in me. Reminds me who I truly am. I would like to share something from today's poem out of a "Year with Rumi." ---- "Never think that you are worthless. God has paid an enormous amount for you, and the gifts keep arriving. "There is something in us that has nothing to do with night and day, grapes that never saw a vineyard. "WE ARE ALL RETURNING" ---- Then at the end of the poem he says this, "If you cannot do that, at least consider what honest people tell you." I head to the mail trail today considering the price paid for me. I hope you have a great day. Morning Fire 89 1.8.26 #gm #coffeechain #daily #plebchain

Sunset after a day on the mail trail. Gaining daylight and distance from solstice. 1.7.26 #daily #photography #mailtrail