Went to Lasada last Saturday. First time I’d been shooting clays in a while. First time to take my family also. My kids took turns keeping score and pushing the buttons to throw the clays. It was a good time

We’re at a rock the plains festival in Manhattan Ks. Bunch of red dirt music. Pat Green, Randy Rogers Band types of music. Seems like smoking cigarettes in making a comeback. I’m sort of shocked at how many people are smoking. Is it making a comeback or has it never really left?

The Garage in Salina, KS had a yellow theme going on.

Started wheat harvest today

Irrigation for peppers for when it gets hot.

Saw an ad on the classifieds for quail. It’s been a year or so since I had some so I got 12 of them. Almost 6 weeks old.

Sure is nice weather for January 16. Guess the weekend is gonna be bitterly cold but then it warms up again after that.

This year I discovered an author named Peter Heller. The first book I read was the Dog Stars. It’s about a man and his surviving after a disease wiped out most of the population. This was wrote way before Covid, maybe 2012 or so. He writes it in a way that describes in detail the monotony and simple things that happen everyday after 90% of the population disappears. He finds a friend that likes guns and survival. The main guy knows how to fly. They fix up a plane and fly around looking for supplies. They have to survive intruders to their place. It seems like there’s no point to the story but I think that’s just it. There’s no zombies or government trying to get everyone or any other apocalyptic scenarios. It’s just about surviving one day at a time. Heller has several books. I liked the Last Ranger and the River as well. I recommend both of those as well. I listened to Burn, his most recent book, and The Guide. Those books had some weird things in them and I didn’t want to keep them so I returned them on audible. All those I’ve read are written in the same kind of style. A couple of them have a recurring character although you don’t need to read the first for the next to make sense. He’s a pretty solid writer across the average of the books I’d read. I highly recommend the Dog Stars, the River, and the Last Ranger.

If you are wanting to better yourself for the new year, or anytime really, two podcasts i recommend are the Pat Flynn Show and the Dan John podcast. Pat’s show usually has Dan on once a week to answer questions. They both take a reasonable approach to health and fitness. Basically, get your protein and some veggies and lift weights as heavy as you can and as regularly frequent as you can and over enough time you’ll be where you want to be. There’s no hard 75 or whatever else extreme type of workout. Basically 3 workouts a week for 52 weeks is the program. They like kettlebells but Dan was an Olympic lifter for along time. He knows how to program a workout. Both shows usually run under an hour and often more like a half hour long. Worth checking out if you are looking for a fitness podcast.

Watering cattle the fast way

I listened to all 6 of the Red Rising books, wrote by Pierce Brown. The main narrator was Tim Gerard Reynolds. IMO, hands down the best narrator. That’s all I can say about that. My wife said I should try RR because she’d heard it was popular. So I gave it a try and the first few lines mentioned something about class warfare, essentially. I stopped because it sounded like it was gonna be some commie BS about rich vs poor , blah blah blah. I finally gave it a proper try tho and decided it’s not really political class warfare. It’s vastly different and more complex. This is a sci-fi series that takes place on Mars and the moon and sometimes Earth. There is a lot of fighting and violence and not much for romance, which i prefer. There also is a neat weapon used and revered much like a lightsaber, but better tbh. Lots of action and cliffhangers. The first 3 books were clearly written to be the only 3 in the series. The last 3 take place 10 years or so later. The original 3 books made Darrow, the main protagonist, out to be a hero and an honorable but flawed person. Book 4 was written in a way that I started to hate Darrow. But by the 6th book, Darrow returns to his roots, in a way, and is again the hero we all love to read about. I wrote this sort of vaguely because, you should just try to read them or listen. I’m hoping to read them in the next year, physical copies that is, before the 7th and final book in the series is released. Hope this was interesting enough for anyone reading. #grownostr #bookstr

I gotta say that a good narrator to an audiobook is better than tv or a movie. It’s easy to imagine or see what is going on in an audiobook with a good narrator. Similarly, I’ve stopped listening to books because the narrator was bad.

I’ve only read two books this year about bitcoin. So I’ll start with those. Gradually, Then Suddenly by Parker Lewis. It’s an easy enough read about bitcoin. I think any regular Joe that doesn’t know much about btc could read it and have a lot of their questions answered by it. As with most books about btc that I’ve read, you have to sit down to read with no distractions. Tv can’t be on in the background and kids can’t be yelling. It’s a high quality hardback. Very nice looking book with lots of good info. Fiat Food by Matthew Lysiak. This was a great read. Also a nice quality hardback. I think this one could be given to anyone that has any interest in food policy. It’s almost written as a thriller in a way. If you don’t know much about the topic, it’s fascinating and hard to put down at times. I really enjoyed @Saifedean Ammous chapters at the end about how he came into carnivore eating. #bookstr #grownostr

I’ve been reading more this year and I started reading more last year. Last year I read 25 books. Doesn’t sound like much but it comes up to about 1 book/ 2 weeks. Honestly not too shabby. This year I’m at 87 books and hope to break 90+ before the end of the year. I count audiobooks as well and that is a big part for this year. I used to think I couldn’t miss an episode of no agenda or any of the several podcasts I listen to. This year I decided to spend most of my time listening to books. I do still listen to @Jack Spirko on TSP quite frequently. Honestly, I’m a lot happier with listening to books instead of podcasts. I think I’ll start posting about the books I’ve read on here. Maybe I’ll see more non btc content #grownostr #books #bookstr

Made sirloin and t-bones tonight. While the grill was still on I got some chicken thighs ready to go on. I think skin on, deboned chicken thighs are fantastic eating. I take a bit of baking powder and rub it into the thighs and then put some seasoning on that. It makes the skin crispier and delicious.

We had a field of corn get hailed out and it was bad enough we sprayed it out and planted wheat on it really early. The cattle are loving it right now.

Bacon about to go in the oven.

Got the chicken house that used to be a chicken tractor staked down and some sides put on for protection this winter. It’s down right cozy in there.

The new dog likes to look at the birds. Good thing she is a bird dog

Burgers going on the grill