Maggie's Farm

The Marquis, whose aristocratic background seemed to give him total freedom of his unbridled Id, so to speak, had an ability to write.

We visited the ruins of his family's place in Provence.  

Theatre of Blood

Western civilization permits self-criticism.

This guy is so good, and knows everything. Most people don't.

Visiting tombs in the Valley of the Kings in January got me thinking about flashlights. Those carvers and painters could have used our sorts of big workmens' lighting, or at least standing floodlights. Candles and torches I guess.

It's sort of strange to me that those tomb carvings and paintings were done by lights of some sort.

I have a few random Home Depot flashlight, but also a cool Surefire but with the old bulb (which I cannot figure out how to replace).

Well, I got it fixed up despite being an ancient Surefire. Their customer service people went beyond.

One quote from the article:

"...  to call reductive materialism a “belief” is perhaps a bit misleading. Plenty of people—the biologist Richard Dawkins, the neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, and the physicist Lawrence Krauss among them—piously recite its creed: I do not exist, life is meaningless, morality is an illusion.2 But do any of them really believe it?"

Kling: Small Machine Warfare, Revisited:

 In warfare, armies will be implementing robots with two capabilities. One capability is to infiltrate the enemy’s infrastructure. The other capability is to go off the grid for long periods, in order to be able to evade detection and be independent of GPS.

Statistically likely, right?

Would it have to be carbon-based, like ours? And why would it be like anything we imagine?

 Madhusudhan said that with hycean worlds, if they exist, "we are talking about microbial life, possibly like what we see in the Earth's oceans."

This guy gave it a try

Including Pharsee. James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. It's set during the French and Indian war, which was really a small part of of a much larger war.

The Great Books has a 30-min look at the first great American story.

The Prof likes the Daniel Day Lewis movie better than the book, despite its changes in the story.

You can watch it on Netflix.

Sneakers are good for walking. I have different sneakers for walking, easy hiking, tennis, gym, boat, etc.

For trekking sorts of things on rocks and slopes, I like my Meindls. Yes, they are heavy but they are tough as nails and do not slip on anything. Not yet, anyway, and I have tested them on wet shale slopes, bouldering, and things like that.

They were perfect for the hill hiking in the Outer Hebrides, but overkill for the hikes in Provence. Well, we kinda avoided the steeps in Provence of which there are plenty.

Yeah, leather boots need some maintenance if used heavily. Good for a lifetime though.

I think gear-oriented people tend to overdo it, while others underdo it. I wish I had had those Meindls during all of those bird-hunting trips in northern Maine. Lots of uphill, downhill, swamps, downed trees, rocks. Sometimes snow, sleet, and hail.

Autumn weather is the best hiking season.

Happy feet matter.

What are your favorite heavy hiking/trekking/hunting boots for cool or cold weather?

It's at Vox, commenting on Tik Tok so you might not bother checking it. The essay is directionally right, though because Everybody has flaws.

Unless you like going to a store for home goods and groceries, Google instacart to see how they can simplify your life.

One thing I am impressed by is the speedy delivery. They cover Costco too.

Yes, it can be done.

Lawns are sort of silly things, but good for kids. I like a Cape Cod lawn - which is no lawn. Sand, some wild grasses, some Black Pines and Scrub Oak. Zero maintenance. Well, we can't all have that. Deserts are easy too except for the golf courses.

OK, around here late September and early October is the time to overseed. Grasses like cool weather, and the new seed needs to be watered once or twice for at least two weeks unless it rains: How to overseed a lackluster lawn.

 As we've said before, lawns are artificial, gardens really. With irrigation they are almost hydroponic gardens which is why they need fertilizer, etc.

To make them less artificial, I like to have the mower mulch cut grass, and fallen leaves, into the grass unless there is a grass-suffocating leaf fall.

It must be nice not to have a lawn. Out in Wellfleet, you just have beach grasses and sand.

Of course, fancy places in Nantucket have irrigated, fertilized regular lawns. Totally fake and unnatural, but some people expect it.

I have around an acre of regular lawn. I'd prefer 50 acres of meadow, but it's what I have here. No choice but to keep it civilized.

We have posted many times about lawn care. I understand that a lawn is meant to imitate the sheep-mowed English estates.

Lawns are good for croquet and soccer. Plus they just look nice around a house in a temperate zone.

Today, just about getting your lawn power-seeded if it needs it. In September around here, it can work pretty well.

Powerseeding

Online seems to be a big deal now.

Pic is a crowded Cape Cod beach - the bay, at Wellfleet. Duck Harbor. You can walk it for hours, if you bring enough water. Can take dogs there, off leash of course. Do dogs love that? Guess. At low tide, it is dog heaven.

I have all of these books, and love them:

Beston: The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod

Richardson: The House on Nauset Marsh: A Cape Cod Memoir

Schwind: Cape Cod Fisherman

Henry David Thoreau: Cape Cod

Schneider: The Enduring Shore: A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket

John Hay: The Great Beach

Mitcham's Provincetown Seafood Cookbook. His Kale Soup and Haddock Almondine, along with all the rest of his Portuguese-influenced recipes - are immortal, but his Baked Stuffed Cod is the best. The whole Cape area has lots of Portuguese descended from the visiting Cod fishermen (Emeril, from Fall River, is one.) Interesting fellow, Mitcham. Highly productive in his life; rarely, if ever, sober from what I heard. Dead now, at 77.

I have a few other out of print Cape Cod area history books that I won't link because even Abe's doesn't have them.

Basics of the Marine VHF Radio

I have a good one, but a battery-powered handheld VHF too, just in case.

I will not rent a beach place without some sort of outdoor shower. You do not have to be an exhibitionist to enjoy standing nude in the sun in an (enclosed) outdoor shower.

It just feels amazing.