Life at SoftAcres 01/29/19 - Images: A Day in the Life of Mid Winter

I wanted this to be a photo journey through a simple mid winter Saturday. The goal of the day was to make some charcoal for water filtering and ashes for laying out on icy trails. But it was also a therapeutic time, getting back into life at a very frozen IcyAcres.

Every Mainer who works outside all day knows there must be fuel...

Bacon.

Looking out from my living room.

Three rough eggs and the rest of the cheddar.

I also brewed some really strong coffee. I had been cleaning out my dead section of spruce trees. This is the time to do brush clearing! I could just tip over dead trees, gather them up and chop them for the fire...

Making charcoal isn't just about burning wood. It has to be slow and well controlled...

Drying  out larger logs for a base.

As the center burns away, the larger logs can be laid across the pit, with more sticks piled on.

Snow is added to slow things down, and let other parts catch up.

You want to stop the process before you get to a white ash stage.

Now time to open it up!

I've been shaping the snow banks with my machete to see what a similarly shaped stone and concrete structure might look like... 

I can imagine seats up this high. with shelves above.

Radiant heat can dry things even several feet away...

One really gets a cold feeling when walking back around front and away from the fire. You can tell what I haven't shaped yet along the snow banks. This is behind the shelter...

This is the path out to the compost. Pretty rough shape. Soon to get more snow.

Even when it is overcast, I can always tell if the sun has gone down, because the snow starts to glow with a violet hue...

This part of the fence reminds me of a kind of bone structure.

Looking north.

I was tired by the time darkness settled in. It had fallen to 10 degrees F. Still I wanted to be outside. So, I took my little flashlight in my teeth and walked way down to the dead spruce trees and chopped another one down, hauled it up, chopped it up, and continued my charcoal vigil...

When there was nothing left to burn and my body was aching to sit down, I watched as the fire grew dim. This was a good day. It was a pure day, with a simple objective. Hard work, enjoyable and productive. I was heated only by own effort, I added clean charcoal to my water filter, and have a pile of white ash for the icy pathways.

Indoors, I made some kidney beans and pork, with little red potatoes and boiling onions, salt to taste. The heater cranked out 70 degrees. And when 9:00 pm arrived I began to nod a bit. It was time for bed.

I took off my pants. And, with sweater, t-shirt and underwear, I climbed into bed. The bed was warm immediately, being one sleeping bag inside another. It was due to be very cold that night. So I put on my sleep hat, which works really well.

It was a quiet night and the temps outside sank below zero, while the winds hummed. Inside the shelter it eventually fell just below 20 degrees F. I had a fantastic dream, one of many lately... About a new book.

Life at SoftAcres 01/03/18 - In Winter Comes a Flood and Some History

Well, after 70 days of snow pack, since October 10 (over a month earlier than any year I can remember), winter arrived. And on that first day it was 60 F and it poured rain for a solid 24 hours! The combination of these conditions caused about a foot of snow to melt as well. 

I'd done everything I had time to do before that first snowfall in October to protect against flooding. There was no practical way of getting the inner tent off the bare ground, I'd made sure the frame of the shelter was at least 6 inches off the ground by placing stones strategically under the heaviest parts. Then when the outer tarps were attached, I allowed them to spread out over the ground for at least 36 inches all the way around the perimeter. These were then held down with tight rows of heavy stones. I assumed this configuration would discourage flooding from the outside in the spring melt, while letting any condensation and other accumulated moisture  - if it were to build up to the point of liquid water - seep out. I had good reason to think this would work well, since it was one of the few things that had been successful last year until I abandoned the site and began renting the cabin for that winter's season.

But, you know what they say? "If you want to make global climate change laugh, tell it your latest weather assumptions."

On this rainy day, at about the 20th hour of God's great wrath, and seeing the shadow of Noah's Ark floating by outside, content and proud of being so well protected, I noticed that I felt something cold under the gold speckled boot liners that I was wearing as slippers. When I finally decided to look down, I saw that the entire carpet was soaked. It was one of those sickening, "this isn't happening, this ISN'T fucking happening..." moments. The small drip of sweat that indicates a sudden hypertensive moment of dread, slowly, teasingly slithered down my forehead, then off the tip of my nose.

I simply could not believe that after all my preparation and other problems I'd solved, my tent was going to flood. I'd run both batteries down during the day, having not been able to get in town that day to charge devices. Now I had to stress the system by turning on my flood light to assess the situation. This caused the over discharge alarm on the inverter to blare its ear piercing whine continuously as I investigated where the water was coming in. 

During this time I turned on the heater to try and evaporate as much moisture as possible. But the humidity was so high that, essentially, the roof of the tent began to drip. It was raining outside and inside now, and the heater only added to the already warm air, bringing the temperature up to 85 F. By the time I'd figured out most of what had allowed this disaster, I could have begun growing tropical plants.

At that point, it was just all about salvaging as much as I could of what rested on the floor. It was mostly books--including my five inch thick book of original handwritten lyrics to all my songs since 1982, but also some clothes and other items. I placed extra plastic shopping bags under the stuff that would have to go back on the floor.

From that point on things decelerated. The rain tapered and I pulled out some sandals to wear so my feet wouldn't get wet, I turned off the power and resigned myself to wearing them for the next few weeks as the floor dried.

* * *

The events above happened several weeks ago, but I hadn't had the chance to report it until now. The following are some images from the intervening weeks...

I went to the town library to see if I could find anything that might show me who the original owner of my land was. Although it was said to be located off Staples Road (a discontinued town road), now a private way, and running a quarter mile out through a hay field, property officially abuts the little woods road that connects from the field and runs all the way over the mountain and down to Bailey Farm on the other side. The name of this very old road is Cook Road. In a Town Record from 1927 I located the lot area and it said cook, so I looked up the names of Farmington residents, and three Cook families were listed. I knew the first two weren't applicable. One belonged to a different lot and the other was near the falls (my lot is on a mountain).

So anecdotally it must be Charles P. Cook, listed as a farmer, with his wife Hattie (maiden name, Crocker), son Wallace F., daughter Lena V. (both listed as pupils), and little son Charles N. (presumably preschool)...

Farmington Town Records, 1927. Possible original land owner, Charles P. Cook.

This is the strongest evidence I have yet for the original land owner. I have a whole bunch of 1930's household items that I found by my front stone wall. I want to know why, in the middle of four surrounding 60-100 acre lots, my little 3 acre lot is left. It also is arguably in the nicest spot, being near the top of the mountain (actually more like a large hill, Perham Hill, elevation 700 ft.). It is where the two dairy families' fields meet. And it does have a killer view of the mountains to the west. The sunset in the next picture will occur all the way over on the right side in 6 months...

Looking in the other direction (east) we see my land. It was once a small farm, with hardly any of those trees around...

I believe the original house was about 30 feet over to the right of the shelter.

Now I'll show you what I did to hopefully fix the leaky floor situation. There is a low point along the back edge. It had snow packed up about 3 feet against the shelter. This meant that rain dribbled down the edge of the shelter and melted the snow that was touching it. This made about twice as much water as a regular rain would bring. So, I shoveled the snow away...

I made a trench along the back of the shelter for future rain.

I then tacked a piece of tarp along the back, angled out to lessen the amount of snow that could touch the shelter. We'll see how it looked in a moment, with the next snow storm.

This guy always buzzes my property and it pisses me off.

Sunset, looking southwest across the hayfield as I walk back to my land from town.

That night was an additional, heavy 3 inches. It was strange the next morning to see fog everywhere. Fog is very rare, because usually there is some kind of breeze. But the night had been windless, and the morning air was warm...

A rare foggy morning after a snowfall.

Here you can see that there is an angled piece attached to the back of the shelter, to deflect snow.

I walked into town. My heart was feeling a bit worse each time I went into town. Soon I would get a respite by property sitting up at the same cabin I'd spent last winter renting. But for now, I just endured the walk back, and the pain of the big hill going up to my street...

Five pennies on the storefront window.

My favorite grocery store in town, Tranten's. Best meat prices in the county.

Nice folks working there too.

When I got home, I immediately trudged out into the woods to gather some birch bark for a fire starter and found some chaga mushrooms on the tree I had taken down some months ago...

I made a nice fire and kept myself warm throughout the evening. I needed the ash to spread on my paths for when they get icy, and I also keep some clean charcoal to filter my melted water. Although the day had been overcast, I caught some orange at the end, and it matched nicely with the orange of my fire in the opposite direction...

I had a beer, and one of my extra frosty glasses held it perfectly. The temperature continued to fall as my fire also burned low, and my beer began to freeze. I really winter here. I could go without the rain though. Regardless, most days are lovely, if cold. There is always plenty of water available in the form of snow. For now the path in was walkable. Although this would be a problem later, it would just be another challenge to be resolved, and it would be.

Ultra frosty beer, with a chunk of chaga to add to my collection.

What Do U Meme, I Follow the Heard? - Chapter 1: Wishful Thinking

Pennsylvania Couple sees Jesus in their Christmas tree.

NBC News

"The truth does not require your belief to exist."

Terence McKenna

In an age where truth is often the last consideration when deciding what to think, wanting certain things to be true and others to be false is replacing reason and logic as the way to think. 

Arguably, the almost unbelievable advances made in the last century (as compared to any other century in the history of humanity, including this one) in material science; finance; pharmacology and medical advancement; racial, gender, and sexual equality; social philosophy; communications and computer technology, did not happen due to the power of wishful thinking. Rather, these developments were due to the clear minded examination of the problems to be solved, careful testing of different possible solutions, formulating new methods, retesting, modification and remodification of hypotheses, until results were good enough - true enough - to be used in practical ways. This is the scientific method, folks--a seemingly moss covered concept we learned about in high school and then promptly forgot about after graduation.

Essentially, like a quantitative limit can be approached in calculus, so can the hypothetically "self-evident" or so-called "absolute" truth be approached by finding things - what we take to be "facts" - that are true enough, and then employing them to foster positive effects in the real world. While the difference between truth and facts has been much debated and usually settled upon by mere subjective interpretation, we should at least be able to agree upon the objective aspects that maintain philosophical common ground. But we don't agree. And this is getting worse.

The great thing about science - at least when scientists are honestly motivated to discover things that are truer and truer - is that the scientist actually gets points for admitting errors in theory. His/her colleagues may be biased by professional pride, attempting to discredit said theory. But, dignity and respect is instantly reafforded when the scrutinized theorist humbly bows to the weight of superior evidence. And in that way, the entire field is advanced. After all, what is the use of spending precious resources, energy, and time trying to build upon flawed conclusions; on pretending the disproved theory must somehow be true, just because one wishes it were? This can lead to, ha-hem, "alternative facts."

In this way science holds up Shinola. While on the other hand, wishful thinking just leaves one holding shit. Unlike science, wishful thinkers are only given credit by their similarly-minded peers for never disagreeing. Those who point out flaws are kicked out the door as heretics. Socialized religion is the most obvious place where this is seen. But the same can be said for more and more institutions.

Political platforms are especially poisonous. In politics, ideology requires the adoption of things one may not believe in, for the maintenance of a "common front." This retarded requirement is not actually the key to unity. Instead, it is the key to the appearance of unity. And, instead of dusting off the scientific method, most people are more satisfied with taking things euphemistically at their "face value." When I refer to ideology, I am referring to the specific and rigid belief system of some other human, not to the wrongly attributed, "study of ideas." Adopting another person's belief system - ideology - as closely as one can, rather than using bits and pieces that work while throwing out those that don't, is intellectually lazy and indicates a desire for the narcotic influence of willful ignorance over seeking truth. I mean the term "willful ignorance" very literally.

Most people are not critical thinkers. They have been trained like animals to assume that someone smarter has already come up with all the answers to that individual's personal existential questions. However, ideology and habit (both of which I will address more fully in future chapters) is the most destructive force to the liberty of thinking what one chooses to think (aka cognitive liberty). Notice I didn't say, "...what one wishes to think." If ideology is a poison to cognitive liberty, wishful thinking is the container within which that poison is carried.

There are many ways in which the deception that results from encouraging wishful thinking manifests itself. But for simplicity sake, let's look at three major permutations...

1. Self Deception - This is the classic condition that I am mostly referring to in this chapter. It results from wanting the world to be a certain way, in the face of more substantial evidence to the contrary. It is a mostly innocent condition that most of us have experienced at some point. It's placebo effect can sometimes erroneously confirm one's naive notions, which makes it especially problematic. Yet, this is not irreversible. If fact, one can move beyond it by simply choosing to research any aspect that may ring untrue. This is difficult at first, but can be easier with each conceptual error that is revealed to be such. 

A good example, in my mind at least, is The Case of the Lens Flares. I have a friend who is a very sweet, gentle and positively inclined human being. She does not strike me as overly well educated, yet is still very intelligent. Anyway, she recently posted a selfie with a group of friends that had small colored dots near their feet circled afterward with a hand drawn red line. The caption read something like, "OMG, look what the spirit of Jesus left for us!" 

Being my characteristically feisty self, I commented, "Or... maybe just a lens flare?" 

Understandably, incredulity took her over--be it subtly expressed, and she replied with a dozen angel, heart, and peace sign emojis, that "No! I click pics all the time at this place and this has never happened before! It's a miracle!" 

I couldn't help myself. I basically replied with, "What do you think is more likely, that Jesus - a man/god so powerful he turned water into wine, raised his best friend from the dead, and was able to resurrect himself, while pouring out the Spirit of Truth upon all humanity - decided to further manifest his glory by placing colored dots on your selfie?...or that they are just lens flares?" Eventually, I did the right thing and apologized for questioning her beliefs. But a good example, it does make, Yoda might say. 

2. Accepted Deception - This is a bit more subtle, and slightly more dangerous. Wishful thinking, when one actually suspects it might be in error is a self-feeding process that employs stubborn pride for self-sustenance. People will sometimes hold onto this until philosophically cornered. Even then they will not admit to their error. Yet, often, their inner sense of right and wrong - their conscience? - will prevail. And, slowly they will alter their wishful expressions with a more and more updated version of their beliefs (something more closely resembling the truth) until they have completely done an about face. It is a saving of face.

A rather weak example can be seen when a person is changing his/her mind about social issues. Pro Lifers will become more Pro Choice, or more rarely, the other way around. You can think of a million other ideas I'm sure. What starts out as a guilty habit can turn into an innocent correction. Anecdotally, this is a good pattern to recognize within one's self, as it leads to the higher roads of being able to forgive others, ask for forgiveness, and become more generally magnanimous.

3. Intentional Deception - Folks who don't believe that truthfulness is important to other people's welfare tend to belong to this class. Political leaders fit in perfectly here. Lying is becoming more common in all facets of leadership positions, across most fields. Now to be fair, we all lie all the time, mostly for practical reasons. When we feel crappy and get the the coffee shop counter, our usual answer to the question, "How are you today?" is, "...good." It's just easier to not get embroiled in explaining why you aren't actually feeling good. Institutionalized deception is the most significant source feeding the wishful thinking of people under the first two categories above.

Of course, the most obvious example is Donald Trump who holds the presidential record for largest number of verified lies so far: 6,420 false or misleading statements in 649 days, as of November 2, 2018, according to the Washington Post. One day he packed in a density of 83 lies. The Donald may be the leader of lies, but just listening to how other world leaders conduct their misinformation in a typical daily newscast, reveals that more and more frequently they don't even try to be truthful anymore. And, in this collective mayhem these guys find common validation for their treachery. There's no need to even think about what is true. The followers under number 1 above will believe automatically, and the followers under number 2 will choose to follow even if they are secretly skeptical. I will expand upon the role of what has been dubbed "gaslighting" (essentially manipulating someone into questioning their own sanity or grasp on reality) among leadership, in future chapters.

We have scratched the surface of this interesting phenomenon, but I haven't done very well with specifics. I wanted to get a general feeling for what wishful thinking is. In all honesty, I don't see wishful thinking as a particularly destructive force in the personal sense--though it may or may not be. 

What I am interested in is its impact on groups of people. My hypothesis is that its destructive power resides in the way it perpetuates itself, and that this effect is cumulative. The more people use wishful thinking to explain their reality, the more difficult it is to differentiate what is actually true from what is fantasy, And as more people resort to this defensive shield against what they don't want to be true, the more seductive it becomes to other people as ease-seeking activity. 

Why is this dangerous? Because societal soft brainedness may eventually become so habitual as to be incapable of rehabilitation. When over half the population can't help themselves from deceiving and/or being deceived, even the most powerful wishes may not be able to hold up our institutions. I make that statement on the eleventh day of a partial government shutdown in the United States.