As I clicked on the "add new" post menu item, I realized that the last entry was offering number 70. Thought, that calls for a celebration. With the exception of autonomic nervous function and basic fight or flight mechanisms, i've hardly done anything seventy times. Cracked a brew (room temp., full flavored) and sauntered out to the pond, where I breathed it in for awhile. "In with the psychotic, out with the merely ridiculous." Advanced Vipassana stuff. There's a scent to the water that tells you how healthy it is. In this case it was a very healthy aquatic scent blended with inia blossoms in full flower and oozing a lilac perfume fit to tie any flying insect gone berserk over a signal so strong that crab spider webs pose no obstacle. The "must have" impulse overriding any semblance of control. Kamakaze mentality. The scent of a woman. The "Inia" (Melia azaderach (sp?) is a cousin to the good and benevolent Neem tree. Both mahogany family and although of lesser use, the Inia has insecticidal and vermifugal properties. Also a great "nurse" and canopy tree. The ground up seed cake from the neem oil press is used for fertilizer with a real nice macro and micro nutrient profile, so I'd imagine the inia seed would as well. Anyone? I went ahead and settled into one of the eclectic blend of yard furniture giving the area surrounding the pond a feel of hippie chic meets Sunday yard sale drive by. When I start piping in the Doors, passers by will have acid flashbacks. Fun summer stuff. Took a full swallow of the lemon shandy and savored the flavor. Felt my eyelids relax. Set the beer down on a rock and picked up the fish food bucket. Tossed a handful out over the algae green ripples. Tossed another couple of few. There's really nothing else to do. Watching doesn't really describe it. It's more like surrendering to a very mesmerizing effect (endorphin release?) of brightly colored fish swimming, eating, showing off, daring you to try to be even remotely as fluid and at ease. Took another full swallow and set the beer down on that rock. Ol' doc Bebokbak, the poultrypuncturist stopped in the other day to chew the shoe. He was, of course accompanied by Nurse Sally, newly minted Bebokbak. They were aglow and told me that they had a little one on the way. "No way", says I. "Way", says they. Went on to tell me that Ferdy, the bull that pastures over at Ventura's place finally got it up and schtooped their prize hereford who is now 'specting. They were beside themselves because, new life. The promise, the hope, the renewal, the legacy, plus it's kinda fun to watch bovine porn for the strictly lizard brain satisfaction of it. Anyone? Talked to him a bit about my plan to consolidate our six groups of birds into three groups and open up former enclosures to new plantings and design strategies. Also wanted to try to go feed free and let the feathered freak shows fend for themselves. Interested to see how the egg count goes if we use just whats growing and keep the areas watered in dry times so that bugs seek it out. Also still open to give away of elders of the flock. Still good foragers and will continue to lay for quite some time. Amazing how hard it can be to give shit away. He looked at me somewhat quizzically and said, "you're gonna piss them off, ya know". I told him that I could live with their iracibility and that I'd done battle with them before and prevailed. He chuckled, remembering the time i took away their chicktendo machines and sedated their water supply. Worked well until I started getting egg customers coming to me and saying, " I nodded out after eating an omelet this morning, wtf?" I had almost nodded out when the text came in. Mesmerizing. Took the text and another swallow, right there by the pond in the middle of the part of the circadian cycle that suggests that just to the right of midday is a great time to have a bit of a nap. I like it when my body does the deciding. Tossed in a bit more food just to get a closer look at the fry. They're growing fast and healthy with some real beauties showing up. Can't help but see some dollar signs. Nice to know that the exchange will lead to some meditative moments and enough money to travel the world like the shoeless, mandolin totin' vagabond I've always wanted to be. I can dream, can't I. I think there is actually a bill in front of Congress right now, prohibiting the right to dream. Algorithms have been developed that allow the NSA to monitor the brain waves of any cell phone user, and if they see dream waves emanating from your i phone they will send a powerful electromagnetic pulse directed at your brain stem which will, in turn cause a small electronic storm in the folds of the frontal lobe. Kind of a "one flew over the cuckoos nest" moment. Those who can't afford cell phones get a reprieve because they can't afford to have dreams. So, I picked up the beer to enjoy the last swallow. Tilted it back and as the last of it hit my throat, so did a large fly. Its not that I just hate when that happens because its a total buzzkill,  its also because you can't help but wonder what pile of poop it engaged with its suck tube just before hopping into the beer. Life's full of little surprising moments. My typical response: mustuv needed that. Lastly, the dept of health has decided that instead of paying fifty bucks for a two year vendor permit, us farmers market types must now pay per view. That's right. If you are the simplest (like me) type of vendor with eggs and mostly fresh fruits or veggies, you must pay 25 smackeroos to get twenty visits to the market of your choice per one hundred twenty days. If you do two markets, must jump through hoop number two and double your loss of civil liberty. This effectively increases the cost of vending at least three hundred percent and farmers who vend at two or more places and who have say, cooked food or value added stuffs, must present their noses for fee assessment before paying through them. Good times. I will remain optimistic in the face of so many portents of looming doom, knowing  that the seditious behavior of growing ones own food and living outside the "law" are finally and at last the only refuge in which I can be at peace and should at least give me some bonus points when I talk Levels with Lucifer. Week in brief: The more you show, the more we'll grow. Peace, Jp