Category Archives: Namby Pamby Land
Nutless Wonders
In the Pittsburgh Zoo an idiot mother put her 2 year old on the rail of the enclosure for the African wild dogs.
http://news.yahoo.com/2-old-boy-killed-pa-zoo-exhibit-234149458.html
The kid fell in, and was torn apart by the wild dogs.
Now I’m not even going to go into how stupid this was of the mother to do this.
What I am going to go into is how incredibly nutless the average American male is.
Now, there were all kinds of people standing around and watching this child get ripped to shreds.
NO ONE had the balls to jump in there. It would have only taken a few guys. Or even if ONE guy jumped in there, and had the other people link their belts together to pull him and the kid back out of the enclosure.
Animals FEAR humans. Especially pissed off and adrenaline fueled humans. All it would have taken was one guy that had the guts to go in there, RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR! at the bitches, and they’d have momentarily backed off. They were also not true ‘wild’ animals, they were raised in captivity. I’ve roared at German Shepherds before that thought they were the shit, and they’ve backed down with their tail between their legs. And these things were not very big dogs. And I’m not some huge 225 pound musclebound jock either. It’s INTENT. The animals sense you aren’t fucking around and they back off.
They’d probably not have even messed with an adult. These animals were regularly fed. They weren’t starving or even hungry. They were playing with a new squishy chew toy that dropped in their enclosure. They would not have put up any real serious resistance to a determined foe. The problem is that people are trained to be scared of their own shadow.
The men there could have saved this boy, and all of them failed. I’d feel like a totally nutless wonder for the rest of my life if I didn’t even TRY to save a child in this situation.
The handlers called off some of the dogs, but they didn’t have the nuts to go save the child from the several remaining dogs either. A police officer who arrived ‘eventually’ shot the dog. Probably wasn’t his fault though, the handlers probably only called him after they failed to get the dogs off the kid, and by that time, he was likely already dead. Had they got the guy with the gun, or had any of these nutless wonders been carrying, they could have saved this kid. There’s a concept. Shoot the wild fucking dogs that are eating the little boy’s face.
I guess that’s what happens when the whole public is disarmed, and raised to be cowards. They just sit there and let a boy get his face eaten off, whilst waiting for the police to arrive to do something about it.
That is what everyone is taught now. Be a ‘good’ little American. Wait for the ‘authorities’ to handle it. That’s what those folks at the zoo did.
Sheep. Every. Last. Fucking. One. Of. Them.
There’s probably some special hell for folks that just let things like this happen before their eyes and do nothing about it. In my mind they are just as guilty by their inaction, as that idiot cunt who put that little boy up on the wall. The onlookers didn’t choose to put the boy up there. But they CHOSE to stand by and do nothing and watch it happen.
All that it takes for bad things to happen, are good men and women to stand by and do NOTHING.
Because Sometimes Ye Just Have to Rant
That’s what the tagline says. 🙂
The American male is officially 97% domesticated. Poor gutless, nutless wonders that don’t get pissed off about anything, least of all having their essential liberties stolen away from them.
Let me tell you all a story. Once upon a time, many moons ago when I was 18, I met this hot little auburn hair chick. She was 21 and worked at the same place I did. There was serious chemistry there from day one, and we ‘clicked’. Well, we went out a few times, started dating, and as the story goes, one thing leads to another, and we became an item.
Well I found out from another co-worker than she was MARRIED. I’d never been over to her place, she said she lived with ‘very religious’ family that would not approve of our relationship, and any time we met downtown she’d always meet me at the park. I considered myself a fairly modern guy, so I didn’t really read too much into it. (Plus she was extremely hot, had a fantastic bod, and was a goddess in bed.)
Well after I found out she was married, I confronted her about it, and she admitted it. She just cried and cried and cried. Not because she loved me and had a tough decision to make. Oh no. She didn’t love me, (though she very much enjoyed the sex) she was just using me as an out, and a way to ‘get at’ her husband.
Which really sucked, because I was in love with the idiot bitch. But since she didn’t love me back, the choice to do the right thing and send her back to her hubby was an easy one.
Anyway, long story short, I requested to meet with and finally met the guy totally prepared for him to bring on the fisticuffs… I even figured I’d give him the first hit free. Talk about an utterly nutless wonder. he was about my size, maybe a bit bigger than me even, but he was so passive it was frankly embarrassing. He didn’t even get PISSED OFF. Not at all. Like he had no care in the world that I was jamming his hot little lamb.
I could tell this guy was a loser from the get go and had very little sympathy for him, really, but I explained the situation, I was honest with the guy, and told him that I honestly had no idea she was married, and that I was sorry for the problem.
“Ok.” He says, “We’re cool.”
“That’s it?” I inquired. “Yep.” he responds.
I wasn’t satisfied with that answer. So I tell him: “Dude, I’ve been fucking your wife for like, 3 months solid, every chance I get, totally rocking that kitty, and you are totally OK with that?”
He said nothing, so apparently he was.
I was embarrassed for him. I mean I felt sorry for the guy that he didn’t have the nuts to even GET mad at me.
I seriously offered him the chance to slug me one, so he’d at least feel better about the whole thing.
Nope. He wouldn’t do it.
I was baffled.
I asked him if he loved his wife. He said, and I quote. “Yea, I mean, I suppose.”
Hmm.
You ask me if I love my wife, and my answer would be “More than anything or anyone in the world, even think of touching her, and I’ll rip your nuts off and force feed them to you through a straw.” Or something equally creative.
And what I get from this guy was a ‘yea’ and he supposed?
Oh well, different strokes for different folks, and he must have been stroking a lot, as he sure as hell wasn’t rocking that kitty.
Turned out that the guy was a total weiner that treated his wife like absolute crap, ran her down all the time, verbally abused her, told her she wasn’t worth anything, was stupid, and ugly, etc. You know how it goes. Which is why she cheated on the loser in the first place.
Anyway, I’ve never told that story to anyone, other than my wife, so there ya go.
The American Nutless Wonder Story.
No Stollen for You!
So I logged on this morning and I browsed over to the blogs I follow, and read this:
http://traditionsandskills.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/stolen/
Which in my not quite 100% firing brain (haven’t had my tea yet) briefly read as ‘Stollen’ before I clicked on it.
Which, as many of ye may know, is a freaking tasty German pastry. Did I mention It’s freaking tasty? Yep. Great stuff.
I was sorry to see that it was just about the Puppet in Chief and not about pastries. (I was very saddened. I’d had my heart set on pastries) 😦
Then I briefly read some of the wiki article on Stollen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stollen
It stated that the Pope at the time, and 5 others after him, had prohibited the use of butter in the Stollen.
‘Screw that’ I said to myself out loud. Who did this stuffy, closed-minded prick think he was, the leader of the Catholic church or something? Pfft. (This is one of the many reasons that I think faith is great, but organized religion is just plain fucking stupid.)
And then I thought to myself… wait a minute. We Americans do this every moment of every day.
The overlords say jump, we as a people say ‘how high’, and on it goes.
They say we can or cannot do XYZ and we all obey out of fear of punishment. Not because we agree with it. But because we’re afraid of being ‘enforced upon’.
Can’t have that grass too high. If it’s over 8” tall, it’s ILLEGAL and in violation of City code XYZ. Even though your front yard is a natural food garden and supports more plants and wildlife than the local city park, in addition to feeding your family healthy food. Fuck that! OBEY!
Can’t grow a garden and give away produce to your neighbors to help them out during this difficult financial times, as that’s ILLEGAL under SB 510 & HR2751 the ‘Food Safety Modernization Act” Want to help your neighbors eat well? Fuck that! OBEY!
Can’t have raw organic milk, or sell it, or you’ll be flat out SWAT teamed as Rawsome food was in CA, and as the Amish are all the damn time. Can’t have you being healthy, after all. Think that you should be able to drink what you want to without the government giving you shit about it? Fuck that! OBEY!
“HOLY SHIT!”, thinks I, “WE’RE A NATION OF MEDIEVAL CATHOLICS!!!”
We just bend over and give in on every little thing, because we are scared of what the shadowy overlords may do if they found out we put butter in our Stollen!
Heck raw milk on our cereal could be jail time, a fine, or worse. You may be killed in the home invasion in the zeal to get that ‘dangerous’ container of raw milk out of your fridge.
But no worries. They’re just ‘doing their job’.
It’s ‘for the children’, after all.
So after more in depth thought, I think the Saxons had it pretty easy with no butter in their Stollen compared to the crap we deal with every day. 😉
(I still would have gave the flaming middle finger to the Pope and made it anyway.)
I’m civilly disobedient like that.
Here’s a parting uncle Ted Nugent song for everyone. You’ll either love it or hate it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sZCC6_PD9c
“I make up my own mind, and I’ll leave you far behind. When the going gets tough, you can KISS MY ASS!”
P.S. Before anyone blows a gasket, I grew up Catholic. I had to deal with that idiotic mind-frelling freedom-sucking crap for years. I no longer follow such ridiculousness, and haven’t for many years now, after I learned to think for myself, and say… “Gee, I don’t really care what the Pope thinks, this is just really fucking stupid!”. So I have every right in the world to say ‘Fuck the Popes.’ All of them. Back to Mr. Stuffy Stollen himself, Pope Nicholas V, and onward to Mr. Ratsucker, a former Mr. Hiter Jungan himself there. (Yes, your current Pope was a Hitler Youth member. Also known as a Nazi. Have a nice day.)
If that gets anyone’s panties in a wad, then tough turkey nuggets. That’s part of a free society. The ability to vehemently disagree with things we see as utter BS, and be vocal about it without being SWAT teamed.
Phrase of the Day #26 – ‘Jefferson’s Rightful Liberty’
The Phrase of the Day #26 for Thursday, October 18th, 2012 is:
‘Jefferson’s Rightful Liberty’
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Why?
Because it’s been missing from this country for far too long that’s why. So long that none of us really know what it is beyond a phantom of a shred of a whisper.
But we know we are missing it, and we know we want it BACK. How does Jefferson’s concept of Rightful Liberty sound to you? How would YOU like to participate in something that is your natural born birthright?
It all starts here: http://iiipercent.blogspot.com/
Read it until you GET IT.
See also the blog for the Citadel: http://iiicitadel.blogspot.com/ for more details on the Citadel concept, as well as
The III Arms Company blog: http://iiiarms.blogspot.com/
Phrase of the Day #25 – ‘Free Food Fraud’
The Phrase of the Day #25 for Friday, June 22nd, 2012 is:
‘Free Food Fraud’
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Why?
I was motivated to write this from a post on John the Aussie’s blog:
http://sleepinginsomniacs.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/dumb-chef-the-special-of-the-day-is-comedy/
Now, I’ve worked at various food services places in my life. Hell, I’ve even owned a gourmet restaurant and pizza place once upon a time. (But that’s a story for another blog.)
People will lie their asses off to get free food. I’m thoughtfully convinced that over 90% of customer service complaints in the food industry are related to the customer’s desire to defraud the restaurant and get a free meal or reduced pricing. Why? Because a large portion of the population are cheap, lying, fraudulent asshats, that’s why. They’ve been raised to be this way, and they don’t disappoint.
Let’s turn back the wheel of time almost 20 years when I was working at the hamburger joint called Wendy’s. This particular Wendy’s no longer exists either, as they expanded the highway and an off-ramp now exists where the restaurant once stood.
Customer: “I just came through the drive through and there is mayo on my burger. I specifically said ‘no mayo’.”
Me: “How long ago did you come through the drive through?”
Customer: “About 30 minutes ago.”
Me: “Ok, give me the sandwich and I’ll make a fresh one for you.”
Customer hands me a crumpled up wrapper with one bite left in it.
Me: “What’s this?”
Customer: “It’s the sandwich.”
Me: “There is only one bite left. I thought you said you didn’t like mayo.”
Customer: “I don’t.”
Me: “But you ate nearly the entire sandwich!”
Customer: “Well… I scraped off the mayo. I was hungry. I demand a new sandwich!”
Me: (looking at the mangled remains of the sandwich.) “Sir, there was never any mayo on this sandwich.”
Customer: “Yes there was! I scraped it off into the bag!”
Me: (looking at the bag.) “Sir, there is no mayo in the bag.”
Customer: “This is outrageous! I demand to see the manager!”
Me: “Sure thing sir. Just one moment.” (You lying prick)
(Manager replaces the entire sandwich, even though they knew the man was lying out his ass.)
Manager: “There you go sir, sorry for the delay. Have a nice day.”
‘Customer’ leaves and picks up a few packets of mayo on the way out. At this point I’m about ready to jump over the counter and beat this lying prick down.
Me: “You’ve GOT to be kidding me. Did you just see that?”
Manager: “See what?”
Me: “Oh my God….”
Manager: ”…”
Me: “You know you are enabling this kind of behavior right? This moron will be back in a few days doing the exact same thing.”
Manager: “We are here to serve our customers.”
Me: “Look it up, it’s called fraud.”
Manager: “It’s called good customer service.”
Me: “Customer service is about giving service to customers for legitimate reasons. Giving away free food to someone you know is lying to you… what they are doing is called fraud, and you are supporting it and encouraging it to continue.”
Manager: “The customer is always right…”
Me: “You’re an idiot. This is why the District Manager is on your ass all the time about this location constantly losing money even though our sales are high and we all work our asses off. Some poor bastard that you’ve made pull a double shift and who hasn’t had a break in six hours, eats a french fry or nugget and you fire them, but then you give away free food 10 times a day to morons like this. There’s a special place in hell for people as dumb as you.”
Manager: “…”
Manager: “I should write you up for that.”
Me: “Go ahead and do it. I triple dog dare ya! I’ll have a nice talk with the District Manager, who already isn’t a very big fan of yours due to your utter incompetence, and we’ll see who comes out of this without a job.”
Manager: “…”
And no, I never got fired from that place. I tried like hell, but they wouldn’t do it. I was too valuable, as I could run every station and basically open and close the store by myself. Finally I ended up quitting after being passed over for a new management position when the incompetent Store Manager made their pet idiot and sycophant into the new Assistant Manager.
The good news is the District Manager fired the Store Manager and Assistant Store Manager a few months later for running the store at a loss. A few years later, they razed the store to the ground and expanded the highway, and now an off-ramp sits where burgers were once flipped.
The End.
The Multidimensional Experience of (public) School
Every now and again, something really irks my gidjet. This post was one of them.
I didn’t intend to write a novel, but since it turned out so lengthy, I figured I’d share it here as well.
The original post can be read here:
@RAB
Let me share with you my ‘multidimensional experience of school’. Multidimensional indeed. It was like something out of the Twilight Zone.
It was sheer unadulterated HELL from Kindergarten to High School. I was relentlessly picked on, abused, both physically and emotionally, and tormented by my peers, for no reason that I could discern other than my family was less wealthy than many of the other families in town. We oft had ‘hand-me-down’ clothing and shoes instead of name brand designer clothing.
I was also too darn nice for my own good, and pretty much a pacifist. That all changed in 9th grade when I finally kicked the living shit out of one of the many bullies that had been tormenting me since 2nd grade. It got somewhat better after that. At least I was left alone. The word was out that I would put anyone that messed with me into the ER. It’s the only way you stop a bully. He’s not a ‘misunderstood’ child, he’s a tyrant in training, and needs to be reigned in before he ruins someone’s life forever. Kick a bully’s ass. The life you save may be his own.
The teachers, by and large, were useless and ineffective on all fronts.
My wife, also, was bullied mercilessly from grade school to jr. high.
My wife was home-schooled for a few years, as it was the only way to get her away from the kids who were relentlessly picking on her. It was physically dangerous for her to be there, as they just refused to leave her alone, and the time she was home-schooled was the best time of her life up until that point, educationally speaking. She learned much better that way than in a traditional ‘classroom’ environment.
Not all children learn the same way. Our conventional Prussian educational system has epically failed America on so many different fronts, to do more than breach the topic would be a momentous undertaking in the very least. Needless to say such ‘humanitarians’ as the Rockefellers were involved.
If you have not done so already, I highly suggest a book called ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, by Robert Kiyosaki. If you are an educator, RAB, this will be quite an eye opener.
And yes, I do want my kid to turn into me. Or into my wife. Who wouldn’t. Isn’t this the point of reproduction? To make more of ourselves? I certainly didn’t bring a child into the world to make them into someone else, or a carbon copy pencil pushing ‘good employee’ mouth breather who cannot even comprehend basic principles of society and finance.
Nor do I want someone who graduates from high school and cannot even read beyond a basic 5th grade level. (How is that even possible these days?!?)
It seems to me that everyone’s perception is influenced by the experiences they have had.
As an educator, you seem to think the best place for a child, naturally, is a classroom. I think that’s a load of horseshit. I think that depends entirely upon the child, and which way they best learn. Every child is different. Some small few actually do well in a classroom style environment. Experience hath shewn that most do not.
Had I been home-schooled my experience would have been very markedly different than the one I was forced to endure.
The way I learn best, is just give me the materials and let me do it, then leave me alone. If I need help, I’ll ask. I learn anything immensely quickly, if I care enough to apply myself to it, and if it does not bore me to tears. It also helps if I’m not being punched in the back, or flicked in the back of my head whilst I am trying to learn something. See, it’s small things like that, which make all the difference.
All through school both my wife and I were held back and admonished to follow along at ‘the level of the class’. I taught myself to read at the age of 4 by asking questions of my older sisters and reading my father’s archaeological manuals. By the time I was 5 I could read them cover to cover. By the time I was 7, I had the reading and comprehension level of a college student. First and Second grade were very boring for me. I was picked on and teased mercilessly for being a ‘nerd’, and physically assaulted. The teachers did nothing. My parents did nothing. I was alone and trapped. Eventually, to ‘fit in’ more, I started to get things wrong intentionally, and this in turn morphed into an honest attitude of not giving a shit. So my grades went from all A’s, to C’s to D’s and finally to F’s, when I finally determined, that no, I really did not give a rat’s patootie about cooperating in this mind-frelling system of endless brainwashing and rote memorization that passes for education in this country.
I’m sure you think your experience as an ‘educator’ gives you a hand up or special insight.
I’d say that folks who have experienced your kind of ‘education’ for themselves would be infinitely more qualified to speak on this subject than you are. Or, rather, the opinion of someone who has been through it as a student, and not as a teacher. You can’t walk in your student’s shoes, and you obviously haven’t been a child for a very long time. School was quite different back then, and society was different as well. People were more respectful in general back then. And aye, I wasn’t alive back then, but I have it on good account. So sayeth my great aunt, who hit age 89 this year. Actually she says “Young people these days are just so damn disrespectful! They need a good hard ass busting, but their parents haven’t got the guts to do it! Heck, if they like, I’ll do it for them!”. She’s a firecracker that one. My grandmother’s youngest sister. I love that old woman. 🙂
But I digress,
At the end of the day, every teacher thinks they are in the right and ‘making a difference’. And for the sake of the poor bastards that are still stuck in government run ‘institutions’ (isn’t that a nice word?), I hope you are making a difference. At least you can tell yourself that and sleep better at night.
And maybe I’m being overly harsh here, but this topic is a bit of a trigger for me. I can almost guarantee that you’ve never been held down by a half dozen middle school aged boys and pummeled until you were bruised and puking. Maybe if you had been, your view of the public school system would be a bit different. It’s a bit hard to learn when you are in constant fear. Some people choose not to subject their own children to that environment, and at the very least, you need to respect that.
But for my own part, I can’t imagine anything more insane than a parent actually WILLINGLY subjecting their children to that kind of environment.
Clotilda, I salute your choice to home-school your child. He will thank you for it.
Phrase of the Day #23 – ‘Home Grown Tyrannists’
The Phrase of the Day #23 for Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 is:
‘Home Grown Tyrannists’
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Why?
I’d like to coin a new phrase for people to start using. I’m a big fan of using the system against itself, and as such, I’m a fan of catchy phrases. One that I recently came up with, is:
‘Home Grown Tyrannists’
Yea, I know what ‘Tyrannists’ isn’t officially a word, but it is now! I think it is very apropos. 😛
People who believe, that under color of law bullshit, that you should be fucked with, fleeced, and interfered with in any way possible.
They are cowards who believe that the state should be used as a truncheon to force you to comply with the way that THEY think things should be.
They are bullies who truly believe that you must be made to ‘conform’ to their point of view, no matter how unlawful it may be to force you to do so, or in spite of the fact that you have broken no law.
Beware of Home Grown Tyrannists. They are absolutely EVERYWHERE.
Your neighbors, co-workers, fellow citizens, and local government employees. All of these people have a very high chance and probability of being a Home Grown Tyrannist.
Ye Hath Been Warned! 😉
Phrase of the Day #22 – ‘Bullshit Modern Lawns’
The Phrase of the Day #22 for Friday, April 20th, 2012 is:
‘Bullshit Modern Lawns’
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Why?
One of my neighbors yesterday decided, out of the clear blue, to just mow my entire front and back yard for me, without warning, and without asking. I was in the bath at the time, and I knew they were mowing our other neighbor’s yard, as they usually do because the fellow is older and doesn’t get along well, so having a huge industrial sized professional riding mower, they mow it for the old guy.
But this time they decided to mow MY yard as well.
Why is this a problem? Because I have edible wild food plants that encompass the entirety of my yard. It isn’t a ‘lawn’ it is my wild food garden and where I get about 85% of my food from during the spring, summer, and early fall!
In other words, they just mowed over my fucking food. Damn near all of it!
On a foraging forum I frequent, someone was talking about how modern lawns are nostalgic to some people.
Nostalgic eh?
I have got some nostalgia too. From when we actually had a country where people respected the rights of others, and left others alone to live their lives the way THEY wanted to live them, as long as they were not harming anyone else. Does anyone else remember about reading something like that in history class? Because it sure does not work that way in real life these days.
This reminds me of a short story that I think is apropos:
My great uncle once told me a story about his father. Long story short, he worked at a mill back in the early 1920s. There was this guy that worked there that always had to have his nose in everyone else’s business. The fellow had zero business being in anyone else’s business, he just was a nosy little weasel. You know the type. Apparently one day the nosy fellow poked his nose into one too many things, one too many times, and my great uncles father clobbered him with his metal lunch pail. This was not a kids tin lunchbox either, but one of those big old steel mill lunchboxes. Rung his bell darn good. The guy was then apparently told that the next time he stuck his nose where it did not belong, it would be a bit shorter, if ye get the drift. Well, needless to say, they never had a problem with Mr. Weasel ever again. Maybe we can all learn something from history, eh? 😉
I have never quite understood the attraction in the 65 and up crowd to their perfectly preened putter lawns.
Traditionally the only people who had lawns were the idle rich. It was a status symbol that they could afford to have such huge tracts of land unused and worthless. It was the equivalent of the middle finger to the rest of the classes, as the rich could buy whatever they wanted and did not need to use their own land to grow it.
The post WWII generation is the perfect example of nearly a whole generation of Americans trying to be something they are not. The new idle rich. The so called American Dream and all that sad rot. Where there is a chicken in every pot and a Model T Ford in every garage and where they will enforce redistribution of wealth at gunpoint. Where you have to keep up with the Joneses and unless you have the most modern this or that you are somehow less than your neighbors or peers.
Personally, I take issue with people just waltzing into my yard and mowing my lawn for me, no matter how helpful they think they are being. It is the equivalent of someone setting my pantry on fire. But these are older people, that do not take a hint. I have also known them all my life. They are good people, and they think they are helping, no matter how many times they are told that we like the lawn to grow wild, and that we eat the plants. They look down their noses at us that we eat the weeds. I have even had one ask me recently I saw you out there picking dandelions. Do you have enough food? Do you need help?
Jesus, Mary, and Joe the Plumber. No, I do not need help.
They just do not understand, no matter how many times they are told, that I eat the things I eat because I like them, and because they are healthy. Not because I cannot go to the store and buy some GMO death food alternative if I so desired.
Well the real answer to the first question now, is no, I DO NOT have enough food. Why? Because you goram idiots killed it all, and now I will have to go on a very long walk each day to get what I need. Could not have it 10 feet away from my back door, where I can harvest it rain or shine no, that just makes too much sense. No, it is better to mow it down to the earth.
We just lost our ENTIRE spring greens harvest. There is no recovering from that. It was a bumper crop this year from the early spring. The most I can hope for is to find a little bit here and there, but nothing like the density and concentration that they were in my yard. We have been nursing this area along for years to be this thick with food plants so that all we have to do is literally walk out the door, and 5 minutes later with minimal effort, we have enough for a meal.
We do keep the front lawn trimmed, but we have a method to it so that our resources are not wasted.
Those lovely 10 inch long dandelions all had a purpose. My wife and I had set aside this entire weekend, and we were going to harvest the leaves, buds, flowers, and stems of as many as we could. This would also be done with any thistle, plantago, cats ear, or any other wild edible that is tall enough to be mowed over. It would be harvested, cleaned, and then either mixed together into an assortment of different plants and blanched and made into what I call soup packs, or separated by plant and part time and frozen separately in plastic bags for use in other dishes.
There were enough wild greens destroyed yesterday that would have sustained us for most of the coming winter. A conservative estimate would have been 30 or so plastic bags full. And I mean FULL. Our freezer would have been packed to the brim, ready to go for winter. Now that it has been cut it will NEVER look that way again this year, even if we totally let it go and never cut it again. Which would just cause ANOTHER of our oh so helpful retired neighbors with too much time on their hands to come over and help us out by mowing it down. Again. We will be lucky to get a quarter of that come this Fall now. It is the SPRING greens that we freeze for eating over the winter, as they are much more prolific, easier to harvest, and much less bitter.
The weather is going to be changing into longer hotter days, instead of cooler shorter days where those plants thrive here without being bitter. Sun on leaves of things such as dandelion equals more bitter. Just taste one that has been growing in the shade vs one that has been growing in full sun. You will see.
These ones were growing so fast from the early spring and the lack of hot sunny days, that there was not even barely a bitter trace to them. I mixed a salad two days ago, half and half with regular lettuce and dandelion leaves (and some stems and flowers), and wolfed it down with some balsamic vinegar as dressing. I would not usually do that, but these were so mild it was absolutely delicious.
But all that is now gone.
Oh. And the guy cut down a row of my blackberries in the front that I have painstakingly cut around for 3 years straight trying to get the canes to propagate, and 4 small sugar maple trees that I had intentionally planted and grown from seed last year and were about a foot tall that did not have wiring or any protective barrier around them. Why would they? No one but us should be on our lawn operating any kind of lawn equipment.
Closer to the heart, they also destroyed a small rose bush that my now deceased father had planted for my mother some 45 years ago. It was barely clinging on to life, as the area where it was planted is now too wet for it, and too shady, as the trees have grown up all around it. It was in full sun when originally planted, and the grade of the yard was higher back then.
All in all, I think I have had just about as much helpful neighbors as I can handle.
Wild Rantery! 