We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
"... 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?"
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Although a true Maine lobster boat or Down East yacht still retains its classic lines, things have changed, even for the most traditional builders. “We’re building a 36 now and it has a 560-horsepower diesel,” says Don Ellis. “My father would be horrified. He’d say 200 horsepower would be plenty. But the new boat has air conditioning, a generator, a custom ice maker, a big refrigerator, the list goes on and on. Everything went from a simple package to a larger package, and now that package is getting pretty complex.”