Late summer we posted pictures of Hayden's (16 yrs. old) forging shelter. It was another family project. Here he is working in it recently. I was out and about doing chores and the pounding of red hot steel caught my attention. #countryliving #community #forging #homeschooling #unschooling #fatherhood #parenting #northwestwisconsin #bitcoin

This speaks to me. Dark Nights pressed down in my late teens early 20's. "Ishmael", by Daniel Quinn was a lifeline for me. Did any literary works serve as a lifeline for you? #asknostr #books #depression #psychology #soul #authors #selfhelp

GM. It's 8;30 AM. I am writing this later than usual. No work today. Not for the next 3 days Thank you Lord. The first fire about burned down. I hear blue jays outside. No noise in the house besides the space heater I start out of habit and the occasional crackle of burning wood. It's above average temperature outside. 33 on our thermometer. By tomorrow we are supposed to be in the single digits and have 6 to 12 inches of snow on the ground. Annie was reading the weather report to me last night from her phone. They're calling it a "bomb cyclone." I laughed. I read out of "Time and The Sou" before writing this. I can pick that book up, start anywhere, and I'm hooked. It's always been that way with me. Philosophy and psychology pull me in. Jacob Needleman, the author, throws a wisdom phrase in there that doesn't let me go. Last week it was "the other door." That's the door that becomes more apparent as we age. I'm 51. I feel and think about that door more than I did when I was 30. This morning it was "the soft eyes of the heart." He claims that all of our self help techniques fall short because they don't offer us this. He's got a point. Who talks about the depths of the heart anymore? Basically it's use your time effeciently, effectively, and you will be rewarded monetarily. Yet time moves faster and faster. Time, he says, only slows down when the Self and the self make contact. Our breathing and sense of time changes. I can't tell you how many times I have felt this standing on a frozen lake ice fishing under moon light. The feeling of "I exist" arises. Let me throw this out there. Mother Nature softens the heart; while all this technology we are dependent on tends to harden it. That's it for now. Morning Fire 77 12.28.25 #cofffeechain #plebchain #gm

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~ Mark Twain

GM from the front of Morning Fire 76. 12.27.25 #coffeechain plebchain #gm

Good morning. The day after Christmas. Back to the mail trail. All presents been opened. All family back home. Good to be together at Mom's yesterday. Thankful. 🙏 Morning Fire 75 12.26.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm

Honoring Deer And More Broadly Wild Nature #wildnature #homestead #christmas

GM. I'm in front of Morning Fire 74. Daniel and Kelli (oldest son and wife) on the couch to the right of me. Everyone else still asleep. A lot of wrapped presents under the tree will be opened soon. A day from the mail trail. Back tomorrow, but no Amazon! Last evening I got home from work to see my two sons standing over a stretched out deer hide. It was fresh. Daniel just skinned the deer they found in the pasture dead. Presumably a car kill from the night before. It smelled bad, so they didn't cut any meat off it. Daniel will tan the hide. He called it a gift. I took a minute to stand with them. Looked up at the stars and the waxing moon in the southwestern sky, and said this heaven. Standing on snow, working with a wild animal, under stars and moon, while the rest of the family is in house in front of the fire is vision we have lived into. Yet, I know none of it is possible without the grace of God. I don't feel comfortable saying like this, yet it's what comes to mind. One God? Many gods? Both? Who knows? Something out there beyond our day to day planning and striving makes it possible though. And for that I am grateful. Merry Christmas 🎄 12.25.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm

GM🔥 It's 21 out there. When I went to bed it was 18. Warmed up during the night. I noticed the moon last evening on the mail route. It was a waxing sliver as we move away from New Moon. I'm off to the mail trail in a bit. I hope you have a great day. Morning Fire 73 12.24.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm

GM! Morning Fire 72 12.23.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm

Good Monday morning 🔥 Morning Fire 71 12.22.25 #plebchain #coffeechain #gm

Is their anyway to change the zap default to any amount other than 42? #asknostr

I didn't know what to get my mom for Christmas. Then it hit me on the mail trail yesterday afternoon. Recently she mentioned that she wanted to learn more about the cause of inflation. My uncle and I talk about it around her often. Her mom, my grandma, lives with her. They're both on a fixed income. They're feeling the pinch of inflation at the grocery store and beyond. My mom and I started buying Bitcoin the summer after my dad passed away in January of '22. His pension went with him. Six months before that my grandpa passed. So things started to look scarce. I was just getting into Bitcoin. And one thing I learned was that the government could not inflate it away like our dollars. It seemed like a perfect fit for her. She took to to Bitcoin with ease. By now I have talked to enough people to see roadblocks arise for most people. Big enough to keep them from buying. Every Bitcoiner who I know has went through this. It's new, risky, and volatile. But Bitcoin keeps knocking. Michael Saylor, who knows a thing or two about Bitcoin, says people later in life tend to only adopt Bitcoin because they are unusually curious or desperate. Together we fit into both categories. So I pulled over on the shoulder of the icy town road, clicked on Amazon, and the rest is history. Our Bitcoin education will deepen with "The Big Print," by @Lawrence Lepard It should get here on Christmas Eve. I will deliver it. :-) #bigprint #bitcoinbooks #inflation #federalreserve #money

"People don't have ideas, ideas have people." -- Carl Jung

GM. It's 1 above. Happy Sunday and Winter Solstice! I'm in front of Morning Fire 70. Everyone still asleep. Although Annie will be up soon. The first of two days off from the mail trail. Every part of me wants to stay home, spend most of the day in the warm house with family, on the darkest day of the year. I worked close to 60 hours from dark to dark the past week delivering mail and Amazon packages. Tiring. A few days off to recharge for the homestretch will be nice. That's what's going on here . . . so far. The day's just getting started. :-) I hope you have a great day! 12.21.25