The first time I heard the hog story was from a popular recording of it by Farm and Ranch Magazine editor Tom Anderson, of Tennessee. His speech given before an audience of John Birch Society members was recorded in the early 1960's, and also contained the hunter and his dog story, the hunter and the bear story, and dozens of other great stories meant to teach and warn about big government. The 33-1/3 album with his speech, called "Bi-partisan Treason" was so popular because of Anderson's rich Tennessee drawl, and his masterful blending of serious warnings sprinkled with pointed humor and practical tips on how to help America head - off the welfare staters, Pinkos, and communists dominating both political parties in the early 60's. Anderson was a popular syndicated newspaper columnist whose "Straight Talk" columns were featured in many small town, weekly newspapers in those years. He was a patriot, a gifted speaker and I am sorry that he never lived to see the rise of our current Tea Party movement and candidates - he would have been wildly popular and appreciated today.

dav8, I love what you are doing with your lawn. Having grown up in a time when not only crickets but bugs of all kinds, and fireflies were everywhere, I miss that. I'm sure you are taking a step in that direction. We did install a very small ecolawn about 12 years ago. We did it ourselves and sent away for a special seed blend that had short grasses and some wildflowers, in it. We did try to leave it without mowing it but it never quite worked out. A lot of the flowering aspects of the lawn just seemed to peter out except for some achillea that seems to take over too much and the grasses were just too tall to let go. It looked awful. It was in the front yard. In our backyard, we have the original lawn that was here when we moved in. I think that looks better than the front. It has clover in it and we have your average amount of dandelions and violets which we ignore for the most part. Mosses grow in from the shady edges and it must have been a short variety because it doesn't get that tall and we don't have to mow it that often. We do have a small property but I wish I had a larger one, that I could leave some areas further away from the house to grow into a meadow, which I love. I think it would be fun to experiment, but I'm afraid it would be a lot more work than I would have time to invest, to get it to where I would be happy with it. My compromise is that just this year I started planting small bulbs in the lawn and I hope to leave the grass longer as long as I can in the spring, to 'cure' the foliage after bloom to keep them coming back. I also plan to add more clover to the lawn by overseeding it in places and continue to let the mosses grow into it. The local bunnies visit and eat the clover. I wish I had more positive personal experience to share. I wonder if you have checked out the natives forum? Maybe someone over there might have tried that. I would love to know what has started to grow in to your lawn area where you have let it go for two years? I don't suppose you have any photos?

I'm only assuming that I'd smoke a wild hog like I'd smoke a domesticated one. Was it a boar, or a sow, and how big is it? I agree with leaving it on ice for a couple of days, it helps relax the muscle fibers and makes the meat more tender. We do smoke our own bacon when we raise hogs, and I use this recipe from Michael Ruhlman: Home-Cured Bacon (adapted from Charcuterie) —Order five pounds of fresh pork belly from your grocery store, the pork guy at your farmers market, or from a local butcher shop. —Buy a box of 2-gallon zip-top bags if you don’t have a container big enough to hold the belly. —Mix the following together in a small bowl: 2 ounces (1/4 cup Morton or Diamond Crystal coarse kosher) salt 2 teaspoons pink curing salt #1 (I use this DQ Cure from Butcher-Packer, $2) 4 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper 4 bay leaves, crumbled 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 1/4 cup brown sugar or honey or maple syrup 5 cloves of garlic, smashed with the flat side of a chef’s knife 2 tablespoons juniper berries, lightly crushed (optional) 5 to 10 sprigs fresh thyme (optional) —Put your belly in the zip-top bag or on a sheet tray or in a plastic container. Rub the salt and spice mixture all over the belly. Close the bag or cover it with plastic wrap, and stick it in the refrigerator for seven days (get your hands in there and give the spices another good rubbing around midway through). —After seven days, take it out of the fridge, rinse off all the seasonings under cold water and pat it dry. —Put it on a sheet tray and put it in the oven (put it on a rack on a sheet tray if you have one) and turn the oven on to 200 degrees F. (if you want to preheat the oven, that’s fine, too). Leave it in the oven for 90 minutes (or, if you want to measure the internal temperature, until it reaches 150 degrees F.). —Let it cool and refrigerate it until you’re ready to cook it. But I know. You won’t be able to wait. So cut off a piece and cook it. Taste it, savor it. Congratulations! It’s bacon! Notes: If you don’t have five pounds of belly, either guesstimate salt based on the above or, if you have a scale, multiply the weight of the belly in ounces or grams by .025 and that’s how many ounces or grams of salt you should use. If for any reason you find your bacon to be too salty to eat (it happens, especially if you measure your salt by sight, which I sometimes do), simply blanch the bacon and dump the water before sautéing it. Pink curing salt means “sodium nitrite,” not Himalayan pink salt. It’s what’s responsible for the bright color and piquant bacony flavor. You don’t have to use it, but your bacon will turn brown/gray when cooked (you’re cooking it well done, after all), and will taste like pleasantly seasoned spare ribs, porky rather than bacony. If you have a smoker or a grill, you can smoke the bacon (strictly speaking, it needs to have the pink salt in the cure if you’re going to smoke because, in rare instances, botulism bacteria from spores on the garlic could grow; pink salt eliminates this possibility; but I never worry about this, you’re going to cook it again in any case). You can also, instead of roasting it or smoking, hang it to dry, in the manner of pancetta. Have fun, and don't forget all the other things, like Canadian Bacon and sausage of all descriptions! Annie

Yet, when you become part of Nature (by "raising your frequency" like reputedly through opening your pineal gland or temporarily by taking Ayahuasca/DMT, etc)... ----------------------------------------- What would you do if a mountain lion sought refuge in your living room? If you’re Facebook user Lauren Taylor, you apparently use telepathy to calm down the animal and make sure it has a comfy place to take a nap. Earlier this month, while apparently trying to seek refuge from wildfires in Oregon, a mountain lion entered Taylor’s home after drinking from her fountain outside of her back door. According to Taylor, the cat tried to leave through a closed window after somebody in the house screamed and then hid behind the sofa. But instead of trying to shoo the animal outside—or running, hiding, and calling the cops on the potentially dangerous animal—Taylor said she had a better idea: try to communicate with it on a telepathic level. Cats are extremely psychic and perceptive of energy and this lion could have been dangerous in an energy field of fear or anger. In fact, before I consciously elevated the energy field and entrained her to a theta state, a housemate had shouted and slammed a door upon seeing her and the lion was frightened, agitated, and determined to exit through a closed window. Once the energy shifted, she calmed down. When she was so quiet and it was obvious from the position of her feet on the wall that she was laying down, I went outside to see through the window what she was doing. She was sleeping! When I made noise, she woke up and looked startled so I consciously raised my frequency, gazed lovingly into her eyes, and communicated using feline-speak eye blinking to calm her. It was amazing to realize that this worked. I gazed lovingly then blinked hard and then she did it back! Then, she went back to sleep. When the animal woke up, Taylor wrote that “I again connected in a loving way,” and communicated to the animal through blinking. The animal, then, returned to her slumber. Taylor wrote that the lion slept behind the sofa for more than six hours. Here’s how Taylor said she got the mountain lion to exit the house. Wrote Taylor: “It was just a couple hours to dawn and we needed to prompt her to leave without alarming her so much that she panicked. I sent telepathic pictures of the routes out of the house via open doors and the route out the backyard, across the creek, through an open field, and back up into the hills. We got guidance that the way to rouse her and get her to leave her safe spot behind the sofa without panicking was through drumming. We called in native ancestors’ support and started drumming. She roused and knew just what to do…. walking out through the open doors, through the yard, across the creek, and through the empty field behind us exactly as we had shown her.” Taylor wrote she’s confident the mountain lion won’t be back and “it was a perfect ending to a blessed encounter that could have been dangerous if approached from a lower frequency.” ----------------------------------------- Now, what if we all got to the point where we could all coexist and commune with Nature this way?