07-03-2025 — Freedom is just a word

Howdy all. As I sit here today waiting to here the inevitable news that the Big B.S. Bill is now headed to the president’s desk to become law, I wonder what happened to freedom. So many of the representatives in the House, and so many of the Senators, all seem to have been quoted saying the bill is not good for the country. But yet, they are voting for it. Why? Because they don’t feel free to disagree with the leader.

Is it a good bill? Is it a bad bill? I certainly can not say for certain. I do know I agree with parts, and disagree strongly with so many other parts. I am speculating, that personally, I will likely do better financially, at least at the beginning, than I would otherwise. But, in the longer term, I will be hurting almost as much as the less fortunate will shortly. And, in my less than knowledgeable opinion, the country will be hurting more by this time next year. I do hope I am wrong. And, I am certain, I am not in control of the future.

The only things I can control, is my immediate life and surroundings. Thus, I keep on, keeping on. Yesterday I did a little summer cleaning of my indoor garden.

I removed the dead leaves/branches from my indoor tomatoes, and pulled the parsley plants. Also trimmed/harvested a pile of basil. Then I cleaned out every little pot and cover not in use. Even removed the algae laden water from the reservoirs, and replaced with fresh.

I totally cleaned out the bottom setups. They will be ready for an early fall planting.

As I went out to put the stuff in the compost bin, I took a picture of my basil I kept to use soon.  Then I yanked out some onions that were crowding a tomato plant. And then decided to see if those potatoes out back were really finished growing already.  Cleared the front portion of that bed.  I had forgotten that was where I put a large self watering container.  Only about five inches of soil for potatoes to form.  But they did.  And there were lots of pea sized potatoes in the ground that would have grown.  So, no, it is not really harvest time for them.  

Certainly enough for me and a bunch of meals.  

Oh, and look. Tiny beans.   Someday maybe I can make a meal with them.

That’s a lot of harvested basil. I used some in today’s omelette, and will again tomorrow. Also, maybe in tonight’s dinner — whatever that will be.

That’s a 5 gallon bucket almost full of greenery from the indoor garden. Added it to the compost bin.

Tiny beans. I was out today doing stuff, and checked that there are a lot of bean plants with these tiny beans. Maybe a week or two before a harvest.

Yummy onions. Yellow/white/purple.

These will make 4 or 5 good meals of taters for me.

Today the lawn service was here. While they were doing the yard, I started on the area between my place and the neighbor to the north. He had the 6 trees removed a few years back because they would slap both our houses when the big winds came. Each spring, dozens of pretty tulips grow in the area where the stumps remain. I had been working slowly at drilling/sawing/axing the stumps, and adding stump killer, but the mom said she was thinking of having one of her kids paint the stumps and add happy faces or something. So I am not trying to destroy them.

But, he always seems to be reluctant to mow/trim around the stumps. He didn’t do around them when they were trees either. I always mowed it down. So, the last few years I’ve kept up with this small area after the tulips were done for the year. This year, the trees had gotten a little high. And I’ve not had the energy to attack the work. Today was the day. I had to use the weed cutter blade (like a saw blade on a weed whipper), then the whipper, and then my little battery mower. It isn’t perfect. Another round of weed whipping in a week or so will make it better. But it is better than yesterday.

From a cropped security camera image. yesterday.

From the same camera today. Not perfect, but better for sure.

While I can’t be certain of the country’s freedom, for now, I am free to Enjoy Life.