Since February

Tax Return allowed me to purchase a bunch of plywood and hardyboard and a whole pile of other things that I normally wouldn't be able to afford...and in February, I set to work on remodeling the old broken down trailer in the Wilderness.
The 3 center rooms...now one big one...are the Library.
I put a wall around what used to be the front yard...now the “Cloister”...and put the Cowboy Pool out there(“Think Tank”,lol).

Above the rather large gate, it says, “Thus I give up the spear”, on one side...and “Non Serviam”, on the other.

The first, of course, are the last words of Ahab, as he's dragged beneath the waves by his Nemesis.
The full quote is:”To the last, I grapple with thee.
From Hell's heart, I stab at thee.
For Hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee...
Thus I give up the spear.”

By this I mean that my Retreat is really an Advance.
More on that, later.
The second is from Lucifer, from Paradise Lost...and should speak for itself.

That part of the wall is 12 feet high, and the boards are 'Irish Beauty Green”, with yellow,red, sky blue and purple, peeking out from between the slats...as if something is trying to get out....at least that was the effect that I was going for.
I'll attempt(Luddite,lol) to get a few pics up of all of this and more.
We've also almost finished the Shop, where the Blacksmith stuff is, and all of the rest of the tools and things.

I hope to learn to make swords...just because,lol...and I've carried around the idea of constructing Aeolian Harps for some time....and perhaps Crucifixes, for purely economic reasons.
This is the Monastery, and Environs...a Secular Humanist Monastery...perhaps the first in History, (Ha!)
An old bunk bed frame is now a “Roman Emperor's Couch”...in the cloister, where the giant pillow goes, and where I've been reading...a lot.

For a year or so, Karl Popper's “Open Society” has been the Truck Book.
Finally got through the first Volume...regarding Plato. I laughed a lot...as I found that I agreed with Popper on the two Plato theory.
I love Socrates, but distrust Plato.
I found myself wondering why, since I've been immersed in Philosophy since I was 8 years old, that I had never even heard of this person, Popper.

Now I'm into Vol.2, regarding Hegel and Marx...and here again, I agree...it's as if I've been channeling Karl Popper for all of these years.
I despised Hegel, when I read through, tortuously, his giant wall of verbiage, all those years ago....and I admired Marx...although I would never call myself a Marxist.
The Gist of the whole thing, is that what we call “conservatives” are attempting...whether they know it or not...to “Arrest History”...to Stop Time.
I'm reminded of Buckley:”...To stand athwart History, yelling, 'Stop!'...”.
The other books I'm into at the moment are Nietzsche's,”Twilight of the Idols”, and Machiavelli's,” Discourses on Livy”.
The former, I've read a few times, over the years...Uncle Friedrich was my introduction to Philosophy(Zarathustra), and has been my favorite, ever since.
Niccolo, I read the Prince a couple of times in the last 20+ years, and always meant to get around to “the rest of the story”...now, I finally have.
There's a lot of things like that...my reading list wraps all the way around the planet.
With the current Refugee Mess at the southern border, I've been thinking about John Rawls...who, it turns out, was a Giant in American Liberal Thought...and whom I had never heard of, till the Internet came along.
The “Veil of Ignorance” thought experiment has been a part of me forever...but I didn't have a name for it...or such an in depth treatment of it..till 2 years ago.
As research, I've re-read Thucydides, and Drury's Jeremiad against the Straussians/Neocons, as well as Cahill's “...Wine Dark Sea..” and “How the Irish Saved Civilisation”...and I came across Ovid's “Erotica”, at long last.
I feel fortunate to finally have a place to go and read and smoke pot and hang around nekkid...far from the hustle and bustle of Mason's Barrio(seriously!).
I've written a great deal in these 6+ months...but it's still difficult to get into a groove. For an unemployed Cripple, I sure stay busy...of course, much of my time is spent recovering from my various efforts.


This could be called a “God-Pole”, an Axis Mundi, a representation of the World Tree...or just a Pole with antlers on top....for pole dancing.(because you never know...)


...and...this will likely remain a construction site for years. Money and Body and Helpers(rather, lack thereof).



Seven months later, and I've run through all of the materials I bought in Feb.
Even the paint...much of which was leftovers from Mom's.
The rest of our former house is still in shambles...although I think I have it relatively snake-proof.
The only plumbing is a new line to the small bathroom...just a faucet over the toilet tank, and one over the sink.
What we used to call “The New Bathroom” is now a sort of kitchenette...dorm room fridge, toaster oven, an ancient Cold Spot for a pantry, and a coleman stove.
The 300 pound clawfoot tub is still in there...until I can hire someone to move it out into the yard.
I have some saltillo tile, left over from my brother's house...I intend to have an outdoor bath, with solar heated water.
Given a proper bed, I could probably live here, again...although there's no heat...but I wouldn't make my wife and kids camp out like this.
It's good enough to keep my books and our museum, but it ain't livable...by any stretch.
I've never seen so many scorpions!
The place is overrun with them.
...and Raccoons have gotten into my pseudokitchen...broken a bunch of plates and antique jars, opened the fridge and munched on salami...
they left the beer alone.
I've fixed that problem....located their egress, and blocked it.
We've had a Coon Problem out here, for years...seems there's a colony of hundreds, somewhere on the neighbor's place.
We're also on a Rattlesnake Highway.
In Spring, they can be seen heading South, through my place..in Fall, North...presumably, to their Winter Den...which I haven't been able to locate in almost 18 years of searching.
The Prowler...that lunatic neighbor who started lurking all around doing weird things at night in 2004...he's been in a nuthouse(where he belonged all along) for a couple of years.
Now, he has finally died and gone to Hell(one of only two people in my life that I have wished for the existence of Hell)...and I have resisted the urge to piss on his grave.
He played a large role in making our lives much, much harder than they needed to be.
Good Fucking Riddance.
It's telling that when he got locked up, all the prowling weirdness stopped.
Oh well.

There's still no internet out here...too expensive to do that.
The window unit is only turned on during the very hottest of afternoons...the Pool is usually for cooling off, instead.
What we call “the Mountain” is still there...and is my only companion, most days.
There's 2 stripey lizards that live in the Cloister...they're always startling me, but I dig having them around.
The Roadrunner is back, too...clacketty-clacketty.
And Hummingbirds, and Deer.
Compared to Town, it's an almost otherworldly Silence out here most of the time.
So, if you've wondered where the Naked Hippie has been..now you know.