Greg over at MandomongerFarm ("slouching toward self-sufficiency “) has come back from his blogging hiatus, started the day I found the site. While away, he’s started Goldfish Dreams, a place for homesteading, health, social activism, and other interests.

At Topozone, I was able to find my house on a set of old USGS quad maps. In the center of the map you’ll see an upside-down “T” intersection with three houses shown. Mine’s the one right at the corner, the middle of the three. Since this map was made, the road segment heading west from the house has been abandoned, leaving just a wicked curve. The house shown just to the west of mine has also been abandoned, and my landlords live in the one to the east. Hook up your GPSs and come visit: 34.0863ºN, 83.2713ºW . Hmmm… not to far from 34N,83W. If only I could find the URL to The Convergence Project.

If you’ve ever wanted to see the Wal-Mart Visitor’s Center in Bentonville, Arkansas, you may first want to see RussJohn’s write-up. Actually, if you’ve ever wanted to see anything in Arkansas, RussJohn’s there for you. My wonderful friend Marjorie (hi Marg!) may be particularly interested in the 30 Foot Tall Mr Peanut, just one of the sites listed under Things Which Defy (or at least do not require) Explanation.

If you are upset about Dubya apologizing to New York Catholics, you may be interested in bjunet.com, filtered internet access courtesy of Bob Jones University and Mayberry USA. Keep in mind, though, that Kestrel’s Nest will likely be off-limits to you from there.

It’s been another busy day, with little time for surfing or posting. I did take some time to work on the tour of my new house (sneak peek of floorplan), and I’m on my way out the door to go watch Toronto beat on the Atlanta Thrashers.

[The financial impact of the NAACP boycott of South Carolina has been heavy in the news today. In case you’ve been asleep for a while, the NAACP is boycotting South Carolina because the confederate battle flag is flying over the capitol building there. I understand that the NAACP has had to pick its battles, and maybe this was the easiest to win, but in South Carolina, there’s one flag flying over one building. The NAACP press release says “South Carolina is the only state to fly the Confederate battle flag over its Statehouse " and I strongly disagree. The picture at the beginning of this post is the Georgia State flag. If you click on the image, you’ll be taken to the state’s official flag webpage. As you can see, the confederate battle flag makes up about 80% of the entire flag design. This flag is flown not just over the capitol building, but at every government office, in every state courtroom, at every public school, at every library. Millions of flags flying on millions of public flagpoles, all either proudly displaying the state’s heritage or cruelly reminding of several hundred years of atrocities depending on your point of view. Why is one flag over one building getting all of the attention? I hope that one flag gets taken down soon so that the NAACP and the presidential candidates and the press can start seeing all of the millions of flags here in Georgia. I’ve called the NAACP (410.486.9227) on this issue to see what their position is, and they’ve informed me that they don’t currently have one.

I’m hoping that this meme won’t spread too fast, but I give it here so you can view the goods while they’re still there. Cletus’ Farm ("Some folk’ll never eat a skunk, but then again some folk’ll, like Cletus the slack-jawed yokell! “) has most of the episodes of The Simpsons available for viewing in either streaming or downloadable realplayer formats. The site is heavily flashed, and certainly not legal (in the eyes of Fox, anyway). My personal favorite is “Last Exit to Springfield” from season for, where the nuclear plant workers strike over a dental plan. That episode has everything that makes The Simpsons great wrapped up in a single episode, but for some reason it never shows up in anyone’s favorites list. Thanks to Bird on a Wire for posting about this.

I live in rural Georgia. Yesterday I visited my local laundramat. The fellow next to me was washing two loads of camouflage clothes while talking on his cellphone about the hunt that evening. I asked him what was in season and he told me “We go coon huntin’!” He then proceeded to talk at me at great length about the disastrous hunt the night before with his buddies “Hoss”, “Mange”, and some kid. It was disastrous because their pack of dogs was hit by a car as they crossed a highway, killing two of them. One dog was only five months old and was just bought by the kid for $400. “I sure felt bad for that kid,” he told me. They were going right back out that night.

Here’s a badly edited panoramic view from my front porch.

My, what a beautiful morning it was. This is the ivy-covered smokehouse as seen from my back porch.