NEWS

Pastoral Winter Beauty

The upcoming holiday season represents something different for each of us. Certainly I am appreciative of having had the options available to me to do the “hot holiday”, the “skiing holiday”, the “relative roundup”, the “stay at home” and all forms in between of such events. For the most part there were good and bad aspects to all of the options. Of course weather dangers and congested travel seemed synonymous to most all options.

I will note and recommend caution as the season is one of extreme stress and tension. Work goes into hyper drive to complete projects committed to, finalizing travel plans on the home front or the renovations for hosting, and of course the ever present stress of gift shopping. By the time the event actually occurs folks can be frazzled to a nub and stressed to the maximum. More like preparing to invade or defending against an invasion than an opportunity to relax. And friends that is certainly no way to approach the holiday season.

So come with me on a journey of making reality from my vision for the acquisition and customization of my Man Shed.

On Dec. 17th and 18th you can download “THE MAN SHED REPORT” from Amazon free of charge. Do have a laugh and chuckle at my expense. Tis the season of giving.

A topic that is both untimely and yet timely, untimely as it is the Xmas Season, yet timely given the state of the world as we close out 2022. Notwithstanding herein are excellent concepts, ideas, practices and such on how to survive.

And of course don’t forget to stop by here and inspect the logistics, tactics and practices of these professionals. A feet on the ground view of some of the issues of our time.

More Pastoral Winter Beauty

I always struggled with outdoor Xmas lights on the house and trees. The family cats loved the tangled balls of Xmas lights and pounced on them with vigorous glee. Of course their primary goal seemed to be to impede and un-decorate the Xmas tree by knocking off the decorations or by just launching themselves into the midst of the Xmas tree and tipping it over in a thump and clatter of lights, xmas balls and whatnot. We had to give up tinsel as the cats ate it, but that’s a disgusting story in itself.

My primary decorating was the outside of the house where I would attempt to string some lights and then spend a fortune buying replacement light bulbs. At the end of a hard day it was not pleasant to replace bulbs and wiggle wires to get the damn lights to work.

One year I was the community entertainment as I undertook to decorate our two very tall blue pine trees. We had two large decorative boulders in the front yard and the pine trees grew up from between the rocks and got very tall. So being the original lad that I am I drove my old half-ton truck up to the rocks, then put the ladder on the hood at the base of the windshield and extended it up as far as it would go, then took a hockey stick and cut a notch in it to hook the end of the light string and up I went to decorate the alarmingly tall Xmas pine trees. I was spared from disaster and many were the incredible comments about how did you get those lights up there. I think the neighbors were quite disappointed there was no disaster.

The next Xmas I respectfully declined to attempt to decorate to the top of the pine trees. And the trees were most appreciative of the absence of the gaudy baubles, or so I convinced myself.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year

Martin E. Silenus

There is a rhythm to life out on the Prairies of North America. It’s set by Mother Nature and is absolute without dialogue. Life in this land revolves around the change of seasons and the bounty the earth produces as it moves through the annual growing cycle. Even those not involved directly with agriculture are found to work and recreate to the rhythm set by nature. Those who have been raised in a seasonal environment understand and accept such things and enjoy the variety for all its’s offerings, and shortcomings.

Its time to tidy up the harvest mess and get things organized for the next year. Set budgetary plans for the new year, examine equipment to be replaced, plan the crops and decide about outrageous prices for fertilizer.

Business not related to agriculture are not so different as it is also budget time for the next year, what do we have to do to keep things moving, what plans are optional based around the best guess regarding 2023 and the economy.

Let’s not forget Halloween, the children know nothing of adult budgets nor do they give a care. Free candy, costumes and going door to door with friends is where it’s at. Absolutely right too, enjoy your Halloween and leave the fussing and worrying to the grownups!

For the month of November 2022 I will be offering my book ARMAGEDDON OF CASCADIA free on November 12th and 13th. This book is a dystopian look at a group of regular folks and how they managed to survive after a series of natural disasters. 

I have received a considerable amount of feedback on this book predominantly from folks who live in the affected area or have family that do. Some express appreciation for the vivid events and for raising the awareness of the risks particular to that area. Others are just plain upset; perhaps they are real estate folks or business owners who don’t want to see the risks and inevitable outcome. Others attempt to argue by dismissing the facts and research by professionals of the USGS. So you as a reader will need to decide on the value of the book. Perhaps some readers will elect to move closer to the area where they can watch the events unfold.

Read, enjoy and ponder on the fragile, curious state of humanity.

Keep an eye to the future, drone, droid and replicant exploration of new worlds. Quantum tunneling, remote host populating, replacement of physical bodies as ours deteriorate. All things are possible and probable at THE LAUNCHPAD.

For ACTION, CRIME, & THRILLER be sure to visit here and browse for free giveaways and previews.

The cost of our personal freedom is not cheap and I know you will join me in attending Remembrance Day Services on November 11th honoring our Veterans and our brave men and women who volunteer to “stand in harm’s way” to ensure continued freedoms.

“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few!”

Please show your support on Remembrance Day and always!

Best

Martin E. Silenus

It’s a pleasant time of the year as a lot of the harvest is complete out on the prairies of North America. The intensity level of completing the harvest successfully without injury or mechanical breakdown is waning and the pace is slowing considerably. Many areas have had a light frost and the weather has cleared up along with the temperatures being comfortable.

Of course many farmers/ranchers still have to collect their big round bales and get them stacked so they will keep over winter and so they can be retrieved for feed in the snows of winter. Yes, there is another whole line of expensive machinery used for hay preparation and collection. But the general consensus is one of “it’s nice to have the bales made and ready for collection” so no one complains too loud about the collecting and the associated more relaxed pace.

For the month of October 2022 I will be offering my book SANCTUARY free on October 15th and 16th. This book is a dystopian look at a group of regular folks and how they managed to survive after a series of natural disasters. Read, enjoy and ponder on the fragile state of humanity.

No question dangerous remote exploration should be handled by Cybernetics and Robots. Humanity does not brook space travel well at this point.

For your monthly Action, Adventure, adrenaline hit be sure stop here.

Well its getting on toward sundown and I don’t fancy looking for my bales in the dark so I better get to it while I have time for one more load. It’s a beautiful time of day to be outside and of course the dogs love tearing around in the stubble fields delighting in the smells and chasing whatever can be chased.

Best

Martin E. Silenus

Wow, it is so harvest time!

Some of the senior farmers and ranchers can tell you right down to the hour as to when the season switched from summer to fall. They will tell you something like, “I went to the house to have a cup of coffee and a piece of pie with the Missus on Thursday afternoon this week past and that was 3:15pm as I had been talking on the cell phone while walking across the yard and when I hung up I checked the time. When I came back outside at 4:00pm it was fall, the seasons changed just like that!”

To those unfamiliar with seasonal change you might be given to believe that is an exaggeration. But it’s not, when you are outside in the weather most all of the year every day you can feel and predict the weather far better than any weather forecaster or computer artificial intelligence simulation system. You know instantly when the barometric pressure changes, the air quality shifts, the temperatures day/night move down the thermometer, the light looks different and the air smells different. To those used to feeling the weather every day seasonal change is that clear.

Let me encourage the small percentage of farmers and ranchers that feed us all in North America to please be extra careful during harvest. Especially so around combines, grain augers, grain bins. These devices are extraordinarily dangerous and claim far too many folks every year. And we need every farmer/rancher we have and more to make food for us all.

This month I am offering D.A.R.I.A. BOOK SIX free on September 17th and 18th. It’s science fiction adventure with a sentient artificial intelligent entity as the central protagonist. I hope you realize it is really not so far in the future. Anyway do check it out, enjoy and tell your friends.

While out and about browsing for a tasty book to read do stop by Space Race and have a look about to see what might tickle your fancy.

Upsetting as it may be to some folks the reaches of space and intergalactic travel are in fact BEYOND KNOWN.

Please do stop by SFF book bonanza to browse excellent quality sci-fi books.

Of course if a more earthy firefight is more your style then collect your gear and your “bug-out” bag and visit SEPTEMBER ACTION.

Anyway farmers have a fine harvest and remember the safety rules which are explicit and absolute:

Stay away from a running combine, particularly ones without the safety panels in place, unless you are in the cab.

Stay out of the grain bin or you will get buried alive.

Stay away from the open grain auger when it is running as it can eat hands, feet, arms, legs and kill you in a second.

Stay out of the belly dump semi-trailer as you will slide into the running auger. Work smart, work safe and protect the children.

Best

Martin E. Silenus

Mid West Prairie Storm Cell

Well hello there, hope you are enjoying a long and leisurely summer with friends and family. So nice to have a little relaxation time considering the challenges these days, seems like if it’s not six of one it’s half a dozen of another. 

Now I’m not sure about you but it gives me a bit of caution, respect and fear when I see one of these storm cells rear over the horizon. Perhaps my response is from having fled to our basement with kids and pets while a severe storm badly damaged our home including those of the neighborhood. It came up very fast and was extremely violent.

Of course some city folks often feel they can ignore weather as they are primarily indoors. Until the subway floods, underpasse fill with water trapping drivers and passengers in cars, ceilings in shopping mall collapse, surface powerlines are down and/or folks are stuck on the 47th floor in the dark in their apartment/condo of their skyscraper due to the electrical outage.

My Daddy always said to me “keep an eye to the sky son”, he was right then and it is still sound advice I tell my kids too. It is always prudent to be aware of weather and potential storms, have some disaster supplies at hand and give Mother Nature the respect she deserves.

This month I am offering D.A.R.I.A. Book Five free on August 13th and 14th. Science fiction reading with a sentient artificial intelligent entity as the central protagonist. You know it is really not so far in the future I hope you realize. Check it out and enjoy!

When you are not in total wonderment of the James Webb space telescope you will want to visit this site for some excellent sci-fi books.

Once you are enlightened by these books of the future you will realize how “in the dark” we currently are.

Of course with change comes controversy and sometimes, alright often times, degrees of combat. So keep your flak vest loaded and ready along with both a short and long armament.

Enjoy your summer and leisure time everyone and keep your eye to the sky. Oh and have a charged flashlight handy. It’s so frustrating to try and find one after the lights go out.

Now if you will excuse me the dogs are demanding we enjoy the remarkable sunset and storm clouds.

Best

Martin E Silenus

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Summer time and the living is easy, fish are jumping and the cotton is high, famous words from the George Gershwin song.

Well it certainly is summer time and time for holidays, vacation trips, lake time and a general relaxing of the hectic pace. I expect there may be less travel this summer given the price of gasoline and the challenges of airports and flight cancelations.

Notwithstanding it’s a perfect time to retreat to your lake cabin away from the hustle and bustle, relax, read some books, shut off the TV, cellphones, computers and measure the time of day if absolutely necessary by how many hands the sun is above the horizon. Or just ignore the measuring of time all together and listen to your stomach instead as it is quite good at suggesting when your meal times should be.

Rest, relax and be assured the world will get along just fine without your constant internet monitoring, guidance and commentary.

This month I am offering D.A.R.I.A. Book Four free on July 16th and 17th. Some summer science fiction reading with a sentient artificial intelligent entity as the central protagonist. Enjoy!

And while you are on a Sci-Fi reading binge be sure to stop by this website for some excellent Sci-Fi visions of the future. It’s a very excited time!

Are you ready for the changes that will lead us into the future, are you ready to accept the technology which seems like magic it is so powerful?

Get comfy in your cabin deck chair overlooking the lake, have your libation and your personal protection within arm’s length and settle in for a day action/thriller reading to stimulate your imagination.

Floating barge homes on Great Slave Lake, Yellowknife

Housing is obscenely expensive in Yellowknife, NWT. So resourceful folks get around this problem by purchase old used barges which were used by tugboats to move cargo on Great Slave Lake. Repair the barges as required to be seaworthy and then build a house on the barge. Position house and barge in the shelter of the prevailing winds far enough off shore so you do not have unwelcome guests and Bob’s yer Uncle and fanny’s yer Aunt, housing question resolved in a financially reasonable and responsible manner.

I take great delight in grassroots engineering to side step “an unacceptable system!”

Best

Martin E. Silenus

A Community Pasture for summer grazing of local ranchers cattle.

Everyone has their own particular challenges to work with. Some farmers are done seeding, but seeded into dry dust in the drought areas, some farmers have yet to start as it is too wet. Of course some farms are in-between and some are contending with extensive damage from tornadoes.

Ranchers are finishing up the calving process and getting the herd squared away to move to the community pastures for summer grazing.

Schools are having Track and Field competitions and communities are having Sports Days. The school term is coming to an end after the final exams and it will be time for the families to spend some quality time together at a lake. Fuel costs are outrageous but many will have a road trip holiday anyway. Regardless, parents weary from Covid and an exceptionally long winter are looking forward to some relaxing vacation time.

I know a fella who is delighted to be done his chemo treatment for cancer and have all the various shunts removed and to be able to enjoy the summer and whatever it brings.

We all have our own unique challenges to work with don’t we? The Boy Scout moto of “plan for the worst and hope for the best” is certainly appropriate and of course always maintain your optimism!

In keeping with my “free book per month campaign” D.A.R.I.A. BOOK THREE will be offered free on June 18th and 19th. It’s a Sci-Fi/Action Adventure story for Dad to pursue on Father’s day.

While you are browsing for Sci-Fi/Adventure books stop by here and ponder the implications of OUR FIRST CONTACT.

What could be better than a combination of Action history and Sci-Fi future books to read?

Well perhaps Sci-Fi/Action and Fantasy stories.

For some just the thrill of the unknown in a great adventure and thriller book is where it is at.

Tighten your helmets, night vision ready, ceramic plates in your body armor, extra mags, radio check, here we go JUNE ACTION.

Government owned range land used for cattle grazing.

There are a million items on the “spring do list” enough to keep me busy forever and then some. But my spirit and the sense of wonderment along with the dogs enthusiasm draws me here to this spot where time stands still and vision is measured to the horizon. Where there is room to ponder, change your mind, and plot future actions. Time and room to consider the big picture!

Best

Martin E. Silenus

It’s a question of persepective!

According to leading psychologists the majority of humans prefer to respond with negative bias about their lot rather than to respond in a positive manner. Apparently humans respond negatively more often because it causes a pleasant surge in the critical information processing area of the brain. Statistics suggest people require five positive events to equal the effect of one negative event.

So our challenge is to not follow the herd when we communicate with others. Try to communicate with a positive bias. You’ll feel so much better!

I’m offering D.A.R.I.A. Book Two free from Amazon on May 21st, 22nd. Sci-Fi readers will enjoy the journey through the six book series. If you have wonderment on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Genetic Engineering you will want to give this series a read. I like to focus on the positive aspects of our wondrous future so I think you will really enjoy the series.

How do you move with gravity/anti-gravity systems, how does cloaking work and how does an Aegis force field form. Questions and answers at Scientific Breakthroughs.

Artificial Intelligence, genetic manipulation and enhancements, man and machine fusion. Learn about such things at Artificial Condition.

Having activated your cloaking ability and having the switch to flip on the Aegis force field in your hand you move into the shadows to explore the source of the blood curdling shrieking at Shadows Reel.

The fools, the poor wretched dead fools chose not to listen. They poo, pooed, said it will never happen, elected to ignore. It was a mistake they will never be able to consider again. The death toll is staggering by even the most outrageous standards. The compounding effect of multiple disasters pushed the death counts off the scale.

Yes I know, the “to do list” is quite extensive and I realize I am somewhat tardy in addressing it. However a very rare and precious event is afoot; the appearance of the annual spring crocus in all it beauty and glory.  As Prairie enthusiasts the dogs and I must visit the pastures and revel in wonderment.

Best

Martin E Silenus