PRESERVATION OF CHARACTER
Like so many matters of the heart — It is best left undefined…
Yet somehow ‘seems necessary to talk about it!
Using a rural way to tell a story…
COMMUNITY/FAMILY FARMS AND BUSINESSES
(Lifestyle & Locally based)
Advocacy — Promotion — Education
With Notions in Humanality
The “Preservation of Character” is a lifelong calling…
And only much to do with “My Fish Farming Adventure”…
As the Farm’s Founder and then Soul Proprietor…
It was given title… And adopted this vision / mission…
*Rooted in experience & colored by revered relations…
In a world where we create and grow things…
I imagine Community/Family Farms & Businesses…
Favorable to their Characters and Good Places to be…
*Artists & Others with supposed motives ‘included…
Our passions often seem born out of their contrary…
When we realize too many things missing or gone astray…
And are freed to forge ways… By the source calling…
*A matter of heart and etched into social agreements~~
Tell me the same-old story… Tell me the same-old story…
There are far fewer stories than ways they are told… * “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”
— Notes & Realizations…
1950/58- Present
February 2023
A character’s life… is seldom how it’s told…
Yet is as plain as the nose on a face…
To those who are looking…
February 2023
My ‘answers’ seem to be realized…
Long before my ability to verbally express…
Humming the tune can be gratifying~~~
December 2022
What we ‘think’ about each other is often just that…
And mostly to do with the Thinker…
July 2022
Pondering is a form of thinking…
Where our thoughts are in cahoots with our higher being…
Be Peace… Be Love… Be Wise…
March 2022
If it’s a Matter of Heart?..
Take it to Heart!..
March 2022
We all need a Good Nemesis…
‘Keeps us from believing our own ‘sh*t…
March 2022
Defining our Stories…
Can limit our Probabilities…
January 2022
It’s good to know the rules…
To best find how to break them…
November 2021
I met a man that grew roses for a living…
Yet claimed he had no time to smell them…
October 2021
It is courageous when we allow our love
and passion to take us beyond our beliefs…
July 2021
In our day-to-day lives…
It’s not always about what we know…
But often who we trust to know…
A wisdom or a way I’d say~~
May 2021
Death would be…
The least of my problems…
April 2021
I’d rather be dead wrong…
November 2020
The worst that can happen…
Are the stories we tell ourselves…
October 2020
To “Know all Men”…
Then to imagine– Knowing all Things…
September 2020
Any body can say any thing…
Some more believably than others…
Be’ware~~
July 2020
Where the Snakes are smart…
‘comes a matter for the heart…
May 2020
So many lessons from long ago…
And just now being realized…
April 2020
I’m not going to die…
But become invisible…
In some circles–
I’m getting a jump on things…
February 2020
I write this way…
To not be taken literally…
November 2019
Beyond what seems…
We can ‘love them all…
November 2019
It’s so easy to see…
When others are being an ass…
October 2019
The metaphor dies…
When it’s otherwise…
December 2018
Experience is best realized in the meantime…
Before our jumping to conclusions…
October 2018
The Meetings of the Mind…
The Leadership– So we think!…
Teaching by example…
Or rather by the diversities we are…
September 2018
A good feeling can be but a finger…
Guiding us to the next best thing…
And where the up-’til-now fades…
Like the thoughts dreams are made up…
September 2018
When we try-hard long enough…
We’ll eventually run out of time!..
June 2018
Some of my Best Friends have been Dogs…
They stand and speak for us all…
June 2018
The “Soulful Character” — Everybody is one!..
However bright… We all shine on…
June 2018
Freedom of the Press —
It is no longer about a middle ground…
Or maintaining a status quo…
But rather the Plight between the Few and Many…
A time of Awakening is with us once again!..
June 2018
I haven’t been to the mail box in days…
May 2018
There are no Stupid Wars…
But rather a matter of Heart~~~
Declare Peace!..
May 2018
They know more than we think…
Bending in the wind and leaning to light…
April 2018
Alone in the wake of night…
Mostly Awesome…
April 2018
Be peace… Be love… Be wise…
In the meantime– We are soulful characters…
We have risen… time and time again… Happ-E…
March 2018
If I was me…
This is what We’d do!..
March 2018
I can not be accountable…
For my every thought…
March 2018
‘Putting words aside…
We leave little room for quarrel…
February 2018
‘Was a lot of clutter between Dad & Me…
Yet we always have from now on!..
I see and feel you~~~
February 2018
More things to ponder…
Less things to do…
February 2018
To be loyal regardless…
Our random thoughts…
January 2018
To always tell the truth…
Even when it’s not…
January 2018
I don’t just want to ‘get-a-long’…
I want to love you too…
January 2018
Gist be cause…
December 2017
The ‘to do’ of an idea is in our readyness…
Yet it seems to abide no matter…
Here I come– Ready or not!..
November 2017
Good to know… Not likely understood…
Sometimes it takes a very long time…
To realize what takes no time at all…
November 2017
‘Best not to get arrogant…
Over our own good days…
October 2017
Freedom to be from our hearts…
September 2017
‘Every thing with a grain of salt…
Says the Salty Character…
September 2017
Whether we believe it or not…
August 2017
So this is what happens…
When you make up your own life!
August 2017
I only get afraid when I think about it…
That is unless the ball keeps getting bigger…
And bigger… And bigger– Before it hits me!..
July 2017
More Naps and Gaps!..
June 2017
Out of the gumption and wit of my Heart’s Desire…
Comes my meaningful b*llsh*t… And way of doing…
June 2017
Here ‘lies’ the answer–
May 2017
If we meet at my place… I’ll probably stay longer…
March 2017
No matter the weather…
Just follow the Yellow Fish Road…
March 2017
There’s a roving hole in our living space…
Where Sunny use to be…
March 2017
My Son tells me– Some thoughts do end with a period.
And that’s where I left it…
January 2017
Dogs have stories too…
I am grateful to be part of Sunny’s
January 2017
I like to pretend I haven’t an “ego” to be reckoned…
November 2016
To have but one mind about much of anything…
Can be a sorry state… ‘Dogma Happens’
October 2016
A heartfelt knowing of our Soul…
September 2016
Our “history” is whatever we have thought to make of it…
Often dependent on the person holding the pencil…
August 2016
An enduring thought tends to belief–
No matter its truth or consequence…
July 2016
We fall short when we bond to the words of our teachers…
And are blessed when we realize our heart’s desire…
June 2016
Get your answers questioned here!
May 2016
Words of love are just that– Until there is an other…
May 2016
To be learning from what we’ve always known…
April 2016
The love doesn’t die… ‘just keeps movin’ along…
Sometimes just down the road to live with some other Jerk…
March 2016
I am not a writer… but a man that writes…
When I was younger– I was not a hole digger…
February 2016
Our holy self for goodness sake…
February 2016
The means justify the end…
January 2016
Only possible by chance– Or not…
December 2015
We are more than we think…
November 2015
To not be understood— Is not to be confused…
November 2015
When I’m up against the wall…
I tend to get more soulful…
October 2015
Learning to Love and Loving to Learn…
September 2015
People who know me less… seem to like me more…
August 2015
Explaining– Sometimes seems argumentive…
Maybe before its time… Or after…
August 2015
I’ve done what I do best and learning from all the rest…
July 2015
If we could only realize value in the Intangible…
We could all be wealthy…
July 2015
I asked my Doctor if he ever thought of me at night…
He said “no”… Hmmm– Maybe it was my Banker.
July 2015
The more we learn the less we know…
The less we know the more we learn…
June 2015
To know and navigate from our heart is promising…
May 2015
As a Local Food Grower–
“Wholesome” seems to be an agreeable food grouping where one is needed…
It supposes our best efforts in a world that is…
May 2015
Please don’t take me seriously…
Especially when I say– Don’t take me seriously…
April 2015
Everything is in the eyes of the beholder…
April 2015
If it’s not from the Heart– It’ll fall apart…
March 2015
We tend to surrender away…
What we don’t realize we have…
March 2015
Living dreams that never come…
And not the names of roads they’re from…
February 2015
I am aware… that I think…
A wondrous twist in perspective…
January 2015
We don’t get to know ’til we don’t…
November 2014
Everybody is right… & Everybody is wrong…
October 2014
The happier I become… the happier I use to be…
August 2014
Don’t let your dreams get you down…
By getting in your own way…
July 2014
“Colossal Comforts” — For big-hinded men!..
Fat Boy Fashions by Tracy Lea & Herby too…
July 2014
While our stories are diverse and ever changing…
Our souls are one and always…
June 2014
My friend Diane tells me–
The more she knows me… the more she respects my wife…
June 2014
Many of my “successes” have been but flukes…
So no more flukes is the plan…
May 2014
I find it best to postpone waiting…
Otherwise it takes too long!..
April 2014
Humor is a funny thing…
March 2014
Speaking your mind is revealing…
February 2014
When we argue with a *metaphor—
We’ll likely miss the point!
(*myth, *parable, *fable, *story, *each other)
October 2013
Many of my “freedoms”…
Depend on my ability to get away with it…
September 2013
Saying too much is likely to deceive…
August 2013
Wisdom can be clever… Clever can be wisdom…
April 2013
Living amongst the learning-curbs…
March 2013
Believing is seeing…
February 2013
Make up a Life and go live it… Or others may do it for you…
December 2012
Nonsense– An often appropriate response or offering…
November 2012
There are things I know– but dare not tell myself…
October 2012
Making a quantum leap…
Again and again…
October 2012
When good people come together to do good things…
We so often do not weather the call…
A questioning sub-mission…
September 2012
Please Respect Our Culture!
March 2012
Just ignorant enough to be modest…
February 2012
It is far more costly to be poor than rich…
Much to do with the “powers-that-be”…
And our subordinance…
Sometimes poor people need to make their own Justice…
January 2012
The little bit I am… is better than the whole lot I’m not…
December 2011
To say… or not to say– That’s a good question…
September 2011
If I expected perfection from my friends–
I wouldn’t have any!
June 2011
Inarguably my perspective & contribution…
May 2011
When missing the mark–
We usually have reasons… Seldom an excuse…
May 2011
To take on a “nothing-to-lose” path…
Can be but a jaunt…
April 2011
As a boy I would try to imagine myself old–
Now I am trying to imagine myself young…
November 2010
History is forever…
How we look upon it may not be…
October 2010
Tell me the same-old story… Tell me the same-old story…
There are far fewer stories than ways they are told…
August 2010
‘No such thing as a “perfect” decision–
But only our best…
June 2010
A “lesser” solution practiced… is better than an “ideal” not!
March 2010
My younger cohorts work so hard to become something…
While on the other hand– I am something!
March 2010
Beyond Influence…
February 2010
Looking back–
I can see my Dad younger than I am…
January 2010
It is often more difficult to come up with the question…
Than the answer…
May 2009
Pointing out the flaws of others to get ahead–
Is a good way to fall behind…
November 2008
On one hand we reach out to promote and work for justice…
On the other we live and do in spite of…
July 2008
As I become “less able”… We get more done…
My Grandma once said to me– “Sometimes I lie awake all night…
Just thinking of things for other people to do”…
April 2008
Never pass by an opportunity to be nurtured…
March 2008
Input is always welcomed… sometimes taken!
September 2007
“Feeling like it”–
Sometimes happens after we begin…
July 2007
Oftentimes the best thing about an idea…
Is the idea that follows…
May 2007
Sometimes a lie is closer to the truth than the truth is…
My good buddy Jim tells me he understands this…
but is not sure if he trusts me with it!
March 2007
The “Farm” of low expectations & Big Surprises…
* From April ’99
November 2006
One man’s story is another’s metaphor…
October 2006
I am just not smart enough to understand all that I say and do!
Yet I am advantaged by our wisdom…
August 2006
It is often said that we are only limited by our imaginations–
For me it’s been my pocketbook!
May 2006
Self-importance is an illusion!
December 2005
Its not so much what we do– but how and why…
Similar realizations;
It’s not how smart we are–. But how we are smart…
It’s not how hard we work–. But how we work hard…
It’s not how long we’ve been here– But how we’ve been here long…
September 2005
Pretend you love me… I’ll never know the difference…
June 2005
How can we know when those smart guys are lying to us?
October 2004
So many possibilities–
Yet my feet just won’t go as fast as my head!
September 2004
Three-Fourths of pain is resistance…
This is just not a perfect place we live…
July 2003
If you are asking me? It’s best to know–
I do not do prepared text…
June 2003
At the end of every good idea… is a can of worms!
December 2002
A “Fish Farming Expert” ?.. ‘Mostly know of what I do…
And learning more as the need arises…
July 2002
Everyone has something to say!
Usually influenced by their time & culture…
May 2002
It’s not that I had nothing to say… but only that I had more to do!
May 2001
The Way of the Bullfrog– Wearing my busyness on my sleeve…
April 2001
Like a dog eatin’ the welcome mat…
Once you’ve started to swallow you’re committed to finish!
March 2001
False Hope is better than no Hope!
It’s gotten me through some pretty tough times!
July 2000
My good buddy tells me I need to get out of Dunn County
and travel more. While traveling may be good… and maybe
I’ll do so one day… It would not be because I’m lacking–
I’ve been deeper than he’s been far!
June 2000
Nothin’ gets decided ’til it’s done…
June 2000
Have you done this before? How did you learn all this?
Generally– I will hang out in the subject matter long enough
to acquire the proper illusion that I know what I am doing…
Then I go do it… And then learn some more…
May 2000
Regarding the “Preservation of Character Society”…
Like so many matters of the heart–. It is best left undefined…
Yet it somehow ‘seems necessary to talk about it!
March 2000
May your Love tickle the Cosmos…
January 2000
Regarding Living & Farming–
If you can’t get down and dirty with Friends…
Who can you?.. It’s all about relationships!
December 1999
On the serendipitous pursuit of opportunity…
Soul Proprietor Run…
Community Owned and Supported…
November 1999
To make a short story long…
September 1999
Nothing is forever… Temporary can be a long time…
August 1999
If you are at the Bullfrog Fish Farm…
You gotta be in Dunn County, Wisconsin!
July 1999
We work part-time but it takes all day…
June 1999
Proud & Talented Misfits Wanted
April 1999
The meal of low expectations & Big Surprises….
December 1998
Each year I almost make it at a higher level…
If it weren’t for money — I’d be a rich man!”
September 1997
To be a Master of Meaningful B*llsh*t…
1997
Moment in history
September 1996
There are folks from uptown that believe I’m an eccentric…
My neighbors just call me a kook!
July 1996
Rural Culture– It is as if we are adopting babies from the bath water…
May 1996
Young “alternative” learners–
Grow up to be “alternative” doers…
March 1994
Assured & Ponded
June 1988
Our passion as a child is our genius as an adult…
March 1987
In an absurd world…
It seems there is nothing more real than raising a fish!
In Hindsight & Notes Found —
1986
I would never do business with someone like me–
I’m way too cheap! …unless it’d be enjoyable!
1985
The more gods I kill… The closer I seem to be…
Thanks be to “God”
1984
As much as I enjoy Public Radio— I limit my listening…
Or I find myself parroting things I know nothing about…
1980
I use to pray that I wouldn’t be so poor…
But all I got was use to it.
1980
Like a lost dog scrappin’ to find its way home…
1979
Homemade Relatives…
1979
We do work for bread to eat… Buys us soap to wash our feet…
The Bullfrog Business– Dunn Township
“No jobs too small… Some jobs too big!”
* Ten, hundred-dollar-per-month, ideas…
1978
Bullfrog Springs Community
1974
There’s but a fine line between funk & junk…
1972
Love comes and goes with little to do about it…
But in how I let what comes and goes– I have everything.
1972
With the aching beauty of life changing… I feel like…
with hopes of… enough to lie down in… And then to be
wakened by the miracle of myself in moments shaving…
Edited by a laughing ugly man… Evan Epert– RIP
1971
Sometimes when I’m feeling damned…
I’m actually being blessed…
1971
To experience my experiences makes good sense…
1971
In sharing we come together…
In coming together we are family…
1970
My ability to not take “NO” for an answer…
Is a gift from my Ma.
1969
Some of us are born into the “Status Quo”…
And others not so much…
1969
Who are we and what on earth are we doing?
Remembering…
My Ma– “Herbert Harry- What on earth do you think you are doing?”
My Dad– “Who the h*ll do you think you are?”
1968
I quit school in the 8th grade… but kept going ’til I graduated…
1966
I’d rather go through life wanting something I don’t have…
than having something I don’t want….
I remember asking my Grandpa’s Friend… why he never got married…
1958
If Tippy can’t go… I’m not going either!