Update, 9/18/24

9/22/24: Yikes!

I made a boo-boo... I transposed a nine for a six. oops...

Nothing new to add here at the moment besides that. The blog ain't dead yet.

I just don't want to be burdened by what has been. bwah, hah, hah

9/18/24: The focus has been so much upon water and power subjects that there isn't enough attention paid to other subjects.

This morning, I checked a tree on the property, and there's some berries on it. I think these are hackberries, which are said to be common in these parts. Indeed, there's more trees like this in the immediate vicinity.

I took a berry off the tree, because they seem to be ripening. I won't eat it, of course. It hasn't been positively identified yet. But it is highly likely to be a hackberry tree, and its berries are starting to ripen up.

There's a lot to learn about these berries. I learned something just now. They are very hard inside. I made the mistake of taking a metal object and trying to smash it, and it bent the metal. Imagine what that would do to your teeth.

It has a thin coating that is said to be sweet. The indigenous peoples of this region used to subsist upon hackberries. They ground them up into a paste and prepared them for eating; perhaps by cooking, but I'm not sure about that.

There's a lot of cacti around here. Those have ripened awhile back. A local supermarket prepares these for consumption and put them on sale. I haven't tried any.

Changing habits is hard. But it may become necessary if times get especially hard.