Month: June 2025

By Ted Denmark

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The first thing to note here just after the Summer Solstice is that the cherries are fully ripe on my mature south side yard tree, and my local feathered friends are in a kerfluffle over getting a bit more than their fair share of the tasty red sugar juice. The small birds are the cutest as they try to hide their depredations in lines of attack from the sides opposite the house, but this year for the first time the small but growing band of ravens, now a task force of four large adult birds, appeared one morning going back and forth between the old redwood upper deck and the cherry tree’s top branches, bending them over almost to the breaking point (adult ravens are fairly large jet black birds about the size of chickens). When I heard them squawking, I had to go out and shoo them off before they could do any real damage (and bird poop the deck). They were definitely upset with me, but I told them they had to go in no uncertain terms. The amazing thing is/was that they didn’t come back for a second scolding, so at least I won that round. Ravens are very smart and equally clever sky scouts but also, I think I learned, sensitive to being given a disciplined fair warning. So they are more interactive in this way than I would have suspected—and appear to have understood why they were unwelcome. They did show up again four days later to set a vigil by jumping around the dead branches at the top of the old snag just below the tree line of the south meadow to fuss and squawk at their prospects for making a return raid, but when I came out again onto the deck to wave my arms, they flew away and did not reappear before the cherries were all gone.

Well, the other big seasonal news of late spring is that the solar-heated hot tub (below the cherry tree) is working beautifully with little attention needed except for taking the cover off a couple of hours before its intended use since it heats up to about 108d in the late afternoon and then settles back to 102d when uncovered for an hour or so, which seems about right for a dip by early evening when outside temperatures drop down to the mid-sixties. It’s hard to value in money terms, but as a lifestyle amenity, it’s nearly life changing … feels really good, restful—even free on a daily basis—and even luxurious, particularly with the newly installed back yard solar motion lights that stay on at low intensity all night but brighten up when anyone walks around in the vicinity. Of course, looking up at the dark night sky is a wonder out here in the country away from city or other bright lights. This new high-life afforded by the upgraded hot tub deck has transformed the south side yard like nothing else (or at least after the new fire wood storage shed added last year… and of course the cherry tree that I call “the Champ” that I set out thirty years ago).

Well, also with the exception of the new ‘changing room’ that was completed last year to go with the hot tub/ cool pool deck lifestyle, allowing anyone expecting to use the tub to have a place to change into bathing ware (or “clothes optional” for private use) and stash their things. The changing room is a small 8’ by 10’ room adjacent to the hot tub deck that has no fewer than four doors, two leading to the deck, one leading to the new downstairs bedroom (now still my tool room but this will have to change sometime soon) and one leading into the downstairs bathroom, all doors with glass in the upper half, having replaced the window that was previously in place before the changing room was built into that corner of the house under the rehabbed redwood deck above. The changing room is sealed and fully insulated, now allowing complete lower floor air circulation to occur for heated or chilled air to move in circular paths throughout the downstairs master suite, like on the upper floor—another remarkably successful upgrade—making the lower floor plan fully complete with better access to everything. Having a refreshing water tank for a dip, whether as the cool pool on a hot afternoon or a hot tub on a chilly late evening (not both on the same day of course), brings one closer to the wondrous nature in the spacious privacy of one’s own back yard.

The final bit of news on the plumbing front (after the addition of the new tankless hot water heater installed last year) is the addition of a new 500 gallon thermoplastic domestic potable water storage tank up the hill above the old orchard. The old redwood water storage tank can now be used for irrigation watering for the drip network system, and the new tank, set about thirty feet higher, will service the house with new valves and pipe runs that will increase the gravity flow water pressure inside the house and hose runs around the house. This has also been a long time coming as a significant upgrade to the service level as well as automation of the overall water system (the new water tank overflows into the irrigation system water tank so only one pumping cycle is required for maintenance of water capacity).

The final stage of the current upgrade to the water system coming later this summer will be to build a small pump house over the new (as of three years ago) solar-powered deep well, more easily protecting the plumbing from freezing weather and providing room for a manifold of uses down by the spring on the lower service road, such as filling the also new lower thousand gallon thermoplastic water storage tank as well as the lower redwood pumping tank for getting water up the hill to the two storage tanks above the orchard, and for local water bottle filling and fire safety use on the lower road. There will be room in the new pump house for a backup 220 volt gas-powered generator, fire hoses and a future solar electric vehicle charging station. This new pump house will make use of most of the remaining versatile commercial refrigeration panels (white enamel steel-polyurethane-steel sandwich) that have now been used for much of the final construction of the house and environs (hot tub deck and various roof and storage decks) over the last decade.

So, the spacious (3,014 sq. ft.) GEMO (Golden Eagle Manzanita Oaks) House is finally finished, feeling fully complete, and a beautiful and very lovely place it has become to spend a long summer in either carefree or working mode with satellite wifi and cell tower connectivity. For someone who would like to be here in this parklike setting in the high Sierra, now that the drought is over and the forest is healthy and almost back to normal … it’s a breath of very fresh air with a hint of pine. The new milder winter season with less snow here at 4,000 feet ain’t too bad either, particularly for skiers wanting to find it up the hill at Bear Valley (where there is still plenty of the white powder, sometimes called “California concrete” by colder climate Colorado skiers).

There is one more amenity that is currently happening that could be of great interest to anyone wishing to live the outdoors Sierra lifestyle but afraid of the fire danger that is always present in these forested areas: a U.S. Forest Service sponsored fire abatement program that is now underway throughout the Dowd’s Landing Subdivision, will remove a lot of undergrowth and smaller trees and bushes on these large acreage lots, making fire risk management much easier than in previous years. This will finally also remove all the dead and downed trees that were not able to survive the drought era of the last decade. It is probably also worth mentioning for those not familiar with why our area here near the Stanislaus River Canyon, has such a good fire management record: the Columbia Airport, home to the amazing Forest Service fire-fighting air force (CDF), is only ten minutes away by air. They are a reliable resource always at the ready that has saved countless homes and properties in past years with their quick response time, something we can all be very grateful for, safeguarding our high Sierra lifestyle to be enjoyed in comfort and peace.

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3 Dot Screen Shots

by Ted Denmark

There are two major events happening in the USA-centric world today, one that affects everyone in the wider world and one that primarily effects circumstances in the USA—and then everyone else—so, this double whammy has now become quite sensational and more than a bit confusing to put it mildly. The first global astronomical effect is that of the perigee or close approach of new Planet Athena (“Planet 9”) to our main solar system, which happened on the Winter Solstice 2011. This event closely approximated another widely heralded expectation: the ending of the Mayan Great Cycle of the Long Count Calendar forecast one year later (on the Winter Solstice of 2012!). The details of the Mayan Calendar are too complex to consider here, but it is my belief that their long cycle calendar was an attempt to account for the effects of what is—and was seen by them—as a major sub-cycle transition event of the Precession of the Equinoxes. This timing event, the calibration of the approximate 12-to-14-thousand-year orbital cycle of Planet Athena and its close approach to the main solar system, was apparently not known or understood in the ancient Vedic culture (which did know about the existence of Planet 9 or Athena) or modern western scientific circles which has only gained awareness and interest very recently. This close approach of massive Planet Athena, which every 12,000 years alternatively marks the beginnings of the Age of Aquarius and Age of Leo, always results in a period of intense macro changes on Earth and its sibling planets because of the resulting powerful gravitational and electromagnetic couplings that result with high focus over a period of about 200-250 years. These powerful energies result in an expansive physical growth pattern of the Earth itself (the same “Earth Changes” that Edgar Cayce also saw happening but with consequences expected much earlier) and all its “kingdoms in nature,” including the human kingdom, whose impacts and upsets we are witnessing on a wide scale today at home and abroad. Of all this there can now be no doubt, even if the delayed overhanging effects are still ramping up. (See my new book Revisioning Astrology for more details in a deeper context, including those of brown-dwarf star Astraea that is also directly aligned with the Precession cycle)

The second of these two major cyclic events, which first impacts the USA and subsequently the rest of the world, is its astrological Pluto Return; this cycle is one of approximately 248 years, beginning from the time of founding when countries, their governments and cultures naturally reach a decline of viability on the ending threshold of endeavor and must re-invent themselves or experience increasingly troubling misfortune since they will have inevitably fallen out of sync. This is not an option; it is the ‘cleanup stage’ in the lifetimes of civilizations when a stage of growth comes to its natural conclusion, however fortunate or perhaps ineffective that full quadri-millenial period may have been in catalyzing a growth process. The appearance of the USA on the world stage near the end of the 18^th Century, along with revolutionary France a little later and reformist England a little earlier were the main events of this most recent stage of growth of world civilization (with the discovery of Planet Uranus—that I now call Urania: see Revisioning Astrology). The Middle East and Far East have differing tempos—though still subject to the vicissitudes of Planets Pluto and Urania as well as Planet Athena cycles—but less so inherently for the USA Pluto Return cycle per se, except in response to it—their nations have different start times and thus different Pluto Return times. So, we currently see the USA destabilizing an already destabilized world during a powerful Jupiter square Saturn conjunct Neptune aspect in an effort to re-invent itself—or at least trying to do something different that was rightly or wrongly seen as successful at an earlier time—to regain its composure and stature. And that ain’t no ordinary clown performing his dress-up act as three-ring circus master in the center circle (oval office) as well as that of contortionist and sword swallower, under the USA big top.

The immediate situation here on the home front, of course, is that of MAGA and the return of Trumpty Dumpty, the unleashed free-wheeling “destroyer of worlds” on the whim of a loose-lipped rage … the self-styled American presidential king who has turned on his fawning kingdom in an orgy of destruction, unlike anything yet witnessed in the sweep of American history. For MAGA it is retaliation and retribution against a governmental culture that had become so preoccupied and stuck in doctrinaire legalististic globalist fantasies and just plain boring schitzoid delusions that it could no longer be tolerated by a sufficient majority who were willing to “go for broke” and try the wild, untried alternative to a very nice but ‘cutting along the dotted line’ Democrat Party trying to hold the course in a failing consensus. Trumpism 2.0 is the blatant and flagrant agent of the Pluto Return—the big monkey who throws the big monkey wrench into our historic destiny that had already been in fading and disappointing decline for several decades of confusion, uncertainty and even “Deep State” disaster. What are we to do, the seemingly innocent and possibly progressive bystanders on the sidelines hoping for respite, and what might we expect next?

Well, with the Trum-Musk bromanace not only over but blown to bits in mid June 2025 and the tariff hijinks caper (temporarily?) blocked by the courts at the same time, and with Harvard possibly holding the legal as well as sporting upper-hand for its courageous stand in contention, we find the honeymoon phase (if there ever was one) over and the hard ball skirmish moving into red-light damage control territory for early summer and beyond. Has the MAGA reign of terror been herded closer to its tiger cage (or are we witnessing a whelping lioness? See Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar for hints …)? The restraining orders of a court system are only waiting in line long enough to build their case against the hyper-volatile presidential king for everyone to see how far over the line he will go before public opinion and the houses of congress come to thier senses and begin to challenge and perhaps even turn the battleship of self destruction around … or for the men (and women!) in white coats to be summoned to wait in the wings for their call to duty. Sure, he’s a wild and crazy guy, and the next gambit is always going to be seeing how much he can get away with, even pushing back on the court system—always aware of their actual powerlessness—before general alarm ensues and everyone begins to hear rumors of this real challenge to the viability or even takeover of democracy (enter Gavin Newsome from stage left) … like a century ago, when another raging pretender’s ill-fated obsessions rose to mark the end of the Age of Pisces. Sadly enough, cyclic symmetry suggests it will be another hundred years before our world will be able to return to anything like ‘normality’ before this current shakeout will be able to resolve itself in some kind of backflip … in the natural course of events on the sole remaining habitable planet in our home solar system—with a lot of help from our dear EXV (Exotic Visitor or ET) friends who are here to help in large measure—but only in a limited way as their cautious governing councils allow.

But in the meantime we have the beginning of a necessary sorting out process to find where we, as citizen stakeholders stand—to the extent that we do stand up or merely see what we can make of it from our kitchen chairs or living room sofas—in the wake of the current choppy chaos, particularly under the increasing fog of a destructive trade war against Europe and China as well as the ominous horror of the new drone warfare era in Israel and Ukraine with several other unresolved twentieth Century dead-locks heating up on the sidelines for a big main stage entry (Taiwan/China, the two Koreas, Kashmir and now the Israel/Iran War, among lesser crises). The borders of countries in contention, just like the boundaries of the continental plates underneath them at their margins, must loosen their locked patterns in a wave of inevitable growth as we correspondingly must also find our places of dedication or mere safety as the very Earth heats up for a surge of necessary expansive healing and … well, growth (it’s alive and growing just like we are—at a slow but unrelenting pace at its scale level, along with the rest of the solar system and wider universe).

More about this well-timed revenge of now demoted (?) Planet Pluto with the arrival of the new real but still hidden Planet 9 (Athena) will be the subject of the next installment of this new, hopefully now heralded context of elapsing time in our era of diminishing returns, with a wave of sympathy …. well, not so easily granted … to our European cousins and erstwhile friends (who call him Pluton) now also in a tsunami of distress. I will hope to take this interpretative tale onward and upwards in the bit-stream of disintermediation, gods and goddesses willing, in the next posting of this … I never really liked the ugga-mugga term “blog” from the early days of the information superhighway but for now … first throw-down of an anticipated weblog run to be subtitled … three dot screen shots … coming across the bow of a world-historical amnesiac nation captivated in screenland on a blue dot of planetary trouble in a solar system somewhere near the edge of our very slowly swirling Milky Way … having arrived once again at a crossroads of destiny, hoping it won’t be as difficult as it was last time 12,000 years ago—which was a real disaster.