J.B. Sommerset

So, I do a lot of art, it's sometime that takes me away from the current state of affairs. Me, being an introvert (for the most part), need to recharge. Art is a perfect way to do that, so I do mandalas to relieve stress from time to time. I am starting to amass quite a portfolio of these things. So, I decided to start posting them here. These are my original works, any if I get enough feedback, I might start selling them. So email me if you think that would be a good idea. I hope you enjoy them.  "Crosshatch Mandala- (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Last week, a crazy man, I will not mention his name, was giving a speech at a Utah college campus. He has been known for a lot of hate speech, ignorant rants, bigotry and values consistent with an angry little German man with a odd mustache. He felt that woman should do what their told, have babies, stay in the kitchen, and never vote or question the authority of the white gentile. Children should be seen, never heard. Slavery might be a good thing and he believed that people of color and diversity were a blight upon the earth, he also believed that gun deaths were a necessary price to pay so that we could  have guns. He spread those ideologies everywhere he went. Not just online, but in person, in front of crowds, and for sponsor money.  The right, with all their "godly" values, idolized this man. By now you might have guessed who I am talking about.  The problem is, the man who shot him was also crazy. One crazy man shot another. The world is now down two crazy men. One...

Living way out here in the woods, there are things that need done each year. The firewood needs to be chopped and stacked, the house needs to be weatherized, the garden space needs cleaned up, and so on. This year, for some reason, we decided to get chickens. I was unawares of "chicken-math" before the wife picked up a couple-12 <cough> chickens. Then four more... so far.  While I like chicken, especially nuggets, these are the "laying" type of chickens, meaning they are not for the smoker, the stove, the oven or any other thing that turns them into food. Besides, the wife already named them. Which apparently means they are people now.  The crappy part is that I don't like eggs unless they are in other foods. This isn't so bad, those foods include but are not limited to CAKE! And even though one of the chickens grew a penis and started yelling at the break of dawn, there are still over a dozen more chances for me to get said cake.  Now, here's the ...

"Beyond the Clouds." (c) 2024 J.B. Sommerset It's been a rough year. It's hard to watch the news these days, for a myriad of reasons, none good. Sometimes I suffer from "news fatigue", which is, apparently a very real thing. This weeks quote helps me to laugh at the news cycle, because I desperately need to. This quote was derived after I watched a rebroadcasted clip from a certain "news network" that isn't really a news network. I hope this one makes some of you chuckle. "The world is largely populated by people who use statistics in the same sentence as the word boner..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "A Fine Day" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset Sometimes I just have those days, ones that are nearly perfect. Ones that make me appreciate time a little more, it's not like they should last forever. They should last long enough to make it important, knowing that they are fleeting. Sometimes, the voice in my head functions clearer on days like this. Sometimes, it lets me hear what is deeper inside me. Here is your quote of the week. "Enlightenment is not a shift in what you know, it is not a change in your belief system or an enlargement of the way you understand the world. Although those things can accompany it, it is not dependent on them. Enlightenment is the absolute acceptance and tolerance of where you are in the world, in this moment, here and now." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Sundowner" (c) 2024 J.B. Sommerset Sometimes nature speaks in ways I can't ignore. It can paint the world better than I could. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by things I, as a writer, don't have the words to describe. A paint so ethereal it has no phonetic meaning. I am reminded in those times how small and stupid I really am, although I think I am clever at times, I am but a stupid little spec among the bristles of an artist that has been mastering the craft for millions of years. If you haven't gathered, this weeks quote is about nature. "Nature has no evils, no malice, no bad intentions. Those things are projections of mankind's own sickness. Nature has no need for those things, and in many cases it does not tolerate them ruining it's painting. It shines in spite of us." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Spring Morning" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset For some reason, this one didn't get published last Friday, like it was supposed to, most likely some sort of user error. This weeks quote is one I came up with while sitting in the line at the D.M.V. years ago, it's still applicable today, especially at the D.M.V. "I have an incredible imagination, sometimes it's a gift. It lets me see impossible things, go to far off worlds and have unreal adventures. However, one thing it really struggles with is how insanely mediocre the inside of some people's minds are..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"The view from our House" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset This week's quote is more for me than it is for you, unless you too are running on fumes and the belief you have in yourself.  I have a tendency to get too many irons in the fire at the same time. The problem with a having to split the focus is that it's very hard to finish all the "stuffs" a person needs to do. Lately is seems that all of the projects I have been juggling are important, too important to put off. I am reminded of the little engine that could. Except I am also low on gas, and have bad wheel bearings.  This homesteading thing requires a lot of energy. So I decided to send the drone up above the trees and look out at the horizon. Beautiful! I took a photo of it for all of you.  It's a good reminder of why I work so hard at so many things. I am lucky to be able to live where I do, despite all the hardships. This week's quote if from the rough rider himself- Teddy Roosevelt. I hope it mean...

"Shroom Buddies" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset This week is a busy one for me, I have a chicken coup to finish, and 10 chickens to make happy. Eggs, sweet eggs, it's how we shall pay the mortgage.   I don't have the time to post. However, last week, I found some time to post ahead and bring all of you up to speed on things. While I was outside this past week, I noticed there have been more mushrooms fruiting. Usually the season kicks them off earlier in the year, this year they were late. Anyway, I bring up mushrooms because of the weekly quote. This weeks quote is not about politics, I need to take a break from that, it's a tidal wave of shit. This week's quote is about mushrooms, because they are awesome. This quote is short, sweet, and simple. I don't really know who this is, but it's a quote I have liked for a while now. “Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom.” Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus Cheers!

"Tiny little friend" (c) 2025 J.B. Sommerset Well, I guess I can't call it the quote of the week if I don't update on the regular- like weekly would be ideal for calling it "the quote of the week". But, what the hell, I'm going to do my best and call it that anyway. So, I am now back on the wagon, despite the shit-show that is my country right now. Here's todays quote, it's not mine, but it fits the times.  "The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth..."  H.L. Mencken Cheers!

So, here's a quick update from my world, that is the world in the woods and the mountains. Of course, I mean everything other than fighting off the mountain lions, bears, and the mooses... meese? uh, moose's? What ever the plural of moose is ... the guy in the photo above is one of them. This one likes standing between me and my car and asking if I like to eat through straws. Out side of that, I have been working on building a green house. In part, because I get the feeling that groceries are about to take a turn and become a "luxury item". Most Americans, at least us that aren't in the 2%, might be resorting to a number of poor-man's dinners in the near future. To mitigate that, we in my household, have decided to amp our own food production up. Grow our own veggies, we got some chickens, and I am currently growing mushrooms too. However, where we live, the veggies are going to require a solution that keeps the frost out. So, a green house it is!  It's no...

"In The Mist" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 This week has been a long one, there is so much to do in tax season, so much to do with the businesses. Now that we have an orange butthole's friends running the show, that might get even more complicated. Who knows, at this point some of us are just watching the crapper burn down. Anyway, here's a quote for all of you out there in the interwebs- it seems we are all lost... "Let's face it, if you have no where to be, lost isn't so bad..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

A 2025 Promise, J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 Following up on the last quote of the week, here another one about being alone. In todays modern world, where we are all connected every minute of every day, the value of being alone is overshadowed by an artificial type of connection. That being said, even today, even as connected as we are, a person can still be utterly alone. So here's a quote about it... "The thing about being lonely is this; it's worse when you have to go through it alone." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

This post is for those of you here in the states, not my friends over seas. To the rest of the free world, I feel obligated to apologize for what comes next, because it’s not just going to affect us. It will have ripples that will change everything. This election was the “go ahead” for the Putins, the Kim Jongs, and the Victor Orbans of the world. For that, as an American, I am sorry. To start with, I am so utterly disappointed in so many people today. I did not vote for him, I voted for Harris. For me, the choice was obvious, and oddly enough, it had nothing to do with politics- we’ve been down that road before with this man, he lied then, like we knew he would. Last night we cast our ballots and let the statistics show the nature of our character and basic values we care about. America voted a 34-time felon, twice impeached, con artist into office. We vapidly put the keys to the country in the hands of a narcissistic mad-man and his cronies. A man, who, by our own adjudication sh...

"The End of the Horizon", J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Hello again! And welcome back. This week has been physically challenging for me, I finished a retaining wall, and it was just me doing it. So my back kind of hurts, but I have this stone wall out front now, and that's kind of cool. With all that struggle, I still fill accomplished because every time I look out that window, I am going to see that wall. Hooray! I can't say that for most of the jobs I have worked through out my life. That's why this week the quote is about crap jobs we all worked at one time or another. Here you go, served up cold, just the way we like it. "The most grievous injury a person can suffer on the job is the loss of the self, the soul, and forgetting purpose." J.B. Sommerset  Cheers!

"The Way Down", J.B. Sommerset (C) 2024 This should have been posted on Friday, I was, however, indisposed. So I am posting it now. One of the things about living on a mountain, and it being the fall, is that you have to get prepared for winter. This year, I have been chopping a lot of fire wood, and winterizing the house. We did alright last winter, but it was a mild winter in comparison to the one before it. This morning is the first morning since Friday that I have been able to sit down to update. So here it is, your quote of the week, it all about autumn: "Fall is the reminder that all things end, even suffering, and also that there is reprieve in the ending of things."  J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"The Way Down" (c) J.B. Sommerset 2024 Posts have slowed as the weather gets cooler. In the words of Jon Snow, "Winter is coming". Which means that I have been preparing for the colder months. We get lots of snow up here- around 7 feet and the temperatures frequently drop down below zero (Fahrenheit). Last year we hit -19 in January and it stayed that way for a couple weeks. This year, who knows? So I have been chopping wood and doing the maintenance on the craw space, the shop, and the snow plow. This year we had a nice stove installed. There are a lot of power outages up here, and it's nice to have a way to keep the pipes from freezing. We are going to run out of wood any time soon. We live in the middle of the forest. Our driveway is 2 miles long and every year trees fall across it and become firewood. This year everything will be ready when the snow falls, or at the very least most of the way there.  So, stay tuned, there will be more news and stories.  

"The Little Blue Flower" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 I am not sure if I have posted this one before, but this is an election year and all kinds of talking-head lip-service is occupying our time. So things get a bit jumbled. This one is about bureaucracy. I hate bureaucracy more than most things. Most of it is unnecessary, and what isn't gets buried by the rest. So, here it is, your quote of the week: "Bureaucracy is an always will be the hammer the privileged use to keep the poor and impoverished subservient to their agendas..."  J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Little Yellow Flower", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Folks, I am not one for drama, but sometimes people just start things because they can't live without the rush of endorphins that accompanies rumor spreading, bickering, gossiping, complaining, etc. I, in fact can't stand this kind of behavior. Some events recently led me to coin a new quote. So here it is, this is my reply to people who complain that they don't like the way people see them when they behave in certain ways: "You can't show up to the party with a big 'Shit-stirring stick' and expect that people think you are a baker..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

                                                      "Moe Mushrooms", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Living way up here in the mountains I have to admit a few things. One of the hardest and most obnoxious is that nature does some hard lessons on all of us mountain folk- and also that there is nothing we can do to change that. For instance, forest fires, I dread July and August every year now, because everything is on fire for two to three months. But, and this is a hard understand, there isn't much I can do about it. So this weeks quote is an admission to it: "Mankind's power over nature is and always will be an illusion as far as nature is concerned. There is no amount of action that will stop the rain from falling, and no amount of begging that will save us from the flood. In essence, we are and always will be at it's merci. We have no power to cha...