Utility Appreciation Month is June!

June is Men's Health Month

Adopt a Cat Month

African-American Music Appreciation Month

Camping Appreciation Month

Dairy Month

Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month

Great Outdoors Month

Home Ownership Month

Iced Tea Month

National Accordion Month

Roasted Turkey Month

Safety Month

Soul Food Month

And now -- Utility Vehicle Appreciation Month!!!!

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But first ... I have been trying to install a new radio in my Chevy Impala as part of my rebuild of that vehicle.

I know! With the exorbitant property taxes here at Eagle Grove how can anyone afford to put in a new car radio?

Answer: The old one died. I decided to put in something that was not too expensive and was still adequate. I almost never listen to any radio anyway, but I will often (very often) listen to .mp3 and .wav files of many kinds. The original unit was only a radio tuner and CD player. I wanted some unit that allowed USB connections and Auxiliary inputs, which would make it worthwhile to me. This leads into something so please read on.

The wiring is so complicated that it has taken four days to get it done, and only after I cut out most of the pre-existing system. I replaced it all with a Sony XAV-1500 which I bought at Walmart. There is something about this event that I want to share with you.

I naturally wanted more information about the radio than I got from the start guide that was in the box, so I looked around on the Internet for an owner's manual. I soon realized that it is not an American unit. If you go to the Sony American site it does not appear. It is a UK unit sold here in America, and it is on many Sony European and Indian and Asian sites. This is not a problem and I downloaded the manual from the Sony UK site. It works fine and its operations are in English, so why not sell it here in America? However, while I was looking in many places to find information about it, I saw a negative review of this unit by some thing that had to be a Queer Propagandist. The review slandered and slammed and defamed the unit to an extreme degree, to the point that you would think a propagandist from a competing company wrote the negative review.

I can tell you that the negative review was completely wrong, and the XAV-1500 works very well and has more features than I will ever use; and it even has video playback and Bluetooth and something called 'Smartphone Mirroring', and it comes with a good microphone for talking through your cell phone etc. I have tested that and it works fine.

What I am complaining about is the venom and the idiocy and the intentional evil of the negative reviewer. If we accepted the words of that nimrod about this Sony unit no one would ever buy one, and they are a good unit with 55x4 power and very good sound; and you can get a remote control for it if that suits you.

At this time in this place (formerly America) that kind of negative reviewer is showing up almost everywhere, wherever anything or anyone who is good or excellent is exposed to reviews. It is a side-effect of the rampant and gross-tesque negative smear campaigns against all Humans that the hideous DemoQueers are engaging in -- knowing that they should never win any elections anywhere for any reason. And, those turds also know that there should not be any elections anywhere to begin with.

I said 'Side-effect'.

Side Effect: Sidewards effect, to bring about sideways, bring to an issue or full effect sideways, cause, produce, to achieve, accomplish.

Will such negativism ever stop? Not for the foreseeable future, because the Deviates (that cause such widespread negativity) want to rule a horrid world of insanity and perversions using the shitty skulls of the DemoQueers as their 'Talking Heads', their puppets. Puppet heads that always lie and spew negativism about anyone who is real.

Using the DemoQueers as deviate proxies is a very old technique of corruption and it works very well on retards and greedy vermin that think they are doing the same thing to the greedy vermin and retards that are actually doing it to them.

And then -- there are the Eternally Greedy and Satanic Black Homo-Fascists. Traitors to everyone who was wonderfully and beautifully born (with the blessings of God) with dark skin. You could call them the 'Golden Ones' because the metal gold looks fantastic on them. Truly a pinnacle of Human Appearance.

Which reminds me of something else that happened recently. It relates to the negative reviews and the hideous campaign of lies of the Deviates, and their Black Homo-Fascists. On the same day that I bought the Sony car radio I went to a hospital for an annual checkup. I had to have blood drawn and while I was at the blood work office I was exposed to the foul and vile sight of a TV for several minutes. On the TV was a typical Black Homo-Fascist bitch pretending to be nice (having been declawed for that show) and it was pretending to be interviewing a thing that the Queer Medias would call a Black Super Star. The so-called Black Super Star was pretending that it was being interviewed. Both of them should have had crap spewing from their faces.

Both of them were there for no interview.

Both of them were there to draw mindless TV Watchers to the program .. for the Queer Advertisements!!!!

Suddenly, the image of the two Black Homo-Fascists disappeared and it was replaced by a Queer Advertisement for a Queer Coalition Bladder (calling itself a state) of the Ratshitters of the Northeast.

The Queer Advertisement showed typical Deviate symbols and spit out typical Queer Lies and showed the False Colors of the Dogshit Empire.

Then, the Black Homo-Fascists were back and they were laughing about the ease at which they had just stuck the faces of hundreds of thousands of TV Watchers INTO A MESS OF QUEERSHIT.

Hah Hah Hah!

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That is what causes the proliferation of lies and sick propaganda and scuzz bags on the Internet; which the TV Turd Terrorists desperately want to turn into a mirror image of their own cess pools of evil and dementia and anti-Humanity. To turn the Internet into another TV outlet for Queer Propaganda is the singular goal of all TV Turd Terrorists.

And it shows. It creeps outwards. It smothers the land. It poisons whatever it touches. It makes anything insane.

Warning: This message is for Humans only. Do not allow non-Humans and/or any victims of Queer Propaganda to see or read this message. This message uses Appropriate English Language which was created to describe and explain the enemies of the Human Species, and it will be wasted upon the dullard skulls of TV Watchers and Idiot Voters.

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Dullard: A dull or stupid person, a dolt, less sharp or acute or bright or intense; blunt, moderate, depressed, in a cloud, tarnished.

A current example of 'Dullard' is a bunch of queer media bozos that crap out of their faces that they are the so-called 'Conservatives'. And, they are being attacked by the so-called 'Liberals'.

There has never been such things as 'Conservatives' and 'Liberals'. Those are terminology handles used by the Queer Medias, for control purposes.

These Dullards are complaining on the radio that they are being attacked by the 'Liberals' for being 'Conservatives', and they claim that the Liberals are illegally giving government tax monies to private queer organizations to attack them with. The attacks involve intimidating the target audiences of their enemies into not listening to them.

Target Audiences? Don't they mean Target Morons? What else would listen to any things that say they are Conservatives or Liberates or Moderates or Neutrals or Agnostics or Progressives etc?

Those are just different slices of the same dung pie. The same filth. The same abhorrent propaganda machinery. Not one of them will openly oppose the Deviates. All of them are stricken by the scourge of muteness that comes with the plague of Political Correctness.

In the case that I am referring to, the media whiners also try to identify themselves as 'Christians'. Injured and attacked and afflicted Christians, who are being abused and incorrectly labeled as Terrorists because they are Christians, and because they do not agree with the Liberals about anything.

There is something wrong with that approach:

1. Everyone already knows that the filth of DemoCrapia always hit anyone (who does not fully accept their domination-by-lies) with Hate Reprisals. There is nothing new about that.

2. If you really are a Christian, then you really are slated for extermination by Rattlesnake Joe (The Senile for Sale) and such vermin as Nazi Pelosi (Hag Queen of the Harpies) etc. However, the success of all such Turds of DemoCrapia depends upon the edicts and rules and terms of Queer Propaganda being active. That is, to be operating and actively deranging and diseasing the minds of hundreds of millions of victims of TV watching, and listening to the Filthy Monkey Horrors, and reading queer newsrags etc.

One of the key factors to achieving that is for Queer Propaganda to force all of its idiots and victims to accept the dipshit control handles that the Queer Medias invented, such as Liberals and Conservatives. In other words, to accept the tools and operations of Queer Brain Surgery.

So why the Hell would any Christians be calling themselves Conservatives??????????

No one can be anti-gay because the g-a-y crap is only queer propaganda and not real.

No one can be anti-conservative because the c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-v-e crap is only queer propaganda and not real.

No one can be anti-media because the m-e-d-i-a crap is only queer propaganda and not real.

To accuse anyone of being any of these 'anti' and 'phobia' things is utter nonsense. That would be accusing them of being anti-nothingness and having nothingness-phobia.

At the same time, you could accuse them of things related to the root causes of nothingness, such as ...

Anti-Chickenshit Editors and Writers at encyclopedias that are afraid of offending the nothingness.

Anti-Vermin of false colors that invented the nothingness to begin with. Sick-sick-sick deranged swine, that cannot keep their filthy hands off of each others filthy bodies, so they tried to swine the entire world so their insanity would be acceptable in public.

Anti-Low Crawling opportunists and bottom feeders that killed the original communications channels and substituted them with totally queer sewer outlets of propaganda; which always use and propagate falsehoods, fakeries, and non-existent props/terms/idols/icons/rules/emotions/events/causes/excuses/sympathies/double-lies etc --- and --- call their entire sewage fabrication 'the medias'.

In other words, Anti-Dogshit Empire of Liars.

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Media control handles are a tool of psychological warfare. For example, if you have five categories of cowardly and selfish and greedy boot lickers of the following types ...

1. Green boot lickers

2. Red boot lickers

3. Blue boot lickers

4. Black boot lickers

5. Pink boot lickers

controlling the five types using five different handles such as 'Green Sexual Oriented' and 'Pink Sexual Oriented' can be cumbersome and tedious. However, if you can get all boot lickers to think that their real and only identity is 'Moderates', then you can control all of them at the same time with dirty orders for 'Moderates'.

It is the same with the false term 'Terrorists', which is another collective control term for a variety of Human types that oppose their Dogshit Empire. Look at me! In the shit world of DemoCrapia I am officially a 'Terrorist'. Which means ...

A. I know the truth about the hideous existence of the Game World of the Deviates/BBC/Politicians/SQUIRM/Medias/BBWA/Forrids/BUWIs/Queer Swats/NEA/Science Priests/APA/Belief Merchants/ACLU etc.

B. I will not be intimidated into being silent about what I know.

C. Any truth about the bottomless pit of lies that is their existence threatens their horrific intentions and plans against the Real Universe.

D. Labeling me as a Terrorist might keep their inbred slaves from believing the truth which I write.

E. If their slaves ever realize the truth about their Queer Masters they could revolt.

F. No such revolt can have any effect whatsoever in freeing the slaves of the Games, unless all Gamers are killed. And, the Gamers know it.

And here I sit in my lawn chair, sipping on my mint julep, in the very middle of the road. Literally as far from being a 'Terrorist' as anyone can get.

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Before we get into Utility Appreciation Month I have a goodie for you. As my readers know, I am always looking for other sources of the Truth, to share with them. If I find something else that repeats the Truth that I am sending, or says the same thing from a different viewpoint, then I like to share that.

As usual, I just stumbled upon this movie. However, it is quite good and well made and it has a good story line -- and -- it shows petty politicians as they really are (and why they are what they are) and it shows how greedy and corrupt they really are -- behind closed doors.

https://archive.org/details/AllAtSea1957

All At Sea--1957--Internet Archive

https://ok.ru/video/91875838602

All At Sea--1957--Ok Ru

https://www.etsy.com/listing/788117147/all-at-sea-1957-alec-guinness

All At Sea--1957--Alec Guinness--Etsy

This one is a comedy, but it is different and revealing.

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You may already know that Sir Alec Guinness was one of the best British actors who ever lived ... Bridge over the River Kwai (Colonel Nicholson). The Malta Story (Peter Ross). The Horses' Mouth (Gulley Jimson). Star Wars (Obi Wan Kenobi). The Fall of the Roman Empire (Marcus Aurelius). Scrooge (Jacob Marley's Ghost). Doctor Zhivago (General Yevgraf Zhivago). Tinker Tailor Spy (George Smiley). Lawrence of Arabia (Prince Faisal).

The BBC scum have already tried to degrade and disgrace Alec Guinness by claiming that he was one of them, but that has been totally debunked. The twisted worms of the medias are always trying to claim that any famous person is one of them. Those POS tried for years to claim that I was one of them, and now they call me a 'Terrorist' because I am not one of them and I dump on them at every turn. They cannot walk down a hallway without stepping on my land mines.

[[Remember -- the Queerism Disease demands that each successive political generation of Satanic and Queer Lying-Dead (now the PPPP(-)) must be more horrible than the last.]]

I am sharing this movie for another reason as well. We Humans should be producing our own 'Independent films' (for Humans only) that show the truth about the terrible Games World of the Twisted Species of Politics and their Deviate Masters. Of course such films will be denounced as 'Terrorist Propaganda' by the Perverts.

To those hell-spawn fresh from Lesie-turd anuses ...

Sunshine and God are Terrorists.

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I start Utility Vehicle Appreciation Month with some fundamentals, such as the need for Mobility versus the stigmas and prisons of Immobility; one of the worst of which is Illiteracy.

Illiteracy: The state of being illiterate or untaught, ignorance of letters, inability to read or in some cases to read and write; manifesting want of culture, often blundering.

Why start with Illiteracy?

Answer: Literacy is closely related (either directly or inversely) to just about everything that is involved in that big thing called 'Civilization'. The lack of literacy is call illiteracy. However, it is far from merely a black/or/white situation. In the following diagram I try to illustrate how literacy/or/illiteracy can be variable and differentiated. I have boiled it down to just three types of literacy, but it can be more complicated.

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How do you understand this? Easy, divide the illustration into three columns. On the right you have the false and limited and devolving pseudo-literacy that is allowed to the victims of DemoCrapia. It rises upwards to a prescribed level where the slaves can read and understand the written orders and lies of their masters, and it stops there. It then slowly spirals downwards as the brains of the victims begin to rot and degenerate from so many continuous lies from the forever facial farts of the Gamers. Until it crashes into Queerapsy, the final brain leprosy that kills all slaves of Queer Propaganda.

On the left you have a much different scenario. The Humans that experience this pattern (and similar patterns) are home-schooled by Real Humans instead of the turds of the NEA/APA/ACLU. These people begin learning slowly as they ascend in knowledge, but quickly the real and unlimited literacy that they learn branches out into many directions, all upwards. This illustration cannot begin to show the many thousands of upwards vectors that real literacy can take. Nor can I illustrate the wonders and the marvels that exist for truly literate Humans as they climb upwards into more and more true knowledge. True knowledge, of course, is the enemy of all vermin that participate in the Illiteracy Holocaust shown on the right side of this diagram -- not least of which are the awful Science Priests.

In the center column is something that certainly exists, in a huge way, but is seldom expressed or examined. In this column I fail miserably as an artist, but I know that and please forgive me. Perhaps you can do better once I explain. The center column is meant to depict the scattered and almost random experiences of someone who does not receive structured learning of any kind, for a wide variety of environmental reasons AND/OR receives only partial or faulty education and is aware of this fact and decides to (or is forced to by 'Survival') to teach himself or herself.

I was one of those. I received the last of the real educations before the Perverts of the NEA trashed all school curriculums -- but for me it was not enough -- and -- I was in a terrible place in the Mojave Desert where being literate made you a target of the illiterate children of illiterate apes. I barely survived. However, in the midst of that dilemma I decided to accelerate my education by teaching myself, in addition to the structured lessons that I was getting.

The center column is meant to show the side to side pathway that this kind of person takes as he or she struggles to understand the meanings of many things -- symbols, words, signs, warnings, artworks etc. I have created a better diagram about that as follows ...

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This person thrashes about like a fish out of water, being confronted from all directions by the pre-existing edicts and dimensions and structures of civilization. He or she has a very hard time trying to interpret and assimilate so many things at the same time, from all directions. It is quite painful and frightening to a young Human. Slowly with time the necessity for more and more and more painful interpretations becomes less and less as the Human assimilates and cross-interprets more and more information -- still not receiving any formal education or literacy training. Slowly a memory bank of understood words and meanings and symbols and directions (etc) builds up in this Human's brain and the needs to learn more just to survive becomes less, if he or she is still alive. Because of that the depths of what he or she must learn become less as they rise slowly towards a peak of required learning. I have placed an assimilation module at the top of this pyramid to represent the combined storage of what the Human has learned, and to signify that this is a dead end. It is limited. It can only rise so far and no further.

Even so, in quality and quantity and validity it is LIGHT YEARS beyond the plight of the poor victims of DemoCrapia that watch TV and Vote, as shown in the right column. However, it can never be the True Literacy in the left Column.

Many hundreds of millions (and possibly billions) of people on this planet fall into the center column.

What I have not shown is more complicated.

Imagine that a Human being is inside the center column and is slowly acquiring a storehouse of interpretations and meanings for what is all around them. Do you see the bottom of the left column?

Let us suppose that for some blessed reason, having nothing to do with the hideous Game World, this person is suddenly or deliberately enrolled in a long course of structured literacy lessons. At that point in his or her triangle the bottom point of the left column becomes attached. From that time onwards he or she could simply begin to ride the ascent of True Literacy -- if he or she receives a long and complete education in literacy -- which would take at least seven years.

There could be variations to this unfortunately. A Human might receive only one year of structured literacy training and then be abandoned due to time problems or the tides of war or misfortunes or general catastrophes. Imagine how many literacy educations have been interrupted (or ruined) by the War in Ukraine. In such a case, if the Human is able to, he or she will resume the central approach of natural interpretations and assimilations; with the added advantage of now understanding some of the concepts of speech and writing; such as being able to write his or her name, age, birthplace, sex, and education level. The education level would be First Grade in this case, but the Human could be thirty years old. This Is No Joke. Look at the Real World without the TV Turd Terrorists in the way.

Where does Mobility come into this?

Answer: Widen the central triangle and it rises higher. Break the restrictions of the DemoCraps and become a free person and you immediately halt the terrible lies that cause brain rot. With enough mobility and new experience with the Real World a victim of the right column can escape the crash and burn of Queerapsy entirely. Of course, that will require rejecting all TV watching and Idiot Voting and inputs from Queer Propaganda. But with Mobility it is possible!!!!

I just told you how to save a victim of the Dark Side, if they are not too old and hopeless to be saved.

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The next illustration is about percentages of required Mobility, divided by ages.

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There is an important thing to notice about this diagram. It begins at the age of 13. This is the age at which a young Human should be introduced to travels and movements through society on a semi-independent basis; learning how to move through a Human society and navigate dangers and obstacles and make sense of it all. 70 percent of his of her primary literacy education should be completed by this time (5 out of 7 years), because with mobility will come all of those upward branches of literacy differentiation. So, Human teachers must have pounded (and I mean pounded) literacy into those young brains to 70% completion by that point! To the point where they begin to hate reading and writing -- and then -- Mobility. Which will suddenly make all of that literacy training mean something, and become vital and important.

You may ask which piece of the pie needs mobility the most. I think it is mostly the working ages that need it the most, and not just one slice; because working usually reduces mobility and leads to mental stagnation. The working man or woman should spend as much of their free time as they can in a mobile fashion; that is to do whatever they need to do in as mobile a way as possible -- and affordable.

Which brings me to a question ... why are there no Fuel Cooperatives in this country? Take any mid-western town as an example. Is it possible to get quantity discounts for gasoline and diesel? If so, then the citizens of an entire town or a section of a town should pool their financial resources and buy fuel in bulk. Or -- all together at predesignated times and places as one single purchase. Buying fuel as separate individuals puts us all at the mercy of the fuel retailers.

Getting back to what I was saying ... the working man or woman should spend much of their free time in a mobile fashion. That is, to do whatever they need to do in as mobile a way as possible -- and affordable. And why not do it together? Share mobility whenever possible.

If you have to eat, eat mobile if you can. If you have to read something, have someone read it to you while you are both mobile. If you have to do something in another town, call around and see if anyone else has to do something over there -- go together. This will reduce all costs, by pure reduction and sharing. I often drive to Webster City in my Polaris Ranger to go to the hardware stores there. I could easily get items for someone else too, if I knew about it and they would pay for them.

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I have some message notes here that I will share with you ...

01--Mobility versus illiteracy

02--Show illiteracy diagrams

03--Types of literacy

04--Explain interpretation/assimilation

05--Enemies and stresses on literacy are revealed and reduced by Mobility

06--Mobility takes off at 13 so most literacy must be achieved by then

07--Assimilation and interpretation is clearly limited by environment

08--A confined environment causes constricted interpretation opportunities and reduced assimilation

09--Mobility reduces limitations and increases opportunities for interpretation and assimilation

10--This is identical to mobility's affects against slavery

11--As illiteracy increases slavery increases

12--Illiterates and slaves are forced to be addicted to queer medias

13--They are ideal citizens for deviates and the twisted species

14--Illiterate slaves live under the Never Tell The Truth Zones such as the underworld called Nude Yack

15--Show Never Tell The Truth diagram again

16--Tie in Never Tell The Truth Zone as bottom of bigger diagram

Repucraps

TV Watchers

Idiot Voters

Huge increases in property assessments lead to Tax Exiles

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The Never Tell The Truth Zone is something which is extremely real and insidious. I made a diagram about it years ago. You can accurately say that it shows the varieties of dementia that are part of Queerapsy (brain rot) and why the dementias are forced upon anyone who is stupid enough to watch TV or vote.

Imagine that this is what lies beneath the right column of the main diagram 'Different Literacies--Real--Intuitive--Deviate'. This is the crash and burn zone below the right column, which is Deviate-controlled pseudo-literacy.

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Speaking of geography, take a look at the comparative avenues of mobility around two different cities located on two different rivers.

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Cairo, Egypt. Located on the Nile River.

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Memphis, Tennessee. Located on the Mississippi River.

The living environment of a person who was born and raised within the Nile River Valley is naturally more limited than that of a person born and raised in the Mississippi River Valley, and the transportation routes reflect that. This can, and usually does, directly affect the triangle (extent) of any person who takes the central column route of 'Self-Taught Natural Interpretation and Assimilation'. Less to experience means less to interpret and learn and therefore less literacy. A lesser world.

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Before I go, here are those pictures of Wright County Eagles that I told you about in one of my recent videos ...

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Markel Peters

https://voices-of-iowa.blogspot.com/

https://voices-of-iowa-concise.blogspot.com/

Here -- 05-17-2015:

Please remember that these photographs are free to all Humans everywhere. I include some of them just for their value as desktop screens. Others, I include as I know some people will have the time to actually look at pictures; without having to do something else, like mandatory listening to liars on the medias (etc). Some people actually have their own Privacy these days -- now that Human Resistance has made them free of lice and ticks and perverts.

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Click on the pictures to get the bigger sizes.

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It has been a very busy time for me since the beginning of the year, and I have not had many chances to get out and photograph Iowa as I would have liked to. Also, the weather and the temperature zone are colder up here in Iowa, as opposed to Kentucky and Southern Illinois where I am usually working. When I would return to Iowa, ready to take pictures, it would either be raining or there would be nothing green to take pictures of.

Perhaps that is for the best, because when I finally did get a chance to take pictures -- they turn out to be good to semi-spectacular.

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Looking south.

This photo spread was taken over four separate days in April and May, and begins with a reference shot from last November. This was taken in my neighborhood. Which is not saying much, since my neighborhood is this Continent. I included this one to illustrate how different the winter-time scene is here in Iowa -- from the summer-time pictures you are about to see.

Day One.

This shoot started late in the day, at sunset here in Wright County. I have boosted the saturation of this picture to show the color gradients that actually exist and are never seen by Human eyes.

This cloud caught my attention. It is shown here as it actually was in the light of the sunset. You will notice that below it, is a kind of ground smoke that covers much of Iowa at this time.

I often look above, to see if I am missing anything. I was able to take some pictures of a jetliner passing overhead. I have accented the details of these three photos, but not the colors.

This is an attempt to photograph the moon, using the automatic features of the Sony A series camera. I used my two Sonys (18-55mm and 55-200mm) for all of this ‘Here’ episode. They are not as high resolution as the Nikons are -- which produces a more artistic result -- that being what I wanted. Except, that is, when I use Sony II at 200mm and shoot macro close-ups of insects -- which can produce very sharp pictures. I am drifting into photographic art, as this ‘Here’ episode will illustrate.

I call this photograph of the moon -- ‘The Coyote’s Eye’.

I told you about the smoke cover that is over much of Iowa, and the Midwest, during April and up to May 15; this is Fire Ecology in action. Farmers all over the Midwest set fires to enrich their fields. It produces a pall of smoke hundreds of feet high across much of the central part of the nation. As I drive across the Midwest, often I see these many thousands of fires, usually burning in the cooler temperatures of evening.

Day Two. Looking east.

In Hancock County now, north of Wright County.

This picture gives you a real look at how ButtUgly those BUWI windmills are. On their own, they are something that only a greedy egomaniac could love. Set against the Nature Beauty of Iowa, they are Thrice Repulsive -- Repulsive to begin with -- Repulsive in comparison to Nature -- Repulsive to Nature itself .

I Am Still Looking -- And I Still Do Not See Any Flocks Or Formations Of Birds (Of Any Kind) Flying In OR Among The ButtUgly Windmills.

Same Oasis. This is one of my ‘Nature Photography’ contributions, per se.

Coots. Fulica americana. The American Coot. They hit central Iowa by the many thousands during the spring migration. They are always seen in or near larger water bodies, as they are unable to lift off from land, and must run on the surface of water in order to take flight.

 

A ‘Presence Shot’.

Nearby, is a sluice that feeds a river from a lake. These fish congregate in the oxygen-rich waters there.

On the lake itself are many species of waterfowl and Canadian Geese, of course.

Coots again.

Frog 1.

Nearby, is a wetlands of grass. Many of the types of frogs, that I have shown pictures of before, are there. While I got these two to sit still for a while, many dozens of other frogs were bouncing all around us.

The last time I showed pictures of these animals, I was at a different pond many miles away -- but, they are all identical except for unique markings. Same Species.

Frog 1.

Frog 1.

Frog 2.

Frog 2.

Looking north.

In Cerro Gordo County now, east of Hancock County. I take pictures like this even when the lighting is not ideal. It shows the isolated island nature of many farms out here on the ‘Flatlands’.

Looking north.

Looking south.

I liked this look, and I was taking its picture when a farm machine passed on the road behind me. I took several shots of this, and then turned to snap two pictures of the farm machine going down this dirt road.

Looking west.

These two photos are shown in their real colorations.

I turned away from the farm machine and made some adjustments to my camera and cleaned it again -- I am always cleaning cameras out here. Then, I turned again to look down that road and a vision appeared to me -- of how typical this scene is of sunsets over dirt roads from Toledo to Denver. It is a time of day and a ‘sensation setting’ (or event) that gives you a feeling of great expanse and simple furnishings. At times like this, you can actually see the curve of the Earth and feel the ‘size’ of the planet -- with the star above in such seemingly close proximity. It happens only rarely, and more often in the Midwest than anywhere else in the Continental U.S. If you have the senses for it, in places and times like this, you can actually feel and ‘understand’ the physical size of the Earth. You feel as though you can actually touch the entire planet, take a hold of it, grasp its entire meaning.

IF.

If you have the brains and the senses.

That immediately excludes anyone who watches TV, and/or was educated in an NEA Public School. And, I mean that.

This brings up a point that I have stressed before in the ‘Here’ series. I offer photographs that I am sure many people (who want eye candies) will slough off and/or ignore as something that I should not have included. Well, neither they (or you) are the only types of Humans looking at these pictures. I have to consider the many Humans that have somehow recovered from NEA programming and/or do not watch TV. Those people have the minds for this, but they might also be shut-in for a variety of reasons and cannot get out into Nature as I can. Certainly, they are not out HERE.

There is only me, and the coyotes, and the birds, and the farmers -- HERE.

I adapted this original picture into an artistic rendition of the impression that the scene gave to me.

Looking east.

This, and the next two pictures were taken from atop an overpass above I35. I am looking for sense of distance and feeling of ebb tide and day’s end.

Looking west.

Looking south.

A hidden pool. One of hundreds that exist across Iowa. At this time of the year, they are always being used by geese and ducks of many kinds. The Coots prefer the bigger lakes, so you seldom see them in smaller places like this. Such ponds are always surrounded by a protective layer of trees, however that gives them an island appearance -- and with so many farm islands out here it is impossible to know which ones are ponds and which ones are farms, unless you can see some outer buildings.

I called it quits for that day. Which always means I will have more pictures to take on the way back home.

 

Finally, I got the moon to picture right. This is using 1/400 with f5.6 and ISO 100 -- in Manual mode of course.

Day Three.

Looking north.

Starting in Wright County again. I wander east, up onto the backbones from which I can see in all directions.

Looking east from the backbones.

Looking west. A panorama of this was used for one of my website cover photographs.

Looking east again.

Driving north of the backbones, I think there is a house in there somewhere.

Close by, looking east again. These pictures are all being taken before most of the crops have broken ground. In many cases, the fields have not been sown yet.

Looking west from the same point.

I start wandering east again, leaving Wright County and going into Franklin County.

One thing about the ‘Flatlands’ of Iowa, it is hard to die of thirst out here. The entire landscape is laced with water canals, ditches, streams and rivers. In the southern and hilly parts of the state, there is actually much less access to ground water than there is here, due to that terrain being impossible for irrigation courses.

A very stout and strong tower structure, which is not being made any more (for some reason).

I told you about the dispersions and diasporas that have happened out here in Rural Iowa, before. This is one of the ruins.

Still wandering eastwards, I took three pictures of this guy in his tractor. He probably thought I was the Internal Revenue Service.

From here I keep zig-zagging across Franklin County, looking for pictures.

Stopped for a few minutes to listen to the singing.

Northeast of Geneva now, soon I will be in Butler County.

At ‘Big Marsh’ in Butler County, the state’s largest marsh area.

Last shot of the day. Still at Big Marsh.

Day Four.

This day starts off calmly enough. There is no hint of any big events to happen. However, before the day was over I had taken 1,422 pictures, in about seven hours -- which is a record for me. I kept 372 of them. You will see eighty-seven that I consider to be World Class, or of interest to people who can never see such things for themselves.

By the way, I have no idea what that thing is out there in that field. A high-rise chicken coop? It is built like a walk bridge.

Three pictures of Swaledale. I am up in Cerro Gordo County again.

Looking west.

Three pictures of Beaverdam Creek just east of Swaledale.

Looking east.

Just south of there.

Now, at the same place. Looking Northeast across a vista.

Looking east and further east. I was trying to get a long distance aspect of Rockwell, but it never happened.

So, I went into Rockwell and took these three pictures of the town. I was only passing through, and I have shown pictures of this town before. Somewhere.

Looking east. East of Rockwell, another vista view.

My objective now is the next town east and northeast, which is Rockford (not Rockwell).

Most of what follows, happens between Rockwell and Rockford further east and northeast; also northwest of Rockford -- except for the parts in the Rolling Hills and at Eagle Grove.

Looking east.

Light behind me is failing. I am experiencing many moving shadows cast from behind me.

Looking west.

Usually looking forwards for photo opportunities, I went down a dead end to a closed bridge over a stream. There were no pictures possible there, but as I turned to look west it became obvious that a huge storm front was moving in on this area from Nebraska.

I intended to hit Rockford ahead of the storm, and drove north. As I went, I saw this farmer zipping around a field with his tractor, trying to get in a few last passes before the floods descended upon him.

Looking west.

I began a weaving course towards the northeast, and Rockford. Up on an elevated height I stopped to take pictures of the advancing storm.

Looking east.

Same point, opposite direction. You can barely see Rockford to the far left.

Suddenly, I realized that I was in a transition zone. For perhaps half an hour, there would be special lighting effects spread across long distances; with far eastern clouds still illuminated by the local star.

You would not know, of course, but this one (and the next) are some of my better photographs. This is photography imitating Van Gogh.

You can clearly see Rockford in the background.

Looking east.

The roads made me turn south, and I saw this.

I want this to look dark. It was dark. The light is fading, due to the approaching storm behind this photographer.

And this.

Then, Rockford.

Looking east.

East of Rockford. Slim light in this direction. I began to take pictures that could be changed later to show light beam variations, which most people do not see. I see them through a kind of double overlay vision technique. I see more than is immediate. Most people just accept for granted that what they see at first about something, must be all there is to it. It never occurs to graduates of public schools that there are three dimensions, instead of the two dimensions of TV and teacher’s faces.

I turned northwest into the storm, determined to get pictures from within the lightning cells. Throughout my brief stay in Rockwell there was a great roaring of thunder from the west.

I found a roadside viewpoint of the approaching lightning and began to take hundreds of rapid-fire shots in an effort to catch some of the action.

Can you see the pressure waves over the farm to the right?

In the following photographs I sometimes computer enhance the pictures to bring out the light variations caused by pressure waves.

Reckoning my current position, I decided that the storm was going to pass over Mason City; so I relocated to a closer position. You cannot know it, but Mason City is directly underneath the explosions that you are going to see. What follows in the next thirteen pictures is a mere pittance of the pictures which I took here, which captured a mere fraction of what really happened. However, it would take hours to explain all of them, and some are repetitious. I am showing you the highlights that can be explained easily.

Still looking towards Mason City. Throughout all of this I was sitting in the Cashmere with the motor off and all windows open; to have a solid surface to brace the camera with and to keep the air temperatures the same as the outside environment. Being there was like being at one of Napoleon’s Artillery Duels with the British, an endless barrage. Many strikes were right overhead and the car shook, but it was rocking on all four tires anyway because of the approaching winds. In this picture you can just barely make out that a curtain of rain is descending out of the storm cell.

Here, the rain curtain is much more obvious as it crosses the field towards me. Rain drops are starting to fall on the lens.

I had thirty seconds before the wall of rain hit. I jumped out and started to take pictures straight up into the clouds over me, which had been producing such loud explosions.

The rain came down in a uniform manner. Which is to say, everywhere with the same density. I had the idea to re-position myself down south at Rockford, and to get pictures of the lightning effects with the town in the foreground.

This picture, and the next four are shown as is -- with no attempt to change them. I am doing this to show what it really looks like in such a storm.

I found my way back to Rockford, and positioned the car diagonally to the Middle School on the east edge of town.

This coloration is caused by the timing of the camera to the explosion, and which shift is being illuminated at that instant.

To Humans with slower eyes and different processors, each explosion would just appear as a fast and huge flash of white light. This actually shows you something that you have always been missing.

A huge and prolonged boom directly over the Middle School. So intense that computer editing cannot reveal the bolt inside, so I just left it as is.

Some vehicle passed in front of the camera at this moment.

I looked at the camera, and it said I had already taken more than a thousand pictures. I said to myself -- “time to mosey back to the corral!” On the way out of town, I saw a locomotive sitting on some tracks in the darkness. I stopped and readied the camera. Each time there was the beginning of a lightning flash, I took a picture. I got about eight that worked, of which this shows the most details conventionally, with a flash from directly overhead.

Looking south.

I kept this one entirely because of the silhouette of the house on the far left.

Deep in the dark. By dead reckoning, I was closer to Eagle Grove but still in Wright County. In the rolling hills actually. I came to a stop facing south, and shut off the motor and opened all of the windows again. I had expected to leave the storm behind, back north by northeast at Swaledale and Rockwell and Rockford and Mason City. No such luck. Three more storm cells were now where I was. One directly south, probably over the Boondocks. Another right on top of me. A third off towards Eagle Grove.

Not to worry, I took another two hundred pictures from the top of the Cashmere, which you will see as a reflective surface in the foreground. Of those pictures, I have chosen this one and the next five as samples. The coloration is what the camera sees. I also saw some blues and violets, but not as intense as the camera picked up.

Looking east.

Those are the lights of Belmond in the distance.

Looking southwest. The green light is a small household out here.

Looking southeast.

I got soaked, again, of course. I got back in the Cashmere and closed the window and started the heater. I turned around in the road and began to drive. I had a hunch that I was near Morse Lake, where the very first cover photo of this website was taken. Under much different circumstances, of course. I drove along the winding roads, remembering that last winter the roads here were closed by huge mounds of snow. I reached the dock on the east shore, and there I took this picture of the rain in the headlights.

Enough was enough for me. I usually say that several times until I finally reach my own house, dozens of pictures later.

Well, there was this one rise in the road -- from which I could picture a light tower and silhouettes of trees -- and a fantastic light display was on the boards. I stopped and shut off the motor and rolled down the windows and began shooting.

You can get more detail out of these pictures if you increase the contrast of your monitor or laptop (temporarily).

In this rarefied environment I was ready to expect anything; like scarecrows running for cover, winged Ladies of Light dancing in circles around the central light beam, and a huge beanstalk descending from the clouds with a little boy named Jack hanging on for dear life.

Finally. Back at Eagle Grove, and the place was being roasted in lightning sauce. I stopped nearby, and got out and used the roof of the car again for a support. Took about a hundred photos here.

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Markel Peters

http://www.voices-of-iowa.blogspot.com

http://www.voices-of-iowa-concise.blogspot.com