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Composting has become a source of entertainment. I don't need the compost because I only grow a couple of heirloom tomatoes and a few specimen plants, to keep the seeds viable, but recycling organic stuff is always a good idea. I've done this, religiously, for forty years, but here, on the ridge, it's just a game I play with the animals. I pile it up, and they spread it out. A couple of feral dogs tonight, playing king-of-the-hill with a bob-cat. At its best, radio evokes a visual, and this is true radio drama: snarling dogs, screaming cat. I don't turn on any lights, I don't intercede, I just listen. I don't feed hummingbirds anymore, they're so fucking violent, and I do, occasionally, disperse the entire playing field with a few marbles from my slingshot. Sometimes it's just too much bullshit. Everything was frozen this morning, the leaves, crunching with hoar frost. I'd walked down to the print shop, having a smoke on the porch, when the Nature guys pulled in. They joked about my outfit and I joked about theirs. I felt like I was in a Carhartt commercial. Fortunately the conversation turned to botanicals. These guys are good, they know their twigs. I tell them to get off the ridge if it starts snowing, or to stop over for a drink when they get done. They stop over. A lively conversation. We talked about any number of things; the price of smoked tea in China, the single-malts being produced in Japan. We agree about everything, in the tangible world, this is Sumac, this is Red Maple, you can't control the flow of water. In almost every other way I disagree with them. They all voted for Trump. I'm not shocked as much as dismayed. When they leave I retire with a wee dram of whiskey, to try and make sense, but none is forthcoming. Because the oven is hot, I make a small meatloaf, boil some new potatoes; lumpy smashed new potatoes, with butter and black pepper are a wonderful thing. A small meatloaf, glazed with enchilada sauce, can be a transport of joy. With a slice of raw onion, it makes perhaps the greatest sandwich ever discovered.