B. Farrar, Ltd.

This morning:

• Harvested another pint and a half of blueberries! They're so pretty <3 <3 <3


• Harvested some radishes, planted some more radishes where the dead lettuce was :)


• Harvested some beets, planted some more beets where the other dead lettuce was :) :)


• Cut back the lavender so we have dried lavender flowers to use in baking <3 <3 :) :)


• The corn plants look so healthy! Hope we get a good harvest this summer :)

This afternoon:

• There is a massive japanese beetle orgy happening to my poor strawberry plants--right when they're starting to produce fruit again!--and I'm so angry about it I feel vaguely sick to my stomach :((((((((((((

Fireworks have been going on non-stop for at least the last hour and a half, and will probably continue for another hour or so--ever since aerial fireworks were made legal without licensing, people have been going a bit nuts. :P



Fireworks actually start at 9:45, and although it's not a professionally-shot, glossy fireworks show, I like how it really feels like you're lying on your back, watching in person.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

( Collapse )
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Ho--all to the borders! Vermonters, come down,
With your britches of deerskin and jackets of brown;
With your red woolen caps and your moccasins come,
To the gathering summons of trumpet and drum.
Come down with your rifle!
Let gray wolf and fox
Howl on in the shadow of primitive rocks;
Let bear feed securely from pig-pen and stall;
Here's two-legged game for your powder and ball.
Then cheer, cheer, the green mountaineer, then cheer, cheer the green mountaineer

On the south came the Hessians, our land to police;
And armed for the battle while canting of peace;
On our east came the British, the red coated band
To hang up our leaders and eat up our land.
Ho--all to the rescue! For Satan shall work
No gain for the legions of Hampshire and York!
They claim our possessions--the pitiful knaves--
The tribute we pay shall be prisons and graves!

We owe no allegiance, we bow to no throne,
Our ruler is law and the law is our own;
Our leaders themselves are our own fellow-men,
Who can handle the sword and the scythe and the pen
Hurrah for Vermont! For the land that we till
Must have sons to defend her from valley and hill
Our vow is recorded--our banner unfurled,
In the name of Vermont we defy all the world!