Ahhhh, Fresh Meat and Wine...On the road again

Heaven is a Wal-mart

Petroleum pack them in like sardines
I just bought a fake plastic Hallmark smile
Cardboard sustenance stares at me
As the four by fours truck up and down the aisles
I bought a poster of Teotihuacan
Because they just built a new Wal-mart there
Now they have ruined the ruins for me

I don't remember what the sun looks like
I bought organic beef raised under neon lights
There's a McDonalds and a barbershop
And the old high school bully is the security cop

Heaven is a Wal-mart bursting at the seams
Heaven is a Wal-mart to me

Listened to censored art in the music aisle
Checkout with artificial sweet smiles
The t-shirts that I bought were made in sweat shop
I made sure to buy two so I would get one for free
They gave my young son Billybob a children's cart
To indoctrinate with a healthy corporate start
They have ruined the world that he sees

I bought a gun just so I could get some kicks
I burn synthetic wood so I don't have to burn sticks
I bought certified speed from the pharmacist
And I made sure to get the free eye test

Heaven is a Wal-mart the perfect picture of gluttony
Heaven is a Wal-mart to me

I bought an anorexic lady on a magazine cover
I bought the super-sized slim-fast TV dinner
I bought the America bless god bumper sticker
Should have read America bless Sam Walton 'cause he's bigger

Heaven is a Wal-mart bastardized american dream
Heaven is a Wal-mart to me

Attention shoppers there is a clearance on world culture in aisle six get it while it still exists

Dan Wilder, Tuesday July 31st, 2007

Hello friends, neighbors and perfect strangers. The past couple of days we have been traveling around visiting Kelly's relatives, and we have finally stopped for a week in Pentwater, Michigan. Relaxin' soakin' up the sun and such and enjoying the fine company of Kelly's siblings, grandparents and mom/Brian. We then head up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to do much of the same with my half of the family. Grace had her first swim in Lake Michigan this morning and seems to be having a great time even if she still looks and smells like a farmy swamp mutt. Kelly just got the full kiteboarding hook-up as a graduation present from her father so we have been asking the powers the be for wind, and to our chagrin it has yet to reveal itself. We will kiteboard before the trip is through even if I have to set up giant industrial fans on the beach.



Before we left the farm we had started to harvest the cherry tomatoes as I said in the previous post, and the bigger variteties were also starting to come into their own. Kelly and I are afraid we abandoned our employers for the trip at precisely the time they would need us the most, ahh the irony of life. We have also come to realize slowly that the whole organic process is a corporate sham. Meaning the word is meaningless these days because it has been taken over by the government and factory farming as a word used to make more money. What do I mean by this? Well here is just one such example. Our farm is one of the smallest corporate farms in the country, we do "organic" heirloom tomatoes. Yet every morning Kelly and I walk around with sprayer packs on our backs spraying fish fertilizer and fungicide onto the tomato plants. Yes fungicide, perfectly acceptible by government "organic" policy. We can also use something that kills every single bug on the plants, most people I believe would call this pesticide. Certified organic produce is a joke to any farmer that grew and sold organic produce before the government takeover because it is not organic. Using pesticide and fungicide is not organic. Why can they be used then? Because factory farms probably bribed the government when they were deciding what constituted organic produce or else organic produce wouldn't be viable for factory farming. It all boils down to money which is why Wal-mart is the biggest distributer of "organic" produce in the world, hence the above song. The other reason for the song is that many of these "organic" farmers that we have met don't seem to even enjoy the fruits of their labor and instead eat fast food and shop at Wal-mart for everything. So if you want to be progressive don't buy from "Whole Foods" (all our tomatoes are sold there) buy local from a farmer you trust.




This is what Kelly and I did right before we set off on our journey back across the country. We met Meg Campbell at Third Thursdays, Culpeper's version of Charlotteville's Fridays after five; she owns Croftburn Farm Meats. Local grassfed beef, lamb, sausages etc. So the day before we went to Frederick to see Kelly's dad and extended family I went by and bought a 10 pound sirloin and a six pound leg of lamb from her. We schmoozed for an hour as I watched the animals frolick happily around the giant ranch nestled at the foot of the mountains. Meg seemed impressed that us youngsters were taking so much responsibility for the meat we ate and she ended up giving me a free package of her homemade lamb sausage. Kelly fashioned the beef and lamb into kabobs for the meal the next day. We feasted and it was excellent, probably some of the best meat I have ever had, the lamb sausages were also amazing. I also sold Anne on the garlic we had grown to use in her Lamb sausages, it is just too bad I won't see any of that money.


Anyway Pentwater is very nice, it is sweet to be just hanging out instead of hanging, hunched over picking tomatoes and tucking plants. All I need now is a little wind under my kite so I can rip off into the pale blue yonder, catch some air, cruise back and enjoy a nice 97' Cabernet (peaking right now) with Jim and family while the sun sets on another day. Peace from Pentwater. Danny "Boy" Wilder

Josh-Wondering if you could e-mail me your parents address? Wilderclimberdude@gmail.com