I confess — I’m a little burnt out working at The Springs.

Maybe it’s the Red Pill I took, or the Coffee, or the Buckthorn, or Winter, or too much Smoke — I don’t know, but I need a break.  I’ve been taking advantage of the mild weather, and the opportunity to work with the Kettle Moraine Land Stewards, to clear huge swaths of Buckthorn from the Ottawa Lake Fen SNA and the Buckthorn Alley and I’m pooped out.  I need to do some yoga, strum a guitar, prepare for traffic court and simply be with Pati, so I’m taking a week off.

Yes, you heard right, I’m going to fight the speeding ticket I got a few weeks ago in the Town of Lisbon on the way home from hiking the Ice Age Trail on the Loew Lake segment.  I’m taking the approach recommended by Marc Stevens and striking at the root i.e., their claims that their laws and statutes apply to me because I’m physically in the State of Wisconsin, and that they have jurisdiction (they can speak [diction] the law [juris] — they can control me.)  That is their argument and I’m simply going to ask: where are the facts — the persons with first hand knowledge — that prove this is true?  Mere opinions, albeit, made by men and women dressed in black robes and sitting on pedestals, that reference the state statutes/codes and the citation are circular: the code applies, because the code says it applies (the bible is the word of god because the bible says it is the word of god etc…)

I’m an anarchist.  That just means I don’t believe in rulers; it does not mean I don’t believe in rules.  I’ve been listening to Lysander Spooner’s seminal work No Treason, No. 6 The Constitution Of No Authority to help ground me:

The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a contract between persons living eighty years ago. And it can be supposed to have been a contract then only between persons who had already come to years of discretion, so as to be competent to make reasonable and obligatory contracts.

I’ll be bringing an unsigned plea of guilt to the intake/arraignment, which I am ready to sign, if they can just show me the facts that substantiate their claims that their laws apply to me and that they have jurisdiction.

Mark Passio explained: “Morality and freedom are directly proportional.”  One need look no further than the NSA’s warrantless spying programs to understand how our immoral government reverences the constitution.

When it comes to Buckthorn, I don’t rely on opinions that this obnoxious invasive tree must be eliminated from our forests to grant jurisdiction to me and my chainsaw; I can see the factual evidence that this weed tree is causing harm and violating the rights of White, Red and Burr Oaks to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The Buckthorn Man has jurisdiction!

Last Tuesday, Jim Brown, my oldest and dearest friend — since we were 4 or 5 — came out to help me cut and burn on the east end of the Buckthorn Alley.  Here is how it looked west, north and east, before we got started:

Jimmy never flagged and we got a hell of a lot done.

Pati joined us and we warmed up by the fire before taking Jim on a grand tour of the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail.

On Wednesday, Chris Mann volunteered to help me burn the brush piles Andy Buchta made on the south side of the trail last Fall, near the location shown above.  Again, here is how it looked north, east and south, before we got started:

I wanted to take advantage of the minimal snow and moderate winds.

Jimmy came out again to provide a shot of energy just after Chris left and, all together, we got dozens of brush piles lit.

Thanks Jimmy!

We hung out by the fire and Jim wished the day would never end.

See you at The Springs!