Author: Vic Socotra

Detroit Iron

Yesterday had a couple challenges. The Panzer, my trusty 2010 Mercedes GLK350, rests quietly down in the farm yard. It’s return to the farm amid the fading COVID panic and the sudden rising gasoline crisis had some interesting moments. There are other issues appearing on the “to do” list, but getting the 70 miles to […]

Public Health Alert: Moderna Phase 2

Just a quick note, Gentle Readers. Refuge Farm is now 100% in compliance with whatever that stuff the Government insists is just fine for injection and won’t manipulate that genetic stuff that has happily coursed our veins the last sixty or seventy years. Moderna is the version administered and observed here. Several fellow compliant citizens […]

Marlow’s It’s Not Spying- I’m Just Listening

Editor’s Note: Large Day today in the country- I am taking the momentous step of Leaving the Property to snag the Panzer, which is resting after repairs up in Arlington in the basement of Big Pink. This is also second shot of the vaccination week, so between actually leaving the Farm, there are all sorts […]

Arrias: Salvaging a Maritime Power

Editor’s Note: We welcome Arrias back to the regular line-up. Salvaging A Maritime Power On April 21st KRI Nanggala, an Indonesian submarine, sank in the waters north of Bali. This past week the Chinese military offered a large, state-of-the-art salvage ship to assist the Indonesian Navy in recovering the remains of that submarine. > > […]

Birthing People Day

We seem to be in a place of change as a nation, and as a people. The phrase above has been in the news, of late. Being a member of the “senior” category of citizens- wait, sorry, that is probably another of those words that is not acceptable to many of these times- I think […]

Marlow’s Old Tricks, New Place

Editor’s Note: Marlow continues his exploration of an ancient place with new eyes. We have shared the view of distant shores under novel skies, and the energy and decadence of tropic isles anchored in more than one sea. Have fun with this- it is a joy to look back at it all, the laughs and […]

LTJG Winky

Oh, no! Not again! Editor’s Note: This article appeared in the famous USS Midway Library’s Scuttlebutt. There has been a concerted effort to find relics from a small part of that wonderful ship’s history and get them back into the context from which they came. LTJG Winky is part of it, since he was a […]

It is Over!

Just thought I would drop a line to give you some good news for a change. The Plague that has devastated the planet has been vanquished! Life is going back to normal! I had a premonition that something was up when I crutched myself into the health complex yesterday. There were these white things, rectangles […]

Cinco de Mayo!

First of all, it’s not Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually celebrated in September sometime. This cool day commemorates the Mexican Army’s victory over Napoleon III’s French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. We were busy doing other things up here at the time, and Confederate forces were occupying the Farm. As you […]

Battle Alley

(This image from the Times-Exponent shows what was planned for the Rapidan Front area of our county just south of Refuge Farm. It was proposed as 1,800 acres of black “green” glass, which means it is “renewable” in that it must be replaced every thirty years or so.) We are fighting again here in Culpeper […]