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Mosquitoes don't start on your arm — they start in the half-inch of water sitting around your homestead that you walk past every day. Today Esther shares the inherited way her mother and grandmother kept mosquitoes down: walk your ground, shut down the standing water, and let two cheap, simple traps handle the rest. A dollar larva dunk for the water you have to keep, and a dark yeast-and-soap pail that pulls down the grown females looking to lay. No foggers, no monthly sprays, no expensive machines. Just the old discipline of looking at your own land and the few honest tricks that actually work.
Tell us in the comments how many spots of standing water you found on your own walk — and your county and the age of your house.
Hashtags
#mosquitocontrol #homestead #amishwisdom #frugalliving #gardening #pestcontrol #naturalpestcontrol #standingwater #oldways #selfreliance #backyardgarden #homemaking #ruralliving #mosquitotrap #thriftyhome
Keyword Tags
mosquito trap, homemade mosquito trap, yeast mosquito trap, mosquito dunks, standing water mosquitoes, get rid of mosquitoes, mosquito control ba
https://eliasyoder.com
Mosquitoes don't start on your arm — they start in the half-inch of water sitting around your homestead that you walk past every day. Today Esther shares the inherited way her mother and grandmother kept mosquitoes down: walk your ground, shut down the standing water, and let two cheap, simple traps handle the rest. A dollar larva dunk for the water you have to keep, and a dark yeast-and-soap pail that pulls down the grown females looking to lay. No foggers, no monthly sprays, no expensive machines. Just the old discipline of looking at your own land and the few honest tricks that actually work.
Tell us in the comments how many spots of standing water you found on your own walk — and your county and the age of your house.
Hashtags
#mosquitocontrol #homestead #amishwisdom #frugalliving #gardening #pestcontrol #naturalpestcontrol #standingwater #oldways #selfreliance #backyardgarden #homemaking #ruralliving #mosquitotrap #thriftyhome
Keyword Tags
mosquito trap, homemade mosquito trap, yeast mosquito trap, mosquito dunks, standing water mosquitoes, get rid of mosquitoes, mosquito control ba
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00The mosquitoes find the hen house before they find you.
00:03That is the part nobody tells you.
00:06By the time one is whining at your ear on the porch at dusk,
00:10there are already a hundred more breeding in the half-inch of water
00:13sitting in an old feed pan behind the barn,
00:16in the saucer under the rain barrel,
00:18in the cup leaf of a hosta by the kitchen door.
00:22You are swatting at the grown ones.
00:25The trouble started two weeks earlier.
00:27In water you walked past every day and never looked at.
00:31So the real problem is not the mosquito on your arm.
00:35The real problem is that you have been fighting them at the wrong end of their life,
00:39in the wrong place, with the wrong weapon.
00:42You can spray yourself head to foot every evening,
00:45and you will still be feeding them,
00:47because the spray does nothing to the water where the next 10,000 are growing up.
00:52You can buy the machine that hums on the porch
00:55and the candle that smokes on the rail
00:57and the bracelet for the children's wrists.
01:00And the mosquitoes will keep coming,
01:02because none of it touches the place they are born.
01:05The mosquito you can hear is the one that already won.
01:09The ones that matter are the ones you cannot see yet,
01:12and they are closer to the house than you think.
01:14Quick word before we go further.
01:17My name is Esther Yoder,
01:18and the old methods my husband and I use,
01:21the kind I am sharing today,
01:23and many more like it,
01:24too much of it for any single video.
01:26I put the whole of it together in a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:31The book is the long version.
01:33Now here is how my mother handled it,
01:35and her mother before her,
01:37and it has almost nothing to do with traps at first.
01:40It has to do with water.
01:43A mosquito does not need a pond.
01:45She does not need a creek or a swamp
01:47or anything you would think to call a body of water.
01:51She needs about as much as fits in a bottle cap,
01:54and she needs it to sit still for a week.
01:57That is all.
01:58A spoonful of water that nobody disturbs
02:01for seven or eight days
02:02is enough to hatch out a brood,
02:04and from that one teaspoon,
02:06you can get a cloud of them.
02:08The old women in our district understood this
02:11without ever reading a word about it
02:13because they spent their lives
02:15walking the same yard every day,
02:17and they noticed things.
02:19My grandmother could not have told you the science of it,
02:22the names of anything,
02:24but she could walk the homestead after a summer rain
02:27and point with her chin
02:28and tell you exactly where the trouble would come from.
02:32The low corner by the smokehouse,
02:34the trough that never quite drained,
02:36the place by the pump where the ground stayed soft.
02:40She did not guess.
02:42She knew her own ground the way she knew her own hands.
02:45I want to tell you about the way she taught me this
02:48because it is the whole lesson in one morning.
02:51I was a girl, maybe eight,
02:53and we had a bad spell of mosquitoes one July,
02:56the kind where you could not sit on the porch after supper,
02:59and I remember complaining about it the way children do,
03:03slapping at my arms and being miserable,
03:05and my grandmother did not reach for anything.
03:08She did not have a spray or a candle.
03:11She took me by the hand the next morning,
03:13early, before the heat,
03:15and she walked me around the whole place,
03:17slow, and she made me look.
03:20Not at the air where the mosquitoes were,
03:22at the ground,
03:23at the still water,
03:24and every place we found it,
03:27we did something about it together.
03:28We tipped the old crock that had filled with rain.
03:31We dumped the chicken pans and scrubbed them.
03:34We found a rusted bucket in the weeds behind the barn
03:37with three inches of green water in it
03:40and a hundred little wrigglers swimming in it,
03:42and she had me look close at those wrigglers,
03:45those commas twitching in the water,
03:47and she said,
03:48there they are.
03:49That is your enemy,
03:50not the ones biting you,
03:52these,
03:52and we poured it out on the dry ground
03:55and watched it soak away.
03:57By the end of that week,
03:58the porch was bearable again.
04:00She never bought a thing.
04:01She just taught me to see,
04:03and seeing is the whole of it.
04:05So the first thing you do,
04:06before any trap,
04:08before anything you can buy,
04:10is you walk your own ground,
04:12like she walked it with me,
04:14slowly.
04:15In the morning,
04:16when it is cool
04:17and you are not rushing,
04:19you are looking for standing water,
04:21and I promise you
04:22there is far more of it than you think
04:24because your eye has learned
04:26to slide right past it.
04:28The rain barrel,
04:29yes,
04:30you know about that one,
04:31but also the saucer under it
04:33that catches the overflow.
04:35The chicken waterer
04:36that nobody dumped,
04:38just topped off
04:39for three days running.
04:40The old tire by the shed
04:42that holds water in its belly
04:44where you cannot even see it.
04:46The wheelbarrow left tipped
04:48just enough to hold an inch
04:50in the low end.
04:51The gutter that sags in the middle
04:54and never drains
04:55so it holds a long, thin pond
04:57up there over your head
04:59all summer.
05:00The low spot by the downspout
05:02that stays wet
05:03three days after a storm.
05:05The folds in a tarp
05:07thrown over the woodpile.
05:09A child's forgotten bucket
05:11in the tall grass.
05:12The dog's water dish.
05:14The saucers under your flowerpots
05:17on the porch.
05:18The birdbath you set out
05:19to be kind
05:20that is now a nursery.
05:22The clogged drain
05:23by the cellar door.
05:25The dent in the lid
05:26of the trash can.
05:28Every single one of these
05:30is a place a mosquito will lay
05:32and every single one of them
05:34is free to shut down.
05:36You tip it.
05:37You dump it.
05:38You drill a hole in the bottom
05:40so it can never hold water again.
05:42Or you bring it under cover.
05:45The flowerpot saucers.
05:47Dump them after every rain
05:49or do without them.
05:51The gutter.
05:52Get up there and clear it
05:53or have it seen to
05:54because that one
05:55is working against you
05:57all season
05:57and you cannot even see it
05:59from the ground.
06:00The tire.
06:01The old bucket.
06:02The broken crock.
06:04Get them out of the weeds
06:05and either store them upside down
06:07or be rid of them.
06:09Do that one walk
06:10faithfully
06:11twice a week
06:13through the warm months
06:14and you will have done more
06:15than every spray
06:17and candle
06:18and machine
06:18in the store
06:19put together
06:20because you have stopped them
06:22from ever being born.
06:24There is no trap
06:26in the world
06:27as good as the empty pan
06:28that never grew
06:30a single one.
06:30The hen house
06:33and the barn
06:33deserve their own
06:34careful look
06:35because animals
06:37mean water
06:38and water that sits
06:39goes bad for the birds
06:41and good for the mosquitoes
06:42both.
06:43I keep the chicken water
06:45dumped and refilled fresh
06:47every day
06:48not topped off
06:49and I keep the ground
06:51under the waterer
06:52raked and grated
06:53so it drains away
06:54instead of pooling
06:56into mud
06:56that holds wet
06:58for days.
06:59A leaking trough
07:00a dripping spigot
07:02the place
07:03where the runoff collects
07:04all of it
07:05wants attention.
07:07The duck pond
07:08if you keep ducks
07:09is its own matter
07:10but moving water
07:12and water with fish
07:13in it
07:14is far less trouble
07:15than the still forgotten pale.
07:18A few hens
07:19loose in the garden
07:20in the evening
07:21will pick at what lands too
07:23and that is a small mercy
07:25but I would not call it a plan.
07:27The plan is the water
07:29always the water
07:31the birds are a help
07:32at the edges
07:33nothing more.
07:35Now
07:36there is water
07:37you cannot dump
07:38and we have to be honest
07:39about that
07:40because telling you
07:41to pour everything out
07:43is easy advice
07:44that breaks against real life.
07:46You want the rain barrel
07:48for the garden
07:48that is good stewardship
07:50catching the sky's water
07:52instead of running the pump.
07:54the low corner
07:55of the pond
07:56the stock trough
07:58the animals drink from
07:59the rain garden
08:00or the wet swale
08:02that does its job
08:03in a storm.
08:04You cannot
08:05and should not
08:06pour these out.
08:07So for the water
08:09that must stay
08:10you have two honest choices
08:12and I will give you both plainly.
08:14The cheap one first
08:16because it is the one
08:17I trust most.
08:18The first is the larva approach
08:21and I trust it above everything
08:23because it works
08:24on the part
08:25of the mosquito's life
08:26where she cannot fight you
08:28cannot outsmart you
08:29cannot learn her way around it.
08:32There is a thing
08:33sold cheaply
08:34in any hardware store
08:36or garden store
08:37or by mail
08:38called mosquito dunks
08:40or mosquito bits
08:41a little cake
08:42the size of a donut
08:43or a granule
08:45like coarse sand.
08:46The working part of it
08:47is a particular bacterium
08:49that lives in soil
08:50named simply
08:52and sold honestly
08:53that the mosquito larvae eat
08:55as they feed
08:56and cannot survive.
08:58And here is the beauty of it
09:00the part that makes it safe enough
09:02to use without a worry.
09:03It kills the wrigglers
09:05and almost nothing else.
09:07It does nothing
09:08to the birds
09:08that drink from the trough.
09:10Nothing to the honeybees
09:12working your garden.
09:13Nothing to the fish
09:14in the pond.
09:16Nothing to the toad.
09:17Nothing to the dog.
09:19Nothing to the children.
09:21Nothing to you.
09:22It is that narrow.
09:24It strikes the mosquito larvae
09:26and lets the rest of creation be.
09:29A dunk runs you about a dollar or two
09:32and one of them treats a rain barrel
09:34for a good month
09:35before it needs replacing.
09:37You drop one in the barrel
09:39one in the trough
09:40one in any standing water
09:42you mean to keep
09:43and you have closed
09:45that nursery completely
09:46without pouring out a drop.
09:48To my mind
09:50that is the closest thing
09:51to honest magic
09:52in this whole business.
09:54It's cheap.
09:55It is safe enough
09:56to use around
09:57everything you love
09:58and it works steadily
10:00on the part of the problem
10:01you cannot even see.
10:03If I could send you
10:04to the store
10:05for one thing today
10:06it would be that.
10:08Use it right
10:09and it asks
10:10almost nothing of you.
10:11Drop the dunk in
10:13and let it be.
10:14It will soften
10:15and work for weeks.
10:17When you can no longer see it
10:19and the month is up
10:20drop in another.
10:21The bits,
10:22the granules
10:23work faster
10:24and shorter.
10:25Good for a spot
10:26you want hit hard
10:27and quick
10:28like a low place
10:29that floods after a storm
10:31and dries up after.
10:33Keep the package
10:34up high
10:35and dry
10:36and away from the children
10:37the way you would
10:38any such thing.
10:39Not because it is dangerous
10:41to them
10:42the way poison is
10:43but because nothing
10:44of that kind
10:45belongs in small hands
10:47and good habits
10:48around the whole shelf
10:49of such things
10:50keep everyone safe.
10:52That is the only caution
10:54it needs.
10:55The second choice
10:56is a trap
10:57for the grown ones
10:58the females
10:59already out
11:00and hunting
11:01a place to lay.
11:02And here I want
11:03to be straight with you
11:05about what it is.
11:06because it is not
11:07an old Amish secret
11:09and I will not
11:10dress it up as one.
11:11It is a homemade trap
11:13that English gardeners
11:14worked out
11:15among themselves
11:16and shared
11:17one to another
11:18the way good
11:19practical knowledge
11:20always travels.
11:21And it is a clever
11:23sound thing
11:24so I pass it along
11:25to you
11:26for exactly
11:27what it honestly is.
11:28A modern
11:29homemade trick
11:30that works
11:31not an heirloom
11:32from my grandmother's
11:33apron.
11:34I would rather
11:35tell you plainly
11:36where a thing
11:37comes from
11:37and have you
11:38trust the rest
11:39of what I say
11:40than dress up
11:41every tip
11:42as ancient wisdom
11:43and have you
11:44catch me at it.
11:45It works
11:46on a simple truth
11:47about the mosquito
11:48herself.
11:49A female
11:50looking to lay
11:51her eggs
11:52is drawn
11:53to two things
11:54above all.
11:55The breath smell
11:56of something warm
11:57and alive
11:58which tells her
11:59blood is near
12:00and a host
12:01is near
12:02and a dark
12:03still
12:03sheltered
12:04place
12:05to lay
12:05because her
12:06young are
12:07helpless
12:07and she wants
12:08them hidden.
12:09Give her
12:10both of those
12:11in one spot
12:12and make
12:13that spot
12:14a trap
12:14and she
12:15comes to
12:15you
12:16instead of
12:17to your
12:17children's
12:17ankles.
12:18You make
12:19the breath
12:20smell with
12:20yeast
12:21the same
12:22yeast
12:22you bake
12:23with.
12:23Take
12:24warm water
12:24and mind
12:25the warmth
12:26because this
12:27matters
12:27not hot
12:28hot water
12:30kills the
12:30yeast
12:31and you
12:31have
12:31made
12:32nothing.
12:33About as
12:33warm as
12:34a baby's
12:35bath
12:35a little
12:36warmer than
12:36your hand
12:37likes to
12:38sit in
12:38no more.
12:40Into about
12:40a quart of
12:41that warm
12:42water
12:42you stir
12:43two good
12:44spoons
12:44of brown
12:45sugar
12:45until it
12:46melts
12:47away
12:47and then
12:48you stir
12:48in a
12:49spoon
12:49of active
12:50dry
12:50yeast.
12:51Set it
12:52somewhere
12:53and leave
12:53it a few
12:54minutes
12:54and it
12:55will begin
12:55to wake
12:56and foam
12:56a little
12:57as it
12:57feeds
12:58on the
12:58sugar
12:58and as
13:00it feeds
13:00it breathes
13:01out a
13:02gas
13:02the very
13:03same
13:03gas
13:04that you
13:04and I
13:05and the
13:05horse
13:06and the
13:06dog
13:07and every
13:07warm living
13:08thing
13:09breathes
13:09out
13:10and that
13:11gas
13:11is exactly
13:12what a
13:12mosquito
13:13follows
13:14through the
13:14dark
13:14to find
13:15blood.
13:16She cannot
13:17tell your
13:17yeast pail
13:18from a
13:19living thing.
13:20You have
13:20made something
13:21that smells
13:22alive
13:22without being
13:23alive
13:24and she
13:25comes to
13:25it on
13:26the wind.
13:26Now the
13:27dark part
13:28and pay
13:29close attention
13:29here because
13:30this is the
13:31piece most
13:32people leave
13:33out and it
13:34is the very
13:34piece that
13:35makes the
13:35whole thing
13:36work.
13:37A mosquito
13:38will not
13:38lay in
13:39clear,
13:40open,
13:40bright,
13:41sunlit
13:41water.
13:42It is
13:42against
13:42everything
13:43in her.
13:44She wants
13:45dark and
13:45sheltered and
13:46still,
13:47the way she
13:48wants the
13:48shadowed
13:49corner of
13:49the hen
13:49house over
13:50the open
13:51bright yard,
13:52the way she
13:53wants the
13:53damp gloom
13:54under the
13:54porch.
13:55So you
13:56must not
13:56use a
13:57clear glass
13:58jar,
13:58no matter
13:59how easy
14:00it is to
14:00reach for.
14:01You use
14:02a black
14:03container or
14:04you wrap a
14:05pail in
14:05dark cloth
14:06or dark
14:07paper,
14:08anything to
14:08make it
14:09lightless
14:09inside,
14:10and then you
14:11set it in
14:11shade,
14:12under the
14:13bottom porch
14:13step,
14:14back in the
14:15corner of
14:15the shed,
14:16against the
14:16cool north
14:17wall of the
14:18house,
14:19where the
14:19sun never
14:20reaches,
14:21in the
14:21shadow of
14:22the woodpile,
14:22dark,
14:24still,
14:24sheltered.
14:25That is the
14:26whole secret,
14:26and it costs
14:27nothing but
14:28the noticing.
14:29I have seen
14:30this truth my
14:31entire life,
14:32without ever
14:33putting a name
14:33to it.
14:34A dark
14:35pail left
14:36out overnight,
14:37a pair of
14:37dark rubber
14:38boots by the
14:39door,
14:40a black
14:40bucket against
14:41a barn.
14:42By morning,
14:43they will have
14:43mosquitoes resting
14:45inside them,
14:46down in the
14:46dark,
14:47where a white
14:48pail right
14:48beside them sits
14:50clean and
14:50empty.
14:51They go to
14:52the dark.
14:53They have
14:53always gone
14:54to the dark.
14:55The trap
14:56does nothing
14:56more than
14:57give them a
14:58dark place to
14:59go that
14:59happens to
15:00drown them.
15:01The last piece
15:02is the smallest,
15:03and you must
15:04not skip it.
15:05A single drop
15:06of dish soap
15:07stirred gently
15:08into the yeast
15:09water, just
15:10one.
15:11Here is why it
15:12matters.
15:13Water has a
15:14skin on the
15:14top of it.
15:15You have watched
15:16a fly or one
15:17of those long
15:18legged water
15:18striders stand
15:20right on the
15:20surface without
15:21sinking through.
15:22That skin,
15:24that surface
15:24tension, is
15:25the thing that
15:26lets a mosquito
15:27touch down on
15:28water, lay her
15:29eggs, and lift
15:30off again unharmed.
15:32The single drop
15:33of soap breaks
15:34that skin.
15:35So when she
15:36follows the yeast
15:37breath down
15:38into the dark
15:38and settles onto
15:40the water to do
15:41her work, there
15:42is no skin there
15:43to hold her up.
15:44She breaks
15:45through and she
15:46goes under, and
15:47she does not
15:48come up again.
15:49One drop does
15:50it, more than
15:51that, and you
15:52have only wasted
15:53soap.
15:54One drop turns
15:55a pail of water
15:56from a place she
15:57visits into a
15:58place she drowns.
16:00Set that dark
16:01pail in its shaded
16:02corner and have
16:03the patience to
16:04leave it two or
16:05three days before
16:06you judge it at
16:07all.
16:08Then pour it out
16:09slow over the
16:10ground, or over a
16:12white cloth if you
16:13want to see your
16:13work.
16:14And I will tell
16:15you now, you
16:16will be a little
16:17sorry you looked
16:18and very glad
16:19you did, because
16:20there will be
16:20more in there
16:21than you would
16:22ever have
16:22guessed.
16:23Dozens of
16:24them, sometimes
16:25far more than
16:26dozens.
16:27All of them
16:28drowned in a
16:29pail of warm
16:30water.
16:30Two spoons of
16:31sugar, a spoon
16:32of yeast, and a
16:34single drop of
16:34soap.
16:35Four dollars of
16:36kitchen things, set
16:38in the dark, doing
16:39the work the
16:40thirty dollar
16:40machine on the
16:41porch could not.
16:43Refresh it about
16:44once a week, because
16:45the yeast does its
16:46breathing hard for a
16:48few days, and then
16:49goes quiet and
16:50spent, and a tired
16:51pail does not call
16:53them anymore.
16:54A fresh batch
16:55breathes the
16:56strongest, and the
16:57strongest breath
16:58pulls down the
16:59most.
17:00Dump the old, rinse
17:01the pail, mix it
17:02new.
17:03It is five minutes
17:04of a morning.
17:05Now run the two
17:06together, and you
17:07have both ends of
17:09the mosquito's life
17:10closed at once.
17:11The dunks kill the
17:12young, down under
17:14the surface.
17:14In the water you
17:15cannot bring yourself
17:16to pour out.
17:18The dark pail pulls
17:19down the grown
17:20females, out hunting
17:22for a place to lay
17:23the next ten
17:24thousand.
17:25And your faithful
17:26evening walk, the
17:27dumping and the
17:28tipping, keeps
17:29shutting the
17:30nurseries before
17:31either trap is even
17:32needed.
17:33That is the whole
17:34system, top to
17:35bottom, and I want
17:37you to notice the
17:38most powerful part
17:39of it costs you
17:40nothing at all.
17:41The walking, the
17:43looking, the dumping.
17:44The traps are the
17:45help at the edges.
17:47The seeing is the
17:48heart of it, the
17:49same as it was that
17:50morning with my
17:51grandmother.
17:52Everything I have
17:53given you that you
17:54can buy comes to
17:55maybe five dollars.
17:57Everything that truly
17:58matters is free.
18:00A word on your own
18:01skin while we are
18:02here.
18:03Because the old
18:04women knew this part
18:05too, and it is of a
18:07peace with everything
18:08else.
18:09Mosquitoes find the
18:10dark easier than the
18:12light, on a body
18:13just the same as in a
18:14corner.
18:15I have watched it my
18:16whole life, and it
18:18is not my fancy.
18:19In a dark dress, I am
18:21bitten worse than in
18:23a light one, plainly
18:24and every time.
18:26A dark shirt, a navy
18:28shirt, calls them.
18:29A light one hides
18:31you a little.
18:32So wear your light
18:33colors out in the
18:35garden at dusk when
18:36they are worst.
18:37A second thin layer
18:39helps, an undershirt
18:41beneath your shirt,
18:42because it gives them
18:43less to reach through
18:45to the skin.
18:46Stay where the evening
18:47air is moving, if you
18:49can, on the breezy side
18:51of the house, because
18:52still, shaded, damp
18:54air at dusk is their
18:56own country, and a
18:58steady breeze is a wall
18:59to them.
19:00They are weak flyers
19:02and cannot work against
19:03it.
19:04And keep the grass cut
19:06and the weeds down
19:07close to where you
19:08sit in the evenings,
19:09because the grown ones
19:11rest in that cool,
19:12damp shade through the
19:14heat of the day and
19:15come out from it at
19:16dusk.
19:17None of that costs a
19:19cent, either.
19:20It is all just knowing
19:21how the creature lives
19:23and living a little
19:24crosswise to it.
19:26Now I want you to think
19:28for a quiet moment about
19:29who gains from your not
19:31knowing any of this.
19:33Walk down the seasonal
19:35aisle of any store in
19:37June and look hard at
19:39that shelf.
19:40The foggers, the sprays,
19:42the propane machines that
19:44hum on the porch, the
19:46plug-in this and the clip
19:47on that, the scented
19:49candles and the coils and
19:51the bracelets for the
19:52children, every last item
19:55of it priced and packaged
19:57to be used up and bought
19:59again next month and the
20:01month after.
20:02There is a great deal of
20:04money in selling you a
20:05fight against the grown
20:07mosquito already on your
20:08arm.
20:09The loud, the late, the
20:12losing end of the whole
20:13fight.
20:14And there is almost no
20:16money at all in telling
20:17you the truth, which is
20:19to go walk your own yard
20:21and tip over a feed pan
20:23and drop a dollar cake
20:25in your rain barrel.
20:26Nobody can package an
20:28evening walk.
20:30Nobody can put your
20:31grandmother's morning
20:32lesson in a bottle and
20:34sell it back to you at a
20:35markup.
20:36So it does not get sold.
20:38And a thing that does not
20:40get sold slowly stops
20:42getting said.
20:43I do not tell you there
20:45is a room full of men
20:46somewhere plotting to
20:48keep you ignorant.
20:49It is worse than that in
20:51its quiet way because no
20:53one ever had to plot it
20:55at all.
20:55A whole system simply
20:58grows up around the
20:59answer that makes money
21:01and it quietly forgets
21:03the answer that does
21:04not.
21:04And the forgotten one was
21:06the better one the whole
21:08time.
21:09The knowledge was never
21:11taken from you by anyone.
21:12It just stopped being
21:14worth a single soul's
21:16while to remind you of it.
21:18And so within a
21:19generation or two it went
21:21still like water nobody
21:23stirs.
21:24That is the real loss and
21:26it is bigger than
21:27mosquitoes.
21:29A grandmother used to
21:31walk a child around the
21:32yard and teach her to see
21:34and that child carried it
21:36to her own children and
21:38the knowing moved down the
21:40years for free.
21:42Now a mother buys a
21:44machine and the machine
21:45does not work and the
21:47knowing is gone and there
21:49is no grandmother in the
21:51telling anymore, only a
21:52label with instructions.
21:55I am trying in my small
21:57way to be the grandmother
21:59in the telling.
22:00That is all this is.
22:02So here is what I would ask
22:04of you plainly.
22:05Go and walk your own
22:07ground tonight before the
22:09light fails.
22:10Slow the way I was
22:11taught and count for me the
22:14places you find water
22:15sitting that you had never
22:17once noticed before.
22:19Then come back and tell me
22:21in the comments how many
22:22you found.
22:23I think the number will
22:25surprise you.
22:26It surprises nearly
22:27everyone.
22:28And tell me your county and
22:30the age of your house while
22:32you are there because it
22:33matters more than you
22:35would think.
22:36The older places have the
22:38old drainage, spring houses
22:40and the low stone cellars
22:42and the hand dug everything
22:44and the water sits
22:46different on old ground
22:48than it does on new
22:49and the trouble runs
22:51different with it.
22:52I read every one of them
22:53and I learned from you
22:55the same way the old
22:56women in our district
22:57learned from one another
22:58across the fence line.
23:00One yard, one season,
23:02one hard one noticing
23:04at a time.
23:06Next time I will take you
23:07down into the spring house
23:09and the cold cellar and show
23:11you what we do to keep them
23:12sealed against more than
23:13just the mosquitoes.
23:15The screening over the
23:16vents, the discipline of
23:17the door that is never
23:19left to stand open, the
23:20small faithful habits that
23:22keep a cool dark room a
23:24blessing instead of letting
23:26it become a haven for every
23:27crawling and flying thing
23:29that wants in out of the
23:31summer heat.
23:32There is a right and an old
23:34way to keep a place cold
23:35and closed at once and most
23:38of it is older than any of
23:39us and simpler than you
23:41would guess, but tonight you
23:43start with the water.
23:44Let the pale in the dark
23:46corner do its quiet, patient
23:48work.
23:49Let the dunk do its work
23:51down under the surface
23:52where you will never watch
23:53it happen.
23:54And you do your own part,
23:56the part that matters most,
23:57on two feet in the cool of
23:59the evening with a tipped
24:01over bucket in your hand
24:02and your eyes finally open
24:04to your own ground.
24:06The people who built this
24:08country with their hands knew
24:09things we are only just
24:11starting to remember.
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