New words

My friend Belinda sent me these lists and I thought I would repost them here for a chuckle or two. My personal favorites are #2, #12, #16 and then #2 and #10. I wish I were creative enough to make a list like this.

Here's the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. The winners are:

1. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people which stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor(n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.



The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:

1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absent mindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown .

7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Eye of God Nebula

For me, the hardest part of blogging is choosing an image to complement what I am writing. I usually spend way too much time choosing pictures and deciding what I want the image to say. The last entry, about DNA, the Creator/God and the mysteries of the universe, prompted me to think of the Helix Nebula, which is also known as the Eye of God Nebula. I ultimately chose not to use that image, but I just couldn't let it go. I think it deserves it's own post, so it now has a home on my blog.

The Helix Nebula, NGC 7293, is a planetary nebula that is about 450-700 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius. A planetary nebula doesn't have anything to do with planets. They are formed when a red giant star is dying. The outer 'layer', the opaque 'skin', of a star is blown off and that allows radiation to illuminate from the star's core. That UV radiation ionizes the star's 'skin' gases as it radiates outward. It's all about the chemical reactions that stars undergo as they die. What you see could fancifully be called stardust; it is ionized gas from the former star. Timewise, these nebulae are rather short lived, recombining the gases as the core loses energy, creating a white dwarf star in about 10,000 years time. Dust to dust.

Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

This is the fourth day of rainy weather. When it is not raining, it is so foggy and humid that nothing dries out. The ground is mush and springs are bursting forth everywhere. The rain has definitely kicked in the afterburners of the asparagus. We’ve been cutting a few spears a day for a few weeks now. When I went out this afternoon to check for shoots, I saw a bunch of them breaking ground, so tomorrow I should bring in a bundle-enough to roast for dinner again. We had asparagus today as well, but I love the stuff and could eat it every day. I wish there were a way to harvest it all year long. The rain is also quenching the thirst of the lettuces, as their leaves have also doubled in size. We had some of the mesclun mix leaves tonight with dinner. Within a week or so, I expect to be chopping up the first bunch of pak choi and harvesting the first head of broccoli. There are a couple of plants that were put out too early and have button heads, but I’ll just cut them and toss the buttons in salad and wait for the side shoots to produce more florets. I’ve got plenty of broccoli so a few plants with button heads doesn’t upset me. I love gardening.

As you know, our moniker is EarthNSky. I am Earth, and of course Skyguy is my better half. I am the most earthy, Earth-loving person you could imagine. For me, the soil, the clay, the earth is part of my being. When I say that, it is not a metaphor, it is what I believe. I’ll try to explain. In Latin, the word for soil is humus. Human, Humble, and Humility all share that root concept. When one has humility, he might prostrate himself to the earth, lowering himself to the ground, the base. I’m not religious, but I do know The Bible, and I am familiar with ancient texts that historically pre-date the Bible. In the Sumerian Creation myth, Adam is the new being, literally the Earthling, created from the Adama, the soil or the clay of the earth. The Creator, EA (EA ruled the Earth) took the clay and molded it, arranging it in his likeness, in his image. I happen to believe that the Creator was sculpting not just the clay itself, but the DNA within the clay, arranging it so that the Adam would be made in the image of the Creator. It sounds a bit far fetched for those who adhere rigidly to evolutionary theory, but consider this: The clay, the soil, the flesh, is the supporting matrix. The flesh is the tissue made of cells that hold the genes that contain DNA. Modern humans, homo sapiens, have 223 genes that other animals, including their predecessor hominids, do not have. In fact 40 or so of the genes are shared only with bacteria, prokaryotic acidobacteria from the soil. It is also possible that those 223 genes came from the ‘breath’ of the Creator. Furthermore, the genes came to humans not from some evolutionary inheritance from early bacterial life, but the genes appeared spontaneously from a lateral or horizontal transmission. This happened rather recently in the evolutionary history of mankind. This fact has stirred debate among geneticists, and has yet to be adequately explained. The origin of man’s existence is one of the world’s great mysteries, and if you compare the Genesis version of creation with the Sumerian version and other ancient myths, it is interesting that in most stories that ADAM was made from clay, from the earth. He was Human. You can believe whatever you choose to believe. Your Creator may be the Christian God, the Sumerian Enki/Ea, the Islamic Allah, some other Extraterrestrial Benefactor or maybe the Creator is just an idea and there is only evolution, but I believe that Humans were made from the Earth, and when they die, their bodies return to the Earth. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. By the way, that saying does not come from the Bible like people think. It is a suggested funeral rite in the Book of Common Prayer that is based on Genesis 3:19 which states (KJV) “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

People ask me about my weirdo beliefs all the time. I believe in both evolution and intelligent design. I don’t think they are mutually exclusive like some people do. I believe that both theories, as they originate from the human mind, are flawed and neither provides all the answers we seek, but together they do a better job of explaining what might have happened than either one by itself. When I place my hands in the earth, in the humus as I garden, it is a spiritual event. It feels much like a baptism, a cleansing, an act that unifies my flesh with the flesh of the Earth. I don’t think it is in my mind. It feels primal, and it may be just that in reality.

So now, as a gardener, I tend the soil, the humus, the earth and I eat the fruits of that soil. Those fruits feed my flesh, my clay, my body. Earth is my foundation. I am a steward of the soil just as I am a steward of my own body. If I poison the soil with pesticides and herbicides, I poison myself. When I finally die, cremate me and spread my ashes in the humus of the forest.

Knowing that there will be some people who will wonder whether or not humans really share bacterial DNA like I claim, I quickly googled the following abstracts as a primer. Feel free to do your own research with an open mind. You may be surprised at what you learn.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/292/5523/1903
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/311/5765/1283

Two Sisters, One Promise

I've been on Facebook for the last day or two, catching up with old friends and really having a good time. This afternoon, however, was bittersweet, as I finally connected with someone I had wanted to find for many years-someone that I consider a sister, and *that* was wonderful, but then the happiness turned to anger and sadness. My friend is fighting breast cancer. I have no doubt that she will win this battle, but her story brings it home to me that I haven't been a good friend. I am angry because good people, the best people, keep getting cancer, and the rest of us are left with the struggle to make sense of it all. I am sad because I know I have failed her, and others, as a friend. My mother always says "to have a friend is to be a friend" and I just haven't been there for my friends the way I should have been. Some of you are reading this now and thinking to yourselves, 'yup, that's right man, she ain't called me in YEARS'. I can't defend myself as I know I'm a slacker. Apologies are meaningless in the face of pain. Perhaps there is a part of me that feels like I don't deserve good friends, and I DO have good friends that have been there for me in both good times and bad.

Cancer changes people. Of course it changes the person who gets it, but it also changes everyone else, too. Skyguy was lucky to have a type of cancer that is curable, and we knew that going in, but still, it is hard to block out all the 'what ifs' that the word cancer spawns in loved ones. Even now, over a year later, I am still 'what iffing' about our relationship. That's probably a good thing as it keeps the feelings fresh so they motivate me to act in a constructive way, a way that improves our relationship.

So, what I can do now, what I will do now, right now, is to try to be a better friend to my friends. They deserve that, and more. In today's world of connectivity, I can do better than I have done in the past.

The pink is in your honor, Caterpillar. I love you and so do a bazillion other people, because you are a special human being. You walk the walk.

Speaking of walking, I will take this moment to encourage everyone to learn more about breast cancer at Susan G. Komen for the Cure: http://ww5.komen.org/
If you can, while you are there on the site, donate some money or sign up for a race or walk for charity.
If pink isn't your color, that is, if you are a man, please learn more about testicular cancer from the Lance Armstrong foundation: http://livestrong.org/
Livestrong.Org is dedicated to fighting all types of cancer because

Unity is strength, knowledge is power and attitude is everything

Social Networking

A few months ago, I joined Facebook. I added a few people that I had as MySpace friends, but really, I did not do anything with the account until last month when the news broke about Facebook's ownership policy. Appalled, I left Facebook in protest. It was more of an excuse as Facebook is difficult and time consuming to navigate for dial-up users and I had become more than frustrated. A few weeks ago, just by chance, I got a email from Classmates.com about my 30 year reunion-South Cobb High School. I gave it some thought, went to the site, and made contact. I've never been one who looked forward to reunions; I've never participated in a reunion either, but this one seemed special somehow. The reunion contact person, Paul, told me that we were all getting together on Facebook first, so I decided to reactivate my account. In the past week, I have made a overwhelming number of connections, and I've enjoyed getting re-acquainted with my old classmates. It is weird because I wasn't fond of high school. It was really a horrible time in my life and I always felt like an outsider who never quite fit in. I've never waxed nostalgic about those days. A lot of things equalize in 30 years though. It is not important anymore whether or not I fit in, what is important is going back to face demons and to try to find some closure on that part of life. By facing demons, I don't mean confronting bullies or anything like that, more along the lines of overcoming one's insecurities. I believe that all high school kids are insecure, if they weren't, there would be no such thing as peer pressure. Each person incorporates those insecurities into their adult persona to a different degree.

A reunion shouldn't be a measuring stick either. It should not be about who is the wealthiest or thinnest or who has the most kids, the most education, or the most interesting career. Of course it is always fun to see how people change, or don't change, but only if one doesn't get caught up in the game and start comparing someone else's life to their own. What I think *is* important is telling people how knowing them has affected their lives. Share memories. There is something powerful about reconnecting with people who knew you back when you did not even know yourself. Very often, they see you in a way you never saw yourself, and when they share that, it can be powerfully validating. On social networking sites like Facebook, sometimes people you don't remember well or at all remember you and add you as their friend. That says something about how wrapped up we become in our own lives and it also speaks to the fact that you just never know whose life you are touching with your own.

So for now, I am on this ride, and who knows where it will lead. Somehow it feels as though I am on another of life's thresholds, but this time it is more like a 'choose your own adventure' novel than some great epic saga that is about to unfold. I suppose that for those who live a fast-paced Twitter life, that this is just one more electronic connection in their lives, but for someone like me who doesn't own a cellphone, an ipod, a laptop, or any other modern electronic communications device other than this humongo desktop computer that connects at 20 kbps(not even half of the typical dialup 56k speed) and who walks life at a much slower pace, it is really quite amazing that people can find each other so easily after so long, and better yet, share images and stories and video and snippets of their lives.

Assorted Homestead Stuff

Saturday Skyguy and I worked to repair the fence that surrounds the garden. We'd been using deer netting for the top half of the 8 foot height, and it works great, but over time, ultraviolet radiation weakens the plastic and the weight of honeysuckle vines just rips it apart. So, we pulled all the netting off and since we don't have any more nor can we afford to buy more, we used some old scavenged field fencing for the job. It will keep out the deer just as well, and it will be easier to maintain in the never-ending war with the honeysuckle vines. After that job was finished, we pulled out the chipper shredder and cleaned up some saplings and yard trimmings, adding to and turning the compost bin as we worked. At the end of the day, we went for a 7 mile ride around the loop, the first time this year. We had not worked up for this distance and we were concerned that it might be a bit too much, but as it turned out, we were just fine on the ride, so I suppose that speaks well for our overall conditioning. It is a huge improvement over last year at any rate since it took us a month to be in good enough shape to make it around the loop. There are quite a few hills to pull, and we averaged right at 10 miles per hour, not too shabby for a couple of near-geezers on mountain bikes. I really hope that we will be able to ride for 30 and 40 miles by the end of the summer.

We were going to ride today, just to get in at least one ride this week before the rains set in, but UPS delivered the new fence charger so Skyguy connected the charger, walked the fence line, and made the final adjustments to the lightning arrestors. It is a Cyclops Brute charger, which we think is the best. We had one before, but it did not survive a direct lightning strike. It has an 8 Joule output. Anyway, we both were tired and had aching feet, so we decided not to ride.

Comfort from the Earth

I tilled the garden today-almost all day. It was hard, but for someone who loves to play in the dirt, it was very satisfying. That seems a bit contradictory for someone who is an advocate of no-till agriculture. I do believe that deep tillage is not good for the soil and that long term, all tilling is damaging. Not only does it kill earthworms, but it totally destratifies and kills the organisms in the soil. Some organisms live right on the surface, others several inches or feet down. In one shovelful of soil there are more living organisms than there are above-ground plants and animals in the entire Amazon rainforest. One cup of soil contains more bacteria than there are people on Earth. A teaspoon of soil can hold the fungal spores for miles and miles of fungi. Tilling mixes everything up. If you went deep sea fishing over an ocean trench and caught a fish that lived at great depths, chances are that he could not live in shallow water, and visa versa. Temperature is different. Pressures are different. Oxygen content is different. Living organisms, even microscopic organisms, are dependent on specific environments, and if the environment changes abruptly, many organisms will die. So I suppose, in reality, I am a minimum till or a conservative tiller. I don't like to till, but I do want to grow my food, so I try to strike a happy medium and only till to cultivate and mix the very top layers.

This year, I am tilling for corn, sweet potatoes, pole beans, cucumbers, squash, okra and tomatoes. Some tomatoes and peppers will go into the raised beds, as will the bush beans, but not everything will fit. I could probably do lasagna type beds, and probably eventually will do that because it works great, but right now, all the materials that would go into a lasagna bed are going into my raised box beds. Every year, I have to add materials to my monster raised beds and every year it composts into rich soil that settles down in the bed. I anticipate that it will take another 5-10 years to get to a point where I do not need to add additional material to bring the soil level up. When the beds are finally full of soil, I will start lasagna gardening on the ground.

I borrowed a 6 hp rear tine, counter rotating tines, YardMachine tiller and worked the soil only at the 'cultivation level' of about 3-4 inches. I crossed the areas at 90 degree angles, basically just trying to kill the grass and weeds and incorporated them into the soil. Organic matter is important for holding moisture. The weeds 'mine' deep nutrients from several feet down and by cultivating, that moves those nutrients to the top layer of soil where they will be more available for uptake by the veggies. Also, before tilling, I scattered kelp meal and organic fertilizer and manure on various areas and tilled that into the earth. It is supposed to rain for the next 4 days, and then it will take another week to dry out. Luckily, my garden holds moisture well-it enables my veggies to be more drought tolerant, but when I want to work in the garden, all that moisture becomes a liability. I want to plant corn on April 10, which is two weeks from Friday, and I want to till one more time before I sow the seeds, just to give the seeds a weedless advantage. Next time, I will try to till a bit deeper, but I am of the belief that 6" is plenty deep enough. Anything more can be done with a hoe. I plant tomatoes deep, but I plant those with post hole diggers.

Luckily, I have good,deep soil. I do have rocks, but the soil is fertile, has a good crumb and is relatively loose(compared to some folks hard clay gardens). I have one area, about 6x6, that was a bit compacted a few years ago, but I believe that time and earthworms have probably healed that area. The last time we raised pigs, I kept them in a 16'x16' pen that I moved around in the garden. The pigs were great rototillers, digging down sometimes as deep as 18", eating weeds and seeds and roots along the way. If I only had a couple of pigs now! As long as I moved the pen daily, the soil did not compact, but there was a period of about 4 days or so that I was unable to move the pen and for a while water just stood in that area, indicating subsurface compaction.

In the old days, farmers sealed ponds with pigs. They would fence off an area where the pond was to be, dig it out, and then raise pigs in the 'pond'. The pig manure and the clay forms a special 'mud' that is very dense. The pigs hooves knead and compress this mud making it more dense, so dense that it in effect puts a layer of 'concrete' on the bottom that will hold water-the water doesn't drain or seep through. Pig manure is magic as a fertilizer, and it is magic as a pond sealer, but in the garden, you want the former, not the latter. To prevent compaction, the pigs have to be mobile. I haven't noticed water standing in that area, and we have had a good bit of rain this year, so I am thinking that the earthworms have naturally healed the soil by tunneling and aerating that layer. Earthworms are a gardener's best friend, and I will never understand why people put pesticides and herbicides over large areas of earth as they are killing the earthworms, and in effect, killing the soil. There is a lot of truth to the adage that a gardener tends the soil, and the soil provides the food. I'll sign off with a quote I saw today:

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles. - Anne Frank

Compost Tumbler

Yesterday Skyguy built this simple compost tumbler from a drum. It is a prototype made from scrap, and it is sitting on a small steel table so that I'll be able to empty it straight into the wheelbarrow. The table height also makes for easier turning. The barrel is a bit over 2/3rds full of leaves, kitchen waste(coffee grounds, eggshells, vegetable trimmings etc.), and paper. We added a bit of water through the hole on the axis. Inside the drum are several 6 inch long threaded rod 'spikes' that will help mix everything up. We had to remove the drum's seal, so all the excess water slowly leaks out, but it is perfect for adding moisture to the compost without getting it too soggy. For now the roller wheels are plywood-it is a prototype after all, but the next one will have solid wood rollers from scrap pressure treated decking. We weren't sure if the design could be this simple or not. It is easy enough to spin the drum, and for now the drum is staying on the rollers. I should have taken a 'before' picture of the compost as I mark the time in the barrel. I'm hoping for soil within 4-5 weeks, but that may be wishful thinking.

Homestead Hike

Today my friends Ava and Melissa and I went for a hike through the National Forest near my house. We hiked through the woods, following the creek beds (Hidden Creek AKA Rocky Creek) and an old road bed that predated the land being part of the National Forest to look at an old homestead, and we ended up 2 miles away at the old, now closed Hidden Creek Campground, a CCC venture, in the Chattahoochee National Forest. It was a fun hike with the dogs as we stopped and took pictures of various plants along the way. At the old homestead we found some naturalized leeks or ramps as the locals called them as well as old daffodils, a large pear tree, a nearby crabapple, some walnut trees, grape hyacinths and a monster wisteria vine that is taking over the area. The only remains of the house was a few bricks with Plainville Brick Co. on them. That is a nearby town over on the Oostanaula River. I called and found out that the company was founded in 1910, so the old homestead is probably only about 100 years old. At any rate, it was a nice hike along the bottom land of the forest, and the company was great. My friend Ava took a few pictures of me, so now I can finally be like the rest of the world and display an actual, recent picture of myself on my blog.

The Obama Organic Kitchen Garden

I've followed the 'Eat the View' campaign since late October. I did not sign the petition, but I was hoping they would be successful, and of course, they were. I give the President 'props' for doing the right thing, my gripe is that I think the Obamas are blowing this opportunity!

I think the idea is one of leadership. The Obamas want to set a good example for the country, and more specifically, according to Michelle, she wants to teach low income families that they can eat healthily and that it is just as easy to grow and eat organic vegetables as it is to buy prepared foods. What??? Is she kidding? She obviously hasn't done her own shopping in years. Labeling with the word 'Organic' doubles the price of the food. It is much cheaper to buy boxed food, however unhealthy it is, because the starch and sugars satisfy hunger and you get more full stomachs for the buck. It is sad, but true. For about $1.50, I can add a can of tuna to a box of mac and cheese and have a starchy meal that will fill up a kid, or, I can spend the same amount and get maybe two servings of organic broccoli. It's been a while since I've been to the inner city of a major city like Atlanta, but the last time I was there, I don't recall seeing a decent grocery store, certainly not one that would have any kind of choice in organic vegetables.

The people they are trying to set an example for live in small spaces, apartments or inner city lots where ground space is limited. The Obamas should be teaching square foot gardening or container gardening and intensive planting, but I'll bet you'll see rows. They'll have nice wood-sided raised beds-that'd be showy and 'organic-looking', but I think they have missed the boat on the opportunity that is present before them. Did you know that the Clintons actually had a small container garden on the White House roof? There was no hoopla that I can remember over that, and I have to admit that my opinion of the Clintons rose a few notches with that revelation.

There is always a next year or a next season with gardening, so maybe they will heed my advice and practice some alternative gardening techniques that would be applicable for those who don't have 1100 square feet on the South Lawn. Those of us who do put in a garden know that that is rather small for a family of 5, so really this is a showplace garden. From the published diagram, all I see are greens and peas, but it is early Spring and I'll be interested to see how they transition throughout the season to a summer garden. There's lots of lettuce and green leafies, but I don't see any carrots, broccoli, Brussell sprouts, cauliflower, or cabbage. It would seem that those would go in now if they intended to grown them.

I hope we will see Michelle really get out there and get dirty, but it's not going to happen. I think she's always been a diva, a Princeton co-ed. She admits she's never had a vegetable garden before. I was surprised to hear that though as I thought that might be why they purchased that little strip of land from Rezko back in 2005-they wanted a garden so the girls could have heirloom tomatoes. ;) Michelle will be out there with the kids for pictures, but the staff will be doing most of the work. I think if you are going to set an example, then you should set an example. Show people that it is tough, don't be elitist and delegate the hard work to the staff.

In the clip I saw on TV, she was dressed inappropriately for the task at hand, wearing stylish black boots no less. I saw her lay a shovel down and rake the grass onto a shovel with her hand, then lift the shovel and move the grass. There was no dirt, no sod, just grass. It was laughable-especially for someone who claims to work out and has such 'toned arms'.(If I've heard the media ooh and aah over her arms once, I've heard them a thousand times) Michelle and the school kids couldn't break the sod with their shovels. All those little plants that they bought to transplant for Insta-Garden were wilting away because they couldn't clear the sod. So they brought the chefs out to help. They were wearing white, always a great color for gardening. Then, Michelle ordered the cameramen to put down the cameras and grab a shovel. The whole thing was hilarious and I hope Michelle got the message that gardening is hard work: It takes time and muscle. It is not something that is squeezed into the day between 2:00 and 2:15 like picking up the dry cleaning. I just love the picture I'm posting. Lots of gardening was done that day! BUT, they did have shovel-shaped cookies and cider for the kiddies. As I look at the picture, I can't help but wonder how much all those brand-new kid-sized mini-shovels added to the tax bill. I'd lay odds that some White House gardener broke out the tiller after dark, too.

My biggest beef to this whole thing is that they can call their garden the "White House Organic Kitchen Garden". Organic?? Since when is the White House Lawn organic? I don't believe it for a second. Are they claiming that the finest lawn in the country is pesticide and herbicide free? Why do the Obama's get to call their garden "Organic" if we can't? Just because the seedlings and transplants are organic doesn't mean that the food will be. Those lettuce roots go down pretty deep-some to 18", some to 60", either way, it will reach far deeper than the depth of their raised beds. Again, this is another educational opportunity lost. I suppose the thing that impresses me the most in this whole venture is the beehives. The White House Carpenter is also a beekeeper, and he will be tending two hives to bring the Obamas honey. That is a great move to help Malia's allergies. As a lifelong allergy sufferer myself, I sympathize with the kid.

I'm glad that the First Family is emphasizing healthy eats and gardening. I just wish that it would be given a more realistic presentation. I hope that in the future, either this summer or next year, while the media remains enamored of them, that they will use this platform to truly help city dwellers develop community gardens or container gardens or even aquaponic gardens. I also think it would be a good idea to bring in experts, someone like Martha Stewart or Mel
Bartholomew, every week or so to teach them how to garden in a small space, in a healthy way, and develop affordable practices like seed saving and starting your own seed vs. buying trendy organic transplants. There could be a different lesson each week. Week one might be about beneficial insects, week two might be how to make good compost, week three, companion planting. Since the Obamas have never had a garden of their own, they could be the star pupils in the gardening class, and even the President could get in on the learning; it would certainly make him more endearing to me. He *is* the one who touts education, and if he and Michelle could admit that they have a lot to learn, it would certainly help his elitist image. I want to see Barack turning the compost. I want to see Michelle take off her boots and play in the dirt for real. I want to see Sasha and Malia plant tomatoes. I want it to be real, not for show. I was hoping for real leadership, real change, real work. I don't see it yet. It is still smoke and mirrors for me, but I continue to have hope that 70 million people saw something genuine in Barack Obama that I haven't been able to see. For me, it seems that he talks a good game. He is certainly a good salesman, especially when it comes to selling himself. I just don't see the substance that others see. Time will tell.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/white-house-garden-is-not-exactly-shovel-ready/

Light Pollution, Globe at Night

The International Dark-Sky Association defines light pollution as: “Any adverse effect of artificial light including sky glow, glare, light trespass, light clutter, decreased visibility at night, and energy waste."

Light trespass occurs when unwanted light enters one's property, for instance, your neighbor's security light that is not switched. Over-illumination is the excessive use of light. How many lights really need to be on in a skyscraper at night? Over-illumination wastes two million barrels of oil per day. (DOE stats) Glare is often the result of excessive contrast between bright and dark areas in the field of view. If you drive at night, you understand glare. Light clutter refers to excessive groupings of lights. Streetlight and sign lighting is often the culprit here. Finally, my pet peeve, sky glow, refers to the "glow" effect that can be seen over populated areas. It is the reflected light from all the pollution fixtures and practices listed above. The same effect (the Rayleigh effect) that makes the sky various shades of blue in the daytime will make the night sky various shades of gray/black. If the night sky is too light, too gray or white, then no stars can be seen. For astronomers, this is a real problem. As populations increase with urban and suburban sprawl, combined with cheap lighting and poor practices, more and more places are losing the stars, so to speak.

It is a common problem that few are aware of and yet, easy to eliminate. We simply must become more frugal and aware of the dangers of too much light. Lighting uses 25% of the world's energy, and one way to save energy and fiscal budgets is to turn out the lights.

Recently there was an article in the news stating the in the UK, the government will be paying women survivors of breast cancer if they worked at night. While some studies have shown an association between shift work and cancer, it is still under study. Mostly, it has to do with the hormones and chemicals, like melatonin, that our body uses or makes in the dark-at night. When the chemistry is off, diseases look for the chinks in the armor. Nighttime light pollution also affects people more directly. Night vision and visual acuity may deteriorate. Too much light gives some people migraines. The light itself is a subconscious reminder that people out there are moving, busying themselves in fun or work, and that knowledge can actually raise your blood pressure. Fatigue, stress, and even sexual dysfunction and infertility have all been tied to the health effects of light pollution. Even indoor fluorescent lighting can be considered light pollution, and it's effects have been documented in a number of studies.

Naturalists are concerned about how light pollution disrupts the natural cycles of light and dark and the negative effect on non-human animals is being documented worldwide. The artificial light disrupts animal navigation, changes predator-prey relationships, and alters the biochemistry of species. Here are some examples:

1) Studies suggest that light pollution around lakes prevents plankton, such as Daphnia, from eating surface algae, helping cause algal blooms that kill off plants and lower water quality.
2) Sea turtle hatchlings emerge from nests on beaches and move inland instead of out to sea. They don't really navigate by the moon, but they move to the lighter area by contrast. For millions of years, the dunes behind them were darker than the ocean before them. That is not true any longer. This is endangering to many species of turtles.
3) Migrating birds can be disoriented by lights on tall structures. Millions of birds are killed every year by flying into skyscrapers.
4) Night blooming flowers that depend on moths and nocturnal insects for pollination may be affected by night lighting. This can lead to species decline of plants that are unable to reproduce, and change the ecosystem.
5) Light pollution can negatively impact the migratory and breeding behaviour of frogs and salamanders, the canaries in the coalmine of our own world.

I wonder, too, if light pollution, especially sky glow, is responsible death of certain coral reefs.

The first thing you can do is to make yourself aware of your own situation. Globe at Night has easy charts so that you can compare the sky you see to what is really there. Between now and March 28th, people are observing the skies in their locations and then they will objectively report their location and the condition of the pollution. It is fun to participate. Hopefully it will open your eyes and make you aware of what you are missing. Once you have the facts, contact your local city council and try to get lighting changed or have special ordinances instated. You can do this!

In the meantime, participate in Earth Hour, which is on March 28. With observation and compliance, cities, corporations, and individuals around the world will collectively turn off the lights for one hour to save energy and protect the environment. Tell your neighbors and co-workers.

You can learn more here:
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/
http://www.globe.gov/GaN/observe_magnitude.html
http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do

Fascism and Socialism

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/17/vets-group-blasts-obama-plan-private-insurance-pay-service-related-health-care/

Obama’s willing to give taxpayer money to corrupt corporations like AIG as a bailout, yet, in a weird turn of events, he expects private insurance companies to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs for care of vets? What?? That makes no sense at all! In my opinion, when someone volunteers to serve his country, and pays a price for that service, then the Federal Government is morally and legally obligated to pay for any medical expenses that are incurred due to that service. I agree with the veterans organizations on this one. It seems that in the last year or so, the federal government's domestic policy parallels it's foreign policy in that there is no set rule or guidelines to play by and things are handled willy-nilly on the fly.

It seems that the government will merge with and bailout corporations it feels it can control for power or profit, and yet throws other corporations to the wind. The government has reduced itself to the corporate level of action. According to the former Fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Musselini , this is fascism. Consider his words:

“Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.”

“State intervention in economic production arises only when private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management.”

“Democracy is talking itself to death. The people do not know what they want; they do not know what is the best for them. There is too much foolishness, too much lost motion. I have stopped the talk and the nonsense. I am a man of action. Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.”

I’ve been doing some reading-call it continuing education, because in high school and college, I was a math/science person, and had zero interest in history or economics. I know that I am not alone, so I will pass on ideas or quotes like the above that impact me, and hopefully it will impact you, so if I am way off base in your opinion, feel free to throw in your own ideas.

I’ve been studying the difference between Fascism and Socialism and Communism and how a country succumbs to these oppressive regimes. It doesn’t happen overnight; it is not a goal of revolution, and there is not usually a mass wave of fascism that sweeps a populace. My interest in this was piqued when a former friend (sadly) of mine once referred to the Bush administration as Fascist, and that precipitated my curiosity about it. Of course, since Obama has risen to power, many have said he is a socialist, or would lead the country to socialism. It was all rather confusing. I think our destiny is a bit more complex than simply the ideology of the President. Mismanagement of oversights and corruption within the Congress for more than 10 years has weakened our economy and created a mess blamed on the Bush Administration, but they only share partial responsibility because it was the Congressional Democrats (Dodd, Frank, Pelosi, Kerry) that created the economic time bomb out of personal greed. When it all fell apart, the action taken by Paulson changed us from a capitalist republic to a socialist republic. Many had great hopes for Obama’s economic plan, but now, after even more bailouts, I wonder which path we are really on. I think the problem goes beyond party politics. We got into this mess because of greed. IMO, Paulson, Dodd, Frank, Pelosi and Reid are the Madoffs of the administration, and care more about lining their own pockets than about the welfare of the country they were sworn to serve. It is criminal.
But I digress.
Consider this quote by Frederick Hayak on the rise of Fascism in Europe and the rise of Nazi Germany to power, in his book The Road to Serfdom(bolding is my emphasis on keywords):

“What, then, caused these views held by a reactionary minority [Fascists] finally to gain the support of the great majority of Germans and practically the whole of Germany’s youth? It was not merely the defeat, the suffering, and the wave of nationalism which led to their success… On the contrary, the support which brought these ideas to power came precisely from the socialist camp. It was certainly not through the bourgeoisie, but rather through the absence of a strong bourgeoisie, that they were helped to power."

In this case, the bourgeoisie is the production class, those workers that actually create a product. Here, today, our middle class is not only weak, but disappearing. With Obama’s share the wealth tax plans and socialistic plans for education of ‘youth’ from birth and through adulthood-an agenda that will push a leftist ideology and create a homogenous, socialized serfdom-society, I can’t help but wonder are we setting the stage for a future dictator like Musselini, to rule a country where the people are at the mercy of the corporations of the government? Are we already there? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?

Most people don’t understand economic theory, and even those in power, like a President, will often put trust in one or two people, but do we really know their agenda? Is Wall Street the shiny thing that distracts us from government corporations? We watch Wall Street and the Dow, but who was watching when AIG gave bailout money as bonuses? With education floundering, do people know or care that we are moving towards fascism, or are they too busy with social networking or gaming or other self indulgent activities to look at anything but the shiny thing? Clarence Thomas is right on target when he states this our generation doesn’t know how to sacrifice. We give lip service to it, but that is all. We will put a bumper sticker on our car that says we support the troops, but how many of us volunteer to help those who return with injuries, or help the families of those lost in the wars. Our culture is about self aggrandizement, and while we are all admiring ourselves in the mirror, the world around us is collapsing, and soon the trance electronica state will disappear, because with Fascism comes oppression. Privacy and freedom are almost illusions as it is. Every day, I read about how many cameras follow our daily actions and how many electronic signatures we leave as our mark on the world. Everything is falling into place for the next great dictator. The technology is there, the support is there, the only thing missing is the dictator himself. From the beginning, my concern during these past elections has been the lack of checks and balances in government, and now President Obama is consolidating even more power in the Executive Branch. With ACORN’s ‘help’ in the 2010 census undertaking, the Fed will soon be able to manipulate the states as well.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/17/lawmakers-concerned-role-acorn-census/

I want to be very clear about this. While I believe it is obvious that I lean towards the right-more conservative than liberal, I do not have an axe to grind with Barack Obama. IMO he's done some good things already, but I feel that our President, like the President before him and the one before him, etc. are simply puppets who are led down a path that is pushing our society ever closer to collapse in order to promote a one world government, one currency, one economy, etc. This process began many years ago, but I feel that we are now in the final preparatory days.

Going with the Flow

After no activity in over 4 years, for the third time in the first three months of 2009, the creek is running. The first year or two after we moved here, the creek ran maybe 5 or 6 times a year, then it only ran one or twice a year for a few years, then nothing, not even a trickle came down for years. In the past, I kept detailed records of the rainfall and the moon phase, and I came to the conclusion that the water table must be higher near the new moon and the full moon, but professional hydrologists will tell you that bound water sources do not experience tides. Here is the data for 2009:

January 6, 7 Waxing, approx 3 days before full 4.5" of rain between 1/5-1/7
February 27 Waxing, approx 2 days past new 1.10" of rain on 2/27
March 15 Waning, approx 3 days past full 1.45" of rain between 3/14-3/15

In years past, I also needed about 3 inches of rain to see the creek, but this year, it is running after only an inch or so. I also have a theory about that.

I've never understood why hydrologists claim that the aquifers don't have tides. We all know that the 'unbound' oceans and seas have tides. Lakes have small tides, and even the earth itself has tides. I've read that the earth's crust can rise and fall 20 inches between high and low 'tide'. Also, we see the effect of gravitational tides elsewhere in the solar system. We see pressure ridges in the ice on Europa, Jupiter's moon, and some Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, has geysers that are affected by Saturnian gravity. It only seems logical to me that elliptical orbits allow for cyclic fluctuations in water and earth.

My theory on the causative difference in rainfall is that the source of my creek (and several others), a huge artesian well on the top of a nearby ridge, was bulldozed a bit over a year ago. The old homestead well was becoming a hazard to hunters and hikers and the forest service bulldozed the area to erase the well. I believe that when they did this, they changed the topography just enough to eliminate a runoff stream, which means more water in fewer creeks with less rainfall. It took a good heavy rainstorm to fill the open spaces, and now, with fewer outlets, the creek flows with less rain. I don't know this, but it is my guess.

I wish I felt better. It is allergy season and as usual, I'm miserable despite taking all kinds of meds and herbs. I alternate taking Zyrtec-D and Allegra-D, I also take Nasonex and Sinex and saline sprays. I think I am going to try a neti-pot this year and I can't wait for my neighbor to actually start producing honey. I believe that this particular local honey will help me more than anything. I've had nasal allergies all of my life. As a child, I took prophylactic Dimetapp - that was back when it required a prescription. The allergies continued during my adulthood and smoking years, but last year was the worst allergy year of my life. I think somehow the nicotine masked or muted histamine response, acting almost like an anti-histamine, and when I quit, the receptors were naked and every grain of pollen and every spore of mold became an irritant. I am hoping that 2009 will be better, but it is not starting out well. I may start another turmeric trial to see if it will help my allergies. Turmeric supposedly affects leukotrienes like the drug Singulair.
You know, there's got to be a reason that so many people suffer from allergies. The pollen has been here for millions of years, so why is it still a problem for so many people? Why haven't we adapted by having hairier nostrils or membranous filtration or a simple receptor block, an auto-antihistimine. As my family is from north of the Arctic circle, I suppose that I am the first generation sufferer as I am the first to live so far south, in a zone where things bloom and throw pollen for about 9 months of the year. It would be kind of cool if this 'suffering' triggered some kind of protection against other diseases or illnesses. Perhaps allergy sufferers would be or could be more immune to certain deadly viruses in some future epidemic. It is interesting to think about. In my experience, clouds really do have silver linings.

This little Princess stole my heart

Yeah, it's corny and sappy, but whatever.
I become a blubbering idiot around her.
Here's a poem I cranked out a few minutes ago:

My Little JRose

With her smiles and giggles and angelic blue eyes
She spreads light and happiness from her half pint size
To all those around her, she is honey-a rose bud
A golden sweet treasure to savor and love.

She's our little thrill-seeker, she loves to be scared,
She likes watching Nature, and no creature is spared.
Animals amaze her, and the fish are her friends,
She talks to them, feeds them, the fun never ends.

Tears rarely befall her, she's a stranger to none
She's is a life-giving drug, she shines like the sun.
We call her our princess, she rules all our hearts
She takes my soul with her, when we are apart

She's the best thing that's happened to me in a while
When I think of my JRose, I could never not smile.

It would be wrong not to mention my daughter and son,
They created this wonder, this sweet honey bun.
My son in law Jon is a father with heart,
The primary caregiver, she gets a great head start.

My daughter works hard, sometimes 6 days a week,
but she makes time for JRose, which is no small feat.
Both parents are wonderful, a balance is made,
And JRose is now poised to take the world's stage.
She has the world at her fingertips,
She breaks walls with her smile,
The future is wide open for this wonderful child.
And maybe just maybe, her grandma's there too,
To spoil her and teach her to swim and canoe,
To garden and sing for the joy of the song,
To dance like the wind when there's no one else home.
So Katie and Jon have a magical child,
A princess for fairy tales, for adventures gone wild.

For the Love of...Mythology

Paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia. (easier-to-pronounce) Both mean 'fear of Friday the 13th'. Frigga-Friday, comes from Norse mythology. Compare those words with
triskadeckaphobia which is just a fear of the number 13.

I am a Friday the 13th person. I like the day and it is usually lucky for me. I was born on the 13th of the month, adopted at 13 days old, so I have always felt a connection to the number 13 that most of the world doesn't. No one really knows why people have this superstition, but most authorities will tell you that the fear of Friday the 13th has it roots in either Norse mythology, Templar history, or is just a combination of two separate 'unlucky' things most from a Christian ideology: Friday is unlucky because it was the day of the crucifixion, and 13 is unlucky because it is one past twelve, the number of disciples or Israeli tribes, yada yada yada. All typical explanations aside, since there is at least one and maybe as many as three Friday the 13ths in a year (2009 is such a year), it seems very likely that over time, some disaster or calamity has occurred on this date and that further feeds the fear. It also seems that the idea of 13 dinner guests is unlucky, perhaps stemming from Loki's presence and Balder's death in mythology, or perhaps from Judas's presence and Jesus' death after the Last Supper. The 13th hour of the (13th) day would certainly be close to meal time, whether you started counting at midnight or sunrise.

Another of the superstitions has to do with sailing, leaving port on Friday, for example. For Christians, there is usually a penitence aspect to the day, penitence related to secularism and selfish endeavours. Some Christians, especially Catholics, faithfully eat fish on Friday. It seems that the number 13 represents death in many ancient cultures, but death is both an end and a beginning, a transformation of the survival of existence. Perhaps we have lost the survival and transformation aspect of that idea?

None of the above reasons, stories, or myths by themselves pique my imagination, but the following does:

I recall hearing a theory on talk radio about the origins of friggatriskaidekaphobia. I wish I could find some reference on the idea, but despite a fairly thorough web search, I cannot find anything
on it. I fear that I have forgotten key details, but I will relate what I can recall, because I love stuff like this, ideas from the edge of reason, so to speak. The radio guest linked Friday the 13th as the day that the mythical civilization of Atlantis was lost forever to the ocean. The survivors of that fateful day allegedly set sail and spread throughout the world and eventually attempted to memorialize their dead. Friday the 13th became somewhat of an anniversary of the tragedy that transformed the remaining civilizations of the world, Indus, Egyptian, Greek, etc. There are ancestor and hero worshipping cults and sects throughout the world. There are holidays that honor the dead in many countries and cultures. If I recall correctly the guest's main evidence for this theory came from the writings of the Greeks. Of course, he referred to Plato's description of Atlantis, but he also had a lot of information about certain Greek mystery cults. Some of these cults are well known for their hero worship or ancestor worship. Orphic and Dionysian cults gave importance to the life and death cycle.

When you think of the common lore of Atlantean culture, you can draw even more parallels. The Atlanteans were allegedly destroyed for their wicked ways, their corruption, secularism and selfishness. Perhaps the sign of disaster began during meal time, during dinner. As they set sail into the unknown, they watched their world disappear. Was the demise of Atlantis the impetus for the rise of the Indus, Sumerian, Green, Persian, and Egyptian and MesoAmerican civilizations? If Atlantis existed, and it was destroyed by some natural disaster, the Mother of All Disasters, then of all days, it probably happened on a Friday the 13th, a happenstance that was unlucky for the Atlanteans, but lucky for the rest of the world. It was the end, the death of a great civilization, and yet, it was a transformation as it became the 'semen, the seed of all seeds' (literally, Dionysus) for many civilizations.
Mythology is so cool. It is always right out there on the edge of science. Oh, and in case you were unaware, the statue pictured is in Copenhagen, of the Greek God of the Sea, Poseidon, (Roman Neptune) whose dominion includes Atlantis as well as Naval submariners. My SubmarinerSon is also a friggatriskaidekaphile.

Friday the 13th: Frankenfuels and Frankenfoods

I heard recently that big oil companies are buying up bankrupt biofuel companies. I'm not sure why they are bankrupt, but with business practices the way they are today, nothing surprises me. Perhaps people are waking up to the fact that they get fewer miles per gallon with ethanol. Perhaps it is simply an availability issue. Perhaps people are protesting Monsanto et.al. with their wallets. The reason machts nicht, but having companies like Shell combine with companies that are in bed with other giants like Cargill and Monsanto is a real nightmare.

Biofuel from corn is not new. Since the Carter administration and the gas crunch of the 1970's there has been a mandate for producing alternative fuels and vehicles. Actually, making ethanol from corn is as old as the hills and hollers of Appalachia, except 100 years ago it was called Moonshine and it was the entrepreneurial homesteaders that reaped the benefits from producing it. A sip of white lightning eased the pain from the day's labors or the pain from life's hardships. (Damn, I could use some of that!) Selling or trading a jug or ten was good income and kept many families afloat. These days, Monsanto is the only true benefactor from corn ethanol. They genetically engineer the corn and if I remember the stats correctly, the amount of land required to grow enough corn to provide transportation fuel for a year for one person is the same amount of land needed to feed 7 people. With the world's population growing almost exponentially, that's not very sustainable. They don't care though, because in a few years, they will control the world's food supply AND fuel supply.

Using Biofuels with gasoline sounds great, but when you start looking at it a bit closer, the idea is full of pitfalls. First, there are many plants that produce more ethanol per acre than corn. Agave has great potential and is grown in the desert. Cattails have great potential, and they can be grown in colder climates. Giant grasses and sugar cane also outproduce corn. Sorghum, willow, poplar, and I'd bet that even sweetgum trees would also produce more ethanol per acre of crop than corn.

Normally, I would say okay, Monsanto, patent that! But sadly, they have taken up that challenge already. They have already patented many plants in India and China, plants that have been cultivated and used for thousands of years. Plants like grain amaranth and turmeric are patented as if Monsanto invented them. This practice is called bio-piracy. They are stealing and claiming age old plants or specific components/extracts of plants as their own creation(for example they might patent the curcuminoid extract of turmeric plants as their own product). By doing this, they can control the plant's growth and use. If you are not familiar with the evil Monsanto power grab, here are a few older articles to give you a bit of an introduction:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0115-04.htm http://www.purefood.org/Patent/monsanto_biopirates.cfm
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=42 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto-pig-patent-111

(yes pigs, and there are patented chickens, too!)



Now biodiesel is another matter entirely. Unlike ethanol biofuels, there are many promising biodiesel 'feedstocks'. Algae shows great promise and can be grown anywhere.
If you are interested in alternative energy from renewable, living sources, check out The BioEnergySite.

http://www.thebioenergysite.com/

Germination Report II

Today I transplanted some of my tomatoes and peppers(first transplant). I like to transplant tomatoes at least three times before putting them in the ground. I bury them up to the top leaves each time, and of course, they end up with massive root systems that withstand drought very well.

I also planted carrots, beets, and radishes into a the new 'carrot bed'. I am basically square foot gardening in this bed, starting at one end and planting carrots, and putting the beets at the other end. Radishes will be in the middle and intermixed. I am going to follow James' advice and reseed carrots every 3 weeks until summer(I think he resows every two weeks tho). I'll plant two square feet at a time. As I use the carrots, I replant the tops in the section they were pulled. Next year, I will reverse ends, growing the carrots where the beets were and visa versa. In my other beds, I do rotate where I put things, but it will be a challenge in this bed because it is small(2x12). The best I can do is an end to end rotation.

I was so pleasantly surprised in the greenhouse today that I think the neighbors could have heard me yell "Alright!". For the first time ever, I have henbane, rue, and valerian seedlings as well as a few more lavender seedlings. I really hope I can keep these alive. My pickling
cucumbers have also germinated.

It has been a few years since I've grown borage and I can't remember how it tolerates a deep transplant. Two seedlings are leggy, but have real leaves and need to be transplanted. I can't deep plant(that is what I call it when I bury half the stem) them, can I?

Fence Repair

I'm still alternating ice on my hands and feet. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon fixing the pasture fence(encloses 7+ acres) so that I might be able to rent out the pasture. A lot of the work involved tightening the field fencing, but I replaced close to 50 connectors/stand-off insulators for the top high tensile electric strand. When deer jump the fence, it breaks the wire, so there was a lot of high tensile repair as well. Ultraviolet radiation weakens the plastic stand offs, so any pressure on the line breaks the standoff. That pressure could be from a limb falling, a deer entangled, or a horse leaning over, and here, it is because of all three reasons. I have a Leatherman Blast multi-tool that is wonderful for this job.

http://www.leatherman.com/multi-tools/full-size-tools/blast.aspx

Everyone, especially every woman, should have one of these. I use the pliers to bend wire and to remove slack from the fence. I also use them as an extension of my hand for getting a good grip on wire. I use the saw on the multi-tool to remove woody vines and sapling trees in the fence. Today, I even cut a inch thick limb with it. That isn't what the saw was designed for, but it sure saved me from having to come back up to the workshop to get a proper saw.

This was not heavy lifting, so to speak, but it does require hand and arm strength that I lack. It is a nice, breezy day, and I did not even break a sweat, but the pasture is rocky and uneven and is not the most pleasant walking surface-especially in muck boots. My feet have deformed(from RA) so much in the last year that I only have two pair of shoes that I can wear. I have a cheap pair of tennis shoes that is wide enough but lacks a hard sole and arch support and I have a pair of muck boots. My old steel toed work shoes that I bought last summer for working at the plant might as well be 100% steel. The steel upper and toe is not foot friendly, so today, my only real choice was the muck boots. I put menthol patches on my foot joints as a prophylactic treatment and wore heavy socks, but I don't think it helped. I can barely walk right now, helping only by the inch thick foam on a pair of Skyguy's slippers. It will be better tomorrow, I'm sure. Whoever said that exercise is good for arthritis never did farm work. I would think farm labor is good to prevent RA pain, but once you have it, exercise certainly is not helpful. I'm on fire, my fingers and toes feel like they are about to separate from the rest of my body. A few minutes ago I decided to wash dishes thinking the warm water would help...ice and heat alternating, that type of thing. It helped the pain some, but mostly I regained some mobility.

At any rate, the only thing I need to do now is replace about 450 feet of high tensile wire. We have it on a large spinning jenny that was made to fit in the bed of the truck. I'll need to put the jenny in the back of the truck and drive parallel to the fence line, unrolling it. I'll need help getting it up in the truck, or I'd do it now and be done with this job. Once you get the right amount of wire off the reel, it is a pretty simple job to stretch it through the standoffs. I probably
won't even need the come-along for that short length. Also, I need to get a new fence charger. I'm trying to decide whether or not to spend the extra money that I don't have anyway and buy a solar panel for the charger. It would pay for itself in two years, but justifying it right now when money is so tight that I have to charge the charger is a tough call. It would be nice for it to be off grid, and perhaps we could use the power generated to run other things. We do have an inverter that we use for the telescope.

Aside #1: When I was looking at solar panels on the web, many, if not most, companies were sold out or they were back-ordered or not otherwise available. I wonder what that says about the number of people preparing for the future.

Aside #2: When I was growing up, every male and about half the girls carried some kind of pocketknife. They were carried to school, too. It was never a weapon or needed for protection, it was simply a tool that one used like fingernail clippers or a nail file. Sometimes boys would whittle during recess, AKA PE. If you wanted a weapon, you got a switchblade, then, you were 'Bad'. :) I wonder if one day my kids will say: When I was growing up, we had a gun in the house, can you imagine!?!

Germination report

So far, none of my curcubits have germinated, but it has only been less than a week. I do have a few lavender seedlings, so that's exciting. I never have good luck with lavender. I'm amazed that I have *any* seedlings. I do have a bazillion marigold and basil seedlings, however. It is all good!
Today I took an inventory of the seedling peppers and tomatoes---- germinated as of today:

Red Brandywine 3
Caspian Pink 3
Serrano Pepper 1
Anaheim Pepper 4
Super Sweet 100 3
Opalka Paste 3
Roma Paste 6
Sausage Paste 3
A) Abraham Lincoln(2002), Husky Red(2002), Early Big Red(2001) 13
B) Caspian Pink(2006), Cherokee Purple(2002), Heirloom White(1998) 8

A and B are small flats sown with older seed packets. I did not expect anything to germinate due to the age of the seed. Caspian Pink was the 'newest' variety, from 2006.

Skyguy and my best friend both thought I should throw the seeds away, but I can never bring myself to do it. There is always that what if factor. All I need is one good tomato and I will have more seed...what if just one of these seeds is still viable. Seeing the seedlings emerge from the soilless mix has been very vindicating for me. In addition, I'm glad to see so many paste type tomatoes growing. If I can bring them to fruiting, I should be able to put up a lot of tomato paste, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, salsa, etc. When I last grew these slicing tomatoes, I mostly grew them for the juice, salsa, or to give away. Now that I like and actually crave tomatoes, I can't wait to try all the varieties with my new taste buds.

Kitchen Herb Garden

For the past several weeks, we have been adding a semi-formal herb garden right outside our back door. Herbs and edible flowers and veggies like onions will literally be 15 feet from the kitchen sink. That's fresh cooking! The beds are ready for planting, and we have transplanted a few herbs into one of the sections. I now have lemon balm, lemon thyme, chives and crocus. As it gets warmer, I will transplant more and then of course, we can seed directly into the bed. I'll try to post pictures as things progress. I raided the creek bed for the rocks, and we will get some additional sand to fill in around and level off the rock paths. I'll top that by sweeping some mortar mix around and then wetting the mix to seal the rocks in place. It may be a few weeks yet until we get around to getting more sand-we are often slow on project completion-too many irons in the fire, so to speak. We have the cypress mulch for the beds, but obviously, I want to plant them first. For the soil in the beds, we basically tilled in the grasses, removed the large rocks and added about 100 pounds of additional topsoil along with about 100 pounds of sand. If you notice, the first bed, the one with the greenery, has a slightly darker soil color than the other three. That is because I added some leaves and leaf mold to that mix. I did not feel that we really needed it, so I did not add it to the other beds. The existing topsoil there was above average, and of course most herbs like poorer soils, so I thought it was best just to add the sand and omit the leaves.

...For Something Completely Different

Call your uncle and wake the kids-they'll want to see this!

My water is well water. By most accounts, it is good tasting, better than expensive mineral water bought in bottles. We knew it was hard and mineral rich, but you really need to actually SEE what that means. The orange-white stuff in the cut-open water heater is silt and sediment covered calcium and magnesium salts which accumulated over 15 years of use. No wonder the water heater had lost efficiency! Duh! The water heater was supplied from our old well for 14 years, and that well had no sediment filters or treatment of any kind. We got a new well in December of 2007, and now we have filters that should be eliminating such build up. Most people say that water heaters last only 5-7 years, so we must have had a good one to have survived that kind of mineral abuse for 15 years.(It was a Kenmore lowboy). Even though the second well is only 100 feet or so from the original well, it is almost twice as deep and a bit softer than the water from the old well.

These are the types of problems with old houses in rural areas. They often have minimal utilities which may or may not meet code. Of course, as we remodel and renovate, we can add things like water filters or GFI outlets.

Vacation Planning in Progress

It feels like Spring here at EarthNSky. Today, it was 80 degrees. High temperatures should be back in the 50's by the end of the week, but it was sure nice today. The peaches, plums,and pears are blooming, but there is no sign of flowering with the dogwoods or redbuds. Looking into the woods, I don't see any hint of green, no buds yet. The trees know that Winter still has a bit of trickery left in her.
Skyguy and I rode our bikes for the first time in 2009 over the weekend. I am so out of shape that I could only ride 2.7 miles. Realize that this is hilly terrain. We'll work up to riding more as the weeks go by. We hope to be able to take 40 mile excursions by the fall. We plan to take the bikes to the coast when we go on vacation in May. We haven't had a real vacation in years, so we plan to go down to the South Carolina Lowcountry for a week and visit both Savannah and Charleston. Bike riding down there where it is flat should be easy. We'll camp at a KOA and just ride the bikes and explore the area. We've both wanted to go to Patriot's Point for a while now, and I found out that you can take a tour of the Hunley, the Civil War submarine that is being carefully studied and preserved in a special lab on the old Navy base. I was born on the Charleston Navy Base. Since our son is a submariner, and we both come from Navy families, these historical things interest us. I also want to explore the natural world, and I am hoping to be able to take a short backwater cruise into the marshes-maybe see a dolphin or two. We need to get away. I've made reservations, but if Mr. Bully Collector continues to be a pain, we may have to cancel. I'm pretty frugal when it comes to traveling. In 2001 I drove with the kids across the country for over a month and explored the National Parks along the way. Food, gas, and lodging cost right at $2000. My budget for this vacation is far less. Luckily, the things that interest us, like Forts and museums, are generally inexpensive or free. I enjoy fishing, hiking, canoeing and biking, all of which we have the equipment for and costs nothing. Luckily, we don't do the golf, spa, and shopping vacation. That's just not me. I suppose we will spend most of the budget on food. I want good, fresh seafood. We will eat brunch at the campground, but for dinner, I want shrimp and scallops and crab! I do want to spend some time at one of the old rice plantations near Charleston. I feel drawn to it for some reason. Yeah, I've wanted to grow rice for some time now, but it is more than that. I sometimes think I lived on one of these plantations in a former life. I do believe in reincarnation. It explains so many of life's mysteries. Perhaps I will blog about that in a separate post. I hope to learn more about life before modern conveniences like electricity and indoor plumbing and tractors.

Bullies and Bad Behavior

I was working on a piece about biofuels and moonshine, but after two days of research, I have come to believe that my idea is not worthy of being published. As they say in a pool game, "Scratch".

Today, I had a nasty telephone confrontation with a 'debt collector'. It all started two months ago when I went over the limit on my credit card. I had to buy glasses and the credit card that I wanted to use would not scan for whatever reason and was being rejected. I only have two cards, so I pulled out the other one, knowing that the $600 purchase would put me close to the limit, if not a bit over. The next day, I received a call from the collections department at the credit union advising me that I was over the limit by $30 plus fees and that I needed to make an immediate payment. They cut me no slack. I made a payment of several hundred dollars, and I also had a credit refund that also reduced the balance and with those two things, I thought all was well, but no...in another harassing call, I was advised that a credit refund was not considered a payment and since I had not made a payment during a specific period of time, I had more late fees assessed and that,of course, put me back over the limit, which added even more fees. Last month, one day before the account closing date, the collection guy called again and informed me that unless I made an immediate payment of $150, that I would have another late fee, yada yada. He convinced me to transfer funds from my share account to cover the debt and to avoid additional fees. Weeeelllll, I got my statement on Saturday and the SOB lied. He did transfer money from my share account, which brought my balance back under the limit, but I still was charged $20 for going over the limit-even though it was not over-and another $20 for a late fee, when I was not late. I was livid. So today I called to discuss this with Mr. Collector, and I told him that I felt he misled me just to get a payment. He denied it and our conversation deteriorated into something I am not proud of. He insisted that I now owe $300 by Friday, and told me that I should pay it in person. Bear in mind now that I am not in default, not over the limit and I have paid the equivalent of 6 months payments in the last 3. I am also over 100 miles away from their office. Mr. Bully Collector was unsympathetic and did not believe my 'check in the mail' story, even though it is true. I have been very upset by all of this-it is all rather new to me as I have an excellent credit history and rating until the last few months..My FICO number is always over 800 when I have checked it. I hate crying on the phone, showing weakness to some asshole who obviously had some masochistic power thing going on, but it happened. After I got off, I went outside and did chores, still upset and crying. I tried to distract myself by cleaning and cracking black walnuts...no good...I tried to distract myself by turning the compost...no good either. I kept thinking about the millions of people who get calls like this all the time. Then I felt stupid for crying and allowing the jerk to get to me. Have I had an elitist attitude all these years for those who get calls from debt collectors? Where was my empathy before today? I understand now why people ditch the calls instead of facing the problem head on. I understand why the invention of the answering machine was such a success. It is one thing to get a courtesy type call from a creditor asking if there has been an oversight, but it is a whole other issue to be beaten down by and made to feel like shit by someone who doesn't know or care about you or your situation. His only motive was to make himself look good-he got his payment.
Finally, I stopped crying and stopped feeling sorry for myself, and even though there was nothing financially that I could do, I decided to write the credit union President a letter to make him aware of my thoughts and feelings. I used their mission statement as the theme of the letter. Here's how I started:
My husband and I have been members of the Blank Blank Blank Credit Union, for over 25 years. My father in law was part of the earliest days of the credit union when he worked for the Blank Blank Federal Acronym. Until recently, I had nothing but praise for the credit union. Your mission, "to enhance the lives of the members we serve by helping make their financial goals a reality", was accomplished via several mortgages, personal loans, refinances, and credit card accounts throughout the years.

Of course, after that, I got to the meat of the letter, requested a credit of all the fees and I also asked that the Collector be retrained to look at a customer's entire account and payment history and not be disrespectful. I felt a bit better after I sent it, and time will tell if anything comes of it. It is all I can do.

I hate it when the bullies of the world get an upper hand. I feel such guilt over my previous lack of empathy for others who have to deal with such assholes on a regular basis. My letter, at best will only save me $40, but it is the principle of the matter, and maybe my complaint and experience will save someone else from having a bad day from dealing with Mr. Bully Collector.
In this day and age, I wonder if the President will even care that his employees are bullies. It's all about the bottom line with most companies, and we are all too familiar with the attitudes of bank presidents and CEOs. What happened to the the idea of service and working with a long term, valued customer? I've been with that credit union probably longer than the President has, and I'm almost positive I've been there longer than Mr. Collector.

I'm not religious in a church-going sense, but there is a Judeo-Christian idiom: There but for the grace of God, go I. I'm sure that sentiment is not unique to only one or two religions. It is rather universal, I think, and I have certainly given it a great deal of thought today. I suppose I should thank Mr. Bully Collector for making me think about the suffering of others less fortunate than I. If money grew on trees, everyone would be a gardener.