Hawks Do It in Trees

Hawks do it in the trees. I'm such a curious voyeur that I could not stop watching. How often do you see a hawk mating ritual?
There is an old squirrel's nest in the top of a hickory near the driveway. A few weeks back I saw a bird fly to the nest, so I got out the binoculars and checked it out. It was a large crow and it seemed that the crow might be building a nest. I watched the nest for a few days but never saw the crow again. A little bit ago, I looked out the window to check the sky and saw another bird fly to the old nest. It appeared that the bird had something in it's mouth, so I grabbed the binoculars. It was not a crow, it was a somewhat small Red Shouldered Hawk (Buteo Lineatus). It appeared to be carrying part of a small bird. I could see the outline of the wing against the sky. I watched for a moment and then he flew off, sailing over to a branch from another nearby tree, about 40-50 feet from the ground. Once he landed, he started flitting around, showing his feathers. I saw him look down so I removed the binoculars and stepped a bit to one side and lo and behold, there was another hawk in the tree but I had not seen it before because it was hidden by a branch. If you have ever seen a turkey drum and dance around a hen, that is how I would describe what was happening in the tree. The male flew from branch to branch encircling the female at a distance of 5 to 8 feet. She seemingly ignored him. Then, he flew down and mounted her, much like a rooster would mount a hen. Then, he would repeat the ritual: fluffing, encircling, mounting. As I type, they are still in the tree. It has been over two hours since I first saw the male fly to the nest. The female has been eating something-probably the other half of whatever bird they caught. I wondered if hawks present food as part of their mating ritual so I made quick websearch and discovered some really cool facts about hawks.

For example, hawks can see in the UV range. Voles and mice urinate almost constantly as a form of communication for other rodents. Their urine trails absorb UV radiation differently than the surrounding ground so a hawk can see the trail of the vole and follow it home to the kill.
(http://tinyurl.com/aze2e2)

Here is a good educational page:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Buteo_lineatus.html

This page even has a good sound file:
http://whatbird.wbu.com/obj/40/_/Red-shouldered_Hawk.aspx

Apparently, the mating ritual lasts for several weeks. One of my neighbors noticed a pair of hawks diving last week, but I have not seen that behavior. I have, however, heard more hawk vocalizations than usual, which I understand is also part of the ritual. From what I read, these hawks usually don't mate until April, so my guess is that the warmer weather has fooled them into thinking that winter is over. Even my plum tree is fooled. It has been in bloom for over a week.
I hope that the weather says warm, for the chicks sake. These birds prey on chickens, so I am not exactly thrilled about having them nest 150 feet away from my coop, but hopefully I won't have any problems. Raptors are beautiful birds, and maybe they will choose smaller prey, like rats, moles, and snakes instead of my chickens.

Photo link: http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/03_01/RedHawk_468x298.jpg

Panem et circenses

The subject of the economy and President Obama's speech came up on one of my email groups. It got me thinking about the way things are, so today, I am posting a rant here in response.

She wrote:
I figure if we owe nothing, no matter what he does we'll be o.k.
I do wish the voters had actually gone out and done their homework! Now all I can do is light some candles, burn a smudge and hope to whom or whatever that the Chinese don't call the loans due!
I never thought I'd say it but I think we have actually gone from the frying pan into the fire! Dumbya had our grandchildren and great-grands in debt. This circus is going to have 7 generations in debt OR MORE!


I'm fed up. FED UP with the status quo. I know a lot of people are as well. I don't know who to be angry with, who to complain to, or what good any action in isolation will do. I don't think things will be okay for everyone. I used to think that as long as I stay out of trouble and pay my debt, I'd be left alone and I could be as eccentric as I wanted to be... No mas.

Electing McCain/Palin would have been jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Maybe we could have put the fire out after that administration left office. I think the damage done would have been mitigable. I think electing Obama/Biden landed us right in the blast furnace. There is nothing I can do about the generations of debt that will have to be paid as a result of the dishonesty in the upper echelons of government AND private corporations. The damage is done, and thousands of people are laughing all the way to the bank. I just have to hunker down and try to pay off my own debt as quickly as possible. With my additional $13/week, I suppose the best thing to do is to buy seeds. I'm feeling pretty pessimistic about things today, so take that into consideration for what is coming. Sometimes, I find myself actually hoping that 2012 really is the end of the world as we know it, because the world as we know it sucks and it's getting worse, not better. Perhaps we will all have the option of crossing into a parallel universe, one where the concept of greed doesn't exist.

By non-conforming, am I making myself a target for surveillance? By expressing my opinion, am I setting myself up for censure or worse? Am I over-reacting, responding to some Brave New World paranoia? I don't think so. I've heard stories of dissident relocation camps for years. I think I might have even seen one. If such things do exist, I'm bound to end up there one day because of my views. You can call me crazy-I heard that back in the 1980's when I was talking about genetically engineered animals and food. Twenty five years later, it is ubiquitous, the problem is that no one knows it, so I am still the crazy one who sees GMO's everywhere.

There are people that referred to the Bush administration as Fascist. Is the current administration really better, or does it just use a different approach? The Bush Administration produced the Patriot Act to spy on us because 'we must protect ourselves against the terrorist next door-it's for the public good, for safety'. The Obama Administration produces the Smart Grid(11 billion appropriated in the stimulus package) and wants to use Enhanced ID to qualify for his social programs. That is spying on us for 'our own well-being and for energy conservation and the public good-for safety'.

If you ever saw the movie "White Knights" with Mikhail Baryshnikov, you know that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics monitored it's citizens. Neighbors were encouraged to rat on neighbors, and it led to genocide ...65 million or more. The Nazis also spied on their own people....more death followed.

In fairness, this issue goes beyond party politics, really. For half a century, we have been consistently giving up our rights for the sake of safety or convenience. We talk about Big Brother and the government usually during the Republican administrations because it is during those years we look outward at the world and deal with security and foreign policy. Usually, during Democratic administrations, the focus is more on budgets, the economy, healthcare and other domestic issues. The Obama administration is on new ground, mixing the two. Big Brother is now Super Brother after the largest increase in the size of government in American history. The red states and the blue states are all in the same situation. If we are still around in eight years, we certainly won't have any privacy left. The Enhanced ID allows tracking of individuals and now with the Smart Grid, GE food, and control of the banks, energy, and homeland security, the American people will be in a full out guillotine choke. The powers that be, the PRO government (Pelosi, Reid, Obama) just hope that the people won't notice the loss of privacy and personal rights, or if we have been properly brainwashed and conditioned, we won't care, because it is for the good of all. It is worse than more of the same; the escalation in our loss of individualism and privacy is non-linear. Americans are in a Brave New World, but other countries have preceded us.

The Initial Decrees of the Bolshevik party were really similar to the promises we hear today....I realize that most folks these days apparently want socialism, but what road are we traveling?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik_Initial_Decrees

1. The Decree on Peace outlined measures for Russia's withdrawal from the First World War without "payment of indemnities or annexations".

To me, that sounds a lot like Obama saying that we will get out of the Middle East and honor his commitment to veterans by expanding the VA and increasing pay.

2. The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land among themselves. It advocated the forceful dissolution of many wealthy estates by peasant forces.

When I read that, my first thought was "Share the Wealth" I recall that story about homeless people squatting in foreclosed McMansions...

3. The Workers' Decrees outlined measures for minimum wage, limitations on workers' hours, and the running of factories by elected workers' committees. This consolidated Bolshevik support amongst the working classes in the cities, where they had taken power.

We are raising wages, encouraging unions, and giving tax cuts to the working class.

If you have some time, you should read some of these decrees. It's not so different from where we are today. It's a bit unnerving considering the latest accusations of power grabs by the Executive Branch and the Democratic Party(e.g. census matrix, new appointments, etc. etc.)

Where are we headed??

Speaking of circuses...

… iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses.

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81) Roman poet, almost 2000 years ago, still relevant today.

Fruit-sniffing beagle and chimera chickens

Last night, we watched Homeland Security, a new reality type TV show that follows various employees that fall under the helm of the Department of Homeland Security. There were stories of border guards, immigration officials, USDA inspectors, etc. It was rather interesting to see how tedious some inspections have become in the last seven years. Most people took the inspections as a necessary evil in this age of terror, but some were simply frustrated by the bureaucracy. At an airport, one passenger forgot to declare his lunch that contained an orange, a food item which was sniffed out by a citrus-sniffing beagle and that initiated a search which resulted in a $300 fine. He was forced to pay on the spot else go to court and risk paying up to $50,000 if found guilty. That sounds crazy, but a necessary evil if you consider how much damage was caused by the Mediterranean fruit fly or how much the lowly fire ant has changed life in the South, not to mention the expense and pollution consequences of eradication. I suppose a zero tolerance law is needed, but it just seems like overkill.

By contrast, this evening on the Documentary Channel, we watched a program about genetically engineered foods and their consequences, both to the primary natural species, the environment, and secondary consumers. Here is the Documentary Channel's description of the program:

Life Running Out of Control
2004 -
From the loss of biodiversity to health scares about GM food, the effects of genetic technology are prompting more and more debate. This documentary is an intelligent look at both sides of the issue. Made for ARTE.

The program discussed how companies are creating chimera chickens, chickens with genes modified to eliminate their broody instinct, and vegetables without seeds. Monsanto and other companies like ConAgra are patenting natural crops like turmeric. I try to stay current on the GE debate, but I was not aware that this was happening. The documentary is now five years old, an eternity in the history of GE food. I shudder to think of the schemes and tactics in use today. Late in the program, while they are discussing GE fish, one anti-GMO researcher-activist makes a statement that there is not one law in the United States that prevents companies like Monsanto from creating, marketing, or selling Frankenfish. At the time the documentary was made(and this may still be true-I'm not sure), there were no laws at all concerning GE food. There was no requirement for independent safety testing, no requirement to notify or inform the consumer, and there was no recourse if the promises of safety were lies. Monsanto lied about the safety of DDT, Agent Orange and PCB's, and then when the truth was born out, they tried to cover their tracks and shuck responsibility. Now, we are supposed to trust them that GE food is safe and the answer to the world hunger. Right. Sadly, most Americans are not scientifically minded or interested in genetic engineering or it's consequences. They are perfectly happy with their high fructose corn syrup made from GE corn.

So, it all boils down to this...in the United States, GE food is created, marketed, and sold to us. We eat it without any laws to protect us, but don't try to bring an 100% natural, organically grown orange through customs.

It is an insane world.

The State of EarthNSky

I finished the carrot bed today. It is ready for seeding. I breathe a sigh of relief with this particular bed. Usually, I take the slow approach in preparing a raised bed. Most are built, filled, and then planted two or three years later after the material composts. This particular bed is a spur of the moment experimental bed which should produce large, straight, non-hairy carrots. The layers in the bed are the key: nitrogen deep so that the root drives down to reach it, creating a long carrot. We built the bed a few weeks ago and it has been a non-stop endeavor trying to fill the bed. I almost feel like I should rename it as the Instant Gratification Bed. I also prepped another raised bed as well as some containers for sowing lettuces and greens. I'm ready to go, just waiting on Spring.

The chickens are doing great; it is hard believe that I've been able to raise so many with minimal loss. Lately, I've been missing my rabbits. I'll probably re-acquire sheep before rabbits, but rabbits have definitely been on my mind again. I've just discovered that one of my neighbors has a Rex doe. I used to raise Rexes, and I've always said that I should have never strayed from that breed. If I get rabbits again, it will be Rexes.

This weekend, we will be re-plumbing the house and installing a water heater. IF we can complete this project in one day, then perhaps we will have time to work on the herb bed on Sunday. I need to take some pictures for the blog, too.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and while I am not Catholic, I sometimes give up something for Lent. Last year, I gave up Coca-Cola. This year, instead of giving something up, in the spirit of fitness, I think I will make myself do situps everyday. That fits with my New Year's Resolution of losing 50 pounds in 2009. Don't ask me how much I've lost in two months. It is not enough.

Good Science Book

I'm reading a book called _That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life_ by Dr. Joe Schwarcz. I'm not a doctor of anything, and I have no clout, but if I did, this would be the type of book I would write. I believe that most people simply don't have a good handle on science, and it doesn't matter whether it is physics, biology, or chemistry. I think most people were more interested in the chemistry they had with their lab partner, than actual chemistry. It's a shame because science is so useful. A little scientific knowledge helps solve problems. At any rate, Schwarcz takes the approach that I would take, and makes science interdisciplinary and interesting. The book is part history, part comedy (captures the attention and the imagination of the uninitiated-great for teens)and of course, real science. It is an easy read. He blasts myths and misconceptions in an interesting and humorous way. In the process, the reader is educated and entertained. The book is really a collection of short essays on various topics so even people with ADD will find this book easy to read.

The book serves as a guide to general health, too. From celiac disease to alcoholism to anti-oxidants to Pellagra, it's all there. You can learn fun trivia to amaze your friends...Who invented the process of carbonation for soft drinks? The answer is Jacob Schweppe. Think of him the next time you sip on some ginger ale. Here's a good one for the under 15 crowd: What animal's vomit do humans regularly and heartily consume? The answer is bees. Honey is the regurgitation of bees.

Composting for Carrots! (and spinach)

I think my left arm is going to fall off. I spent more than half of the day shoveling and forking various materials and mixing soil. I'm making a dedicated carrot/root crop bed. It is 2x12x2, and the bottom foot-14 inches of material is poopy hay from the chicken coop, AKA chicken hay, leaves, and various other 'brown' trimmings like canna leaves and pampas grass leaves, all in layers, all compacted in the bottom of the bed. It will be the nitrogen rich zone. Then, there is about 3 inches of horse poop/hay compost, 2 inches of regular, mixed source compost and regular garden soil for the neutral, average to above average richness zone. I also mixed up about 16 cubic feet of 'inert' soil for the upper zone, a mix of peat, pine sawdust, and sand. I spent the better part of an hour just mixing that in my cart. I won't use all of it in the long bed. I'll use a bit in places in other beds where I need to sow small seeds like lettuces.
In addition to almost completing the carrot bed, I did prepare a 5x6 raised bed that I will use for greens, spinach and maybe lettuces. This little bed is a wooden sided bed, made with scrap wood 2x8's. I tilled up the top layer of soil using my little cultivator and then raked out the Bermuda grass and weeds. I added a bit of chicken hay and mixed that in with the soil. Then I topped the bed with horse hay compost and then regular garden soil. I'm ready to plant spinach next week. This little bed is in a dimly lit corner of the garden. It gets sun, but it also gets a bit of shade and is generally cooler than other areas of the garden. After the spinach is done, I'm going to cover the area with a shade cloth and then try to grow lettuces here throughout the summer.

In 2006, on a canoe trip, Skyguy and I had a bit of an accident on the Elk River in TN, and I left with a busted left humorous and a pulled bicep. We were in the middle of the wilderness when it happened, and I had no choice but to paddle out. Yeah, it hurt, but I wrapped it with a wet t-shirt-wet from the ice cold river. My left arm hasn't been the same since, and whenever the bicep is stressed, the old injury roars back to life. Tonight is a Ben Gay night. It would be a Jacuzzi night if I had one. One day...

Tomatoes and Peppers and More Tomatoes

Reseeding. It is an acknowledgment of failure. I planted the seeds correctly and kept them at the right temperature and moisture, but the seeds themselves were old. I failed them by not routinely planting the varieties in years past to replenish and renew the seed supply. So today, I pulled all of my pepper and tomato seeds from storage, which were mostly from 2006 and 2007, and planted them en masse in various containers, hoping to get just one plant from, depending on the variety, anywhere from 10 seeds to a 1/4 cup of seeds. I gave a few seed packs to a friend for her to try. I also reseeded the little peat pots with fresh seed from Home Deposit. There is little room for failure this year. I will have to keep reseeding until I get viable plants for the garden. On a positive note, my red burgundy onions have germinated and are 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall. Also, I planted a small plot of radishes today as well. Tomorrow, the carrot bed awaits....

My girls

We spent the afternoon and evening babysitting JRose, who changes so much in the span of a couple of weeks. She's eating with a fork now, a real, adult sized fork, and I got a great video of her eating a cut up hot dog with that fork. She is too cute for words. I'm really proud of the parenting job that my daughter and son in law are performing. JRose is so happy, so smart, and so outgoing. She's 14 months old now, and gives kisses and high fives. I had the honor of reading Goodnight Moon to her at bedtime. That classic bedtime story was her mother's favorite, and I used to read it to her as well, 23 years ago. It seems like yesterday. Twenty four years ago, my life was changed when my daughter was born. Since I was adopted, she was my first blood relative, and I cannot explain the emotion I felt when she was laid on my stomach after her birth....when I held her that first time, and saw that she had my nose, my hands, and my eyes. She rocked my world. Now, her daughter has rocked my world in the same way. JRose is the light of my life.

It's all about the seeds

I've been spoiled. I usually order my seeds from a catalog, selecting varieties by experience and recommendations. It's been over two weeks since I sowed my tomatoes and peppers, and I've got only a few plants, which tells me that my seed was old. We decided to reseed, so we went to Home Deposit(that's where our paycheck gets deposited) to replenish the seed supply. Now, I did not expect HD to be Totally Tomatoes or Seed Savers, but I expected a bit more than what I found. There were 5 slicing tomato varieties, one canning tomato variety, and one paste tomato. ONE. I like Romas, but I was hoping for a bit more variety. I suppose I will have to make a big seed order next year. Anyway, instead of nice varieties like Caspian Pinks and Mortgage Lifter, I will have Burpee's Brandywine(Red-how original!), Beefsteak, and Romas. The only canning type tomato they had was Rutgers, and Skyguy feels that they are a bit too acid for his taste. I explained that acidity was the key quality for a good canning tomato, but in the end, we left the Rutgers at the store. My other option is to buy transplants next month or in April-whenever they come in. Sometimes they get a good variety of plants, sometimes it's only Better Boy and Jalepenos.

Here's the gardening backstory:
Everything I have personally sown has had poor germination(except the marigolds). Everything Skyguy has personally sown has had great germination. I think it is beginner's luck. Luckily, I've let him plant most things, for the practice of course. His basils look great. He has a few lettuce plants in his mesclun container. He has borage, sage and parsley seedlings...PARSLEY!! I always have poor luck with parsley, but his germinated in 20 days....popped right up. What can I say---it has to be beginner's luck. Seriously, I'm glad that he is having success. It will keep him hooked on growing.

The peat pots are okay. I'd like them more if my tomatoes had germinated. The basils are in the little peat pots however and they look fine.

I'll post a few pics of the herb bed under construction tomorrow. It is going to be awesome. Now, if I can get some seedlings to transplant.

February Gardening Chores

Today was a busy day. First order of business was moving chickens. Finally, my greenhouse is quiet, no birds! Hopefully in a day or two the smell will diminish. Nineteen birds went from the greenhouse to the chicken tractor, 12 birds were moved from the chicken tractor to the old coop, and the 14 birds in the old coop were separated, 7 went into the new coop with the 13 mature birds, and the remaining 7 were placed in a large dog kennel to finish out. They were a bit small for the freezer so I will allow them to grow for another week or so. All coops, tractors, and cages were mucked and cleaned and got fresh hay/bedding. Just cleaning the new coop took over an hour, but I wanted the girls to start the laying year in a Spring cleaned coop. All the birds seemed happy with their new digs, AND I got a lot of nitrogen rich green poop for my raised beds and compost bin.
Skyguy worked on the herb beds. He cut the landscape timbers to length and laid them out on the ground. At the moment, we only have half of the timbers we need, but we have enough for one course and that allows us to see how the finished layout will look. The area was slightly sloped on one side, so we took turns tilling up the soil and sod to re-level the low side. We don't have a tiller, but we do have a Tanaka straight shaft weed trimmer that has the cultivator attachment. It worked fine for the task at hand, but it is a workout on the biceps when you get going with it. He has a bad right elbow and I have a bad left elbow, but as a team, we got it done. I'm not sure who is more excited about the new herb bed, but it is looking good. I've always wanted a kitchen herb garden, where you can walk outside and clip some fresh basil or oregano as the need arises.
I spent the late afternoon planting Tribute and Tristar strawberries. I had 25 plants of each variety and I planted Tristar in the top tier and Tribute around the base. It is forecast to rain and then snow tonight, with a low in the upper 20's, so I 'dusted' the bed with some hay.
The other big job that we did today was to move the compost bin. I have a large 4x12 compost bin made of pallets. It was in the center of the garden, but due to the need for additional garden space, Skyguy disassembled it and we reassembled it outside the garden fence. The purpose of the fence is to keep out deer, but last time I checked, deer are not that interested in compost, so outside the fence it went. Now, I have space for yet another bean trellis. Woohoo!

Strawberries and More

The strawberries have arrived and finally I will be able to plant the strawberry bed! I built the tiered 'monster bed' specifically for strawberries in 2007. I've spent the last year and a half loading the bed with manure, compost, and waste hay. Finally, it is time to plant! This year, I bought 'Tribute' and 'Tristar' both medium sized day neutral berry plants from Stark Brothers. Day neutrals don't produce many runners, so they should be fine in the bed. Right now, it is a chilly 38 degrees, but it should be 45 or so in a couple of hours, so I will plant the strawberries this afternoon. Looking at the 15 day forecast, we have quite a few hard frosts coming, so I will cover my broccoli and cauliflower with a row cover just to be safe. The last couple of nights the temp has dropped to 25, andthe broccoli has been fine so far, but I just don't want to push my luck.
Also on the agenda for today is thinning and transplanting some of my second round cole crops, which are still in 9 pack cells. I feel like I am in no man's land on these-they don't have enough leaves and size to be placed directly in the garden, but they are too thick to continue to develop in the cells. If I had a compost or weak manure tea, I'd leave them in the cells for another week or so, but I don't have that so it looks like I will have to transplant them twice, once now to a larger container and again in a few weeks to the garden beds. I may, as an experiment, take the thinned plants, which will only have 2 true leaves, and put them straight into the garden bed. It might be a good test for how warm and fuzzy those beds really are.
Of the sown seeds, I've got lettuce coming up, a few tomatoes, basil, borage, and marigolds. I am starting to worry about the peppers. I may have to redo them. It is hard to keep pepper seed viable for more than one year. It has been two weeks today. :(

Online privacy-not!

How insane is it that we teach our children not to talk to strangers and to guard personal information, yet we tell all about ourselves on sites like Blogger, or social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, or even email and bulletin board groups? Identity fraud is increasing, and we are making it easier for the bad guys to victimize us. I think we must all have an intense need for that 15 minutes of fame. Some people, like Octomom and Joe the Plumber, just have a worse case of it.
The recent hoopla about privacy and ownership rights of material posted on Facebook have prompted me to downsize my public persona. I am not any more protected by 'deactivating' my account, but there is some comfort that it was the right thing to do. It's probably false security, but I needed to withdraw a bit anyway.

Facebook claims to have reversed it's policy, but still they are holding my information. Deactivation is not the same as a Permanent Delete. If I can log in and have my page just pop back up at will, it was never truly deactivated. Why would they hold onto that information if not to somehow make money from it?

The Event Horizon

Did you ever feel like you were on the edge of something, something unknown, but that you just couldn't see past the present day? If you are not familiar with space related terms, an event horizon is the edge of a black hole. It is the point of no return, where light can no longer 'escape'. It is almost where time seems to stand still. If you were traveling into a black hole, when you reached the event horizon, you would seem to freeze in place, and then you would elongate and stretch out like a piece of spaghetti. In the continuum of space-time, it could be argued that the event horizon is the beginning and the end of all matter. It is the point of being where matter becomes energy.
I sense that something is about to happen. I don't know whether it will be a good, positive event, or something more insidious. Perhaps it will be a neutral event that some assign positive attributes and some assign negative attributes. I do have faith that things will work out for Good in the end, but I believe that the near future might be a bit troublesome for both me personally and for humanity in general. I revived this blog in the hope that by journaling my thoughts and feelings, I might be able to shine a light into the darkness.
While I am not religious in the traditional sense, I am very spiritual. I feel that my lifestyle allows me to connect more with the natural world. Most people live in such a face paced lifestyle that they don't see what I see, they don't hear what I hear, they don't feel what I feel. When one plants a seed and waits for that seed to germinate, then waits for those first leaves to develop, then waits for the maturation of the plant to harvest the leaves, fruit, seed or flower...when one does all of that, they synchronize with the natural world. That synchronicity slows down the pace of life. Once someone steps off the merry go round long enough to see the forest, the trees and all the creatures and life that resides within the forest, then they have a chance to resynchronize their own lives and once they do that, they will have time to think about how interconnected we all are, and how important it is to live sustainably, to live within one's means, to live simply and reduce one's footprint.
There are too many people on the planet and I fear that we won't learn our sustainability lessons in time to save ourselves. Earth will take corrective action if need be. She may already be doing some of that-could that be what I sense is near? What can I do to be more prepared?

Gardening Woops!

Tonight I realized that I forgot to sow eggplant seeds. I was looking over my garden spreadsheet (you know you are hopelessly addicted to growing things when you need a spreadsheet to remember what you plant, when you planted it, etc.-either that you suffer from CRS as I do ) and realized that I somehow omitted them when I planted my tomatoes and peppers last week. Skyguy, um, that would be DH's new blog name, located the wayward seeds and while doing so decided that we like like homemade Adobo so well that we really should be growing paprika peppers. So, I soaked some additional peat pots and we now have planted Violetta di Firenza eggplant and Alma Paprika peppers. Skyguy has developed a taste for vegetables that he once dismissed, especially veggies that can be roasted on the grill, so I am hoping that eggplant will be among the list of newly acquired tastes. My long lost friend Sandy A. is Italian. She lives in Rhode Island now, but for a time she lived here in GA and we were neighbors and friends. One of the things she taught me was how to make eggplant lasagna, the Italian way. It was time consuming, but delicious.
Skyguy added a fluorescent light to my seed starting shelves. Now, with two lights, I can spread out the flats a bit and not have to rotate the flats under the one light. I really need to thin out the broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, and Pak Choi, but for whatever reason, I've been procrastinating. I keep thinking that if I wait a bit longer, I could actually transplant the pricked/thinned plants to another pot. I suppose I will add that to my to do list for tomorrow and quit procrastinating. I can always add the thinnings to our salads tomorrow evening.

The Backwards Aquarist

Both DH and I grew up with aquariums. I had the typical community tank for most of my childhood years. DH had both a community tank setup and

then later a saltwater setup. When we married, having aquaria was a no brainer, and we decided to keep aggressive fish. We've had aquariums of both African and South American cichlids, as well as community AKA peaceful aquariums over the years, but now we are about to venture into uncharted territory: we are going back to basics. We now have feeder goldfish, which are essentially someone else's cull fish. I've bought goldfish/comets for the outdoor ponds and barrels and they have been very hardy, but I've never had goldfish indoors, not even in a classical kiddie fishbowl.

I was going to take the cichlid tank down in order to save on electricity, but my JRose gets so much enjoyment from watching fish. The problem was that the cichlids hid in the rocks and weren't very showy to hold the attention of a toddler. So, I re-homed the fish and removed the heater for our 55 gallon tank. Goldfish like cool water. I moved the rocks around making the change from a natural Lake Malawi style cichlid tank to a kid friendly, fun to watch, colorful goldfish tank. Feeder goldfish are cheap, so I bought 30 small ones as well as a couple of Cory cats(corydoras catfish), one albino and one bronze. I want JRose to be mesmerized by Grandma's fish. As she grows and understands more, the tank will evolve. I can't wait to see her face when she watches angelfish, kuhli loaches, or a black ghost knife, or when she is old enough, watch an oscar eat a guppy. It is all part of the magic. One day, we will give her her own tank.

Keeping fish teaches kids the importance of maintaining a non-polluted ecosystem. They learn about biology, water chemistry, evolution, and even botany if they are allowed to grow real plants instead of decorating with the plastic variety. They can set up a creek tank or a cichlid tank, explore a range of habitats, and of course learn how to raise the fry, or in the case of the mouthbrooding cichlids, set up a friendly breeding environment. It teaches the interconnectivity of life.

Red Burgundy Onions

I planted some onions today, 'Red Burgundy' from seed. I usually put out sets, but have often tried to grow the wrong onion type. Thanks to Rob W., I now understand long, short, and neutral day types, and I realize that I was probably planting long day onions in the South, which is fine if you want 'green onions' but not if you want bulb onions. Last November I planted a bunch of onion sets that were simply labeled 'yellow onions'(from Bonnie's, I think). If they were indeed short day onions, they should show some bulb growth now, I think, since we have 11 hours of daylight, but they really aren't too much larger now than when I planted them, if at all. So today, while at Home Deposit spending our tax refund on a new water heater(note that I had to fight not to say hot water heater) I also grabbed some zinna, German chamomile, garlic chives and onion seeds. Yeehaw!
I planted the onions in a flat-intensively spaced about an inch apart, so that I would be able to easily prick them out and transplant them to the ground later. I planted my Yukon Gold potatoes today, and I'll put these onions in the ground right next to the potatoes when they are ready. If I have excess, then I will interplant my strawberries, which are due to arrive next week. The third spot will be the lettuce bed. Onions are good companions to potatoes, strawberries, and lettuce.
I'm really excited about getting strawberries again. It has been a few years since I grew them. I had a nice tiered bed made of rocks and stone, but it was outside the garden fence and I could not protect the berries from the critters. Lesson learned. This time last year, I built another tiered bed, this time with metal siding like my other monster beds INSIDE the garden fence. It should hold 25 strawberry plants (~6x4) so I got 12 Tristar and 12 Tribune plants from Stark Bros. I'll be happy if I get enough to make 6 or 7 pints of jam and some strawberry shortcake!

The garden is coming along, and it really helps that DH is getting involved this year. I am rather excited about the kitchen herb garden bed he is creating. I'll write more about that later as plans finalize. When I was in town yesterday, people at H&R Block were making jokes at Obama's expense, rhetorically asking if he would pay their taxes, and then later, at the local feed and seed store, more disgust was heard when people were looking at seeds and planning their larger than usual gardens. The fact that I was there on the day that the ever so unpopular economic stimulus/porkbarrel bill was passed was probably the determining factor, but I can say that people are angry with the leadership in this country, and that anger bridges party lines, and government/corporate lines. There is definitely a general unrest brewing in the working class. My guess is that the media will absorb the brunt of this anger, but only time will tell how this plays out. Of course, rural Georgia is Republican, and I realize that I am only seeing a local phenomenon, but I can't help but think that this anger is a seed that will grow if Obama doesn't turn things around quickly, and quite frankly, he is off to a rough start with all his Clinton era and or failed appointments and nominations and this stimulus bill. What happened to CHANGE?

Avocadoholism

Is there a 12 step group for avocadoholics? I swear I am addicted to guacamole and avocados, something I never ate before 3 months ago. I tell myself that it is healthy- all veggies, no dairy or meat, good dietary fat, but I can't help but wonder why I am craving it. I have this gut feeling that the body craves what it needs, or at least cravings are indicators of potential issues. I have noticed that in the last 3 or 4 months, I do seem to be eating more veggies, more raw food, more fruit, and less red meat. Here's how I've been making my guacamole, and this makes a large bowl of it.

5 avocados, peeled, pitted, and mashed
1 large onion, softball sized, finely minced
3/4 cup picante sauce, mine is on the fiery side
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
lime juice, maybe 1/4 cup
1 heaping tsp of kosher salt
2 serrano or jalepeno peppers, minced
3 or more radished, grated (optional topping, but it adds to the flavor)
Mix it together and chow down with some tortilla chips or just use the guac as a condiment on Mexican food or salads or whatever.
YUM!

Stimulus or Pork? Promises Broken

Today is Friday the 13th. It may turn out to be a sad and unlucky day for the country. More and more I find myself at odds with what is happening in America. Whether it is Branjelina, OctoMom, or Obamamania, I honestly do not understand why the majority of my fellow citizens cannot see truth through the media's love affair with celebrity. Celebrity should not dictate the future of this country. Today, the Senate, passed a so-called stimulus bill, a 1000+ page document that supposedly spends almost 800 million dollars(or more) of our tax money in an effort to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and help state budgets. Obama is to sign it on Monday. The problem is, that by most accounts, it will do none of what it was designed to do. It is pork, plain and simple. Worse, the senators that passed the bill never even read it. There was less than 10 hours between the time the bill was made public and the time the bill was passed(11pm on 2/12 to 9am on 2/13). It is physically impossible to read the largest spending bill in US history in that amount of time. I believe that what is happening to politics in this country borders on criminality. There is no honesty or accountability, words and promises mean nothing. Transparency? The administration is not 3 weeks old and has broken many promises already, the latest being that they would publish bills 48 hours before a vote so that all of America could read and then weigh in with their Reps and Senators-that even though they would have a majority, that all would be fair, just, and above board. HA! Meanwhile, Obama smoothtalks America as if he is still campaigning. I really hoped to be proven wrong regarding my judgment of our President, but so far, he is not impressing me.

Revitalization

I've decided to revive my long abandoned blog. I hope you find it interesting, a peek into someone else's life and thinking. You will be subjected to raw emotion, crazy rants, and a general diary of my daily activities.
A lot has happened since I started this blog in 2005. There was a near divorce, a reconsiliation, my adoptive parents moved only 18 miles away instead of 80 miles away, and my birthfather died in January of 2006. In 2005, my daughter got married, and in December of 2007, she gave birth to the light of my life, Miss JRose. To make sure I see JRose grow up, I quit smoking in January of 2008 and have been able to overcome my 29 year habit. She's only 13 months old, and has been on a horse several times now. She loves them. Now, my focus is getting healthy. I went back to work for a short period of time-as an adhesives chemist-but now I am happy to be at home on the farm, playing in the dirt and absorbing the natural world.