New Energy Security Council

Politco reports today that President-elect Obama is giving serious consideration to an Energy Security Council within the White House... thereby backing up the campaign speculation that he would appoint an "energy czar" position.

The devil, of course, is in the details. As always. There is some speculation that such a council may create conflict with the EPA - but as far as I'm concerned the EPA is over due for an overhaul, and in the process, you might as well address any of those conflict/chain of command concerns. The EPA and energy security aren't the same thing. At all.

If President Obama (oh, how I love the sound of that) were to come up with some sort of "National Food Supply Security Council" I might just fall completely in love. Bring back the victory gardens and the small, local family farm! With secure food & energy, we'd be a whole lot better off. And no, a secure food supply should NOT fall under the FDA or the USDA, as they are apparently in over their heads already anyway.

Change is hard, and the new administration is going to have to drag a lot of the country kicking and screaming through the process. But as I see it, half the country is always going to be pissed off at any given time - at least with Obama as President, it'll be going MY way for once (or closer to my way, anyway). A lot of intelligent people have been really angry for 8 years, and I'm hoping that all this "change" (we'll have to wait & see) will be a breath of fresh air. It'll be temporary, because in another 4 or 8 years, the other half of our country will once again vote out common sense. So I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

UPS going hybrid...

...very slowly. Next year, UPS is planning on deploying seven, yes, a whole 7 hybrid diesel delivery trucks. UPS has about 90,000 vehicles in it's fleet. I understand that the hybrid delivery trucks cost about $7,000 more, but still..geez...only seven? Is this blatant green-washing?

UPS currently employs 2,129 low-carbon vehicles in it's delivery fleet. If you add in those 7 hybrid trucks next year, that should bring the total to 2,136 "eco-friendly" delivery trucks (electric, hybrid electric, CNG, LNG & propane-powered vehicles), or 2.3% of its fleet. I suppose it's a start.

This hybrid technology is estimated to improve the the fuel economy of these delivery trucks by 45% to 50% and decreased carbon emissions by 30% when compared with traditional diesel vehicles. I'm just waiting for this technology to spread to a wider audience before getting too hopeful. There are a whole lot of diesel delivery & work trucks out there that start and stop constantly. Buses, garbage trucks - just think - whatever you get stuck behind the next time you are late - could all potentially be a significantly healthier. And less stinky.

Here's an article I found from February 2007 with regards to prototype hybrid diesel trucks. Several corporations that use large diesel work trucks were running trials of hybrid diesel trucks - but the cost was prohibitive, which keeps production down, which keeps demand low. Ah, the double edged sword that is mass production. Apparently, this technology isn't that new - it was around at least as early as Feb. 2007. UPS just finally decided to buy a whopping SEVEN of these trucks.

Did you know that a garbage truck, on average, gets 4 miles/gallon? Lets see... my giant SUV (seats 8), which I am about to take to the dump (fully loaded- I go about once a month), gets 20 miles/gallon. From that transfer station, I'm sure the waste & recycling gets loaded on a large truck and transported...somewhere...far away... but at least that truck isn't starting and stopping every 100 feet and idling while it gets filled up.

Disappearing plants

A slide show in the online edition of the Boston Globe caught my eye last night. Studies have been done that indicate a substantial decline in the plant diversity at Walden Pond since the mid-1800s when Thoreau decided to "live simply" at the pond (I believe on land owned by Emerson, in fact). After poking around a bit more, this is what I've discovered:

• Over the past 100 years, the average temperature in Massachusetts has increased by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
• 27 % of the plant species that Thoreau documented are extinct, at least locally
  
• An additional 36% of plant species at Walden are classified as having a imminent disappearance
• The plant species that remain are the plants that have been able to adjust their flowering time, on average, 7 days earlier than 100 years ago; the plants that were unable to shift have died off, at least locally.

Are the alarm bells ringing yet?

This study was published in the journal of Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Science. Which of course, I'd like to read, but I am not made of money, and therefore have to rely on other people's summaries of the study (I'd go broke trying to get my hands on all the studies I want to read). Which brings up a whole different topic - what good is scientific research if access to such publications is restricted to the few individuals who can afford to subscribe to every scientific publication known to man? It's elitist, and it's archaic.

From what I can tell, a similar study was originally published in the journal Science in July of this year by Elizabeth Pennisi. Not entirely sure, as I don't have access to that journal either (although I have asked a friend with access to track it down - so I may update this later).

So what plants are going, going, or gone? Wood Anemones, buttercups, asters, campanulas, bluets (we still have bluets in my yard - they change color based on the mineral composition of the exact spot where they grow - vary in a matter of feet), bladderworts, dogwoods (7 were observed by Thoreau, 5 are now locally extinct or rare), lilies (the Canada Lily is now a goner at Walden), mints, orchids (I wonder if the Globe author was referring in particular to lady slippers which I seem to have a harder time finding now - used to be in my parents yard some 8 miles or so from Walden - no more), roses, saxifrages & violets (particularly the sweet white violet).

Here's what the local television station had to say about this study by Charles C. Davis of Harvard University. Its basically the same information that the globe had, with the added benefit of a quote from Mike Frederick, Executive Director of the Thoreau Society in which he describes how Walden hasn't frozen solid the past two winters (it "usually" does - or perhaps "used to" is more accurate). When I was a kid, there used to be ice fishing on Walden. I don't think thats very popular (or even possible) there anymore.

The frustrating thing about coming across references to scientific publications when I can't get my hands on the article itself is that I have NO idea whether Pennisi or Davis looked into the local deer population explosion, increased carbon dioxide levels at ground level, changes in the forest habitat around Walden Pond due to management techniques or natural forest succession, or increases in foot traffic due to tourists. It seems like there could be many other factors that may affect the proliferation (or lack thereof) of these wildflowers. I'm hoping they've somehow ruled out other factors scientifically & proven that. The skeptic in me is strong, however...

Hiatus

So... The last post was on my birthday. Since then I have had a few big accomplishments. Rode a bicycle UP a mountain. Rode 112 miles on a bicycle in a day. Both while...pregnant (unbeknownst to me). Then the morning sickness kicked in with the shock, and I kind of lost track of my self for, well, the entire first trimester. Just became completely self absorbed. A little overwhelmed. Feeling better now, and have checked back into reality. I also have more energy now, which makes a huge difference.

But, I'm now back on track. It's now full-on fall. The low tonight is 23 degrees - the garden is pretty done (I'm leaving the cold weather root crops in the ground a little longer, though).

I've installed the freewatt-ready boiler. I'm pretty happy with it - although it recently developed an annoying whistling, which didn't used to be there, so I'll be calling Climate Energy about it as soon as I remember during business hours. The oil tank will be removed next week.

Ran across an article today that made me remember my long-lost blog here. The Massachusetts Oyster Project is dropping 100,000 seed oysters into the Charles River this Saturday to help filter out the nutrients that are dumped into the river from sewer outflow pipes. The best part is that this is a citizen-based initiative; neighborhood folks came up with this idea - not some politician. Each oyster will filter up to 30 gallons of water per day. I'm assuming that since these are "seed" oysters, they are small, but will grow and multiply over time. Oysters are native to the Charles River Basin, so no conflict there - they've only died out because of all the damn dams and previous overfishing (I believe). This should vastly increase the food web and biological diversity of the Charles River Basin (and the Boston Harbor) over time, which will overall create a healthier river, a healthier city, and a healthier Massachusetts Bay.

On Saturday at 2 p.m. we're all invited to attend the oyster placing off the Constitution Marina near the mouth of the Chuck. This could be the beginning of something big.

Funny, how now that I've got an invested interest in the future (my child's future), I keep looking for hope. Everywhere. I've found a wee bit of it in this plan, so I thought I'd share.

We ARE driving less

Hallelujah - we're driving less. 9.6 BILLION miles less.  How quickly we were actually able to change after all the pissing and moaning about how we can't possibly change. Imagine that - when push comes to shove, it IS possible to get out the car. 

Of course, we'll have to see what shakes in December or January, when its 5 degrees out.

Traffic Deaths Decline as Gas Prices Rise

Well, I guess it's a fact now. People actually ARE slowing down to save gas; and in the process, they're killing each other less frequently. Hooray!

Roma children are still children

I'm not sure how much you've heard about the Roma/gypsy issue in Italy, but this recent story caught my eye.  Photos taken of the bodies of two girls, drowning victims, lying on the beach under towels with just their feet sticking out - and in the background, people are sunbathing. Just hanging out on the beach like nothing had happened (the girls were laid out for an hour).  The accompanying story depicts how beach goers continued with their sunbathing, swimming, and picnicking as the coroner lifted the two girls' bodies into coffins and carried them off the beach.  

Could you each lunch as you watch a medical examiner put the bodies of children into coffins?  I don't care what race they are, whether they are legal or illegal immigrants - they are human children.  Human children who had hopes & dreams; children who had parents, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews and grandparents.

I'd like to think that if I was on a beach where any child died, I'd have the decency to at least lose my appetite.  Leave, cry, whatever - but not sit there and eat my lunch as I watched. How could someone do that?  How could someone HUMAN do that and not be physically ill?

They only way anyone could do that is if they didn't value human life. Racists would do that.  Was World War II so long ago that we still cannot see the dehumanizing of life when it happens right before our eyes?  The Roma people were sent to Dachau (if not shot on sight); their women have been sterilized by governments against their will as recently as 1977; they have been enslaved and subject to ethnic cleansing throughout history.  Just this past May, Roma camps were attacked and set on fire by residents of Naples, Italy.  

The dehumanization of a group of people is the first step in extermination. We've seen this play out over and over again - it's one of the oldest tricks in the book.  Sadly, I fear that because it is happening in Italy, which is not located in the middle east, or in Africa, we'll just sit and watch it ramp up until genocide once again rears its ugly head. 

In America, we have our own issues with illegal immigration. It's a big issue, and we can't agree on how to solve it. But I do at least hope that if immigrant children drowned in front of some of our citizens, we don't just shrug and go on eating our lunch. Maybe that's misguided... our nation was formed on the back of slavery, and we continue to have major race relation issues. Not long ago, we put our own Japanese Americans in concentration camps - well within the lifetimes of those still living.   But I'll continue to hope that we can keep a clear line between political issues and the value of human life. 

Once we start classifying groups of people as "them", "they" or "those people" giant red signal flares should go off in our heads.  Step one: dehumanize them.  Step two: extermination.   

I'm sure there were at least a few people on that beach that were horrified - I'm guessing they left before the photographer took his photograph. For all I know, those who were enjoying the sun amidst that horror could have been American tourists, hell bent on getting that perfect vacation they paid good money for. Regardless, I hope the people who were crass enough to enjoy their beach time will someday learn a little bit about compassion and human dignity.  I'd like to think they'd be shamed into it after seeing their photograph plastered in newspapers throughout the world. But I doubt it.

Things are heating up...

quite literally. Just came across this posting in the Boston Globe.  June was the 8th hottest month on record (records began in 1880) & globally the January - June 2008 period was the 9th warmest on record.

Our average temperature in June was 2.3 degrees above the 30-year average.  So far this month, we are averaging 1.7 degrees above normal - which is including the current heat wave that begins today (it's 90 degrees out right now where I am).  

So we've been told by the folks in the global warming camp that because of positive feedback mechanisms in the atmosphere & ocean, warming would like be accelerate quickly. I do wonder if this is the beginning of that rapid acceleration.  Maybe it's just one of those freak temperature fluctuations. Although I did read recently that the Russian arctic science lab had to be evacuated on an emergency basis recently (last week?) because the ice floe they were on had shrunk from a 3 km by 5 km chunk of ice to a 300 meter by 600 meter chunk of ice and couldn't continue to support the scientists and their research any longer. They were supposed to be there a year, but had to leave after 10 months. The sea ice is now half as thick as it used to be, and is melting much faster than expected. Because open ocean is darker than sea ice, it absorbs the heat from the sun (ice reflects the heat), which in turn melts more ice, creating more water to absorb more heat.  Not only is this bad for temperatures, but this also means the salinity of the arctic ocean will decrease, which messes around with the density of the water near the arctic, which then stops the ocean currents that keeps europe temperate.  The chain reaction continues from there;  I suggest you go see Mr. Gore's movie - he explains it better than I do.

It's one thing to watch a movie. Its a completely different thing to watch the news and start putting two and two together.

Similarly, just think of how we were told by the peak oil people of the havoc that was just around the corner after oil peaked. Well, oil peaked last year. And what's going on now? Havoc, or the beginning of havoc.  The economy is seriously slowing down. The price of gas is above $4 a gallon in most places.  Food prices continue to climb because transportation costs of food have increased. And this is SUMMER.  We haven't gotten to the heating season yet, and local produce is in readily available (unless you live in the desert).  

I've always had a "worlds are colliding" fear when theories start playing out before my very eyes. It's hard for me to make that mental jump from an abstract idea in my head to watching it become reality. 

National Speed Limit

I'm not the only one, apparently, who thinks that slowing down Americas highways might make solid sense. Republican Senator John Warner from Virginia has sent a letter to the Energy Secretary Bodman asking him to evaluate what speed limit may provide optimum fuels savings given today's technology.

The reply from the Energy Departments Spokeswoman Angela Hill further illustrates how incredibly dumb our current administration is: "If Congress is serious about addressing gasoline prices, they must take action on expanding domestic oil and natural gas production."

That's just Bass-ackwards. Why conserve what we have? Let's just go drill for more, and we'll have it in 30 years, and then prices will go down THEN (you know, when our kids are our age). Special interests obviously have control of our government and we will continue to pay for it until the end of time.

Anyway, according to the department of Energy's website, the optimum average speed for fuel economy is about 60 MPH. They have a handy little graph on that page I've linked to. Every 5 MPH over 60 MPH will cost 7% to 23% more in fuel economy - or an "additional 29 to 94 cents per gallon". That's a pretty big range.

Here's the problem: for those of us who WANT to drive at the optimum fuel efficient speed, we can't on the highway. We'll get hit, run off the road, or pulled over by the police for going too slow. It amazes me. This is one reason I try to avoid driving on highways at all - it isn't really safe. I take the back roads, or the "blue roads" as I've heard them called (blue roads being secondary routes on paper maps - remember those?) as much as possible. I seem to get the best mileage around 45 MPH - the speed limit on the roads in my area. No wonder I'm getting 38 mpg in my civic where apparently other people aren't doing so hot (most user reported averages I've seen is in the 31 mpg range). It's easy once you start caring and paying attention.

The only problem is that no one cares (Ok - very few care) and we're all too lazy to get out of bed early enough so that we don't have to speed to avoid being late for work. There is nothing in the world that is important enough for me to be in a hurry.

Hooray for Hawaii

I love Hawaii, I must admit. We have family there, and Hawaii will be the one reason I'll deal with the misery of flying (not really any other reasonable way to get there). Here's one more reason to love Hawaii: the state now requires solar hot water heaters on all new homes. Brilliant!

Seeing as it's pau hana time, I'll drink to that one.

The joy Interstate travel

This driver in Maryland is a man after my own heart. Glenn Conrad got pulled over by a statie for driving 50 MPH on I-95 - the speed limit is 65 MPH. I'm trying to remember, but when I drove I-95 through MD, I don't remember there being a "minimum speed limit" sign in that state (some states DO have them, and I think they are generally a good idea).

The reason he was driving 50 MPH on the interstate? He was saving gas. When the cop pulled him over, Conrad was getting 69 miles to the gallon. Smart guy. His only problem is that the rest of the world is in a hurry, and they are likely to kill him.

But why is it this way? Why is it more acceptable to speed than it is to drive slow? I'm willing to bet there were people going close to 80 MPH that the cop could have pulled over instead. With falling tax revenues, you'd think the state police would like to have more money in their budget. My guess is that the cop thought Conrad was perhaps drunk or high.

During the 1970s fuel crisis, speed limits were much lower. Why? It's more fuel efficient. It amazes me that we as a society haven't yet figured out how much money we'd save by dropping the speed limits, not to mention the increase in safety (and speeding ticket revenue). Many of the people who complain about the high price of gas are the very same people who race stop light to stop light, peel out at intersections, and floor it on the highway going 80 MPH. The only thing that aggressive driving behavior accomplishes is showing the rest of the world what an idiot you are. Or perhaps you're compensating for something (small anatomy, perhaps - or, more likely, small brain).

On the other hand, 50 MPH is a little dangerous in a 65 MPH zone. But between 55 and 60 SHOULD be acceptable. In theory, 65 is the LIMIT - thats the fastest you are supposed to go. It does NOT mean you HAVE to drive at that speed. I choose to go about 5-8 MPH under the speed limit (in the right or middle lane, depending on how many on/off ramps there are) - there is no one in the world that is important enough to me to speed for (or even waste extra gas for). I leave a few minutes earlier. Its really not a big deal.

Think about. Crude oil broke $142 a barrel today. We're paying above $4 a gas. I traded in our truck in Texas when gas hit $1.50 and got a Civic because I could read the writing on the wall. A year later, I ditched the Audi because it got 20 MPG and took premium fuel (granted, I now have an SUV that holds 8 people - and IT gets the same mileage the audi did - except the SUV is a ULEV, takes regular fuel, and holds twice as much stuff/people). Its time for all of us to wake up and realize that life as we previously knew it is likely over.

It's time to adapt.

Flooding & Gas Prices

The Midwest is having a 500-year flood event. They had a 100-year flood event in 1993, and this is way worse. I'm glad we had to occasion to drive through the Midwest (Des Moines, Omaha, etc) so I have mental pictures to attach to these stories. Makes it more real somehow. I-90 is closed in places. Amtrak isn't running. They are in serious, serious trouble.

Just read this on CNN.com: "Midwest Floods May Send Gas Up 15%" due to rising corn futures (the Midwest grows our corn, which makes ethanol, which is a federally mandated gasoline additive). Apparently, as the flooding has increased, so have the cost of corn futures. What I find interesting about this is that no one, as of yet, has said a damn thing about the impact of rising corn futures on food prices. We're so worried about our precious cars that we're missing the idea that corn prices were already high, and food prices are just going to climb higher because of this.

Just wait. In a day or two, this will sink in, and you'll be hearing all sorts of projections regarding the rising cost of food.

In the mean time, New England continues to have a relatively dry spring. We had four days in the high 90s around here - broke 100 a few times. And very little rain. I was so worried about the plants that we had planted at the CSA during the heat wave that I went over to water them on a non-work day in 95 degree heat. I couldn't focus on my own work knowing that those yet-to-be established plants were baking in the sun.

In fact, I heard the tale end of an interview on the local NPR station yesterday - while Massachusetts officials are assuring us that we have plenty of drinking water, they are urging us to conserve, conserve, conserve... go tell that to my neighbor on the conservation commission who insists on watering her lawn in the middle of the day on a 90+ day.

New Englanders aren't dumb. But they don't know a damn thing about water conservation, and I fear by the time they figure out, we'll all be screwed.

----

On a more uplifting note, we gave blood again today. Have you given blood recently? We got free cookies & brownies. I filled my back in 3 minutes and 48 seconds. Took my spouse 7 minutes+... Therefore, I win!

Rainy days...

We need the rain. Badly. Don't get me wrong - I know we need the rain - we've needed rain all spring (ever since my basement stopped flooding). When I smash the small clumps of garden soil between my thumb and my forefinger, all I get is a small dust explosion that's appropriate only for late August or September. This is high on the list of things that shouldn't be during a New England June.

It rained all day yesterday, and I don't think the high temperature broke 60 degrees. A wee bit dreary. It's still in the 50s out with showers scheduled for today, but I've opened all the windows to try and store some of that coolness in the house (as a giant heat sink). The highs forecast for this weekend are 92 on Saturday and 94 on Sunday. June, in New England. You just never know.

I was so cold & damp yesterday that I made 2 loaves of honey whole wheat bread. I think it's quite possible it was my best bread yet. I didn't kneed it by hand at all - after setting some galvanized steel posts at the CSA farm yesterday, my wrist just wasn't up to it (carpal tunnel flair up - its been about 15 months since the last one). This is where the stand mixer comes in handy. I just let that dough hook fly away and make a god-awful racket for 8 minutes or so. Worked perfectly. In the end, I had two perfect loaves of honey whole wheat bread that smelled a little citrus-y (I let the loaves rise a little too long, so I think the yeast was very happy). The house smelled great - to the point where I was constantly hunting for a snack for the rest of the day and evening.

I'm going to try to enjoy today's dreariness. It might be the last cool day for some time. Even the 10 day forecast shows highs in the mid to upper 80s for as long as the eye can see. As of Saturday my peppers should be growing like crazy.

On Food

So while at the Cod (which is what my niece used to call the Cape) I picked up a Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover. I'm now half-way through it, and it is flying by. I've been meaning to read this book since it came out, but the waiting line at the library is 10 people deep. So when we had a slow, rainy day on Saturday, I went to the local bookstore and picked it up (great store, by the way...).

I've been a believer in local food. I've been a believer of organic food. But this book has served well as a heavy reminder to not slack off... Go read it. It's an easy read. I've found that books with this much information in them tend to read like text books, and are very preachy. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is not. Nor is it solely about local food. It's a good, easy read. Put it on your summer reading list. It's an adventure.

So with this book in mind, I've just run across an article on CNN's website, which left me shaking my head. "FDA Urged to Ban 8 Food Dyes" describes how a consumer advocacy group is urging the FDA to ban these food dyes because they increase hyperactivity and behavior problems in kids. Great. Fine. But the issue I had in the article is this: the REASON these dyes are IN kids foods in the first place is to make them more colorful so they will be more appealing and appear like healthier choices. It suddenly became very clear to me. Why do we need to ban the DYES? Are the dyes really the issue here? Shouldn't we be more concerned with the absence of any actual nutritional value of these foods in the first place? Ban the dyes? Are you kidding me? How about we just ban these crappy foods that we are tricked into feeding our kids? How about we ban marketing campaigns directed at children (who aren't able to make decisions based on nutrition - mainly because their parents aren't able to either)? High fructose corn syrup is NOT a vegetable. Anything that requires a dye to make it more appetizing should be a GIANT red flashing light- if we have to trick our eyes into thinking "it's colorful, it must be good" then maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't be eating that crap. Apparently, these dyes are also injected into fruits to make them more appetizing. WHAT? How about we stop trying to hide how unhealthy the factory farmed produce is?

So my sister & brother-in-law recently bought a vacation cottage on the Cod. This is great - they'll rent it out sometimes, and they'll use it sometimes, and we'll use it sometimes. It'll be good. They have a ridiculous amount of money. Range Rover, Volvo, horseback riding lessons (don't own a horse YET), my BIL has a Harley just for fun. They are rolling in it. But the house is full of sodas, yodels, those little apple pies that come in individually wrapped packages... BBQing involves char-burned hot dogs and tasteless hamburger patties than come preformed in a shrink wrapped Styrofoam package wrapped in plastic - with the little pieces of paper in between the patties. I watched my 8 year old niece single handedly devour an entire tin of brownies, and no one said a thing. Basically, the cheapest, least healthy food money can buy. And it occurs to me... if you have enough money to buy a vacation home, shouldn't you have enough money to feed your family decent food? Why is they kind of car you drive more important than what you feed your kids? What could be more important than what you take into your body and forms the foundation of your health and life expectancy? Why is it that the more affluent someone is (generally) the more they eat convenience foods filled with dyes, artificial sweeteners and partially hydrogenated oils? How is this progress? Why is it that no one cares?

And we wonder why we have a health care crisis. Come on people.

Why buy your kids the best of everything only to feed them the lowest common denominator of food? Why send them to a good school while ensuring they have a shorter life span than that of your generation? It makes no sense... I'm baffled.

The Cape

I've spent the last 2 weekends on the cape. It's about a two hour drive down there, but I don't use the car much once I get there (4 hours of driving on the weekend isn't unusual anyway - bad, I know, but where we live, everything is 45 minutes away anyway - all in different directions). Memorial day weekend I went down just for the day on Sunday (to help my sister's family get their new cottage straightened up), and last weekend we went down for the full weekend (did some landscaping, installed a wireless router, and painted a room). We also had time to take some walks. Lots of walks - we brought the dogs with us. Surprise - the dogs really enjoyed themselves, at least once they realized we weren't leaving them here.

One thing we did was visit the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. A new exhibit had opened up called, ironically (to me): "A Sense of Place". So of course I had to go. I am now on a quest for new reading material - for some crazy reason, I hadn't realized that Thoreau had written about visiting the Cape. Don't know why he WOULDN'T - it just didn't occur to me - and he's been popping up a lot recently (again). The exhibit was focused on three naturalist-writers from the Cape (or who wrote about the cape): Henry Beston, John Hay, and Robert Finch. Robert Finch's essays are read on WCAI the Cape & the Islands NPR station 3 times a week - twice on Tuesday and once on Wednesday. They are also available via podcast from the radio station.

I have a lot to learn. A lot to absorb. A whole other environment.

This past weekend was another instance of me coming to the realization that what I've been looking for was under my nose all along. I really enjoyed the time we spent in Mississippi - I had never lived that close to the ocean before. Feeling the salt air everyday, watching the water. The shore birds. The clouds drifting in, shifting and either exploding or dissolving as they see fit. While in Mississippi I spent a fair amount of time at the National Seashore just sitting, watching, absorbing. I hadn't realized how important that was to me until now I get it back a little bit. The absorption in the first step in getting to really know a place.

So many people travel, travel, travel. At a quick pace. They bang out various landmarks on a checklist and then rush back into their air conditioned cars to get to the airport. Then they enter the time warp that is air travel. I may not have realized this phenomonon had I not spent time moving around and being forced to start over. Whats the point of the tourists checklist? What did you really learn? There is never enough time - I am never in one place long enough to learn it, to know it. In the end, vacationing is dissatisfying for that reason - I become frustrated more than anything else. You can now say you've "been" somewhere, but that means so little. What does that place smell like in different seasons? How does the late change through the day, throughout the year? What would happen in that alternative reality where you just stay and never go home?

Another thing I realized: your feet toughen up quickly. By yesterday midday, I was hiking barefoot. Which was eye-opening: my feet are the one part of my body constantly in touch with a place. Hiking barefoot brings a whole other dimension to the hiking experience. I had a very tactile hike yesterday. The changing textures under foot made the transitions between sand dunes to marsh to meadow to upland wooded area immediately obvious. The sudden coolness of stone steps, the pillowy softness of the fine sand right before the transition to the meadow area, the hot sand in the sun - it all adds yet another dimension to the experience. Unconsciously, my brain started working in other ways, realizing without internally verbalizing what geomorphic processes may be at work where I happened to be standing. It was not unpleasant.

Haitus

It's been awhile. What can I say? I've been busy. There was a stretch of time I thought I might be pregnant - alas, not so much. Or not any more, at least. Que sera, sera. I've been in the garden daily. The damn lawn grows faster than I can reasonably mow it (at $4 a gallon for gas...yes, yes, I'm working on growing less grass and more food, but it's slow). Busy with friends, with dog walking, with chicken rounding up (not mine - not this year) and fox chasing. Typical spring excitement. Work has picked up as well - it's not unpleasant to work from home and just sit & think & reason through an issue and get paid for it, without driving the 45 miles into the office. It's very nice that although I have a 45 mile commute, I only physically go to the office once a month or so. We bought a new vehicle in February - and we are not yet to the 1st oil change. Such a wonderful change.

Of course, it's light out until 815 or so at night - dusk until 9. I can now eat dinner and then get back to the yard, and then collapse into a heap in bed immediately after. And get up again at 5. It's hard to sleep past 6 anyway - the sunlight coming in the window, the cacophony of bird calls, the pacing of the dog who wants to go out and chase rabbits.

It's taking less and less reading at night to calm my mind to sleep. I frequently find that the worries of the world (we're all going to hell in a hand basket, as if you hadn't noticed) can't keep up with the exhaustion. Weeks are blending together. Days, while physically almost at their longest of the year, suddenly seem astonishingly short.

Rest assured, all the while my brain has been working. Reasoning. Contrasting. Gathering ideas, combining them. I'll be back shortly with plethora of musings... just as soon as it gets hot out, and I'm looking for a midday escape. Or perhaps when my brain is full. Wont be long, either way.

The future

Recent events have led me to start thinking about the next generation. Recently, I've been reading Wendell Berry's essays from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sadly, although technology has come a long way, we're in far deeper s**t than we were at the beginning of my life. This does not bode well for the children being born today.

America accomplished so much during the second World War. There was a unity, a banding together for a common goal. The war effort forced our society, out of necessity, to conserve our resources. We re-used and recycled everything. We cut down on consumption. Most importantly, we planted victory gardens.

It saddens me that at the beginning of my parents generation, sacrifice was the norm, and it was necessary to "save democracy." Yet, now that it is necessary to make changes now that might just save all of humanity, we couldn't be bothered (the planet? the planet will be FINE - but we just wont be on it). But I'm in the minority. It's incredibly lonely. It's so very sad - during WWII the world's citizens band together to pool resources (on our own respective sides) while killing a combined total of about 72 million people in order to idolize an ideal (pick one - there were several, depending on what side you were on), but when it comes to saving our own ass, we wont do it. Can't do it. Can't figure it out. Can't be bothered. It's too "hard."

Which amazes me. After carrying a baby for nine months (and all the work that entails), and raising a child until adult hood (basically putting your own life on hold in the process - and don't forget about costs of education) - we're all willing to just toss our hands up in the air, shrug and say "it's too hard."

And if thats our attitude, what is the POINT?

It's a bit disheartening to say the least.

So why have a child at all? For hope. It's like planting flower bulbs or trees or garlic cloves in the fall - I have hope that spring will come once again. I have faith that the seasons will keep on turning and that although there is a frigid and and miserable winter to fight through, spring will come again, and the world will be reborn. Food will grow again, the sun will shine, the rivers and ponds will melt, and the birds will return.

Perhaps any child that I produce will have a sense of urgency inside, and can somehow get the world to see what so many of us refuse to. Perhaps that child will come up with some sort of a solution that will somehow save us all. At the very least, I hope such a child will live honestly and within reason, and will be able to see when it has enough, and will not take or use more than his/her fair share.

I suppose most people contemplating parenthood have such delusions. But I have hope.

Adult Fitness test

This is a great idea: an adult fitness test. "K" had to do these every year in the military, and I would do it along with him just for fun ("K" would score near-perfect every year - he'd make everyone else a little mad). We spent a lot of time exercising. As a result, we've both gained weight after he left the military. It's a combination of being less active and being able to afford good food. Go figure.

I just wish we could all get those signed presidential fitness award certificates. "K" could put his up in his cube.

Religious agricultural laws

During the Aufruf on Saturday, I was thinking about the Jewish agricultural laws the Rabbi mentioned. I was curious, especially after reading the "Gift of Good Land" essay by Wendell Berry immediately following the Aufruf. What are the common religious agricultural laws that tend to be repeated over and again in different religions?

For me, that's a tough question. I don't have a strong religious background in any particular religion, although I see that more of as an advantage than a disadvantage: I can see objectively, and I'm equally ignorant of all religions.

I have found, so far, that the laws of Seder Zeraim include dedicating a particular percentage of a yield to supporting the priests and those who serve in the temple, as well as the poor who do not have land of their own (leaving the harvest in the corners for the poor - 1/60 of the field and 1/10th of the produce). One law limits how much you can produce, and prohibits the mixing of seed in the field. Additionally, fields must lie fallow on the seventh year (no pruning, no sowing of seed). There is a prohibition against eating fruit from a tree less than three years old.

I find this fascinating. Written into the instructions for community members to follow year in and year out are laws that help maintain not only the community, but soil health and vitality. Built in fallow periods - very practical. And it might just keep a society from eroding or depleting their soils and eventually starving.

The Awakening

Have you noticed that suddenly there are earthquakes going on everywhere? Within the past few weeks, there has been a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Japan, a mysterious 2-month long series of earthquakes in Reno, NV, and even an earthquake in Illinois. And just today, a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China.

It's not just earthquakes: think of all the volcanos that have suddenly been in the news recently. There is the Chaiten volcano in Chile that suddenly started erupting for the first time in thousands of years. Kilauea volcano in Hawai'i National Park has suddenly become much more active, resulting in some areas of the park to be evacuated.

All of this within the past few weeks - since mid-April or so. Everything is just getting all shook up. It makes sense, but it's still a little worrisome. Is all this just a precursor to even more eruptions and earthquakes? Or was today's massive Chinese earthquake the culmination?

We are very rapidly becoming immune to large death tolls in the headlines. The UN death toll estimate for the Myanmar cyclone last week is around 100,000 people. The death toll for today's earthquake in China is in the thousands. (Update: the death toll for the China earthquake is now close to 12,000 people as of the morning of May 13).


In the U.S., we aren't having the same kind of death tolls, luckily, but we do seem to be having more severe weather than usual this year. There was the Super Tuesday tornado outbreak that killed 57 people. Then there was the tornado that struck downtown Atlanta. Over the weekend, there were tornadoes in Oklahoma & Kansas that killed an additional 22 people.

So far this year, we've had 910 tornadoes in the U.S., and it's still only the beginning of May. In general, the U.S. averages about 1200 tornadoes a year. By the end of May in 2007, there had been 799 tornadoes reported, with a total of 1305 for the whole year. We still have to get through May, but the remainder of the year should have about 30% of our yearly tornado totals... which would indicate that we are on track to get about 570 additional tornadoes this year.



Spring this year is bringing with it a whole slew of depressing geologic & climatic events. They are unlikely linked - unless you consider the ash plumes from the volcanoes entering the atmosphere and influencing weather patterns (which does happen). As the earth awakens this spring, it appears she is angry and is on a murderous rampage.

Aufruf, Part II

Upon further reflection, the readings from the Torah during the Aufruf were focused on the Laws governing who the priest's son could marry, and who is allowed to do what. The most interesting thing is that the book we were reading from wasn't an old archaic text - there was a modern English translation & discussion of sorts beneath the English translation of the laws in Hebrew. There was some mention of disabled people being unable to do certain things, but the English discussion section indicated that in today's societies, "we" do not discriminate based on physical appearances or abilities. It was really good to read - and I like the idea that "they" were willing to write in their prayer book that things are different now. It seems like such a little thing - but the last time I cracked open a bible in a church, I saw no such disclaimers, footnotes, explanations or summaries.

The Rabbi also called attention to readings further beyond the Aufruf readings - the laws that govern certain holidays, and how they tied in with traditional agriculture (he actually said "if you read ahead..."). The laws ensured that the planting would be done on time, the harvesting would be done on time, and that God was properly thanked for these miracles (or something along these lines - I didn't have time to read very much of it). It struck me how very suddenly people have become disassociated with these natural patterns of life. We now have all of these holidays (regardless of which religion may claim you, if any) that have their roots firmly in our agricultural history. Until very recently, we were a subsistence economy. Those laws are in the Torah simply for human survival, to remind people that they need to do certain things at certain times - these rules are important enough to follow that they formed a portion of our very spiritual study, so that we would not forget them.

And currently, these laws seem irrelevant in day to day life to the average person. Very few people know the actual origins of holidays in our society - they are seen merely as a day off of work (or school), or an occasion to go out drinking on a 3-day weekend or an excuse to exchange gifts. We now live in a world where people don't know the very traditions that have allowed numerous generations to survive, to create us in our current form. We all have a very long history that extends back to a very few people - but very few people know how we got to where we are today.

As I am now just finishing up Wendell Berry's "The Gift of Good Land" (a collection of essays), I found this part of the Aufruf service particularly interesting. The final essay, #24 (titled "The Gift of Good Land"), is discussing God, community, and how good Judeo-Christian people are required by their faith to be stewards of their land. Berry discusses how the Amish are so successful at agriculture while the average farmer is not (in the early 1980s, anyway) because they do not rule over the land, but nearly watch over it and take care of it as stewards. The Amish view the land as a gift from God; they don't "own" it, but they are merely borrowing it. The Amish also are very focused on their community and the welfare of all of those in it; they give freely of what they have so that their neighbor may succeed, and they recognize the yet unborn next generation as their neighbors and part of their community as well. And so they treat the land carefully; it's God land, and it is not only for their use, but for the use of their neighbors and the next generation. Which, naturally, leads to very sustainable farming practices.

Berry also frequently brings up "right livelihood' ("right work") from the Noble Eightfold Path, which means that you should choose a job that does not harm others. Berry insists that "others" includes everyone and everything - there is no "right work" in strip mining, and there is no "good christian strip mine". He allows that there is no way we can live without harming anything else - we live on the deaths of other creatures - but we can do our best to have the smallest impact as possible by applying the technologies we have in a responsible manner, individually suited to each individual application.

Aufruf

We attended a friends Aufruf ceremony today - the ceremony where he and his fiance read from the Torah, or before the Torah. I'm still not quite sure what went on, but it was really touching to have been invited to such personal & family-oriented occasion. I suppose it's much like announcing your impending marriage before God, before your family, your friends & the community you grew up with.

Social activites such as the one today are completely draining. I'm so fearful of inadvertantly offending someone that I rarely actually enjoy the event. But then I was able to think back to my own wedding, and it occurs to me that I was way too preoccupied to care what other people were doing. Nevertheless, when I got home, I was ready for a nap.

Today's ceremony brought me back to the idea of community. I can see how it's very possible that there is no community like the Jewish community, at least from what I can tell from my brief interaction with it today. It definitely seemed like a very large family. Very tight, very personal, very interactive. I understood very little of the service - but one thing was very apparent: there was a great deal of love and support for our friend & his family. And I wonder - is this community feeling particular to this one families' experience, or one congregation's experience, or it is fairly common among all the congregations? Is it the shared bond of persecution and adversity? Or does that have nothing to do with it at all?

Energy Raisers

The Boston Globe does it again - the wrote something I actually enjoyed reading and caused much thinking. Amazing. Is it possible they are changing? Is it a sign of the Apocalypse?

Energy Raisers - like an Amish barn raising - where neighbors descend upon each others houses to install solar hot heaters on the cheap. $3,000 instead of the commercially installed $10,000. Same system - free labor. It's a great idea.

The headline is a bit wordy: Many Hands Make Light Work of Saving Energy, but its still exciting. The gist is this: there is a group in the Plymouth, NH area that has figured out a way to help themselves and their neighbors by donating time to help install solar hot water systems. On a given Saturday, they all descend on a chosen house (whose owner also helps install systems on other peoples houses before & after their own installation), and they get it done in one day.

The Citizen of Laconia also ran a similar article earlier this week. Which led me to finding the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative. The group is a non-profit, and they've been around since 2004, and have done 50 solar installations to date. Membership costs $55 per year (for a family), and in return you a) help them and b) have access to all sorts of energy assessments, research tools, product discounts, networking/mentoring opportunities, discounts to training seminars & workshops, the opportunity to participate in energy raisers, and access to their library. It seems to be set up very well, and the membership cost seems reasonable.

Knowledge is a funny thing. You might pay (or work) once for it, but you use it continuously (barring any head injuries). And then you can pass it on to others.

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On a side note, I was not the only one who was exhausted yesterday. My neighbor across the street came home as we were fixing dinner last night. She backs into her driveway and her headlights shine right in through our kitchen window (a bit annoying). Well, her lights didn't go off. After about a half hour, I went over to her house and knocked on the door (I have talked to these people once - they also sent out an invitation to an open house at their house once, but then weren't home on said date - very annoying - and it wasn't just me - some other neighbors also went over, knocked on the door, and found no one home. No explanation was ever offered. Very odd & a bit rude. I'm not entirely convinced these people are really "with it" - I've also seen them drive by their own house and go into reverse down the street to get back to it. How do you miss your own driveway?). So anyway - once again - no answer. So I shrug and leave - let her run her battery down then. As I was walking down the driveway, I noticed the lights had turned off. She got out of the car, and had apparently fallen asleep in her driveway. Thankfully she put it in park first. I need to plant some more trees between us & them. Big, strong trees with lots of leaves.

Exhausted

Well, I've been more tired, anyway, but I'm pretty damn tired. 'Tis the season.

We planted leeks today, and prepared more planting beds. Which involved a lot of hand-tilling of very heavy soil. It wasn't hard at all, but it was early - 6 a.m. - but at least it wasn't raining. On the other hand, the black flies are pretty bad - no wonder they call them "Mayflies." I got the crap scared out of me by hoeing up a chicken wing - feathers still attached - apparently I jumped quite a bit. Not exactly what I thought I might find in the planting bed. Rocks, yes. Dismembered chicken parts, not so much.

After several hours of cleaning the house, I moved several hundred pounds of rock (a freebie rock pile is always good). Not exactly sure what I'll use the rock for, but it wont go to waste. It was free - what can I say? I have about 2 more days of rock- moving to do. I have one load still in the truck because I didn't have the time or energy to unload it. Maybe I'll build an herb pyramid. More likely, the rock will sit in a giant pile there for a few years and then I'll decide to do something with it.

The apple and cherry trees are blooming. The apple trees seem to really like the pruning they got last winter. I really need to learn how to do that the right way - although at this point my hack job seems to be helping. The compost application to the roots probably didn't hurt. I took some blossom photos with the large format yesterday - maybe tomorrow I'll use the digital. They really are beautiful.

This afternoon I went to a neat farm visit at a nearby farm about cover crops - *J* introduced me to CRAFT, which stands for "Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training." Of course, it was somewhat of an awkward social event (as all social events are), but it was also full of good information. My theory on cutting down the winter rye & leaving it in between the rows has been completely validated, which makes me happy - it's just about too late to do anything else with it anyway. Interestingly, mowing the winter rye is a good move - it stimulates root growth (which, once stated, made me think: "Duh", but hadn't previously occurred to me). Then you can plow it under - or not, apparently.

If you have to rebuild a town anyway...

Greensburg, KS : This weekend the town is hosting something that resembles a grand re-opening of their town. One year ago tomorrow, 90% of the town was wiped out by a tornado. Homes, businesses, schools, town offices, infrastructure - everything. Making the best of a horrible situation, the town has chosen not only to rebuild itself, but is also rebuilding itself green. "Greensburg GreenTown" would seem almost too cute to be true, had it not been for the horrible reality of having virtually an entire town wiped out in a few short minutes and the enormous amount of work they've accomplished in the last year.

The largest business in town, the local John Deer dealer, was badly hit. But they are rebuilding to LEED standards- they are trying to go Platinum - the highest LEED rating possible. The town itself is trying to use 100% renewable energy.

In December 2007, the city council also voted to become the first city in the US to demand that all city-owned buildings be LEED Platinum certified.

They've even recycled their damaged trees. They are also looking for donations of new trees.

They have future plans for a green industrial park in the city as well.

On April 4, 2008, the town starting distributing two-button flush-style water saving toilets to it's residents.

How is an older, rural farming community on the plains managing to pull off this ultra-green conversion? The town leaders have apparently managed to spread the ideals of energy efficiency and renewable resources in a non-political way: they've framed the green ideals not as a hippie-type earth friendly thing to do but as a common-sense move to control energy costs. In doing so, they hope to keep not only the businesses they had before the tornado upended their town, but also attract new green businesses.

I wonder how much tourism this will generate. If you build it, will they come?

Now, if we could only convince those that live in town the switchgrass is just as good as a lawn - then they could send their cuttings to the local biodeisel plant.

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On an interesting side note, I've just heard that Pres. Bush will be speaking at their high school commencement this week. That's kind of funny. A community of white people get wiped out, and a year later they have rebuilt to a great extent, and the President comes to their high school graduation. When was the last time the President visit the Gulf Coast? How well is the rebuilding going down there?

Wild Apples

Last night I attended the launch party of the new local litterary and arts journal Wild Apples. They had a pretty good turn out. I went with *J* and her family, and was introduced to one of the editors of the journal. Which, of course, was a painfully socially awkward event. I hate meeting people - I have no idea what to do with myself, and I'm sure I come across as having something "wrong" with me.

It was a nice event (by small town standards- I was pretty impressed), and we were able to listen to a poetry reading by one of the contributors (we left early, as *J*s baby was not feeling so well, the poor thing). It's really neat to know that our area has produced an artsy journal of its own- locally based. There's some comfort in that. There's a lot of comfort in that. I'm delighted to know that there are enough interested people around to support such a endeavor in our little corner of the world.

In the past few months, I've come to realize that all of the searching for home in various localities has been - well, not a waste, perhaps, but a bit misguided. We've been looking for a magical place that we can move to and feel comfortable and connected instantly. Ironically, it was here all along. I just had to dig deeper. Perhaps this housing bubble burst could be one of the most important events in my life. It's forced me to abandon the "move along" attitude and really settle in and get to know a place. I'm continuously surprised that our more or less "snap" decision to move to this particular house in this particular town may have been a sound one, and we may, actually, really fit in after all.

There is a lesson in there somewhere. It's down there somewhere. Guess I'll keep digging.

Farm work

I was at the CSA farm this morning at 6 am, to work with *J* on planting strawberries. We planted 3 varieties - Sea something-or-other, Early something-or-other (which I think was an ever-bearing) and Sparkle (in order from uphill to down hill). I hope *J* can keep these straight. I think I have enough info to track back and figure it out if necessary, just in case (I wont lose it if I put the info in the blog). We also planted watercress, and re-potted the onions from their flats to keep them going a little longer before we can futher till & mix in compost for their new home.

It is absolutely amazing to me how much faster things go with 2 people. I think *J* was too. We were done before her baby even woke up.

AND I was home by 915 am. Not bad at all. It was a pretty nice way to start my day.

So why did I join a CSA? Maybe I should start with what a CSA is - CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, I agree to provide labor once a week in exchange for a share of the farm's crops once a week. Other people buy a share, but I prefer to work for mine, as I have the time and enjoying working and learning. Getting to know people is a nice positive too. It works out well for the farm, too - if you buy your share, you usually buy in advance and the farm KNOWS what it will have income, and someone to buy its produce, and it takes some of the risk out of it. In my case, the farm knows they are getting dependable labor once a week, and *J* doesn't have to pay me anything up front, but can pay me in food when it is available. In exchange, I get stable food prices (dependent upon how the season is - but I get a share of whatever is produced).

There is something very simple to me about working for a share of a farm's produce. I could work somewhere else, make money, and then go buy food. Or I could work directly for the farm, know how the food is grown, and enjoy it more than I would if I had bought it because I have a connection to it. It takes out the middle man, the driving to the store, the gas, the bags, the lines, the hassle. I brought my dog to the farm today - can't do that at a grocery store - she got to play, and I got to be outside, talking with *J* about local issues (I just happened to be working at the same time).

(yes, the dog is lying in a giant mud puddle. We had 3.5 inches of rain earlier this week).

It's a luxury to have the time to make the arrangement work, but I have time. Or, rather, I've made time. This is one of those reasons why I've built my life like I have, and I am lucky to have the ability to do it. There is some value in how I do things - at least to me, and, let's be honest, that's the most important thing. If I can't make myself happy, no one can. And if I don't find value in how I live, then how will anyone else?

Food bubble

I ran across this interesting Washington Post article via Little Blog in the Big Woods. Greenpa (blog writer referenced above) has been railing against the commodities speculation market for the past month or two because they have been a source/cause of the current very high food prices. As a hedge against declining stock and bond markets due to our looming recession, fund managers, universities and other institutional investors have been speculating on food commodities (from what I understand, anyway. I'm not sure I totally get it). Basically, according to the Washington Post article, we have a food speculation bubble going on.

The article is really important. And you should go read it, especially if you are apt to complain about the high cost of, say, flour or rice. Or the fears of food shortages (or, if you are laughing at those who are fearful of food shortages and think they may be crazy). This is one of those things that effects every single one of us, and no one is immune. I was going to highlight the important sections and post them here as a teaser, but in all honestly, I started copying the entire article, which is not helpful. So go read it. Please.

Here is the link to the whole Washington Post Series on the food crisis. You might have to take that one in little bursts.

Whole-y Wheat!

I went grocery shopping today. I don't do it often, but I broke down and went. Mostly veggies.

And you know what? I was out of whole wheat flour, so I had to buy some. $5.19 for a 5 lb bag of whole wheat flour. I sure wish Costco sold giant bags of whole wheat flour, but they don't - at least mine doesn't.

I'm not going to rant and rave - at least, at this point, I can afford flour that expensive without really noticing. But I know there are a lot of people out there who can't. Instead of buying whole wheat flour, they'll switch to the less nutritious kind (the bleached white flour). They'll have to start buying more of the cheapest stuff in the store, which is the least nutritious stuff. It's scary. Our society will be forced to survive on spaghettios and corn chips.

We are in for some really rough weather folks. I joke about it, but that's just because it's too scary NOT to joke.

Burning of Blueberry fields

Also in Today's Boston Globe is an article about Blueberry farmers having trouble burning their fields due to the high cost of fuel. Apparently, in order to properly manage wild blueberries, you need to either mow or burn your fields. The photo in the article is a striking one - like a fire breathing tractor.

It occurred to me while reading the article: they are using fuel to burn their crops? Let's see... they put fuel into their tractors, drive around their field and use even more fuel to force a flame to come out and burn their fields. With all this dry weather we had, is that really necessary? Seems somehow extravagant to me. With all the brushfires we had last week, maybe they should be driving around spraying water instead?

932 gallons of fuel to burn 13 acres of blueberries. That's nearly 72 acres of fuel for an acre! I have an acre of land, roughly square and roughly open. I cannot imagine somehow using 72 gallons of fuel on it in ANY way - let alone pouring 72 gallons of fuel on the land and lighting it up (although I'm sure they use more of a flame-torch approach). Especially during the past two weeks when the whole place would have gone up with one match. There's no WAY that's an efficient use of fuel.

I'm sorry, but its very difficult to feel for their fuel pinch. 72 gallons of fuel an acre. Is that guy nuts?

Nevermind the issue with particulates in the atmosphere. Burning DOES have some positive effects on the soil, but maybe they could do it a little more intelligently. Maybe burn every 5 or 6 years and then mow in between. That guy would have saved some $3,000 in fuel. I bet it costs the same amount to drive the tractor to burn as it does to drive the tractor to mow.

My favorite part of the article is the guy who is apparently a bit smarter - because of the high cost of fuel, he is now mowing 80% of his fields and is only burning the places that are difficult to mow (physically) or have pest problems. At least SOMEBODY is thinking.

The article also mentioned that the prices of fertilizer are going up... Maybe articles like this will make people realize that fertilizers are petroleum based, and that crap is going into your food, and then into your body, where it is stored in your fat cells. For you athletes - when you burn that fat, the fertilizers and pesticides interfere with your cell's ability to create energy.

Maybe I don't need to be supporting the Maine Blueberry growers after all...

Aquifer in Public Trust

I'll admit I'm a bit fanatical about water and water usage. I studied Hydrogeology in school (and very much enjoyed it), and have worked as a hydrogeologist. I also lived in San Antonio, TX and spent 6 months in Las Vegas - both places where water conservation is taken seriously (in theory, unless you are a big employer or own a golf course).

So when I moved back to Massachusetts, I was struck by how completely unregulated our aquifers are. Most of the water for the most populated area of the state (including Boston) come from a series of reservoirs in the western part of the state via the MWRA pipe line. The MWRA (Massachusetts Water Resource Authority) serves 2.5 million people in 50 water communities, and also handles sewage systems for those communities. I currently live outside the MWRA service area, and I also grew up outside of the service area.

The MWRA does a fairly good job of supplying quality drinking water to the people it serves. The Quabbin Reservoir, located in the western part of the state, was built starting in 1930 and completed in 1939. The building of the Quabbin necessitated the abandonment of four towns, and the damming of the Swift River. It was a massive operation - they had to remove buildings, cemetaries, businesses, a railroad line and relocate all of the residents. This has always seemed very sad to me, although I can see the importance of the project and why it was necessary. At this point, the woods and area surrounding the Quabbin are mostly accessible only via foot traffic in order to protect the water supply. It is a beautiful area.

The MWRA is a publicly owned water system, so no one (in theory) is making money off of the water system. There's nothing really wrong with the MWRA, that I can see, although I'm sure, like any agency, it has its issues. My concern is that the MWRA isn't doing enough to push water conservation. Granted, the Quabbin has plenty of water. But it would be far better to conserve while we can than get into trouble later on. With climate change already occurring, it is difficult to tell what the future might bring, and it would be wise to conserve while we still have plentiful good quality drinking water.

However, I live outside the MWRA service area. We, like many of the towns around us, get our water supplied through residential drinking water wells, which means the local aquifer level is important to me, and I share an aquifer with my neighbors although we each have our own well. I have one neighbor who is fanatical about maintaining a perfect (and large) lawn. They water it regularly - in the middle of the day. Drives me nuts. There are 2 golf courses in town, which also use a ridiculous amount of water, although it's possible they have larger wells that are drawing from a deeper or different aquifer. It's hard to tell - as far as I know, our town has no listing or map of well information (I did go looking for information once...). There is no oversight at all, and as far as I know, no rules regarding water usage or withdrawl rates. Which is fine now - there appears to plenty of water right now. Which is exactly why we should be thinking of this right now, before it becomes an issue.

I was encouraged to read in the Boston Globe today an article about a bill recently passed in Vermont regarding Aquifers in the State of Vermont. If Governor Douglas signs this bill into law, all aquifers in the State of Vermont would be declared a public trust, which would necessitate a state permit for large water withdrawls. This wouldn't do anything about my crazy neighbor and their lawn, but it is a step in the right direction, and puts someone in control of the aquifers, instead of being a complete free for all. The law would also acknowledge that the groundwater in VT is owned by the people of the state, and that the groundwater must be managed by the state as such.

It's a step in the right direction.

In San Antonio, TX, there is the Edwards Aquifer Authority, which protects and manages supply for 1.7 million people - including agricultural (farming and/or ranching), residential and manufacturing uses. The Aquifer is 180 miles long. On the main page of their website, they have today's aquifer level, as well as the 10 day average. This information is also printed in the daily newspaper. There are laws regarding water usage - such as no watering between 10 am and 4 pm, and they can ticket people who waste water by watering their sidewalks/driveways or letting the water run down their street from their property. The Edwards Aquifer Authority also has different action levels based on different aquifer levels, and the information is all right there on the website.

While Massachusetts is in a very different climate than that of south-central Texas, the concept should be the same: the aquifers are a resource for the people, and need to be protected as such. It's a shared resource, and we shouldn't let this resource be a free-for-all until its too late. There are some protections for our aquifer currently under the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection, but the DEP also deals with a great many other issues, and we should have regional aquifer authorities that place the quality and quantity of our aquifers above everything else they do. Perhaps as a subset of the DEP. Maybe this should only apply in the western and central portions of the state, where people actually directly get water from the aquifer they live on top of. But right now, the only local political entity that has any oversight over our drinking water wells is the board of health - and from what I can tell, there is no cohesive organization of that data in my town. If there was a water quality issue, it would be very difficult to determine who is affected in what areas. If wells started to run dry, the only answer would be "go drill a deeper one" (not cheap), which places the burden on the homeowner, and ignores that there may be someone nearby using a larger amount of water than is reasonable, and your well may run dry as a result of their actions.

It's finally raining...

... a little too much. Half an inch today. One to two inches tonight. A quarter to a half-inch tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong, we need the rain. But a 2-day long down pour while everyone is planting their fields isn't a great thing, really. I had to go out and buy some straw (not hay, which contains seeds and will import weeds) to lay on my garden in order to keep the soil from washing away (see my previous post as to why THATS a concern).

Which brought me back to the cover crop idea. Last fall, I planted my first cover crop on half of my garden. The idea of a cover crop is this: it fixes nitrogen, keeps the soil in place, keep the soil slightly warmer (better insulation), and keeps the soil aerated. All of which improves the soil structure. Additionally, during normal growth patterns of a cover crop, organic matter is created via the root system growing on a daily basis. Roots, apparently, are much like our skin in that it regenerates on a regular basis - some of it dies and falls off as new skin is created, and it just keeps cycling through. This is what happens to the roots of cover crops, as well, which is one way that cover crops "fix" nitrogen into the soil.

If the soil is better insulated and better aerated through the use of cover crops, there is the added benefit of increased worm activity in the soil, which also goes great lengths to improving the structure of the soil. The worms (and other bugs) are able to be active later into the fall and earlier in the spring than if the soil had been wiped clean with the fall clean up.

So last fall, I planted (perhaps a little too heavily) a cover crop of winter rye. I spent about $4 on the seed, I think, and put minimal effort into planting it correctly (I threw the seed down, scratched up the soil with a garden rake briefly, and watered occasionally during dry spells). The winter rye had enough time to germinate and get some green growth prior to onset of winter. This spring, as the snow was melting off, I noticed two things: 1) the green parts were still green, UNDER the snow and 2) those areas where I planted the cover crop melted first.

I planted the beans and the peas last week in one of the winter rye areas. For now, I just hoed up a row IN the winter rye, and turned under those areas, leaving the areas in between the rows covered with the winter rye, which was growing so well I didn't have the heart to get rid of it all (it's about a foot high now). My theory is that the winter rye, will prevent unwanted weeds from growing, thus saving me much work while further adding to the soil. I may have to go through and trim it soon, or I may have to hoe it under. I'm supposed to hoe it under, but I hate directions. Winter rye, apparently, will grow to about 5 feet tall, which will definitely cause some issues with water/nutrient use and will compete with the vegetables.

BUT there are other summer-type cover crops, including alfalfa and clovers, which will perform the same function. My basic plan is this: to plant varieties of these two plants in strategic areas. Alfalfa along the road, likely (where I am years away from being able to get anything to grow at all) and in areas where I hope to garden next year, low growing clover IN the garden between the rows and taller clover in the butterfly garden.

Once nice thing about the clover is that it will attract bees, which will be good for the plants and, well, the bees (which are having a terrible time lately).

One drawback is that I'm not sure how hard it will be to get rid of the clover once I introduce it to the garden. Maybe it'll die out over the winter. One can hope. I think if I cut it before it sets seed, I can stop it from reseeding for next year, and it'll die out. But thats a big IF.

All the good dirt

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find an article titled "The Future of Dirt" on the front page of the Ideas section of the Boston Sunday Globe. Yet another sign that the rest of the world is starting to wake up. I can't remember the last time I looked at the Sunday paper and got that really happy feeling just because they are paying attention to something so fundamentally important.

For far too long has our society looked at dirt as something BAD, not something vital. All those vitamins & minerals that we need to live on come from dirt. Think about it. All your veggies contain what you need to survive because it draws them up from the soil. Unless, of course, we're talking about meat - but where do the cows get their nutrients which they then pass up to us? From the grass they graze (if they are so lucky) or from the grain that comes from, yes, yet more soil. A little thing called the food web - perhaps this is bringing back memories of a teacher & a chalkboard? It's a pretty basic concept, and we can't engineer our way out of it.

When we talk about something being "bad" we call it "dirty". When we talked about something messy (like my house), we call it "dirty." Makes it hard to realize consciously how very important good "dirt" is when we are giving it bad connotations all the time. But we can't live without. Cannot.

So what's going on with our soil? It's eroding. We are breaking down its natural structure and it's getting blown away, eroded by heavy rain, or rendered useless via poisoning. How? Heavy tilling, for one, breaks down the physical structure of soil, exposes more of the soil to the air (thereby releasing from the soil carbon dioxide & nitrous oxide - greenhouse gasses - into the atmosphere), and dries it out. Then it rains, or it gets windy, and it blows away. We over plant it, and we plant the same damn crops on it year after year (as in a factory farm growing corn for feed or biofuels), which sucks all the nutrients out of the soil, and leaves the soil prone to a pest infestation for that particular crop. So what then? We fertilize the soil heavily, and over time, the soil becomes salty and laden with petrochemicals. We heavily apply pesticides, which also accumulate in the soil, and prevent the soil critters (the good ones) from doing their job, and the soil further looses its structure. Over time, we might as well be trying to grow that corn in a sandbox for all the nutritional value left in it. (Surprise - you can't grow much in a sandbox).

Have you SEEN the pictures of how muddy the Mississippi River is (or perhaps with your own eyes)? Where do you think all that mud comes from? It's from our farm lands, our suburban areas, our urban run off. It's filling up the Gulf of Mexico and is creating "dead zones" where fish and other sea life cannot live.

The article mentioned above touched on the Farm Bill (which appears to be completely broken and tailored specifically to the needs of the factory farm and big agri-business, yet the masses don't care & couldn't be bothered), which while giving subsidies to large scale farms growing commodities like wheat and corn, but does not do a damn thing for farms practicing good soil conservation - like rotating their crops with alfalfa or soybeans or beans, which fix nitrogen INTO the soil as they grow.

How big of a problem is this? Even I was unaware of how BIG of an issue this is (or perhaps I had merely forgotten). It is estimated (in the globe article) that by 2050, people will have to survive (on average) on less than 1/10th of an acre per person of agricultural land. That is a downright scary picture, and should be keeping you up at night. We've already destroyed so much of our soil. In the northeast, we are lucky enough to live in a "stable" soil region (but our growing seasons is relatively short, and thus not well suited to large scale production agriculture). But most of the US, and most of the inhabited world live in areas that are defined as "degraded" or "very degraded". The deserts are spreading.

According to the wiki, an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation, and climate change. In Africa, by 2025, they will only be able to feed 25% of it's population. The starvation, increased food costs, and rioting that we are seeing now are likely only just beginning.

This isn't a new idea or a new issue. But soil erosion is a long-term issue, not easily dealt with through temporary legislation or in just a few years of farming practice, and in general, humans have really short attention spans. It takes a great many many years to build up good soil. You can't hurry perfection.

We've all heard the current rumblings about the recession, and even perhaps a large scale depression. Remember the last major US depression? What was also occurring at that time? The dust bowl. Here's a great old-time informational video like you would have seen in the fourth grade, complete with warbly music. The wiki, as usual, has a lot of information spelled out for you.

During Roosevelt's 100 first days of his presidency, he started a major campaign to restore ecological balance in the U.S. It would be lovely to have a new president capable of such sweeping reform, but I am not holding my breath, and I think it is likely our very survival is going to be left up to individual citizens who are well informed. Which is why I write this blog (even though I'm pretty sure no one reads it) - just on the off chance that someone, somewhere, runs across it (possibly while looking for something else) and goes off to figure things out for themselves.

Stem Rust... good news keeps coming :-)

Stem rust. I've been hearing more and more mutterings about this recently. I have heard that Iran currently has it, and it would make a great biological weapon on our food security.

Here's the deal. Apparently a wheat stem rust (fungus) epidemic (Ug99) is poised to break out, and is already spreading across Africa, Asia & the Middle East. It started in Uganda in 1999 (hence the name) - not that long ago. It's not a theory - it's already happening. Ug99 is spread via the wind - the wiki page has a more in depth discussion of the life cycle of Ug99, but basically the fungus attacks the above-ground sections of the wheat plant, which decreases the ability of the wheat plant to reproduce.

In the past, stem rust has been a major cause of famines, according to this facisinating opinion piece in the New York Times by Norman E. Borlaug (Nobel Peace Prize winner 1970) titled "Stem Rust Never Sleeps." In the U.S. it caused major crop losses from 1903 to 1905 and from 1950 to 1954. Ug99 is poised to create a global wheat crop loss at a time when wheat stores are at their lowest since the 1940s, and during a time where not only has the world's population increased greatly, but a larger percentage of that population is relying on wheat & grains than they ever have in the past.

So how did "they" stop it from completely killing all of the wheat everywhere? Scientists developed a new kind of wheat - one that was resistant to the fungus and that produced a greater number of seeds. It worked for 50 years. But now, we need to develop a new kind of wheat, and we need the cooperation of the global science community to do it.

Here in lies the rub. As Americans, we have more or less alienated most of the global community (thanks, bush). If we came up with a new & better kind of wheat resistant to stem rust, what do you bet it would be met with skepticism? Let's say, for instance, we came up with the magical wheat and offered it to Iran in order to keep it's children from starving (in exchange for something, I am sure). Do you think they'd actually trust us? I'm not sure I trust us, so I don't really think I can expect a "foe" to trust us.

But that's beside the point. According to Borlaug, while the U.S. was at first very gung-ho on this issue, and provided funding for research & development, we have very suddenly made a 180 and have cut most of the funding. Thanks bush - way to go, man. This guy is AMAZING... in all the wrong ways. I can't wait to see what the history books have to say about him - if we survive that long.

We Can Solve It...

I don't know if you've seen the ads, but We Can Solve It seems to have invested heavily in ads on HGTV. This is Al's (as in Al Gore) newest attempt to get the ball rolling. I've joined, as have about a million other people (but only a million - there are 6 BILLION people in the world. Come ON!). A million is a mere drop in the bucket. As popular as "green" is today (have you looked at any of the sunday circulars? they all claim to be green - while trying to get you to buy more stuff and throw your old, yet perfectly functioning stuff into a landfill), you'd think there would be more people signing the petition.

Which leads me to the "draft Al Gore for the presidency" people. While I am an Al Gore Fan, it's time to admit that he is WAY more influential dealing solely with the climate issue. He can do much more for the us & the planet from the outside than he can while having to deal with the stupid-er issues of the day. Really, I'd rather have good ole Al doing his climate thing than, say, the annual easter egg hunt on the white house lawn. Let the figure head deal with that crap and install a "first hamster" or whatever pet he or she chooses.

Have you seen the TED talks? Al is too funny to be president. Beside that, if we all paid attention to ANY of the TED talks, we'd be far better off as a planet. I see Amy Tan has given a talk on creativity....

Rain Barrels at a good price (Mass. area)

I received the following email today from a friend on the re-localization group. For those of you in the Massachusetts area, this might be good information. I got one of these rain barrels last year - way better than the ones I had in Texas (these don't allow mosquitoes to breed & keep all the leaf crap out!). I liked mine so much, I've ordered a second for this year. Go get one. Seriously.

MassToss and MassDEP are offering rain barrels to help residents
conserve water, save money and reduce storm water run-off.
The average homeowner uses approximately 40 percent of water for
outdoor use. A one-inch rainfall on a 1,200 square foot roof will
yield more than 700 gallons of water. Using a rain barrel is an
excellent way to conserve some of this water. A quarter inch run-off
from an average roof will easily fill the barrel. If there are five
storms a season, that equals 275 gallons of free water. Rain barrel
use reduces the stress on municipal water systems during the summer
months and improves storm water management.

The rain barrels are made from 55-gallon blue plastic recycled
containers. The top does not come off, so no children or pets can get
in the barrel. It has a six-inch diameter inlet opening covered with
a screened louver to keep insects and debris out. The barrels have
two brass spigots, one to connect a hose for watering, and one for
overflow. A hose can be connected to the overflow spigot to redirect
the water away from the home. The barrels come with a five-foot hose
with a shutoff valve. Multiple barrels can be joined for additional
capacity.

The first 30 rain barrels ordered can be purchased at the subsidized
price of $56.50 using a MassDEP grant and state contract pricing,
which is considerably less than the retail price, upwards of $89. If
we sell more than 30, we can still offer a discounted price of
$66.50.

To order call 8770-977-3135, toll-free, or order online at
www.nerainbarrel.com.
You do not need to be a resident to purchase the barrels. Offer
expires May 22 for Devens-area pick-up.

Rain barrels will be delivered May 28 at the Devens DPW, 99 Buena
Vista St., Devens, from 3 to 6 p.m.

Adoption

Have you ever seriously wished as an adult to find out that you were, in fact, adopted and that somewhere your REAL family is wondering where you are?

I really kind of thought that by THIS point in my life, I would have progressed beyond this fantasy. But sure enough, as soon as we all get together, there it is again... that wondering... "Who ARE these people?"

It's amazing to think that with the same genes, and the same environment, I have turned out so very different from the rest of them. The ONE saving grace is that my younger niece is in many ways very much like me. Which makes me a wee bit worried for her. If the rest of the family can reduce me to near-tears at my age...how hard it is going to be for her in the coming years?

International Year of the Potato

No, I'm not kidding; it IS the International Year of the Potato. According to who? The United Nations.

I first heard about this from a guy in the relocalization group, who is a potato fan, and more or less instigated a giant potato buying order (my potatoes are now trying to sprout in my sunroom). When I heard about the year of the potato, I though "aww...how cute." Now, it dawns on me. The UN saw the writing on the wall with the rapid increase in rice and wheat prices. Remember the whole rice rioting thing that's been going on in various places? The UN's answer is potatoes.

Potatoes can grow just about anywhere, if you have a variety thats adapted to your climate. I had some serious potatoes growing in my cabinet this spring, for pete's sake (which I have since stuck in some dirt...and they continue to grow).

According to the UN's potato page, a third of the world's potato production occurs in China & India. 2005 saw a dramatic shift in the balance of world wide potato production with the developing nations outpacing the developed nations in potato production. The U.S. in #5 on the list of top potato producers with 19,460,119 tons; #1 is China with 79,366,428 tons (#2: Russia, #3: India, #4: Ukraine).

Interestingly, the U.S. has by far the highest potato yield per acre in the world with 16.49 tons/acre. Europe is the next contestant with 7.71 tons per acre, and the rest of the regions fall between Europe and the lowest-density producer Africa with 4.83 tons per acre. I imagine the density of yield is directly related to land value. In Europe and N. America, farmers really have to be able to get as much yield as possible out of what land they have in order to stay in business. In the other regions, there are likely still more areas to grow potatoes (outside of densely populated cities). I also wonder how much production density has to do with the type of economy that is in operation in the growing area. While the market-driven economy does have its draw backs, it does force farmers to squeeze all they can (for better or worse) out of their land.

Here's a neat little diagram on HOW potatoes grow. Here's the U.N.s fact sheet on potatoes, including nutritional content and how it will be a key player in solving the world's food shortage keeping the developing nations more stable.

Reuters did an interesting article on potatoes in mid-April. Potatoes are cheap, mostly due to a lack of a financial speculation market - most potatoes aren't exported. This makes farming them difficult on the farmers - they end up selling them cheaply, which means they have to grow and sell a very great many of them & it's labor intensive. BUT for us home gardeners, potatoes are perfect - the seed is cheap and it's nutritious. Less fat than wheat, good source of protein, half of your daily vitamin C intake. They keep pretty well too.