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Gulf Coast Oil Spill – Sioux Prayer Request

May 23, 2010 by Mom

The Gulf Coast Oil Spill is an unprecedented disaster.  I feel so helpless. I want to do something  but I don’t know what.  I  do so love and honor Mother Nature. This hurts so deeply. I am not a particularly religious person. This recently came to me from another Nature Lover. It is heartfelt. I don’t know what else to do.

Gulf Coast Oil Spill – Sioux Prayer Request – A letter from Chief Arvol Looking Horse (Present Chief and Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota Nation of the Sioux)

Gulf Coast Oil Spill - Sioux Prayer RequestGulf Coast Oil Spill – Sioux Prayer Request

****** A Great Urgency ****** To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders ******

My Relatives,
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together from the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.

We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.

The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make.

I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.

I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted on the Earth. As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother Earth (our Unc’I Maka).

We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.

As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.

So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st, World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your own sacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good decision making by our Nations, for our children’s future and well-being, and the generations to come.

Onipikte (that we shall live),
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe

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More Bang for your Buck: Companion Gardening

May 15, 2010 by Mom

One big happy family.

Call it French intensive, postage stamp gardening, square foot gardening, edible landscapes, permaculture,it all works. The idea here is to get the biggest yield with the least amount of time, effort, and space. $10 worth of seeds will yield $650 worth of food if you play your cards right. There is a trick. The trick is companion gardening. It isn’t new, Mother Nature has been doing it forever.

Look at any wild area where Nature has had her way and you will see many different kinds of plants growing, thriving, helping each other with soil nutrients, sun and shade protection, repelling pests, attracting pollinators. Pretty intense stuff with no help or interference from humans.

It's a jungle out there

Man likes to do Monoculture which is rows and rows of the same plant exposed, isolated and helplessly stretched across horizon less fields. This kind of farming takes big bucks and every minute of every day to maintain. Man has to play god trying to do what nature does naturally.  So, monoculture has to  kill everything that the plant comes in contact with: It kills the weeds, the pollinators, microorganism and then has to spend money replacing these things with artificial fertilizes, artificial pest control, artificial shade, artificial light, artificial weed control, artificial temperature control, artificial water. Even the plant has been shot full of chemicals so it can resist all the chemicals that go on it. Our modern-day monoculture is on chemotherapy. Pretty expensive stuff.

Monoculture

The difference here is as long as we have a bucket of dirt or a square inch of soil we can give nature a hand in our own backyard and it will not cost us anything.

It doesn’t cost Nature a cent to make things grow. Her trick is cooperation. She puts her kingdoms in charge of each other’s happiness.  Little seeds fall onto rich fertile soil that was left there by the former occupants that takes root and blooms and grows. Natural sunlight, heat, bees, butterflies, rain, wind, worms, microorganisms all go about making life a joy and a wondrous affair to remember.

Getting a head start.

Mom’s a genius when it comes to making stuff grow.   We have learned by watching Her at work that certain plants bring out the best in each other. Just like good friends. So, lets look at a couple of things we can do to get the most bang for our buck. One way is by planting plants that like each together.  Then invite some friendly working insects into the mix  and you have a garden teeming with life.

So let’s get started with the classic Indian method called the 3 sisters. You plant corn in the back you plant beans at the base of the corn and squash in front of the beans. The beans enrich the soil with nitrogen that the corn and squash love. The beans use the corn as a trellis and the squash covers the ground like a mulch retaining moisture.  You can do cucumbers instead of squash but then it would be 2 sisters and an in-law.

I am going to give you a link to show all the companion plants but I’ll bet you already know quite a few. A rule of thumb is usually what goes good in the pot  works good together in the garden. Think spaghetti garden, tomatoes, parsley, garlic, and basil all work great together.   Plant an enchilada garden  cilantro, peppers, onions more garlic.  This is just getting your mind wrapped around the idea of mixing it all up.

Word about plants that hate each other. Tomatoes and strawberries fight like cats and dogs. Carrots and dill, don’t sound good and either does lettuce and cabbage.  If you think about it we don’t mix these things together when we eat them so more than likely they are not going to work well together in the garden.

The Clydesdale of the garden.

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

French marigolds

Put them everywhere.

When you plant all these different things together it confuses the bad bugs as opposed to putting everything in a neat little roll where they can zero in on it. Don’t make it easy for bugs make it easy for you. The plants do the work by helping each other.

Here is a great site for more info on Companion gardening, beneficial insects and weeds. Yes, there is such a thing as a good weed.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

I want you to be able to identify good bugs and insects in the garden. So, here is a list of beneficial with pictures. Be kind and let them be.

Assassin Bug

assassin bug

assassin bug

Lacewing

Lacewing

lacewing eggs

Lady Beetle

lady beetles

ladybug

Parasitic Wasp

parasitic wasp

parasitic wasp

That should get you started on beneficial bugs.  Here is a list and a link to more of the same.

List  of other beneficial.

Having fun in the garden makes the food taste better. So have some fun. Variety is the spice of life.

Circle of Life

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Women’s Day Proclaimation by Julia Howe Ward

May 9, 2010 by Mom

Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

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I Smell Gas

May 4, 2010 by Mom

I smell gas

I have been smelling gas in the house.  Not all the time just occasionally and just faintly.  No it’s not Major. Or the cabbage. I was not really worried but it was annoying.  I decided to call the gas company and have them check for leaks. I needed the telephone number to call.  I thought it would be on the bill. Couldn’t find the bill just had the receipt marked paid. The receipt did not have the telephone number on it. All the utilities are in Cassie’s name. I just give her some money and then she pays them usually online. We don’t have contact information anywhere for stuff she pays online. Just so happens though we pay the gas bill in person because it is local.

I found a bill that said PG&E.  Pacific Gas and Electric. Cassie said that’s not the gas bill. Really? What is it?  That’s the electric bill. Of course it is, how silly of me. O.k. I said what is the gas company called? We had to find the receipt to found out that the  name of the gas company is The Gas Company.  Brilliant.  I think that’s weird but still looking for a telephone number.  Got the phone book out. Looked in the business section for Gas Company. Nothing. Looked under county and city of San Luis for Gas Company. Nothing. Looked in the yellow pages under utilities. Nothing. What the hell?  Why can’t I find the telephone for the Gas Company? And there you have it.  It was listed under T for The not under G for Gas.

O.K. that is just wrong. You always dropped the The and the A in a company’s name when you listed it in the phone book. Oh well, I will just let them know when I get in touch with them that there number was hard to find and should be listed under  G not T in the phone book and  the part you keep for your records, not the part you throw away should have the contact numbers on it.

Anyway, called and went through a 20 question and answer menu before I talked to a real person to explain it was not an emergency but did need to make an appointment to have the gas checked for leaks. It was 3pm. The appointment was made for between 3 and 8pm that day. Would I be home?  Sure. I waited until 7pm and Major had to go for a run.  It was misting lightly outside so I put my raincoat on got his leash on him and knock, knock the gas (wo)man is here. I wish I would  have done that 2 hours ago.

What a dirty trick.  Major was all primed and ready to go and holding it since noon and now it’s a no go. He is not happy.

Tied him up to a tree

so if he had to pee he could and then I headed inside.  He barked just to let me know he was getting a little wet, he wanted his run and I was now on his shit list.

Inside the little meter they use to detect a gas leak is going a mile a minute. Yikes. Maybe it was worst then I thought. I was thinking brain damage from escaped gas.  She assured me it was not that bad. It was beeping in the whole area behind the stove where all the connections are. Had to pull it away from the wall.  It would take both of us to pull it out.

I was giving her a hand pulling it when there was a rapid loud knock on the door. Who could that be?  Went over to see and just caught a glimpse of my crazy neighbor shutting and locking her door.  I can only guess that Major’s occasional bark was ticking her off so this was her way of getting even. Bang on my door. What a fruitcake. There was enough time for Major to pee if he was desperate so I brought him inside, more for safety from the crazy neighbor then anything else.

A lot of gas had concentrated behind the stove and this made zeroing in on the leak a little harder.  One connection that was enclosed in a screwed on box on the back needed an allen wrench to check it out.  Lucky, I had an allen wrench. Doesn’t every one?  When she put the detector on the connection the lights were going off as well as beeps.  She turned off the gas to the stove. She loosened the nut that was leaking put some oil on it and tighten it down.  I learned that you put oil on fitted pipes and tape on unfitted pipes. The reason is the oil allows a little extra purchase area on the threads so you can tighten it down more and that seals it off.  Tape would not have done anything. Good to know. I love learning stuff.

Retrieved a nutmeg grate and a pair of tongs that had fallen behind the stove before we pushed it back. Major only had to wait about an hour for his run and boy did he have to go.

Now the moral of this little story is if it was an emergency gas leak call 911.  Second I dare you to find your contact number on your bill right now. When you find it post it on the frig or wherever you keep important info. I put the number in my cell phone under G. Your gas company is listed under Y in the telephone book.

Then after you find the number I want you to go outside and find the shut off valve on the gas meter. You really need to know were this is in case there is an earthquake or something shakes the pipes or connections lose and you have a BIG gas leak.  You need to know how to shut the gas off at the source. In a major catastrophe 911 will not be able to help everyone at the same time. Take a vice grip or an adjustable wrench with you and leave it there.  Attach it to the meter with a string or something so it doesn’t get lost.

Find the valve and give it a quarter turn to the right. That shuts off the gas flow.

Gas turn off valve.

Here is a cool site that explains everything you need to know. http://tinyurl.com/2b2nrm9
Red Cross course in emergency preparedness advises you to only turn the gas off if there is a strong gas smell or sound of gas escaping.

My meter is over behind the crazy neighbor’s house so I am not leaving my wrench there. Instead I have it sitting in a toolbox right outside the back door.  Also, when I see the two new neighbor kids that live in back I am going to show them how to turn the gas off.  It’s a good thing to know and that means pass it on.

1)    So, today you found and posted the contact number for your gas company.

2)   Found your gas meter and attached a wench or vice grips to it.

3)   Learned I have a fruitcake neighbor and a dog that has great bladder control.

Ah life is good .

I have more crazy neighbor stories.

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OMG Look What My Earthworms Did!

April 28, 2010 by Mom

They saved me $9. Or made me $9 worth of organic compost.  That’s what this 5 pound bucket of organic compost would cost me at Home Depot.  I just harvested this in less than an hour.  It cost me nothing to make.  Labor was free.  The earthworms did it for nothing.

I didn’t do anything except put clippings from the garden on a pile and the occasional kitchen scraps.

The paper is from the bottom of the birdcage.   This is my version of ‘add manure’. I used a loosely applied facsimile of the lasagna method to compost. The lasagna method is a layer of green stuff, grass clippings, lettuce, kitchen scrapes, then a layer of brown stuff, dried leaves, coffee grounds, parakeet droppings and one time one pound of earth worms.  I hadn’t done anything to it for about 3 years. I mean I never turned it or tossed it. I just piled stuff on it.

This is all the doings of hungry little earthworms. They work for scrapes. Earthworms are different from the red wigglers, Eisenia fetida that we use in our worm bin a.k.a. red worm, manure worm or fish worm. Red wigglers love being confined. Earthworms on the other hand, cousins to red wigglers, Lumbricus (genus) terrestris (species), nicknamed Lumber Jacks, would rather live outdoors footloose and fancy free in your garden or compost pile. Earth Worms: Have the power to move stones that weigh 50 times their own weight. They also ingest soil and organic matter equal to the amount of their body weight each day.

A friend of mine recently broke her ankle hiking and was not able to get to her usual spring time chores. So she put out an APB to anyone that could lend a hand in the garden until she got back on her feet.  I volunteered and my first assignment was to sift and turn her compost pile(s). Something I had never done before.  I could compost piles like a champ but what is this sifting thing all about?

She has 4 huge compost bins about 5 feet by 5 feet in varying stages of decomposition.

“First, Sift this pile into the bucket,” she said.” Right”, I said and got to sifting. I lifted up the little door and started pulling compost out and onto the sifter that sat on top of a 5 gallon bucket.

After about an hour of this we had a bucket full of compost. Nice beautiful rich and sweet smelling compost.

“Next,” she said  “we are going to put all the stuff from this compost bin,” she pointed to the next bin in line,

into the compost bin you just emptied.” “Right” I said and started shoveling all the semi-composted stuff into the last stage composter.  There were twigs and cut up tree trunks, and avocado seeds.  It was all brown and all decomposing. This bin was different. It was open. I had to lift from the top. Using a different set of muscles here.

“Next,” she said, O.k. by now I am thinking this is a lot of dang work. What do you mean next? Does Mother Nature really go through all this? I don’ t think so.  Anyway, next meant layering all the green stuff just collected which was about half a ton of nasturtiums from her river bank, with all the left over sifted parts from the first bin. I needed a pitchfork for this job.  And oh yes she had the pitchfork so I got to work. Green stuff is lighter so this only took about 30 minutes. Now, it was layered and it was beautiful.

This is the layered look and what we were going for.  Not quite pretty as a picture but close enough. Composting is not rocket science. However, it is a science and the University of Illinois Extension can tell you all about it. http://tinyurl.com/268ub52

There is something for everyone when it comes to composting. Die hard scientific types that have nothing but time and money to spend on composting. Then there are those like Donna who have the science down but tweak it to make it work for them. Then there are people like me who just more or less let nature take its course. I play around and learn some things just by accident.

1)   A cup of java or at least a cup or two of the coffee grounds added to the compost every now and then and  those little worms will work their little hoofies to the quick. Now, don’t be reporting me to the humane society. It is not really the caffeine. It is the organic makeup of a coffee bean that they love to munch on. It’s dessert. It keeps them happy and regular.

2)   The PH in coffee grounds is around 7.0, that’s neutral and all the caffeine was pressed out the first go around. Starbucks or most coffee shops give away their coffee grounds. Just ask. While you are at it give your roses a shot too. Mulch with it and it will keep the snails at bay.

3)   Comfrey leaves and stinging nettle can do things to the compost pile no other plants can. Check it out.

Donna finally announced that we were done for now.  “Right,” I said only slightly wondering how long ‘for now’ was.  Donna confessed,   “Jeanne,” she said, “I am a really lazy composter.” Lazy? I queried. “Yup, I don’t do half the stuff the books tell you to do.” Yikes. If Donna considers herself lazy then I must be catatonic.

I don’t know what you call what I am doing, maybe just slave driving cause the worms were doing all the work.

I bought potting soil last fall to repot my bamboo. Now it’s spring and time for another round of planting. I looked at my compost pile and decided it’s time to get the dirt out.

I borrowed Donna’s sifter and finally worked my pile. There were a lot of Lumber Jack earthworms in there doing their thing.  Good sign that they like the accommodations. Not only do the worms like it  every seed I throw in there was sprouting. I had Avocado seeds, apricot, bamboo, comfrey, and a cherry forest growing in the compost pile. I had created a breeding ground. Good temp for sprouting but not hot enough to cook the pile down. I potted everything up that was sprouting.

Forest of cherry trees

Apricot and cherry tree

This time around I put in an oven thermometer I picked up at Goodwill for a buck, gave everything a big drink of worm tea to start the microorganisms working and covered it with some black plastic to warm it up.

The Kahala Hilton Worm resort

Some like it hot

If it gets too hot for the worms they can just mosey on over to a cooler area. They will be back when the microbes are done doing their hot number.

A compost pile that is really cooking should get to about 135-160 degrees. Maybe it will get hot and maybe it won’t. Either way hot or not I am fine with it. I get dirt no matter what I do. And I do as little as possible and that works for me.

Dirt cheap and loving it.

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How to start a Movement. Just Do It.

April 14, 2010 by Mom

Ring-a-ling, Ring-a- ling, Hello?

Just Pick up the phone and dial the number. Send that email. Just do it.  The rest will  happen. Had my 3-way conference call Friday with Shannon Biggs co-author of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots. Shannon Biggs directs the Local Economy project at Global Exchange. As a former senior staffer at the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) she wrote for and edited IFG publications, and was a lecturer on International Relations at San Francisco State University. She holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics in economics, empire and post-colonialism.

Building the Green Economy shows how community groups, families, and individual citizens have taken action to protect their food and water, clean up their neighborhoods, and strengthen their local economies. Their unlikely victories—over polluters, unresponsive bureaucracies, and unexamined routines—dramatize the opportunities and challenges facing the local green economy movement.

Drawing on their extensive experience at Global Exchange and elsewhere, the authors also:

* Lay out strategies for a more successful green movement

Describe how communities have protected their victories from legal and political challenges

Provide key resources for local activists

Ben Price, Projects Director for Community Environmental Defense Fund.  Ben leads organizing across Pennsylvania where over 100 communities have adopted Legal Defense Fund-drafted laws. Mission Statement:

“Building sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.”

“We believe that we are in the midst of an escalating ecological crisis, and that the crisis is the result of decisions made by a relatively few people who run corporations and government. We believe that sustainability will never be achieved by leaving those decisions in the hands of a few – both because of their belief in limitless economic production and because their decisions are made at a distance from the communities experiencing the impact of those decisions. Therefore, we believe that to attain sustainability, a right to local self-government must be asserted that places decisions affecting communities in the hands of those closest to the impacts. That right to local self-government must enable communities to reject unsustainable economic and environmental policies set by state and federal governments, and must enable communities to construct legal frameworks for charting a future towards sustainable energy production, sustainable land development, and sustainable water use, among others. In doing so, communities must challenge and overturn legal doctrines that have been concocted to eliminate their right to self-government, including the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights, preemption, and limitations on local legislative authority. Inseparable from the right to local self-government – and its sole limitation – are the rights of human and natural communities; they are the implicit and enumerated premises on which local self-government must be built.”

Me: I am just an ordinary person in an ordinary community that has for the past 10 years or so been fostering a growing disdain and dislike for GMO’s and their intrusive, invasive, insidious presence in our food chain. As far as I know I am the only person who feels this way. All that is about to change.

I have spearheaded petition drives, writing and calling campaigns, to our State and Federal government to get GMO’s labeled. These were national campaigns. Zero results. Apparently, State and Fed officials have their own agenda. Imagine my surprise. Lesson learned.

Time for a change. After 10 years I get it.

I want results. My son was reading Growing a Green Economy. “Read this.” He said. O.K. I said. Couldn’t put it down. This is a story about changing the way you do things and getting results. It is empowering. It hit a nerve.

Once our Supreme court decided to give Monsanto, AT&T, Blackwater, Walmart, Chevron, Freddie Mac, Wall Street and other such corporations personhood status I got a little worried.

That’s when I contacted Ben and he contacted Shannon and here we are having this three-way conversation.   Shannon asked me questions. Are there GMO’s grown in your community? What do the local farmers think of GMO’s? What does the community think about GMO’s?  Heck, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions.

So. “Let’s have a meet’ng” with the local farmers, and community members that have a vested  interest in a green economy and community and find out what they think and what they need.  O.k. I said. O.k. Shannon said, Ben said, fine.

Shannon said she will come and speak to the group.  Cover her gas money and a place to stay and she will come and talk.  Wow. That’s generous. And that was that. I said I will work on getting the group together and keep in touch by email.  She is off to Bolivia  this week I believe working on a rice project.

So, that is how the conversation went. I knew nothing going in and learned a lot. Maybe labeling GMO’s is not the way to go. Maybe, banning the production of GMO’s in this community is something we need to look at. I really am not sure where all this is going but I do know the worst of it is over.  Getting started is the hardest part.

I have a list of people I am going to contact to get feedback and organizational help from. I am going to contact Melanie Blankenship of Nature’s Touch, Bob Banner of Hope Dance, Elizabeth Johnson of our little seed exchange group, Farmer Bill of Windrose Farms, Hunter Francis, Eric V. pres of a new group of local farmers called CCAN, Kevin Stephen of Huasna Valley Farm and Linnaea and Peter of STEYNBERG gallery.

I am in very good company here.   I just contacted Melanie and asked her advise on the idea. We met once. I don’t know if she even really knows who I am. She does a local talk radio show every Saturday.   I will wait for an answer. This is how things get started. We are off and running.   Thank you both, Shannon and Ben,  for your time. Bye for now.

This is good.  Made the call, got started and nobody died.

p.s.  This just in 04/15/10

Bayer admits GMO contamination is out of Control. ( and yes this is the same company that makes the baby aspirin.)

http://www.naturalnews.com/028585_GMOs_Bayer.html

04/19/10

Mainstream Scientists Finally Admit that GMOs are Environmentally Destructive

By Keith Good, ed.
FarmPolicy.com, April 14, 2010
Straight to the Source

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20631.cfm

Posted in community, diy, GE, Genetically Modified Organism, GM, gmo, sustainability, sustainable lifestyle | Tagged | 6 Comments »

How to Get GMO’s Labeled. One for All. All for One Flash Movement.

March 31, 2010 by Mom

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Farmers-Struggle-Against-GMO.htm

My last 6 blogs were about GMO’s.   It was a very one sided point of view, mine and about 200 million other people who view GMO’s as a man-made scourge upon the earth not unlike the biblical plague of locust described in Exodus.

I didn’t realize until I looked up the biblical reference to locust how similar the plagues of the bible correspond to the our modern day ‘curses.’ The biblical  locust “descended upon the land and ate every living plant and tree.” Humm. Terminator seeds, Frankentrees and Roundup Ready crops created by Monsanto does the same thing. Kills everything it comes in contact with.  Geez who needs gods to cast plagues upon the earth when we have man-made curses like Monsanto to do it for us?  So, where is our modern day Moses to get us out of this mess?  I wish I knew. I am not a particularly religious person but this has me wondering.  All this plague stuff has to do with nature and living organisms.

The plagues as they appear in the Bible are:[4]

  1. (exodus 7:14–25˄) water turned to blood killing all fish and other water life. (Dam)
  2. (exodus 8:1–8:15˄) frogs (Tsifardeah)
  3. (exodus 8:16–19˄) lice or gnats (Kinim)
  4. (exodus 8:20–30˄) beasts or flies[5] (Arov)
  5. (exodus 9:1–7˄) disease on livestock (Dever)  Mad cow?
  6. (exodus 9:8–12˄) unhealable boils (Shkhin)
  7. (exodus 9:13–35˄) hail mixed with fire (Barad)
  8. (exodus 10:1–20˄) locusts (Arbeh)
  9. (exodus 10:21–29˄) darkness (Choshech)
  10. (exodus 11˄,12˄) death of the first-born of all Egyptian families. (Makat b’chorot)

These references are from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt

It just seems to me the key here is nature.  If you want to get someone’s attention just threaten and change the natural order of things.  GMO’s have changed the natural order of things.  The Egyptian pharaoh was a pretty hard nut to crack.  He didn’t ‘get it’ until after the all the fishes in the Nile died all the cows, donkeys and horses died and  the scourge of flies, frogs, locust, lice and unhealable boils happened.  Not until the death of his own first born did he finally get it.

Our government is a pretty hard nut to crack too.  They don’t get it. I mean we are the only country that has not labeled these cursed GMO’S.   We have made it a law to Not label GMO’s.  That is just crazy talk.  I mean really. What is it going to take to get things turned around before someone or something ends up dead?  I think having 80% of all our food contaminated with GMO’s is enough of an indicator of where things are going.  Cracking the nut in this case is just not worth the effort.  By all indications the nut is rotten anyway so why even bother trying to crack it?  Our government has had numerous opportunities to do the right thing by at least labeling GMO’s and has ignored every request to do so.  So, I think now it’s  time to ignore the rotten nuts and get on with picking something better.

Better Nuts worth Cracking

Rather than try to take on the rotten State or Federal government I am going to start this nut cracking business in my own backyard.   I can do that by getting an ordinance written here in SLO that requires all GMO’s to be identified on the signage with a red dot at the Point of Purchase.  I have talked about the organization Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund who helps people write ordinances.  I also told you I would keep you posted as to the process.  So far we are off to a bit of a bumpy start.  I have been in contact with Ben Price and Shannon Biggs.  Ben is working out of headquarters in Pennsylvania and Shannon is the Rep for California.

We have made our introductions.   I have made my intentions known and the offer to have a 3 way phone conversation was extended by Ben.  That was 3 weeks ago.  I have since sent a follow-up email last week to Ben and Shannon indicating I am ready to get started.  I am still waiting for a response.   In the mean time I have learned we are a charter city, which is a good thing. Also am lining up local organizations I belong to as well as networking with farm organizations I think would be so inclined to back this ordinance.

Community involvement is key to this effort. The more the merrier. I am approaching this as a one for all all for one flash movement.  If we could All join forces for just one big push or effort our chances of success are greatly increased.

After we  succeed in passing this ordinance as a community we disband and go back to our regularly scheduled events.  We can each be doing our own thing but when the need arises we can ban together as One in a Flash. Get the job done and then go back to what we were doing. One thing that really impressed me about CELDF was how they were able to organize at the local level.  This local level stuff is very powerful.  In fact, in many  cases as they have proven, local laws and ordinances trump State and Federal laws .

Maine Town Passes Ordinance Asserting Local Self-Governance and Stripping Corporate Personhood | Press Release

“We do not recognize corporate personhood.”  That trumps the Supreme Court ruling.  Cities have successfully done this thereby disarming corporate mercenaries and rendering them helpless. Oh Yea that’s the ticket.

There are a lot of issues right now.  Had to pick my battles.  Getting GMO’s labeled is one. Growing timber bamboo in San Luis Obispo on the Dalidio property another and learning to edit iMovie the last one.  I just told you about how I am working on the first one. Timber Bamboo is in the works. Learning to edit is well, it is a learning process.  Want to see what I have learned so far?  It will leave you laughing…..  (so hard for me to post. It is so not perfect.  But if I didn’t get it posted today on the full worm moon it was never going to get done.)

Precursor to viewing the video:  Please apply the Japanese principle of Wabi-sabi. (侘寂?) The Japanese characters are for you Samson just for fun.


Posted in community, diy, filmmaking, Genetically Modified Organism, GM, gmo, politics, worm bins | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Cobbler Methodology

March 15, 2010 by samsonblackwell

When I first got to Washington to start my new job, I had to look all freshly scrubbed and nicely attired. And I was…except for my shoes. I walk with purpose, and my shoes look like I walk with purpose. To the outside observer they might also looked old and scuffed. But these were nice shoes (Nunn & Bush), so I certainly wasn’t going to throw them away. The only other option was to fix them. What they needed was to be re-stained (or dyed or whatever it’s called).

For about three seconds I considered doing it myself, then I pulled out my iphone and began to look for a cobbler. Yes, a cobbler. That word evokes images of an old Danish man dressed in a frock and hunched over a table, pounding tiny nails into the sole of a leather boot. As I typed cobbler into google maps, I wondered how far I would have to drive to find one.

There were three in downtown Everett. Apparently, people in Everett still take their shoes in to get repaired.

So I took my shoes in for their tanning (or dyeing or whatever) where I had to wait in line to get served. A line. At a cobbler’s. Who was neither old nor hunched. Nor Danish, for that matter. Bottom line: $25 bucks for both shoes. When I picked them up they looked like new. Which is a big savings compared to actually buying them new for $85 a pair.

This event got me to thinking (as pretty much every event does; it’s the philosopher in me): what if we applied the cobbler methodology to other things, like computers? First, let me explain what I mean by cobbler methodology. It’s simply this: just because something is old, worn, or even broken doesn’t necessitate throwing it away. It can be fixed, often to look and feel like new; sometimes it can even be made better than the original.

What if Apple took up this methodology? (I’m using them as an example for a few reasons: a) they’re super geekilicious; b) their new laptops are cut from a solid block of aluminum, making them very durable; c) they’re rapidly adopting green production methods). Instead of designing their computers to allow for minimal expansion, modification, or replacement, they could make them modular and significantly upgradable. Then, instead of buying a whole new laptop every time there’s an advance in, say, processor speeds, you just take it to your neighborhood Apple Store and have one of their icobblers swap out the processor for a new one. No need to waste all of those precious materials by tossing out the whole unit. Just adopt the cobbler methodology and extend the useful life of a resource-intensive product by years, maybe decades.

I realize that this is a return to the way that many computers (mostly PCs) used to be made. In fact, some still are made this way. The difference is the way in which it’s done. Formalize it; standardize it; coolifize it. Make a statement while making a positive change for our planet.

How’s that sound, Apple? You in?

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GMO’s: End of the Line part 5 of 5 by Mom

March 7, 2010 by Mom

Am re-posting this one.  It was only up for 2 days.  And here is the latest news from Huffington Post on the status of GMO Alfalfa.  http://tinyurl.com/ylxbtuy

This is from Natural News.com as of March 17, 2010  http://www.NaturalNews.com/028388_GM_crops_kidney_damage.html GMO’s cause liver and kidney damage.

This is the last in a series on GMO’s and the First in a series on what to do about them.

I had a dream last night.  I was in an old wooden warehouse. It was very spacious and dimly lit with only natural light though I did not see any windows. It had recessed worn down pathways for walking and a few people were strolling along it unhurried. Then rather suddenly it became a very congested crowded marketplace, hectic. People everywhere shoulder to shoulder. I felt trapped.

Someone friendly but unfamiliar approached with a tall white paper cup with a black lid on it. She said it was tea and asked me to deliver it to someone whose name I did not recognize. She began to explain where this person could be found. I listened trying to hear what she was saying but I only caught every other word. And the words I did catch didn’t make any sense. One word sounded like LEAD I think it was spelled LED in my dream and was particularly confusing. It sounded like a word I knew but it was not in any context.

Muffled sounds in the background and masses of out-of-focus people with very colorful clothing barely registered as I listened intently trying to make sense out of what she was saying. It seemed like a reasonable request and she seemed very calm amid all the confusion, in asking it.  I agreed to do what she asked but explained I could not understand anything she was saying. She didn’t attempt any further explanation but just smiled confidently, pointed in the direction I was to go and handed me the paper cup.  As I turned around to head in the direction she was pointing I was instantaneously engulfed in the crowd but not feeling trapped. I didn’t know how I was going to find the person I was to deliver the tea to but that did not seem to bother me.

The warehouse was now overflowing with people.  The pathways disappeared.  I headed for an open space that looked to be in an outdoor courtyard.

In the center of the courtyard was a huge object. Strange looking, different, interesting, nothing I had ever seen before. I was curious and approached the area. Standing near the object were 3 small children and a women, I took to be their mother. The children were light skinned, rosy cheeked, meek and mild yet very curiously studying the huge object that was doing nothing.  The mother dressed in heavy dark clothing and wearing a brimmed hat pulled down over her ears was closest to the oldest of the three who appeared to be about 7 years old.

With a rather cautious but steadied hand the oldest boy reached out to touch a section of the object. The object was a ball encased in a case.  It reminded me of how a ball bearing fits inside of a case and moves effortlessly within the casing. Such a curiosity. It was begging to be touched.  I could feel the excitement and anticipation in the young boy’s outreached hand. Eyes twinkling with wonder. Then without warning, the woman strikes the child with great force across his head knocking him off balance while shouting. “DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING.” The mild mannered rosy-cheeked child grabs the impact point on his face and looks at his mother in absolute confused, stunned, disbelief. The innocent, wondrous, magical curiosity that filled his whole being was gone replaced with a shattered vacant tearful stare.

My angry and rage was instantaneous but before I could do anything they evaporated into the crowd.  At this point I woke up still feeling the angry . I started to recall the dream. I remembered this one. I remembered the feelings. It meant something. It made me think. To me dreams are about feelings. When we are awake, I think we rely more on our thinking brain to get things done. Which is a good thing especially when our brain says that is a stop sign.  This usual means, however, we have very strong feeling about things that happen during the day but are not able to deal with them at the time. Grave injustices that are happening before our eyes, a child dies from hungry and we can do nothing but drive on. So we push these feelings down where they wait and wait sometimes for a very long time before we allow ourselves to feel them. Dreaming, I think is a way of allowing these feelings to happen without the hurt  that goes with it.  We don’t have to make sense out of our dreams or explain to our ego why we felt the way we did in the dream.  It’s o.k. to dream.  No guilt.

I went to sleep thinking about this blog.  I was looking for an image to post that would depict the title I was wrestling with. Titles I had “GMO’s: the Beginning of the End.”  “GMO’s End of the Line.” I am wondering if the answer I was wrestling with in my awake state wasn’t somehow tied up with the feelings I was having in this dream.  I am now trying to get my head to listen to my heart to figure out what it all means. My logical, practical brain is saying never mind it is not important, DON’T GO THERE.  My heart is saying this is very important stop thinking and listen to me.

I am listening. I am just not understanding. OMG.  There it is.  The part of the dream where I was not understanding the words. It all makes sense now.  Well, just a little.  I ran this dream by Cassie. I liked her interpretation best. There is a real conflict within me where I need to let go of some old feelings to make room for the fresh new ideas yet to be felt.

As you can tell from this series on GMO’s I feel very strongly about the subject. Using my dream as a guide I am going to venture into unchartered territory.  I have contacted the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund http://www.celdf.org/ They help ordinary people write local ordinances. I want to introduce a local ordinance that would require all GMO products be identified with a single red dot on the Point of Purchase signage. This is a labeling strategy.  I have absolutely no idea what I am doing or how to do it.  That doesn’t seem to make a difference. All I know for sure is that I feel this is important and needs to be done.  I may get slapped aside the head just as a reminder to keep touching things I have never touched before. So if you would like to follow along on this next adventure I will be posting the step by step process on how to write a city ordinance. You are going to get the ups the downs and everything in between.   This is the Beginning of the End for GMO’s.  Yea right.  In my dreams.

Part 1 of the GMO story: Do Trees Sneeze?

https://holeinthefence.net/2009/12/18/what-is-a-gmo-do-trees-sneeze-1-of-6/

Part 2 of the GMO Story: The Big Bang.

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/01/gmo-part-2-of-6-the-big-bang/

Part 3 of the  GMO Story- They Kingdom Come Thy will be Done

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/16/gmo-story-continued-thy-kingdom-come-thy-will-be-done-on-earth-part-3-of-6/

Part 4 of the GMO Story: Attack of the Killer Tomato

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/02/02/gmo-story-part-4-attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes/

Part 5 of the GMO Story: End of the Line for GMO’s

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/03/07/gmos-end-of-the-line-part-5-of-5/

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Settling in, Everett Style

February 27, 2010 by samsonblackwell

We’ve finally managed to get all the boxes (mostly) unpacked and I can tell you it feels VERY nice to be settled. The furnished apartment was pleasant, but it wasn’t home. Now those things that make a home what it is are in their proper places and I feel like I can breathe deeply…

…and get to work on transforming this place into sustainable central. First, the worm bin. We picked one up for free on Craigslist. And I found a red wriggler supplier in Marilyn, the owner of Zippy’s Java Lounge. (I’ve heard she has the best in Everett. It’s good stuff). I plan on stopping by this weekend and picking up a pound or two. Then we’ll start converting our table scraps into brown gold. The worms will love us, especially when we start giving them the leftovers from our gorgeous new stainless steel Juicelady that Denette picked up at Goodwill for $20. Have you ever had fresh carrot juice? It’s the nectar of the gods. Seriously. You have to try it.

Next, the garden…and beyond. I’m going to go a bit more Permaculture up here—create an edible environment throughout the yard. And speaking of yard, I talked with one of the landlords and he said we had creative free rein. He might not have said that if he was aware of my knack for yard transformation. We have a beautiful section of south-facing lawn that—once leveled—will make a perfect spot for some raised beds. No tomatoes, though. I’ve been told by a couple of old salts that it’s just not hot enough for them. Of course, that sounds like a challenge to me, so I’ll have to find a solution. I like my fresh tomatoes too much to give up without a fight!

Speaking of transformation: Denette transformed an empty house with little furniture into a fully-furnished home in three weeks. And virtually for free. We now have a couch, a guest bed, an entertainment center, two chairs, and an end table, all acquired through craigslist/freecycle. Now when I get home from work I can collapse on the nice comfy couch instead of the hard wood floor.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to be four blocks from my place of employ. I walk down in the chill of the morning and arrive with lungs full of fresh air and my heart pumping. People at work think I’m irritatingly chipper at 7:30 AM. I just smile and nod. Even better is the return home, when the kids come racing down the hill on their scooters to meet me. Then we go for a walk. Well, I walk, they ride their scooters or their bikes. I have to take my bike in for repairs (Kaia has grounded me because of my lack of brakes), but once I do I plan to use it as my primary means of transportation to both hospital campuses and around town on the weekends. The city center in Everett is perfect for biking.

Not only am I four blocks from work, the kids are four blocks from the home school facility. I know, it sounds a little oxymoronic, but the home school program up in WA is an extension of the public school system, though they have considerable autonomy. They offer structured classes for those who want them. It’s really kind of like college for primary-age kids. Logan is loving his classes in math, science, social studies, and tae kwon do. He spends an hour a week in class, the rest of the work he does independently. Kaia should be in the program as well, but she just missed the cutoff date for kindergarten, so the goal is to get her tested into 1st grade next year. When one of the teachers at the home school facility saw her reading, she thought Kaia was already in 1st grade.

Final topic for this post: when we moved up here I set a goal of creating a home gym for free. When we were still in Cali, we had canceled our gym membership and I had created a pretty nice setup with cinder blocks, a couple of iron bars, and some free weights. I wanted a bit more up here, but I was determined not to pay for it. I knew of there were lots of people who had bought a treadmill, used it for a week, and then were desperate to get rid of it to assuage their guilt for letting it gather dust. Well, I’m proud to say that we accomplished my goal within the first two weeks! We now have a Nordictrack, an elliptical, a multi-use home gym (pulldown, bench/flye, leg extension/curl, low row, and stair stepper), a flat/incline bench with a preacher curl connector, a barbell, and two dumbbells with about 190 lbs in plates. This incredible haul was due mostly to Denette’s amazing craigslisting/freecycling skills. She would find it, I would call on it, and we would go and pick it up. I’m totally inspired. In fact, I think I’m going to have to get a quick ski in right now.

With that, I raise one well-muscled arm to you in farewell. Until next time!

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