the kids

catching up....had this wonderful evening with the kids.....each tenth shot or so i get Archer's face under hair....big fun!

the solarium and the suburban homestead...

today is the first day of retirement. i have been telling people my retirement activity plan is to make this place a suburban homestead. today i stepped out into the solarium to water the plants and really enjoyed being there. it's been so cold and i have been working and sleeping so it's been awhile since i ventured out. i am looking forward to the future.

Global Work Party,,,,,,solar coming soon...

Transition Ferndale met today on my roof for some theatre, lunch, fellowship and enthusiasm as we strive to work to bring awareness and action to getting our atmospheric CO2 back down to 350 parts per million. (currently 392 and climbing)

Oh and we are celebrating the coming solar panels.!! Net Metering by years end.

Last year I had my son paint a very large 350.org on my roof and my frequent air traffic has been enjoying it all year. Before this year's end 350.org will be covered by solar panels and net metering. This is happening on the heels of our Transition Ferndale group inviting Dana Brandt from Ecotech Energy Systems LLC to come and give his excellent presentation to our group. We will be on the roof today with signs and enthusiasm to be part of the important work of getting our CO2 in the atmosphere back to levels that give future living things a chance to enjoy life on our beautiful planet Earth.

10/10/10: The Global Work Party On 10/10/10, people at 7347 events in 188 countries got to work on the climate crisis.

here we are, from our corner of this earth, participating with over 7000 groups around the world......

Roni comes back to tell....

just for fun ...Merrily

MERRILY TOMPKINS PROFILE from valerie vozza on Vimeo.

find your farmer....first CSA pick-up farm tour

Such a pleasure to tour the farm and get the details of where my vegies come from. Walter is using land as well as can be imagined. I appreciate not only the food but the wonderful association with Walter and Toni.
here is the amazing box of food I got....

and here are the most delicious strawberries I remember eating fresh from Cross Line Farm right up the road from F.A. Farm

disclaimer: as I so enjoyed, what I percieved to be farmer speak from Walter, "and this area has gotten out of hand" I will say, as an amateur videographer, there is a few moments in #4 video where "the lens got out of hand" ....audio still good and it never stops me from publishing.

brilliant article Asher.....

this article is a good example of why I just got off my lazy ass and became a monthly donor and why I am a subscriber to their monthly newsletter...than's the Post Carbon Institute.

An Even Bigger Spill Looming?
Posted May 25, 2010 by Asher Miller

While the nation's eyes are turned towards the oil tipped waves and tar balls washing up on the shores of the Gulf Coast, an altogether different energy disaster looms in California—one that might be even more damaging for the environment and our economy in the long run.

For decades now California has led the country in environmental protection, passing legislation that's often set the benchmark for national policy. But this, like all tides, can flow in two directions. A pair of ballot measures—Props 16 & The California Jobs Initiative—could set California back immeasurably and by extension the entire country, at a time when we can least afford it.

full post

update: Public anger at PG&E helped sink Prop 16

the winner

yes i agree with Randi, she is the winner and i didn't even watch so thanks for clueing me in....

end barbaric extraction

go tell that to the Indians......

love this.....

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
On Topic: In the News - Race in America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

in the garden today with the "last cup of Joe"

it is so great to have Joe on the radio talking to people who live right here!!! and thanks for your excellent advise regarding the pope's recent unholy advice to the masses....

today in the garden

today starts with the beautiful and fragrant!!! Smilacina racemosa and the Rhody "Blue Peter" the on to the azalea my neighbor and I call "the mother's day azalea" the Photinia (not a hedge here) is getting ready to put on a beautiful display.

today in the garden

today in the garden

today in the garden

the dickens of doom

The dickens of doom has managed to lay out our naked symptoms and find his way back to the path as we try to find our way into the future.

"Our Turn?"
By James Howard Kunstler for ClusterFuck Nation

Nations go crazy. It's terrifying when it happens, especially to a major nation with the ability to project its craziness outward. We look back on the psychotic break of Germany in 1933 and still wonder how the then-best-educated population in Europe could fall under the sway of a sociopathic political program. We behold the carnage and devastation left in the wake of that episode, and decades later you still can do little more than shake your head in bewilderment.

full article

barbaric extraction-our symptoms are showing

I hope this piece on NOW will begin to wake people up to the place we find ourselves. As the gas and oil interest sell the use of people's property for hydralic fracturing gas extraction to people who are facing economic hard times, we must decide if this is the legacy we want to pass on to those who come after. It was telling to me when a landowner was asked, "what if the "fracking"ruins your water or land?" The person responded, "I will have enough money to move." Is this who we are? Are we really that selfish?

thanks TXsharon for this

and from the movie GASLAND

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Attempts to make natural gas the new "green" is getting play on both sides of the isle as in a previous post I was horrified to hear t boone pickens featured. Until we face the fact that barbaric extraction is never going to be the answer to continuing our current consumption of Earth's resources we are never going to move to live on the planet that support future human life. A short term energy fix at the expense of our water, air and land is suicidal. And it is just passing the bill for our continued overconsumption to our children and grandchildren. That seems to be the epitome of selfishness.

This post by Dave Ewoldt says it very well.... we have truly lost our way.

Alternative Energy Ignores the Problem
........Plus, the Industrial Growth Society is only possible with the embedded energy of fossil fuels, which are post-peak and what's left of them is so environmentally destructive to obtain that only a society that has completely lost its way would attempt doing so. Even 100% LEED building standards, hybrid vehicles (or any other proposal that thinks we can "green" consumption and continued growth) can't overcome that basic ecological fact.
full post

How Many Natural Gas Wells Does Your State Have?
by Abrahm Lustgarten and Krista Kjellman, ProPublica - July 8, 2009

bills have been introduced, in the house and senate, to protect our drinking water

tell your representative to cosponsor the Frac Act

find your farmer...

here is a great workshop by Walter (my farmer) about Soil and Building Soil put on by Bellingham Urban Garden Syndicate It is so exciting to see this kind of sharing of information going on in our community.

corn casserole

this casserole seems to continue to please...i once took it to work and announced that all the fat and calorie are still in this. a very health conscious co-worker tested it and announced it was "sinfully delicous"

 

Corn Casserole

1 green pepper
1 onion
1 cube of butter
dice up vegies and saute in butter. Set aside.

1 pkg Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 can creamed corn
1 can whole kernal corn (drained) I use a serving of frozen corn in my freezer from my CSA
2 eggs

mix and spread in greased 9x13 pan. Top with sauted vegies.

Top with 1 cup sour cream and grated cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Solarium catch-up

Today the county signed the final check-off on the solarium....I will be moving in next week. The following albums document the progress since last post.

this is from the middle of January after forms off of walls and sand fill being put in

solarium

here is January 21 as the polycarbonate roof is being installed

the garden and solarium

more after roof in

Solarium feb 6

and here the pavers are going in

Solarium feb 10

and here the day before the final inspection. Mia and I moved the lemons in, washed the windows, brought the snakes in and did some chalk art.

Solarium catch-up

oh and I must post this beautiful sunrise from January

sunrise in peckerheadville

upcoming movie event....HomeGrown

showing at Whatcom Educational Credit Union February 17th at 6:30pm (optional pot luck at 5:30pm) information at Transition Ferndale Movie night

HOMEGROWN follows the Dervaes family who run a small organic farm in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. While "living off the grid", they harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, make their own bio diesel, power their computers with the help of solar panels, and maintain a website that gets 4,000 hits a day. The film is an intimate human portrait of what it's like to live like "Little House on the Prairie" in the 21st Century.

Running Time: 52 Minutes

more info and trailer at HomeGrown movie site

the dickens of doom is at it again....

and i wouldn't miss him..... sounds like we are looking at a "brace yourself, effie" period in short order. now you wouldn't know this if you lived in mainstream america....there is no intention of changing our consumption or the "non-negotiable american way of life" the tv marketing continues, the casino parking lots are full, very large mini-mansions on acres or five continue to be built, municipalities continue to argue over mall size, we continue to use the dwindling resources of planet earth to fight over the dwindling resources of planet earth and our symptoms continue unabated.
and since i think the good news is....if we survive, we will all have jobs cuz we will be the cheap labor. and i always love his little snipets of good news scattered in the doom......

"Six Months or Less to Live"

By James Howard Kunstler for ClusterFuck Nation

The economy that is. Especially the part that consists of swapping paper certificates. That's the buzz I've gotten the first two weeks of 2010, and forgive me for not presenting a sheaf of charts and graphs to make the case. Just about everybody else yakking about these thing on the Web provides plenty of statistical analysis: Mish, The Automatic Earth, Chris Martenson, Zero Hedge, The Baseline Scenario.... They're all well worth visiting.
full post