This is Isabella, the newest member of my family. I really love her. The rest of the family (humans) like her, too. But Bailey (pictured on top), my 5yr shih tzu, wants nothing to do with her.

Doggie Drama

xanga seems pretty dead but blogger confuses the shit out of me.

• how do add pictures?
• banners?
• favorites?

xanga was like 'blogging for dummies' and I have been there so long; well... i just don't know if I can expand my brain to navigate a new blog host.

www.xanga.com/simplespirit

Today was a quiet day in the herb garden. Basil, thyme, spearmint, apple mint, rosemary, onion and garlic chives all snipped and ready for the food dehydrator. The unseasonally cool weather has seemed to have stirred up my hunt and gather instinct.

I am going to take advantage of the low temperatures tomorrow and bake some zuchinni bread. I am pressed to preserve some of this garden but without a freezer, I will need to rely on dehydration and canning. Baking fresh stuff will be a fun treat for now but without the frezzer, zuchinni bread won't happen much in February. Sigh.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it fo or do without."

Blessed Be

A little hint: the shaded passages are also links :)


This weeknd's grocery bill of $260 was no surprise. Our food budget has been steadily growing and yet, our pantry is shrinking. I have always been frugal and capable of feeding my family on a shoestring. These times are different. The possibilities are fewer and the opportunities in which to control your family's food supply is being manipulated by big agribusiness . How many of you knew that last December, President Obama appointed Tom Vilsack as the chief of the USDA? Did you know that? Do you know who Tom Vilsack is? Monsanto? Holy Shit.


As I watched President Obama speak the words "...it means that we are ensuring that we are using our farmlands to not only strengthen our agricultural economy but to grow advanced biofuels" my heart sank. He married big, corporate agribusiness to the USDA which was supposed to protect this country's food supply. With HR 2749 in play, the family farm, the organic gardener, the private food supply is officially on our government's hit list.


These past few months I have felt myself slip into a deep depression. I am not blaming the government, Monsanto or President Obama for making me depressed. Of course not. But I will thank them for making me angry enough to lift myself up out of it.


A few weeks ago, I was informed by my local zoning office that my property (that stuff with dirt and grass that I pay for) isn't zoned for chickens. It is illegal to raise chickens as pets and/or food in this particular zone. Nope. And I was informed that even trying to appeal to the zoning committee would be expensive and useless.


These are dangerous times when councils, zoning committees and government are trying to steal our liberties. Seriously. We have the right to raise are food and not be dependent on a collective public food supply. That is what they want; for us to need them. No chickens? No food. No goats? No dairy. Look for gardening restrictions next.


In the not-so-distant-future, there is a knock on my front door...



"Hello. May I help you?"


"Uh, Yes 'ma'am. We're here on behalf of the zoning commission. It's in regards to your garden."


"What about my garden?"


"We understand that it is an organic garden, is that correct?"


"Why, Yes it is."


"And you plan on feeding your family and perhaps a few friends and neighbors with this organic food; is that correct?"


"Yes, of course. Is that a problem? What is the meaning of this?"


"Ma'am, you are in direct violation of zoning code HR5467-33.463 and 1/2 which clearly states on page 345, paragraph 7, sentence 4 that 'no private citizen will produce, preserve, distribute or consume food without direct and decisive permission, authorization and regulation from thus mentioned board as well as the USDA, CIA, FBI, GMO Seeds, Inc. and, of course, da' man'. It's all right here, ma'am, in black and white.


"This is ridiculous! It's a garden, for Christ's sake!"


"Ma'am, you will have to come with us, ma'am..."


"Please! I'm sorry! I was just trying to grow cheap, healthy, real food for my family! There are only a few chickens! We just needed the eggs..."


"Chickens? Did you say you have chickens on these premises? Agent Terry, you had better call and get us back up..."


Start watching some videos, browsing some forums, going to some meetings. Listen closely to what they are planning while they think we are busy trading in our clunker. Turn off Fox News, CNN and all the rest. They will tell little and that will be as altered as the corn products you eat. Read and question everything. And stop growing a lawn. Grow some food.


Blessed Be

Hr 2749

Background Information

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped.
HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisan producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse.

HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are badly in need of effective regulation, but the bill does not specifically direct regulation or resources to these areas.

To read a detailed account of the bill, go to: http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-15june2009.htm

Now for my 2 cents.

This really is bullshit. Monsanto, Dupont, and Dow are nearly wetting their pants in joy over this ridiculous infringement on our rights. "Protect the sheep, for we know what is best,"... Can you hear them laughing?

This bill will essentially kill the last American farmer. The family farms, the organic farmer's markets, the fresh veggie stands you see as you drive the winding roads of our country. This bill will make fugitives of those who support local foods, private and diverse food supply and privately-owned, small scale agriculture. Everyone will be forced to eat GMO's or they will perish.

I will revisit my sheep analogy just once more before I go. As the herd of sheep (the American people) rest and graze on the hillside. The wolves (Corporate agriculture) have captured the shepherd (the U.S Constitution). At this point, the Shepherd isn't dead but is in need of someone to stand up and fight. Meanwhile, back on the hillside, the sheep are distracted. And although a few sheep that have made it to the outside of the herd (that would be the hippies, the eat local advocates, the organic private farmers, etc.) see the wolves making their move... well, the rest of the herd is just not listening. The wolves are coming and those sheep that are deep in the middle of the herd, those that will not lift their heads, will have no time to react. No time time fight. No time to run.

If you really don't care about your food, your civil liberties or the farmer that fed this nation as it grew, then by all means... please do nothing. If Monsanto rocks your world and you consider high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified foods and confinement animal feeding operations an acceptable way to feed our children... please do nothing. If you don't care, please do nothing.

But, if you care or perhaps just think you might be curious about the erosion of our Constitutional rights, educate yourself. Say something. Write something. Do something. This is one of those battles, if lost, will lead us to yet another slippery slope. One more liberty lost. One more reason to turn off our brains and to allow Corporate America to buy our country and run it. One more step towards tyranny. Fascism. Seriously.

Please do something.
Blessed Be

The last post here asked for suggestions... and recieved 0 comments! I guess that's my answer!

I will stick with xanga... I am a certified first responder and have my CPR card... maybe I can bring it back to life!

I have some Blogger friends and like to leave comments so, I will leave my blogger account open. But as for day-to-day blogging excitement; check me out at www.xanga.com/simplespirit

Blessed Be

I haven't blooge on Blogger forever... but I fear Xanga has died. I need a place in which I can connect with someone... artists and writers and treehuggers...

is anyone out there?