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?

Cheap oil at what cost?

Drill Here, Drill Now... my ass!

Yes, I said it. Let the shit hit the fan and the chunks land where they may. Then compost it.

I just don't believe, for one moment, that we should rape what little land we have left for a very short term solution.
This is my blog, my soapbox, and I am standing on it. We need to seek ways to need oil less, not get oil cheaper. People just don't want to put the effort into changing. "How can I have my bananas, grapes and drive all by myself where ever I want to go?"

This sounds cynical. In fact, it sounds so cynical, it's a turn off and for that, I am sorry. I will try to make my point here without coming off as a bitch.

I hate paying this much at the pump, too. I drive to work and my husband drives to work. We have an old V8 truck that is not good on gas. But this is bigger than us and not all about me.
Instead of scrambling around, trying to find more cheap oil, don't we need to commit to find alternatives? Not just alternative fuels but alternative lifestyles?

My friend Kristi and I just had this conversation last week... the general collective will only change when they are forced to change. Very few take it upon themselves to shift before necessity demands change.
Being angry, blaming others and hoping for a fresh batch of oil at the end of the rainbow isn't a solution. It's procrastination.

Tomorrow, I will drive 17 miles to work, then 17 miles home. At $4.29 a gallon (in my area) and at approx. 23 miles to a gallon in my 1996 minivan, I estimate that I will spend nearly $8.00 for one round trip to my job. Yes, that sucks. But not enough for me to condone more drilling.
It's comparative to my inner dialog concerning buying a new, fuel efficient vehicle. Will I save money at the pump only to turn around and spend it on a new car payment, interest, and increased insurance rates? No... my solution is to drive as little as possible, grow more food, turn off more lights and spend less where ever possible. My sense of entitlement is something I try to pay close attention to, keep in check, and under control.

I have clean, running water in my house. That's a luxury for most of the world's population. Each day, I try to find something I do have instead of what I don't have... it makes it a bit easier. The future is scary but having hope (instead of anger) makes me brave.

Courage and information is empowering. Pass it on.

Below is a response I posted on my local 'natural family' group. The question posted was "are any of you preparing for the upcoming food shortage?" Seeing as I haven't posted a real blog here in quite awhile, I will self-plagerize and paste my response here:

I have a few book recommendations:

Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Dianne Layton

Encyclopedia for Country Living by the late (and great) Carla Emery

The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dycyzen. (check the spelling on that last name ;^)

These are three books that will really spell it out for you in very easy terms. (No math!)

I find in times like these, I am actually grateful to have been 'financially challenged' my entire life. I know what real hunger is; I grew up really hungry. I have spent winters without a coat and summers in a heat-riddled trailer. Comfort is relative. Now with fuel heading towards unavailabilty, I am grateful (so very very grateful) that the 2 vehicles my husband and I own are paid for... they may break down often and they are u-g-l-y but I don't know how anyone manages a car payment, full coverage insurance, maintenance and fuel. We could not do it.

Our basement has a utility area which we long ago converted into an overflow pantry. My canning supplies are kept there as well. Bob and I are expanding this area over the next few months and converting one small area to a root cellar as well as a vermicomposting bin. Food production has been elevated from my hobby to a family activity. Oh, btw, this is not (NOT) an organized, neat and tidy area. It is a piled up mess! But it serves the purpose of storing excess food and canning supplies, not being featured in Martha Stewart's magazine. If I find some shelves for free on the side of the road, I will pick 'em up. Until then... it's all in stacks up against the wall!

I don't suggest storing large amount of meat in a freezer due to power issues. Generators will be pretty useless when fuel becomes unavailable. I have a freezer but at this time I use it mostly for bread (bought in bulk at the bread store) and excess veggies. The safest means of food storage is (think of before electricity) drying, root cellaring and canning. Chicken and beef can be cooked down and then pressure canned. Beans, beans, beans. Even if you don't like them, if you are really hungry, you will eat them. Store in glass jars, not plastic bags. My newest prize posession is my Squeezo for making applesauce, tomato sauce and juice, etc. Watch freecycle, craigslist and garage sales for canning jars, canning books, supplies.

I understand it may be really frustrating to someone who lives in a small area (or rented area) to hear a "home owner" talk about gardening and root cellaring. Really, I don't own my home, either. I 'rent' my house from the bank. With that said... challenge yourself to look beyond the garden you can't have or the space you don't have available.

Find somewhere you can garden. I love Katie's secret herb garden. I am all about civil disobiendance when my family's well being is involved. Ask a friend who does have a garden to let you help, contribute and glean. Offer to work for food :)

Storage is one of those things... I have never understood it when people say "I just don't have room to store extra ___" because if you have a place to sleep, sit, poop... well... you have some type of shelter, right? Unless a person is actually homeless... they do have room. Now, is it conventional storage area? Maybe not. But, well, it's not all about 'the pretty'. Stack cases of food up along your livingroom wall if need be! Move your couch in ten inches and stack teepee, water, etc. behind the couch. Batteries can be put in your sock drawer. See what I'm saying? I grew up with blankets up against the walls and plastic on the windows just to keep warm. People can get by and make do with far less beauty, style and convienance.

Now, I'm off to drive my Hummer to Starbuck's for a cappy... just kidding!

An ache that seems to linger...

When will I live the life I want to live?

okay...

So, I'm not "here" much...

go over to xanga

www.xanga.com/simplespirit

Support the writer's strike... their fight is every American worker's fight. We work and therefore should be paid for our work. Duh.

At every opportunity... stick it to The Man.

I need to keep motivated...

I am seriously considering challenging myself to at least contemplate the possibility of researching the prospects of publishing my wicca knitting book.
Seriously...

It's time for the pumpkin harvest!

I love Autumn!

I am hiding from my husband. I am on line; he is not. I am real here. He doesn't even know me.

The pumpkin patch is growing... some more!

Pumpkin butter, pumkin bread, pumpkin pies...

Yum!

Pumpkin patch: growing!

Summer is good.

Below is an excerpt from "Food Not Lawns". I need to read this book.

"French aristocrats popularized the idea of the green grassy lawn in the eighteenth century, when they planted the agricultural fields around their estates to grass, to send the message that they had more land than they needed and could therefore afford to waste some. Meanwhile, French peasants starved for lack of available ground, and the resulting frustration might have had something to do with the French Revolution in 1789.
Today, 58 million Americans spend approximately $30 billion every year to maintain over 23 million acres of lawn. That’s an average of over a third of an acre and $517 each. The same size plot of land could still have a small lawn for recreation, plus produce all of the vegetables needed to feed a family of six. The lawns in the United States consume around 270 billion gallons of water a week—enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long."

I live in the Now but remember the when...

It was raining today so... I popped in The Fellowship of the Ring. I love that movie so much. My favorite scenes are (in the extended versions) the narrative by Bilbo, describing Hobbiton and "Concerning Hobbits". The second scene, when Aragorn takes the Fellowship to Lady Galadriel and the elves in Lothlorein. Both of these civilizations live close to nature, with nature, as part of nature.

I need to work tomorrow. I shall pretend I am serving in the Houses of Healing, in the white city of Gondor, after the battle for Middle Earth. Pity, this is the only way I can make it through a day... pretending to be someone I want to be- someone I should be.

I have lived many past lives. I have been in Ireland. I have lived in a hut or perhaps a very small, primative cabin. I remember earthen floors and hanging herbs... open fires. I do remember this, in my soul.

Food Not Lawns

It has been a goal to reduce the amount of lawn I have on my one acre lot. When we bought this place, it was all grass. Just grass and randomly planted trees. The trees I will happily keep and add to. The grass? Less and less each year.

I read on Food Not Lawns website that lawns became popular when rich french royality had "land to spare" and planted grass as a status symbol. Meanwhile, peasants were starving to death with no land of their own to plant wheat for bread. Hmmm...

So, today I added a pumpkin patch that I can gaze upon as I hand wash my dishes.

Blessed Be

My blog. My bitch.

Okay... so I am watching The Discovery Channel and that awesome show "Planet Earth". It is the episode about the Poles, called "Ice Worlds". Very matter-of-factly, the narrator (Ms. Sigourney Weaver, fyi) states that most scientist agree that we have less than ten years to change our lifestyles in order to avoid more evironmental damage and to slow our planets warming. This wasn't said with bravado or judgement; just a fact.

Enter Patti.

Ten years? Ten years ago, I had a one year old and my oldest wasn't even in middle school. She is now a college student. Ten years ago, I had a new used truck and I was just 31 years old. I am not (uh-hum) 31 any longer and my truck is rusty but trusty and paid for. The point I am trying to make is... ten years goes really really fast.

Hybrid cars are being talked about and evaluated. Everyone is hoping that our cars will run on french fry oil and each of us will have windmills in our back yards. Yes, that would be really cool. Will all of this happen fast enough?

I am just thinking (I do that) if it is going to take awhile to get all of the new technologies not only viable but accessible to the masses, what are we going to do until then?

Isn't this sort of urgent? Shouldn't we be taking drastic measures until the new technologies are available?

Like Nascar. Isn't that a whole lot of fossil fuel being burned for nothing? And air shows. I heard on NPR an entire "green family" canceled out their energy saving efforts with one family flight to Europe. Apparently, flying is very hard on the atmosphere. So, if flying is hard on the atmosphere, should we be entertaining ourselves with planes flying in patterns? For no reason other than amusement? Without passengers? It doesn't seem very necessary to me.

I don't want to be a kill joy; really, I don't. But shouldn't we be a little more than worried? This seems to be a big deal and here we are, just kind of hoping that corn cars and windmills bail us out. This should be considered a global emergency and we need to be aggressive with the solutions.

Park the race cars. Fly less, a lot less. People need to vacation and travel but it can be done responsibly. Donald Trump and Gwen Stefany can plane-pool. No more private jets, for crying out loud. No air shows. Those damn things are dangerous anyway. Turn off the bright lights of Vegas, or at least switch to the weird but awesome twirly little light bulb thingies.

Urgent times call for drastic measures.

But that's just my itty bitty opinion.

My garden is looking wonderful; more space and new plants. Now, I wonder...

Will I have money to buy plants??

Let's play Witch!

I don't say that disrespectfully. I would never deliberatley condensend or insult those who believe wicca to be holy and witch to be sacred. I have been thinking, meditating, considering...the magickal life.

I want more than atheism has given to me. Which is nothing. Just as "it" promises. Nothing. Your born. You are alone. Then you die. Nothing.Although that may be the truth for some, I am finding out it isn't for me. Neither is the new age thing. No judgement here, just observation. New age=new books. Lots and lots of new books. I still have this emptiness that knaws at me like hunger.

Christian? Uh...no. Been there, done that, for like 25 years. I walked away. Done. Not for me.

This pagan, natural magick, or perhaps wiccan path calls and calls again. I have felt the interest in the craft many times. I love nature so much, I am humbled. I see magick everywhere.And there is the "play" factor. Spells, rituals and cauldrons all hold delight for me, for my life. I would love to be a witch, settled into my home, crafting magick in my kitchen.Kitchen Witch or Cottage Witch. I have also seen the term green witch and all feel very pleasant and warm. And wonderful.

This is all new, and exciting and comfortable. I do not feel threatened as I did with Christianity. "Believe or else." That just didn't feel right to me. It wasn't right to me. I should say it wasn't right for me. Perhaps, for someone else, but not me.

So, this is where I am. The connection with Earth, with having a powerful feminine energy without meekness or frailty. No submissive wifey thing. Powerful Goddess energy. This could be what I have been searching for all along.Blessed Be

Welcome to My Life

There will be no midlife crisis here. I will not buy a sports car, get a tummy tuck or have a tattoo plastered on my ass. Not that a tattooed ass is bad. On my ass? That would be bad.

Hello again

It has been awhile. Here, I am sad. Over on Xanga; I try so hard to be uplifting and spiritual. It is draining. It isn't that I am living a lie; I am trying to live intentionally. The whole idea of intention is to say it and believe it...and it will happen. I am waiting.

I have doubled my meds; under the advice and direction of my doctor,of course. It has helped. I see clearer and I am able to "suck it up" to coin a phrase. Everything that I was sad about is still here. But prozac helps me ignore it.

Yeay Prozac!

I feel as if I only have the same thing to say, day after day.

I want out.

I want out.

I want out.