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?

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??