Less than two months after I posted my resolutions for the year, I am beginning to wonder if I aimed too low. As I said, we are primarily focused on getting out of debt. I have talked a little about our experience on this journey here and there. Let me first bring you up to speed.
We are starting with our credit card debt, focusing on the highest interest rate cards first. While we have made very good progress on this front, there have been setbacks. First was Washington State informing me that, as an independent contractor, I have been delinquent in filing for a business license and paying taxes on such a business (mentioned in This Time Of Year). I reconciled this as quickly as I was able and found that the taxes owed did not amount to anything we couldn't handle. Sometimes it works out in our favor that we don't make a lot of money. Still, it was a setback.
Our second setback has been Federal taxes. I have been going back and making sure we are including everything and in doing so have been able to bring what to owe to a reasonable amount, but it looks like we will still owe money. That's another setback.
The third, and most irritating setback came in the form of a credit card debt of which we were unaware. In a nut, a couple years back my wife was in the process of getting her business licenses transferred to Washington State (I swear, this state has a serious racket with it's licensing!), we were in a pinch and agreed to put about $200 in fees on a credit card. By our own mistake, we used a card (Card A) that we had already paid off, intending to use a different card (Card B) from the same institution. Unfortunately, neither my wife nor I can recall receiving a statement on Card A. We naturally assumed our payments on Card B were going toward the debt. That is, until we recently received a collection notice on Card A, which had now run up to almost $700 on interest and fees. It took a couple weeks and many phone calls to both the bank and the collection agent explaining our position and flat out refusing to pay $700 on a $200 debt for which we were never billed before we were able to finally settle the account for about $350. A very frustrating setback and one more reason to hate credit cards.
All that said, we are making better progress on paying down our debt than I expected. I am making it my goal to be completely out of debt before the end of the year. I really think we can do it if we stay focused.
I have done almost nothing with the writing project I mentioned in my resolutions. I have been waiting for information from someone on which to base my decision on which project to pursue, but I haven't pushed the issue because I've been depressed and otherwise occupied. I intend to remedy that.
I also did not want to get specific because some things are kind of up in the air right now. I realize now that I don't need to understand how it might happen, I just need to put it out there. That said, I intend to have a productive garden this year and to put some wild game into my freezer this year. I intend to have a location for the family farm by this time next year. I will learn more about eating healthy and sustainably as we make greater strides this year toward being self-sufficient and sustainable.
My family will be happy and healthy.
Showing posts with label hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hunting. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What Really Kills Us?
Let's start by saying: I am not a gun nut. I'm not really a big fan. I kind of feel the same way about guns as I do about computers -- a necessary evil. So I learn what I need to know about both to be able use them when the need arises. When it comes to guns, I like to hunt; I prefer to bow hunt. I like to protect my family; I'd prefer diplomacy. I enjoy being a free American; I'd hate to be defenseless if someone decided we needed to be rounded up.
I bring this up because there are a lot of well-meaning people who don't like guns. I understand, I'm not a big fan myself. When these well-intentioned folk stand up and say we need to get rid of the guns, though, I have to ask why?
Beyond all the rhetoric there are some fascinating statistics. I know, I know... statistics are a cold place to go when talking about things like death, but bear with me a few moments because I promise, it warrants consideration.
The first thing I would point out is motor vehicles versus firearms. Wikipedia has some charts on both that show that motor vehicles kill about 2-3 times as many people as guns. If you look at Wikipedia's page on gun violence in the U.S. it gets more complicated. Regardless, no matter how you crunch the numbers, more people die on the road than by a gun. I don't hear a lot of people calling for tighter automobile control. It's a lot easier to get a driver's license than a gun or a carry permit.
Okay, I'm just trying to point out that we don't think twice about putting any 16-year-old kid on the road with a couple of tons of metal capable of moving at 100 miles per hour, but there is a great debate about guns which appear to be less of an issue when it comes to death and injury.
Just sayin'...
The real issue comes from the CDC, which says the top ten causes of death are:
* Heart disease: 616,067
* Cancer: 562,875
* Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
* Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
* Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706
* Alzheimer's disease: 74,632
* Diabetes: 71,382
* Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717
* Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 46,448
* Septicemia: 34,828
Each individual entry here kills more people than guns. Heart disease and cancer kill somewhere around one hundred times the total gun-related deaths in the U.S. How about we keep the guns for now and start asking some judges what the U.S. Constitution says about fast food, factory farms, and the USDA and FDA's right to poison it's population?
Granted, it gets even more complex as you look at it. If you read the entire report by the CDC, it becomes very clear that these are not simple statistics. In the end, though, guns kill very few people compared to health issues that we have the ability to change.
So here's my question: is it really the guns we need to focus on at this moment in history? I understand that it's a hot topic and that each and every life is worth saving. Still, if we buy the rhetoric and focus on guns over any number of issues that are actually killing more Americans every day, aren't we saying that the 100+ people that die from health issues are less important than each gun-related death?
I bring this up because there are a lot of well-meaning people who don't like guns. I understand, I'm not a big fan myself. When these well-intentioned folk stand up and say we need to get rid of the guns, though, I have to ask why?
Beyond all the rhetoric there are some fascinating statistics. I know, I know... statistics are a cold place to go when talking about things like death, but bear with me a few moments because I promise, it warrants consideration.
The first thing I would point out is motor vehicles versus firearms. Wikipedia has some charts on both that show that motor vehicles kill about 2-3 times as many people as guns. If you look at Wikipedia's page on gun violence in the U.S. it gets more complicated. Regardless, no matter how you crunch the numbers, more people die on the road than by a gun. I don't hear a lot of people calling for tighter automobile control. It's a lot easier to get a driver's license than a gun or a carry permit.
Okay, I'm just trying to point out that we don't think twice about putting any 16-year-old kid on the road with a couple of tons of metal capable of moving at 100 miles per hour, but there is a great debate about guns which appear to be less of an issue when it comes to death and injury.
Just sayin'...
The real issue comes from the CDC, which says the top ten causes of death are:
* Heart disease: 616,067
* Cancer: 562,875
* Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
* Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
* Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706
* Alzheimer's disease: 74,632
* Diabetes: 71,382
* Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717
* Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 46,448
* Septicemia: 34,828
Each individual entry here kills more people than guns. Heart disease and cancer kill somewhere around one hundred times the total gun-related deaths in the U.S. How about we keep the guns for now and start asking some judges what the U.S. Constitution says about fast food, factory farms, and the USDA and FDA's right to poison it's population?
Granted, it gets even more complex as you look at it. If you read the entire report by the CDC, it becomes very clear that these are not simple statistics. In the end, though, guns kill very few people compared to health issues that we have the ability to change.
So here's my question: is it really the guns we need to focus on at this moment in history? I understand that it's a hot topic and that each and every life is worth saving. Still, if we buy the rhetoric and focus on guns over any number of issues that are actually killing more Americans every day, aren't we saying that the 100+ people that die from health issues are less important than each gun-related death?
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Resolutions and Condiments
The winter solstice has passed and it is time to take stock and look at where we are, where we've been, and where we're going. This time of year about a decade and a half ago I recall telling a co-worker who seemed to mourn the passing of another year, "I just think, 'am I happier now than I was last year?' and, I am." There have been a few times since when I did not feel that way, but in the past 15 years or so I have found it true this time of year more often than not. As long as I have a purpose and a goal, I find that I am usually moving in a positive direction. This has resulted in my using resolutions to set goals for myself and, in an effort to be as unoriginal as possible, I tend to do this near the beginning of the year.
So, how did I do this year? Let's start by looking at what the resolutions were...
1) this blog.
2) finish the AFI's top ten and start in on some of the top twenty-five.
3) eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
4) learn to reload.
5.0) add another raised bed for the garden.
5.5) pay closer attention to planting-harvesting-replanting.
5.6) do more canning and freezing.
6.0) do some hike-in camping.
6.5) do at least one big hiking trip like last fall’s Mt. Ellinor hike.
7) actually fill a deer or elk tag.
8) get more exercise.
9) make it to the wedding in NC in October.
10) try cheese making and homemade pectin.
11) harvest some of my own firewood this year.
12) do more with my son.
As I covered in Resolutions Revisited back in July, numbers 1, 3, 4, 5.0, 6.0, 6.5 8, 9, and 11 were either done or on track. Most of the rest has been covered in this blog, but here it is in a nut:
I did finish watching the American Film Institute's top ten films, but did not actually delve into the others in the top 25.
The garden was a challenge this year as the weather was poor. As a result we only froze some pumpkin, but we did do a good bit of canning using what we could from the garden and quite a bit from the local produce stand.
Hiking, camping, and backpacking across the Olympic National Forest all happened and were wonderful. I expect there will be much more backpacking to report next year!
I did not fill a deer or elk tag. I did talk about it some here in Elk, Mayo, and Potato Salad and November Bane. I feel like I'm making progress and better understanding the area, but I have yet to put wild harvested meat in the freezer.
I did get more exercise (though that's been less true the past month or so), we made it to the wedding in North Carolina and spent ten days visiting good friends, made and canned pectin, and harvested some of my own firewood. I now have two chainsaws that need repair, though, and ended up buying as much wood as I harvested. I'll need to work harder on that next year.
I always need to do more with my son and while I have a difficult time sitting with him to play Legos, we have found some old TV shows and movies we enjoy watching together. Currently we are watching the first season of Airwolf and I have to say while it's not a great show, it held up better than I expected.
Besides the deer and elk tags, the biggest failure on the list is cheese making. I knew when I set the goal that it was a longshot and, all in all, I actually achieved more than I expected. As I talked about in Elk, Mayo, and Potato Salad, though, I did start getting into making condiments. Being challenged by some friends in Alabama who are now making just about everything from scratch, I began to look closer at what is on our shopping lists and wonder if we could make it ourselves.
We had already made relish from green tomatoes and red cabbage which came out great. It's purple and has a tangy flavor. The dilled green tomatoes turned out tasty, but because of the texture I anticipate using them primarily for relish as well. (We won't be buying relish anytime soon!) I have made a couple batches of mayonnaise now. The recipes I've referred to all say to use lemon juice or vinegar and we have found we much prefer vinegar. I made a couple half-pints of prepared horseradish when we ran out which turned out pretty mild, but wholly wonderful.
Two weeks ago I bought out the produce stand's supply of California tomatoes and spent a full day making and canning tomato ketchup. If I can learn how to make steak sauce, mustard, and cayenne pepper sauce I'll be set!
So, how did I do this year? Let's start by looking at what the resolutions were...
1) this blog.
2) finish the AFI's top ten and start in on some of the top twenty-five.
3) eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
4) learn to reload.
5.0) add another raised bed for the garden.
5.5) pay closer attention to planting-harvesting-replanting.
5.6) do more canning and freezing.
6.0) do some hike-in camping.
6.5) do at least one big hiking trip like last fall’s Mt. Ellinor hike.
7) actually fill a deer or elk tag.
8) get more exercise.
9) make it to the wedding in NC in October.
10) try cheese making and homemade pectin.
11) harvest some of my own firewood this year.
12) do more with my son.
As I covered in Resolutions Revisited back in July, numbers 1, 3, 4, 5.0, 6.0, 6.5 8, 9, and 11 were either done or on track. Most of the rest has been covered in this blog, but here it is in a nut:
I did finish watching the American Film Institute's top ten films, but did not actually delve into the others in the top 25.
The garden was a challenge this year as the weather was poor. As a result we only froze some pumpkin, but we did do a good bit of canning using what we could from the garden and quite a bit from the local produce stand.
Hiking, camping, and backpacking across the Olympic National Forest all happened and were wonderful. I expect there will be much more backpacking to report next year!
I did not fill a deer or elk tag. I did talk about it some here in Elk, Mayo, and Potato Salad and November Bane. I feel like I'm making progress and better understanding the area, but I have yet to put wild harvested meat in the freezer.
I did get more exercise (though that's been less true the past month or so), we made it to the wedding in North Carolina and spent ten days visiting good friends, made and canned pectin, and harvested some of my own firewood. I now have two chainsaws that need repair, though, and ended up buying as much wood as I harvested. I'll need to work harder on that next year.
I always need to do more with my son and while I have a difficult time sitting with him to play Legos, we have found some old TV shows and movies we enjoy watching together. Currently we are watching the first season of Airwolf and I have to say while it's not a great show, it held up better than I expected.
Besides the deer and elk tags, the biggest failure on the list is cheese making. I knew when I set the goal that it was a longshot and, all in all, I actually achieved more than I expected. As I talked about in Elk, Mayo, and Potato Salad, though, I did start getting into making condiments. Being challenged by some friends in Alabama who are now making just about everything from scratch, I began to look closer at what is on our shopping lists and wonder if we could make it ourselves.
We had already made relish from green tomatoes and red cabbage which came out great. It's purple and has a tangy flavor. The dilled green tomatoes turned out tasty, but because of the texture I anticipate using them primarily for relish as well. (We won't be buying relish anytime soon!) I have made a couple batches of mayonnaise now. The recipes I've referred to all say to use lemon juice or vinegar and we have found we much prefer vinegar. I made a couple half-pints of prepared horseradish when we ran out which turned out pretty mild, but wholly wonderful.
Two weeks ago I bought out the produce stand's supply of California tomatoes and spent a full day making and canning tomato ketchup. If I can learn how to make steak sauce, mustard, and cayenne pepper sauce I'll be set!
Friday, November 19, 2010
November Bane
Argh!
Elk season is over and my freezer has a void for another year. The first freeze is coming and the garden needs to be prepped. What should have been a simple project at work has turned into a full-blown pressure cooker. What's really bugging me, though, is reaction to the most recent election...
For starters, Obama actually said that he believes the election went as it did because we the people don't feel like the economy is recovering fast enough. SERIOUSLY? Has Obama completely forgotten that he was elected by people who believed that he was going to change things? People who voted for Obama were tired of politics-as-usual. Everyone -- EVERYONE -- knows he has only two years to make a mark. After that, even if the mid-terms go strangely well, the campaign for 2012 is going really influence and affect year three on. And what happened? Politics as usual, bailouts, and a health care bill that should have been put on the back burner in favor of real progress. It's not the economy, Mr. President; people expected more from you and now they've lashed out in frustration that they have been fooled yet again.
On the other side, this chest-beating crap by the recently elected saying that the administration is going to have to bow down or there's going to be gridlock has got to stop. These politicians don't get it -- IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU OR EVEN YOUR PARTY, DUMBASS! IT'S ABOUT WE THE PEOPLE! And we the people are tired of the petty crap keeping real, positive change from happening. How about everyone take a step back, realize that you were elected because we want government to work better, swallow your stupid pride, and try to actually make things better?!?
Just a thought.
For myself, I have a solid game plan for next elk season. There's still the late season for bowhunting deer. The chickens seem to bee adapting to the cold and are laying more regularly again. There's wood for the stove and a supply of canned goods in the pantry. This week is going to be rough, but the job should get back to something resembling normal after that.
It will be interesting to see how things happen from here...
Elk season is over and my freezer has a void for another year. The first freeze is coming and the garden needs to be prepped. What should have been a simple project at work has turned into a full-blown pressure cooker. What's really bugging me, though, is reaction to the most recent election...
For starters, Obama actually said that he believes the election went as it did because we the people don't feel like the economy is recovering fast enough. SERIOUSLY? Has Obama completely forgotten that he was elected by people who believed that he was going to change things? People who voted for Obama were tired of politics-as-usual. Everyone -- EVERYONE -- knows he has only two years to make a mark. After that, even if the mid-terms go strangely well, the campaign for 2012 is going really influence and affect year three on. And what happened? Politics as usual, bailouts, and a health care bill that should have been put on the back burner in favor of real progress. It's not the economy, Mr. President; people expected more from you and now they've lashed out in frustration that they have been fooled yet again.
On the other side, this chest-beating crap by the recently elected saying that the administration is going to have to bow down or there's going to be gridlock has got to stop. These politicians don't get it -- IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU OR EVEN YOUR PARTY, DUMBASS! IT'S ABOUT WE THE PEOPLE! And we the people are tired of the petty crap keeping real, positive change from happening. How about everyone take a step back, realize that you were elected because we want government to work better, swallow your stupid pride, and try to actually make things better?!?
Just a thought.
For myself, I have a solid game plan for next elk season. There's still the late season for bowhunting deer. The chickens seem to bee adapting to the cold and are laying more regularly again. There's wood for the stove and a supply of canned goods in the pantry. This week is going to be rough, but the job should get back to something resembling normal after that.
It will be interesting to see how things happen from here...
Friday, November 12, 2010
Elk, Mayo, and Potato Salad
Elk season opened this past Saturday. One person in our party spotted several cows over the course of the weekend. I saw a buck Sunday and with a quick call I was able to give him to pause and present me with a perfect target; too bad it wasn't deer season. On Monday we did not see or hear anything but other hunters and logging in the distance. Tuesday morning I decided to try a new area and heard a cow calling repeatedly. I adjusted my position just in time to see a herd of elk parade into the trees. I followed their trail for about a mile into the woods, but never saw them again. Still, I know where I'm going this weekend.
In lieu of packing the freezer with elk, today I decided to make potato salad. I was inspired recently during our visit to the east coast by tales of a friend in Alabama who has taken to making everything from scratch. I did can some relish this season, but the idea of making almost everything from scratch captured my imagination and I started looking into canning recipes for things like mustard and catsup. What I discovered is that homemade mayonnaise cannot be preserved -- it can only be made fresh and refrigerated for use over a few days. Seriously makes me wonder what's in commercial mayo that can sit on a grocery store shelf.
Anyway, this afternoon I made potato salad with local potatoes, eggs from the chickens, last season's pickles, and homemade mayo. It took me a while to get the proportions worked out with the mayo, so I ended up with more than I intended.
I guess I'll have plenty for sandwiches while I'm out trying to get one of those elk!
In lieu of packing the freezer with elk, today I decided to make potato salad. I was inspired recently during our visit to the east coast by tales of a friend in Alabama who has taken to making everything from scratch. I did can some relish this season, but the idea of making almost everything from scratch captured my imagination and I started looking into canning recipes for things like mustard and catsup. What I discovered is that homemade mayonnaise cannot be preserved -- it can only be made fresh and refrigerated for use over a few days. Seriously makes me wonder what's in commercial mayo that can sit on a grocery store shelf.
Anyway, this afternoon I made potato salad with local potatoes, eggs from the chickens, last season's pickles, and homemade mayo. It took me a while to get the proportions worked out with the mayo, so I ended up with more than I intended.
I guess I'll have plenty for sandwiches while I'm out trying to get one of those elk!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Hunting Is A Form Of Gambling
I don’t hunt for “sport”. I was first drawn to hunting because I enjoyed the communion with nature, finding it’s secrets, and sitting still and quiet in it’s glory. I had been hunting for some time before I actually experienced the rush of stalk and ambush. In the end, though, hunting for me has always been about putting food on the table (or the freezer, mostly). It is part of stocking the pantry and feeding the family.
For me today, hunting legally for food is not so far removed from gambling for income. When I lived in North Carolina I believe a big game tag with taxes and fees cost about $46. That $46 bought a large ticket with a line for one to four of each big game species available for hunting that year and a hunter possessing such a license could hunt any animal with any weapon provided it was within the season’s parameters. One could hunt with a bow, rifle, shotgun, or muzzleloader a variety of game such as white tail deer, turkey, bear, boar, fox, coyote,… probably twenty animals in all with a single tag for under $50.
I now live in the great state of Washington. I love it here. If I could be in Oregon I might be happier, but the Pacific Northwest is my home. Despite all of the great things the Northwest has to offer, hunting in Washington is expensive. A tag to hunt just one deer and one elk (and buy the vehicle permit to park in a hunting area) is between $80-$90 in Washington State. In addition, you have to choose which season you wish to hunt (bow, rifle, or muzzleloader) and you may only hunt that season, regardless of your success. What that means is, if you buy a rifle hunting license for deer and bring home nothing by season’s end, you do not even have the privilege of giving the state more money to hunt the late bow season in hopes of breaking even on the deal. It’s no wonder poaching is such a problem in Washington.
Hunting is not easy. Every now and then an easy shot may present itself and we are thankful when that happens, but even then there is a lot of work to get the animal from hoof to plate (this is true in hunting just as it is from CAFO to Wal-Mart). Most times, though, a single animal successfully hunted, killed, and butchered is the result of countless hours of finding where they are, finding a place to sit and/or stalk, waiting them out, learning to call, learning to shoot, butchering, not to mention all the tools required. I’m not here to argue the virtues of hunting, though…
What I’m trying to get at is the fact that I can pay $80+ and – assuming I already have everything else I need to hunt – MAYBE put one lean, nature-fed animal in the freezer, two if I am very lucky and have a lot of free time on my hands. Or I could pay a little more than twice that and put less meat in my freezer from a decent, but less natural source. It’s a real crapshoot we’ve created.
I feel like it’s time to discuss population and balance…
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Garden Notes, End of August 2010
It has been a terrible season in the garden. The weather has been dry and cool with temperatures mostly in the high 60s to low 70s (degrees Fahrenheit). There have been occasional "heat waves" where the temps have gotten into the 80s and 90s, but it seems to only last two or three days before dropping back to around 70. As a result it is the end of August and we have only harvested a few small tomatoes, no more peas or beans than we could eat, some carrots, cabbage, onions, a few strawberries, lots of lettuce and early spinach. The tomatoes have lots of flowers but only a few weeks ago started producing actual tomatoes. The cucumbers are just starting to come in. Pumpkins and squash are coming along slowly. Even the radishes have been slow.We learned several things this year. The second garden bed was new this year and we did not realize just how much shade much of the new bed was in. I believe that is part of why the peas and tomatoes have done so poorly as they were planted in the second bed where they did not even get what little sun we had. The cosmos we planted also grew much taller than we expected. Had we known, we would have planted them more strategically so as not to shade the vegetables.
Hunting season starts at dawn.
Here’s to stocking the pantry!
Friday, August 27, 2010
A Month Without Monsanto: What Does it Take to Cut out the GMO Giant?
I just found this article by April Dávila. It's a decent primer on just how invasive Monsanto has become and a couple of reasons that is not a good thing. Mainly the article is about just how difficult it is to buy anything that has not been touched by Monsanto in some way.
April touches on possible health risks associated with GM corn, how GM corn has become a huge percentage of feed for the beef industry, and the use of rBGH in dairy cows. Still, what's the big deal?
First off, Monsanto has successfully taken advantage of the post-World War II trend towards mono-cropping, made our food system less secure, and profited from it. The two crops grown in the US today are corn and soybeans. After the first half of the last century it was decided that corn and soybeans could more easily be grown in abundance, stored, and used in a variety of products and the government has subsidized the over production of these two crops to insure a steady food supply. Great idea in theory, except that now we have consolidated so much food production that one problem affects a large portion of the population (see the recent egg recall). Think of the internet -- the original idea was to have information spread over a number of interconnected databases so that if any one system were to fail, the other systems would still be available. Now imagine the opposite: all of the information being stored on just two or three computers. If one system goes down in that case, the very few, already over-taxed systems that remain will not likely have complete backups of the information lost and be unable to handle the extra workload. That is a very simple model of our current food system.
Monsanto did not create this concentrated mono-cropping system, but it did create three products: a weed killer called RoundUp, and corn seeds and soybean seeds that were genetically modified to resist RoundUp called RoundUp Ready (RR1) Seeds. Good news, right?! Farmers were suddenly able to grow more crops on less land with fewer issues and Monsanto is helping to feed the world. What Monsanto had done was patent previously non-patentable seeds by claiming their genetic modification made them a unique, manufactured product and getting their appointed cronies in Washington to help push the patents through. What Monsanto did next was to sue any and every farmer they could catch saving seed to replant. This included farmers who did not use RR1 seed but whose crops had been cross-contaminated from other farms and included cases where Monsanto's case was thin, but they had more money than the farmer to pay lawyers. It is really more about sending a message than anything and Monsanto isn't really even shy about it -- you can read about it on their website.We now have even less variety in crops being grown in the US thanks to RR1 seeds.
What's more is Monsanto has expended this operation into third-world countries with the promise of helping feed poor people and bring them out of poverty, not acknowledging all of the additional inputs required to grow the GM crops. In the end Monsanto has helped to bankrupt third-world farmers, reduce the food supply, and make a profit from it.
Monsanto also developed rBGH, a bovine growth hormone that increases milk production in dairy cows. Again, that's good, right? More milk is good. I would personally argue that you can manipulate nature to a degree -- milking cows after their calves have stopped nursing, for example -- but nature is not a capitalist. If you push too hard, there will be problems. It turns out that the increased milk production takes it toll on cows, causing increased cases of mastitis, reproductive issues, a variety of hoof problems, and a number of problems mostly falling into the category of lameness. Add to this the fact that dairy cows for large-scale milk production are no longer raised on pastures, but in close-quarter concrete and steel barns where they get little exercise and little access to sanitizing sunlight and suddenly a lot of cows were needing to be treated with antibiotics. Margaret Miller, former employee of Monsanto who was at this time working in the FDA, increased the FDA allowance for antibiotics in dairy cows. The result was more rBGH, more antibiotics, and ultimately, an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria in dairy cows (and their milk). The FDA then increased the allowance for somatic cells in milk (yeah, that's pus). Yummy.
As for corn fed beef, Monsanto has helped create a market for it's GM corn as many countries outside the US have banned it. That market is cattle feed. Now we've been feeding corn to cattle and advertising "corn fed" beef for a long time, Monsanto just helped get GM corn in there (oh, and they have done their part to insure GM foods not be labeled because they don't want consumers to know). The problem here is that cows are ruminants designed to graze on grass. But isn't corn a grass? Yes, but the corn we feed to cows is not the part of a grass plant they would eat if left to their own, natural devices. The result is a slew of health problems for the cattle resulting in E. coli problems and infections that have lead, once again, to antibiotic abuse and antibiotic resistant bacteria strains.
In the end, Monsanto's claims of wanting to "feed the world" is obviously either a veil to cover their corporate greed or a shameful lack of understanding of what they are doing. It is true that Monsanto is not alone in it's hijacking of our food supply, corporations like DuPont want a piece as well. Monsanto has just been leading the way. These are just a few examples, you can find more here, there, and elsewhere.
Check out April Dávila's article. It's a good read.
April touches on possible health risks associated with GM corn, how GM corn has become a huge percentage of feed for the beef industry, and the use of rBGH in dairy cows. Still, what's the big deal?
First off, Monsanto has successfully taken advantage of the post-World War II trend towards mono-cropping, made our food system less secure, and profited from it. The two crops grown in the US today are corn and soybeans. After the first half of the last century it was decided that corn and soybeans could more easily be grown in abundance, stored, and used in a variety of products and the government has subsidized the over production of these two crops to insure a steady food supply. Great idea in theory, except that now we have consolidated so much food production that one problem affects a large portion of the population (see the recent egg recall). Think of the internet -- the original idea was to have information spread over a number of interconnected databases so that if any one system were to fail, the other systems would still be available. Now imagine the opposite: all of the information being stored on just two or three computers. If one system goes down in that case, the very few, already over-taxed systems that remain will not likely have complete backups of the information lost and be unable to handle the extra workload. That is a very simple model of our current food system.
Monsanto did not create this concentrated mono-cropping system, but it did create three products: a weed killer called RoundUp, and corn seeds and soybean seeds that were genetically modified to resist RoundUp called RoundUp Ready (RR1) Seeds. Good news, right?! Farmers were suddenly able to grow more crops on less land with fewer issues and Monsanto is helping to feed the world. What Monsanto had done was patent previously non-patentable seeds by claiming their genetic modification made them a unique, manufactured product and getting their appointed cronies in Washington to help push the patents through. What Monsanto did next was to sue any and every farmer they could catch saving seed to replant. This included farmers who did not use RR1 seed but whose crops had been cross-contaminated from other farms and included cases where Monsanto's case was thin, but they had more money than the farmer to pay lawyers. It is really more about sending a message than anything and Monsanto isn't really even shy about it -- you can read about it on their website.We now have even less variety in crops being grown in the US thanks to RR1 seeds.
What's more is Monsanto has expended this operation into third-world countries with the promise of helping feed poor people and bring them out of poverty, not acknowledging all of the additional inputs required to grow the GM crops. In the end Monsanto has helped to bankrupt third-world farmers, reduce the food supply, and make a profit from it.
Monsanto also developed rBGH, a bovine growth hormone that increases milk production in dairy cows. Again, that's good, right? More milk is good. I would personally argue that you can manipulate nature to a degree -- milking cows after their calves have stopped nursing, for example -- but nature is not a capitalist. If you push too hard, there will be problems. It turns out that the increased milk production takes it toll on cows, causing increased cases of mastitis, reproductive issues, a variety of hoof problems, and a number of problems mostly falling into the category of lameness. Add to this the fact that dairy cows for large-scale milk production are no longer raised on pastures, but in close-quarter concrete and steel barns where they get little exercise and little access to sanitizing sunlight and suddenly a lot of cows were needing to be treated with antibiotics. Margaret Miller, former employee of Monsanto who was at this time working in the FDA, increased the FDA allowance for antibiotics in dairy cows. The result was more rBGH, more antibiotics, and ultimately, an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria in dairy cows (and their milk). The FDA then increased the allowance for somatic cells in milk (yeah, that's pus). Yummy.
As for corn fed beef, Monsanto has helped create a market for it's GM corn as many countries outside the US have banned it. That market is cattle feed. Now we've been feeding corn to cattle and advertising "corn fed" beef for a long time, Monsanto just helped get GM corn in there (oh, and they have done their part to insure GM foods not be labeled because they don't want consumers to know). The problem here is that cows are ruminants designed to graze on grass. But isn't corn a grass? Yes, but the corn we feed to cows is not the part of a grass plant they would eat if left to their own, natural devices. The result is a slew of health problems for the cattle resulting in E. coli problems and infections that have lead, once again, to antibiotic abuse and antibiotic resistant bacteria strains.
In the end, Monsanto's claims of wanting to "feed the world" is obviously either a veil to cover their corporate greed or a shameful lack of understanding of what they are doing. It is true that Monsanto is not alone in it's hijacking of our food supply, corporations like DuPont want a piece as well. Monsanto has just been leading the way. These are just a few examples, you can find more here, there, and elsewhere.
Check out April Dávila's article. It's a good read.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Canning
It's already August again and this past weekend my wife made and canned some applesauce. The night before last we made and canned salsa. I figured it was time to do and inventory of what we currently have on hand in the pantry and start coming up with a plan for canning over the next couple months.
Here's what I found:
Freshly canned:
From last season:
In the freezer we went through all the tomatoes and have a bag or two each of peas and green beans that did not keep as well as I would have hoped. I think we're going to have to vacuum seal the bean and peas this year.
The stew, corn, dill pickles, and blackberry jam all seemed to get good use, even if some of it was given away (my wife's cousin's husband consumed a good chunk of the blackberry jam and we gave pickles away frequently as we thought we had too many).
This year we're talking about canning some spaghetti sauce, probably more stew, and corn. Our garden is slow this year as it's been a cold summer. Very few tomatoes and none ripe yet, no cucumbers yet, and we've only just begun to get a few beans. The peas have been doing well but are only just now starting to produce beyond what we can keep up with. We have a batch of carrots and onions ready now. I have a feeling we'll be canning from the local produce stand more than from our own garden this year, sadly.
The other thing we need to worry about is meat in the freezer. I'm putting off buying a large meat package from the local butcher because, A) we're saving up for a trip to North Carolina in October, and B) I'm hoping for a deer or elk (or both) this fall. That could cover the meat department for us.
Time to start stocking the pantry!
Here's what I found:
Freshly canned:
- 6 pints of applesauce
- 3 pints of salsa
From last season:
- 7 pints of baked beans
- 3 pints of applesauce
- 5 and one half pints of grape jelly
- 7 pints of sweet pickles
- 2 quarts of dill pickles
- 2 pints of corn
- 2 quarts of stew
- 1 half-pint of blackberry jam
- 10 half-pints of strawberry jam
In the freezer we went through all the tomatoes and have a bag or two each of peas and green beans that did not keep as well as I would have hoped. I think we're going to have to vacuum seal the bean and peas this year.
The stew, corn, dill pickles, and blackberry jam all seemed to get good use, even if some of it was given away (my wife's cousin's husband consumed a good chunk of the blackberry jam and we gave pickles away frequently as we thought we had too many).
This year we're talking about canning some spaghetti sauce, probably more stew, and corn. Our garden is slow this year as it's been a cold summer. Very few tomatoes and none ripe yet, no cucumbers yet, and we've only just begun to get a few beans. The peas have been doing well but are only just now starting to produce beyond what we can keep up with. We have a batch of carrots and onions ready now. I have a feeling we'll be canning from the local produce stand more than from our own garden this year, sadly.
The other thing we need to worry about is meat in the freezer. I'm putting off buying a large meat package from the local butcher because, A) we're saving up for a trip to North Carolina in October, and B) I'm hoping for a deer or elk (or both) this fall. That could cover the meat department for us.
Time to start stocking the pantry!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
New Year's Resolutions Revisited
I recently reviewed my New Year's Resolutions for this year and was pleased to discover that I'm sticking to it better than I had expected.
First was this blog, which, admittedly, I haven't kept up with lately as I should. I've been busy with other things, but I need to get better at posting even something short from time to time.
On The Waterfront and second half of Lawrence of Arabia are the movies I need to watch to complete the AFI's top ten. I thought I still needed to see Vertigo, but it turns out I did watch that one last year. I haven't done anything about this one other than putting On The Waterfront in our Netfilx queue. I'll have to check Lawrence of Arabia out from the library. Those will be good ones for later in the year when the weather is yucky.
The goal of “eating food, not too much, mostly plants” has been going better lately than it was at the beginning of the year. It's always easier when fresh produce abounds and, despite the weather being cool-ish for the season, the garden is doing very well! We added a second raised bed (another resolution) and have been doing better than last year with our planting-harvesting-replanting schedules, though I have not been as diligent with this as I wish I were. Still, progress is being made.
I have reloading completely under control. There are a couple items I would like to get to make the job easier, less messy, etc., but right now I have everything I need to reload the two calibers I shoot with any regularity and have reloaded several hundred rounds.
I have done three hike-in camping trips this year -- Olympic Hot Springs, Geyser Valley Complex, and Hoh Rain Forest. I have gotten a handle on the gear, what I do and don't need to pack, AND have made plans for a big trip. In a week I will venture out for a six-day excursion from the north end of the Olympic National Park to the south end. About 45 miles from Lake Mills to Lake Quinault (technically, from the Whisky Bend Trailhead to the North Fork Trailhead). I am excited!
Airline tickets have been purchased for the wedding in October and money is being saved for the trip and to cover time off work.
I found someone local who had two acres cleared in January and is letting people come harvest firewood pretty cheap. I have about two thirds of the wood we will need for this winter already.
Between the hiking and woodcutting, I have definitely been getting more exercise this year. I have also been exercising more just to get in shape for the big walk next week.
Cheese making and homemade pectin are two things I just have not gotten to yet. Filling a deer or elk tag is going to have to wait until the season starts this fall, but I have begun making plans.
I'm still looking for ways to do more with my son. He and I did do the Geyser Valley Complex hike just the two of us, and the other two hikes were my wife, son and me. He is very much into Legos and what I really need to do is make time to actually build Lego stuff with him. That should be a goal.
All in all, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how this year has been going!
First was this blog, which, admittedly, I haven't kept up with lately as I should. I've been busy with other things, but I need to get better at posting even something short from time to time.
On The Waterfront and second half of Lawrence of Arabia are the movies I need to watch to complete the AFI's top ten. I thought I still needed to see Vertigo, but it turns out I did watch that one last year. I haven't done anything about this one other than putting On The Waterfront in our Netfilx queue. I'll have to check Lawrence of Arabia out from the library. Those will be good ones for later in the year when the weather is yucky.
The goal of “eating food, not too much, mostly plants” has been going better lately than it was at the beginning of the year. It's always easier when fresh produce abounds and, despite the weather being cool-ish for the season, the garden is doing very well! We added a second raised bed (another resolution) and have been doing better than last year with our planting-harvesting-replanting schedules, though I have not been as diligent with this as I wish I were. Still, progress is being made.
I have reloading completely under control. There are a couple items I would like to get to make the job easier, less messy, etc., but right now I have everything I need to reload the two calibers I shoot with any regularity and have reloaded several hundred rounds.
I have done three hike-in camping trips this year -- Olympic Hot Springs, Geyser Valley Complex, and Hoh Rain Forest. I have gotten a handle on the gear, what I do and don't need to pack, AND have made plans for a big trip. In a week I will venture out for a six-day excursion from the north end of the Olympic National Park to the south end. About 45 miles from Lake Mills to Lake Quinault (technically, from the Whisky Bend Trailhead to the North Fork Trailhead). I am excited!
Airline tickets have been purchased for the wedding in October and money is being saved for the trip and to cover time off work.
I found someone local who had two acres cleared in January and is letting people come harvest firewood pretty cheap. I have about two thirds of the wood we will need for this winter already.
Between the hiking and woodcutting, I have definitely been getting more exercise this year. I have also been exercising more just to get in shape for the big walk next week.
Cheese making and homemade pectin are two things I just have not gotten to yet. Filling a deer or elk tag is going to have to wait until the season starts this fall, but I have begun making plans.
I'm still looking for ways to do more with my son. He and I did do the Geyser Valley Complex hike just the two of us, and the other two hikes were my wife, son and me. He is very much into Legos and what I really need to do is make time to actually build Lego stuff with him. That should be a goal.
All in all, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how this year has been going!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
“some kind of survivalist”
I was asked if I’m “some kind of survivalist” recently. If you’ve known me for ten years or more, this is surrealistically funny, but it’s a funny question anyway.
Let’s take a walk…
It is in our nature to survive and procreate. Did you eat today? Have you recently participated in any act that could possibly introduce a new mini-you into the gene pool? Does that make you a survivalist? Do you pay a little extra in loss of mileage by carrying a mounted spare tire, jack, and lug wrench in your car? Does that make you a survivalist? Am I a survivalist because I have AAA? Or because I carry a cell phone? Does deciding not to do my shopping in the bad part of town after midnight make me a survivalist? Aren’t we all survivalists to some extent?
Okay, okay, I understand the premise and I was being asked if I am a paranoid kook with a bunker under my house stocked with canned goods and ammo. I should probably start with the truth, but it’s much more entertaining to play devil’s advocate.
When did the Boy Scout motto of “be prepared” get demonized? No, I have no such bunker. I have food that I have canned and, sure, I have ammo. More than that I have a freezer stocked with food, a generator to run the freezer and refrigerator and fuel to run it in the event of a power outage, a couple hundred gallons of water in rain barrels, maybe a dozen oil lamps and enough oil to keep ‘em lit. I try to keep some emergency cash on hand in a fireproof safe and I keep emergency supplies in the car. I also have two vegetable gardens and half a dozen laying hens.
Now, if you just read the last paragraph without any other context, I can see how the average American might start to draw a mental stereotype. To my credit, I have a very earth-drawn wife who helps me keep things in perspective, so even if I were to suggest something such as a bunker it would likely get vetoed for being kooky. So let’s examine the “kooky” things that got through:
First off, my family and I enjoy camping, hiking, and hunting – all of which require a bit of preparedness. I put together a few things in the event that something goes wrong and one or more of us end up being in a place longer than anticipated. To me this is common sense. Hunting requires ammunition – be it arrows or bullet cartridges – and it tends to be cheaper to make your own, so I am learning to do so. There is an element of Do-It-Yourself involved that is all about economics. I like jerky, but it’s expensive. I can make it for a fraction of the price (and without all the chemicals), so why not make it myself? Same with beer, ammo, and many other things (before even taking external costs into account), plus it’s just fun.
When we lived in North Carolina, “hurricane lamps” were handy because hurricanes tended to happen and it’s nice to be able to see when the power goes out and the sun goes down. Flashlights and battery-powered lanterns are fine for short-term situations, but if you’re going to be without power for days, oil lamps do a better job with less waste. We acquired several oil lamps and a habit to stock up on oil while we were living in North Carolina. Ebay, craigslist, freecycle, and your local consignment shop are all great places to find some really cool oil lamps for only a few bucks. Now we’re back in the Northwest and when it’s a little chilly in the spring or fall but not cold enough to light up the woodstove a few oil lamps can make all the difference. So we like oil lamps.
When we got back to the Northwest we were confronted with some of the same power outage problems from hurricane country for different reasons. We were informed that the house we were moving into had not had power the previous three Christmases due to an outdated infrastructure. We bought a generator that fall, but no one knew what was to come that first winter.
The fireproof safe? One night in North Carolina, the apartment building we lived in caught on fire due to an electrical short. While the fire did not reach our apartment, our home did trade a tobacco bouquet for a more industrial scent after that. I am told it was entertaining watching me run keyboards and guitars from our apartment in bare feet where, at one point, carrying something through the glass storm door that I was unaware was closed at that moment, I cut my feet pretty badly. We later realized neither my wife nor I had thought to grab our wallets and we didn’t have a card or cash to buy bandages for my feet. A short time later we bought a fire safe to keep documents and cash and we tend to keep some essentials in a dedicated spot near the door. We also maintain renter’s insurance. Learning experience.
The freezer came from a family we knew in the area who was moving and generously gave it to us. When we discovered a local butcher that sold grass-fed beef packages when available, we decided to save up and stock up as we needed because the grass-fed beef sells out quickly. We save money and support a local and more sustainable beef market.
As far as canning and freezing goes, that is really about local, sustainable food and gardening. Of course, in the long run, all of that is about surviving on this planet, so I suppose it might be a survivalist thing in a weird, long-term global way. We grow veggies and buy local produce, but it’s all only available a short time of the year, so in an effort to eat more locally and sustainably, we started canning and freezing foods. Initially, we tried to not eat too much of what we had preserved in case of snow and floods and ended up with an abundance. We quickly discovered how easy it is to can and freeze enough food to feed a small family for a few weeks (or even months) and cut the grocery bill, all while eating better.
The rain barrels are more quirk than practical, but only because we live in a rainforest. We have four barrels that cost us $50 total – two 35-gallon barrels and two 55-gallon barrels. I have done some limited experiments with hoses and fittings and we currently conserve about 180 gallons of water at a time. If we had the storage I am quite confident we could gather more than ten times that amount just from our roof, but that is just not cost effective. Why? Because what we pay just to have water service is about four times what we pay during a heavy usage month. We get our water from a local system (which is great! – it’s local, but again, we live in a rainforest) and the infrastructure costs a lot more than the water. As a result, unless we turn our water service off, it would take years for the rain barrels to pay for themselves even if we never turned on the tap. The rain barrels are more about interacting and sharing notes with a friend from Portland who is actually saving a lot of money with his rain barrels, conserving water, and helping to curb flow into the overwhelmed storm drains. Our barrels support the garden and grass for the chickens, both of which need the most water during the driest months, but they aren’t really saving us any money.
Hopefully the progression of these things now seems rather ordinary. There is more to the story, though.
Here is what happened last winter:
We had a snow storm that shut down the Puget Sound area for two weeks in early December. The snow came and no one was too surprised, but then it kept coming. Then the temperature stayed low and the snow hung around. Here in the Northwest, in the rare event that snow comes, it might stay a couple days at best (or worst, depending on your perspective, of course). Usually, it comes down and there’s not enough time or snow to build a snowman before it’s filling the storm drains. Last winter we had two weeks of snow that shut us down. Christmas shopping and a two week shut down cleared out store shelves at a surprising rate. The snow was gone by Christmas and we had power on Christmas Day, but as it melted, we had flooding. As a result, there were no shipments from the east, which was closed due to snow over the pass, the southern route was flooded, and we don’t appear to get groceries from Canada or the Pacific Ocean. We all saw exactly what happens to a grocery store when nothing comes in for three days and the store shelves were virtually empty a second time. Again, we learned to do the Boy Scout thing and be prepared.
This year the weather here has been mild. The east coast has been beaten up by winter storms, but the Northwest has been pretty mild (I am knocking on the wood desk top right now). We actually have carrots that were planted late last fall and given up on that are coming up now. We have used about a third less firewood than we did last year, but winter isn’t over so it’s too early too say just how well we did.
Next year may not be so kind.
All in all, we are trying to be sustainable, eat local, and be prepared. Is that “some kind of survivalist”? Yes, it is some kind. Mostly it’s about living better on less money – not necessarily a bad thing in the current economy. If some people see that as being “kooky” what can I do?
Let’s take a walk…
It is in our nature to survive and procreate. Did you eat today? Have you recently participated in any act that could possibly introduce a new mini-you into the gene pool? Does that make you a survivalist? Do you pay a little extra in loss of mileage by carrying a mounted spare tire, jack, and lug wrench in your car? Does that make you a survivalist? Am I a survivalist because I have AAA? Or because I carry a cell phone? Does deciding not to do my shopping in the bad part of town after midnight make me a survivalist? Aren’t we all survivalists to some extent?
Okay, okay, I understand the premise and I was being asked if I am a paranoid kook with a bunker under my house stocked with canned goods and ammo. I should probably start with the truth, but it’s much more entertaining to play devil’s advocate.
When did the Boy Scout motto of “be prepared” get demonized? No, I have no such bunker. I have food that I have canned and, sure, I have ammo. More than that I have a freezer stocked with food, a generator to run the freezer and refrigerator and fuel to run it in the event of a power outage, a couple hundred gallons of water in rain barrels, maybe a dozen oil lamps and enough oil to keep ‘em lit. I try to keep some emergency cash on hand in a fireproof safe and I keep emergency supplies in the car. I also have two vegetable gardens and half a dozen laying hens.
Now, if you just read the last paragraph without any other context, I can see how the average American might start to draw a mental stereotype. To my credit, I have a very earth-drawn wife who helps me keep things in perspective, so even if I were to suggest something such as a bunker it would likely get vetoed for being kooky. So let’s examine the “kooky” things that got through:
First off, my family and I enjoy camping, hiking, and hunting – all of which require a bit of preparedness. I put together a few things in the event that something goes wrong and one or more of us end up being in a place longer than anticipated. To me this is common sense. Hunting requires ammunition – be it arrows or bullet cartridges – and it tends to be cheaper to make your own, so I am learning to do so. There is an element of Do-It-Yourself involved that is all about economics. I like jerky, but it’s expensive. I can make it for a fraction of the price (and without all the chemicals), so why not make it myself? Same with beer, ammo, and many other things (before even taking external costs into account), plus it’s just fun.
When we lived in North Carolina, “hurricane lamps” were handy because hurricanes tended to happen and it’s nice to be able to see when the power goes out and the sun goes down. Flashlights and battery-powered lanterns are fine for short-term situations, but if you’re going to be without power for days, oil lamps do a better job with less waste. We acquired several oil lamps and a habit to stock up on oil while we were living in North Carolina. Ebay, craigslist, freecycle, and your local consignment shop are all great places to find some really cool oil lamps for only a few bucks. Now we’re back in the Northwest and when it’s a little chilly in the spring or fall but not cold enough to light up the woodstove a few oil lamps can make all the difference. So we like oil lamps.
When we got back to the Northwest we were confronted with some of the same power outage problems from hurricane country for different reasons. We were informed that the house we were moving into had not had power the previous three Christmases due to an outdated infrastructure. We bought a generator that fall, but no one knew what was to come that first winter.
The fireproof safe? One night in North Carolina, the apartment building we lived in caught on fire due to an electrical short. While the fire did not reach our apartment, our home did trade a tobacco bouquet for a more industrial scent after that. I am told it was entertaining watching me run keyboards and guitars from our apartment in bare feet where, at one point, carrying something through the glass storm door that I was unaware was closed at that moment, I cut my feet pretty badly. We later realized neither my wife nor I had thought to grab our wallets and we didn’t have a card or cash to buy bandages for my feet. A short time later we bought a fire safe to keep documents and cash and we tend to keep some essentials in a dedicated spot near the door. We also maintain renter’s insurance. Learning experience.
The freezer came from a family we knew in the area who was moving and generously gave it to us. When we discovered a local butcher that sold grass-fed beef packages when available, we decided to save up and stock up as we needed because the grass-fed beef sells out quickly. We save money and support a local and more sustainable beef market.
As far as canning and freezing goes, that is really about local, sustainable food and gardening. Of course, in the long run, all of that is about surviving on this planet, so I suppose it might be a survivalist thing in a weird, long-term global way. We grow veggies and buy local produce, but it’s all only available a short time of the year, so in an effort to eat more locally and sustainably, we started canning and freezing foods. Initially, we tried to not eat too much of what we had preserved in case of snow and floods and ended up with an abundance. We quickly discovered how easy it is to can and freeze enough food to feed a small family for a few weeks (or even months) and cut the grocery bill, all while eating better.
The rain barrels are more quirk than practical, but only because we live in a rainforest. We have four barrels that cost us $50 total – two 35-gallon barrels and two 55-gallon barrels. I have done some limited experiments with hoses and fittings and we currently conserve about 180 gallons of water at a time. If we had the storage I am quite confident we could gather more than ten times that amount just from our roof, but that is just not cost effective. Why? Because what we pay just to have water service is about four times what we pay during a heavy usage month. We get our water from a local system (which is great! – it’s local, but again, we live in a rainforest) and the infrastructure costs a lot more than the water. As a result, unless we turn our water service off, it would take years for the rain barrels to pay for themselves even if we never turned on the tap. The rain barrels are more about interacting and sharing notes with a friend from Portland who is actually saving a lot of money with his rain barrels, conserving water, and helping to curb flow into the overwhelmed storm drains. Our barrels support the garden and grass for the chickens, both of which need the most water during the driest months, but they aren’t really saving us any money.
Hopefully the progression of these things now seems rather ordinary. There is more to the story, though.
Here is what happened last winter:
We had a snow storm that shut down the Puget Sound area for two weeks in early December. The snow came and no one was too surprised, but then it kept coming. Then the temperature stayed low and the snow hung around. Here in the Northwest, in the rare event that snow comes, it might stay a couple days at best (or worst, depending on your perspective, of course). Usually, it comes down and there’s not enough time or snow to build a snowman before it’s filling the storm drains. Last winter we had two weeks of snow that shut us down. Christmas shopping and a two week shut down cleared out store shelves at a surprising rate. The snow was gone by Christmas and we had power on Christmas Day, but as it melted, we had flooding. As a result, there were no shipments from the east, which was closed due to snow over the pass, the southern route was flooded, and we don’t appear to get groceries from Canada or the Pacific Ocean. We all saw exactly what happens to a grocery store when nothing comes in for three days and the store shelves were virtually empty a second time. Again, we learned to do the Boy Scout thing and be prepared.
This year the weather here has been mild. The east coast has been beaten up by winter storms, but the Northwest has been pretty mild (I am knocking on the wood desk top right now). We actually have carrots that were planted late last fall and given up on that are coming up now. We have used about a third less firewood than we did last year, but winter isn’t over so it’s too early too say just how well we did.
Next year may not be so kind.
All in all, we are trying to be sustainable, eat local, and be prepared. Is that “some kind of survivalist”? Yes, it is some kind. Mostly it’s about living better on less money – not necessarily a bad thing in the current economy. If some people see that as being “kooky” what can I do?
Friday, January 29, 2010
Backstory Part III
The third and final installment of the "how I got here" story...
---
Before moving to the east coast I had taken an interest in archery and this lead me to bow hunting. While hunting I came face-to-face with the reality of meat and exactly how an animal becomes food. It was also around the time of this move that we started taking a look at the anti-Wal-Mart hype. While we had shopped at Wal-Mart from time to time, I frequently found myself aggravated with the experience. I decided to try and find out why.
While I found books on Wal-Mart and organic foods, my wife was looking into childbirth and the medical industry. When our son started having unexplained seizures at age six, the doctors at the hospital had absolutely no explanation and our motivation for answers grew. It turns out that the over-the-counter allergy medicine we were giving our son each spring causes seizures in a small percent of people; mostly children. None of the doctors to whom we are still paying bills had ever heard of such a thing. Money well spent.
Around this time I had made a complaint among my college friends about how difficult it is to reduce one's carbon footprint even when trying to do so. I was admonished by a vegan friend who suggested that I could do a lot more by simply not eating meat. I decided to really examine this perspective which lead me to more information about Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations, food transportation, and why eating locally is important. Now I was torn between local and organic and found it seemingly impossible to reconcile the two.
We never did find a local brew shop in Wilmington that could get us anything we couldn't find online from the same origin or closer. We never found a local butcher. Seriously. The local supermarkets would reluctantly hand-cut shipped-in raw meat but did not want to have to clean the slicer for a private order. I ended up buying a meat slicer online because no one in Wilmington that I could find sold such an item (I did not check Wal-Mart).
On top of all of this, we were appalled by both the school food and the local school system. One day we picked our son up from school when he was on the verge of tears. We had to pull from him that the school was having a "McDonald's Day" that Friday and that, while he didn't want to let his class down, he didn't want to eat McDonald's food. Now the school has made me a bad parent for teaching my kid to eat better. When I emailed the principal, I was informed it was not a school program, but a PTA fundraiser, never mind the giant banner in the school entryway and the competition between classrooms for participation. The PTA cashed my enclosed check for the "recommended contribution" plus what an average family might generously spend at McDonald's, but never responded to my letter. Still, that wasn’t the last straw.
My wife was reading articles by John Taylor Gatto and decided it would be a good idea to volunteer at the school library to help out. One afternoon the school went on “lock-down”, which means the lights went off, the shades were pulled, and the kids all got on the floor while police searched the school. Once the police cleared the building, the shades remained closed and no children were allowed outside without an adult escort for the rest of the day. It turns out someone down the street had been shot and the police were looking for the shooter. Now I don’t have a problem with the lock-down procedure, what I have a problem with is that the school did not tell any parents about it. The only reason we knew about it was because my wife happened to be there that day. How do you put kids through something like that and not mention it to the parents? After one year in the local, public school and three and a half months in the local magnet school, we removed our child from compulsory education and started a homeschool, but not without threat of litigation. Schools get money based on attendance now, so every child counts at least as far as the budget is concerned.
We were reading books like Crunchy Cons (Dreher), When Corporations Rule the World (Korten), Deep Economy (McKibben), The Ecology of Commerce (Hawken), The Great Turning (Korten), Choice (Bender & de Gramont), Conscious Conception (Baker & Baker), The Empty Cradle (Longman) (a disturbing book on several levels), and The Wal-Mart Effect (Fishman). We saw documentaries such as Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, Why We Fight, The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, The Corporation, and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. We began to really reconsider how we live and how to live better.
By the time I was able to secure work and move our family back to the northwest, we had become staunch anti-Wal-Mart, anti-industrial, organic-foods, homeschooling, label-reading shoppers. Once again, change seems to be easier when habits change. We now found ourselves closer to home, but in no context with which we were familiar as our habits and priorities had so dramatically shifted. We found that the neighborhood Fred Meyer's (now owned by Kroger) "natural" section closely resembled the co-op we belonged to on the east coast. We were relieved to find a supply of natural and organic products, but we soon discovered a local butcher and several local markets sprinkled about the area. It was as if we had stumbled into the perfect storm of local access and organic options. We were also able to gain access to a much more user-friendly library than we had been to in years. Instead of buying a few books a year I was now able to borrow a few books a week and learn much more about local and sustainable. The book Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown shook my world all over again. We planted a vegetable garden, started raising chickens, learned canning, freezing, pickling and jam making. I continued homebrewing and making sausage and jerky.
Which brings the whole story up to speed. We are now several years into this journey and we are making progress, but we can always do better. Our worldview has changed some, but what has really changed is how we interact with the world and our environment. We are learning to consume less, produce more, and be more involved with our own lives.
It will be interesting to see what happens next.
---
Before moving to the east coast I had taken an interest in archery and this lead me to bow hunting. While hunting I came face-to-face with the reality of meat and exactly how an animal becomes food. It was also around the time of this move that we started taking a look at the anti-Wal-Mart hype. While we had shopped at Wal-Mart from time to time, I frequently found myself aggravated with the experience. I decided to try and find out why.
While I found books on Wal-Mart and organic foods, my wife was looking into childbirth and the medical industry. When our son started having unexplained seizures at age six, the doctors at the hospital had absolutely no explanation and our motivation for answers grew. It turns out that the over-the-counter allergy medicine we were giving our son each spring causes seizures in a small percent of people; mostly children. None of the doctors to whom we are still paying bills had ever heard of such a thing. Money well spent.
Around this time I had made a complaint among my college friends about how difficult it is to reduce one's carbon footprint even when trying to do so. I was admonished by a vegan friend who suggested that I could do a lot more by simply not eating meat. I decided to really examine this perspective which lead me to more information about Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations, food transportation, and why eating locally is important. Now I was torn between local and organic and found it seemingly impossible to reconcile the two.
We never did find a local brew shop in Wilmington that could get us anything we couldn't find online from the same origin or closer. We never found a local butcher. Seriously. The local supermarkets would reluctantly hand-cut shipped-in raw meat but did not want to have to clean the slicer for a private order. I ended up buying a meat slicer online because no one in Wilmington that I could find sold such an item (I did not check Wal-Mart).
On top of all of this, we were appalled by both the school food and the local school system. One day we picked our son up from school when he was on the verge of tears. We had to pull from him that the school was having a "McDonald's Day" that Friday and that, while he didn't want to let his class down, he didn't want to eat McDonald's food. Now the school has made me a bad parent for teaching my kid to eat better. When I emailed the principal, I was informed it was not a school program, but a PTA fundraiser, never mind the giant banner in the school entryway and the competition between classrooms for participation. The PTA cashed my enclosed check for the "recommended contribution" plus what an average family might generously spend at McDonald's, but never responded to my letter. Still, that wasn’t the last straw.
My wife was reading articles by John Taylor Gatto and decided it would be a good idea to volunteer at the school library to help out. One afternoon the school went on “lock-down”, which means the lights went off, the shades were pulled, and the kids all got on the floor while police searched the school. Once the police cleared the building, the shades remained closed and no children were allowed outside without an adult escort for the rest of the day. It turns out someone down the street had been shot and the police were looking for the shooter. Now I don’t have a problem with the lock-down procedure, what I have a problem with is that the school did not tell any parents about it. The only reason we knew about it was because my wife happened to be there that day. How do you put kids through something like that and not mention it to the parents? After one year in the local, public school and three and a half months in the local magnet school, we removed our child from compulsory education and started a homeschool, but not without threat of litigation. Schools get money based on attendance now, so every child counts at least as far as the budget is concerned.
We were reading books like Crunchy Cons (Dreher), When Corporations Rule the World (Korten), Deep Economy (McKibben), The Ecology of Commerce (Hawken), The Great Turning (Korten), Choice (Bender & de Gramont), Conscious Conception (Baker & Baker), The Empty Cradle (Longman) (a disturbing book on several levels), and The Wal-Mart Effect (Fishman). We saw documentaries such as Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, Why We Fight, The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, The Corporation, and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. We began to really reconsider how we live and how to live better.
By the time I was able to secure work and move our family back to the northwest, we had become staunch anti-Wal-Mart, anti-industrial, organic-foods, homeschooling, label-reading shoppers. Once again, change seems to be easier when habits change. We now found ourselves closer to home, but in no context with which we were familiar as our habits and priorities had so dramatically shifted. We found that the neighborhood Fred Meyer's (now owned by Kroger) "natural" section closely resembled the co-op we belonged to on the east coast. We were relieved to find a supply of natural and organic products, but we soon discovered a local butcher and several local markets sprinkled about the area. It was as if we had stumbled into the perfect storm of local access and organic options. We were also able to gain access to a much more user-friendly library than we had been to in years. Instead of buying a few books a year I was now able to borrow a few books a week and learn much more about local and sustainable. The book Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown shook my world all over again. We planted a vegetable garden, started raising chickens, learned canning, freezing, pickling and jam making. I continued homebrewing and making sausage and jerky.
Which brings the whole story up to speed. We are now several years into this journey and we are making progress, but we can always do better. Our worldview has changed some, but what has really changed is how we interact with the world and our environment. We are learning to consume less, produce more, and be more involved with our own lives.
It will be interesting to see what happens next.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
New Year's Resolutions
I should preface by saying that I'm not really big on New Year's resolutions, per se. I am a fan of self-examination, striving to do better, and having goals of some kind. The new year is as good a time as any to re-evaluate and set some goals and, since the tradition is already there, why not? I’ve also found that writing it down and revisiting it throughout the year helps. I am often amazed at how the act of writing something down can seem to affect it’s outcome. Something about putting things out into the quantum universe I suppose. Last year’s list included a few things I thought were highly unlikely that actually did come to pass, so this year I’m going to just put it all down and see how it goes.
The first resolution I’ll list is this blog. I pretty much covered that in the intro, so we’ll just have to stay tuned to see how I do there.
There are a couple carry-overs from last year. I wanted to see all of the AFI’s top ten films, which are actually twelve films because they did the original list in 1997 and then changed it in 2007. I missed On The Waterfront, Vertigo, and I only made it through half of Lawrence of Arabia, but I watched (or had already seen) the rest. This year I want to finish the top ten and start in on some of the seven that I haven’t already seen in the top twenty-five.
Another carry-over is to continue eating food, not too much, mostly plants. A resolution straight out of Pollan’s, In Defense of Food, I did a pretty good job eating better last year and I want to continue to get better. The gardening, canning, and freezing all help us do a better job of eating seasonally and locally and it is my intent to look for ways to improve there as well.
I had a resolution last year to be able to reload by the end of the year. I did acquire some of the tools, but not all and I still have yet to learn the actual process. However, my wife’s uncle has offered to teach me and we have made plans to do it while we are in Portland during the next few days. In an added bit of serendipity, my wife’s grandmother just told us she has a couple boxes of her late husband’s reloading gear and that I am welcome to it. So this one is just a little behind schedule, but should right on track this time next week. It’s kind of crazy how just putting it out there colluded and the pieces came together.
Not really a carry-over so much as an expansion of last year’s resolutions, we are planning to add another raised bed for the garden this year. I hope to pay closer attention to the planting-harvesting-replanting schedules to get a little more out of this year’s garden. I hope to have more canning and freezing to do next fall. We are still eating peas, green beans, pickles, and tomatoes from last summer’s garden and corn, jam, and jelly from other local sources, but I would like to be able to buy even less from the store next winter.
I’m going to put camping and hiking together here since our goal this year is to do some hike-in camping. Back when I was single my transportation was a motorcycle and I could strap everything I needed for a camping trip to the seat and handlebars. Now, with the wife and child and the VW bus, our camping gear has expanded quite a bit. During the last year we began picking up things like hiking packs, a small tent, lightweight sleeping bags, etc. By summer we hope to have everything we need to do at least two or three family hike-in camping trips. It would also be nice to do at least one big hiking trip like last fall’s Mt. Ellinor hike.
I made good on last year's goal to get out deer hunting. Since I am relatively new to the area my goal here was primarily to learn the state regulations and where the deer are. I did that and also found a really good elk spot. This year’s goal is to actually fill a deer or elk tag. Now that I better understand the seasons and where to go, I think this can be do-able.
I need to get more exercise this year. The first year we were here we did a pretty good job of getting out on the bikes or going for walks but this year we’ve been busy and regular physical activity has fallen by the wayside. I need to figure out a way to remedy that.
I have a good friend in North Carolina who is getting married in October. I resolve to make it to that wedding. Since our family lives on a pretty moderate budget, cross-country trips require planning and saving. We have already started, but we will need to keep everything on track to make it happen.
A couple things I would like to try this year are cheese making and homemade pectin. I’m not sure when we’ll find the time, but I’m going to put it out there anyway.
This past year I acquired a pick up truck and a chainsaw (thank you to my uncle who upgraded both!) and I would very much like to harvest some of my own firewood this year. There is no reason for me to pay to have some else cut and split it – I need the exercise!
Finally, I always need to do more with my son. Between our family’s schedules and homeschooling, we actually do spend quite a bit of time together as a family. Still, I feel that we always need to be striving to do more together. This is a constant goal.
…So, that’s it. I did actually leave a couple things off, but I think this is enough to keep me busy this year. Besides, I need to save something for next year, right?
The first resolution I’ll list is this blog. I pretty much covered that in the intro, so we’ll just have to stay tuned to see how I do there.
There are a couple carry-overs from last year. I wanted to see all of the AFI’s top ten films, which are actually twelve films because they did the original list in 1997 and then changed it in 2007. I missed On The Waterfront, Vertigo, and I only made it through half of Lawrence of Arabia, but I watched (or had already seen) the rest. This year I want to finish the top ten and start in on some of the seven that I haven’t already seen in the top twenty-five.
Another carry-over is to continue eating food, not too much, mostly plants. A resolution straight out of Pollan’s, In Defense of Food, I did a pretty good job eating better last year and I want to continue to get better. The gardening, canning, and freezing all help us do a better job of eating seasonally and locally and it is my intent to look for ways to improve there as well.
I had a resolution last year to be able to reload by the end of the year. I did acquire some of the tools, but not all and I still have yet to learn the actual process. However, my wife’s uncle has offered to teach me and we have made plans to do it while we are in Portland during the next few days. In an added bit of serendipity, my wife’s grandmother just told us she has a couple boxes of her late husband’s reloading gear and that I am welcome to it. So this one is just a little behind schedule, but should right on track this time next week. It’s kind of crazy how just putting it out there colluded and the pieces came together.
Not really a carry-over so much as an expansion of last year’s resolutions, we are planning to add another raised bed for the garden this year. I hope to pay closer attention to the planting-harvesting-replanting schedules to get a little more out of this year’s garden. I hope to have more canning and freezing to do next fall. We are still eating peas, green beans, pickles, and tomatoes from last summer’s garden and corn, jam, and jelly from other local sources, but I would like to be able to buy even less from the store next winter.
I’m going to put camping and hiking together here since our goal this year is to do some hike-in camping. Back when I was single my transportation was a motorcycle and I could strap everything I needed for a camping trip to the seat and handlebars. Now, with the wife and child and the VW bus, our camping gear has expanded quite a bit. During the last year we began picking up things like hiking packs, a small tent, lightweight sleeping bags, etc. By summer we hope to have everything we need to do at least two or three family hike-in camping trips. It would also be nice to do at least one big hiking trip like last fall’s Mt. Ellinor hike.
I made good on last year's goal to get out deer hunting. Since I am relatively new to the area my goal here was primarily to learn the state regulations and where the deer are. I did that and also found a really good elk spot. This year’s goal is to actually fill a deer or elk tag. Now that I better understand the seasons and where to go, I think this can be do-able.
I need to get more exercise this year. The first year we were here we did a pretty good job of getting out on the bikes or going for walks but this year we’ve been busy and regular physical activity has fallen by the wayside. I need to figure out a way to remedy that.
I have a good friend in North Carolina who is getting married in October. I resolve to make it to that wedding. Since our family lives on a pretty moderate budget, cross-country trips require planning and saving. We have already started, but we will need to keep everything on track to make it happen.
A couple things I would like to try this year are cheese making and homemade pectin. I’m not sure when we’ll find the time, but I’m going to put it out there anyway.
This past year I acquired a pick up truck and a chainsaw (thank you to my uncle who upgraded both!) and I would very much like to harvest some of my own firewood this year. There is no reason for me to pay to have some else cut and split it – I need the exercise!
Finally, I always need to do more with my son. Between our family’s schedules and homeschooling, we actually do spend quite a bit of time together as a family. Still, I feel that we always need to be striving to do more together. This is a constant goal.
…So, that’s it. I did actually leave a couple things off, but I think this is enough to keep me busy this year. Besides, I need to save something for next year, right?
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