There is no reason for any country to be dependent on oil for energy needs. It is all about politics and corruption. Those are the only factors holding back the flood of talent and ingenuity of human creativity. For those of you familiar with Mother Earth News magazine, you know that back in the 70's and before, there were photos published in there of guys who were powering their entire farms and vehicles with chicken manure! Nearly any kind of compostible waste can be turned into energy. Methane gas is all over the place and I wouldn't know how to harness it, but there are people that do. That comes directly out of the earth in places and is also created from garbage. Here we are making huge landfills which could be turned into energy. I imagine some preliminary sorting would have to take place but that could be done from the get-go. In New York City, for example, people have to sort their recyclables into paper, plastic, glass, etc and trash is separate. (I've also read about living rooftops in NYC which are covered with crops...wonderful!...but that is another subject).
At least there are electric cars now at long last. But they still require plugging into a source of electricity that is mainly coal-produced. Coal mining has to be one of the most primitive and dangerous ways to obtain energy in the world. We should have been done with that years ago. But we do have some bio-fuels now which is also a hopeful direction. Why we are growing corn to turn into ethanol is beyond me. As I mentioned in my last post, there are miles of dried up corn rows out west right now from the drought. I understand they can make ethanol out of switch grass. I'm not sure what that looks like but I bet it doesn't have many other uses. They can make ethanol out of other products that are not consumed as food for animals or people. They can run cars on used cooking oil. Everybody has read about that and I have read that there are some fast-food franchises that are selling their used oil for that exact use. I know it takes some cleaning/filtering/processing before using in a vehicle, but I have read about it (where else? Mother Earth News)and it is not very complicated. People are doing it on a small scale all over the country. They also need to make some changes to the car and it is much easier to do on a diesel engine. I intend that my next vehicle runs on cooking oil. I call it a french fry car. I'm hoping that availability of cooking oil will be stepped up by then. My present car is getting pretty old.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
I Need a Farm
I'm sure everybody is aware (in the US at least) of the drought in the middle and western states. Meanwhile in Florida we have so much rain that the mosquitos are thick. Because many of the drought-stricken states are where most of our food in this country is grown, the food supply will be a lot shorter. Have you seen the photos of many of the corn crops...dried up and dead? It is really disturbing. (Please check the website of Dr. Sircus and read "Living & Eating through 2012" - very informative, as all his posts are. I posted that one on my Facebook page).
I think there may be a renaissance of home gardening more now than ever. I sure hope so and think it is mandatory to fill in the gaps. Where I presently live, it is not really possible, although I grow a few herbs and flowers and a couple citrus trees. It is so shady and growing shadier as the massive trees make more cover at my place. The soil is typical Florida sand. Water goes right through it, retaining no moisture, despite having composted here since I bought the house in 2003. I also have found large amounts of glass, metal, plastics and all kinds of junk as I dig in my yard. It doesn't make me trust the purity of my soil. Evidently, previous inhabitants just used the back yard as their dump.
Eventually, however, I may team up with my son in Maine and start a big garden on land up there. I have grown many different things successfully in Maine before, despite all the rocks. Growing brussel sprouts, in particular, is exciting because they fill a vertical stem and make an impressive sight. They are best harvested after a frost, by the way. When I lived up there, I'd drive to a particular beach next to the Deer Isle causeway and load up the truck with seaweed. The dried-out seaweed at the high water mark is the kind to get since it is light weight. Wet seaweed is heavy and stinky. Needless to say, I would only go there at low tide. Once in the garden, seaweed composts to beautiful, black soil. It is amazing.
Even though the growing season in Maine is relatively short, I grew enough beautiful produce to last for months. There are plenty of garden pests there, but no comparison to what I have found here in Florida. Many people do grow successfully here and the weather makes planting times very different from up north. So wherever I am I try growing anything that seems possible for the area.
I think there may be a renaissance of home gardening more now than ever. I sure hope so and think it is mandatory to fill in the gaps. Where I presently live, it is not really possible, although I grow a few herbs and flowers and a couple citrus trees. It is so shady and growing shadier as the massive trees make more cover at my place. The soil is typical Florida sand. Water goes right through it, retaining no moisture, despite having composted here since I bought the house in 2003. I also have found large amounts of glass, metal, plastics and all kinds of junk as I dig in my yard. It doesn't make me trust the purity of my soil. Evidently, previous inhabitants just used the back yard as their dump.
Eventually, however, I may team up with my son in Maine and start a big garden on land up there. I have grown many different things successfully in Maine before, despite all the rocks. Growing brussel sprouts, in particular, is exciting because they fill a vertical stem and make an impressive sight. They are best harvested after a frost, by the way. When I lived up there, I'd drive to a particular beach next to the Deer Isle causeway and load up the truck with seaweed. The dried-out seaweed at the high water mark is the kind to get since it is light weight. Wet seaweed is heavy and stinky. Needless to say, I would only go there at low tide. Once in the garden, seaweed composts to beautiful, black soil. It is amazing.
Even though the growing season in Maine is relatively short, I grew enough beautiful produce to last for months. There are plenty of garden pests there, but no comparison to what I have found here in Florida. Many people do grow successfully here and the weather makes planting times very different from up north. So wherever I am I try growing anything that seems possible for the area.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Amazing Foods
I am always reading all I can about food and nutrition and gardening and herbs. I have always believed that we are not necessarily pre-disposed for illness and disease. If we can keep our immune systems as strong as possible we can have a good chance of resisting those bacteria & viruses. It does get more difficult all the time, however, with so much electromagnetic energy always surrounding us, as well as unbelievable amounts of pollution including chemtrails. (If you don't know about the latter, pls google it). Anyhow, there are certain foods that help a lot. Miso is one of them. I have a cup of miso soup every morning, before coffee even. You may have had it in an Asian restaurant. It is fermented soybean paste. Sounds yummy, eh? But it really can be. It is very concentrated and salty so I scoop out a couple heaping tablespoons of it into a pyrex pitcher, pour very hot water on it, such as the stock I have already started to boil separately from vegetable waste (ie carrot ends, pcs of onions, celery, pcs of greens, parsley that is turning yellow...whatever) and then stir the hot miso now & then to dissolve it. When the stock is done I strain it into another pan and add some wakame. Wakame is a type of seaweed, or sea vegetable, that expands 7 times from the dried state. I get it at an Asian mkt and cut it into little pcs with scissors right into the broth. It is easy to use too much because it expands SO much. It tastes OK...not much taste, actually, but seaweeds are right off the charts for minerals like calcium and iron. Finally, I add the dissolved miso to the broth and after that I do not want to boil it or some of the enzymes are destroyed. I pour the soup into 3 or 4 qt mason jars so I have some for about a week or more. I usually freeze a couple of the jars but be really careful to fill the jar only 2/3 full for freezing AND leave the lid off. Otherwise, the glass will break. I reheat a cup of soup each morning or whenever. Most people would not want it before breakfast the way I do.
It was found after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima that the Japanese people who consumed miso regularly were protected from radiation. It has the amazing ability to remove some toxins from the body. I wish everyone would give it to their children from an early age for immune protection. Of course it can be used in many types of soups or dips as a flavoring agent (makes a killer onion soup).
Another wonderful food/medicine is the sweet potato. Yes, it helps remove heavy metals (which are everywhere - water, air. etc) from the body. Please boil (save that water for soup!) or bake your own and feed them to your children.
I forgot to mention in a recent post where I talked about the "limp tail syndrome" that my son's dog had suffered from after his cold dip in the ocean, that I think a good remedy would be to apply castor oil. Edgar Cayce used to recommend it for healing and Dr. Oz even mentioned it on a recent show. For humans he was saying it was helpful for pain. Apply it to the painful area (it is very thick), cover with plastic wrap(to protect everything near it)and then a heating pad. I intend to try it on my arm. I told Gabe to try it on his dog's tail.
I was also reading about vinegar and the many helpful uses for apple cider vinegar for dogs...for their coats, their ears, a bit in their food. It was very informative and I wish I had known more about it back when I had a dog.
Wow! Can you see the caterpillar in the picture? I just went outside to see if there was an herb interesting enough to photograph and noticed that my parsley was nearly all gone...and here is the culprit! Worth it though. It will become a beautiful swallowtail butterfly! I wonder where it will make its cocoon...have to research that.
I will write more in the future about herbs too. There are volumes out there on that subject and I could relate some personal experience. We need to know what to do to fight bacteria and viruses alternatively when antibiotics don't work. There is just so much to learn!
It was found after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima that the Japanese people who consumed miso regularly were protected from radiation. It has the amazing ability to remove some toxins from the body. I wish everyone would give it to their children from an early age for immune protection. Of course it can be used in many types of soups or dips as a flavoring agent (makes a killer onion soup).
Another wonderful food/medicine is the sweet potato. Yes, it helps remove heavy metals (which are everywhere - water, air. etc) from the body. Please boil (save that water for soup!) or bake your own and feed them to your children.
I forgot to mention in a recent post where I talked about the "limp tail syndrome" that my son's dog had suffered from after his cold dip in the ocean, that I think a good remedy would be to apply castor oil. Edgar Cayce used to recommend it for healing and Dr. Oz even mentioned it on a recent show. For humans he was saying it was helpful for pain. Apply it to the painful area (it is very thick), cover with plastic wrap(to protect everything near it)and then a heating pad. I intend to try it on my arm. I told Gabe to try it on his dog's tail.
I was also reading about vinegar and the many helpful uses for apple cider vinegar for dogs...for their coats, their ears, a bit in their food. It was very informative and I wish I had known more about it back when I had a dog.
Wow! Can you see the caterpillar in the picture? I just went outside to see if there was an herb interesting enough to photograph and noticed that my parsley was nearly all gone...and here is the culprit! Worth it though. It will become a beautiful swallowtail butterfly! I wonder where it will make its cocoon...have to research that.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
My Own Circuit Training
I try to exercise on all the weekdays that I am home. Everybody knows that exercise is good for us but it also makes me feel great. Years ago I taught aerobics and weight training and sometimes yoga while I was still living in Portland, Maine, and before that too, when I lived in Blue Hill, Maine. Once I relocated to Florida I did not seek that kind of work because it meant traveling to different gyms or health centers, like the Y, just for an hour or 2 each time. Too much traffic for that. So I focused on my yoga routine which I have put together from experiences in many classes I have attended, as well as videos. There is great value in studying with an instructor at the outset so one learns the correct positions and doesn't develop bad habits right off. This year I decided I needed to get back to some form of cardio since cycling around here is just not that fun with all the traffic and there is nowhere to hike without driving somewhere. So, I thought up my home method: 20-25 minutes of a combo of trampoline jumping (a mini trampolene- just watched a video today on "Urban Rebounding"- a class on mini trampolines-how 'bout that?), hula-hooping (I'm good now- just keep trying, you will get it ), & then "stepping", as in the step aerobics of the past. (I found my step & risers at a yard sale). It does get my heart rate up quite nicely and then I do about an hour of yoga. It is terrific. Another practice I am adding each time is rolling on my foam roller (very firm styrofoam cylinder) which I learned of on emails from Dr. Ben Kim. (He is full of good info, by the way). Rolling the body over the roller can be rather painful in certain areas because that is where we need it. For me it is mostly both hip flexors and my back. It's the next best thing to a deep tissue massage, which I'd love to have everyday if it fit in the budget. If I want to take even more time I do exercises from fitness magazines targeted for certain body parts. I like that I can do all this in my living room. If I always had to drive somewhere I know I would not always get there.
On another note, still sort of about exercise and health, but for dogs, I learned something new recently. Gabe, my New York City son, has a big, handsome dog named Angus. He is a rescue and looks mainly like a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Gabe took him to the beach in Long Island last weekend and said he ran an enormous amount in the sand and then Gabe sort of pushed him into the ocean. Afterward, his tail was hanging and the vet told him it was a case of "limp tail syndrome" from experiencing the cold water after all the physical workout. I had never heard of it but the vet thinks it will heal itself. We hope so. (Wish I had a photo of Angus to post on here now).
Ps I did climb back up on my porch roof today and tarred over the new leak and cleaned the mud out of the gutter. (No wonder it was overflowing so much yesterday as the rain poured down and was coming into the porch). Now a PBS show on Dreams is on...SO interesting...
Ta Ta For Now.....
On another note, still sort of about exercise and health, but for dogs, I learned something new recently. Gabe, my New York City son, has a big, handsome dog named Angus. He is a rescue and looks mainly like a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Gabe took him to the beach in Long Island last weekend and said he ran an enormous amount in the sand and then Gabe sort of pushed him into the ocean. Afterward, his tail was hanging and the vet told him it was a case of "limp tail syndrome" from experiencing the cold water after all the physical workout. I had never heard of it but the vet thinks it will heal itself. We hope so. (Wish I had a photo of Angus to post on here now).
Ps I did climb back up on my porch roof today and tarred over the new leak and cleaned the mud out of the gutter. (No wonder it was overflowing so much yesterday as the rain poured down and was coming into the porch). Now a PBS show on Dreams is on...SO interesting...
Ta Ta For Now.....
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Late Night Quickie
Finally! the internet is on again after hours down and it is 11:20pm. Time for bed. But I want to show you a photo of the beautiful Bromeliad in bloom in my yard. Only one is blooming right now and it is such a crazy flower.
I did manage to find the can of roofing tar in my shed. Boiled some water and poured it into a bucket and set the can of tar (not much left) into it so the tar will be warm & easy to spread. I have a wooden ladder that gets me easily up to the porch roof and then I can get onto the main roof as well. It has only a slight pitch so not very dangerous, but I am very careful anyway. I had a good idea where the leaks were (you really can't tell from looking at the old patches up there) from counting the rafters and so forth. I didn't do the whole roof yet, just where the leaks were, I think. Glad I did it cuz it poured like mad later on for hours. When the weather cools off a bit I will do the rest of the roof.
I need to weed-whack the whole yard. All this rain has created quite a jungle. Cleaned off my ceiling fans since it cooled off enough to shut them off for a while. I'm glad I am on high ground because a lot of this town floods with heavy rain.
You can see how the water can remain in these leaves, can't you? But such a nutty flower! Pink, red, yellow & purple!
Thinned out some files today while looking for paperwork. Boring but necessary at times.
OK gotta snooze More later.
I did manage to find the can of roofing tar in my shed. Boiled some water and poured it into a bucket and set the can of tar (not much left) into it so the tar will be warm & easy to spread. I have a wooden ladder that gets me easily up to the porch roof and then I can get onto the main roof as well. It has only a slight pitch so not very dangerous, but I am very careful anyway. I had a good idea where the leaks were (you really can't tell from looking at the old patches up there) from counting the rafters and so forth. I didn't do the whole roof yet, just where the leaks were, I think. Glad I did it cuz it poured like mad later on for hours. When the weather cools off a bit I will do the rest of the roof.
I need to weed-whack the whole yard. All this rain has created quite a jungle. Cleaned off my ceiling fans since it cooled off enough to shut them off for a while. I'm glad I am on high ground because a lot of this town floods with heavy rain.
You can see how the water can remain in these leaves, can't you? But such a nutty flower! Pink, red, yellow & purple!
OK gotta snooze More later.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Difficulty at the Beginning
That reminds me of one of the hexagrams in the I Ching (Chinese/Taoist Book of Changes). It has been really difficult to find the time to get back on here again to write altho many ideas went through my head today. I stayed home all day, which I love to do, without driving anywhere. I had enough food so I just got busy. Did a batch of laundry and hung it on the clothesline (I am an environmentalist, after all) only to run outdoor a couple hours later to yank it back in again. It was partly dry and now it is hanging here and there around the house.
Kept adding to my To Do list as I went along. It is pretty long already. I don't recommend a single woman buying her own house unless she has ample funds to hire people to fix things. I have some serious plumbing issues which are very expensive to fix and I will describe all that later. Meanwhile, I climbed into my crawl-space attic today when the rain started pouring down. I meant to see if there are any leaks in roof at present. I first put on long pants & shirt, sox & scarf over hair. It is funky up there. Well, I was unhappy to find leaks in 2 spaces. At least it is not bad enough to have shown up on my ceiling yet...but it is just a matter of time. I need to climb up on my roof with a can of roofing tar and putty knife and go to work spreading a glob of warm tar over the screws in the spots that leak. I've done it twice before in the last couple years. I guess the tar wears off. Summer sun in Florida is quite unforgiving. I really need a new roof but that is not in my current budget. So as time allows, I will again cover each of the jillion screws up there on my metal roof with tar.
It has been raining almost daily here lately. I make sure I have no standing vessels collecting water without being emptied But...there are plants that hold water and allow the breeding of mosquitoes. Bromeliads are succulents and fall into that category of water-holding. They have lovely flowers at times and I have no intention of removing them so I have read that I need to drop a bit of oil into the plants to stop that breeding. Wish me luck on that. There are quite a few.
I heard a great thing on NPR yesterday. A young guy in Boston, Jamaica Plain area, started his own business after looking for a job for a really long time. It is called "Bootstrap Composting" and he collects food waste from city dwellers for a reasonable price and brings it to a farm. The food waste is composted and his customers can later on reap some of that rich composted soil, if they want. Otherwise it is donated to the farm. But get this, he has No Car! He does it all with a bike and a pull-cart and on rainy days he carries the buckets by hand-truck on the subway! What a Guy! Now that is recycling.
Well, that's it for now. I can go on & on buy then I will be switching subjects so I will save it for another day. Hugs & kisses to all.
Kept adding to my To Do list as I went along. It is pretty long already. I don't recommend a single woman buying her own house unless she has ample funds to hire people to fix things. I have some serious plumbing issues which are very expensive to fix and I will describe all that later. Meanwhile, I climbed into my crawl-space attic today when the rain started pouring down. I meant to see if there are any leaks in roof at present. I first put on long pants & shirt, sox & scarf over hair. It is funky up there. Well, I was unhappy to find leaks in 2 spaces. At least it is not bad enough to have shown up on my ceiling yet...but it is just a matter of time. I need to climb up on my roof with a can of roofing tar and putty knife and go to work spreading a glob of warm tar over the screws in the spots that leak. I've done it twice before in the last couple years. I guess the tar wears off. Summer sun in Florida is quite unforgiving. I really need a new roof but that is not in my current budget. So as time allows, I will again cover each of the jillion screws up there on my metal roof with tar.
It has been raining almost daily here lately. I make sure I have no standing vessels collecting water without being emptied But...there are plants that hold water and allow the breeding of mosquitoes. Bromeliads are succulents and fall into that category of water-holding. They have lovely flowers at times and I have no intention of removing them so I have read that I need to drop a bit of oil into the plants to stop that breeding. Wish me luck on that. There are quite a few.
I heard a great thing on NPR yesterday. A young guy in Boston, Jamaica Plain area, started his own business after looking for a job for a really long time. It is called "Bootstrap Composting" and he collects food waste from city dwellers for a reasonable price and brings it to a farm. The food waste is composted and his customers can later on reap some of that rich composted soil, if they want. Otherwise it is donated to the farm. But get this, he has No Car! He does it all with a bike and a pull-cart and on rainy days he carries the buckets by hand-truck on the subway! What a Guy! Now that is recycling.
Well, that's it for now. I can go on & on buy then I will be switching subjects so I will save it for another day. Hugs & kisses to all.
Friday, August 17, 2012
An Introduction to Blogging
So this week we took a trip to Orlando because my son wanted to give the kids a big treat before they return to school. We went to a hotel and water park called Nickleodean Resort or something like that and featured gigantic pictures of Sponge Bob and other characters all over the place. It was jam-packed with families and there were 2 large pools with water slides and tunnels and lounge chairs and some tables with umbrellas. It was all pretty silly and the kids loved it. I was happy to be with my sweeties. I did slide down a dark tunnel & was shot out into the pool - once. Enough for me.
Tomorrow I am going ice-skating in a rink with the kids and the Boy Scouts. It was great fun last time and I will dress a little warmer this time.
I will also be happy to be back in my casita, alone, and get back to the many things I need to do. I stopped by there earlier in the week and noticed that fire ants have claimed a large area of my brick walkway and I will be dealing with that Pronto! I will google "natural repellants for fire ants" just to see if I notice anything promising, but will probably have to buy some deadly stuff. I have learned that they make their tunnels much deeper than any other ants and so are much more difficult to remove. They can be positively dangerous when one is gardening. I always wear gloves and rubber boots, but fire ants are so fast when disturbed they can be up to the arms in nothing flat. Gotta be alert. I do love to garden because it always seems quite magical. Most of my yard to too shady for vegetables, but I grow flowers & shrubs & herbs. I will talk much more about gardening in future posts. I think more & more people will be wanting to grow their own food considering the effects that drought and flooding have had on the crops of the world.
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