Lighter fare, in light of heavy topics.

Okay, I've been pretty gloom and doom lately when it comes to oil companies, drilling in our wild places and pointing fingers at administrations and inept politicians.

Enough is enough on my end. It's Friday, people. Friday calls for celebrations. Beers, cheers and grins from ear to ears. So, for today's post I'm going to chat a bit about one of my favorite pastimes: gardening.





This is the most recent shot I've taken of our garden. That's my Mark in the background. From this angle, you can't see our three final rows of veggies: carrots, peas (with a sweet fence) and some California bell peppers. Regardless- things have been growing really well lately and we've taken an entirely organic regimen when it comes to fertilizing, weeds and worst of all: pests.

Of pests, we have several:

For instance, the Colorado Potato Beetle ...


The Striped Cucumber Beetle ...


These guys are a fraction of the size of the potato beetles, which are close to the size of a dime.

And one of the more recent and pesky critters: White Flies ... Eww.


All of these bugs are difficult to remove with out the aid of harsh chemicals. Potato Beetles are particularly tricky, as they develop resistance to pesticides very easily. There's really nothing that can stop them permanently- which is why they've become a universal pain in the ass.

Our biggest asset, besides the organic chicken waste we acquire at Agway, has been the extract of the Neem plant.




Neem is a plant native to India that is naturally pest resistant. Bugs won't go near it, for whatever reason. Before diving head first into do-it-yourself Neem territory, Mark and I decided to try a few certified organic products that utilize this miracle ingredient.

First up, and used in its entirety, was this product:



The Bon Neem worked to a point, though we still found potato bug larva on several plants after its use. We did not, however, see the beetles themselves. The eggs could have been there before we applied the pesticide. About the only thing that gets rid of the beetles themselves is hand-picking them off of your plants.

We were both really pleased with how our plants reacted to the Bon Neem and the reduction in leaf deterioration as a result of those cucumber beetles- those we squish in our fingers when we find them as they're pretty tiny.

Since we're all for trying new things, we went with a cheaper anti-bug product this week. I can't find the company online, but I believe it's called something close to "Clean Earth" or something like that. We've only just used it a few days ago and I'll give the plants a good misting before Mark and I leave for Maine for a long weekend. We're most excited to return home to see what a difference four days will make. We're in the garden every day and being so hands on makes it difficult to see a lot of change take place. I'll take pictures and post them when we get back.

We're really proud of what we've accomplished garden wise. We utilize a community plot within walking distance of both our houses. Our plot hadn't been used for years before we got to it and we've been working diligently to maintain the soil for next year's efforts. We should be doing this for a long time to come. Which brings me to my next point ...

Read this and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I simply adore Grist- they're really quite on point. I digress- the real reason I'm posting this is the stress put on the realization that we can't depend on other people to grow our food for us, at least for now. Flooded crops in the mid west are a lost cause these days, making produce prices even higher than they would be based on transport costs alone. It's time to "take the bull by the horns" and revert to a simpler, self reliant time. Our great grandparents never relied on anyone else to sustain them. The Great Depression generation learned to feed themselves and we must do the same- a recession is just a scaled down version of those horrible times.

So, before stuff gets worse, let's all take personal responsibility for our planet and our personal health. If you can't have a garden (for space or time reasons), go for containers. They're easy and portable- fantastic. If you can't swing that, utilize a CSA [Community Supported Agriculture], a farm that has community members buy in for the harvesting season. There are CSAs all over the place these days, especially in New Hampshire, so do a bit of searching- there are several that advertise in the paper I write for. Just check your local news publications and you're sure to find something.

That's all for now, ya'll. Happy gardening, drinking, dining, enjoying life. I'm off to the Maine wilderness: Sebec Lake in Dover Foxcroft to be exact. It's going to be a long and wonderful weekend.

Smooches for all that greenery,
Say

"Gotta' get that OIL!" Why we're in way over our heads when it comes to America's dependence on oil, both foreign and domestic.

Hey guys. It's been quite a mess in the United States since I last updated.

Flood waters in the mid west are sweeping over corn, soybean and other produce fields, gathering fertilizers and pesticides and undoubtedly adding to water pollution and the dead zone off the coast of the southern states. It's a sad state of things and I feel terribly for the people who are loosing their livelihood in the wake of rising river levels. Perhaps this is a lesson to all of us: development in flood plain areas is not a wise investment. If we could learn to work with these floods and use them to our advantage (flooding brings a lot of silt when not contaminated by humans), we would welcome events like this.

I am not writing today to give you some dissertation on flooding farm land. No, I'm hear to discuss our oil situation ... again.

I'm sure all of you have heard something about this in the past week. Capital Hill is passing the buck again on why oil prices are rising. Just about every blog or news agency I've visited sites the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the finger pointing at oil speculators. It's now "come to light" that if it weren't for the trading of paper barrels of oil, we wouldn't be in such a payment pickle at the pumps.

Now, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is a dramatic effort on the part of Washington to promote off-shore drilling in the United States (a matter that I am enraged at, in part by the fact that John McCain has turned his back on the legislation he worked so hard to institute ... McCain is finally in favor of raising the moratorium on off-shore drilling and that makes him a giant hypocrite). What will off-shore drilling and drilling in our National Parks do for our society? Our economy? Our future? I'd be happy to explain a bit.

Did anyone forget that George W. Bush made his millions in the oil industry?

That doesn't sit right with me. With this short-sighted vote of 51 to 49 in favor of reinstating oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge shows just how backwards thinking our government really is. The projected amount of oil located in the proposed sights won't do as much good as the uneducated masses is praying it will. If anything, what we pull out of the ground will attribute to under 1% of the global oil market, roughly. In all honesty- we can't predict how much is there. It could be an expensive and fruitless venture. When oil is drilled, it flows into the GLOBAL oil market- not the American oil market. Americans will not directly benefit from anything we drill. There simply isn't enough to make a dent. As for actually getting to the point of drilling- our bureaucracy is muddled and confusing. Documentation and licensing procedures to get the rights to drill in Alaska will take anywhere from seven to 14 years before any drill hits top-soil.

Here is a map, courtesy of the Sierra Club, that shows the proposed area of oil exploration:



This is prime Polar Bear, caribou, and migratory bird territory. What happens when we threaten this area? All of these animals face extinction. It's a fact of life. Do we really want to scar the face of a place that looks like this?



Do we want to push the envelope on oil spills, raped landscapes and the possibility that our children will eventually be paying for the efforts that go into all the drilling? We're asking for more than we can handle. We are biting off more than we can chew. It is easy to lie to the American public and let them assume that this is the bandaid that will heal the compound fracture that is our dependence on oil for energy. There has to be an other way.



Honda has already developed a zero emissions vehicle of commuter car size.

Why can't we invest in efforts like this instead of continually giving subsidies to oil companies? Yes, that would make fuel super expensive, but the technology can't get off the ground in proper time if we, as a society, don't support it. Our tax dollars are being abused by the current administration and we're doing nothing to stop it. The only way to make change happen is to vote for it ... to make a conscious effort to make lifestyle changes (and they can be so easy) ... to vow to be the change we want to see in the world.

Who's with me? Let's not hand our children a planet that riddled with holes and oil streaked beaches. Let's hand them a planet worth being proud of.

Lots of love, guys. Happy Tuesday.