Hi, my Neem is ...

My Mark and I were in the Concord Pharmacy yesterday picking up a prescription and while Mark was waiting for the pharmacist, I took some time to wander around the place and take in their selection of herbal supplements and holistic remedies. I found some neat flower extracts by a company named "Bush" I think, that were fairly intriguing. At $16 a pop I changed my mind on taking the Olive or Rose Hip extracts home with me. So as we're headed out the door I notice on some nearby shelving this sign:



I did a double take because Mark and I have been using a Neem extract in our garden all summer long as a pest repellent. Neem has more uses? We get to the cashier and there, in a small cardboard display ... Neem chapstick. I couldn't make this up if I wanted to. Now my curiosity level is really peaked. So I did some Internet research.

This site is a blog titled "Desertification," and the author looks at the expansion of deserts as well as poverty and drought in the world's dry lands. Go figure, the author has an entry dedicated to what they refer to as "Nature's Drugstore." Neem is "The perfect family herb," native to the middle east and countries like Pakistan, India and Myanmar.

This is the Web site this blog used as their resource.

According to this Online Herbal Encyclopedia, Neem loves drought conditions, has been used for over 4,000 years, can live to be 200 years old and produces fruit when it ages 3 to 5 years.

As I was doing research, I stumbled across the book that the sign in the pharmacy was referring to:

Neem, The Ultimate Herb by John Conrick.

Long story short- I bought the damn book. I got it on www.half.ebay.com for just $6.99, brand new. How could I not? A plant that's been revered for over 4,000 years and is commonly known as "The Village Pharmacy?" The incredible results we've seen with our own Neem use is enough to get my attention and hold it. As I continue to read more about this tree I am realizing its basic applications that can directly benefit me. Now, the only problem is how to get one for myself! Due to our cold winters and high water table, Neem can't survive in a majority of the United States. It can be kept as a house plant, but the Neem tree grows at incredible rates and would eventually become too much of a hassle to keep indoors. I won't venture to try raising one myself. It would break my heart to have to destroy it one day when it became unruly. Regardless, I'm curious to learn more about this plant and hopefully put it to use in my life. I have a good feeling about this stuff. Anything to promote a crop that could bring prosperity to impoverished parts of the world, right? Neem is relatively unknown in the West, but if demand increased enough it might create a viable economy for countries in the middle east. Not too shabby a deal if you ask me.

Have a great weekend everyone! Be safe!!

No Slim Pickens

T. Boone Pickens has seen the light.

Or, maybe he's seen the green. The former oilman's words are all over the news these days. I even had the pleasure of seeing one of his commercials this past week.

The link above is for his newly launched Web site: "Pickens Plan."

To sum it up, Pickens has made a FORTUNE [repeat: fortune] on oil. That alone should stress to people the fact that the man is good with money and his life has been ruled by it. He recognizes what he calls the "strangle-hold" on our country imposed by our dependence on foreign oil, 70% of which fuels American oil consumption.

Pickens sees this 70%, which adds up to $700 billion, as money he's losing. He doesn't say that, but it's safe to assume. How can he invest in better, faster, closer to home energy?

Wind, baby!

Pickens predicts that in 10 years, with the right collective mindset, America can replace the natural gas used to create electricity in our country with the same amount of wind power. It would only take 20% wind power to eliminate our natural gas use ON ELECTRICITY.

Natural gas is a clean and abundant natural resource in the US. Instead of spending that resource on electricity production, we can put it into automobile consumptions. Pickens sites that there are multiple vehicles that are running on natural gas as we speak. By taking the natural gas that makes up 22% of our electricity production and putting into our transportation economy, we look to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 38%. That means spending $300 billion dollars less on oil every year.

Pretty smart, huh? I thought so.

And this is where the ideology of incentive comes in. Pickens sees where his incentive lies. He's been investing in energy for decades. Now he's making a grand shift to be sure that his investments keep making him money over time. He sees the future in wind power and I trust him on that. He has more money and more experience than I do.

You gonna' argue with that?

Here's a link to the Jutia Group, they keep an eye on investments, that briefly explains the launch of "Pickens Plan."

The real hope is that Pickens can make some headway on this issue, especially with our current presidential candidates. If history has taught us anything, it's that money talks. Pickens has plenty of it and he knows how to save us from spending even more. Who wouldn't listen to an argument like that?

Happy Tuesday, everyone.
Be well!
*Say

Another one bites the dust ...

There's a change-a-comin'. New Hampshire's endangered species list is facing some shuffling. Good news: lots of predatory birds, like Perigrine Falcons and Bald Eagles, are off the list or brought up to threatened status instead of being endangered.

The bad news: Grey wolves are back to being endangered and the common Night Hawk is on the brink of extinction as are Atlantic Salmon and Brook Lamprey.

But there's something worse ... we've eliminated a species altogether.



If you've never seen a Golden Trout before, you never will. They're all gone. We've over fished them, forced them to compete with introduced species and simply neglected them as a vital part of our ecosystem. Now they're gone forever.

I'm reading this book titled The World Without Us by Alan Weisman in which he describes what would happen to the planet if people just simply disappeared. In it, Weisman not only examines what the future would be like, he also addresses the effect the human race has had on the planet so far that has entirely altered Earth's existence. Did you know that at one point in time North America had more megafauna (very large animals) than Africa does today? Want to know why we don't see them today? Humans killed them all. Giant sloths, wild horses, American elephants and mammoths ... human beings- homo sapiens- killed every last one. Some scientists refer to this as the Blitzkrieg Theory. I believe it. An despite the overwhelming evidence that proves that as we extinguish species we are faster approaching our own impending doom, animals like the Golden Trout are being lost with little to no concern on the part of society.

It makes me really very sad to know that there's nothing that can be done to change this. A majority of people would respond, "It's just a fish. We have plenty of trout in New Hampshire."

And there-in lies the problem. All animals (and humans, don't worry I'm not damning us) are here for a reason. We are all part of a delicate balance. We need to learn to coexist with the rest of nature. We need to do it now.

For more information on New Hampshire's threatened, endangered and extinct species, visit www.wildnh.com.