"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
Abraham Lincoln
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. "
Dwight Eisenhower, 1961 Military-Industrial Complex speech <--click here for more on that speech
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
OF MINER'S LETTUCE AND CHICKWEED
In January 2008, I couldn't help but notice the proliferation of two plants that I considered to be no more than weeds. One plant was isolated on the hillside behind the house under the scrub oak while the other overtook our flower garden and everywhere else.
This year, these plants resurfaced after the many rains we had. Not only in the yard, but in the gravel near the garage as well as in my mother-in-law's flower pots! EVERYWHERE! Looks like another busy year for yard work! Better get the weed whacker equipment ready for use!
Now, fast forward just a skosh.
In order for us to be self-sufficient and devoted to only eating oranic foods, I bought a four books on medicinal plants, herbs and wild plants on Amazon.com.
1. Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman
2. A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) by James A. Duke
3. The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
4. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory L. Tilford
We figured with all the backpacking and hiking we were going to do, why not study up on the wild plant life? Live off the land, eliminate packing extra food items, identify the good and the bad. Heck, we are already growing our own vegetables so why not?
When the books arrived on February 13, I wanted to peruse through all the pages. I wanted to see pictures (color no doubt) and read up on the descriptions, medicinal uses, and similarities between good and poisonous plants (must be careful in the wilderness).
I opened up the book by Gregory Tilford there was one of the plants on pages 98 and 99...
Claytonia perfoliata...
Miner's lettuce
Now, the other plant in question grew more out of curiosity. My wife knew what the plant was but she couldn't remember the name. She said, "Something weed." Okay, that is a start.
She pulled one mystery plant out of the garden and handed it to me to look through the books. I looked at the petals on the plant and started perusing.
Voila! There it was on page 30 of the same book...stellaria media...
chickweed.
The Miner's lettuce, just like spinach, is delicious when blanched with garlic and butter. Goes great with a tuna or turkey sandwich. Heck, goes great with a fat juicy (organic mind you) burger.
Miner's lettuce is great as a salad, too, when you mix in onions and cherry tomatoes or whatever our hearts desire.
Weeds no more...I can put those away for the time being.
Gotta harvest the seeds...
This year, these plants resurfaced after the many rains we had. Not only in the yard, but in the gravel near the garage as well as in my mother-in-law's flower pots! EVERYWHERE! Looks like another busy year for yard work! Better get the weed whacker equipment ready for use!
Now, fast forward just a skosh.
In order for us to be self-sufficient and devoted to only eating oranic foods, I bought a four books on medicinal plants, herbs and wild plants on Amazon.com.
1. Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman
2. A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) by James A. Duke
3. The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
4. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory L. Tilford
We figured with all the backpacking and hiking we were going to do, why not study up on the wild plant life? Live off the land, eliminate packing extra food items, identify the good and the bad. Heck, we are already growing our own vegetables so why not?
When the books arrived on February 13, I wanted to peruse through all the pages. I wanted to see pictures (color no doubt) and read up on the descriptions, medicinal uses, and similarities between good and poisonous plants (must be careful in the wilderness).
I opened up the book by Gregory Tilford there was one of the plants on pages 98 and 99...
Claytonia perfoliata...
Miner's lettuce
Now, the other plant in question grew more out of curiosity. My wife knew what the plant was but she couldn't remember the name. She said, "Something weed." Okay, that is a start.
She pulled one mystery plant out of the garden and handed it to me to look through the books. I looked at the petals on the plant and started perusing.
Voila! There it was on page 30 of the same book...stellaria media...
chickweed.
The Miner's lettuce, just like spinach, is delicious when blanched with garlic and butter. Goes great with a tuna or turkey sandwich. Heck, goes great with a fat juicy (organic mind you) burger.
Miner's lettuce is great as a salad, too, when you mix in onions and cherry tomatoes or whatever our hearts desire.
Weeds no more...I can put those away for the time being.
Gotta harvest the seeds...
Friday, February 20, 2009
OFF THE GRID
In an effort to become "green," we can officially say we are almost "off the grid."
With the installation of the solar panels and wind turbines, we can generate enough power to sustain us and eliminate our dependence on the power companies.
The total cost for this was around $30,000 (includes labor and a little-knowhow), but subtract the California Energy Commission rebates and state tax credit, our net cost? Less than $12,000. Yes, we should break even between 5-7 years.
We have plenty of sunlight where we live. There are the constant overcast days and those days occur from December to March, but during those days, the wind is a constant.
Our main energy consumers in the house are the spa, the pool pump, heating/air conditioning, refrigerators and power tools.
Other projects in the works:
Grey water collection
Dual flush toilets
Rainwater collection tanks
Skylights
With the installation of the solar panels and wind turbines, we can generate enough power to sustain us and eliminate our dependence on the power companies.
The total cost for this was around $30,000 (includes labor and a little-knowhow), but subtract the California Energy Commission rebates and state tax credit, our net cost? Less than $12,000. Yes, we should break even between 5-7 years.
We have plenty of sunlight where we live. There are the constant overcast days and those days occur from December to March, but during those days, the wind is a constant.
Our main energy consumers in the house are the spa, the pool pump, heating/air conditioning, refrigerators and power tools.
Other projects in the works:
Grey water collection
Dual flush toilets
Rainwater collection tanks
Skylights
Friday, February 13, 2009
PASSPORTS
We got our first passports! They said it would take four to six weeks and we got them in less than two!
Next are the immunizations and we are all set!
We are now free to roam the world.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
AMISH
I remember as a teenager in Missouri, there was an Amish community not far from where we lived. My friends and I always made snide comments about how they were and how they looked.
As I got a little older and a lot wiser, I still had the same mindset I did when I was a teenager. Some things you just don't let go.
Some time ago in the town of Macon, Missouri, I was attending an auction. There were some Amish folks there in attendance making bids on glass jars and some garden and farm equipment. There were also a group of teenagers in the wings pointing in the direction of the Amish.
I struck up a conversation with a gentleman there with his family. Very cordial, very proud, very much aware of the world he and his family lived in.
I excused myself and went to my car to grab my camera. I wanted to take a picture of him and his family.
Upon my return to the auction site, I noticed the teenagers harrassing the Amish gentleman I was talking to. Then they began pushing and shoving him forcing him to drop whatever he just purchased.
As he bent down to collect his goods, the teenagers knocked him to the ground and started punching and kicking him. I, as well as three other gentlemen, intervened and corraled the teenagers and told them to get out of here.
As the Amish gentlman rose and dusted himself off and regained his composure, his family came outside to surround him. I asked for permission to take a picture of him and his family. He shook his head and waved his hand no, gathered his family, loaded up the buggy and took off without saying a word.
Since that encounter, I learn to respect the Amish way of life...
We can learn a thing or two about their way of life...
My wife and I and family are...
What would you do if the electricity went out? No lights, no microwave, no refrigerator, no computer, no television, no cordless phone...
Then there's not being able to pump gas, use the ATM...
The things we take for granted...
Here is an article I read in the newspaper...
MAYFIELD, Ky. – When the wind died down and the ice storm had passed, Joe Stutzman gathered his spare lanterns and stepped out of his Amish farmhouse to lend them to his modern-living neighbors.
"I feel sorry for my neighbors who were used to electricity and all of a sudden didn't have it," Stutzman said. "I know that must be hard for them."
Hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky have been without electricity for their lights, furnaces, ovens and refrigerators since the killer storm hit more than a week ago, and some spots might not get power back for weeks.
But Kentucky's Amish have been living that way all their lives. And when the disaster struck, they generously lent a hand to their non-Amish neighbors and showed them how it's done.
"Those folks are very good at sustaining themselves," said Master Sgt. Paul Mouilleseaux, a National Guard spokesman.
The Stutzman family and the roughly 8,500 other Amish in the state were essentially unaffected by the storm that knocked out power to more than 1.3 million customers last week, about half of them in Kentucky.
Stutzman, his wife and their seven children were secure in their toasty, two-story home amid corn and soybean fields and swampy stands of cypress in western Kentucky.
"We paid it no attention," Stutzman said Tuesday, relaxing in a handmade rocker as a wood stove across the room radiated heat on a windy morning with temperatures in the low 20s.
He grabbed a log, taken from a big pile out back, threw it on the fire and lit a kerosene lamp. The cellar was stocked with canned goods, the milk cow safe in the barn. Stutzman's wife and two of their daughters used the wood-fired oven in the kitchen to do their baking.
Stutzman, a sturdy 40-year-old with a traditional Amish beard and a black-brimmed hat, said he would not have even known the storm was coming if one of his neighbors had not told him about the forecast. He is a member of the Old Order Amish, a sect that shuns modern conveniences such as radios and televisions.
James and Beverly Hutchins, a non-Amish couple who sheltered nine relatives in their home, said they don't know what they would have done without the Amish family across the road from them, not far from the Stutzmans.
The neighbors brought over hot coffee every morning during the week the power was out, ("Best coffee I ever drank," James Hutchins said), provided well water, cooked a meal for them, lent them a kerosene lantern and fixed the one lantern the Hutchinses had.
"Best neighbors we've ever had, and we've been around a few places," 76-year-old James Hutchins said.
Beverly Hutchins said she told the Amish family that she would turn her porch light on when the power came back on as a signal so they would know they didn't need to bring over coffee. That finally happened Tuesday night.
Mayfield Mayor Arthur Byrn said many in his town of about 10,000 will live without modern conveniences for some time. Nearly half the town and most of the outlying areas remained without power, though utility crews were working around the clock to repair transmission lines.
In the meantime, many residents will depend on the kindness of the neighbors whose way of life they probably appreciate a little more now.
The Hutchinses said their week without electricity gave them a glimpse into how their neighbors live.
"I said I didn't know how they could do it," Beverly Hutchins said.
James and Beverly Hutchins of Wingo, Ky., are photographed Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 in Wingo, Ky. The Hutchins were one of many families affected by the ice storm that ripped across the state of Kentucky. Living next door to the Hutchins' is an Amish Family that helped them with cleanup after the ice storm aftermath. (AP Photo/Michael Dann)
As I got a little older and a lot wiser, I still had the same mindset I did when I was a teenager. Some things you just don't let go.
Some time ago in the town of Macon, Missouri, I was attending an auction. There were some Amish folks there in attendance making bids on glass jars and some garden and farm equipment. There were also a group of teenagers in the wings pointing in the direction of the Amish.
I struck up a conversation with a gentleman there with his family. Very cordial, very proud, very much aware of the world he and his family lived in.
I excused myself and went to my car to grab my camera. I wanted to take a picture of him and his family.
Upon my return to the auction site, I noticed the teenagers harrassing the Amish gentleman I was talking to. Then they began pushing and shoving him forcing him to drop whatever he just purchased.
As he bent down to collect his goods, the teenagers knocked him to the ground and started punching and kicking him. I, as well as three other gentlemen, intervened and corraled the teenagers and told them to get out of here.
As the Amish gentlman rose and dusted himself off and regained his composure, his family came outside to surround him. I asked for permission to take a picture of him and his family. He shook his head and waved his hand no, gathered his family, loaded up the buggy and took off without saying a word.
Since that encounter, I learn to respect the Amish way of life...
We can learn a thing or two about their way of life...
My wife and I and family are...
What would you do if the electricity went out? No lights, no microwave, no refrigerator, no computer, no television, no cordless phone...
Then there's not being able to pump gas, use the ATM...
The things we take for granted...
Here is an article I read in the newspaper...
MAYFIELD, Ky. – When the wind died down and the ice storm had passed, Joe Stutzman gathered his spare lanterns and stepped out of his Amish farmhouse to lend them to his modern-living neighbors.
"I feel sorry for my neighbors who were used to electricity and all of a sudden didn't have it," Stutzman said. "I know that must be hard for them."
Hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky have been without electricity for their lights, furnaces, ovens and refrigerators since the killer storm hit more than a week ago, and some spots might not get power back for weeks.
But Kentucky's Amish have been living that way all their lives. And when the disaster struck, they generously lent a hand to their non-Amish neighbors and showed them how it's done.
"Those folks are very good at sustaining themselves," said Master Sgt. Paul Mouilleseaux, a National Guard spokesman.
The Stutzman family and the roughly 8,500 other Amish in the state were essentially unaffected by the storm that knocked out power to more than 1.3 million customers last week, about half of them in Kentucky.
Stutzman, his wife and their seven children were secure in their toasty, two-story home amid corn and soybean fields and swampy stands of cypress in western Kentucky.
"We paid it no attention," Stutzman said Tuesday, relaxing in a handmade rocker as a wood stove across the room radiated heat on a windy morning with temperatures in the low 20s.
He grabbed a log, taken from a big pile out back, threw it on the fire and lit a kerosene lamp. The cellar was stocked with canned goods, the milk cow safe in the barn. Stutzman's wife and two of their daughters used the wood-fired oven in the kitchen to do their baking.Stutzman, a sturdy 40-year-old with a traditional Amish beard and a black-brimmed hat, said he would not have even known the storm was coming if one of his neighbors had not told him about the forecast. He is a member of the Old Order Amish, a sect that shuns modern conveniences such as radios and televisions.
James and Beverly Hutchins, a non-Amish couple who sheltered nine relatives in their home, said they don't know what they would have done without the Amish family across the road from them, not far from the Stutzmans.
The neighbors brought over hot coffee every morning during the week the power was out, ("Best coffee I ever drank," James Hutchins said), provided well water, cooked a meal for them, lent them a kerosene lantern and fixed the one lantern the Hutchinses had.
"Best neighbors we've ever had, and we've been around a few places," 76-year-old James Hutchins said.
Beverly Hutchins said she told the Amish family that she would turn her porch light on when the power came back on as a signal so they would know they didn't need to bring over coffee. That finally happened Tuesday night.
Mayfield Mayor Arthur Byrn said many in his town of about 10,000 will live without modern conveniences for some time. Nearly half the town and most of the outlying areas remained without power, though utility crews were working around the clock to repair transmission lines.
In the meantime, many residents will depend on the kindness of the neighbors whose way of life they probably appreciate a little more now.
The Hutchinses said their week without electricity gave them a glimpse into how their neighbors live.
"I said I didn't know how they could do it," Beverly Hutchins said.
James and Beverly Hutchins of Wingo, Ky., are photographed Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 in Wingo, Ky. The Hutchins were one of many families affected by the ice storm that ripped across the state of Kentucky. Living next door to the Hutchins' is an Amish Family that helped them with cleanup after the ice storm aftermath. (AP Photo/Michael Dann)
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