Who are you going to vote for, the candidate who promises growth and prosperity or the candidate who promises higher taxes and austerity?
Paraphrasing from TAE:
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/02/february-24-2010-bumping-along-bottom.html
Archive for February, 2010
This Just About Sums It Up
25 February 2010Food and Stuff
20 February 2010It’s Saturday, my turn to make dinner. I made chili (served with plain Greek yogurt, yum), cornbread, and winter squash, it all came out really good, and between cooking, serving, and eating, was a very satisfying experience. From the garden, I used kidney beans (dried), onions (from the basement), and red peppers (dried) in the chili, and Butternut and our sole Acorn squash (from the basement) — wow, that’s a lot of food from our garden to be eating in February. (The meal also included The Three Sisters from the Northeastern Native American cuisine.) I’m liking those dried red peppers quite a bit, more than I thought I would. I also ground wheat berries from storage to make flour for the corn bread. Awesome.
The biggest challenge was making the chili taste like chili without making it too spicy for my boys. G ate it, but not D, so I was at least partially successful.
Another great family note is that G, my 7-year-old, spent about half an hour reading our Thomas collection on the couch by himself. It’s not the first time he’s ever read a book on his own, of course, but it was great to see him spend time doing it independently.
I purchased and received a rocket stove. It looks good, although I haven’t used it yet. I made the contribution to purchase a stove for someone else in the world who needs one.
So that should cover us for cooking without utilities, between cooking on the woodstove, the kerosene stove, the sun oven, and the rocket stove. Finding enough woody stuff around here for cooking on the rocket stove should not be that difficult, no matter what happens. We could probably cook for a year just using the wood we have in our brush pile.
I do have the nagging thought that I’m trying to buy my family into being prepared, and no doubt that is partially true…but I am moving us forward. And at this point in my life I have more money than time.
The biggest issue remains water. I’d like to get another layer or two in place for drinking water. Just buying a big filter would be a step in the right direction.
Meanwhile — only five weeks or so until seed-planting! I can’t wait.
I could be planting kale for some early greens in the greenhouse. So???
Hope
14 February 2010This is what hope looks like to me:
I was once passionate about cross-country skiing. It’s faded from my life over the last ten years, which I blame on the demands of job, home ownership, and family.
To see both my boys out there doing it, and doing it well, made me feel really good. I felt as if there was hope for the future again, as if there was the possibility of fun and satisfaction and enjoyment even when the future appears so bleak and dreadful.
Carnivorous Plants
13 February 2010Planted the non-stratified carnivorous plants in a terrarium today. Will plant the stratified ones in 6 weeks (they are now in the refrigerator in a little plastic bag in damp peat moss. Should be fun for the boys, once the plants get larger, but they’re very slow-growers. Maybe it will help them learn patience.
Siberian Elm
7 February 2010I learned today that those weedy elms we have in our yard are Siberian Elms (while browsing The Forager’s Harvest at Borders). What I’ve read so far confirms that they are a terrible pest — and that parts are edible! I always said to myself that it’s too bad those f^%#@* things aren’t edible, but it turns out they are! Unbelievable, and I can’t wait to try the seeds in a few months.
The wood is also not without uses: Wood – hard, heavy, tough, difficult to split. Used for agricultural implements, boat making etc. I knew about the hard-to-split part, the rest is good to know. And it does burn okay in the woodstove.
Ending and Beginning 