Happenings, Independence Days, etc.

Posted in Independence Days, common sense, home, sustainability on November 5, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

Planted:  beets, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce.

Harvested:  7 1/2 lbs green tomatoes, 7 green peppers, 15 chiles,  and about a pound of eggplant after our first hard frost.  It was a sad day to see the brown where there had been green just two days before!

Preserved:  3 pounds of fried green tomatoes breaded and quick fried, frozen on a tray in the freezer.  Working on a green tomato antipasto recipe for the rest, they’re sitting in the brine solution waiting for me to quit doing other things (like work) and get to them.  Roasted the eggplant and chiles and froze them.  Chopped the peppers and froze them.

Eat the food:  Chard and Parmesan frittata; Pumpkin Stew (the pumpkin was leftover from Halloween) with home made cheese biscuits; curried chard and poached eggs over purple jasmine rice (recipe thanks to Kate ).  The pumpkin stew I modified; I used cumin and allspice instead of the spices in the linked recipe, and lentils instead of the ground beef.  I had enough left over that we put the rest in the freezer and plan to use it as a casserole with parmesan cheese baked on the top.

Reduce waste:  well, it’s more waste because they’re additions to the household, but I’ve been using the bunny manure in the garden beds.  I anticipate having very fertile beds for the coming year, and I’m happy and relieved I don’t have to depend on manure from unknown sources any more.  No more curled leaves on my sensitive plants, or deaths out of nowhere, or plants that stay 4 inches tall for six months solid.

Build community food systems:  my friends Dana and Dean purchased a litter of piglets and are planning to raise them to slaughter.  Mr. Tin Foil and I have already committed to buying one at slaughter time.  So we will have an Easter ham that is locally raised, on goat milk and scraps.  I would MUCH rather pay them as I see how their animals are raised!

Happenings:  we went camping.  Sort of.  I had to come home twice a day to care for the animals, which was OK as we were only 20 minutes up the road on Federal land.  We got visits from Forest Service rangers twice in the same day, both apparently ready for a fight and we had to tell them both “hey, we’re the people who clean this up every time we camp!”  Which is true — I’ve called them in the past and taken license plate numbers down regarding illegal quads in the riparian areas.  We have even offered to come out and care for our little campsite on a regular basis which was refused, but they do seem to have invested a lot more effort in the last year or so into making sure assholes with motorized vehicles and guns don’t do any more damage than they already have to the area.  Last year somebody came out there and pulled boulders placed by the Forest Service out of the way so they could make a quad racing area through the POSTED no vehicles area; several of us were nearly run down by racing quads.  We parked one of our vehicles across their access point and nearly caused a war.  This year the boulders are back in place, the other access road has been trenched deeply and fenced off as well, and although I don’t like being confronted by people who obviously are ready for an argument, I appreciate them being around.

We have been wondering why our water usage has gone up so dramatically; Mr. TF was attributing it to the watering of the garden but we found out why…the water heater is overflowing and leaking under the house.  We have a plumber coming out today to look at it and hopefully it’s only the pressure relief valve that needs to be replaced…otherwise we are facing a very large and unexpected bill.

If it turns out that the water heater needs to be replaced, I can take out a loan on my 401k to replace it I guess.  I DO want to also install a passive system that is solar heated and use the tank in the warmer months merely as a holding tank.  That will seriously reduce our propane usage even more, as the water heater is the only remaining system that we use that has a pilot light running all the time.  We don’t use the furnace, and we got a stove that is electronic ignition.  The one bad thing about the stove is that we have found out that if it’s not plugged in the oven won’t work.  So if we lose electricity we won’t have the ability to bake in the oven.  Yuck.

We used the rocket stove for the first time.  Wow!  It really does burn clean — the only smoke was from the fat from our burgers dripping onto the surface.  Definitely a good thing for use with a wok or stuff you want to cook quickly, not so great for long cooking times; it must be tended constantly as the use of twigs means they burn hot and fast.  I am convinced however that this is a valid indoor cooking method as well as heating the area it’s used in (at least while in use).  I would like very much to build a bigger model that would use larger chunks of wood for further experimentation (I doubt I could actually install one in my home, my insurer is pretty strict on what they will allow but I can try).  I really want a wood stove.  Have been looking into costs involved with purchasing and installation.  Yikes.  That’s why I want to try building one on my own; cheaper, 90% plus efficiency, and I can cook on it as well.  Having it professionally installed I have no problem with, other than the cost, and getting it inspected by the county or the local fire department I’m also fine with.  Versus losing the insurance when they’re the only company in the state that insures mobile homes, it’s a no brainer.

Lots of personal drama, but that’s not for public consumption.  Lost a friend over it…alcohol makes a very poor conversation lubricant.  Unfortunately when a person is under the influence they aren’t capable of listening to reason.

The chickens have been frightened by something in their coop (I have not the faintest idea what, I’ve been in there multiple times and found nothing) and won’t set foot in it.  I picked up three and placed them in it with me to prove there’s nothing there but they are still afraid.  They haven’t laid eggs in days, and are obviously stressed.  *sigh*  The only thing I can think is that there was something either under the coop or trying to get in that scared them.  I haven’t looked under as it’s about a two inch clearance from the ground, and it’s hardware cloth on the bottom with plywood over that.  Unless something chews its way through two inches of wood to get to them, there’s not much that can harm them.

Time to drain the swamp cooler and tuck it away for the year.  Time to finish painting the house.  Time to pour the foundation for our stone patio, and to make the herb spirals in the front yard.  Time to peruse seed and tree catalogs and dream of what we will plant in the spring.

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Let the flaming begin :)

Posted in Uncategorized on October 23, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

I’m not a politically correct person.  I believe in speaking the truth, with compassion, but bluntly.

Therefore, this is my opinion.

As far as I am concerned, after doing days and days and days of research on the topic of global warming, climate change, the ‘hockey stick’, tree ring data, etc I have come to this conclusion:

If you still don’t believe, after all the good solid evidence out there that has been there since the 30’s in some cases, you are one of the following:

1. deliberately deceptive

2. willfully ignorant

or

3. just plain stupid.

I don’t know which and I don’t care.  Take your pick.

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And the list just keeps getting longer.

Posted in home on October 18, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

To Do:

Finish shearing my bunnies; since I’m new to this I’m slow and by the time I got done with both buns’ back and sides, we were both exhausted and complete nervous wrecks.  Tummies still need to be done which I need help for — they won’t lie still even with holding their heads between my knees like demonstrated on the internet.

Build an outdoor rabbit hutch.

Make more laundry soap; I was going to do that this morning, but I’m out of Fels Naptha….crap.

Finish the first Yule gift I started. And start on about 10 more.

Sew Jeff’s cloak together.  And cut out the lining (which shall be put in later, probably no time between now and when it’s needed).

Find the really nice clasp we bought to put on the cloak at a ball last year. Yeah, good luck with that.  I saw it about 6 weeks ago, haven’t seen it since….

Finish carding the corriedale I bought to make myself an Aran sweater with.

Finish carding the lamb fleece for Yule scarves.

Finish my new apron.

Make my holiday scrubs.  All four of them.

Clean the bunny floor.

Plant my fall crops, which seems silly as it’s about 80 degrees outside right now.

Move the lettuce box and begin laying the foundation for the stone patio in the back yard.

Make stone raised beds next to the house.

Finish painting the house and trim (!).

Go ALL THE WAY to Tempe to give my part time boss copies of my new ACLS CPR and PALS cards, so I can do my ride alongs and begin working.  I got hired months ago, they were supposed to schedule me for the ride alongs so I could get familiar with the computer charting…didn’t happen.  What DID happen is that they call me about every three days to work, which I can’t do because I haven’t completed my ride alongs.  Had a talk with my boss about that yesterday, it’s supposed to be taken care of today when I take copies of all my new cards.  Which is good, except that I don’t want to drive 160 miles today!  Well, the good part is that since I moved to days and took a nearly $600 paycut, I know I’ll have regular work at my part time job based on how often they call me!

Oh, and yeah…do all the regular household tasks like vacuum, laundry, etc….riiiiight.  I’ll get right on that, as soon as all the above is done.

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Logical Fallacies and Conflations

Posted in Independence Days, common sense, preparedness, sustainability, the dreaded politics on October 13, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

My husband and I got in a huge fight this past weekend.  In fact, it was the biggest fight, lasting several days (and is still sputtering along right now, although most of the fire is out) that we have had since we nearly broke up.

What was this fight over?  Global warming.

It seems that several of the HAMS in his local group fancy themselves climatologists and are determined to make a myth of global warming and climate change.  In fact, when DH first brought up some contradictory information to them regarding the evidence, they shot him down and directed him to several blogs and websites devoted to debunking them.  He read them, was impressed by the ‘data’ and phoned me on my way home from work to insist I read this ‘new’ information.  It really blew him away.  When I refused and said I could pretty much guarantee the sites were funded, either directly or indirectly by big oil or other such groups he accused me of being closed minded…whence ensued the fight.

It took me literally 7 minutes of research on the internet to find the major funding groups for those sites (which I’m not naming by name because I refuse to drive ANY traffic to them) and lo and behold, there it was….ExxonMobile, Phillip Morris, RJ Reynolds, … you get the idea.  One of the sites was a blog by a supposed meterologist whose major contention is that people are fudging temperatures in order to create the global warming myth.  When I pointed out to DH that the graphs posted that supposedly contradict whatever evidence they are trying to debunk have no attributions for where the data was gathered, nor do they have any study information, and no baseline for understanding the graphs, he at first didn’t understand what I was saying.  I also stated quite explicitly that those in his group wouldn’t care that their data was cherry picked and flawed just the same as the data they were supposedly refuting, and that they have a vested interest in debunking it due to the psychology of previous investment.  No one wants to face the fact that they are personally responsible for the mess we’re in now, and no one wants to have less than they do now.

The next morning, on the morning net, he pointed out when the usual talk got started the fact that those sites were in fact funded by the above mentioned groups and was told he could not bring that up because it was bringing politics into it.  So he was effectively shot down for pointing out that there might be corruption of their data the same as the stuff they were trying to debunk — for instance, the major item of discussion recently is the fact that supposedly the data in Gore’s movie, specifically the tree ring data, was cherry picked from only one tree.  Now that might be so, but it doesn’t change the fact that other things pointed out in the movie, and the news from all over the world supports the idea that the climate is getting unstable as compared to previous millennia.

He did receive emails from the moderator of the group, and wrote back saying that if pointing out the funding sources was wrong, then they shouldn’t be using data from private websites or blogs, either, and stick only to govt published data.  In response, he received an email back with info that suggested (again) that weather monitoring sites were corrupted by being placed at airports, in cities, in trash burn barrels, etc.

What the hell?  I asked my husband.  So, the fact that Sky Harbor Airport is a giant heat island in Phoenix due to the massive amount of blacktop, IS hotter than the surrounding area, doesn’t count?  The fact that the heat ripples out in waves to the surrounding area and makes it hotter doesn’t matter?  The fact that Phoenix itself is a giant heat island that you can feel until you get a good 15 miles outside of the city (where there is a DISTINCT ambient temperature drop, quite abruptly) doesn’t matter?  Really?  And no one on this net thinks this doesn’t affect local weather patterns, just like forest fires do when they get to a certain size?  And that doesn’t in turn affect larger areas of weather? The fact that we haven’t had a 10 year flood in about 15 years doesn’t matter?  The fact that our own area used to get a lot more rain when Phoenix metro area was smaller doesn’t matter?  Really?  Because one of the weather stations is at the airport it’s spurious data?  Even though the effects are real and verifiable by anyone especially on a summer day?

I also keep pointing out that people in his group are conflating global warming with climate change.  They have some similarities, but they are NOT the same.  The terms are NOT interchangeable.   Yet every time they bring up climate change, the data they refer to is dedicated to debunking global warming.  Yes, parts of the world are getting hotter…and some are getting colder.  Most are getting extremes in both directions with little of the relative stability in weather patterns one could count on as in times past.  It doesn’t take a climatologist to read stories worldwide to see this pattern starting to emerge.  DH did also bring this up on the net and was told flatly it didn’t matter because they were only coincidences, not data.  Eh???  Yes, singly, they are coincidences…but together they add up to something more, as I pointed out.

I guess I pay closer attention because I view my garden as one of my major sources of food, not just a hobby.  It means more to me what the weather is, because it affects my crops.  It means more to me because I have to know what the weather is going to probably be like in days and weeks to come so I can plan my rotations and future crops.  If there is no stability in the weather (and there hasn’t been in a while) I can’t plan, my plants can’t grow well, and my harvest suffers as a result.

What it comes down to I guess is that for me, as I keep telling Mr. Tin foil, is that I only need to look out my window to see there’s a problem.  That’s all that matters to me.  I have no need, nor desire, to convince those that are determined not to be convinced (or those who say they’re still in doubt like Mr. TF) because my garden gives me all the proof I need.

In addition, my garden is going to be one of my primary food sources, if my fears regarding our economy come to pass.  Our agriculture is completely dependent on fossil fuels, easy credit, and government subsidies.  If our economy slides down any further, and I see no reason to believe it won’t, there are going to be supply interruptions, lack of credit for farmers, increased costs, and so on.  Climate change is only a part of the larger picture.

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Yavapai County Fair

Posted in Economy, Independence Days, common sense, home, sustainability on October 7, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

The first weekend of October marked the county fair this year.  It began on the first and ran until the fourth when everything so laboriously set up was torn down and exhausted fair goers and entrants alike made their journeys home.

The first marked my mother’s birthday as well; she would have been 67 had she still been alive.  It seemed fitting that I would find out the fate of my fiber arts entries on her birthday, after all she is the one who taught me the love for domestic arts.

My entries were turned in the weekend before, and I waited anxiously to see the judges’ decisions on the quality of my work.  I am very hard on myself but I was sure they would be even harder, and although I always learn from criticism, I dread, like anyone else, seeing it applied to my own work.

This is what I found when we made our way to the Home Making Arts area:

Blue Ribbon Aranand this:

Blue Ribbon Socks

I can’t tell you how shocked I was, especially when I saw some of the other entries!  And the comments were actually only good ones.  So I guess my work is better than I thought.  Maybe I CAN make a go of selling some of my stuff. (and sorry about the photo, black socks are impossible to photograph!)

And besides my prize winning entries, THESE are what I brought home from the fair:

George and Gracie

Angora Bunnies!  They both are show bunnies but I don’t plan to show them.  I plan to spin their wool.  They did have fancy names a half page long, but for us they’re George and Gracie.  Mr. TF says they look like shnauzers, which they actually do in a strange sort of way.  Much less yippy than schnauzers though. ;)

I got a breeding pair because although I got a killer deal on these two (the former owner is getting out of angoras entirely to concentrate on a different, rare breed) I would like to at least make my money and expenses back.   As with my chickens, if they pay for themselves it’s fabulous.  And I really think that’s all one can expect from most small livestock — that they cover their expenses.  That still makes them cheaper than purchasing finished product from a commercial enterprise, which is after all covering expenses AND making a profit.  I can see that, within reason, but I just can’t justify for myself losing the personal connection with my animals that would entail.

George is kind of a pain.  He is not as friendly, and loses patience with being brushed very quickly, and squirms and bites.  So he’s already been shorn, even though his coat wasn’t as long or as thick as it should have been.  Gracie on the other hand is a true cuddle bunny.  She loves to be held, is very patient, and hasn’t ever even tried to bite even when I know I hurt her (accidentally, of course).

George is however best friends already with my spinning assistant Barry (one of our cats).  They tear all over the house and play slap and tickle — under supervision of course; they are after all predator and prey.  That has been a huge side benefit I didn’t think of — Barry can be very co dependent because our other cat really can’t stand him most of the time.  She’s old and crochety, he’s young and full of energy, and you can imagine the results of that combo.  So a playmate for him is great for all of us.

I didn’t pick the bunnies up until the last day of the fair, when I picked up my entries; George didn’t win a prize but Gracie won best of show.  He’s won in previous shows, he has two legs of three whatever that means.  I did get pedigrees for them both so I can add to that if I sell any babies.

Now, yes, I DID get them for their fiber.  But I also had a secondary intent in mind.  Manure!!  Rabbits are prodigious poopers, and their manure is the only manure you can directly place on plants without burning the roots.  I plan to compost their manure along with the chicken manure for my garden beds.  That alone will save me money in the long run; manure is the best fertilizer, and I get my own fertility as a side benefit from my animals.  Yay!

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The County Fair

Posted in home on September 27, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

Well, I finally did it.  I entered two things into our county fair:  an Aran sweater I knit for my husband, and a pair of dress socks also knit for him. We’ll see how I do.

I did see many many crocheted blankets, needlepoint and embroidery, and three skeins of hand spun yarn.  Lots of canned goods entered.

I’m very nervous!  I have dreams of a custom knitting business, but I’ve never sold anything nor have I ever entered anything in the fair before.

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Availability of pharmaceuticals?

Posted in Uncategorized on September 23, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

So, got a question for anybody who reads this blog…

I am hypothyroid, have been so for many years; it runs in my family.

Stoneleigh over at The Automatic Earth says that pharmaceuticals will be unavailable in probably 5 years, due to economic collapse and the lack of infrastructure to get meds, even were they made, to the places where they will be used.  That leaves me with about 3 years of living after I quit taking my thyroid meds going by my mother’s example.

What do you all suggest for avoiding my possibly premature death?  I’m not sure I can stockpile this, I get it directly from my doctor who gets it from Canada — which incidentally is the only place it’s made (Armour Thyroid, it’s not synthetic like Synthroid and contains both T3 and T4 unlike Synthroid).

Anybody ever heard of repairing a thyroid that’s gone kaput?

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Independence Days

Posted in Economy, Independence Days, common sense on September 22, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

Plant:  nope

Harvest:  tomatoes, cucumbers, green and chile peppers, basil.

Preserve:  pesto.  Hatch chiles that were on a killer sale for 50 cents a pound.

Manage wastes:  well, I haven’t been very good at this one.  We’ve thrown away lots of leftovers recently.

Eat the food:  relish, sauerkraut, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, chiles, pesto, onions.

Build community food systems:  sold more eggs at work.  I need more chickens if that’s to be a viable side business, and nope I won’t be doing that.

I’ve been feeling the need to find land.  Here are my requirements:  at least two acres, with water rights, near a water source but above flood level, no more than an extra 30 min to my work.  Electricity is totally optional as I can work off of solar and wood.

I’m really bummed.  I bought a used drum carder thinking I was getting a good deal; I then had to purchase new carding cloth.  Now I have a drum carder I can’t seem to make work right because apparently I’ve put the cloth on the little wheel wrong.  This after about 5 hours of work between me and Mr. TF.   Why o why didn’t I just buy a new one????  Gah.

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Boy, does Dimitry get it right this week.

Posted in Economy, common sense, sustainability, the dreaded politics, work on September 21, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/

Having just worked the weekend this really, really, REALLY hits the mark.  Go read and enjoy his humor, and be aghast at the reality check.  I know am every time I go to work.

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Two steps forward, four back.

Posted in Economy, common sense, home, preparedness, sustainability, the dreaded politics, work on September 15, 2009 by thetinfoilhatsociety

D, my friend with the five acre farm, has had a very bad year.  She too has had a crappy garden; what the pesticide residues in the manure didn’t get the hailstorms did.  She has lost two Jersey cows this year as well as a merino sheep, and several baby goats, along with an entire crop of chicks, and her layers as well (these were picked off a few at a time from a predator, species unknown).  She has had several thousand dollars worth of vet bills, spent 4 months laid up with pneumonia and its extended recovery period, and her dad, who lives on the adjacent property, has had two open heart surgeries.  Their truck, which they depend on for hauling hay and livestock, is presently broken, for the third time; their Sidekick lost the engine while they were driving it.  Their well dried up and they were forced to haul water for several months in the hottest part of the year.

Now this would be tragic and frustrating if it had happened to me.  It would not however mean potential loss of home and hearth as I have a full time job to fall back on.  For her and her family however, this is a bad year of epic proportions.  They depend on the farm for their livelihood.  They eat what they put up; they eat the meat they raise; they sell extra goats that are necessarily produced in order to have milk and make cheese; they sell eggs and extra milk.  It has been a sobering lesson for me.  I grew up living on and near farms for most of my life; even when we lived in town we had an enormous garden outside of town that we tended, at least until my mom’s arthritis made it impossible for her to keep it up.  My dad and his wife still have a several acre garden that they keep as does my sister.  My uncle’s farm is long gone, tragically, since none of the children wanted it after he died.  So I’m familiar with the whole lifestyle of what D and her family live, in an indirect way.  With the exception of my uncle, who ran a dairy business in the days when the truck still drove to each small farm to pick up the milk in 5 gallon cans (and the cows were milked by hand), what none of my family have ever tried to do is to live solely on that farming lifestyle.  Now, D’s DH Mr. D runs his own business, but with the economy in the toilet business is slower than ever and with their truck out of commission, it’s impossible for him to drive to town for a job (and doesn’t really pay for itself in fuel costs anyway).  What if we had no fall back income?  This has been a really bad year for us in the garden, with about 40% of what I had hoped to get.  What if we depended on the garden truly, exclusively, for our food for the year?

We have been close to losing our house, back in the days when the economy was booming for seemingly everyone but us.  Thankfully we were able to work out a deal with the bank, caught up our arrears over a period of a few years, and are still here.  Now that the economy is in the toilet, we are (for the moment anyway) doing Ok, able to make our bills on one income with the second devoted to paying down debt and making our home more sustainable as a homestead in the long term.  Our own plans have taken a serious blow as Mr. TF’s own job was a recent casualty in the current cut-throat climate.  I cannot imagine having the economic problems topped by the farm problems, and the stress that must cause them.  And yet, this was reality for people in this nation during the Great Depression as well.  What happened to all those people who lost their farms?  How much lower can one go from subsistence farming and scraping by?  How many just died?  Who got all that acreage fallen fallow?

Is the lesson there to simply be stewards of someone else’s land then?  So that you can walk away without losing everything you own?  Or is the lesson to own your property outright, and always have money buried in the back yard, untouchable except for paying taxes in the bad years so you don’t lose your legacy to the children?  And how many bad years does it take to use up that buried cash?

Or maybe the problem is in the concept of money to begin with?  What if we were simply a barter based society?  Ok, now I’m getting into fantasy land here, but I think the question has some validity.  If money has a value that goes back to a commodity produced from the land (as all things do, if you trace them back far enough), then why have it as the intermediary at all?  After all, there were barter and trade routes all over the US for thousands of years before the concept of money arose; the trade routes extended from the tip of South America to the Arctic and most places in between.  But then, the public services would truly have to be public — meaning if you want the road repaired for example, you get out there with some of your neighbors and fix it yourselves, as do your further neighbors up the road, and so on.  That is after all how it was done for a very long time in many parts of the world.

Or maybe, it is the dissociation from true value that the concept of money causes.  I have always taught my children that money represents time.  It is time you spent out of you lifetime allotment, that you can never get back.  So spend your time wisely. I often have this same sort of conversation at work with my coworkers.  As little as I do toward canning, gardening, small livestock keeping, etc. they are amazed that I do it at all, and say they never could.  I always explain to them that they ARE.  They are using their time by buying their food at the grocery store.  I am using my time by doing it myself with the result that I get to spend more time AT HOME.  Not working overtime to pay for things.  It really seems to be a hard concept for most people to grasp.  The separation from what money represents, and how our daily bread is gotten to the table, and the fact that we take shortcuts by paying taxes for someone else to fix the roads (usually badly) rather than taking responsibility, doing it to the best of our abilities with our neighbors, is a nearly insurmountable problem.  It is the dissociation from HOW things work, in both the small and the large.  The loss of what money represents, in both commodity and in time, is a serious problem with no easy fixes.  It makes it easy for the costs of things to keep going up while the value of what we get keep going down.

We are really in trouble as a race.  And I, being unable to do anything to change that, am going to go out on my front deck and listen to the wind in the trees, enjoy the sunshine, and knit a baby bootee.

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