Uncontrolled Ramblings of David K Wright

Ice Fishing-----Revolution Watch

2012-02-03T21:50:00.005-06:00

UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY 2/1/12

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

Is the Lake-Link Ice Fishing Jamboree event cancelled?
THE EVENT ITSELF IS NOT CANCELLED. Due to the warm weather and ice conditions THE ONLY PORTION WE ARE NOT HAVING IS THE FISHING CONTEST PORTION. If you want to fish you can fish Lake Delavan or any other area body of water at your own discretion.

Let's see, Feb. 2nd and there is inappropriate ice to go ice fishing----in Wisconsin. Yes this is in southern Wisco but just to day the DNR advised folks to get there fishing shacks off some places in the Wausaw area, certainly on the Wisconsin River.

Today on my usual inquiry at the hardware store about the fish bite, I learned that very few lakes were allowing cars on the ice due to bad ice. It has been above freezing almost every day for a week and the fish are not biting anywhere---even they are pissed off.

So how does this tie into the Revolution watch? Well, the revolution is the sustainable revolution, the movement to a more sustainable society away from the one that is presently not sustainable. As I have noted, as this process moves along, hopefully slowly, we will have to make adjustments in our life styles. Not only do the adjustments have to be toward using less energy and material goods but also to changing weather patterns.

So rather than me sitting out in a very comfy auto while the wind howls, I may have to choose just sitting on a bucket, maybe with a life preserver on or better yet, with a small boat in tow. It is getting tougher all the time. Can you imagine not being able to be in a warm shack or in my well heated car. It is unthinkable.

The Grain Mill

2012-02-01T21:17:00.004-06:00

I have often wonder what it would be like to produce your own bread from scratch, and I don't mean go to the store, buy flour and then toss the stuff together, make dough and bake it up. I mean grow some grain, clean it, grind it and then make bread, or at least a grain product. Ya, ya, I still had to buy the yeast or baking powder.

The reason I became interested is bread is the staff of life, so to speak, and if we really had to make it from home grown plants how hard would that be? I did a little looking around to see if I could find flour made in Wisconsin but only found one small gentrified, crafty, trendy, yuppified mill that had flour, and it was not cheap----particularly after having it shipped. I was in a nice bag fir for display.

It turns out most flour is apparently produced along ways away, like in Omaha or Minneapolis. I don't really know but it was hundreds of miles. That is not very local, and I want to be local. The first thing I did was round up a grain mill on Ebay for a herbal-kerbal hefty price. I didn't want to grind it with mortar and pestle. I wanted a mongo motor that could be run off my photovoltaics. Power form the sun and lots of it. Its a monster and if I could run it off that old gas engine , I would really think I was the cat's ass.

I then managed to by some local hard, red wheat, the type commonly used in making bread. I dumped the stuff on the stones in the grinder and bingo, I got this flour, but it is not flour like the store has. It is not white nor really fine, it is brown, maybe a little course, but still floury, maybe like what would have been typical at the time of Christ. I also ground some multicolored Indian corn I had grown in the garden. It is not genetically modified unless the Mandans did it. I ended up with a bag of each and was noticeably proud of myself----puffed up like a toad if you will.

I decided to go for corn bread using baking powder. I tossed in some salt, local butter, local milk, eggs form our chickens and some olive oil (virgin but not from around here). I probably should have used shortening from hogs but I am well-meaning but not pure.

I cooked it up and there it was, a nice corn bread almost local in nature. It was a course item but consumable and probably Michelle Obama healthy. Interestingly, not totally easy nor quick to make. This local stuff is not a picnic, me thinks. Not even Christ like.

The Running of the 1923 M International

2012-01-29T22:47:00.004-06:00

I have been idled by the plague---and the fact Ann was away. Now that I am recovered and in good spirits, I wanted to get down to something serious. This would be the running of the Model M International single cylinder 3 hp engine.

We have had this beauty for some time and it has run on occasion, but it has been sporadic and there was that fire at the engine show. It has all been fun, and entertaining but it is now time to make it for real, make it so that it can do work.

We are not sure just what that work is just yet but we have plans, maybe for the revolution where it could be used to imitate the firing of a machine gun, or just to scare crows off the corn crop. So here it is.

Now I know that readers are going to find this immensely exciting and they should know there is a larger presentation. For now I will be lucky if it shows here. It may come to pass I'll have to do a YouTube link. Lets do it. You may want to sit down.

Sharing the Planet with Others---That Would be all Others

2012-01-18T21:27:00.005-06:00

Every now and then I run across a spectacular photo that pulls at your heart stings because they demonstrate some hapless animal being victimized by man. We look at them and get all upset and then go right about doing what we always do, which includes fouling our own nest and frequently everybody Else's.

I am not totally sure why we do this but out there lies a feeling the earth was put here for us to dominate and allow us to grow our numbers to the point where there is nothing left on the earth but us.

It is not that I am Innocent because I drive my diesel VW all over higher and yon just because it gets 50 miles per gal. But I do think I am making gains at times as I walk or bike down to the hardware store. In China most people walk. When I think about it, the shear trampling of human feet, all 1.3 billion of them probably is just as bad.

I can't resist putting these photos on because these beasts really need to have space too. The squirrel is an urban critter, obviously this one has to good life. I noticed him last year in my daughters yard and this year as well. Reminds me of Ben Franklin with his rotund demeanor, rather regal as he surveys his holdings. His only concerns are the cars that roar by. If he can stay clear of the asphalt, he will stay like this forever (squirrel time). I guess the car is the same to him a syphilis was to Ben, just not self induced.

The two flicker were posturing on a farm in Colorado. Most elegant, and youthful, almost dressed in a formal tone. Note the tie, Puff Flicker, Snoop Bird. I'll make room for them.

Revolution Watch---Air Travel

2012-01-16T23:21:00.003-06:00

As the Sustainable Revolution/Reset rolls along, there are a number of events that take place which mark the stages of this change. Fortunately to date, most of the changes have arrived slowly and, while they have been disruptive, have not really rattled our cages to any degree. Life still goes on up here in the Midwest As I have previously noted, from around here, jobs have been lost, houses are selling in the $20K range, insurance policies cut, medical costs have gone up and food prices have climbed. Still we fish, canoe, fiddle, ski and generally do our laughing.

Nationally, we have all the unemployment, savings looted, banksters going free, politicians talking of austerity and conservatives sucking up to Ayn Rand while giving breaks to the 1% who they claim to be job creators, but no jobs have been created------here. Sure, cattle are dying in Texas (over a million in Northern Mexico)and California has lost 80 medical facilities in the last couple of years due to no revenues from patients, many too poor to pay.

Globally, it is a mess with the Arab Spring turned into multi seasonal event, Europe is about to collapses due to the selling of blank paper by the big banks. Just remembered the Road Warrior Days down in Mexico, 48,000 dead. Not surprisingly, oil has stayed over $100 a barrel

But around here, there are smaller things on the watch list and the above article in the local paper lays one out. It seems air travel is down. Must be the cost of fuel, thus the cost of the tickets. It has always been said that one of the luxuries that will lead the revolution will be the disappearance of air travel. It will be an early victim of peak oil. Eventually there will just not be enough of the black gold. It will be too expensive or if it is cheap, it will mean we are in a depression and then we will be in peak money.

The sad part is the same owners of this air port only a few years ago were demanding more public money to expand the facility.. Couldn't see it coming. Just don't want to. It is tough.

Family History---Ann's Past

2012-01-15T21:54:00.011-06:00

I suppose this is not all that unusual but I find it, at least, entertaining, in part because of the distance, in part because of odd bit of chance, and touch because of nostalgia.

My charming wife as a child lived in Vienna. It was just after the Big War and just before the cold war and her father being a German speaker, was involved in the occupation of "intelligence" gathering. They lived in a small home that had been previously occupied by an entertainer who was in great favor of the Fuhrer. As a result, the home held a very elegant Steinway piano. The past "schauspieler", the Hitler crony, still lived in a hovel in the back yard but was in no position to regain his vaulted position in 1950.

Ann was fortunate to have piano lessons on this Steinway, the same Steinway the Hitlers entertainer used. Ann's family lived under a false name as her father was incognito and not distinguishable from the local populous. This was, again, in 1950-53 while she was just 5-8 year as of age.

While this is all very cool, in a historical way, the event of note, or of the moment is different. A few weeks ago Dave and Denise visited Vienna and paid the address a stop-in, took a few pictures and sent them to Ann. At the same time, Ann was looking through old photographs taken in Vienna and the very house visited by our friends. While the recent shots were taken from the front of the home and the older ones were in the yard in the back, our eyes caught an interesting feature.

Behind Dave some 50 yards is a yard urn or pedestaled pot. In looking through the old photos there sits the same ornament right next to my future wife. Sixty two years and it is still there.

A letter is going to go out soon to see, if by a remote chance, the Steinway still sits in the main room. Maybe she could go back for a few lessons.

Pileated Woodpeckers---In Town

2012-01-06T22:24:00.006-06:00

In all the time I spend sitting in the forest looking for food----that would mostly be deer but then turkeys are also on the list, I seldom see Pileated Woodpeckers. They are out there and I do hear them bickering and occasionally one will flash by.

The trees they consume are everywhere, those would be the ones that are literally ripped apart by the Pileated's huge dagger bills. There are large chunks of wood scattered hither and yon after these big guys get done looking for fat grubs. Still, I seldom really get a good look at one of these beauties. They are, I always thought, illusive birds of the forest.

But today, here in the front yard of my neighbor, here in urban Amherst, two of them frolicked on the side of Sugar Maple tree, acting like a couple of citified birds not much different than Crows. As I approached with my camera, they initially held to the back side of the tree. They seemed to be playing, or courting, even though it is early January---but it was 45 degrees. Had global warming confused them?

After a bit of waiting, they moved around the tree posturing and occasionally displaying their large wing span. Their red heads stood out like fire in the gray day. Round and round they went, jumping to the ground, scampering up the trunk, prying off chunks of bark as if to demonstrate strength rather than looking for bugs. It was a very live tree which they must have known. It was all a game of some sort, but very much to my enjoyment. Never have I watched a Piliated for 20 minutes.

To top it off, a gray squirrel scampered down the trunk and appeared to be interested in joining the event. He was a urban critter and possibly he too was surprised by the non urban intruders. The squirrel jerked back and forth either trying to intimidate the birds or simply wanting to test the waters, maybe see if they were terrorist, out of towners. The birds appear as warriors I suppose, warriors with war bonnets and big knives for mouths. One jab to the squirrel and it might be an tragic death there in the frontyard of America. He kept his distance from the birds as they refused to give ground.

In time a diminutive, cotton-topped grandma drifted by, walking down the road never seeing the event. The party of three disappeared across the street. Made my day to say the least. Urbanized Pileateds, I can take it.

To Build A Fire

2012-01-04T23:41:00.003-06:00

I don't know if it is just this kid or what, but he loves to build a fire. What we just learned is that it really makes little difference as to the setting, if there is a fire to be had, he is engulfed. One has to wonder if there is some sort of inherent behavior in this activity.

In part, I say this is because I also enjoy the pleasure of the fire, not only to cook things as is being doing here in the snow, but for the warmth and interestingly, the aesthetics of it all.

At this very moment I sit next to a hundred year old pot bellied stove enslaved by it's warmth. We have a high efficiency furnace that heats the entire house to a very comfortable level and it is relatively reasonable to operate with gas being unimaginably cheap. We choose the the old stove for almost all of our heat.

The old stove is messy, ashes float in the air as I feed the oak to it, the floor is littered with chips, bugs, splinters and discarded bark. The room always has a slight waft of smoke floating, this is the odor of a fire on the frozen lakes of Wisconsin when we were kids skating by Goat Island. The warmth is radiant and tends to make me drift into afternoon naps so comfortable it can not be described except to note that the dreams of 3:30 are always pleasant and euphorically haunting--a dream of dreams.

I also enjoy the smell of split wood as I bring it in----along with all the other residue found in the shed, the residue that has to be cleaned. The cherry wood is almost fruit like, the oak strong and nutty, the maple smells cold, and the occasional pine smells of Christmas and forests, and needles under foot. On some occasions, I throw a piece of bark on the kitchen stove just for the smell, the birch of canoes and the north, the juniper and cedar of romance and blanket chests. The cottonwood of years of our living in a tepees out there in the west, the Bijou Basin, the Crazies of Montana, Jackson's Hole, The Yellowstone, the nights at Bent's Fort. Fires and smoke, warmth.

No wonder the kid loves the fire. He sits for hours just playing with little twigs aglow. He burns a few holes in his cloths and drops the hot dog in the fire only to be recovered and consumed. It is primal, it is in our genes, it probably has to do with survival, food, warmth. Life. He is a happy child.

2011 An Interesting Year--A Bit Beat Up

2012-01-04T20:27:00.005-06:00

It was a year all right. Now, from my point of view ( that would be for the two of us) things seem fair enough. We get by, we have a life, covered in part because of Medicare and part because we live close to the ground, no debts, no fancy toys, no bad habits (beer/wine are part of the food chain and essential), and most importantly we have family and friends.

But out there in the real world the Sustainable Revolution, The Great Reset, The Big Adjustment, the Long Emergency is going on and it has become disruptive and discomforting. Here is why the chicken is beat up, and admittedly it has a some American arrogance involved.

The sovereign and personal debt issue is a monster that is and will plague all nations because we are connected. There is no way Greece can pay back it's debt, nor can others and that may well include California. There will be defaults and anybody or nation sitting on that debt will be taking a dandy hair cut. The currency issues will bite.

China has huge cities unoccupied (Above), all over built and rotting amid the drifting pollution. Their economy makes no sense and will falter as energy resources constrict. Over population is so profound that every landslide or high wave kills hundreds if not thousands. Someone local just returning from China and said no matter where they travelled it seemed as though a large stadium had just let out as the masses poured through the streets---except that it went on all day. Sustainable? Oh, this is the country that is bringing 1-2 coal fired generating plant on line every week--and we are worried about global warming!

Worst part of the beat up chicken is the part I hear every day, the part from friends who tell me their recent college graduate kids can not find a job, or the 60 year old who lost a job of thirty years, or the person down the street that had to take a cut in pay and then sent their home keys to the bank and walked away. Another asked, "Why send the kid to college when lawyers can't get jobs?"
Then to, oil is a food of a sort, it feeds us. We import 12 million barrels a day but the amount of oil available on the export market has been shrinking for 5 years or better. What about poor countries competing for oil? Banks aren't loaning money because there are no "bankable projects", nothing in this country can compete with 50 cent labor abroad. Labor arbitrage, wow. Globalization has to be one of the most ill-conceived ideas the jack-ass economist ever came up with (ya, that is a preposition).

Of course, the Middle East and North Africa are REAL stable. I just remembered, there is that oil there. Someone said they want freedom and democracy but the minute they get an election they elect religious fundamentalist. That chicken is cooked---and the grill they are using holds 80% of known oil reserves.

Interestingly, there was the 130 temperature in Pakistan and droughts in Texas and Mexico where millions of cattle have perished (not in the news though, as GW is off limits). I need to stop thinking and reading because the chicken is really getting pounded even though the GOP slate of buffoons is promising huge amounts of business as usual. The word delusional comes to mind.

The list goes on, but the chicken is still up and walking---just having a bad day? I don't know what the hell the chicken will be doing if he has a cold night or even another bad year.

On Wisconsin---and Maybe More

2011-12-20T22:00:00.007-06:00

In my world of collecting graphs, I occasionally run into some patterns that make me smile contently. Here is my first evidence that leads me to make note of my state. Now, this all doesn't mean other states are losers (sorry Texas) but it does imply the upper Midwest seems to have some notable quality possibilities.

This map/graph demonstrates that there is less income disparity among our citizens than other areas. I don't know why, but it must have something to do with attitudes of leadership, and maybe the general population that would not put up with it. In other words, if we in a small community see some business individual living in a starter castle, the tendency might be to not support his business, particularly if his workers were not being paid well. Self correction, maybe.
This graph demonstrates that good old Wisconsin is not heavily endowed with poverty in my beloved rural areas. We personally are probably in the poverty group but we are rich in other ways. Not a lot of poor around us.

Hey, we have water and water can be used for all sorts of thing, many of them fun but also it can be used to grow food without having lots of fear of drought. I like that. I like the Tomorrow River, and the Wisconsin. I like the Crystal River and how about all those lakes. Thank you Jesus---or whom ever.

Here is an interesting map, rather a different topic, but still not with out merit. So far not many nasty weather events up here.

I have another one of maps somewhere that demonstrates the level of education and value placed on education. Oddly the pattern is the same. The upper Midwest is way out in front. Now, it may not be that we are the most fortunate in every class but still nicely positioned.

Of course, if we had to include weather, or the easiest place to live with weather (that would be winter) it might look a bit different. Then, does the harsh weather lead to the strength in the other areas? Does it chase out the riff-raff. I'm still here.

Good Dogs Die

2011-12-15T22:58:00.003-06:00

There is a saying out there that the one bad thing about dogs is they don't live very long. I can attest to that.

We had Chester, that is the same dog who has been pictured here many times because he was always just there being next to vegetables, going fishing, digging in the garden and being under foot.

Well, Chester had an odd life I suppose. We recently learned via a chip, he started out in California the off spring of some bitch (I mean that kindly) and later moved to Colorado. We think he may have been abandoned somewhere in that first story.

When we got him he had been abandoned again, this time on the ranch we used to live on. The cowboy that worked there had been having some marital problems and for reasons unimaginable just left him to fend for himself in the foothills of Larimar county on a five thousand acre ranch. The dog freaked out and jumped in a friend's pickup and wouldn't leave.

We could see he was one hell of a dog, a beauty in every way, maybe a little baggage from being abandoned and possibly beaten, but still a real lover. I got him to jump in our car because our friend with the pickup had a dog.

So five years later at the age of eleven, Chester moved on. We had a great life together and he filled a great spot in our lives. For him to just up and have a bad spleen seems very unfair but either cancer or a little spirochete got him and he faded away.

After his first bout of blood loss, he rebounded so that we could adjust and spend some fun time with him, catching popcorn and walking the yard. As of three days ago he is no more. Bummer. Dogs sure do make our lives rich that's why when they go there is pain, but many great memories. Three cheers for Chester.

Broccoli, Global Warming---Revolution Watch

2011-12-14T14:06:00.005-06:00

One might say, "Just how do you plan on tying broccoli to global warming?" This might be a stretch for sure because I don't really know all the patterns. But I find it strange that the broccoli in my garden, that would be my outside garden, is still growing. It don't mean it is sitting there in extended idle animation. It has grown since the last time I checked it a couple of weeks ago.

Clearly the stuff is tough, and I can imagine that this is not the first Dec. 15th that someone in central Wisconsin had broccoli in his garden. Still, it seems odd to me on this day as it is raining outside. Interestingly, a weed ago my kid that lives north of Fairbanks told me it was raining there. He noted that in the past couple of years they have seen rain in Dec. It had been 60 below a few days earlier. Not that uncommon.

Today, I read a piece talking about how methane is exuding from arctic waters at a rate never seen before, apparently due to the warming of arctic waters. Methane is a gas many times more destructive than co2.

Still, most of the front runners, or at least the field of contestants for Republican party, say there is no such thing as climate change. Or as one commenter stated, "Does this mean you all agree with the 3% of scientists that think climate change is not real?" Apparently. We are idiots, that is all there is to it.

Yesterday, the Canadians walked out of the Kyoto discussions basically saying, "Screw the global climate change, we need to make money." So the governments don't meet for another 4 years and in the mean time I will be growing more and more broccoli in winter. Now, I know what they mean when they say humans are the most invasive species.

Pictures that Speak to Me

2011-12-10T22:14:00.005-06:00

I have always loved how images can provoke emotions of all sorts. It is only fitting that good ones are shared, and as we all know many folks are now sharing the hell out of them via the internet, and of course, jackasses like me that pass them around.

I just went through a few I have collected and here is what I found. I am sorry if you have seen some of them but I can't help myself. This one made the implication that our politicians need to take advice from this dude and "Grow a Pair." Unfortunately, there may be individuals, both male and female that symbolically have this endowment but chose to do what this big fella is doing---sitting on his ass.

For the biblical types, we have this one. In light of the fact they we may be looking at a currency war and sure as hell have been looking at huge usury fees from the banksters, this one rings true---might even make me a Christian.

For this one, I need to say little. It just reads well and seems to say something without saying anything. He said, "To sin by silence makes cowards of men."

Jobs-----Revolution Watch

2011-12-10T21:26:00.004-06:00

We keep hearing this Jobs, Jobs, Jobs mantra over and over. Then we hear the politicians say how we have to bring them back, and we have to do this and we have to do that.

The Democrats think they have to spend money government style and Keynesian style to create new jobs which in turn means they have to find the cash. They spend and they spend and spend but still the U6 jobless rate stays in the 16% range. To top it off, no one wants to pay taxes. It all seems so stupid. There is no money, so they print the stuff out of their asses and then throw it all over the place thinking the jobs will come out of the woodwork. Making oil out of algae?!

The GOP mostly gave it to banks by getting Treasure, Hank Paulsen, ex Goldman CEO, to throw bailouts in the trillions to his big banking buddies. While doing this the Republicans cry out for free trade, no regulations, feed the wealthy job creators, no new taxes. They believe the banks will graciously loan mega dollars to new businesses. The banksters then give themselves big bonuses and sit on the money gathering interest. They don't invest it---not in this country

But it sure looks like neither one of them have a clue and I am not sure they care. The above article demonstrates how this area is losing 1000 jobs as two large factories close down. One is a paper factory that no longer has much of a market due to the internet. The other made windows and doors and the union wouldn't drop there demand of wanting a working wage, plus no one is building.

What it turns out is there is no place to invest money in business in this country simply because demand is down and we, under no circumstance can compete with foreign labor. It just can't be done. Good old globalization. In the mean time the 99% get poorer and the 1% are rolling in free bailout money and laughing their rich asses into the ground. "Party on Garth."

It looks like one hell of a dilemma. No matter what we do it is not going to work. The sad part of it is we are not talking about other options. We are not taking about ideas and proposals that does not involve these antiquated growth concepts. We have to move to another type of thinking but it looks to me like thinking outside this box will not happen. Is it just a continuing slow decline? We need a new set of economists, not these shit heads suffering from rectal-cranial inversion. Time to start over.

Running the M Mccormik Deering Engine

2011-12-05T22:01:00.002-06:00

I have had this engine for a couple of years and I have talked about, admired it, tinkered with it. Actually, I should say "we" as Jeff my brother is also in on it. He is no worse than me, or no better, depending on how you look at it.

We have purchased a few new parts, disassembled it, hand honed the head and gussied it all up in what amounts to an overhaul. Truth is, the motor is very simple and once a person learns about it, even if it sat on the bottom of a lake, they can be brought back to life.

There has been doubters, "friends" that look upon us in disdain, but mostly they are just jealous because we are somebody, we are motor heads, old iron affectionatoes. Almost every body knows these throbbing brutes attract chicks and that is why they are so envious.

What we have here is the final hour, the real test, the icing on the cake for old iron buffs. We have the running of the engine. I know, it needs a few adjustments and a fuel system that will keep it going forever but this is for real, this is the moment. So admire and, drool over this magnificent machine.

Europe Soverign Debt---Revolution Watch

2011-12-05T21:03:00.004-06:00

This was a poster the English government was going to post all over England if it became apparent the Nazis were going to invade their home land. It never was put up because the English decide to put up a good fight---which in turn brought in the Yankees and the rest is history.

Interestingly, some one has brought the poster back out thinking it might be useful during the coming revolution/economic upheaval.

It seems England, along with many countries in Europe have gotten themselves in a bit of a pickle and the banksters/economic terrorists think that the only way to solve the problem is for a big dose of austerity (higher taxes and service cuts, pay cuts). This would be done so the banksters/bondholders could get their money back even though it would appear that they, that would be the banksters, have loaned massive funds to both individuals and countries, that had absolutely no way to pay it back. Never did and never will.

It seems odd that they are trying to put all the blame on the average Joe and make him pay even though the banks were particularly stupid and one might say profoundly greedy, in making the loans. Who is at fault. It would seem that banks I have known would never have dished out monies unless they knew for damn certain I intended and could pay it back. Not these guys.

What they did is loan the money out and then not wanting to sit on the large privately-known risk, sold the paper, that would be bogus AAA loans, to unsuspecting buyers--pensions, IRAs, countries, blah, blah, blah. Actually they sold other absurd "products" as well--derivatives, credit default swaps, who knows.

In the last couple years it has become real obvious the loans are not really of much value, so the banksters are now trying to get it back so they might maintain their lifestyle--oops! ( it is really uglier that that but I like this part of it)

Oddly, England and most of Europe doesn't manufacture much (rather like us) any more, oil is declining and the biggest earner, banking, is also going down the tubes. So it looks like many of these countries will become almost third world. Thus, the sign to the public. I don't think it will do much good. Will there be blood? Sign is red.

Trophy Deer---but

2011-11-28T21:47:00.004-06:00

I do very much like to hunt and I work at it. I am not a gunslinger that goes out and takes "sound" shots but a character that enjoys sitting in the woods watching the birds, talking to the skunks that get too close and marvelling a the fall landscape.

Venison in the freezer is a very comfortable thing as it is about the only red meat we eat. My general plan is to go bow hunting by sitting in some natural constructed blind over looking an area where there is a clear shot and then waiting for one of the less unsuspecting to walk by offering themselves up. Bow hunting is not always successful in my world due to inappropriate day dreaming, sometimes falling asleep (even in the snow) and generally not paying attention.

This year three does walked with in 25 feet of my blind before they were noticed due to day dreaming about getting a deer or was it my other dear. They stood there motionless, looking right in in the blind, unafraid but intent on knowing what was in the bushes. I remained motionless knowing any blink of the eye would spook them and the hunt would be done for another day. The cross bow could not be lifted and the only hope was that they would turn away and then I could re-position. No luck. They made a small jump that put a large oak between me and them. It was over.

Well, this meant that I would have to take up heavier armament in the form of a shotgun with slugs and a dandy scope. We headed off to southern Wisconsin for a Thanksgiving dinner and a one day hunt. Filled to the gizzard, we hunters headed out for a pass through a local forest. My position behind a massive Black Oak proved well selected and in ten minutes from the start I was in possession of a very large buck that made a very large mistake. He didn't see me.

While harvesting a magnificent deer is a thrill, it would have proved better if I were comfortable eating it. We were in the CWD area and all had to be tested. Some 15-20% of the older deer are thought to be infected with those nasty little prions that cause wasting disease. Uncomfortable with eating it at all, I gave it to another hunter who was not uncomfortable after it was tested.

I wish the entire act of hunting would have been complete.

Europe---Revolution Watch

2011-11-23T21:33:00.004-06:00

Watching The Revolution take place is not an easy thing because it comes in many forms, and has many diverse causes. I have always listed them in the following way. #1 Resource depletion, meaning the active consumption of resources to a point where it affects our ability to grow (both population and economic) most notably fossil fuels but water may be close behind, #2 environmental destruction most notably climate change but there are others, #3 an economic model that is not workable, being based on never-ending exponential growth, and #4 human population growth at 75 million gain every year--every four years an amount equal to the population of the US today is added.

They are all out there and experts in each respective field claims theirs is most pressing. They are all pressing, really pressing it would seem. But one has taken center stage of late, and it is a stage, and that is economics. It seems, and I say seems because there is no single individual who can totally explain it, that we have screwed up.

While I can sit back and read my ass off, which I appear to be doing because my ass is falling off, and learn great things, or things that are not great but may be nefariously monstrous. As near as I can tell we, globally connected banks (JP Morgan, Goldman Sacs, Douche bank and others) have sold derivatives that represent things that do not exist and they have been selling them back and forth to each other for some time. In the process they have (sorta) printed money. In addition many countries have been buying each others bonds almost like selling each other lattes. Nothing is really real. it is a ponzi scheme of a magnitude that has never been known.

In the mean time, people and countries have been borrowing money form each other that can never be paid back because most countries don't produce anything anymore but leave that up to China and India. They and we are all living beyond our means, individually and collectively. Oops!

It is truly a God Damned mess and now we are seeing a bloody revolution as the above great leaders try to sort this one out. I just love the fact that both Italy and Greece have appointed ex Goldman Sacs employees to lead their countries. For Christ sake, Goldman Sacs and the big banks are what got us in this frickin mess. So here we go.

Lets extract the last bit of wealth from the regular folks with austerity and higher taxes to save the fat ass of the banksters. Just how long will that go on? Sell off public assets in a Shock Doctrine move, really? This watch is getting more interesting all the time. Gonna need some spurs, chaps and some good boots to ride this one out.

Pumpkins------Butchering and Preperation

2011-11-23T20:53:00.005-06:00

So far I have not be able to secure a deer, which in Wisconsin terms is not acceptable. It does not mean that we will be doing Thanksgiving at the Shelter again but it does reflect poorly. Besides Ann hates pushing our local transportation vehicle, the wobbly-wheeled grocery cart, more than 10 blocks particularly if there are no aluminum cans to pick up. She is not all that fond of Mad Dog in a paper bag either but hey, this is America. Could be Robitussin.

No, we are not there, we are here in paradise and getting ready for a Thanksgiving dinner that can't be beat. To start it off one of the big squash had to be sacrificed. Now, I told a friend I had shot one with a 30-06 and was now butchering it. I was butchering it but I didn't really shoot it.

The pumpkins/squash, to put it bluntly, were gargantuan, elephantine, like really big. I took the smallest (20 Lbs) and hacked it in quarters to as to get it to boiling size. The photo doesn't really give the size but this is a beauty. The meat was thick but not as dense as last year's. It may be the seeds from last years got crossed with an actual pumpkin and we have a bit of genetic cross. The meat looks succulent and boiled down real nice.

Tomorrow the leavings , combined with cream, maple sugar and exotic spices will produce some six pies. Some will accompany us to friends estate were we intend on glutinizing until the tryptofan hits us along with numerous beverages to complex to mention. We have no discretion when it comes to consuming other peoples booze.

The highlight of the butchering was the surprise find of quarter sized seeds that will be fit for toasting and subsequent consumption. All of this from the frequently discarded Pumpkin/ squash. The hell with the shelter. I love being part of the 1 percent.

Art-------On An Eighteen Wheeler

2011-11-16T17:03:00.006-06:00

Every now and then, a person runs into things that, no matter what they say, you just have to take note (I suppose this also includes humans) . While coming back east from our sojourn to western destinations largely centered around mythical fish, we stopped for the usual callings at a truck stop. I think it was in Nebraska but it is hard to remember because it gets to all looking the same out there---not that we don't like it.

There parked next to us was this, obviously independent trucker with a mural on his cab. The first thing that came to mind was just how was this done. We didn't run up to and try to figure it out but assumed it was done by one individual with an air brush. But even if that is the case it is one hell of an undertaking that must have lightened the pockets of somebody.

I liked the two little admiring kids transfixed in front of the robust men of arms. I actually think it is a copy of a Glenna Goodacre sculpture that we have always seen and thought seriously sucked. We hate kid art. It also looks like Rambo might be in there caring the 50 cal on his shoulder. All in all, the quality was quite good and somebody had some serious talent, or some serious tricks---photo projection?

I'd really like to know how this was done----not that we plan on doing it.

As for the message, well, I guess I have a little trouble glorifying soldiers to little children. It may be that he should have had a couple of dead foreigners scatters about with body parts missing, or maybe a picture of some dictator or war mongering politician lusting to go steal some precious resources. Still, one persons feelings expressed in any form of art is fair game in this country. I wonder what was on the other side.

Hey, we didn't see any Jesus stuff.

Dogs----I Couldn't Live Without One

2011-11-13T21:42:00.007-06:00

What is it about dogs? Some are nothing more than an unquestioning friend. Oh, I guess they are all that in some ways. Others go a bit farther and actually do things. Now, I could take our dog Chester first but while he is a great critter, he has limits.

Here we have Mist, I think we have Mist because he is not my dogs but Gary's and Carmen's, and Mist does real things like herd animals. For reasons unknown to me, but probably not to breeders, these dogs have to herd to feel right with the world. It is their life. While I could go to great length about this dogs prowess of hold and moving these sheep. I would rather relate a incident we experienced at a trial of sheep dogs.

We sat in the bleachers. We sat there with other folks interested in watching this activity and we sat there with other sheep herders who sat there with there dogs sitting there next to them. The dogs, unlike our Boarder Collie who would lay next to us, SAT on the bleachers watching the show. We could look down the line and here were all these collies and mutts watching the show and in some cases seeming to be a part of it, ot at least wanting to. The owners/companions were jabbering and laughing, paying little attention to the events on the arena but the dogs watched.

I do not know if they were admiring the work, judging it, or learning, but cared and given the word all of them would have headed for the floor. It was their life.

This dog is a pointer. This dog does hang by a warm fire and will fetch a ball in good suburban style but what he wants to do is point at birds. Oh, he will, I am told, point at other animals including a skunk, but he lives to mark the presence of birds.

He has an interesting ploy. We leisurely walk along a forest trail where in dwells the grouse, talking and telling anecdotes of hunts gone by. This dog, almost uninstructed, moves back and forth in front of us with his head held high, not to the ground like spaniel. He is hell bent of only a couple molecules of grouse and the minute he finds them he locks up, tail raised and one foot lifted in an elegant stance. There he will stay until we, noble hunters, step froward, our fouling pieces raised and release him to flush the bird. It is grand sport. The only thing we lacked was a single bird and appropriate knickers made of Scottish wool. Still had fun.

Then there is Chester, part Border Collie Part Spaniel. His life is good. He is mostly a friend and appears to have no genetics that render him useful beyond a companion of great affection. He hates water, will not fetch by hides the balls, couldn't smell a dead chicken, thinks cattle and goats are stupid, mindless brutes that need no handling. He doesn't even try to eat the fish I catch like his buddy Zoey who appears to love trout as a toy. We love Chester.

The Upper Midwest---My favorite

2011-11-13T21:09:00.003-06:00

Nothing like a good visual. Ya, I know what you are thinking but I am talking about the above map and enclosed information.

It would seem that those states in the upper Midwest have the smallest amount of poverty, say no more than 12%. The deep south appears to have the most. So just what does this say? I reckon it says we have less income disparity (that may change if we can not get rid of the most recently elected, Ayn Rand loving, yahoo that somehow thinks he is one of the "Enlightened") and that we have fewer unemployed. It may also mean that our working folks are paid more.

I find this all very attractive and probably means we have fewer unhappy citizens, fewer folks who just might feel left out, fewer dirt bags, and for the most part more workers less likely to go ballistic if things take a small turn south.

Then again maybe the poverty of the south has produced a vast group of individuals capable of living real low to the ground who will not be too rattled if things go even farther south. But the south has lots of fundamentalist religion, and poorer education as well. (I do have a chart like this that shows folks listing of importance of education---it looks just like this one) Where is Nascar more popular?

Truth is, I have a number of these types of graphs and all of them show this same pattern. The upper Midwest is strong. If this Walker character remains in office there will be a continued attempt to put us in the "southern way". I guess it is not all his fault, the world is changing and we are all not much different than Greece.

Now if we had to live with less, which it looks like we will, maybe we can redefine poverty and just lower the scale. Never the less, the upper Midwest will still retains its rather jaunty position. I'll take that. I don't need no stinking NASCAR

Chard----Beating the Reaper

2011-11-09T16:26:00.003-06:00

Today is the 9Th of November. It snowed about 5 inches, a wet heavy slush that weighted down the cedars and buried the Chard. The temperature hovered all day just above freezing. While yesterday I did manage to get a small bowl of red raspberries for my cereal, that was it on the fruit front. No more.

But this evening as I slipped out of the wood pile, there was a few leaves of very green Chard peaking through the snow. While many of the plants had been picked down there still remained a good meal of rich greens under the snow.

While it has been freezing every night, the Chard always rebounded during mid day and seemed to still be growing, and certainly remained very edible. But the forecast for tonight is 26 and tomorrow night 22. In the world of chard that is reaper time. While they have not gone gently into that good night, there was no way growth could go on much longer. It was time for the last good-by for this season. Not bad I would say.

The next fresh vegetables will show up in April, so unless we go to the just-in-time delivery of fresh things from Mexico and South America, it is 5 months of laid-away vegetables and fruit. Interestingly, it was not that long ago when only stored, or canned products was the way it was for everybody here in the north.

I do remember as a kid getting oranges and grapefruit in winter, but not much more. Wonder what the Native Americans ate?

Our Cat----A Sad Excuse

2011-11-08T21:05:00.005-06:00

We have this cat. We have had him for some 12 years, plus or minus. He was a replacement for the past one who one day decided he was going to go for a walk in the canyon, on the ranch in Redstone. That was a bad mistake for a cat because up there numerous predators constantly pursued the compound just waiting for anything to leave the yard.

This also included humans as mountain lions were beginning to feed on joggers in Colorado. So Ann always had to take along the dogs as protection and some, more 2nd amendment oriented, carried heat.

Truth is, the last cat got out too far and he became a carryout lunch for who knows what. Maybe a big cat, but roaming bands of coyotes loved a little pussy. This didn't play well for me because it was on my watch. Never even found a hair but we did find this ratty-assed thing we now call a cat, or Catmando.

He made it out of the canyon in one piece, sorta. Truth is he was never a whole piece to begin with, just a seriously skinny, disheveled, unkempt, shitting-on-the-floor cat, that never found any affection from me, but Ann has held on to him because he purrs---and does things like sneak up on every thing the minute he is out of my sight.

To top it off he is ugly beyond reproach with teeth missing, hair in gnarly blotches, and the general appearance of being from Ethiopia. He doesn't even smell respectably.

The one thing he has done is survive to the age of around 18 which from my point of view is a touch too long. I am now convinced he will go to 25 and out live me just in spite. Oh well, he is sorta tough but makes no attempt to be civil. Maybe he is a feline personification of me. Oh God!

Banking Today---Unregulated---Revolution Watch

2011-11-03T23:03:00.006-05:00

I find it odd that some 40% of our GDP is in banking and money handling. Can you believe that? The handlers are producing nothing, just touching money as they pass it along to the next handler and then extracting a fee. The really sad part seems to be that many of the "instruments" they handle are nothing but made up investments called CDOs, CDSs and those charming derivitives that do not really represent anything tangible. They are simply pieces of paper thought to represent debt.

They may claim to be something, these derivitives, but in reality they have been leveraged so many times that in the end they are really worthless. The sad part of the deal is the "instruments" end up in the portolos of retirement funds, pension holdings, soveregn nations and unwarry investors. Most of these holders have been sold a product that they were told had value, even a high ratings from a rating agnecy like AIG.

It was all a scam, a fraud, a pozi sceme and oddly enough, they are still out there, still going on. The reason being that the individuals doing this operation, this fraud also are the ones who made the laws that eliinated the rules regulating these transactions. The removed the Glass Steagall act, allowed naked short selling and let Wall Street sell things that were not real.

Oh, but they made money from it, they added to the GDP with it, and now that they have been found out. We are all the poorer for it, all of the 99%. What does the government do, gives the dip shit banks bail out money because they are too big to fail. Yup, if they go down, we all go down. Cute. One has to wonder just want our real GDP is, paticularily if we are not really producing anything.

Has anyone been arrested? I don't think so. In fact, Lloyd Blankfein got something like a $62 million bonus last year. And there are folks out there wondering why we have an Occupy revolt going on and they are saying its not the fault of the rich. Dear Lord, what are we coming to?

Fortunately, most of the real conflict is going down in Europe---but it is all the same cause, and caused by the same people, that would be people on on very own Wall Street. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan have their hand in all of it. Lets hope that when it all collaspes that the blame is put on Europe and OBama will not be the target. Sadly, few of our citizens remember that it was Republicans, or I should say the Laissez Faire economist associated with the conservatives that set it off. Unregulated captalism is not a sustainable system. It is time for a change.

Late Harvest---Don't give up on the Garden

2011-11-03T21:14:00.005-05:00

I'm sure most folks think a garden is a summer thing that is largely harvested in the fall. You know, Harvest Moon and all that. What I am learning this year is the garden actually lingers very well and as of the 1st of Nov. we still had a handsome collection of goodies after everything seemed to be at an end.

Let's take the broccoli. I noticed that many proud backyard farmers buy broccoli plants, put them in the ground in May and by July they have a nice selection but by August the plants are belly up, covered with aphids, stinking and telling me to buzz off. Lately. I have only planted seeds and I have not even been in a hurry to do that. Once up and robust in July, I transplant them around the garden in areas where growth has failed me. If the friggen rabbits don't get them, and this is where the conceal carry comes in, they will thrive nicely, get huge but will not flower until fall.

Broccoli loves cold weather, sneaky aphids hate it and the flower heads are firm and most succulent----and that includes now, now being November. I will say, I believe 2 weeks from now, with a bit of covering, they will still be growing.

About conceal carry, if you show a rabbit a weapon, he will depart in haste but unarmed he will linger casually lifting his nose at your miserable presence. "Get out of my garden you silly boy, you two legged swine, you sniveling, flat assed old coot, you gun hating left-wing commie." That is when the heat comes out and he is met with a blaze of fire power. Now in town I have to set up a blind, wear Rambow camo and get him with a scoped crossbow. Be prepared, they love broccoli beyond all else. Maybe an electric fence---and that might get a cat or two---whoopie.

Also the chard takes on a rich green color in the fall and, I maintain, stocks up on more nutrients making it the best ever. Lightly boiled and covered with butter or bear grease it is sublime. Seal oil is also excellent but the fresh water seal population is down.

If the frost is not hard the late variety raspberries just keep coming even though someone told me they don't taste as good in the winter/late fall. I find that to be drivel. They are sissies, sloth-like panty wastes who are tired of picking and love rationalize away a little work. This will not work after the revolution.

This is not all of it. The tubers are still out there, as are the Brussel Sprouts and check out the celery. Gardening is really a nine month affair and I dig it.

Fishing the Secret Spot---a Telltale

2011-10-28T21:57:00.004-05:00

Fishermen probably are pretty much always thinking, "What was it really like back in the day?" Just what was fishing like when the hoards didn't have access to every pond, stream and river. Truth is it is really hard to know.

There have been many writers, be it Norman Mclean and his River Runs Through It, or Ted Trueblood blathering about his exploits in Field and Stream, but really the only way was to have been there and actually seen some fishery in its pristine state. But to do that we'd have to be 150 years old.

In my case 68 years is enough to have some recollections but still even then in , say 1957, things had already been altered. However, I suppose I could use that as a baseline because I did fish all the time, but then I was young and had no real skill and only marginal equipment---like no fish finders---we still don't have one as we believe they are immoral.

The baseline is only a 1957 baseline and nothing else. So if I say, "Back in my day we would get 10 strikes if we went out on Montello Lake in an afternoon." There might even be some question as to my actual memory, and just maybe a tendency to exaggerate a little. So presently if I go on a regular basis to Montello pond and only get two strikes on a Silver Minnow, then I might say things are not as good. Generally, this is my attitude. Not as good.

And again this base line is a shifting thing, or maybe it is called the Shifting Baseline Syndrome where one only can compare something to what one knows and not to an old baseline of 150 years ago.

Anyway, I believe we just found a better way to check the way fishing used to be, that would be back in the old days. It seems we have found a place where no one else fishes because they do not know about it and it is very difficult to reach. It is a bitch and believe me, there will be no $50,000 bass boats in there. It is like it was.

The truth hurts, I am afraid. Hurts bad. In a few hours, it is possible to catch 10 bass, 5 Northerns and maybe a Tiger Musky (we did see a big boy). The fish are large, strong and fat. The message clear, there was a time.

A Big Tree That Had To Go

2011-10-26T22:00:00.005-05:00

The first time I saw the tree was 35 years ago and at that time it was huge, a huge leaning White pine sitting in my brother's front yard. The trunk was about 3 feet across and the entire thing extended upward 100 ft or better. (There is a dude in the tree for scale)

Through the years the old beauty was a center piece of the northern yard, but it was always a bit of a problem in that cars were parked under it and the tree did have a perspiration problem that left pitchy leavings on the vehicles. Now, if the cars were junkers, then the tree probably just added to the ambiance, the country look, but as they (my kin) became more affluent (I was going to say effluent) the deposits rather detracted from the general appearance, and maybe left friend wondering if they really lived deep in some forest in a subterranean hut as was rumored. Plus, even if a small branch were to fall the resulting alteration to the body would compromise even their accepted standards.

But the bigger problem was as the tree grew and as the winds blew, it was tilting more and more to the southeast---and in the direction of the house. A few years ago, one tree in a similar location had been hit by lightening, shattered and fell safely in the yard, but this one was larger and now over 120 ft tall. It was becoming clear that if it fell, with its massive tonnage and all, the entire house would be flattened if not vaporized leaving my kin in ill repair. In second thought, it would be a closed casket affair consisting largely of parts.

I just kept leaning, and leaning and the wind continued to blow---mostly from the northwest. A couple of days ago a smaller tree fell and landed 20 ft from the house. That was it. Death of a tree, while tragic, is not equivalent to a death of a couple of reasonable folks.

So the tree guys came out, trimmed the lower massive branches, climbed to the top, topped it and worked downward in 8 foot hunks. Today it is gone, cleaned up but not forgotten after 150 years of growth and regal display.

Fishing The Rogue River------Issues

2011-10-25T19:19:00.004-05:00

There we were standing at waters edge preparing our lines to approach the half-pounder run of Steelhead on the Rogue River. It was mid day, which by most fisherman's estimates is like going to a night club in the morning, or attending a Supreme Court session thinking that they would make a decision to remove a corporation from being a "person".

Never the less, it was a absolutely gorgeous day there in southern Oregon, the water was clean and cold, eagles flew over head and the mighty forest of the coastal climate framed our setting with elegance and dignity.

We fisherman were dressed for the occasion, decked out in various costumes including vests, hemostats, large billed hats and wadding gear. Generally, we looked good but not over done. We all had fly rods and not cane poles, and a large can of glistening nightcrawlers. We were sportsmen full of intent and good wishes. Ann wanted us to be successful.

While I was having a small problem getting about due to various injuries accumulated doing some questionable activities, like playing basketball, football, and oh yes, there was those five years of rugby at Wisconsin, fishing was still obtainable and wondrous.

To top it off there were no other fishermen, none. Unlike the Root River near Milwaukee(actually in Milwaukee) where combat fishing is the call of the day---you know, handguns, knives and submerged mines. It was beautiful.

Only one problem. There were no fish on this particular day because they were off in the ocean having tea and biscuits. Did I really care? Oh ya, but not alot. I was on the Rogue, dude.

Then it happened. Coming straight up the pristine river was this thunderous roar, not unlike a jet. It was the sound of power, of size, of movement, of America. There it was a giant jet boat filled to the brim with grinning tourists out to see the Rogue River and the few stupid fishermen. For good folding money all of the participants could see the river in all its glory, they could burn up a hundred gallons of fossil fuel while sitting on their cans.

Why hell, for 3 dollars they could have floated in a canoe---and they would have seen the eagles all in peaceful quiet. Ya gotta love America.

The Money---Revolution Watch

2011-10-25T13:06:00.003-05:00

So many times we hear about the financial woes of the USA, but it truth, it is really hard to figure out what is actually going on. I mean, the numbers are so big that nothing makes much sense. In truth, everything we hear is alarming and appears to be ridiculous. So what I did is run down one person's way of putting it all together.

Here is why S&P downgraded the US credit rating.
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000

Now let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385

I have many times said humans don't get scale, and they don't get the exponential function but these figures hit it on the head. So what does this have to do with a revolution. Lots, I reckon. If the public gets a drift that our elected leaders are doing this they might become unglued.

Of course, the same thing is happening in Greece and the rest of Europe (particularly Germany) wants them to sell their country to them to pay off the debts and in the process give up their sovereignty. I just don't think that will fly and the bricks will begin to fly----oh, they already are but we don't see it in our mainstream news. Interestingly, our debt, and trillions of it, are held by China and oil states. I'm not liking this.

"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution - taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."Thomas Jefferson, 1798

"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes... Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain."Napoleon Bonaparte, 1815
Barstait provided

Gotta Love the Warmer Globe

2011-10-19T23:48:00.006-05:00

Well, things are bit odd. Here we are on the 19th of October and there has yet to be a sign of frost. I take that back a bit as there was a little kiss of 32 degrees a couple of weeks ago. But the truth is it didn't even kill the squash. In fact, while most delicate plants have just given up for lack of desire, there are some still growing like it was summer.

It is no secret that the Brussel Sprouts love this weather even if it does freeze, as do the broccoli but the Chaco Canyon Beans, that would be the ones found in a cave in Chaco Canyon, are still growing. There is even a squash out there trying to put on a good show by expanding some six inches in the last two weeks. I'm sure it is all in vain due to the fact that as an adult it is supposed to be one of the monsters. Still, nice effort dude.

I do find it interesting that many plants just shut down by Oct 1st no matter what the weather. They are just done, worn out, feed up in some cases if they have had a bad year, while others jump on the extra growing time. The chard is very robust but the tomatoes, while they signed out in Sept, still have fruit laying all over the place, some green but still ripening.

I suppose the warm weather puzzles me, and some of the plants. Their genetics tells them to throw in the towel, or do the dirt nap, but there is still opportunities. Those not so programed just keep going. It must be that the native Americans of Chaco Canyon selected out the bean that would not quit. Not a bad trait for a changing world. Handy adaptation.

Oil Depletion---Net Exports

2011-10-15T20:38:00.005-05:00

In the past 4 or 5 years there has a great deal of banter about peak oil. This is the point where no matter how hard we, as humans, try to extract the precious liquid from the earth, the amount gained can not match the amount being depleted from older wells. We simply can not continue to exponentially expand oil production no mater how fancy the technology gets.

This discussion does not even take into account the fact that much of the new sources of oil, that would be all this unconventional production, will cost many times greater to extract. If it is tar sands, oil shale (there has, to my understanding, never been a single barrel of commercially available oil made from shale) deep wells and wells in hostile environments, it will not be dumped on the market at $100 a barrel.

This entire thing is a really big deal and is rapidly becoming an issue in the next presidential election. All we hear is "Energy Independence". What a joke. Presently we import some 12.5 million barrels a day and only produce 5.5 million. There is so much potential discussion here, but there is still another kicker. A thing called "Net Exports".

The Net Exports of oil is the amount available on the open market and any given time. It is the oil that is purchased by countries that can not produce enough at home. While the figure may be related to peak oil, it really makes little difference. If the USA wants to buy oil and there is none on the market, it will make little difference how much is in the ground. There simply may be a limit to what can be purchased. This will cause a shortage. A shortage will make us all squirm. It sure leaves me uncomfortable--- particularly when these candidates keep blathering as if oil is to just be be had by drilling more. It is a sad day. (Note the decrease in net exports from 2008 on!)

The Potato Machine---Failure

2011-10-15T19:48:00.006-05:00

In the spring, we tried a little experiment after we had read the way to grow potatoes, at least if you have little garden space, was to fill a container with soil and then as the potatoes grew, keep adding soil. This would allow the vines, and entire plant to grow vertically, and in doing so would produce copious amounts of spuds.

Well, we set the rig up using a milk crate and then a plastic bag filled with dirt and supported by chicken wire---doing it like the advocating individual suggested. Seeing it is now mid October and it still has not frosted, and most potatoes have long sense gone night-night, we decided it was time to harvest and see if indeed we had a 20 Lbs of potatoes.

In digging, the soil appeared rich and well enough watered, the vines were still growing but dwindling. The upper portion held a number of spuds but none of them were of great size. As I dug deeper, the number of tubers declined but there was one here and one there. On the bottom there were a few more but interestingly, 3 of them had started to rot. I suspect the soil was too confining and not enough "breathing" was going on---like potatoes have lungs, dude.

The entire lot was washed and assembled so Chester could weigh them--he appears here in the process of evaluation. By our count there was maybe 3 pounds, a far cry from the anticipated 20 Lbs. While this was only a one-time try, I am still judging this a failure and a general waste of my precious time---but still a learning event and I do have those three pounds.

Javon's Paradox and our Motor Car

2011-10-13T21:27:00.004-05:00

The Subaru only gets 25 MPG and as a result it is, by our standard, a bit expensive to drive. In addition, we feel that for the sake of the planet we need to consume less. Americana's uses 25% of the world's energy supply and we are only 6% of the population. We are simply racked with guilt over using so much energy to drive hither and yon.

Seeing the old car has some 200K miles on it, purchasing a new rig seemed appropriate and in doing so figured we'd get one that got 50 MPG, there by saving on the consumption of carbon producing fuel. It was just the ethical thing to do.

So, we got this VW TDI diesel unit that is some 6 years old. It is a beauty and has only 35K miles and sure as all get-up achieves 50MPG. So as a result of this improvement of efficiency we are of the mind that our move has helped fuel consumption globally and decreased carbon emissions. We are aware it is a diesel and there are some particulates but it is very "clean" and hardly smells like a diesel.

However, after going Steelhead fishing in Sheboygan some 110 miles away, it occurred to me that had I been driving the old subaru, I would not have gone fishing. In fact, had we had used the car that got the paltry 25MPG we never would have gone across country fishing and gabbing!

What we have here is good old Javon's Paradox which simply says that efficiency improvements don't necessary mean less consumption, but possibly more. I'm a loser, I guess.

Occupy Wall Street---Revolution Watch

2011-10-09T22:48:00.005-05:00

The Sustainable Revolution will come in many forms, some subtle, most over a period of time and the worst of it, hopefully ushered in by reason and trust. But the winds are stirring and like the the heated overthrows of the Middle East and North Africa, the US is beginning to take notice of some of the injustices of our system.

Corporatism is coming under attack both in Europe and now here. It has often puzzled me how we, as a people could not notice how 1% of our population has more wealth than the lower 90%. When would we notice? When would we notice that the system is being looted by the super wealthy and the corporations. When would we notice that our leaders are owned by the big money? When would we notice that it is common to privatize the profits and socialize the liabilities?

Well, it is beginning to look like it is now happening. True, the mainstream media is not covering it, or if they are it is to belittle the protesters but there is a story here and an articulation. Naomi Klein is one. Listen. http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/6/naomi_klein_protesters_are_seeking_change

Here too is a statement of intent by the more organized. This thing is for real and may make the revolution move a bit faster than is comfortable. But it will happen and just maybe we can get some democracy back along with some new form of stable state economics. We live in interesting times.

From the protesters:

-President Obama "ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington".
-This protest represents a variety of demands with a common statement about government corruption and the excessive influence of big business and the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans on U.S. laws and policies.
-Raising taxes on the rich, raising taxes on corporations, ending corporate welfare, support for trade unionism, and protecting Medicare and Social Security in their traditional forms are expressed by some participants.
-Occupy Maine is asking for an investment in public transportation infrastructure and the return home of Maine National Guardsmen from wars overseas.
-Other protesters are calling for an audit or elimination of the Federal Reserve, affordable healthcare, dismantling the military-industrial complex and to end all wars.

The Blackfoot River---Norman Mclean

2011-10-07T22:05:00.005-05:00

“Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise." Norman Mclean A River Runs through It

In our travels this fall we could not but help visit the Blackfoot River of Mclean's past. It is in the north, away from the eyes of most, wondering through sheep and cattle country not that far from where they danced at the Rascal Fair. There are few towns, and Missoula is distant by Wisconsin standards.

We travelled along a dusty dirt road to a place we later learned was one of Mclean's favorites, and to a spot that might have been used to shoot the film. As the miles passed, we could see glimpses of the rock-filled river and recall the stunning scenes in the film.

It was, in the film, as if the place was untouched, filled with fish and unencumbered with the trappings of man. Of course, that was not true even in Mcleans time because the area had been timbered, ranched and mined to near exhaustion even in 1920s but there may have been enclaves. Still, for us it was a romantic spot filled with visions of another time.

We pulled of into an official access point and hiked down to the river---this spot certainly looked like the spot where his brother was found naked with the hussy, but then I have a good imagination---for naked women you say. No, for fishing water---with naked women.

I wadded into the stream and cast with great grace every imaginable fly I could think of and to my surprise never raised a single fish. I was as if they were gone, departed, disappointed, to some other section maybe where there had not been so many fisherman dreaming of Norman. For some reason I never took a picture at all. Was it that a simple over site or a act of sadness?

The picture is the Rogue River in Oregon. They are similar---in too many ways.

Pumpkin & Squash---Big is Better

2011-10-07T20:57:00.006-05:00

When we returned from our western sojourn we found some six squash, ya they are squash, greater than 25 pounds. They were things of beauty and like many garden experiences where we have done something right, I strutted around the yard like I was somebody. Well. I might have had a beer or two which always makes me feel like I am somebody---and a touch delusional.

In fondling the squash, and one was close to sixty pounds, we began trying to figure out just what to do with the gargantuan monsters. It was not like one could just cook them up and have a nice squash dinner, or a warm spiced squash soup, or even a giant pie. They were really too big to manage. I even had to have the local mussle-bound kid pick the thing and set it in the back yard. It was either that or use a come-along, a pulley system or a helicopter.

We concluded we were going to have to have a festival of sorts that featured squash dishes and invite everyone over we know. This would fill our social obligation of having a fandango once a year and put the squash to good use rather than just displaying them on the front porch as some pagan ritual----even though as pagans, we will being doing some of that anyway.

In truth, these beauties are a food source and this variety is very dense and has an abundance of tasty meat. I was wondering if these were developed by Native Americans to feed a large tribe. Used as a nutritious food storage supply (these puppies last until April), it is possible they could have been stored and eaten much later. They are impressive.

Well, just when I thought we had made a profound discovery, the following pumpkins were seen today in Marion Wisconsin. The biggest one weighted in at 1250 pounds and there were three others that were many hundred. The Indians didn't come up with these. This is the work of modern man, genetics, chemicals (LSD for pumpkins)---and a fork lift. At first thought, they seemed worthless but today I learned on my birthday, Oct 29, the earth will hit 7 billion people. Maybe God made these things in hope of feeding the masses-----or a hell-of-a-big pagan celebration.

What it is all About.

2011-10-02T21:13:00.003-05:00

A person can ramble on about the great aspects of life. Oh, some might name the seven wonders and go to tears over the accomplishments, the scale of it all, but as near as I can tell for the average yahoo it comes down to some things more simple, things that are frequently at hand.

I know I can be impressed by a pristine Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, or maybe a deeply colored trout caught at the bottom of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, or climbing a fourteen in Colorado. There are lots of them. I've seen them and they are things of wonder for sure.

Yesterday, the Badgers took Nebraska to a clinic and today the Packers bitch slapped the Broncos. The Brewers are in the playoffs and I have a selection of cold beers, and that does not include the locally made honey liqueur we scored in Madison. It is good out there---excluding the fact that we are going through the Great Adjustment, The Long Emergency, the Sustainable Revolution or what is becoming to be know as The Crash.

But this picture represents something that quite possibly is better. It is the gathering of friends in the company of good food and each other. It seems that no matter how far we may travel, no matter what we see of the physical world, the places, the events, being among friends is priceless.

After just travelling some 3500 miles or more, the time spent laughing and blathering of great deeds, of relating distant experiences among other friends is the most exciting. It is the exchanging of the day, sharing music with grinning musicians, flopping through some marsh with fellow hunters the entire time hassling each other, that really makes the day. I suspect it is why I have always liked the saying from St. Catherine, "All the way to heaven, is heaven."

Grapes, Taking the only Option

2011-09-30T21:54:00.003-05:00

Last year the birds got the grapes. I am still not sure what that was about. Maybe like the blue berry guy, I should have taken the nuclear option. This would be to blast the birds like he does----he got a permit to take out 100 robins but in the end didn't have the heart. Me either.

This year the grapes came on well and just before leaving I snatched one variety (not a special Merlot) but a wine grape it was called, and froze them all in bags for later fermentation. I suspect many were not really totally ripe so my wine may suffer. I felt I had to grab them or the hoards of invading Mongolian (Genghis Robin) red breasts would have robbed me of my bounty.

I had to leave the Concords because they were at least a month off. They were looking good and in truth no Robins were stalking them as near as I could tell. I had threatened the few resident birds but it was a hollow threat---like the blue berry dude.

While away fishing the rivers of the west, I heard rumors that they were hanging long on the vine, robust and absorbing nutrients fit for a fine wine, maybe a mediocre wine after all they were Concords, the same type used to make Mad Dog. Still, I could put the bottle in a paper bag go down to the village bench and sit there for hours in a stupor passing the bag among the other homeless types. They had value. I love my friends.

On return, I found the majority of them to have survived the onslaught largely due to the heavy foliage and the shear numbers. Many of the visible grapes were mauled but the bulk awaited my arrival. They were clearly anticipating being turned into a nice vintage, some thing maybe snappy, maybe naughty, maybe aggressive but not pretentious. Nice leg, robust nose and possibly drinkable, and not just drinkable when everything else is gone. Let's hope for the best.

Ther Squash Dilemma

2011-09-30T21:28:00.004-05:00

Every fall we have tons of squash. They come in many forms but through the years the favorite has been the Butternut with an Acorn close behind. The reason is that these two seem to last the longest. Here in Wisconsin, if stored upstairs and not in the damp basement, they will last until April.

In the basement they started to rot by Christmas due to the humidity. This only makes sense because the fungus only needs so much encouragement and a touch of moisture and off they go. Hell, even the concrete has mold on it. Give 'em a little damp and it is like Nascar.

While I love the two above squashes, and they make good pies, last year I brought a larger squash from our daughter's place in Colorado. It looked like a flat pumpkin but it was heavier (greater specific gravity), more dense and the meat was reddish as was the squash. Well, I don't know the name of the thing but it was really tasty, possessed lots of meat and made a great pie as well. To top it off it lasted until June---that would be June.

So I says to myself, "Man, you need to plant this thing and make a bit of a transition because this is the mother of all squash, like a mother Hubbard." Well, I put the seeds in the ground and yesterday when we got home from distant lands, there were six of these beauties scattered about the holdings and thy were all puffed up like a bunch of toads, gnarly and fat.

But here is the dilemma. One of them is sixty pounds! I had to have a kid pick the frigging thing and place it on the bench for observation. My Christ, the others are forty pounds. What does one do with a monster? I mean, the minute one butchers it, there has to be a plan. Squash soup, squash pie, mashed squash. No wonder they feed them to hogs. Maybe we can be hogs. Maybe a squash festival. It ain't easy being a farmer.

Agriculture---Missionary Position

2011-09-26T11:15:00.006-05:00

I just learned that when travelling it is hard to post because I usually have things to say that are not just about travelling. I always want to have a hint of a comment. So for the last 5 weeks my mouth has been shut.

Today, I reflect on some of the travel. Oh, in a month we have gone from Wisconsin to, Nebraska, N. Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado and a touch of Utah.

We saw a trend that always leaves me a bit cold. I will use the Palouse area of eastern Washington as an example. This region is known for its wheat production and driving through there it is impossible not to notice the millions of acres covered in golden waves of grain---mind you this is modern wheat, genetically modified, weed free from roundup, and planted with little thought of saving space for anything other than wheat.

To look at the impressive landscape, one would think the Palouse could provide grain for the world. It just goes on forever and from an artistic point of view, it is beyond comprehension with its expanse of textures and subtle colors. To travel the area, however, one can see the result of this type of farming.

Years ago, to pull off this wheat production there had to be a strong community every so many miles simply to provide manpower and all of their support systems--schools, stores, churches, blah, blah, blah. But as the farms were consolidated and mechanized the need for manpower diminished as have the once vital communities. The towns are now in shambles with tipped over, partially salvaged cars in the backyards and the populations diminished. Rather sad to me.

The large corporate farms are planted and harvested by giant machines ( above $350K variable leveling harvester) that run 24/7 during cultivating, chemical applying and harvesting. The jobs appear to be sporadic during off times---but production is beyond comprehension. The odd part is the profits, and they are huge with $15 wheat, all go to big corporations and in more and more cases foreign countries that are now buying up our crop land. I even found myself wondering where the wheat goes if it is owned by China.

Some transitions I just don't like.

Leaving The Garden

2011-09-09T22:00:00.002-05:00

Once a garden is started, it is hard to just hard to leave it alone. It calls out to be fondled---if that is the right word. That which is doing well needs encouragement. That which is unwelcome because it is not there for purpose, weeds to be exact, require liquidation, roots and all--- gone, caput, nada por nada, outa here, dirt nap time, gone.

It is all about love, I suppose, maybe a need for food but mostly about doing something that makes sense. It, I believe is a worthy cause that can lead to good health, spiritual rewards and maybe some down-right good eating.

Each day there is a garden growing, I step outside and always look in that direction even when my wife is running around naked. Well, there are some exceptions, but generally the garden is the first draw in the morning. If the tomatoes are 6 feet tall, which they are, and the fruit is fat and sassy, life is good and they should be fondled and encouraged to proceed.

If the beets greens are starting to rot from excessive rain, they need to be encouraged by the elimination of those things that are confining them so they might dry out. If the broccoli has been massacred it is time to bring out the bow and arrow to harvest a rabbit that has found pleasure in the early harvest. Last year the count was 4 for four. This year 0 for 5 and as a result the broccoli has disappeared like Palinís & Bachmannís brains. Oh, the later never had them.

I like that analogy, broccoli and brains, both gone while the rabbit lives on as do the combo of Palin and Bachmann. Sad state. Iíll take the rabbit.

But maybe a sadder state is that we have to leave the garden unattended for all of September because of the call to travel the wild west in the pursuit of leisure and large fish. On return, we shall see just what is the affect of no garden fondling. Will it be unhappy or will it hold out from so much attention earlier?

The Custer Site---A Touch Chilling

2011-09-09T21:53:00.003-05:00

The west is full of stories and to some degree that is what has always attracted us to it. One of the more interesting is the Custer debachle or Massacre, or blunder, or Indian whooping. But because it does represent the end of the Native American way of life and a good deal of death it is a emotional place to visit.

We have passed by it many times and always wondered what it would be like to actually walk the grounds and linger at the very spot were individuals went down. Each one is marked by a white stone placed there shortly after the battle. Each simply says US soldier died here. They are scattered over the half mile of the battle site in small groups where the men had run in desperation.

Being hugely out-numbered, the 7^th Cavalry was overrun and wiped out to the man. Many in the Benteen’s group to the south were also killed.

Only a few years ago the prairie on the sight burned and in the process exposed the shell casings and other remains that confirmed the locations of the smaller skirmishes. The museum displays many of the finds from this excavation. The study confirms many of the details that allows the casual visitor to relive the horrible events of 1876.

In addition to the white stones marking the fallen Americans (Over half were foreign born--close to 200 Irish) are a few scattered granite markers indicating where Native Americans (no Irish) fell. It turned out that some natives back in ‘76 made small piles of stones were they fell and recently markers have been placed on those sites.

While the paths to all the markers of the fallen were well-worn from the visitors wanting a taste of that venture, by the Native stones we could not help but notice the small tufts of burnt sweet grass laying among the short grass prairie vegetation. Their reaction appeared more immediate. More personal. No doubt every Cheyenne, Sioux and Crow living on the local reservation lost someone there.

The small Indian town to the immediate south is named Garryowen. The official song of the 7^th Cavalry. The town is a mess.

We in control of tings, tings not in control of we.

2011-08-02T16:00:00.004-05:00

My brother picked this little saying up in Tobago a few years back and it has a way of sticking with me. It sorta implies we are in control of what goes on, or at least we have the possibility of controlling our own fate.

Well, every year about this time this little ditty of an island saying has to be put to test because this is when the garden, while up til now has been controllable, is now getting the edge on us. Initially, once we were familiar with Wisconsin growing, we started planting certain plants farther away from each other as a way of controlling, or at least viewing the action in the garden.

In other words, as long as we could walk down the rows or see down them it was if we were in control of "tings". The weeds could be removed because they were visible, crops could be harvested as they too were within reach, even if we had to strain a touch---the long grab if you will.

Still, every year there is a time when the vegetation just gets going and vegetables begin seeing themselves as a developing jungle. To weed becomes an event that requires a machete, knee pads, night vision goggles and hand gun.

The tomatoes are now pushing 6 feet in height. The ground dwellers (no cage) cover an area about the size of a small football field. The fruit is in there in great droves but to penetrate the morass is an adventure fit for Stanley or Shackleton. Nothing short of a 2 bushel tucker bag will do because once we are in there, it is imperative to maximize the stay.

Maybe I am exaggerating but the point is we are no longer in control of "Tings". The good part is we have great tonnage of vegetative swag. It is looking like a good year if we can just find the stuff.

The Garden---A delightful Surprise

2011-07-27T23:32:00.004-05:00

Most of the things growing in the garden are known to be there and that includes the space squash I murdered without remorse. In truth, there are other items in there that get offed by me as well, like weeds, even though I have been know to eat Lamb's Quarters and Purslain---of course that killed them. We do not eat the bugs as a rule, or at least knowingly.

This morning I did grab a big hand full of red raspberries and casually tossed the lot in my mouth. Didn't take too long to realize that in among the fruit was obviously a stink bug. I swallowed it feeling the berry flavor would prevail---and it did. The potato bugs get drowned humanly and are not good for eating due to the juice of the nightshade.

Ya, there is the rabbit and he is still alive and still marauding the pathetic broccoli, and of course there are the grubs and worms, and centipedes, cabbage butterflies. Oh hell, the place is crawling with life. But now and then, there is a visitor of note and it is not the local crack head pilfering my cabbage--we don't really have them (the crack heads).

What I did find was this incredible dragonfly just resting, and maybe exercising on a Chaco Canyon Bean. He, or I guess it could have been a she, was warming up his wings by high speed fluttering as if he was the Spirit of St. Louis. He appeared to have no interest in actually flying but rather just chilling in the evening air. He was notably fresh in that there was not a single blemish to be seen. It was if he were only moments out of the water and getting ready for his maiden flight. The water is half mile off so it would seem he was just resting waiting to eat mosquitoes in our backyard.

What I really like about this tiny, four inch helicopter was the coloration. Very dynamic with what looked like an eye behind his head. Clearly it is not, in that he has a big set up front. The other "eye" is apparently for decoration that possibly attracts a mate---I'm sure it is not there just to entertain me---which it did. The wings are transparent, maybe to avoid being seen. I saw him and and had to marvel at the contents of the garden but I am easily entertained.

The Garden---The not-so-subtle Invader

2011-07-26T22:30:00.004-05:00

Every year there are volunteers in the beloved garden and once in a while one of them is worth keeping. I spot the shoots coming up and out of the kindness of my heart I say, "Go for it, but you better make something worth eating or say, a flower worth admiring".

Like last year, there was a rather large amount of youthful squash seedlings spattered about the garden. What I started doing is thinning, so they were not up tight against each other or other known goodies. I was fairly ruthless because last year the bulk of them turned out to be space gourds, those are the odd ones that look like space saucers. They are worthless in my estimation except to some homemaker who finds them cute in a cornucopian arrangement. I think they suck and are best used to throw at stray dogs, drunks, punk rockers or any combination of the aforementioned.

The biggest problem with squash/pumpkin/gourd plants is that they take up large portions of real estate. The leaves are the size of basketballs and the tentacles choke even rabbits (I like that) but also climb all over everything. The damn things can grow a foot a day. To top it off, they add confusion to the display, the ambiance and general organization of our efforts.

So this year I laid down an ultimatum. Either you come up with a recognizable, useful fruit or you are out of here, compost, toilet paper, rotting mulch, the dirt nap.

So we went away for 4 days to be lighthouse keepers and on our return, two plants were starting to show cosmic fruit (not much of it) and each vine had extended out over ten feet in five directions. I mean, Jesus, like get a life. You were not put on this earth to engulf a man's garden.

With no hesitation, remorse, or guilt I murdered the damn things, dragged them out on the asphalt and stomped on them shouting, "Don't you and your people ever do that again." The garden is now a better place. The intruders from outer space are gone. No more aliens.

Big Al is Gone

2011-07-17T23:15:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago we heard that Big Al had died. We heard it on the old hippy grapevine. That's the system where the word just goes out from one old friend of the road to another. When I hear these things, the news of someone going away, it is, to me, a mark on time. It is not that it is so unusual, I guess. After all he was probably 60 now, but we were once young sitting on a bench out in the wild west dreaming of a different world where life was a touch slower, maybe not so materialistic, maybe more relaxed and more tied into just being friends and grasping every bit of life that presented itself.

It does not seem that long ago, just out of school, growing a little defiant hair, wearing some ratty, but very cheap cloths and generally just grooving. This was the Wisconsin band sitting on a bench in front of our old pottery shop in Elizabeth Colorado, the same bench that to this day sits in my Wisconsin backyard, but this is 2011 and that was 1973.

Big Al, along with members of the tribe, one day found themselves in need of beer, so they set off to the beverage shop in the Crowmobile, a broken down ghetto cruiser. On arrival the shot gun side door would not open, probably due to some previous contact with some hard object, so Al in his inventiveness decided to crawl out the window to secure the beer supply. In his haste, he flopped to the ground and broke his arm. Not shaken, he still obtained beer before going to fetch a cast. The act was seen as a true sign of commitment, camaraderie and dedication to a cause. It was a beautiful thing.

We are now all gray and noticeably older, those of us still kicking. In looking at Big Al it would be nice to think that the revelations of the seventies had carried over and we have become a more sustainable group of people but it would appear little has really been gained.

The world population has probably come close to doubling, more people want to consume more stuff, the air has warmed (remember After the Gold Rush and "Having mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies"?) it is hard to see were we have gained.

But many of us are still out there and while Big Al is fading away, I like to think that the dream of the seventies has still a glimmer of hope. God Speed Big Al.

Midsummer Garden---Not a Dream

2011-07-17T22:43:00.003-05:00

So far so good. Last year it was too wet at the wrong time and some of our favorites rotted in the soil and brought on thoughts of the potato famine. This year we are off to a kicking start and only have had to use the stored rain water on two occasions but if there is no rain in the next day or two during this 98 degree heat, it will, one more time, have to come out.

I use the solar power to run a small 12 volt pump for that purpose but found that it is better to put a car battery right next to the pump because if the battery is in the shop, some 60 ft away, the loss of power is too much. 12 volt is not a cure all because the cost of copper wire is profound. Just a little tip. It does mean, that in my age, I have to tote the 50 Lb beast of a marine battery from charger to pump.

The tomatoes are 4.5 feet tall, the peppers 24 inches, the potatoes strong and only modestly being attacked by the lousy beetles. Ann picked the last batch and I quietly drowned them wishing birds like them but nightshade juice is not a popular bird refreshment, might as well drink hemlock juice.

Ann has been active weeding and has a knack of doing a scorched earth treatment for weeds unlike myself who is more random. It seems Ann likes to plop herself down in a row and just work that area. Do note wine in hand. This is a weeding aid. Of course, this is after 6:00 weeding, so it it is legal but it does tie up one hand so she is only paid half time.

What it comes down to, is we are on track, we are puffed up like a couple of toads all full of ourselves over this years efforts---part of it is the salvaged hay we secured earlier. Feeling good.

Entertaiment-----Ya gotta love it.

2011-07-12T22:39:00.004-05:00

Entertainment comes in many forms and some times it ain't what one might think. I just happened that Liz & Jim at the Tomorrow River Gallery like to put on Kitchen concerts and they are not afraid to take a few chances for the pure fun of it---sure as hell ain't for the big bucks.

So this last week we got a rather hasty announcement that an act by the unusual name of Duckmandu was going to be in town. Well, I have to admit this seemed an obscure bizzar handle, but he was rumored to have been spotted at Burning Man out in the dessert walking around playing his accordion and singing the work of none other than The Dead Kennedys. Oh, he was heavily recommended by Tuna (dude with gas supply).

He was in town ready to knock them dead. We thought, "What the hell. This is America. If a guy can play in the wasteland for the oddball event called Burning Man while the world slides by in confusion, then why not grab a beverage and settle in for some entertainment. "

At first, eyes were lifted as this nerdy looking dude tickled the keys on the classical accordion while singing some punk ditty. He skillfully ran through a dazzling variety of tunes, some almost having the feel of a Bach fugue. We found ourselves lifted and amused, almost lost in a surreal world of incongruities and nonsense, but still fascinated by this minstrel from California. We grinned in bewilderment, realizing here, in this one horse town, was an avant garde performer not totally different than what one might find in some distant very hip city, maybe not even of this age or from our form of sanity.

The finale turned out to include a duzzy with a 2 foot flame shooting from his duck hat while he pounded out one of the Kennedy's big hits. Liz, still not knowing what the hell was going on, briefly saw her gallery in flames and with an expression taken from The Scream threw her arms up in disbelief, Sweet Jesus, what a time. Ya gotta love this place.

The Mulberry---The Sleeper

2011-07-10T23:10:00.005-05:00

Years ago folks would go "All around the Mulberry bush" and then all fall down or something. (Maybe they were intoxicated.) It was a tree and I remember as a human larva eating the berries but only directly from the tree and not in anything else like pies. They were tasty, abundant, maybe a touch messy, easy to pick but of little interest to the homemaker.

I seem also to remember that they were, at another level, despised because berry eating birds and animals relished them and once consumed, the dark purple berries passed through the consumer's inards and then ended up being deposited on various human items, like automobiles and the fresh drying wash on the line. They left an unwelcomed stain and certainly led to the murder of many trees. As a kid it was like whoopee-do, but then I didn't do the wash nor did we ever clean our cars. I am not sure anybody did as vehicles were largely just to get around not impress any local chicks----at least not our cars.

It never really occurred to me that Mulberries might be used for human consumption. Maybe some folks thought persons might make fecal deposits on items of value. I don't really know as I was not in that habit---but others were weird---Ed Gein was only a few miles away. The Mulberries just weren't used.

A couple of years ago, a local wine maker, probably jellies as well, gave me notice that he had a tree full of ripe ones and all we had to do was shake the tree and the berries ( along with various crawling insects) would drop in great mass on to a sheet spread under the tree. From there the berries could be used for things.

Turned out that it is difficult to separated the berries form the stems, so jam was out unless one wants a "stemy" jam. However, it was found they can be used to make jelly and, of course, wine.

Thrilled by this knowledge, I planted a volunteer in the front yard because I felt compassion for its sorry ass being in a bad location. Well, low and behold, this year the manicured tree has presented a nice crop, maybe a gallon, of fat berries---all being frozen for future wine and jelly.

So while the neighbors may be in dismay over their stained cars, the Robin living in the tree is delighted to the nines and we have a new sustainable crop.

Irish Flute---If we could just get it to play

2011-07-02T22:30:00.005-05:00

I know, you are saying "This sure as hell is not one of Wright's usual diatribes on the nature of milkweed". You are right.

We have this flute and it is a beautiful sight to be hold. However, presently it will take a magician to play it---even though it is improving. I thought I might hook up an antique engine to it!

What we did is go on the good old Internet that Al Gore invented to see if we could find a solution to our musical problems. We received a ton of information from around the world and as a result tried a number of manipulations that might bring discovery to the problem---like sucking on the flute to find leaks. Your saying, "That sucks." Hey that is the way to see if it leaks, but it doesn't leak.

The web site shiff and fipple proved filled with flute loving folks who wanted everything from descriptions to photographs---the last one I couldn't provide so in an act of desperation, I am referring them to this site to see the flute.

So here is a set of flute pictures taken after Ann was able to force out Cooley's Reel only a few minutes ago. Still is a lot of work. It seems that the plug on the end can be moved about and by moving it more toward the end it started to improve. In this shot the end is rather pulled out and not in a normal position---just messing around. The picture of the barrel portion is not here because it is boring and it is in perfect condition---unlike me with artificial joints and cortisone injections. I am still beautiful.

What I am hoping is that in a few days we will have The Musical Priest and Morpath's Rant, even though I am still concerned she will pass out trying to play to speed. But, you know, she has to toughen up if she wants to drink Central Waters beer and play tunes.

Strawberries----Just never enough

2011-06-29T22:42:00.003-05:00

They started off strong, taking in all the cool weather to lay out the foliage and then the flowers. We weeded hard trying to get out the invasive Creeping Charlie and the blue grass all of which seems to do better than everything else. We were aggressive in our quest to initiate the scorched earth policy of no weeds.

But as the weather warmed and the strawberry leaves increased, the stinking, conniving weeds fired up their miserable little gumption engines and crept about under the berries. They were hiding from us knowing that any outward display would be punished with extraction. They are mean and sneeky.

Well, that is not the end of. The weeds were knocked back just like the rabbit is about to be "knocked back" permanently. Missed him twice already, largely because it is too small to hit at twenty yards and he always has a way of sitting by the garden hose and all I need is an arrow through my water distribution system--but I could splice it. Tomorrow he dies. I don't give a damn how cute he is. He is a weed and unfortunately too small to consume---maybe bunny on a stick surrounded by two onions. Maybe fertilizer.

Oh, ya strawberries. The berries came on about a week ago looking decent but not overly abundant, probably due to the six feet of rain and clouded gloom that flooded everything and took over the land. We made a couple of early pickings with the sole intention of producing jam because we had been running out early in the last couple of years. I suspect by me covering a 5 ounce serving of getting-expensive cereal with a half pound of berries, there was little else left for jam. My bad.

I controlled myself this year and now we are 5 pints strong in the jam category. Unfortunately, the bloody berries are already starting to wane. Don't know why, but the years have been strange in attitude with floods, then dry, then cold, then real hot. Give me a break. But today we did secure another batch, and that coupled with rhubarb and maybe a few bags of blackberries from last year we'll get another 5 pints. Dump in a few pounds of cane sugar (never figured out how to use maple syrup) and we are on track for a winter of solid jamming. Black berries and raspberries still to go. Screw the revolution, we have started out the year with bounty.

Stratigic Petroleum Reserve---Revolution Watch

2011-06-25T08:35:00.004-05:00

The Strategic petroleum Reserve (SPR) is a bunch of caverns in the south states that are used to hold some 700 million barrels of oil. It is held there for emergencies like Katrina or the Iraqi attach of Kuwait. Real emergencies. Well 2 days ago the US decided to release some 30 million barrels over the next 30 days.

This has a few folks puzzled to say the least because we keep hearing that Saudi Arabia has the ability to dump millions more on the market. Of course, most independent analysts don't really believe that, but do believe the world is approaching a point where no matter how much we "drill, baby drill" there is no more oil to add to the net exports (NE). It would appear that NE is actually declining.

So bingo, oil prices are staying high, economies are stagnate and there is some panic there may be a trend. Thus, we get a draw on the SPR that will provide an additional 1 million barrels a day to the US---we think it is the US but some say the problem is actually in Europe. In any case, this is an attempt to keep the economies of the world at some form of status quo (Even though the status is slipping for other reasons) .

It might also be noted the QE2 just ended in the US of A, which was also a panic way of keeping the economy going by printing money. Releasing oil was another way of bumping the economy for a few more days while we try to figure out how to keep (BAU) business as usual going to the future. This is also considered "kicking the can down the road" or a cheap trick to avoid dealing with reality, the reality being the need for addressing the Sustainable Revolution, or a serious drop in the standard of living. This might also be called "Austerity" a word we have been hearing for a while now.

But the thing that got my attention was the response to this news by commenters on news sites (Yahoo News particularly). I found myself being floored by the naivete of the posters, totally oblivious to what is really going on. They want to drill, they want to attack , they want it all, they blame the government, they blame the bankers, They blame the oil companies, they blame everybody and every institution they can get a hold of but never themselves for living beyond their means. They are in a dream world. Most notably they are very, very angry. The Revolution is happening.

One has to wonder just how pissed off these folks will get. Anger and stupidity is not a good combo.

Sculpture. I still do it.

2011-06-23T23:04:00.005-05:00

I was beset with a bad case of sloth this last winter. It has been hard to put a handle on it, in that I am usually a ball of fire, a cool fire some might say, but still I used to have motion that was detectable. As a result of this affliction, I spent an inordinate amount of time away from what might be referred to as work.

Now this is not thought of as a bad thing for someone my age, but I still have inclinations of being someone in the art world. Plus, there are still a few souls out there that think I am someone, an artist of merit so they would say. These are galleries and the big buyer from the east.

Turns out, I had contracted some maladies, maladies that I think were valid. I have one of those metal hips that was recalled and mine started to render pain. In addition, other joints like my trick knees and discolored ankles also took on some meaningful discomfort, all of this generating a malaise of sorts. I became sloth like.

But after a real nice, and large injection of cortisone into my knee, a 30 day round of antibiotics for Lymes disease, and acceptance that a two pound hunk of titanium will have some lingering twinges and spring, I rebounded to be the jackass I am today, that would be an artist, a legend in my own mind.

So fitting to a person of sound mind, I have again made sculpture and feeling better for it. This one is called Ann Louise named after my charming wife, the person I sleep with. It is larger than previous works of the same name. Most interestingly, I deliberately made it to look like a young Ann Herzog Wright by using a photo I took many years ago while running wild in Death Valley. She was an innocent thing, a child I suppose, a bit of a nymph and only now have I attempted to bring a bit of that back. I feel comfortable for it and the sloth is gone like the hot wind drifting over the desserts of our wild west.

California the Future----Missionary's position

2011-06-22T21:39:00.005-05:00

For a long time I have always thought that California was the future. By that I mean, and meant, that most events, innovations, problems, solutions, patterns of American life occur first in California. The place has always been on the cutting edge and the rest of us, particularly in the hinterlands are a few years behind.

Now in the past, this might have been a compliment, say with the Beach Boys, silicon valley, unlimited growth, fashions, American raz-ma-taz, cool cars, outrageous people. It was just a happening place. Oh, I suppose New Yorkers would scoff at this but they would have a certain hint that, well, maybe they have some things. We will give them that.

But in the past, say thirty three years ago, while they gleefully were still being the exciting future, there was a change that was not so positive. In fact, it is beginning to look like if they are the future, we are in very big trouble. I suspect it started with Prop 13 that was introduced by Gov. Ron Reagan in 1978. It was the start of the tax payer revolt and limited ad valorem taxes on real property. In addition, it requires 2/3 majority to increase new taxes. Powerful stuff.

As a result of this, public funding in California of institutions, schools, hospitals, courts & jails has gotten to the point were the system can not be maintained. In the last 3-4 years, over 80 hospitals & clinics have been closed, schools shut and jails turned to dungeons. The school pictured here was just completed, cost a couple hundred million to build and can not be run because there is insufficient revenue. It is boarded up .

Clearly, California has a number of problems. The legislators want every imaginable entitlement for everybody and they approve many. However, few want to pay taxes and many don't because they are too poor. Plus, the government has had a knack of paying for things by borrowing money from China. Now the piper has to be paid. No revenues to maintain their life style, no desire or ability to raise taxes, many folks don't pay taxes because of poverty (millions of them are not even US citizens), and the government is fractious and out of touch.

The population of California has exploded to 32 million, is smaller than Sweden with 9 million, and has allowed a multitude of non citizens to move in, many who live off government handouts because of poor jobs and high birth rates.

Truth is, California is experiencing a mighty drop in the standard of living, and it is mighty. So are there any indications this pattern is now occurring in the rest of the country? Is California the future? As we look around Wisconsin, the answer is obviously yes.

What it amounts to is that there has to be a change in our standard of living. None of us can continue to pay taxes to maintain this distorted dream, this wonderland now being run by deficits, of money being borrowed from China and oil states. Either we voluntarily take it down or, like California, it will be taken down for us.

The Garden and the Pumpkin

2011-06-22T08:40:00.005-05:00

Well, the garden as of 6/16 looks like this, up nicely, no rabbits yet (they will die), weeds are held at bay and we are puffed up like a couple of toads thinking this is going to be a dandy. The beets and carrots are robust, not overly crowed, up a good 4 inches and feeling real good about themselves.

The Zucchini appeared to have not come up but they are nie on to worthless anyway and tend to turn into baseball bats at every opportunity. The Chaco Canyon Beans, these are the ones left by Native Americans in a cave in Chaco Canyon NM, are up against some bordering conifers and planted so they can run to the top of the 20 foot hedge, thus not taking up much of the garden space. In other words, they are going vertical which appears to be their calling.

The Chaco Canyon beans are unusual because of their size, about like a regular sized marble (do kids still with marbles? ), white and fair in taste. I really don't think Native Americans were totally interested in taste but rather in general food production and these babies are big and productive---and probably nutritious.

Sitting in front of the garden is one of last year's pumpkins, a pumpkin that is still intact, no fungus, firm and very edible, a clear example how one can go from one garden to the next. Admittedly, there is just not too much to eat in the garden, but lettuce, chard and onions are making a show of it. Plus, who knows how long the pumpkin will last.

I know, folks are saying, "Who wants to eat a pumpkin?" Ya, ya, pumpkins are not exactly top fair unless combined with milk, eggs and spices to make a pie but still, like a squash, they are food and not to be slighted. They do last for at least eight months with out special storage efforts---and they ARE food. So there.

The Iris and the Milkweed

2011-06-15T20:36:00.006-05:00

The yard has lots of surprises. Oh, some of the stuff is not a huge surprise. I simply look forward to them and then find myself bedazzled when they show up. But the truth is, I knew they were out there and it was just a matter of waiting.

The milkweed is more like the latter because it is known full well the roots are under the ground in a particular place just hanging out and every year, every year they show up and generally act as a weed. Now, usually a few of them get to stay around, not becoming victims of the sling blade because, while they are weed like---intruders on what I think should be in my yard, milkweed do, in fact, produce a very unusual and intriguing plant. They have a bad rap sheet because they are not grass or are they a cultivated, snooty ornamentals fit for self-important royalty. Maybe suitable for low life, easily impressed scumbags and jackpine savages. I like them.

It is not just the milky juice found in the plant, but mostly the flower and the resulting seed pod the is worth attention. The plant is large, robust, nice to touch, welcomes the larva of the Monarch butterfly, and makes for a natural toy for a human larva--that would be our grandson. Once the pods are mature, all the punk kid needs to do is break open the hardened pod and out comes seeds that can be blown all over town much to the dismay of most yard-perfect citizens.

I guess the surprise part of it is that it can be eaten in early spring. Cut the young shoots off, or even later the young pods, boil them in three waters, each time dumping the water, cover them in a touch of butter, a pinch of sea salt and bingo---milkweed greens. They are rather like nettles but don't sting when you pick them (and you do not have to be French). I know, easily impressed but come the revolution-----.

Now, this Iris was a real surprise. We brought it from Colorado on moving, given to us in a bag of assorted bulbs. It had never bloomed here, distraught and confused from the move I suspect. But this year feeling more content, well watered and comfortable in the front garden, it stepped forward in a coming out celebration. No, no it is not a gay flower, more like a coming out party for a young person stepping into high society. No mater how one looks at it, it was a surprise and a dandy one at that.

Hit and Miss Engine---Maybe Sustainable

2011-06-13T21:57:00.004-05:00

I am by definition a "motor head" in that I like motors and contraptions. Problem is , most of them, the ones I like, are very old, say 75 years or better. There is an interesting thing about old motors. They are not gizmo-endowed screamers made to fall apart after short use, they were developed to last a genuinely long time, maybe generations. That is what gets the attention of my sustainable mind. I know, your saying my mind is not sustainable. it is a figure of speech.

What I have is a 1922 "M" McCormick Deering, 3HP stationary engine (below, the one above is an Ellis and very fancy). Mine weighs in at about 600 ungodly pounds and is made of cast iron and a few classy brass fittings. It was manufactured to do farm work or jobs that today might have an electric motor on them. Most were mounted on a set of four steel wheels and could be hauled from job to job around the farm or home by a buxom house wife. The engines were crude---rather like me. However, there are many stories out there in the dusty hinterland of folks who bought one in say 1910, and then used it daily until after the big war, WWII. About the only thing that could go wrong were bearings wearing out, all of which could be changed in a hour or two.

They were used to grind corn, generate electricity, lift hay to the barn, pump water and if the firing was steady, as the rhythm section of a string band (my use). No motorcycles or lawn mowers (unless one wanted crushed parts), but they could saw wood and generally make life easier---if a buzz saw is deemed easier. Safe? Well!

The fuel could vary quite a bit from gasoline to diesel, or kerosene like mine, maybe a mixture of home-brewed ethanol and restaurant cooking oil. Interesting hey? Folks restore these things even if they have been laying in a swamp sheltering frogs and leaches for 50 years and they still work like new.

So the more I mess with these things, the more it makes me wonder if they might not come back into play when task become more local and simple. There is one called a Lister, that is still made for the 3rd world market that can run all day on a gallon diesel. Worth a thought, plus I love playing with the simple toys. Oh, as of this moment, mine has yet to actually run but we are poised. Some people make fun of me.

The Atlatl---a Sustainable Hunting Possibility

2011-06-13T17:22:00.004-05:00

In our family, we have had a long standing discussion on the methods of early American's hunting techniques. It is well known that the Bow and Arrow combination has not been around all that long.This can be documented by the sudden appearance small projectile points found in Woodland sites around our state. While I forgot what I was told (not that unusual), it seems that maybe around 3000 years ago the bow showed up.

There has always been this talk of the atlatl, or throwing stick, that was used to launch a larger spear. I have maintained that these simple contraptions were not particularilfy useful because in my own hunting experience, deer particularly, have the ability to dodge arrows even from modern bows, that would be the ones with the fancy Farris Wheel like pulleys.

Ever hunter has had deer jump the sound of the string, thus making a get-away. Now the throwing stick, or atlatl, is a cumbersome thing and it just never registered with me as being affective for "hunting". Now admittedly, it might be a righteous "killing" instrument but most animals would simply dodge the spear because they would see the motion of the hunter as he launched the shaft, and it is not a small shaft.

So this weekend, I had a chance to test these atlatls---- and they are sustainable because they are made of all natural materials, including some shafts being made of Giant Ragweed stems, but as far as a hunting tool, I am still not there. If the land is heavily forested these things are unwieldy for sure. If the hunter is out in the open the movement of the hunter is so great even I could dodge the spear if I was dead drunk. I don't even need to be the Kung Fu guy I am.

So what is the deal? Why did they use them? For one thing, ancient hunters didn't have any rules, like, they could hunt at night, they could dress up as wolves, and they could cheat. Plus, these atlatls, as my brother pointed out can pack one big wallop. It looks to me like the native dudes trapped the caribou, mastodons and maybe buffalo in snares, vee traps, seathing muck-filled bogs and then once confined (and still very dangerous) they would stand back only a few yards and whale away with big spears. I still don't think they tripped around in some pastoral setting casually spearing some grazing animal.

To top it of, the experience of the weekend convinced me that the ancient ones were sustainable, and we moderns don't really have a clue. I don't think we get it. But then, we probably will have guns for some time to come---be that good or bad.

Revolution Watch---Home Sales

2011-06-09T22:40:00.003-05:00

Living in a small town it is easy to keep track of certain activities like fish biting, basketball games, free pork dinners at the Ambrosia and what houses are for sale and how much they go for.

So starting in about '08 when the Long Emergency started, some call it the Great Disruption, or the Reset, but I like The Sustainable Revolution, my eye has been pealed on houses for sale, in part because we do own a rental as part of our retirement income, and another house might be a good idea when investments in CDs bring in a whopping .5% or may be .025%, or maybe it would be better to invest in hog belly futures. Personally, I like whiskey because there will always be a market.

The first house I noticed was the across the street which sold about 3 years ago in foreclosure. Ya, ya it had a bad kitchen that looked more like a small bowling alley with a sink, still it was an OK place and brought $43K. It had been purchased for $79 a couple of years earlier.

Then Harvey told me one in town had sold for $20K. I don't know where it was but I don't believe it was a chicken coop or a Unibomber shack. Another sold for $53K that I believe was purchased for $89K not long ago. Yikes, but it was a foreclosure.

As a result of all these deals, we decided to start looking around even though most of the houses in town were not selling because folks still think they have real value. Turns out the big problem is the banks won't pony up the drachmas, shekels or greenbacks. What happens is they get them appraised and they come in low and the bank say they will only hand out the funds to 80% of value.

Well, this house shown in the text is up for sale, and has been for some time. It is in the hands of our friends Fanny Mae as it was handed over to them when some poor sot found he was underwater--like he owed $75K or something, and the place was only worth $45K, oooops.

Fanny put it up for auction trying to recover some of their money, starting bid $21K. We looked and decided it was a dump, and it included a fancy hot tub that was nothing but a liability or maybe a nice vat for a meth lab. Today the bidding ended. NO BIDS! Not even the $21K

Now just what is the message? The message to Fanny? The message to Obama?

Revolution Watch---Conservation

2011-06-06T22:36:00.003-05:00

“Conservation doesn’t capture the urgency of our existential moment in history. In fact, conservation is like a salve to assuage the conscience of well-meaning people who are stuck in Business As Usual (BAU). We can be conned into thinking that we are doing our part by swapping out incandescent light bulbs." Ron Swensen

Interesting comment. One of the things I am learning is that, while conservation is good, it is not a solution, when in fact, it is only being done to make sure we can continue doing what we are doing. In other words, right now we are looking for a car that will get close to 50 miles per gallon. In this country that leaves me about 2 cars, a VW diesel or a Prius. I would be doing this mostly to decrease my gas bill (Then again Jevon's paradox may kick in and I will just drive more). Our very nice Subaru gets a miserable 26 MPG even though it is a very nice set of wheels and I look very cool in it---some say similar to a chick magnate.

The other reason is to conserve oil which is a finite resource. It is nice to conserve and that makes me feel like I am doing my part---other than being cool. However, I am really out to maintain my business as usual (BAU) when, in fact, what needs to be done is forget having a car all together. I read that in Stockholm only 20% of the folks have cars. We actually have a couple of them and that includes the '69 VW bus we bought new. How cools is that?

I guess what it comes down to, is there is more to conservation. We have to begin to look at a new way of life many steps down from where we are. Oh, check some of the quotes to the right and notice one Jimmy Carter.

I may have to settle looking at our own Irises rather than going to the Botanical Garden in Milwaukee. So be it.

Growing Potatoes

2011-06-05T22:28:00.005-05:00

I know this is not a new story but it is a good one. All of us have heard of planting potatoes in tires, that would be old tires. Put one tire on the ground, fill it with dirt and compost, plant a potato "seed" in the middle and then as it grows, continue adding tires and filling each new tires with more fertile dirt. A the end of the year disassemble the outfit and there will be a bunch of potatoes.

I never tried it because, while I may have some backwoods tendencies, the idea of stacking tires in my yard didn't have certain aesthetic appeal. Rather like having an old van for a chicken coop. It may work but look s a bit rough. Still might be good for a scaled down future. In any case, I never tried it, but as some folks know I have had some other suspect projects that may have been outside the mainstream view (Bruce would know).

Well, it comes to pass that this dude has an alternative. He simply partially fills a big plastic bag, of the garbage variety, with soil and then drops in a potato. As it grows he adds more dirt and mulch and maybe the neighbors cat (Dead). In time the bag is filled with soil and potatoes harvested in the fall. He stated he had hoped to garner maybe 20 Lbs per bag unit. He had like 20 of them, lived in a city, and seemed hell bent on providing some sort of subsistence from his efforts.

I was impressed because of the simplicity ( and got rid of cats) and mostly the anticipated output. That is a lot of carbos and if it can be pulled off, it would make on hell of a statement. Of course, one has to like potatoes, but they are a good famine food along with turnips and rutabagas.

So what one sees here is my test of the system. I anticipate using chicken wire to support the bag as it grows. As of this date two plants are growing. I am puffed up like a toad thinking I have an answer for world hunger. Lets see, if a person, say 2 persons were to eat 2 Lbs of spuds a day, every day for 365 days all I need is 730 Lbs of taters or 40 bags. Any extras could be used for vodka production. Has this been done before?

Foraging---Meat Aqusition in the Form of Fish

2011-06-02T22:10:00.006-05:00

It is not hard to notice that in the grocery the price of fish, and in our case it is all frozen, is not cheap. To top it off, at least 50% of it is raised in pens. It is no secret that wild ones are being over-fished and many of the world's greatest fisheries have been badly depleted, the most obvious one being the cod fishery off the famous Grand Banks off New Foundland.

The fish of aqua-culture are not much different than pen raised beef and no doubt fed similar food. Now that I think of it, it is probably mostly the same. Corn? I haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprise me. Salmon are not being fed other fish, maybe corn meal in the shape of cute little cheezy fish, or ground up fish that was hauled out of the ocean in South America where there are no restrictions on over fishing.

The point is, store fish just doesn't look that good for a number of reason. Damn it is expensive, but then all food is going up---and wages dropping. As a result of my frustration, it was time to go fishing, and not fishing just for fun, even though it always is.

It was foraging for fish to go with the new greens of spring and the remaining taters of last fall. I will admit in the last couple of years I have not been able to secure the fish servings I had hoped for, due to supposed incompetent angling, or not working very hard, or letting most of them go. This year when our son was here, we took to the Wolf River and plied the trade of fisherman, mongers, harvesters, and freezer-fillers. While the river itself was void of fish as they seemed to have departed due to the sex induced run being over, the back water was still alive with the silver darlings, better know as White Bass. They came to us in great droves, big and silvery, 15 inches and 2 lbs.

There was great cheering from the widow's watch when we returned from the briny sea with 40 ton of the silver beauties. They are now frozen, all 40 and one Northern, enough for a year. We are thankful. Not everybody can do this, however, or the Wolf River would look like the Grand Banks.

Teaching Jobs----Forget Assault on Wages. Revolution Watch

2011-06-01T17:14:00.004-05:00

Here is one I heard today. It is about The Change and the responses to The Change----better known as the Sustainable Revolution.

A young fellow that my brother knows is presently in college, I believe just completed his first year. He was setting up to be a elementary teacher and I believe he would be a good one. But it seems that in the last couple of years there has been a general attack on public employees, particularly teachers. It has been stated here in Wisconsin by our illustrious uneducated Governor that teachers are over paid and have too may high-end benefits.

In addition, tax revenues are down due to the recession that we are clearly still in, no matter what anybody says. Thus, schools are finding themselves very short of money to operate. As a result of both pressures, teachers have had to take cuts in benefits and in some cases wages. I will admit the the cuts have largely been to the standard year on year increases they have been getting, but not entirely. Never the less, teachers are under attack and it has financial implications.

I had the opportunity to see the school budget this year and with it a professional projection of anticipated revenues for the next five years (above). It is a declining curve that simply says that while the needs are there for education, the amount of funds available to run the system will decline.

In other words, it is a clear indication that the standard of living as pertaining to education will drop as will teacher wages.

As a result of this turmoil and pattern, the young man mentioned has chosen to look for another occupation thinking that in order for him to have the good life (business as usual or BAU) he will have to look elsewhere.

The problem is that due to the Sustainable Revolution everybody and every job will have to change to a lower level and BAU will not be available. In my view, he would be better off staying in education, an occupation that will always be needed and always be rewarding. Some how we have to learn how to except the idea that BAU is not in the future. It will be a tough haul because folks want it bad.

Foraging-----Mushrooms & Asparagus

2011-05-30T22:24:00.013-05:00

When May shows up and the end of the "starvation time" ends, wildfoods offer a chance to live again. They are slow in coming and the many foragers of the area wait for the first shoots of asparagus and the precious morels. Ya, ya, we can all go up to the grocery and nab, for a pretty penny, some fresh stuff just flown in from Jerry Brown's bankrupt California. But in my pessimistic thoughts I often wondered what it would be like if that "just-in-time" delivery were not to show up. What would there be if the cupboard were bare and last year's "laid by" jars and frozen goodies had disappeared, consumed some weeks ago?

Well, I know we still have plenty in the freezer and there are still a few jars of green beans, not to mention the Buttercup squash that are still hard and fresh even in May. Here it is just about June and we have eaten asparagus almost daily for two weeks and my strength is gaining. There were a few morels around but I have grown intolerant of them as a past over-indulgence now seems to have made my growing belly unhappy with any more than a few. Still I ate a couple this year and did not hallucinate nor die of gastronomical disruption.

All told, the take was meager this spring and if we had to depend on resupplying out nutritional needs with what is found, it would not be a pretty outlook. But today I did notice pigweed coming in and shortly milkweed shoots will show up.

Then again, if I need food I can always pour my great supply of maple syrup on a bale of hay (or lots of other things), much like a farmer can pour molasses over straw to get the stock to eat it, and I too will have sustenance. It is hard to starve in this country. Boy, that asparagus is good.

Tornado Watch

2011-05-22T23:47:00.004-05:00

Today the tornado got so close we had to head to the basement. This is a first for us but not all that uncommon here in Wisconsin. We have already had a number of them this year. Must be the climate change going on or it is just a bad tornado year.

The thing had been on the ground ten miles from here, and it was straight southwest of our home. Not good. Dangerous. We watched the news and the radar as the siren sounded a couple of times. The weather outside was disturbing as the sky became green and dark---not a good sign. Our kids, and grand kid are visiting, so it was a family event. We chatted up the weather and stepped out side to take in the ominous event hoping that nothing would really happen but still excited about the violent weather. The wind was low but the clouds were moving quickly. Still, we could see no turbulence. The lightening was almost constant and in the background we could clearly hear this rumbling that was growing in volume. We were nervous but intrigued. Nature is wild and Mother Nature can be a bitch.

The news finally said it was heading to Amherst straight out and would be there at 6:35. So faithful to all the weathermen, we headed to the musty basement along dragging the dog and, initially, the cat. Turns out the cat didn't like it all that much so we put him back upstairs thinking if we got hit this really old cat would go out in style.

Having never done this before we were forced to consider what we wanted to save in case the entire outfit was blown a way. Well, we grabbed musical instruments, some cash, phones (to call for help), computers and drives with all our pictures and writing. After being down there for only a few seconds I was sent upstairs to fetch our evening drinks. "Get beer and don't forget my Martini."

We were sparred but some one brought up that this my be similar to the rapture, or maybe it was the start of the rapture. That is why the beer was so important, because up in the heavens there was no beer. It was a good exercise and a chance to reflect on what has value.

Permaculture and my Garden

2011-05-22T22:38:00.004-05:00

I have been following numerous ideas on organic/sustainable gardening for years and have, in my way, tried to grow good productive gardens using what methods were available to me and reasonable in cost---yes, money is always an issue because food is so cheap in this country. I have seen concepts that appeared affective but cost huge amounts of money due to structure (raised beds), brought in fertilizers and expensive seeds and plants.

At times it has been hard to see some of these pay off, but still one has to respect the efforts. Of late, permaculture has caught on and while I can't say I am up an all the procedures, I am testing a few. We have chickens and they do leave behind nodules of fertilizer filled with nitrates and other goodies. But the thing I noticed is that 3-6 chickens simply do not produce enough manure to enhance more than 10 sq ft. In other words it is hard to scale this manure thing up to a level that is effective. I am beginning to think this is also an issues of other "sustainability" projects. Where do you get enough natural fertilizer to grow the food that feeds the world?

You don't, I suspect. Where do we find adequate cattle manure to enrich the fields of Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota. We need to get real. That stuff is all growing out there because of fossil fuel inputs.

However, the other day I went to the local dumping area where folks get rid of all their organic wastes---yard stuff mostly. There in front of us were pies of molding bales of grass hay. Bingo. I felt like we had hit an answer because this would significantly add to my garden's wealth. It did. But then I remembered that this grass had removed nutrients from another piece of land. So while I had gained, another property had lost. I don't think it is ever a win-win.

Lost Fields---A Revolution Watch

2011-05-16T14:24:00.004-05:00

Here in Wisconsin many farms and their fields have disappeared into the night. Even in my life, I have seen them go away. As a kid each year in the 50s and 60s (I wasn't a kid the whole time) the farms just failed for lack of success. The fields of corn were always a shabby lot back then with some stalks 3' and others 7'. Maybe they produced 40 bushels/acre, maybe a bit more but it was meager by today's standards. It just wasn't a living. The soil was played out.

A few days ago I walked my brothers place and like always noted the stone fence moving through the huge trees and reflected on the setting wondering why anyone would have made this slopped hill side a field. I knew the farm had been set up in the 1860s and couldn't bring myself to understand how much work had gone into moving these stones to produce a pasture that had minimal value. The scope of the labor was profound.

The farm failed probably 30 years before my brother moved in in the mid 70s. In looking at the site that was once all fields and pasture among the now grand trees, it is hard to imagine "Why" anyone would have done that. It just had no future. Sand, stones, pot holes and swamp. It made no sense but it was a farm and my brother did meet the elderly sisters that at one time ran the place. They related that it was a farm and they did subsist without regrets, not in a world of wealth but still content.

On the way home other fields in the immediate area, the ones that at one time also had the scraggly corn, now produce corn 8' tall with double ears. The word is that even the poorer fields bring in 120 bushels an acre. But it is different. The corn is genetically modified. It is pounded with roundup, fertilized with anhydrous, potash and who knows what else. Oh, maybe sprayed with insecticides. All the goodies are petroleum based and the product of the "Green Revolution".

So what happens when the fossil fuels go away? Where will this revolution go ? Which way is actually the best, the best for man, the best for the planet? It is all a strange story, it would seem.

Snow on Mother's Day

2011-05-08T22:26:00.005-05:00

I don't know if this is typical, but I don't remember seeing snow around here in May. Now I will admit it did snow a tiny bit about a week ago, just a flake here and a flake there-----rather like friends. Oh, that is not right. But as of this moment there is still a pile of snow in our backyard about a foot deep and it will be there for probably another 5 days. (This is just a small pile with Ann and Chester guarding it.)

It is there in part because this is where the church piles their parking lot snow in the winter. This year it was probably 8 feet high by early March. The pile is tight up against the hedge and blocked from the sun---which has not been around much lately. It is also covered with a layer of dirt and old grass much like they used to cover ice in ice houses years ago.

I hate to admit it but I still recall a guy coming around selling ice when I was a kid in Sauk City. People still had those "Ice Boxes" instead of refrigerators. That is a bit hard to believe. In my time there were still ice boxes! Interestingly, up until twenty years ago folks used to call refrigerators "Ice Boxes" . Like, "Could you get me a beer out of the ice box." I also remember an old ice house across the lake in Montello over by Robinson's woods and close to Dibble's Point. It was broken down but still there. My old man pointed it out.

Strange how a person's thought can go from a pile of snow in May to and ice house. Just a thought. Rather gives away my age, I guess. Now I have a freezer in the basement that is cooled by power from the sun. Which is the most sustainable, the ice house or the sun-powered freezer? The most practical? The most affordable?

Steelhead Fishing ----and Sustainability, Revolution Watch

2011-05-06T21:24:00.004-05:00

I love to fish, that is without question. With gas now a $4/gal a few new questions need to be asked. Let's see. I drove to Sheboygan in an attempt to catch Steelhead, and maybe a Salmon, that would be a tidy 100 miles in a car, the Subaru, the one that gets about 27 miles/gal, thus we are talking almost 8 gallons of petrol or $32 ! As an individual of modest means this 4 hours of driving and 5 hours of fishing appears not to be sustainable.

Sure if I had endless money, I could just up and go, but considering I actually didn't even catch anything it begins to look suspect. I guess the question is, 'Just how many times can I undertake such an adventure if the gas is expensive compared to wages, or the gas supply becomes constrained---like rationed if supplies are limited?

So while I am being priced out, it would appear that in a energy constrained world this would not be a wise use of oil. Well, I feel bad about it because it doesn't' really seem to be just in a world where many folks in the third world are now not able to buy fuel for cooking due to cost.

Truth is, I don't feel too bad because on the way to Sheboygan I crossed the Wolf River at Freemont and there on a 1/3 mile strip of the river there were at least 20 motor boats working the Walleye sport fishing trade. Now these are not little 12 footers like we used in the 50s but $25, 000 bass boats with 90 hp motors. They all burned fuel at an unmerciful rate, most of it 2 stroke mixture that stink and pollute. I could hardly imagine the cost of fishing for walleyes, and these are mostly working guys, regular folks. How can this go on? Sustainable? I think not. It will be a tough transition---but it will come fellow Jedi. We must be strong.

Sculpture---I do Work once in awhile!

2011-05-02T21:47:00.006-05:00

I am always torn. I have this need to work at my sculpture. Oh, it is not totally a spiritual need, even though there is some of that, but mostly I like a little extra cashola so we might live the lavish lifestyle we have become accustomed to. Those who know me, might not use the word"lavish" but in the big world, we all, we Americans, live a lavish life, if you get my drift?

It is both spiritual and material, ya, ya ,ya. Of late, I have been doing a piece I call Tyra named after my maternal grandmother, the one that came from Sweden. I decided to see if I could pull off her face. She was a beautiful woman, so why not give it a go. The photo I have was taken when she was about 17.

This is the start of the project and while I have work to do, I am getting close. The sculpture is tall and skinny, while in fact, she probably was only about 5'3" but thin and very Swedish. She arrived in America at the age of 16 and only went back once late in her life. Sad, in that she had siblings. I believe she was born about 1895 and died unhappy and confused some 85 years later. To us, as children, she was warm and charming. With luck, I can pull this off and make a bit of an artistic remembrance of her.

Work is not too bad if I can just stay focused. Spring just keeps creeping in and tomorrow I have to go fishing.

First Crop--First Flowers

2011-05-01T22:06:00.005-05:00

First of May, (Isn't it a communist day of some sort, at least a socialist day? ) and I, as part of the proletariat, noticed the first onions of the year are ready for consumption. This means that if we had to rely on the garden, here would be the first opportunity to bring in new nutrients, maybe ones that were starting to be depleted in this season of starvation.

These onions don't amount to all that much but they would be fresh and packed with all those good vitamins we had run out of during the winter. Interestingly, we still have some onions left in the refrigerator that were harvested last year and stored in the cold bedroom. So in truth, we are not really in a starvation stage. I was only pretending.

I am just saying, that if we had to provide all of our own food, May first would be the beginning of fresh vegetables. It is also notable we stored enough to get through the winter. However, almost all of the canned foods and the frozen vegetables are gone, so we would be down to onions. We were a bit short of the rest. The garden didn't give us enough carrots and the beets I bought to store, turned out to tasteless losers, which really ticks me off because they are a favorite. Our precious beets rotted in the ground due to excessive moisture. Boy, being a sustainable farmer is tough. I suspect that was a little reminder that man does not control all things.

It is intriguing to pretend we need to provide for ourselves and see if it can be done. While I do think it is possible to come up with adequate vegetables, berries and fruit, providing many real calories is not a possibility. We can't grow grains, but we did grow 18 cups of dried beans, fifty pounds of potatoes. We do not have a dairy animal and we are finding that many calories are a result of the sacred cow. The meat we can find or capture and the freezer is still partially filled. If we didn't have rice, pasta, bread or cereal, those grown beans and potatoes would not only get tiresome but would be gone in a couple of months. The grocery store is still handy and keeps my weight at a plump 210 cute pounds---well, not so cute. American Primitive Man just played on the I Pod.

In addition to the meager onions, we now also have our first flowers, so are spirits are lifted and we know spring is upon is.

Maple Syurp--The best Ever

2011-04-25T21:34:00.003-05:00

I don't know what the deal is but last year my syrup was lousy. I had lots of it and felt my methods were, maybe short of elegant, but rustic and generally clean. Everything was the same as I have always done, but it tasted "off".

Admittedly, it was a strange year, not consistent with weather patterns of the past, so I figured the trees were unhappy, or disgruntled, maybe despondent, something had spewed forth this nonsense. I will say this, there was concern that the big maple up front had its greedy roots in the sewer line thinking that it could up its nutrient contend by latching on to my left overs----if you know what I mean. Maybe, for some reason, that was imparting a unpleasant taste--certainly an unpleasant thought. But from a biological standpoint that didn't really seem to stand. Trees have discretion and don't just take in solids. Do they? Why, it could have been in an area where there were lots of cattle. Would that make a difference, make it taste like beef, or other stuff. I put manure on the garden and the vegetables are great, not cowy.

Point is, it was not good, not robust and classic in taste, maybe suitable for making maple syrup pie (which we did) but not something one would flow over a nice stack of pan cakes and just slurp up every molecule.

So this year I was a touch reluctant to go forth, but out of habit set out the tap line in all the trees in the yard and few across the street in the towns land. Like last year the weather was all over the place. The sap ran one day in early March, then it dropped to 10 degrees and went back to winter adding a foot of snow. All my stored sap froze solid in the big container. A week later the flow was on and for two days I packed in my quota needed for my gallon of syrup.

This year I didn't set up at my brothers due to gas cost. Even going 15 miles one way to pick up collection added more cost than the syrup would be worth even at $30 a gallon. So I plied my craft right here in town, which only makes sense anyway.

One of the things different I did was to eliminate the sap from the big maple up front, the one that was suspect of being a sewer sucker. I noticed the sap in that tree, while sweet, did appear a touch off in odor. Maybe there is squirrel that expresses his did like for me by doing unmentionable things in the bucket.

As the boiling started, I noticed that the old familiar kiss of maple was there and the taste of the concentrated sap was tasting mighty fine indeed. At the end of the final boil on the stove, there was no question, it was a prime year and that next morning my pan cakes were floating in new made syrup. The thrill is back.

Ayn Rand Missionary Position

2011-04-20T20:43:00.005-05:00

Sitting here in Wisconsin it is hard not to notice that we have a bit of a political problem. It seems that our governor is a big fan of one Ms. Ayn Rand. Now this is not a new thing. Rand and her banter has been around for along time and he, the governor, is not the first to get hung up on Atlas Shrugged. In fact, that dude from the House Of Representatives, Paul Ryan, has the same burr up his butt---that would be along with Ron Paul and his kid Rand Paul.

After hearing this connection, I couldn't help but review old Ayn's writings to see what all the fuss was even though I seemed to recall that she was a libertarian, or at least thought to be one. I have always thought that her teachings, philosophical leanings were a touch on the fascist side and when I read the statement below, it would seem she does have a hint of that.

Jonathan Chait sums up Rand’s moral philosophy, “The core of the Randian worldview, as absorbed by the modern GOP, is a belief that the natural market distribution of income is inherently moral, and the central struggle of politics is to free the successful from having the fruits of their superiority redistributed by looters and moochers.”

Let's see, does this have anything to do with the fact that something like 60% of USA wealth is now in the hands of the top 20% of the population--and the situation is getting worse. Now, this governor has just proposed that wages be cut from the scumbag teachers while the same time he is giving tax breaks to the wealthy---and, of course, some corporate welfare.

In fact, I wonder where all the corporate welfare comes in for this plan. It seems inconsistent with Ayn's writing. How about those looters on wall street and the big banks? Moochers? What do you suppose one calls the bailouts? It's not like they worked hard using their vast knowledge and hard work to get that. It was just plain fraud. They are economic terrorists for God's sake!

It is particularly confusing when one considers that the money for those bailouts is coming from the regular workers. Oh ya, "thugs" he called them. That would be the teachers with their damn masters degrees. Imagine that, the governor was a college drop out. Did you ever notice he sorta has a 15 foot stare in a 10 foot room. He is also a evangelical fanatic.

It does get hard to follow, but I think maybe it is time to give a thought to being our brother's keeper rather than funneling the wealth to the undeserving rich who for the most part are simply stealing it. A price will be paid.

Question Mark Butterfly and the Hawk Foot

2011-04-12T21:56:00.004-05:00

Two days ago while tidying up the studio, I found the body of the Question Mark Butterfly. It was the one I had written about in March, the one that had showed up in the studio flying about thinking spring was blossoming and mating was in the air. At the time I thought he would sit it out in the studio, tolerate a little chill and then re-emerge full of vinegar in April, to go look for friends. No such luck. He was found motionless, stiff with death, lying on the floor not far where I had seen him trying to get out the window. His wings were spread as if mounted in a collection box and his legs withdrawn. I suppose he froze or possibly starved, even though I thought he might be able to have just sat it out in a comatose condition, rather in an insect hibernation. Sadly, he never got his day in the garden, but only had a brief flutter in the studio. At the time I had an option to let him outside which is where he wanted to go but I held back not wanting him to have to sit out a number of cold nights. Now I wish I would have given him liberty even if it was just for the one afternoon. The sun was warm, the sap was flowing and it probably would have been a lonely flight, but still it would have been in the wilds, his land. In the process of looking for his body so I might get an additional photo for the blog, I found this Hawk foot I had collected some years ago from a deceased bird I found next to the highway in Colorado. Like many Hawks, particularly young ones, that go after some hapless animal wondering the roads, he had a speeding auto end his brief days as a raptor of the heavens. I had not taken part in his demise and in a gesture of appreciation, I harvested the single foot as a souvenir. I have always like it because it is an interesting statement of the effectiveness of natures evolution. Always something to learn from dead things. I guess, I would have preferred both of them alive.

Art in the form of Peeps

2011-04-04T22:23:00.005-05:00

Peeps are animal shaped marshmallowy sorta food items thought to contain nothing but sugar and some odd chemicals. I didn't know what they were until a year ago when the Riverfront Art Center advertised for art pieces made using Peeps. These Peeps come in a number of Eastery animal shapes including, chicks, bunnies but none of Jesus---which I found odd. Jesus Peeps would be, like, so epic, but maybe some sort of sacrilege. I'd have to have a Jesus Peep. There are some rather human shapes, maybe bunnies, but rather anthropomorphic, that could be costumed like the dudes at the last supper and Jesus---oh, that one woman was there too.

Anyway the idea was to make an art object out of Peeps, an art object that could make a statement, or imitate life, or just be clever, or maybe a play on words. Last year Ann and I did a Mona Peep painting for the Louvre. The head of the Mona was an actual Peep but the rest was a rather striking painting Ann did. We thought it was cool.

This year we did a Lambeau Peep which featured a football-playing Peep jumping into the stands celebrating a score, much like our Greenbay Packers did this year as we kicked some serious ass on the way to the Super bowl. The only modification to the piece that did not ring true was that fact Ann insisted on having two quarterbacks on the field and one of them had to have the number 7. She had to honor John Elway, the greatest quarterback ever.

However, most impressive was one much in the vain of this years sad political situation where we had our state taken over by some kryptofascist and as a result we now have a never-ending caravan of protest over dubious jackass political stunts.

Sure to the cause, we had a Peep show that featured the state capitol surrounded by a vast crowd of protesting Peeps. Many carried signs and entire scene emanated the struggle of working man----but they were working Peeps.

There were no Jesus setups featuring stone rolling or crucifixes, which was disappointing because there is potential there and, if I am not mistaken, is what Easter is about---even though Easter was a pagan God---I'm not sure how that all works out even after my years at the monastery---or was it a convent. Next year.

The Flower that Bloomed

2011-04-03T12:45:00.007-05:00

Earlier, I had mentioned how the Amaryllis had, after so many years, decided it was time to go forth and make preparations to breed. This it had determined to do, because it was getting old and the folks that owned it, that would be us, gave it an appropriate amount of fertilizer to make such things happen.

I also noted that I too felt a little fertilizer in the form of a cold beer might make me bloom. Well, it can be said that I did bloom (but not breed) in that I felt good about myself, not delusional nor misguided, but comfortable in my shoes. It was, after all, a metaphor.

To slip away from the metaphor, it might be mentioned that a few beers can lead to breeding, possibly unintended, but in my case, being "fixed" has eliminated that possibility. Hey, baby, want to have a few beers and slip over to my place for a roll in the hay?" Same kinda deal, just not so elegant as the actual flower.

But smart ass as I might be, one can not but take note of this attempt to breed. Each day I get up and come down and marvel at the display put on by this Amaryllis. The only flaw in the system that I can see is that it is not outside where the accommodating insects, or I suppose humming birds, could revel in this wonder of nature.

While I like my original metaphor of noting the similarities between me and this flower, both of us blooming and all, it is now difficult to see where the commonalities are. I think it is just in the semantics rather than the visuals. It is spring and that is good.

Revolution Watch----Employment & Education

2011-03-28T20:19:00.004-05:00

Today was another rally. This time in Stevens Point at the University. The concern here is about the cut backs propossed for education at all levels. To me this is an odd one because one would think that education would be important to all citizens no matter their party affiliation.----with the exception of an administration that would like to see youth less educated, maybe a pesantry. Obviously, that is what will happen as it becomes too expensive except for the wealthy.

Now, I know these administrators of the Shock Doctrine propose that business take over and fill the gap because they will be more efficient and direct our masses at professions that make money rather than make individuals who think. Still it is hard for me to see where anyone really gains from this stunt. How about a kindergarden class of 30. Just won't work.

While I understand we are living beyond our means both collectively and individually, education should become a more valuable enterprise than having a nice SUV. Somehow our priorities have to change it would seem.

Another odd one that is hard to comprehend, is in the cutting of spending, we are also going to be ending a significant amount of jobs, many of them previously good paying jobs. This state admnistration seems to think that by giving tax breaks to corporations to the tune of $160 million will create jobs but there is no historical proof of this. Just ask George W as he tried the same stunt for eight years and never created any jobs with his trickle down nonsense, (that would be the same trickle down that his father called Voodoo Economics!) Very discomforting.

If the budget goes through, we will have more unemployed and a degraded education system. Just another step down the alley of a lower standard of living. Must be a better way to get there.

2011-03-28T18:05:00.007-05:00

We have an Amaryllis. We have had it for, maybe, 25 years. When we first got it, every year it would put out two huge, elegant, glorious blooms that were something to cause aesthetic jealousy. For the last 10, maybe 15 years it has not showed even the slightest inklings to go forth and bloom.

We have, at times, considered chucking it as away to administer a punitive action. I don't know just whom we would have been punishing, other than say God, but we felt we had a need to get even for not pleasing us. In any case, we kept it, thinking one day it would come to life and bless us.

Someone here in Wisconsin told us to give it a bit of fertilizer at a certain time of the year. I think it was at the time of first watering, in this case in late December. Like usual the long lancolite green leaves burst from the bulb and took off like all the energy available was to be in another display of foliage.

But then out of the side of this bulb comes what is clearly a flowering stalk. At this moment the the buds are massive and the red hues of the flower are busting out all over the about-to-form flowers. There seems little doubt that the fertilizer set it off.

So how does this play out for me. First of all, it is almost spring and it has been well observed that my behavior this winter has been one of sloth. I literally am no different than that lazy bulb that has been setting inactive in the soil. Here is the metaphor. I, like the bulb, am about to bloom, being spring and all. What I need is some fertilizer so that the slothitude will go away and I can create a great inflorescence of creation. At the moment I am on my way to the refrigerator for that sustenance in the form of a cold, luscious beer. So as the spring warms and my green shoots are out, my flowering will all be set off by the nutrients God has put into beer---and maybe a bit later a nice Scotch aged some 18 years. I just love metaphors.

Making Sustainable Bread

2011-03-23T23:20:00.003-05:00

So, I'm sitting around the house picking my nose and not getting out because it is snowing like December. It would appear that bravery is no longer part of my charming personality and "Candy Ass" is becoming the word of the day. I wanted to go to the town bakery to fetch up a couple loaves of deluxe bread, but instead I shuffled around the house with my head down trying to muster the fortitude to make the half mile trudge---even though it would be delightful. My knee does hurt, right.

That is when a thought entered my mind. Why should I fight my way through a blizzard so mighty that the average Norwegian would cower by the stove when, in fact, I could make the bread myself. If I am so set on being sustainable, why would I want to lay down good folding money to the tune of $10 when for no more than one buck I could do it.

I recalled that on Ann's family farm, grandma would get up early (too early for me) , mix up the dough in about fifteen minutes, dump it in a big bowl, set it by the fire to raise and then do other things. A couple hours later she'd slap it around, split it and pack it in a couple of tins to rise again.

Once up and running, or blowed up, or what ever one calls it when it rises, off it went to the oven for a hour or so. Bingo, by 11:00 there were two fresh loves, probably 25 cents then, total time worked, one half hour.

I figured, what the hell why not learn. What do I have to lose and I do have something to gain---just one more little piece of knowledge to make me sustainable. To top it off, I just bought a flower mill to grind my own grain---even though it is not here yet. Plus, there is a dude in town that grows hard red wheat and sells it for $8/bushel. We have eggs and the milk is produced locally. The only thing that I really don't know where it comes from is the stinking yeast--and it is not cheap. Reckon I will have to go to a sour dough mix that we can keep for generations at no cost. A number of quarts of our own maple syrup still hides in the cabinet, so we have it all. The truly local, sustainable loaf will be next.

Anyway, here is my bread. More like 2 hours work and $1.50 total but I am learning. I love being sustainable.

Spring ----- Maple Sap & Question Mark Butterfly

2011-03-22T20:47:00.007-05:00

Here we are in mid March and the syrup bucket is void of sap. Mother nature refuses to really make a sincere effort to get it on. The day I tapped, it gushed like Ann used to gush over me, just flowed, and I like a fool thought spring was on us. But the following day it went to fifty and then at night to thirty eight. This is the harvest, an empty bucket. It was as if the flow was over, spring fast moving to summer. The following two days the same.

In fact, on the third day this Question Mark Butterfly showed up in my studio wanting to go outside and seek flowers, to make love to. I kept him in figuring that being out that day might seem fun, but the weather people announced cold was coming and it seemed he'd fair better by the fire. At night, I am sure, he found an away place to sit out the rest of winter and then show up later in the spring to look for girls. Strange it was a Question Mark. I had a few of those myself---questions that is.

The next day it went cold and again the bucket stayed empty, staring at me like an spent beer mug that needed filling. Speaking of beer maybe that is my only hope, the only liquid available to me, and an elixir to hold me over until it is time to boil a total off fifteen gallons of sap I have collected to date. Here it is the 22nd and I have but an empty glass.

I'm ready, the noisy Sandhills are back, Robins are about and I am tired of being inside.

Fiddling around town

2011-03-18T14:22:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was St. Pat's Day and that should not be taken lightly. Maybe more lightly than, say, if we lived Chicago, but then we don't have the graft and the long string of Daleys. Like any fiddler that plays Irish tunes, it only seemed fitting to go where there was beer and all ilk of Irish patriots, form Hispanics, Polish and the usual selection of the faintly Irish.

So it was off to Clancy's pub to play for beer and eats. Prior to leaving, we received a word gift from another fiddler, maybe as a way of taking notice of our position in life, that would be the position of itinerant musician. I thought we were cool, if not essential, and maybe without peers.

Rick, the fiddler from New Hope, made direct mention of the Day of Humiliation---a gloomy holiday instituted by one Oliver Cromwell. He makes note of an act of Parliament that says, "If any person or persons, commonly called fiddlers or minstrels, shall be taken playing, fiddling, or making music, in any inn, alehouse or tavern, every such person or persons shall be judged rouges, vagabonds and sturdy beggars and punished as such."

Dude! That does not play well for me and my types. But being of sound mind, my whistle playing wife, that would be Miss Ann, and I along with Tony, Jim and Paul headed for the establishment knowing we were mire rouges and sturdy beggars subject to the laws of the Queen.

While there among our people (recall vagabonds, beggars) we played in great volume, but I suspect with little quality due to the noise and confusion created by the participants of the folly known as St. Pat's day. At one time, I noticed I could not hear the Banjo that was, for all purposes, up against my ear. That is not a good sign because usually a banjo, which is akin to a cannon of war, usually has to be covered with a four point Hudson Bay blanket to make it manageable in a large kitchen.

However the comradery of our band made the day of local music enjoyable, not to mention the throngs that tapped their feet and even applauded. The evening was ended when our guitar player was interrupted by a large cardboard Guinness sign that fell on him while playing "Over the Waterfall". In a look of amusement, we decided that we should embrace another Harp's Lager, a plate of corned beef and consider ourselves well established in the realm of rouges, the unwashed masses and itinerant drifters. Up the Queen!

The Revolution and Art

2011-03-14T22:40:00.004-05:00

Through history there has always been a relationship between civil disruptions and artists. The artists came in all forms, but even poets, who seem a gentle sort, have played roles. I think it was Neruda who was run out of Chili for subversive activity. As near as I can tell, he mostly wrote about love with women--and all that goes with that. But he was a commie, so what would we expect. Maybe a socialist as he hung out with Allende. The word on the street was he also like to go into long political diatribes, so there you go.

Picasso also did some rather dynamic paintings one of which hangs in the UN building and shows painful suffering caused by the invading fascist from Germany. Because of his presence in the art world his comments were see as an ultimate expression. Even to this day Guernicia symbolizes the struggles of man--I suspect that is why the UN has it.

As artists, I don't know where it leaves us. I remember a friend named Jack Beale who we met in New York who had gotten himself in trouble in Chicago for doing a painting that was shown in the Art Institute. It was during the 60s and Richard Daley was the mayor of the windy city. Jack thought it would be appropriate to do a very large, very realistic rendition of a steaming pile of dog crap sitting on the table. It is not that odd an idea but he had titled it. "The Daley Movement". It didn't go over well with the administration but the public loved it. Damned artists.

This last weekend we spent another day protesting the plans of one Governor Walker here in Wisconsin and I must admit we did not really apply our talents but it did occur to me. Maybe next time. However, some individuals did some exciting work that got my attention. One was a colorful painting of the state of Wisconsin. Attached to the state, or should I say mounted on the state, was a US flagged elephant, humping the bottom of our beloved state. The impression was we were getting screwed. Nice touch.

Also there were some clever statements that had a inspiring style and made a message that folks could remember. " Walker is a weasel, not a badger". I wanted to do a follow up of painting showing Bucky the Badger getting it on with the weasel with the caption. "Put it to 'em Bucky". One dude had a big candy sucker like sculpture with the title, "A Koch Sucker"

Then came this guy with the painting "The Scream". Wonderful touch and one has to admit it would get attention. Time for the artist to stand up.

Revolution Watch----Interconnectedness

2011-03-11T19:10:00.007-06:00

This has been an incredible time. We have the events in the Middle East, we have the disruption in Wisconsin and other Midwestern states and now we have the tsunami in Japan. Oh ya, then we have the droughts in Australia, China, Pakistan, and Russia and that is not even counting the floods. And we should not leave out the economic disruption of '08, that is the one that just showed up after the $147/barrel of oil arrival.

I found myself thinking about threads, threads of connection that just might tie all of these together. Well, lets see. The economy of the world did dip after the high oil prices and by some accounts there was a connection (Jeff Rubin). Others felt the banksters and economic terrorist that haunt Wall street, Oh, that's right, run Wall street, and most of the world, just got too greedy----but still why the oil price. I call it a connection.

I have also noticed that some thousands of scientist from around the world have made public statements the global warming is the product of man's behavior. It is anthropogenic as they say. It would also seem that as a result of this, something like 375 PPM of CO2 has possibly led to server weather events like the above floods and droughts. Now as near as I can tell the CO2 is a product of our energy use, like that $147 oil.

Then there is the North Africa/Middle East thing. Lets see, is there a chance oil is involved in those events? Well, Egypt no longer can export oil because of their declining production, thus, they aren't able to pay for food for the 50 million poor in their country. Ouch. Libya? 1.7 million barrels a day being sold to fund a US-backed despot. We ask why is there unrest? Damned if oil is not playing a role.

Wisconsin? Lets see. The price of oil goes up in the US of A and the economy slips, and we find our standard of living taking a uncomfortable dip. Around town folks notice things are changing from the normal business as usual (BAU). They just feel it. Something is up.

Of those that notice the change, some just grin and bare it, like, they just play their music, fiddles if you will, and they buy less things, but plow ahead. Others, more confused, start blaming events and more likely, groups of people. In the process, they elect individuals that claim to have answers to their perceived problems. Those answers are to blame groups of people like those lousy teachers and other public workers. These are the ones with unions. " We must close union offices, confiscate their money and throw the leaders in prison. We must reduce workers saleries and take away the right to strike. " This was first said by this German guy, let me think what

was his name? Ya, that was Adolf Hitler in 1933!

There you go. Energy is the culprit, particularly oil. The part I don't like, and there are lots of points I don't like, is the fun is just starting, because there is going to be less and less of that oil from here on out. Let's see, if Japan's nucs go off line, where will they get their power? Fossil fuels? If one melts down, will nuclear plants be scrapped world wide? That damned energy is such a problem. When do you think we will figure that one out?

Revolution Watch---Wisconsin

2011-03-10T14:35:00.004-06:00

I live in Wisconsin and I love the place. I write about it in a way that, I believe, demonstrates that. In truth, I also like it for what is going on right now. We are pissed because there is a broad move across the nation to take advantage of the middle class. We as a people (all Americans except the very rich) are being hit over the head by the fact that the standard of living is dropping very quickly---and it is visible.

All of us have seen our incomes hit in one way or another, we have seen friends loose jobs, we have heard of others whose benefits have been downgraded, library have had their hours cut, schools have removed programs and teachers (never football) and the list goes on. All of this is a drop in our standard of living and all of it is being caused, believe it or not, by resource depletion. We are living beyond our means and the bills are coming due---or maybe we will pass them on to our children.

Many people have seen this coming for years but when it shows up, one never knows how it will represent itself, how it will play out. Well, this is one of the plays we are now seeing in Wisconsin and it is not going real well.

The reason is not so simple but I believe it goes like this. There is a process called the Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein) that was first proposed by Milton Friedman from the Chicago School of Economics. The jest of it is to wait for, or cause, an upheaval in a country, be it economic or political, and then move in and take away freedoms and insert corporations to run everything at a profit. It can be violent and always aggressive (Economic Hit Men) but the idea is to privatize everything and mostly get rid of the governments. It has been done many times throughout the world, Iraq being the most recent (think privatized army). The idea is based on the concept that free enterprise is better at doing everything---ultimate capitalism.,

It doesn't take much to realize the number of deaths this has caused, but human life is just collateral damage in the eyes of capitalism (Remember Atlas Shrugged). One does not have to look too far to see there is an effort here to do just that (Paul Krugman NY Times Sunday 3/6/11)---but this is Wisconsin and all hell is about to break loose---and it should. I will be there.

Madison, The Fight. The Revoluton

2011-02-23T20:33:00.006-06:00

Madison was wild during our visit to the fight. Occupying the Capitol was infectious, uplifting and, I suppose, troubling. It is not difficult to realize that the issues involved go way beyond what is there in front of us. Yes, there is the issue of collective bargaining but there is so much more.

Here and there I saw references to the Citizen United case that went through the Supreme Court that allowed corporations the status of citizens, and the right to completely fund elections without a limit to financial contributions.

At present, it is no secret that our elected officials mostly represent the position of the extremely wealthy and the corporations. All one has to do is look at the inability of congress to regulate the Banksters and other economic terrorist from looting the country--multi-million dollar bonuses? All of the money is going to greedy investors for doing nothing more than touching money and extracting a usury fee.

Citizens United also gave the right to unions to fund elections in an unlimited way. So one does not have to look too far to know why Gov. Walker is out to kill Unions. They are the last organized bastion that can fight the big corporations. If killed, it will be down to unorganized bands to represent themselves in fights with corporations, some larger than most countries.

The take over will be complete and the economics of Milton Friedman will have carried the day as the Shock Doctrine is carried out.

And so goes the revolution. The standard of living continues to drop as workers benefits are cut, wages stagnated and the price of commodities continue to elevate. Oddly enough, it has to happen because resources are finite and the population is growing uncontrolled, but why should the average Joe take the hit while the rich gain more and more?

When will the first brick fly through the windows of Goldman Sachs and the economic terrorist confronted? Will the Hamptons burn? Just keep it up and we will see.

Ya Gotta Love Blizzard

2011-02-20T17:55:00.003-06:00

It used to be as a kid when these big blows would come, and the snow ran horizontal, we'd put on all manner of winter gear and head out to see if we could stand the test. All bundled like survivors from the Shackleton Expedition, we would trudge out to the backyard fort and prepare to meet the elements as if we were explorers caught out away from civilization. We had no food, but only our own fortitude and determination. We'd huddle in a small steaming mass there in the corner of out crude hut listening for the wolves.

I remember feeling that ten inches of snow push against my thighs. It held me down, keeping me from a waiting wagon, struggling across the great plains in early march. I had seen pictures and knew they struggled. At the same time I had ventured before in this same wilderness and knew survival was always awaiting me even if my dad had to come and fetch us. I do not think we knew the early settlers had died, frozen there, maybe half eaten on Donner Pass. That was not part of my nine year old world view. We loved the struggle and we knew that it was making us stronger. At least, so we said.

It was all good fun then. We would become caked in snow, our cloths even filled with pushed in winter. We laughed, rolled, turned our cheeks red and our hands numb. But the minute death seemed eminent, it was homeward bound, certainly no more than two hundred yards away. It was a struggle mostly fighting off the attacks of brothers who were more determined to survive than me. We crawled. We reached out to be saved only to find there was no help, but hindrance from the savages that were determined to keep me in the cold to perish, whatever that meant.

When the blizzard hit today, I almost found myself wanting to out in it to relive that struggle of youth but I never even asked Ann to go knowing full well she would once again think I was an immature idiot. But then again, we have done it in the past but today the gale was a bit much, and the fire warm. Oh, the aromatic tea so delightful as the smells of dinner wafted through the house.

Out the window the blizzard blew with conviction but only in brief moment did I go out to get more wood and feed the chickens.

I remember now. The cold and the fight, the struggle, the frozen crawling was mostly done to expend energy so we might return to the warm home to feast up on a fresh pan of cookies. That, I can do today, in memory.

Revolution Watch---Disappearing Money

2011-02-16T20:59:00.005-06:00

Watching trends globally, nationally, locally and real locally is one way of keeping track of The Revolution to a more sustainable society/world. Through the last couple of years, I have noted a few events that give indication as to the progress of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

I've looked at many national events and conditions, some local, some global but the most interesting still are the ones occurring right here in our backyard--- library hours cut, droughts, floods, firing teachers, neighbors losing their jobs, others losing their benefits, us not travelling, growing more of our own food and picking up road kill (not that I didn't do that before).

A few nights ago I attended a hearing at the local high school and heard a presentation on the need to pass a small bond issue to keep funding operations at a level that would still offer a sound education. It was a great presentation, professional, informative, well intended, all done by what are obviously very good folks. Hell, it is a very good school. I wouldn't expect less.

I doubt if very few of the 160 folks in attendance thought that the bond issue was a bad idea, after all having great schools sets the tone of the community and provides the education that powers a solid democracy.

We learned of funding shortfalls that were about to happen due to the state not having any money, nor the desire to raise taxes to get the money, so it was time to cut and in affect lower the standard of living, both for students and teachers. This is what happens when money disappears. Well, at least sorta. Doesn't mean our lives can't be rich and good, but less money in pockets of employees means less stuff. Less knowledge means less wealth of another sort. I know there are other arguments about spiritual wealth.

But the item that caught my eye was one graph that was not really presented, but one that disclosed a more far reaching indication of things to come.

What this graph shows is anticipated revenues for the school in the next five years---and it is for a stable economy. Keep in mind there is an anticipated decline of students of about 3% total in five years. This would account for some decline of revenues but very little. Also keep in mind that the shape of this graph, with the revenue and expenditures being close, has been the pattern for some time. Starting this year this professional group (Laird) has stated there will be a decline in revenue for five years. This will occur at a time when the cost of doing business of all sorts will be going up, particularly capitol costs and living costs. For instance, wheat has gone up almost 100% in the last year, fuel 30% or more, books a lot, and this list is endless. What we are looking at is a decrease in wages, decrease in benefits, decrease in materials, and that is also it is endless.

It is the revolution. It is less of everything. But then again, is having less of everything probably the only way we will be sustainable? The graph went unnoticed.

Missionary Position----The Math Of Egypt

2011-02-13T18:33:00.005-06:00

The Relentless Math of Egypt:
#1 Population 1960----27.8 million
#2 Population 20008 ---81.87
#3 Current population growth rate----2%/yr (doubles every 35 yr)
#4 Population projected for 2046----164 million
#5 Average rainfall over entire nation--2 inches/yr
#6 Alexandria rainfall (countries largest)---7.9 inches/yr
#7 Arable land total country--2% all in Nile valley
#8 Imported food 40%
#9 imported grain 60%

#10 Net oil exports: began declining in 1998. None in 2010
#11 cost of Oil increasing rapidly
#12 Cost of food increasing greatly
#13 50% live on less than $2 a day
#14 50% under are of 25
#15 unemployment large for this group

One does not have to be a master mathematician to analyse these number. They can not feed themselves. They are not exporting oil and will import next year (Oil revenues were being used to subsidize food prices, food prices almost doubled in the last 12 months). They have hoards of unemployed young people. Much of the country living in poverty. Does this look like a tinder box, or what? Catch this, their main revenue is exporting natural gas to Israel!

This is not the only country in this area with these statistics. Mexico is very close to the same.

Winter Walk on the Railroad Trail

2011-02-12T16:51:00.006-06:00

Two nights ago when the temperature moved up to a cozy 7 degrees, we couldn't help but head out with Chester for an early evening walk on the old railroad right-a-way. The tracks were removed some years ago, maybe about 20 or so. Many folks around here remember the last trains as they plied their trade through these parts. I believe Tony, the engineer, said in the 70s they rolled over the tracks for the last time---just fadded away, not really that long ago.

I like walking on the old berm because there is almost no chance of turning my trashed ankles. The surface has been groomed by snow mobiles, is hard, but yet soft to walk on without dropping into the deep snow that covers the rest of the landscape. It really just isn't much work as the pitch is virtually flat. Sometimes, I am a bit of sissy, but it irks me when I tromp through the deep snow and plop my foot on the edge of a hidden stick and instantly do the dreaded face plant and crunch goes the ankle.

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As the railroad slid into obscurity, these roadbeds were, in many places tidied up, the rails removed and recycled, a layer of crushed limestone was placed on the surface and the rails became trails. Originally owned by the various companies the hauled the grain, milk and, at one time, people and other commodities (humans are a commodity? Not now I guess, only slaves.) the right-of-ways fortunately have remained in place to some degree.

As we sauntered down the old berm in the windless evening, the memories of the trains trickled through my brain. I do remember the steam engines, the massive brutes smoking and grinding along the tracks down in Gray's Lake Illinois, home of my grandparents. It wasn't that many years after the war. Then, they were gone and big "Uncle Gus", the fast diesel, came in. What got my attention that night on the trail was the memory of a system of transport that was economical , effective and by the looks of fairly costly to build, particularly in the 1880s.

These days we are hearing more and more about the need to reestablish the rail system in this country because of it's fuel efficiency. In the future our ability transport all our needs by personalized motor craft will not be economical. The fuel used to drive our autos and trucks will be much less available and much more expensive than it is now. The word on the street and in the mouths of most futurist is that the trains will have to come back----and if we are smart, very soon. I don't think we're smart so I reckon we will be walking here for some time, hopefully just for enjoyment.

So as I walked down the trail full of the evening's crisp air, I had to wonder how long it will be before we see a program called Trails to Rails?

Human Hibernation

2011-02-08T17:17:00.005-06:00

I have read on numerous occasions that during the foul weather, Native Americans would frequently "sit tight" as a way of conserving energy and probably saving their lives. Having lived in a tepee ( that's ours) on the high plans of the west, one of the things we've noticed is when the wind howls and the temperature drops, being outside does not add all that much to a delightful nature experience.

Even for a white dude, it is easy to figure out that having a toasty fire, a few warm blankets, maybe a book, it isn't really that much of a brain exercise to just act like a sloth in the tent and forget about being brave and manly by going out in search of food. That was all well enough and good for our band of degenerates, because we had along a big supply of food, maybe a nice Merlot and, of course the opportunity to just jump in the old "skunk wagon" and head to town or to go home. Still, there were lessons learned or at least little mental educational indicators for spoiled, rich honkies.

But those youthful experiences and maybe a few outings in really cold weather has always been a reminder of another time, pre-white invasion, when the comfortable options were not always just a motor vehicle away. There are also historical accounts of First Nations folks simply hibernating for extended periods of time. They simply sat in there primitive huts and houses for weeks on end trying not to consume food or energy. It simply did not pay to go out. It was better to starve to death over a long period of time than freeze to death that day, while trying to find a couple of porkupines.

So what does this have to do with me? Well, I am beginning to think maybe this behavior is inherent. That's right, it is in my genes. I go outside the wind is howling, it is overcast, the birds are not even out because they are getting ice on their wings, the Gray Squirrels are hibernating or kicking back in their holes doing a bowl and for me, having my posterior embedded with hoary frost is not appropriate in that I have all ready lost part of my ass to aging. I don't even want to go ice fishing because Joe drove 40 miles, stepped from his car into a 30 mile an hour wind and wanted to cry. He caught one Bluegill.

To top it off my mode of local transportation is buried under the snow, so my means of getting sustenance is limited to walking to the grocery some 400 yards away (I know you are saying, "Oh, you poor baby'.")

The point is, I am finding staying in the house, fiddling, napping, maybe listening to a nice Bach piece or chatting with my girlfriend is like hibernating and feels surprisingly good. In fact, it feels natural, it feels like it is in my bones, given to me by thousands of years of genetically induced behavior, a way to survive. I remember in Alaska when we were camped close to the Beaufort Sea in Sept, one day we did not leave the tent because of intense wind, freezing rain and marauding bears and I personally accounted for 18 hours sleep and it wasn't even difficult, it was natural.

Then again maybe, it is a rationalization for the fact I am not doing much of any real value right now and I need an excuse. No, it is natural. I am saving energy. I am a natural man.

Doing My Thing

2011-01-31T22:54:00.002-06:00

Here is a picture of Ann dancing and me playing the fiddle---maybe forty years from now! We are old but not yet coots, not shrives, maybe duffers and not one foot in the grave. I see a few new names on my readers list, made up mostly of yahoos we have known through the years and still know, I guess. Just thought I would say howdy-howdy and I don't want none of your stinking money 'cause we're just friends, if you know what I mean.

Also wanted to let you'al know that this writin' is full of errors because it is not really proofed, usually because it is too late at night and I don't know no better. So I am lookin' for a little toleration and imagination, along with intensification. Also keep in mind that a person can make a comment if'n your so inclined. Some of you I just don't see that much due to distance which makes it hard to yell that far, unlike the ones around here that I can yell at just 'cross the holler.

This photo is actually the one I used on my most recent wine project. Made a nice label and set off Wright's Road Killed Specialities. "We find it we use it, dead or alive." I think the picture is Paul a member of our band. Oh, just remebered he plays the banjo---if you can call that an musical instrument.

Today is another day we are not being flooded, we re not rioting because of a food price increase, the county is not being invaded and I am very warm next to a toasty fire. Life is good.

Native Food Groups--Future Possibilities

2011-01-26T22:40:00.005-06:00

I've always wondered how native folks got by without having Twinkies, ring baloney, taco chips and ice cream---oh ya, cheese doodles, or for that matter plastic lettuce spinners. You know, all the really good things that make up our diets today. Seriously, your hanging out in the streams and woodlands of Wisconsin in, say, 1650, just cruising, doing your own thing getting by with the family and you have to come up with a couple of thousands calories a day per person.

I don't think we would be opening the day with a bowl of cereal, a warmed bagel, maybe a nice yogurt with berries from Honduras. Rather, one might have to settle for a few fresh river clams on the whole shell. They are huge, they were edible before pollution, but having dissected a few as a kid and smelled them, I don't recall pinning for a robust serving-- just not considered delectable fare. Maybe boiled in bear grease with a side of Lambs Quarters (the plant) topped off with some ground maze. Actually, that doesn't sound too bad. I could do it. The wife?

Well, the thoughts could go on and I am sure we could actually find some possibilities, not possibilities that would be seen as a culinary delight but still food. We might have to have a few new skills, but still there is hope.

When it comes to winter, I'm not so sure just what one would do when things got nippy. There would be no little bracer from Mr. Jack Daniels for sure and just maybe I would have to live off my accumulated summer fat. Dried stuff?

Anyway, above is a food pyramid put out by what I believe is the school system from Nelson Island in the Arctic where live the Yu'pick Eskimos. It does shed a little light on how things worked. There was no milk so they ate the bones of fish for calcium. Most interestingly, they consumed huge amounts of fat and had no know heart disease.

The bread part on the bottom was only for modern natives and didn't exist prior to white men. Take it in and go figure. Not my idea of fun but then I am a white dude from Europe. When my people were Neanderthals this would probably make our list as well. Just doesn't seem possible now.

Finding Oil, Produciing Oil--Missionary Position

2011-01-26T21:43:00.005-06:00

This posting could actually be a "Revolution Watch" but I reckon I will take a position. It isn't really revolutionary because this has been known for a long time, it just is that no one really likes talking about it and that is my bitch.

This graph may be a bit hard to see, so you might have to blow it up. What you see here are graphs showing the rate of discovery of oil, noticing that the lighter batch is on land and the darker is in water. The height determines the amount of the discoveries found at that given time. As can be seen the discovery rate, no matter where we are looking land or sea, is declining at a rather ferocious rate and the production curve is going up. The reason for the production curve going up is that all of the finds of the past are still being drawn from.

The catch is that many of the older wells, the monsters, like Ghawar in S. Arabia and the Cantarell in Mexico, Texas, and the North Sea off England are all declining in production and there are no big wells to replace them. It turns out that no matter what Ms. Palin says no one is having any luck finding more of the stuff (even at close to $100 per barrel).

Oh ya, they find nature's one time gift (that would be oil) but the discoveries are smaller and frequently in some very remote and dangerous places. Think five miles down in hurricane alley or off in the frozen arctic. And while they make lots of blabber about the finds, one has to note they are generally not that big. Like, "8 billion barrels found off Brazil!" Like whoopee dudes. The USA alone uses one billion in less than a month. To see grown men soiling themselves because somebody found a few billion barrels oil half way to the middle of the earth is clear indication they have no sense of scale. Where do they think they will get the magic straws to suck that stuff up from under a layer of molten salt. And, like, at what price, I might add. That little old production line on the graph has been flat since may of '05. It is expected to turn down soon.

Considering that virtually every ounce of economic development in this country is based on having more energy, it is probably a good idea that we begin having a public discussion. My bitch is and my Missionary position is, "WE NEED TO START, NOW!" and it can't be just losers like me. It has to be the big boys.

Don't even dream that the "alternatives" can replace this black gold, because they can not.

The Power of the Nose, a Dog's Nose

2011-01-23T23:11:00.004-06:00

Every dog has a bigger nose than the average human. Oh, I suppose those little ankle biters have smallish noses but they still probably work fairly well. Then again, maybe not. I don't think they were bred for smelling or much else for that matter. They just hang.

Well, real dogs have big noses. In fact, when observed closely they really have big noses, like most of their faces are noses, huge things that stick way out. Obviously, they were made to aid them in the hunt just like their teeth were made to kill and chew the dead animals. Rather like humans having real big brains so they could think really well---even though there is some indications we don't really think as well as we think, so to speak. Yes, there are some bad indications on that issue, but today, I am admiring dog noses.

Now Buddy here is a bit of a loaf-about-the-fort but the monster of a nose is a thing of wonder. I have seen him run off in the woods only to return soon, but in doing so never once lifts his head from the ground to just look for us. Instead, he runs through the woods until he hits our trail and then zig-zags across it a few times until he is on it. Then he simply runs to us. The entire time we were completely visible but he never bothers with his eyes. Had we walked in circles, he would have run the circles to us.

One day I thought I would test him, thinking that a trail of a number of people was easy, after all we are smelly. I was about to go bow hunting and had before departure done all the real special scent killing things commonly done, including washing my cloths in a special scentless soap, bathed in a scentless shower and really worked hard at not smelling like a human dude.

I slapped on my camo and drifted carefully into the forest for a few hundred yards trying to not touch things, nor scuff my feet. I selected a very hidden spot and stood motionless and scentless. After being there for a few minutes Buddy was let out of the house to do a walk. I knew he was coming in my direction with his master/associate.

Like always, I could see he had dropped his nose to the ground as he headed for the woods and into my general direction. It was not possible to see if he had picked me up because he may have found a mole more interesting. Soon he headed in my more immediate direction but I lost sight of him. I thought he had headed off for other olfactory pleasures but as I turned and looked down, there he was looking up at me wanting a little attention.

We have to be talking molecules of scent. That is all it took. It is then that one realizes that as this dog moves through the forest he must have an entire picture in front of him all of it based on smell and nothing else. A highly detailed picture, there in front of his brain. We will never know.

Here is a group of dogs having an exchange of personal history, or maybe a discussion on the day's activities. Family gossip? "Oh, you should not have eaten that!"

The Mighty Cabbage

2011-01-17T18:59:00.004-06:00

Last October in a fit of jubilation, I secured a gunny bag full of giant cabbages for the paltry price of one dollar each. My initial intention was to make a nice go around of kraut but sloth took over and the cabbages were stored in the upstairs bed room where it is dry and seldom above 45 degrees.

They were in the company of squash, fat onions and some dandy potatoes from the garden. All of them rest comfortably there and cause no problems even for the occasional guest who has mentioned that it was like a root cellar---mostly they didn't like the cold. The visitors simply have to toughen up and embrace the brisk fresh air.

Today, a fat cabbage came out of hiding and found its way into cold slaw. A very pleasant surprise to say the least. While the resting cabbage had some dried and slightly discolored outer leaves, there under the rather natural plastic wrap was a crisp, sassy head well suited to grace any table. Not one leaf eating worm was found. After the two and one half months of storage we still have a locally grown, very fresh vegetable right here in the bed room.

Couple the cabbage with a hardy side of squash, a crisp onion, mashed garden potatoes next to a nice venison steak and we eating local and fresh right in the middle of winter, and it looks like it will go subzero in a day or two. Dude, for the day we are almost sustainable by our own efforts. This appears to be the rage so I am feeling good while drinking Stevens Point brew. Reckon I could have had one of my own home concoctioned beers but I didn't want to close on a bad note. One can only be so sustainable.

Missionary's Position---Population

2011-01-13T14:00:00.007-06:00

So National Geographic comes out with a front cover article on the great news of 7 billion people being on the earth. It is not to say they were excited in glee, because like anybody who has ever thought about this never-ending-exponentially-expanding population issue, they are obviously beginning to have some questions about its feasibility.

While they didn't mention it in these terms, the earths population every four years is growing at an amount that is equivalent of the US population today! ----all of our population in good old America, that would be close to 320 million. One just has to wonder, is this really a good idea?

What can interestingly be seen on the cover of the issue is not a photo of some seething mass of humanity, but instead a photo of some monster city (Shanghai 14 million) with all its lights blazing. My first thought is, why this picture and not one of some God-forsaken slum in India where people are starving in the streets or beggars in Pakistan, or dead bodies in Haiti?

But the more I looked at the photo, I realized it was showing a massive consumption of energy, blurring autos, lights on everything blazing away, just a throbbing mega city hell bent on consumption of a resource that is definitely finite. What does this mean for all the striving masses, those hell-bent on living like Americans? Can they too dream of having all this stuff, this energy driven economy, this movement of people and goods? 80 million more on the earth every year all wanting this? To top it off there are 3 million or more Americans every year, these are the same Americans that consume 25% of the world's resources. No wonder Nat. Geo is going to have an article a month on this issue.

Have we been dumb, or what?

White Elephant---Choking the Chicken

2011-01-11T21:30:00.006-06:00

Shortly after Christmas, on what I believe is King's Day, (named after the three kings from the orient that brought gifts to the manger) some locals, (as in loco) assemble to whoop it up by bringing gifts to bare. The gifts are not for the Lord, but for the assembled desperadoes.

There was no myrrh, nor frankincense, certainly not gold, nor anything of real value. Well, I take that back because this year I got a bottle of wine apparently left over from the time of Christ or shortly after. It was found at the bottom of the Mediterranean in an intact amphora and tasted like it---very dry, if not sediment like, well aged, no resemblance to wine what so ever and much like sea water. Maybe it was a home brew. The best part of it was that it was presented in a leopard-skinned cozy with soft black fur on the top-- a very tasteless item but well suited to my world view. I was pleased.

The receiving of gifts was determined by draw, but individuals could pilfer others gift if they found them to be desirable and of some faintly possible value---value is a fleeting thing and subject to an individuals fancy or perversion. While most gifts appeared to be less than worthless, others generated real interest. In other words, the peace symbol made in the macrame area was seen as being dated and bordered on being virtually useless even in the company of the ancient hippies. I mean, like, this is so 60s, dude.

The items that received the greatest interest were the plastic chickens that when squeezed made noises like a choked chicken. While choking ones chicken must be a popular activity, these gifts went the next step and emanated numerous noises depending on the degree of choking. The hanging dead chicken had a death rattle sound as the air returned to the deflated bird. The chicken sitting on the chair was battery operated and had a selection of squawks depending on how hard it was choked.

It was a jewel and was garnered at every opportunity. While some individuals went into great speech as to the need for the babbling hen for some sick child, the final victor appeared to have other more devious intentions of using it for surprising some unsuspecting yahoo who needed surprising. Frankly, it took the expression "Choking your chicken" to a new level. Most thought there wasn't another level.

The joy of giving is a wonder. I noticed some gifts were left, but it was the thought.

Hunting Possibilities for Old Dudes

2011-01-07T17:47:00.006-06:00

One way to secure clean lean meat is to do a bit of hunting. Now hunting is, of course, not just hunting. It is also time spent in the woods taking in all the activities that go on there, learning the ways of the flora and fauna.

Now, I know many folks don't just don't fancy stepping into the woods to begin with and find harvesting a living, sorta-cute deer rather unacceptable. Many of these same individuals are willing to gobble up an Argentine produced hamburger from Micky Ds knowing full well just what might be in that so-called meat and how it was produced in a land with fewer regulations.

Me, I figure here is this deer, corn feed, running free, not endangered and tasty, so why not put one in the freezer and make a year long feed of it. This is the same freezer that is now solar powered. What I am getting at is, there is a system out there where a crafty person can get good things at a reasonable price. The harvesting is sustainable if not abused.

Hunting with a gun is fine but it seems to me that prowling around in the woods with something more primitive is more challenging, more demanding and in a way more rewarding. But with many of my joints somewhat trashed due to youthful abuse, coupled with unavoidable, creeping chronological advancement, the bow had to be retired for a crossbow. Sure, this is not something left over from King Arthur, but still it gives me a chance. I don't do atlatals.

Ya, I hear the bleeding hearts saying, "That damn thing has a scope, pulley wheels, the velocity of a 30-30 and you call that cool." I still have to crawl in the tick infested forest, sit in the snow and get a deer closer than 35 yards. The odd truth is, I like living close to the land and knowing where my food comes from---including my vegetables. I might even be sustainable even if I don't look all that good. I know some people who look real good but aren't sustainable. But then "It is better to look good than to feel good."

Life is difficult when we are primitive humanoids living in technologically advanced world.

Solar Power---It is Coming Back

2011-01-07T00:03:00.005-06:00

One of the things about solar power in Wisconsin is that it really sucks in the winter. It is a good idea and all, and very well intended. After all it is free---except for the cost of producing the gear, which by the size of the bill for the equipment, would seem that to really offset the gains the panels and inverter would have to make a multitude of watts.

In fact, today I learned that the panels never in their lives will produce enough energy to equal the amount that was used to produce them. Oh wow! Just what does that say?

Anyway, for us rich guys who have the setup, today's sunshine was a pleasant reminder that the mother sun is very nice, but there is a gap there of about one month each side of solstice where, between nature's preference for clouds and the steep incline of the sun, there is very little power produced. The freezer was taken off a few weeks ago and won't go on for another 2 weeks. We are down to running the sound system and say four lights.

I suppose if it was 1910 that would still be significant, but 2010? What it comes down to is that there are limits to these no fangled alternative energies---particularly when the grid power is dirt cheep.

Still, the sun was out today and the inclination of the sun is up, the days are longer. We did a bit of a walkabout as the batteries charged.