Lisa Zahn

My update for the week of May 16 to 23: 1. Planted: 6 raspberry canes from a neighbor; 14 “All Star” strawberry plants; 16 cabbage seeds over 16 sq. ft.; 8 sq. ft. of beet seeds; 10 seed potatoes in two tire “containers” a la Backwoods Home magazine; and herb plants including 2 thyme, 3 lavender, 2 rosemary, 1 parsley and 1 lemon balm 2. Harvested: chives, parsley, lemon balm for yummy salads 3. Preserved: tried to make a dandelion syrup from Susun Weed’s Herb book, but after making the decoction with the dand. flowers I realized I should’ve taken all the green off and used only the yellow part of them–it smelled too green and wasn’t going to be sweet and tasty so I composted the decoction which was probably great for the compost; otherwise nothing yet 4. Stored: nothing this week 5. Prepped: well, I made a list of things we need to do to get the basement pantry ready for storage. Hoping for a rainy day to get that done…Also added more compost, manure and peat to all the garden beds be...

This is not going to be my usual tone, but here it is...I'm concerned. With the economy going south, there is going to be a (even worse than usual) backlash against the recent immigrants to our country. I am not going to put up with that silently. Here are my two reasons.. 1. When our country quits its messing-around policies with their countries, maybe I'll be for tightening immigration standards, amounts, whatever. Until then, as long as we continue to make trade agreements that go like this--we'll take your....(oil or natural gas or whatever).... for cheap, then we'll sell you our (overproduced and over-subsidized by the taxpayers) corn or wheat or whatever food you eat for cheap, then your people don't have to be self-sufficient lowly farmers anymore and instead can go to your cities and work in our (American) factories/sweatshops for $2 a week so we can go into credit card debt to buy the cheap crap you've made at Wal-Mart for cheap...etc. etc. etc... A...

Here are photos from Rose's piano recital on Sunday (taken after the performance because I didn't want to disturb her) and Elijah's orchestra concert last night, where we had front row seats right in front of the poor kid. My mom and I were clicking away, hoping he wasn't paying any attention and was instead thinking of the music and looking at the Conductor, Mrs. Stockinger... They both did very well. Rose's teacher, at the end of the recital, thanked all of the students and said "some of those kids I didn't know could play their pieces so well". We know she meant Rose, for one! She did a fabulous job on her piece, The Silly Sandpiper . I think after hearing the older kids play so well, and seeing all the trophies and awards given out, she may just be ready to go for another year of piano lessons. She's motivated by such things! And, she has a real natural playing ability so we'd love to see her continue. Elijah's orchestra also sounded gr...

It's been bugging me that in the last post I said "the reason for high gas prices", when I meant to say " one of the reasons..." Of course we know that the value of the dollar has fallen a great deal due to the credit crisis, and that there are temporary supply issues as well as the more permanent one of Peak Oil, and these all cause fluctuations in the market. But I think it's important to know that this trend of lower supply/higher price is very likely not temporary. Here are some Peak Oil websites: Energy Bulletin Life After the Oil Crash Life After the Oil Crash Breaking News --for scary daily news stories from around the world! Peak Ready The Oil Drum James Howard Kunstler Sharon Astyk --my favorite writer on Peak Oil and so many other topics Transition Towns Transition Culture --the transition towns and culture sites are very positive! Now, some of these websites will have a panic and "prepare now or die!"-type mentality. I am not advocat...

(WARNING: I'M GOING TO GO OFF THE DEEP END TODAY. Knowing full well that you may think I'm absolutely nuts if you don't already, I'm going to talk about Peak Oil . The End of The World As We Know It [not TEOTW, mind you, just AWKI]. And here goes...) So, I started trying to reduce my household energy usage when I signed up for the Riot for Austerity last spring. Honestly, I can't even remember where I heard of it or how I found it online, but I was so intrigued by the idea of it. I couldn't stop thinking of it. Reduce our household energy usage and consumption by 90%. 90%! How was that even possible while still living a "normal" American life? Well, I guess that depends on how you define "normal". But I/we (my family was along for the ride) signed up due mainly to concern for the earth. To do our part to slow or halt global warming. To pollute the air and waters less. To use less so others could have more. Etc. Etc. To do it ...