Two Questions

I hope everyone's holidays are delightful!  Mine certainly have been and in addition we have been getting a lot done around the old homestead.  A visit from Mom meant a major cleanup, and now we are working to keep the place better. Joe put the greenhouse room over the water tank so now I have a wonderful planting room attached to the house.  I've been putting it to good use already!  The boys are here and will be for more than a week yet, so that makes me abundantly happy.  So why all these questions mulling about in my head?  I suppose it is because I have been doing a great deal of reading on topics relating to sustainability lately.  What are the questions you ask?  If you are sure you want to know, read on.

Question #1 - (This one is borrowed from my husband) What animal would choose to give up the ability to feed itself?  We as a species seem to have done exactly this. I mean, I suppose still have the capability to bring food from the table to our mouths, and some of us have retained the ability to prepare meals from raw ingredients, and even fewer of us can manage to grow much of what we need to sustain ourselves, but how many of us would survive if left out in the wilderness, even at peak fruiting season?  Why have we chosen to give up that ability?  Let's all make a concerted effort to begin to reverse this age old decision.  Plant something edible this year, not only that, also learn about some type of wild food that you are willing to eat.  The earth is abundant!

Question #2 - Why do we as a people choose to defecate in purified drinkable water?  Only about 1% of the earth's water is drinkable and available, so why would anyone choose to do anything so disgusting to it?  For years I have tried to excuse myself because my family chooses not to have indoor plumbing, we have a composting privy (read outhouse).  What this means is that the food we eat gets returned to the soil just as the food scraps we produce do.  this is easy to do and as long as it is composted properly it is perfectly safe.  I refuse to any longer make excuses for my choice in this matter.  Think about it the next time you flush 5 gallons of that pure water with an ounce or two of urine in it.