Pissing in the Pool

It's almost July and the days have gone all sultry.  Now we'll all be doing what we can to keep our core temperatures near normal for the next two or three months.  For me this means dressing to accentuate natural evaporative cooling, scheduling my day to take best advantage of the cool times of the day, and, of course, frequent trips to the creek.  For many, many others a major part of keeping cool involves a swimming pool. 

When I think about swimming in public pools I always remember that my dear husband's grandpa used to look at everyone getting their swimming gear together and say "Why would I want to swim in a public urinal?"

Salvage My Life

"Hi, My name's Barb and I'm a salvage grocery shopper."

"Hi Barb!"

"It's funny that I don't even remember exactly how it started.  I know it was several years ago and I think my first salvage grocery was in Hartsville, TN.    I'd heard about it from a number of friends of mine.  It was a weird, disorganized store, I can't even remember what they called it, and I found some pretty good deals there.  Some interesting sauces and maybe some organic cereals that were barely past sale date were about all I found that day.

Got Those Thermoregulation Blues!

Yahoo weather is telling me that the temperature in my tiny town is going to rise up into the hundreds this weekend.  This is powerful news to a little family that lives without air conditioning or even a fan.  This morning it was impossible to believe since it was so chilly when we woke that I put on a sweatshirt and sweatpants.  Now it's past noon, though, and the sun has moved out of the woods and into the middle of the sky.  I'm feeling the first serious warmth sink into my bones.  Am I worried?

Mulch Madness!

I know, I know, I keep going on about mulch.  I can't help myself.  Mulch is making such a difference in the maintenance of our whole place that I can't help but talk about it.  For example, currently we have no functional lawn mowers.  Solution?  Mulch!  Of course!  It is literally taking over the whole yard, and in the process creating future planting beds.

Savings Accounts and High Stakes Gambling

"A penny saved is a penny earned," right?  Isn't that what they always say?  And accordingly, the crustimony proseedcake (customary procedure for all of you non-Pooh readers) for people of my age bracket is to have savings in a number of formats.  There is the simple savings account, of course, but there are many others as well.  There are IRAs, 401Ks, stock portfolios, insurance policies and surely many others that I don't even know about.  In our society, people feel like they are flapping in the breeze if they do not have a diversified portfolio.  Well, I have a diversified portfolio of my own, but it does not involve a single of the formats mentioned above.  What I have is this:

So Many Questions!

This post is primarily for those of you who are looking to start a little bit of gardening, but who are not in a rural setting like mine.  You may have a patio or tiny yard and you may be renting, so plowing up your allotted bit lawn is out of the question.  In what ways might a person in this situation set up a winter garden or any kind of garden for that matter?

The Promised Permaculture Post!

Hi Guys!

I told you recently that I would soon post a video on permaculture.  The problem I have had is that it is such a large inclusive concept that I've had a hard time finding a comprehensive video.  I finally settled on a video by one of the founders of permaculture, Bill Mollison.  Before you look at the video though, check out this chart:

Celery and Food Security

Last week at the grocery store I heard a woman exclaim about the price of celery, "That's ridiculous!  I would NEVER pay that much for celery!"  I looked at the celery and it was about $1.39 per bunch.  A decidedly high price, to be sure.  Her words remained with me throughout this past week, as I wondered what she will do as the price of not only celery but all of the other food in the grocery store continues to climb to more and more seemingly ridiculous heights.  And I was brought once again to the concept of Food Security.

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.