Sabbath Eve, April 23, 2010

I’ve run out of excuses for not writing online journal entries. So today, after a long hard week I sit at my computer and reflect.

The garden is in and growing. Today I pulled earth to the base of tomato plants with a garden hoe, forming rows so I will be able to irrigate should the rains stop coming in a timely manner. The year has been relatively wet so far and things look good but I’d waited too long to do this task. I’ve tilled the rows religiously so weeds weren’t a problem, but the tomato plants have already filled the space between rows and it was hard to get around them without damaging the plants.

The fall/winter crop is on its way out. Some cabbage remains; most of the rest is packed in jars in our pantry and in the refrigerator in the form of saeurkraut. I’m feeding re-growth to chickens and goats. The spinach is starting to bolt, jars full of it occupy space in the pantry already. Two long rows of onions approach harvest, yellow and white globes, each the size of a softball or thereabout. Garlic bulbs are not far behind, also two long rows, perhaps some 1,500 individual plants. Carrots remain in the ground, beets are long since pickled and canned. Five long rows of potatoes have another month or so before they are ready, but they’re growing fast. Squash, both yellow and zucchini are forming on the plants. Green pinto beans are also beginning to appear as are tiny peppers: Anaheim, Serrano, Jalapeno, and Habanera. Black eyed peas, okra, cucumbers, cantaloupes and watermelons are farther behind but the plants and vines look good.

I planted 170 acres of non-genetically modified, non hybrid corn in our fields. Stalks are between two and three feet tall and growing well but we’ve had to cultivate it four times already. My ass is hanging out on this venture. I don’t think most people care whether their corn is genetically modified and I may have trouble selling the crop. They should care. The variety I planted is white corn, Trucker's Favorite to be exact, and should be suitable for human consumption, as opposed to the godamned yellow Frankencorn 85% of US farmers planted this year which isn't. Corn prices are currently at or below my cost of production if I don’t receive a premium price for the crop. The good thing is, the seeds these plants produce should be suitable for planting and I'll save a bundle next time I plant corn, good Lord willing.

Wheat is heading out nicely, but prices are relatively poor at the moment. Cattle prices are up somewhat, and for the first time in a couple of years, the pastures are green and productive. We’ve already sprayed and fertilized. A new field of Tifton 185 seems to have survived the winter after a late fall sprigging and is beginning to grow.

Hay buyers are calling. We hope to begin cutting and baling next month.

We built a stock to milk cows in after a gentle cow freaked out a couple of weeks ago for no apparent reason, knocked me down and stepped on the calf of my right leg as she fled while I had my attention focused on a pail full of milk. I didn't spill the milk, but my leg turned black and blue and remained swollen from the knee to the ankle for at least three weeks. I’m just now getting over the limp. For a time, the pain was considerable. I still milk two cows each and every morning and make sure three orphaned calves get their share of milk morning and evening.

Leah has continued making cheese on a routine basis. We have around 200 pounds stored and aging in a freezer converted to a portable “cheese cave” with an external thermostat that keeps the cheese at a constant 52 degrees. Another upright freezer is packed with the meat of a heifer we slaughtered and two more chest type freezers are packed with fruits and vegetables.

Leah went to Fredericksburg last week and picked 70 pounds of strawberries. She made jars of strawberry jam that’s to die for—the rest of the strawberries are sliced, frozen, and packed away in the freezer.

We’re building another chicken house for our yard birds, and I have a pen full of roosters that need to be killed and processed.

Come to think of it, we have been rather busy.

Not a good day to wear "Z"

Gaming the system

According to this opinion piece, the American system will fail if fraud is eliminated?

In essence, fraud, embezzlement and corruption of the political process are the only profitable businesses left on Wall Street.

What are we waiting for? Time to take the medicine, I think.

Thoreau

once proclaimed, "I have a library of over 900 books, 700 of which I wrote myself."

I got him beat.

Recovery, you say?

I’ve written very little original material of late. Seems like an exercise in futility. Talk of peak oil and a global financial collapse in the midst of an “economic recovery” falls, for the biggest part, on deaf ears. Today the ground is wet and temperatures a bit cooler than normal, rendering talk of drought and climate change moot as well. There’s plenty of gas and diesel for anyone with a few bucks willing to buy some. Food is plentiful, and remains cheap to American citizens, free in fact, for about 35 million of us. Most that have lost jobs now enjoy perpetual unemployment checks. Farm subsidy checks continue to arrive in the mail for those that act in accordance with the wishes of their masters. With the flick of a switch the lights come on and the mind-numbing TV takes over.

Don’t be fooled. All is not well.

Matters such as peak oil are non-negotiable events. The amount of oil on the planet is fixed. We have consumed somewhere on the order of half of the recoverable supply; that which remains is harder and more costly to extract. We have no viable alternative to oil, short term, (when I say short term, I’m talking 20 years), and the alternatives currently in existence require oil and other limited natural resources to develop. I can’t convince people unwilling to see or believe this, but I believe time will convince all.

I can’t convince others that human activity has affected the earth’s climate either. But I have seen evidence of the effects of deforestation and air-borne emissions in my few short years on this planet, enough to accept the notion they have had effect without relying on some scientific study advocating (or denying) the various hypotheses.

I’m also convinced that genetically modified grains and the foods made from them are time bombs, ready to go off at any time; that they are already causing disease in humans and livestock and maladies in the larger biosphere which gives us life as well. Once again, I need not look further than the boundaries of my own experience to find evidence of this.

I believe we are moving toward larger and more powerful, more intrusive forms of government, a police state, if you will, that will spy on and dictate our every move, the antithesis of the liberty and justice for all Americans espouse.

The American model isn’t the dreaded Socialism right wing ideologues decry; instead it is Corporatism, or if you will, Fascism, that afflicts us; corporate and financial entities that kill off or suppress all competitors, supported and enabled by the state. Both Democrats and Republicans facilitate this model and the model isn’t just American, it’s global in nature. Should the model somehow morph into Socialism, or a state-owned and operated system members of the left advocate, the realities for the people will remain the same. The working class will be little more than grease to fuel the wheels of the machine; proceeds from their activities will remain inequitably distributed; the guy actually doing the work will not be the guy that enjoys the profits that work generates; a tiny parasitical class will continue to prosper under either model.

The health care debate is total bullshit. Neither Democrat nor Republican will take on the real enemies of the people: pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, or the sacred turf of doctors, lawyers and learning institutions that educate members of an elite class and license activities that rape and devastate the average consumer.

Weapons of war continue to be America’s greatest real export (excluding fraudulent financial instruments), followed closely by proceeds derived from all sides of the war on drugs, which includes the largest prison/legal complex in the world.

Most championing real issues are not interested in cures for the disease; instead they’re trying to figure out how to make money off of the condition.

Recovery of an evil system, for me, isn’t something to be desired; it represents the perpetuation of a bad thing, of a malignancy, if you will.

Collapse is the first step toward something new, but I am not naive. If and when collapse comes, those thinking they want it will be no happier than Moses’ Israelites, wandering through the desert, pissed off that they left behind the chains of slavery, because slavery provided a roof over the head and a crumb of stale bread on the plate. It’s hard as hell to derive a living from the soil.

Americans suffer from Stockholm syndrome; we’ve become like inmates thankful to see the guard’s face when he opens the hole in the door of an isolation cell and shoves in a plate of shitty food.

Bottom line: I have nothing new to say. I have been reduced to digging in the dirt, watching plants grow, harvesting crops, milking cows and waiting for change. And change has been a long time coming.

Lord have mercy.

Food for thought

Here's a link to a page containing the new movie Invisible Empire in 12 segments, free to all, written and directed by Jason Bermas and produced by Alex Jones.

Hold all rocks until you've watched the film, please.

Yeah, the stock market is up....

And who exactly profits from stock market gains? Check out the graph after reading this article.

Of two minds.

Not me, and probably not you either.