Extreme Weather 2009

I have been following a site, prepared by a woman who records extreme weather and natural phenomenon gathered from print, for a few years now. She is a "just the facts" kinda person. Today's post should come as a surprise to no one. Go visit her site and check it out, it is very interesting. Here is the Global Disaster Watch.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
U.S. - Fierce winds ripped away the roof of a police station, thousands of people lost power and drivers stuck by closed highways settled in to wait as storms swept out of the West to the nation's midsection today. Much of the Upper Midwest was covered in deep snow, and strong winds tonight were expected to create blizzard conditions. The storm had already blanketed much of the mountain west and drenched Southern California with rain. Ice was the problem Tuesday morning in Oklahoma, where Interstate 40 was closed for about 25 miles. "It's just a sheet of ice from Amarillo...It's a disaster." With travel likely to get worse, officials were warning residents in parts of the west and Midwest to stay close to home. Blizzard warnings were issued for most of Iowa as well as eastern Nebraska, southern Minnesota and southern Wisconsin. "Anybody traveling tomorrow morning is really taking a huge risk I would say- a risk of being stranded and not having anybody be able to help you for 6 or 12 hours, probably," said a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Iowa. A "classic, big, deepening winter storm" was affecting more than a dozen states. A foot or more of snow was expected in parts of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph could create snow drifts of 8 to 15 feet.
Heavy rain pounded some parts of the South. More than 4 inches were reported in spots in New Orleans, and flooded traffic slowed morning commutes. The storm also produced high winds and a possible tornado near Lake Pontchartrain.
In Buffalo, N.Y., meteorologists expect the storm to dump 3 or more feet of snow between Wednesday and Saturday in the mainly rural snow belts east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The storm had hit much of the West on Monday, bringing subzero wind chills in Washington state and heavy snow that closed schools and government offices in Reno, Nevada. In the Phoenix area, fierce wind brought down power lines, left four hospitals temporarily without power and created wide outages. Freezing temperatures in Oregon were suspected in one death. Big rigs were left jackknifed across highways in several states.
And more snow was coming: The National Weather Service said the upper elevations of the Sierra mountains could get up to 3 feet, with up to 4 feet forecast for the mountains of southern Utah. Two people were killed in traffic accidents blamed on slick conditions in New Mexico. Winds of up to 100 mph were reported on St. Augustin pass between Las Cruces and White Sands Missile Range, and the powerful gusts ripped away the roof of the White Sands Missile Range's police station. The storm dumped more than 20 inches of snow over Flagstaff, MORE THAN FOUR TIMES THE RECORD of 5 inches set in 1956. Cold temperatures also were threatening California crops. The chilly weather hit with only about 10 percent to 15 percent of the navel and mandarin orange crops harvested. "We've got a lot on the line. Both of them combined you're probably looking at over a billion dollars in fruit hanging out there on the trees."

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
This decade has been THE WARMEST ON RECORD and this year is likely to be the fifth warmest, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s assessment of global average temperatures.

Stay warm, peace for all!

P.S. The picture is from last year, we have no snow yet!

Chicken Feed

Ruralrose said:

I pull the amaranth plants by the roots and hang them to dry. I feed them usually in February when they are desperate for real food. They do pick the seeds off the stems, I think it gives them something more interesting to do than watch the snow fall. This works for pigsweed too. They do love weed seeds, in my head i am working on a device that would allow me to collect seeds from grass and weeds all summer. They seem to relish dandelion seed. It is hard to get a good feed mix they will eat year round. I use my mix in the winter when they can't be fussy. For the most protein it is best to grow sunflowers for the winter. I have not tried others grains. I do add apple cider vinegar, molasses and kelp to my winter feed. I also collect rose hips and berries for winter feed. I also put down a layer of mung bean and alfalfa seeds before a good snow. It makes for yummy sprouts in the spring. I am considering covering a corner of the yard with plastic before the snow too, to try and get a head start of food for them in the spring. If you come up with another idea please let me know.

P.S. Just put a search engine on my blog so you can look things up! Peace for all

CBC Radio Broadcasts Death to the Family Farm

Very important information from our national radio broadcasters, please hear our cries!

Part One -
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/current_20091104_22529.mp3

Part Two -
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/current_20091104_22532.mp3

Beading Gem

I got the last post item, Black Friday from Pearl at Beading Gem. She follows trends and her posts are always fascinating. Her site is a treasure trove of interesting reference items. I am always fascinated by her finds. Check it out for yourself. Peace

Black Friday

Organic Farm For Sale

Life through the cracks is living in stewardship with the land. If you are wondering what you can do to gain security in these uncertain times ahead, then please consider buying land. In my book I go into detail about finding a great homestead property. Two people can only really work 2 to 4 acres of land. We can strive for self sufficiency but the we really have to work with others to have a well rounded experience. This is the last week my new book will be listed as a free download, please take advantage and read it for yourself.

I saw this real estate listing in my province, and to Kris and everyone else looking for the ideal place, this sure could be close. It is way out of the price range for most, and living on an island has its own pitfalls, but reflects what can be done and how valuable growing food has become. Hope this link works. This property commands such a high price because of its proximity to a city. There are thousands similar properties dotting the continent, you just have to search out the one which is right for you.

Haskap Plants - Sharing the Little Purple Berry

picture is from http://sharingthelittlepurpleberry.blogspot.com/

Serendity led me to Craig Larson's blog As a scientist and humanitarian, he too is very concerned about food security for all people. Please go visit his blog and see what one person can accomplish in changing the world for the better (and what you can do to help)!

Ruralrose said:

Craig you are such an honourable man! What a treasure you are for the world. I too am very concerned about food security and nutrition only for the rich. I have just finished a 176 page book in this regard. Please come visit my blog, I have posted it on a free download. I am desperate to share the secrets to having food with many people, as times are going to get worse. I want to grow these berries for you, and share them with my neighbors. We grow several varieties of grapes, apples, and plums, bing cherries, gooseberries, both currants and pears, raspberries and strawberries when I am lucky. We don't prune so we can feed the wildlife, we grow 6 trees outside out fenced orchard for the bears. The tree orchard is also my chicken pasture so the fruit that falls to the ground feeds my birds and they fertilize the trees. There is so much, we give away more than we keep. Well I do go on, so happy to share with likeminded people. Peace for all

35% off Sale

Christmas is less than 6 weeks away. In this regard, and to celebrate my brimming happiness, the inventory in my e-store will be 35% off, giving my labor for free. Now would be the perfect time to order a piece of jewellery as a gift for your loved one, since it will still arrive before the big day. I am offering this for my blog friends only, so let me know when you order.

Everything is going to be alright!

Breathe . . . everything is going to turn out alright! How do i know from this far away? Limitations are like bumpers that push the ball into play, your thoughts and will and efforts are the flappers and the magnets, you are picking up signals showing you where you want to go, your intentions for success your dedication for the best results will take you there. Didn't you graduate? Didn't you get married? Didn't you have babies? Forge a career? It happens, you are alive, this is how it works. Give up the struggle, go with the flow, know where you want to end up, relax and enjoy the ride. You can't have everything all the time. I feel for you because I have been where you are. I still worry too much but now i know worrying doesn't change a thing. It is hard to let go of the reins, but oh how good it feels and as time goes by you will delight in the journey. I have a whole chapter dedicated to this in my new book, have you read it? These will be your last few months of this lifestyle, knowing this get the best out of it. Enjoy the perks of city life, it will be like a brand new life when the pages turns. These days will be memories don't spend them feeling bad about things.

Bliss

I do complain, it is my way of expressing the problem so a solution can be found. I am so happy today I think I will never complain again.

We have been living and working this farm for 9 years now. We had to sell off part of it to keep it. We both work everyday to progress our life here and create a secure place for people to live in the future. Most days it is a thankless backbreaking grind. But some days, like today, one looks up to see things in a new light. Slowly and surely we have pulled ourselves to the top of the mountain, where we can see success at last!




When we first moved here we were a little house surrounded by trees, dark and quiet. That very day the neighbor put a road in, cutting down trees and breaking the ground. The absent trees, and internal rotting, created havoc on the old growth forest and a lot of it had to be cut down to save the house. When you log your property, even selectively like we did, you are left with piles of logs and branches unsalvageable by the loggers. We were told to burn these piles, we could not. These piles have been sitting, turning grey and making homes for birds and squirrels for 5 years now. My husband pulled the the hardwoods out and built his 7 foot fence around 4 acres for our animals and birds and almost a thousand square feet of raised bed gardens.



To make a short story longer . . . we could not walk on over 50 percent of our property because of a cliff line. I had only been "up top" 3 times in 9 years. It is so steep I had to come down it on partly on my hind quarters. We get our water from a wood box in the creek up there (so we have gravity fed water) and in the summer my husband was going up there a couple of times a day to keep the filter cleaned.

But today . . . .






We feel like we scratched off paint chips to reveal the Mona Lisa. The ugly piles of wood became a valuable base for our road. Pictures from the top tomorrow, gotta love a cliff hanger!
peace for all
p.s. click the pictures to make them full size

Biointensive Gardening

Biointensive gardening is a sustainable solution to growing food. It is considered to be the highest level of organic gardening. It is a whole-system approach that brings together nourishment, efficiency and sustainability.

With biointensive food production, each adult person requires only a 10th of an acre of growing space to produce his or her yearly food intake! This small space can supply all the calories and the nutrients for a complete diet.

Biointensive gardening extracts the necessary nutrients from the soil and simultaneously puts them right back in. Biointensive gardeners use less water, create cleaner runoff water after garden use and they essentially "grow" the soil they are using. The end result is a garden that produces a complete diet in the smallest sustainable area.

Biointensive gardening methods include:

• Deep Soil Preparation
• Composting
• Close Plant Spacing
• Companion Planting
• Carbon Farming
• Calorie Farming
• Open Pollinated Seed
• Whole-System Approach

Good reading here, easy to understand and implement. Want to make growing food as easy as possible, then this is the method for you. Peace for all!

Sustainable Meat Illegal in Canada

Please forgive my recent obsession of meat regulations, but this was passed to me and I would be remiss not to pass it on to you. (something cheery next, I promise). The following is taken from Farm Food Freedom Fighters and their site is linked to the title.

New B.C. Meat Regulations
Make Buying The Chicken Next Door Illegal

Welcome to the Farm Food Freedom Fighters web site. Our goal is to create a place to join those affected by the meat regulations and those who wish to assist them. We are searching for ways to return British Columbia to a place where farmers can raise healthy, calm animals, and can sell them from their farm gate without fear, as people have done all over the world for centuries.

Pitch In Too - PLEASE get the word out!

• Did you know that it is illegal to buy farm killed meats?

• Did you know that local farmers must get permission from Health Departments even to sell food at farmers markets?

• Did you know BC is affected by international and national laws that increasingly undermine historic production of local foods while problems in the corporate food system grow?

Small rural producers, even if culling the odd animal to feed a neighbour, can no longer do so without bringing the animal to a government approved abattoir. This could be hundreds of miles away, costs money and adds to fossil fuels, takes precious time and causes the animal much stress. This frequently makes the act of
slaughtering a home-raised animal prohibitive, and many farmers are declining to raise meat animals rather than face a $25,000 - $50,000 fine. This recent government action is supposedly in the name of our health, but it obviously drives those who were eating local free range animals back to the supermarkets to buy meat.

What can you do The time is right to put on your Rabble Rousing shoes and help make change in your community. Many are already working hard at this – your help makes a big difference (find out more...)

I received this post from a lovely socially active woman I have had honorable dealings with throughout the years, and published author Robin Wheeler. If you are Canadian please click the link to find out how you can voice your opinion and maybe together we can change this before it ruins things forever.

Everything He Wants to Do is Illegal

Megan Phelps Interview with Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin is a farmer at the forefront of the trend toward local food and grass-fed meat. Many people first became familiar with Salatin’s complex and eco-minded approach to farming when he was featured in Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But Salatin also is well known within pasture-based farming and libertarian circles. He’s especially vocal about government regulations that make life difficult for the small farmer — his most recent book is titled Everything I Want to Do is Illegal. He’s also the author of You Can Farm and Holy Cows and Hog Heaven (excerpted here in Mother Earth News). Salatin kindly agreed to answer some questions for us about Polyface Farms. Hold onto your hat! Here are Salatin’s candid thoughts on government regulations, high grain prices, vegetarians and making money at farming.

Read the whole interview at Mother Earth News

This guy is a small farmer's guru, if you really want to know the state of farming don't just take my word for it. Peace

My kid to eat vegetables

Today I share a post that shows how hard it is to get kids to eat real food instead of processed. It was Erin's blog Garden Now - Think Later!

She is dedicated to a sustainable lifestyle, please check out her blog to see her wonderful success stories.

Ruralrose said...

This is something I too fight with everyday - mine is 16 now and if he won't eat what I cook he can cook what he wants to eat and it is most often processed foods. There is just no fight in me anymore, tears, anger and worry make no difference. I do have a few tips of things I did that helped. A hand held blender will be your greatest ally.

1. tell them they won't like it, especially when they will
2. mash beans into a dip for chips, add salsa too
3. veg soup with potato blend smooth
4. tomato sauce for pizza and spaghetti use lots of vegs and blend
5. garlic toast is always a hit
6. pesto sauce
7. nachos with pepper rings, salsa and beans
8. homemade hotsauce
9. pickles

10. don't underestimate the nutrition of spices and oils, use lots of them

11. roasted nuts and seed, hemp hearts, nut butters and homemade jam

12. remember what they don't like tonight they could like tomorrow night, lol ;)

My heart goes out to you. I still resent cooking my meal to please him, cutting it into tiny pieces, cutting off all the fat, leaving out the onions only to have him not want to eat it. Then after growing, processing and preparing the food, I have to scrap it off the plate uneaten into the chicken's bucket and wash the plate as well as the pot and plate necessary for him to cook and eat something else. Not to mention I have to go to town and buy the processed food I don't like, then I have to deal with the packaging I'm against, all the while concerned for the health of my son. Well you can see this is a sore spot, thanks for letting me vent - Good luck, peace for all

Food Security in Doubt

Read the whole article here.

Southern California is called the bread basket of the continent. They have been suffering now from many years of drought and only 10 percent normal water resources. We can't ignore the fact that food will have to come from abroad to fill our plates. Start now, buy one save one, buy your seed for next spring. Prepare for the future, what have you got to lose.

Update

Terry is home again. Thank you for all the well wishes you sent. We went to visit her at the hospital last night and I took some pictures. The quality and lighting aren't up to the usual standards posted by you bloggers, but it is a glimpse of the scenery to the closest town. Peace




eace

Winter Gardens

Today Suzy at Chiot's Run posted of the "death blow" in gardening. It was brilliant to show the contrast pictures of summer to late fall.

Living in Canada, putting up all the vegetables eaten through the winter, I never seem to have that moment to put the garden to bed.for the winter I am sure it happens, between the canning and the dishes and sowing seed for next spring. recognizable the instant it is too late. Perhaps I am a lazy gardener fooling myself into thinking a dead garden can be beautiful, but I leave the skeletons on all my plants to stand in the snow in ode to the plants which produced the food which now sustains my family. It also is a good marker in spring for where plants are, also the dead plant material makes the perfect fertilizer for the plant that produced it. The other benefit is being able to watch the little birds frolic in the stems taking so much delight in finding seeds to eat when everywhere is covered with now. Thanks for the post and the chance in share my ideas, peace for all

Packrat

Today I am chasing this packrat out of my house. Apples, roosters, 36 liters of wine and pumpkins to deal with and I am done. Then I will be back to stalking you again, all winter, lol. Peace for all

for Terry

My neighbor and dear friend Terry is in the hospital tonight. I hope you have your laptop sweetie so you can see these pictures of your home. We are all waiting here for your return, you know all my prayers are with you!

H1N1 Vaccination Condemnation

BELL TOLLING for the Swine Flu (CAMPANAS por la gripe A) subtitled from ALISH on Vimeo.

This is very long and I must admit hard to see. I cried so hard I had to stop watching and come back to it. Please take the time to watch this important video.