Planted something: more tomatoes, cilantro, hayed my potatoes and herbs
Harvested Something: A few strawberries- tempted to do a bit of the cilantro- but wanted to wait for it to grow a touch first.
Ate the food: salad! local greens into salads.
Waste not: put old bananas into cookies
Want not/ prep and storage: went to the cities to pick up 14 buckets of organic grains for long term storage. And the requisite case of baking cocoa- someone has to make the birthday cakes even in tough times.
Preserved something: my sanity? Galen spent the week at autism camp.
Build community food systems: supported the local farmers at the farmers market.
Worked on house: learned to shade the west side from the afternoon and evening sun - keeps it cool enough to avoid turning on the AC.
Did with kids: art projects- we did collages, shadow pictures, ceramic painting and horse back riding. Ewan did a lemonade stand with his cousins.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
When I became a doomer.
It was 2003/2004. I had been running a little internet business for several years dealing with organic and fair trade clothing goods. While realizing the irony of how much oil we spent to get our products. One of our best sellers was German woolens. The wool for which came from New Zealand, Shipped to Germany and made and then to us in the USA. Another thing that caught my attention was the realization that the Debt we had as individuals and government would force our collapse. It would literally not be sustainable unless we had continuous growth- at a rate higher then the credit cards charged. At that point I realized the irony of what I was doing. I was selling organic clothes (made in Germany, some from china, India and Egypt) to a bunch of Americans on their credit cards, who already had a closet full of clothes they weren’t utilizing.
I wasn’t so much shocked at my own actions, but I was shocked at the system as a whole, I saw the whole system as set up to collapse- it being utterly unsustainable for the people and planet.
Soon after that we chose to move out of the typical American suburb to the country. We have learned to garden, do some plumbing and work with people on a small local scale. Our personal goal is to be comfortably prepared to handle high ( and volatile) oil prices and the changes that will force our society to make. I hope our small town can have a sustainable local economy (so I do not have to learn all homesteading arts). I also hope to become useful in a local scale economy by sharing my knowledge and becoming a skilled midwife.
I hope information (the web) will still be at our fingertips, but am preparing for a world where my calves and arms get toned by the physical labors of making hay (while the sun shines) weeding my gardens and tending the flocks. At the very least I have found that my body and mind are happiest when I am in the dirt. They are happiest when the real work to get done is physical. I can touch it, breathe it, feel it. My body was made for that. It sure beats sitting in a car or at a computer.
I suspect the official collapse date will go down in history as sometimes late last September. This is the financial collapse. The petroleum that we are dependent on and the fury of nature will liken hearken to a large government collapse. Many parts of society will follow. Who will be left? Well organized and prepared churches will survive. Tight knit communities that can pull together and organize to care for it’s members will survive. To that end I can see city- states forming.
Overall, I feel that parts of our society may be worth saving, but we have really built the infrastructure of our own doom. Because we are addicted to, surrounded by and shaped by our infrastructure I highly doubt we will have the courage to dismantle it on our own. Therefore, I recommend something of cataclysmic proportions, just about everything recommend in the New Testaments Revelation’s.
I wasn’t so much shocked at my own actions, but I was shocked at the system as a whole, I saw the whole system as set up to collapse- it being utterly unsustainable for the people and planet.
Soon after that we chose to move out of the typical American suburb to the country. We have learned to garden, do some plumbing and work with people on a small local scale. Our personal goal is to be comfortably prepared to handle high ( and volatile) oil prices and the changes that will force our society to make. I hope our small town can have a sustainable local economy (so I do not have to learn all homesteading arts). I also hope to become useful in a local scale economy by sharing my knowledge and becoming a skilled midwife.
I hope information (the web) will still be at our fingertips, but am preparing for a world where my calves and arms get toned by the physical labors of making hay (while the sun shines) weeding my gardens and tending the flocks. At the very least I have found that my body and mind are happiest when I am in the dirt. They are happiest when the real work to get done is physical. I can touch it, breathe it, feel it. My body was made for that. It sure beats sitting in a car or at a computer.
I suspect the official collapse date will go down in history as sometimes late last September. This is the financial collapse. The petroleum that we are dependent on and the fury of nature will liken hearken to a large government collapse. Many parts of society will follow. Who will be left? Well organized and prepared churches will survive. Tight knit communities that can pull together and organize to care for it’s members will survive. To that end I can see city- states forming.
Overall, I feel that parts of our society may be worth saving, but we have really built the infrastructure of our own doom. Because we are addicted to, surrounded by and shaped by our infrastructure I highly doubt we will have the courage to dismantle it on our own. Therefore, I recommend something of cataclysmic proportions, just about everything recommend in the New Testaments Revelation’s.
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