mousemusings

Food-backed Local Money

2009-03-06T01:47:00.000-05:00

Jason Bradford spins his yarn about Food-backed Local Money while feeding the campfire at The Oil Drum. He says, "This is perfectly legal and I want you to play copy cat."
Time's a wastin'.

Strangeness at Army Charity

2009-02-22T22:35:00.003-05:00

An Associated Press report reveals odd things at a charity operated in association with the US Army.

FORT BLISS, Texas – As soldiers stream home from Iraq and Afghanistan, the biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been stockpiling tens of millions of dollars meant to help put returning fighters back on their feet, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Between 2003 and 2007 — as many military families dealt with long war deployments and increased numbers of home foreclosures — Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid, according to an AP analysis of its tax records.

They have invested heavily is the stock market. Their portfolio now is worth over $200 million. As a result, they have reserves that would last for 12 years, at their current rate of disbursement. A one- to three-year reserve is considered normal, among nonprofit charitable organizations.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that military officers have been pressuring soldiers to contribute, even though that practice is forbidden. It would seem to be conduct unbecoming to an officer.

Unemployed?

2009-02-21T21:12:00.002-05:00

I want chickens. I would be willing to get chickens and take the risk that one of my neighbors would balk. The covenants here prohibit poultry and livestock. I'd offer to share the eggs. That might be enough to quiet any noisemakers.
Still, I would need a coop. I found a great coop here.
Building something like this locally for people would be a great gig for an unemployed worker who happened to have the know how.
Food for thought.

Survival Mode

2009-02-17T19:56:00.002-05:00

Gardening in the desert, on the scale I aspire, has meant a lot of trial and error. Gardening IS trial and error regardless, but the desert possibly contributes more to the error side of the equation. Because I am pretty much stuck at home with my mother, I've been learning much of it on-the-fly. I can't go to workshops or spend hours asking questions at a garden center. My climate is not like Phoenix and not like Albuquerque, so learning resources are a bit scarce.

This is an agricultural area, but the research and support appears to be geared more toward industrial type monoculture, not toward the home gardener. Chiles, pecans, onion, cotton, alfalfa, melon and iceberg lettuce seem to be the major crops. Farmland here, like most places, was being swallowed up by subdivisions. Now much prime farmland lies fallow with for-sale signs decorating the perimeters, dotted with other signs marked 'zoned commercial' or 'residential'. If I had the money, equipment and knowledge, I would snap up one of those pieces of land, perhaps making it into a community garden. Instead, I have to work with the yard I have.

We get less than 10" of rain a year making rainbarrels a priority. I now have 6-60 gallon barrels set up. That won't really water much, but it's something in a pinch. Our community water unfortunately has high levels of uranium, which is ok to water plants with, but not so good for drinking. Plants apparently do not take up heavy metals, but humans do. Reverse osmosis is recommended for removing uranium, but it uses 3 gallons of water to yield 1 gallon of drinkable water. For now, we fill up water jugs at a 'water island' station, and then filter again at home through a Berkey. Ultimately, if the water island stations disappear due to the economy, the Berkey will have to do, filtering rain, or even river water, after being purified. I hope it doesn't ever come to that, but water security is first priority. Even with the scarcity of water most of the year, we do have to worry about flooding during the monsoon season. Who would have thought it would be a good idea to buy flood insurance in the desert?

My second priority was identifying native edible plants. Prickly pear cactus and mesquite pods are plentiful. From the cactus pads I can make nopales (think slimy green beans), and from the fruit of the cactus, the tuna, I can make jelly and syrup. Mesquite pods can be ground into a sweet flour. That's hardly enough to live on, but both grow without much intervention on my part.

The first year I was here I tried growing tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, chile, potatoes and strawberries, just as an experiment. None of them produced much. The second year I tried all the above again and added garlic, green beans, bell peppers, basil, cucumbers, artichoke, lettuce, and assorted herbs. I had a much better yield and was even able to can tomatoes. We are still eating the garlic and green beans and salsa. Basil was especially prolific so I froze a lot of pesto. I won't be able to plant as many tomatoes this year because I have to rotate my beds, but since cherry tomatoes seem to do well here, I will grow a couple plants in containers. Flooding washed out our pomegranate bush, so we need to plant another, and I would like to plant a couple fruit trees.

One of my other projects has been flood prevention. We had several heavy rains last summer, and because a neighbor rerouted an arroyo (illegally) it has caused a lot of grief. I'm not sure what to do about the neighbor because I absolutely hate conflict, but I'm trying my best to work with the land, and attempting to harvest as much rainwater as possible. Doing that work requires a lot of heavy physical labor and I have to be mindful of neighbors downstream as well.

I have been setting up drip systems for watering, but I still have to devise a system for the garden area I plan to plant this year. One problem I have found with drip systems; critters like to chomp on them, and they put holes in the tubing where I did not want holes. They get thirsty too. Can't they just use the birdbath?

The intention of this post is to inspire you, the reader, to continue thinking about your own area, and what will sustain you as our economy continues to collapse. Your problems/priorities will be different than mine. Maybe your garden is so prolific you need to get a pressure canner and learn to use it. Maybe you get too much rain, or your growing season isn't very long. Maybe you don't want to garden or don't have any place to grow anything, but you're thinking about storing some food. The important thing is to think about it and act. Again I'll mention that pressure canner, whether you can grow food or not. They are not as scary as your mother made them out to be. Really. I was terrified the first time I tried, but I love it now.

My very best tip for anyone, no matter your climate, is to get a sproutmaster and seeds so you can always have something fresh and nutritious. It's easy and only takes water.

For a look at what others near my neck of woods (60+ miles away) are doing, albeit with far more energetic prowess than I, visit Holy Scrap Hot Springs. Their experiments are inspiration. Papercrete, solar, desert gardening, biodiesel and just.plain.fun.

Timely Decisions

2009-02-06T00:59:00.003-05:00

I lost my job two years ago even though I was able to successfully telecommute. Apparently the department I worked for couldn't see the advantage of allowing me to continue working. I'm still resentful.

They wanted me to place my mom in a nursing home, or move her to Michigan and use adult day care to enable me to keep my job, retirement benefits and insurance. I knew what our resources were and knew that $4000 a month was out of reach. Of course I could have spent down her savings and sold her passive solar adobe home, built by my parents own sweat labor and then let Medicare pick up the tab. 28 months, so far, it would have cost $108,000.00 just for the benefit of keeping myself employed. It would have been a horrid decision. Nope. I had 90 days to make the decision, and then I could take family leave followed by personal leave for one year, after which time they would rehire me, keeping my benefits intact. It didn't happen. My mom is the Energizer Bunny incarnate and I am still unemployed.

Having written many times about the housing bubble and peak oil and knowing the economy was teetering on the edge, it wasn't too tough for me to conclude that I would be better off taking care of her myself. Besides, it was a promise I had made to my father.

It hasn't been easy, and I still have no health insurance, but I have been busy making our lives as sustainable as possible. I'll write more about those preparations another time.

Things will never again be as they were two years ago for me, or for anyone else. The housing market is NOT going to pick up again anytime soon. Whose kids can afford a house? They are the future buyers. We can't waste money continuing to prop up a dead cat. Cats only bounce every now and then. Meanwhile, More families move in together during housing crisis.

I hope they are all planting their own food and learning how to preserve it.

Change

2009-01-28T00:55:00.002-05:00

I am working my way back to blogging more regularly, including updates of my two-year readjustment period since moving to care for my mother. She's doing fine, thanks.
It's possible that some of the things I've learned will be helpful as more and more people join me in the ranks of unemployed/uninsured. I have a few pressing chores to finish before I can get back to this blog, but I'm closer.
Meanwhile, I suggest everyone take off the rose-colored glasses and listen to The Automatic Earth. Our world is going to change. It will never be like it was. Accept it and start planning.

From today's post: "we need to see our houses as shelter, not as instruments for financial gain. If there are still people out there who don't understand that, I promise you, you will sometime during the process which will take prices down that 80% or 90%. There is no credit available. That is what a credit crisis means to us all. And our governments cannot create credit out of nothing. And even if they could, who would want to borrow? The millions of unemployed foreclosed upon 21st century Tom Joads?"

...The question is, or if you will should be: how do we keep people from freezing to death, from starving, from cholera epidemics once water systems fail. We won't do it by indebting our children and grandchildren in doomed efforts to keep a bankrupt society rolling, while we recite fairy tales of future profits from bets on horses that have long since left their stables..."

Demand This

2008-11-24T23:18:00.003-05:00

From James Kunstler's Zombie Economics:

I hate to keep harping on this -- but since nobody else is really talking about it, at least in the organs of public discussion, the job is left to me -- we have to get cracking on the revival of the railroad system in this country, if we expect to remain a united country. This is such a no-brainer that the absence of any talk about it is a prime symptom of the zombie disease that has eaten away our brains. Automobiles (the way we use them) and airplanes are utterly dependent on liquid hydrocarbon fuels, and you can be certain we'll have trouble getting them. You can run trains by other means -- electricity being state-of-the-art in those parts of the world that do it most successfully. I know that California just voted to create a high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It's an optimistic sign, but it shows more than a little techno-grandiose over-reach. High speed rail would require a mega-expensive re-do of the tracks. We need to scale our ambitions for this more realistically. California (and every other region of America) would benefit much more from normal-speed trains running every hour on the hour on tracks that already exist than from a mega-expensive, grandiose sci-fi program that might not get built for ten years. The dregs of the Big Three automakers can and should be reorganized to produce the rolling stock for a revived railroad system.

Congress: Think Before You Act

2008-09-28T01:26:00.001-04:00

The President's fans

2007-08-28T02:23:00.001-04:00

The President's fans
Originally uploaded by Lynn.

The President's fans
Outside Mayor Larry Abraham's ranch, where George W. Bush attended a fund raiser today for Senator Pete Domenici, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The caption says these people are "fans" of Bush. But just looking at the picture, there is no way to tell if they really are fans. There are many reasons to pray for someone.

Lone Protester

2007-08-28T02:20:00.001-04:00

Lone protestor
Originally uploaded by Lynn.

Outside Mayor Larry Abraham's ranch, where George W. Bush attended a fund raiser today for Senator Pete Domenici, Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Weathervane on Gazebo

2007-07-18T01:33:00.001-04:00

IMG_0008
Originally uploaded by Joseph j7uy5

One of the first pictures with the new camera. "You don't need a weatherman."

Casual?

2007-07-17T12:04:00.003-04:00

He calls it casual. Let's make it serious.
This should be a concern to all Americans and the future of our Constitution regardless of partisanship or petty politics.

Dear Ms. Roy:

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for
the impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney. It is good to
hear from you, and I appreciate having the benefit of your views.

As you may know, H.Res 333 was introduced in the House
by Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) that would bring
impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney. There is
no cause at this time to consider impeachment proceedings against
the Vice-President. He has served this nation honorably and to the
best of his ability. Furthermore, the casualness with which
impeachment is thrown around simply for partisan purposes over
policy differences should be a concern to all American's and the
future of our politics.

Thank you for taking the time to contact me on this issue. I
am glad you have let me know this is an important issue for you.
Please continue to call, write, or email me with any other questions
or comments. Visit my website at http://pearce.house.gov to find
out what I am working on in Washington, or where you can find
me around in New Mexico.

Sincerely,

STEVAN PEARCE
Member of Congress

Another Act of Madness?

2007-06-15T00:22:00.000-04:00

The US didn't bother to listen to the IAEA before attacking Iraq. Has anything changed to make me think that we wouldn't continue the madness? When ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA says attacking Iran would be an act of madness, does the US stuff sand in everyone's ears again and attack like a bunch of cowards, or do they finally grow up and discuss events diplomatically? My money, or lack of, has to go with recent past history, the madmen still have the power. Until the people take the power away none of us are safe.

Datura

2007-06-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

Jimson Weed, growing in my yard
The Sacred Datura, A Grim Fairy Tale

No minimum wage or overtime for Home Care workers

2007-06-12T23:59:00.000-04:00

Businesses are not required to pay the federal minimum wage or overtime pay to workers who provide home care services for the elderly and the infirm, says the Supreme Court.

What does this say about the quality of care my mother receives if I hire a home care worker for respite care? I pay the business $16.95 an hour. 'Government lawyers told the Supreme Court in April that the goal is ensuring that the elderly who most need home care service receive it "at a reasonable cost."'The worker is lucky to get one third of that.(?) Of course the company has a CYA requiring me to sign a contract saying I won't negotiate private care with any worker they send out.

No More Blood For Oil

2007-06-12T00:11:00.000-04:00

Kucinich Presidential campaign unveils first TV spot, 'No more blood for oil'
produced by the campaign's in-house creative staff, headed by Chad Ely, National Media Director, and video editor Eric Blumrich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRl4YLVW0b4

Just Read This

2007-06-07T23:00:00.000-04:00

I want you to just imagine this. Just imagine if the US were to do this.
To even think that it could happen, no, to even think that it might happen, almost shuts my brain down making me unable to imagine the aftermath.
Excerpt below, but read it all to understand the players and the game.

The neocons have changed US war doctrine, which now permits the US to preemptively strike with nuclear weapons a non-nuclear power. Neocons are forever heard saying, "what's the use of having nuclear weapons if you can't use them."

...) Many US military officers are horrified at what they think would be the worst ever orchestrated war crime. There are reports of threatened resignations. But Dick Cheney is resolute. He tells Bush that the plan will save him from the ignominy of losing the war and restore his popularity as the president who saved Americans from Iranian nuclear weapons. With the captive American media providing propaganda cover, the neoconservatives believe that their plan can pull their chestnuts out of the fire and rescue them from the failure that their delusion has wrought.

The American electorate decided last November that they must do something about the failed war and gave the Democrats control of both houses of Congress. However, the Democrats have decided that it is easier to be complicit in war crimes than to represent the wishes of the electorate and hold a rogue president accountable.

The prospect of nuking Iran doesn't seem to disturb the three frontrunners for the Republican nomination, who agreed in their June 5 debate that the US might use nuclear weapons to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities.

What to Do?

2007-06-03T12:44:00.000-04:00

I am really not sure what I want to do about this, but I have a case. I'm certain of that.
From the EEOC: Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities Thank you Amy Joyce, who is Looking Out for the Caregivers

Shopping with Elizabeth Kucinich

2007-05-31T21:22:00.000-04:00

I like it when people walk the talk and that's what Dennis Kucinich has always been about. His wife Elizabeth went shopping with a reporter from Cleveland's Plain Dealer. She also walks the talk. There is no reason to be wasteful even if you are a potential first lady, or maybe I should say, especially if you are a potential first lady. In the spotlight, setting an example, and even tolerating a Plain Dealer reporter, a publication never kind to Kucinich, Elizabeth gave tips on buying gently used clothing.
I think it's about time the US had an interesting, resourceful first lady who has a kind heart, is beautiful, and chooses to share her vision.
Imagine. What exciting changes could be, if only the people in the US could get beyond their ridiculous obsession with her husband's height.
My father was even shorter than Dennis Kucinich, but he was huge in my eyes.

Senators Who Need to Be Booted

2007-05-25T12:05:00.000-04:00

NY Times has the list, Senate Roll Call on Iraq Spending.
Mine are on the list, are yours?

More About the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive- NSPD 51 and HSPD-20

2007-05-23T00:15:00.000-04:00

can be found here: New presidential directive gives Bush dictatorial power

and here: Bush To Be Dictator In A Catastrophic Emergency

There isn't 4 years to waste before Congress finally begins to take a stand against this. We wasted that much time and untold lives getting someone to begin taking a stand on Iraq. With this, there won't be a country to take back from a reactive, not a proactive, power hungry liar.

Think of this as PNAC 2.

Bush Appoints Himself Dictator

2007-05-21T19:34:00.000-04:00

In case of a catastrophic emergency as outlined in "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20."

It defines a "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function."It defines a "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function."

I suppose he could embrace global warming and instantly become dictator, or more likely, when the economy sputters due to his irresponsible policies he will be in complete charge of all branches of government.

Contrasts

2007-05-20T23:18:00.000-04:00

by Carol Warner Christen

...look what we have done. Look hard and closely because much cannot be undone without a serious reality check. I hear excuses for not listening, not changing. I hear people avoiding reality to wallow in whatever their favorite distraction may be. I see women degraded beyond belief. I see children shot as "collateral damage." I see piles of rubble. I see an occupation without honesty called a war. I see soldiers ignored for their injuries, denied healing funds and doctors. I see denial as if everyone were a practicing saint praying, preying. I see laws justified, such as "for every action, there is an opposite, but equal, reaction" as the center of our country is devastated again and again by storms and our rubble piles up, too, pitifully evening the score.

There is a story about the blind leading the blind. Where are the great ones of humanity? They are dead, many shot to silence them. Are you lost in the crowds? Lost for want of an audience? Lost for want of time, of life, of love? Life is a process of creation. Are we lost for want of imagination except for weapons and games and profit? Radical complexity has filled space and time; one man is testing its opposite.

More Comes Out In US Attorney Scandal

2007-05-20T21:41:00.000-04:00

I don't know if this is the real crux of the story, or just a sideline, but it sounds bad. The McClatchey Newspapers Washington Bureau is reporting that one attorney's efforts to curb voter fraud were so vigorous as to threaten voting rights.

Efforts to stop `voter fraud' may have curbed legitimate voting
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.

Writing as "Publius," von Spakovsky contended that every voter should be required to produce a photo-identification card and that there was "no evidence" that such restrictions burden minority voters disproportionately.

Now, amid a scandal over politicization of the Justice Department, Congress is beginning to examine allegations that von Spakovsky was a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.

"Mr. von Spakovsky was central to the administration's pursuit of strategies that had the effect of suppressing the minority vote," charged Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief who worked under him.

He and other former career department lawyers say that von Spakovsky steered the agency toward voting rights policies not seen before, pushing to curb minor instances of election fraud by imposing sweeping restrictions that would make it harder, not easier, for Democratic-leaning poor and minority voters to cast ballots.

The article goes on to say that research into the severity of any problem with voter fraud suggested it is not a big problem, but the final report suggested that to say that "a great deal of debate" surrounded the subject. In fact, the study said no such thing. The study also showed that voter ID laws suppress minority voter turnout, but that finding was rejected. Why even do the study?

Of course, true voting rights proponents know that the more serious issue is not with voter fraud, but with election fraud. Voter fraud occurs when individual voters cast illegitimate votes. It is hard to swing an election that way. Election fraud occurs when insiders deliberately alter the voting or tallying process. If someone is truly worried about the validity of our election process, it is the potential for election fraud that needs attention.

Wasting Time

2007-05-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

"I really did expect that the president would accept some accountability for what we're trying to accomplish here." Harry Reid

No, accountability has to be forced onto people like Bush. Impeach!