Eat Local Challenge

This morning's Ithaca Journal includes an article on Local Foods Week, sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension. Consumers are urged to spend at least $5 this week on local food. That sounds easy. Register, take the pledge and be eligible to win gift certificates from retailers and restaurants that feature items harvested from the area.

My hippie self-sufficiency urges, which were pushed to a back burner when my kids were teenagers, have been reawakening. I'm raising some chickens, re-establishing beehives, planning part of the garden more for food than flowers. But the "Eat Local Challenge" is more than the self-sufficiency movement of the 60's and 70's. It's community based. It's not only "What can I grow for myself?" But also "How can I strengthen my community?"

I used to put homegrown meals on the table more often than not. We got to be somewhat like early settlers, going to market once a month for flour, coffee and salt. It's a life changing experience: learning how to produce life's essentials. First you learn to define "essential."

But my local food skills are rusty and I'll have to start planning ahead for the Eat Local Challenge next year. Tompkins County is fortunate to have a wonderful Farmers' Market and lots of local food producers. Wegman's has a local produce display right inside the main entrance and other local products throughout the store. Not to mention Greenstar Co-op.

Check out Foodroutes and their interactive map. Type in your zip code and get a map and list of local food resources. Or Local Harvest for an interactive map of Community Supported Agriculture and other farm subscriptions.

2006 Elections

The New York Times offers this excellent interactive map of 2006 Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates. The map graphics can be displayed as a standard map or distorted to reflect population. Click on a state for more information.

Information on Senate races includes the amount of money raised by each candidate. For example: in Maine, Senator Snowe, $2,107,747 and challenger Jean Bright, $23,507. In New York, Senator Clinton, $27,501,536 and challenger Spencer, $1,777,748. Incidentally, the population map shows that Senator Snowe represents about 1,300,000 and Senator Clinton 19,300,000 (if I'm counting the little squares accurately.)

In the map of House races, you can click on each electoral district for, not only information about the candidates, but also demographics. My own beloved 24th congressional district in New York is listed as a "race to watch." Unfortunately no additional information is available except that incumbent Boehlert is not running. Demographics describe this district as 92% white with a median income of $36,082 compared to national median income of $44,473. Compare this to my daughter's district 15 represented by Charlie Rangel: 16% white with median income of $27,934. Or to Long Island's district 3 with 86% white population and $70,561 median income. Hmmm...

Bloggers

Slate reporter, Jack Shafer, responds to the Pew Charitable Trust survey of bloggers.

The most immediately startling for me was the repetition of the phrases "about half " or "nearly half" to describe various blogger attributes. About half of all American bloggers are men, says Pew. About half are under the age of 30. About half use a pseudonym. About half say creative self-expression or documenting personal experiences is a major reason for blogging. About half think their audience is folks they already know. Half say changing people's minds is not a major reason behind their blog, and about half had never
published before starting their blog.

This means, of course, that about half are over 30, about half are women, about half use their own names and about half say changing people's minds is a major reason for their blog. That would be my half.

Still, neither Five Wells nor my other blog, Dryden Democrats, come close to the image of "blogger" discussed in the news. We're going to need a new word soon. The A-list bloggers have readership in the thousands per day. Most are professional journalists. Most provide a vehicle for lively discussion among readers. While many write to promote their own viewpoints, hyperlinks give the reader a chance to judge the validity of the opinions touted. Many pre-blog websites were designed to provide a page of "Hey, here's something interesting I found on the web." Blogs were the natural outcome. While purely personal, or literary, or photographic blogs are also nice, weblogs remain an important shortcut to finding information on the web.

Continuing education, adult education, is highly self-directed. One reason I like National Public Radio is that I can't skip over stories with headlines that don't particularly interest me as I do with print media (including blogs.) Radio is like the required reading list of a college class. Blogs that provide "must read" links are the next best thing. The Scienceblogs site collects the best science bloggers into one easy menu. If there were similar sites for art, history, philosophy, sociology we'd be well on our way to a really powerful education system without walls.

Blueberries

I needn't have whined so much about winter deer damage to the blueberries. When I was pruning in March it looked like we'd get hardly any berries at all this year. But the pruning paid off and the blueberry branches are drooping with the weight of the berries. I can't see quite how that works when the buds are formed on last year's growth. I'll have to observe more carefully.

Meantime, even with the bumper crop, I've selfishly added a bird net to the top of the bushes. Sadly, a bluejay apparently got his foot caught in it and died before I noticed. I should have some kind of motion detector alarm. Or I should pay closer attention. Or I should just ditch the net and share.

Innovative Energy Solutions

During last week's rainy weather, some time I spent catching up with back issues of print magazines led me to this article in Discover Magazine. Amory Lovins, physicist, eonomist, inventor, auto designer, author and consultant, talks about energy issues. This surprising fact jumped out at me:

A modern car, after 120 years of devoted engineering effort since Gottlieb Daimler built the first gasoline-powered vehicle, uses less than 1 percent of its fuel to move the driver.

Lovins explains that only one-eighth of the energy reaches the wheels, the rest being lost in the engine, drivetrain and accessories. Of the one-eighth reaching the wheels, half is lost to friction. So, 6% of the fuel's energy is actually accelerating the car. But 95% of the mass being accelerated is the car - not the driver. The point is that if we made the car lighter, we'd use less energy getting around.

Lovins continues with some interesting information, new to me, about potential use of carbon-fiber composites and thermoplastics in auto design. This leads, Lovins believes, to lighter cars which will be safer and longer-lasting. Not incidentally, Lovins suggests that jobs will be created "partly by having a vibrantly competitive car industry rather than a failing one and partly due to the logical evolution of the auto industry toward computerization [and] the aftermarket for improved and customized software."

Lovins offers more ideas about hydrogen and electricity. On wind energy, he says:

"If I could do just one thing to solve our energy problems, I would allow energy to compete fairly at honest prices...If everything competed solely on merit, wind energy in the United States would be a lot better off. It gets subsidized less than its competitors, and its subsidies are temporary, while its competitors' are permanent."

Why aren't policy-makers thinking this way?

Astonishing superficiality

Eleven syllables in a two word title is certainly not How to Write a Hit Article." But I share Jack Shafer's amazement at the NYT "Shamu" essay and the response to it. I'm not providing a link to the article. As a NYT "most emailed article," if it hasn't gone behind a pay wall, you can find it easily if you're so inclined. With all due respect to my daughter and my sister, both of whom emailed the link to me, don't bother looking for the article. It's a trite story of how the author applied behavior modification techniques to improve her husband's bad habits. As Shafer points out:

"The Shamu story establishes once and for all that men are the new women. You can now use the New York Times to write the most dehumanizing and insulting shit about them and everybody will laugh in recognition."

Shafer's first lesson trumps the rest:

Editors in search of page views should emulate the Times (and Slate) and pimp their headlines to attract attention. As long as the headline is half-honest, it's OK.

The Times article is headlined "What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage." Who (besides me) wouldn't want to read about that? Sadly, the article is not about Shamu or a happy marriage, making it even duller than the headline suggests.

I'm always amused by the Google search terms that lead people to this blog. I still get a surprising number of hits (anything more than one would be surprising) from searches for Skunk Cabbage. It's not just Shafer's "Lesson No. 5: Animals, animals, animals. Let me repeat: Animals, animals, animals..." My visitors are searching, not just for skunks but the total skunk cabbage concept. Runners-up in google search terms leading here are: Woodpeckers and Apricots - not among my most profound articles - and China's One Child Policy.

Fun Links

A blog without links is like, well, a day without sunshine.

Last week Maggy, whose mind may not be fully occupied by her day job, sent me this:

phrontistery FRON-tis-te-ri, n. a thinking-place.

There, Steve Chrisomalis, who writes as "Forthright," has compiled a "15,500-word dictionary of obscure and rare words," a veritable playground for those of us who've ever enjoyed the dictionary game. For example, on the same page with prhontistery: phreatic, phrenesis, phthartic, and phugoid. In addition, Chrisomalis has created thirty-two individual glosseries like: dance styles, forms of worship, units of measurement, and (probably Maggy's favorite) phobias.

Chrisomalis also presents a list of 2 and 3-Letter Scrabble Words including: AA, KA, PYA and LEU. If my opponent used those, I'd definitely challenge. And apparently I'd lose.

In Junior High english, I had to memorize a list of prepositions (about, above, along, among, around, behind, below, beneath...) and in high school I took three years of Latin, but I recognize fewer than half of these Latin adverbs and prepositions.

There's the sottisier (so-teez-YEA, n a collection of ridiculous remarks or stupidities), a collection of emails Chrisomalis has received - and presumably, not answered. And the truly hilarious Unusual Search Results which have led unsuspecting idiots to Phronistery.

Finally, check out the Language Links and The Ingenious Internet. I'm not sure I can face spell-checking this post.

Cats and Chickens

The cats have each found their own unique way to ignore the chickens.
This is Tang, trying to stroll nonchalantly by them.

And Magda, in utter denial. "What chickens? I don't see any chickens."




I just really hope I have the camera when a chicken wakes Tang up from a nap. It's bound to happen someday.

Meantime, I've really got to remember to close the screen door. Yesterday Bill I were working in the garden and wondering why we hadn't seen the chickens in a while. The usually hang around pretty close. When we came back for cocktails, I found the chickens in the kitchen.

Michael's Birthday

Today is Michael's birthday. He died in 1999 when he was twenty - by far the most painful thing that has happened in my life. Someone asked this morning if I avoid reminders of him. I don't. I really can't. I think of him, roughly as if he was living on the west coast. It's just maddening that I can't call him or expect him home for the holiday. So, I offer this excerpt from Kipling's essay, Rural Funerals , again.

The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal- every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open- this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.

Where is the mother who would willingly forget the infant that perished like a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang?

Where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of parents, though to remember be but to lament?

Who, even in the hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he mourns?

….No, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul. If it has its woes, it has likewise its delights; and when the overwhelming burst of grief … is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness- who would root out such a sorrow from the heart? Though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of gayety, or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom, yet who would exchange it even for the song of pleasure, or the burst of revelry?

Oh, the grave! – the grave!- It buries every error- covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment! From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.

… the grave of those we loved- what a place for meditation! There it is that we call up in long review the whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand endearments lavished upon us almost unheeded in the daily intercourse of intimacy-

Ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate!

Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of nature about the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, with these tender, yet futile tributes of regret; but take warning by the bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living.

More Need for Riparian Buffer Zones

Our stream joins many others here in Fall Creek where riparian buffer zones become even more important. The goal is to reduce the quantity of pollutants washed into the watershed by heavy rain such as we've had the past few days and to absorb water and reduce its speed when the body of water overruns its banks. To that end, streams are best protected by trees, with brush beyond that and meadow beyond that.

Rainy Day

It rained hard again today. Here's our stream, inches away from escaping its banks. Makes me realize the importance of the guidelines for riparian buffer zones the Conservation Council is working on.

Nothing like a rainy day to catch up indoors. I finally moved my downstairs computer back to its summer home in the West Wing (where it's too chilly in the winter to do much work.) Who is it that sneaks in when I'm not looking and braids all the computer cords? I swear I connect them all in a logical fashion and neatly fasten up the excess length of cord. But whenever I have to unplug anything, I find everything elaborately tangled.

Chicken update

It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to get a decent picture of the chickens. Here they are, doing what chickens do.

There is one who doesn't pay close attention when the group moves on. She's always running to catch up.



In other news, I did it! I've grown a rose. Well, I can hardly take the credit. I bought this plant in April and kept it alive for all of three months. Ask me about it next June. I generally don't try to grow things that require a lot of attention. The garden is just too big to focus much on individual plants. But a few years ago I took on the challenge of adding a cultivated rose. (We have plenty of beautiful, fragrant wild Rosa multiflora. You'd think that would be enough.) But I decided to try a Joseph's Coat climbing rose. It's growing in a wholly inadequate place in a perennial border. It manages, against all odds, to put out a flower or two each season. But this new rose, whose label I've lost and name I've forgotten, is in a better location and if I remember to protect it for the winter, I have high hopes for it.

On the way home from Agway with a truckload of mulch and feed, we visited The Plantsmen Nursery. Though they advertise "Under new ownership" I actually never knew there was a nursery there. And, wow, what a nursery. They have a fabulous collection of perennials and trees and shrubs that you won't find anywhere else. I couldn't resist a Magnolia tripetala, 'though I think it's on the edge of hardiness here. If it a survives, it will have 8"- 10" fragrant flowers. I also found the Witch Hazel I've been wanting. I meant to find one in the woods that I could transplant, but for $10 this well grown specimen was irresistible.

In the perennial section, Primula saxatilis and Salvia argentea are among the many species you won't find in most nurseries. And with my recent interest in Euphorbias, I decided to try Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon' with attractive purple foliage and early season yellow/orange flowers.

Foxglove

Foxglove has been the star of the woodland garden the past week or so. For scale, those trees are twelve inches or more in diameter and the tallest Foxglove is about five feet tall. I'm developing a pretty good list of things apparently unaffected by deer and/or the toxic root hormone of Black Walnut. Well, the list is pretty short: Barberry, Forsythia, Daffodil, Peony, Centaurea and Foxglove. The list of things at risk is much, much longer.

My success with deer repellent has made me somewhat bold this year and I'm growing lilies outside the confines of the electric fenced area. And foxtail lilies (Eremurus) - I'll never know for sure if they're tempting to deer 'cause I've been spraying them with repellent regularly. They'll be upstaging the foxglove next week.

Varna Firefighters

On my way home tonight, I was intrigued by a billow of black smoke from the direction of Varna. Having discussed the current ban on open burning with the Etna fire chief last night, I couldn't help wondering what was going on in Varna. I pulled into the Varna Fire Department to find this training going on.




Adding foam and water to the fire creates huge clouds of steam and smoke.

But, of course, the firefighters win. Thank you, Natan, Duane, Barbara and Nancy, for explaining the procedure and encouraging me to take pictures.

(Cross posted at Dryden Democrats)

Blogger : (

Well, Blogger let me upload two photos this morning, but no more. I imagine it has to do with my browser's cache but I don't have the patience to work it out. I guess what I have to do for now is upload five photos to a draft post when I first log on. Then at least I have their addresses when I get to writing the post. This is such negative reinforcement for blogging it's discouraging. I used to wonder why I wondered why people complained about blogger. Up 'til a few months ago I never had any trouble. But lately, damn. Log in problems, lost posts, photo upload issues...

If a plant flowers in the woods...

Belinda came back from mowing the trails last weekend with news of an azalea blooming in the woods. Bill planted azaleas grown from seed about thirty years ago, but that area's become overgrown with brush and we don't walk there very often at this time of year. We've long since given up on Rhododendrons and Azaleas because of the deer. So, imagine our surprise to find that these Flame Azaleas are thriving - even self-sowing.

It reminds me of the wild apple in full bloom that we found last year. It's amazing and delightful that we can still find surprises in places we thought we knew so well. It doesn't surprise Bill. He knows the place better than I do yet he always expects to find new things.

Rural Internet Access

It isn't entirely stubbornness that keeps me tied to this dial-up connection. The good news is that I have a beautiful place where it's a five minute walk to my nearest neighbor. The bad news is there are so few houses on our road that Time Warner is unwilling to provide roadrunner and the nearest DSL connection is still too far away. The only option I'm aware of is a satellite connection. The last time I checked installation cost several hundred dollars and the monthly charge was over $100.

When I ran for Dryden Town Board I hoped to look into what the town might do to help provide high-speed access to rural internet users like me. I wrote about it here and here. Since being elected, I've been tied up with the renewable energy ordinance, the stormwater runoff mitigation ordinance, riparian buffer zones and interminable learning about water and sewer districts among other things. Cable companies and phone companies keep talking about rural access, but until it's mandated, like rural electrification, I doubt any private enterprise will put much effort into it.

The town of Dryden has made a laudable commitment to maintaining the rural character of the town. But I'm not sure other board members understand what all this wonderful open space means. I don't think Jason, who bought my father's house up on Hile School Road, knew that there was no internet access there. His job depends on telecommuting and he's been doing heroic work to try to establish a wireless access point.

My frustration with Blogger is multiplied by the amount of time it takes to test each failed effort to post a picture. I'm going out to the garden again. I know, and accept, how long it takes to grow things.

Blogger

I'm one of the people unable to post photos on Blogger the past few days. It's making me cranky. Blogging is much less fun without photos.

Adding to my crankiness is the growing awareness of the handicap of my dial-up connection. Uploading a hi-res photo to Shutterfly takes more than five minutes.

I give up. I'm going out to the garden.

Wildlife

Yesterday was a crazy wildlife day.I started the morning with a casual “Let’s see how the garden is doing” tour. Remember last week I thought bunnies were eating the lettuce? The next day the bunnies were off the hook when I found a half-grown woodchuck pretending to be invisible just inside the garden gate. I caught him and moved him a few hundred yards away outside the garden and hoped for the best. But yesterday I found two half grown woodchucks pretending to be invisible in the garden. One was bold enough to escape while I went to get the camera. Here’s the other playing his best version of “If I don’t move you can’t see me. Right?” I deported him. Probably not far enough. But at least he’s outside the electric fence.

While I was hanging up the laundry the house wrens were complaining more than usual. I know the clothesline is kind of close to their nest, but we’ve had this discussion before. Looking around, I thought maybe it was the cat they were objecting to. Then I realized "That’s not the cat! It’s a grey fox." That may help explain why last Wednesday my chicken population went inexplicably from eight to seven. I went to be sure there were still seven (there were) and they seemed surprisingly willing to go back into the coop. I’ve been thinking it’s odd that they follow me around like puppies. Do you think they saw the fox? For now, they’ll have to stay in the coop unless I’m there to keep an eye out. I think I need a rooster.

At a five hour meeting last night, I was being entertained by a tiny red mite. As the committee tediously discussed each line of a ten page document the little mite explored the page on top. By the time we got halfway down each page the mite had disappeared. Then each time I turned the page, there it was. On page eight, the environmental planner who was leading the meeting absently reached over and crushed the mite. Damn! What kind of environmental planning is that?

When I got home after midnight I was admiring the bud of a Rosa rugosa Bill had brought me that afternoon. It's the most delightfully scented rose I can imagine. It opened last night to reveal a lovely velvety black caterpillar. See the hole it’s eaten in the back petal. (Wait. I can't seem to upload the picture. Maybe later.)


(Edit: 6/23/06 I was finally able to upload the photo. Thank you, Blogger)

Weekend Fun

Last week was crammed with political meetings and rain. So, it was a special joy to have Maggy here for the weekend for her birthday (or the "celebration of the miracle of her life.")

We had a great weekend, including a trip to the Ithaca Farmers' Market where we found this beautiful onyx and silver necklace by Zehna.

On Monday, despite Maggy's reluctance to leave, we drove her back to New York. To make the drive sort of a recreational experience, we planned to drive back through the Black Dirt region of southern New York and north along the Upper Delaware River.

Near Westtown, NY, there was a short detour around a bridge repair project. On a small back road, we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw camels, (yes, CAMELS, many of them) in a pasture with horses, mules, geese and such. Despite horrible traffic on this tiny road, we stopped for a picture.

We met Babette who explained that this is an animal sanctuary. The camels (there are dozens of them) were rescued from an importer in the Midwest. The sanctuary raises money to support the animals through Dawn Animal Agency which arranges for animal appearances on TV and in movies. Babette explained that they became involved in animal rescue "because, frankly, people suck." I'm sure we've all heard enough animal abuse stories to believe that and it's good to find people devoting their lives to correcting the problem.