Apology

Today we "officially" are informed that Newt Gingrich will run for POTUS. As someone who has lived in Georgia for the majority of his life (though I really consider myself a Virginian) I want to sincerely apologize for inflicting Newt on the rest of the U.S. The candidacy is ridiculous, of course, and even as screwed up as we currently are I don't think we are screwy enough to elect Newt. He just needs to invigorate his income stream and insure that he will get his regular visits on the well paying Sunday talk shows and pump up his book sales.

Momday, Monday

Finally Monday and I have a day off. Worked four straight long days and the weekend in the garden center. My store is located in East Cobb county and the area is very affluent which means the residents spend big on their yards in the spring. I had several customers check out yesterday with over $500 in bedding plants and mulch and stuff. There really doesn't seem to be much of a recession in that area, at least. Anyhow, working the garden center checkout on a nice spring weekend day means hoards of people and long lines and not a chance for a breath between customers. It also means a lot of bending and lifting and it leaves me pretty much exhausted. I work again tomorrow but have Wednesday and Thursday off so I may recover before I have to work the next weekend. The week after my hours have been cut drastically to only 3 days so it won't or shouldn't be nearly as quiet hereabouts.
Speaking of gardening that is where I am heading. Madam and I are dog sitting for Minimonk and we have Megan so I will have company in the garden today.

Mixed Emotions

Waking up to the news that Bin Laden has been killed leaves me with mixed emotions. On the one hand I guess it ends one long trial and will provide some closure to people. On the other I can't help but feel that killing him will just provide the terrorists with a martyr and rallying symbol. I suppose we'll just have to see how it all plays out. I am sure, however, that well hear from the Retardlican fringe that this is just another lie from the Kenyan Muslim who is turning America into a Socialist country and/or if he is really dead then why didn't we bring the body back to put on display.

Anyhow, I have a day off and the weather is good so I intend to spend it in the garden. Maybe I can get the rest of the planting done and my water line to the garden repaired. I was saddened to discover a young king snake entrapped and dead in the netting I covered the okra with when I toured the garden last night after work. Either choked or died from too much heat. I'll have to give it a proper burial this morning first thing if an owl or some other predator left it for me to dispose of. King snakes a good to have around as they keep less desirable snakes like copperheads, moccasins and rattlers away. Maybe its momma is still around.

Good breakfast (eggs scrambled this time Steve) so I am fueled and ready to go.

Happy Beltane

Happy May Day and for all you Pagans Happy Beltane! Going to be a nice day here in Atlanta for doing what you should do on a nice spring day especially one with so many traditions. Unfortunately, I have to work and that is where I am headed. Enjoy!

Royal Hoopla

Madam was up and watching the royal wedding proceedings at just after 4am this morning. I stayed in bed for a bit longer but in honor of the occasion I got up and fixed a proper English fry up for breakfast. Fried eggs, sausage, potatoes, toast and beans. Plenty of good Irish breakfast tea as well. Now I am off to sell stuff. Pretty day so I imagine we will be busy in the garden center.

I actually got some good work done in the garden yesterday even though it is still too wet to do much. All of the tomato cages are up and staked, the okra is planted as well as the sweet potatoes. One or two more good days and I will have the bulk of the spring chores done. Still have to get all the cukes and squash plants in as they are getting quite large in the greenhouse. Work the entire weekend so it won't get done until Monday.

Everyone have a great day and congratulations to the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. No one throws a wedding like the Brits. Kate is a fine looking young lady and looked very regal. Since they have been a pair for some 10 years I give this match a good chance of lasting for a long time. Now they just need to skip old Charles and make William king.

Close But OK

We dodged the worst of the weather last night here in Northern Metro Atlanta. We got a good bit of rain and a little wind but nothing like what other parts of Georgia experienced and certainly not what tore through Alabama. The pictures this morning from Tuscaloosa are pretty shocking. I wouldn't be surprised if the death toll hits 200 when all is said and done. The convergence of several different weather patterns really heterodyned into some wild and dangerous weather. Let's hope we've seen the last of that kind of stuff for a while.

Homemade Pasta

I make it pretty regularly, especially when Kelly or Carmen give me some fresh eggs from the chickens in their yard, but a lot of people don't realize how easy and wonderful fresh pasta is. It is really a snap to make and you don't have to have a pasta machine(though I have a nice Italian one). The Flavor of Italy blog has a very good step by step on the process with pictures that is about as clear as I have seen. Just be forewarned that homemade pasta is like many other things, Irish butter, proper tea, homemade bread and on and on....once you have it you are spoiled. Give it a try and there is not even a complicated recipe to remember. For each serving you need 100grams of flour and 1 large egg and the rest is technique.

Enough is Enough

I know I shouldn't be, but I keep getting surprised by how low, mean and evil the GOP can be. Not satisfied with the pain of no medical care, hunger and overall hopelessness you come a story like this.

under a new budget proposal from state sen. bruce casswell, children in the state’s foster care system would be allowed to purchase clothing only in used clothing stores.

...under his plan, foster children would receive gift cards that could only be used at places like the salvation army, goodwill and other second hand clothing stores. - michigan messenger

What is it going to do the the foster child's already challenged self image when you tell him or her that they are not good enough to have a new pair of shoes or a nice new pair of jeans or even a tea shirt. These kids have the world stacked against them and this Retardlican SOB wants to kick them in the teeth. I think I am going to be sick.
H/T Cookie Jill

Ditched

OK, there is now a one foot deep and 18 inch wide ditch along the whole Northern boundary of the garden. All of the runoff comes from that direction and I am pretty sure this will divert it around the garden and into the empty lot next door. Digging a 75 foot ditch in wet dirt is mighty hard work but it is the only way I am going to get the garden to survive the downpours we have been getting. The forecast is for more supercell thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow so it won't be long before I have a full test of my handiwork. Did I say ditch digging is hard work? I am, as the Brits say, "cream crackered". Back for a day shift tomorrow and off again Thursday but working Friday, Saturday and Sunday and yes I have to open the store Saturday and Sunday. For Saturday that means being there at 545a for the 6am opening but I get a break on Sunday since we don't open until 8am. Anyhow, ditch accomplished, so the rest of the afternoon is sitting in front of this computer trying to get caught up...Google reader just says 1000+ unread messages and has for awhile...Goddess only knows how many there really are.

Thwarted Once Again

It has been quiet around here because I am working. Seems I close one night and open the next morning over and over. Leaves me absolutely no time for anything but sleep. Finally got two days off in a row and I got up early and started trying to get caught up in the garden. Tilled, hilled the potatoes, and all the other little things that the garden has been too wet to allow. Madam helped me get most of the pepper plants in  and we were going great guns...we might have even gotten the sweet potatoes planted. However the clouds opened up and we got another frog strangler. I just checked and there is a small river running through the garden. The huge deluge cut through one row of peppers and several are washed away. There is water standing 2 - 3 inches deep everywhere. So frustrating and now I won't be able to do anything tomorrow since it will still be soaked. Ever since my neighbor cleared his back wooded area which is slightly uphill from me I can't control the run off. and it floods me every time. We no longer get gentle soaking rains just downpours which do nothing but race downhill and wash away my hard work. It looks like I am going to have to solve the run off problem before I can expect to garden. I am off again Thursday and maybe it will just dry enough to get the sweet potatoes and okra in and replace all the washed out peppers. The Goddess is making it very hard for me to get a garden in this year and I have been good....really I have.

Games

The Goddess is playing games with me again. There are two deer(I think they are two does but they are young and could be otherwise) that know that I go out nearly every morning at first light to fill the bird feeders and check the garden. There is a maybe one hundred foot section of natural area between the back yard and the garden. Lately, each morning these two deer are somewhere on the path through the natural area and between me and the garden. When they see me they make a few bounds to the garden and if I move closer they then bound over the fence into the open forest of my back neighbor's 'estate'. Each morning they have also nibbled the tops out of a few tomato plants. Each day that  I can, I replace the chewed plants but the next morning a few more are nibbled. It seems as if the two deer are seeing how many times I can respond to the predation and each morning are waiting to see my reaction. Goddess only knows what will happen when I get the eggplant and peppers in the garden. I am already dreaming of new ways to protect them but when the Goddess is playing games.....
Oh! and I have a nice new head cold....bah!

S&P Rating is Worthless

It continues to amaze me that the latest from the S&P stating that the US Government's rating is "negative" though still AAA is being taken with such seriousness by the media and others. If I am not mistaken the S&P and other rating agencies were the main cause of the financial meltdown. Their rating of all the hocus pocus credit instruments as AAA which allowed the criminals on Wall Street to run their high crimes undeterred should have put them out of business and a lot of them should have done some prison time. Anyone with any sense would know that any "opinion" by the S&P is bullshit.

Cage Fight

Spent most of the day making more tomato cages. I bought a 150ft roll of concrete reinforcing wire and cut it into 8 square bits and then form the cage by joining the ends. As usual I didn't emerge unscathed as the cut wire is sharp point after sharp point. I'm slightly bloodied but have half the cages made. I usually get about 30 or so cages out of a roll so there are few more to do.

The damn deer have nipped off a couple of more tomatoes. I am spreading all the tomato cages around the garden to trip them up and the already planted tomatoes are surround with a wall of cages. Very frustrating but at least I have more plants ready in the greenhouse. The torrential rains have left the garden too wet to work in for now but I am off again Thursday so I should get some more planting done. I am having real worries that all my tender pepper plants, okra and eggplant are going to ravaged by the whitetail and I am devising ways to foil the critters.

I am trying to refrain from any political comment until the stupid subsides a bit. I am just at the shaking my head stage now and just can't work up the spit to consider anything going on worth wasting my limited time on. The politics in this country have gone from bad to Alice in Wonderland as in Mad Hatter strange and it isn't for a somewhat sane person to even consider.

Early Sunday

Getting ready to head out this early Sunday morning. Turned quite cool last night as the temperature is a chilly 45 right now. Should be a busy day as it is supposed to warm to 72F and be sunny. This kind of weather brings the crowds to the DIY store...especially the garden center.

I'm about halfway through Joe Bageant's last book Rainbow Pie. Thought you might like to
read the introduction to the book. 
Good read so far and it is bringing back some memories of my own Blue Ridge youth.

Have a nice Sunday.

Missed Us

We dodged the bullet on the thunderstorms yesterday. We got a LOT of rain but no damaging winds. The garden is very wet with water standing in the few rows I have already. Working the weekend Fri, Sat, and Sun so not much else going on around here as a result.

You sure wouldn't know there is a recession going on judging from the amount of building material I sold today and I will probably sell tomorrow. Crowds of people spending big dollars on stuff and the garden center was a zoo.

Off to bed as I have to open tomorrow so less than 12 hours between shifts. Dinner was a vodka martini and a handful of peanuts. Maybe I'll have some time for a good breakfast before I head off tomorrow...I just have to get up a bit early to get it done.

Chernobyl Again

Updated below:

The American media aren't really telling the whole story here. The initial reports of iodine isotopes being dumped into the ocean were no big deal(the half life of most of them are just a week or so). Now that we know the actual fuel rods are burning we are actually getting isotopes with very much longer half lives such as Strontium-90 which is somewhere in the 1,000 year range if memory serves. This is not good news as these isotopes will be with us for a very long time and within that time infiltrate everything we eat or drink. You can't find any general agreement on the effects of ionizing radiation on the human body but everybody agrees that the less we are exposed the better. I, for one, don't like my eggs to glow in the dark or my morning coffee to be self heating. This is going from bad to worse on a daily basis and it appears the tectonic activity smacking our friends the Japanese around aren't letting up much. I really don't see much upside here.

Sorry for the gallows humor...I couldn't help myself.

Mr. Bates has brought to my attention that the half life of SR90 is only 28 years or so. I must have been thinking of another isotope like Plutonium or Cesium or whatever. There are many that have half lives of thousands of years. Still, whatever radioisotopes are spewing from the Japanese reactors are not just old short lived iodine.

Thwarted!

Just as I got home tonight the skies opened up and the rain came down in buckets. My plans for a day in the garden are dashed since it will be too wet to do anything. I can get some seed started in the greenhouse but no work in the garden for me. We are even under a tornado watch....go to bed, crack the window and sleep to the sound of falling rain as a consolation.

Bad Start To The Season

Besides the fact that this "part time" job is working me 40 plus hours a week and putting a serious dent in my gardening time the wildlife has it in for me as well. Out of the 80 or so tomato plants I stuck in the ground on Monday the deer have eaten the tops out of about 10%. What's more they didn't bother the Better Boy or Rutgers plants which can be replaced easily(though expensively) at the local garden store but the Italian Heirloom I grew from saved seed which must be regrown with the resulting loss of a month. They went right down the row of heirloom plants and neatly nipped off the tops which effectively is the same as killing the plant outright. On my day off tomorrow I will have to replant and start over. I have to work the afternoon and close today which mean I won't get home until about 11p.
Due to the lack of gardening time some of my tomato plants got a little too leggy in the greenhouse so I am trying an experiment. I have cut the tops off all the plants that were too tall and planted the cut off tops in trays. I am hoping they will quickly root and I can get them into the garden...it's an old trick my grandfather used to use when he would "sucker' his tomatoes(breaking off the extra branches that form on indeterminate varieties (like Rutgers, Cherokee purple, etc.) and just stick the "sucker" in the dirt and grow a whole new tomato plant. We'll see.
Tomorrow will be a busy day as I hope to get a huge amount done in the garden. Several varieties of beans, some of the peppers, the rest of the tomatoes. I also need to get the seeds for cukes and different squash started in trays tomorrow and I still need to get carrots, beets, more leeks and stuff moved to the garden. I also have okra plants to get moved but they can wait a week or so since they only really get going when it gets good and hot and they will wait patiently in the trays for awhile...besides okra was the first thing the deer attacked last year so no sense rushing it.
It's almost time to get dressed for work and I still have a few gardening chores to do like mist the tomato cuttings and such. Later folks.

The Dark Side Or The Light Side

Am I the only one torn between hoping that the GOP forces the government to shutdown so that we can see what price they pay politically or hoping that a shutdown is avoided thereby preventing the economic turmoil  and the even more disastrous screwing of the majority of Americans?

I sure would like to see the GOP pay for their stupidity...it just irks me they are continuing to be such asses with no consequence. The change in the political wind in Wisconsin was refreshing, no?

Just Take It All

The absurdity of Mr. Ryan's "Prosperity Gambit" makes it unworthy of comment. If anyone with half a mind just reads it they will understand that it is just a way for the wealthy to get the rest of what should belong to us of the great unwashed lower class. Lower the taxes of the wealthiest and let the poor just suck it up. It's nothing but political and economic sadism.

My question for all those 55 and under is, how do you want your tax refund? I'm apparently safe(for now) at 62 but all you folks 55 and under have been paying taxes into Medicare for a long time....many of you tens of thousands of dollars. If the Rethugs succeed in screwing you out of Medicare don't you think you should be refunded all the money you have paid in as a separate tax out of your paychecks? Would you like a lump sum, a credit on your income taxes for a few years or maybe an annuity that will pay you a few grand a year for some years? Something to think about.

Almost Frost

The Goddess had some fun with me yesterday. The forecast was for a potential frost last night(figures the day after I put out tomatoes) and I rushed home from work and spent several hours covering each of the 80 or so tomato plants in a nice teepee of wheat straw in hopes of preventing any damage. It got close but we missed a frost by a few degrees and it appears that, other than a little wind damage, the plants made it through the night. I've got the morning off as I get to close tonight but it is grocery day so the morning will be consumed with shopping. I also have to drive out to Tractor Supply for birdseed. So it is Tractor Supply, Kroger, and Trader Joe's this morning and then rush home to uncover tomatoes and then off to work at 130p.

Other than dodging the frost last night there is some more great news... my ovens finally got fixed yesterday. I've been without them for over a month and so no fresh bread or anything else baked. Now I just have to find the time to bake some bread. BTW the experience with A&E Factory Service was less than brilliant. The first tech just looked at the oven and ordered the wrong part after nearly two weeks of waiting for him. Another week waiting for the part to arrive and then another week week waiting for the proper part and another week to get it installed. Granted my Bosch ovens are common but jeebus what a trial. I'll definitely look for another repair service next time rather than using the one recommended by Bosch.

Dodged The Bullet

We got quite a bit of rain last night but I think we missed the worst of the storms. Still too dark for me to check on all the tomatoes put in the ground yesterday but they all had little bamboo stakes so they should be ok. My schedule was changed and I was called in early this AM so I am off to sell stuff.
The tomato plants had gotten so tall in the greenhouse that I was forced to used a post hole digger to dig the holes for them. They are all nice and deep and that should actually help drought resistance once they form roots along the long buried stems. Still have a few more to plant but the majority are in the ground...now we just keep the fingers crossed and hope it doesn't frost again this spring.

Rampant Vegan Sex

The post title is not quite accurate but I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of weird traffic it might generate. It is that time in Atlanta again when virtually everything is blooming and the pollen is drifting in clouds with everything coasted in fine yellow dust. It is a riot of plant reproduction outside. This is the prettiest time in Altanta with all the dogwoods, azaleas and such in full color.
It was a gorgeous weekend but I had to work but I have today off and it is going to be full time in the garden. My tomatoes are way too"leggy" and they need to go into the garden today...some of them are over a foot and a half tall and I am going to have to plant them sideways in a very deep hole. I think the garden is dry enough to finish tilling a space for them so that is the primary goal for today...at least get most of them in. The second batch of tomatoes I planted in early March are still ok but the February ones have gone wild. Yes, it is still too cool for them to put on much growth but I will lose them all if I don't do something. Rain is expected tonight and tomorrow and I have to work Tue., Wed. and Thurs. so today has to be it. If I am lucky I will also get time to get the second crop of peas sown...we'll see. I managed to get the lawn mowed after work last night so that is out of the way and it was looking pretty shabby. I didn't reseed last fall so there is really not much actual grass out there just clover and nutshedge, dandelions and the like...it is green however.
Well, the sun is up and I am off to the garden. Big breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast so I am fueled for the morning at least.

Fried Rice

Long day today and not much energy to cook and the over is STILL on the frits....maybe next week. It was left overs tonight...All I had leftover was a couple of cups of rice so I went to my go to meal of fried rice. A little pancetta(homemade) onions, celery and carrots and you have dinner. I love fried rice and it is what I call my default meal. I always try and have some leftover rice in the fridge and with a few vegetables and maybe something like chicken or a pork chop leftover you can have a good meal. I always scramble an egg into it at the last. Nice, quick and simple and not to mention hot.

Do you have  a 'go to' recipe/meal that you can whip up in  few minutes? I have several but fried rice is going to be right at the top of the list.

No Time

I had two days off. Yesterday was rain and I had to do the taxes. Today was nice but chilly and I managed to get a little gardening done but not nearly enough since everything is so wet from the days and days of rain. The garden is going to be late this year. Damn tomato plants have gone crazy in the greenhouse and have shot up to a foot and a half over these cloudy days...going to have to dig a two foot hole to plant them in. Didn't get the second planting of peas in but I did get the leeks in the ground. I have two days off next week and the weather is looking positive...lets hope I have enough spit to get all the work done.

At least I am getting a tax refund....since I was unemployed most of last year I paid estimated taxes since I expected to have to take some distributions from my  IRA. Thank goodness the little bit I had in a Roth got me by and I overpaid. I owe the state a bit but the Feds owe me a couple of grand and that's a good thing.

It's going to be insane at work tomorrow....it's the "Black Friday" weekend and there are some really good deals to be had. Lots of stuff half price especially in the garden center. I'm going to work my butt off tomorrow.

National Book Week Game

Jim DeRosa reminds us that it is National Book Week. Here is a game he got from Poisoned Pen Bookstore.

Grab the nearest book and go to page 56 and post the 5th sentence there to your blog or Facebook. Don't post the title.

Here is mine:

"The result was a small warlike population with simple technology and weapons, and without strong leadership or organization."

What's yours?

RIP Joe Bageant

Updated below.

The world has lost a great one. One of the great writers and a damn fine socialist to boot. After reading his first book Deer Hunting with Jesus I knew I had found a kindred spirit. It didn't hurt that he hailed from the same neck of hillbilly hills that I did. Bye Joe and if you run into Molly Ivins wherever you are give her a big hug.

After a vibrant life, Joe Bageant died yesterday following a four-month struggle with cancer. He was 64. Joe is survived by his wife, Barbara, his three children, Timothy, Patrick and Elizabeth, and thousands of friends and admirers. He is also survived by his work and ideas.

According to Joe's wishes, he will be cremated. His family will hold a private memorial service.

I just got home from the part time/full time job and decided that I needed to have a stiff drink and toast Joe. When I read Deer Hunting With Jesus" I identified intellectually with a lot he had to say but at the time I was still doing the 6 figure gig and the resonance was truly intellectual. Now that I have been to the punching the clock thing for barely over minimum wage lot more of Joe's thinking is a bit more emotionally resonant. So, here's to you Joe and thanks for the kick in the head.

Port and Starboard

The shift schedule for the last few days is very much like the old maximum alert days in the Navy(12 hours on 12 hours off or what is known as "port and starboard"). The planned part time job has turned into effectively full time with more or less 12 hours between shifts. I worked 10a to 7p today and tomorrow brings a store meeting which starts at 6am and I then work until 3pm. No time for anything but a minimum of sleep and some half assed food. Tonight I suffered through a Stouffer's lasagna off all things and yes my ovens are still not fixed. Could be worse as it appears to made with real food...mostly. Off to bed with a 330am wakeup and it is pretty much the same until Thursday. What I do for medical benefits and with this schedule I'll need them. Not much time for anything but some sleep and "les toilet" or as we used to say in the Navy "shit, shower and shave".
I am off to bed and the future holds a brutally strong cup of coffee and another day of selling Chinese made stuff to the proles. Ain't we got fun! The only high point is that the weather is lousy with thunderstorms and rain so I might as well be working.
And another thing....I am all the time preaching about organic and natural but I am spending 8 plus hours a day selling Roundup, pesticides. pre-emergents, weed killers and Goddess knows what else to nice people. I think, that if there is one, I shall spend eternity visiting all my friends in hell.

Did I mention that most people are nice enough when you are nice to them but there is a small  percentage that are real pieces of work. I got chewed out today big time by a customer because he was upset that his store furnished electric cart/wheel chair quit before he'd finished shopping and he had to wait for us to bring him another. He actually left all his merchandise in the cart and left the store. The real kicker is that he wasn't even disabled as he had no problem walking out of the store in a huff under his own power. It really pissed me off as you can tell.

Tilling Day

Finally! A day off, good weather, and a dry  garden. I can till up the garden and get all the leaves and compost turned over in preparation for planing. All the plants are ready in the greenhouse with the exception of the eggplant and okra but I should be planting tomatoes and peppers within the next few weeks. I got all of my small beds done yesterday and the big garden is today.
I still have cabbage, turnips and leeks which wintered over. I guess I'll just pick it all and haul it into work tomorrow and see if anyone wants it. I gave Madam's physical therapist who has been coming by since her surgery some leeks and cabbage and she rewarded me with homemade dolmades and spanokopita. Needless to say she is Greek and the Greeks know what to do with fresh veges.
Anyway I am off to get petrol for the tiller and get to work.

Power Hours

Now that we are officially into spring, which is the most powerful of times, we should remember at all times the words of the Goddess:

"And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without. For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I am That which is attained at the end of desire."

This is the time of  rebirth and renewal. This is the time when we can be closest to the power of the Goddess. Stop the frantic day to day dashing hither and yon and witness the magic going on around you as the world becomes, once again, fresh and new. There is much power to be gained in this time so take advantage of the gifts of the Goddess.

Thanks for the reminder Hecate

It's Not About the People

Once again we are being fed the lie that our intervention in Libya is about the poor "freedom fighters" if it really was about the people then we would  intervene in places like Bahrain and Cote D'Ivoire where there has been violence at least or maybe worse than that in Libya. Never, ever forget that Libya has oil and that is what this is really about.

Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world with 41.5 billion barrels (6.60×10^9 m3) as of 2007. Oil production was 1.8 million barrels per day (290×10^3 m3/d) as of 2006, giving Libya 63 years of reserves at current production rates if no new reserves were to be found. Libya is considered a highly attractive oil area due to its low cost of oil production (as low as $1 per barrel at some fields), and proximity to European markets. Libya would like to increase production from 1.8 Mbbl/d (290×10^3 m3/d) in 2006 to 3 Mbbl/d (480×10^3 m3/d) by 2010–13 but with existing oil fields undergoing a 7–8% decline rate, Libya's challenge is maintaining production at mature fields, while finding and developing new oil fields. Most of Libya remains unexplored as a result of past sanctions and disagreements with foreign oil companies.

We are once again going to war based on bullshit and we doing it because some of our masters (Exxon and BP for starters) want the oil. This exercise has nothing to do with humanitarianism and people need to disabuse themselves of this crap.

Let's hope that Qaddafi is sufficiently cowed and that he backs down quickly. If he doesn't then we middle class and poor are going to have to come up with a little more of that good old fashioned "sacrifice" that we have been so good at providing.  Maybe we don't really need public education after all and all those people getting Medicare will just end up dying in the end anyway.

Relief for Japan

I am a little surprised  that the amount of relief donations is relatively small so far. Also, rumor has it that AT&T and Verizon are holding onto the money donated via text for at least a month, which really sucks( I am checking but have not been able to confirm this rumor). If you can find it possible to donate something please donate directly to relief agencies, because the money will get there a lot more quickly. (The Red Cross site allows you to use Amazon Payments, which is painless.) Obviously, people need help now:

Toler Clan of West Virginia circa 1933

My late mother's sister and the only surviving sibling sent me some pictures that she had. There is no date but from the apparent age of my mom(on the right) I would guess it is about 1933 or so as she looks to be 4 or 5 years old. At the top is Morris who as killed in WWII (shot down over Germany), on the left Doris(the only one still living) and at the bottom the oldest Joe. The picture was taken in the coal fields of West Virginia, probably in Mingo County and like I said circa 1933. These are the four children of Andrew Morris Toler and Ella Virgilee Steele. I just thought it would be nice to put this out on the net so it wouldn't be lost.

Super Moon

I haven't seen much in the discussions about the Japanese quake(s) and the fact that the moon is nearing perigee which will be at maximum on March 19th. There is speculation that there is an increase in tidal and tectonic forces when the moon is at perigee or super moon. The huge 8.9 Indonesian quake of 2005 also occurred at or near a super moon. While the moon's orbit is almost circular, the average distance between the the Earth and the Moon is about 238,000 miles (382,900 km) and this current perigee will bring it around 17,000 miles (about 10,500 km) closer. Just wondering and it should be noted that the moon will also be full on the 19th as well.

Pancetta Success

With everything else going on I did manage to find time to finish up the pancetta I started a while ago. After its week long cure I washed and dried it and then gave the meat side a healthy dose of coarsely ground black pepper. I then rolled it and tied it tightly and hung it in the basement for a couple of weeks to dry a bit. Today I sliced it into quarter pound pieces and wrapped it in parchment for freezing in plastic zip bags. I must say it turned out just beautifully. As you can see from the picture it is a nice deep red and just right as far as dryness goes. I will make a nice pasta sauce(Carbonara with Carmen and Kelly's fresh eggs) with some tonight. Another step in the quest to master charcuterie. Thank you Mark Ruhlman for the book and guidance. BTW the bacon turned out brilliant as well but I am especially proud of the pancetta. I now have to decide what curing adventure to tackle next. I'm leaning toward a traditional pepperoni but I am not terribly impressed with the stuffing capability of the KitchenAid sausage attachment as it took much time and effort to stuff the 5 pounds of Italian sausage we made the other week. We actually haven't eaten any of it yet since Madam didn't think a spicy Italian sausage meal the night before surgery was the best of ideas.

MIA

Yes I know I am MIA. Worked the weekend...closed Saturday night and then opened Sunday morning and closed again tonight. Tonight was the first night of our 'spring/summer' hours and we open at 6am and close at 10p instead of the regular 7a to 9p. I had two customers between 9 and 10. Don't forget that I am also helping Madam return to normal after her knee replacement last Monday. She is making good progress but I still have to pull her load for a while which means laundry, dishes, making beds, cooking, shopping and all the rest.
I have been trying to keep up with the news out of Japan. I have quite a few friends there and I have no word from them. Worry!
Did find time to go out this morning and get a new phone. I had a Samsung Impression which I hated. Horrible funtionality and the touch screen was a mess. No subtlety, no resolution ...nothing. The final straw was over the weekend when we "sprang forward" the damn thing  "sprang forward" all my calendar entries by an hour. IF I relied on the phone alone for getting me to work on time  I would have been screwed.
My new phone is the HTC Inspire 4G with the Android 2.2 opsys. It has so much functionality that I will be months learning it all.
That's all for tonight and I am off tomorrow...Hooray. Sleepy time.

Earthquakes and Tsunami

Serious goings on in Japan. Evidently this is one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded and it has done some massive damage. Positive energy to all involved. Tsunami's have struck the Hawaiian Islands but no major damage is reported and the West Coast is bracing for the same. If you haven't experienced Japan it is hard to visualize the density in which people live and work and such disasters are really amplified by the number of people affected. I can imagine the confusion.

Candle...both Ends

Madam's surgery went OK on Monday and as of this afternoon she seems to be doing as well as can be expected with her new right knee. I spent the morning at the hospital and then the afternoon and evening at work. Minimonk took over at the hospital. Madam comes home tomorrow and Minimonk will do the honors there as well since I, once again, have to work(and yes I feel guilty about shoving this off on Minimonk but if I don't work I don't get paid and I am too new to have any sick or vacation time accrued). I'll be off the rest of the week and can do the nursing, at least until Saturday afternoon and then we'll have to figure it out.
Anyhow, working late and getting up early to get to the hospital and then working has me a little tired and a glass or two of wine will have me bedded down in short order and since Madam returns tomorrow I will have to spend extra time tomorrow morning before going to the hospital and then to work to get the bed made and everything titivated so she won't return to a messy house. Madam is a meticulous housekeeper and expects it to be properly maintained in her absence. I, on the other hand, am my mother's son and while I don't leave dirty clothes laying about and hang up my towels and do my dishes, I don't mind a little clutter which is not acceptable.
To top all this off...I didn't have the time to make me a (lunch/dinner) for work and I went and had a Wendy's burger for dinner(Wendy's shares the parking lot of my employer). Yes, it is bad food but as far as I can tell it is better than the other options immediately available which are the ubiquitous MickeyD's and Taco Bell. I said a little prayer to the Goddess for the suffering of the steer in the CAFO and pretended the the lettuce, onion and tomato were organic. There was no irrational option for the bun as the Goddess laughed and scrunched her nose and there was no way anyone could be convinced that the bun had any redeeming value whatsoever. Hey, the fries had the skin on and were seasoned with what was professed to be sea salt. I forbade my brain to acknowledge the fact that non organic potatoes are in the top ten for pesticide residues.

Tax Breaks For The Wealthy Versus the Poor and Middle Class

Donna Cooper has an interesting post over at American Progress that compares the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations to the proposed GOP cuts to the "safety net" non security programs in its budget. The oligarchy has made putting their special tax breaks such as deducting interest paid on vacation homes, estate taxes and the like off limits when it comes to dealing with some of our deficit spending. All these tax breaks should be on the table since tax breaks take a huge chunk out of Federal tax revenue. There are two sides to balancing a budget, revenue and spending.

Nearing A Breaking Point

The following is not from some liberal or progressive rag but from, Marketwatch, and you should really read the whole thing. Just remember to keep reminding yourself that this is not from the Socialist Workers Daily.Remember also that in addition to these issues we have the reality of high unemployment, rising food insecurity, rising housing insecurity, worsening health care availability, continuing attacks on virtually all the safety nets a socialized society needs and less and less optimism for a chance at even a reasonable middle class life.

Yes, the rich live in a different world. And no, information won’t change them. But a revolution will. Revolutions build slowly over a long time. Then, suddenly, a critical mass, a flash point, something totally unexpected ignites the ticking bomb.
It happened recently in a remote Tunisian village. Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old college graduate, unable to pay bribes, set himself on fire to protest police confiscation of his unlicensed vegetable cart. That triggered a revolution. And his death rapidly led to the collapse of a 24-year dictatorship.
Today we have four hot time bombs, tick-ticking, soon to make history; any one can easily accelerate the revolution that’s already killing Wall Street from within.

1. Wealth gap: Super-Rich vs class wars, death of democracy

The gap: In one generation, America’s wealthiest 1% has exploded from 9% to 23% of America’s income, while middle-class income has stagnated. Even Buffett admits: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and winning.”
But my rich friend tells the real story, of their social disconnect. The rich just don’t care. They live in a different world, live by a self-centered code lacking a moral compass. The public welfare is honored only if supported by tax benefits.
The wealth gap is widening and soon something unpredictable will ignite a Wall Street revolution.

2. Wall Street’s doomsday capitalism vs rule by anarchy

A key Supreme Court decision accelerated and codified Wall Street’s ability to use billions stolen from taxpayers to lobby Washington and solidify its power, all for its own self-interest, through campaign payola, senators’ votes, presidential access, manipulation of regulators, grabbing tax benefits, etc. And it’s every man and woman for themselves.
Don’t believe it? Know this, democracy is dead and you’re in denial. Wall Street CEOs and Forbes 400 billionaires are either engaged in a secret conspiracy, or a classic anarchy picking apart America, oblivious of the fact they are setting up the next big revolution.

3. Pentagon’s perpetual war machine vs America’s budget time bomb

The mathematics of our $75 trillion Social Security and Medicare deficits often seem insurmountable, but can be recalibrated. However, the war-loving mindset of America’s neocons — fueled by China’s military actions, the insatiable expansion of our military spending and a Pentagon prediction that global population growth — is putting more and more pressure on the world’s scarce resources, and will, in turn, increase global wars and the demand for more war spending, increasing the risk of sudden revolutions everywhere.

4. Global population explosion vs resources, jobs, better lifestyles

As the world population explodes from 7 billion to 10 billion in the next generation, the demand for more jobs and the pressure on scarce resources will increase, while expectations will fall as the ratio of haves to have-nots increases, making the world all around Wall Street a burning powder keg setting up a revolution.
Bottom line: Forget jailing Wall Street’s dictators. It’s naïve and too late. We missed that opportunity. But a revolution will do the trick, give us a second chance to jail the crooks.
Until then, remember, these four factors are building to a head, merging into a critical mass that will accelerate into a revolution and destroy Wall Street from within: The widening wealth gap, capitalism’s new rule-by-anarchy, the high cost of feeding the Pentagon’s costly war machine, and the huge global population explosion.

H/T Susie

Thwarted - Partially

Today my first attempt at homemade bacon and pancetta is supposed to come to fruition. The pork bellies have cured in the their respective cures for a week. The bacon needs to be smoked but it is raining so I am just going to have to wash off the cure and keep it chilled until the first clear day I'm not working. The pancetta however will be hung to dry for a couple of weeks today. It will be washed of cure, peppered and tightly rolled and tied and hung in the basement to dry a bit. I will try some "undried" today however just to understand and know what it tastes like right out of the cure. Just a simple dish of pasta with bacon, garlic and onion. I'll take a couple of pictures a bit later after I get it all done.

As a side note I am also off to find a meat grinding attachment for my big Kitchen Aid today. I'll try Bad Breath and Beyond first before I travel all the way to Cook's Warehouse and let's hope I don't wind up having to buy it at Williams-Sonoma. I need a meat grinder for my attempt at pepperoni and dry salami but I don't want to spend a fortune. Ideally I would like a grinder and a separate sausage stuffer but I think budget constraints will limit me to a combo deal.

Wear Nice Underwear

You need to start paying more attention to your underwear

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as “a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points of interest” to “covert inspection of moving subjects” employing the same backscatter imaging technology currently used in American airports.

Working, Working

I know I have been scarce around these parts but I've worked 7 days straight. I thought I had off until Sunday but they just called me to work tomorrow for 6 hours. I guess I should be glad for the hours but I am losing ground on my home stuff.
Madam decided to clean the oven a couple of days ago with the self clean feature...it's clean but it won't unlock. Been through all the possible fixes like turning off the breaker for 15 minutes and allowing it to reset but all it continues to say is "Unlocking the door" She only cleaned the top oven but since both ovens share the same controls it means the bottom oven is kaput as well. No baking around here until next week at best which is the first available time for a repair guy. I'm going to have to buy 'store bread'.
All the tomatoes have sprouted in the greenhouse so we are on a way to spring. Peppers are not showing yet but they are always slow to get going. I used last years seeds for the cabbage and broccoli and got almost no germination and I am still waiting for more seeds from Parks.
Madam goes for her knee replacement surgery on Monday so I will be sharing the nursing chores with Minimonk next week. Just a partial replacement but the recovery is supposed to be tough.
Lots of catching up to do with everything. I try and get a glance at the paper and hit the high spots on the web but it really takes a few hours a day to get a good handle on everything. I'm resting today mostly so I may have more to say on things in a bit.

It's A Small Effort But Really Stupid

What's new for the GOP? Since Nancy Pelosi was the prime mover behind an effort to make the Capitol a little greener, John Boehner has decided the place must go back to styrofoam cups and containers. No, it's true and while it is obviously a cheap shot at Nancy Pelosi's efforts to make the House greener I'll guarantee it is also a payoff to one of his big contributors. To hell with the environment, what's the problem with chemicals leaching into people's coffee? John Boehner has an important donor to pay back and he gets to snub Pelosi in the bargain. Gotta love it.

We Have Pork Belly

I managed to score two nice 4# pork bellies at Whole Foods today and the bonus is that they are locally grown. They said that they don't always have it available but I timed it just right it seems. According to Sausagemaker.com my curing salt should arrive today via UPS so I should be in the bacon and pancetta business by this evening. The price is right as well. Fresh, locally grown pork belly was $1.99 a pound. Check out the price of artisan cured bacon sometime. I'll need less than a dollar's worth of Kosher salt and pink salt(sodium nitrite) plus some sugar and a week of waiting and I'll have bacon... a little longer for the pancetta which will have to be air dried after curing. A new culinary adventure begins and if all goes well with this trial I'll invest in some Berkshire pork belly which is also available locally from a few growers. It takes so little to get me excited.
Now it is out to plow a bit of garden for the potatoes and peas. It's playing in the dirt time!

Divide And Conquer

In case you haven't figured it out, let let me share a little secret. This latest effort to destroy the public service unions is just a distraction. The oligarchy has done its job on us...the non union, non public service worker. Our wages have stagnated, we have no retirement or pension, we have no health care. The wealthy have more of the wealth and we are worse off than we were 20 years ago...and the outlook is not good either. Not so with the union protected public service worker. They still have pensions (though somewhat miserly), they have health care, they still make a fair wage but not the outrageous amounts being reported. The public service folks are the last bastion of middle class folks with some prospect of a retirement without cat food on the the table.
The oligarchy has decided that as long as we can be distracted by pointing out that the public service folks have it somewhat better than we do(and Goddess forbid on our tax money), we'll focus our wrath on them (or is it jealousy?). If the oligarchs can keep us focused on how less screwed those public servants are than we are, we won't have the time or energy to focus on what's really happening and that is the wealthiest few percent of the country are taking it all and the rest of us can just suck it up. We are being repeatedly and deeply screwed and the best way to distract us is to point to someone who is less frequently and not as deeply raped as we are especially since they are being less screwed on the taxpayer's dime.
You can point out all the other facets of this you want, but this is root.

Fight among yourselves rabble for what bits of food and security you can find and don't bother us.

Still Good

Miscellaneous stuff.

Weather still holding beautiful. More work done in the yard and all the rest of the seeds in flats. Got all the crepe myrtle trimmed back but I was getting tired and the fallen limbs will have to wait until tomorrow since I have to work again this evening and I don't want to go in dog tired. I got two new 4x4 beds put in next to the greenhouse yesterday and now I just need to get some soil to fill them. Probably going to be an herb bed and a rhubarb and horseradish bed.

Everybody keep good thoughts going out to the Kiwi's. Christchurch got hit by a bad earthquake and we need to send some good energy that way. Looks like a bad one. Bryan has more details.

Libya going to worse from bad. People dying. Military pilots defecting rather than bombing their fellow citizens. No real information coming out but all indications are that Qadaffi is in serious trouble. It is long past time for him to go.

Mini revolts here in Wisconsin and Indiana. The GOP attack on unions is creating some major hate and discontent and it seems both governors underestimated public support for the right of people to have unions to protect them from the oligarchy. This could be the beginning of something bigger.

All in all not a lot of great news out there.

Glorius Day

Going to be a fabulous day. Seventy degrees and sunny...a great day for getting out and gardening...too bad I have to work but if I am lucky I will be outside in the garden center. Got the garlic planted yesterday and the greenhouse cleaned and straightened for the next pile of seed flats. Harvested some spinach and chard from the greenhouse and pulled a few overwintering leeks which made for a nice little tart when added to a few of Carmen and Kelly's eggs from down the street. Thank you ladies and your chickens too!

Off to work for me, but you guys that have it, enjoy the springlike day.

Great flocks of large birds (sandhill cranes??) overhead yesterday headed North. What an inspiring spectacle!

Seeds Are Started

Though somewhat delayed by the circumstances of life, I got the first of my spring seeds started yesterday. I'll get some more done this morning before I head off to work the afternoon/evening shift. So far only broccoli, cabbage and chard are started but I will get the tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant and other stuff going in the next few days. It is always and exciting time for me. It just fascinates and thrills me when I take those tiny, tiny and apparently lifeless seeds and merely put them in moist earth and they respond by bursting forth with a promise of good food later on. I planted leeks a few weeks ago and they are up nicely and will soon need to be transplanted into individual little pots before going out to the garden. If it stays dry until the weekend(which is forecast) I should be able to get the small raised bed tilled and the garlic in. I look forward to this time of year every year. I renews my being when I can get to playing in the dirt and growing things. The seed potatoes and peas are waiting too and they may get to see dirt this weekend as well. Oh Joy!

New Fun In the Kitchen

All you regulars know that I like to cook and learn new 'food things'. I've shared my adventures in bread baking, cheese and butter making, homemade pickles, kraut and all that. The thing is that once you start making your own mozzarella and ricotta(the easiest cheese in the world to make) the store bought stuff just pales. My latest adventure is to learn charcuterie(the craft of curing, smoking and preserving meats). I just received my copy of Michael Ruhlman's  Charcuterie and I am off and experimenting. I'll start off slow with making bacon and pancetta but I intend to go the whole route including dry cured sausages. The challenge is going to be finding a local source for the meats such as pork bellies and back fat. The book has Internet resources for the supplies such as nitrites and nitrates and bacterial cultures and casings but the high quality meat required is going to be tough. We have one artisan charcuterier here in Atlanta the Pine Street Market but I want to be able to do it myself. I love bacon, pancetta, dry sausage, summer sausage and all that so it is a natural next step in becoming as self sufficient as possible. This time next year I expect to have at least one home cured ham hanging in the basement. Stay tuned.

A Week to Remember

I mentioned that Madam was ill for our trip home but I came down with the same stomach virus Saturday. I managed an hour at work and then had to come home. I didn't make it home without a mess however. The nausea was short lived but the virus put me down until this afternoon. I've managed a bowl of Cream of Wheat, a soft boiled egg and a couple of cups of chicken broth over the weekend. The gallons of water consumed over the weekend went through me like a "June Bug through a duck" and its left me a bit fragile but  I think I am well enough to head back to work tomorrow however, as I am recovering quickly. Madam is still rather punk.
We both must have picked up the virus from the nursing home when we went to pick up Mom's things. The place was quarantined and the staff brought everything to the lobby but I am convinced that is where we were infected even though we were careful. It is surely the same virus that sent Mom into the death spiral. Stomach flu, dehydration, bronchitis, pneumonia. From its effect on me, an otherwise healthy 6'2" 250 pound man, I can see what it might do to fragile 82 year old and 3 other 'inmates' including Mom's roommate passed away in the last week.
Feeling almost human and had a bowl of somen noodles with broth for dinner. I think I will live.
We'll be back when we have more time to chat and no it wasn't much of a Hallmark Day for Madam and I.

Thanks For Your Thoughts

I'm back home (Friday night). Thanks to all of you for your sympathies and they are much appreciated. The three of us sons made it home and between the three of us the arrangements weren't too difficult. The small and only funeral service in the town has known the family for many, many years. They buried my grandmother and grandfather, uncle, father and now my mother. Madam Monk was there to do the clothes, pick the music and write the obituary. It all went quite well, in spite of the cold temperatures and the snow the night before. If you are interested the obituary can be found here.

I'm exhausted, what with the drive and stress and I will need a couple of days to recover though I work the weekend and both are the early shifts. Arrgh!Madam has caught a nasty bug and is down hard. She managed the drive back without crisis somehow but she is now crashed.

Thanks again for the support and good vibes. She was a strong woman (which you will see if you read the obituary) and spent a lot of her life in service to others. She and Dad did a great job with us three boys and I just hope I told her often enough how grateful I was for everything she did for us.

Another milestone in life crossed and I am now the patriarch of the family.

P.S. and yes the obituary reveals my secret identity(well at least secret to some of you) but them's the breaks.
The picture is mom and dad on their wedding day 10-17-1947.

Sad News

Sorry for being missing but I am in Virginia arranging for my mother's funeral. She fell ill with pneumonia on Friday, was moved from the nursing home to a hospital on Saturday and passed on Monday at noon. We'll  be back sometime next weekend. Thanks for your thoughts.

Nothing Good Will Come Out of Egypt

I haven't waded in on the mess in Egypt. If you have visited here over the years you know how I feel about U.S. support for Israel (we should have cut them off years and years ago) and I feel exactly the same about our aid to Egypt. We have a long history of supporting oppressive dictatorships all over the world and especially in the Middle East. Juan Cole expresses my views completely. We continually make the the wrong choices on Israel and Egypt and all the rest. Don't forget Ortega, Saddam Hussein, and the Shah of Iran, just to name a few.

Here is another view from Foreign Policy that basically says the same.

St. Brigid's Day

Today we celebrate Imbolc,or St Brigid’s Day. In Scottish it's Là Fhèill Brìghde and in Irish Lá Fhéile Bríde, it is an Irish festival marking the beginning of spring. Most commonly it is celebrated on February 1 or 2 which falls halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox  here in the northern hemisphere. Traditionally it is the day when the ewes begin to lactate in readiness for the coming of the spring lambs. It is one of the 8 holy days of Wicca. This is a day when you should reinforce and cherish your connection to the earth and your land. It is a good time to begin your preparations for spring with the planting of seeds that will be transplanted a bit later after the danger of frost is past.

I am going to be a bit late this year since one, I have to work today and two my seeds haven't arrived. I have some saved seeds that I will get to on Thursday but I have, at least, gotten my rhubarb and horseradish starts in the dirt.

Go out into your yard(or a park) today and reaffirm your connection to the earth and express your thanks for its place in your life. Thank the universe for the coming of another spring.

Blessed Be.

Win The Future Eh?

It's a great slogan...well other than the fact the it contracts to WTF. As much as I'd like to believe that we have the wherewithal to actually take a shot at the future I am sorely disabused of the idea that we have the spit to do it. The reality is that we have moved all of the foundation of greatness overseas. Its in China and India now. Yeah, I know we still have good schools and some high tech invention stuff and all that, and that's great. The thing is we can't do the small shit any more. For instance, we can't make our own shoes or clothes. Fully 95% or more of it comes from China or somewhere. I dare you to find some "Made in the U.S.A" clothes or shoes. (truth be told New Balance still has one or two shoe lines made here.). We also don't make our own tools. In my part time job I sell tools and nothing is made in the U.S. and that includes DeWalt and Milwaukee. Every screwdriver, screw, saw, knife, chisel, bolt, blade, and tool pouch is made in China, as well as every light fixture, ceiling fan, electrical switch, receptacle, shovel, hoe, pitchfork, rake and pretty much everything else you find at your local DIY store.

In the Wal-Mart driven world we live in today there ain't nothing, to speak of, "Made in the U.S.A." and that is the fundamental problem. Have you noticed how many products today have "Distributed by" instead of "Made by"? There is a reason and that is because we don't make it here anymore. I know that we no longer manufacture vitamins and other food supplements here in the U.S....all of it comes from China. I wouldn't be surprised to find that all the toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and Goddess knows what else comes from there as well and is just distributed by P&G, Kraft, General Foods and the rest. Who knows, because you sure as hell can't tell from the labels on anything....it all says 'distributed by'. Just check your next load of groceries and see what I mean.

To get back to the point...I just wonder if we have the spit to 'win the future'. We have been wedded to cheap crap from overseas for so long do we even care? We have been convinced that a box of chemicals is food and most are perfectly happy with a plastic frozen pizza or a Hungry Man dinner. Not a positive indicator for the future. Jeebus, when Jamie Olive showed a potato and several other fresh vegetables to school kids in West Virginia none of them recognized or could name them!

If you want even more proof that we are too lazy/stupid/poisoned/drugged to 'win the future' just consider that a large portion of our fellow citizens actually pay attention when someone as butt ugly stupid as Sarah Palin opens her pie hole. That alone should tell you that we are probably doomed and I won't even bother to mention most of the elected Republican party.

Seeds and More Seeds

The first batch of seeds are now on order. It is always a trial to decide which of the hundreds of varieties and I always tend to fail on the extra choice side which means I order more than I will probably actually need. The thing is if you want just a couple of plants of a certain variety you still have to order a packet of 50 or a 100 seeds. The good thing is that if you keep them carefully they will last for a couple of years.
It is always a pleasure to scour all the seed catalogs but a trial to narrow down your order to something reasonable since they all look so good. I got away this year with less than $200 but only because I kept seed from last year and saved the heirloom ones.
I've still to order my heirloom seeds from Seed Savers but that will happen tomorrow just as soon as I can narrow down my order to something sane. I want to grow everything, especially all the heirloom beans but I have to restrict myself to just a half dozen or so.

Spring Is Coming

It's warmed a bit today and I've got spring fever and have the itch to plant something. I've been looking through seed catalogs and am just about ready to make the big winter order. As luck would have it I just came back from Home Depot where I needed a small submersible pump for the greenhouse and while there I took a stroll through the garden department. Lo and behold they had starts for both horseradish and rhubarb. I have been looking for both as they are two things I don't have growing in the home garden. I'll get them started in pots in the greenhouse today as it is too early for them to go outside and that way they will be ahead of the curve come proper spring. I'll get some dirt under my fingernails today after all. When the harvest comes we'll all have a nice rhubarb pie.

I also stopped by Pike Nursery on the way home and found some organic leek seed which needs to be started now as well. I've still got leeks growing in the garden in spite of the horrible freezing weather and snow. The outer leaves are a little worse for wear but the freezing hasn't hurt the inside and if anything I think the cold has made them sweeter than normal. They will be, of course, one of the key ingredients in my cock-a-leekie soup in honor of good old Robbie Burns tomorrow night. And yes, there is a wee dram in the forecast.


Off to play in the dirt.

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

Seeing as how it is almost Burn's night (January 25th) and as how I haven't posted a recipe in a while I thought I would share one for cock-a-leekie soup. This is a traditional Scottish soup that is often included as the starter for a Burn's night supper. It's a very simple recipe and this is just one of probably thousands and some even including prunes. I think this simple preparation works best as a starter. It's not too heavy and you need to save room for the haggis(great chieftain o' the puddin' clan) and the bashed neeps and tatties.

The traditional method involves the slow simmering of a whole chicken but a cup up chicken will do the trick as well... you just want to be sure you have both white and dark meat.

Ingredients

1 pound or so of chicken breasts and thighs, skinned
4 cups chicken stock,
2 bay leaves
2 oz. or 1/3 cup long grain rice,
2 medium leeks, thinly sliced (using only the white a light green parts)
2 carrots, coarsely grated
1 pinch ground cloves,
1 tbsp chopped parsley
coarsely ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp fine sea salt or to taste (depends on how salty your broth is...taste it)

Process

Place the chicken in a pan with the stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Skim the surface of the soup and discard any scum that has formed. Add the vegetables, rice, cloves, and salt, bring back to the boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves and discard. While not absolutely necessary I like to remove the chicken, remove the meat from the bones and return the meat to the soup as it makes it a little nicer to eat.

This will make 4 nice bowls of soup.

Wally World's New "Healthy Food' Initiative

On the surface this is all apparently a move in the right direction. Wal-Mart is the biggest food store by a factor of two in the nation. One should never forget however that Wal-Mart is in business to make money. They are not a social service agency.

Marion Nestle tackles some of the issues and questions surrounding this new deal from Wal-Mart and she touches on some things that I think we need to keep in mind as we see this go forward.

We are still talking about mostly processed foods and highly processed foods with slightly less salt and sugar are still questionable food choices.

Two, lowering prices on produce can impact small farmers. Wal-Mart is famous for using their clout to drive companies out of business. We need to insure there is some balance here.

Lastly, no one is talking about Wal-Mart's nearly criminal low wages and working conditions and how these practices drive a lot of poorer people to make necessarily poor food choices.

GOP Belt Tightening

We are now seeing how GOP belt tightening will go. but basically, if it has anything  to do with arts, culture, public transit, infrastructure or the environment..its toast but Goddess forbid we touch defense spending.

The Republican Study Committee proposal would cut fiscal 2011 spending back to 2008 levels, which would save $80 billion, and push spending in fiscal 2012-2021 even lower, to fiscal 2006 levels, which would save $2.29 trillion, according to a summary. The proposal would strike funding for specific government programs, including the following:

• Corporation for Public Broadcasting subsidy: $445 million a year.
• National Endowment for the Arts: $167.5 million a year.
• Amtrak Subsidies: $1.565 billion a year.
• Community Development Block Grants Fund: $4.5 billion a year.
• New Starts Transit: $2 billion a year.
• Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants: $2.5 billion a year.
• Title X Family Planning: $318 million a year.
• Applied Research at Department of Energy: $1.27 billion a year.
• U.S. Agency for International Development: $1.39 billion a year.

Hobbit Marathon

I have mentioned the new BluRay disk player I got myself for Christmas. Pretty slick. It is an internet enabled model (Panasonic) and I have it hooked up to the wireless in the house so I have already watched some Netflix movies  via the tubes. It came with a one month free trial. My first impression is that there are really too few movies to select from that are accessible via the internet...I estimate only 1 in 10 movies available from Netflix are available so I am going to have to think about the monthly charge but it is only $8 or so.

Anyhow, I rented the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy on BluRay yesterday so it is going to be a marathon to get them viewed before they have to go back on Saturday. Believe it or not I have never seen any of the movies so I am looking forward to it. I did read the trilogy many years ago. I have, however, had a pint in Tolkien's favorite booth at the Eagle&Child pub in Oxford so that is something I guess.

I Like Covers

I have been seeing ads on the idiot box for the Tempurpedic mattress. I might consider it but I like to sleep with covers. I also don't normally drink wine in bed especially while Madam jumps up and down so I guess it is out.

Over The Edge

I'm come to the conclusion that it might be best for all concerned if we just went ahead and collapsed as a country. I mean let it all go. Why all this creeping slowly to the precipice? Get it over with. Screw the debt ceiling, let the bankers and wealthy have all the money, let the corporations that grow our food run amok and just get along with poisoning us all. Repeal the affordable care act, don't fund the new food safety laws, quit funding education and and all this 'socialist' welfare like food stamps and unemployment.  We might as make it a law that everyone has to own a gun as well.

I am, of course, being facetious but seriously... maybe if it got bad enough. If folks were going to door(at least to those people who still have doors) begging for food or a blanket to keep warm. If friends were suffering or even dying for lack of medical care. If you had to fight or threaten others to get food. The worst of the worst you can imagine is happening maybe people would wake up and pay attention to what IS happening. It's like the old joke about working with mules. First you have to whack them over the head with a two by four to get their attention before you can proceed to get anything done.

I'm just watching this daily slide or slow circulation around the drain and am wondering how bad it has to get before people wake up to the reality. Right now the GOP is wasting money and time voting to repeal the not so great but better than nothing Affordable Care Act and are offering nothing (really nothing) in return and in the process are building all their arguments on bald face lies in complete rejection of reality  and all the while knowing it is a waste of time and will go nowhere beyond the House.

Just today Jack Kingston (R-Ga) stated in the AJC that he was seriously doubting that the Congress would fund(1.5 billion dollars) the new Food Safety Modernization Act since America's food supply was 99.9 percent safe and the benefit just wasn't there for a .1% increase in food safety. Believe it or not, he and his staff reached the 99.9% number by taking the number of food related illnesses last year as reported by the CDC and dividing it by the number of meals Americans eat each year. While this is a valid 'statistic' it actually represents you chances of getting sick from your NEXT meal and is not a measure of our food safety. The actual number, as calculated by the CDC and others, is that 1 in 6 people will suffer from a food born illness within the next 12 months and that poor food safety costs us some 150 billion dollars a year. This rube is in charge of funding food safety....think about it.

Yes, all in all, it is probably just time to jump the shark or at least get to the point where people will begin towake to the reality of the crumbling of the American Dream. This waiting for the other shoe to fall is killing me.

I Refuse To Accept

I had to work today so I didn't get a chance to post this this morning. If you have been visiting here for any time you have figured out that I am probably what many call a socialist or at minimum a dirty hippie. What I really am is someone who tries to live a life of peace and love. I have embraced the teachings of the Buddha and to some degree it is because I lived through the struggles of Dr. King to find the way to a better future for all of us.
In celebration of Martin Luther King Day, a portion of his Nobel acceptance speech:

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!

Breakfast Heaven

I don't know if you know that you can now buy proper Irish butter in the U.S. I get my Kerry Gold at Trader Joe's since it is the best price I've found. Warning...once you try it you will be spoiled for any other butter. It's a little pricey but oh my how good it is.

Anyhow, a truly scrumptious breakfast treat is homemade bread toasted and smeared with lots of Kerry Gold butter and then topped off with Bonne Maman confit de framboise (raspberry preserves). It really can't get any better than this, especially when accompanied by a nice cup of strong Irish tea. And yes, it's what I had for breakfast along with a couple of sunny side up eggs and locally sourced market bacon. I'm happy.

Supermarket Navigation by Darya Pino

This diagram is all over the Internet. I got it from Marion Nestle at Food Politics. It is is worth sharing as it easily codifies Marion's rules about finding real food in the market. Which are:

• More than five ingredients (too processed)
• An ingredient you can’t pronounce (ditto)
• Anything artificial (ditto)
• A health claim on the front (these are always about marketing, not health)
• A cartoon on the package (it’s being marketed to kids)

The actual designer is Darya Pino (of Summer Tomato):

Hunkered Down

I know it has been quiet around these parts but I have worked a couple of days but otherwise Madam and I have just hunkered down. I did a little cooking...cheese souffle, meatballs, pizza, kept the birds in suet and seed and all of that. We got in quite a few games of Scrabble and watched a few movies. Nothing earth shattering.

Been reading all the stuff about Tuscon, Australia, Brazil and every thing else that seems to going awry. Glad to see the moose princess managed to put just a little more distance between her and any suspicion of intelligence or civility and the President probably made his best speech since taking the White House. Just amazed at the insanity that is evidently running rampant in Arizona where Glock sails have skyrocketed since the tragedy. WTF?

One of my regular customers is Aussie and he has been giving me the inside dope on the flooding. The pictures we are seeing here aren't doing the misery being experienced justice. Bad show all around.

Brazil's tragedy is even worse and expected to get even more so. Thousands missing.

Atlanta is slowly digging out from the winter storm...schools still closed and the roads are still spotty with snow and black ice. If you are careful no problems. It should get into the 40's today and tomorrow and that should help a lot.

Icebound

The weather folks were correct for a change. Lots of snow yesterday(about 6 inches here) plus the freezing rain overnight. I made it to work yesterday morning when it was still just snow on the roads but this morning it is nothing but ice. The arctic air is due this afternoon and we will see the middle teens overnight which makes the possibility of getting to work for my shift tomorrow pretty much nil. Not enough icing to cause power problems but the roads are horrible. I went out to get the paper this morning and the street is glazed over big time. It may be this bad all week if the sub freezing temperatures hold as predicted.

More Winter Weather

The talking heads are saying we will have a pretty good winter storm tomorrow night. That will make two so far this winter and there are a lot of winters we don't get snow at all. According to the TV we might see six inches here north of Atlanta but the bad part is that is is supposed to turn to freezing rain on Monday. The ice is what really sucks. I have to work today, Sunday and Monday and tomorrow and Monday are all early starts. Monday will be the challenge. If there is a lot of snow and ice the ten miles or so to the workplace will be tough. All main surface streets but a couple of nice hills along the way. My Hyundai, with front wheel drive and traction control, is pretty good in the snow but I worry about the idiots that aren't too swift at driving in snow and ice. It's really a zoo here in Atlanta when we get snow.

Third In Line For the Presidency...Think About It

From Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, asked by NBC's Brian Williams to name a federal program that could be cut:

"I don't think I have one off the top of my head."

This is the guy that is 3rd in line for the presidency! How can a person spend 20 years in Congress, and who has just waged a brutal midterm campaign that focused almost completely on the need to slash government spending, not be able to come up with a single program cut off the top his head? The taxpayers are sure not getting their money's worth out of this clown.

Paging Dr. Freud, Paging Dr. Freud

Rep. Steve King (R) lauds Speaker Boehner's 'mendacity', says it's beyond reproach.

I spit my tea all over my screen. This might be actually 'speaking truth to power'. LOL

h/t TPM

No Surprise Here

While it is the most profitable business in the world making obscene profits daily, it just isn't ever enough. Thanks to our bought and paid for friends in Washington the criminals running BP felt sure there was no down side for them to try and squeeze just a little more money out of the Macondo well.  Recent reports show that we are still at high risk for more such disasters.

Many of the poor decisions taken on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before the fatal blow-out on 20 April were taken to save time and money.

"Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)," the report said.

In a separate chart, it identified nine decisions that increased risk; seven of these saved the companies time. BP was involved in all nine decisions.

BP, which owned the well, did not enforce the proper controls to manage those increased risks, the report said. "BP did not have adequate controls in place to ensure that key decisions in the months leading up to the blow-out were safe or sound from an engineering perspective."

Cabbage Is For More Than Cole Slaw

Now that the Rethugs are back into power and pledging austerity(they are lying of course about shared sacrifice...what they mean is sacrifice for us grunts and none for the wealthy) I thought maybe it would be good time to talk about some more "cheap eats". When you mention cabbage to people they usually think of cole slaw, or corned beef and cabbage or even sauerkraut but they very rarely consider it in other ways. Not that there is anything wrong with any of the above but there are options when looking for something to do with a cabbage.

With a little seasoning you can do a lot with a cabbage and with cabbage we are talking "cheap eats" as you can get a head of cabbage for less than a dollar many times and a head of cabbage can go a long way.
This recipe is for a 'cabbage foundation' that you can take in any number of directions. It's nutritious, filling and tasty and depending on what you add to your 'cabbage foundation' it can be a complete meal. The following is sort of "Indiany" with the turmeric but I'll have some other variations down a little bit later.

For the 'cabbage foundation' you'll need:

a head of cabbage that weighs in at about 3 and a half pounds or so
3 tablespoons of peanut or canola oil (if you only have vegetable oil then use it) and there is always clarified butter.
1 1/2 tsp of whole cumin seeds
1 tsp of ground turmeric
a pinch of two of red pepper flakes (use according to your heat tolerance)

1 tsp kosher salt or to taste

Core and finely chop the cabbage just as you would for a coarse cole slaw...about 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces.
In a large pot or wok heat the oil the turmeric, cumin seeds and red pepper until you can smell the spices and the oil is hot. Add half the cabbage and stir for about two minutes or until the cabbage starts to wilt a bit. Add the rest of the cabbage and cook for another ten to twenty minutes or until  the edges of the cabbage begin to brown a bit(this depends on how high you have the heat and all). Season with salt and serve.

This is in its simplest(and cheapest form) but you can add to this. To add some additional protein try adding two cups of frozen peas when you add the first cabbage or instead of peas try canned chick peas or other beans (just rinse them first). Another great addition is to add nuts to the hot oil before you add any cabbage and toast them briefly before proceeding. Unsalted cashews, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds, whatever, again about two cups or two handfuls. Adding both beans or peas and nuts of some type will pretty much make this a complete meal. Don't overlook other additions such as raisins or frozen corn. The 'cabbage foundation' is pretty flexible and don't feel like you are stuck with cumin and turmeric either. Other herbs and spices are friendly with cabbage as well. Thyme, oregano, Herbes de Provence are good choices as is chili powder and paprika. The texture and flavor of the cabbage is a good backdrop of any number of things just don't overdo the spices and drown out the cabbage. A teaspoon or at most two when heated with the oil will do a fine job of flavoring a nice pot of cabbage.

Here is a combination worth trying if you are a Mexican food lover. Instead of turmeric use a tsp and a half of good chili powder, keep the cumin seeds and add a tsp of dried oregano...the red pepper flakes are optional here and will depend on your chili powder. Add a cup and a half of pine nuts to the oil with the spices before the first cabbage and cook for a couple of minutes. A can of drained and rinsed pinto beans or black beans  go in with the first cabbage and a handful of raisins with the second batch of cabbage. Another variation would be to use smoked paprika instead of the chili powder. Don't overlook the 'baking section' of your spice cabinet either. Allspice, nutmeg and even cinnamon can add an interesting note to this dish but then we might be talking pecans, walnuts, and dried cranberries. Remember...NO Rules!

Enjoy!

Not So Good On the Bee Front

Via Grist, more really bad news in the bee world, with new findings that "four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States."

If we lose the bees we starve to death....that's a fact!

Not So Fast On That Tofu

Somehow Americans have been convinced that all things "soy" are good for you. That is not actually the case. People also point to the fact that 'soy' is a major part of the Asian diet and has been for centuries but again, that is a little misleading. Most of the soy that Asians eat is fermented as in miso or soy sauce and they actually eat very little of it. Americans however, are consuming it in huge quantities in tofu, soy milk and as TVP and as additives to other foods.

If you have added a lot of 'soy' to your diet I suggest you read the link above. Unfermented soy is very high in 'phytoestrogens' and these are similar enough to human estrogen that the body reacts to them in unwanted ways. This is especially true of children. One study in New Zealand found that infants fed soy milk instead of cow or human milk had seventeen thousand times the estrogen level in their blood than those fed cow or human milk. High levels of estrogen in males suppresses testosterone and can have bad impact on you know what. It has also been found that soy increases the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease.

It is just something you ought to be aware of. Never overlook the fact that soy beans are a huge agricultural product in the U.S. and as such the purveyors of same have a financial reason to keep us in the dark about how their products affect us.

Floods Down Under

These floods are really unprecedented and unbelievably vast but don't even mention global climate changes.  Oh! and Al Gore is still fat!

Getting The Oil Squeeze

Oil extended a rally above $92 a barrel on Monday, spurred by expectations that a global economic recovery is gathering strength and as market bulls set their sights on $100 a barrel.

U.S. crude was trading 77 cents higher at $92.15 a barrel by 1108 GMT (6:08 a.m. ET), just off a session high of $92.20, its highest since October 2008. It settled at $91.38 on Friday, marking an annual gain of around 15 percent and the highest year-end price since 2007.

Brent was up $1.20 a barrel at $95.95, off an intraday peak of $96.04, also the highest since early October 2008.

This is not boding well for a recovering economy.  Every gas station I passed today had the price of regular at about $3 a gallon. The cheapest was Quik-Trip at $2.949. This continuing run up is going to keep our recovery at 1 - 2% at best and that means no jobs and basically no growth. The prices are being run up by the speculators hoping to make a few bucks off the world's misery before things turn worse but the weakness in the dollar is contributing. Can't say it is very encouraging.

HFCS Again

I've talked here at length about the dangers of consuming High Fructose Corn Syrup. People continue to research it and new findings about how bad the stuff is for humans are almost daily occurrences. Here is an article from Dr. Mercola that summarizes what we know about the bad stuff HFCS can do to you. In spite of the commercials from HFCS producers that it is just like sugar. It is not and too say so is a lie.

Here is the bottom line. The sugar fructose is toxic to humans. Historically humans only consumed maybe 15% of their sugar as fructose, mainly from fruit. That small amount is tolerable. Recent tests have shown that the HFCS in most sodas is actually 65% fructose(not the 55% we were told). Regardless, that is too much fructose for the body to deal with. Fructose is not metabolized like glucose, which when unused passes out of the body. Fructose is solely processed by the liver and unused fructose is stored in the body as fat and not passed out. An extra HFCS soda a day can add 15 pounds to your body weight in a year.

Now the food producers are trying to get the FDA to allow them to call HFCS, corn sugar on their labels. For now the food folks have to tell you that they use HFCS and maybe soon it will be corn sugar but regardless it is easy to avoid if you just read the label. The good news is that some folks in the food industry are taking the dangers of HFCS seriously and have stopped using it and switched back to plain white sugar.

It's Going To Be A Long Year

I don't know of any other way to put it. The GOP controlled house is going to demonstrate how profoundly insane they really are and we, as a nation, are going to be held hostage by them. We are going to have to rely on the sanity of the Administration and that means we are going see and very spectacular unwinding of progressive government in the near term.

It is going to be ugly...Here is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made on "Meet the Press " yesterday.
Graham was asked about raising the federal debt limit, and he acknowledged that failure to do so "would be very bad for the position of the United States in the world at large." Graham added, however, that he's nevertheless inclined to play a radical game of chicken, with the economy and the stability of the United States' role in the global financial system hanging in the balance:

"I will not vote for the debt ceiling increase until I see a plan in place that will deal with our long-term debt obligations, starting with Social Security, a real bipartisan effort to make sure that Social Security stays solvent, adjusting the age, looking at means tests for benefits. On the spending side, I'm not going to vote for debt ceiling increase unless we go back to 2008 spending levels, cutting discretionary spending."

"very bad for the position of the United States" he says. He is lying because, regardeless of the the evidence, he is not stupid. He knows that defaulting on our debt would be catastrophic, to say the least, for the world economy and it would make the melt down of 2008 look like a hiccup.

These idiots are going to play chicken with the world economy knowing that President Obama will cave on all their demands rather than see the world economy destroyed on his watch. Very ugly business.

1/1/11

I got nothing to say I just wanted to have that title on the tubes. I'm working tomorrow but off the rest of the week so there actually might be something to read here. I can't say I have good vibes about the coming year or two so we'll play it a day at a time.