Loading...Brian's Morning Newsletter
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Yesterday, our hay was cut, another pang of anxiety spurred by the fact that we have owned a perfectly good farm tractor for over a decade.
Good Morning
Again with the lack of inspiration of material to write about, sorry.
How about a semi-virtual tour of our yard and the projects I hope to work on today, provided the temperature outside is less than the 100 degrees of yesterday.
Above in this unsightly image is our old tin garage, a project which beckons, in a harsh scratchy tone, "Help me." I got as far as placing two lawn chairs in front of this project and pretty much just thinking about what a horrid job this is going to be. Why, you might wonder, would I want to clean out our garage? Good question, and be assured I asked myself that very same question many times.
I need to move the tractor out from under the tin-roof attached to Britt's bus, as the tractor must be kept under a roof of some kind.
Although I did spend a good deal of time with Britt, Desi, Dumpster, and Miranda yesterday, I hoped to do more actual work, so I got in the Dodge with my dog, and drove the five hundred feet over to my folks' house and picked up the two folding tables which did not survive Tusas, removed the hardware loaded them on the truck which you can see above, and will toss the swollen ruined particle-board table-tops in the dump.
Before I left from over there I visited with dad. He is not doing very well. It seems like a race between the medication and the cancer for which will kill him first. Nell will contact Esperanza a local in-home hospice care today, to get a nurse to come in and help with baths and whatever he needs. My god this is hard to deal with. Fifty six years Henry has been the strength of our family for me, seeing him deteriorate so quickly… well it sucks, and on more levels than I thought I had in me.
I know my writing is suffering as well, sorry about that.
Today I will setup the replacement Roku router for dad to watch Internet video, because it seems like sitting in his recliner is all he can do. Desertgate Internet has beefed up dad's connection speed so he can watch movies all day long if he wants to. Thank you Eric and Ron.
Back to my pictorial-tour, this tree was trimmed many years ago, leaving branch stubs sticking out enough for my daughter to more easily climb the tree. Brittany spent a great deal of time as a kid playing around and on this old tree. The title of this BMN is Gratitude, cleaning the area beneath this beautiful forest in our yard helps keep fresh in my mind all the things I am grateful for.
The same "Art tree," as we call this type of tree, shown from the opposite side. Way up there by the house you may be able to make out our new rainwater tank lying on its side. I had used the last of the rainwater on the garden yesterday and decided to clean the tank of Junebugs and pinecones and install the top afterward.
This here is the base such as it is, for the rainwater tank. Ideally it should be concrete, but it isn't, maybe someday, but for now I'm juggling more projects than I can cope with and the tank I hope will be okay, especially if I put down a layer of the hay currently sitting in the back of the truck. I got the hay from my parent's barn, while I was up there cleaning their yard in preparation for the Mountain Women Meeting, on Thursday. Mom kept repeating, "This will be the last yard party we have." Oh my god, mom you're killin me here. I moved the remaining tables around in their yard, while mom, approved or disapproved, "let's try this table over there, and that one over here," she would say. Well if this is the last party, then we want it to be perfect.
Now that I got the tank-top over here, I'll need to figure out how to get the water from the gutter into the tank while keeping the Junebugs out. Hopefully I'll figure it out in time to finish doing whatever to the gutter and get the whole thing back together today.
As I said, the hay is being cut, I haven't been down there, but from this distance it looks like a good amount. Now we hope it does not rain while we wait for the grass to dry and then the bailer comes, and we wait some more hoping it doesn't rain, until the people who are buying it get it before it rains.
Yeah, man that looks good.
And in conclusion to my little tour we end up looking up the hill to the west in gratitude of a cloudless sky, as well as a completely still wind turbine.
So there we are, thankful for everything
Brian Rodgers
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BMNer Weldon asked me about woodgas: here is the link http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/WoodGas/
________________________________
Perhaps you have heated your house, cooked your food, or even warmed your hot water
with wood, but have not yet figured out a way to generate your electricity, or run your
internal combustion engines with it….yet.
Well, guess what? This isn't even new technology, and it is available for you to use today.
This technology, called gasification, can be used to make the functions of cooking,
and heating, far more efficient, too.
From as early as the 1700s people have been making a high quality combustion gas
from wood and other biomass. This gas is similar to propane, and natural gas. During
WWII, a million vehicles ran for years on this "Producer Gas." This is not an
undeveloped technology, but there is plenty of room for advancement,
in terms of developing ways to utilize it.
On this list we discuss ways of using this very effective, environmentally friendly technology, for many things, from simple campstoves, to running internal combustion engines for transportation and electrical generation, heating our homes and water more efficiently than standard wood stoves, boilers, and furnaces, and doing anything else, that natural gas or propane can do. The group purpose is to promote the sharing of knowledge about the many uses of, and means of production of WoodGas.
Members are encouraged to share their knowledge, and hands-on experience with the rest of us. Visit our "Files" section for how to build a simple high-efficiency, clean-burning, WoodGas cookstove in under an hour, and see the difference for yourself.
Heat, Gasification, Gasifier, Charcoal, Gasifying, Off Grid, Off the Grid, Survival, Biofuel, Fuel, Campstove, Stove, Wood Heating, Coal, Electrical Generation, Alternative Energy.
——————————
The USDA can stop Monsanto
|
Thanks for taking action to pressure your members of Congress to sign the Leahy-DeFazio letter. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision, it's even more vital that we apply pressure directly to USDA Secretary Vilsack to maintain the ban on Monsanto's GMO alfalfa. Will you sign the petition to Vilsack today?
Dear Brian,
Although it was reported as a wholesale victory for Monsanto1, the recent Supreme Court decision on "Roundup Ready" alfalfa has actually put food activists in a good position to maintain the ban on Monsanto's genetically engineered GMO seeds.
The court ruled that the planting of GMO alfalfa is still illegal, but it assigned authority to the USDA to determine whether to allow some provisional planting to go forward as soon as next spring. The responsibility for maintaining a total ban on the GMO seeds — and protecting organic crops from likely contamination — falls squarely on the shoulders of USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The court supported farmers' claims that the USDA illegally allowed Monsanto to sell its seeds before a full environmental review could be completed, but Monsanto knows that it can use its power within the USDA to speed up the review process. The company has already requested that the USDA permit a so-called "partial deregulation" that would allow some plantings of Roundup Ready alfalfa before we know the full risks.
A landmark element of the recent Supreme Court ruling was its recognition that the USDA must take into account economic harms from genetic contamination of conventional seed by genetically engineered seed — things like the loss of export markets or loss of organic certification, as well as the risks to the environment of this "gene flow" effect. Monsanto wants the agency to ignore those risks and let them plant now.
We can't let them. Senator Patrick Leahy and Congressman Peter DeFazio delivered a letter signed by over 50 lawmakers demanding that the USDA not legalize GE alfalfa.2 Over 83,000 Credo members added their voice by calling on their members of Congress to sign on to the letter.
Thank you for standing up for safe and healthy food.
Adam Klaus, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Brian Rodgers
Visit the forum at: http://outfitnm.com/forum/ or;
leave comments online at: http://outfitnm.com/category/brians-morning-newsletter
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