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Post by johno on Jun 9, 2011 15:07:37 GMT -5
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Post by steev on Jun 9, 2011 16:04:43 GMT -5
Thanks, Johno; I will surely look into that. We need to keep our pitchforks and torches handy. Fascism, Corporatism, Feudalism, and Militarism are surely the Four Horsemen of the impending Crapocalypse.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 10, 2011 8:35:52 GMT -5
I dunno... I think stupidity, inactivity, willing blindness, and arrogance are the more likely horsemen. Something to ponder as I dig up the garlic for sure.
I put a link to the movie on my Facebook page.
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 10, 2011 21:41:01 GMT -5
Thanks, I enjoyed that.
Have you read Margaret Atwood, Year of the Flood?
It's a post-apocalyptic narrative about a fringe religious group called God's Gardeners. It is really a novel about ideas. Since we read it, we keep calling the toilet, the "violet biolet", all corporations are "corpsee-corp", my canning is our "Ararat".
It's one of those books that changes your thinking. There's a tiny elite intent on holding power at all cost, the obsequious corporate class, and everyone else... the pleebands living in squalor and violence while the world degrades around them. Gee, it almost sounds familiar?
I can't wait for Farmageddon to come out.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 10, 2011 22:46:11 GMT -5
Never heard of the book. Have heard of Margaret Atwood. I'll have to put that on the "to be read" list. We are completing our 3rd reading of the bible and 2nd reading of Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows. We read as much as we can in our house and we do it as a family because my husband can't read and we just happen to like hearing each others voices. We had a great conversation last night at the dinner table about building a flying bicycle. Look out Wilbur and Orville!!!
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Post by steev on Jun 12, 2011 23:18:53 GMT -5
That's a very good practice for kids while parents do chore-stuff, builds the habit of reading, with which one can learn just about anything, and reinforces the value of reading, since the 'rents like to hear the kid's reading.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 13, 2011 6:53:34 GMT -5
What is good practice? Reading or conversation? We do nearly everything together in this house. It's chore time now. EVERYbody is moving and grooving! It won't be to hot today so outside work is put off till later due to a dental appointment. School work is saved for the heat of the day during this season. It's after chores during the cold months.
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Post by Alan on Jun 16, 2011 10:01:38 GMT -5
Hear me out for the two seconds I have before I go to work......
While I'm enthralled that folks are waking up to the absolute shit that surrounds and enslaves them in life and while I'm uber excited that folks are flat out getting involved in the food system.....
There is a world of difference between "organic" production and sustainable farming. Joel Salatin, while a smart man and excellent marketer of his products, is in no way running a sustainable farm.
Relying on bought inputs and mechanical innovations is not what will save us from what is coming. I'd love to think it is but it is simply a "miror" of the green revolution sans chemicals. I am guilty of the mechanical innovation charge myself, but I'm finding alternatives, so should they.
I'd love to paint the rosey picture that things aren't gonna get terribly tough and that their methods will work, but I'm not naieve, I'm a realist. Things will not work with their current production models.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 16, 2011 11:22:15 GMT -5
Now I understand why I hate mowing the lawn so much... It's a symbol of everything I detest about our current society.
It's a waste of resources: gasoline, equipment, my labor, the biota.
To me the best thing about the arrival of Lady Teotwawki will be not having to mow the @#$ @$% %$#@$% @#%^&^& ^^%%$ lawn.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 16, 2011 14:31:42 GMT -5
The way I'm coming to see things is that level 1 prep for TEOTWAWKI is to be exclusively involved in providing as many things as possible for "yourself". I have "yourself" in quotes because it does not mean a single person, but rather a group. We are a group of 4. We are hoping to and working at incorporating others into our group by exchanging things and labor rather than cash.
When I say "don't feed the politicians", I'm not kidding. We, as a community of producers, will not be able to afford to support people that have not, will not, or can not provide REAL support back. Cash, gold, diamonds, etc, are NOT real support. Their value is a complete illusion that we have over centuries been trained to value above what is real, food/water/air/earth/time. Breaking the chain this fantasy will be impossible for most people and that will, ultimately, be the foot that kicks over the bucket. The survivors of the cataclysm will be those who succeed in vanquishing the lie.
Interesting mention of the lawn Joseph. An old friend of mine told me once that he had lost his love for his lawn because he had read somewhere that in older times having a lawn was a symbol of wealth. Poor folk couldn't afford to waste time or space growing something that could not be used as food.
I've been waging war against our lawn since our arrival. Mike has been tentative about joining the battle until this year. He willy nilly annihilated a HUGE chunk of turf just a couple months ago. I was SO proud of him!
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Post by steev on Jun 16, 2011 21:45:48 GMT -5
In medieval Europe, the castellans wanted open space around the castle, so hostile forces couldn't get too close before being detected; further, it was safer to have the livestock important to the castle close enough to herd in for protection, in the event of attack. So you clear the trees and brush away from the castle and encourage pasture instead. Voila! The lawn as practical feature of the local lord's castle, later to remain as status symbol, later to become as self-defeating as a huge, gas-guzzling, status-symbol car. I say this as a person who has made a fair bit of change out of installing this status-pasture for people, and bringing my mechanical cow around to regularly graze it. I never recommend lawn to anyone who isn't a croquet nut or doesn't need something softish and absorbant around a kiddie pool.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 16, 2011 22:17:31 GMT -5
I love my lawn. It's one of my best sources of organic nitrogen fertilizer. Love my neighbor's 5 times as much as mine since he's got 5 times more grass to mow and I also get all of his clippings!
Martin
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 17, 2011 10:09:17 GMT -5
I hadn't thought about the clippings aspect when I made that comment. Very true that and I guess I appreciate my lawn a little more than I realized. I DO like having SOME lawn... More as a play area for the kids to play baseball and what not. Guessing, we have maybe a quarter of our total property in actual factual lawn. Possibly a third...
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Post by steev on Jun 17, 2011 14:45:40 GMT -5
Until mulching mowers became standard, I harvested huge quantities of clippings for my compost, but it's not a great idea to carry them away, impoverishes the soil. Better for the lawn if the mechanical cow returns the clippings to the pasture, as a real cow would.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 17, 2011 15:30:54 GMT -5
Grass will grow in some the poorest soils and one does not generally hear of a lawn which has become barren for lack of nutrients. While growing, it is constantly removing nitrogen from the air and storing it in its cells. When properly composted, nearly all of that nitrogen becomes available for whatever plant it is used on.
With strictly grass pasture, it may take up to 5 acres for one cow. Not exactly practical for urban dwellers.
Martin
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