Our Radio Journalist

As most of you know our youngest was privileged to do an internship with KUOW Radio in Seattle, an affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR). The program is called Radio active and the purpose is to train future radio journalist. We went into Seattle twice a week and into the station about every other Saturday for 6-7 weeks while she learned interview techniques, writing for radio, editing and I'm sure other stuff that I don't know. She was really thrilled with the program and produced a podcast for Radioactive about a women who is creating a home for the 86 homeless students on Whidbey.

You can hear it here. http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=26317 

Go to this website. You will see a picture of 5 girls. She is the second one from your left. 

Click on either the MP3 or the download to listen and don't be alarmed when you hear a bunch of noise that sounds like static. It is their introduction then there is something about some guy and ozone that last about a minute. Her story is right after that. 

Let me know what you think. We are very proud of her. 

Sue

The Zombie Apocalypse

I love those days when the kids are all home at the same time, quite often with a friend or boyfriend in tow, and we have all settled into the living room after a good meal for a movie. I had ordered this one from Netflix and then had to listen to the man complaining about watching some old movie (1997) that we had already seen and why did I order that one. The kids took a look at the run time (3 hours) and complained about the time. I didn't say anything except I thought it was a good movie when I saw it the first time. Guess what happened? Everyone was glued to the tv! It was actually better the second time than the first for me. I think because when I saw it in '97 it was very much a science fiction flick. This time fiction was much closer to reality.

The story opens in 2013 in what was once the United States. It starts at the end of a three year period of winter where "dirty snow" has been the norm after a nuclear apocalypse and our  protagonist (Kevin Costner) plays a traveling con man performing badly done Shakespeare in exchange for food, lodging, and supplies in various settlements or villages along the way. After escaping the bad guys he ends up taking refuge in an old mail truck and strips the long dead mail carriers uniform to replace his own soaked clothing. Taking a bag of mail he eventually continues his travels using the mail to con people into believing in a revived republic of the United States.

The reason I think I like this film is because it shows several scenarios for social breakdown and what people are likely to do in such a situation. It also demonstrates the power of hope and what people are willing to believe in when the situation looks impossible. Most of all,  I realize that all the prepping in the world could not prepare for the worse. It can only make it a little easier. Being part of a sustainable community however small is the one thing that would make a big difference.

The movie does not follow the novel very close at all but is still a good movie. In this case I saw the movie first and it was probably a good thing I did or I would have had set expectations and not liked it at all. If you are looking for some entertainment, suspense, and perhaps something to think about I highly recommend this movie. Available through Netflix or maybe even at your local library. If you have already seen it many years ago watch it again. You will see more this time than you did before.

Girls Night Out Or (how to ditch your kids)

Our little mother is getting fed up with her babies, namely the ducklings. Tonight she is roosting with the other two silkie girls and I can just imagine the conversation going something like this: "Those kids are driving me crazy! They are two weeks old and they still wont perch at night and all they want to do is play in their water. I spend my whole day standing on a wet floor and trying to get them to hop out of that stinking box. Not only that they talk funny too. They seem to want to talk to the ducks and you know how I really dislike those ducks. Have you noticed how big they are already? I cover their heads up at night to keep them warm but their butts stick out. I swear they are going to catch their death. cluck cluck. "

They really do seem to be a source of frustration for her. If she is done mothering them I will take over and try to socialize them. They certainly need it since they think I am the boogy man.

I need a martini. 

Duck and Remodel Update

The sun peaked in and out all day yesterday and I took the opportunity to put the babies and mom outside just long enough to change the bed and water in their brooder box. One of the ducklings was shivering right away and I have to admit it was chilly but I thought they would get under mom. She was more interested in getting some scratch time in so babies just followed her around picking at the grass too. They were only out for about 5 minutes though because the sun disappeared as fast as it had come out. It was working up to a wind storm with another cold front coming in. So we got blustery weather during the night with some little power outages here and there. The three older babies will be a week old late tomorrow. Sure goes fast.
                                                                                                                 

I am thinking about temporarily reducing the size of my chicken flock and re-homing some of them. I found a home for one yesterday through craigslist. Someone was looking for a companion for her hen. The reason is I have come to the conclusion that I could do a better job of getting a productive flock that would fit in better with my preparedness goals. I love the different breeds but some of them are just resource suckers. Meaning eat more produce less. More on this subject in another blog.

The bathroom is coming along and I am happy with the progress. The man isn't. He wants it done now. He only gets two days off a week (and they aren't consecutive). He also has a real problem not having his bathroom. We have a powder room that would temporarily suffice for doing things like brushing teeth and drying hair but the only other showers are upstairs in the girls bath (and he doesn't want to go there) and up in the apartment over the garage which means going outside in his bathrobe. He doesn't want to do that either. So I think I need to get the shower ordered and ready to install and the pocket door too. The idea is for him to take a couple days off sandwiched around his normal days off. With four days off he should be able to get the door installed and the sheet rock installed over it and the shower with the doors installed over that and hopefully have the tile guy in to tile the two walls in the shower. He may have to use the girls shower a couple days but it wont kill him. Especially since they are usually gone by the time he needs it.

                     

 We do have another girl moving in this Thursday though. One of the kids has a friend that wants to stay with us until she and the oldest move out this fall. We will call her Em for this purpose. We love Em. She has been a friend for a long time and she is a great kid. Always helping out and jumping in to do things voluntarily. She went to a private college this year. It was her first year and she found out it was just too expensive.  She attended two quarters and is already 10 grand in debt because she had to take out a student loan to pay for her dorm, a requirement for first year students. Our oldest attended running start during her senior year of high school, attended the same junior college and lived at home her sophomore year and has a significant amount saved for this fall when she moves out. If she is accepted she will be attending the University of Washington her junior year and so far no debt. Em realizes that this is a better idea or she is going to have a killer student loan debt when she gets out of school. However she is already in debt and kind of behind the eight ball already. But living here over the next few months she can get some prerequisites out of the way and work somewhere so she can save up a little for next fall. Working and going to school full time is really hard.

So not only will the man need to use that shower but he has to do it with another girl living here. The problem is all in his head but we will just work around that. In the mean time I will be stripping the paint from the claw foot tub and looking for the shower.

100% Hatch Ratio!

That's a lot easier to do when you are only trying to hatch 4 eggs. However we had to work at it this morning. My youngest went out to check on the last egg before I took her to school. We were expecting to find our fourth and last little duck all hatched out and playing with her siblings but my daughter came in and told me the egg was still in one piece and the same little tiny crack was exactly the same as the day before. She also said the baby inside was still alive. She could feel her moving and pecking but the movements were weaker than yesterday. I took her to school and came back prepared to do something about the last duck if necessary. And it was. The egg was exactly like it had been for the last day and a half. One tiny barely perceptible little crack and it was obvious the creature inside was fading. Now I know you
are suppose to leave them alone when they are piping. Mother nature knows best but I had already screwed around with mother nature by putting those eggs under that Silkie in the first place and I'm not one to stand around doing nothing. When ducks make a nest they place the eggs in contact with the ground so that the humidity is just right for hatching. These little guys were in a nice dry nest in a coop with bedding chips and under a bird that wouldn't go into the water on her own if her life depended on it. I had been putting drops of water on the eggs at least twice a day for the last week or so and I had a small piece of towel under the chips to absorb the moisture and release it back to the eggs when mom warmed it up enough. So in spite of all my efforts I was pretty sure that little one was still in that egg because I had screwed up. I took the egg up to the house gave it a light rinse with warm water and with the tip of a clean steak knife I started tapping on that egg right where the crack was. I just kept working across the egg like I thought a baby would do making sure none of the chips fell into the egg. As luck would have it her little beak was right where I thought it would be. I just kept chipping until I had almost half that egg off. It looked as if the inner membrane was dry and maybe stuck to the duckling so a few more drops of warm water helped with that.

You can see her beak in this picture. When she started stretching  and moving I figured that was enough "help" from me and I had better put her back under her mom to finish the job so I took her back out to the coop and put her with the rest of the ducklings that were huddled under warm wings and went back to the house to get ready to take the cat to a vet appointment. Did I mention it was also 29 degrees this morning?  Any way since I had a few minutes before I had to leave I decided to go back out to the coop to see how things were coming along. That poor baby was not under mom. I don't know if the other ducklings kicked her out or what but she was out of her shell, icy cold, and not moving at all when I picked her up. I was pretty sure

This is how I found her

she was a dead duck. So I took her up to the house. I just stood in the kitchen looking at her laying in my hand and kicking myself for taking her back to the mom in the first place. Her tummy was still open were the yolk of the egg is supposed to be absorbed and I thought that too was my fault for screwing with that egg.  Then I saw it. Just barely her eye opened and she was looking at me. My first thought was she had died but then her eye moved. Quickly I turned on the water in the kitchen sick and got it warm then put her on her back, nose and tummy up and let the warm water run into my hand but not enough to get on her tummy or her beak. I just warmed her up with the water until she started moving. I yelled at the man to go get me the lamp out of the garage. He set it up while I tried keeping her warm in my hands. Not wanting to put her down on cold paper towels I just put my hand under the light. The more she warmed up the more she moved but I was still

pretty sure she wasn't going to make it. When she dried off a bit and the box and paper towels had warmed up to  87 degrees we put her under the light along with a rolled bolster of paper towels to keep off drafts. Little by little that little fighter came back.

By noon she was walking around and trying to get out of the little box I had her in. I had to tape the flaps up to make the box taller. When the oldest got home she immediately started to spoil that little duck rotten.  Putting her on her lap and letting her walk on her computer while she did homework. When the youngest got home it got worse and soon that little duck didn't want to stay in the box and would just scream her head off.

Now it doesn't take long for a baby bird to imprint on people and this one had wasted no time doing so. I went to the coop and got one of the other babies and brought it up to keep this one company and to let it know it was a duck. They stayed in the house all night so that I could make sure the weaker one was going to make it. Buy morning she was eating and drinking and so far so good. After the girls went to school I went down to check on mom and the other two babies. Mom needed a poo break so I put her on the floor while I changed the wet papers in the brooder box. What a difference in babies. The two that spent the night with mom thought I was a monster. Guess the kids will be doing some bird socializing. It's so much easier to fix a bird in trouble if they are use to human handlers.

All four babies are now with mom so I will be keeping an eye on things to make sure the littlest doesn't get bossed around. I will end with photos of mom and babies. To see larger images just click on the photos.

First Baby is Here!

Success! 

Hatching Update

Mama didn't like me invading her nest. 

My youngest wanted to go see how the duck eggs were doing after school today. I had given someone 12 duck eggs to incubate in an incubator last month and they only hatched 2 out of 12. So I told her not to get too excited that I thought we either had 3 live eggs and 1 rotten egg or 1 live egg and 3 rotten eggs because 3 looked alike and 1 looked different. (I had not candled them). We had also started out with both Silkies with two eggs each but the black one got sick and I had to put all four under the white one. She didn't mind but I had my doubts that she could cover all four of those big eggs.

When we got past the attack geese (ya the geese go after everyone but me because it's breeding season) and into the coop I took mama off the nest for a food and water break and we started looking. Damn if one didn't have a crack in it. I thought maybe mama had done it though so I picked it up and I could feel the little

You can see the raised spot in this photo that is the crack 

guy moving around and pecking. I held it up to her ear so my youngest could hear the pecking. Then said "we have at least one live one". Then we heard it peep. She was so excited. I decided to check the others and I could feel something in the second one too. When my daughter felt the last two she could feel life in them also but much fainter. So if they all manage to finish we have 4 potential ducklings on the way. Last week the black silkie had climbed back in the nest to help but only lasted a day and got off. But she will get her chance.  Guess I better go find a brooder box and light for them because we had a cold front move in today and it is suppose to get down to 30 degrees tonight. It would be nice if they were all girls. The duck eggs are proving to be very popular with my egg customers. And last night my girls and the man wanted to try deviled goose eggs with dinner. They were almost a meal by themselves.

Tuesday is Hatch Day!

Next Tueday marks 28 days from the time I slipped those duck eggs under my Silkies. Although Baby Mama (the black one) wasn't able to continue on the nest due to illness she is insisting on helping to finish the hatch. So I have both on the one nest. Guess we will just see what happens unless I can convince her to get off. 

Why be prepared? econ 101

Barton M. Biggs is a money manager running Traxis Partners, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund based in New York City. He formerly held the title of "chief global strategist" for Morgan Stanley and was with that firm for 30 years.His influence could be seen when, in 1996, some traders were surprised that India funds suddenly became popular. "Barton Biggs is there, having a look around," one trader said. "Do you need to know more?"


Biggs is also author of the 2008 book Wealth, War and Wisdom (358 pages; Wiley; January 2008; ISBN 978-0-470-22307-9). In this book, Biggs has a gloomy outlook for the economic future, and suggests that investors take survivalist measures, such as looking into "polar cities" as safe refuges for future survivors of global warming. In the book, Biggs recommends that his readers should “assume the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure.” He goes so far as to recommend planning adaptation strategies now and setting up survival retreats: “Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food,” Mr. Biggs writes. “It should be well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc. Think Swiss Family Robinson. Even in America and Europe there could be moments of riot and rebellion when law and order temporarily completely breaks down.”^[7]

I didn't write that. I copied it from Wikipedia. It can be found on numerous web sites including news sites and I included it because I thought it interesting (maybe a little scary) that a Wall Street-er would say it.  Although I don't think this will happen all at once I do think we are in for a "lifestyle correction" that will take place over time. How much time I don't know but given there is a learning curve to anything you need to learn the sooner you get to it the better.


 One of the biggest hurdles to being prepared is to know what it is you are preparing for. Whether it's peak oil, economic collapse, mother nature pitching a fit, or a pandemic.  I have to say it is pretty much impossible to convince anyone of something they don't want to believe. Until it happens.And I'm not saying the world is coming to an end in (pick a month)______ because that's kind of silly. What I am saying is change is inevitable. And being just a little bit prepared for that will make your life much easier and cost you nothing but a little time and fore thought. We have a tendency to believe that Kroger store will always be stocked and you will always be able to buy fuel (for car or home) but it hasn't always been that way and it hasn't been that long ago that it wasn't that way. We have been living in a sweet spot for enough years that our kids can't imagine things being different than it is right now. Being prepared also means knowing why something isn't working. What the circumstances are that lead up to it and the best way of coping with it......before it happens. The last post on this subject was about peak oil. Let's move on.

Economic collapse-For years we have been working up to what we call our current "economic recession". We have had them in the past starting with the first major US  panic of 1819 Followed by the  panic of 1837  and the panic of  1873 that triggered a severe international depression in the US and Europe. It was referred to as the great depression until the "Great Depression" of 1930's that we are more familiar with thanks to our exposure to relatives that actually lived through it. I suppose most of them are all old enough to be dead now so perhaps we will forget that hard won history and repeat it. The panic of 1873 is now referred to as the Long Depression.  That's not to say we hadn't experienced economic downturns before (in the late 1700's and early 1800's) but these were caused more from the Atlantic economy and foreign trade. (deep breath)

So what is different about it this time? Events leading up to it. Some that I wont even mention for fear of  this  becoming a book. But let's start with the end of the Gold Standard.  This was  a fairly workable system until Nixon decided to get rid of the gold standard and just print money. This is called fiat currency  and is the system used in the US today. It works as long as other countries have confidence in the country producing it and the government is a responsible one.  In 1971 Nixon(R) had a choice to declare bankruptcy and tell the world we didn't have the gold to back up the debt we had run up after Vietnam or get rid of the gold standard in the United States. Bankruptcy would have been the responsible thing to do but not politically expedient. That was the year I graduated from school and I remember how impossible it was to get any kind of job. (It was also pretty hard to get gas for a car too.) He chose the later telling the world the US was going off the gold standard and our currency would be the standard of exchange worldwide and anyone wanting to trade oil had to do it in US dollars. Our GDP was huge and our oil reserves well stocked making the US look like a good alternative to the gold standard. So the rest of the world went along with it. They had confidence that we could pay our debts even though we were living beyond our means.  At that time the government started printing money and the whole mess just started rolling downhill. When Nixon left office our debt was about 35% of the GDP. Ford(R) took office and nine months into his presidency US involvement in Vietnam ended and he resided over the weakest economy since the Great Depression. Jimmy Carter(D) took office in 1977 during a time of international  Stagflation which persisted through out his term.  Regan(R) took office in 1980. He advocated reducing tax rates (for the wealthy of course) and depending on a concept called trickle-down_economics leaving the people worse off than before. He is also known for deregulation. Something we are still paying for in that corporations and banks have little or no government over site leaving them to pretty much do as they wish. The CEO's like this. Perhaps the best way to understand how regulation and deregulation  works is to read this link. Then in March of 2006 congress voted to raise the limit on our debt instead of raising taxes (on the wealthy?) and spending less. Not only does this sound familiar, it sounds a lot like someone with a credit card that just maxed it out. So what do we do?  Well we simply got the credit limit raised. As a result in 2009 our debt was closer to 90% of the GDP. George Bush Sr. (R) took office in 1989 after a successful career in the Navy, graduating from Yale, becoming a successful business man, and making his fortune in the oil business. He inherited huge deficits left over from the Reagan era and managed to piss off most of the Republican party by doing the right thing and trying to reduce the deficit. Republicans wanted to reduce government spending and the Democrats wanted to raise taxes.  He lasted one term. Sound familiar? Bill Clinton(D) took office in 1993 and ran for two terms. He presided over the longest period of peace time economic expansion in American history. He worked with George Bush Sr. to pass NAFTA (which had been crafted during Bushes presidency) signing it into law during his term and was involved in Barack Obama's campaign.The congressional budget office reported budget surpluses for 1998, 1999, and 2000 during the last 3 years of Clinton's presidency. Despite his scandal he left office with the highest end of office approval rating of any president since world war II. Since leaving office he has been highly rated in public opinion polls of U.S. presidents.

Then we have George W. Bush (R). What can I say. A lot I guess but I would need to write pages and pages so it would be best if you just follow the link and read for yourself. All I can say is the same thing I said to my sister during his campaign. If this man walked into my business with his resume I would definitely file it in the round file before he got out the door. I don't need a cheerleader or a baseball player. And I certainly don't need someone skilled at bankrupting businesses. I could say "how he ever got elected is beyond me" but I have my suspicions about that too. Now this should get some of you fired up I'm sure.
Under GW we got a tax cut for the wealthy, GDP grew at average rate of 2.5% (considerably below average), poverty rate peaked at 12.7%, and the national debt increased 100% from 5.6 trillion in 2000 to 11.3 in 2008. By the end of his presidency unemployment climbed to 7.2% and kept going. In December 2007 the U.S. entered the longest post WWII recession which included a housing market "correction", sub prime mortgage crisis, soaring oil prices, and a declining dollar. To aid the situation Bush signed a $170 billion economic package intended to improve the economy. (Maybe that was suppose to be trickle down economics) Many economist and world governments determined that the situation became the worst financial crises since the Great Depression. In November 2008 over 500,000 jobs had been lost, the largest loss of jobs in 34 years. By the end of 2008 2.6 million US jobs had been lost. I could go on but what's the point. You get the idea.

January 20th 2009. Barack Obama(D) took office. If it had been me I would have run screaming in the other direction rather than inherit that mess. But he didn't. Unfortunately the American people were looking for Superman. He isn't. It will take a lot of work and time to climb out of this mess and it will take even longer since he is now bucking the republican head winds. The question here is will he last long enough to actually make a difference? Will he win this next election and be able to say full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes. Let's get'er done? Well it took a while to get here and while 4 years isn't enough 8 years may at least put us back on track to get there. But what if it isn't. Are you prepared to ride it out? Are you independent enough to live on your own without the help of society basically? Do you own your home out right, have an independent source of income and a way to feed yourself?

What I am saying is learn to take care of yourself and work towards getting your community to come together to take care of each other. It hurts no one and makes you and those around you happier in their self sufficiency. The next couple post will be about peak water and food. Hopefully they wont be as long and maybe there will be some pictures? Stick with me here. We will eventually get to what we can or should do about it.

I am so Frustrated

Could use a little help from someone that knows something about Blogger. I have been fighting with the comment box for weeks. My last post "silky mothers" etc. Would not put a comment box at the end of the post. I tried everything I could think of. All the old post appear to have a comment box. I thought maybe it was because it was a new post and when it became the post before the one I am writing now a comment box would pop up. Nope not yet anyway. And to make matters worse this one seems to have a comment box. So if anyone out there knows what the heck is up give me a heads up will ya?

Silky Mothers, Geese, and the Wrecking Ball

Goose egg,  duck egg, chicken egg

Today we got our first goose egg from our Sebastapols. I was watching from the kitchen window but didn't realize she was laying an egg because she was sitting in the open in front of the chicken coup. I should have known because both ganders were guarding her from all the other birds like she was a queen. I thought it odd but didn't see the egg until I went out to put them away for the night. I hope she figures out what a nest box is for.

Two of my three Silkies started sitting on duck eggs almost two weeks ago.  About the second day I noticed Baby Mama wasn't really sitting on the eggs. She was straddling them and trying to keep them warm but not setting. She didn't look good at all and she was extremely thirsty. She would drink and drink and then the water would just run out her mouth. She had diarrhea too. It was time to do something or lose her so I took the eggs and put them under the other silkie and mixed up a teaspoon of Epsom salts with 1/2 cup water and flushed her with an eye dropper. After two days of that I switched her to Pedialyte for a day.  Guess that did the trick because she started eating. I also rigged up a light over her perch to keep her warm. She seems OK now and not interested too much in the eggs that the other is sitting on. I was afraid she had a broken, stuck egg because her eggs shells had been getting very thin even with extra calcium. Guess she just got into some nasty plant or rotting thing that was poisoning her tiny little body. The white silkie is sitting tight on her nest and maybe it is just my imagination but those duck eggs look darker :-)

In an earlier post I told you we were going to rip out that ugly bathroom. Well we started and I am so excited. The first thing we (I) did was buy a claw foot tub. I have been looking for one for months. Every time I found one it was either more than I could afford, in really bad shape or someone would beat me to it. That's one of the disadvantages of living on an island.  I found a really great one in the Fremont District of Seattle. One tiny little chip you can hardly see and no visible rust. The outside and the feet have to have the paint removed and repainted but the inside is a smooth and shiny porcelain. A tub in that condition would probably sell for 6 or 7 hundred dollars around here (sometimes more) and it was advertised for $450 but I got it for $375. Guess that got the man moving because he started ripping out walls the next day. I helped by putting the plaster board and junk into big plastic bags and hauling them out to the garage to wait for dump day.

In between doing that I started stripping the paint off of the tub feet. LOTS of paint. Layers of green, yellow, white, black, and a primer. That took about three days of soaking and scraping and soaking again but its off. Then the man took the feet out to the wire buffer in the garage and polished them up. He is going to use a Drummel to take off the crud in the knuckles of the claws. We have been tossing around what color we want to paint them and the outside of the tub. So far yellow or light blue or maybe a warm ivory.

I also started ripping out the ugly 12 x 12 ceramic tile on the floor. The previous owner had placed it right over the old linoleum (also very ugly) so that will go next. You can see in this picture the light switch hanging in mid-air and the closet which ran along the back wall and in an L shape up to the door is GONE! Thank you so much God! Have you ever had to have your clothes hanging in a damp bathroom? Yuk! I actually had to throw away my suede belt because it was growing something. Guess there are worse things though. At least I had a closet (and a bathroom).  Now the man and I are brain storming where we want to put the tub and the sinks. The shower and toilet will stay put because of the plumbing but we are going to put in a bigger shower and probably put tile in it. (An extravagance on our budget). I think I have him talked into wood floors (real tongue and groove fir stained to match the kitchen floor which is reclaimed pine). So far the only expense has been the tub. A good friend gave me an antique quarter sawn cabinet with a leaded glass door that I am very jazzed about. It even has the saw marks on the shelves.  Although I was already using it in the old bath I can't wait to see it in the new one. It's perfect for holding towels and toiletries. I think we are going to put in a pocket door so the bath looks bigger and that along with the shower will probably be the next thing to do. But that is up to the man of course.

Here is what I have been doing in my spare time. It's a very easy, very yummy light oat bread. Gotta feed that guy to get any work out of him! ;-)

A political question of Note for February

I must be the only stupid person on the planet. How can anyone think about voting for someone that doesn't pay their fair share of taxes? Someone please tell me. Click the comments button at the bottom of this post to get a window. I have yet to figure out how to get a window to automatically appear on my blog.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/30248103/detail.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/us/politics/romneys-returns-revive-scrutiny-of-offshore-tax-shelters.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romney-campaign-says-it-has-filed-paperwork-related-to-offshore-holdings/2012/01/27/gIQADJt7VQ_story.html

Getting In On The Action

Guess it's contagious. Now Baby Mama wants some eggs to sit on. When I went down to the coop this morning both Silkies were in the same nest. Baby Mama had stolen a duck egg from the white silky and was sitting on it. Thinking maybe she was just wanting to use that nest to lay her own egg I left her there for awhile. Silly me. When I came back sometime  later she was still there. Rather than having them fight over the babies I took one egg from the nest and added another freshly laid egg from the ducks and put her in a nest next to the other one with her own two eggs. Now we have two Silkies with four duck eggs being incubated. Lets hope that male duck is doing his job or I am going to have a couple very disappointed ladies.

Thought you might get a kick out of this picture. One of the cats discovered the bird feeder stuck to the kitchen window and was sneaking up on it. You can see the little bird was unconcerned.

Spring Babies and Greens

I have been battling with my white silkie again.  As usual she is broody. Has been for almost two weeks which gets her into trouble with the other girls because they wont take her bitchiness for more than a minute before they chase her and smack her around. So yesterday when I was unable to get her off the nest for more than 5 minutes I decided to give her 3 duck eggs to sit on. My Khaki Campbell ducks are prolific layers in the winter when the chickens aren't so I was thinking of adding two more to their group any way and every spring I get the urge for babies so I may as well let her raise them. That's always a hoot! Just don't tell the man what I'm doing.

The nest she has chosen is on the storage side of the coop and about 2 feet off the floor. That is the side I put all three of my Silkies to roost at night so they don't have to fight with the big girls for space. However, if I leave the door open on a nice day the geese come in to snoop around. Her nest is at just the right height for them to look right in. You would think that big face staring in would be enough to get her to move. Yesterday I found them in the coop harassing her and I had to chase them out and put a baby gate up to protect her. She isn't about to move for a bunch of obnoxious loud mouth geese. Even when they bite her.

I have finished putting soil in the cold frame and although it is a little early I decided to plant some greens. Just lettuce greens. Asian baby lettuce, red sails, butter crunch and romaine. Hope it works. I would love some fresh lettuce not to mention getting a jump on growing stuff. Technically we could still get snow up until April and last year we actually got snow off and on though out April. It was very weird. We had pretty heavy frost all last week but it really kind of feels like the first faint breaths of spring. If anything germinates I will try to find some herb plants to put in too. I'm tired of paying for herbs every time I need a little of something.

This box actually gets limited sun during the day because the sun is so low in the sky that it doesn't clear the neighbors trees but a girl can hope.

Why Be Prepared? part one

My closet is done enough to move clothes into so I did. The inside is painted the outside is not but I don't care. We will get the outside painted maybe this weekend. I just want to get into that ugly bathroom and rip out a few walls. Like where the old closet was in the bathroom. I am now on the hunt for a claw foot tub that is in pretty good condition. It needs to be in great condition on the inside because I don't want to put a lot of money into re-furbishing the inside just to sell this house to someone else. I don't mind sanding and painting the outside. I will probably want it painted a different color anyway. I'm thinking light blue.

In a previous post I said I would talk about preparing for what the future might have in store for us and why. Now let me say there are many different thoughts and opinions on this subject and I am certainly not an expert, but one thing I have learned is I could write a book about this subject. The information goes on forever and would make most peoples eyes glaze over. So although I may touch on a few facts and add a few links here and there I have decided not to go into the where and whys too much. You may notice that I am using Wikipedia throughout this post. I am doing so because it is the best condensed version of any one subject that I am writing about. However there are many books, articles, and news stories that I have read before attempting these post.  If anyone should have a question or comment by all means leave it in the comment section.

Problems, challenges, cause and effect. Call it what you will but society today is facing a number of challenges. Some for the first time. Some that are repeats of history. The difference today is that it seems to all be coming together at the same time. Peak Oil, economic collapse, peak food and water (yes water) climate change and over population.

Peak Oil-I think a  lot of people take this as meaning that we are running out of oil. We're not. We are running out of the easy to get oil. The cheap and easy oil. The less expensive use all you want oil. Our modern lives depend on oil for many many things that we don't even think about. Make a mental list of all the things we use oil for and I will bet you don't list half of them. Petroleum is used in everything from the food we eat to the shower gel and shampoo in the bathroom. It clothes us. We sit on it in our living rooms. We watch it on our wide screens. Pharmaceuticals, food dyes and flavors, tires, toiletries, cosmetics, appliances, building supplies and adhesives, paraffin wax and oil,  and of course fertilizers and pesticides. Without it we wouldn't go too far. It brings us foods that would only be a distant memory to most of us. Did you ever wonder what the big deal was of getting an orange in your Christmas stocking?  Use to be rarer than a star fruit or mango is today. Can you imagine digging a foundation for your house or digging a well without the help of a diesel powered piece of heavy equipment? It would take weeks and a lot of humans to do it.

Although the major use of petroleum is as a fuel, (gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil), and petroleum and natural gas are often used to generate electricity, there are many other uses. Americans consume petroleum products at a rate of three-and-a-half gallons of oil and more than 250 cubic feet of natural gas per person, per day! Those numbers change depending on who you ask of course and there is the thought also of the petroleum used in China to make stuff that the US buys. So whose tally sheet does that go on? http://askville.amazon.com/barrels-oil-day-average-American/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=728700
The world's top five crude oil-producing countries are: Saudi Arabia, Russia, United States, Iran, and China.
Over one-fourth of the crude oil produced in the United States is produced offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The top crude oil producing states are: Texas, Alaska, California, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
About 59.5 percent of the crude oil and petroleum products used in the United States come from other countries.
 With the price of a barrel of crude poised to do nothing but go up you better figure out how your going to compensate for that because your wages will definitely not keep up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

How about the collateral damage after we use the stuff?  Who gets to pay for that? Well you do of course, silly! You get to pay to clean up the oil spills, the air pollution, and the landfills and oceans that are overflowing with plastic that doesn't degrade. Not to mention motor oil and gas that finds its way to our other precious resources, water and air, in the form of burning it off or run off from all the drips, spills and asphalt on our roads. How about fracking that uses a ton of water and pollutes that.  How about the medical problems caused by those pollutants?  (I will stop there cuz you are all intelligent readers and know what I am talking about). I see a small percentage of people getting rich on the backs of the middle guy and his family. And they pay less taxes than you do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNl6sx059bE If you don't read any of this post, at least take the time to watch this link from 60 minutes.

Now back to that closet. We built that closet with wood products held together with adhesives. Then we painted it with petroleum based latex paint. We used plastic hangers for the clothes and some of them were made from synthetic material. All this stuff was shipped to the places we bought it from using some form of fuel. I really really like my closet.

So here is the question. What is a person going to do about it?

Do you have a plan B for this one thing in your life? Even a bug out plan requires petroleum. What do you do when it's gone or so freaking expensive that you have to decide between eating or _________? (driving, medicine, food?)

So I am signing off now because my eyes are finally glazing over but I will be back to discuss the next topic which I think will be economic collapse. However my brain feels kinda overloaded at the moment. I am looking forward to your comments as I always learn something so click that comment button on the bottom of the page.

Ahhhhh....Candelmas and Spring! Almost.

Yesterday was Candelmas day. In case you don't remember last years post Candelmas is the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox traditionally celebrated with candles of course. Very pagan-est I suppose. It also happens to be  ground hogs day (which by the way came about because of Candelmas) and my birthday which I keep telling everyone I don't have anymore.  My girls and I did a pajama and movie night with banana splits to celebrate. When the man got home from work at 9pm they gave me a "Candelmas" present. A pasta maker for my Kitchen Aide mixer which I have been wanting for years. Now the time between Christmas and Valentines day is the worst for me for gaining weight because there are always left over Christmas goodies, New Years, Candelmas and Valentines Day. All very heavy in the food and goody department.  Up until last week I was doing really good not putting on the weight I had lost over the past year and with the banana splits I figured a weeks worth of steamed veggies would take care of that. With a new pasta maker I could be in trouble.  Apparently one of the girls heard me complaining about rolling out the egg noodles I made a couple weeks ago. Gee, I wonder what else I can complain about.  I do so like those shoes I saw in the J.Jill catalog!

Although today started out at 32 degrees it is suppose to get into the 50's and the sun is shining. The man rode the bike to work today and that is a sure sign that spring is on the way (even though he has heated riding gear).

The geese went out to our "seasonal" pond and spent hours playing and preening and I saw the first attempt at breeding between Alphie and Mimi. (I think it was Alphie) He doesn't know quite what he is doing since he got the wrong end but at least he is trying. Then that stupid boy duck had to try to join in. That didn't help much however since he seems to know what he is doing maybe he was just giving Alfie some pointers.

Ya. That's Alfie upside down in the pond.