Drowning Sucks

First, the youtube video

And now, the rest of it. As the USA debt stands now, well, I'm not a pencil pusher. But plenty of other people (in high school we called then GWM, "Good With Math") have pushed their pencils. The inevitable conclusion they arrive at is that within five years the USA cannot service it's existing debt . Let me repeat this; cannot even pay the interest rate on it's debt in five years. It's called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule,which is basic math speak for the same issue we all would face if we had too much credit card debt; eventually we can't pay the minimum, let alone the balance, and we default.

So, I said to DH Matt what would that look like in this country? We have State financial problems in California, and already we are seeing closures of State financed programs. The schools and libraries are in serious trouble. What if there were no Federal funds? Our minds boggeled just thinking about this. Hospitals rely on Federal funding. The government would still honor medicare, medicaid and social security, but it would freeze hikes just when inflation runs rampant.The poor and the elderly will suffer. There will be no wildfire funds...colleges will possibly close. My imagination stops there, because with both the State and the Federal governments broke, life as we know it is, at the very least, disorganized.

Party Talk

I really have foot-in-mouth-disease sometimes, especially after two glasses of wine (red) at parties. I was recently listening to a woman who had received chickens and a chicken coop for her 50th birthday (romantic, she said !!!) describe their demise by a bear while she and her husband were out of town. Their sad death was reported to her by their neighbor. As if in an out-of-body experience I said to her, "Ooh, did she describe the bear as 'eating them like popcorn!?' That's what I always hear people say when they talk about the bears getting into chicken coops." The woman was rather confused, but said that ,no, she hadn't heard any references to popcorn. Duh, why do I take that blond chick anywhere? She says the most astounding things.Perhaps I won't let her drink, next time.

THANKSGIVING

I harvested Merida carrots today (Territorial Seed) , yum! Sooo crisp and sweet. I also picked some Sage and Tarragon and harvested a head of cabbage for the Thanksgiving table. Tonight for dinner (Tuesday) I used the last of the fresh tomatoes (well, not absolutely the last...the last 2 cherry tomatoes I picked today,then jammed into my jacket packet...then sat on them on the way home) with garden-grown tomatillos and the last of the peppers to make an incredible chicken chili.

I planted American Ginseng ( Panax quinquefolius ) and Rhodiola Rosea (from Horizon Herbs) in among the trees today. They're both endangered species of medicinal herbs. I'll have to remember to give them a water in the summer if they come up this spring .California's not their usual territory . I'm crossing my fingers, it would be great to give these endangered species another foothold. I'm studying up on Goldenseal now...another endangered herb that I'd prefer to see preserved by many, many people. I happen to have the loamy woods soil that these herbs prefer, it's just that our summers are darn dry.

Ginseng is, of course the panax, or " panacia"
cure for all diseases. and if you think Chinese Panax is preferable...well, they'd rather import ours. American Ginseng
rocks, which is why it's now an endangered species. It is, of course, the root which is medicinal. Rhodiola Rosea is a universal adaptogen...use it and grow strong in all ways (eyebrow wag).

Mortgage Coming

So, our entire plan...the basic premise...was to build a small house and hold no mortgage. This, after holding two mortgages at once while we paid for our land. That was stressful.



I see a mortgage coming, though. It's that awful cost overrun from the Hebel block walls. And a few price increases we absorbed in building materials. We could get away with a tiny mortgage, but I think we'll do a little larger one and put in hydro power to ensure a solid power supply in the winter, a second greenhouse (and, darn it, fix the first one), and some led lights for the greenhouse for plant starts. I'll blog on those led lights soon, you bet. The balance I want to put into gold, yes, even at $1200/ounce. I have a feeling it'll be a bargain. An old geezer once said to me (and he was, too, a dirty old man who liked to schmooze and pinch the 20-something girl l I was then) that when gold is rising that there's a lot of risk..."danger is in the air, beware". I believed him; he had such a look of sad old memories on his face when he said that. DH Matt agreed, we should cover our "bases".
How about you? Have you purchase gold or silver yet?

You Have To See This

This is a graphic chart of unemployment in the United States. Click on the link, it's amazing.

Update on the meal worms. They have arrived. I did decide to bed them down in the laundry room; DH Matt's back has miraculously improved and he is not inclined to sleep in the den. He appreciates that meal worms are very quiet. He wouldn't even know that they are here if I hadn't told him. No, he doesn't need to see them, thanks. Also, no interest in a recipe I found for meal worm spaghetti.

I reeled off the names of a dozen women we know who have invited critters into their house; all of the women are aged 40-something. Most of them are rescuing dogs...this subject came up because one of our friends moved out of his house and into a rental in town when his wife took on 3 more rescued dogs. That brought their total to 6, all big dogs, in a small house. This was, as the saying goes, a "deal-breaker" for him.

I pointed out to DH Matt that this is biology at work. The women we know who are moving animals into the house all had children in their thirties . If they had followed the old biological pattern they would have had children by age 20 , and their children would have had children by age 20. So, no grandchildren....collect critters. DH Matt said he can deal with ducklings and meal worms. But, I'd better not rescue cats and dogs (said the man who rescued 13 cats and moved them into our first house...achoo! We have 3 left, all outside cats but not by their choice).

Meal Time!

Well! Doesn't this look nummy? Meal worms!This is my latest experiment, about which DH Matt is less than enthusiastic. Believe it or not, people have eaten these.

Hot Mealworm Appetizers

Ingredients:
5 ml (1 tsp.) cayenne
2.5 ml (1/2 tsp.) black pepper
85 ml (1/3 cup) mealworm larvae, slightly thawed
30 ml (2 Tbsp) butter or margarine

Place all ingredients together into a sauce pan. Sauté, stirring constantly, until the mealworms are golden brown. Drain and serve. Or, these may be added to a hot bridge mix available in many grocery stores. Or, one may add them to 'Party Mix' made from cold cereal squares, pretzels and nuts. The combination made at home to which one could add the mealworms for extra nutrition, fiber, and interesting texture is as follows: Melt 1/4 cup margarine in roasting pan in preheated 250°F oven. Stir in 5 tsp. Worcestershire sauce, l-l/4 tsp. seasoned salt, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder. Gradually add: cereals (2-2/3 cup corn squares, 2-2/3 cup rice squares, 2-2/3 cup wheat squares); I cup nuts and I cup pretzels. Stir to coat evenly. Bake I hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on absorbent paper to cool. Store in airtight container. Makes 10 cups.
(Courtesy of the Food Insects Newsletter Editor and taste-tested by undergraduate and graduate students at Montana State University and various dinner guests at the Dunkel/Diggs home (thanks for the invite, Proff...I, um,already ate) : found at
http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/mealworms.htm)

Seriously, I would have to weigh half of my current body mass via starvation and have tried dirt first before I would eat meal worms. But, ducks love them. And little ducklings need to be introduced to healthy food early before they develop an unhealthy love for Frito-Lays. So, I have tubs prepared (so hard, throw corn meal in a plastic shoebox) to host the 5,000 meal worms which will be arriving shortly. DH Matt has now, suddenly, acquired a sore back which will necessitate his sleeping in his den at the other end of the house about the time the meal worms arrive to take up residency in the Master Bathroom. I should warn him not to do his usual leftovers search in the fridge...half the meal worms will reside there to be duck meal while only half will be breeding parents. He'll get used to them...I just can't imagine a parental moment when he'll be saying, "Oh, aren't they cute?" I do expect to see him sneak a Frito-Lay to the ducklings.

Kids Don't Listen?

Today I learned the most horrible, shocking news: my kid (DS, 15) actually doesn't listen to me. I don't mean when he has ipod glued to his head... he's so used to having earbuds in that he leaves them in when we've forbidden music during homework. Not having them inserted feels strange and unnatural to him, and I confess that I have difficulty recognizing him without them.

No, I mean the worst kind of "doesn't listen": he doesn't listen when I ,and, apparently, his other two parental units, Dad and Mid-Evil-Step-Dad (he truly tries to be evil, but it just isn't in his nature) are imparting parental advice and governance. He has a vague idea of the topic...and after that he just tunes out.

DS Matt (a.k.a. Mid-Evil- Step-Dad) is amused that I even imagined that DS listened to lectures. Understand, people pay me a lot of money per an hour for the kind of advice I'm dispensing to The Kid. These people hang on my every word; they laugh, they cry...they schedule appointments six months in advance. So, I'm amazed when I realize that The Kid doesn't listen.

Background story: DS is flunking Chemistry at the community college. He's 15, so his admittance there is shaky anyway, he cannot afford to fail. And, he has worked on the wrong Chemistry homework, due today. Would I drive him back to the college in an hour? Of course, but as every parent knows the price of admission to this party is the non-stop dispensation of advice each way.

Which advice he cannot recap to Mid-Evil Step-Dad upon arrival home. Hello? DS Matt said that I should have charged him for the ride. I think that I should have charged him for the advice. Then at least one of us would have something out of the experience. A kid should listen to his Momster.

[Update 1/13/09...kid mercifully passed Chemistry with a "C". Mom was waking up in the middle of the night with the Van Halen song "The Cradle Will Rock" ringing in my mind..."have you seen Juniors grades?!"]

The Business to Be In!

Have you noticed how much business the farm supply/garden businesses are doing? Peaceful Valley Farm Supply says that their sales are up 20% this year. Amusingly enough, I see their same customers when I dash up the road to "Hydro-gro"...ahem, I go there because they have the best propagation materials, not because they are a "grow shop". For those who are wrinkling their brow in puzzlement and need to buy a vowel, that is code for "growing-medical-marijuana". And wow, do the supply shops ever rake in money! Nothing like a cash crop to make people open their wallets. My moth drops open when I witness the cash bundles that the customers drop there. This really makes me want to own a garden supply shop. I would do it too, except that the poltiticos are swaying in the wind regarding medical marijuana. Fed or not?
Legal, or not? Recreational use legal (and tax to the max) or not? I have a simple policy when it comes to investing money...stay far, far away from politicians with empty pockets. And these days every politician seems to have pockets to let.

More Politics (Comic Relief)

This, from Stansbury and Associates:

Today's comic relief brought to you by U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner via this quote from the Wall Street Journal:

"I believe deeply that it's very important for the U.S. and the economic health of the U.S. that we maintain a strong dollar," he said at a roundtable discussion with Japanese reporters.

"We bear special responsibility for trying to make sure that we are implementing policy in the U.S. that will sustain confidence not just among American investors and... savers but investors around the world" that the U.S. will fix its budgetary problems as its economy improves.

Great job so far, Tim... Your comments really instilled confidence in the American people. The dollar touched a 15-month low and gold went as high as $1,119.10 an ounce today (up 26% this year).

Hoo, "Franz", you really crack me up.

You'd trust this face, right?
Memo to self " Buy more gold".

Experimental winter crops

It's difficult to tell in this picture, but those white lumpy shapes are hoop houses for my winter garden. How well they'll work as our real winter weather with snow and winds sets it...no one knows. But if it fails, that's okay...I'll have more information with which to make intelligent decisions for next year. I can already tell that I've made mistakes. I'm okay with the cabbage and corn salad, the carrots and the parsnips. Instead of broccoli and peas I should have just concentrated on spinach.
Because it's shorter and has a direct cycle...edible leaves instead of "fruit" as the product. Under straw in this photo, and there is a lot you can't see in the back, are plots of fava beans, onions and garlic.

Now I need to be clever enough to both mark the plots and to carry a notebook out there and diagram all of the plantings. Because as we all know too well, markers can and do fade. I don't want to be the proud propagator of "mystery garlic" in a few years. I already have "good drying beans".

Ducks ordered

Ducks ordered, two male and six female. Yes, I know, these are not the previously discussed ducks; these are Khaki Campbell ducks from Nature's Hatchery. I have realized that I have more time now than I will have all year...and more space. For the eight weeks that it will take to raise the ducklings until they are feathered in enough to live in an outside shelter we will still be living in a larger rental house. Where I have an extra bathroom. When we move these ducks will move into the blue "parts truck" (DH Matt didn't mind, anything goes as long as I don't ask him to move that truck)
which will be surrounded by electric fencing.

Nature's Hatchery raises K.C. ducks all year round, so I can actually "brood" them in a bathtub. I'm looking forward to this...a new adventure. Both the ducklings (awww, cute!) and the fencing are new learning curves. The fencing is Perma-Net from Premier1, which with accessories ran about $200.
The charging/power system I chose is the Patriot PS15, for another $200. I have some doubts about the sealed battery pack lifespan, but the ducks won't survive our wilderness for long without some heavy protection. In spring we'll build them a more permanent house.

I have an intuition that electric fencing will figure prominently in our future. I recently put some aged chicken manure in the greenhouse; the greenhouse was ransacked several times over as the various local bears examined (meaning tore apart, strewing my greenhouse floor with manure) the plastic bags. And everything else...my garden fence has several bear sized holes now. I can just imagine what the bears will do to our fruit trees and berry bushes in the spring...and I would love to grow some corn this next summer. Electric fencing; it's the future.

These are "egg ducks", not "meat ducks" (unless a bear gets hold of them), Khaki Campbell ducks produce more eggs per year than most chicken breeds. I do still want Brown Chinese Geese...but I don't want to brood goslings in a bathtub. A wise woman knows her limitations. And values her sleep.