It seems ironic - in human cultures, sons are everything. In animal cultures, only the females count.

Yeah, that's a three-foot brush I'm painting with, but I think the irony is clear enough. One male can father a whole lot of offspring, so the survival of the species really comes down to the number of females available to provide the other half of the gene sets. The physical and temporal investments just aren't even.

Sharon Astyk has an interesting (and serious) post about unwanted males on the farm, which gave me an idea. A wonderful horrible amusing not-at-all-serious idea:
Instead of a chicken ranch, how about a cock ranch?

Winter's back!

I'm so excited, we have snow again! I was starting to get worried - the mountain tops were no longer white. While I admit to enjoying the January thaw temperatures, the disappearing snow cover was disconcerting.

The carryover seeds have been sorted and compared to this years dream list. Happily, only a handful of new packets will need to be acquired. But it is time to start pulling out the seed starting supplies, because realistically it will probably take until March to get everything gathered [wry grin]. I'd also like to get some indoor herbs started.

Independence Days

Plant something: Sorted seeds, no planting yet

Harvest something: Angora fiber

Preserve something: Canned some pumpkin

Waste Not (Reuse): Mended a shirt

Want Not (Stocking): Refilled pasta sauce supply; bought some cooking condiments that many recipes seem to call for to have on hand

Eat the Food: Nothing in particular

Build Community Food Systems: Participated in a weekend workshop on homesteading and discussed the possibility of a local (regional?) heifer-type project

Our Agricultural Future

(This is my response to a discussion on our planet's carrying capacity)

I believe that fossil-fuel based agriculture has little to no future, along with the people dependent upon it. However, I also believe that organic agriculture could yield leaps and bounds beyond petroleum-based. Combining traditional techniques (mixed crops, rotation) with modern knowledge (the chemistry of soil and compost, rapid exchange of information regarding success/failure of various methods) could vastly enhance our food capacity. OTOH, I'm worried that would encourage continued population expansion and the associated problems of crowding (social as much as physical problems). I'd like to see a lower total planetary population, but I'd prefer to achieve that by means other than disease and starvation.

However, I categorize myself a starry-eyed idealist, who dreams of growing her own food along with harvesting from nature's local bounty and all that good stuff, but am currently still reliant on the commercial system I grew up in! I'm trying to figure out how to blend the self/community-reliance of older cultures, with the advantages of modern culture, eg medicine and communications, without unthinkingly rejecting all of either. I have no desire to go back to the Dark Ages, but I do not think we can continue the Industrial/Commercial age.

Humanity's survival trait is adaptability, rather than fighting or fleeing prowess. But we also seem to be good at deniability, which may lead to species extinction if we don't evolve. And soon.
So here I sit, working out how to grow ten times what I personally need on just an acre or two, leaving the rest of the property to non-human survival needs. I'm not interested in doing the math to destroy my illusion that if everyone who could, grew enough for 9 others, many problems would be solved. That'd be my starry-eyed idealist side. If we don't figure out how to do this, a lot of people are going to die horribly, as the planetary carrying capacity crashes. That'd be my pragmatic pessimist side. Most days, the pessimist wins, based on the evidence I see from other people.

I'm worried about myself - I seem to be turning into a denier. I no longer want to see the opposing viewpoints that the change I think is necessary will not/can not happen. [wry grin]

December update

I am finding it surprisingly hard to bring myself to write. Much of that is I'm not terribly interested in spending time in front of the computer, barely taking the time to read my email and check the weather, let alone compose coherent missives!

No, most of my time these days is spent either in the kitchen or in a book. [g] Some of the pumpkins we harvested this fall are starting to go bad, so there has been much experimenting with pumpkin cooking. Oddly enough, pie hasn't been one of the results. No, the pumpkin bread is FAR more popular, although the pumpkin pancakes were also well-received. I was amused to come across a pumpkin cookbook in my local library! So I also have a lengthy list of soups and stews to try.

In the book department, I've been reading the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Tuesday I finished "The Mammoth Hunters", and I have "The Plains of Passage" waiting on the shelf. Wednesday I took a break from ancient history in favor of distopian future with "One Second After". It was as gripping as I had expected, and I lost the entire day to it (with little regret!) In the non-fiction department, I am in the midst of "Year in the Maine Woods" and "My Plain Life". I also received "The Four-Season Harvest" this week, and have been flipping through bits of it, although garden planning will not start in earnest until Friday (first of the year!).

The homestead is settled in for the winter, which finally arrived mid-December. After a couple of weeks reacquainting myself with the indoors [g], I'm eager to begin on winter projects. This morning after I groomed one of the angora rabbits, I promptly spun the plucked fiber and knitted a sample swatch. Ooh, the lovely softness! And that was from the rougher rabbit! I finally found a book on tanning furs, not just skins, so that will be the other big project starting this week. I have a freezer full of rabbit and deer hides waiting to be processed! With any luck, these will turn into saleable items for cash and barter next summer.

And so the seasons meld one into the next, and another year of the calendar draws to a close. I am so grateful to have found my bit of peace on earth, and wish the same to everyone else.

Cabin Design

My evil road trip is going fairly well. (Evil in terms of consumption/emissions.) I've already had lots of good social time w friends, packed up my remaining stuff, and still have more visiting to do on my way back. I won't actually get back until weekend after t-giving. 30 day road trip, ugh! Which is one reason I keep joking that it's my Midwest farewell tour.

I pass driving time by mentally designing my cabin. Working on a friend's recently gave me some good inspiration!

16x16 footprint, 8x16 main room w porches on both sides. Stone pillar foundation, lower walls of site-harvested logs, upper walls of scavenged windows and wood, roof of reclaimed slippery metal (for snow shedding). Porch access under gable end of roof (out of snow shed), cabin entrance at center of main room. kitchen and bath to one side, living area to other side. Everything within reach! [g] loft over bath/kitchen intended for storage. Changeable screen and storm windows for porches.

In many ways, it's an adaptation of my Indiana cottage. That one was originally 8x8, with an 8x8 addition. The wall between the two sections made the space too choppy, however. The original section functioned amazingly well, but the addition was little more than a storage shed. In this version, that storage shed feel will be the bathroom portion behind the kitchen wall, giving me a larger living/kitchen area than I previously had. Hmm, no sitting on the couch/bed to cook. That's probably a good thing!

My intention is to make a snug ship-type space, not a crowded cluttered cabin space. Eventually, as I improve my carpentry skills (large pieces outside, smaller work on the porch), the interior will be outfitted with built-in furniture.

I'm pretty excited about this iteration of the plan, yet fully understand that my plans tend to change frequently! I continue collecting materials, and it'll be interesting to see how they end up going together.

Oil Lanterns

I prefer lantern light over electric lights, as it is much less jarring and encourages a more relaxed activity level during the darker hours. (But then I think rushing too much is one of the leading problems with modern society!)

I adore my Dietz lanterns. They have a lever that lifts up the globe for lighting, versus needing to remove the glass chimney and then replace it accurately after lighting. They also have handles for moving about, but be cautious of hot handles. I know at least one of mine was cheaply purchased at Big Lots, so check the discount stores.

I also make it routine to wipe the globe clean and trim the wick when refilling the fuel. (Different wick trims cast different light, so experiment!) Be aware that if you don't use your lamps/lanterns regularly, the fuel can evaporate - very disconcerting to discover during an emergency!

I am sensitive to smells, so I prefer to use high-grade lamp oil. I'm told kerosene is a cheaper option. Citronella oil will also work, and might still be available on clearance just now. One of my long-term goals is to find a plant that I can press my own oil from, but right now that's a much lower priority than food sources. But do make sure you store fuel and a funnel to ease refilling. Enjoy the gentle light no matter what is going on outside your home!

Diverging paths

The Guardian newspaper has an article on an IEA whistleblower, claiming that the IEA (International Energy Agency) deliberately understated global petroleum reserves at the behest of USA interests. Even without alleged understatements, the IEA tells CNN that we are already in "peak oil zone".

I was at my ex-boyfriends last night packing up the last of my stuff. I mentioned this report - his answer was "of course they lied, duh!" in a way that indicated it didn't matter.

I asked him if he wasn't concerned that commercial agriculture and its delivery system is dependent on affordable and available petroleum, and he shrugged it off. Something will replace oil.

He then told me about a new battery technology that is expected to be available in 5 years, that solar has now reached price parity with oil, and we (the US?) have lots of fallow fields we can plant with more food.

He is firmly in the 'technology will save us' camp. I'm firmly in the 'I'll believe the technology when I see it, meanwhile I'm making other plans' camp. We're both boggled by the other's viewpoint, and are now headed in different directions.

I hope he's right, but I can't bring myself to have his faith in *promised* technology. I hope I'm wrong, because he'll be among the millions to suffer.
Either way, I cannot in good conscience continue living the American Dream Lifestyle. And this report just reinforces my decisions.