Green Sense

New Directions

2010-10-25T23:34:00.000-06:00

Our lives have taken drastic new directions this year. We are still adjusting to be more sustainable. Please join me at Thought and Memory Blog to read more on the new directions. I will leave this blog up as an archive, but we will not be actively writing on it at this time. Thanks for following, and please join me at Thought and Memory.

W.U.F. Update 04.04.10

2010-04-04T14:13:00.000-06:00

We are working on getting the potatoes planted today. We also have peas and Chinese greens that need to be planted. We are taking a break for lunch and I wanted to share that we have a ton of volunteer spinach around the yard. Our mints are doing well and are about ready for the first harvest. The bronze fennel is poking up now. The strawberries are thriving. We also have volunteer garlic and onions coming up right now.

Sy planted blue pansies around the Circle this past week. We have a ton of pansies to get in the ground. They are self seeding and edible. The flowers are quite tasty with a salad of spring greens. I can't describe how they taste as different colors of flowers seem to have different flavors ranging from sweet to slightly nutty.

I will be posting some pics later after we get the potatoes and such planted today.

Spring Is Sprung.

2010-03-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some early spring pictures from W.U.F. There also pics of the truck we bought with tax return money so that we have an effective and reliable vehicle to haul the things we need for the garden. Stay tuned as spring continues to unfold, as we will be busier with planting and such, but will be posting more often as well.

Our Indoor Greenhouse for seedlings.

2010-02-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

We upgraded the lighting in a mini indoor greenhouse we built about a month ago. We had one T5 full spectrum. We added two more today. This will give our seedlings all of the light they need to be great plants. Our indoor greenhouse is made of a steel utility shelf, wrapped in mylar bubble wrap. Sy was at Pet Smart and they had just received a shipment of fish and the mylar wrap was used to protect them during shipping. Sy asked if she could have some and they gave her the whole box. We still have enough to wrap another utility shelf. We used the years of accumulated unused masking and duct tape we had, to hold it together.

We currently have carrots, spinach, lemon bergamot, pansies, and creeping thyme. The carrots and spinach plants are going to planted in large pots so we can have fresh indoor grown spinach until the spring crop is seeded outside and comes up. We are going to try growing our carrots in large pots as well. we will cut the bottom out of the coconut fiber seed cups, and plant the in a large pot. The lemon bergamot is a useful herb to have in the garden. The pansies are edible self seeding flowers that we hope to have as a permanent self sustaining crop in our garden. The creeping thyme is a blooming ground cover that is xeric and tolerant of being walked upon. Our plan is to replace the grass in the pathways and in our sacred circle with the creeping thyme.

We both have garden fever right now and are ready to plant. It won't be long.

Cactus Juice Is Bottled. 02.01.2010

2010-02-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

We bottled the prickly pear melomel. It is a gorgeous color. We of course sampled and it is still a bit hot, but has a smooth almost smoky flavor. It is a little drier than I would of like, but still very good.

We ended up with 18 bottles or just over 19 liters. Think about buying wine at ten dollars a bottle. Now figure we spent approximately $30 to make this batch. If you like wine or honey mead, it is well worth it to make your own. There is some initial investment in equipment, but it will pay for itself in the first couple of batches depending on your setup. This is how we take one step closer to self sufficiency.

Read W.U.F. Update September 18, 2009 to read more about this batch of Cactus Juice.

W.U.F. Update 01.28.10

2010-01-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well folks we are almost back to that time of year again when this blog will be updated more frequently. It has been a busy winter. We have spent time sorting and deciding what stuff we need to get rid of. We had boxes that hadn't been opened since Sy and I moved in together ten years ago. The plan is to have a huge garage sale this spring.

I have also spent some some time on spiritual pursuits. I continue to study and practice Asatru, but have recently incorporated a healthy dose of Buddhism into my life. I have taken up meditation and yoga again. These are things I haven't done in a few years. I am feeling better than I have in awhile, mentally, spiritually, and physically.

The big news is that Sy has started some of the cool weather seedlings this past week, and we will be starting more soon. We started some yard cleanup a couple of weeks ago. We were having 60 degree days in January and couldn't pass up the chance. Last year we named our compost pile Mt. Stromboli. The new pile is called Mt. Vesuvius and promises to be just as rich. We will be using of off Stromboli this year while Vesuvius breaks down over the next year. The section of yard where we keep the compost is full of giant tree roots. It is nearly impossible to dig to get the grass because of these roots, so this is an ideal area for us to keep the compost piles.

The prickly pear melomel has been racked a couple of times into fresh carboys, and is now about ready to bottle. I plan to let it age awhile in the bottle before drinking, but judging by the smell coming out of the air lock it should be a very sweet mead.

I recently changed the look of Decriminalize Common Sense Blog. It is now called World Freedom Advocate. While I still post my opinions, it has now become a true portal to activism. Please visit.

Well that is all for now.

The Prickly Pear Melomel (Aka Cactus Juice) 01.28.2010

2009-12-08T11:04:00.001-07:00

The freeze is on!

2009-10-13T21:22:00.004-06:00

It is official, the outdoor growing season is over. We had record low temperatures on Saturday. It was down to 15 F. There were major accidents all over the city. I was side ways at one point on my way to work.

It has taken me many years to convince Sy that we can support much of our lifestyle with our small suburban spread. As I reflect on the past growing season I am proud of our accomplishment. Sy was amazed at the amount of food we had this summer from the garden. We ate plenty. We were fortunate enough to share with family and friends, some feeling the effects of the recession. We have canned, dried, and otherwise preserved enough to last us through the winter.

We will spend this winter reviewing our notes, and getting better prepared. We will review our failures such as the potatoes, and do more research. We had great vines this year, but they never flowered, meaning of course no potatoes. We haven't had much luck with carrots, but there are a few carrot sprouts from a fall planting. Carrots will continue to grow in winter here.

Over all we had great success and next year we set the bar a bit higher. In the near future look forward to a short video of our 2009 garden. Take care and have a great day.

2009-09-29T08:32:00.003-06:00

This weekend was the Pueblo Chile and Frijole Festival in Pueblo Colorado. We picked up Sy's sister Josie and made the short trip to Pueblo. We spent the better part of the afternoon checking out the vendors products. There was everything from jewelry to Directv. Farmers market to antique market. The smoke of roasting chile's wafts about the air. It was a wonderful day out of the house to hang out. We bought a bushel of Pueblo Chiles with garlic and then had them fire roasted. They are delightful and make wonderful salsa, green chili, or chile cheese bread. Anyway that has been the last couple of days. I called in a personal day so we can finish canning what we have. I also have to get some photographic prints mounted and sent for a company photo contest. Hope all have a great day.

The last day of summer is bringing snow and freezing overnight temps.

2009-09-27T06:49:00.004-06:00

I am off work on Sundays and Mondays. I woke up Monday to find out that there was a freeze warning and possible snow coming. We started out for our weekly trip to the farmers market, and it started to rain. We got to the market and there were two vendors sticking it out. We bought some green beans, and peaches from Colorado's western slope. We were also able to get a great price on a case of peaches and cream corn. We have canned this for the winter. We left the market and went to Home Despot to get materials to build a couple of cold frames for the cherry tomatoes, and the bell peppers.

After we got home we worked to get everything we could in. We picked buckets of squash, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. After the harvest was in we had to build the cold frames for the cherry tomatoes and bell peppers. We used some 1 x 2 cedar screwed together into a frame. We then covered these with 3.5 mil plastic. Simple and easy to disassemble, store, and reuse for years to come.

The Prickly Pear Melomel is still fermenting nicely. I expect it is going to do so for awhile. But good things come to those who wait. Anyway I hope everyone checks out the pics and has a great day.

Prickly Pear Melomel update

2009-09-20T14:28:00.003-06:00

I reported in my last post that we had started a prickly pear melomel. I am experimenting with this fruit mead. It has prickly pear juice, apple juice, wild flower honey, purified water, and yeast. It now has a brisk fermentation going.

W.U.F. Update

2009-09-18T00:51:00.006-06:00

It has been awhile since I have done a proper update on the happenings at W.U.F. It has been busy this summer. The garden has been fairly low maintenance. We have had an awesome harvest this year, and we are not even close to having the entire lawn replaced. So far our most prolific crop has been the cherry tomatoes. We have been harvesting 1-2 pounds per day on average. we let it go a few days awhile back. We ended up with five pounds of ripe tomatoes. We added onion from the yard, and jalapenos, roasted hatch chilies, cilantro, and smoked garlic from Sunflower Farmers Market. I put in too much cilantro but it is still good. I have eaten three jars already.

We have also had a good yellow summer squash crop this summer. We have been unable to keep up with it. Our lettuce did well also. We still have some winter squash ripening on the vine and some pumpkins to carve up for Samhain. We have been sharing with family and friends as well as putting some away. We had some corn and will have a ton of red and yellow bell peppers as soon as they ripen. We are hoping to ripen them on the plant, but may have an early frost this year.

I was on vacation last week, and while I was at my moms Sy and I picked 13 1/2 pounds of prickly pears, the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. The juice of said prickly pears is in a fermenter with honey, purified water, organic apple, juice, and wine yeast. The honey is local wildflower honey and is very rich. It should add a nice flavor texture to the prickly pear. This is of course an experimental melomel. A melomel is a honey mead with fruit added in the fermenting process. It is a honey and fruit wine essentially.

Sy and I have also been working on setting up an online shop at Etsy.com. It is an online market place for selling homemade products. Sy will be soon putting up some of her jewelery for sale, and I hope to sell some photographic prints. We are also toying with selling canned goods such as jelly's, dried herbs, and salsa. Every little bit we add brings us a little closer to the lifestyle we want for ourselves.

Prickly Pear Melomel starting the fermentation process.

Pics from recent trips to Mom and Dads

2009-09-12T19:41:00.006-06:00

Greetings all,

Here are photos from my recent trips to the ranch. My brother Evan, his wife Danielle, and their two kids, Logan and Dylan were up from Phoenix so we went to visit the last weekend in August. The first set of pics are from that trip. We had to come back to Colorado Springs so I could go back to work, but I started my vacation the following week and got to visit with Evan and Family some more before they had to leave. we stayed a few more days. We are catching up yard and house work, and making prickly pear wine. More about that later. Prior to our vacations, we have been busy making jelly and salsa. More about that later as well.

My pics from short 4th of July vacation.

2009-08-17T11:23:00.000-06:00

W.U.F. 07.12.09 Photo Update

2009-07-12T09:30:00.001-06:00

W.U.F. 07.12.2009

W.U.F Update 06.29.09

2009-06-29T06:50:00.005-06:00

Its been awhile since I posted an update. Look to the post below for a photo update. I have been spending a lot of my online time following and supporting the Iranian revolution, and have let this go. Well here is an update. We have been enjoying some of the fruits of our hard work. We have harvested significant amounts of spinach and lettuce. We have had several bowls of sugar snap peas, and many radishes.

Our potatoes are growing fast, but have yet to flower. We will soon have more yellow summer squash than we will know what to do with. We will soon have bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. Two of the three giant pumpkins I planted have sprouted. We shall see if I can work some magic and get a super giant. I want to either sit in it or put a speaker in it and spook trick or treaters on Halloween. I can't wait.

We have been experimenting with different culinary creations from the garden. One of my new favorite recipes is spinach stuffed mushrooms. We had company for our Midsummer blot and potluck feast. I made 25 to 30 of these stuffed mushrooms. They were gone in less than two minutes. Here is the recipe roughly. Play with it as you will.

Spinach Mozzarella Stuffed Mushrooms

For 25-30 stuffed mushrooms

Spinach 8oz hand picked from the garden.

Spicy Oregano 1 sprig from garden

Rosemary 1 sprig from garden

Garlic 1 tablespoon chopped (we use Christopher Ranch Brand)

Olive Oil for sauteing

Mozzarella shredded start with a couple of ounces

25 to 30 Large mushrooms cleaned

Remove stems from mushrooms and finely chop. Rinse spinach and dry or spin. Finely chop oregano and rosemary. Turn burner on medium high and add olive oil to a skillet. When pan is hot add garlic. Let it cook until it just starts to caramelize its sugars. Add mushroom stems and place spinach on top. Stir and add oregano and parsley. Spinach will cook down very quickly. Put shredded Mozzarella in a medium size bowl. When spinach mix is done add to cheese and stir until mix is evenly distributed in cheese. You want a nice cheesy spinach mix. Let sit for a couple of minutes to maximize meltiness. Stuff spinach cheese mix into mushroom tops. Put over low heat on grill. The inside will melt together and the outside will turn darken slightly. When hot remove from grill and share.

We have also been experimenting with mint in culinary dishes. We sauteed spinach and pineapple mint and put it on a pizza. It was quite good. We add different mints to salad. yesterday we grilled a cinnamon chipotle rubbed top sirloin steak. we then sliced it to put on a salad. The salad base was lettuce and spinach from the garden. We also had pineapple mint and bronze fennel leaf with some sugar snap peas. Added a little jalapeno ranch dressing and .......Hmmmmmmmm!

We also put various mints, pineapple sage or fennel in our water bottles so we can get the flavor all day as we refill them.

I have found that I rather like rhubarb cobbler for breakfast. We have made several rhubarb cobblers already this year. It is time to harvest again and make some more cobbler. We will soon be freezing some rhubarb for use later in the year.

The corn is hip high and we are not quite yet to the fourth of July. The onions and garlic are doing well. The peas are pretty much falling over but are producing nicely. The radishes have been eaten or gone to seed. It is getting hot and the spinach is trying to bolt so it won't be long we will have to wait until fall for more. Our spinach is a biannual heirloom variety that should keep us eating spinach for years to come. The first cherry tomato fruits are still ripening on the vine. The larger varieties are growing but have not yet flowered, but soon I hope.

I hope all are have a good week. Please keep the People of Iran in your thoughts. They are struggling to be free from tyranny and oppression. Take Care--Jeremy

W.U.F. 06.28.09 Photo Update

2009-06-28T09:05:00.002-06:00

a different kind of green

2009-06-20T22:16:00.002-06:00

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One of Many Thousands of Iranian Heroes.

Greetings All Who may come to read this blog. I am temporarily busy following the Iran Protest. Please visit my "Solidarity With A Free Iran Blog," To See more pics and videos of the Iranian People struggling to find their freedom. I believe it is our duty to encourage them to freedom and democracy. This revolt is a game changer in global politics. These protests have been called the Green Revolution 1388 (the year in Iran according to their calendar.) So I guess you can say I am writing about a different kind of green this week. I will be focusing on the Iran Revolt until it settles down, but will get some new garden pics up soon. Take care and Go Green.

Follow me on Twitter: Http://www.twitter.com/ravenlaughing

W.U.F. 06.10.09 Pics

2009-06-10T11:05:00.001-06:00

Aloha From WUF 6.9.09

2009-06-09T23:04:00.005-06:00

Aloha!

It's almost summer. We've put our plants in for the season, and can now focus on other projects. The Circle is almost ready for it's Midsummer Blot debut. We won't have creeping thyme ready for planting for a while yet. I lost quite a few seedlings due only to my neglect. Sadly, I forgot that gardens don't care if you're under the weather, that water is needed whatever I feel. So, unfortunately, our list of plants to get in the ground this week is abbreviated.

On a brighter note, the plants we do have in are doing well. I think we should be fertilizing and watering more, but by no means are the plants sickly. Maybe I'm just looking at the wrong guideposts to gauge my garden's success. It's easy to focus on one indicator at the detriment of the whole; it's a very human foible. That's one of the surprises that this great project has revealed to me - how much easier it is for me to appreciate, and how much more I appreciate, the Cycle of the Year.

By the simple act of connecting with the dirt, I have begun to develop a better understanding of our universe at large. In the kneeling and turning and weeding, I see how the microscopic actions of fungus and mites effect the garden as a whole. I cannot help but to extrapolate these effects, and the implications both humble and empower me. The whole cannot be healthy, indeed cannot exist, without the health and well-being of the individual components. This is true on both the micro and the macro scale. Such deep thoughts I find in composted poo.

Pau hana, now.

Blessed be - Sy;)

W.U.F. Update 06.09.09

2009-06-09T21:20:00.004-06:00

The garden is doing well. We got quite a bit accomplished with Carols help today. The weeding is nearly caught up. I got the remaining tomato seedlings planted today. We now have 35 tomato plants of two varieties in the ground. I also got the long Island Cheese Squash planted. I also finally got the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds in the ground. I have wanted to grow a giant pumpkin for years but have never gotten it done. Maybe this is the year. We now also have four or five potato plants poking up out of their mounds of straw.

The corn is about 10 inches high. The onions and garlic are both doing well. The broccoli is producing new heads. The cherry tomatoes have fruit on them. We have harvested approximately five pounds of spinach already with no signs of letting up. I got the pole peas tied up yesterday. Next year I will have the infrastructure in place so I can grow them taller. They laid on the ground for too long and now they have bent stalks. All of the squash are doing well, and we expect to have more squash than we know what to do with soon.

All four of the mints are doing well. We are going to try and make some orange mint vodka and some pineapple mint vodka. We are experimenting with some horehound mint cough syrup with good results so far. The spicy oregano, and the rosemary are doing well. The bronze fennel can be harvested anytime.

We have had blueberries and strawberries. The raspberries are doing well, and we have harvested the rhubarb a couple of times. The rhubarb is ready to harvest again. I can't wait until it is time to get Colorado Western Slope Peaches and make peach rhubarb cobbler.

We also planted marigolds, dianthus, and lobelia between the stones and the mugo pines around the sacred circle. We mulched it with straw. The next step will be to get the grass out of the circle and replace it with creeping thyme.

I will get pics up in the morning. I wanted to do it tonight but ran out of daylight. More to come soon.--Jeremy

W.U.F. 06.07.09

2009-06-07T07:28:00.002-06:00

W.U.F. Update

2009-06-04T21:29:00.003-06:00

Greetings All,

It has been awhile since I wrote. We kind of hit the busy season at work and we have had Seattle like weather for the last couple of weeks. Well OK, not quite Seattle like, but when you live in a sub alpine high desert, and in the rain shadow of Pikes Peak It seems Seattle like.

Anyway due to the rain the veggies are doing well. We had a full salad for four people with some left over completely from the yard. I have about a half a pound of spinach in the fridge. The mints are all doing well. We have been radishes everyday. The peas are doing well as are the tomatoes. The first potato has finally popped leaf through the straw mulch.

I will have more pics this weekend. Take care and have a great day.

W.U.F. Update 05.17.09

2009-05-17T08:37:00.003-06:00

I have finally made time to sit down and do a proper update on what's happening at W.U.F. We fertilized this last week with Gro Rich Garden Fertilizer by Richlawn. It is a blend of organic organic ingredients formulated with dehydrated poultry waste. It is produced it Colorado so it is also local for us. So far we are pleased with it. It produces new vibrant green growth within two days of application. If you can find a similar product in your locale, try it. It seems to work well.

Our cherry tomatoes are starting to flower. We have harvested rhubarb and made an excellent rhubarb apple cobbler. We have a few summer squash seedlings up and the broccoli are forming heads now. The corn is about four inches high. The onions and garlic are doing well. We have lettuce and spinach popping out. Both radish plantings are doing well and are just now forming radishes. The peas are doing well.

Just when I was about to give up hope on the carrots and beets and scrape the bed to start over the carrots and beets sprouted. I also got the potatoes planted last weekend. We have nine mounds of two varieties. We are mounding them in straw mulch. It is an interesting method we found online. First I mixed compost with the natural soil . Then I set a piece of seed potato cut side down on the soil. Finally, I covered each "seed" with six inches of mulch. As the plants get six inches taller than the mulch we will then add more straw to the top of the plant. Growing potatoes this way apparently allows one to get easily at the new potatoes throughout the season for tasty eating all summer long.

We also have a prolific herb collection started. The spearmint has been harvested twice and each time comes back stronger. The pineapple is spreading quickly. We didn't think the orange mint survived the winter and quit watering it. It is up and starting to fill its space nicely. The chocolate mint is doing fine and starting to spread. The bronze fennel is about eight inches tall and tasty. The chives have gone to seed. They are going to get cut back this weekend. The pineapple sage is doing well and we will begin harvesting it soon. The spicy oregano is doing well and taste great. The rosemary is coming along as well.

We have two blueberry bushes planted as well as a blackberry and a golden raspberry. The blueberry bush has berries as do the strawberry plants. We hope to get more berries planted soon.

There is still much to do. Today I am going to plant the rest of the tomatoes and squash. We also have some various herbs to get planted. I would also like to get the soak hoses set in place. Carol has been great helping out. Especially with the weeding. My nephew has also been coming over for the last few weeks and helping us dig up yard and keep the weeds down.

W.U.F Pictures 05.15.09

2009-05-15T20:40:00.001-06:00

Wodhof farm 05.11.2009

2009-05-12T01:41:00.002-06:00

It has been a few weeks since I posted. We have been busy at work in the garden. I have been busy at work as well so it has been long days. Anyway please take a look at the slide show to the right. It is rather long as I haven't posted any pics for awhile either so I got camera happy. Anyway I will update later on what we actually got done, but I am going to bed very soon. Our Kindred mate Carol comes over to help in the work as she doesn't have much space to grow things. My nephew has also been helping out. Keeps him off the streets and he seems to enjoy it. Anyway to bed I go. The slide show is long but worth it, I think. Good night.

W.U.F. 04-19-2009

2009-04-19T07:27:00.006-06:00

It looks like today is going to be a beautiful day to work in the garden. After 36 hours of rain, snow, and wind it will be great to be outside. The birds have been singing loudly this morning driving the cats nuts. They went out the door at 5:00 this morning. What was supposed to be a huge blizzard turned out to be a weird mix of rain, snow, wind, and thunder. On Friday at work I was pushing water out of the shop blizzard conditions with thunder. It was quite surreal.

Carol a friend of ours is coming over to work in the garden with us this afternoon. I have to weed the radishes and stack the bricks from our hidden brick path. We have some new beds to plant. We will be getting ready to transplant tomatoes and cabbage before too long. We also have some pepper plants to transplant as well. If I have time I am going to clean the rhubarb bed. We have lived here four and a half years and we have never harvested the rhubarb. That changes this year. Next year we may have to separate it.

Thursday before the storm got here, Sy harvested and dried chives. That is the second chive harvest this year. Got to get those potatoes growing soon.

Finally A Warm Sunny Day at W.U.F.

2009-04-14T20:45:00.000-06:00

I have Sundays and Mondays off from my bill paying job. Yesterday was the first day I've had off in the last month that wasn't snowing, blowing, raining, or all three. It is nice during the week while I'm at work, but when I am trying to get some garden work done on weekends it snows. It snowed Saturday, so I finally sat down and did the taxes online. Today we got an old bed cleaned out and ready to plant. While prepping the area we found some garlic bulbs that needed separating replanting. We had planted the garlic two years ago and that whole area was covered in weeds and was fallow last year. We should have a good garlic crop now that it is replanted. We also planted red,white, and yellow onions today. We also planted the peaches and cream sweet corn. We still have a lot of catch up to do. We need to plant lettuce, spinach, and replant beets, and carrots for successive harvests.

Tonight after I got home from work we cleaned out another old bed and planted the first lettuce crop. I noticed that the radishes have begun sprouting overnight. We still have a ways to go, but we are much further than we were at this time last year.

For 2009 so far we have planted:

Peas 2 varieties

Carrots

Beets

Radishes

Corn

Onions

Garlic

Lettuce

Leeks

Scallions

Golden Raspberries

Blackberries

Rosemary

From 2008 or earlier we have life signs from:

Rhubarb

Strawberries

Chives

Mint

Pineapple Mint

Red raspberries

Horehound

Lavender

Winesap Apple Tree

We still have a way to go, but it is coming along nicely.

Subject: Tell Pesticide Peddlers: We support Michelle Obama's organic garden.

2009-04-12T07:05:00.002-06:00

Greetings All,

The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has a bone to pick with Michelle Obama. MACA represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that - wait for it - Michelle Obama isn't using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.

I am not making this up.

In an email they forwarded to their supporters, a MACA spokesman wrote, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder." MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals -- or what they call "crop protection products" -- in her garden.

Michelle Obama and has done America a great service by publicizing the importance of nutritious food for kids (she's growing the garden in partnership with a local elementary school class) as well as locally grown produce as an important, environmentally sustainable food source.

I just signed a petition telling MACA's board members to stop using Michelle Obama's garden to spread propaganda about produce needing to be sprayed with chemicals. I hope you will, too.

Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?r_by=-1982235-3xc_afx&rc=paste

Thanks!

Random Thoughts by Syona 3.29.09

2009-03-29T15:17:00.013-06:00

Aloha! It's only a few days 'til April, and the Vernal Meteorological Schizophrenia is upon us. We just had a blizzard roll through here not 4 days ago, and the snow's already almost gone. Windy and almost-warm, with a side of breeze.

Our weeds are sooo grateful for the snow. Gosh. While I do enjoy seeing my slice of winter-seared heaven turning green, all the greenery seems to be dandelions and tumbleweeds. We just may try turning our hand at making some dandelion wine again this year. The poor Chem-Lawn guy had fits driving past our yard a couple years ago, as our lawn was a lush sea of yellow; nothing but dandelions. He finally knocks on the door, kindly offering his services, since our lawn was truly run over with these weeds. Giving him my best "big, innocent b

lue eyes" act, he recieved an earnest, "Well, no, we're cultivating them." When he (understandably) looked confused, I smiled brightly, "You can't make dandelion wine without the dandelions!" He literally strangled out an incoherent reply, galloped back to his truck, and never returned again. There's probably a prayer for me stuck to the side of some Chem-Lawn Gods shrine somewhere. Poor guy.

We've got some creeping thyme seed. This year, our Circle is finally going to be finished. This project (our Sacred Circle, complete with altar) has been in progress for nearly five years. The Quarter and Cross-Quarter stones, when installed, were the first real change we made to our yard, our first "footprint," so to speak. After such a long gestation, to finally see our first project coming near to fruition is thrilling. We'll of course post pics along the way to keep ya'll up to date.

Our peas are coming up. Yay. The berries are accused of making leaf, but so far we only have one suspect. Inquiries are being made. The chives all got their first haircut of the season, a brutal hack job committed by yours truly. (Well, what did you expect - I never was good at cutting my own hair.) Their shaggy manes lopped off the morning of the blizza

rd, Jeremy was concerned they'd be thrown into shock. I however, was totally dismissive of his concerns. "They're chives," I sniffed. Well, it's now 4 days later, and these herbs have grown at least 2 inches. 2 of those 4 days, they were buried under 4 inches of snow. Yeah, I'm real concerned for their tender lives. They'll probably outlive the cockroaches. (Jeremy is reading this as I write it, and grumbled.)

I planted 3 new strawberries not a week before the blizzard, without hardening them off first. Oops. The enthusiasm of the rookie - they were in the ground a full day before I even thought about the hardening of our store-bought plants. They are, fortunately, doing beautifully. Jeremy is, as I write, reluctantly uncovering my new rosemary in the front yard. In his words, "it's quite lovely." Joy.

My bathroom is the brightest and warmest room of the house. So now my countertops are covered with seedling trays. I can't tell you how giddy I am. My formerly spa

cious and tidy sanctuary is now more organic than some of the yards in my neighborhood. A

t least I enjoy the scent of moist, fecund earth.

Well, as usual, my conversation has nosedived into potty humor. I'll let you go for now. Talk at ya some more later.

Sy;)

What are we doing to be more self-sufficient?

2009-03-29T03:08:00.006-06:00

In these uncertain times there is much discussion about becoming self-sufficient. Not since the Great Depression have we, as a society, had to relearn how to be self-sufficient. I have heard stories from my family elders about having to eat pickled tumbleweeds because there was nothing else while trying to survive the depression and the Dust Bowl. We have improved our technology and farming techniques. The Internet gives us unprecedented access to information and people around the globe. This will make it easier to become self-sufficient.

I am a member of a number of homesteading groups online. While most focus on rural living, they contain much good information for us city dwellers who wish to turn our lush lawn into a productive mini-farm. There are many things other than gardening that are to be learned as well. Things like soap making, or wine/beer/mead making, canning and preserving the food that is produced in the garden, and candle making. There are so many things that can be done to be more self-sufficient.

Here at Wodhof we have taken up many hobbies that are leading us toward a more simple life of self-sufficiency and sustainability. We have a ways to go, but we have come so far. It is like that old saying "the more I know, the more I realize how much more there is to learn." At this point in our lives, I still have to keep my job in the auto glass industry to pay the bills. In our spare time we recently have been consumed by getting the garden planted. This will continue into June, at which point we will switch to maintenance. Needless to say, the we hope the workload will not be as intense during the heat of summer. Later this year we will make and bottle beer and mead. Sy makes jewelery to sell to support our projects. We have begun making our own bread regularly now instead of only for special occasions. We have also started growing our own sprouts for our salad habit. For a few dollars investment you can get sprouting jars and seeds and simply plant on successive days and you can have fresh sprouts all of the time. We reuse or recycle everything we can. We have a healthy compost pile going.

There are things we are planning as well, but for various reasons we are not ready to start just yet. We want to raise rabbits for meat and pelts. We would like to have a couple of chickens for eggs this year. Because we live in an unincorporated area of the county we can have rabbits and a couple of chickens, but no roosters. By next year we hope to have a small greenhouse so that we can grow herbs and such for our use and for sale or barter. With over 300 days of sunshine a year we can grow year round in a green house.

A concept worth relearning is thrift. We are working toward being debt-free and saving where we can. Thrift does not mean always buying the low price. Quite often the low price equals low quality. The goal for us is to find value for a fair price. Value comes when a company or individual gives you more in quality or service than their competitor. For instance, in my work, when I install a windshield I also wash all the other windows on the vehicle and vacuum out the vehicle. My competitors complain that "we are not a detail shop." My customers know that if they come to me they may pay a little more, but they are getting a job done right and that I am going to go out of my way to create extra value for them. That is why they keep coming back. That is why I reward those who give value and quality with my business.

Another way we have worked to become more self sufficient at Wodhof is to take responsibility for our health and consumer habits. Gone are the cigarettes, the sugar-laden soda, and most of the fast food. Replaced with organic free-range meat, salads, and natural teas. Iced tea has taken on a whole new flavor. I quit smoking in February 2008. I gave up a two liter a day Mountain Dew habit for Yule 2008. I have started taking lunch to work instead of going to lunch from work. Saves on gas and cholesterol. While I still eat some fast food, I try to find healthier alternatives to McCrap. It is time for us to take responsibility for our health, because when we consume crap, we cannot help but spew crap.

I guess it comes down to personal responsibility. Just as the addict can change by living one day at a time, society can become self-sufficient one person and one family at a time.

W.U.F. 03/15/09

2009-03-18T21:58:00.000-06:00

March Update

2009-03-18T21:34:00.006-06:00

So far March has been a good month at W.U.F. We have managed to get two varieties of peas planted along with beets, onions, leeks and carrots. We also planted a new raspberry bush and a blackberry bush to supplement the two raspberry bushes we planted last year. The spearmint is back with lots of new shoots. The pineapple mint is pushing up through its mulch. The strawberries are coming back strong and already showing new growth. The chives are ready for the first harvest of the year, with one plant going to seed already. The fennel just popped its head through the mulch yesterday.

We started digging a new bed last weekend, and it appears their is a brick path under the lawn. It looks like somebody planted grass right on top of the brick. Our house was built in the fifties, and we have found a lot of small treasures in the lawn, but a brick sidewalk was completely unexpected. It will be out by the end of this weekend so that we can prep the bed. We are planning to plant our lettuce and spinach here to fill in the space until we can get squash planted and sprouted. The lettuce and spinach require a fairly short growing time and will hold the soil until the squash is ready to spread out. We will plant other beds with lettuce and spinach as well.

I am trying to get a slide show up with updated pics every week. I will also begin labeling posts so that folks can find things that fit their specific interests. I hope everyone has a great week.

Welcome to 2009 Prep and Planning Season

2009-03-01T10:46:00.009-07:00

Hope all had a wonderful holiday season and the new year is off to a good start for everybody. It is that time, we have started working the yard to grow more food and less lawn. I didn't know until yesterday that we have approximately 40,000 square miles of lawn in the United States. Insane.

Think about how this translates. That is a lot of mowing that is putting CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. I know most people send their yard waste to the landfill in plastic bags. We dump tons of water onto our lawns so that they can look better than the next guys lawn. We also spend a fortune on chemicals to keep the lawn green, and growing strong.

Syona, my wife, and I are in the process of replacing the lawn. Our primary focus for 2009 will be our back yard. We are planning a large garden that will reduce our grocery bill significantly. Once the harvest begins we will begin canning and other food preservation procedures to keep as much as we can through the winter. We started late last year and got an idea of what we wanted to do, and managed a small harvest of some fresh veggies. While the fresh veggies were great, we came nowhere close to what we wanted accomplish. So this year we have started early and planned better.

We still have a fairly vibrant lawn even after essentially not watering it for three years. The back lawn received a minimal amount of water from the hose as we watered the few veggies we had last year. The rain and the snow have been enough to keep our lawn alive all this time. This past December my front yard was green for several weeks due to the snow storms followed by fairly warm days.

This year we are removing the lawn as we plant the garden. We are digging beds out of the lawn, which we will plant and mulch to hold moisture and keep the weeds out. The paths through our garden will be lawn until we can get a xeric ground cover planted to replace the grass. Lawns are water hogs, and we Americans tend to over water them anyway. We are thinking of planting Creeping Thyme for our paths and non garden areas. It can be walked on and abused. It doesn't need much water, and it's flowers are quite beautiful.

We have a number of trees in the yard as well. We have two maples one in the front yard and one in the back that have died because we didn't water them. These will be coming out soon and will be replaced with fruit trees. We also have a large cotton wood and a large elm tree. While both of these are water hogs, they are both almost 60 years old and will cost a small fortune to remove. Both of these trees provide a huge amount of yard debris each fall for us to compost and add to the garden. They also provide great shade for some areas of the yard and help to keep the house cool during the summer months reducing our energy costs for cooling the house, so they will be staying around a little while longer.The picture above is our compost pile after we raked the back yard last weekend. Our Winesap Apple tree is also almost 60 years old and is slowly dying. We will probably get apples for another year or two before we have to replace it. This year we are considering peaches and cherries for the yard.

After this year the back yard garden will be fairly well established and the prep time next year will not be as intensive. We are digging our beds out with a shovel. I have thought about renting a piece of equipment, but it just adds CO2 to the atmosphere, and frankly Sy and I can both use the exercise. The front yard will be replaced with an expansion of the driveway. For this I will rent or borrow a piece of equipment. Our concrete now needs to be replaced after 59 years of abuse. We are considering several options and will pick the most environmentally friendly. More on that in the future.

We are using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to weed and insect problems using biological controls and non synthetic pesticides. There is no need to use synthetic pesticides. The are numerous products in the market that can handle any pest problems you may have without the damage to the environment and our health.

The 2009 growing season is off too the great start, and we look forward to a rewarding gardening experience. We will be sharing pictures and progress so please stay tuned.

Wodhof Urban Farmstead.

2008-09-22T21:19:00.005-06:00

It has been awhile since I have posted here. It seems like other world events have overshadowed the debate about energy and the environment in this country. I have also been working with my wife toward some new sustainability projects. I have discussed some of our gardening efforts when I first started this blog. After much research we are in the planning stages of creating an urban forest farmstead. Our garden was a mixed success this year.

In evaluating the downsides of this year we realized we started late in the planting season. We have a fifty year old yard that is very fertile but is also full of tree roots. We dug our beds by hand. We have almost an acre of land to use and got nowhere close to getting it all prepared.

On the positive side for this year, we have chili peppers, and summer squash. we will have late strawberries and carrots soon. The chives have done well. The artichoke is doing well as is the fennel. We are still getting tomatoes though they got beat up pretty bad the day we had four inches of rain in just a few hours mixed with hail. The mints are doing very well.

We have much more ambitious plans for the next couple of years. This includes removing non fruit and nut trees, and replacing them with food producing trees and bushes. We are going to rent equipment for a day to get the grass out and get the top soil prepped. We have stone paths to build. Our drive way is in pretty bad shape after nearly sixty years, and so we will be replacing it with something more environmentally friendly. We are looking into ways to capture the rain that comes from the heavy summer storms we tend to get during the monsoon season.

During the current economy we have dug ourselves out of our credit hole, but we cannot afford to move to the country so we are doing what we can here. The name of our farmstead comes from the Old Norse Wod {vode-inspiration} and Hof {home}. Please check back often to see new developments. Green Sense is going to be the official homepage of Wodhof Farmstead. I will be posting pics, videos, and articles about our projects and other things of interest here.

A few reasons why ethanol is not the fuel of the future.

2008-08-02T23:22:00.002-06:00

I have been doing some research and found some very good reasons that ethanol will not be the fuel of the future. We can see from the headlines that there are food shortages in the world because we are diverting so much corn to ethanol production. It is projected that half of America's corn crop will go to ethanol production in the next couple of years. Ethanol is a temporary fix to our oil addiction at best. It is like giving methadone to a heroin addict.

The forecast for annual US production is expected to be at 11 billion gallons. This is the equivalent of 262 million barrels. A barrel is 42 gallons. 216 million barrels results in about 718,000 barrels per day. This is the equivalent of replacing two super tankers of foreign oil daily. Sounds like a lot right? Wrong.

When we further break this down it equals less than six percent of this countries daily oil imports. When we then further factor in that ethanol contains only 59.5% of the energy of an equivalent barrel of oil we begin to see that ethanol is not the answer. Ethanol contains 26.8 megajoules of energy compared to 45 megajoules for an equivalent barrel of oil. When we consider the energy that is needed to produce ethanol, 718,000 barrels will replace less than three and a half percent of our daily consumption rate of 21 million barrels of oil a day.

As these numbers show, ethanol is less economically viable than oil. The amount of corn required to fill a twenty five gallon gas tank once with ethanol could feed one person for a year. As I have said before we need to kick our addiction to oil, but ethanol is not the way to go. I think it is great for high performance race engines, but is not viable or sustainable for wide use.

Please take a few minutes to contact our elected officials and ask them to support 100% clean electricity. We as a country are being asked to determine the future of transportation and energy in this country. If we do not tell our leaders what we want we can be sure special interests will.

As a side note to the economics of energy, the Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund is a green mutual fund that invests in clean energy companies. It has a 24.80% return rate year to date. To see more about this fund visit GAAEX on Google Finance.

2008-08-01T19:11:00.002-06:00

Congress takes five-week vacation without passing energy bill - By Thomas BurrThe Salt Lake Tribune

It saddens me that our leaders have become so partisan that they can no longer effectively govern our country. Our congressional leaders spend more time blaming each other than actually working for the American People. Several energy proposals from both sides of the aisle are sitting by while Congress is on a five week vacation.

Let's look at the proposals left sitting at the table. It appears that the only thing is that both sides can agree on is that oil speculation has to stop.

While the Republicans are calling for more drilling areas off Americas shores, the Democrats are calling for a use it or lose it policy on current oil leases that are not being used. I think that the oil companies should be using the areas they already have leases on if they want to drill more oil. As I have stated many times, drilling in ANWR or offshore will do nothing in the short or long term except enhance the profits of the oil companies. We will continue to need oil to fuel us in the short term until we can convert to a new source of energy. Drill what has been developed and lets get on with moving this country out of the carbon age.

I am reminded of a question I once saw on a bumper sticker. If pro is the opposite of con is Congress the opposite of Progress? Our government has been rusted by the corrosion of special interest groups and partisan politics and is not effectively working for us. Please contact our leaders and ask them work for the best interest of the American People. Ask them to stand for 100% clean energy production and use in the United States. Tell them that if they continue their ineffective representation of the people they will be fired. It is time to make our leaders accountable to us. This kind of behavior our leaders display at "work," would not be acceptable in a corporate or small business environment.

Please visit the following link to support clean electricity in the United States and the World.

Online petition - 100% clean electricity coming soon to an outlet near you

A Letter from US Senator Wayne Allard

2008-07-29T20:05:00.003-06:00

Dear Jeremy:

Thank you for your recent letter concerning our nation's energy policy and use of renewable and alternative energy sources. I appreciate that you have taken the time to write.

Like you, I believe that we should try to increase our use of renewable energy sources. Solar, geothermal, biomass, hydro and wind power are attractive energy sources for the future and I believe we should continue to support research to perfect the technology and expand their use.

As you may know, today approximately 60% of all of our nation's oil is imported. The investments we make in renewable technology will enhance fuel choice, increase domestic production, reduce our trade deficit and insulate the U.S. from oil price shocks and threats from rogue nations. I am also a strong proponent of using alternative fuels such as biofuels, propane, natural gas, ethanol, methanol, and hydrogen; they are clean fuels and are largely free of the pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act.

You may be interested to know about some of my efforts on behalf of renewable energy. I am a founding member and currently the Co-Chair of the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus. With over 1/3 of the Senate, the Caucus seeks to bring together industry representatives, the Administration and Congressional interests to discuss and promote the use, research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Additionally, I am a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 590, which if enacted, would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the investment tax credit with respect to solar energy property and qualified fuel cell property. I am also a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 822, the Energy Efficiency Incentives Act of 2007. This legislation would provide individual taxpayers with a tax credit, through 2011, for residential energy efficiency expenditures. Also, it extends the tax credit to non-business property, including air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters, etc., and includes a revised tax credit to include all solar-derived electricity. The bill would extend through 2014 the tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings, increase the existing maximum amount of the deduction, and allow tax deductions for energy efficient low-rise buildings used for multifamily housing. Finally, the bill extends through 2011 the investment tax credit for solar energy and fuel cell property, and includes a business-related tax credit for training and certification costs and equipment expenditures used in the residential energy savings certification process.

I believe renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies help offset fuel imports, create numerous employment opportunities, develop our domestic economy and enhance and create export opportunities. In addition, renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies provide clean, inexhaustible energy for millions of consumers.

Again, thank you for writing to express your concerns. If you would like more information regarding this and other issues important to Colorado, please visit my website. If you would like to receive updates on news important to Coloradoans, click here. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Sincerely,

Wayne Allard
United States Senator

Who has their fingers in Big Oil's wallet?

2008-07-29T19:34:00.003-06:00

Barak Obama?

John Mcain?

It is time for a sane energy policy.

2008-07-27T10:30:00.012-06:00

An Energy Declaration for the Fifty United States

Why is it that our politicians feel the need to play smoke and mirrors with the American People. Do they not serve at the whims of the people to serve the people in their best interest. I found the above link on the web page of Rep. Doug Lamborn R-Colorado. He claims he has signed it, and yet he continues to call for drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States.

I am sure this declaration has been signed by other members of Congress as well. It is great they can throw together a great looking worthless document and pass it to the American people as "see we are doing something to earn the money you pay us."

Our current energy crisis and oil problems stem from a lack of forsight ten to fifteen years ago by our leaders. We have known for some time that our carbon energy supplies are finite, and that we would have to go to war to protect them.

It is time for our current leaders to make a true declaration for energy independence. Why are there still those calling for more oil use when we have alternate sources of clean 100% renewable energy. Why are those who are still calling for oil use when we have the technology to use 100% clean renewable energy from wind and solar electricity?

Why are there some still calling for drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, when the oil companies are not exploiting all of the areas that are currently approved for drilling. It is because they are continuing to profit from the suffering of the people of the United States and the world.

It is time to contact our elected officials, and ask them to commit to 100% clean electricity by 2018. Ask them to commit to upgrading the National Power Grid. This is a must. Ask them to support retooling Detroit to produce vehicles that run on electricity. Ask them to support building wind and solar producing facilities.

These are suggestions for kicking our addiction to oil, creating jobs and working out some of the issues in our economy. If our elected represenatives refuse to work for the best interest of the people, it is time to fire them and start over.

Please show your support for sane energy policy.

Talk to your elected officials. They only hear us when we talk to them!

Another reason to just say no to oil.

2008-07-22T23:35:00.007-06:00

** Chavez calls for Russia alliance **

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez calls for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US.

Greetings all,

Here is another reason to say just say no to the geopolitics of oil. We as a nation are above this piss-ant dictator, but guess what he has oil. It is time to kick our dependency on oil and become a clean energy nation.

We have the technology. We have plenty of sun and wind. We are the Saudi Arabia of the wind energy world. Enough energy from the sun hits the Earth every 40 minutes to power the entire Human civilization for one year. And yet we are doing what Humans have been doing for thousands of years, and that is fighting each other for limited resources.

Commit to making America run on 100% clean electricity. When we upgrade the national grid, generate 100% of our electricity from solar and wind sources, and power our cars on electricity we break our addiction to oil.

We can do this now and over the next ten years and pay approximately the same or less as our oil dependency will cost us. If we continue the path of oil dependency, we will still have to do this in the short term future, 50 to 100 years at most. If we wait to kick our addiction we will suffer greatly as a nation. Now is the time. We can make the investment in our future now, while creating jobs and long term cost savings. When we are free we can remove ourselves from the geo-politics of oil. We can be a leader in the world.

--
Jeremy

The We Campaign

The Pickens plan

Your Government

2008-07-21T20:43:00.002-06:00

Below is a copy of a letter I have written to the city leaders of Colorado Springs. I ask that everyone write their city, state and national leaders and ask them to make a pledge to clean energy. Only when our leaders hear from the people, do they know what we want.

www.usa.gov --Use it to contact your elected represenatives.

_________________________________________________________________
Greetings Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members,

Although I do not live in the City of Colorado Springs, I manage a retail service business and feel compelled to write you about issues that are affecting all of the United States. As you are aware we are in a dire financial crisis. We are suffering from high gas and oil prices. One way I have noticed is that repaving projects and pot hole filling are not as common this year due to the cost of the oil that must be used in the asphalt mix.

I am writing to request that you proclaim and adopt a clean energy policy for Colorado Springs. It is time for Colorado Springs to be a leader in Colorado, the United States, and the world. Adopt a policy to use electricity from 100% clean sources such as wind and solar energy by 2018. Commit to having a fleet of 100% clean electric vehicles. Ask Colorado Springs Utilities to commit to 100% clean power generation by 2018.

By saying no to more oil we can begin to build a new energy economy based on clean and sustainable energy policy. An investment now will pay for itself over and over again. If we wait and continue business as usual we will suffer worse economic hardship. If that is not enough, I ask do you want future wildfires to be worse because we are not doing are part to minimze carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which will accelerate global warming.

If nothing else, please watch the following videos and then decide to do what is right for Colorado Springs, and the world.

AL GORE: Green Energy by 2018 (7/17 Speech)

http://www.pickensplan.com

Thank You,

Jeremy Cook

What's the Plan?

2008-07-20T11:38:00.000-06:00

We can solve it

2008-07-19T20:15:00.004-06:00

Greetings all,

Please indulge me and watch the above video. Your political affiliation does not matter. This is a human civilization issue.

It is truly interesting to live in times where the public can have direct effect on the government through the Internet. Please watch this video and then commit to changing the course of Human civilization for the better. A new age is upon us. Pass it on.

"The Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones: the oil age won't end because of a shortage of oil." (Sheik Yemani, Saudi Oil. Minister, 1973)

www.wecansolveit.org

Legislative Update-ANWR

2008-07-12T21:59:00.004-06:00

Doug Lamborn, Represenative 5th district Colorado, has sent me a letter that at least this time was printed on recycled paper. That is the only positive news. In his letter he tells me he wants to pass the "no excuses energy act of 2007," which he has co-sponsored.

He says the bill "provides for the exploration and production of our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It will also open up the continental shelf. Mr. Lamborn also proposes to build ten new refineries on public lands.

The bill already appears to have been killed, but it doesn't hurt to write your represenatives in Congress and let them know what is on your mind.

I will be telling mine that they must support a renewable energy economy, while helping us kick our addiction to oil. The next axemakers gift is the green revolution. Think about how far our technology has come since the dawn of the industrial revolution. We fueled the industrial revolution with oil. It is time to fuel the new future with clean available renewable energy.

Tell our leaders to stop us from killing ourselves and our children. Tell our leaders that we want to be free from the global politics of oil. Tell our leaders we do not need or want more war. Tell our leaders to just say no to more oil.

Mr. Lamborn informs me that drilling in ANWR alone would produce 10.4 billion barrels of oil. What he doesn't grasp is that we could not begin full production in ANWR until approximately 2025, which does nothing to bring down oil costs now, or help us kick our addiction to oil. We would still be subject to world oil prices as the energy companies that would love to dig this oil out of the ground will sell to the highest bidders, which may not be in the best interest of the people of the United States.

We needed to build ten refineries thirty years ago, now we need to invest in the new energy economy. We are lagging behind the industrial world in research and practical use in all fields in alternate energy.

So please write our leaders and tell them to clean it up.

Your Government

WARNING: American Homeshield Corporation

2008-07-12T18:11:00.003-06:00

A Lesson In Customer Service

Greetings All,

I have a problem with the customer service of the above company. I want to warn as many people as possible to stay away from this company, and if you are already involved call and cancel your contract and get a refund.

I have spent a month trying to get my dishwasher repaired or replaced. The problems with the dishwasher started late last year. Their customer service people and their contractors are very good at giving people the run around. My new dishwasher has been sitting in my kitchen floor for two weeks and has yet to be installed. As of now it is scheduled to be installed Monday afternoon.

I talked yesterday with a "service manager" named Ron Cook who promised he would get results and call me back the very same day with a solution to getting my dishwasher installed. I told him I was skeptical that he would call and he vowed he would call me. As you might guess he never called. This morning after I called AHS and had an email sent to him did he bother himself to call back and apologize for not calling me back. He then offered to give me a $50 certificate to waive my next repair service fee. I could almost hear the stutter in his voice when I told him I cancelled my contract already. He then tried the Repeated Apology Approach to get me to change my mind as if twelve apologies (I counted) would make months of contract violation and inconvenience go away.

Anyway this saga will definitely continue. The first link below is from a forum in Columbus Georgia, that I found when I googled "AHS Sucks". The second link is for any who have had issues with AHS. In this day and age it is easy for dissatisfied customers to step up to pressure companies with unethical and possibly illegal business practices.

After eight years of working as a customer service rep, an installer, a trainer, and a store manager for Diamond Triumph Glass, I know that the customer is not always right, but that it is my job to see that their auto glass needs are safely, and efficiently, taken care of at a fair price. That is all I ask of any company to be treated fairly. When I am not treated fairly I will do my best to make sure as many as possible know.

If you can appreciate great customer service pass this on so that poor customer service is treated fairly with a healthy dose of consumer pressure.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/climbs-ga/T8QJDSIIC97HMMQRQ

http://groups.google.com/group/AHS-sucks

Thank You for your time
-- Jeremy Cook

2008-07-11T20:29:00.000-06:00

Subscribe to American Home Shield UR Not Doin It Right

Email:

Visit this group

80 miles per liter/1 liter = 0.264172052 US gallons

2008-06-26T17:26:00.002-06:00

Reuters.com - Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan http://www.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=84561

Imagine capturing rainwater in a cistern and using it to power your car. Can fill it from a lake, the sea, rain water. Any water will do. Many seem to be skeptical about Genepax's claims that no outside energy source is needed. If that is true then this is truly an energy independent vehicle. This is the kind of technology we should be supporting and advocating our leaders to fund further research of.

Bush Calls for Offshore Drilling.

2008-06-18T20:32:00.007-06:00

Bush blames Dems for oil prices
Really?

Isn't it ironic that over the last eight years it is Bush administration policies that have created some very serious problems we face as a nation. For six years the Repubs had control of Congress and the White House. Now as they are licking their tails and trying to figure out how to salvage anything out of the disaster that has been the George W Bush presidency they throw the Dems under the bus for high oil prices. When Mr. Bush took office oil was hovering around $28 per barrel. In six years Mr. Bush and his republican Congress have wreaked economic havoc with their policies. Over the last two years the republicans have had enough votes to block most legislation to fix our problems. Now we are playing election year politics and nothing is being done to effectively govern our country.

Isn't it also ironic that the last time this country truly needed a revolution we were being governed by none other than King George III of England. What I bet most don't know is that he was also a George W. Turns out his name was George William Frederick, and he was the third George to be king. We have George Walker, who happens to be the third George to President. But I digress.

The point is we need a new revolution. It is time to institute the Green Revolution. Our founding fathers were brilliant and they left us a framework to institute change in our government. It is time that the American people take back the reigns of their destiny and resolve our problems.

The first step to a Green Revolution is to start at home. Grow our own food. Take our energy needs from the bountiful energy of the Sun. Recycle what we can. Compost organic waste and use it to support our own gardens. Buy products that are local. Buy, build, or trade for transportation that does not rely on oil based energy.

The second step can begin while you are working at becoming more sustainable in your personal lives. Contact your government leaders and ask them to do what is right and in the best interest of the American people. Ask our leaders to lead us into a sustainable renewable energy economy. Ask them to make responsible policies regarding our energy needs.

The American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report Card 2005, states that in 1999 America's utilities spent $5.3 billon dollars on maintaining, operating, and construction cost for the national power transmission system. Please read the rest of the report. It doesn't look good. We need to begin to redirect some of that money to eliminating the grid. Put the power on peoples roofs. Make low interest loans to folks so that we can afford to put solar on our roofs. The excess can be put back into the current grid to green up the consumption of energy in this country until each household in the United States is independently powered by renewable energy. Make mandatory renewable energy standards for new construction.

Ask our state and federal leaders to mandate clean vehicles. We have the technology and the means to become petroleum free in our automotive industries. Bush is calling for offshore drilling reversing his position in which he signed off several times to continue the ban. I have heard radio spots from oil and natural gas telling me how many jobs will be lost if Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signs a law to stop drilling for three months out of the year in certain areas. I ask Govenor Ritter to sign the law and then work to transition these workers into the renewable energy economy Colorado is now building.

Lets look at our problems differently. We are taking oil from the Earth and burning it to support our lives and industries. Burning oil creates pollution. We are still only just figuring out the true implications of pollution on the world. It poisons humans, animals, etc. We have technology to reduce significantly the amount of oil we currently use, and in the near future make us completely independent of oil. Why is there any question that we would not want clean energy. I don't want to be poisoned when there is a better way. It just seems to me that if we do not choose to change course without delay the consequences will be devastating.

2008-06-06T20:42:00.002-06:00

2008-06-01T19:59:00.003-06:00

The garden is coming along nicely. I hope to have pictures tomorrow. I need to recharge some batteries for the camera.

So far we have 1 choclate mint, 1 pineapple mint, 1 big beef tomato plant, 1 yellow pear tomato, basil, sage, hyssop, chives, watermelon radishes, cosmic purple carrots, 4 new mexico chiles, 1 sweet pimento pepper, 1 zuchinni, 1 longneck summer squash, 1 white scallop squash, 2 strawberries, 1 burpless cucumber, 1 lemon cucumber, artichoke, a fennel planted and mulched.

We still have 3 varieties of corn, popcorn, sweet peas, snow peas, pole beans, bush beans, spaghetti squash, 4 anaheim peppers, 4 red bell peppers, a habenero pepper, three atlantic giant pumpkins, more radishes, several varieties of lettuce, two varieties of okra, 2 varieties of beets, and edamame(soy beans)to plant.

Finally we need to cultivate our onions and garlic from last year, harvest some early rhubarb, spread our native mints into ever expanding beds. I think with having a small dog in addition to three cats I might get some apples off the apple tree this year. In the previous 4 years we have been here we have let the squirrels eat them and throw them at the cats.

That's how we are becoming greener this week.

What can we do to become green this week.

2008-05-30T23:46:00.005-06:00

Economic, and environmental concerns are forcing us to change our lifestyles. As the price of oil continues to sharply rise we will continue to feel the economic pain. As we continue to burn this overpriced prehistoric mud at an astounding rate we continue to aggrevate the environmental health of the planet.

The cost of food has risen in accordance with the price of oil. More Americans than ever are using food bank resources (America's Second Harvest). After a recent survey America's Second Harvest says that use of food banks and soup kitchens is up by 15 to 20% in this time of economic hardship.

How many of us are guilty of loving food that is flown and trucked half away around the world to our neighborhood super markets. I know I am. The best way to minimize the gas pains of this food is to not eat it. If we can give it up we can help our wallets hold more cash.

My wife and I have decided that we are going to grow our own. Our families grew gardens when we were young, but as we got older we got away from it. Well now we are learning again. We had wanted to xeriscape our yard. Now keep in mind that we have a lush lawn that is beginning to die off because we haven't watered it essentially for two years, though we did have some good rain last year. We are now in the process of transforming our yard. We are putting vegetable plots all over the yard. We are removing the grass when we can replace it with a food item bed, an herb patch, or a decorative xeric bed. We are doing this as our resources allow. We are buying hardy plants and mulching them well to conserve water.

When we are done and the harvest is over in the fall, we hope to have dined well during the summer and still had enough to put some away for winter. For all that we have spent on seed and mulch when it is all said and done we will have saved hundreds of dollars at the least. When we can't grow what we need we are buying locally grown goods that have a reduced carbon footprint and lower cost becaue they don't have to be transported as far. We are seriously considering raising rabbits to supplement our meat intake.

After we save some money then we will reinvest in our household to give it solar energy. With over 300 days of sunlight a year we can be nearly off the grid. There is so much we can do.

If every American changed one habit into a green habit every week we could make a huge difference in the world. We can change our economy and geopolitics if we take the steps to make a difference. First we have to get up off the couch and do the work or nothing will change until it is too late. If we think the gas pains are bad now, wait and see what happens when we do nothing. I promise it will be far worse. One only has to take a look at human history to know this.

I encourage everyone to pick up some green habits. It will make the world a better place

Do You Want to send China A Message?

2008-05-29T00:30:00.002-06:00

The following was sent to me in an email. I think it is a wonderful idea. Think about it and then pass it on.

Are we Americans as dumb as we appear or is it that we just do not think?

While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Bush Administration for perceived errors.

Yet 70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended. Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges? DO IT YOURSELF!!

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China ' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, however you will be equally amazed at what you can do without. Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is.. do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own.

If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!! The downside? Some American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory.

** Downside ??

The solution ?Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. We will not implement this UNTIL June 4, and we will only continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.Remember, June 4 to July 4.

Send this to everybody you know.Show them we are Americans and NOBODY can take us for granted.

If we can't live without cheap Chinesegoods for one month out of our lives,

WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!

Pass it on America !!!

Green Revolution

2008-05-23T11:38:00.003-06:00

In light of current energy problems it is time for the worlds people to stand up and demand that their leaders take action to become sustainable. As many sources tell us, we cannot continue to live the way we are and survive as a species . When our current energy systems crash there will be hell to pay in the world. Our world and our species are on the verge of a new revolution. It is quickly heating up, but now needs everyone's help.

It is time to contact our government leaders and tell them that they must advance sustainable energy and building policies. Do not let them tell you no. Governments have dictated energy and building policy for most of our civilized history. Now instead of mandating clean energy and building practices they want to pump more oil out of the ground.

If you think war and human tragedy are bad now, wait until the oil runs out. It is time for our elected leaders to take their hands out of the pockets of polluters and oil companies. It is time for our leaders to lead us to a green clean sustainable culture.

There is enough natural clean energy available to power all human society without war, pollution, or corruption from our leaders. They want wealth not a clean Earth. It is time for a revolution. tell our leaders we want sustainable clean energy and building practices. Tell Congress to give us a comprehensive green energy plan that is effective. Tell them we are tired of weak mandates. Tell our president to quit begging his Saudi friends for lower prices and more oil production, and support a comprehensive energy reform package.

Mr. president and Members of Congress, I ask you to take your hands out of the pockets of big oil and mandate alternative energy sources for transportation. Support clean energy. We can be free of our dependency on oil in a few short years. If you cannot let go of our addiction to unhealthy and unsustainable energy policies then it is time for the people to remove you from office and elect those who can. Our future as a species depends on it.

Please visit Your Government and ask your leaders to do what is right.