Red State Green

We’ve had a run-in with the flu here (unusual for us), but everyone seems to be on the mend.
I’m still shaking my head at the hype about all this. So far this has got to be the mildest flu season as far as deaths in history (perhaps 4000 overall so far compared to the “normal” [...]

Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown
This is mostly talking about climate changes and their implications for society, but it does have some discussions about population pressures and energy concerns. I just started reading this, and  so far it’s better than the title (which I find a bit pretentious). You [...]

Check out this Oklahoma City video “The Cost of Green”
There’s a lot of good stuff here about the costs and savings of “green” practices and technology in Oklahoma.

Sharon Astyk wrote a blog post the other day entitled Dreaming A Life that spoke of something I’ve been thinking about for a while now: why do we do what we do?
Why, when there is so much new attention to climate change, so much scientific consensus and so much activism, are governments so reluctant to [...]

Hi, everyone!
We’re having a bit of a cool spell — it’s only 90 instead of 102 here! — and our summer is going pretty well. I just read Sharon Astyk’s blog, which reminded me to do my Independence days update. It’s been quite dry here, the bit of rain we got a couple of days [...]

Dmitry Orlov does it again: Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation
I’m in the middle of reading this and it’s just a great article.
One quote I really like:
It is an unfortunate fact that the recent centuries of settled life, and especially the last century or so of easy living based on the industrial model, has made many people too [...]

Hope everyone is okay with the wildfires today. The news is saying there are nine large ones going and the wind’s not slowing down anytime soon.
If you need a live weather video feed, KOCO.com has a good one; I’m watching it right now.

It was a beautiful day.
Took Leon out to run around, afterwards got a lot of fur off him, as I hadn’t brushed him in a week and he sheds like crazy. Covered over most of the garden plots for the cold front while he ran around trying to tangle himself in my legs. One of [...]

Even for Oklahoma!

I’ve been following a free online video series called The Crash Course, and I wanted to tell you about it:
The Crash Course seeks to provide you with a baseline understanding of the economy so that you can better appreciate the risks that we all face.
And boy, does it!
Now, I took Economics in college, so I [...]

Green With A Gun has a fascinating post up on Georgia, Russia and the West.
We went from a major drought to the wettest August on record in a matter of days, and it looks like there’s more rain coming this weekend. The rain knocked out some people’s power in Oklahoma City, and flattened some of [...]

Here’s an Independence Days update …
This has been an uninspired past few weeks: hot, so dry the ground has cracks in it. The only things that seem to like my yard right now are sweet potatoes and sunflowers.
Can you live on those??
Planted: potatoes
Harvested: some greens
Managed: have been making up uses for the last of the [...]

It rained really hard overnight! I was thrilled to see the barrels full as well as the buckets I use for the overflow. I really need more barrels.
Harvested some lovely greens, which I’m not sure what kind they are or how they got there. I think they’re really large versions of something in my mesclun [...]

Not much (didn’t even fill up the rain barrels), but it was the first time in a while, and I’m grateful for it

I wish I were talking about a picture of a guy or something.
A lot of my plants outside are wilting, and my stevia out front died. 100F and humid! Yecch.
I brought Leon outside this morning, and it wasn’t too bad. I went out just now and the heat was awful.
So other than composting some bunny [...]

Well, we’ve had fun this weekend so far. We watched a good part of the Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-fi channel, and had a barbecue on the Fourth (with local meats, regional hamburger buns, and I made the hot dog buns from local flour).
And now Sunday has appeared as if by magic!
Harvested: a bit [...]

I’m not sure if it’s been the heat, allergies, or just plain old funk, but I haven’t been able to get much done the last few days. I’m supposed to be at the co-op right now, as I normally go volunteer there on sorting day.
Food is getting more and more expensive even there, but it’s [...]

It’s been hot and humid here this week, rained twice, with some golf-ball sized hail the other night. Fortunately nothing got damaged. I’ve been under the weather (still not feeling all that well today), which is why I haven’t been posting.
My plants all seem smaller than usual for this time of year, I’m not sure [...]

Well, it’s been more of the hot lately, but I think I’ve been reading the news too much. Gas prices, foreclosures, homelessness, food supply issues … all on the rise. And none of the candidates seems to have a clue.
For me, it just reinforces my feelings that we need to become self-reliant, take care of [...]

Remarks given to the Vestas Wind Technology Training Center, today, in Portland, Oregon.
The full text here.
Discuss.