Red State Green

I just ran across an interesting site called Window Farms. The idea is to use the light and space of a vertical window to raise food plants in:

Their blog is quite fun to read, and gave me some ideas about what to do with a couple of windows in my house.

Gas prices are going up again, and it looks like that small spike in crude oil production back in 2008 is still holding as the peak of global oil production. (the little star on the black line of reality is what I’m referring to in all that speculation) Are we at the top of the [...]

Crunchy Chicken is doing a Cloth Wipe Challenge:

I did this on my own for a while, when I experimented with peeing in a bucket during the 90% reduction thing. Using cloth for toilet paper is really not all that bad (I’ve only used cloth for #1 and will continue to limit it to that), and [...]

Seems that summer is here — temperatures in the 90+ range, sunny, and humid.
Planted four more tomato plants, harvested a lot of onions and scallions, some peas, and a couple cups of blackberries (which disappeared like magic! ). And of course lots of weeds for the rabbits.
Made a braid of six of the [...]

Sharon Astyk’s post reminded me about Independence Days, which I had thought about in the “oh yeah I need to be doing this” but not in the sense of “oh yeah I need to do this NOW”. Thanks for the nudge!
So we’re back on. She has altered the rules a bit … every day you [...]

I don’t know about your area, but the one thing I noticed when first coming to Oklahoma was a) the obsession with large lawns, and b) the sheer amount of chemicals and poisons used to take care of them.
If you’d like to get away from the last part, here’s an article you might find interesting. [...]

It’s supposed to snow this weekend, probably starting tomorrow. We’re supposed to get a couple inches; in the panhandle it might be up to eight inches, along with high winds, blowing snow, and all that lovely stuff.It’s blustery and cold outside; I know because I went out and covered up my garden plots again, so [...]

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 [...]

I’ve been gone a while, haven’t I? Didya miss me?
This week I went to a wedding, went back to playing World of Warcraft (my whole family got copies of The Lich King), and have been having fun on chess.com
And it’s supposed to snow today! Yippee!
But Sharon posted her Independence Days update the other [...]

Sharon Astyk has something going called the Competence Project, and it looks interesting. The idea is to pick something you want to learn to do and get good at it.
Since I don’t seem to be able to post on her site (this has been going on for a while and has yet to be figured [...]

I haven’t done a link day in a long time, and I’ve found some lovely ones I thought I might share with you:
Okla-vore – this is a lovely little blog I just ran across, which has some really interesting links.
Next Up? The Food Crisis — by Bob Waldrop, who’s the founder and president of the [...]

Well, let’s see….
Harvested some lettuce and carrots.
Shucked more sunflower heads (making a dent in the pile in the bowl on my kitchen counter).
As far as ‘preps’, I’ve been working on a sturdy base for my 300 gal. water barrel, and between my husband and I, we’ve worked out a plan to get the thing not [...]

If you have early voting, go do so to beat the rush! Our early voting opens today at the county courthouse.
Here’s some tips taken from an email I got today from ColorOfChange.org (yeah, they’re probably liberal, but I didn’t get anything like this from our party):

Vote early to beat the lines.
Double-check your polling location before [...]

[Note from RSG: this was posted on the SharonFoodStorage yahoo group by someone who wants to remain anonymous, and I'm reposting it with the author's permission. I have edited this for formatting and to remove anything which might identify the author.]
This is the first part of the food storage plan written by Ms. Anon E. [...]

The WaterBOB:
The waterBOB® is a water containment system that holds up to 100 gallons of fresh drinking water in any standard bathtub in the event of an emergency. Constructed of heavy duty food grade plastic, the waterBOB® keeps water fresh and clean for drinking, cooking, washing and flushing. Water stored in an open bathtub, with [...]

Things are getting crazy in the world of finance, aren’t they?
Well, taking steps to be more self-reliant are always good. We’re doing fine here but just talking with friends and family, it hasn’t been that rosy. Found out a friend was in foreclosure but managed to cut a deal. My sister and her husband lost [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Got the last bill today, so I can put up my stats. I think I forgot to write down when I got gas after the last month’s posting, because I don’t have it marked. I know it’s been several weeks since I got any.
In any case, here’s what I have:
Electricity: 4050 kWh (448% of national [...]