Shabbat Shalom

During dark days, there is still One who does not change, and who continues to guide through the darkness. Just a reminder to myself, when I look to tomorrow and wonder what will come.

Psalm 18:28 For You light my lamp; YHVH my Elohim illumines my darkness.

I light the candles tonight and am thankful for the week past, and a day of rest. And I thankful for the days to come and the opportunity to work to fill them with a renewed fervor, and renewed hope.




I hope you have a wonderful night and day tomorrow. I appreciate my friends here so much, and the friends I hope to make in the future. Thank you for your friendship!

From our house to yours, shabbat shalom :)

Peevish on Spending Packages

There, I went and did it. Politics AND religion, and all in the same post.

Run, run away now....(
I already hid the rotten fruit)

-------
I've written and written. And deleted and deleted.

Here's what's left...(if you're feeling prickly or might be easily offended, just skip this post) ;-)

We're a spoiled nation and not used to working together.

We're separated by an ideological Mason-Dixon dividing line of differing paradigms.

We're being told as a nation that our future survival is an End Justifying The Means scenario...we are bidden to close our eyes and take a leap of faith into a morass of further debt in order to save the economy ...for the purpose of further bouts of spending???

Does the word Trillion even have a meaning? I can remember when people could not conceive of the term Billion.

Somewhere in here is a lesson we have not learned yet, and may be destined to keep repeating till we change at some very elemental levels.

I'll tell you this, though. I'm not comfortable with our extremes.

And I'm not enjoying seeing people being pressured to drink the Koolaid. I'm enjoying even less watching so many enthusiastically queue up for their turn at it.

It's too early for anyone to be an expert...we've never been down this road before. Some humility is in order. Some caution, trepidation, admission we're all on shaky ground together.

Stop the guilt appeals, the loathesome analyst-and-expert parade, and the hero worship. We need to LEARN the lesson rather than wallow in despair. If analysts and experts were always right, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. And we don't need to start speaking in tongues and falling down in worship whenever the word Obama is mentioned. I somehow think he would agree.

There is business to get down to doing just yet.

First, we have to refuse to turn our brains off. We have to make decisions based on what is wise and right from our own experience, not because of manipulation. We're not always going to agree.

I do not care what movie star gushes Hollywood's version of unity sermons; those people do not live in my reality but in an artificial high-school popularity-contest world. I don't make decisions based on "peer pressure." I voted for whom I wanted, and you were not my deciding factor either way. Do you honestly think I listen to you?

Grow up, Hollywood. You don't represent me or my views no matter how much Botox you've had or how young your latest husband is.
So tired of them.

And the other extreme? (Can we never agree on anything?) The Far Far Right..IS there even a far right any more, anyway? I feel so burned out by Bush. Burnt. Crispy. And am wary of those who would still have voted in someone like him. And anyone who would have led on with Business As Usual in his footsteps.
So very tired of all that, too.

I'm not fearful, or hopeless. But I'm very concerned.

I'm tired of the media blitz sensationalizing fear of this and fear of that, when the average family is already combatting the daily fear of how to keep their house or pay the bills after losing a job.

I feel like our nation is being offered immature solutions to adult problems and there is no wise elder to turn to for sound counsel.

The good news? I see so many of us forging deliberately toward self-sufficiency, simplicity, and responsibility...don't underestimate this resolve, this spirit, this foundation we're building against the tide. We're a small group, though, a minority as yet. But whether through necessity or desire, a growing group.

I see the majority of Americans still chasing an illusion that a leader or an economy can be their security, instead of their own choices, values, and self-sufficiency being the primary factors. I don't see our president insinuating himself into that role, but I see plenty of disciples in a misplaced messianic frenzy rushing to ascribe that sort of power to him. And speaking of things in this vein, God takes a bad rap. It's so popular today to bypass any mention of God and His role, too...or on the other hand to claim Him as a political endorsement. No one wants to claim Him when it's not politically correct, but His titles get used a lot to put the shine on speeches or public addresses.

Well back to presidential promised lands....No American president is my messiah. And he's not my pariah, either.

I do disagree with the spending package being put forth. I am bewildered at how I will be asked in the future to help pay it back. I reject embracing the bad advice to bankrupt my country further by borrowing more. Stock market, housing market, banking institutions, insurance companies...are not our salvation. I know no one wants to hear that.

I'm peevish about my nation rushing headlong into further financial disaster.

There are no easy answers for a nation or any network of interconnected world economies dependent on constantly consuming more and more. At some point growth hits a ceiling. Even the earth's own atmosphere has a ceiling. Even the fabled magic bean in the tale of Jack-and-the-beanstalk achieved its fullest height.

My Jack and I have to deal with reality, not risk-it-all experiments, in our own personal finances. I resent any outside force taking on exorbitant debt and expecting us to further "pay our dues" when we didn't contribute to it in the first place. WE did not leave any of our creditors unpaid or do things irresponsibly. Here at home, no matter what, we have to remain resolved about staying the heck out of further debt and paying off what we have left. Yes, with losses. Even if we lose it all.

We'll still learn and operate differently. But in time, I am confident come what may, Jack and I will have the payoff of freedom rather than the futility of a perpetual spending cycle we have to waste our efforts and life to maintain.

Well, enough of my little mood. I feel like someone just took all the hard work we've been doing trying to get out of debt, and mortgaged us back to the hilt and then some.

Oh, did I mention our lifelong insurance company just bailed on our ENTIRE STATE? Thank you so much, State Farm. I'm not sympathetic to your lame excuse that you'd have to increase our premiums 47% to stay solvent. I'm glad Charlie Crist told you to not let the door hit you on the way out. You should have factored the potential for natural disasters in before you ever set up shop hin this state...which is, after all, Florida, and we DO have hurricanes, hello??

I go now, to do as many of us are trying to do, and see if I can squeeze blood out of a turnip.

I am ready for self-sufficiency, simplicity, and sound reason to be our nation's target GNP.

P. S. Be careful out there... don't be carried away by the lemmings rushing to jump over the Cliffs of Insanity...

Photo copyright unknown. If I am infringing on a copyrighted image, I will gladly remove it!

Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup

You have to read THIS Washington Post article...just saw it today. There is mercury in a high percentage of foods made with high fructose corn syrup. And the public has not been aware, although the FDA has since 2005, according to this article.

There has been a HUGE ad campaign to mislead the public about the supposed "safety" of high fructose corn syrup.

I'd not seen any of these commercials since we don't have TV, but this summer during my MIL's hospice stay, I got caught up on what I'd been missing (said a bit tongue-in-cheek). I was really angered at the misinformation about HFCS and the way their commercials made it look like any question about its safety was due to ignorance.

Here's one of their commercials I first saw:



See? It's a classic "poor dumb guy" spot. Poor Dumb Guy is inarticulate and ignorant about HFCS, and is corrected by Smart Savvy Girlfriend. He is saved from his misconceptions about the differences between sweeteners.

Oh brother. First, get over the Poor Dumb Guy stuff. I hope women are a lot smarter than to believe all guys are idiots because of their unfortunate gender. Puh!! Myself, I prefer smart, sharp, informed guys and am guessing nearly all the readers in Informed Blogland do, too. None of this patting a guy on the head like a puppy stuff for me. I, frankly, appreciate the male of the species (vive le difference, I say!), especially the ones that failed Obedience Class and think for themselves. What a stupidly insulting stereotype...

Well, anyway, the strongest argument the girl in the above commercial has is a comparison with processed sugar??? Let's wake up!

Here's another YouTube, and it spoofs the above commercial. I enjoyed it ;-)




As funny as it may seem that this is being promoted as "healthy," high fructose corn syrup is no laughing matter. It's the #1 sweetener in the U.S. and is THE sweetener of choice in most processed foods. As we all know, the bulk of foods out there are processed.

And nowhere on the label does it indicate whether the HFCS was processed using a method that taints it with mercury.

Sigh...

We have to take charge of what goes on our plates, and into our bodies...

Of Crockpots and Sherbet Glasses.

Sherbet.

Sherbert.

Whichever!

For some sleep-deprived ramblings about crockpots and sherbet glasses strutting and fretting their hour upon the stage, and then are heard no more...a tale, told by an idio....(wait wait)

Well, here it is at today's WomenNotDabblingInNormal.

And now I'm off to get my day's sleep so I can work the red-eye shift ternite. I know how to spell tonight, but today, it's ternite.

(Wherein I will dream the dreams full of sound and fury, signifying nothing...)

Meaning in modern English I'm hoping for a NyQuil-induced near-coma in which I'll probably snore to beat the band.

And to think my English teacher was worried we'd never remember any Shakespeare, ha!

(I bid thee farewell 'til the morrow. And blah-thee blah blah) ;-)

Freeze Casualties

After the freeze here in Florida...

All the papayas, looking very dead...

All the tamarinds, days ago these were glowing green...

All the gynuras melted down to a brownish-green goo, except

...this one little baby one that had been covered by an old coir doormat.

The guavas that were in fruit...all but one...are toast. See the difference between the one that got covered and the ones that didn't...

This one had fruit on it... (look at pic closely to see)

All the coffees, even though they were on the lanai...you can SEE their frostbite...

And my beloved coco plums, a plant I haven't written about yet here, but had great plans for...they're brown and crunchy now, their formerly robust green leaves are now crispy like potato chips. Note the difference between the freeze-damaged cocoplum below and the gardenia next to it, which was covered. Yes, the cocoplums were covered, too :( Before, they were loaded with blooms and beautiful developing fruits...

Other victims of the freeze:

The baby lychees

Malangas

The starfruit/carambola...wahhhhh :( :(

The coconut palm

The porterweed bush

All the mangoes

The brush cherry

The avocado :(

There are more, I'm sure, and some of these may bounce back...we're not sure which, yet. I had no idea I was so attached to our little green babies.

The hardy survivors??

Amazingly, all the citrus...still even have their blooms. We DID cover them, but then we covered many of the above. (They smell fabulous, too...a very strange accompaniment as I surveyed the damage to the other plants)

The rosemary is thriving like nobody's business, as if it thrives on a good freeze.

The yerba buena is reigning supreme in its area of Bucketville.

The gardenias are fine.

The moringa is fine.

The pineapple plants looked a little off-color, but I believe they're fine.

And all the planted greens and lettuces are doing just fine! :)

Lest the blog be where only successes are documented, welcome to the setbacks.

Amateurish attempts notwithstanding, we've had many successes with our small-scale growing experiments. We're trying to learn what works for our growing zone, what plants are the hardiest sorts for us, and which ones we prefer for any number of other reasons. Ultimately, it's the plants that can take the most abuse that are most likely to survive our learning curve.

Freezing temps are the enemies of Florida crops...this we have learned.

There have been losses all along. Some seeds or starts never make it, even though they're suited for our zone. Maybe we planted them at the wrong time, or in the wrong sort of soil or light situation. Maybe we over/underwatered them. Maybe they just don't like being in pots as well as they would like being right in the ground.

Herbs have been this way. Some I was sure would grow well here just never took off. Other plants, such as the Cape Gooseberry and our Raspberry plants struggled along for a little bit, then bit the dust, as did one of the grapes. The Za'atar herb took one look at Florida and gave up the ghost. Others decided the summer heat was too much for them and promptly kicked the bucket.

Of the remaining hardy crowd, it appears a couple nights of freezing temps can do them in. Ugh...it's like a punch in the stomach. We've talked about one day having a big enough greenhouse-ish situation to protect plants that are not yet in-ground (when we have our land, y'know...). When there is a freeze advisory, we put as many plants as possible on our back lanai and covered them with sheets and towels. Some had to remain in the yard, and some were covered others were not, due to lack of extra material to use as protection.

We're not sure which of these are casualties, and which will make a rebound, but all of these have been seriously damaged in the freeze from last week.

This is our first test of the lower temps. The plants that bounce back, or make a comeback at all, will stay. Hopefully there will be many! In a more permanent situation, we'll make a protected area for all the potted plants, and for the plants in beds, we'll have frost protective cloth where possible. Larger trees can often sustain different extremes than the babies, but any trees we plant in the ground will have to survive...I don't think we'll have any way to protect them from freezes except by situating them among other trees per permaculture recommendations.

I really hope the guavas and the cocoplums make a comeback. It's my hope we can build a small cottage industry around some of the plants that do well, and I do like the taste of guava. The cocoplums are unique to the subtropics, as well, and I hope very, very much to have some prolific bushes to harvest for experiments in tropical fruit jelly-making. The cocoplum pits can be roasted and eaten like almonds, too, which is also something I'd love to see if we could utilize.

Let's see what survives....

Ugh. The poor dead things... wahhhhh :(

My Little Procrastination Problem...

Yes.

I mean no, I have not made my 2009 New Year's Resolution list yet. I'm still deciding if making one at all is a good idea at the moment. But there are things I do need to get better at doing, and along those lines...

...my blog seems to be where memes and challenges go to die. I am often late responding to comments, though I read EVERY single one and do respond when I'm at last here for more than a minute or two. Yes, I do have a life, albeit a less intriguing one than some other bloggers who at any point in their lives may be

1. butchering various rare and heritage-ish farm animals before sunup
2. cooking home-grown organic and pastured slow foods for their family and an entire logging camp...before sunup
3. living on $5.00 a week like a queen/king
4. living self sufficiently in some remote location in a shelter hewn by hand using only a Swiss Army Knife, paper clip, and a roll of duct tape
5. living so lightly on the land that even the vapor from their breath is recycled and filtered for use as emergency drinking water
6. building so many raised beds and trellises that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon look amateurish in comparison
7. manufacturing their own gold from used car batteries using a secret family formula
8. going on yak-buying expeditions in the Himalayas while staying with indigenous families in their yurts

Um, our 5 gallon buckets somehow didn't make the list, but be it ever so humble, there's no place like home Bucketville.

But I digress...

I really love my friends in the blogging community. Please forgive my procrastination, which is sometimes forgetfulness. Or unawareness! I catch up on different blogs as I can, but long pauses happen and I miss out on being very timely sometimes.

Thank you to Angie at Children in the Corn for this award...in November of 2008!!! (hiding head) How I missed it, I do not know, but er, ahh, I'm on it now! Thank you for this honor :)

And I resolve to get better about not procrastinating quite so much, or maybe just not getting quite so distracted or sidelined by early Alzheimer's and whatnot. Because I should always put off today what can be procrastinated till tomorrow...as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is anuttha day!"

Wait, I mean...umm...

Oh fiddle dee dee. ;-)

Anyone seen my keys?

This Could Be Fun!

meme from Karl, who got it from Naturally simple who got it from Tabitha:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

I will try to make these be about or tailored to those five lucky people. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It’ll be done this year
- You have no clue what it’s going to be.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you! And please link to your blog so that I can visit and read in case we are new friends.