Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Lyme Disease
When I first moved to the country I had visions of running through the fields dancing and laughing. But now I am to afraid to dance in the field. I look at the fields and I think Lyme disease. Everyday, not just in the summer, everyday I make sure that I check for ticks. We live with these small creatures so I have come to terms with it. I use a sticky lint roller on clothes when we come in and arms and legs if they are bare. I treat our dogs year round for fleas and ticks. I launder all the clothing at the end of the day to be sure there are no ticks left behind.
Then I read an article in Organic Gardening that 90 percent of ticks survived the laundry cycle. I was shocked! But if laundry is put in the dryer on high heat for 60 minutes it puts and end to the ticks http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071006083356.htm
I think what do I do now??? I hang dry all my laundry as I believe I have an obligation to reduce my carbon foot print. I do three loads of laundry every day and to run the dryer would cost about $30 a month on top of my increased carbon foot print.
The effects of lyme disease are awful. Check out http://www.lyme.org/ but at the same time using large amounts of pesticides and increasing my carbon foot print is awful too. Permethrin which is used to kill ticks is good or bad depending on where you get your information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin or http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/permethrin/cox-report/cox.htm
There is no cure for Lyme Disease only prevention and maintenance.
- Check out these links for more information.
Where did it all start? http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/ld_history.html
What are we doing about lyme disease. http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/Lymedisease.html
How did it get so wide spread. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/ld_transmission.htm
Will global warming increase its spread? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090426182944.htm
Labels: Green living, lyme
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Clicks that count
Spring is here and in New England people are starting to till their gardens, plan the plot of vegetables and plant early seeds. I too have begun this process but every year as I plant the garden I can't help but think that as the season goes on and all the squash and tomatoes come in that I always have too many and give them to neighbors who do not have gardens. I think about the hungry children in the City and I wish I could give the food to them. I wonder how I can help. The internet gives us resources that years ago were untinkable. Today with just a few clicks of the mouse we can fee a hungry person in our community or around the world. So this year I will plant extra knowing that when I do I have found a food pantry and they will provide for the people who are not able (for now) to provide for themselves. Check out this link. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 When you check your email each day take a moment to click. It will make you feel good!
If you do have extra food that you would like to donate, the Feed America website can help you find a food pantry in your area. http://feedingamerica.org/default.aspx
Labels: Buy Local, homeless shelter
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ahhh to be Green!!
Spending less is like earning more. Using less is being Green!
Ahhh to be Green!!! I have always wanted to be off the grid. Not that I want to live like a caveman but to not use all that energy. To not burn all that fuel. The question has always been how. How do I keep from using so much energy and still be able to care for my family in a modern way. I have found a few things that have actually saved me money and still allows me to live a normal life with out taking up too much time and energy.
First I have learned how to read my meter! I know this sounds like something any mild mannered idiot could do but I will tell you with all those spinning wheels and numbers it took a few tries but I am there now. (see http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090419/LIFE/904190313) So I started by unplugging everything I could. Yes that means the computer, TV, stereo, digital clocks, the coffee maker with the LCD clock. I was unable to unplug certain things and realize I would not be able to do this on a regular basis and so I found my absolute baseline.
I starting plugging certain appliances back in beginning with the almighty TV. Certain items use energy even when they are turned off as they are really in a sleep mode. So when we are leaving the house for the day I take a moment and disconnect all of the appliances. I switched from digital alarm clocks to wind up. Which I found on www.freecycle.com. I never used them for the radio anyway and I don’t look at that clock all day long and it is costing me every second it is plugged in. Even my home computer is unplugged during the days I am not home. Which it seems is only four appliances to unplug but they were costing me about $1.00 a day. (do the math it adds up fast) I notice bleeps of large consumption and times of slow use and I isolated what is happening. So that it could be monitored.
I do about 3 loads of laundry everyday. I know it sounds like a lot but living on a farm the children get dirty and I don’t mean messy I mean DIRTY. Now that spring is here and I have erected a clothes line which I hang all the clothes on. It is not always easy but with every load I do I tell myself I have just earned $1.00. Five days a week three loads a day that can really add up. I checked my electric bill it was down $30 last month just from the electric dryer not being used. Now that I have implemented these additional items I have noticed a large drop in my electric bill from $125 per month to just under $85.
Not sure how much it will be by the end of the year but I am thinking PAID VACATION!!!!!
Ahhh to be Green!!! I have always wanted to be off the grid. Not that I want to live like a caveman but to not use all that energy. To not burn all that fuel. The question has always been how. How do I keep from using so much energy and still be able to care for my family in a modern way. I have found a few things that have actually saved me money and still allows me to live a normal life with out taking up too much time and energy.
First I have learned how to read my meter! I know this sounds like something any mild mannered idiot could do but I will tell you with all those spinning wheels and numbers it took a few tries but I am there now. (see http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090419/LIFE/904190313) So I started by unplugging everything I could. Yes that means the computer, TV, stereo, digital clocks, the coffee maker with the LCD clock. I was unable to unplug certain things and realize I would not be able to do this on a regular basis and so I found my absolute baseline.
I starting plugging certain appliances back in beginning with the almighty TV. Certain items use energy even when they are turned off as they are really in a sleep mode. So when we are leaving the house for the day I take a moment and disconnect all of the appliances. I switched from digital alarm clocks to wind up. Which I found on www.freecycle.com. I never used them for the radio anyway and I don’t look at that clock all day long and it is costing me every second it is plugged in. Even my home computer is unplugged during the days I am not home. Which it seems is only four appliances to unplug but they were costing me about $1.00 a day. (do the math it adds up fast) I notice bleeps of large consumption and times of slow use and I isolated what is happening. So that it could be monitored.
I do about 3 loads of laundry everyday. I know it sounds like a lot but living on a farm the children get dirty and I don’t mean messy I mean DIRTY. Now that spring is here and I have erected a clothes line which I hang all the clothes on. It is not always easy but with every load I do I tell myself I have just earned $1.00. Five days a week three loads a day that can really add up. I checked my electric bill it was down $30 last month just from the electric dryer not being used. Now that I have implemented these additional items I have noticed a large drop in my electric bill from $125 per month to just under $85.
Not sure how much it will be by the end of the year but I am thinking PAID VACATION!!!!!
Labels: Green living
Monday, April 6, 2009
Would You Have Your Childrens Iris Scanned?
Tell me is iris scanning a good thing or a bad thing?
This weekend at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, Ma. there was a event “Hear My Voice”. Commemorating National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090405/NEWS/904050346/1011/TOWN10
That we commemorate this in the first place I believe to be an oxymoron. The event allowed parents the opportunity to have their Childs face and iris scanned into a national data base.
“Providing away for Law enforcement to identify them if they were ever found away from home.” This screams “THE MAN IS WATCHING” all over it.
Once you are in you are in the national database, its not likely that when you turn 18 you can take yourself out of the system. This technology can be used without permission. Our government considers using scanners in public places scanning randomly as you walk through the food court at your local mall. The bank as you use the ATM.
The phrase “The Man is Watching you” is not far from the truth.
I believe “they” get parents to do iris scans at these events because most of us would to anything to keep our child safe and "they" have convinced parents that this is the right thing to do for their child.
Tell me would you have your child’s iris’ scanned into the national database?
Read more about iris scans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition
This weekend at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, Ma. there was a event “Hear My Voice”. Commemorating National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090405/NEWS/904050346/1011/TOWN10
That we commemorate this in the first place I believe to be an oxymoron. The event allowed parents the opportunity to have their Childs face and iris scanned into a national data base.
“Providing away for Law enforcement to identify them if they were ever found away from home.” This screams “THE MAN IS WATCHING” all over it.
Once you are in you are in the national database, its not likely that when you turn 18 you can take yourself out of the system. This technology can be used without permission. Our government considers using scanners in public places scanning randomly as you walk through the food court at your local mall. The bank as you use the ATM.
The phrase “The Man is Watching you” is not far from the truth.
I believe “they” get parents to do iris scans at these events because most of us would to anything to keep our child safe and "they" have convinced parents that this is the right thing to do for their child.
Tell me would you have your child’s iris’ scanned into the national database?
Read more about iris scans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_recognition
Labels: Iris scan
Thursday, April 2, 2009
THEMS FIGHTEN' WORDS
Recently I came across an advertisement for nutri/system weight loss food plan. This in itself is not especially interesting. The ad caught my eye because is said “buy locally.” here in southern New England our agricultural roots run deep and the Buy Fresh Buy Local chapter here has worked hard to bring this to our community. Hundreds of hours have been spent to spread the word, logo artwork, sign placement, advertising, websites yet this franchise feels that it has the right to place the phrase “Buy Local” in their ad! I realize that others have ridden on the shirt tails of catch phrases before but this one felt personal.
They do not use the entire catch phrase just enough to get you to look. If you are not completely on board with the Buy Fresh Buy Local program you may be swayed into the comfort that this too is part of that program. To say that they are local is speaking in half truths. Yes there is a local person who owns this franchise. Yes that local owner would profit from your dollars.
Buy Fresh Buy Local is a program that Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership began in 2007 to encourage the community to buy things that are grown and made right here in our own community. To lessen our carbon foot print by buying items that are not shipped halfway around the world. To straighten our agricultural community and by doing so strengthen our community as a whole.
I can not see that buying a prepackaged artificially flavored chemically laden product that is trucked here from who knows where is in the true spirit of the buy local campaigned. When I see a Buy Local sign I hope it is my neighbors will have grown these vegetables in their back yard and sold to me as they have just picked it from the garden. The eggs we buy have never been processed they have been washed by hand and gently placed in a recycled egg crate. The vegetables if not grown by my family have been grown by someone I know by name. All of our meat is raised by a family farmer and brought to the local slaughter house, YES I SAID SLAUGHTER HOUSE, that is where animals are taken before they are the steak on your table. Wrapped and brought home to our freezer. Farms make jams, jellies and sauces and freeze enough vegetable to feed themselves through into the next growing season the rest is sold. Farmers sell the same food they feed their own families and it is raised or grown right here in Southern New England. This is Buy Fresh Buy Local. Please enjoy the fruits of your local farmers labor!!! If some franchise wants to convince people in order to lose weight you need to eat cardboard food.
I challenge them, I invite them all to the local CSA!!!! www.farmfresh.org or http://www.foodroutes.org/ You can work the field for an hour anytime you want to burn calories and that part is free!!!! Join the CSA and at the end of the day bring home a box of the freshest, tastiest food your hands helped cultivate. As you prepare this beautiful bounty the aroma will fill the air and as the plate is place before you on the table you will know how it was grown. Where it was grown . With each bit you can savor the fact that you are saving the local economy, open spaces, food safety and that you filled your lungs with fresh country air and your soul will have soaked up the beauty of the open landscape getting it from a farm. Take pleasure in the time spent with your family preparing and enjoying a meal. For those evenings when you are too tired or too busy to cook look up www.farmfresh.org for a local restaurant the participates in the buy local program and keep them on speed dial.
If you already bought one of those cardboard dinners toss it in the fireplace and enjoy some quiet time watching those chemicals glow!!
They do not use the entire catch phrase just enough to get you to look. If you are not completely on board with the Buy Fresh Buy Local program you may be swayed into the comfort that this too is part of that program. To say that they are local is speaking in half truths. Yes there is a local person who owns this franchise. Yes that local owner would profit from your dollars.
Buy Fresh Buy Local is a program that Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership began in 2007 to encourage the community to buy things that are grown and made right here in our own community. To lessen our carbon foot print by buying items that are not shipped halfway around the world. To straighten our agricultural community and by doing so strengthen our community as a whole.
I can not see that buying a prepackaged artificially flavored chemically laden product that is trucked here from who knows where is in the true spirit of the buy local campaigned. When I see a Buy Local sign I hope it is my neighbors will have grown these vegetables in their back yard and sold to me as they have just picked it from the garden. The eggs we buy have never been processed they have been washed by hand and gently placed in a recycled egg crate. The vegetables if not grown by my family have been grown by someone I know by name. All of our meat is raised by a family farmer and brought to the local slaughter house, YES I SAID SLAUGHTER HOUSE, that is where animals are taken before they are the steak on your table. Wrapped and brought home to our freezer. Farms make jams, jellies and sauces and freeze enough vegetable to feed themselves through into the next growing season the rest is sold. Farmers sell the same food they feed their own families and it is raised or grown right here in Southern New England. This is Buy Fresh Buy Local. Please enjoy the fruits of your local farmers labor!!! If some franchise wants to convince people in order to lose weight you need to eat cardboard food.
I challenge them, I invite them all to the local CSA!!!! www.farmfresh.org or http://www.foodroutes.org/ You can work the field for an hour anytime you want to burn calories and that part is free!!!! Join the CSA and at the end of the day bring home a box of the freshest, tastiest food your hands helped cultivate. As you prepare this beautiful bounty the aroma will fill the air and as the plate is place before you on the table you will know how it was grown. Where it was grown . With each bit you can savor the fact that you are saving the local economy, open spaces, food safety and that you filled your lungs with fresh country air and your soul will have soaked up the beauty of the open landscape getting it from a farm. Take pleasure in the time spent with your family preparing and enjoying a meal. For those evenings when you are too tired or too busy to cook look up www.farmfresh.org for a local restaurant the participates in the buy local program and keep them on speed dial.
If you already bought one of those cardboard dinners toss it in the fireplace and enjoy some quiet time watching those chemicals glow!!
Labels: Buy Local, Green living, profood, sustainable food
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