My wife and I moved from Los Angeles to rural Southern Utah three years ago. We now live 25 miles from the nearest major town, raise goats and chickens, and heat our home entirely with wood. And we love it.
What I'm Reading
"The Politics of Jesus" by John Howard Yoder
"Persuader" by Lee Child
Subjects I'd Like to Learn More About
CO2 reduction, economics
An Interesting Fact
I gave up drinking seltzer water because I learned that transporting it from the bottling plant to the warehouse to the retail store contributed over 2 tons of CO2 per year. Two tons-- just for water!
With the price of feed continuing to rise, many small farmers are getting out of the farm business. (Goat breeders across the country are selling of whole herds of champion goats at the price of dairy goats.) But Backyard Poultry magazine has a better idea. In an article titled "The Challenge of High Feed Costs" (Aug/Sep 2008), contributor Harvey Ussery writes,
"As costs rise for feed raised through high-input, centralized agribusiness farms far away, there will be more opportunity... Read Full Story
(The Venetian Gold granite we chose for our new kitchen.) Timing is everything. Coming as I do from the Granite State, I've always wanted granite countertops. Their natural beauty, hardness, and non-synthetic origin all appeal to me. But until now, I never had a kitchen to put them in. Recently, my wife and I decided to redo our kitchen. The economy has slowed to where we could get reasonable pricing, faster delivery (six weeks intstead of twenty), and put some people to work who... Read Full Story
When I first arrived in Sri Lanka, I found myself appalled at the lack of hot water. Cold showers? Surely you jest! But as the constant heat and humidity began to wear on me, my morning cold shower became the highlight of my day: never again that day would I feel so cool. (Some days during the hot season required three or four cold showers!) I'm not inclined to take my showers at the temperature the water comes out of the ground here (about 50 degrees). But by reducing the water temp... Read Full Story
"Even to many economists who recently thought the gloom was overblown, the situation looks grim. The economy is in the midst of a very rough patch. The worst is probably still ahead." --New York Times economics writer Peter Goodman.
Consumers forgo purchases and turn to repairing rather than replacing worn items... Politicians debate a "Son of Stimulus" package... And there's no end in sight... The New York Times writes,
"The open question is whether we're in for a bad couple of years... Read Full Story
"The U.S. required growers to quit planting coca before they could access alternative development programs, without considering that their families needed to eat. Now the cato guarantees the farmers' income, giving them the chance to take risks with new crops." --Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network.
Bolivian President Evo Morales-- himself a coca grower by trade-- has instituted a new approach to reducing coca production (and with it, presumably, cocaine production... Read Full Story
AP reports:
"The judge in the first American war crimes trial since World War II barred evidence on Monday that interrogators obtained from Osama bin Laden's driver, ruling he was subjected to "highly coercive" conditions in Afghanistan."
It's bad enough that prisoners were tortured by the U.S. or its local allies-- to admit those statements as evidence would surely add insult to injury. Thankfully it appears that we still have some shred of decency left. I'm also interested to see what... Read Full Story
In related news, Attorney General Michael Mukasey asked Congress for a declaration of war against Al Queda. This is something that should have been done seven years ago in 2001, but at the time Bush used executive privilege to claim it wasn't necessary. Now Mukasey wants Congress to act-- but to include a number of additional detainment privileges for the Administration. Congress has not made a formal declaration of war since June 5, 1942, when it declared war against Bulgaria, Hungary... Read Full Story
(The photo is titled, "Life in Tijuana.") It's a familiar refrain: "I just want to see peace in Darfur. Nothing else." In this case, it comes from Sudan. But I've heard much the same plea from civilians in Sri Lanka-- of all ethnicities. "We don't want to fight Tamils." "We just want to live in peace." "Both the government and the LTTE have killed our people; when will we be left alone?" The problem, it seems, is that leaders seeking power benefit from violence. And it's rarely the... Read Full Story
"I think it's going to be months that we're working our way through this period -- clearly months." --Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, yesterday. Read Full Story
I note your interest in global warming and would like to invite you to look at a new wikizine 'Reversing Climate Change' - perhaps you might care to add suitable links, an article or comments?
