WORTH SHARING

I recently talked about survival and my friend Allan Willard sent me an absolutely amazing video about urban sustainability, actually raising your own food, fish, and using digested gases for some fuel needs. Quite amazing. It may come to this for all of us as the planet struggles to support its demanding population.Check it out:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRMvXZIKaw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

But, disturbing to me, since sustainability seems to be a positive thing in our society, how that word could be so misused.
Check this out:
Calaveras is a small county. Citizens here are very supportive of business.  At a recent board of supervisors meeting, during a discussion over hiring of a consultant firm to design bridge upgrades, a member of the audience Tonja Dausend of Burson told the board that the company under consideration, Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., claims the firm has touted itself as a world-class leader and innovator in the delivery of sustainable solutions on its website. Here is the cruncher.  Dausend claims that in her opinion, "sustainable development" is anti-American. Wha??? 
She believes sustainable development is part of a United Nations effort to impose control over local governments like ours.
If that isn't kooky enough for you, Darren Spellman, the newly elected "Tea Party"supervisor agreed with Dausend. He wants to avoid hiring firms with anti-American principles. What anti-American principles? He'd like firms to have some kind of "litmus test" to pass before being hired.
If it looks like McCarthyism and sounds like McCarthyism, its close enough to call. American firms judged by a claim to something as proper as sustainability on a website instead of  whether they are qualified to do the job? Since when is it the Board of Supervisors duty to not consider a bid on the opinon of someone from the audience that sustainability is part of some United Nations conspiracy? We are surely the laughing stock of the mountain counties. We have a republican and a libertarian who voted with Spellman to reconsider. Remember that the next time you are in a voting booth. If it can happen here, it can happen where you live to.
In my opinion the well funded Tea Party is anti-American. Its all about power and money instead of people.

YOUNG TALENT

Our Arts Council recognizes young talent by giving high school students an opportunity to display their work in a public gallery. Every year at this time, they advertise this special exhibit and I had to go. People who can paint or draw, as this painter did, make me green with envy. I like the expression on this girls face. You can read it, a might distrustful, haughty, independent.  Intriguing.

I am an artist of sorts.  My medium is mixed, so  my second favorite piece from the exhibit is this sculpture. I like sculpture made from recycled, found "stuff" and this fit the bill with its pressure gauge, clocks and faucett handles.

I never could draw anything but kindergarten stick figures so my greatest admiration is for those who can do what I can't, render a likeness that looks real. Like this old man and his cat.

Or this one entitled, "Poverty".

There were several computer generated pieces nicely enhanced and interesting as well. The child with fragile wings.

This black and white photo with magical sunglasses that reflect a shinning world of promise.

And this piece reminded me of those ads in the 50's with a line drawn profile much like this girl's, beckoning you to take an art course, promising "you, too, can draw this well." I perfected that profile by drawing it over and over, but, I couldn't afford the course. And, it was probably one of those sham kind of things anyway that wouldn't have done a thing for any latent talent I may have had.

AFTER THE STORMS

The recent storms left us awash. Every little indentation is filled or flowing with water. For awhile I thought I should get out the oars just in case the house decided to lift off its foundations and flow down the canyon with the water. Now, in the calm, is a refreshing cleanliness and the song of moving water on my morning walk.

This is a gentle trickle.

This water is thundering.

I found seven spots where water flowed and sang within the first quarter mile from the house. I've always loved to walk this country road, in winter, spring and evenings during the summer.

DUNSMUIR SCOTTISH DANCERS

After days of rain, it felt good to get out of a Sunday afternoon and attend our Calaveras Arts Council Ovations program in Angels Camp. The last of the season, the renowned Dunsmuir Scottish Dancers from the San Francisco Bay Area gave a two hour performance. My luck was a seat next to Amanda, the granddaughter of two Scottish Highland Dancers, Scot and Mary Maur. The program covers the history of Scottish dance in many forms from 18th century story dances, strathspeys and reels, to modern compositions.

The costuming, especially the women's changes, represented a swath of history, some formal, and others more folksy country clothing. The music is lively and the dancers do complicated reels and precision stepping.

Pictures were not allowed during a performance, but back stage, the dancers willingly formed a reel and demonstrated for the camera. It reminded me of square dancing as I watched them reel through complicated movements. Then I realized these dancers move without benefit of a caller. They memorized precise steps and placement on the floor; they never miss a beat or a position as they swirl at dizzying speeds .

The men had noticeably muscular legs and when I went to their website, they have more exciting pictures than what I could take. On the link below, their leader and teacher, Ron Wallace,  has a button you can press to hear a bit of the very lively music.www.dunsmuirscottishdancers.org/home2.htm
The music was live, back stage and we didn't get to see the musicians until the end. Someone should have tooted that bagpipe as a solo. They are pretty fascinating instruments we  rarely get to see.

The young girls in kilts did a lively sword dance, perhaps the Highland Fling? I thought it would have been nice to have an MC explain the charm and history behind the various pieces. You could tell a couple of the early dances were about a harvest or fishing. The costuming was fabulous, but still a mystery in time.
They gave the dancers, (I tell you, this is a strenuous activity), a rest,  and had three musical interludes. One of note was a ribald song of a man from Inverness who travels to his beloved mountains and proclaims, he is "...a wage slave on Mondays, but a free man on Sundays." The other two musical numbers were forgettable, but the dancing is what we came to see.

Amanda told me she wants to someday be a dancer like her grandparents. She was fascinated, as I was by the performance. I hope she follows through and it all works out. The website gives a glimpse of where the dancers will be next. Maybe in your area.

ECONOMIC SKILLS ARE SADLY LACKING

Weary of rain, feeling trapped inside staring at too many tax papers, I went on a rant. And, I got it wrong. Vanguard recommended a 529, not a 526 educational account. Guilty of basically ignoring these accounts, I misunderstood the letter I received. It seems the old ESA accounts, that I opened, will be taxed upon withdrawal only if the beneficiary has both types of accounts, the 529 and the ESA. In my own defense, the letter wasn't very clear and the companies will not speak to you if your social security number is not on the account, even if you generated the account and paid into it.
To make up for it I downloaded an online lecture on economics from  The GREAT COURSES, a fantastic college level course taught by Harvard PH.D., who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University. His award winning research is supported by the National Science Foundation. Through my account, they allow me to share it by email with friends and family, but not on my blog.

However, I spoke with Kathleen Fournier from The Great Courses. She suggested that anyone can find this free course online by going to: http://www.teach12.com . The lecture you want is China_India_Branstetter.  He talks about the future of the US with China and India predicted to be the next great economies. This learning  company has marvelous stuff. I'm soooo glad I found them. You will be too. 

LETS TAX THE KIDS COLLEGE EDUCATION

I have two grandson's graduating high school this year. I had established for each of my grand kids when they were young, an educational account in mutual funds that can be drawn upon when the kids reach college age. Something manageable, putting a little bit of money aside as they were growing up. They can draw on them only for college or vocational or other accredited schools. It can be used to pay for tuition, books and a defined number of other college related expenses without having to pay taxes on the earnings. A sound idea. If they had graduated in 2010, everything would have been fine. But, its 2011.  Our wonderful congress has slipped in a little grabber. The funds wrote me a letter informing me they will no longer be accepting new educational accounts. Van Guard suggested I should change them to another type of account, a 526, whatever that is. It seems congress has decided taxes must now be paid on the earnings these accounts made when they are withdrawn.

Gee, our wonderful congress has to balance the budget and reduce the deficit. Did you notice when the government investigation report of the banking and mortgage failure came out, it concluded there are guilty parties and the whole melt down was preventable and that laws were broken? Did you notice not one congress person decided we should go after the guilty parties and hold them accountable? No one was fined for slurping up billions of illegally gained dollars at taxpayers expense?  But, shucks, lets to go after those juicy educational accounts that are benefiting our students now that the economy of the world was affected negatively by these bozos and we are buried in debt,and trying to crawl out of it.

It makes me so angry I want to reiterate that old saw- THROW THE BUMS OUT.
House rules should dictate that every congress person should have to publically declare who gave them or their campaign committee money, or any promises, or deals made concerning the passing of a bill, while connected to a lie detector, before they are allowed to vote. This is not the type of ugliness any of us imagined could happen in America. Its so sad.

Preventable, that's what gets me. This mess was preventable.

SURVIVAL

I've always had a survivalist mentality. I think it stems from being raised on the land, with few amenities, and dependence on what you grew or raised to live. Subconscious fear may have played a role as well since we were put through air raid drills in school. We were  instructed to hide our heads under our desk when the air raid siren went off during the Korean war. Of course, we now know hiding our heads under our desk  wouldn't have protected us. The powers that be probably knew it then, too. It was just feel good stuff.

During the 1970's, people were building bomb shelters in their yards for fear of a nuclear bomb from Russia.  We didn't build a bomb shelter in our front yard during the 1970's, but, I have to admit, we pondered the idea.  We read in the newspapers the way to survive nuclear fallout from a bomb was to fill your tub with water, stay inside, put foam rubber over the windows and doors, and buy a lot of flashlights and sterno. We were instructed to stock up on basic foods like rice and beans, but only canned goods. We took it seriously, and did stock up, except you couldn't buy a flashlight or a battery within a day of the announcement.

Again, fear is in the air. Bomb shelter sales are up 1,000 %. Membership in  giant communal bomb shelters on the plains states, like Kansas, are selling like hot cakes, and many of them aren't even built yet.( I read HOAX.)
Health food stores and pharmacies have run out of iodine as people stock up on the stuff even though "experts" say it isn't needed. But then, various "experts" have lied to us so many times in the past, and we know many expert's opinions are for sale to the highest dollar. Why would we believe them? Oh, I'm so cynical. Yes! 

Germany has decided to wean itself off nuclear power. But, it won't help unless  all countries do it. Nuclear Power is like playing with extremely, costly, destructive dynamite. But, there is no warning or protection from fallout  if you live anywhere near one, except to get farther away.  If a huge comet or asteroid hit the earth, with  hundreds of nuclear power plants in the United States and a couple thousand of them around the world? Oh, boy!  There is no protective measures anyone, governments or communities or individuals can take against a cataclysmic event that sets up nuclear winter. 

Wars all over the mid-east have religious fanatics predicting that Armageddon is at hand and they are giving a precise date in May. I've lived through these predictions before as well. I don't remember the year when a large group of people sold their worldly goods and waited on a mountain top to be brought up into heaven at the given date of the end of the earth. How do these people reconcile their lives after it doesn't happen? And, that, or a similar event has been repeated several times in my lifetime.

Fear is in the air. We live in troubled times. But, there are practical things one can do to keep yourself comfortable and relatively safe. First is to just enjoy each day, and do what you normally do. Live one day at a time. You can't do anything about it anyway. Its like taking an airplane flight. It could drop in the ocean, but you still take the flight.

Practical measures you should always take: Keep a decent stock of  staple goods on hand. Always, flashlights, batteries, candles, and simple medical supplies like aspirin, band aids,bandages, burn and antibiotic salves. Its easy enough to  keep a  couple gallons of distilled water in your garage for emergency use. A couple five gallon cans of gasoline might be helpful if you can safely store them. In your car? Keep a first aid kit, a couple blankets, flashlights and water, an umbrella, extra socks and lightweight jackets, a couple flares, matches, rope and a tarp. It sounds like a lot, but it can be packed tightly into a backpack and jammed into the corner of your trunk. This isn't to protect against a nuclear event, but any event that leaves you stranded, be it a storm, a road closure, or a flat tire on a lonely road. Then, hope for the best.
When you have a  chance, read George Stewart's novel, Earth Abides. It will give you a blueprint on how to survive anything. Its out of print, but available in those old book stores that deal in out-of-print novels. And, its based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its an eye opener even though it was written in 1931.

THE ANTS GO MARCHING ONE BY ONE...

Its the weather!  Its the rain!  Its the marching ants brigade! I opened a hall closet door and a stream of ants was congregated near the ceiling. I followed them over 30 feet away, marching along at ceiling level and then crossing down to my cupboard doors.

I don't spray but I do dust my cupboards and baseboards with diatomaceous earth.

It works very well. They don't dare come in my door, or up through the floor. It controls the small ants I'm used to seeing every once in awhile. But, these giant cousin found a way around my baseboards by coming from the outside, up the side walls, through the attic and ceiling and into my kitchen. I looked to see what they were after, but they didn't seem to be interested in anything I had in my cupboards. I would have wiped them away, but past experience leads me to believe it never stops the endless stream. Besides, I was busy working on my heritage picture project with my brother and sister.

Bill scanned the photos.

Dawn sorted and read me inscriptions from the backs to type into the program.  We ate dinner late; She told me I should watch the movie ANTZ.  We ignored them.
This morning, before I could get the diatomaceous earth out to discourage this new entrance, they had all disappeared. Haven't a clue? Glad to see them gone. Its still very wet outside, but the rain is gone. I'll be watching for them. My youngest daughter, a biologist, claims you can't do much about them anyway, unless you poison them. I choose not to poison anything anymore. It seems to be working. The ants go marching two by two harrah, harrah!

BETTER PIE CRUST

When I returned from the grocers yesterday, son Doug was cutting up my fallen tree. He cleared the driveway and piled the brush. Since I managed to celebrate Ken's and Kristanne's birthdays with them, his older siblings, I invited him up for his favorite dinner to celebrate his birthday.  The next thing I knew he was busy in my kitchen making blackberry apple pie.

 I like to cook, but baking has never been a talent to which I could lay claim. Its really kind of annoying that my son makes a better pie crust than mine. He pre-bakes the bottom crust so the filling won't make it soggy. He picked the blackberries last September and stored them in my freezer. He likes to put on a dainty lattice top.

HIS pies NEVER bubble over in the oven. Cooked to perfection, beautiful,  and, he is quick, besides. He can chit chat while working and never miss a step. I mean, I CAN make a pie, but cut up a tree? No! Two of my brothers and a sister came out for the occasion. I was having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures---except for that pie. After a certain age, birthdays are kind of meaningless if inevitable, but throw in a home-made  pie and its an occasion to remember.

IN FOR A SIEGE

It snowed all day yesterday. A wet half-rain kind of snow that is deadly to oak trees. The limbs of my trees got so heavy at one point, some of them were practically touching the ground. Around five p.m. the snow turned to rain and it was dirty, slush and cold. Snow didn't exactly melt, it kind of washed away.

The drain on my front walk was too full to carry the water off. I guess we are in for a siege since more of the same is predicted for the rest of the week. We can officially declare the drought is over but its UGLY out there. Brrrr!

I wasn't too interested in looking around the property for trees down unless a tree appears to threaten a building or block a driveway. This driveway goes up to the well and isn't preventing anyone from coming and going. I spotted it yesterday, after the afternoon melt.  I'll survey total damage after the storms are over. If I were going to lose any more than this one tree, I'm sure it would have fallen by now because yesterday's storm was the wettest snow I've ever seen, here.

Its a good time to be hunkered in and working on my taxes. I'm making progress on a job I dislike.

Neighbor Karen rescued me and fixed us a light dinner. And, I hate to say it, but its snowing again this morning. Snow, snow, go away. We'll take the rain, any day.

We can stay in and keep warm. I took a shot of this horse all bundled up in his winter coat. That was during a break in the storm several days ago when it wasn't nearly as cold. Makes me think that horses should have a place to seek shelter of their own choosing rather than wearing a ridiculous looking outfit like this .(My unwanted opinion.)