My Christmas wish

Many classic Christmas cards have a scene like this on the front. A peaceful countryside showing us the beauty of God's world leading us to be thankful for our many blessings

There are those who want to change our rural landscape. Corporate interests who feed on the economic misfortune of those in rural America, promising financial gains at little or no cost.

They like to promise a lot. Money. That you'll be able to use your land for farming still. That they'll clean up after themselves.

What they don't tell you is what the process entails.

Huge drill sites where millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals will be injected into the ground under high pressure. Roads built across your property to allow access for trucks to travel in and out constantly. Lagoons to handle the toxic waste water that comes back out (some of it stays in the ground following fracture lines into the ground water.
Noise 24/7 from drill rigs, compressor buildings, truck traffic, etc. Drill sites flooded with high intensity light disturbing the silent night.
They don't tell you that these rigs can be built anywhere on your property that they want to put them - including in your front yard.



They don't tell you they have intentions to decimate your entire region with thousands of these drill pads.




Please keep New York State a beautiful place to live.
A healthy place for us to raise our children and to grow healthy, safe food for your table.




Visit Shaleshock.org for more information and to find ways you can help. Write Gov. Paterson, your state Senator, Assembly person, Congress person and US Senator and ask them to ban drilling in the Marcellus shale.

Not Blind but Still I Cannot See

In "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" Annie Dillard cites "Space and Sight" by Marius von Senden. When safe cataract surgery was developed groups of doctors traveled the country performing the operation and giving people the gift of sight for the first time in their lives.
These doctors often kept notes on their patients experience of distance and depth both before and after the surgery. These people had to learn about sight as we did as infants and have long since forgotten. Infants cannot communicate their discoveries to us so we are left to guess what they are "seeing".
Patients had a difficult time with the perception of depth and distance. It was difficult for them to understand that the world took up space beyond their visual world. The idea that some thing could be behind another object was novel.
I think of a baby learning about it's hands. They often hit themselves in the face multiple times, then cry in outrage at the self-inflicted pain. I always thought that they were learning that the hand they saw was their own. It seems they also could be learning how far away that visible hand is.
The child I babysit is learning about Mom being away in stages. First he realized that when he saw me it meant Mom was going away. Then he learned that that the kitchen is where she disappeared. Now he knows that she will come back from there too.
Is it possible that some people cannot grasp the concept that we must keep our planet healthy because they lack a type of depth perception? They cannot see ahead to where their actions lead. They cannot see that their loved ones will be in that distant world. Perhaps their depth perception is so low that they cannot feel compassion or empathy.

They are not blind but still they cannot see.

Fencing in the Who's

A few years ago I started asking why the government wanted us all to move to the city? All the TV shows are about folks living in big cities or the suburbs surrounding them. Kids and young people apparently all hate the country life and want to live in Manhattan or L.A. Family life is supposedly boring at best and unbearable most of the time. Have you noticed how many movies, books, TV shows are about avoiding or wanting to avoid the family on the holidays or vacation? Why is that?

Because people are easier to manage when they are herded into large groups. Does that sound odd to you? Doesn't that cause chaos and upset? Aren't crowds dangerous? Yes in some ways they are. But herded into disparate groups and continually stirred so that strong cohesive groups such as communities and families are difficult to form, keeps a people ill at ease. Give them fake news programs to keep them fearful and add in TV shows and Facebook to distract them, and you have a populace that goes to the slaughter willingly.

Think about movies you've seen about cattle being driven across the prairie or sheep being herded into pens. The trick is to keep them moving. Don't rile them to the point that they stampede. Don't make them so fearful they forget to eat or drink. Just keep them moving so they will go where you want them to and won't form a group that will turn around a face you off or go back home.

Put little fabrications (lies) out there that make people believe you have their best interests at heart or that they will profit somehow. This is like trying to get a horse or a few pigs back into a pen. You go out with a bucket with a little grain in the bottom or maybe even just a few stones to make it sound like something inviting. Keep just enough ahead of them so they don't figure out the pail is empty, and they will follow you back into captivity.

Of course some folks have to stay behind to do the dirty work of production for industries that are taking some natural resources for profit, while destroying other resources we will need long term. Ideally these will be immigrant populations that will be happy for low paying, benefit lacking jobs, and easily cowed by threats from immigration officials - even if they are legal immigrants. If not that then the "statistically insignificant" rural population. Keep this population poor and struggling to hold together the fabric of their communities.

Is there a reason that communities of faith feel under attack? Why does most media portray religious people as stupid or out of date or superstitious? Because faith communities have in the past been well springs of action to make change - think Martin Luther King.

I'm working with a group fighting gas companies who want to extract natural gas from shale formations. The leases may bring financial relief to rural landowners if they were able and had the foresight to negotiate good leases. The public awareness of the problems inherent in this process lag the leases by about 10 years. Media coverage of the problems caused by this type of drilling out west is almost non-existent (though we ALL heard about Brittany's panties). Knowledge of the process by local lawyers was negligible at the time we were being pressured to sign up.

Our politicians are often still pressing this as a good thing for our economy (especially if the Gas Co's contribute to their campaigns). The best success so far is to get people fired up about drinking water. Drilling in the NYC watershed is now questionable because of the millions of people who depend on those reservoirs. I have even heard concerns around the watershed for cities like Syracuse. Wait a minute! In rural NYS w have wells. Our small municipalities have wells. They are drilling in OUR WATERSHED! My drinking water is as important as your drinking water. The air I breathe is as important as yours. The crops and livestock you and I eat will be grown (if that's still possible) on this land with this water. What happens here is important to all of us.

Sometimes I feel like a Who from the Horton story.
We just need everyone in Whoville to yell at the same time.
Just one more voice to make us heard through the fog.

Ache for the Land

Having once put his hand into the ground
seeding there what he hopes will outlast him,
a man has made a marriage with his place,
and if he leaves it his flesh will ache to go back.
Wendell Berry

My cousins and I know what it is to ache for a place. Our fathers came from the Adirondacks, and though they may not have “put their hands into the ground” in the sense of farming, they certainly were tied to the land by hunting, fishing and love of place. Their livelihood was tied to its natural resources.

As solitary people they found solace in the quiet of the woods, though anyone who has been deep in the woods knows its quiet is not silence but an insulation from unnatural sound.

We ache to be there. If there was work to be had, we would be there. We return often and often together. Our earliest and fondest memories are of sharing family time there. We are tied to the community through experience and family stories. We spend time and energy to pass this treasure onto our children and grandchildren.

In today's urban, chaotic, move - move - move society do people still experience this attachment to place​? Perhaps. I have been chased twice now by city folk who, having moved to the country, have then worked hard to bring Manhatten along with them.

I ache to go back, break up the concrete, and put my hands into the soil.

Singing Rock

One of my first posts included this picture of a rock with water surging around it.
I was worrying about my position as the rock. Was I in the middle of chaos or was I the cause of the chaos? I recently came upon this quote ...... now I have more to think about.

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings."

— Wendell Berry

Maytag

What is it with people in laundromats? I have some great laundromats in my neighborhood. They are cleaned 2x daily, the machines normally work and if they don't your money is promptly refunded. The people I see there are pretty good too. So my question is ... why do people leave their dryer sheets all over the floor? I mean - they are clean - they are yours - PICK THEM UP AND THROW THEM AWAY! What's so hard to understand about that? Oh - and while you're at it - clean the lint filter.

Be a good scout - leave it cleaner than you found it.

I get really irritated in public bathrooms. How can folks be so disrespectful of others? Here's a few rules I suggest.....

If you drop a piece of toilet tissue - pick it up!
If you must line the seat with tp - throw it away or flush it!
Sit down - that's what a SEAT is for.

If you must perch, hover etc - clean up your sprinkles - you're going to wash your hands anyway -aren't you?
Flush.
Use your paper towel to wipe your puddles off the sink counter.
Throw the paper towel in the trash.
If the paper towels in the trash are piling up - use yours to push them down.
If you drop your paper towel -pick it up- and -throw it away!

If we all made respectful use of the facilities more places would let us use the facilities, we could have paper towels instead of weak winded blowers and we wouldn't have to go to automatic flushers which scare children.

Sun stroke?

Today was an absolutely gorgeous summer day in CNY. The sky was clear, it wasn't too hot and the sun was shining like crazy. Walking past the bus stop I overhear 2 coeds trying to figure out where to find something so I ask if I can help. "Oh thank you", they said," we're trying to find a tanning salon." Oh - well let's see. That big yellow thing in the sky is the sun. If you stay outside, you'll get a tan. FOR FREE.

BEEP BEEP

I am beginning to hate automatic door locks on cars. The locks that respond to a "clicker" on your key ring. Someone on this block has one. They seem to come home about 2 am, and instead of just pushing the lever inside their car, they use the remote to lock it. This wakes me up. Then sometime in the early morning, either they or another neighbor goes to school/work and they use the remote and their car goes beep-beep and wakes me up again. Couldn't we just use the key?

Behind the Handlebars

I haven't written here in a long time. I have been focusing my energy on another site about farming. It is very specific so doesn't soothe the need to rant about other cultural annoyances. Another change is a life without a car. I have given up the steering wheel for handlebars. My bicycle gives me an opportunity to see things at a more "ground level" so to speak, but also requires more attention to traffic on my part with less time for musing.

I live in a small city with great pride in it's bus service. I don't have a lot of experience but it is probably very good service for such a small city. The problem with the system is also the reason the system is as good as it is.

Our small city is home to a very large University. Finances dictate (supposedly) that everything in town must revolve around and cater to the University. Buses (I looked it up, that's the plural for bus) go through campus more than anywhere else, and for longer periods of time. The buses to many of the shopping areas stop running before the stores close. So if you need to shop after work, or if you work the evening shift, you are out of luck. However if you are a student who has spent the night into the wee hours of the morning, at a local bar, there's a bus home for you.

More on this later.

Has Democracy Failed?

I was watching a recent episode of Bill Moyer's Journal, that discussed why we can't get to Single Payer Healthcare (the insurance industry and big pharma won't let us) and why we can't fix the financial system properly (Wall Street and the banking industry won't let us). Does this mean that Democracy has failed (or is in the death throes)? At least Democracy by, for and of the people? It seems like every time our government says we can't get there from here it's because they are afraid of big money. Aren't they supposed to be more concerned about us and our vote?

I think we need some serious changes in election policy and rules, specifically in funding. I don't know how to keep elections inexpensive and balanced, and yet provide for a varied and fair candidate pool,but it's where we need to go. I'm tired of big money running my life when big money doesn't give a damn about my life.

Grocery Store Give In

I was a bad person yesterday. I went shopping at a regular grocery store. I was on my way home from my Granddaughter's school and I needed a few things. The regular grocery is on that end of town. I knew once I got home I wouldn't want to head out the other end of town to the organic grocery. Besides, I just needed a couple of things. Yeah - we've all said that and then been enticed by the displays.

Fortunately, as I was on foot, I would have to show some moderation. 

Well, they were having a sale on meat. Buy one get / one for free. I came home with two packages of pork chops from mistreated hogs and two packages of ground beef that could be laced with more e-coli than the body could take. Peppers shipped in from some other hemisphere and a box of cookies. The sweets are the hardest things for me to resist.

It's just so easy and so attractive at a supermarket. Whether your bad choices are bad for the environment, your health or both, as mine were. Everything is so pretty. 

Oh and by the way. You know those almost clear, so lean there is no flavor pork chops you get at the store? You can grow tasty, lean pork chops by just giving the hog enough time to grow. Instead of over feeding them a special diet to hurry them to market. Slow feed them a healthy diet. They will be lean and tasty.

Late Winter Morning

About 15 years ago I was standing on a friend's porch looking over the valley at our town. It was early morning and very quiet. The fog was clearing and we could see the homes and businesses starting to peek through the mist. All of a sudden it occurred to me that I could not hear a single cow. Since we lived in the farm country of rural central New York State this was indeed odd. I looked around and pointed out the different farmsteads that no longer had livestock.

In the mid 1970's when I moved to the area the small dairy farms were being replaced with larger dairies of 50 to 100 milk cows. Instead of stanchion or tie stall barns we were seeing the introduction of the free stall barn and milking parlor. These innovations allowed for more livestock to be cared for by fewer people. But these facilities often were less healthy for the animals even when operated judiciously by caring farmers. The design of the facility and the number of free roaming animals led to injuries. They were also less comfortable to work in, at least in the cold months in upstate NY, because they were wet and open without the collection of body heat from the cows. Generally these animals still had access to pasture ground even if only in the summer.

To go along with these operations were the installation of manure ponds. Namely large open ponds full of cow manure. Manure was scraped out of the free stall into a pond where it would accumulate until the farmer spread the manure on the land and plowed it under to fertilize the crops that would soon be planted. This allowed for two things, the use of less bedding under the cows reducing the volume of refuse, and timing manure spreading for the best use of its nutrients. It also helped paved the way for housing more livestock on a farm property than that property could sustain.

Now those 100 cow dairies have been replaced by farms with thousands of cows. The manure ponds have become open lagoons holding millions of gallons of cow manure. The cows spend their lives on concrete which is harmful to their legs and feet. 

What happened to the other farms? Their barns stand empty or have been torn down to reduce taxes and insurance premiums. Much land lays fallow. Much of it is producing feed for the few big farms and fields for the over spreading of manure from the factory farms. Thus neighbors become financially dependent on the CAFO that is poisoning their air and wells and ground water, and draining local aquifers and streams. 

For a very clear portrayal of this phenomena in an area that was ambushed by large hog facilities, go to WWW.aswesow.com

Oh Poop!

Let's say you live on a nice piece of property in a small community. Let's say I bought a piece of property next door to you. Let's say I built an apartment complex that housed 4000 people. Now let's say that to handle the sewage I built a large pond. Open to the air. Somewhat vulnerable to run off. 

Are you happy with me? Are you happy with the governmental bodies that say this is OK?

Now let's say that once or twice a year I spread this sewage so thickly on the fields around you that it looks like someone has troweled on black cement. 

Are you happy now? 

Local governments have done a lot in my area to correct inadequate sewer systems for homes. The new regulations concerning pumping tanks, and adequate leach fields help to control standing water and runoff issues and to protect our wells and waterways. Systems that were adequate when we bathed less often and used wringer washers that reused water for several loads, needed to be updated for our current habits of daily showers, dishwashers and changing clothes for every activity. 

Manure handling on livestock facilities have not changed much. Manure lagoons were a good idea, allowing for manure to be stored and then spread at optimal times for crop fertilization, with the idea of immediate plowing under to reduce loss of nitrogen to the air, and runoff. These systems were developed when the farms in my area had 50 to 100 head of milking cows. 

Are they sufficient for a facility that houses 100 times that many?

More later on how these facilities impact the financial lives of their neighbors.