Dear cruise ship tourists, Hi there. Our town is voting on an initiative to slow industrial tourism. Proponents want one cruise ship-free day per week for the community and the environment. Some of them feel the industrial tourism complex cares more about tourists than they care about us. Not me. […]
*A few updates as of summer, 2024: Five years ago I wrote in the series linked below* that Israel had destroyed its environment to the point it was a dying patient on the gurney. With its Gaza Genocide , Israel is taking itself off life support. 1) Well over […]
Thought it might be good to keep track of how she rode over the winter. Feel free to scroll through hero shots of greenhouse in big weather shown on the NOAA Weather Service reports. This is an El Nino year with warmer (for here) temperatures than normal. First photo below […]
Okay, somebody spank me for bringing up this up. Fetish: noun: a) an object believed among a primitive people to have magical power to protect or aid its owner. b) an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion. c) an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is […]
“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be said of us, and all of us! Charles Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol’ As we keep Christmas, and keep Christmas well, we would do well to […]
Perspectives: As American historian Will Durant observed, at the end of the day civilization depends upon the food supply. As our food supply grows increasingly uncertain at every level, putting up food is the embodiment of, “Thinking globally acting locally.” For months during the COVID pandemic local stores around the […]
One of this year’s best headlines was, ‘Pantry porn’ trend rooted in racist, sexist behavior: Loyola Professor’ At first glance, being somewhat dyslexic, I read the title as ‘Panty Porn’. You can imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be ‘Pantry porn’. I read the article anyway, as I […]
Grandma’s Nativity: A little story for my country that spent around a trillion dollars on Christmas this year. It’s an early December tradition here at Woodshed Manor to pull out my grandmother’s Nativity scene. I don’t know how old it is except I’m 68 and it’s older than me. Grandma […]
“Remember, remember, the Fifth of November The gunpowder treason and plot I know of no reason, the gunpowder treason Should ever…be…forgot.” English Children’s Rhyme ‘V for Vendetta’ is a film worth watching every November fifth to see how much more like the present this 2005 film has become. We have […]
First off: Forget DRY CANNING At large in the internet wasteland are those who purport to ‘teach’ us how to dry can wheat berries/beans/lentils/corn etc. Dry canning is packing bulk dry food in jars, heating the jars in the oven, screwing on a lid before it cools, forming a seal. […]
If Halloween in America was a country, it would have a higher GDP than 33 other countries in the world. Yes friends, the National Retail Federation says our wacky country, where 57% of the population couldn’t cover a $1,000 emergency, throws away $12,200,000,000 on stuff like this: and this: and […]
Dehydrators take the water out of food to prevent rot, mold, bacteria including dangerous organisms like botulism. Properly dried and stored food can last for years or even decades. Dried food saved ancient cities under siege as they waited out the enemy. Pemmican made of dried meat and tallow was […]