US Panel finds Gas Fracking Poses Serious Risks

Exxon / Mobil has been promoting gas fracking on tv in this area, meanwhile Bloomberg is reporting "Gas Fracking Poses Serious Environmental Risks, Panel Finds" Meanwhile South Tenmile lake is facing a toxic algae bloom due to unclean water. Think about how much more the water is going to get screwed up with the LNG planet coming to Coos Bay & the restart of the rail along the rivers.

It makes me think some people won't be happy till Earth looks more like Giedi Prime of House Harkonnen.

Largest Toxic Dump In The West, Fined $1 Million By EPA

Chemical Waste Management's Kettleman City Landfill, Largest Toxic Dump In The West, Fined $1 Million By EPA

[QUOTE]

FRESNO, Calif. -- Federal officials said Wednesday they have levied about $1 million in penalties on the operator of the largest toxic dump in the West for failing to properly dispose of waste near a community known for a rash of birth defects.

But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there is no evidence these latest violations pose any health threat to the community or workers at the dump site.

The agency will require Chemical Waste Management, which runs the waste facility near Kettleman City in the San Joaquin Valley, to pay a $400,000 fine and spend an estimated $600,000 to replace its laboratory equipment, software and procedures.

[/QUOTE]


That's all they got fined? That's a slap on the wrist considering how much havoc they caused at the expense of children. I'm disgusted, very disgusted.

Thunder and Lightening with No Precipitation

Thunder and lightening with no precipitation... that's what I am experiencing here at the ol' homestead. I can only be thankful for it since it is fixing Nitrogen into the soil and helping us farmers out. I do find it odd that this is occurring, the East Coast is bracing for a hurricane that could hit NYC, and the America's have had 4 news grabbing earthquakes in 2 days, 2 of which do not normally occur along their fault lines.

Edit - In fact it is downright sunny, but we here can hear it, and see the flashes.

Still can't find a local source

Still can't find a local source for rare, heirloom, antique apple seeds, nor for dwarf fruit trees. So far the best thing I can find is http://www.applesearch.org/

If I was more commercial I would look to here. http://www.cumminsnursery.com/antiques.htm

It's not so easy fixing up the world from the damage our forefathers wrought across North America, but small steps will start to make a large difference.

Wal*mart Coos Bay Employees Prevents CPR

It's well known I don't care for Walmart, but this is just reprehensible. Yesterday Walmart employees prevented an off-duty fireman from performing CPR on an elderly person who was choking. This is a direct prevention of the Good Samaritan law by a corporation.

"because no medics were on scene, her son tried to help before Walmart officials physically pushed him aside."

In Permaculture, things like community are stressed, helping one another and the planet for the better. This company, once again proves they are not for the community except in the guise of advertising. What they want is your money to pay for the goods being shipped from Asia.

Here is the full story from CBS News.

Permaculture for Victory!

I remember growing up when I was a more aspiring artist in the NYC area where I became a spoiled foodie, the posters for Victory gardens as well as my favorite WW2 era poster art, "Grow Hemp for Victory". It seems to me now that our country can use those slogans again.

I tried today for over 1/2 an hour to find the guidelines at the USDA for Organic growers, what a nightmare. Considering we tax paying US citizens actually pay for someone to go around and spot check compost pile temps; I am more inclined to do for myself now. Then again those same yahoo's also legalized Roundup & other chemicals known to persist through animal waste, composting efforts, and then destroy full on farms. USDA is supposed to protect, and it fails in this case. I never did find those guidelines which, for organic farming you would think are fairly simple, yet I know of cases of organic farmers market growers that actually use Roundup on their farms.

With that result of my taxes, I feel my fellow Americans can once again use a slogan to help themselves, not just for the short term, but for the long term, and that slogan should be, "Create Permaculture for Victory!"

Harvesting in the heat...

...just reminds me to stay hydrated. I have been harvesting Yukon Gold potatoes, Blueberries, Blackberries, Huckleberries & Strawberries today. It's hot work digging through heavy clay dry soil, luckily I borrowed a friends pick axe to make life a bit easier.

The Yukon Golds though are the true heroes of the day. They have been growing under neath an apple tree, 2 different plum trees, with nettle, nasturtium, & huckleberries around them Bugleweed was ground cover in the general area. surrounding them as well. They have not once been given water all season except whatever rain came in spring.

It's nice to see returns on low maintenance gardening.

Changes visual

Trying to adapt the Linda Woodrow system from the book, "The Permaculture Home Garden," a wonderful book about incorporating Chickens directly into your veg garden, safely. Image is not to scale with regards to the outer rings.

Incoming Changes...

With my chicken tractor making it's first pass past 3 fruit trees, 2 nut trees, a patch of rhubarb, a huckleberry bush, a verbena, and a blueberry with assorted rhododendrons and other perennials I am marveled at that chicken waste, and scratching that has occurred. My once beautiful patch of crimson clover cover crop destroyed and composted right where it lied. Nitrogen now fixed into the soil & more humus created. Thank you chickens.

However, because of how much work & love we are providing each other, I will be changing their 10'x4'x4' tractor to a more easily managed 7' dome. I am also creating a perimeter fedge barrier around the veg garden. This will comprise of bramble berries, then a slightly inner circle from that of horsetail, comfrey, nettles and Sunchoke a.k.a. Jerusalem Artichoke., then a slightly inner circle from their that consists of various herbs and spices.

The purpose of this fedge is to make a barrier from not only deer, but also provide food, compost and most importantly stop grass from entering the veg garden area. Next inside we will have 6 new dwarf fruit trees, a 4' pond, and finally 6 veg beds. However the veg beds I decided not to establish till the fedge is in full swing. Cover crops will be utilized until then.

Another Reason not to shop for food at Walmart!!!

Many people know mega-corporations such as Walmart destroy communities by driving local businesses out of business. Some people say that's just the way of capitalism. That's an excuse.

Many people of Coos County, here in Oregon know that because of Walmart, that the supermarket, Albertsons had to close its doors forever. Shame too, they had a much safer meat supply then Walmart.

Well, now did you know it is possible you were poisoned? It's already well known that China has shipped the US tainted food and toiletries in the past, but that is all done with now right?

WRONG.

China has arrested 2,000 people and shut down nearly 5,000 businesses in a clampdown on illegal food additives, after a series of food safety scares. Here is the full story.

What bothers me about all this is that this is how companies like Monsanto and Dow make more money. It was bad enough that China lost a large amount of watermelons this year (hence the higher price) due to over pumping of fertilizers in a rush to get to market, well that same foods that get over pumped by chemicals does indeed effect you and your health.

Not sure if you know this, but plants that get over pumped with chemicals during growth taste different & are potentially harmful. Here are 2 examples, seemingly unrelated but illustrate this point.

In CA, medical marijuana (which doesn't need to be smoked for therapy) now gets tested by a 3rd party usually in order to test for high levels of chemical fertilizers. This is because the marijuana itself cannot give you lung cancer, but the chemical fertilizers if pumped up too high can.

Ever taste a really bitter cabbage? Dole foods now has packages of chopped cabbage ready for coleslaw. Recently I had a package made here to go with lunch we made for friends. No one could eat the cole slaw due to how bitter it was. Again, this is due to over pumping of chemical fertilizers.

I miss the days of tasty raw foods. I miss having more then 5 types of apples in the stores, and I miss an infra-structurally sound America. Permaculture is the way to a sound America, more on this soon.

Would you like free chickens?

Well Mother Earth News teamed up with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy & Tractor Supply Co. to literally give you FREE CHICKENS!!! Why not go take a look right now.

Win Heritage Breed Chickens

Deadline is Sept. 25

I make no money on this, I am in no way affiliated with Mother Earth News, Tractor Supply Co. or American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, I just realize this is very important in this day and age with the current stupidity going on with our economics and politics. In short, I am trying to help YOU out.

USDA at War With Americans? How to chop billions from the current US budget crisis.

I will admit, I do not remember how, where, or anything else about how I got the below image but with the world wide financial crisis I can only wonder if the leaders of the USDA are scamming the American public.

Let's add to this equation the literal fact that the scientists in charge of determining weather or not a chemical is safe for the garden at the USDA have complained for YEARS about chemicals such as Aminopyralid.

Aminopyralid

...think of those gardeners a few years ago whose plants thrived for a while, then suddenly stopped growing and curled up like arabesque scrollwork. At first, no one knew what was happening. But gradually the syndrome was linked to residues of a new, hormone-mimicking pesticide manufactured by our old friends Dow Chemical, which was first approved in this country in 2005. It’s called aminopyralid.

It is used by farmers to kill broad-leaved weeds growing in fields of grass. It locks onto the cellulose in the plants, passes through the guts of the animals that eat them, and retains its potency in their manure, sometimes for two or three years or more. It is not believed to present a risk to human health.

The poisonings were a cruel cosmic joke. The people hit hardest by careless agri-business were the small producers and amateur gardeners trying to do the right thing, by using manure rather than chemical fertilisers. They had no idea there was trouble until it was too late, and, because of the remarkable persistence of the pesticide, no guarantee that the trouble would be confined to the year in which it was detected.

After a major fuss by gardeners, the government withdrew approval for the chemical in 2008. Farmers were allowed to use it again after “a stringent stewardship programme” was introduced. They would be permitted to spray it only on fields which would be grazed directly by cattle and sheep, rather than on fields where silage or hay is grown. All manure from animals kept in these pastures would have to stay on the farm. Horses could not be grazed on treated fields (because horse manure tends to be collected, rather than left on the grass). Farmers using the herbicide, according to Dow, “are required to confirm in writing that they have been instructed on product use, manure management issues and measures to reduce the risk of damage to flower-rich grassland”. These rules, the company says, “should allay concerns amongst gardeners and allotment-holders over using manure.”

Are your concerns allayed? They shouldn’t be. It’s back. (Source: Guardian)

That chemical was approved by 1 person, despite tons of complaining of farmers and other people, but it doesn't stop here. We now also allow without knowing all the true side effects open pollinated GMO foods even though currently they mess up human hormones like those needed for reproduction.

It is a fact that GMO food crops are designed to work with chemicals like the one above, in concert with herbicides, pesticides, and chemical based fertilizers, which essentially salt the earth and destroy all the good, beneficial life giving things that help plants grow. In short, Dow Chemical with the help of some people in the USDA appear to be salting our earth, destroying America's infrastructure on purpose under the guise of helping us.

Now let's add Monsanto and what they are doing to our food. Monsanto makes GMO foods, and has worked with GMO food crops for over 20 years in America.

NEW York: On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit today against Monsanto Company challenging the chemical giant’s patents on genetically modified seed. The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should their crops ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed.

Monsanto has sued farmers in the United States and Canada, in the past, when their patented genetic material has inadvertently contaminated their crops.

A copy of the lawsuit can be found at:
(http://www.pubpat.org/assets/files/seed/OSGATA-v-Monsanto-Complaint.pdf)

This is very heavy stuff. So now I got 2 companies working with the USDA screwing up the soil, water, and very food we eat. Isn't this what happens in war? Have these 2 major companies declared war and the USDA is a pawn or at least been bribed to look the other way?

As I see it, these companies received aid from the USDA by getting their chemicals out in the market, deceived the American public, and intentionally acted against the well being of the American public, and have been doing so. If Congress, the Senate, the President and any other official wants to start cutting money they should look here at the USDA and the crazy shenanigans going on there.

Oh, and on top of all this, your tax dollars used in this financial crisis in our history also pays a person to randomly check the temperature of a farms compost. After all, the farmer most likely doesn't know how to make compost!