CSA Week 12 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

CSA Week 11 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

CSA Week 10 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

CSA Week 9 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

CSA Week 8 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

CSA Week 7 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

CSA Week 6 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

Fermented Soy Is The Only Soy Food Fit for Human Consumption

Interesting and enlightening article:
http://preventdisease.com/news/09/020409_soy.shtml

January 20th Ice Storm Photos

CSA Week 5 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

I continue to be amazed by the nutritious and delicious veggies in my weekly CSA. I now have a new standard for 'fresh'. And I'm really enjoying eating bok choy raw!

Wind - a Different Perspective

It's been blowing like crazy today! The weather map isobars are close together and the cold air is racing down from Canada. Blowing snow and white-out conditions on the road. A good time to stay inside with a nice fire in the wood stove ;--)

I've been watching my newly installed PentaMetric meter to see how many watts my wind turbine is putting out, and tonight I photographed this:

At 28.6 volts the batteries aren't accepting any more charge, and the excess electricity is getting dumped to a 1500 watt "dump load" -- essentially a big electric heater. And 1.11K watts is pretty much tops for my Bergey 1KW wind turbine. Bergey says it has a peak output of 1300 watts in 25 mph winds. The 1.11KW my meter shows is based on an average of speeds over a 30 second period, so probably I approached this peak today. After 25 mph, the turbine tail "auto furls" and points the turbine blades out of the wind, to protect them from breaking.

At 15 degrees outside with winds gusting 30-40 mph, it's not very fun to be outside for very long. But all of this wind has charged up and 'topped off' my batteries. Pretty cool!

545 People -- By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does...

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country...

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits... The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red...

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems..

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses -- provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

At the Bazaar

I found myself on an errand in an unfamiliar part of town. I was at the right address, so I went in. The room was empty except for about a dozen elderly women, all sitting on the floor, surrounded by large woven baskets, 2-3 feet in diameter, filled with what appeared to be nuts or grains. It was like I would imagine a scene would be at a bazaar in Turkey or some middle eastern country.

I told the attending woman what I wanted, and she returned with a box of what appeared to be beans, maybe black beans? And then, from another container, she filled the box to overflowing with coffee beans. I was surprised by this! We didn't speak the same language, but I got the impression that the beans were to be cooked with the coffee beans to create the dish I was sent for. I was puzzled, but the woman smiled confidently. I left. Mission accomplished.

CSA Week 4 - Maharishi Vedic City Organics

Last night we had 4-5" of powdery snow, and it has been in low teens today. Now we've got howling winds and drifting powder. Yet, this is what was in my weekly CSA box today, all grown locally... A vision of possibilities meets reality!

Information Overload -- What did you want to know?

CD3WD is a collection of high-quality 3rd world development information on agriculture, health, appropriate technology, construction, food processing, crop storage, woodwork, metalwork, electrical trades, education, and computer skills. All material is HTML and PDF, and is therefore platform independent. Hosted in it’s entirety by Aquaponics Guru, Travis Hughey (Barrel-Ponics Inventor) at FAST Online, you can find DIY info on just about any subject from methane digestion to pedal generators and much more:

http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/CD3WD/INDEX.HTM

For more references, see :
http://www.villageearth.org/pages/Appropriate_Technology/index.php
http://www.green-trust.org/freebooks/
http://echonet.org/repository#:f:All%20Files
http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page