Wow it's been a long time since I posted here!!
Much has happened. Not that anyone really cares, but I'll just post this anyway.
I did get a dog from the rescue, but not really from the rescue, since there wasn't one in the area. But rather a loose-knit group that was interested in such things and knew of a dog that needed a better home.
So, we got her. She's approx 2-3 year old golden retriever. When I went to pick her up, I noticed she was pregnant! Ugh. So, 8 days after she came to live with us, a total of 10 puppies were born, 3 females and 7 males.
Two months later and after a urine damaged wood floor, along with some chewing damage, all the puppies found a good home, thanks to some much needed help I received from a real rescue group from Montreal. I released the puppies to them and they took care of all the medical needs and found homes for the puppies.
We kept one pup, who's now 7 months old. She's so great. Both are great, although the mom retriever has some quirky personality traits I don't like much.
Other than that, we are having a really shitty early summer. All it does it rain rain rain rain. I've been trying to work on vegetable growing but can't do much because either it's raining or the ground is soaked and unworkable. Grass is way too high in some areas and you can't mow wet grass either.
Today I'm going to get a new extension cord and some safety glasses and use the electric weed whacker to clear grass and crap from behind the greenhouse. All that good stuff will go into the new compost pile. But first I'll have to see if it's dry enough to use something electric out there. *sigh*
There is no SPCA type organization where I live. At least, not for several hundred miles.
Anyway, I read they might be trying to set up a local SPCA in the paper and I sent an email asking if they needed someone to foster a dog. I have been urging to get a dog but didn't want to pay a high price for a puppy from the pet store or drive hundreds of miles for a dog. I thought maybe if we fostered a dog here and there we might find one to adopt.
They had a verbally/physically abused rescued husky but someone gave him a home, but they also knew of a female adult golden retriever that was chained up outside and had an ear mite infestation and was skinny and had zero shelter from the elements. The dog also dug in the dirt and had ants crawling all over her and apparently the smell from the ear mites was horrible. They had called in the authorities on the owner and eventually talked the owner into giving up the dog. But the dog is still living at the owner's residence. Since there's no shelter, I guess they had no other choice.
I spoke with one of the ladies trying to start the SPCA chapter on the phone earlier today and if everything works out they will finally remove the dog from its owner, make her sign a release form (at my request) and then arrange a "secret" meeting with us so we can go pick up the dog because they don't want the owner to know where the dog is going. I'd hate to rehabilitate and get attached to a dog only to have the owner flip out and try to get the dog back.
Some people...can't believe anyone could treat animals like that.
Dog's name is currently Sandy but I'm thinking of changing the name to Belle. I wonder how long it would take the dog to recognize that.
We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21154137/
Great idea! I loved reading the article, until the reporter mentioned high cost of sodium light bulbs to provide light for growing the plants.
Mr. Bryn Nelson, I'm disappointed. You clearly did not do enough research and are left clueless about new (and old) technologies that would either greatly reduce electricity cost, or remove it altogether.
First, 100% hydroponic is not necessary. Lightweight soil-less mixtures, natural fertilizers such as compost, compost tea, one last run through used coffee grounds (and the left overs go back into compost), seaweed extract, eggshells and many many other things can be used and no chemical fertilizers are needed. Better off being as natural as possible. I know, I know... these techniques cannot feasibly be used on "away missions" from Earth. But I seriously doubt manned missions further in outer space are feasible for a long, long time. I'm more concerned in using this idea here on Earth. No one has yet to see if humans can really survive long outside Earth's electromagnetic field.
Think about it. Water weighs a LOT. All you really need is the soil-less mixtures as a growth medium and then water weekly. Peat moss and other additives in soil-less mixtures are devoid of nutrients. But these can be easily added or grown inside the same building. Seaweed and kelp can be propagated in a water tank and simulated tides via machines. Water from elsewhere in the building can be filtered through this same tank and the live plants will do well in cleaning water. Visit the Ethel M chocolate factory in Las Vegas. There's a desert plant park area outside to see and the water filtration system - all run by plants.
http://www.vegas.com/attractions/off_the_strip/ethelm.html
To simulate wind, use fans.
Install human composting toilets inside for the employees and use that to fertilize the plants as well. Robotic plant care really isn't ideal for many reasons, so it's wise to keep the human element involved.
Most plants can be grown without insect help, like potatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions, etc. But I see a problem with tomatoes, mostly from personal experience. But this can be remedied by a creative "tomato sex" method, either by using a vibrator to simulate bee activity, or manual pollen dusting.
Now we come to power and light. High pressure sodium (HPS) is NOT the answer. Having multiple HPS systems is a recipe for disaster! HPS are fire hazards, high cost, noisy, and eat electricity like it's going out of style. You can look them up online, and some burn 1,000 watts. Ouch!
What's better is the LED lighting system.
http://www.ledgrowlights.com/
http://www.led-grow-master.com/
Need water? No problem.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070604222124.htm
Now for power. Multiple ideas here. The most favorable is Zero Point Energy. This has been proven, and many inventors out there have done this and patented their inventions, only to be suppressed, killed, or go missing. I don't know enough on the technical side of all that, but I know it's possible. The suppression needs to be lifted.
Next in the list is solar or wind energy. It wouldn't take much to power a several story building if LED grow lights, large windows to catch natural light, and energy saving equipment was used.
Need heat? Use Geothermal technology. Also the windows could assist in generating heat, as well as the outside of the building. Or, Nanotechnology in building facades or exterior paint. The Nanotechnology could also provide power for heating systems.
Lastly, any remaining plant material not to be used for consumption must go into a self-contained composting system, which will just go back into the soil-less growth mediums. Zero need for chemical fertilizers.
I hope someone sees this blog entry and re-designs a new building using my ideas. Here's what I'd like to see. I don't want or deserve credit for my ideas. I'd rather see other, more viable technologies used in such a building to help everyone. Although I'd love to work in such a building since I love plants so much. But most importantly, these types of buildings must not be a huge cash cow. We must be more concerned with providing nutritional, non-GM food products for all, in the cheapest method possible. Although start-up costs will be huge, the power-saving techniques mentioned will pay for themselves quickly. Profits can go into building new systems in other places and eventually sprout all over the planet. From there, we can use previously farmed lots for other things besides farming and prevent wrecking the planet's soil further.
Basement: Grow gourmet mushrooms. Have a storage area for mushroom spawning, seeds and germination testing. (Veseys seeds uses small systems for testing germination, for example.) Install battery back ups from solar/wind energy devices. A water treatment system combined with propagating kelp and seaweed or other water plants. Certain kinds of fish as well can be used in this tank, for tourism/teaching purposes. Controls for Geothermal can also be installed in the basement. Self-contained, non-smelling rotating composting equipment as well, powered by the many energy systems. Perhaps elevators too, to transport compost to other floors.
Ground floor: Grow baby/leafy greens, herbs, and short-term vegetables here like cucumber, radish, green onions, etc. Possibly a laboratory as well, for cloning and method testing. Don't really need a ton of seeds when you can use lab methods for encouraging natural plant cloning abilities and create thousands of plants from a single plant. This is already being done in the flower industry.
2nd floor: 30-60 day crops. Pole beans, wax beans, tomatoes, etc.
3rd floor: Root crops. Carrot, onion, potato, turnip, etc.
4th floor: Larger, long term crops. Broccoli, cabbage, kale.
5th floor: Tall crops like corn.
6th floor and higher: Grains for flour, etc.
These are just ideas and examples of how I feel it would work best. Further study is needed. But above all, it CAN be done.
Visit http://www.thevenusproject.com/ for further ideas on this line of thinking.
Well, it's Columbus Day in the USA and Thanksgiving in Canada. I've never figured out exactly why the two Thanksgiving dates are a month apart. I can only think that seasons change in the Great White North about a month's difference from the south. We're a month behind in seeing Spring, and a month earlier in harvest. It's pretty chilly in parts of Canada already,and my lilies are all done blooming and the stems are turning brown with each morning's frost. I never did upload all my other pics. But the grass is still green. Go figure.
We had our big meal yesterday, so today, the fridge is full of leftovers and I get to relax after two days of preparation and cooking.
I cooked a 10 pound turkey, a pan of spicy cornbread stuffing, and side dishes of carrots, potatoes and green beans. Had two different versions of cranberry sauce, my homemade bread rolls, and a coconut pie for dessert.
We all left the table happily full, and slightly uncomfortable. I had to retreat to change into stretchy pants in order to digest better.
Had fresh coffee and tea afterwards and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Now that all that is done, we need to prepare getting the firewood in and I need to work on my flower gardens to prepare them for winter, dig some new areas, clean up the greenhouse and start another round of baby lily propagation.
An acquaintance on the lily forum I frequent was kind enough to mail me some bulbils from a species lily. I won't see a bloom from them for about three years, but it will be worth the wait.
Had a dream last night that I had a classical guitar and some sort of tiny wooden box that looked like another form of a guitar-like stringed instrument. It could really put out the sound for such a tiny box. Cool dream. I'm hoping to be able to sell my piccolo and purchase a LaPatrie classical guitar. Those are handmade in Quebec, and from what I've seen, they sound great. Wanted to buy one locally, but the vendor wants $100 more than what I could get it for from a vendor in Alberta.
So if anyone would like to buy a used Gemeinhardt Piccolo, model number 4PNH, for $400 CAD plus shipping, that would be great.
These people make me laugh. Everyone's looking for the latest "diet" or rules about eating.
http://www.thatsfit.com/2007/10/03/the-7-things-you-should-i-never-i-eat/#comments
Pffff....
No need to diet! No need to restrict yourself! It's actually quite easy to lose weight and be healthy.
Although, there are some suggestions of possible things to avoid if at all possible, and I'll list them. I'm guilty of using some of these items from time to time but they do not include the bulk of my diet. I may have something from the list approximately 2-3 times a month at most. Everything else I put into my mouth I cook from scratch from the freshest ingredients possible.
1. Processed foods - Velveeta, sliced cheese, luncheon meats, stuff in a box or anything premade.
2. Restaurant foods - most restaurants don't have your best interests at heart. Many are dirty, filthy places. Just watch Gordon Ramsay's show on Fox this fall called "Kitchen Nightmares" and you'll see for yourself just how dirty some places are. In any restaurant, you'll never know if the cooks washed their hands after taking a dump. Yeah Ramsay is foul-mouthed and the "reality" of the show may be off, but the fact still remains that many restaurants are not spic-and-span, with rats, roaches and flies, rotten, moldy, health hazard food and god knows what else. Every time Gordon visits a restaurant he says a quick prayer to not die from food poisoning.
3. Coffee shops - They pile on the sugar and sometimes aspartame, which is a brain poison. Not to mention the outrageous calories and cost of the menu items. Once I ate Tim Horton's (in Canada) doughnuts and had a gut pain for several hours thereafter. Never again will I buy anything there.
4. Sodas - Yeah I'm also guilty of this as well from time to time. I know I shouldn't drink these, but I can't help it. I sometimes crave fizzy drinks for no good reason. Maybe they're addicting. All I know is that I used to drink a case of 12 cans a week. Now I drink approx 2-3 cans a month. In one year of this change, I dropped 50 pounds without even trying. I still use sugar in my tea and coffee, but what I add per cup amounts to less than a small spoonful. You know, those small spoons in your cutlery drawer. I imagine if I cut out sugar altogether, I'd lose more. But not in a big hurry.
My main diet consists now of lots of homemade tomato sauce with very little fat added. I put in italian tomatoes, sauteed peppers and onions (done in a bit of olive oil), mushrooms, basil, salt/pepper, parsley and a couple of bay leaves. From this huge pot of sauce, I can make 3-4 meals serving 3 people each meal just by using the sauce in different ways. I make homemade pizza with the best mozzarella I can get my hands on, tons of veggies and tiny amounts of the freshest spicy italian sausage I can find. I make the dough, the sauce, add on veggies and the good cheese and that's way healthier than any restaurant pizza which is often laden with tons of grease. I also make a tossed pasta thing with the sauce/cheese in the oven. Cabbage rolls stuffed with rice, and topped off with the sauce in the oven. Baked chicken with the sauce and extra peppers and onions in the oven. Homemade canneloni with spinach and ricotta cheese and my sauce. Lasagna, same thing. Homemade pasta like ravioli too, or even potato gnocci.
I also make dishes with ultra lean meats, like sloppy joes, or slow cooked beef, chicken or pork in the oven with a tomato based sauce, that's good on either open faced sandwiches or regular hot sandwiches. I serve this with boiled or baked potatoes and baked beans.
I eat tons of beans and legumes. White (navy) beans, romano beans, kidney beans, and wax beans (green or yellow). There's soooo many dishes you can make with any kind of beans. I also LOVE broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, carrots, onions, garlic and cauliflower. Yeah everyone in my household farts a lot, but we don't care. It's funny. It's a natural result of eating lots of fiber. It makes us laugh, and laughter is good tummy exercising.
Salad - I love salads. Usually I only use Romaine or curly leaf lettuce or spinach, as Iceberg lettuce is basically non-nutritional and mainly water. It tastes great for sure, but really doesn't do much for you nutritionally. I grow this in my greenhouse organically. I make my own salad dressing with olive oil, fresh lemon juice/vinegar, and spices. It's very yummy. I top off the salad with chopped fresh tomatoes and green onions (which we also grow).
For the most part I make my own bread. Once in a while we buy whole wheat bread for a little extra fiber from time to time, but most of our fiber comes from all the veggies we eat.
We still eat meat, but the amount has been drastically reduced. I'd say percentage wise, we probably eat 20% meat, 70% veggies, and 10% dairy.
We eat only when hungry, and never snack needlessly. Actually we can't afford to do that. Grocery bills are already too expensive. Stupid corporate greed...
Anyway, this is just a small example of what we eat at home. I cook everything. Sometimes I don't want to cook, and it's a pain to have to be constantly cleaning up the kitchen. But overall I think it's worth it. We're happier, we're healthier and we don't support restaurants. Besides, why settle for a greasy burger for high cost and calorie count in a potentially health-disaster business, when I can make them at home much cheaper and with less fat/calories and much more veggies and healthier side dishes such as salads and oven roasted potatoes?
I encourage everyone to cook. I know it's hard these days, with the extra hours and little pay. But if you want to feel better, why not treat yourself to some real food prepared by your own hands with love?
Monday is the Canadian Thanksgiving. I'll post up what all I'm going to make in the next entry. It isn't going to be 100% healthy, but hey it's a holiday. I don't normally cook via a recipe and often just toss stuff together, so it will be difficult to type it all up. I've been eating very healthy for a while now and want to enjoy life a bit with family and friends and settle down after with a nice cup of hot tea and a smile as I drift off for an after-dinner nap. What more could I be thankful for other than a full belly and relaxed atmosphere surrounded by my loved ones?
Tonite, I'm making tacos. Still debating whether to make my own tortillas or use the packaged corn crunchy shells...
Shock Doctrine
What is this? I just happened across some YouTube videos at random and watched a few.
Shock Doctrine is a book written by a brave woman by the name of Naomi Klein. One of her videos will be at the bottom of this post.
In a nutshell, what she's trying to say is that the elite of this planet either act upon, or create disasters in order to further their agenda of control, fear and make their pocketbooks thicker. Klein talks about three major events in her book and lectures and encourages people to research "history" for themselves.
The elite rely on the "shock value." Where have we seen this concept recently? How about the routines that we all saw on mass media with flashing, fancy computer graphics promoting fear?
This concept is nothing new.... far from new. Klein is just taking another look at it from another perspective, and is being continuously attacked for her work.
Another author, Barbara Hand Clow, wrote a book "Catastrophobia." In this book, she mentions how over 10,000 years ago, the planet experienced a massive event that shocked the human population at that time. Then, either a person, or group of people, or perhaps ETs took advantage of the situation in order to gain control and power.
I don't buy into the whole ET thing because I've never seen any, or experienced anything "out of this world." I can only think of what Carl Sagan used to say. Something to the effect that we have all this mass space out there, populated by billions of stars and planets. A line in Sagan's story "Contact" was, "sure would be a waste of space."
Anyway, it's been occuring on our planet as long as anyone can remember, and the ancient texts tell us. Someone or some thing has been controlling humans via shock and fear, promising to "save" humanity and protect us. And we've been falling for it ever since. Humans never seem to want to take responsibility and are always looking outside of themselves for a "saviour."
Note: I originally wrote this on Dr. Phil's website on the show discussion forum. There are sooo many posts there, and my post will just get lost in the shuffle. But I wanted to save what I wrote, because it's important that we all at least take the time to think about situations like these. All the posts have to be "approved" and mine may not be. The last time I tried to share spiritual/universal information, the post was not published on his forum.
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I do not like that term -Racism.
We are ALL humans, or Homo sapiens. In Latrin, the word "homo" means man, or human, and "sapiens" means wise or knowing. So, are we all being wise? Or are we acting like animals?
It is important that everyone realise we are all ONE race, not many races. I don't know or understand where this social classification originated of different skin colors meaning separate races. Why do humans separate each other based on skin tone, but not other species like dogs or cats? Is a chocolate labrador retriever any better or worse than a blonde retreiever? Or are they just both canines?
I wish Dr. Phil would tell his viewers these simple facts. That is, if he really wants to enlighten the public with philosophies that bring us all together, instead of encouraging this continuing conversation of race. Talking about the Jena 6 on national television, as it was presented in Friday's show, does NOT help the situation. It only continues the illusion of separateness.
Everyone please realise we are all humans living on a single planet, on the fringes of the MIlky Way galaxy, and so far, we are the only humans we know to exist ANYWHERE. Earth is our home, and there is no where else to go, so we have to make it work here.
Also realise there are others out there that do not wish the masses to get along peacefully, and they artificially encourage people to fight amongst themselves. A tiny 5 second segment of the show was one intelligent woman stating that the people are bored with war and bored with other things available to distract and entertain us, and then the Jena situation pops up all over mass media. Is this a coincidence? Have you ever noticed that every time a new event is reported on television and radio, something else occurs in the background which you don't even notice until after the shock of the initial event dies down? What's next? More war...more strife... more hatred? Who's the future enemy? Or perhaps another mass media show on some silly movie or music star to distract from the truth?
It's time to start asking why. What is going on and why are people continually encouraged to be at each others' throats and behave like rabid animals? It's to take your attention away from the really important things going on in our reality now. Sort of like you might see a police character in old movies, "Please disperse...nothing to see here."
I don't like what occured in Jena. I don't agree with it, on all sides. The noose thing was a bad decision and the attack was a bad decicision. The argument of the whites taunting the blacks and causing the attack is a cheap excuse. No one forced anyone to physcially attack another. No one forced the verbal abuse. It was all a choice. What about the others that saw these events? What did they do? Stand back and watch? Or try to stop things before they got out of hand? They also made a choice, whatever it might be.
Ask yourselves why people like the racism activists are out there, and why they only seemed to "suddenly"appear once this situation reached mass media event size. Who are they working for? What is their agenda? Are they a part of the chaos system, to encourage people to fight among each other? Or are they really there to help create a change? Why are these people still alive, yet great people like Martin Luther King or Ghandi were killed? Either they are really lucky, or they are a part of the system.
Just take some time and think on what I've said. If no one agrees with this, then fine. It's not a requirement. I only want to put another point of view out there that's more "out of the box" style philosophy and plant seeds for people to ponder and discuss.
One last thought. Dr. Phil uses a phrase a lot in his shows, which is, "Is that working for you?" Does thinking of yourselves as separate from any other person really working for you? Does war actually have any positive benefit? Does fighting with someone that has a different skin color help you or make your life better in any way? Think before you act, and choose peace, not hostility. It's all about choice.
I saw the movie "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" for the very first time last night. Yep, I'm WAY behind on movies. lol It came on TV and I thought I would watch it since nothing else was on and being on the computer hasn't appealed to me much lately.
Anyway, while the movie overall was pretty cheesy, it had some funny spots, but I was really happy to see the mention of the Illuminati.
For a mega quick run-down of the plot, Lara is an adult, who's father was Sir Croft, and Jolie faked an English accent for the role. She's a combo of James Bond and Indiana Jones, with a past it seems in secret military operations.
She's fascinated with planetary alignment, and upon studying an alignment that's only supposed to occur every 5,000 years through her at-home observatory (shouldn't we all be so fortunate lol), she ends up discovering a ticking clock hidden in a secret compartment in her stately home. Within this clock is another clock which tracks the planetary alignment. The clock has a triangle shape with the All Seeing Eye on it.
She takes this clock to someone else, who definitely wants it and ends up breaking into her home using black ops type men and steals it. She then gets a letter from the UPS guy and it's from her father, who apparently paid to have it sent to her after his death. Upon reading it, she finds a clue and discovers a letter hidden in a book cover from the family library from her father, hidden under a triangle with the All Seeing Eye.
So she figures out this is all related to the Illuminati. When confronting her adversary, he blows it off and says something like "Oh that's just children's tales." That's one of the main things these men always say and pretend it doesn't exist. They operate in the shadows. Denial is the #1 rule.
She follows the adversary to find pieces of another triangle split in two, that's supposed to give its possessor the power to time travel, and she's on a mission to not let it happen.
Once they have both pieces of the triangle, the head guy of the Illuminati takes both pieces and proceeds to make a big, flowery speech. LOL Just like those to do that. I cracked up when I saw that in the film. The Illuminati thrive on rituals and speeches. So silly.
The adversary is irritated with this as well and has the head guy murdered by his goons, and proceeds to put the triangle pieces together but nothing happens. But Lara has the answer, since she was groomed by her Illuminati father. While he was involved he didn't seem to want to participate in world domination. Perhaps that's why he was killed in the story's past before the movie plot begins. The Illuminati doesn't like those who don't go along with the plans and don't follow the sheeple herd mentality and gets rid of them.
Then Lara plays the all-knowing hero, provides the last piece of the triangle from the pieces of the clock. The triangle is reformed and the adversary misses out and she takes the opportunity to time travel to see her father. He tells her the past cannot be changed, and should not be changed. Good advice.
She returns to "reality" and then sets up for her adversary to die, but saves her male friend from death from the time travel powers. Then she shatters the triangle with a single bullet (hahaha) and leaves.
The moral of the story is not all the fluff and silly moments in the movie. It's this: The Illuminati thrive in the shadows. They love playing their game. They love ritual. They think they are above the rest of humanity. Some feel they might actually do some good, but just like in Lord of the Rings, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even with the best of intentions and the purest of heart, it would be too easy to fall to power. "Just this once" they might say. Riiiiight.
But ultimately they will fail. They think they are smarter and more "enlightened" than the rest of us but that ego will be their downfall. They are essentially blubbering idiots and will falter. There's no real organization, no concrete plans. Too many people with inflated egos that want to do things "just once" and they will all stumble and trip over each other like eager single women catching a bridal bouquet.
Sure, Lara Croft is fiction. But I like what it hinted.
