Wild Apples

Today I bought a wonderful new journal called Wild Apples. The journal bills itself as a Journal of Nature, Art and Inquiry and indeed it is. It is one of those rare things in life that lives up 100% to expections. The first issue was lauched May, 2008 and it will be published two times a year. http://www.wildapples.org/master/currentIssue.php

The photographs are the most stunning thing about the journal and are what make you ponder life in general and how we relate to our enviornment. They are much better than what they appear on the website. This journal is highly recommended and like none that you have seen before (in the U.S. anyway). The first issue was primarily about the land around the western suburbs of Boston where the journal was born.

Get a copy, you won't be disappointed.

Injured Chicken

This story was posted in the Christian Science Monitor on November 28 2005 by Victoria Bartlett. Why do I print it so late? Because the story still resonates with me, perhaps because I too as a child had to collect eggs and I too was afraid of chickens. Perhaps too, it was also because I always thought of chickens as dumb and how they were treated was nothing to be concerned about. That was until my friend who keeps chickens introduced me to hers. They all have their own personalities, know your voice, and are living breathing creatures to be cared for just like any other animal. Since there is no link on the CSM web site to the story, I have reprinted it here for you all to enjoy. Thank you Victoria for sharing the story with us. This a timeless story of compassion.

This story is about a chicken coup. There is also a coop in the story. There’s even a coupe. But “coup” is the right word because this is the story of conquest. It all began when I started on my daily walk past the strewn parts of the 1936 Ford coupe my husband was restoring. At the end of the driveway, in the ditch, lay the body of a chicken – a Rhode Island Red hen. I started to walk by on the other side, and then was hit hard by my conscience. So I went back. A staring eye blinked at me! She was alive.

Now I was in a struggle with myself. I hadn’t like chickens since I was a child. It had been my duty to gather eggs from about 200 chickens daily, some of whom were very aggressive in refusing to give them up. But any creature in distress deserved all the love she could get. So I gingerly gathered up her limp body and went back to the carport, installing her in a cardboard box full of hay for a nest – a sort of minicoop.

I had nothing that would seem to be chicken feed, except some dried soup mix containing some barley. So I poured some of that in a container, took a glass of water, and went back outside. The chicken lay as I had left her.

Putting the soup mix by her head, I tried to encourage her to eat. She wasn’t interested. Then I dipped a little water on her beak and she opened it. So I let drop by drop fall into her mouth until she sighed and shut her eyes. I felt relieved that I had helped, even a bit.
The next few days she lay unmoving, interested only in water. However, by the fourth or fifth day, she began to move about, and one day we found her outside her box. She was dragging a wing and a foot, but was bright-eyed and hunting for something to eat. She still wasn’t interested in soup mix, however.

The chicken tried – without success – to reach a cobweb in a corner above her, so I took a stick and gathered the web with its dangling spider. She gobbled up that spider. Recruited for KP duty, my three sons entered into this new game with delight, and the chicken now dubbed Henrietta, was plied with an abundance of fat black spiders. Even my daughters got into the action, albeit preferring the longer handle of the broom for delivering the spider meals.

About this time Henrietta decided – to my husband’s annoyance – that she liked to sleep in the shell of the Ford, and abandoned her box. “I’m not putting all my money and effort into a chicken coupe,” he muttered. However, in return for the accommodation, Henrietta began to give warning whenever anyone came up the driveway. We had a watchbird.

All the family admired the spunk of this bird, her unfailing cheerfulness in the face of disaster, and her bravery in struggling around in spite of her injuries. I even began to lose my dislike of chickens. Finally the day came when her feathers began to sprout again, and she carried her wing in the proper place. One foot, however, remained curled under and swollen. It seemed that an examination of the foot was in order, so I got my husband to hold while I looked. There, buried in her flesh, was a crushed metal band.

It had to be removed, so I got pliers and tinsnips and carefully cut away the metal. That amazing bird never struggled, uttering only one small whimper when I finally peeled it away. Both my husband and I were in awe of her bravery. It was at that moment that I realized the cheerfulness, courage, friendliness and gumption that we all had been admiring were her real being. How could I have not seen that before? I loved that bird.

There’ not much else in this story, except that the last day we saw Henrietta. A neighbor had come to admire my husband’s work on the old Ford and noticed the chicken. “What’re you doing with her?” he asked, “That’s our chicken.”

When my husband explained the situation, the neighbor was incredulous. “That’s impossible!” he said. “She’s too old. All the others in her clutch died of old age long ago.” Under the circumstances that was funny since there Henrietta stood, impossible or not, triumphant even over old age.

After promising to give her a place of her now, separate from their younger hens and the rooster, and to love her our neighbor took her back. That’s the last we saw of our watchbird, but I’ll never forget Henrietta. I try to live up to her example.

Little Brown Bats

First we had large numbers of honey bees dying, then it was frogs, birds (particularly the American Crow) and now Little Brown Bats.

In January 2007 thousands of Little Brown Bats were found dead or dying in Albany, New York State from what is being called White Noise Syndrome because their noses looked like they were dipped in sugar.

This picture was taken by Al Hicks, from the U.S Dept of Fish and Wild Life Services in New York who was the first person to discuss the calamity. In one year it has spread throughout New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The disease has a mortality rate of 90-95%. This has resulted in two-thirds of Massachusetts Little Brown bats dying with over half a million dead in New England and New York. Fortunately it has not spread to the Big Brown Bat (pictured below) or any of the bats that migrate such as the Tree Bats.

Litte Brown Bats are between 4.5 and 5.5 inches long and weight between 0.19 to 0.45 ounces. Since these bats only have one baby per year it will take a long time to replenish the population.

The white is actual a fungus called Fusarium which is usually associated with plants. But biologists think that this is not the actual cause of their deaths but an opportunistic infection. Whatever is the cause of their illness, bats are being found outside in the middle of winter when they should be hibernating in their caves. When their dead bodies are picked up they are found to be severally emancipated with no body fat at all. For the lucky bats that were picked up my wildlife experts and taken to a sanctuary they were able to recover. So this raises the question: did they burn up the fat too quickly or did they not store enough body fat before they hibernated and if not, why not?

To add to their plight Ravens, truely remarkable birds, have been noticed hanging outside the entrances to the bats’ caves and Raccoons are being bold enough to go inside. There are a couple of ideas. One is that the insects that the Little Browns’ eat have dyed or moved on due to Global Warming another idea is that there is now a new family of pesticides developed for the eradication of West Nile Virus. The other possibility is that in August 2007, the State of Massachusetts for the first time in 16 years conducted aerial spraying for mosquitos using a new pesticide developed for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE)or West Nile Visus (I don't remember which it is). Needless to say I cannot find what is in this new pestcide.

While many people might not like bats they have their place in the eco system and particularly because they eats lots and lots and lots of agriculutral insects and 20$of our mosquites.

Should you see any bats in your house anywhere, do not attemt to kill them. Call your U.S. Fish and Wild Life Services for they need protecting.

Fuel, Food, and Creativity

A very personal opinion! Will America never get it? It seems to be that our down hill economic slide in innovation and jobs started about 25 years ago. I would personally pin it to the Rio Conference when George Bush Sr. said that “jobs came before the environment.” It should be the other way around for if we have no environment we have no need for jobs, we will not be able to survive on our planet. Imagine where we would be now with our entrepreneurial energy had we got with the program. We would be selling these products into Europe, China, and India.

Twenty-five years later we still don’t get it. Hilary Clinton and Senator John McCain this week proposed a cut in gasoline tax so that we can drive more in the summer. This is at a time when demand is outstripping supply hence the rise in prices. Enlightened politicians would be offering alternative transportation incentives not encouraging us to use more of a scarce resource. Go Obama, Go! And while I am on the bully pulpit talking about gasoline why are we taking food out of the mouths of the poor to continue our “business as usual” approach. Using pasture that cows and other animals should be grazing on to grow corn for ethanol is stupid; especially as corn gobbles up tons of water at a time when that resource is also growing very short. We need politicians who work for the whole and not for the few.

I know some folks have cut back on their driving but than defeat their effort by flying. I think the amount of carbon that we can use per person is around 8,000 car travel and 5,000 airline travel per year. So how much are you using and if its more whose carbons are you using and did you ask permission? Remember that the amount of gas you use in driving is having an impact on folks half way around the globe who now cannot afford to buy basic food staples. Get creative, rather than saying “I can’t” say “What if?”

Go Green

What’s In This Stuff? By Patricia Thomas

This book should be in everyone’s home. It clearly lays out the problems of using many of today’s time saving devices for cleaning your house, cleaning your self, or making yourself look beautiful. It then shows you how to make nice smelling products that will not harm you or the environment. There are two wonderful appendixes at the back of the book that are easy to use. The first is an alphabetical list of chemicals that are in many of the products in your home: cleaning products, cosmetics, perfume, shampoo and toothpaste. The other appendix is a complete list of food additives.

You will find that the ideas will save you money and reduce your trash pile considerably. For example did you know that four items in your cupboard could virtually replace all your other cleaning products: Baking Soda, Vinegar, Borax and Bronner’s, castile liquid soap. Baking Soda and Vinegar are both disinfectants and grease cutters. Baking soda can be used on pans as it is a mild abrasive. Borax will take care of mold and mildew in your bathroom. Castile soap can be used for tons of stuff including washing and conditioning your hair.

Avoid soaps with chemical in them and only buy vegetable oil or glycerin soaps. Or of course use Bronner’s castile soap in peppermint which is wonderful for those folks who live in hot weather climates. You can use the liquid soap to wash and condition your hair. Toothpastes are very problematic and you need to look for one with no fluoride and SLS in it. I good product is Weleda’s salt toothpaste. For dental floss make sure you use a natural product (cotton or silk), unscented and unwaxed and for deodorants look for Neal’s Yard products or use a slight dusting of plain cornstarch.

And read this article in Thursday’s Tampa, FL Tribune
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/17/ho-easy-to-make-cleansers-stand-up-to-bathroom-lau/

Live Free and Die

Last year I flew to Australia
That was so fun
Last month I drove across country
That wasn’t so much fun
I drive to school;
I drive to work;
And in the summer
I drive down the highway
The hood down,
The wind flying through my hair
going no where in particular
Living the American Dream.

And whose carbons did I borrow?
Well, it doesn’t matter,
I wasn’t planning on paying them back anyway.

The Artic shelf has gone,
Isn’t it a shame!
The Pacific Islands have gone,
Isn’t it a shame
Bangladesh has gone, and the Maldives
Isn’t that a shame!
New Orleans is under water,
The east and west coast are under water
Isn’t that a shame!

Today I drove home
My home was gone
It's under water
I guess I should have listened.

Cows Grazing in the Rumpus Room - NYT Blog

Cows Grazing in the Rumpus Room - Allison Arieff - By Design - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Just Give Up that Car

Just Give Up That Car

Letters to Editor, Ode to Possibilities: WimWenders artice , December 2007. http://www.odemagazine.com/

Back in April 2007, in one of the usual late spring snow storms that are a source of complete irritation to New Englanders, I slipped on ice that some folks were shoveling from the pavement on to the road. My car was completely totaled. I recall my sense of relief and remembered thinking “I’m free at last.”

I knew that to replace the car would require a very conscious decision on my part and one that I could not make in light of global warming. Even though the actions of 97% of the population are ignoring it no matter, one times one, times one, etc, is the way that social change occurs.

It is now December and the benefits that I have derived from giving up my car are incalculable and also unexpected. I walk 2-1/4 miles to work every day and then there are trips around town. In quite a short time my cholesterol dropped to the point I was taken off medication. I found that when my friends would complain about the cold weather I didn’t feel it, I assume my circulation must have improved; I eat less because I find that I no longer want to eat until I am bloated. In short I feel really energetic and alive! Those benefits would be enough on their own but there is more.

Choices have to be made about what I buy as I have to carry it, so I no longer buy bottled water or canned goods because of their weight and/or bulk. I decided to grow my own vegetables at a farm that is eight miles away and can be reached by train. Since it is a working farm I also buy my eggs and meat their too. I directly see how my food is being raised; the amount of waste I generate is greatly reduced; in particular plastic bags as the farms don’t have any.

When I had a car I was always in hurry, I assume because a car represents speed. I would race home from work and be home by 4:15 p.m. and wonder what now! Now I get to fewer places but it makes no difference to my overall life. In fact, because of walking instead of traveling by car, I recently found a wonderful independent coffee shop and a great yoga studio. As I walk, I hear the birds sing and see kids on their bikes and sometimes coyote, raccoons, spotted turtles, and blue heron. I don’t get irritated by the traffic and am not in a hurry, since the bus takes the time it does and my feet walk as fast as they can. I am much more relaxed. In short the world looks completely different traveling it on foot. You too should try it sometime. It is really not the big deal that you think and with a few adjustments, I doubt that your life would be too impacted either and plant earth would say a big Thank You! .