We don’t normally do politics on this blog but today we’re making an exception. It’s our belief that two bills working their way through congress, SOPA and PIPA, will significantly impact freedom of speech on the Internet. For more info on these two bills see a blog post by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation.
Thoughtstylings
The CDFA’s Pesticide Theater
In the fall of 2009 a citrus pest called the Asian Citrus Psylid showed up in our neighborhood. It’s a major concern to commercial citrus growers since the pest spreads an incurable and fatal plant disease called huanglongbing (HLB).
The California Department of Food and Agriculture commenced a futile effort to suppress the psylid by hiring a contractor, TruGreen, to spray residential backyards in Southern California with a combination of imidacloprid (deadly to pollinating insects) and pyrethroid.
As I expected, it didn’t work. The state’s strategy has now shifted to releasing a parasitic wasp (Tamarixia radiata) imported from Pakistan. Citrus farmers will continue heavy applications of pesticides to keep the psylid at bay. UC Cooperative Extension biological control specialist Mark Hoddle explained to KQED (italics mine),
Hoddle says Tamarixia radiata won’t eradicate Asian citrus psyllid. Commercial citrus producers in California will still continue to apply insecticides to prevent the spread of Huanglongbing. But, he says, state regulators have already determined backyard pesticide applications are too expensive ($10-11 million so far) and too ineffective to bother with.
Frankly, I’m inclined to conclude that the original eradication program was a make-work program for CDFA officials and TruGreen all made possible by a big infusion of cash from our tax dollars and the citrus industry.
During their backyard spraying campaign in our neighborhood in the fall of 2010, the CDFA and TruGreen showed up at a neighbor’s house who, at the time, had over 50 citrus trees in pots (she was operating a mini-nursery and selling the trees). CDFA and TruGreen were overwhelmed by the amount of trees and ran out of imidacloprid. They promised to return but never did, leading me to believe that they weren’t really interested in eradicating a pest but were, instead, engaged in a kind of “pesticide theater”. It’s a bit like the security theater that goes on everyday at our nation’s airports courtesy of the TSA.
Even with the parasitic wasps I’m not planning on planting any citrus or recommending that citrus be planted in Southern California backyards. Everywhere in the world the psylid has shown up, HLB has followed within a decade. I strongly suspect that growing citrus in SoCal will be like trying to grow table or wine grapes here. With grapes, Pierce’s disease, spread by a very similar insect called the glassy winged sharpshooter, makes it impossible to grow anything but resistant varieties unless you use a lot of pesticides. Until a HLB resistant citrus tree shows up (probably by means of genetic modification, never a great option IMHO) I’d stick to pomegranates and figs.
Greeks Go Back to the Land
In today’s New York Times there’s an article about Greeks returning to the land and reclaiming practical skills in the wake of their financial crisis. Well worth a read:
With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land
“I will take the rock in my hand and squeeze it, and with the water that comes out of it, I’ll make pilaf to feed my daughter. We’ll manage.”
In Chaos Order, In Order Chaos
Periodically Mrs. Homegrown and I teach vegetable gardening classes. For the students, I’ve been looking for a way to illustrate nature’s complex, non-linear dynamics that, paradoxically, seem ordered. I stumbled across this cool sculpture that neatly summarizes the idea of “in chaos order, in order chaos.”
Imagine each of the hammers standing in for one of the systems in your garden, insect life, nutrients, microbes, fungi, etc. Now imagine intervening in the motion of one of those systems. The point is that, with complex non-linear dynamics, we don’t know what the end result of our interventions will be. Best not to monkey with the system . . .
You can see more sculptures by the creator of this video at www.kenkinetic.com.
Kelly’s 2012 To-Do List
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| Even the kittens will help, not hinder, the New Productivity of 2012. |
I feel like Erik really threw down a challenge with his mammoth resolution list, so here’s my to-do list for 2012. It’s much less ambitious. I think I’ll schedule the concrete activities for certain weeks and months, and post a calender to keep me on track:
-No lingering over breakfast, no excuses such as “just one more cup of tea” or “I’ll just check one more blog” or “the cat needs my lap”, i.e. a new striving for morning productivity. This means 1/2 hour to eat and defog, then I must do things.
-Related to the above–stick to my designated daily schedule, as if I had a real job and boss looking over my shoulder.
-Accomplish my “yucky list” this month: switching banks, upgrading my RAM, getting a new passport, and making appointments for a physical, a dental exam and an eye exam. (In terms of engaging with the medical establishment, I prefer to behave as if though the zombie apocalypse has already occurred, thus I’m well overdue for a complete overhaul.)
-Organize the labels or tags on Root Simple so our dear, somewhat abused readers can find information when they want it.
-No processed sugar for the month of January. Or beer. (sigh)
-White flour, crackers, tortillas, pasta & etc. are designated as “treats” this year, as opposed to “staples.”
-No internet surfing until after supper. No email in the morning. Email at noon and in the evening.
-Repaint the living room, hall, two bedrooms and the breakfast nook.
-Spend more time outside loving the garden–just being with it, regarding it with joy instead of judgement.
-Learn to identify trees.
-Take up archery again. This means starting with practice in the back yard once or twice a week, until I have the chops back enough to visit the range without embarrassment.
-Purge the closets. To do this, I’m going to have to either pretend we’re moving and have to pay to ship every object, or if I’m in a more morbid mood, I’ll imagine what what would happen if Erik and I were hit by a bus and people had to come in and clean out our closets. I don’t want to be remembered posthumously as a giant, acquisitive hamster of questionable taste and strange habits.
-Make a dress. (This will make Erik laugh because he will remember the last dress I made. I’ve had 15 years to recover, though.)
-Make a pair of shoes. Or perhaps just tall spats to start.
-Start a gratitude journal. I’m so cynical, really, that the very phrase “gratitude journal” grates on me. Which is exactly why I have to keep one.
-Get fit. To be more concrete, my goal is to be able to keep up with Erik on his masochistic hikes.
-One date night a week with my very ambitious but rather sweet husband.
Erik’s New Years Resolutions
Normally I don’t do New Years resolutions. This year my resolution is . . . lots of resolutions. Here’s the list. I expect you to hold me to it:
- get HAM technician’s license
- learn Morse code
- attend CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) classes
- build cob oven in the backyard
- organize messy office so it doesn’t look like an episode of Hoarders
- organize supplies in garage into labeled boxes
- turn the garage into the ultimate man cave
- fix bad knees
- return to the fencing strip
- increase running distance
- organize bug-out box
- backpack more often
- camp on Santa Rosa island again
- plan out garden ahead of time instead of playing catch-up at the last minute
- return to biodynamic practices in the garden
- learn how to sharpen knives and tools
- improve writin’ skills
- start a podcast
- shoot some how-to videos
- create an iPhone or iPad app
- check email only twice a day
- clean up the graphic design on the blog and organize information better
- take more time to cook
- keep the kitchen spotless
- ferment vegetables more often
- celebrate the wonderful awesomeness that is Mrs. Homegrown each and every day
And that’s just January. It’s going to be a great year for everyone in the urban homestead movement! What are your resolutions?
Zombie Apocalypse Poll Results
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| 2012—year of the goat? |
The poll results are in and a solid majority thinks that things will get worse in 2012. The results, with 617 votes:
- 187 30% things will get better
- 309 50% things will get worse
- 121 19% things will stay the same
I had intended to editorialize about how I see 2012 going. But I can’t say it better than this anonymous comment:
I could not answer the poll. My first thought was that things will get worse. I was thinking from a world wide view, economic, food wise, etc. But I thought again and decided that really those things don’t matter. I expect things around my house to get better. My love for my wife will grow and I hope hers for me. We may spend more for less, have shortages of this or that. But those are not a good measure of better or worse in my life. So my answer is that I purpose to have a better year no matter how the rest of the world does.
I’d also encourage all to read the wise blog post of Archdruid John Michael Greer, “Hope in a Cold Season.”
2011 in Review: Urban Homestead Trademark Dispute
As the year draws to a close I thought I’d review some of our posts from the previous year starting with an update on the trademark dispute over the terms “urban homestead” and “urban homesteading”.
In February of this year the Dervaes Institute (DI) sent a cease and desist letter to over a dozen different individuals and organizations including our publisher Feral House/Process Media, public radio station KCRW, Denver Urban Homesteading, and the Santa Monica Public Library. In addition DI successfully manged to get Facebook to take down a page about our book The Urban Homestead, that our publisher had put up, in addition to Denver Urban Homesteading’s Facebook page. As of this date both of those Facebook pages are still down.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Winston & Strawn LLP have generously assisted us in challenging the DI’s trademarks. The DI filed a motion to extend discovery earlier this month. I expect a decision from the Trademark Court sometime next year but I’m not going to predict when. The Trademark Court works slowly and via correspondence. We’ll let you know of any major developments.
Thanks again to the support of all the readers of this blog and to our attorneys.
For more background on this issue see our February 21 post.
Other People’s Poo: Biosolids in the Garden
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| It’s people! |
Why not use city compost in your garden? Ecological designer Darren Butler, at a class I was sitting in on, showed a soil report from a site that had used compost from the city of Los Angeles. LA’s compost contain biosolids, a euphemism for sewage. The soil test showed high levels of:
- zinc 196 ppm
- copper 76 ppm
- sulfur 5,752 ppm
The problem isn’t human waste, it’s all the other stuff that ends up in the sewer. I see a future when we’ll be responsibly composting human waste (see Joseph Jenkin’s website for how to do that). But watch out for that free city compost.
Update: A blog reader, Helane Shields, left an interesting series of links about biosolids in the comments. Thanks Helane!
The Sun Comes
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| photo credit: Henry Mühlpfordt |
Happy Winter Solstice!
It is the darkest day of the year, and the shortest day of the year. But from now on, every day will be a little longer and a little brighter, until the year turns once more. This is a rough time to be a gardener, even in Southern California. Everything seems to be sleeping. You, perhaps, wish you were tucked in a warm bed, sleeping, instead of frantically rushing getting ready for the holidays.
As a counterbalance to Erik’s gloomy Apocalypse post, I’d just say that the Winter Solstice offers us this annual lesson: there is a dawn after even the longest, darkest night. And then things get better.
We may be facing many challenges right now, as individuals, as a nation, as a global community, but we’ll get through them. We always have, we always will.
Things will change, no doubt about it. The future will not look like the present. As Heraclitus reminds us, Everything flows. But life is always made up of equal parts joys and sorrows, no matter when, or where. So whatever winter festival you celebrate, take joy in it. Get together with the people you love best. Burn some lights against the darkness. Keep each other warm. Eat something delicious.
Our best wishes to you all! Thank you for your love and support.