The Weekly Watch
There is a Time...
The rose breasted grosbeaks arrived this week. The redbuds are done and the dogwoods fading. It made me think about timing. It is a big part of being a musician. The art of joke telling .........timing. Certainly we are living in interesting times....when war is peace; truthtelling illegal and lying is main stream; more drilling, pipelines, and extraction promoted and climate collapse ignored; a time when food is fast and health erodes; college impoverishes and public education is privatized; and on and on...irony within irony. Despite the insanity, spring inspires rebirth...the essence of the Easter story and Passover. For gardeners it is planting season. For politicians it is the start of election season. It is a time to renew our sense of nature and humanity. We'll also take a look at the weeks news.
Before we look at the news...Let's talk gardening.
"It's time for planting old-timers say. The fallow field will no longer barren lay"
J.U. Lee
What to plant and when? Well that's wrapped in lots of legend and lore...and a little bit of science. There are many online calendars available...
https://garden.org/apps/calendar/
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar#
https://www.burpee.com/growingcalendar
https://www.apieceofrainbow.com/printable-planting-calendar/
Plus there are regional guides like “Golden Gate Gardening” for you left coasters.
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781570616174
Here's another for the Sacramento area.
http://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Gardening_Guide/
and for the SE
Here's one for Georgia
http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=C943&title=Vege...
Virginia
https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/426/426-331/426-...
and a nicely formatted calendar for the Louisville Area.
http://www.louisvillegrows.org/urban-agriculture/garden-resources/planti...
A simple search should bring you to a planting calendar for your particular region.
As you can imagine there's lots of folklore about when to plant...
https://www.farmersalmanac.com/good-friday-gardening-folklore-27185
- Plant peas, beets, lettuce, and other cool weather varieties when the first leaves appear on the lilac bush.
- When lilac flowers are in full bloom plant corn, beans and squash.
- When lilac flowers have faded plant cucumbers, squash and bean seeds
- When elm leaves are the size of a penny plant kidney beans.
- When you hear spring peepers (treefrogs), it’s time to plant peas.
- When the daffodils begin to bloom it is time to plant peas.
- When peach and plum trees are in full bloom plant hardy crops.>
- When the blossoms of the apple tree begin to fall, plant your corn seeds.
- When dandelions are blooming plant beets, lettuce, spinach, and carrots.
- Plant cabbage when the dogwood is in full bloom or when apple blossoms bud.
- Set out tomato transplants when the first ladybugs appear from hibernation.
- Potatoes can go in the ground about the time forsythia blooms.
- Plant potatoes when the shadbush flowers.
- Tomatoes can be set out when lily-of-the-valley is in full bloom.
- Plant peppers and eggplant outside when bearded iris is in bloom.
Gardeners and farmers thought that Good Friday was the best day for planting because it was the only day of the year when the devil was thought to be powerless.
https://guernsey.osu.edu/program-areas/master-gardener-volunteers/season...
Many people plant by the moon
https://mooncalendar.astro-seek.com/gardening-moon-calendar-guide-april-...
Today is Easter...So where are the eggs, bunnies, and chocolate?
Well in answer to the age old question, the chicken must come before the egg
https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/raising-chick...
In 2003, paleontologist Jack Horner discovered a 68-million-year-old T. rex fossil in Montana. Inside its thigh bone, scientists found a blood vessel they were able to analyze. Their phylogenetic analysis revealed that, genetically speaking, the domestic chicken is the closest living relative of T. rex.
https://www.wideopenpets.com/a-brief-history-of-chickens/
Permaculture egg production
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajXQeCa6694 (2 min)
How to manage chickens in your garden. (10 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QvSJ8sp9Z8
Check out these nest boxes designed for pastured chickens
https://bestnestbox.com/pages/about-us
One of the videos available at the link above...
Okay so you don't give a cluck about chickens, how about rabbits?
Up until the 19th century, domestic rabbits had been bred purely for their meat and fur, but during the Victorian era, many new 'fancy' breeds were developed for the hobby of breeding rabbits for showing. Industrialization also meant that many people moving from the country to the expanding towns and cities, brought rabbits with them; apart from poultry, they were the only 'farm' animal to be practical to keep in town. Although many of these rabbits were bred for meat, it became increasingly common among the rising middle classes to keep rabbits as pets. http://www.bunnyhugga.com/a-to-z/general/history-rabbits.html
There's a number of approaches by various producers.
https://survivalblog.com/?s=raising+rabbits
Visit a farm with pastured rabbits (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH5yYvyZC3Q
Lambs (another Easter/Passover animal) on pasture and then a combination of chicken and rabbits on polyface farm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kevcL3arH7Y (16 min)
Here's an effort to raise rabbits in a more natural way...
https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/permaculture-gardening...
Rabbits are an excellent source of manure.
https://permaculturenews.org/2016/12/16/raising-rabbits-source-manure/
Let's make chocolate!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-4FsJ6-bzc (9 min)
Chocolate may be the "food of the gods," but for most of its 4,000-year history, it was actually consumed as a bitter beverage rather than as a sweet edible treat.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-brief-history-of-chocolate...
You can grow chocolate as a house plant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_80vA4eK7Y (13 min)
Here's a piece by a Vermont chocolate producer
https://practicalselfreliance.com/grow-chocolate-tree-indoors/
Well that's it for the Easter basket...eggs, rabbits, and chocolate. So much for the pagan fertility symbols, let's look at some of the week's news.
The news is key. Really it is about reliable information. Growing up there were three channels broadcast - ABC, CBS, NBC. Then there were a slew of cable news channels - CNN, FOX, MSNBC... Today there is social media with Facebook, Twitter, Goggle, Apple, Amazon....Now with AI algorithms to track our every move. Additionally with the loss of net neutrality we are increasingly at the mercy of our ISP. Control at every level. A Surveillance and Propaganda state.
Max and Stacy discuss our censorship state... (1st 15 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGurXdzOrng
Omission is the first trick....
And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that, is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. - union leader Nicholas Klein in 1914
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/first-they-ignore-you/
They want to silence truth tellers...
George Galloway spoke outside Julian's prison this week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXAlUE_1VzE (9 min)
Governments explain why they are persecuting Julian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efOs0BsE0g (2 min)
After police clash with pro Julian Assange protesters in Ecuador, RT's Caleb Maupin looks at how the charges against the Wikileaks founder tar basic press practices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4aVT7fzJGw (5 min)
As with the Occupy movement (and the yellow vest), US media is ignoring the Extinction Rebellion gathering in London and around the world this week.
https://rebellion.earth/2019/04/19/international-rebellion-update-4-busi...
There were even some US actions...
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-climate-rebellion-in-downtown-new-york/
My local buddies have not heard it mentioned, nor had they heard of Greta...
who spoke to the EU Parliament this week. Worth a watch if you missed it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14w8WC1I3S4 (13 min)
Hat tip to protesters at my Alma Mater Auburn this week when they confronted CIA's Haspel
We must imagine a new world...in order to create one. (7.5 min)
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/17/green-new-deal-short-film-alexandria...
Interview with the artist and co-writer
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/18/we_can_be_whatever_we_have
There are paths...
Pat Bowcock explains how she left her 9-5 lifestyle to live in tune with the land, creating her own five acre permaculture smallholding, that is her home, her work and her life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37WnsBGWC8 (7 min)
LILAC ("low-impact living, affordable community") cohousing has been built on an old school ground in the suburbs with energy-efficient buildings. The place is high density—three-quarters of a hectare, with 50 people living on it—but has been developed to provide housing for lots of people living and working with the same ethics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh96D7zK5q4 (7 min)
I don't know who I am, but life is for learning"
Joni Mitchell
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3SjqGfe-yM]
I'm not going into the Mueller report nor electoral politics in this issue, because I'm suggesting all that is the theater distracting everyone from focusing on Climate and Imperial militarism. You can read many other excellent essays on those topics at C99. However the hoax of russiagate represents a clear symptom of our media dilemma. Stephen Cohen discusses the story with Paul Jay (video or text) https://therealnews.com/series/reality-asserts-itself-stephen-cohen
Chris Hedges and Aaron Mate delve into a media critique worth the watch (25 min)
The oligarchs imagine a very different world...one which they own and control. Division is a key tactic... The US tries to own the western hemisphere. (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-administration-working-to-divide-c...
The US is trying to expel Venezuela's UN ambassador
https://therealnews.com/stories/unprecedented-us-efforts-to-expel-venezu...
Cuba is now a target of our aggression...
https://therealnews.com/stories/us-tightens-noose-on-cuba
Trump's announcement to cut humanitarian aid to Central America will not have much effect. It's the military aid that reinforces brutality in Guatemala and Honduras, says Prof. Adrienne Pine https://therealnews.com/stories/cut-military-aid-not-humanitarian-aid-to...
Larry Wilkerson discusses the likelihood of a war with Iran (video or text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/whos-the-real-terrorists-trump-intensifi...
https://therealnews.com/stories/pompeo-is-setting-the-stage-for-a-war-wi...
And now we expand wars into Africa. Is there no end? (video or text 2 parts)
https://therealnews.com/series/black-alliance-for-peace-revives-black-an...
President Trump called former President Jimmy Carter for the first time last weekend. Trump told him that he is particularly concerned about how China is "getting ahead of us."
"And do you know why?" Carter said. "I normalized diplomatic relations with China in 1979. Since 1979, do you know how many times China has been at war with anybody? None. And we have stayed at war". Carter said the United States is "the most warlike nation in the history of the world" https://www.tpr.org/post/president-trump-called-former-president-jimmy-c...
Will we heed the call of XR? Will we restore and enhance the biosphere? Will we stop all these insane wars? If so we must imagine a new world and begin the journey....a rebirth of humanity. I do believe we are the 99% and could usher in major cultural and economic changes, but the propaganda machine is powerful. Keep speaking truth to power and helping to educate and participate in the struggle.
So the world turns. Seasons come and go. The birds migrate and plants bloom in their time in the ever changing fabric of nature. XR, Greta, the sunrise movement, and others are all trying to get the oligarchs to recognize it is time...time to stop drilling and pumping planetary poison, time to create societies that cooperate rather than compete, time to place people and planet above profit, time to restore our ecosystems, time to live in harmony with each other and end these oil based wars, time to invest in improving lives of ordinary people...time...past time.
Pete Seeger
To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together
To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing
To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late!
Comments
You will have to carry on the conversation today
We're off to the Ham (there ain't no ham like Birmingham), to visit my Mom who is pushing 90 and celebrates another birthday this week. I will catch up this evening upon return. Wishing you all a beautiful day regardless of whatever holiday choose to celebrate (or not).
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E_wt1D8x48]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Happy Birthday to your Mom!
Celebrating by working in the yard. Per your post, celebrating the return of life here in the frozen North.
Re: climate.
Yesterday it was warmer here in Illinois than in Anniston AL! On Palm Sunday there was five inches of snow here. Today the prediction is for 80 (way above seasonal) and I believe you are having a cold spell. Atmospheric circulation is really messed up. Of course the winds are driven by temperature differences (and drag from the Earth's rotation, but that doesn't change for eons).
Apologies for disturbing the Holiday with talk of Climate Change.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Jet stream waving goodbye
causing all the swings. Hold on its comin'
Living in the moment, it is beautiful here 75...after a few days of dogwood winter. Yesterday never got out of the 40s. There's still blackberry winter to come...at least usually.
The mountain is sprinkled with what seems all the different greens on the palette.
Hope the yard work was fun. All the best.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Fun, but too hot! 82 degrees.
Culled some dandelions. Weeded the strawberry bed. Uncovered the roses. Tiedup a grape vine. Mulched the apricot tree (more mulch, that is). Some buds on it now. Black wood at the extremities. The variety is from Canada so the -20F shouldn't have hurt it. Must have been the -40 wind chill.
But lots and lots of apple flower buds. Live goes on. Soon it will be time to put out the sticky balls. Hint: I put them in the peach trees too. Stupid bugs can't tell a peach tree from an apple. They just go for any red ball.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
The sticky balls sound interesting
Do you make your own or purchase them?
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I bought them from Gardens Alive
But one could make them from anything round of the right size. A friend buys red aluminum foil at Christmas and wraps the balls in them. In Fall he just throws it away. Or recycles it. I'm not sure which.
I coat the red plastic balls with Tanglefoot and clean them off during winter. Cooking oil is supposed to work. The first year I used old olive oil, but it doesn't seem to work as well now. Now, I use Goop, Mechanics hand cleaner (petroleum based, sorry). The olive oil or maybe corn oil is better being renewable, but it takes more elbow grease.
This reminds me that I have to put Tanglefoot around the base of the peach trees tuit suite to stop peach tree borers. I confess to using Carbaryl in the past, but it stopped being effective so now I only use Spinosad and Copper Soap which are organic approved. The sticky balls catch a lot of bugs but never bees or wasps. The stuck bugs look like moths and mosquitoes. The copper soap, primarily for fungus control (peach leaf curl) seems to control earwigs also. Or maybe the Tanglefoot helps. I don't expect perfect apples and always have too many anyway.
I squash Japanese Beetles by hand in the morning while they are engrossed in sex. I were rubber gloves like the nurses wear and just grab them and crush them in my fingers. My wife shudders, but it's better than spraying my grapes. Commercial growers probably can't afford that much manpower. I got the idea by doing the same to tent caterpillars when they appeared about ten or fifteen years ago. There is no insecticide for them anyway. I saw whole forests stripped in Virginia.
Whiz some jalapenos in a blender and pour the goop over an ant hill. This really works! I've seen them on their backs kicking their little legs then stopping. IIRC, they breathe through holes in their bodies. Imagine getting a lungful of hot sauce.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
As I mentioned on another thread, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism
has said she will be moving to Alabama in June.
https://macro.economicblogs.org/naked-capitalism/2019/04/smith-nyc/
Middle-term, if she holds a meet-up in AL and there is opportunity to go, I can imagine that, if such can be managed, attending and meeting her and other NC readers in person could be quite rewarding.
I'll try to get in touch with her
I know many good folks in B'ham. There are pockets of folks almost every where...just need a link into the circle. She would help that community awaken too. Thanks.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Yes, it's the time of the season
To wake up and smell the Greta coffee. She's got it right. Can enough listen and reach the same conclusion--our house is falling apart? Cathedral thinking. Beyond ovations and posturing. She wants to see action on a massive scale. And yet the politicians dither.
Happy Easter and may your chocolate bunny not be hollow!
question everything
May the politician of your choice not be hollow, either ;-D n/t
Yes, hallowed be thy name
For kingdom come, for bunnies not quite done. On earth as it (may be) in heaven. May your bunnies be filled with chocolates and peanut butter.
question everything
My understanding is Thy Name is Howard
but you can spin anything.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
What I think every time I hear that phrase
And it cracks me up too.
Howard be thy name.
That was the first thing I thought
When I read QMS header
From a version of this joke
http://rats-funnybone.com/forrest-gump-goes-to-heaven-joke/
Hope you've had a good day. Lovely here heading toward sunset. All the best!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
good morning lo...
thanks for the Sunday news. I will peruse later. I went to see Guy McPherson yesterday. LSD bummer. the problem is, he says, I will not lie to you. and the stuff he said is exactly what I have been blogging about. pretty much study for study. same figures, same solutions. it's all there. not rocket science. just perseverance and good research.
all except... global dimming which we have had discussions about. the new number, to me, is a 35% reduction in particulates can cause a lot of warming. so not much to do now, then, but be here now, which is what we have both been saying anyway.
band-tailed pigeons have moved in. crowding into the small feeder and fighting over food while the smaller birds watch. sun out. cold here. adaberto is coming to help with big stuff in the garden today. life is good. dig it.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
I too think it is baked in
The first thing a stage 4 lung cancer patient does is stop smoking...and hopefully enjoy the time they have. I just finished the novel The Overstory It made me have dreams, helped me better connect with the system.
XR Greta etc still give me hope. Good to "see" you.
Edit to add..be sure to catch the jonathon pie piece extinction rebellion embedded clip above. Facing it squarely with humor. I think you'll like it...especially after a session with Guy.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Did catch j pie...
How did jonathan know my inner
dialoguerant so precisely one wonderers. Word for fucking word. The real news. Oil money to rebuild the cathedral but none for the coral reefs. Just more oil extraction and carbon pollution for those sweet little ones. Yes. thx. feel much better.Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
Morning all ...
Tulsi Gabbard did a 420 appearance on Jimmy Dore's show: Tulsi’s Bold Marijuana Bill Helps Veterans w/Tulsi Gabbard, 21 min.
Max & Stacy on ZIRP, both halves are good: Keiser Report: Will Interest Rates Ever Rise Again? 25 min.
This article appeared in last week's issue of The Nation. One of the reasons for the Russiagate hoax was that Trump was running around the country saying that NATO was obsolete.
He was right.
NATO Turns 70
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Thanks!
I finally clued in to the way Jimmy creates his clips....mostly from his Sat live chat. I just happened to catch Tulsi when I tuned in. She continues to impress me.
Thanks for the Max and Stacey and the Nation piece!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Wishing everyone a beautiful Sunday!
It is pretty outside here today. A bit windy, but not too hot. Been a long day already because early this AM my husband had a diabetic low blood sugar event and we had to call the ambulance. He's fine now. Solving low blood sugar is simple. Eat or drink sugar. I keep oatmeal cookies by the bedside, so if his attached monitor beeps low, I just hand him a cookie. Usually that is all it takes. But occasionally, the low blood sugar puts him in a goofy belligerent state where he refuses to eat or drink anything. That's what this was. It's really sort of hilarious. So 4 dudes came to the house with all the equipment. Dang, we had to wrestle with him. Finally, we got enough in him so he could speak but when the guys asked him his name he said "Poncho." Gradually cookies, some juice, a shot and an IV brought him back. He never remembers any of it. He said it was like a dream and there were strangers in his house. Now the ambulance guys say that when they see him around town they are going to call him Poncho.
Thanks for the gardening links. I hope to follow them later.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Dr Jason Fung cures diabetes with diet
Says hes never seen a case of type II he couldn't cure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw61ad-wedo (60 min)
He has tons of other youtube interviews you can listen too if you find this one helpful. His interview with Mercola, and his piece called the two compartments are particularly good.
Wishing you all good health
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
True . . . diet will do it
When he was first diagnosed he controlled it with diet. For about a year. Then the sweet tooth took over and he ignored it for a couple years. Complications woke him up. Now he is diligent with doctor visits and meds and tries to stay away from sweets. I am thankful that he is doing the best he can.
Thanks for the link! I will watch it. Maybe there are some cooking things I can do? Hope you had a nice time with your mama.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Thanks...
My Mom is doing well...more like the old man (was it on laugh-in?) than the energizer bunny but still moving and getting around (driving too but rarely). I can't claim to be the energizer bunny either. I tend to do projects about 4 hours a day. I used to work and do 4 hours of projects.
Fung claims he can cure not just control diabetes. I use his diet and it requires disciple especially at first, but once you get into ketosis you feel so good there is a real positive feed back. No more need for insulin. Not preachin just anecdotal experience.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Mexico may be about to legalize pot
link
That would be great...
Legal pot to the north of me, legal pot to the west of me, and now legal pot to the south of me...but still no legal pot for me. The old farts club are hoping there will be a hip nurse at the home if it comes to that..that was the concern expressed at any rate.
Thanks for the good news. Seems like AMLO is doing well. I like the fact that he did not recognize our puppet in Venezeula.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout. A few days late here, as usual. I
have a planting chart that I edited down from a universal planting guide on the web somewhere that goes by your USDA hardiness zone. It has a lot of weird times for our specific zone, but our zone appears to really be all about soil temp and hours of daylight. I was told by a pro last week, for instance, that I can plant spuds any time I want here, but fall is best because the bugs are out and about during spring and summer, and not fall and winter. Chard, spinach chard and kale overwinter and if harvested cut and come again style seem to be permanent and perpetual as long as one nips buds. If they get too bug infested I can cut them down to a short stalk, and within a relatively short time it will begin sprouting leaves, it is just crazy.
Now, the true answer is that the egg came first. Consider. Fowl evolved from a common ancestor with maniraptoran theropods, which were egg layers. One day, along that evolutionary path, the first fowl like bird that was technically a chicken hatched from an egg laid by whatever almost chicken critter that laid it.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Found it - it is an app for android named Gardenate, worth a
peek for anybody IMHO.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --