Spring Has Sprung

Even though I have to work this evening 3-10, I did manage to get something planted today in the garden. Regular green peas and Sugarsnaps as well as red and green cabbage. If the forecast rain for tomorrow doesn't appear until later in the day I may get the potatoes in as well. I couldn't let the first day of spring pass without at least planting something now could I?

A Happy Spring to one and all.

The Cycle Starts

I have a day off. It's warm and clear and the garden appears dry enough to till so that's the plan for today. All the tomatoes, peppers and such are growing and will be ready to go out in a few weeks as soon as the soil warms and the dangers of a late frost are out of the picture. I could wax poetic about how this is the evolution of the Goddess from the wise old hag of winter into the fertile young Goddess of Spring with all the promise that that brings but let us just say that for us gardeners it is an exciting time. Yes, it is the beginning of a lot of hard work and if you are a serious gardener it is also a mystical time. All the myriad generations of birth, life and death are safety stored in all the seeds and bulbs and a just waiting to have at it again.

Now the challenges of drought, flood, insects and weeds will challenge us for the next few months as we try and coax another harvest from our Mother Earth. Off to play in the dirt and begin the flirtation with the Goddess. Will the love and effort be returned? We shall know soon enough.

Google Reader Going Away

I just got a notice that Google reader is going away in July. Anyone have a recommendation for something to replace it? Am I the only person that thinks it is a pretty good product? Too bad.

Appreciated

I ran out of suet for the birds yesterday and forgot to pick some up before I left work last night so it required an early morning run to resupply before I head back into work at 1pm. I just put out the fresh supply a few minutes ago and before I even was back inside the red-bellied and the hairy woodpeckers were hard at work on the stuff. They are probably just beginning to feed this year's babies but it is nice to know they appreciate the effort. Going to be a nice day here in Hotlanta with a forecast high of 65F. Now if any rain will hold off for just a few more days I may actually get the garden tilled and some things planted like peas and kale. It looks like Monday may bring thunderstorms which, of course, coincides with my day off. Fingers crossed.

Poison Me, Poison You

If the amount of Roundup that goes over my counter at the Depot is any judge then the 200 plus million tons of the stuff sprayed in the U.S. every year is a serious underestimate. It’s surely amazing that the regulatory agencies that are supposed to protect us continue to allow these millions tons of Monsanto’s  Roundup and copy cats, to be sprayed on food crops ignoring mounting evidence that  the herbicide’s key ingredient, glycophosphate, causes birth defects, endocrine disruption and myriad other health problems.

There is a a new study out that indicates that the most widely used herbicide in the world is even more toxic than previously thought. Not surprisingly when you consider we are dealing with Monsanto but Roundup contains “confidential” – and unlabeled – ingredients that affect all living cells, including human cells, according to the scientific journal, Toxicology. Most of the regulatory decisions around these herbicides are based on the toxicology studies done for glycophosphate instead of looking at Roundup’s full formulation, which includes the secret added ingredients.

Read more here 

Wasting Away

Still not through with this cold. At the stage where it is pretty much completely in my chest and I spend most of the day and night coughing up small bits of lung. Needless to say I will miss another day at the gym but the good news is that I don't have to work until tomorrow afternoon and then it is only a 5 hour shift.

Since I can't do exercise I did the next best thing and fixed Pain Perdu (French Toast) for breakfast and to make sure it fit entirely with an utter and complete falling off of the wagon, I smothered it in Irish butter and maple syrup as well as 4 strips of thick cut hickory smoked bacon. That'll show 'em.

Now to continue my slide I will go finish the next phase in the making of a couple of loaves of whole wheat sourdough bread. Take big bites!

Good News Not

If you have any money in stock market maybe via a 401K or something I'm sure you are pleased that it has returned to 2000 levels with its run up yesterday...Congratulations you are where you were 13 years ago.

Seriously, it is really difficult to get all giddy about the about the Dow going over 14,000.  Robert Reich doesn't feel to giddy either, and explains why.

The key thing to note is that only the wealthiest 1% in this country make any profit off the stock market and are better off than they were 13 years ago. They also pay very low, if any, taxes on said profits. The rest of us (you know the other 99%) are actually worse off than we were in 2000 and we pay the full boat in taxes even on our minimum wage job.

Another Drop In the Bucket

No worries right? Nothing to see here just move along.

The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show.

Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the world's economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China.

Carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million since 2011 to total just under 395 parts per million, says Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since record-keeping began in 1959. The measurements are taken from air samples captured away from civilization near a volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

This is not good and if you have been paying attention this isn't the first drop in the bucket and the bucket is rapidly getting full and when it does actually fill it will be the end of mankind on this little planet.
What is so frustrating is that the world is facing two big problems right now...climate change and shrinking employment/economies and addressing climate change with investment in non oil based energy resources, clean industry and other pro-environment initiatives would solve both these problems at once. The frustration being that our leaders are focusing on exactly the opposite. How to get more oil. How to get the dirtiest oil out of Canada and ship it down through the U.S. for export to China. Oh and reducing and already shrinking deficit. Idiots.

Snow Surprise

A dusting of snow this morning that wasn't in the forecast for the Atlanta area. The Georgia mountains were supposed to get a couple of inches but not around here. Now the 35-40 mph winds have moved in but at least the sun is appearing.
I was out and about early to the dentist for my 6 month checkup and cleaning and got and attaboy. Now if I can just get the report on last week's hemoglobin A1C and Lipids blood tests I will be through with preventative maintenance for a while.
One or two more trays of veges to get planted today and I will be ready for the someday when the garden will finally be dry enough to till. All the tomatoes and peppers are done as well as a few herbs and the marigolds I use for pest protection. Started a new heirloom variety of eggplant yesterday as well called Diamond which got good reviews from the Seed Savers so we'll see. Last year's eggplant were very disappointing.
Moved the new seedlings of shallots and leeks to the greenhouse yesterday so they will start to harden off and be ready when I can plant.
Getting later and later for planting the spring peas but we'll just have to be patient.
I hope everyone is surviving the "lion" part of March.

Name That Fish?

It is getting harder and harder to be a responsible shopper. You try and pay attention and only buy products and food that is safe, healthy and not full of crap. You try and buy meat and poultry that come from responsible producers and now we discover that all of our efforts to buy environmentally sound seafood has got a fifty/fifty chance of not even being the kind of fish we think we are buying.

Oceana, an international ocean advocacy group, has released a report on national seafood fraud [PDF], and the results are disconcerting. The report, which is one of the largest on seafood fraud to date, found that one-third of fish was mislabeled. Oceana performed DNA testing from 2010 to 2012 on 1,215 fish samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states. In this study, Oceana found seafood fraud everywhere it tested, with rates hitting as high as 52 percent in Southern California.

Here is the breakdown:


You really need to read the article. One thing I'm wondering is if this applies to both fresh and frozen seafood as it doesn't really specify in the article. The article does say that the number one offender is red snapper with tuna as the followup. Of note is that tuna is evidently be substituted by escolar which is known to contain neurotoxins.