Water, Water Everywhere....

Food, shelter, water- the Man will take it all away if you have no money to pay for it.
Thank god we can still breathe free.... but of course that doesn't help much if we have no water...

Municipal water delivery and sanitation systems are quite costly, of course. Costly in power terms, money terms, and human life terms. In that order. Don't get me wrong- I think that municipal systems are a very good idea; in fact municipalities are certainly the best system we have for distributing water to humans. But it'll cost you- and that's where I get off the boat. In my town, the water billing office is behind double bullet-proof glass. Warning signs blanket the walls: no swearing, no guns, no violence. It's the only place at City Hall I've seen security gurads patrolling. I guess people who pay their water bills in person tend to be angry. I guess they want water.

How can it be that $ come before humans? How can it be that what's so freely shared with us from the earth we live on can be controlled by others? Or that "municipalities" will actually cut off water to members of the municipality that don't pay what they demand?

The usual answers are on the order of "Well, someone has to pay for it" or "That's the only system we got, we just need to work with the system" and "if you don't vote, you got nothin to say about it". Oh, I say. Just work within the only system we've got. Vote. Stay in the system that is relentlessly, inexorably controlling and parcelling out earth-given resources for those of us who're lucky enough to be able to pay in $. Leave six hundred sixty million humans on the earth- now, this minute- with no water. Working with the system seems to take a little too much time here- it reminds me of the twenty-seven people who recently spent three days clinging to a tuna net at sea while three countries argued about who'd be responsible for rescuing them. While the fisherman harvested the tuna from the nets. While the twenty-seven humans fought for their lives.

Of course, I could no more send rations of water around the world than I could send my childhood leftovers to the starving children in China who'd be glad to have it- but that doesn't stop me, or any of us, from actively seeking solutions outside the hegemony of Capitalism.

Here's what I'm doing:
First of all, I'm re-using water. Gray water is a perfectly acceptable way to water the garden. I siphon the water from the big tub I use for bathing into the garden; Kola's made ditches and tilted planes in the planting beds so water that's run in flows and seeps down to the plant's roots. I use biocompatible soap- my preferred is Dr Bronner's castille. Ivory's also biocompatible.
Second, I'm planning a rainwater harvest system. Yes, it'll take some $- and when it's in place, the sky will give us water! Want some?

Noxious, Obnoxious, & Flat-Out Poison

Some plants are just not OK for naturalizing.... few food plants are on the list, thank god. The ones that ARE on the list are generally plants, like spurge, that are classified "exotic"- plants that nauturalized themselves after being shiiped in from somewhere else. Spurge has exploding pods that spread a great distance- it blankets some California hills, looks brilliantly colorful when it's in bloom, and chokes sunlight from other plants, so that a field or hillside of spuge has no other plants around it. Here's a link to the California list:

http://www.hear.org/weedlists/usa/CA.htm.

Others, of course, are flatout poison. These won't just make you sick- they'll actually KILL you. We've probly all heard stories of experts dying from eating wild mushrooms..... but that's not all. Foxglove, mostly cultivated in gardens but also seen wild in fields, is digitalis- the same drug that slows and strengthens our heartbeat; a great savior for someone with congestive heart failure when given in tiny, measured doses. Eating it indiscriminately could result in death.

Here's a good Hemlock photo- pretty plant, isn't it? It'd do to us what it did to Socrates- even touching the plant can be toxic. It's also called Water Hemlock and Cowbane- a beautiful plant that looks a lot like wild carrot, or Queen Anne's Lace; it could also be mistaken for the powerful medicinal Angelica. QR & I once pulled over into a little public park, where these beautiful tall white umbrelled plants were growing.... I wanted some for vases, but the stems were too tough to just break off, and I had no clippers or knife, so thought I'd use my handy teeth and just bite em off. I was bent over a stem when I noticed the purple splotches.... isn't there something about purple splotches and poison?!? Happily, I listened to myself, and didn't bite em- I'd be dead or very sick by now if I had. The purple splotches are an indicator of Hemlock; none of the look-alikes have em.

So what to do? Don't touch or eat any but corporate plants in case we might be poisoned? I think NOT. We're clearly at risk from corporate foods, anyway- supposedly benign, nutritious lettuce, spinach and peanutbutter have already caused death and illness in the US this year. Best thing for forage plant safety is knowledge, and fortunately it's available to us. Books like Peterson's field guides are very detailed, with particular identifiers for each plant, so it's easy to identify the poison ones. There're many fine sites online, too- some with detailed photos.

Bottom line is- corporate foods or not- know what you eat.

Little Chickens

Ahhh, little pullets! The TV armoire on the left is their new coop; finally they have no down left, only true feathers- that's how you can tell they're ready for the Great Outdoors. The first night I put them in by hand; the second night and ever after they've gone in by themselves. The doors close for protection from the elements and racoons; I drilled holes all over in a sort of quilting pattern so they can get air.

Oh SHIT

It's everywhere. I'm truly getting that chickens & dogs have a difficult time remembering my very stern orders to shit in the mulch pit..... NOT in the paths. Well, these heedless animals leave it everywhere.... including my front porch. Fortunately, it's easy to find; if you don't see the shit first, you'll smell it- and if you don't smell it, you'll certainly notice the clouds of flies hovering around it. shit. Happily for us, it's not difficult to deal with: we scoop it up with handfuls of straw and throw it in the pit, which we keep covered with straw or green cuttings to keep down the flies. Sweeping and hosing does for the paths and my porch, and provides a daily chore that keeps me focussed... and I still love the animals, even while I sweep and curse at em. I guess we don't need any pictures for this one.....