Meet (or is it meat?) The Meatrix....

Go ahead, I dare you to check out this funny video about modern day meat production....no blood or gore and it really gets the point across!

Join us Rebels, Tell the FDA to regulate GMO foods!

Good Morning Rebels (GSO readers, that is what I call my regular readers over at The Royal Ranch site, in case you were wondering-ha!)!  Happy hump day; hope you are having a wonderful week; but even more importantly I hope you will join me in signing this all important petition.  It is high time we know exactly what we are eating; and that people who are not yet even aware of how deeply GMO foods are embedded into our everyday diets, become aware and knowledgeable about what they are putting into the mouths of their beloved families!

Man's Best Friend

This video was shot not long after the tsunami rolled out of Japan.  Man's best Friend is also his own best friend...Thank goodness by the time this video aired the dogs had been rescued and were being treated at local veterinary hospitals.


The following is a translation of what the reporters are saying; it too is quite touching:

We are in Arahama area. Looks like there is a dog. There is a dog. He looks tired and dirty. He must have been caught in the tsunami. He looks very dirty.

He has a collar. He must be someone's pet. He has a silver collar. He is shaking. He seems very afraid.

Oh, there is another dog. I wonder if he is dead.

Where?

Right there. There is another dog right next to the one sitting down. He is not moving. I wonder. I wonder if he is alright.

The dog is protecting him.

Yes. He is protecting the dog. That is why he did not want us to approach them. He was trying to keep us at bay.

I can't watch this. This is a very difficult to watch.

Oh. Look. He is moving. He is alive. I am so happy to see that he is alive.

Yes! Yes! He is alive.

He looks to be weakened. We need to them to be rescued soon. We really want them rescued soon.

Oh good. He's getting up.

It is amazing how they survived the tremendous earthquake and tsunami. It's just amazing that they survived through this all.

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

I happen to live in an area that has a good amount of "green living" potential. Bowling Green has made a financial commitment to reducing its impact on global climate change and is home to Ohio’s first utility-sized wind farm. There are four turbines that are 391 feet tall, which can generate up to 7.2 megawatts of power (enough to supply electricity for some 3,000 residents.) Located about six miles from the city, the turbines can be seen for miles and have become somewhat of a local attraction... I've visited the area and couldn't believe how surreal they seemed. They were very futuristic, without any noise, and with a very slow-moving rotation. Way cool.

At the site, a solar-powered kiosk provides information for visitors including current information on wind speeds and the amount of energy being produced by the turbines... and get this: through the city of Bowling Green Municipal Utilities, residents can request that their power come from green energy! I'm going to have to look into this! The current "power cost adjustment" is $.009 per KWH.





Over the past 15 years, Bowling Green, has gone somewhat greener, installing solar panels on schools, building the wind farm, investing in hydroelectric projects and even generating power off landfill gases.Today, the city of 29,000 residents gets somewhere between 16 percent and 20 percent of its electricity from renewable resources (which could be augmented even further.) Yet, I find it interesting that it does not necessarily stack up to the intiatives of other MidWestern states, nor does it compare to other regions within the US. Take a look at a graph that displays the varying degrees of current installed wind power facilities across the country here.

To what extent is your own state addressing alternative energy sources such as wind energy?

Until next Wednesday! -BA

A Victory Garden in the Family History

Husband recently took a day trip to a nearby city in order to photograph gravestones for his family history web site. He invited me along; I declined, preferring to start readying my garden. He invited Amigo; Amigo wanted to stay home and start his spring break by relaxing. Husband then called his mom and dad. They initially said yes, and then his dad backed out in favor of a nap or two.
On the road between here and there, Mother-In-Law talked about her childhood in Milwaukee. She meant the big city itself, not a suburb. MIL spent her formative years on Milwaukee's north side, around 41st Street between Silver Spring and Capitol Drive. They lived in a small house, and her father bought the two lots on either side when the owners were in arrears on their taxes. "He got them cheap!" as she told Husband. Using the extra lots, the family started what she refers to as their Victory Farm in the sity of Milwaukee.
They grew vegetables, they raised chickens (she remembers somewhere in the range of 500!), and near the back of their lot, they grew the grain to feed the chicks. She, as the only daughter, canned the blueberries and raspberries as they ripened. When they had more than they needed, she would work out trades with the neighbors and/or the small grocers in the neighborhood. She remembers trading berries she'd canned for a box (crate? case?) of peaches. She canned the peaches and started the cycle all over again. She threw a few peach pits in the backyard, and lo and behold, two peach trees came up. As they began to bear fruit, the family didn't need to buy or trade for peaches any more, either. The peach trees were a hardy variety, a Rocky Mountain type, so they held up well in the wicked Wisconsin weather.
I've read that at one time Victory Gardens produced 40% of the nation's food supply. That figure sounded awfully high to me, but if a lot of city families did what my MIL's family did, 40% becomes more believable. MIL told Husband that the family started their Victory Farmette just before World War II. It must have been fairly well established by the time the Victory Garden became the trendy thing to do.
My backyard plot - call it Kitchen Garden, Recession Garden, or just my patch of dirt - won't come near Victory Garden quantities. I can only hope it'll grow stories that I can tell my kids when they have kids of their own. Maybe they'll talk about how their mother liked to play in the dirt all summer long and added home grown spinach to everything they ate! That's the kind of growth our country will always need.

MIL gave us this fabulous old wagon when she moved from her home into a condo. She couldn't part with it, and now neither can we!