Our World and Everything in It

            All of my grandparents were farmers and also off the boat so-to-speak. Farms were a la naturelle back then. My grandparents farming practices were brought here from the old country. I don’t know enough about farming today to lambaste the overuse of fertilizer and pesticides by farmers, but I have an ethnic background that was well versed in the natural care of just about anything including everything in the yard. I grew up in the country. My parents had a large yard and grew many things. Now I have a large yard and live in the country. Being a product of ethnicity at its finest I had to learn everything my parents knew at a young age. Yes folks, before I was twelve I knew how to wash, (wringer washer, 2 tub rinse, hang on the line routine), iron, sew, knit, crochet, cook, clean…oh brother. Never ever would I think of saying to my parents, “I’m bored.” It would not be the smartest thing to do. But without ever saying those words my dad still managed to have me totally educated with the riding lawnmower and all of its added equipment so that I could mow the entire 2 acres of lawn for him. And, I could back up a wagon and fit it into a tight space before I was twelve too. That sure came in handy all the years my husband and I had a boat and a very long driveway. I just told him to point where he wanted it. But, I’ve digressed enough. What I’m saying is that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

 
As I’ve blogged before, I have all types of fruit trees, ornamental trees and shrubs, a vegetable garden, bulbs and perennial flowers, grapes and raspberries, herbs, etc. I try my best to stay all natural. I’m on a canal and do not want to pollute anything anymore than I have to with pesticides and fertilizer. If I use anything, I mix up Jerry Baker concoctions, or use products from Gardens Alive, http://www.gardensalive.com/Default.asp?bhcd2=1175870499. They work beautifully. But yes, they cost more money sometimes. We should know that chemicals, fertilizer, and many other things with which we treat our lawns are bi-products of my two (facetiously) favorite industries, petroleum and industrialized farms. The manure from an industrialized farm viewed as an actual nutrient is a statement of horrific consequence if we keep up with that practice. We will experience more tainted food crops for sure. As for the petroleum industry, the higher cost of all natural products is due to direct competition with the wealthiest industry in the world, oil, so duh.

 
In the long run going natural pays off. Your soil is healthier. There are such things as GOOD BUGS! For the bug squeamish, take a pill. Because I don’t use pesticides, and my neighbors basically don’t do anything to their yards period, I have delighted in the most beautiful variety of what many lump altogether as awful bugs. I have seen the biggest, most colorful dragonflies, butterflies, preying mantis, (good) lacewings, varieties of bees, earthworms galore, and yes gardener snakes and the occasional fox snake. Because I embrace nature these things delight me. I had a baby fox snake, a snake on the endangered species list for a while, raise its head and shake its tail at me last summer. A city slicker friend thought it was a rattlesnake and flipped out when I didn’t kill it. Now we know why it was on the list. Too many people mistake them for a rattler and kill them. They do have a bad habit of destroying duck and goose eggs in nests but we have a grandaddy around here somewhere that occasionally leaves its skin behind. My husband found him cooling himself in our pole barn one day. He’s a big one and a wonderful part of nature along with all the bugs I’ve mentioned because they either improve our soil or eat and feed off of the bad bugs that destroy everything. Nature is a balance. When we choose to kill with pesticide, the earthworms and everything else are destroyed also. Everything leaves the yard which is very detrimental

Obviously you can tell I’m countrified and a naturalist all along. So I can’t tell you how unnerving it is for me to receive literature and phone calls from TrueGreen ChemLawn every spring. I’ve spent 20 years wishing them out of business. To me they are an unnecessary addition to runoff pollution problems in this country of I-hate-to-say-it-but-it’s-a-fact,  FAT PEOPLE. Does anyone else see the connection between working in the yard and getting a good workout? I still dig holes to plant trees, hand rake, hoe, push a wheel barrel, pull a wagon, and bend over constantly to pull weeds. When I start looking at it as a real chore, I remind myself, I don’t have to work out and I’m not overweight. Bending over to pull weeds is a reverse sit-up people! If we all did this, we would lose weight and have no need for TrueGreen. However, to my delight, and before TrueGreen lashes back at me, I must announce they now have what is called a “Natural Nutrient Program” that is a pesticide-free alternative to their regular lawn care service. It’s a start and a good environmentally friendly move by TrueGreen. Please people, if you are debilitated and cannot take care of your yard, or are a business that utilizes the services of TrueGreen, please consider their natural program. By doing so, TrueGreen will have a signal that the public wants more and work harder to develop more natural products. Considering their name, they should strive to do so anyway but I’m picking on them again and would rather go the route of encouragement.

 
I’m positive going natural with your yard care will produce a better lawn over time and help trim your waistline dramatically. There is a balance in nature. When we use pesticide to kill bad bugs the balance is destroyed because it really kills them all. Killing earthworms that loosen and enrich soil causes it to compact. Eventually your lawn develops ugly brown rings and needs replacement. The soil should be alive with many types of bugs that feed on each other. You should see preying mantis, lacewings, spiders, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, and snakes. When you do, you know you’re one with nature and not upsetting and destroying the balance. After all isn’t that what got us into this whole global warming mess in the first place, dumping tons of excess pollution on an environment only equipped to deal with it through nature or natural balance?

 
If you want to get started, I suggest using special grass seed for Michigan lawns available through Gardens Alive called Northern Turf. It is more dense so it chokes out weeds, has deeper roots that needs less watering, it doesn’t proliferate with runners like Kentucky blue grass so there is much less edging, and it is resistant to many diseases and insects. Try their WOW pre-emergence weed control with absolutely no pesticides so it’s safe for pets and kids. It utilizes a corn syrup base I guess. Their Soap Shield anti fungicide soap is fantastic for preventing all types of fungicide that wilts garden vegetables and many flowers. They have wonderful products for just about everything in your yard and even your pets. That said, happy “green” gardening.  

The environmental movement is taking off in so many sectors and in so many nations around the world that it’s hard to keep up. While watching the CBC this morning it was announced that “The National” a regular Canadian program not unlike our 20/20 or dateline is airing a special at 9:00 pm tonight called “Ready or Not, Living in a Warmer World.” I think it’s a bit of a misnomer however, to think we are all collectively going to fry in an overheated world when the truth of the matter is that our ocean currents and air currents will shift as a result of global warming so that some places will be freezing while others will be frying. So skeptics of global warming that keep referring to Lowell Ponte’s book “The cooling” to point to another “chicken little” of his time that was wrong are in fact reinforcing the reality of his prediction relative to global warming. That said, watch the The National tonight, channel 9, at 9:00 pm. It will feature many things among them the massive dyke system in place to keep London from flooding. It was said that it was originally built with the idea of being used or needed once a year. It is already being used 10 times per year. There is also another town in Britain that is literally falling into the ocean, while an island nation in the Indian Ocean is slowly disappearing.

 
Another island nation that has officially put a time on its demise as the year 2050 is Kirabati located on the equator and to the NE of Australia. Many of our fathers in the military during WWII and Korea passed through or stopped at many of Kirabati’s neighbors, which are the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, and New Guinea. All are much smaller islands with the exception possibly of New Guinea and it says a lot about their imposing doom also. Kirabati is home to 100,000 people and just 20 years ago had a landmass the size of 3 Alaskas. It’s diminished by half now, mostly covered with saltwater, its total land mass the size of the NY city limits. It used to have small pockets of freshwater pools overtaken now by the ocean. The mayor or head of the island nation is a realist and said he doesn’t think the islands will exist at all and soon and gave an official time when the nation will cease to exist. What does that say for all the other smaller islands mentioned? Along with fighting global warming we must realize there will be a need to make room elsewhere for thousands of people that will no longer have a habitat in which to live. Hear that all of you who pooh, poohed the demise of the polar bear? Substitute human beings clinging to the last of their habitat and move over to make room for them. Not so pooh, poohable anymore is it?

 
And what about our state of Hawaii? The massive rainfall and mudslides were a concern to me last year. It did not get enough coverage. My husband and I have eyed Hawaii as our retirement place for years. To be certain, we won’t be buying anything near the beach. That doesn’t leave much but mountainside lodging and with the mudslides last year,  that’s not so enticing anymore either.  Anyone else have Apocalyptic flash backs like me? “No mountain high enough, no cave, no valley, absolutely no refuge as a place to hide.” I’m just wondering what’s going to happen to the millions of people that have relocated in the Southwest with only one source of water shared among 3 states? Just months ago I wrote about that for the future, but the future is getting to be shorter and shorter a span for my comfort. If the fires and the drought keep advancing in those states there will be a huge mecca of people moving out of there. Move over again. We need to get moving, we’re still lagging behind.

 
Nations like Spain have entire solar parks in place already the size of 70 soccer fields with 60,000 panels with the intention of increasing to 100,000.  They have completed 2 solar producing plants with the first to start production this month.  For 2007 they plan on building at least 2 more really large 50 MW plants tied to that same solar park. The other day I heard Portugal is ready with the largest solar producing plant in the world. Iceland who will run it’s entire nation by hydrogen in the near future is opening its doors for an experimental process that may be able to bind excess CO2 to porous rock beneath the earth’s surface that will form a stable mineral that could remain there for millions of years. That is of course if any nation goes the extra mile to require all of its coal burning facilities to become gasification plants that trap all the excess CO2. Even China realizes it has polluted itself to death and is investing 64 billion dollars, uprooting thousands of citizens, to divert a river in the south to the north and along the way create new green cities. Nations everywhere seem to be coming up with renewable energy sources relative to their geological locations. Iceland has abundant water supplies so their energy of choice is hydrogen; sunny Spain and Portugal are using that source.

 
All of this from the rest of the world and yesterday I get a newsletter from Earthjustice that companies in the U.S. are still in an all out race to get permits for yet another 150 coal burning facilities across the country before new laws are established to nix them altogether or require they capture their CO2 emissions. Not fair considering our entire ski industry has managed to go green and fast. It knows global warming challenges its survival. Boy when money is at stake watch em turn green fast. And it’s really not fair considering many of us are changing out light bulbs, upgrading our homes for better efficiency, looking to buy hybrid cars, choosing to forego beef and pork, and do whatever little or large we can to contribute. What kind of role model is our industry in the U.S.? No wonder no one likes us.

 
John Dingell is right and fair with his remark that if we point all fingers at the auto industry to get on board to clean up its act than everyone else should have to do likewise. That would be coal burners, manufacturing, and yes those pollution producing, hell on earth for animals, CAFO’s or industrialized farms, which could disappear altogether, and I wouldn’t miss them. They were evil at their conception. We put out animated movies like sweet little “Charlotte’s Web” for our children to watch the intelligent, cute little pig when in reality what we do to animals is short of satanic. If we want to call ourselves a Godly nation than I propose we act it. I’ve sent this message to many congressional people, Cheney, and Bush included: Where do you think your going with all the fortune you’ve gained by raping the earth, raping your own? Of course I never get an answer. If we are made in the image of God, than it’s not a stretch to imagine God weeps for what we’ve done. The prophecy of His wrath is an altogether different scenario we would be wise to avoid.