9:02pm: Me! On You Tube! (well, *in* the video, anyway)
This is from Hampshire Choral Society's fall concert. I am in the very back row, right in front of the white stripe. You can see me singing several times starting at the 2:55 mark. Jenn, the soloist, has the most GORGEOUS voice, doesn't she?

Hampshire Choral Society - Mozart Solemn Vespers - Laudate Dominum - "The Hampshire Choral Society of Western MA, conducted by Allan Taylor, performs Mozart's Laudate Dominum from the Solemn Vespers, K339. Featuring Jennifer Tyo, soprano. Recorded at Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, November 18, 2008"

9:22pm:

Your result for The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?)...

The Rarity (QTAF)

Quirky Traditional Alpha Female

Take The Social Persona Test (What kind of man/woman are you?) at HelloQuizzy

8:16pm: I can haz bunnies!
My two Cinnamon does kindled today! Mocha had nine kits; Acorn, Mocha's daughter, had eleven kits. They're all warm and wiggly and appear to be nice and healthy! I'm so pleased.

9:13am: Rejoice! He is Risen!
Happy Easter, everyone! Rejoice, for He is Risen. Hallelujah!

3:50pm: Michael Pollan on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
This was HILARIOUS!


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102745034

10:11pm: It's spring!
At last, at long last, it's really spring. How do I know this, you wonder? I heard the peepers singing! Last night, for the first time, I heard the peepers. *sighs blissfully* I'm so glad!

I also acquired many pots of spring bulbs today from the Smith College Bulb Show. They were cheep cheep! I got grape hyacinths, full-size hyacinths (which smell better than anything else on earth, except maybe a newborn baby or chocolate), several colors and shapes of daffodils, and a bunch of tulips. The only tulips I had in my landscape were from Easters past, when I'd order tulips for the sanctuary at church and would bring them home and plant them afterward. These tulips I got today are stunning - pinks, yellows, yellow and pinks, purple and white, lavender... amazing. Now as soon as I get the drainage trench dug, done, and the yard put back together, I can plant these. I'll be removing an azalea, a rhododendron, a couple of pierus japonicus (sp?) and several boxwoods. Anybody local want them?

Also looking forward to, in no particular order, planting more raspberry canes, putting in four more apple trees and two more peach trees, replacing the above-mentioned foundation plants with blueberry bushes, two litters of baby bunnies due on/about 25 April, and ordering two dozen chicks.

8:54am: an "interesting" look inside the School Lunch program

7:39pm: a fantastic explanation, in entertaining cartoon form, of why and how the fertilizer is in the fan

8:28pm: egads, another birthday!
Happiest of birthdays to a_bees_buzz ! May this year find you in excellent health and enjoying unexpected delights.

2:03pm: Happiest of birthdays to ohginnyfan!
Hey there, almost birthday buddy! May your day be spectacular and the coming year filled with joy and blessings!

5:31pm: it's your birthday!
Happiest of birthdays to lady_karelia ! May your day be delightful and the coming year fruitful and joyful.

9:57pm: running the numbers, and liking the math
Further to my last post, regarding electricity consumption, I crunched up these numbers last night.

Just to recap, starting in September this year, I made the decision to use my bike and the public buses here much more extensively than I have before. Formerly it would have been VERY difficult, what with children going to preschool, for which there is no bus. But since all four of mine are now taking the bus to elementary school, and I was going to be attending classes on two different campuses about 15 miles apart, it was time to be thrifty, green, and fit.

September 2007: 1284 miles
October 2007: 1616 miles
November 2007: 1252 miles
December 2007: 992 miles

September 2008: 920 miles (down 364)
October 2008: 697 miles (down 919)
November 2008: 801* (down 451)
December 2008: 801* (down 191) {hey, it was getting freaking COLD!}
*this division is approximated; I am missing a gas receipt entry between the end of November and  the beginning of December, but the total for both months is correct

That makes a total for the 2007 period of 5144 miles and for 2008, 3219 - a decrease of 37%!

I am extremely satisfied with these numbers.

2:07pm: my electricity usage

Read Date (Click to View Bill)	Usage (kWh)	Number of Days	Usage Per Day	Charge	Read Type	Average Temp (°F)
12/03/2008	457	35	13.06	$65.09	00	38.3	12/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
10/29/2008	714	30	23.80	$101.72	00	48.4	10/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
09/29/2008	1025	31	33.06	$150.80	00	62.5	9/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
08/29/2008	785	29	27.07	$116.79	00	66.9	8/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
07/31/2008	863	31	27.84	$127.48	00	72.4	7/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
06/30/2008	735	31	23.71	$100.15	00	67.4	6/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
05/30/2008	401	30	13.37	$57.15	00	54	5/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
04/30/2008	408	30	13.60	$58.06	00	47.8	4/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
03/31/2008	439	27	16.26	$62.04	00	33.3	3/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
03/04/2008	617	34	18.15	$84.96	00	25.3	3/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
01/30/2008	506	28	18.07	$70.67	00	24.2	1/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
01/02/2008	682	30	22.73	$90.59	00	26.2	1/2/2008 12:00:00 AM
12/03/2007	659	33	19.97	$87.63	00	35.8	12/3/2007 12:00:00 AM
10/31/2007	732	28	26.14	$96.73	00	55.2	10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM
10/03/2007	793	28	28.32	$104.32	00	62.4	10/3/2007 12:00:00 AM
09/05/2007	1162	33	35.21	$150.29	00	67.7	9/5/2007 12:00:00 AM
08/03/2007	1255	35	35.86	$162.80	00	71.2	8/3/2007 12:00:00 AM
06/29/2007	841	28	30.04	$121.14	00	66.4	6/29/2007 12:00:00 AM

YOUR ANNUAL EMISSIONS
What Are My Annual Emissions? This is an estimate of the pounds of air pollutants caused by the electricity you use in your home or business during one year.	7 pounds of nitrogen oxides 19 pounds of sulfur dioxide 6,732 pounds of carbon dioxide

So I started at Mother Earth News and the article "Where does your electricity come from?"

Then I clicked on "nifty feature" to go to the EPA website.

I crunched data from my bills at the electric company to find these figures.

Now I need to work on reducing all these numbers! Interestingly, the site indicated that I use about half the electricity of an average household....

Unfortunately, I have no basis for comparison as far as these numbers go. Am I doing well? Am I a pig? What's next to try?

9:39pm: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Blue for Brrrrrrrr!

It started snowing here about 1 PM on Friday, and has finally stopped. We've had somewhere between 10 1/2 and 12" of snow, depending on where in my yard I measure. We haven't been out the driveway since 2 PM on Friday, though lots of fun has been had in the back yard. And, of course, the rabbits needed feeding and watering! The children were off from school on Friday and are hoping to be off tomorrow, but I think the crews will have enough time overnight to get the roads passable. Thank goodness I have a very good snowblower; I would NOT want to shovel this.

8:17pm: Rabbit!
We had rabbit in our dinner tonight for the first time, and it was DELISH. I used two quarts of the rabbit broth from cooking up the meat, and boiled elbow noodles in the broth. Then I added some frozen peas and spinach, a bit of cream soup mix that I had premade... I forget where I got the recipe, though... then threw in about 2 cups of the rabbit meat, prepared according to this YouTube video, and let it all sit while we fetched Oldest Boy from gymnastics. Served it up with some parmesan cheese on top and it was GREAT! I'm so pleased that the children are on board with eating rabbit we raised. Oldest Boy has been getting some flack from the vacuum-headed twerps in his fifth grade class about it, but as he tells them, all meat had a face. At least this way we know how it lived - and died. He even told one girl that if she ever experienced money getting tight enough, that she'd be very glad if she had good food to eat that she'd raised. I'm very proud of him! We talked again tonight about how commercially raised meat animals live, and how we don't want to participate in that industry.

6:48pm: the Competence Project/Independence Day
Over at her blog, Sharon Astyk issued a competence challenge on November 20th. I have completed my first competence project! Well, my first two, but I had only listed one. My neighbor taught me today how to service my lawnmower. We changed the spark plugs, fuel filter, air filters, oil filter, and oil. It was not difficult, though if he hadn't had the proper tools it would have been. Hurray!

( Cut for the tenderhearted, or the weak of stomach )

Next up for me? Hm. I already knit proficiently (and am making a "6 hour afghan" whose pattern I found at Lion Brand yarn - four strands of chunky yarn on size 50 needles!  I can sew straight lines on a machine, and can mend not too badly. I got my thermostats replaced to programmables, and have window quilts, custom made by a local place which I've plugged before. I haven't baked bread for a while,  but I do know how and used to quite often. I guess next up will be getting the town's approval for a shed to house the two beef cows my friends and I want to run on the pasture next to my land. Once the shelter is up, I want chickens, the cows, and a pair of goats. Not sure if I'll try dairy goats yet; what I need is brush (and poison ivy) control! I also want to look into knocking down a wall inside my house in order to be able to put in a woodstove. If that could work, then some trees will need to come down for the wood - though they're going to come down anyway so I can put in the apple and peach trees I ordered, which will arrive in spring. I will be putting in more blueberry bushes, and more comfrey plants, and allowing my raspberry patch to spread. Yeah, I know... *allowing* raspberries to spread is a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?

Just as a what-for - I do a lot of canning, both boiling bath and pressure canning. I'd be glad to teach anyone local how to do it next summer.

4:55pm: Eat the View

4:54pm: White House garden poll

9:59pm: so, it's pathological to want to preserve the planet for our children, is it?
So Sharon Astyk was interviewed for the New York Times with regard to her blogs and books regarding how we might want to try to live in a post Peak Oil, climate changed world. Apparently, those who take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously are so threatening to The Establishment that mud must needs be slung at them, and labels affixed to them. Loony tune? Energy anorexic? I think not. Here's Peak Oil Blues's response to the subtly nasty and marginalizing article from the NYT. I particularly liked this sentence in the summarizing paragraphs:


Here, btw, is Sharon's response to the article.

Me? I'm working on it all. I have been bicycling a lot this fall, and as the weather has grown colder, I've added in more bus time as well. I've had the heat on exactly once so far, to bring the house up to 62 in the morning so the children can dress in something approximating comfort. I'd really like to have a bank of solar panels on my roof, so that I can run such luxuries as my downstairs freezer and dehumidifiers (though those need run only in summer). My needs are fairly simple, overall, and that's good, because my means are modest, too. And I, like Sharon, let my children play ball in the yard, while I work in the garden or hang out the wash or feed the rabbits. Reminds me a lot of when my brothers and I were little, actually - and we never felt deprived because of it.

Further from Peak Oil Blues - really, go read the whole thing -


What, are we a nation of ostriches now?

(cross-posted at http://gardengirl6.blogspot.com/)

6:38pm: OH! I love the Internet!
I just had to say that. There's nothing like working on a paper on Sunday night, and Googling the most obscure thing in the world AND GETTING A HIT! Not just any hit, either, but one that addressed my need perfectly. Woo hoo!

7:34pm: crocheting fun!


Ooh, I did it! I made the pictures show up! *squees happily*

Now, for any crafty types out there who want to make finger puppets to support their candidate (or mock the other!), here you go. Lion  Brand Yarn has posted these free crochet patterns. Obama can be found here and McCain can be found here. Let the puppetry begin!

I can't crochet. And I have to take my GRE Subject test tomorrow. So somebody else must go have this fun for me. K?

4:19pm: A post from henandharvest.com that I will be delivering to my Town Manager (we don't have a Mayor here) includes this excerpt:

A few communities have already made helpful steps in this general direction. Berkeley, Calif., has instituted a Food Policy Council, whose mission is “To build a local food system based on sustainable regional agriculture that fosters the local economy and assures all people of Berkeley have access to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food from non-emergency sources.” The Council works to “improve linkages between local organic farms and means of distribution throughout urban areas, and expand opportunities and support for urban gardening and farming.”

Read the whole post here:
http://henandharvest.com/?p=94

8:08pm: A 1999 New York Times article explains how we got in the financial mess we are in
Behold, the NYT called this waaaaaaaaaaay back in 1999. Clicky clicky on the article and see WHY the rules were... erm... amended? by Fannie Mae.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

 

( Here's the text )

 

Doesn't it just freaking figure that somebody's do-gooderness, trying to make the demographics artificially 'fair', has landed us on the brink of economic collapse (if you believe all the doomsayers, anyway). Maybe there was a compelling REASON other than the color of folks' skin why they couldn't afford to buy the houses they wanted? And now, the American taxpayer is getting stuck with the bill. Oh, joy. If I wanted to buy a house for someone who couldn't afford it, I'd freaking BUY them a house!

5:11pm: so... who pays for this?

Authorities: Nearly 2,000 saved post-Hurricane Ike (AP)

AP - Rescue crews canvassing neighborhoods with dump trucks, helicopters and airboats have saved nearly 2,000 residents who ignored evacuation orders and stayed to face Hurricane Ike, authorities said.








Yes, yes, I'm thankful that folks have been saved. But if they did, indeed, 'ignore evacuation orders,' then do they get billed for their rescues?

3:53pm: Birthday time again!
Not mine, though. Happiest of birthdays to sayyida_jaida ! 31 you say? I can barely REMEMBER 31, honey - you're going to be fine. Enjoy!

*sends chocolate*