Pity, but no Mercy

I finally managed to sow the row covers together. I used these 5′ wide spun covers to shield the beds from the downpours over Summer, but they were a pain to position because they were too narrow for the 4′ wide beds. Some end of it was always coming undone, and because we couldn’t stretch …

Home Canning versus Bisphenol A

That’s the second person intimating to me that my home canning might not be safe. Usually the question comes quietly: “Are you sure the jars are okay?” Though it riles me, I’ve come to expect the attitude. It’s like with eggs. When I tell people about wanting chickens for their eggs, half the time the …

The Other in My Back Yard

I am reading Jerry Mander’s In the Absence of the Sacred. The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. Many points are too loosely argued for my taste – as in, I doubt it would convince my DH, who is a total techno-optimist. As a confirmation for what I believe, it reads …

Beginning Preparedness

If for some reason you couldn’t leave your house, how long could you and your family survive on the food and water you have at home? If your answer is three days, you can count yourself “normal”. If for some reason the grid blinked out, would you be able to cook that food, heat your …

Harvest Festival at Drumlin and a visit to the MIT Museum

This Saturday we returned to Drumlin Farm for the Harvest Festival and we had a blast. We danced to the Old Mariners’ Dixieland Jazz – they were in their sixties and seventies and pretty hardcore, apologizing for playing a song so recent as from the thirties! We took a hayride into the fields I remember …

iPhone vs. Moleskine, Da Vinci Code vs. Umberto Eco

Two conversations. The Future: Star Trek or Middle Ages? We were noting all those people cueing up in front of the stores to get their hands on an iPhone. – “Idiotic,” I judged, “an irrelevant piece of junk”. – “Sacrilege!” DH countered – he’s not wanting to get an iPhone, he was just defending what …