The Stitch

Check it out. My sister, Erin, has started an eco-blog.

Oh, to be plastic-free.

Thanks for the link, Brian.

A lot of people have been asking why we've decided to try to eat only foods available within a 100-mile radius. Well, there are several reasons, but this website does a better job of explaining than I could do.

Several people have also asked why we're trying to cut down on our packaging and our use of plastics. Three things recently grabbed my attention and raised my awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives and how terrible it is for the environment. The first was this article, called "Plastic Ocean." Please be warned, there are some distubing pictures on that website.

The second grabber was this fact, quoted from the Plastic Ocean article: "Except for the small amount that's been incinerated - and it's a very small amount - every bit of plastic ever made still exists."

That plastic Shed House bag I received back in 1982 when I bought my first pair of white Levis painter pants - it's still floating around in a landfill somewhere. You remember the plastic tub that our cottage cheese came in, back in 1969? It's at the bottom of the ocean, contributing to the level of pollution in our waters. Then add to that one container, all other plastic containers ever created - and try to find a place to put them when we throw them away. Where does it go? "Away" is still somewhere.

And lastly, if you want to see what American Mass Consumption looks like, visit Chris Jordan's website and you can see what "away" looks like. Would you want this in your backyard? Well, guess what. It's already there.

From Chris Jordan's site:
"Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake. "

This is why we (Pipers) feel as though we have to try. If nothing else, we've increased the level of awareness and are making a solid attempt to lighten our impact on the earth. It may not be much - but it's more than we were doing before, and I like to think that every little bit helps.

Conversation at Chez Piper while reading my friends' blogs this evening:

"What the-? There are refugees running aroung California killing people - they're saying they're like zombies or something. Is this a joke? Wait . . . Laura made a post about The zombie stuff is freaking her out. Turn on the news!"

::click:::

"There's nothing on the news about zombies."

:::not taking the time to fully read any blog entry - just stupidly skimming and completely ignoring the fact that ZOMBIES tend to be a little on the "not very real" side of life::

"What about half-starved boat people? Or refugees. Or grey milky-eyed people. Or anything about a cop that got ripped apart. Oh, and his dog, too."

"Nothing."

"Why is everyone talking about zombies then? WHAT IS GOING ON?"

"Go to CNN dot com. If there's nothing about zombies on that page, it's probably a hoax."

:::taptaptap:::::: "Nothing on CNN. . . "

"Then there probably aren't any zombies taking over California."

Errrrrr, yeah, well. Apparently today was Zombie-Blog day. "On June 13th, check out the blogosphere for posts about the zombie hoards showing up in normal blogger's lives. Everyone will be posting that way that day, in a nice mock mass fiction game."

So, while the world spent the day making fake posts about zombies taking over the world, yours truly was ready to barricade her whole extended family and neighborhood in the spider-filled shed in the back yard and hunker down until all the zombies died of starvation.

Perhaps I should not have watched 28 Weeks Later afterall.

From the "No Impact Man" blog:

A new project launched by Miranda at Simple Living and Sharon at Causabon’s Book, which strives to give a set of fixed and stringent rules for reduction of individual greenhouse gas emissions, in each of seven areas, by 90 percent. . . .

Sharon and Miranda call their initiative the Riot for Austerity 90% Emissions Reduction Project. They choose the 90 percent mark because climatologists now generally agreethat we need to reduce manmade greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050 in order to prevent the melting of the icecaps and Greenland ice sheet that would cause irreversible change to the climate. Because American’s emit way more greenhouse gas than most of the rest of the world’s peoples, we must reduce our emissions by 94 percent in order to meet the planetary target of 80 percent. Sharon and Miranda rounded from 94 percent to 90 to make it easy (joke!).

They have a Yahoo discussion group, where people who want to attempt the 90 percent reduction—or even less stringent targets—can discuss. The rules for the Riot for Austerity are based on the average US consumption in each of seven areas. The project targets are calculated as a 90 percent reduction on those averages. I’ve summarized the targets for each of the seven areas below:

Gasoline:

* 50 gallons per PERSON, per YEAR

Electricity:

* 1,100 kWh per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR

Heating and cooking energy:

* If your home uses propane or natural gas, 100 therms per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR
* If your home uses heating oil, 75 gallons per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR.
* If your home uses locally and sustainably harvested wood: Unlimited
* If your home uses unsustainably harvested wood, 5 cords per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR

Garbage:

* 0.45 pounds of garbage per PERSON, per DAY

Water:

* 10 gallons per PERSON, per DAY

Consumer goods:

* $1,000 worth per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR.
* Used goods count only ten percent of their purchase price (so you could buy $10,000 of used stuff).
* Used goods that were donated to Goodwill or the church rummage sale, etc, can be bought in unlimited amounts (since might otherwise just end up in landfill).

Food:

* No less than 70% of food purchases should be organic and be grown within 100 miles.
* No more than 25% of food purchases should be bulk, dry goods (flour, pasta, etc) from more than 100 miles away.
* No more than 5% of food purchases should be wet goods (meat, fruit, shampoo) from more than 100 miles away.

I know that we (Pipers) can absolutely improve what we're currently doing - and we need to try. I don't think we should be waiting for the government to force us to fix the global impact issues. We have the power to make changes. We have the power to fix this.

Brian and I have been talking about raising chickens for the eggs (not meat). We're not vegetarians, but I'm absolutely certain neither one of us would be able to butcher an animal. Neither one of us is so fond of meat that we couldn't give it up. Maybe local fishing is the solution for us. We raise our own vegetables and preserve what we can't immediately eat. Local milk and other dairy products are not difficult to obtain. We'll ponder this a bit more, and once we have a plan in place, I'll post about it.

Chapter 6
Introducing Thelma Louise
By Roderick M. Brown

December 31, 1937. It was cold out, not snowing or windy, just cold. Jack, Dick, Dugal and I were banished from the house. I can’t say for certain that Alex was with us or not. He was kinda little to be pushed out into the bitter cold day. In fact I wasn’t sure I was supposed to be out here shivering and turning blue.

There was a reason for this expulsion from our snug nest. There was a strange auto in our driveway along with DG’s Model-A. The strange auto belonged to the local doctor from Pulaski, probably Dr. Crocker. I believe Dr Crocker had delivered all of us kids at home, in the little garage and now on the farm the last new member of my generation was about to enter this cruelly cold and barren, snow covered little part of the world.

As an eight year old boy along with my brothers we were not to be allowed to witness or be near the birth of a child. We were all told to go outside and behave, which we were doing. It was not very enjoyable and not a lot of conversation was going around. Other than an occasional muffled cry there was nothing but silence from the house.

After about an hour and a half, I was ready to head for the barn. At least it would be a little warmer with the cows but Jack and Dick said we should stay together for one reason or another. Shortly thereafter there were several loud cries, more like screams and then a very faint little cry. Jack, the authority on such things announced,” The baby is here.”

This didn’t change a hell of a lot for us. It was still cold out. DG came out on the side porch carrying a package wrapped in an old blanket and called Dick to the Porch. Handing the package to Dick he instructed him to take the package out back behind the pig pen, soak it good with kerosene and burn it up. Of course Jack, Dick and probably Dugal had seen calves born and were aware of the placenta or after birth that accompanied the new born. I was totally ignorant and didn’t want to know anything about it.

Dugal in one of his rare moments of eloquence was rambling on with all sorts of misinformation and misconceptions. After a short while we headed back towards the house and quietly entered the warm kitchen. Several pans of hot water sat on the stove but all seemed to be in a normal state of affairs. Just then the door from mom’s side of the house opened and into the kitchen came DG and Dr. Crocker.

Dr Crocker was assuring DG that the baby was perfectly normal. It appeared healthy and Mrs. Brown knew more about taking care of babies than he did so he might as well leave. Which he did. DG made a big fuss about moving things around on the stove and asked about the cows and what time did we need to start milking. Dick gave a profunctual reply and the four of us boys headed through the hall door to mom’s room.

Mom looked pretty well as though she had been through the wringer, which indeed she had. The baby with fat pink cheeks was sound asleep. We didn’t say anything for a minute and then I saw that half smile and the wink as she said, “That’s the end of that.”

We managed to find some bread and jam for supper that night and by next morning every thing was back to normal. Mom was up early, got the stove going, made coffee and got out the stuff for oatmeal. When I came scooting through the door in my escape from the upper room with no heat, the others were already there and mom was introducing our new sister, Thelma Louise Brown.

Her sister Sally coolly acknowledged her presence and looked for other amusements. We all mumbled a howdy of sorts and Jack said,” Let’s eat!” So much for social graces.

"ooooh, Mommy! You have a Sponge Bob shirt on!"

"Yes, I do!"

"He has blue eyes!"

"Yes, he does!"

"Mommy, Sponge Bob is sexy!"

"gahhhhhh, duhhhh, uhhhhhh, what did you say?"

"Sponge Bob is sexy!"

"Brian, did she just say the word sexy?"

"Yes, Heather, I think she did!"

"Is Sponge Bob sexy, Mommy?"

:::speechless:::

Our angelic two-year old daughter said the word "SEXY" (which is bad)

and "SPONGE BOB," in the same sentence. (which is worse)

I can hardly wait until she discovers real boys. (biting sarcasm)

The last of the sun was setting, and streaming in our living room windows. Elizabeth pointed at the stream of light and asked, "What those?"

Brian and I asked her what she was pointing at and she repeated, "What THOSE? Right in front of me!"

We looked and saw tiny dust particles, floating in the streaming sunlight. We laughed and told her, "It's dust!"

She replied, "It's beautiful! It's lovely!"

And it was.