Sunday, January 3, 2016
Hobbit House Ideas
In my opinion, a "hobbit house" should have the following features:
Enough strength to be your HURRICANE SHELTER
Antique ship's porthole window(s)
Door (antique-style w/overhang) on north side of main house for access
Steampunk-style furnishings
Porta-potti/composting toilet
H. R. Giger-like features inside (organic look)
Build an aquarium into one wall (open to sky, w/closable cover for cold)
Aquarium could be behind a porthole
Closable cover would also provide hurricane protection
Have a large fishpond next to this Hobbit House
Enough headroom (maybe 2 meters) for me or someone taller
A small workbench with vise, grinder, etc. (Thus also a small workshop!)
Could be built of CBS blocks with antique stone facing
Alternatively, use flowing sealed POLISHED (rubbed?) concrete for all walls
Also could be poured concrete roof with sod/ground cover on top
Approx. inside dimensions of 15ft x 15 ft? (Maybe more?)
Dangers Humanity Has Avoided
Climate change is by no means the only great threat to the existence of civilization as we know it. We've dodged disaster before.
At least three times, there has almost been a launch of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and the Soviet Union: first due to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the second due to the launch of a research missile in Norway, and later due to the malfunction of a cheap microchip.
Another example of incompetence was the setting of launch access codes to all zeroes by the U.S. Air Force before the federal government knew that the coding "failsafe" had thus been defeated. During the time when the codes were all zeroes, even a lieutenant could have caused a launch by himself.
Highly-enriched uranium can be created by a centrifuging process. Therefore it is at least theoretically possible that homicidal types in unstable countries could eventually gain access to it. After all, the G.W. Bush administration failed to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
Humanity must somehow make it past the nuclear war/fuel crisis/environmental crisis age if we are ever to become even what Michio Kaku calls a "Class 1" civilization in the stellar sense.
Sadly, some fundamentalist Christians seem to welcome destruction of the world, since they believe that is what must happen before the "second coming," during which they will be chosen to be taken to paradise. Some of these people seem to have little respect for the Earth, since they see it as a temporary (and less-than-desirable) dwelling place for the faithful. But Pope Francis has famously said it is our duty to be good stewards of our planet.
Lessons I've Learned from Animals
On a hot day, always walk or stand in the shade when you can
(Learned from a dog who always crossed to the shady side of the road)
Also, when standing in what I think is the shade, I always look at my shadow and try to see if my head is casting a shadow. If it is, I then move until I no longer see a shadow from any part of my body.
In our yard, I've seen one male lizard "rape" another
(Both had dewlaps; the bigger lizard held down the smaller one and had sex with him)
So, of course, how can homosexuality be "unnatural"?
Self-Sufficiency Ideas
A household can be as self-sustaining as possible by having:
SOLAR PANELS
An ELECTRIC AUTOMOBILE (which can be charged by solar panels)
Roof WATER CATCHMENT and one or more CISTERNS
PIGS, CHICKENS and other food and manure-producing animals
Diverse FOOD AND MEDICINAL PLANTS growing on your property
An excellent selection of BOOKS on practical topics
BICYCLES (tough mountain-style bikes)
An excellent selection of TOOLS
The World's Biggest Problems
In my opinion (and their order certainly isn't set in stone), the world's biggest problems that need to be addressed are:
1. Human OVERPOPULATION! (which is essentially the source of all the problems below, except perhaps the last)
But overpopulation is due to our ease of living, from using petroleum
(Thus we're like bacteria in a Petri dish, growing until we crash)
2. Climate change
3. Environmental destruction/pollution/species loss
4. Diminishing supplies of fresh, potable water
5. Poverty/starvation/inadequate education
6. Lack of ecologically-sustainable POWER for transport, technological devices, etc.
7. Fulfilling work for everyone who wants to be productive (and solve problems)
Of course, there are other more specifically anthropocentric problems like global economic collapse, terrorism and anarchy, potential nuclear war, and robots/computers that could take over the world. But if the problems listed above could be effectively addressed, I'm certainly hopeful that our chances of avoiding these others would probably be greatly increased.
But the bottom line is that we can solve these things, and of course, we must.
I believe the tenets of eco-affluence can enable us to do that, and even have fun in the process.
Pearls of Wisdom
"Find your passion, learn how to add value to it, and commit to a lifetime of learning." (Ray Kurzweil)
"It only takes a second to ruin your life." (Unknown)
"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all." (Thoreau)
"Pretend you don't hear the word 'no.' I have accomplished almost nothing on the first or second or even the third try." (Jerry Weintraub)
"The difference between what we are doing and what we are capable of doing would solve most of the world's problems." (Gandhi)
"Be yourself, because everyone else is already taken."
(Chris Guillebeau, 279 Days to Overnight Success)
"The men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all."
(Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Louis XIV, p. 720)
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
“What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.” (Both of these are attributed to Seneca)
"My own mind is my own church." (Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason)
I would abbreviate this to "My mind is my church."
"We exist as humans to pass on what we learn."
(From the movie "Lucy" with Scarlett Johansson; paraphrased)
Carl Braun's "Five W's" of communication: Every letter you write must address Who, What, Where, When and Why. If people in his organization didn't put this in their memos, letters and other communications, they were fired.
(Paraphrased) - "Whenever something stops being FUN, I stop doing it and do something else." (Richard Branson, emphasis mine)
Jerry Weintraub said the same.
(And it seems that Jack Beers lived this way, too.)
One of Munger’s more famous quotations comes from the algebraist Jacobi: “Invert, always invert.” In a 1986 speech Munger elaborated, “It is in the nature of things, as Jacobi(sp?) knew, that many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backwards.” (Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet's partner)
Munger's rule of investing: "When any guy offers you a chance to earn lots of money without risk, don't listen to the rest of his sentence. Follow this and you'll save yourself a lot of misery." On managing small amounts of money: "Don't go after large areas. Don't try to figure out if Merck's pipeline is better than Pfizer's. It's too hard. Go to where there are market inefficiencies. You need an edge. To succeed, you need to go where the competition is low. That's the best advice I can give to small investors." (These may not be exact, verbatim quotes.) Munger also said that, by definition, only 20% of the people can be in the top fifth.
Per Munger, Buffet says that if you could only make 20 investments in your lifetime, you'd think very, very carefully about each of those and your results would be much better than those of most investors.
(Paraphrased) - "My life has been plagued with many troubles, most of which never happened." (Mark Twain)
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
(Edward Abbey, The Journey Home, 1977)
"Know something about everything and everything about something."
(T.H. Huxley)
"When you can't take it with you, all that really matters is what you leave behind."
(Howard Lyman, a.k.a. the "Mad Cowboy")
Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.
Quote from Lester Dent's character, Doc Savage (Doc's oath)
"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."
Miles Davis
"He not busy being born is busy dying."
Bob Dylan?
"When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man."
Diogenes of Sinope
"People buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like."
Clive Hamilton
"The secret of happiness is low expectations."
Barry Schwartz
"Do what you can for those around you (including plants and animals), but don't make a big deal about it."
Jeremy Narby, stating the message he got from shamans
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."
Epictetus?
My Thoughts:
When people wonder how the pyramids were built, they should consider how quickly a colony of ants can build an extensive underground network of tunnels. And the ancient Egyptians, Maya and others not only had ant-like numbers of laborers, but multi-generational and sometimes multi-dynastic timescales in which to complete their epic projects. Also, labor was used as a means of taxation of the populace, who were expected to assist with public works projects as part of their civic duty (especially during the several months of every year when the Nile Delta waters had receded and farming couldn't be done - the people had to be kept busy somehow).
There is no really no such thing as death. Our energy merely transitions into a different form, which is how we arose in the first place. We are (as Sagan said), made of "star-stuff," as is every other organism and object in the cosmos.
(Curiously, this jibes with the Catholic saying of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" even though that saying predates modern science.)
Consider designing non-pneumatic tires for your bicycle. A thin spring-steel band (or something similar) for a wheel/tire could absorb bumps, never need air fills and last almost forever. (You'd probably need disc brakes, since the wheel edge itself would flex over bumps.)
In the mid-first century B.C., two "parties" vied for control in Roman society - the "Populares" who wanted the support of common people, and the "Optimates" who wanted control of government by the aristocrats. Sounds like the Democrats and Republicans of modern U.S. politics, doesn't it? If this is true, it seems that things haven't changed much in some ways.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. " - Napolean?
The rich console the poor by telling them that if they're religious, no matter how much they suffer in life, they'll be fine once they're dead. This is also probably why so many politicians give so much lip service to religion, especially fundamentalist Christianity. - Myself
"To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete"
- Buckminster Fuller
(I think this applies to electric cars, smart phones, etc.)
"I start with the voice. I find out how the character sounds. It's through the way he speaks that I find out the rest about him. ... After the voice comes the looks of the man. I do a lot of drawings of the character I play. Then I get together with the makeup man and we sort of transfer my drawings onto my face. An involved process. After that I establish how the character walks. Very important, the walk. And then, suddenly, something strange happens. The person takes over. The man you play begins to exist."
— Peter Sellers describing how he prepared for his wide range of roles in an October 1962 interview for Playboy
"Good people sleep peacefully at night safe in the knowledge that rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell
“The living organism does not really exist in the milieu extérieur but in the liquid milieu intérieur … a complex organism should be looked upon as an assemblage of simple organisms … that live in the liquid milieu intérieur.”
Denis Noble, Oxford
"Follow your weird, ladies and gentlemen. Forget trying to pass for normal…woo the muse of the odd."
"Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish.”
Bruce Sterling
Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman (not a direct quote) said we should not be upset about what's happening to the world, that it's just evolution, and necessary to restore the earth to balance.
Perhaps many would say that's the way we should see it, and just do our best to prepare for it and minimize its impact on our family, "our" animals and plants, and ourselves. But we have to try to find ways of living in better harmony with nature.
(See video on Collapsenet website)
"Seek not abroad, turn into thyself, for in the inner man dwells the truth."
Augustine of Hippo
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," (he told the Stanford grads in 2005.)
"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."
Steve Jobs
(Personal Note: Perhaps the best way to do truly great work is to work completely on one's own terms, and not as part of someone else's organization. This therefore means self employment - your own profit and/or nonprofit organization. Also, Richard Branson now says if he were starting over, he would start a nonprofit arm at the same time he started a for-profit company.)
"Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people."
Thor Heyerdahl
"If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
(According to Amory Lovins, this applies to using such things as integrative design, which enlarges the system dealing with a problem, creating synergy)
"We pay taxes to buy civilization"
Oliver Wendell Holmes
"The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it."
P.J. O'Roarke
"We are about to take an evolutionary step and my hope is that the species will emerge stronger. It would be hubris to think humans as they now are God's chosen race."
James Lovelock (Wikipedia; check - seems to be missing second "are")
"I'm a great believer that you had to do everything you've done to have got to where you are." (Bryson, see below)
Are we all doomed? (Reporter's question)
"No. I never cease to be surprised by human ingenuity in coming up with solutions."
Bill Bryson interview, New Statesman, 25 October 2010 (on the Web)
"Physical danger is not something I go away from. Ignorance scares me more."
Jacques Barzaghi, former aide to Jerry Brown
(New York Times article, 1992)
"Making money is a pedestrian activity. The challenge is in creating a product or service that the world really needs."
Rap mogul Russell Simmons to Business Week Online
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
"As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution."
- Henry David Thoreau (also the quotes below)
"Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it."
"Water is the only drink for a wise man."
"Be not simply good; be good for something."
"If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?"
"Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."
"Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now."
"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines."
"Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience."
- Henry David Thoreau
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-Robert A. Heinlein
"Old is the future- learn something- practice something- get good at a vocational skill."
"Get your hands dirty- with real dirt!"
"Scrape your knuckles doing things- learn to cuss in several languages."
"Do something difficult- lose an eye- loose (sic) a digit- loose an eye from a flying digit..."
"When you've gotten good at something- go and teach it to others!"
"It's not about the carbon footprint you use- its all about the hand print you leave! Make your mark on things- make your carbon use worth it.."
"Expect nothing, blame no one and do epic shit anyway!"
"A cautionary tale for you: beware the green washers, beware the eco-hipsters and beware the peddlers of doom...
Don't embrace sustainability because you fear the future. Embrace sustainability because you love the things you love about the present"
-Larry Santoyo
Never get into a fight unless you know you can win.
Never get into a fight unless winning it would advance your cause.
-paraphrased, from Mao's "Little Red Book"
"Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be practical or believe to be beautiful."
-William Morris
"When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important."
-Krishnamurti
"The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly."
-Theodore Roosevelt (semicolon seems wrong)
"The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful."
-Gibbon, on religion
"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
-Christopher Hitchens, on religion
"Study nature, not books."
-Louis Agassiz
"The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't."
"The only truly anonymous donor is the guy who knocks up your daughter."
"The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds."
-Lenny Bruce
"The rich must live more simply so that the poor may simply live."
-Ghandi
"The most valuable art is deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil."
-Abraham Lincoln
"'Done' is better than 'perfect'."
-Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook)
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
-Carl Sagan (sometimes cited re doomsday threats)
“Men who leave their mark on the world are very often those who, being gifted and full of nervous power, are at the same time haunted and driven by a dominant idea, and are therefore within a measurable distance of insanity.”
-Francis Galton (describing himself?)
"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers--who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing."
Andrew Jackson (who strangely didn't see equality as applying to "Indians")
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
Elon Musk, on time management
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what you want to achieve and they'll surprise you with their ingenuity."
George Patton
"Winners never quit, and quitters never win."
Ted Turner (Piers Morgan interview, seen July 8th, 2012)
1. I promise to care for Planet Earth and all living things thereon, especially my fellow human beings.
2. I promise to treat all persons everywhere with dignity, respect, and friendliness.
3. I promise to have no more than one or two children.
4. I promise to use my best efforts to help save what is left of our natural world in its undisturbed state, and to restore degraded areas.
5. I promise to use as little of our nonrenewable resources as possible.
6. I promise to minimize my use of toxic chemicals, pesticides, and other poisons, and to encourage others to do the same.
7. I promise to contribute to those less fortunate, to help them become self-sufficient and enjoy the benefits of a decent life including clean air and water, adequate food, health care, housing, education, and individual rights.
8. I reject the use of force, in particular military force, and I support the United Nations arbitration of international disputes.
9. I support the total elimination of all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and ultimately the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.
10. I support the United Nations and its efforts to improve the condition of the planet.
11. I support renewable energy and feel we should move rapidly to contain greenhouse gases.
Ted Turner's "Voluntary Initiatives"
"Action without thinking is the cause of every failure."
Peter Drucker
"I burned the candle at both ends and it gave a lovely light."
Christopher Hitchens
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."
Albert Einstein
"He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason"
Cicero
WILKERSON: "Well, the next moment in my life that was as you're referring to was at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where I was introduced to Vom Kriege, Clausewitz's seminal book on war, and introduced to a team of professors who more or less stripped war of its truth, justice, and the American way and gave it its real face, not just in terms of the battlefield--all of us in those seminars were Vietnam veterans, whatever service, and it included CIA and State Department personnel too--but also stripped it of its, shall we say, particularly in America, its hyperbole, its passion, its you've got to do this for the country, you've got to defend the shores, and so forth, and boiled it down to its basics. This is all about politics and power. This is all about getting your way over someone else--or someone else plural--who wants to prevent you from getting your way, whether it's territory, whether it's resources, whether it's a way of belief, ideology, or whatever. That's what war's really all about. It's not about truth and justice. It never has been, never will be."
Col. Larry Wilkerson, former aide to Colin Powell, on war
(Interview at therealnews.com)
"No habit has any real hold on you other than the hold you have on it."
Gardner Hunting
"Try to think as people around you think."
Michael Corleone, quoting his father, Vito (Godfather, Part II)
Said to Tom, the Consiliere, regarding how to detect treachery
"The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."
Thomas Paine (check)
"Listen, learn, help and lead."
Plaque in Newt Gingrich's office when he was Speaker of the House, according to a speech by John Boehner, a successor (2013). Boehner basically said that was what a Speaker of the House must do.
Mr. Clancy said none of his success came easily, and he would remind aspiring writers of that when he spoke to them.
“I tell them you learn to write the same way you learn to play golf,” he once said. “You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired — it’s hard work.”
New York Times, quoting Tom Clancy
"You have to have a tolerance for failure if you are going to do important things."
Warren Buffet
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
Marine Major General Smedley Butler, 2-time Medal of Honor recipient
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
From Butler's book, War is a Racket
From L. Fletcher Prouty's book, "The Secret Team" -
"This is the fundamental game of the Secret Team. They have this power because they control secrecy and secret intelligence and because they have the ability to take advantage of the most modern communications system in the world, of global transportation systems, of quantities of weapons of all kinds, and when needed, the full support of a world-wide U.S. military supporting base structure. They can use the finest intelligence system in the world, and most importantly, they have been able to operate under the canopy of an assumed, ever-present enemy called "Communism." It will be interesting to see what "enemy" develops in the years ahead. It appears that "UFO's and Aliens" are being primed to fulfill that role for the future. To top all of this, there is the fact that the CIA, itself, has assumed the right to generate and direct secret operations. " [L. Fletcher Prouty, Alexandria, VA 1997]
My thoughts - barely 10 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and Communism could no longer be claimed as the great enemy of the U.S. (and the world), so one wonders if the Cheney/Bush administration had to create the spectre of "Global Terror" to replace it. That way, there would always be an excuse for a never-ending war to support the military-industrial complex.
"You have to have a tolerance for failure if you are going to do important things."
- Warren Buffet
The historian Alexis de Tocqueville made predictions in 1840 concerning Perpetual War in democratic countries. The following is from Volume 2, chapter 22, "Why Democratic Nations Naturally Desire Peace and Democratic Armies, War", 18th paragraph, in his book, Democracy in America:
"No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. Not indeed that after every victory it is to be apprehended that the victorious generals will possess themselves by force of the supreme power, after the manner of Sulla and Caesar; the danger is of another kind. War does not always give over democratic communities to military government, but it must invariably and immeasurably increase the powers of civil government; it must almost compulsorily concentrate the direction of all men and the management of all things in the hands of the administration. If it does not lead to despotism by sudden violence, it prepares men for it more gently by their habits. All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it. This is the first axiom of the science."
(From Wikipedia)
Salman Rushdie on ABC's Nightline on February 13, 1989, in regard to his novel The Satanic Verses:
"[My book says] that there is an old, old conflict between the secular view of the world and the religious view of the world, and particularly between texts which claim to be divinely inspired and texts which are imaginatively inspired. . . . I distrust people who claim to know the whole truth and who seek to orchestrate the world in line with that one true truth. I think that's a very dangerous position in the world. It needs to be challenged. It needs to be challenged constantly in all sorts of ways, and that's what I tried to do."
"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become."
Oprah Winfrey
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive: to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."
Marcus Aurelius
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Creating a Banana Circle
The "banana circle" is a cool concept taught in permaculture classes, and here I am in front of ours.
There are lots of advantages to planting this way, including convenient "waste" disposal and natural fertilization.
The messy-looking dead leaves from the banana "trees" and other plants around the circle are conveniently tossed into the center (a compost pit). There, they break down and add valuable organic fertilizer to the soil, eventually creating something similar to "terra preta," a highly-fertile soil prized in Latin America for centuries.
So, here are the steps to creating your own banana circle:
1. Pick a spot that gets sunlight for several hours a day, and that does not flood (although water directed to drain into the hole in the middle of the circle can be beneficial for the plants, as long as it doesn't saturate them--their roots need water but cannot always or frequently be sitting in it, because they'll rot).
2. Dig a hole about a meter deep and two meters wide. Use the dirt from the center to make a ring around the edges. Then, if you want, you can line the hole with old cardboard like we did, wetting it with a hose or watering can as you go.
3. Then, if you have it, add some organic garden soil and composted cow manure around the edges. Also, in the center, throw any "compostable" stuff you may have at the time (basically, plant or plant-derived material that will decompose).
4. You can add further layers of wet cardboard, or even paper, as we did. Then, plant your banana plants in openings you've left in the cardboard mulch layer.
5. After you've put in the banana plants, add a thick layer of organic mulch on top, from the outside edges of the circle into the edge of the pit. We used crushed palmetto litter, since our property has lots of saw palmettos, which accumulate dead leaves that can easily be crumbled up into a thin, easily-decomposable mulch. But you can use whatever you have access to, including old sticks, straw, uncontaminated grass clippings (I think), leaves of all kinds, etc. (I would avoid store-bought bark mulch, though, since in my experience it tends to decompose into sort of an impermeable mat instead of the crumbly soil you're trying to create.) The object of this mulch is to shade the soil, hold in moisture, create food for soil organisms, and further enrich the soil as it breaks down.
6. Water the circle as needed, to keep it from drying out. Keep throwing dead leaves and other yard compost into the center. And add some composted cow manure or other organic fertilizer around the edges periodically, also tossing some into the middle. Like us, you can even add other species of plants in-between and in the understorey, like papayas, gingers, Stevia, Mexican sunflower (a nitrogen fixer and "green manure" provider) and so forth. Then just watch everything grow!
Oh, by the way, it took about three years for our banana circle to grow from the original construction photos to the shot of me in front of it at the top of this article (taken by my terrific wife, Donna).
Monday, August 3, 2015
Using Shade to Your Advantage
Many years ago, I was walking down a winding country road and came upon a strolling dog who happened to be moving in the same direction as myself.
It was a hot Florida day, and I noticed that the dog, ambling along in a casual way, was clearly being the smarter of the two of us. Why? Because every time the road curved, he crossed over to the shady side!
Seeing the dog's wisdom, I did the same thing myself and noticed that it made a noticeable difference in how hot I felt.
Now, whenever I'm outside in the heat, I always make a point of trying to not just stay, but move in the shade whenever possible. For example, instead of walking directly across the yard, I'll go slightly out of my way to stay in the shade on the edges. As on the day when I watched the clever dog, it really makes a difference in how much I feel the heat, and is worth the few extra steps.
Likewise, when I'm doing tasks outside, such as hand watering, I look at my shadow on the ground. If I can still accomplish my task but move any part of my own shadow into an existing shadow (from a tree, bush, etc.), I'll do it. It not only keeps me a bit cooler, but it probably reduces my risk of skin cancer from sun exposure.
I know this sounds like simple common sense. But it seems quite a bit easier to stay out of the sun by looking at your shadow than by just feeling whether the sun is hitting your head, for example.
On a really hot day, try it and see what you think!
It was a hot Florida day, and I noticed that the dog, ambling along in a casual way, was clearly being the smarter of the two of us. Why? Because every time the road curved, he crossed over to the shady side!
Seeing the dog's wisdom, I did the same thing myself and noticed that it made a noticeable difference in how hot I felt.
Now, whenever I'm outside in the heat, I always make a point of trying to not just stay, but move in the shade whenever possible. For example, instead of walking directly across the yard, I'll go slightly out of my way to stay in the shade on the edges. As on the day when I watched the clever dog, it really makes a difference in how much I feel the heat, and is worth the few extra steps.
Likewise, when I'm doing tasks outside, such as hand watering, I look at my shadow on the ground. If I can still accomplish my task but move any part of my own shadow into an existing shadow (from a tree, bush, etc.), I'll do it. It not only keeps me a bit cooler, but it probably reduces my risk of skin cancer from sun exposure.
I know this sounds like simple common sense. But it seems quite a bit easier to stay out of the sun by looking at your shadow than by just feeling whether the sun is hitting your head, for example.
On a really hot day, try it and see what you think!
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