Good Sunday Morning to everyone.  We are expecting sun again and temperatures above 50 today (and for the next couple of days.)  So today we start cleaning up the patio and getting our containers ready to become gardens in a couple of months.  I got the seed started for the tomatoes, peppers, asparagus beans, sugar peas, fairy eggplant, and sweet peas yesterday.  It is amazing how projects just seem to grow.  Last fall we found one of the large storage tubs on sale for $10 and bought it thinking it would do very nicely for the tomatoes which need something much larger than the largest pots we have.  That is all we really thought about at that time.  Then I retrieved another large bin (slightly smaller than the one we bought.)  Suddenly we had room for peppers also and the beginnings of a container garden as opposed to simply a large tub with tomatoes.  During spring cleaning we found an old litter box, a discarded fish tank, a tub from when we bought a particular brand of cat litter--all waiting to be turned into gardens.  I haven't even begun to think about the pots of which we have a dozen--give or take.

Well, the mainstream media has finally brought up the issue of food safety--in a completely innocuous manner with little real information and none about the various pending legislation.  The ABC evening news had, MAYBE, a minute on it with a sound bite from the President citing the urgency of the issue.  This morning, on my way to my e-mail, I saw this at MSNBC.  So the Administration has banned the slaughter, for human consumption, of 'downer' cows.  My question is simply--why couldn't the present meat inspection laws have done the trick?  The real problem with our interstate trade in foods is that the FDA has been underfunded and understaffed.  The previous administration was pathologically averse to any kind of limits on any industry and failed to enforce what laws they couldn't remove.

Archcrone at The Crone Speaks has an acerbic but right on assessment of some of the news this week--including the 'pork' in the continuing budget passed this week and signed by the President who promised to examine budgets 'line by line' and veto any pork he saw.  She also makes a very cogent comment on the matter of the failure of government entities, at all levels, to faithfully regulate business and industry.  Governments, at all levels, have eliminated needed regulations and failed to enforce those regulations that remained.  We should remember that the Peanut Corporation plants, which were the source of the salmonella outbreak, should have been inspected by the health departments of two states (Georgia and Texas) either escaped inspection or were not subjected to rigorous follow-ups.  Further, both states' agencies relied on the company to honestly report the results of self-administered bacteriological tests.  What was Reagan's famous quip about dealing with the Soviets?  'Trust, but verify.'  Perhaps it should be applied closer to home.

Good Morning, Everyone.  It looks like it will be a very nice Saturday today.  We expect lots of sun and temps in the high forties.  Tomorrow and Monday look even better.  Hopefully we have seen the last of the winter-like temps we have had over most of the last week.  I will finally get my seeds started today and, maybe, get a couple of catch-all areas of the house cleaned out.  We have a large load of stuff to go to Goodwill when we do our errands on Monday.  And it won't be the last.

As usual I have been tripping through my google alerts and favorite blogs this morning.  I found this one early on.  I read the first to Mom and her response was "Oh, SHOOT!!!"  Mine was somewhat stronger--another word one letter shorter, a different vowel, but with all the same consonants.  Thankfully, it pertains only to Oregon and I can only hope that Oregonians clean house next election.  The other stories I have covered before.  I think this blogger covered the likely results of these laws very well.  The small craftsmen (and women) and the small growers will will be driven out while the Monsantos, Tysons, Wall-Marts and their ilk will continue to make a lot of money from those of us lulled into a false sense of security thinking these laws will truly make use safer.  Just think about the fact that the salmonella scare with peanuts and the wide spread e. coli scares with hamburger of recent years all originated in inspected facilities that, in actual fact, were not as well inspected as laws allow and consumers expected.  The lettuce and spinach incidents resulted from run-off from INDUSTRIAL meat producing facilities nearby.  We have a much larger problem with the big boys than the small producers and yet they are hip deep in formulating this legislation.  Yeah, the foxes are guarding the henhouses and the agribusiness aristocrats are knee-capping the peasants.

For more on these issues take a look at Rain's post at Rainy Day Thoughts.  

Hello, everyone.

It looks like one state, at least, is getting on the food safety bandwagon.  In the wake of the peanut-linked salmonella outbreak, Georgia is changing its reporting and inspection laws.  It addresses one aspect of this whole food safety matter that troubles me about any food safety laws at any level--providing adequate funds and personnel to do the job.  The proposed Georgia law will allow inspectors to beef up their ranks by 'deputizing' assistants as needed.  Good start.

I did look at the text of H.R. 875 a couple of days ago.  I don't think, from my reading, that the bill goes as far as the blogger I linked to thinks and would, potentially, outlaw backyard gardening for individual consumption.  However, I do think it would devastate local and organic growers by burdening them with extra costs.  Local Harvest asks some very pertinent questions about government efforts (in other proposed bills) to track domestic animals.  I have several problems with this spate of laws.  One, they fail to address the major problem of the last 8 years--a Presidential administration philosophically opposed to even reasonable regulation of any industry.  The FDA had neither the personnel nor the funds to adequately do their legally mandated job and no incentive to do it well.  No matter what laws are passed, we may, in the future, find ourself in a similar position.  Second, these proposals are akin to using a shot gun to kill a fly.  They will do a lot of damage but none to the target.  Third, they extend the Federal government into areas that could be more efficiently handled on a local level.  I do agree that Federal laws and agencies should be overhauled and made more efficient.  But the focus should be on adequate staffing, adequate funds, and on the interstate traffic in food products.  The commercial farms/feedlots that produce animals and plants for interstate traffic should come under the Federal mandate.  A last concern,  after 9/11 we responded almost hysterically.  The result has been billions of dollars and thousands of lives lost (tens of thousands of lives blighted) in a needless war in Iraq, a shredded Constitution, and a dysfunctional Federal Government.  Much of what I have read on the food safety matter smacks of a similar hysteria.

Chris In Paris at Americablog has a link to a CNBC story that forecasts as many as 20k jobs lost in the hedge fund industry.  As I read that my mind went back to the news last yesterday afternoon.  CNBC noted that AT&T (I think it was) is planning to hire 3000 new employees in its wireless division this year.  Then the commentator glided over the fact that they still planned to cut 12,000 jobs in it land line divisions.  Net loss 9000.  But the focus is on the 'good' news.  I have seen a lot of that grasping at straws lately.

Good Monday Morning, again.  

I am a sucker for lists.  Top 10, top 100, whatever.  It is always interesting to see how many pertain to me.  I found this pair of lists by way of BitchPhD this morning.  One was compiled by library professionals and the other by a vote of readers.  Surprisingly I discovered I had read the same number of books on each site--30 of 100.  What surprised me even more was that on the librarians' list nearly all of the books I remember reading I read for lit classes.  Less than 10 of the readers' list fell into that category.

Well, here it is--Tuesday.  Blast!! Where is the time going??  We are still spring cleaning.  Why is it taking so long?  Well, for most of the time we have lived here I have had very strange schedules until a bit over a year ago when I suddenly had no schedule at all.  Much of what we are doing takes two people.  Also, when we moved in we jammed two households into one.  We culled a lot of stuff before we came here but we still had way too much for the space.  We have culled a lot more since and now are rearranging what is left.  That takes time and effort--and two people.  This month is devoted to two projects--spring cleaning and setting up our container garden on the patio.  The weather has definitely not cooperated on the second.  We have had about four inches of rain since Saturday night into this morning with more coming.

Sorry, Kay.  I am afraid we are booked as far as cleaning goes.  A road trip to Ohio is not in the picture.

I found this picture at ohdeedoh this morning.  No, I am not going to try this.  But I do appreciate the work it takes to do this having killed three bonsai in the past.  

Good Morning on this blustery, rainy Sunday.  We are supposed to get on and off heavy rain with possible thundershowers all day.  Some areas are under flash flood alerts.

I found this little article by way of my google alerts.  It asks a good question--one that has been lurking in the back of our minds for some time.  The prices of commodities and fuel has gone down but manufacturers continue to raise the prices of food and/or shrink the product.  Why? I ask with arched eyebrows.  Part of the answers, according to the author, lies with the manufacturers strategy last fall when prices were high and threatening to go higher.  They bought futures at the inflated price and are now stuck with them.  So we pay the price.  I reminds me of the discussions Mom and I have every time the local utility sends out their sales pitch for their budgeting programs.  You know--the ones where the bill is averaged so that you pay the same amount each month and then settle up at the end of the year for whatever you might have used in excess of the cumulative payments.  Of course they charge for this 'service.'  And any excess you pay they get to keep until they have to give it back or, more likely, apply to next year's usage.  Needless to say, they also keep any interest their bank pays on the money also.  We have always rejected these 'deals.'  None of our monthly bills come close to the amounts they figure on for the program and we would much prefer to keep the money in our pockets (and the interest in our bank account).

If you go to this site, though, read the section on H.R. 875.  The bill is titled 'Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.'  I haven't read the bill myself--yet--but if it contains even part of what is described it should be named 'Industrial Agriculture and Food Manufacturing Industry Full Employment Act of 2009.'  I have a lot of problems with what I have read so far but I will wait to post anything until after I have read the thing myself.

Good Morning.  Yes, I am still here.  We have been very busy this week and I haven't had much time to write.  You can tell spring is trying to spring because we actually feel like cleaning.  As I said before, we clean when the spirit moves and it doesn't move often, thank God.  You can also tell because the cats are lining up at the patio door hoping to get outside.  One will actually paw at the door like a dog.  They haven't done that since sometime in November.  They will get out a bit today because the outside shed is on our agenda.

Well, it's good morning, again.  I started this yesterday (Friday that is).  Didn't get far before we started cleaning.  The temps hit something close to 70 and we decided to get an old book case moved down to the shed so we could clean it out and get things organized.  We can actually find things now.  Among the finds--an old cat box that will become a new planter, a serviceable fan that will go to Goodwill along with a bunch of insulated drink containers we haven't used since we moved in here, and some garden tools that we forgot about because we just couldn't find them.

I haven't been able to do more than skim my google alerts and favorite blogs lately.  Today I can spend a bit more time at this since we are tidying up a few spots we passed over in our cleaning.  I found a nice blog that describes how to make 'Dorset' buttons.  If you visit CraftStylish, be sure to follow the link provided to some pictures of beaded Dorset Buttons.  They are spectacular.  Heck, I will provide it here.

Good Morning, everyone, on this nice lazy Sunday.  I am glad I can be lazy today because this week we begin our spring cleaning.  Have I said before that we hate cleaning and most other housework?  Well, no matter how much we hate it, sometime or other it has to be done.  Perhaps, it is a sign that spring is really on the way.  We have a couple of days coming up that will be in the fifties.  Maybe it is simply wishful thinking, magical thinking.  If we do our spring cleaning, Spring might just decide to make an appearance.

I stumbled upon the following post at The Hawthorne Works blog.  I especially like his take on 'mistakes.'  He has some sound advice overall.  I would just add one thing to it.  Choose a project that is just beyond your level of expertise.  Then you can stretch yourself and learn new things.  Trying an expert project when you are still a novice is a sure fire recipe for disappointment and frustration.  But trying an intermediate project, just beyond novice, can lead to immense satisfaction when it is completed even if you have made some mistakes along the way.  Another piece of advice I would add is: don't go whole hog in buying supplies and equipment especially if you are new to the craft.  Don't think that you have to have the latest, most advanced, or most expensive equipment or materials to create something beautiful.  Moderation in all things has been a corner stone in most ethical and religious systems.  It is good advice in all areas of life.

I have a number of google searches set up to look for various needlework and craft blogs.  Although some are beyond anything I want to get heavily into or have the room to pursue, I always find something interesting or inspiring.  This little piece at Joy In Tatting is really pretty.  I am just starting (re-starting, actually) to teach myself to tat so I am no where near ready to do this pattern.  But someday.... .

Hooked on Crochet has pictures of a 'cross over' project that reminds me of a couple of mine.  Her blanket is finished more neatly than I finished mine.  The other isn't finished because I have yet to figure out where it is going.  I will have to take them out and get some pictures.  This shows why I check out blogs from crafts people whose crafts I won't ever do in a big way.  The pieces and techniques can sometimes give you ideas.  And, even when they don't turn out exactly as you thought they would, the results are always interesting and instructive.