I recall at one point Bill Maher saying, when you drive an SUV you drive with bin Laden or something to that effect. And I think it is true.

Believe me, I feel that a post like this is a bit of a risk, as I'm very keen on civility, but I'm also more keen on personal and civic responsibility. And I wish more people in the mainstream were making the argument. Will $150 a barrel oil make it less distasteful to make such an argument? Will it be $200? I don't know. But geez, we need to have this conversation. There is so much that can be done to reduce our intake of fossil fuels and it's a lot less than the doom and gloom sayers on the Right prattle on about. There are easy, practical solutions to this crisis that would actually help our GDP. But I'll be damned it were not led by a bunch of buffoons who lack real foresight. The only foresight they have is their political antennae and how the next soundbite will sound. Crikey.

/throws up hands in air and storms off

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}

have heard the 'poor' boaters this weekend. The fishermen I felt bad for, the huge SUV and power boat owners not so much.

Yes, I was truly saddened by photos of local yachters just sitting on their moored boats because they couldn't afford to take them out. NOT.

I have a boat, yessirree - a thirty-year-old 12' Sears fishing boat with an electric trolling motor and oars. I took it out on the river yesterday. It didn't cost a thing (apart from a lost $5 lure).

Notice that an anagram for "Denali" is "Denial"?

_{Turn back to the Constitution - and READ it.}

- eom

on a roll Escher :D

Ahem *cough*cough* [points discreetly here]

The Star

Here's an interesting overview of this essential subject from entitled "Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse" by William R. Clark
(Friday, August 5, 2005)

forgive me, but you're doing it wrong if that's the case. i'm an organic gardener, perhaps that's a difference between what we spend on our gardens. i don't spend nearly anything beyond ~2$ for each pack of seeds or plant sets. 2$ for a pack of bean seeds that produces 50 bush bean plants that produce a pound or more of beans is...assuredly cheaper than buying the same amount of already grown beans at the store. even the dried kind. tomatoes are another huge savings for me. i probably have ~200 tomato plants, most of them are flowering and some even have tomatoes ripening. and in the case of all but about 30 of those plants, they came up for free, volunteers from my mulch/compost pile that i decided to just go with the flow and grow. i'll have bushels of tomatoes by the end of the growing season. last year, with far fewer plants, i was able to can about 70 ball jars worth of them; i have yet to eat thru that supply.

results of the volunteer tomatoes. In my experience, it has been a very mixed bag.

to prepare your beds? Did you not install a watering system? Have you no special equipment? Rakes, shovels, starting trays, growing lights, timing devices to turn water off and on ... ? I don't have a well and have to pay the municipality for theirs. Water rates are getting increasingly more expensive.

If you're doing absolutely everything yourself and not buying anything except seed, then yes it is economical to grow your own. But I didn't want to devote the entire backyard to growing my own food. Didn't you buy speciality plants like asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, etc.? I did. And I set my garden up using an intensive gardening method: square foot design. Made raised beds. I do compost and don't buy any of it. The initial set-up was rather costly. My vining plants need supports that equipment had to be purchased. My tomatoes need cages and I cover fruits with netting to stop the birds from getting them. In the early part of the growing season, I use row covers to discourage pests and to prevent damping disease. One of my organic defences against disease is a product I have to buy, applied regularly at the first sign of plant distress.

Canning requires bottles, lids, a large pot, funnel, tongs, labels, and other canning supplies for making jams -- (additional are usually sugars and spices.) Expense for places and shelves to put your bottles after the canning is finished. Vinegars, oils, and salt are extras too.

Adding everything up, have never found gardening cheap--but the product raised is wonderful to eat and giving the excess away to friends and neighbours is an enjoyable experience for me. I just like being out in the fresh air and watching to see if bees are pollinating things like canteloupes and watermelons. When they aren't, I attempt to hand pollinate them which is kinda fun, using a brush for the short period they're open. I've learn heaps about different flowers and the ways in which pollination occurs with different plant varieties.

Can't say that the expense of growing my own garden was a factor. For me it's just an enjoyable hobby.

I was extremely late this year and didn't have the time to raise things from seeds. Am missing several crops in my raised beds.

Tires, for heat generation, I get for growing certain crops, are free from a local tire dealer. Betcha he would pay me disposal fees rather than at the dump for some of his larger diameter truck and tractor tires! :-) Netting supports from the tires last several seasons. It's one of the cheaper things to grow, but variable in the amount of fruit produced in my cold climate.

CSA=community-supported agriculture. Local small farmers take seasonal "subscriptions" and deliver a weekly (or so) box of produce during the season.

I grow the low-maintenance stuff, like tomatoes and zucchini myself and leave the leafy greens and touchier stuff to my CSA guy. Works great.