Trashed, Junkyard Planet, 90% of Everything -We have a lot to Think About

       C’mon on in – have  a cup of coffee. Thank you for your comments about the last Crunchy Granola blog on recycling. A lot of people commented to me in person about this really big issue (by the way, folks are welcome to join the conversation here at the blog-site).

        It seems there is a lot of garbage talk these days.The new documentary, Trashed by Candida Brady, hosted by actor, Jeremy Irons had a recent showing on the film festival circuit at the East Lansing Film Festival (ELFF). Trashed visually drives home the mess we are making with apparently little attempt to clean up after ourselves. One fact of this awful reality is that all of Toronto Canada trash is delivered across the Blue Water or Ambassador Bridge to our beautiful Michigan! Isn’t there enough room in Canada?

       Then along comes the Fresh Air radio interview on NationalPublic Radio with Adam Minter author of JunkyardPlanet in which Minter shows the seemingly ridiculous globalization of the multi-billion dollar business of trash. In Junkyard Planet we ship things like cardboard, steel, and Holiday lights to China and they ship it back to us in the form of new cardboard boxes and rolls of steel for steel things. Holiday lights go across the sea to China in what used to be empty containers to be stripped in factories (or small villages) for copper and fuel.

Sign of the times, recycle Holiday Lights, where does it go?

       Why don’t we just ship such things to industrial sites here in the U.S, you say. Apparently, because it is much cheaper to send the waste in container ships across the seas to be recycled. Strange world. Speaking of container ships carrying all this crap – Rose George has researched by living on a container ship and reported to us the world of container shipping in 90%of Everything. Ninety percent of our consumable desires are shipped to us in containers from someplace else, much of it recycled and reprocessed from our trash a few months before.

       Take a sip of your coffee. Catch your breath, but please, let’s keep talking. We cannot hide from this very important issue. I know. We are already overwhelmed by so many things – wars, weapons, natural devastation, health here, health there, successful vs failing schools, down to – do we have enough money to pay for a new roof, finding child care, intimate family concerns of life and death. 

       But listen, we have to keep trying. We have to make the cycle of consumable-to-trash an issue in our neighborhoods, our legislatures, our marketing decisions, our own personal paper-or-plastic-no-thank-you. It’s hard especially when innocent high school students are stuffing one product each in a plastic bag as they have been told and we are in the awkward moment of stopping them at the grocery checkout. We can join organizations that work toward environmental sanity, live thoughtfully about our use of products and their containers, we can teach our children to live less trashy.

       We have to try to do one thing a day, each of us individually, that will deter the tragedy of too much trash. Reminds me of Idiocracy. Though I didn’t like the movie at first, images of the Mike Judge movie Idiocracy continue to haunt my thinking about society's complacency and our future life with garbage.

        Our first Thanksgiving on the homestead is a luscious memory today. Described in  A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life (Amazon Kindle, $2.99), we prepared a meal of most of our own home and locally produced food, cooked on River Grandma's superior wood cook stove. I am so grateful for this memory of a very soft footprint from a special time in our lives. 

     

Thanks for stopping by.  

love, Helene

Come On Down to the Re Cycle Center

       About 25 years ago (gosh has it been that long), I worked with some conscientious people particularly Marsha and Jane. Marsha was director then of Community Action Agency in our small town and Jane was a bright community educator. At that time recycling meant haul your big appliance discards to the steel recyclers near the city dump for a little cash back, or get a few bucks for that end-of-the-line car.

       At the same time, during the 1980s, the chemical industry began presenting the consumer with a flood of plastic containers. We seemed to be suddenly inundated with plastics. The image of Dustin Hoffman’s wide-eyed Graduate taking advice from a business elder was correct – “one word,” the elder said in that classic film, “Plastics.”

      Marsha found a small grant to get household recycling at our local refuse center. Recycling required public education and close work with the municipal garbage collection. The concept of curbside recycling was still years away. Jane took on the task of encouraging folks to separate their recyclables and bring them to the Recycle Center. We even had a little radio ad,

“Come on down to the re cycle center,

 the re cycle center is the place to go. . .”  

       So, how are we doing with recycling since those days? Well, curbside recycling in most communities is helping; reuse of products have increased; even the production of products, particularly the plastics industry is apparently working toward less toxic, easier break down (vegetable based) of the final piece of plastic. We live near the campus of Michigan State University which is the size of a moderate city (48,000 students). Here dozens of situations are addressed by recycling and alternative energy use including the popular MSU Surplus Store where you can buy just about anything from a college campus.

       The MSU recycle center takes almost any non-food item except Styrofoam and electrics. Solar panels on the overhead lights secure the area, even the parking lot is designed to collect rainwater. Because this is a research university, valuable data is also part of the plan.

       How are we doing? I’m still worried, especially since the number of consumers has doubled since our little effort back then. It seems folks continue to buy lots of small plastic consumable products particularly for children and when empty, throw them in the garbage; several states still refuse to offer returnable bottle collection, multiple housing complex garbage collections are overloaded with cardboard boxes (easy to recycle) stuffed with Styrofoam (not so easy). One 3000 passenger cruise ship produces 8 tons of waste in one week

      How are we doing? Oh my, consider the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific gyre (Wikipedia). A “patch” of undeterminable items from nets and cruise ship garbage to a gazillion plastic bags – the whole thing is big, bobbing there in the waves, possibly, (are you sitting down?), the size of the continental United States. Good grief.

       What can we possibly do to stem the tide (pun intended) of our consumption and by-products? I guess work hard at being a conscientious consumer: bring your own washable bags for groceries (380 billion plastic bags a year are dumped by Americans), think about what will happen to the products we buy and eventually dispose of, teach our children by modeling a planet love conscience (it is the only home we have), encourage community recycling/reuse measures, and maybe join an earth caring organization.

       Our little back to the land decade described in A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life, taught us much about a low impact – canning, heating, conservation, making our own, but today, such a life style would be very difficult especially if we care about our collective lives on the planet.

Thanks for stopping by 

Love,

Helene

Ch-ch-ch changes

Musing over Granola         

         I made another batch of crunchy granola this week and thought about you. This upcoming autumn is harvest-bake-preserve-long walks time.  Time to imagine being a homesteader.

In that imagining, I also remember how busy we were, not only with the preparation for the next season rushing at us, but also raising a family, building a house constantly, and struggling to gather funds to help maintain the life we chose.

         It also reminded me of how the Times have changed so quickly (or so it seems). All my writing in those days were labored out of a typewriter, a non-electric typewriter with a little bottle of white acrylic on stand- by to make corrections. Do the many-steps to mail the story – take the package someplace with a copy machine, copy, stand in line at the post office:  include a return envelope – stamped – (a small assault to the psyche because we don’t want the manuscript returned, we want them to buy the thing!). Go home, file the copy and start another piece for another market. It might be six weeks before hearing from a story submission. Ah, those were the days.

       I like this much better. The changes have come so fast that I know our nostalgia repertoire is skipping over a few bumps in time that may never be acknowledged. No matter. In this brave new world we are looking forward culturally, looking for the next new thing instead of lingering in a land fill of old negatives. Maybe that is good. Maybe the new generations will expect change instead of being frustrated by it. Maybe they will reject traditions that drag us down to levels of oppression of others even those we love deeply. Everything from our social interactions and institutions to how we use our planet gifts are a big part of the shift. Maybe John Lennon’s Imagine foretold the happening.

        Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you are enjoying the richness of homemade crunchy granola. Hope you get a chance to read the book – A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life, Amazon e-book, cheap 2.99.

Love, Helene 

Fade out to sounds in the kitchen

Basil Pesto, Dried Herbs, Garden Delights

       Ah, Summer. Summer. Summer. For folks in the upper parts of the country this is a good one – temperate, sunny, and bountiful, so bountiful. Whether you have your own garden or use one of the fine local

Marjorie of Stone Cloud Gardens at Meridian Farmers Market

farmer’s markets, I hope you enjoy the color, shapes, smells and glorious beauty of it all (Marjorie, pictured here, has a versatile product line for the farm markets in mid-Michigan, we love her soaps).

       Over the years of our homestead days I learned a few tricks about the garden’s savory flavors. Here are a few ways that taste wonderful now and once dried will last well into winter:

A quick basil pesto:

One bunch of dark green lush leaves from a bouquet, 4 or 5 stems, of sweet basil

One garlic clove, (a teaspoon of dried garlic granules can substitute)

About one and a half tablespoons of ground parmesan cheese

¼ cup of good olive oil

Put all of these ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Store the spread in a small glass jar and refrigerate. The spread will last a few days before turning brown.

You can freeze some pesto in small containers. I even heard of some folks freezing ice cubes of pesto for future use.

Pesto is deliciously flavorful in salads, sandwiches, mixed with other compatible spreads such as cream cheese or mayonnaise. Mmm this stuff is great. You will find a lot of other recipes for other leaf pesto such as mint (without the garlic or cheese, for recipes go to our friend who was not around during our homestead decade – google.com). Some pesto recipes include chopped pine nuts, cashews or walnuts. This is a fine summer treat, so easy to make.

Dried herbs:

All leaves of selected herbs can be dried and stored individually, but you might find mixing some dried leaves for special dishes such as Italian Spices can be ground in a mortar bowl and stored together in a spice jar:

Basil, Oregano, rosemary, and I like to add dried mint leaves.

I also have a jar of celery leaves dried which adds good flavor to winter soups and stew when I don’t have any celery. 

I dry small amounts of herb leaves in a dish on the window sill for a few days before crunching them down. For a bigger project I bind the stems of herbs like Oregano upside down to dry then pull the leaves over paper later. Drying to preserve is easy and lasts a long time in glass containers.

One more: if you love the smell of lavender and you have a nice piece of this heavenly plant in your landscaping or garden, you may want to gather the dried on-the-stem blossoms and store them in small decorative gauze bags (see hobby stores wedding section) to adorn holiday packages or other gift use.

Summer is such a good time to prepare foods without much fuss. I hope you enjoy these. If you are in need of a good laugh and an interesting story, please check out A Homestead Decade – How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life, 2.99, Amazon e-book for kindle or most other electronic devices. If you really enjoy it, please let other folks know about the book. Thanks so much.

Best wishes, 

Helene

How to Get Rid of Ticks!

       Last week my husband was bitten by something that left a red ring on his arm. A pin point in the center of the ring caused some concern that the bite may have the lingering effects of some mysterious outbreak.

       The event reminded me of the season we had a sudden population explosion of ticks. We had long before given up farm animals to work other jobs. It was just us and our dog, Amos. All of us had to do body checks every time we went outdoors collecting ticks and putting them in jars with alcohol swabs.

       We did not want to spray poisons around the homestead for many reasons – we didn’t want to track poison in the house, test our sensitivities, or kill other creatures. For the same reason we did not want to spread chemicals on our bodies and tamper with our first line of defense, our skin.

       We mentioned this conundrum in conversation with our 90 year old elder who smiled wisely at us and suggested we get a couple of chickens. It turns out that ticks and their eggs are like candy to chickens. This information was not mentioned in any of our new world research.

       We purchased four young Rock Island Red hens and prepared a small shelter for them with all the comforts of a chicken home, then just let them do their job. They rustled around in the grass during the day, clucking gossip with each other and dutifully returned to their little straw bedded cabin for the evening. We felt a sense of calmness coming back as we watched these beautiful little birds join our family interactions. They ate vigorously and we kept our promise to care for them.

       We had left the country life behind to join a world where we were too busy, we thought, to manage the care of land and animals. Yet the sweetness of our shared bond with these chickens brought back a feeling of belonging that was also left behind. Within days the ticks disappeared. We enjoyed a comfortable summer that year. Now we live where chickens are forbidden. Too bad. We learned a special lesson then that all of us are in a constant state of conscientious balance as we try to tread lightly on this earth.

       As for the chickens, we gave them to farm friends for the winter knowing that the next year would be safely bite free by the good work of our Tick Swat Team.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be writing in more often, so please check back soon.

Happy summer,

Helene

CRUNCHY GRANOLA RECIPE AND WRITING BOOKS

       I’m sitting here eating crunchy granola, really, and thinking about my writing life. Over the years, I’ve written news articles, grant proposals, lots of letters. During our early days I wrote articles for education magazines and city newspapers – how to build a nature trail, country advice on how to get rid of warts (!). The writing, though, that makes me feel like a real writer has been fiction.

       Mmm this stuff is good, easy to make and tasty even after all these years of using that recipe (see below). As for books,  I had a lot of fun writing the little memoir of our early days living in the country described in A Homestead Decade, HowCrunchy Granola Changed My Life, (I hope you enjoyed it, Amazon, cheap, $2.99).

       Those sweet homestead years were one small moment in a lush life. I also had the honor to work some very interesting and meaningful jobs – child abuse prevention, kinship care, and coordinating collaboration projects with community human service agencies. Some of the haunting experiences from those jobs have dragged the mind of this writer through a maze of characters and events. As a result I wrote a softcover book, A Kinship Guide to Rescuing Children for Grandparents and Other Relatives As Parents.

       After leaving community services to enter the next great adventure of this life, I found a pressing desire to go back to the satisfaction of writing fiction (not the vampire kind). First up - another book, a short fiction, just published on Amazon’s Kindle: …NOW AM FOUND, a road trip of sorts about a woman and a boy surviving the first weeks after a murder/suicide in the family. The story is not morose. Instead a bond of love and humor thread through the characters until the epiphany that life does go on for survivors even after tragedy.

       If you decide to read … NOW AM FOUND, I greatly appreciate any comments or review you may have on Amazon (particularly if you like it – I have a fragile ego).  You might even enjoy a bowl of your freshly made Crunchy Granola while you are reading. How’s that for a perk? Here’s the recipe from A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life. Enjoy!!

Helene’s Crunchy Granola

       In a big bowl mix 8 cups of quick rolled oats with a few tablespoons of other healthy grains – wheat bran, ground flax seeds, wheat germ. These add a nice protein boost. Never add bulgur, it turns into iron stones during the baking. You may want to add shelled sunflower seeds or other chopped nuts to your liking. I like quick oats because it crisps up nicely and soaks up milk easily. Set the bowl aside.

       Get a suitable baking pan. These days I use my old cast iron fryer. We used to use a blue enameled roaster when we had the children home. Increase proportions of ingredients to fit your pan size.
Get the oven ready at 250 degrees. Crunchy Granola is more toasted than baked.

       Lightly heat the pan over a burner then pour enough oil to cover ¼ inch deep on the surface. I use olive oil (for almost everything), other oils, I hear, make a nice crispy coat on the grains.

       Add about 3 tablespoons of honey, a tablespoon of black molasses, a teaspoon of vanilla. You can add or substitute other sweeteners at this point, such as maple syrup.

       As the oil mixture heats and starts to bubble, stir the wet ingredients, then slowly add the dry ingredients stirring to coat all the grains. Turn off the heat and continue to stir until the grains are coated with the sweetened oil.

       Put the pan in the low heat oven to toast the granola for about 30 minutes. Carefully stir the mixture a couple of times during the toasting process.

Let cool. And enjoy! Store the granola in glass jars.

Thanks for stopping by.

Helene (author of above linked books)

SPRING!

Spring forward or upward or in a little flip powered by a rear twist. Spring like a baby lamb or a new little goat, give it all you’ve got! It’s spring!!

Oh, the joy of it, Nature’s grand and colorful orgy. The parade of colors from purple crocus to yellow daffodils to red tulips to profuse white and pink blossoms kissing our faces as they are released on an early evening breeze.

Get the earth ready for seeds, lots of seeds, it’s garden time! Little pots on the table at the South window bear witness to the miracle with tiny tender greens bursting out of their tough seed shells, growing taller right before our eyes warning the time is almost here to be planted. Check the weather reports, the perfect warm day free of frost (we hope) is almost here. Now! Go for it! Join the party! It’s Spring!

Hope you enjoy this wonderful time.

Glad you stopped by and as always if you haven't already, please check the book on Amazon: A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life.

Love,

Guess what this is !

Helene

 

From Metaphor to Reality of LOST

Have you ever been lost? I know in today’s world speaking of being lost is often the metaphor of choice for trying to navigate our way through a complex culture. I used this metaphor many times but never really appreciated its impact until once when I was seriously, physically, lost.

We thought we would take a walk through a park, Petroglyph Park, in Michigan’s thumb area. The park at that time was a rough wilderness with overgrown paths and unmarked trails. Woods were easier than fields. We found some objects identifying the messages of elders long gone - a stone circle, rough hewn images on rocks. No other visitors to the park came our way. At one point we sat on the ground to rest, when my good man decided he had to use the outhouse about 15 minutes behind us.

I said I would wait for him here at the convergence of the field with the woods. He was gone a very long time. I knew we had somehow broken our memorized path for reconnection. I inched my way in the direction of path he took consciously trying to establish land marks. This was supposed to be just a little walk. We brought nothing with us but our happy selves. No compass (though I’m not sure I ever accomplished learning its use), no water, no tools.  

I began to move farther down the path calling to him. In just a few minutes I increased my pace and my call, feeling for the first time – lost. I checked the sun, mid afternoon. Calling his name loudly now, I wondered just how far the range of my voice would reach. In the moments of silence I could hear car tires humming on asphalt in a distance. I began to question myself about where we were when we started. Calling again, louder still, but there was no response.

A thumping of anxiety began to send adrenaline through me to alert the cells of impending danger. Walking and calling, clapping, trying to make as much noise as I could, I wondered, Why doesn't anyone hear me? What if I am taking the wrong path? I even began to question our relationship (which I knew was stronger than this encroaching fear), still the curious thoughts like little devils taunted me, What if . . .

When we saw each other, we hugged, he anxiously asked why I didn't answer his calls, we chattered about the feeling, the intense confusing feeling of actually being lost. Now when I claim being lost such as in a jungle of techno-speak or financial percentages, I think of that summer afternoon, a weary sun starting to set and I remember  understanding the questioning and frustration of truly being lost.

Friends, I love sharing the experiences of life and hope you may encourage your circle of friends to consider reading A Homestead Decade - How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life, Amazon Kindle, (though it can be read on almost any digital device), cheap - $2.99.

Thanks for stopping by,

affectionately,

Helene

Kindle, I-Pad, the New Books - READ!

        Today I read that in 2006 there were 7,000 published e-books and in 2011 there were 87,000 authors publishing their own e-books. Wow. The technology of book publishing for the e-reader has democratized the anxious need to tell a story. Authors no longer have to wait months on end for a word, encouraging or devastating, from a big publishing house where busy “readers” plow through endless manuscripts in the “slush pile”. When the word is rejecting, the author tries another publishing house and waits again for months in the same game. Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss, reportedly endured 27 rejections before his wildly wonderful To Think That It Happened on Mulberry Street was finally accepted. The first criteria of acceptance by the big publishers has been money; how much of the market share will a book provide? But most writers just want to share an instruction or tell a good story.

Those who were brave enough, or financially able to by-pass the publisher and print their own book had to also endure the public stigma of not passing the literary judgment of the big houses indicating the work is not really worthy reading. The century old power of the publishing industry controlled the market for stories until this fantastic digital revolution.

          We are humans, after all, and telling stories is as much a part of us as preparing a meal. As we get older we have a big collection of stories including favorites that we like to tell as often as possible, or so my kids tell me. Not all of us write our story, however, which reaches a wider audience and gives a sense of permanency.

       The e-book format not only allows a much greater number of authors the opportunity to share their work, but readers experience a much easier way to read more stories (or personally reject undesirable work instead of depending on a distant editor). The e-book is cheaper to publish and should be cheaper to read, though some publishers still grip e-book sales with higher prices. The books are environmentally friendly, no trees are sacrificed, much less oil is consumed in delivery, and storage/discard is minimal. The reading itself can be managed to the comfort of tired eyes. Both publishing and purchasing are incredibly fast. Literally speaking, we are living in exciting times.

       I published AHomestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life based on  encouragement from those who listened to our “back-to-the-land” stories. We chose the e-book format because producing was made easy by Kindle Direct Publishing, we could keep the price low ($2.99), and readers could get the book instantly through Amazon. So far we are very satisfied. We do have some folks who want a printed copy and we are working on that, which has also been easier through the new publishing of print on demand.

            If you haven’t had a chance to read the Crunchy Granola book please check out a sample copy for free at Amazon.com. You can read any of the e-books on a great electronic reader like Kindle or on most tablets, cell phones, computers, one friend even read hers on a tiny little MP3 player. My, my. I appreciate all the reviews and personal comments. Thanks for sharing and don’t forget to eat your granola.

Love,

Helene 

Guindon Responds with a New Year Greeting

After I published the blog on getting organized I received a lovely greeting from Richard Guindon himself and he has given me permission to share with you. If only we can construct a great new year. As for my getting back to work - so far so good.

Best to you all,
Helene

Guindon Encourages Me to Get Organized!

     It’s January and I’m trying to “get organized”, You know what that means: determination, frustration, dawdling. Where to start, of course and that is with the priorities. I think about a cartoon by the Detroit cartoon artist, Guindon, called something like, “The Task”. In four small panels he began The Task as a little lump in the corner of the room, while his funny little character procrastinated. As the panels progressed so did The Task until it turned into a full grown monster filling the room and terrorizing the character. I get it. Getting Organized means getting at that annoying task before it becomes unmanageable and even something that could consume the procrastinating character living inside me.

     The presence of a new year with its goals and resolutions can be helpful – new clean calendars, new files for all the business of our new year, and hopefully for us who live in the cold slow northern winter, Time to accomplish the task of organizing.

     It starts with tax receipts and gathering the important papers for taxes. But we still haven’t cleaned the corners and surfaces and behind the faucets and the floors all trashed from a busy holiday season. Okay that done, let’s set up the tax table and start in. Wait, just a moment, the seed catalogs have come in. We have to spend a little time dreaming . . . sigh . . . lovely flowers, clever vegetable stands for very very small gardens. I do miss the big garden of our crunchy granola days.

     As garden dreams begin to fade I find myself staring at the little black folding table that I put near the computer about two hours ago. What’s that for? I ask myself briefly, uh-oh The Task is growing. And so it goes. All the data from our income will be organized and sent to our able tax accountant, but maybe one more cup of coffee, one more granola bar, one more moment to linger on garden days.

Wishing you a great new year and smooth path through your ominous tasks.

Helene

Author of A Homestead Decade - How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life