Greyhound Bus

Today I'm going home! That's San Diego these days. I've been away for the past 3 months, hitch hiking up the coast of California into Oregon, then I took the bus to Texas and came to Missouri with my parents. I'm so ready to go back to San Diego and settle into a place for the winter, probably longer. Nothing excites me more right now than thinking about the garden that I started with my friends in Vista. It was nothing but a big flattened out piece of dirt with no top soil, and we have slowly been adding compost, manure, and straw to build up the soil so we can grow on it. When I left, we didn't have much besides herbs, succulents, and a few strawberries and spinach. Last I talked to my buddy Ricky, things are going really well there! So great to hear. A chicken coop was in the works when I left, so there could very well be chickens pecking around by now! All I want to do is find a place to camp nearby, wake up every morning to some raw breakfast, and bike over to the garden to work with my SD family. Nothing sounds better.

I'll be getting on the Greyhound bus at 1:45pm today, arriving in San Diego at 5:45am Wednesday... that's a long ass bus ride, but I'm ready for it! Brought a bunch of granola, bananas, whole grain graham crackers, organic peanut butter, and plenty of agua. It's a beautiful trip through the desert of the southwest, one of my favourite places. Bon voyage!

Crude: Texaco's Contamination in Ecuador

This is clip from the movie Crude talking about the contamination in Ecuador caused by Texaco. Watch the whole movie when you have time, it's very eye opening. All oil companies are shameful and heartless. The main thing you can do about this problem? Ride your bike, walk, or use public transportation. Every you time you skip using your car is a few less dollars for a big oil company and money is the only thing they listen to.

Etsy COUPON Code!

For all of you loyal blog readers, I have a coupon for you to use at my etsy store! The code is "BEETS" and it will give you a 10% discount on any order, just in time for your holiday shopping. Happy times!

How to Make GRANOLA

Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

4 cups Oats

1 cup Flax Seeds

1/2 cup Sliced Almonds

1/2 cup Honey

2 tbsp Blackstrap Molasses

1/4 cup Coconut Milk

2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup Golden Raisins

1/2 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)

Step 1 - In a bowl, mix the oats, flax seeds, and almonds together. In another bowl, mix together honey, molasses, coconut milk, and cinnamon.

Step 2 - Cook the syrup mixture on the stove for a few minutes so everything mixes together real nice.

Step 3 - Add the syrup to the dry stuffs and mix it all up.

Step 4 - Grease a pan with canola oil or coconut oil, whatever you prefer, and spread the granola evenly around the pan. I set the over to 295 and let it bake for about an hour. Every 15 minutes or so, shift the granola around the pan so it gets evenly baked.

Step 5 - When it's done, let it cool and put it back in a bowl to add the raisins and craisins to the mix. Now it's ready to eat!



October 5, 2010

The following is my first journal entry in my official travel journal that I got from one of my rides while I was hitch hiking. It was my first hitch hiking trip and every single day of it was absolutely incredible. We saw incredible places, met awesome people, and I learned a lot about myself.

October 5, 2010
I just woke up on the shore of Bolinas, otherwise known as Bobo by some folks. We had to get out of the city yesterday, too much time in the city. It was a great time though, bluegrass music all weekend. We took the bus over the Golden Gate Bridge to the much more beautiful side, Marin County. From there we were picked up by a dark haired, angular featured young man who took us to his house in Mount Hill, or I think that was the name of it. He gave us some much needed maps of Northern California and Oregon which he had from his recent 2 week hitch hiking trip to Portland. He also gifted us with trail mix, natural bug spray, pens, and this notebook the he never even used. He recommended the tiny little surf town, Bolinas, and so did Trevor who rode his bike passed us on the corner. "Just be like YO GOIN TO BO BO!" It wasn't long before we got a ride from a very pleasant, well-spoken older gentleman who followed an ex-wife here and never left. Originally from Ireland, but spending much of his life in England and the US, he had a wonderful accent. He works in "show biz" doing anything he can to make some money, but his true love is the independent radio station which he reads books on. The station has political talk shows and local bands.

This tiny town was absolutely amazing to get to and has proven to be a place of real character. IT's located just to the north of the San Andreas fault line on the Pacific plate. The San Andrea is (the rains in Oregon got my journal wet and this part smudged) the earth, 2 huge plates knocking up against one another for thousands or maybe millions of years, which created the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the recent century though, the Pacific and North American plates haven't been pushing against eachother, but rubbing together and while the North American plate is staying in place, the Pacific plate is being pushed further north. Where the water meets the fault is stunning... kind of like this.

This doesn't even begin to depict how amazing it is. The trees have gotten bigger (smuuuuudge) grow the further north we go. Impressive conifers alongside oaks and coastal scrub habitat. The winding road of Highway 1 along this much preserved coastline astonishes me daily.


I brought a camera with me for the trip, but unfortunately I forgot the charger and ran out of battery a few days into it! The pictures are in my mind and here's a picture of Bolinas I found online:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Bolinas_California_aerial_view.jpg

http://savewildanimalsnow.org/P1010601_800x600.jpg



More entries from my travels are in the future, stay tuned!

My Etsy Shop!




http://www.etsy.com/shop/DezDino





Raw Flax Seed Pancakes Recipe

Banana Flax Seed Pancakes

makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup flax seed meal

1 banana

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

honey or agave syrup

Optional Ingredients:

(choose 1 or many)

dried berries (raisins, cranberries, etc.)

oats

granola

marmalade or preserves

peanut butter

Pour the flax seed meal, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl or food processor. Peel the banana and add to bowl of meal in pieces. If you are using just a bowl, mush up the banana with a fork and mix into the flax seed meal until it's pretty consistent. Add the honey or agave and mix up some more.

I like to mix granola or oats and berries into the mixture, then add my homemade preserves or some organic PB on top. It tastes kind of like a holiday pie. Delicious, full of fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals! Gluten free, too.

Save Indonesia

Indonesia is made up of many small islands including Borneo and Malaysia, and account for 10% of the world's rainforest covering 260 million acres. In the past 32 years alone, 99 million acres have been destroyed. Annually an average of 6.2 million acres are being destroyed, but the number is increasing.

[www.greenthefilm.com]

Companies that support Indonesian rainforest destruction: Cargill, Lowe's, Georgia Pacific, The Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark, Procter & Gamble, Cargill, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kraft, ConAgra, Johnson & Johnson, WalMart, Hershey, Kroger, Albertson's, Safeway, Costco, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Burger King, McDonald's, Estee Lauder, Sara Lee, Kellogg's, Starbucks, and MANY MORE. 

Be a conscious consumer. 

Questions to answer before you buy -
Where was it made?
How was it made?
What is it made of?
How were the workers treated?
How was the land treated?

16 Workers Die Per Day

[www.16deathsperday.com]

In America, 16 people are killed on the job every day and 160 people died today and every day from occupational illnesses. The safety and health regulations for the workplace are extremely lacking. Out of the 30 million employers that exist in the U.S.A., only 5 million of them even report to OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This is the federal agency that oversees enforcement of health and safety legislation [www.osha.gov]. On average, an employer's median fine for a worker death is $3,700, but workers rarely get taken to court at all.

As a citizen of this country, each of us has the power to do something about this. To many of us, these days it seems like the government no longer works for the people... but if we lose hope, change will never happen. Our senators and congressmen work for us, they are the voice of the mass population because we live in a democracy. There is an act that was introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy in April 2004 and it is well overdue. Contact your congressman and tell them it's time to protect America's workers.



A lot of these deaths are due to chemicals in the environment they work in. Take the salon industry for example - nail salons and hair salons use all kinds of chemicals all the time, from nail polish to hairspray to the disinfectants they use. Some of the chemicals include:

Dibutyl Phtalate
[http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ingredient.php?ingred06=701929]
nail polish \  nail treatment \ cuticle treatment
causes negative reproductive outcomes (organ system toxicity), allergies, cancer, endocrine disruption, is neurotoxic, and will accumulate over time in the body

Formaldehyde
[http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ingredient/706587/TOSYLAMIDE%3B%3B_FORMALDEHYDE_RESIN/]
disinfectant \ nail polish \ styling gel
causes cancer, asthma, and reproductive toxicity

Toluene aka Benzyl Alcohol
[http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ingredient/700697/BENZYL_ALCOHOL/]
nail polish \ hair color \ facial moisturizer \ body wash \ mascara
causes cancer, asthma, reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, instant irritation of eyes, lungs, and skin

These three chemicals are knows as the "toxic 3" and little research has been done to find out if there are any synergistic effects of these ingredients in our bodies.

In this country, the FDA loosely regulates the food we eat and we're finding out more and more that there are many problems with our food system even with those regulations. The chemicals that are used in cosmetics, household cleaners, and body products, however, are not regulated at all. Many of the products we use every day in the shower, to do our laundry, brush our teeth, or wash our face have chemicals that can build up in our systems over time and cause an array of health problems. These chemicals can build up in our environments as well and cause an imbalance in soil, water, and air which can harm people and animals as well.

You have the power to make educated decisions about the products you use and be a healthy, informed consumer. Reading the label and finding out what all of those strange sounding ingredients are is the most important thing you can do. To be safe, if you don't know what it is - don't buy it. Your decision effects your personal health as well as the health of Mother Earth.

Impeach Obama?

All of these people are saying that we should get rid of Obama because he's getting nothing done. This is my response to that way of thinking:

If Obama got impeached, who do you think would be the next president? America doesn't vote for environmentalists. America votes for big oil. I agree that Obama hasn't lived up to anything he's said at all, he's sold out to every company with dollar sign eyes. As Americans, we cannot rely on the government and we cannot rely on companies, we can only rely on ourselves. There are tons of things each individual here and at every corner of the world can do to fight big oil. It starts with out wallets.

Buy local, especially local food. Shop at the farmers market where food is grown 30 miles away, or go to the actual farm itself. Large scale agriculture relies so heavily on oil in every sense of it from fertilization (ammonium nitrate) to pesticides to packaging (plastic=oil) to transportation. Farm to plate the average meal travels 1500 miles.

Stop using plastics. Start easy and don't use any plastic shopping bags or bottled beverages or styrofoam containers. Bring your own bag, your own bottle, your own reusable take home container. Then take a bigger step and vow to not by anything that comes in plastic. Stop using "regular" household cleaning products, haircare, lotion, etc. There are very basic ingredients that can be used to do everything around your house. Vinegar kills mold and disinfects so it pretty much cleans everything. Mix it with lots of lemon or lime juice to make it smell nice and the acidity helps remove grease, etc. too.

Most important, ride your bike walk and use public transit if it's available. Stop driving so much! If you're going 5 miles away, take your bike. Before going anywhere, ask yourself if you really need to drive. Put trips together into one big trip rather than going out 3 times a day.

Don't produce so much waste. I'm weening myself off of all city controlled waste pick up, eventually I plan on having no waste taken at all but currently I still have about a 1/2 crate of recyclables a week and one small bag of trash between the three of us in my household. Start a compost to efficiently repurpose food waste. Throw all your used paper in the compost, unless there's a lot of colored ink. If you cook from scratch, this vastly decreases packaging waste.

The possibilities are endless. It's up to us to fight against this ugly consumerism that depends so heavily on oil and coal. It isn't sustainable and we don't have to live like this.

BP Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales

A man flies over the Gulf and documents just how horrendous the situation is. All the burning is doing nothing but damage to the atmosphere and the animals. What the hell is wrong with the people in charge? Why hasn't the government intervened more. There ARE ways to fix all of the problems going on. Solar power, wind power, hemp as fuel, ridding ourselves of plastics and this DISPOSABLE SOCIETY most of us live in.

Raised NO-TILL Garden

[How-To]

raised garden : no till farming style

Growing an organic garden is one of the most rewarding things to spend your time doing. Food is the energy that keeps our bodies alive and moving, feeding your body right gives you an abundance of energy and creates a healthy living system. 

Food = Life

What you will need to make an 8ft x 8ft bed:

• Newspaper (without too much color, no glossy paper)
• 5 trash bags full or 1 bale of hay, alfalfa is perfect
• 6-8 cubic feet of compost
• 6-8 cubic feet of AGED manure (chicken, steer, goat... whatever you can find)
• Wood, stones, cinder blocks - anything that holds the raised bed in place

Raised bed designs:

Step 1:
Soak newspaper in a bucket of water (or spray with the hose as you go and lay down covering the entire raised bed, 3-5 sheets thick depending on the amount of weeds, and layer them covering about 1/3 of each sheet with the next sheet. This keeps the weeds down and will break down into the soil giving it carbon. Glossy paper doesn't break down very well and has chemicals that are no bueno, as does colored ink.

Step 2:
Put up the barrier of wood or stone, whatever you are using, so your raised bed doesn't shift around over time. There are tons of great ways to set up the bed and you definitely don't have to make your bed 8ft x 8ft. If you do make it that large, you will need to put some stones throughout before you build the bed so you have something to stand on. One factor in the no-till method is that you should never step on the bed, so you never disturb the natural factors at play beneath the surface of the soil.

Step 3:
Start your first layer of manure, which should be about 2" thick. You may be able to find free manure if you live near any dairy or egg farmers, but make sure the animals are eating grass and weeds, not grain fed. If you get it from a local farm, ask if they have any that is already aged, otherwise you'll have to let it age for at least 3 months but it depends on where it is and how it's maintained. Once the manure is ready, it will be a very soft soil texture and won't have a smell. Otherwise, you can buy steer manure from a local nursery, but not all nurseries have it available so call first. Water thoroughly.

Step 4:
Layer 2" of hay, alfalfa, straw, or even dead leaves and branches will work. Water thoroughly.

Step 5:
Layer 2" of compost high in green matter ie. vegetable waste, fruit peels, fresh leaves, etc. It should say on the compost bag what was used to make it. Green matter provides a high nitrogen content.

Step 6:
Keep layering until you have a nice, thick bed. The last layer should be compost, then top with some straw as mulch.

Step 7:
Plant stuff!

Best Guacamole

I'm not the type to withhold a recipe if I have a great one. I want people love their food as much as I love mine in hopes that people will hold it up to the freshest standards because it's the BEST! Farmers Markets mmmm... here's a pictures of some fresh farmers market goodies I'd like to share with you:

GUACAMOLE - serves 5ish

3 ripe avocados [fresh from the Farmers Market, if they have Pinkerton - do it!]

1 medium tomato or several small tomatoes, homegrown are so fabulous and easy

3 huge garlic cloves

1 whole lime

a bunch of cilantro

some chopped onion or green onion

3 chili peppers, jalapeno, or serano.. whatever you like, spicier the better for me :)

Mmm chop it mix it glob it BA-da-Bing

Note to self - upload some tasty pictures.

PS those are homebrews made by my lover, with my assistance of course.

Coolest thing I've seen lately:

SEEDBOMB DISPENSERS

Boycott at Arco

On Saturday, June 26th, Harrison and I walked to the train station to catch a train to my scheduled BP boycott at the Arco off College Blvd.. a 2 mile walk from the station. That morning we joined hands at Hands Across the Sand in Oceanside between lifeguard station 1 and 6, more than 100 people were in line I'm sure. The whole day was spectacular. When we got on the train, we bumped into Gabriel from La Milpa Organica (and another dude, Raul maybe). I sat with Gabe, showed him pictures of the mobilization, we got to talking and decided to boycott then go to Gianni's Pizza together where the ingredients are always fresh and LOCAL! Gianni's has the best effin pizza I've ever had, for real. The freshness makes all the difference. We got one person who pulled into the Arco station to turn around and go to a different station. 1 person who may not ever go to an Arco again and might tell her friends and family that Arco = BP = evil. Who knows?

 I was holding a broom and sweeping the concrete to get attention and because BP NEEDS TO CLEAN UP THE SPILL!!!

Hands Across the Sand

Hands Across the Sand

a mobilization - no to oil drilling, yes to clean energy

I am so thrilled that this is only ONE of the MANY events that went on in San Diego County!!! In just one tiny little piece of all the coastal cities that came together and even cities in the central regions of the United States, we peacefully held hands, and asked politely "can we please have clean energy now? we would like to stop polluting our oceans and our skies with carbon dioxide emissions." You wanted America to show you what they want and President Obama, this is just the beginning.

BP Boycott

I'm doing a BP Boycott this Saturday, same day as Hands Across the Sand so hopefully I'll have a good turn out. Here is the information if you live in San Diego - it will be in Oceanside.


http://www.meetup.com/HuffPostGreen/7903/


 Little babies with oil on their feathers.



These guys are being taken somewhere to get cleaned up, but even so the birds rarely make it since they've ingested so much oil trying to preen themselves... oil is toxic.



Once a White Ibis.




The oil is everywhere and the dispersants that are being used to make a lot of the oil sink has already killed 25% of marine life below 500 feet, as a test constructed by the EPA found. What more can we do to this planet? Let's get off of oil. Natural gas is no better.

Thanks to the Huffington Post for the photographs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/gulf-oil-spill-photos-ani_n_560813.html#s98947

GUERILLA GARDENING escapade einz

Upon arriving to San Diego with my lover last October, I started doing many new ecologically wonderful things. We started our organic garden and we have grown from lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower to just about everything - from beets and carrots to tomatoes and peppers to all sorts of herbs, beans, squash, and the list goes on. Around this same time I also began learning about succulents and just how easy many of them are to grow from cuttings, so out I went night after night all kinds of stealth on my teal/orange bicycle clipping succulents around the neighborhood.

So I have this mass collection of all kinds of wonderful drought tolerant plants now in all sorts of places, the gift just keeps on giving. Now I feel the need to give back. Around my neck of the woods, there are many plots of dirt covered in weeds and trash that just look so sad and worthless. Wouldn't it be lovely to see beautiful plants in all shapes and sizes that need little to no water decorating the streets? That's what I thought... so I adopted my first. It's off the 78 going into my neighborhood and step one was cleaning it up. Tons of cigarette butts, trash, hubcaps, boxes, and bags. After the cleaning was done I recruited my boyfriend to help plant the little fellas and off we went. The dirt patch of nastyness turned into this:

I look a little ragged... so do the succulents at the moment, but it's a work in progress and I've barely scratched the surface of that weedy ground! We mainly put in jade, but there are couple natives from Catalina, an island off the coast of California as well as a native of San Diego county. Soon I'll be cloning native plants like mallow and sage for guerilla gardening galore!

BP News update...

This may not be an update for those of you following the spill. It makes my heart cry to see the pictures of dead animals, but makes me REALLY pissed off is that workers for BP, the Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife Services... all these people are hauling millions more of the oil covered creatures out in boats away from the spill and throwing them away somewhere so no one can see how terrible the damage really is.

No press is allowed on public beaches all along the Gulf Coast. No workers are allowed to speak to reporters or anyone about what's going on. PEOPLE ARE GETTING ARRESTED just for having cameras on the beaches. Where is our freedom of speech? Why is there such a massive cover-up? The new estimated amount of oil spilling into the Gulf daily = 50,000 - 60,000 BARRELS of oil PER DAY!!!

Here's a cool idea though:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/11/19/cleaning-up-an-oil-spill-with-hair-and-mushrooms/

When an oil spill occured in San Francisco in 2007, it was cleaned up with hair and mushrooms. The mushrooms literally eat the hair and oil and digest it making ... oyster mushrooms. Paul Stemets, help us save the world!

BP Oil Spill Underwater

Just because the spill is slowing down, doesn't mean it's over. There is no end in sight.

End the Addiction

There is a war being waged against nature and the fact is, it isn't necessary. Think for a moment about what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico. This large body of water that is home to an innumerable amount of marine life including fish, dolphins, whales, all kinds of microscopic organisms necessary to keep everything else alive. By BP's estimates there are 5000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, of oil leaking into the gulf each day and by that low estimate that means at least 7.77 million gallons have leaked to date. BP has resisted any efforts to accurately measure the spill because in their words it is "not relevant to the response effort," stated in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/us/16oil.html).  In other words, the corporate goliaths at BP want to keep the average American in the dark so we won't care as much since this could clearly be a huge blow to Big Oil who heavily funds the people running the American government. The amount of oil that is scientifically thought to be leaking from the well is over 1 million gallons every day totaling over 37 millions gallons to date, three times more than was spilled from the Exxon Valdez accident which killed 100,000 sea birds, 22 orcas, 2,800 sea otters, and the list goes on. So three times the amount of oil and it's not stopping anytime soon. This is a crime against nature, it's ecological genocide if you think about it. Why is BP investigating their own crime? We don't let murderers do that in a court of law so this doesn't make any sense to me. The newest effort to stop flow has just begun not even 24 hours ago and we won't know if it is working for a day at least. BP calls it "Top Kill" and what they are doing is trying to plug the leak with 50,000 barrels of mud. We'll see how that works out... and you can watch the progress unfold here: Top Kill.

Dear American People,
We can stop being such massive oil consumers in simple ways that will only enhance our way of life. Oil is dirty to extract, poisonous to inhale, and dirtying the planet which we need to survive. We must rid ourselves of habits like plastic, junk food, and most of the things we buy at the grocery store and get back to basics. Boycotting oil is the most important way to end this ecological genocide and it is easy to do from your own home. Most people need to drive their cars to get from A to B and I understand that, because I'm in the same boat. We aren't given the options that exist, to power our cars with little to know damage to the environment with water or wind. But while there are a few things that will be hard to change, there are many things that are super easy and realistic:

1. 10% of oil consumption in the USA goes toward making plastic, a non-renewable resource that is creating massive dumps in our oceans called gyres. Quit using plastic bags, bottled water, and buying single use containers. Instead use a sturdy reusable bag (not the kind you get from a grocery store, but a well-made cloth one). Buy a filter for your tap which even without the filter is regulated FAR more than bottled water is and most bottled water comes straight from a tap anyways. Instead of buying single use containers, make meals at home which saves money and saves your health. Fast food is killing Americans by giving them heart disease, diabetes, and cancer to name a few. It's cheap and easy to eat healthy, which brings me to my next point -

2. Food in this country on average travels 1,500 miles from "farm" to plate and I use the word farm lightly. That's halfway across the country and for what reason do we do this? You can grow food anywhere in the country very easilly, farming is not a difficult task. Buying food locally offsets an incredible amount of oil consumption and once you start doing it, you'll realize all of the amazing benefits that living, healthy foods have to offer. The cure to most illnesses that are challenging so many people can be found in their diet and fresh (meaning picked days before eaten) fruits and vegetables are the key to success. It's not rocket science. Humans need food like every other living thing on this planet and if that food has traveled over a thousand miles and been processed for you time and time again, the food is dead and does not contain the same things had it been picked from the vine, tree, ground, etc. a few days before eaten. Try it for a week and feel the difference.

3. Buy things locally, supporting local business, and much of the time you won't even need to drive. Ride a bike if you're only going a couple miles, carpool to work or if you're going out somewhere with friends, take public transportation if it's available.

A change needs to happen in this country and now is the time for revolutionaries to rise up!

How you can help:
To report oiled wildlife, please call 1-866-557-1401
To discuss spill related damage, please call 1-800-440-0858.
To report oiled shoreline or request volunteer information, please call 1-866-448-5816.

So disturbing...

Great blog: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/opinion/19friedman.html

Seal Slaughter... blame Canada AND all the people who buy seal products!!!

Oil spill could be among worst ever - Americas, World - The Independent

Oil spill could be among worst ever - Americas, World - The Independent

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could already have leaked 8 times the amount of oil as the Exxon Valdez spill. Oiled animals and chunks of oil are STILL washed up on the shores of Prince William Sound in Alaska to this very day. The oil spill has no end in site and the most viable solution, a relief well, will take 3 months to complete. The only solution to this problem is to get rid of oil drilling altogether. I love my car just as much as the next person does. My 1980 VW Rabbit is my pride and joy, one of my most prized possessions and yes of course I use oil to drive her. Why do I use oil? Because I have no other option! There is public transit and my bike and walking... I do all of these things, but sometimes I have to use my car and even public transit uses oil. The problem is that remedies for oil are out there and the technology is there and has been used before, but the government won't give it to us because it just wouldn't be good for big corporations and it wouldn't be good for the ever important, FAILING monatery system. People have invented AIR powered cars that take air into the engine from outside and the only emission is cold air, which can actually be used to air condition the car itself. There are solar powered cars, ammonia powered cars that emit nothing but nitrogen that are already being used in Canada, hydrogen powered cars that work in almost the same way as gasoline, and many other options like ethanol and battery operated which would in the end cause other problems... My point is that the alternatives already exist but they are being withheld from us. It's absolutely disgusting that we keep mining and drilling for these outrageously horrendous world altering substances that are causing so much damage that we are basically fucking up the ENTIRE PLANET!!!

Todo frodo.

(I heard bats today. I love bats.)

1. Finish pomegranate tree painting... add words or no? "Harvest your fruit before it's too late." Thinking thoughts of wonder.

2. NORMAL HEIGHTS TOMORROW - bring paintings before 4pm - Under the Sun

3. Print Harvesting San Diego signs and put them up around O-side and C-bad 

4. Has mama E sent off for the CSA? Suzie's Farm rules! We'll get some CSA experience before we start our own. 

5. Pack bag of jewelry TOMORROW so I don't forget to bring shit Saturday.

6. FIND PLANNER

7. Make food Saturday to bring to potluck. Easily transportable and perhaps be able to eat cold. Our harvestables - broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, green onions, basil, oregano, summer savory, rosemary, lavender, lemon thyme, creeping thyme, sage... MMM something with lemon and herbs, yes please.

8. Sunday - sell earrings at Distinction 9am -1pm Escondido Street Faire on Grand between Centre City and Ivy

9. Make more earrings before Sunday!

Yam Patties

Yam (or Sweet Potato) Patties

serves 3-4 people

Ingredients: 

2 large yams or sweet potatoes - I used yams [from the only potato grower in San Diego county]

Bunch of green onions [from our backyard]

Lemon thyme [note to self: prune a bit more, getting a little woody]

1/3 cup Coconut Milk

Large fresh lemon [from a guy in Ramona who sells rad veggie starter plants from his backyard and gave us a bag of lemons from his tree]

Cheese [Tillamook because they're a co-op of small dairy farmers who take care of their cows]

Olive oil

Sea salt n Pepper

Cooking instructions:

1. Bring water to a boil with some sea salt

2. While you're waiting for the water, rinse your yams and cut the smooshy end bits off, peal the skin off if you prefer but it is very nutritious so I prefer it left on,  and slice into thinnish pieces

3. Throw them in the boiling water for 10-15 minutes, til they get soft enough mash

4. Drain them, then mash with coconut milk and...

5. Cut off the roots of the green onions and the end part of the long green whispy leafers that are limpy.. leave the rest, it's all good. Dice them up small and mix about 2/3 of them into the yam mash

6. Add salt, pepper, lemon thyme, a slice of lemon juice

7. Form into patties, fry in a skillet with a lot of olive oil so they don't stick

8. Flip in about 7-10 minutes and on the new face up side, sprinkle remaining green onions, some lemon zest (use a potato peeler), and cheese

FIN.

Badass Gardening Ideas

Succulent Art [take it to the next level]

step one: Build frames!

step two: soil

step three: cuttings, let callus

step four: create!

remember - don't hang til well rooted

BUILD A TRELLIS

 http://www.ehow.com/how_2224037_build-aframe-trellis.html

Save space by growing up! Squash, melons, cucurbits, peppers, grapes! 

((tepee trellis))

 

Gardening is my favourite thing. When I get a job or my jewelry/art takes off, I'm going to invest in getting all the certifications I need to sell our food to people through CSA membership and farmers markets or stores or even small restaurants. It would be a dream to make a living from farming and art. I would still have so much time to volunteer, set my own hours, take trips, constantly delve deeper into permaculture... I'm going to make this happen.

Off-shore oil drilling... really Obama?!

What is going on with this country? 

 above: Gulf of Mexico oil spill (space view)

In 1896 the first oil rig was put in salt water, off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. According to the US government, about 1.3 million gallons of oil are spilled into the ocean each year by vessels and oil rigs. Right now there are roughly 210,000 gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico daily and it's only been spilling for a little over a week, started April 20th I believe, so that totals about 1.68 million gallons. Math is the shit! But oil spills are not the shit at all! They're actually really shitty. The people trying to fix it are looking for some switch to turn it off or something but can't get to it. Waaay nuts. And this is happening in a place that is incredibly rich in amazing wildlife like sea turtles, brown pelicans, and Arctic peregrine falcon which are all endangered or threatened, soon to be endangered. There are 400 species of endangered plants and animals in the Gulf of Mexico and 31 are off the coast of Louisiana where this is happening, but it will spread all over. Of course there are tons of people out there trying to clean it up, we're in the middle of an oil economy with a new puppet who just opened more coastline to offshore drilling on the eastern coast from Delaware all the way down to Florida, also in northern Alaska in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. 

above: Walruses chillin in the Chukchi Sea... or trying to.

What a shame. There are so many fragile creatures out there that are struggling so hard for their lives right now with the sea ice receding more and more every year. Walruses! Definitely my next painting. I could so use beans for my little brown walrus. Engage...tomorrow. I've drifted away from my point a little - what in the hell is this president thinking?!? There have always been problems with offshore oil drilling and it's not different now. There is no safe way to do it, no fool proof way whatsoever and when the things blows up or sinks there is no easy way to turn it off. Clearly there are some kinks and this planet shouldn't be a testing ground for crazy human obsessions, especially dangerous ones like fossil fuels.

Solar and wind are fully capable of getting the job done efficiently and far cleaner, it's renewable, the technology is there, it would provide jobs in turn help the local and national economy, local communities, and it's far safer! We have a voice and we need to tell the government what we want. Let's not just think about ourselves, but the future of the human race and especially the planet which has no voice.

TAKE ACTION! Because you care.
Sign a petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/6/continue-the-fight-against-offshore-drilling
or 2: http://takeaction.oceana.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=45
3...: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1488/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1522
Join the facebook group: 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling - http://www.facebook.com/dontdrill
Blog about it, tell your friends, write letters, call your representatives, make paintings, write it on walls, take pictures, tattoo it on your face... anything you can think of! And send me pictures. greenearthalive@gmail.com People rule when they come together.



My references:
http://www.healthygulf.org/our-work/species-at-risk/species-at-risk-home
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Eco/bp-oil-spill-national-significance-obama-administration/story?id=10509844
http://www.livescience.com/environment/oil-spill-faq-100423.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html
brain

Update + PELICANS!??

It's February and we're already back in Tejas visiting family and friends. I love seeing everyone, but I actually can't wait to get back home to San Diego! My art was up in a coffee house for 2 months, Monica's at the Park in University Heights. I didn't sell anything, but it looked great on her bright green walls and getting a little exposure was great!

 And my newest piece, largest to date, and on handmade canvas by me and Harrison:

When we get back I'm going to invest in some wall space at a gallery, probably Distinction in Escondido - I've heard good things about it. My jewelry is also up for sale at a small art supply store in Normal Heights! Only sold 2 pairs to date, but hey it's a start. They look great on his painting covered wall with the little sign I made for them. "Dino'z... For Conscious Earz". Aside from that, we have a beautiful garden in the backyard of our humble abode. When we first moved in it was absolutely horrendous looking, but we're nearly finished with it and it's wonderful! The back slope is covered in groundcovering, flowers, and my newest addiction - succulents! It's so amazing how succulents can be clipped, callosed, and then grow new roots and reproduce like bunnies... We also have a wonderful veggie garden featuring: tomato plant, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, green onions, and lettuce. MmMmMm farm fresh goods from my own backyard!

In other news: About a month ago we were riding our bikes to Carlsbad for our weekly helping of Farmers Market vegetables and scrumptious Greek food. On the way there, cars were stopping up and down the 101 due to a California Brown Pelican walking around the highway! The poor thing couldn't fly very well and kept crash landing in the street. We ran it over to the side of the road and saved it from the life-threatening vehicles. I called Wildlife Assist to no avail and eventually a lady stopped who wanted to help. She set off for a dog kennel to put the large bird into, Harrison went home to get his car, and I was left to watch the bird. After many failed attempts, it finally picked up flight and crash landed smack dab in the middle of the road again. After getting it into a median for temporary safety, a man stopped and told me he talked to the lady with Wildlife Assist and would be taking the pelican to the Oceanside Harbor until she could pick him up to be cared for. Long story short, the bird was picked up that night, given some antibiotics and care, then released back to the wild. YAY!!! The good citizen who helped me catch and transport the pelican said that he had rescued 6 in just the past week, so I did some research and found that this problem is very widespread along the California coastline. Hundreds of Brown Pelicans have been found starving and malnourished in parking lots, on highways, and in backyards from San Francisco to San Diego and the situation is perplexing scientists. Many of the birds are waterlogged because the feathers that keep them dry have become contaminated, more than likely due to the heavily polluted runoff making it's way from cities to oceans. These awesome birds have been on the endangered species list for 40 years and were just taken off last November.

Pelican stories:
http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=11978452
http://yubanet.com/california/DFG-Investigating-Cause-of-Brown-Pelican-Deaths.php
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/16/MNDO1C0VAC.DTL