I know putting Candidate Free ensures that no one but my friends will read this mini-missive, but since the only ones likely to read this are my fellow non-fiddling koss(acks,ites, pick your termination), I am going to spend the time on it nevertheless. We have been experiencing terminal static due to pie fights here, so if you find this interesting or pertinent, feel free to crosspost, reference, link, or otherwise violate implied copyright.
Let me also insert a bit of a disclaimer at this point. This diary is not a plea for pity or a solicitation for funds. No animals were harmed during the making of this diary, but people harmed are real, and probably couldn't afford analgesia. All examples in this diary are based on true stories, and names used have some basis in fact.
This is my first diary since July, although I have been lurking, and commenting on the diary's that draw my attention. Very few will see it, as it is not about:
a)the primaries,
b)some distracting partisan scandal,
c)a baby down the well (in the figurative sense)
Greetings and Salutations. First off, I must thank all of my friends who helped us to get to July intact, at moerkaats urging in the comments of my last diary...We recieved almost $1400 dollars, which was sufficent to get into July. Having no coin of the realm to pay them back, I have decided to try to return their largesse with the only "coin" available to me, information. Accordingly, this will be the first of several diaries about sustainability, from a small farm point of view. A summary of the current state of my farm, and what our options are at this time will appear at the end, for those that choose to read that far.
As the title suggests, I would like to apologize for the whining depressing tone of my last couple of diaries. As the treatment for my Lyme disease proceeds, it is becoming increasingly obvious to me and farmerterri that a large measure of my depression and defeatism was a result of that disease (not to mention a heaping helping of pain and exhaustion).
I would also like to thank all of those who gave practical advice and moral support during this trying time, including but by no means limited to run's with scissors, green girl, CSI, ASiegal, Markettrustee, and meerkoet.
OK first for all my friends out there, an update to the No Snivilin Farm Saga---We made the $995 payment last week, so we are only 30 days out on our short term note, selling 30 goats and using the money earmarked for vegetable seeds. We also managed to come up with enough money for the electric bill (3 weeks). Of course, all this means we can't buy hay next week, or people food, or plant the 3 acres of vegetables we had planned, but at least the bank got it's money. Next week, the bank wants another $1995, which I think we can raise, but again, it's going to get a bit hungry around here...
But that's not really what I want to talk about. Sustainability, physical and environmental sustainability is a subject very close to my heart...It's why we started the farm, and the alternative energy company. It's also in real trouble. Not because of the technology, but because once again, we are letting the politicians and corporations set the agenda, and the spin. Take solar as a for instance... Solar thermal electric, with biogas back-up can be built and operated with out large corporate or government involvement (or profits), Solar PV cannot. Guess which one gets the subsidy, and the press.
This will be a short diary, as it is somewhat difficult for me to write. For those who are tuning in late, yesterday I started detailing the slow dissolution of our dreams in the new "healthy" economy of today. Today's effort is a quick look at what our dream was, and what might have been. All caveats and apologies from yesterday appy today.
Let me start with a bit of history and a disclaimer, as I have been more notable by my abscence than my presence these last few months. Up until 5 years ago, I was a systems engineer (telecomm systems) making quite good money, and telecommuting around the world. When I was laid off, with no warning, my better half and I decided to take the rest of our saving/retirement, and do 2 things:
get the farm operating full time (we were in start up at the time)
and
Start up a small business selling and installing wood furnaces. (to subsidize the farm)
Several weeks ago, I wrote a sustainable energy diary, which garnered a fair bit of support, and then promised, but failed to deliver a farm diary. Well the wait is over, and while this diary is not the article I had intended to write, perhaps it is more telling that the last week politically, economically, and personally have wiped out even the infectous optimism of baby goats running around.
To dispense with the personal, Terri and I both came down with, and are still weak as kittens from a wowser of a case of flu. Ordinarily this plus our last diary, in which I list the ways sustainable energy is being NIMBY'ed locally (thus putting my livelihood at jeopardy), would be good and sufficent reason for a somewhat depressing turn of prose...For Aqriculture and small farms in the northeast, and one special little farm, the news just keeps getting worse.
Yesterday, the greenhouse that houses all our kids and young Moms collapsed, effectively eliminating 60% of all our housing area, and making the remaining chores VERY difficult for 2 people in good health (never mind one ill person)
I was very happy to hear about governor Patrick's commitment to sustainable energy, and am always excited by the wealth of information presented in the sustainable energy diaries appearing here (with a few minor concerns). But (sorry folks, in my diaries there is always a "but") I must admit to a few reservations, given that what I am hearing, both from governors councils and contained within diaries right here, doesn't quite match up with the reality I'm seeing on the ground, both in terms of local politics, and definition of basic terms.
Greetings and salutations all my friends and acquaintances. This weeks sermonette comes to us from the gospels of Liz the Phair, Oily midnight and of course they who might be giants. Humor aside, I have been mostly lurking here since before the elections, as I have been snowed under with work, and find the philosophic side of the DailyKos community much more interesting, and well darn it, important than the party politics. As some of you know, I am a farmer and sustainable energy guy in western MA, if you need to know more, read the archive. I have built up a bit of vitriol over the past number of weeks, and have allowed it to simmer, and condense into something approaching rational thought, and now beg permission to share it with you.
First off, Hi Orange, Cookie, green girl, CSI, and all the rest of you who haven't heard from me in months, and apologies to all, but autumn is the busy time for heating and farms in the northeast, and I am involved in sustainability efforts in both fields.
While I agree celebrations are in order, and we the people have apparently regained some control of our destiny, I still will not be celebrating today, although every candidate I voted for won. I won't be celebrating because yesterday I finally realized what the fundamental disconnect was in my case, and in the case of MILLIONS of other americans.
Finally, farmerchuck is attempting a break from gloom and doom (or the reality of small scale agriculture) to post a POSITVE follow-up to his last diaries. Not to say we're out of the woods yet, but things are really happening up here in the hinterlands of blue (or gray if you look at the skies) Massachusetts.
Disclaimer: Greetings from the half of the country that's swimming, as opposed to the half that is baking. This is one of those diaries that deals with personal and philosophic issues (to get a bit meta) so if you are only interested in how to get a democratic slate elected, you might want to invest your time elsewhere. If you are more interested in life as she is lived and eating in the not so distant future then continue on dear reader.
This not the diary I had planned, or the time I planned on posting it, but it looks to me like the fecal matter is hitting the air handler, and I felt a warning should be given. Excuse the formatting, as I am a relative novice at this, and I find the subject matter of what I must convey terrifying.
I'm still wondering how to answer the question, how do we support the local small farmer beyond buying his products, at the farmers market and at local stores (and of course reading every diary Orangeclouds115 writes).Act one scene one drew a number of excellent suggestions and stirred some interesting debate concerning ethical pricing which I'll try to address later, but I would still like to give a better answer as to how do we help our local farmers.
While I can't claim any part of the vast experience some-one like Bondad bring to the financial arena, Like many or most of you here I have a deep and abiding interest in how the corporate critters actions are going to shape my present and future.
In the comment section of one of Orange's famous VMD diaries, I was asked what people could do to support local agriculture, besides shopping at farmers markets. Well I thought about it for a second, and realized I didn't have an answer. So I thought about it for a couple of minutes, and realized I had too many answers...accordingly here is my second diary, and an attempt to put words to my worries.
