Baby steps

Today I was going to blog about taxes or voting. My friend is dying of cancer, I'm smoking the wrong kind of weed, my kids are home for three more weeks and I'm really just not in the fucking mood to vent about shit like that.

Instead I thought I might talk about what I keep in my refrigerator. If your lucky I'll talk about the pantry and freezer in the future. I love food. I thought it might put me in a better mood.

My fridge staples are cream, milk, butter, buttermilk, juice, eggs, bread, cheese, beer, champagne, simple syrup, tortillas and lettuce. My family won't starve if these things are in my fridge.

I buy whipping cream because it is versatile. I use a little fancy glass milk jar I got from a local creamery and make my own half and half, I also make sour cream, soups and whipping cream. I've saved a little, wasted less and it tastes better. I keep a quart of buttermilk for ranch dressing, biscuits, sour cream, pancakes and other stuff. I always have milk, orange juice and frozen grape juice. The rest of the shit is pretty self explanatory.

I've been blogging how to change the world around you and how I think it starts with shit you buy. My first goal is to reduce the amount of prepared food that I buy. I was digging weeds in my garden the other day and I noticed that many of them looked like the salad blend I had recently bought. I'm not saying eat weeds, I mean you can, but that isn't my point. I started to realize that most of us would have no fucking clue how to survive without a grocery store. I couldn't even recognize edible weeds. How many generations ago were wild edibles identifiable? We really are becoming dependent on others to feed us.

So start small. Try making salad dressings. You'll be reducing the amount of plastic you consume, you will know what the ingredients are and where they came from and you'll be feeding yourself. They are so much better when you make them yourself. I've put recipes on the sidebar for some of the most popular dressings. I'm hoping a few friends will try it out and let me know if they found it doable or too cumbersome.

Love, Constance

A growing revolution

I don't like the way things are and I want change. Individuality has been lost as people have become slaves to the machine. People medicate themselves and pretend we can all keep going. We won't and we shouldn't have to. So let's change it. It sounds daunting so let's just take baby steps: Food and water.

Both food and water have gotten extremely expensive for most people, especially those of us who live in urban areas. My water bill last month was $100.00. It used to be much higher but I brought it down. I live in northern California where there is plenty of rainfall to get us through the summer. Well there used to be. We face the threat of drought all of the time now. Some of the reasons for this are over development, agriculture, aging and leaky water systems that are no longer efficient and we ship A LOT of water down south. The farmers, actually the corporate farms, of the San Joaquin valley depend on water imported from the north. The San Joaquin valley is a desert so they already have that working against them. The use of pesticides and fertilizers require more than ten times the amount of water, greedy bastards. Also, the San Joaquin valley has become salanized due to over farming so whether or not they get the increased water that they demand, which they will not, large scale farming in the San Joaquin valley is becoming impossible.

There are so many water agencies, water boards and water officials that getting anything done beyond paying their six figure salaries is impossible. My water company has raised my rates more than 40 percent in the last five years. When we conserve as a community, they still raise our rates, claiming they no longer get a volume discount because we all conserved too much. On our property taxes we are still paying for a damn that was built forty years ago and which falls short in supplying our current needs. So much for thinking ahead.

I've had to conserve. We used to say "if its yellow let it mellow....(you know the rest of this revolting slogan no doubt)" There is no way I am not going to flush my toilet. If I were going to let my waste sit in my toilet I might as well go in an outhouse. That is the advice of the water agencies for conserving water. I'm trying to be much more progressive than that. I keep a bucket in my shower to collect the water while it heats. I use that water to flush the toilet. I flush a few times a day that way. I don't make my husband or kids flush with it but they do have to catch their cold water so that I can use it. I was using the grey water from doing my dishes to water my garden but it was hard lugging that water around and the water was gross. It would be nice if there was a system set up from the tub and sink that would filter and store the grey water for irrigation. Someone come up with that please!

Now we catch the rain from our roof to water the garden. We made rain catchers from wine barrels. You can see how to do that here: raincatcher. The key to water conservation is being able to catch and store fresh, potable water. I hope that one day soon catchment and containment will become part of the basic develpment plan of all new construction. At the same time we need to figure out how to deal with our waste. If you aren't composting and you have room to do so, it would help. If you live in an apartment find out if there is a composting bin. If there isn't, demand one. When I need additional soil I get it from the dump. They compost all of the collected garden waste and sell it to the public. It is really good dirt!

George Washington used a compostable toilet. I went to Mount Vernon and I couldn't believe how progressive George was. His farming, ranching and waste managment were sustainable. He used no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or municipal sewer system. When I saw Mount Vernon, I realized we are taking steps backwards.

If you haven't planted a garden, why not? I'll admit it is work but it is fullfilling to eat what you have grown. You know how it was grown. If you don't want to be bogged down by a garden, grow a few of your favorite veggies in containers on your patio. If you don't like to garden at all, check out the local farmers market. It may be a little more expensive, but it tastes better, it is fresher and it is grown by people who live in your community. Besides when you factor in the cost and pollution of tranportation, and the impact of pesticides and fertilizers on us and our environment maybe the cost of local, fresh veggies is not that much more. I have posted some gardening photos under recipes, videos and ideas.

Does anybody have anything to add? I'd love to hear some new ideas.

Love, Constance

Your balls depend on it!

So I've been gone a while. Hope you noticed. I've been gone because I didn't think what I was saying mattered. I wasn't moping but it's like that line in Evita when Eva tells her husband Colonel Peron "it's hard to keep momentum when it's you that you are following." Honestly, I don't expect followers. A blog really is just a vanity piece for those of us control freaks that feel the need to be heard. I don't consider myself vain. I didn't believe it mattered. After all, look down, no comments. So why keep going you ask? Because while I was away, I decided it does matter. I want what I feel to be out there. So I'm still going to rant like a mother fucker. But....I wanted to offer something also....solutions. If not, then it is out there anyway.

First, you need to get motivated.

So off we go. New documentary. FLOW - For Love of Water. It is on. The privatization of our natural resources has begun. This documentary talks about water specifically but water isn't the only resource being sold off to the highest bidder: water, power, medicine, land, trees, etc. Who owns them? Should they be free? How much should it cost? Who should have access? Who should have control? Should someone make a profit? Capitalism is fine but not went it extorts from us, our basic necessities for survival.

The Environmental Protection Agency has done little to monitor and protect our water. Plastic "offgasses" chemicals that resemble estrogen. Pesticides such as Atrazine, which is banned in Europe yet made by a European company, does the same. The fish in the Seines river have all become female. It may very well be true that animal populations, including humans, are becoming feminized. How is that for chemical castration? Bet those old, rich conservative assholes who rule the world will take notice now

The World bank has given exculsive rights to a handful of companies to exploit water from third world countries that cannot defend themselves. In these countries the World Bank cannot be sued. These companies have seized control of the water sources and are selling it back to the people for a profit. These are people that need clean water the most. In a country where we use clean water to wash away our waste, we do not recognize that water is a not a renewable resource. Only so much fresh water falls from the sky.

In this country, our politicians lease our land to large companies, such as Nestle, for a pittance ($60,000 for 100 years). Moreover, local governments wave taxes for up to ten years to encourage these large companies to set up shop under the premise that the company will bring jobs. They pump out all of the ground water and sell it the public in little plastic bottles. Surrounding farmers, ranchers and communities lose their clean water source. Nestle owns many of these sites throughout the U.S. So far, they have not been stopped in court.

We are being held captive by oil companies who refuse to develop and utilize new sustainable technologies. BP has polluted the lower half of our Atlantic border, just as Exxon destroyed the Northwest Pacific and still the Courts have denied a moratorium on drilling. BP is a British company that does not pay their share of taxes in the United States and yet they have made the largest profits in the world pumping the oil off our coast. Why do our leaders allow that? Campaign funding I suspect. Do any of us have a choice regarding what power company we use?

So what are we to do. We are not victims. We are fucking enablers. We chug down bottled water while we fire up our gas leaf blowers and SUVs. And let's face it, we don't vote and we don't call our bureacrats and even if we do it doesn't matter. Corporation and State have merged. If that's true, then there is only one way to achieve peace....start paying attention to what you buy. It's that simple. We have the power. We can spend all the evil doers into oblivion if we start paying attention. So I'm gong to do my part. I've learned a lttle. Maybe someone out there will have something to add. It is going to be fun. Your balls depend on it.

In the meantime, you can sign the petition for Article 31 if you are so moved. This is a proposed amendement to the International Declaration of Human Rights that would declare affordable, clean water for every member of Earth.

Love, Constance