Thinking about tomorrow, we are so close to comming of age! There are folk who know what to do, these people are working hard to get the rest of us think about tomorrow.
What happens when the store (safeways, superstore, walmart, etc.) runs out of the stuff you need? It will be difficult!
Those trucks that deliver the stuff on a daily basis may well stop because of a variety of reasons, the most probable, being that there is no more stuff.
What do the drivers do?
Why drive?
Exactly!
All hell breaks loose!!!!
What would you do if there was no stuff to move?
A good friend of mine had a good way to deal with the coming fuel problem, not only fuel but food too.
here is his solution \.
Tax all goods that travel more than 50 kilometers from source at 25 % tax all goods that travel 100 kilometers from source at 50% tax all goods that travel over 100 kilometers at 200% think about the implications of such a policy. we would rapidly start to localize. which is where we need to go in order to survive.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Too Much Stuff
I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by stuff at the moment, I have way too much stuff, the other day while emptying a box of tools into some storage drawers I realized that I have duplicates and triplicates of most of my tools.
A long time ago a chap who was probably the same age that I am now told me that everyone should move out into the middle of the street once a year. Doing this move would cause us to think hard about what we burden ourselves with. This all comes down to what I am afraid of... I am beginning to think that being afraid of being worth something. This worth being measured in goods and chattels is fed to us from an early age, and I also think that it is cultural. I am getting much closer to being able to let stuff go without regret. There is no point chastising myself for accumulating all this stuff, I will work at letting go of my fears. I have worked hard and spent a lot time earning money to pay for this accumulated store of stuff, most of the time being numb to the bigger picture, that accumulating stuff doesn't create a real sense of well being, but a condition of entrapment. I am responsible now for this stuff, it has mostly outlived its purpose for me and now my responsiblity to recyle it.
A long time ago a chap who was probably the same age that I am now told me that everyone should move out into the middle of the street once a year. Doing this move would cause us to think hard about what we burden ourselves with. This all comes down to what I am afraid of... I am beginning to think that being afraid of being worth something. This worth being measured in goods and chattels is fed to us from an early age, and I also think that it is cultural. I am getting much closer to being able to let stuff go without regret. There is no point chastising myself for accumulating all this stuff, I will work at letting go of my fears. I have worked hard and spent a lot time earning money to pay for this accumulated store of stuff, most of the time being numb to the bigger picture, that accumulating stuff doesn't create a real sense of well being, but a condition of entrapment. I am responsible now for this stuff, it has mostly outlived its purpose for me and now my responsiblity to recyle it.
Dealing with the End of Winter
The winter is melting away and the results are showing me where I need to address the land to be better prepared for the same time next year.
The house also needs to have the gutters installed and rain barrels at the corners.
The septic has got to be pumped out for the third time this winter, the system froze early and I think that until the ground thaws I will continue to have the same issue.
One concern is that we likely do not put enough hot water through the system, that might be a problem or it might just be my own guess and lack of knowledge about how the system works.
We have used less than 250 gallons of water since March 18. One thing that I will do is to insulate the ground around the opening and also prepare an insulated cover over the lid.
The house also needs to have the gutters installed and rain barrels at the corners.
The septic has got to be pumped out for the third time this winter, the system froze early and I think that until the ground thaws I will continue to have the same issue.
One concern is that we likely do not put enough hot water through the system, that might be a problem or it might just be my own guess and lack of knowledge about how the system works.
We have used less than 250 gallons of water since March 18. One thing that I will do is to insulate the ground around the opening and also prepare an insulated cover over the lid.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Working with a limited budget has the effect of helping me find creative solutions to design problems. The design I had in mind was not avaliable in the store. The design needed to have some contrasting materials that would be simple to build and be easy to service. A old salvaged clear fir door that had been trimmed down yielded some fine clear fir. A piece of clear quarter sawn fir that I had left over from a previous house renovation provided the solid square in the centre of ceiling plate. some 1/8th inch brazing rod and a small section of brass rod cut into a large washer type ring that the rods could attach to were all that I needed. An inexpensive globe fixture was used as the foundation of the finished fixture. 
The final result works well for the room, there are four fixtures with a 9watt bulb in each. My fixtures cost $15.99 each plus the enjoyable time designing and fabricating the additional elements.
Something old Something new
I spent a couple of hours yesterday cutting up some of these old pallets, it would have been better to have used a hand saw instead of a power circular saw. The wood would have warmed me twice then according to Thoreau!
The pallets are nailed together with spiral nails which makes it difficult to pull the nails, and many of them are rusted in place anyway. A good number of these do get recycled and a very large number of these pallets wind up in landfills around the country. A society that thinks it is economical to make pallets that often get used only a couple of times then gets rid of them often wastefully, needs to rethink what is truly economical. When time becomes more important than resources that are part of the ecology of our planet we need to rethink what the longer time implications are.
I will use these pallets to help me keep warm and to help keep my use of propane lower. Now I have to rethink how i deal with the ashes because there will be nails in them. Now I will need to make a sieve.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Framing Our Behaviour
One of the things that really bothers me is the way we refer to ourselves and our behaviour. The word that frames us most often "consumers" makes me cringe every time I hear it used, what ever happened to all the people who bought things that they needed? when they needed them. The other term that is overworked, just like the planet is the term "exploited" I wonder what percentage of the rest of the natural world of living creatures on our small planet consume and exploit their way through life.
Precious few I would care to guess.
It will be a great day when the citizens are again refered to as citizens and people instead of exploiting consumers. I thought that "consumption" was a wasting disease.
Precious few I would care to guess.
It will be a great day when the citizens are again refered to as citizens and people instead of exploiting consumers. I thought that "consumption" was a wasting disease.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
What We Need
I woke up early today, 4 am I was being troubled by a work situation. This sort of disturbance I don't need. What I needed was some more rest, I think we all need more rest, I think we need to sit down and think about what we really need. What happened to all the stuff that was transported in all those containers? I know I keep coming back to those containers, The fact that they are piling up really bothers me. I heard that an oil tanker and a container ship collided recently. Think about that!
Thousands of tons of stuff whatever was in those containers, TVs motor bikes, bed springs, cheap plastic toys for the dollar store, cheap tools for the Princess Auto stores, Perhaps, but does it matter? maybe it was Vitamin C and all sorts of other vitamins, cold remedies destined for the pharmacies of the world. The other ship was an oil tanker The source of cheap energy, for the moment. The irony that cheap stuff(an assumption on my part) should crash into cheap energy on the water is a rather sad irony really. How much of this do we really need? There is an order of commerce that is a fairly recent, the last 20 years or so that deals with the storage of stuff, you have seen them chain linked yards with neat rows of row garages, places for "ordinary" folk to store their stuff, and there are waiting lists for some of these places. I have one that has some of our furniture and other things(stuff) in it. The longer it sits there the more I wonder how much do I really need that stuff? I will have to ponder that one a while longer yet.
Thousands of tons of stuff whatever was in those containers, TVs motor bikes, bed springs, cheap plastic toys for the dollar store, cheap tools for the Princess Auto stores, Perhaps, but does it matter? maybe it was Vitamin C and all sorts of other vitamins, cold remedies destined for the pharmacies of the world. The other ship was an oil tanker The source of cheap energy, for the moment. The irony that cheap stuff(an assumption on my part) should crash into cheap energy on the water is a rather sad irony really. How much of this do we really need? There is an order of commerce that is a fairly recent, the last 20 years or so that deals with the storage of stuff, you have seen them chain linked yards with neat rows of row garages, places for "ordinary" folk to store their stuff, and there are waiting lists for some of these places. I have one that has some of our furniture and other things(stuff) in it. The longer it sits there the more I wonder how much do I really need that stuff? I will have to ponder that one a while longer yet.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Our Current Stimulous Packages
Thinking about the news lately, I wonder how the folk who put these packages together actually think about what they are proposing. What sort of stimulus package could we use to sort out the tons of material waste that is piling up around our cities. Perhaps we could put some of the unemployed car assembly line workers to work cutting up the piles of steel containers that are stacked in ports and industrial yards. Perhaps the steel could then be used for the sound barriers alongside the housing developments that seem to crop up alongside major arterial roadways. The containers could also be retrofitted into portable housing or high density shelters.
No that would make too much sense!
I guess the thing that keeps troubling me about about the whole Stimulus thing is that it is all about "Growth". The buzz that we need growth...Why do we need growth? The problem with growth that I see is that eventually things stop growing. How many things in nature continue to grow ad infinitum I am having trouble coming up with anything, it may be my lack of knowledge of the natural world, but intuitively there seems to be a flaw in the continual growth paradigm. What is wrong with not growing but steady state, with just having what one needs, food shelter, health, friends, family, community, replacing that which cannot be fixed any more, instead of throwing it away and buying new all the time. I wonder what will happen when the methods of keeping records and any data for that matter are mostly done with electronic storage devices, and the power fails, not just a short term failure but perhaps a longer one. I was at a store recently and the clerk was unable to sell me the item because the till(electronic) had crashed. We had to wait for a supervisor to reset the till.
This one is the tip of the iceberg as far as I can see. I have noticed that in some of the stores now there are the three or four self check out lanes. I can see where this is going.... self stacking of the aisles. Soon we will not need any clerks in the stores. which will of course eliminate a few more jobs...... I guess those folk will need a stimulus package to help them find new work. The whole house of cards that is "The Economy" seems to be missing all of the "nature" that is externalised ". Air is free so it cannot be worth anything can it? So if it is not worth anything does it matter if we get it dirty, mess it up a bit, that is the way it seems. I wonder what "Nature " is worth? What if nature were a proportion of each and every calculation of the economy and it was a real cost. What would all those stacked containers be worth in real terms. All of the fossil fuels that were used in the extraction of the ore that was used to make the steel, All of the costs of the water that was used to cool the equipment that used in that mining endeavour. All of the costs of the machinery that was used to mill and roll the raw steel into corrugated sheets that are welded together to for the sides, ends floor etc. All or the fuel that was used to move them to their original users. All of the fuel that was used to transport the containers half way around the world. And remember every internal combustion engine uses air in order for it to function. If we had to pay for the nature that we take so much for granted we would be buying a lot less, and likely only what we needed to live in harmony with all that "nature" Ah but I am only dreaming . it will be "business as usual" until it isn't.
No that would make too much sense!
I guess the thing that keeps troubling me about about the whole Stimulus thing is that it is all about "Growth". The buzz that we need growth...Why do we need growth? The problem with growth that I see is that eventually things stop growing. How many things in nature continue to grow ad infinitum I am having trouble coming up with anything, it may be my lack of knowledge of the natural world, but intuitively there seems to be a flaw in the continual growth paradigm. What is wrong with not growing but steady state, with just having what one needs, food shelter, health, friends, family, community, replacing that which cannot be fixed any more, instead of throwing it away and buying new all the time. I wonder what will happen when the methods of keeping records and any data for that matter are mostly done with electronic storage devices, and the power fails, not just a short term failure but perhaps a longer one. I was at a store recently and the clerk was unable to sell me the item because the till(electronic) had crashed. We had to wait for a supervisor to reset the till.
This one is the tip of the iceberg as far as I can see. I have noticed that in some of the stores now there are the three or four self check out lanes. I can see where this is going.... self stacking of the aisles. Soon we will not need any clerks in the stores. which will of course eliminate a few more jobs...... I guess those folk will need a stimulus package to help them find new work. The whole house of cards that is "The Economy" seems to be missing all of the "nature" that is externalised ". Air is free so it cannot be worth anything can it? So if it is not worth anything does it matter if we get it dirty, mess it up a bit, that is the way it seems. I wonder what "Nature " is worth? What if nature were a proportion of each and every calculation of the economy and it was a real cost. What would all those stacked containers be worth in real terms. All of the fossil fuels that were used in the extraction of the ore that was used to make the steel, All of the costs of the water that was used to cool the equipment that used in that mining endeavour. All of the costs of the machinery that was used to mill and roll the raw steel into corrugated sheets that are welded together to for the sides, ends floor etc. All or the fuel that was used to move them to their original users. All of the fuel that was used to transport the containers half way around the world. And remember every internal combustion engine uses air in order for it to function. If we had to pay for the nature that we take so much for granted we would be buying a lot less, and likely only what we needed to live in harmony with all that "nature" Ah but I am only dreaming . it will be "business as usual" until it isn't.
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