Honey, I killed the tomatoes!

PJ has been getting friendly with the guys in Geeveston's Mitre10. This is not a wonder, as he has to go there fairly regularly for some of his hardware needs :D

One of the guys, Ashley, lives down the road from us, and has been observing Rufus in all his glory in the fields. Rufus must have done a good job, because he asked if he could borrow Rufus to service his own girls. He has a few Belted Galloways (the nice stripy cows) and would love to cross them with a Dexter. As Rufus is by his lonesome at the moment, we thought it'd be nice for him to go away on a little outing and spend some time with other ladies, so transport is being organised as we speak. Of course the scary thing is getting him on the truck, but we'll take that hurdle when we get there.

To get back to the story, PJ got talking a bit more with Ashley, and so we have found out that they used to live in Hobart, and moved down here to 'try the self-sufficiency thing' a few years ago. They had a few setbacks, one really quite sad. They had a little Jersey that they raised from calf, ready to be their housecow. They used to give her treats, like chafe etc, much like we do with Emma to make sure we put back into her what we take out. Only in their case, the cow broke out, found the bag with chafe and ate the lot. Cows apparently can literally eat themselves to death and this is exactly what she did. So they were devastated, because by the time they found out what she'd done, they couldn't save her anymore. I mustn't think of something like that happening with Emma (although I did kill the tomatoes damnit!), but it's interesting because I've noticed that she too cannot contain herself when there is fresh feed or something that she really likes - she'll just keep on eating.

Ashley was also very interested in Billie - as she is a full Dexter and therefore can be raised as a milking cow. It's difficult because I'm still very partial to her, but still I'd have to find another bull for her as we don't want to inbreed. I guess if he is using Rufus for his girls, he'd have the same problem anyway. Still we will see what happens with Billie once it's her time to go.

Just to show that appearances are deceptive and you can never guess what people get up to in their own time, one of the nicest things PJ found out was that Ashley is a jazz muso, and keen to catch up from a musical perspective as well. I'm so happy about this. Not only have I met Marjorie and Steve who are lovely people, and with whom I'm playing on a regular basis and in a band, but now there is someone else even closer. I guess I'm a lucky person, although it was part of the reason why I wanted to move to the Huon Valley.

Talking of music, we had a gig in Hobart last Saturday. It went well, I felt we are a bit tighter as a group this time around. It was a lovely small venue where we played, and people seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. It was also good to see a lot of young people coming to listen to us. Steve liked BB's Blues (the first blues I wrote - for my lovely cat BB) so we played that, and it was funny to have people come up to me afterwards to ask about my cats. Even though it's a blues, it's a song that puts a smile on your face :) Erin broke 2 glasses of wine on stage, this was (she assured us) after only one sip of wine. In that case I guess we can count our blessings that she didn't drink them both, but at the same time it broke the ice with the audience too.

It's been nice weather for the last few days. The sun feels surprisingly hot - according to the weather forecast it's 22 degrees, but it well feels like 35+. I hadn't expected that, I thought we would feel a distinct difference from Perth. The sun also feels quite scorching, and apparently we have to be more careful with UV than on the mainland. This was a bit of a surprise, but I guess for me it just means slapping on the suncream again (might have to build up a little stash of that somewhere) and making sure I'm covered, so I don't find any more nasty surprises on my skin.

I'm cautiously enjoying the nice weather. For a while I was concerned, as I was constantly thinking of our water supply and the fact that we're completely reliant on rainfall. But to some extent, I think I have to go with the flow and sit back to see how the seasons pan out. We've not had sufficient rainfall as compared to the average this month, but everything is still looking good and the dam is still well full. Apparently November is supposed to be wet again, so we'll see what happens. We want to get another big watertank, so that we'll be fine for the drier months. When you deal with fresh milk and making cheese, a lot of water is needed to make sure that everything is cleaned thoroughly - so I don't want to run out for our other needs.

Our vegie garden is liking the sunshine, and everything seems to be coming up. Our orchard is in bloom and most of the trees have leaves on them now. We also have a couple of flowering trees and bushes around the house, that were already there. Some of them are rhododendrons, and they are absolutely beautiful. I've taken some photos, you can see them in Sanctuary and there are some more of our lovable animals in Children of the Forest.

PJ has built a small polytunnel, in which we decided to put our tomatoes. I don't think they were liking the dust and stuffiness in the sunroom with all the building going on. One day I put them outside for some fresh air and sunshine, and noticed that they were completely and utterly covered in aphids. Little b'stards! So, since we still have the luxury of finding out what works and what doesn't, I found an organic aphid spray that you can make at home on the web, and enthusiastically doused the tommies with that..... only to find a few hours later, that yes, it did kill the aphids, but it killed the tomatoes too! What the?!? I think by the looks of it we have lost about half our tomatoes, though some have managed to tentatively grow a few more leaves. Well, I think it was good old IBM who said, if you haven't made a mistake in the last 3 months you haven't tried hard enough, so I guess it's all a learning experience. Next time though, I'll try these weird and wonderful sprays on 2 or 3 plants first to see if it works, and then do the rest - it might give us a higher survival rate.

All the tongue in cheek aside, it feels like it's quite essential to get these things right, seeing as the world seems to be going to pots and from all the books and predictions we have read, the worst scenario seems to be playing out. Although not entirely surprising considering human nature, don't you feel slightly unsettled by everything that is happening? I do. It's one thing reading something in a book and still being detached, but actually seeing pieces of the puzzle falling into place and realising that the shit really is hitting the fan, is quite another. I have not been following the news so closely over the last week, as it's just too weird and depressing, and also too false. Who believes all the up talk, when the next day it's all down again? This is not just about the financial trouble, but also something as essential to our western belief in democracy as the elections in the US. Even though I'm not living in the thick of it, I've been talking a lot with one of my colleagues in the US. It's very interesting to get her perspective on life from living in a country which I feel has more or less reverted to a closet fascist state, complete with bogus elections and violence already starting on the streets between the various camps. Voting machines that switch votes from Democrats to Republican, so obvious that people can even see it, how come a government has been able to be so blatant about their fraud? And what can the common person really do about this? Would demonstrations set it right, what could possibly enable anyone to make a government or whoever is responsible, accountable? And then the people who support the continuation of a right-wing oppressive regime - how are they going to fare under an openly fascist regime, will they realise that their freedom too has been removed? Despite the democrats appearing as the underdog in all of this, how come no one can see that Obama's foreign policies are no better than what the republicans are doing, and he is also a war mongering little tyrant when given the opportunity? Can anyone ever be trusted with that much power?

I often wonder how we have developed like this, or whether it really comes down to nature (despite, ironically, us killing nature everywhere). Are we really no better than our base instincts? I'm currently reading Six Degrees by Mark Lynas, a book about climate change and global warming. In essence, the book is divided into six chapters, each one dealing with Earth at one degree hotter. I'm currently at chapter six, although I'm surprised I've made it that far. It's not a cheerful book as you can imagine. By five degrees I think I started having some desensitisation happening, because firstly, with so much depressing and bad news I started to feel numb, and secondly, most of the extreme scenarios are so far in the future that with all the current turmoil going on, I don't think you could possibly predict how it's all going to pan out (apart from that it's one big disaster for all of us - but that is simply because there are too many of us). And I was surprised to find that although I feel I care about the planet and for myself I'm trying to do the best I can, when someone talks about 280 years in the future it is so far removed from my life that I think, well who cares about that right now. My bad....

One paragraph that did stand out in this book was about survival and human relations, and that's what I find in a way the most fascinating part of everything that is happening currently.

This is going to happen in our lifetime. If you like Startrek, you might appreciate this :P I love the Next Generation series, but of all the characters I always identified most with Data, and with Worf. Data, because he was always striving to be human and nearly always got it wrong. Worf, because he wasn't human although still sort of part of the group, but also totally misunderstood. He was also a warrior which of course appeals to my own warrior tendencies. It probably says something about me but let's not go there. What I'm trying to say is that my whole life I feel I've observed the human race from an outsider's point of view. Some of the things that happen, the group forming, all these things I find fascinating even though mostly I think I fall outside the norm and therefore don't fit in. In a turbulent future, this could become... interesting for me.

Anyway, read it for yourselves:

Where no refuge is available, and crops and water supplies fail, civil war and a collapse into race or community conflicts seems, sadly the most likely outcome. By and large history teaches us that humans do not sit and starve in situ when times get bad; they take what weapons they can find and move to more promising regions, triggering warfare with whatever groups already inhabit the contested area. Our tribal inheritance also mentally preconditions us to blame "outsiders" for perceived injustices or shortages, just as the Jews of Europe were once prosecuted for supposedly hoarding food in times of famine. Conflicts that were once fought with spears and swords, however, will now be fought with guns, grenades, or nuclear weapons.

~ Mark Lynas, Six Degrees

Of course you can already see a lot of problems for those of us who have decided to migrate to a better place. We all stand out from the locals. Where we now live, there are two very distinct camps, with in one corner people involved in tree logging (one of the big employment options here) and on the other hand the people who believe in a greener world and saving the trees. Despite sounding straight forward, it's still a complex issue because even though I don't agree with tree logging, if your livelyhood depends on it you can't just take it away (Peak Oil will do that for us anyway) and not replace it with something else. Working towards being self-sufficient is currently observed by a percentage of the locals as weird, wacky and wonderful. However, if you can't get to the supermarket, or the shelves are empty, then what? I refer to the quote above.

To some extent, whether or not you agree with me is irrelevant. I'm merely trying to provide some alternative thoughts and views, both my own and links to other articles/sites. I just hope (yes, Pandora's box is still closed for me!) that perhaps people will start thinking and perhaps not go through life with blinkers on, chasing the dollar and forgetting about the rest. It's also not only dreary things that people need to think about, it's also the beauty that is still around us, despite all the turmoil we find ourselves in.

Two more people in the Fourfoot/Arve Road Clan have decided to bring forward their migration to Geeveston. Yesterday at martial arts training Craig turned up, having arrived for good that day. His partner is finishing off her job in Sydney and coming around Christmas. They decided that perhaps it was better to just get here, rather than waiting a few years and flying up and down once a month to work on the block. He seemed interested in joining the martial arts, and reckoned his partner would too. I wonder what the motivation for everybody else is - whether it's mere interest and fun, or something a bit more serious. Maybe something to discuss some time.

Anyway, I think my literary juices have nearly dried up. Next week Judy is coming to stay with us for a week - then she'll travel around Tassie for a month, occasionally dropping by. It'll be so good to see her, and I'm pretty sure she'll like it here. PJ's been busy cleaning up the garden around the house, and I'll soon be shifted to the new (still not functioning) kitchen so that we can finish the spare bedroom completely and so she has a nice room to stay. I've taken the week off, bliss! I won't know what to do with myself!! Apart from going on long walks with Judy, visiting a few wineries, going to Bruny Island to visit the cheese factory... It's going to be good.

Here are a few more links because I can't help myself:

• Early voting sees reports of voter intimidation, machine malfunctions
  How obvious can you get, and isn't it amazing what a government in a supposedly democratic country can get away with.
  
• US threatens to halt services to Iraq without troop accord
  Which part of the word 'agreement' don't you understand??
  
• Stolen elections and media blackouts: Carolyn Baker interviews Mark Crispin Miller
  Interestingly enough there is also a movie out there, called Stealing America: Vote by vote. I'd love to see it, but the links are always broken. Hmpfff :(
  
• Central Banks Slashing Rates As Investors Flee
  By the way have you noticed how Reuters and whoever seem to have 2 pictures only when dealing with the ups and downs in the financial world?
  
• The story of stuff
  Nice little animation with some very astonishing facts about our production and consumption patterns. Though American, it's still relevant elsewhere. I love the little cartoon of the government polishing the shoes of the corporations.

Toodles!