What a winter!

Now, this is a real winter!! Snow galore, cold and more! From this farmer's viewpoint, not an altogether bad thing! Too many of the previous springs have we had too little sub-soil moisture to get the grass up and rockin' and we've had to deal with way too many pests that ordinarily get knocked back by a good cold winter. We've had to pick ticks off the dogs in February and deal with red flag fire warnings in April too many years! Of course the downsides are all too obvious- life is harder when we spent our precious little time in traffic and endlessly moving snow, fearing for our structures, but with all things considered I'll take this over some years in the past!

Has anyone NOT noticed inflation in many of our purchasing venues? Fuel, food, durable goods, services? The stock market is up, and so is Brent crude as it heads up toward triple digit territory again! Instability in those areas of the world where we get a lot of our energy and with some terrible conflicts of interest, too! We promote democratic ideals, but have to support autocracies that further our interests in countering terrorism in a volatile region of the planet. In essence, we don't like what we see over there but cannot rest so staunchly on principles so we have to hold our noses and do business with corrupt, abusive entities anyway! Very tough corner to be backed into....

A caboose to this train of thought? We'd better get our collective will and wits about us to become more self sufficient in some vital areas such as energy, food, fiber and many durable goods. Personal responsibility and political will are needed in heavy dollops..........from very simple things such as energy conservation all the way up to activism in D.C. and at the ballot box. What will we do? Starting simply......

Reduce our energy use and rely more on our locally sourced biodiesel. Finish our solar collector projects to heat water. Simplify operations to use less oil and iron, and get more active politically to level the playing field for local business, agriculture, education and health. What will you do?

We have no where to go but up........

Here's to a healthy 2011! Peace!
Dave