Because the ‘wildest’ thing she is used to seeing are Segways on blacktop, I’m posting a panoply of black Aberdeen Angus cattle in fields of green for an urban-dwelling Twitter friend.
OK, @RWRenfrew, here’s the beef!
This year’s herd is out grazing in the fields surrounding Roseville Community Garden, and are quite entertaining to watch – or talk to if they’re hanging out at the fence watching you plant or weed the garden. In the second picture below, you can see some of the damage the extreme winds of Hurricane Sandy did to the roof of one of the barns on the property. Enjoy.
As I learned very quickly last year, when you have a garden, you are often at the mercy of Mother Nature. This was true again in the very early morning hours of Tuesday, May 14, 2013.
On Sunday, May 12, the National Weather Service had issued a frost advisory for the area on Monday morning. My biggest concern was the tomato plants I had planted on April 27th (rolling the dice on potential frost/freeze loss) and protecting them. I quickly grab a stack of newspapers and a stapler and headed to Roseville Community Garden. I started by ‘gift-wrapping’ the lower frame of the tomato cages in four layers of newsprint and ran a 4-layer strip over the top as well. It was a crude fix that didn’t look glamorous, but the whole idea was to keep frost from settling on the plants. I also ‘tented’ a single layer of newsprint over the mounds that are home for just emerged sprouts of the four different squash varieties I planted, knowing they too would be sensitive to the cold. Here’s how that looked.
‘Gift-wrapped’ tomato cages to protect from frost. Click the image to enlarge.
It ended up not being necessary, as temperatures didn’t drop low enough and Sunday’s windy conditions persisted overnight, so no frost. Yay! But Monday nights forecast wasn’t looking too good for the garden. The NWS had issued a freeze advisory that morning that then became a freeze warning by afternoon. Ugh…what to do?
May 4th was the ‘official’ Opening Day at the Roseville Community Garden, and I’ve got my plot 95% complete!
I was anxious to get a jump on the season, so on April 6th – the first Saturday the garden was open for ‘pre-season’ activity – I arrived bright & early, hauled in a half dozen wheel-barrows of fresh topsoil and fired up the Bolens roto-tiller.
Plot #63 at Roseville Community Garden on April 6, 2013: cleaned, tilled and all ready for the 2013 gardening season. Click image to enlarge.
Over the past four weeks I’ve been busy digging in the dirt while proceeding according to the well-thought and eagerly anticipated 2013 ‘Garden Plan’ for Plot 63. A plan that started while laying on the sofa watching a crackling fire (and listening to a crackling transistor radio) during the power outage in the week after Sandy, reflecting on the things learned – both good and bad – over the summer of 2012.
According to the Huffington Post, this video has gone viral. Watch it. Now.
Then ask yourself, “How much longer are we going to tolerate this war on America’s middle class?”
Published on Nov 20, 2012
Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.
For me, these 30 seconds say as much about the man as his entire 18-minute Inaugural speech. And the speech was incredible!
His face goes from pensive to a glowing, knowing smile with a twinkle in his eyes. Watch.
“You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course. You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time — not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.”
That was the look of a man – at the ‘beginning of the end’ of his presidency – who is ready to shape the debates of our time. And do so with the knowledge that “we the people” – the cheering masses he was looking out at across the National Mall – are there for him.
I’m fired up and ready to go. Let’s do it, Mr. President.
America, we are better than this. Watch the video below, then join by going here to sign on.
Also, follow the Brady Campaign on Twitter, and like them on Facebook. Because they want an America free of gun violence. They educate about the dangers of guns in homes. They honor victims and advocate for strong laws. Strong Gun Laws Work! And we are better than this.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. — Second Amendment, US Constitution
The Bushmaster .223, reportedly used by Adam Lanza in his murderous attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, comes with a 30-round magazine, enabling the shooter to fire all 30 rounds, one for each pull of the trigger, in a minute or less. The D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, used a Bushmaster .223 in nine of 10 sniper-style murders in the Washington area in 2002.
As an elected official – Councilman in Byram Township, NJ – I regularly receive email from residents expressing their concerns. Everything from taxes being too high, to traffic or speeding on town streets, to noisy neighbors or poorly maintained properties. Usually local concerns about local issues.
Many small people, who in many small places, do many small things, can alter the face of the world. — Adage from the Xhosa of South Africa
Many of us in the Highlands have had a difficult run-up to the holiday. Hurricane Sandy hit us with an ugly punch-to-the-gut on October 29th, testing our strength and resolve. Locally, we were knocked off balance for a week or two, but we’re bounding back. Sandy laid an even bigger hurt on our friends and neighbors on the Shore, and the damage there is going to last a lot longer. Entire towns, like Highlands, NJ, were devastated by the storm. It won’t be so quick or easy for them to bounce back.
I’d venture to guess that folks in both ‘Highlands’ communities have something in common to be thankful for this year: our neighbors. Our extended family – the friends and neighbors in our communities who banded together, looked adversity in the face when the lights went out and things came crashing down around us, and rose to the challenge of the days ahead. It’s at time like this that the best side of people comes out, and truly good things take place in our communities. For THAT, I am truly thankful.
We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. — Frederick Keonig, German innovator, inventor of the printing press
For me, Thanksgiving is not so much a religious holiday as it is a spiritual holiday, so I found this ‘Buddhist Grace’ blog post appropriate today. I hope you will too – give it a read. I’m NOT celebrating ‘Black Friday Eve‘ today, and I’m doing my best to eschew the excesses and madness of over-hyped consumerism. Instead I’m using it as the perfect time to take inventory of those things around me for which I am most grateful: the bounty of our land; the wonder of our natural resources; the diversity of our neighbors; and the freedom to enjoy all of these things. And resting up for the battles sure to come in the next year to protect these things for all generations, so that they too may be thankful for them.
Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in. — Phillips Brooks, 19th century clergyman and author
You may also want to take a read of another article, ‘This Thanksgiving, Have a Conversation About Climate Change,’ that might be of interest to you as well, especially if you too are taking inventory of those things for which you are thankful. It may just provide some inspiration as you gather with families and friends over this holiday weekend. And possibly change your grumpy uncle’s mind on what may be in store for us in the not so distant future.
