Week 14 notes
There is considerable appeal to growing your own food. I have to say I’ve tried it some and its great fun. I’m worried, however, about whether I could grow enough on my property to sustain anything, let alone feed my family of 5 (including me). As PeakProphet showed in one of his great posts, there are a lot of things that just grow in your back yard (or front yard for me!) that are edible, and the Internet offers a lot of resources for discovering how to actually identify these things. Some time ago I used to use GardenForum a lot – you could post a picture of some weed or native plant growing in your yard, ask “what is this”, and BAM! In a few hours someone would tell you what it was. And, of course, reference books are great too. One of my favorites is a 1950s Army survival book I got at Amazon. Another great one is “Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places” by Steve Brill. There are tons of resources on wild edibles you can find at your favorite bookstore. And I think learning this is a very positive thing. I remember another great book, “Guns Germs and Steel” by Jared Diamond, where he told you if you met a guy from New Guinea, he would likely ask you what kind of plants were good to eat where you live. I’m afraid most of us would look like morons to this gentleman, since we don’t really have much concept of what grows wild around us, let alone whats good to eat. (There’s a dark side to meeting this fellow from New Guinea, too, and I’ll talk about that in the future.)
Other great books are concerned with growing food in small places. Things like the permaculture handbook “Gaia’s Garden” by Hemingway…”Lasagna Gardening” by Patricia Lanza…the list goes on and on. Again, I think it’s a positive thing to know about these methods and learn, and above all to plant green growing things and get back to nature, however you can. And above all, start planting! Don’t worry if its too late in the season. This year I started planting, even though I didn’t have my raised beds ready. The stuff I planted may not amount to anything, but its growing now, and it will be interesting to see what happens. Another great source and inspiration is ediblelandscaping.com which sells plants that are great for landscaping any home. They look good, grow well, and are edible to boot.
But sadly, I worry whether this type of agriculture can produce the food we need to truly survive and thrive. Even victory gardens in WWII were not intended to provide all a family’s needs, they were intended to reduce pressure on the food supply and increase morale (you could feel empowered that you were doing SOMETHING). I suspect it also helped people think about nature and the circle of life, etc, which is terribly poignant during such tragic times. A world without oil would be in the same position.
Although I’m a techie, I’m not a believer in Deus ex machina of science, that somehow something great will be invented somewhere and deployed to Save Us All.
But let’s give our imaginations a trial, here. In a past post I posited that if local food production became super vital, the Government could very well seize under utilized land and start producing vegetables. I’d prefer that they let the Free Market do its magic in its own odd way, because I believe somewhat in the product and services evolution that comes from capitalism, but in reality I suspect they’d take the land, bid it out to someone like ADM so they could say they used the market, and they’d set to work on it with underpaid, underinsured serfs to Feed Us. But let’s continue on. Supposed we truly wanted to empower people to grow their own gardens in places that are currently small and underutilized. While I am not a fan of genetic engineering but if we truly face a World Without Oil and food shortages are critical, don’t be surprised at what kind of compromises the world may make. Think about oak trees that were genetically enhanced to produce sweet acorns. Supposedly such a thing exits – there are sometimes oak trees whose acorns don’t have the usual amount of tannins in them. Oak trees take a LONG time to grow, but suppose modern genetics could create these things by simply inoculating existing stands of trees. (I’m not a biologist, but isn’t this what we do with genetic therapies?) You get someone to stand there with a gun and shoot the squirrels and birds that would be drawn to such a thing (and eat them, of course), then come harvest time you get a bounty of non-tannic acorns. Is it possible? Or think about kudzu. Its invasive around here, but it IS edible. What if some FrankenKudzu could also produce better tasting flowers, roots and leaves? The possibilities are endless, though clearly it would take a major R&D effort by a bunch of underpaid scientists working on a great Manhattan Project style undertaking. Sounds like something that would happen during a great world crisis…if there is time…
(OOG: this is a work a fiction for the worldwithoutoil.org experiment.)
Showing posts with label Tennessee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tennessee. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Faltering Coal
Week 13 notes
The news that Kingston Steam Plant (also called Kingston Fossil Plant) suffered greatly from diesel theft at a source mine made me wonder - what real impact would something like that have? Specifically, where does Kingston get its coal from? I’m afraid this scenario may stretch belief a bit, as I don't think Kingston actually has a single source mine. TVA contracts its coal from coal companies and I suspect they would not be so foolish to tie the output of a single mine to a single power plant. Think about coal mining in general – although accidents are more rare than the past, they still happen and an accident can shut a mine down for a substantial amount of time (especially in the East here). But even if there was a 1:1 relationship between mine and plant, if that source mine failed, how many other power plants would get shut down? I did a little research when I got a good Internet connection and found that the following plants are in the Knoxville vicinity:
Kingston Fossil Plant (Harriman)
-supplies 10 billion KWH per year (700,000 homes)
-Consumes 14,000 tons of coal per day
Bull Run (Oak Ridge)
-supplies 6 billion KWH per year (430,000 homes)
John Sevier (Rogersville)
-supplies 5 billion KWH per year (350,000 homes)
All plants burn low-sulfur coal blends which is a way around putting advanced pollution controls on the plants. A little more digging reveals that in 2004 a 3-year contract with Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway paid $39.2 million to ship coal from Wyoming to Kingston Fossil Plant through Memphis. 18 million tons of coal was purchased from Thunder Basin Coal in Wyoming. IF ALL that came to Kingston and ONLY to Kingston, it would be enough to provide 3.5 years of production. The same link (http://www.energybulletin.net/3439.html) says contracts were also signed with Arch Coal for 5.5 million tons and Massy for 5 million tons. These are also low sulfur coal but they are more expensive presumably because its more difficult to mine in the East.
Anyway, some interesting statistics: as of 2004 coal provides 60 % of TVA electricity generation (11 plants); there are 2 other plants that use natural gas (cleaner but likely to be more scarce too) and oil (GULP!!)
Plant & consumption per day (tonnage)
Allen: 7200
Bull Run: 7300
Colbert: 8900
Cumberland: 20000 (this is the biggest one)
Gallatin: 12350
John Sevier: 5700
Johnsonville: 9600 (this is the oldest one)
Kemper: This is a combustion / turbine power plant. As I understand it and mentioned earlier, this is natural gas / oil powered, not coal.
Kingston: 14000
Lagoon Creek: also natural gas / oil powered
Paradise: 20,000 (I think this is the one John Prine wrote about)
Shawnee: 9600
Widows Creek: 10000
Total coal use would be 125,000 per day or 46 million tons per year. Again, I don't know where all this comes from. The 2004 contracts were for low-sulfur coal but its likely they come from a variety of sources and mines.
SADLY, this is going to take more digging (or mining!!) than my busy schedule can afford right now...
(OOG: this is a work a fiction for the worldwithoutoil.org experiment. However the statistics were derived from TVA’s web site.)
The news that Kingston Steam Plant (also called Kingston Fossil Plant) suffered greatly from diesel theft at a source mine made me wonder - what real impact would something like that have? Specifically, where does Kingston get its coal from? I’m afraid this scenario may stretch belief a bit, as I don't think Kingston actually has a single source mine. TVA contracts its coal from coal companies and I suspect they would not be so foolish to tie the output of a single mine to a single power plant. Think about coal mining in general – although accidents are more rare than the past, they still happen and an accident can shut a mine down for a substantial amount of time (especially in the East here). But even if there was a 1:1 relationship between mine and plant, if that source mine failed, how many other power plants would get shut down? I did a little research when I got a good Internet connection and found that the following plants are in the Knoxville vicinity:
Kingston Fossil Plant (Harriman)
-supplies 10 billion KWH per year (700,000 homes)
-Consumes 14,000 tons of coal per day
Bull Run (Oak Ridge)
-supplies 6 billion KWH per year (430,000 homes)
John Sevier (Rogersville)
-supplies 5 billion KWH per year (350,000 homes)
All plants burn low-sulfur coal blends which is a way around putting advanced pollution controls on the plants. A little more digging reveals that in 2004 a 3-year contract with Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway paid $39.2 million to ship coal from Wyoming to Kingston Fossil Plant through Memphis. 18 million tons of coal was purchased from Thunder Basin Coal in Wyoming. IF ALL that came to Kingston and ONLY to Kingston, it would be enough to provide 3.5 years of production. The same link (http://www.energybulletin.net/3439.html) says contracts were also signed with Arch Coal for 5.5 million tons and Massy for 5 million tons. These are also low sulfur coal but they are more expensive presumably because its more difficult to mine in the East.
Anyway, some interesting statistics: as of 2004 coal provides 60 % of TVA electricity generation (11 plants); there are 2 other plants that use natural gas (cleaner but likely to be more scarce too) and oil (GULP!!)
Plant & consumption per day (tonnage)
Allen: 7200
Bull Run: 7300
Colbert: 8900
Cumberland: 20000 (this is the biggest one)
Gallatin: 12350
John Sevier: 5700
Johnsonville: 9600 (this is the oldest one)
Kemper: This is a combustion / turbine power plant. As I understand it and mentioned earlier, this is natural gas / oil powered, not coal.
Kingston: 14000
Lagoon Creek: also natural gas / oil powered
Paradise: 20,000 (I think this is the one John Prine wrote about)
Shawnee: 9600
Widows Creek: 10000
Total coal use would be 125,000 per day or 46 million tons per year. Again, I don't know where all this comes from. The 2004 contracts were for low-sulfur coal but its likely they come from a variety of sources and mines.
SADLY, this is going to take more digging (or mining!!) than my busy schedule can afford right now...
(OOG: this is a work a fiction for the worldwithoutoil.org experiment. However the statistics were derived from TVA’s web site.)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Zymurgy and the indoor igloo
Week 11 notes
One of the things I dearly loved back before the Shock was making homemade beer. If you've ever done this you must know there are two ways to do it. First, you can go the harder route and make "all grain" beer. This is where you start with malted barley and possibly wheat (or even corn, rye, etc but usually in much smaller amounts than barley) and undergo a process where you turn the starches in the grains into sugar and extract them from the grain. Or, you can go the easier route and purchase malt extract, which has undergone the previous process at a factory, where the sweet liquid has been concentrated. You have to dilute it yourself...and from there, the two methods are essentially the same: you boil the "pre-beer" (or wort) along with hops or other herbs, cool it somehow, and add yeast. Then you let it sit for a couple of weeks in a fermenter (a big container, like a glass carboy). During this time the yeast turn the sugar into alcohol and CO2 and other things. Then you possibly transfer it to another fermentation vessel for more conditioning (up to 6 months for really strong brews like Barley Wine), and bottle or keg it. This whole process is great fun and if you do things right (like follow a good recipe and maintain SOLID SANITATION PRACTICES) you end up with something magical. I could go on and on about it and there is still information on-line about it for more details (i.e. DON'T TREAT THE ABOVE AS A HOW-TO GUIDE).
But with the Shock, I wonder how feasible this will be. Many folks may say, hey, this guy can make his own beer, but it takes a lot of raw materials to start out with. First of all, malted barley. I could get sacks of the stuff at about $1 per pound or even less, shipping included, but it always comes from maltsters that are many many miles away (it ain't a local food for me). Hops can grow here but not very well, and you can substitute many different bitter herbs although this changes the character of the drink even though its interesting. A look at USDA statistics on barley producers in Tennessee shows none, although there do seem to be some in Virginia (but they are probably growing inferior 6-row for animal feed...although you can make beer out of 6-row). And, when you are making all-grain beer, you REALLY need a good heat source because the starch transformation process needs temperatures around 150-158 F to really work, and you usually are working with 20 or more pounds of grain at a time. Then when you are ready to boil, you are looking at 6-12 gallons of wort that has to be brought to a rolling boil. I used camp cookers (people use them for turkey fryers, for example) and propane, but when oil goes up in price, propane does to. I suppose I could find a way to use wood to do this, but I still have to get the raw materials. Other interesting things you can make include mead and wine. For the former I don't bring things to a boil, I just pasteurize it to kill unwanted bacteria that can spoil the brew, but you have to get honey and that's going to be very precious.
I didn't talk about the fermentation process much, but you actually want ales to ferment at around 60 F which requires temperature control...which requires energy, or a cave. My basement actually works great most of the time for this. Lagers must be fermented at cooler temperatures, say 45-50 and then they undergo very cold conditioning near freezing temperatures for an extended period of time. This brings me to another topic, the indoor igloo. A homebrewer named Ken Schwartz had a great idea for a fermentation chiller, which is like a mini refrigerator that is powered by ice, a simple thermostat, and a little fan. See home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF if you are interested. This "device" could be built on a bigger scale to furnish as an indoor igloo for suburban houses that are undergoing harsh winters. The idea: build a larger chiller, big enough for people to huddle in like and igloo, but maybe leaving out the ice bay. I'd still put in a fan and thermostat, though. Park it near your wood stove, possibly with an opening there. Then get the family together and let their body heat keep each other warm. The house itself would have the thermostat set at 40 or so to keep the pipes from freezing. It wouldn't be much for standard of living, but with the Shock, I don't think a lot of people will be able to afford to move anyway.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Eminent Domain for local food???
Week 10 notes
We had a "water cooler" conversation at work the other day and one guy said he wasn't worried about food shortages because he had enough land (70 acres) to hole up with his family. He thought he could forage & hunt. I told him he may be right but if the government needed his land for local food production they'd take it. "Over my dead body!" he said smiling. I told him I wonder how many people said the same thing when TVA said they'd dam up the rivers and flood their family properties, or when the Dept of the Interior (or whatever it was at the time) told folks to move so their land could become a National Park. He stopped smiling then. I would think if things got bad (well worse, as far as shortages) innovative people would start to farm their land for crop production - most of the land around here that's not being turned into subdivisions simply supports a few cattle - but I know our topsoil isn't as desirable as, say, Iowa or the Dakotas. I need to do some research on whether current food production in E. Tennessee could actually feed its population.
The rising diesel prices has our coop worried. We'll have to run the numbers again and see where we are going.
My project (the one that's supporting me 90% of the time at work) was supposed to have a review in DC this week but we decided to have a conference call instead. We'll ask for funding for next year to continue with Phase II of the project, but with things the way they are I don't know if we (or anybody) has a chance in hell of getting funded.
We had a "water cooler" conversation at work the other day and one guy said he wasn't worried about food shortages because he had enough land (70 acres) to hole up with his family. He thought he could forage & hunt. I told him he may be right but if the government needed his land for local food production they'd take it. "Over my dead body!" he said smiling. I told him I wonder how many people said the same thing when TVA said they'd dam up the rivers and flood their family properties, or when the Dept of the Interior (or whatever it was at the time) told folks to move so their land could become a National Park. He stopped smiling then. I would think if things got bad (well worse, as far as shortages) innovative people would start to farm their land for crop production - most of the land around here that's not being turned into subdivisions simply supports a few cattle - but I know our topsoil isn't as desirable as, say, Iowa or the Dakotas. I need to do some research on whether current food production in E. Tennessee could actually feed its population.
The rising diesel prices has our coop worried. We'll have to run the numbers again and see where we are going.
My project (the one that's supporting me 90% of the time at work) was supposed to have a review in DC this week but we decided to have a conference call instead. We'll ask for funding for next year to continue with Phase II of the project, but with things the way they are I don't know if we (or anybody) has a chance in hell of getting funded.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Sponsors and Hummer Dummer in the Summer
Week 9 notes:
First is good news: we DO have a sponsor. We received a grant from our company that allowed us to substantially cut the coop debt. We therefore reduced our monthly membership fee somewhat, and we're taking the rest and putting it into a maintenance fee. Everyone still has their jobs so our group is still 12 strong. We've talked about expanding it but some folks wouldn't be guaranteed a seat and would have to ride without belts.
Second: I personally witnessed a rather disturbing incident at the pumps. It may be two-faced of me to discuss this given last week's reports of my OWN hoarding of food, but the most disturbing aspect of this incident I saw was how quickly things got out of hand. Some clown in a HUMMER (yes a hummer!!) was filling up and he seemed to be really familiar with the guy behind him, a teenager in a Cherokee. Everyone seemed to notice them too, and when Hummer finished and pulled up Cherokee guy called him "Dad". Well some big guy in a Silverado started screaming at them, as it looked like they'd brought their family guzzlers down and were tanking up. The lady behind Cherokee guy (driving a YUKON) started telling Silverado to mind his own business and I realized...she was MOM! Things kind of got out of control then, because one of the other pumps went dry and several people told the family to get out of there, they had their gas and other people were getting deprived on account of their selfishness. Somebody pushed the dad, then the kid tried to help but someone else pushed him, and then several people marched in and broke it all up. Finally the dad split and mom & kid did also (without getting any gasoline). I don't know what kind of household has 3 SUVs but I doubt they are as unusual as you may think. For their sakes I hope they have something smaller that they can siphon the Hummer gas into to.
I managed to get gasoline for our van. The cost to fill up (1/2 tank)... $49.80
Third: the worldwide incidents of infrastructure attacks are sick and will only make things worse for everyone, even the perpetrators and their "cause". Middle Eastern countries per-capita usage of oil is even worse than the USAs although I guess you could argue that some of that was due to their government subsidizing cheap petroleum. But even high oil prices won't help much if you cannot get your oil out of the ground and into the proverbial pipeline. Finally, if our troops really DID invade the oil sands I'd have to say it would be one of the worse strategic moves EVER. Not only was it a clear violation of our numerous treaties with Canada, the oil sands aren't that great an asset as far as I've read (see http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/9/21/1156/96411 ) especially in terms of EROEI.
First is good news: we DO have a sponsor. We received a grant from our company that allowed us to substantially cut the coop debt. We therefore reduced our monthly membership fee somewhat, and we're taking the rest and putting it into a maintenance fee. Everyone still has their jobs so our group is still 12 strong. We've talked about expanding it but some folks wouldn't be guaranteed a seat and would have to ride without belts.
Second: I personally witnessed a rather disturbing incident at the pumps. It may be two-faced of me to discuss this given last week's reports of my OWN hoarding of food, but the most disturbing aspect of this incident I saw was how quickly things got out of hand. Some clown in a HUMMER (yes a hummer!!) was filling up and he seemed to be really familiar with the guy behind him, a teenager in a Cherokee. Everyone seemed to notice them too, and when Hummer finished and pulled up Cherokee guy called him "Dad". Well some big guy in a Silverado started screaming at them, as it looked like they'd brought their family guzzlers down and were tanking up. The lady behind Cherokee guy (driving a YUKON) started telling Silverado to mind his own business and I realized...she was MOM! Things kind of got out of control then, because one of the other pumps went dry and several people told the family to get out of there, they had their gas and other people were getting deprived on account of their selfishness. Somebody pushed the dad, then the kid tried to help but someone else pushed him, and then several people marched in and broke it all up. Finally the dad split and mom & kid did also (without getting any gasoline). I don't know what kind of household has 3 SUVs but I doubt they are as unusual as you may think. For their sakes I hope they have something smaller that they can siphon the Hummer gas into to.
I managed to get gasoline for our van. The cost to fill up (1/2 tank)... $49.80
Third: the worldwide incidents of infrastructure attacks are sick and will only make things worse for everyone, even the perpetrators and their "cause". Middle Eastern countries per-capita usage of oil is even worse than the USAs although I guess you could argue that some of that was due to their government subsidizing cheap petroleum. But even high oil prices won't help much if you cannot get your oil out of the ground and into the proverbial pipeline. Finally, if our troops really DID invade the oil sands I'd have to say it would be one of the worse strategic moves EVER. Not only was it a clear violation of our numerous treaties with Canada, the oil sands aren't that great an asset as far as I've read (see http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/9/21/1156/96411 ) especially in terms of EROEI.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Competition and shortages
As I mentioned in the past, our employer is kind of out in the country and many employees live in West Knoxville. Well this week they announced that they are going to provide a bus service to work. It won't be as flexible or as nice as our service (i.e. we've got nice cloth seats and an internet connection while-u-wait, AND its closer to home) but its got us concerned...not that we're petty, but we took a lot of risk and are making some financial sacrifices to provide our coop commuter service (we REALLY need an acronym...any advice?) We have a meeting scheduled to see if we can get some kind of "sponorship", I hope they're willing to help us.
But this is really the least of our worries now. The shortages have me MAJORLY concerned. Since I've followed Peak Oil, its made me aware of our massive dependence on cheap energy and the benefits it provides us. Shortages are not part of that ideal world. I tried to sleep last night and couldn't, the most familiar analogy I have is Sept.11, when I wondered if that day would be an anomaly or the shape of things to come.
Needless to say, we've canceled our beach trip...
But this is really the least of our worries now. The shortages have me MAJORLY concerned. Since I've followed Peak Oil, its made me aware of our massive dependence on cheap energy and the benefits it provides us. Shortages are not part of that ideal world. I tried to sleep last night and couldn't, the most familiar analogy I have is Sept.11, when I wondered if that day would be an anomaly or the shape of things to come.
Needless to say, we've canceled our beach trip...
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Spam me, please
(Late week 7 post)
with the gas shortages looming I tried to think about the impact down the supply line, and I think it would be prudent to score as many canned goods as we can at this point. I asked for extra spam, too, which people make fun of all the time, but I like it frankly, and we may not be able to be too picky in the future. Also, non-perishables in general - toilet paper, soap, shampoo, diapers, etc. most of which we can save in the attic. So we dumped an extra $1000 (YOWZA!) on these things, which are currently not too scarce. We did it in shifts and tried not to draw attention, which may be paranoid but you gotta be careful too. We need to evaluate how long this will last us but hopefully we won't have to depend on it.
with the gas shortages looming I tried to think about the impact down the supply line, and I think it would be prudent to score as many canned goods as we can at this point. I asked for extra spam, too, which people make fun of all the time, but I like it frankly, and we may not be able to be too picky in the future. Also, non-perishables in general - toilet paper, soap, shampoo, diapers, etc. most of which we can save in the attic. So we dumped an extra $1000 (YOWZA!) on these things, which are currently not too scarce. We did it in shifts and tried not to draw attention, which may be paranoid but you gotta be careful too. We need to evaluate how long this will last us but hopefully we won't have to depend on it.
Life's a Beach, seriously
(week 7 notes)
Well with the spiking gas prices we thought we'd change our usual Fall trip to Myrtle Beach to NOW. The trip is about 400 miles...in our van, that's 16 gallons, still not a steep price to pay although EVERYTHING is getting more expensive. We called the place we usually stay, which is a hodge-podge collection of cabins and beach houses, and prices there are a bit cheaper than normal because they're having a lot of cancellations. So we made a deposit and are planning on leaving in a month.
But, with the recent news of SHORTAGES, we may well EAT our deposit. While I can think of worse places to get stuck than there, not being able to get gas would be MAJOR. We may well just wait until the last minute, see how things are going, and decide THEN. We can get there on a single tank, so if we can get a full tank we'll do it and then fill up again the first chance we get. We'll have to see.
Meanwhile, the commuter co-op is going fine. Some of our members are getting concerned about their projects. Mine is pretty set for at least the rest of the fiscal year, but about 1/4 of us are worried their current funding will get cut and redirected to other efforts. Typically our company keeps people on for a while without funding but this may be an exception. If our numbers are true of the whole place, 25% unfunded would mean SERIOUS layoffs FAST. We failed to put a provision in our contracts about layoffs, so presumably people would have to keep paying their monthly membership fee. But I doubt anyone who got laid-off would pay. We may be able to replace them with non-members, but everyone is concerned about our fellow workers and our OWN positions. If I got laid off, we have some savings but we won't last long before we have to start skipping car payments and house payments.
Finally, we are taking steps to secure the van. We have some fears that diesels will be more popular in the coming weeks, even a big-honking thing like ours.
Well with the spiking gas prices we thought we'd change our usual Fall trip to Myrtle Beach to NOW. The trip is about 400 miles...in our van, that's 16 gallons, still not a steep price to pay although EVERYTHING is getting more expensive. We called the place we usually stay, which is a hodge-podge collection of cabins and beach houses, and prices there are a bit cheaper than normal because they're having a lot of cancellations. So we made a deposit and are planning on leaving in a month.
But, with the recent news of SHORTAGES, we may well EAT our deposit. While I can think of worse places to get stuck than there, not being able to get gas would be MAJOR. We may well just wait until the last minute, see how things are going, and decide THEN. We can get there on a single tank, so if we can get a full tank we'll do it and then fill up again the first chance we get. We'll have to see.
Meanwhile, the commuter co-op is going fine. Some of our members are getting concerned about their projects. Mine is pretty set for at least the rest of the fiscal year, but about 1/4 of us are worried their current funding will get cut and redirected to other efforts. Typically our company keeps people on for a while without funding but this may be an exception. If our numbers are true of the whole place, 25% unfunded would mean SERIOUS layoffs FAST. We failed to put a provision in our contracts about layoffs, so presumably people would have to keep paying their monthly membership fee. But I doubt anyone who got laid-off would pay. We may be able to replace them with non-members, but everyone is concerned about our fellow workers and our OWN positions. If I got laid off, we have some savings but we won't last long before we have to start skipping car payments and house payments.
Finally, we are taking steps to secure the van. We have some fears that diesels will be more popular in the coming weeks, even a big-honking thing like ours.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
"The sky is falling"...but we score a diesel
Hearing these tales about people burning cars and riots strike me as pretty insane at this point. While I believe this crisis is SERIOUS BUSINESS; and I think it will change many things about our country FOREVER...this ain't the end of the world, folks, at least not here in the USA. I think about my parents (they're a bit older than most of the parents of people my age) and the things they went through: the depression, WWII, the early days of the Cold War...Vietnam...I don't think we're into the deepest of the doo-doo. I think we need more tales of heroics and American can-do attitude instead of "I want cheap gasoline". Again, no one made anyone buy crappy wasteful SUVs, it was everyones own choice.
Speaking of gas burners...and the great news...our commuter cooperative has gotten our paperwork drawn up & ready, and we got a brand-new 2006 Chevy Express, 12 passengers. It was a good bit more than we expected, but since we can burn diesel which is currently cheaper (knock on wood) hopefully we'll manage. Demand for positions has been great so we actually upped the monthly membership fee a tad, which everyone seems to be OK with (well not happy but they understand). We get outfitted with a satellite link this week and we also got a special parking space at work. Due to the demand, we couldn't allow everyone "on the bus" but we may expand the coop to two vehicles. In the meantime, we have a special cell phone for the coop for "ride sharing". It works like this: if you won't be participating one day (say you have to stay late or leave early and need to drive yourself), you can call in and leave a message by 6.00 AM. Then if a non-coop member wants a seat, he/she can take it for a fee. That way, if you aren't in the coop you can swing by, see if there is a spot available, and claim it if there is. With 12 people there's a good chance we'll have people missing each day, and this way we can ALL save gasoline.
We've got a lot of stories to tell and I only have time to share a few. On the homefront, we're evaluating our lot as a source of future food and fuel. I've been interested in permaculture for some time (google it, it is great!) but we never took the time to really ramp things up. We've played around some, with native plants and lately with more edible landscaping, but I don't think we'll see any fruit for some time and it will be more like supplements, not sustenance. And, as I found with my gas tank, theres a good chance some miscreant would steal from us. However, I found the gentleman in Murfreesboro PeakProphet to be inspirational with his edible landscaping plans (see his great video at http://heartlandnotes.blogspot.com/2007/05/video-blog-1-backyard-garden-wild.html )
Bearing this in mind, and fearing a possible raise in natural gas prices this winter, we've decided to get some wood-burning stoves to replace our little-used gas logs. We're lucky in that our home has REAL hearths for upstairs & downstairs. The purchase & installation expense will be large, but with the stock market decline, I'm better off taking a 401K loaner out and turning at least some of that money into something REAL. I did a quick check of our lot, and again barring theft, I've got at least 20 good-sized trees on my property that could become REAL fuel. If we can keep our heater on at some ridiculously low level, say 45 to keep off the real chills, and modify our living arrangements some, we can stay fairly comfortable with woodstoves, especially the cleaner burning more modern ones. I'm not sure how long 20 trees would last, but I'm hopeful maybe 20 years?? (woodstove image from http://www.woodstove.com/images/Two-Cozy-Kids.jpg) We may have to make an "inner igloo"...but more on that later.
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