Skip to main content

Spitting in the ocean.

     At the age of 56, it occurs to me that I have roughly 30 years left in my life give or take a few.  I've (sadly) never had kids.  So in some ways my newly found environmentalism might be my way of leaving some sort of lasting legacy?

    I honestly don't know.   I'm no dummy, I know that what ever I do is spitting into the ocean.  However I also feel that not doing anything is morally bankrupt.  You can make a difference in one persons life, even though you may never see that outcome.  


    For whatever reason I've been coming across a lot of info on No Mow May - which is a simple idea to let your lawn grow wild during the month of May, allowing bees and other pollinators to do their thing and help re-establish a needed but diminishing species.  I let part of my yard "go wild" last year and I'm planning on letting the same parcel go wild this year. 

    Only I'm planning on never mowing that parcel of land again.  I'm going to let it be absorbed back into the woods it came from.

    It's also one of the reasons that I'm planting native flowers and trees.  I'm debating if I want to plant one or two fruit trees like the Granny Smith Apple (overall its the apple with the highest nutrition levels - and I like the idea of some future forager finding it).  I prefer to plant the dwarf apples, because they would fruit within two or three years and I want to pick an apple from a tree that I planted.  I don't want to wait the six or seven it can take a tree to mature.  I'm not that patient a man.

    My glacially slow evolution towards a vegetarian diet continues, although that's going to be an uphill battle.   The local supermarkets do not seem to offer much in the way of variety and Sue does not seem interested my making vegan/vegetarian dishes.  I have little to no interest in learning to cook. 

    So I eat what I can, where and when I can in the hope of doing my small part to reduce the impact of meat consumption.  Again, I am spitting into the ocean.  Still though, I feel it's important to do my little bit where and when I can. 

     I find a lot of per-packaged foods, even though they are "meat free" are high in salt.  It's a common preservative but when you have heart disease running in your family like I do...you want to avoid salt.  

    Earlier I was doing a "taste test" series, I'm half tempted to return to it because if I can influence one person to try something new or encourage them along that path.   I should do that.   

    Our home improvement projects, replacing the windows and updating our kitchen will help in reducing our electric bill, saving energy and water.  Yes, it's costly in the short term, but again I'm looking long term.  That's the only way to look at things today.

    I've always been interested in Science, earning my degree in Science Education and Biology.  I fell in love with philosophy in college and have always maintained the study of it.  I was always concerned about the environment but it's only now, in my later years, that I am actually taking it "seriously."   I just hope it's not to late.  Although I know it is to late, but I'm spitting into the ocean anyway.

    Morally I feel it's my duty to spit into the ocean and leave this world a little better than it is.  I would rather have a little hope than accept that "Everything is fine" while the room burns down around me.


    The choice, of course, is always up to you.  Do you spit into the ocean?  Or let the rip tide take you under?

Labels:
Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

A taste of the secret Amish Kitchens

     I don't know what attracts me to "Amish Cheese's."  I came across a few recipes while putting about on the interwebs and was taken by them.  They do seem rather simple to make and they require little in actual work but they do require time.  While not exactly a "set it and forget it" cheese, these cheeses often used milk that has spoiled naturally over time or "Clabbered."       Which, considering the Amish lifestyle, makes perfect sense.  The Amish are not a wasteful people.        One cheese that caught my eye is called Amish Cup Cheese.   It is a soft spread where you heated the milk to room temperature first (about 72 F) then let it cool, letting the curds seperate from the whey.    Then you add a bit ingredients and again...you "rested" the cheese for 12 hours before moving on to the next step.  Then, again add some more ingredients then rest for 5 hours before moving on.  It's...
Post a Comment
Read more

Climate change denialism and what two old farmers taught me.

  I am not that creative of a person.  Yes, I write and have written some fiction and such but I have more of an analytic mind.  I like to deal with facts, numbers and hard data.  The conclusions that I've reached are driven by columns of pluses and minuses. I'm not going to lie, much of my belief system and philosophical views are based on rational and scientific thinking.   Most, if not all of the the work that I've done all my life was driven by data and information.  When you understand what the data tells you, it affects your world view in a lot of different ways. For example, data from the FBI and other sources state that the most violent city in America is not Chicago or New York; but the tiny city of Bessemer, Alabama.  For a city of only 26,000 people, the chance of you being a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 30.    In a place like New York city, the chances of you being a victim of a violent crime is only 1 in 192. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

So, there I was minding my own business when.....

Life happens.   In this past month we have finally managed to paint a majority of the house.  We used a paint named "Cream in your coffee" on the walls now with an accent wall of grayish/green running throughout the length of the house. Suddenly our walls are lighter and more vibrant.  Our house seems more like our home and not the former owner's residence.   It's just a series of home improvements that we have been working on since buying the house in September of last year.   our original look Some of those jobs have been major, others not so much but each job has increased the value of our home.  Sadly, for most Americans the home is going to be the most valuable thing they own, and for Susan and myself there may come a time when we can no longer due the upkeep on the home, and when that time comes, we can relax in the knowledge that all the major work was done when we were young. I still want to do solar panels. During the past mon...
Post a Comment
Read more