Decisions... Decisions...

It is now quite clear that my path to the rural life may not be simple. Responsibilities... Happiness... History... Relationships... Rural Life... WOW! But, I have started down a path that I think will work.

As much as I would like to simply disappear into the mist, emerging a farmer with no connections to my past, this is simply not realistic. And if the simple impossibility is not enough, I would loose all of my history. I don't care to loose all of that.

So, when I decide the time is right, I will start looking for a computer programming job in an area where there is a rural area nearby. Then, find a nice little farm and do what comes naturally... get my hands dirty.

8% Less Corn Planted

According to the USDA's 2008 Prospective Planting Report, 8% less corn will be planted overall in the United States. Yes, LESS. I remember reading, not more than six months ago, how farmers would be cutting back on other crops like soy beans and wheat, in an effort to grow more corn. Read it here.

Oh, the wailing and keyboard smashing! Predictions of drastic food price increases because of almost exclusive planting of corn was predicted. Food prices are going up, but it isn't due to farmers planting corn instead of wheat or green beans or lettuce. It is due to increased energy costs.

Watch and minimize those Food Miles. That helps reduce energy and over a longer period of time, may cause a lowering of food prices.

Blond Banana Nut Bread

Life has been rather busy lately. Work has been rather demanding and preparing to move is no easy matter. I have several blog posts, started but never finished. Sooner or later I will finish them up.

But, for now, a new recipe I came up with this morning: Blond Banana Nut Bread.

1 C Bisquick
1 C White, unbleached flour
1/4 t Cinnamon
2 Ripe bananas
1/3 C finely chopped walnuts
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Water
1/4 t Vanilla
1 Egg

Mix the dry ingredients (Bisquick, flour, cinnamon and sugar) in a bowel with power mixer or large whisk.

Beat in banana, egg and water until well blended.

Finally add sugar, vanilla and walnuts. Mix on low speed or with a spoon until everything is well blended.

Pour into a buttered and floured bread pan. Bake at 325 F for about 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick. When the toothpick comes out clean, it is ready.

You may want to add more nuts, bananna or sugar to taste.

>>>Enjoy!!!

Food Miles Explaind on the Mainstream!

I am an admitted weather geek. While doing computer work or, well, just about anything else at the house, the TV will probably be tuned to the Weather Channel. Just out of the corner of my perception I hear the words 'food miles' What? Yes, the Weather Channel was airing a Forecast Earth program on how to calculate food miles. And it was surprisingly educational while still being easy to understand for the typical non-farmer.

It is a good program. I went to their web site here at the Weather Channel website, and found quite a few nice programs; educational while simple to understand for the average person. I highly recommend surfing there and watching a few.

The actual "Food Miles" program can be viewed by surfing here and watching Forecast Earth, Part 3.

Leftover Homemade Bread

I just LOVE the smell of homemade bread. It brings back memories of coming in from a hard day's work to sit quit quietly, enjoying a slice or two of baked heaven, lightly covered with a thin coating of melting butter. A kitchen the smells of fresh bread should be known by every child everywhere.

Very rarely does a week go by that I don't make a loaf of fresh bread. Alas, as a friend calls it, I make cheater's bread. I use a bread machine. Not that I can't make bread the old fashioned way, I just find the machine to be more convenient.

Now, everyone has little quirks. One of my little quirks is the desire to not waste food. I grew up on farm and implicitly learned that food should be used and not allowed to rot away in the refrigerator or pantry. Nearly a decade ago I was cleaning the refrigerator and found a dozen or so little packets of Parmesan cheese; the kind you get when you order pizza. I also found a small bag of chives that needed to be consumed. Thus was the genesis of my left-over Homemade Bread recipe. It starts with a basic, simple white bread recipe:

• 3 3/8 C White, unbleached flour
• 3 T Sugar
• 1/4 C Milk
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t butter
• 1 C water
• 1 1/2 t yeast

Now is where the fun began. I chopped up the chives and then crushed them. I added the chives and about six of the Parmesan cheese packets to the recipe and ended up with a lovely chive cheese bread. Here are some modifications to the recipe I have made to help save food that might otherwise be wasted.

Honey Bread
Replace the 3T sugar with 3 to 4 T honey. This enhances the aroma of the bread, giving it a somewhat floral smell. Using different kind of honey will ever so slightly change its taste and smell.

Oatmeal Bread
Replace the 3 3/8 C flour with 3 C flour and 1/2 C rolled oats or oatmeal. Instant or regular oatmeal is fine. This gives the bread a heavier texture and a tougher, crunchier crust. It also increases the fiber content.

Whole Wheat Bread
Replace the 3 3/8 C flour with 2 1/2 C white flour and 1 C whole wheat flour. The result is a nice whole wheat textured bread.

Rice Bread
Replace the 3 3/8 C flour with 3 C flour and 3/8 C rice flour. It doesn't change the taste but makes the crust very flaky and the bread has a little heavier texture.

Cheese Bread
Add a little cheese. Any sort will do, but aged cheddar or any cheese with a strong flavor is best. Experimentation is the best with cheese bread. Find what you like.

Potato Bread
Replace the 3 3/8 C flour with 3 C flour and add 1/2 C mashed potatoes. You may need to lessen the amount of water for this as well. This bread is a little heavier but holds its temperature and takes butter or your favorite bread spread very well.

Once you get the basic bread recipe down, start experimenting. If you have a failure, don't worry. You can always slice it up into cubes and let it dry into croutons. Or let it dry and crush it into bread crumbs for other recipes. In the worst case, simply toss it out for the birds.

Enjoy and have fun!

Oh Man, I'm Going to be Tired!

In about six months, that will probably be me... Falling asleep in my dinner, trying to get a little rest. Today is A day for me. I am dressed in a black jeans, black button-down shirt, black boots and I am ready to fill out job applications. I am going to moonlight.

Another blogger wrote something that read like, "Whatever you read on a blog is only the surface. There are a lot of things going on behind the words." How true. I smile thinking of the things I could blog about... Daughter not going to school for the third day in a row due to flu symptoms; her failing in highschool and having to make up three more classes within the next month to graduate; my failure at romance and generally any situation that requires verbal communication and interaction; and then there is my poor financial situation.

Well, at least I can control the last item there. If I am to get out from under these bills while still paying for my daughter's extra schooling , keeping the truck and motorcycle, pay off the credit cards, AND save money for a small farm, I will need to moonlight... have a second job.

Hell. Right now I can't afford a beer once in a while. How am I to move out of here and get a farm? Only one way I can see... Work my 41 year old ass off. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Borders, Barnes & Noble... I would even work at a casino. I don't care where or what anymore; I just need another income if I am to do anything.


So, off I go. Wish me luck.

Other Crops for Ethanol Production

The pulp news press is still running, blaring loudly from every possible outlet that Ethanol is bad.

Bull.

Many of these statements are based on an errant study that is focussed on corn based ethanol production. There are a great number of other plants that can produce quality ethanol, many with lower inputs than corn. Here are a few:

• Rice
• Wheat
• Potatoes
• Switchgrass
• Sorghum
  
• Beets
• Sugar Cane
• Miscanthus (a type of fast growing grass)
• Barley
• Apples
• Trees
• Brush and typical weeds
• Sunflower
• Crop wastes
• Yard clippings
• Cherries

Just about any sweet or starchy plant can be used. People seem to be focusing on corn based ethanol. Why? Maybe because so much conventional agricultural infrastructure is made to support corn processing and agriculture. Ethanol is made by converting starch or sugars into ethyl alcohol through fermentation. Anything that produces sugar can be fermented. ANYTHING! Why the focus on corn?

Here is a bit of historical ethanol trivia for you... The original internal combustion engines were designed to use alcohol but since gasoline was so inexpensive, the engines were modified to burn gasoline. In 1919 when prohibition began, ethyl alcohol was illegal and could only be sold when mixed with gasoline. That laid the groundwork with auto engineers. Automobile motors were designed to use gasoline.

So, when reading in the common press of the problems with ethanol production and it causing more pollution than conventional gasoline, just remember... The press, almost by design, must sell product. Don't believe everything you read in the paper.

Problems with Science Biofuel Study

After a little searching and poking on the internet last night, I managed to find the study that purports to state, according to popular media, a doomsday if we are to turn on to biofuels in a big way. Please, read the study and judge for yourself here, at the Science website.

Further, I found a few other good pieces on CNet News and The Renewable Fuels Association and/or the Argonne National Laboratory. While a bit dry, and defensive in areas, these are good reading.

As I noted in another post, I am not a scientist. The only professional or academic research I have ever participated in were focused on computer science and mathematics, and that was almost two decades ago. So, with that caveat stated, here's what I think of the seemingly damning study published in Science.

• The study states... "Because we compare these emissions to the cost of 30 years of ethanol consumption, we treat them as up-front costs." This means what? Seems to me this means that the emissions for the next 30 years are tossed into the beginning emissions values. This is not how nature works and should not be used that way in the study. Far too many unknowns exist within the next 30 years. Given today's high rate of technological changes, 30 years if far too long to believe it unlikely that ethanol production cannot be optimized by a significant amount.
  
• The study focuses on corn based ethanol and the loss of land for increased production, especially in third world nations. This is a failure. While alternate sources of ethanol were mentioned, little was researched.
• Conventional wet and dry methods of milling and ethanol production were covered, but little was stated regarding potentially novel methods.
• Corn was domesticated sometime in the area of 7000 BC, in Central Mexico. Since then, all breeding and research into corn hybridization and breeding has been focused on nutrient quality, hardiness and adapting the plant to varied environmental situations. Only limited resources have been used to research hybridized corn or other plant products to emphasize their ability to produce ethanol.
  
• While not specifically stated, it seems the authors assume a conventional monolithic manufacturing and distribution model. Ignoring regional and local production, manufacture and distribution as a viable option is tremendously short sited. A local model is not even viable but is quite sustainable.

It may not have been the authors' intention, but the media really picked up this story and ran with it. There are quite a few mutations and extrapolations of this research, some of which could be somewhat comical, if not believed out-of-hand by so many.

So, please read and judge for yourself. Comments???

Information sources: Corn; Ethanol

How to Find and Finance a Farm

Ah, the things one can find when not even looking...

While idly perusing Google News I came across an article entitled "How to Find and Finance a Farm" on the Mother Earth News website. Bonanza, I thought. I eagerly follow the link and start reading.

Then I see the line, "this settlement is to be made early in 1971," and I start wondering. Later I see "Land values are skyrocketing around Cleveland, for instance, yet—a few weeks ago—I saw a good 31-acre farm for $11,000 . . ." and I know something is amiss. Then I see the publish date, November/December 1970.

And, according to Google News, it was posted only three hours ago! Ah, the wonderful world of of technology. Without this little bug, or what have you, I would not have seen this article, I would have been unable to include a link here. So, here you go: How to Find and Finance a Farm.

It may indeed be old, but it seems to me there is some pretty good information there. Enjoy!

Lake Mead, RIP 2017?

Now here is a study I can agree with. According to Tim Barnett and David Pierce, researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego, there is a 50% chance Lake Mead will not have enough water to operate the Hoover Dam by 2021, or worse, the lake may be completely dry! There is a 10% chance Lake Mead could be dry by 2014! Someone needs to Wake Up!

This takes into account the long drought and increased water usage, both above and below the dam. This is a case where the fecal matter is hitting the air circulator. For years Las Vegas has been sucking up water from Lake Mead, only to be used to water golf courses and pampered lawns that belong in the mid-west or east, not the desert south-west.

I rode out to look at the lake last weekend. It is anemic; 100 feet lower, or more than where it was nearly ten years ago when I first moved to this place of facades and oblivion. And yet people continue to waste, regardless of the television and newspaper spots, urging this city of excess to cut back. "It's a Desert Out There" is the tag line. Yet people still obliviously water and waste and apparently don't care.

The Colorado River is not only vital to Las Vegas, Laughlin and other river towns for supplying general purpose water, but is the veritable life blood of agricultural concerns from here, down to the Pacific. Farmers in Arizona, Southern Nevada, Southern California and parts of Mexico will have no choice but to let their farms dry up and blow away. Colorado River water is used for irrigation on a multitude of crops.

No water = no irrigation = no crops = no farms = more unemployment & higher food prices.

Why? Sure, the drought or climate change is a participant in this, but the primary culprit is Las Vegas and its citizens' attitudes.

Here's a suggestion to you, Mayor Goodman... You want to do something important that will make an impact? Tax the hell out of water in Clark County and use the income to make the golf courses and parks more "water smart." The citizens of Las Vegas may pull their collective heads out of their arses and use less water, if for nothing more than to pay less tax.

The result? Maybe reversing the draining of Lake Mead and the saving of thousands of farms down the river. Mayor Goodman, do something before the farms, small communities along the Colorado River, and maybe even Las Vegas become the first ghost towns of the 21'st century.

Read here: Google News collection of Lake Mead articles.