Now on ScienceBlogs: Oldest Human-Made Object in Space
It is a really simple idea - things that can't go on the way they have been, usually don't. Sooner or later things that have no future just stop. We all know intellectually that we can't all live and consume like middle class Americans, that our kids are going to have a harder time because of our way of life, that Empires end and ecological disasters cause things to come to hard stops. We know it, but we don't KNOW it. This blog is about coming to KNOW, and figuring out where we go from here. I'm a science writer, teacher, environmental activist and small farmer who is trying to put her lifestyle where her mouth is, and live in a way with a future. When not writing books, serving on the board of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, I run my farm with my husband, where we raise dairy goats, herbs, pastured poultry, heirloom vegetable plants, children and havoc.
Category: farm stuff
No, not the kind used in track and field (although if you really want to jump over them I won't stop you), I mean the sort used to keep livestock in without breaking the budget on fencing.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 9:12 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: farm stuff
he farms in the Schoharie Valley, down the hill from us, however, and others in the Hudson, Catskills and along the Mohawk weren't so lucky - many of them lost *ALL* their crops, and some lost buildings as well. For those of us in this region, please remember and help your local farmers anyway you can - most of them will struggle to rebuild after this disaster and to go forward. I'm working on brainstorming some kind of organized response for Northeastern small farmers struggling with Hurricane Irene's damage, and welcome suggestions if you have them for how to help!
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 1:45 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: farm stuff
Sundry stuff on a busy day - and a day when everyone is transfixed by world events. First, my colleage at Dean's Corner has offered a good guide to high tech ways to donate money to Japan relief. There are...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 11:40 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: farm stuff
This might just be the beginning of spring. After a long and bitterly cold winter, we're all excited. (And probably a little optimistic, given that it is -5 right now and we're expecting snow within the next 24 hours...but it is supposed to be 35 tomorrow, so that's enough to encourage optimism!)
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:17 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: goats
These were taken before the 18 inches of snow that fell the other day, so you can actually see the ground, but the scene is still basically the same - white, with scattered critters. We're all definitely starting to dream...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 2:56 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: farm stuff
The Sharks and the Jets are fighting over by the compost pile. Well, ok, maybe not quite, but it has that feel to it. You see, we have two street-gangs of ducks.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 9:52 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: meat
I've spent a lot of time in the last near-decade trying to explain food to people, and I can see precisely how this would go over at most of my local farmer's markets. I can envision myself with my banner advertising "locally produced and sustainably raised rabbit-fed pork." I can see the kind shoppers figuring "rabbit fed...does that mean they are fed on lettuces and dandelions like rabbits....it can't mean..."
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 9:01 AM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: farm stuff
On a farm, chores are something else - they are bookends to each day, a formal structure like the forms of a sonnet or musical scales that shape the day.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 10:26 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: farm stuff
Here, spring isn't a color, and it isn't a smell or a taste, and it doesn't even have wings (although it might have feathers, a la Emily Dickinson).
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:20 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: humor
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of having a buck goat, or do have buck goats, but own pickup trucks or other more sensible farm vehicles than our ancient Ford Taurus, you may not be famliar with the way a buck goat smells in close quarters.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 9:57 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
denialism blog 02.14.2012
respectful insolence 02.14.2012
uncertain principles 02.13.2012
confessions of a science librarian 02.13.2012
starts with a bang! 02.13.2012
Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front
A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil
Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation
