So, the climate is changing, you mean that world is not getting hotter and what happen to global warming? The Weather, she be a cruel mistress.

In mini-ice-ages, weather patterns shift like “e regular waves,” rather then regular patterns of rainfall to drought or even in some cases very heavy snow falls can fall in about an hour, in an area that receives little to no rain or snow . All of our Ancestors around the world learned how to adjust to suaver weather conditions or we all would not be here.

We may have to as well, it depends on the mid-Atlantic current, as the people of Spain and their surrounding neighbors found out a few days ago. The mid-Atlantic current is what gives the British Isles their warmish cold damp rainy weather they are so found of… I think? Can rapidly change when the current drops down more south toward North Africa.

Spain had winds of 200 Km an hour drop on them. They are still tallying the cost of the damage from the flooding and land slides.

Tis late… Carver…

Down on the south when one runs out of milk or veggies, one just walks to the to the store. We are fortunate. In the north they are not away so lucky, and are extorted for what ever the “Northern Store” feels like charging for lets say, 4lt of milk costs around $10.00 + tax. This may be shocking to some in the south, so lets not talk about the cost of veggies in the north.

I have friends in Cross lake Mb. who have been there for years and we share seeds and gardening stories! Cross Lake is about a 9 hour drive from Winnipeg as the crow flies. I shared my hybrid pumpkins and squash seeds with them a few years ago and they have managed to grow both with much success. They grow a lot root veggies as well like carrots, parsnips, turnips, because they last into the winter, before they have to start paying through the nose for them.

Pumpkins and squash can be store in a cool cellar for up to 6 to 7 months and make a great gift! When I make candied squash my family and friends gobble them up! Try this recipe:

Cut a Pumpkin or Squash in half and crape out the seeds and save them(I will tell you how later) Put the two halves on a cookie sheet, Then take about two or three table spoons of butter and put it into a bowl and add the following spices: a half a tea spoon of nutmeg, cinnamon and 1/4 tea spoon of allspice. Then add 2 or 3 table spoons of brown sugar. Mix very well and then spread on top top edge and all around on the inside. Cook at 350 degrees for about an hour or so. You will know when they are done because the brown sugar turn a golden brown color. Enjoy!

Saving the seeds: take the seed and separate the pulp and discard or compost. Lay the seeds out to dry on paper towels or news paper. It may take a few weeks, then rub off the dry film with a dry cloth or tea towel. If any develop mold toss them in the garbage. Place the seeds in envelopes making sure to write the date and year and strain of the seeds, save in a large box in a cool dry place.

Carver…

The Antis People of the Andes grew food in the mountains around Lake Titicaca several thousand feet above sea level. No other people managed this unbelievable task and has not been repeated in the present day. Their secret? Water… they cut huge channels into the mountain side with a southern exposure and filled these channels with water. The Sun’s heat warmed the water in the day and released the heat at night. In the mountains the temperature can drop well below zero, which will kill most food plants. Yet they managed to grow crops well past the growing season! Brilliant!! This can be done today, but it would take a community effort…

I have been having under-ground home/architectural dreams for about 20 years now and I have learned more about structure and function in my dreams then any walk down any street in city in Canada or the U.S….

Although I did watch something on PBS about “Earth Ship” homes in Arizona, which caught my eye a few years ago. One thing that stood out to me was all of the red tape that the people had in trying to get permits, which took years! Change for the right reason is to slow. These semi-submerged Earth Ship homes saved the homeowners a lot of money, because they were off the grid with solar power, composting toilets and solar gain heating. Again, Brilliant!!

The problem for me is in sharing these ideas, don’t get me wrong, I share with others as that is my way, but it would brake my heart if I did give out one of my ideas and someone cashed in on my idea and made a fortune and I would be left with nothing. I would rather win a lottery and develop these ideas myself and then I could share with the world. Until then we will all have to make do.

When I do walk around and look at houses, I can only think of the amount of waist involved in making the standard home. So much money is spent on the appearance of the home and not the function or longevity. With an under-ground home all of the appearance monies go into the structure and function. Most of the old homes and even the ones built today leek so much energy and require to much up keep like having to paint ever 5 years or so. With an under-ground home, the very ground the house sits in is the insulation, to the point that you can heat a room with a candle and in the summer you don’t have to pay for air-conditioning and you can grow your own food right on top of you home!

Caver…

There is no global warming… we are in a mild ice age. I wonder how many billions of dollars have been waisted around the world in the past few years, talking about global warming? Has it changed anything? Other then more public confusion and fear. I think it is more like trillions of dollars being diverted around the world, from the public purse into the hands of corporations, whom have our best interest at heart… no, really…. stop laughing!!

We all have to become even more self-sufficient then once thought, because the very corps I spoke of in the upper paragraph have to answer to share holders and not governments or you or I.

Let me give you an example: When the housing bubble burst in the States, who did the U.S. government rescue? The banks… from public funds. Not the home owners? As a person living above this said country, I have to ask… has our neighbors to the south lost their minds? The banks defraud the tax paying home owners, and the government pays off the banks with the tax monies that all of the home owners pay. No one went to jail…

I have one question though, Did the bail-out of the banks return balance to the markets? Hmm… I am not a banker or a real estate agent or a government… But, I think that in order to return balance to the markets, you have to force the banks to buy back the toxic mortgages of the people who were defrauded by the banks in the first place! That would teach them a lesson!

What happens in the south effects what happens in the north, what happens in the north effects the south. No country is an Island unto itself.

So we have to look out for each other, it’s that simple. “Community Gardens” are a start. In the northern climes here above our neighbors from the south, we have had a shift from four seasons to three. For the past few years we have had a few weeks of summer and a longer winter and spring and a short fall. With well below rain fall, ever drop of rain is precious! With the rising costs to water grass that you can’t eat, make little or no sense. Rain barrows…

I would like to see all of my neighbors tare up their grass and plant food and wild flowers, fruit trees if possible. Just a dream, I suppose. I would like to see heated beds in case the short summers continue.

Enough for now…. sleep well if you can. Carver…

The best soil is composed of many different things, as you can put all of the chemical fertilizer you want, but does it help the soil? The water table? Not really, but you won’t hear this from the companies that produce these products.

In my opinion, it is the micro-biological life forms and fungi that are the back bone of all soils. Where would one find these soil savers? Mushroom Compost. Mushrooms are grown on manure, the best is grown on horse manure. The trick is once the soil is workable in the spring, it can be worked down into the soil. Remember to save about a large garbage pail size amount of manure that you can make “compost tea” on into the growing season and keep your manure out of the sun and don’t let it dry out. Use rain water to moisten it once every couple of weeks. All you need is a large rain barrel filled with rain water, then take an old wool sock and fill it with the compost and tie a knot on the end. Place the sock in the water and let it steep for a few days and Presto! You have Compost Tea! Use this tea once a week and you will see a bountiful garden! Without using chemicals!!!!

Carver…

One of the worst plants to grow in a gumbo based soil is grass, as it strips the ground of nutrients. One just has to look down their street and witness the amount of grass and we can’t eat grass. I see my neighbors out in the growing season with “chemicals of mass destruction,” for dandelions and chemical based fertilizers and herbicides trying master the perfect lawn and are doing more harm then good. As these chemical based fertilizers and herbicides build up and contaminate the ground water and makes its way into rivers and streams… lakes… all the back into your kitchen tap for your morning glass of water. Cheers!

One simple test one can do to test the type of soil and its ability to retain water is to grab a clump of soil in your hand and squeeze it into a ball, then open your hand if the ball of soil fall apart then your soil need some tender loving care, but if your ball of dirt remains in a ball that means that your soil can retain moisture. But if your ball of dirt drips water from your hand, your soil hold to much water. Soils high in gumbo need to have a mixture of sand and compost added.

Something has come up, so I will write more later…. Carver

I think that the plants will figure that out for us, even teach us (if we pay enough attention,) as they have since who knows when? There is plant chemical warfare going on in every and any garden, field, marsh, bog, forest, valley, dessert. For every square inch/cm of earth there is life from microscopic bacteria and fungi to Buffalo and Muskox. All are independent and interdependent of each other, beyond our conscience and sub conscience awareness or understanding; a duality that is the essence of life.

Let me give an example: At one time before contact over 100 millon buffalo ruled the plains of this continent. Where ever they road the land was very fertile because of the dung beetle. Large black beetles that numbered in the millions dug in billions of billions of tonnes of Buffalo scat down below the soil. A perfect duality, the buffalo eats the grasses and sages and in turn spread compost with seeds to be spread in other areas. The beetles dig the compost back in the grown that in fact feed the plants and conditioned the soil as well as retains much needed moisture in the soil.

After the Buffalo genocide happened, another happened silently for the dung beetle. From a duality to a singularity. It comes down to peoples becoming conscience of their actions and relationship with nature and themselves.

We will talk soon about soils, pumpkin and lolly pops next time boys and girls! Smile, life is short!

Carver

I think the idea of getting away from planting in rows is excellent. I don’t think a garden is supposed to look like a bunch of aisles in a supermarket! And I love the idea of corn, beans and squash, “the three sisters.” When they are planted together, each sister provides vital nutrients to the others and they protect one another, creating a symbiotic relationship.

One thing about planting diversely though, I think, we need to know what works and what doesn’t, what plants shouldn’t be placed together, etc. If there are any, it would save a lot of trouble.

I’m also wondering, is it true that pumpkin can grow in any climate?

We shouldn’t plant our food like our non-native brothers and sisters in the South. Just don’t plant in rows… For example: In the spring, if you have large field filled with what some people might mistake for weeds; Don’t plant a lot of the same thing in one area. If you want to grow 20 cabbages, then spread them out over the whole area. In doing this you will have less bug damage if any at all, because the plants that already grow there are the food—and do this with all the different food plants you will want to grow. They will even grow larger! Just don’t disturb the soil too much as last years “weed” seeds are in the soil. Was it in the 1990s that everything became, “Location, Location! Well, today it should be said, “Diversity, Diversity, Diversity!

I would like to propose that our people in the North start propagating their lands for internal food safety and seed security. More and more of our native species of plants and birds, bears, moose, bees etc, are in danger of extinction. If their numbers do rebound they are going to need an intact ecosystem and something to eat…

Our ability to be the “Stewards of the Land” has been hampered at the federal level of management for the economic engine that is corporate profitability. From our lands and resources. To the tune of billions upon billions of dollars a year, while we, maybe, might possibly, make millions over said number of years, oh and maybe a few jobs at the Mine, or the Hydro dam, eh!”

You got to thank Ahni for being a lone voice and giving voice to native issues, when the national media casts a “Conservative Eye” at what the beautiful Britney Britney is doing today;)

So while we are facing some kind of future in this brave new global economy, that is rolling past all of us. If the past is any indication, we must evolve.

Seed banks are a great start and cost very little to start up. All one would need is a lot of envelopes, a pen and a box to store them in, which will grow in number!

We should study the areas of our lands and collect all of the different seeds and record their locations from trees to cat tails, wild flowers to medicine plants like yarrow, goldenseal, sage, sweet grass, etc… just in case of any future environmental collapse. You can’t replace what you did not save. We must share the seeds with other bands and their seed with us. He who controls the seed control the future. All of us or Monsanto! You decide.

Carver

Our peoples where the first geneticists, something most people who live on our lands just don’t know. But we gave the world foods like potatoes, tomatoes, bean, corn, squash peppers, to name a few….that we, for thousands years, painstakingly hybridized. Then you get corps like Monsanto who have… at the genetic level contaminated our seeds like corn. The funny part is that they did not even ask the original people permission to do so. We have the Flora and Fonna treaty that I think we should reexamine. Personally, I have never seen this treaty and would just love to…. hint, hint!

I can’t stress the importance of starting seed banks, if we don’t have control our own seeds, then corps like Monsanto will. Our Ancestors did all of the work and corps like Monsanto collect and control the profits….

I myself garden every year. I love it!!! I share seeds with the family, friends, even strangers who lean on the fence and ask what kind of tree that is or what kind of wild flower is that? I even taught the kids down the street how to grow pumpkins and squash a few years ago when they tried to steal a pumpkin for Halloween. I told them that the pumpkins weren’t ready yet for a few weeks. They would stop by and visit with their pumpkin and found themselves learning even more about the garden.

Five or six years ago, My landlord and I put in a small garden that has grown into a super huge garden all around the house. In the first year we only saw a few bees. Then we all had heard about the decline in bee populations around the world. I was horrified… with out the bees we all don’t eat.

Flowers have a sent for a reason and in a city there is to many cars and fumes like the McDonald’s just down the street, that affects their sense of smell, it has been proven by scientist that this is in fact the case. So we decided to plant as many different plants to attract the bees through out the whole growing year! To date we are visited by hundreds of bees and we have between 9 or ten different bees. In all this time I have not been stung once. Plant it and they will come!

There are other Ideas I have for growing up north I would be happy to share if anyone is interested, let me know. Carver.