Resistance is Fertile

My work involves building soils. The reason I have put so much effort into this process as I have has not been because that is where the money is, but because, it is where I can do the most good. In fact, as I have found, there is so little understanding about the difference between soil and dirt, that there may never be money in healing soils, or making them healthy, but that is not enough to get me to quit. There are more important things than money. I know that saying those words in our current culture may seem silly, naive or idealistic, but they are true. Life has very important things, like support, security, abundance and relationship. when we feel integrated with the larger whole, that in and of itself is important. We are designed to adapt to our surroundings, but a toxic environment, or one that has been stripped of resources often creates adaptations in us that validate, support and perpetrate behaviors that are not healthy, not sustainable and not able to offer anyone true security.

It seems that many are finally asking the questions that I asked myself four decades ago. My sister may have summed it up best when she told me that she wanted a bumper sticker that asks simply, Whom do you serve? My first post asked that question and it continues to burn itself into my world view every single day. Every dollar we spend, every moment we squander is playing right into the hands people we may never see, or know, or want to believe that we are "serving". It turns out that this is a very deep question with such distantly removed answers that many of us can barely scratch the surface of meanings that it holds. They say, still waters run deep and this year, perhaps we all need to sit a little more still and just appreciate the moving target that is the rise of fascism in our nation. Many of us continue to serve the needs of well entrenched power brokers, but more and more are finding their way toward truth and real justice.

No security can come from staying still, although taking a breather, to get your head on straight is always helpful. The active engagement that creates change is probably the most important aspect of resistance and leads to revolutionary changes that can last for generations. I heard a story this week about a child. Not a bad child, but one exhibiting the behaviors of a bully. This child has been born into a family structure that offers him very little in the way of attention. There are basically only two phases to his existence. He is either taken along and required to have only grown-up experiences, or left to his own devices, which in his family means retreat into his computer. There are no child appropriate activities, questions, discussion or relationships for him to grow through. In many ways he has been faced with a choice, face abuse and neglect in the company of the adults in his life, or retreat into the altered state of digitally mediated experience. One cannot blame him for the cocoon of distraction in which he chooses to live, but what others are experiencing is that the young child becomes easily frustrated and lashes out at others as a result.

When actively responding to our environment becomes commonplace, we can build, create, learn and grow in ways that are not possible when working within a framework of digitally mediated sub-routines and face time with our computers. I have been writing blog posts for over seven years now and not one session at the keyboard has "created" anything that has not first been experienced in real life. Not one concept or idea was born while sitting here typing away at the keyboard. The over six hundred posts have come from actual-factual real-life experiences in which I was paying attention, sharing myself openly with the world around me and participating in a relationship with a large and sometimes scary world. don't get me wrong, life is certainly not all about abundance and security, there are serious problems that abound as well. That is why resistance becomes necessary.

Many, when confronting those of us who are active participants in the revolution that has never been televised ask the same sorts of questions. What about violence, do you see the revolution turning violent? This is because they can fathom nothing but serving their own violent slave masters. Yesterday at Standing Rock, the "police" (which many in the revolution that has not been televised call pigs) attacked peaceful protesters with water cannon, rubber bullets and sound cannons. When bullies meet frustration, they can only resort to violence. They serve the existing system of power and control tactics, belief in violence and for their limited understanding, those are the only options. On the other hand, what people who ask this question do not realize is that, "We are peaceful loving people, and we are standing, standing for our lives!". Those of us who have been walking our talk for over thirty years are astonished at the level of ignorance required for people to even ask about violence. Those who think that violence can solve problems, are in fact, the problem.

I have made conscious efforts to resist oppression by enhancing soil quality. Our ancestors handed down so much knowledge that we would be foolish to ignore it, but on a daily basis we still do forget. embedded in the phrase, and concept that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link begs the question, where can we find a weak link in the chain of life? it is perhaps so obvious, that most people never even look, but the soil under our feet is one of the links that has been treated like dirt from the beginning. In most areas, we had reduced the fertility and health of the soil even before we knew that it was a thing. We have been so busy serving faraway interests that we neglected and abused the very land upon which our lives and health are determined. In many ways, the most revolutionary act that we can participate in is to feed our neighbors and ourselves healthy food. That requires healthy soil.

I have seen the riots, the property crimes that have been perpetrated by mobs in the past. I fully expect that there will be riots again, but they are far more likely when a team wins the Super Bowl, a Major League Pennant or a trophy. It is fairly rare that people riot because they cannot feed or house their families. There have always been agents provocateur and false flag attacks designed to make the public thing that anyone willing to stand up for their rights is a threat, but that is completely different that wanton destruction that the current powers that be are willing to perpetrate to "protect" their perceived interests. rebuilding the soils that blew away during the dust bowl days can be done, it is certainly possible. We have the tools and technologies, we even have millions of displaced workers that with a bit of education and training could recreate soil that is healthy and productive virtually anywhere on the planet, what we lack is the will. As long as we continue to serve the fossil energy interests, as long as we allow the military industrial complex to operate their destructive shell game, as long as we let the big money ride on the funding of destructive boom/bust cycles, we will have dislocation, loss and despoiled landscapes to leave future generations.

The classes that ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. offer allow individuals to become caretakers of the soil, double their agricultural output, reduce the need for irrigation and sequester carbon in healthy soils, healing the planet literally from the ground up. a complete series of classes, lasting thirteen moons, three hours thirteen times over the course of the year cost only $200. Single classes are twenty bucks. The classes are taught by real people in real time each full moon at our base camp here in Green Bay, if distance is an issue, I am working through the digital realm to teach the same material through online courses. Please contact us directly in one of three ways. Call, (nine 2 zero) double eight four, triple two four or use snail mail by writing to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. 1445 Porlier street Green Bay, WI 54301-3334 or e-mail me directly at tnsaladino42@hotmail.com.

Democracy

A huge blow to this ancient institution has been struck. Now we are being told that we must live with the consequences. The most recent numbers I have heard are still not finalized, that won't happen until the end of the moon , however the "loser" of the most recent election will have nearly two million more votes than the declared "winner" of The recent election in the U.S. of A.. Adding insult to injury, this is only the fifth time in our relatively young nation's history that the Electoral College will install a President who has received less votes than their opponent. It happened three times in the first century and this will make twice in the second half of our 240 year history. Here is how that works. In the early days, rural Americans knew that their voices would not be heard until and unless they had more say in who got to be President. As a result, a system was designed that unfairly weighted the "one man, one vote" system that existed before to give people living in less populous states more power. Perhaps the most egregious is the state of Wyoming, although there are others who are not far off, see, each and every vote in Wyoming counts as heavily (in the Electoral College) as 3.62  votes in California. the winner take all nature of the states guarantees the same lopsided representation that has crushed democracy on a local level. People are finally seriously discussing how we can have such an unfair system that penalizes people by their zip code, or state of residence.

In terms of raw numbers, as I mentioned before, the "loser" in this race is looking to have amassed over two million votes more than her opponent, yet, when the electoral college meets, after the votes from all jurisdictions have finally been certified, they will hand the most powerful elected office on the planet to the person who got less votes. I know that I have a huge following from around the world, so let me try to explain just a little about how this is even possible. First, and perhaps foremost, the old way of doing things had at least two primary purposes, perhaps three. First, transport was very slow when the system was designed. States had a major undertaking on their hands when it came to the logistics of taking a vote, even greater distances lay between the remote parts of the country and the seat of power in the East. Distances were great in many states and roads were poor or in some areas non-existent. Having electors in the nation's capitol made the tabulation possible and each of these people was directed to make the will of the people of their state known in a final tally. It seemed to make sense in 1787. Why the rural areas had more say was a combination of two more things. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, even back then, populations in cities had been growing and people living in the hinterland knew that they would be summarily ignored with a one person one vote system. After all, why would any candidate go to out of the way places like rural areas on the "frontier", if they could secure the votes needed in the largest cities easily. The way it was explained to me in grade school,  "If the rural landowners ever wanted to see a candidate, there needed to be a system that made their votes more valuable than those of folks living in the cities." If they were ever to have their concerns get any attention at all, they would need more power. This is also a holdover from the old way of determining who was eligible to vote. The landed gentry, the 1% of their time did not want the vast majority of poor folks directing the affairs of our nation, so this system assured that more power would reside in the votes of relatively underpopulated areas.

Why wouldn't they think that rural votes should be worth more? After all, at the time we were a primarily agrarian nation. Those who owned the most land were fully expected to have more say in the affairs of our nation. We could argue about why that system penalizes city folk, but that would make no sense to people from 1787. In modern times, we can look at a few elections that will help make sense of the numbers. More votes were cast for the, Electoral College determined, "loser" in this race than Barack Obama received when he became President just eight years ago. She will have won the raw vote by a greater margin than either Nixon or J. F. K. Continuing protests from around the world point to the fact that people concerned about democracy are not willing to stand for this archaic system any longer, especially when it leads to a professional theft of a nation, a corruption of the highest elected office on the planet and/or the terrible example of a human being that is being exalted by a relative handful of extremely powerful people in Washington D.C. 538 people will determine who the next President of the United States will be. The system that continues to work against the will of the public is being called out very vocally this time and we can only hope that the process by which we hand over power in our nation will change because of the disastrous consequences that will come from installing such a terrible candidate.

I have said repeatedly that sloppy language is an indicator of sloppy thinking and anyone who has seen The Donald speak knows that his thought process is crippled. At last count, I read that he has changed his mind on eleven policy positions that he attempted to make clear during his campaign, that was several days ago so I'm sure that other commitments have fallen by the wayside since then. heck, he changed his mind about at least three major policy points just from meeting with the current President for an hour and a half. He remains completely insulated from reality up there in his tower. for all his rhetoric about helping the "average" American, he has not the first clue about what our lives entail. so much for a system of, by and for the people.

Most Recent Biochar

This week marked about three moons since beginning this most recent batch. Beginning as about five pounds of char, to which I added rock dust, nitrogen, minerals and finally finished compost rich in biological life. Finally, I added about twenty pounds of expanded mica...(vermiculite). It finally came into a status that I feel emulates healthy soil after being aerated several hundred times, over the course of several moons; it has been kept moist, allowed to stay about the consistency of a wrung out sponge, warm and under shade, so the sun's UV has never touched it. Adding this material to the top few inches of soil and continuing to protect the surface from the harsh sterilizing rays of the Sun has benefits that can last for centuries, even millennea.

There has been a longstanding rule in business, they say that to succeed, never sell what you don't have and never over promise. Biochar has the potential to double production of crops when applied at the rate of two pounds per cubic yard of soil. (1 kg to one cubic meter) The raw material that biochar is built with is pure carbon which is inert in the environment. It never degrades, nothing eats or dissolves it. instead, it provides structure upon which microbes can flourish. The waste products of these microbes are actually what healthy plants need to most easily absorb their nutrients "food" from the soil. When you say, "Doubles biomass production." people tend to think that you are over promising. To prove the point, I will send anyone who wishes to do a side by side trial of biochar enough to enrich one five gallon bucket of soil. (.2 cubic meters) If you are the type of person who cooks using recipes as guides, not as gospel, then think of char this way. Every handful has fourteen acres of surface area. when first moistening char, it is best when kept just dry enough to squeal a little, like singing sands do when you walk on them. I have made really good char that almost felt like I was stirring tiny shards of broken glass. The carbon is essentially vitrified, like firing clay, it makes it more like stone than cellular tissue that it began as. However, the carbon remains a scaled down version of the original plant tissue.

Much of the nitrogen for this batch was from blood meal and as such, this biochar has been made for the pinery and blueberry beds. This material has the effect of slightly acidifying the soil.