Well, you all have been getting all our snow! No fair! We only got maybe a quarter inch from "the blizzard". Barely enough to take our sleds out on.... Just got them both registered and will most likely go for a little ride this weekend. Won't take long for ours to melt up here! Hey send some of yours up this way, won't cha? :-)

Enjoy the sunshine and don't get burned!

Cathy

have fun in Florida...we are headed to Arizona in February for 20 days!

This is the road to our home. 8-yds is the name of our home( along story)

Veilchen, I think we're all in hibernation mode. DH and I are traveling to Boston tomorrow to spend the week - sure hope they've got the sidewalks shoveled - LOL!

Cindy,
We are headed to Boston tomarrow as well we are attending the New England Grows convwention...I will be the one with 2 little kids and I may wear my garden web tshirt to see if I can meet any GWs there! SHould be fun, although being an organic grower it is sometimes disheartening.

Has anyone started seeds? Due to traveling plans, I have to wait till mid MARCH!! That gets me anxious for fear I may miss growing something myself and have to go purchase as a plant. I enjoy raising all my own plants.

I have been reading a book by Eliot Coleman, I will try to rotate some crops this year and work with my farm animals to produce new gardens.

I ordered harnesses and a till for my goats to pull...I hope they cooperate and dont get too silly or stubborn to help...they are such naughty boys I wonderr what kind of work out I amin for...nonetheless, I think once they are trained they will enjoy the tasks as something outside of their yards.

I am suppose to go take the kids sledding now at the golf course. When I think about all the chemicals usedon golf courses, its no wonder you hear people getting strokes out there playing golf. SOrry, I have been observing and obsessed with how our environment has been getting heavy treatments of chemical applications...and the side effects are starting to become problems. ANyway, we are going sledding and the snow has covered all the chemicals and its cold so no much of a chance of being effected.

Wish I could not worry about chemical applications so much,I live near blueberry feilds and can taste inthe air aerial spraying...anyone else out there concerned about all the poisoning goning on? We are at a record high on amounts used and frequency. At least arsenic whicih use to be commonin blueberry feilds has been discontinued. Glad I wasnt racking back inthose days! I've seen people set up tents right in treated feilds sprayed with some seriiously toxic stuff. I see little childrena and their parents out picking and eating the berries often and worry what may happen. SOme of the chemicals are fungicides, then there is herbicides, and then there is insecticides. ALl thesechemicals are known cancer causing chemicals in lab tests. There are organic methods, although more labor intense, but wouldnt you like to see money go towards labor and support families rather than to a removed corporate idenity that doesnt care about our health?

I guess we eare in aworld where some are aware and others just trust blindly.

SO, tell me, should we be concerned? Can organic methods be practised and implimented or has the large corporation created a dependency that we can not break?

Seems everyone has either gone South or gone into hibernation!

Cathy

lilyrose, that's something I try not to obsess about. I just try to grow as many vegetables as we can eat and then feasibly store, and try not to depend on store-bought too much.

I guess I'm fortunate I don't live close to a farm or fields that spray, although there are RR tracks behind our property that were spraying herbicide. I went round with the state DEP or whatever that organization's called that deals with those regulations.

lilyroseviolet,
You have mail!
Cindy

This year the snowshoeing has been much better in Auburn than it was last year. I hope my buddleias and russian sage are enjoying the snow cover as well. My dad's a well driller and he has said we're out of the drought. The worst of it was summer `03. He had to turn away business and that was very sad, to tell people they couldn't have water.

what did peopledo that couldnt have water? I think the house would have been already built?! it seems that a well driller would want to drill in drought conditions as to know how deep tp get adequate water for any future possible droughts? Just curious, hope I dont come off sounding too offensive or ignorant.

No problem. When you've been around something all your life you forget that certain aspects are not already known to people. They will not drill below a certain depth because below-ledge water is not everywhere, it's in pockets. If you don't reach it in 200 feet, it ain't gonna happen in that spot. People who are building new homes usually hire the driller months in advance so even if they have to wait, it's still done before they move in. The ones who get turned away are the folks with old hand-dug wells that are always utsy at best, but in a drought, dug wells stay dry for weeks at a time. So they call and they need a well right now, and the first few few can get bumped to the head of the line, but my Dad runs one drilling machine and when it gets to the point where you might hold up a family that has to move into their new home by a certain date, and they've paid their deposit, then the dug well folks have to go back to the end of the line. Try explaining that to someone who has no water for washing, drinking, cooking or the toilet!

thanks for explaining...would never think that well drilling could be a stressful occupation. :)

Do you know of anyone who uses a wooden stick to find water?
I have heard stories but dont know what to think. lol

My grandfather used to do that, but my dad prefers to use the Maine Geological survey maps.

nice story :)

The maps are not as entertaining!

Hi All.... I can't wait to plant! Seems like it's been such a long winter this year. And it's snowing as I type, two inches on the ground already, here in Bowdoin! :(

Yes lilyroseviolet I am very concerned, but what's more frightening to me is what am hearing about the, "Terminator Seeds"

"The traditional practice (tried and tested for thousands of years) of saving seeds for the next harvest comes under threat due to a US patent on this technology to prevent "unauthorized seed-saving" by farmers."

There's alot of Controversy on this matter. And the deeper I dig, the scarier it is. I have a girlfriend in Bulgaria that is sending me all my vegetable seeds. I have links if anyone's interested, on articles about the terminator seeds, bio tech, the list goes on and on. I don't think you can post them on here.

Ignorance is bliss, I know veilchen but sometimes you have to get envolved, I think their going a little to far, with this one, all for the sake of money!

The Drug industry and Food industry are hand in hand! They don't care what additives they put in our food, cuz they both make money from it! Have you notice the Drug Industries commericals on TV, it's unbelivable!

OMG it's all your fault lilyroseviolet! I sure hope I haven't gone and depressed everyone!

Hope you're all staying warm...
Happy Gardening!
Sky

I drop by whenever I can, and, I must say, I love this forum--the forum with an environmental conscience. I wish I could alert/convince more people around me! Terminator seeds, pesticides.. etc.. it is only part of what's happening in every area. My grandfather/father were small farmers, and I am sure they must be turning in their graves at the thought of these 'terminator seeds'. It's very scary to think how natural cycles have thus been 'hijacked' for profits, and how the 3rd world could suffer because of that. Let's keep the information fight alive around us! Thank you.. and let's not forget to collect our own seeds!
Anne-Marie

In the forum SOE, there was some talk on the terminator seeds. Sky got here and post your findings, I would really like to see what you are talking about, although I suspect I already know.

I was thinking that Maine should have its own FAQ page on sowing seeds in Maine. All the other states have one, so I imagine its just amatter of time until we figure out what works best for us collectively in Maine.

Here you go .... I like the first link it has more current information.. There's a lot of reading but I truly believe we need to lift our heads out of the sand, and start participating in our World today. I hope you can get these links... Let me know what you think please...
Thank you,
Sky

http://www.organicconsumers.org/
http://www.arkinstitute.com/98/up0606.htm
http://filebox.vt.edu/cals/cses/chagedor/terminator.html
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/USDAyesTerminator.html
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/trade/gmos/2004/0307gmdanger.htm

Thank you for all these links, Sky. There is a lot of information out there!!! To make it easier for everyone to access these sites directly (with just a click, no pasting), here are the same links, in the same order.
Organic Consumers A lot to read on this site!! a particularly interesting link Fragile Global Moratorium on Terminator Seeds
Food Supply Update--Ark Institute
Terminator Technology for Transgenic Crops / cooperative extension
USDA says yes to Terminator Seeds
Global Policy Forum: Revealed: Shocking New Evidence of the Dangers of GM Crops

Thanks again, Sky, for these great links.
Anne-Marie