NPR :: Keeping Chickens in the Yard

All Things Considered, June 16, 2006 · Commentator Susan Straight talks about the chickens she keeps in her backyard. Taking care of them links her to women all over the globe and all through time who have raised chickens. Susan Straight lives in Riverside, Calif. Her new novel is A Million Nightingales.

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A good weatherman

My father-in-law is a former meterologist and I have a new found appreciation for the science of weather. Recent headline topics have also kicked up interest.

Locally, I typically tune in to News 14 for my up to the minute Weather on the Ones. Jeff Crum has started a blog at weather-or-not-nc.blogspot.com. Its a good one! I think I will create a hard link to it.

As my garden grows, weather plays an important role. Thanks for the informative blog.

Backyard of Homegrown Security

I would like to propose that our citizens, city government and various city news resources take up the issue of national security by first thinking of local security. In the age of the impending dooms of pandemic, global warming, peak oil and world war, it is important to recognize the dependency our lives have on the global economy and to make efforts to reduce that dependency to ensure we are able to endure and succeed under any natural, national or global circumstance. Bringing security down to a local level doesn’t involve guns and alarm systems. I suggest that it starts with a trowel.

There are few pursuits in life as rewarding as a home garden. Whether in a few pots in an apartment window or spread out across a backyard; growing your own fruit, vegetables and flowers can add an amazing amount of peace and security to your life. As Francis Bacon said, “God Almighty first planted a garden.” And when you are unable to grow enough for your needs, finding locally produced foods and goods is a terrific supplement or alternative. These foods taste great and are a boost for the local economy.

Last winter, I ripped up an old basketball court in my backyard and began the planning for our family vegetable garden. This spring, I have enjoyed working in the garden nearly every day – using the space as a classroom to learn more. Now on Saturday mornings, I drive a few miles over to the Matthews Farmer’s Market and buy locally produced vegetables, fruits and breads and to learn more about what our local area can do.

My concern is that in modern Charlotte, we have lost the understanding of the importance of the garden and the local harvest. As we rush about our lives, jobs and commutes, we have entire groups of people who have no idea how to plant even the most basic of items. Shopping and dining are done without regard to source. I have seen what local gardening and encouraged agricultural entrepreneurship have done in Asheville and the Triangle area and it is amazing. As the largest city in the Carolinas, it is discouraging that neither within the city limits nor in the outskirts of our metropolis do we have the appropriately sized local harvest infrastructure that exists in these other communities. (For comparative data, please see www.localharvest.com)

Individually, the effort to create a homegrown safety net for the challenges of the future begins in the backyards of our homes, the vacant lots, and the patios and windows of our apartments. With our wallets, we must buy locally produced foods to create demand in the marketplace. INSIST on locally produced food when you shop or dine out and move dollars to those businesses and individuals willing to provide a local solution. Learn more about sustainable living on a personal level.

City leaders and news sources should highlight the infrastructure that exists within a 50-mile radius of Charlotte and support campaigns to encourage the build out of additional infrastructure. This effort should become a key component of our local preparedness plan. A sustainable living program should be a facet of our city government.

Knowledge, planning and actions toward locally-based sustainability are the best homegrown security solutions available to us. It has served civilization well.

Minnie Mouse World

Kristin and Olivia ran off to Florida for a quick trip to Disney with Tim, Hillary and family. Here are a few pictures of the trip to the Magic Kingdom:

An Inconvenient Truth

While Kris was away at Disney with Olivia, Jeff and I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth", the new Al Gore movie about global warming.


I went into the movie understanding and believing that the world is warming. However, my doubts are around the human impact to this warming versus the natural cycle of things. Using the Antarctic ice core data, Gore presented the last 600,000 years of cyclic CO2 levels which directly corresponded to temperature levels. The natural cycles of hot and cold are obvious. Then he showed the current levels of CO2 in comparison, which are, literally, off the charts. This clearly illustrated human impact.

Fact checking exposes a few flaws in some assumptions made, but by and large, most scientist agree there is a larger amount of CO2 in the air than in the past. It appears what is in dispute is just how much equates to significant impact.

Another part of the show illustrated the degradation process of the Antarctic ice shelf and put this in direct contrast to the current conditions in Greenland. The introduction of the fresh water from the Greenland ice sheet would significantly alter the ocean and shutdown the great ocean conveyor belt. I did know this theory going in, but did not know of the comparative physiology of the Antarctic ice shelf and Greenland.

So! The movie did not do a whole lot other than inform us that we are warming up. In the ending credits, suggestions were made on how to reduce our carbon footprint. I glad to see I was doing several of them. I was disappointed not to see gardening as one way to do this.

One contrary opinion was put out by the CEI and was recently disputed by a posting to factcheck.org. You can go to that site to see the point / counterpoint. I actually learned about the movie through the CEI rebuttal ads being mentioned in the American Enterprise Magazine to which I subscribe.

I did walk away wanting to continue to be aware of my impact on the planet, including CO2 emissions. However, I am extremely concerned about CO2 emission regulations. I believe there are substantive reasons other than reduction of CO2 emissions for pursuing alternative energies, fuels and processes that would, in concert with several economic benefits, also result in a reduction of CO2 emission.

I also have concern over the reaction I received from my brother when I told him I was going to see the movie. He immediately bashed the theory and the likeliness of such a thing. He is a environmental scientist and a conservative, but does not seem to be able to be open to a different point of view. Perhaps it is more about the message being delivered by Al Gore. Either way, it seems arrogant to not consider an alternative. Unfortunately, he is not alone and many people, on many issues, tend to pick teams and not accept all possible information. I have done so myself.

I believe I learned something by watching the movie. And ultimately, that is why I went.

Davidoff Dinner at Mortons

Club Puros, the Tinderbox and I celebrated Zino Davidoff's 100th birthday in style at Morton's in Southpark. We started the evening at about 1pm at a impromptu pre-party at the Southpark Tinderbox. Eric and Larry returned from Europe with some excellent smokes in tow and were very generous in sharing. One pre-party stick included the Davidoff 48 - amazing. However, I only had a taste. I would compare it to the 7-year-old Davidoff 5000 I smoked two weeks ago in Myrtle Beach. I did enjoy a good Partagas (with an "ugly wrapper").

The meal kicked off around 6pm with appetizers and drinks. We smoked a Davidoff #1. Too strong for me (atypical for Davidoff). I think it may have been a bit young. Of course, I had already smoked two cigars earlier in the day, so its hard to say. A cigar was presented with each course of food, including the very limited edition Diademas Finas - the anniversary cigar. I plan on enjoying this one soon.

Davidoff had a video presentation featuring Zino and his lifelong interest in tobacco. The meal was good considering they were serving 120 cigar smokers. This event is definitely on the top 10 list of best events I have attended with the club. A good evening!

Las Vegas

We went all the way out to Vegas and didn't take a single picture. I took a few with my cell phone, but they didn't come out too well.

We went out for eBay Live. Kristin and I went and Jeff Gregory, my new associate at work, he went as well. We stayed at the Bellagio.

Two nights and shallow pockets isn't enough to really experience Vegas, but we did enjoy a few good meals and a few good smokes as well as a decent trade show.

Solar Hot Water System

We have contracted to have a solar hot water system installed by Matthews, NC firm Solar Vision. We are their FIRST customer (not too scary - Michael is a former Duke Energy engineer). This is a closed loop system and will work in conjunction with our current electric system. As a first customer, we will be helping Michael with promoting the new system as well.



It will be a month or so before they start the installation. I plan on posting pictures and stories of my experience. Stay tuned!

Solar Vision