Parks At Stake

My heart breaks as I read Trump's An America First Energy Plan; the impending devastation that this threatens to wreak upon America's National Parks is simply gut-wrenching.

"We must take advantage of the estimated $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, especially those on federal lands that the American people own." -Trump

No, sir, we must not take advantage of these resources, for they are beneath protected lands which, as you said, the American people own. We all own our federal lands, they belong to all, not to you to sell off to oil mongers and fracking companies. We do not want to see these lands clear cut, strip mined, decimated beyond repair just so that some oil company can make a few bucks on what crude resource might lie beneath Yosemite or Grand Teton. This makes me seriously weep. This is why I did not vote for him. We're on the verge of saying goodbye to polar bears because there's oil in the arctic, saying goodbye to bison, wolves, bears, moose, beavers, because there's some natural gas to be fracked under federal land, Yosemite or the Smoky Mountains, saying goodbye to the flora and fauna of Hawaii because there might be something to be dug out of Haleakala, saying goodbye to the ancient trees of Redwood National Forest, Sequoia, because there might be something under the ground that we can burn up, stick in our gas tanks.



This is now the state of things. This is what we are up against. As an environmentalist, lover of nature, as a sensible human with an eye to the future, as someone who sheds tears when we lose another animal to extinction, someone who worries for the loss of habitat due to global warming, loss of glaciers, acidification of oceans and bleaching of coral reefs, this type of mentality that we need to treat the Earth like an exploitable enemy instead of respecting, nurturing and caring for it just hurts my heart, it hurts me at my core.

Disconcerting too is the fact that the Climate Change page and all mention of it has been scrubbed from whitehouse.gov, along with LQBTQ protections and the Civil Rights pages. There is an effort to reverse the progress we've all collectively made toward making this a more just, tolerant, thriving and prosperous world, both civically as well as environmentally. As this blog's focus is nature, the outdoors, clearly the environmental havoc that is about to be unleashed concerns me, but as a fellow human being and citizen, I want to see those around me treated fairly and equally and enjoy the same rights as anyone else. This disregard for all the things that I hold dear, from my friends and family, neighbors, and fellow citizens to the great outdoors, nature in all its glory and beauty and nuance and diversity of life, I fear for the future at this moment. I fear that my daughter may not have the natural wonders to enjoy, Sequoia park, Chattahoochee National Forest, the Blue Ridge Mountains, because some prospector might find a well of untapped oil down beneath the Poplars and Loblolly pines, beneath the trout streams and hiking trails, one of our President's friends might want to do some fracking, but there are these ancient, splendid, towering trees in his way so they're now standing in the way of "progress." There are some things that should be off limits to our destructive hand if for no other reason than the fact that some, nay, most, destruction is permanent. We will not be able to get these treasures back once they are gone. And for what? Some oil in a car's gas tank? Preposterous! Simply buy an electric car. Natural gas to heat a home? Nope, I've got wind energy thanks to Arcadia Power.

We can do better than this. We need to do more to try to protect the environment, the assault has strengthened and we need to stand up and fight back. My resolve is strengthened to continue to do my part for the environment, even finding ways to do more. The other day, MLK Day, in fact, National Day of Service, I spent time at Oakland Cemetery working with Trees Atlanta and a myriad of volunteers, planting, digging, etc. and I intend to perform many more hours of hard labor, invest sweat equity into environmental causes around Atlanta. Please join me in this effort!

Go out and get your hands dirty! If you're looking for a place to start, please check out Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Trees Atlanta, Earth Share Georgia, Georgia Water Coalition, donate to these groups, or volunteer your time, or donate to National Parks Foundation or any number of other environmental nonprofit groups. I like to believe that if we all step up, we will stand a chance at protecting our environment, our Earth, ourselves even. Peace.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D There are a good number of sources pointing toward Vitamin D as a vital resource needed by your body for optimal health. Many of these articles discuss deficiencies of this vitamin.

I feel fairly confident that this type of deficiency has never befallen me because I've always eaten healthy portions of mushrooms, many of which are known to be great sources of Vitamin D. There are even ways to boost the Vitamin D content of mushrooms before eating them, by placing them in sunlight before consumption. A good heap of research has been done to link Seasonal Affective Disorder to Vitamin D deficiency as well, which is yet another good reason to ensure that you are getting your proper dose of mushrooms.

Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster Mushroom, Pleutorus ostreatus

Went for a walk in the woods two days ago with my little explorer extraordinaire, Lexi Sage, and we happened to make a wonderful find not too far from our home. At the bottom of a little valley, a fallen hunk of oak sat brimming with beautiful clusters of fan-shaped, white-brown oyster mushrooms.

I'd forgotten to bring along any sort of bag, so I took off my hoodie, cut the mushrooms from the log, made a heap in my hoodie and tied my sweatshirt into a satchel to carry my find homeward. Lexi examined every mushroom I cut, studying the gills and the form of the strange things.

She's been quite the connoisseur of gourmet mushrooms since she began eating real foods, I think mushrooms are definitely one of her favorite foods. Thus far she's tried oyster, lion's mane, shiitake, black trumpet, morel and of course portabella, or Agaricus bisporus.

Our little lady loves her mushrooms so much that when my wife and I cook them up, it's a wonder there are any left for us to eat at all. This particular hunting expedition yielded 2 pounds of mushrooms.

We've been eating well this weekend. With the cold winds blowing through Atlanta, icy roads, single-digit temperatures outside, can't think of a better meal than some crispy, sauteed oyster mushrooms. After the obligatory Southern Snow Day French toast, that is. Our recipe for oyster mushrooms is pretty simple, sauté them in a little bit of butter, high heat because after rinsing them, they soak up quite a bit of water, the high heat helps that evaporate quickly. We cook them to a good crisp, not just golden brown, but dark brown, really makes them taste best. A little bit of salt and pepper toward the end and you're good to go.

On the same note, I might as well share the failure I had with this product, and provide a quick review, the Back to the Roots Organic Mushroom Farm.

Got this Oyster Mushroom growing kit as a gift for my birthday in October and was super excited to try it out. Had success in the past with an oyster kit from Fungi Perfecti , so I felt confident that I could get these to grow. Despite following the instructions to the letter, spritzing it with water twice per day, keeping it at the proper temperature and light level, unfortunately, all of the bright white mycellium rather quickly turned yellow, it lost that distinctive, healthy mycellium scent and began to smell faintly of earthy decay. I attempted to salvage it, scraped away some of the dying mycellium to reach healthier growth down below, but this too failed to take hold and grow into a flush of oyster mushrooms. At the point at which green mold started to form, I gave up and I threw the mushroom kit away. I'm not entirely sure if the issue was that at the time I started this kit, Georgia was still undergoing a rather severe drought and this might have caused general humidity levels to be so low as to have zapped too much moisture from the substrate, or if this was a bad kit, or any number of other variables. I may attempt this again in the future.

Peace!

Time

Happy New Year!

Times like these it seems at all times, it behooves us to remember to cherish time and to appreciate our place in the constant steady onward ticking of life as it moves us along whatever mysterious trajectory we might find ourselves traversing. Reflecting on this past year it seems there never seems to be enough time, as Jim Croce professed so eloquently and beautifully, but I am grateful for every second of the last year and indeed of every of my past years. I certainly hope to remember to slow down in this new year, to put my iPhone down and listen and look and live more because each passing second is one that we can never regain. Take time to avail my eyes with things well-worth my time, read more books, take more hikes, hunt more mushrooms, build more things, write more words, gaze at my wife and daughter more and at look far far less at the TV and the dark recesses of internet gossip, especially when it shows me nothing but train wrecks like bad NYE lipsyncing and orange-faced twits.

While we're on the subject of time, it comes as no surprise at all to find that even as we trek further and further into the future, that time still adorns and ornaments wrists. Timepieces, all shapes, sizes, prevail as fashion with so many from which to choose, be it an Apple iWatch, some Swiss-made beauty, a cheap Casio or that faulty Akribos you got off Groupon that never seems to tick to tempo, its sticky seconds wasting away as your sweat tarnishes the wristband. As the inescapable ticking of time's endless march bears down on us in this new year, insisting we use these precious seconds to try to do our best, live the best life we can live, I thought it pertinent to take the time to share with you one of my favorite watches. Dear to me because it's so simple, made of wood, darkly stained and beautiful, this EARTH brand watch always makes me feel just that tad more in-time with nature, more dialed-in to the life of trees and plants and life itself. The company boasts that they produce their watches from organic material, not a faux finish, but actual wood, which is neat. Honestly, wear what suits you, but this has been a reliable piece that I love to wear and would give five out of five stars.

EARTH-watches.com

Always indeed there is that love/hate relationship with watches, as they place both limitations on your meanderings, hobbies and frivolities, yet also remind you of dinnertime's approach. If you have to track time and can't just lose yourself in mother nature, then at least wear one you feel good about. Anyway, until next time. Peace!

Arcadia Power

Discovered an amazing way to further reduce my carbon footprint and reduce my home's impact on the environment and wanted to share this information with my readers. Arcadia Power gives you a simple way to use clean, renewable energy at no additional cost to you, no effort and you get an added benefit of a very convenient dashboard to track your home's energy consumption.

For no fee, you're able to basically send your existing power bill to Arcadia Power where they basically trade Energy Certificates from wind farms to offset your exact monthly usage. They offer a free plan that can provide partial renewable or a premium plan to further maximize your use of wind and solar. Sign up here and check it out, there are no commitments, easily cancel if it's not for you, but it is definitely well-worth looking into.

For me, I'm proud to see that this first month of being part of Arcadia Power's program, we used so little power, that our entire usage was accounted for by renewables! That is an awesome feeling.