I am thankful that the treatment is 2 weeks. Last time it was either 3 or a month.

I have to let the guinea fowl out again. I hope they don’t wreck my garden. They also may keep out the cotton tails. They have scared cats and a dog away from the yard, so I imagine the cotton tails will not feast on my beans with them on patrol.

Tick-Tick because of Tick. 1 week and 6 days to go.
Robin

I read an article in Yankee Magazine’s July/August 2007 Issue by Edie Clark. It is an informative/eye-opening article on Lyme. You can read the rest if you like: http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2007-07/features/lymecountry

I will put an excerpt here:
And then I met Marjorie Tietjen, a sweet-natured woman who lives with her husband and son in a house in the woods of Killingworth, Connecticut. Marjorie, who has suffered from Lyme since 1989, calls herself a Lyme activist. I’d read her articles on the Web and was impressed by her wealth of information. She welcomed me to her home. Like almost every other Lyme patient I’d visited, she had stacks of papers and folders piled on the dining room table.

Marjorie had her own story to tell me, but she also had a book she wanted to give me: Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory by Michael Christopher Carroll (HarperCollins, 2004).

Carroll discovered that Plum Island, which sits in eastern Long Island Sound, was set up after World War II with the help of Erich Traub, a German germ warfare expert. During the war, Traub had operated a lab on an island in the Baltic Sea. Islands, it was thought, were ideal for such research, as they’re self-limiting. But we know now that that’s an illusion. As Carroll points out: “Plum Island lies in the middle of the Atlantic flyway, the bird migration highway that runs between breeding grounds and winter homes from the Caribbean to the Florida coast, up the East Coast to the icy reaches of Greenland. In addition, deer swim back and forth between the island and the mainland.”

Compiling information received through the Freedom of Information Act, Carroll details Plum Island’s shadowy netherworld: virus outbreaks, biological meltdowns, infected workers, contaminated raw waste flushed into the Sound … and experimental tick colonies, bred for research on vector-borne diseases.

As the big white ferry New London pushes forward into deep water, steel-gray clouds hide the sky. The trip to Long Island takes about an hour and a half, and midway through our journey, on the port side, Plum Island appears, crowned with a water tower and edged with large, flat-roofed buildings. Off the island’s shores, fishing boats and pleasure craft bob. At its tip, a picturesque granite-based lighthouse sits, like a photo on a postcard.

On the map, Plum Island lies like an arrow, one end pointing toward the Connecticut coast and other toward Long Island’s North Fork. At the same time that Polly Murray and many others in that area were beginning to experience bizarre symptoms, Plum Island’s germ research was up and running. Birds, stopping on Plum Island, often flew next to either Montauk (on the South Fork) or Lyme, where the rich estuaries of the terminus of the Connecticut River lured them. Initially, the highest incidences of the disease were in Lyme and surrounding towns, and at the tip of Long Island.

Lab 257 has been shut down, but other labs on the island perk along. If infected ticks did escape from this island, they’ve long since done the damage and nothing can stop them now; Borrelia burgdorferi is out and about, doing its job, making people sick.

At first, I didn’t know what was happening to me. I have Lupus, so it affects all kinds of different things in your body. I just attributed things to that at first—until I was falling asleep as if I had narcoleptcy. I fell asleep in the middle of playing video games with the kids. Then I knew.

Because of the medication I was am on for Lupus, blood tests are likely negative. The meds supress the immune system so I may not make detectable antibodies to the disease.

Generally, I do not put this personal info out there, but I am so dismayed.

Days ago, I pulled a bloated deer tick off myself. :-(

I am practically depressed already at the thought of going through that antibiotic treatment again. There goes my garden! Unless I garden in the dark.

Of course, I’ll take the medicine, and be stuck inside. My garden has been doing so well this year, and I want to keep going.

Lyme Disease is RAMPANT (Doctor’s word) around here. It is the fastest growing disease in the country.

I got guinea hens to eat the ticks. They were doing great, but (unlike the book said) they were wrecking my gardens. I had to pen them up until my veggies got on their feet. It has only been a few weeks, and whamo! deer ticks again. I will have to let them out…

OK, I have shared. I think only avid gardeners can understand my disappointment. On the bright side, I caught it early, will be OK, and some of my gardening duties can be done by my daughter (harvesting). Thank goodness most of my planting is done, but not all. I am just about to plant my fall garden with root crops and so forth. If I do a lot today & tomorrow, try to drag others into it, maybe I can get much of that done as well.

Thanks for being there!
Robin

Wait until I report on how Lyme disease got its start…

With food prices going through the roof, gardening for food makes sense. Even if someone supplied all their own veggies in a garden this summer, I would venture to say with the rising cost of everything else, their food bill will not go down at all.

I am hoping to do a lot of seed-packing in the fall (quite time consuming), and do a large mailing in Dec/Jan (‘09), and thereafter. I will accept donations at any time, and will do mailings throughout the season, but I hope to be able to keep that running smoothly because of doing a large winter mailing.

I have a Yahoo! site now of the project:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Need4Seed/?yguid=238450965

I hope to lean toward untreated and heirloom seeds, but I will not refuse any donations of this type. Hopefully, the Yahoo! site will help people learn how to save seed from year-to-year, and to help their neighbors.

Please check out the Yahoo! group, and join—even if you only wish to observe the progress.

I am really happy that things have gone well, and the project has been helpful.

Thanks!
Robin

My point here is that animals do what they do, and don’t question it. They are working animals, but are delighted to get out there and dig. I have no objection to working animals—as long as they are free to do it, provided for adequately, and given adequate room, I have no problem with it. I have a problem with cramped quarters with dead “colleagues” nearby. I have a problem with unnecessary meds. I have a problem with ignored animals.

Our chickens are spoiled, yes, but others could do quite well on a family farm with less attention. I am for the family farm, and am saddened by the demise of so many. I applaud those that adapt well enough to continue. I have seen them add a little store out front, plant corn mazes, host field trips, and so on.

Let’s support Family Farms!

Back to the girls…
We have one hen named “Zebe” (short for Zebra). As you might have guessed, she is striped. She is a barred rock. She is so great, that if people are talking in the yard, she walks right up, and starts to join the conversation. I realize people’s expectations of chickens is probably low—in reference to them as pets, but they are great company outside, while gardening, or just taking it all in. She has brought me hours of joy. They have all brought us great amusement, and have help to teach my kids better communications skills by trying to figure out what a language-less being is trying to convey. They are a great study in animal behavior. We have learned so much from them.

I hope to post some of our funny stories here.
Robin

To me, it seems that there is a major conflict of interest in the folks running OUR government agencies, making LAW in OUR government, and supposedly watching out for OUR environment & food (EPA & USDA). Well mybe it is only a conflict in reference to the citizenry of America. They probably feel no conflict at all since they can forward Monsanto’s interests while sitting in the govt. Disgusting. People were so upset with Bill Gates and Microsoft’s monopoly situation (I make no indictments on that because I have not read up enough), but how much above a monopoly is government endorsement? Our government is acting as a PUSHER of Monsanto’s chemicals & practices!

Please check out who’s messing around: http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=238&name=Monsanto

Robin
I hope to—in the near future—write a longer piece on this, but right now much of my time is taken up with sending food seed to the needy.

Well, at least someone is finally admitting it…: A high representative for Monsanto has openly admitted that “We want to control the world’s food supply.”

also: Monsanto who provides 90% of the world’s long list of genetically engineered products¹¹ (having bought up 50 smaller companies during the last decade) does their business with such complete secrecy that there are still sold-out individuals out there…
In spite of the reassurances from Monsanto and its own lawyers and scientists that GMO cultures and Roundup herbicide are not health hazardous, it has been proven in their own research that rats have developed different forms of tumors and other health problems. However, instead of pushing the research further, they put a complete stop to it.

—from the article “New Movie Damns Monsanto’s Criminal Behavior” http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11040.cfm

Those companies bought up include many seed houses.

This article is by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin who spent 3 years gathering information. Recently Monsanto seized the bank accounts of the French Farmers Association.

I thought throttling people for money was thug behavior…

Well, can’t some lawyer come up with a lawsuit against Monsanto for contamination or something?

Not much editorializing here today. The admission of wanting to control the world’s food supply is enough.
Robin

Losing Control…
Over the last 2 years, I have really developed a driving interest in what is happening to the world’s food supply and who is gaining control over it. I have read a number of interesting books and articles on the subject.

In America, where our grocery stores are flowing over with food-laden shelves, it hardly appears necessary to have a concern about the food supply. However, the stuffed stores belie what is really going on behind the scenes: a fight for control over everything from seed to fruit—an even the water supply in some places.

I hope to write some good, cogent articles on this topic. I look forward to hearing from others about it as well.
Robin

Post 2- Getting Started with Information
OK, first the disclaimer: I know we are not supposed to sell anything and so forth. I am not selling anything. I am going to give the titles of some books I have read; you may do as you like. I do not wish to be controversial. I do believe people should know where their food comes from (not in the store under plastic). I am not a reactionary, I view myself as a realist, so I try to get as much information as possible before I solidify my opinion.

Survival first is the inherent push in organisms. For people, money can get you past survival into REAL LIVING: living it up, the high life, whatever you call it. Money has become a god to many. Personally, I do not like to be that far away from dirt. I do like to stay grounded and close to the beginnings of things. I have a mind that likes to know how everything works. Yes, I am female and can fix my own car (my husband can’t). I am not an idealistic teen, I am 43, and have had a great deal of struggle in my life, and frankly I am better for it. Struggle, in my opinion is a character builder. In America, SOME of us do not struggle enough and the characters of many are lost, I think. There are MANY good people here who are so busy struggling, working, and focusing on families that they do not need to be as loud, flashy, and in the public eye as those who could use come character improvement. I started college at 30 with a science-math focus, but had to switch to a course without labs because I had a sickly child. I got more classes than was necessary for my degree, but as I said, I want to know how everything works.

OK, that is an over simplified view of some of my thinking. Everyone’s opinions and thoughts come from somewhere, so better I state it flat out in front, and then people reading this blog will know where I am coming from in my thinking.

There, now let us begin with reading.

These are some of the books I have read:

The Last Harvest: The Genetic Gamble That Threatens to Destroy American Agriculture by Paul Raeburn

Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation by Gary Paul Nabhan. Foreword By Wendell Berry

Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food by Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey

Although I can only say what I see here in the USA, this thing is happening globally.

Here is are websites that are along this line.

Organic Consumer’s Association, Millions Against Monsanto
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm

If you go to this website, on the right there is a blurb titled “Monsanto Takes Ownership of Public Water Resources”

Monsanto Tries to Patent the Pig
http://www.greenpeace.org/inte...onal/news/monsanto-pig-patent-111

Global Research-Center for Research on Globalization
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2480

On cotton farmers in India committing suicide because of defaulting on loans for GMO cotton seed)
India Farmers Accuse Monsanto of Pushing Cotton “Seeds of Death”
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/indiacotton012406.cfm
Daily News & Analysis
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1049554
India Daily
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/18983.asp
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/world/asia/19india.html

Monsanto Seizes Bank Account of French Farmers Association, Confederation Paysanne
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/conpay121905.cfm

Our own farmers are in trouble:
For this one, I am just putting up the Google search since there are just so many.
http://www.google.com/search?h...+sues+american+farmer&btnG=Search

Basically, what is happening will boil down to us gardeners having to pay royalties for seeds we grow our food with including seed we keep ourselves. We could be charged with theft and fined. It sounds crazy, but that is what is being pushed.

If you do not save your own seed soon, you may have to buy new every time as some chemical companies are buying up seed houses and working on a terminator gene so that the plants will not provide the grower with more seed.

Well, food will become so expensive I can only imagine where that will lead. It costs good money to eat well. The cheap food in America is crap or “Junk Food”, and although easily accessible and cheap these are the very things that lead to disease such as heart disease, diabetes, and others as a result of obesity or bad nutrition. We have a big problem with this here in America. Plenty of people are in good shape and eat well, but that will increasingly become only those with good amounts of money.

For me, I do not run up and down the street like good old American poet Walt Whitman shouting at the crowds, but I do believe people should know where their food comes from, should have some independence in the acquisition of food, and should be informed as much as possible.

All I can do is my part: I garden organically (as much food as I can possible provide for my family), I save seed, and I try to share what I have learned. I share it with an attitude of “to each his/her own”, meaning I share the info and let go. If someone is moved by it and does something, great, if not, that’s OK because now that person knows and can make decisions with that knowledge in hand—so to speak.

I hope to continue writing on this subject, which is rather challenging. Although this was more of an information blog to look at other reading sources, I hope to move into more of my own commentary and the effects that I have seen personally.

Thanks for reading,
Robin

Post 3-Gaining Control
As for losing control of our food supply and who is behind the food takeover, I hope I can write about this problem and leave politics out of it. People can make that part of the connection themselves. I feel very moved to write about this topic so that gardeners know how important they are in maintaining some individual rights and control. The movement to “Own rights to plant & animal genes, then patent them” should be a concern of not just gardeners, but anyone who eats.

I am very interested in seed preservation & the keeping of old strains. This goes against the current movement of food takeover by big corporations whose whole interest up until recently has been chemicals and their dispersion in spite of any consequences. We have a duty, I believe, to those who have maintained and given us our great genetic diversity in gardening. Many, many strains have been lost already.

I also have a desire to start a charity seed project where seeds will be collected by generous gardeners and sent to the indigent, desperate, or needy in this area. I would like to recruit writers to create documents with growing information. This goal is still in the planning stage, but I hope it will help keep control of the food supply in the hands of the people who eat it—open to all without patent restrictions, royalties, or penalties. I plan to send them in the USA, and to other countries as well.

I hope that I may continue writing on this blog topic. If it is not in the spirit of this forum, please tell me. I will gladly stop. I like everyone I have met here very much and wish to be a part of garden tenders.

Thanks,
Robin

OK< SO that was my beginning.
My next title was something like “Strange Bedfellows: the constant swapping of high-level staff between Monsanto and the Government” too political?
Robin