September 2009 PDF Edition

Is Santa Fe's drinking water safe? More than half of our water in Santa Fe comes from the Rio Grande, and it's drawn downstream from Los Alamos Canyon regularly dumps toxic stormwater into the river. The rest comes from a wellfield that recently tested positive for radioactive tritium. Watch the lecture, and decide for yourself! […]

I've received a lot of feedback from my previous article on Buckman, and learned a lot since then about what happened. The key to the "no risk" deception from ChemRisk was that they analyzed the river during "normal" flows when the toxin levels are low, rather than after rainstorms, when the toxin levels are very high. They also assu […]

Santa Fe recently brought online a new system that takes water out of the Rio Grande to supplement it's municipal drinking water. Unfortunately the new system, called the Buckman Direct Diversion, draws water from directly beneath several canyons that regularly dump storm water laced with radionuclides and other bomb-making contaminants.What on earth wo […]

A friend wrote to me this morning with a simple question about New Energy Economy's ongoing fight for carbon caps on electric utilities. Here is my response. The problem with setting a cap and creating a market for carbon is that there are too many loopholes, leaving too much room for the same shenanigans we’ve always seen from utilities. Utilities are […]

An aggressive tall ground cover, a plant that makes many people wonder why grow it in the first place, it stings indeed quite strongly - this is a favorite in a permaculture food forest! If planted in a well selected spot where it can spread without negatively affecting gardener's comfort, this plant produces heavily, grows without many demands and puts […]

Why talk about freezing food in glass in early spring, when not much is going on harvest-wise? Chicken, meat and fish stocks are still good foods for the season, and commercial meat is often wrapped in plastic and can be transferred into glass at home to reduce contamination. Other garden grown or purchased foods, such as grated garden zucchini, grated apple […]

Pattern here.A photo gallery of clothing-making inspiration - for parents, grandparents and unattached adults - reclaiming another lost skill of working with fiber arts, making clothing with love and meaning - sized and tailored and envisioned and imbued with love just for that special person - to keep them warm, to dress them up, to cheer and to make feel s […]

What does it take to meet a household needs in wood - at least when it comes to keeping the house warm during the cold months of the year? A wonderful question to ponder when engaging in permaculture design of a homestead, neighborhood or community. Read more » […]

Buckwheat chips/crackers/crepes.Buying overpackaged foods is something that entices experiments in making them on your own - in your own kitchen, with the ingredients that you can control, and the process totally at your finger tips. Chips and crackers are possibly the worst when it comes to costs, packaging and the ingredients. Finding crackers without suga […]