You can make friends with an old barn. This one was built in 1906 by John Basye's great-grandfather on Beaver Marsh Road in the Skagit Valley, out in the flats where the wind is blowing and the soil is fertile.
You need to watch the video, which is only 90 seconds long, to get a picture of it. This Old Barn.
They're harvesting wheat right now -- farmers loving this hot, dry weather, good for harvesting wheat. Drought in Russia makes wheat scarcer, raises the price. They were looking at $4 a bushel, and some farmers sold their wheat this spring on the futures market at $4 a bushel -- often a smart move -- but not this year. It's gone up to $7 a bushel on the spot market because of the drought in Russia, causing a trading frenzy at the wheat pits in Chicago.
Our Skagit farmers grow wheat as a rotation crop, it's not how you make a living, like potatoes, or seed crops, or berries, but you grow wheat because you cannot grow potatoes every year. And this year at $7 a bushel, it doesn't hurt.
John Basye's barn is getting a new roof. He tore the old cedar shingles off and they can't be replaced. All the cedar has been logged in this territory, and good cedar for roofs would come from Canada at a very high price. Instead, the new roof will gleam with metal, which is a long-lasting material and has reflective qualities, brightening the sunshine and bouncing the rays back into the sky.
Metal roofs ping-ping the rain. It will be a different winter this year with a new metal roof. It will be louder.
Right now, the roof is off and the rafters are exposed to the weather -- for the first time in 100 years, seeing the sky, breathing and drying out in the heat of summer. You can hear the beams groan like arthritic grandfathers.
But this essay is not an exercise in nostalgia, not some hearkening back to the old days when the big trees were logged, and the stumps were blasted out with shovels and dynamite.
No, "This Old Barn" is about the future. You put a new roof on your barn because you're betting on the future. You're betting on one hundred more years of farming in the Skagit Valley, growing food for our children's children's children on broad, flat and fertile acres.
One hundred years from now we will need this barn. Of course, you never know, it's a flood plain. A big enough flood could float this barn away. And there's fire -- the old barn is built of wood. And it gets windy in the flats -- a really strong wind might damage the barn beyond repair.
But you bet on the future when you put on a new roof. There's no sure thing and where else can you put your money?
Please unsubscribe if you don't read Frog Hospital, or if you got on my mailing list by mistake. Even if you are a close personal friend, it won't hurt my feelings.
Subscriptions and Signed Copies of the Book. It used to be that you sent in $25 and did not get much more than my appreciation, but now you get a signed copy of the Frog Hospital book.
This book is a treasure that will still be worth reading ten years from now.
Send a check for $25 to Fred Owens, Box 1292, LaConner, WA 98257. Or go to the Frog Hospital blog and pay with PayPal.
Showing posts with label Skagit Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skagit Valley. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
The Solution to Suburban Sprawl is to Farm It
People have been concerned about suburban sprawl eating up acres of valuable farmland. But it's not really a problem. You just need to think about it in a different way. The American lawn, all 50 million acres, is our largest agricultural reserve.
That's an estimate of the acreage. Some sources say we only have 40 million acres of lawn. But it's still a lot of ground. Take all the farmland in California, the most productive fields in the nation, and that totals only 27 million acres.
Our vast lawnscape is already growing grass and proven fertile. It's flat and free of stones. The irrigation system, i.e., your garden hose, is already installed.
And consider how low your fuel costs will be when you bring your crop to market -- you just walk it to the kitchen door.
So, all you have to do is remove the turf and start growing some food.
Typical yields for potatoes. I'm trying to find a typical yield per square foot for potatoes. The closest I could get was this figure from the Ohio State University Extension Service website. It said you could harvest 150 pounds of potatoes from a 100 foot row, or four 25-foot rows. That's a lot of spuds.
Of course, you can't plant potatoes in the same ground year after year, so the next year grow some beans and squash.
Are We Too Lazy? A newspaper critic said Americans are too lazy and we have to import immigrants to do our farm work for us. The critic said, "Would you work in the Imperial Valley in California, harvesting lettuce in 120 degree heat?"
Well, I have an answer to that. Nobody should work in that kind of weather. We don't need to be growing lettuce in the Imperial Valley. Grow the lettuce in your back yard, and take a shade break when it gets too hot. It still takes quite a bit of sweat and toil, but it's decent work.
And a lot of us are overweight and we need the exercise. In fact, we can work off our enormous Fat Reserve by converting our Agricultural Reserve (the lawn) into a productive garden.
In our Skagit Valley, with a cold frame, you can harvest lettuce nine months of the year. And in the darkest days of winter, you can serve cole slaw for Pete's sake.
Or we can abuse the labor of some desperate immigrant and have it all done for us, and have our lettuce shipped hundreds of miles, spewing excess carbon dioxide from trucks fueled by oil from the Persian Gulf. It's our choice.
In my forays into Seattle neighborhoods and in trips down to Los Angeles, I have discovered the burgeoning urban garden. So what I have described is not some silly hippie dream. It's actually starting to manifest in a big and productive way.
Growing vegetables in your backyard has just become cool.
After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, it seemed that changes of this nature would happen all over the land -- from lawn to garden being just one of many better ways to do things.
Thirty-seven freakin' years ago, and waiting all that time, but it seems to be happening now.
The Opera. Here's something I wrote in 2006 when George Bush was President and when I was working at the newspaper in Texas. It's relevant to the recent failed car-bomb in Times Square:
I listen to the opera on Saturday afternoons. There is nothing better than hearing it broadcast live from the New York Metropolitan Opera. A lot of you already know about this, but the stubborn people I work with here in Texas are still gung-ho on the War on Terror, and they don’t even know what they are fighting for. Maybe they can understand it, if I explain it this way:
Osama Bin Laden never heard of Texas. It’s not worth a suicide bomb in his book -- that would only kill a few cows. He aimed – he’s still aiming – at New York City because he wants to destroy the Opera. Defending America, defending against his threat, means protecting the Opera.
That’s what the Texans need to hear. Now, if these fighting Texans had some good leadership, they could do a lot better than to invade someone else’s country. They are willing, but they lack direction.
But what the rest of you need to hear is that the Opera, and a lot of other good things are worth defending and worth being proud of, and we do have something to offer the rest of the world.
That's an estimate of the acreage. Some sources say we only have 40 million acres of lawn. But it's still a lot of ground. Take all the farmland in California, the most productive fields in the nation, and that totals only 27 million acres.
Our vast lawnscape is already growing grass and proven fertile. It's flat and free of stones. The irrigation system, i.e., your garden hose, is already installed.
And consider how low your fuel costs will be when you bring your crop to market -- you just walk it to the kitchen door.
So, all you have to do is remove the turf and start growing some food.
Typical yields for potatoes. I'm trying to find a typical yield per square foot for potatoes. The closest I could get was this figure from the Ohio State University Extension Service website. It said you could harvest 150 pounds of potatoes from a 100 foot row, or four 25-foot rows. That's a lot of spuds.
Of course, you can't plant potatoes in the same ground year after year, so the next year grow some beans and squash.
Are We Too Lazy? A newspaper critic said Americans are too lazy and we have to import immigrants to do our farm work for us. The critic said, "Would you work in the Imperial Valley in California, harvesting lettuce in 120 degree heat?"
Well, I have an answer to that. Nobody should work in that kind of weather. We don't need to be growing lettuce in the Imperial Valley. Grow the lettuce in your back yard, and take a shade break when it gets too hot. It still takes quite a bit of sweat and toil, but it's decent work.
And a lot of us are overweight and we need the exercise. In fact, we can work off our enormous Fat Reserve by converting our Agricultural Reserve (the lawn) into a productive garden.
In our Skagit Valley, with a cold frame, you can harvest lettuce nine months of the year. And in the darkest days of winter, you can serve cole slaw for Pete's sake.
Or we can abuse the labor of some desperate immigrant and have it all done for us, and have our lettuce shipped hundreds of miles, spewing excess carbon dioxide from trucks fueled by oil from the Persian Gulf. It's our choice.
In my forays into Seattle neighborhoods and in trips down to Los Angeles, I have discovered the burgeoning urban garden. So what I have described is not some silly hippie dream. It's actually starting to manifest in a big and productive way.
Growing vegetables in your backyard has just become cool.
After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, it seemed that changes of this nature would happen all over the land -- from lawn to garden being just one of many better ways to do things.
Thirty-seven freakin' years ago, and waiting all that time, but it seems to be happening now.
The Opera. Here's something I wrote in 2006 when George Bush was President and when I was working at the newspaper in Texas. It's relevant to the recent failed car-bomb in Times Square:
I listen to the opera on Saturday afternoons. There is nothing better than hearing it broadcast live from the New York Metropolitan Opera. A lot of you already know about this, but the stubborn people I work with here in Texas are still gung-ho on the War on Terror, and they don’t even know what they are fighting for. Maybe they can understand it, if I explain it this way:
Osama Bin Laden never heard of Texas. It’s not worth a suicide bomb in his book -- that would only kill a few cows. He aimed – he’s still aiming – at New York City because he wants to destroy the Opera. Defending America, defending against his threat, means protecting the Opera.
That’s what the Texans need to hear. Now, if these fighting Texans had some good leadership, they could do a lot better than to invade someone else’s country. They are willing, but they lack direction.
But what the rest of you need to hear is that the Opera, and a lot of other good things are worth defending and worth being proud of, and we do have something to offer the rest of the world.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Argentina, Chile, China, Turkey, Brazil & the USA
I was thirsty. I went to the cooler at the local store and grabbed a bottle of Dole apple juice which "contains concentrate from Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Argentina, Chile, China, Turkey, Brazil & the USA." That's what it says on the label, kind of re-assuring I guess.
There's an apple orchard right down the road from here. If you live over the mountains to the east side of Washington state, they have a million apple trees and Dole says some of the juice might come from there, unless it came from Brazil or Hungary.
I'm betting a Hungarian apple would taste better than one from Brazil, but that's beside the point.
New York Apples Flying to India. The Produce News, published in New Jersey since 1897 reports: "In its first year of marketing to India, New York apple growers are expecting to ship 50,000 cartons of apples to that nation this year."
Watch the sky, the next plane you see might be flying all the way from Albany to New Dehli with a load of crispy apples from the Adirondacks.
Meanwhile, China has become a major apple producer. Nothing wrong with that, but why don't they just send the apples from China to India -- it's a lot closer.
What do I know? I know they grow wonderful apples in New York state. I've been there and tasted them.
Years ago, I saw apples growing in the highlands of Zimbabwe, at an altitude over 5,000 feet, in cool country with cold, rushing streams and pine trees. The apples grow well there.
Asparagus. Washington fields are expected to yield over 27 million pounds of asparagus this season. You can always get asparagus from Mexico, but it's far from fresh.
In early spring the California crop comes and that's much better. But the very best is grown right here and right now. I'm going to eat all I can.
Blueberries. The federal government has agreed to spend $14.7 million to buy surplus blueberries for school lunches and other nutritional programs.
That's because we have too many farmers growing too many blueberries. This happens over and over again. People started eating more blueberries, so farmers, being smart guys, started planting more blueberries to get into this market. Only there's no rule that would stop any farmer from planting as many blueberries as he wants. They were all seeing dollars signs, but now the supply has gone way up -- so guess what happened to the price?
Comes in the federal government to buy up the surplus and goose the price a little bit.
Wait 'til the Tea Party people here about this -- Socialist Agriculture!
Cabbage Flowers Blooming. I just now saw the first bloom of the pale yellow cabbage flower. Fairly soon the whole field will become quite lovely, as the cabbage plants -- grown to bushes now, their second year -- bring forth a cloud of blossoms.
The farmers will set bee hives in the cabbage fields for pollination. And, later this summer, tiny pods will form with even tinier black seeds inside -- cabbage seeds for other farmers around the world.
Tulips Were Early. Skagit Valley tulips bloomed two weeks early this year because of the mild winter. But it was different in England. They have a tulip-growing region in the "fens" of Lincolnshire. These old wetlands have been diked and drained and look like our fields, but without mountains in the background. Two visitors from Lincolnshire came to see our tulips this season, but they reported their own tulips were three weeks late, because of the coldest winter in 30 years.
The weather is different all over, it seems. You can read a full report of these tulip visitors in this week's LaConner Weekly News.
Curly Purple Kale. Meanwhile, I visited Mother Flight Farm, Glenn & Charlotte Johnson's 20-acre organic spread. They had some dozen plants of curly, purple kale -- really pretty dark purple. The kale wintered over because it was so mild this year, and the mild frosts made the kale leaves tender and sweet. We snacked right in the field and it was tasty.
Frog Hospital, the book. The publication date is likely to be mid-May. It will be at some local bookstores and at amazon. com. A description of the book, written for amazon.com, goes like this:
"Frog Hospital is a story about LaConner, a small town at the mouth of the Skagit River, where it flows into Puget Sound. In LaConner, there was once a grocery store in a quonset hut, run by Mr. Grobschmidt. Clyde, an old drunk who lived out on the river, thought that Mr. Grobschmidt looked like a frog, so he took to calling the store the "Frog Hospital." That became a local joke. Now the quonset hut, Mr. Grobschmidt, and Clyde are all gone, but that's how I came up with the name.
"Frog Hospital begins in LaConner and leads out to America and the places I've seen in the past ten years. Then it comes back home. That's the theme of the book, coming home. You will find it easy to read and very likable."
Spring Subscription Drive. Many thanks to those readers who have sent in checks. Your dollars are greatly appreciated. But there is still time -- the spring drive is not over. You can support Frog Hospital by writing a check for $25 made out to Fred Owens, and mail it to Box 1292, LaConner WA, 98257. Or you can go to the Frog Hospital blog and pay $25 with the PayPal button. Thanks a bunch.
T-shirts still on sale. Frog Hospital t-shirts are now available in three sizes -- XL, L and M. You can buy them in LaConner at La Crema coffee shop, or order them from me direct.
--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214
send mail to:
Fred Owens
Box 1292
LaConner WA 98257
There's an apple orchard right down the road from here. If you live over the mountains to the east side of Washington state, they have a million apple trees and Dole says some of the juice might come from there, unless it came from Brazil or Hungary.
I'm betting a Hungarian apple would taste better than one from Brazil, but that's beside the point.
New York Apples Flying to India. The Produce News, published in New Jersey since 1897 reports: "In its first year of marketing to India, New York apple growers are expecting to ship 50,000 cartons of apples to that nation this year."
Watch the sky, the next plane you see might be flying all the way from Albany to New Dehli with a load of crispy apples from the Adirondacks.
Meanwhile, China has become a major apple producer. Nothing wrong with that, but why don't they just send the apples from China to India -- it's a lot closer.
What do I know? I know they grow wonderful apples in New York state. I've been there and tasted them.
Years ago, I saw apples growing in the highlands of Zimbabwe, at an altitude over 5,000 feet, in cool country with cold, rushing streams and pine trees. The apples grow well there.
Asparagus. Washington fields are expected to yield over 27 million pounds of asparagus this season. You can always get asparagus from Mexico, but it's far from fresh.
In early spring the California crop comes and that's much better. But the very best is grown right here and right now. I'm going to eat all I can.
Blueberries. The federal government has agreed to spend $14.7 million to buy surplus blueberries for school lunches and other nutritional programs.
That's because we have too many farmers growing too many blueberries. This happens over and over again. People started eating more blueberries, so farmers, being smart guys, started planting more blueberries to get into this market. Only there's no rule that would stop any farmer from planting as many blueberries as he wants. They were all seeing dollars signs, but now the supply has gone way up -- so guess what happened to the price?
Comes in the federal government to buy up the surplus and goose the price a little bit.
Wait 'til the Tea Party people here about this -- Socialist Agriculture!
Cabbage Flowers Blooming. I just now saw the first bloom of the pale yellow cabbage flower. Fairly soon the whole field will become quite lovely, as the cabbage plants -- grown to bushes now, their second year -- bring forth a cloud of blossoms.
The farmers will set bee hives in the cabbage fields for pollination. And, later this summer, tiny pods will form with even tinier black seeds inside -- cabbage seeds for other farmers around the world.
Tulips Were Early. Skagit Valley tulips bloomed two weeks early this year because of the mild winter. But it was different in England. They have a tulip-growing region in the "fens" of Lincolnshire. These old wetlands have been diked and drained and look like our fields, but without mountains in the background. Two visitors from Lincolnshire came to see our tulips this season, but they reported their own tulips were three weeks late, because of the coldest winter in 30 years.
The weather is different all over, it seems. You can read a full report of these tulip visitors in this week's LaConner Weekly News.
Curly Purple Kale. Meanwhile, I visited Mother Flight Farm, Glenn & Charlotte Johnson's 20-acre organic spread. They had some dozen plants of curly, purple kale -- really pretty dark purple. The kale wintered over because it was so mild this year, and the mild frosts made the kale leaves tender and sweet. We snacked right in the field and it was tasty.
Frog Hospital, the book. The publication date is likely to be mid-May. It will be at some local bookstores and at amazon. com. A description of the book, written for amazon.com, goes like this:
"Frog Hospital is a story about LaConner, a small town at the mouth of the Skagit River, where it flows into Puget Sound. In LaConner, there was once a grocery store in a quonset hut, run by Mr. Grobschmidt. Clyde, an old drunk who lived out on the river, thought that Mr. Grobschmidt looked like a frog, so he took to calling the store the "Frog Hospital." That became a local joke. Now the quonset hut, Mr. Grobschmidt, and Clyde are all gone, but that's how I came up with the name.
"Frog Hospital begins in LaConner and leads out to America and the places I've seen in the past ten years. Then it comes back home. That's the theme of the book, coming home. You will find it easy to read and very likable."
Spring Subscription Drive. Many thanks to those readers who have sent in checks. Your dollars are greatly appreciated. But there is still time -- the spring drive is not over. You can support Frog Hospital by writing a check for $25 made out to Fred Owens, and mail it to Box 1292, LaConner WA, 98257. Or you can go to the Frog Hospital blog and pay $25 with the PayPal button. Thanks a bunch.
T-shirts still on sale. Frog Hospital t-shirts are now available in three sizes -- XL, L and M. You can buy them in LaConner at La Crema coffee shop, or order them from me direct.
--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214
send mail to:
Fred Owens
Box 1292
LaConner WA 98257
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Tulips
Crowds of people are coming into the Skagit Valley to view the tulips -- 500 acres of tulips in many colors. It's quite a sight.
The weather has changed about six times so far today, like the sun is trying on clothes and keeps changing its mind. People are looking at the sky to say, "You're kidding, right?"
I have put the garden in good shape. I planted sugar snap peas, onions, and Swiss chard. Why do they call it Swiss chard? Well, if they just called it "chard" nobody would want to eat it.
We bought five pounds of seed potatoes, but not to plant for a few weeks until the soil gets warmer. I figured to buy them now because the store might run out by planting time.
I don't dig if I can avoid it. I had this pile of leaves, getting nice and moldy and full of worms, so I spread that out on the bed, then I covered that with a layer of straw. Later on I'll tuck in the seed potatoes and put on more straw. That should work.
Ralph and Helen Dexter up in Marblemount always gardened that way -- just kept spreading straw on the soil, which decomposes over time. They never dig, just spread the straw aside and put in the seeds. The soil remained soft and fluffy.
I haven't seen Ralph and Helen for some time, but I hear from their son Lane who also lives Up River.
Frog Hospital is famous for dramatic changes in subject matter. I don't do this on purpose, but all things are connected, and talking about the Dexters Up River reminded me of someone else I haven't heard from in years.
The Vatican. Another friend I don't hear from lately is Bill Sheehan. He's a priest. He used to live in Rome and worked for some years in the Vatican library studying medieval manuscripts. I always thought that was such a cool job because I am a great fan of medieval history.
I sometimes wonder who is really running things at the Vatican, but I never asked Bill about this. He probably didn't know, and if he did know he probably would not have told me.
How I knew Bill is that I went to a Catholic college and we were friends back then.
But the Vatican has been in the news lately. I have no comment to make on the particulars, but I could mention some broad outlines that I think are true. The Catholic Church is a very large and very old institution. They are quite capable of very long-range thinking, as if to say "this will blow over in a hundred years."
I'm going to say that this long-range thinking can be a good thing because most of our institutions, governments and corporations can barely think five years ahead.
Next, the Church is the largest, most powerful, and wealthiest organization on earth without a military force. That's a good quality too. As Josef Stalin famously said, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" None.
That does not make the Church harmless, but they are tank-less and bomb-less, which is a good thing.
Finally, the Church is a formal patriarchy. It's run entirely by men. If I said that was a good thing, then somebody would bite me. But that's clearly what it is.
I avoid using the word unique, but this organization is truly like no other that I can think of. We are all accountable in some way, but I have no idea how to hold the Pope to account. I didn't vote for him and I can't impeach him.
I think it's very reasonable for people to criticize him, whether they are Catholic or not. But I don't know that the Pope is compelled to respond.
As I watch this crisis unfold, I don't think anybody is asking the right questions. That's the key -- when you ask the right questions, you're more than half way to a resolution of the problem.
Think Globally but act Locally. Isn't this newsletter a perfect example of how this is done? The Vatican, the Pope, global warming, the war in Afhghanistan and so forth -- all global problems, all serious and worthy of our attention.
And what can do about these things? We can act locally -- we can tend our gardens.
Spring Subscription Drive. Many thanks to those readers who have sent in checks. Your dollars are greatly appreciated. But there is still time -- the spring drive is not over. You can support Frog Hospital by writing a check for $25 made out to Fred Owens, and mail it to Box 1292, LaConner WA, 98257. Or you can go to the Frog Hospital blog and pay $25 with the PayPal button. Thanks a bunch.
T-shirts still on sale. Frog Hospital t-shirts are now available in three sizes -- XL, L and M. You can buy them in LaConner at La Crema coffee shop, or order them from me direct.
--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214
send mail to:
Fred Owens
Box 1292
LaConner WA 98257
The weather has changed about six times so far today, like the sun is trying on clothes and keeps changing its mind. People are looking at the sky to say, "You're kidding, right?"
I have put the garden in good shape. I planted sugar snap peas, onions, and Swiss chard. Why do they call it Swiss chard? Well, if they just called it "chard" nobody would want to eat it.
We bought five pounds of seed potatoes, but not to plant for a few weeks until the soil gets warmer. I figured to buy them now because the store might run out by planting time.
I don't dig if I can avoid it. I had this pile of leaves, getting nice and moldy and full of worms, so I spread that out on the bed, then I covered that with a layer of straw. Later on I'll tuck in the seed potatoes and put on more straw. That should work.
Ralph and Helen Dexter up in Marblemount always gardened that way -- just kept spreading straw on the soil, which decomposes over time. They never dig, just spread the straw aside and put in the seeds. The soil remained soft and fluffy.
I haven't seen Ralph and Helen for some time, but I hear from their son Lane who also lives Up River.
Frog Hospital is famous for dramatic changes in subject matter. I don't do this on purpose, but all things are connected, and talking about the Dexters Up River reminded me of someone else I haven't heard from in years.
The Vatican. Another friend I don't hear from lately is Bill Sheehan. He's a priest. He used to live in Rome and worked for some years in the Vatican library studying medieval manuscripts. I always thought that was such a cool job because I am a great fan of medieval history.
I sometimes wonder who is really running things at the Vatican, but I never asked Bill about this. He probably didn't know, and if he did know he probably would not have told me.
How I knew Bill is that I went to a Catholic college and we were friends back then.
But the Vatican has been in the news lately. I have no comment to make on the particulars, but I could mention some broad outlines that I think are true. The Catholic Church is a very large and very old institution. They are quite capable of very long-range thinking, as if to say "this will blow over in a hundred years."
I'm going to say that this long-range thinking can be a good thing because most of our institutions, governments and corporations can barely think five years ahead.
Next, the Church is the largest, most powerful, and wealthiest organization on earth without a military force. That's a good quality too. As Josef Stalin famously said, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" None.
That does not make the Church harmless, but they are tank-less and bomb-less, which is a good thing.
Finally, the Church is a formal patriarchy. It's run entirely by men. If I said that was a good thing, then somebody would bite me. But that's clearly what it is.
I avoid using the word unique, but this organization is truly like no other that I can think of. We are all accountable in some way, but I have no idea how to hold the Pope to account. I didn't vote for him and I can't impeach him.
I think it's very reasonable for people to criticize him, whether they are Catholic or not. But I don't know that the Pope is compelled to respond.
As I watch this crisis unfold, I don't think anybody is asking the right questions. That's the key -- when you ask the right questions, you're more than half way to a resolution of the problem.
Think Globally but act Locally. Isn't this newsletter a perfect example of how this is done? The Vatican, the Pope, global warming, the war in Afhghanistan and so forth -- all global problems, all serious and worthy of our attention.
And what can do about these things? We can act locally -- we can tend our gardens.
Spring Subscription Drive. Many thanks to those readers who have sent in checks. Your dollars are greatly appreciated. But there is still time -- the spring drive is not over. You can support Frog Hospital by writing a check for $25 made out to Fred Owens, and mail it to Box 1292, LaConner WA, 98257. Or you can go to the Frog Hospital blog and pay $25 with the PayPal button. Thanks a bunch.
T-shirts still on sale. Frog Hospital t-shirts are now available in three sizes -- XL, L and M. You can buy them in LaConner at La Crema coffee shop, or order them from me direct.
--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214
send mail to:
Fred Owens
Box 1292
LaConner WA 98257
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Be My Fish Wife
I was poking around in some boxes of old papers when I found this letter written in 1992. Apparently I never mailed it.
Dear Louise,
I want you to be my fish wife.
This is very serious.
I'm going to buy you a pair of fish earrings.
Then I want you to leave your husband and run away with me to Kentucky.
They have wonderful fishing lakes in Kentucky.
We will open up a bait shop on Lake Cumberland.
We'll call it Louise's Bait Shop.
I will change my name to Buster.
You will do all the work, and I will hang out with my buddies and go fishing.
Louise, will you be my fish wife?
Love,
Fred
Maybe I should have mailed it. How different our lives would be if we had made other choices.
HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. It's spring in the Skagit Valley and we have an abundance of happiness and good energy. I have a gardening job this week, which means I can take time off from working at the hospital. I have so longed for this. Patient care is a very satisfying and rewarding experience, but it gets stressful on the unit, and my nerves need a break.
Also, my immune system needs to be restored. At the hospital, we are in the presence of some virulent, nasty microbes. The remedy is garden work. Contact with the soil is an excellent way to get on friendly terms with the good microbes that abound on our planet. I am sure this is a good thing.
LET'S ALL DO LIKE THEY DO IN EUROPE. We can be just like the Europeans if we establish national health care, adopt the metric system, and make soccer our most important sport.
Wouldn't that be wonderful? Not so fast. Let me think:
1. We have to change and I believe we're going to have a much better health care system in the United States. There are things we can learn from other countries about this, but it really has to be "invented here" if it's going to be accepted. We are a peculiar people, with our own habits. Any reforms need to be distinctly American. In fact, as a goal, we should aim for health care that is better than anyone else's. Let's be first in the world, why not?
2. Adopt the metric system. Almost everybody uses the metric system, all over the world. Scientists use it. Everything we measure at the hospital is in the metric system. Why not go the whole way, and become all metric, from top to bottom. I don't think this is an issue. Our traditional measuring system is not something we need to hold on to. Let's change and be like everybody else.
3. Make soccer our most important sport. Okay, hold it. This is so NOT going to happen. This is a bad idea. In America, we have the holy trinity of baseball, football, and basketball. I'm not letting go of this one. I will resist any effort to change that. No offense to soccer people, but it must remain an auxiliary sport in our great land. Let the rest of the world do whatever they want.
YOUR FROG HOSPITAL DOLLARS AT WORK. I have been working behind the scenes in continuous contact with media people -- editors, publishers, journalists, and bloggers -- to debate and discuss the tremendous changes overcoming established media.
It's true, I have been highly critical and unsympathetic toward the mainstream press. I have my reasons. My working life has been at community newspapers, of which there are thousands, in every small town, and in most urban neighborhoods.
These are important and essential publications, but the big newspaper people have a long, bad habit of thinking they are the special ones.
I have had too many years of hotshot reporters and editors at the Daily Planet not returning my phone calls. Yeah, it's personal, but if I may speak for others who work at community papers, this is what I will say:
We're still here. We're closer to the ground. And it's time for you big boys to learn from us.
It's a little bit insulting when people in Seattle say "we only have only one newspaper now." I was in Seattle a few weeks ago and visited the office of the West Seattle Herald, a solid weekly. They're doing fine. They cover West Seattle like a rug. A bug can't crawl across the sidewalk without them knowing about it. These people are seriously plugged into the local scene.
This is real journalism. And it's time to show some respect.
It does look like the news is disappearing right now. I predict it will fall by half again. That is, in a few years, we will have about half as many dailies as we have now. Then it will level out.
Meanwhile, Internet news will slowly begin to fill the gap. It will become more substantial, reliable, and accurate. New standards and rules will apply, and somehow people will make money at it.
So, if I can send a message back to Thomas Jefferson -- It's not over, not by a long shot.
Dear Louise,
I want you to be my fish wife.
This is very serious.
I'm going to buy you a pair of fish earrings.
Then I want you to leave your husband and run away with me to Kentucky.
They have wonderful fishing lakes in Kentucky.
We will open up a bait shop on Lake Cumberland.
We'll call it Louise's Bait Shop.
I will change my name to Buster.
You will do all the work, and I will hang out with my buddies and go fishing.
Louise, will you be my fish wife?
Love,
Fred
Maybe I should have mailed it. How different our lives would be if we had made other choices.
HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. It's spring in the Skagit Valley and we have an abundance of happiness and good energy. I have a gardening job this week, which means I can take time off from working at the hospital. I have so longed for this. Patient care is a very satisfying and rewarding experience, but it gets stressful on the unit, and my nerves need a break.
Also, my immune system needs to be restored. At the hospital, we are in the presence of some virulent, nasty microbes. The remedy is garden work. Contact with the soil is an excellent way to get on friendly terms with the good microbes that abound on our planet. I am sure this is a good thing.
LET'S ALL DO LIKE THEY DO IN EUROPE. We can be just like the Europeans if we establish national health care, adopt the metric system, and make soccer our most important sport.
Wouldn't that be wonderful? Not so fast. Let me think:
1. We have to change and I believe we're going to have a much better health care system in the United States. There are things we can learn from other countries about this, but it really has to be "invented here" if it's going to be accepted. We are a peculiar people, with our own habits. Any reforms need to be distinctly American. In fact, as a goal, we should aim for health care that is better than anyone else's. Let's be first in the world, why not?
2. Adopt the metric system. Almost everybody uses the metric system, all over the world. Scientists use it. Everything we measure at the hospital is in the metric system. Why not go the whole way, and become all metric, from top to bottom. I don't think this is an issue. Our traditional measuring system is not something we need to hold on to. Let's change and be like everybody else.
3. Make soccer our most important sport. Okay, hold it. This is so NOT going to happen. This is a bad idea. In America, we have the holy trinity of baseball, football, and basketball. I'm not letting go of this one. I will resist any effort to change that. No offense to soccer people, but it must remain an auxiliary sport in our great land. Let the rest of the world do whatever they want.
YOUR FROG HOSPITAL DOLLARS AT WORK. I have been working behind the scenes in continuous contact with media people -- editors, publishers, journalists, and bloggers -- to debate and discuss the tremendous changes overcoming established media.
It's true, I have been highly critical and unsympathetic toward the mainstream press. I have my reasons. My working life has been at community newspapers, of which there are thousands, in every small town, and in most urban neighborhoods.
These are important and essential publications, but the big newspaper people have a long, bad habit of thinking they are the special ones.
I have had too many years of hotshot reporters and editors at the Daily Planet not returning my phone calls. Yeah, it's personal, but if I may speak for others who work at community papers, this is what I will say:
We're still here. We're closer to the ground. And it's time for you big boys to learn from us.
It's a little bit insulting when people in Seattle say "we only have only one newspaper now." I was in Seattle a few weeks ago and visited the office of the West Seattle Herald, a solid weekly. They're doing fine. They cover West Seattle like a rug. A bug can't crawl across the sidewalk without them knowing about it. These people are seriously plugged into the local scene.
This is real journalism. And it's time to show some respect.
It does look like the news is disappearing right now. I predict it will fall by half again. That is, in a few years, we will have about half as many dailies as we have now. Then it will level out.
Meanwhile, Internet news will slowly begin to fill the gap. It will become more substantial, reliable, and accurate. New standards and rules will apply, and somehow people will make money at it.
So, if I can send a message back to Thomas Jefferson -- It's not over, not by a long shot.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Just a Closer Walk with Thee
It snowed two days ago in the Skagit Valley. The roads are still ice-covered because we have no snowplows or trucks to spread sand on the slippery stretches. It's very cold at night and the snow will not melt until next week. We've been starting the fire in the wood stove first thing in the morning, to keep the frost out. It's not like real winter back in the Midwest, but it's cold enough for me.
BUNKY THE BALD EAGLE. I call him Bunky. He perches at the top of the cottonwood in back of our house on Fir Island. He only recently got kicked out of his mama's nest -- has those mottled juvenile feathers. The adult bald eagles look like they own the country, with a commanding predator's glare. But Bunky looks lost, "Mom?.... Mom?.... Where's the food?....What am I supposed to do?" Bunky is perched up there in the cottonwood, all alone in the world now, looking into a lean winter before he figures out that he has to get his own dinner.
HE'S SERBIAN. Illinois Governor Blagojevitch is neither corrupt nor insane, he's Serbian. Chicago has a large Eastern European contingent -- Poles, Ukrainians, Croats, Slovaks, etc., and they are aware of the ethnic distinctions. Serbia was that country that Pres. Clinton bombed back to Bejesus after they invaded Kosovo. They also started World War I at Sarajevo, in Serbia, and now we have this Governor, the most famous Serbian-American in the country. But his name will be forgotten by next week. As they say, in Chicago, to the rest of the country "What's it to you?... It's not your state and it's not your tax money."
Of course it does reflect a bit on our new President, as the nation slowly realizes that Obama is the brains and the style, but Mayor Dailey is the muscle. It took muscle to kick that cowboy out of the White House -- just being right and asking nicely won't get you anything.
TAKE IT BACK. But another event in Chicago will become an important date in American history, December 5, the day when the workers at the window factory in Chicago decided to take it back. They were laid off with only three days notice, more than 200 workers, many with more than ten years experience -- no severance pay, no accrued vacation pay, just "get out."
But they didn't just clean out their lockers and go home -- they refused to leave the premises until they got paid. They began a six-day occupation of the window factory, until all the politicians, and reporters, and bankers, and owners came by to hear their story. Their calm determination prevailed, and they got their back pay.
And did those workers win because they deserved it? Because they were right? No, they prevailed because they seized the premises -- an illustration of muscle effectively deployed on behalf of labor.
I am just astounded by this act of labor militancy, because it marks a turning point. Labor has been meek and subnmissive since another famous date in American history, August 3, 1981, when President Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers for going on strike. Eleven thousand he fired, with a stroke of his pen, and ever since that date 27 years ago American workers have cowered while Reagan spoke about a city shining on a hill. Reagan's shining city exists, but most of us don't get to live there. Instead we bought his promise, "If we all work for less money, the nation will prosper" .... ? .... Reagan said it with such a nice smile, that many of us believed him, and many of us got confused. "Okay, I get it, I'll get rich if I just work harder for less money" ..... but that doesn't actually make sense.....
UNLESS you live in Alabama. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, was the leading voice in oppostion to the Detroit bailout. Alabama is the home of cheap labor. Their state motto is "Dirt Poor and Proud of it."
Alabama gave America slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, sharecropping, mule plowing, George Wallace, the Klu Klux Klan, corn pone, fat back, pellagra and tuberculosis, and six different flavors of chewing tobacco.
That's all I need to know about the bailout. Think what you will about Mayor Dailey and the Big Three automakers -- but people got paid well. I don't want to live in Senator Shelby's cheap labor world, do you?
So, I will close with a wonderful, moving song, sung by Mahalia Jackson, often considered the finest gospel singer who ever lived. Her voice, with its infinite power and grace, represents that best of life of Chicago. Even her life story illustrates the story. Mahalia was born and raised in New Orleans, but she came north, as so many other Southerners did, black and white, to escape grinding poverty, because they could get factory jobs in Chicago, and the jobs paid so much better than picking cotton. Mahalia Jackson came north to freedom. Listen to her music. Listen to "Just a Closer Walk With Thee."
BUNKY THE BALD EAGLE. I call him Bunky. He perches at the top of the cottonwood in back of our house on Fir Island. He only recently got kicked out of his mama's nest -- has those mottled juvenile feathers. The adult bald eagles look like they own the country, with a commanding predator's glare. But Bunky looks lost, "Mom?.... Mom?.... Where's the food?....What am I supposed to do?" Bunky is perched up there in the cottonwood, all alone in the world now, looking into a lean winter before he figures out that he has to get his own dinner.
HE'S SERBIAN. Illinois Governor Blagojevitch is neither corrupt nor insane, he's Serbian. Chicago has a large Eastern European contingent -- Poles, Ukrainians, Croats, Slovaks, etc., and they are aware of the ethnic distinctions. Serbia was that country that Pres. Clinton bombed back to Bejesus after they invaded Kosovo. They also started World War I at Sarajevo, in Serbia, and now we have this Governor, the most famous Serbian-American in the country. But his name will be forgotten by next week. As they say, in Chicago, to the rest of the country "What's it to you?... It's not your state and it's not your tax money."
Of course it does reflect a bit on our new President, as the nation slowly realizes that Obama is the brains and the style, but Mayor Dailey is the muscle. It took muscle to kick that cowboy out of the White House -- just being right and asking nicely won't get you anything.
TAKE IT BACK. But another event in Chicago will become an important date in American history, December 5, the day when the workers at the window factory in Chicago decided to take it back. They were laid off with only three days notice, more than 200 workers, many with more than ten years experience -- no severance pay, no accrued vacation pay, just "get out."
But they didn't just clean out their lockers and go home -- they refused to leave the premises until they got paid. They began a six-day occupation of the window factory, until all the politicians, and reporters, and bankers, and owners came by to hear their story. Their calm determination prevailed, and they got their back pay.
And did those workers win because they deserved it? Because they were right? No, they prevailed because they seized the premises -- an illustration of muscle effectively deployed on behalf of labor.
I am just astounded by this act of labor militancy, because it marks a turning point. Labor has been meek and subnmissive since another famous date in American history, August 3, 1981, when President Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers for going on strike. Eleven thousand he fired, with a stroke of his pen, and ever since that date 27 years ago American workers have cowered while Reagan spoke about a city shining on a hill. Reagan's shining city exists, but most of us don't get to live there. Instead we bought his promise, "If we all work for less money, the nation will prosper" .... ? .... Reagan said it with such a nice smile, that many of us believed him, and many of us got confused. "Okay, I get it, I'll get rich if I just work harder for less money" ..... but that doesn't actually make sense.....
UNLESS you live in Alabama. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, was the leading voice in oppostion to the Detroit bailout. Alabama is the home of cheap labor. Their state motto is "Dirt Poor and Proud of it."
Alabama gave America slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, sharecropping, mule plowing, George Wallace, the Klu Klux Klan, corn pone, fat back, pellagra and tuberculosis, and six different flavors of chewing tobacco.
That's all I need to know about the bailout. Think what you will about Mayor Dailey and the Big Three automakers -- but people got paid well. I don't want to live in Senator Shelby's cheap labor world, do you?
So, I will close with a wonderful, moving song, sung by Mahalia Jackson, often considered the finest gospel singer who ever lived. Her voice, with its infinite power and grace, represents that best of life of Chicago. Even her life story illustrates the story. Mahalia was born and raised in New Orleans, but she came north, as so many other Southerners did, black and white, to escape grinding poverty, because they could get factory jobs in Chicago, and the jobs paid so much better than picking cotton. Mahalia Jackson came north to freedom. Listen to her music. Listen to "Just a Closer Walk With Thee."
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