Conspiracy Theories

Posted ? July 26th, 2008 by JennyWren

Okay, so I was all set to write a series of blog entries on the "conspiracy theories" I’d been researching, which mostly turned out not to be conspiracies or theories, but fairly blatant plans made by various groups. But in the process of trying to objectively follow one rumor or another to its "official" source, I started realizing that all of this stuff played right into my natural tendency to view things in a sort of survivalist way. By that I mean: expect the best, but plan for the worst.

I’m a bit of a hoarder, in a heard-stories-of-the-Great-Depression way. I’m convinced our nation’s food industry is killing us through what is lacking, as much as by what is added. I’ve collected books for years on do-it-yourself everything. I don’t need anyone to convince me that general preparedness for whatever may come is smart (although convincing me to get up and do more about it…that might help). The parts I skipped were politics and money. The two things that can actually decide whether or not you end up needing the skills I’ve been obsessing over. I’ve finally taken a peek at both, and wish I’d worked harder at so many things.

This is all one huge mess, it’s impossible to know where to start when describing it. Rather than dwelling on the negative and scaring myself out of my wits, though, I’m going to work on what was always my goal, whether we’re headed for chaos or not: raising a family in a way that makes sense, with what we have.

Canning Adventures, Here We Come!

Today's the day! I've got the chicken cooked, the veggies I need to make chicken soup, and a beautiful pressure canner that I haven't had the nerve to try using, yet.

A friend is on the way over with her canner; we're going to make a marathon of it. Hopefully I'll have some pics if I don't blow us up. ;)

Bees and Cell Phones

See? I'm not completely insane! Cell phones ARE making the animals wacky!

Apparently, scientists are looking at cell phone radiation as a possible culprit in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). They went looking through previous work, and according to a study that had been done in Germany in 2003, when cell phones were placed near hives, as much as 70% of the colony failed to find their way home after foraging. Now I'm not sure how much radiation they were exposed to in order to have this effect, but that's what's happening with CCD, as well. The bees aren't dying in the hive, they just aren't there anymore. So it's possible something like this is at least involved.

Of course, I am also reading that certain pesticides used against aphids can cause bees to behave erratically.

I have to wonder, if we ever actually figure out what's causing this, and it turns out to be something we aren't willing or able to change...what happens?

Combine the fact that bees pollinate most everything except our grains, with the grain issues due to weather (not mentioning corn for ethanol, I'm not!), and I'd say we're in for a long, bumpy ride this year on food prices/supply.