Circleville Ohio really was once a town shaped in a circle

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I will be blogging from a farm in Circleville Ohio for the next few days. Circleville is an interesting little town that hosts a pumpkin festival each year.



History of Circleville

Circleville was unique among early American towns, built to conform to a circular prehistoric earthworks. When Pickaway County was formed in 1810 there were no existing settlements that seemed suitable for a county seat. Therefore, a new town was laid out within the ancient's "circle" on the high bank east of the Scioto River. It's streets radiated from an octagonal courthouse in the center of the circle.
Two communities existed near Circleville prior to its being laid out as the county seat. Jefferson and Livingston ceased to exist several years after Circleville was designated the seat of government in 1811. When the Ohio Canal reached Circleville, the shape of the town within the circle proved to be a hindrance, and in 1838 a group of enterprising businessmen began to "square the circle". Over the next 20 years the job was accomplished and all traces of the ancient earthworks disappeared.

Guerrilla Gardening 102

Important consideration for guerrilla gardening: Not to be detected when you plant your garden as the fine is the same as getting caught creating graffiti.

These 3 photos delineate the 3 Steps to make what is termed seed bombs.


Step One: In a large mixing bowl combine some good top soil and some powdered clay (regular clay will work, but you will need to add some water).
Step Two: Add seeds into the mixture.
Step Three: Roll into balls (seed bombs).
These seed bombs can be tossed from a car, bike, or on foot. The important thing is to not be seen and have a lovely garden spring up where previously there was a ugly vacant space.

Guerrilla Gardening 101

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Some folks have been going green for years. The term Guerilla Gardening was first used by the late Liz Christy in the 70's (First Photo). There is so much wasted space in our country that guerrilla gardening may become acceptable in the near future. Tune in tomorrow for more information on this subject.

Police Brutality?

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What sort of behavior can we expect from our own police during an economic collapse?



The officer charged this biker with attempted assault of a 3rd degree, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct! It is staggering how many police officers lied under oath about this incident. Officers who were not even present lied. But...you judge for yourself. Ask yourself if you can trust public servants who you pay for with your tax dollars to protect you during a real crisis. And while you are at it, ask yourself if officers should be allowed to testify in a court of law? I watch this video and thank goodness that someone was taping the event.

I can't wait till someone writes a song about it!

100 Things That Will Disappear First

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It may be time to start preparations for a collapse of the U.S. economy. Other nations have experienced similar collapse. It is almost certain that even a simple truckers strike would assure that all shelves in the grocery stores would be empty in 4 days. Here is a link to a list of 100 things that will disappear first. (I have a permanant bookmark for this list.) http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/items_disappearfirst.htm
(you will need to copy and paste this link into your address bar)

Please note: You might want to stock up on extra supplies in order to barter as the dollar won't be worth anything.

Security For The China Olympics

These guys have obviously trained as hard as the athletes in the Olympics. It does bother me that with two hands on the rifles leaves steering the Segway's with only their knees. The guns are a little small. It is probably necessary in order not to experience a kickback that would certainly flip the vehicle. I don't know whether my reaction to them coming down the street would be fear or uncontrollable laughter.
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Green Mountain in China

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The Chinese have been sprucing up the countryside in anticipation of the summer Olympics this year.
This probably looks better from an airplane!
This is Laoshou mountain range. The photo was shot last August 2007. The ugly depression is a result of quarrying. The touch up job is a not so cleaver attempt to appear green in time for the 2008 Summer Games. The cost was $56,000 and took several weeks and 7 men to complete. Oh...and the villagers had to leave their homes because of the fumes. Do you suppose it is lead paint? But everything is cool...move along nothing to see here!

Great Firewall of China

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The Olympics are just days away. Half the cars have been taken off the streets, construction halted, and most factories closed in the great city. Still there is this foggy haze. The peak oil site that I frequent is blocked by what is termed "The Great Firewall of China". But the discussion forum is under a different domain, so the discussion forum flies under the radar, and citizens can access news from the discussion forum. The games run August 8-24 and supposedly they have a 48 hour emergency plan to remove the smog. Perhaps those of us reading the discussion forum will hear about this plan before even our US media!

Crazy Like A Fox?

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Check this out!




We can all learn from this man.

Leo Fest 2008

I won't be blogging for the next couple days as I will be attending Leo Fest. Here is a picture from last years Leo Party. Hope to see you there!
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Got Peppers?

Here are our first peppers fresh from the garden. While everyone else will have to go without this week because of the recall (Salmonella outbreak), I won't be going without! These beauties were grown in our back yard and watered from a soaker hose attached to our rain barrels.

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Will there be war in Iran

I wonder if we will make it through summer without getting involved in another war. It seems clear that the United States can not operate without oil from the middle east. Even with off shore oil drilling we can not possibly break our dependency on foreign oil. Iraq is looking more like a stepping stone in the grand scheme of things.
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Rain Barrel Shortage

We are going after more rain barrels today. They are in demand right now. Since there are so many gas thefts these days, I worry about keeping them in the back yard and gas thieves taking them before we can turn them into rain barrels.
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On eBay

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I am selling my old OMNI collection on eBay right now. Eventually I will sell the whole collection. These are in great shape for as old as they are. Click on my username to see my auctions.

skymetalsmith(322)

Where are the honey bees?

Worldwide food shortages are likely to be the outcome of colony collapse disorder. Check out this article on the disappearance of the honey bees.
www.sacredearth.com/.../conservation/bee.php

Everything Is Just Peachy Isn't It?

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“We are witnessing a momentous event--the great deflation of Wall Street--and it is far from over. The crash of IndyMac is just the beginning. More banks will fail, so will many more debtors. The crisis has the potential to transform American politics because, first it destroys a generation of ideological bromides about free markets, and, second, because it makes visible the ugly power realities of our deformed democracy. Democrats and Republicans are bipartisan in this crisis because they have colluded all along over thirty years in creating the unregulated financial system and mammoth mega-banks that produced the phony valuations and deceitful assurances. The federal government protects the most powerful interests from the consequences of their plundering. It prescribes 'market justice' for everyone else.” -- William Greider on Bill Moyers' Journal, 2008. July. 18.

ZEITGEIST

If you haven't seen Zeitgeist you can see it here for free. This is a worthy movie that explains why we are heading where we are heading!
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The Hitchcock Barbie. What a Scream!

Just when you think all Barbie Dolls have been created, Mattel comes up with a new one.








But what if they made a whole series of Hitchcock Barbie Dolls?


It is not hard to imagine a Psycho Barbie that comes with a shower stall, dagger, and fake blood.




PSYCHO Barbie by Mattel. Coming soon to a store near you!


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She might look like this!

Verticle Farms. Coming to a City Near You!

In a time of Peak Oil it may become more cost effective to grow food in the cities. This is an idea thats time is sure to come. The days of the 3000 mile salad are soon to be a thing of the past. Vertical Farms would turn skyscrapers into sustainable buildings. Check out the link and see more futuristic towers of food.
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Bank Run Day 3

The banking system seems to be failing since IndiMac was seized on Friday.
Some folks are reporting that IndiMac ATM machines are not working. Others have reported that online savings accounts have just vanished, and that they can't get through on the phone! I wonder how many banks failing and foreclosures will have to happen in order for our leaders to come clean and admit we are heading into a financial collapse.


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More banks are sure to follow suit as people are losing confidence in leadership.

That was then, this is now

Yesterday I blogged about the FDIC backed deflating dollar and the fraudulent banking system. It was early here in Ohio. Too early to get photos of the the IndiMac bank run in Pasadena California. Most of these souls are going to get their money back because they have less than $100,000 in that bank.

















The companies that have 10 or more employees and bank with IndiMac may lose their deposits over $100,ooo as their money is not insured higher than that amount.

It is likely that those companies will have to lay off their workers as they won't be able to pay them...resulting in a sort of domino effect. Loss of jobs, bankrupt companies.

It all seems to be winding down now. IndiMac wasn't even on a list of banks in trouble

TEOTWAWKI

TEOTWAWKI=The End Of The World As We Know It.

I find myself wondering what is going to happen when folks discover that our whole banking industry is based on Fraud. I accidentally learned recently that during the depression that the government confiscated every ones gold! I didn't believe it of course, so I checked it out on Wikipedia. This time around our government isn't confiscating our gold . But it seems clear on some levels that taking peoples homes and pensions is the equivalent.

One thing is for certain. We have been robbing Peter to Pay Paul and now Peter is broke!

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Sign in the window

Finally a sign in the storefront of our neighborhood rain barrel store. They are called Rain Brothers according to the sign in the window. Rain Brothers has been in business for awhile it seems. But they now have a storefront. I must confess to have been checking out this storefront almost daily since we started selling rain barrels this summer. I have suspected that rain barrels and rain catchment systems are being built all over the city. Perhaps it was the shortage of parts to assemble them that got me thinking about the 100th Monkey phenomenon. I imagined that there was a parts shortage because lots of people were building rain barrels this summer. These two brothers have a mission and purpose to their business that we don't have. They are trying to make a positive mark towards eliminating gang violence. I am glad that we are not doing that as I don't guess two chicks selling rain barrels have any business trying to interact with gang folk. As you can see in my photo they also have platforms to elevate the rain barrels. This helps out when you need the force of gravity to help pump out the water. We used our rain water the other day to fill up our washing machine. We had to do that one bucket at a time. If our barrel was higher than our washing machine then we could fill it with a hose. This is an example of why such a platform can be useful. Check out their website now and you will see that there may be a waiting period. They are booked. In the mean time we still have some barrels at got rain.
We have added a water usage chart to help you decide that you might need to conserve and save some money.


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Lawn Salad. It sure beats mowing!

Here is the first salad from our garden this year. Among the usual ingredients (tomato, lettuce, greens) is the Yucca blossom, which is kin to the lotus flower.



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The Yucca plant is plentiful and very tasty! I can really get behind a plan that eliminates mowing grass in favor of growing beautiful food.

New Business?

A few days ago I noticed rain barrels in the storefront that had been a bookstore just last year.

















There may be new uses for spaces and places that we have grown accustomed to during these trying times of financial crisis. Folks that might have bought a book last year may not be able to justify the expense this year. But a rain barrel is hard to argue against, especially when we remember that last summer we experienced drought here in Columbus Ohio.

I will be curious to see what these folks name their business. It is less than 3 blocks away from our rain barrel business. We added a water usage chart to our web site (got rain?). We also began using rain water to fill our washing machine. Check out how many gallons of precious water you can save by adding rain water into your economic equation. Each gallon you save will save you money!

Paper or Plastic?

It is fashionable now days to have a choice whether you prefer paper or plastic to cart your groceries home in. I sure don't want to contribute to the senseless clear cutting of our forests. But choosing plastic depletes our precious oil supply.













This is a meaningful hemp bag that brings the message home!


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Wasted Space

Here is Fisher Body Plant in Detroit Michigan. The very first Cadillac Limo Factory. It is a sad use of space. Certainly in a growing auto industry this would be an example of a historic landmark worthy of renovation. Obviously our "love affair" with the automobile doesn't include it's birthplace. Detroit should be a thriving booming tourist destination. This factory should be on the tour route. Instead it is another home of the homeless. Just another eye sore worthy of re inventing.















Until then though, why not turn the space into an urban garden.












We are going to have to get creative in response to Peak Oil. Instead of wasted land and wasted space we need to get green. I for one would like to see some of the concrete jungle return to farmland.


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There is always next year...right?

If you missed Comfest this year, you can start planning for next year. My prediction is that parking will be no problem as none of us will be able to afford to drive a car. The present bike corral will need to be expanded 3 fold. I understand that coolers will be prohibited unless you can document a medical condition proving the necessity.
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For Red White and Boom the week following Comfest, coolers were confiscated by Columbus Police. If your name was on the cooler, then you could pick it up at the property room after the Fire Works. The rationale is that if you bring a cooler with alcohol and food, then you are defeating the purpose of the event (make money on inflated prices of food and alcohol). Or maybe they are afraid you might sell or give some of your beer to a minor. Certainly if you bring your own the vendors can't make any money!

Now I am not suggesting that Community Festival adopt this policy. But, if coolers were confiscated or fined, Comfest could make even more money. At any rate heads up! You have a whole year to plan your way around no cooler tolerance.

Columbus Washboard Company

Here in Ohio we still make washboards. Columbus Washboard Company of Logan Ohio has several types for your musical pleasure as well as for just plain old washing clothes. If the power goes out for long periods of time as predicted by Peak Oil theorists, it is nice to know there will still be a way to have clean clothes.
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Bike Power

Here is my favorite float from the Doo Dah parade yesterday. It is several bikers (15? 20?) pulling a SUV backwards along the parade route!


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Can you pass the acid test?

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Come join us for the 25th annual Doo Dah Parade July 4th 2008. Parade starts at 1pm

Ten Things you will like about $4 gas

There are at least 10 good things to like about $4 gas according to Amanda Ripley. One of them is the death of urban sprawl. Click on the link below for the full article.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1819594_1819592,00.html?cnn=yes