McFlying Ointment

It has been a while since I have done a ranty post… 

My Dear Fellow Pagans & Magical Practitioners,

I don’t know if it is just me, but I have been noticing a big increase in people selling products containing entheogens that are being marketed towards witchy folks. This bothers me and it scares the shit out of me at the same time.

Before I go into why, let me preface by saying this: I am not someone who “walks the poisoners’ path”. While a good part of my practice involves working with plants {and it might be even fair to say that it is “in my blood”}, my experience working with psychoactive plants is limited. I was lucky enough to shadow someone for a short time who has a rich knowledge and experience working with these types of plants, but I learned quite quickly that it was not for me. Any concoctions I made {such as flying ointment} has been for my own personal use. 

Many poison plants have found a place in my garden and in my apothecary; my relationship with them is just different from proper hedge witches or other practitioners who work with entheogenic plants for altered states. 

Anyways, I am not bothered that people work with these plants in this way or that they are selling products containing them. There are a small handful of people who I have been a customer of and a “fan” of their work who sell them. To me it is quite clear that they have experience and that they have an idea of what they are doing. 

My issue lays with inexperienced people who are making these products and selling them to others. Noobies trying to be “badass witches” by selling this stuff is not just annoying, it is fucked up and reckless. 

Case in point: 

There is a person on Youtube who has an online store that has started to sell items containing these kinds of plants. In a video while bragging that she is going to be selling flying ointments, she was handling potentially fatal plants on camera with very little care. She was rubbing her face up against some of them like it was a fuzzy little kitten and pretending she was going to eat one of them. Fucking stupid. {A rather ironic side note is that she was going on a tangent about people who change spiritual paths like they do underwear, yet one day she is a new age crystal healer, the next she is a necromancer and traditional witch, the next she is a chakra specialist, and now she is a folk magician with tonnes of experience working with “dark plants” and hoodoo.}

I suppose all I can add is that there is nothing wrong with being new at something, just admit that you are, know your limits and keep on learning. Besides, these are probably good tenets to go by for any worthy practitioner, whether they be neophyte or have ages of experiences. So please folks, be careful who you buy these types of products from! 

Below are some sources that I personally think are reputable: 

Alchemy Works  

Stang & Cauldron 

 If you know of any other reputable sources, please feel free to share them! 

Sláinte!

Laurel

corporations & rock stars to the rescue!

It is pretty old news now that Bono has hopped into bed with Monsanto and friends for one big GMO fuckfest, all in the name of "saving Africa". Here is a video of a rant that I think has summed up everything that is wrong with this, straight from Bealtaine Cottage.

Sláinte!

Laurel

leave no trace, take nothing with you

{This is an entry for the Pagan Blog Project}

Yesterday I was absolutely horrified to find out that Lia Fáil was damaged. It seems that it was struck with a hammer in 11 different places and fragments were taken.

By looking at the damage there are folks who are speculating {myself included} that this was not an act of purposeful defacement, but probably the collection of relics. If that is the case, obviously whoever did it had no regard for the sacredness of the site or symbolism. Perhaps this is worse than plain old trashing.

I am sure that there are many Pagans who would love to or do make pilgrimages to these sacred sites, which is all fine and dandy, but if they are going to lack respect and common sense then shit like this happens. It doesn't help when books such as Sacred Journeys by Sally Griffyn encourage people to make these pilgrimages without informing them on basic etiquette, or in some cases make suggestions that are asinine. For a good critique of the book from a conservation perspective, check out this White Dragon article.

If the damage reports on the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network is any indication, then it would seem that many of the ancient sacred sites are targets, and way too often. The organization talks specifically about the damage caused by folks who are visiting these sites for spiritual purposes, and there is an article addressing this on their website from a Pagan's outlook.

I suppose all I can add is passing on some sage words that can be found on an old pamphlet for a local Provincial Park:

"Enjoy and preserve the beauty of this place; leave no trace, take nothing with you."

Sláinte!

Laurel

Knowing Identities

I had a fancy post I had been working on for this week's Pagan Blog Project featuring the letter K. Since I have not had the time to do a quality post, I hope that this mini-rant will suffice.

Anyhow, I came across these pair of ladies calling themselves The HedgeWitch Cooks. While they have lovely recipes on their website and I look forward to viewing more cooking episodes of theirs in the future, I am slightly confused on the whole hedgewitch thing.

It looks to me that they are equating hedgewitchery with cottage, kitchen or green witchery, when they are very different things. We can probably thank Rae Beth for that. I have seen this a lot lately. Like, to the point where hedgewitch has become completely bastardized.

Seriously, flaunting around titles just because they sound nifty is bad enough, but once you start making money from it...well, to me that is the moral equivalent of lifting one's skirt, squatting and pissing on a grave. They are disrespecting a set of traditions.

To be clear, I am not a hedgewitch myself. It is not something that I have the stones for, and I probably never will. I am quite happy with my "simple" hearthcraft and green witchery. So, on that note, I will let those who practice that particular craft speak for themselves. Check out the following links for more info:

The Cottage of a Hedgewytch

What is a Hedgewitch?

Hedge Witchery

Sláinte!

Laurel

P.S. All this aside, honestly the cooking show and website are worth a look.

some news of note & a small update

Howdy folks! I hope that everyone had a chance to get out and about to enjoy Earth Day! :) It was rather blustery and cold here, but a nice day nonetheless. I might have some photos to share of yesterday's adventure if they turned out alright. In the meantime, this is just a post of news and updates that might be of interest to you folks.

Of course the Harper government {the Canadian Federal Government} has been celebrating the great wealth and beauty of our planet, by implementing policies so there is less "red tape" and review in plundering that wealth and beauty. The government's logic? Apparently we need to speed up the whole pipeline process by removing those dastardly eco radicals before some other country gives away all their natural resources before we can.

And more great news about the darling of Frankenfood, it seems that Monsanto has made another recent purchase. Apparently back in September 2011, Monsanto bought Beelogics, one of the largest organizations involved in researching the bee colony collapse. Pretty fucking convenient since Monsanto may be partially responsible for that very issue. Perhaps further proof that if you have enough money and power you can just purchase evil deeds and proof out of existence.

On a more positive note...

For people in Ontario, there is a consultation on Ontario Food and Nutrition Strategy: A Plan for Healthy Food and Farming starting today until May 31st. To get involved, sign up for a free membership over at Sustain Ontario or for more information send an email to strategy@sustainontario.ca.

Horse Feathers released their fourth album last week. From what I have heard of Cynic's New Year so far, they have not lost any of their awesomeness. Here is a video of one of the songs from the album Where I'll Be:

And a beautiful live performance of Last Waltz {in Paris, 2011}:

Oh! I have finally bit the bullet and created a Facebook page for Unfettered Wood.

Sláinte!

Laurel

heisting {& hate}

I have been naughty and haven't posted anything for the Pagan Blog Project in a while. While I have had all these ideas on topics I wanted to write about, I haven't really been motivated to be honest. So here is a just-winging-it post {letter H}.

Heisting. The online Pagan community seems to be rife with it when it comes to lifting the works of others. Two situations in particular that stick out in my mind are this one and this one.

These two situations were balls-out theft. Their articles and artworks were posted on other sites being masqueraded as the work of the people who stole them. More often what I notice are people who don't properly cite sources and/or creators of articles and creative works that they are sharing.

So please people. Don't steal. Properly cite. It's called good manners and it only takes a little bit of extra time.

Another situation that has been going on recently surrounds Z Budapest and a song that she apparently wrote 40 years ago. I don't know if she owns the rights to the song or not. On her Facebook page she had posted:

Singing "We all come from the Goddess" should NOT BE rewritten. It is my intellectual property. it is NOT a folk song, which by the way is the fate of many composers whose songs are stolen. You steal my song from now will have consequences. You put men into the song, like God,a hex will be activated. I have found that people actually sell their wares with my song in the Title

It certainly would suck to have someone else take your song, profit from it without your permission or giving you proper credit. There is however, something in the above quote that made me do a double take. The whole cursing over men and god wording. But wait! It gets better!

but i have experienced women making up new words,attaching it to my song that NEEDS NO attachments. Have you ever heard a man writing a song about the gods, and then put females in it?? Never. So stop you generosity attacks with my songs, write an original. Men who had Mozart and Schubert amongst them,surely will come up with their own songs .

Women like to give away and include but please do it with your own intellectual property. I wrote that song for the Goddess worshipping women..

Then in a later post she states that she only wants people to sing it in the original version. I don't know how she is going to control that in private environments, save sending out a whole bunch of curses to take care of those dastardly men and class-trader women. I guess that is not an option though, since has claimed that the threat of hexing was all snark and no bite. Not the swiftest move on her part, making threats if she had no intention of carrying them through if need be.

It seems to me that she wants to protect her song more out of hate {in this case misandry, she is already known for her disgusting transphobia} than out of love for her song and religious/spiritual devotion.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Changes to Ontario's Prostitution Laws

On March 26th, 2012 a panel of five judges released their ruling for the Ontario Court of Appeals in regards to the prostitution laws. This is just the latest phase of the constitutional challenge that has been going on here for a few years.

In October of 2010, Justice Himel of the Ontario Superior Court decriminalized prostitution, because she found the laws unconstitutional. The sections of the Canadian Criminal Code that she struck down were Section 210 {bawdy house}, Section 212-j {living on the avails of prostitution}, and Section 213-1-c {communicating for the purposes of prostitution}. You can see the full ruling here.

This past Monday the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that Section 210 was indeed unconstitutional and that after 12 months the decriminalization of the bawdy house law will take effect. The Court agreed to changing Section 212-j to reflect that living on the avails of prostitution will be illegal only in situations of exploitation, and has given the policy-makers 30 days to rewrite this law. The one disagreement that the Court had with Justice Himel's ruling was in regards to Section 213-1-c; while two of the judges did think that the communication law was unconstitutional, three decided to uphold the law. So for the time being communication for the purpose of prostitution will remain illegal.

At this point the changes to the laws will only effect Ontario. It is likely that the Crown will appeal this ruling and take it to the Supreme Court of Canada.

This isn't something Aymi nor I have talked about much on this blog, but we are both for the full decriminalization of consenting adult sex work. The models that we agree with can be found in both New Zealand and New South Wales, Australia. This is different than legalization, and you can see a bit about the difference between legalization and decriminalization here.

So with that said, it is no doubt that I am happy about the changes to the bawdy house and procuring laws, but I am very disappointed about the continued criminalization of outdoor sex workers.

I do think that ideally sex workers should be conducting business indoors, however most outdoor sex workers have various barriers that often make that impossible. This ruling to me is throwing an extremely marginalized population under the bus. It has been proven that the communicating law not only puts outdoor sex workers in more danger, the law also doesn't work. It is being upheld for ideological reasons and nothing more.

Outdoor sex workers make up anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of the entire sex worker population here in Canada, yet they are the ones who are criminally charged and targeted with violence most often. To top this off, many of the sex workers who are working outdoors are often referred to as "survival" sex workers, living from hand to mouth, facing homelessness and other effects of serious poverty.

It is so much easier to scapegoat a whole group of people, instead of targeting the issues that got that group of people to where they are today. It is certainly more challenging to combat poverty and institutionalized bigotry than it is to blame sex workers and the industry in which they work.

Bottom line, the way that we have been handling sex work here in Canada has not worked, and it is time to do something new.

This is a pretty personal topic for me as I am a former sex worker. Many of those dearest to me are current or former sex workers. For a few years I was an outreach worker for others in the industry and I was fully immersed in sex worker's rights activism even longer.

Given that it is such a complicated topic, sometimes it is easier to separate such things from other parts of one's life. A few years back Aymi and I created a YouTube channel pretty much dedicated to this topic, where we discuss our points of view and our experiences as sex workers. If interested, you can check out the Ye Olde Heretics channel here. Also, if you are interested in finding out more about the constitutional challenge or how you can get involved, head on over to the Sex Professionals of Canada website.

Sláinte!

Laurel

{f is for...} FFS! Celtic Reiki?!?!

{a quick post for the Pagan Blog Project}

Ok, I know that I have been a tad ranty lately on here. My apologies. Maybe I should ignore things that irritate me. ANYHOW....

I got a spam in my email about some "Celtic Reiki" courses and I was wondering what the hell that was supposed to be. I know what Reiki is; I took my Level 1 for it back in the late 90's. But Celtic Reiki? I had no clue.

Apparently I have been living under a rock or something because it has been around for a few years, and there is even a flashy official Celtic Reiki website.

According to these folks,

"Celtic Reiki was created by Martyn Pentecost and employs symbols derived from the Celtic ogham (the ancient alphabet used by the Druids). The Reiki energy mimics the frequency of various trees and plants so as to work in accordance with channeled and Celtic wisdom.

This unique style of Reiki beautifully combines the healing energy of Reiki with the ancient wisdom of the Celts and can be used for both healing purposes and goal manifestation. It contains a variety of new techniques based on Celtic ritual and diverse frequencies of energy, which offer the ability to tackle a range of everyday issues such as health, prosperity and finance, work, love and relationships. "

Ah, I see.

Add one part cool and "exotic" tradition; slap in some "ancient Druidic wisdom" that can be found in a myriad of Llewellyn books and *presto* you have yourself a new "Celtic" tradition!

People mashing different religious and cultural practices together to make a buck. Sounds familiar.

I am curious what the next fad will be. Wear tartan while doing a downward dog and you have Scottish Yoga? Maybe I should get on that! ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

Veggies Owned by Monsanto {!!!}

I got a link from a Near North Locavore member to a blog post entitled Forewarned is Forearmed: Veggies Owned by Monsanto. The post lists all of the vegetable varieties that are apparently owned by Seminis, a company purchased by Monsanto a few years back. I had a look and my jaw dropped. Get a load of this:

Beans: Aliconte, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema

Broccoli: Coronado Crown, Major, Packman

Cabbage: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty

Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III

Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman

Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76*, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel, Lavender Touch, Twinkle, White Lightening

Hot Pepper: Anaheim TMR 23, Ancho Saint Martin, Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Caribbean Red, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichen Itza, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Habanero, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierro, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot, Ixtapa X3R, Lapid, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Mucho Nacho brand of Grande, Nainari, Serrano del Sol brand of Tuxtlas, Super Chile, Tam Vera Cruz

Lettuce: Braveheart, Conquistador

Melon: Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno

Onion: Candy, Cannonball, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Vision

Pumpkin: Applachian, Harvest Moon, Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Phantom, Prize Winner, Rumbo, Snackface, Spirit, Spooktacular, Trickster

Spinach: Hellcat

Squash: Ambassador, Canesi, Clarita, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Papaya Pear, Peter Pan, Portofino, President, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM

Sweet Corn: Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obession, Passion, Temptation

Sweet Pepper: Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Biscayne, Blushing Beauty, Bounty, California Wonder 300, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Cubanelle W, Dumpling brand of Pritavit, Early Sunsation, Flexum, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West, King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight, Satsuma, Socrates, Super Heavyweight, Sweet Spot

Tomato: Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui

Watermelon: Apollo, Charleston Grey, Crimson Glory, Crimson Sweet, Eureka, Jade Star, Mickylee, Olympia

* Marketmore 76 is a very old cucumber-variety. If you are ordering it from a seller of heirloom veggies, check with the dealer to make sure the seeds were not purchased from Seminis/Monsanto. If you buy the seeds from a big-box garden center, odds are they were purchased from the evil empire.

{list thanks to Kevin Lee Jacobs}

Well shit, I have purchased more than one off that list. Fuckers will definitely not be getting my money again. And to be clear, no one is claiming {from what I have seen anyway} that these varieties are GMOs, however they are owned by a company who creates other GMOs. That and Monsanto is in the business of suing farmers for having their patented crops in their fields due to cross-pollination, contaminating organic crops for the same reason, threatening biodiversity of crops, and a whole host of other evil shit.

*rant done*

Kevin Lee Jacobs is right: Forewarned is forearmed. Help spread the word folks! You can double check the list right from the company website.

Sláinte!

Laurel

{d is for...} does every goddess need to be homogenized?

OR

{This is a mini installment for the Pagan Blog Project}

There is an excellent rant over at Three Shouts on a Hilltop about "Celtic" imagery sold in a Pagan shop that I found myself furiously nodding my head in agreement to {although as an aside, I was under a similar impression as a commenter over there in regards to The Morrígan}. One subject briefly touched on in the post was about Goddesses being portrayed as "sexy" when it is probably inappropriate.

I mean Brigid bare breasted and in a suggestive pose? Really? If it were Flidais I would get it; when it comes to Brigid, I think that this sculpture by Eric Klinert is more fitting.

Perhaps it is just me, but there seems to be a growing trend where Goddesses are being sexualized just to make them marketable. It seems like more and more they are either a pretty young thing, or a not-so-frumpy older lass donning some killer curves.

Or companies are trying to shoehorn every Goddess into the neo-Pagan concept of the "maiden, mother, crone". Take this statue for instance, which is being marketed as a "Native American Triple Goddess statue". Ummm. Hmmmm. That is almost as bad as a print I saw being sold in Toronto entitled Native American Chakra Yoni Goddess a few years back. And that was just plain messed up.

What I suppose pisses me off the most about this shit is that people actual endorse it with their money. In droves. It's no wonder that there are folks who are trying to distance themselves from the larger neo-Pagan movement.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Witch Words

A few years ago a person I knew had passed on Witchcraft: Theory and Practice by Ly de Angeles to me because it was "too dark" for her. Given that it is a Llewellyn book I found that rather odd and I really didn't have much hope in it {yeah, I am one of those "snobs" who doesn't care too much for that publisher}. So, I just tucked it away and it has been pretty much gathering dust since.

Just before our last move I was going through my books and I had noticed on the back of this book that fith-fath and fetches were covered and I decided to give her a read.

I have never read anything by Ly de Angeles before and haven't heard too many bad things about her; in fact I have seen her on some BTW recommended reading lists. I've gotta say that I was surprised to see that her approach and attitude is not the typical "cursing is bad m'kay" that I have come to expect in Llewellyn books. That scored a point or two.

But then I came to the section on Fith-Fathing. It opens with:

"This is one of the best enchantments that you can use to acquire or affect--anything. A fith-fath is also called a poppet or a dolly, though it doesn't always look figure-like unless your spell is specifically aimed at affecting another person..."

Ummm, huh? Fith-fath is a poppet? She must have been drinking the same kool-aid as Alex Sanders because I fail to see how someone with {apparently} 30-plus years of experience can get shape-shifting and effigy-making confused with one another.

Then a few pages later she does the same thing with fetches:

"You make a fetch (like you make a fith-fath), but they are not a representative of humanity..."

I have heard fetches being anything from some type of guardian spirit to a visible projection of a shape-shifter, but never anything to do with fetishes or effigies {of course I could be wrong so please feel free to correct me if I am!}.

I have yet to finish the book and I suppose I will grit my teeth and plough through it eventually. It is possible that if this kind of shit didn't irritate me so much, I would probably say that the book isn't a shabby read, even though it is clearly for Wiccans and I am not one myself.

...BUT...

This kind of shit does irritate me to no end. Really, there is no excuse for published authors at this point to make such big fuck ups like this. I think it is safe to assume that they now have access to viable sources to do their research and that if they don't use them they are just lazy.

Spreading misinformation and profiting from it is just bad, m'kay?

Sláinte!

Laurel

Toronto's Mayor is Flushing the City Down the Shitter

{artwork source}

A little while back I heard that the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford was proposing to cut funding to Riverdale Farm. My heart sank because I know the value of this place and I have a bit of a personal attachment to it and its surroundings.

I used to go to the Market there regularly and I would go to the Farm for a myriad of reasons...whether it was because I was feeling down, needed to be around the critters, or just to pass through while I was going to another place up the way for more "esoteric" purposes.

Then I began to hear of other cuts he intends to make. Some of these things include HIV/AIDS prevention projects, school breakfast programs, libraries, day care subsidies, drug prevention programs, public parks, fire and police services, snow removal, affordable housing, and other important services.

What really pisses me off is that he promised that no services would be cut while he was seeking election, AND he is couching these cuts as simple "efficiencies". He has talked about some fucking "gravy train" all this time, but the truth is that if there was any gravy to begin with, it was rid of thanks to Mike Harris and Mel Lastman in the '90s.

I have no intention of living in Toronto again, but it is my home town and many people I care about still live there. And it looks to me that Rob Ford wants to placate the fat cats and let the middle and lower classes sink. The thing is though, these cuts will make Toronto a real shithole for rich and poor alike.

He should be tarred and feathered.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Irish Folks Battle w/ Shell

Seren over at the Tairis blog posted about this earlier, and I thought that some of our readers would be interested {and pissed off!!!} about this as well.

There is a documentary called The Pipe that came out last fall about the struggle that the residents in Co. Mayo Ireland are having with Shell.

The documentary can be seen over here, but I think that I am on the wrong side of the Atlantic, as isn't viewable in my area. Here is a trailer:

And to find out more information about the struggle check out Shell to Sea website.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Dealing With Wild Critters {in the Garden & on the Farm}

{photo by Daniel Acuna}

I was listening to a CBC program talking about a Toronto man who allegedly tried to kill a family of baby raccoons with a shovel last week. Hearing some of the comments from folks who called in condoning this type of cruelty got me into a frothing rage.

I lived in downtown Toronto for over a decade, so I have a pretty good understanding of just how many raccoons live there and what type of mischief they can cause. There are measures in place and actions that can be taken to deal with them and to try and make one's property not so tempting.

It seems that many people fail to realize that the urbanized raccoons are partly our own creation. Raccoons have been adaptive enough {just like crows!} to thrive in our urban settings. But they are not the problem; if anyone is, it is us humans. We spread like roaches and then complain when wildlife "infringes" on our territory.

Raccoons are a part of the GTA landscape, and if folks don't like it, perhaps they should GTFO. And as far as the cruel assholes are concerned, they can go drown in the filthy waters of Lake Ontario {the raccoons sure as hell are not responsible for that now, huh?}.

********* rant done *********

Having a stead in a smaller Northern Ontario city has its own challenges. We do get raccoons, but also have visits from skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, and we have and deer in our immediate area. If we lived in a more remote part of town we would also have wolves, bears, foxes {and apparently cougars as well!} to potentially deal with.

When it comes to our garden, the most challenging critters {besides earwigs} have been squirrels and chipmunks. We like to put seeds and nuts out for them every day to keep them out, but if we happen to forget, we will pay for it with them digging up our seeds, nomming our peas and beans, or wreaking havoc on our tomatoes and sunflowers. As long as we put out yum yums for them I find that they are very agreeable neighbours.

Fellow Northerner Medusae had a recent battle with raccoons in her garden and she put vinegar around it and apparently it is working quite well at keeping them away. Here is a short article with pretty good tips on how to keep raccoons out of the garden and here is an interesting Nature of Things show called Raccoon Nation.

I have seen folks use many different methods to keep deer out of their gardens. One of my friends urinates every day around his veggie patch, and a farmer friend hangs Irish Spring in pantyhose around her lettuce. Others will grow deer resistant varieties of plants {Soggy Creek has an heirloom cabbage that is supposed to do the trick!}, or have REALLY high fencing.

My Aunt has lots of deer that come by her property, yet she can even have tulips and roses while all of her neighbours' gardens are mowed down to the roots. She will be cheeky and say that her success is because she "has an agreement" with the deer, but it is probably because she feeds them all Winter, and the big patches of pansies and lettuce she plants for them to eat.

My other Aunt has a healthy population of black bears around her. Having a big dog helps, but she still cannot keep a bird feeder in the summer and her garbage has to be locked in the garage until it is taken to the dump. With some common sense bears should pass on through.

Having livestock can create a whole new list of challenges. Obviously having guard critters can help {one friend keeps a donkey for her goats!}, locking cluckers and other poultry safely into their coop/shelter, electric fencing, and keeping areas well lit are all supposed to help. These are great articles to check out: here, here, and here.

Please do feel free to share what you do or methods that you have heard about. :)

Sláinte!

Laurel

Blogger Stole 'Em

For those of you who have contacted me about what happened to your comments, please be assured that I did not erase them. Apparently Blogger had some technical difficulties and I guess the interwebs nommed them for lunch. The same thing happened to the luverly Scented Nectar.

Sorry about that folks!

Laurel

P.S. Last night we finally finished up our Bealtaine celebrations & rituals, so a post about that will come shortly

Ok, Apparently It Does Get Worse!

Now not only do these assholes want to make miscarriage a crime, but they want the death penalty to be the punishment.

Speechless,

Laurel

Miscarriages a Crime?!?!

{royalty free photo}

It looks like the American Rightwingers are really going to town on women's reproductive rights. Just when you think it couldn't get any more insane, have a look at this:

Anti-Abortion Georgia Lawmaker Proposes Law That Would Criminalize Miscarriages

Are lawmakers from the "women are chattel" set having some sort of nation-wide competition to see who can get the most sick-minded anti-abortion law enacted? Sure seems that way! Last week, a public outcry forced South Dakota lawmakers to shelve a bill that opened the possibility that abortion providers would be endangered by people who believed that killing them was a justifiable homicide. Today comes word that Georgia state Representative Bobby Franklin is shopping a bill that wouldn't just make abortion illegal in Georgia, it would criminalize miscarriages to boot.

Read the rest of the article here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Fuck Monsanto.

Original photo can be found here.

So apparently I have been living under a rock the last little while, because I just heard about the USDA's FULL deregulation of Monsanto's GE alfalfa.

The Center for Food Safety criticized the announcement today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it will once again allow unlimited, nation-wide commercial planting of Monsanto’s genetically-engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic and conventional farmers USDA acknowledged in its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). On a call today with stakeholders, Secretary Vilsack reiterated the concerns surrounding purity and access to non-GE seed, yet the Agency’s decision still places the entire burden for preventing contamination on non-GE farmers, with no protections for food producers, consumers and exporters.

“We’re disappointed with USDA’s decision and we will be back in court representing the interest of farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. “USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment.”

The rest of the article can be read here.

Business-as-fucking-usual.

Not only that though, there are roomers abound that Wholefoods and other big organic companies are selling out on the issue.

Ugh. There is a petition targeting the US President and Secretary of Agriculture that you can sign here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Seeing Red. {Monday Morning Mini Rant}

Photo by XK Media

Our house is situated very close to a highway and we often see livestock trucks going by. No matter how many of them drive by, it never takes the edge off the effects of seeing them. Given that we are at a set of lights, often the trucks will be stopped for a spell and we can hear the animals kicking and stirring up a fuss. We can hear how frightened the animals are.

These trucks are a reminder for me of how fucked up our society is and how we are going about many things the wrong way.

It might sound odd coming from a vegetarian, but I actually have no ethical issues with folks eating meat. What angers me is the process of how meat gets to most of our tables.

We could be going about it in a more sane and caring way. Apparently that costs too much. These mega farms and mega corps don't want to dole out the cash that might actually give these animals a better of quality of life AND a more humane death.

It is this ass-backwards thinking that makes sometimes feel that we as a society deserve nothing short of collapse.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Homesteading/Homemaking & Privilege

In this video, iremythpurr goes on a bit of a tangent about radical homemakers. Snooty delivery and vast assumptive strokes aside, she does raise some good points.

Many folks do not have the means to be stay-at-home parents nor self-sufficient homesteaders. That is where I agree with her. Her claims that the lot of us are all middle {or higher} class white women, individualistic, and pro-capitalism are just a tad much though.

Now I don't identify as a 'radical homemaker', but I think that similar characterizations have certainly been aimed at many homesteaders, and quite frankly it appears that she is taking a swipe at anyone who lives this way. To this I take offense.

Most of the folks that I know who are homesteaders have low incomes, are community oriented/involved, and are anti-capitalists; my better half and I included for all three things.

My partner does work full time for money, and I work for a different currency {barter and trade}, which gets us discounted rent, fresh organic produce, and sometimes the other odd necessity or luxury. We are involved in our communities and activism. And we would not shed a tear over the downfall of this unsustainable and unjust system that we currently have in place.

There must be others like us outside of the sphere of those we communicate with.

She goes on to knock women who make the choice to stay home {as a feminist 'house wife' I grit my teeth anytime one of my feminist peers do this}, state that this way of life is not 'radical' {right, because this is mainstream and doesn't go against the grain at all!}, and piss and moan about folks who are not activists {perhaps she forgot that many folks who are poor and/or homeless aren't even privileged with enough time or resources to actively participate in community organizing!}.

Anyhoo, apologies for the rantiness. Those of us who do get to homestead are indeed lucky...I just wish that folks would not assume that we were born with silver spoons in our mouths or horseshoes up our arses.

Sláinte!

Laurel