Esc

Today, I witnessed an escape so terrifying that the spirit of my great grandfather rose within me! It was creepy to feel that I was, in fact, being ruled by a sort of reality that he confronted three generations ago. I'm a big fan of The Great Houdini, who spent his boyhood in Appleton, Wisconsin. It makes it even more delicious to have battled the spirit of Great-grandfather Saladino back to his grave, right there in Appleton, because Harry loved to debunk psychics and mediums. Magicians are familiar with far more forms of trickery than they practice and he used his skills in an attempt to prove that what is dead is dead and no spirits would, or could walk the Earth, or communicate from beyond the veil.In the world of the internet, we know that people can now live forever, or at least their words may. The way I was gripped by Great-grandpa's spirit was as real as it gets, in some ways, more real than these words on the screen. I felt that I had not evolved one iota from his day, when the moving picture shows were brand new. Great-grandpa was older then, but what he saw up on the screen seemed completely real to him, and what I saw that sparked this was both awe inspiring and terrible at once, but in my case 100% real!

There is a family story about how his contemporaries had to stop taking him to see early silent films, because inevitably there would be a villain and Leonardo would jump up and shout, "Watch out! Behind the Door!" or whatever pitfall awaited, as if he were trying to get the person on screen to save themselves, rather than fall into the clutches of the evil character.

To help put the whole event into perspective, I saw a young woman duct taped to a chair. Half a dozen wraps of the stuff at each wrist and ankle. Half a dozen around her chest. This seemed to take several minutes during which time she was completely calm and relaxed. This was near the end of a four part magic act, and so, seemed completely normal. But what happened next was totally unexpected. A plastic bag was placed over her head and duct taped around her neck. Leonardo's spirit rose in me, gripped me. My heart raced, my blood pressure rose, I got a gripping sensation in my chest and throat. It seemed like the walls and the air in the entire room had rushed out, not only of her, but of me! The last thing I expected to happen, I wanted to run up and save her, or scream "Don't do it!", just like Great-grandpa would have done.

So here I was, rendered motionless by the intense, gripping fear and frustration at not being able to help. I could not move from where I sat. simultaneously, I was trying to have a conversation with the spirit of a long-dead relative about why it would be inappropriate to run to her aid! Great-grandfather would hear nothing of it! I don't know how long it was between the time that the tape went around Jordan's neck and when she finally broke free, but the entire time, in my head, a storm raged between Great-grandpa and I. Me, trying to rationalize why I needed to remain aloof, my need to remain "just" a spectator, trying to remember that this was a show, not "real". Eventually, I felt compelled to grapple with Great Grandpa in his realm, the spirit world, overpowering him, much like when you have to run in a dream but are aware enough of the fact that you are sleeping as to be paralyzed. However the sensations were reversed. I was fully awake, not dreaming and still, completely inert. I was almost convinced that my blood had curdled, or been chilled by contact with spirit. At the moment that I abandoned my hold on objective reality, and gave in to the call of the spirit realm, Great-grandfather loosened his grip on my consciousness and I was free.

I could move and as fast as I rushed to help, I felt I was flying away. It was as if all my neurons had fired at once and although I could have moved if I wanted to, no coordinated motion could be initiated.

Incidentally, that coincided with Jordan breaking free from her bonds, yet not before she was wracked with spasm and her powerful writhing knocked her chair completely over! Later, discussing the event with another actor, he half grinned and said, that was completely real, Jordan is just that powerful. She exhibited the power to escape and impressed thousands with the feat! I only impressed myself at my hyper-active inertia.

Thousands Dead Near The Top Of The World.

Our hearts still at the news out of Nepal. A humanitarian crisis and ongoing tragedy unfolds half a world away, yet we must "soldier on", go to work, buy something. Who can say how we can respond, how we might compassionately reach out to people. places and events, so far removed from our daily lives, in ways that are appropriate? In the short term, having respectful funerary rites for all of the dead, but what else can we do to commemorate the loss? How might we begin to heal the wounds that may take years to fully hit those who have lost so much in the earthquake? There are some who know what needs to be done to stop the calamity from claiming lives, the "cleaners" of the world, health agents and sanitary engineers, but these are not grief counselors or shamen, financial advisers or community builders. The urge that we have to spare other humans such agony as the Nepalese people will carry is undeniable. How we reach out and offer to assist will speak volumes about who we have become as a human tribe.

When a hundred mile (161Km)long stretch, just West of Mount Everest begins heaving, you know that things are getting serious!

The greatest risk in the short term is exposure as people are unwilling to shelter in homes that are damaged by the quakes. The aftershocks continue to pose threat to security indoors and living rough out in the open is hazardous enough by itself. Lacking healthy food and safe water, the unseen threats are almost as daunting as the visible ones. How quickly can we assist those who are in true and desperate need? Can we quickly send thousands of sleeping bags, tarps and ropes to be airlifted in? I know that there are compassionate helicopter pilots that would fly those missions for free. Can we airlift tons of water in to the regions most devastated? Our human family can help, we just need to make a plan and exhibit the will to do what we can.

When? Let's start now, before another person dies.

This $#!T Got Serious!

Hold on tight, this first paragraph is going to get convoluted. When many were not paying attention, the textbook manufacturers went digital and specialize in both curriculum and testing. this one entity earns hundreds of billions annually, under control of one company(one man really). They are joining forces with the largest online "schools", and see double digit growth for at least the next decade. Endless merger and acquisition syndrome tops both political and economic agendas. Get big or get out is no longer good business advice, it is touted (or rammed down our throats, depending on who you ask about it.) as the supreme law of capitalism. Routine recalls are a symptom of corporate greed playing fast and loose with the facts, basic physics and laws of nature. "Failing" schools often fail because students know that they have no future, We are told that healthcare costs have gone up 21% in three years, but (we are simultaneously denied) the reality, that in the decade prior to that, they spiraled up over three hundred percent! The exact same people who want you to be outraged at healthcare prices are the ones who don't want you to know that insuring more people and covering preventative medicine is actually lowering the rates at which health care costs are and have been escalating. It seems that our media and the public eye is so myopic that things going on right under our noses are out of focus because we obsess about thousands of virtually meaningless incidents, the minutia of Benghazi, or failed crackpot schemes like exploding shoes or underwear. This leaves no time for understanding the arc of "progress" toward our current, undesirable state. The long slow progression of "validating" slant wells drilled from Kuwait under Iraq, by unleashing Gulf War I, so no questions could be asked about fracking, or slant wells here, has never been reported as far as I know. Virtually nothing was said when the DOE reported the "failure" of all of the radiation detectors sent to the West Coast after Fukushima began emitting radioactive material. Never was it said, "They couldn't all be broken.", nor was the question even asked, "Who is responsible for making sure they work?". Even the nature of the malfunction was glossed over, they couldn't all be "overly sensitive", could they? We have become Kow-towed by whack-a-do media magnates who just want us to feel the right cocktail of fervent disgust, righteous indignation and powerlessness.

I'm not sure if it is lucky or not, but we now have the power to share images of exploding oil trains and pipeline ruptures, washed up sea lions and nuclear atrocities more easily and cheaply than ever before, like the printing press revolutionized communications five hundred-fifty or so years ago, we are able to share more than ever, more quickly than ever. How we adapt and mutate may not be totally under our control, but if we do not evolve and adapt quickly, our species and many others are doomed. Luckily, I'm still here to tell you that every issue that I just brought up is simple to "fix", well, perhaps not the nuclear one...I said on day one that they needed to start pouring the concrete, but hey, I'm not the one with my finger on the button, or the trigger for those sorts of decisions. My point in bringing these things up is that we have solutions to each and every one of these problems. We can take a more pro-active role in the raising of our own children, the way humans have done for millennea. turn off the idiot boxes in your life and learn to extract salient information that will help educate you...The best teachers never stop learning. When you continue to see the same old shit day after day, try meeting the challenges of life differently. Stand as a testament to the fact that we are entitled to honor and respect. Learning what we can about staying healthy requires sifting through a lot of scientific malarchy and to learn that food is medicine and our medicines need to be foods.

A Few Words About Soil

Welcome Home! https://www.facebook.com/events/629355177195511/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming This is the route to finding more about bio-char. For some reason it is not looking like links usually do. Another way to find the event is to check out Greens and Grains, and their events calendar.

Char is an ancient technology. By liberating about half the energy from wood, driving off the combustible gasses, it becomes super light and on a microscopic scale full of fissures, much like a sponge or scaffolding. Carbon, transformed by plants into cells creates a matrix of tubules that are the perfect size to be utilized by microbes. The very bacteria, fungi and protists that are necessary for healthy soil. There have been reams and reams of paper and vast quantities of ink spilled to get across the concept of food webs and pyramids. We all understand the hydrologic cycle to so,me extent because we are taught things about our surroundings that seem to be no-brainers.

Just today I was reminded about how much we focus on a specific scale. Birds, butterflies, what mt biology teacher used to call creepy crawlies, fish and fowl, bison and deer. The vast majority of our attention has been on the same scale as our own limited perception dictates. "Life size" to us is the scale that we are familiar with and the one we dwell in virtually all of the time, but if we look a little closer, we see a much more important realm. Microbes can inhabit healthy soil at astonishing rates. In a single teaspoon (5cc) of soil, there can be 1,000 to one million algae, 100K to one million fungi and 100 million to one billion bacteria. Sounds incredible, because it is!

The reason that adding char to help recover depleted soils is because most of these organisms colonize surfaces or seek protection from marauding large organisms in microscopic crevices to survive. Char has both in amazing amounts. There are fourteen acres(5.66 ha)of surface area in each handful. come to our char seminar this Sunday in beautiful Door County. If you cannot make it, send donations so we can post a video class on youtube. Appreciatively, all those working to protect and serve soil microbes.

Beauty Dwells Within

As well as surrounding us. We are but a reflection of the divine. Perhaps our apparatus for reflecting creator's love for us has tarnished, perhaps it has a fog or a few pits and cracks. Perhaps all of the above! It is amazing to me that we do as well as we do acknowledging the divine. Some call the force Creator, Great Mother Father God (in Aramaic), Om(in Sanskrit), I'm Partial to Lord and Lady. Whatever this enigmatic "force" is, we can say that it is perhaps just a tendency toward cohesion. Certain atoms and molecules interact with one another based on affiliation (valence), attraction and subtle fluctuations in temperature, pressure and/or electrical conditions. The reflection of this primeval attractive relationship, when we allow ourselves to slip into aesthetic perception, not only comprehends the external beauty, but reflects the inward balance that resonates with the sights, the sounds, the moment of experience.

Once reached, this plane of existence can be recalled in a moment and seemingly forever in a very strong a sense. The feeling of oneness with all that is has the power to transform every moment, however our ego tends to disallow that sort of transcendence. The best description that I can make of this level of beauty pales in comparison to the way you would describe the same thing, because you have your terms. Saying we are stardust, is not enough for some people. Turn on, Tune in, Drop out that might lose people in translation, The Universe is unfolding as it should is one way I heard it said. My hero, for many years, along my particular path said, I don't have to talk, you don't even have to listen, we just need to BE together and it will all happen. It will all happen. This is the inherent beauty that we all contain, we all can retreat back to and to which we will ultimately have to make our peace with. We are, will be and forever continue to embody the unfolding lotus blossom.

Even after our death, our atoms will go out to the soil, feed organisms and begin the process of reorganization just as we have been created from atoms that were in our ancestors back through millennea. This next bit is courtesy of and should help build great street cred for Bumpy's Avatar. In The Ancestors Tale Richard Dawkins gives an estimate of how many generations have gone between each branch point concerning the human line (which turns into the 'ape line' then the 'mammal line' then... etc.) to us modern day humans (there are about forty such branch points on our line - surprising no?). So the fisrt branch point is between us and chimps, 250 thousand generations ago (which spans 6 million years). Reptiles and birds branched off at 310 million years ago, 170 million generations ago. Of course, the average generation time for a human is something like 20 years, whilst mouse might be only about 2 years - so that has to be factored in (and since we are dealing with long extinct animals, some guesswork is required).

Anyway, the last branch point, which Dawkins ventures a guess at the amount of generations past, is at the branch point between humans and protostomes (worms, molluscs, insects and crustaceans etc.) This is a little after 'phylems to be' such as plants, animals and fungi have appeared. Dawkins estimates about 310 million genertions have passed in that 600 million year(!) gap.

So Dawkins deosn't even try to guess at how many generations have gone between us and our single celled ancestors. Were are probably talking anywhere between 1 and 4 billion years of single celled life. Some single celled animals today have a geration time of a few hours. How many generations can you pack into a few billion years, given a generation time as short as that?

Hell if I know, but the margin of error would be collosal.

Addition: Assuming two and half billion years of single celled life, with an average generation time of 6 hours. There would have been 3'650'000'000'000 (3.65 trillion) generations before you even start with multicellular life.

And back to my own words...It has all been a beautiful thing.

Bad Math

I will try to address as briefly as possible interest and the effects of time on loaned money. I'm sure that all of us tense up a bit when confronted with something as uninteresting as "interest". The idea of paying back more than you were loaned is considered usury in the Islamic tradition. A reasonable fee up front is all that is necessary to assume a loan, but after that, the money paid back is only what was originally loaned. It is my firm belief that any friction between Islamic culture could be water under the bridge if we admitted that their system for loaning money is better than ours and dispense with a class of moneylenders exacting carnage on our economic health and walking away with the lion's share of the wealth.

Case in point, I have never been late on a payment in over twelve years. I tried to renegotiate my loans as soon as the bail out occurred, because I could see that the writing was on the wall and we would have an anemic recovery at best giving more money to billionaires. The bank was steadfast in their denials, for over six years, then, after we had tried repeatedly to get them to "help" us, they called maybe six months later, "We think we can help you reduce your payments." they said. What changed? I'm not sure, but they lowered our payments about a year ago, but it kicked me back to the first payment of a thirty year note which means that both months one and two, your interest is greater than your previous payment. That is where the real money lies. We need to reveal the disgorging of our communities of whatever wealth remains.

I saw a cartoon that represented things pretty well. A well-heeled man, who looks like the Daddy Warbucks character from the Monopoly game, is trying to drive a horse, hitched to his lavish cart, heavy laden with heaps of wealth. In one hand, he holds the whip, which is not getting the desired results. Nor, is the carrot on a stick that he holds in his other hand. The horse has expired, it's scrawny flesh barely covers protruding bones and the poor animal has "X"s over his eyes. The bit remains in the mouth set which is set in a dehydrated scream. The caption is the words of the overlord. "I'm not sure why, it always worked before."

We have been set upon by vultures, but we were alive. Our communities were thriving. The guts were ripped out when we decided that shipping money off to people far away could ever produce wealth, except for them, our "owners". It is for "them" that we wage slave. Can you truly say now that interest does not interest you? I still have not missed a payment, but the "relief" the bank was willing to negotiate, will save me a couple hundred dollars each month, but over ten more years of payments, they will make an extra $94,000 in payments. That is close to what I make in four years, so they get me to be their slave for an extra four years for the "favor" of renegotiating my loan. There seems to be no justice, but this is what is going on for millions of victims of this predatory scheme.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This is the post that needs to be shared. The revolution that is not being televised includes cadres of people who live in what seem like precarious ways. Couch surfing, periodically homeless or travelin' without a sense of place, what many refer to as home. However, this is not to say that their lives are not rich, or valuable as those who always keep the same address, no. I was a traveler who biked around the Great Lakes. What I shared was most often worth far more than the resources that I took away. I knew a homeless guy who had a suitcase full of his best knives and his own cutting board as well as a few favorite pots and pans. He would be a personal chef for those who let him sleep on their floor.

There is a mentality that takes over in regions where life is clinging desperately to hold on. Places that have been cut over and had their resources extracted. You see it in a lot of signs "up north". Wood splittin', Dog groomin' n' small engine repair. Or, Lawn service, well drilling & Body work. The frequency of businesses advertizing three disparate services dominate. Most often they ebb and flow with the seasons. sometimes you have to be a hunter, sometimes you have to be a butcher as well. No one will be making wood for the winter if not you, so as the day length changes, so to your tasks. The revolution that is not being televised is being realized by those who grow more of their own food, hunt it, or fish. Sometimes you may be working the sugar shack, making maple goodies or syrup. some weeks you will be making apple butter or dehydrating food for the winter.

As we learn to work the seasons, living in harmony with our surroundings, the need for speed, distraction and stress inevitably fall away. The old saying holds true today. Tune in, turn on. drop out. Having an exit strategy from Babylon is never a bad idea. The dropping out part is often the hardest. Those of us who bought the social contract and were led to believe that things would only get better and lost are left holding the bag for the wealthy bankers that continue to reap the benefits of my misfortune. If there had been an opt out window for underwater mortgage holders, we would have jumped at the chance to go. Here we are eight years after the three homes we owned lost 1/3 of their value and we still can't sell for what we owe. The most rewarding moments that I spend are scaring up a blue jay or rabbit, having robins or black birds become accustomed to you or to find the first clutch of baby bunnies.

I am raising capital to produce a biochar video, teaching methods for making this miraculous soil amendment. The beds that I have used it on have doubled production over beds that have not been enriched with it. Anyone who has resources to help with this project is invited to contact me or donate through paypal. tnsaldino42@hotmail.com There will never be a televised commercial about biochar, but Through the wonders of youtube etc. information can be transferred quickly and easily with millions. In even fairly remote areas, this material allows farmers to double their output from agricultural land. Anyone who grows their own crops knows the value of getting twice as much production from the same amount of effort. Or, you could double your leisure.

Sharing this bio-char technology widely is the only way to hasten the end of big oil and the stranglehold that energy giants have Mother Earth in. Their approach to agriculture has killed off and sterilized soils. Char allows soil ecosystems to include multiple trophic levels of living organisms and enhances the benefits of organic and sustainable approaches to agriculture and/or the effectiveness of permacultural methods. The end of our demand for petrochemically based agricultural inputs will drive down demand for petroleum far faster than we will run out. The slogan, "Leave it in the ground!", echoes across every continent. Friends need to tell friends the good news that there are others who know the score, who have made strides toward living lightly on the planet and those who are about to take further strides than ever to achieve zero garbage, or zero net energy, or zero waste in some other aspect of their lives. We are a family, a tribe, a motive force driving our culture to be better stewards.

Please let others know about this site and these posts. Also, ecotoursofwisconsin.blogspot.com might be of interest.

Ostara Blessings

I am "here", hopefully to convey continuity, perhaps act as a bridge toward greater understanding. It is well to realize that no matter how we slice and dice things, we cannot get away from the fact that the divine is feminine, not masculine as we are often told. From the womb of creation, new life grows. Within the rigid confines of all the religions, (the shell) lies an ooky goopy gluck that wiggles and can transform itself into a whole being. The egg, has been the symbol of this celebration since before we reckoned time by numbers.

We each come to the now in different ways. We each defend our conception of reality in unique ways. What we "see", "know" and proclaim, come from unique perspective and shared associations rather than from point of fact or objectivity. This is the time we honor the growth, upon whose path we have all been set, the inevitable change that takes place not only around, but in us moment to moment. When we honor our bodies, it is strange to hear the statistic that In The U.S. of A., we spend 2.2 billion dollars annually on "Easter" candy. I have not spent two dollars on candy in the last two years. Around about this time of year, I do eat a few tablespoons of honey, or take a nip or two of maple syrup, but my body is better off for it.

Today, I got an interesting poem, excellent for an Ostara morning:

On Resurrection Day your body testifies against you.
Your hand says, I stole money.
Your lips, I said meanness.
Your feet, I went where I shouldn't.
Your genitals, me too.

They will make your praying sound hypocritical.
Let the body's doings speak openly now,
without your saying a word

as a student's walking behind a teacher
says, This one knows more clearly
than I the way. -- Rumi

The bridge we must each cross along our path is from who we think we are to who we need to be. This Ostara, I hope to convey the message that we are each reborn, in every moment, our health, our welfare and our happiness may all depend on being friends of our bodies, honoring their bacteriologic biodiversity. Our ultimate "wealth" comes from being benefactors of our (internal and external)environment, always practicing the art of the give back. We need to be lovers of experience. All else is anti-life, anti-growth and ultimately deceitful. The only way we can lie to ourselves is because we think we are gullible, liars or plain unworthy of truth. Even the words that we use to communicate must be laden with love, for ourselves as well as others, designed to heal and not rend, and tailored to reflect awareness and compassion rather than accusatory judgement if we are to evolve beyond our current life out of balance.

I have devoted my life to healing the rift between human-kind and nature, each year at this time, I sense a power beyond description growing amongst the people. The new culture that bursts forth from the bud of creation that has been forming over my lifetime will truly transform our reality. In so many ways, the jig is finally up. We can plainly see the score, the writing on the wall, the forest for the trees, however you want to say it, we cannot be kow-towed any longer. My heart and soul will never be denied the reciprocal love that I feel for Mother Earth. I do not encourage anyone to take those steps toward healing if it does not "feel right" to them, but I do implore them to at least consider what might lie on the other side of that bridge. I beg each and every person to find their way to the awareness that Mother Earth holds, cradles us, and nourishes us even in death, we are her life.