Category: General
-
-
Margaret i dnt think they’re open on sundays
-
Do you have any ideas for how Roughwood Seed Collection can reach our fundraising goal? William Woys Weaver’s private collection of nearly 4,000 rare, endangered, and beautiful varieties of heirloom seeds has been around for over 80 years. It is now at risk of being lost unless we get startup money to create and grow our small seed business so that it can support itself and so we can get these important seeds into many hands! Are there any specific people, organizations, foundations, or platforms who you think would be excited to promote and save this historic and important collection? Please please let us know! We need lots of seed sales, lots of small donations, and/or some major ones for us to continue this work. Thanks!
Indiegogo link here! Buy our seeds here!
More info about the collection, from William Woys Weaver himself:
“The Roughwood Seed Collection, which now comprises about 4,000 varieties of heirloom food plants, was begun informally in 1932 by my grandfather H. Ralph Weaver (1896-1956). During the Great Depression, when food was scarce for many households, he set out to feed his family from a one-acre plot in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Since he had been working on the Weaver family genealogy, my grandfather used his Lancaster County family connections to acquire heirloom seeds that had been grown in the Dutch Country for many generations. His passion for rare old-time varieties snowballed so that by the 1940s he managed to create one of the finest kitchen gardens in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Among the many frequent visitors to his garden was West Chester folk artist Horace Pippin from whom he acquired many rare peppers (such as the Fish Pepper, Pippin’s Golden Honey, and Buena Mulata).
My grandfather’s untimely death brought an abrupt end to his chapter of the Roughwood Seed Collection story. Some 10 years later, while a student at the University of Virginia, I discovered his seed collection at the bottom of my grandmother’s deep freezer. My grandfather knew that by freezing seeds they could be kept for a long time, so by this stroke of luck, many of his most valuable seeds were still viable when I began to tinker with them. By the mid-1970s I brought most of his original garden back under cultivation.
In 1979, I moved the seed collection to Devon, Pennsylvania. Since the collection had no official name, I dubbed it the Roughwood Seed Collection after the Victorian name of the old house in which I now live. Since moving the collection to Devon, it has grown dramatically over the years; many are unique and not found in other seed collections.Highly talented seedsman and garden specialist (and musician), Owen Taylorcame to work for me and in 2014 became the Roughwood Seed Collection Manager. He has given the collection its long-needed re-cataloging and computerization, thus we are now able to organize successful workshops on heirlooms, seed saving, and even cooking with heirlooms. With the collaboration of several select organic growers, we are now planting large-scale GMO-free seed crops at Kutztown University, Fields Edge Farm in Lancaster County (Twitter: Alex Wenger @thefieldsedge), and Hill Creek Farm in Chester County (HillCreekFarmPA.com). Our rare Limited Edition seeds are available for sale via the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company in Mansfield, Missouri andHudson Valley Seed Library in Accord, NY.”
-
When you broke but you woke
Wait… Guys what?
Is this what you guys think it means when GMO comes up in conversation?
Do you know what else is a GMO?
Dogs. Literally ALL dogs have had their genetics modified to make them more docile, loyal, trusting, energetic, obedient ect.
Ears of corn used to be the size of your thumb. Through selective ‘breeding’ we chose the strains of corn that were the biggest, fastest growing, most resilient ect. Ect.
THAT is a GMO. I don’t know where the idea that genetic modification meant they’re injecting your food stuffs with chemicals to change its DNA. That’s not how it works.
However, they ARE spraying your veggies with pesticides and that is something you should be worried about.
Companies like Monsanto are evil. But not because they are breeding crops to feed more people. But because they’re monopolizing the farming market, sueing farmers who share a geographic area and have some of the same strains of crops in their fields because of unavoidable cross pollination and lying about their business practices.
This is Normal Borlaug. In 1942 he received his Ph. D in plant pathology and genetics. In Mexico, he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease resistant varieties of wheat. A genetically modified food. He introduced these to Mexico, Pakistan and India, resulting in double the wheat yields in a 5 year span. In 1970, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for saving one billion lives from starvation, and contributing to world peace through increasing the world food supply.
Genetically modified food is great.
This, a thousand fucking times this. Privilege is spouting and spreading pseudo-science bullshit you saw on your Facebook feed or on Twitter because unlike people in drought and famine prone areas of the world, you have the option to do just that. Those other parts of the world that don’t have the benefit of a food surplus and can’t pick and choose what they eat depend on GMOs to not die of starvation or watch their children waste away.
I despise Monsanto as much as the next person and if they ever go out of business, I’ll be the first to dance a jig, but condemning GMOs just because one megacorp is a pile of shitbags is beyond idiotic. If scientists can create new strains of seeds that can withstand disease, pests, all while yielding more foodstuff, then we should be throwing our support behind them.
Also, “They are feeding us chemicals!” is a fundamentally ridiculous statement.
Why?
As a chemist, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret:
Everything is chemicals.
-
Trans Women on Bandcamp
I spent the last couple hours compiling this list. It is by no means the entirety of trans women/trans feminine folks on Bandcamp, it’s just the ones I could find.
Reblog it, add to it, buy their music.Lich
Witch House/IDMJane Doe and the Misery Loves Co
Folk PunkAshby and the Oceanns
Folk/Punk/IndieBella Trout
Folk/Punk/IndieLittle Waist
Punk/Pop PunkHazagussa
Black Metal/Noise MetalLyskoi – Alyssa Kai
Folk/Folk Punk
-Do not know for sure how Alyssa identifies, but there’s a good chance that Alyssa fits here.Calliope Wong
Instrumental/Classical/Electronic/NoiseVenus Selenite
Spoken WordStars on a Bedroom’s Wall
Tremendously VariedTrrtle Nation
Experimental Electro NoiseEllie Rose
Instrumental SynthpopSkeletor Rising
Electronic Harsh NoiseHot Noisy Mess
Electronic Harsh Noise/ExperimentalMya Byrne
Folk/AmericanaPain Wife
Electronic Harsh Noise/Death IndustrialBog Witch
Doom Noise/Noise MetalVirtual Intelligence
Cyber-Goth/Industrial/Neon MetalThrough Waves
World Fusion/DarkwaveEllah a Thaun
Lyrical DissonanceToxic Delirium
Gutter Punk/Noise GrungeHIRS
Speedcore/Thrash/GrindNoize Pervertz
Harsh Noisepinkclaws
Ambient ElectropopRuby Price
Pop Punk/MumblepunkShe/Her/Hers
http://sheherhers.bandcamp.com
Folk Punkplease reblog! So many artists here to support!
Correspondences
doom/celloDestroyed For Comfort
experimental/chiptune/noiseG.L.O.S.S
hardcoreGorgon
hardcorehopeinthestatic
folk punkStorlek
electronic/idm/instrumentalTall Girl
metal/punkVelvet Fist
queercoreWhite Mascara
experimental/no wave/noise -
In a speech that lasted almost 30 minutes, Judge Vonda Evans of Detroit laid into 47-year-old William Melendez, the former police officer caught on video beating an unarmed black man in January 2015. Looking at his history, Melendez deserved every word of it.
-
It’s moments like this
When I’m preparing for a new job
When everything is all lined up and I’m all ready
When my bag is packed and my uniform is clean and ready
I realise just how strong my imposter syndrome shite really is
And spend the whole night panicking
-
Shiny shiny, shiny piece(s) of metal
Today was one of those days that felt, initially, like it was gently spiralling into being incredibly frustrating. You know those days when each and every time you go to do something it takes 20 times as long as you think it will, and every step involves 7 frustrating things you weren’t expecting.
Eventually, though, I managed to get the power supply out of our media PC (it is, as I thought, not a 220/110v supply, but 240v only), and I managed to work out where I’d hidden my payment cards (in the wrong bit of my bag and under my raincoat), and where my account information was for my bank account. And I got the battery out of Rebecca Mog, and loaded it in the back of the Dodge Van to try and find a replacement.
Then I headed off
into the wildsto try and get Rebecca’s licence plates issued. Despite the previous statement I’d been given that I must (must) must have the original customs document with a red stamp on it, it turned out that the one that the broker sent me a couple of days ago (which states on it “ELECTRONICALLY ISSUED DOCUMENT”) was fine. Although it took some debate, and I had to surrender my UK Registration document… which made me feel a bit sad.My poor old V5 is disappearing into US bureaucracy.
But in return:
The mounting situation ‘leaves a little to be desired’. But I wanted to get the plates on in time for work. At the front things are perhaps worse, with the plate sitting really, really low. It’d be much easier if I could just trim a bit off ;)
Still, she’s got plates, and is titled, insured, licensed. All that shiny stuff. So super-yay to that.
But most of my time today was spent treking back and forth across Olympia because whatever thing I chose to do, I’d find that I couldn’t do that where I was and they’d direct me to somewhere else that was the opposite side of the city.
So, the auto licencing place I went to is just past the auto factor, so I thought… I’ll get the battery for Rebecca once I’ve got the plates. Got the plates, and then thought – well, I might as well go to Electronics Resourcing Inc* and check them out and grab the PC’s power supply because there’s auto factors over near there, so ‘no bother’ I thought. Only no, ERI were out of ATX supplies**, although I did grab an HDMI cable and a PC power cable while I was there. He directed me to 4th Dimension computers who…
…are back about half a mile from the auto licencing place I’d been to. Ironically, just across from the auto factor I’d skipped going to. So back I went. And lo, 4th Dimension had a power supply. Hurrah (the people did celebrate). So I took myself across the street from 4th Dimension, to O’Rielly. Who…did not have a battery suitable for the Minor. Or they did, but they were really keen to find something closer to the Minor’s standard battery than the 500 cold cranking amp things they had. Which I wasn’t that hassled by, except that it turned out that ‘Batteries Plus Bulbs’ (they must have worked for ages on choosing a name) actually had a battery at about 1/2 the price of the 500 amp ones O’Rielly had in stock that’s “correct” for the Austin America. Which is what I’d chosen because it has the posts the right way around and an A+ engine.
The one tiny, tiny problem? Batteries Plus Bulbs is….all the way back on the other side of town. So I treked back onto i5 for the third time today, ran across there and grabbed a battery.
Then I drove home – pleased with my success but wishing I’d planned things a touch better, perhaps by ringing ahead of time.
Still. Power supply obtained, new battery in Rebecca and licence plates on her too, I think we’re working towards success.
Incidentally:
and
EEPROMS! They have EEPROMS! As a stock item!
I mean, seriously, how cool is that.
* Which turns out to be awesome, and I totally retract my “there’s no where to get electronics in Olympia” utterances, because there is, and it’s fucking amazing**. It’s like Henry’s electronics in Newport when my dad took me there, or like the overstock electronics place that he took me to in some basement in London in my teens. That place was fierce-filled with random stuff. But also all the parts you could need.
** Just one large bluebottle in the ointment. They’re closing. Now. To move to a new (undisclosed) location at an (undisclosed) time***.
*** I put my name on their mailing list. -
Last night, a coyote smashed its way through the wooden wall of the hen house and ate the Disgruntled Viking Chicken. We’ll miss her.
We never intended to end up with a Disgruntled Viking Chicken. We’d gone to the feed store to buy Rhode Island Red chicks, but there was also one little ball of yellow fluff who’d gotten her head stuck in the food dish, peeping angrily. I thought that was cute, and so we ended up with one yellow Buff Orpington along with our flock of sleek red-orange rhodies. The rhodies would sit on the Blue Haired Girlfriend’s lap, watching TV and being petted, while the Disgruntled Viking Hen investigated the edibility of such culinary delights as “electrical cords” and “socks.”
We probably shouldn’t have been surprised when head-stuck-in-food-dish chick grew into a hungry yellow fluffsphere with feet. She stalked frogs in the duckpond, dismembered them with disturbing zeal, and ate them messily. She had an uncanny ability to locate styrofoam, aluminum foil, and plastic buried in the mud, which she would then attempt to eat and angrily peck any humans who took them away. She once leaped up and pecked Soup-Nose the goat right in the udder when she felt that Soup-Nose was getting too close to her barley.
She gave no fucks about flock politics, unless someone was taking her food, in which case I hope The Powers That Be had mercy on them, cause she sure wouldn’t. But whenever we got new birds, they always ended up sleeping cuddled up to the Disgruntled Viking Hen, who just didn’t care if they were strangers or scared or lost or at the bottom of the pecking order. The peacocks slept one on each side of her, leaning on her, for months after we got them. If she realized they were not actually chickens, she did not care.
I hope Chicken Afterlife is full of wonderful things to eat, like styrofoam and uranium and nebulas and square roots and entropy and fulgarites, and nobody to take them away from her. And I’m glad all the new arrivals to Chicken Afterlife – scared and lost – will find a warm soft grouchy yellow fluffsphere who gives no fucks to sleep next to.
-
Somehow this giant punch bowl is the most effective baby goat containment field we have found to date.