Global Warming Causes The Illinois Drought – This will probably last until May 2014

Why do I say that. Because the Sun is finally into its warming phase. The Sun always has 4 cycles: cooling, quietude, warming and maximus. These cycles inhabit an 11 year cycle most probably related to the creation of some of the heavier elements in its core. What does change in no known sequence is which is bigger the cooling cycle or the warming cycle and I suppose some brief time periods of equilibrium. For the last 30 years (almost 3 full cycles) the cooling side of the cycle has been bigger than the heating cycle and the last quietude was almost 2 full years which I believe is the biggest in recorded history. Here is the point. The planet should be cooling but it isn’t. During the cooling we still had some pretty hot years. Why. There is no other thing to blame, but humans. Now that the Sun is heating up and for the next 3 years or so, Watch Out!

http://www.examiner.com/article/drought-affects-nation-s-energy-prices

If you think the drought of summer 2012 is only increasing the prices of the nation’s corn and grain supplies, you’re missing a large part of the picture. Drought reaches into every corner of American pockets, affecting even the cost of driving a car and what we pay for air conditioning.

Current drought conditions

The United States is experiencing the most severe drought, with the highest percentage of land affected by it, in over 60 years, according to the National Climatic Data Center‘s July 17 report. (See August 5 Palmer drought severity map at left. Yellow = moderately dry, orange = severely dry, red = excessively dry.)

Parched conditions have now led to disaster declarations in more than half the counties in the nation–1,584, in 32 states–this growing season. The declarations make these areas eligible for government aid, including low-interest emergency loans to hold the line until farms and ranches recover.

And the ripple effects of this brutal weather will extend farther than the farms in the Midwest, where corn and soybean crops are failing. It will affect meat production nationwide as well because pasture and grazing land has been blighted, forcing farmers and ranchers to seek other–and more expensive–feed for cows and other animals.

In some areas, cattle have to be fed with next year’s grain reserves because local pasture lands have dried up. Almost four million acres of federal conservation land has been opened for haying and grazing. Crop insurers have also begun to provide penalty-free 30-day grace periods on 2012 premiums.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Climate Change Forces Us To Move Animals – Noah’s ark comes to life

Already a group of scientists and volunteers moved a butterfly north because of the warming climate. Our zoos are being referred to as “lifeboats” for extinct “in the wild” animals. This is no longer funny. People should be going to jail for this but it turns out that jails are only for poor people and white collar criminals not the uber wealthy who control the literal power structure that is causing this.

http://www.livescience.com/17719-species-extinctions-climate-change.html

Extinctions from Climate Change Underestimated

Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 04 January 2012 Time: 09:31 AM ET

As climate change progresses, the planet may lose more plant and animal species than predicted, a new modeling study suggests.

This is because current predictions overlook two important factors: the differences in how quickly species relocate and competition among species, according to the researchers, led by Mark Urban, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut.

Already evidence suggests that species have begun to migrate out of ranges made inhospitable by climate change and into newly hospitable territory.

“We have really sophisticated meteorological models for predicting climate change,” Urban said in a statement. “But in real life, animals move around, they compete, they parasitize each other and they eat each other. The majority of our predictions don’t include these important interactions.”

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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No Post Today – I have to give a speech at UIS

I am addressing SAGE today and want to keep focused on that.  I promise I will make up for it tomorrow. But I will leave you with a song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yERTIErjTE4&feature=g-vrec&context=G2532f8dRVAAAAAAAACA

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Much more tomorrow.

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Being Frugal Can Be Funny – Or so it seems from this blog

This Blog on frugality is pretty funny and maybe not for the Joe Sixpack crowd. Things like Retiring In Panama may miss them. But the post about living on food stamps was pretty informative and funny.

http://www.debtfreebythirty.net/2012/02/festival-of-frugality-superheroes-are.html

Festival of Frugality: Superheroes Are Frugal Too Edition

Hello and welcome to the 325th edition of the Festival of Frugality. The Festival of Frugality highlights personal finance posts that deal with how to pinch those pennies or save that dollar.

I am a sucker for a theme for my festivals or carnivals and while I was tempted to do a leap year facts edition it just wasn’t exciting enough for my blood. So superheroes it is. Because what’s more exciting than superheroes? It also occurred to me that superheroes are quite frugal and who hasn’t sometimes thought that superpowers are needed to stay on the path of frugality.

Editor’s Super Picks

Smart Family Finance has pretty convincing financial reasons to get rid of your junk. There are so may reasons to get rid of your “junk”. It’s nice to have one that will put cash in your wallet too.

Annabelle from Shopping Detox gives her city a frugal audit. This really has me thinking about my own town.

A. Blinkin from Funancials entertains us as usual with how do you judge value?

 

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Go there and read about Wolverine and Batman at least. More next week.

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Frugality Amounts To Paring Your Life Back – To improve the quality

I say frugality is not giving up, it is getting back to what you want. Here the poster asks what is most important too you not what do you want now.

http://almostfrugal.com/

What Do You Want Most?

by Kelly

I found this quote on a fitness website (MyFitnessPal): “The reason most people fail instead of succeed is that they trade what they want the MOST for what they want at the MOMENT.”*

I’ve often fallen into that trap. I’m hungry, so even though I want to stay on my diet, I go through the drive through. I’m feeling down, so I go shopping for a new shirt, even though I want to stay on a budget. I’m tired, so instead of doing my consulting work, I read a book on my Kindle (or maybe even buy a new book instead of reading one of the many I already have).

In fact, figuring out what I want most, I think is one of the hardest things about goal setting. I know, intellectually, that I want to do/act/be a certain way, but I often feel like I have a hard time owning that feeling in a way that will help me commit to following through on the commitment over a long period of time.

My life is in transition here, both at Almost Frugal-land and abroad. I’ve been going through some growing and moving and changing for the past few months, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride. Things are good- no need to worry- but finding this quote today has helped me to sum things up.

I’m working on discovering what I want to happen most, not just what I want to happen in the moment.

What do you want to happen most?

*I don’t know to whom I should credit the quote- if you know, please leave the information in the comments.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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The Frugality of Tin Foil – And so much more

To create tin foil takes tons of energy, so reusing it as many times as you can is the only thing that makes sense.

http://www.frugalvillage.com/2011/07/23/reuse-aluminum-foil/

Reuse aluminum foil

Frugal people sometimes get teased for reusing items. For example, you might save aluminum foil to reuse later. While some may find that idea silly, frugal people know there are plenty of ways to put foil to good use.
How have you reused aluminum foil? Here are a few suggestions.

DRYER BALLS:

Wad foil into balls that are approximately 3 inches in diameter and use them to reduce static in your dryer. You can wrap a tennis ball in foil, too.

POT SCRUBBER:

If you don’t like the dryer ball idea, you can wad the foil into a ball and use it to scrub pots and pans instead. One reader, Roxanne from West Virginia, shares: “That wadded-up foil will clean the barbecue grill, or at least take the bigger stuff off so you can clean the rack easier.” You can use the foil balls for cat toys or to scrub rust from chrome, too.

REMOVE WRINKLES:

A flat piece can be used on your ironing board under the fabric cover to reflect heat. This will make your ironing faster because both sides of your fabric will benefit from the heat.

PREVENT RUST ON STEEL WOOL PADS:

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Sustainablity Has To Start Somewhere – Why not with your hair

That is right. I know this is an energy conservation blog. It is an environmental blog and an energy industry blog as well. But for awhile this is going to be a frugality blog. Think about it. At one level frugality and sustainable living start by “doing for yourself”. What is more easier and immediate than cutting your own hair. This site is much more than that but it is the first article.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/02/26/reader-story-home-haircuts/

Reader Story: Home Haircuts Can Save Time and Money

Sunday, 26th February 2012 (by J.D. Roth)

This guest post from Shannon D is part of the “reader stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes.

My wonderful husband likes to keep his hair short and precise. He works outdoors but dislikes hats, so keeping his hair looking proper is important to him. We live in a rural area without a major chain hair cut shop. While we do have a small barber shop, their hours are very limited. This usually meant that for a monthly haircut we would drive 25 miles to the nearest mall to get his hair cut in the evenings or on weekends at a chain store.

While we usually tried to combine his trip for a haircut with other errands in town, we typically just made it into a dinner evening. So on top of the other costs, we often had an extra dinner out that we not have otherwise enjoyed.

We estimate our costs to have been the following:

  • $25 per trip in mileage
  • $18 haircut – including the tip
  • A solid two hours spent getting a haircut

With this happening once monthly, we were spending $516 per year — not including dinners — and 24 hours of time getting his hair cut.

Note: My own hair expenses are not cheap — not factoring in fuel since I get my hair cut while in town for work — and cost us about $300 per year.

We decided to try something different, not because of the money so much as the time and convenience lost making the commute just for a haircut. After my husband asking me several times, I finally got the confidence to try cutting his hair. I am no cosmetologist. My haircutting experience includes buzzing my brother’s hair — at his request — in high school and shaving my long-haired dog during the summer. And I should mention that my husband’s haircut is not a simple buzz. It made me nervous.

 

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Go there and read as much as you can take. More tomorrow.

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Saving Energy Can Save Peace Of Mind – I mean it saves money too

I know this and the following posts may seem off topic. What does simplicity or frugality have to do with home energy conservation. Well to use an extreme example, what if you simplified your life by using no generated electricity. So much in your life would change. No computer, no telephone, and no lights at night. While that would be thought of as extreme by some and it would only save my household a couple of thousand dollars a year, it is still an interesting concept. This blog here makes a good place to start.

http://www.word-works.com/simple/

Choose Simplicity
Thoughts on Voluntary Simplicity

Welcome to Clay and Judy
Woods’ homepage.


Many simplicity gurus urge us to become “tightwads” as the true path to a simple life. But voluntary simplicity and frugality are not really the same thing. To be sure, frugality is a vehicle for achieving simplicity, but the driving force is a vision, a philosophy, a world view.

If life were a poem, simplicity would be the poet, frugality the line and meter.

If life were a painting, simplicity would be the artist, frugality the paint and brushes.

If life were a building, simplicity would be the architect, frugality the hammer and boards.

Voluntary simplicity is about freedom. It’s about owning your own life. Frugality is living with less of what money can buy. Voluntary simplicity is wanting less.

Soon after beginning our partnership more than 35 years ago, we made a revolutionary discovery. It changed our lives then and it continues to make us “different” now. You’ve heard it before: “time is money.” What we discovered is that’s not true – time is better than money!

This revelation has allowed us to be content in our work or to change that work when it no longer satisfies. It has permitted us to spend less time acquiring things and more time acquiring experiences, insights, and relationships. It has encouraged us to lend a helping hand in our community, whenever the need arises, because we can make the time to do it. It has given us freedom and control of our lives.

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Go there and read in much larger print. More tomorrow.

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Living Off The Grid – Maybe the last post on the subject

Why is this my last post. Because I am running out of sources that’s why. At least Google is running out of sources. We shall see. I think this blog is inactive now, but I thought the video was kinda cool.

http://off-grid-living.com/living-off-the-grid-welcome-video-2/#more-685

 

Living Off The Grid – Welcome Video 2

One of the most important aspects of living off the grid is our large garden.
Watch the following video about the fall garden and learn to live off the grid.

This past fall season has been a wonderful time for our family with the seeming extension of the growing season. One of our great challenges with being off the grid is growing food for the entire year.

This year the season has grown much longer than normal, as you probably saw in the previous video. Our garden truly is a focal point of our life, and for good reason.
With just a simple amount of foresight you too can extend your season.
Watch the video first and you will see what we mean. Why not try a bit of garlic in your own garden, or overwintered onions if you live in a warm enough climate. Garlic is one of those vegetables that anyone, regardless of skill can grow.
You will notice also, that I use the word lazy, for lack of a better reference to describe our gardening approach. Some people work like mad to get all of the weeds out, but you will notice we leave as much as possible, clearing only enough space to do away with close competition weeds.
Living off the grid can be a lot of fun, or it can be a lot of work if you let those small chores get out of hand. We prefer to leave the work to natural processes, which do the job much better, although perhaps a little slower. It seems to work very well for us here. The extra composting material may seem unsightly to some, but it’s just another excuse to have everything clean as a kitchen floor?
We prefer to work with the natural cycles of the seasons, let the compost worms do their job and leave the rest to winter to accomplish.
If you take the time to clear everything with a rototiller it does seem to overwork the soil as well.
Take a few minutes off and just let it go, you do have better things to do than to presume to do the job of nature.
Thus comes the description of lazy as described in the video, some think that is the case, I prefer to let those soil critters do their job, while I watch.
Part of the fun of living off the grid we think.

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More tomorrow.

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Off The Grid Store – I am posting a hunk of his blog

This blog for this store has one chunk dated January 25th of 2012 and the first post listed as January 13. There is nothing more. So I do not know much about the store or the guy claiming to be Darin. It hasn’t been open long. According to a phto shoot caption they opened in early December 2011. I never endorse anything I have not actually tried and I have never ordered anything from this site. So buyer bewarier. As a man with a new business I am sure that he is too busy to blog and I disagree with his probable ideology as well. However new small businesses are very hard to keep alive so here he is, the Off The Grid Kid.

 

http://offthegriddotcom.wordpress.com/

Me – Off The Grid as a kid

The first post is always the hardest post to write on a blog.  It’s like introducing yourself to a bunch of people and you can’t look them in the eye. I’m an eye contact person as I believe one on one communication is something this world could use a lot more of.  If people talked, they might be able to understand each other better instead of making blanket judgements based on assumptions.

I’ll give it my best shot.  My name is Darin and I’m the Owner of OffTheGrid.com.  I’m a 40 year old guy with 3 little ones, grew up in the woods of Northern Arizona.  Caught my first fish before I could tie my shoes and tell my boy hunting stories instead of bedtime stories.  I’m  a Patriot and believe that the United States is the greatest nation on earth but I don’t think we’re perfect.  I know we have a great foundation for this country (the constitution) but I’m afraid of what country my children will inherit if we continue down the road we are currently on.  I hope our country gets back on track and focuses on the principles of what makes us great.

I’m a former radio talk show host from Phoenix, Arizona.  In my previous career, I spent most waking hours following the news, watching what was happening and then talking about it to a large audience.  As I researched topics I was going cover on my show, I noticed that many times the mainstream media left out crucial details and portrayed the story in a way that wasn’t entirely accurate by my standards.  Eventually I became aware that in order to get the real story, it was important to look at all angles and formulate my own opinion versus just taking what I was seeing/hearing/reading as fact.

My “awakening” has led me to this adventure.  I hope the preparations I am taking will never be used in an emergency situation.  I hope the food, tools and other equipment I have accumulated will only need to be used when I am enjoying the great outdoors on my own terms.  But, my first priority is my family and I feel it is my responsibility to make sure my wife and kids are in the best possible position should a disaster strike.  They are relying on me and I will not let them down.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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