My neighbor is a Great Depression survivor. I met her on the road the other day when we were collecting discarded  cans. “Buddy can you spare a dime,” she was singing, and so I joined her singing and collecting. Later I modulated up to Bud, Can You Spare a Dime, based on the amount of returnable Budweiser cans in the ditch. How my spirits soared! Surely our economic troubles must be exaggerated if so many people are throwing their money out the window!

squirrelly economics hits the backwoods too.

http://counterpunch.com/matson09202008.html

As I was saying a couple of weeks back... (never know who reads Vermont Commons).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/nyregion/15wood.html?_r=1&scp=36&sq=se...

Ask anybody in the land use field today, and they’ll tell you that topic number one is storm water runoff management. Rural ponds used to be part of that effort, and in fact the USDA pioneered pond building as a control for erosion and flooding.

As a pond designer I was once able to use USDA services to help map out watersheds so I could properly size pond spillway systems to handle maximum storm runoff. They also had soil maps, and field agents to help survey pond site contours and generally get a pond plan ready for the excavator.

It’s no news that folks are trying to dump their SUVs
because of the crappy mileage, but it’s a tough trade-in with gas see-sawing
either side of four bucks a gallon. So why not hang on to that four wheel drive
boxcar and cruise the backroads for firewood? With wood pushing $300 a cord and
higher, piling in free fuel might get your albatross to pay for itself. And if
you haven’t already got an SUV, dealers are practically giving them away. In the
golden days of yesteryear before SUVs, when the geese commenced to flying south

Knowing Vermont history can help us look at the ways our
rural forebears used sustainable energy and resources to live independently.
One of my favorite memories of my own “old days” was hauling a pickup load of
apples every fall to a water-powered mill in Hartland to make a barrel of cider
for the winter. Water power played a big part in the lives of Vermont’s
pioneers, as it has throughout our history. Ponds were a big part of that

I was talking to a friend in southern New England yesterday
when the phone started crackling and she said, “Gotta get off, the afternoon
storms are moving in.” She had just enough time to tell me that for the past
month in Connecticut it’s been like living in the tropics. Regular as clockwork
every afternoon about four the sky darkens, thunder booms, and the clouds let
loose with a gully washer. Now this gal is no spring chicken, lived in
Manhattan and Connecticut for more than a half century, and she says she’s

As an aquaculture consultant, I meet a lot of pond owners who want to dredge out aquatic plants so they can swim. Normally, that’s not a bad idea. Invasive plants not only spoil your swimming, they can strangle a pond until it’s a blood sucking mosquito swamp. But lately I’ve been telling people to hold off, don’t pull the cattails. They make a tasty stew.

Has Bush declared a state of emergency? Whaaat?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080626-4.html

The latest developments on borderline security. If they start doing this on the border, why not at the mid-state checkpoint in Hartford?

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147546/senators_question_border_laptop_searches.html