What do these things have in common and how do they affect me? That is question you should ask yourself. For me, up here in Canada, the connection may not be obvious. U.S. politics and oil- everyone gets that connection and the fact that when big brother to the south tells us what to do, we usually do it. What has that got to do with hemp and worms? The worms are for composting waste veggie matter to be put back on the soil to grow good produce with little or no herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers(all oil products) and the hemp grows just fine with little or no herbicides,pesticides and fertilizers. The fact is, growing hemp can improve soil. The U.S. which makes a huge profits off of oil through pharmacies, agrabusiness,petrochemicals, and plastics do not want compitition, even to the point of ruining the environment for the last buck. Canada follows the lead of Big Brother(usually) but up here Hemp is legal to grow (after jumping through a redtape nightmare to get approval) and only if you have a large enough space and the money to get everything up and running. Organic farming is everywhere in small plots as well as worm composting. The government can't keep people from composting. They do not have the manpower, nor would they get enough money out of the deal if they did. The problems lie with labeling foods and products "organic", when sometimes they are are only partially organic. Will obama or mac take marijuana out of scheduale one status as a drug when they get into power?m ost likely not if they want to get a second term out of the deal. Ron Paul on the other hand would. That makes him dangerous to the people who wish to milk every last dollar from us. If that happened, Canada would trot along so fast it would make your head spin. That action would save both of our economies immediately overnight and it would give us a new source of renewable oil in one season. The chemical plants would not lose much and the plastics people would have new feedstocks, but the pharmacies would be crushed, police budgets would be slashed(yeh -lower taxes) and some drugdealers would be out of business (or would start up legit). Again all those things would instantly be great for the economy. No one except for Ron Paul has the guts to do that. We would have an explosion of real organic produce markets springing up everywhere. I do not see a downside to any of this except for a few super rich people and families and groups may lose a little bit in the short term. long term, everyone wins including the environment. Lets do it now while we still have time.

Michael J. Kaer

Hi folks.
Michael here.

Politics should not be an issue when it comes to something of this magnitude, unfortunately it is one of the bigger problems. I have stated up front that I am a Green Party member. The reason is the Green Party is the only party I know of that is behind sustainability,renewable fuel sources, walkable communities, the use of Bicycles and the reduction of cars, the use of hemp and alternative medicines... the list goes on.

These are the things that will happen, either by choice or forced on us. We here know this. The Green Party has a good chance of making history up in the bruce with our candidate Shane Jolley. The frontrunner and incumbent is a PC who does not go along with his party leader's stand on school funding. That party is fighting it's self. He is losing votes like water through a sieve. The Green Party is getting extra help up to Shane for the last few days of the campaign. We need only one member in and we have our foot in the door and we will never be kept out of debates ever again. The media who refused to allow Frank DeJong to debate with everyone else can't do that once we have one member in. The sooner we get our message across the sooner we can powerdown in a controlled manner.

Michael J. Kaer
www.mikesworms.com

Hi Folks.
Just a short update on my rain catcher. The tap I put on before was made of plastic and I sealed it with silicone. The seal did not last :( . I when to a second-hand store and bought a brass tap made for barrels that cost me $2.00 Canadian. I installed the new tap and the barrel does not leak anymore. We have many brown lawns around here due to the lack of rain. I have kept my herb garden and my veggie garden out back, doing ok. I watered the veggies long enough to get them started and then only disturbed everything by weeding right after every major rain. I have a clay soil, so my plants are doing fine. It looks like a jungle out there. You should see the sunflowers in my herb garden! HUGE!!! 2 years ago I grew one over 18 feet tall( it got up to the second story of my house). I hope everyone else's are doing fine.
Michael.

Hi folks.

I am winding down my day after getting a lot of work done in the garden and working on making a new rain barrel. I bought one of those industrial size food containers( I think it have olives in it) and put a tap at the bottom. I am waiting for the sealer to cure and then I am going to apply a weldbond wash over it to help seal it even better. I have a couple ideas in my head on how to filter the water through a screen that will be self-cleaning, mosquito proof and will keep leaves and other debris out of the water. It cost me $15.00 for the barrel( I had a friend deliver it to me for free),$.25 for the tap from a yardsale, normally costing about $8.00-$10.00 from a hardware store, I had some silicone leftover from another project as well as some weldbond. It would be pennies worth that I used. For a round figure I would say I paid $16.00 out of pocket for this project. If I had to pay for delivery and paid full price for the other items it would be closer to $35.00 (Canadian money). Lets even say $40.00 as the total cost( since I do not know exactly how much the filter will cost),that would still be a bargain if I have water to put on my plants at a time when water is rationed. That is about 1/2 or 1/3 the price for a store bought rainbarrel.

We installed a store bought rainbarrel at my girlfriend's place and we have been using it alot since we put it in last year. I am not sure if it has paid for it's self yet, but it certainly cuts down on the water bill and hauling water long disances. Maybe just the chiropractor fees saved paid for it.

On a closely related topic, I got a small child's bathtub to put inside my tub. I used to run in several times a day and take a shower, now I just do a quick clean of my legs, feet and arms in the smaller tub and I use less water. If I am just rinsing my self off, I even take that little amount of water to the front herb garden and water the plants there or dump it in my open( with a screen) water barrel. The screen is not on tight enough to keep out mosquitoes, so that is why I am creating the new rainbarrel and using the old one as a produce holder( I have pear and cherry trees out back).

I look foreward to any energy and water saving hints anyone else has out there. I will let you know how it turns out and take a few pictures of the finished product.

Michael J. Kaer
Author of "What Money Can't Buy"

 You may not know me ( except Lance that is) but let me introduce myself. My name is Michael J. Kaer. I have several websites and several blogs on the go. Here are two websites you may be interested in. The first  www.mikesworms.com is a site that can teach you how to build your own worm bin and why. the second is www.mjk-private-income.com where I have 2 of my books available. One is a "how to " book on making Bee's wax candles, firestarters and hobostove fuelcells. The other is about peak oil and the possible chaos that will cause. Here are 3 of my blogs http://survival-list.blogspot.com , http://myhemp.blogspot.com , http://kaerpackage.blogspot.com . I live here in Chatham and have owned a house here for over a decade. I am a Bicycle mechanic, a certified Reflexologist and Relaxation Thereapist, a certified Electronic Technician, a Silversmith, writer, candle maker ( some are available for sale at Mystic Mountain  downtown across from the mall beside  the china shop)( and a few more at A life Full of Books, across from the library, where Birdies nest used to be) I am at a life full of books on friday and saturday to give readings and Seated Massage starting at noon. I am a member of the Green Party( but don't hold that against me). I have helped do clean ups and earthday celebrations and other environmental events. Ken Bell and I did Drumfest 2004 in Shrewsbury and I used to run Mike and Mike's open Mic at the Parkview before it closed and was torn down. If you want to get in touch with me, email is michaelkaer@yahoo.ca and phone is 436-0186 . I would like to get to know everyone on the site eventually. I plan on attending the viewing  of End of Suburbia at the library at the end of the month, hope to see you there.