Where's Fort Smith?

Congratulations to Poteau for being named one of Outdoor Life’s Top 200 Towns for Sportsmen.

Poteau was ranked No. 145. That’s one spot ahead of Stuttgart, the duck hunting capital of the world. Poteau was one of only two Oklahoma cities to make the list and the closest town to Fort Smith.

According to OutdoorLife.com, the towns were chosen because they “offer affordable housing, low unemployment rates and the potential to earn a decent living, all within a short drive of first-rate hunting and fishing.”

And that begs the question — Why wasn’t Fort Smith in the top 200?

We sit smack dab on the Arkansas River, have several lakes, Frog Bayou and Lee Creek a short distance away and have the headquarters of PRADCO, yet Fort Smith isn’t known as a fishing town.

We’ve got Fort Chaffee and the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests, yet Fort Smith isn’t known as a hunting town.

Managing and improving our natural resources should be a higher priority for Fort Smithians. We’ve squandered them for too long.

Of course, that won't matter to city leaders. Not when they can rubber stamp yet another subdivision of McMansions to be built on Chaffee property. (Even during the economic crisis, they keep building spec homes out there. It just takes longer now, which ironically probably means they're built better than the slap-dash ones from two years ago.) And not when they start pushing for Pine Mountain Dam to be built on Lee Creek, one of the few free-flowing streams left in Crawford County.

Organic garden scares farming group

Michelle Obama's organic White House garden has upset a lobbying organization dedicated to "conventional" (chemical-laden) farming ...

http://www.thecleanestline.com/2009/04/keep-out-of-reach-of-children-industry-reps-fear-organic-garden.html

Vegas Strip during Earth Hour

Click on the photo to see the whole thing ...

The Price of Tomatoes

Gourmet Magazine posted an article about how migrant farm workers in Florida are kept as slaves.

It boils down to this - if you've eaten a tomato during the winter, it was likely picked by somebody kept in virtual slavery. It even applies to tomatoes bought at places like Whole Foods or ones you had on sandwiches at major restaurant chains.

This is yet another reason to buy local, in-season fruits and veggies. 

The Price of Tomatoes

I've always wanted to be a rancher

So maybe I should look into getting a mini-cow ...

Just right for the garden: a mini-cow

Think about it, all the free milk Jimmie Jo can drink, fertilizer for my tomato plants and I won't have to mow the yard. Sure, the mooing might get annoying, but who'll be able to hear that over a baby crying?

Tomatoes

First tomatoes of the season are ready.

A couple ripened while we were in St. Louis with the Martins, but now I'm getting two or three per day. Since this photo was taken, I've picked eight more organic beauties.

These are a little small (and a little green) compared to what's coming off the plants now. But they are firm and flavorful. I honestly don't know how people eat hothouse tomatoes out of season. They just have zero taste compared to what you get in the summer.

Groupthink

The statewide Harley Owner's Group motorcycle rally is in Fort Smith this weekend. About 5,000 people are in town riding their Harleys all over the place.

Tonight at dinner, I pulled up to a light and four guys on motorcycles were in front of me. Three of them were riding the exact same motorcycle. You know the kind. They had stretched front-forks and were going for an "American Chopper" look. But beyond that, the paint scheme on each one was exactly the same. The fourth guy was the rebel of the group, he'd added some grip covers with black fringe to his chopper.

As I sat through the interminably long light, I started trying to think of a time when I'd ever drop $20,000 to $30,000 on an exact replica of something my buddies have. I mean, I understand the whole "Hey, let's all get motorcycles and ride them around together." That kind of seems like it could be fun. But not riding matching motorcycles. That seems odd.

Once upon a time, I wanted a Harley. I'm talking back in the 1980s before everybody's dentist and attorney had one. Now, however, I want a moped ... oh, I mean a scooter ... like a Vespa.

For one thing, it would save on gas. And, frankly, I think it'd be kind of fun. Though it would be difficult to strap a baby seat onto one.

Of course, if I get a moped these days I'll have to get one with working brakes. I don't own any Pony sneakers to use for Flintstone-style braking like I did on the moped I owned back in the early 1980s.

The Coming Energy Wars

Plant your gardens, buy a scooter and stock up on canned goods, because Goldman Sachs says we'll cross $200 a barrel oil within six to 24 months ...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/139395/output/print

Tomato time

Those are my tomatoes. The first photo is from my cherry tomato plant. The second is from my tomato bush.

We've also got some bell peppers ...



And, of course, Jen's roses ...

Food rationing hits USA

Last night, while Jen watched her chick shows in the living room, I retreated to the guest room to the Internet and the 13-inch TV. That's when I came across a documentary on PBS called "King Corn."

The premise was simple. Two buddies from Yale realized their great-grandparents had both lived in the same small Iowa town and were farmers. The Ivy Leaguers did a little research, decided to move to Iowa and grow an acre of corn. Along the way, they show how screwed up the US food chain is these days.

While Iowans are now getting an average of 200 bushels of corn per acre, it's all unedible corn. They can't pluck an ear, boil it or grill it and eat it. It's all some strain of corn that's only good for being turned into cattle feed or high-fructose corn syrup. They traveled with their corn to a feed lot in Colorado where 100,000 head were kept and force fed corn to fatten them up. They talked to nutritionists, scientists, farmers and ranchers.

They also talked to the former head of the Department of Agriculture, the guy who started the farm subsidy programs. While he was cast as somewhat of a villain (farm subsidies caused the end of family farms and the rise of industrial farms that crank out poor quality foodstuffs) he made a very good point - part of the reason for our affluence over the years has been the cost of food has been kept low. Our grandparents and great-grandparents used to spend about 60 percent of their income on food. The average American now spends only about 12 percent on food. With that extra 48 percent now available, we've bought bigger houses, SUVs, clothes, flat-screen TVs and whatever else.

Then today, I come across this story about food rationing happening in some stores on both coasts ...

http://nysun.com/news/food-rationing-confronts-breadbasket-world

This made me laugh

Because if we had a bigger backyard, I could see Jen and I having this discussion. There's a house over on Country Club that has a chicken coop in the sideyard. I could see raising some backyard chickens for the eggs.

Spring

Spring is officially here.

Not because of any date on the calendar or the fact the dogwoods are blooming or because the Arkansas Derby is this Saturday. No, spring is here because I've got some tomato plants planted.

Two "patio" breed plants were placed yesterday. They don't deliver the huge tomatoes you see at the grocery store, instead these will be about 2-inches in diameter. Perfect for salads and salsa.

I'm probably going to get a third planter for a tomato bush. I had two of those last summer and they produced more tomatoes than we could eat. And I even snacked on sliced tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and a very light sprinkle of sea salt.

All of these tomato plants will be strictly organic. I'll use Terracycle fertilizer, made of 100-percent worm poop. Once the tomatoes start appearing, I'll use an organic pesticide. Last year, I found this stuff made from jalapenos. It kept the bugs, worms, birds and squirrels off them.

Anyway, the countdown to fresh tomatoes has started.

Going Green? Not at the Fort Smith Home Show.

The Fort Smith Home Show is this weekend. This year's theme is "Going Green." It's splashed across a full page ad in the paper. It's on a billboard on Rogers Avenue.

Being a greenneck, I was absolutely interested. And since I got a free ticket via work, I had to go check it out.

Of the 83 businesses and services that had booths, only a few were even remotely connected to environmentally-friendly building or products. There was one (1) booth that had information on solar energy. Some of the appliance displays had energy-efficient washers and dryers. That was about it.

Some of the Realtors had maps of their latest McMansion-filled subdivisions on display. I stopped at one looking at the map, trying to figure it out. It was confusing because the map was flipped, with the southern landmarks at the top of the page and the northern landmarks at the bottom.

This dippy Realtor chick comes over and asks if I'm interested in the neighborhood. I ask about the neighborhood covenants and if I'd be able to put solar panels on one of those houses. She did that combo smile/cringe thing that salespeople do and said "No." I said "Really not going green then, huh?" and walked away.

Oh, there was a booth there for that expanding spray-on insulating foam like they use on "This Old House." I am so getting that sprayed in the attic before the summer heat gets here.

About the black background

I read somewhere that it's more energy efficient than having a white background. Since I'm a greenneck*, it seemed like the right thing to do.

Plus, I think it's easier on the eyes.

* - Greennecks are a combination redneck (goes hunting, etc.) yet tries to be environmentally friendly (recycling, reducing, reusing, etc.).