Good deal, Kevin. In a providentially, obviously preordained event, you have come into custody of the extracycle apparatus. What are you doing with the blown head gasket vehicle? It might also be a cracked head. Are you planning to fix it yourself or have it repaired?

We hope Toren is feeling ok, now.

Jane has the chickens outside for a field trip. They're a pretty conservative, cautious lot. Their panting belies their anxiety.

We're planting the garden today. It's a little late, but, no worries. I've been trying to dig out the nutsedge grass, but it is fool's play. We're going to put landscape cloth over the entire garden, and mulch over that in an effort to manage it. In a University of California study, only Dupont's Typar 307 and 321 was able to resist penetration by the nutsedge shoots. We couldn't find any this week, so we're using Dupont's most weed resistant fabric that we found at Lowes.

This weed is sometimes described as the world's worst. It creates tubers that can survive as long as 18 years. Here is a link to the nutsedge article:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7432.html

Anyway, we are setting out tomatoes according to the guidelines of Charles H. Wilber. He's the guy who grew the world's record 1400 pounds of tomatoes on 3 plants using all organic techniques. His book is available from Acres U.S.A. at:

www.acresusa.com

or, we'd lend our copy. Briefly, his technique is to blend compost into the soil, prune and train the plant on a concrete reinforcing cage, and to heavily mulch the area around the plants. Those 400 pound producing plants were in cages 18 feet high, but in single tier cages (6 feet) he typically grows over 200 pounds/plant. This is our first year trying it, so we'll see how it works for us.

Jane and I have personally noted that the inflation of food prices is prodigious. I have read that food prices were up 17% for the year as of May 1. Fuel prices are up over 30%. Medical costs are up on that order, also. Anecedotially, we just paid $1.99/foot for new 2 foot welded 1/2" by 1" rabbit wire. M3 is increasing at an expodential rate. The more fiat currency printed, the less it is worth. Most of it winds up in the investment relm, almost none filters down to wage earners. This has all happened many times before. It has happened many times on a small scale in our country with the currency issued by banks before creation of the Federal Reserve system. The Weimar Republic was a good example of inflation around the turn of the 19th to 20th century when a loaf of bread sold for one million marks. People took wheelbarrows filled with money to shop for a day's groceries. In the end, it was blowing around the streets like leaves.

Interestingly, the core price inflation index omits inflating sectors like food and fuel. The only thing any of us can do about any of this is embedded in the personal decisions we make in our own lives and on behalf of others in our own local communities.

Hope everyone has a nice, low carbon holiday weekend.

Tony and Jane

I really must add...
At the precise moment Kevin was out procuring this pedal-powered hauler-of-all contraption, I was at an auto repair shop being told that the internal combustion engine we drive has a blown head gasket.

I was weeping. Kevin was cheering. The gods had spoken.

Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Do without.