Dragonwood Chronicles: August 2011

Wecome to Dragonwood Chronicles

Tucked away deep in the woods at the southern edge of the Tug Hill region of New York. Dragonwood is our off-grid sanctuary. Six acres of pond and gardens bordered by forest on three sides.

The project began in 1995, when after a long search, Debe and I purchased the property from a local logger. To date we have built a cabin, a bridge, out house, two sheds in addition to expansive gardens and stone work. We have a generator, propane lights, refrigerator and grill, a wood stove and modest solar system. A dug well and small stream suitable for watering gardens and other needs and a nearby spring for drinking water.

The Dragonwood Chronicles will serve to document the project with photographs and notes. Future projects will include additions to the cabin, a root cellar and a studio building.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The US Debt and Deficit Problem in Simple Terms

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

* U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
* Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Therefore, let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Smith family:

* Total annual income for the Smith family: $21,700
* Amount of money the Smith family spent: $38,200
* Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Amount cut from the budget: $385

Does the US have a spending problem? It appears we do!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Garden Photos - Summer 2011

Thought I post a few photos of this summers gardens. It's been a hectic summer with selling the business and getting ready for our move to Florida (winters) so the garden has been put on the back burner. Despite the neglect it's doing quite well. We have perhaps the best tomato crop in recent years. We tried a new variety of pole beans that are excellent. Our garlic harvest was good as it always seems to be.

The weeding has gotten away from me a bit more than is typical.

In these photos you see my grand daughter Kaitlyn (4) looking for "Jack in the Bean Stock", also our outstanding horse radish, and my cucumbers that I grew on a trellis for the first time. So far so good.