***I got this from a list I am on and I thought it would be important to share it here...
Remember that Allegro is a piece of music played in a quick, lively tempo. So.......a few quick and lively thoughts off the top of my head about how to prepare for this summer's hurricane season, in light of the BP oil disaster.
1. Non-toxic, low-phosphorous, plain old dishwashing liquid, is a GREAT oil emulsifier and dispersant. It can be used to clean off any "oily rain" from hard surfaces and can also be sprayed on plants to help clean THEM, as well. It also allows for water to more easily break the "surface tension" of soil, so that it is readily absorbed where natural soil organisms can help break it down. This will probably NOT work for acute amounts of toxins.
2. If you don't yet have a mulch or compost pile, MAKE ONE. Put in all the necessary ingredients to make it a biologically active and earthworm-friendly REPOSITORY that may well be NECESSARY to re-innoculate our soils. This is EXTREMELY important. Any number of books and/or websites can help you with this.
3. What is coming out of the Gulf will be capable of completely destroying all soil organisms that, JUST LIKE PHYTOPLANKTON in the Gulf, are absolutely ESSENTIAL for growing food. PROTECT your garden space the best you can, but make sure that you are able to COVER your compost/mulch pile(s) with materials that will deflect all rainfall if necessary. The irony of this is that plastics (oil) are probably best for this purpose.
3. One of our local gardeners, Bert Lustig, has been experimenting with 4-Square Gardening and has build a number of small greenhouse frames, covered with plastic, that can be put together in modular form. He has been using these for winter crops, but they can ALSO be used to protect particularly vulnerable plants or seedlings in your garden. White-wash or shade cloth or spray-on products used on greenhouses can help lower the intense sun and heat build-up that might result.
4. Work now on a system that can divert water AWAY from your garden, if need be. This sounds really stupid, but you will be glad you are prepared. Tim Newton, who owns our local, organic food and household-product 'Community Market', says that this is the ONE summer we need to pray for a drought (along the east coast, at least).
5. Same goes for those of us who collect rain water. I would suggest that we look up ways for naturally de-toxifying water. Dispersants (including soap) will make it more difficult to "skim-off" oil and its by-products, but even old cotton clothes might come in handy as filters. It may be time to fire-up the old still again, since it may be necessary to DIS-still water for drinking.
6. I have not looked-up the old post (laughed at when it was written by Captain Eric May of Ghost Troop), but DUCT TAPE will, once again, prove to be our VERY best friend (next to our dogs). It makes for good, cheap, and quickly applied SEALS to help keep out toxic fumes and/or liquids. I have also been working over the last five years or so to caulk EVERY SINGLE CRACK in my house. Kim says "we will wake up dead some day from aphyxiation", but it may be a saviour in the event of accute periods of toxic rain. Again, the irony that duct tape and plastic window "storms" are both made from oil.
7. As far as channeling water goes, make sure that your downspouts empty through large areas of unmowed grass or through what are now being called "rain gardens" before emptying into storm drains and/or whatever streams you are on. This may seem like a drop-in-the-bucket, so to speak, but EVERY LITTLE BIT will help.
8. Do research on what natural herbal and/or homeopathic remedies can/will help rid your body of toxins - ESPECIALLY those that are petro-chemically related. BOOST your immune systems with vitamins, minerals, and good, organic food as a way to help you through a crisis situation. Get outside and get some sun NOW. It may help you get through a lack of natural vitamin D later on. Eat yoghurt (you can EASILY make it yourself) and/or take acidophyllous (probiotics) to boost the natural flora in your intestinal tract (this one thing ALSO boosts your immune system and helps fight off
MANY kinds of toxins).
9. SWEAT, SWEAT, SWEAT. Work, walk, or exercise hard enough to sweat out the toxins in your body - and CONTINUE to do so. Sweating not only helps cool you down, but it is NATURE's way of helping your body cleanse itself.
10. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE mull these things over, come up with your OWN ideas, and share them with the rest of us. If you want to survive what is coming, it will be a SHARING of information that will help us get through. If you have read along this far, you are probably serious and will be one of the fittest to survive, as in "survival of the fittest". And remember, ALL of this goes toward helping your children, grand-children, AND your pets.
Best to all, and good luck.
John
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