アルプス乙女 Crabapple

Welcome to the Depression. Just over the last few weeks, it seems like Japan has turned a corner… a vertical corner. Our daily actions are the same, but on the level of mind, or spirit, we’ve dropped off a cliff. You can see it on the left, where the attitude toward Kan has flipped from quasi-hope to disgust. You can see it on the right, where only a few elderly people still look like they’re making arguments, and everyone else looks like they’re having a stroke. You can see it in the “movement” crowds, who are telling increasingly ridiculous stories that we’re doomed if we don’t change the “top-down leadership” now, because the alternative is too troubling. You can see it on the street, where young and old tote battered briefcases and Montbell rucksacks to and fro, rearranging facts and figures all day because that’s what we do, never mind all the urban food deserts expanding in the industrial belt, and all the net-cafe refugees, or the rotting forests or all the industries that can only continue on cheap petrol. And you can see it at home, where loan-sharks, the NHK, tax collectors, bankers and the yakuza have direct access to you via the telephone, or the keitai.

While everyone’s trying to figure out how to save the whole of Japan, I say we can’t do shit. And I’m a woo-woo optimist. I think that in all possible futures, dandelions will grow through ruined Aeon parking lots, skiffs and row boats will navigate rivers once again, and people will get on with getting on. But within this optimism, I see room for epic failures. And some failures are now so far along that “what can we do to stop it” or “how can we be more eco” are the wrong questions, and the right question is “what can I do to survive it, to help others survive it, to minimize suffering and prepare for recovery?”

Take your own position of “leadership”, and do shit for yourself that nobody else can:

Find a landbase and build the topsoil. If you can’t afford to buy land, know your legal rights and use land that’s not being used. Plant fruit trees and vegetable gardens; learn to repair and re-purpose stuff; learn uncommon useful skills; make local friends; work to make your city and region more sustainable and resilient; make friends in other regions in case you have to move; gradually shift more of your activities and dependencies out of the money economy; break your addictions; get healthy; spend your money on tools and skills and long-keeping food; meditate; exercise your intuition…

Here’s a { video } of the ducklings I feed and stuff.

Here’s an article on the possibility of perennial grains, which would let you plant a field of wheat only once and then harvest it every year. This would stop the loss of topsoil and save massive amounts of energy.

JMG, over at the Archdruid Report, writes his best yet: Merlin’s Time, which is about green wizardry and green wizards in the de-industrializing future. The idea is that mass-movements won’t save us all, but autonomous green wizards will keep some of us going.

Finally, for those that missed it here’s a link to the most honest j-politician I’ve ever seen.

It’s gonna be an interesting 4o years to come, no doubt. People, stuff, oil, food, forest, weather, and all of it. In Food and Energy in Japan – How will Japan feed itself in the 21st Century?, written by Atony F.F. Boys back in 2ooo, I think the stuff said from the middle of page 58 to page 63 sums up the future of Japan (2o10-2o50) rather well: it’ll be a steady series of changes in the background of our daily lives, with occasional local catastrophes. And for the duration of all this, the “what can we do to save the entire planet?” rhetoric will probably devolve into “what can we do to survive here, to help others survive here, to minimize suffering and prepare for recovery here?” and the economy will shift gears into something we can’t imagine yet.

As for myself, I’m not much for mass movements and don’t envision myself being part of the one(s) to come here in Japan. Perhaps some will be effective, like { enter movement here } or { enter movement here }, but I prefer to simply remain planted in society and negotiate the turns as they come. That’s basically what i’m doing right now, too. I’ll try to attain whatever level of self sufficiency I can muster and focus on maintaining a household-garten and a social circle. I figure, why create a new town from scratch when there are plenty of smaller towns and cities that will be workable well into the future? That’s where i’m at now, anyway.

Mary jane is just very mellow; Chief is apparently the white Pekin; Flex has emerged as the alpha and the tough one; and 2:30 is the wildest . Right now they’re all out in the duck coop under a heat lamp. More pictures to come as and when.

・Japan hardiness zone map
・Backyard gardens become income generators in lean times. Don’t read it — the only important information is that a bunch of stuff you already know is now being revealed to readers of the LA Times.
・Toxic Citizens?, which is about Statians renouncing their citizenship and the 477 hunting you down.
・How to forecast the weather without gadgets
・When you should not adapt in place , which is a great read for foreigners living in Japan, but in the meantime i’m thinking 4oo year rotations for the garten here. And why not ? I mean, 4oo years from now my bloodline might not be able to move so easily. My favorite bit from the link above:

“In many cases, the best off of the world’s poor are those who live in a pass-down economy – a bicycle isn’t a private purchase, but one shared within the family, with close neighbors, and maintained carefully to be passed down to one’s children if at all possible. The same is true of property and other high value items. We who have had so many resources thrust upon us, will need to pass down to future generations what we can. Choosing where we begin, and what we bring to this is a central part of the project of adaptation to our future.”

・Ancient Farmers of Japan, with some stuff I jotted down:
1. Kyushu municipalities actually paid people to compost.

2. There was tobacco being grown in Kanagawa.

3. The great Nobi Plain (where I live now) had been extensively graded to two levels, the benches being usually not more than two feet above the rice paddies, and devoted to various dry land crops, including the mulberry. Too far from the distant hills to gather wood and brush there, the farmers of the Nobi Plain would burn the stems of their agricultural crops as fuel and to make ash for the fields.

4. As the Author passed through Shizuoka and the base of Mt. Fuji, he had a most interesting thought:

“It would appear that, in Japan, there should be a very bright future along the lines of horticultural development, leading to the utilization of the extensive hill lands of this country and the development of a very extensive export trade, both in fresh fruits and marmalades, preserves and the canned forms.”

5. Throughout Japan, the hill-lands were but brush, bamboo, grass and a few conifers. Reminds me of some old black-and-whites i’ve seen before. That link goes to one of ‘em. Also, mulberry trees were grown everywhere — even on benches between rice paddies — as they had so many uses.

Also, something else i’m considering adding to the epic links page : Toyama Koichi. That link goes to a { VID } of him – perhaps the most honest j-politician I have ever heard. Substitute every time he uses the word “YOU” with “I”, and vice-versa, and it’s brilliant !

{ video }

Also noticed some mason bees, so I basically copied this guy in Oregon and put together some nesting blocks:

{ video }

1. Ethics (Holmgren): 1. Help the land. 2. Help people. 3. Distribute surplus. And some principles: See whole systems, apply feedback (pay attention and adapt), recycle waste, maximize edges, use small and slow solutions, “the problem is the solution,” perennials are better, and the only limit to yield is the imagination of the designer.

2. Plant comfrey under trees. It’s a great dynamic accumulator, blocks grass, and edible, especially the flowers. Dynamic accumulator = a plant that accumulates valuable minerals and puts them in the soil. Also great under trees: dandelions, figwort.

3. Protect young nut trees with thorny shrubs (gooseberry is good). By the time the tree bears, it shades out the shrubs. Or plant fruit/nut trees in an existing thicket.

4. Cattail and jerusalem artichoke are the fastest biomass builders.

5. A use for thistles: fill a barrel with water, stuff it with thistles, wait until it gets bubbly, and you’ve got “green manure tea,” which is roughly the same as compost tea, a natural liquid plant food.

6. A use for Goldfish in the garten: keep them in the rain-harvester barrel and they’ll eat mosquito eggs.

7. Radish seed pods: better than radish roots and the earliest spring vegetable.

8. The largest organism on the planet is mushroom. Grow and eat mushroom. Drink beer and listen to this !

9. Guinea fowl eat ticks and yellow jackets, and muscovy ducks mow grass. Your ducks won’t fly away if you feed them well.

10. Keep some pests around to feed and attract predators of future pests! And instead of fighting big pest population blooms, wait for them to crash naturally. (Like civilization!)

11. Start food forest now !

12. Natural pond sealer: put a bunch of organic matter in the pond, thrash the water around, and it forms an anaerobic watertight seal, called “gleying.” Pigs can do the thrashing.

13. To dig up a stump: jam some food down under it and get pigs to dig for it.

14. Propagation trick: cover scattered seeds with heavy tarp, watch, and when they begin to sprout, in the evening remove the tarp and replace with a sheet.

15. Grafting: Rootstock should have sap flowing, top part (scionwood) should be dormant.

16. Budding (move bud from one plant to another): Bud doesn’t have to be dormant, doesn’t have to go where bud was. Bud source should be first year growth, young enough for cambium to peel, old enough to snap when bent.

17. Coppicing: cut at slant, in winter when dormant.

18. Pears and medlars can be grafted on hawthorn roots.

19. Ribes species (currants, gooseberries), and also rose and willow, can be propagated just by jamming a stick in the ground in the fall.

2o. Willow shaving tea encourages branch cuttings to root. Shave stem/leaf node, soak in cold water, dip cuttings in.

21. Trick for germinating new apple varieties: spread out juicing pulp under dirt. Trick to test a new variety by making it bear fruit young: tie the top of the tree down so it’s bent horizontal like a branch. But this permanently stunts growth!

22. What’s the deal with tree trunks painted white? It’s to keep them cool in spring so they leaf later and don’t get frost-killed.

23. Permaculturists are more forgiving of “invasive” species than some ecological factions. There’s a whole book called Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience, arguing that so-called invasive species are “merely symptoms of ecosystem damage, actually helping to heal the planet.” Also the anti-invasive movement is closely allied to Monsanto and other poison-sellers, and their language sounds just like Nazi race talk applied to plants.

24. Deforestation is happening faster in Japan than in the Amazon!

25. Iodine is less toxic than chlorine for sterilizing water. Grapefruit seed extract is best. Polyethylene is the least toxic plastic for pipes.

26. Bottle window in cob or cordwood wall: cut tops off two bottles (need special tool), fit bottoms together, coat with foil, stick in wall.

27. Great idea if you have a lot of cedar: roof of overlapping planks.

28. Cedar inner bark for fiber: strip from recently downed tree, soak 2-3 days, pound between rocks.

29. If wind is strong enough to generate energy, it’s strong enough to be a nuisance (or vice versa).

3o. Great ideas: Straw bale urinal — just pee on a straw bale and it will turn to good compost. Scatter seedballs with a giant slingshot! Use buried phone book as slow water releaser. If you scatter buckwheat, deer will eat it instead of your other plants. Sprinkle baking soda to block slugs.

31. Warnings: Never sheet mulch on dry ground — wet it first! Horse manure is likely to be full of invasive seeds. If you kill a weed, and leave the niche, nature will fill it with the same weed, or a worse one!