Chalice of the Sun God

This past weekend, I was at the Chalice Of The Sun God event, in the Barony of Ponte Alto. It was held at the Prince William Forest Park Camp 1, where I was ensconced in Cabin D2, if anyone cares.

This is a beautiful site, with two drawbacks:

• First, it's not pet-friendly. Sadie couldn't come.
• Second, you can't drive your car to the cabins, not even to unload. I was parked over 400 yards away, and had to walk over 2 miles just to get the car unloaded.

The theme of the event was "Persephone's Story", and the bardic and Arts&Science competitions were required to relate, however loosely, to this theme. I was a member of the "All-Stars" bardic competition team--the Bright Hills Performing Arts Guild, Extraordinaire (PAGE). Our presentation was an original short play, with music, based on the story of Orpheus.

Persephone, you recall, was "kidnapped" while out gathering flowers by the god of the Underworld, Hades, and taken to reign as his queen. (It's actually more complicated than that--Persephone was the ORIGINAL queen of the Underworld, and Hades got tacked on later in mythology, but we digress.) As Queen, she had a great deal of influence over Hades.

Then came Eurydice. She was the bride of Orpheus, greatest of all human bards, who died an untimely death at the fangs of a serpent. Orpheus, in despair, descended to the Underworld, charmed his way into the very throne room of Hades with his music, and begged for Eurydice to be returned to him.

Persephone's heart was softened by Orpheus' plea, and interceded on his behalf with Hades. The request was granted--but Orpheus could not speak to Eurydice, or look at her, until they both had left the Underworld completely behind. Having no other choice, Orpheus accepted the challenge, and began to sing a beautiful song, trying to entice Eurydice's shade to follow him up to the sunlight.

But once he reached the Overworld, in his hope, he turned too soon, and saw Eurydice before she left the gloom. She sighed his name in farewell, and was drawn back down to Hades halls.

Poor Orpheus. Poor Eurydice.

For our little production, I played Orpheus and wrote two songs: Orpheus' plea to Hades and Persephone, and Orpheus' song to entice Eurydice.

The performance went VERY well. Our first round took us through the plea of Orpheus, and won our position in the second round, where we were challenging the incumbent Chalice Champions. The second round included the restrictions Hades imposed, and the journey back to the lighted world (all in BLAZING sunlight and 100% humidity). We were in multilayered costumes--it's a wonder we didn't faint dead away.

AND WE WON.

Pictures (not mine, or you wouldn't see me in them) are at http://belfebe.smugmug.com/gallery/5969113_Xe2LT/1/372440324_NPXbq

I'm sweating and tuning my harp on Page 6; some photos of the second act are on Page 10.

We'll be back next year to defend our title!

Gas Mileage

It's really quite simple.

If you want high gas mileage, you buy a small, light car with a small, light engine. This is true across the entire spectrum of automobiles, from the SmartCar and the hybrids to the Hummer. If the car and engine are small and light, the car is a high-gas-mileage wonder.

But not wonderful enough.

I have a problem with hybrids being described as "alternative" fuel vehicles. They're not. They burn gas, just like my car. The gas runs the engine, which drives the wheels and charges the battery to provide electrical assistance when you need an extra shot of power: pulling away from the stop light, or passing on a grade. They DO get good gas mileage, though. Why? THEY HAVE SMALL ENGINES.

That will change somewhat when plug-in hybrids become common. Then the hybrids really WILL have an alternate fuel: coal, water, uranium, wind, sunshine--all the ways we create electricity. But because of the state of battery technology, they will still need the gas engine, because battery power doesn't have the range. For now.

So let's look at the numbers. The Toyota Prius hybrid is the top of the heap at 46 MPG. Next the Honda Civic hybrid at 42 and Nissan Altima hybrid at 34.

Color me unimpressed. My 11-year old 1998 Saturn SL1, with seating for 5, 140K miles, STILL GETS 35 MPG in my day-to-day driving. How does it do it? IT HAS A 96HP ENGINE.

I think it's ridiculous that I could get that kind of performance USED in 1999, but can't buy it today new. Not EVEN from Saturn.

After all, good gas mileage is like sex: it's not how fast you get there, IT'S HOW LONG YOU LAST! ;-)

Glacier Photos

More of my photos from my family reunion in Glacier National Park can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/simple.prudence. Enjoy!

Book Review: Flight from the City

At the beginning of the Roaring 20's, Ralph Borsodi and his family were forced to move out of their rented house in New York City. But instead of searching endlessly in the middle of a housing shortage for worse accommodations at higher prices, they packed up and moved out to seven acres of land an hour and an half away from the city.

Here they set up to become as nearly self-sufficient as possible. Mr. Borsodi developed and promulgated through his books the theory of "production for use", advocating that products should be manufactured and consumed locally, preferably at the homestead level, and not "produced for profit".

Mr. Borsodi is one of the pioneers of the "back-to-the-land" movement. His works predate those of Helen and Scott Nearing by at least a decade, and his ideas are found, uncredited, on homesteads and in books across the country.

Flight from the City is public domain and available from both archive.org and soilandhealth.org.

New Favorite Website

I have found a new favorite website: soilandhealth.org , an online library of homesteading and agricultural manuals and books. It is run by Steve Solomon in Tasmania, Australia, according to Australian copyright regulations.

The website explains, "By Australian copyright rules we usually cannot copy books for our users that are currently in print (unless they are also old enough to be public domain material)." But many of the books are public domain, even in the United States. Soil And Health led me to three of the books I am currently reading: Ten Acres Enough, Three Acres and Liberty, and Flight from the City. I also found Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum Emergency, a U.S. FEMA document from 1989 which seems remarkably prescient in 2008.

I have provided links to all these books in my reading list, but they're pointed to three different providers. Check them all out!

Book Review: The Humanure Handbook

Joseph Jenkins has written and self-published several books on topics which may be dear to the homesteader's heart, but his 15 minutes of fame is probably based on "The Humanure Handbook". This tome (now in its third edition!) is a discussion of poop, in all its glory.

Jenkins discusses the nutrient cycle, of which every other animal on the planet is part, and shows how humans have broken the cycle (and are breaking the planet!). No other animal, he points out, defecates in its drinking water. And fresh water is becoming a scarce resource worldwide, and only becomes scarcer as population increases.

Jenkins has successfully composted his entire family's--umm, humanure--for nearly 30 years. His process is simple, odor-free, and cyclic, with the compost being reintroduced to the family garden. Many people have an immediate gag reflex to this, but manure from large animals has been used as fertilizer in the fields for thousands of years. Humans are the most numerous large animal on the planet--why should we be any different? This book shows how to do it in a simple, reproducible, sanitary, safe, efficient way.

The book is available from Amazon, or PDF files can be downloaded from josephjenkins.com or jenkinspublishing.com.

Family Reunion

I apologize for not writing. Again, I've been busy.

On 18 July, I flew out to SLC, UT, where I picked up my kids, borrowed some camping equipment, climbed into the rented minivan, and went to Glacier National Park, MT for a family reunion.

We spent more than a week inside and outside the park, hiking some of the trails, playing with the rest of the family.

I got some GREAT pictures. Some I have stitched together into vast panoramas. (Yes, this one has a visible seam, besides the ones in the sky. It was actually taken from two widely separated points.)

The trail in the first panorama leads to the overlook in the second panorama.

And the wildlife was amazing. Mountain goats and bighorn sheep, just as close as they look in the photos.




























So now I'm back to work, back to dealing with my condominium association, back to the grind.

I'd rather be in Glacier.