Current mood:

pensive

litany of bad and good
Bad:

W's mother passed away last night.  Our dog Bobo died a week ago, our cat Malachi a few months ago, our dog Theo a few months before that.  W's mother, Bobo and Theo were all old and sick but it still feels like a lot of death in a short timespan.

The Southeast drought continues and the outlook is not good.

From Oct. 1 through the middle of April is considered Georgia’s moisture recharge period, when the state typically gets more rain than moisture loses due to evaporation and plant use.

North Georgia didn’t receive enough rain to fully recharge soil moisture, groundwater, streams or reservoirs. Since Oct. 1, north Georgia has received only 70 percent to 80 percent of normal rainfall.

Late April through October, moisture loss from soils is usually greater than rainfall. If Georgia has normal weather this summer, we can expect the soils to continue to dry out and groundwater levels, stream flows and reservoir levels to drop across the entire state.

$200/barrel oil in our near future (if not this summer, then soon)  But on the upside I telecommute, my vehicle gets 35 mpg and my grocery store's 5 miles away, so even if gas is $10/gal a trip to the grocery store still will only cost a few bucks.  Of course, food gets to my grocery store via truckers, who are already paying $1000/fillup.  And while I do live on a fair patch of rural land, it's mostly forested. Definitely time to get goats.  Maybe some free-range pigs and chickens too?

Now that the panic over bird flu is over, get ready for stem rust.  They're rationing rice in Costcos and Australia due to drought but we don't eat a lot of rice so who cares? 

A deadly fungus, known as Ug99, which kills wheat, has likely spread to Pakistan from Africa, according to reports in the British New Scientist. If true, that threatens the vital Asian bread basket, including the Punjab region.

The spread of the deadly virus, stem rust, against which an effective fungicide does not exist, comes as world grain stocks reach the lowest in four decades and government subsidized bio-ethanol production, especially in the United States, Brazil and the European Union, are taking land out of food production at alarming rates.

In 2007, a three-day "wind event" recorded by Mexico's CIMMYT had strong currents moving from Yemen, where Ug99 is present, across Pakistan and India, going all the way to China. CIMMYT estimates that from two-thirds to three-quarters of the wheat now planted in India and Pakistan are highly susceptible to this new strain of stem rust. One billion people who live in this region and they are highly dependent on wheat for their food supply.

Hope there isn't another "wind event" across the Pacific.  Think I'll plant a lot of potatoes this year.  Also get a bicycle and get in shape.  Also, goats.  There, I've put it on my calendar. 

Good: Tomorrow I garden!  And the sun is shining, I'm healthy and happily employed and surrounded by loved ones, I've got my bills paid and filed, I'm learning all about GTD and am able to keep my inbox managed.  No problems here.

I've just finished an amusing book called Apocalypse 2012 that makes an interesting case for December 21, 2012 being the date the shit hits the fan for America and indeed the whole world.  What's your best guess for the time til TSHTF?