Denise Rushing

Humanity has reached Peak Oil production THIS YEAR. What this means is that the world can no longer produce more oil next year than it produced this year. This means that the world economy can no longer grow . Think about this. All that the consumer economy depends upon is about to change. Growth will stop and in fact, over time, we cannot sustain our current lifestyles. Reaching Peak Oil is a profound event. We in the U.S. may not feel the effects right away because we have elected an administration willing to take energy and resources from others by force and unwilling to level with our people that our very lifestyles are unsustainable. They are not doing us any favors in the long term. We will have that much farther to fall. In the days and months ahead, I will write about what I am doing personally and what I believe our local communities and groups need to do to prepare themselves. We need to have a plan. The sooner we begin the better. We have little time to lose. I h

It is pruning time in the walnut orchard. I have been told that the new owner (in this case me) faces quite a job because orchard pruning is often neglected for many years. It may have been six to ten years since these trees were pruned. So this week, the trees all got a haircut. It cost $3000. Now, the orchard is waist-deep in trimmed branches and the trees (I've been told) will be under less stress. Birds and deer quickly moved in to enjoy the new, albeit temporary, landscape. Thousands of birds! If I sum up this season financially: Expenses = $262 to shake the trees, $980 to gather the walnuts and $3,000 to prune the trees for a total of $4,242 Income = $3486.98 for the walnuts (walnuts sold for 45 cents a pound this year) NET LOSS = $755.02. This does not include expenses for property taxes or cost of the property. I guess I better not quit my day job to become a Walnut Rancher just yet.