Journal, by Justus

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry,—determined to make a day of it. Why should we knock under and go with the stream? Let us not be upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows. Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the way is down hill. With unrelaxed nerves, with morning vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast like Ulysses. If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains. If the bell rings, why should re run? We will consider what kind of music they are like. Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through church and state, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality and say, This is, and no mistake; and then begin, having a point d’appui, below freshet and frost and fire, a place where you might found a wall or a state, or set a lamp-post safely, or perhaps a gauge, not a Nilometer, but a Realometer, that future ages might know how deep a freshet of shams and appearances had gathered from time to time. If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.

– Henry David Thoreau (Walden)

We did it! The people of Northern Wisconsin came together and defended our air, soil, and water. On Tuesday, the senate voted 17–16 against amending the assembly mining bill, and Walker returned it to committee with only a couple of weeks left in the senate session. Then the very next day, GTAC issued a press release stating that they are abandoning plans to mine in Northern Wisconsin.

Already, a lot of groups are using this as ammunition to show that Democrats are “anti-job”. [I know that quotation marks can be a dangerous thing, and using them here could cause me to come across as snide. The reason I use them, though, is that the whole concept of "anti-job" is so utterly ridiculous. Who, seriously, is against jobs?] In GTAC’s press release, they stated,

“Senate rejection of the mining reforms in Assembly Bill 426 sends a clear message that Wisconsin will not welcome iron mining.”

Excuse my language, but what a load of bullshit. If there’s one thing I heard over and over again at the public hearing in Hurley, at Jauch and Schultz’s hearing in Mellen, in blog posts and testimonials, it was that the majority of people who are against the bill are not against mining. They were against the many atrocious facets of AB426, and the underhanded politics that were being used to propel it forward.

Which brings me to my next point. I was listening to WPR on my way to Hayward this morning, and as a guest, they had Scott Manley, directory of environmental policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. WMC is one of the state’s most powerful lobbying groups. Manley said some things that made me really angry—so much so, that I tried calling in four or five times. I wasn’t able to get through, so instead, I’ll put my words here, where maybe five people will read them.

More than once, Manley mentioned the senators as the sole reason that Ab426 did not pass, without once at all acknowledging the public outcry against the bill. He said things like, “Due to the actions of 17 senators”, and “It took 17 senators to kill the bill.” No. It didn’t take 17 senators to kill the bill. It took the efforts of thousands of ordinary people in and around the proposed mine site: those who would be most directly affected (both positively and negatively) by the mine.

He also said the following:

“That’s kind of the old political game that gets played in Madison where someone opposes something like mining, and they say something like ‘well, I’m not against mining, I’m just against this bill’, but the reality is you don’t get mining unless you get the bill, and it gets a little bit tiresome and frustrating to hear lawmakers at this point scrambling for cover, and scrambling for excuses, and saying ‘I fully support mining, but I wasn’t willing to vote for the mining reform bill that would have created mining bills’, and I don’t think that kind of rhetoric is going to work.”

That made me angrier than anything else. In one fell swoop, he is implying that you have to be either all-for or all-against a certain idea—no qualification allowed!—and destroying the credibility of anyone who spoke out against the mining bill. Tell me, Mr. Manley, if opposing the assembly bill means that one is automatically against mining, then how is one supposed to voice legitimate concerns about a piece of legislation without being trivialized in this manner? And conversely, if someone is for mining, then are they automatically for mining everywhere, and are they automatically in favor of any and all pro-mining legislation without qualification?

Let’s use an analogy. You may disagree with me, but I feel this is not much of a stretch. Let’s say an individual is pro-capital punishment. I am not, but I understand that some people have legitimate reasons to be. Then let’s say that a bill comes along which weakens the requirements for sending a person to the electric chair. The bill, of course, is sold as saving the state time and money. Obviously, this hypothetical individual should be somewhat wary, and should at least question the negative repercussions of such a bill. For doing so, they are painted by proponents as being “pro-felon” or “anti-justice”. Fuck. That. Whatever you do, do not attempt to remove a person’s ability to legitimately question (or oppose) an issue.

One final thing to consider. Over and over again, GTAC stated that they are not attempting to lower environmental standards, they are just trying to streamline the mining application process. Why then, when Senators Jauch and Schultz came forward with an alternative bill—a bill which streamlines the application and approval process while maintaining current environmental regulations—did GTAC not get behind it? Why then, when the AB426 was defeated, did GTAC pack up and go home?

Because they knew from the beginning that they would not be able to mine in this location without significantly damaging our natural resources.

Edit: I have so much gratitude to express to Senator Dale Schultz, R–Richland Center. Without Senator Schultz’s stalwart commitment to listening to the people and upholding the transparency and accountability of government, Assembly Bill 426 would already be law. It’s taken a great sacrifice for him to do so, and I will be writing him a letter of appreciation. I hope others do the same.

Spaghetti with white sauce, green onions, avocados, and rosemary pan-fried chicken; butter and brown sugar butternut squash; and a delicious porter.

The container on the right is olive oil; the shorty on the left is salt & pepper; and the tall guy has cayenne, paprika, thyme, cumin, and ginger. Now, what to fill the last empty space? I opted against garlic powder, because it’s so easy to pack a clove or two of fresh garlic. I was this close to going with sugar, but you don’t need it as often as you would think.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for the multi-spice container. Great christmas present

We’re facing a struggle up here in the North—a struggle that could affect all of Wisconsin. The assembly Committee on Jobs, Economy, and Small Business is trying to pass Assembly Bill 426—a bill that would drastically reduce environmental and public oversight of ferrous metal (iron) mining in Wisconsin. The primary purpose of this bill is to pander to Gogebic Taconite, a company that wants to put in a four-mile pit mine just south-east of Mellen. They are supposed to vote on this bill next week, and they finally—finally—decided to hold a hearing up here, where it matters. The previous hearing was held in Milwaukee, and it was only after pressure from Senator Jauch and Rep. Bewley that they held one here at all—but that’s a matter for a different post.

Dad and I took Wednesday off from work to attend the hearing, which was held in Hurley. I was actually quite heartened by the hearing. The conference center it was held at was packed—so packed, in fact, that an additional 200 or so people had to sit in an adjoining room, only listening to the proceedings. And even though Hurley is a much more pro-mining community than Ashland (and a more economically depressed one), and even though the hearing was held at 10:00 am on a week day, the vast majority of the speakers were against the bill, and there were some quite powerful testimonies—several of them by members of the Bad River Ojibwe Tribe. Not only that, but even out of the people who spoke in favor of the mine, the majority had misgivings about the bill.

Dad and I both had registered to speak, but when our names hadn’t been called by 5:00 pm, we decided to call it a day—we had been there since before 10:00 am (we later found out that our names were finally called at 7:10 pm). Since I wasn’t able to speak, I’ll post what I was planning on saying here.

I’ve lived my whole life in Ashland County, with the Chequamegon National Forest just out the back door, and as such, I’ve grown accustomed to certain things. Things like being able to hike into the Chequamegon Forest, pitching a tent by a clean, gurgling stream, and feeling that I’m the the only person who’s ever been there. Things like catching crayfish out of Tyler Forks river at Copper Falls State Park. Things like drinking clean, clear water from my parents’ well. In my neighborhood, we enjoy drinking fresh, unfiltered water from the ground.

I’ve been around for twenty-two years, and I depend on our beautiful, unique environment for joy, peace, and health. There are other people who have been around for centuries and depend on it for so much more. People like the Bad River Ojibwe, who harvest wild rice from the Bad River slough, downstream from the site of the proposed mine.

Assembly Bill 426 could change all that by making it dramatically easier for new mining operations to start, and by lowering the level of environmental responsibility required. Among other things, the bill places a 360 day limit on the amount of time the DNR is allotted to decide whether or not to approve a new mine. They will have less than a year to perform studies which could have far-reaching effects for hundreds of years. The bill also places a $1.1 million cap on the amount that a company can be required to pay for environmental impact studies, while the DNR estimates that such studies could cost up to $3,000,000, in addition to increased yearly operating costs. This extra expense would have to come out of the state’s pocket. Finally, the bill seeks to reduce public input on mining applications from two public hearings and one contested case hearing to one public hearing and no contested case hearings. The environment at risk belongs to the public, and the jobs that stand to be gained belong to the public, so why is it right for them to silence the public’s input?

I understand that we need jobs, but what are we willing to sacrifice for these jobs? Are jobs today worth our environment tomorrow? If we’re going to put a mine in our back yard, let’s do it responsibly. If they want to mine here, they should be bending to our requirements, not the other way around. This bill is ridiculous—and remember, you can be for the mine but against the bill. Thank you.

For more information about the bill and the proposed mine:

• A whole slough of (remarkably unbiased) articles on the Bad River Watershed Association website: http://www.badriverwatershed.org/index.php/learn/potential-mine-information
• A summary of the bill, focusing on the environmental impacts: http://cleanwisconsin.org/proxy.php?filename=files/CW_MiningBillFacts.pdf
• Who Wrote The Bill? http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/legislators-worked-with-gogebic-taconite-on-mining-bill-593fk2n-135902053.html
• Effects of the bill: http://thirdcoastdigest.com/2011/12/mining-for-compromise-bill-favors-gtac-promises-new-jobs/
• And, finally, the bill itself: http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/proposals/AB426

For sale: Amish buggy, modern 1850s style, fully loaded. Well used, but well loved. Great runner and great gas mileage. One horsepower, horse not included. Must see to believe. All maintenance up-to-date; rotated wheels and replaced two spokes last month. With the eight new little ones, it’s time for us to upgrade to a larger model. This buggy has been in my family for a long time; in fact, I drove it to town for my first date as a young man.

If interested, please reply by mail to John Gregory, 213 Hickory Lane. Serious inquiries only please. Sale includes two pint jars of our homemade strawberry jam.

I am having a sort of low-key existential crisis right now. I just realized that if I do fully believe in science (which I always thought I did), then every—every—event must be caused by something. Every particle bounces off another particle in a certain way determined by physical laws. Every electron is attracted by another positron in a certain way, or repelled by another electron in a corresponding way. Since neural activity is nothing but chemical and electrical activity interacting in a certain way, than how can free will possibly exist? Every action must have causation that could theoretically be traced all the way back to the big bang. All of a sudden, the way I understand it—the only way I can understand it—is as a choice between destiny and god. Either there’s a pre-determined course that every particle is meant to take (thus no free will), or there’s a supernatural input that we don’t understand.

Of course, how do you even separate magic and science? Where do you draw the line between string theory and god? I’m going to bed.

The smoked turkey & bean soup from tonight deserves its own post, since it’s my first time making soup without relying on a recipe. I couldn’t find one that had exactly what I was looking for, so I stole bits and pieces from various recipes and winged the rest. But I don’t want to just post how I made the soup, I want to write about the story of the soup. Nay…the epic of the soup! You should be able to make the soup after reading this, you’ll just have to deal with all my bullshit while parsing out the bits and pieces of the recipe. Excited yet? Don’t be.

I knew I wanted to make soup. While shopping around at County Market for unrelated items, I stumbled across a 1 pound, 4 oz bag of mixed beans (15 different beans, to be exact). Perfect, I thought. Into the basket it went. Once home, it went into my cupboard where it sat, neglected, until last night. I had intended to make the soup sooner, but every time I thought of starting it, I remembered that I needed to soak the beans overnight first. At which point, I—of course—promptly neglected to begin soaking the beans. Well, last night I finally got my shit together, and started soaking the damn beans. After beginning the beans a-soakin’, I decided to get my shopping out of the way.

I had originally been planning on doing bean and ham soup, but after my failure to find smoked ham (in a portion under five pounds), I re-evaluated my game plan. I saw something about turkey soup in by cook book, and drove to Six Street Market and picked myself up a huge smoked turkey leg for less than $3. From there, down to the Co-op I went, where I purchased an onion, a couple carrots, thyme, oregano, and probably something else that I’ve forgetting about. Then I went home, went to bed, and went to work.

The beans are supposed to soak for 8 – 12 hours, but tough. They soaked for 24. After rinsing the beans, I threw them in my stockpot with eight or nine cups of water, the whole turkey leg, a tablespoon of oregano, a tablespoon of thyme, and two tablespoons of chicken Better than Bouillon (equivalent—but superior—to six chicken bouillon cubes), a fair amount of Jane’s Crazy Salt, and two cloves of garlic—one whole and one minced, because I couldn’t make up my mind. I brought it all to a boil, reduced the heat, and simmered—covered—for maybe 45 or 50 minutes. This is the part I had some difficulty with. Everything I read online about cooking dried beans said that it takes between an hour and a half and four hours, so I really wasn’t sure how long to do it for. The tough part was that I had to time it correctly so I could add my raw carrots and celery, and have everything be done at the same time. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After 50 minutes or so, I tried one of the beans, and they were cooking far faster than I had expected. They were well on their way to being done. That’s as best as I can describe it. In a hurry, I pulled out my two carrots (which, incidentally, were the best carrots I have ever had. Thanks, Co-op!) and my two stalks of celery. I chopped it all up int soup-sized pieces, and tossed it in. Brought it all back up to a boil, let that simmer until the veggies were tender—fifteen minutes, give or take. Meanwhile, I pulled the whole turkey leg out of the soup, knifed it up into pleasing little bite-sized pieces, and tossed that back in as well.

And the soup is done! No, it’s not. I glanced over at my cupboard, and saw the lone white onion hanging forlornly in my produce sack. Dammit. Now what? If I cook the soup anymore, the beans and other veggies are going to be mush. So, I…improvised! I threw a tablespoon of butter in a cast iron pan, chopped the onion up, threw it into the pan, remembered a sweet red pepper that I’ve been meaning to use, chopped that up also, threw that in the pan with the onion, and sauteed until tender—with a splash or two of sherry. Then I dumped all that into the soup, and finally, it was ready for consumption.

It turned out pretty good. My pure guessery on the timing of the beans and veggies turned out to surprisingly accurate. Some of the beans were split open and a little overdone while others were not quite done, so I don’t think I could have done better on those. The carrots and the celery—perfect. Tender, while still retaining just a hint of crunch, and plenty of flavor. The onions and peppers turned out pretty decent as well. In fact, I think I did myself a favor by forgetting to throw them in the soup with everything else. The onion especially was a lot more flavorful for having been sauteed separately. The pepper, on the other hand, could have been just a little more done. In the future, I think I would sauté the onion like I did this time, but cook the peppers in the soup with the carrots and celery. I would also up the water to ten or eleven cups—it could use a little more broth—and up the bouillon a bit to make up for the extra water.

The rest of the soup is currently cooling by the back door. Tomorrow, I’ll bag up and freeze most of it.

Smoked turkey & bean!

I’ve been cooking and cleaning an unhealthy (it’s a joke) amount over the past couple weeks, on top of longer work hours. Previously, I would work until 5ish, come home, spend about half an hour online, go longboarding for a couple of hours, spend another couple hours online, make some Pasta Roni for dinner, maybe read a little bit, and go to bed. Of course once in a while I’d do some dishes or make a good dinner, but it wasn’t the norm.

Starting about two weeks ago, my routine switched abruptly. Since then, I’ve been working until around six, then spending a couple hours either cooking or cleaning, around an hour online, read some, and go to bed. Even my time spent online is different. Rather than surfing around aimlessly, I’ve spending a lot more time reading about things I’m interested in: sustainable living, homesteading, micro houses, technology.

On the cooking front, in the past couple weeks I have made:

• Cheddar bacon quiche
• Zuppa Toscana soup
• Chicken Parmigiana (definitely the best of the bunch)
• Apple crisp
• And tonight: smoked-turkey bean soup

It’s an amazing feeling always having something homemade in the fridge. Speaking of the fridge, have I mentioned the fridge? It’s organized and sparkling clean.

I work later and go to bed earlier than before, but I feel like I have more time than ever. So…why? Why has this madness happened? Well, I think it’s a conglomeration of factors:

• Colder weather. Simple. More time spent indoors = more time to be productive indoors
• Ten days ago, Ted had his last drink. Prior to the weekend before last, without getting too specific, he was drinking a lot. Every night. Since then, he hasn’t had a drop of alcohol. I think that spurred my change in two ways: one: if he can quit drinking, why can’t I make a lesser change and start being more productive? And two: From a mental standpoint, it’s much easier to cook and clean and do other honest, hardworking stuff while Ted’s not sitting in front of his computer drinking.
• Simple self-improvement. Because I wanted to.

As far as all the time spend surfing around online…I really think it is a minor addiction, or at the very least a serious habit. I would spend literally hours not even reading anything in particular. Just browsing reddit. I’d tell myself I’d be done at 10:30, but at 10:26 I’d hit “next page”, so then I’d have to spend more time browsing. I’d sit down at my computer to put a song on, and I’d end up spending half an hour on reddit. If I didn’t know what to do…bam, sit down at the computer and see what’s happenin’ on reddit. Now that I’ve been spending my time different for a couple weeks, I’m barely even tempted to visit reddit or surf around. I’ll be done with my cooking and cleaning, looking for something else to do, and sitting in front of the computer doesn’t even sound appealing. However, like an addiction, when I do open my browser and type “reddit.com” in the address bar, the habit is back instantly, and I end up spending at least half an hour poking around. That’s just something I’ll have to work on, because there’s nothing wrong with reddit in moderation. It really is a fantastic site.

Anyway, that’s all for now. So now what? Read a book?

A couple weeks ago, I happened to notice a small poster hanging in the Black Cat advertising a log cabin in the woods for rent, just four miles out of Ashland. Electricity, but no running water. Although I hadn’t seriously considered something like that prior to seeing the ad, I was immediately intrigued. Lately I’ve been itching to get back into the country, and this just strengthened that desire. I wrote down the phone number.

A couple days later, I dialed it. It turned out the cabin is at the Golden Fleece farm: a small community of cabins mostly inhabited by Northland students and similar folk. I was picturing an isolated cabin in the woods, so I immediately lost most interest. I decided to go take a look anyway, since I had heard of but never seen Golden Fleece. I drove out and was shown around by the owner of the property, an older man called Ken. Initially, I was not all that impressed. The cabin in question (all of the cabins, in fact) is ramshackle and drafty looking, and while there is a heated shower building, it’s communal and located in the center of the community. That’s not to say there aren’t charms. It is in the woods, and when I was out there the trees were splendid in all their fall glory, and the ground was blanketed with golden leaves. The cabin is a single room with a loft, and has a potbelly wood stove at the center.

Call me crazy, but the more I think about it, the more tempting it sounds. I’d love to try to keep bees and raise a small vegetable garden, and whatever else I can fit in around my work schedule. This fall/winter is out of the question, since I would have to prepare firewood, but come spring…who knows. I feel like I should at least try it.