Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Well I'm more interested in your "other conclusions" than theirs. Yes, really 
sad about farming and transport, always had a thing for Ireland I couldn't 
explain. Even named my daughter Erin.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 11/6/2010 at 7:34 PM John D'hondt wrote:

>I have lived here for nigh 25 years Paul and I have reached other
>conclusions. One of the things that have baffled me for a long time is the
>near universal hatred of urban Irish people for anything to do with
>farming,
>farmers or the land. And believe me I don't use the word hatred lightly.
>Another thing is that I have never seen people generally be farther
>removed
>from anything natural. If you see trees standing (apart from Sitka spruce
>state forestry) it is because the owner is too poor or too lazy to go to
>the
>trouble of having them cut down (it is a matter of status to get the
>biggest
>possible machine in to uproot trees) or because the owner is a (ff'ing)
>foreigner.
>Public transportation is wide spread in Dublin and there are bus lines
>between major cities. For us in the country there is no public transport
>whatsoever. Cars are thus major status symbols even if the driving of most
>rural dwellers is far below par. Only a very small minority is able to
>reverse more than a few feet and that is with the door open and leaning
>outside to see.
>When my children were younger they walked to school two and a half miles
>away. I was demonized for letting them walk. During those walks they would
>pick lovely wild blackberries beside the deserted road in summer. They
>were
>told by several people that this was gross because blackberries had worms
>in
>them.
>I could go on for a full lenght book but it is really too sad.
>
>And by the way, O'Sterity is not an Irish name but an Irification of
>"austerity". I can only wonder what the author had been smoking.
>I do wish with all my heart that there was any truth in what he/she writes
>though.
>john
>
>I came across this fromJul 29 2010:
>O'Sterity: old virtues in the new Ireland
>http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-11-05/osterity-old-virtues-new-ireland
>an excerpt:
>
>"Living on an island makes Ireland more vulnerable to a depression, fuel
>shortage, or food crisis, and yet the Irish seem more prepared to endure
>it.
>Agrarian self-sufficiency ran too deep, too recently to be fully
>abandoned.
>Many people here grow gardens, and until recently it was common for
>schools
>and hospitals to have a garden outside to feed the students and patients.
>Cities and towns are compact to the point of claustrophobia, so arable
>land
>is never far away. Public transportation is widespread and carries no
>stigma
>of poverty. Perhaps most importantly, everyone seems willing to help even
>distant relatives - and if they live on the island, they are never far
>away."
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
>
>
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