Via Cartoon Brew

• Michael Pollan, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch
  Michael Pollan’s latest piece in the New York TImes Magazine traces our love of food TV, from Julia Child to Iron Chef, and asks why we spend more time watching cooking on television than doing it ourselves. It’s a must read.
• Treehugger, Jellyfish Changing the Ocean’s Temperature…by Stirring It??
  Can the cumulative effect of swimming fish have as much impact in mixing the oceans as the tides? It just goes to show that the biosphere has just as much a hand in shaping our living planet as the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.
• TED Talks, Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering
  Gever Tulley talks about his tinkering school for kids. They build some amazing stuff and show the real potential of project based learning–engaging our children in creative exercise that prepares them for the ups and downs of the real world.
  
• Charlie McCarthy, Flight Patterns
  This is just beautiful. Charlie McCarthy uses time lapse and long exposure photography to trace the flight patterns of insects around a light post. Via Cartoon Brew
  

  flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

• FORA.tv, Food Security and Climate Change @ The Open Society Institute
  FORA presents wonderful discussion with Ross Gelbspan, Mark Hertsgaard, and Sara Scherr on how we can adapt agriculture to meet the coming challenges of climate change. Chapter 7, Allowing Trees to Grow in Grain Fields in Africa, is a particularly interesting description of agroforestry and permaculture in Niger.
  

Coturnix Quail

They also take up very little space, and could even be raised on an apartment balcony. I’ve read suggestions of 5 quail per square foot, but 1 bird every 2 square feet is much more reasonable and humane. Just make sure you keep the cage clean, because their droppings contain more ammonia than chicken’s and can get smelly fast. I had to modify our chicken coop to accommodate the quail hutch, but it resulted in a tighter overall feel to the space that I’m very happy with and we have room for about a dozen more quail. Also, Francis the friendly poultry woman at Callahan’s General Store, suggests cutting a door into a medium sized cardboard box to create a nesting area in your hutch. They are pretty shy creatures and need their privacy in order to lay.

Why aren’t more people doing this?

UPDATE: Our quail are on Treehugger! Also, if you are introducing new quail into your flock, do it in a neutral cage because quail are very territorial and you can end up with some nasty quail fights. Lesson learned! If your quail are wounded, apply some Rooster Booster to their wounds to discourage further pecking by the rest of the flock. Like chickens, quail can become cannibalistic and aggravate injury if the blood piques their curiosity.

Fore more info on raising backyard quail download:
Texas A&M Quail (pdf)

Our Chicken Coop with Quail Hutch Expansion

Go see Food Inc. It’s the most important movie of the year, a 21st century The Jungle. And try to take a friend who loves fast food. After watching stories of the animals, laborers, farmers, and consumers that have been harmed by agribusiness giants aided by our government, it’s hard to imagine anyone leaving the film thinking our food system is on the right track. Hopefully, when enough people know what they’re eating, we’ll reach a tipping point and the system will have to change. Food Inc spotlights Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms and the CEO of Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt who are exemplars of what is possible when we change the food system and put health before greed.

Unfortunately, I still left the theater angry at all the injustices, but I’m working on transforming that into something positive. I’ll be more determined than ever to plant gardens and teach people that you really are what you eat. And the Alamo Drafthouse, where I saw it, also serves up a locally sourced vegetable plate to go with the screening, so at least I didn’t leave hungry.

Food Inc Preview:

UPDATE: If the movie wasn’t enough, this morning we were greeted with news of yet another massive beef recall because of e. coli.

Screech Owl via KMorrison

Snags, common in the wild, are often removed from cities because a dead tree will ultimately fall on and possibly damage damage nearby people and property. Even if the tree doesn’t pose a physical threat, people often associate dead things with ugliness, and will therefore remove it in favor of new plantings.

These are not completely unreasonable steps to take, but if you have a snag that is out of the way, let it stand and take advantage of it. You can plant a vine near the base and use it as a trellis, nail birdhouses or lights to it, turn it into a piece of sculpture, enjoy the wildlife that come around, or all of the above. With a little understanding and creativity, we can turn a problem into a solution to enrich and diversify our struggling urban ecosystems.

Here are a few photos of my favorite Austin snags:

Ent-like snag near the Colorado River

I transformed this snag into an organic lightpost by stripping off the bark.

Snag turned sculpture at a local Dentist's Office

Standing snag off Cherrywood

Skull on a snag near MLK