Nesting...

It's kind of bad for me to have too much time to listen to NPR. Especially when the world is as unnerving as it has become this week! I get all jittery when they start saying things like 'worst financial crisis since the Great Depression', and 'additional 3 TRILLION dollars of public debt'. That always makes me run for my calculator, and find out how much I, personally, owe. $40,000, in case you were wondering.

It inspires a nesting impulse. Yesterday, I made and canned a year's worth of jam, from our own grapes. Today, I made pickles, and granola. I feel a strong desire to plant food (we are reading: 'Small-scale grain raising'). Turns out we probably could raise enough wheat and corn to fill our needs right here on our 1/2 acre. And now that the 'victory chickens' are laying, we might live through it all.

It's not that I really think it's all about to go in the crapper. It's just that I don't know that it's not. If you see what I mean. And I don't actually see anyone with a plan, anywhere. Except maybe Google, which seems to be the only place in America that has caught on to the whole idea that eventually, the oil will be gone, and all fossil-fuel based solutions will buy us a year or two at most.

It doesn't help that the University has apparently just been asked to cut 2% of it's budget. That doesn't sound like much, until you realize that enrollment is actually UP. This always happens when the economy goes bad, because everyone tries to get re-educated, so they can find a new job. So we now have more students to teach with less money. Again. I suppose I should just be thankful that my office has a light switch.