Monday, September 28, 2015

Dept. of Great Stuff: Home Orchard Society Fall "All About Fruit" Show

Home Orchard Society All About Fruit Show

Join the Home Orchard Society for our 

2015 All About Fruit Show!

Saturday October 17th & Sunday October 18th, 10am – 4pm
Clackamas County Fairgrounds – 694 NE 4th Ave, Canby, OR

This event will be held at the main pavilion at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds.

Home Orchard Society's famous annual fall tasting event,   "The All About Fruit Show," is for fruit enthusiasts of all ages!

Attendees will have the opportunity to see and taste hundreds of varieties of heirloom fruit from the Pacific Northwest including apples, pears, plums, grapes, kiwis, quince, and more!

Home Orchard Society aims to help lots of folks launch into the pleasure of growing good fruit at home! If you love fruit or want to grow your own fruit trees, this is the place to be!

  • With entry – hundreds of varieties of fruit to see and taste!
  • Apple pie contest & Large fruit contest!
  • Speakers on a variety of fruit-growing topics (see schedule at website below)     
  • Cider pressing demos (fun for the whole family!)
  • Home Orchard Society expert table to answer your fruit growing questions!
  • Plus … mason bee supplies, fruit tree growing publications, order custom-grafted fruit trees, door prizes, & more!
        
        
    www.homeorchardsociety.org/events

Admission:

– $4 for members (family $8)

– $6 for non-members (family $10)

– Free if you join HOS at this show!

If you would like to volunteer for the show, please contact the HOS Volunteer Coordinator Jacqueline Freeman at friendlyhaven@gmail.com.

If you volunteer, your admission fee will be waived. You can choose your shift or come for the day!

Scheduled Speakers

Saturday
11:00am – Nik Wiman, Entomologist, OSU. He is a specialist in fruit tree pests, particularly working on Brown Marmorated Sting Bug (BMSB) and Spotted-Wing Drosophila (SWD.)

12:30pm – Jim Gilbert of Northwoods Nursery will talk about his findings from a recent trip to Italy, tasting figs, etc.

2:00pm –  Jacqueline Freeman will talk about Pollinators (her recently published book on this subject "Spirit Bee" has just gone international!) http://spiritbee.com/

Sunday
11:00am – Marisha Auerbach, Local Permaculture teacher. Will discuss understory permaculture in the orchard.

12:30pm – Ann Ralph, author of "Grow a Little Fruit Tree". Will discuss year-round pruning and cultural techniques to keep your backyard fruit trees a manageable size.

2:00pm – Todd Morrill & Shaun Shepherd will present a "how to" of making cider at home for beginners. Both of these gentlemen have many years of experience making cider and Shaun Shepherd is currently involved with a commercial operation, Bull Run Cider.


"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."


Thursday, September 17, 2015

Fareless transit works

7. Free transit attracts riders, helps communities
Overall, throughout the country, zero-fare systems have resulted in many benefits, including lower administrative costs, savings in travel time, fuller buses, and more.
Shareable, September 17 

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Pamplin Media Group - PORTLAND Effort steps up to find a home for every veteran

Why not Salem?

We have ODVA and many existing buildings ready for job-creating rehab and repurposing at North state Hospital parcel.

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/272791-147690-effort-steps-up-to-find-a-home-for-every-veteran?

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Monday, September 14, 2015

Why we need proportional representation: Women in state houses still stalled in most of America

Winner-take-all races (single member districts) reliably reduce women's share of the seats in legislative bodies.  Electing from multi-member districts increases women's electoral success.


  • State Legislatures: 
    (click to enlarge)

    It's been 100 years since women were guaranteed the right to vote nationwide, but women remain badly unrepresented in government. As the above map by Daniel Donner demonstrates, women are only approaching parity with men in a few state legislatures. In a new post, Donner looks at the relationship between female representation in each state legislature and party affiliation, and finds some real surprises.

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."


Sunday, September 13, 2015

Hawaii corals joining in on the warming hoax, probably pro-choice liberals to boot

In yet another sign about how fiendishly devious are the forces trying to convince the world that climate change is real, somehow they've managed to get corals all over the world to commit mass suicide, probably just to scare Real Americans into not polluting so much and to giving more money to liberal scientists.

Just because corals are just about the entire base of the oceanic food system, without which the oceans are just about wet deserts, so what!  We've got more cars than people, and those babies run on gas, baby, so move out of the way, we're driving for Freedom!

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Hawaii to experience worst-ever coral bleaching due to high ocean temperatures
// The Guardian

Corals are recovering from last year's bleaching but warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures this year will likely lead to a more deadly year for coral reef

Warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures around Hawaii this year will likely lead to the worst coral bleaching the islands have ever seen, scientists said.

Many corals are only just recovering from last year's bleaching, which occurs when warm waters prompt coral to expel the algae they rely on for food, said Ruth Gates, the director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. The phenomenon is called bleaching because coral lose their color when they push out algae.

Continue reading...
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"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."

Excellent idea, long overdue: Trap, Neuter, Release programs for feral cats

This is a good start. 

But we also need an ordinance that all domestic housepets in Salem must be neutered unless the owner has a special license, available through veterinary offices, with penalties (including sterilization) if the fertile housepet is found off the owner's property. (And pet stores can only sell unsterilized pets to license holders.)

Salem created a whole hairball of a regulatory scheme for chickens, while ignoring the much more serious problem of fertile dogs and cats and the suffering caused by litter after litter that they produce.

It's past time to make Salem a city where we don't have thousands of unwanted housepets starving or serving as coyote food and killed by cars.

https://whs4pets.org/salem-city-council-tnr-endorsement-considered-on-sept-14/

"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."