"Adopt A Crop" Sign Up List
Despite the recent heavy snowfall in the mountains, down here in the Rogue Valley it is finally warming up and when the sun shines, there is no doubt: spring is here! Below is the seed list we created in class today: thank you to everyone who volunteered to "adopt a crop", bring in tools, manure, or other items to help our gardens grow! If you would like to offer to bring in or do something for this project, please comment on this post and tell us!
"Adopt A Crop" Sign Up List
7 Comments
With another beautiful, stormy day of work, the four raised beds are full of soil and ready to plant -- maybe as early as Monday, our day back from Spring Break! I'm sending out a heart-felt thank you to the Pierce, Adamson, Plankenhorn, Mermin, Longan, Voskes, and Johnson families...thanks for pitching in!
Missed these work parties? Don't fret! Upcoming opportunities to get involved include: raking weeding mulching buying seeds planting seeds buying sprouts finding/buying tools transplanting sprouts buying organic fertilizer/mulch building additional compost bin(s?) turning the compost from time to time setting up a system for compost collection in the cafeteria contacting someone from grounds keeping for occasional lawn clippings Please comment or email Mr. Johnson at [email protected] if you feel inspired to take on anything in particular! Enjoy the rest of your spring vacation! What a beautiful, sunny day to build garden beds! Thank you to everyone who helped: Janet, Jeff, Becky, Piet, Zoe, Bjorn, Bodhi, and Karan! We now have four stout cedar raised beds (4' x 10' each), and I hope to see you at the lower Jackson Street entrance to Hedrick at 10 AM on Thursday to run a wheelbarrow relay to fill the beds with soil!
Needed: wheelbarrows, shovels, and seeds: peas, carrots, cilantro, parsley, radishes, spinach, arugula, broccoli, lettuce, collards, amaranth, cabbage, chard, kohlrabi, and cauliflower. Also: water bottles and snacks, and more good weather! If you know you will be there, comment below, so we can count on you! Obama endorses military action to stop Gadhafi (from the ASSOCIATED PRESS) – Fri Mar 18, 7:04 pm ETWASHINGTON – After weeks of hesitation and divisions among his advisers, President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed military action against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, saying U.S. values and credibility are at stake to stop "the potential for mass murder" of innocents. The U.S. military, which is already stretched thin by two wars and an expanding effort to assist disaster victims in Japan, would take a supporting role, Obama said, with European and Arab partners in the lead. He explicitly ruled out sending American ground forces into the North African nation. A wide range of U.S. firepower stood ready, including Navy ships and submarines capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles with high-explosive warheads that could destroy air defense sites and other potential targets in the earliest stages of any allied military action. In solemn remarks at the White House, Obama never used the word "war," but that is what U.S. forces could face if Gadhafi refuses to comply with United Nations demands. It is widely anticipated that a first step in imposing a no-fly zone over Libya — a tactic aimed at keeping Gadhafi's planes from attacking — would be assaults on the country's coastal air defenses. Obama offered a string of reasons for committing to military action. "Left unchecked, we have every reason to believe that Gadhafi would commit atrocities against his people," he said. "Many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue. The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners. The calls of the Libyan people for help would go unanswered. The democratic values that we stand for would be overrun." That marked a major shift from the public caution expressed until recent days by Obama's top national security advisers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. All had said that a no-fly zone or other military action would be a difficult undertaking tantamount to war, or that it could have unintended consequences. European leaders have been keen to show support for the Libyan rebels, but the United States had hung back until this week. The administration was divided for weeks over how to address the situation in Libya, which differed from other Arab revolts when it moved from a political uprising to an armed insurrection against a strongman. Military leaders were most cautious, arguing that a rush to show solidarity with the rebels might be shortsighted. Clinton and some other top diplomats were in the middle, with some White House advisers and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice apparently most ready to back the use of force. In remarks to Congress earlier this month, Gates spoke skeptically of the wisdom of military intervention in Libya. He argued that because imposition of a no-fly zone would require attacks first on Libyan air defenses, the operation would be tantamount to going to war. The Gates view seemed to resonate in the administration until the Arab League last weekend called for U.S. authorization of a no-fly zone. At that point the prevailing U.S. sentiment seemed to shift in favor of pressing for a U.N. Security Council resolution and subsequently giving Gadhafi an ultimatum. Obama said he was dispatching Clinton to Paris for a meeting Saturday to discuss with British, French and other partner countries the next steps in Libya. The president said he directed Gates to coordinate military planning, which has been in the works for weeks while the administration pondered the ramifications of getting involved militarily while also fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The president made no reference to a Libya's declaration of an immediate cease-fire on Friday — a statement that a rebel spokesman said was fiction. Instead, Obama listed a series of demands for Gadhafi, including the halting of all attacks against civilians, a stop to military action against the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi and other cities and permission for international humanitarian supplies to reach civilians displaced by the violence. "Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable," he said. The president was equally clear that the U.S. would not act alone. "American leadership is essential, but that does not mean acting alone -- it means shaping the conditions for the international community to act together," he said. Even more explicitly: "We will provide the unique capabilities that we can bring to bear to stop the violence against civilians, including enabling our European allies and Arab partners to effectively enforce a no-fly zone." He seemed to verbally underline the word "enabling," to emphasize the U.S. support role. Analysts say Libya's air force and air defense systems, while not negligible, are decrepit by Western standards and unlikely to stand up to assault. Defense analysts said Libya's military has been weakened by years of neglect, armed with outdated aircraft and weapons, and directed by a radar and communications system that may have limited capabilities. They cautioned, however, that it is difficult to give an exact assessment of Libya's military abilities, particularly in the wake of the recent uprising that saw some troops defecting and taking their weapons and aircraft with them. An assessment prepared by the Congressional Research Service this week said greater worries could come after a no-fly-zone was in effect and the U.S. and its allies had to deal with a heavily armed populace in disarray. "The apparent proliferation of small arms, man-portable air defense missile systems, and some heavy weaponry among fighters on both sides also is leading some outside counterterrorism and arms trafficking experts to express concern about the conflict's longer term implications for regional security," the new report said. The uprising against Gadhafi is only one of many struggles being played out in the region as long-time autocratic regimes come under pressure. Protests in Tunisia and Egypt have led to the ouster of long-time rulers, and there have been demonstrations in Yemen, Jordan and Bahrain. Protests erupted in at least three parts of Syria during the day Friday, according to state television and other source Before his public announcement that U.S. forces would join in military action against Libya, Obama met at the White House with congressional leaders of both parties to discuss his thinking. "The U.S. military will be playing a supportive role in this action. We will not have troops on the ground; instead we are providing strategic support where we have unique capabilities to the Arab and European nations that are taking the lead," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He took part in the Obama session by telephone. Speaking earlier, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he believes Obama has authority to commit U.S. forces to participate in imposing a no-fly zone without congressional approval, but he expressed hope that Congress would bless the move. If the U.S. military is ordered to establish a no-fly zone, a wide variety of high-tech weapons and aircraft would be sent from bases in Europe and the United States to shut down or disrupt Libya's Soviet-era air defense systems and its communications networks, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told Congress Thursday. He said it would take about a week to establish the no-fly zone. If such a mission is ordered, he said, he expected the supersonic F-22 Raptor — a jet fighter yet to be used in combat — to play a prominent role in the initial wave. With its stealth design, the F-22 can evade radar and has advanced engines that allow it to fly at faster-than-sound speeds without using gas-guzzling afterburners. Other fighters, such as the F-15 and F-16, would also be used, as would bombers, airlifters, refueling tankers and highly specialized aircraft such as the RC-135 Rivet Joint and the EC-130H Compass Call. The Rivet Joint is loaded with sophisticated intelligence gathering gear that allows the U.S. to spy on the enemy from the air. The Compass Call is an electronic warfare plane that disrupts an adversary's communications. Tuesday 3/22/2011 10:00 am South Jackson Street entrance at Hedrick-
Bed box construction Thursday 3/25/2011 same time, same place- Fill boxes with soil, compost, and seeds? Japan: Before considering the ongoing question of what to do in Libya, let's take a minute to consider the devastation in Japan following Friday's earthquake and tsunami. By now, the videos of the ocean carrying aways rivers of minivans and footage of walls of sea water taking entire sections of villages off their foundations have been viewed by most of the online world. Here is just one more site that shows the before and after contrast very clearly: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html
What to do about the situation? Japan, (a wealthy and highly-developed nation), is better-prepared than many other countries would be to take care of itself in a major emergency, but nonetheless, the scale of this crisis is huge. The death toll and damage is still unknown -- growing from hundreds of lives lost to thousands in the past couple of days. Here is just one of many wonderful organizations who are trying to provide aid to those in need: http://www.shelterbox.org/ Libya: Qaddadi's supporters are advancing on the rebel forces; some of the rebel fighters want the United States to intervene, but others don't. What is the right thing for us to do? Please take a minute to consider the issue seriously, and vote your conscience in the survey to the right! Based on what you know about the ongoing news out of North Africa and the Middle East, what do you think the United States' role should be in Libya in the short and long term? Help create the choices on our next "Food for thought..." survey. I'll start with a few ideas, but what other options can you think of? Add your idea, and if it is well-worded, it will be on our next survey. If you are not yet familiar with Qaddafi's biography, here's a VERY INTERESTING profile of Libya's current ruler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_al-Gaddafi
Topic #2: Riots in Greece, Popular Revolution in Tunisia, Ousted Leader in Egypt, Struggle in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Bahrain, Essentially a Civil War in Libya ...what do you think about what's going on in the Mediterranean and Middle East? Libya: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133798638&sc=emaf Bahrain: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/17/133827875/police-assault-on-bahrain-protest-turns-deadly?sc=emaf Please comment! Topic #1: As we start looking at the design of a Hedrick school garden, let's inaugurate this blog with a true "food for thought" question: What is your favorite vegetable? Complete the simple survey to the right, and I'll post the results later...if I can figure them out! |
Mr. JohnsonWhen not sharing his passion for history, culture, and geography with his students at Hedrick, Mr. Johnson does landscaping and masonry work around the Rogue Valley. He also spends as much time as he can exploring the incredible wilderness of the Pacific Northwest with his lovely wife, Jenny, and their kids – hiking, camping, kayaking and fishing.
Archives
October 2012
Categories |