How Northern Pass Will Affect Howling Hill VI

How Northern Pass Will Affect Howling Hill V

How Northern Pass Will Affect Howling Hill IV

How Northern Pass Will Affect Howling Hill III

How Northern Pass Will Affect Howling Hill II

Northern Pass

The thing is, I’m pretty terrible about “daily practices.” I don’t shower daily, I don’t pray daily, I don’t exercise daily. There are only a few things I do daily: eat, relieve myself, brush my teeth, check my email. I think about creating daily practices all the time. I think about praying, exercising, writing all on a daily basis. But I never actually cultivate those practices, I just think about them.

I’ve been writing on this blog for six years now. It hasn’t been a daily practice for most of its life. It started out as a place for me to write about the seasons, gardening, and whatnot because I had another blog (now defunct) on which I wrote out the rage which filled my soul with sour energy. It was there I did most of my politicking. But I outgrew that other blog and grew into this one.

I tried to be less bloggy and more in-person over the last couple years, but gas is expensive (I’m still not working with any consistency) so going out isn’t much use. The lack of money has left me very depressed so I haven’t wanted to go out and interact with people so hibernating wasn’t really a big deal. And since we had the house on the market, I didn’t have much to say garden wise, or canning wise, because I didn’t plant a garden nor did I do much canning.

But all that changed.

Wolf and I accepted we won’t be moving from Central New Hampshire anytime soon. We settled back into our home and started making plans again. We made a garden map for this year. We’re looking into some flowers we can plant. We’ve talked about how we want to learn and practice more permaculture practices.

Then we found out about Northern Pass.

Northern Pass is a project proposed by PSNH to bring hydro-electricity to Massachusetts and Connecticut via New Hampshire. The hydro-electricity will come from Hydro-Quebec, a completely un-green project of the Canadian government.

Northern Pass, if approved, will raise 1000+ towers for 180 miles through New Hampshire, from the Canadian border to Southeast New Hampshire. It’ll cross through the White Mountain National Park. The towers will be up to 140 feet high, about twice as tall as the trees.

If Northern Pass is approved, Howling Hill will be directly affected. A tower will sit in the yard. The stream which feeds the well will be contaminated. The soil which grows the vegetables and fruits will be contaminated. The air will be contaminated. The health of the humans, felines, and foul which reside on Howling Hill will be contaminated.

So the daily practice will documenting all the life here on our one acre in Central New Hampshire.

A Healthy Snack

The other night I was feeling a bit peckish after dinner so I put my knitting down to have a healthy snack of hummos and carrots. I ate a few bites until my snacking urge was quelled then went back to the knitting. Within a few minutes, I was having thoughts of being totally useless, of being a loser, of not being good enough for a job. Knowing the reaction in my brain was due to something I ate, I checked the ingredients of the hummos.

Everything looked good until the last two ingredients: “Less than 1/10th of 1% Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate (to preserve freshness)”. Sodium Benzoate, when combined with vitamin C forms benzene.

Wolf and I were on a juice fast and bought chemical vegetables because a 1 pound bag of organic was the same price as a 5 pound bag of chemical. Wolf was put onto furlough this week so money is super tight. As much as we wanted to juice all organically there was just no way we could afford to do so. Because he wasn’t working, we had to end the juice fast earlier than we expected (no money to keep going to the store to buy veggies) but we still had a lot of veggies left over which we didn’t want to waste.

Was the reaction I had because of the Sodium Benzoate and/or Potassium Sorbate? Because of the chemical veggies? A combination? Who knows! What I do know is we won’t be buying hummos anymore, instead Wolf will be making it.

Making our own foods is becoming more and more important to us. Getting off the processed foods, off the convenience foods, has had a wonderful toll on our health and given us both a sense of satisfaction. Teaching ourselves the art of traditional foods has expanded out palates and our brains. Our bodies are slimming, our minds are sharper and we’ve even inspired friends! What more can you ask for?