News and Blog

This is our fourth year for raising baby chicks, who will over the Spring and Summer, mature into the future laying hens for our small diversified heritage breed flock. These early chicks were bought from a hatchery source when they were day old "peeps." They are now a week old and doing quite well under the watchful eyes and ears of our family members.

The purpose of buying "hatchery stock" is twofold; to obtain pure bred pullets to replace their aging grandmothers, and to obtain a breed of hen well noted for brooding and raising their young. (Not all hens are capable of becoming broody mothers). Through natural selection and careful breeding, we are creating two flocks of laying hens that will hopefully lay more eggs in the Wintertime, (our hardest time of year to meet egg customer demand), without our resorting to forced, artificial, or un-natural measures. 

The chicks are fed a blend of grains, legumes and seaweed (for trace minerals) that we mix and grind ourselves. We avoid commercial "chick starters" since they often contain antibiotics, toxic compounds and growth hormones. We want our chickens to grow at a natural rate, using their own immune system to ward off chicken illnesses and diseases. Our success rate is unblemished with a 100% survival rate over the years. We take great pride in our holistic, nature-based, humane approach to raising chickens. Customers consistently praise the quality and taste of the eggs we sell.

Our relationship with our non-human farm members is based on respect for all of life, kindness to the least among us, and gratitude that they provide us with a means for making a modest, but richly rewarding living. We take the well being of our soil, ponds, trees, plants, chickens, and bees quite seriously. In this way we honor the spirit of life of which we are a part.

Contrast this approach to a recent news article announcing the recall of 143 million pounds of beef, because sick and down animals were forced into the slaughtering pens at California based Westland /Hallmark Meat Co. When I first heard the story, I was sickened by the implications of the recall. Assuming that these cows dressed out at 500 lbs. (a generous assumption) and 100 lbs. were diverted to non-ground beef products, the remaining 400 lbs. of ground beef per cow would represent about 357,500 cows. It is nearly impossible for me to comprehend the scope of this livestock mis-management disaster.

The sheer volume of wastefullness boggles the mind. It is about a lot more than just a loss of ground meat product for Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. It represents farm families, their labor, their land, water, pasture grasses, hay, barns, fences, soil, tractors, trucks, brood cows, calves, fertilizers, seed, etc. From a sustainablility viewpoint, it is a disaster of catastrophic magnitude. And within the current industrial agricultural paradigm, it is inevitable that these kinds of disasters keep occurring.

We are what we eat, and when we abuse and defile our living food supply, we lessen ourselves, imperile our personal health, and destroy the bonds that create a balance between the human and non-human families in the circle of life. When humans raise animals for food in sickening conditions, it follows that humans will become sick as a result. It is for this reason that we mostly eat the food grown here at the farm. We know it was raised under the best of conditions and in the healthiest manner possible. It is this same food we offer to our customers so that they too can live well.

-farmer leaf 

 While morning frosts stlll coat the farm fields, we stand poised and ready to begin a new planting season. After the disastrous climate events of last Spring and Summer, we feel a renewed optimism about the 2008 growing season. And well we should, for we have not been idle over the many long months since we faced the challenges posed by a late hard freeze and an exceptional drought.

There have been many changes here at the farm since the last growing season. The biggest change is the amount of rainfall we have received so far this year. Climatologists say it is because of the effects of a La Nina in the Pacific Ocean. Whatever the reason, we are receiving our normal (and generous) amount of rainfall, which is a big relief. Already we have received eleven plus inches, with more forecasted for this week. To retain a lot of this rainfall where it fell, we have spent the Winter months spreading woodchip mulch, horse barn-stable litter, leaves from roadside ditches, and last year's plant residues.

Rainwater collection and storage is our forte at the Broadened Horizons Organic Farm. We have employed every imaginable way of storing rainwater. When the rainwater barrels, cisterns, and ponds are full to overflowing, ground storage is the only remaining option for retaining additional rainfall. For that to occur means that the land must be loosened up and then have the ability to resist being recompacted. We are beginning our fourth year of working on renewing groundwater storage capacity in the south bottom (aka "Lost Forest"). It is a slow, deliberate procedure that becomes sustainable when the process is able to begin and then maintain the hydrologic cycle. The pieces we add to create the "starter" are trees that thrive in hydric soils, copious amounts of wood chip mulch, water soluble fertilizer (recycled black water), and pruning skill.

Three years after the first tree plantings, we are anticipating watching the closing of the overhead canopy with the first surge of new growth this Spring. This should occur shortly after the young trees begin to leaf out. This is an important benchmark, as it will now provide shade for the majority of the root zone. The shade provides the moist soil with protection from the sun, which in turn allows the tree to continue producing new growth, and hence more shade. Being located in a bottom means it is cooler overnight (cool air sinks- hot air rises) so that dew will collect here on the leaves which can then benefit the trees. During the day, humidity will be slightly elevated inside the grove, creating a potentially moist micro-climate.

While this work may seem to have little to do with the planting of feed grains or vegetable crops, it has everything to do with the viability of this farm. If the ground continues to dry out and crack like it has the previous two years, the long-term prospects for a productive farm grow dim indeed. It is essential for us to utilize every natural method of keeping the soil moist and fertile. Re-establishing vegetative shelter belts and pockets are a way to balance crop planting areas with those natural areas which sustain the functioning of the larger web of life. They slow or block the wind, provide habitat for insect eating birds, supply nutrient rich organic biomass, provide shade from summer heat, and retain critical soil moisture.

We are optimistic,because we can feel the heart of the land beat with a stronger pulse. We know our countless hours of pond digging, stream renewal, exotic and invasive plant removal, mulching, pruning, tree planting and working with the contours of the land are set to reward us with bountiful new growth indicative of fertile and healthy soil. That we have a meaningful role in the rapid restoration process of land that once yielded little more than heartbreak and debt, is a legacy worthy of our pursuit.

-farmer leaf 

I am back on the farm after a two week absence. During my time in southern Virginia, I was receiving treatment for a chronic health problem using Traditional Chinese Medicine. The results have been most encouraging, and more specifically, it is giving me a means of participating actively in my own health restoration.

In my last blog (#20), I talked about healing both the farm and the farmer. My body, like the original farm, had been pushed into a state of long-term non-viability due to unsustainable conditions. For the farm, it centered around the depletion of soil-based nutrients and a lack of surface water. For the farmer, the challenge was an uncontrolled production of white blood cells. Modern industrial chemistry had a "quick-fix" treatment for both conditions. For the farm it was the application of toxic (to the soil) synthetic fertilizers; for my body it was toxic chemotherapy. Both approaches were fraught with potential negative outcomes, and both approaches were rejected.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is very aligned with the philosophy that guides organic farming and gardening. Conditions that negatively affect the health of the soil or the body have been in place for a long time. Turning those conditions around can not be accomplished overnight. They require a long-term disciplined approach that seeks to restore balance and good health to the whole organism, not just a small portion or part thereof. It requires a willingness to change behavior and diet. Both soil and body need to be fed the proper "food" that restores and maintains good health.

All through the winter we have been manuring and mulching areas of the farm. This is the third year we have carried on this activity. Each year we see a gradual but steady improvement in both the soil condition and the fertility of the land. Most noteable is the feel of the land underfoot. No longer is it hard and unyielding, but rather it has taken on the more spongy feel of loose earth. With a good, steady rainfall amount so far this year, we are anticipating a good Spring bloom of vegetation.

We do not subscribe to the practice of annually having the soil chemically analyzed by a contract lab. Rather we have learned to walk the farm and feel the heart of the land beneath our feet. We pick up a handful of soil and feel it and smell it, and let it run through our fingers. We examine what grows here and what grows there to help determine the state of fertility. We do not treat one area at the expense of another, but factor in how improvement to one area affects the overall health of the entire farm. In short, we are attuned to the energy of the whole farm.

And so it is with TCM. Rather than look at just one aspect of the body, healers are trained to view the body as a whole interconnected organism and work to restore balance throughout. It seems so obvious, but western medicine has fragmented the body into seemingly unrelated parts. Specialists which focus on one particular aspect of the body now dominate the conventional approach to wellness. Each practioner is in effect, removed from the whole-body approach by adherence to only his / her area of expertise. It is similar to the conventional farmer claiming soybeans or corn growing as the only type of farming expertise, while ignoring or being ignorant of the broader soil and plant communities.

If you would like to explore the holistic concept of healing / farming in more depth, you may email me with your request. I am available to share my experiences in both areas.

-farmer leaf 

teach-[ME techen<OE taecan] vt.1. To impart knowledge or skill; to INSTRUCT.  2 To provide knowledge of; to cause to learn by example.

The Broadened Horizons sustainability-teaching-farm is, by the composite strengths of its staff members, a good learning environment for practical and sound ideas of how to achieve a greater measure of self-awarenes, self-reliance and sustainability. Because we take our mission to be worthwhile, we personally and communally strive to bring our best to all of our endeavors. As we journey through our days, we are often confronted with choices that seem to involve practicality and idealism. It is our goal to bring these two approaches closer together, where they can overlap more often than not.

Our determination to blend wisdom into our farm activities is most apparent in our land and water restoration program. By looking at a long-term time frame, we have, quite literally, planted the seedlings of a functioning biological framework for this resurrected plot of abused cattle farm. At the same time, our aggregate farm experience allows us to develop a greater role as co-creative partners. By reversing the process that drains the land of fertility, we actually do improve the soil’s ability to nurture life. It is taking land management beyond the contemporary context of resource extraction and habitat degradation, and using it to re-create a more viable and valuable biological ecosystem.

I have used much column space in this blog to offer rebuttal to the industrial-corporate farming paradigm. Common sense alone would indicate that chemical fertilizer and pesticide use is not sustainable, is simply a quick fix that leaves the underlying imbalance unresolved, and in the long run makes the problem worse. The only way we can have long-term, successful agriculture is to restore balance in the natural world. We need a balance between plant needs and soil fertility, between prey and predator, between give and take. When we lose this balance, we over-tax and under-nourish our life support system. If we insist on maintaining this imbalance, it can only result in eventual collapse.

Short-sighted “experts” vow to the public that quick fixes are good and the only real practical alternative. What they don’t acknowledge are the health-risks of stepping outside of the circle of sustainability. When our sustenance is no longer obtained in a natural way, our bodies will react accordingly.

For 15 years, we lived a rather stressful life aboard a small sailing vessel plying the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Tombigbee Rivers in the Southeast U.S. as citizen RiverKeepers. Stormy weather, commercial shipping, industrial pollution, poachers, hostile government officials, irate developers, and drunk boaters kept us on a constant high alert-like mental edge. Fresh food was sporadic, good drinking water scarce, and chemical exposure pervasive. We left our health threatening activist RiverKeeping life at the end of 2003 in order to restore our sacrificed mental and physical well being.

On Thanksgiving eve in 2006, a doctor friend who had given me blood tests and a physical, informed me over the phone, that I had been diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Since that time, I have been going to the VA Hospital in Nashville to have my condition monitored. As my white blood cell count continued to climb, the VA began talking about treatment. I was told that there was no cure for this smouldering dis-ease, just chemotherapy to maybe slow it down.

For me as an organic-based, teacher / farmer, the chemical treatment is not something I would want to do to my body. My immune system is my soil. To consciously and deliberately build and strengthen the immune system (or farm soil) makes much more sense than attacking it with toxic chemicals. I asked a fireman friend if I should fight fire with fire? No, no he said, "you fight fire with water!"

I will be away from the farm until March 4th while I seek alternative treatment to restore the healthy balance within my blood, and within my body. I am not outwardly ill, and my vital signs and life force are strong. It seems a perfect synchronicity to learn to heal both farm and farmer by following the broad tenets of natural restoration.  

The “Notes from the Farm” blog will tentatively return on March 5th.

farmer leaf

In recent weeks, small, organic-based family farmers in Indiana and Michigan began receiving registered letters from the USDA's non-compliance sector located in California. A woman farmer, from Coal City, IN, posted the first entry on the Local Harvest website forum after receiving such a letter. This singular event triggered a new forum topic that generated an immediate and vigorous discussion. It has been both ongoing and widely read by other small farmers. I took part in the discussion that ensued.

At first I believed it was a hoax, especially after a weasily ex-husband was implicated in turning over a photographaph of his former wife's "Farmers Market" organic produce stall to the USDA "Organic Cops." Then when it became apparent that indeed something "big-government" was really going on, the mood changed. There was both anger and resignation, rhetoric and reasoned argument, facts and make believe, but above all, a palpable sense that an illigitimate power had violated the sanctity of the small family farmstead.

The USDA was created in 1862 by President Lincoln. That same year the Morril Land Grant College Act was passed, a guarantee that the USDA's view of agriculture as an industrial-scale component of the global economy, would be taught to future generations of farmers. They would be weaned away from a sustainable, diversified, natural way of farming, and instead be taught that the only viable option for "modern" farming was to listen to the government experts' advice and grow the operational size beyond its' sustainable limits. The rational for this flight from reality, was of course, rooted in money!

Hewing to that belief, a long line of commissioners promoted a move away from diversified and sustainable local, family farms, to a more centralized, mono-agricultural approach. Certain regions became synonymous for certain foods, i.e. the "corn-belt." This involved shipping large amounts of food long distances, in order to supply local demand. Ripeness (or freshness) was lost, and the food failed to keep us healthy. As farm labor became more about large-scale machinery, and less about the growing talents of people, it was aptly named "industrial farming."

But back to the letters. The letter writer claimed to speak under the authority of the National Organic Program (NOP) Act, which essentially gave the USDA legal authority to regulate the use of the word "organic." It claimed that farmers, not certified by the USDA as "organic" were in violation of the NOP and subject to a $10,000 fine for claiming to grow organically. In other words, use of the word "organic" without USDA permission was forbidden!

As a member of the Broadened Horizons Organic Farm family, I was thinking I might have run afoul of the law, as nothing we were doing was certified by anybody. So I spent a few late nights reading the lengthy NOP at the USDA website- eCFR. I read it adneauseum until I could quote section and paragraph. I became well versed in the section that exempted small farmers making less than $5,000 from food grown and marketed as organic. I read labeling requirements and prohibitions, record keeping and audits, non-compliance penalties, soil requirements, manure protocols, all the lawyerese a simple farmer could possibly digest. And, I came to one conclusion; It was harrassment - plain and simple!

The movement to re-establish small-scale, sustainable, local farms to serve community food needs is based on a common belief that our bodies can only be as healthy as the food we eat. If we can't grow the food ourselves, we want to know the farmer who grew it, and what was done to make it grow. We want to know our food is safe, nutritious, and naturally grown or raised to give us the best possible nourishment for our bodies.

The corporate farm segment does, through the control of the USDA and the Farm Bureau, dictate a food policy that is unsustainable, unhealthy, and harms the land and the larger environment. It is a policy that spurns local food sources and heirloom varieties in favor of a highly mechanized, highly chemical dependent, mono-crop engineered type of agriculture that is harmful to the Earth's well being. One of the most significant environmental actions you can take as an individual is to buy your food from locally grown sources, more of which are spring up every day.

farmer leaf

Two weeks ago in my blog, I criticized the role of land grant colleges that teach industrial-type farming techniques, calling it bad soil science, and a waste of an Ag- student' s time and money. Higher education should be about using knowledge to improve our way of living with the Earth and with each other. After thousands of years of agriculture activity, one would hope that tillers of the soil had come to understand the life processes occurring under our feet. However, when viewing modern agricultural practices, the sad conclusion is that short-term profit has trumped good soil science.

"It takes time to do it right," is a familiar cliche that nonetheless is a valid truism. Doing it right does not usually lend itself to taking shortcuts and skipping steps.To maintain and enhance soil fertility requires a process that is compatible with natural laws. It requires unbiased observation, patience, and an understanding of what is at stake, both short-term and long-term. Those who practice natural organic gardening and farming display an earth-based awareness not found in the conventional farming arena.

The most widely used and concentrated source of agricultural related nitrogen is a potentially deadly inorganic chemical product called anhydrous ammonia. Worldwide, 109 million tons were produced in 2004, with 80% used in agriculture. It is most commonly produced from natural gas (methane) or liquid petroleum gas (LPG) (propane and butane) feedstocks. It must be kept under high pressure, is caustic, corrosive, toxic, can cause severe chemical burns, and requires special handling. It has been labeled the most potentially dangerous chemical in agricultural use today.

It is widely used because it once was a "relatively" cheap source of quick concentrated nitrogen. Although the price has increased considerably in recent years, farmers have grown dependent on it use. It is most widely used in the nation's "corn belt" because it can grow corn year after year, without the need for crop rotation. Corn is the foundation piece of American food production, with corn syrup sweetner being the leading ingredient of overly processed food. However, as one might expect from this type of chemical abuse, use of anhydrous ammonia leads to poor soil health, therefore negatively impacting human and animal health.

The relative health of the soil can be judged by the ability of the soil to digest organic material. When essential soil microbes are present in abundant numbers, the digestion rate is quite rapid. At our natural organic farm, garden plots must be frequently mulched as the organic cover material is constantly consumed into the soil at a rapid rate. A three inch layer of mulch will start showing patches of bare soil within six weeks during warm weather. By planting time in the spring, there is no trace of last summer's crop residue, having been organically incorporated into the topsoil without tilling or plowing.

On the other hand, I have walked in industrially farmed corn fields in early-summer. The new corn was waist-high, yet underfoot, the residue from the previous year's corn crop was plainly evident on the bare ground and showed negligible signs of decomposition. Digging in the plant-free soil between the corn rows revealed no signs of earthworm presence or activity. The soil lacked that earthy smell of humus, and was difficult to crumble by hand. Small gullies marked the sloped fields where rain had failed to soak into the ground, and instead had run off the land, eroding soil into the river.

Healthy soil does not stay bare for long, as native seeds and plants quickly re-establish a green cover. In our fertile plots, nitrogen-fixing beneficial white and red clover spreads like wildfire unless it is mulched back. It is our guarantee that the land will remain a vibrant life force, even if left fallow. Our healthy topsoil is too precious to lose to erosion or chemical degradation. We cherish it as the source of our very sustenance as food consuming humans.

farmer leaf

Early accounts of European explorers on the North American continent are laced with descriptions of the seemingly endless forests they encountered. Colonial powers immediately took axe to fell trees for ship building material in order to expand their conquest and empires.

The history of the United States is set against a backdrop of "clearing the land' of those forests. First it was done in the name of agriculture, then it was the mantra of progress that justified the destruction of our woodlands. Today, we have seemingly lost sight of our symbiotic relationship with the trees of the Earth. Forests are viewed as commodities, their value reduced to board feet and metric tons of pulp feedstock.

When we took over as the latest human occupants of this small eleven acre farm, we could count the number of mature trees on two hands. The majority of them were clustered around the farmhouse. The remaining three were down at the lower edge of the farm. The land had been "cleared" for cattle raising, and having been overgrazed and poorly managed, resembled an open, dry wasteland.

Our first priority in creating a sustainable farm was to establish surface water sources (rainwater ponds). In order to maintain this newly introduced water source, we had to re-establish another major component of the hydrologic cycle-trees. It was with this concept in mind that we launched the "Lost Forest" project.

My most memorable lesson in soil building came about from sitting quietly under a woodland canopy. In the silence, I could hear a continual dropping of organic material to the woodland floor. Little bits and pieces of leaves, bark, twigs and insect droppings lightly rained down in what is a perfect example of sheet composting. My thought at the time, sitting in the cool shade on a hot summer day, was that trees are perhaps the most intelligent example of sustainability.

With the "Lost Forest" project, we want to recreate that native intelligence that is so obvious to the careful observer. To that end, we began to plant a mixture of trees that would thrive in a hydric (moist) soil setting. We planted low in the drainage, and we mulched heavily with woody debris in order to mimic a woodland earthen floor. When the extreme drought of 2007 threatened our young saplings, we pumped the liquid effluent from our septic tank onto the woody mulch.

In spite of blistering hot weather, the ground moisture (black water) we introduced gave the trees what they needed to not only survive, but to actually thrive and grow noticeably larger. In three short years, the trees are forming the beginnings of an overhead canopy. They are now capable of shading the root zone, and can produce enough biomass to begin the self-composting that builds a sustainable fertility in the soil.

"Lost Forest" is both a demonstration project and a reason for hope. With today's climate change producing weather anomalies that threaten our ability to sustain ourselves, our interaction with the tree reforestation program indicates that we are not without recourse. It does however, point up the need to rethink our relationship to the trees which make life on the planet possible. To this end, we have vigorously promoted the recycling of lumber as we rebuild the infrastructure of our once crumbling farm.

We heat with wood, build with wood, eat from trees (fruits & nuts), moderate climate with trees (shade and windbreaks), and fence with wooden posts. We are in fact, totally dependent on trees for our livelihood and well being. In order to complete the sustainable circle of give and take, we devote a significant amount of our time and energy to the planting and care of trees. It is a relationship well worth fostering.

farmer leaf

Due to our modern, rapid pace lifestyles, many people now suffer from the hurry, hurry, hurry sickness. As a result, we have become a culture of quick fixes. With instant message gadgets, instant credit, "fast food," Fed Ex, etc., we have come to expect quick action and results with little input from us. This is also true in the modern, US Dept. of Agriculture promoted farming practices. Farmers are led to believe that spreading a bag of synthetic fertilizer, or spraying a toxic poison will instantly improve the quality of their land.

On the face of it, the type of agriculture taught in most land grant colleges is not only harmful to soil, water, and air, but also a waste of time and money for the student. What passes as science behind the doors of academia is so lacking in real world merit, it is difficult to understand how people can believe that industrial-type farming is actually workable.

Soil is not depleted overnight, nor even in a year or two. It is a slow process of leaching out the vitality and fertility of the soil, and not replacing what's used with natural organic-based soil amendments. With the wholesale decline of the small family farm, the agricultural circle of take and return was severed. Sustainable family farms grew their own feed, which was fed to their animals, who then produced a rich fertilizing manure that could be returned to the feed growing field. Farming was conducted in a circular manner.

Corporate farming on the other hand is compartmentalized and linear. The feed is raised in one place, the livestock in another. Feed and hay are moved hundreds of miles from where they are grown by river barge and highway truck. CAFO's (concentrated animal feed operations), where animals are packed into pens or buildings and fed hormone and antibiotic laced feeds designed to promote quick growth, produce tons of manure daily that become a major source of pollution and disease. Fetid waste lagoons and manure saturated disposal areas contaminate rivers and streams during rain events.

In industrial farming, the rich fertilizing manure is far removed from the fields where the feed (and fertility) was harvested, so another source of fertilizer is needed. Today, that means a synthetic fertilizer (petro-chemical) derived from natural gas is used. It is toxic, caustic, and expensive.The only way to truly enrich soil is to provide the soil and soil organisms the "food" needed to renew and replenish. The process of feeding the soil results from the application of organic matter.

When I was a boy, one of my chores was to clean out the leaf mulch in the flower beds each spring. Pulling the wet thick leaf mat off of the soil exposed damp, loose soil full of earthworms. The leaves were hauled to a disposal area on our land which we called "the dump." After a week of being exposed to the sun and wind, the garden soil was no longer loose, moist or full of worms. It didn't look as alive and healthy as when I first pulled off the mulch cover. On the other hand, "the dump" was where we went when we needed worms for fishing. They seemed to thrive under the piles of decaying leaves and brush. My first garden was planted in "the dump," as my family was not willing to sacrifice lawn for potential food.

Soil is a complex structure, full of symbiotic relationsghips between minerals and organisms. It has countless components that all function in a manner that sustain and perpetuate itself. It does not naturally lend itself to quick changes. When we attempt to "spike it" with some sort of miracle grow formula, we get in the way and do harm. Using chemical fertilizers betrays our ignorance of the complexity of natural systems. There is no quick "magic fertilizer" that can replace the slow, natural decomposition of organic matter necessary in building soil fertility.

-farmer leaf

Next blog to be posted Wed. Jan. 16, 2008

The Georgia Office of Climatology has forecasted that the current exceptional drought will continue through the Winter and Spring of 2008, which is bad news for all of us. We ended 2007 15 inches below the average rainfall total for the year. If you are concerned about having enough rainwater to grow a garden this coming year, then we encourage you to check out our webpage on rainwater collection workshops.

When I was going through my Boy Scout experience fifty years ago (I'm 62 now), we had the Boy Scout motto "Be Prepared" drummed into our heads by our ex-Marine scoutmaster. It is good advice that has seen me through all phases of my life, including a fifteen year stint as a RiverKeeper that had us making numerous wintertime crossings of the Gulf of Mexico in a small, hand-crafted sailing vessel that my wife and I designed and built. Preparedness kept us from being "lost at sea" and/ or drowning.

Today, it is apparent that the "normal" weather patterns have changed, and have now been replaced by climatic extremes that have thrown the natural and somewhat predictable cycles into disarray. Reactions to this fact have ranged from official denial to individual panic. We have witnessed the governors of Georgia and Alabama, two states being devasted by the current drought, proclaim a day of prayer in hopes of overcoming the lack of a comprehensive statewide water policy. We have witnessed others engaging in wishful thinking that somehow the "weather will return to normal", and thus end the crises. And still others have begun to stockpile bottled water as a survival mechanism. What all of these responses have in common is a failure to look at the big picture in a comprehensive manner.

If people want to pray for rain, or engage in wishful thinking, okay, but don't let that prevent anyone from also developing a legitimate plan and executing it in a timely manner. Summertime is not that far off, and if we wait until the earth is parched once again, it will be too late to "Be Prepared."

Preparedness must begin long before the event. Otherwise it is a reactive reflex instead of a plan, and while sometimes winging it can work out favorably, it would be foolish to adopt this approach in lieu of real planning. One could begin with a household or personal water needs / water allotment assessment. How much daily, weekly, monthly water do I need? How will I supply my daily, weekly. monthly water needs? What is my backup plan to meet this need if my primary source should prove unreliable? How can a change in my behavior and / or conservation play a role in meeting my water needs?

These are basic questions to help you get started in being prepared for an event that is unfolding now-and that is the continuing drought. We have been asking these questions for over twenty years, and have arrived at some effective answers for our own situation. As we learn to tweak and update our plan of action, we are also ready to pass this information on to you in the form of workshops and seminars so that you don't have to re-invent the wheel and waste precious time. We are getting prepared, are you?