Yelm Food Sovereignty Project Hopes to Create a More Self-Sufficient Society

From the Nisqually Valley News:

The Yelm Food Sovereignty Project started as a “call to arms” in response to the concerns about potential food shortages, escalating prices and interruptions of food deliveries to the area.

The project is sponsored by grassroots organization Food Prosperity Central, founded in 2019 by Susie Kyle and Amy Malik.

“The goal has been to get local people involved in growing food, preserving food and becoming less reliant on a food distribution system that is based on trucking food from far distances that depends on only a handful of large national food chains for people to access,” organizer Amy Malik said. “Our primary goal is to bring neighbors together to support the local production of food by buying from farmers/gardeners directly, growing more of their own food and supporting local businesses involved in providing local healthy food to our communities.”

=====

The focus of The Yelm Food Sovereignty Project is to bring back self-reliance on a local level, while valuing neighbors as a rich resource of knowledge, manpower and support for things people need.

=====

On Oct. 13, there will be an event focused on food preservation at the Yelm Community Center from 6 to 8 p.m. Speakers will talk about canning, fermenting, dehydrating, freeze drying, root cellars and freezing vegetables and fruit.

On Oct. 20, founder of the Wildkind Academy Jessica Caldwell will talk about connecting with nature’s abundant resources at the Yelm Community Center from 6 to 8 p.m. More information about Caldwell can be found online at wildkindacademy.com.

Read more

Alaska Airlines, pilots reach agreement on new contract

From The Points Guy:

After more than three years of negotiations, Alaska Airlines and its largest pilots’ union have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract.

The agreement reached on Friday, confirmed by the union and airline, includes pay increases for the more than 3,000 Alaska pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association and comes after a lengthy negotiation process that saw pilots picketing at key Alaska hubs earlier this year and included the vast majority of pilots in the union voting in May to authorize a strike — though a strike never did take place.

The agreement must still be ratified by pilots in Alaska’s union; a process expected to start “in the coming weeks,” the union said.

Read more

Unprecedented dry/warm weather forecast here for Oct. 1-6.

The Yelm area weather forecast is unprecedented with near 80 degree temperatures for October 1-6.

Frost Dates for Olympia, WA and vicinity

From the Farmer’s Almanac:

Use our 2022 Frost Dates Calculator to find the average dates of the last light freeze of spring and first light freeze of fall for locations across the U.S. and Canada. Simply enter your ZIP or Postal code in the field above to see frost dates for your location (based on the nearest weather station), as well as the length of your growing season based on frost dates.

Last and first frost dates are 30% probability. Calculated using 1991-2020 Climate Normals from NOAA.

Read more

Once listed at $11M this ‘green’ WA state estate can be snapped up for just under $6M

From the Tacoma News Tribune via MSN:

A one-of-a-kind estate in Tenino that went on the market in 2018 for $11 million is now a bargain at $5.95 million.

In 2018, it was the most expensive residence ever listed in Thurston, Pierce and Mason counties, according to Tacoma agent Michael Morrison of Sotheby’s International Realty.

The estate is called Merkaba, which, potential buyers are told, means light, spirit and body.

South African owner Rebecca Oppenheimer reportedly told the home’s initial architect that she wanted it to resemble a spaceship and the famed Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum.

—–

Oppenheimer is the South African granddaughter of Harry Oppenheimer, former chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines. De Beers once controlled 90 percent of the world’s diamond market.

Oppenheimer was associated with the nearby Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment.

—–

Oppenheimer put Merkaba on the market in 2018 when she returned to live in South Africa.

Read more

99 Great Ways to Save

Whip inflation like it’s 1974: Squeeze $2 out of $1 with creative frugality

This year, the nation faces 1970s-style price hikes on everything from garbage bags to gasoline. Want to whip inflation now? Try these 99 tips to stretch your dollar when inflation is squeezing it.

1-29

Groceries | Vegetable gardens | Cars | Travel | Entertainment

30-65

DIY | Energy | Phones | Shopping | Help from AARP

66-99

TV watching | Make it last | Get it free | Get it used | Save while saving

Read more 99 ways to save

UPDATE: A reliever airport in the South Sound

+ The Olympian: How busy is Sea-Tac? Busy enough to plan a new airport. Where do you think it should be?

+ KING-5 TV, Seattle: Enumclaw community opposes possible new commercial airport in Southeast King County – Sea-Tac is on track to exceed its capacity by 2050, prompting state lawmakers to look for a new location for a commercial airport.

+ The Centralia Chronicle: Letter to the Editor: A Mega Airport in Thurston or Lewis County? WSDOT and Governor’s Expansion Work Untruthful, Misleading

+ The JOLT News: Ready for a major airport south of Yelm Highway? In less than two weeks, the State will choose one of three sites they want to create an airport the size of SeaTac. A location near Rainier in Thurston County is one of them.

Where will Washington’s new airport be? Locals are fighting against one of the options

From The Olympian:

An area on the border of Pierce and King counties is being considered as a potential site for an airport, and many locals are fighting against that possibility.

“We’ve got some of the last and best farmland in … the Puget Sound area. It’s very productive farmland that would essentially be destroyed,” said Tim O’Brien, president of the Enumclaw Plateau Community Association.

The Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission – created by the state Legislature – must recommend a location that could house a new airport facility as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will soon reach capacity, according to the state Department of Transportation’s website.

Sea-Tac typically serves 50 million passengers per year, according to a study from the Puget Sound Regional Council. Come 2050, that number will increase as the population and jobs continue to grow in the region.

Two types of locations are considered in this process: “greenfield locations” and existing airports. Greenfield locations are undeveloped land where a new airport would be constructed from the ground up.

They Were Entitled to Free Care. Hospitals Hounded Them to Pay.

With the help of a consulting firm, the Providence hospital system trained staff to wring money out of patients, even those eligible for free care.

From The New York Times [accessible text]:

In 2018, senior executives at one of the country’s largest nonprofit hospital chains, Providence, were frustrated. They were spending hundreds of millions of dollars providing free health care to patients. It was eating into their bottom line.

The executives, led by Providence’s chief financial officer at the time, devised a solution: a program called Rev-Up.

Rev-Up provided Providence’s employees with a detailed playbook for wringing money out of patients — even those who were supposed to receive free care because of their low incomes, a New York Times investigation found.

In training materials obtained by The Times, members of the hospital staff were instructed how to approach patients and pressure them to pay.

“Ask every patient, every time,” the materials said. Instead of using “weak” phrases — like “Would you mind paying?” — employees were told to ask how patients wanted to pay. Soliciting money “is part of your role. It’s not an option.”

If patients did not pay, Providence sent debt collectors to pursue them.

Read more

Jupiter is coming its closest to Earth in decades

From NPR:

The gas giant Jupiter is coming the closest it has come to Earth in 59 years this Monday and will be particularly visible because it coincides with another event called opposition.

When in opposition, a planet is on the opposite side of Earth from the sun, so you could draw a straight line from the sun to Earth to Jupiter, all in alignment. Jupiter’s opposition happens every 13 months. Looking from the Earth, when the sun sets in the west, Jupiter will rise in the east, directly opposite. During opposition, planets appear at their biggest and brightest.

Separately, Jupiter is coming closer to Earth than it has since 1963. Because of Earth’s and Jupiter’s differing orbits around the sun, they don’t pass each other at the same distance each time. When it’s closest on Monday, Jupiter will be about 367 million miles from Earth, according to NASA. At its farthest, it’s 600 million miles away.

The result of both is that the views may be somewhat better than normal.

Read more

Neptune and its rings come into focus with Webb telescope

From The New York Times [accessible text]:

No spacecraft has visited Neptune since 1989, when the NASA probe Voyager 2 flew past on its way out of the solar system. Neptune, which is four times as wide as Earth, is the most distant planet of our solar system. Voyager 2’s observations whetted the appetites of astronomers, who were eager to learn more about the ice giant.

Now we’ve returned. Sort of.

On Wednesday, the James Webb Space Telescope cast its powerful gold-plated eye onto this remote world. The power of this infrared machine, the largest and most advanced telescope ever sent to space, has provided some of our best views of Neptune in 30 years.

—

Ground-based observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope have taken many images of Neptune in the past three decades. But the Webb’s views of Neptune, taken in July, provide an unprecedented glimpse at the planet in infrared light.

It took just a few minutes for the telescope to image Neptune close up, and an additional 20 to take a wider view, revealing not just the planet but myriad galaxies behind it stretching into the cosmos.

Read more

Looking for new trails? Thurston County officials consider developing these four options

From The Olympian:

Thurston County officials are considering extending and developing four trails to better serve the region. Staff presented the four options to the Board of County Commissioners last week and identified an early front runner near Littlerock. However, the board delayed picking an option to pursue. With these options, the county aims to link trail systems and corridors as well as improve accessibility in underserved areas, said strategic and long-range planner Shannon Shula.

—

The Chehalis Western Trail also could be extended 3.15 miles from where it intersects the Yelm-Rainier-Tenino Trail to Vail Loop Road, Marson said. Additionally, the Yelm-Rainier-Tenino Trail could be connected to Bucoda, he said. This extension could start at Tenino City Park and run 3.6 miles south, mostly along State Route 507.