Taking back the FDA

Boston Globe

IT'S TIME to take the Food and Drug Administration back from the drug companies. Before a prescription drug can be sold, the manufacturer must conduct clinical trials to prove to the FDA that the drug is safe and effective. Without that, doctors have no way of knowing how good or bad a drug is. Just trying it out would be ...

Marcia Angell

February 26, 2007


MARCIA ANGELL
Taking back the FDA
By Marcia Angell February 26, 2007

IT'S TIME to take the Food and Drug Administration back from the drug companies.

Before a prescription drug can be sold, the manufacturer must conduct clinical trials to prove to the FDA that the drug is safe and effective. Without that, doctors have no way of knowing how good or bad a drug is. Just trying it out would be not only risky, but unreliable, since individual experience can be misleading. The scrutiny that this agency exists to provide is vital to our health.

But in 1992, Congress put the fox in the chicken coop. It passed the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which authorizes drug companies to pay "user fees" to the FDA for each brand-name drug considered for approval. Nearly all of the money generated by these fees has been earmarked to speed up the approval process.

In effect, the user fee act put the FDA on the payroll of the industry it regulates. Last year, the fees came to about $300 million, which the companies recoup many times over by getting their drugs to market faster.

But while it's a small investment for drug companies, it's a lot of money for the agency, and it has drastically changed the way it operates -- creating a disproportionate emphasis on approving brand-name drugs in a hurry. Consequently, the part of the agency that reviews new drugs gets more than half its money from user fees, and it has grown rapidly. Meanwhile, the parts that monitor safety, ensure manufacturing standards, and check ads for accuracy have languished or even shrunk.

Most tellingly, the office that approves generic drugs is so small that approval time for generics is twice as long as for brand-name drugs. There is now a backlog of more than 800 generics. That delay is worth billions of dollars to the drug companies whose high prices depend on not having generic competition.

As part of the emphasis on speed, the FDA often approves brand-name drugs on the basis of less evidence than in the past. In these cases, approval may be contingent on companies conducting further safety studies after the drugs are on the market. But the companies usually don't honor that commitment. Of the roughly 1,200 such studies outstanding -- some for years -- over 70 percent haven't been started.

The FDA is strangely silent about this inexcusable dereliction. When questioned, it weakly protests that it doesn't have the authority to compel the research. In fact, it has enormous leverage, since it can withdraw drugs from the market.

The FDA also refuses to release unfavorable research results in its possession without the sponsoring company's permission. Here again, it contends not to have the authority to do so, but providing evidence of side-effects or negative results would seem to be an integral part of its job. It's no wonder that serious safety concerns about drugs such as Vioxx, Paxil, and Zyprexa have emerged very late in the day -- years after they were in widespread use.

The agency's coziness with industry is underscored by the composition of its 18 advisory committees -- outside experts who help evaluate drugs.

Incredibly, many of these advisers work as consultants for drug companies. Although they are supposed to recuse themselves if there is a direct conflict of interest, the FDA regularly grants exemptions from that requirement. Of the six members of the advisory committee that in 1999 recommended approving Vioxx -- the arthritis drug pulled from the market in 2004 because it caused heart attacks -- four had received waivers from the conflict-of-interest rule.

The FDA now behaves as though the pharmaceutical industry is its user, not the public.
Fortunately, the user fee law is subject to renewal every five years, and this is one of those years.

Congress should let the law die this time around and substitute its own support -- which ought to be increased. Other reforms recently proposed, such as administratively separating drug approval from safety surveillance, will not mean much as long as this law is in effect.

At $300 million to $400 million a year, the equivalent of about a day in Iraq, Congress can easily afford to buy this vital agency back for the public, and it should.

Dr. Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, is a guest columnist.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

VOICE OF AMERICA

Some Anti-psychotic Drugs Stimulate Appetite, Lead to Weight Gain

By Rose Hoban Chapel Hill, NC
20 February 2007
Hoban report -- Download (MP3) 826k
Hoban report -- Download (Real) 297k

Listen to Hoban report
About a decade ago, drug companies introduced new medications to treat serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and mania. The drugs, called atypical anti-psychotics, had fewer serious side effects than older medications, which caused lethargy and facial tics. But these new drugs tend to cause people taking them to gain
Dr. Solomon Snyderweight - an astronomical amount of weight, according to Solomon Snyder. "For instance, a 63-kilo patient can end up weighing 108 kilos after only a period of a few months on the drug," he says.
The neuroscience researcher from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, wanted to find out why atypical anti-psychotics caused so much weight gain. So he exposed the brains of mice to the drugs and measured their effect on enzymes in a part of brain that controls appetite.
He ended up focusing on an enzyme called AMP kinase, which is known to regulate the desire for food. "We found that these drugs very potently stimulated this enzyme, which would explain why they cause an increase in appetite." Armed with this knowledge, Snyder explains, drug companies could work to alter the chemistry of atypical anti-psychotics so they don't have these effects on brain enzymes. He points to Zyprexa, the most effective and most widely used drug in this class. "Were this drug being developed today, it would be very easy for the drug company to custom design the drug."
Atypical anti-psychotics are widely used throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Snyder's research is being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · SECOND CIRCUIT · Prior Restraints · Feb. 22, 2007
Wiki Web site no longer enjoined in Eli Lilly case
Other parties are still under an injunction to return confidential documents.
Feb. 22, 2007 · An anonymous Web poster who challenged a judge's order enjoining a wiki – a Web site that allows users to edit the content of a site – from posting a link to confidential documents about Eli Lilly's controversial drug Zyprexa has won his court battle.
A federal judge in New York ruled Feb. 13 that a previously issued preliminary injunction will no longer apply to the enjoined Web site.
However, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein ruled that the injunction still holds to some other parties, who must return and refrain from disseminating the documents.
Eli Lilly is being sued over Zyprexa in both federal and state courts by patients who say the pharmaceutical company deliberately downplayed the side effects of the drug, which is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The documents at the center of the controversy are materials about Zyprexa that Lilly submitted under seal during the discovery process.
Plaintiff's expert David Egilman had the documents, but was subject to a protective order to keep the documents confidential.
In his opinion, the judge accused New York Times reporter Alex Berenson of conspiring with Egilman and another attorney, James Gottstein, to obtain the documents. Gottstein got involved in a separate case in which he subpoenaed information about Zyprexa from Egilman, then sent copies to Berenson and more than a dozen others, including congressional staffers and mental health activists.
Times attorney George Freeman said in a statement that Weinstein's opinion "vastly overstates Alex's role in the release of the documents."
The Times published articles using the information contained in the confidential documents. Others posted the documents online and e-mailed the link to others. In response, Lilly asked the court for an injunction.
The court issued a preliminary injunction ordering most of the people who had received the documents directly from Gottstein to refrain from disseminating them, remove posted documents, and tell others to whom they had given the documents to do the same.
Lilly did not pursue an injunction against the Times or Berenson.
Web sites that posted or linked to the documents but did not receive them directly from Gottstein were also enjoined. In a Jan. 4 injunction, Weinstein wrote, "This temporary mandatory injunction further requires the removal of any such documents posted at any website."
The court specifically mentioned the wiki Web site zyprexa.pbwiki.com. An anonymous poster who uses the Web site, known in court papers as "John Doe," challenged the judge's order.
In the Feb. 13 permanent injunction, the judge lifted the injunction on the site zyprexa.pbwiki.com as well as other Web sites.
"Mindful of the role of the internet as a major modern tool of free speech, in the exercise of discretion the court refrains from permanently enjoining websites based on the insubstantial evidence of risk of irreparable harm," the judge wrote. "Restrictions on speech, even in the context of content neutrality, should be avoided if not essential to promoting an important government interest."
Fred von Lohmann, an attorney from the Electronic Frontier Foundation who represented John Doe, said in a press release, "This ruling makes it clear that Eli Lilly cannot invoke any court orders in its futile efforts to censor these documents off the Internet."
However, other parties are still enjoined in the permanent injunction. The judge ordered them to return all copies they have of the documents and prohibited further distribution of the documents. This means that they will not be able to post the documents to Web sites.
Most of the parties enjoined in the permanent injunction received the information firsthand from Gottstein. But at least one of them, David Oaks, received the information third hand.
The judge reasoned that the injunction was not a violation of the First Amendment, arguing that the documents were acquired unlawfully through the discovery process.
The judge distinguished the Zyprexa case from the noteworthy 1996 case Procter & Gamble v. Bankers Trust.
In Procter & Gamble, the Sixth Circuit held that an injunction prohibiting Business Week from publishing litigation filings that had been improperly sealed was unconstitutional.
The Zyprexa case is different, the judge opined, because the documents were discovery documents rather than litigation filings; the documents were never unsealed, unlike those in the Procter & Gamble case; and the enjoined parties are not members of the media.
Von Lohmann disagreed with the judge's interpretation of Procter & Gamble, arguing that the final injunction constituted an unconstitutional prior restraint.
"This is the first occasion to my knowledge where the court has granted a prior restraint against truthful information on a matter of public concern where the enjoined individuals were not involved in misappropriating the material in question," von Lohmann said.
(Zyprexa Litigation, Doe's Counsel: Fred von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco) -- CS
Related stories:
Times reporter refuses judge’s 'invitation' to testify (02/07/2007)
Judge's order preventing posting of documents challenged (01/19/2007)
© 2007 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press ·
Return to: RCFP Home; News Page

KIDS!


Watch this story expand!!

Eli Lilly to support OBEcure Phase II trials

OBEcure’s OBE101 drug will be tested in Canada on schizophrenia patients

taking Eli Lilly’s anti-pyschotic drug Zyprexa.

Michal Yoshai-Horovits 22 Jan 07 14:11

Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) will support Phase II clinical trials by Bio-Light Israeli Life Sciences Investments Ltd. (TASE:BOLT) portfolio company OBEcure Ltd. The trial of OBEcure’s OBE101 drug will be conducted in Canada on 78 schizophrenia patients taking Eli Lilly’s anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa. Eli Lilly’s support for the trial could total a few hundred thousand dollars. OBEcure will allow Eli Lilly to review the results of the trial before publication.
The trial will examine the effectiveness of OBE101, compared with a similar drug, in preventing weight gain as a side effect of taking Zyprexa.


OBEcure’s anti-obesity drug, OBE101, is also about to undergo Phase II trials in the US, paralleling the joint trial with Eli Lilly in Canada. OBEcure adds that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will conduct a clinical trial of OBE101’s operating mechanism on 80 patients during 2007.

Yesterday, OBEcure announced the appointment of Rodman and Renshaw to lead a private placement to finance the trial. Rodman and Renshaw will also serve as an underwriter for any possible future IPO by OBEcure.

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. The company specializes in drugs for treating mental disorders. Its flagship product, Zyprexa, has $4.6 billion in sales a year, 30% of the company’s total sales. In the coming years, a number of competing drugs, with lesser weight gain side effect than Zyprexa, are due to enter the market. If OBE101 is effective in helping limit weight gain, Eli Lilly will be able to keep its leadership in the schizophrenic treatment market.

Okay, obesity and diabetes are NOT the problem, per se. It's what it does to the PANCREAS and HEART. What a sickening corporate game this is!!

It's Peak Oil Sunday; I found so much good stuff

http://www.manicore.com/anglais/documentation_a/club_rome_a.html

What was there in the famous

"Report to the Club of Rome" ?

December 2003
website of the author : www.manicore.com
- contact the author : jean-marc@manicore.com
***

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2186#comments

Tutorial/discussion that is HARD CORE about oil/nuclear/coal and so on REALITY, folks.

Water Pollution in the Great Lakes .....

http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/pollution/water/water1.html


Introduction

Why so polluted?
Effects of water pollution
Dilution is NOT the solution!
Lake Erie: "We have met the enemy and he is us"
Further resources and references

The pollution of our waterways became a national issue in June of 1969, the day that the Cuyahoga River, flowing through Cleveland, Ohio, on its way to Lake Erie, caught on fire because it was so polluted. Although this was not the first time that the Cuyahoga River had been in flames, the 1969 fire caught the attention of the nation and the fight began for increased water pollution controls, which eventually led to the Great Lakes Water Quality Act and Clean Water Act in the 1970s.

*snip*

5 Lake Erie: "We have met the enemy and he is us"*

In the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared "dead," though, ironically, it was full of life -- just not the right kind.

Eutrophication had claimed Lake Erie and excessive algae became the dominant plant species, covering beaches in slimy moss and killing off native aquatic species by soaking up all of the oxygen.

The demise of Lake Erie even made it into a Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax.

Behold! If you STILL don't get it, then this article is for YOU.

We need to resolve the energy political scene,

we need spiritual renewal

and

we need to end the rich/poor divide

NOW

more than ever before ...

Behold the Rise of Energy-Based Fascism

(Part II)

By Michael T. Klare,

Tomdispatch. com

Posted on January 20, 2007, Printed on January 21, 2007
http://www.alternet .org/story/ 46839/
This is part II of Michael Klare's two-part series.
Go here to read part I.


Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and the author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency.
╘ 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet .org/story/ 46839/

More on what looks like a hopeless solution to the digital divide issue ...

So much for the 2006 elections, folks ...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/03/the_digital_give_and_take.php

December 29, 2006

Year-end 2006, Darknet Assumptions = True

Way back in November 2002, a set of Microsoft's senior-most security engineers wrote a paper that has come to be known as "the Microsoft Darknet Paper" (the company never endorsed it -- this was independent scholarship by the engineers). The paper explained why DRM for popular entertainment content would never work, so long as three assumptions remained true:
1. Any widely distributed object will be available to a fraction of users in a form that permits copying.2. Users will copy objects if it is possible and interesting to do so.3. Users are connected by high-bandwidth channels.

As we ring in 2007, here are a few year-end stories that illustrate, yet again, that the Darknet Assumptions remain vividly, indisputably, true.

Assumption #1: AACS DRM Cracked by BackupHDDVD Tool? All it takes is one leak, and DRM always leaks.

Assumption #2: 2.6 billion blank CDs were sold in 2006, as compared to 588 million CDs of recorded music, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. By the end of 2006, Apple will have sold a total of approximately 80 million iPods. Audio and video features are now a standard feature on hard-drive enclosures and in network attached storage (NAS) solutions; in fact, inexpensive routers and NAS enclosures now include Bit Torrent clients, so that the downloading can continue, even when your computer is turned off.

Assumption #3: A year-end review of trends in file-sharing, courtesy of Seattle Weekly, explains that users aren't just relying on P2P networks anymore, thanks to sharity blogs, YouTube (now downloadable, thanks to software tools), MySpace (again, downloadable), CD-Rs, and wireless sharing (ala Zune). And, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, 78% of Amercian Internet users now have high-speed connections at home, up from 65% in 2005.

Posted by Fred von Lohmann at 03:04 PM Intellectual Property Permalink Technorati

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/

(s): Corporate Accountability, Corporate Corruption Crime, Drugs Prescription, Federal Agency FDA, Health, Science Local Area(s): None

December 30, 2006 at 20:14:40

New Year's Resolutions for Big Pharma
by Martha Rosenberg

It was another year of fighting black boxes, sweet talking juries and burying incriminating clinical data for Big Pharma.

But before its reputation is completely gone--How many pharmaceutical salesmen does it take to change a light bulb?

It doesn't need to be changed; it just needs a new name and formulation before the patent runs out--

Big Pharma could make the following New Year's resolutions.

1.We will instruct our reps not to waltz into doctors' offices ahead of patients many of whom are--hello!--not feeling well and have been waiting a long time. We will admonish them to stop high fiving after a sale and using verbs like "aced " and "got over big time." They will never call the doctor "dude."

2.We will stop pushing schizophrenic drugs like Seroquel and Zyprexa to the depressed, anxious, moody, confused, aged and people we can convince are bipolar through alarmist ad campaigns. ("Are you sure you don't have racing thoughts?") We will admit they are dangerous drugs with serious weight gain, hyperglycemia and diabetes side effects that we tried to bury until the New York Times outed us.

3.We will stop selling depression to people with simple life problems--"Tired of your commute? Weather got you down? You might be depressed!"-- to boost SSRI sales. We will admit they are dangerous drugs that can cause--not prevent--suicide in all age groups except the old who we have on Seroquel and Zyprexa, anyway. (see above)

4.We will stop trying to resuscitate HRT---"it's good for women between 49 and 49 1/2 with intact uteruses and no history of heart disease or bringing lawsuits"--and admit we perpetrated a 40 year lethal hoax and should be keeping Bernie, Skilling and Fastow company at Club Fed. We will acknowledge the other "females" HRT harmed and release mares and their foals from Premarin farms immediately.

5. We will stop trying to replace the HRT market by conducting osteoporosis scare campaigns starring Sally Field and Cheryl Ladd and admit bisphosphonates by stopping bone remodeling can cause--not prevent--fractures (see SSRIs, HRT) We will further admit bisphosphonates can cause jaw death, a painful and deadly side effect we weren't going to mention until loudmouth dentists spoke out. (Thanks a lot, buddies.)

6.We will stop marketing the newer sleeping pills like Ambien as "safe" and "nonaddictive" and admit they are the club drug of choice across the nation and a leading cause of traffic accidents and air travelers who don't know which side of the ocean they're on. We will withdraw our application to start selling Ambien to children and ask ourselves what were we THINKING?

7.We'll stop relying on agricultural antibiotics for the bulk of our revenues and admit they are causing antibiotic resistance in our own pills and focusing attention on our failure to create new antibiotics in the last decade. We will further admit they enable factory farming conditions so sickening you don't want to look at them before eating.

8.We will stop exploiting childhood behavior problem with antidepressants, antipsychotics, "mood stabilizers" and other pediatric straightjackets. Despite the fact that our demographic data tell us "get them at 5 keep 'em for life," we admit we are creating a generation that will be ready for rehab by middle school. ("Remember when were straight-- in the second grade?")

9.We will stop financially inducing doctors to attach their names to journal articles we have written which promote our drugs, bash our competitors and just happen to address the main areas of concerns prescribers have. Not only does it fool no one, we've been busted twice by JAMA.

10.We will stop paying the FDA to fast track our drugs. Even though early approval means a quick killing in sales, the lack of follow-up clinical data can produce other "quick killings" we don't need. After all, Vioxx didn't cause heart attacks in monkeys.11.We will replace our salesmen, psychologists and integrative marketers with biologists and chemists. Sure they cost more-- but instead of coming up with new drug names when a patent is running out and new diseases to sell Americans from their TV sets ("Hey Doc do you think I have this?") they can come up with new drugs. What a concept!

Martha Rosenberg is staff cartoonist for the Evanston Roundtable.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_martha_r_061230_new_year_s_resolutio.htm

I read Hazel as a hungry-eyed person. I like reading the truth. I like seeing a journalist who has a wide perspective on herself, her people and what really happens.

I get damned annoyed with the Canadian mass coverage of what is happening in Caledonia/Six Nations .. and I write the CBC and particularly the Hamilton media outlets complaining long and loud.

I am glad to see Hazel here tackle and raze the establishment for what it says about here and exposing the lies they impose about what is going on. It effects ALL of us -- not just Six Nations or Canadian aboriginal persons. This is a "fight" between survival and spirit and those who are only concerned with the bottom line on their bank accounts.

I pick what I post about this issue CAREFULLY. WHY? Because I don't anyone mislead into thinking this is a sovereignty among nations issue .. this is about our right to live and leave resources for the future. That includes HONESTY ...

Hazel's update 12/26/06
MNN Dec. 27, 2006Greetings!

It has been a few weeks since I last updated everyone and I have had people e-mailing wondering what is happening.

Before I begin, I need to ask that those of you who forward and post this to your blogs, PLEASE do not change it. I have had radio stations slandering me,discrediting me, only to find out that they had been duped and someone had sent them a "so-called update", that had been drastically changed painting me out to be a racist etc.

I write what I SEE, and while it may not be journalistically orgrammatically correct, it is MY thoughts and MY feelings. The message is being received and understood by everyone else who reads them, so there is no need to change them. Perhaps this would also account for the Crown representatives who have been complaining about my updates to our Haudenesonne delegates. They do not like my updates and are concerned that they could be construed as coming from the"negotiations".

So as a matter of clarification, when I update the people, which IS what my job is, I update based on looking at things from the Eagles perspective. It is not from a politicians perspective, and it is not from the Chiefs or delegates perspective.

It is from the perspective of one who can bring herself away from the table of discussions and look onto the situation and look beyond the words that are being said, and look at the actions of the Crown and from that, put on paper the words from my heart and from my instincts, of what is really going on. So for the federal government to have made issue with my updates, not just once, but several times, tells me that I AM DOING MY JOB!

One thing I made clear at the beginning of my attending the meetings is that I report to the PEOPLE. There is no such thing as confidentiality when it comes to the Haudenesonne. Our people counsel in honesty and openness and that is how we will continue. For us to state otherwise, will only lend to question what it is that we have to hide. I report to the Clanmothers and Chiefs on what I am doing, and answer any questions that they have, and I will continue to do so.

My obligation is to the People, and to keep them informed. These updates are for all of the Haudenesonne who are spread across Turtle Island and cannot attend meetings or council to be updated. They are for the millions of Onkwehonweh across the world who are reading and watching and counting on the Haudenesonne to uphold their responsiblities to Creation in order to help bring about Justice for all the Onkwehonweh.

More importantly, my updates are for the Creator.

To do what I believe is what is the highest good of ALL concerned. Not in the interest of any individual or Nation.

This is about the PEACE that was intended for ALL.

I have been put on this earth to answer only to the Creator and to do the job that he set me on this earth to do.

It is not for any one to question, it is between me and the Creator, and while some may not appreciate my perspective or my thoughts, OH WELL, cause I am not here to please anyone either.

Having said that, the first thing I have to take issue with, IS the Federal representatives reason for taking issue with my updates. Their concern was with my use of the word Genocide and how I refer to their actions as "the continuance of thegenocidal practices of the Crown".

Well, HELLLLOOOO!

Spot it you got it I say.

Perhaps they took issue with the fact that it is the TRUTH, and while they might not like it, it is a FACT.

One of their legal representatives is apparently Jewish and felt that my use of the word was inappropriate becuase of the suffering of the Jews at the hands of Hitler. Well as a matter of clarification, Hitler studied the Onkwehonweh and while I have been told that he liked how our people lived and how our law worked, he also seen how Western Civilization treated the Onkwehonweh, and he modelled the treatment of the Jews after THAT and so YES!, Geneocide is an ugly word, but no one people can take ownership of the word, and those that do, need to study a bit more of where it comes from and how it even became a word in the english dictionary in the first place. It came from the treatment of the Onkwehonweh by those who invaded our homelands and tried to wipe us out for their own benefit and gain.

So as far as I'm concerned, the Crown IS continuing with its genocidal practices because of its insistance on thinking it has some sort of governance over our people, which they do not; and by their refusal to uphold the Treaties to which their ancestors swore to, which they are obligated to do.

You can't just have it your way.

They want us to acknowledge all of the agreements and treaties that benefit their people, but the moment we remind them that that Silver Covenant Chain can rattle in both directions, they close their eyes and ears.

Well, our people are tired of it, and we are not going to tolerate it any longer. The Crown needs to ensure that the representatives that they send to the table to talk, are one's that have the ability to make a decision, not one's that are there to bide time while they try to figure out a way to get out of it.

Barbara McDougal herself told Tekareporter Jim Windell that she is not there to negotiate or make decisions. So again, what is it that the taxpayers are paying these big dollars for???????????

For the last ten months they have been dancing around and talking about everything BUT the issue at hand.

The Land.

We've talked about blockades, fences, buffer zones, governance, 4-wheelers, flashing lights and flags. When are we going to get to the heart of everything.

You stole our land, we've proven it. What is there to negotiate? We took it back and there is nothing to talk about other then when are you giving the rest back.

Or do we have to come and take that too? When have you ever seen a car thief negotiate with the owner over when and how to give it back.

This whole process is ridiculous!

All I know is that the People are getting tired of being led down the garden path once again and in July when the barricades came down, we gave our delegates a few months to deal with it. It has been well past a few months and it is time that the Crown representatives remembered that the delegates that have been chosen to sit at the table with them are exactly that, delegates.

I have heard our delegates remind the Crown representatives that they can only hold the people back for so long.

I know that the PEOPLE are definitely not happy about the apparent lack of good will on the part of the Crown, and if the people so choose, we may have to send in more convincing delegates to get the message across.

And talk about messages.

Gary McHale has been on a campaign to prove that there is a two-tiered justice system when it comes to the Native people and he has finally proven himself right. He is a walking talking evidence of the two tiered justice that exists within Canada's so-called democracy and its treatment of native people. He has been weebling in and out of the reclamation situation by holding marches, demonstrations, and setting up his web page campaign to try and undermine our people's position, and to get out his propoganda.

His latest venture was using the Canadian Troops with his flag campaign. Well, he got what he wanted. He proved that there IS a two-tiered justice. Gary was arrested and released WITHOUT condition.

Every single "Native" person that was arrested with respect to the reclamation of OUR lands near Caledonia, had the condition "not to return to Douglas Creek" as part of their release. If the Crown's agents of the Courts really wantedGary McHale to go away and stop interfering in what is NONE OF HIS BUSINESS, they could have easily directed him with the same conditions as our people have been given. Stay away from Douglas Creek.

I guess the Crown doesn't want him to stay away because with the Gary McHales of the world, there is no guarantee of PEACE, and he has been given a "get out of jail free card" to allow him the freedom to continue to manipulate and undermine the Peace by instigating trouble. Good job Gary, thanks for proving our point.

Along side of Gary McHale are the homeowners who claim that the "Native's from the Site" broke into their home and vandalized it. They have Mayor Trainer of Caledonia and MP Toby Barrett going on national television, and in their house of commons blaming our people for the vandalism and continuing with their claims that there is no peace within Caledonia, and that they are constantly being terrorized. It doesn't take a genious to figure out that perhaps there is some dirty pool going on with this so-called break in.

First of all, if there was truly a break-in and vandalism, WHY would you compromise the evidence by inviting CH TV Channel 11 in to take footage, and have half the neighbourhood in there trapsing through and eliminating any chance of the police being able to do a thorough investigation because you've compromised the crime scene.

Also, if it was one of our people from the site, there should be a lot of mud in the crime scene and foot prints leading to and from the house as they claim the 'individuals' ran out the back when they got home and went into the reclamation site.

Our men did our own investigation and can clearly see there were no footprints leading to or from the house from the site, and for all of those who came to the site when the homeowners had the media and their supporters there claiming the natives had broken in, calling us names and holding signs that read "Peaceful People my Ass", everyone who was on the site had their shoe sizes enhanced by a couple of sizes from the mud that caked on their shoes from walking in the field next to the house, so don't tell me that anyone from the site did this.

It was a staged set up, and poorly done I might add.

They're either stupid or think we are.

Our people are fully prepared to co-operate with the police to ensure that this is investigated thoroughly because we know it wasn't any of our people from the site, and we know a set up when we see one.

This is the same crap that was pulled in Kanesetake during 1990 trying to use the media as a negotiating tool and to play out their political bs at the expense of the Onkwehonweh.

In this particular case, it has been alleged that the homeowners want to be bought out and the government won't answer to their demands for an outrageous amount of money. It is also been alleged that the three times they claim that the "natives from the site" stole their Canadian flag off of their lawn, they were seen by police removing the flag itself, and then calling in a false police report. I think that the politicians who are supporting these slanderous accusations against our people need to think about who and what they are supporting (unless they are part of the plan) because at this point, perhaps we should go ahead and jump into the boat and into their court system with charges of slander against our people and sue them for everything they got, including their homes that are sitting on land that already belongs to us.

The only terroristic action that is happening near Kanesthaton, is that brought on when the instigators from outside try to come in and insite trouble, or when the politicians who think they are doing something for their people, continue with their lie-filled campaigns based on slanderous gossip and who are both supported and allowed to report it as facts by irresponsible news media.

So, a message from our people, go ahead and continue with your plots of deception, keep on trying to prove to the world that we are an evil people as your latest blog "faces of evil" tried to imply, because when you live and answer to the Creator, you live without fear.

We have nothing to hide. We have simply stated the facts. The land is ours. The road which you hang your flags on is ours. The business which you are claiming millions of dollars of losses on, is a result of the racism and hatred shown against our people that has caused our people not to shop in your stores anymore. It is not a result of barricades and it isn't based on fear from the outside townspeople coming in to shop, because they continue to come to Six Nations.

It is your own doing. It is your mayors' doing. It is because you did not understand or respect the fact that the Haudenesonne, whom you want the army brought in to eliminate, are the very people who supported and kept your business running by the spending of our money in your community.

I also wanted to touch on the whole "faces of evil" thing. There was a recent blog which was allegedly started by the same individual from London Ontario who supports Gary McHale and who apparently scanned different pictures of our people and our supporters to create a little video depicting so-called "faces of evil".

I didn't get to watch it because by the time I tried to view it, it had been shut down. But the whole thing about our people being evil was started a few months ago within ourown community by the elected chief and his political advisor after the band council voted to stop paying the salary of this particular legal advisor and took him out of his position. ( Note however, that the individual is still out there speaking on behalf of the Six Nations, and still wanders around the band administration building as any other employee even though he supposedly was taken off payroll........what gives!? )

It was an attempt at a smear campaign to undermine the position of the people at Kanehstaton, it was done out of anger to try and get our people to stop supporting the site, and somehow try to stop the movement of the people at forcing the crown to deal with our only true government, the Haudenesonne. The people, through our traditional council.

As a matter of fact, it was implied that our traditional council was evil.

It was an ill fated attempt to smear some of the people who supported us financially. It was and continues to be used as a tool by those who want to discredit the Haudenesonne in order to perpetuate the fraud of the crown in its insistance at dealing with the illegal entity known as the elected band council.

I understand that there was something out there with my own name attached to it, that an individual was calling me evil. I don't know because I didn't read it, I was only told about it. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it is right in line with what has been prophescized.

That we, the Haudenesonne, would be called evil.

That we would referred to as the "666" which apparently one of the article's was referring to the "6-6-6 Nations".

I have been told by many elders inthe past, that this time would come, and that those who truly work for the Creator would clearly be separated from those that don't.

I guess that time is now, and those individuals are showing themselves.

Finally, I want to talk about this holiday season in particular and how deeply it has effected me.

For many years, I have struggled with Christmas, and have tried to teach my children the truth about this season, and how I see it. That for the Christian people, it is a time to celebrate Christs birth, and to enjoy Peace on Earth. And yet, for the Onkwehonweh, this is something that we are suppose to live our life by. Every day. Not just one day of the year.

Just like many of the other Christian/Calendar holidays. Mothers Day, Fathers Day etc.

Why would you only honour your mother and father on one day of the year. So why do we only acknowledge this person, Christ, who gave his life for your sins, only one day of the year.

In our teachings, He was known as the Peacemaker, and the Kaienerekowah, this Great Law, is the Law or Message of Peace that he brought to help us to live our life by. It is symbolized by the Great White Pine Tree with an Eagle sitting at the top.

I'll share with you this story I was told and then I will explain why.

I was told that when the Peacemaker came and our people accepted the Peace, He then told us that He was going to go across the great big waters and deliver this same message to the people over there. He left instructions for our people to cut a notch out ofthe Great White Pine every day, and if one day that Pine was to bleed, we would know that those people did not accept the Peace and that they had killed Him. So every day, our people cut the notch out of the tree, and finally, there came a day whenthat Pine did bleed.

Our people were angry and set out to build a big raft and were going to go across those great waters and kill the people that had killed our Peacemaker. But while they were building this raft, the Peacemaker returned to them
in spirit and told them not to go across to kill those people.

He reminded them of the Peace that we had accepted. He showed them the holes in his hands and feet, and the crown of thorns on his head and he warned our people that there would come a time when those people would come across the waters to our homelands and it was up to us if we welcomed them and helped them.

He also warned our people to beware of the man carrying the black book. This is something that has never left my mind. It was not the book itself that he warned us of. It was the man who carried the black book, and just like anything written, it can be changed and manipulated to control people. And like everything else in the battle of good vs. evil, right handed twin vs. left handed twin, everything that was good that the right handed twin did, the left handed twin has to undermine.

So too has this message of Peace been undermined.

This celebration of Peace, that was given to all people, was never intended to be commercialized, nor was it intended only to be acknowledged only one day out of the year.

The Eagle, representing the Onkwehonweh who have the responsiblity to uphold that peace, that rests on top of the Great Tree; was replaced by the Star of David, and the Message of Peace has been replaced by commercialization and the giving of presents.

It has become something that is used to further the stress and hardship of the people by putting pressure on parents to go into debt to buy presents for their children based on what?!

On Peace? No wonder statistics show that Christmas time has the highest rate of suicide because we are buying into the fraud and continue to teach our children this fraud.

So when I was on my way home from town on Christmas Eve with my daughter, and I had just hung up the phone with my husband who was at the site at Kanehstaton, and I was thinking of the people at the site, who weren't at home with their families enjoying foods and celebrations, but who were there on that site maintaining our position and upholding the Law that Creator gave to us, my tears began to fall.

When she asked if I was ok, I told her how I felt. How hypocritical I felt because how I know that this whole Christmas Season is just a facade and that those people who were at the site were doing exactly what the Creator intended for us to do and what we are obligated to do and how this Peace that we speak of isn't suppose to be only acknowledged one day of the year, and that it isn't about presents, and that even though my tree at home has an Eagle on it rather than a Star, am I truly upholding what the Creator intended by continuing that facade.

I cried alot of tears that night. But my tears were not for the people at the site, they were for the rest of us. Again, just MY thoughts. And while everyone at Kanehstaton knows my heart and my spirit is with them even when I can't be, I want to acknowledge all of them who are staying on the site full time, and I want the rest of the world to know that those individuals have my deepest respect because of their committment and dedication to the Onkwehonweh, to our Sovereignty, to the Kaierenekowah and to the Creator.

I am truly inspired by you all!

Nya Weh Kowah!

For now, that is it for my update.

I was asked to give some thought about the new year, and perhaps share some of what I envision for the Onkwehowehonweh.

What I envision is a time of change for the Onkwehonweh. I can see the Unity and Peace growing and the Haudenesonne slowly taking back their responsiblities and rightful place in the Governance of the People, and I see the People, knowing it is OUR responsiblity, making sure that this is what happens. I see the Crown finally recognizing that it is the People who are the government and that they can continue to try and manipulate individuals and the elective system, but they will never manipulate nor dictate to the Onkwehonweh.

I know for myself, and in speaking with some of the women who are part of the "negotiations" both band council as well as traditional, we are committed to having more community meetings and updating the people so they are more directly involved with what is going on.

My biggest message is to all of our supporters.

For it is with all of you that recognition must be given. When I stood with the Women & Clanmothers in that circle and we sent out the message to re-kindle the Fire of Peace back in April, and I look at how far our message of Peace has reached, and how truly amazing times that we are in and what an impact that this is having on the World, It is all of you that we have to thank.

So Nya Weh Kowah to all of you who accepted that Peace and who share that Message with others.

Nya Weh to all of those who have supported Kanehstaton through your financial donations, through your encouraging words, and through your prayers.

All of you are greatly appreciated and thought of in our prayers as well.

In Love, Light and Peace,
Hazel

poster: Thahoketoteh

100 Things You Can Do to Get Ready for Peak Oil
By Sharon Astyk [ Sharon Astyk, as those familiar with her writing here at Energy Bulletin, or on Casaubon's Book will know, is well advanced down the route of low energy living. As such, these suggestions go far beyond the usual stale sustainability tips for consumers, and into the kind of adaptations which can reduce our energy usage not by percentage points, but by orders of magnitute. At the same time they offer rich challenges, good food, and meaningful family and community experiences. -AF ]

SPRING

Rethink your seed starting regimen. How will you do it without potting soil, grow lights and warming mats. Consider creating manure heated hotbeds, using your own compost, building a greenhouse, or coldframe, direct seeding early versions of transplanted crops, etc...
Your local feed store has chicks right now - even suburbanites might consider ordering a few bantam hens and keeping them as exotic birds. Worth a shot, no? You can grow some feed in your garden for them, as well as enjoying the eggs.
Order enough seeds for three years of gardening. If by next spring, we are all unable to get replacement seed, will you have produced everything you need? What if you can't grow for a year because of some crisis? Order extras from places with cheap seed like www.fedcoseeds.com, www.superseeds.com,

Yard sale season will begin soon in the warmer parts of the country, and auctions are picking up now in the North. Stocking up on things like shoes, extra coats, kids clothing in larger sizes, hand tools, garden equipment is simply prudent - and can save a lot of money.

The real estate "season" will begin shortly, with\n families wanting to get settled in new homes during the summer, before the school year starts. If you are planning on buying or selling this year, now is the time to research the market, new locations, find that country property or the urban duplex with a big yard.

Once pastures are flush, last year's hay is usually a bargain, and many farmers clean out their barns. manure and old hay are great soil builders for anyone. Check out your local animal shelter and adopt a dog or cat for rodent control, protection and friendship during peak oil. As things green up, begin to identify and use local wild edibles. Eat your lawn's dandelions, your daylily shoots, new nettles. Hunt for morels (learn what you are doing first!!) and wild onions. Get in the habit of seeing what food there is to be had everywhere you go. Set up rainbarrel or cistern systems and start harvesting your precipitation. Planning to only grow vegetables? Truly sustainable gardens\n include a lot of pretty flowers, which have value as medicinals, dye and fiber plants, seasoning herbs, and natural cleaners and pest repellants. Instead of giving up ornamentals altogether, grow a garden full of daylilies, lady's mantle, dye hollyhocks and coreopsis, foxgloves, soapwart, bayberry, hip roses, bee balm and other useful beauties. Get a garden in somewhere around you - campaign to turn open space into a community garden, ask if you can use a friend's backyard, get your company or church, synagogue, mosque or school to grow a garden for the poor. Every garden and experienced gardener we have is a potential hedge against the disaster. Join a CSA if you don't garden, and get practice cooking and eating a local diet in season. ",1]

www.rareseed.com.

Yard sale season will begin soon in the warmer parts of the country, and auctions are picking up now in the North. Stocking up on things like shoes, extra coats, kids clothing in larger sizes, hand tools, garden equipment is simply prudent - and can save a lot of money.
The real estate "season" will begin shortly, with families wanting to get settled in new homes during the summer, before the school year starts. If you are planning on buying or selling this year, now is the time to research the market, new locations, find that country property or the urban duplex with a big yard.
Once pastures are flush, last year's hay is usually a bargain, and many farmers clean out their barns. manure and old hay are great soil builders for anyone.
Check out your local animal shelter and adopt a dog or cat for rodent control, protection and friendship during peak oil.
As things green up, begin to identify and use local wild edibles. Eat your lawn's dandelions, your daylily shoots, new nettles. Hunt for morels (learn what you are doing first!!) and wild onions. Get in the habit of seeing what food there is to be had everywhere you go.
Set up rainbarrel or cistern systems and start harvesting your precipitation.
Planning to only grow vegetables? Truly sustainable gardens include a lot of pretty flowers, which have value as medicinals, dye and fiber plants, seasoning herbs, and natural cleaners and pest repellants. Instead of giving up ornamentals altogether, grow a garden full of daylilies, lady's mantle, dye hollyhocks and coreopsis, foxgloves, soapwart, bayberry, hip roses, bee balm and other useful beauties.
Get a garden in somewhere around you - campaign to turn open space into a community garden, ask if you can use a friend's backyard, get your company or church, synagogue, mosque or school to grow a garden for the poor. Every garden and experienced gardener we have is a potential hedge against the disaster.
Join a CSA if you don't garden, and get practice cooking and eating a local diet in season.
Eggs and greens are at their best in spring - dehydrated greens and cooked eggshells, ground up together add calcium and a host of other nutrients to flour, and you won't taste them. We're not going to be able to afford to\n waste food in the future, so get out of the habit now. Make rhubarb, parsnip or dandelion wine for later consumption. Now that warmer weather is here, start walking for more of your daily Needs. Even a four or five mile walk is quite reasonable for most healthy people. Start a compost pile, or begin worm composting. Everyone can and should compost. Even apartment dwellers can keep worms or a compost bin and use the product as potting soil. Use spring holidays and feasts as a chance to bring up peak oil with friends and family. Freedom and rebirth are an excellent subjects To lead into the Long Emergency. Store the components of some traditional spring holiday foods, so that in hard times your family can maintain its traditions and celebrations. With the renewal of the building season, now is the time to scavenge free building materials, like cinder blocks, old windows and scrap wood - with permission, of course. Try and adapt to\n the spring weather early - get outside, turn down your heat or bank your fires, cut down on your fuel consumption as though you had no choice. Put on those sweaters one more time. Shepherds are flush with wool - now is the time to buy some fleece and start spinning! Drop spindles are easy to make and cheap to use. Check out www.learntospin.com Take a hard look back over the last winter - if you had had to survive on what you grew and stored last year, would you have made it? Early spring was famously the "starving time" when stores ran out and everyone was hungry. Remember, when you plan your food needs that not much produces early in spring, and in northern climates, A winter’s worth of food must last until May or June. ",1]

Eggs and greens are at their best in spring - dehydrated greens and cooked eggshells, ground up together add calcium and a host of other nutrients to flour, and you won't taste them. We're not going to be able to afford to waste food in the future, so get out of the habit now.
Make rhubarb, parsnip or dandelion wine for later consumption.
Now that warmer weather is here, start walking for more of your daily Needs. Even a four or five mile walk is quite reasonable for most healthy people.
Start a compost pile, or begin worm composting. Everyone can and should compost. Even apartment dwellers can keep worms or a compost bin and use the product as potting soil.
Use spring holidays and feasts as a chance to bring up peak oil with friends and family. Freedom and rebirth are an excellent subjects To lead into the Long Emergency.
Store the components of some traditional spring holiday foods, so that in hard times your family can maintain its traditions and celebrations.
With the renewal of the building season, now is the time to scavenge free building materials, like cinder blocks, old windows and scrap wood - with permission, of course.
Try and adapt to the spring weather early - get outside, turn down your heat or bank your fires, cut down on your fuel consumption as though you had no choice. Put on those sweaters one more time.

Shepherds are flush with wool - now is the time to buy some fleece and start spinning! Drop spindles are easy to make and cheap to use. Check out www.learntospin.com
Take a hard look back over the last winter - if you had had to survive on what you grew and stored last year, would you have made it? Early spring was famously the "starving time" when stores ran out and everyone was hungry. Remember, when you plan your food needs that not much produces early in spring, and in northern climates, A winter’s worth of food must last until May or June.

Trade cuttings and divisions, seeds and seedlings with your neighbors. Learn what's out there in your community, and sneak some useful plants into your neighbors' garden. If you’ve got a\n nearby college, consider scavenging the dorm dumpsters. College students often leave astounding amounts of Stuff behind including excellent books, clothes, furniture, etc… Say a schecheyanu, a blessing, or a prayer. Or simply be grateful for a series of coincidences that permit us to be here, in this place, as the world and the seasons come to life again. Try to make sure that this year, this time, you will take more joy in what you have, and prepare a bit better to soften the blow that is about to fall.

SUMMER

If you don't can or dehydrate, now is the time to learn. In most climates, you can waterbath can or dehydrate with a minimum of purchased materials, and produce is abundant and cheap. If you don't garden, check out your local farmstand for day-old produce or your farmer's market at the end of the day - they are likely to have large quantities they are anxious to get rid of. Wild fruits are also in abundance, or will be. \n Consider dehydrating outer leaves of broccoli, cabbage, etc..., and grinding the dried mixture. It can be added to flours to increase the nutritional value of your bread. Buy hay in the summer, rather than gradually over the winter. Now is an excellent time to put up simple shelters for hay storage, to avoid high early spring and winter prices. Firewood, woodstoves and heating materials are at their cheapest right now. Invest now for winter. The same is true of insulating materials. Back to school planning is a great time to reconsider transportation in light of peak oil. Can your children walk? Bike? If they cannot do either for reasons of safety (rather than distance) could an adult do so with them? Could you hire a local teenager to take them to school on foot or by wheel? Can you find ways to carpool, if you must drive? Grownups can do this too. ",1]


Trade cuttings and divisions, seeds and seedlings with your neighbors. Learn what's out there in your community, and sneak some useful plants into your neighbors' garden.
If you’ve got a nearby college, consider scavenging the dorm dumpsters. College students often leave astounding amounts of Stuff behind including excellent books, clothes, furniture, etc…
Say a schecheyanu, a blessing, or a prayer. Or simply be grateful for a series of coincidences that permit us to be here, in this place, as the world and the seasons come to life again. Try to make sure that this year, this time, you will take more joy in what you have, and prepare a bit better to soften the blow that is about to fall.

SUMMER

If you don't can or dehydrate, now is the time to learn. In most climates, you can waterbath can or dehydrate with a minimum of purchased materials, and produce is abundant and cheap. If you don't garden, check out your local farmstand for day-old produce or your farmer's market at the end of the day - they are likely to have large quantities they are anxious to get rid of. Wild fruits are also in abundance, or will be.
Consider dehydrating outer leaves of broccoli, cabbage, etc..., and grinding the dried mixture. It can be added to flours to increase the nutritional value of your bread.
Buy hay in the summer, rather than gradually over the winter. Now is an excellent time to put up simple shelters for hay storage, to avoid high early spring and winter prices.
Firewood, woodstoves and heating materials are at their cheapest right now. Invest now for winter. The same is true of insulating materials.
Back to school planning is a great time to reconsider transportation in light of peak oil. Can your children walk? Bike? If they cannot do either for reasons of safety (rather than distance) could an adult do so with them? Could you hire a local teenager to take them to school on foot or by wheel? Can you find ways to carpool, if you must drive? Grownups can do this too.
Also when getting ready to go back to school, consider the environmental impact of your\n scheduling and activities - are there ways to minimize driving/eating out/equipment costs/fuel consumption? Could your family do less in formal "activities" and more in family work? Consider either home schooling or engaging in supplemental home Education. Your kids may need a large number of skills not provided by local public schools, and a critical perspective that they certainly won‘t learn in an institutional setting. Teach them. Try and minimize air conditioning and electrical use during high Summer. Take cool showers or baths, use ice packs, reserve activity when possible for early am or evening. Rise at 4 am and get much of your work done then. Consider adding a solar powered attic fan, available from Real Goods www.realgoods.com. Don’t go on vacation. Spend your energy and money making your home a paradise instead. Throw a barbecue, a party or an open house, and invite the neighbors in. Get to know\n them. Be prepared for summer blackouts, some quite extensive. Have emergency supplies and lighting at hand. Practice living, cooking and camping outside, so that you will be comfortable doing so if necessary. Everyone in the family can Learn basic outdoors person skills. Make your own summer camp. Instead of sending kids to soccer camp, create an at-home skills camp that helps prepare people for Peak oil. Invite the neighbor kids to join you. Have a blast! Begin adapting herbs and other potted plants to indoor culture. Consider adding small tropicals - figs, lemons, oranges, even bananas can often be grown in cold climate homes. Obviously, if you live in a warm climate well, be prepared for some jealousy from the rest of us come February ;-). Plant a fall garden in high summer - peas, broccoli, kale, lettuces, beets, carrots, turnips, etc… All of the above will last well into early winter in even the harshest climates, and with proper\n techniques or in milder areas, will provide you with fresh food all year long ",1]

Also when getting ready to go back to school, consider the environmental impact of your scheduling and activities - are there ways to minimize driving/eating out/equipment costs/fuel consumption? Could your family do less in formal "activities" and more in family work?
Consider either home schooling or engaging in supplemental home Education. Your kids may need a large number of skills not provided by local public schools, and a critical perspective that they certainly won‘t learn in an institutional setting. Teach them.
Try and minimize air conditioning and electrical use during high Summer. Take cool showers or baths, use ice packs, reserve activity when possible for early am or evening. Rise at 4 am and get much of your work done then.

Consider adding a solar powered attic fan, available from Real Goods www.realgoods.com.
Don’t go on vacation. Spend your energy and money making your home a paradise instead. Throw a barbecue, a party or an open house, and invite the neighbors in. Get to know them.
Be prepared for summer blackouts, some quite extensive. Have emergency supplies and lighting at hand.
Practice living, cooking and camping outside, so that you will be comfortable doing so if necessary. Everyone in the family can Learn basic outdoors person skills.
Make your own summer camp. Instead of sending kids to soccer camp, create an at-home skills camp that helps prepare people for Peak oil. Invite the neighbor kids to join you. Have a blast!
Begin adapting herbs and other potted plants to indoor culture. Consider adding small tropicals - figs, lemons, oranges, even bananas can often be grown in cold climate homes. Obviously, if you live in a warm climate well, be prepared for some jealousy from the rest of us come February

Plant a fall garden in high summer - peas, broccoli, kale, lettuces, beets, carrots, turnips, etc… All of the above will last well into early winter in even the harshest climates, and with proper techniques or in milder areas, will provide you with fresh food all year long
Put up a new clothesline! Consider hand washing clothes outside, since everyone will probably enjoy getting wet (and cool) anyhow. If you have access to safe waters, go fishing. Get some practice, and learn a new skill. Encourage pick-up games at your house. Post-peak, children will need to know how to entertain themselves. For teens, encourage them to develop their own home businesses over the summers. Whether doing labor or creating a product, you may rely on them eventually to help support the family. Or have them clean out your closets and attic and help you reorganize. Let them sell the stuff. Buy a hand pushed lawn mower if you have less than 1 acre of grass. New ones are easy to push and pleasant, and will save you energy and that unpleasant gas smell. Keep an eye out for unharvested fruits and nuts - many suburban and rural areas have berry and fruit\n bushes that no one harvests. Take advantage and put up the fruit. Practice extreme water conservation during the summer. Mulch to reduce the need for irrigation. Bathe less often and with less water. Reduce clothes washing when possible. This is an excellent time to toilet train children - they can run around naked if necessary and accidents will do no harm. Try and get them out of diapers now, before winter. Consider replacing lawns with something that doesn’t have to be mown - ground covers like vetch, moss, even edibles like wintergreen or lingonberry, chamomile or mint. If it is summer time, then the living is probably easy. Take some time to enjoy it - to picnic, to celebrate democracy (and try and bring one about ;-), To explore your own area, walk in the nearby woods.

FALL

Simple, cheap insulating strategies (window quilts and blankets, draft stoppers, etc...) are easily made from cheap or free\n materials - goodwill, for example, often has jeans, tshirts and shrunken wool sweaters, of quality too poor to sell, that can be used for quilting material and batting. They are available where I am for a nominal price, and I've heard of getting them free.

Put up a new clothesline! Consider hand washing clothes outside, since everyone will probably enjoy getting wet (and cool) anyhow.
If you have access to safe waters, go fishing. Get some practice, and learn a new skill.
Encourage pick-up games at your house. Post-peak, children will need to know how to entertain themselves.
For teens, encourage them to develop their own home businesses over the summers. Whether doing labor or creating a product, you may rely on them eventually to help support the family. Or have them clean out your closets and attic and help you reorganize. Let them sell the stuff.
Buy a hand pushed lawn mower if you have less than 1 acre of grass. New ones are easy to push and pleasant, and will save you energy and that unpleasant gas smell.
Keep an eye out for unharvested fruits and nuts - many suburban and rural areas have berry and fruit bushes that no one harvests. Take advantage and put up the fruit.
Practice extreme water conservation during the summer. Mulch to reduce the need for irrigation. Bathe less often and with less water. Reduce clothes washing when possible.
This is an excellent time to toilet train children - they can run around naked if necessary and accidents will do no harm. Try and get them out of diapers now, before winter.
Consider replacing lawns with something that doesn’t have to be mown - ground covers like vetch, moss, even edibles like wintergreen or lingonberry, chamomile or mint.
If it is summer time, then the living is probably easy. Take some time to enjoy it - to picnic, to celebrate democracy (and try and bring one about ;-), To explore your own area, walk in the nearby woods.

FALL

Simple, cheap insulating strategies (window quilts and blankets, draft stoppers, etc...) are easily made from cheap or free materials - goodwill, for example, often has jeans, tshirts and shrunken wool sweaters, of quality too poor to sell, that can be used for quilting material and batting. They are available where I am for a nominal price, and I've heard of getting them free.
Stock up for winter as though the hard times will begin this year. Besides dried and canned foods, don't forget root cellarable and storable local produce, and season extension (cold frames, greenhouses, etc...) techniques for fresh food when you make your food inventory. Thanksgiving sales tend to be when supermarkets offer the cheapest deals on excellent supplements to food storage, like shortening, canned pumpkin, spices, etc... I've also heard of stores given turkeys away free with grocery purchases - turkeys can then be cooked, canned and stored. Don't forget to throw in storable ingredients for your family's holiday staples - in hard times, any kind of celebration or continuity is appreciated. Go\n leaf rustling for your garden and compost pile. If you happen into places where people leave their leaves out for pickup, grab the bags and set them to composting or mulching Your own garden. Plant a last crop of over wintering spinach, and enjoy in the fall and again in spring. Or consider planting a bed of winter wheat. Chickens can even graze it lightly in the fall, and it will be ready to harvest in time to use the bed for your fall garden. Even a small bed will make quite a bit of fresh, delicious bread. Hit those last yard sales, or back to school sales and buy a few extra clothes (or cloth to make them) for growing children and extra shoes for everyone. They will be welcome in storage, particularly if prices rise because of trade issues or inflation. The best time to expand your garden is now - till or mulch and let sod rot over the winter. Add soil amendments, manure, compost and lime. Now is an excellent time to start the 100 mile\n diet in most locales - Stores and farms and markets are bursting with delicious local produce And products. Eat local and learn new recipes. Rose hip season is coming - most food storage items are low in accessible vitamin C. Harvest wild or tame unsprayed rose hips, and dry them for tea to ensure long-term good health. Rose hips are delicious mixed with raspberry leaves and lemon balm. ",1]

Stock up for winter as though the hard times will begin this year. Besides dried and canned foods, don't forget root cellarable and storable local produce, and season extension (cold frames, greenhouses, etc...) techniques for fresh food when you make your food inventory.
Thanksgiving sales tend to be when supermarkets offer the cheapest deals on excellent supplements to food storage, like shortening, canned pumpkin, spices, etc... I've also heard of stores given turkeys away free with grocery purchases - turkeys can then be cooked, canned and stored. Don't forget to throw in storable ingredients for your family's holiday staples - in hard times, any kind of celebration or continuity is appreciated.
Go leaf rustling for your garden and compost pile. If you happen into places where people leave their leaves out for pickup, grab the bags and set them to composting or mulching Your own garden.
Plant a last crop of over wintering spinach, and enjoy in the fall and again in spring.
Or consider planting a bed of winter wheat. Chickens can even graze it lightly in the fall, and it will be ready to harvest in time to use the bed for your fall garden. Even a small bed will make quite a bit of fresh, delicious bread.
Hit those last yard sales, or back to school sales and buy a few extra clothes (or cloth to make them) for growing children and extra shoes for everyone. They will be welcome in storage, particularly if prices rise because of trade issues or inflation.
The best time to expand your garden is now - till or mulch and let sod rot over the winter. Add soil amendments, manure, compost and lime.
Now is an excellent time to start the 100 mile diet in most locales - Stores and farms and markets are bursting with delicious local produce And products. Eat local and learn new recipes.
Rose hip season is coming - most food storage items are low in accessible vitamin C. Harvest wild or tame unsprayed rose hips, and dry them for tea to ensure long-term good health. Rose hips are delicious mixed with raspberry leaves and lemon balm.

Discounts on alcohol are common between Halloween and Christmas - this is an excellent time to stock up on booze for personal, medicinal, trade or cooking. Pick up some vanilla beans as well, and make your own vanilla out of that cheap vodka. Gardening equipment, and things like rainbarrels go on sale in the late summer/early fall. And nurseries often are trying to rid themselves of perennial plants - including edibles and medicinals. It isn't too late to plant them in most parts of the country, although some care is needed in purchasing for things that have become\n rootbound. Local honey will be at its cheapest now - now is the time to stock up. Consider making friends with the beekeeper, and perhaps taking lessons yourself. Fall is the cheapest time to buy livestock, either to keep or for butchering. Many 4Hers, and those who simply don't want to keep excess animals over the winter are anxious to find buyers now. In many cases, at auction, I see animals selling for much less than the meat you can expect to obtain from their carcass is worth. Most cold climate housing has or could have a "cold room/area" - a space that is kept cool enough during the fall and winter to dispense with the necessity of a refrigerator, but that doesn't freeze. If you have separate fridge and freezer, consider disconnecting your fridge during the cooler weather to save utility costs and conserve energy. You can build a cool room by building in a closet with a window, and insulating it with styrofoam panels Now is a great time to\n build community (and get stuff done) by instituting a local "work bee" - invite neighbors and friends to come help either with a project for your household, or to share in some good deed for another community member. Provide food, drink, tools and get to work on whatever it is (building, harvesting, quilting, knitting - the sky is the limit), and at the same time strengthen your community. Make sure that next time, the work benefits a different neighbor or community member. ",1]

Discounts on alcohol are common between Halloween and Christmas - this is an excellent time to stock up on booze for personal, medicinal, trade or cooking. Pick up some vanilla beans as well, and make your own vanilla out of that cheap vodka.
Gardening equipment, and things like rainbarrels go on sale in the late summer/early fall. And nurseries often are trying to rid themselves of perennial plants - including edibles and medicinals. It isn't too late to plant them in most parts of the country, although some care is needed in purchasing for things that have become rootbound.
Local honey will be at its cheapest now - now is the time to stock up. Consider making friends with the beekeeper, and perhaps taking lessons yourself.
Fall is the cheapest time to buy livestock, either to keep or for butchering. Many 4Hers, and those who simply don't want to keep excess animals over the winter are anxious to find buyers now. In many cases, at auction, I see animals selling for much less than the meat you can expect to obtain from their carcass is worth.

Most cold climate housing has or could have a "cold room/area" - a space that is kept cool enough during the fall and winter to dispense with the necessity of a refrigerator, but that doesn't freeze. If you have separate fridge and freezer, consider disconnecting your fridge during the cooler weather to save utility costs and conserve energy. You can build a cool room by building in a closet with a window, and insulating it with styrofoam panels
Now is a great time to build community (and get stuff done) by instituting a local "work bee" - invite neighbors and friends to come help either with a project for your household, or to share in some good deed for another community member. Provide food, drink, tools and get to work on whatever it is (building, harvesting, quilting, knitting - the sky is the limit), and at the same time strengthen your community. Make sure that next time, the work benefits a different neighbor or community member.

Most local charities get the majority of their donations between now and December. Consider dividing your charitable donations so that they are made year round, but adding extra volunteer hours to help your group handle the demands on them in the fall. Many medicinal and culinary herbs are at their peak now. Consider learning about them and drying some for winter use. If there is a gleaning program near you (either for charity or personal use) consider joining. If not, start one.\n Considerable amounts of food are wasted in the harvesting process, and you can either add to your storage or benefit your local shelters and food pantries. Dig out those down comforters, extra blankets, hats with the earflaps, flannel jammies, etc... You don't need heat in your sleeping areas - just warm clothes and blankets. Learn a skill that can be done in the dark or by candlelight, while sitting with others in front of a heat source. Knitting, crocheting, whittling, rug braiding, etc... can all be done mostly by touch with little light, and are suitable for companionable evenings. In addition, learn to sing, play instruments, recite memorized speeches and poetry, etc... as something to do on dark winter evenings. While I wouldn't expect deer or turkey hunting to be a major food source in coming times (I would expect large game to be driven back to near-extinction pretty quickly), it is worth having those skills, and also the skills necessary to catch\n the less commonly caught small game, like rabbits, squirrel, etc... Use a solar cooker or parabolic solar cooker whenever possible To prepare food. Or eat cool salads and raw foods. Not only won’t you heat up the house, but you’ll save energy. A majority of children are born in the summer early fall, which suggests that some of us are doing more than keeping warm ;-). Now is a good time to get one’s birth control updated ;-). Celebrate the harvest - this is a time of luxury and plenty, and should be treated as such and enjoyed that way. Cook, drink, eat, talk, sing, pray, dance, laugh, invite guests. Winter is long and comes soon enough. Celebrate! ",1]

Most local charities get the majority of their donations between now and December. Consider dividing your charitable donations so that they are made year round, but adding extra volunteer hours to help your group handle the demands on them in the fall.
Many medicinal and culinary herbs are at their peak now. Consider learning about them and drying some for winter use.
If there is a gleaning program near you (either for charity or personal use) consider joining. If not, start one. Considerable amounts of food are wasted in the harvesting process, and you can either add to your storage or benefit your local shelters and food pantries.
Dig out those down comforters, extra blankets, hats with the earflaps, flannel jammies, etc... You don't need heat in your sleeping areas - just warm clothes and blankets.
Learn a skill that can be done in the dark or by candlelight, while sitting with others in front of a heat source. Knitting, crocheting, whittling, rug braiding, etc... can all be done mostly by touch with little light, and are suitable for companionable evenings. In addition, learn to sing, play instruments, recite memorized speeches and poetry, etc... as something to do on dark winter evenings.
While I wouldn't expect deer or turkey hunting to be a major food source in coming times (I would expect large game to be driven back to near-extinction pretty quickly), it is worth having those skills, and also the skills necessary to catch the less commonly caught small game, like rabbits, squirrel, etc...
Use a solar cooker or parabolic solar cooker whenever possible To prepare food. Or eat cool salads and raw foods. Not only won’t you heat up the house, but you’ll save energy.
A majority of children are born in the summer early fall, which suggests that some of us are doing more than keeping warm ;-). Now is a good time to get one’s birth control updated ;-).
Celebrate the harvest - this is a time of luxury and plenty, and should be treated as such and enjoyed that way. Cook, drink, eat, talk, sing, pray, dance, laugh, invite guests. Winter is long and comes soon enough. Celebrate!

WINTER

Your local adult education program almost certainly has something useful to teach you - woodworking, crocheting, music training, horseback riding, CPR, herbalism, vegetarian cookery... take advantage of people who want to teach their skills Get serious about\n land use planning - even if you live in a suburban neighborhood, you can find ways to optimize your land to produce the most food, fuel and barterables. Sit down and think hard about what you can do to make your land and your life more sustainable in the coming year. The Winter lull is an excellent time to get involved in public affairs. No matter how cynical you tend to be, nothing ever changed without engagement. So get out there. Stand for office. Join. Volunteer. Now is the time to prepare for illness - keep a stock of remedies, including useful antibiotics (although know what you are doing, don't just buy them and take them), vitamin C supplements (I like elderberry syrup), painkillers, herbs, and tools for handling even serious illness by yourself. In the event of a truly severe epidemic of flu or other illness, avoiding illness and treating sick family members at home whenever possible may be safer than taking them to over-worked and over-crowded\n hospitals (or, it may not - but planning for the former won't prevent you from using the hospital if you need it). Most schools would be delighted to have volunteers come in and talk about conservation, gardening, small livestock, home-scale mechanics, ham radio, etc..., and most homeschooling families would be similarly thrilled. Consider offering to teach something you know that will be helpful post-peak (although I wouldn't recommend discussing peak oil with any but the oldest teenagers, and not even that without their parents permission Now is the time to convince your business, synagogue, church, school, community center to put a garden on that empty lawn. If you start the campaign now, you can be ready to plant in the spring. Produce can be shared among participants or offered to the needy. ",1]

WINTER

Your local adult education program almost certainly has something useful to teach you - woodworking, crocheting, music training, horseback riding, CPR, herbalism, vegetarian cookery... take advantage of people who want to teach their skills
Get serious about land use planning - even if you live in a suburban neighborhood, you can find ways to optimize your land to produce the most food, fuel and barterables. Sit down and think hard about what you can do to make your land and your life more sustainable in the coming year.
The Winter lull is an excellent time to get involved in public affairs. No matter how cynical you tend to be, nothing ever changed without engagement. So get out there. Stand for office. Join. Volunteer.
Now is the time to prepare for illness - keep a stock of remedies, including useful antibiotics (although know what you are doing, don't just buy them and take them), vitamin C supplements (I like elderberry syrup), painkillers, herbs, and tools for handling even serious illness by yourself. In the event of a truly severe epidemic of flu or other illness, avoiding illness and treating sick family members at home whenever possible may be safer than taking them to over-worked and over-crowded hospitals (or, it may not - but planning for the former won't prevent you from using the hospital if you need it).
Most schools would be delighted to have volunteers come in and talk about conservation, gardening, small livestock, home-scale mechanics, ham radio, etc..., and most homeschooling families would be similarly thrilled. Consider offering to teach something you know that will be helpful post-peak (although I wouldn't recommend discussing peak oil with any but the oldest teenagers, and not even that without their parents permission
Now is the time to convince your business, synagogue, church, school, community center to put a garden on that empty lawn. If you start the campaign now, you can be ready to plant in the spring. Produce can be shared among participants or offered to the needy.
The one-two punch of rising heating oil and gas prices may well be what is needed to make your family and friends more receptive to the peak oil message. Try\n again. At the very least, emphasize the options for mitigating increased economic strain with sustainable practices. Get together with neighbors and check in on your area's elderly and disabled people. Make a plan that ensures they will be checked on during bad weather, power outages, etc... Offer help with stocking up for winter, or maintaining equipment. And watch for signs that they are struggling economically. Work on raising money and getting help with local poverty-abatement Programs. After the holidays, people struggle. They get hungry and cold. Remember, besides the fact that it is the right thing to do, the life you save may be your own. Get out and enjoy the cold weather. It is hard to adapt to colder temperatures if you spend all your time huddled in front of a heater. Ski, snowshoe, sled, shovel, have a snowball fight, build a hut, go winter camping, but get comfortable with the cold, snowy world around you. Have your chimney(s)\n inspected, and learn to clean your own. Learn to care for your kerosene lamps, to use candles safely, and how to use and maintain your smoke and CO detectors and fire extinguishers. Winter is peak fire season, so keep safe. Grow sprouts on your windowsill. Now is an excellent time to reconsider how you use your house. Look around - could you make more space? House more people? Do projects more efficiently? Add greenhouse space? Put in a homemade composting toilet? Work with what you have to make it more useful. If a holiday gift exchange is part of your life, make most of your gifts. Knit, whittle, build, sew, or otherwise create something beautiful for the people you love. If someone wants to buy you something, request a useful tool or preparedness item, or a gift certificate to a place like Lehmans or Real Goods. Considering giving such gifts to friends and family - a solar crank radio, an LED flashlight, cast iron pans, These are useful and\n appreciated items whether or not you believe in peak oil. ",1]

The one-two punch of rising heating oil and gas prices may well be what is needed to make your family and friends more receptive to the peak oil message. Try again. At the very least, emphasize the options for mitigating increased economic strain with sustainable practices.
Get together with neighbors and check in on your area's elderly and disabled people. Make a plan that ensures they will be checked on during bad weather, power outages, etc... Offer help with stocking up for winter, or maintaining equipment. And watch for signs that they are struggling economically.

Work on raising money and getting help with local poverty-abatement Programs. After the holidays, people struggle. They get hungry and cold. Remember, besides the fact that it is the right thing to do, the life you save may be your own.

Get out and enjoy the cold weather. It is hard to adapt to colder temperatures if you spend all your time huddled in front of a heater. Ski, snowshoe, sled, shovel, have a snowball fight, build a hut, go winter camping, but get comfortable with the cold, snowy world around you.
Have your chimney(s) inspected, and learn to clean your own. Learn to care for your kerosene lamps, to use candles safely, and how to use and maintain your smoke and CO detectors and fire extinguishers. Winter is peak fire season, so keep safe.
Grow sprouts on your windowsill.

Now is an excellent time to reconsider how you use your house. Look around - could you make more space? House more people? Do projects more efficiently? Add greenhouse space? Put in a homemade composting toilet? Work with what you have to make it more useful.

If a holiday gift exchange is part of your life, make most of your gifts. Knit, whittle, build, sew, or otherwise create something beautiful for the people you love.

If someone wants to buy you something, request a useful tool or preparedness item, or a gift certificate to a place like Lehmans or Real Goods. Considering giving such gifts to friends and family - a solar crank radio, an LED flashlight, cast iron pans, These are useful and appreciated items whether or not you believe in peak oil.

Do a dry run in the dead of winter. Turn out all the power, turn off the water. Turn off all fossil-fuel sources of heat, and see how things go for a few days. Use what you learn to improve your preparedness, and have fun while doing it. Learn to mend clothing, patch and make patchwork out of old clothes. Write letters to people. The post is the most reliable way of communicating, And letters last forever. Make a list of goals for the coming year, and the coming five years. Start Keeping records of your goals and your successes and failures. Keep a journal. Your children and grandchildren (or someone else’s) may want To know what these days were like. Wash your hands frequently, and avoid stress. Stay healthy so that you can be useful To those around you. For those subject to depression or anxiety, winter can be hard. Find ways to relax, decompress and use work as an\n antidote to fear whenever possible. Get outside on sunny days, and try and exercise as much as possible to help maintain a positive attitude. Memorize a poem or song every week. No matter what happens to you, no one can ever take away the music and words you hold in your mind. You can have them as comfort and pleasure wherever you go, and in whatever circumstances. Take advantage of heating stoves by cooking on them. You can make soups or stews on top of any wood stove or even many radiators, and you can build or buy a metal oven That sits on top of woodstoves to bake in. Winter is a time of quiet and contemplation. Go outside. Hear the silence. Take pleasure in what you have achieved over the past year. Focus on the abundance of this present, this day, rather than scarcity to come.The sleep of reason brings forth monsters
Do a dry run in the dead of winter. Turn out all the power, turn off the water. Turn off all fossil-fuel sources of heat, and see how things go for a few days. Use what you learn to improve your preparedness, and have fun while doing it.
Learn to mend clothing, patch and make patchwork out of old clothes.
Write letters to people. The post is the most reliable way of communicating, And letters last forever.
Make a list of goals for the coming year, and the coming five years. Start Keeping records of your goals and your successes and failures.
Keep a journal. Your children and grandchildren (or someone else’s) may want To know what these days were like.
Wash your hands frequently, and avoid stress. Stay healthy so that you can be useful To those around you.
For those subject to depression or anxiety, winter can be hard. Find ways to relax, decompress and use work as an antidote to fear whenever possible. Get outside on sunny days, and try and exercise as much as possible to help maintain a positive attitude.
Memorize a poem or song every week. No matter what happens to you, no one can ever take away the music and words you hold in your mind. You can have them as comfort and pleasure wherever you go, and in whatever circumstances.
Take advantage of heating stoves by cooking on them. You can make soups or stews on top of any wood stove or even many radiators, and you can build or buy a metal oven That sits on top of woodstoves to bake in.

Winter is a time of quiet and contemplation. Go outside. Hear the silence. Take pleasure in what you have achieved over the past year. Focus on the abundance of this present, this day, rather than scarcity to come.