So I spent almost $2000 today - to fill up our oil tank. We heat primarily with wood, but use oil as a back-up system to keep the pipes from freezing, and occasionally on days when we’re going to be out for an extended period. Our hot water is also heated with oil. For whatever reason, most oil heat in the US is in the Northeast, mostly in towns beyond gas lines like mine. I suspect today’s purchase may well be the last tank of heating oil we ever buy.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind
than to be hopelessly in love with spring. ~George Santayana~
The appearance of springtime in North America may be more welcome this
year than at anytime in recent history. The winter has been long, cold,
and dreary—particularly in the Rust Belt where the devastations of
housing foreclosures, unemployment, and the resultant blight have left
a trail of human misery and degradation not seen since the Great
Depression. Ten percent of the population of Ohio now relies on food

THE REAL GOOD LIFE: AN ENTIRE VILLAGE TURNS AGAINST SUPERMARKETS AND GROWS ITS OWN:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=559580&in_page_id=1770(Visit this link to see fantastic photos that accompany the story)It was a sitcom that inspired many a household to live off the land.And although it might not attract the likes of Margo and Jerry to move to the area, an entire village is trying its hand at the Good Life.

Interesting, isn’t it, that mainstream economists need a so-called
economic guru like Alan Greenspan to confirm that the U.S. economy is
in recession? If the maestro says it is so, then it is. If he doesn’t,
then the “downturn” has a silver lining. And now we have the Treasury
Secretary, Hank Paulson, stating what the American public has known all
too well during the past year: “The economy has taken a sharp
downturn.” Gee, Mr. Paulson, you get the understatement of the year
award because what Americans have also discovered is that the middle

A review of the 2008 novel by James Howard Kunstler (Atlantic Monthly Press)

“The world has become such a wicked place,” she said quietly, just a statement of fact.

“There’s goodness here too.”

“Where is it?”

“In all the abiding virtues. Love, bravery, patience,
honesty, justice, generosity, kindness. Beauty too. Mostly love.”

“I’m afraid sometimes that we drove those things out of
existence.”

“No, we carry them in our hearts. They’re always with us.”

“I don’t know what’s in my heart anymore. It’s too dark to
see.”

I am part of the rainforest protecting myself. I am that part of the
rainforest recently emerged into thinking.
John Seed
Recently while visiting Vermont, one of my friends there suggested that
I meet Marion Leonard, a 98 year-old environmental activist living in
Rochester. While I had no doubt that my friend’s effusive praise of
Marion was valid, I had to meet Marion for myself to appreciate what a
phenomenal soul she really is.
Marion was born in 1909 and grew up on Long Island as the daughter of a
physician. She attended Pembroke College which later became Brown

After two years of managing the Truth To Power website and subsequent
to many more years of researching domestic and geopolitical events and
trends, it is chilling to witness so much of what "prophets" like Mike
Ruppert, Matt Savinar, Catherine Austin Fitts, Richard Heinberg, Matt
Simmons, Dmitry Orlov, myself, and many others have been forecasting
for nearly a decade or longer. We are no longer prophets but truly
historians, and yet I take no pleasure in the accuracy of these
forecasts or in the fact that our dire predictions are unfolding before

A review of "The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow: Your Guide To
Personal Survival and Spiritual Transformation In A World Gone Mad, By
Mike Byron, (2008, IUniverse Inc.)
We must leave the old left/right, liberal/conservative paradigm behind
us. Smaller government under local control—as will be the case in the
Renewal communities—could actually be considered a “conservative”
idea….We are creating a new tomorrow from what will soon become
antiquity; we are not rehashing petty divisions or reaffirming old
prejudices.
~Mike Byron~

CB: Thank you Dan for that fascinating and comprehensive analysis. Now
bringing all of this closer to home, what kinds of preparations have
you personally been making in recent years for Peak Oil, climate
change, and economic chaos? I'm very fortunate. My wife and I live on
three acres with a vernal creek in a semi-rural neighborhood on the
edge of Eugene. Over the last five years, we've worked steadily on the
little things to build more self-reliance into our land, centered on a
very productive, nearly year-around, organic garden and a collection of

The old normal is that life will go on just like before. The new normal
is that nothing will ever be the same Rather than attempting to
undertake the Herculean task of mitigating the unmitigatable-attempting
to stop the world and point it in a different direction-it seems far
better to turn inward and work to transform yourself into someone who
might stand a chance, given the world's assumed trajectory. Much of
this transformation is psychological and involves letting go of many
notions that we have been conditioned to accept unquestioningly. Some