This is just too funny. From CNN:

McCain aides had said that Joe Wurzelbacher, also known as Joe the Plumber, would appear with the Republican presidential candidate at his first campaign event in Defiance, Ohio.

“Joe’s with us today. Joe, where are you? Where’s Joe? Is Joe here with us today? Joe, I thought you were here today,” McCain said during the rally.

A campaign aide later said Wurzelbacher had “decided not to come” and may join McCain later Thursday.

But reached at home, Wurzelbacher said it was “news to him” that he was supposed to be at the McCain rally. Wurzelbacher said nobody from the McCain campaign confirmed he was attending the event and called the incident a “miscommunication.”

Contacted by CNN a second time, Wurzelbacher said the campaign only called him to confirm after the event in question already took place.

Wurzelbacher also said he had gotten an initial call about coming to the morning rally, “but no one called back to confirm,” and he was “not happy” that McCain had called out his name and he wasn’t there.

He said he would try to meet up with McCain later Thursday. McCain’s schedule calls for events in Sandusky, Elyria and Mentor, Ohio.

Wurzelbacher later complained that he didn’t like how he had been “rolled out” by the McCain campaign, and from now on he’d be “going rogue,” speaking directly to the media, ignoring his handlers and watching out for his own aspirations. Influential conservatives planned a meeting for November 15 to decide how to proceed with the GOP. Despite Wurzelbacher’s rollercoaster ride, lack of a license and revelations that wardrobe purchases totaling more than $150 were made for him by the McCain camp, conservatives conceded that he clearly represents the future of the party.

8-)

I attended a very inspiring planning session for a local urban sustainability center. Good mix of young, energetic architects and builders and old-guard veterans, run by Rochester Green Living. I found out (officially) that I’m now a board member of the Center for Sustainable Living, but I managed to keep my volunteer hand down for this one. There seemed to be plenty of enthusiasm and passion for this project without me “adding” my agenda. There were a few friends there, but it was great to meet a whole bunch of new folks including Peter, and John from Ant Hill.

Green building is not necessarily my passion, although I’m certainly interested in learning whatever I can. The meeting was inspirational in that a few people had generated some momentum and attracted energy. I started thinking about how to apply this more locally to my village. I mentioned what little I know about Transition Towns, and what I like about the idea so far is that there’s already a template or framework for proceeding that I could quickly jump on. What’s frustrating about these planning meetings is that it’s difficult to actually move them to implementation. Having a small core group (a “board”) with a brain trust or forum or Zone 2, seems like a workable model to me. Anyway I downloaded the Transition Primer and hope to have a go at it tonight and take with me to Hancock this weekend for Module 4.

A lot has been going on in my life and wanted to share it briefly with you. Two weeks ago I was informed I’d be downsized in November, so much of my focus has shifted to finding a new base salary somewhere before people really start listening to Nouriel Roubini and realize how truly, deeply mulched-and-manured we are. In the face of it all, I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t really get out of the mental-technical realm and learn something more practical like plumbing or carpentry, which I’m dangerously unskilled at today.

Second, I’ve been teaching the last couple of Permaculture Design Course modules down in Hancock with Andrew Leslie Phillips and Andrew Jones. This is a blast, but also humbling. AJ, for instance, has done projects in Thailand, Jordan and Macedonia and worked for years with the UN. He’s currently consulting with some business people in Florida who are doing some really interesting enzymatic recycling of food wastes into high quality fertilizers.

(more…)

We’ve had a couple really light frosts, but this morning we got the first real one. This was a good excuse for me to go out into the garden and see where the frost boundaries are. In general I only had one area away from the house on the southeast edge of the property that looked like it was much affected.

Later, I went for a walk on the Lehigh Valley trail between Clover St. and Quaker Meeting House Rd. I’ve been taking this walk all summer and it’s been very instructive. The trail cuts through a large marsh behind a beaver dam, and there are tons of interesting birds and plants. Today what I noticed more than anything was the leaves raining down off the softwoods- poplar, aspen, plane, sycamore and willow. Since these fall first, it would be interesting to see if there’s some reason for it, in terms of the layering of the detritus in the A0 soil horizon. I also noticed that the aspen leaves have the ability to twirl off a little bit away from the tree stem in no breeze. Again, I have no idea what this means.

I got to teach some parts of the Water chapter down in Hancock this past weekend, particularly around swales, dams and various drain and ditch types. Andrew did some of the other Water and AJ did Soils. We also interviewed Mark and Lisa of Mountain Dell and two teams started design of their property, which has amazing potential. We also watched the Sep Holzer video which was inspiring. Especially, to me, the polycultures he uses. Also learned from one of the “students” that wrens love cabbage worms.They teach me more than I teach them, that’s for sure.

In preparation for teaching I started using a troubleshooting guide in the Designers Manual used to determine mineral deficiencies in soil from plant problems. It’s becoming clear that I need to add lime and green sand to my site, which appears to leach pretty readily.