The Numbers

I really regret/dread having to e-beg but things are getting difficult again. This time, I decided to make my pleas for help more colourful with a friendly bar graph describing just how utterly broke I am.

I’m a chronically ill autistic gay person currently off my 3x/day prescription pain meds because bureaucracy sucks. I’ve been getting frozen/easy meals delivered (expensive!) because I can’t really cook much rn and grocery shopping is a nightmare in a covid hotspot with no car, a bad immune system, and virtually no spoons.

My roommate has just had to lend me $200 because I urgently needed to replace something that was making my pain a lot worse, and I have no idea how to pay all that back.

Next month, because of some paperwork problems with my insurance, I will have to try to live on $391. This will not cover all my basic expenses, much less allow me to pay back my roommate.

I could say a lot more about how fucked my situation is, but I’m trying to be less wordy and annoying, so just know I’m really struggling.

If any financially comfortable adults feel like helping me, I would be eternally grateful for any donations sent via my wishlist. (Please do not donate unless you’re an adult who’s not poor. I really don’t want to just move the suffering from my lap to yours.) Most directly helpful would be any of the visa cards at the bottom, although everything on this list is useful & I’d deeply appreciate literally anything.

(you can donate here)

On top of all this, there are some kids in my life who generally don’t get much by way of Christmas gifts unless I can somehow obtain some for them. I know it may seem foolish to ask for help with this too, but I feel so bad about them not getting gifts. The ones I’m most concerned about are between the ages of 3 and 6, and I’ve made a separate wishlist of mostly-inexpensive gifts suited to their ages and preferences if you feel like donating to them as well/instead. (link to xmas wishlist)

Thank you for tolerating this on your dash. I hope your week is going better than mine.

11 May 2020, during pandemic, official release from the US Department of Energy:

OK. Sure. Whatever.

Uranium, right? Y’know how, for the past century, Navajo country experienced the worst radiation poisoning from uranium mining, then from nuclear weapons testing, and then from the disposal of radioactive waste? And how the largest single radiation poisoning disaster on “US soil” happened in Navajo country? And how babies born, to this day in 2020, in Navajo country have uranium in their bodies? And how Navajo country has the highest covid/coronavirus infection rates of any US “state”? And how the US federal government was 6 weeks late in sending Navajo country financial aid during the virus outbreak? And then the US federal government, in the middle of the pandemic, is signalling support for the opening of uranium mines in Lakota territory?

From the Department of Energy’s release, 11 May 2020:

But wait:

Something I said the day before the Department of Energy’s announcement:

Uranium mining, environmental racism, and resource extraction on Native land during pandemic: The Navajo people were promised and also legally entitled to receive $600 million to help protect themselves against covid, but it took 6 whole weeks for the US government to issue the aid, which only happened after the Navajo sued the government. During those 6 weeks waiting for help, Navajo Nation became the site of the highest per capita infection rates outside of the NYC-Philadelphia urban corridor. In another major Native and relatively rural region held hostage by resource extraction companies, right in the midst of pandemic and quarantines, Lakota living in the Pine Ridge region (site of what might be the “poorest” counties in the US), are grappling not just with the beginning of the construction of the major Keystone XL pipeline, but also with renewed US federal government support of a Canadian mining company’s project meant to open a uranium mine in the Black Hills. And right before local quarantines and lockdowns began across the US, Dine land and the Navajo were in headlines because of a recent increase in attention given to the lasting legacy of poisoning and environmental racism from the infamous uranium mining on Dine land and the Colorado Plateau in the mid-20th century. (Much of the uranium mining was taking place at the same time that Dine matriarchs led the fights against coal mines at Black Mesa and other sites.) […] 

By the end of 2018, the contiguous US had only 5 uranium mines, and, in 2019, a lobbying group of major resource extraction companies interested in uranium asked for help from the US president’s office. In April 2020, the president’s Nuclear Fuel Working Group released a report passionately advising revival of uranium mining, and the US president announced a 2021 budget granting over $150 million to purchasing uranium mined within US borders. In April 2020, during pandemic, the major Keystone XL oil pipeline was beginning construction; carrying Alberta oil, its route crosses directly through the Rosebud Sioux reservation land immediately next to Pine Ridge. At the same time, in April 2020, worldwide stock price of uranium surged as Canadian and US corporations now discuss their targeting of the Black Hills as a coveted sit. A Canadian company plans a 10,600-acre uranium mine, expecting to extract millions of pounds of the ore, as Lakota organizers pursue legal cases under the shadow of the desecrated Six Grandfathers. […]

Here’s a statement from The Guardian, from 8 May 2020: ‘The Native American tribe [Navajo] now has the highest per-capita Covid-19 infection rate after only New York and New Jersey, and the spread is not slowing. “We are doing our very best to flatten the curve with the very limited resources we have on the Navajo nation,” president Jonathan Nez told the Guardian. “The first citizens of this country were once again pushed aside by the most powerful government in the world … but now that we’re in the headlines, US citizens are finally realising the deplorable conditions our people live in. We’re fed up. This has got to end.” [Edit: As of 18 May 2020, infection rates at Navajo Nation have surpassed New York and New Jersey.] […]

For posterity:

‘A long-anticipated Trump administration report aimed to “revive and   strengthen the uranium mining industry” was released Thursday [23 April 2020], and if its recommendations are implemented, it could provide direct government support for uranium production in San Juan County where the country’s last conventional uranium mill and several idled mines are located. Uranium companies applauded the plan within hours of its release while numerous conservation groups and Native American tribal leaders announced opposition. […] Residents of the Ute Mountain Ute community of White Mesa, which is located several miles south of Energy Fuels’ White Mesa Mill, have long worried that groundwater contamination around the mill site could worsen and eventually reach its drinking water aquifer. The Ute Mountain Ute Environmental Programs Department sent a letter to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality in January pointing to “overwhelming data showing significant trends of increasing groundwater contaminants and acidification” below the mill site […].’ [Source: Zak Podmore. “Trump administration plan could revive the uranium industry in Utah, raising concerns from conservationists.” The Salt Lake Tribune. 25 April 2020.]

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MAILING ADDRESS 

Town of Tusayan 

P.O. Box 709 | 845 Mustang Drive

Tusayan, AZ 86023 PHONE +1 (928) 638-9909 

EMAIL

Mayor Craig Sanderson 

[email protected] 

Vice-Mayor Becky Wirth 

[email protected]

Councilor | Brady Harris 

[email protected]

 Councilor  |  Al Montoya 

[email protected] 

Councilor  |  Robb Baldosky 

[email protected] 

if you don’t have time to write an email, here’s a pre-written letter: https://pastebin.com/Cc3YBWYA 

just copy, add your name, and send the email to a town member!

another article that goes more into the issue of water (May 28, 2019) (“The Havasupai Tribe has, in fact, voiced concerns about groundwater pumping near the Grand Canyon. In 2016, the tribe sued the city of Williams and other well owners, saying the drilling of more wells for resorts, developments, theme parks and uranium mines, among other businesses, increasingly threatens the tribe’s water. […] Duthie said those sorts of concerns shouldn’t hinder Stilo’s proposal for the hotel on Kotzin Ranch because the company wouldn’t use a well.”)

as of January 24, 2020, Stilo had submitted a “a revised proposal for roads and utility easements connecting to parcels of land they own that are surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest” (unanimously approved). opening these roads would require “some blasting.” as regards the groundwater:

Gitlin also worried that the new proposal did not adequately protect the area’s groundwater.

The proposal promises that commercial water needs — which during peak season, would be 275,000 gallons a day — would have to be hauled in by truck. It still allows “residential uses” to be met by pumping groundwater.

In the proposal, Stilo offered to agree to a “complete prohibition” on commercial groundwater use, except in the event of “technological breakthroughs resulting in proven zero-impact upon groundwater resources.”

It suggested a restrictive covenant or a conservation easement to enforce that restriction, but it’s not clear who would be responsible for that enforcement.

effectively, plans for development are going forward, & previous reassurances that no immediate proposals were being made seem like lies.

it’s worth mentioning in light of some other comments going around that the issue here isn’t preserving the untouched pristine beauty of nature or something–this kind of terra nullius-inflected rhetoric in fact relies upon colonialist & genocidal logic–but rather the responsibilities & livelihoods of the people who belong to the land & stand to be harmed by these proposals.

Growing your own food is a great way to become more independent from capitalist infrastructure, but if you’re spending hundreds of dollars just to get started it can almost feel counterproductive. There are plenty of great tutorials for making your own pots, garden boxes, rainwater collectors, composters, etc. from reclaimed materials, which can bring the cost down significantly, but the cost of the plants alone can really start to add up if bought from a nursery or garden store. 

So I’ve compiled a few ideas for getting your garden started for free. If you know of any other tricks, please feel free to add them in reblogs!

From food

Set aside the seeds from your produce bought from the grocery store. Just make sure the brand you’re buying from doesn’t contain terminator genes first. Organic or non-GMO is preferred.

Almost all dry beans can simply be planted in the ground and will most often sprout. They’re easy to grow in warmer climates and very hardy.

You can grow many potato plants from a single potato with eyes. Cut the potato into chunks with each chunk having an eye sprout, and place the chunks in the ground.

Numerous varieties of onions, brassica oleracea vegetables, and celery can be regrown from the base, after re-sprouting the plant in a dish of water for days.

Many root vegetables can be regrown from their leafy tops (which are also edible and tasty in salad). Carrots, radishes, beets, rutabagas, and more can be regrown from tops.

Pineapples can be regrown from their tops, if you live in the right climate or have a greenhouse/cold frame.

If you can, shop at your local farmer’s market and support local farmers, instead of big-name grocery stores!

From the wild

Look up edible plants that grow wild in your area and how to replant them. You can take seeds from any plant, obviously, but some can also be regrown from cuttings, suckers, scraps, etc.

Transplanting is also an option, but not preferable since it removes a plant from the environment.

Native plants are guaranteed to be a good fit for your environment, so this is a great lesser-care option.

From neighbors

Of course, the same methods that work for food/wild plants (planting seeds, growing from scraps or cuttings, etc) will also work for food and plants from friends’ gardens. If you know anyone already into gardening, ask them to help you get started! If you see someone gardening in your neighborhood, say hi!

Many fruit trees can be cloned from cuttings. Cut off a branch at a 45-degree angle, then soak the cut end in water for ~5 minutes before applying rooting hormone and placing it into potting soil. Caring for the clone and other specifics can vary by species, so do a quick search beforehand.

Grafting fruit trees is a millenia-old technique, wherein a cutting from a fruit tree is inserted into a hardier rootstock tree and bonded with a special wax. The tissues intermingle to form a single tree. Look online for tutorials, and be sure to take the proper precautions.

Organize a seed swap or seed bank in your area.

Found or join a chapter of Food Not Lawns, or a similar organization.

Stolen

Seed packets are small and easy to slip into your pocket when nobody is looking.

Some places (especially hardware stores) keep a lot of their gardening supplies outside, making it easy to liberate a few plants and even some soil or mulch. Wait at least 2 hours after close to make sure no employees are staying late, always mask up in case of cameras, and try to leave things relatively tidy (everything pulled to the front of the shelf) so there’s no suspicion in the morning.

Never steal from locally owned nurseries, farms, or your working-class neighbors!

Find a local riding stables or petting farm. Nearly all will let you have free manure. Try and get the best rotted stuff you can.

Clean out your gutters- those rotted leaves are a great soil booster!

Don’t just sweep up leaves from your garden- sweep up the ones that fall on the street/verges too (but not if you live somewhere with heavy traffic).

Ask your neighbours if they need garden help and boost your compost heap with their grass clippings and leaves.