Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Cool New Magazine

I love reading what Tara over at The Organic Sister writes. When I visited there today, she was telling us about a cool new online magazine called Rethinking Everything. They are even giving away the first issue to some folks so I wanted to tell you about it too.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Parent Job Description

Your Job as a Parent of an Unschooled Child
The article below was written by Anne Ohman of the Shine With Unschooling group.

We have always unschooled. Unschooling came easily to me and my family, because I learned early on to trust my heart and my children. But for those for whom unschooling does not come easily, I try to give them the guidelines you may be asking for here. If your question is “Please define my role as an unschooling parent,” here’s what I’ve come up with this morning:

I believe that your role as an unschooling parent is to show your children as much of the world as you can, and let them choose from it what they love and want to further explore. You accomplish this by expanding their worlds with interesting objects and places and people and events and tools and books and magazines and television shows and…(this list could go on for quite awhile).

It is your job to answer their questions, without shame or sarcasm, because all questions are valuable. If you don’t know an answer, it is your job to say, “I don’t know,” and offer to look it up with your child (I tend to say, “Hmmm…I *think* it’s this…but I’ll check to make sure…).

It is your job to be interested in the world. It is your job to ask your own questions about the world. I believe it’s an unschooling parent’s job to be excited themselves about learning the incredibly cool stuff there is to learn about the world. Learn from your own children how to be curious, aware and interested.

It is your job to pursue your own passions in life. This has numerous benefits, not only to yourSelf and your Spirit, but to your child as well.

It is your job to know your children and get to know them again and again as they grow and change. Get to know what it is they love, what it is that interests them. A big part of my job involves spending time looking for various resources in the area of my children’s passions – books, tools, people, events, classes, gatherings, websites, lists – and offer them up to my children. This is how I encourage my children to pursue what they love in life, by feeding them things that they may be interested in until they’re not interested in it anymore. (They are also quite capable of *feeding* themselves in the areas of their passions, or anything else that may be new and interesting to them…but right now we re just talking about the unschooling parent’s job…).

It is your job to learn about how children learn, by reading about unschooling, by un-learning everything you once believed to be true about forced learning.

It’s your job to sometimes think out loud, to initiate interesting conversations, and to be open for discussion where you may have just shut the door before. It’s your job to realize that your child will have different opinions and thoughts than you do, and to respect that and perhaps even broaden your own world from it.

It is your job to Trust the Children. Trust that they Love to Learn, and when they have a need and or desire for information, they will get it. Trust that learning isn’t separated into subjects as school would have us believe.

It’s your job to see the world through your child’s eyes. Understand where they’re coming from, and when conflict arises, it’s your job to stop and really think about if the resolve lies within the child, or within yourself. It’s usually within ourselves.

It’s your job to see Learning in places that you’re not used to seeing learning. I was even able to find it in Ed, Edd & Eddy cartoons…it’s there if you look. It’s everywhere if you look. And once you start seeing it, the world will open up to you and your child.

It’s your job to Love your child, and to Learn from your child. It’s your job to go into each day with an open mind and heart, trusting in the fact that you may not know where the day will end up, but that you began it from that magnificent place that is a child’s curiosity.

Unschooling Passions Article

Pam Laricchia does a fantastic job of sharing the learning and connections made by her children(s) passions. This article is a great read.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What's Better Than Public School? The Library...

I adore this commentary about public schools and public libraries. So true.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Free-Range Kids

One of my favorite people right now (that I'm not married to) is Lenore Skenazy. You might know her "America's Worst Mom" because last year, after her 9 year old begged her to, she let him take the NYC subway home by himself. It took some time for her and her husband to both agree with their son that he was ready, but they did. Mom and son went to Bloomingdale's together. She gave him $20, the subway map, and quarters for phone calls then said "see ya at home"!. She did not follow him. She did not ask a friend to go with him. She trusted him to use his brain to get home safely. She also trusted that the world is primarily a good, safe place. It took him one hour to get home with the hugest grin on his face and quite a sense of accomplishment. Yeah for both of them!



But, people around the world world went crazy. They accused her of all sorts of mean things - putting her child in mortal danger, not caring what happened to her child, etc. All a bunch of hogwash. She knew her child so well, trusted in the good in the world, and knew accurate violent crime statistics that she did the right thing by facilitating her son's independence and confidence in himself. To bring a reality check to parents, she started Free-Range Kids. I love it. I also am reading the book right now. Its hilariously fabulous.

The only thing missing from the web site (but on its way I understand) is a way to connect with other free-ranging parents. Care to join me in Southern Maryland Free-Range Kids group?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Dangerous Things

My daughter loves to do Dangerous Things. She is referring of course to things that in HER mind are dangerous and crazy. So I loved this TED talk by Gever Tulley about 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.

So how am I doing? Let's see.

1. Play with fire: Son (11) is normally our fire tender. I recently dug a fire pit in our backyard so we could play with fire more often.

2. Own a pocketknife: Son (11) has several and has had one since the age of 6 or 7. Daughter (6) owns and regularly uses two pocketknives and an all-in-one tool.

3. Throw a spear: I am afraid I am deficient in this. I don't own a spear either. So I am going to have to substitute a stick. Oh woe is me.

4. Deconstruct appliances: We can do this more often than once a year ... Kids do a lot of fixing of things but not so much in the taking apart realm. I think the last thing we took apart was a printer. Luckily, I have a CD player and various other electronics waiting patiently in the basement.

5a. Break the Digital Media Copyright Agreement: We've certainly done this but haven't talked about it in terms of breaking laws. That could be fun!

5b. Drive a car: Ok, Son backed our car out of the garage and through the baby trees into the neighbors yard when he was younger. He also loves to drive go karts and other vehicles. But Daughter has never expressed an interest. Hmm. The wheels are turning ...

Ok, I have my homework now!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Places That Fit Me

I am in search of a place that fits me and my current needs. They are not well defined, but I think I'll know it when I see it. So far, I know I am in search of a large-ish town or a small-ish city where there are: a university, a green community, a variety of cultural activities, sustainable farms, a favorable homeschooling culture, and people who strive for friends and community. So far on the list is:

Ithaca, NY
Santa Fe, NM
Asheville, NC
Charlottesville, VA
Serenbe, GA
Brunswick, Portland, and Belfast, ME
Portland, OR
Burlington, VT
Corvallis, OR
Boulder, CO
Tri-Cities area, TN

Durham, NC ?
Morgantown, WV ?
Kingston, RI ?
New Brunswick, NJ ?
Plymouth, NH ?
Princeton, NJ ?
Radford, VA ?
Storrs, CT ?
Fort Collins, CO ?
Logan, UT ?
Boone, NC ?
Chapel Hill, NC ?
Moscow, Idaho ?

Ecovillages

Saturday, November 21, 2009

New Slow Parenting Group

One of my friends posted this link to facebook and I wanted to share it with you. The article is entitled: The Backlash Against Overparenting from Time magazine. I love this article. Especially the last quote about leaving the kids alone.

If you like this article and agree with pretty much everything it says, please join me in a new Slow Parenting group. We can decide the specifics of our group gatherings, but I expect them to involve lots of time for kids to play what they choose together, homemade food, and pleasurable adult conversation time.

Gratitude List #4

This week's gratitude list (late as always):
1. I am grateful for the stars which light the night and show us the way home.
2. I am grateful for other people who choose to stay with us and become new friends.
3. I am grateful to my local family farmers for providing my family with the yummiest sustenance there is.
4. I appreciate the love of my cat.
5. I appreciate the colorful tree leaves I can see outside my window.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Gratitude List #3

1. I am grateful for my father's strong push ever forward when I was growing up.
2. I am grateful that I am the only one pushing me forward now.
3. I am grateful for the internet which brings me closer to those far away.
4. I am grateful for this peaceful morning.
5. I am grateful for the cozy sweater that kept me warm most of yesterday.

Gratitude List #2

Ok, So I forgot about my gratitude list until I was too busy getting ready for ARGH to sit at the computer - and then I was gone for this wednesday. So I have two lists I want to do right now before the kids wake up.

1. I am thankful for the always present love from my dear husband.
2. I am thankful for warm sunshine in the morning.
3. I am thankful for fun people to be around - even if I have to drive many hours to get there!
4. I am thankful for the way the dew looks like glittering diamonds when the sun first hits it.
5. I am thankful that my yoga class has started up again.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Gratitude List #1

Another unschooler, Clint, has started posting five thing to be grateful for every wednesday from now until Thanksgiving. I thought I would join him this year.

I am grateful for:
1) the freedom to determine my own path in life
2) my life partner, Walter
3) the infinite love from my children
4) the chance to remake myself as often as I wish
5) my dazzlingly creative mother

Why don't you try now?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Unschooling newspaper article

Yesterday's local newspaper has a very positive article about our unschooling family. A few parts of it are pretty funny but it overall made me smile. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Reusable Straws

I am always on the hunt for reusable items in order to reduce the trash my family creates. I saw these cool glass straws at another unschooler's blog. At the DC Green Festival last weekend I also saw nifty bamboo straws. I am still not sure that we would use these enough to justify the expense but I sure do like them! Just thought I would share.

Apple Trees

I am researching apple trees since I want a few at my house. I am keeping with heirloom varieties. I start my quest at Edible Landscaping in Afton, VA.


  • Liberty - resistant to mildew, cedar apple rust and fire blight and immune to scab, zones 4-7, self-fertile, crisp apple kind of like a McIntosh

  • Enterprise -

  • Honey Crisp - (had these at Westmoreland Berry Farm and my kids thought nothing was better than these apples)



Oh but I want kiwis, persimmons, berries, grapes, blackberries, jujubas, shitake log, and much more!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Vote for your Favorite Green Business!

Support businesses that are doing eco-friendly things by voting for the best Green Business today! My personal favorites are Reusablebags.com, To-Go Ware, and UsedCardboardBoxes.com.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Sheet Mulching

This past May, I posted about our guest and her kick in the pants to start gardening. This weekend, I am preparing more garden area for next spring. I am sheet mulching! Here's how I'm, doing it.

Today I used my flat spade to dig an edge to the garden bed. I used straight lines so it would be easy to use our riding lawn mower to follow. I removed 1/2 spade's worth of grass at the edge and put aside for later. In the morning, I will deepen this trench to about 5 inches using a small shovel and pick axe if needed. Then I will install the 5 inch plastic garden barrier edging that I purchased and use the spikes to pin it down. This point of this barrier is to help keep the grass roots from invading my garden bed. We have some nasty spreading grass and I really don't want to be pulling it out of my food plants all the time. Hopefully this will work! Now I can fill the inside.

First, a sprinkling of powdered lime to offset the acidic clay soil (although the acidity is hearsay as far as I am concerned - I have never done a soil test). The cardboard and thick newspapers get put down into a solid layer. The overlaps have to let no light in and no weeds through. This layer has to be good and soggy so liberal spraying with a hose will be needed.

Next goes fresh horse manure - just out of the stable this morning. Ideally the manure layer is a few inches thick; I'll just spread out what I have. Then a few inch thick layer of leaves. I grabbed these from a friend's house today. Her land is nothing but trees and a house. Great leaf production ;-) Then some compost, dried grass, anything else I can find which is organic. Oh I have some bone meal to sprinkle in there too. On top goes a thick layer of straw. Not hay which has seeds. This top layer has to have no seeds so you get no weeds. I might get some wood chips as well, but I'm curious how the straw does too.

That's it. Instead of composting kitchen scraps, I can just tuck the plant waste underneath the top layer and feed the worms and other organisms in my garden.

Than I'm going to go over to a friend's house and do it to her garden beds too!

For more info, here a couple sheet mulching links:
http://www.agroforestry.net/pubs/Sheet_Mulching.html
http://www.permaculture-exchange.org/sheet.html

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Eco-Complacency

Now that I am done organizing the Enjoy Life Unschooling Conference, I have a lot more time on my hands. Or rather, I have my time back to do other things with. Which is why I am here. I need to admit out loud that I have been complacent about one of my most important principles. I have not had time to think about Being Good to the Earth.

How did I come to realize this? I was preparing for my most recent SSoMMd program: Big Numbers, Big World. I was looking up how examples of big numbers. In particular, I wanted the amount of trash Americans created last year. As I searched for this number, I ended up reading about trash reduction. In particular, I found the Green Garbage Project; a Portland, OR couple who are trying to make their total trash produced in a year fit into one plastic grocery bag. Now a few years ago, the Roots and Shoots group which I lead did a trash reduction challenge. We challenged folks to reduce their trash production by a factor of two. We found that our family of 4 makes so much less trash than most Americans that we had a hard time reducing further. But these folks at the Green Garbage Project are headed for a lot less trash than we make. Of course they don't have children and they are both taking on the challenge together. Can you hear the rationalizations in my head? I can.

So I started browsing their site. They send produce stickers to a Fruit Sticker Artist to be made into art. Cool. They send zipper plastic bags to Lou's Upcycles to be made into bags and other wares. I learned about Kraft paper tape for boxes instead of plastic. Its supposed to be recyclable, but I can't confirm that. The coolest thing I learned about was Portland's Master Recycler Program and classes. Wow, I want to be a Master Recycler! I'll bet I could co-lead such an endeavor though...

All this trash reading got me thinking. I have been assuming that since I am so ______ (full in the blank with any eco-friendly word), that there's little more I can do in that area. I have been looking to expand into new areas (making my own soda, chickens, gardening, etc.) But now, I realize that I have been laxidasical about my eco-work. I can improve in areas I already concentrate as well as expand. And I need to get to it!

So, what shall I change, improve, or adjust in my life to be more Good to the Earth? What an excellent question. Maybe as I relieve my house of the things we no longer wish to have, my thinking will clear as well. Tomorrow's task! For now, check out these two neat videos about worm composting and fast food trash.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Learning Bucaneers

I just read this book review about James Marcus Bach, a self educated guy who used to excel while working for Apple. He describes himself an a great unschooler: one who is concerned about learning, succeeding on ones own merits, working his butt off for something he is passionate about and actually caring about his work. Can't wait to read the whole book!

Friday, September 4, 2009

A Great List of Unschooling Blogs

Need some new pleasure reading from some way cool folks? Check out the bloggers on the 50 Eye-Opening Unschooling Blogs List. Many are friends or acquaintances of mine and I love to read their stuff. The category assignments are a bit on the creative side, but no matter.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Unschooling Article in Baltimore Sun

I was interviewed and contributed some quotes to today's article about unschooling in the Baltimore Sun. I thought the article was balanced and pretty good. Thanks Joe! But go further than the article. Read the comments. Wow, the comments are amusing, scary, and just encourage me gather like-minded folks around me a bit closer for protection.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Teens and How We Treat Them

I love, love, love this article about teens and society. Read it! Think about what life was like when you grew up and what life is like for today's teens. I hope you will agree that life for 21st century teens is not great.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Pickles

So this past wednesday I immersed myself in pickles. I prepared and canned 32 pints of pickles. That is way more than I have ever done before. I never even liked pickles until I made them myself last year. That's what happens when your friend offers you cucumber seconds and says make pickles!

Enjoy Life Unschooling Conference!

Have you heard of the Enjoy Life Unschooling Conference yet? This September for a cool 2 days, come and Enjoy Life with unschoolers of all ages in the mountains near Frederick, Maryland. We will have fabulous speakers, chat sessions, and funshops to fill your days. In the evening, there will be a campfire with music, s'mores, and storytelling while inside our coffeehouse will feature an open mic, a service project to help animals enjoy their lives, henna to decorate your body, crafts, and games. Registration is quite inexpensive for a conference, so come on and join us!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

My Problem

So I had my homeschool review a while back. I was told I had a problem. Wanna guess what it is? Go ahead, I'll give you a minute ....

Nope, that's not it. Not that either! My problem is that I am learning centered in my approach to homeschooling. Yes, you read that right. Being learning centered is a problem.

My reviewer said he was teaching centered. He had to be because of his job. I was learning centered and that was very different. We agree on that. He did suggest we meet in the middle so he could do his job easier. Could be worse!

Ok, so I didn't bring the samples of my kid's work. Bad me. They will get over it though. I brought two of those calendars which look like books - one for each kid. They have at least 5 different things on each DAY (and way more than 180 of them) which the kids did for learning purposes. I was told "Anyone can bring this in, we need to see what your kids actually did". Hmmm. This was the proof of my instruction. It seems a little silly that they truely want to see 5 pieces of paper from my kid. That is how we got into discussion about My Problem.

You are wondering what I have to do now, aren't you. I have to bring in samples of my kids' work to my next review - next year. That sure showed me, huh?! Yes, I might remember to bring the samples next time. Or I might join an umbrella group and not have to see them again. There are probable a whole host of fun ways to handle this situation, but a 12 step program for My Problem is not one of them :-) I like my problem.

Oh, my kids did start blogs however. We'll see how that goes...

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Bye Bye Trampoline - Hello Chickens?

Last week we took down our trampoline. It was used when we got it from our neighbor oh so many years ago. We have enjoyed it a lot. But ... the stitching started disintegrating, a few springs fell off, and then the fabric started ripping. It no longer was safe to jump on it and be sure that it would hold you when you landed. So down it came.

We had been thinking about ways to recycle or reuse the materials from the trampoline instead of adding to the landfill. The best by far was to turn the frame upside-down and attach chicken wire to make ... you guessed it ... a chicken enclosure! So what do you think? Should we start having chickens next year?

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Holiday Light Recycling

I love it when a company acts as responsibly as they can. I just found this company, Holiday LEDS that sells energy efficient holiday lights (yeah!) but ALSO accepts your non-working holiday lights of any sort for recycling. Can't wait till the Season of Lights!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

A step up in recycling

I found a really cool web site just now and waned to share it. This fabulous web site entitled How Can I Recycle This? shares info on re-purposing all sorts of things. I just read about ways to reuse lanyards, conference badges, bicycle tires, and sandpaper. Wow.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Strawberry Jam

Yesterday morning I worked for about 4 hours on making strawberry jam. I was about up to the canning part when both kids woke up! We had already gone to a new farm (Homestead Farm in Faulkner, MD) to load up on berries for jam so I could start as soon as my eyes were open enough.

Hulling and chopping the berries comes first (along with washing if necessary). Then cooking the berries until soft. I decided I wanted a smooth consistency this time (instead of fruit chunks) so I used my blender on the whole batch. I sweetened with local honey, thickened with agar agar flakes, and popped it all in the canning jars. My recipe is not for a super sweet jam, I like the berry flavor to dominate over the sweetness. However my sweets-loving son said it was good. Here's the big-ass pot I used (thanks mom!) and the finished jars.



Here's the recipe:

Strawberry Jam
Ingredients:
8 quarts of fresh strawberries (which weighed a total of 10 lb 7 oz and measured out to be about 16 c)
1.5-2 c honey
8 T agar agar flakes (a seaweed)

Directions:
Cook strawberries until soft on medium heat (do not boil). Add honey to taste* (must cool berry mixture down for proper taste test) and stir well. Add 1/2 the agar flakes, stir, and continue on med heat for a few minutes. Do a consistency test**. Add 1 T flakes at a time until berry mixture is not quite solid enough for you. Stop there before you end up with a brick. Now get it in the jars and hide it until harvest season has passed!

Yield: about 2 cups

* The taste of hot things differs from cold things. The berries need to be cool for proper taste test. Here's how: use a small plate or bowl, chill it in the freezer for a few minutes, put a small dollop of mixture on plate, return to freezer until cool, then taste and adjust honey amount.

** Consistency Test: The agar flakes gel when they get cool/cold. Use the plate in the freezer trick again, but this time make sure the strawberry mixture really and truly gets cold. Always err on the side of not enough and too runny jam. Otherwise, you could add too much agar and end up with jam the consistency of a hockey puck.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

How Green Are You?

I get The Green Guide To Go in my email inbox. This week's mentioned the recent Greendex rating so I went to check it out. Of course, I had to take the survey to see what my personal Greendex number comes out to be. I guess my friends are right, I am the greenest person they know. My Greendex is 59 out of a possible 60. I am pretty green by their standards. What are you?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A New Garden Bed

You saw the cool new trellis we made to shade our AC fans in the last post? Now there is a sheet mulched area all around it to make a new garden bed!


I thought about this new garden bed. I was worried about the soil washing right down onto the walkway. I thought about water retention in this bed. Since the best place to store water or plants is in the soil, I decided to build a short retaining wall. I used the leftover blocks from the walkway to make this short wall. Now it holds both soil and water in the garden bed instead of dumping where we walk.


Under the bricks for the wall, I laid that good ole newspaper to smother the weeds and stuck it under the blocks to anchor the paper. On top of the newspaper (in overlapping sections about 10-20 sheets thick), I put an entire truckload of manure from the farm where our neighbor's horse resides. On top of that, I put triple ground mulch (no more free from County!). Look how tall it is now!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Gazebo Turned Trellis

As part of my new gardening plan, we transformed a patch of grass with the AC fan units against the house into a food garden spot. First thing was to start sheet mulching to convert the hard red clay dirt and weedy grass into loamy garden soil. This was a half-way step since I did not have sufficient materials to really sheet mulch well. Right now it is just newspaper and the free mulch that my county gives away from residents' yard waste.


Then we took the upright posts from a damaged gazebo and turned them into a trellis system. The gazebo used to provide shade to our west facing deck but hurricane related rain and a tarp which was too impervious to water caused the gazebo roof to collapse be unusable. We kept the sides knowing that they could be reused somehow. We found the perfect project! When there is something growing on these trellises, the fan units for the air conditioning system will be shaded. Now, we only turn on our AC for about 6 weeks during our toasty Maryland summers, but we know the AC will operate more efficiently if the fans are shaded. The fans face west with southern exposure as well.

Now, to find a plant guild (language from permaculture - check out Gaia's Garden for an intro to home-scale permaculture) that will thrive in this spot. Climbing vines with a lot of leaf cover and fast growing are what I need right now!

What's the next step? To sheet mulch properly. I borrowed my friend's truck again and am going to get more horse manure and mulch tomorrow. Then plant!

Monday, May 4, 2009

My Newest Adventure

Over the last month, I have started something new to me. What is it you ask? Here's the uphill climb...

Last fall, a friend asked me why, as a local food advocate, I did not have a garden to grow my own food. I didn't even have to think about it before answering. In the past, I have not had a great rapport with living things. I mean I can keep most house plants alive, but lush they are not. I have carefully avoided the common problem of overwatering by ignoring them until they droop or leaves start to turn brown. They would gladly go to another house if they had a chance. So the idea of growing my own food seemed almost comical.

The funny thing is that I make my own yogurt, bread, mozzarella cheese, and almost other kind of food we enjoy. I can sew (thanks Mom!), knit, crochet, sing, and do all sorts of other things. Why not grow some food? I talked with a farming friend; she said I could certainly grow a cherry tomato plant or two. She even volunteered to give me the plants, compost, and advice. That offer helped a lot. So I thought about the cost of various locally grown foods and decided to try the most expensive ones that were also easy to grow. Strawberries and cherry tomatoes here we go!

The more I thought about it, the more I read. The more I read, the more I realized I know a lot of gardening info already. I have a great resource book that I bought when we moved into this house in 2000. I am a Mother Earth News subscriber. I have several friends who farm for a living and several more friends who have home gardens. I am home a lot and have two sometimes willing helpers. So I thought I could handle more than 4 plants.

When it seemed like spring had sprung, I went and bought 5 everbearing strawberry plants from a local nursery (Heaven's Garden). I posted to freecycle for empty plastic cat litter buckets to serve as plant containers. I heard from a friend who offered me all her strawberry plants from last year. Alright!

Then I thought of how fabulous blueberries would be to have at home. I went and bought 4 blueberry plants (2 varieties for cross fertilization) and the leaf compost to help turn our dirt into soil. I got them into the ground and knew I needed to get them mulched soon. I was avoiding purchasing bagged mulch because of the waste of the plastic bags.

Then the Universe Provided for me.

I called my organic farming friend and shared my progress so far. That same day she sent over seedlings ready for transplant. She gave me the following seedlings: 2 cherry tomatoes, 2 heirloom tomatoes, 2 hybrid tomatoes, 2 parsley, 4 lacinato kale, and 15 lettuces. What a sweet friend! I had thought I would go with containers for all the plants because I did not want to fight the deer and rabbits for the food.

The same day a wonderful woman from Australia came to couchsurf with us. Sally is really into permaculture. She stayed with us for nearly a week and really held my hand (and trowel!) while these new transplants began their life at my house. She helped me plant, planted for me, and willingly shared lots of advice and information. Next thing I know, we are talking about the best places for more garden, borrowing a friend's pickup truck, and bringing home 1 bed full of horse manure from the farm my neighbor's kids go to ride and 3 beds full of free mulch from the county for our trees and flower beds. Now I have a whole bed around the blueberry bushes which is busy making great soil and a whole head full of ideas to keep me going! Wow Sally, Thanks so much for your physical and mental support for this new adventure!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Earth Day 2009

Earth Day is this Wednesday. This is an excellent time to show
our children how their actions affect the Earth, our lifestyles,
and our future. Some Earth Day events and activities were this
past weekend. Some are still to come.

Please share what events or activities your family will be doing
to honor the Earth this week/month.

Also, I enjoy starting new "green" projects or activities which
usually develop into family habits. This year we are beginning vermicomposting and a few other fun things to help us reduce our
impact on the earth.

Please share what new green ideas your family will be
incorporating this Earth Day.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Idea of Compacting

I just read about a cool thing that a group of San Franciscans did a few years back. The initiated a Compact with each other. The agreed to basically not buy anything new (with exceptions of course) for 12 months. Check out the guidelines. Care to try it with me? I am really liking the idea. Of course, I do have a list of things I am searching for used already and it really frustrated my dear son. Not sure what to do about that ...

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Better World Handbook

Another one my new reads from the Green Festival in DC in November is The Better World Handbook. My favorite paragraph is all about how the world is and how we mistakenly think it is. It really resonated with me so I wanted to share it with you ...

Our culture teaches us that we are each autonomous individuals who are only responsible for our own well-being. We end up believing that we are independent creatures who should make our own way in life without depending on others. In reality, we all rely on each other for our daily existence. We eat food that grows in soil nurtured by microscopic organisms. We drink water that has vaporized from the oceans. we breathe oxygen respired by the trees and wear clothing made by people across the planet whom we will never meet. We rely on our friends and family for support and create a sense of belonging and meaning within our communities. Our personal well-being is inextricably linked to the well-being of our families, our friends, our communities, and our planet. And the well-being of others, in turn, is shaped by our own well-being.

That's all I wanted to share with you now. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Local Food For New Friends

Last night we acted as couchsurfing hosts for the first time. It was really fun. We hosted a family of four traveling from Florida to their home in Ottawa, Canada. They stayed just one night, but we all enjoyed each others' company - adults and kids alike. They were due to arrive after dinner, but we wanted to have a nice local dish for them to enjoy when they arrived. So we made our local dinner for us and then made dessert to share with our guests.

Dinner was pasta (not local), homemade tomato sauce which I canned from our 15 mile tomatoes and herbs, and separate local (10 mile) pork sausage. Simple but yummy. Dessert was homemade pies. The crust was made from butter (25 mile), home ground wheat, and salt. The pie filling was butternut squash (15 mile), local milk (15 mile), local eggs (5 mile), and spices from lots of places.

Being away for the holidays was really difficult on the local food front. We were guests in my mother-in-law's home and she really enjoys entertaining. That includes cooking for us - in her own style. So I had nothing to really post for my Dark Days Challenge ...