My Resolution

I’m pretty slow to start the new year with my resolutions for change. It seems that each year, I am completely burnt out after the growing/harvest/preserving season then jumping right into the holiday season that by the time the new year begins, I only desire to sit and do nothing (ok, I want to chat on Twitter or take naps). And cook yummy food from all that I’ve put up!

I’ve been reading about what several others have been saying their resolutions are and for me, the only major things I need to change in my life this year is to get more exercise and more sleep! I have no problems eating what’s in my pantry as one big challenge I’ve seen people participate in. In fact, I try to live this way year round and am nervous we are going through our canned tomato and sauce supply way faster than I thought we would and I am trying to make the home-canned supply last til next summer! I’m sure it won’t at this rate.

I don’t need to challenge myself to do a 3 week jumpstart your diet challenge which is another big one I’ve seen written about to detox your body on a plant based diet. I eat a plant based diet and occasionally the very nutritious eggs from my own backyard chickens so this is a way of life for me, too. I also like to wait until springtime to do a liver cleanse, it’s too cold for me in the winter to do cleanses like that.

No, what I need to do (and began doing this past week) is something I saw written up on the Huffington Post called “Sleep Challenge 2010 – Women, It’s Time To Sleep Your Way To The Top, Literally.”  Once I read that article, I knew I had to do it. I was resistant at first, I like going to bed between 12-1 am and sleeping in a bit in the morning but with an almost 6 year old boy as my daily alarm clock, I rarely get to sleep past 7 or 7:30 and that’s late for him. So I was getting around 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep each night. I have been dragging and some days, I’ve only gotten about 5.5 hours at night and that puts me over the cranky edge so I can’t function the way I want and need to.

I realize I have to get a minimum of 7 hours of solid sleep at night and preferably 8 hours of sleep every night to feel well. My son sleeps through the night for the past few years and even in his own room now. The only time he wakes us up at night is if he’s sick or had a bad dream. After suffering through several years of extreme sleep deprivation because of him, I should want to go to bed early and get 8+ hours of sleep every night! Why my resistance I wondered? I realized it’s because it’s “me time” for several hours in the evening. After we eat a family dinner, my husband does the bedtime routine with our son then has his guitar playing hour (or more) every night and I clean up and have things I catch up on, books I am reading or tv shows on Tivo to watch! I wind up waiting for my husband to watch certain shows with me and we seem to go to bed too late because of this. He always says he does better on 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep and if he sleeps longer than that, he’s dragging. I’m the other way around so I don’t believe him! Who can function well on 6 or 6.5 hours of sleep every night? Not me!

He is sort of doing this sleep challenge with me because consistent, solid sleep is so beneficial for your body in so many ways and he’s recovering from several weeks of some funky virus invading his body and doing strange things to him. Solid sleep also helps to prevent getting run-down and sick in the first place. Your immune system works better, you have more energy, you look younger and your mental state is in a much better place, too. There’s also evidence that not getting enough sleep makes you gain or retain weight and sufficient sleep helps you lose it!  There really is not one downside to getting your “beauty sleep.” It is quite a challenge for me to get up to the 8 hour mark. I’m working on cutting back on my evening activities and getting more things done during the day.

This past week I’ve been aiming for 7-7.5 hours of sleep each night (by counting backwards from my 7 a.m. wake up time) and I feel good but still tired and dragging at some point in my day. Clearly a sign I need more sleep! Who knew? This week, I (and possibly Michael) will be trying for 8 whole, glorious hours of uninterrupted sleep each and every night. If I can do this, I will feel like superwoman and will be able to really increase my workouts and pretty much revolutionize my world! I like the info in this update from Arianna Huffington about what happened to her after finally getting those 8 hours of sleep each night.

I encourage anyone reading this to give this sleep challenge a try. Lawd knows we all need it!

How Time Flies

I feel like such a lucky person – I am living the life I want (even though it’s not necessarily in the location I envisioned) and I am supported 100% by my partner.  It’s been seven years now living back in suburbia and still every October (which is the anniversary of us buying this “temporary” home we’re in) I am still amazed that I’m here and liking it! Granted, if we didn’t have a child, I’m sure we would have moved on already but I feel all things happen for a reason and we were strongly guided to buy this home over and over again when we were searching for a new place to live in the valley.

The main thing about why we bought this house is that it mostly fit my certain criteria I had in my mind for moving off of a self-sustainable compound high up in the mountains: we live next to a source of water (a creek that originates near where we just moved from) which is next to a bike path so I don’t have to use my car if I don’t want to and I can always get water (that I would filter) easily if something were to happen to city water; I have 2 fireplaces in my home and while I don’t think they are as good as a big wood burning stove like I was used to, they are very good in case the heat doesn’t go on for some reason or to just warm up the room we are in. We are across the street from a big park, 3 playgrounds & a public kid’s pool which is great for playing with my son and my dog (and happens to be where my son plays his soccer games); our yard was big enough for us to put in a large (and now even larger) fenced in garden area and a greenhouse as well as various other garden beds, 4 chickens & a movable coop, 2 huge compost bins area, a full cord of dry wood neatly stacked and a large shed. It also happens to be right across from an elementary school that is really great and the easiest commute I’ve ever had to do twice a day, 5 days a week! We also really didn’t want an HOA telling us what we can/cannot do (even a clothesline is illegal in many HOA’s). My husband also really wanted big trees which are all over my neighborhood and we have an amazing view out our window of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and even the Continental Divide. And so far, I’ve been able to easily do both my healing work and my herbal products crafting out of designated rooms for them both in my home.

Even though originally I hated the idea of living in suburbia again after being off the grid with our own photovoltaic system, amazingly pure water source (which I now buy & have delivered every month), clean air and lots of land, I made sure we could still live as self-sufficient even on a quarter acre as we were used to on 35 acres. We could successfully grow lots more of our own food, too since we came down 4,000’ in elevation. Such a major bonus for us aspiring farmers!

Another great thing is that we live close to others who have much more land with their own little farms so I can bike over and buy fresh produce, eggs, etc if ever we needed that. We are pretty close to our town’s ever growing farmer’s market, too and have biked there several times this past summer using the bike path. We live close enough to major roadways to easily commute for various job locations, events, the airport and close enough for a quick drive up into the same mountains we moved down from. We are very close to shopping, too which really came in handy when my son was a fussy baby.

So as I re-evaluate our situation once again this October, I see how we made the right choice for buying our home that is almost completely renovated now. We just completed a kitchen renovation that is really rocking my world. I’ve put it to the test this harvest season and I’m in love. While it’s not as huge a kitchen as I have dreamed about, it really is very efficient, well-organized and PRETTY for getting the job done. Six years ago we installed a tankless hot water heater, whole house humidifier, whole house air filter and we buy 100% of our electricity from a wind farm (through our power company) and installed double paned windows all over our home. Its energy efficient and warm/cool as it should be. We also divert our roof water run off to the various garden beds and now that rainwater collection is legal here, we will set up some barrels for that, too. Who knows, now that we know we’ll be here several more years, maybe we’ll do photovoltaic solar panels on the roof, too.

One day in the future we will move onto our own few acres again into an alternative home we design/build but until that time comes, this place is really suiting all of my family’s needs so well. We have made our carbon footprint as small as it can be for living in suburbia. We also try to eat as much vegan food as possible – especially homegrown – and buy our dry goods in bulk through my co-op. I’m really working on introducing my son to more plant based meals now that he’s not as hyper-picky anymore and I’m so proud of my hubby for changing his diet so much! It’s better for our health, the environment and our wallets! We make very little trash since we compost and recycle the majority of everything we use. I love that!

I truly am a lucky person and am so grateful for my great life!

Chicks & Garden Update

Since an ordinance was passed in my town allowing backyard chickens and permits were issued, we went ahead and took the plunge and got ourselves 4 baby chicks on March 21st! We now have an expanded garden, made new garden beds on the side of our house, built a small greenhouse (8′x8′) last fall with all reclaimed materials and are going to be building a movable chicken coop (with reclaimed materials, too) to fit in next to our greenhouse. It will be like a coop/chicken tractor so we can move it around the yard and  the girls can graze safely on grass. I will let them out inside the garden to eat bugs and let them run around the yard while I’m out there with them. I’ve noticed a red tailed hawk in my neighborhood recently which doesn’t make me happy!

My husband grew up raising chickens so I am getting lessons first hand from him even though caring for them on a day to day basis will be up to my son and I. My husband has lots of other projects lined up to do!

We also built our son a funky tree tower next to the greenhouse because there was an Aspen tree in bad shape that needed to come down. My husband decided to make the tree tower for our son’s birthday in February and built it on any weekend that was not frigid this winter – and we had lots of nice weekends, actually.

Here are some pix of the peeps from 4 days – 2.5 wks old:

The two golden colored ones are Buff Orpingtons and their names are Daisy and Lulu. The two brownish ones are Easter Eggers – Americana’s, specifically and their names are Iris and Acorn. All 3 of us named them. They really are so very cute at this age!

Here is a picture of our (still unfinished) greenhouse that will be painted this spring and the funky tree tower to the left of it:

It’s located right in front of our newly expanded garden space, that’s the garden fence behind it. The tree tower looks like it’s all open in the picture but there is lots of cable wire going through the Aspen branches and it’s a 4 ft tall fence so my son won’t fall out! It’s very secure and he loves it!

The greenhouse was built so we could walk in there through a door (on the left side), it’s about 8′ tall at the highest point and has 2 large beds on the ground as well as a big shelf on the back wall under another window that can hold 4 large pots (or 7 flats of seedlings). The roof windows open for ventilation, too. There is a sprinkler head inside it from our sprinkler system so we can run a drip line off of it to the beds. We are also hanging up heavy duty hooks to hold large hanging pots in there, too. I want to grow the upside down tomato plants to have a longer tomato growing season in the fall (I admit I’m a little obsessed with growing tomatoes!). We have also worked out our glitches from last winter’s trial garden and will use the back of the greenhouse to help anchor the hoop house for better winter gardening this year. We are pretty excited for all of this additional growing space we’ve got now!

Many seeds have been started indoors this past week and my husband just rototilled in a mix of compost and top soil into all the new beds we created so now we are ready to plant! We will be direct seeding the new greenhouse beds this weekend with several varieties of cool weather greens and peas. This growing year  should be a good one since we are done with the hardscaping now and can successfully do year round succession planting.

Now with the chickens, we will have free range, organic eggs from happy birds (and my son & husband eat lots of eggs), new fun pets to hang out with and we will be able to feed them many veggie scraps from the garden and compost their waste and bedding to eventually be put back into the garden. The cycle of life. Love it.

The thing I love most about gardening is all that you learn from nature. Everything is trial and error and you find what works best for your individual space and then when it clicks, you get to watch the magic of nature unfold in front of your eyes and reap the bounty! I find this to be so much fun!

My Holiday Update

Happy holidays, everyone!! As you can tell, I have not been blogging much this month of December. Besides all of the craziness and hoopla of everything involved with the holidays, I had a major muscle spasm this month that had me on my back on a heating pad and taking muscle relaxers for almost a week then I was still very limited in what I could do.

I also have scar tissue in my knee for many years and it has steadily been getting worse as I age and all year I’ve been going to physical therapy to deal with it so I could exercise more without so much pain. After all of these sessions with not that much change they tell me at my last session that I may need surgery. Ugh.

I went back to the orthopedic surgeon who occasionally gives me cortisone shots in my IT band in my leg so I can exercise without so much pain (and he also told me to do PT) and as my last ditch effort before surgery he decided this time to stick a giant needle directly into my lump of scar tissue. I thought I was going to die from the pain that night. It was almost as bad as when I was in labor and my son got stuck and caused ligaments to tear inside my hip. The only thing that helped was icing it for 48 hours straight to keep it numb and immobile until the injected fluid was absorbed into my leg and away from expanding the scar tissue. It took several days of no moving and icing it but at least it was over a few days before Christmas and we were able to enjoy a really fun family day. Now my knee feels great and I am hoping it did something in breaking up the mass and I can avoid surgery!

We also had a really nice winter garden of hardy greens under a hoop house and big cabbages ready to be harvested when my back issues were going on and my husband was crazy at work. He was going to harvest lots of it that weekend and one morning early in the week he says, “I think the digital outdoor thermometer is broken, it says it’s minus 15 outside.” We both were like, uh-oh and turned on the weather and sure enough, the arctic cold front came down overnight and I was too distracted with pain to watch the news that week and the sub-zero temps basically ruined our lovely winter crop!! We were sad. The cabbages were huge, too. At least we started growing our indoor sprouts again but I was really looking forward to the spinach, kale and collards that were doing so well out there. Damn Arctic cold front!!! We did finish building a new, little greenhouse by late November but didn’t get anything planted in it before the cold came so we decided to just rely on the hoop house this winter instead. Ha! Now we know better for next year.

Another change that happened this month was for my husband. He received a surprise call in November from a consultant that had worked for him this past year. It was for an unadvertised position at a good company in his field that is poised to do even better in a recession. This consultant became a full time employee there because of the economy and because it’s such a good place to work he said. My husband was not looking for a new job, his was pretty safe even though his present company has done a few rounds of layoffs this year. He decided it was something to go for and he fit the bill perfectly for what they wanted. We think it was meant to be since they chose him and he starts next week. The only downside to this is that he now has to commute 20 minutes instead of working down the street. He gets a better salary, more paid time off, better job security and more exciting work to do so that was the trade-off. He’s really excited for his new adventure.

Since he used to eat lunch at home almost every day, I decided to get him a rockin’ lunch box of some sort that he would love and where I could make him some interesting, healthy lunches in. I did some research and ordered him a Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar – aka a “bento box.” I gave it to him as one of his xmas gifts and he loves it. It has 2 insulated containers for hot or cold food (one even holds soup) and 2 for cold or room temp food. It stacks inside this steel, vacuum sealed cylinder and even has a carry case and comes with a spork but he added chop sticks, too. There are several bento box “food p*rn” sites and blogs to get ideas of what to make from simple to gourmet and we being the gourmet types are geeking out a bit over it, I have to say!

He gave me as one of my gifts Veganomicon, an amazing (cooked) vegan cookbook. There are so many great recipes in there and even meal ideas for the different recipes so I’m sure I’ll be making him lots of good food from that book (plus sneaking in some raw recipes, too!).

Right now while he’s on vacation til the new job starts, we are trying to finish up some house projects and major re-organizing. It feels good to move stuff around and get rid of things. He is building some new shelving in our multi-purpose rec room to make it more user friendly for each of us that uses that room for different activities. I am ready to start doing yoga again there now, I figure that won’t hurt my back if I start slow and build up again.

I’m sure I’ll be back to posting more after the new year and settling into my family’s new daily routine.

I hope you all have a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!!

My Green Goings On

This time of year is my busiest. I have more orders to fill for the holiday season for my herbal products that I make & sell, the summer veggie garden must be put to bed and all the veggies and herbs dealt with before the first frost (this week).  We are also doing more home improvement projects – installed the last 5 new energy efficient windows our house needed plus we are building a greenhouse with reclaimed materials and have expanded our garden space (greenhouse is incorporated into the new space and acts as part of the fence). We are attempting our first winter garden as well and have to put up the hoops and cover.

Since the bay window I really wanted for growing herbs and sprouts in our south facing window was like quadruple the price of a standard window and we will eventually move, we went with a standard window but my husband, Michael was able to set it out a bit further and now he is building a new sill that will be larger on the inside so we can grow some plants there.  He also did this for the kitchen window so we have 2 spots for more growing.  It’s not a bay window but it is an economical, functional and attractive substitution.

Michael had to cut down an Aspen tree in our yard that really was at the wrong elevation for it to thrive (and was blocking our expanded garden) but decided that he would leave about 9feet of the trunk in tact and build a platform/treehouse structure for our son on top of it. He’s got big plans for this structure with a trap door, some kind of peaked roof and maybe a slide (and of course my request – a very kid proof tall railing!) all with reclaimed building materials, many of which he already has. This is also part of the new fence line of the garden and is next to the greenhouse so it really will be interesting looking in that section of our yard when it’s all done.  Needless to say, we are a bit frantic running around trying to get everything done (although the treehouse will have to wait) and we leave town next week to go to a wedding of an old friend and spend time with other friends and family, too.

And we also are still doing food preservation.  Every year we can, pickle, dry, freeze and root cellar garden veggies.  This year we have amped that up all summer and included more items we have harvested from local u-pick farms and farmer’s markets now that my son is older and able to appreciate harvesting his own food more.   This is important to do especially with the economy the way it is and you never know what is going to happen in the world and if you are not prepared, well, you know.  I just think it’s a good way to live regardless and doing it every year adds a good rhythm to life and is a skill to pass down to future generations.

I still have many posts I want to write about but just don’t have the time at the moment including the part 2 of my detoxing adventure.  Amazing, btw the internal changes I feel and I’m not fully done yet.  I am hoping to get to that update before I leave on my trip.

I hope you all are keepin’ on and don’t let the worries of the failing economy keep you down.  Things in our world are changing for sure but if you are aware and don’t slip into panic and anxiety (which is easy to do when watching the news!), you’ll weather this situation and see that we are all transforming into a new way of living which, in the end, will be great for us all.  Last year we decided to stay put and batten down the hatches and ride out this storm of chaos/transformation where we are hence all of the improvements we’re still making on this house to help us function better here.

Since we are in a big time of change, keep thinking about what changes/improvements you can do that’s economical for your life, promotes your health and adds quality and enjoyment.  Even small changes can add so much and makes you feel so much better.  For example, some of the greatest things ever in making my time in the kitchen better? Drawer organizers and more shelves. When I know where things are and can get it in 2 seconds when I’m in the middle of a recipe, I’m a happy camper.  Being organized and clutter-free helps me function better and saves lots of time.  There is an old saying, “A change is as good as a rest.”  I totally agree.

Offsetting My Electricity With Wind Power Update

I just wanted to give a little update on what it was like this summer having switched over to 100% wind power. I wrote back in June a detailed post about how we decided that instead of paying just an extra $7.50/mo for buying a block of partial wind power (500 kWh) from our electric company, we chose to make the commitment for our environment and pay whatever the bill would be to totally offset all of our power. What I figured we would be paying from looking at past bills would be anywhere from $13-$20 extra each month. Well, for the past 3 months and with using our air conditioner very little this summer (a big improvement for us), here is what we paid for total wind power for a family of 3: June: $11.13 July:$13.64 August: $17.43.

We have also set a record in my state of Colorado this summer with many days being above 90 degrees and really it was more like close to 100 degrees everyday for several weeks. Certain evenings it got to be 95 degrees in our bedroom and that was with the windows and shades closed all day. We ran the a/c those evenings to cool down our upstairs for a few hours so we could all sleep – especially my son who complained bitterly about the heat. Once it cooled down a bit, we shut off the a/c and opened all the windows for the cool evening air to come in.

I feel ok with paying the extra amount in August because I think our bill the rest of the year will be more like the June bill – around $11 bucks extra a month to buy total wind power. Buying this wind power really helps me tune-in to what we are all doing everyday here and if we leave on any unnecessary lights or devices. It reminds me of the years we lived completely off the grid and how we had to be aware and check our meter everyday especially in the dead of winter when we would get less sun on our solar panels to generate our power. It was our goal to not have to use our back up gas generator but in the height of the winter, we needed to use the generator to juice up the bank of batteries at least once a week. I feel like we got a bit soft since moving to the ‘burbs and back on the grid and this is our good environmental kick in the butt that we needed.

I will say it once again, if you are employed and can pay your bills, this is one of the best “green” sustainable things you can do for your environment and many power companies offer this renewable energy option. If yours doesn’t, there are two other companies that you can buy certified renewable energy from anywhere in the country: Green-e and Village Green Energy.

If you can only afford $1.50 extra each month – the price of a cup of coffee – dedicated to buying a 100 kWh block of renewable energy on your monthly bill, that still will make a huge difference in our environment. Offsetting 100 kWh is equivalent to:

Planting a half acre of trees

Not driving a gasoline powered car 2,400 miles

For only $1.50 each month this is something you can feel really good about and all it takes is a phone call or signing up online. I know that I actually feel great when I see the extra added expense that I know is going towards helping our planet and all of her inhabitants. I really hope that if you can afford even the smallest amount every month that you will make the commitment to do so, too.

photo: Steve Roe

Lessons From Nature

I live 2 blocks away from a creek with a bike path in suburbia. We have seen a lot of different wildlife when we take a walk or bike ride along the bike path. We even saw a beaver in the section of the creek near our house. That was pretty surprising to us. On a recent bike ride with our dog running alongside (but on a leash) we saw 2 large coyote in broad daylight following the creek (about a mile from our house) they were clearly going over to where there is a prairie dog colony. I couldn’t believe they would be out around people in daylight although they were looking around and trying to hide amidst the trees. I’ve only ever seen them out in the daytime in the mountains where we used to live – never in suburbia during the day. And they were huge for coyotes – I thought they were wolves for a minute. Poor prairie dogs – it must suck to be the bottom of the food chain!

Here I am thinking how nice to live so close to the creek and the diverse wildlife that lives along there. Well, there is one creature I do not like and they are ballsy and know they can get away with anything – the Skunk.

I have learned much about the skunk recently namely that they reek just walking around and without even spraying anything. A couple of weeks ago I kept smelling skunk and especially at night when I have the door in my office open for the cool air to come in when I work. Every morning I check the backyard and the garden and nothing is being messed with, I can’t find any veggies being taken or anything. Every night the reek would happen again. I read up on skunk and it said they are omnivores and live within 2 miles of water and are nocturnal. I don’t know what he is after or if he’s in my neighbor’s yard munching on their garden which is not behind a fence like ours is but that really doesn’t deter them, either.

Well, last Thursday night we let the dog out to pee for the night and bam! he goes right after the skunk who was in our yard (it must have just gotten there bec. we checked a few minutes before letting him out) and it sprayed my poor dog and my entire house with all the windows open! So freaking gross!! My entire house REEKED so bad, I didn’t know what to do. I had to get on the computer and look stuff up with a towel over my nose and mouth on how to get the smell out of a house. I had bought this natural enzyme skunk odor remover for pets a while back for “just in case.” I’m glad I remembered that I had it. My husband ran upstairs to shut all the windows and get the enzyme stuff and put the dog in the tub.

The other info I found said to roast some ground coffee in a pan or cookie sheet in an open oven or burn some incense. We ground up coffee beans and I wanted to do it on the stove top instead (thought it would be faster) and used a pyrex bowl for some reason instead of a pan. It started to smoke after a bit which was good but then it caught on fire – not good! I tried to sprinkle water in it to put out the fire without putting a metal spoon in the bowl first to conduct the heat – I know to do this, too – and the freaking thing exploded all over the place! At that point, I was so pissed off at myself for being dumb and for now having to clean up a big glass mess and there was smoke everywhere which I was actually happy about because at least I couldn’t smell the damn skunk anymore!

The upstairs REEKED, too. I sprayed this orange essential oil odor killer spray I have all over the place then I lit up a big white sage smudge stick and smoked up my whole upstairs and downstairs to try and kill the nasty smell. I cranked up my air filter, too but by then my house smelled like burnt coffee, sage and skunk. Nothing really kills the skunk smell and even now, a few days later, I can still smell it lingering in certain areas. Surprisingly, my son stayed asleep throughout all of this which was great because I don’t think I could have dealt with one more thing that night! I have washed more stuff the past few days to try and rid the smell from clothes, bathroom shower curtain, liner, rug, dog beds, the dog himself twice, etc. Unbelievable.

It said in the research that they can spray up to 15 feet away. My husband works with someone that lives about 5 blocks away from us in our neighborhood and he told him the next day about us getting skunked and he said, “We were in bed and my wife yells, skunk! shut the windows!” right around the same time that it happened. I didn’t realize the smell traveled that far that fast. No wonder they are such ballsy animals and no one wants to mess with them!

Now I have to keep the backyard light on if I catch a whiff of Scrappy the Skunk. He’s patrolling our street it seems and I don’t want him back and have told him so telepathically. They really don’t have a predator because no one can stand their smell – except for owl who has a very poor sense of smell. Hmm, I may have to call on owl to come to my area if he doesn’t stay away – I’ve seen them here before but not recently.

I looked up in an animal spirit guide book I have about what it means to have Skunk cross your path:

*Be assertive and stand your ground as necessary and don’t let yourself be manipulated or pushed around.
*Make your self-respect and dignity a top priority, offering the same respect to others.
*You’re taking yourself far too seriously and need to relax, play and trust that everything is all right.
*It’s a good time to deal directly and honestly with that person in your life whom you find so irritating and overbearing.

Not sure who that message is directed towards since there are 3 of us that live here and I take any encounter with wildlife as a sign, a message so we are thinking on this one. When we saw the 2 large coyote in daylight I knew it was for me. Coyote represent the “Heyoka,” also known as the “Trickster” or the “Backwards Shaman.” A big teacher for all in some tough lessons that are not always pleasant. But, they also teach you to lighten up and deal with the situation and learn to find the humor in some difficult lessons.

Skunk must be teaching something to someone here on my block since he keeps coming around to our yards. I just wish he would hang out at the creek instead!

photos: Red-Star, PierceRebecca

100 Foot Diet and Grower’s Challenge Update

I have not posted in a while on what’s going on out my back door. My garden is rocking – we have so many greens that we are trying to keep up with! I have been making all different kinds of salad dressings and eating salad (or juicing them) to keep up with my garden. The strawberries were prolific and we made many raw strawberry desserts like ice cream, pies, smoothies, etc. The other fruit is not really happening in my yard yet but is plentiful at the store and some now is at the farmer’s market so I’ve been having fun with that, too. I’ve been going through phases of wanting to eat the produce more than drink it and vice versa.

All of our tomato plants have little tomatoes on them and my son Leif is overjoyed that his very own yellow pear tomato plants have little tomatoes on them. He checks on them everyday to see if they are bigger and turning yellow yet. I can’t wait to see him eat one!

All of our corn is in a new bed we made and doing really well “knee high by the 4th of July” and my zucchini and cantelopes and cucumbers, beets, broccoli, peppers, tomatillos, beans, peas, assorted herbs, basil, kale, chard, garlic, onions, cabbages, green onions, chives, etc, etc are all doing well and we have been eating lots of herbs, greens, kale, chard, green onions and even many of the wild green volunteers (aka “weeds”) in our garden.

Some of the wild greens are so very good for your body that I actually cultivate them wherever they show up and harvest them like any other plant. Wild spinach (Lamb’s Quarters) has to be our all time favorite and Leif eats that straight out of the garden. He loves it. Even if I see it in our flower beds, I leave it and harvest it when it gets a bit bigger. I put the leaves in salad, juice them and the other day I made a raw basil-wild spinach pesto to go on top of raw spaghetti (usually made out of zucchini).

Michael has built a “spanish trellis” this year for our tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s working well, they are climbing up. I think next year we will do this for more climbing vine type plants like the melons and zukes, too. It saves space so you can grow more.

Next to our corn, we added another new bed and filled it with giant sunflowers. Thanks to the squirrels burying sunflower seeds we gave them from last year’s crop, we had many volunteers in our garden as well as the starts we grew inside the house so we filled the new bed and just recently thinned them out.

Out our front door, we have rototilled out more front lawn in the shape of a big circle around our tree, added soil, amendments, drip irrigation and broadcast a whole bunch of flower seeds we had and thought they may not sprout due to the age of the packets. We really didn’t think much would sprout because the packets were sev’l years old but it looks like everything sprouted because we have a crazy plant situation going on in that bed. I think it’s going to be wildflower mania once they get tall enough and start blooming. I’m excited – this is our third flower bed out front and the other two are doing great – all the roses and my new daylilies are all blooming and the hollyhocks are trying to take over every thing and are gigantic. They just started blooming, too. I bought some hanging baskets for my front porch area of my house like I do every year and they are already huge this year, too.

Our next garden project we have lined up is actually building our cold frame which is now turning into a small greenhouse. We have been holding onto materials for over 5 years (since before living in this house) and we’ve received more materials this summer from freecycle for this, too. So this year will also be my first year trying to do a fall garden. We are going to start planting seeds now for fall plants. Michael also said he would work on our lame root cellar closet – add some shelves to get the most room out of it as possible for better food storage. We used to keep the food stores in a corner of the garage but since we have taken over our basement apartment rental last year, we moved it all into a storage closet that has a wall of concrete on one side.

All in all, we have lots going on and more interesting ways to learn to be more self-sufficient. I’ll be updating when we harvest and on my forays into fall gardening.

Urban Farming

Over the past few months, I’ve read a few different articles about a man named Kipp Nash who runs an urban farming project here in Colorado that has turned into a CSA called Community Roots. He basically got several of his neighbors to allow him to turn their front lawns into garden beds for food production using intensive growing techniques – he calls them “mini organic farms.” He’s even added a program to harvest his neighbors’ untended fruit trees, too.

Nash provides all of the labor with the help of some volunteers in removing the grass, planting, weeding, irrigating, tending and harvesting the crops. He then divides up the weekly harvest between what each neighbor gets and what he sells. He calls it a modern day version of sharecropping. The word is out about his Community Roots project and he has more houses of people waiting for him to transform their front lawns into lush crops of organic food. He has also created real community between all of his neighbors by doing this. Someone is training with him now to establish this type of urban farming in another part of his town, too. Hopefully one day we will see no more front lawns and only lush, organic veggie gardens everywhere in suburbia.

I am so inspired by this. Front lawns are such a waste of water, effort, resources and space! If you own that land, why not put in productive plant life whether it be flowers, herbs or veggies there instead of grass? That is the way it used to be a long time ago for the working class. Growing your own medicinal herbs and some food for your family was the norm. Lawns are great for play areas in the backyard, but they don’t have to take over everything.

I wish I could get something started like that where I live but living on a somewhat busy street in a school zone, it’s not likely that it would go over well in my area. I just keep adding flower beds and removing more lawn from in front of my house instead. We have expanded our backyard garden space by adding two new beds in different areas and added more large planters for more herbs and for my son’s special garden plants area. We gave him two large planters so he could water them and tend to them as he likes and watch his special plants grow and so that he doesn’t accidentally destroy part of our main garden.

There is another urban farming site called Path To Freedom in Pasadena, CA who call themselves “urban homesteaders” and they have many garden beds in all of the available space including the entire front lawn and even the driveway! They have several fruit trees and shrubs and even some chickens, goats and bees. They produce so much food on their small one-fifth of an acre property that they sell to restaurants and other people and feed themselves almost exclusively from it. Dateline NBC is featuring them very soon on their show. You know if that is happening, people are curious to know more about living this way.

With food and gas prices rising so much, we are going to have to rely more on ourselves and our local community more than ever and that is a good thing. There is just no reason why we humans can’t grow some of our own food even if it’s just tomatoes and basil plants in large planters on your balcony or back porch. It’s so empowering eating something that you yourself cared for and grew. Plus the produce just tastes so much better having been picked just before you eat it in your meal. And even just doing this small act connects you to the natural world even if you live in a high rise apartment building. Think about how much this will teach your children, too in so many different ways and on different levels.

Take back your power, people! Grow something edible this summer and feel empowered!

Freecycle

If you don’t know about Freecycle by now, you really should. It’s a great local community Yahoo! Group where members give away still useful unwanted items they own to other members instead of throwing them in a landfill. It not only helps keep items out of the landfills but it helps out your neighbors who may be looking for just the thing that you no longer want or need around your home. And they will come pick it up from your house.  Another benefit is that when you are a member, you can post your own “wanted” ad in case someone has something you are looking for just sitting around collecting dust and that you wouldn’t mind having for free instead of buying it new.

My local Freecycle group is a very active group. They give away everything from computers, kid’s items, clothes, toys, books, sports gear of all kinds, workout equipment, bldg. materials, kitchen items, etc. all the way down to packing peanuts and moving boxes. Anything legal can be offered on freecycle. And, 9 out of 10 times, it will be taken by someone who can really put it to good use. It’s amazing, really.

Freecycle and Yahoo! just announced a new special event they will be doing in honor of Earth Day:

“Yahoo! is celebrating Earth Day by encouraging people to become a part of the Freecycle movement in a HUGE way — they’ll be drumming up press, giving away prizes hidden in local groups, announcing things on Yahoo.com and check out this very neat Earth Day page for starters:

http://green.yahoo.com/earth-day

To add to the delight of giving and getting items for free, Yahoo! is posting Earth Day treasures in hundreds of randomly selected Freecycle groups in participating countries* from April 20 to May 4, 2008. Members will want to pay close attention to the posts in your group for a chance to win prizes like a smart car, an eco-resort vacation, or local organic food delivery for a year. This is for real and such a post could appear in any local group from Yahoo!.”

Well, that is exciting. I personally would love to win a smart car! I think I will be regularly checking both my town and my county’s Freecycle groups where I am a member of both groups. Be sure to click on this Freecycle link to find the group that is in your own town or county and get started with freecycling items you no longer want. Maybe you’ll win the smart car in the process!