Thursday, May 29, 2008

now for the minutia...




I titled this blog Green Minutia to include both the green portion of our little adventure and the minutia which is all the rest.

Now for some minutia...Morgan and Cooper started a structured daycare yesterday which is similar to preschool. We weren't sure how it would go because they have been home for almost a year. First when Jaime had a daycare in her home and then with me when I moved here in September and took over the daycare. That is a whole other story I like to file under" Things I will NEVER do again as long as I have a breath in me" or "What was I thinking" whichever file has enough room...they're both pretty full.

Anyway it went pretty well...I was worried mostly for Morgan because she can be a little shy...she cried when we took her to the kids room at church which made Cooper start crying which lead to Jaime and I watching for their little numbers to appear on the screen at church rather than getting anything out of the service. At one point Cooper looked like he might cry if prompted, which got me misting up, but he never did turn the faucet on...yay...
When it was time to pick them up we were all going ...Jaime, her Mom Karen and me. Jaime and I rode together and Karen took her own vehicle. Jaime and I get into the car and Jaime says " Wheres Mom???" We look around and she had taken off like a bat out of hell...we tried to keep up as she took every shortcut in town...I had no idea where we were...back alleys...through parking lots...Im pretty sure Karens car had steam coming out of it . We pulled in and Karen already had Cooper in her arms...did you miss your babies Gramma??? It was hilarious...anyway all went well and they even want to go back on Friday. They are going on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Ill watch them Tuesday and Thursday.
Now for the green portion of our program. I received a sweet e-mail from Amy Lamb yesterday...she works at Landmark Appraisal Co.,the company Karen owns. Jaime, Dan and their other brother Jeff all work there too. In her e-mail Amy said that she and her husband Darren were also finding ways to go green "reduce their carbon footprint" as she so well put. If we all could just do little things we are on our way. They are going to buy their food through a coop which will get them some fresh produce grown locally. With the poisoned spinach and the use of tons of gas to get our food here from across the country...even from other countries we should all look into getting our food from local growers if we cant grow it ourselves. I read a story this morning in the Missourian about a girl that went to pick out a watermelon from the bin at Wal-Mart and got stung by a scorpion. Whats next??? I found a great website for finding local food ironically titled localharvest.com They lead you to some local growers and cheese made locally as well as eggs and meat.
On that note I want to share with Amy and everyone else a few of my favorite websites...
maryjanesfarm.org
dirtdiva.com
localharvest.com
gardengirltv.com I started reading this when it was just a blog...Patti now has her own tv show on Farmers Almanac TV. She lives in the city and has an awesome garden with chickens, rabbits that she spins yarn from their fur, and one or two goats...
treehugger.com
I visit tons more websites, but these will lead you to others and you can build your own favorites. My daughter Danika doesnt like the web because she cant find anything that interests her...I have the opposite problem...one website leads me to find another which leads me to well hours online and far from where I started. Its like a giant library to me and those of you who know me know how much I love books...Angela...
On that note here are some of the magazines I find helpful
Mother Earth News...of course...I was reading this when it wasnt cool...
Backyard Poultry...had chickens back in the 80s when I was married to a farmer and want them again...stay tuned
Hobby Farms
Mary Jane Farm yay for this one
Grit
Backyard Living
Birds and Blooms
These again are a few...all of these have websites you can go to...if you have a few hours Ill name some of my fav books...just kidding Angela...
Till next post...its easy being green Kermit...it just takes baby steps...

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Baby Steps





" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Confucius


Well we have taken the first step. Jaime and I have put in a tiny garden. I did not realize the yard is made up entirely of clay. The house is new and the builders did not put down any topsoil. Jaime and I dug and dug and carted off tons...Im not exagerating...tons of clay. After two days of this we called in the big guns. Brian ran a tiller through after we emptied bag after bag of topsoil. Nothing erks me more than to pay for dirt. I dont know where they got the expression "dirt cheap" cuz its anything but.This photo was two weeks ago. We put the containers around it to keep Noodle(the dog) out. You can see her footprints in the unmulched section. Noodle decided to practice her hurdles on the potted plants and we lost round one of us vs. the critters. Round two...Jaime and I put up a small fence on Sunday and so far its worked.


We have many of our veggies and such in pots because we will be moving soon...as soon as Brian and Jaime sell the house. The idea is to move into an older home in the town we plan to buy property in. More on that later.