Independence Days - Week ending 4/25

Yea!!!! Another productive week!

1. Plant something: Expanded my herb bed; planted lavender, citronella (technically a citronella-scented geranium), dill, cilantro, stevia, basil, parsley, grape tomatoes, and either lemon balm or bee balm (not sure which one yet) in newly-expanded herb bed; planted several varieties of tomatoes, 2 types of peppers, bush (soup) beans, kale (I know it's really way too late here to start kale, but what the heck - I need practice anyway), watermelons (3 kinds!), carrots, and chard.

2. Reduce waste/reduce dependence on commercial systems: Worked on hand-knit washcloths for Mothers Day gifts (from this adorable pattern - fast, easy, and tooooo cute!), finished setting up our home recycling center (no curb-side pick up here), sorted our first batch of recyclables, baked bread

3. Regenerate what is lost: I'm not sure if my entries in this category truly qualify, but in our highly developed suburban area, the impact to the environment and to native species is *WOW* off the charts. One of my projects since we moved here has been a butterfly garden in my back yard. I didn't spend much time on it last year, but most of my previous plantings there are perennials, so I still have something to work with. This week I planted what is either lemon balm or bee balm. The flowers are supposed to be highly attractive to butterflies and to bees. I also planted dill and parsley, which are larval (sp?) host plants. I have this strange idea that if I give the butterflies their own dill and parsley in their designated area of the yard, then they will refrain from laying eggs on the dill and parsley in my herb garden. Makes sense, right? Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Oh well. The Eastern Swallowtails are an amazing sight in the garden, so I'm willing to share my parsley.

I'm so glad to have my square foot garden underway. I know that this will be a big learning year for me, as I've never gardened on this scale before. I know there will be failures, but that's okay. There will be successes too, I'm certain. I'm also thrilled to have my herb bed expanded. I've expanded it a little bit each year - the digging is hard, so I have to do a little at a time. Any further expansion will require additional beds, which I am not opposed to in the least, BTW. There are so many wonderful herbs, and so many wonderful uses for them. I dream of a cook's garden, a dyer's garden, and a soaper's garden. But then there are medicinal uses as well. Of course, many plants are great for several different uses. Calendula, for example, can be used in cooking (commonly called "pot marigold" because of this use), would be great for use in dying fibers, is useful in soaps, salves, and tinctures for its calming and anti-inflammatory effects, and can be taken internally as a tea for many different ailments. Oh - did I mention that I have Calendula seeds on the way?!

Spring has sprung!
Brooke

Children are like pickles

Okay, bear with me, here. At the risk of sounding like a paid promoter for Sharon Astyk, she has a thought-provoking post, followed by an even more stimulating discussion in the comments. I posted a rather lengthy comment there myself and have been moved to further address the topic here. Sharon's point to really determining how we value children is to be able to be very honest when we discuss the problem of, and potential solutions to, overpopulation. I don't really feel like I'm smart enough to take on the issue of overpopulation, so I'm going in a bit of a different direction. To start with, here is my aforementioned rather lengthy comment:


Wow! One of the things that strikes me as I read through the comments is how our society (as a whole) has stripped all of the dignity out of hard work. Having children who are “productive” members of a family is not equal to poor working conditions and hours that violate child labor laws. Productive members of a family grow into productive members of society.

Because we are foster/adoptive parents, traditional definitions of “family” don’t necessarily apply to us. We have borrowed Nancy Thomas’s definition that a family is a group of people working together to make a house a home. So, we work together at chore time and chores really become less of a chore, and it is quality family time. We laugh and have fun, help each other and share in a sense of accomplishment and the joy of a job well done. Instead of breaking the children down into Cinderella-ish versions of slave labor, it builds them up into confident and capable individuals. IMHO, the false inflation of confidence that comes from telling kids that every single thing they do is fabulous regardless of the validity of that statement is a bubble that is bound to burst at some point. Not every person can win every race every time, ya know? An unsuccessful attempt to reach a goal can be a successful opportunity to teach a lesson, if you are so inclined, and can be very constructive instead of destructive.

As I was discussing this topic with my husband, he pointed out that our generation really doesn’t value hard work because we are the first generation (of Americans, anyway) who did not have to work very hard to get to where we are. I do not think it is merely coincidence that we will also be the first generation who, as a whole, does not leave our children better off than ourselves. It seems to me that we have neglected to realize that our *entitlement* has, in fact, come at a very high cost, even if we ourselves have not had to bear the burden of that cost. We have been drawing on the resources built up for us by those who came before. But we have been living to excess and have depleted those resources and now must draw on the resources that will be needed by future generations if we are to keep up the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed. (The costs borne by the world’s poor to keep us in the latest fashions should not be ignored, either.)

I don’t find in Sharon’s essay any implication that children should be viewed as cheap labor either within the household or outside of it. I think it is important to teach children that when you take something out, you put something back in. And hey, while you’re at it, put back a little extra. It doesn’t - and shouldn’t - mean sweatshops. But what is wrong with the vision of parent and child working side by side toward a common goal? I think that’s lovely. Our grandparents were raised that way, and I believe they are better for it.

I want to close by saying that I have really enjoyed the spirited banter in the comments above. There is so much value in being challenged by each other when the goal is to seek better solutions. Please, please, refrain from criticizing a person based solely on the number of children they have. It is not productive and, I think, runs counter to what any of us believe. I gather from the previous comments that everyone here honors the intrinsic value of children and I think that reducing them to a decision that their parents should have made differently only serves to devalue them.


So, what does all of this have to do with pickles, anyway? Well, pickles are a value-added product. That means that when you take something, a cucumber in this case, that has intrinsic value and you add other things of value - your time and talent and a few other ingredients - you end up with an item that has more value than either the cucumber or your time and talent has if they are taken separately. So, what do children and pickles have in common?


If you think of a child as a cucumber - okay, I know this is a stretch, but think of it this way: Like a child, a cucumber is fresh and delightful...but they are both prone to spoilage ;-) If you want the cucumber to retain, and even gain, value long after cucumber season has past, you have to prepare it with the addition of a little heat, a lot of time, some vinegar, and pickling lime. Do you see where I'm going with this? Preparing kids doesn't mean coddling them, it means pickling them! Wait...I don't think that's really what I mean! What I do mean is that giving your kids a little heat can make them stronger and more...er, shelf-stable? What I don't mean is to put pickling lime on your children. Vinegar, on the other hand, is good for a whole host of skin problems, but I digress.

One of the greatest legacies we leave our children is our teaching. And, in truth, it is a legacy we leave whether we want to or not and in our presence or in our absence our children's views on the world begin with us. So, we might as well be intentional about it. Don't just let your children watch you start to garden, or start preserving food. Let them learn with you. Explain to them, in an age-appropriate way, please, why you think it is important to learn or to practice this skill. This one is hard for me because I often feel that I don't have the time or the patience to take a time-consuming task and make it take even longer by inviting my 9 year old to "help" me. So, don't think I am coming at this from some sort of Holier Than Thou perspective. In fact, I assume that I am much LESS holy than thou. I'm a humble housewife. Although, I do wonder if claiming humility is in itself boastful and negates my original claim? Oh, there I go again.

So, when you take on your first batch of pickles, invite your child(ren) to learn with you as you go. Children are truly an investment, in more ways than one. And time is one of the most important commodities we can invest in our kids. Don't think about the one hour task that is now going to take you three hours. Think about the task as the vehicle that will allow you to spend one on one time (or one on two, or three...) with your kid. You can share your worldview, learn about her worldview, talk about the cute boy that sits next to her in music class. In a world where we all wish we had more time, more hours in the day, you will have three hours of quality time with your cherised kiddo and if you accomplish your task, too, well that's gravy. Or pickles. So, go forth and make pickles - of your cucumbers and of your children!
Brooke

Indedpendence Days

Okay, an Independence Days update. You can join this challenge at Sharon's website. The idea is to break down the sometimes-overwhelming tasks involved with becoming more self-sufficient into smaller pieces that can be done a little bit at a time. It's the whole "How do you eat an elephant?" "One bite at a time." strategy applied to sustainability. It's great! Here are Sharon's categories:
1. Plant something
2. Harvest something
3. Preserve something
4. Store something
5. Manage reserves
6. Cook something new
7. Prep something
8. Reduce waste
9. Learn a new skill
10. Work on community food security
11. Regenerate what is lost

You can read more detailed descriptions of these categories at Sharon's website. Just look at the Independence Days section of her archives. I've added a twelfth category for myself, just to reflect one of my own personal goals - Reduce dependence on commerical/industrial systems. I mostly mean Wal-Mart. A lot of things that will go in this category could probably fit under reduce waste, but sometimes it's a stretch. So, I just added my own. Sometimes, like this week, I will just combine them. I tracked my activities last week and here are my results:
Plant something - lemongrass, rosemary, lemon verbena, basil, pole beans...also planned out the planting for my raised bed, but it was too rainy to plant that day ;), purchased stevia and lavender plants but the planting was thwarted by the rain
Reduce waste/reduce dependence- Finished 5 more of my cloth napkin/"paper towels" (since we added 3 more to our fam back in March, the number I had previously finished was just not doing the job), made a batch of soap for Mothers Day gifts, worked on (and finally finished!) Lance's knitted hat to fulfill the IOU I gave him for Christmas, made a couple of loaves of bread
Learn a new skill - Started reading a book on home canning in hopes that, by the time the season gets into full swing and it's actually time to start canning, this won't intimidate me so much. Plus I need time to get the supplies together.

Wow! I've really enjoyed keeping notes on my activities as it helps me realize that I do actually accomplish things! You know how a lot of the time you feel like you run around like a chicken with your head cut off, but you can't think of anything that you've actually gotten done? Well, I bet if you started keeping track you would be pleasantly surprised. I certainly have been.

I am also thinking about adding another category: Convincing My Husband to Go Along with My Latest Crazy Idea. I seem to be spending a lot of time lately in this area. Currently I am working on convincing him that it is a fabulous idea to pull out the ornamental pear trees in our front yard that, for the first time, actually look really pretty, and replace them with crabapple or cherry trees. Oh yeah, and I want to start keeping bees. I am admittedly quirky, but I don't think the bees thing seems weird at all. Jeff is standing firmer on this subject than he does on most because he thinks it is completely outrageous to keep bees in the burbs. Personally, I think the removal of two perfectly good trees seems weirder (although still a good idea, in the long run). I think he will eventually come around on the trees, but I may lose on the bees. I won't go down without a fight, though!

Until next time,
Brooke

The times, they are a-changin'

When I started this blog last summer, I really just wanted to use it as a project journal for my crafts and knitting. I never really intended for anyone to read it, it was just a little something for me. Then, our computer crashed and I was without internet access (gasp) for a few months. During that internet-less period, something happened that has changed my life.

I was listening to NPR one day, specifically to a local program called Studio Tulsa. Rich Fisher was interviewing author Sharon Astyk about her book _Depletion and Abundance_. The interview focused primarily on the ways that Sharon and her family have dramatically reduced their energy usage. It was a light-hearted and only mildly quirky discussion and I enjoyed it so much that I wrote down her name and the name of her book. A couple of days later, when my mother-in-law asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told her about this book. I have always had a desire to be "greener" and I thought this book would give me some ideas on practical changes we can make in our home to make a difference for the environment.

When Christmas came, I was delighted to receive _Depletion and Abundance_ from my in-laws. (Alas, my darling husband may never forgive them.) I am not exaggerating when I say that this book has truly changed my life because it has changed the way I look at pretty much everything. I had never heard the term "peak oil" before reading this book, although I must have been aware of the concept somewhere in the back of my mind. Some people think Peak Oil is just a made up boogey man used for fear-mongering, and Peak Oil is a pretty radical idea. My interpretation of Peak Oil - and this is just my own interpretation not really based on science, just based on what I consider to be reason and logic - is the wild and crazy idea that oil supplies are finite. If oil supplies ARE finite, then it stands to reason that at some point we will use half of the supplies, and at that point we will be working off of the second half of the oil supplies. So our oil use will peak and then begin to decline. Like I said, this is not meant to be a comprehensive explanation of Peak Oil, just my simplistic understanding of the most basic aspects of the concept of Peak Oil. Pretty radical, right? I guess I had to know this before I read Sharon's book and had a name for it, but to be perfectly honest, I just never thought about it. In our modern consumption-driven society, we are constantly encouraged NOT to think about it. We are told that we must do something about our dependence on fossil fuels because we have to reduce our carbon footprints and our dependence on foreign oil. And so, instead of being encouraged to drive less (and instead of designing our communities so that we can drive less), we are encouraged to buy hybrid cars and energy star appliances. And instead of being encouraged to buy less and to use less, we are encouraged to buy "greener" versions of our favorite items at the same ol' big box stores. We have become trapped in this self-perpetuating cycle of consumption. The more we have, the more we want. And this monster is fed with cheap oil, often at the expense of poorer people around the world. Yeah, there are ethical considerations to all of this as well. You may be beginning to understand why my husband will never forgive his mom for getting me this book.

So, for me, the times, they are a-changin'. Over the last several weeks, I have been posting here more regularly and about topics that are still fun, but are relevant to our changing times. I am hoping that someone will read my blog sometime and from here will go on to read what other, more educated and enlightened authors and bloggers have to say about the world in which we live. I am trying to muster up the courage to let my friends and family know what I'm up to here in the blogosphere instead of just using this as my private journal space. In the meantime, I'll just keep trying to do a little more all the time. If you want to do that, too, check out Sharon Astyk's blog and her Independence Days challenge. Sounds like fun! I know, I know. I really should get out more.
Brooke