Mucking about

The best part of going green is the learning process. Really, it is for me anyway. Sometimes the trial & error can be downright demoralizing but most often the rewards are rich with the knowledge of muddling through by myself.
I have experienced this in so many ways since embarking on my green adventure. From starting seeds indoors (I had no idea root vegetables couldn’t be transplanted!) to learning more about food labels (“natural” is a marketing tool & not to be confused with organic). And it seems like every day I glean a new piece of advice or information to layer on my basic building blocks. They are small but hard won blocks, people!
Take this morning, for example. I now receive an email from Organic Gardening once a week. I LOVE this. Not only does it save paper, but I don’t have to page through numerous advertisements just to procure the tip about cold weather composting I am interested in. So, with a couple clicks I learned to NOT run out back & turn my compost pile. I was itching to do just that as I started to read about the fact that my compost heap should be warm inside, despite the cold. Thankfully my ADD (self diagnosed, of course) didn’t hit high gear & I was able to stay put & read all the way to the end. If I had run out there & started mucking about, I would have messed with the balance of my precious blend of kitchen scraps & shredded newspaper disturbing the microorganisms working hard to turn it into “gardener’s gold”. Crisis averted. I am still totally intrigued to see if I did this whole thing right. But I guess I will have to wait for warmer weather to see the proof in the pudding.

Here's the link to learn more about composting.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/cold-weather-compost?cm_mmc=OGNews-_-2011_02_16-_-learnandgrow-_-cold_weather_compost

luxury or necessity?

I start my day with a cup of coffee. And I have been known as a coffee snob, here & again. But for me it’s not just the jolt I look forward to, it’s about the ritual, the anticipation. From the first few beans hitting the grinder to wrapping my hands around my favorite mug, warmed almost too hot to be comforting (it is though). And that is just my stay at home coffee.

My absolute favorite way to enjoy a cup of joe is surrounded by lively conversation. And I am lucky enough to be able to do just that about three, sometimes four mornings a week. I get ribbed by the walkers, joggers & commuters idling in their cars, who spy me behind the wall of windows in my local coffee shop. But mixing in with the coffee crowd has become part of my ritual. I always learn something new & laugh, a lot. In short, it fills me up & wakes me up much like my favorite drink.

After braving the ice this morning & arriving to many smiles, I grabbed a cup o’ cuppa & dove right in. A conversation about Obama’s state of the union address got going & we were soon off to the races; talking about the problems with the food supply chain, local grassroots movements & the dreaded reliance America has on oil. One comment has stuck with me all day; just “turning off the tap”. Wow, wouldn’t that be great?

As the discussion rambled on & each new facet of the issue came to light, it is hard to agree on where or how to start. Especially when our nation’s unemployment rates are so high & social programs are being cut left, right & center. My one friend gave me a look with raised eyebrow & reminded me of these and other issues which make my organic loving, green- blogging, recycling, garden growing, haughty-taughty self seem really out of touch. And I do love that she gives me a swift kick in the pants now & again, but I am still left wondering when we, as a nation, will start making better decisions for ourselves & the land that nourishes us.

I would like to say I am coming up with a plan now as I sit under a pendant light fixture with a corkscrew light bulb in the Haddonfield library reading Organic Gardening. I did, however, come across an article in the back of this beauty of a magazine about ways to avoid petroleum based products in the garden. It’s a start, right?

Its seeds vs. cats.
As you can see from the photos, we have two very cute kitties. But please don’t be fooled by the sleepy pose they happen to be captured in. They are juvenile delinquents. I mean it. No piece of furniture is too tall to be considered a climbing post. And when they chase each other through the house, it sounds like a herd of elephants (baby elephants but still) romping across our hard wood floors. I cannot even talk about my dining room chairs & little kitten claws, ugh. So you get the cat part of the face off.
Now onto the seeds. As I delve deeper into gardening, I have truly enjoyed all the experiments. One such trial I was planning for this winter was grow lights to coax my baby seeds out of the soil a bit earlier & perhaps, be a bit more robust than last spring’s attempts. I even had a whole plan of attack mapped out & a supply list compiled.
Then it dawned on me. Surely, a tray of wet soil & curious, climbing cats was not going to work in my favor. I have envisioned different scenarios from my first….all had the same ending. A tray of wet, dirty hard work crashing down onto the floor.
As of now, I am working on plan B. I’ll keep you posted. I don’t think it’s going to be the beautiful greenhouse I saw in the back of Fine Gardening. A girl can dream though.

"dirt" under the snow

Reluctantly I trucked out my back door, through the snow, to check on my neglected compost. I have to be honest; I only pulled on my boots because of Treehugger.com & Sun Chips (yup, the snack). But we need to go back about seven months to this past spring & all the excitement of my new found green pursuits to get a grip on why I needed a peek under the lid.
My kids love sweets & treats. So you can imagine, I avoid taking them to the grocery store at all costs. This time, however, could not be avoided. We spilled out of the car & into the store for what I hoped would be a quick hit. Then the requests, demands & general surliness started. “No” was the answer aisle by aisle, until we came upon a “field” of green. There stood a big tower of SunChips in a new green bag, which proclaimed to the world…100%compostable. Ok, fun, coveted snack for the kids & science experiment of the eco-nature for me. Win-win. Throw ‘em in the cart, junior!
Fast forward to the middle of winter, no can do. The bag in our composter is 100% intact. It seems Consumer Reports (December 2010 issue) did a bit of investigation into the claim & had about the same results I did. In the meantime, SunChips have pulled the products with the groundbreaking packaging under a veil of consumer complaints due to the excessive loud crinkling the bag made. Kinda makes sense, can’t be a couch potato with a bag of crinkly chips disturbing your reality show. It may, however, be consumer complaints of non compost-ability (I suspect, anyway)! We shall never know.
But one thing is for certain. If at first you don’t succeed, etc, etc. I do hope companies like SunChips & others keep working on innovative packaging & practices to help minimize the enormous amount of trash we throw away every day. Because let’s face it, chips aren’t going anywhere, so the packaging needs to.

almost famous

I'm going to admit it right off the bat here. It feels pretty good to have your name up in lights. A local website reporting on all things haddonfield posted a story about me & my little blog. Very cool. Just saying.

http://haddonfield.patch.com/articles/new-years-resolution-2-more-green-t

sustain...to support, hold up, endure without yielding, provide food, drink or other necessities of life, provide funds or aid or approval. Such a powerful word with so many meanings. And if you caught the New York Times week in review today, they worked 'em all in. Covering topics you would normally think of in relation to the eco-movement, like turning our diets away from the 99 cent burger to Asian Carp or kudzu (both invasive pests). They also spoke of eating invasive weeds...look out micro greens. Or the two year consumption cycle of virtually all our electronics, mostly phones but also cameras & GPS units. The reporters also covered cash & budgets, as well as happy marriages. And I have vacillated all day between being charmed to annoyed. I always enjoy a chance to learn something new about this path I am wandering down. The annoyed part could be my aversion to talk about budgets or diets. But I think in a way I was looking forward to really delving into one of my favorite topics & felt the sustainability headline a bit misleading.

In the end, I will leave it up to you. Charmed or annoyed?

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/weekinreview/index.html

happy new year

We did it! No, we did not stay up til 12 o'clock to ring 2011. All were fast asleep over here snug in our beds. But, the kids had a blast re-trimming our tree earlier in the day. A few short strands of cheerios even made it together by small hands. There was a lot of laughing & snacking though, especially by the little pipsqueak among us. And as with all family projects, you can guess who was still at the counter toiling away peanut by peanut.
A great rush of excitement came, however, when it was time for the actual trimming. On with boots & hats & out the door they went. And as the sun was setting on an old year, my loves danced around in the snow jockeying for the perfect spot to put another circle of cranberries for our feathered friends on our old dried out tree.

Wishing you all a lovely, fuitful 2011!