Milestones

Today, my oldest daughter reached another major milestone in her life. She started college classes. Although she is a junior in high school, she will be taking 2 college courses a semester until she graduates in 2 years. These are full college classes at our local community college. The students and professors will not know that she is still in high school. Last week, we went and found her classrooms together along with the library and lounge areas for her to hang out in between classes. We have been preparing her for this day like all other milestones in her life since the day she was born.

I was taken by surprise this afternoon when I found myself with small tears on my face after she left the car. I did not know it would be so hard to drop her off on a small community college campus and watch her go off to this new phase in her life. Mary has been home schooled her whole life and although she has been going to home school cooperative for many years, this was much different. I saw a little glimpse of what it must feel like to send your 5-6 year old off to school for the first time. I am glad for the time we have had together during her growing up years.

Milestones can be bittersweet. It is great to see your child accomplish new skills and independence but deep down there is that feeling that time is passing way too fast. Mary is a wonderfully bright, mature young lady and I am confident that she will do well in this setting. Part of me, though, still sees the vulnerable little girl inside of her. I know there will be many more milestones and I like forward to each one. I also know that I will continue to let go and give her the independence she needs to be a responsible mature adult some day.

World Hunger

I have been doing research on world hunger for the sustainable living class I am starting to teach in a couple of weeks. Every time, I read the statistics I am amazed. Thought I would share two with everyone today.

*1 in 6 people in the world are malnourished. That is 1.02 billion people.

*People in the US make up 6% of the world's population but yet consume 40% of the world's resources.

Statistics can be overwhelming or easy to dismiss without a putting a face to them. I would encourage you to look into some organizations. See what they do, read their stories and think about supporting them.

Some ideas to get you started: Heifer International, Bread for the World, your church denominations world hunger organization.

Sometimes it is hard to make the changes to live more sustainably but looking at these and other organizations websites and reading the stories gives me new incentive.

Cooler Day

It has finally cooled down here for a few days. It has been dangerously hot here for several weeks. It felt so good today to be able to go outside in the morning and again this evening to get some stuff done. This morning, I spent time cleaning out the chicken coop and getting the nest boxes finished since one of our chickens is regularly laying eggs. We are hoping the other two will soon follow.

After that, I started on the flower beds. I did some weeding and dead headed all of the flowers. This was long overdue. I moved a couple of the butternut squash vines that were overtaking the grass area. It was exciting to see a couple of squash on the vine already.

Mary picked tomatoes and tonight I canned 6 quarts of juice from them. We also finished digging up one of the rows of potatoes and put them out to dry. Tomorrow we are hoping to get the other row dug. The freshly dug potatoes tasted wonderful with our dinner. I planted peas and replanted our green beans. Tomorrow I am hoping to plant some more cabbage and broccoli plants. My seed did not do too well. I think it was too old. We are hoping to cover these crops when the frost starts coming and have veggies into late fall.

We are hoping to get more done outside the next couple of days. Hope those who live around here are enjoying this nice break in the heat!

Homemade Birthday Parties

Last night, my daughter had her 16th birthday party with her friends here at home. From the noise going on outside, I would say a good time was had by all. They sat around, talked, played our yard games and tye-dyed. Due to financial reasons at first and then our belief in living a more sustainable lifestyle we have always done our children's birthday parties here at home with homemade games and cake.

It has been interesting to me the elaborate kid's birthday parties we have attended over the years that were at an establishment other than the house of the child. It has seemed to me that the party was no more fun than ours (my opinion). Time was always an issue because there was a little bit of a schedule to keep. Parents had paid for the convenience of a party that was all handled for them. There is nothing wrong with this but I have really enjoyed doing our children's birthday parties over the years.

On my daughter's 9th birthday, my husband felt that we should do "better" than a home birthday party. We gave our daughter the exciting news. Her response was less than enthusiastic and she finally said, "Mommy, I like your birthday parties at home. I don't want a different one." That was the end of it. We, once again, had her party here at home that year.

It might be more difficult to change the "boughten" birthday party tradition if your child is older. I would encourage you though that if your child is young or if you have not had a birthday party for your child, try a homemade one this year. Pick a theme, plan a few games/activities, make a cake around the theme (family fun magazine online always has some simple, well done cakes on their site) and enjoy this time with your child.

Chickens/free apples

So exciting! We got our first egg yesterday from our chickens. Feel like we should put it someplace special or frame it after all the work.

Spent the evening last night doing spaghetti sauce and applesauce. Lots of tomatoes on the vine right now so we made a big batch of spaghetti sauce. We also canned 50 pounds of wormy apples someone had given us. They made great applesauce and there is nothing cheaper than free apples. We got them from our friend's neighbor that lives in Richmond. We are hoping to get some more next week and that should set us up with plenty of applesauce for the year.

Mary's big 16th birthday party with all her friends is this evening. We will be spending the day touching up the house, baking cakes and generally getting ready for the onslaught of 18 teenagers. They are planning to tye-dye and play lawn games besides their usual of hanging out and enjoying each others company.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Slow Travel

Today, we went to our friends farm for the afternoon. We had not been in a while because of schedules. I realized when I was down there how much I have missed this time. Even though I did not grow up on a farm, we lived in the country. We had a large garden and fruit trees and bushes. Both of my aunts and their families lived on farms in Indiana-one with animals and one mostly without them. We also traveled at least once a year to Iowa where my cousins lived on a large farm with many animals. I always looked forward to my times on the farm when I was growing up.

Today, we also took the "back roads" down to the farm. This involves a short car ferry ride across the Kentucky River. It is a small ferry holding only 3 cars. As we were traveling along the road and across the river, I realized that taking this way always makes me slow down and enjoy the scenery. When I first started working several years ago, I did home health in more rural areas. I enjoyed the people I came in contact with each day but my favorite part of the job was driving the small country roads and anticipating what was around the corner. It seemed to always slow me down in a positive way and helped me be more in tune with the world around me as I drove by it. I realized how much I crave that slowness and sense of peace these days.

I feel like the world around me is spinning faster and faster. We seem to be stuck in a one upmanship in who can be the busiest. We don't want to be slower and seem to be very impatient with the person who makes that happen as we drive or go about our daily routines. Driving on the back roads and taking the ferry purposefully slows my world down.

Since we have started on our journey of sustainable living I have realized many things. The best one of all is spending more time as a family working together as a whole to feed ourselves. It is nice to not have the interruption of electronics especially the TV. We sit down as a family for meals and have conversations with each other. We are no where near ideal in pursuing this goal but we have come a long way. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to get back into the rat race and then we have to break the busyness cycle we have once again allowed to overtake our life. I hope as time goes on we will get better at staying out of the rat race.

What is your peaceful place? What helps you to slow down and see the world around you?

Learning

It has been interesting to me the past two days about how much I have taken the skill of driving for granted. I am amazed at how much just comes natural after all these years. This has come to my attention as I have been teaching my daughter to drive the past two days. Everything is new and nothing comes automatic for her. We have practiced the basics such as turning, stopping, driving down the road and watching both sides of the car. I have had to stop, break down what has become automatic movements to me and try to show her the steps to do each thing. I am also finishing up my class on sustainability and have found it true with those topics I want to cover. I have had to stop and think what the basic steps of each one would be to a newcomer.

My wanderings over all this the past two days makes me realize that when I am teaching someone a new skill I need to make sure to break the parts down and make sure I am presenting the material on their level of expertise versus mine. On the flip side, it is important to know how much previous experience someone has had so you are not percieved as "talking down to them". If we are going to spread the word on sustainable living skills it is important for us to remember these things. Many skills that used to be a normal thing everyone learned is no longer. It is our responsibility to be open to questions to those who are learning new skills and not to be judgemental that they "should already know it". Most of all we need to have the patience needed to teach someone a new skill.

Happy learning and happy teaching!

New permit

My 16 year old daughter passed her driver's permit test this morning. We have spent the day giving her her first driving lessons. My family stayed over one extra day to watch our youngest daughter so we could spend today focusing on Mary getting her permit and letting her have a positive first experience in her learning how to drive. It seems to have been a success.

My family was here this weekend and we spent a lot of our time doing canning and putting things up. We did 60 jars of canned peaches and 7 jars of peach filling Saturday evening. Yesterday afternoon and evening, we did dill and bread and butter pickles, corn and carrots. We also started sweet gherkin pickles which takes a couple of days. Many hands made light work althought my kitchen floor has probably never been this dirty before. It was very sticky from all the peach juice. It will take some definite arm strength to get it all cleaned up again.

In spite of all the canning we had time to visit and have a nice time.

Peaches

While my parents and sister are here this weekend, we decided to do 2 1/2 bushels of peaches. I have not done peaches with my parents and sisters since I was living at home. Every year, we would get 2 bushels of peaches and put them up all in one evening after my parents got home from work. Everyone pitched in and did the jobs until everything was finished. We would can them for eating later as well as make peach jam.

It was amazing to me how we all worked together and Chuck fit right into the assembly line. My Dad blanched while Darlene and Chuck peeled and pitted, Mom packed jars and I did the running. I made the peach pie filling, syrup for the canned peaches and manned the canners full of jars. In between I cleaned up and ran things to the compost bin as the buckets of peach skins piled up. Even though it was a big job, we were able to get it done in about 5 hours time. I had forgotten how much fun this could also be.

I know that the hard work will also be worth it when we taste those good peaches this winter.

Sweet 16

Busy day here at our house. Our oldest daughter's 16th birthday is tomorrow. We have been cleaning and working on the yard outside to get ready for our family and friends to join us tomorrow (Saturday) to help celebrate it.

Time really has gone fast and it is hard to believe that she will be 16. She is growing into a fine young lady that I am proud to call my daughter. She spent the day weeding the front flower bed and putting down mulch without complaint.

I am glad that I was able to homeschool her and have been able to be an even bigger part of her life than if we had gone the traditional route with schooling. She is very involved in a couple of home school cooperatives and has a busy social calendar just like regularly schooled teens. Yet, she still enjoys spending time with her family.

I know the next two years will seem to go by even more quickly as we prepare her for life on her own and following the plan that God has for her life. Looking forward to celebrating her special day tomorrow and then getting her driver's permit on Monday.

Here is an early Happy Birthday to my favorite 16 year old.

watering

The cat has been complaining at me this morning. I am watering outside and she can't figure out from where this random wetness is coming. She hates when I am watering and often will come inside while it is going on or meow at me constantly to express her displeasure.

Cats aside, the season of watering has arrived. We have been very fortunate and have not had to water our garden plants very much this year. Usually July and August around here are pretty dry but not the last two years. The extra rain has been nice since we are trying to establish fruit trees and bushes within our landscaping.

How much and when to water has always been a big question for me and everyone seems to have a different answer. After much research and trial and error we have settled upon once a week watering for plants in the ground and twice a week for plants in pots. From everything I read, once established, plants need about one inch of rain weekly and it is better to water all at once than several small waterings. This helps the plants establish deep root systems.

My system for watering is I watch the rainfall totals. If we do not get an inch of rain in the week I will water that week. If there has been a 1/2 inch or less, I will also water but will cut down on the amount of time I have the sprinkler on. Pots get watered every three days unless it has rained. I hand water my potted plants to make sure that they get a deep thorough drink.

To keep track of how long it takes for my plants to get one inch of water with the sprinkler, initially I sit out small containers in different parts of the garden. When they have had one inch of water in them then I knew that I had applied my inch of rain for the week. The amount of time I leave the sprinkler on now is based on these tests. I will water more frequently though if it is really hot. The most reliable method I have found is to stick your finger about one inch deep in the soil. If it is dry then it is time to water.

What methods do you use for watering?

Chicken update

One of the things that has been interesting to me is what chickens find good (and not good) to eat. One thing we wanted to do with them is decrease our food waste here by feeding them things that cannot be composted as well as some of them that can. So far, tomatoes (especially ones with bugs in them), strawberries and cantaloupe rinds are their favorites. Green beans and other green vegetables seem to not be as well liked.

Chuck has put on more of the finishing touches on the coop. He put some flashing around the ramp because the chickens were kicking there bedding out of the coop part and all over the ground below. He also put a metal piece around the ramp so when it closes it will be more weather tight.

We have enjoyed watching the crazy antics that the chickens do. It is surprising to see that they each have a very distinct personality. They now come running when we come out the door to see if we have any treats for them. They will follow Makenzie around the run though because she is usually the bearer of goodies. It is fun to watch her hand feed them crusts and other food scrap tidbits. She really enjoys watching and feeding them.

We should be having eggs here in the next month or so. We took the screen off the nest box and they have continued to use the perch to sleep on instead of the boxes. So far, so good. Hopefully, it will keep up.

I never knew that watching the chickens would be so much fun. We have all really enjoyed having them.

Basil

One of the easy ways I have found to extend the season on our herbs is to dry them during the summer. My favorite to do this with is basil. We pick the leaves making sure they are in good shape. We then lightly rinse them and stack them in the dehydrator. I have found that they sometimes will fall through the holes on the racks as they lose their water content so I put aluminum foil under them. After drying, I put them in a baggy to use later. This tastes so good in the winter when I want some basil. The quality is so much better than store bought. I simply crush the dried leaves into whatever I want to season. It is like having fresh basil all year long.

Before I had a dehydrator, I would take the fresh leaves, put a little olive oil in them and then grind them up in food processor. I would take the mixture and put in ice cube trays. After they were frozen I would take the cubes out of the trays and store them in a large freezer bag. When I needed basil I simply took one or two cubes out and added it to the recipe. This works well also.

I have also dried parsley, cilantro and celeriac with the first method.

What methods do you use to preserve your herbs?

Compost bins

Chuck was able to get our new compost bins made. We had just been using a pile we started several years ago. With the garden and chickens we have quickly outgrown it. He used pallets scavenged from a dumpster. They look great and we will be able to move compost from one to the other as we are digging it each year for the garden.

This brings up something that I have never been able to figure out. How people can make composting sound so difficult. By the time you are done reading the directions you just want to give up. We simply dump weeds, grass, leaves and whatever else we have on the pile. We do bury our kitchen scraps so we don't attract rodents. If it starts to get a little odor we will add more brown material to it. If it doesn't seem to be doing much we will try and add more green stuff to it. The instruction manuals on compost are trying to get you to keep it at a specific temperature which you do need to do if you need compost in the near future. If you are just looking for a way to recycle your garden waste then this other method works well. We use our compost mostly in the spring and have always had more than enough.

You can compost many things and save a lot of things from going unnecessarily to the landfill. Most kitchen scraps can be composted such as vegetable and fruit, egg shells, coffee filters and grounds. Things that should not go in the compost are cooked grains and breads, meats/cheese and anything cooked with oil. These things will attract rats and other creatures you may not want in your yard.

If you get a chance, find an out of the way part of your yard. Pile your weeds, grass and leaf clippings there. See what happens. Happy composting!