A School Food Forest
I have a crazy idea. It would be a ton of work and require a ton of collaboration and generosity from others. It would be a lifetime commitment and beyond. It would also provide extensive benefits to thousands of local children and even help to save the planet. There is a [...]
The Uncouth Truth: Poop and Peace
Image credit: http://images.sodahead.com/polls/004045829/372666676_Cute_Picture_64_answer_3_xlarge.jpeg Growing up, I never thought twice about the sustainability of our bathroom habits. Why should I have? Everyone else did the same thing. I mean, we all do it this way because the best way has evolved out of hundreds of years of trial and error, right? [...]
Skills We Really Need
Not too long ago, my son's school sent us a survey. One question asked how well we feel the school is preparing the children for the future. This is a difficult question. At first glance, we see the future as a more technologically advanced version of today with not much changing [...]
Sustainable Eating
If you want to make a huge difference in your environmental impact, a good place to start is being responsible for what goes in your mouth. I don't have all the scary facts, and I don't intend to include much of them here, but I do encourage you to research more. [...]
Plant List for a Beautiful Apple Tree Guild
As stated in the post introducing the design of my front yard guilds, I had very specific requirements when choosing a plant list. If you haven't read it yet, check it out here. So here's my plant list along with the traits and uses that I personally found to be beneficial to [...]
My Front Yard Apple Guilds
While I have been reading since my last post, the bulk of that passed time was spent researching and organizing plants and designing the apple guilds I'll be planting this spring. Permaculture design requires a lot of forethought and planning. Designing my guilds involved only a small portion of what is [...]
Dealing with Feelings of Despondency Regarding Human Degradation of the Earth
Lately I’ve been feeling something that would be best described as urgent helplessness with regard to the state of the Earth and the rampant apathy surrounding it. I want to spend every possible second I can learning and arming myself to be able to spread the word and do everything I [...]
The One-Straw Revolution: Parts Four and Five
I could write a lengthy blog post on just about every sentence in The One-Straw Revolution. Unfortunately, my library loan has expired for this e-book and all the highlights I made, so I must write a quick final post on a couple of his points that currently stand out the most [...]
The One-Straw Revolution: Part Three
Part three of The One-Straw Revolution is wise, thoughtful, and philosophical. Much of it I've already read and begun to practice in my Buddhist studies, but there were quite a few gems that I had not encountered yet. The first gem that keeps coming back to mind is, "Each person should [...]
The One-Straw Revolution: Part Two, The Four Principles
The Four Principles In part two, Masanobu Fukuoka discusses his four principles for successful natural farming. The four principles are simple and indeed seem to propose a less labor-intensive method of producing food. Here I'll discuss each of the principles while adding my own elaboration. No Cultivation Throughout my life, I've only [...]
The One-Straw Revolution: Part One
I first decided to read a book by Masanobu Fukuoka, because I knew that he used natural farming to raise grains, and I am interested in growing some grains. But it turns out that Fukuoka is a good author with whom to start my The Permaculture Pupil writings, because he used permacultural [...]
What should you do with your old smartphone? Save the rain forests of course!
About a year ago, we decided that my then current smartphone was no longer worth using as a phone. Frankly, I was afraid that if I needed to dial 911, I wouldn't be able to. So I got a new phone for my birthday, and hubby decided that he would use [...]
My New Obsession, Permaculture
I'm sure no one is keeping track, but my blogs have become quite sporadic of late. The lack of writing is certainly not without reason, though. I've been studying. And planning. In this post, I talked about how I want to change the world. I don't want to change the world, [...]
Choose to Enjoy It
I am extremely lucky to be vacationing in the Black Hills this week, but perhaps even luckier to have found a gem of wisdom while here. Yesterday morning, my husband and I were outside the hotel with Forrest. Something about having a baby seems to open up conversation with about everyone. [...]
Use Your Dreams to Stay Sober
Image courtesy of http://kickofjoy.com I've all but started a completely new life since then, and some things are easier left unsaid. You know, it's easy to make a good impression when certain pieces of your past are left out. But we all have our demons, and I'm happy to [...]
Cleaning a Bathroom the Easy Way (and without chemicals)
My working past is rich in cleaning experience. None of it until the past few years was without toxic chemicals, but I did learn some fun techniques that still make things easier. The bathroom is my least-deplored room in the house to clean, maybe because I don't have to vacuum it. But [...]
An Anniversary Shoutout
Tomorrow will mark two years since my husband and I traveled to the beautiful state of Hawaii and joined each other’s hands in marriage; and instead of writing a personal letter this year, I decided it would be more fun to shout it from a virtual mountain top. Husband, you gave [...]
I Want to Change the World
I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. For a while, I wanted to be a garbage man, because they got to ride on the back of the truck. Then I wanted to be a veterinarian, because I love animals. As I got older, the length [...]
I Love Dandelions
Do you remember, as a child, picking a bouquet of dandelions for your mother? I do. I genuinely thought dandelions were beautiful and that I was giving a beautiful gift to my mother. I did not consider them a weed, something worthy of destruction. In fact, not only were they beautiful, [...]
#reallifewoman
Women, show of hands. Who loves how they look when they wake up? You look in the mirror and the woman who stares back has no makeup, crazy hair, puffy eyes, unlifted boobs, and dons her eighth-grade softball t-shirt. At this very moment, how likely are you to take a selfie [...]
Why I Stopped Wearing Makeup
I learned a few things in high school. I learned algebra. I learned chemistry (just kidding). I learned the definition of viscosity. And since I'm a woman, I also learned that in order to go out in public, you must "put your face on." For at some point in history, we [...]
Life Is About the Journey, Not the Destination
Finally, I heard the bell -- that beautiful, beautiful bell. The ringing continued to vibrate deep into my little body as I shook with exhilaration. School was over for the day; I was free at last. First grade is hard. Much harder than kindergarten. I am most certain that this will [...]
Family Cloth
After reading Being Green, a friend asked me to elaborate on family cloth. She wondered why she would want to use it. Let's start with this: What is family cloth? Family cloth is squares of cloth used to wipe at the toilet. Don't leave yet! Let me explain the logic and benefits first. [...]
Being Green
For today's post, I thought it would be fun to list the things we do to minimize our impact on the environment. Hopefully I can give you some ideas you may not have thought of yet. Many of these items fit in more than one category, so I just picked the [...]
How to Conquer Irritation
Annoyances. Aggravations. Irritations. We all have them. We all get annoyed. Some suffer from few grievances, while some have peeves streaming out of their ears, ready to jump out of their chairs at the sound of a co-worker clicking his pen or the sight of a grammatical error. But why? Well, [...]