planting

I just got through planting 9 new plants in our front yard. This has been an on-going process. About a year ago J. and I decided to 1) get rid of our grass, 2) make our front yard drought-tolerant and 3) make our front yard edible (or atleast non-toxic). It has absolutely been a work in progress! We found out that it costs a heck of a lot of money to plant 50 new plants all at once, so we've been slowly piddling our way through it. Today I planted some lower growing herbs that are perennial and seem to do well with no water. Into the ground went three different marjorams, two different types of thyme, two society garlics (a white and a purple), a lemon verbena and an artichoke. Most people are unaware that society garlic is actually a relative of a true garlic AND that the flowers and foliage are totally edible with a garlicky flavor. A great addition to salads!

These plants add to the two grape vines, pomegranate, pineapple guava, strawberry guava, arbutus, blueberries (in wine barrels - these aren't drought tolerant), holiday avocado, rosemary and two golden currant (ribes), and a whole slew of different types of sages (salvias) that we've gotten into the ground over the past few months. This year won't give us much of a harvest, but hopefully sometime in the next couple of years we will be making some arbutus jam to go along with our blueberry scones and fresh pomegranate juice!

One of our sages in bloom

While it's been a lot of work, I am hopeful and really exited about our drought-tolerant, beautifully landscaped front yard that also *happens* to have plants that will contribute to our dinner table.

Here's the pergola we build over the summer - it is now surrounded by lemonade berry to the left, ribes (currants) in the front and grapes that we hope will climb well and prosper over the next few years

Chicken Food for thought

C. feeding some turnip greens to the chickens

Just thought I'd mention this now, so I don't forget and so we can keep track - BJ bought food for the chickies yesterday at Peoples. We have been following the recipe here on Greener Pastures Farms website. All of the grain we buy at Peoples Co-op is organic and purchased from the bulk bins. I know it would probably be way cheaper to buy the stuff at the feed store, but I wouldn't feed that stuff to my kids, ya know? Aside from the whole grains they get from the co-op, they are gobbling up our leftover dinner scraps (that Jeremy is not taking in his lunch the next day) and I also let them out to free range at least for a little while every day. It's usually for a couple of hours, though sometimes for only a half an hour if we have a busy day. I am really surprised at the amount of greens these little gals consume! It kind of makes me realize how unnatural the eggs from the store must be if they are from chicks that are forced to stay in cages and eat feed for their whole lives. Opens up your eyes a little. Anyhoooo - the feed that BJ bought cost a grand total of $14 and some change. I gave them the first scoop from this batch today and wanted to make a note so we could see how long it lasts and figure out our cost.

here we are!

the other half of this experiment, reporting for blogging duty! we are slowly moving along in our own family's pursuit of more simple living. my bike is in the shop right now, and i get to pick it up today! that should dramatically increase my ability to be mobile without my car.

last weekend, we finally cleared out this plot in front of our house so that we can plant our winter garden! we hope our neighbors will come over and plant seeds tomorrow with us. (wink,wink)

i noticed that i felt a little self-conscious as we were gardening our plot. we live on a pretty busy street in a lower-income part of san diego. we are already a minority in our neighborhood, and especially as we break our our hoe and rake, i feel like people look at us funny. oh well!

the other problem with our garden plot is that people seem to use it as an alternate sidewalk. we're not sure what to do about that.

anyhow, despite the funny looks, in this economy, i think it's important to be thinking beyond our normal consumption patterns. so... less gas... check! eggs... almost check! veggies... almost check!

as far as the car status, our job is to take our car into our mechanic to check it out and make sure that we're not entering into our car-share with a lemon!

i'll leave you all (who's reading this anyhow?) with a little picture story. when we were building the chicken coop, the b.'s cat became a little obsessed with getting to the chickens inside the coop. so much so that she got herself stuck behind the hen-house.
it was pretty funny... beatrix potter worthy. *note, this was awhile ago, so the chickies are a lot smaller.

Moving right along

I have come to terms, more or less, of selling our car and I am excited about it! I know that I have been saying that all along, but truthfully I have been a bit freaked out about the whole concept. Spoke to Insurance Lady today and we are just trying to figure out how to do this car-sharing thing the right way. There are a lot of details to work out, more than I anticipated. I am really looking forward to this new phase in life, though. Life needs to slow down and we need to be more considerate of the resources that we are using here on this small planet that we belong to. As I've been mentioning selling our car to people, I have actually had a few randoms around here mention knowing someone with no car, or doing it themselves for a while. We are not as freakish as I first anticipated.

On another note, our chickens are getting bigger, so soon we will *hopefully* be getting some eggs to contribute to our stomachs. After all of the resources we put into that project we's better get some payback! Here's a picture of a few of our gals. The one in the foreground is Sally.

waiting, waiting, waiting

And doing nothing so far. We need to sell our car. About a month ago we were talking to our wonderful neighbors and they said they wanted to buy it, so we have done NOTHING to try to sell it. Haven't talked to the neighbors lateley, but really need to make the effort to go over there and see if they are still interested. Our car insurance renewal is up again and due on the first of February. I'd really like to not pay it...
Not only that, but it seems like we've been driving a lot lately. I think we are just savoring having a car in the driveway because we know it's soon going to come to an end. We have been seeking out bus routes and I personally have spent some time on the MTS trip planner to figure out some basic routes that we will have to know off the top of our head, like how to get C. to her preschool class and how to get to the doctors office. Getting excited, getting prepared, and keeping my fingers crossed for February 1st!

The creation of a blog (and the birth of an experiment)

So, here we end up and it is just the start. It is the beginning, and hopefully will pan out to be something great. An experiment of social and environmental sorts.
So, for the past year or so, on and off, J. and I have joked about getting rid of our car. We were always kind of half-joking, but half serious, too. Let me back up.
About 5 years ago we decided, soon after the birth of our first child, that we could be a one-car family here in San Diego. Everyone thought we were crazy. Here we were, a young family of three, both of us working and J. working all the way out in Julian of all places. Maybe we were a little crazy, but the funny thing is that it's worked out fine. Maybe the first year we were struck by the small inconveniences, the way we had to simplify things and walk more, ride more, etc. Sometimes we would both plan something only to come together and realize that one of us had to cancel our plans, or better yet had to figure out a way to (gasp) get there without a car. The reality of it is, however, that here we are five years later and it's really been pretty easy. We never feel inconvenienced by it anymore. If anything, it really has simplified things and forced us to drive less and even savor the time that we spend walking and riding around the city. So here we come to this point - this desire to rid ourselves of our one and only car.
Again we are confronted by the slew of friends and family who think we're crazy. "What about if it's an emergency?" Well, then I suppose we can call an ambulance. "What about if you want to drive up to visit your parents?" Well, then I think we will probably rent a car for the weekend. Or take the Greyhound.
Anyhow, you see my point. Through all of this discussion, though, we met another family who may be almost as nuts as us. They had been thinking about transitioning down to one car but were a little apprehensive - thus the birth of our experiment! A car-share is born. They live about a mile from us. My idea is that we will actually each own half of one car and in doing so will greatly reduce the amount of driving that each of our families partake in. We will be the proud owners of .5 cars and they will own 1.5. Ideally we wouldn't use the shared car for much - it would be more of a back-up. There are a lot of details to hash out, but I am hopeful that it will work! If not, I will keep you updated - and so will she, since she is a co-contributor to this blog! Regardless of the car-share, both of our families are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprints here in San Diego. We cooperatively built a chicken coop and are raising our own backyard beauties to provide us with fresh eggs. We are gardening our small yard in the middle of the city and constantly amazed at the amount of food we produce ourselves. They rent their home, so we are encouraging them to build a garden plot in our yard and use the space that we aren't. Both of our families try to buy locally and get produce from different CSA's here in town. This will be the year that we try to lower our carbon print, to cut out the excess and tread lighter on the earth. It will be an experiment of the social sort, to see if friends can cooperatively make this work. I am looking forward to it and hope that we will learn a lot in this next year. Will keep you posted.