Treading Lighter on the Beaten Path

Our new blog is finally up and running!

2010-08-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Please check out www.radioacresfarm.blogspot.com to check out our newest ventures!

In a (crazy) nutshell and on a whim, we bought an urban farm plot together! We all are in the process of moving in together to continue our journey together. Follow our emotional travels as we strive to build our farm, friendship, community and faith together at Radio Acres!

To be continued...

Moving right along...

2010-04-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. It seems as though things are moving right along! We had the inspection done about a week and a half ago and the appraisal right after that. Everything is checking out just fine, it really seems like this project is going to be a go. Begin hyperventilation phase...

We just got pictures taken of our house so that we can begin trying to sell it. Wish us luck in that arena. We also found that the house directly across the street from the new one we are purchasing is just being listed as a foreclosure. It's on about 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre. Anyone want in? Anyone want to be an investor? It would be very cool to have you!

As it goes right now, escrow should close on the third of May. Sarah already purchased two dozen new chicks for us and we are figuring out how to get a fence around the property sooner rather than later. What's next? Goats? Alpacas? A mini-cow? I'll let you know what we decide!

Project #2

2010-03-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

hi, guys! It has been too long since we've posted this, and for a while I thought we were just going to throw it to the wind. Everything seemed to just be peddling along fine with nothing too exciting to post. Oh, sure, there were random things. Our chickens have probably finally paid for themselves in eggs, for instance! It's been forever since I've done a price breakdown and I should do that again just for fun. We hit our 1 year anniversary with the car share, and it's been fantastic! Well, along the way someone gave us another car, so I suppose we weren't really as eco as we should have been. That happened sometime in December, so we made it ALMOST an entire year on just half a car. Right after that, someone threw a full time job at me. It seems like our life has been so wrapped up in making ends meet and working that this blog project has kind of been thrown to the wayside. My aspirations to live simpler and with less consumption have been tossed to the wind with mounting bills and a ridiculous mortgage. Just scraping by was getting tougher and tougher as our side incomes were getting whittled away and raising a family of four off of just one teachers salary wasn't cutting it. Anyhow, I joined the rat race at the end/beginning of the year and have been a little bummed about it ever since =) And then comes project #2...

Sometime in the last week of madness, we have decided close our eyes, hold our breath and jump into a communal living project. I feel like such a hippie. My husband says we need to get more tattoos or something and revolt against the stereotype. Anyhow, we'll see what the next crazy year will hold! It will be fun to blog more and have new material to write about, record the process and experiments that we have in mind. See how it goes barn-raising, kid-raising and chicken-raising. We will be on 1.6 acres here in the beautiful city of San Diego, roughly 6 miles from down town. Our lovely counterparts happen to be the same people we started this blog with over a year ago, so it should be fun for you all to keep up on this and get varying perspectives along the way. Hopefully this will coax us all back into writing a little bit. It's a massive project, and we have a lot of stuff planned SOON! Will keep you updated =)

small businesses in san diego

2009-09-07T10:29:00.001-07:00

whoa, it's been so long since i've last posted that i almost forgot how to sign in.

In honor of Labor Day!

This Project is a fabulous encouragement to buy locally... of every $100 dollars spent locally, $68 returns to the community, vs. $43 spent at a national chain... (from the website.)

in honor of labor day, if you're going to spend some money, think about a local grocery store or restaurant!

by the numbers

2009-05-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

With some egg-laying time under our belt, the two new chickens and the loss of our other girl, I thought it might be a nice time to crunch some numbers:

Previous total, on April 21st = $357

Food bought since = $0.

Eggs produced since then = 148

Previous eggs = 29

Total per egg = $2.02

Total per dozen = $24.24

This is averaging 5 eggs per day when we had all 6 hens and dropping it down to 4 per day once we lost the one. This has consistently been our average. No, I am not keeping a tally!

The case of the missing hen

2009-05-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. Our first loss. No blood, no feathers - just completely gone! We really have no idea what happened to her. On friday I let them run around the yard for a while, put them all back in their cage and then left for a couple of hours. When I came home there were only 5 in the coop! I thought she was laying, but when I peeked there was no hen in sight. I thought maybe I had forgotten to put her away with the rest of them before I left, but the next day Jeremy found a huge spot in the chicken wire on the back side that had been pulled up. Looks like some animal may have had poor Sally for lunch. We posted a few signs around our block, anyway, thinking maybe I did leave her out and someone found her wandering. No luck so far. So now we have 5!
6 chickens = 5-6 eggs per day.
So far, 5 chickens has meant 4-5 eggs per day. We are losing about 1 per day, which means we should get about 2.5 dozen per week. We only had all six of them for just over two weeks. I will do the math again sometime soon and come up with the cost analysis per egg.

eggs and hens

2009-04-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

First, a picture of our approximately $357 egg, laid on Sunday, April 5th 2009.

Damn, chickens are LOUD when they get all proud about the eggs they've been laying! I had no idea. Everyone always seemed a little surprised at how quite and cute ours sounded. They hadn't started laying EGGS yet, and announcing it proudly and loudly the world. Thank goodness it's not as loud or early as a rooster's crow. It makes me giggle when I start to hear the classic "CLUCK-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-CLUCK" of the hen call and I can't wait to run out and raid the nest. It now happens 3 or 4 times a day, and each time there is a new egg sitting amongst the golf balls and plastic chicken eggs that I hijacked from my children to fill the nest. Will it ever get old? Will I ever not get excited when I hear that call and just let the freshly laid egg stay nestled in that warm little nest for a while? Maybe, but for someone who's new to this hen business it may take some time before the excitement wears off.

We decided to get two more hens, a couple of Ameraucanas. They are smaller and a little scraggly, poot little girls! My big brootish ladies keep picking on them, too, as they are trying to figure out their pecking order. Every day that goes on seems a little bit smoother, though. I sure hope all of this picking is over with soon! I am tired of being the intervening "rooster" trying to mediate the fighting. The new girls lay blue-green eggs. Our current ladies all lay brown. We got 5 in one day the other day, and I think that will be the norm once everyone adjusts and settles in. Yesterday we only got two and I think it will take a while for the stress of the newbies to wear off and for everyone to get in their natural groove again. 5 a day! That's, um, just about 3 dozen a week! We decided to sell the extra 1 - 1.5 dozen we will be getting so that we can supplement the cost of the organic feed and make the whole venture more economical. Gimme a holler if you wanna buy some eggs, yo!

So far (roughly):

Coop = $200.

chicken tractor = $50.

Chicks = $12.

New layers = $30.

Food = $65. (the price has jumped to about $17 per 5 weeks. Only organic whole grains)

Total = $357.

# of eggs thus far = 29

Cost = APPROX $12.31 per egg.

Victory Gardens in San Diego

2009-04-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

As per Jeremy's last blog, here's some info on Victory Gardens in San Diego! I heard the tail end of These Days on NPR this morning, and they were talking about Victory Gardens and other gardening goodness. Here's the transcript.

Mindy Swanson was a guest, and she is the coordinator for Victory Garden's San Diego. There's a ton of helpful links on that site. It's encouraging to see the movement here in San Diego towards food, not lawns.

We personally are trying to eat all the lettuce that's growing in our garden. It's overwhelming us, and our plot is pretty small! Here are some recent photos.

We've recently planted potatoes and zucchini in the back, and our strawberries are getting ripe too! yum.

2009-03-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

1944. Patriotism blew through the air like honey bees looking for a hive. America fought the enemy with soul, community and purpose. Forget your shopping and your American flag made in China. This is the time to recycle your tin, conserve sugar and fight totalitarian dictatorships with carpooling. This was an era of honesty with all of its inconsistencies, hatred, love, fear, racism and perseverance. Propaganda was plastered on brick walls in school buildings. Propaganda streamed through the air waves, shone on movie screens and rained down heavy and fierce on souls. People listened. Forty percent of all vegetables in the U.S. were produced through small Victory Gardens housed in backyards, balconies, jails, school yards and abandoned lots. People had ration cards they used, traded and sold for sugar, gas, and other commodities. People volunteered, conserved, fought and worked to help the war effort. Rosie the Riveter raised her fist in the air. We won. Atomic mess, Hitler suicide, tear stained Japanese internment camps, and cheering American soldier marriage. And than came the suburbs....

2009. Patriotism blew through the air like SUV's looking for a gas station. Built in obsolecencse, freedom fries and independence. Urban sprawl, lattes and convenience. Our loyalty and patriotism is measured by one of George Bush's most famous quotes after 911 in his efforts to ease our country and inspire patriotism by telling us to "Go out and shop" Our patriotism got highjacked. Lets highjack it back.

America. I have never been big on pledging allegiance to a country, to waving a flag or singing the national anthem. However I love this country. I love the colors on El Cajon Blvd, the mountain peaks in Alaska, the low hanging mist in Big Sur, the Sudanese Americans hanging by 711 with Mexican coyboys, churches at high schools and my family. I love the opportunity our country has to change. I love the homeless on the bus. I love the fact that I can bitch about the government and not get arrested. I love my friends and chickens.

Inconvenience. Los Angeles in the 1930's had the most advanced and extensive light rail public transit system in the world. San Diego had 100's of miles of light rail system.in the 1930's. It came all the way through City Heights. Than came the GM, Standard Oil and Firestone Tire buy out. Massive piles of train cars were demolished to make way for the latest new invention that ran on gas, rubber and had an internal combustion engine. The bus. Which is a perfect segway to my story. Here is my commute in 2009. It takes me about 2 hours to get from my job in Alpine to my house off the Blvd in San Diego, which is about a 1/2 hour drive. I may have a 55 minute bus ride, a 15 minute trolley ride (not including wait times which can range from 5-25 minutes), and a 1/2 hour walk just to get home one way. Fortunately I can carpool. Sorry Hitler. On Monday's and Wednesday's I get a ride to work. I get a ride back with a Buddhist co-worker to El Cajon Transit Depot and have a 1 to 15 minute wait to catch a 15 minute trolley to SDSU. I than have a 25 minute walk to my house with the orange garage door. Tuesday's I drive my coworker to and from work and on Thursday's he drivesbothe ways. He lives in City Heights which makes it perfect. Except for the fact that we have to leave at 6:30 in the morning and my first class is not until 10:30. Oh well. Friday's I ride my bike 15 minutes to my other job with The Wooden Floor Co. and have a 15 ride home. I never knew how liberating inconvience could be.

Patriotism redefined!! We are shopping for something I cant for the life of me find on a shelf. We are shopping for our kids future. We are shopping for community. We are shopping for a car with 3 hub caps and a bike from 1987. We are shopping for gardens, community supported agriculture, good local beer and eggs in my backyard. We are shopping for creativity. We are shopping for the Jubilee. For restoration. For frienship and life. I pledge allegiance to God and his creative genuis. I pledge allegiance to patriotism redefined.

When you drive alone you drive with Hitler. Join a Car Sharing Club Today!

as our garden grows

2009-03-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

awhile back our neighbors came over and helped us plant our garden in the front of our house. i thought i'd give a little update on the progress, and also give "before" and "now" pictures. we're pretty excited about what's growing!

here's some pics from our garden planting party.

We got about 17 rows in our little plot! Goes to show how much you can grown in a small urban garden! This is what we planted:

3 rows of carrots
2 rows of cauliflower and broccoli
1 or 2 rows of turnips, beets, and daikon
5 or so rows of red and green leaf lettuce and kale
1/2 row of cilantro
4 or so rows of snap peas and beans
some bulbs and flowers for color and general prettiness

Here's what it looks like almost two months later:

pretty exciting. if you can't get enough plant pictures, here are some more.

more number crunching

2009-03-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Tough girl on the bus

We had to get a food refill for the hens today. Last food was provided by BJ on January 19th. That means that it lasted 6 weeks. The cost at the time was approx. $14. and we were totally on empty when he brought it, as we are on totally empty today. Weekly cost of feeding 4 hens? $2.33 in food, $0.54 for grit = $2.89 for all organic whole grain chicken feed. We are switching recipes to this recipe for layers this week and will be doing it this way from here on out, so I'll hash out the cost break down when we run out of this new batch.

More numbers for comparison - last week we drove (in our shared car) approx. 44 carpool miles and 57.6 non-carpool miles. Jeremy also carpooled approx. another 79 miles where he was the passenger. We also logged about 14 miles bicycling to the park/running errands and we had a potluck at the park on Wednesday night that we utilized public transportation for. Riding the bus down El Cajon Blvd. at night is quite an experience, let me tell you! Jeremy also took the bus/trolley for another 35 miles or so. Yay for two hour busrides to cover 22 miles!

Waiting for the #1

making the best of waiting for the bus

The nitty gritty

2009-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

just wanted to quickly post some #'s. Had to buy chicken grit on Sunday at $2.70. Last had to buy it on Martin Luther King day, Jan. 19th. That means one box lasted pretty much exactly 5 weeks. Breakdown - $0.54 per week. Pretty sure I can get it cheaper somewhere else, or just use beach sand since there's plenty of that around here. Or maybe they don't even need it since they are out free ranging a good part of the day... We mostly have clay here, though - not too much gritty stuff. I need to look into that.

turning up the heat

2009-02-25T21:14:00.000-08:00

The super sexy eco-box

We are gleefully marching forward in our quest for greenification. Our mission: to provide heat to our house in an eco-minded manner. Since last winter we had been heating our blustery San Diego nights with an oh-not-so-friendly 1600 watt electric heater. Umm, two of them, actually. Needless to say, our electric bill skyrockets during the late November to early March timeframe in which the nights in San Diego MUST be supplemented with some sort of heat source. Our average kw usage during the summer months is somewhere between 155 and 180 per month. During the cold months it jumps to between 220 and 475 (Jan. '08!!)

In order to conserve kilowatts (and consequently, dollars from SDG&E) we did some research on heat. One option that we quickly ruled out was central heat. For our 800 sq. ft. mansion, it just wasn't a pracitcal investment. We also realized that we would prefer something electric rather than gas with hopes that one day soon we will be able to purchase some solar panels and be more fully self sustaining.

The installed product

Our friend Stuart had this cool Eco-Heater in his daughters room that he really liked so we decided to look into those. A chic, flat-panel, super energy efficient heating element from South Africa that is the epitomy of eco-cool. At only 400 watts a pop, what have we got to lose? I found this deal where we could get a 4 pack for a discount. The total cost for our entire house is $440, a fraction of the price of a central heating system. And the kids were occupied all night and all day today with their free toy... I'll let you know how the kw usage pans out!

The unbelievably cool free toy

never say never

2009-02-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

A scenario presented itself to us last night that was supposed to be one of the toughest we'd have to deal with. All of the factors adding up to an almost-perfect storm. First, we did not have the car and we didn't have access to it because it was in use by our car-share buddies. Second, Estelle was sick. Third, it wasn't an ambulance-calling emergency, but she really needed to go to the doctor at some point. I called urgent care and they advised bringing her in, so I made the appointment for the 8:00 pm time slot that they had available. What were my options? Hop the bus with a sick kid at night and not come home until way late? Alison and Eddie, our neighbors who are supposed to be our backup people, were gone. As I was trying to figure out an alternative, it occured to me that both of our carseats were in the shared car. Damn.

As luck would have it, we are surrounded by a wonderful community of people that we are blessed enough to call friends. Other neighbors of ours, Heather and Chris, were just coming back into town from a long weekend. I was keeping an eye on a couple of things for them, so I had a key to their house. A phone call to them was all it took to secure one of their spare cars, and I had forgotten about an extra old car seat still gathering dust in the garage. Wonderful oh wonderful Jeremy gave up his evening to take Estelle to the Dr. Offical diagnosis - secondary ear infection. The joys of parenting.

This experience taught me, I think, that we should put our fears about this to the side. This was almost the worst of the worst that could happen being without a car 100% of the time, and it was no big deal. If it were truly an emergency, and ambulance would be the only way to go, regardless if we had a car or not. In every other case, I can't think of any time where we wouldn't be able to make it work thanks to loving friends, family and neighbors. We couldn't do it without them!

Bad, bad carless people!

2009-02-23T08:03:00.001-08:00

Our kids giving "our new car" some love

This was officially our first week without our car, and we did not do a very good job of driving less. When I called Sarah to tell her that our car was gone, she laughed and said it was perfect because they had a retreat from Monday through Wednesday anyway, so we could have the car. We already had plans to use it on Sunday because that was our Valentines date night. Here is a log of our mileage for the week:

Sunday: Drop kids off @ J's parents, go to Burger Lounge, Barnes & Noble, back home. 31 miles

Monday: Get bagels, go to wholefoods, pick up kids @ j's parents. 19 miles.

Monday afternoon: gym, blockbuster. 3.5 miles

Tuesday: J. drove to work in Alpine and back. Carpooled with Jason. 46 miles.

Tuesday night: gym. 3 miles.

Wednesday: Bank, Costco. 9 miles

Thursday: no driving

Friday: picked up car from Sarah, came home. Went back to Carter's house because I forgot to drop off something. Went to Hillcrest to pick up an ipod from craigslist. 21.5 miles

Friday night: gym, Redlands. 127 miles, due to detour.

Saturday: Wedding, back to parents, bakers, back home. 149 miles.

Sunday: to church, back. 3.4 miles.

We totalled 412.4 miles for the week. Only 46 of this was legitimate carpooling miles. Horrible! The only thing I can say is that it was really rainy in the beginning of the week so I am grateful we had the car. Also, we were all sick all week, so it was good to be able to drive instead of making the kids be sick on a long walk in the rainy/cold weather. We really need to do better than this, though! I think that when there is a car parked in our driveway it is just TOO EASY to hop in it and drive to our destination rather than figure out an alternative. Yesterday we had the car all day, though, and walked to the grocery store and then Jeremy biked to drop off our videos at Blockbuster. We really just need to get into the mindset of being more "green" rather than doing what's convenient.

I'll post again at the end of the week with our mileage for this week! Hopefully it will be way less than 400 miles!

Sarah and her friend showing off one of our girls

Stay Classy, San Diego.

2009-02-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

Ah, Jeremy, you have no idea the classiness of that missing hubcap. Three hubcaps is the new four, didn't you know?

Our neighbors did trade down, folks. Gone is the higher clearance, gone the matching set of spinners, gone the shine of the paint job. In it's place, they've gotten a scratched bumper, a very dirty set of floormats... one of those may be missing too?... and about 50,000 more miles.

... however... maybe it gets better gas mileage? at least a few miles? one can only hope.

To prove how classic the car actually is, here are a few of my favorite pictures from our wedding. What could be more romantic driving away from your wedding, in front of most of your friends and family (a certain four sadly missing) in this sexy vehicle?

Manhoodification

2009-02-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

My first truck had 30 inch tires. It was a black Jeep Commanche. It was love at first sight, at least for a 16 year old. My identity was interwoven with the tires, the bumper stickers and the bucket seats. I had various trucks from the time I was 16 until the ripe old age of 30. I lived in the campershell, explored Baja, hauled lumber, and carried friends to protests across desert landscapes. Then came kids. Camille at One sitting in the front seat of my beat up Nissan truck seemed, well, impracticle. So Kim and I eventually bought our first New Ride. It was a shiny black CRV half truck and half sedan. It was a mini SUV with better gas mileage. It had clearance for Baja surf trips and Borrego camping trips. It was a perfect compromise between manhood and pragmitism. It wasn't a mini van. It wasn't a gas guzzling SUV. It was perfect...

Well, until we logged 100,000 miles in 4 and a half years. Some environmentalists. When we sold our CRV I was at home, sick and alone with Camille and Estelle and a potential buyer from Rancho Bernardo, buying his daughter her first vehicle. Keeping the vehicular identity complex syndrome alive and well for the next generation. He was there for 2 and half hours and began showing obvious signs and symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Well, he bought our CRV and our girls said their goodbyes by kissing and hugging their car. The nice family waved as they drove away with our families memories stitched and soiled into the upholestry.

We stared at our empty drive way. Small beads of sweat mixed with panic, excitement, fear and emptiness began to appear like rain drops on my skin. It was time.

We grabbed a soccer ball and played a round in our empty new concrete soccer field. The next day our fabulous friends Sarah and BJ drove over our new experimental "shared" vehicle. It was a white sedan missing a hub cap with a Woman for Obama sticker pasted on the window. My manhoodification was exposed. Sarah's empathetic radar came to the rescue as she proceeded to gently peel off the Women for Obama sticker - what a friend. Not that I don't like Obama. Who knows he probably has suffered from vehicular identity complex syndrome as well.

I love our new shared car. I love that it stands for everything I believe in. I love that it has everything to do with our "new identity". I love that it is crappier and less manhoodified. I love that it is a functional vehicle that is an experiement in communal living and environmental awareness. I love that people are telling us that it won't work. (They said that about our family owning 1 car for the last 5 years). I love that it will be a challenge. I love that this concept might spread through churches, synagogues, ghettoes, suburbs, colleges, high schools and neighborhoods across America and beyond. Go ahead. Try something new. You can start by sharing your soccerball and oranges with your neighbors. Keep the momentum.

Officially Car-less

2009-02-15T14:02:00.001-08:00

Yup, that's right! We are officially one car less in this part of town. Here is a copy of the ad that sold our beloved CR-V on Craigslist:

"2004 excellent condition, 100,000 miles. Everything works. Tinted windows, ac, cd, cassette, Thule roof racks. No problems at all, it's been a great car for us. Please e-mail with questions or to come and check it out. KBB lists at $8700+. We have all the records and are original owners, clean record. Just got it's 100,000 mile check-up and did the alignment. Make an offer. EX series, 2 wheel drive."

It is definitely a bittersweet goodbye to a car that has been wonderful to our family. It was the first car for both of our children, we purchased it very soon after C. was born. It was an experiment for us at the time, because we officially went from a standard two-car family down to a one car family with the purchase of that car. I suppose it is fitting then, that it is the car that carries us into this car-share experiment. One almost needs to remind ones self at the end of it all that it is still only a car and is something completely material and replaceable.

So, we had 100,500 or so miles on that car when we sold it yesterday. We owned it for 52 months, which means that we logged almost 2,000 miles on the darn thing EVERY MONTH! This is what we are trying to break away from, to utilize public transport in such a way that although we may still log that many miles in a month, it will be in a much more eco-minded way. Jeremy will still drive our shared car one day a week to work (but it won't be a solo trip - he's got his carpool all set up) and we will have to use it to get up to his parents house on Mt. Helix because for some reason that place is completely unreachable by public transit. Other than that, we'll see where the bus and our legs can take us. I am so excited and ready for the journey!

Worm Farms and Rain

2009-02-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

Who knew, two essential things for a healthy garden don't mix that well. At least, not when a good winter storm floods your artificial worm raising habitat/compost bin. My wife Sarah and I began vermicomposting (raising worms) this summer because we thought it would be a good way to reduce the amount of trash we put in San Diego's landfill and create some good soil for our garden. Little did we know how much we didn't actually know about worms.

First off, you can't just dig some up and throw them in your compost bin. Your average Earthworm from the ground reproduces slowly and doesn't eat a lot. You need red worms, a special type that are found around stables because of their affinity to horse poop. They eat a lot (necessary if you are a composting zealot) and reproduce quickly and abundantly. Which would lead one to believe that worms like it hot, they don't. We killed a fair share because our bin was in too much sun and had to start over.

Second, worms like it moist. Too little, and you get the worm on the sidewalk effect after a hot summers day. Too much, and you get what just happened to me. Contrary to the popular belief brought on by fishing, worms do not breath underwater. They will die.

After these subtle nuances are achieved you can expect your trash to compost at 3x the rate of a normal bin with the added bonus of worm castings (worm poop) in your final product. If you are just starting the art of compost, don't go get worms right away. These little guys don't actually eat your trash, but the microbial muck that forms when it starts to decompose, so get the compost going first or there will be nothing for them to eat, resulting in a yet another way to cause massive worm die-off.

You can get these worms at City Farmers Nursery in City Heights in a ready to go 3 lb. bag, or fill up a chinese takeout box full of worms in the back for $2 a pop. Or you can come over to our house and we will fill you up a tupperware for free (you must provide your own tupperware though).

planting

2009-01-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-09T22:17:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-01-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

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.