Be joyful though you have considered all the facts
We have one month of Rioting for Austerity under our belts. Let’s see how we did. 1. Gasoline: down but still a long way to go: 19% We’ve been extra careful with our driving. DH has gone into work a little more often than usual, but for the rest we’ve managed to consolidate our driving …
Continue reading “Riot for Austerity: Month 1 – Chippin’ Away!”
Yesterday one of the headlines in Google was “Economy Contracts as Consumers Retreat“. There is a nice rhythm to that phrase, don’t you think? And, also like a good line of poetry, it says a lot in the most subtle of ways. The bellicosity of this phrase reveals what we all really know about consumption …
Continue reading “The War of Consumption and What to Say to Friends about “the Good Life””
We have decided, DH and I, to try the Riot 4 Austerity. It was that whole business with Sharon’s run-in with the New York Times that finally did it: we got really upset about it and this seems the best way to address that kind of inanity. We’re now trying to establish our baseline (starting …
So over the weekend we dug a big pit (8′ x 3′ x 1.5′)Â where part of our vegetable garden will be. Tomorrow spells rain, and we didn’t want all that laboriously dug and sifted soil to wash away. So we decided to immediately apply the “Bomb Proof Mulch” from Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden – …
Continue reading “The Garden Begins: “Bomb Proof Mulch” for Soil-Building”
Phew. This weekend we finally got our asses in gear (that’s the expression, right?) and started to clear more of the to-be-vegetable patch to the side of the house. Yesterday we cut down whatever overgrown chrismas trees needed removing, mostly using a bowsaw (I really enjoy using a bowsaw; a friend lent us an electric …
This Saturday we returned to Drumlin Farm for the Harvest Festival and we had a blast. We danced to the Old Mariners’ Dixieland Jazz – they were in their sixties and seventies and pretty hardcore, apologizing for playing a song so recent as from the thirties! We took a hayride into the fields I remember …
Continue reading “Harvest Festival at Drumlin and a visit to the MIT Museum”
I haven’t been blogging much lately. Summer at our burgeoning homestead has meant more time spent outside and in physical activities, like transplanting and planting. There hasn’t been as much of planting as I would have wanted: just some herbs in pots and a an edible border by the side of the house (thyme). Mainly …
I’ve been buying many quarts of blueberries at the Farmer’s Market. Half gets eaten and half gets frozen. I rinse them (they’re organic), dry them, then spread them on a cookie sheet and freeze them through. Then I pick ’em up with a metal spatula and drop them in a freezer bag. Then I suck …
I’m the cautious type. We get a plant and I say “Let’s see if it grows!” Then it grows and I say “Yes, but will it flower?” Then it flowers and I say “Let’s see if it fruits!” Then it fruits and I say “I know, but will the fruits ripen?” Yes! Now if only …
Over a year ago I wrote about our dashed compost dreams. We were still at the condo then and the trustees vetoed the idea of a compost bin. Well, a year later the dream became possible again and we purchased two Earth Machines. Here is one of them, the active one: We followed all the …
Continue reading “Now We’re Cookin’! And Growing. And Putting Up.”