Here’s a Funny One – Hoop House Adventures

Excerpt from chat between DH (at office) and myself (at home): me: It’s soooooo windy I fear the hoop house will fly off. DH: It won’t. me: Really? DH: Yeah. Really. me: Check your email. I had just sent him this: Yup, that’s our hoop house, SPLAT. Amie and I were outside for a while …

Power Down

Do you think about the future? Do you wonder what it will be like? Or do you live like it’s always going to be the way it has been? ~ I found at least 5 entries like this one, all in drafts, abandoned. As I prepare for the growing season with more resolve and urgency …

Amie Talks about Death Again

“That is the Mama skeleton, and that is the Baba skeleton, and that is the big sister and the baby brother skeleton, and…” Yesterday evening I was helping Amie get to sleep – I just lie next to her in the dimmed light, in our bed (we still cosleep), hold her hand, and read a …

Stories and Drawings of Amie at Just Four, and Jelly

It seems I’m no longer writing in my (analog) journal. Don’t know why, but in any case I am jotting down Amie’s sayings and doings on pieces of paper here and there. Here’s an effort to preserve them. … Amie had to have four shots at her four-year well-visit. We did two during that visit, …

Pottery by Mama and Amie

Amie visited my pottery class a couple of weeks ago, just for 10 minutes while DH picked up pizza down the road. We were glazing but I fired up a wheel for her and stuck on a blob of clay and centered it, adding lots of water. Then she put her little hands on the …

Riot Fatigue: I Feel Like I’m Slacking

This is only our third Riot month and I feel like I’m slacking already. I realized this when last week I volunteered to drive Amie and a preschool buddy to their field trip. This was legitimate, I think: the preschool needed volunteers. On the way back – just Amie and I – I decided to …

Riot for Austerity: Month 2 – Some Ouches

We finished our second month of the Riot while not at home, so my meter readings are a couple of days off. These numbers are for the period from 1 December 2008 to 4 January 2009. 1. Gasoline: OUCH! We did so well last month: 7.939 gallons of oil/person or 19% of the US National Average. …

Nature Study for a Three-Year-Old

Though I am still feeling sick, we went outside. It was a good day for it  and Amie really wanted to.  It was bright, with some clouds moving in, a few gusts of wind but otherwise not too blustery, and unseasonably mild (mid 40s). We bundled up and went for a long walk around the …

The Garden Begins: “Bomb Proof Mulch” for Soil-Building

So over the weekend we dug a big pit (8′ x 3′ x 1.5′)  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 – …