A Pretty Good Start

If the rest of the year goes anything like January this will be a really great year.  We've been so busy, and have accomplished so much!  The weather has been less than accommodating ranging from monsoon to freezing rain with a few astoundingly beautiful days interspersed.  But we haven't let that get in our way this year.

We managed a serious deep clean on the house and, with the help of a couple of new bookshelves, have organized no only all of the books that were already in the house, but also several boxes of books that have been in one shed or another for the entire time we've lived in Tennessee.  The living room is looking more and more library like all the time!

What Can we do about Worldwide Poverty?

I came across an interesting video today at Top Documentary Films.  It takes about an hour to watch but it doesn't seem like an hour.  It's a detailed well put together history of world poverty.  The historians, economists and so forth bring out very interesting thoughts on the topic, but do not necessarily come forth with a conclusion.

Weathering the Storm

Ice.  That's what we got today.  After all of the wretched (yawn) winter weather we've had here in Middle Tennessee, we get ice.  But, no worries, in two days it's supposed to be back in the high 50s and low to mid 60s.

Really, the ice just made a dreary monsoon landscape so much more beautiful!  And while the drippiness freezes up the best thing to do is to set the kettle on, choose a favorite tea, pull a chair up to the fire, and relax.  You can't do anything outside anyway!

Balcony Permaculture

This post is for my apartment bound buddies.  I often get questions about what to grow and how to grow it when a person has only a very small space to grow in.  These videos by Dylan Graves are an excellent example of what can be done in a small space.  Granted Mr. Graves has 25 square meters (about 15'x15') and that's larger than the average American balcony.  Nevertheless, he provides great examples of what can be done with a small space.  For the most part he re-uses containers and therefore has a lovely mishmosh of growing spaces.  He even manages a small fish pond!  The two videos combined last only about a half hour, and . . .

Yak Attack!

When the Middle Tennessee monsoons ended, we started chomping at the bit for the first warm day to come.  Yesterday, when it was only in the forties, we did laundry so that we could have the warmest day of the week (today, 50s) to get out in the Kayaks.  The general consensus  in the morning was to try, for the first time, our own creek, Salt Lick Creek.  This was uncharted territory, with many potential challenges.  There may be trees across creating strainers or requiring portages, or, if the water wasn't high enough we might have needed to get in and out of the boats fifty times to get past shallow riffles.  As it turned out, there were few major challenges, only one portage, and the water was high enough to be really fun!  Unfortunately, the funnest water was where the photographer (Micah) needed to focus on paddling, but here is a lovely view of a perfectly lovely day!

Once Upon a Farm

Groundwell Farm, Cricklade Road, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts., England

That was the address of the communal farm I lived on for a month and half in the summer of 1985.  It was a beautiful old 16th or 17th century farmhouse on the outskirts of Swindon.  How I came to be there is a long, tawdry tale that I don't care to relate here, and that I actually thought about rarely during the day to day life at the farm.  What was important was that I was there.  It was the first real taste of freedom and self-determination in my life and I loved every moment.

A Late Night Forgery

We are in the midst of monsoon season here in Middle Tennessee.  It has rained for at least part of every day for about two weeks now.  Temperature makes no difference.  If it's cold enough they simply refer to the precipitation as a "wintery mix", which means anything from stinging sleet, to slushy snow, to an out and out ice storm, interspersed, of course, with regular old rain.  It's the hardest part of the year to get through around here (worse even than the blisteringly hot and impossibly dry middle of summer) and the best thing to do is keep as busy as possible to avoid dropping off into SADS depression.

A few nights ago though, there was a few hours break in the rain.  So while I finished off the slow cooking of a batch of tomato and eggplant risotto, the guys used some brush that we needed to dispose of to start a small fire in the garden (the ashes will be great for the soil).  We then sat in our Crazy Creek chairs with our hot bowls of risotto and fed both the fire and our hungry bellies. 

When we were finished with our supper, someone decided to put a piece of steel bar stock in the fire to see how hot we could get it.  That's how it all began.