Great Insight…check it out

Since my last pity party about how I hate everything winter, I decided to read a book.  I figured if I couldn’t DO anything, I could at least educate myself more while I wait for warm weather.

So, I went to the library and picked up a book .  Now,  I have never been a “reader”.  I just couldn’t seem to get through a book, until this one.  So for me, finishing this book meant more than just what I got from it.  It was quite an accomplishment for me, plus I liked the book.  I tend to be drawn more to the tried and true stories than the instruction manuals.  Don’t get me wrong, I use them too, but I really think that knowing this story had been lived made me want to turn the page.  The book…

Farewell, My Subaru

best described as “One man tries to kick oil, live locally and keep his goats out of the rose bushes” Check this one out if you haven’t already.

A couple of months ago I watched a movie that I can honestly say changed the way I thought about my food.  I realized that I didn’t know half as much as I thought about my food (call me naive).  I grew up raising my own pork, chickens and beef and so did everyone around me.  I was under the impression that most animals were raised the way that we raised ours.  When you came to my neighborhood/town/county/state you saw and still see acres of farm land with cattle roaming on plenty of space, eating grass.  To me, that is how we did it.  WRONG.  That apparently, is not the way things are done for your local “grocery store USA”.  The movie…

Food, Inc.

best described as “You’ll never look at dinner the same way” This is a MUST see

If you have any thoughts on these feel free to let me know.  Also, I am looking for cook books that focus on ingredients in the garden.  If anyone knows of any, I would love to hear about it.

taking out the trash…or lack there of

I need to apologize for my absence.  I fear the void in my garden has left my blog blank.

I don’t think I have realized until now how inspired I am by the warmer months and the anticipation of life and growth.  I really do live for getting outside and being in my garden.

The weather has been warmer this last week (in the 40’s).  I found myself poking around in the backyard yesterday.  As I looked at everything dormant or dead, I thought of how much I hate it… from the lack of bugs for the chickens to eat to not liking guests to even look in the back yard.  I know that everyone’s yard looks just the same in the winter, but I can’t help it.  I envisioned what would be in the garden in the late Spring and where exactly it would go this year.  I could see the piles of compost complete and ready to be added to the garden.  I thought of where I want those raised beds to go when my husbands gets around to building them.

What makes this worse?  The stores, and the fact that they are putting the seed packets out.  I am sure that they do this just to torture me.  In Central Oregon we can’t even start our seeds indoors yet.  Grrr

Okay, enough of my complaining.  On to what I have been able to do this winter.

Being a family of four, we have always used a 65 gallon trash can that was picked up on a weekly basis.  Recently we were able to to downsize to a 35 gallon can.  We could do this because we have been very aware of what can be recycled and making sure it went into that can.  The food scraps that can’t go into the compost or worms are now going to the chickens.  Now our recycling can is larger than our trash can, and it has been working out great.  Not to mention we are saving money!  Yeah!