Perma-what?

Many of you know I took an eight day workshop on “Permaculture” recently. I travelled to Stelle, IL and was immersed in it from 8:30am until 9:30pm each day. Lots of people have asked me what permaculture actually is and I've been trying to come up with a simple, short explanation. However, because permaculture is a blend of lots of different principles, I'm having a difficult time. Luckily, though, a friend and fellow student has posted an excellent definition on her blog and I'd like to share it with you so you get a better understanding of what I actually did for those eight days.

On her blog, http://www.adventurefarm.blogspot.com/, Deanna Lawlor writes this:

'“Permaculture” was coined by two Australians, Bill Mollison and one of his students, David Holmgren. Originally, the word was a contraction of “permanent agriculture” however, as the permaculture practice evolved so did the meaning of the word, which is now mostly understood to mean “permanent culture.”'


'Most of us practice parts of permaculture already...with the choices we make in our daily lives. For instance, if you are composting, growing some of your own food, buying food at the farmer's market, supporting local businesses, walking or biking to work, or foraging for food; you are involved in a piece of permaculture. When you consciously start to pull these pieces together and design your life around the principles of permaculture, you are practicing it.'

I would add that any efforts to reduce your dependence upon finite resources, volunteering or sharing with others and working on building community in your area are also parts of the permaculture model. Permaculture is about caring for earth, caring for people and sharing surplus with everyone. The part which intrigues me the most is the fact that we can take the principles anywhere on the planet and help communities overcome poverty and despair, simply by teaching them some basic proven methods of growing food and obtaining water. It is pretty amazing to see whole villages in third world countries go from barren deserts to lush, green food forests.
Deanna and I are teaming up and will be holding workshops in the Chicago and St. Louis areas starting in January 2011. I know I can count on friends and family to be my “guinea pigs” and let us know how the workshops are going!

My Yard:

The boys have been busy helping me “permaculturize” (my own term!!) our back yard since I returned from the course. We've hauled leaves from neighbors lawns, dumped woodchips from the tree trimming company doing work down the street and collected animal feces from a teacher friend of mine with a zoo in her classroom. All this organic matter is being piled up on an old cement slab in my back yard which used to be the floor of a shed. After piling up a few feet of organic matter and giving it time to decompose, I should have soil healthy enough to plant in. I am also building a raised bed next to it for a couple of fruit trees and other beneficial plants and shrubs.



The beginning of the raised bed



It looks like an overwhelming mountain of my neighbors' yard waste, but all that organic matter will be healthy soil eventually!

We “inherited” Lucy, our new lop-eared bunny from a neighbor. She's sweet and adorable and produces EXCELLENT fertilizer for my compost pile! I got the rabbit hutch used on craigslist. You just pull out the bottom drawer where all the feces drops and pour it onto the pile. I made sure to place her hotel—I mean hutch on the south side of the house where it will get lots of sun. There is also a microclimate, or pocket of warm air in that area most of the time.

Lucy's luxurious home

LUCY

We started “vermi-composting” when I returned from the course. We had always done regular composting in the backyard, but now we have added red wiggler worms to a plastic bin full of air holes with newspaper and kitchen scraps to get richer compost in the spring. (Hopefully) I am still trying to get the correct amount of water, newspaper and organic scraps balanced and I think I might need some more worms. Anyone got some laying around they'd like to share?

Meet our fifty new family members

Some of my other ideas are to dig a small pond in the backyard to attract more beneficial wildlife and prevent water run-off. I'm also going to get another 55 gallon rainbarrel to harvest more water. In my future dreams, I'd love to have a graywater system from the kitchen, washing machine and bathtub. I've also tried very hard to talk the boys into a compost toilet.....but that is going to take some convincing!

This single rain barrel fills up in a couple of minutes during a good rain storm. If my village would let me, I'd get a 500 gallon one.

For more information about permaculture visit:

http://www.midwestpermaculture.com/
http://www.permacultureproject.com/



How Do You Make a Tissue Dance?

Put a little "boogie" in it. Hah!!!!!!!!

I only bring up this topic because I have had more boogers in the past week than in the past ten years. I'm not sure if my nose is supposed to produce this many boogers, because now that I've had the deviated septum fixed it is normal, or if the excess crusties are a side effect of the surgery and will eventually go away. I can tell you though, that there were some pretty amazing ones right after the procedure. Who knew snot could be so interesting?

The coolest thing about my nose now is that I can actually breathe through it! I used to get up four to five times a night. For so many years I just believed I had a bladder problem. Ever since the surgery I am sleeping eight to ten hours straight without ever waking up. It turns out I didn't really have to pee,  I just couldn't breathe.

Another benefit I've noticed is that I no longer feel like I'm going to pass out during the pranayama breathing in yoga. You are supposed to breathe rhythmically through one nostril at a time, exhaling in a forceful pattern. Unfortunately, by the third round I was usuallly gasping for air through my mouth and eliciting stern gazes from the instructor. I can now proudly say I am an expert at pranayama. :)

I'm still waiting for the surge of energy I was hoping I would experience now that I'm getting so much oxygen to my brain. Even though I'm not feeling the need to run any long distance marathons, and I couldn't tell you what happens when I workout, (cause it's been awhile) I do feel more of a sense of alertness when I'm out on my walks. Maybe I'm just enjoying the fall weather and happy to be able to smell the pumpkin bread cooling on the stove.

Welcome Back........

Don't ask me why I'm welcoming you back when I've the one who's been gone. I just can't get the "Welcome Back Kotter" theme song out of my head.

I'm having major writer's block.

What a bounty!



Belive it or not, I canned these veggies! I heard a woman on NPR explaining how to make "Tomolives" with green cherry tomatoes and decided to give it a try. http://www.mrswheelbarrowskitchen.com/ They smelled amazing. The recipe suggests using other veggies like jalapeno peppers so I pickled two jars of those.  N loves jalapeno pickles, so hopefully these will live up to his expectations. Don't be surprised if you receive one of these jars as a holiday gift in December!



Because of the threat of frost tonight, I pulled out all my plants and here's what I found.



 Above are my herbs: sweet basil, rosemary and lavender. I'm going to bring them in the house over the winter to try to keep them alive. First, I have to figure out if I want to "clean" them to get rid of pests, or just replant them altogether.






Please, please, please ripen.........

The pumpkin is from our garden. It's tiny but cute. Of course, the bigger one grew through to the neighbor's side of the fence and I don't have the heart to ask if we can keep it!!  The butternut squash is from my across the street neighbor who has the greenest thumb on the block.



Stay tuned...

Hey everybody. Sorry I've been slacking off on the entries. Had nose surgery and am only just feeling normal again. Can't wait to share about the kayaking trip I took with Kim. We are definitely outdoorswomen ready to take on anything after that experience! Check back soon for the latest news.........

USEFUL INFORMATION

Hi Everyone! I had my first meeting of the "Thoughtful Suburbanites" at my local library. It was a group I formed through yahoo's http://www.meetup.com/  It was nice to meet people with similar interests and values and I'm really looking forward to learning from other members. I'm including below a list of resources I made available to the members of the group, but I thought readers of my blog might also find it useful. The last table includes local thrift shops, so if you don't live in the suburbs of Chicago, you can ignore that! Otherwise, I hope you find some useful information on this list. If you have any other websites you think should be added, leave it in the comment section. Thanks!
GREEN RESOURCE LIST


WEBSITES FOR KIDS AND FAMILY

http://www.adventureecology.com/ An interactive game for kids

http://www.planetfriendly.com/ Certifies earth friendly products

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/ Ideas for everyone

http://www.nrdc.org/ Natural Resources Defense Council-'Kids Make Waves” How kids can help

Www.noimpactproject.org/experiment Family project-how much smaller can you make your carbon footprint?

http://www.fooditude.tv/ Greenfood website for “tweens”

Www.nwf.org/wildlifewatch National Wildlife Federation-kids can log their wildlife sightings to help scientists

http://www.softclothing.net/ “Green” clothes for kids with sensitivity issues

http://www.climatecycle.org/ Fundraise to get solar panels installed in our children's schools

http://www.safekids.com/ Get a free basic internet filter to help you keep your kids safe online

http://www.k9webprotection.com/ See above

http://www.frugalfun.com/ Lots of great cheap and green ideas

http://www.frugalvillage.com/ More ideas for you and your family

THRIFTY WEBSITES

http://www.lastfm.com/ Free streaming music-you choose what you want to hear

http://www.pandora.com/ Free streaming music-you hear music similar to your favorites

http://www.swap.com/ Excellent website where you can trade books, music and games. They are working on expanding to other items as well

http://www.freecycle.org/ Join the one in your city and let others turn your junk into their treasure

http://www.wisebread.com/ An excellent website with hundreds of ideas on green and frugal living

http://www.gamestop.com/ Go to your local shop to buy/trade video games and game systems

http://www.cash4books.net/ Get paid for books

http://www.frugalfun.com/ Lots of cheap, green ideas for you and your family

http://www.frugalvillage.com/ More ideas for you and your family

http://www.npr.org/ Donate your old car and help support public radio


SUSTAINABLE FOOD WEBSITES

http://www.localharvest.org/ Find farmer's markets in your areas, also “pick your own” farms

http://www.landconnection.org/ Learn how to support local farmers

http://www.mrswheelbarrow.blogspot.com/ Learn to can and preserve produce-excellent recipes!

http://www.locavores.com/ Discover why eating locally is so important

http://www.chicagohomecomposting.org%20learn/ Learn to compost no matter what type of home you inhabit *Local

Www.p2pays.org/compost/  More excellent info on composting
GLOBALLY CONSCIOUS WEBSITES

http://www.causesforchange.org/ Help third world countries become more independent

http://www.shareyoursoles.org/ Donate shoes to those in need

http://www.toms.com/ Buy one pair of shoes and this company will donate a pair to a child living in poverty

http://www.workingbikes.org/ Donate your old bike and this organization will fix it and send to a person living in poverty in a third world country

http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/ This non-profit company sells “fair trade” crafts from artisans around the world.

http://www.worldofgood.com/ An ebay company which also sells fair trade items

http://www.etsy.com/ Buy handmade items from people in our area


AVOIDING TOXINS

http://www.safecosmetics.org/ Find out what toxins are in your cosmetics

http://www.ewg.org/ Environmental Working Group-what is in your shampoo, sunscreen, soap? Which are the safest products to use?

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ Another website to help you make healthy choices for your family

http://www.thegreenguide.com/ A good website to help locate green products for your home

http://www.greenguard.org/ Learn about air quality


GOING GREEN

http://www.earth911.org/ Find out how to live more sustainably-LOTS of ideas

http://www.treehugger.com/ Another excellent general resource

http://www.grist.org/ Online “magazine” about everything sustainable

http://www.consciouslivingtv.com/ Lots of short video clips to help you green your lifestyle

http://www.epa.gov/ Environmental Protection Association-governmental resource

http://www.thedailygreen.com/ More green articles

http://www.350.org/ Excellent website where you can get directly involved by signing petitions and organizing events in your area

http://www.yesmagazine.org/ Another excellent magazine with superb articles about Americans who are making a difference

http://www.mindfulmetropolis.com/ A Chicago based magazine which details the city and suburbs' efforts in the sustainable movement

http://www.swancc.org/ Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County-INVALUABLE resource if you live in the NW suburbs of Chicago.

TRANSPORTATION

http://www.chicagocriticalmass.org/ Plan to ride your bike to make a statement

http://www.activetrans.org/ Advocates for “carless” transportation

http://www.metra.org/ Rail transportation

#!&@!%!

I think I'm a decent mom. I make sure the boys brush their teeth at least once a day, provide four food groups at every meal, force them to shower when their stink permeates the entire house. Yet, our "swear jar" is ready to bust.

No, I do not have a "potty mouth" around my children. I have been known to drop a few choice phrases among good friends, but I'm not even close to being called "vulgar."

"Bah!!! Mom. You owe me fifty cents!" That's the fine for bad language in our household. The money is dropped into a transparent plastic jar and isn't emptied until it is full.
"I don't owe YOU, I owe the JAR. And that money's for the whole family, smartypants.When it's full, we all get to decide what to do with it." If it were fifty cents per child per offense, I'd be living in a cardboard box.

You see, I think I might have Turret's Syndrome. Except only when I'm asleep.

I have been awoken many times by the pounding on my bedroom door and pleading by my children, "Mom, stop swearing!! MOM! Please! You said the "f" word like ten times!!!" Last night, I felt someone's hand clamp over my mouth and then, "Shut up!!! Mom, you HAVE to stop!!!!!"

Nobody ever believes me. At least not until they sleep with me. I've always been one to slumber soundly and peacefully. But my dreams tend to be realistic, vivid and often times violent. I remember my dreams easily, even from when I was a child. I'm still shaken by the one I had when I was three or four where my parents and I were kidnapped by indigenous natives in the rainforest and locked in a suspended bamboo cage from the treetops. I awoke the next morning lying in the fetal position against my parent's bedroom door.

I am often fighting for my life or the safety of others when dreaming. I have snatched my son from a raging flood and fled from a 747 as it crash landed on the phone booth I had been previously been calling home. My crazy aunt has driven us off a bridge and my own father sent the car into a large body of rapidly moving water. Somehow, I always manage to unbuckle the car seats or shout life-saving directions and I emerge the hero. Unfortunately, I tend to vocalize while I'm dreaming and my "dreaming" personality tends to be more like Tony Soprano than I care to admit.

For example, I dash into a public restroom only to find no doors on the stalls, toilet paper rolls bare, and toilets FULL. When I finally discover a decent one, people become the problem. They might cut in line or take my last tissue, take out their digital camera or sit down for a rest! "You mother*******!! Give me my god**** tissue you a**hole!"

In last night's fiasco, all the guests at my son's birthday party kept eating their pizza in my pool. I repeatedly ask them nicely to get out and eat in the kitchen, but now my new pool is covered with a greasy, orange sheen and filled with gooey, yellow globs.  "Get out you a**holes!! You're all a**holes! " (According to T., who audibly "witnessed" the entire scene.)

When I ask one of boys what I said, their eyes get wide and they grin embarrassingly, "Mom, I could get in a lot of trouble for saying that." Sometimes I'm yelling so loudly I actually wake myself up. Sure, I feel bad, but what can I do? It's not like I have any control over it. That's what I keep telling the kids. How can it count if I don't know I'm saying it? Which is why our swear jar isn't a fair representation of the cursing in our house.

I've thought of duct taping my mouth shut when I sleep. My white-noise maker is turned up almost all the way so the kids won't hear me. I should be in one of those "sleep studies." Maybe some scientist can figure out why I do this.Could it be the snacks I eat before bed?

 While I brainstorm ways to get my mouth out of the gutter, the kids are counting the cash in the jar.  Let's just say we are halfway to Disneyland.