♥

♥

I was just reading my friend Anita’s great post, Off Grid, Part-Time at Prairie Dreams  about a family who is going off the grid and eating locally  for a one month trial.

 When I began thinking about eating locally or growing my own food, I found inspiration at Path to Freedom with their 100 Foot Diet Challenge. My garden is small and actually looking like it may never produce ANYTHING, so I feel a bit defeated at the moment.

Here are the specs for the Urban Homesteader/Path to Freedom 100 Foot Diet Challenge….

If not from BACKYARD, then Locally produced (PTF’s addition)
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.

In the past, Anita and I have shared our concerns over not being able to find much locally grown produce available for purchase.  We hope that soon the Farmer’s Market will be able to assist with this dilemma, but I began thinking about an alternative for future seasons after I left a comment on her post. What if Anita and I cooperated with each other…with a backyard C.S.A.? We live within 20 miles of each other, so that would certainly meet the 100 Mile Diet requirements. What if we found just two more backyard farmers who were interested in the same?

I don’t quite have the logistics of how this might work, but it is definitely something to think about for when Anita is moved into her house and has her garden growing. Do you think I should have asked Anita first, before putting her garden up for barter?  

Where to begin. I am proud to say that we have reduced our individual bottles of water purchases by approximately 80%, even with our travel. We have enjoyed using our two aluminum waters bottles purchased from The Peddler’s Wagon. Made from a 304 grade aluminum, our 20 oz. green jewel toned bottle is perfect for DD, and a bargain at only $11.00.  DH and I share a larger, 1 ltr. Steel Water Bottle, which has a opening large enough to add ice.  

To up the ante, we have decided to stop purchasing bottled pop, as well. The decision is based somewhat on the plastic bottle pollution issue, partly on my readings of The Omnivore’s Dilema and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and lastly, and probably most important, is our ever growing waistline. When we were in Kansas City this weekend, I am very happy to report that DH, nor I, purchased a pop, or a plastic bottle of anything the entire day. A couple of times, I thought we might falter, but I am very proud of us both.  To some of you, this may seem as such a simple task, but I assure you it took great fortitude to spend 13 plus hours on the road without a bottle of Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, or Coca-Cola.

These past few days (or has it been weeks?) I have been missing in action here at TSB, partly because of travel, but mostly because I am feeling a bit overwhelmed in several areas of my life at the moment. In order to forge forward through this mental fog touched with a bit of laziness, I thought I would post a couple of update photos (maybe that will put me in a more positive frame of mind…haha!).

My morning glories are beginning to show some movement, which is a good thing since it seems that I am not going to be able to train my roses to grow over my arbor.

The walkway in the backyard is beginning to take shape. Moving the rock from the old “patio” area under the tree has proved to be difficult and back-breaking. I think we have enough materials on hand to take the walkway to the alley behind the house. I am very disappointed that I do not have my concrete patio poured yet. This darn weather is making many projects drag out….and I just know that as soon as these storms stop, the temperatures will rise quicklly making the work even more difficult!



Currently, my tomatoes are back on the side porch with the last threat of golf ball sized hail. Fortunately, we did not get any…but you know that the reason we didn’t is because I DID move those tomatoes. If I had left them in place, the hail would have surely shown its face…haha!



My beans are beginnging to show some signs of growth, as is my basil…so maybe things will start happening around here. I really need to find some kind of mulch before the heat waves begin. I don’t want to put down grass clippings because we have so many weeds in our yard….and DH doesn’t know where the grass catcher is anyhow. We have had neighbors volunteer their clippings, but all of them use chemicals on their lawns…so that is not an option. I might have to just bite the bullet and purchase some straw.

Isn’t that what the store signs say when they are remodeling? The theme template that I have been borrowing for my blog  just hasn’t seemed to fit the mood or idea behind what I hope for my blog to become.  For some time now, I have been trying on different looks and taking them for a spin. Usually, I try to do that late at night in hopes that no one will notice. On occasion, I have totally fouled things up..imagine that!

I am not CSS savy, and just barely able to say I know some HTML, so this process is tedious and has me relying on theme templates that someone else has designed. (Just a heads up here, if you EVER see a wordpress theme that would fit the “mood” of  my site, please ,oh PLEASE,  contact me!) For now I am trying out a brand new theme that was only uploaded yesterday. Unfortunately, like so many other themes that I have loved, the theme is not widget-aware for the sidebar. The original sidebar was adorable, but it would not allow me to add anything… not even an admin login. Well, I think I have the sidebar challenge conquered as far as functionality goes, but I lost the cute little icons. Being frugal (sometimes that means B-R-O-K-E), I am not to the point of paying someone else to figure it out for me…..

so…I ask again…PLEASE Pardon Our Dust…until I figure this out…or am covered in dust…whichever comes first.