Lovely morning in the Northwest

Titles are hard for me.  Often I don't know what I am going to write until I sit down to write.  I can just feel something bubbling at the surface waiting to be said.  Maybe I could start writing the title at the end of the entry.  Think I will try that today. 

Well, it is another gorgeous day here in the Northwest.  Wow.  The birds are up singing now at 4:30 or maybe earlier.  That is when I often hear them.  And it is almost full daylight at that time too.  Today, in spite of the cat jumping on me at a much earlier hour, I luxuriously slept in until almost 7:00.  Ahhhhhhh...that was nice.  What woke me up was pretty nice too.  I woke up the impatient chickens yelling about the fact that all other birds were up and singing for a long time and they had not been let out yet.  It was a lovely sound actually. 

Thinking about the chickens, who are happily out pecking about our yard by the way, makes me laugh.  We now have three girls, having lost one recently to stress...more on that later.  One of them has decided that she is the rooster.  She has been crowing like a rooster every once in a while.  She flaps her wings and gets really big when she does it too.  It makes me giggle.  (I have to admit that the picture above is not of our chickens or our backyard.  But it was a good stand in.)

I have to admit that at this time last year we had our garden all planted, the grass all mowed and we were on top of things.  This year...not so much.  And on top of that, we did not participate in our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year either.  I make is sound like we are deadbeats.  But it really isn't true.  We have been working diligently to help people get a handle on their finances and to help them get a plan to get out of debt.  It has been exciting!  But, it makes me sad to see our garden.  And I miss our CSA people. 

Ok, the CSA was a serious decision though.  Throughout the winter I have studied more and more about the differences in organic and otherwise produced food.  I have also been looking more and more into GMOs (genetically modified organism) and the effects that these have on people.  And really, we have decided that this is not for us.  I realized that even if the farmer doesn't realize it, they can be buying seeds that are genetically modified.  Our sweet CSA family's farm is not organic, the fruit that they get from Eastern WA is not organic and the seeds that they get are from big retailers.  I love their family.  We have bought from them for several years.  I love that they are a small, family-run farm.  I love that they produce within an hour of where we live.  But, I just couldn't get past the other stuff this year.  I plan to write them a letter to let them know.  But I need to do it once we have decided who our next CSA provider is going to be. 

And by the way, our yard is trashed.  I like to think of it as natural.  But one good-sized dog and one giant dog is just too much for our poor backyard.  There is a patch of absolutely no grass right now.  And there is a patch of seriously happy dandelions too.  Can we really eat these?  Because if we can, I know what we will be eating all summer long!  They are HAPPY!  That chicken poop makes them VERY happy!  Tim just says the yard is trashed. 

We are finally finding some down time in the midst of the crazy schedules of financial coaching/teaching, baseball, and work...oh yeah work.  That needs a little more time and attention than it has been getting.  It is going well in spite of it all though. 

In any case, Tim mowed our front lawn and then weed-eated.  We still have some weeding and such that needs to be done, but it looks a lot better than it did yesterday morning!

And I did get out in the wee hours just before night and worked on getting the garden beds in shape.  I know that not disturbing the beds is the best option for gardening.  But I have to admit that there are two dogs who really like to dig in the beds.  And I had to work them to get the soil back where it was supposed to be.  My goal was to have the chickens help...they are great scratchers and movers of dirt!...but they wouldn't cooperate.  They kept running into a different bed and only digging in one corner. Guess all the lovely worms lived in that corner only.  :-) 

Well, I rambled here and there today.  But while I did, I kept sneaking peeks at our lovely, overgrown back yard.  And I listened to the birds out there loving it.  And I pet the dogs once in a while when they came up to see what I was doing.  Over all, I would have to say that this has so far been not just a successful morning, but a very pleasant one.  Hope yours was too. 

Community and my dog

Good morning!  It is Saturday!  I bet you didn't know that birds start singing at 4:30 in the morning these days!  Even with earplugs in, they sneak their little songs into my brain.  They say, "Wake up!  Wake up!  The morning has come and you are missing it!"  I fought it for a while, but...really who can fight that beautiful invitation? 

I have so much to say this morning that I have a feeling it will all come out jumbled.  I was walking to the laundry room and I stopped and looked out the window at my dog.  He was sitting there so regally watching the morning break.  It made me think of all the mornings he sat and watched come and how many of them were with an empty stomach and a lonely heart.  If you haven't read prior posts, he was a rescue.  He was in an outdoor, uncovered kennel for 10 months.  His people moved off the property and asked the farmer down the road to feed him.  I brought him to the vet the other day for some tests.  It really hit home how little he was fed when they had a hard time finding a muscle to put the needle in.  He is such a love bug.  It is hard enough to think of him alone for months on end, but then to realize that he wasn't fed on a regular basis...that is just too much to think about.  I took a picture of him sitting out there.  It isn't the best picture, but it...it shows to me that he is really home.  He doesn't just have food here.  He doesn't just have a couch to sleep on at night (ok, if Belle lets him).  He has a family who loves him.  He has a yard to patrol.  He has toys to play with.  He has a sister to romp with in the wee hours of the morning.  He has a HOME. 

I wanted to let you know that I gave my Mom entry to both my Mom and to my friend who "must be 90".  They were both very touched and so gracious about my writing.  I am so blessed to have older, wiser and loving women in my life. 

Community - Community!  As I have written many times and I think I included in my intro on myself, I started this blog looking for community.  I was lonely.  I felt like I didn't have time for community.  I felt like I didn't have anything to give in exchange for building community.  I HAVE COMMUNITY!!  My husband and I stepped up and started teaching Financial Peace University at our church.  I have been amazed at the number of people who God has brought into our lives through that!  We are enjoying the camaraderie and we are enjoying the chance to teach together as a couple.  We are enjoying seeing people's lives change because of what we are doing.  It is neat too to be so connected with people on a larger scale.  And I am finding that the more we commit to that and to making the changes in our own life that we need to make finances a priority, other parts of our lives are affected.  My work life is empowered.  My ability to reach out to people in need is empowered.  My self-confidence has seen a huge shift too!  Gotta love that! 

We made 5-gallon buckets into worm bins with the cubscouts!  That was fun!  It was my idea too.  I have so many worms right now that it is crazy!  I have three worm bins and I already gave one away.  It is a lot to take care of and make sure that they are fed on a regular basis with us being as busy as we are.  So I thought about how to share that with our scouts.  It was so fun to talk about recycling food and how important it is.  We also talked about using the "poop" as fertilizer.  The boys got a good giggle out of that.  The parents were a bit squeamish at first, but then they actually started asking questions.  I figure that even if those worms die, it was worth it to be able to share the message.

I have been thinking a lot about bringing a bucket into my work place.  We waste so much food there it is crazy.  Maybe that is where my bucket will go.  I could hide it under my desk.  Tea bags, banana peels, orange peels to some extent, apple cores, etc.  It is a lot smaller than the bigger bins that I have too, so it is easier to harvest the fertilizer.  Hmmm...I wonder if I have talked about worms in this blog?  I will have to check it out and do a more in-depth entry about them.  They are such a cool part of our efforts to recycle as much as possible. 

I just went out to let the chickens out for a romp in the yard.  I feel very contented and happy.  I hope you have a beautiful day.