About that Green Thing...

Being green is what a frog does, or a lawn, or a shamrock, or even beer on St. Patrick's Day, but alas, it has also become the code word for "into saving the planet by reducing use of resources in daily choices". My first thoughts were, Please give me a break, I grew up doing all of this, it was (and is) just common sense! Then I thought it was funny, and now I am just really tired of it all since most "Green" people seem to be a really pale shade of green, say, by buying green cleaning products, shleping them home in a green sack and then using paper towels to clean up spills. (personally, I have used and reused cloth for years on just about anything and I am here to testify that yes, we have stayed healthy!)

You see, I grew up in a one wage earner family where mom made clothing, used a clothes line, and vacations often meant visiting people. Simple stuff. We ate whole foods too, as in, roast chicken. Then you take the left overs and make sandwiches or soup or... My mom was (is) big into lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, olive oil, and so on. Her ingenious way of using up left-overs was to make what she called goulash. It involved some leftover meat(s), noodles, sour cream (or not), tomatoes (or not) and so on. It actually tasted pretty good too. So when it comes to using a laundry line, I am following the examples set before me!

When my dry broke the other day it got me thinking about all the things my mom, my aunts and Grandma Vodvick taught me about living frugally, er excuse me, Green. Laundry was one of them...the sun is a great dryer and whitener. It can take stains out with a little help from a lemon (and now oxyclean), and it helps create fresh smelling clothing with the help of the air around us. It is also green aka free and easy to use (well, unless its winter, and then I have (really) strung lines in the garage and house.). Believe me, with a family of five, 3 of them male, we really used that 5 line pull out a lot! So when I see articles on how to save money in these tough economic times, or how to be more Green, I roll my eyes and shrug. What is old is new again, I guess. It is good that a whole new group of folks are being introduced to an old way of taking care of things in a low impact way on both our enviroment and ourselves. I just wish they would not feel the need to make it so pc, so code worded, so silly.

God gave us much on this earth to use wisely for our lives, for others, for ourselves. To be a good steward is to try to do that when we can, but to also realize He gave someone the idea for a dryer so that is a great thing too! When buying one we can look for the best use of materials and the least use of energy. Perhaps buying a clothes line at the same time for those times the wonderful invention fails isn't a bad idea either, actually, a really frugal idea! Just keep it away from the creative ones in the family! I should know....

From the Garden, a wee bit of Heaven....

Graham Thomas, a glowing yellow scented rose

So, the merry Month of May is also Mary's month for those who still follow tradition...crowning statues of Mary with rings of roses and other flowers, the extra heaped about her feet. A beautiful bower to be sure!

It is also the time when weddings start gearing up with the glory of the weather and garden and bird song, and May Day-something we celebrated growing up in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Due to the huge population from Scandinavian countries, we inherited their wonderful customs and foods (Danish Pastry is The Best!). We would learn dances and preform, the climax being the dance around a May Pole with its multicolored ribbons-beautiful. Then we feasted on all the goodies brought by families, oh it was glorious!

To celebrate this wonderful month, here is a bouquet of roses, picked in the morning before the rain had a chance to make the blooms soggy...

Sitting on the wagon seat...

A little bit of Heaven, right in my yard...

A parting view, over the wagon seat...pay no attention to the weeds, they belong to my neighbor! :)

(NOTE: Sorry about the CopyRights, but it had to be done. I do sell the photos, so if interested, contact me @ helenrr @ sbcglobal.net (must remove spaces). Thanks!

Golly, a month goes by fast!

It seems so silly, to promise to blog, and then...not blog. Ha. I have a life, really, and it seems to take all those really good ideas and trash them. Sigh. Oh well.

So, I am, with God's grace (the only way really) going to try to blog more...not just about kids, or flower pictures, but other things...like the state of the world and how I feel about it. Or recipes. Or food, and my thoughts on eating. :) Or chocolate and wine (which go together very nicely thank you!)

So let May begin! Mary's month....

Looking back...reviewing our homeschooling days...

Looking back at the past 16 years, well longer really, 22 years, I marvel at how much my children did on their own, that was not part of a curriculum, class or other scripted educational exercise. We started homeschooling when my daughter was 5 (and a half) since she was already well past the area kindergartens, and the private schools were well past our means. Even with her younger brother in tow, we managed to blow through the kindergarten math, reading, phonics et cetera and play, enjoying the world and seasons. Eventually, I managed the knack of "after the fact" recording, where I would figure out where everything fit in the assignment forms after the children did something, built something or we went somewhere, or....Looking back at those assignment sheets, they are crammed-yes, there is math, English, science, etc-but the projects, the art, the life experiences! WOW

(Least you think my children are out begging on street corners - my daughter graduated with a BA in psychology from SFSU, and is looking to work on her graduate degree, among other things. My middle son has graduated from high school and is living on his own and working on a cattle ranch as a cowboy and doing general all around work including welding. My youngest entered the only local high school (that we'd consider ) and made it into GATE classes. Not bad for having fun homeschooling!? eh?) (Alas, none of them are social misfits, and have friends and an awareness of the world that puts "PAID" to the whole socialization myth.)

My 3 managed to cram a lot into every day and week. They still do, too. My middle son is the child who basically taught himself through unschooling, while the other two were close behind...as a matter of fact, none of them are afraid to go and figure out how to do what they want to do and to find the funding or materials for it. Which is good because my bank account is not a bottomless pit of money, it is just a pit ....without much in it :) Of course, my yard and house were pretty much a hopeless mess, but lets not dwell on that, shall we?

So for this post I thought I would pull out some recent examples of their creativity...and what was learned through each experience.

First the middle child...
Who decided to grow corn. What was impressivee was that he did all his own research, found his field, bought or got materials donated, and even made this handy plow (left) out of found materials. He eventually had a crop, that is until the deer came and ate it-even replanted three times. Sadly, we never saw the corn harvested and he never found out if he would have had the finances come out the way he figured. Possibly, had he invested in deer fencing he would have come out in the red, at least last year. Then this year he would have perhaps made a bit. Life changes though, and he is now too far away to maintain the field.

Some may think that this project was a failure, after all, he never harvested a crop. However, he learned a lot, and applied a lot of collected knowledge to make the corn field work, at least until the deer won. He learned perseverance, that there is more than one way to water corn (or that there is more than one way to approach a project), he learned to utilize found lumber and other things to build a fence and make a plow, he even used knowledge from an agriculture class to prepare the field and find seed and drip tape. No crop of corn was harvested, but a crop of learning, of experience and lessons in life was harvested, and that is what his life, our life, has always been about. It will carry into the future with him and help him be a can do type of person, something that is getting very rare indeed.

As for my other son, here is an example of what happens when you give a child room to imagine, to just play with out directions. Well, and a huge collection of Lego's ;) He loves Star Wars, but also adventure and fantasy. So one day they all morphed into a Indian Jones meets Star Wars sort of stage setting.

Here you can see what I mean, the rough and ready are taking on the droids. I believe the light and dark blue is water while the figure in the middle is a 'statue'. Oh, and here is a knight just in to help-see him there on the far left, emerging from the watery depths?

What I find fun is that he uses Lego's in ways my brother and I never thought of, such as the knight coming up from the deep.




The next photo shows Indiana Jones taking out a droid...ouch.

Again, someone may say, so? all kids play with Lego's. True, yet many don't go past the usual play and kits. Some, like my son spend hours planning, building sets or models, photographing them and publishing to Lego sites. They chat with other Lego hobbyist about anything Lego, and beyond. My son is much more aware of events taking place in the world today than many adults I know of, which makes him much more astute, especially of the political and economic climate. In discussing these current events with him, I have found him to be much more questioning of decisions made by the current crop of politicians, which is a good thing to learn early on. I want to stress I don't force these conversations, but do remind myself to stop and listen when he wants to talk. We have a lot of lively conversations, that is for certain!

So there is just a very small piece of our journey. Next post (which will be soon, I hope!) I will share some of our favorite ways to learn through homeschooling and unschooing....hopefully they will help someone else find joy in their children and the journey of learning in life.

more photos, just because...

I can never seem to create a wonderful and clever post-they are there, just not on the page!
So I resort to photos...

Lemons, just after a rainstorm

A young flicker, sunning himself - taken through a glass door.

More to come....

Randomness explained

A random list of photos, I know, but I am cleaning out my 'blog' file. These were meant to be posted a long, long time ago. Sigh, I have good intentions, but I just don't seem to put them at the top of my 'to do' list!

'Peace' in the garden, a gorgeous rose, originally named Rose d'Ore in France.

One of my favorite photos of Mike and Lefty at the Western Bonanza Livestock Show in February...Lefty was enjoying the people/cattle watching.

"The Wife of Bath" a lovely Austin rose, in full fig.

"Love-in-the-Mist" in a gorgeous blue, such a fun flower, with funny seed pods...a favorite as it will replant its self and come up over and over again.

"Peace" in Bud.

So there you have it, my collection of random photos...for now!

Just a Little Bit Behind....

Updated pictures of the garden

Looking towards the back fence and the garden shed

Looking towards the front, note morning glories I didn't plant!

Looking at the zinnias :) and Potatoes (a failure, just a pound for all the foliage) and the compost

A beautiful green tomato with 'glitter'-so pretty in the sun

Well, as you can see, I have not posted in a good long while...so many more important things to do and so, this blog has languished... However my garden did not languish. It grew and grew, especially the Italian squash, which went every where! Next year, I think I will plant one. Also, all the squash will go in pots! They need room to roam and I can put the beds to better use...
The tomatoes did well, even though they weren't ready until October. I just used the last of them up-after covering the plants against freezes and rain, I let them go and last weeks freezing did them in! Garden Clean up, here I come.

(More catch-up posts to come)