Garden Update and Compost Stuff

Today, I planted my tomato seedlings in the ground! They're actually pretty far beyond "seedling" stage and I think they were getting as desperate to get into the ground as I was to put them there. We've had a lot of wind and rain lately, so I wanted to make sure they weren't going to topple over. Plus, we went out of town for three days, so I needed to wait until we got back to make the big move. Well, here they are! Hooray! They look pretty happy, I think.

Last year, I learned a lot about tomatoes. Much to my surprise, I learned that tomatoes are not native to climates like we have on the Gulf Coast. They like warm, dry areas and they need cool nights. So, in order to get a good crop of tomatoes down here on coastal Alabama, they need to be planted pretty early in the Spring. They are not, in fact, a middle of July type of veggie for this area. I did not know this. But last year I sent a tomato seedling I had grown with my sister down to her home in South Florida. Her tomato plant did much better than mine. Why? Because, even though South Florida is hot and humid, they have cool nights in the summertime. We do not. When it's 95 degrees here, it's still 95 degrees at 10:00 at night. Also, last summer was particularly hot for us and we got basically no rain. So....this year should be different for my maters. I started early, so the temperatures are not too hot, and they're looking awesome so far.
I've done a lot of things differently this year. I've enriched my soil with some great compost from friends, and have some fish emulsion (which is as gross as it sounds) to fertilize everything with. I ordered my seeds from a different place this year, just to try something new. They're from Seed Savers Exchange. I'll probably get my seeds from them again next time, I've had such a positive experience. I really like that they give you a bit of history about each variety of seed. I have a variety of beans that were developed right here in Mobile! That's neat, I think. I also used a new seedling tray (called Speedling Tray) that has been fantastic. Each pod is pyramidal rather than squared off, so the roots grow in a downward direction. This keeps the seedlings from becoming root bound (with their roots all swirled around themselves) and also encourages that downward growth when you plant them in the ground. The seedlings I've pulled out of the tray so far have had beautiful, healthy roots nearly 6 inches long, all in a lovely straight ribbon. No tangles or swirliness! The tray looks like this:

Those are seedlings of Jalapeños, sweet red peppers, and basil. The peppers and eggplant ready for bigger pots, but it's still a bit early for them to go in the ground. They like pretty hot weather. So, the garden stuff is going really well this year and I feel really excited and encouraged. I was worried I wouldn't have the time or energy to devote to the garden with Lucy in the picture now, but actually the opposite is true. I find myself more motivated to do it because I only have little slivers of time when I can, which are during her naps. Her naps are only about and hour each (maybe two, if we've had a big day), so I have to sort of be ready to go outside when she goes down for nap, then run out and tend to my plants with the monitor on my hip. I seem to get more done when I know that my window of opportunity is small.
Anywho, on to compost. We started our compost bin and I was really frustrated and discouraged at first because it was so yucky. Every time I went out to dump our kitchen scraps in the bin, I was totally bombarded by fruit flies. Then, we had a terrible time with fire ants invading the bin and had to resort (more than once) to dumping boiling water on the compost pile to kill the ants. Thank goodness for being able to find what to do on the internet, right? The fruit fly problem was an easy fix. I realized I wasn't covering up the kitchen scraps with "browns," like I should have been, so I started adding dead leaves and pine straw each time I added kitchen scraps. This didn't eliminate the flies, but kept them from being in my face when I went out there. And we took care of the ants by finding a new home for the bin, on the ground instead of raised a few inches, and by dumping boiling water on them. So now, we finally have a nice, not-as-gross compost pile. We don't quite have usable compost yet, but the pile continues to shrink, so that's a good sign. Here's our bin, which we made by drilling holes in a $20 heavy-duty trash can with a tight-fitting lid:

We collect our kitchen scraps in a little plastic bin that we keep under the sink. If we don't take it outside often enough, it does get moldy, so how often you need to take it to the bin depends on your tolerance of mold growing under your sink. My tolerance is surprisingly high, if you wanted to know. I can't go to the bin with Lucy because of all the bugs and the fact that I need both hands. I do not like walking to the compost pile in the rain. I'd rather let the mold sit another day. And that's that. Here's our kitchen bin:

So much stuff can go in the compost. We mostly put kitchen scraps (leftover pieces of chopped veggies, egg shells, coffee grounds, old bread, etc.) but occasionally we'll add paper towels and such. And between composting and recycling, we have virtually no trash. I think it would probably take a month or longer to fill up our 13-gallon trash can. It's so great! And very rewarding. Hopefully, I will very soon have news of my first little tomatoes sprouting!

Hoopla about that video...

There has been SO much talk about this KONY 2012 thingamajig, and I feel (surprisingly) compelled to participate in the conversation. I've enjoyed reading articles and watching videos of all the back-and-forth, and the (sometimes nasty) criticism of the video and the Invisible Children organization and it's all caused me to revisit ideas of my own that have been sort of dormant for a while. I guess it's not very often that I chat about the plight of African children.

I watched the video in its entirety. I shared it on my Facebook page. Then I went to the kitchen to start dinner.

I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to say that I went right back to what I was doing after watching the video, I did not shed a tear, nor did I think, even for a second, about getting one of those kits. I've seen such videos before and I agree with people who criticize them as emotionally manipulative and essentially meaningless. But, I had never heard of Joseph Kony until I watched the video, and the day after watching the video I felt compelled to read more about the situation in Africa. The video at least did that, and that counts for something I think.

Waaay back when I was a student at Auburn and still admittedly a little angry at the world, I remember all the Invisible Children hoopla on campus and I remember feeling very irritated about it. I also remember feeling very irritated about GAP's very loud RED campaign against AIDS in Africa. Remember all that? Whatever happened with those shirts? I was irritated that it had become so hip and trendy to talk about saving children in Africa. I was irritated that I was made to feel guilty for wanting a new pair of $60 jeans when some people had no clean water. And meanwhile, what about the people in our own city or country who need our help? What about American children who have no place safe to go and don't have any food to eat? Who's wearing T-Shirts for them? I remember feeling that part of the reason that people are so eager to jump on the Africa bandwagon is because there is a certain sense of glamour to it, ya know? It makes something like spending every Tuesday at a soup kitchen seem terribly mundane. Also, it's abstract. Most people who buy the shirt or wear the bracelet, or even send money, don't actually get their hands dirty in really making a tangible difference. And that's okay! Money is certainly useful. But, people get their emotional high, which often fizzles out quickly, and then what? Has any difference really been made?

I agree with most of the intelligent, matter-of-fact criticism of the video. Some critics, though, are making equally sensational and sometimes downright mean statements about the video, the guys who made it, and the whole Invisible Children organization. To those crazies, I'd like to say, "You're obnoxious assholes. Cut the guys some slack. They're trying to do something good here." But I think the more interesting discussion lies in these issue of "awareness" as an end in itself and the "white man's burden" or "savior complex." Raising awareness is something we love to do. It makes us feel good. It gives us a reason to have fun events and parties. And we think it's important. But is it, really? I'm not sure that it is. This article from The Atlantic sums it up nicely, I think:

"The problem is that these campaigns mobilize generalized concern -- a demand to do something. That isn't enough to counterbalance the costs of interventions, because Americans' heartlessness or apathy was never the biggest problem. Taking tough action against groups, like the LRA, that are willing to commit mass atrocities will inevitably turn messy. Soldiers will be killed, sometimes horribly. (Think Somalia.) Military advice and training to the local forces attempting to suppress atrocities can have terrible unforeseen consequences...
The t-shirts, posters, and wristbands of awareness campaigns like Invisible Children's do not mention that death and failure often lie along the road to permanent solutions, nor that the simplest "solutions" are often the worst. (In fairness, you try fitting that on a bracelet.) Instead, they shift the goal from complicated and messy efforts at political resolution to something more palatable and less controversial: ever more awareness.
By making it an end in and of itself, awareness stands in for, and maybe even displaces, specific solutions to these very complicated problems. Campaigns that focus on bracelets and social media absorb resources that could go toward more effective advocacy, and take up rhetorical space that could be used to develop more effective advocacy...
For all the excitement around awareness as an end in itself, one could be forgiven for forming the impression that there might be a "Stop Atrocity" button blanketed in dust in the basement of the White House, awaiting the moment when the tide of awareness reaches the Oval Office...
Treating awareness as a goal in and of itself risks compassion fatigue -- most people only have so much time and energy to devote to far-away causes -- and ultimately squanders political momentum that could be used to push for effective solutions. Actually stopping atrocities would require sustained effort, as well as significant dedication of time and resources that the U.S. is, at the moment, ill-prepared and unwilling to allocate. It would also require a decision on whether we are willing to risk American lives in places where we have no obvious political or economic interests, and just how much money it is appropriate to spend on humanitarian crises overseas when 3 out of 10 children in our nation's capital live at or below the poverty line. The genuine difficulty of those questions can't be eased by sharing a YouTube video or putting up posters..."

I'm not entirely sure that we should be willing to risk American lives (not to mention go even further into debt) to fix another country's problems. Conflict in Africa is obviously a complicated issue. But, I think it's really important to note that whether or not the U.S. government should get involved is also a complicated issue. Are we the world's moral police? Should we spend our money and risk our soldier's lives to end a war that isn't ours? Isn't that part of the reason so many of us are wondering why we're still in Iraq? It's complicated, messy stuff. And that's really all I have to say about that.

Also, on a lighter note, Awareness is #18 on the list of Stuff White People like. It is, of course, dead on. http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/23/18-awareness/

And you can find the entire article from The Atlantic here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/solving-war-crimes-with-wristbands-the-arrogance-of-kony-2012/254193/

Brain Dump

Just some things on my mind lately...


I don't believe that people are or should be defined by their work.
It doesn't make sense that people should do the same thing, day in and day out with merely a week or two each year to do something different and not be expected to totally lose their passion and sense of well-being.
I want to educate (yes, homeschool) my own children.
I want to grow my own food.
I want to require less money.
I want Doug to have more free time.
I don't want to have to get in the car to see my friends.
I don't want to live for the weekend. And I don't want Doug to live for the weekend, either.
I want to travel with my children.
I want to create a lifestyle of constant learning for our family. New experiences and new knowledge all the time.
I don't want a meaningless job to dictate whether or not we can see our family at Christmas.
I want to know that if all hell breaks loose and the shit hits the fan, our family will make it through, because we know how to survive without supermarkets and gasoline.
I want to feel like I am in control of my own life and that I can take care of my own family.
I don't want to find myself looking at my grown children and wishing I had taken the risks, made the sacrifices, to have the life we wanted.

Is it too much to ask? Can we do it? Will we do it?

Real things

Today I started making a photo album for Lucy. It's really for us, too. We'll all enjoy looking through them together one day. I know that nowadays people don't really make photo albums anymore. Everything is stored digitally on computers and phones. And so many photos get lost or forgotten about, never looked at. Lots of photos of mine from college that existed digitally have vanished to who knows where since I've bought new computers and moved files around, etc. Of course, physical prints get lost, too. You put them away in boxes, then you move to a new house, and another new house, and god only knows where they are now. But, keeping physical prints is important to me, not because files get lost and forgotten in digital space, but because there's something meaningful about holding and looking at a physical photograph. It's just not the same when you look at it on a screen. Flipping through old photos is a physical and social act that can't be replicated by crowding around a computer, just like playing Words with Friends on your phone is not the same as playing Scrabble around the coffee table. When Lucy grows up, she'll probably be one of very few people her age with an actual photo album. It even has magnetic pages, just like mine from the 1980s. We can slide in a 4x6 or a 4x5 or an mini polaroid or an iPhone print-out all in the same book. I think she'll enjoy looking at it one day. I will, anyway.

The Year of Waste Reduction

This year, I'm trying to be more conscious of all the crap that I throw away. There's not really an "away" for things to be thrown, actually, so I need to do my part to reuse or recycle as much as possible. Doug and I have been good about recycling for a long time. Recycling to me is no big deal. And, when you see your big recycle bins fill up over a month or so, you just can't ignore the importance of making sure all that junk doesn't go to a landfill. We also recently started a compost bin for all of our kitchen scraps and such. Coffee grounds, banana peels, the yucky butt part of the onion, even paper towels (unless they're covered in cleaner) get thrown into the compost bin to be turned magically into good food for our garden. Even if you don't have a garden, composting is still an important part of the reduce, reuse, recycle and save-the-earth thing. We also have one more new addition to our waste reduction and that is....CLOTH DIAPERS! So, I'm mostly going to talk about cloth diapers here.

What in the world made you decide to do that, you ask? Well, my older sister (from whom I get the wonderful life advantage of watching and learning before doing) decided to do cloth diapers waaaay back five years ago when her first baby came along. Nobody but hippy fruitcakes in California even thought about using cloth diapers then, but my sister was always more environmentally conscious than the rest of us and she decided to give it a go. I got to help, and was able to see firsthand that it really wasn't so bad. Worth the savings in both money and yucky yucky landfill waste. Now cloth diapers are all the rage (meaning I don't get quite as many raised eyebrows as she did) and I get to use her very same cloth diapers for my newly-arrived munchkin. Talk about reusing and recycling, right? Plus, they were free and that's awesome.

So, what's it really like? I'll be honest and say it's pretty gross. I mean, cloth diapering is not for whimps. And I'm still a big whimp some days. But any amount of cloth diapers used instead of disposables makes a difference. So...one day at a time. I've found that creating a convenient, organized system is what has made it easier for me. There's just no comparing to the convenience of disposables, so you have to make a system that works for you, and this can take some trial and error. After a few tries I think I finally have my system down, and I'll describe it for you shortly. Cloth diapering is hard work. It's messy, smelly, and kind of a pain in the ass. BUT! It is so worth it for three reasons:

1. Money: You will save thousands of dollars over the course of your baby's diaper days by using cloth....even more dollars if you also use cloth wipes.

2. Earth: The amount of waste created by disposable diapers each year is astonishing. It's gross and irresponsible. Plus, new studies show that the chemicals and gels used in disposable diapers contribute greatly to the amount of cancer-causing yuckiness seeping out of landfills and into our soil. Not to mention all the energy, oil, and chemicals used to produce and distribute all those diapers across the country.

3. Baby: Cloth diapers are less likely to cause diaper rash, cause fewer blowouts (I didn't believe this at first, but it's true!), and often help toddlers potty train more easily (because they feel the wetness, I suppose).

Okay, so here's how I do it. First, a photo of my diaper-changing station:

The basket on the top shelf holds all my diaper covers, which are the cute, waterproof outer layer of the cloth diaper. The two brown canvas bins in the tower on the right hold all the diaper liners, which are the cloth part that catches all the poop. The trash can on the left is where all the dirty cloth diapers get tossed. The green bag liner is a wet/dry bag made to repel odors and funk and it can be machine washed with the diapers. I use the cloth insert/waterproof cover combination and the fancy gDiapers. I'll show them both here, but there are all kinds of other cloth diapers out there, including all-in-ones that are pretty close to disposables in terms of convenience. They are, of course, more expensive.

Okay, so I have my old-fashioned 100% cotton cloth diaper and my waterproof cover.

I fold the cloth part in half and insert it into the liner like this (my folding technique will probably change a couple times as Lucy grows):

Then, I fasten it on her! It looks like this:

And, on her, it looks like this (not the same diaper, but similar):

When she needs to be changed, I get a clean diaper ready to go before taking the dirty one off (learned this the hard way). If it's wet, the diaper goes into the pail and the cover goes back into the basket to be reused later. If it's dirty, I clean her up and put the fresh diaper on (setting the dirty one aside), then put her in her crib and turn her mobile on while I go to the diaper sprayer. Usually, with a dirty diaper, I rinse both the diaper and the cover and toss both into the pail. Sometimes, if it's just a tiny poop, I will reuse the cover. The diaper sprayer hooks into the water supply with your toilet, and works like a super high-powered kitchen sink sprayer.

So, I spray the poop off, wring out the diaper (the worst part of the whole process), and then toss it into the pail.

That's it! All done. Except the very last step: WASH HANDS! Please note that cloth diapering involves serious hand-washing. Have fancy hand salve handy (no pun intended!) for dryness that will occur from excessive washing.

gDiapers work similarly, but they have biodegradable, flushable inserts! You can also use cloth inserts with gDiapers, AND you can throw away the flushable ones, which is nice if you're out and about. They don't have as much yucky stuff as regular disposables. Also, gDiapers are cuter and less bulky than the regular cloth diapers...and, of course, more expensive.

First, make sure to have your clean diaper ready to go before taking off the dirty one! You have the cute cloth outer layer with the snap in liner (if one liner gets dirty, you can snap in a clean one and use the same outer cover), and the disposable/flushable insert that looks like a giant maxi pad.

Place (more like shove) the insert into the white snap-in liner, and hoorah! Cute diaper!

The gDiaper is super cute on!

The frustrating thing for me about gDiapers is that you have to take the insert to the toilet every time, not just for poopy ones. But there's no spraying or laundering and everything goes bye-bye down the toilet. First, you tear off the side of the insert (I usually tear both sides) so that the fluffy inside part comes out into the toilet. Then, you use your special swish stick (it hangs on the side of the toilet) to break up all the fluffy part so it will flush down easily. As you flush, drop the outer layer (still in your hand from when you tore the sides) into the toilet and watch it disappear! No more poop. No washing. Gone down the hole, where poop belongs.

And that's my diapering story. I got off to a rocky start and thought I wasn't cut out for it at first, since newborns poop 5-6 times a day and their poop is pretty runny. Ew. But, now that Lucy is bigger and poops less often, it has gotten much easier. I think it will get even easier as she grows and starts having even fewer, more solid poops, which can just be shaken off into the toilet. And, I really do feel a twinge of guilt each time I use a disposable. I've been using them whenever I go out, but I recently bought a small, zippered wet/dry bag for use on the road. Not giving in to the convenience of disposables while I'm out is the next step for me. And, I'm sure that any time I actually travel (overnight, for instance) I will use disposables. I do have to do a lot of laundry, which uses energy and water, but the green bag that lines my pail keeps me from having to do it every single day, and when it gets warmer out, I'm going to try and line dry the diapers once they've been washed. The dryer uses a lot of energy. But, even with the extra water and energy use, cloth diapers are still incontrovertibly the most responsible choice. They're yucky, but important. Next, I'll talk about recycling and composting (in a much shorter post)!

Oh Yeah, mah blog.

I haven't posted anything in over six months. Unacceptable in the world of blogging, I'm pretty sure. But, I had a baby and then before I knew it Christmas was here and now it's a new year. Golly. No time for blogging til now. Lucy arrived on October 12th, three weeks early, and I couldn't have asked for an easier delivery. Of course, I experienced the worst pain of my life, but it didn't last too terribly long and I only had to push for 10-15 minutes and then she was here! Even though I ended up needing an epidural, I'm super grateful that I didn't have to have a c-section. Surgery sucks.

Baby story out of the way, there have been lots of new ideas and plans stirring around in my brain the last six months, so I figure I'll lay them all out for myself in the form of New Year's Resolutions. I don't really do those usually, but whatever. Here goes:

1. Take more pictures.
I've rediscovered my love for photo-taking in the past year or so, since I've been shooting more without my lovely hovering husband. Sorry, Doug. I love you, but I become paralyzed behind the camera when you're around, mostly because of my own natural tendency to second guess myself. Now that my confidence is coming back, I need to get out with the camera more.

2. Create a cohesive body of work outside weddings and such.
Ideas for this have been wiggling around in my brain for about a year and a half. I'm getting really close to nailing down specifics for my project. It might seem ridiculous to spend so much time planning and thinking, but it's how I work. I like to know exactly what I'm aiming for, or I'll lose my steam. Of course, I need to be shooting all the time, but I like to have a clear and specific project going, also.

3. Eat better.
Finding fresh, seasonal, local food here is kind of a chore. It can be done, though, and I need to be better about it. In a few months, Lucy will start eating real food (!!) and I want to make sure it's the safest, yummiest, freshest food I can find for her. Also, I need to eat more veggies. So does everyone, I imagine. Maybe one day we'll live in a city where access to such food is easier.

4. Start a mom blog with my sister.
Blogs can make monies, and we want to capitalize on this. My big sis has two little people of her own, and we're thinking of starting a mommy blog for the middle-of-the-road granola types. Mindful living and parenting ideas from moms who don't raise chickens or ban Chik-fil-a. Moderation, people. Also, Sarah's planning on unschooling, and (unofficially), so am I. So the blog will talk about life without school and all that jazz, too. If you decide to look up what unschooling is, don't be alarmed by all the crazies. Call me and we'll talk about it.

5. Travel some place new.
This year, we'll have friends in California and Boston and would like to take full of advantage of their presence there. I'm not ashamed to say, "hey, let's visit, because we've never been there and we can have a place to stay and friends to show us around." This is the way to see new places, my friend. Am I right?

6. Plan less. Risk more.
I'm a planner, and I have a tendency to get stuck in future mode. I need to learn to be more conscious of my thinking habits and enjoy my youth more. Doug and I are so young, and we need to be enjoying ourselves more. Easier said than done, but important to note. And moderate risk taking is good for mental health.

7. Figure out how in the hell to live by my sister.
I want to live by my sister and her family. Like, next door neighbors close. I want to be part of her kids' lives, and I want our children to grow up together. Annie will be five in March, and sometimes I panic that we'll wake up and our kids will have grown up already, without each other. I don't want that to happen. This will require some two-footed jumping in at some point, I'm sure.


8. Other stuff.
There are lots of other things on the agenda for this year. Exercise more, meet other stay-at-home moms, build a new and improved website for Studio A, make my own baby food, remodel my kitchen, build something wooden. And we have some big life events this year, too. My best and oldest friend in the world is getting married. Doug's sister is getting married. Lucy will have her first birthday. Time moves faster and faster. All the more reason to chill out and not worry so much about the future. And to make sure you're not doing things that make you miserable just for the sake of having stuff and being prepared for imaginary What If?s. Be conscious of your thinking habits.

There it is. A little summary of the past six months' brain activity. Here's to self-motivation! Cheers, everybody.

Skin Care Things

I think I did a post a while back about cleaning my face with castor and olive oils. It's supposed to clear up your skin and make it look healthy and moisturized. I tried it for a little while (two different times) and gave up. It did reducetheredness in my face and make my skin glowy, but it didn't clear my skin and it's kind of a pain to do (washcloths and oil droplets everywhere). I never had skin problems until I went off the pill (which I'd been taking since 8th grade, gloriously skipping over teenage acne years). And now that I'm pregnant, there are only certain things I can use on my face. Pretty much all the stuff that actually works isn't safe to use. And....I've been pretty determined to find a natural way of making it better. For one thing, I quit using BareMinerals makeup after a friend told me she knew of several people who'd said it made their skin freak out (something I may not have noticed while still on the pill). I also started using pure tea tree oil, a natural antimicrobial, on my blemishes. The tea tree oil worked great, but it smells weird and some people say it's not safe during pregnancy, so I quit using it. I will be using it again for sure, once baby is here. Those two things cleared up my skin quite a bit, but without the tea tree oil, I still have trouble keeping the zits away. Another friend told me recently that the SPF ingredient in makeups and moisturizers can cause breakouts. So, I've changed both my makeup and moisturizer to see what happens. Meanwhile, I've been on the lookout for just the right face wash....something gentle and effective that's safe during pregnancy. Harder to find that you might think. Here's what I've been using that I've been really happy with so far:

Pure Olive Oil soap! I found it at Publix and was very excited. It's made in Greece and smells wonderful. All the effects of the oil cleansing without the yucky mess!

Fancy moisturizer. Smells fantastic (if you like Lavender) and feels SO soothing on my skin. No SPF or other weird stuff, and I put it all over my face, neck and chest, it feels so good. It's kind of expensive, though ($12.95 at Publix).

Makeup stuff. This stuff is called Halo Yellow Color Correcting Powder (made by Smashbox) and is $40 at Sephora. It's lightweight and magically reduces all the redness in my face. I just wear it over the fancy moisturizer, unless I'm going somewhere nice and need more makeup. It really is magical. And it's so lightweight, I can look presentable without having to wear icky liquid makeup (which I really hate). Just moisturizer, concealer under my zombie eyes, mascara, and magic yellow powder. Ready to go. This is my new favorite thing.

So, that's it...the new skin care regimen. Simple, natural (mostly), and effective. Fingers crossed that it keeps working.

In other news, we're having a baby girl! I'm super excited and have already started decorating her room. Before and after baby room photos will be posted in the coming weeks. Hooray! Here she is. Her name is Lucy. She says hi. =)