Hunkering Down? Getting Depressed?

My good buddy, Birdsong clued me into the blog Peak Oil Blues and it's message of staying positive in these times of fear and foreboding.

I've put a link in the sidebar to the article that she's addressing in several blog posts to date (and a couple of upcoming ones) and have been considering how I might extend what she and the article's original author, Kathy McMahon, recommend. Staying positive is a challenge when all around you are wringing their hands and spouting doom and gloom!

I'm already working on reducing expenses and cutting waste, and of course, there's the garden (oh, please let me enjoy some of it, you lovely deer, you!).

That 3-Tier System of "necessities, conveniences, and other" for relegating the things I buy? That seems to be the most pro-active thing I can do for the rest of this month. The article suggests a week. I'm going about it for the next 16 days. I'm writing it all down. I'll have a little notebook in my purse. And I'm making no personal purchases online between now and then.

(Oh my, did I just say that?) I did say personal - not business.

I promise to only buy the necessities, and after a week, see if the "conveniences" have somehow justifiably become necessities or have fallen off the list, altogether.

I know, the last time I tracked things, using the guidelines of Your Money Or Your Life, I was appalled to learn how much money I was spending on magazines.

It made a huge impact to see it in black and white. I stopped. Cold Turkey - Now if I want a magazine? I stop by Barnes & Noble, and look at it. These days the only magazines I buy there are an occasional knitting magazine for the patterns inside, and I don't do many of those.

I currently subscribe to three magazines: Interweave Knits, Traditional Home, and AARP The Magazine (ok, that's free with my AARP membership). And may I explain about the Traditional Home? I subscribed 8 years ago. I accidentally paid for 4 years. I haven't stopped receiving it yet. I never renew, tho' every so often I get their renewals in the mail...what IS up with that, after all?

Those three? It's way down from about 8-10 at my zenith! (And most of what I got back then in the "bad old days?" I still have...when I want a magazine? I read one of them!)

So it's effective to see what you think is necessary, what you have as a "gazingus pin" to quote YMOYL. (That's a knee-jerk item that you buy because you "have to have it" - everyone has these things, and often there's really no rhyme or reason behind why you have to have them!)

It's time to think about my purchases again. Finding steps you can take to feel in control is the best medicine to fight the stress of the times!

Squash Blossoms!

Fingers crossed...
But I haven't seen a bee in ages...I don't know if they'll be pollenated or not.

Garden Update (A Day Late!)

The Big Boys have flowers on them!!!
Amazing...they've only been potted a short while and were kinda sad looking when I got them, nowhere near looking like the healthy specimens you see below:


And the squash have what I believe are the beginnings of buds on them...Hmmm...do you have to have HONEYbees to pollenate - or will ANY bee do? I saw a black bee (not a bumblebee-type, more a wasp-type today...

I was at my sis-in-law's this morning and oh my...! Her squash plants are LOADED with blossoms! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her plants survive (no signs of beetles yet...)

Garden Update

Summer's just a couple of hours old and I've got results in my garden to share...
Summer Squash. With no blossoms yet...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
And see the tiny jalapenos? They're so cute!

There are tomatoes (all green) and I've had some parsley and basil that I've added to salads. But it's the time when everything is perking along but not so's you'd really notice (save the jalapenos! They're so cute!!!)

(I know, I said that already - but they ARE!)
*wink*

How My Garden Grows...

Since this most recent scare about tomatoes and salmonella, I've been feeling pretty pleased that I'd planted 3 different plants back on Mother's Day. Then I went into two of our grocery stores. Not a tomato to be found that wasn't on the vine or a grape or cherry tomato. Now frankly those are the ones I like, but things were definitely looking a little spooky in the stores...
And so I decided to run by Lowes and see if they had more plants - they did. They're not nearly as far along as the ones I've had settled in since the second weekend in May...
They've got several good-sized fruit on each of the patio tomatoes and the yellow pears are just beginning to fruit...

I decided that 2 more Big Boy tomatoes were not a bad way to spend some of my food dollars right now.

Lettuces aren't doing much - the weather got too hot too fast, so they're struggling. I couldn't find "Summer Lettuces" in seed packs, so I think I'll have to forgo that this year.

So the next thought is this: I may need to can some of these tomatoes (Okay, I should be so lucky to have an abundance of produce from potted tomatoes!). Still, I think I'm going to join in on Freecycle again and hope for a good canner and jars.

I found a lovely receipe for rice and dahl today (I adore good Indian food!), and so my next shopping list is getting longer. While I don't believe in hoarding food, I'm thinking it might be smart to buy a few things when they're on sale that I can store elsewhere than in the pantry.

And I joined a challenge in the simple living group on Ravelry to remove 100 items from my house by the end of the month - lots of gals have had a head-start on me. I'm not the fastest at this, either. I'm NOT including the bags I make for people or the fabrics I have to bring in to make those bags.

But I can certainly stand to move some of this clutter out to a better home.

So...Food and Clutter-busting seem to be my projects in June! It really is time to do something about it all! I also re-evaluated the decision to take the bus right now. If my commute were longer, it would make sense. But at this point, gas has to get a lot more expensive for me to justify the higher cost of the bus tickets - at $3 per day round trip for tickets for a trip that is only 7 miles round trip? You can do the math as well as I can. It's still cheaper to drive.

Now I'm going to try dropping a bit of "pixie dust" over the two new tomato plants - they've got a little catching up to do...!

Garden Along 2008!

Norma started something!

Really, it's for everyone who has ever wanted to grow something of their own food, even if they've never known a thing about it - and while I've had gardens that were relatively large, and container gardens for the past 12 years, I still want to learn from someone I know is way better at this than I am!

So I emailed Norma and asked if I could join. She said yes, I posted the button on my blog and voila!

It's a Garden Along!
Come join us?

June's Plans! Sorry, I'm a Bit Late...

I didn't forget, I promise!

I've been making and following June plans already (good thing, since it's almost 1/3 over!), but I just couldn't find the time to get here and tell you all about it!

If you're in this part of the country, you know we've been hit with a heat wave. It's been 95+ for 6 days, tomorrow will be the 7th and then it's supposed to break. We had a tornado last week (the last one? It was in 1974, the year I graduated from high school! We don't DO tornadoes 'round these parts - HA!). But the one thing this heat has been good for are these:
The tomato to the right of my front door and
to the left. (There's another plant behind this one, but it's a different variety and not fruiting yet)

I am SO EXCITED! Last year? I got all of 3 measly yellow pears from my one plant. I am so hopeful this year will be better...so far? So good!

And here is the squash "pot" with the jalapeno pepper on the top rack (there are EEntsy little peppers on it...but I couldn't get a decent photo).


I've been doing really well with eating more vegetarian meals. I'd been taking my lunch to work for some time, mostly soups or casseroles I made here at home...but dinner? Well, I made myself a promise that whenever I felt like it, and had the time, I'd bake a potato in my toaster oven and make THAT my dinner. (It's terrific! One potato - plus the skin - and it's a perfect, simple meal). I'm doing other things that are easy, too. Sometimes a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup (okay, not in the heat wave). Sometimes a bean burrito, sometimes an omelet with vegies. Hey, some nights? Cheese and crackers with fruit. The thing is? I'm finding that these relatively inexpensive things are just so easy to fix - I'd fallen into the trap of "easy" being a microwave meal. And that's easy, but it's not cheap, nor does it do a lot for the landfill with the packaging that goes into each one...etc.

Now...before the end of the month? This is my newest addition to my plans:

I'm going to try to use the bus to get to and from work as many times as possible. It's going to add about an hour to my total commute each day...but it's all knitting time. There are a couple of days out of each 2-week period when I just have to drive because of commitments, but the rest of the time, I'm taking public transportation.

SIL and I have used the bus a couple of times when it was offered to get to concerts at the Performing Arts Center when they had multiple concerts booked and limited parking. And it was easy. So, spurred on by my friend, Sandra, and because I'm a mass-transit believer (the one thing I miss about DC is the Metro!), I'm parking the Forester as often as I can. I'm hoping that if enough of us in this valley start to do this, that we'll see the new mayor of Roanoke take notice, and perhaps the county officials, too (they don't like to work together all that well, you see), and maybe, just maybe
1. the bus routes will be expanded (they make only small forays into the county),
2. the time-tables will, as well (they stop running at 8:45 p.m.! what do you do if you work 2nd or 3rd shift?),
3. and that just maybe, they'll offer service on Sundays (um, no, in this town apparently the powers that be don't think anyone who HAS to ride the bus really wants to go to church or might have to work or anything special!)

But there's another reason I've giving up driving my car every day: I don't think either one of the men running for President has a clue as to how to "solve" our problems. Perhaps one is being genuine when he says there are no quick fixes, and that will win him points. The other? Please. Tax holidays are pointless, the price will just re-adjust - fast.

We don't have a lot of choices. Life is already tough for many of us, and it's probably going to get tougher. We are in love with our cars (I do understand, believe me, I adore my Forester, and thank goodness she's a 4-cylinder car, the mpg is better than so many others out there). And with my business I need a car that large for transport to shows - which don't happen that often! The rest of the time? Not so much...

But I think WE, the people of this country, are going to have to be the ones to take this problem by the horns and do something ourselves. The leaders can't do much short-term - their job is long-term planning, retro-fitting, reseaching and developing alternatives that don't affect the food supply, and then MOSTLY spending time working on relationships with the other leaders of countries all over the world - this is a crisis we are in together and we have to start facing it TOGETHER.

It's gas. It's food. It's the economy. It's the environment. I can only change me and my behaviors. And I can hope I inspire some of the other people in the world to change their own. One step. One voice. One vote.

(stepping down off the soapbox now)
Oh...I'll be the "youngish old lady" on the bus, knitting socks, with her MP3 player attached! And probably wearing purple! *wink*
(((Hugs)))

Memorial Day Weekend...

Out came the red-white-and-blue front door decor. Out came the white jeans, red t-shirts with navy sequins, white sandals, red toes...up went the hair in a pony-tail...up with the temperatures into the 80s, on came the A/C.

And...the best part of it all? These. FRESH!

Yummy.

That's what summer means to me - fresh fruit & veggies. (I've posted some photos of my kitchen collection over on Knitnana so you can see that my life isn't just about the REAL fruit & veggies...I'm also all about collecting the collectibles! Those are shots of my kitchen, doncha know.)

I've done pretty well with my goals for this month. I could do better, of course. I'll try to come up with a few more for June.

I know what one will be: to continue to remind myself to UNplug unnecessary appliances when they're not needed - anything with a clock inside - the VCR (when not in use), the microwave, keeping the coffee pot, the toaster oven, even the computer - if I unplug them? That keeps the electrical current off (which saves pennies, but that adds up over time, you know?).

I've been doing it pretty well, but I could improve. I just remembered to reset the timer light to a later "ON" time since the time has changed and it's so much lighter later now.

And I added gas treatment to my tank - I've already seen an improvement in needing to stop at the pump - again, every little bit helps!
(((Hugs)))

Garden Time! Keep Your Fingers Crossed...

My Mom's Day gift to me...every year. I try hard to get some veggies planted - and this year, I am attempting to do something a bit different. The tomatoes are in the three round containers at the front of the "stoop" here:

Two patio tomatoes and a yellow pear tomato plant

And below, you can see the left side of the porch - with seeds planted for arugula, mesclun mix, and radish all in the trough and...

a jalapeno pepper in the top pot, and a hill of yellow crookneck squash in the large pot on the bottom...
Then on the right side of the porch:
basil and curly parsley.

There's so little sun that comes in on this porch, that I'm not sure this is a smart idea. It's sad really, as this townhouse is so wonderful otherwise, I just wish there were fewer trees in front of the house to allow for gardening - the backyard is even worse, but the trees are a necessity back there to shield us from the business district on the street below. I shouldn't complain about the trees, really...their shelter keeps the place relatively cool in summer and with the leaves off the trees in winter, the sun gets in better and I need less heat. There are always trade-offs you know?

Anyway, I'm hopeful that perhaps I'll have learned something from last year, and can have better gardening results this time around! I'll keep you posted...

May Goals! A Touch Late...

Well. May got started faster than I expected somehow, and I've been thinking of what to post about here...

GOALS! That's IT!
1. I have gotta get the veggies planted (gotta buy some first!) - I'm thinking two patio tomatoes and perhaps a pot of summer squash & patty pans...along with herbs. This weekend is Mom's Day and that's traditionally when I pick up my plants and get them in the ground. So fingers are crossed it happens this weekend!

2. Sis-in-law is having a yard sale this month, so I'm hoping to weed out a bunch of stuff to haul over and get rid of! That means sifting thru boxes, and putting prices on things, too! Not my strong suit at all - I'm much better at saying "just stuff it in here" and pushing the box into the basement or closet.

3. I'm also aiming for lower-cost, higher quality recipes for main dishes or one-pot meals this month. Hmm...one of my all-time favorites is a baked potato and I don't think I can get much less expensive, do you? But I do want to try to limit my purchasing of prepared and restaurant meals, and go with simpler, easier items to cook at home this month. Where do you find your recipes?

4. I managed, with the help of a friend (THANK YOU!) to change out most of my bulbs with compact fluorescents so that's a goal I hadn't actually written down, but has been attained this month! One crossed off! :)

So what are your plans to reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose in May? Oh...and make sure you touch base with More Grace over there in my sidebar? Friend Birdsong is finding creative ways to repurpose things and keep them out of the landfill. Just maybe she has created something you'd like to welcome into your world?
(((hugs)))

Belated Earth Day & Musings...

Can you imagine that Nana Sadie missed Earth Day?? On this blog?

No excuse, really except that I’ve been thinking Earth Day was going to be celebrated in my community on the 19th and so I’d already started my celebrations! (Granted I still forgot to get anything up on this blog about it! Hehe)

Saturday was recycling day and my car was packed to the gills...(this has been accumulating since the last run right after Christmas, I don’t do this much waste routinely, I promise!)

Then on Monday night, when we trundled to the grocery store, my DGS#1 and I, I discovered that this store has decided to carry their own branded bag...so now I have at least one from each major grocery in the valley. I have two from the store that offers a rebate of 5 cents per bag every time you use them at the checkout. I'm usually a two-bag shopper, but occasionally I'll go in and stock up, so I think four bags make sense (remember it's just me, two kitties and a part-time grandson...) That's the only store I care about making sure I use their brand of bag - it's a nice incentive.

But I’m seeing something on blogs around the blogisphere, that people don't want to take branded bags into competing stores! What’s with that? Too many stores have failed to get on the bandwagon and put out their own, but by the same token, please tell me, are you going to buy a bag from EVERY store you shop at, in the event they finally start offering them? I suspect you’ll spend way more than is necessary on bags (and it’s nonsensical to me that the very idea of controlling waste by using a reusable bag means you have to buy more and more of the reusable ones?). I guess I just don't get that "branded bags only at whichever brand store" concept.

Isn’t it far better to realize that whatever is on your bag, the whole idea is that we’re helping the planet. And nothing else matters...



On the left side of that photo, you'll also see one of the two organizers I bought ages ago to hold things like sacks of veggies, laundry detergent, sodas, and other bulky items that are easier carried without a bag. I love those things...there are 4 sections in each organizer and they collapse on themselves to fold up with a velcro strap to tuck them away neatly, and they hold rolly-polly things upright in the trunk of the Forester.

I have a couple of string bags from way back in the 70s when we first started this idea, anyway, and all my bags reside in the floorboard of the backseat of my car. I’m considering knitting a string bag (the Knitting Daily Hemp Market Bag to be exact) of sari silk and a European silk/linen blend yarn I was gifted with at Christmas. I think something that will turn out that elegantly will be the bag I carry into the “upscale” shops in my area. After all, I have the yarns in stash, so I’m not buying anything and frankly I can’t think of anything else I want to make of those yarns...and string bags are easier to carry fresh foods from our farmer's markets in than any other kind of bag. I feel so...so...

French! Pop in a fresh baguette and herbs and such from the market stands...all I need is a short skirt, a silk scarf at my neck and 25 years off my age. Oh...and Paris street music playing in the background! LOL!
Whatcha think?

Ok...You Knew I'd Pick These, Right?

What These Roses Say About You

You are a classic romantic who believes in true love. You often experience deep emotions and feel warmth toward almost everyone. You are a bundle of positive feelings and sweetness.

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

A Reminder?

Please don't forget this? Tomorrow night, 8p.m. your time! And while you're at it?

Would you light a candle in honor of a friend's son? Lee left this plane a year ago tomorrow. Please honor his memory this way?

(you'll probably be lighting a candle anyway, right?)
Thanks!

Interesting to Say The Least!

What Sallee Means

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Freedom from the Extraneous!

While catching up with pal, Pam, today (and last night at Knit Night, the Barnes & Noble edition) I discovered a new holiday that is so in keeping with my plans and thinking these days....Discardia!

Now you don't really have to do anything to celebrate this holiday, but I love the idea that you can release old ways of thinking and behaving as well as freeing up "stuff" to go to another "home..."

This focusses my plans for 2008 really well. Pam has been inspiring me to do something I desperately need to do, decluttering my environment, as well...

So - I'm jumping in on Discardia right now! SIL is hoping to have a yard sale in April - it's been an entire two years since our last one, so I've got to get busy here!

Certainly IS My Preference!

Melanie you do find the most fascinating quizzes...and the answer to this one? PERFECT!

You Are Cinnamon Flavored Gum

You are daring, active, and a little outrageous. You crave adventure and novelty. You like to mix things up. Your personality is extra spicy and larger than life. You love to have fun, and you are passionate about everything you do. You're definitely a fiery person, and you don't back down from a fight. Most people love your fire - but you can be a bit too intense at times!

What Flavor Gum Are You?

Earth Hour

See that new banner up there----^

Hmm...turning off the lights on March 29, 2008 for one hour - from 8-9 EST. What could we achieve with that kind of reduction in power consumption?

I'm game, are you?

The Story of Stuff...

If you're not familiar with this, take a few minutes (there are 7 parts, and you can see each of them in order by going to the first one here...



What a great piece of work this is! A clearly understandable explanation of how our economy works (or doesn't work, actually). I'm on my way to The Story of Stuff for more...
(((Hugs)))

Just Call Me "Contrary..."

What's going on here? Suddenly it's popular to be frugal, to grow your own food, to make your own clothes, to *gasp* conserve!

I remember "back to the land" the first time around in the '70s (and I don't think that really was the first time). I remember the Green Revolution (the first time). I also remember gas lines and the Oil Embargo, other recessions, and How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years (he's written some new ones, including one published this year, but I'm kinda betting it's the same old "we're-in-crisis-buy-gold-it's-the-only-REAL-money" mentality, just repackaged, what do you think? Oh. I think I'll keep my money in my pocket and not send it to him to find out!).

And I realize, yes, I do, that the 20-and-30-somethings can't begin to have my frame of reference at all. After all, having lived more than 1/2 a century really should have some kind of benefit to it - getting older surely isn't a piece of cake!

But since I'm bringing up Howard Ruff, and the doom-mongers, I'll try to remind folks of some basic economic theory - what goes up is probably gonna come down, and while it's not a lot of fun to ride that particular curve of the rollercoaster, you know what? It'll come back. The general trend is upward. With smaller steps backward over time. In short, we are so much better off than previous generations.

What I find truly fascinating is the propensity of the human animal to resort to knee-jerk behaviors when things start to spiral downwards: stop spending, start making everything yourself, grow your own food, do your own work so you don't have to pay others, head for the hills and build a fortress, stock your doomsday pantry, and my personal favorite, begin to "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Especially tell everyone how you're going to do it and isn't it the coolest thing ever? "Less is MORE!"

What has me shaking my head is this: Why now? Why not two years ago? Why not ten years ago? (Oh and I guess we really did, some of us, do it 9 years ago with the turn of the century!) Why not use the voluntary simplicity principles, the green living methods, the make-do philosophy even when times are good?

(Well, okay, I know the answer to that - it's not a lot of fun, it's not the American Way. Shopping and spending is soooooooooo much more joyful!)

Or is it?

I have a blast buying second-hand - and most of my furniture is. A lot of folks think you have only two alternatives: keep what you have or buy new (and green).

You have a third choice: take over someone else's items they no longer want - sometimes they even turn out to be antiques and they don't know it (you have to educate yourself if you want to do that well, of course). Over the past 20 years, I've feathered my nest with other people's cast-offs...most of which are either collectibles or antiques. You can't get a lot greener than that (because when you do this, you keep things out of landfills).

I have a friend who finds wool sweaters at garage sales and frogs them for the yarn.

Everyone can learn gardening with a few pots of herbs - you might enjoy it so much you start a garden of vegetables. Then perhaps even plant a fruit tree.

When things like that start perking away in your head, you stop tossing stuff. I'll admit that I'll never be accused of being a "minimalist" - I keep things that might come in handy (not quite as much as my parents did, but still...)

I guess my point is this: Just because we're in tight economic times, there's no reason to panic. We'll come out of it. We always do - even The Great Depression! And if you truly believe in the principles of "less is more" then practice it all the time. Not just when things get tight.

There really is something, too, to the idea that consumer confidence can push us into a recession - that doesn't mean I think we should all run out and charge up the credit cards - in fact just the opposite: get the debt down as fast as you can, just on general principle. But fear is a nasty thing, don't let it eat you up. If you need something - or really want it - and you can afford it, won't break the bank to buy it, then do. But try to do sensible, sustainable purchases: buy locally, or from small independent producers, buy things that for the most part have a long life - except for electronics, I guess! - and buy with cash not a credit card.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without? Do that every day. All your life.

You'll have a lot more in the long run.
*wink*

I'm Not Surprised!

Thanks, Melanie as I was pretty sure this was true, but it's cool nonetheless to prove it!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?