growing green

Outside

Inside

a night of unidentified free range children

I learned a couple of things about myself and the limits of the human body last night. 

First, I now know if I needed to I could host my own funeral.  A strange thing to say but late yesterday afternoon when the 'cold' I have moved from a few fever blisters on my lip to the roof of my mouth, my throat, and into my eyes >gross< I know sorry about that, I didn't cancel the bbq dinner planned on the farm.  Had any other 2 woman been on the night's agenda Tara, my best friend from 1st grade on and one of my favorite newest friend Mrs. K I would surely have canceled the bbq.  These 2 super woman however don't really need me to host a party at my house either one of them could handle it.  So having both coming I figured let's play....

 Chicken any one?

The grill master.

Mrs. K's rice.

Tara's salad.

What I didn't count on was all the extra free range children who showed up.   

We had all of our kids that's 2 for me, 2 for Tara, & 2 for Mrs. K.  Then there are the twins, their aunt (one of Beach's besties), the other aunt (another bestie), a cousin of someones, the kid in the helmet and his little sister.  Okay, so kid in the helmet turned out to Beach's friend-that-is-a-boy Jordan from down the block.  Smart kid, he left the helmet on the whole night; any boy who plays with Beach should wear a helmet. Then Step son had his friend, and then biggest Brother showed up wiht his friends....

These bad photos are proof of how sick I am.

We also had Ned, the city dog.

Free range feet :)

And since we already had the wake I'm going go rest in peace now....

a cheep surprise

You might have caught we had a hen sitting, yep, had, cause then we had a skunk come by...but this morning Beach & I were getting ready for a rainy arbor day at Red Butte when suddenly we heard a cheep-cheep. 

We looked at each other then jumped up heading for the birds nest which is half in the roof & embarrassingly half in the house.  But that was not the source of the cheep. 

Looks like we had another sitting hen.

~Just the two of them~

holy hard & worth it!

The list of 'what-abouts' and 'yeah-buts' is slowly growing.  We have 'local' peanut butter, peanuts grown where (?) company located here & sold at the Food Co-op, where you can get oranges, lemons, bananas... I have to remember that our goal is to shop from specific location who mainly support local growers & vendors, such as food co-ops, farm stands & markets, locally produced &/or recycled goods etc no big grocery chains or restaurants.  What about ginger root?  What about a basic cooking oil?  I didn't clear out the house when we made this pledge (as it were), we simply began.  So there is a lot of, let's call them Big Brands around.  But a week or so later there are less of them. I keep a list in the kitchen & as I think of or use an item I don't know where it really comes from or how to get it or if we even need it I write it down for discussion & research.

Right now I am trying to decide the 'value' of cold cereal (Willy Wonka: Do you have any idea what breakfast cereal's made of? It's those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners.).  As a Diabetic, it has very little value to me personally & if you uncover the origins of it all you will see how cold cereal is an American-ish twist totally in the wrong direction of what was a rather good idea before we got to it: mixed grains, fruit, & a protein.  'Yeah-but', emotionally I love cereal, so do the kids, and my homemade ginger snap granola (which is very good) is not a substitute for Frosted Mini Wheat's.  Here is the thing, if you get rid of say delicious Frosted Mini Wheat's you open your mornings to creative alternatives like zucchini muffins, cornmeal pancakes, homemade sweet rolls...  It isn't about what you are giving up, it is about what you are making room for: a rather indulgent restriction if I may... 

Take potato chips for example, when I made elk burger sliders I usually would pair it with a good bbq chip and a salad but this time armed with co-op produce I sliced vegetables to go with it.  No one missed the chips. Next time I might make potato wedges or sweet potato fries anything but a bag of greasy potato chips.  Is this making sense?  Without getting too hung up on one item or another the bigger picture is already paying off.  We see our food very differently.  We are more careful & thoughtful.  We eat less because the quality of food is higher in just about every way you could count. 

       

This answers the cereal question, yes we can walk away from prepared cereal BUT not from ginger root.  In fact we could leave almost any finished products behind (glad we aren't) but we want/need some basic 'exotic' ingredients.  And that is my line, any basic I need to cook &/or bake with (which I can't find at supports local market) goes on the Costco/NPS List and I'm not going to worry about it.

This is actually the best home school project I never planned.  Each food choice is researched, examined, evaluated, and then sent to family trial. Next on the docket: snow cones...is a snow shack a local business?  and no, I am not buying a snoopy snow cone maker if it's not. 

good morning sunshine

it feels like...

 beautiful

mischief in the night

I remember moving my family West. 

I remember the sound of the train tracks crossing under the tires. 

I remember my not yet three-year-old running in the big back field as if she always belonged to this old cinder block house resting on the valley floor. 

I remember the question & doubts of others. 

 Is it safe?

Will the east side kids adjust to life on the west side of SLC?

Will the kids be able to make friends?

Will we thrive here?

Will this place become our home?

Will we trust the night sky from the edge of the river?

We are here. 

And here we are.