Earth Day 2008 (post II)

EMy family and I spent the majority of Saturday at a local venue, the Ogden Nature Center to explore, play and learn more about sustainable living. We arrived less than an hour after the event began and were awestruck by the number of people that were there already.
This was the scene in the courtyard where a part of the informational booths were located. I have to say that I was very pleased that the booths at this event were not for retailers of "green products" by and large, but rather were primarily for information and education. We took a few minutes to talk with some nice guys representing the local Sierra club, dropped in on a composting class that had surprisingly few people at it and bought the boys a couple of "earth day necklaces to help support the Center.
One of my favorite parts of the center, and one that was not there the last time I visited on a field trip with one of the kids, was their Straw bale visitor center and Center offices. I really loved everything about it, and got a couple of good ideas to put away in the back of my head for use one day when I design our next home.
The boys were able to get in a little climbing; it's one of their favorite things to do. This is the first time we've been anywhere with a climbing tower that didn't cost an arm and a leg to use, in fact this one was free.

We also got to enjoy some local musicians and a group of kids that have a Celtic dance troupe. We've seen them before and their always fun. Plus we all love the Celtic music.

The last thing that we did was listen to a presentation from the Forest Service about caring for out Riparian habitats. Here in the Mountain West, our rivers and streams are really our life blood. Learning how our actions can have either a positive or negative effect on them is definitely an important thing.
It was a great day and a lot of fun. I hope that through events like this that we can help to get our kids motivated to learn more about being more sustainable. While I was there I was able to hook up with the volunteer coordinator and learned more about being a volunteer at the Center. We may "adopt an area" of the center and make it our own to care for, or even help with some of the projects there. I also offered to share my knowledge and experiences, for what that means, with others. I am certainly passionate about the things I am doing, and think that being involved with a place like this would certainly be a blessing.

I hope you all had a great day yesterday, I'd love to hear about what you did.

Till tomorrow,

P~

Earth Day (post I)

Happy Earth Day everyone!

I actually have another post that I’ll be putting up this evening with a report about the earth day activities that my family and I participated in on Saturday but it was such a full weekend, and I hadn’t posted anything at all so I felt a little out of touch. I Had to get on here to encourage everyone to enjoy and at least have an open mind toward Earth Day. Like my family was in years past, I know there are a lot of others out there that are just running on auto-pilot from day to day and really not giving much thought to the world around them or how they impact it. While I’m not necessarily your iconic, poster-child greenie or anything, I have to admit that my crunchiness has certainly increased of late. For those of you reading that may just be beginning to take stock of your impact on the world, or beginning to increase your sustainability be warned, this type of lifestyle change may be habit forming and can in fact permeate every part of your life; let me elaborate:

 

HOME: When my wife and I decided last year, after some health related concerns were brought to light (asthma and related allergies), that we needed to make some changes in our home to help create a healthier environment for our children, we began with a move over to all natural/organic cleaners. We learned that a clean house doesn’t have to smell like a pine forest of a grove of lemons, it just has to smell “clean” (i.e. no smell at all). If we do add scents it’s through natural herbs and oils, and used sparingly. We also had some home renovations that we had planned on for some time that were not only pushed up, but were looked at in a new light. We removed the carpet from our home in all but the bedrooms, and replaced it with hardwood. On the front end, using red oak was not the most sustainable choice because of the time it takes to grow, but over the years, never having to replace the carpet and throw the old in the landfill, not to mention the air quality improvements to our home make it a much better choice. We chose a low VOC, water soluble sealant for the floors and have made use of the scrap for various other home projects in order to reduce our waste. We’ve also re-painted almost the entire interior of our home with ZERO VOC green seal certified paint. Using this type of paint will not only add no off-gassing chemical particulates to our interior air quality, but will also help to seal in any of them from the original paints and building supplies that were used or applied when building the home.

FOOD: One of my goals last year was also to lose some weight, and to generally get myself into better shape. As I began to watch what I ate and exercise more, I read and learned about what it was exactly that I was eating. I wanted to find out about my food chain, and my place in it. I read Michael Pollan’s “Omnivores Dilemma” and was shocked. My wife and I began to slowly move our family towards more healthful eating. We, or more to the point, she began to make many of our foods from scratch and we tried our hands at canning and preserving some of the foods from our modest garden. Today, we have nearly doubled the total growing area of our garden, planned to grow crops that we use as staples and that we can easily preserve for use later in the year. We’re raising chickens at home to provide us with organic eggs and meat and are continually learning about ways to improve our diet by eating less meats, more plant and locally produced foods when we can.

Outdoors: As I said, we’ve significantly increased the scope of our home food production through our garden and livestock keeping. Our yard too has begun to find a balance between the natural world and the cultivated one. Last year, for instance, we made the decision to not treat our lawn with any weed control other than picking them, and used no pesticides at all. We noticed a marked increase in not only the number of beneficial insects but in the balance between them and the nuisance insects; this year I’ve already seen a larger number of bees than from this time last year. We made some landscaping improvements last year too and rather than buying a bunch of new items, tried to make use of recycled and re-purposed materials whenever possible.

 

So you can see, even for a family that wasn’t making the decision necessarily to “go-green”, once you start really looking into the way you live, and how your choices are really impacting your family and the world around you, it’s hard not to let that way of thinking creep into all facets of your life. Was it hard? That’s really the question isn’t it? We’re so conditioned for ease and quickness in our modern world that sometimes it seems like making changes would take away from our quality of life. I admit to you that yes, sometimes it is a little harder. It would be easier to buy my produce than to grow it myself. It would certainly be easier for A~ to run out and buy bread every couple of days than it is for her to make it. But I submit that the benefits so much outweigh the inconvenience that the net gain is substantial. I lost over 20 lbs last year without dieting, my kids have discovered the pleasure of warm bread straight from the oven and our family health has never been better.

If this your first year paying attention to Earth Day, don’t get too caught up in the hype. By that I mean not to get depressed or nervous by the reports of all the crises in the environment and what you need to do to fix the world; that’s a lot to take on by yourself! Take a look at your home and your lifestyle; “Think globally, act locally”. It’s a cliché now to some degree, but it still holds true, make the changes in your home and in your life and take things a step at a time. You’ll be surprised at how much better and more “in tune” you feel with yourself and the world and what a difference individual action can have.  If you’re a seasoned greenie, crunchy to the core, let me know what you’re planning for the year. Where did you come from and what are the lessons you’ve learned? I have so much more to learn, and enjoy the global community we’ve all contributed to building here online.

Be well…Namaste

P~

Feeling Cocky (when good birds go bad.)

So my last post was asking for help decideing whether or not all of my cockerels are indeed cockerels. By the way, Laura and Kim, thanks for your input. I've watched a little closer since, and I think you're right. They are all cocerels but definitely submissive to Joe. They will do a lot of the same posturing and flapping that he does, and will stand up in a "fight", but eventually back down to him. I thought I'd drop in a little video to show what I've been talking about. As soon as the sun starts to lighten the garage (that's where the outlaws are until the city ordinance passes.) Joe starts piping up.

So? Was I exaggerating? That's a bird that just aching for the pot in my opinion. We'll see how the ordinance passing goes this tuesday. Maybe I'll grant him a reprieve if they'll have to stay in the garage for a little longer, but if the law passes and they can go outside he's definitely a goner. So I guess I'm pulling for him to get the ax. (Of course I'm not really gonna use an ax.... geez.)Thanks again for the input ladies. Gotta run, big earth day events planned for today. More on that later.

Oh and by the way, the action I mentioned I was going to take will be a little longer in coming, I wanted to think it through a little more.

Have a great weekend all.

P~

you call it...

OK all you Chicken experts, I have a question for you. Which one is the cockerel (young rooster)?

My guess is the one on the bottom, was yours? Well actually they're both supposed to be but I'm not so sure. Back in February when the birds showed up, I mentioned that the company I ordered from included a few extra male birds for warmth. Both of these were extra birds, but three of the four of them that I got, look like the bird on the left. The one on the right whom I named "Ugly kid Joe" is the only one of the lot that has developed the larger comb and lobes. He's also the only one starting to get vocal. This morning, I was upstairs and heard some sound that sounded like a little dog barking. I asked the wife what that was but she hadn't heard anything. A little while later, we were downstairs and definitely both heard one of the birds "speaking up". Joe's also started puffing up and chasing the other birds around.

So my question to you is are they both roosters or just the one. Either way, he keeps up this attitude, he may be on my new rotisserie soon.

Tomorrow I have decided to take some action, and may be calling for your help on it.

Till then

P~

Thought for Today

I’m a man of the past

and I’m living in the present

and I’m walking in the future, stepping in the future.

~Peter Tosh - Mystic Man

 

Could I have said it any better?

Some days I feel like I was placed in the wrong century. I find my interests piqued far more often by an investigation of the ancient methods and practices than by promises of a shining new day through new technologies.

I wrote last year (Almost to the day) that I have found “Happiness is being where you are” (living in the present, enjoying our blessings, and wanting for naught), to be a great truth.

While at the same time trying to prepare myself for an uncertain future and being more mindful of my decisions and their future repercussions.

Thoughts anyone?

P~

GOOD NEWS!!

Syracuse UT planning commission passed Title X land use ordinance changes!

I just received an email from our cities Planning Commission Chairman to let me know that the Land Use ordinance with the amendment in it to allow the birds passed last night and is now on to the City Counsel. The chairman was a supporter of the amendment all along, and in fact was the person to initiate it. Having been an active proponent of the change, and having corresponded with the commission a number of times on the subject, he assumed that since I could not be at the meeting last night that I would want to know the answer, which I of course did, and am very happy about.

 

Now…where are those email addresses for the city counsel??? Time to start this wheel squeaking again.

 

A thousand words.

It's been said that a picture's worth a thousand words, so I'll keep mine to a minimum. Let's just say... it's done, finally, it's done.

Here it is, before and after putting the birds into it. They were a little unsure about what to do with all of the space, but a couple of them spread their wings and fluffed their feathers like they haven't been able to in the old box.

Above: The kids exploring their new digs. They haven't really figured out what to do with the ramp up into the hen house yet, but I gave them a little clue later.

This is the back of the hen-house where the nesting boxes are located. I made two side by side. I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to need to separate the two nests, but as for right now I have them open to each other.

This is the back of the hen-house, just below the nesting box. It's the area that was designed to be able to be pulled out for cleaning as well as for increased ventilation. I'm leaving it in for a couple of days, at least until the birds get used to walking on the wire.

Speaking of the wire floor. In the picture above you can see that half of the floor is covered with 1/2 inch hardware wire cloth. Actually it's all covered, but I have a piece of wood in there to get them used to it slowly. There's also two roosting bars. One of them is about 4 inches in front of the nests to try to encourage the hens to not roost on the nests, but on the bars instead. This should limit the amount of manure in the nests, and on the eggs in the future.

I told you I gave them a little clue later on. I helped a couple of them onto the ramp, and a couple came down on their own.


A couple of them just decided to hang out on the roosting bars. Here you can see the configuration of the two roosting bars.

Hope you all like! We are very happy with it. I will be adding the ability to put some old bike tires onto the heavy side of the coop so that I can pick up and move them if I want to. This should after all be more or less a very large chicken tractor. A~ is very pleased as well, and has said that she will let it go in the yard. :) Tonight was the vote at the planning commission too, perfect timing, so we'll see if it was able to go on to the next level or not. (fingers crossed.) I'll let you all know tomorrow.
P~