The Library

There is a small group of local people who have decided to try to start a library in our town. I kept reading in the Marshfield Mail about them and they had met for several months before I finally decided I wanted to be involved. Since we moved out here I've dropped out of a lot of activities and things I had been doing pre-farm, pre-Grace. I really don't have much interest in most of those things anymore, and it's not like I have a lot of free time but it seemed like a library would be a fairly worthy pursuit. Also, the meetings are close by and on Friday nights. Since we live in the boonies and have no social life anymore that works out smashingly.

I've been to three meetings now and so far it's been pretty fun. Of course we have NO MONEY so that certainly will slow things down. The Library Board (of which I have yet to be made an official member) wants to remain independent of other libraries or the government as much as possible so they can do their own thing which is a good idea, but certainly limits the financial options.

Saturday is Niangua Spring Cleanup Day which means folks bring their broken televisions, grills, washers and dryers and various other sundry metallic appliances that haven't already been disposed of in the local river to dump on the town square where a nice big truck hauls them away for free. We've taken stuff up there several years now and I'm always surprised that anyone in town takes the time to clear out their front lawns and drive things over. Of course they all don't but quite a few do. I've been wanting to have a garage sale for some time now but didn't really want to schlep all my junk to Bolivar to Mom's house so I offered to donate all my garage sale proceeds to the Library Project. I'll be setup on the Garden Square right beside our beleaguered City Hall and the Spring Cleanup drop off site. It should be interesting. If we can get $300 we should have enough to apply for our 501 3c status and start looking for grants.

We visited Conway's private library on Sunday afternoon and it was inspiring. They have had several large Memorial Donations that helped them build a brand new building. If we did that we would have the nicest building in town!

I took flyers around town to Hannah's (local gas station and hangout) and a few other places and Hannah's asked EVERY CUSTOMER for two weeks if they were interested in a library and if they would sign up in support. We had 122 families sign up amounting to a total of 455 potential patrons! That's more than the 443 people in our town. THAT was pretty exciting and inspired us to forge ahead. I don't know if it will every happen or not but I think it's a community betterment project worth pursuing.

Hang on to all your books, I may be asking you for donations! Oh and we take cash too. :)

Plants

The zucchinis are growing like chickens! Every day I come home and they have a new leaf or are sprouted up even taller. I keep having to transplant them. I'm running out of pots. It's going to have to warm up soon or I'm going to run out of table space and have to start using tin cans for pots. My sad little misplanted seeds are all coming up finally. Bryon said if in doubt I should have just planted them flat and they would have come up faster. Well I let Grace plant them so I didn't really take that into consideration at the time. I've learned my lesson though.

Flying the Coop

The chickens are growing like zucchinis! It's shocking really. Everyday I come home they have MORE feathers. They have totally outgrown their little box but it's just been too cold to put them out in the chicken house yet. I'm probably just going to have to do it this weekend for sure. Bryon has been working on getting electricity to the hen house for me and I have two heat lamps. I think they'll be okay once we get all of that going, but we've just not had time to do it. I'm hopeful the cold weather is gone for good now. It's been funking me out. I'm ready for some sunshine and warm weather, just not two warm. I've become a fair weather girl. Basically, I don't want to be cold OR hot ever again. Just like the Baby Bears' porridge, I want to be just right.

Burn Baby Burn

Okay so prime example of how hard it is to change old habits. Here I am thinking I'm getting all green and environmentally conscious and all and I start thinking about that burn barrel. Which is more environmentally friendly burning or dumping in the landfill? Well it looks like the landfill is the answer. I did some surfing and found out that home burning releases up to 10,000 times more dioxin than the municipal waste combuster (MWC)at a landfill because home burn barrels usually only reach a maximum of 500 degrees. So I tried to find out if our landfill has a MWC. I don't think it does. They collect and use methane gas created by all that garbage to convert to electricity for use in the city. So now what's the answer? Every step has a domino efffect. One thing leads to another and another and another.

Earning her keep.

Pansy earned her keep a bit more and redeemed herself after her previous mousing misadventure. I've been leaving the back door open while I traipse in and out messing with my chicks and I guess a mouse squirted in because tonight I went to give Grace a bath and noticed what I thought was bugs in the bottom of the bathtub. Well I started trying to wash them down the drain and caught something out of the corner of my eye amongst the bath toys. A DEAD MOUSE! I was DISGUSTED and jumped about 10 feet. I did manage not to scream so Grace was oblivious. I got some paper towels (A LOT) and scooped it up and threw it outside. YUCK! Did I ever mention I hate mice? I can't believe she killed it. I had been chewed on a bit. Now I know why I also got to clean up cat puke when I walked in the door tonight. In retrospect, it was worth it. I'd rather clean up cat puke than to have to chase a mouse around the house again. Now I just hope it was the only one!

It ain't easy being green.

We've started recycling again. We hadn't had trash service for 15 years until Grace came along and let me tell you...those diapers are indestructible. You can NOT burn them. They just pile up. Unfortunately we succumbed and they all piled up (along with all the rest of our trash) in the landfill because about a week after Grace was born I called Waste Management and signed up. Happily.

The past few months I've been toying with the idea of jumping back into recycling but they sure don't make it easy out here. There is a recycling center in Marshfield that takes aluminum, cans and #1 and #2 plastic. That's it. AND you have to take all the labels off your cans, lids off stuff etc. etc. etc. At the Lone Pine Center in Springfield, you just bring it all (sorted of course) and that's it pretty much. The pain with that is you have to drive the gas guzzling truck into town every month or so and drop it off. Overall I think it's probably worth it. We committed to it last week and this week we only had two bags for the trash service to pick up. About 1/2 to a third of what we usually have so I felt pretty good about that. We burn everything that will burn. I know that's not great but I think it's still better in the long run environmentally. We just got a new burn barrell and I can't wait to call and cancel the trash service. It was up to $25 a month now with a $9 surcharge for gas prices. You know what that means...more scrapbooking money :)

I'm trying to green us up in other ways too. You know how I like a project :) I've been using the reusable bags at Wal-Mart (the Evil Empire) and for groceries when I can remember to take them in the dang store! I just read a great article on this that described my dilemna to a T. Check it out and the great new website (sorry if you hate Martha Stewart cause it's one of hers) at http://www.marthastewart.com/article/eco-challenge-going-bagless?lnc=839a2798cf2ee010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=taxonomylist_health_green-101
I'm trying to trade out some of the products we have been using for greener and healthier alternatives. Especially our personal care and cleaning products.

Here's my paradox: on the one hand I really do want to be green and healthy. On the other hand, I really like Quarter Pounders with cheese and french fries from McDonalds (the other Evil Empire) even though they probably aren't real meat, have fake cheese and are 21 points. (my total for the entire day). The problem is they are easy to eat in my car, quite tasty and cheap. Cheap pretty much means evil, fake and cancer causing. I'm surprised QP's don't have a Made In China label on them too.

I have issues for sure. But I make myself feel better about it all by trying. Is that okay? I don't know. Being green and healthy is expensive too and I'm generally a pretty thrifty shopper so that causes me other conflicts. Do I buy the giant bottle of bubble bath for $3 or the Burt's Bees for $6 (a fourth of the size)? One has twenty ingredients I can't pronounce and that have been linked to all kinds of nasty things. The other has mostly edible, organic and natural stuff in it. But $3!!!! That's the hard part. One of the managers of a health food store I stopped in said it this way, "You can pay for it now in better products or you can pay later with doctor bills." Good point. I already paid for a shot, pills and doctor visit after the Bath & Body Works lotion fiasco. I just don't know. I guess for now I'll just keep trying to remember to turn off the lights and take my canvas bags into the store. Baby steps and all.

Block Beds

Our friend Steve Shoemaker has been experimenting with soilless raised bed gardening (his neighbor got him started) and we decided to try our hand at it too. There is a guy named Les Pense in Strafford who started it all http://www.ruralmissouri.org/05pages/05MayGarden.html I'm excited to see what we can do with it. Of course that's if we can keep the wildlife out of it. You put pipes down every so often in the open holes of the blocks and then take pvc pipe and bend it over to form a half hoop which you can then use to cover the garden with plastic to make a hothouse or netting to keep out the birds and critters. Bryon's going to electrify our other two little beds (strawberries and corn hopefully). I've got spring fever bad now! My zucchini is coming up in my starts in the house but my yellow squash and spaghetti squash is doing NOTHING! I dug out the seeds tonight (I had let Grace plant them) and I think they were all upside down. One had one little sprig creeping out of it. Now that they are upside right maybe they'll sprout. Who knew? Probably everyone but me right? Some farmer I am :)

Right before my eyes!

The chicks are growing so incredibly fast! Almost as fast as my zucchini plants! They are already almost all feathered out on their wings and their tail and back feathers are starting to come in too. Every morning I go out there they are bigger and have more feathers. It's nuts! They have almost outgrown the box and they are just 11 days old. We were going to put them in the rabbit hutch in the garage but the guys dragged it in it had termites all in the legs of it. It got drug back out pretty fast.

Cheep, Cheep, Cheep

Chicks are Here!

Well the chicks made it through the first 24 hours and seem pretty chipper so far. They are just so sweet! Grace had to hold each one of course and really wants to hold them constantly but of course we can't do that :) The little black ones are the Silver Wyandottes and the lightest ones are the Buff Orpingtons but beyond that we are just guessing. I cleaned the box out tonight for the first time (a new daily chore for a while). Of course I just realized I have one more thing to clean up poop after now! Doh!

Good thing they are cute :)