Vote With Your Fork

This blog is about food.  But it's also about living in harmony with the rhythms of nature.  About eating seasonally.  About walking with your feet on the earth and knowing that you are leaving footprints.  For me, that is a spiritual experience and the way I eat has very much to do with the central philosophy of who I am in this world.

Too existential for you?  Sorry.  But I'm going to guess that you're here reading for a lot of reasons, and that you probably care at least a little bit about the environment and the creatures and plant life that share our world.

To that end I want to talk a little about the Great Backyard Bird Count.

This makes a great project for homeschoolers or parents of kids, and big kids who get a kick out of watching birds.  It happens every year in mid-February, and this year is this Friday-Sunday (14-16).  It's pretty easy.  You register to participate, tell them where you'll be observing, and then you spend some time (in your yard, or elsewhere, up to you) observing, and log how many birds of which species you see.  You log those findings on the website.  You probably learn a thing or two along the way (last year I discovered that the chickadees where I live in Tennessee are Carolina chickadees, not the black-capped chickadees I was used to seeing in Ohio where I grew up... no wonder they sound a little different!) about the animals that inhabit your corner of the universe.

It's crowd source science, and it's awesome!  Then you can explore the data and see what kinds of birds are being seen where. 

Between this project and my garden, I started noticing things.  I noticed plants blooming that I hadn't noticed before, and I educated myself about what they were.  I started keeping a nature log - the daffodils bloom now, the forsythia blooms then, I discovered that my horses are eating an interesting weed and this is what it is.  And, the robins and bluebirds are back earlier this year than usual.  That sort of thing.  Since I'm a hard core journaler, I love this kind of stuff.  It tunes you in, in a way that just going about your information-saturated, dissociative business and shoving factory food in your face every day can't.

So join me!  Maybe keep a little nature journal of your own.   I have a sketchbook, but I also have a little page on my Notes app on my phone so I can type in what I see when I see it (is there an app for this kind of thing? If there isn't there should be).  Happy birding.  :)

It really isn't. It's definitely EASIER to buy all your products from one huge multinational grocery store that ships all its produce from California and its solid goods that are imported from China, than to grow or make your own things, or buy from a small local farmer or merchant. It's easier to use the plastic plates and flatware when you have people over, and just throw it away. It's easier to contribute to landfill than compost. It's easier to just take those plastic bags they have reams and reams of, than bring your own. It's easier to throw things away than find new homes for them. It's easier to spray chemicals on bugs or weeds than find other ways to deal with them. And most of that is just what we've always done, without a second thought.

I've noticed that the more I start thinking about what I can do to reduce the footprint I'm leaving on this earth, the resources I'm consuming, the trash I'm leaving behind, and my contribution to the decay of the atmosphere... there's a lot to learn and a lot of changes to make, and they're not always cheap, and almost never easy. My long-term goal is a sustainable, off-grid homestead that is largely self-reliant, besides giving something back to the world and local economy. But you don't get there overnight. It's about little changes. What can you do, today?

So this blog is a chronicle of the small changes I and my family will make over the next several years. I hope to shed light on some things I'm learning about that you may not have thought about (I know I didn't!) and maybe give you some ideas about making your life a little greener too. And provide some links and connections to ways you can make a difference and products that can help. If you're on a similar journey, follow along.