Less Mess

I didn't read this as a child.

My house is a mess. Every single room is filled with clutter. Every closet and drawer is full.  This didn’t happen overnight, of course. The detritus of the past 20 years has been steadily accumulating and has now reached the point where I feel it would be easier to just sell the house and start over than to clean!

I’m pretty sure though, that in order to sell my house, I’d have to clean it anyway – so that’s really not a solution.

Possible before women worked 40 hours a week

To make myself feel better, I went online and searched images for other examples of sloppy housekeeping.  I thought my place would look good by comparison, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong! I’m going to post a few pictures here and there, but I’m not going to tell which ones (if any) are actually from my house! I’m going to let you guess. I guarantee that no matter what your house looks like though, mine is worse.

Where's the TV remote?

Just take a clean shirt from the top of the pile.

 

I’d like to be able to blame the entire problem on my husband -and believe me, he is a major contributor. But sadly part of it is me too. He has collections. While I like to think that I am going to “do something with” stuff instead of just throwing it away.  Sometimes I do and it turns out good.  Sometimes I don’t.  Mostly, I start a project, but don’t finish.



An attempt at organization? LOL



When's the last time you ate in the dining room?

Repair - YES

Reuse - YES

  Recycle - YES

     Reduce - HUH?

I could blame it all on Pinterest. (www.Pinterest.com )  This is the most addictive website ever! With all its nifty diy craft projects, you almost feel guilty if you don't do something creative with every single used household item. It's impossible, isn't it?  Thank God Pinterest hasn't been around long enough to cause much damage.

Well, except damage like - A BUSTED SPLEEN - because you can't keep up with all the ideas that people are posting to the site.!"Suzy Homemakers" every one of them. Even Dudepins - a site for guys, can make you feel inadequate.

Manly men repurpose their old drum sets after Rock Stardom fails.

I’m going to have to tackle this problem room by room – and the room I’d like to start with is the garage.  A lot of people have problems with keeping their garage clean. It easily becomes a permanent home for household items that are seldom used or stuff that is “too good to throw away”. Really? If you are not using it, just how good is it? It’s just taking up space.

Keep the door closed so the neighbors won't know! 

I need the garage to be cleared in order to have a place to put the stuff I’m removing from the other rooms. (I’ll be emptying it just so I can fill it up again.) Depressing!

Though clutter is caused equally by both men and women, female clutter is generally prettier than male clutter,don't you think?  Which would you rather look at- a fabric stash or drill bits?

Male

Female

Before I began the cleanup, I'll need to see what Clutter Level I'm at.



I think I'm a solid 2, borderline 3. 



Maybe there is hope.  After all, the scale goes up to a 9.  YIKES!!!

Poems Heard in the Children's Garden

Garden Instructions

Plant seeds early in the spring

When the ground is warm.

Two inches deep in well-tilled soil

Where they’ll be safe from harm.

Let the sun and rain pour down.

Be careful where you hoe.

A miracle is taking place:

Seeds split and start to grow.

Snap Beans

Snap your fingers, jazzy beans,

Tap your toes,

Click your heels, strut your stuff in tight green jeans.

Go ahead and belt a tune.

Make it loud.

Wow the crowd.

Your time is short. It's way past June.

Zucchini

I have all of these zucchini!
What am I supposed to do?
I could fry them, make bread
or cook them in a stew.

I have all of these zucchini!
Can you help me with them, please?
Make some cookies or a cake
broil them with some cheese.

I have all of these zucchini!
Would you give some to your friends?
Just make sure you wash them first
then peel and cut both ends.

I have all these zucchini!
Minestrone sure sounds nice.
Throw in some beans and garlic
And a little bit of rice.  

May you all enjoy zucchini!

It's an easyplant to grow.
Just make sure you count how many
Seeds you've planted in a row.

Tomatoes

Tomato blossom, fruit so red,

All the world’s a garden bed!

Dill

Dainty Doily Dill Weed

dances in the breeze,

waving tiny blossoms,

calling to the peas!

Carrots

What does a carrot know,

Smothered in dirt below?

 Songs of worms,

Tap-tapping rains,

The smell of earth,

And growing pains.

What else does a carrot know,

Alone in the dark, below?

 Sound of boots,

Thud of hoe,

A gentle tug-

It’s time to go.

Go Fish or Cut Bait

“If you want to go fishing, you have to bait your own hook.” This is what my Daddy told me when I was 7 years old.  I didn’t particularly like fishing, but I wanted to be with him.  Oh, it was always fun at first - the ride in the boat with the high-pitch buzz of the motor and the sight of the water parting and spraying along the sides as we traveled forward. There was the excitement (and fear) of pinning the wiggly cricket on your hook and casting the line. 

But then, I had to sit still and be quiet. I had to be quiet forever. After awhile, the sun would beat down on my head and my pole would get heavy. And I’d be sooo hungry that I’d eat my little can of Vienna sausages and most of the wax packet of saltine crackers about an hour after we left the dock.

I never caught much because I didn’t keep my line in the water long enough. I liked casting the line and then reeling it in. And talking. A little chatterbox is guaranteed a captive audience for all her questions and declarations while on a boat! I was just drowning crickets mostly.

I realize now, that my Father not only had incredible patience, but that he must have really loved me a lot. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, camping, horses, and motorcyles. And though he may not have been aware of it, by including me (a little girl) on these adventures, he showed me that I was strong and that I could be brave. And that what I said and thought mattered.

He not only created good memories, he was “building” a future adult. My love of nature is one part of me that was made by him.

When we love something we are motivated to protect it. That’s true for people and that’s true for places. Love is connected to nature just as nature is connected to us. Earth gives us air, food, water and shelter. Earth gives us beauty and happiness. What do we give the Earth in return?

Like an indulgent parent, the Earth has let us (her children) get by with bad behavior and selfish actions.  She has overlooked our mistakes because we were young and still learning.  But now, we have reached the point where we can no longer claim innocence as our defense. We know better. Now, we have to DO better.

Brigham City, Utah

We can correct our mistakes . Back in 1903 when settlers moved into the Bear River valley in Northern Utah and Southern Idaho they diverted water from the river to their towns and farms causing the marshes to dry out. Eventually, less than four thousand acres of the original forty-five thousand were left. The loss of these wetlands caused a massive number of birds to die. The public was shocked and took action by making the Bear River delta a National Wildlife Refuge in 1928.

Dead birds - Bear River 1928

Dikes and water control structures were built, laws were passed and the habitat recovered and began supporting millions of birds. Of course this didn’t happen overnight, there were many set-backs and lots of volunteers and supporters were needed. Today the area is flourishing as it celebrates its 84th birthday!

What this shows us is that humanity can destroy nature in an instant – and that it takes decades of persistent effort to recover from such destruction. But, it can be done.  If we are going to fish, we have to be able and willing to bait our own hook.  Our Daddy is not going to do it for us.

 Bitter Lake

But for all its gesture
to the wild, nothing
comes more human

than this: “refuge,”
an oblong of mercy sliced
from the map.

Where hosts and dominions
of snow geese
billow and gleam

by water’s edge,
I think of Lear, dead
Cordelia in his arms.

- William Wenthe

Books on this subject - available at Chesapeake Public Library System

The World According to Pimm by Stuart Pimm

Thought to Exist in the Wild by Derrick Jensen

Rewilding the World by Caroline Fraser

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram

Wilderness Survival Handbook ebook

A Sand County Almanac: With Other Essays on Conservation by Aldo Leopold

Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country by Les Scher

 

 

 

 

 

The Garden Song

Inch by inch, row by row,

someone bless these seeds I sow.

Someone warm them from below

till the rain comes tumblin’ down.

 

Pulling weeds and pickin’ stones,

we are made of dreams and bones.

Feel the need to grow my own

‘cause the time is close at hand.

Grain for grain, sun and rain,

find my way in nature’s chain.

Tune my body and my brain

to the music of the land.

Plant your rows straight and long,

temper them with prayer and song.

Mother Earth will make you strong

if you give her love and care.

Old crow watching hungrily

from his perch in yonder tree.

In my garden I’m as free

as that feathered thief up there.

Inch by inch, row by row,

gonna make this garden grow.

All it takes is a rake and a hoe

and a piece of fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row,

someone bless these seeds I sow.

Someone warm them from below

till the rain comes tumblin’ down.

The White House Food Initiative Vs. Central Library's Garden Project

Everyone has to eat. We've been doing it a long time. So, you would think that our philosophies about “Food” would be simple.  They are not. "Food"  (and the politics that govern it) is very complicated.  

Fears about food safety such as outbreaks of salmonella and E. Coli have led Congress to consider passing a bill which will allow federal agencies the authority to recall tainted products if a manufacturer refuses. I don’t understand why this is controversial? It seems like common sense to me.  Currently, there are 15 federal agencies that oversee food and drug inspections.

---

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Protects the health and value of U.S. agricultural resources (e.g., animals and plants).

Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration - Establishes quality standards, inspection procedures and marketing of grain and other related products.

Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) - Establishes quality and condition standards for dairy, fruit, vegetable, livestock, meat, poultry, and egg products. (Has no statutory authority.)

Agricultural Research Service - Conducts food safety research.

Economic Research Service - Provides analyses of the economic issues affecting the safety of the U.S. food supply.

National Agricultural Statistics Service - Provides statistical data, including agricultural chemical usage data, related to the safety of the food supply.

Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service - Supports food safety research, education, and extension programs in the land-grant university system and other partner organizations.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - Inspects all domestic and imported food products except meat, poultry, or processed egg products.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Protects the nation's public health, including foodborne illness surveillance.

National Marine Fisheries Service - Provides voluntary, fee-for-service examinations of seafood for safety and quality.

Environmental Protection Agency - Regulates the use of pesticides and maximum allowable residue levels on food commodities and animal feed.

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau - Enforces laws covering the production, use, and distribution of alcoholic beverages.

Department of Homeland Security - Coordinates agencies’ food security activities.

Federal Trade Commission - Prohibits false advertisements for food.

We can spend lots of money to teach people about the importance of a healthy diet, but we can’t tell them what to eat or where to buy it.  These are personal decisions guided (often as not) by availability and cost more than by our personal preferences. If you are poor, it is harder to get access to good food at an affordable price.

Michelle Obama wants to change our national food policies to help with this.  She has appeared at soup kitchens and community centers to talk about the importance of a healthy diet. She has visited schools seeking to improve their lunch menus.  And, to increase people’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables, she has promoted the local-food movement. 

Here at Chesapeake Central Library we are trying in our own way to foster some of the same ideas. We have partnered with Plant-A-Row and the Chesapeake Agriculture Department  to start a small garden behind our Children’s Department .  Library programs teaching children about seeds, gardens and food are being organized.  So far, we have made pots for our plants out of recycled newspapers and planted beans. 

This summer, school children came to the First Lady’s Garden to help plant (and later harvest) food.  The intent was to show children the step-by-step process of how food gets to the table.  This is something that many children who live in the city don’t know.  Don’t vegetables come in cans?

Even some children who live outside urban areas may not know much about how food is grown.  I remember years ago we bought our little nephew a bag of hot roasted peanuts at a sporting event and after a few minutes he broke a shell open and exclaimed excitedly, “ Hey! There’s peanuts in here!”  He was so surprised. (The only peanuts he had ever seen were already shelled, salted and in a cellophane wrapper.)

Here at Central Library, we have taken some wooden pallets from our loading dock and repurposed  them to create “raised planting beds” outside our Children’s area.  We’ve stapled landscaping cloth to the bottom and sides and filled the top with potting soil and then laid them horizontal on the patio. Ta Da! A place to grow food when you can't dig!  Apartment dwellers with small balconies or outdoor space could do the same.

We are in the process of planting these flats with beans, peas, onions, lettuce and radishes. We have tomatoes in ceramic pots, sunflowers planted against the brick wall and a selection of herbs and flowers to be planted in two vertical pallets.

If our Garden Project takes off here -as we hope it will-we envision a meandering walkway around the building with pockets of edible plants scattered among the bushes and flowers. In fact, plans have already been drawn up.  (As always with new ideas, however, it is the practical matter of funding that will or will not ensure it's success.) Wish us luck.

Because having great food isn’t much use if you don’t know how to cook it, part of the White House plan is to also inspire families to cook.  By working with Brainfood, a non-profit organization that helps young people build life skills and promotes healthy living,  they are using food as a teaching tool to show people how to grow and cook food.

While I can’t say I really “enjoy” cooking all the time, I am old enough to have grown up during a time and place when there wasn’t any other option.  If you wanted to eat, you had to cook it yourself.  So, I learned early and have just considered it to be part of life.  Apparently, there are a lot of people who don’t cook at all!  (And I thought it was only my husband.)

I am hoping that the food gathered from our garden will not only feed people, but will also spawn some library programs for teens on how to cook, for adults on how to can produce,  for everyone how to eat healthy and promote the idea of food sovereignty for everyone.

Perhaps we can also form some new partnerships with people and organizations who are interested in reforming the way agriculture is subsidized, changing regulations to improve the environment, raising nutritional standards in public schools or better food labeling in the markets.  It's amazing the ideas that can be grown in a garden, isn't it?

Did you know that just learning how to cook food caused a big jump in human intellect 150,000 years ago?   Cooking breaks down fibers in foods and sends nutrients to the brain faster because less energy is required to digest it. This freed up calories to feed our brains.

If we all started growing some of our own food, and/or eating healthy locally-grown products, just think of the increase to our brain power and all the things we could accomplish! Maybe "Food" isn't supposed to be as complicated as we have made it after all?

 WHEN THE TIME'S TOXINS

by Christian Wiman

When the time's toxins

have seeped into every cell

and like a salted plot

from which all rain, all green are gone

I and life are leached

of meaning

somehow a seed

of belief

sprouts the instant

I acknowledge it.

Little weedy hardy would-be

greeness

tugged upward

by light

while deep within

roots like talons

are taking hold again

of this our only earth.

Hunger Games

Okay, when you saw the title above you probably assumed that I was going to talk about the latest hit movie "The Hunger Games".  Sorry, I'm not. Not really. Actually, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I HAVE read the YA series by Suzanne Collins that the movie is made from.  (I work at the library, which means you are "required" to read the novel before you see the movie if you don't want to be subjected to all kinds of ridicule.)

The book follows Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl who lives in the post-apocalyptic world of North America, now called Panem. Panem has been split into 12 districts which are controlled by the Capitol. As punishment for a previous rebellion, each district must send a boy and a girl to participate in an annual televised event in which contestants are forced to kill each other until there is only one survivor.

Here are two post-apocalyptic survival books available for checkout. (Just in case)

101 Survival tips: strategies for self-reliance in any environment By United State Department of the Army Simply essential disaster preparation kit by Catherine Stewart

The theme of the book is poverty, oppression, hunger and survival. Pretty grim topics, but for some people these are not fictional issues. They exist here and now.

This is just my opinion

I've been thinking about the  "Hunger" part lately.  Not the "wondering what to fix for supper" kind of hunger, but what it would be like to really BE hungry. (The kind of hunger that I, thankfully, have never known. )  Maybe it's because the Chesapeake Public Library system is currently hosting our annual "Food For Fines" event, where library fines are waived for patrons bringing in food items for donation to Chesapeake food pantries.

Do a good deed and all is forgiven. Libraries dispense absolution?  Yes, but this small sacrament alone will not solve the problem of hunger. More needs to be done.

Recently, I was part of a panel which discussed a library partnership with the Chesapeake Agriculture Department and the Plant-A-Row program. (See Links)  June through September every year the excess produce grown by Chesapeake residents on their own land can be donated to the city's hungry through this group.  This is an easy way for those who have more than they need to help those who need more than they have.

As you can see from the linked calendar, however, Seasonal Produce Calendar people cannot survive on the leftovers from local gardens alone.  Plans are in the works at Central to provide storytimes and workshops centering around gardening and food production. We envision programs that will teach patrons about beekeeping, edible landscaping, butterflies, vermiculture, and seed saving techniques.

Meanwhile, the library has lots of free information available on these topics and many more.All you need is your library card.

EDIBLE LANDSCAPING BOOKS
Eat Your Yard by Nan Chase

Small Space Container Gardens by Fern Richardson

Your Eco-friendly Yard by Tom Girolamo

Front Yard Gardens by Liz Primeau

Grow great grub by Gayla Trail
Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler
 The Small Budget Gardener by Maureen Gilmer

Landscaping with Fruit by Lee Reich

Though many could surely benefit from having the knowledge needed to grow their own food, some do not have the space needed or lack the ability to maintain a garden. What we need are some community gardens where the spaces are tended collectively by one group - or else allotments, which are parcels of land made available to individuals or families. Many European countries use these systems successfully.

Hunger is a result of poverty, but poverty has many causes. The best cure for poverty is work. Right now, many people are out of work. Either they cannot find a job or they had one and lost it due to the economy.  It's hard to keep food on the table when you don't work. Chesapeake Public Library offers help in this indirectly by assisting patrons in their job search by providing free internet access, offering classes on how to write a resume, and updates job skills by teaching basic computer classes in Word and Excel. (See Video Link)
 Job Help at the Library

Think a minute. Donate.

FOODBANK of Southeastern Virginia 

"35 million people in the U.S. are hungry or don't know where their next meal is coming from, and 13 million of them are children. If another country were doing this to our children, we'd be at war."
-- Jeff Bridges                                            

Feeding America

 "God comes to the hungry in the form of food" --Mahatma Gandhi

World Food Program

 Hunger.  Is it REAL or NOT REAL?  

(Please read sidebar link Dick Gregory's "Shame")

May the odds be ever in your favor.

P.S.   from an email I received:  

How To Plant Your Garden

First, you come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses.

For the garden of your daily living, plant three rows of peas.

1.  Peace of mind

2.  Peace of heart

3.  Peace of soul

Next plant four rows of squash.

1.  Squash gossip

2.  Squash indifference

3.  Squash grumbling

4.  Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce.

1.  Lettuce be faithful

2.  Lettuce be kind

3.  Lettuce be patient

4.  Lettuce really love one another

No garden should be without turnips.

1.  Turnip for meetings

2.  Turnip for service

3.  Turnip to help one another

To conclude, you must have thyme.

1.  Thyme for God

2.  Thyme for each other

3.  Thyme for family

4.  Thyme for friends

Water freely with patience, cultivate with love and hope that there is much fruit in your garden because you always reap what you sow.   

Life Recycled

It's a rare sunny day in February.  I'm sitting out here on my deck - a cup of hot tea and my little dog beside me. An older gentleman, he has not been feeling very well lately.  I'm hoping the sun on his skin, the sounds of birds in the trees and the light breeze which keeps his nose twitching will be a tonic to him - as it is to me.

I'll probably be scraping ice off my windshield before heading into work Tuesday, but right now it sure feels like spring!  The inconsistent weather here in Tidewater has confused my daffodils into blooming and I'm almost tempted to plow up a piece of ground and plant something.  Maybe peas.

Yet, I know that each year has a pattern to follow and the seasons cannot be rushed.  Spring will always follow Winter.  This is the time of year when gardeners pore over seed catalogs and "plant on paper". You may have noticed that our winters seem milder lately? That idea can now be confirmed.  The color-coded map of planting zones has been updated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

USDA Plant Zones

It shows milder temperatures overall and has placed some areas of the United States in warmer zones.  I'd say that is proof positive that our climate is changing, wouldn't you? Someone should tell Rick Santorum.

However, right now I'm not too concerned about global changes . I'm concentrating on the changes in my life.  I have a daughter who is about to give birth,:-) a son-in-law who will be leaving soon on a 6-month cruise with the U.S. Navy, a husband who is facing surgery with a long recovery time, and a little dog who is (I fear) dying. I'm focused locally. Winter, for me, may continue a while longer - though the sun will shine in places.

Life, I've found, is the ultimate recycle.  Everything we experience as a child, we view again through adult eyes when we have children of our own.  Life began before we arrived, but it also stretches out in front of us to a place and time we will never see.  Yet, the path is not a straight line. It is a twisting road that doubles back on itself unexpectedly.

I have a clear, happy memory of sitting on my Mammaw's back porch in Texas shelling black-eyed peas. She was sitting in a chair with a bowl in her lap, and I was at her feet with my own little bowl "helping".  I was about five. I recall looking out over the back yard at the clothes hung on the line and the chickens scratching in the grass for bugs. I could see the two tall pine trees in the middle of the fenced cow pasture beyond.  Those trees were the boundary I was not allowed to go past. Which was okay with me, because they were so far away that when I was walking toward them, I had to turn around and look back at the house to make sure I could still see it.

When I was seven, my family moved to Utah and I only got to see my Mammaw on summer vacations. The trees got closer and closer to the house each year.

Later, after my Mammaw died and my parents retired, they bought her place from the other siblings and moved back there.  They raised chickens and had a garden. When we visited them on summer vacations, our daughter gathered eggs with my Mother and we all shelled black-eyed peas on the back porch.

My father, by that time, had difficulty walking and so had a golf cart that he would load with fishing gear and take my daughter to the pond behind the two tall pine trees. He stocked the pond with catfish and went out there every day to feed them bread.  To catch one, all my daughter had to do was bait her hook with bread.

My Parents

My daughter is grown and my parents are both dead now. The property in Texas has passed out of our family. I have a house here in Virginia with a deck overlooking the garden and the barn beyond it.  No chickens - yet.  But, I expect in about four or five years to be shelling peas with my granddaughter and I'll tell her not to go beyond the apple tree unless she is going to the lake behind the barn to fish with Grandpa (my husband).
 ---  
My Mammaw never imagined her daughter (my mother) would move away to Utah to raise her family. She  never knew my mother would return home to live out her life in the place she started from. My Mother never imagined I'd move to Virginia and live my life here. And, because my son-in-law is in the Navy, I don't know how long my daughter and their future child will be here near us. And, I certainly have no idea where this little granddaughter will wind up, or what her life will be.

All I can do is hope that one day she will look back at her childhood and have some clear, happy memory she shared with me...even if it's only shelling peas. Her life will go forward and my life will be part of the past. She will, of course, have no memory of my Mother or of my Mammaw. Those stories will end with me. Though she will never know them, they existed and were important ---and I have to believe that something of them remains somewhere.

One day my granddaughter will have a child and my child will be the grandmother!  I will be long dead. I will never know what becomes of them, but I'm hoping that they find happiness in their life, as I have in mine. 

 " From the day we arrive on the planet
And, blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round
It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life."