Singing to the Land

The wind comes up as the sky darkens.

I can see the moon oriented behind me, over my right shoulder and it hovers over my roof as I sit on my back porch and sing songs to the land.

"...Home, be the temple of my heart.  Home, be the body of my love.  Just like Holy Water to my lips..."

I am bundled in layer upon layer of wool against the icy breeze.  It feels like a tonic to my face, which remains exposed.

I see lights in the sky.  An airplane silently races by, flying low on the horizon far in the distance.

The wind rustles the bare cascading branches of willow and birch and the rhododendron next to me.

"...Coming to the earth.  Singing to the stars.  Change we must to live again.  Coming to the earth to the moon.  Coming to the sky to the earth.  Change we must to live again..."

Esmerelda joins me on my lap and looks out at the world from the folds of my cloak.  She purrs her song.

"...We will witness a song, we will sing.  We belong to the world.  Our Mother so divine.  We live again.  This is here, this is now, this is love that surrounds.  Change we must, change we must to live again..."

A night bird flies past.

"...Take the water to the mountain.  Cross the great divide of love.  Give to nature all you can be.  Let the Mother know your heart.  Take the water to the mountain.  Let's become alive again.  Holy water, Holy mountain.  Holy river.  Holy tree."

The chimes ring in the night, as a flurry of wind stirs them.

I do this almost every night now.  There is no greater medicine right now for me than this.

Peace.





Song lyrics by Jon Anderson

Sunshine and More Sunshine

It's a beautiful day in the South Puget Sound neck of the woods today.  Zöe and Esmerelda are both outside enjoying the sun, and I'm glad to have them with their paws in contact with the earth after such a long time indoors.  Zöe really hasn't been outdoors much since she was mysteriously attacked and not at all since the Peepers hatched out.

Esmerelda has spent the winter inside as well.  She's been suffering from a sensitivity which has had her chewing all of her fur off.  But now it is growing back and it's a relief to let her outdoors.

Buddy simply won't go there right now.  If he can see chickens through the fence, he wants nothing to do with the yard.

I'm planning on moving the flock soon, so the cats can have their whole yard back again.  I have plenty of space to make this happen, I just need more fencing.  And I need to make that happen.

Right now I've just finished prepping some more books to be bound.  I'll be working on the case bindings this after noon.  Hopefully they'll be ready to bind in tomorrow.  And then I can let them sit for a couple of weeks.

I'd love to get time to do some writing or even to just finish my zines.  I'm going to focus on making that happen too.  Also I'm eager to finish my painting.  The next step will be to add some more detail.  I'm hoping to get it finished off this month.  I have way too many things going on at the same time, and if I can get them off the to do list, I'll be much happier.

Esmerelda had a session with BodyTalk-er Sid Snider last week.  I wasn't finding time to do a session myself, and I didn't want to wait any longer.  Besides, sometimes it's better to have someone else work on family members.  It was such a relief, and Esmerelda is getting better and better.  She is back to being her ol' naughty self again.

All of my cat friends are different.  Buddy is very much like a dog in a cat suit.  Zöe is like an ancient spiritual master, and Esmerelda is fun, Fun, FUN.  She is never having more fun than when she is getting into something she knows I don't want her to be into.  If I open up a drawer or a closet and try to slip something in without any interference, she has the ability to wake from a sound sleep at the other end of the house, and be inside before I can close said drawer, closet or cupboard.  But if I invite her into one of those spaces, she wants no part of it.  What's the fun in being somewhere you're supposed to be.  This also applies to the kitchen.

If there is any food left out, she'll find it.  She will attack anything that has come into contact with food.  I've seen the remnants of her handy work--plates licked so clean they look like they've been washed, baked potatoes with only the paper thin layer of skin left.  I've seen her yank the carcass of a chicken breast out of a stock pot when it was just off the boil, and send it sailing through the air to land on the floor below.  Turn your back for a second and she seizes her opportunity.

She is pure alley cat dressed in haute coture.  Then when she lost her beautiful coat, I felt so bad for her, because I knew she had to be pretty miserable to chew most of her long fur down to the skin.

After her session, she started to get better, really fast.  I could feel her skin re-hydrating under my fingertips during the session, and her fur began to grow back right away as her skin began healing.  She was feeling so good, she of course had to start getting into things.  So a couple of days later, I found a half stick of butter on the floor, half eaten.  Of course, I knew who the culprit was.  And so I had an uneasy couple of days while that went through her system and it wasn't pretty.

But now she's back to normal.  And I kicked her out doors.  She's curled up right now on my wool cloak, in a chair on the back porch in the sunshine.

My kitchen has to remain spotless.  It's the only way to notice, if any food has been accidentally left out.  Or any plates with any sauce or food bits which might play havoc with her digestion.  I have a lock down can in my kitchen for compost, and am constantly policing the vicinity for anything that she might get into.

Literally, the other day, I was preparing some vanilla butter cream icing, and turned around to get a utensil, and turned back to find her head in the bowl.  I swear sometimes I think she'll give me a stroke.  It would be funny, if sugar wasn't toxic to cats.  But I tell you, she seems to get the biggest kick in the world out of trying to outwit me, and beat me to the draw.

So now for the flock...The Peepers are getting huge, They are about 12 weeks old, and everything has changed for the flock now.  Rocky has gotten more mellow.  He seems really proud and happy to have more chickens to protect.  Fannie who has been my non layer, has taken a real interest in them and acts like they're her offspring, which has taken some pressure off of Ruby, and allowed her a smoother transition back into the flock.  I can't wait until the Peepers are old enough to lay eggs.  It looks like we only have one cockerel in the batch, and so far that's working out with Rocky.  The cockerel is the only one of the Peepers that has a name so far.  Mike named him Sparky.

And now, some lunch and back to work.


Oh and by the way...
This is what butter looks like when it's been rolled around on the floor and chewed by a cat...Oh well, into the compost.

I'm just surprised she didn't eat it all.  I guess since there was no one to disapprove, she lost interest.

Painting Update

I did a little more work on the painting I started in December.

Here's a link to my on line painting journal.  In Blessed Mother's House

And here is a photo comparison of the work I did on December 12th, and the work I did on Wednesday February 3rd.

Wednesday was glazing day.  hee hee.

comparison before glazing on the left, and after glazing on the right.

I also learned how to get paint off of car upholstery.

I used rubbing alcohol and it came right out, even 24 hours later.

;^) 






Now after glazing, she appears much more to be La Morena.

#gettingcloser

Spring!!

The land and sky are most certainly exhibiting signs of Spring.  As a Gemini, heavily influenced by mutable, Mercurial energies, I relate to the variety that Spring has to offer not only in her moods, but in her wardrobe.  She is constantly evolving as she transitions with Nature from Winter to Summer.

You cannot pin her down.  What she offers today, will be completely different tomorrow.  The subtleties in light and temperature.  The constantly changing weather patterns.  The migration of animals.  The appearance of plants as they reawaken, stretching themselves and peering out from under the blanket of their soil beds.

Tonight in honor of burgeoning Spring, I took myself outside and sat on my back porch to watch the sky darken.

If that seems like a strange way to honor Spring, let me just explain what I mean.

My mornings always start with a whoop and a holler.  No matter how sane I want my mornings to be, fate steps in ("steps in what?" you ask...don't get me started...)

Like this morning, for instance, I poured myself the first cup of coffee for the day.  I only wanted 5 or 10 little minutes to wake up, slowly and in my own time.  I no sooner sat down when the peaceful stillness was broken by a resounding crash from the other end of the house.   

I no longer dash to see what latest drama is unfolding...why bother?  What does it change?  I ambled down the hall, and through the house, where upon reaching the room we use for a studio, I discovered the antique glass lamp shattered on the floor, with countless shards of glass spread over the carpet. 

Forty five minutes later, I was just putting the vacuum away, when I realized that the sun was well up, and I was late letting the chickens out.  The later it gets, the higher the risk of facing a very cranky rooster.  So I hustled to feed and water them, and let them out of the hen house...

Every morning is some variation on this same theme.  I can't seem to find a moment to watch the sun rise.  Chaos intervenes every time.

But at the end of the day, as the world turns away from the sun, and the light begins to fade from the sky, I can take a moment to watch that happen.  I can empty my mind of trivial thought and watch the show that Nature is putting on right before my eyes.

So this evening, I began that ritual. It is my nod to Spring.  I took my coffee outside in the evening rather than in the morning, well bundled up of course.

Here is my watching the light fade from the sky ensemble...vintage red plaid wool coat (Thank you Aunt Charlotte.  That coat is very precious), and a brown slouch felt hat given to me by my mother-in-law years ago and my favorite wool finger-less gloves made with love by my dear friend Rebbeckah.

And I watched the sky change and listened to the geese in the distance.  That time of the evening seemed just right to connect with Spring.  I don't even remember hearing any traffic noises.

Happy Birthday to Mike

Proof that I made Mike a Birthday cake.  A Butterscotch Sundae cake from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.  It's taller than it looks.  This picture was taken before I drizzled butterscotch all over the top.  Perhaps the best frosting I've ever made.  (Maybe not...maybe it's just been so long since I've baked that it seems like the best).  But how can you go wrong with butter, powdered sugar, cocoa and cream.

Yes today was Mike's Birthday, and I went on a quest to find him a birthday present.  I went to seven places to find one book.  I could have ordered it on Amazon, but I only thought of it yesterday.  You know, I really love the ease of shopping on line, but I hate what it's done to the local economy.

While I was on my search this morning I went to Barnes & Nobel (no luck there--again, why should they stock a book that was written over a decade ago, when they can sell it on line), then I tried Walden's bookstore, only to find they were no more (I hadn't heard...) Then I tried Lassley's paper back exchange on the west side.  The sign was still up, but the building was empty with a for lease sign on the door.  

So much for the west side.

I headed down town.  No luck there either.  Not at Browser's and not at Orca books.  

Who Done It books is now only a memory.  When did it go?  Poof! Just like that.

I was beginning to regret having such a brilliant idea too late to order on line.  

I had wanted to get Mike a book that was number 6 in a series of 20 books.  We had the complete series before he decided to give that book to his dad a few years back.  Then last summer, he started reading that series again, only to find we were missing a book.  What a disappointment...and so he stopped.

I thought, "What a great gift!  By buying this one book, I'm really giving him an entire series back."  I just didn't know how hard it would be to find that one book or how hard it would be to even find a bookstore in this town.  They seem to be dwindling.

But I pressed on, and finally at the last place I had left to try, Lassley's paperback exchange in Lacey, was still in business, and there it was.  One shining copy.

Okay, not a shining copy.  It's a paperback exchange, so we're talking about books that have been read over and over.  But somehow, the quest made giving Mike that book all the sweeter, because it wasn't easy.  I wasn't sure I would find it and it seemed to make the ragged paper back more of a prize.

So I brought it home and wrapped it in a remnant piece of soft green plaid flannel fabric tied with twine (because I thought it was pretty) and handed it to him with a home made card.  Then we had coffee and laughed together while he opened his other cards and gifts from family.  And he was really excited about the book.  He started reading it later in the afternoon, and he's already a quarter the way through it...and remember it's not just one book...now it is 15 books, because he can finish the series.

Then I took him to lunch at Vic's pizza.  And when we came home, while he read his book with a cat on his lap, I made him a birthday cake.  He though he was in heaven.

I came of age in an era of materialism unprecedented in our culture.  And even though we used to make more money than we're making now, I always felt poor.  Somehow that has changed for me.

The more I step outside of what is normal and safe, the richer I feel.  Today, going on a quest for a Birthday present felt magical.  Would I find what I sought?  Would I win the day?

And Mike feels blessed because I baked.  Something I used to do often, but in these days when every moment is filled with earning a living or keeping up with household work,  baking is the last thing I have time for.  So now a cake becomes a magical and rare treat.  And that is how it should be.

What I'm really trying to say, in a long and rambling way is that all those things we once took for granted had lost their magic.  They had lost their zest.  But now  that we live a completely different lifestyle, where we work only for ourselves, we have come to appreciate the crafting of a moment into something more beautiful, and more magical.  A moment to be cherished and savored.  

Update on The Peepers

The Peepers have now become part of the flock.  The internet is a strange and wondrous source of all sorts of information, which is subject to the perception of whoever is sharing that information.  I had read that you should wait to introduce chicks into the flock until they were 16 weeks old.  My friend who runs a chicken farm disagreed.  Her opinion is --the sooner, the better.

The last two days, I had observed Ruby pecking at the chicks and apparently wanting to get back to the flock.  I could see she was torn.  She wanted to be with the others, but she wanted to take the chicks with her.  Having read "expert" advice on the internet, I was hesitant to introduce the Peepers to the flock.  But by just observing the behavior of the chickens, it felt like it was time.  So I asked my friend with the chicken farm.  She seemed to think it was long overdue.

Yesterday I put them in with the flock and cut a little exit in the fence so they could escape back into their yard if they needed to.  They were mostly just ignored, which was kind of a relief.  But they also didn't want to stay with the flock.  They wanted to be "home".  Their home.  So today, I put them in with the flock and blocked the fence.  They were distressed at first, but adapted.

Tonight when I put them all into the hen house they cried and cried.  Not the cozy peeps that I'm used to hearing at night, when they are still settling down after their busy day, but stressed out chick cries.

I went back inside my house and thought they would settle down, but when I went out 10 minutes later, I could still hear stressed chick noises coming from inside.  So I did a little energy work from just outside, and within less than a minute, I heard the little peeps trail off and it got very quiet.

I'm so ready for this to work.  I had a talk with Rocky this afternoon, and told him the Peepers were his responsibility now.  They are part of his flock and he has to keep them safe from hawks.  I told the Peepers they need to stay close to the flock and not wander aimlessly in the open.  

They had figured out their own yard, especially after several close calls with the hawks.  Their reactions were impeccable (no pun intended) on their home turf.  But watching them today made me apprehensive.  There is some open ground in that part of the yard, and they were mostly wandering around like lost children out in the open, while the full grown hens and Rocky were under cover a distance away.

Things were unsettled today, I'm sure they'll get the hang of it.  I just don't want to lose any.  I love my Peepers...no doubt about it.  But from a practical point of view, I also need all the egg layers I can get.

Mike asked me the other day, how many chickens I was planning on raising.  Here's my feeling.  I only have so much land, and it's not a lot, and I don't want to go into chicken farming.  But I want egg layers, and I want chickens working the land, which they do so brilliantly.

I started out with 4 hens in the beginning.  When my best egg layer was killed by a hawk, I was not only heart broken, but it upset everything with the remaining flock.  Ruby has been the only consistent layer since then.  I brought in Rocky to protect the flock...it was just a bonus that I got chicks out of it.

With only one hen laying eggs, I welcomed the chance to increase the flock.  And now that they're here, another one of the hens is finally laying eggs.  And I'm letting her keep them in the hopes that she'll get broody.  There are 9 eggs right now, so I'm hopeful.  And if she doesn't get broody, maybe one of the others will.  Ruby hasn't started laying eggs yet, so maybe she'll do it.  But the point is, the more chicks I have, the better my chance of getting egg layers and I'd like to have 6 productive hens.  I potentially have that right now.  But that's only if Ruby starts laying again and the other hen keeps laying, and four of the Peepers grow up to be egg layers...and only if no one else gets killed by predators.  So as I explained to Mike, if I can get another clutch of eggs hatched (the natural way--I don't do incubators), than I will be very happy.

My friend with the chicken farm was wondering when I was going to butcher the non producers.  I get the feeling she thinks that I'm being weak and maybe a bit sentimental.  But here's what motivates me, and it might not make sense to someone who doesn't work with energies like I do regularly, but I'll try to explain anyway.

In a very small flock, such as mine is, it takes very little to upset the balance.  One hen getting killed by a hawk didn't reduce my egg production by 1/4.  It impacted egg production by 75%.  My four hens were laying 2 dozen eggs a week.  Then I lost Penny, and two of the remaining hens stopped laying eggs, so now I was getting 6 eggs a week.  And let me just add, that my hens were all young and had only been laying for 3 or 4 months when this happened.  In the language of energy matrices, the matrix had been disrupted.

Add to the mix an aggressive rooster, and it has taken a year to recover from that one death in the flock.  It's literally taken that long for things to start to run smoothly again.  If I had taken out my two non producers, then the flock would take even longer to recover.  And now one of those two is actually laying eggs again - finally - and I'm not 100% certain which one is the layer.  So I guess I'm not in any hurry to start culling.

I love my flock.  Not because I think of them as pets.  I love them because they are members of my family now.  I love them because they teach me, and they give me food, or have given me food in the past, or will give me food in the future.  And in return, I give them food.  They work my land.  I give them shelter.  We are learning to communicate with each other, and that is really something.  This is who I am.  I'm not a farmer.  I love farmers, some of my friends are farmers and some of my family are but I'm not one and I'm not trying to be one.

I'm a kooky person who does a lot of different things to get by.  That's all.

What A Difference!

What a difference three weeks can make!

I have been plowing through the work around here.  My Kitchen has never been so clean.  I've lived in this house for 15 years, and I've never had much clear counter space.  It's mostly been covered by dirty dishes, bottles and jars waiting to be washed before going out to the recycling, and various works in progress.  A chaotic jumble about sizes the whole situation up.

But in the first two weeks of 2016, I managed to turn that trend around.  When I came home from the food co-op last week, I actually had a space to set all my groceries, when I brought them in.  The living room and dining room have also been decluttered, as well as The Bindery, which was starting to look a little chaotic.

Three weeks into 2016, and my house is starting to resemble a real home and not just a busy work space.

The Peepers are growing like crazy.  They're 10 weeks old now!!  I'm really excited that 4 of the 5 are pullets and only one is a cockerel.  Of course that still leaves me with a dilemma.  What to do with the excess male bird.  And he is at the moment far more lovable than his pop.

Rocky and I have a tenuous truce, which neither one of us is anxious to put to the test.  It makes cleaning the chicken house and working in that part of the yard difficult though, and if a fence comes down, it becomes a real adrenaline rush to get it repaired.  The secret to my success is that FOOD is the great moderator.

Sparky (Mike named the new one) is my friend.  I'm not sure if he knows the score or not, but he's doing his best to get on my good side, and so far, he's my pal.

Ruby (mom) is finally after 10 weeks, starting to peck at them.  Again, it's that whole FOOD thing.  I introduced her back into the hen yard with Rocky.  I won't say there was a tender reunion, because that's just not Rocky's style, but he was glad to see her.  (I might get more chicks out of that interaction).

She didn't stay put.  She was upset to be separated from the chicks, and wanted me to let them in too.  I decided to let her out instead, and she was OK with that.  Today we tried it again, though.  I guess for the next few days, I'll keep letting her into the hen yard until they remember who she is.  Ten weeks ago she was top hen in the flock.  Now she's at the bottom of the pecking order.  They won't let her near the food, and Rocky wasn't all that thrilled that I fed her a bit away from them.  He wanted to dominate both food supplies.  (Sort of reminded me of Monsanto.)  I had to lure him back to his own food.

I guess I'll just observe how it works out, and if I can bring her and the chicks into the flock--great.  If not, than I'll have two flocks.  I would rather have them all together though, but I'll have to see how Rocky and Sparky will get along.

I'll be glad to get the Peepers out of the back yard.  It was okay when they were still tiny, but now, my back porch and patio resemble a barn yard.  Every evening I have to shovel it off and sluice it down.  (I know, too much information.)

Never the less, I do love them and they always make me laugh.  And they all seem to like being held.

Enough about chickens.

My resolve to move toward zero waste, is coming along.  Last week we generated about a gallon of trash.  (I don't remember what we threw in the trash to even get that much...it must have been some kind of plastic that I ran across when I was cleaning out the kitchen.  I keep finding old plastic squirreled away (I guess I was hoping I would eventually find a use for some of it.)  But as far as the trash goes, typically, I generate about 3 yogurt cups full of plastic trash a week now.  It's getting easier to compost and recycle almost everything else, as long as I pay really close attention to what I am bringing home.  (We haven't bought bacon since the new year--sigh--I do miss it, and I just need to find time to drive over to the meat market, where I can hopefully get some uncured bacon wrapped in non plasticized paper.  #jumping through hoops!)

And finally, I wanted to share that someone who bought Winter Tales through Pegana Press, liked it enough to also buy a copy of Hearth & Heart Summer edition.  He also hinted broadly that he would buy Hearth & Heart Autumn (Coming Soon).  I got a chuckle out of that, until I realized that I had 3 zines partially finished and that I needed to get my butt in gear and get them out.  All the stories have been finished for months, I just need to put them in zine format, which is mostly finished.

But for now, I'm still binding another two batches of books and working on profit and loss for 2015 tax return.  Definitely trying to make sure I stay up with book keeping this year, so it's not so hard later.  The shoe box method, isn't working anymore.  I went in to see if I qualified for a reduced rate in my power bill last year, and the woman said to me.  If you're self employed you should have all your totals already.  I got a hardy laugh out of that, and resisted the temptation to respond with...You've never owned a business before where you did everything yourself, have you?  I have another friend who runs multiple business out of her home too, and it's just her and her partner, just like with me and Mike.  They do everything on their own, just like we do and they work 12 hours or more a day - every day, just like we do.  Tell me, where do people like us find time to make sure their book keeping is up to date?

But now that is on the list for 2016.  Wish me luck.

Solving Problems

I had a list taped to my refrigerator for most of last year, labeled "Solving Problems" which listed 5 things I wanted to improve in my life with possible solutions.  I just took the list down yesterday.  4 out of 5 were accomplished.  

Now I'm ready to tackle something new and this year, my biggest project to work on is solving the problem of Space and Time.

I don't have enough of either one.

At least that's what it's felt like these last two years.  So my big project this year is to come up with some modifications to organize my living space and my time better.

I've already solved one problem linked to my current project.  The problem of perception.

Before, I could only see the lack of space and the chaos that is/was my home.  I'm not a hoarder.  It isn't that.  It's just that things accumulate, and I couldn't seem to find the time or energy to declutter.

It's difficult because we run our businesses out of our home, and as the business spaces expanded, the living spaces shrank.  And time has been affected in the same way.  As I took on more work projects, my personal time almost completely disappeared.  When you work out of your home, the boundaries can become blurred because you're not separated by distance from your work place.

But as I said, my perception has shifted around seeing my living space as chaotic.  These last two years, I've spent a lot of time in the state of Overwhelm, (that's just south of here).  But about a month ago, I stopped feeling frantic.

So today, I was looking at my same ol' living space and didn't see it as a horrific jumble.  In fact I even said to myself, "This isn't so bad".  And I made progress today, on turning it into a space that works for me.

And I enjoyed the process.  It was restful, and it was a relief.

The Game

Whenever I have something big to overcome in my life, I figure out how I can make a game of it.  It keeps me focused and it gives me a creative way to change my life.  So the other day, I created a new game to help me reduce my "inventory" of stuff, and create a beautiful, organized, practical space, which can function for both business and living.

Trash

One of the challenges I face in my home is how much trash builds up.  So I wanted to address that issue as part of this game.

Back in the late 1980 s, I became aware of the trash problem, and so I began recycling.  But in the last few years, I've come to believe that it's not enough.  The problem of trash has gotten complicated.  It just has.  And in my quirky way, I have responded by trying to be more aware and responsible about my own trash.  Sometimes that leads to me hanging onto things to either reuse, or find a way to dispose of responsibly. I have reduced my consumption of items that come packaged in plastic, and I try to avoid wasting things.

In July of 2014, I participated in a world wide event called Plastic Free July.  The idea was to try to avoid single use plastic.  It was hard.  In fact, you'd have to be pretty self sustainable to pull it off.  And that was the point of the exercise.  To raise awareness.  Some of the practices, I still continue, but I have also made compromises which make me feel guilty.  And that really ticks me off.  Because I don't want it to be hard, and I don't want to feel guilty.

I'm not talking about what other people should do with their trash.  I'm talking about me.  I'm talking about how this issue has complicated my life.  I'm talking about how it affects me personally.  Because I have educated myself on this subject.  Now I know what I know, and I can't unknow it.

I want to do better.  So when I look around my home, and see a lot of accumulation that I am no longer able, in good conscious to just throw in the trash, it makes me mad.  We are constantly bombarded with trash.

But anger can be a useful thing.  In Chinese Medicine, the concept is that Anger gets you moving.  It causes you to take action.  And that action has led me to rethink how I'm handling my trash and to create some new goals for myself.

So another one of my goals for this year is to immediately and significantly reduce the volume of trash I put into my trash can every week.  My usual volume is about two grocery bags each week.  But half of that is chicken bones from making bone broth, and there is also used cat litter from my 3 cats.  Both of those can be composted, it just requires a different process than the yard waste style of compost pile.

There is a whole belief system around composting and people discuss it at great length and even disagree about it.  But here's my belief.  If it's food, and it's done correctly, even if it's meat, bone, dairy and fat, it will break down.  The same should be true for most of what I throw into the trash.  I buy very few things that aren't biodegradable.  It just requires an adjustment in what becomes natural for me to do.

I will be writing about this from time to time, as I discover what is possible.  For now my new indoor trash can is a yogurt cup.  My daily goal is to only generate enough non biodegradable trash to fill that cup, and no more.  As I experiment with this, I will reduce that amount if I can.  The real challenge will come when I begin to declutter.  Who knows what that will look like!

The Peepers

It snowed on The Peepers yesterday!  Both flocks went into their houses and stayed there the rest of the day.  But today it was much warmer, and they seemed happier.