Tiny Tips for Healthier Living

   Here we are on Earth Day and I find myself thinking about all the small thing we can do to live a healthier life helping our planet as we do so.

• Grow your own vegetables - good for you and good for the planet as it reduces our carbon footprint.  Transporting the food means walking from your garden plot, as opposed to shipping from other parts of the country or the world.
• Grow organically - a few chewed leaves should not deter you from keeping pesticides out of the garden and thus out of your body.  The Earth (and her honeybees) will thank you. 
• If growing your own food is not an option, shop your local farmers' markets, again lowering the carbon footprint, as well as helping your neighbors. 
• Eat seasonally.  I may long for fresh strawberries in February, but they are not coming from anywhere near where I live.  Get creative with apples and other fruits in storage, or use fruits you put up the previous season. 
• Hang your laundry on a line to dry.  Energy from the sun is free to us all and we have sweeter smelling clothing.  Line drying also causes less wear and tear on your garments. 
• Remember to turn off the lights as you leave a room. I can still here my mother's voice echoing out from my childhood, "Turn off the light/radio/television (pick one) - we are not supporting Connecticut Light and Power single handedly!" (Thanks Mommy)  This will also help your budget!

There are books about all this and more, but how many of us can go totally off-grid?   Try one or two things that you have not been doing and add them to this year's promise to help sustain our earth.

And now some earth facts.  I particularly like #16.

Happy Earth Day

Suddenly spring - or not

  Friday we were at 73 degrees,  so lovely.  Friday night a torrential rain storm hit with wind and tornado conditions in someplaces.  Yesterday it was 40 degrees, last night it went down to 20 here at the GS camp.  Brrr.
    Still, May is rapidly approaching so Spring tasks must happen.  Last year my bee hives became infested with wax moths - YUCK!  They are disgusting and leave a webby mess in the comb.  So before my two packages of bees arrive in May I need to clean out the hive, add new foundation to most of the frames, and figure out how to heat the plasticell foundation enough to kill the eggs that might be there and not melt the plastic.  This is one task I am NOT looking forward to. 
     My husband and I are going over the merits of various apple types as we look through all the catalogues.  He prefers some of the modern hybrids; I am all all about the older varieties.  Compromise may come with him having the hybrid apples and me eventually getting a few rare/heritage breed sheep. I have had my eye on Leicester Longwools and Navajo-Churros, but I also love the look of Jacobs and feel of Icelandic wool, so - who knows.  The planning is half the fun!