Dirt under the nails

You certainly know when it is spring as all of a sudden there is constant dirt under your fingernails! I do own a pair of gardening gloves, yet it just seems easier to get my hands dirty than actually go hunt them out from the shed. Today was beautiful and sunny, so I managed to spend a little time in the garden...after spending the morning walking about 3 hours to the markets, through town and back again! So I finally put in a few beetroot seeds, some rainbow chard/silverbeet and dug out an annoyingly placed agapanthus (which looked easier than it was!) I have also spent this evening putting seeds into makeshift seedraising trays (aka egg cartons, unrecyclable plastic tubs etc..) so come the equinox I will be all ready to go! Roll on summer!
And right now I am off to sit with the girls and watch some old films we rented from the best DVD/video store in town, Auteur House...you gotta love a video store set out by director, especially when you are an ex film student :) Singin' in the Rain will certainly make for light entertainment in comparison to the peak oil docos we have been watching of late!

The vegans might be onto something....

I was just reading over at Nikki's blog about her vegan leanings. The more you learn about the impact we have on the planet the more you realise that the vegans are onto something. One quote I read lately, which all those who are trying to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle should think about, (but can't seem to remember exactly where I read it!) was ...A Meateater on a Bicycle leaves a bigger carbon footprint than a Vegan in a Hummer. For the run down see easygreenatlanta.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_arch...

Our family have already chosen to be vegetarian, and it is difficult even for us to take it a step further. Well, not all of us...as my 5 year old announced a few weeks ago she has decided not to drink cows milk anymore. On questioning her reasons she told us that if all the people drink the cow's milk there won't be any left for the baby cows (I just about cried!). But the reality is that our current version of agriculture, in NZ anyway, creates more CO2 than our oil consumption! And aswell as that often pollutes our waterways and promotes the use of chemicals and hormones. Not to mention limiting the lifespan of the animals, and there are cruelty issues also. It is something to think about...

Realistically our family could survive on what we grow in our garden, if we plan well. That said we would have trouble with grains as space is an issue when your useable section is only about 890m2. Perhaps we could grow lots of buckwheat and corn? Or throw in a patch of wheat in our front yard if push came to shove. Like Nikki we can't have a cow or a goat, so dairy is out, but we have room for more chooks if we wanted to continue eating eggs. As they say, for evey problem there is a solution :)