Still Thinking About Food

I realize that I haven’t written much about food these days, so just a brief update.  I am still sticking to my local eating as best I can.  I continue to bring only local food into my house, but for the last several months have eaten out way more than I meant to.  It’s a slippery slope; with so much going on it’s hard to find time to cook, or in my case, the energy to do so.  My life sped up over the last few months, and now I have to slow it down again.  I don’t want to live fast, and I certainly don’t want to eat fast.

At the end of a very intense moving day on Friday I remembered that I had a flat of strawberries in my fridge, waiting to be put in the freezer.  One more day and they’d only be good for jam.  I thought about it for a minute, then decided that I wouldn’t have time to make jam anytime soon, so best just sit down and take care of business.  So at 11pm, I washed and hulled a flat of strawberries and got them into the freezer.

I wasn’t good for much on Saturday, let me tell you!

I’ve moved a good portion of my garden to my new house, but I don’t think I’m going to get much of a yield this year.  I do have three tomato plants in pots that are going well, and a couple of my kale plants survived the trip and the rabbits and are a decent size.  I have some lettuce in a planter that has sprouted, but won’t be ready for probably three weeks.  It will be hard to leave behind the fabulous lettuce path I have going here, but I don’t think full-grown lettuce transplants well.  Besides, some of it is starting to bolt.  Best to just invite all the  neighbours to help themselves before the property managers plunk patio stones over them (yes, that’s what’s in store for my lovely little garden – *sniff*).

My peas are yielding well, and I’m excited that they started to produce before I left.  They are growing along the fence line with my neighbour, so we will shift the fence an inch (chicken wire) so they can keep them safe from the grounds keepers.

I’m going to try and transplant my garlic, but I suspect it won’t go well.  Since it will simply be cut down if I don’t, I figured I’d might as well try.  I have also already cut down my grape vine and my wisteria – both of which had extensive vines covering my privacy fences – and will move them in the next couple of days.

I was really delighted to discover that my new roommate and her parents finished re-claiming the garden beds around the new house, something I wasn’t sure I had the energy for.  Now I can just plunk my transplants into the ground and voilà!  Instant garden.

I moved my freezer on Thursday, putting all the frozen food (mostly meat) into boxes to be carried upstairs to the fridge freezer.  I had been eating down the contents for several months so that there wasn’t too much left.  The problem was that the fridge freezer was still quite full.  I had to run out, got distracted, and forgot about the frozen food in boxes.  I came back from delivering a van load of stuff to my new house to discover that many things had thawed.  Well, that simplified things that’s for sure!

I ended up throwing out everything in the upstairs freezer.  It was mostly veggies, and since we are back to fresh veggie season I knew I would never eat them.  So out with the old, now there’s lots of space for the new!  I put the still frozen meat in the small freezer, and delivered the thawed meat to my neighbours who have a large family.  Yesterday they had a big bar-b-q and invited me to join them.  I brought as much lettuce as I could pile into my largest bowl, and we had quite  feast.

I am going to toss all my old preserves as well.  Again, out with the old to make room for the new.  Why eat old, heavily boiled food if I can eat fresh stuff?

Speaking of which, I am toying with the idea of trying an all raw diet for a few weeks, to see if I feel any better.  I still suffer from chronic fatigue and a lot of chronic pain – this move has made it clear to me that I am still very limited in my ability to push myself.  I don’t ever want to go back to the crazy, insanely busy lifestyle I used to lead, but I would at least like to be able to push myself in healthy ways, like doing a lot of gardening (eventually farming) or some back country hiking trips.  I’m healthier now that I’ve been in years, but still right now I just couldn’t do it.

Once settled, I am going to do some research into eating raw and am very curious to see what I come up with.  Which reminds me, tonight I need to make another batch of sauerkraut, a tasty and healthy way to preserve food raw.

Letting Go and Moving On

Phew, what a week!  My furniture is now all moved to it’s new residence, either at my new house or in someone else’s house.  I stuck to my guns and let go of a lot of things that were not easy to part with: my great grandmother’s couch and chair set which had been in the family for four generations; several antiques I’d collected and refinished, my great grandmother’s costume jewelry (I kept one piece), the guitar I bought 20 years ago and still have not learned how to play, my television, my bed.

I was struck by how much my taste has changed over the past five years.  When I moved into this house, I was in love with all of the items I parted with (ok, the antiques, not the TV).  Most of them now just make me feel heavy.  A few I’ve kept because I still like them. They tend to be the really simple ones; the ornate stuff all turns me off now.  The elegant Ethan Allen vanity I have used for the past decade I now want to switch for the simple one of my childhood (in the guest room at my parent’s house).

Despite the struggle to say good-bye, now that these items are out of my life, I don’t miss them one bit.  This whole process is so eye opening!  My mother thanked me for having the strength to let go of that living room set, something she was unable to do herself (and instead gave it to me).  Isn’t it funny how objects can have such a hold on us?  I don’t know how many times I had to remind myself that my great grandmother is not in that couch.  In fact, she’d probably be astonished we still had it in the family!

Incidentally, I donated most of the big items to a fund-raising sale for London chapter of Grannies for Grannies, an organization affiliated with the Stephen Lewis foundation, which raises money to send to grandmothers in Africa raising AIDS orphans.  I’m sure my great grandmother would approve, especially since my own grandmother has an association with this group as well, I have just discovered.

I’ve found a lot of other things around the house that were really cluttering up my life with their energy, as well as their physical presence.  Clutter in general is distracting and draining, but add to that things that invoke negative feelings and you really have a barrier in your life to moving forward.  For example, I found a bunch of “why it’s better to be single” books and cards, poking fun at relationships and men.  Hmmm… not terribly helpful to making space in my life for a relationship, is that?  Yes, it’s all now in the recycle bin (I couldn’t bring myself to pass that kind of stuff along).

I’ve also been tossing all my “what if” items.  Things that I was holding onto for some future possible use.  I have been getting much better at leaving my ideas about the future fairly unstructured so that opportunities that I had never thought of would have room to join those I envisioned.  For example, the new home I am in the process of moving into is not something I had ever envisioned. Had I kept a strict focus on moving to Ottawa area, I would never had even considered it.  But I kept my options open, and this opportunity is really wonderful.

To do the same for my long-term future I have to let go of physical things that may narrow my options, objects that I was hanging onto because I had a particular vision of my future.  I am letting go of pretty much all my visions of the future these days – kids, career, location – and just focusing on the short term.  If I am happy today, tomorrow will take care of itself.  There really isn’t anything more I can do about it.  So no more kids toys collecting dust in a hope chest, or projects I may get around to *some day.*  Today what matters to me are my friends, family and animal companions, my research, studying homeopathy, and taking care of my health.  That’s a pretty full plate, so anything that doesn’t support these aspects of my life need to be let go.

I am not there yet, although I’ve made very good progress.  I have noticed that the more times I go through my things, the more things I am able to let go of.  My first time culling my books I was able to eliminate 5-8.  The second time I doubled that, and the third time I managed to get rid of at least 50.

Recognizing the energy vampires in my life has been quite a challenge as they are often not obvious.  I have found that only by removing obvious clutter do new objects and aspects become apparent as more clutter.  It’s therefore important to do many rounds of this process.  Unpacking will be the next round, which should be interesting.  But first I need to finish culling at this end, and I had best get back to it as there is still a lot of junk lying around and only a couple of days left to deal with it.

The Great Purge

Well I finally got my momentum going around packing and purging.  Reading the book Clutter Busting, and then helping a friend do a bit of purging at her place yesterday (she’s moving too), got me revved up at last.  I came home from my friend’s house and immediately started purging my office.  In about two hours I had 8 boxes of books waiting at the front door to go to the used book store or charity.  This morning I added two boxes of kitchen stuff and knick knacks.  And I’m just getting going.

It’s funny how once you start letting go of stuff, it gets easier and easier.  The first few things were tough, but then once they were gone I felt so much lighter.  The feeling is so good it makes you want to get rid of more stuff.  It’s the opposite of consumerism, where buying stuff makes you feel momentarily good, and then leaves you feeling heavy, anxious and cluttered.

I had a tough time with the books, which is perhaps why I tackled them first.  I have a decent size library of perhaps 3-400 books.  I have read many of them, many more sit waiting.  Some I’ll never read.  Some I have just because I feel they are good ‘foundation’ books, like Winston Churchill’s memoirs.  But do I really need to own these?  Should I ever decide to read Churchill’s memoirs, can I not simply get them from the library?  

I had books like Benjamin Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld.  A controversial text that many read to be ‘informed’ about the current global situation.  Or Thomas Friedman’s The Lexux & the Olive Tree.  I have read these books and taken what I need from them (which is not much).  They are not books I’d ever re-read, nor would I recommend them to friends.  So why keep them?  Just for the irritation factor of having them in my library (both books make me cringe)?  Just to make my library ‘look well-rounded’?  

What silly reasons to keep crap around.  I decided to get rid of all books that I can’t see myself ever reading again or lending out.  Or reading for the first time.  

I also had a bunch of books saved for reference purposes in case I should ever teach a class on International Relations.  After all, that’s what I am most qualified to do (although I think I am now stronger in Political Theory than IR).  But upon reviewing most of the books I had on my shelf I realized that they sit so far from what I consider important or appropriate to teach that I will never use them.  Sure, they are in the mainstream cannon and if I teach an intro course I will need to make sure my students are familiar with them.  But I can get them out of the library should I need to review them.  No need to have them on my office shelf, perpetually glaring down at me, provoking me with their small-mindedness.  I don’t need that kind of bad kharma in my creative environment.

Believe it or not, I still had one shelf of undergraduate textbooks on math and physics and biochemistry, anatomy and neurology.  I still have a strong interest in these subjects, but now I just get on-line when I want to look something up.  It’s much easier than trying to wade through textbooks I haven’t used in two decades to try and find something.  Plus, as was just pointed out to me by a friend teaching these subjects, the books will be incredibly outdated.  Time to let them go.

This, surprisingly, was the hardest bunch to set free.  These texts represent a big part of my identity – the last vestiges of my former life as an engineer and physicist, of the formative years of my adulthood.  Of a person who no longer exists.  

I think I was holding on to them like old trophies.  They shouted to the world (so I deluded myself into thinking): “Look what I accomplished!  Look how smart I am!”  They are still covered in the blood, sweat and tears of having dragged myself through a degree in Engineering Physics.  A tremendous accomplishment and one I am still very proud of.  Sort of.  These books also make me feel like a fraud, because I know that you don’t have to be that smart to get such a degree.  Your brain just has to work in a certain way, and you have to be very stubborn.  My feelings for them are actually quite ambivalent.  They were like a chip on my shoulder, or a certificate on the wall.  

I was pretty dumb when I was 20, even though I made it through that degree.  That’s what these books really remind me of, when I stop long enough to be really honest with myself. 

They, too, are going.

I now have a much smaller library, one that comprises books that are interesting and provocative, books I will re-read or use for reference regularly, books I recommend to friends and lend out.  And the rest will find new homes.  

Now that I’m through purging my library, the rest is coming much more easily. I am now easily tossing (i.e. recycling or donating) anything cracked, chipped or shabby, anything that is annoying, that feels like clutter.  Anything plastic.  Anything not useful, or beautiful.  Anything that makes me wince, cringe or feel tired or sad. Anything that does not make my life easier, or more joyful.

I’m curious to see what I’m going to have left!

Gearing Up for Some Major De-Stuffing

Today I bought the book “Clutter Busting: Letting Go of What’s Holding You Back” by Brooks Palmer.  Don’t worry, I see the irony in buying something to help me get rid of stuff!  But I really need some inspiration to give me the strength I need to purge my life.  I woke up at 1:30am last night, panicking about how much crap I have and how I’m going pack and move it all, and worse, where I’m going to fit it at my new house!  I am downsizing from a two bedroom house to essentially a bachelor apartment.  That’s a lot of de-stuffing.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to de-stuff.  The very thought of not having all this crap around me makes me feel 10lbs lighter.  The problem is actually going through with getting rid of it.  

As I was walking through Chapters, where I had taken refuge from the rain and my standard place at the kitchen table, and worked for a few hours this afternoon, the book Clutter Busting caught my eye.  I skimmed the intro and read “…the various things that clog up your home, office, and garage constantly trip you up in every area of your life.  Whether or not your realize it, these “white elephants” are the reason you no longer enjoy your home; they are behind that feeling of ‘I just can,t get anything done’ and general feelings of unhappiness, illness, and disease.  Collectively they are overwhelming your sense.  Nothing motivates you anymore.  You can never get organized. Tasks go unfinished; projects get left behind.  You feel buried, unaccomplished.”  

Wow – did this guy read my mind?  Or is this such a common phenomenon that he can write a book that so easily strikes a chord?  I suspect the latter, but either way I decided to keep reading.  A few pages later, he advises the reader to adopt the mantra “Things will not make me happy.”  He then encourages you with “You possess the ability to let go.”  A dozen pages in, he confesses his own struggle over throwing out poetry he wrote a decade earlier: “I realized that I had written these poems about relationships that had gone bad and about  my sadness at the time.  When I started to read a few, I felt old sorrows return.  I had to ask if I wanted that in my life anymore.”  Photos and memorabilia keep ghosts in your life.  Do you want that?  Do I want that?  ”You can let go of the past,” he concludes, assuringly.

I bought the book to see what else he had to say.  Books, in my humble opinion, are not clutter (although they are the first thing I’ve sorted through and purged to the best of my ability – about two boxes full on their way to the second hand store).

What Palmer writes is not news to me, but it is good timing for me to get a refresher course on letting go of stuff I just don’t need anymore.  Stuff that weighs me down, that suffocates me.  To make room for the new, I  need to let go of the old.  I have so many little projects, plans and piles that have lost their luster and just clog my house and life, gatherhing dust.  They need to go.  A few can stay, the ones I know for certain I will get to, and still want to do.  But most are relics of interests and time past, and no longer inspiring to me.  Onward and upward.

The book likens un-cluttering your house to weeding your garden.  I have just finished weeding two of the main garden beds at my new house, reclaiming them from several years of mother nature doing her own thing, and that felt wonderful.  I look forward to doing the same with my house.  But first, back to reading this book!

Time

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll note that I keep talking about how busy I am.  Most people constantly complain about being far too busy.  Why is that?  This is something I’ve been mulling over for a while, and this morning – after finishing reading the book Better Off – it suddenly became clear.  (damn!  the milk I was heating to make yogurt with just boiled over… so much for multitasking!)

In the book, the author – Eric Brende – writes about his experience living in an Amish-type community.  What stood out the most from this experience was the shift in the impact of work on his life.  In mainstream society, we work 8-10 hours a day, plus commuting, in order to make enough money to do all the other things we want to do in life, which then have to be squished into the remaining hours of the week.  In the lifestyle he writes about, he and his wife keenly observe that they simply have more time.    

More time.  That is what I wish for every single day, as I climb into bed feeling like a complete failure, anxiety piling up, having accomplished but a fraction of what I had hoped to do upon waking the morning before.  I am not actually working 8-10 hours a day at a job right now, being a grad student, although technically I supposed I should be putting that much time into my dissertation (I find it impossible to get more than about 5 hours a day, at best).  But I am still trying to do an enormous amount every day.  

First, I am trying to do the work that I ’should’ be doing, i.e. finishing my degree so that I can get a job and return to being a respectable citizen.  That takes up about 3-5 hours of my day most days, and dominates my mind 24 hours a day regardless of what I am doing.  Next, I am trying to raise and train four border collies.  This requires, although doesn’t always get, a good 3-4 hours a day.  I am also trying to live a more-sustainable lifestyle through growing as much of my own food as possible, avoiding all commercially produced foods, doing as much as I possibly can from my own labour, walking whenever possible and so on.  I don’t keep track of how much time this takes, but it’s on-going all day, every day.  I also do a lot of research on every aspect of my life, from the dog training to the sustainable living to homeopathy, and of course the dissertation.  Finally, I try to maintain a decent social life so that I don’t go insane with the very isolating pursuit of writing a dissertation. (and of course this month there is the purging, packing and moving of my life)

No wonder I am so busy!  I am trying to live nearly four separate lifestyles in one day. 

In Better Off!, Brende describes life in this sustainable community.  First, work is done collectively a lot of the time: work bees are common to raise barns and other structures on the property, harvest is done en-masse, as is canning and preserving and so on.  As he repeats over and over, “many hands makes work light.”  But there’s another advantage to working collectively as well – work becomes your social life.  As such, there is no need to try and squish social gatherings into a busy schedule.  They simply become part of your day and help the work part pass quickly.

If I were living the life I really wanted to live, a lot of the things I do every day would overlap, would condense.  For example, if I were running a working farm, I wouldn’t need to spend 3-4 hours a day separately training and exercising my dogs because they would help me on the farm, getting work and training in the process.  If my friends and I actually got together to do canning and other food preparation together – as we have frequently vowed to do – we would similarly kill two birds with one stone.  If all I had to worry about was sustaining myself, I could put my energy into doing so instead of trying to prepare myself to do an income earning job, on top of trying to sustain myself.

This is not to say that I wouldn’t want to continue to do my research and perhaps teach.  I think I would.  That said, the main focus of my research is trying to understand why I can’t live the life I want to live.  Ironic, yes?  I am fascinated by the historical evolution of the power structures that currently dictate how we live and what we do.  

If I were able to really live the life I wanted, would this still hold a fascination for me?  I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to find out.  Because of these very power structures, based on the primacy of capital – which I lack – I will likely always have to struggle with the duality of my existence.  I at best can hope to tip it in the opposite direction in the near future, i.e. get into a position where my out-of-home work stops dominating my life and mind 24-7 and leaving me in a state of constant low-grade anxiety.  If I am successful, which I expect I can be, that will put me far ahead of most people in terms of the alienation with which we all live.

On that note, I’m off to a sheep farm to discuss the possibility of training there, then down to my new house to work on another garden bed so I can finish transplanting this week.  After that I must exercise my dogs, do some cooking, and settle into my writing.  It’s already 11am – where does the time go?

Busy, busy!

I am still here!  Been very busy of late, what with packing and purging and gardening and driving to Québec for sheepdog camp, not to mention finishing up a course, and of course trying to do some work on the dissertation.  And I’ve been trying really hard to not write just before going to bed – like I am doing right now – so that I sleep well and recover from the stress of the school year.

My garden is doing very well – I managed to reclaim one large bed at my new house and get a few things planted about two weeks ago.  I had hoped to have done more work by now, but with the hour commute each way, I have been finding it a bit challenging to just pop down there.  I hope to get a lot more done this weekend, and the last few things into the ground.  Most of my plants here have been put into pots, or are growing in the ground here, waiting to be transplanted.  I didn’t want to transplant too many things until I would be around to water them and help them with their transition. 

I am also doing some significant un-stuffing.  I have to downsize considerably and am doing my best to let go of anything that isn’t either beautiful or useful.  Setting those two standards makes evaluating stuff pretty simple.  I’ve also been trying to purge my life of as much plastic as possible, such as all my tupperware.  It all went into the recycling bin last week.  I expect I’ll be storing most of my kitchen stuff, and I certainly won’t be storing anything plastic!  The same holds true for the rest of my house.  

What will be tough is parting with some of my furniture.  Of course anything that I really love I will keep.  But I have a number of things that I am on the fence about.  Pieces of furniture that could be really neat, if only I had the time and energy to refinish them.  I used to do a fair amount of furniture refinishing, but haven’t for several years now.  It simply takes too much energy, plus a well ventilated workspace.  I have had neither for a while now. 

I am trying to be brutally honest with myself: I won’t be doing any of these projects for at least another two years.  Is it really worth keeping some of these things?  The answer is coming back negative for much of it, so hopefully I will find the inner strength to let it go.  The question is, go where?  Much of this junk is just that – junk, unless you are willing to refinish it.  Most people aren’t, so likely if I give it up, it will be going to the dump.  Well, perhaps I’ll let the people who come to my garage sale decide on that!

Time to go to bed and hopefully finish the book I am currently reading: Better Off.  It is a very interesting read about a couple who join an Amish-type community in order to live for a year without any power driven technology.  I thought the book would focus more on how they struggled without electricity and gas, but it focuses mostly on life in that community.  Not what I was expecting, but quite fascinating none-the-less.  I am really enjoying reading about how they live collectively, and also how much free time they have.  Or at least, how their “work” is not really work because they do it collectively and make it a social affair.  In some traditional cultures, there is no separate word for “work” – it is definitely a Capitalist invention, for the most part alienating, as Marx clearly depicted.  The “work” described in this book is not at all alienating, and in fact is quite the contrary.  Too bad writing a dissertation can’t be done along the work bees and barn raising models!

What Happened to the Month of May?

I can’t believe how busy I’ve been for the last three weeks.  I guess it is gardening season, plus I’ve been taking a fairly intensive teaching training course.  And of course there’s the dogs, who always keep me busy.  Oh, and starting to sort and purge for my move at the end of June.  

While I dread actually moving, I think the move itself will be good.  I’ve spent a little time at the new house now, and I really enjoyed it.  It is peaceful and a lot quieter than where I am living now.  I love that my housing complex is as social as it is, and to be honest most of the social interaction I get on a daily basis comes from my neighbours.  Writing a dissertation is an intensely lonely process.  Yet it is one that requires a peaceful and quiet atmosphere in which to write.  And that is simply not something I have where I currently reside.  

This year there seems to be a bumper crop of pre-school aged children with stay at home parents caring for them.  That means that I typically have somewhere between 8-12 kids under four racing around the property along side and behind my house.  Sometimes they are so loud I cannot hear the sound on my computer without headphones.  Definitely not ideal for concentrated writing.

My first project in getting organized for the move has been to prepare my garden.  I have been transplanting my seedlings into containers rather than the ground, and digging up as much of my soil as possible to fill those containers.  I also have been weeding the garden bed at the new house, and this weekend hope to finish turning the soil and actually do some planting.  Last week I gave a couple of my seedling kale plants to my neighbours, who promptly put them in the ground.  Those plants are now twice the size of the ones I have kept in pots.  Time to get planting!  And transplanting.  

I really wish I had some help with all this.  Good thing I have a whole month left to work on this move, because it’s going to eat up most all of my spare time, and much of my work time too.  Moving is a big job, and quite frankly it sucks to do it on your own.

I am trying to make this as positive as possible and am using the move as an excuse to purge as much as I can.  I have to downsize from a two bedroom house to a single, albeit very large bedroom.  Talk about de-stuffing!  

A lot of my stuff has sentimental value and that is hard to let go of.  For example, my living room couch and chair used to be long to my great grandmother.  I have been torn about whether or not to bring them.  The room is actually large enough for a couch and chair.  Yet do I really want to bring them along, this furniture that is not to my taste and would cost more than I would ever spend on furniture to reupholster in a fabric that I like?  It’s a comfortable set, but covered in pink floral fabric that took me three years to find a paint colour to match.  There are holes chewed in several places (thanks to various foster dogs) and just tonight, Mira chewed a battery and it leaked acid all over the central cushion (hopefully she had the sense to spit it out without drinking any of the acid – I’ll have to watch her carefully for signs of toxicity over the next few days).  I think Mira may have had the final say about what to do with the couch.  Maybe I’ll just bring the chair…

And on goes the battle, going through memories.  For what are we without our stuff?  Yet all this stuff weighs me down.  The memories are not necessarily good ones; I suffer from a lot of angst and guilt over my past, for no really good reason other than I feel I was an idiot for much of my life and don’t like to be reminded of my past foolishness.  Most memories just make me cringe.  So why is it so hard to let go of some of this stuff?  They say that to make room for the new, you must let go of the old.  

I need to let go of just about everything I have.

McGuinty says: Leave Waste at Stores

Here’s an interesting twist.  According to this article, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty is encouraging people to leave excess packaging behind at stores to promote a reduction of unnecessary packaging.  Specifically he states, “You can do things like remove packaging at the grocery store or at the pharmacy and say: `I’m not taking this with me. You take responsibility for this. You choose to sell it in this format and I don’t want all that stuff that comes with it – I just want the product itself.’”

What an interesting idea.  I may give it a try and see what happens.  I expect store managers won’t be particularly happy however.  That said, I rarely buy anything that has any significant packaging, so it may be a while before I have the opportunity.

London Farmers’ Market Opens This Saturday!

Just a head’s up to everyone that the London Farmers Market is supposed to be opening this Saturday out front of Covent Gardens downtown.  I can’t wait for all the fresh greens, this season’s maple syrup, local baked goods and all the other wonderful things available at the market.  See you there!

Catching up… again!

Once again, life has been too busy to allow me to write regularly in this blog.  I’ve been trying to post a few interesting links in the interim, but I really hope to get back to regular blogging soon!  I quite enjoy writing here and miss doing so when things get too hectic.  

So what’s keeping me busy?  Well, the academic semester ended last week, and along with it all of my part-time work.  Knowing that was coming to an end, I had been picking up as many shifts as possible in an effort to put aside a little cushion for the summer until I find new work.  I’ve also been taking a course on teaching theory and method, which meets twice a week and has a fair bit of prep work required for each class.  Then of course there are the dogs, who need regular exercise, training and quality time.  And finally, there’s the garden and all my seedlings which require daily fussing and care.  

Today I forgot to open my little green house before taking the dogs for a run.  By the time I got back, it had heated up sufficiently to dry out a lot of them. When I opened the front flap, half my seedlings had keeled over. I have watered them deeply and am hoping most will bounce back.  Still, not good for their vitality!  It’s a good thing I don’t have to depend on these for food, or I’d be in big trouble.  Then again, if I did depend on them, perhaps I’d take better care of them!  Fingers crossed they’ll all bounce back.

Now that the weather is really warming up, I am focusing on eating through the last of my food stores in anticipation of spring crops.  Rick Cornelissen of Eco-Logic did a surprise delivery this past weekend because his greenhouses were overflowing.  My fridge is now full of fresh, local greens that I have been eating as fast as I can!  I also have quite a little herb collection going now which adds to the feeling of spring in the air, and in my tummy.

Some really good news: I have found a wonderful new place to live. I’m going to be moving south of London to shared house on the shore of lake Erie.  My new roommate is even more dedicated to sustainable eating and living than I am, and I really look forward to sharing her home.  The house is lovely with a good size property around it.  Part of the property is fenced, which will be great for the dogs to be out in when I’m not with them.  I can’t wait for them to be able to be outside a lot more than they presently are.  And there’s a wonderful deck on which I anticipate doing a lot of writing over the summer.  And when it gets too hot to work, we’ll be about a 10 minute walk from a lovely beach!  Really, what more could I ask for?  Ok… space for sheep and chickens, but that’s the next step.  This is a wonderful location for us for the next year while I finish my degree.

Speaking of which, with all the business, the dissertation has not progressed as quickly as I’d like and I have set a goal to finish my ethics proposal today.  So time to get down to work!  Until later…