We're All Mad Here » 2008

05-24-08

Palm Bay Fires

Palm Bay Fires, originally uploaded by babygreenbury.

…on the way to the zoo. They have been out for about three days now and the palms already show new growth.

05-23-08

Spanakopita

Spanikopida , originally uploaded by babygreenbury.

Tried a new recipe we found here. Turned out great devine minus a few mishaps with the Phillo Dough, which is painful to work with and I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

05-23-08

Urban Homestead Update

Cilantrp, originally uploaded by babygreenbury.

The plants are sprouting! We had a bit of rain and everything seems to be taking off. I’m so excited!

05-23-08

Dumpster Scouting

0521082045, originally uploaded by Dr. Meow Mix.

Window of the Vero Vacuum store while L and I were out for a late walk.

05-21-08

Pond

Pond 2, originally uploaded by shellgreenier.

Lazy Days of bathing and #10 Can Pudding (L & D introduced me to).

05-20-08

Cranes

Cranes, originally uploaded by shellgreenier.

The folding of the cranes. Not wanting to throw away a stack of junk mail magazines, L and I folded 62 origami cranes. More to come.

Crane Wreck.

P.S. Happy Birthday Laur!

05-19-08

On a mission today (after Iz’ mess with the Valpack all over the floor from a few days ago) to cut back on some of the junk mail coming into the house. Here is a great instructable on how to go about it, but better yet, here is a list of websites you can go to (thanks to kolrobie):

Advo: http://www.advo.com/consumersupport.html
ValPacks: http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm
DMA: https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/mps_consumer_description.php
And, if you have the “taste of their own medicine” anarchist itch, try this (from laminterious’ instructable) and paste the pre-paid postage envelope to a box of heavy stuff…bricks, other junk mail (remove your address), magazines, whatever. Or just use it to send a “remove me” message. They pay.

05-19-08

Chasing Utopia

Read this article in the New York Times, via a link from this article on Techno-Urban Survivalism (they are discussing turning all the glass condos on the stagnant market into green houses, really has nothing to do with voluntary simplicity) at TreeHugger.com. And after coming across things like the Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage in my search for…whatever it is I am searching for (at the time, like homemade cleaner…not like “the greater meaning of it all”), I’ve come to a conclusion.

I really admire the ability to pick up everything and head to the woods. <insert bitter sarcasm in case you missed it the first time> It takes a strong person to hide from the problems in society instead of fulfilling your responsibilities as a global citizen and attempt to problem solve and create change. It doesn’t take a strong person to leave behind all their earthly possessions and go hide in a cabin away from it all. You are not impressive.

“But we’re looking for a better way,” you whine. Great, but how many people will walk away from their Miami flats to go frolic in the hills of where ever and grow tomatoes? We are accustom to society the way it is, to the immediacy and the glitz and the craze. Your change will only work for a handful of people, and a handful isn’t enough. I don’t like being in the midst of it any more than you do, but it is our responsibility to our children to live in the society as active participants and seek out better ways to replace what we currently have that is not working and leading to self-destruction. If everyone who was capable of doing it went in hiding, how will we ever change?

05-18-08

Urban Homestead Gardens

Square Foot Garden

So this weekend, we took it upon ourselves to turn our backyard into a gardeny delicious hideaway. We initially were just looking for a place to get our veg on, but sitting in the quiet of the setting sun, surrounded by foilage and mosquitoes, Laur and I agreed the green added a little something that was missing before.

I posted a great instructables on the whole episode, you can find it here. We used the methods of Batholomew’s Squarefoot Gardening which lending itself, in a slightly tweaked form, perfectly to our small 200 sq. ft. backyard jungle.

We took the plants up a notch to make more space.

And made a citronella oil candle to keep the mosquitoes away. Thanks to Sappho’s Instructable for the know-how.

And got this great pic of D being a Screw-rus (related to teh lolrus) and Iz having lunch.

We also worked on a greenhouse/garbage hider, but more on that when it’s a bit more polished.

Meanwhile, Sol was in Orlando at Universal with Mimi and Paupky not appreciating her DoDo blanket and Puptea being stolen by Thing 1 and thing 2. Now she knows how it feels :).