Bookworm Challenge

Another month (well, almost) and another cool challenge. This one is put out by Green Bean Dreams, and is something I can definitely Get Behind (anybody remember that album by William Shatner, and the song “I can’t get behind that”?). Anyways, it’s called Be a Bookworm May 08 and this challenge is going to be easy-peasy for me since I am an avid reader. I’ve been pouring through relevent books on sustainable living, simple living, and related topics since we came up with The Dream and The Plan. You might wonder how a full-time mum to two young homeschooled kids and part-time businesswoman finds time to read anything. Well, I am a fast reader. And I am currently working a job contract that has me commuting 1.5 hours each way, twice a week, by public transit and I have a bad habit of staying up way too late reading in bed after everybody else has fallen asleep.

I maintain a Book List on this blog. Whenever I hear about a book I think I should read, I add it to the On Hold list at my library and when I’m done I review it and add it to my List. There are so many books that have profoundly moved me, but as far as this Simple Living thing goes I’d have to credit Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma as being the first to inspire me to significant change and action. The next was David Wann’s Affluenza and from there it was just a snowball effect for me.

I’ll see which of the big ‘On Hold’ books (listed on my sidebar) come in first and that will be my Bookworm Challenge novel. Currently I’m voraciously devouring The 100 Mile Diet, which is a particularly wonderful read since I live within the same one hundred miles that the authors relied on for their sustenance. The tidbits of local history have been especially poignant. I’ve also got The World Without Us by Alan Weisman which, coincidentally, features a photo of my city’s skyline on the front cover (though the author himself does not live here, nor is from here). I’m looking forward to participating in Green Bean’s Challenge and perhaps discovering some more great reads to add to my list. Happy Reading everyone!

 

Simple Living Smarts: financial literacy

Simple Living is about identifying priorities in Life, and then planning your life around those priorities. Few people hold “work 40+ hours per week until I die” as a life priority. Instead, they’ll offer such things as time with family, volunteering, getting involved in community, travel, physical and mental health, and favorite hobbies. And yet many people’s lives do not reflect this ordering of priorities. Why not? I think two major culprits are consumerism and financial illiteracy. The former leads us to believe we need far more Stuff than we really do, and the second allows us to become so burdened with debt that we become slaves to our wages while being unable to save for a different future.

Niall Ferguson, a Harvard historian and author, believes it is “a well-established fact that a substantial proportion of the general public in the English-speaking world is ignorant of finance”, as reported in this week’s Economist. His upcoming book will produce a long list of evidence to support his claim. For example, one survey last year showed that 40% of American credit card holders do not pay off their balance each month, and one-third had no idea what interest rate they were being charged.

The subprime mortgage disasters that hit America and are now being felt across the pond in Britain have been held up as further evidence of this illiteracy. But who do we blame?

I think it’s safe to say that none of us learned about financial responsibility in school. Perhaps the last generation to truly grasp the importance of saving and not borrowing were those who lived through the Great Depression. These days a life of debt is considered a given. People don’t ask “how much?” they ask “what’s the monthly payment?”. They look at debt in terms of the percentage of monthly income, without considering the period of amortization: for how long do you have to maintain that level of income (40 year amortization? You’re going to work full time until you are 75?). The other fault we have is blind optimism: people honestly believe that when income goes up, or bonuses come in, that they will have the will-power to devote the difference to debt repayment. The sad reality is that many do not. They’ll keep their minimum monthly payments and discover several “needs” for that new money.

What role should regulators play in protecting consumers? In his new book Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness author Richard Thaler, a behavioural economist, explains that “Being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.” He argues that policymakers should therefore establish guidelines that “nudge” us in the right direction without restricting freedom. I do believe that government should limit the extent to which lenders can profit from the poor spending habits of consumers, particularly the predatory lending tactics used against the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.

So what can we do? First, educate yourself. Then educate your children. Here’s a list of resources and ideas:

1) If you are carrying consumer debt, plan to get out of it. Dave Ramsey offers simple, common-sense advice and practical information for changing your financial picture. He’s a bit of an evangelist, and he does sprinkle his Christian perspective throughout his work, but his advice is sound and easy-to-follow.

2) If you are carrying a mortgage, evaluate its effects on your family’s finances. Are you struggling to pay household related expenses like taxes and maintenance on top of your monthly mortgage? Do you have a hope in hell of ever paying it off in your lifetime? Do you have a plan for paying it off early? Do you forsee a time when you will not be a slave to your current wages, thus freeing up time for other pursuits? Do you really need “this much house”? Can you weather a substantial change in interest rates? Take a look at the TRUE cost of your mortgage - how much interest are you paying? What will you have paid by the time it’s all said and done? What could you have done with that interest had you invested it instead?

3) If you are renting and hope to buy some day, start budgeting now. Take time to save a responsible downpayment. Do not fall victim to “homeownership hysteria”: owning a home that robs you of a future is nothing to feel proud of. While it’s true that prices always go up over the long term (20+ years), in the short term prices fluctuate - there will always be dips in the market, however transient. Wait for those dips to maximize the value of your hard-earned savings. Study mortgage amortization charts until you are blue in the face. Take out a calculator and figure out how much interest you pay in the first three years of mortgage-payments, then ask yourself what that interest could earn for you if invested properly: perhaps waiting three years to buy will give you a bigger downpayment and save you significant interest money compared to buying now.

4) If your children are in school, get involved with promoting financial literacy programs. The Jump$tart program, which promotes financial literacy through child and youth education programs, offers downloadable lesson ideas for teachers and parents. Aflatoun is an international agency that originally sought to provide financial literacy to young children in the developing world, but soon realized that the need exists in the developed world as well. Operation HOPE offers programs for disadvantaged youth and children living with poverty.

5) Get your children involved in the family’s finances. Lewis Mandell, a US economist and educator, believes that financial literacy courses are not enough: he says learning these skills in the absense of any real life practical experience, such as buying a car or managing real income and expenses, is not enough. Hold regular family meetings, encourage the kids to participate in discussions about where money will be spent, how much will be saved, and towards what goals those savings are being accrued. Involving kids in the family budget can help develop habits that will still be ingrained when they are out on their own.

 

Who needs Toys ‘R Us?

How coincidental that I was just reading Theresa’s post about her latest thrift store finds…we’ve just returned home from a thrift store visit ourselves.

We woke up to snow this morning. Yes, snow. We are on the West Coast and it is very rare to get snow at the end of March! So I was tidying up around the house trying to decide what to do with the kids today when I came across a couple piles of stuff for donation. So I decided we’d go to the thrift store (Value Village).

The kids were very excited, and I think that in itself is pretty cool. It’s a very different shopping experience at VV compared to the usual retail store. For one thing my kids spend ages in the toy section and they can handle everything. Few items are packaged, most are already showing signs of wear and tear. They are also allowed to each choose 1 or 2 items. It cracks me up watching them going over everything so carefully and trying to decide what to pick, when I know that the grand total of their booty will be less than $5.

And while they are perusing the toys I look around for kids’ clothes or other stuff. I actually have enough clothes for them right now so this time I hit the kitchen and household stuff. I almost bought a sparkling clean oven roasting rack for $10 but I realized that I very rarely use one and, since we are renting, I could totally see myself leaving it behind with the house, forgetting that I bought it myself and assuming it came with the oven. Now, ten bucks is possibly a very good price but being the frugal person that I am (aspiring to be) I weighed my decision carefully, asking myself if I really needed this or not. I really didn’t.

I did however find the Patricia Cornwell novel that is missing from my (now complete) collection. That was my big find today. They only had it in hardcover, but it was still only $3.99. The original $26 price tag was still visible.

Daughter came away with a plastic case filled with little trinkets - this is exactly the sort of thing she’ll obsess over for hours and it cost me $2.99. She also got a Sesame Street doctor’s kit, which came in very handy when we hit the supermarket a couple hours later - she took her brother’s temperature, listened to his heart, etc. all while I wheeled them through the store. That was $1.99 well spent for a half-hour of shopping peace. Son picked out a nice, new, in the package rubber ducky that came with a soft football and some bicycle handle streamers, all for $1.99. He hasn’t let go of the ducky since. I also got them a travel games set, still in the original wrapping, for $3.99.

As we left the store and the kids were all excited to play with their new toys, I felt very satisfied with myself. It makes me happy that my children could be so thrilled about a bunch of used, inexpensive toys. They’ve been to Toys ‘R Us on occasion when we’ve had to buy a birthday gift. They’ve glimpsed the toy section at Wal Mart (which they both pronounced “boring”). And yet going to Value Village is considered a treat to them because they get to play with all the toys and then pick their favorites to take home with them. They also love that you never know what you are going to find!

I hope they will feel this way for a long time. I hope that by doing this at such a young age they will feel comfortable in thrift stores and see them as the eco-friendly, budget-friendly, fun places that they are. I look forward to many more trips, and many more fun finds.

 

Our stay-home days

Our usual weekday schedule involves some obligations on my part, community centre classes for the kids, and one or two homelearner group activities. And at least once or twice a week we have a “stay home day”. Husband may have needed to take the car to work, the weather may be cold and grey, I may have lots of housework to catch up on. Or, like yesterday, I might wake up to a house that is acceptably tidy and a kitchen that is clean and beckoning me to bake…

Whole wheat pancakes (this recipe, with some flaxmeal thrown in).

Banana-walnut muffins (from this recipe).

And homemade whole wheat bread (using my breadmaker and recipe book).

That afternoon Daughter asked me to show her how to knit. Alas, her little 5.5 year old hands are not dexterous enough to handle the needles. We then tried crocheting, which she couldn’t do herself for the same reason, but together we made a chain of slip knots. When the sun made a brief appearance we went out on the large, south-facing deck and played a game of catch with our velcro ball and paddles set.

I love these stay-home days. But finding the right balance is important. Too many such days and I start to feel restless and irritable. I get cabin-fever. Too few and I start to feel stressed, rushed, as though I were being swept along by forces beyond my control. Simple Living isn’t always that simple.

 

Veggie Tales - We’re planting!!

In my last post I wrote about the exhausting shopping expedition I embarked upon in order to gather the materials for my Square Foot Garden. Well all that is behind me now, my dear readers, because WE….HAVE….PLANTED!!

Here’s how it went down. First I built my boxes, as per Mel’s instructions. Now, he says to line the boxes with 4′x4′ weed cloth but I worried that the weeds would find their way in through the edges and so I tried nailing the weed cloth to the underside of the boxes using those little Ikea nails that are used for attaching the back of Billy bookshelves to the frame - you all know the ones. Well, turns out weed cloth ain’t that sturdy and while I was carrying the frames down to the garden the fabric tore off many of the nails. Okay, on to plan B. I decided to lay the weed cloth down but with excess around the edges, like so:

The bricks were just there to keep the edges from blowing around while I mixed up the soil. A word about the placement, too. They are against the west-facing wall of the garage lined up with the south-facing corner. They will get late morning sun all the way to late afternoon, though it is hard to know just how late since right now the sun disappears behind some tall trees around 3 pm and then, soon after, behind our neighbour’s house next door. I think, however, that as summer approaches the sun’s path should be higher in the sky and give us even more sunshine. But this was the best spot I could find for now. I can see it from the deck above, the stairs in the background go right up to the kitchen door, and the walls provide a natural background for my future trellises. Mel says to put trellises on the North side of your boxes but I just couldn’t make that work for two boxes in my yard, and I figure since the sun is moving westwards along the beds I could put trellises on the east side (against the wall) and not have the shadows block out too much.

It was also a handy spot because there was already a garden bed there, although it was not in great shape. It was about half the width I needed, the soil was sandy, and bits of lawn were growing up into the bed. I weeded as best I could and spread the soil outwards to make an area large enough to fit my boxes.

On to the soil mixing: I mentioned last post that I was concerned about not having enough of certain ingredients. I had exactly 4 cu ft of vermiculite so I poured that out onto my giant tarp. Then next to that pile I poured out all four bags of compost (2 Sea Soil, 1 steer manure, 1 mushroom manure). It looked about the same volume as the vermiculite so I’m hoping for the best. The peat moss turned out to be conveniently packed into two half-bales so when I opened the bag, exactly half the peat moss - 4 cu ft - fell out in a big chunk. Daughter and I enjoyed pounding it into bits with our trowels!

Here are all 3 ingredients

spread out on the tarp:

Then we mixed it all up and filled the first box.

I didn’t have enough soil to fill up the second box. Recall that each 4′x4′x6″ deep box holds 8 cu ft of Mel’s Mix. I made 12 cu ft so still need another 4 cu ft to fill the second box. That can wait for another day.

When the boxes were filled I tidied up the edges of the garden area like so:

We let the boxes sit after a brief watering. A few days later we went to the Garden Centre to get seeds. I told the lady there I didn’t want to have to start anything indoors and asked her to show me what could be planted now. She listed off various items, including onions. I followed her around the store ready to point out that the packets of onion seeds specifically say they need to be started indoors, when lo and behold she handed me a bag of….onions! As proof of just how much of a gardening newbie I am, I was shocked and delighted to realize that onions are in fact bulbs and thus can be planted as such! No indoor starting required.

I bought two kinds. One was called “Multiplier Onions”. I have no idea what that means, and I am a bit confused that the label says “Good for scallions and dry storage onions”. So, did I buy onions or scallions? Well, the bulbs looked like little onions, the usual yellow sweet variety you get in the store. I also got Red Weatherfield onions, because I like red onions but rarely buy them. Then I got some garlic. It looked exactly like the stuff you buy to eat and I wondered what made these any different from the 25 cent variety at Canadian Superstore. We also bought seeds: sugar snap peas (the only green food that Daughter will eat) and radishes. And for some colour and fun we bought two varieties of flower seeds: snapdragons and sweet peas. We rushed home excitedly to start planting!

But first I had to make my grids. I mentioned before that I’d found some cedar lattice in the garden shed and was planning to take it apart and use that. I discovered, however, that lattice is held together at virtually every cross-point by heavy duty staple-type things that were mostly rusted and which I could not remove no matter how much I tried. I then tried to saw them into long peices using the only cutting tool around, an old rusty hacksaw. That didn’t work very well and the wood splintered so I had to give up on that idea altogether. I pondered and wondered, wanting to do it all now and determined to find something in the house I could use. After a while it came to me: string! Those little Ikea nails that were useless for the weed cloth were just right for tying string to, and in no time at all I had my grid. Not the most attractive solution but again, this is just an experiment year.

The number of items planted per 1×1 square depends on the size of the plant. Onions fit 9 to a square, whereas radishes fit 16 to a square. The photo above shows how, to aid my eye in placing the seeds, I cut 6 short lengths of string and laid them over whichever square I was working on. Then I took them off when I was done. A brilliant strategy if I do say so myself!

And so Daughter and I planted our crops and had a great time doing so. She announced that she wanted to be a farmer when she grew up and I said that me and her father were actually hoping to buy a farm next year (I didn’t elaborate on the fact that we would have to move far away because Daughter, like most young children, doesn’t care to think about changes that much). She thought having a farm was a great idea!

Oh, while we were planting I jotted down what we planted, and in which squares, because it was easy to forget as we went along. I’m going to start a proper gardening journal with information about the seeds, time of planting, and notes on how they are growing. More on that (and other things we’ll be planting) next time on Veggie Tales!

 

Veggie Tales - Diary of a First Time Gardener

This is the first post in a series that will document my venture into vegetable gardening. I am a total neophyte when it comes to gardening; I don’t have any houseplants, save a Poinsettia I bought at Home Depot over the holidays and which is heading for the composter soon because I keep forgetting to water it (and because poinsettias look weird in spring - it’s like having a Christmas tree in your living room in March). I’m going to keep a record of my journey into the world of vegetable growing with these Veggie Tales posts. I hope you’ll follow along as we all learn about the world of Growing, together.

The first thing you need to know is I’ll be using the method of Square Foot Gardening. Inventer and author of the best-selling book All New Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew, claims this is the simplest and least labour-intensive method of raising plants and veggies. Perfect for beginners. It is also an organic technique (no fertilizers or treatments needed) that reduces water consumption, increases yields per square foot, and virtually eliminates the need for weeding.

SFG is also great for those practising Simple Living. You can grow large amounts of produce in relatively little space, and it seems to be a very frugal method of gardening. According to Mel, the only tools you’ll need are a large bucket in which to keep the “sun warmed water” that you use for your garden, a small trowel (the dollar store variety will do), and a pencil (with which to make seed holes). If you’ve browsed a garden centre or catalog lately you will know that gardening is as much subject to the excesses of consumerism as any hobby out there.

With Spring right around the corner (and inspired by a week of warm sunshine - sorry, East Coast’rs) I dusted off my book and made a list of ingredients to buy in order to start my SFG. Keeping in mind that we’ll likely only be in this house for one growing season I decided to go as cheap as possible. I could care less if my boxes are ugly, or rot after our wet winters, because this is the Experiment Year in preparation for next year when, if all goes according to Plan, I’ll be putting in a proper SFG on our new acreage (!).

This year I’m doing two 4×4 boxes plus at least one trellis. Boxes are constructed from 2×6 boards, although Mel said you could get away with 1×6 boards, too. They’re lined with weed cloth, covered with a grid of 1 ft squares, and filled with Mel’s Mix - 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost. Each box therefore holds 16 crops. The trellis is an ingenious structure made from electrical conduit pipes (steel), nylon tomato netting, and anchored over two pieces of rebar stuck in the ground. Cheap and strong.

I’m currently planning my crops, having already decided that I don’t want to get any seeds that require starting indoors. Mel encourages first timers to take it slow and easy, and I’m happy to follow his advice. I’ve got enough information floating around in my head without having to deal with starting seedlings in my living room. So I may end up buying “transplants” (basically, seeds that someone else has started for me) and planting those instead. More expensive but as I’m not growing much of any one crop it hopefully won’t add up to too much.

So, that’s the plan! I hope you’ll follow along as I learn all about growing my own food.

 

My First Tag

I’ve been tagged for the first time, even though I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now. I’m so flattered; I feel like I’ve reached a new level of cool. Anyways, I was tagged by Late Bloomer over at Soccer Moms and Single Chicks. The rules are as follows:

Rules: 1. Link to the person that tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. 4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. 5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

So here are my Six Things…

1. When I’m in a restaurant ordering food I point to the item on the menu while stating my order. I didn’t even realize I did this until Husband pointed it out. Trust a partner to find the weirdness you didn’t even know was within you.

2. My favorite sandwich is luncheon meat (ham or salami) on a fresh bun with a bit of mayo and…potato chips. That’s right, I put the chips right on top of the meat as part of the sandwich. Scrunch the bun down so they crumble and flatten. Salty, yummy goodness!

3. I can’t stand letting the phone ring. I’ve been known to drop babies in mid diaper change to run to the phone. Okay, that’s not quite true but I’ve thought about it. I don’t know why I feel such anxiety to answer the phone in time - I have voice mail. But letting a ringing phone go unanswered takees a great deal of self-discipline (unless I’m convinced its a telemarketer; even then I’ve been known to answer “just to make sure” - hey, you never know when a friend is going to call from a 1-800 number, right?).

4. I mimic peoples’ conversational styles. I became aware of it when I was alot younger and worried that it was a sign of having no unique personality of my own. I’ve since recognized that it is a completely unconscious process. When I’m around someone who speaks rapidly, I speak rapidly. When I’m around melodic talkers my voice becomes equally melodic. I read somewhere that this was a positive social trait that allowed others to feel comfortable speaking with me. Or I could just be neurotic.

5. I don’t really like pizza, though I’ve been known to enjoy something gourmet (read: other than the standard tomato sauce-slathered fare) and I couldn’t eat leftover pizza if my life depended on it.

6. I’ve never read a Harry Potter book. I did the whole fantasy novel genre all through my late teens and early twenties and it just didn’t seem like anything all that new to me. Still, I do intend to read them one day.

Okay, so now that I’ve revealed these things about myself it’s time to tag six other bloggers. I’m going to pick Spacemom (for whom I’ve always had tag-envy), Kazia over at Maternal Musings, Tiffani at Two Triple Kayaks (who needs a prod to post more often), Brandee of Milk and Honey Designs (who can maybe find bra-related tidbits about herself), AnnaB of Life With Anna (who’ll either love it or send me hate mail), and finally Theresa over at Myriad Things (because I don’t know her and what better way to make friends on the internet, right?).

 

Time out from frugality

This afternoon we’re leaving for a ski trip, so I won’t be posting for the next five days. It seems a bit luxurious to be heading off to a chalet with hot tub and ski in/out access when I’m smack dab in the middle of learning to live simply and saving my money. Or…the word “hypocritical” comes to mind! But, in our defense:

1) We planned this trip with another family quite some time ago and by the time we established The Dream and The Plan it was too late to back out of the commitment.

2) We’re paying cash for the trip, and have a set budget for expenses. We meal-planned with the other family to reduce food costs and I’ll be bringing up some homemade soup, muffins, pancake mixes, etc. I’m actually quite pleased with how little I spent yesterday buying groceries for this trip.

3) The cash came from Husband’s annual bonus, and the amount we’re budgeting is about 25% of the bonus. The rest went to debt reduction and savings.

4) Husband and I did not buy each other gifts this past Christmas nor did he get me a gift for my recent 40th birthday. We decided this trip would cover all that.

Soooo, off we go to play in the snow for a few days. Hope you all have a wonderful week and I hope you’ll come back and check in with me again!