I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

If anyone in the Richmond, Indiana area is looking for something fun to do this weekend, the Richmond Fall Festival is the place to go.  The Festival combines several festivals into a single weekend of fun.  There will be a plethora of events going on throughout Richmond most of which are free and family friendly.

The events begin Friday afternoon and run through Sunday, and free parking will be provided downtown and at Earlham College with shuttle service.  Activities include but are not limited to:

• Karaoke
• Free showing of Gene Autry’s film “South of the Border”
• Free pony rides
• Art & Music Festival downtown, including book sellers row, great food, arts & crafts, and booths from local artisans including Unwind Yarn Shop
• Free Rock concert downtown featuring Soul Marrow Transplant
• Heritage festival at the Wayne County Historical Museum
• Tours of the Gennett Mansion
• Walk of Fame induction ceremony
• Community Orchestra concert
• Cope Environmental Center Fall Gala
• and much much more.

For a full schedule of events visit the Waynet website or download the pdf from Richmond Fall Festival.com

It promises to be a great weekend and Matt and I will definitely attend.

As you will recall from previous posts,  Matt and I enjoy gardening.  The past two summers we have had amazingly successful gardens that have produced far more food than we could possibly eat ourselves.  However, this summer, with the purchase of a new house, we no longer have a suitable gardening spot.  Our backyard is simply too shady to allow for anything to grow.

So, we were faced with the challenge of finding a way to get fresh vegetables without growing them in our own backyard.  The only two options that seemed worth considering were growing vegetables ourselves in a community garden space or joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) program.

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As I have mentioned in past blog posts, I have recently become obsessed with knitting.  I am currently working on no less than 6 projects simultaneously and have a growing stash of knitting needles and yarn.  I knit while watching tv, in church, at meetings, hanging out with friends, in the car, and on planes.  I knit gifts, household items, clothing, etc.

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Recently some new people have stumbled across my poor neglected blog and commented that they enjoyed reading it, which has given me the urge to write again.  In the past, I blogged about my life, my work, family, technology, and posted humorous videos among other things.  However, I am not sure what form my writings will take this time around.

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Well, after a month-long self imposed hiatus, I am back to blogging. Life has been very crazy the past month and something had to give. Unfortunately it turned out to be my blog. If anyone is still paying attention, thanks for your patience.

So what has been going on all this time, you ask? Matt and I have been, and still are, buying a house. Yes that’s right, buying a house. Now I know we said we were going to do the responsible thing and wait a year so we could save up a substantial down payment and then buy a house, but the more we thought about it the more now felt like the right time. It is truly a buyers market, interest rates are they lowest they have been in years and are only going to go up, and we are tired of throwing our money away paying rent.

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Matt and I attend a 100 Mile Radius Potluck last night.  The premise is that everyone at the potluck brings a dish that is made from ingredients produced, grown, etc. within a 100 mile radius of the selected location.  It is quite a challenge and a lot of fun.  The potluck was sponsored by Progressive Wayne County.org, and the idea behind it was to get people thinking about where their food comes from and how Richmond can be more self sufficient.

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Tomorrow Matt and I will be renewing our cell phone plan with Verizon and getting new phones. With this comes the option to finally get local cell phone numbers, which has not been a possibility in the past. Matt and I have had Virginia cell phone numbers the whole time we have lived in Indiana because we share a cell phone plan with his parents. However, Verizon has now changed their policy, and you can have phone numbers from different states on the same phone plan. This has caused quite a dilemma for me.

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Some of you may have noticed a very conspicuous lack of posts here in the last couple of weeks.  This has been caused by a big change in our life that has been taking place, which used up a lot of my time both physically and mentally as I was processing everything.

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In honor of Earth Day, I want to share practical tips for living a more “green” life that will not only benefit the environment, but can also have a positive affect on your checkbook. I don’t consider myself to be an environmental activist, and honestly am not sure if I believe in global warming. But even I can see the need to take care of the planet we live on to ensure its longevity. Last I checked we weren’t ready to colonize the moon.

I hear lots of stories about ways people have made big changes in their lives in order to be more environmentally friendly, but for those of us not quite ready to give up our cars or eat only food grown/processed within 100 miles of our home, here are some practical and easy to implement tips for living a greener life:

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