I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

September 22 is World Carfree Day:

• A day to celebrate the fact that we don’t all have to own cars to live a “normal” life.
• A day to get out of your car and walk, take a bus, or ride your bike.
• A day to experiment with alternative forms of transportation as a part of your everyday life.
• A day to ask your local government to do more to make your city bike and pedestrian friendly.

World Carfee Day is sponsored by the World Carfree Network and is marked by celebrations and events around the world.  There aren’t any events going on locally, but I will be celebrating by riding my bike to work and encouraging others to do the same.

Richmond is a surprisingly bikeable city, and with the addition of some bike racks downtown it will be even more so.  There is definitely a lot of room to grow, but I am inspired by the small but growing bike community that is already a part of the city and the work that is being done to improve our local transportation plan to include bikes and pedestrians. We have a long way to go before we are a Portland, Or or Boulder, Co, but there is hope.

If you are local and would like to participate in making Richmond a more bike and pedestrian friendly community, attend the transportation meeting tonight at 7pm at the City Building.  The Planning department will be presenting the proposed long-term transportation plan to the Planning Commission.

What are ways you have found that your local community is friendly for getting around without a car?

What are ways you have found that your local community is NOT friendly for getting around without a car?

I have been trying some new things on my bike commute to work the past week, and it is working out pretty well so far.  I have started biking down US40, which is a four-lane main road, instead of taking Main Street.  While US40 has a lot more traffic, the hills are less steep, the extra lanes give cars space to safely pass me, and there aren’t parked cars lining the street blocking my view and boxing me in.  I have been afraid of riding on US40 in the past because of the heavier, faster moving traffic, but after riding it on the tandem a number of times, I realized its benefits outweigh the challenges.  It has gotten to the point where I dreaded my ride down Main Street knowing I would be climbing steep hills squeezed between a parked car and a car passing me with oncoming traffic.  I have also enjoyed the change of scenery.  The new route still has that spark of  novelty that makes it more interesting. (more…)

2011 has been a great year for Loops of Love.  We recently did an inventory of all the items made in 2011, and it was quite an impressive number of items.  In case you aren’t aware, Loops of Love is a charitable knitting and crochetting group I started in cooperation with Richmond Church of the Brethren and Unwind Yarn Shop.  We meet the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month from 5 to 7pm at the yarn shop, and we donate handmade items to a number of local organization including: Birth-t0-Five, Salvation Army, YWCA, Genesis Women’s Shelter, Reid Babies, and Nobel Women’s Circle.

Photo Copyright Jim Hair

Our tally of donated goods for the first half of 2011 is:

Baby Hats: 33
Kids Hats: 23
Adult Hats: 15
Baby Blankets: 19
Chemo Caps: 7
Washcloths: 10
Mittens:3
Baby Sweater: 1
Scarfs: 9
Booties: 7
Slippers: 1
Shaw : 1

A big thank you is in order to all the people who show up every week to knit or crochet, all the people who don’t attend but donate completed items, all the people who donate yarn and needles, and especially Unwind Yarn Shop for hosting us each week.

I can’t wait to see how much stuff we create in the rest of 2011.

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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