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.

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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.

We had already tried the community garden space here last summer to augment our backyard garden, and lets just say we were less than impressed.  Most everything we grew was devoured by local wildlife, and what didn’t get eaten was choked out by weeds that were impossible to keep up with.  Not to mention the hassle of remembering to drive across town to water things.  Apparently plants need to be watered.

Therefore, we decided to go with the CSA.  Kent and Dori Baxter run Abundant Acres Farm just outside of Richmond city limits, and they offer a CSA program. A CSA or Community Supported Agriculture is a program where at the beginning of the growing season people buy shares of the farms crops and livestock and then receive them throughout the season as they are ready.  The upside to this is you are able to get fresh, usually chemical-free vegetables without the time or space required to grow them yourself.  The downside is you have little control over what vegetables you get, if the farm has a bumper crop of red beets, you too have a bumper crop of red beets.

Matt and I paid $633 up front, and we have received various vegetables, 1 whole chicken, and a dozen eggs each week.  We will also receive a turkey at Thanksgiving.  So far we have gotten a wide variety of vegetables, including but not limited to yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, beets, cauliflower, carrots, radishes, strawberries, snow peas, and salad greens.  All of them have been great and it has really pushed us to try new recipes.

It has been doubly convenient for us because the food has been dropped off at my office every Thursday , so I don’t have to worry about picking it up anywhere. While I still miss doing my own gardening, we will definitely continue to participate in the CSA program as long as we live in our current house.  It is really a great alternative to grocery stores or growing your own.

If you want more information about CSA programs in your area, check out Local Harvest.

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So it seemed only natural for me to start a knitting group at Richmond Church of the Brethren.  With the help of local yarn shop owner, Vicki Hair, I started Loops of Love this past April.  It is a group of people that get together on the first and third Tuesday of every month at Unwind Yarn Shop to knit and crochet for local charitable organizations.  We use donated yarn and work on a variety of knitting and crocheting projects. The members vary widely in age and profession and even include a few men from time to time.  We have members from Richmond Church of the Brethren, West Richmond Friends Church, First Friends Church, and the Richmond knitting community at large.

While there are a couple similar groups that meet in town, ours is the only group that meets in the evenings.  This allows working folk like myself to participate without having to sacrifice time off work. I think it is also what allows us to have such a variety of people participating.

So far the group has been going strong and turning out what I think is quite a large number of completed projects for the four short months we have been working. We have completed 41 baby hats for Reid Hospital, 7 baby blankets for the YWCA Adolescent Parent Support program, 1 blanket for the YWCA Genisis program, 20 wash cloths for Birth-to-Five, and 12 wash cloths for the YWCA Genisis program.

I am very excited about the group’s current momentum and hope it continues!  It has really been wonderful to spend time with other knitters and crocheters here in town and know that in the end all our hard work and beautiful projects are going to a good cause.

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As before, I am sure some of it will be an outlet for my strong opinions on life in general, but I would also like to think I will blog about things that people find useful or at the very least entertaining.  Otherwise, why would any one ready in the first place.

I would also like to write some about some of my new interstes including knitting, which Ijust can’t get enough of, and biking.  I am currently embroiled in multiple knitting projects, including but not limited to a sweater for myself, a baby sweater for friends in VA, a herring bone scarf for Matthew, a set of wash clothes for my mother in law, and a baby blanket for Loops of Love.  Needless to say it takes up a lot of my free  and not so free time.

I have also started biking more regularly thanks to a wonderful purple bike Matt found at a yardsale.  My current goal is to ride to work at least once a week.  It has been quite fun and a great way to squeeze in some excercise in my already full schedule.

So, if there is still someone out there paying attention to my, as of late neglected blog, I am back.  i will continue to blog about my life as a geek, knitting enthusiest, part-time bike commuter, extrovert, wife (pastor’s wife, if you must), friend, first time home owner, lover of stupid internet videos, and complexly unique individual.

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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.

After looking at what felt like every house in Richmond, we chose a wonderful house in a neighborhood called Hidden Valley. It is a gorgeous area. Very peaceful and private but still with great proximity to work, friends, and everything else life entails.

It has been a learning process to say the least, and we definitely couldn’t have made it this far without help from our very knowledgeable and supportive friends and a good realtor.

Now what you have been waiting for: Photos of the House

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To my surprise, there was actually a great variety of food. Everything from the obligatory salad and berries to roasted pork and corn muffins.  It was all very tasty and reasonably easy to find if you know where to look.  Because Richmond is home to numerous farmers markets, the Clear Creek Food Co-Op, an Amish store, a community farm, and multiple orchards, there were lots of options for people looking for local food within a reasonable driving distance.

There are similar potlucks planned for the near future, and I would definitely like to attend again. Matt and I made squash & zucchini patties with squash & zucchini we bought at the local farmers market, but it would be fun to bring something we grew ourselves once our garden starts producing.

Chris Hardie created a video of the event.  Check it out and look for my cameo

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I am not sure I want to go through the hassle of changing my current cell phone number and making sure every has the new number. Also, I speak regularly with people who live in Virginia, and it is nice that they do not have to call long distance to talk with me. On the other hand, Matt and I are planning on getting rid of our home phone, and it seems that it might be important to have a local number. I do have the option to use a call forwarding service, such as Grand Central, which will give me a local number I can give to people in Richmond, and the calls will be forwarded to my cell phone.

I am currently leaning towards keeping my current Virginia cell phone number, but I am quite torn. This is where you as valued readers come in. Do you think I should keep my current cell phone number and use a call forwarding service, such as Grand Central, or should I get rid of my current cell phone number and simply get a local phone number? I have created a poll so you can vote.

Let me know what you think!!!

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Matthew, as a recent graduate, has been looking for a job and within the past two weeks has undergone the process to receive his first call.  He is now officially the pastor at Richmond Church of the Brethren in Richmond, Indiana.  After two interviews and negotiations, he preached his trial sermon this past Sunday and the congregation voted to call him as their pastor.  It is very exciting, and we both feel like this will be a great place for him to grow as a new minister.  It will also be a very welcoming and loving community for me to feel out and live into the role of “pastor’s wife”.

So between his interviews, our daily life, and the mental work that goes into making a decision that impacts your life in the way that becoming the pastor of a church will, I have been negligent in my posting.  Now that we have a better idea of what our future holds,  I am hoping to find more time to return to my regular posting.  I am sure I will have plenty of anecdotes and stories to share as we enter this new phase in our lives.

One other related announcement is that Matt and I will now officially go from being people living in Richmond as transient students, to a functioning, participating members of the Richmond community.  Our current plans are to look for a house to buy within Richmond in the next year, and for the first time since leaving our parents’ houses, have a permament home.

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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:

1) Take Your Own Bags to the Store:
Taking your own bag to the store may seem inconvenient at first, but there are a number of benefits. First and foremost it reduces the number of plastic bags going to the landfill, which is good for everyone. Second it can help de-clutter your home. If are like me, you probably already have a seemingly never ending pile of plastic bags hidden somewhere in your house waiting to be recycled. By taking your own bags to the store, you are not only stopping the flow of new bags but also finding a use for those bags you have laying around. Third a lot of grocery stores, Meijer for sure, offer a bag credit of $.05 per bag you bring from home. This is money back in your pocket each time you shop simply for bringing your own bag. Lastly for those fashion conscious among us, designers are now making reusable shopping bags that are in-style and good for the environment.

2) Carpool
If you are like me, the idea of car-sharing, where you don’t actually own a car but have access to a community car, sounds scary and overwhelming. Carpooling, on the other hand, is a great way to get where you are going, be it work or play, and save yourself gas at the same time. Find someone else who is going to the same general location you are, and plan to travel together. This can provide entertainment for a boring car trip, decrease your carbon emissions, cut your gas bill, and reduce wear and tear on your vehicle.

3) Unplug Electronics When You Aren’t Using them
Electronics in your home use energy even when they are turned off. This wasted energy is known as phantom energy, and it accounts for up to 5% of your electric bill each month. Electronics, such as cordless phones, cell phone chargers, digital cameras, music players, power tools, DVD players, microwaves, and computers, continue to draw electricity once you have shut them off or the battery is fully charged.

Unplugging these devices when they are not in use eliminates all potential of lost energy. A quick and easy way to do this is to plug your electronics into a power strip, which you unplug when you are not using your electronics. This ensures they are not drawing any unnecessary electricity and may help lower your electric bill noticeably. See my husband’s blog for more ways to make your computer environmentally friendly.

4) Install an Programmable Thermostat
Installing a programmable thermostat is one of the simplest ways you can reduce energy consumption in your home, and it can shave up to 10% off of your monthly heating and cooling bill. A programmable thermostat allows you to set your system to use less heat or air conditioning when you are going to be out of the house for long periods of time or sleeping. It also helps reduce the number of cycles your heater or air conditioner goes through because it is more accurate than older thermostats.

5) Eat Less Red Meat
I personally could not give up all meat. I am a meat lover, but I realize that eating red meat is not always good for the earth or my checkbook. Not only is red meat generally more expensive that chicken or pork, but it also has a much larger impact on the environment. Raising beef cattle inherently takes up more space and resources than raising smaller animals, such as chickens, and is, therefore, less environmentally conscious and sustainable.

Trying eating lower on the food chain, i.e. eating more chicken and pork. It will not only decrease your grocery bill, but it will also ensure that the resources for raising livestock are available in the future.

6) Recycle
This is pretty basic, but it has taken me many years to get started. Recycling is a great way to cut down on unnecessary waste in landfills and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide used to create new plastic goods. Most towns have recycling programs that you can participate in either for free or for a small fee. In Richmond, IN, participants receive a “trash-can” specifically for recyclable goods that is picked up every other week at no cost.

If you, like me, aren’t ready to make a total lifestyle change, try some or all of these tips to live a greener life and help ensure we have an earth to celebrate in the future.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

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