When Did You 'Go Green' ?

Someone asked a question in an email group I'm a part of that really made me laugh. The question was, "When did you decide to 'go green' ?" Everyone was responding with wistful musings about the day they'd seen the light, and the small beginnings they had before learning about all the ways it can be done. I'm not poking fun at them, and any effort made is a good thing, isn't it? It's the temperature of our world, the current of our society that prompted the question. Has the modern generation missed out, or what!? It's stunning.

I never decided to 'go green'! It's not a new concept, just a '90's era word, a new gimmick or catch phrase for politicians and mass marketeers. The hippies didn't invent it in the '70's either. LOL! I believe 'conservationist' was the phrase that caught on in the '50's and '60's. Prior to that it was just called 'stewardship'. It's been a way of life for me all of my life. Recycled things were called 'leftovers', which were never wasted. Some were called 'hand me downs', or 'second hand'. Excessive living was called 'wasteful', or even frivolous, and finding more efficient ways of doing things was just plain smart, or frugal at the very least. Saving energy, or finding renewable resources was what we all did just to save a little money, or to use up something that would otherwise have been wasted leftovers. We were basically living healthier as it's being defined by the 'green' movement of today, because we didn't add everything that science and big corporations tried to sell to us to our homes or our gardens.

No, it's not a new idea. It's just a popular idea in this generation because they are the first generation to have everything in their lives mass produced, packaged and sold to them all neat and clean, never really connecting them to the real things in life. I'm glad to see it happening! It's just kind of nauseating the way it's presented as sort of 'elitist', a counter-cultural political party, or a radical, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it thing. It's just basic stuff, isn't it? It's a result of a not-so-gradual evolution away from the way the Earth and nature were designed to work, by a world that has suddenly found that mass production and mass distribution to mass markets may not be the answer to all the ills of society that they all thought it was going to be. The fact that they are so far out of touch with real life and living doesn't mean that everyone is, and I hate to break it to them, but I can be deeply involved in the 'green' thing, and still be a conservative, a Christian and someone who believes in creation, as well as intelligent, without their political affiliations and without having some great spiritual revelation.

I'm not saying they are all that way, but they are widely viewed as such, portrayed that way by the media, and in my experience they are generally proud of that association. Pride in one's life choices is wonderful! I am happy for them, honestly. Now they need to allow the rest of us to live by our convictions as well, even though they are different.

That's not all I have to say about that, but I have to leave shortly, and I'm out of time.

Thank you Loretta and Gus (Jessika) for motivating me to blog again. It's been 5 months! Wow!

Back to the Business of Living

What a time I've had trying to get in and blog! A few times this week I thought I would come in and sit down to my computer, but something would come up. Tonight it would appear I have a few minutes. Unfortunately now my mind is sort of blank! What was I thinking I'd like to write about?

How about gardening to start? My garden is not much as gardens go, but I decided to throw a few edibles in with my flowers this year. It's the only soil in my yard that has been worked enough to support life, so I poked a few bell pepper plants, some stevia, a tomato and some cilantro in among the ivy and the flowers. If all goes according to plan I might plant a few more things. I had every intention of preparing a decent sized area out in the back yard so I could plant more, but I didn't get it done. The dirt back there is so poor weeds will barely grow. It will take quite a bit of work and I just didn't get to any of it in time.

My husband is getting ready to build a patio just outside my back door, and I'm probably going to grow some things in pots out on it. The problem is that the temperatures are going to be really getting up there soon, and out here very little grows well when the real heat comes. Folks around here say that tomatoes do better in containers than they do in the ground during the heat because you can move them around and out of the worst of the heat when you need to, so here's what I'm thinking. If I plant a few more tomatoes, maybe some beans and squash in some pots out on the patio about late July or early August they will be easy to move around and protect from the sun while they are small, and by the time they get bigger the weather will cool off a bit and they might do well enough, if there are enough hours of sun left in the day, to actually produce a late season harvest. It's worth trying. Everything else I have tried met with pretty sad results. Something has to work. I've seen other people around here grow things. It can be done. I want to have something to show for this growing season.

My neighbor across the street invested a small fortune in his "garden" area. It's more of a modified green house. He made an enclosure covered with shade cloth and installed an overhead misting system and drip irrigation, and brought in load after load of mulch and potting soil and bedding mix and what have you. He has reasonable success now, but for crying out loud he aught to! For all that I'd expect State Fair Blue Ribbon quality produce! For all that I could have probably paid someone else to grow it for me! LOL! I poke fun, but I'd probably build myself something like it if I could. I just like to grow things.

I think growing things in pots on the patio will look nice. We've been in this house for fifteen years and never used the back yard because it is just a dusty, unattractive old dirt lot. Having a patio will be a great plus, but something green out on it would really help. We are probably going to put in some grass. I've always wanted grass back there. We tried several times to get some growing, but we just didn't have any luck. There are seeds, fertilizers and things on the market now that make it where you can practically grow grass on a flat rock I think, so we'll give it another go. A few nice pots, grass, maybe a flower bed and we might actually enjoy our back yard!

We're going to build a shed out back, too. I'm really excited about that! That means I can empty my storage unit and bring my stuff home! When we put the house on the market a couple of years back I took everything I didn't really need and any extra clutter and packed it to move and hauled it off to storage. The realtors all say it makes the house show better, so I really emptied it out. I figured I could live without it until the place sold and we moved, no problem. Well, then the economy did it's thing, the housing market did it's thing, blah, blah, blah... and now just over two years later... here we still sit and I miss my stuff!

It's going to be like Christmas for me going through it all! I packed my favorite things first so they'd be well packed and safe. I bought a few new things just before we started packing and they went. We packed most of our books, our wall hangings and lots of personal things. I put keepsakes away, bedding, the boys even packed away some toys! They probably out grew them by now. That makes me feel terrible. They would ask about things and I'd go rummage around and find them and dig them out for the most part, but I'm sure they still have things in there.

It will be a challenge to see if I can get everything back in the house or not. We were crowded when we started. That's part of the reason we needed to get some of the stuff out before we showed it. Over time I bought duplicates of some of the things I'd stored thinking I wouldn't need them, but it turned out that I did. I stored my winter clothes thinking we'd surely be moved before I would need them again. I have all new school supplies, art stuff, blankets, some dishes and pans. Pans! Oh yeah! I have a huge box of iron pans in storage! I love my ironware. It's almost all I use. I've acquired a cabinet full of iron since I packed my other away. I'm going to have to build a special place just for my iron I think! Something very sturdy!

My china and my flatware, my bread machine and my juicer, no telling what else is in storage over there. I have forgotten what all I had. Stuff. Just stuff. But it's my stuff and I want it back. It's likely going to be quite a job unpacking it but I'm tired of life being on hold "in case we move." I'm bringing it home. When we re-list our house to sell later on I'll deal with it, but for now I want to live in my house again amidst all of our familiar, cozy stuff (albeit crammed in like pickles in a jar)!

I'm rambling. I think head for bed and read a while.

In Honor of Earth Day

I think a repost is in order...

Sheesh.

What Can I Say

Funny how a bunch of liberal groups, greenies, so called "Earth Friendly" folks have cabbaged onto some "lifestyle" ideas about recycling, preservation, frugality, and general environmental consciousness as though they were new and different concepts, and somehow exclusive of their political party and of their little corner of the biosphere. What?! You can't be conservative and conservation minded! Republican and Earth friendly! Religious and a recycler! Forest loving and a disciple of Jesus! Energy conscious and a Christian! Gun toting, meat eater and a tiller of the ground! How gauche!

It may come as news to some, but stewardship wasn't invented by liberals in the seventies. Sorry. It's true.

Hello again, to my vast audience of ones!

I haven't blogged in ages. I used to get in here about once a week or so, but it's been a long time. Not that I had all that many earth shaking things to write about or anything, but I did really enjoy doing it. I have a new, somewhat different and busier schedule, and I haven't quite figured out how to put time for blogging into it yet. I'm getting there, though, so I'll be getting back into the swing of it soon. Now I have to remember how I did it! LOL! I can't remember how I started, or what made me decide what to blog about. I guess it's like riding a bicycle and I'll figure it out once I get back on.

The Parental Rights Amendment

The Parental Rights Amendment

http://hoekstra.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=4332&ln_desc=

Here in Kingman, our Representative has already joined in support of this bill as a co-sponsor (thank you and God bless you, Trent Frank!), but they still need 19 more co-sponsors introduce this bill in the House of Representatives. If you want to check and see if your Representative is already a co-sponsor, here is the current list of co-sponsors: http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={48D114CD-BD70-4776-A32A-5661013D8897}

Please encourage your friends and families to take a few minutes to contact their representatives here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ Just type in your zip code. Ask them to join with Rep. Pete Hoekstra and get this thing done! I know it seems like an imposition to some, and that it takes a little more time out of an already busy day, but it's really only a few minutes and it means so much to me, our children, our families, and our nation.

Thanks,
Be blessed,
Rhenda

Emergency Replacement Puppy

It's been a hard few weeks. We lost our old dog back on February eleventh and it has been a long, lonely adjustment for us all. The day I took her to have her put down was a Wednesday, a church night. I remember going to church and hiding my eyes from everyone because they were red and swollen from crying and I didn't feel like answering any questions about why they were that way.

I had called my pastor to let him know that it was possible I might be a little bit late. It wasn't three full hours between the time I took the old girl in until the time church started, and I didn't know how long it would take to do the deed, get back, pull myself together and still get ready to go to church. I just wanted to give him a heads up about it all. He was very empathetic and related a sweet story about some kind of dog movie he saw once and an old dog he has; just trying to help me out. He's a very sweet man.


As soon as I walked into the church he approached me, and I was sure I was in for a big hug and a "sorry for your loss" or something, and I was, but I was sort of surprised that he immediately followed it up with an offer to take his puppy. I was thinking, "Wow, ol' Chrissie's not even cold yet. I really can't think about that right now." I answered him some way. I can't really remember what I said exactly, but I knew he only meant well, and I appreciate him so much, so we chatted for a few minutes more and went on about our regular business.


We have talked about getting a new dog. I just really don't like the idea of having just one dog anymore. Dogs like their people, but they really enjoy the company of other dogs, too. When we decided to get a puppy for Chrissie it was because we thought it would sort of revitalize her life. She was getting older and getting to where she didn't have a lot of energy, and I wanted her life to be extended and full and happy. What better way than to get her a friend? So we got her a puppy, Beth, and it worked like a charm!


We all loved Beth immediately. Chrissie's puppy was a part of our family. When Chrissie died we started talking about "eventually" getting Beth a buddy, and "someday" finding a new family dog. Out of some kind of weird sense of respect for Chrissie and her life and what she meant to us, I was semi-determined NOT to get another dog right away and certainly when the time came I wasn't going to get a big dog. We'd wait and see how things went.

Several more times my pastor or his wife reminded me that they had a sweet puppy that they needed to find a good home for. He's half Queensland Heeler and half lab. I put off dealing with that. I knew they meant well and they really needed someone they could trust to take their dog, and I really didn't want to let them down, but half lab means pretty good sized dog and I really wasn't interested in a big dog.


Well, by this time you can probably tell where this story ends up. His name is Nash, he's a four month old bundle of happy, floppy puppy that we all fell crazy in love with right away. So, less that a month after we lost Chrissie we get Nash, who at four months, weighs thirty-six pounds and if he grows into his skin and his feet, he could easily see "big" when he's fully grown, but he's a fit, you know? He just fits. We're all really happy. Nash, too.


We sure would like to have the chance to show him off, so check out my photos here and see what a cutie he is!


So the adventure begins...

Good-bye Old Friend.

Well, we lost our old dog this week. Chrissie was a smart old girl with a silly smile that she was practically famous for among our friends and family. She's been a part of our family for many wonderful years, but her time ran out much to our great sadness. We're going to miss her a lot.

I hesitate to tell the story of her last hours. Partly because it's still really fresh in my mind and it's hard to talk about, but also because it sounds made up. If someone else told me what I'm about to tell you I'm not sure I'd believe it myself, but I tell you it's absolutely true. My son was there and he's able to remind me that it wasn't in my head.

She was almost twelve years old when we were told she had cancer. What do you say when you find out a thing like that? We couldn't really afford to shell out the kind of money they were asking for the surgery and they told us that at her age the surgery was at least as risky as doing nothing. Many older dogs don't recover from the anesthesia after a surgery of that sort, and we were aware that at her age she would probably never fully recover even if she did live through it. In the end we decided just to bring her home, pray for her, and give her the best life we could for the rest of her life, however long it would be. She did well for about a year.

A lot happened during that year that I'll skip over. Not all of it was good. We did however get to baby her and pet her a lot, spoil her and give her extra attention. Then about Christmas time she began to slow down pretty drastically. I actually thought she was getting arthritic. She was active and happy when she was up, or down, it was just going from one to the other that seemed to bother her. I had forgotten somehow, believe it or not, that anything else was wrong.

Then last week right after my birthday she took a sudden and drastic turn for the worse. She stopped getting up at all, and she was barely eating. The last two days she wouldn't eat, and finally she got to where she couldn't hold down any water either. Her breathing was very labored and she was obviously dieing, and suffering. It was horrible, and I knew I had to take her in and have her put down the next day if she made it through the night. She did, and I took her. It was sad. Really sad.

We took her in and they very kindly gave her a pain shot right away. It was the first time in a few days that she really relaxed and breathed easily and it was nice to see. They gave us a few minutes to be with her, and we petted and kissed and cried and snotted , and then they had us leave the room when they gave her "the shot". I asked if they would let me return to see her after she was dead and they said that would be fine, so we stood outside the door while they did the deed.

We waited for what seemed like a long time, but in reality it was probably only about five or six minutes. They came back and got me and told me that she was dead and that I could go in and see her. I went in and she was still and lifeless. It was done. I was walking over to her to pet her one more time and cover her up with her blanket when she started breathing again. She raised up her head, looked at me in the eyes and gave me one of her goofy smiles. She layed her head back down and looked at me for another long minute while I petted her, then her gaze floated away from mine, she went still again and died... again.

The woman that was attending her couldn't believe it as she prepared a second shot. She said she'd never seen anything like that in all the time she'd been there. I'm thinking then why now, and why us? I was afraid to leave! I wanted to know she was dead, I waited to be sure, and even though I saw it for myself this time, I was afraid to leave her there. I had dreams that she roused herself again after I left, and was alone and all kinds of awful things happened.

I don't know why I felt that way. The woman who gave her the shot has told me that she must have really loved her people to come back and tell me good bye and that everything was okay. My husband said the same thing. She was such a pleaser that it would be like her to do that, but that just sounds too spooky and oogy-boo to me. It sounds almost like too easy of an explanation, for lack of a better way of phrasing it. On the other hand, what else could it possibly be? She came back around, met my gaze, gave me her "trademark" smile, and died.

I do not know. Not at all.

So, she is gone and the place feels a little empty without her. Not many dogs are as smart as that one and even fewer are as well behaved. Her funny habits will never be replaced. The kids absent mindedly wait by the door a little extra moment when the puppy comes in, until it dawns on them that she's not coming in after her. She's almost always been a part of our boy's lives. We had her most of Jonathan's life and all of Josiah's. Beth, our puppy, wanders around looking for her in all the places she used to lay. She's pretty lonesome without her, too. It's all she'd ever known. I guess maybe she needs a companion puppy now. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Bethy needs a puppy!