Omnivore!

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My Review of Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma

I enjoyed every part of this eye opening book. 
The book is so well written and inspired me with so many of it's sections of beautiful imagery.

I am envious of any successful writer because I truly wish it was a talent I possessed. One of the reasons, I write this blog is to grow better at writing. I struggled through my English classes at UGA even though I enjoy reading. I push my self to read great books in order to understand and be inspired.

Mr. Pollan breaks down our food systems and brings to light how we Americans select the very thing that sustains our life, food.

Omnivore's Dilemma was never a struggle for me to read, but I did find myself needing time to process all the information. I felt as though, in the beginning, I was outraged by how this system works and why we aren't doing more to change it and that I should start right now and change everything! This, of course, is rash and really solves nothing. I grew to understand like my change in attitude towards becoming a better environmental steward to the earth, my change in attitude towards the way I chose food would need to be similar, one step at a time.

The section of the book that I enjoyed the most is when Mr. Pollan visits the sustainable farm on the east coast. I enjoyed learning that there are still farms that are organized this way, sustainably, instead of based on monoculture system. In this section what really stuck with me is a description of how the cows are heated for the winter (standing on a warm compost of sorts) and then how the farm owner has the pigs dig for gold (alcohized corn nuggets) to turn the warm compost. It solves so many problems and both species are doing what they naturally enjoy doing.

Mr. Pollan's vivid descripition of all the landscapes he encounters are to me what was the best part of the book. There are several that are still in my mind and yearn to be painted.

All in all, I feel more enlightened, inspired and ready to continue to learn what I can do to make a difference in my food consumption and that this really goes hand in hand with the activities I have incorporated already in my quest to live more green!

Mid Week Treat No.1

A Chicken Crossed our path!

This little chicken lives in our neigborhood and we've passed this house now on several occasions and have seen two chickens out roaming around the yard. I love it! (They have a guard dog and cat keeping an eye on things).

Patio Overhaul Part 1 & 2

PART 1:

 Before this area was just a section of dirt with an old wooden wishing well on it. Our front door is to the right in this picture and the wall only goes about half way up.

Now it is a beautiful little nook to place camping chairs and hang out in the beautiful weather we can expect for Spring/ Summer!

Jesse worked very hard to level the little area by hand. We bought 1'x1' bricks for the main area and had a little room left in the back where we placed smaller bricks as edging. It's not the most professional job for sure but it works great and looks tons better then the original area. No before pictures, I always forget to take them.





PART 2: In front of our little house/ apartment there is a fairly small bit of dirt. We found out last year that the tenants before us had planted bulbs in this area. Come this spring the bulbs sprang up all over this little area making it look really ragged. We knew we wanted to do something with this area and so we contemplated over the winter. 

Upon visiting GardenSphere this past Friday, we made our choices with their guidance of course. We decided to buy wild thyme and two Hellborus plants. The thyme will creep and fill in the space and produce pretty little white flowers in summer and the Hellborus will have blooms in the winter. Then we decided to add the stones to keep the area tidy and help with water drainage since it is so close to the house. Beautiful!  

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