A typical February in “El Norte” complete with cold, snow and much longing for Spring but with enough bright spots to push our happiness meters above the halfway mark.
PURGE
Camille began the month with the empowering activity of cleaning out the community refrigerator. Here’s the before and after.
FUN IN THE BARN
We joined Tami and the Abundance Foundation at the Fearrington Barn for a inspiring panel discussion on climate change on February 7th.
FEEDING OURSELVES WITH GREENHOUSES
We are thrilled that Bob is learning how to build a greenhouse. And happy to live next door to Edible Earthscape’s thriving greenhouse. Check out both greenhouses at: Greenhouse Magic
A QUICK TRIP TO GEORGIA
Bob went to Georgia with Matt and Leif to tour an edible oil plant as part of their work to distribute GMO free fryer oil to restaurants in our area. Go with them by clicking on: Trip to Georgia
SNOW DAZE
Making the best of an Arctic storm in our bunny bombers. More snowy pictures at Snow Daze.
CHOCOLATE BEET CAKE
Potluck fare for a snowy day and a good excuse to put a pan of batter in a hot oven. This recipe bakes up deliciously perfect every time.
SPEAKING OF CHOCOLATE
Young neighbor Linus and his mom Rachel stopped by with brownies they had made. Within a few moments we were all wearing a little chocolate on our faces. Bob introduced Linus to Amy’s African Xylophone made with calabash goards and wooden slats.
POTTERY RUN
Camille joined Alex, Haruka and Jason for a trip to Silk Hope to buy some pottery from Siglinda Scarpa. Each of us chose a treasure to bring home.
GOATHOUSE CAT SANCTUARY
We took advantage of the trip to spend some time at Siglinda’s Cat Sanctuary. Camille enjoyed good conversation with these two lovely ladies, volunteers at the sanctuary.
HAPPY CATS
There’s magic in this room of happy, beautiful cats. Camille was surprised at how good they all got along. It took some will power to leave without a cat or two under our arms.
PLUGGING ALONG
Bob, Jason, Tim and George took advantage of a dry day to plug mycelium into logs leftover from last month’s tree chopping. They should yield mushroom harvests in the future.
HEADING SOUTH
Lyle and Tami stopped by on their way to Florida in Baby Blue for this year’s Virginia Key Grassroots Festival.
BREAD AND VEGGIES
Camille brought home bread and veggies from Pittsboro. One of Danny Cowan’s incredibly delicious wood oven baked organic wild yeast boules and one CSA share from Piedmont Biofarm, thanks to Tami and Lyle.
IRRESISTIBLE
Bob found asparagus at Chatham Marketplace and we roasted it two nights in a row. On this night we combined roasted asparagus with refried beans, escabeche Bob put up himself, vegan sour cream, farm fresh lettuce and cilantro to make flour tortilla wraps.
CLOSURE
Ahhh…After many long evenings staring at identical puzzle pieces, we finished this jigsaw, vowing never again to pick a puzzle with this much open sky.
JUST SAY NO TO MUD HOLES
It’s been a couple of wet years. After getting stuck a few times, we bit the bullet and ordered up some gravel. We knew we had to do something when we realized that the UPS truck was no longer willing to back into our driveway. Spot approves.
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THIS MONTH’S QUOTES:
“Being with old friends is like an archaeological dig of your soul.” – Tami Schwerin
“The few thousand Americans not completely distracted by tweeting the content of their breakfasts or shooting naked selfies or texting behind the wheel — yea, even the gallant minority not mentally colonized by the slave-masters of Silicon Valley — must wonder what the heck happened in the streets of Kiev last week.” James Howard Kunstler, from ‘Savagery for All’ posted February 24, 2014
“A half century ago America’s largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today’s dollars, including health and pension benefits.
Today, America’s largest employer is Walmart, whose average employee earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart’s employees work less than 28 hours per week and don’t qualify for benefits.” – Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, November 2012
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