Category: Practical

  • Temporary Solutions

    My life is filled with temporary solutions. “I’ll just put this here until…” It is amazing how much time can pass with a bookshelf tucked into a corner until I decide where to actually place it. How many years can go by while we attempt to save enough money to replace the thing that is…

  • Greenhouse Update

    At sometime I may have mentioned that there was a greenhouse in the works. Then it rained for two months and all the work of maintaining a large vegetable garden (with labyrinth) was compressed into three six-hour blocks of sun while the weeds had a field day. Or a field month, as it were. Which…

  • See Smaller

    In my ongoing quest for obscurity, I am working here for the month of June (or at least in the building that is out of sight behind me): It is spectacular, and beautiful, and if I hadn’t followed my staggering path, I never would have found it. I never would have found myself running this…

  • Spring Comes, Eventually, With Birds

    We’re just going to pretend May didn’t exist, ‘k? I might talk about it sometime, but suffice it to say that it was a month of profound imbalance, lived largely in vehicles and including an astonishing number of grabbed meals on-the-run, and the gaining of 10 pounds. I’m cranky, irritable, and generally not much fun…

  • Eat Those Dandelions

    Tonight we foraged in our yard. At least partly. The menu this evening was quiche made with dandelion greens, fresh basil that has been growing in a pot in our living room since February, and eggs from our chickens. Thanks are due to one of my friends, who recommended blanching the leaves. Last time I…

  • Beltane Festivities

    It rained. I was sick. I stayed in bed until after lunch, and my partner eventually found me sitting at the desk listlessly clicking through twitter-generated tabs. “Are you coming to plant the May pole in the compost heap? New pile of poo!” (Oh, you know how to talk dirty to a semi-pagan nascent farm…

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: One

    For the Weekly Photo Challenge

  • Paying Attention for $$$!

    (I’m going to tell you how much I spend on utilities, in real dollars! Eventually.) This is a part of my daily life that has been growing for years, so I think it deserves a mention. It’s partially frugal, partially environmental, and partially an exercise in testing limits – how little can we use? It…

  • What I Watch Instead of TV*

    I was looking for a photo for today’s post, when I realized that the entire set of photos was a pretty good idea of my day. Yesterday, I caught myself staring at the solar panels, watching the reflections of the clouds and the thin film interference. I mentioned to my husband that I can watch…

  • The Economics of the Laundry Line

    If you are a dedicated environmentalist, but you still find yourself buying back your own time by using convenience foods and labour-saving devices, this is an article for you. I find myself making these choices almost every day: I currently have a frozen lasagna in the oven so that I can have back the 2…

  • Coal and Wind

    Where we went when he asked for the beach on a blustery day: The rail car in the front is an old coal car. The windmills in the background adjoin the Lingan coal-burning power plant, the largest power plant in Nova Scotia. The old schoolhouse is now the visitor information centre, at least in the…

  • High tech/low tech

    After I wrote my very long post extolling the virtues of cake (1), I went out to obtain ingredients for supper (2) and arrived home to discover that the power was out. After a couple of minutes (3), I realized that there was an easy solution to this problem, picked up the not-cordless phone (4)…