Earth Day Wishes

* A very quick note: You have until noon today to enter the Laundry Tree SoapNuts Giveaway. It takes two seconds and is so worth it!

Of all the secular holidays that there are; Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, and on & on, is there any one that can be as meaningful to all people as Earth Day? No matter your color, creed, gender, age, orientation, class or political persuasion, we all share a single home. The health of the planet affects all of us and we can all celebrate our small patch of this world and find ways to preserve and improve it. We are all environmentalists, even if we don't know it yet. It's difficult not be cynical. For some reason, my passion for the planet is the one place that skepticism has yet to infiltrate.



So today I say to you "Happy Earth Day" and "Whatcha doin'?". There are a zillion things that I would love to do today, but I am keeping it simple. I am celebrating by planting potatoes. I am terrified about this process after watching countless videos of eager gardeners dumping out their potato bins only to be saddened at a pathetic harvest. I suppose it's the newness of this experiment and if it does not go according to plan I will try again next year.
I am also going to attempt to make a chocolate cake and frost it to look like the Earth. I know it will taste good, but my cake decorating skills leave something to be desired. The cake is technically vegan, but it is really a Depression Era recipe that did not call for eggs and milk as these were often unavailable. Simplicity. It is moist and delicious and is totally no fail. I will post it in the next few days with an update on how my Earth Day cake turned out.The kids will humor me if it looks like cookie monster after a good sliming.
Looking ahead to the next year there are so many dreams that I have for our family and our venture towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Some of these hopes are far off, but I keep them in my Someday Pocket. These things could happen and I hope they do, but they are probably not on the calendar for the next year. Things like:
1. Move to a property with more acreage and less square footage. Preferably with a barn.
2. Raise at least two pigs per year for our own consumption.
3. Invest in a solar hot water system.
4. Get a solar/wood fired hot tub.
5. Take a beekeeping course and get a beginner set up.

And then there are goals that I would like to achieve in the next year. These are pretty realistic and we are already on our way with some of them.
1. Learn to grow mushrooms, preferably on logs.
2. Begin landscape our property with edibles and using permaculture techniques.
3. Build a pasture pen and raise our own meat chickens.
4. Dramatically change the amount of TV that we all watch.
5. Ride my bike more.
6. Create a storage system for root vegetables and other crops.
7. Plant some blueberry bushes.
8. Get a new tattoo. OK, this has nothing to do with greening our lifestyle, I just want to do it. I would have been working on it already (it's going to be a fairly large piece on my arm), but my sister went and got engaged and I figured it might be better to wait until after the wedding in August. I must really love her.

What are your wishes and dreams for the future? What can you do starting today? Be creative. Be courageous. Begin.