Extended/Daily Harvesting and Community Stewardship

I am so excited about these milk jug mini-greenhouses! I'm going to make a million of them and get a real headstart on the growing season... as soon as I can find a million clear jugs.  Make sure you place yours outside where it can get rain. For more info on the milk jug greenhouse and transplanting:

http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/category/gardening/winter-sowing/

I remembered after class that lettuce can be transplanted, so no worries. I did an internship at an organic CSA in Woodinville, and they transplanted almost everything there.

If you were interested in looking into the book I brought on year-round vertical hydroponics, it is called "4 Foot Farm Blueprint" and may be available through the library.

In Alas, Babylon, did you notice that those who thrived and found their reason to live/sense of purpose did so through noticing a need and giving service to their community? And speaking of Community Stewardship, a few years back a 9 year old girl grew a 40 lb. cabbage and decided to donate it to a soup kitchen where it fed almost 300 people! She was then inspired to start several gardens to donate food and start an organization. This has grown to the point where they now accept money donations and award grants for people ages 9-16 to start gardens to donate food in their local community.  http://www.katieskrops.com/ . If you are interested, they accept grant applications Oct 1- Dec 1. You could put that on your calendar for this fall.
What needs do you see in your community that you could fulfill?

This coming week:

A. Habits:

• Core Book Studies
• Math Lessons
• Write daily in Log Book
• Garden

B. Other:

• previously unfinished books
• Farmer Boy book discussion in 3 weeks
• field trip next Thursday, have lunch and outdoor clothing at 12 on the front steps
• signed Field Trip permission slip (attached I hope, if not I'll try to email it)

Miscellaneous:

free 30 day trial of garden planners (it looks like the same planner to me):
http://gardenplanner.territorialseed.com/
http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/

plant hardiness zone by zip code

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

Gardening in the Rain

I came across a great quote from Elder L. Tom Perry this morning... "Independence and self-reliance are critical to our spiritual and temporal growth.  Whenever we get into situations which threaten our self-reliance, we will find our freedoms threatened as well.  If we increase our dependence on anything or anyone except the Lord, we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act.  As President Heber J. Grant declared, 'Nothing destroys the individuality of a man, a woman, or a child as much as the failure to be self-reliant.'"

Adam, you signed up to give a presentation this week (26th) on Self-Reliance.  So isn't that a perfect quote?

Speaking of presentations, here's the rest of the list:
Mar 12: Josh, "Mission"
Mar 19: Jared, "Work/Joy"
April 9: Trey, "Land Ownership"
April 16: Eric, "Local Interdependence"

Thanks everyone for coming and working in the drizzly rain to weed BLC's veggie garden.  We got an awful lot done in just 45 minutes or so.  There's still more to do, and we will probably go back and do a little more in a few weeks.  We'll be sure to let you know... and maybe we'll luck out and get a sunny day.

Are you all thinking about how you can add value to whatever it is that you own?  Real Estate refers to land ownership, but you can begin with the mentality that you are going to make more of whatever it is you have, just as in the parable of the talents (as Josh mentioned in class).  And you can start with whatever small garden space you have, as you work to intensify that spot and grow all kinds of wonderful things.  Did you like how I combined the two topics we covered this week into one idea???

Our book discussion was a little sad.  Please, please make sure you finish reading The Law.  Read it with a pencil and underline the parts that stand out to you.  It's a vitally important book, and certainly evidence that history repeats itself.

This week we'll be discussing Alas Babylon.  I'm about half-way through it and it's keeping me on the edge of my seat (even though I've read it before).  As Randy added to his list (or kicked himself for not having something), I've added a few things to my own family's food storage/preparedness list.  I love the kindness and humanity of the main characters, even as they're faced by some truly awful situations.  Their fortitude inspires me.  I hope you're enjoying (and plan to finish before class!!!) the book, it's really a great one!

Are your seeds bought/ordered?  Please make your garden a priority... or bug your parents about it, if you're needing their cooperation.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what we all grow this term.  And with the sun out today, I'm definitely going to get out and get my hands dirty in my own garden.

Critters and Mission Possible, and an attempt at poetry

Student, student, quite adjutant, how do you grow?

With reading and thinking, discussing and writing, and presenting all in a row

lame, I know, but at least I tried;-) And it stems from garden poetry.

Thanks to those who turned in their first essay on time! Please complete them if you have not already.

Thank you Alina for the presentation on seeing the whole picture vs. just part of the picture. Tying that in to the restored gospel was excellent (great minds think alike:-). And it is generally true that we cannot draw an accurate conclusion if we don't have the whole picture.

Last week we discussed livestock and many of their benefits. I love the part from Old Yeller when the father tells Travis that the only time we ought to feel sorry for someone/thing that dies is if they hadn't completed their earthly mission and that the mission of the pigs was to get big and fat and feed their family. Even though I know that we will eat our animals when they are no longer productive for milk and eggs, I still get a lot of pleasure of fussing over them. They have a happy life here! And knowing that animals have to be treated right in order to be most productive has taught me to be a better gentler person.

We also discussed Caddie Woodlawn and Mission. Mission, with a capital M: if it is using our personal gifts and talents to do something great that God needs us to do in our unique way, then it behooves us to develop our gifts and talents! Remember your Patriarchal Blessing as a valuable resource for gift/talent/Mission guidance.

Assignments:

A. Read The Law by Bastiat

B. Habits:

• Core Book Studies
• Math Lessons
• Write daily in Log Book
• Garden (planning, prep, familiarizing self with seed/start requirements, starting     some seeds indoors, some things can be planted outside around now i.e. peas and potatoes although I usually wait until March 1st, etc)

C. Plan to eat quick and meet at the front doors at 12:15 . Please wear outdoor clothing and bring work/garden gloves this Thursday so you can be comfortable while we do some gardening next door. I don't know about you, but I had to put all that in my dayplanner.
D. Presentations and essays: none due this week, unless you didn't complete the first essay yet.