Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Sorry for the long pause

So I recently took a group of 9 women to the beach for a weekend of retreat. We taled about our lives and learned healthy living habits from each other. I really enjoyed the time away and had many thoughts about dirt. I thought about how where you live determines many of your thoughts about dirt. I have always wondered about how I would feel with such sandy soil. It certainly would drain well, but would it hold nutrients? What about the luscious smell of dirt? What about worms!? Sometimes I wonder how much the dirt we are raised on shapes us. For instance, would someone from sandy soil prefer the tough, thick grass that grows at the beach? Would they look at Kentucky Bluegrass with suspicion? And what about water. You would have a completely different relationship with water when there was so much of it. If it stormed every day, it would feel different to water your grass...where I live I always feel a little wasteful watering my grass.

Update on my dirt dilemma. I have found a place to go (gasp) buy dirt. Now I just have to decide how much dirt I need. Really, if my great great great grandparents (whoever they were) found out about this, they may have refused to procreate.

On a dirty note, I have started the Simple Mom spring cleaning challenge. I will be following her steps although at a much slower mom of an infant, part time job, clergy family pace. I am hoping to get through her 10 days in less than a month. I will be posting before and after pictures of my messes. If anyone has any advice please leave me a comment or two.

Monday, April 20, 2009

The Endless Mopper

Here's a thought on dirt...how does so much of it get into my house. These are thoughts you think when you have a crawling baby. We have tile. Acres of tile. It is shocking how dirty it gets. I have taken to mopping every other day. I am not an efficient housekeeper. This is challenging for me. Ideas anyone? PS...taking shoes off did not fly with the fam. And I can't remember to take them off. And the tile is cold. So I am back to endless mopping.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fertile Soil

So I was at church all day (I mean from 9:30...well...9:40 until 8:50) and I was thinking about dirt. Apparently I do this a lot! My son is seven months old, and as we played in the church yard, I began to think about what rich soil he is sprouting in. He is constantly surrounded by children who love him and seek him out to play in loving and gentle ways. I am becoming so grateful to be a part of this church community that I do not know what I would do without it! As a mom to my tiny sprout I am hyper-aware of the richness of his environment and any weeds that might encroach on him. In this loving community, I feel that he is surrounded by loving arms and nutrient rich experiences. So on this second Sunday of Easter, I find myself reflecting on the generosity of our God who recognized that it is not good for us to be alone.
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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Earth-movers

There is much to think about on the subject of dirt. Today the worms in my dirt (in my preexisting perennial garden--no solution to the buckets of dirt problem yet) are multiplying! I am digging wire (Satan) grass out of said garden and during this process spent much of the last week digging in the dirt. Every handful had a huge fat worm. Do you know when you are watching a movie and the scary moment comes when something that is supposed to be solid starts undulating and out pops a creature? You have to understand that I love worms. I once was late to class in college because I was saving worms out of a deep puddle (they breathe through their skin). Annelids, worms, are the earth movers our upon which our biological web rests. I love how they take hard, poor dirt and turn it into soil...and get a yummy snack in the process. That said: my particular dirt is fairly boiling with worms. It is unnerving to see them burst out of an inanimate pile of dirt. As I said, I love worms, but sometimes when you are that outnumbered, you start to contemplate the fragility of the Homo sapien. I thought those beloved, multi segmented, terra-ruminators might have been eying me with thoughts of my future return to dust. I even found a nest of infant worms in a rotting log in the oily creek. Tangent: I thought cleaning some of the debris out of the creek might help it flow and cut down on the stagnation, mosquitoes and toxins. More on that later!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Dirt, Glorious Dirt

This is my first blog. I want to sound heady, interesting and witty, but I am just too darn tired. What I want to say is this...dirt is getting too precious to eat. I am trying to grow my first large scale garden. By large scale I mean more than peppers and tomatoes. It seems that seeds, dirt water and sun are all I really need, but I just don't have any dirt. Oh sure, my house is sitting on some, but I live in a suburb with limited yard. This winter I found the perfect place for my garden only to realize this spring that the dastardly leaves stole my sunshine. So, my brilliant husband found surplus five gallon buckets for me to grow in (left over from his bio-dieseling). I was thrilled with this plan, but now I am faced with a dilemma. What do I fill them with? I wanted compost. Of course I wanted compost. Wouldn't you rather drive a Mercedes than a Ford? (I know some of you would rather drive a Ford...but you get my point) So I am making compost...do you know how long is takes for bugs to eat stuff? If I took that long to eat my vegetables, I would still be at the dining room table with that soggy zucchini that my dog so conveniently ate. (Thanks Toby) So then I thought about buying compost, but I would have to use my husband's truck and he is sooooo busy. So then I thought about digging some dirt out of the creek bed in our back yard. Great idea, right? You know the flooding of the Nile brought nutrient rich silt to the Delta. Apparently the ancient Egyptians had not invented motor oil. Now am a searching Craigslist for dirt--dirt! What have we come to! I may have to break down a buy bags of dirt. That just seems silly. Where does that go in the budget? Dirt is the new oil.