Archive for July 6th, 2008

Independence Day Update: Back and Meditations on the Project

Sharon July 6th, 2008

Hi folks - Well, I had a great week, but of course, mostly didn’t spend it doing things to make myself more sustainable.   I did go garage saling with Mom and step-Mom and found the motherload of Eli sized winter clothes (yay!), and while it wasn’t my community, I got to visit my parents’ community garden and wish that I could have a community garden plot too, but that’s pretty much it. 

But I thought I’d mull, for a moment, on how the project is going.  I admit, I’m really liking the way it is helping me overcome my own flaws.  You see, I tend to be a “sustained time” kind of project person.  That is, I like to work on things uninterrupted, and get totally engrossed in them. Now the realities of parenthood have cured me of that to some degree, but with my garden and food preservation, I’ve still tended to think “Oh, I only have 20 minutes before I have to do X- that’s not enough time to…”  And the really good thing about this project is that it is a reminder that 20 minutes of weeding makes an enormous difference, that I can shell some peas for the dehydrator now and put the rest in later.  It is definitely forcing me to make better use of my time.

Right now there are more jars of canned and dehydrated food than I’ve ever managed at the same time of this year.  And that, too, makes me happy.  It doesn’t mean that I’m not making mistakes, but I’m doing better than last year, and the year before, and that’s how to look at this - not “did I compete with X person” but “am I doing better than I was?”

A couple of notes.  If you plan to sign up for the food preservation (and yes, I still have a couple of spots), the deadline is Monday evening, so please send me an email ASAP. If you’ve already signed up, and haven’t gotten an organizational email, my apologies, please email me one more time - I’m assured that as of yesterday, emails should no longer be disappearing from my box into the void.  If you have signed up and gotten your organizational email, please make sure you subscribe to the yahoogroup - this applies only to registered class members. 

Also, tomorrow is the first post in the post-apocalyptic reading group - we’ll be discussing Heinlein’s _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_.  I’m really looking forward to it. 

 Cheers,

 Sharon