Cleaning up our road - what dedication!!

So we haven't done a family "trash walk" lately. I knew that Jason and Kali were likely going to go to the dump later this week and that a sunny day was coming up for laundry drying so today seemed a very good opportunity to make a dent in all the trash and recycling I've been noticing along the road. And Kali enjoys trash walks a lot, especially can smashing.

It was colder than I was expecting when we ventured out this morning to give an apple core to Curious Hiddley. But after stocking up energy with a large pancake for breakfast and some time looking at dust bunnies, flax seeds and plant leaves under Kali's microscope, we bundled up and headed out. But note that this time the family trash walk was just a Kali and Janelle trash walk, as Jason is up the hill today butchering chickens for S and M (and us) - Kali is going through our canned chicken chunks at an alarming rate!!

The first half of the trash walk was very fun. Kali practically ran the mile in to the outskirts of Keezletown. She enthusiastically jumped on cans and picked up trash (even red trash - despite her current dislike of that color) along the road. The wind made opening the large garbage bags a bit of a challenge, but doable. About halfway into town the recycling bag was getting a bit heavy and I was finding it a bit trying to balance carrying both bags, pushing the jogger and watching for cars, trash and recyling!!

At the halfway point is a puddle that had been a favorite "ice skating" spot for weeks when it was frozen solid. With the recent rain it had become a deep thick mud puddle and we had come prepared. The jogger had been carrying Kali's over shoes so that she could tromp around. Just about the time I figured we had better head home before Kali got cold and wanted to be at home 5 minutes earlier, I heard (from a bit farther down the road where I was picking up a bottle), "uh oh" and looked back to see Kali sitting in the puddle.

So now her feet and pants were wet and she was ready to be at home and not out for a trash walk. And I will admit to not overflowing with grace as we started the trek home - now with two large trash bags of increasing weight, pushing Kali now in the jogger who was not overly cheerful. By the time we got to our driveway, having given up trash/recycling collection when both bags were starting to get tears in them and we had picked up one particularly smelly bottle that was making the aroma around us unpleasant, the humor of the situation had come home to me.

I had managed to load up one of the bags on the back of the jogger and had Kali's agreement to do so, with her other option being that she walk (okay, so maybe it was a borderline threat but I really am not sure I would have physically been capable of pushing her and carrying the two bags...) As soon as we were both inside, warmed up, in dry clothes and with some lunch in our bellies, it was all worth it. We did, however, agree that trash walks are probably best with Daddy along.

In other news, we are now happy owners of a "herd share." We are currently getting one gallon of local milk weekly, soon to go up to two. I have my first batch of yogurt "incubating" and just made my second batch of butter with Kali and her friend R from next door. It is very exciting to know that our recycling bin will fill up at a much slower rate now that we will have no milk jugs to add to it, as well as other dairy containers. I hope to start learning some about cheese making in the coming months.

We just decided at a recent family meeting that for Lent we are going to give up grocery stores. It will be a fun challenge and will encourage us to work down our freezer and pantry supply, to make the Saturday Farmer's Market a weekly tradition and to experiment more with making dairy products from our milk. Kali was not overly enthusiastic initially because she was concerned about having a supply on hand of yo-baby yogurts, arthur macaroni and cheese and alphabet cookies (three treats she likes to pick out from the natural foods section at Kroger but that are not even normally at our house all the time). However, when she got some sense of how long 40 days was and my reassurance that we could get one of each to "tie her over" she was ready to commit too - and seemed excited about the prospects of using her own pasta maker more and experimenting with making flavored yogurts at home. We'll do our best to keep it fun!

Lastly, I was waiting to have the final word on the health and well-being of Herm and Germ but I only have half of a report. We can now say that at least one of our goldfish is amazing!!!!! The long cold spell started to get us worried when our rain barrel seemed to be freezing all the way to the bottom. We kept thinking it would warm up, or we'd forget about it for a few days. Finally, Jason took a few steps to try to aid the thawing process and just in the past week it was back to water again. But no sign of our two goldfish that had weathered several winters outside, and who had come to Fruit Farm Lane with us from our Wolfe Street home over 4 years ago. I felt very sad to think that we might have not only let down one of the hens under our care but had also let our goldfish freeze to death. I got an excited call from Jason yesterday at work letting me know that he had just had his first goldfish spotting and it was ALIVE!!! We have yet to see two at one time so we are still waiting to see if the living fish has a living fish friend.

As I sat down to write this blog I looked over at Kali on the floor and I smiled! She had been "knee deep" in stuffed animals minutes before and had settled down with a stack of magazines. She looked very comfy, complete with modeling the big hole in the toe of her sock that gives her foot a way out the bottom end when hot. While I'm more than ready to send them to the rag bag, they are one of the only purple pairs left in her drawer and so they are treasured! Now she is concentrating on writing out the months of the year and organizing her magazines by month. For this moment the house is quiet and I'm enjoying sitting in front of our big picture window watching the clouds move across the moutain and patches of blue peeking out now and then with an occasional snowflake sailing to the ground.