Second graders in a primary school in Sierra Leone, rebuilt after the civil war. Image via Wikipedia

When I was in college, I spent a summer on a work camp in Moyamba, Sierra Leone. It was through a program called Crossroads Africa. About a dozen American and Canadian college students joined forces with young Africans to start construction on a high school.

As we worked together, we shared stories of our lives. I remember how joyous the young Africans were. I loved dancing on the weekends, at large get-togethers with everyone from toddlers to grandparents dancing together.

As a result of that experience, I went to graduate school in applied anthropology, hoping to make a difference in development in third world countries. Life took different turns, though, and I never returned to Sierra Leone. I stayed in touch with one of my African friends, Isa Johnston of Freetown, and even got together with her a few years later Read the rest >>>

Our water storage shares the bottom of the kitchen pantry with our cardboard recycling.

Home water storage is one of those good ideas for just-in-case. If your water suddenly wasn’t coming in the pipes, how easily would you cope?  We just got a chance to find out. It happened like this, and further down I will describe simple water storage you can do.

Our local water system notified everyone in our neighborhood that on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, we would be without water for a number of hours while a new pump was installed.  So I thought that over the weekend, Kelly and I could do something to prepare.

But when we got up last Saturday morning, there was no water. It was 6 am and luckily we did have a few 5-gallon containers in the bottom of our kitchen closet. Read the rest >>>

Salvador Dali gives time a well-deserved surreal look. Image via Wikipedia

Too much to do, too little time. Things get away from us. We forget errands, or even more important things. As for doing the things we really care about, well, when? Ever? In five years or maybe ten?

Actually I’m feeling much better about my own time management lately, as I have been starting to use a system called GTD.

It’s based on a book by David Allen called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (Amazon link). I bought the book when it came out in 2002 but didn’t really start applying till a few weeks ago.Yup, 9 years later. I’d even read the book back then, but judging from my notes scribbled in the margins, I didn’t really get how revolutionary a system it could be. That’s probably not surprising, since I had taught time management at continuing ed classes and privately, even once for a big corporation. I was used to the methods I taught. Read the rest >>>

Baker Creek Seeds...Image by Brande Jackson via Flickr

Last night I sorted through my packets of seeds, most of them heirlooms from Baker Creek Seeds, and pulled out a few to plant this afternoon. Here in Colorado at 8,000 feet it will be a while till we plant outside, but our small greenhouse has space for some lettuce, bok choy, radishes, and a few other things. Think I will plant a few tomatoes to transplant outside later, and some sweet peppers.

Gardening is becoming more important to us, and we are not alone. More and more people are taking up gardening, or resuming it.

Some reasons: Read the rest >>>

In January my husband Kelly flew to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a couple weeks. Vacation basking in the sun? Not hardly. He was there to consult and train on an earthbag demo home going in. His accommodations were conveniently located — he stayed in the motorhome you see just behind the project. You can see a lot of photos of the Puerto Vallarta earthbag project, and read Kelly’s comments at the link. Read the rest >>>

The growing season is brief where we live, at 8,000 feet  in Colorado. That’s one reason we were so pleased that the house we bought here last year came with an attached south-facing greenhouse.

We were busy getting settled in during the fall, and didn’t get around to planting the greenhouse till mid November.

Out of doors, it has gotten as cold as 29 degrees below at night here. At first we were using a small heater in the greenhouse, but it does have insulating shades we put in at night AND a small hot tub which radiates some warmth. So we got brave…

… and stopped using the heater. The coldest it has gotten to since then inside the greenhouse is about 25 degrees.

The plants seem to do just fine with these slightly-below-freezing temperatures. Read the rest >>>