I'm Still Here, I've Just Been Silent.

Image via WikipediaDay-Late Weekend Update 8.04.08

I haven't posted to this blog for the last two weeks, but I'm still alive, and here's a little of what has happened for me:

• We went to the high country for a week to attend a Sun Dance ceremony. It was incredible. Our kids had a good time, and we saw a lot of our community and relatives and reconnected with them.
• I made a leap and bought an iMac. I've had a Windows PC laptop for the last two years and it's been sufficient until now. After polling all of the Mac people and messing about on one, I decided to just go for it (credit makes it almost too easy) and got set up two days ago. I love it. It's quiet and fast and all of the applications integrate nicely. I've had to learn some new shortcuts and terminology, but it seems very intuitive. I haven't seen easy access to some of the geeky stuff, like with Windows, but I know it's there when I'm ready.
• I got a new tattoo. Man, I had forgotten how intense it is... It's still healing, so I've been staying out of the sun. I also haven't gotten a workout in for a week, so I'm making that a priority this week.
  
• Papa-time is at an all time high. My wife has been going to the Farmers Market with some other crafty mamas to sell her prairie bonnets and vegetarian recipe book, so I'm the man who wakes up to "Where mama? I want to nurse." on Saturday mornings. I love it, but being woken up by a crabby three year old on a Saturday (a possible sleep-in day) can get things started on the wrong foot. Our oldest is a big help, sometimes a little too helpful for a willful 3 year old. We hang out and do the breakfast (coffee for me) thing, then walk down to the market with the coolest wagon around and do our shopping and meet up with mama. We then haul our groceries home and wait for mama to be done. It's cool, our own ritual day...
• Bonus papa-time this weekend, as a friend of ours was in labor for a long time (first birth, at home with a midwife) and called for my wife to come support her. So she dashes off early Sunday before the kids wake up, and we do papa-time until lunch, when we hear that the mother is exhausted and dehydrated and is being transported to the hospital. We go pick up mama (ours) and she puts our little one down for a nap and then goes back to the birth. Then we hear nothing for a long time, and at dusk we get a call about a baby girl being born naturally, but a separation of mom and babe due to (insert fear here) that requires machines and tools. Two hours later, my wife calls and says they've been reunited and I can pick her up. It's 10 pm by the time we're all back home and fed and ready to crash. Papa-overtime, I say. Yeaa for babies, hurray for mamas!
• Our ten year old started "prairie school" this week at the local museum. There are a couple of historic buildings that were moved to the courtyard there, and my daughter goes to the one room schoolhouse every morning for a week to experience what it was like "back in the day". It's pretty neat, and very popular. Highly recommended. You've probably got something similar near you. If not, what are you waiting for? Start the ball rolling...
  
• I posted about about nurturing a breastfeeding mother at Eco Child's Play today for World Breastfeeding Week.
• I'm still trying to raise bail before August 20th. for the March of Dimes. Go here for my page: Jail and Bail and drop a couple bucks in for a good cause.
  

I'm back to a regular groove with posting, I think, so check back often for lots of exciting randomness and regular ol' natural parenting stuff...

Leave a comment so I know you're out there. (Is this thing on?)

SPIN farming can earn significant income for small scale farmers

I've been hearing references to something called SPIN farming in relation to local food systems, and when I read the basic information on the site, I was astounded!

SPIN farming is a method of market gardening for all of us that have garden plots rather than a farm, and a way to add more local food production in cities that have more backyards than farmland.

Wally Satzewich grows food on 25 different garden plots, ranging from 500 square feet to 3000 square feet, a total of half an acre of land. They plant and harvest multiple times a year, selling their fresh organic produce at the farmers market in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

"We are producing 10-15 different crops and sell thousands of bunches of radishes and green onions and thousands of bags of salad greens and carrots each season. Our volumes are low compared to conventional farming, but we sell high-quality organic products at very high-end prices."

Somerton Tanks Farm is a half acre farm in Philadelphia that sold $68,000 in produce one year using the SPIN farming model. They sell at a farm stand and at the farmers market, promoting the concept of the neighborhood-based farm as a viable business.

SPIN farming is a way to surmount the difficulties in traditional farming, which is getting the land and getting capital to begin. It's low-tech, inexpensive and can be done in small plots.

Which means I better get to planting...

peace