Our best-est couple friends, Colin and Jo, are about to have their first baby. Yay! Last month, I co-hosted a baby shower for them. Here we all are. Everyone looks happy except Oliver, who resents being forced to stay still for eight seconds. My amazing co-hosts, Roxanne, Sarah and I agreed that a children’s book…
All Natural DIY Facial Exfoliator with Coconut Oil and Baking Soda
The Facial Years and years ago my husband treated me to a massage and spa facial for Mother’s Day. I had never had a facial before. I told the lady doing the facial, “I have really, really sensitive skin” and she said, “Good to know” and then proceeded to slather what I can only assume…
Giveaway: Mother Earth News Fair Weekend Passes
You know I love me some Mother Earth News, right? It’s been the official publication of simple-living folks and wanna-be simple-living folks since 1970! Every year, The Mother Earth News people put on the Mother Earth News Fair, which is a giant expo dedicated to urban and rural homesteading and greener, more thoughtful living. There are…
You Absolutely Should Not Get Backyard Chickens
I was talking to a friend the other day. She’s a gentle soul, a kind-hearted person who says, “I could never kill an animal” with wide, pained eyes that let you know she’s not talking in hyperbole. She wants chickens. She wants them bad. She wants the experience of fluffy little chicks and she wants…
Making School Lunch Easier: The Sandwich-Plus Plan
You can freeze sandwiches. Why didn’t I realize this about 3 years ago? I have a school-age daughter, and naturally I want her to have nutritious, healthy lunches. My attempts to send my daughter in with various kinds of frugal, left-over based meals have met with mixed success, and all too often my kid would…
All Or Nothing Is All Wrong
I admit it. I tend to have a “go big or go home” thought process. So perhaps I’ve given the wrong impression when it comes to backyard veggie gardening. Here’s a paraphrase of a conversation I had recently: Well, I’d like to have a garden but I live in the city. I have one-tenth of…
To Do In The Northwest Edible Garden: May 2013
Apparently we here in the Northwest are getting the heat the rest of the world is lacking. It’s downright summery these days! So, with sun on your shoulders and soil rapidly drying out beneath your feet, what needs to be done in the NW Edible Garden in May? Plan & Purchase Warm season edibles-tomatoes, peppers,…
The Keep It Simple Guide To Cloches
Here in the Maritime Northwest, year round growing is easier and, to my mind, more rewarding, with season extension techniques. Perhaps the cheapest and easiest semi-permanent option for season extension is the low tunnel cloche. With a low tunnel cloche, any garden bed can be turned into something like a very petite hoophouse with some…
Recipe Videos From The Northwest Flower and Garden Show
As you guys might recall, in February I spoke at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. The show launched their new DIY Stage this year, and I was both thrilled and terrified to be the first person in the 25-year history of the show to do a cooking demo. Newly-launched gardening website Garden TV showed…
How To Spot And Avoid A Crappy Seedling
So, it’s the time of year out here in the Maritime Northwest where periodic nice days start to happen. A few legitimately sunny Spring days in Seattle send thoughts to the veggie patch, and gardeners everywhere start running to buy plant starts. This can become a caveat emptor situation pretty fast, because baby plants are,…
How To Right-Size Your Lawn: In Defense Of (A Little) Turf
Something amazing has happened. I no longer loathe my lawn. For nearly ten years, I have hated my lawn, and muttered curses at the landscaper who insisted that, “with small kids, grass really is the easiest thing to maintain,” before hydroseeding everything in sight. Lies, damn lies. I am no shirker. In fact, I like physical work….
A Community Thing
Hi there. I’m Erica. Been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry about that. I have been elbows deep in my real life, for good and for bad. This blog is real enough. It’s as true as it needs to be. The stuff I write about doing, I actually do. The rants about food politics, I actually…