Peaceful Parenting

• Remember the little things they love to do, and do them.
  
• Take them by surprise every once and a while, it will make their day.
  
• Breathe in twice when they make you mad, and 5 times when they make you really mad.
  
• Talk to them as if they understand everything, and they will come to understand EVERYTHING.

Thoughts of a Poor Organic Gardener



Instinctive gardening
follow my thumb's intuition
watering, nutrients, lighting, Ph

Learn by doing - experiment and troubleshoot
research questions about pests and nutes

Love it, enjoy the work
meditate while watering...
Send your love to the plant any time you touch it
walk by and say hello, talk to them, they listen!

Basically create ideal environment for a plant
loamy nutrient rich dark soil for most plants
Know that some want more water or less
and the soil really guides the water retention
but so does the pot and the gardener

Diary of a poor organic farmer
6/7/2010

Had to seriously amend my soil today after loosing all of my baby plants (60+)
When I repotted them all last week at about 1 inch high into soil reclaimed from my forest floor. Knowing it was acidic b/c of the pine needles, I went ahead and did it anyway with the notion of fixing the soil immediately.
That next morning I sprinkled baking soda on each plant, then soaked them to infiltrate the deeper roots.
After the shock of the transplant,they all seemed happy, then it hailed. It was too much for the fragile things... so sad, need to restart.

So early June here in the mountains seems to be the best time to plant -
since there is danger of frost around here up until Memorial Day, which was last weekend.
So I feel I am right on time, maybe it was meant to be....

NEW SOIL
Mixed 2 flats of 12 gallons each

50 % Loamy topsoil - reclaimed from forest floor
10% pebbles & sticks & small roots
40% red clay soil, not compact, fluffy

2 gallons mix of potato skins, coffee grounds and peanut shells
2 gallons fireplace ash
2 gallons hay bits


Even though the coffee grounds are acidic, I didn't worry too much because it was only about 2 cups worth and I needed the texture, since I couldn't find any sawdust.

DD was kind enough to help out with the mixing of the last batch and filling of 15 pots.

I will reseed all my pots tomorrow and start and seedling terrarium for all the tomatoes and herbs, just to get a boost on growth.

Jed Smith State Park - Gateway to the Redwoods


Spring is coming and the family can't wait to enjoy the Redwoods again. We are so lucky that we can drive there for a day-trip. The weather was in the 60's the last few days and the sun is shining - woo hoo!!

"Be broad minded,
Whole, without relying
On others."
~ Hongzhi Zhengjue

The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort & convenience, but where they stand in times of challenge & controversy.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Clinton Wish

President Clinton says he wishes there weren't term limits on the presidency and that he would have preferred to be taken from the White House in a coffin.

He forgets how close Hillary was to granting him that request.

- Jim Barach

13.1 billion light-years away...
observations of a gamma-ray burst from a star that died 13.1 billion light-years away
~ See the red dot?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Professor Tanvir led an international team studying the afterglow of the explosion, using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii.

Swift detects around 100 gamma ray bursts every year

He told BBC News that his team was able to observe the afterglow for 10 days, while the gamma ray burst itself lasted around 12 seconds.

The event, dubbed GRB 090423, is an example of one of the most violent explosions in the Universe.

It is thought to have been associated with the cataclysmic death of a massive star - triggered by the centre of the star collapsing to form a "stellar-sized" black hole

"Dreams are necessary to life."
~ Anais Nin

Having dreams means nothing if you do not try to reach them.
~ Christen Peattie

Pileated Woodpecker


We heard a knocking.... and found one of these beautiful birds in an old oak tree. He was big, the size of a raven! It already had made 3 holes the size of a baseball. He must have been loving that tree for a while. The amazing thing to me was he did not leave right away, since they are apparently shy creatures. Maybe he didn't hear us, heehee.

Unfortunately he has not come back in a month and I think he has found another part of the forest to call home.