Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Crunchy Granola

I mentioned to my sister one day this past summer that I thought it would be a great idea to try and put a hive of honey bees in our yard, near our garden. My logic was they would help pollinate our vegetable garden and they would also help my neighbor's new apple trees to grow big and strong. Everyone wins and I get free honey. Sweet deal!

And she called me crunchy. Like granola.

Huh.

Go figure.

I've evidently become a hippie without noticing it.

It would seem that overnight I've grown into someone who wears Birkenstocks and has flowers weaved into her butt-length hair, sporting a peace sign, and wearing tie-dyed shirts.

Um. No. Not happening.

But really. Would it be so bad to be a crunchy? How hard could it really be? How much of an impact are those crazy hippies actually having?

I haven't got the foggiest.

But I'd really like to know.

I was watching a documentary on Netflix. Yes. I know. Netflix has all these amazing movie titles and I'm watching documentaries. Whatever. There's only so much Doctor Who, Sherlock, How I Met Your Mother and The B**** In Apartment 23 on Netflix. And besides, who doesn't just flip to the Discovery Channel or NatGeo and leave it there as background noise all day while you're "cleaning house" (read, "vegging out and doing nothing)? Come on! I know you've done it before . . .

Anyway . . . I was watching Vanishing of the Bees and thought it was fantastic. If you haven't watched it, go do that now. I will wait for you to finish.

Seriously. Go watch it.

Finished? It was amazing, right?! It left me being reminded that we need to be checking all the things we're buying. Read those freakin' labels, people! Where is your honey actually coming from? Is it actually really honey or is it "funny honey"? Is it organic? What about your other food? Organic? Please say yes! How have we, America, let ourselves be sucked into mono-cultural farming? Where's the biodiversity?! Bring it back, PLEASE!

Without biodiversity, we're screwed. And not in the fun, sexy way, either. We're screwed in the, "it's-the-end-of-the-World-and-there's-fish-with-five-heads-and-deer-with-eight-legs-and-you-really-shouldn't-have-laughed-at-your-prepper-neighbor-because-now-they're-the-only-one-within-twenty-miles-with-Twinkies" type of way.


Check out this amazing video on biodiversity. It's beautifully created and highly informative. Bravo to the students who created this film from the Vancouver Film School.

Let's take a step back from that tangent for a second.

Honey bees.

Right.

They're disappearing and it's most likely caused by systemic pesticides. They had this happen in France forever ago and the bee keepers rioted in the streets and picketed outside of the Bayer Company. That's right. Bayer. The people who make the aspirin you're suppose to take when you're having a heart attack or whatever. Yeah. They're killing our honey bees. And they're getting away with it in America. Anyway. In France, the legislature heard the bee keeper's lawyer loud and clear and they banned the product. And you know what? The bees are coming back in France.

If our honey bees are gone we can't grow fruits and vegetables. We can't grow fruits and vegetables. We can't grow fruits and vegetables!!!! We'll be relying on other countries (which we already do for about 30% of our produce, anyway) and the only thing we'll be able to grow in America is corn, soybeans, and cotton. All genetically modified, of course.

I don't want to eat cotton. Do you?

Honey bees are important. You can help them thrive buy planting a garden, buying organic local produce, and by writing a letter to your congressman or congresswoman.

If wanting to protect the honey bees and have my own hive means I'm well on my way to beeing (heh, see what I did there?) a crunchy granola, I guess I'm going to have to be a crunchy granola.

But no Birkenstocks for me, thanks. I like my flip flops too much.


Cheers!
LC

Sunday, October 27, 2013

And so, it begins . . .

Right.

I have no idea what I'm doing here.

On a blog, I mean. I have no idea what on Earth could be so interesting in my life that would render it read-able on the World Wide Web.

I like Pinterest and Facebook. I have a niece. I have three sisters. My parents are back and forth on their marriage -- maybe they'll divorce, most likely they won't, but in the meantime they're going to yank everyone along for their emotional drama. I work graveyard four nights a week and attempt to be a "real person" on the other three days. I live in the Pacific Northwest. I love it here but I also love traveling and exploring places I've only ever seen on video or in books. I'm a bit of a nerd. But not too much of a nerd, mind you. I don't want to dress up and play-act my favorite scenes from books or movies and I have no idea what's going on in video gaming since Super Mario Brothers 3. I enjoy Doctor Who, Harry Potter*, The Hobbit*, The Lord of the Rings*, Supernatural, and Sherlock. (Looking at that list, I really should have been born in the UK instead of America.) I'm also rather taken with photography. I took one class in college and think I'm a professional. Hah! HUGE AMATEUR, RIGHT HERE! I'll get there someday, though. I've also been called a Grandma since I like to crochet. Sue me.

*I have actually read the books and find the movies quite enjoyable. I just wish they could have pulled an A&E Pride and Prejudice and made each one 10 hours long.*

"The Countdown" is in reference to my 30th birthday. It's not happening until April 17, 2017, but it's coming and there's nothing I'm willing to do to stop it. Unless time travel in a blue box with a mad man is on that list. I'll do that in a heartbeat. But in a more realistic timeline, I'm coming up on a milestone and believe it should be celebrated as such.

I have three goals for 2017:

  1. Drive the East Coast and Gulf Coast on a motorcycle.
  2. Hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).
  3. Spend Christmas in Australia (or some other super tropical location).
Simple, yes?

You don't know me very well. But you will. Oh, how you will . . . 

I love spreadsheets and word documents. I love plotting and planning and budgeting. I don't know how to actually follow a budget (I don't have the self restraint for that nonsense!). But it looks really pretty on paper and that's what I like looking and working on in my free time. 

This blog is going to be filled with my hopes, expectations, and real-life adventures over the next 38 months. There will be posts about workouts, factoids, recipes, and how I'm moving through life to reach my 30 year milestone. And so, it begins . . . 

Cheers!
LC