Author Mom with Dogs

Back a few years ago, I had another book coming out and it’s expected of all writers to do all they can to promote their writing — including blogging. So I started this blog about my dogs and my daughter.

It’s mostly been a labor of love.  But it’s also been time-consuming.  And with other writing projects making serious claims on my time right now, I have to make some tough choices. Rather than do a half-baked job here, I’m going to take a rest for now.  When my next book is out,  I’ll be picking back up here again.

Until then, on behalf of all of us…

…I’d like to say thanks to everyone who’s stopped by.

Your visits have brightened my days.

Most of my readers have figured out that I’m an avid gardener, but I’ve never shared my true motivation before. Sure, it’s because I like growing things, spending time outdoors, and getting my hands dirty, but none of those are the motivators–they’re the benefits.

What got me into gardening so many decades ago (and keeps me at it) was the realization that “doing business as usual” would eventually kill our planet. I don’t remember the book I read when I was a teenager that turned my thinking around, but I do remember that it caused an instant and permanent shift in my actions: I would do my best not to waste resources and to try to replenish what I took from the earth.  One of the ways that manifested for me was to get into organic gardening.

And the interesting thing about organic gardening, when you do it long enough, is that it begins to lead you down Alice’s rabbit hole.  You start thinking about how everything is inter-connected and inter-dependent. And you begin to see how easy it is to muck that all up.  And you want to start learning how not to do that. And then it jumps from the garden to everywhere else in your life. And then it just becomes how you want to live on the planet.

So as a gardener, I’d like to bring a little known but growing problem to your attention. (No pun intended.) While everyone has heard about  peak oil, peak phosphorus is probably our biggest global emergency. But you won’t hear many people talking about it.

(Thanks to Think or Thwim for gathering the following info together in one place.)

Here’s the problem.

Phosphorus is one of the most the important elements of life. It is a major component of RNA, DNA, and ATP (the molecule produced by photosynthesis that carries energy to the other plant cells – which in turn provide us with energy).

Of the nutrients used as building blocks for life, the following elements all have gaseous phases at the temperatures and pressures found on the surface of the Earth and are therefore easily redistributed through the air:

• Hydrogen
• Oxygen
• Carbon
• Nitrogen
• Sulfur

However, the following elements are solids or liquids and don’t move around so easily:

• Phosphorus*
• Sodium
• Potasium
• Calcium
• …64 more

In a natural ecosystem or on a traditional small farm, plants take these molecules out of the soil and air to build themselves. Animals eat the plants and use the same molecules to construct their bodies. When the plants and animals die, microbes return the molecules to the soil. Lather, rinse, repeat.

On the other hand, with our current industrial agriculture system the plants do their part and take in the molecules they’re supposed to, but then we ship them to a feedlot or city where they are consumed and decay far away from where they originated. The molecules of the elements easily transported by air are replaced relatively easily, but the molecules of solid and liquid elements won’t make it back to the field they came from for a long, long time.

Phosphorus is more sensitive to this imbalance than the others because it is 10 times more concentrated in the body than it is in the Earth’s crust. None of the others are more concentrated in living beings like that.

The phosphorus was originally put in the soil by weathering phosphate rocks. That’s still going on, but that process took millions of years to build up the reserves we used during the last century. To replace the missing phosphorus, we mine phosphate rock, grind it up, and sprinkle it on the soil for the plants to use as RNA, cell walls, etc. This seemed like a great idea when we figured it out 170 years ago. It continued to seem like a good idea all the way up until about 40 years ago when we started noticing two big problems with this system:

Big Problem #1

Phosphorus that doesn’t get used is washed away by rain into rivers and eventually into the ocean. Phytoplankton (algae) in the ocean are very happy with their newfound abundance. They grow fat and reproduce prolifically. The problem comes when they die. As the algae is decaying, the bacteria breaking it down use too much of the oxygen dissolved in the water, killing everything else in that area. Algae bloom near La Jolla

Big Problem #2

We’ve already used half of the phosphate rock available. According to a study by Patrick Dery peak phosphorus occurred in the US in 1988 and the rest of the world in 1989. Others think we’re still 30 years away from the peak, but it doesn’t matter who’s right. Either way, unless we change what we’re doing now, we will have depleted our supply of the central building block of life within a few hundred years of discovering it, and we do not know how to make more.

Chart from phosphorusfutures.net

Current uses of mined phosphate rock:

90% fertilizer.

5% animal feed supplements.

5% soft drinks, toothpaste, etc.

The Solution

Fortunately, the solution is easy. We did it for our first 100,000 years, and we’re the only creatures not currently doing it. The answer is eat, poo, and die in one place.

That doesn’t mean we all have to be farmers, but it does mean we need to become locavores. But certainly, if you can, plant food in your yard. Buy the food you don’t grow from local farmers. Look for pasture raised meat. Compost every organic material you can find. Recycle your own waste. When it’s time to die, have yourself planted in the ground without preservatives so that a tree can build itself out of the molecules you’ve been using. It’s time we give back–while we still have time.

From LiveScience:   Scientists Decode Dogspeak: Software analyzed barks sparked by fights, strangers, playtime

• Barks for strangers were recorded when a researcher approached a dog’s owner’s home when the owner was away.
• Barks during fights were recorded at dog training schools, when a trainer encouraged dogs to bite the glove on the trainer’s arms and bark aggressively.
• Barks for walks were recorded when owners behaved as if they were preparing to go for a walk with their dogs.
• Barks for balls were recorded when owners held balls in front of dogs.
• Barks during playtime were recorded when owners played tug-of-war or similar games with dogs.
• Barks made when alone were recorded when owners tied dogs to trees in a park and then walked out of sight.

Maybe you’ve noticed that life seems to be speeding up lately. It sure has sped up around here.

Cait has been going through a period where’s she’s been given the opportunity to practice not over-reacting.  This is not an easy lesson for a teenager. What’s been interesting to watch is that what initially seems like disappointing or bad news has actually turned out to be a good thing in the end.

The most recent example of this was when she was up for the lead in her school play. It had come down to her and another boy. They both had fantastic call-backs and it was a tough choice. The role went to the boy.  Not because Cait didn’t do a smashing job, but because the part was for Oliver in “Oliver Twist.”  The director ultimately decided to go with the boy for a boy’s role.

Cait was devastated. Even though she got another lead role as Bett, Oliver’s crush, she came to me bemoaning her fate. She found me in the kitchen, making dinner. “Mom, I can’t believe it! I’ve worked so hard — and this is the last chance I’ll have at this school.”

“I know this is a big bummer. And I know Bett isn’t Oliver, but I think she will still be a good role for you,” I said, continuing to chop veggies.

She flopped down at the kitchen table and her eyes welled up with tears, “Mom, I’ve worked so hard… it’s not fair.”

“Ever heard of the farmer whose only horse ran away?”

“What?” Cait looked up at me with confusion.

I sat down at the table with a bowl of green beans and gave her a bunch to snap. “Let me tell you a little story.”

Long ago there lived a farmer who had learned to live each day as it came. One day, the farmer’s only horse ran away.

All the neighbors gathered in the evening and said, “That’s so unfortunate.”

Nonplussed, the farmer shrugged and said, “Perhaps.”

The next day, the horse returned, bringing with him seven wild horses.

The neighbors once again gathered and said,” How extremely fortunate!”

The farmer said, “Perhaps.”

The next day, the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses and was thrown, breaking his leg.

And all the neighbors said, “Oh, what bad luck that your son broke his leg.”

He said, “Perhaps.”

The next day, the conscription officers came around, gathering young men for the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.

And the visitors all came around and said, “Isn’t that great! Your son got out.”

He said, “Perhaps..”

I looked at Cait and asked, “Do you know what the lesson of the story is?”

Sighing, she answered, “That things don’t always turn out the way you expect.”

“Yeah, that’s part of it. But the bigger part is that sometimes you never really know in which direction progress lies.”

Cait gave me “The Look.”

“No really, Honey,” I said, “you watch and see — I have a feeling that Bett will wind up being a better role for you in the end.”

I can’t say that Cait bought my theory at that moment, but she does now.

As it turned out, she wound up having much more fun as Bett than she would have as Oliver.

But I’m sure I’ll need to remind her before long that if she’s feeling that her “horse has run off,” she just needs to keep an eye out for the horizon to see where the next progress will come from. And that maybe, just maybe, it will be even better than what she had planned.

With all the swirls that life seems to be offering her these days, looks like she’ll have lots more opportunities to practice.

I try not to overdue the “cute” dog stuff here.  After all, I Can Haz Cheezburger has that market cornered.  But I got such a good smile from this, I had to share.

A Dog’s Life

Do these guys know how to have fun, or what!

Crufts is the largest dog show in the world. It’s held in March every year. And while it has all the usual judging of Best of Breed, etc., I love watching the agility and freestyle parts of the program. Talk about a working and playing partnership with your dog…!

Here are this year’s winners, Richard and Pogo, of the HTM (heelwork to music) Freestyle.

And Mary Ray is one of my favorite performers. Simply amazing.

With all the anticipation of getting ready for my gardening season, I’ve been cooking up a storm testing new recipes.  Cait is always very happy when this happens.  As she was munching and I was preparing, we got to talking about favorite childhood tastes.  For me, hands down, it’s my mother’s Orange Salad recipe.  It’s so simple and refreshing.

Orange Salad Recipe

1. Peel skin off several oranges, leaving a fair amount of pith (the white inner skin).
2. Slice and cut into bite-size pieces
3. Drizzle with a light oil of your choosing
4. Sprinkle with sugar
5. Chill for 1 hour
6. Enjoy!

Do you have favorite childhood food?

Spring cleaning is well under way around here. There are several projects already in varying stages of completeness. Living in an old farm house means there’s a never-ending supply. Fortunately, Cait usually likes to help. It’s a chance for us to have some uninterrupted talk time, while I apprentice her on the finer points of home repair.

As Cait and I were painting , the subject of one of her school projects came up. Her assignment was to create a utopia. I asked her how it was going, thinking that would be a fun assignment. To my surprise, she complained that it was an impossible task.

I asked her to explain. She said that for every utopian idea she had, it created several more problems that would need to be solved. The conversation fully engaged us for the entire time it took to finish our painting.

But it got me to thinking…

At some point in my life — I keep saying when I’m in my 70s– I plan on starting a school. A utopian school. A school that children couldn’t wait to get to in the morning, and wouldn’t want to leave in the afternoon. I’ve spent years reading and researching and collecting contacts, so that when I’m ready to get going I’ll have a lot of the leg work already done.

While the 3 R’s would be taught along with other traditional subjects, they would be taught in non-traditional ways, where books would play a secondary role to direct experience.  On sunny days, classes would take place outside.  Life skills would also be taught, along with an emphasis on maintaining a close connection to the natural world. And so on and so on. In other words, I’d take the best of Montessori, Waldorf, public school, private school, and home schooling and ditch what doesn’t work.

I would only hire the best of the best teachers and I’d pay very high salaries, because I’d have very high expectations of them. I’d accept no union teachers because I’d reserve the right to hire and fire based on performance. “Classrooms” would be set up more like “Life” rooms. There would be multiple adults and varying ages of children combined in small, fluid groups that would shift and change based on what was being learned.

That’s just a small peek at what I have in mind.

As I’m always looking to pick up more ideas, let me ask you — if you could create a school from the ground up, what would you include and throw out? What do you think is important for a good education? I’d love to hear.

Cait loves to act. LOVES to act. And she’s actually pretty good at it. But all her middle school plays are musicals. Which means that to get a decent part, she must also sing well.  But, um… she, ah… doesn’t sing well. And that would be putting it kindly.

At least, she didn’t sing well — before I signed her up for singing lessons last year.

I’m not one to get Cait lessons for every little interest or activity.  I’m not one to want her to be involved in a zillion things.  That’s because I’m a big believer in “down-time.” For a lot of reasons. Not least of which is because I know that creativity, ingenuity, and discovery are more likely to happen if you leave space for them to happen.

So I think Cait was actually a little surprised when she asked for singing lessons and I agreed.

Her singing ability dramatically improved and she got a lead part in this year’s play. We both know that wouldn’t have been likely without the lessons. But the play is over and I’ve let her continue with her lessons.

Yesterday she asked me why.

A million thoughts went through my head, including one of my all-time favorite quotes by one of my all-time favorite authors, Mark Twain. You’ve probably heard a variation of it, but here’s the original:

“Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.”

Right after my father died, I worried that I’d never truly feel alive again. I had to fight my way out of a black hole. The only time I had to myself back then was when I took Kiera for her daily walk. We’d head out on our 3-mile route. Once we were out of earshot from neighbors, I’d start singing at the top of my lungs while dancing and skipping down the deserted road. Kiera would jump and sing along with me. After belting out a few of my favorite tunes, I’d invariably feel my heart open back up and I knew I’d be able to breathe for another day.

My dad’s been gone for enough years that I can think of him now and smile without also crying. Maybe that’s as much because, over time, I figured out how to reconnect with him so that he doesn’t feel “gone” to me anymore. But that’s another post.

What I told Cait was that I believe there’s a spiritual power in singing — to open up the chest to breath deeply, to open up the heart to feel fully. And that I loved hearing her sing everyday, and I wanted her to continue to sing everyday for her own health and well-being. And that I believed if everyone sang uplifting songs and danced everyday, the world would be a better place.

Talking with her about this, I realized that I’d fallen out of the habit of singing everyday like nobody’s listening. So I’ve started back up.

So, just a little warning. If you’re around these parts and you see what looks to be a crazy lady walking her dog, apparently spazzing out and singing (not necessarily in tune) at the top of her lungs, you’ll know that, um, you don’t need to call for the men in the white suits.

Speaking of which — when’s the last time you’ve had yourself a good sing?

There are a hundred reasons not to get a dog. And only one reason to get a dog. On the Don’t Get A Dog side, Reason #34 is:

Mud Season

Muddy Yard

Muddy Dog

Muddy Floor.

So don’t say I never warned you.

Oh, and the one and only reason to get a dog? If you can’t live a day without unconditional love and laughter. There’s nothing else in the world quite like it.

Last call for the dogs at our house is usually around 11 pm. When first call starts at around 5 am, that makes for a very long day. So, at night, I always walk them out to ensure that they get down to business.

Since my sense of humor and patience have already gone on to bed without me hours ago, no dawdling is allowed.

Kiera and Graidy know the drill.

Wink, still very much a puppy at 18 months, sees this as another opportunity to prolong the day.

He stops. I groan. He’s always stopping.

Wink has this idea that he should get all his exercise inside, running around the house like a madman. So he can spend all of his time outside, standing perfectly still, sniffing everything for hours on end.  I am not supportive of the sniffing tonight.  I enforce a strict ‘Walk and Poop’ policy because I’d like to get to bed within the same 24 hours in which I awoke.

So we’re outside, and he’s stopped–again–and I’m about to start whining.  But he doesn’t lower his head to the ground to sniff.  He looks around.

By this time, Graidy and Kiera, having bored of Wink’s shenanigans, retreat through the dog door. I presume they’ve gone upstairs to seek out the warmth and comfort of their dog beds.

I look around. I notice that it’s started snowing. I’m surprised. There wasn’t any snow expected in the forecast.

Everything is so quiet.  The snow is quickly blanketing the ground and dampening the ambient sounds, so that all Wink and I can hear is water running in the stream in back.

Wink looks up to the sky and continues to look up for what seems like a very long time.  I look up, too.

The snowflakes are huge, and fall gently toward us.  They look silver under the porch light, and they seem to go on, straight up, for miles and miles.

Beyond the snow I can see stars.

I look back down at Wink.  He’s still looking up, and I watch him take it all in.

Finally he turns to look me straight in the eye as if to ask,  Snow and stars together — isn’t it amazing?  What is this universe we live in?  How did we get here, and why are we here anyway?

Out loud I say, “Nobody knows, Wink.  People have been trying to answer those questions for thousands of years — but at the end of the day, nobody knows.”

He smiles in the way that dogs do.  Isn’t it wonderful?

“Yes, it is.”

I sit down on the deck next to him and pull him to my side. We both look back up.

Nuf said. : )

The temp is a whopping -10 degrees outside, but I’m thinkin’ Spring.  Yes, it’s that time of year already — time to order seeds for this year’s garden!

Regular readers know that I’m big on annual garden experiments. An experiment that I didn’t chronicle last season was trying seeds from a variety of catalogs.

Since I save most of my seeds, I only grow from organic open-pollinated seeds. That immediately limits my selection.

I chose seeds from:

Fedco: They have the most extensive list and greatest quantity of seeds available (good for the serious gardener and small farmer).  Since they’re in Maine, most of their seeds do well from Zone 5 up.

Seeds of Change: They offer a nice selection of organic seeds in quantities that make sense for the backyard gardener.

Good Seed Company:  They offer open pollinated, heirloom & homestead seeds. Their seeds are especially adapted for northern gardens.

Territorial Seed: While they’re not exclusively organic, they do offer a nice organic selection.

For my Upstate NY garden, the winner is…

Seeds of Change isn’t the cheapest, nor do they offer the widest selection, but I have nearly 100% seed germination with their seeds. And they seem to fare the best in being both disease and pest resistant.

Fedco wins hands down for the most informative, fun, educational, and interesting catalog.  It’s worth getting their catalog just for reading material.

What’s your favorite seed catalog?

I always find it interesting how life events cluster together.  Perhaps you’ve heard of this phenomenon known as “The Law of Threes.”

My little cluster at the moment has to do with healthcare. Within a few months of each other, my family doctor, dentist, and vet have retired. I’ve yet to find people to replace them. That’s because essentially they’re irreplaceable. They all came from the old school where they were human beings first and medical practitioners second. If any of us really needed to get in to see them, I knew that I’d be able to get an appointment that same day — and that they’d treat my family and animals as whole beings, not as body parts or diseases.

As I continue my search to find doctors that my family and animals will feel comfortable with, I wonder if I will be able to find care remotely close to what we had. It seems people like that are a dying breed.

So imagine my surprise when I watched my mother’s vet walk over to her unbidden to give her a fatherly hug while she stood crying in his office. He’d just given her the news that he thought the tumor he’d surgically removed from her 8-year-old German Shepherd was malignant.

Even though, all things considered, the news was relatively good — the cancer was still in a very early stage and he’d gotten it all — he seemed to know that what my mother needed most in that moment was compassionate arms around her telling her that everything would be okay.

I tell you, it did my heart good to know that people like that still exist. And it reaffirmed that I should hold out until I find them.

Since I’m in the market for tips — if you guys are happy with your dr.s and vets, how did you find them?

We’ve got a messy storm blowing in, so Cait and a friend wanted to get in what may be the last of the skating for a bit.

Cait takes a moment to tighten up her laces.

Even though the ice is 5 inches thick (thick enough to safely drive a car on) and we have a long-line rope on the fence post, I still wind up checking on them from time to time.  My old EMT safety habits die hard.

What I quickly saw was that they had company. Can you see their eyes glowing up on the ridge?

I wondered how long it would take the girls to notice.  Cait usually has a sixth sense when there are critters around.

Ah, there– they’ve both caught sight of them.

What they can’t see (because of the floodlights) that I can see is that these are our five deer.

Pow-wow to decide what to do.

When in doubt…  move on out!

Both girls and deer have scared each other off.

Hmm, that ice looks inviting…  I think I’ll go for a spin.