Last Saturday, the Good Girls took a trip down to the EarthWorks Enterprises farm in the Whittier Narrows* for their Make a Difference Day. EarthWorks is an urban farm with a number of goals. Here's their mission statement from their website:

EarthWorks Enterprises is a nonprofit grassroots organization that strives to enhance the health and economic security of youth, low-income families and other residents of South El Monte and Whittier through organic sustainable agriculture.

We employ youth to help grow and sell organic produce to the community. In addition, youth develop communication, leadership and job skills, and learn about nutrition and the environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture. The community benefits from having a local source of affordable, nutritious organic produce.

The farm itself is large, especially for one worked by volunteers, and there were crops growing on about 3/4 of the land. Farmer Bob, who is the farm manager and a third-generation farmer, said he has big plans to improve the farm and grow more crops. He seemed to think the farm was unimpressive, but, having been to a number of nonprofit urban farms in the past, I thought this one looked pretty darn good.

Merete, Rachel and I were put to work transplanting leeks, kale, lettuce and onions into raised rows. It was fun and fairly simple, so we were able to chat while we worked. Of course, I was deeply jealous of all the happy, healthy plants growing all around me, considering my own pathetic home garden. But, Farmer Bob is a professional, after all. Perhaps someday I'll grow okra and eggplants as nice as the ones at EarthWorks.

When lunchtime arrived, a group of chefs provided all the volunteers with a cooking demonstration that was supposed to show us how easy it was to make a tasty, healthy meal using fresh veggies from the farm. Unfortunately, most of the people in the crowd of volunteers were not interested in the demo, and when lunch meat sandwiches and bags of chips appeared, they all flocked to eat those instead of the salad and stir-fry the chefs were cooking. It was a little depressing, and a good reminder that you can't change people's habits overnight. If these teenagers were unfamiliar with kale and okra and fresh ginger, they probably weren't going to try it without some persuading. It seemed like the kids who actually worked at the farm every week were more into the veggies, though, so EarthWorks does seem to be succeeding in helping those kids learn about healthy eating. Perhaps they'll persuade their friends.

On the bright side, EarthWorks also provides free boxes of produce to 30 local low-income families every week. So, the kids in those families will get used to eating fresh, healthy vegetables and hopefully develop a taste for them. And, the EarthWorks produce stand,open every Saturday from 10am-12pm, provides people in the area with inexpensive fresh produce that they probably can't find in stores. I bought some kale, okra and lettuce from the stand, and it was all very tasty.

To wrap up, the Good Girls had a good time helping out on the farm last weekend, and I think we'll go back. They welcome outside volunteers every Saturday morning, and there's no need to pre-register. So, if you live in LA and you're looking for a nice way to spend your morning helping a good cause, you should check it out.



* The farm is due South of Pasadena. It actually wasn't a very long drive from my house, especially on Saturday morning when the freeways were clear.

Election day is one week from today, so I thought I'd do a little post about California's Proposition 85, and why all two of the people from California who read this blog should vote "NO" on this particular prop.

Prop 85 is basically a resubmission, with minor changes, of the already rejected Prop 73 from the last California election. It would require women under 18 seeking an abortion to notify their parents of their intent and then wait 48 hours before they could receive the abortion. While most people wouldn't claim that it's a bad thing for parents to be involved in their teenagers' lives, I do believe that it's wrong for the government to mandate parental notification.

Some teenagers may not feel safe telling their parents about their choice to have an abortion, for fear that they would be kicked out of the house or ever physically harmed. This may cause a teenage girl to seek dangerous means to end her unwanted pregnancy, or she may delay necessary medical care to avoid her parents finding out that she's pregnant.

While the proposition does provide for a judicial waiver if a teenager doesn't want to inform her parents, it seems rather unlikely that a girl who is afraid to tell her parents about her choice will have the courage to go before a judge.

Weirdly, one of the arguments that proponents of Prop 85 put forth is that a parental notification law will scare teenage girls into not having sex. Apparently, they think that the idea that they'll have to tell their parents if they want an abortion will make girls stay abstinent. This "logic" seems absurd to me. First, this proposition is supposedly about opening the lines of communication between parent and child, but the prop's backers are saying that kids will not have sex in order to avoid talking to their parents about their sex lives. Huh? Also, I have a feeling that a teenager beset by hormones, emotions and peer pressure is not going to stop and think, "If I get pregnant from the sex I am about to have, I'll have to tell my parents in order to get an abortion. Best to stay abstinent." I don't think most people in their 20s or 30s think that far ahead, let alone teenagers.

If the people backing Prop 85 really cared about preventing unwanted teen pregnancies, they would write a law that mandated comprehensive sex education and encouraged teenagers to educate themselves about the consequences of unprotected sex. Perhaps there could even be a required unit in California's sex education class called "How to talk to your parents about sex." I'd vote for that proposition.

On close inspection, Prop 85 feels like a sneaky way to intimidate teenagers who want to have a safe and legal abortion. Hopefully, Californians will vote "NO" next Tuesday.

The website for the No on 85 campaign can be found here.

Here's an article from the Los Angeles Times laying out arguments from both sides: Abortion Initiative Puts Focus on Girls' Welfare

For a while now, Dakota and I have been working on converting the back yard into a more usable space. Our most recent and biggest project, was demolishing the old, rotting deck and installing a patio. It took several months, and we did it all ourselves. Dakota did the bulk of the work, since he's got the skills and the endurance for these things, but I certainly worked hard as well. We're pretty proud of the final product, completed the first week of October. Here's a short photo time line:

Here's what the old deck looked like on Day 1 of the patio project.

Here I am pulling rotting deck boards up with a crowbar. It's hard. I give Dakota credit for ripping the majority of the boards out on his own. But hey, I did my best.

This is the completely demolished deck/pile of rubble. Dakota cut down some of the bigger, unrotted boards that were supporting the deck for reuse.

After it was all ripped up, we hauled all the old wood that wasn't reusable up to the front of the house and loaded into a truck. Then, it was off to the landfill.

I actually had no idea there was a landfill so close to our house. This was my first landfill experience, and it wasn't nearly as smelly as I expected it to be. I definitely saw a lot of toxic-looking construction material and plastic being dumped all around us, but, overall, they seemed to be doing a decent job of replanting over the piles of trash with native plants and separating out yard waste materials and old appliances from other trash.

This nice pretty pile made up of the bricks that we found underneath the deck once we ripped everything out. Apparently, there was a patio in the backyard before. So, it's not so much that we were making a new patio as we were "restoring" the old one. Sort of. Dakota salvaged as many of the bricks as he could by carefully chipping away at the crumbling mortar between them. Then he took a sledgehammer to the cinder block and concrete blocks that were holding up the deck. I decided to let him handle that part on his own. I'm not much of a sledgehammer person.

Here are the molded cement planters Dakota made using the cement mixer he acquired off craigslist. These are for the special cactus section of the patio.

Unfortunately, we didn't end up having enough of the salvaged bricks to cover the entire patio surface area. We laid down all the old bricks we could (they're the gray ones towards the bottom of the photo) and then bought some inexpensive concrete brick from Home Depot to cover the rest of the patio. To fill the spaces between the bricks, we swept sand across the top of the patio and let it sink into the cracks. We'll probably have to add more sand after the first big rain, but, over time, it should get pretty tightly packed and stay put.

The new brown deck was made by Dakota from the boards he salvaged from the old deck. (I painted it.) The new deck is a long, low "bench" on the downhill edge of the patio and a wider section surrounding the planters.

Here are the completed planters and their cacti.

Believe it or not, I don't have one big, pretty beauty shot of the completed patio. We were racing to finish it before a party we had on October 7, and I guess I never managed to document the final product. I'll take one soon and post it.

So, that's the saga of the deck to patio transformation. It was a lot of hard work, but completely worth it. I'm happy we were able to use salvaged materials for the deck and half of the paving--especially since I felt pretty bad dumping all that old, crappy lumber in the landfill.

So, I finally watched Hotel Rwanda last night. It's one of those movies I've been wanting to see/dreading because I know how sad it is. And man, is it sad. Beyond the fact that it's about the brutal murder of a million innocent civilians, it's also about how people in the West--and around the world--turned a blind eye to the genocide in Rwanda, just as we did in Kosovo and just as we're doing now in Darfur. It's heartbreaking that people in Africa called out, begging the U.S. and other nations for help, and we did not help them. How could we have been so callous?

And, you probably all know, we're doing it again. The conflict in Darfur has been going on since 2003, and we still haven't sent a U.N. or U.S. force in to stop it.

Today, I made a small attempt to speak out by writing my U.S. senators, representative and the U.S. Secretary of State, asking them to turn their attention and resources towards stopping the killing in Darfur. I feel like it probably won't help, but, it's better than doing nothing.

There are more people I can contact (and you can too). Here's a list:

Secretary Rice
http://www.state.gov/

Head of African affairs at the State Department, Jendayi Frazer
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/06/24/”mailto:

U.N. Secretary General
inquiries@un.org

U.S. mission to the United Nations
usa@un.int

President Bush
president@whitehouse.gov

You can also write letters to the editor and/or simply contact your local paper and ask them to give the crisis in Darfur comprehensive and constant coverage.

Maybe this won't do anything, but I think it's better than ignoring the problem. For a while now, I have read articles about or thought about the crisis on Darfur, done a little Internet research and then kind of given up without doing much. Maybe it's silly that a movie has energized me to pay closer attention to what's happening in Darfur, but who cares. Silly or not, it's not a bad thing to start putting more effort into trying to end a genocide.

It's so easy to pretend that terrible things aren't happening all over the world--or get bogged down by how many terrible things are happening all over the world. But, I have come to the conclusion that I should always try to help rather than give up. I hope some of you agree.

I'll let you know if I find any other ways to speak up about Darfur.

UPDATE: Here's an interesting editorial about the conflict in Darfur from the LA Times. It's a bit old though, and their coverage since this piece has been fairly minimal. I think I'll send them an email.

Last Saturday, the Good Girls participated in one of Heal the Bay's monthly "Nothin' But Sand" beach clean-ups. Four of us drove down to the beach for the morning: Merete, Mirabai, Natalie and me.

The clean-up was at a beach in Playa del Rey, an area just North of LAX. The area itself is lovely and the water was a gorgeous blue. If you looked at the beach from far away, you probably wouldn't have noticed much trash at all, but, up close, it was littered with tiny pieces of junk.

At Heal the Bay beach clean-ups, you're issued a rubber glove, a trash bag and a check list to keep track of what kind of trash you're picking up. The majority of the trash on this beach was made up of small pieces of styrofoam, tiny pieces of styrofoam and teeny tiny pieces of styrofoam.

Honestly, the amount of styrofoam bits on California beaches is shocking, and a little depressing. Despite our best efforts, the four of us barely made a dent in several heavily-littered areas. We did our best, though, and picked up us much styrofoam as possible, as well as around 80 cigarette butts and other small pieces of trash and plastic.

Speaking of cigarette butts, I am thinking there needs to be some kind of revolution or grass-roots movement against this particular form of litter. According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butts account for 1 in every 5 pieces of litter picked up on California beaches during costal clean-ups. They get there both through people smoking on beaches and, mostly, through people dropping their cigarette butts in the street. Those butts are then washed down storm drains and sent out into the ocean.

I think that smokers need to start taking responsibility for the proper disposal of the cigarette butts, and non-smokers need to say something when they see people drop their butts on the ground. It seems absurd to me that people who would never drop an empty aluminum can or candy wrapper on the ground freely and unthinkingly toss their cigarette butts anywhere they happen to be standing. I plan to start my own little campaign against this behavior, and I hope you'll join me.

Here's a funny poster from Australia to get you inspired.


If you'd like to volunteer with Heal the Bay, you can learn more by clicking this link. They are having their annual state-wide Coastal Clean-Up Day on September 16, with clean-ups at over 55 different sites in LA County alone. Go to the website if you're interested in participating, or call 800-COAST-4U for sites in the rest of California.

For our most recent Good Girls activity, we took Merete's suggestion and went out to the farm. Specifically, we woke up early on a Saturday and drove to Animal Acres to help out with some chores. Animal Acres calls itself a "farmed animal sanctuary and compassionate living center." They take lost, abused or injured farm animals and either get them adopted or care for them for the rest of their natural lives. In addition, Animal Acres educates people about animal cruelty, specifically in terms of factory farming.

Jen, Merete and I made the 45 minute drive North to the farm on a scorching-hot July day. When we got there, we were met by a very nice farm intern who showed us what needed to be done and where to get our tools. Then, we got to work cleaning goat and cow stalls.

Most of the animals were very cute.

Here's a cow we met, and a super fat goat who made me laugh every time I saw her (in a compassionate way, of course).



After we finished picking the poop out of the stalls, we got to feed a super-cute lamb as a special treat. The lamb had actually been following us around a lot, like a curious pet. I found myself petting it just like I'd pet a dog, which was strange, but fun.

Here's Jen feeding the lamb (with milk in a beer bottle).



After our vegan picnic lunch, we moved on to the chicken area.

I must say, the chickens affected me most of all the farm animals. Most of them had pink, bald patches on their bodies, the result of being crammed into wire cages with other chickens. Despite the fact that the chickens had been at Animal Acres for about 6 months, their feathers still had not grown back, and probably never would. But that wasn't even the saddest part. Once we got close, we saw that the chickens' beaks were short and blunted. It turned out that the tips of their beaks had been cut off by their former owners at a factory farm. Apparently, this is a common practice used to prevent the chickens from pecking each other as they sit in their tiny cages. Their beaks looked awful, and the intern told us that sometimes the chickens starve to death after their beaks are clipped because it's too painful to eat. The turkeys in the chicken area also had clipped beaks, and clipped toes as well. It was very sad.

But, on the bright side, these chickens and turkeys seemed pretty happy at Animal Acres. Merete even petted one of the turkeys. Apparently, turkeys are very sweet-natured animals.





Once we finished scraping poop up in the chicken area--not the most fun job ever--and Jen finished cleaning out a crate used to house some adorable stray kittens, we were done with our chores and ready to head home.

On our way out, we said farewell to the biggest, fattest pig I have ever seen. Merete, who has been to Animal Acres before, had told me about this huge pig, but I don't really think I believed her until I witnessed it's enormousness myself. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but here it is anyway.



What I took away from this Good Girls adventure, beyond an appreciation for goat butts, is that free range chicken is the way to go. I know that phrase sounds kind of silly to some people, but I really think it's important to treat the animals we eat with some compassion. Cramming them in tiny cages and cutting off their beaks just doesn't seem like something that we should allow. Luckily, free range chicken and eggs are readily available in California grocery stores.

Is the same true in the rest of the country?

*Special thanks to Jen for taking these great pictures!

Although my summer garden is still limping along, producing the odd pepper or tomato every few weeks, I am already looking forward to Fall planting. Maybe I will fare better this year. At least I probably won't have to contend with the combination of a searing heat wave and a nasty fallen tree branch. Those two events really hit my summer veggies hard.

My main inspiration for fall gardening is the Seed Savers website/catalog. If you haven't been to the website, I highly recommend you check it out. I first heard about Seed Savers from Dakota's dad. He's an amateur vegetable gardener also, although a far more successful one. Seed Savers is based in Iowa, and apparently you can tour their farm. Perhaps next time we head out to Des Moines, we can take a little road trip to heirloom veggie heaven.

Here's a little blurb about Seed Savers in their own words:

Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations. When people grow and save seeds, they join an ancient tradition as stewards, nurturing our diverse, fragile, genetic and cultural heritage.

After browsing the site, I am planning to order seeds for leeks, broccoli, beets and maybe peas. I have to read in my gardening book a little before I completely decide.

The main thing we really really need to do before I plant my fall garden is make the soil better. I have big compost/soil builder plans for early September. Bet you can't wait to read all about them!

Still, the garden hasn't been a total loss so far. I've pulled up some tasty onions recently, and check out this nice-looking carrot I got last month. It's the biggest one yet.

A couple of weeks ago I heard a report on the BBC World Service about bluefin tuna. Apparently, the population has greatly diminished due to its growing popularity, especially among sushi-lovers. The World Wildlife Fund and other environmental groups are trying to spead the word about bluefin overfishing, so that people interested in sustainable consumption can stop eating it. Read more in this article.

I plan to cut bluefin out of my diet for now, despite my love of fresh tuna sushi. After all, tuna is known to have high mercury levels as well, so it won't be so bad to stop eating it for a while.

Speaking of sustainable eating and delicious seafood, Oceans Alive, a division of Environmental Defense, has a new Pocket Seafood Selector available. If you follow this link, it will take you to a PDF of the wallet-sized list of "good" and "bad" fish. Print it out, fold it up and you're good to go.

I used the Seafood Selector on my trip to San Diego last week. It was quite helpful since I went out to several nice dinners at seafood restaurants. The "bad" side of the list indicates which fish are in danger due to over-fishing, as well as which fish may have high levels of mercury or PCBs. The "good" side of the list indicates fish that are considered the most sustainable choices and which fish contain beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. I think the new strategy is to convince people that eco-friendly fish are also good for your health. That seems smart.

Down in San Diego, my coworkers had a good time teasing me about my Seafood Selector, but I didn't mind. Even when they're making fun of me, we're still having a conversation about sustainable eating.

I just dropped off some fairly dorky signs that Natalie and I made for the hospice we work with from time to time. The volunteer coordinator said we should make some artistic representations of fireworks for people who would miss them due to illness this 4th of July. Making pictures of fireworks is actually kind of hard, but we did our best. I relied heavily on glitter. Unfortunately, Natalie and I were the only Good Girls who could find the time to do this project, so we only made about 25 signs. That's way down from our previous efforts for Valentine's and Mother's Days. But it's better than nothing.

Here's a pic of Nigel sitting among the gift bags Rachel, Jen, Mirabai and I made for Mother's Day last May. They turned out pretty well, and I think we each made at least 15 bags, so there were over 60 for that project.



For our June Good Girls project, Rachel and I went down to the LA Food Bank for some food-sorting fun. This time we had two different assignments.

First, we were sorting through dry food donations. It was kind of depressing and frustrating, actually, because we ended up putting most of the donations on the "trash" conveyor belt rather than the "good" conveyor. This was for several reasons: (1) much of the food had expired over a year ago (2) many of the packages were damaged or open (3) some of the stuff inside the donation boxes wasn't even food. It was actually kind of shocking that people/business would "donate" such garbagy stuff. I kind of felt like they thought poor people would just eat anything, no matter how old or disgusting.

Just as Rachel and I were getting especially indignant after finding a jar of mold-covered olives in one of the boxes, we were pulled away to another part of the Food Bank. There, we were assigned to sort large bins of fresh peaches. This made me feel a bit better. Peaches are delicious and healthy, and, while there were some bad ones in the bunch, for the most part the peaches looked tasty. So, while there were slim pickin's among the dry food donations, at least the Food Bank clients would be getting some fresh, pretty peaches that week.

On our way out, Rachel and I took a last look at the South Central Farm, which is next door to the Food Bank. It hadn't been bulldozed yet, but there was no one inside. Outside, there were a handful of hippy-looking types with signs, but I believe most of the protestors have given up. What a shame.

Next up: Animal Acres on July 8. Should be a fun one.

This week and next week, the House Appropriations Committee will be deciding whether or not to cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which just happens to fund one of my favorite things in life: National Public Radio.

Initially, they were going to cut $115 million but now they have reduced that to a cut of $95 million. This still eliminates several NPR programs, including their initiative to help fund a transition to digital radio and two early learning programs, Ready to Learn and Ready to Teach. In addition, the committee has not made a commitment to fund the CPB in the future, which is unusual and could mean a complete cut of funding in 2009.

There was a similar attempt to drastically cut funding to public radio last year, but a huge swell of grassroots support put a stop to it. It sounds like that will be necessary again this year.

So, I plan to email my representative today, and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same.

For more info:

tellthempublicmatters.org
LA Times article

Oh, and I know there's that annoying, years-old email forward that goes around about cuts to NPR. This is the real thing, not a ghost in cyberspace.

I woke up this morning to the sad news that the L.A. South Central Farm was about to be destroyed. Sheriff's deputies showed up early this morning to evict the farmers and protesters from the farm and bulldoze the trees and crops. What a sad end to this story.

I feel very disappointed that the mayor, city council and citizens of Los Angeles weren't able to save the farm. That part of L.A. is especially desolate and depressing, and the farm was basically the only large spot of green in a grey, trash-strewn landscape. I feel like the destruction of the South Central Farm will be something the city will always regret.

It's a sad day.

Photo from the South Central Farmers website

UPDATE

From the Los Angeles Times:

During an afternoon press conference, a visibly annoyed Villaraigosa said the city made a last-ditch effort to preserve the land, offering landowner Ralph Horowitz the price he had sought, raised through a variety of nonprofit groups.

But the mayor said Horowitz then said he thought the land was worth an additional $3 million and also said he was sick of the protesters, some of whom he said had made anti-Semitic slurs against him.

The farm is now being bulldozed and approximately 50 protestors have been arrested.

Last night, I finally made my way to the farmers' market in Highland Park that started up in April. I didn't get over there until a little after 7, so things were winding down, but I still found some pretty good stuff. There were 6 or 7 vendors selling produce--cherries, peaches, nectarines, green beans, corn--as well as some prepared food stands--tamales, kettle corn. There were also a few crafts booths and music playing. I picked up a few ears of corn and put them on the grill for dinner last night. Tasty.

Overall, the Highland Park Farmers' Market seems like a pretty nice, low-key, family scene. I'd definitely go back, especially since I think it's important to support positive developments in my community. The farmers' market is small now, but I'd be really excited if it gained popularity and more fruit and vegetable sellers started coming. We could do our weekly fruit and veggie shopping there from local, organic sellers. That would make me really happy.

So, if you live in the Highland Park/Mt. Washington area, you should stop by the market on Tuesdays between 3 and 8. It's at Ave 57 and Marmion way, and parking was no problem (although really I should start riding my bike there).

Last night, the news suddenly hit that Los Angeles' South Central Farm is on the verge of being bulldozed. I was shocked and a little upset that I had not been paying closer attention to the situation, which I heard about on NPR several months ago. I guess I wasn't alone.

The South Central Farm is a 14-acre piece of land in one of L.A.'s most economically depressed neighborhoods. Since 1992, this community farm has allowed residents of South Central to supplement their diets and earn extra income by selling their crops. It also serves as a precious green space in the middle of an industrial landscape.

Unfortunately, as part of a legal proceeding, the city sold the land to a local developer, and he plans to bulldoze the farm to put up a warehouse. The developer offered to sell the land to the farmers, asking $16.3 million for it, but they were only able to raise $6 million. This week, an eviction notice was served.

It's possible that it's too late, but I am sending emails to Mayor Villaraigosa and members of the city council asking them to do all they can to save the farm. As I write this, farmers, environmental activists and various Hollywood types are down at the farm staging press conferences and tree sit-ins to keep the destruction from happening. If you read this blog and live in L.A., consider sending some emails or donating to the farmer's fund.

Mayor Villaraigosa's email is: mayor@lacity.org

For more info, email addresses to send letters to and a way to donate money, check out the South Central Farm website.

Here's the letter I wrote to Mayor Villaraigosa if you need some inspiration:

Dear Mayor Villaraigosa,

I am writing at the final hour to ask you to please do everything you can to prevent the destruction of the South Central Farm. The farm is an important resource and a historic landmark, and, as Los Angeles citizens, we should protect it.

Los Angeles should be proud of the farm and the people who grow food there. The South Central Farm is a positive symbol in an area of town often stereotyped as crime-ridden and desolate. As someone who voted for you and who believes in your desire to make L.A. a better place to live, I ask you to hear my request.

Stop the destruction of the South Central Farm.

Thank you,

My Name
My Address & Zip Code

Dakota and I have recently been trying to eat significantly less meat. We're not going completely vegetarian, but we're trying to cut down on the amount of meals we cook with beef, chicken, fish or pork. I suggested this because it's difficult to deny that factory farming and fisheries have a fairly serious impact on the environment. While I don't see myself becoming a complete vegetarian, there's no reason that I can't strive to eat more vegetarian meals than meals that contain meat.


So far, it's been going fine--not great. We have had several very delicious meals and a few unsuccessful ones (making your own veggie burgers doesn't always work out so well). Some dishes I'd recommend would be: Soba Salad with Carrots and Zucchini, with tofu mixed in, and Baked Tofu Szechuan Style. Both of those were pretty tasty, which is nice since the first time I cooked tofu was two weeks ago. We also grilled up some marinated portobello mushrooms and asparagus one night. That was quite delicious. So, I don't think we'll starve.

The goal is really just to work more vegetarian dishes into our lineup of meals. I imagine we'll still buy steak from time to time, but I was starting to feel like we were relying too much on ground beef and chicken breast because they are easy. I think once I get in the habit of cooking more tofu and beans, I will consider them as convienient as those meat options.

If you have any suggestions for vegetarian dishes to try, let me know.

The hamster photo is courtesy of the awesome site Cute Overload.

A few weeks ago, I did something at work that I'm kind of psyched about. It was small, but I like to think that every little bit helps.

I have been bringing my own reusable water bottle to work for a while, and, in a meeting last month, the issue of bottled water came up. I jumped at the opportunity to make a few comments about how I am concerned about all the disposable bottles of water we go through at the studio. Then, I offered to get everyone non-disposable, refillable water bottles. To my delight, almost everyone said they were interested.

A couple of days later, I brought in a variety of hard plastic water bottles, and my coworkers picked the ones they wanted. Now, they all use them and refill them throughout the day. It's been several weeks and it seems like everyone is still using them. A couple of my coworkers have even commented on how much they like their reusable bottles. It made me happy that they were all so open to change.

Now, if I can just get everyone at the animation studio to switch. I am considering putting up a flier.

About a year and a half ago, Dakota and I dug up all the grass in front of our house and put in a xeriscaped yard instead. It was a long and difficult process, but, at this point, the yard looks pretty good. Plus, most of the plants are established enough that I barely ever have to water them. There's only one problem: grass.

No matter how many times I pull it up, the old grass keeps growing back in to the front yard. I have tried and tried to dig up all the roots, but the grass just keeps coming back. I haven't wanted to use a toxic weed killer because I don't really believe in putting nasty chemicals into the ground just to save time. But, I recently found a product on one of my favorite organic gardening websites, Planet Natural, that I'm excited about.

It's called Weed-A-Tak, and it's a weed and grass killer made from all-natural products "including eugenol (clove oil), 2-phenethyl propionate (peanuts), castor oil, thyme oil and wintergreen oil."

I sprayed it on the grass growing in the front yard last weekend, and in a couple of days it was DEAD. Yea! So, I am feeling good about this product. I plan to wage a campaign to get the front yard grass-free using Weed-A-Tak, and I think I have a good chance of success.

I think I have finally found the answer to my skunk problem.

As you may recall, I have been trying various methods to keep the skunks and other backyard animals (raccoons, squirrels) from digging up my plants. In the past, I have tried crystallized fox pee--a product that sounded really cool, but didn't work as well as I'd hoped it would.

Now, I have discovered a new skunk barrier: Critter Ridder by Havahart.


I planted a few low-water-use plants that I made with cuttings from my front-yard plants (a chocolate daisy and a weird lavender variety) down at the bottom of the back yard a few weeks ago. This is prime skunk territory. After I planted, I sprinkled Critter Ridder, which is basically a pepper mixture, and the plants have gone untouched so far. Yesterday, I planted several more plants, including some mint, in the same area. I sprinkled the Critter Ridder liberally, and when I checked this morning all the plants were safe and sound. So, I feel hopeful that I have finally found a skunk repellent that works.

I have heard that straight cayenne pepper can also keep pests away, but I am not sure if that would be more or less expensive than the Critter Ridder. For now, I think I will stick with what I know works. Or at least works so far.

Last month, the Good Girls got together for a little knitting/chocheting night at my house to make lap blankets for a hospice. And we're meeting again this week to keep working on our blankets. Although they're just simple rectangles, they take a while to knit. Here are some images from our March knitting night. (For some reason we all decided to use green yarn.)

Here's Natalie knitting a green wool lap blanket.



And here's Jean, who is crocheting a blanket out of the same wool.



Hopefully we'll complete our blankets soon so I can drop them off at the hospice before summer gets here.

In other knitting and do-gooding news, I completed my fourth wool baby hat for afghans for Afghans last weekend and mailed all four off yesterday. Hopefully, they meet the relief group's needs. I think I'll continue making items for them. They have another larger goal coming up in the next few months. Maybe this time I'll try some mittens. I've never done mittens before, so it would be good practice.

sI have recently found several ways to put my knitting obsession to good use. The first is knitting wool baby hats for an organization called afghans for Afghans. They currently have a goal to collect 100 baby hats and 100 baby socks from volunteer knitters by April 28. These hats and socks will be delivered to women by volunteer midwives in the Bamiyan region of Afghanistan.

Baby hats are both fun and fast knitting projects, so I'm glad I found a way to work on my skills while helping others. So far I've tried out 3 different patterns. First, the simple cap from my Stitch 'n' Bitch book. It's all in stockinette stitch, so you can knit it without really thinking. Here's a pic:



Next I made a hat with ear flaps, which I figured would be good to keep the babies toasty. It came out pretty well, although it was tough to attach the flaps to the main part of the hat. After that, though, it was a very simple knit as well.

My third hat has diagonal ribbing, which is more difficult and takes some concentration, but is also more fun that knitting a simpler hat. One of my favorite things about knitting is how a cool pattern can come out of the simple combination of knitting and purling. I don't have any pics of the third hat, but I will take some once it's finished.

I hope to get at least 5 hats complete by April 21st, so that I can send them off to afghans for Afghans with some time to spare. I think that should be fairly easy to accomplish, so maybe I will make more than 5. Not sure about socks, though, they are much more difficult.

Next Tuesday, April 4, a new farmers' market is starting up in Highland Park, the neighborhood adjacent to ours. It runs from 3pm to 8pm, so I might actually be able to make it after work. That's my plan anyway. If we do go, I'll take some pics and report back on what's available.

One thing I like about this farmers' market is that it's on the Metro Gold Line, so people can take the train down to buy their produce. The LA Metro site actually has a list of all the markets you can reach on the Gold Line and other metro lines. Just follow this link.

If you live nearby--or close to a Gold Line stop--check out the new Highland Park Farmers' Market to support local farmers and help build community.

Old L.A.'s Farmers' Market
Avenue 57 & Marmion Way in Highland Park
Tuesdays 3pm to 8pm

For our most recent Good Girls project, we signed up to help out at the historic Lummis House off the 110 freeway in the Arroyo Seco neighborhood of Los Angeles. Once a month, volunteers come to help the house's official gardeners keep up the grounds (which feature drought-tolerant native plants). Here we are, leaving my house on a Saturday morning, our trowels poised to dig! (Clockwise from top left: Merete, Audrey, Rachel & Mirabai)


The Good Girls had a really great time on this project. When we arrived, we were given a tour of the house, which is really amazing. It was built by Charles Lummis, who was one of those fascinating characters from the early 1900s who made his way in the world using his own wits and ambition. The extremely nice tour guide/volunteer coordinator gave us a quick summary of his colorful life and showed us all the interesting and innovative details of the house. I would definitely recommend the Lummis House as a place to bring out of town guests. It's one of those great hidden gems of L.A.

After our tour, we were put to work weeding a large section of ground behind the guest houses on the property. There were a LOT of weeds, but we managed to pull them all--with the help of a professional gardener and a couple other volunteers. We were lucky that it had just rained, so the ground was soft and the weeds came out quite easily.

When we finished weeding, we were served homemade tamales donated by a neighbor of the Lummis House. They were delicious! Overall, I'd give this volunteer project a big thumbs up. We all had a great time and everyone who we met at the Lummis House was very nice and fun to talk to. I think we'll definitely do the project again.

This isn't really informative, it's just an amusing anecdote that illustrates how much Dakota and I looooove cacti.

This Valentine's Day, we gave each other small gifts. Dakota left early for work that morning, so I put a fuzzy old man cactus decorated with a bow on the table when I left. That way, Dakota would discover his gift when he got home.

When I arrived home that night, I was confused, because there was a cactus on the table that looked just like mine, but it had curly hair. Had Dakota's Valentine cactus gotten a perm while I was at work?

Nope. It turned out that Dakota and I had purchased each other not just the same gift--a cactus--but also the exact same type of cactus (an Old Man Cactus from Mexico)! We are truly obsessed.



Both cacti came from this really excellent cactus nursery called California Cactus Center. It's basically a cactus-lovers dream store, or maybe a cactus-lovers crack dealer. They have so many amazingly cool cacti there. It's really fun to just walk around and be surprised by all the weird, alien-looking cacti around every corner. When we re-do the back yard, I suspect we'll be getting a lot of our plants from California Cactus Center. Perhaps they have a frequent shopper discount.

Here's a close-up, side-by-side comparison of our cactus' hair.

Check out these delicious peas and carrots I harvested from my garden a few weeks ago! The peas are from these organic seeds I planted in the late fall, and the carrots have been slowly growing in the garden since last summer. I'm not sure why the carrots took so long. I think our garden soil still needs a lot of enriching. I really have to get around to tending the compost bin so we can add compost to the garden after the winter veggies are done.

Luckily, the peas seem happy despite the bad soil. I actually harvested more of them last weekend. I eat them whole--pod and pea together--and they are extremely tasty. I think freshness really makes a big difference.

Meanwhile, my beets and onions are slowly growing--helped recently by some much-needed rain. Beets take a really long time to grow, though. So, I must be patient.

Last month, I started this new club after reading an article in the New Yorker. The article was about this mega-church and the way the guy who created it keeps his members engaged is by assigning them to "small groups." These small groups meet, talk and pray weekly, and this creates a bond with the larger church that they're all affiliated with. What caught my attention was that the people in these small groups tend to be much more involved in the church and to do much more community service than those who are not in the groups. My immediate thought was: It sucks that this kind of thing only really exists in a religious setting.

Then, I decided to do something about that. So, I started a club called (somewhat jokingly) The Good Girls Club. I decided to keep it all women because I feel like it's easier for a single-sex group to bond, even when they are strangers. And I just like all-woman groups. I guess it's my personal bias. It's basically like a book club or a knitting club, but for community service. Right now, we meet twice a month: once to plan and once to do a community service activity. I have invited various female friends to join. There are about 6 people in The Good Girls right now, although the first two activities were only attended by two other members and me.

It's been really fun so far. Our first community service act was to go down to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and help sort and box up food on a Saturday morning. That was a very satisfying project, because it involved hard work and you could really see exactly how you were helping people. It also really brought home how serious the hunger problem is in Los Angeles.

Our second project was making Valentine's Day cards for a hospice care company. We ended up making 240 cards, mostly because my friend Natalie had this amazing assembly line that cranked out gorgeous handmade Valentines (which I foolishly forgot to photograph). But, all three of us worked hard, and it was fun to do some goofy arts and crafts for a good cause. The volunteer coordinator at the hospice was super-excited to get the cards, and she gave me a big hug when I dropped them off. Again, it was a very satisfying project.

So, in two months, we've done two good projects. I guess I'd like it if we could do more, but we're all very busy women who are very focused on our careers and friends and relationships, so I think one project a month may be all we can handle for a while.

I'm not sure what we'll do as our March project, but I am excited to figure it out. I'll post about it once we've decided.

Recently, I heard something on the radio that reinforced a feeling I have daily at work: bottled water is bad. At my work, there is a seemingly endless supply of bottled water and people drink it non-stop. I have no problem with everyone drinking water, but I just wish they would bring a reuseable container to drink it out of. It seems so wasteful to go through 2 or 3 bottles of water a day when you can just refill your container from the big water dispenser anytime. I used to just reuse a disposable bottle for a week or so (and write my name on the cap), but even that seemed dumb. So now I bring in a nice $2 reuseable water bottle I bought. Then, this week I heard a story on the radio that let me know the bottled water issue is worse than I thought.

Apparently, bottled water is the 2nd most popular beverage in the U.S., after soda. This strikes me as somewhat crazy because in most places in this country, tap water is perfectly fine. Where I grew up, in San Antonio, tap water was delicious. Here in LA, it's sometimes a little weird-tasting, but still safe to drink.

What's interesting is the bottled water is not necessarily cleaner or safer than tap water. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, who recently conducted a bottled water study, current bottled water regulations are inadequate to assure consumers of either purity or safety. In fact, the standards for bottled water are lower than those for city tap water. Oh, and despite the fact that bottled water is marketed as safer and more pure than tap, one fourth of it actually IS tap water--although it's beetween 240 and 10,000 times more expensive.

But that's not even the worst part. Bottled water actually hurts the environment far more than it protects human beings. According to the Earth Policy Institute, the manfacturing of the bottles for all the bottled water drunk in the U.S. each year uses as much crude oil as 10,000 cars. And disposal of the PET plastic used for water bottles is an even bigger problem. Burning PET creates chlorine and heavy metals, and if you don't burn them, bottles take 1000 years or more to biodegrade in a landfill. Recycling helps, but it still uses up resources to transport and reprocess the plastic. Basically, those empty bottles are bad news.

So, it seems like it's time to stop being suckered by the marketing of bottled water and get back to drinking plain old tap. OR, there's always a nice water filter on your faucet if you can't stand the taste of LA tap.

Today is Blog for Choice day, so I thought I'd do my part and post about abortion rights.

In 2004, I went to the March for Choice in D.C., and it actually made me feel like things might be ok. But now, almost 2 years later, I feel like we have taken steps backward. Of course, a large part of it is because Bush won the 2004 election. But there has also been movement of a state level to restrict abortion. Even here in California, Prop 73--an attempt to create a parental consent law for teenagers seeking abortions--almost passed last year. And similar laws are passing all over the U.S. That concerns me. These laws feel like the first step in a slow, back-door battle to eliminate a woman's right to choose.

What concerns me even more, though, is the success that Bush and cultural conservatives have had in eliminating safe-sex discussions in schools. As someone who went through abstinence-only education, I know how pointless and uninformative it is. The workbooks they gave us when I was in junior high looked like they were developed in the 70s, and mostly taught us how to come up with silly puns about why to save sex until marriage. I learned nothing. Teenagers need all the facts. If Bush really cared about reducing abortions in America, he'd give them the tools they need to protect themselves.

It's our duty as progressives who care to pay attention to what's happening and make some noise about it. We have to stand up and make it known that America is a Pro-Choice country. We have to insist that our youth aren't lied to and talked down to. We have to protect the rights established by Roe v. Wade whenever they are threatened--which is almost all the time these days.

Pro-Child, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice

Dakota had this good idea about how to reuse those inflated plastic bags that are used to fill shipping boxes these days. We use them as poop bags to pick up after Nigel the dog. Basically, you can just cut off one end of the bag to deflate it, and then it's a nice, small bag for picking up poop. I guess this wouldn't work if you have a large dog, but they are the perfect size for our needs.

I went on the website for the inflatable shipping bag manufacturer, and they claim you can recycle the bags as #4 plastic, but I have some doubts about that.

When we're not recycling shipping bags or vegetable bags to pick up Nigel's "business," I use this brand called Oops I Pooped. They are biodegradeable dog poop bags. They work well and come in a nice compact pack of 80 or so bags. I'm not a big fan of the name, but what can I do?

Lately, I have been completely obsessed with knitting, in part because of this really great message board site called craftster. Today, I saw this really exciting post. Someone posted a bag that she had knitted using plastic bags. I did a little poking around and found a tutorial on how to turn plastic bags into "yarn" and now I'm really excited. This seems like such a great way to reuse the plastic bags that inevitably pile up in our house. Now, I can make a bag to take to the store or beach or something. I can't wait to try it out. I will definitely post an update on this once I start trying.

I also found some info about knitting with old t-shirts, and I think I will do that too. Someone said t-shirt yarn is good for potholders, so maybe I'll try that first.

More to come on this...