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...