Back in Business!

Sometime around the winter holidays we lost or misplaced our camera battery and charger. For a blogger, that makes life a little harder and more challenging. I am happy to run around taking pictures of what is happening today, starting with Farmer Jeff and his seed starts!

He has started 1,000 plants and 25 varieties, or at least that is what it was yesterday! Who knows what he will do in the next few weeks. Well, actually, I KNOW what he is up to. He is building the greenhouse! For those of you that lean more towards the hibernation end of life, I know you feel sorry for me right about now. Yes, if you didn't realize it before, I AM married to a hybrid of the energizer bunny and Tigger.

Farmer Jeff loves to re-use things. In the new lingo, this is called "up-cycling". In the old days this was using your noggin by using stuff you already had! The redwood is from the old fence from behind the restaurant and the windows are from the "buy it here" area of the local dump. Yes, the most feared words to be uttered by Farmer Jeff, "Honey, guess what I bought at the dump today?!!!". He actually started gathering for the greenhouse a couple years ago and that is when he first found the windows. We went back to buy the windows and I was left at the dump as collateral so he could go and get cash 'cause they didn't take checks, but that is another story for another time!

He is really close to being done. He has just attached the first set of roof windows. The next challenge will be installing the sliding glass doors that are going up for the larger part of the roof. He has



engineered this whole thing himself. I don't have a clue how to put it together!

While Farmer Jeff has busied himself with the greenhouse and tomatoes, I have been tending to the baby chicks! They are just so damn cute! I was once told that the word "cute" only applies to things younger than 6 months...and this works! I went to Western Farm Center to buy baby chicks and ended up with 4 four month old Ameraucana pullets (female hens pre-egg laying age) and then 6 day-old chicks. I also picked up 3 black Astrolorp babies (Australian Orpingtons)and we are looking after them while they are away. Take a look at the video I took last night!

Upcycling and Recycling

"Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value." The term upcycling was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things .

Until I spoke with some women from San Francisco that were in the recycling business I had no idea that a word had been coined to explain this age old practice. Isn't that what quilts were traditionally made from, "post-consumer" clothing?

I have stepped into the special world of upcycling by creating shopping bags from our chicken feed bags! I have envisioned using these for close to a year and finally just said, oh what the heck, and made the darn thing.

I hate to say it, but I am so tickled with myself and so JAZZED over the final result, the bag, that now I am trying to figure out how many of these sacks I have stashed by the chicken coop! I think we have saved something like 30 of these bags. I will need to wash the ones that have been out in the rain and elements, oh...and find the time to sew them!

In the meantime I am trying to figure out where I can get hold of cheap black webbing for the straps. I would like to use 1 inch or 1 1/2 inch thin nylon webbing. I just bought the sample webbing at my local fabric store, but I would like to find it for cheaper than $1 a yard.

I need to time myself in making the bags to figure out what to charge for them. They are really basic: no pockets/buttons/cell phone holders. In other words, a bag! Thoughts?

I am still making my sustainable sacks. Currently they are for sale at The Cheese Shop in Healdsburg. Once the Farmer's Market on Thursday night in Windsor begins, I will be selling them there, too! I think there is a market for the both of them. Besides, I have way too much fabric that needs to be used!