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Dear Readers,

We've been enjoying a week of warm and sunny weather as we begin our spring plantings.  The unusually warm spring weather has kept us outside in the garden--planting, transplanting, preparing beds, making adjustments from last year.  All the work that has to be done in the garden has kept us from adding new projects to the website.  

We could add more 'how-to' material in our LIVING FREE section, but we are trying to keep this a proactive site, actually doing the project first, before putting up any information about it.

Another thing that had been keeping us busy... This past week we had a group of local high school students visit our garden on a field trip.  Our ultimate goal is to make our urban lot a model for urbanites, sharing our experiences and projects as we journey on our path to self-sufficiency and sustainable living.

You can check out what's happening by reading the Urban Diary.    

    Interested in doing things yourself instead of relying on outside sources for basic necessities? We are personally not as self sufficient as we would like to be, but we believe that many are on the same path, some further along than others. We hope this newsletter will be a source of inspiration and information to those who want to break-free from the artificial environment we live in. See you along the path...

Spring cleaning time has arrived!  Time to get rid of the dust and cobwebs that have accumulated over the winter months.  

Homemade Cleaners

Cleaning your home may be hazardous to your health.  There is no need to poison yourself or your family for a clean house.  You can make your own non-toxic and environmentally friendly cleaners with just simple, ordinary household ingredients. When you make your own cleaning products, you avoid chemicals harmful to your family and the environment ... and save money too!

Here are some links with "recipes" for homemade cleaners using lemon juice, white vinegar, baking soda and more.

Continue: next column» 

Besides house cleaning, your body also needs a cleansing in spring.  Make your own "Spring Tonic."

Grow plants that give you both beauty and produce.  Combine edibles in your flower beds, use berries bushes for hedge or shrub, pick trees or vines that produce fruit native to your area.  There are many exciting and unusual fruits, veggies and herbs that can enhance any yard, garden or landscape.

Over ten years ago, we dug up our front yard--killed the lawn--and have been slowing turning the yard to include more edible plants like veggies, fruit, berries and herbs, transforming  a dead lawn to a living sanctuary.  The pageantry of bees, butterflies, birds, hummingbirds and beneficial insects daily displays the wonders of nature's harmony. Our urban lot now produces both nourishment for us and for the living creatures of this earth. 

Make your own yummy, nutritious "milk" for less than 50 cents per gallon without the hormones or pesticides! 

 For chocolate soy milk - we added 1/2 cup cocoa. 

Continue: next column»

personal column

    Shh! Listen! In a language all its own, Nature speaks, whispering renewal. Soon, a superb, wondrous spectacle will unfold as Nature performs its spring play of awakening. But, in these heady technological times, primitive acts of a natural force largely go ignored in most circles unless, of course, they spell trouble. When Nature roars disaster, that makes the headlines. With all this bad press, is it any wonder that we have come to see the natural world as foe, not friend?

    First, we marginalized our relationship with Nature through increasing isolation brought on by the allure of a rival way of life. The agrarian rhythm began to fade in our souls. Then, perturbed by its imbalances, inconsistencies and inadequacies, we sought to "fix" Nature's problems. It wasn't long before we were using science to put us in the driver's seat. Today, who is there to stop us?  "We're Number 1!" In this competition we hope to beat Nature on its turf and, with our line-up of high flying PhDs, show our primeval "nemesis" the door.

     In one century mankind has proceeded to devise ways to bind, bend and break Nature at every turn. The elements, we firmly believe, are at work constricting us and, more and more, we chafe at any restrictions which they place us under. We are not a happy lot! ...

  If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change! But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity. To most men only the cessation of the miracle would be miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God's power seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~

  Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from
participating in nature's rebirth?

~ Edward Giobbi ~

  Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and many accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.

~ Anonymous ~

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