A Good Cause
This past weekend, I stopped at a few of our local conservation district plant sales. At one, there were a few grade schoolers selling packs of seeds to raise money for a new garden shed for their school garden.
I couldn’t pass them up without buying any seeds from them, they were so enthusiastic about their fundraiser. I loved that the seed packs are decorated by students. They even had a little catalog.
There’s nothing I love more than helping out industrious kids, especially when they’re trying to better their school garden. I didn’t really need any more seeds, but I couldn’t pass this up!
Have you purchased any interesting items from local kids recently?
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Keep It Simple
This is the fourth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
It seems like I’m always seeing advertisements for different gardening products on every website I go to and in every catalog that arrives in my mailbox. When it comes to gardening, I like to keep things simple. You don’t need all the latest and greatest gardening gadgets. Instead of buying a bunch of stuff you don’t need, invest in a good trowel.
I also find a bucket invaluable in the garden. It comes in handy for carrying soil amendments, plants, tools, weeds, and freshly harvested vegetables.
In addition to my trowel and bucket, I also use a watering can all the time. A big one, with a nice big crown that spreads the water far and wide.
This is pretty much all I ever use in the garden, especially on a day to day basis. If you’re just getting started, don’t spend a lot of money, keep it simple!
What three garden tools would you recommend to a beginning gardener?
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The Maiden Voyage
Yesterday, the chicks spent the afternoon outside running around in the green grass and soaking up a little sunshine. They were happy as clams, scratching and digging, dust bathing, finding bugs, chasing each other around, and trying to learn how to fly. They’re all a little over a week old and it’s time for them to start spending as much time outside as possible.
I believe animals should be outside honing their natural instincts. These chicks will need to learn to peck and scratch so they can forage for some of their own food, no freeloading animals here (except the indoor cats). Of course the ducks had to come over and see what all the fuss was about, I wonder if they remember being inside this pen? The lady duck was very interested in the little chickies. Hopefully she’ll start laying eggs soon and hatch her own little ones.
It’s been fun watching these little lovelies grow up, it’s so amazing how quickly their wing feathers start to come in (they’re already starting to fly a bit). I feel like I know exactly what these little chickies are feeling, in spring I’m so excited to get outside and to enjoy the weather, no doubt they’ll be looking forward to their trip out each day.
Have you been able to spend time outside soaking up the sun and feeling grass under your feet?
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Let me Explain
Mr. Chiots here with a guest post. After an extremely busy week around the run we decided to take the day off so no podcast this week. I apologize. I know many of you will be disappointed. We will be back next week with our regularly scheduled program.
For the past three weeks we have been having some ‘technical difficulties’ with the podcast downloading in iTunes. The problem ended up being with Google’s Feed Burner, a feed service that we run everything through. At some point in the near future we are going to shift off of this system which may soon go the way of Google Reader according the chatter on the web.
The good news is that through the troubleshooting, we upgraded the host for our file storage. Shows should download very quickly and without trouble.
I love statistics and according to ours we just topped 180,000 downloads of the podcast. This week we will see the blog surpass 30,000 comments. We are one month away from the 5th anniversary of the blog. We want to thank you all for making the show and the blog a huge success. The community that surrounds Chiot’s Run is pretty amazing and we are constantly encouraged. Many of you know more about what is going on in our lives than some of our family members. We refer to those of you that we have never met as our friends. Thank you all.
If you have not had a chance to listen to the older episodes of Cultivate Simple, I would encourage you to do so. Thank you again and see you next week.
What topic you would like to hear on the show?
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Quote of the Day: Thomas S. Cowan
America is a nation obsessed with finding personal happiness. But the person who sets out to find happiness rarely succeeds. He or she may achieve occasional and temporary satisfaction through financial success or a busy social life, but rarely true happiness. Happiness comes to those people who concentrate on the opposite – who do things for others, who set out to produce beautiful paintings or delicious meals, or who engage in projects that bring beneficial change to the world. Such people not only contribute to a better world as a result but also achieve unexpected happiness. These are the people who move through life with ease, in spite of obstacles and misfortune.
Thomas S Cowan, MD (The Fourfold Path to Healing)
I love this quote, so much of it rings true in my life. My happiest moments are when I’m cooking good food for those around me, when I’m cultivating beautiful things in the garden, when I’m doing things that I know bring change in the world. These actions bring happiness and hope to my life, I find much fulfillment in investing my time where I know it truly matters and makes a difference. (PS: the meal shown is braised duck legs from one of our muscovy ducks).
What things bring you true happiness?
