Waiting for the Train...and Trendsetting

Went to Salt Lake with the boys, yesterday--my brothers and their boys, that is. (of course, the girls were along, too, but the little guys ruled the pictures).

There is a Planetarium at the Gateway mall, where they have this huge ball moving contraption. Little E. couldn't stop watching; for over an hour.

Next we had a real treat. These guys hadn't ever been on a train before, so we headed out to wait on the light rail downtown. N. couldn't wait to get on; seemed like the train would never arrive.

Of course, it did finally come, and E. had the time of his life ('course, he's only two...).

 A. and C. also came along for their first outing with the Clan.

After we were done downtown, we swung by the great-grandparents' house to introduce the new guys. There we found a yard covered in leaves, which we made short work of.

The thing is, when my grandfather is involved short work usually takes a little longer. Actually, I'd like to take this opportunity to set a few things straight.

I have a sister-in-law who fancies herself a very green individual, who works hard to reduce her (whole block's) carbon footprint. She's good at it! She even teaches classes on green living at the community college. Still, she doesn't hold a light to my grandpa. My grandpa wrote the book on green living, and set the trend before there was a trend.

For as long as I've been alive (and longer) my grandpa has been composting every possible scrap of garbage and bio matter produced on his property. There is a one gallon ice cream bucket on his kitchen counter with a produce bag (you know, the ones you put bananas in at the grocery store) in it and every peeling and stem discarded from every vegetable and fruit goes into that bucket. When the bucket is full the bag is taken out to the garden (year round) and the contents are tuned into the dirt to become the next generation of meals. In fact, his garden could feed the whole block. I dare say that his is the most fertile 1/2 acre on the planet.

Take the leaves above. We bagged them up but we didn't put them on the curb--nope, they went to the garden. But, we didn't spread them out to be tilled under. Uh-uh. That's not the process. Those leaves will remain in their bag until next Fall. Right now they will be put on top of the row of carrots, which will keep the ground from freezing under them, which will allow grandpa to come and pull fresh carrots all winter.

In the Spring, these bags will be placed under the apricot tree where they will continue aging to perfection all summer until most of the garden has been harvested and they will be tilled under at that time. But that's not all! The bags themselves will likely be used as ground cover to keep the weeds from sprouting. 

Yep. These systems are ages old, and have been producing loads of locally grown food for decades. So, g, when you're ready to enter the PhD. program, I'll help you with your application to the Sim School of Green Living. 

In the meantime, the new recruits above will begin their discipleship, soon.