Emergency Preparedness

So the world is a very scary place all of a sudden.
All of this conflict going on in the Middle East/Africa/everywhere else really hit home with me this weekend. I don't know why, but it all just kind of suddenly sunk in.
I'm not usually very reactionary, but everything just kind of got me thinking that I need to start really focusing some time and effort into emergency preparedness, so over the next several months I will be blogging a lot about my plans to convert our crawl space into a make-shift emergency bunker.
On the to-do list:
1. Clean out the junk/storage in the basement. Christmas decorations are cool, but do I really need to store old clothes down there? Nope.

2. Purchase/Make/Attain the following supplies:
Toilet Paper in bulk
Water Purification equipment (we live close enough to a major source of fresh water that storing water isn't nearly as necessary/possible as purifying the water source will be)
First Aid kit and common household Meds
Bulk food and canning equipment
Soap/hygiene supplies
Gasoline
Batteries
Generator
Candles/Kerosene Lamps
Seeds and Planting Supplies
Bulk Foods (rice, beans, potato flakes)
Canning Supplies
Blankets
Digitized Copies of important documents/photos
Alternative Fuel Vehicle
72 Hour Kits

3. Retrofit my crawl space with all of the supplies and set up a sleeping/living area for 4-6 people

4. Grow, grow, grow my little garden

I know that this may seem a little over the top, but in the end even if I never end up having to rely upon my emergency plan, I'll sleep easier at night knowing that at least I have something set up for a worst-case-scenario type situation. If you live (and/or plan to live) in Utah County and you'd like to possibly work something out as far as sharing the expense on some of the more expensive emergency supplies (such as the generator, medical equipment etc), feel free to contact me.

And in the mean time, what's your worst-case-scenario plan?

To My Sister Emily Who Is In Spain Right Now....

Dude! You're in Spain!
Stop reading blogs and go eat some tapas.
=P
Yeesh. Some people do NOT appreciate living in Europe.

Preliminary Garden Plans

So I've been blogging about gardening an awful lot lately. That's because it's seed-starting season around here. So I'm jumping on board the bandwagon and getting things ready for the best garden ever.
I went seed shopping last night and things are starting to get awesome. We're still trying to get our housing situation settled, but we have it narrowed down to 2 pretty good options, both of which involve having a big back yard to plant in, so I'm starting the grow-op despite the fact that I am not really sure where I'll be planting this year.

Here's what's on the menu at Maison Farias this summer:

Corn,

Peas,

Beans,

Radishes,

Onions,

Shallots,

Potatoes,

Strawberries,

Leeks

Cucumbers (both large and pickling)

Spinach,

Rhubarb,

Okra,

Zucchini,

Pumpkin,
Tomatoes

Watermelon,

Cantaloupe,

Eggplant,

Sunflowers,

Hot Peppers,

Sweet Peppers,

Grapevines,

Raspberries,

Blackberries,

And several varieties of dwarf Fruit trees.

I guess that the last few items (grapes, berries, and fruit trees), won't really start to produce for a year or so, but they're going in the ground this year so I'm counting them.
This is in addition to my flower garden which will be expanding this year due to the increased amount of ground that will be available on the South side of my house previously used to house the tomatoes. I will be adding Nasturtiums, Sweet Peas, Heirloom Hollyhocks, Echinacea, Poppies, and Moon Flowers. The climbers will be trellised along the fence line. The bush flowers will be used as border plantings. The ground flowers will be spaced out along the borders as well.
Also, I will be expanding the herb garden. Last year I had cilantro, dill, sage, chives, mint, oregano, comfrey, horehound, oregano, thyme, and chamomile. This year I will be adding anise and possibly stevia.
So there you go. It's going to be one heck of a spring and summer. Every year I look at the list and think "dear heavens how is this all going to work?" and then I have to remind myself that I've done this all before and it's really only 5 or 6 plants that I haven't tried before.
Deep breaths. Focus. Center myself.... now go!
FYI: I've ordered a book called The Backyard Homestead. It promises to be a good read.

Love Day!

Hubby and I aren't very romantic. It's just not our style. Don't get me wrong- I loves me some flowers and chocolates like any other girl, but I am in no way bothered in the least by the fact that I've never had breakfast in bed. I think eating in bed is gross because if you drop food then you have to either sleep in it or wash the sheets, which is more work than just getting out of bed and eating in the kitchen where food belongs, anyways. Yes. This is how my thought process usually works.

This works out well for Hubby because he's like the anti-romantic. We're so practical that we often joke that our relationship is more like a business relationship than a marriage relationship. We don't buy gifts for each other, except on very rare occasions. I've don't remember ever receiving something wrapped from my spouse in the 9 years we've known each other. Maybe once at Christmas, but not that I remember.

Instead, we're more of the "be nice to each other all the time, not just on sappy greeting card days" kind of couple. We like it that way. We were both in overly dramatic painfully romantic relationships before we met each other. We like how our relationship has always been easy to negotiate. We don't really fight. We often settle arguments with rock/paper/scissors. There has never been a door slammed in our house, and neither of us has ever spent the night on the couch because we were angry with each other (only when he's snoring too loud =>).

We love each other very much. 

But Valentine's Day is not a big deal in our house. Today, however, I'm feeling like an extra sappy romantic. Not sure why. After 9 years, I have no clue why this day seems so much more important to me this year than in the past, but it does. So here's a list of awesome things I love about the Mister, in no particular order:

1. I love how I never have to remind him to take out the trash. Or do the dishes. Or do any other chore. He is always on top of things like that. Having a guy who voluntarily keeps his stuff tidy is a rare and wonderful thing that I do NOT take for granted.

2. I love how whenever I am sad, instead of trying to talk to me or reason with me so I feel better, he just does something dorky or silly to make me laugh, often at the expense of his own dignity, like quoting movies in a crazy voice.

3. I love how he's always there for everyone who asks for his help, if it's at all possible. He is probably the most service-oriented person I know. We have picked up family members from the airport in the middle of the night, lent my truck to countless friends/coworkers/employees, and out of our 7 years of marriage, we've had family living with us for free or almost free for 4 of those years. He's even brought gas cans to his ex because she ran out of gas on I-15 south while picking up the boy from school before. He makes me want to be a kinder person.

4. I love how whenever he's happy, he sings or whistles little tunes. In fact, he often makes up ridiculous songs about our dogs that he sings to them while carrying them around like babies.

5. I love how he has never said anything intentionally to make me feel bad about myself. In fact, he never says anything to anybody ever to intentionally make them fell bad about themselves. He is so very, very kind to everyone, and is never rude or aggressive. Coming from a family where that was the norm, I can tell you how much I appreciate his gentleness.

6. I love how whenever I want to get something, he is fine with it. If I want a china hutch, I get a china hutch. If I want to go to Italy, I get a plane ticket to Italy. If I want a new dress, I get the new dress. If it's something really expensive, he can always find a way to wiggle things around to make room in our budget. He's not a gift giver, but he makes up for it with every day generosity.

7. I love how kind and sweet he is to my family. He genuinely likes everyone in my family and goes out of their way to be supportive of them. When my mom was here in November he gave up his Saturday to spend the day hauling furniture for my mom. When I thanked him about it, he simply brushed it off by saying that we should always help our mommies when they need us.

8. I love how he never has to pretend to be interested in somebody who is speaking with him. He loves people and he loves talking. He can talk to anybody from any walk of life for hours and never lose interest in them. That's a pretty remarkable trait, I think.

9. I love how physically strong he is. If you've never met my hubs, it's hard to picture, but he's a giant hunk of man. It's a stupid, silly, girl thing, but I just like knowing that I always have that big guy around, especially when I have really scary dreams.

10. I love that after 9 years together, we still haven't run out of things to say. We can talk for hours and never get bored. We just make each other laugh so much that it's always fun and funny with him. Anytime, anywhere, if we're together we can have a good time. For Valentine's we went to this total dive called Chubby's (it's the kind of place that smells like onions and antiseptic floor cleaner and makes burgers the size of your head). Then we wandered around Sam's club talking and looking at stuff we didn't intend to buy for 2 hours until they kicked us out. We had a fantastic time. 

So Happy Valentine's Day baby! I love you!

Folklore Follow up

So after I taught the "Best Lesson In the World" I had a hard time thinking about how I could follow up with something that wouldn't feel like a gigantic let-down. Here's what I came up with.
My objectives for this unit are to 1:) assist the students in learning about folklore from all over the world, including some stuff from their family culture that they may not have heard before 2:) Get the point across that all human experiences are valuable (regardless of cultural origin) and can make interesting literature 3:) help the students realize the value in oral history and 4:) get the students to start telling/writing down their own family's oral history.
I decided to breach these topics through the medium of storytelling. We talked about how Myth, Legend, and Folklore are all forms of great storytelling and we talked about the role of stories in culture and identity. I showed them some funny clips of Brian Regan telling stories from his childhood and recent past. Today I told them the story of the time I saw a ghost at my old work. We talked about the craft of storytelling- how to engage your audience early on by teasing them with details, how to hold their attention, and then how to build the story up to a climax.
Right now I have 25 7th graders anxiously engaged in writing down a story from their past and family. They will be telling their stories to a partner shortly.
I would say so far, it's a great success.

The Best Lesson I've Ever Taught

So I'm not real big on tooting my own horn, especially when it comes to teaching. Some teachers drive me nuts with their endless campaigning and attention seeking behavior. I don't do my job for the accolades, I do it because it's a job that needs doing, and I am one of the few people that can do it.  Most of the time I'd rate myself as a pretty good teacher. My strengths are behavioral management (keep unruly hoodlums under control) and assessment (giving lots of different types of assignments so kids are fairly graded). If I had to reapply for my job I'd be pretty confident about getting rehired, but teacher of the year? Nah. Too political and too intense. I'm not the kind of teacher that arranges field trips to the Story Telling Festival and has kids write and act out their own plays. But every once in a while all the pieces fall into place and I do a truly awesome job. Today was one of those days. Today may have been the best lesson I've ever taught.
Background: I'm staring a unit on Myth, Legend, and Folklore. Oral history is one of my great passions, and I think it shows when I teach this unit. Normally I have the kids do research projects on the origins of one of their favorite myths, legends, or folktales. I also have them interview their parents/grandparents to learn a traditional story from their culture. I have them read a novel based on myth, legend, or folklore like Harry Potter, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, or Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, then extract the original stories out of the novel and analyze them.
The whole point of this unit is to familiarize students with new genres of literature, to help them gain an appreciation for oral history, and to expose them to multicultural literature that is not part of the standard cannon. 
Today, I took it to a whole new level. I collected about 30 picture books and/or short stories from all over the world. Like ALL over. I had stuff from Thailand, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico, Navajo/Ojibwe/Creek Indians, Canada, UK, Tall Tales from the US, stories from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Ghana, Puerto Rico, Zimbabwe, Aboriginal stuff from Australia, etc. I arranged the class into groups, roughly corresponding with a world map I drew on the board. I set out the books for each continent in the corresponding group of desks. Then I had the kids rotate around the room reading and analyzing literature from all over the world. The only rule was that you couldn't read 2 stories from the same continent (to increase diversity and discourage ethnocentrism).
It was amazing.
The kids were excited, enthralled, engrossed, engaged- even my worst students sat still, read, wrote, listened, and talked. The shy kids got involved. The cholos got involved. The fashionistas were involved. The jocks were involved. They were mixed up. They were reading. They were sharing. They were learning. They were appreciating world tradition and world literature. They began to understand the value of oral history and its place in culture and heritage.
It was arguably the best lesson I've ever taught.
It was epic.
I wish I would have videoed it for future reference.
The only problem is, how do I follow it up tomorrow?

*************************************************
What's your favorite myth, legend, or folktale?
Mine's probably King Arthur. 

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have a little student. We'll call her Arlene (not her real name). She moved here a year ago from El Salvador. She came from a relatively sheltered environment and a very small K-8 school. El Salvador is a war zone. There is near-constant fighting between the government, the drug lords, and the insurgents who support the drug lords. It is not a safe place for children. She was very sheltered by her parents who sought to keep her from being exposed to the danger all around her. Nevertheless, Arlene is a very good girl who has seen some very bad things.
Her first weeks here she was not used to the freedom that American teenagers have. She was scared to walk from one side of our big school to the other. If you were to wander around like that out in the open in El Salvador you could easily get shot or kidnapped. She spent the first two weeks crying in my office because she was too scared to go out in the halls without an adult escorting her.
She spent the entire duration of her 7th grade year clinging to anything that was familiar, including her Disney Princesses backpack and notebook. She made some good friends who take care of her and she learned how to maneuver the school freely without someone helping her. She did not learn much English.
We practiced, drilled, tested, revised, corrected, and read one-on-one ALL YEAR LONG. By the end of the year, she could understand basic instructions and respond accordingly. That was about it.
I have her again this year in 8th grade. She started off the year still painfully shy, but much more confident and capable than last year. She's been working with one-on-one mentors in 2 or 3 of her classes. She has more friends. I helped her transfer into the choir class in December so she could have some sort of language-oriented elective.  Still little to no progress with the English, though.
Today she had a major breakthrough. We've been practicing persuasive writing to help the kids prepare for an upcoming district writing assessment. I helped them write a rough draft Monday. Tuesday we typed it. Today I assigned them the same thing, only with a different writing prompt and no assistance. I just told them to write it like they had written their last essay, only with details pertinent to the new assignment.
Arlene cranked it out. Fast. In 5 minutes she'd written a fairly decent essay, completely in English, no translation necessary. She turned it in. It scored "Intermediate." This is a first. She's never EVER written anything for me in English the first time (usually she writes it in Spanish and translates it). She's never scored "Intermediate" on anything. She's never completed an assignment the first time with no help from me.
We both cried a little bit today. They were tears of joy.
This, btw, is why I wake up at 6:30 every morning and come to work.

Awesoma Powa!

Is it weird that whenever I'm logged on to my gmail account I set my status as invisible? I don't do this for privacy. 

I do this because I like looking at my profile on the side bar and seeing the following message: 

"You Are Invisible"

Awesome!

Dream your Garden

One of my biggest pet peeves about our society today is how sterilized everything has become. We are not connected to the land anymore culturally, which is silly because we are living breathing organisms that come from the earth. We've severed our tie with the thing that actually keeps us alive- our food source. I find it ironic that most Americans are both obese AND malnurished. I also find it ironic that millions of people log on to Facebook every day to play that popular Farmville game, yet they fail to ever even attempt to grow something on their own. Clearly we want to grow. Clearly we want to produce. Clearly we want to be surrounded by life, yet somehow we are moving at the speed of a freight train in the opposite direction.

Well, something wonderful happened last night: Our stake somehow set things up with a gentleman by the name of E. Gordan Wells who happens to be one of the Western States leading experts on growing food. I thought it was ironic considering my previous post about gardening that I happened to get a call about this seminar last night. It is a 6 week course, 2 hours each Thursday night in which we will be covering all of the basics about edible gardening in Utah Valley. He has a Master's in Horticultural Science from UCSB (or something like that), and he's been living/working/gardening in Utah now for nearly 40 years. He's retired, so for fun he teaches this seminar to a few stakes every year to keep himself busy. He's really good. It's so hard to find information that is specific to growing in this region, so I'm very excited that I have this new resource to help me maximize my time and efforts in the garden.

Last night he talked about soil prep, pH, and fertilizing. It's like everything I always wanted to know about gardening but couldn't find anywhere. It's magnificent. He brought in some examples of his produce to share- unreal. The small carrots were the length of my forearm.
Here's the really amazing thing- this class was taught in our chapel because it was arranged by our stake. It was free. There were over 250 people in attendance, nearly all adults.
Can you imagine? That's hundreds of families now that are going to go home and plant a vegetable garden this year, and hopefully be successful at it. Hundreds of children who will no longer be eating the toxic-chemical laced excuse for produce that is sold in grocery stores. Hundreds of yards that will no longer be wasting hundreds of gallons a year just to keep pointless sod green. (FYI, a well-designed vegetable garden will use less than 1/10th the amount of water it takes to keep grass alive in the summer.)

Wow. What a blessing. I'm so grateful that this man is willing to take his time and share his expertise with so many people for free. It totally reinforced my belief that we do want to reconnect with the land and take a larger role in our food production, but as a society we've simply forgotten how.
I guess I am pretty passionate about this stuff. Which reminds me, even if you don't have a house, you can still grow food. Tomatoes and strawberries do especially well in containers. Surprisingly enough, so do potatoes, garlic, and peppers. You should grow a garden this year. Save an old laundry detergent bucket, drill some holes in the bottom, stick some rocks in the base, fill it up with soil, and go crazy. It's so, so, so cheap and easy.

And for your consideration, here are some of the gems that I took away last night: 1) don't over-fertilize or you'll end up with huge plants that don't produce fruit (a problem I often have).. 1 qt. dry granulated mix is enough to fertilize 180 sq. yards of soil for the entire year 2) mix in as much organic material as you can into your soil to improve aeration and drainage.
Next week we are going to talk about drip irrigation. I'm so excited.
Until then, go get yourself some buckets this week, or start mapping out a place for a vegetable garden at your house. You'll be so glad you did!

Just Like Heaven...

One of the more creativer (thanks TAMN!) ideas we've come up with to solve our housing... er.... dilemma is to build a house we actually like on a private lot. This would solve our problem by a) getting us a house that hasn't been owned by crazy people before us (so many of those on the market right now!) b) getting us a house in a neighborhood we actually like (not too many of those around here) and c) getting us a house on a lot that isn't roughly the size of a postage stamp.
We're picky. Like super picky. So picky that, in case you didn't catch it before, we walked out of our contract on the house up on the hill. Call me crazy, but I don't want to have to measure every tiny little hairline and/or crack for years to come just because I'm worried my house could possibly be falling off the mountain. Go fig.
We actually found a lot that we like and a builder that we like and new home construction is so cheap right now we actually could end up with a 3600 sq foot house including a fully finished basement on a .6 acre lot in our neighborhood for less than we actually owe on our current property. We're entertaining the idea. Hubs likes the "new" factor of it. I like the "big ginormous hunk of land" aspects involved with this possible project.
We're still in the gestational phase of this, and we've definitely not made up our mind about it yet, but just for kicks the other day I drew out a grid of the lot to see how much square footage .6 acres actually is. It's a helluva lot of land. Like big enough to landscape it with my dream garden. Like big enough for an orchard, mini-vineyard, green house, mega-veg garden, outdoor kitchen, and chicken coop kind of big. Yup. That big.
It's cold here. Today is going to get down to about 13 degrees F. Spring and summer seem endlessly far away. All plant matter here, with the exception of a few valiant evergreens, is either frozen solid or straight up gone.  To help pass this frigid February day away, I started planning out my hypothetical dream garden on the big lot down the street. Here's what I would be growing this spring if I were to buy that land and build my own little house on it.
In the vegetable garden: scarlet runner beans, zucchini, cucumber, anaheim peppers, japapeño peppers, serrano peppers, poblano peppers, pumpkins (large, medium, and small), melons (cantaloupe, water, and gris de rennes), eggplant (traditional and japanese), tomatoes (black cherry, better boy, and early girl), corn (indian, sweet, and popcorn), okra, leeks, potatoes, tomatillo, garlic, beets. onions, peas, rhubarb, spinach, strawberries, and cabbage
In the herb garden: basil (both black and italian), rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, mint (peppermint and pineapple mint), ground strawberries, chives (garlic and regular), mammoth dill, cilantro, parsley, hibiscus, chamomile, and lemon grass
In the green house: dwarf citrus (lemon, lime, blood orange, sweet orange), fucsias, white and burgundy noche buenas, bouganvillia vine, gardenias
In the flower garden: roses (red, white, yellow, and pink... but mostly red and white), asiatic lilies in all colors, day lilies (stella del oro), sweet peas (dark purple, blue, red, and white), zinnias, dahlias, lavender (English, French, and Spanish... I gotta thing for them... big time), hollyhocks (traditional and double), foxglove, peonies, cerinthe, black eyed susans, cosmos, shasta daisies, purple cone flowers, stock, lilacs, hydrangeas, portulaca, ice plant, clematis vines, honeysuckle vines, trumpet vines, heliotropes, Scarlet O'Hara morning glory vines, Moon Flowers, nasturtiums, sweet williams, sunflowers, salvia, labernum trees, nicotiana, and poppies, poppies, poppies
In the orchard: Granny Smith Apples, Braeburn Apples, Concord Grapes, Red Raspberries, Golden Raspberries, Blackberries, Peach, Pear, Cherry, Nectarines, and love

I would spend the entire summer from May through September outdoors, digging, growing, and eating the fruits of my labors in Paradise. Did you know that Paradise comes from the ancient Persian word for "walled garden"? I'm telling you... it'd be just like heaven and you'd be invited.