Earlier this year we made a great technological breakthrough at our home.  Some may think it was a step back, but we thought it was a giant step forward.  We installed a clothesline!   How cool is that?!  I love the smell of wind blown clothes.  And you just can't beat the fresh crunchy crispness of a sun dried bathtowel...  And talk about fast drying - you can practically pull them off the line as fast as you hang them!  Of course it is more work than using the dryer - but between using our air conditioner less & enjoying our now famous clothesline - our electric bill is half as much as it was last year.  It makes me smile.

The journey for changing from hydroponic growing to organic growing involves a lot of work!  Backbreaking work actually...  What a great team we have to work with!   Building raised beds... filling them with local totally plant based organic growing materials... planting the little seeds... It's happening, one wheel barrow load of stuff at a time...  & we are glad for the journey.  I want to share some pics of the steps...   More later!

We are just about back home from our quick trip out to Amity, Arkansas to visit our son Charles.  (thanks Southwest Airlines for all those handy rewards tickets!)  He is attending a private Christian college there.  We had such a great time with him.  

The school is nestled in a very rural community of rolling hills, wooded forests, & babbling creeks & streams...  It is a beautiful area.  What a weather contrast.  It was so humid there.  With that humidity comes such incredible lush foliage and greenery.  They've gotten 8" of rain in the last couple of weeks!  But as with all climates, that too would provide challenges for growing - it would just be different challenges than what we face in Arizona.  

It was a very special weekend - a reminder that in life relationships are the important things, and close healthy family relationships go a long way towards fostering productivity and creativity and success on the work site.  

Thanks, Charles, for such a wonderful weekend!  We love you.

Wow! Today marks history!  I am actually joining the ranks of small farmers who blog.  Over the past few months, I have periodically taken some moments & enjoyed reading the blogs of other farmers.  It has been delightful to read of the experiences & views of others who grow food for their local friends...  Delightful enough, that one day I said to Kymbrelee (our second oldest daughter - look her up in our family picture, she is married to our amazing son-in-law, Immian), "you know, we ought to blog too..."  I didn't really have a clue what we would write about...  or how we'd find time to squeeze in actually sharing some lucid thoughts on paper... but I said it, & she did it.  She actually put a blog corner on the website...  so here goes... I'll start blogging... :)    

Kymbrelee, today I want to thank-you bunches & bunches for making our website so beautiful.  You've brought such care & creativity to it, & I just love it!   

Dad & I love you both!  

Love, Mom