Freebies

Everyone loves freebies, including me! These are a few of the items we received at the Chicago Green Festival:




We tried hard not to take anything that we wouldn't use. The magazines will be read, then passed on to my family, and then donated to the Friends of the Library bookstore so they can be sold.

We only took food samples of items we knew we would use. Same for the coupons. The movies from Earth Cinema Circle will be watched, the makeup and sponges will be used (and since the sponges are biodegradable, they will go into the compost when they are worn out.) And of course the ChicoBag will be used!

Chicago trip report

We’ve been back from Chicago for a week now, so I guess it’s about time for a trip report. The drive up went very well. We stayed in a suburb because the hotels near the Navy Pier are way out of the price range we want to pay for a hotel. Once you got into the Chicago area, the traffic was awful. The one nice thing about that for us is that this is where the Prius really shines. We ran on battery pretty much the whole time we were stuck in traffic.

After checking in and getting Gabby settled, we headed out to Veggie Bite for some vegan fast food. My husband had a Reuben and I noshed on a burger and fries. We then followed up with milkshakes. Never mind the cold, rainy weather. We weren’t going to pass up the chance to have a vegan milkshake!

The second day was all about the Green Festival. This was our second year to attend, so we knew not to eat much breakfast, because there are so many yummy foods to choose from at the festival. (I’m sure you’re seeing a pattern here. Yes, when we go to a big city, it’s all about the food choices, and we do indulge ourselves.) We had free passes so that saved us $15 each in admittance.

The festival was packed with all sorts of vendors giving out free samples, selling products, getting you to enter free raffles, etc. There were also speakers all day both Saturday and Sunday. We attended a few of those as well. By late afternoon we were headed back to the hotel for some relaxation time.

Sunday we decided to skip the festival. While it’s a lot of fun and very informative, we felt like most of the vendors were the same as the year before, and many of the speakers were talking on subjects that didn’t interest us. We headed out to Ikea where we were delighted to see this sign:





And of course we took advantage of the special treatment! We shopped around Ikea for a while. I only had a few specific things I wanted, but it was fun just to look around all 3 floors. I came home with 6 glass storage jars, 2 dishtowels, and 2 bath mats. All things I had been wanting for a while, and no junk. And then we went to the little grocery store for the husband. He stocked up on jams that we can’t get elsewhere, and a few other grocery items.

A little Indian food for lunch, a little Whole Foods shopping for things we can’t get at home, and then it was on to Chicago Diner, THE vegetarian restaurant in Chicago. We wound up with another Reuben and country-fried “chicken” with mashed potatoes and gravy. For dessert we had a slice of cake that was chocolate to the max and a piece of cheesecake.

The next morning it was time to check out and start heading home. We drove highways for a while, until that got boring, then got on the interstate to make the trip go faster.

Oh, one more turn of events. Somehow when we were stopped in a parking lot, I managed to slam the corner of the car door into my head. I thought it was just a painful bump until the husband mentioned there was blood. My eyelid turned some nice colors for a few days, but now it’s just sore, and I think I’m going to have a small scar.

How 'bout them apples?

Yes! We have apples! They are babies of course right now, but hopefully will make it to be full-grown, delicious, honeycrisp apples.

And now, just to balance things out, here's our newest cherry tree:




Yup. It's dead. We bought it as Lowe's, and we're going to see if it's guaranteed. We'll probably be buying our fruit trees from our local nursery from now on. Lesson learned.

Rain barrel

A few weeks back we installed our second rain barrel. The first one we've had for a couple years behind the house, but because we now have a veggie garden in the front, we needed one around there too. One good rain fills each barrel. We put this new one up on 3 layers of blocks so we would have gravity to help us out, then attached a curly garden hose. So far it's working great!

The first picture above shows the view as you are walking down the sidewalk that goes to our front porch. You can barely see the rain barrel from this angle. It *was* completely hidden at first...but we had a little (ahem) accident when it filled up the first time, tipped over, and took out a huge bit of one of the burning bushes. But it will grow back.

The second picture is taken from the sidewalk, right in front of the rain barrel.

Garden update

Here's how our raised beds look now:








Since this is our first year with the raised beds, I had already declared this my "year of experimentation" as far as the garden went. Failure, successes--both are welcome this year as I learn what grows well here and what won't.

In the first bed I planted kale, potatoes, bush beans, green peas, onions, and carrots, and squash. The kale is still small, and the carrots made tiny sprouts, then just withered away to nothing. I think the kale might have been planted too late, because we didn't get the beds put out as early as we would have liked. Everything else looks good so far.

In the second bed we have cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, red bell peppers, and head lettuce. The lettuce looks great, and one end of the bed has some great looking cauliflower and broccoli plants. Oh, can't forget the dill that is also doing well. I've already been harvesting and drying the dill.

I'll probably go ahead and harvest the little bits of kale that we have so that I can plant something else in their place, and also plant something where the carrots are.

New family member

We were a contented family of two big dogs and one cat. In the past we were at 3 dogs, 3 cats, but unfortunately lost a canine family member to old age, and 2 feline family members to cancer and diabetes, respectively. We had no intention of ever adding another cat into the family. BUT THEN (of course there is always a but)...

We went to visit the in-laws 2 1/2 weeks ago, and there was this tiny little mewing thing in a cage on their porch. My husband's brother found it under his home, along with another assumed dead kitten. The mom was not around. My in-laws were going to take this baby to the animal shelter, and being so young and high-maintenance, I'm sure she would have been killed right away. At many shelters, surrenders are killed as soon as they are brought in, and it's only the strays that are picked up that are allowed to live for a few days to see if they are claimed.

We just couldn't allow that to happen to this precious little kitten, so we decided she would come home to live with us. We broke our Wal-Mart avoidance long enough to buy kitten formula and bottle. She was rather lethargic but perked up after a couple of good feedings.

So now Gabby is with us as a permenant member in her forever home. :) She is currently about 6 weeks old and starting to eat moistened solid food and "get" what the litterbox is all about. She's too young to leave alone at home while we're gone to Chicago, and since she's not had shots we won't board her, so she's traveling to Chicago with us. Should be interesting!

Fun ahead

We are leaving for the Chicago Green Festival soon, and we can't wait! Last year was our first time attending, and we could hardly squeeze in listening to all the speakers, eating all the delicious veg food, and visiting all the booths before the two days were up.

We will have an additional um, living creature on this trip with us. Post and pictures to follow!

"Processed People"

While I am certainly not perfect about it, I try to eat an unprocessed diet most of the time. Along that line, I thought I would share a couple clips from a documentary called "Processed People." I can't wait to see the whole thing!