No, I haven't fallen off of the proverbial wagon when it comes to maintaining my blogs. Rather life has offered up a few options and pursuing them has taken more of my time and attention than I had anticipated.

But . . . This is a good thing.

I have been in talks with a company in the Bay Area that grows vegetables in carbon-neutral greenhouses. Their business model seems to be sound and I really love their philosophy. Their CSO (Chief Science Officer) contacted me a couple months ago asking if I'd be interested in going back to school to finish my PhD in Plant Science because he felt the company could benefit from having a "Plant Doctor" on the roster. He even hinted at the company sponsoring the endeavor.

Since then I have been heavily considering the option to go back to school. With the economy struggling and jobs a bit harder to come by, now seems like the perfect time to return to academia.

Anyways, I got a call last week from a professor I had contacted at Washington State University. She called to ask me to come work on a research project for which she had just received funding. The cool thing about a PhD is that, in many cases, not only will they waive your tuition, but they will give you a small stipend on which to live. Though this project would create a bit of strain on some family matters, it is manageable. I will definitely throw in my application, but I am also looking at Cornell and the University of Arizona as options.

All that being said, I have a few posts in the draft stages, so look for new content soon. Thanks for being here.

Jeremy

In perusing the blogosphere, I keep running across mentions of the Compact. So, I decided to check it out. The Compact is a Yahoo! Group, or one of several spin off groups based on various locations.

I could try to explain it, but rather, I will leave it up to the group introduction, which I quote:


In discussing the concept with DW, we have concluded that we can do it, but we have to make a few exceptions. The group make some obvious exceptions itself, like most of your perishables and hygiene related goods. But, DW was adamant that she be allowed to purchase her shoes new and qualified the exception by informing me that she gets them for about $12 at Target. I think we can give her that one, don't you?

I am doing my best to simplify much of our home, but I am especially looking forward to the de-cluttering idea. Now, don't get me wrong, I am by far the worst offender in our home. But, I may also be the biggest fan. I have a lot of junk and I know it. I have a lot of those things you pick up thinking" won't it be great to have/use this when . . . ", and then it NEVER gets used. Yeah, I do that a lot.

So, I am lobbying this idea pretty hard, and I think we are fairly close to setting a date to begin. I'll keep everyone posted if and when we do begin.

I was just telling DW that we could really use a chest freezer, and soon. With 45 rabbits in the barn and room for only 13, we were going to have to send some of them to freezer camp if new homes couldn't be found soon. Fortunately I found homes for 4 of them yesterday at a rabbit show in San Bernardino, CA.

Now, I shouldn't make it sound so morbid. We raise the rabbits for meat and freezer camp is where they await their turn for the table. But, our kitchen freezer is normally to capacity and that is a lot of rabbit. So, finding homes for them has been a growing need.

Anyways, while at the rabbit show (where I had a rabbit win best of breed for all three shows (I had 7 of the 8 rabbits in the breed)), I received an e-mail from my local Freecycle group offering a chest freezer. How fortuitous!

I immediately replied and received a call about 4 hours later informing me that it was all mine. The arrangements were made, and as of 10 am, I have a chest freezer. It needs a little cleaning up, but here it is.

I keep meaning to approach the subject of finances here. Mine aren't very pretty, but then again whose are? I recently lost my business to the flailing economy and as such have seen our household income plummet and our debt load increase.

Add to all that the new baby, maternity leave, and life in general, and our finances are a mess. So, I have decided that it is time to tackle the financial monster lurking in my office and here is how I am going to do it.

1. Organize the paperwork. I must admit, it takes a lot of apathy to let the bills and statements pile up like I have. But, first things first. I am going to invest a couple dollars in file storage boxes and file folders and I am going to sort through and file every piece of important financial paperwork that is cluttering the office space in the house.
   
   


2. Input balances and transaction to financial management software. I use Intuit's Quicken and Quickbooks for business matters. While these programs have a lot of bells and whistles any ledger you keep will help you not only rein in the financial monster, but stay on top of it in the long run. I used to be pretty obsessive about keeping track of everything, but somehow I let that go. It is time to get back on it.
   
3. Set and prioritize financial goals. This seems pretty basic. Things like: get out of debt by [insert date], save [insert amount] for a planned purchase such as a home or car, purchase [insert investment] for passive income by [insert date], etc. Then prioritize the goals.
   
4. Write out a plan to accomplish the top goal on the list. I say focus on just one goal at a time. If multiple goals can and should be worked on simultaneously then do it, but focus on one at a time for planning sake. take debt elimination for example. Your plan could be to pay off the highest interest rate card first then roll your payments to the next, or pay the lowest payment debt first then roll into the next. A savings plan could be as easy as: put $100 per paycheck into a savings or money market account.
   
   
5. Make a budget. This may be a little time consuming, but it is invaluable. Start with a list of your income streams and the frequency you receive them. Then list all of you expenses, and try to be as detailed as possible. If the income doesn't exceed the expense list, then you need to reevaluate your spending and adjust the expense list until you come up with something workable.
   
6. Decide to take action. In theory this is the easiest, yet in practice it is by far the hardest step. It is so easy to get derailed from accomplishing our financial goals. A car breaks down, a water pipe breaks, the fridge dies—the sky's the limit when it comes to roadblocks to financial success. Part of making the decision to take action on your financial goals will be to identify some of those roadblocks and include plans on overcoming them in your overall financial plan. The more prepared you are to meet those challenges, the easier your decision will be to follow through on.
   

Now, I admit, I am not anywhere near the most qualified person to be handing out financial advice, but these are the steps I am committed to taking to get myself on the road to financial stability and, one day, security. In the meantime, I recommend checking out these folks for great information on personal finance:

• The Simple Dollar
• Frugal Dad
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich
• Get Rich Slowly
  

I haven't posted in a couple of days, and it isn't because I haven't wanted to. On Wednesday, my brother and I had a little adventure. We hiked the second highest peak in Southern California, Mount San Jacinto. Towering above the valleys beneath, Mt. San Jacinto comes in at 10,834 feet. Now, I am not the most svelte of men, but the mountain and I both gave each other a little butt-kicking.

Despite the 24 hour journey, my hike was not what kept me from posting. You see, I have started another blog. Call it a passion, call it an obsession, but I have really started to love the life of a blogger. So I thought, why not expand.

So, I am proud to officially announce the launch of my new blog, the DailyAmbler. Through the Daily Ambler, I will be attempting to chronicle my path to good health through walking, jogging, hiking, or whatever else my two feet can muster. I have already made a few entries, including the details of my hike up Mt. San Jacinto.

Why don't you check it out? Let me know what you think.

I will not profess to be an expert on composting. In fact, i am far from it. The "compost" pile I started two months ago with almost exclusively waste hay and rabbit droppings still had green alfalfa hay from day one when I turned it over a week ago.

Fortunately, I had a learning moment when I sold three baby peafowl to the gentleman I bought my last batch of worms from. When he came to pick up the birds, I asked him to inspect my worm bins. And, just like last time, I totally screwed up and killed another pound of perfectly good red worms by putting them in an insufficiently composted mix of waste hay and rabbit manure (my hope was that they'd help get the hay broken down). Apparently, unless you are feeding table scraps, the worms are so efficient, they create a lot of heat in breaking down un-composted waste. Enough heat to kill themselves.

So after he broke the bad news to me about this second batch of worms, I showed him the compost pile. He gave me a few pointers. They are:

1. Make the pile taller - At 4' or more, the pile has enough critical mass to heat itself to 130° F. According to my new compost mentor, that is the ideal temperature for the microbial action needed to break down the organic matter in the pile. On top of that, he says it helps keep the flies down.
2. Turn the pile often - This helps oxygenate the pile and spread the wealth of garbage eating microbes throughout the pile. I had been turning mine maybe once a week.
   
3. Keep the pile wet - This was my first problem, I never added any water to the pile, it was bone dry. As soon as I started watering, the pile started steaming when I'd turn it over.

What can I say, no one ever taught me the nuances of proper composting. I know I could have easily done my research and figured this out without having to kill my worms. But, I chose the hard way. The upside, is I will probably never forget this little lesson.

This morning I set out to finish prepping the "garden box" to receive the seedlings we started indoors.

You might ask, "Why is he starting seeds indoors in Southern California?"

That's an easy one. Between the afternoon winds, the meddling birds, and the ever so vexing ground squirrels, starting seeds in our yard would be fruitless, literally. So, we give our garden a bit of a head start in a grow tray with seeds planted in those fun little watch-'em-grow peat pellets you can pick up at Wal-Mart for about $5-6 (for a 72 pack).

What you see above is actually our second go around. You'll notice the beets, at the far right of the front tray, are quite leggy. That's because daylight indoors is a little less than optimal. So about 4 weeks ago, I set the trays outside to get a little sun and they were promptly pillaged by our winged friends. So, they were brought back in, the empty holes reseeded and again, we waited.

Now, most of our seedlings are ready to go into the ground. They have lost that baby-greens flavor the squirrels savor, the sprouted seeds are no longer a draw for the birds, and I am crossing my fingers that I located the box in a sufficiently protected location that the wind won't be my undoing.

The garden box is the epitome of "cheap". I spent less than $10 on 4 - 2"x8"x6' fence slats that I nailed the ends together to create a square. Then, knowing that this was very light-duty lumber, I rested a pair of cinder blocks on both sides of each corner to help keep it from falling apart. Mind you I have no illusions that this will be a long term fixture in my yard. Because we are renting I wanted something that could be easily dismantled when it came time to reclaim our deposit.
Because gopher have, heretofore, been an issue in our yard, I deemed it wise to preempt their mischief (or attempt anyways) by installing a bit of chicken wire on the bottom of the box. I don't, for a second, think that 1" chicken wire is gopher proof, but I am hoping it will at least hold them off long enough for this year's harvest. I also plan to try to head them off en-route to the garden with a great little tool that I borrowed from my mom that drops poisoned bait into their tunnels. I did a treatment a week ago and haven't seen any new mounds pop up anywhere; it's great stuff!

So, with the wire netting ready to go, I spread a layer of rabbit droppings and waste hay on top of the wire as an organic base to the box. I then added alternating layers of potting soil and topsoil spreading each out as I went.
I came up a little short on soil for this first box today. I was hoping to fill the rest using spoils from my compost pile, but alas it's not ready to be put to use just yet.

Today, I wanted to take a quick minute before we jump in the pool to reflect on a few things that I am grateful for. Not the normal, Thanksgiving Day list of gratitudes, but simpler, less noticed pleasures of this life. While my family, my faith, and my country rank above this list, I thought this would be fun.

Some of the simpler things I am grateful for:

• The calming song of the wind chimes hanging from the oak tree along our driveway
• The sway of the seed heads in the lawn when I've let the grass go a little too long
• The day after it rains when I can see the ocean from my living room (we live about 15 miles from the beach)
• The cool ocean breeze that makes it all the way to us and up our hill
• Watching my middle child hunt for and catch lizards
• The smell of charcoal and lighter fluid on my clothes after charbroiling my favorite cut of beef (marinated tri-tip)
• Watching Mt. San Jacinto pop up on the horizon while driving north on the freeway
• The rich, creamy goodness of a ripe avocado
• Waking up holding my new baby girl to her wide-open eyes, just staring at me




• Corn-on-the-cob boiled in a metal bucket full of sea water over an open flame
• The versatility of the potato
• Watching the next few months' harvest grow in the garden
  
• Newborn baby bunnies
• The smell of onions and garlic caramelizing on the stove
• Walking outside under a full moon through a cool evening breeze

What are you grateful for?

To those of you who have decided to join me on this exploration of simple living, I express to you my warmest thanks on this, our Nation's 234th Independence Day. May your harvests be plentiful and your home be filled with the warmth and admiration of all who enter.

May God bless you, your family, and God Bless America!

In a post here last month, ...On Why I Raise Rabbits, I extolled the virtues of raising rabbits and the quality of their meat. I mentioned that the breed I raise, the American Blue and White, is one of, if not the most critically rare breeds in the country. In fact, the 2008 census of American Blues and Whites came up with less than 300 rabbits in the country.

Being the huge philanthropist that I am (had nothing to do with being unemployed and bored) I organized a mass migration of American rabbits from coast-to-coast. I rented a van, and drove from my home in San Diego County, California north to Central Oregon, then east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and back home via Dallas, Texas. In total I delivered about 60 rabbits, driving over 6,700 miles, through 21 states, all in 7 days. This was considered a major boon for the breed as it helped get new genetics into old rabbitries and breeding stock to new breeders who would have been geographically limited.
Why do I mention this? Well it isn't to toot my own horn. Honestly, I was hoping to turn a little profit on the dozen rabbits I sold on the trip. It might have happened had I not received speeding tickets in Oregon and Iowa. No, I mention this because now I have 32 kits growing out of their cages who I've been trying to sell for almost a month now, and have not had so much as a bite; despite having advertised on the ABWRC (American Blue & White Rabbit Club), American Drift (the project I described above), Rabbit_Talk, RabbitClassifieds, Meatrabbits and Heritage-RareLivestock Yahoo! Groups. And I even offered to transport them as far as Washington State.
Now, I can't help but wonder why I can't get a bite. I have great stock. All four litters are mostly unrelated (2 would be cousins, sort of). I don't think that has much to do with it. I think it is more a collective xenophobia amongst potential buyers and the following quote sums it up well. This is from a comment on ...On Why I Raise Rabbits, Tiffany said, "Just when I think I've gotten familiar with all the meat breeds, another one pops up." Funny thing, in the US, the American was THE meat rabbit in the 40's and 50's.

I think the problem comes down to a fear of the unknown. Because it is now obscure, people shy away from the Americans. They don't know enough about them to understand their value. They are afraid that a rare breed cannot win a show. They are afraid that a rare breed will have some genetic defect that will pop up down the line. They are afraid that they won't get the value they know they can get from the popular breeds.
But I am here to tell you, you get the value out of your animals that you place on them. And my Americans are priceless.

No, I am not issuing a challenge. So far, my readership being as low as it is (bless your hearts those of you reading this), I don't have the pull to issue an effective challenge to the world. However, I stumbled upon The Non-Consumer Advocate last night, a very informative and interesting blog advocating a reduction in wasteful consumerism. The author, Katy Wolk-Stanley, seems to be doing a great job as she breaks free from the perceived need to buy happiness.

In a post dated, June 28, 2009, Katy re-issued a challenge to herself to avoid the grocery store until she had used everything in the fridge that might be wasted if it wasn't put to quick use. I LOVE this idea. With the recent arrival of [Baby Girl], we have been inundated with community support in the form of FOOD! One dear friend brought enough food for 3-4 days, while about 3 or 4 more people brought a day's worth. Add to that a meal at each of our parent's houses and another friend, and we have a fridge full of leftovers and unprepared meals. So, with all that food and a bit of produce I bought the day before DW went into labor, we have quite a bit of potential food waste packing the refrigerator.

So, starting today, the Cowan household has committed to add nothing new to the fridge until any would-be wasted food items find their way to our bellies. Won't you join me and help keep food waste down in your home

I was first introduced to Freecycle about a year ago. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon the site, but was immediately drawn in by the prospect of looting other people's unwanted treasures.

It is a fairly simple concept. Create a forum for the average netizen to offer up their unwanted items to others in exchange for the opportunity to act upon the offers of others in the community. This helps the frugal find decent used goods, and keep those goods from filling up the landfills faster than they would otherwise.

The folks at Freecycle made it even easier to introduce people by creating Yahoo! Groups for each locality. You simply search for your city and state and it gives you possible local groups to join.

Once in, they ask that each new member offers something to the group prior to responding to other offers. In my case, I freecycled two car booster seats that my boys had grown out of to get my foot in the door. They were picked up within hours of posting them as available. I have also used Freecycle to find new homes for firewood, and even leopard geckos.

I decided to write on Freecycle for a couple of reasons. First, having just moved into a new place and not having a washer or dryer, we were getting very frustrated with hauling our laundry to one of our parents home and spending all day there to do laundry. Then a couple days ago, some benevolent freecycler, I'm sure they knew we were in need, offered a washer and propane-ready, gas dryer. They even knew we were on propane. Now, granted they aren't a matched pair, and I doubt, the dryer anyways, is Energy Star compliant. But this Freecycle success is saving us a 30 mile drive and a lot of time lost by having them here in our house.

Next on our Freecycle watchlist is an entertainment center, end tables and nightstands, and children's dressers. Wish me luck.