The Summer Music "Tour"

So, in the past, I've mentioned our family tradition of compiling a list of free summer concerts within easy driving distance...this is our third summer of concert going, after attending one or two free musical events/festivals the summer of 2006.

Some of the concerts take place at historical sites....like this colonial manor:

(Shippen Manor, Oxford,NJ)

This site hosts Sunday evening concerts on the terraced lawn. In the past the programming has been primarily olde timey and blue grass. This year they seem to have branched out a bit...still with traditional music, but they have some other ethnicities represented.
We attended a Celtic performance.

This venue is the most "serious" we've attended.

It is - as I said - at a historical site, so there is no playground...the kids attending do run around, but it is not as accepted as at other sites.

Many of the concerts take place at local parks that have band shells, gazebos or other small shelters to use as performance spaces. Most of these also have play areas close by.

This is one (above) that we go to frequently. The kids love this park and the play area. It's very family friendly, close to a small lake, and you can see the whole park from wherever you sit.

This play area is at a new venue for us this year. The band shell and play area are close together, but the town planted big bushes between the "viewing" area and the play ground, so you can't watch your kids AND the band.

Sometimes the boys even sit and listen to the music- while multitasking coloring or playing with matchbox cars, of course! Especially if we are at the Sparta concerts where the playground is at least 50 feet away, behind the viewing area, through a grove of trees....

There are so many wonderful things about these concerts:

Exposure to all kinds of music...the kids don't care how good the performers are, they just like dancing to the music!
Outdoor dining opportunities!

Making new friends at every turn....

Interacting with nature...hot weather, cool weather, sunset time changing, fireflies lighting up the dark - and sometimes crawling on our fingers (above pic).

In the past 3 weeks we've seen 10 FREE performances at 7 different locations, and the concert schedule for the coming weeks is full.

Will we see all of them? Probably not, but what a wonderful adventure!

If you're looking for some other good reasons to go check my first post about this family tradition.

Water Conservation - Serendipity

I always love it when things come together in mysterious and magical ways.

Earlier this week, it felt important to me to write about water conservation this week. Enough that I had 2 or 3 posts worth of information that I wanted to write about. And that's a lot for me.
And, when I started to write my first post I almost stopped, because it seemed weird to be writing about water conservation during a month-long deluge.

Today, I had an oppertunity to listen to one of my favorite NPR talk hosts interviewing Robert Glennon who has written a book called Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It .

He was talking about many of the things I have concerns about, but certainly did not touch on everything. You can listen to the podcast of the interview HERE if you are interested.

Water Conservation - If it's Yellow let it Mellow!

Ok...I've got two young boys so potty humor is at an all-time high in our house.

Truth be told, though, when it's just the four of us at home we definitely try to conserve water by making multiple uses of the water in the bowl - as long as it's yellow - before flushing it down.
It started as an overnight noise curtesy, but we don't have the most modern water-efficient fixtures and really can't afford to replace what we've got at the moment, so it has evolved into a water conservation habit.
And besides, even if we had the 1.5 gallon per flush fixtures, why waste 1.5 gallons when all four of us need to go at the same time

BUT, with the kids being little, getting it across to them, that when we've got company the multi-use rule is NOT in effect, is sometimes problematic.

Also, since implementing the multi-use rule, I've come up with some additional corollaries about single use flushing:
* If you use an upstairs bathroom and no one else is immediately using it, FLUSH.
* If you use the downstairs bathroom and we're leaving the house, FLUSH.
Because, letting it mellow all day long is just too yukkie for words and means more frequent cleaning will be needed.

Along with intentional flush frequency reduction, I have collected a number of links which use grey water or rain water for feeding a toilet. Some are quite ingenius! Enjoy!

Rain Barrel to Toilet Installation - a practical how-to guide
I really want to do this someday!

Grey Water Recycling systems for the Bathroom
and
Sink-Toilet Combination fixtures

Here is a system available for collecting grey water from the kitchen sink.

There are also systems available for washing machine and shower water...just google Greywater System or Greywater Recycling.

Water Conservation - Washing the Veggies

I'm going to start a weird topic for my area this week....Water Conservation.
This June has been one of the wettest I can remember. I don't think we've had more than 1 or 2 days where we didn't get at least 1 shower, and most days were completely grey and rainy.
Gardens are waterlogged, Lake Hopatcong is actually full...when on Memorial Day there were many lamenting how empty it still was from the winter lowering.

So, before June, we were in a drought.

And, summer drought has become common in our area in the last 10 years, I've heard announcements about lakes and reservoirs being at record lows frequently. And the building boom of the late 1990s and 2000's has not helped.

I have posted on my garden site about wanting a rain-water capturing system that we just haven't been able to afford yet, so that I don't have to feel nervous about watering our garden from our well. Nor have we been able to find a source for clean used barrels...

We've never had a problem with our well, and as far as I know, no one around us has either.
It's just that when you think about the dryness around, lakes lower, less rainfall in the highlands, etc it makes you take note, so I'm going to blog about conserving water, even after a month with 10+ inches of rain.

We get most of our produce from the biodynamic Community Supported Garden (CSG) at Genesis Farm.
Some of it comes home pretty dirty, and for years I was washing it all under running water.
For the past year or two, though, I've been trying to do as much as I can with less water.
I start by putting the veggies in a big bowl or use the salad spinner and letting it fill half way, scrubbing the veggies using the water from the bowl; setting aside each scrubbed veggie until the dirt is off and I have a bowl of brown muddy water.

Then I use that water to water plants, and get the benefit of all that biodynamic soil, rather than letting it run down the drain along with gallons and gallons of water....
After getting rid of the "mud", I give the veggies a final rinse, now free of most of their dirt, it only takes a slow stream of running water, again captured in the bowl...and use that for the plants too.

There have been times when I've been "too busy" to do it this way, but when I don't capture the wash water and let it run even a little, I feel guilty.

Water is a precious resource.

Summer Music Season 2009

This will be our third year of doing the summer "Music in the Parks" scene.

I have been busy this week making the tour of local town websites to put our calendar together, and the excitement begins this friday night!

In the past two years we have enjoyed dozens of free musical performances...some exquisite and others just average, but under clear skies and with a picnic dinner and fun-bag for the boys all have been wonderful family experiences.
Some towns do outdoor movie nights as well...we saw Madagascar that way last summer....although that was a tad later as it required full-dark to get going. The musical programs usually start around 7.

Some towns don't have their calendars out yet, but some do - enough for us to get started!!!

Look for these programs in your town or nearby towns. They are almost always free (or very inexpensive) and child friendly.

Yippee!

Learning to Drive on my New HHR

In June I traded in my 2003 Subaru Outback for a Chevrolet HHR
My Subaru had been to our mechanic for a serious repair and before that repair could be done the mechanic, a good friend of ours, found another, more serious problem...a head gasket leak......
So...to avoid that costly repair - while I was still making payments on the Subaru, we decided it would be better to just trade it in on a more efficient, new car.
The HHR, while not in the MOST efficent category (most of those are generally unavailable these days - or WAY too costly) is rated at 24 MPG City 30 MPG Highway...and I have been seeing those estimates hit in real life.
I also got a NO interest loan...which made it really affordable...and not only that, but it is COOL too!


And, little did I suspect when we bought this beauty, but she's teaching me how to drive again.
How is this possible when I have been driving since I was 16 1/2? Let me tell you how...
This car - as many of the Chevrolet/GM models do - has a driver information center that gives the driver a whole lot of information...most importantly an INSTANT fuel usage reading and an average fuel usage reading.
I am using the instant readout to learn how to drive more efficiently...and let me tell you that in the 6 weeks I've owned the car my driving has changed signifigantly. One big thing is simply taking my foot OFF of the gas pedal, it's former default position.
When doing that going down a hill the following readout is possible


So, in general I have been averaging 25-27 mpg over all - not terrible when considering the amount of traffic I have to fight if I take the main highway to work...the number of stop lights on the back way to work. On the rare occaision the highway is clear I have averaged more than the advertised 30MPG for the duration of the trip. How do I know this? I reset the Average reading as I pulled onto the highway when I saw it was clear!

True North

Wow! Another post from FoodShed Planet really hit home today.
Finding True North really spoke to me.
Sustainability - Eco-conciousness - there have been so few for so long trying to bring awareness to the myriad issues of what we are doing to the environment & our food supply and what it is doing to ourselves. But it seems that the tide has finally turned.
People who, not 5 years ago would never have been heard talking about "local" or "organic" or even thinking twice about eating another meal from a cardboard box have modified their lives at least a little.

Some use canvas shopping bags - or better yet - homemade bags.
Some hang laundry.
Some mow with a reel mower and muscle power.
Some join CSA's.
Some buy local.
Some drive smaller cars.
Some turn off lights/appliances.
Some use fans instead of air conditioning.

But it is out there in the collective concience now.
Blessed BE!!!